Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The "human rights" terrorist supporter that Amnesty missed

Yesterday, I noted that Amnesty International ended its three day streak of not writing an anti-Israel tweet. I assumed that the victim that they mentioned, a worker for the Al Mezan NGO, was targeted by accident.

#BeitHanoun Israeli drone fired at workers repairing pipeline, 1 bystander died: http://t.co/mx667hkltn #50Days4Gaza pic.twitter.com/a6NFtQLhmY
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) August 10, 2015

As Bob Knot researched, this is far from clear. Israel didn't target the workers, as Amnesty assumed. It apparently targeted the "human rights" worker, Anwar Za'anin.

This is him - a member of the PFLP terror group:

The PFLP was behind the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue massacre as well as the drive-by shooting of Israelis in a car in June 2015.

And Zaanin was a proud member of this group.

I don't know if he was an armed member of the PFLP, but chances are that Israeli intelligence identified him as a valid military target. The pipeline workers were not.

Later that same day, Ahmed Sami Ahmed Al Za'anin was targeted and wounded on the same street. PCHR admits that he was a militant. Chances are very good that Ahmed was this "human rights" worker's relative.

Another Ahmed Za'anin from Beit Hanoun who was also a member of the PFLP and had been killed by the IDF in January 2014 for shooting rockets.

Amnesty doesn't know the whole story by a long shot. Anwar was probably helping the PFLP's Mustafa Brigades, which bragged that it fought valiantly but did not admit any "martyrs" as far as I can tell. He certainly was a terrorist sympathizer, which would be considered strange for a "human rights" activist anywhere else in the world.

But there is no evidence that Israel targeted civilians for no reason, as Amnesty (and PCHR and Al Mezan) is saying.

"Jews planning to take over Libya" - and the Jewish history behind the fears

I see wild Arab rumors all the time, but it is fun sometimes to find out if there is a grain of truth behind them.

Earlier this year I reported that Libyan media was claiming that a million Jews were planning to move to Libya. Now the theory has been repeated, with interesting new details.

Egyptian newspaper Al Wafd now asks why Israel has never defined its borders. The answer, of course, is that Israel plans to take over the entire Middle East - even beyond the "Nile to the Euphrates."

In fact, Israel is after everything from Libya to Yemen!

The article tells a true story that early Zionist leaders considered the Libyan area of Cyrenaica as the location of the Jewish State around the sane time they were looking at spots all over the world like Uganda and Canada.

I even found a book about it.

An appendix to this book describes the Jewish history of Cyrenaica as a reason for Jews to return, claiming that the original Jews there had helped liberate part of Israel before the Bar Kochba revolt. It is very interesting,

I don't know how embellished this is. But it explains Libyan paranoia about Jews.

Hypocrisy starts with "J"

I get fundraising emails from J-Street.

They all whine about how much Zionist groups like AIPAC are spending to oppose the Iran deal - except when they brag about how much they are spending themselves.

Thanks to J-Street I just left a message for my senator to oppose the Iran bill. Members of Congress are swayed by the number of messages they get - being visited in person is best, and they are all home now for recess. But if you can't visit, call or email them,

08/10 Links Pt2: British Left’s Hypocritical Embrace of Islamism; Hamas Admits it caused Water Crisis

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: The Secret Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians

According to the researcher, many Palestinians captured by Shiite militias in Iraq have been brutally tortured and forced to "confess" to their alleged involvement in terrorism. Since 2003, the number of Palestinians there has dropped from 25,000 to 6,000.
Most interesting is the complete indifference displayed by international human rights organizations, the media and the Palestinian Authority (PA) toward the mistreatment of Palestinians in Arab countries. International journalists do not care about the Palestinians in the Arab world because this is not a story that can be blamed on Israel.
The UN and other international bodies have obviously not heard of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the Arab world. They too are so obsessed with Israel that they prefer not to hear about the suffering of Palestinians under Arab regimes.
PA leaders say they want to press "war crimes" charges against Israel with the International Criminal Court. However, when it comes to ethnic cleansing and torture of Palestinians in Arab countries such as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, they choose to look the other way.
An Arab killing or torturing an Arab is not an item worth publishing in a major newspaper in the West. But when a Palestinian complains against the Israeli authorities or Jewish settlers, many Western journalists rush to cover this "major" development.
Not only do the Arab countries despise the Palestinians, they also want them to be the problem of Israel alone. Since 1948, Arab governments have refused to allow Palestinians permanently to settle in their countries and become equal citizens. Now these Arab countries are also killing and torturing them and subjecting them to ethnic cleansing, all while world leaders continue to bury their heads in the sand and point an accusing finger at Israel.

Maajid Nawaz: The British Left’s Hypocritical Embrace of Islamism

Anti-extremist campaigner Maajid Nawaz embodies grievances that liberals claim to care about. So why is he being viciously attacked by them?
The desire to impose religion over society is otherwise known as theocracy. Being veterans of the struggle to push back against fundamentalist Christians, American liberals are well acquainted with the pitfalls of the neoconservative flirtation with the religious-right. How ironic, then, that in Europe it is those on the left—led by the Guardian—who flirt with religious theocrats. For in the UK, our theocrats are brown, from minority communities, and are overwhelmingly Muslim.
Islam is a religion like any other. Islamism is an ideology that seeks to impose any version of Islam over society. When expressed through violence, I call it jihadism. It is obvious to an American liberal that Christian fundamentalism must be made to respect personal choice. Likewise, it is as plain as the light of day to me—a Pakistani-British liberal Muslim—that any desire to impose any version of Islam over anyone anywhere, ever, is a fundamental violation of our basic civil liberties. But Islamism has been rising in the UK for decades. Over the years, in survey after survey, attitudes have reflected a worrying trend. A quarter of British Muslims sympathised with the Charlie Hebdo shootings. 0% have expressed tolerance for homosexuality. A third have claimed that killing for religion can be justified, while 36% have thought apostates should be killed. 40% have wanted the introduction of sharia as law in the UK and 33% have expressed a desire to see the return of a worldwide theocratic Caliphate. Is it any wonder then, that from this milieu up to 1,000 British Muslims have joined ISIS, which is more than joined the Army reserves. In a case that has come to symbolize the extent of the problem, an entire family of 12 recently migrated to the Islamic State. By any reasonable assessment, something has gone badly wrong in Britain.
But for those who I have come to call Europe’s regressive-left how could Islamist tyranny—such as burying women neck deep in the ground and stoning them to death—possibly be anything other than an authentic expression of Muslim rage at Western colonial hegemony? For don’t you know Muslims are angry? So angry, in fact, that they wish to enslave indigenous Yazidi women for sex, throw Syrian gays off tall buildings and burn people alive? All because… Israel. For Europe’s regressive-left—which is fast penetrating U.S. circles too—Muslims are not expected to be civilized. And Muslim upstarts who dare to challenge this theocratic fascism are nothing but an inconvenience to an uncannily Weimar-like populism that screams simplistically: It is all the West’s fault.

Prof. Phyllis Chesler: Too Many Women Among Those Who Despise America and Hate Israel

What is wrong with this picture? Are young American women still more obsessed with the alleged American occupation of “Muslim lands,” with countries that have never existed (such as Palestine), than they are with the occupation of women’s bodies worldwide, especially under Sharia law, especially under ISIS, and ISIS-like terrorist groups in the Middle East, North and West Africa, and Central Asia?
Or rather, are women in certain communities in America only allowed to be visibly outspoken and active if they actively and vocally hate America, despise Jews, and wish to abolish the Jewish state?
Why are these students silent about the ongoing massacres and genocides of Christians, Yezidis, and Muslims in the Middle East at Muslim hands?
Why are the female students and professors utterly silent about the daily, hourly, atrocities being committed against girls and women in Iraq—and in Iran and Afghanistan? Why no word against gender and religious apartheid, no condemnation of FGM, from these people presumably so concerned with justice?
Finally, 64% (or more) of these Jew and America haters are identifiably Muslim. (Their names give it away). Perhaps more really are Muslims but I rest my case right here. These are not the kind of Muslims with whom I work and sympathize who are anti-Islamist Muslims, who are religious, secular, and apostate. My acquaintances also support women’s rights, human rights, Western-style freedoms, and Israel.
In other words: The anti-American and anti-Israeli individuals featured at Canary Mission participate in and attend rallies and demonstrations on American campuses. The majority are pro-Islamist Muslim students and professors, too many of whom are women.

Hamas Admits Gazans Behind Water Crisis, Not Israel

The Hamas paper Al-Risalah conducted an investigation into the subject of Jewish agricultural land in Gaza that was evacuated in the 2005 Disengagement plan, and found that despite Arab claims that Israel has caused a water crisis in Gaza, local residents are in fact to blame.
In its investigation, which relied on figures from the Hamas agricultural ministry, the paper found that excessive use of water for agriculture by local farmers was behind the shortage of water.
In particular the raising of vegetables that require vast amounts of water, digging wells without supervision, and pumping water excessively was found to be the culprit of Gaza's water woes.
The paper of the Hamas terror organization noted that prior to the 2005 expulsion of all Jews from Gaza, no more than 20 wells were being used by Israelis in Gush Katif, and they were dug around a kilometer from the coast so as to trap rain water.
The average pumping from these wells was around 20-30 cubic meters per hour.
Today, the number of wells in the area has tripled, and the Arab agricultural unions working in the evacuated Jewish communities dug close to 30 more wells - in addition to the 16 dug by the municipality.
The average pumping from the agricultural unions' wells is between 60-120 cubic meters per hour, while the average from municipality wells is between 60-70 cubic meters per hour, showing the improper usage of Gaza's water resources.

UNRWA teachers continue to support terror - and Nazis

Last year I spent a bit of time documenting how UNRWA teachers supported Antisemitism and Terrorism on Facebook .

UNRWA apparently responded by telling teachers to cool it because it was embarrassing. Some teachers removed their affiliation with UNRWA on their pages. An UNRWA teachers' group that had Jihadist videos was taken down , as were some of the Facebook pages.

But there is no indication of any disciplinary action against teachers who embrace jihad and antisemitism. Any teachers who would have been fired for that would have made it into the Arab media and there would have been protests supporting them. UNRWA cares about its reputation, not about the fact that its teachers love jihad.

They still do.

An UNRWA teacher who uses the name "poor slave" has a number of pro-terror photos:

And Oday AlMasri, an UNRWA teacher in Jenin, likes Nazis, to the delight of his friends:

While UNRWA begs the world for money so they can continue to teach Arabs, there is no transparency as to what exactly the teachers are really teaching their students. You can be sure that these attitudes shine through.

Amnesty seems embarrassed by my exposé

On Friday, I reported that Amnesty International has been obsessed with Israel this month on their Twitter feed, and practically ignoring every real human rights issue worldwide in their singleminded pursuit of demonizing the Jewish state.

My graph went viral on Twitter.

Since then, as of this morning*, the @AmnestyOnline account has not tweeted a single thing about Israel. As of this morning there have been 18 consecutive non-Israel tweets, while for the previous month there had never been more than 4. And they have tweeted more about other topics than they had in weeks.

A first I thought it might be because of s cease fire in the Gaza war last year, but that cease fire ended on August 9.

Apparently, someone high up at Amnesty realized that this looks really bad and told the Twitter administrator to cool it, at least until they can get some of the blue bars above to go a bit higher.

Of course, no one at Amnesty has bothered to correct the many anti-Israel lies in their heralded Gaza Platform. They won't do that until the media notices and reports on their decision to build an expensive website based on provably wrong data.

*UPDATE: Amnesty did resume its Gaza tweets after I wrote this. From what I could tell it was really a civilian that was killed by accident - he was riding a motorcycle.

UPDATE 2: It gets much better than that.

08/10 Links Pt1: What 29 top US scientists don’t know; Iran Deal Backers Have a Bridge to Sell You

From Ian:

Ugliness: Iran deal supporters call Schumer a greedy, disloyal Jew

Ever since the White House leaked Thursday night that Sen. Chuck Schumer would be coming out against the Iran deal, the progressive movement has foamed at the mouth with vitriol directed Schumer’s way.
Much of it is just the plain old progressive vitriol of the MoveOn.org, Daily Kos and netroots types. Schumer is a warmonger, wants war, loves war, and so on.
Obama set up that argument when he claimed that Republicans were making common cause with hardline Iranians — even though Obama clinched the deal with hardline Iranians who are laughing all the way to the bank and an internationally-authorized nuclear enrichment program.
Obama set up the disloyalty argument, and it’s no surprise that it’s being used against Democrats who don’t support the deal, particularly Jewish Democrats like Schumer.
That dual loyalty charge — often expressed in terms of being an “Israel firster” — is an old anti-Semitic line of attack, as we explored in detail in a prior post, GreenStar boycott group trainer hurls “Israel-firster” slur at Schumer.
The dual loyalty charge is almost exclusively made against Jewish supporters of Israel. You rarely hear it used against American Christians who support Israel.
As The Tablet magazine reports, given the various dog whistles put out by the Obama administration, it’s no wonder these type of accusations are resurfacing.
Schumer long has been a target of that charge by the anti-Israel boycott movement and anti-Zionist progressive websites.
Now it is on overdrive. (h/t fizziks)

What 29 top US scientists don’t know

The recent letter of support sent to President Obama for his Iran deal secured last month – signed by 29 scientists, including Nobel laureates – was obviously well-timed to lend firmer scientific backing to what many regard as a severely flawed nuclear deal. This is an impressive group of individuals, with achievements that speak for themselves, and their opinions obviously matter. Yet, the very fact of their scientific achievements does not mean that their assessments of the deal are correct. Indeed, their collective judgment of the Iran deal must be assessed on its merits. And in this regard, unfortunately, more than anything else, the contents of the letter echo the well-known talking points of the Obama administration, and suffer from some of the same deficiencies.
If this highly respected group of scientists is not aware, for example, that the 24-day cap on Iran’s ability to delay an investigation into a facility suspected of supporting clandestine activities could actually be much longer than that, why would we attribute any more authority to this letter than to other sources making similar arguments to support the deal? If the group had scrutinized paragraphs 75-76 in the Access section – that are not about science, but rather politics – they would have seen that Iran’s ability to play for time regarding inspections of suspicious military facilities begins when the IAEA first submits its concerns, and waits for Iran’s clarification. The 24-day count begins only after that, if and when the IAEA makes a request for access; but the preliminary phase has no time limit.
And there are additional dangerous ambiguities in the deal. There are holes and loopholes and flaws that Iran can abuse for its purposes. So when one assesses the deal, the scientific aspects are certainly important, but that is not where the assessment ends. Rather, there is a need to consider the history of dealing with Iran, and the experience gained thereby. Iran has shown its determination not only to hold on to its vast nuclear infrastructure and breakout capability, but continues its highly aggressive attitude toward the US and the Middle East. Moreover, Iran has over the years perfected tactics of playing for time, and has made it very clear that it will not tolerate inspections at its military sites where suspicions are that it has worked on a military nuclear capability. If pressed on inspections in the coming years, Iran will most likely continue to evade and play for time, and the deal dangerously provides ample room for Iran to do so.

Indonesia grants Israeli athlete visa, ending standoff

Indonesia granted an Israeli badminton player a visa to enter the country and compete in the world championships in Jakarta after a months-long standoff, Israel’s national Olympic committee said Monday.
The Olympic Committee of Israel said Misha Zilberman, 26, had been cleared to enter Indonesia — the world’s most populous Muslim country — after being repeatedly denied a visa because he is Israeli.
OCI secretary general Gili Lustig said Zilberman had been waiting in Singapore for two weeks after making an initial visa application six months ago. He said the Badminton World Federation intervened to ensure Zilberman could secure a visa.
Zilberman was scheduled to fly from Singapore to Jakarta on Monday accompanied by his mother, also a badminton player, as well as the CEO of the Badminton World Federation, Lustig said. Zilberman is set to compete on Tuesday.
Lustig said the visa delay had prevented Zilberman from properly training for the championships.
“But for us it’s a big victory that he will be there,” Lustig said. “Now he’s an ambassador for Israeli sport.”

From the PA news agency Wafa:

Palestinian Health Minister Jawad ‘Awad slammed Israel’s announcement that would begin the force-feeding of hunger-striking Palestinian detainee, Mohammad Allan, as an ‘execution’.

In a Friday press conference, ‘Awad said that force-feeding Mohammad ‘Allan, currently hospitalized in Israeli hospital of Soroka, by Israeli occupation authorities under the force-feeding bill passed by the Knesset at the end of July is tantamount to execution.

‘Allan, has been on a hunger strike for 54 consecutive days in protest against his administrative detention without trial or charge. Reportedly, he has recently been suffering from a critical health condition, complaining of poor vision and throwing up of blood.

Force-feeding is certainly controversial but it is not by any definition "execution" - it is the opposite. As I understand Israel's law, it only goes into effect is the hunger striker is in immediate danger of death.

And this seems to be consistent with international law. In Nevmerzhitsky v. Ukraine, the European Court of Human Rights ruled:

93....The Court notes that in previous case-law the Commission held that the “forced-feeding of a person does involve degrading elements which in certain circumstances may be regarded as prohibited by Article 3 of the Convention”. When, however, as in the present case, a detained person maintains a hunger strike this may inevitably lead to a conflict between an individual's right to physical integrity and the High Contracting Party's positive obligation under Article 2 of the Convention – a conflict which is not solved by the Convention itself” (see X v. Germany (1984) 7 EHRR 152). The Commission reiterated that “under German law this conflict ha[d] been solved in that it [was] possible to force-feed a detained person if this person, due to a hunger strike, would be subject to injuries of a permanent character, and the forced-feeding [was] even obligatory if an obvious danger for the individual's life exist[ed]. The assessment of the above-mentioned conditions [was] left for the doctor in charge but an eventual decision to force-feed [could] only be carried out after judicial permission ha[d] been obtained” (ibid.)....
94. The Court reiterates that a measure which is of therapeutic necessity from the point of view of established principles of medicine cannot in principle be regarded as inhuman and degrading. The same can be said about force-feeding that is aimed at saving the life of a particular detainee who consciously refuses to take food. The Convention organs must nevertheless satisfy themselves that the medical necessity has been convincingly shown to exist (see Herczegfalvy v. Austria, judgment of 24 September 1992, Series A no. 244, p. 26, § 83). Furthermore, the Court must ascertain that the procedural guarantees for the decision to force-feed are complied with. Moreover, the manner in which the applicant is subjected to force-feeding during the hunger strike shall not trespass the threshold of a minimum level of severity envisaged by the Court's case law under Article 3 of the Convention.

As long as the force-feeding is done to save a life, and it is not done in a degrading way if it can be avoided, then case law seems to say that it is not only allowed but obligatory under legal obligations to take care of prisoners.

A special rapporteur ruled that US force-feeding in Guantanamo was torture, but as far as I can tell, that analysis does not have the same weight as the European Court of Human Rights. Even according to the rapporteur, however, if a prisoner becomes unconscious he can no longer object to being fed (perhaps intravenously) to save his life.

Either way, to call it "execution" is just another inversion of the truth that we are so used to seeing from the Palestinian Arab leadership.

The third holiest summer camp in the world, where kids are taught to riot against Jews

Last week was the opening of a Muslim summer camp on the Temple Mount, purportedly Islam's third holiest site and unquestionably Judaism's holiest site:

They are chanting "A nation whose leader is Muhammad will never prostrate itself (before anybody)!"

Here is one of their arts and crafts projects, where they build a barricade to stop Jews and Israeli police from entering.

# Video shows close children's summer camps in the Far to the road in front of intruders settlers to the mosque shortly before the timber and container for plastic.
Posted by First First Jerusalem Jerusalem on Monday, August 10, 2015

You can see them at the end of this video trying to stop Jews from walking:

Meanwhile, Jewish girls who were silently holding Israeli flags outside the Mount (1:16), some reciting Psalms quietly, were harassed and screamed at as the Muslims seethed about "provocations:"

(H / t Bob K, Ibn

Jewish businessman saves scores of Christian and Yazidi women from IS

From UK-based Catholic newspaper The Tablet:

A Canadian Jewish businessman has told The Tablet he has overseen the rescue of more than 120 Christian and Yazidi girls kidnapped by so-called Islamic State (IS) in northern Iraq as Pope Francis condemned the "silence" of the international community in the face of ongoing persecution of Christians and other religious minorities.

Steve Maman, 42, an entrepreneur, founded the Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq (CYCI) after the jihadists overran the cities of Mosul and Sinjar a year ago, forcing more than 100,000 civilians, including virtually all the region’s Orthodox and Catholic population, to flee.

Francis in a letter to Iraqi refugees in Jordan issued on Thursday, a year after the jihadists' offensive, said: "Many times I have wanted to give voice to atrocious, inhuman and inexplicable persecution against people in many parts of the world - above all Christians - who are victims of fanaticism and intolerance. Often this persecution occurs where it can be seen and heard yet all are silent. These are the martyrs of today, people who are humiliated and suffer discrimination because of their fidelity to the Gospel."

In a matter last August, the jihadists took up to 7,000 Yazidi women and girls, some as young as 13, into slavery. An unknown number of Christian women and girls were also kidnapped. CYCI estimates that around 2,700 are still being held by IS.

Mr Maman, who cites as a personal hero Oskar Schindler, the German who saved as many as 1,200 Jews from the Nazi Holocaust, works closely with a team of negotiators based inside IS-held areas, who work to reunite the Yezidis with their families. “We liberate children from their captors through the use of on-the-ground brokers,” he said.

The charity receives money for rescue missions from Mr Maman’s mainly Jewish business associates, who, he said, have been “remarkably generous”. But the said his approaches to 60 church organisations in Canada, including parishes in Montreal and national bodies, have failed to attract support.

“This is a finite problem that can be solved with money,” said Mr Maman. “We need Christians to open up at the same rate as my Jewish friends have.”

CYCI collaborates with Anglican Canon Andrew White's Foundaition for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, which is providing shelter to hundreds of people who have fled IS.

You can donate here.

(h/t Alexi)

If logic can't win the day, Obama has a plan B (ElderToon)

Apparent "honor killing" in Gaza

A 35 year old woman was found dead in central Gaza this morning.

Police reported that the girl found hanged but her head was also bashed in with an ax.

Preliminary investigations indicate that her brother was the murderer.

There are usually dozens of so-called "honor killings' every year in Gaza and the West Bank. Most don't get reported in non-Arabic media.

08/09 Links: Mr. President, Iran is the enemy, not Israel; Kerry Negotiated On Iran’s Behalf

From Ian:

Mr. President, Iran is the enemy, not Israel

It's a shame Obama is making the Iranian nuclear issue personal. Whoever is not with him is against him. Iran is the enemy, Mr. President. Not you. Iran is the enemy -- not Israel. America is still the "Great Satan," Israel is still the "Little Satan" and the ayatollahs still aren't holy. Even the prominent Democratic supporter, Haim Saban, has understood the danger and has joined the opposition.
It is exceedingly rare for Congress to reject an administration decision related to foreign policy. Too recall an instance of the Senate rejecting an agreement, we must go back to the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and the 14 Points plan proposed by one of the greatest American presidents, Woodrow Wilson (also a Democrat, also a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize that same year). That was nearly 100 years ago.
Obama needs to understand that this is not personal. All he has to do is peruse the comments made by supporters of the deal in order to understand why people in Israel, and in America, are very worried. Let's take, for example, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York, who supports the deal. She admits the deal is "not perfect" and believes Iran will continue to lie and continue to get stronger. Could it be that the deal's detractors aren't actually "ignorant," as the president, according to commentators, tried painting them as in his speech at American University? Perhaps they are simply seeing clearly? And if someone is failing to understand why the polls suddenly flipped on Saturday -- it's because people have only just begun discovering the details of the deal. The Americans, for example, were stunned to learn during Secretary of State John Kerry's congressional hearing that he was not versed in the details of the secret deal between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The important thing, however, is that here in Israel there are also those who support the deal. Maybe they know things that Kerry does not?

Prof. Phyllis Chesler: Farewell to the Man Who Launched a Blood Libel

France’s Channel 2 Television man in Jerusalem, the infamous Charles Enderlin, is finally leaving the Holy Land.
As some might say: Baruch Hashem. However, Charles Enderlin was neither fired nor jailed. He remained at his prestigious post for fifteen years. Enderlin claims that he is not retiring, that he will be devoting himself to other projects. His replacement is Franck Genauzeau, a man with no known track record of anti-Semitism.
With Charles Enderlin's departure, there may now be only 999 reporters and NGO activists—maybe more--left in Jerusalem to spin the news according to the Palestinian narrative. Apparently, there are more foreign, reporters and more foreign NGOS on the ground-- especially German and Scandinavian--than in any other city or country on earth.
As my colleague, Tuvia Tenenbom, might say: I guess the world really cares about the Jews—or is it merely overly eager to “catch” Jews making mistakes so that its ongoing anti-Semitism feels justified; the Germans feel less guilty about the European Holocaust; and Muslims can feel righteous for holding onto to their long-simmering genocidal intentions towards the People of the Book, especially Jewish Israel?
Who, really, is Charles Enderlin?
On September 30, 2000, 'twas Enderlin and his Palestinian camera man, Talal Abu Rahma, who launched the Mohammed Al-Dura Blood Libel against Israel--a libel which justified, fanned, and inflamed Arafat’s long-planned Intifada of 2000 which led to thousands of Israeli civilian and soldier deaths, injuries, and disabilities—and to a frenzy of global anti-Semitism against individual Jews and against the Jewish state.

The Truth About Susiya

Daniel Patrick Moynihan once famously stated, “You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.” This rebuke is an appropriate response to Alon Ben-Meir’s post, “The Dismantling of Susiya is an Israeli Injustice.”
In his apparent eagerness to condemn the “inhuman action” of demolishing an illegal Arab encampment, and to attack the “moral decadence” of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government, he has created a fictitious scenario that maligns Israel.
Here is the truth.
Fact: The residents of the illegal encampment, which has come to be called “Ancient Arab Susiya,” illegally and systematically put up most of the structures on that “ancient” encampment between 2011 and 2013.
Fact: This case of illegal building has been before the Supreme Court of Israel for close to 15 years, and the claims of these Palestinian squatters have repeatedly been rejected. Ben-Meir fails to mention the extensive litigation before the High Court of Justice. During all of the litigation, the Arab residents have failed to show any proof of valid ownership of the land and even if they did, all land in that area is zoned agricultural land only and they have no rights to build on it. Instead, illegal construction has taken place for the duration of the judicial process, in blatant defiance of court orders.
Arab residents have joined the Susiya encampment knowing full well of pending court orders. It should also be noted that these residents are being assisted by the NGO Rabbis for Human Rights, which, although registered in Israel, is heavily funded by foreign countries including Germany, Spain, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the EU.

The recent firebomb attack by "extremist Jewish settlers" resulting in the death of 18-month old Ali Dawabsha, combined with the recent attack on the Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem which saw the murder of 16-year old Shira Banki, has Israeli-Jews nervous, sad, and introspective.

Many in the West will tell you that Israeli-Jews are deeply immoral people. The Yishuv, after all, marched on the indigenous Palestinian population in 1948, driving between 600,000 and 700,000 innocent people from their homes and causing al-Nakba (the Catastrophe) which has, in large part, influenced Palestinian culture and politics ever since.

The Zionist Occupation of the Indigenous Palestinian People

Israeli-Jews are deeply racist toward Arabs who they oppress in a great variety of ways.

Jews humiliate the local Arabs by forcing them to go through check-points. Israeli soldiers often use Palestinian children as human shields during military operations. The Israeli-Jews continue settlement expansion and perpetually steal Palestinian land which they crisscross with "Jews Only" roads. While settlers enjoy swimming pools their Palestinian neighbors are robbed of water by the Israeli Occupation Authorities.

The IDF targets journalists and peace activists - even murdering Rachel Corrie, a young American from the Pacific Northwest who fought for Palestinian-Arab rights and dignity. For her troubles she was intentionally run-over by an IDF bulldozer, killing her.

Furthermore, the Security Wall (or Apartheid Wall) separates Palestinians from villages, farms, and ultimately employment, thus serving to further impoverish a people already poverty-stricken due to Zionist aggression.

Given the atrocities and war crimes regularly committed by Israeli-Jews against their Palestinian neighbors, is it any wonder that so many on the Western-Left have concluded that Israeli-Jews are immoral? Is their any wonder that anti-Zionism and the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel (BDS) is gaining steam? Furthermore, not only has much of the rest of the world concluded that Israeli-Jews - who represent about half the world's population of Jews - are immoral, but even the Israeli-Jews themselves are starting to believe it.

Crying in the Press

One need only survey some of the current introspection playing out in the Israeli and Jewish press to see that Israelis are losing faith in their own humanity.

In the Israel Hayom newspaper in Israel we see these headlines:

"Thou shalt not kill" by Nadav Shragai in which he is convinced that the murder of the toddler says something about the nature of Israeli-Jews and wherein he fears that the affliction of violence and hatred is now spreading among the Jews.

In "Fighting our inner racist", by Ran Reznick, we learn that homophobia and xenophobia are running amuck among Israeli-Jews.

Media personality and Israeli politician, Yair Lapid's contribution is "We are at war" and he thinks that the enemy comes from within.

In Ha'aretz, hard-left Gideon Levy is convinced that "We all torched the Dawabsheh family".

And, also it must be considered, if the Israeli-Jews are as immoral as even they are coming to believe, what does this tells us about their diaspora Jewish supporters all around the world? Nothing good, I am afraid. If Israeli-Jews are committing atrocities against the local Arabs then diaspora Jews are complicit in willingly supporting such atrocities and are, thereby, themselves morally compromised.

And then there is this:

The Truth

On Sunday in Israel, Imad Abu Sharikh was hospitalized after a severe beating. We read:

Abu Sharikh told police he was heading to the mosque when three "right-wing extremists" attacking him, shouting "filthy Arab, expel all the Arabs!"

The report quickly made the rounds in the Israeli and Palestinian media, along with pictures of a bloodied and battered Abu Sharikh. The claim that he had been the victim of a racist attack by Jews was particularly sensitive, coming just two days after the death of Ali Dawabsha in an attack believed to have been carried out by Jewish extremists Friday.

The leader of the Arab Joint List party MK, Ayman Odeh, rushed to issue a condemnation and blame right-wing "incitement."

There is only one little problem, however. Sharikh lied:

But while Abu Sharikh's wounds were indeed real, his story quickly proved to have been fabricated

Police soon arrested the three suspects - all of whom were Arab residents of the city.

Not only did he lie, he lied specifically to defame Jews in order incite violence against us.

Furthermore, we have no idea who killed Ali Dawabsha. It might have been Jews, but why would we be so quick to rush to judgment without significant evidence? We were told that this was a "price tag" attack and that the word "revenge" was scrawled in Hebrew on a wall of the house. Well, can we think of any reason why a Palestinian-Arab might ever want to commit violence against another Palestinian-Arab? Is it possible that someone else in the Land of Israel may know enough Hebrew to scrawl a few words on a wall, besides a Jew?

Is it even possible that the culprit was a non-Jew? According to what I read in the media they seem to have largely concluded that they know that the savages were Jewish. Just how do they know this?

I do not know if Jews are innocent of this heinous crime and that is not what I am arguing. What I am arguing is that you do not know either, but if one insists upon laying blame at Jewish feet with virtually no evidence, what does it say about ones inclinations toward Jews? And what does it mean that so many Jews are eager to go along with it?

The Narrative

As for the narrative above concerning Israeli-Jewish crimes against the "innocent indigenous" population, it is pure bullshit, as we say in the United States. It is the "Palestinian Narrative" comprised entirely of wild exaggerations and straight-up lies. It is the kind toxic anti-Zionist / anti-Jewish gibberish that many on the Left, and within academe, love to fling around like confetti.

What is true, however, is that this so-called "Palestinian narrative" of perfect victim-hood is having its intended effect on much of the rest of the world and thereby, inevitably, upon the tiny Jewish population. The Jews are among the most self-reflective people on the planet. This is generally a good thing, but it is not always a good thing. All virtues have their corresponding vices and the corresponding vice of "self-reflection" is paralysis and self-doubt.

The truth of the matter is that most peoples in the world are considerably more savage than are the Jews. I apologize if that sounds self-congratulatory, but one need only take a quick gander at the neighborhood around Israel to determine the truthfulness of the claim. But only the Jews fret to the degree that we do. We are now convincing ourselves, with much encouragement in the Muslim world and the West, to think that the rare acts of political violence by random Jews represents some sort-of terrible stain on the Israeli Jewish soul. There are all sorts-of "well-meaning" people who want to help the Jews overcome our alleged Nazi-like inclinations and they are perfectly happy to smack us over the head with a shovel in order to teach the lesson.

One thing is certain. If the Palestinian-Arabs had one one-hundredth the inclination toward moral self-reflection as do the Jewish people the conflict would have been long over.

Arabs throw molotov cocktails at Jews practically on a daily basis in Israel. Sometimes they throw them at houses, sometimes that throw them at cars, and sometimes they throw them at cops. And sometimes they kill people. When that happens do the Palestinian-Arabs, as a people, publicly choose to reflect upon their misgivings and misunderstandings of others?

I do not think so.

Handing out sweets to children, and dancing in the streets, in order to celebrate the murder of Jews is not the behavior of someone engaged in moral self-reflection.

The Jewish people, however, including most particularly, Israeli Jews, have nothing to apologize for.

If anything, as a people perpetually under siege by a much larger hostile majority, they are the ones who deserve the apologies.

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.

UNRWA's spokesman Chris Gunness issued a press release implicitly blaming Israel for a rise in Gaza's infant mortality rate.

The infant mortality rate in Gaza has risen for the first time in five decades, according to an UNRWA study, and UNRWA’s Health Director says the blockade may be contributing to the trend.

Every five years, UNRWA conducts a survey of infant mortality across the region, and the 2013 results were released this week.

The number of babies dying before the age of one has consistently gone down over the last decades in Gaza, from 127 per 1,000 live births in 1960 to 20.2 in 2008. At the last count, in 2013, it had risen to 22.4 per 1,000 live births.

The rate of neonatal mortality, which is the number of babies that die before four weeks old, has also gone up significantly in Gaza, from 12 per 1,000 live births in 2008 to 20.3 in 2013.

“Infant mortality is one of the best indicators for the health of the community,” said Dr. Akihiro Seita, Director of UNRWA’s health program. “It reflects on the mother and child’s health and in the U.N. Millennium Development Goals it is one of the key indicators.”

“It is hard to know the exact causes behind the increase in both neonatal and infant mortality rates, but I fear it is part of a wider trend. We are very concerned about the impact of the long-term blockade on health facilities, supplies of medicines and bringing equipment in to Gaza,” Dr. Seita said.

Gunness, a former BBC reporter, knows quite well how to frame a story to get the audience to connect the dots in the way he wishes.

Here are the facts:

Israel does not limit medicine to Gaza.
Israel does not block any medical equipment to Gaza.
Gunness cannot point to a single Gaza child who died due to lack of medicine or equipment because of Israeli limits on items into Gaza.

And the facts about Hamas that Gunness does not want you to know:

There is lots of evidence that Hamas steals medicine meant to be distributed to Gazans for free.

Disagreements between Hamas and the PA has led to shortages of medical supplies being sent to Gaza.
When Hamas took power in Gaza it attacked doctors and health care workers who protested hospitals being taken over by the terrorist group.
Hamas has banned doctors from traveling from Gaza to medical conferences.

All of these facts can contribute to Gaza's infant mortality rate since UNRWA's last survey. But you wouldn't know any of them from Chris Gunness, who will never condemn Hamas if he can avoid it.

Chris Gunness is issuing anti-Israel propaganda - and covering up Hamas crimes.

So far the only news outlets I've seen that published this are IMEMC - which published it in Gunness' name - and the Daily Star Lebanon.

Interestingly, UNRWA does not include this in its own press release section.