Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, June 07, 2015

06/07 Links: Netanyahu chides world over silence after Gaza rockets; UNRWA’s birthday

From Ian:

JCPA: Anti-Semitism is the Motivation for the BDS Campaign Whose Goal is to Delegitimize Israel

Israel is rightly alarmed at the escalating scale of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign. BDS constitutes a concrete threat to the future of Israel’s economic, academic, cultural, sports and political standing. BDS is not only a well-organized and structured global operation that aims to push for Israel to withdraw from territories, but a campaign of well-oiled lies, of dangerous international dimension.
Of course it is legitimate to criticize the policies of a government, but the BDS movement goes far beyond legitimate criticism, and in essence calls for the dismantling of the Jewish state. How to fight against anti-Semitism when incitement to hatred of Israel and Jews is rapidly spread by globalization and social media?
While the Arab boycott against the Jewish state is not new– it began at the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, but it was organized then by the Arab League due to the territorial dispute with the nascent state. Since 2005, however, it has taken an unprecedented turn with the creation of the BDS movement.
Despite huge investment and effort, BDS has so far not scored any significant economic and trade sanctions against Israel, because governments are fiercely opposed to it.
The question is whether the spread of BDS and increasing public pressure will encourage leaders of the international community to change their firm opposition to the detriment of Israel.
Any fair-minded person must contemplate why the BDS movement is focused on the Jewish state, while massacres continue all over the Middle East and are almost completely ignored. A real theater of the absurd!

IsraellyCool: Answering The Olive Tree Destruction Libel

Every year in Israel we get a rash of news reports about Jews (or more likely “settlers”) cutting down “Palestinian” olive trees. The reports usually hint that thousands of trees were destroyed in a few minutes, usually over night and without anyone capturing this act on a cell phone video, of course. Because when it’s soldiers and little girls there are thousands of cameras; when it’s mythical acts of Jewish vandalism there are none.
As I was walking through Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv on Friday morning I came across two park employees cutting off a very small dead stump from a healthy young tree. Here’s the video.
It takes these two almost a minute to cut off a very small dead stump. They then clean off the shoots around the base leaving the healthy tree. That’s how you care for olive trees. Also notice how much work it is with a large chainsaw to cut even the smallest limb from an olive tree. Olive tree wood is very hard: cutting down mature olive trees is an extremely difficult task. This stump was around 20cm in diameter. Mature trees can be more than a meter across!

Bassem Eid: Calling for an awakening of conscience: Palestinians are real people

Whenever they are told that their actions hurt the Palestinians far more than they hurt Israel, “pro-Palestinian” activists plug their ears and start shouting “la la la la, I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you”, then they go back to their mantra about the Israelis having stolen land and needing to be punished and being all-around evil people and so on. It would be funny if it were not real.
It is appalling but somewhat expected (given over 67 years of violence against Israel) that some Zionists would dehumanize Palestinians, but it is quite a tragedy that “pro-Palestinian” activists are even worse offenders. The compulsive and fanatical nature of anti-Zionism is the problem. It prevents its adherents from seeing the trees while they obsess about a forest that mostly exists in their imaginations. The hateful nature of anti-Zionism burns everything around it, and the Palestinians are its main victims.
We therefore call for an awakening of conscience among the ranks of those who call themselves pro-Palestinian. If they truly are pro-Palestinian, and not simply anti-Israel, then we expect them to strongly condemn Hamas terrorism and Fatah corruption which are the main causes of Palestinian suffering, rather than demonize Israel while ignoring the consequences of that demonization on the lives of real Palestinians.

Let's get something straight, shall we? Barack Obama, whatever else anyone might wish to say about the man, is not Jewish.

Obama is not Jewish, nor is he Muslim, nor is he Rosicrucian, nor Buddhist, nor a follower of the ancient faith of the Jains.

It is reported that former senior White House adviser, David Axelrod, claims that Obama said, "I think that I am the closest thing to a Jew who’s ever sat in this office." According to the Times of Israel, the White House is proving itself a little uncomfortable with this quote and is refusing to affirm its authenticity.

Times of Israel staff notes:

The White House on Tuesday partly endorsed comments attributed to US President Barack Obama by a former top adviser, who told Israel’s Channel 2 that the president shares the “common bonds and commons values” of the Jewish community.

However, Spokesman Josh Earnest did not go so far as to confirm ex-Obama senior adviser David Axelrod’s recollection that the president said he considered himself “the closest thing to a Jew” who’s served in the Oval Office.

In wondering just what is behind this oft-repeated notion that Obama, while not technically Jewish, is, in fact, Jew-ish, Jeffrey Tobin over at Commentary has this to say:

But the idea that he somehow considers himself at least as, if not more, Jewish than the leaders of the Jewish state and its supporters is a remarkable insight into his thinking. The question is not so much whether to accept this bizarre formulation as it is to what would lead the president to come to such a mistaken conclusion. The only answer is that he, like some of his Jewish supporters, actually thinks Jewish identity is a function of modern American political liberalism rather than a faith or a people.

Tobin is surely exaggerating. While Obama likes to imply that his policies derive from his values and his values derive, at least in part, from the Jewish side of what they used to call "the Judeo-Christian tradition," I find it highly unlikely that he thinks of himself as more Jewish "than the leaders of the Jewish state and its supporters..."

However, this notion that to be a good Jew one must be something akin to a good Democrat, fighting for social justice in the spirit of Tikkun Olam, is so politically self-serving as to be laughable. The obvious implication of such nonsense is that unless Jewish Americans follow the Obama administration and the Democratic Party than they are not really being very good Jews.

Meanwhile President Obama, whom David M. Weinberg is calling "Rabbi Obama" in the pages of Israel Hayom, is yet again threatening to throw Israel to the wolves at the United Nations. Barack Obama may love the Jewish people with all of his heart. The very thought of Golda Meir may get him all weepy and, as he likes to remind us, the very values that he cherishes (whatever those might be, exactly) are the very values that we cherish. (Or perhaps that is not the case, at all.) But whatever is the case, one thing is certain:

Barack Obama is no friend to Israel.

According to The Telegraph:

Barack Obama has warned that America's veto in support of Israel at the UN is increasingly "difficult" because of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wavering stance on a Palestinian state.

Mr Obama said the lack of progress in peace efforts, and Mr Netanyahu's apparent about-turn on support for a two-state solution before and after the recent Israel elections, mean Israel is in danger of losing "credibility".

This is a sick game that the current American administration is playing with the lives and well-being of the Jewish people of Israel. From 1937, with the Peel Commission, to the present, Israelis, for the most part, having been willing to share our tiny bit of Jewish homeland. Yet no matter how often Jewish Israelis say "yes" they are always blamed for intransigence and however consistently the Palestinian-Arabs say "no" to a state for themselves in peace next to Israel, they are always rewarded with moral support and cold, hard cash.

Also, of course, Netanyahu was merely being honest when he claimed that there would not likely be a two-state solution during his tenure. How could it possibly be otherwise when the Palestinian-Arab governments are split between a genocidally-authoritarian theocratic regime in Gaza and a genocidally-authoritarian semi-secular regime in what some people insist upon calling the "West Bank," as both call for violence against Jews and and as the rest of the region is engulfed by the ongoing blood, fire, rapes and beheadings of the misnamed "Arab Spring."

Obama said:

"If, in fact, there's no prospect of an actual peace process, if nobody believes there's a peace process, then it becomes more difficult to argue with those who are concerned about settlement construction..."

The opposite is actually true. If there is no peace process then construction of Jewish townships in Judea and Samaria becomes less politically relevant, not more so. If the Palestinian-Arabs absolutely refuse to accept a state for themselves in peace next to the Jewish one, than why should Jews not be allowed to build housing for themselves on the land of our ancestors?

Every time administration officials whine about Jews daring to build housing for themselves in Judea, they justify the Arab anti-Semitism that resides at the very heart of the conflict. Were it not for that anti-Semitism no one would mind if Jews built housing for themselves in Judea and Samaria. The only reason that anyone objects is because Jews are Jews. So when Obama complains about "settlements" he is effectively agreeing with Mahmoud Abbas that any future "Palestinian" state must be Judenrein.

This is blatant anti-Jewish bigotry on its face, yet the Obama administration goes along with it and American Jews, largely, go along with Obama.

What we will likely see in the coming months is the ratcheting up of the BDS movement in the European capitals, with Barack Obama leading from behind in Washington. Obama need not come out personally in favor of the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel for him to send messages that amount to approval.

When Obama says, "The danger here is that Israel as a whole loses credibility. Already, the international community does not believe that Israel is serious about a two-state solution," he is sending distinct and relevant messages to the enemies of the Jewish people all around the world.

He is also sending a distinct and threatening message to the Jewish people, as a whole.

One obvious message is that Obama, himself, does not think that Israel has "credibility" (whatever exactly he means by that.)

Another obvious message is that he, himself, believes that Israel is not serious about a two-state solution and is, therefore, fair game.

And, finally, that is the real message. If Israel has no "credibility," and if Jewish Israelis do not really want a two-state solution, then it's open season.

Barack Obama may as well just have rung the dinner bell.

This is called leading from behind.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

NRG reports that the UNDOF (United Nations Disengagement Observer Force) is irritating the people of Katzrin because of its blatant disregard for local laws.

UNDOF has relocated from Damascus, Syria to the Israeli town of Katzrin in the Golan Heights because of security issues. While the townspeople welcomed the move, even urging the UNDOF to change the addresses on their business cards, they are not happy about how the international organization ignores even the basics of etiquette.

Throughout Katzrin, one can see UN vehicles parked on sidewalks and handicapped spots, flouting local laws.

The head of the town council said several letters had been sent to UNDOF asking them to address the issue, but no results so far. "Legally I can not do anything to them. I can not stop them, even if they do serious offenses. I just want them to respect the laws of the host country."

A later meeting with UN officials resulted in them promising to be more respectful of the locals, but so far nothing has happened.

Residents and officials started placing signs on offending vehicles.

The Foreign Ministry explained that according to the Vienna Convention, diplomatic officials serving in Israel are given immunity, but it also noted that the Convention clearly stipulates that they respect the local law.

It isn't as if Katzrin has a shortage of parking spots, or that the UN employees are handicapped. They could find adequate parking spots easily. They choose, instead, to act like neighborhood bullies. And an organization that accuses Israel of violating international law is effectively tells Israel that will ignore its own laws whenever it pleases.

UPDATE: UNDOF says that they will obey local laws and fine the wrongdoers.

(h/t Yenta Press, Bob Knot)

From AFP:

A top Iranian official, in an unusual declaration Saturday, said there remains no trust between Tehran and world powers and either side could yet abandon a nuclear deal after signing.

In comments that laid bare a paradox of long-running negotiations between Iran and the West, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said an agreement -- due by June 30 -- was nearing despite neither side trusting the other.

A final accord could rein in aspects of Iran's nuclear programme while allowing it to continue to enrich uranium in exchange for a lifting of sanctions, but breaches could see the deal being ripped up.

"Our basis is mistrust and this is the reality," Araghchi was quoted by state television as saying at the end of the latest round of talks in Vienna with the P5+1 group of nations that has been talking to Iran for almost two years.

"We don't trust the other side at all and they don't trust us either," Araghchi said, noting so-called "snapback" provisions would be as relevant to Iran as to the United States if measures are reneged on.

"Thus all the provisions in a deal... whenever each party feels the other side is violating the commitments, they can snap back and implement whatever existed before the agreement.

"We have taken every necessary measure so this would happen for us. Naturally, the other side will do the same for sanctions," he added.

In other words, you can't trust Iran to keep a single provision of the deal if they can find the flimsiest pretense.

Once again...sounds familiar.

(h/t Mike Anon)

06/06 Links: Attorneys at War; Saban calls Orange liars, joins with Adelson to battle boycott ‘tsunami’

From Ian:

Attorneys at War

Israel’s fight with Hamas is not just an example of classic asymmetric warfare, it’s also just plain nasty. Why? Hamas may be a nonstate actor but its militants have access to a broad array of sophisticated weaponry that is more typically found in the arsenals of nation-states. Either way, bad news for Israel.
And maybe bad news for other Western nations as well. “The IDF’s warnings certainly go beyond what the law requires, but they also sometimes go beyond what would be operational good sense elsewhere,” says Michael Schmitt, director of the Stockton Center for the Study for International Law at the U.S. Naval War College. “People are going to start thinking that the United States and other Western democracies should follow the same examples in different types of conflict. That’s a real risk.” Schmitt is the author of a just-completed comprehensive analysis of the IDF’s targeting systems.
There’s another risk to the preoccupation with protecting civilians. Some commanders and outside legal experts worry that Dabla attorneys risk discrediting themselves in the eyes of the major consumers of their advice, combat commanders. The commanders at some point may say, “Why? We went overboard to protect civilians last time and we still got criticized. What’s the point?”
A valid question, and one for which Colonel Neuman has an unequivocal answer. “We tell commanders what they need to do to comply with international law. We are clear with them that they don’t need to do more but in a lot of cases they do anyway.” Neuman, a gentle soul who radiates integrity, leaves no doubt he believes that it’s the IDF commanders—and not Dabla—who do more than what is required by international law.
Despite Neuman’s unambiguous response, ambiguity remains as to who is the driving force behind the IDF’s taking such extensive measures to minimize civilian casualties. The commanders say the lawyers. The lawyers say the commanders. The Naval War College’s Schmitt believes both fighters and lawyers in the IDF share responsibility for the high standards. Ultimately, does it really matter?
There’s one final risk to Israel that stems from this preoccupation with protecting civilians. This risk comes from the north, where Israel faces a far more dangerous enemy than Hamas. That would be Hezbollah, the militant Islamic group, supported and funded by Iran, that controls southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is exponentially stronger and better equipped than Hamas. It seems readily apparent that the IDF will not be able to use methods like individualized phone calls and “roof knocking” in combat with Hezbollah. Will IDF officers then get hammered for acting one way in Gaza and another way in southern Lebanon? It’s a good bet they will.
No matter. For better or worse, combat commanders and Dabla attorneys will bend over backwards to prevent civilian casualties. The concept is simply deeply embedded into the IDF culture.

France deports Algerian father of Toulouse terrorist

The father of Mohamed Merah, who shot dead three soldiers before gunning down three students and a teacher at a Jewish school, had been in the country illegally for months after authorities refused to renew his residency permit in March.
A source close to the case said the father, Mohamed Benalel Merah, was arrested near the cemetery where his son was buried after being killed by elite police after a 32-hour siege of his apartment in the southern city of Toulouse.
He was questioned and put on a flight to Algeria.
His son embarked on a killing spree, gunning down his victims from the back of a scooter between March 11 and 19, 2012, boasting that he was working for Al-Qaeda to police during the siege of his apartment.
Mohamed Benalel Merah later filed a murder complaint when police ended the siege by shooting his son.
Intelligence sources told AFP earlier this year that Merah’s half-brother Essid was suspected of having appeared in an Islamic State group execution video.
Merah’s sister Souad also left for Syria in 2014, the sources said.

Saban calls Orange liars, joins with Adelson to battle boycott ‘tsunami’

Israeli-American media mogul Haim Saban on Saturday rejected as a “blatant lie” the claim by French telecom giant Orange that it was not pulling out of Israel for political reasons, and vowed to fight back so robustly against Orange that any other company thinking of boycotting Israel would reconsider. “We do have an anti-Semitic tsunami that’s coming at us,” said Saban of the international effort to boycott and demonize Israel.
Saban was speaking in a joint Israeli television interview with Jewish American billionaire Sheldon Adelson from Las Vegas, where Adelson this weekend hosted representatives of some 50 Jewish and pro-Israel organizations to coordinate a strategy for battling anti-Israel boycott efforts.
Adelson said his prime focus initially was to reverse the inroads being made by what he called “the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) and company… the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic organizations [that] are making a lot of headway on the campuses in the United States.” He said he would encourage Jewish groups to work to have boycott decisions taken by student campus groups reversed.
But Saban made clear that he intended to fight back against any business groups inclining to boycott Israel, and create a climate in which they were deterred from doing so.
Saban — who owns Partner, the Israeli company whose rights to use the Orange name are now to be cancelled by the French telecom giant — angrily dismissed Orange CEO Stephane Richard’s claim that Orange is not pulling out of Israel for political reasons.

06/05 Links Pt2: When will the free world realize Churchill was right?; Rabbi Obama's tough love

From Ian:

Mordechai Kedar: It's not about Soccer, Stupid. It's about Israel's Survival

Let's tell the truth: the Palestine Liberation Organizaion established in June 2, 1964, three years before the "occupation", was meant to free the "Palestine" that existed then, meaning Tel Aviv, Haifa, Nahariya and Be'er Sheva and not Hevron, Shechem and Ramallah that were under Jordanian "occupation" at the time. The organization has not changed its charter as of today, nor has it changed its goal and its suggested Final Solution for the Jewish People all over the world. This was the credo of its founder, he who established the great Palestinian Nation Lie, none other than Haj Amin El-Husseini, who took an active part in the extermination of half a million Hungarian Jews in 1944.
Mahmoud Abbas, Jibril Rajoub and their fellow-murderers share Husseini's dreams and are trying to achieve his goals without being obvious about it, so as not to wake us up. We are asleep and they are leading us towards extermination, along international corridors, by way of the courtroom - and through FIFA. According to the Palestine Liberation Organization, all these interantional bodies are gas molecules that will strangle Israel, causing its certain death as soon as they reach the required concentration. All they have to do is open the anesthesia pipeline of "security coordination" to keep us from seeing the fatal gas they are gathering all around us.
This is not about soccer. This is about our existence in Israel, from Tel Aviv to Ariel, from Haifa to Kiryat Arba, from Be'er Sheva to Maaleh Adumim. The Palestine - all of Palestine - Liberation Organization does not want us here and it is time to tell the truth: those Accords we signed with them in 1993 were a strategic error and a fatal step for the Jewish State that followed Arafat as though he was the pied piper of Hamelin and they were a buinch of naive children - fated to be left in a cave with no way out.
It is time to send the Palestine Liberation Organization to hell in a handbasket before it becomes another Hamas state, which is can do by holding elections as in January 2006, or through a violent takeover which is what happened in Gaza in 2007. Is anyone able to promise that this won't happen in Judea and Samaria? Since no one in the world can assure us that this most realistic scenario will not take place, we must take that vital step, and every passing day makes it harder to do that most necessary thing. If not now, when? When should we do it? Should we wait until Hamas takes over and establishes a terror state in Judea and Samaria? As they are busy doing in Gaza?
Our thanks to Jibril Rajouib, the convicted terrorist who showed us the truth, as if we really needed to be told.

Ben-Dror Yemini: When will the free world realize Churchill was right?

The intellectual elites are returning to the exact same spot these days. Organizations of students and lecturers, as well as the Orange CEO, are milestones in this disgraceful path. Arguments can be made against Israel. Some of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statements and Israel's policy are worthy of profound criticism. But Israel is a democracy. There is a fundamental debate taking place here. The anti-Israel campaign is not contributing to the reconciliation between Jews and Arabs. It is increasing the hostility and the hatred.
The Orange CEO wouldn't have expressed support for the boycott if it wasn’t for the atmosphere created by the propaganda of lies. It is an atmosphere and disease which is not only threatening Britain, but the entire free world. Another prestigious academic institution, the London School of Economics (LSE), decided to twin its union with the Islamic University of Gaza of all universities, although some of the university's leaders have made it clear that the annihilation of Jews is a command for immediate implementation.
The evil spirit of BDS is not only threatening Israel. It is wreaking havoc in the United States and Britain. It is threatening the free world. It is encouraging Palestinian terror and Palestinian rejectionism. The Orange CEO's declaration is another milestone in the disgraceful parade.
Churchill realized it at the time, and was concerned that this disgrace would only bring the war closer. Eight-two years have passed, and the free world is refusing to realize that Churchill was right.

The FIFA fiasco: What woeful wimps

Israel’s response to the Palestinian initiative to suspend it from FIFA epitomized everything that is wrong with its public diplomacy.
Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote: “Clearly, within the context of conventional wisdom… the contention that Israel’s acceptance of the legitimacy of Palestinian national claims has laid the foundations for the international assault on its own legitimacy seems, at best, counterintuitive. However, the logic behind it is unassailable and the conclusion to be drawn from it inexorable: Once the legitimacy of a Palestinian state is conceded, the delegitimization of Israel is inevitable.”
The chain of reasoning is clear and compelling – almost algorithmic. For the Zionist narrative to be re-legitimized, the Palestinian narrative must be delegitimized. For Israel to regain its legitimacy, “Palestine” must be stripped of its legitimacy. For as Nahum Barnea correctly diagnoses: “the Palestinians are not only challenging the occupation, but Israel’s actual existence.”
Unless this is grasped and acted on, even billionaires will be of no avail.

This week's Shujaiyeh rubble photos

I wrote earlier this week that Gaza's Shujaiyeh neighborhood is being kept filled with rubble - and its residents kept homeless - because of the propaganda value of having foreign dignitaries and journalists go through the neighborhood and seeing the destruction. even though tens of thousands of families have been fully supplied with construction materials to rebuild, seemingly no one in Shujaiyeh is rebuilding, and nine months after the war the rubble is still in place - despite the fact that rubble is worth money for entrepreneurs who can recycle it.

It is clear that this neighborhood is being kept as a monument to supposed Israeli crimes.

This is not the first time Arabs have made people homeless for propaganda points. The Syrian town of Quneitra is described by Wikipedia:

The city remains in a destroyed condition. Syria has left the ruins in place and built a museum to memorialize its destruction. It maintains billboards at the ruins of many buildings and effectively preserves it in the condition that the Israeli army left it in. The former residents of the town have not returned and Syria discourages the re-population of the area.

All that is missing from Shujaiyeh is the museum.

Here are this week's photos of a neighborhood that could have started clearing rubble and rebuilding last September:

Staged pictures in a large stage.

Turns out parts of Gaza's Shujaiyeh ARE being rebuilt - underground

From AFP:

A member of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas died Friday when a smuggling tunnel collapsed in the Gaza Strip near the Israeli border, Hamas and medical sources said.

The sources did not say why the tunnel, located in eastern Shejaiya in northern Gaza, collapsed.

A statement from Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of de facto Gaza rulers Hamas, said a member was killed in the collapse of "a resistance tunnel".

Hamas has created a network of underground tunnels that enable the movement of arms and fighters throughout the coastal Palestinian territory. Some extend into Israel, and were used to carry out attacks during the July-August 2014 war with the Jewish state.

Shujaiyeh? Isn't that the place that Gaza leaders parade reporters and diplomats around to prove that Gazans haven't rebuilt their homes?

Clearly there is some rebuilding going on!

Now, if you want to build underground bunkers and tunnels, wouldn't it be so much easier to do it before the reconstruction takes place above ground?

It is obvious that Hamas uses the neighborhood as a hub of operations, which is the entire reason it was a major target for the IDF. But now it serves an additional purpose of being a propaganda tool.

This is yet another one of those connections that reporters are paid to notice, but instead they go out of their way to ignore them. Hamas building terror bunkers and kidnap tunnels directly beneath the rubble-strewn neighborhood that they love to photograph as evidence of Israeli atrocities just doesn't register as relevant to their lazy "narrative."

Notice how AFP calls these "smuggling tunnels." Even Hamas doesn't claim it is used for smuggling, but for terror. (No one is smuggling any items from Israel.)

The Al Qassam Brigades website says that he was working in "tunnels of pride and dignity to be stationed at the mouths of the homeland" - which sure sounds like this tunnel was meant to go to Israel.

Anyway...time to hand out the candy.

(More in my next post.)

06/05 Links Pt1: New government’s war on BDS; EU-Funded NGOs Behind the Orange BDS Campaign

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The new government’s war on BDS

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government is less than a month old, but it’s already apparent that it is different from its predecessors. And if it continues on its current diplomatic trajectory, it may do something that its six predecessors failed to accomplish. Netanyahu’s new government may improve Israel’s position internationally.
The stakes are high. Over the years, Israel has largely concentrated its efforts on developing the tools to contend with its military challenges. But as we have seen over the past decade and a half, Israel’s capacity to fight and defeat its enemies is not limited principally by the IDF’s war-fighting capabilities.
Israel’s ability to defend itself and its citizens is constrained first and foremost by its shrinking capacity to defend itself diplomatically. Its enemies in the diplomatic arena have met with great success in their use of diplomatic condemnation and intimidation to force Israel to limit its military operations to the point where it is incapable of defeating its enemies outright.
The flagship of the diplomatic war against Israel is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Participants in the movement propagate and disseminate the libelous claim that Israel’s use of force in self-defense is inherently immoral and illegal. Over the years BDS activists’ assaults on Israel’s right to exist have become ever more shrill and radical. So, too, whereas just a few years ago their operations tended to be concentrated around military confrontations, today they are everyday occurrences. And their demands become greater and more openly anti-Semitic from week to week and day to day.
Consider the events of the past seven days alone.

Sarah Honig: The great equalizer of all Jews

Last summer a café in a suburb of the Belgian city of Liege exposed the current face of anti-Semitism in one compact store-front display.
The window was festooned with the Palestinian flag, decorated with Fatah keffiahs and featured an Israeli flag crossed-out with a big red “X.” But if just-landed Martians failed to get the message, there was written bilingual elucidation as well.
The French version, for the benefit of the natives, boldly announced: “Entry is permitted to dogs but not to Zionists under any circumstances!”
Nonetheless, politically correct constraints in French clearly don’t cramp Turkish styles. Lest any perplexed Turk encounter difficulties in determining who’s a Zionist, the Turkish sign spelled things out explicitly – without synthetic attempts at European niceties. It let the proverbial cat out of the bag for dog-lovers and haters- of-Zion alike: “Entry is permitted to dogs but not to Jews under any circumstances!”
The bit about Zionists was exclusively for European consumption. Ever since the end of WWII, undisguised anti-Jewish harangues have lost their erstwhile luster in much of the continent. Anti-Israel and anti-Zionist discourse, however, provides socially acceptable alternatives. Nowadays, in fact, these substitutes have become the obligatory fad for the fashion-conscious.
Careless about prevalent conventions, though, the Turkish café-owners clearly illustrated that the terminology can be used interchangeably. If anything, anti-Zionist and anti-Jew are synonyms, despite expedient denials by disingenuous Europeans and Arab propagandists.

In very rare public meet, Israeli, Saudi officials name Iran as common foe

An extremely unusual public meeting of high-ranking Israeli and Saudi officials took place in Washington on Thursday, when the incoming director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry shared a stage — and shook hands — with a retired Saudi general who is a former top adviser to the Saudi government.
In their back-to-back addresses to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations think tank, Dore Gold and Anwar Eshki both espoused Israeli-Saudi peace and identified Iran as the chief threat to regional stability.
Eshki spoke at length of Iran’s hostile and aggressive actions in the region and signaled that peace with Israel, based on the Saudi-led Arab Peace Initiative, was a top priority. He also spoke of the need for a joint Arab military force to increase regional stability.
Gold, the current head of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs think tank, is expected to be confirmed as the Foreign Ministry chief in the coming days. He too spoke of the challenge posed to the Middle East by Iran, and warned of a weak nuclear accord with Tehran which would leave the Islamic republic as a nuclear threshold state.
Bloomberg News reported that the two countries, longtime foes with no diplomatic relations, have held five clandestine meetings over the past 17 months on the threat posed by Iran. Long-rumored back-channel talks between Jerusalem and Riyadh have never been officially confirmed. (h/t Phil)

Palestinian Authority lying statistics (update)

I had missed this from last month:

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday it has recorded a population of 12.1 million people, of whom 4.6 million live in the occupied territories and the remainder abroad.

In a statement, the head of the statistics bureau said that in 1948, "1.4 million Palestinians lived in 1,300 towns and localities in historic Palestine".

After the war that followed Israel's creation, "Israel took control of 774 towns and villages, destroyed 531 and committed 70 killings and massacres in which 15,000 people died", she said.

I can only find one source that claims 15,000 Arab casualties of the war, from a 1995 World Political Almanac quoted in a Wikipedia article. I have no idea if it is referenced correctly. (UPDATE: Apparently this is accurate according to the World Political Almanac, but I don't know their source.)

Most histories of the War of Independence show perhaps 7,000- 10,000 total Arab losses. Benny Morris quotes the antismeitic known liar, the Mufti of Jerusalem, as claiming that about 12,000 Palestinian Arabs had died.

In short, there is no known reliable source for this statistic, which the PCBS has been pushing for years.

While the PCBS doesn't claim explicitly that Jews massacred 15,000 people, it is broadly implied here, and not mentioning that there was, you know, a war of attempted extermination of Israel. A war that incidentally killed over 6,000 Jews, some 5% of all men, women and children in Israel.

If the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics lies about statistics in 1948, then how reliable is it in reporting statistics today?

Yesterday, France's ambassador to the US Gérard Araud tweeted this:

4th Geneva convention : settlement policy in occupied territories is illegal. It is illegal to contribute to it in any way.
— Gérard Araud (@GerardAraud) June 3, 2015

This is the sort of thing that is simply accepted as fact by most of the world who has never actually read the Geneva Conventions.

Expert in international law Eugene Kontorovich replied with a withering series of tweets that showed that this diplomat (and most other diplomats, pundits and so-called "experts") is completely and thoroughly wrong - using examples from French companies doing business in, yes, occupied territories:

You know that not what the French Courts have rules in cases involving @Alstom, or UK cts either, @GerardAraud. If true, prosecute @Total
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) June 4, 2015

.@GerardAraud a totally made up rule. Even if "settlers" are illegal no prohibition on giving them (often live-saving) cell phone service.
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) June 4, 2015

.@GerardAraud Your view inconsistent with that of UN SC legal advisor, EU Parliament lawyer, UK & French ct cases. http://t.co/XKjDgLc6pt
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) June 4, 2015

@Jswsenior @GerardAraud @francediplo You feel same way about @Total, @Michelin, and other settlement comps? Have you said so before?
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) June 4, 2015

The 2X standard: @GerardAraud knows about cell phone towers in WBank, hasn't even heard that 1 of France's largest cos drilling in WSahara
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) June 4, 2015

@mr_markjacobs @MelanieLatest @EVKontorovich There is oil in Western Sahara?
— Gérard Araud (@GerardAraud) June 4, 2015

.@GerardAraud Yes, there is oil business in WSahara, your Excellency, but there are no Jews. Maybe why u havent heard about it @BarakRavid
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) June 4, 2015

Photo evidence of @MichelinTyres activity supporting settlements in occp'd terr. Can I get a comment, @GerardAraud? pic.twitter.com/BJP1vIQCOv
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) June 4, 2015

After thoroughly proving that the French ambassador is a hypocrite, Gérard Araud blocked Eugene.

And then he put up this pathetic defense:

I speak of one occupied territory. I am answered on other territories. I conclude that everybody agrees on what I say on the former.
— Gérard Araud (@GerardAraud) June 4, 2015

Kontorovich's words in response, that he wrote in an excellent blogpost at the Washington Post:

In other words, no fairs to cite precedents and practice. But of course, if you are talking about international law, “other territories” are entirely relevant. First, for something to be law, it has to be a rule that applies to similar situations. And for it to be international, well, those situations will involve different countries.What the French apparently want is, to paraphrase Stalin, international law for one country. Ok. But don’t call it international. And don’t call it law.

The entire article is a must-read.

Kontorovich proved that the French ambassador is a know-nothing hypocrite, and Araud proved that he has no interest in truth. Not bad for a Twitter exchange.

UPDATE: Gerard Araud also blocked me on Twitter after I tweeted this single article to him.

06/04 Links Pt2: One million to mark anniversary of three teens’ killing as Unity Day

From Ian:

Turkey's Flotilla: What Was It Really About?

One day, perhaps, the Palestinians will understand that their "cause" is, for their Turkish brothers, merely an ideological feel-good motive and an instrument in the quest of many Turks to consolidate power both at home and in the Arab world.
Ironically, about a week before the Mavi Marmara commemoration, hysteria gripped Turkey: a World Bank report revealed that the Turkish government had failed to deliver a large portion of the aid it had pledged for the reconstruction of Gaza during an international donors' conference last year.
The report said that Turkey has so far delivered only 0.26% of the aid it had pledged at the donors' conference in Cairo last October. Turkey, which pledged $200 million, has provided only $520,000 the report said.
Turkey's unofficial aid for Gaza did not reflect the Palestinian-fetish visible across the country, either. All that 77 million Turks could collect to donate to Gaza stood at $32 million, or about 40 cents per person. In other words, the Turkish generosity for "our Palestinian brothers" was a mere 0.004% of the country's national income.
"This is a clear picture showing the AK Party's true colors. They turn Gaza into a political pawn and exploit it, then fail to honor the pledge ... It's tragic. How could you not honor your promise to Gaza?" asked Mehmet Gunal, an opposition member of parliament.
Turks love to play the generous benefactor of the Palestinians and the custodians of the Palestinian cause. Underneath, its "pro- Palestinian" mindset, Turkish solidarity with the Palestinians is less related to the Palestinian cause and more to the Islamists' devotion to the dream of "conquest."

Exploding for decades: UNRWA needs more, more, more

As sixty-five year olds go, UNRWA shows no real signs of slowing down. That's noteworthy when we remind ourselves that its supposed purpose in life, as expressed in UN Resolution A/RES/302 (IV) of December 8, 1949, is
relief of the Palestine refugees... to prevent conditions of starvation and distress among them and to further conditions of peace and stability, and that constructive measures should be undertaken at an early date with a view to the termination of international assistance for relief...
Termination is, 65 years later, nowhere in sight. UNRWA today is the UN's single largest agency. It employs a staff of more than 30,000, of whom 99% are locally recruited Palestinians [Wikipedia].
It's not the United Nations' only refugee agency, as most people know. By far the more significant one is the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, a body which merely deals with all the world's refugees. By contrast, UNRWA supports one class of refugees only:
Palestine refugees... defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict
Amazing really. If you had lived there for two years, you were entitled to UNRWA support, and so are your children, and their great-great-great grandchildren. The UN defined Palestine refugee status to be something you inherited... forever. And that's just one of a long list of criticisms that
But our focus in this post is money.

One million to mark anniversary of three teens’ killing as Unity Day

The first anniversary of the deaths of Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach, the Israeli teenagers kidnapped and killed by Palestinian terrorists last summer, is being marked on Wednesday with a Unity Day.
A million individuals throughout Israel and in Jewish communities in 20 different countries are expected to participate in unity-themed gatherings and educational programs. A conference on issues that emerged from the events of the summer of 2014 will take place in Jerusalem, and the first annual Jerusale`m Unity Prize will be awarded to individuals and organizations identified as leaders in promoting Jewish unity in Israel or in strengthening Israel-Diaspora ties.
A year ago, Jews in Israel and around the world came together in solidarity as they hoped and prayed that Fraenkel, Shaer and Yifrach would be found alive. In the end, the boys — murdered almost immediately by their abductors — did not come home.
The sense of unity, however, did not end. The bereaved families were comforted by people from all walks of life, from different religious outlooks, and from all over the political spectrum.
That togetherness, the putting aside of differences, did not go unnoticed by the teens’ parents. They decided that Jewish unity would be their sons’ legacy, and that they would dedicate themselves to raising awareness of the importance of unity every day, and not only during times of crisis and conflict with the nation’s enemies.

Pravda says Israel nuked Yemen

From Pravda, May 29:

Saudis have begun to wipe Yemen off the map. Tactical strikes have hit the city.

Shocking video reveals proton bombardment from a neutron bomb.

Israel is reported to be the one to deploy such neutron bombs.

Any doubts about the nuclear attack on Yemen attributed to Israel, as evidenced in two Israeli F16s shot down and forensically identified, are now gone.

Forbidden strikes have brought about a storm of worldwide protest.

Obama has recently promised to provide every assistance including US military force to any "external threat" the rich Arab states of the Gulf may face.

The source for the Israeli F-16 story is Veteran's Today, which in turn uses Pravda to prove the Israeli nuke story. VT says it is "hard fact that has been 100% confirmed."

That settles it!

Further evidence is that "there has thus far been zero denial or refutation (other than by wingnuts and conspiracy theorists) of this having been a nuclear event." Also, some spark-like dots in the video is brought as evidence of nuclear radiation, and "when the camera’s CCD pick up chip is overloaded by excess radiation it will pixelize showing white sparkles all over the picture of the fireball or blast image area." (Interestingly, CCDs can be hacked to see radiation, but the dots indicating radiation are randomly distributed throughout the CCD, not in the pattern that these clowns claim.)

Here's the full video that supposedly proves a nuclear bomb hit Yemen. It looks like a ammo depot, or perhaps a fuel storage facility.

There are many people who believe this stuff. The story has traveled through the insanity axis of Russian, American fringe and Iranian websites. The video has well over 600,000 views.

(h/t Aryeh)

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column:

This past week Barack Obama laid bare the pincer maneuver he is executing against Israel. As he explained it in an interview with Ilana Dayan on Israeli TV, he intends to squeeze Israel between a nuclear Iran and a terrorist base next door to Tel Aviv.

The precise nature of the Iranian threat is important for understanding Obama’s strategy. Although one can’t completely discount the possibility, Iranian officials have been relatively honest when they say that they don’t intend to nuke us: they would prefer to see us wiped off the map conventionally by their non-state proxies. The bomb will primarily be used to threaten the Sunni states and as a deterrent against Israel’s option to (in the words of the previous Saudi king), cut off the head of the Iranian snake.

Thus, a) providing Iran with its nuclear backstop, while b) empowering the PLO and Hamas, and c) increasing Israel’s vulnerability to terrorism and conventional attack by reducing its strategic depth, is the perfect three-point strategy for finally achieving the goal that Yasser Arafat dedicated his life to, ending the Jewish state.

Obama told Dayan that Israel is behaving immorally in its actions toward the Palestinian Arabs, that he sees it as his personal duty to change this, that PM Netanyahu’s negotiating positions are unrealistic and disingenuous, and that he intends to change the traditional American position: the US will no longer insist on a bilateral agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, but will support a UN-imposed Palestinian state.

It is interesting that the Palestinian issue is so important to him, that he feels the need to help Palestinian children so deeply, when (for example) there is ongoing rape, abuse and murder of children on a massive scale in much of Africa.

It is interesting that he can brush aside Netanyahu’s reasonable conditions — for security and the need for a commitment to end the conflict — but that maximalist Palestinian demands are treated as non-negotiable.

And his remarks about the Iran deal are interesting too. For the first time, he admits that the military option is off the table:

I can, I think, demonstrate — not based on any hope, but on facts and evidence and analysis — that the best way to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon is a verifiable, tough agreement. A military solution will not fix it, even if the United States participates. It would temporarily slow down an Iranian nuclear program, but it will not eliminate it.

So much for leverage! The deal that he is making is apparently neither tough nor verifiable, as the French Foreign Minister has recently noted, not to mention Israel’s PM. It won’t stop Iran or even slow her progress very much. What it will do is to criminalize an Israeli attack while ending sanctions and freeing up tens of billions of frozen Iranian dollars to fund its aggression.

While military action won’t rule out the possibility that some day Iran could reconstruct its program, there are persuasive arguments that it could delay it for a good long time — and who knows what might happen in the interim?

Obama isn’t prepared to take that chance. His alliance with the expanding Shiite caliphate is too important, which is also why he made a joke of American red lines to protect Iranian lackey Bashar al-Assad.

While he will do whatever it takes to help the “Palestinian youth in Ramallah who feels [his] possibilities constrained by the status quo,” he is able to abandon the Syrian child choking his chlorine-gas filled lungs out, or even the barrel-bombed Palestinians in Yarmouk.

But if it isn’t children and it isn’t Palestinians, it isn’t Shiites either. After all, he is still miffed at Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for overthrowing the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt. Now what could the Ikhwan possibly have in common with the Iranian mullahs? Not much, except the desire to destroy Israel.

The enemy of Obama’s enemy is his friend, and he seems determined to make friends of all of Israel’s enemies, even if they turn out, like Iran and the Brotherhood, to be deadly enemies of the United States too.

Irrational? Perhaps, but not surprising. It’s the same irrational current that drives academics and liberal church groups to say “you have to start somewhere” when asked why, with all of the real oppression and occupation in the world, they choose Israel to boycott. It’s the same force that caused Hitler to divert Reichsbahn trains to carry Jews to death camps instead of supplies to his beleaguered troops at Stalingrad.

In another recent interview, Obama made the silly and ahistorical statement that antisemitism doesn’t cause national leaders to make irrational decisions when stakes are high.

Clearly untrue. But maybe the truth would have hit too close to home?

06/04 Links Pt1: Abbas awards terrorist with "Star of Honor"; After rocket fire, IAF strikes Gaza

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Who Is Blocking Palestinian Elections?

Today, it has become unavoidably clear that Fatah and Hamas, and not Israel, are responsible for the ongoing plight of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The two parties are unlikely to resolve their differences in the near future, further exacerbating the misery of their people. Each party cares only about its own interests, while at the same time lying to the world that it is all Israel's fault. Hamas is not willing to relinquish control over the Gaza Strip, certainly not to Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, who were expelled from there in 2007. As for Abbas, he does not seem to be interested in regaining control over a problematic area such as the Gaza Strip, where most of the population lives under the poverty line and in refugee camps.
Yet instead of being honest with their people and admitting their failure to improve their people's living conditions, Hamas and Fatah continue to wage smear campaigns against each other and, at the same time, also against Israel.
The campaigns that Hamas and Fatah are waging against Israel, particularly in the international community, are designed to divert attention from their failure to provide their people with basic services or any kind of hope.
While ignoring the plight of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority leaders were prepared to invest huge efforts and resources in trying to have Israel suspended from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). It is as if the Palestinians had solved all their major problems and all that they needed to do now was to stop Israeli soccer players from playing in international matches.
Hamas, for its part, continues to invest enormous resources in digging new tunnels, in preparation for another war with Israel. The money that is being invested in the tunnels and the purchase and smuggling of weapons could benefit many families who lost their homes during the last war. But Hamas, like the Palestinian Authority, does not care about the misery of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. They want to fight Israel to the last Palestinian. And this is all being done with the help of anti-Israel governments around the world, and groups such the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, whose only goal is to delegitimize Israel and demonize Jews rather than to help the Palestinians.

PA President Abbas to Run for Second Infinite-Year Term (satire)

In a press conference held in Ramallah Monday, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority now in the 11th year of a four-year term, announced that he will seek re-election when his current term ends in infinity years.
“The last 11 years have been a time of tremendous economic growth and prosperity for the Palestinian people. Well, at least for one Palestinian person,” he said, pointing to himself. “I am looking forward to serving out the rest of my never-ending term and hope the Palestinian people will reward me with another never-ending term.”
Abbas said he was eager to tackle a new set of challenges in his second term, including global warming, the rise and eventual fall of China and the potential fallout of the Y3K crisis. He added that he was excited to work with President Hillary Clinton, President Chelsea Clinton and, eventually, President Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky on sporadic and fruitless negotiations towards a two-state solution.
Palestinians throughout the West Bank were thrilled by Abbas’ announcement.

PMW: Abbas awards terrorist with "Star of Honor"

Last week, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas awarded terrorist Fatima Barnawi with the "Military Star of Honor." Barnawi placed a bomb in a movie theater in Jerusalem in 1967 in an attempt to murder civilians. The bomb was discovered and Barnawi spent 10 years in Israeli prison.
Official PA TV News reported on the ceremony at which Abbas himself presented terrorist Barnawi with the honor. Tayeb Abdel Rahim, Secretary General of the Presidency, read aloud the Abbas' Presidential Decree in honor of the terrorist:
"Decree for 2015. The President of the State of Palestine and acting Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee; by the authority vested in us, and for the public good; we decree the following:
Paragraph 1: Fighter Fatima Barnawi - the first female prisoner of the revolution of modern Palestine - is granted the Award of Military Star of Honor.
Paragraph 2: In appreciation for her pioneering role in the struggle,her sacrifice for her homeland and her people, and its revolution, and her willingness to give from the beginning until now..."[Official PA TV, May 28, 2015]

Terrorist about her failed bomb attack: "It is not a failure because it generated fear"

PA TV host: ‎"That is certainly not a failure. It is a success for the Palestinian ‎resistance that went into the heart of the Israeli occupation, into the cinema and ‎created a state of panic, because [since then] they’ve taken extra precautions when ‎each person enters a cinema or any public place. " ‎[Official PA TV, May 9, 2015]‎

Fatima Barnawi placed a bomb in a movie theater in Jerusalem in 1967 in an attempt to ‎blow it up. The bomb failed to explode. She was sentenced to life imprisonment but ‎was released in 1977 after serving 10 years. In 2015, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas ‎honored Barnawi with the Military Star of Honor.‎