Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

07/14 Links Pt2: Forget the Palestinians: Arab states have too much else to worry about

From Ian:

Forget the Palestinians: Arab states have too much else to worry about

Eyad Abuchaqra, a prominent Lebanese commentator and TV personality, cites another reason for dwindling interest in the Palestinian issue. “One might call it Palestinitis,” he says. “Arabs realize that there are many other issues that affect their lives, indeed their existence.”
The idea that it is now Iran and not Israel that poses an existential threat [?] to Arabs receives almost daily confirmation with outlandish statements by Khomeinist leaders in Tehran. “Iran is trying to create a Persian Crescent as the core of its empire,” claims Lebanese Interior Minister Nihad Manshouq. “That now represents the principal threat faced by Arabs.”
“Today, it is Iran and not Israel the Arabs ought to worry about,” says Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the Afghan Hizb Islami (Islamic Party) who was sheltered, financed and armed by Tehran for decades.
Not surprisingly, Iran’s leaders try to keep the Palestine issue on the front burner by casting themselves as the “liberators of Jerusalem.”
That was the theme of the “Jerusalem Day” events last week presided over by President Hassan Rouhani and inaugurated with a message from “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei. Both men promised to “liberate Palestine” and wipe Israel off the map.
But their show attracted less attention than at any time in the past 30 years. The Khomeinist regime’s TV station in Tehran complained that global media had ignored “Jerusalem Day” but could hardly restrain its jubilation when reporting a small pro-Iran gathering in Jerusalem itself, where some posters of Khamenei were distributed among visitors to the Al Aqsa Mosque.
The Khomeinists missed the irony of Israel being the only government in the Middle East, outside Iran itself, to allow such a demonstration. (h/t Norman F)

UK Jews wary over Labour candidate’s support for Hamas, Hezbollah

Britain’s pro-Israel community is viewing the race for the Labour Party leadership with concern after the UK’s biggest union, Unite, threw its weight behind the hard Left MP, Jeremy Corbyn, who has expressed open support for Hamas and Hezbollah.
Corbyn, MP for the inner city London constituency of North Islington since 1983, was a surprise addition to the leadership race, set for a September vote. Corbyn was encouraged to put his name on the ballot by Labour MPs who are unlikely to vote for him, but felt that the debate should be widened.
But Corbyn’s very difference from the other candidates — former health secretary Andy Burnham, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (wife of ousted shadow chancellor Ed Balls, who lost his seat in the May election), and Shadow Health Care and Older People Minister Liz Kendall — has brought him into prominence.
Commentators say that where Israel is concerned, Burnham is the candidate most obviously akin to Labour’s former leader Ed Miliband, who led the party to an unexpectedly heavy defeat to Prime Minister David Cameron’s ruling Conservatives in May’s elections.

Jeremy Corbyn’s cantankerous interview on his ‘friends’ in Hamas

Jeremy Corbyn is finally receiving the scrutiny he deserves. On Channel 4 News this evening, the hard-left Labour leader hopeful was quizzed by Krishnan Guru-Murthy on comments about engaging with ‘friends’ in Hamas and Hezbollah over the Middle East conflict. Corbyn refused to apologise for using the word ‘friends’ and snapped several times at Guru-Murthy for not letting him finish a long-winded answer:
‘I’m saying that people I talk to, I use it in a collective way, saying our friends are prepared to talk.
‘Does it mean I agree with Hamas and what it does? No. Does it mean I agree with Hezbollah and what they do? No. What it means is that I think to bring about a peace process, you have to talk to people with whom you may profoundly disagree.
‘There is not going to be a peace proccess unless there is talks involving Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas and I think everyone knows that.’
The clip of the exchange is worth watching, not least for how easily Corbyn is riled by a perfectly acceptable line of questioning. If Corbyn inexplicably wins the Labour leadership contest, television interviews will become tedious.

Jeremy Corbyn: 'I wanted Hamas to be part of the debate'

From Now Lebanon last Friday:

Hezbollah’s leader directly linked his party’s military campaign in Syria on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime to the Palestinian cause, further claiming that all opponents of Iran oppose Palestine as well.

“The road to Jerusalem passes through Qalamoun, Daraa, Hasakeh and other [Syrian battlefields],” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Friday in a speech delivered on the occasion of Quds Day, an event created by Iran in 1979 to celebrate opposition to Israel.

The line echoed then Palestine Liberation Organization deputy chief Salah Khalaf's famous statement during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 Civil War that “the road to Jerusalem passes through Jounieh,” in reference to the organization’s fight at the time with Christian militias.

Nasrallah’s comments come as his party’s fighters are engaged in fierce fighting in the Syrian border town of Zabadani, where Hezbollah and Syrian regime troops have suffered mounting losses.

The Hezbollah chief also trumpeted Iran’s role in the region, saying that the Islamic Republic was the only state that posed an existential threat to Israel.

“After God, Iran is the only remaining hope to free Palestine,” he said, admitting that while his party poses a strategic threat to Israel, it could not destroy their archrivals.

“If you are an enemy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, then you are an enemy of Palestine.”

Other excerpts from the speech show that Nasrallah is really trying hard to use hate for Israel as a rallying cry for Arab support of Iran in Syria. "If Syria was lost, Palestine would be lost too," he stated.

Nasrallah tried also to conflate Saudi Arabia with Jews, saying "the road to Jerusalem also goes through Yemen; Saudi Arabia must stop its aggression."

Arabs on social media were scathing. One tweeted back, "You and your masters in Tehran have killed more Syrian children and women in five years than Zionists have killed in 60 years."

Another commenter said, "Iran is looking for Jerusalem in Iraq, and Hezbollah are looking for it in Zabadani, Houthis are looking for it in Aden. Brilliant geographers."

Meanwhile, Nasrallah's leader Ayatollah Khamenei displayed this photo of him trampling an Israeli flag on his website:

Readers outside Australia may be unaware of the ongoing tensions between prime minister Tony Abbott, whose Liberal Party represents mainstream conservative opinion in this country, and the publicly funded national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Founded in 1929 as Australia’s equivalent of the BBC, the ABC has not, since 1973, derived its revenue from a license fee as does the BBC, but from government revenue raised via taxation. Like the BBC it is a leviathan-like organisation with many branches enabling it to provide a range of broadcasting services ranging from news to music and drama.   Again like the BBC, it is obliged, in return for its privileged status as a publicly funded autonomous entity, to be strictly impartial in its presentation of news and current affairs – an obligation it honours more in the breach than in the observance.

For, like that of the BBC, the ABC’s ethos has been hijacked by leftist liberals, as such heavy-hitting Australian commentators as Tim Blair, Andrew Bolt, and Gerard Henderson have repeatedly shown in their admirable columns. Its news bulletins reveal a marked tendency to highlight, ad nauseam, issues dear to the heart of leftists – these bulletins almost daily give a platform (without balance) to left-wing politicians and lobbyists opposed to the Abbott government’s crackdown on illegal immigration via people traffickers – an issue encapsulated by the terms “stop the boats” and “detention” and by the leftist ABC’s invariable use of the loaded term “asylum seekers” for those attempting to contravene immigration regulations and jump the queue of would-be settlers applying for entry into Australia through proper channels. It reports the situation in Israel and the Disputed Territories less often than does the BBC, but when it does the same Israel-bashing mindset is usually evident, a mindset the ABC shares with the minority ethnic communities’ partially publicly-funded broadcaster SBS.

The catalyst for the current tension between Abbott and the ABC concerns the 22 June appearance of Sydney Islamist Zaky Mallah – who in 2005 was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for threatening to kill Australian Security Intelligence (ASIO) officers – as a questioner in the studio live audience of the ABC’s flagship program Q&A, a panel discussion current affairs program which is similar to the BBC’s Question Time, and just as stacked with leftists. Mallah also made threatening misogynistic tweets such as calling two of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp female journalists “whores” who “needed to be gang-banged” and, referring to Julia Gillard, “Australian Citizenship test: Question: Do you support the throat slash of Australia’s first female prime minister? Please tick YES or NO?” He also tweeted a Hitler quotation: “I destroyed 90 per cent of the #Jews, leaving 10 per cent of them for the world to understand why I killed them (Adolf#Hitler). #Israel.”

By appearing on the programme (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s4242255.htm) Mallah was enabled to spew propaganda regarding the government’s anti-terrorism measures and bait Liberal frontbench MP and panellist Steven Ciobo. Mallah declared: “As the first man in Australia to be charged with terrorism under the harsh Liberal Howard government in 2003, I was subject to solitary confinement, a 22 hour lockdown, dressed most times in an orange overall and treated like a convicted terrorist while under the presumption of innocence. I had done and said some stupid things including threatening to kidnap and kill but in 2005 I was acquitted of the terrorism charges. What would have happened if my case had been decided by the Minister and not the courts?”   He proceeded to ask Ciobo whether he (Ciobo) would like to see his (Mallah’s) citizenship revoked and upon receiving an answer implying the affirmative stated: “The Liberals now have just justified to many Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join ISIS because of ministers like him.”

There has been widespread condemnation of the ABC’s decision to allow Mallah onto Q&A, compered by the spectacularly overpaid Tony Jones (something again reminiscent of how the BBC wastes the public’s money), who has defended the appearance on the grounds that “The ABC’s editorial standards require us to present a diversity of perspectives so that over time no significant strand of thought or belief within the community is knowingly excluded, nor disproportionately represented”. The ABC admitted it had made “an error of judgment” in inviting Mallah to join the panel. It transpired that he had been invited on before, but had declined the invitation, the eminence grise reportedly being the program’s executive producer Peter McEvoy. (http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/meet-peter-mcevoy-the-faceless-man-behind-the-qa-scandal-20150702-gi3ovu.html)

To compound their egregious blunder, the program-makers arrogantly devoted the following week’s panel discussion to an appraisal of whether prime minister Abbott’s anger with them for allowing Mallah on is justified, with the usual hypocritical claptrap from the leftists on the panel (and nauseating giggles of appreciation from female audience members), but common sense condemnation from veteran journalist Paul Kelly and Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson, the latter justifiably asserting that Jones and the producers should be “ashamed” of themselves for providing Mallah with a platform.
Many may well believe that Abbott went too far in ordering his Liberal parliamentary colleagues to boycott Q&A by refusing to appear as panellists. It can be argued that such a ban is counterproductive, silencing right and right-of-centre voices that dearly deserve to be heard. But the ABC, no less than the BBC, has to be brought to account by some means.

From the point of few of Jews and Israel, probably the most salient article on this shabby affair comes from the keyboard of the Jewish, staunchly pro-Israel federal MP Michael Danby, a prominent member of the ALP’s right-wing faction.   In the current edition of the Australian Jewish News Danby writes of Q&A: ‘How often do we see Jews with anti-Israel views paraded on the program? Usually these unrepresentative types use their ethnicity to bag Israel during flare-ups in the Middle East. They have little or no expertise in Middle East affairs … It seems that every time there is a Jewish holiday, our “multicultural”, “sensitive” and “progressive” Q&A baits the local Jews by putting on some hateful extremist… Australia’s 120,000 Jews have been baited by this awful program for far too long… What happens to us first is then inflicted on the rest. Q&A’s long anti-Israel bias is coming home to roost… Giving Mallah a leg-up is not the main problem. The problem is allowing TV producers with hard-line political agendas, operating in the shadows, to distort the public debate, shifting it in a direction that only the “enlightened vanguard” like them, appreciate.’

Quoting the old Polish proverb “the fish stinks from the head,” Danby maintains that “During these times of serious national security issues, the Middle East agenda of Q&A has become of national concern.”

07/14 Links Pt1: Bibi: Iran deal historic mistake for world; Obama: We Stopped ME Nuclear Arms Race

From Ian:

Six world powers adopt nuclear deal with Iran

Formally known as the the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 100-page document amounts to the most significant multilateral agreement reached in several decades. Its final form is roundly opposed in Israel— by the government, by its opposition, and by the public at large.
The JCPOA allows Iran to retain much of its nuclear infrastructure, and grants it the right to enrich uranium on its own soil. But the deal also requires Iran to cap and partially roll back that infrastructure for ten to fifteen years, and grants the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, managed access to monitor that program with intrusive inspections.
In exchange, the governments of Britain, France, Russia, China, the US and Germany have agreed to lift all UN sanctions on the Islamic Republic— once Iran abides by a set of nuclear-related commitments.
The moment Tehran receives sanctions relief— including access to an estimated $100 billion in frozen assets overseas— will be on "implementation day," as one senior administration official put it on Tuesday morning in Vienna. That date is not set, and is entirely reliant on the pace of Iran's initial haste in preparing for life under the deal.
Once Iran has reduced its stockpile to just 300 kilograms of uranium hexafluoride, disconnected and removed some of its infrastructure and neutered its heavy-water plutonium reactor at Arak, the UN Security Council will vote to lift all sanctions at once.
A Joint Commission has been established to adjudicate disagreements in the deal and, if necessary, vote to demand access to a specific site, or to request the reimposition of sanctions. The commission will be comprised of one delegate each from the permanent five members of the Security Council, Iran and the EU.
Negotiators failed to meet the standard of achieving "anytime, anywhere" access that several members of the United States Congress had demanded as a part of any nuclear deal. Instead, in the event Iran objects to an IAEA request for access to a specific site, a "clock" will begin that grants the two sides 14 days to negotiate.

Netanyahu calls Iran deal ‘historic mistake for world’

Criticism of the deal came from both sides of Israel’s political spectrum as the pact, long feared in Israel as paving Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon, was clinched by the sides after years of talks.
“From the initial reports we can already conclude that this agreement is an historic mistake for the world,” Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders. “Far-reaching concessions have been made in all areas that were supposed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons capability.”
Echoing comments he made a day earlier, Netanyahu said the agreement was inevitable when the US was willing to cave to Iranian demands even as Tehran officials led public calls of “Death to America.”
“I would like to say here and now – when you are willing to make an agreement at any cost, this is the result.”
Netanyahu, who has lobbied incessantly against the emerging agreement, said he never opposed the deal, but rather Iran’s ability to obtain a nuclear weapon.
“We knew very well that the desire to sign an agreement was stronger than anything, and therefore we did not commit to preventing an agreement. We did commit to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and this commitment still stands,” he said.

Netanyahu convenes security cabinet: Israel not bound by deal with Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said the nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers has made the world a much more dangerous place today than it was yesterday.
Netanyahu's comments came as he was set to convene his Security Cabinet to discuss Israel's response to the deal.
"The world powers bet our collective future on a deal with the world's number one sponsor of terror," the prime minister said.
He accused the world powers of gambling that Iran's regime will change in ten years' time when aspects of the deal expire. "The deal gives Iran every incentive not to change," he said. The deal will give Iran a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars which will fuel its efforts to destroy Israel, he said.
Netanyahu hinted that the military option was still on the table, saying that "is not bound by this deal with Iran because Iran continues to seek our destruction. We will always defend ourselves."

Rouhani derides failure of ‘warmongering Zionist regime’

Declaring that the nuclear deal struck by Iran with world powers meets all of Iran’s aims, President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday also derided Israel for what he called its “failed” attempts to undermine his country’s interests.
“Do not be deceived by the propaganda of the usurper Zionist regime,” Rouhani said, in a speech in which he declared that “today major world powers recognized Iran’s nuclear program.”
“The Zionist state has failed in its efforts,” he said, speaking live in a nationwide televised address.
He also tweeted: “To our neighbours: Do not be deceived by the propaganda of the warmongering Zionist regime.”

White House spin graphics on Iran contradict each other

The White House released some infographics that purport to show how great the Iran deal is.

Here's one:

Wonderful news! The time it would take for Iran to produce a bomb's worth of material is apparently infinity, because all of its pathways are blocked! How can anyone object?

But then there's another graphic:

Ah, "blocked" and "prevented" is Obamaspeak for "somewhat delayed."

Got it.

.@Amnesty researcher loves terrorists

In the Amnesty video advertising its "#50Days4Gaza" and "Gaza Platform" bash-Israel initiative, we see Amnesty researcher Saleh Hijazi:

Gidon Shaviv once mentioned Hijazi in an op-ed published in YNet:

If Amnesty wants to maintain impartiality, it should disqualify Saleh Hijazi from working on Israeli issues. Hijazi, a Palestinian born in Jerusalem and raised in Ramallah, has a clear lack of objectivity in this regard. In 2005, he worked as a Public Relations officer for the Office of the Ministry of Planning in Ramallah and in 2007 he was listed as contact for the NGO “Another Voice” – under the group's signature “Resist! Boycott! We Are Intifada!”

Hijazi has a “special” conflict of interest with regards to administrative detention in particular. On March 9, 2011, while as a researcher for Human Rights Watch, he spoke at a UN conference where he described how his father was supposedly arrested by the Israeli authorities “when the Israeli military could not find an activist neighbor.” How can Hijazi be impartial when he is simultaneously claiming to be a victim of the very same country on which he is reporting?

Hijazi's bias is actually much more clear.

Once his profile photo on Facebook was Leila Khaled, notorious terrorist and airline hijacker.

More recently Hijazi showed his admiration for Khader Adnan, a hero of Islamic Jihad:

This video shows exactly how much Adnan supports human rights:

Yes, a "human rights" researcher openly admires someone who advocates blowing up Jews.

In any other place or time, this would be enough to get someone fired. But Palestinians who support terrorism and murdering Jews get a free pass - because their cause is perceived as noble by the moral midgets at Amnesty.

Clearly Hijazi is anything but impartial. And clearly Amnesty isn't concerned about it.

Indeed, it might be a job requirement.

(h/t Bob Knot)

HufPo describes the just-announced nuclear deal:

Iran reached a historic deal with six world powers on Tuesday that promises to curb Tehran’s controversial nuclear program in exchange for economic sanctions relief.

The accord was announced on Tuesday by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the European Union's policy chief Federica Mogherini in a joint statement in the Austrian capital.

"What we have in front of us today ... is the result of very hard work," Mogherini said.

"It is a decision that can open the way to a new chapter in international relations," she continued, "I think this is a sign of hope for the entire world."

The breakthrough comes after months of thorny negotiations between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group -- the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany.

Under the deal, Tehran’s nuclear ability would be significantly limited for more than a decade, The New York Times reported. In return, the six world powers would agree to lift international oil and financial sanctions against Iran

Tehran would also allow inspectors from the U.N's International Atomic Energy Agency to seek visits to Iranian military sites as part of their monitoring duties, a senior diplomat told The Associated Press. However, such visits could be denied or delayed by the Iranian government. In such cases, an arbitration board composed of Iran and the six world powers would have to be convened to determine the right of access.

In other words - anytime, anywhere inspections are finished. Iran can delay them indefinitely.

A joke.

In addition, Iran accepted a "snapback" plan that will restore sanctions in 65 days if it violates the accords, Reuters reported.

One that would require unwilling partners like Russia, China and even Germany (which has large financial ties with Iran) to agree with it.

A joke.

What about waiting for approval by Congress? Well, according to Iranian media, there will be an end-run around Congress by getting the UN to agree to these provisions:

The agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will, according to Iranian officials, be presented to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which will adopt a resolution in seven to 10 days making the JCPOA an official document.

Based on the agreement, which has been concluded with due regard for Iran’s red lines, the world powers recognize Iran’s civilian nuclear program, including the country’s right to the complete nuclear cycle.

The UNSC sanctions against the Islamic Republic, including all economic and financial bans, will be lifted at once under a mutually agreed framework and through a new UN resolution.

None of the Iranian nuclear facilities will be dismantled or decomissioned.

Furthermore, nuclear research and development activities on all types of centrifuges, including advanced IR-6 and IR-8 machines, will continue.

The nuclear-related economic and financial restrictions imposed by the United States and the European Union (EU) targeting the Iranian banking, financial, oil, gas, petrochemical, trade, insurance and transport sectors will at once be annulled with the beginning of the implementation of the agreement.

The arms embargo imposed against the Islamic Republic will be annulled and replaced with certain restrictions, which themselves will be entirely removed after a period of five years.

Additionally, tens of billions of dollars in Iranian revenue frozen in foreign banks will be unblocked.

A total of 800 natural persons and legal entities, including the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), will be taken off sanctions lists.

No longer a joke.

A tragedy - and a blueprint for a new holocaust.

More short term, it means that Hezbollah and Syria's Assad regime will become strengthened, Hamas and Islamic Jihad will enjoy lots more cash, and Iranian state-run terrorism will accelerate worldwide. Until Iran has the weapon to launch against Israel that will make the terror attacks of the past decades seem quaint.

07/13 Links Pt2: BDS' useful idiots at Haaretz; US pathologist says Nisman death likely a homicide

From Ian:

Ben-Dror Yemini: BDS' useful idiots at Haaretz

Omar Barghouti, one of the leaders of the BDS movement, said in an interview recently that he wants Jews to live in peace under Arab democracy. He ignores a long and bloody history of persecution of Jews in Arab countries – and, surprisingly, there are some Israelis who buy that nonsense.
This week Le Monde published an interview with Omar Barghouti, one of the leaders of BDS. His argument, in essence, was that there is no problem with the Jews living as a minority under Arab rule in the exemplary state he aims to create.
After all, the Jews, he explained, "did not suffer in Arab countries. There were no pogroms. There was no persecution. And in general, the Jews thrive as minorities in Europe and the United States." So what's the problem? Please live as a minority under Arab democracy, which is known for its protection of minorities, especially if they are Jews.
The man suffers from double blindness - both to the past and to the present. It's doubtful whether there is a Jewish community under Muslim rule that did not suffer from persecution, with or without any relation to Zionism. The list is long. And the leader of the British Mandate-era Arab Higher Committee, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, was actually a well-known fan of Jews. That's why he apparently led the pogrom against the Jews of Baghdad in 1941, the "Farhud", and from there traveled to Berlin in order to turn more Muslims into Nazis. He also wrote about his plans to destroy all of the Arab countries' Jews.
It's Barghouti's right to spout nonsense. But when he's given such an important platform, he should be asked: Excuse me, what are you talking about? And did you forget the pogroms against Jews in Libya in 1945 and 1948, and in Aden in 1948, and in Morocco, in Damascus, and in Aleppo? Hundreds were murdered, merely because they were Jewish. And if we turn to the present, where exactly are minorities living in peace and quiet in Arab nations? It's possible that Barghouti means the black Muslims of Darfur in Sudan.
How is it that the interviewer did not push him? Well, it turns out that the interviewer is an Israeli, Nirit Ben-Ari. In the past she supported the Israeli-Arab nationalist party Balad. Towards the last elections she published an article supporting the Joint Arab List. She is also an avid supporter of BDS. She asked to interview Barghouti for Haaretz, but he made it clear that he refused to be interviewed for any Israeli newspaper, because of Zionist hegemony.

Eugene Kontorovich: Abe Foxman says that banning the use of public money to support companies that boycott Israel is unconstitutional and illegal. Is he right?

Abe Foxman says that banning the use of public money to support companies that boycott Israel is unconstitutional and illegal. Is he right?
In the latest act of a decades-long fight against discriminatory boycotts of Israel, two states have passed, and several are considering, legislation that protects their taxpayers from inadvertently underwriting such boycotts. Legislation recently passed by Congress denounced “politically motivated” boycotts of Israel.
In recent months, South Carolina has passed a law restricting state contracting with those who boycott on a nationality basis (the law is not limited to Israel; I advised on the drafting), and Illinois will prevent its pension fund from holding stock in boycotting companies. Legislators in these and other states have concluded that the movement to undermine the world’s only Jewish country through boycotts—while professing noble motives—is a thinly veiled form of anti-Semitism.
These laws have bipartisan support, and they passed unanimously. They enjoy the broad support of mainstream Jewish organizations. Yet some, including Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman, have expressed concerns that legislation that “bars BDS activity by private groups” would raise First Amendment concerns.
Such concerns are entirely misplaced. The current legislation by states does not bar any BDS activity and does not otherwise violate the First Amendment. Indeed, these laws are far milder versions of long-standing federal anti-boycott laws that were adopted through the vigorous efforts of the ADL itself and that have enjoyed broad and uncontroversial support ever since.

US pathologist says Nisman death likely a homicide

A US forensic pathologist believes that the late Argentine special prosecutor Alberto Nisman likely was murdered.
“The evidence argues strongly and scientifically against it being a suicide,” Cyril Wecht said in an interview aired by Argentina television’s Channel 13 on Sunday night. “It is much more likely that this was a homicide than a suicide.”
Wecht has been president of the American Academy of Forensic Science and the American College of Legal Medicine, and has performed about 17,000 autopsies. He has consulted on several high-profile cases, including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
At the request of the Argentine current events show “Periodismo para todos,” hosted by the eminent Argentine journalist Jorge Lanata, Wecht analyzed Nisman’s case photos, videos, studies and forensic reports. Interviewed from Pittsburgh, Wecht said that the position of the gun would have made it difficult for Nisman to shoot himself.
Forensic experts have differed on the cause of death. Many have said it will be difficult to establish one unified version of how Nisman died, with some experts believing it was suicide and others murder.
Prosecutor Viviana Fein has not yet released a final ruling.

The same money that goes to Ramallah helps ensure "refugee camps" remain poor

Stan, in commenting on this article this morning, said something quite important:

I did some work in Ramallah 20 years ago. Even then it was a modern city.

One has to ask the question of where the money for the Ramallah economy comes from? Their stores are filled with foreign goods, so those have to be imported and paid for with actual money. What is it that the PA exports to the world that can bring in this kind of capital? The answer is that the PA is an anti-semitic propaganda industry, and the West is willing to pay big bucks for their product. The impoverished people in the descendants of refugee camps are part of the product that they sell. A "peace agreement" with Israel would end the flow of money, and all of the West Bank would start to resemble the camps. There is no incentive for the PA government to make peace. Their only salable product is anti-semitism (politely known as anti-Zionism). They will never give it up unless forced.

This is a brilliant observation.

it is widely recognized that the Palestinian Arab economy is dependent on NGOs, and a large percentage of the workforce works for anti-Israel NGOs. People are getting rich off the billions being sent as "aid" but that aid is dependent on the NGOs churning out more and more anti-Israel reports. And since the focus of the aid and the NGOs is anti-Israel and not pro-Palestinian, the system is guaranteed to increase the gap between the middle- and upper-class who know how to work the Europeans for more cash and the lower class who either try to do honest work or who prefer to get free medical and educational aid from UNRWA.

There is a Palestinian NGO called the Dalia Foundation, that I reported on last year. That NGO is against the current NGO system, but their reasons are a twisted version of reality. They can't stand that European NGOs put in anti-terror language in their agreements. Dalia wants the aid to come more freely, and allow Palestinians themselves to decide how to spend it, and if they want to buy rockets and anti-aircraft missiles, the donors should have no say in the matter. They believe that free money is a right.

Really.

The real solution is to cut the aid to anti-Israel NGOs altogether. force Palestinian Arabs to re-orient their lives around a capitalist economy, not the current socialist elfare economy that has proven disastrous. In no time you would see more people learning more trades, and more willing to work together with Israelis to help themselves and their families.

NGO money is corrupting Palestinian Arabs and you can see the results in both Ramallah and in Deheisha. They are two sides of the same coin.

Yet another @Amnesty deception on Twitter

I had tweeted this, but in the interests of completeness... Amnesty tweeted this on Friday:

10 July: #KhanYounis: 8 people killed, including 2 children when Israeli missile hit family home: #50Days4Gaza http://t.co/fekSDdcqtw
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) July 10, 2015

I responded yesterday:

.@AmnestyOnline Umar Mahmoud al Hajj, member of Al Qassam terror group. held his family as human shields in the event you are referring to.
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) July 13, 2015

Here he is, based on this video:

I don't know whether Umar was the only intended target. There might have also been a tunnel opening or a command center in that house.

But the point is that Amnesty is using the first anniversary of the Gaza war as an excuse to take specific events, strip them of any context, and present Israel as an out-of-control bully that bombs civilians for no reason. In every single case they have specified, they were found to have engaged in deception or flat out lies.

So far, Amnesty has not brought a single example of an Israeli attack for which I was unable to find a military target, using nothing but Google and known sources like the Meir Amit Center from which I got this information. They have not brought one iota of evidence of Israeli war crimes, which is what they said they would "prove" this month. Their heralded Gaza Platform has been proven to be a tool which regurgitates unreliable data and spits it back out as if it is something brand new.

The only thing being proven during this anniversary of the Gaza war is that Amnesty is not engaged in human rights, but in anti-Israel propaganda. Nobody with a shred of intellectual honesty that has read my series since they started this fiasco can doubt that Amnesty is heavily biased.

Indeed, Amnesty's tweets and articles over the past week makes the UNHRC Davis report look positively Zionist by comparison. The Davis report was careful to get the Israeli response to events when available - but Amnesty doesn't. The Davis report was careful to couch its accusations in language that leaves wiggle room when they say that perhaps Israel engaged in violations of the laws of war based on limited informaiton-- but Amnesty doesn't. Teh Davis report would look up the names of the victims in the Meir Amit database - but Amnesty doesn't.

The very attempt by Amnesty to discredit Israel is discrediting Amensty. Now the question si whether any journalist will double check my facts against Amnesty's factoids and come up with his or her own conclusions.

It is way past time for Amnesty to lose its halo. Its own actions make it imperative.

07/13 Links Pt1: Toameh: Why Palestinians Cannot Make Peace with Israel; IDF vs. ICC phase 2

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Palestinians Cannot Make Peace with Israel

Americans and Europeans fail to acknowledge that in order to achieve peace, the leaders must prepare their people for compromise and tolerance. If you want to make peace with Israel, you do not tell your people that the Western Wall has no religious significance to Jews and is, in fact, holy Muslim property. Palestinian Authority leaders who accuse Israel of "war crimes" and "genocide" are certainly not preparing their people for peace. Such allegations serve only to further agitate Palestinians against Israel.
If Yasser Arafat was not able to accept the generous offer made by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak at the 2000 Camp David summit, who is Mahmoud Abbas to make any concessions to Israel? Arafat was quoted then as saying that he rejected the offer because he did not want to end up drinking tea with assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the first Arab leader to sign a peace agreement with Israel.
No Palestinian leader has a mandate to reach an everlasting peace agreement with Israel. No leader in Ramallah or the Gaza Strip is authorized to end the conflict with Israel. Any Palestinian who dares to talk about concessions to Israel is quickly denounced as a traitor. Those who believe that whoever succeeds Abbas will be able to make real concessions to Israel are living in an illusion.

Bassem Eid: Gaza one year later: From bad to worse

One year has passed since ‘Operation Protective Edge,’ the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. We have seen many articles by analysts this past week, but they fail to report the Palestinian perspective. The burning question in the minds of the Gazan people is why has there been a one year delay in the reconstruction?
The answer is simple — both Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas want to hold the purse strings of the reconstruction funds, which donor nations pledged at $5.5 billion. Donor nations may be skeptical about the shaky unity government, which almost failed in the past year since its establishment in the April 2014 ‘Shati Agreement’. Abbas nearly declared an amendment in establishing a new government, splitting the unity government and repeating Yitzhak Rabin’s’ famous declaration, ‘let’s throw Gaza to the Sea’.
Egyptians created a 2-kilometer buffer zone in removing the smuggling tunnels that made Hamas leaders into billionaires. Hamas’ top priority is to reconstruct its military capabilities and terror tunnels. Now that the funds have dried up since the smuggling tunnels have been destroyed, Hamas has issued a new tax upon the Gazan people.
A recent report by The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), states that “According to testimonies submitted to ICHR by citizens from different social categories, these taxes, which are imposed on different commodities and services in the Gaza Strip, aggravate the suffering of the people. Citizens who wish to import goods are bound to pay taxes to receive “import permission”. This implies that the competent authorities have started to implement the Solidarity Tax Act. In fact, prior to the import, the authorities identify the quantity of the goods and then decide on what tax to enforce. These taxes that are imposed under the pretext of “normal rise of prices” have a negative economic impact on the consumers. Furthermore, the taxes are imposed on governmental services.” The ICHR calls for Hamas to reverse this new tax.

One Year Later, the Gaza Blockade, Rebuilding and Reuters

Numerous news outlets have marked one year since the beginning of last summer's war between Israel and Hamas with reports on the slow civilian rebuilding efforts and on the humanitarian conditions of the Gaza Strip. Reuters was among them, and unfortunately misled with a recent graphic about the blockade as well as with photo captions and articles concerning rebuilding efforts. Following communication with CAMERA, editors agreed with criticism about a graphic on the blockade.
Whose Blockade? Whose Crossing?
The July 10 Reuters graphic titled "Gaza blockade" includes text which refers only to Israel's blockade while ignoring the more restrictive Egyptian blockade. The text reads:
Israel has blockaded Gaza, placing restrictions on people and goods leaving the enclave and goods entering it, since the Islamist group Hamas won power in Gaza in election in 2006. The blockade has isolated Gaza from the rest of the world.
Then, inexplicably, the graphic includes a chart showing activity at Rafah crossing, despite the fact that the crossing is controlled by Egypt. By including Rafah under a text that notes only the Israeli blockade, Reuters gives news consumers the false impression that Israel controls Rafah as well.
But the figures for passage through Rafah are so low because Egypt has maintained a strict blockade of its own, one that has been exceedingly more restrictive than Israel's and which has prohibited virtually all passage of people and goods for most of the last several months. Yet the Reuters graphic about "Gaza's blockade" completely ignores the Egyptian blockade.
Indeed, while the graphic focuses singularly on the "Israeli blockade," the data shows that over 400 people cross through Erez to Israel every day, while an average of approximately just 10 people cross on a daily basis through Rafah to Egypt. (Most days this year, not a single person crossed through Rafah into Egypt.) But readers cannot draw the proper conclusions given that the item since the graphic never mentions Egypt. Why the unjustified, inappropriate singular focus on the Israeli blockade?
CAMERA's Israel office posed this question to Reuters editors, who agreed with these concerns, and agreed to raise the issue with the bureau that produced the graphic. Stay tuned for news of any updates.

Time chooses Jerusalem as a top city - despite the desires of the US, UN, EU, Arab League...

Time magazine created a list of top travel destinations:

For globetrotting travelers, it’s easy to recognize a spectacular city. They are energetic, diverse destinations intent on preserving local heritage, revitalizing undervalued neighborhoods, and they possess distinct personalities that set them apart from other metropolises.

Number 10 is Jerusalem:

Christians, Jews, and Muslims converge to worship in this 4,000-year-old holy city, and their respective churches, synagogues, and mosques surround the historic Old City. Here, you can tuck a miniature prayer into the Western Wall, or see a fragment of clay engraved with cuneiform at the excavation site at Temple Mount. The iconic, gleaming gold Dome of the Rock is best photographed from the Austrian Hospice, which offers unparalleled views of the city and Mount of Olives. Jerusalem, like every other city on our list, also has a stake in the contemporary and the secular. Luxury apartment buildings now erupt like stalagmites from the Judean Desert, and high-end restaurants, such as King’s Court at the restored Waldorf Astoria, are bringing a new upmarket appeal to this arid oasis.

If the US had its way, Jerusalem would not be Israel's capital and many of its attractions would never have been unearthed. There would be no Jews in the Jewish Quarter and many other neighborhoods woud simply not exist.

if the European nations had their way, the eastern part of the city would be Judenrein and the Old City would be filled with the same slums that it had in 1967. Western sections of Jerusalem would look like any cookie-cutter town worldwide.

If the UN had its way, Jerusalem would be an "international city" where nothing would ever get done.

If UNESCO had its way, there would be no building in Jerusalem, and no archaeology except Muslim digs to destroy Jewish heritage.

If the Arab League had its way, the entire city would be the way it was in 1850 when it was ignored by the entire Muslim world.

Jerusalem's beauty and success today is despite the daily efforts of virtually the entire world to stop any growth and unification of the city.

Congratulations to the people and leaders of Jerusalem. Your beauty would not exist if Israel listened to the rest of the world.

Documenting the differences between opulent Ramallah and a squalid UNRWA camp

In 2010, Kristine Luken was brutally murdered by Arab terrorists while hiking in the hills of Jerusalem with her friend Kay Wilson. Wilson was stabbed multiple times and left for dead, but miraculously survived.

In what can only be considered superhuman, Wilson recently went to Ramallah and to the UNRWA "refugee" camp at Deheisha and recorded her impressions along with numerous photos.

Here are 39 photos of beautiful Ramallah, bustling Hebron and thriving Bethlehem - all of which are under the full auspices of the Palestinian Authority (i.e. areas where no Jews are allowed). To juxtapose the flourishing growth of these places there are also some photos from Deheisha “Refugee Camp.” Unlike the rest of these first-world cities, Deheisha is just one of the open slums/refugee camps run by UNRWA. What you will notice is the remarkable contrast between the normalcy and rising economy of the capitalist, autonomous, wealthy Palestinian cities and the abject squalor of those living in, or studying at, the facilities run by this supposed “relief" agency.

I do not begrudge any decent person to make a better life for themselves. What I do oppose is the ignoring of the flourishing main stream Palestinian society, the glorification of terrorism vis-à-vis graffiti and the alliance between the perpetual, intentional victimhood of the Palestinians and anti-semites posing as western journalists, politicians, churches and charities. These are the hypocrites who sit in Palestinian 5-star hotels while sipping cocktails (served to them by well-nourished Palestinians) and these are the ones who accuse Israel on western platforms of genocide and holocausts. I balk too at the hypocrisy of those Palestinians who loathe the West yet are perfectly content to fill their streets with shops and merchandise from the very civilisation that they despise. I also happen to think, that given the affluence in much of Palestinian society seen here, it would be noble for their Authority to contribute to their people in Gaza instead of tittle-tattling to the ICC and the UN.

Terrorist Ayat al-Akhras.

A child terrorist:

With great pride and honor, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) – Deheisheh Refugee Camp, Betlehem region, announces the death of

its son, the heroic fighter shahid of the Al-Aqsa Intifada,

Mu’tazz ‘Azmi Isma’il Taylakh

We will never forget you, oh little fighter of the revolution

What makes this so fascinating is that this is the sort of thing one would expect a human rights NGO to do. Why, indeed, are there "refugee" camps in Palestinian Authority areas? Why are people kept in such slums where the very walls radicalize their children? Are these people citizens of "the State of Palestine" or not, and if they are, why are they treated as second-class citizens? Finally, if UNRWA is under such financial strain, why not plan to transition these camps into permanent housing for Palestinian Arabs?

The reason no one asks these questions is that they are political kryptonite. The answers reveal that the desire to wipe out Israel is so enmeshed in Palestinian Arab society that they prefer to keep these camps as museums of misery, great for photo-ops, to blame Israel for a "refugee" problem that Israel has had nothing to do with except that the residents plan to "return" one day to destroy Israel - and UNRWA keeps that false hope alive.

Wilson gives a list of people and organizations to tweet about this in her Facebook post.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

.@Amnesty's deception of the day: Excusing Hamas humanitarian law violations

Amnesty keeps on deceiving its readers:

12 July #GazaCity: 17 family members killed when Israeli warplanes bombarded house as worshippers left nearby mosque http://t.co/Fj79TuSY6c
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) July 12, 2015

Amnesty is referring to the bombing of the Al Batsh family home in Shejaiya.

18 members of the family died (one a few weeks later.) But they were not exactly all innocent.

Here are the al-Batsh family members who were also Hamas terrorists from the Al Qassam Brigades:

Nahed Na’im al-Batsh. 41 , Qassam commander (Martyr video here)

Bahaa Majed al-Batsh, 28
Ahmad Nu’man al-Batsh, 27
Jalal Majed al-Batsh, 26

Zakariya Alaa Subhi al-Batsh

Yihya 'Alaa al-Batsh, 18

These six Hamas terrorists were using the rest of their family as human shields. Almost certainly such a house with such dedicated Hamas members was a major command and control center, which is why Israel would not have warned them ahead of time.

The owner of the house,Taysir, is a Hamas police commissioner as well, although he wasn't killed.

The Batsh children were also being indoctrinated into terror. Here is 10 year old Anas, who was killed:

Placing military objects in a civilian house is a violation of international law, and that is exactly that Hamas and the al-Batsh family did, using their families as human shields.

If young Anas was being groomed to be a child soldier, that's 'another violation.

But Amnesty has nothing bad to say about Hamas' crimes. And it will never even admit that militants were in the houses that they are portraying as completely civilian.

Context is critical to understanding the truth. Amnesty is purposefully withholding context in order to demonize Israel and only Israel.

It isn't a human rights organization - it is a Hamas propaganda outlet.

Soon we will look at one of the Amnesty researchers involved in these reports and see how biased Amnesty researchers are.

"Settlers bulldozed olive trees" - on Shabbat

From IMEMC:

A group of colonialist Israeli settlers, driving a number of bulldozers, invaded earlier Saturday Palestinian orchards belonging to residents of Deir Estia village, northwest of the central West Bank district of Salfit, and uprooted more than 80 olive trees.

Local villagers said the settlers uprooted the olive trees in order to expand a bypass road, leading to illegal Israeli settlements, built on Palestinian lands.

Bulldozers? On Shabbat?

Once again, I searched for photos or videos. All of the photos accompanying Arabic and English news stories were file photos from years past, such as this staged photo of a wailing woman next to a pruned tree: