Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, November 08, 2015

11/08 Links: Governor of Ramallah: All of Israel is "Palestine"; Peter Beinart is a Judenrat

From Ian:

PMW: All of Israel is "Palestine" according to Abbas' National Security Forces and Governor of Ramallah

Following the Palestinian Authority policy of portraying all of Israel as "Palestine," two recent Facebook posts by the PA National Security Forces presented Israeli cities Haifa and Acre as "Palestine" and "occupied."
Posted text: "A photo from Palestine The old Wadi Nisnas neighborhood of Haifa"
[Facebook page of the PA National Security Forces, Nov. 3, 2015]
Posted text: "Good evening occupied Acre" [Facebook page of the PA National Security Forces, Nov. 1, 2015]
A few days ago, PA Chairman Abbas himself referred to all of Israel as an "occupation," and asked the UN Human Rights Council "how long this protracted Israeli occupation of our land [should] last?"
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA has presented all of Israel as "Palestine" numerous times. The PA does this on maps in schoolbooks, maps in the offices of PA officials and maps in public places, such as sculptures in town squares showing maps of Israel and the PA areas, depicted as "Palestine."

PMW: Songs promoting violence become Palestinian hits

Popular song in Ramallah: "I'm coming towards you, my enemy, We're going down from every house with cleavers and knives"
For months, Fatah-run TV playing song famous for motivating Palestinians to attack Israelis:
"The revolution of a people holding rocks... Allah is with us. He is stronger and greater than the Children of Zion"
Songs that encourage Palestinians to use "cleavers and knives" against Israelis, riot, and throw rocks, are being heard in the streets of Ramallah and are popular among Palestinian youth:
"The owner of the stall selling discs on Al-Irsal Street [in Ramallah] said that the discs of national songs make up 90% of his sales at the moment because the prevailing national sentiment causes people to buy them... From another stall near the El-Bireh cultural center the song 'I come out to you, my enemy, from every home, neighborhood and street' is heard." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 2, 2015]
The song "I come out to you, my enemy, from every home, neighborhood and street" was posted by Abbas' Fatah movement on its Facebook page already in November last year, only a few days after terrorists murdered 5 Israelis in a synagogue with butchers' knives and guns as documented by Palestinian Media Watch. As reported in the PA daily, that song is very popular at the moment, along with other "national songs." The lyrics of the popular song include the following call to butcher "the enemy":
"I'm coming towards you, my enemy, We're going down from every house with cleavers and knives,
With grenades we announced a popular war. I swear, you won't escape, my enemy, from the revolution and the people. How will you escape the ring of fire, while the crowds are blocking the way?" [Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page," Nov. 22, 2014]

Michael Lumish: Judenrat: Beinart

Peter Beinart is a Judenrat.
This is to say, he acts as an agent and intermediary of the enemies of the Jewish people while claiming to be a friend to the Jewish people. This is not to say that Beinart is disingenuous. I have no reason to doubt that he believes every word he says.
Recently, at the rather non-traditional Beth Chayim Chadashim Progressive synagogue in Los Angeles, he said this:
While we condemn Palestinian violence, we must recognize this painful truth: that Israeli policy has encouraged it," Beinart told his audience. "Israel has encouraged it by penalizing Palestinian nonviolence, by responding to that nonviolence by deportations, teargas, imprisonment, and the confiscation of Palestinian lands. Hard as it is to say, the Israeli government is reaping what it has sowed.
Can we agree that anyone who justifies violence against the Jewish people in the Middle East by the much larger hostile Muslim majority is not a friend to either Israel or the Jewish people? And why do I get the sense that of all the peoples on the planet, it is only Jewish people who are forced to even ask the question?
There is no other people, or nationality, who, if under attack by a long-standing enemy, gives the benefit of the doubt to those within that nation who justify, and thereby encourage, the violence against his or her own people.

Shmuley Boteach: Roger Waters' unnatural preoccupation with Jews

In a lengthy interview with Rolling Stone magazine this week, former Pink Floyd front man and Israel-hating obsessive Roger Waters demonstrated his all-consuming preoccupation with the Jews.
He speaks about watching Jewish Life Television late at night and reading about “old local Jewish ladies” who organize protests against him. Like most anti-Semites, he peddles central Jewish coordination theories, asserting that pro-Israel efforts, such as this very column, are organized by the prime minister of Israel’s office. “Hasbara, the arm of the Prime Minister’s Office that we all know starts with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv. It’s very organized, and I see it all over my Facebook page all the time. It’s this hugely organized thing.”
But for all his loathing of Israel, including flying pigs with Mogen Dovids on them as his concerts, comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and Israel’s policies to the Holocaust, and publicly condemning far more successful performers such as Jon Bon Jovi for performing in Israel, Rogers insists he is not a Jew-hater. “It’s not the Israeli people, not Jews, not Judaism. I would never dream of attacking them.”
It’s a refrain from that Waters has peddled many times before, including an open letter to the UK’s Daily Telegraph last year. “It is not, however, true that I am an anti-Semite or that I am against the Israeli people. I am neither of those. I am a critic of the policies of this government of Israel.”
Don’t believe him. Here’s why.

Learning to drive a car just to run over Jews

From TOI:

Four Israelis were wounded, two of them seriously, in a car-ramming terror attack at Tapuah Junction in the West Bank Sunday morning.

A group of Israelis was waiting for a bus at the site. The driver approached the intersection, then accelerated into the waiting crowd, according to witnesses and police.

The wounded were all evacuated to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva.

The Magen David Adom rescue service confirmed that the victims were all civilians.

The driver, identified by authorities as 22-year-old Sleiman Shahin from Ramallah, was shot and killed by Border Police forces at the junction.

According to Palestine Today, before Shahin left home this morning he asked his mother to take care of his 7-month old daughter for him.

His father says that Shahin had just received his driver's license a few days ago. He rented a car for the attack.

The terrorist was only recently married and was adding a second floor to his father's house so he could move in.

The daughter, who will be raised to hate, was named "Palestine."

His father blessed his son and all the "martyrs" before him.

(h/t Bob K)

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1921 British report on deadly anti-Jewish riots shows that things have not changed at all

In the British report on the Jaffa riots of 1921, we see this:

Yet even after that, the report goes on to justify the hate, describing Arab grievances against Jews - perception of taking their jobs, jealously that they were better organized - and then concludes:

Lots of other parts of that report are relevant today. For example, here is a case where a rumor was created out of whole cloth in order to instigate anti-Jewish rots:

Here is one where Arabs who claimed that they themselves were imprisoned by Jews = of Khedera who were themselves besieged by Arabs was found to be a complete lie:

Yet even today we have credulous "human rights" organizations who will believe and report the most absurd antisemitic rumors without bothering to verify the facts.

(h/t YMedad)

Video of Palestinian woman stabbing Israeli

From TOI:

One Israeli was lightly wounded in a stabbing attack at the entrance to the West Bank city of Beitar Illit.

The wounded Israeli was a civilian security guard in his 20s, who was posted to the city’s main entrance road.

The attacker was identified as a Palestinian woman from Bethlehem, 22-year-old Halawa Alian.

She was shot by the victim after stabbing him. The IDF said she was still being treated by medics who were evacuating her to hospital.

Terror supporters quickly started circulating this photo of her after being shot - without saying that she had stabbed a guard.

They then accused Israel of not letting her receive immediate medical attention, but there is a reason for that:

As per police regulations, the woman lay on the sidewalk until a police sapper team confirmed she was not wearing an explosive device. Only then were medics allowed to treat her.

Israeli reports said she was moderately wounded and has been taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem.

11/07 Links: The Grand Mufti's Genocidal Children; How a Family Became a Propaganda Machine

From Ian:

The Grand Mufti's Genocidal Children

There can be no doubt that Al-Husseini hold a major share of the culpability for the killing of thousands of Jews who, because of him, could not escape to Palestine. Instead, they were deported to Auschwitz and other concentration camps, where they were condemned to forced labor, brutalized, and murdered. Al-Husseini knew full well that this would be their fate; after all, he had been working towards this end since 1919.
Taken as a whole, the Mufti’s career is one of radical political evil. He fomented anti-Semitic beliefs and anti-Semitic violence in Palestine and throughout the Arab world. Though he was not an architect of the Holocaust, he knew about it, collaborated with it, and did everything he could to ensure that the Nazi extermination machine would ensnare as many Jews as possible. Even worse, perhaps, he worked toward a second Holocaust in the Middle East, one that, together with the European Holocaust, might well have resulted in the near-complete annihilation of the Jewish people.
Almost as important is the Mufti’s influence over the Arab national movement in Palestine that he founded. Today, Palestinian leaders still revere the Mufti and embrace his policy of absolute rejectionism. His tactics of incitement are employed by supposedly moderate groups like Fatah and leaders like Mahmoud Abbas, whose recent claims regarding the Temple Mount were identical to those made by the Mufti. And the Mufti’s openly genocidal stance toward the Jews and his emphasis on radical Islamic ideology finds expression in the actions and beliefs of Hamas. It is only when the Palestinians finally reject the Mufti and his poisonous legacy that peace will, at last, become possible. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

How a Family Became a Propaganda Machine

The goal of the Tamimis’ activism is the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state—and Bassem Tamimi had spelled this out very clearly by the time Amnesty announced its support for the Tamimis and their village at the end of 2013. Amnesty International may feel itself justified in designating Nabi Saleh a “community-at-risk,” but the risk is largely a consequence of the Tamimis’ longstanding quest to trigger a “third intifada” in order to eliminate the Middle East’s most successful modern state. It is shocking to see that this is a goal Amnesty apparently deems worth supporting. Moreover, while the Tamimis may pay lip service to non-violence, their social media activity shows all too clearly that they harbor intense Jew-hatred and that they are only too willing to glorify and incite murderous terror attacks. With Israelis now living with the hourly fear of random knife attacks, car rammings, bombings and shootings, the virtual hatred pushed by the Tamimis and their allies has become frighteningly physical.
Is it too much to ask that human rights organizations like Amnesty International avoid supporting activists who deny the basic humanity of Israel’s Jews? And has it really never occurred to those who support the Tamimis that there would be no clashes in Nabi Saleh, and no reason to regard the village as a “community-at-risk,” if the Tamimis devoted their efforts for a “third intifada” into constructive efforts to build political support for the peaceful co-existence between a future Palestinian state and the Jewish state of Israel? If this seems an unrealistic solution in the current circumstances, the enthusiastic and unquestioning support of western liberals for those, like the Tamimi clan, whose mission is to prevent exactly this outcome, is one critical reason why. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

ICC judges reject prosecutor's appeal on Marmara raid

Bensouda has already declined a request by the Indian Ocean island nation Comoros to investigate the May 31, 2010, storming of the Marmara, which was sailing under a Comoros flag.
Judges first asked her to reconsider in July, saying she made "material errors in her determination of the gravity" of the case.
Bensouda appealed the decision, but her appeal was dismissed Friday by a 3-2 majority in the five judge appeals chamber, according to AP. The majority ruled that the appeal was inadmissible under the court's rules.
Lawyers representing Comoros sought a review of Bensouda's original rejection, saying that, "the interests of justice and fairness, which are the core of the ICC's mandate, strongly militate in favor of the Prosecutor reconsidering her decision."
The judges’ call to reopen the case last July was condemned by Israeli officials. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stressed that "IDF soldiers acted in self defense while stopping an attempt to break a blockade carried out in accordance with international law as determined by the committee appointed by the UN Secretary General, a committee headed by a Supreme Court judge and international observers.”
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon described the decision as “scandalous” and “hypocritical”, adding, "The soldiers followed international law and defended themselves from violence by terrorists. We are fully backing the fighters, and we will fight to the bitter end against any attempt to harm them.”

Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah again glorifies stabbing (update)

From the official Fatah Facebook page:

Just more proof that Mahmoud Abbas considers stabbings to be "non-violent resistance".

This is a new hashtag in pro-terror social media, I'm not yet sure what it means, but it apparently is based on something a sheikh in Hebron allegedly said to Israeli soldiers in response to Israel's increased security there in the wake of recent attacks.

Notice also that this photo was done by a professional photographer who is confident that his terror portfolio will increase his business.

UPDATE: Here is the video that spawned the hashtag. Ziad Abu Halil has made a habit of yelling at soldiers for the cameras and this time when he asked why the roads were being closed in Hebron and the soldier said to look at all the stones being thrown. The sheikh answered "Never mind (bihimmish), let them throw." he hashtag is "Never mind" and there are already songs saying "it doesn't matter (bihimmish) what they do to us, arrest us, besiege us, etc., we will resist, they will meet their death here (in Hebron)"

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

11/06 Links Pt2: Howard Stern on Roger Waters: 'He Comes Off Like an Anti-Semite'; Immoral labels

From Ian:

Howard Stern on Roger Waters: 'He Comes Off Like an Anti-Semite'

Roger Waters may not want to "waste a single precious breath on that asshole" after Howard Stern accused the Pink Floyd co-founder of wanting "Jews to go back to the concentration camp," but on Stern's radio show this week, the host made it clear he wasn't going to lay off the subject. "I'm not the only asshole," Stern said. "I'm just the only asshole brave enough to take him on. For some reason, it's become very important to Roger to tell artists where to perform. There's so many countries with histories of abuse and slavery, but he's very focused on Israel. To me, he comes off like an anti-Semite."
Stern's co-host Robin Quivers was confused by Waters' acerbic response to Stern. "I think it's odd that instead of backing up what he believes, he calls names," she said. "Isn't that exactly the problem in the Middle East? When does he get to the point of throwing rocks?"
Tuesday's broadcast of The Howard Stern Show devoted over five minutes to Waters' "asshole" comment in Rolling Stone, and there were some sharp barbs. "Roger, you keep touring the same 30-year-old album," he said. "God bless you. I don't have any hatred for you. I don't think I'm an asshole ... By the way, I checked in, luckily the guys in Foghat have no problem with Israel. It's just one guy from Pink Floyd."
"Defending Israel isn't fashionable, I know," Stern said. "It is a tremendous distraction for Arab leaders to say, 'Let's get the Jews, let's get Israel, it's all their fault.' As long as their poor people are focused on Israel they don't wake up and realize who is stealing their money. Their lives aren't getting any better from all this crap, so don't be fooled by Roger and his statements."

Sarah Honig: Ibrahim Who Begat Is’hak

The Western Wall is by no means off UNESCO’s ever-mutating agenda. Odds are it will reappear and eventually be globally consecrated as Muslim. It’s not too absurd to forecast that the day isn’t far off in which Jews would likewise be required to abjectly relinquish all attachments to the Mount of Olives. By the wisdom of redrafted Arab chronicles and UNESCO, it behooves us to obey. Hence Jerusalem isn’t one whit different from Hebron or Bethlehem.
Bethlehem’s case is the most enlightening. Until 1996 Bethlehem Arabs themselves spoke of Rachel’s Tomb. Only then, at the height of their Oslo-spawned terror offensive, did they switch to calling it the Bilal Ibn-Rabah Tomb.
Ibn-Rabah was an African slave and Muhammad’s muezzin, reputed to have fallen in battle in Syria. Indeed Damascus’s Bab Saghir Cemetery has dibs on what’s said to be Bilal’s grave.
On July 2000 Yasser Arafat insisted to Bill Clinton at Camp David that no Jewish temple ever existed. This is now official PA mantra, recited impudently and unabashedly by Ramallah’s purportedly moderate figurehead Mahmoud Abbas. He concomitantly rails that “filthy Jewish feet contaminate Muslim Jerusalem.”
PA headliner cleric Sheikh Taissir Tamimi proclaims repeatedly that “Jerusalem had always only been Arab and Islamic.” The Cave of the Patriarchs, he hectored, “is a pure mosque, which Jewish presence defiles. Jews have no right to pray there, much less claim any bond to Hebron – an Arab city for 5000 years… All Palestine is holy Muslim soil. Jews are foreign interlopers.”
Back in 1950 poet Natan Alterman penned a tongue-in-cheek reply to a near-identical proclamation (“Palestine is an Arab country and always was. Foreigners have no part in it.)” Entitled An Arab Land, Alterman’s verses appeared on the Labor daily Davar’s front-page. By replacing Biblical Hebrew names with Arabic adaptations, Alterman appeared to amplify the spirit of progressive Arab scholarship.

French Jews ask gov’t to probe incitement against Bernard-Henri Levy

French Jews condemned what they termed an anti-Semitic demonstration in the heart of the French capital against the Jewish public intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy.
The event took place on Oct. 31 on St. Germain Boulevard, where a dozen-odd far-right demonstrators from the Renouveau Français group (“French Renewal”) convened with posters accusing Levy — a celebrity and supporter of France’s military intervention in Libya — of fomenting war for profit.
The protesters shouted slogans accusing Levy of being a “Talmudic philosopher” who is “waging Zionist war” and who should be “stripped of the French nationality and extradited to Israel,” according to a statement published Thursday by the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities titled “Anti-Semitic demonstration in the heart of Paris.”
The statement said CRIF “extends its support to Levy” and has contacted the interior ministry requesting the initiation of a criminal investigation for incitement to hatred, which is illegal in France.

Every year there is a pilgrimage of thousands of Jews to Hebron, to mark the Torah portion that describes how Abraham purchased the Tomb of the Patriarchs from Ephron the Hittite.

Many of the pilgrims sleep in tents because there aren't enough houses for them to stay.

This year, despite the danger, thousands more were set to come:

Defying the threat of terror and the stormy weather, thousands of Jews are planning to take part in the annual Shabbat Chayei Sarah festivities in Hebron, a celebration of the purchase of the Cave of the Patriarchs (Me’arat Ha’Machpela) by Abraham which is recounted in the weekly Torah portion named after Abraham’s wife who was buried there 3,691 years ago, according to Jewish tradition.

This Shabbat, November 6-7, the Jewish community of Hebron and neighboring Kiryat Arba will open their homes to guests from throughout Israel and around the world who will come to Hebron to read the Torah portion recalling the passing of the Biblical matriarch Sarah and her husband Abraham’s purchase of the Cave of the Patriarchs as a burial plot. The cave subsequently became the final resting place of Abraham himself, as well as his son Isaac and his wife Rivkah, and their son Jacob and his wife Leah.

“The city of Hebron is proud and eager to host the myriad guests who will be joining us in celebration this Shabbat,” Yishai Fleisher, International Spokesman for the City of Hebron, said in a statement. “Israel has been hit by a plague of jihad, yet it continues to operate everyday with optimism and resilience. We look forward to a fun and festive experience for all the good people, government ministers, rabbis and educators, Jews and non-Jews who will come to pay tribute and join us in solidarity.”

Apparently, the idea of thousands of Jews on a religious pilgrimage was too much for some Arabs. From TOI:

Two Israeli teens were hurt Friday evening in a shooting attack near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron.

One of the two, a 16-year-old, was seriously hurt and the other, aged 18, sustained light injuries. The younger teen was hit by gunfire in the upper body. He was taken to Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem, Channel 2 reported.

Maariv said both of the victims were conscious at the scene of the attack.

The gunfire apparently came from the direction of the Abu Sneina neighborhood of the divided city, targeting worshipers as they emerged from the tomb.

Large numbers of IDF troops were deployed to the Palestinian neighborhoods surrounding the Jewish settlement in Hebron to search for the cell behind the attack, the Ynet news website reported.

Imagine the world outcry if teenage Christians were shot by snipers leaving the cathedral in Notre Dame. That's pretty much the equivalent to what happened here. But since the victims are only Jews, and it happened in the territories that the world believes should be Jew-free even though Jews have been there for thousands of years. In other words, the lack of media outrage is because too many believe that the Jews deserve it.

There is a rich irony here. Abraham purchased the burial site, publicly, for an exorbitant price, specifically so that later generations would know that this land undoubtedly belonged to him and his designated descendants. David did the same with the Temple Mount, and Jacob did the same with a section of Shechem (Nablus.) And these areas is the very areas that the world insists that Jews have no right to.

AP reports that the Tomb of the Patriarchs is in the "center" of Hebron. No, it's on the edge, and Kiryat Arba is adjacent to H2. Hebron is a huge Arab city and there are no IDF restrictions for the vast majority of Arabs who live there. Not that you would know that from reading the mainstream media.

A third teen was shot near Hebron.

11/06 Links Pt1: Beinart: Israel deserves terrorism; Palestinian 'recognition' is a bloody lie

From Ian:

Peter Beinart: Israel deserves terrorism

Liberal American-Jewish commentator Peter Beinart gave a provocative speech on Wednesday, in which he said Israel essentially deserved the wave of Arab terrorism targeting its citizens.
Beinart - who despite his regular attacks on the Jewish state insists he is "pro-Israel" - was speaking at "Beth Chayim Chadashim Progressive synagogue in Los Angeles, which was set up as a "gay-friendly" congregation.
His comments were recorded approvingly by the anti-Israel Mondoweiss website.
"While we condemn Palestinian violence, we must recognize this painful truth: that Israeli policy has encouraged it," Beinart told his audience. "Israel has encouraged it by penalizing Palestinian nonviolence, by responding to that nonviolence by deportations, teargas, imprisonment, and the confiscation of Palestinian lands. Hard as it is to say, the Israeli government is reaping what it has sowed."
11 Israelis have been murdered and dozens more injured - many seriously - in a series of daily, primarily stabbing attacks, many of them targeting children and elderly citizens.
One of the examples of "Palestinian nonviolence" he gave was the weekly riots in the village of Bil'in, which involves rock-throwing and attempts by villagers, bolstered by foreign and Israeli anarchists, to attack nearby Jewish communities.
Amazingly, Beinart also used the same logic to essentially provide some justification for the 9/11 attacks on the US.

Palestinian 'recognition' is a bloody lie

This week, PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat, who was among the chief negotiators of the Oslo Accords and subsequent phony "peace talks," took the comedy act a step further. He told the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Thursday that the Palestinians may have to rescind their recognition of Israel.
One would be hard-pressed to find a bigger hoot than that.
In the first place, though the only concrete action required of the Palestinians at Oslo was to amend the PLO charter calling for Israel's annihilation -- and even this was only promised in a series of letters exchanged between Rabin and Arafat -- its newer version was never ratified.
Second, Israel is the only party that has upheld its commitments -- only using military force in self-defense.
The Palestinian terrorism war that is currently being waged against innocent civilians and soldiers erupted, according to Abbas and his henchmen, as a result of a change in the status quo on the Temple Mount. That there was no such change makes no difference. Spreading lies is how the Palestinian leadership operates. Its success at the dissemination of propaganda only serves to strengthen its resolve.
And this time around, Abbas is letting the kids do his dirty work, with knives and rocks, without having to lift a finger -- other than for emphasis when denouncing Israel at the U.N.
There are disagreements among Israeli politicians, pundits and the public about how to handle the current crisis. Debates on the viability or wisdom of the two-state solution are rehashed ad nauseam, to the point where it is not clear whether to cry or yawn. But a crucial little factoid keeps getting drowned out in the cacophony and camouflaged by blood: No official Palestinian body has ever recognized the Jewish state. This is worthy of at least a partial smile, because something that never existed cannot be canceled.

Mordechai Kedar: Wake up and start connecting the dots

The stabber is motivated by the same concerns that encouraged Haj Amin al Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, to take part in the destruction of European Jewry in the 1940's. A Muslim who sets out to stab Jews knows that a reward awaits him in Paradise whether he is killed before, during or after he does so. Our moral concerns do not interest him in the least, but if worst comes to worst, they will be the reason he will be protected from the anger of those surrounding him at the scene. He relies on Israeli law and Israel's police force to protect him from the crowd's vengeance, and is sure he will survive to stab more Jews after he is freed during a prisoner exchange.
That is how Israeli morality works against Israel and its citizens, paralyzing Israeli deterrence and encouraging terrorists to stab Israelis. The stabbers are in a win-win situation since Israeli law and morals grant them immunity from immediate punishment by bystanders who were witness to their terrorist actions. It turns out that those who constantly spout lessons in morality actually behave immorally by encouraging terror and murder. It is fascinating to see a professor of law blatantly encouraging terror.
This is how Israel ties its own hands, making it more difficult to respond effectively to terror. Israel has lost its ability to deter terrorist murderers because they feel that they have immunity. It should be a given that any terrorist who takes up a knife to stab a Jew knows that he will not return home alive, that he will be killed either by security personnel or the people who witnessed his actions. Isn't the period when Muslims considered Jewish blood cheap a thing of the past? Israel has no choice, it must renew its ability to deter terrorists.
Both the left and right must remember that this is the Middle East. Peace in this region is not the lot of those who unwaveringly follow Western mores, laws and ethics. He who succeeds in convincing his enemies that he is invincible and that they had better leave him alone for their own good, has a chance of achieving peace.
Anyone who does not understand this or who does not want to understand it, is cut off from reality. I suggest that he wake up and connect the dots for his own good, before the butcher's knife separates his head from his body - and I am not engaging in mere fear mongering.
In case that scenario does occur, will his being a moral person be of any help?

Arabs stabbing Jews - in 1910

From Hebrew newspaper HaTzvi, September 22. 1910:

Two days ago a young man named Schweitzer went from Rishon Lezion to Jaffa and on the way two Arabs attacked him and wounded him with a knife causing severe injury. Happily, soldiers passed by them and they caught one of the attackers.

Also between Nes-Tsiyona and Rishon-Lezion three Arabs confronted a Jewish man, named Yakov Binshtok, and attacked him. The victim fought them as best he could and he hit them with his fists and a penknife that he found in his pocket. But one of the Arabs succeeded in stabbing the young Jew in his cheek. Meanwhile more Jews appeared at a distance, and the Arabs fled and escaped.

These cases of onslaught in the middle of the roads and in broad daylight are very concerning to the residents, who consider it a sign that there is no security in the country and that the situation is deteriorating.

(h/t O., Yenta)

Stabbing at Rami Levy supermarket - here's my video of this model of coexistence

From TOI:

A Palestinian stabbed a middle-aged Israeli man outside of a grocery store in a West Bank industrial park on Friday afternoon and then fled the scene, police said.

The Israeli man, approximately 40 years old, was seriously injured in the attack. He sustained stab wounds to the upper body, and paramedics treated the man on site before taking him to a hospital, the Magen David Adom medical service said.

The army and police quickly began searching the surrounding area for the attacker, the IDF said.

The attack occurred outside the Rami Levy supermarket in Sha’ar Binyamin, an industrial area north of Jerusalem and southeast of Ramallah.

This is the same Rami Levy branch that I visited in 2013, where Arabs and Jews work and shop together - and where there (at the time) wasn't even a metal detector at the entrance because there were no threats. And this is in the territories.

During the interview I did find that there was one bit of discrimination between Jews and Arabs.

The store would give gift baskets to all employees before Purim, but they made sure to replace the wine in the baskets for Jews with a different food for the Muslims.

Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, gave a speech at Cairo University on Wednesday.

This section stands out:

Diversity is what makes the Middle East so rich, and unique. It's also what makes Europe so rich, and unique. It's our common strength. Da’esh wants to destroy all that. Dampen the colours of this region, and turn all the colours into black. We have a duty to preserve such diversity, and to help all minorities stay in their own land.

Da’esh is putting forward an unprecedented attempt to pervert Islam. It is a movement that, rather than preserving Islam, wants us to trash centuries of Islamic culture in the name of their own fight for power. This is not glorious, this is simply destructive. Daʼesh is not a friend but an enemy to Islam in today’s world. Its victims are first and foremost Muslim people. Islam itself is a victim of their despicable acts.

Now that we have Da'esh, there is no reason to worry about the Muslim Brotherhood or Al Qaeda or Hamas or Islamic Jihad or Hezbollah or any number of other terror groups. Only Da'esh perverts Islam, the rest of the groups are on "our side" by implication. We have a new bogeyman who can whitewash the crimes of not-quite-as-radical Islam.

So this way she can skate over history with statements like this:

Diversity is what makes the Middle East so rich, and unique. It's also what makes Europe so rich, and unique. It's our common strength. Da’esh wants to destroy all that. Dampen the colours of this region, and turn all the colours into black. We have a duty to preserve such diversity, and to help all minorities stay in their own land. Arab Christians have lived here for millennia. The Copts are part of the beautiful history of this country. And the same goes for Kurds, Yazidis, Alawites, Druze, for Shias and for Sunnis.

Has the region been a beacon of tolerance for all these minorities?

Note the absence of "Jews."

Mogherini's discussion of Israel was equally inane:

But let me mention an older conflict first. A conflict we must always keep in mind – even when we start thinking that because it is the oldest, it is also the one we can manage more easily, or contain. Even when the eye of international media turns away – and this is often the case, and media only come back when people, often children, die again. I'm talking of the lack of peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.

We must do all we can to end the violence. Ultimately, only with two States will there be peace. A strong, brave, wise politician like Yitzhak Rabin knew this very well: only a Palestinian state would bring peace, and only peace would bring security to Israel.

Rabin never accepted a Palestinian state. His position was to the right of Netanyahu's today.

Nothing is gained by spreading the same old lies. By implying that the current Israeli government doesn't want peace, Mogherini is part of the problem. Only one side has moved towards peace since Rabin's death, and the other one has moved much further away, based on actual words said both officially and unofficially by the main players. You would never know this from reading the statements of Mogherini and her colleagues.

A Palestinian youngster of your age deserves rights and prosperity. The people of Gaza deserve a normal life. All this will only be possible with a viable, strong and peaceful State of Palestine.

The European Union strongly believes in this perspective. Ultimately, it is up to the Israeli and the Palestinian leaders to turn the page and choose peace. But we can all do our part to help them take the right decision. For this reason, the European Union has pushed to invite key Arab countries to join our Quartet meetings, as it has happened in these last months. All regional powers share an interest in ending the conflict – and today even more so, as the whole Middle East is in turmoil.

Tension in the Holy Places can only play in the hands of terrorists of all kinds. It can facilitate radicalisation and recruitment. It can reinforce their narrative of a war of religion.

On the other hand, think what peace in the Holy Land could do. Think of a pacified Jerusalem, a city for all the children of Abraham, a capital for two States. How sweet would that be... I know sweet is not a word we associate with the Middle East… We should. What a powerful message would it send to the whole Middle East, to the whole world. The message that living together, in dignity and respect of diversity, is possible and indeed beneficial to all.

Look how equal-handed she is as she obliquely refers to Jews as part of the "terrorists of all kinds."

And also note how she avoids saying anything about how the Egyptian government has been far more antagonistic towards ordinary Gazans than Israel has been, and how that same government recognizes Hamas as being the enemy, not only Da'esh.

If she wants to foster real peace, she has to start with the real truth. Delivering a message to Arabs that everyone wants peace except for ISIS, without acknowledging the hate and incitement that permeates the society, makes hers a message of "fight ISIS" instead of "excise the hate from your own hearts."

(h/t Irene)

Obama agrees with Bibi, without the media calling him a warmonger

Last March, the world freaked out when they misinterpreted something Binyamin Netanyahu said on the eve of the Israeli elections.

"I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands is giving attack grounds to the radical Islam against the state of Israel. This is the genuine reality that has been created here in the past few years. Those who do not understand that bury their heads in the sand. The left-wing parties do it, bury their heads in the sand, time and again."

The reporter asked, "But if you are the prime minister, a Palestinian state will not arise?"

"Indeed," Netanyahu said.

Immediately the headlines blared "Netanyahu Says No to Statehood for Palestinians." The PLO Negotiations Affair Department even made up an entire quote out of thin air, turning that "Indeed" into the wholly fictional “If I'm elected, there will be no Palestinian State”

But that isn't what Bibi said. As he explained days later,

"I haven’t changed my policy. I never retracted my speech at Bar-Ilan University six years ago calling for a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state. What has changed is the reality.

"Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, refuses to recognize the Jewish state, has made a pact with Hamas that calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, and every territory that is vacated today in the Middle East is taken up by Islamist forces, so we want that to change so we can realize a vision of real, sustained peace."

Bibi was saying that it is inconceivable that a Palestinian state would come about before the end of his term, because of how Abbas is acting and because a unilateral withdrawal would mean a vacuum that would be filled by radical Islamists. He was just being realistic, not shutting the door.

Now, on Thursday, the Obama administration said essentially the same thing Bibi did:

The White House has made the "realistic assessment" that a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians will not come to pass during the remainder of Barack Obama's presidency, senior administration officials said on Thursday night.

When Bibi says it, the world media interprets it as proof of his disdain for peace. When Obama says it, it is wisdom of understanding the reality of the situation.

"International aid agencies violate human rights of refugees in Lebanon"

In the middle of an article about how Palestinian Arabs in Lebanese camps are helping Syrian refugees there come this paragraph that is just crying out for more details:

On the one hand, this is leading to tension and insecurity among and between new and established groups of refugees in Baddawi, as has often happened in refugee situations around the world. Many of my “new” and “established” interviewees told me that recent arrivals are often abused and exploited by local service providers.

Sadly, different forms of abuse are common across refugee situations around the world, where men, women and children are subjected to human rights violations by other refugees, international aid providers, and international peacekeepers alike.

Why would the writer, Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, not name and shame the organizations that are abusing refugees?

11/05 Links Pt2: Lumish: The Departure of European Jewry; Why is the EU stigmatizing Israel?

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Palestinian views

Polisar examined more than 330 surveys carried out by four major independent Palestinian research institutes to determine what Palestinians think of Israel and Jews, Zionism and the value of carrying out terrorist attacks:
• With regard to the Gaza wars, a large majority of Palestinians are convinced that Israel deliberately targeted civilians and that Hamas was blameless for positioning its leadership, fighters and weapons in residential areas.
• With regard to Israel’s goals, an average of 59% think Israel wants to “extend its borders to cover all the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and to expel its Arab citizens.”
• A 51% majority of Palestinians believes Israel will destroy al-Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine and replace them with a synagogue.
• “Palestinians characterize Israelis as belligerent and untrustworthy but clever and strong, and finger Judaism as the most violent of all religions.”
• The Palestinian Center for Public Opinion asked residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip: “Do you think that Jews have some rights to the land along with Palestinians?” Only 12% agreed that “Both Jews and Palestinians have rights to the land,” while more than 80% asserted that “This is Palestinian land and Jews have no rights to it.”
• In a 2001 PSR poll 98% of Palestinians said the killing of 29 Palestinians in Hebron by Baruch Goldstein in 1994 was terrorism, but only 15% were willing to say the same for an attack by suicide bombers that killed 21 Israelis at the Dolphinarium discotheque in Tel Aviv in 2001. An average finding of six Pew polls over the past decade is that 59% of Palestinians see suicide bombings as justified.
• With regard to the efficacy of violence, a 2005 poll by the PSR found that “Sharon’s plan to evacuate the Israeli settlements from Gaza was a victory for the Palestinian armed resistance against Israel.”

Michael Lumish: The Departure of European Jewry

Just as significant percentages of the Arab nation are on the march into Europe - taking the Middle East with them - so a significant percentage of European Jews are packing it in for Israel. This past year is a record among French Jews for the making of aliyah, i.e., Jews returning to the Jewish national home.
In fact, French aliyah is up 118 percent.
Does anyone doubt that there is a direct correlation between Arab-Muslim immigration into Europe and Jewish emigration out of Europe? I would posit that the two are intimately connected due to the fact that the demographic moving into Europe has rates of anti-Semitism around the 80th percentile and is often not the least bit shy about demonstrating that tendency, sometimes violently and sometimes murderously.
French Jews understand very well that the slaughter of Jewish people in the kosher market in Paris, concurrent with the Charlie Hebdo murders, and the 2012 slaughter at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, means that the Jihad has arrived in Europe.
Many Europeans - those who were cognizant during the March 2004 Madrid train bombings that took 191 lives or the July 2005 suicide bombings in the London underground that took the lives of 52 commuters or the May 2013 murder and near-beheading of British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich - have noticed, as well.

Jonathan Pollard’s lawyer still hopes to get his client to Israel

Just two weeks before the release of his pro bono client, Jonathan Pollard, New York lawyer Eliot Lauer is hopeful that US President Barack Obama will grant the convicted spy his biggest wish: to move to Israel.
The former civilian Navy analyst was given a life sentence in 1987 for espionage for Israel. He was granted citizenship by the Jewish state 20 years ago.
Following the 15 years of lobbying US government since they took on the Pollard case, Lauer and his partner Jacques Semmelman announced in July that the Parole Commission had decided to set Pollard free on November 20 — after some 30 years in prison.
One question that remains is where Pollard will go upon his release.
“President Obama … has the authority … to allow Mr. Pollard to leave the United States and move to Israel immediately. We respectfully urge the president to exercise his clemency power in this manner,” Lauer and Semmelman said in a written statement issued July 28.
That day, a White House spokesman announced that Obama had no intention of altering Pollard’s terms of parole, which state that he must not leave the US for five years. The White House said Pollard had committed “very serious crimes” and would serve his sentence under the law.