Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

06/30 Links Pt1: Why Flotillas Sail to Gaza, Not Syria; London Nazi Rally Cancelled

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Why Salam Fayyad Lacks Popular Support

It is no secret that several senior Palestinian officials see themselves as potential successors to Abbas. Like his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, Abbas has stubbornly refused to share power with anyone. And like Arafat, he continues to run the Palestinian Authority as if it were his private fiefdom.
In Palestinian culture, it is more important if one graduates from an Israeli prison than from the University of Texas in Austin. A Palestinian who carries out an attack on Israel has more credentials among his people than one who studied at Harvard or Oxford universities.
It took Salam Fayyad too long to realize that no matter how many good things he does for his people, in the end he will be judged on the basis of his contribution to the fight against Israel, and not how much humanitarian and financial aid he provides.

Police Bar Nazi Rally in London Jewish Neighborhood

A controversial neo-Nazi rally timed for Shabbat this Saturday in Golders Green, the center of the Jewish community in London, will be barred by police according to the Campaign Against anti-Semitism.
While police will be unable to ban the rally outright, the organization announced that police have imposed conditions meaning the rally will not be held in Golders Green.
Instead, the demonstration will be moved to central London, far from the Jewish community, and will be restricted to one hour only in a specially cordoned-off area, after which it will be dispersed by police.
"Today’s decision by the Metropolitan Police Service is a victory for British values and we applaud their firm defense of our community. This vindicates our policy of confronting anti-Semitism wherever it rears its head," said Gideon Falter, Chairman of the Campaign Against anti-Semitism.
Falter pointed out that "this neo-Nazi demonstration was an attempt to intimidate the largest Jewish community the UK on the Jewish Sabbath in the heart of Golders Green, on the very memorial to those who lost their lives fighting Nazis."
"We believe that ‘never again’ is a call to action from our history, which is why we called thousands of Jews and non-Jews to stand together against this disgrace in dignified defiance, unity and pride."

Telecom giant Orange to end Israel presence within 2 years

Orange’s Israeli brand licensee Partner Communications will cease to use the Orange name within 24 months, the two sides announced Tuesday. Partner had previously been expected to use the Orange name until 2025.
The new agreement stipulates that Orange will pay up to €90 million to Partner, a sizable chunk of which will be used to help Partner rebrand itself in the wake of Orange’s departure.
“The discussions were pragmatic, conducted in a positive atmosphere, and the two parties reached a mutually satisfactory agreement,” Pierre Louette, Orange’s deputy CEO, told AFP.
The announcement comes just weeks after Orange CEO Stephane Richard said he would pull the French telecom giant out of Israel “tomorrow” if he could, sparking a firestorm of criticism from Israeli and French officials.
Richard told a gathering in Cairo in early June that he would break off Orange’s relationship with Partner if it weren’t for the fact that the Israeli company would likely sue.

"Moderates"

The PA government dissolved two weeks ago and there has been no agreement on the new members as the PLO attempts to replace the "technocrats" with its own political hacks.

Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction issued a statement insulting Hamas for not being serious enough about forming a new national unity government.

Their specific charges against Hamas reveal yet again that there is nothing "moderate" about Fatah.

Fatah's statement said that Hamas' refusal to participate in the government of national unity just confirms that Hamas favors division and would rather negotiate with Israel than to work on true unity.

The spokesman said that Hamas is now negotiating with Israel on security arrangements, meaning that Hamas is committed to the preservation of the security of Israel to the last detail and is committed to comply with a long-term truce with the Zionists. This is, of course, a bad thing from the perspective of Mahmoud Abbas the supposed peacemaker.

Furthermore, Fatah claims, Hamas has committed to stop armed resistance above ground and underground. Hamas also vows to fight anyone who wants to resist Israel, all in return for opening the crossings and a seaport under the control and supervision of Israeli and international observers.

Fatah concluded that Hamas is fooling people when they talk about its desire of national unity, while it is doing just the opposite on the ground - by wanting a truce with Israel.

Apparently, Mahmoud Abbas prefers it when Hamas shoots rockets and Israel responds.

Here's yet another question that reporters will never ask Mahmoud Abbas.

BDS sells Israeli T-shirts!

Tweeter StopBoycott noticed this gem - a "We Are All Gaza" T-Shirt that was manufactured in Israel!

BGood1 makes custom T-shirts and other items.

(h/t StandWithUs)

The humanitarian crises that the flotilla skipped over (poster)

From an idea by UR:

06/29 Links Pt2: Celebs Who Remind The World 'Jews Aren’t So Easy To F–k With Anymore'

From Ian:

Celebs Who Remind The World 'Jews Aren’t So Easy To F–k With Anymore'

In today’s era of hatred against the State of Israel becoming increasingly mainstream, there still remain those celebrities who speak truth to power.
This week, rock-star David Draiman noted he was removing his Twitter account after constant harassment from “unpleasant, anti-Semitic 'internet trolls.” Draiman went on to note that,
The mainstream media's biased, libelous, and often erroneous portrayal of Israel in the current conflict has fuelled a wave of anti-Semitism, the likes of which I have not witnessed in my lifetime. Well done [news networks], you've set the stage for a new holocaust.
Draiman – himself the son of Holocaust survivors – continued:
Maybe you'd be happy/satisfied when the extremist nutbags you defend so much, who eagerly martyr their own children. Who chant for the death of all Jews, not just the Israeli's, and who's ethics, morals, & values stand diametrically opposed to your own liberal views of freedom of religion, gay marriage, pro-choice, and even democracy itself, strip the region of the only bastion of true liberty that exists in the region. Well guess what? Never again. Jews aren't so easy to f–k with anymore."

Type B Holocaust denial is the one to fear

In that case here is another Type A preacher who’ll never mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ali Khamenei, ultimate ruler of Iran, speaks with more finesse, but he and the cleric of Jeddah belong together. "Observe that no one in Europe dares to speak about the Holocaust even though it's not clear what the reality is about it, whether it even has a reality, or how it may have happened."
What is it about Type A deniers that turns one off? Surely they’re too blunt. “Over-the-top” some might say. They’re good for a titter – unless you’re a Noam Chomsky or a Norman Finkelstein, or even a Harold Pinter, who all flirt with crude deniers. We rank and file people, on the other hand, like being pitched in subtle and flattering terms: Eve’s serpent would have a good chance. We’d pay more attention to a feeling or a noble voice -- to a voice like that of David Ward, a British MP.
“I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians …on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza… The suffering by the Jews has not transformed their views on how others should be treated."
Ward is a Type B denier. For clarity sake he shall not go alone. What better companion for Mr. Ward MP than a fellow denier in a suit. Here is Andrew Wilkie of Nuffield College, Oxford. “I have a huge problem with the way that the Israelis take the moral high ground from their appalling treatment in the Holocaust, and then inflict gross human rights abuses on the Palestinians.”
Attend closely. Type B deniers are sly. Observe how Ward and Wilkie contrive to kill two birds in one foul shot. A) They demonize Israel – “atrocities and gross abuses on Palestinians”; B) they downplay the Holocaust – “persecution and treatment.” After all, lots of people in the world are persecuted and treated appallingly. Yet many live to tell the tale. Persecution and treatment are worlds away from genocide, the methodical mass extermination of six million Jews, not sparing the newborn. Notice further how victimhood is shifted. Jews don’t suffer atrocities, they commit them. We’re invited to think that Nazi Germany treated Jews like third-class citizens: denied them rights and opportunities; deprived them of the basics; imprisoned them without trial; worked them for long hours at low pay; subjected them to curfews and check points; left Jews to cope with cramped conditions and bad food; locked up or eliminated troublemakers. ‘Treatment’ and ‘persecution’ -- even when appalling or unbelievable -- convey no hint of Holocaust elements. Type B deniers don’t want us to think of Jews worked to death; exterminated by factory methods; mowed down village by village, town by town; slaughtered in fits of fury.

Flaw In U.S. Policy: Even PLO Recognizes Israel’s Right To West Jerusalem

The U.S. position on Jerusalem also contradicts the Obama White House’s own controversial stance on the peace process. The White House has endorsed a Palestinian demand that the 1948-1967 cease-fire line that separated sovereign Israeli territory from the Jordanian-occupied West Bank and “East Jerusalem” should serve as the presumptive border of a new Palestinian state in all negotiations, with Palestine acquiring sovereignty over all the territory illegally occupied by Jordan, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties. But when it comes to Israel and Jerusalem, says the White House, the cease-fire line should be forgotten and presumptive Israeli sovereignty should be erased.
Historically, the anti-Israel position of the U.S. on Jerusalem developed without any connection to the Israel-PLO peace negotiations that began in 1993. The U.S. never recognized Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, even in 1948, when Israel’s War of Independence left parts of Jerusalem in Israeli hands. When Israel declared Jerusalem (“West Jerusalem”) its capital in 1949, the U.S. refused to recognize it, even though international law makes states the sole determinants of their own capital. Indeed, for decades the U.S. lobbied foreign countries to move their embassies out of Jerusalem. To this day, the U.S. embassy in Israel is in Tel Aviv, notwithstanding a law mandating the embassy’s move to Jerusalem.
As time has passed, U.S. hostility on Jerusalem has remained constant, while the excuses for the hostility have changed.
Defenders of the U.S. policy on Jerusalem like the fact that it gives the PLO a veto on Israeli rights pending a peace deal. But a more honest appraisal shows that the policy allows bureaucratic opponents of the Jewish state to harm U.S. credibility and foreign policy interests.

Why does UNRWA need to give free schooling, anyway?

From Ma'an:

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees announced Monday that it will cut 85 percent of its international staff on short term contracts in coming months in light of a $100 million deficit.
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UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said in a statement that the agency "is taking this measure to reduce costs as much as possible without reducing services to refugees."

However, he added that UNRWA may have to make "difficult decisions" on its school system for half a million Palestinian children across the Middle East "if the deficit is not filled."

He said that 85 percent of the 137 internationals would be lost "in a phased process which will last until the end of September."

The first 35 percent will see their contracts end in the coming four weeks, while "another 50 percent will end by 30 September without further extension or renewal."

Gunness said: "With stringent austerity measures already in place beyond today’s announcement, the agency should be able to continue with life-saving services to the end of the year."

"These include our health programs, relief and social services, sanitation and emergency projects for which we have funds."

He said that the agency's school system in Jordan, Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian territories and Syria is "essential but some difficult decisions may be needed in coming weeks if the deficit is not filled."

Right now UNRWA provides free education to 115,000 students in Jordan, 50,000 students in the West Bank and 225,000 in Gaza. That's nearly 400,000 students who are citizens in areas that provide free public education who instead attend a separate school system - a school system that has bigoted teachers and that inculcates hate.

If each student costs only $1000 to educate every year, that is $400 million being spent annually by UNRWA that should be paid for by the host governments.

Similarly, no one seems too upset that Lebanon and Syria do not offer free schooling for their Palestinian residents who were born in those countries. Other countries will allow non-citizens to attend public schools, but UNRWA's existence gives Arab nations an excuse to keep their apartheid systems in place. UNRWA could use its not-insignificant political clout to shame Arab countries into treating their Palestinian "guests" the same as citizens but instead it spends hundreds of millions more to build a completely separate school system - but one that uses the host country's curricula!

This story just highlights once again what a waste of money UNRWA is.

Erekat justifies luxury travel as best way to delegitimize Israel

Ma'an reported:

Israeli state media reported on Sunday that a number of senior Palestinian Authority officials spend more time abroad than in Palestine.

The report, published on the Israeli Broadcasting Authority's website Reshet Bet, alleged that some Palestinian officials spend 150 to 170 days in "fancy hotels" abroad every year.

The report gave details for 10 senior PA officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas, Jibril Rajoub and Saeb Erekat.

It said that Abbas spent 166 days abroad in 2013 and 188 days in 2012.

Erekat and Rajoub, meanwhile, reportedly spent 150 to 170 days abroad in each of those years.

The report ...questioned how there could be so much travel despite "financial hardships we have been hearing about for some time."

But Saeb Erekat defended himself:

PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Reshet Bet report on Palestinian Authority officials' days spent abroad is a “cheap” Israeli technique, and is a proved of the success of the PA’s diplomatic efforts.

His statement came shortly after the Israeli state media website reported on Sunday that a number of senior PA officials spend more time abroad than in Palestine, with some spending 150 to 170 days in "fancy hotels" abroad every year.

Erekat told local radio station Raya that the numbers published by the Israeli news source are correct, saying that “we work around the clock in all five continents to defend our cause and expose the Israeli crimes against our people."

"The Palestinian leadership roams the world so the world can listen to our narrative from us and not the Israeli narrative on us," he added.

Senior Fatah official, Nabil Shaath told Raya that Israel deliberately used the information for the purpose of defamation, referring to the alleged move as an “old Mossad trick.”

It is telling that the primary purpose of Erekat's travels is to delegitimize Israel. Also to tell people things like his family's bogus 9,000 year old history in an area that they never lived.

So, pretty much his job is to travel the world to lie, often on the Western world's dime.

Not that this is any surprise.

06/29 Links Pt1: Israel might leave UNHRC; The Last of the Flotillas #FlotillaOfFools

From Ian:

PMW: PA-Fatah summer camp for kids: AK-47 automatic weapons and youth in military uniforms dancing with rifles

More than 150 children "of Martyrs and prisoners" participated in the camp "Jerusalem in the Eyes of the Lion Cubs and Flowers of Palestine" run by the PA's National Security Forces in coordination with Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah's youth movement "the Lion Cubs and Flowers of Palestine."
The camp's closing ceremony, in which the campers paraded and danced in military garb with rifles, was attended by PA and Fatah officials, among them Nablus District Governor Akram Rajoub, Secretary of Fatah's Nablus branch Jihad Ramadan, and representatives of the PA National Security Forces. [Fatah-run Awdah TV, June 12, 2015]
Using summer camps like this reinforces the PA and Fatah's message to adhere to violence as a means to "liberate Palestine," which Palestinian Media Watch has exposed numerous times.
An article in Al-Asima, a bi-weekly distributed with the official PA daily, likewise promoted this message. In the issue following Israel's Independence Day - what the Palestinians call the Nakba - "the catastrophe," each page of the supplement which dealt with the Nakba showed this image with the text:
"The anniversary of the Nakba - What was taken by force, can only be restored by force."
[Al-Asima, bi-weekly distributed with official PA daily, May 27, 2015]
An article in the supplement used the following terms to refer to Israel:
"the so-called 'Israel'"
"the occupation state"
"the Zionist entity"

Israel said to reconsider UN Human Rights Council membership

In a closed meeting on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly announced he would reevaluate Israel’s membership in the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in light of the international body’s recent report on last summer’s Gaza conflict.
The announcement came as the commission of inquiry’s report on the 2014 Gaza conflict, released last week, was presented to the council in Geneva. The report concluded that Israel and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip may have committed war crimes in the course of the 50 days of fighting. The UNHRC was set to vote on the findings later this week.
“As a result of the report, we will consider whether to remain or to leave the council,” the prime minister said, according to Army Radio.
In 2012, then-foreign minister Avigdor Liberman cut ties with the UNHRC over its probe into Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Israel returned to the council in 2013.
During the closed meeting on Monday, Liberman castigated Netanyahu for reversing the decision. “As foreign minister, I ended Israel’s involvement in the Human Rights Council. Why did you change that decision?” Liberman asked.

Col Kemp at UNHRC

86-year old neo-Nazi Holocaust denier getting lots of attention

Neo-Nazis have been touting Ursula Haverbeck, an 86-year old Holocaust denier who smiles as she spouts her hate.

She was interviewed for a German TV show in March and since then police have raided her house for hate materials.

Here is the interview with English subtitles, which has over 100,000 views on YouTube.

She easily segues from denying the Holocaust to saying that the Jews deserved to be ethnically cleansed because they were enemies of the Germans to saying that the Talmud supports raping children and is more hateful than any Nazi literature. She is an insane Nazi antisemite in a sweet old lady's body. Her husband was evidently an unrepentant WWII-era Nazi.

People always wonder how ordinary Germans could have condoned and justified the Holocaust. Haverbeck is living proof of how ordinary Germans could have accepted genocide as perfectly normal and defensible.

The interviewer is next to clueless on how to challenge her lies. She has a consistent story and he doesn't know enough to break through the soundbites to the hate beneath.

For example, when she claims that there were no gas chambers, she could have been shown the blueprints:

And those for the crematoria:

Holocaust denial is only going to get more prominent and there is surprisingly little out there calling out Ursula Haverbeck as a sickening, hateful piece of Nazi trash.

One more thing: Haverbeck is praised mightily by Intifada-Palestine website.

"Muslims never started a war. And Ramadan is the month for Jihad"

From MEMRI:

In an address posted on the Internet on June 26, Egyptian cleric Muhammad Zaki, secretary-general of the Al-Azhar Dawa Committee, said that the Ramadhan "has never been a month for the lazy or "a month for tormenting one's body or for sleep." It is a month for Jihad, he said.

Following are excerpts:

Muhammad Zaki: The Muslims have never started a war. They have never initiated an attack against peaceful people. They are always the ones who are attacked. Can the fending off of aggression be considered terrorism? Or is it the legitimate right of people everywhere and anywhere? The Quran says: "Permission (to fight) has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged." The Quran does not say "those who fight" but rather, "those who are being fought." It means that the others are always the ones who initiate the fighting.

[...]

The wars have always been asymmetric - in the number of soldiers, in equipment, in capablities, and in preparedness. Nevertheless, because they were blessed by their (Ramadhan) fasting, and due to the spiritual might gained by their fasting, which had an effect on their wounded bodies... (The fast) bestowed calm upon their hearts and souls, and strengthened their wounded bodies. Thus came the victory from Allah in the Battle of Badr, followed by the even greater victory of the conquest of Mecca, as well as the surrender of the Hawazin and Thaqif tribes, and in our day and age (sic), the vanquishing of the Mongols at Ayn Jalut, and the greatest victory over the Crusaders at Hittin, followed by the conquest of Andalusia. Ramadhan has never been a month for the lazy. It has never been a month for tormenting one's body or for sleep. It is a month for Jihad - Jihad of the soul, Jihad against Satan, and Jihad for the sake of Allah.

This guy apparently works at the most influential Sunni school in the world, Al Azhar University.

Flotidiots pathetically try to gain more publicity with their version of martyr videos (update)

You know how suicide bombers like to make videos to be released after they blow themselves up?

Meet the "progressive" anti-Israel equivalent, of passengers on the Marianne av Goteborg pleasure boat who made videos to be released if they are intercepted by Israel as they attempt to violate the legal naval blockade on Gaza:

Just like the "martyr" videos, they all sound the same.

Some assume that they are in "Ashdod Prison."

But unlike "martyr" videos, you can hear their drone message in Swedisn, too.

Even the UN says that the naval blockade of Gaza is legal.

Another pathetic failure of the flotidiots is trying to make the presence of New Zealand reporters on the boat into an international incident.

New Zealand responded that they told all their citizens to stay the hell away from Gaza;

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said it was aware two New Zealanders were on the intercepted vessel, the Swedish-flagged Marianne of Gothenburg, as part of the Freedom Flotilla III.

The ministry was monitoring the situation and advised the reporters to heed the travel advisory it had issued, the spokesperson said.

MFAT was advising against all travel to Gaza due to the threat of kidnapping, terrorism and potential for retaliatory military operations.

"They should obey all instructions and directions issued by the local authorities, including the Israeli Defence Force," the spokesperson said."Our travel advisory strongly advises against any attempt to enter Gaza by sea in breach of Israeli navy restrictions or participating in any attempt to break the naval blockade, including participation in flotillas to deliver aid."

UPDATE: The flotidiots indeed have a shortage of real "martyrs." Two of the other three boats that turned around were named after people who were murdered by Palestinians!

Anti-Israel NGO stats show opposite of what they claim

Gisha is an anti-Israel NGO that is dedicated to denouncing Israel for its restrictions on movement an materials to Gaza. They claim to be non-partisan but they will almost always ignore Hamas violations on freedom of movement from Gaza, concentrating on Israel.

Gisha likes to gather statistics (although not from Israeli sources; they find Hamas and Arab sources more believable.) They created some nice interactive graphs showing the situation on various metrics that they care about, like people and goods allowed through crossings.

Their own graphs show pretty much the opposite of what they get a million dollars a year to prove. Israel is allowing more and more movement; Egypt is doing less and less.

Protests over Jews purchasing ruins

Another day, lots more lies.

Ma'an reports:

Israeli forces on Saturday suppressed a Palestinian march protesting Israeli plans to turn a southern West Bank church compound into a settlement outpost.

The 38 dunam compound, known as Beit al-Baraka, is located to the north of al-Arrub refugee camp between Bethlehem and Hebron.

It has been in the spotlight since an investigative report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz last month alleged that an American millionaire, Irving Moskowitz, purchased the site through a Swedish company in 2012 with the intention of turning it into a settlement outpost.

The coordinator of a southern Hebron popular committe, Rateb al-Jbour, told Ma'an that the peaceful march had been called to condemn the Israeli plans and demand protection for the compound.

Israeli soldiers reportedly assaulted protesters, lightly injuring several of them with bruises.

The PA's official WAFA news agency echoed this:

Israeli forces cordoned off the area and physically attacked protestors, causing several to suffer from bruises and injuries.

There is a video of the events, and while there are plenty of soldiers around the 20 or so protesters, the protesters have no problem going right up against them without any fear. No indication of assault or injuries. One is seen being led away peacefully, that's it. It looks like they were able to protest freely for quite a bit of time without being "suppressed." It seems unlikely that the anti-Israel NGO that produced this video would have edited out any assault. On the contrary - that is what they pray for.

Note how they are framing this compound as a church. It hasn't been a church for decades. I found a description of the property from a tourist in 2010:

The Beit El Baraka building seemed abandoned. Its main building was closed up tight, behind barbed wire, and its smaller buildings were smashed with broken windows and shattered glass. I could imagine lots of teenagers walking around its large green grounds in better days, circles of friends playing guitar around a small campfire. But that was then and this was now.

A small sign hung above the door of the building, that it was once a Presbyterian Center, but perhaps there were no more Presbyterians in the area, so they closed up shop. The signs on Beit El Baraka were written in Arabic and English. Gershon insisted that the sign once had Hebrew as well. Since he's got a photographic memory, I had no reason to doubt his word.

According to a Presbyterian website, "Beit El Baraka, formerly a hospital established by Dr. Thomas Lambie in the late 1940s, received its license as a Pilgrim Youth Hostel in April 1995, after ten years of government paperwork. The spacious facilities with modest rates are available for local and foreign groups for camps, retreats and tours."

I wondered what happened to Beit El Baraka. I found a google earth picture captioned, "Beit El Baraka American tuberculosis hospital, rebuilt to hostel, now abandoned."

The name, Beit el-Baraka, "House of Blessing," comes from the Hebrew Bible. In II Chronicles 20:26 the area is called "Valley of Blessing" after a successful battle against Ammon and Moab (from Transjordan.)

If any Christian or Arab had bought an abandoned building complex that lies in ruins, even to raze it to the ground, no one would say a word. Indeed, it appeared that a Swedish group bought the complex years ago and no one cared. But if a Jew buys it - that is worth lots of coverage from SkyNews Arabic.

By the way, where else in the world would 20 protesters be worth a news story?

06/28 Links: PMW: Hamas used civilians as human shields in 2014 war; Expose UNRWA's absurdity

From Ian:

Netanyahu: The enlightened world is battling dark forces

After nearly simultaneous terrorist attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France kill dozens of people, PM Benjamin Netanyahu calls for unity in fight against radical Islamic terror • Interpol chief: Attacks show global dimension of current terrorist threats.
"The brutal murders in France, Tunisia and Kuwait again underscore that the enlightened world is struggling against dark forces," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday, after dozens of people were killed in three attacks that followed a call to violence by the Islamic State group. "The fight against the murderous terrorism of extremist Islam requires unity, the beginning of which is the unequivocal condemnation of the murderers and those who support them."
In the deadliest of Friday's attacks, a young man pulled a Kalashnikov assault rifle from a beach umbrella and sprayed gunfire at European sunbathers at a Tunisian resort, killing at least 39 people.
The shootings in the Tunisian resort of Sousse happened at about the same time as a bombing at a Shiite mosque in Kuwait and an attack on a U.S.-owned factory in France that included a beheading. It was unclear if the violence was linked but it came days after Islamic State urged its followers "to make Ramadan a month of calamities for the nonbelievers." In all, the assailants killed at least 65 people in Friday's attacks.
The SITE Intelligence Group reported later that IS claimed credit for the Tunisia attack on its Twitter account and identified the gunman as Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani.

PMW: PMW responds to UN: Hamas used civilians as human shields in 2014 war

In response to the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry report which cites that the high number of Palestinian civilians killed during the 2014 Gaza war indicates that “possible war crimes” were committed by Israel, Palestinian Media Watch is re-publicizing the PMW reports released during the war, documenting that Hamas actively used civilians as human shields.
PMW’s documentation explicitly showed that Hamas openly and intentionally demanded that civilians ignore Israel’s warnings prior to bombings of areas in which there were civilians. Instead, Hamas insisted they endanger their lives and even welcome death, so that Hamas could use them as human shields for their fighters and rocket launching positions.
When Israel warned Palestinians who lived near the Israeli border in the Northern Gaza Strip, an area from which Hamas launched long-range missiles, to evacuate their homes to areas of safety before Israel would bomb the launching sites, Hamas told civilians to remain in their homes in spite of the danger.

Expose UNRWA's absurdity

The U.N. report on Operation Protective Edge was predictable. The harsh and one-sided criticism of Israel, the turning of a blind eye to Hamas' war crimes and the piercing remarks against Israel proved that nothing has changed in regard to the U.N.'s lack of fairness and fairness.
The Israeli government's response to the report, ranging from disregard to criticism, was legitimate, but not something that would change the balance of the relationship between Israel and the U.N. The extent of the condemnation Israel has endured from the U.N. and several of its subsidiary bodies is enough to understand the biased rules of the game the U.N. is playing.
It is time to pass the ball to the court of our adversaries, in this case the U.N., and expose its hypocrisy and double standards. Most importantly, we must highlight the fact that the U.N. is the entity largely responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians, by means of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
For this reason, the Jerusalem Institute of Justice has decided to launch a campaign calling for the dissolution of UNRWA and the absorption of its powers by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The campaign will mainly address members of the U.S. Congress. In a video we produced, we present the absurdity of UNRWA's activities.
UNRWA and UNHCR both work with displaced persons. UNHCR is responsible for integrating refugees in their host countries, while UNRWA focuses solely on refugee aid. In effect, UNRWA helps Palestinians preserve their refugee status and pass it on from generation to generation, contrary to the logic and policy of UNHCR.

As I write this on Friday morning, there it is all over the headlines, again.

Islamist Terror Wave Hits Tunisia and Kuwait.

Man Beheaded in France.

What we know as of this moment is that terrorists shot up the resort town of Sousse, some 150 kilometers from Tunis, killing at least 27 people.

Meanwhile, the Times of Israel is reporting:

A suicide bomber attacked a Shiite mosque in the Kuwaiti capital during the main weekly prayers Friday, killing and wounding dozens, officials and witnesses said. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State.

And, needless to say:

At least one person was killed and several were injured in a terror attack on a factory in the Lyon region in southeastern France late Friday morning.

The decapitated body of a man was found on the premises, according to Sky News. It reported that the 30-year-old suspect was known to the foreign intelligence services.

The victim was reportedly an employee of the factory. His head was discovered by police perched on the fence outside the factory, covered in Arabic writing.

By the time that you read this it will be old news, but I suppose the question that many of us are asking ourselves is just what is it going to take for our media and our academia and our elected officials to start taking political Islam seriously?

There are two things that must be acknowledged.

1) The rise of political Islam in recent years is the single most significant geo-political happening since the demise of the Soviet Union.

I do not understand why so many people seem to have a difficult time understanding that political Islam is not just a religion, but a political movement, and like any political movement it is open to criticism and opposition. The fact is that political Islam, in the form of organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, and all the rest, do not represent Islam as a whole. What they represent is Islam in its Islamist form.

The form of Jihad.

Too many people seem to think that opposing political Islam is "racist" because it is seen as "Islamophobic" or an attack on regular Muslims.

It isn't.

In fact, cliché as it may sound, no one is abused more under al-Sharia than are Muslims. What is really bigoted is holding different people to different standards of humanity. In the Europe and the United States this generally takes the form of "humanitarian racism" and it is the most prevalent form of bigotry found in the West today.

The old-timey, flat-out racism of people like Dylann Roof is, sadly, not dead, but it is certainly dying.

Coming on the heels of Ferguson and Baltimore it is politically-incorrect to say so, but mid-twentieth-century KKK-style, or SkinHeadStyle, American racism is pretty much over - despite this heinous scum in Charleston.

The Klan is not taking over countries.

Neo-Nazis are not destroying ancient artifacts in Palmyra.

On the liberal-left concern with right-wing racists in Europe and the United States is genuine, and politically entrenched, but we should not allow that concern to be used as an excuse to ignore, or downplay, the far more dangerous fact of the rise of political Islam.

2) The Obama administration sold us out on the issue.

On the question of political Islam the Obama administration simply has nothing to say other than to downplay the seriousness of it and to protect Islam's reputation from itself.

I know that I am not singing to the choir here, and that is a good thing, but it must be stressed that this administration not only refuses to acknowledge the rise of political Islam during the misnamed "Arab Spring" as a serious problem, but has actually aided and abetted that very problem.

The pro-Israel / pro-Obama American-Left must acknowledge that which is directly before their very noses.

Barack Obama is not an Israel-friendly president. Period. End of story and stop making excuses.

Barack Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood and is enabling an Iranian bomb. All we can do is oppose the administration's foreign policy and hope to put enough pressure on Congress, and the powers that be, to oppose political Islam and prevent that bomb from coming into being.

If you think that the rise of political Islam is a problem now, just wait until you get a gander at what it looks like after an Islamist nuclear umbrella covers the region.

That will be, as they say, game over and a nuclearized Iran will be Barack Obama's foremost legacy.

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.