Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

11/11 Links Pt1: The rise of the child terrorist; PA again accuses Israel of 'assassinating' Arafat

From Ian:

Wars have never been pretty. People are maimed and killed. Children are orphaned and spouses are widowed. It is precisely for this reason that wars, over time, have been relegated to the adult sphere: because children need to be children. Indeed, some are less innocent than others. But they are still children.
The Palestinian Authority still has not internalized what the role of the child should be in a conflict. In the Palestinian Authority, just as in the Gaza Strip, they don't understand that children shouldn't play any role at all.
A child has the privilege of being a child, regardless of origin, religion or skin color. A child is supposed to be innocent. So why in hell did we see two children trying to stab Jews to death again on Tuesday?
The video from the Jerusalem light rail on Tuesday shows two children, one of whom less than 12 years old, assaulting a Jewish security guard with knives. It is an appalling and terrifying sight.
In the video we can see everything, except for the innocence of a child. We don't see two children. We see two terrorists. We see two murderers.
Those who try to excuse this grave incident by blaming the "occupation" are wrong and misleading. It isn't the "occupation" sending children with knives to kill Jews. Palestinian incitement is sending them, efficiently and persistently.

Does Israel Deserve Terrorism?

Can you condemn terrorism while at the same time rationalizing it? Not in a moral or logical argument. But that’s what liberal author Peter Beinart is doing when he said in a speech to a Los Angles synagogue that the current surge of bloody Palestinian terrorism is a direct product of Israel’s “moral darkness” and that “the Israeli government is reaping what it has sowed.” Beinart, whose remarks were highlighted by the anti-Zionist Mondoweiss site, thinks the stabbing intifada is a “monstrous, demented response” of the Palestinians to their plight in much the same way that 9/11 was a “monstrous, demented response to American foreign policy, a foreign policy of support for Arab dictatorships and Israeli policies which produced tremendous suffering in the Arab world.” In other words, the self-proclaimed spokesman for what he calls “liberal Zionism” believes Americans had it coming to them on 9/11 and the same is true for Israelis now. In doing so, he not only discredits himself but also shines a harsh light on the dubious efforts of many on the left to claim they support Israel while trashing it.
As much as Beinart wants to have it both ways — to condemn terrorism while essentially justifying it — he can’t. Beinart may think his is a morally nuanced approach to these crimes, but all he’s done is to prove that he is morally obtuse. That is true because saying al-Qaeda and Palestinian terrorist are wrong in their methods but right in their sense of grievance blurs is a profound misunderstanding of the point of such terrorism. More than that, assumptions about the guilt of the United States and Israel are not merely wrongheaded judgments but a deliberate effort to avoid the truth.
Beinart’s strong words about blowing up the World Trade Center and random stabbings represent an attempt on his part to establish his moral bona fides before turning to the thing he really dislikes: American support for Israel and Israel’s refusal to make suicidal concessions to the Palestinians without even a flimsy promise of peace.

PA again accuses Israel of 'assassinating' Arafat

The head of the Palestinian Arab team looking into the death of former chairman Yasser Arafat on Tuesday again accused Israel of assassinating the former leader in a Paris hospital, AFP reported.
His comments came on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Arafat's death and two months after French judges closed an investigation into claims he was murdered, without bringing any charges.
"The inquiry committee has been able to identify the assassin of former president Yasser Arafat," claimed Tawfiq Tirawi, the head of the probe opened in 2009.
"Israel is responsible," he declared, though he would not provide further details other than to add that "we still need some time to elucidate the exact circumstances of this assassination". (h/t Bob Knot)

Hamas hands over Arafat’s Gaza home to his Fatah party

Gaza’s Hamas rulers handed over the house of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to officials from his Fatah party on Tuesday with the intention of turning it to a museum for the iconic leader.
The house has been closed since the Islamic terror group Hamas took over Gaza in 2007 after routing the Palestinian Authority’s forces and ousting Fatah under the leadership of Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, in bloody street battles.
The ceremony, attended by officials from all Palestinian factions, took place on the eve of the anniversary of Arafat’s 2004 death. During his final years, at the height of the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, Arafat lived under Israeli siege in the presidential compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah. After falling ill in the fall of 2004, the 75-year-old leader was flown to France, where he died in a military hospital.

Tension mounts between Algeria and Morocco - and Jews are blamed

Here's an article in the North Africa Post telling the Moroccan side of the story of their long standing dispute with Algeria:

The deep causes of the antagonism between the two countries lie deep in the colonial legacy that left huge territorial imbalances penalizing Morocco and Tunisia in favour of Algeria.

After emerging from their independence struggle, Morocco and Tunisia were well aware that Algeria acquired its geographic extent at their expense and were hoping that an independent anti-colonial Algeria will repair the territorial injustices caused by colonialism. However, history took another course with the takeover of the army commanders in Algiers and the subordination of politicians. All the promises given by the political leaders of the Algerian provisional government prior to Algeria’s independence were renounced including the promise given to Morocco’s King Mohammed V to negotiate the borders in gratitude for Morocco’s support for the Algerian resistance and the Kingdom’s refusal to negotiate the status of the borders with France. Right after independence the omens of territorial consolidation began to manifest itself in the revolutionary military commanders that emerged as Algeria’s kingmakers. Thus, Tunisia was propelled to give up its territorial claims and signed an agreement recognizing the post-colonial borders with Algiers, while skirmishes took place with Morocco over the region of Tindouf. This low-intensity war in the early 1960s opposing Morocco and Algeria, known as “Sand war”, ended with a military victory for Morocco. However, the Kingdom fell short of retrieving what it deems historically Moroccan lands.

As a result, Algeria has been supporting the groups that are against Morocco's occupation of Western Dahara:

Strikingly enough, the very retrieval of Western Sahara by Morocco sounded the alarm bell for Algerian military junta who saw in the move an attempt to revive the aspirations for a “Greater Morocco,” an idea that resounds in history referring to an era where Moroccan dynasties ruled Mauritania, northern Mali and most of western Algeria.

But it is easier to blame Jews for these decades-old disputes.

Andre Azoulay

Algeria's Akbar El-Youm says that Jews are really the ones who are goading Morocco into confrontation with Algeria.

[We cannot] not rule out the existence of a dirty Zionist scheme that aims to ignite a war between Morocco and Algeria, two of the Arab countries that have so far escaped from the Arab infighting...These are not merely guesses and speculation, but a degree of certainty there is a real Zionist scheme aimed at fueling a fierce war between Algeria and Morocco similar to those that took place between Iraq and Iran during the 1980s that led to the exhaustion of the two countries both classified in the category of "Israel's enemies". There is no doubt that the Zionists will never forgive Algeria's unconditional support for the Palestinian cause, which made Algeria one of the most loved countries in the occupied Palestinian territories where their children raise the flag of our country through many of the clashes that took place recently between them and the Zionist occupation soldiers. It is known that the Jews were behind the lobby that controls the joints of the decision-making in Morocco, the Jew Azoulay is one of the most prominent of King Mohammed VI's advisers if not the most powerful of all, one of the defenders for the security of so-called Israel and supporters of two states (Israel and Palestine) on the holy land of Palestine. André Azoulay who also served as an adviser to King Hassan II is the face of a large Jewish community in Morocco, which is among the largest Jewish communities in the Arab and Islamic countries.

The article goes on to list other prominent Moroccan Jews, and uses as evidence of their nefarious nature that one of them said in a ceremony 6 years ago that "Jews will not disappear from Morocco, we have a long history here."

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React to the discriminatory EU labeling rules with pride, not defensiveness

From YNet:

The European Commission "adopted this morning the Interpretative Notice on indication of origin of goods from the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967," said an EU official.

Drawn up over three years by the European Commission, the guidelines mean Israeli producers must explicitly label farm goods and cosmetics that come from settlements when they are sold in the European Union. The EU guidelines aren't expected to necessarily apply to Israeli industrial or electronic products, or to non-fresh foods.

"This is a technical measure, not a political one," one Commission source said on Tuesday. "The occupied territory is not part of the sovereign state of Israel, so goods cannot be sold as 'Made in Israel'."

The EU does not recognize the legitimacy of Israel's presence in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. It says the labeling policy aims to distinguish between goods made inside the internationally accepted borders of Israel and those outside.

Gaza seems to be included despite the fact that Israel has no presence in the Strip anymore. Officials in Israel point to the inclusion of Gaza as an indication the decision is in fact political in nature, and meant to show that in the eyes of the EU, Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip has not ended because of the blockade imposed over the Palestinian enclave.

Of course the EU doesn't insist on labeling goods from Northern Cyprus or Western Sahara or the Ukraine as being from "occupied territory.". This is a rule created for Israel and Israel only.

But the Israelis who put the labels on can respond with pride. Turn it into an opportunity to show that they are proud of their country, proud of where they live and proud to have returned to where their forefathers lived.

The new rules say that goods from Judea and Samaria (and the Golan Heights) must not say "product of Israel." They insist that the wording is something like "'product from the West Bank (Israeli settlement)".

No one can say that the producers couldn't add an additional label, one that says accurately that the goods are from the Land of Israel - which is a Biblical term. So labels for produce should include something like this along with the mandated text:

In the end, the purpose of these rules is to separate Jews from their land. The only proper response is to strengthen those ties - and to be proud of them.

.@UNRWA's Commissioner General contextualizes hate, ignores incitement, shows his own bias

Yesterday, UNRWA commissioner-general Pierre Krähenbühl gave a speech to the UN General Assembly. He briefly mentioned the issues that I have discovered of UNRWA teachers posting hateful messages on social media (no hat tip to me, though!):

UNRWA continues to operate in a highly polarized environment where emotions frequently run high. We enforce neutrality within our organization, but we are not immune from the context. There have recently been allegations of inappropriate statements by UNRWA staff, notably on social media. Let me state here unambiguously that UNRWA condemns any form of anti-Semitism or racism and its position on this issue is a matter of public record. We take every allegation seriously and when credible investigate it and will continue to take disciplinary actions as required.

Notice how Krähenbühl changes the issue from UNRWA's stated position of "neutrality" into only condemning racism and antisemitism. And how he even "contextualizes" the hate by saying that "emotions run high." But he doesn't mention incitement to murder Israelis. Is that OK or not?

Moein Elmasry works for UNRWA in Rafah.

He posted this video encouraging Arab men and women to attack Israel.

And he also posted this video cartoon showing the murder of the Henkins.

(The second video is self-congratulatory about the morality of the terrorists for not murdering the Henkin children. In fact, there were four children in the backseat, and the prevailing theory is that the terrorists fled when one accidentally shot another one and they took him to the hospital.)

Are these videos a violation of "neutrality?"

But Krähenbühl himself violates his own mandate. Look how he describes the current wave of violence aimed at killing Jewish men, women and children, and Israel's response to defend them:

In the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the upsurge in violence and protests in recent weeks has had a direct impact on Palestinians, with some 71 fatalities and over 7,500 injuries reported in the first month of unrest that began on 1 October. During the same period, eight Israelis were killed and 126 injured. As the Deputy Secretary-General said at the Security Council's quarterly Middle East debate a few weeks ago in commenting on the reasons why the situation had deteriorated, the crisis would not have erupted if the Palestinian people, among others, had a perspective of hope towards a viable Palestinian state, an economy that provides jobs and opportunities, control over their legal and administrative processes and did not live under a stifling and humiliating occupation that has lasted almost half a century. UNRWA is shocked by the upsurge in violence that has affected Palestinian and Israeli civilians and the pattern of deadly force against Palestinians, the increase in the use of live ammunition in and around refugee camps, the expansion of settlements, the increase in settler violence towards Palestine refugees, and the displacement of refugees by demolitions and destruction of structures.

Krähenbühl gives reasons to "understand" Arabs murdering random Jews, saying that it is because of "hopelessness," , but he provides no such understanding of Israel defending its citizens. He doesn't mention how many of the 71 Palestinians were killed while directly in the act of while attacking Jews. He says that violence has "affected Palestinian and Israeli civilians" but there is a "pattern of deadly force against Palestinians."

He is about as neutral as Hamas.

Beyond that, the claim that there would be no terror if the Palestinian Arabs had "hope" is ludicrous. Here is an article from August 15, 1938, one of dozens:

Was this, and the hundreds of other attacks against Jews before 1948, also from "hopelessness?"

No. It is pure Jew-hatred. And this antisemitism is not only from UNRWA teachers, but from UNRWA itself, as I have documented (sites that have been since removed.)

How can someone as clearly biased as Pierre Krähenbühl be trusted to be able to run an agency that is supposed to be politically neutral? By UNRWA's own standards, Krähenbühl is violating the neutrality rule.

Yet UNRWA claims to be able to self-regulate its employees.

It is a joke.

Bibi demolishes J-Street and Peace Now's central claims

At Binyamin Netanyahu's appearance at the Center for American Progress, he said that the settlements were not an obstacle to peace.

He answered that "There have been no new settlements built in the past 20 years.The additions have been in existing communities. The map has not materially changed."

I'm not sure if that is 100% true; I know of three formerly illegal outposts that became legal, and I cannot imagine that there haven't been more illegal outposts in 20 years that have escaped being demolished. But the larger point is true - there has been essentially no new settlements, as opposed to how they are characterized. and Netanyahu said this:

By the way, Google this. Because this is just repeated, ad nauseum, so it assumes the cachet of self-evident truth, that we're 'gobbling up land' and so on. We're not gobbling up land....I mean the total amount of built up land is just a few percent. And the addition, if you look at it over time, it's got to be a fraction - maybe one tenth of one percent? Maybe I'm off, maybe it's 3/10ths of one percent. That's the land that's being "gobbled up." That's a factual question. That is not something that should be debated. And yet it's become an axiom, that we are gobbling up land. We're not.

This statement is driving the "progressives" like J-Street crazy. Because their entire existence, and their entire funding, is dependent on the lie of the ever-expanding settlements that make a two-state solution impossible.

So J-Street tweeted

Netanyahu at @amprog: Settlements are < 1% of West Bank. Truth: 40% of West Bank is under control of settlements. https://t.co/FgLj7c9jk3
— J Street (@jstreetdotorg) November 10, 2015

The link goes to Peace Now, which writes:

The "one percent argument" is a classic example of how supporters of the status-quo use a fraction of the truth to misrepresent the truth on the ground in the West Bank. Yes, the actual built-up area of West Bank settlements takes up only a little more than 1% of the West Bank. But the settlements' built-up area is just the tip of the settlements iceberg. The impact of the settlements goes far beyond this 1%.

Almost 10% of the West Bank is included in the "municipal area," or the jurisdictional borders of the settlements. These borders are so large that they allow settlements to expand many times over onto land that is completely off-limits to Palestinians.

In addition, almost 34% of the West Bank has been placed under the jurisdiction of the settlements' "Regional Councils." That is, more than an additional 1/3 of the West Bank has been placed under the control of the settlers, off-limits to Palestinians.

In total, more than 40% of the West Bank is under the direct control of settlers or settlements and off-limits to Palestinians, regardless of the fact that only a small portion of this land has been built on by settlers.

Let's say that this is 100% true. Then this means that Peace Now agrees that there has been no fundamental change in the West Bank map since the PLO rejected Israeli peace offers of 93%-95% of the land in 2001 and 2008!

Somehow, the 40% Israel controls didn't stop Barak and Olmert from offering nearly the entire West Bank for a Palestinian state. If they could offer it, so could the current Israeli government. So the 40% figure is a red herring, meant to obscure the fact that the intransigent party is the Palestinian side.

And according to Israeli media, Netanyahu was ready to offer nearly the same amount! (Netanyahu's office denied it, saying it was a US proposal.)

Peace Now and J-Street know this. If you read their literature you can see that they try very hard to distract their readers from these facts by mentioning things that aren't relevant. Their central claim to raise cash, that Israel - and especially the reviled Likud government of Netanyahu - is gobbling up land is shown to be a lie.

Yet this Peace Now and J-Street lie of Israel "gobbling up land" is repeated without any shame by the White House, by the New York Times, and by many other sources who don't even bother to read Peace Now reports with a critical eye. Because their own documentation proves their public lies!

I challenged J-Street with this tweet:

OK @jstreetdotorg, tell me EXACTLY how the ~1.7% of settlement land today makes peace so much harder than ~1.6% 20 years ago? @amprog
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) November 10, 2015

Of course, they didn't answer.

Because they can't.

Because the truth exposes their anti-Israel campaigns against Israel are based on provable, checkable lies.

Here's the entire video. The section I am highlighting starts at about 23:00.

11/10 Links Pt2: The Left and the Jews: Time for a Rethink; Senators denounce EU's labeling; BORIS!!

From Ian:

40 Years After Infamous UN Resolution, It’s Clear That Anti-Zionism is Racism

This week marks the 40th anniversary of one of the worst instances of antisemitism since the end of the Second World War. On Nov. 10, 1975, the United Nations — a body created out of the ashes of the Holocaust — passed General Assembly Resolution 3379, which equated Zionism, the Jewish national liberation movement, with racism and racial discrimination.
That resolution was the culmination of a lengthy campaign by the Soviet Union to turn Israel into the only state within the UN system to have its legitimacy questioned. Soviet Jews had been persecuted in the name of “anti-Zionism” since the days of Josef Stalin’s dictatorship, and Resolution 3379 represented the globalization of that campaign. To that end, the Soviets enlisted the support of Arab states and developing nations, all of whom, in promoting the slander that Zionism is racism, were engaging in the oldest form of racism themselves.
Only a handful of people at the General Assembly grasped this fundamental fact back in 1975. One of them was Chaim Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the world body. In his magnificent speech — commemorated at a special event hosted by Israel’s UN mission this week — Herzog reminded the delegates of another anniversary, also on Nov. 10: Kristallnacht, that dreadful winter’s night in 1938 when Nazi stormtroopers attacked defenseless Jewish targets across Germany. The pogrom resulted in the incarceration of 30,000 Jews, the murder of around 100, and the burning of thousands of synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses.
“It is indeed befitting,” began Herzog, as he proceeded to eviscerate the assembled delegates, “that this debate, conceived in the desire to deflect the Middle East from its moves towards peace, and born of a deep pervading feeling of antisemitism, should take place on the anniversary of this day. It is indeed befitting, Mr. President, that the United Nations, which began its life as an anti-Nazi alliance, should thirty years later find itself on its way to becoming the world center of antisemitism. Hitler would have felt at home on a number of occasions during the past year, listening to the proceedings in this forum, and above all to the proceedings during the debate on Zionism.”
A similarly eloquent appeal to conscience was expressed by the American ambassador to the UN, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. From the same rostrum as Herzog, Moynihan announced, “The United States rises to declare before the General Assembly of the United Nations, and before the world, that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act.” The joint outrage displayed by Herzog and Moynihan was a moving testament to the values that bind the US and Israel.

Alan Johnson: The Left and the Jews: Time for a Rethink

It’s this strand of distinctively left-wing hostility to Jews that I want to make some remarks about tonight. It has never been the dominant strand of opinion on the Left, and it is not so today; not by a long chalk. But it has always existed, it is growing today, and it must be part of any account of the breakdown in the relationship between Jews and the Left.
It was called the ‘socialism of fools’ in the 19th century.
It became an ‘anti-imperialism of idiots’ in the 20th century.
And it takes the form of a wild, demented, unhinged form of anti-Zionism – not mere ‘criticism of Israeli policy’ – that demonises Israel in the 21st century.
Part 1: The Socialism of Fools
Let’s begin with a short ‘who said this?’ quiz.
Who said, ‘The whole Jewish world constitutes one exploiting sect, one people of leeches, one single devouring parasite closely and intimately bound together not only across national boundaries but also across all divergences of political opinion.’? That was the 19th century anarchist, Mikhail Bakunin.
Who wrote, ‘Whoever fights against Jewish capital … is already a class-fighter, even if he does not know it … Strike down the Jewish capitalists, hang them from the lamp posts!’? That was the communist Ruth Fischer, a leading figure in the German Communist Party in the early 1920s.
Who said, ‘Wherever there is trouble in Europe, wherever rumours of war circulate and men’s minds are distraught with fear of change and calamity, you may be sure that a hooked-nosed Rothschild is at his games somewhere near the region of the disturbances.’ Well that was an editorial in The Labour Leader, organ of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1891.

The mood in Germany: Kristallnacht ‘nein,’ BDS ‘ja’

The drive to advance Kristallnacht as a means to turn Israel into an abnormal state is not limited to Germany but is in vogue across Western Europe. The European market’s demand for Holocaust events as a way to punish Israel exceeds supply.
A telling example: Arab-Israeli MK Haneen Zoabi (Joint List) told on Sunday the left-wing group Platform Stop Racism and Exclusion in Amsterdam: “Kristallnacht didn’t suddenly fall from the sky, come out of nowhere, it was the result of a development over time. We can see a similar development happening in Israel over the last several years.”
One of Germany’s sharpest commentators on the country’s grappling with its Nazi past was Eike Geisel, who would have turned 70 this year. Geisel did not live to write about BDS, but he delved into the motivations of alleged peace groups that later morphed into pro-BDS NGOs.
“To be against Israel in the name of peace is something new.... This new anti-Semitism does not arise from base instincts, nor is it the product of honorable political intentions. It is the morality of morons.”
Geisel continued, “Anti-Jewish...hostility arises from the purest human needs; It comes from the yearning for peace. It is therefore entirely innocent; It is as universal as it is moral. This moral anti-Semitism completes Germany’s restoration to goodness, in that it heralds the perfection of inhumanity: the banality of good.”
By commemorating Kristallnacht, many Germans may believe that they are combating German anti-Semitism. Yet by sponsoring BDS and promoting trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which seeks to obliterate Israel, things have turned out topsy-turvy.

After Zoabi’s Kristallnacht Speech in Amsterdam, Nasrallah Hoping For an Invite to Yom HaShoah Next Year (satire)

After controversial MK Hanin Zoabi’s (Joint List) speech at an Amsterdam Kristallnacht commemoration, Hezbullah Leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah feels that “the time is ripe” for him to address next year’s Yom HaShoah commemoration in that city. “Hanin, my sister in the struggle with the Zionist Entity, just did an amazing job. The way she took a commemoration of a Nazi pogrom against Jews and turned it into an anti-Israel screed….amazing. But I think this is just the beginning. Maybe if my Iranian handlers say that it’s cool, I can make it up to Amsterdam next year for Yom HaShoah. To commemorate the Holocaust. You know, if it really happened.” When asked what a man who promised to hunt down Jews worldwide would have to say about the Holocaust, Nasrallah noted; “Well I was thinking of saying that Israel created ISIS. But if that’s not a good fit then my Brother Mahmoud Abbas knows a few things on this subject.” As for Ms. Zoabi, while she enjoyed the event commemorating the Nazis’ systematic destruction of German Jewry, she was disappointed in that she thought it would be more of an instructional “how-to” event.

Palestine Press Agency reports that a 27 year old Gaza man got into an argument with his 22 year old wife. He stabbed her to death as she was making lunch for their kids.

The reason for the fight was that the husband didn't like that his wife worked outside the home.

The husband then ran towards Israel, east of Bureij. I'm not sure what he expected the Israelis who captured him to do - declare him a hero for killing an Arab woman?

The soldiers promptly took him to the official Erez crossing and sent him back into Gaza.

The famous British pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was a sincere philosemite and a Zionist who proposed a scheme not dissimilar to Theodor Herzl’s, and around the same time. For years he lived and worked in the Holy Land, where he delighted in using the faces of Jewish residents in his canvasses of Biblical figures and scenes. In a letter dated 5 June 1876, published in the Manchester Examiner and reproduced in certain other newspapers – including the Manchester Times of 24 June 1876, which is where I found it, and, with some passages omitted, the York Herald, 257 June 1876 – he described the panic that had set in on the day following news of the deposition in Constantinople on 30 May of Sultan Abdülaziz of Turkey (who died in suspicious circumstances four days later).

“It was … the Moslem Sabbath,” wrote Hunt of the day after the news reached Ottoman Palestine. “I was working quietly in my courtyard, enjoying the more than casual stillness, when my wife came in with a man who mysteriously insisted upon seeing me.” It turned out that the visitor was a Christian from Bethlehem and that his sister was one of the Hunt household’s servants. Clearly agitated, the man explained that all the Christians in Jerusalem feared for their safety, and “had all taken refuge in the convents or barricaded themselves in the houses in fear of an immediate massacre; that the convents were already unapproachable; that the city gates were shut; and that the Russian buildings – my last hope [of sanctuary] – were thronged and fastened up, besides being only attainable by traversing a road which, at any moment, might be beset by the [Moslem] fanatics”. For his sister’s sake, and for the Hunts’, the man had hastened “to advise us to do all we could for our defence”.

For various unstated reasons, fleeing to Jaffa was not an option. “Our only course was to barricade the house, which I did by bringing in all the winter firewood, and piling it up against the door, and by blocking up the windows with beds, &c. In the meantime, we had sent out a native servant for intelligence from a family at a long distance. The reply was not encouraging. When I had done all to barricade the house, there were three things to do – to go down to the town to ascertain the actual state of things, to get some money to keep in my pocket for any emergency, and, if possible, to get to my house in town to obtain a large supply of powder there, and the materials for making cartridges, and with these a good supply of native costumes for disguise if necessary.”

Hunt continued:

“I left my house [his rural one] in charge of the tutor, my model for the morning, my wife and little boy and nurse, and the Bethlehem woman, taking with me the native servant, with saddle-bags over his shoulders. We went along with eyes searching for every fact. It was evident that the authorities were doing all they could to establish quiet and confidence. The [Turkish] soldiers, in large bodies, were marching about with a show of good discipline … Inside the town, I was met by people who told me that, for the time, danger had passed. Some were inclined to pooh-pooh the original panic, saying that it had arisen from a misunderstanding of the motive of the general in command in serving out a double and treble supply of cartridges. Others, however, brought proofs that threats of a very distinct kind had been uttered by Moslems against certain Christians, telling them they should soon see what would become of them and their co-religionists … The [European] consuls had been to the Pasha, [who] had apparently satisfied them that the strictest vigilance would be exercised.

The scene in the morning had been a most extraordinary one; the whole population, not the
Christians only, but the Jews and even the Mahomedans, were throwing down the things they had in hand – butchers their meat, bakers their bread, grocers their supplies, and even milkmen and women their jars, and running for their lives. The matter was a mystery at best; but there was a lull in the excitement and I had to profit by it. I got my silver from the banker, and then went to my [Jerusalem] house. I met many Moslem acquaintances, who ordinarily are quite garrulous in their salutations: but this morning they either turned their heads aside altogether, or were most shy in their manner of greeting. At the cafés and other loitering places, the Effendi [the educated elite and officials], dressed in their best green robes and turbans, eyed me apparently with mingled vexation and astonishment … At the door of my house there is a café. All the habitués turned away.’

When Hunt emerged from the empty house – “I had half expected to find a Moslem servant of mine there, for I had given him leave from my [other] residence to go to the mosque to say his prayers, and he had not returned” – having filled two sacks with belongings, he found himself “watched again as if with prejudice, but no one interfered.”

Since that day, the Hunt household, despite “so many assurances had been given of our perfect safety, “ had remained on their guard, especially at night, “for after all the declarations that there was no ground for alarm, we have it proved that on the Friday there was a large army of fellaheen, numbered variously at 1,000 and 5,000, who marched up to the gates of the city which was the occasion of the shutting of the gates – and that these fellaheen before disbanding came to some resolutions (the nature of which is unknown) for future action. For the few following days it seemed possible that we might see the people of Hebron, who are great fanatics, march here. We are told to watch the progress of affairs next Friday, but if that day passes off quietly we shall return very much to only our ordinary degree of caution. However, I shall certainly not leave my gunpowder and cartridges so far away. Those who are most brave now were during the panic most in alarm.”

11/10 Links Pt1: Jesus Returns, Is Promptly Stabbed By Palestinian Teen (satire)

From Ian:

Jesus Returns, Is Promptly Stabbed By Palestinian Teen (satire)

After her recent trip to the Holy land, Michele Bachmann declared that the return of Jesus Christ was imminent. The one-time Presidential hopeful and now America’s resident queen of batshit crazy, announced the urgent need to convert Jews to Christianity because of the return of Nazareth’s mascot. But as most people wrote Bachmann off as spewing more of her craziness, against all odds, Jesus did make his comeback. Like Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar Went to White Castle, the deity came out of nowhere – with great fanfare – just when it seemed like everyone was beginning to forget him.
However, just as some of the world began to rejoice in the second coming, a Palestinian teen ran up to the son of God and stabbed him while yelling, “Dirty Jew! Allahu Akbar!” The attack is the latest in a string of stabbings sweeping across Israel, and the motives of this particular attacker are not yet clear. Jesus is currently in critical condition in an Israeli hospital, where doctors have upgraded his status to, “critical but miraculous.” Luckily, he was able to receive a blood transfusion from a bottle of wine collected from a nearby church.

Khaled Abu Toameh: When Will Obama and the West Listen to Hamas?

What senior Hamas figure Musa Abu Marzouk and other Hamas leaders are saying is very clear: Even if a Palestinian state is established in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, Hamas and other Palestinians will continue to fight until Israel is completely destroyed.
Hamas is openly stating that it will use any future Palestinian state as a launching pad to attack and eliminate Israel.
Hamas is not a small opposition party in the Palestinian territories that can be dismissed as a minor player. Hamas is a large Islamist movement, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that controls the entire Gaza Strip with its population of 1.8 million Palestinians. Hamas, not much different from Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, has its own security forces, militias, weapons and government institutions.
The Obama Administration and Western governments can talk as much as they like about the two-state solution. Even if President Abbas agrees to a Palestinian state, he will never be able to persuade Hamas, Islamic Jihad and many other Palestinians to recognize Israel's right to exist.
Under the current circumstances, where Hamas and other Palestinians continue to dream about the destruction of Israel, any talk about a two-state solution is nothing but a joke.

The evolution of Arab psychological warfare: towards ‘nonviolence’ as a political strategy

Psychological warfare is a ‘soft power’ technique used to attain strategic objectives. In the Israeli–Palestinian dynamic, psychological warfare has evolved to where it now shares goals with ‘public diplomacy’ as a means of influencing policy and politics. Arab strategy has moved from ineffective attempts to influence the Israeli public to credible and cynical strategies that often involve a disregard for and exploitation of civilian casualties and the appearance of embracing ideology associated with revolutionary figures and human rights. ‘Non-violent resistance’ invoking Gandhi, Mandela and King as models for Palestinian Arab strategy is now common and serves to attract sympathy. Despite claiming a philosophy of nonviolence, the goal of many anti-Israel groups remains the dissolution of Israel as the state of the Jewish people.

UPDATE: Death Toll Rises to 8 in Jordanian Shooting of US Trainers

The death toll has risen to eight in the deadly shooting attack Monday by a Jordanian police officer who aimed his weapon at his instructors during a training session at the Jordan International Police Training Center in Muwaqar, near Amman.
The attack took place on the tenth anniversary of Al Qaeda suicide bombings that killed 57 at three luxury hotels in Amman. It was the worst terrorist attack in the history of Jordan.
At least two of the victims were identified as American civilian instructors working as contractors at the site. A third victim was a South African trainer, and a fourth was a Jordanian national who was working as a translator at the facility. Four others were believed to have been Lebanese nationals, according to Jordanian media.
According to a U.S. statement, the two Americans were training Palestinian Authority security forces on behalf of the State Department’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau.

From Ma'an:

Gaza's Civil Defense evacuated 90 Palestinians from their homes as rain brought flooding to parts of the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.

Muhammad al-Majdanah, chief spokesperson for the Civil Defense, told Ma'an that seven houses were evacuated from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, totaling 90 people.

The floods are exacerbated by a chronic lack of fuel that limits how much water can be pumped out of flood-stricken areas.

These fuel shortages are the result of an eight-year Israeli blockade, which also limits the import of other kinds of machinery related to pumping and sewage management that Gazans require to combat the floods.

There are no restrictions on fuel into Gaza.

There are no restrictions on water pumps into Gaza.

There are severe restrictions on Hamas' ability to anticipate the flooding that happens every single year and to prepare properly ahead of time.

Hamas-leaning Felesteen interviews some of the victims, and even they blame their leaders::

Shadi Suwai'id is also a resident of the area, and his house is being flooded, he explained to the Felesteen newspaper that the pumps that are available in the region do not accommodate large amounts of water. He stated that the concerned authorities did not implement any projects to solve the problem on the ground, saying: "they promised to find solutions, and then they told us that it is difficult to find a radical solution to the problem because it is expensive and requires a lot of money that the municipality cannot provide for us." Suwai'id added: "We have received promises without implementation of something the ground. There is no problem that has no solution, but it seems that the concerned authorities do not want to move, or maybe they do not have sufficient funds. we cannot rule out their happiness by the disaster because they benefit from it to bring support and money, "

The article goes on to interview municipal officials who claim that they have purchased new, larger pumps this year, again showing that Ma'an is lying by saying that Israel does not allow pumps to enter.

Finally, the Felesteen article says that the authorities are readying themselves for when Israel opens its (nonexistent) dams to flood Gaza, saying that they have heavy equipment to dig large trenches to capture the water before it causes damage.

You know, equipment that could also be used to dig tunnels.

Today, 2 children - a 12-year old and a 13-year old - stabbed an Israeli at a light rail station in Jerusalem.

What causes a 12-year old to want to risk his life just to have a chance at wounding a Jew?

Incitement is part of the problem, but it is not the main issue.

True, Palestinian news outlets and social media are filled with photos, videos, songs and cartoons that all advocate murder and terror, images that make heroes of the attackers and that dehumanize the victims.

But to truly understand the sickness that is Palestinian society, you need to look beyond the words and images and music. You need to look at what is not being said.

You will not find any examples of people telling children not to attack Jews. You won't find any stories of parents who try to raise their kids to respect all human beings. You will not find any stories about Israeli victims. You will not see anything about teachers telling their students that their lives are too valuable to waste on randomly stabbing people. You won't find anyone saying that murder is bad no matter who does it.

You won't find a single voice opposed to the current wave of children sacrificing themselves for a chance to stab Jews.

If there has been any opposition to children stabbing Jews in Palestinian Arab media, I have yet to see a single example. On the contrary, the stories are neutral at best and often cheerileading - and then using Israeli efforts to protect themselves as reason to encourage more attacks.

I am not saying that Palestinian Arabs are all united in their support for sending their children out on suicide missions. I have no doubt that most parents are aghast at the idea that their kids might join the fad.

But because of the sick nature of Palestinian society, publicly coming out against terror is simply not possible. There is far more fear of saying anything against the politically-correct message of supporting terror than there is of the "oppressive occupation" itself.

By any measure, Palestinian Arabs are better off than their neighbors in Egypt or Jordan. They consider checkpoints to be the height of oppression while hundreds of thousands of their neighbors are being slaughtered. Their society is based on victimhood, not on overcoming obstacles.

There are independent media outlets in the territories - but none of them to my knowledge have been the least bit critical of the violence. Instead, they are filled with articles and op-eds supporting it and attacking Israel for defending themselves.

There are no contrarian voices, meaning that the message of terror is unopposed.

No one will point out this sickness. Arabs cannot say it out loud for fear of being labeled Zionist. The mainstream media cannot say it out loud for fear of being labeled racist or biased. So the real elephant in the room - that Palestinian society itself is the reason peace is impossible - cannot be discussed.

Incitement is bad enough. But the utter lack of any opposing viewpoints is what shows that Palestinian society is rotten to the core.

This @UNRWA student is sure proud of Hamas terrorists

Muhannad Barhoum identifies himself as an UNRWA student in Rafah.

His profile picture is not of him, but someone likely to be his brother, Abdullah Fayez Barhoum.

Abdullah was apparently killed in a tunnel on July 8, 2014.

Here is his martyr's video, also posted by UNRWA student Muhannad:

If Abdullah was Muhannad's brother, chances are that Abdullah was also an UNRWA student. Which shows how good a job UNRWA does in teaching peace.

But young Muhannad was well on his way to applying the principles that he has learned in UNRWA schools even before Abdullah's timely death. His very first profile picture on Facebook, in 2013, was of Ahmed Jabari, Hamas' Qassam Brigades' second in command, killed by Israel during Pillar of Defense: And his second profile picture was of Hamas' founder Sheikh Yassin.

British Muslim charity trustee says "f---ing Jews" placing tracking devices on cellphones

From The Daily Mail:

A trustee of a charity called the Ghulam Mustafa Trust has made a video in which he claims Jews track Samsung smartphones by implanting secret devices in the handsets.

In a development that sparked widespread outrage, the man who created and shared the footage has been allowed to continue to run the organisation by the Charity Commission.

This has raised serious questions about the nature of the charity as well as the rigour of the Charity Commission in preventing extremists from taking over institutions by stealth.

Ghulam Mustafa Trust, run by a voluntary group in Rochdale, is a registered charity which aims to ‘prevent or provide relief to those who suffer from poverty’.

In the homemade video, the campaigner accuses Jews of using secret microchips in Samsung smartphones to track users’ photographs.

As he dismantles his new phone, the man says: ‘They [Jews] are recording every photo of yours on your battery. I’m seeing if they have on mine.’

Peeling off what appears to be a tracking system, he adds: ‘You should take that off because they are recording every photograph of yours, these f***ing Jews. You should take this off. Look at that, they should not be on your phone battery.’

But in spite of the anti-Semitic myth proposed in the clip, which was originally posted online in June, the Charity Commission merely demanded that the video be removed from Facebook.

(h/t Aryeh M)

11/09 Links Pt2: Oren: How Obama can aid Israel's security; Naftali Bennett's 'most anti-Israel interview'

From Ian:

Likud politicians slam Zoabi for Israel-Nazi comparisons at Holocaust event

Firebrand MK Hanin Zoabi of the Joint (Arab) List was bitterly criticized by leading Likud politicians for a speech at a Holocaust memorial event Sunday in Amsterdam, where she equated Nazi Germany’s genocide against the Jews to current Israeli policies toward Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.
Zoabi’s speech, which included allegations that Israel was engaged in ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, drew ire from senior Likud politicians, who castigated the lawmaker’s attendance at the event marking the anniversary of Kristallnacht and one of whom demanded she be removed from the Knesset.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely on Monday called Zoabi’s participation in the event “a mockery,” and said the Israeli Arab MK “uses the tragedy of the Jewish people to spread her slander and lies while she herself encourages terrorism and the murder of Jews.”
Zoabi also faced a backlash from Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, who told Channel 10 Sunday evening that her speech should be grounds for her removal from the Knesset. Levin described Zoabi as a “fifth column” and called on the High Court to disqualify her from serving in the Knesset. (h/t Max Mendelbaum)

Scandal: Jews not invited to Swedish Kristallnacht commemoration

The organizers of an anti-Nazi event in Sweden face controversy Monday, after declining to invite the Jewish community to the event.
"Umeå against Nazism" will run in the city of Umeå on Tuesday and Wednesday, commemorating Kirstallnacht, or the "Night of Broken Glass," the massive 1938 pogrom against Austrian and German Jews which is seen as marking the start of the holocaust.
But, absurdly, Jews will not be invited.
The organizers claim that inviting the Jewish community presents a security risk, nt.se reports, citing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel protests present at past events.
"In previous years, we have had a lot of Palestinian flags at these rallies, and even one banner where the Israeli flag was equated with a swastika," organizer and local Workers' Party member Jan Hägglund told locals. "The Jewish community wasn't invited because we assumed they might be uncomfortable around that sort of thing."
Critics claim that Hägglund's omission must be due to the crowd he invited to the event, implying that it could only be far-left or anti-Israel - thus creating the environment which justified the "security risk."
Meanwhile, the event's Facebook page appears to even downplay the Jewish community's role in the event, instead conveying a generalized, vanilla message of tolerance - not opposition to anti-Semitism.

Actress Mayim Bialik Tweets Support for Howard Stern’s Latest Attack on ‘Antisemite’ Roger Waters

Jewish actress Mayim Bialik had words of praise for radio giant Howard Stern who once again blasted Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters for his vocal anti-Israel activism.
“@HowardStern, lets discuss our shared unfashionable views on israel. Name a time. Much respect,” Bialik tweeted on Sunday.
She was responding to comments made by Stern on his Sirius XM satellite show last week. “For some reason, it’s become very important to Roger to tell artists where to perform,” Stern said on November 3rd. “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 antisemite.”
According to Rolling Stone magazine, Stern noted that defending Israel “isn’t fashionable,” but urged his listeners to not be “fooled” by Waters and his anti-Israel sentiments. He 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.”

Historians Now Claim That Roger Waters Was Once In A Band (satire)

Historians at the University of Cambridge’s King’s College dropped a bombshell this morning: that noted ~~Anti-Semitic crank~~ outspoken critic of Israeli policies Roger Waters was once in a popular band that played music that people enjoyed listening to. The Daily Freier spoke by phone with Professor of Contemporary British History Baba Booey for details on this breakthrough discovery.
“This is really quite remarkable, but prior to being known for drawing the Star of David on pigs and being creepily obsessed with Bar Rafaeli, Mr. Waters was in a rather successful band known as ‘Pink Floyd’ during the latter half of the 20th Century.” Professor Booey continued. “Archival history from the pre-Internet era seems to indicate that young people would often paint their dormitory walls with fluorescent paint, turn on blacklights, and play this music on a constant loop. Apparently marijuana may have been involved. And unlike Mr. Waters’ current manifestation, this early ‘proto-Waters’ seemed to enrich the lives of others and actually make people happy. Fascinating, really.”
Professor Booey then played a sample of Mr. Waters’ early music for the Daily Freier. The music was rather excellent, although it was a bit derivative of Syd Barrett’s works.

Abbas still claiming that Israel negotiating to give Hamas some of the Sinai

Palestine Press Agency reiterates the story that Mahmoud Abbas claims that Israel and Hamas are negotiating a plan where Egypt would give Gaza a thousand square kilometers of land.

President Mahmoud Abbas said that Hamas conducted indirect negotiations with Israel, stressing that he knows the names of the negotiatiors and the date and venue of the negotiations and that there were direct meetings led by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in this regard.

Abu Mazen, during a meeting with Egyptian media personnel at his hotel in Cairo, on Sunday, said that official projects being discussed between Hamas and Israel to truncate the 1,000 kilometers of the territory of Sinai to expand Gaza during the rule of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, pointing out that Morsi rejected the project to take any centimeter from the land of Egypt.

He explained that the then-Minister of Defense Sisi issued a decree that the Sinai territory is one of national security, ending the idea, but Abbas said that consultations are still underway between Hamas and Israel on this project.

As I mentioned last time Abbas made this claim, this is seemingly the Ben Arieh plan, where Israel would give Egypt some of the Negev, Gaza would expand into the Sinai and a land-bridge between Egypt and Jordan would be established.

In the past, Egyptian media has slammed this plan, because they hate the idea of Palestinians in the Sinai.

What is more interesting is Abbas' reaction to the fantasy-plan. He would lose nothing. He would gain a thousand square kilometers of land for "Palestine." And he rejects the idea outright.

Because the only land he is interested in is the land that Israel controls.

This is why the PLO never claimed any parts of Jordan (or Lebanon) as "Palestine" even though they were all part of "historic Palestine" as defined before the British Mandate.

Abbas' angry rejection of the idea of free land - land that would help Gaza's overcrowding, land that would increase Gaza's shoreline, land that could be used to increase the amount of agriculture in Gaza by a huge amount - shows that his only goal is not the welfare of his people but the elimination of Israel.