Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, October 15, 2015

State Department accuses Israel of violating status quo on Temple Mount, retracts

From yesterday's State Department briefing:

QUESTION: All right. And then the visit to Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif by Israelis, is that – does the Administration consider that to be visits to there – does the Administration consider that to be incitement?

MR KIRBY: I’m not going to be able to characterize every single act with terminology. What the Secretary has said and stands by is that we want to see the status quo restored, the status quo arrangement there on Haram al-Sharif and the Temple Mount, and for both sides to take actions to de-escalate the tensions. So incitement can take many forms. Again, I’m not going to – I’m not going to go through a laundry list of what is or what isn’t. I mean, the Secretary spoke specifically about incitement yesterday, and we recognize that incitement can go both ways here. But it’s the – whether it’s action or rhetoric, it’s things that encourage others to continue this cycle of violence, it’s just not helpful and not going to get us to what we really want to see there.

QUESTION: Is it the Administration’s position that the status quo at the Temple Mount has been broken?

MR KIRBY: Well, certainly, the status quo has not been observed, which has led to a lot of the violence.

...QUESTION: So I just have two extremely brief ones, so we can move on after that. You said in answer to my question on the status quo whether – at the Temple Mount whether it’s been broken or not, you said that it has not been observed and that is what has led to – I think. I’ll go back and look at the transcript, but I think you said it had not been – it was not – has not been observed and that is what has led to a great deal of the violence. That certainly sounds like you’re affixing some kind of blame to Israel if this is, in fact, what the Administration believes has led to the violence – the visits by – visit by Israelis to --

MR KIRBY: Well, it’s not about believing it, Matt. I mean, you just looked at what’s been happening in that – on Haram al-Sharif and the Temple Mount recently. I mean, just if we’re looking at this in acute – through an acute lens, I mean, the activity there, the status quo not being observed, has led to violence. There’s – that’s indisputable. That’s not a belief; that’s a fact.

QUESTION: Okay. But that --

MR KIRBY: Now, but it’s not about – but it’s not about affixing blame on one side or the other. There’s a status quo there. There’s a status quo --

QUESTION: It certainly sounds like it, no?

MR KIRBY: No, there’s a status quo there that we want to see restored, and the status quo has worked in the past in keeping things calm.

When the words "status quo" are used in relation to the Temple Mount, it is always an accusation on Israel. No one outside Israel has accused Arabs of violating the status quo, even though they have done it numerous times, including building an entire huge mosque underground while destroying priceless Jewish artifacts.

There is no doubt as to the meaning of these words.

And after people called him on it, spokesperson John Kirby retracted on Twitter:

Clarification from today's briefing: I did not intend to suggest that status quo at Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif has been broken.
— John Kirby (@statedeptspox) October 15, 2015

But it is worse than that, because it sure sounds from the first paragraph quoted above like the State Department is saying that Jews visiting their holiest spot is a form of incitement, as is one of those "things that encourage others to continue this cycle of violence, it’s just not helpful and not going to get us to what we really want to see there."

From CNN:

One strategy being tried is checkpoints.

Israeli forces have shut down access to some Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem by setting up checkpoints and putting more police on the streets.

"These police actions and operations are intended to fairly respond to the wave of terror and knifing, within the framework of trying to return law and order to all citizens of the state," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

Human Rights Watch condemned the new security measures.

"Locking down east Jerusalem neighborhoods will infringe upon the freedom of movement of all Palestinian residents rather than being a narrowly tailored response to a specific concern," said Sari Bashi of Human Rights Watch.

"The recent spate of attacks on Israeli civilians would present a challenge for any police force. But exacerbating the punitive policy of home demolitions is an unlawful and ill-considered response."

Bashi's inability to find a better solution is reiterated on Twitter:

#Jerusalem mayor's call to close Palestinian neighborhoods- punitive, disproportionate response to tough security problem.
— Sari Bashi (@saribashi) October 13, 2015

Attacks are real challenge for Jerusalem police. But closing off Palestinian neighborhoods blocks freedom of movement of all residents.
— Sari Bashi (@saribashi) October 14, 2015

Bashi is admitting that Human Rights Watch cannot come up with a single idea of how Israel can defend Israelis from being stabbed by random Arabs.

But HRW's official position is that dead Jews are a small price to pay to avoid inconveniencing the people from whose neighborhoods the murderers come.

Meaning that given a choice of the rights of Jews to live, or the rights of Arabs to not have to spend an extra couple of minutes to go somewhere, the Arab rights win.

Given the choice of an admittedly imperfect disincentive for young Palestinians to stab Jews, and allowing Jews to be stabbed, HRW chooses to let the Jews die.

It isn't a question of human rights for Palestinians. It is a question of competing human rights between two groups of people - one of which, by and large, wants to see the other dead.

But in the twisted calculus of HRW, Arab rights to move freely (a right that Jews do not have either in Israel) are far, far more important than the right for Jews to live.

Which is a curious position for a supposed "human rights" group to take.

I should note that to my knowledge, HRW has never said a word against constant Arab incitement to kill Jews or Arab antisemitism or Arab officials justifying the murder spree. They claim that they are against the stabbings but in practical terms, HRW supports them. Their pretense of caring about Jewish lives is never backed up by any concrete call for action on the parts of those who call the murderers heroes and martyrs.

From the NYT:

“East Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine,” Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official, said on Voice of Palestine radio. “If they think that they can reach security with these measures, they are wrong. The Palestinian people will continue to defend themselves.”

The bolded sentence is a direct threat - Israeli defensive measures are useless, Erekat is saying, because Palestinians will always be able to break through the defenses and kill Jews.

But his next sentence defines these stabbings as "defend[ing] themselves."

The reason is clear:

Erekat knows that this current unrest is making Palestinian Arabs look bad,

He cannot deny that there have been many stabbings, car rammings, shootings and stonings against innocent Israelis.

So he needs to cast the terror spree as "self defense." Because self defense is justifiable.

Saeb Erekat is saying that Arabs have the fundamental human right to murder random Jews in Israel.

Too bad no reporter ever calls him on statements like these.

Hey, it's been a solid couple of weeks since I last caught him lying. But this time he is accidentally telling the truth - he, and the Palestinian Arab leadership, really support the terror spree as moral even if they don't want to suffer the consequences.

Palestinians claim Jews photoshopped knife on terrorist

An UNRWA teacher named Maen Dajani linked to a photo from the official Facebook page of Ramallah City pretending to prove that the 15-year old who was killed after attempting to stab an Israeli was really not holding a knife in the photo that was distributed.

Because they couldn't see the shadow of the thin knife on the ground.

Actually, if you look closely you can see the shadow of the knife, but just for kicks, I downloaded the video that the frame was taken from (made by MSNBC, hardly a Zionist video outlet, and showed within minutes of the event) and slowed down the parts where the knife was most clearly visible.

That's some Photoshop!

10/14 Links Pt2: Glick: The nuclear deal’s true purpose; BDS: Anti-Semitic, Not Pro-Palestinian

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The nuclear deal’s true purpose

Last week we learned that aspects of the US ’s commitments to Iran under the deal are illegal under US law. If the Republican Congress tries to force Obama to obey the law (that he himself signed), Obama will blame the Republicans when the Iranians respond by abandoning the deal. If the Republicans try to impose new sanctions on Iran because Iran breaches its commitments, then Iran can leave the deal.
And Obama will blame the Republicans.
What this means for Republicans is clear enough.
They must recognize the deal for what it really is – a political tool to weaken them, not Iran. Once they understand what is going on, they must refuse to fall into the trap Obama set for them. Republican mustn’t worry about whether or not Iran vacates its signature. It is the deal, not any action they may take, that ensures Iran will walk away.
Moreover, Republicans – and the deal’s Democratic opponents – must refuse to shoulder the blame when Iran acts as expected and walks away.
Obama negotiated a deal that guarantees Iran will become a nuclear power and prevents the US from taking steps, in the framework of the deal, to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Obama didn’t do this because he is a bad negotiator. He did this because his goal was never to prevent Iran from developing atomic bombs and delivery mechanisms. His goal was always to blame Republicans (and Israel) for what he had to power to prevent, but had no interest in preventing.

Ben Carson: ‘Never Again’ means standing with Israel

Sometimes it is hard to find the right words to talk about the kind of evil that defies reason and destroys lives. We saw that evil on full display during the Holocaust perpetuated by the fanatical and tyrannical Nazi regime under Adolph Hitler. The lessons to be drawn from those darkest of days in world history are plentiful, and as relevant today as they were nearly 80 years ago.
In recent days I suggested that things might have unfolded in a very different manner in Europe had the Jewish people been armed and better able to defend themselves. What would have been the impact on Hitler’s war machine if his victims had had more access to guns? It is something that we will never know for sure.
What I do know however, beyond any shadow of a doubt, is that I never intended for my words to diminish the enormity of the tragedy or in any way to cause any pain for Holocaust survivors or their families.
Both those who perished and those who survived the Nazi camps deserve our deepest reverence, as do the partisan fighters who rose in armed opposition.

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions: Anti-Semitic, Not Pro-Palestinian

One of the most blatant and visible manifestations of antisemitism in the pro-Palestinian camp is found in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which calls on individuals – or companies, organizations and universities – to “starve Israel economically and isolate it socially.” But it doesn’t end there; the BDS movement also targets Jews, as was proven recently by Rototom Sunsplash’s demand that Matisyahu (an American Jewish musician) “declare his view regarding the Palestinians right to a state of their own” before being allowed to perform. The musician refused to be bullied and was told he could not preform. The Rototom Sunsplash organizers eventually re-invited the artist, saying that they had been pressured by the Valencia chapter of the BDS.BDS activists hurt the very people they claim they want to help. Likewise, just as the antisemites of the early 19th century and World War II singled out Jewish people as the cause of Europe’s problems, the BDS movement immorally places all the blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Israel and European Jews. BDS emboldens the terror regimes that rule the Palestinians. But the BDS movement hurts more than just the Palestinians. It effectively takes attention away from real injustices in the world by disproportionately focusing on Israel. As Alan Dershowitz pointed out, “The BDS movement is immoral because it violates the core principle of human rights: namely, ‘the worst first.’”
The BDS movement ignores current and historic realities and singles out Israel – and its efforts to strangle Israel makes peace much less likely. BDS does not want peace; BDS does not want to help the Palestinians; BDS wants to see an end to the only Jewish nation state in the world and the only thriving democracy in the Middle East. Those who truly desire to see an end to the conflict must oppose the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and all of its efforts.

Humor in the face of terror

Israelis and Jews in general have long ago learned the art of black humor, mostly out of necessity. Here are a couple of recent examples.

This graphic has been going around:

While this isn't really from the pro-Israel side, it is funny:

Palestinian protesters try to put out fire on a compatriot's head after he mishandled a molotov cocktail @Reuters pic.twitter.com/Vlt50diaKa
— Noah Browning (@Noah_Browning) October 13, 2015

And here we see how Amnesty International apparently wants Israelis to defend themselves.

איך לנטרל בקלות וביעילות תוקף חמוש בסכין. שתפו!

איך לנטרל בקלות וביעילות תוקף חמוש בסכין. שתפו!
Posted by Rogatka on Sunday, October 11, 2015

(if the embed doesn't work, here is an alternate)

(h/t Daniel)

Hamas To Stab Children, Blame Israel, In Solidarity With W. Bank (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Khan Yunis, October 14 – Unable to participate directly in the current wave of stabbings, shootings, and other attacks on Israelis, the Hamas-led residents of the Gaza Strip will express their solidarity with West Bank Palestinians by instead stabbing their own children and accusing Israel of causing the deaths, a Hamas official announced today.

At least seven Israelis have been killed in shooting and stabbing attacks perpetrated by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs over the last several weeks, and dozens more injured. No formal effort to coordinate the attacks has emerged, and the spate of violence has the hallmarks of a popular uprising rather than an organized set of terrorist operations. Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, led by Fatah, and the Hamas regime in Gaza have offered full-throated praise for the attacks, and urged people to continue perpetrating them. However, with Hamas all but sidelined amid violence taking place exclusively outside Gaza, the organization’s leadership has decided to remedy their shameful non-involvement by exploiting the international media’s knee-jerk attitude that faults Israel for violence: they announced a plan this morning to implement a program under which parents in the Gaza Strip will stab their children, then point the finger at Israel for perpetrating the murders.

If implemented, the program will represent a step beyond the customary Palestinian use of noncombatants as human shields. Previously, Hamas strategy involved placing women and children in or next to military positions likely to be attacked by Israel, either to deter such attacks or to capitalize on the resulting civilian casualties by claiming that Israel indiscriminately kills them. The new policy will test whether Agence France-Presse, AP, CNN, the BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times, and other media outlets continue to uncritically parrot Palestinian claims of Israeli brutality and culpability even when the killings are committed by Palestinians.

Testing the boundaries of media complicity in the propaganda became an option, said Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar, when blatantly false versions of the ongoing attacks were repeated in some of those media. “It is one thing for Ma’an, which is run by Fatah, to insist that Sunday’s bomb attack on the Jerusalem-Maale Adummim highway was just a car fire, despite ample video evidence,” he explained. “We expect Palestinian media to invent eyewitnesses who say the stabbings were self-defense, or that there was no stabbing at all, and the alleged stabber was executed in cold blood – that’s par for the course. What we didn’t expect is for supposedly respectable, objective Western media to give equal weight to Palestinian propaganda even as Israelis were being attacked. That phenomenon made us realize we might be able to push the boundaries even further, and not actually have to provoke Israel into actions that harm our children in order to reap the benefits of their doing so.”

10/14 Links Pt1: Jews are being killed simply for being Jews; No, It’s Not The Occupation, Stupid

From Ian:

Jews are being killed simply for being Jews

One myth in particular has shown itself evergreen: the idea that Jews are trying to undermine Islam and its holy sites in Jerusalem. We have heard the lie that “Al Aqsa is in danger” since the 1920s, when the Palestinian leader Haj Amin Al-Husseini tried to stir up local rioters against Jews, inciting them to murder. Husseini would distribute pamphlets saying: “O Arabs! Do not forget that the Jew is your worst enemy and has been the enemy of your forefathers.”
Last month, President Abbas called on Jews not to put their “filthy feet” on the Temple Mount, again inciting anti-Jewish violence. Yet when Palestinian activists use this revered holy site as a temporary base from which to attack Israelis – piling up rocks, fireworks and explosives – it is they who desecrate the place.
Those making libellous claims about Israel and Al Aqsa today ignore the fact that 3.5 million Muslims visited the site last year, compared to 200,000 Christians and just 12,500 Jews. Indeed, Israel has maintained a delicate status quo since 1967, when it regained control of the Old City of Jerusalem, and handed back the administration of the Muslim holy sites to Islamic administrators known as the Waqf. Israel is determined not to let the status quo change, and has recently banned politicians from any visits to the site, in order to calm tensions.
But ultimately, what we are seeing is not about religious rights or land. It is about the same old issue. This is the issue that people least want to discuss but which most needs to be discussed. The excuse may change with the passing years. But the reality is that, be it 1921, 1929, 1936 or 2015, Jews are being murdered simply for being Jews.
Eitan Na’eh is Israel’s Acting Ambassador to Great Britain

1929 vs today

The current wave of terrorism was born from a lie. A lie that contributed to the incitement. Incitement that, regretfully, continues. Incitement that continues just like the lie. And that lie is that Israel is planning to rebuild the Temple and to that end is also planning to demolish Al-Aqsa mosque, which is holy to Muslims. If it weren't for the terrorist attacks, the casualties, the wounded, the worry, it would sound like a joke. A very bad joke, by the way.
As far as the people who keep things stirred up online are concerned, lies are legitimate now, just like they were in the past. Lies are allowed if they facilitate the murder of Jews. Lies are allowed if they challenge the Jewish people's sovereignty over their holy sites in the City of David.
In August 1929, the mufti, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, preached a sermon in which he decreed that "anyone who kills a Jew is promised a place in the world to come." Can anyone say that anything has changed among the extremists?
By the way, that sermon led to the riots of 1929 in which 133 Jews were slaughtered while the British cavalry looked on, indifferent.

PMW: Fatah brought soil from Al-Aqsa to grave of killer of two in Jerusalem

Fatah brought soil from the Al-Aqsa Mosque to the grave of terrorist Muhannad Halabi, who murdered two in the Old City of Jerusalem "so that the dead body of Martyr Muhannad Halabi can hug the soil for which he died a Martyr." [Fatah Twitter account, Oct. 8, 2015] Fatah thus follows the ideology of its chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, who recently justified the violence and murder as "protection of the holy sites," as Palestinian Media Watch documented.
In another demonstration of support for the current terror and murder campaign, today the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education is planting olive trees and placing "signs with the names of the Martyrs," honoring the "Martyrs" of what they call "the ongoing popular uprising." The ministry event follows two weeks of Palestinian terror attacks in which several Israelis have been murdered and dozens wounded in stabbing and shooting attacks carried out by Palestinians. The PA and Fatah leadership have referred to these terrorists as "Martyrs."
The PA Ministry of Education stated that its tree planting ceremony was a symbol of its dedication to the "Martyrs," and mentioned that some of them were school pupils. This refers to, among others, Hassan Manasrah (15) who together with an even younger boy brutally stabbed 2 people earlier this week, leaving a 13-year-old boy fighting for his life with multiple stab wounds. The ministry event was to "honor" the terrorists' "sacrifices":

PMW: The PA lies to defend terror

One of the ways the Palestinian Authority is keeping its population angry, willing to riot and continue terror attacks against Israelis, is by falsely portraying every terrorist as an innocent victim of Israel.
PA Chairman Abbas’ spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, stated that Israel had “executed” Hassan ‎Manasrah (15), one of two young Palestinian terrorists, who repeatedly stabbed and critically wounded a 13-‎year-old boy (name undisclosed) who was riding his bike and also stabbed Yossef Ben Shalom (21) in the Pisgat ‎Ze'ev neighborhood of East Jerusalem yesterday:
“Presidential Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina stated that the execution of child Hassan Manasrah... is an abominable crime, and the legal, humanitarian and political responsibility for it is on the Israeli government. He demanded that the Israeli government catches those who committed this crime. Abu Rudeina stated: ‘If the government of Israel continues this escalation [of violence] by carrying out more grave acts of execution, the situation in the region will go out of control, and everyone will pay a heavy price for these Israeli crimes.’” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 13, 2015]
PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah also made the same false accusation before the president of India, Pranab Mukherjee:
“Just yesterday the Israeli occupation forces assassinated in cold blood the child Hassan Manasrah and his innocence and calls for help did not help.” [WAFA, Oct 13, 2015]

The Ministry of Awqaf (religious endowments) in the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq has officially opened up a Representation of the Jewish Religion.

Two staff members have been appointed to this function.

This is the actualization of Ministerial Order No. 181 issued in April, which "provides for the establishment of the Representation of the Jews in the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs."

The purpose of the act is to act as a liaison to Jews and to serve the Kurdistan's Jews In on formal occasions

According to estimates there are currently about 430 Jewish families in Iraq's Kurdistan.

The ministry has previously done setablished a similar office for Baha'is.

See here for details on Kurdistan' Jewish history, and here for an explanation of ties between Israel and the Kurds.

UNRWA's webpage proudly says:

Mohammed Assaf is UNRWA's first ever Regional Youth Ambassador

As a "child of UNRWA," Mohammed Assaf is the ideal individual to be the first goodwill ambassador in the more than six decades of our history. A Palestine refugee himself, he grew up in the Khan Younis camp in Gaza. Not long ago, he was one of the over 220,000 students attending the Agency's 245 schools in Gaza. For him, the connection continued at home: His mother, too, was an UNRWA teacher. Throughout his childhood – at school, at the doctor's, at community centres – he saw firsthand the work that UNRWA does for Palestine refugees.

Since his appointment in June 2013, by Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi, as the Agency's Regional Youth Ambassador for Palestine Refugees, the 23-year-old Arab Idol winner has used his voice and his talent to help UNRWA give other young people the same support it gave him. With the universal language of his music, he carries the message of UNRWA and young Palestine refugees to new audiences, including in the region – to Dubai and Kuwait – and even further. In November 2013, he took that message to the United States, bringing the voice of Palestine refugee youth to the United Nations in New York City.

This wonderful, shining example for UNRWA explicitly supports attacking Israelis.

This was his Instagram message yesterday:

I am not quite sure about the symbolism, but his image is supportive both of rock throwing and, apparently, of shooting (those are bullets sprouting from the flowers, right?)

This is also on his Twitter account.

Mohammed Assaf the perfect youth ambassador for UNRWA.

Remember - at UNRWA , "peace starts here."

And based on the extensive evidence I've collected, "peace" for UNRWA means no Jews left alive in the Middle East.

(h/t Craig, Bob K)

The cyber-intifada

Most content generators want to find the magic formula that would make a tweet or post or video explode in popularity - to go viral.

There is no shortage of advice on the web on how to make something go viral, but let's face it - there is no recipe. Sometimes, the stars align and something goes viral, but behind every successful meme are thousands that went nowhere.

Just like there are many people who try to find ways to make their content go viral, so there are many people who have been trying to incite Palestinian Arabs to a third intifada.

Just as there are entire companies nowadays dedicated to finding and pushing viral content, there are organizations and prominent people who have been working hard to start a new terror spree. They try to anger the Arab street with lies and deception.

We've seen it for years.

Palestinian leaders in 2009 warned of a new intifada.
Fatah in 2010 threatened a new intifada.
People called for a new intifada if hunger striking prisoners would die.
Muslim leaders, specifically Sheikh Tamimi and Sheikh Raed Salah, have been making up lies about the Temple Mount for many years all meant to spark a new intifada.
Tamimi predicted that Jews would massacre Arabs on the Temple Mount last year.
Journalist Khalid Amayreh has been inciting and pushing for an uprising for years.
Even Chris Gunness warned that an intifada would start if UNRWA wasn't properly funded.

I have documented literally hundreds of examples of Arab incitement against Jews. There i always a different reason to be angry, but the desired result is the same: violence.

This is one reason why blaming the "settlements" or Israel's Temple Mount policy or any other alleged grievance is spectacularly wrong. If any or all of the supposed grievances are addressed, more would replace them. One only has to go back to before 1967 or before 1948 or before even the first Zionist Congress and see that there was still violence and there was still incitement.

The ultimate "cause"is that Jews aren't Arabs and non-Muslims aren't Muslims. The violence of today is just a variant of the oldest violence there is: you are different than me so therefore you must be eliminated.

But the proximate cause is the never-ending tsunami of incitement in Arab newspapers, Arab classrooms, mosques and social media.

Any event, no matter how innocuous, can and is twisted to incite Arabs against Jews. Two Arabs who were tragically hit by a truck when trying to repair their car were transformed into "martyrs" who were "crushed to death by Jewish extremist settlers" in Arab media.

The incitement is constant.

Sometimes, it is successful. The Arabs believe one rumor more than others, or become more enraged than usual over some report, and it spills over into violence. This is the equivalent of "going viral." One pseudo-reason for violence somehow gains prominence and a critical mass of mentally unbalanced people are successfully goaded into action by the people who are always, always trying to start a new war against the Jews.

Traditionally, the result would be large numbers of Arabs joining riots. Here is an example from 1920 where an annual holiday combined with the supposedly important demands of Arab leaders were used to spark anti-Jewish riots.

"Do want we want or we will kill you" has been the slogan of Arab leaders towards the Jews for 150 years.

To be sure, the bigger uprisings are not spontaneous In the case of the second intifada, Arafat engineered the entire thing, just as the Mufti of Jerusalem was behind the deadly 1921, 1929 and 1936 riots..

This time, there is a difference. The mobs and the inciters are still there - but they are in cyberspace.

A 2011 Facebook page calling for a new intifada (which has recently been resurrected) had 44,000 likes. And that it hardly unusual. There are many such Facebook groups, and social media providers are woefully bad at stamping out explicit incitement, especially in Arabic.

The antisemitic rhetoric in social media is even more unhinged and much more violent than it is in more traditional media or in mosques. For example, earlier this year, many Facebook users changed their profile names to "death to Jews." Antisemitism was no longer one of their many attributes, it is their defining attribute.This is relatively new.

There is a reason so many of the current stabbers are young.

Previous generations included a degree of pragmatism that their parents or teachers or preachers might still have. Arab newspapers usually try to pretend to have some standards of truth and morality. Arab adults, as much as they hate Israel, don't want to make their own lives miserable. They preach hate, but with a wink, saying that the real destruction of Israel will wait for Arab unity or the next excuse. Even Hamas has been actively discouraging attacks from Gaza. Even Ishaq Badran's proud father claims that he told his son to stay away from trouble. There was a calming factor built in with the hate.

But Facebook groups have no compunctions. Their writers have no filters. They don't care about consequences. They want the consequences. And very possibly, some of those groups are run by terror groups like Islamic Jihad, who are particularly adept at using new media.

On Facebook and YouTube, there is no need for forbearance or subtlety. The more extreme your position, the more popular you are. So the most egregious anti-Israel and antisemitic lies are rewarded with more "Likes" and more people making up more ridiculous slander. The feedback loop creates more and more hate.

This is a cyber-intifada, where the bulk of the incitement was hidden beneath the surface even among those who watch for it. In the dark corners of Facebook and message boards, the hate is endemic.

This month, that hate went viral. Youth have been brainwashed.

I am afraid that we are only in the beginning of this war. The electronic inciters ensure that successful attacks must be emulated and failed attacks must be avenged. Traditional disincentives to terror simply don't exist in cyberspace. Arab adults don't want this violence but they cannot openly oppose it because no one wants to be branded a "collaborator." Arabs who publicly oppose the violence are almost completely nonexistent. (One exception I found, an Arab Canadian singer, besides proud Arab Israelis.)

Israel has to think very creatively to find a way to find new disincentives for those who have been brainwashed more thoroughly than ever before. Right now, anything done against the terrorists inspired by cyberhate will be used as fuel for the next round. And already more organized terror groups are feeling empowered to use this spark to their advantage.

Unfortunately, this is not a passing phase.

Kerry lies as new statistics prove: IT ISN'T ABOUT THE SETTLEMENTS

From JPost:

A "massive increase in settlements" built by Israel in recent years has led to the "frustration" and "violence" now stoking its decades-old conflict with the Palestinians, US Secretary of State John Kerry said at Harvard University on Tuesday night.

In his most extensive comments yet on the terror wave– which has claimed the lives of dozens in the last two weeks– Kerry said a permanent resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was becoming increasingly elusive, thus aggravating tensions on the ground.

"What's happening is that, unless we get going, a two-state solution could conceivably be stolen from everybody," Kerry said. "You have this violence because there's a frustration that is growing and a frustration among Israelis who don't see any movement."

This idea that the settlement are ever-expanding and taking up more and more room to make a two-state solution impossible is the conventional wisdom of the Left - of the White House and EU and J-Street and Peace Now and every NGO funded by the New Israel Fund.

And it is a lie.

I have pointed out, using statistics from Peace Now, that actual physical expansion of state-approved settlements has been close to zero for decades.

This lie is a convenient one. For the Left, it demonizes Israel and justifies Palestinian terror, even though their situation on the ground has only improved in recent years. (That may change quickly with the current violence.)

And for the Right, Bibi Netanyahu pretends that he has been the force behind the increased numbers of Jews in Judea and Samaria.

Neither is true.

From Ha'aretz:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the number of West Bank settlers has grown by about 120,000 since he took office in 2009.

But while the number is correct, the reason has little to do with the pace of construction in the settlements during his tenure. In fact, since Netanyahu became prime minister in 2009, there has been less construction activity in the settlements than under any other prime minister since 1995.

Netanyahu made his statement during an internal meeting on Tuesday, in an effort to rebuff growing criticism from the right. A recording of his remarks was obtained later by Michal Shemesh, a reporter for Army Radio.

“The left accuses us that from 280,000 [settlers] we’ve risen to 400,000, and that was during years when we were told that official U.S. policy was not even one house,” Netanyahu can be heard to say.
“Praise God, this isn’t far from the truth. It’s the biggest increase in our world.”

This increase, however, isn’t because Netanyahu has gone on a building spree. According to data from the Housing and Construction Ministry, an average of 1,554 houses a year were built in the settlements from 2009 to 2014 — fewer than under any of his recent predecessors.

By comparison, the annual average was 1,881 under Ariel Sharon and 1,774 under Ehud Olmert. As for Ehud Barak, during his single full year as prime minister, in 2000, he built a whopping 5,000 homes in the settlements.

The current rate is also only about half the pace of settlement construction during Netanyahu’s first term of office, in 1996-99, when it averaged almost 3,000 homes a year.

So why has the number of settlers increased so sharply? Due to natural growth, especially in the two ultra-Orthodox towns of Betar Ilit and Modi’in Ilit. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the fertility rate in the settlements is 5.01 children per woman, which is far higher than anywhere else in Israel. In the northern district, which ranks second, the fertility rate is just 3.91 children per woman.

Thus in 2013, for instance, 12,129 children were born in the settlements and only 535 people died. This is also a very low death rate, which stems from the fact that the settler population is relatively young.

The statistics bureau’s data also shows that 74 percent of the growth in the number of settlers from 2009-2014 stemmed from natural increase. In 2014, for instance, the number of settlers rose by 14,200.

Of these, 11,800, or 83 percent of the growth, was a result of natural increase (births minus deaths) and only 2,400 the result of net migration to the settlements. In 2012, by contrast, natural increase accounted for only 68 percent of the total increase in the number of settlers.

Ha'aretz of course is spinning this news, which contradicts 90% of its reporting, against Bibi, However in this case they are right - Netanyahu has not been nearly as much of a champion of settlements as he pretends.

The truth is that there has been next to no expansion. No land is being "gobbled up" by the supposedly voracious Jews. No Arab houses are being demolished so that Jews could move in.

The only reason these lies are so accepted is because people like John Kerry want to believe them.

More sickening is the idea that Kerry is justifying Arab violence by ascribing a bogus reason to it. We'll discuss the real reason for the current terror spree in an upcoming post.

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10/13 Links Pt2: Code Pink BDSer also leads pro-settler, pro-occupation group; Obama Has Given Up

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: Notable Israel boycott activist also leads pro-settler, pro-occupation group

Code Pink is a prominent far-left group that is heavily focused on anti-Israel activities, and promoting boycotts in particular. One of its major campaigns calls for boycotts of Ahava beauty products on the grounds that they support “illegal Israel settlement” in the West Bank (a contention rejected by the United Kingdom Supreme Court last year).
But the mastermind of the boycott campaign, Code Pink member Nancy Kricorian, is also a leader of a pro-settler charity, as the Kohelet Policy Forum, a think thank with which I am associated, has discovered. Will Code Pink, the Electronic Intifada and other self-righteous “anti-occupation” groups sever their ties with Kricorian as a result? Someone should ask them, but I would not hold my breath.
The Armenia Tree Project, on whose executive committee Kricorian sits, promotes Armenian control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an area taken from Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s, which resulted in the flight of tens of thousands (or more) of Azeri refugees. Armenia has actively encouraged Armenians to move to the area, actions bitterly condemned by Baku. Indeed, the territory remains the site of occasional shootouts between the two sides.
The Armenia Tree Project supports various projects in the occupied territory (which they called Artsakh, the traditional Armenian name for the area, akin to Judea and Samaria).

Leading Anti-Israel Activist Supports Illegal Occupation Of Nagorno-Karabakh

A national staff member of the activist group Code Pink, which protests Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, is active in a group that promotes Armenia’s occupation of a region of Azerbaijan.
Nancy Kricorian is a leading proponent of boycotting Israel, especially products made by Ahava Cosmetics, calling them products of “illegal Israeli settlement.” Her husband, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and producer James Schamus, is on the board of directors of the organization Jewish Voices for Peace, which also promotes boycotts of Israel due to its settlement policy. But Kricorian is also on the executive committee of the Armenian Tree Project (ATP), a group that promotes the settlement of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was illegally seized by Armenia from Azerbaijan in a war in the early 1990s.
According to ATP’s website, its work “throughout Armenia and Karabagh is incredibly important. Armenia faces environmental and demographic threats.” To combat these threats, ATP has provided agricultural training to Syrian-Armenians seeking to settle in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.
In 2008, the United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 62/243, which reaffirmed “that no State shall recognize as lawful the situation resulting from the occupation of the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan, nor render aid or assistance in maintaining this situation.”

Douglas Murray: The "Islamic Inquisition" and the Blasphemy Police

It took only ten years for most people across the West to learn about Islamic blasphemy -- and in the end to abide by it. Today there might be thousands of people willing to publish cartoons of Mohammed on their Twitter accounts, but most of them hide behind aliases and complain about the cowardice of others.
A few days before the Mohammed cartoons' anniversary, Mark Steyn, Henryk Broder and the Norwegian editor Vebjoern Selbekk addressed a conference in Denmark to commemorate the anniversary of the cartoons. It was held in the Danish Parliament, the only building there now deemed safe enough to withstand the now-traditional attack from the Islamic Blasphemy Police. Anticipating a terrorist attack, the UK Foreign Office and U.S. State Departments both warned their citizens to stay away from the area of the Parliament building that day. The restaurant in which we were meant to be having dinner cancelled the booking; they realized, when police and security officers scouted out the building in advance, who the guests might be.
Ten years ago, you could publish depictions of Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. Ten years later, it is hard for anyone who has been connected with such an act to find a restaurant in Copenhagen that will serve them dinner.
It is not just artists and writers who have learned the lesson; it is everyone -- from newspaper conglomerates to the people who serve food in restaurants. Our societies like to think that terrorism and intimidation do not work. They do -- or can -- but only if we let them. Over the last ten years, a couple of brief eruptions of sanctimonious point-missing aside, it turned out to be fear -- not Mohammed cartoons -- that went viral.
Freedom, however, was never defended by more than a handful of people. Most prefer their comforts and a quiet life to anything that looks like a fight. But there are still more than a few good people across the world, and more than a handful of them in Scandinavia. If, in previous conflicts, one looked to pilots or statesman to lead the way, in this war against the new "Islamic Inquisition," it is journalists, cartoonists, writers and artists who find themselves on the front lines and who need to lead. Some of them might be surprised to be in this position. They should not be. Freedom of expression and thought have always had vicious enemies. But the truth has always seen them off, and shall do again.

Jeremiah Wright Made a 30-Pieces-Of-Silver Sale

As a Black African advocate for Zionism, I often come face to face with the childish ad hominem “you are a coon/uncle tom/sell-out” or “how much is Mossad paying you”? Before, I used to get the former mostly from other Black people and the latter from mostly Asian Muslims. Now, recently, even White anti-Zionists are quite comfortable throwing such racist pejoratives at me. Anti-Zionism married itself with “the Black Struggle”, but few of us actually got the memo. We just woke up one day and found that if you are Black and you support the State of Israel as the Jewish homeland and believe in fostering greater ties between it and Black people all over the world, then that is tantamount to betraying the Black Struggle.
I thought about this as I watched a video clip from the recent Million Man March, in which Jeremiah Wright, retired Pastor Emeritus of the Trinity United Church of Christ, told his audience that “Please remember, Jesus was a Palestinian“. I could not help noticing that as Rev. Wright spoke these words, a Muslim woman took position behind him. I was to learn that she is called Linda Sarsour. Now, I am not suggesting that she was handling him as the term would be understood by a conspiracy-theory buff. However, it is what the retired pastor was saying that got me thinking: Who is the puppet now? Who is speaking for another?
Well, how else would you rationalise an instance where a pastor of 36 years departs from the accepted teachings of his faith, and repeats with a straight face the preposterous declaration that Jesus was a Palestinian while a non-Christian activist nods approvingly behind him?
I am hoping no one would ever want to rationalise this display. I am hoping, however, that other Black Christian leaders, especially in the United States, realise that they cannot continue to be part of a Silent Majority while such fundamental teachings of their faith are sold to causes that have no respect for Christianity or issues affecting Black people. I can accept that some Black Christians will support the Palestinian cause, for whatever reason. But to distort their own beliefs in order to do so, and appear in public as if at the behest of a Muslim woman, grabs any hold of any straws they may be clutching in order to back this position, and dips them in something nasty.

Albawaba reports that Jews are secretly touring Jordan in order to steal the country.

Locals in the ancient city of Petra in the Ma'an governate, say that there are increasing numbers of frequency of Israeli tourists to the area; where they are tampering with the archaeological and historical places and faking them to prove that Jews were there.

Journalist Joseph Ataiwreh reported on an "outbreak of the strong protests in the city recently, in rejection of the presence of Israeli tourists in archaeological sites."

Ataiwreh said in an interview for "Arabic 21": "Yes, Israeli tourists come to Ma'an, and are engaged in suspicious activities, and staying long days between the mountains and valleys and rugged places, under the pretext of living a nomadic life. "

Ataiwreh added that "the fear of the population is that these Israelis are burying forged Jewish manuscripts and coins in the area, and will then claim that they have a history and a presence, and thus begin to claim the land."

Another writer, Fayez Da'jah, says "the south of the kingdom is exposed to Judaization aimed at tampering with archaeological and historical places, and rigged to prove the existence of Jewish assets...."Aaron's Tomb in Petra is the most targeted area for this campaign, prompting the responsible authorities place it under permanent guard around the clock."

"Jewish activities are surrounded by a ring of secrecy and anonymity and the gathering of information by dealing with events and incidents over the past years confirm that the first wave [of Jews] consists each time of a few officers from the army, and the completion of their mission is a condition for the completion of passing their daunting training course held in Israeli military centers, " he explained.

"The second wave is of student scholars from Israeli universities and history who come to Wadi bin Hammad to complete a course of study under the supervision of specialist professors, and the two groups hide in civilian clothes, carrying fake passports and entering the country on foot under the cover of tourism without prior approvals. They around for several days in specific remote and rugged locations, with backpacks and maps and GPS devices and ropes to climb, water and food, and perhaps light bedding.

"They infiltrate the targeted areas surreptitiously and destroy archaeological sites or add new writings and fake buried artifacts and steal existing ones."

Jordanian officials are checking the rumors out, saying that the ost recent group held American passports but they saw some of them praying.

Of course, ancient Israel did include parts of today's Jordan.