Saleh Mohsen from Gaza:
Ribhi Tomalieh of Ramallah:
Yes, this is what UNRWA employees exhort their friends - and probably their students - to do.
Clips and images were published Thursday of a 13-year-old Palestinian terrorist who was hit by a car while fleeing from police earlier this week, disproving claims by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who said Wednesday he was “executed” by Israel.Don't believe Abbas' lies, see it for yourself
The pictures, distributed by the Government Press Office, show Ahmad Manasra awake and sitting in a bed at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.
In one picture he is seen making a hand gesture some have interpreted as an Islamist symbol.
Manasra is accused of carrying out a stabbing spree on Monday with his cousin Hassan Manasra, 15, seriously injuring a 13-year-old boy and 25-year-old man. Hassan Manasra was shot and killed after charging at police with a knife, while Ahmed Manasra was injured after being hit by a car while fleeing.
On Wednesday night, Abbas accused Israelis of “executing our boys in cold blood, as they did with the boy Ahmed Manasra and other children in Jerusalem and other places.”
Other Palestinian officials and relatives have also claimed that Manasra and his cousin were not involved in an attack.
The Prime Minister’s Office quickly issued a statement after the PA president’s speech saying he was spreading “lies and incitement.”
“The boy he is referring to is alive and hospitalized in Hadassah after stabbing an Israeli child who was riding his bicycle,” the statement said.
Contrary to Mahmoud Abbas' distorted statement on the terror attack on 12 October in Jerusalem, the 13-year-old Ahmed Manasra is alive and is being treated in an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem. Ahmed and his 15-year-old cousin went out with knives on a killing spree searching for Jewish victims. As a result, two Israelis were seriously injured, among them a 13-year-old Jewish boy.
The Palestine Liberation Organization on Thursday released a different version of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech, which was broadcast on Palestine TV on Wednesday night.The full text of the [delivered] speech by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The new English version quotes Abbas as talking about the “shooting of our children in cold blood as they did with the child Ahmed Manasrah and other children from Jerusalem.”
The modified English version was released by the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department, which said this was a “full translation” of Abbas’s speech.
However, the Arabic version of Abbas’s speech does not talk about “shooting.” Instead, Abbas is quoted as talking about the “execution of our children in cold blood, as they did with the boy Ahmed Manasrah and other children in Jerusalem and other places.”
PLO officials did not offer any explanation as to why they chose to change Abbas’s statement about Manasrah.
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.
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."One strategy being tried is checkpoints.Bashi's inability to find a better solution is reiterated on Twitter:
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."
#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
“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.
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.Ben Carson: ‘Never Again’ means standing with Israel
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.
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.Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions: Anti-Semitic, Not Pro-Palestinian
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.
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.
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
איך לנטרל בקלות וביעילות תוקף חמוש בסכין. שתפו!
איך לנטרל בקלות וביעילות תוקף חמוש בסכין. שתפו!
Posted by Rogatka on Sunday, October 11, 2015
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.”1929 vs today
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
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.PMW: Fatah brought soil from Al-Aqsa to grave of killer of two in Jerusalem
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.
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.PMW: The PA lies to defend terror
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":
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]
Mohammed Assaf is UNRWA's first ever Regional Youth AmbassadorThis wonderful, shining example for UNRWA explicitly supports attacking Israelis.
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.
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.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.
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."
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.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.
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.
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
If you want real peace, don't insist on a divided Jerusalem, @USAmbIsrael
The Apartheid charge, the Abraham Accords and the "right side of history"
With Palestinians, there is no need to exaggerate: they really support murdering random Jews
Great news for Yom HaShoah! There are no antisemites!