Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

BREAKING: Abbas Resignation A Prelude To Taking Meretz Helm (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Ramallah, August 26 - Sources close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas say his resignation from the position of PLO Executive Chairman is calculated not, as generally assumed, to clear a path to his reelection as head of the organization, but as a preparatory step in assuming a leadership role in the Israeli Meretz Party.

Abbas loyalists remained mum on Tuesday regarding the leader's specific plan, but documents leaked from the president's headquarters point to a departure from frontal opposition to Israel in the international arena and instead, entering and exploiting the Israeli political system to achieve his ends. The documents contain, among other things, an analysis of various Israeli political parties and the conclusion that the one most ripe for a takeover by Abbas is Meretz, which might not even notice that he had done so.

Experts caution that even if the documents are authentic, prudence dictates they be treated with skepticism until other pieces fall into place. "The timing, reasoning, and methods all make sense, but I would caution against assuming this scenario represents what we should necessarily expect in the coming months," said political analyst I. C. Dedpipple. "For one thing, if this is the real deal, we should be seeing Abbas meeting with, for example, Opposition leader Isaac Herzog, an even that Abbas could use to help gain an understanding of where and how he would fit in among the diverse elements of the Opposition." Herzog traveled to Ramallah last week to meet the Palestinian president.

Complicating such a scenario, said Dedpipple, is the current Meretz leadership. "I can't see Zehava Gal-On or Ilan Gilon just moving out of the way," he explained. "Mahmoud Abbas might be their ideal candidate, embodying everything they've ever campaigned for, but that doesn't mean they don't like their jobs. If something happens, expect a fight."

Dedpipple noted that Gal-On's hold on the leadership is not as tight as it could be. "When preliminary election results came in after the elections this past March, it looked like Meretz was only going to get four seats in the Knesset, down from five - which itself is pitiful compared to the twelve they commanded back in the early nineties. Gal-On offered to step down. She didn't have to, because absentee ballots eventually gave Meretz a fifth seat, but it's clear she's aware how close to disaster she led the party - and it's got to be even clearer to anyone seeking to oust her."

Still, says commentator Hanan Krystal, Abbas faces an uphill political battle. "Aside from having his hands tied in terms of whom he can arrest just to get them out of the way, Abbas is at an electoral disadvantage," said Krystal. "In a general election he might bank on Arab Israelis to vote for him - not a given, mind you, considering how wary Arab citizens are of Abbas and his corruption-infested regime. But before that he has to secure the support of the Meretz rank and file in a primary, and, unfortunately for Mr. Abbas, he's just not distinguishable from any of the other emerging candidates."

08/26 Links Pt1: How to put some teeth into the nuclear deal with Iran; Iran won the Media War

From Ian:

Dennis Ross and and David H. Petraeus: How to put some teeth into the nuclear deal with Iran

Surely if the Iranians are dashing toward a weapon, especially after year 15, there is a need not to speak of our options but of our readiness to use force. The threat of force is far more likely to deter the Iranians.
The Iranians also should know that if they produce highly enriched uranium — for which there is no legitimate civilian purpose — that we would see that as an intention to make a weapon and would act accordingly. There is no mention of highly enriched uranium in the president’s letter. Although Obama speaks in the letter of providing the Israelis with the BLU-113, a 4,400-pound “bunker buster” bomb, it would not be sufficient to penetrate Fordow, the Iranian enrichment site built into a mountain. For that, the Israelis would need the 30,000-pound massive ordnance penetrator (MOP) and the means to carry it. While some may question whether we would act militarily if the Iranians were to dash to a bomb, no one questions whether the Israelis would do so.
Bolstering deterrence is essential in addressing key vulnerabilities we see in the deal. A blunter statement on the consequences of Iran moving toward a weapon and of producing highly enriched uranium would allay some of our concerns. Providing the Israelis the MOP and the means to carry it would surely enhance deterrence — and so would developing options now in advance with the Israelis and key Arab partners to counter Iran’s likely surge of support for Hezbollah and other Shiite militias after it gets sanctions relief.
Deterrence would be more effective — and full implementation of the agreement more likely — if the Iranians understand that there will be a price for every transgression, no matter how small, and that we will raise the cost to them of de-stabilizing behavior in the region. The president’s letter to Nadler was useful but fell short of addressing our concerns. It is still possible for the administration to do so.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Egypt and the Hamas "Cockroaches"

"What were your four [Hamas] men doing in Sinai? Haven't you denied in the past the presence of any Hamas men in Sinai? So where did these men pop up from?" — Dina Ramez, Egyptian journalist.
The incident also proves that Hamas does not hesitate to take advantage of Cairo's humanitarian gestures to smuggle its men out of the Gaza Strip. Obviously, the four Hamas men were not on their way to receive medical treatment. That they are members of Hamas's armed wing, Ezaddin al-Qassam, speaks for itself.
The Egyptians are particularly fed up with reports about Hamas's increased involvement in their internal affairs and links to terror groups in Sinai.
This practice by Hamas is something that the Egyptian authorities have come to understand, which is why they are refusing to reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. The question now is whether the international community will understand Hamas's true intentions and plans -- namely to prepare for another war against Israel.

Iranian-Born Jewish Author: Iran Has “Decidedly Won” Its Media War with the West

While Iran has engaged in several conflicts since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, one it “has decidedly won is the media war” with the West, Roya Hakakian, a prominent Iranian-American Jewish author and journalist, wrote in an op-ed yesterday in The Forward.
Hakakian argued that foreign journalists frequently fall into the trap of writing feel-good stories about Iran for Western audiences, as she witnessed while working on a CBS segment about an Iranian political prisoner with the late Bob Simon in 1999. The piece was being produced at a time when Mohammad Khatami, a reputed moderate, was president of Iran.
Hakakian also observed that Tehran granted The Forward permission to send its reporter, Larry Cohler-Esses, to Iran earlier this month with a strange stipulation: Cohler-Esses was instructed to request a letter of recommendation from the leaders of Iran’s Jewish community. Hakakian pointed out the impossible constraint the letter placed on Cohler-Esses:
The demand for a letter should have instantly alarmed the Forward, for it was made based on the bigoted notion that the Jews run a worldwide network which can instantly be activated. Why should an Iranian Jewish leader be asked to recommend an unknown journalist for a visa if not to generate a clear signal to the invested parties as to on whose credit he was getting in and what was expected of him to return with? The Jewish leader who vouched for the Forward was, it seems, mortgaging his freedom in the hopes that Cohler-Esses would not print what might have incited the ire of the regime. Has such a letter of recommendation ever been asked of, say, the Economist or Der Spiegel?

The Israel Project: "The Inspectors"

EoZ praised in Finnish lecture on media bias

On August 22, a church group held a philosophy seminar on "War and Peace." at the Vanha Paukku cultural center in Lapua, Finland.

One of the speakers, Juhani Huttunen, is a journalist for the Lutheran Church paper's foreign news department.

He gave me a shout-out as a dependable media source.

Here's video with subtitles.

Thanks to Tundra Tabloids!

PLO says a neighborhood that is 99% Arab is being "ethnically cleansed" by Jews

Every once in a while it is worthwhile to remind ourselves how easily and publicly the PLO lies.

The Negotiations Affairs Department of the PLO released a fictionsheet (calling it a factsheet would be wildly inaccurate) about Silwan in which virtually every sentence is a lie.

The paper says that Silwan has a population of 55,000. If that is true, than the 700 Jews who live there take up about 1% of the population. "Ethnic cleansing" has never been so benign.

As part of Israel's colonial enterprise, Israeli settler organizations have consistently sought to expand their control over Silwan through various of means. One of the most common colonial tactics Israel implements in Silwan is the forced eviction of Palestinian families from their homes so as to replace them with Israeli Jewish families.

Translation: Jews are buying the houses and moving in. If the Arab squatters don't leave, the police force them out. Like in everywhere else on Earth.

[T]he people of Silwan struggle daily to protect their presence and preserve the town's heritage against sustained settlers attempts to colonize and Judaize Silwan, while cleansing the village of its indigenous, Palestinian native population.

The Kfar HaShiloach neighborhood, which is being claimed by Jewish organizations, was literally empty until the 1880s when Yemenite Jews moved in and built housing.

.
Here's how the PLO describes these homes:

Batin El-Hawa is located in Al-Hara Al-Wusta (central quarter) of Silwan. The settler organization, Ateret Cohanim, has claimed proprietorship of strategic land parcels covering an area of 5,130m². The organization also claims that the land and the buildings on it belong to a Yemenite Jewish endowment. Yemenite Jews lived in the area during the Ottoman era only to leave immediately following the breakout of Al-Buraq Revolution almost 100 years ago. At that time, the Yemenites leased the land and homes to Palestinians from Silwan who have continued to live on and use the land ever since. Some 500 Palestinians currently live in the area.

Here's the truth: Arabs attacked and killed Jews there in 1921 and again, more violently, in 1929. Almost all the Jews there were forced to flee for their lives. Ten families remained butThe British couldn't protect them and ordered the remainder to evacuate during the 1936-39 riots.

The only ethnic cleansing that ever happened in "Silwan" was against Jews.

Furthermore, if the Arabs are now leasing the land from these Yemenites, then the PLO is admitting that the Jews legally own the buildings, right? I'm sure the residents can show that they've paid their lease to the Jews for the past 85 years.

This is a press release from the "State of Palestine" that is filled with easily provable lies. And the PLO has no problem lying to the media because they know that no reporter will ever question them.

Yes, they really teach their kids that they will ethnically cleanse the Jews (UPDATE)

I saw this Facebook post of a history teacher named Badi Amr in Dura, near Hebron. Unless I'm mistaken, the school he teaches at is an UNRWA school "(مدرسة ذكور دورا (الوكاله" - the word in parenthesis is "Agency" which is often a shorthand for UNRWA.

The post says,

A child innocently asked me ....
-------- "If we succeeded in expelling the Jews from our country where would they go?
And he's still waiting for the answer.

I guess that we can consider them moderate when they aren't willing to tell the young children outright that they plan to throw the Jews in the sea.

The first commenter says, "InshaAllah, a child's dream will be achieved."

UPDATE: The second commenter wrote "We'll prepare the ovens for them."

Not surprisingly, this presumed UNRWA teacher is a fan of terrorism as well.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Jewish kids help Spongebob (Jimmy Kimmel)

Longtime readers know that Spongebob Squarepants and I have a tumultuous history.

Watch the first segment of this Jimmy Kimmel bit (up until 1:50):

The boys know that Spongebob has been a fearless IDF soldier.

08/25 Links Pt2: The short road from anti-Western to anti-Semitism; Friedman's Career is Built on a Lie

From Ian:

The short road from anti-Westernism to anti-Semitism

Corbynmania has unleashed a great feeling of hope and change in the British public, especially among people hoping to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Whether or not Jezza can be blamed for his links to activists with fascinating, esoteric views of the second world war, the accusations have focused attention on one particular aspect of 21st century politics: anti-Semitism on the left.
My colleague, Hugo Rifkind, raised the issue last week and has since enjoyed a lot of light-hearted, knock-about anti-Semitic banter. For example, here and here. Great stuff guys! I laughed, but anti-Semitism can be darkly funny as long as it’s spoken by the powerless and ineffective. Borat is amusing because Israel’s military strength prevents middle eastern anti-Semitism from ever being too effective; Borat with a German accent wouldn’t work quite so well.
The prejudice currently popular in Britain is a sort of Arabised version of the European original. Revived hostility is clearly spurred by large-scale migration from Islamic countries, and the influence of Islamists on the European hard left, with whom they have a lot of contact. Technology also allows people to find like-minded individuals and spread rumours about Israelis snatching human body parts and controlling birds of prey or whatever insanity it is this month.
But there is a less discussed cultural trend creating the perfect conditions for anti-Semitism to flourish: the idea of equality.
Anti-Semitism differs to most forms of racial prejudice in that it is aimed not at a group deemed to be inferior but one believed to be superior, or at least more financially or politically powerful. This is what makes it so dangerous, since market-dominant minorities have historically faced the worst violence. (We think of eastern European Jews arriving in Britain before the first world war as being impoverished, which they were, but to Poles, Ukrainians and Romanians back home they were seen as a privileged, educated minority.)

.Elliott Abrams: What Do Jerusalem Arabs Want?

There are many logical reasons for such views on the part of Jerusalem residents who happen to be Palestinian Arabs. Israel is a democracy, while the future Palestine may not be. Israel is a reasonably rich country with decent medical insurance and old age pensions, while Palestine may not be. Israel has an international airport and beaches, while Palestine will not have those. No surprises.
But the basic finding is worth some reflection. Palestinians who live in Jerusalem would rather live in Israeli Jerusalem than Arab or Palestinian Jerusalem. They have, it is logical to assert, a more positive view of the actually existing Israel than of the future Palestine. In part, this is presumably because Israel exists and its commitment to democracy and its level of social and economic development are clear, while Palestine may if it ever comes into existence be just another Arab dictatorship. Given all that, it isn’t surprising that so many Jerusalem Arabs would prefer to live in Israel.
So what do we learn from this? First, that American and Western–and Israeli– refusal to demand that the Palestinian Authority respect civil and political rights, and build democratic structures, is well recognized by Jerusalem Arabs. They want the creation of a Palestinian state, but they are well aware of its likely nature and prefer to live in a Western-style democracy. Second, that the typical Arab and European denunciations of Israel as a racist society where Arabs are treated so badly is plain false. Those who live under Israeli law–with all its imperfections and failures–know better.

Thomas Friedman's Career is Built on a Lie

Israeli Army officials reportedly are furious that New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has accused the IDF of massacring Arab civilians. But what else is new? After all, Friedman's entire career has been built on lying about Israel--including rewriting his own biography in order to smear the Jewish State.
In his August 12 column, Friedman wrote: "Israel plays, when it has to, by what I’ve called 'Hama rules' — war without mercy…it will not be deterred by the threat of civilian Arab casualties…" The Times of Israel notes that "While the term ['Hama Rules'] itself comes from Friedman’s book From Beirut to Jerusalem, in his new article he offered no history of the event or explanation for the comparison, apparently assuming the reader would understand the context."
Friedman's sense of self-importance is legendary; evidently he assumes that everyone has read and memorized his book. But for those who have not, the term 'Hama Rules' was his little nickname for the policy of then-Syrian tyrant Hafez Assad when he massacred tens of thousands of civilians in the Syrian city of Hama in 1982.
So Friedman sees no difference between Israeli and Syrian policy regarding civilian casualties. Israel drops warning leaflets in neighborhoods it plans to strike, individually telephones residents of apartment buildings in the area, and cancels bombing raids if civilians are likely to be harmed. And Syria slaughters people anywhere, anytime, with whatever weapons it has handy. But it's all the same to Thomas Friedman.
Such lies should not surprise anyone familiar with Friedman's track record.
He was a junior reporter on the New York Times staff when he was sent to cover the Israel-Lebanon war in 1982. He was catapulted to fame by a series of articles blaming Israel for the Lebanese Christians' killings of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, which he then parlayed into a best-selling book, the aforementioned From Beirut to Jerusalem.
The major theme of the book, and the many interviews he gave about his time in Lebanon, was disillusionment. He set out, he claimed, as a passionate supporter of Israel ("insufferably so"). He believed "that all the right [was] on one side, and all the wrong on the other, that Israel always behaves in a way that's morally upstanding…I had seen Israel as a sort of utopian society…" But these illusions were shattered "in my experiences as a reporter…I went through a period of disillusionment during my experience of Lebanon and Sabra and Shatilla."
But that was a lie.
Friedman did not become a critic of Israel in 1982. He was strongly pro-Palestinian at least eight years earlier, as a leader of a Brandeis University student organization called the "Middle East Peace Group." When the arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat, gun on his hip, spoke at the United Nations that fall, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin strongly protested and hundreds of thousands of outraged New Yorkers held a "Rally Against Terror."
Friedman and his Peace Group colleagues published an open letter in The Brandeis Justice (the student newspaper) on November 12, 1974, to denounce the rally and oppose Prime Minister Rabin's stance.

Eric Haland says that he is a medical school student. He says that he worked in the West Bank last year.

But you really can't believe anything he says, given this interview about his seemingly eventful life.

The newspaper seems to have a template of generic summer questions to ask everyday people, like what they are planning to do on vacation or their favorite summer song.

In this case, they asked Eric "Do you have a special summer memory to share with our readers?"

He answered:

I worked as a doctor at the ER at the largest Arab hospital in the West Bank last year. It was an exchange tour with IFMSA , a student organization for medical students. The plan was to stay there for four weeks, but the war broke out while I was down there, and our stay was prolonged into nine weeks. It was, as I said, war, and there was not a single day where I did not cry. I was afraid. I remember we received a busload with Palestinian bomb victims from Gaza. We were wading in blood. One day we had to hide from Israeli soldiers who stormed the hospital to kill our patients. I have experienced children dying in my arms. The worst experience, however, was an episode on the bus. I had to go by bus an hour and half to go to where I lived. Israeli soldiers stopped one time the bus. They stormed the bus and started brutalizing innocents aboard the bus. Me they didn’t touch. I've never felt so helpless in my entire life. I just sat there knowing I could not do anything. While I had to experience a lot of cruelty, it was a great experience. I’ve never learned as much as I did there

This is complete and utter bullshit. But in Norway, this is accepted as how Israelis act.

Several hundred Gazans managed to get out of Gaza for medical care, and some of them went to the West Bank - but in ambulances, not buses. The ones in the worst shape were treated on the scene at an Israeli field hospital. There were no bus filled with of bombing victims.

No one was "wading in blood" unless Palestinian doctors cut some arteries.

The idea that Israeli soldiers stormed West Bank hospitals to kill patients is nothing but a wet dream of Israel haters. So is the idea of IDF soldiers brutalizing everyone on a bus except one Norwegian eyewitness.

A journalist in Norway who wrote about this, Lars-Toralf Storstrand, contacted Haland but Haland refused to answer any questions..

I wonder why.

(h/t Lars-Toralf Storstrand)

Earlier this year, amid the fracas over the anti-Zionist Anglican vicar Stephen Sizer and that notorious linking of his to a website which accused Israel of involvement in the 9/11 atrocities and led to his bishop banning him from discussing the Middle East online, a friend upbraided me as follows by email: “I have been reading about Stephen Sizer. I was curious to see what you might say about the latest controversy and looked at your website… In your comment on the blog you express concern that he may now post material under a false name. I doubt very much he would do so… But your comment does raise the question whether you should post material under a false name. I have always been troubled that you do so. It seems cowardly of you to express strongly-held views and hide from personal accountability by using a false name. I hope you don't mind my saying this. But given your criticism of the practice of using a false name for a blog, I thought I should tell you what I think. I have adhered to my promise to you that I would not reveal to anyone who Daphne Anson is, but I think you really ought to reveal your identity.”

Before I could reply my friend sent a follow-up: “I just read [name supplied] my email to you. And I see that I may have been wrong. So I should apologise. [Name] said that what I hadn't realised is that you could potentially be in danger from fanatics who are incensed by your criticisms of Palestinian and Arab atrocities. Hence it may be prudent not to attach your name to the Daphne Anson blog. I can see the force of this argument; sorry I hadn't considered it.”

I responded: “What I meant about Sizer using a false name is that if he does we will no longer be able to track his appalling antisemitism… Regarding my own alias: I’m not keen on having my books rejected by anti-Israel publishers who know I'm a pro-Israel blogger (the major academic publishing house in Australia is headed by such a person). Nor do I want my blog, which is unashamedly partisan, confused with my history books, which are strictly non-partisan and objective… And I learned the lesson of posting in support of the Zionist Entity under my real name the hard way …

”

I related this hard lesson on my blog some years ago, but for readers who know nothing about it I thought, given the truly awful characteristics of the British Left that we are witnessing at present, with Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for the Labour leadership gathering momentum, that it would be instructive to relate it again. For I believe it says much about the type of people who are supporting Corbyn, as well as the manner in which antisemitism, as opposed to anti-black racism or “Islamophobia” is treated.

It took place some years ago when I was living in Britain. I joined a British social media site on which people used their real names, and took part in the political discussions. I developed a core of “friends” from the forum who invited me to a spinoff private forum that they founded. As far as I can recall, I was the sole non-Leftist on that exclusive little forum, but we were drawn together by interests that transcended politics.

Meanwhile, on the original forum (to which me and the others on the exclusive forum contined to belong) I began regularly to challenge posts, almost invariably made by Leftists, that unfairly criticised Israel. It was not long before my zealous championship of the Zionist Entity brought me to the attention of a rabid anti-Israel Leftist living in a big city in the north of England.

This middle-aged man began to stalk me obsessively on the site, flinging antisemitic abuse and derogatory, defamatory comments at me on a daily basis. I was "a rightwing Jewish bitch" ... a "ZioNazi" ... I habitually gloated (he alleged in his twisted fashion) over reports of Palestinian deaths ... and so on.

Complaining to the website in question (by me and others outraged on my behalf) proved continually futile, and accordingly this individual carried on his malevolent mischief with impunity, targeting me ever more remorselessly and, for good measure, posting despicable lies about the wife of an erudite non-Jew who, like me, enthusiastically supported Israel on the forum and, moreover, did so with a display of knowledge about Israeli history and politics that would shame many a Jew.

Things went from bad to worse, with two or three other Israel-bashing Leftists joining in the Zionist-baiting "fun" and either emulating the offender or egging him on. I must emphasise this late-middle-aged man in a white collar occupation was no mere common or garden troll, of the kind who infest many discussion sites. In fact, since the man was so relentless and sadistic in his treatment of me some posters began to wonder whether he was someone from my past who had a long-standing grudge against me.

One morning I received a private message from another member of the forum (herself a Leftist critical of Israel, but we had a mutual interest in matters literary which overrode all that). She informed me that, overnight on yet another discussion forum – to which I myself did not belong – my tormentor had posted my name, address, and telephone number, and suggested that anyone who did not agree with my attitude to the Palestinians (needless to say, this wicked wretch falsely depicted me, and Zionists in general, as considering the Palestinians less than human) should contact me to tell me so.

The time had come, my informant declared, for me to complain to the police about this man's behaviour, which had now undeniably gone beyond all the bounds of decency and acceptability.

During the course of the day I received two more private messages. One was from a woman who knew the offender's exact postal address (as well as his full name, date of birth, and occupation), and willingly gave it to me so that the police could be notified. The other was from a young lawyer, who said he had watched the ever-escalating abuse against me with mounting horror, and stressed that the time for police action had arrived.

Luckily for me, my tormentor had made a mistake regarding my phone number. He had obviously seen that in the phone directory it appeared twice (in error, actually), and had posted one of those two alternatives. It happened to be a number that was incorrect in the last digit.

Still, his posting my contact details plus the constant drip-drip-drip of derision had an unnerving effect, impacting on my physical and psychological well-being, and over the ensuing days and weeks he became more malicious than ever. With manic fervour, he created on both websites threads naming and abusing me, claiming, inter alia, that my husband (who had never posted on any internet forum and did not deserve to be dragged into this, yet who was mentioned by name by this sick man together with his work address and contact details) and I "salivate" every time a Palestinian is killed, that I write histories and historical biographies because, since the subjects are dead and can’t sue, I don't have to be accurate as to my facts.

There were all sorts of such grotesque and loathsome rubbish, much of it highly defamatory to me. (The truly reprehensible forum on which he had posted my contact details and these latest falsehoods refused my polite request, and those of sympathisers, that the posts be removed; the website was experiencing a boost in traffic from the brouhaha and was not prepared to let ethics win over the number of views it was notching up!)

I took advice from the Community Security Trust (CST) and the young lawyer, and learned that if the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was to take action against my tormentor (probably for "racially aggravated harassment") the CPS would need from the police an "evidential download" of the offending material within 90 days of the material appearing. So, wasting no time, I strode into my local police station and drew to the attention of a rather baffled-looking policewoman the thick bunch of print-outs I had collected. After interviewing me she assured me the matter would be investigated.

Two days later I received a phone call from a young male officer: would I please collect those print-outs, he said, as this was not a matter with which the police could deal and I would have to take up the matter with the websites concerned (what part of “been there, done that” did the police not understand, I wondered!).

I told the CST (of whom I cannot speak too highly) of this development and was informed that the officer was in the wrong, since once the police have received such a complaint as I made they are obligated to investigate it.

Tearfully, I confronted the young officer and told him so, and was interviewed by another officer who, like the policewoman before him, appeared to take the matter seriously. Out of curiosity, this officer, given the name and address of the offender by me, searched the man on the electronic England and Wales police files (data base) he had at his disposal and volunteered that the man was already on them, for some past offence. (What that was he, quite properly, did not say, and I knew better than to ask.)

Within days the policewoman who had initially received my complaint was sent around to my house to take a formal statement, for forwarding with the other material to the CPS. Some weeks later later a detective from the station rang me to say that he had taken over the case from the policewoman, and that in the meantime it would be helpful if I did not participate on the forum on which the abuse occurred.

After that I waited ... and waited ... and waited for the police to get back to me. In the meantime, although I no longer participated on the forum in compliance with the detective’s advice, the abusive and defamatory posts about me continued.

And in the meantime the Leftists on the exclusive forum, who had pledged never to allow racist comments to appear on their site, and meticulously kept their word, made an exception in the case of someone who posted a repellent and ignorant thread about the Chief Rabbi. I vigorously protested the double standard but received from the Leftist administrators universal derision: the forum could not be expected to “tread on eggshells” regarding Jews, I was told. (Before long, I was unceremoniously expelled!)

Months passed, and seasons changed. Eventually I asked the police how things were proceeding, only to find that the police had done absolutely nothing! They had not lifted a finger to secure those crucial "evidential downloads" and consequently the 90 days in which they had to be made was long past! The print-outs of savage and sustained antisemitic harassment I'd given them were therefore wasted! The CPS had been given no inkling whatsoever of the antisemitic abuse and harassment perpetrated.

When I expressed incredulity, the police offered the lame excuse that detemining the offender's identity and whereabouts had proved more difficult to do than they anticipated! To that piece of bulldust I was able to retort that his precise identity and whereabouts were already common knowledge, and that I'd done their work for them by providing them with his full name, date of birth, occupation, and exact postal address! (What’s more, he had even posted photographs of himself online, confirmed to be genuine by one forum member who had met him!) Thus checkmated, they tried another tack: that they'd held off contacting the CPS because they'd assumed that, since I no longer participated on the website on which the original abuse had occurred, the abuse would stop.

Upset and furious, I wrote a letter of complaint to no less a personage that the Chief Constable of the county. As a result, I was fed an apparent cock-and-bull story about how seriously the police take allegations of antisemitism, and that the reason the investigation had stalled was due to the fact that the policewoman who originally dealt with my complaint is not computer-literate and had been overwhelmed by the reams of evidence at hand!!!

The outcome was that a local detective (one I had not previously encountered) phoned me. He assured me that although the opportunity to make evidential downloads within the requisite time-frame mandated by law had passed, my tormentor would within the coming week be contacted in person by a member of the police force in the district where he lived, and told that he must never again post my contact details online or mention me by name in such a manner on internet forums.

And, added the detective, he (i.e. the detective himself) would follow up that visit by phoning the offender to "fire an additional shot across his bows" by emphasising to him that a repeat of such abuse by him would not be tolerated.

Guess what? A local policeman did indeed call upon the offender, just as the detective told me he would. How do I know? Because, the day after the police officer's visit, the offender sent me a taunting message online to tell me so, and indicated by both word and deed that he would not be complying with the officer's request.

Oh, and guess what else? The detective never did phone the offender to fire that promised shot across his bow. And why didn't he keep that promise to me? Well, this is how the detective explained it to me when, indignant and disappointed, I asked him that very question: when the policeman confronted the offender at home and asked for his phone number the offender refused to give it. And the policeman (or so the detective said) had no power to force him to do so! Bunglers!

As for the tormentor, I have tried to put him out of my mind. But I do know that he's on Twitter, tweeting or retweeting sentiments hostile to Israel, including assertions that European Jews have no ethnic or historical ties to that country...

Predictably, he’s a fan of Corbyn. Not that he’s any longer a Labour Party member himself, he’s tweeted, having recently joined the Greens, but he admires Corbyn’s “principled politics”.

08/25 Links Pt1: Attack on Joseph's Tomb prevented; Iranian aide ‘Israel should be annihilated’

From Ian:

Shin Bet thwarts terror plot hatched in Gaza to attack Jews at Joseph's Tomb

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced Tuesday that it had busted a terror cell, thwarting a planned attack with improvised explosives and guns on Jews praying at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus.
Many Jews visit Joseph’s Tomb, surrounded by Palestinian Authority controlled areas, without coordinating with the IDF, and the cell planned to take advantage of that extra vulnerability.
Terrorists have successfully carried out attacks on such worshipers at the tomb in the past, including the 2011 attack which killed a nephew of former Likud minister Limor Livnat.
According to the Shin Bet, who arrested the cell in conjunction with the IDF, the terrorists' activities were directed and provided arms by Muhammad Darwish, an Islamic Jihad operative in the Gaza Strip.
While the cell-members had clearly carried out initial actions toward perpetrating the attack, it was unclear from the Shin Bet how imminent the attack was or the circumstances of the cell’s arrest.
Each member of the cell had a specific role in the attack, according to the Shin Bet. One of the members was responsible for supplying weapons, another gathered intelligence and two of the operatives were tasked with carrying out the attack.
One of the operatives, Nassim Muhammad Ramadan Rashid Damiri, 30 of the Tulkarm refugee camp, had previously been incarcerated several times in Israel and is known as a Tanzim-Fatah operative.

‘Israel should be annihilated,’ senior Iran aide says

A senior Iranian official on Tuesday said Israel “should be annihilated,” and that the thawing relations with the West would not translate into a shift in Tehran’s position concerning the Jewish state.
Hussein Sheikholeslam, a foreign affairs adviser to parliament speaker Ali Larijani, told Iranian media that contrary to remarks by British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, “Our positions against the usurper Zionist regime have not changed at all; Israel should be annihilated and this is our ultimate slogan.”
Hammond was in Iran on Monday for the reopening of the UK embassy in Tehran, and said that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had indicated a “more nuanced approach” to Israel’s existence. Hammond said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s “revolutionary sloganizing” should be distinguished from “what Iran actually does in the conduct of its foreign policy.”
“We’ve got to, as we do with quite a number of countries, distinguish the internal political consumption rhetoric from the reality of the way they conduct their foreign policy,” the Guardian quoted Hammond saying.

IDF ‘more ready than ever’ to strike Iran, security official says

The Israeli military is readier now than it ever has been to carry out a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities should it be instructed to do so, a senior security official told Walla news Monday.
“Every year that passes, the IDF improves,” the unnamed official said. “We never stand still. The professional level increases. In the coming year we will receive another submarine, F-35 fighter jets and other platforms. Intelligence is improving as well,” he said.
He noted that Israel’s defensive capabilities against Iranian retaliation were also constantly improving.
But the news site noted that the military option had essentially been suspended in recent years and would not be easily reinstated unless there is a fundamental change in the political landscape, or a serious development in Iran’s alleged progress towards a nuclear bomb.

Antisemitic UNRWA school page taken down - but problem remains

On Sunday, I reported that the Facebook page of an UNRWA school had posted antisemitic images and encouraged Arabs to run over Jews with cars.

On Monday, the news was reported in The Tower.

UN Watch sent an official complaint to UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon

Breitbart News reported on the story as well, also referring to my earlier story of UNRWA teachers posting Nazi imagery that was covered by Channel 10 in Israel last week.

By Monday night, the entire Facebook page of the Rameh UNRWA school was gone.

But this isn't a victory. This is a cover-up, one of many that I have exposed by UNRWA over the years.

At least twenty times I have exposed UNRWA hate, antisemitic and pro-terror articles, poems and essays by UNRWA teachers and even on official UNRWA websites. Almost invariably, the website would be silently taken down or the affiliation with UNRWA was removed from the social media posts.

But not once has UNRWA admitted that its teachers encourage racism, antosemitism and jihadist terror, despite my screenshots and documents proving it.. Not once has UNRWA issued a statement condemning this behavior. Not once has UNRWA acted in the transparent manner that one would expect an organization funded by the world to act.

Instead, UNRWA - and its spokesperson Chris Gunness in particular - hides their teachers' activities and allows them to continue to act this way, just not as publicly.

An organization that really was dedicated to the principles that UNRWA espouses would proactively aim to clean house. Instead, UNRWA removes the evidence while the problem festers. There is not the slightest indication that any actual disciplining has occurred, ever. Gunness lied on Israeli TV when he said "If there is a suspected breach of neutrality on the part of employees, we will investigate and take significant steps, including dismissal." (He gave an almost identical lie when confronted by a reporter for a similar issue I found in 2013.)

It has never happened. On the contrary - when a UNRWA teachers union sent a letter to the agency officially denying the Holocaust, it was never reported and there were no repercussions.

UNRWA only acts when reporters call them. They read my tweets and instead of jumping to investigate, they do everything they can to hide the evidence.

For a while it was almost comical as I would expose UNRWA hate online and UNRWA would silently take down the websites. But this isn't a game of whack-a-mole - this is proof positive that UNRWA teachers are teaching generations of students to hate Jews, to support terror, to deny or even approve of the Holocaust.

There are no investigation into these incidents by UNRWA. There is only removing the evidence and keeping the teachers happily employed, while asking them to not be so public about their hate to protect their funding.

And pro-terror posts like this one are still to be found on Facebook pages of UNRWA teachers. (In this case the teacher is anonymous, but he lives in Khan Younis.)

UNRWA does not want to fix the problem. They never have. And this proves that UNRWA is the problem that needs to be fixed.

HRW, UN and B'Tselem demand that Israel VIOLATE international law

Human Rights Watch issued a report:

The Israeli military unlawfully demolished at least 39 structures in Bedouin Palestinian communities in the West Bank on August 17 and 18, 2015. The demolitions left 126 people homeless, 80 of them children. Four of the communities where the demolitions took place are targeted by an Israeli government plan to forcibly “relocate” 7,000 Bedouin.

Such destruction of private Palestinian property and the forcible transfer of Palestinians violate Israel’s human rights obligations and the laws of occupation. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from destroying private property or forcibly transferring the protected population unless strictly necessary for military reasons. Israel does not claim the demolitions or planned relocations are justified for military reasons.

B'Tselem also says that this is against international humanitarian law. The UN had stated that previously and I fisked that UN statement.

What does international law say?

For the purposes of this post, we will assume that Israel is occupying Area C of Judea and Samaria, which is the legal basis of Israel's Supreme Court decisions, even though it never ruled on that question specifically.

The law prohibiting confiscating private property comes from the Hague Conventon IV article 46, which states flatly "Private property cannot be confiscated."

But these buildings weren't built on private property. They were illegally built on public state lands.

What does the Hague Convention say about the legal obligations of an occupying power?

That is in article 43:

The authority of the legitimate power having in fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all the measures in his power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country.

Under international law, Israel must do everything possible to respect the laws that were in place before the occupation - meaning the laws from the previous Jordanian and British and Ottoman governments.

And under none of those sets of laws would illegal building on state be considered to magically become private property and protected under the law from being demolished. That idea is nonsensical; Imagine what the New York City government would do if people built buildings in Central Park and then claimed to be homeless and forced to relocate when they were demolished.

HRW is clearly and knowingly lying when they use the "private property" argument.

B'Tselem is a bit more knowledgeable about international law than Human Rights Watch and doesn't try to use HRW's clearly incorrect legal reasoning. Instead, it only argues HRW's second reason, saying that "These expulsion plans run counter to the provisions of international humanitarian law, which prohibit the forcible transfer of protected persons, unless carried out for their own protection or for an imperative military need." But again it is absurd to say that legally demolishing buildings built without permits is "forcible transfer." On the contrary, it is enforcing the law. The alternative is to give anyone the right to squat on public lands, which is clearly absurd.

There are exceptions where the occupier may override pre-existing laws for security or other purposes, for example to strike down pre-existing laws that violate human rights or otherwise contradict the provisions of "public order and safety." The full extent of that permission is argued by various legal scholars. But as far as I can tell, no one says that Israel is mandated to change existing Ottoman/British land and zoning laws - and to do so without good reason would be a violation of international law!

Yet this is exactly what these NGOs are demanding that Israel do - to uproot or ignore pre-existing land laws.

Perhaps these organizations have a point in that Israel is not enforcing the pre-existing laws equally between Jews and Arabs in Judea and Samaria. In this particular case, however, the illegal squatters on state land never even bothered to submit applications for building permits or to submit a master plan for rezoning areas for residential use. The reason, of course, is because these structures were meant as a land grab and not as a declaration of private property rights. The Bedouin knew very well that their buildings were illegal, and Jews who would build random structures on state land would be treated the same way.

Yet even if you claim that Israel's application of zoning laws is not done evenly, "it's not fair" is not a principle of international law that is being violated.

One argument that may be made in favor of Israel's changing the zoning laws could perhaps come from an expansive reading of "public order and safety" in the Hague Conventions, a reading that Israel's Supreme Court in fact has used, translating the original French "la vie publique" as ‘civil life’ which is much more than "public order." Yet even then, that does not mean that Israel is obligated to go so far as to change existing laws. As legal scholar Marco Sasson writes:

Under the general rule, as its qualifications ‘all measures in his power’ and ‘as far as possible’ confirm, public order and civil life are not results that must be guaranteed by an occupying power, but only aims it must pursue with all available, lawful and proportionate means. One may argue that the required standard of action is below that with which human rights instruments expect states to comply in fulfilling human rights, in particular social, economic and cultural rights, since, as discussed below, the occupying power is not sovereign and its legislative powers are limited.

There is obviously a tension between the Hague provisions to ensure public order and civil life and to "respect, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country." But to demand that the latter, written in very strong language, trumps the former, and not doing so is a violation of international law, is clearly wrong.

The UN, B'Tselem and HRW are not telling the truth about international law, and they are twisting it deliberately to target Israel.

(Israel's Supreme Court does not recognize forcible transfers within occupied territory to be against the Geneva Conventions prohibition on "forcible transfer," but the ICRC does, so we will not argue that point here.)

Amnesty has no idea why Israel might have bombed this house.

Amnesty is still posting about year-ago individual events that they claim shows Israeli war crimes, and I keep debunking them.

The latest:

Israeli air strike hit Joudeh family in their garden. 4 children & mother killed. http://t.co/gcEFrcDfMc #50days4Gaza pic.twitter.com/f6FM4eG1Eo
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) August 24, 2015

Their proof comes from PCHR and Al Mezan, the latter of which said (#3569 on Gaza Platform):

Israeli military drones fired at least one (1) missile at approximately 16:15 on Sunday evening 24/08/2014 at the home of Isam Mustafa Gouda Goud [Joudeh], located near the Shouri Mosque in Tal al-Zaatar in Jabalya in GNG, killing his wife Rawya Ibrahim Mohamed Mohamed Gouda (43) and his children: Tasneem (14), Raghd (12), Mohamed(8) and Usamama (6) injuring a child Thae’r (13) with serious injuries to different parts of his body causing the amputation of his right leg. ... The centers researcher, Isam Gouda reported that the family were targeted as they sat in their garden, while the father was inside the house when he heard a loud whistle and saw smoke and dust filling the garden... Issam cannot find a reason as to why he and his family were targeted by the planes.

No militants killed, only women and children. Sounds pretty bad for the IDF.

Until you Google the husband/father, Éssam Mustafa Jouda.(عصام مصطفى جودة) The man who said there was no possible reason to attack his home.

Al Watan Voice talks about the deaths of his wife and four sons.

It also says that Essam is a fighter for the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades of Fatah. His nom de guerre is Abu Mustafa.

A similar article is here, with this poster commemorating the event.

Can you believe that Essam lied to Al Mezan and told them that he was not a terrorist?

Can you believe that PCHR and Al Mezan didn't report this information even though it was available only two days after the attack?

Can you believe that Electronic Intifada had an extensive interview with the militant without mentioning this fact that was published the day before their sob story?

Can you believe that Amnesty once again refuses to blame Gaza militants for using their families as human shields?

Can you believe that Amnesty's record of highlighting what they consider Israeli war crimes is so poor that for nearly every example they've tweeted that claimed or implied unnecessary Israeli attacks, I have been able to find a valid military target?

The answers are of course all "yes." It is very believable that Amnesty and PCHR and Al Mezan (and Electronic Intifada) work overtime to hide evidence of any militant activity in Gaza in their single-minded goal of demonizing Israel. My series on the Gaza Platform proves this beyond any reasonable doubt.

08/24 Links Pt2: I Saw Hamas' Cruel and Selfish Game in Gaza; The Media Discovers '5-Star Gaza'

From Ian:

I Saw Hamas' Cruel and Selfish Game in Gaza

Polish reporter Wojciech Cegielski spent a month in Gaza during last summer's war. He has no doubt Hamas used people as human shields.
I spent a month in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. It was one of the worst and deadliest months I have seen in my life. The reality there was much more complicated than was seen from a safe distance in Europe or the United States.
Yes, Israel bombed Palestinian houses in Gaza. But Hamas is also to blame for its cruel and selfish game against its own people. I do not have hard evidence but for me, spending a month in the middle of this hell, it was obvious that they were breaking international rules of war and worst of all, were not afraid to use their own citizens as living shields.
The first incident happened late in the evening. I was in the bathroom when I’ve heard a loud rocket noise and my Spanish colleague, a journalist who was renting with me a flat near the Gaza beach, started to scream. He wanted to light a cigarette and came to one of the open windows. The moment he was using his lighter, he saw a fireball in front of his eyes and lost his hearing.
From what our neighbors told us later, a man drove up in a pickup to our tiny street. He placed a rocket launcher outside and fired. But the rocket failed to go upwards and flew along the street at ground level for a long time before destroying a building. It was a miracle that nobody was hurt or killed.
When we calmed down, we started to analyze the situation. It became obvious that the man or his supervisor wanted the Israel Defense Forces to destroy civilian houses, which our tiny street was full of. Whoever it was, Hamas, Iz al-Din al-Qassam or others, they knew that the IDF can strike back at the same place from which the rocket was fired. Fortunately for us, the rocket missed its target in Israel.

Gaza Strip’s middle class enjoys spin classes, fine dining, private beaches

Alongside the Hamas training camps and bombed-out neighborhoods, there is a parallel reality where the wafer-thin Palestinian middle class here is wooed by massage therapists, spin classes and private beach resorts.
Media images beamed from the Gaza Strip rightly focus on the territory’s abundant miseries. But rising from the rubble of last summer’s devastating war with Israel are a handful of new luxury-car dealerships, boutiques selling designer jeans and, coming soon to a hip downtown restaurant, “Sushi Nights.”
This is the Gaza outside the war photographer’s frame, where families of the small, tough, aspirational middle class will splurge on a $140 seaside villa with generator power to give their kids a 20-hour staycation with a swimming pool and palm trees.
This is the sliver of Gaza, a coastal enclave with the highest unemployment rate in the world, with personal trainers, medium-rare steaks, law school degrees and decent salaries.
The surviving bureaucrats, doctors, factory managers and traders in the middle class who haven’t abandoned Gaza often say they are squeezed between the Israeli blockade, with its tight restrictions on travel and trade, and the Palestinian leadership, including the Islamist movement Hamas, which has controlled the strip since 2007 and has fought three fruitless wars with Israel in six years.

Western Media Discovers '5-Star Gaza'

Western media has often been criticized by Israel for only on rare occasions presenting Gaza as anything other than an open-air prison suffering from Israeli blockades, but an unusual glimpse into the glamorous life of Gaza's middle class made its way to light on Sunday.
Articles such as an Economist expose in 2012 detailing golden Porsches and Hummer's cruising the streets of Gaza under corrupt Hamas rule were joined by a Washington Post report, revealing on Sunday how the "other half lives" in the terrorist enclave.
The article begins by noting how under-reported the middle class aspect of Gazan life is in Western media, commenting, "this is the Gaza outside the war photographer's frame."

Leading BDS writer courageously condemns Matisyahu ban (then post disappears)

Benjamin Norton is a leading author who favors the boycott movement (BDS) against Israel.
Norton writes for the anti-Zionist Mondoweiss website, as well as a slew of other places on the topic of how bad Israel is. While I don’t agree with most of what Norton says, he certainly is prolific and an upcoming opinion-leader in that sphere.
So when I saw Norton pen a column severely criticizing the ban on American Jewish musician Matisyahu at the behest of a Spanish branch of the BDS movement, I was, well, surprised. All the more so because leading American BDS activists like Ali Abunimah and Max Blumenthal were seeking to justify the ban because Matisyahu was too pro-Israel.
Norton wrote at his own website, Cancellation of Matisyahu’s Performance Blatantly Defies BDS
While I disagree with some of the characterizations — for example, in reality BDS does boycott individuals, and it is not a peaceful movement which seeks justice for all — the overall point was pretty much the point that Zionist supporters of Matisyahu are making: Keep politics out of music, and don’t single out Jews for extra political scrutiny.
Now the post, however, is gone.
That’s a shame. It was a good post.
And it stands in contrast to Norton’s subsequent post at Mondoweiss, which uncritically repeats the party-line by the leader of the BDS movement, Omar Barghouti, that cancellation of Matisyahu’s appearance was justified because Matisyahu allegedly is a “bigot” (i.e., he is Zionist and supports Israel):

Coinicidence alert: This was the fourth Dawabeshe fire in Duma this year

Israeli site 0404 has documented that the fire last night that damaged a home owned by the Dawabashe family in Duma was the fourth one this year.

Besides the one last month that is being blamed on "settlers" based on nonsensical Hebrew graffiti, there was another fire on February 26. There was also a car that caught on fire on June 19 belonging to a member of the same family.

What a coincidence!

Also, I have not seen any evidence that the fire this morning was an electrical fire - just various people have made that assumption but as far as I can tell no one actually examined the damage and then came to that conclusion yet.

Remember also that it is not unheard of for Arabs to spray paint Hebrew graffiti after arson attacks.

(h/t Bob Knot)