Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Frustrated By Israeli Restraint, Hamas To Provoke Russia Instead (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Gaza City, December 16 - Stymied in its efforts to undermine enemy legitimacy by engineering large numbers of civilian casualties, the militant group Hamas is considering shifting its sights from Israel to Russia, a country deemed more likely to respond with devastating, indiscriminate force that would produce the desired noncombatant deaths, organization representatives reported today.

The Russian military's unrestrained use of ordnance against targets in Syria regardless of the resulting toll in civilian lives has prompted the Islamist group to examine whether Putin might make a more suitable foe for the military-political strategy Hamas has developed over the years. Israel's insistence on avoiding unnecessary harm to noncombatants has complicated the organization's attempts to paint the Jewish State as dismissive of human life and disdainful of the laws of war, an objective at the center of Hamas's approach to asymmetrical warfare. If Israel will not cooperate as expected, say officials, Hamas will simply have to find an enemy prepared to inflict more damage on the people of the Gaza Strip.

Organization spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told journalists that while the destruction of the Zionist Entity remains the chief goal, the path to that destination may have to run through Moscow. "It is important to play to our strengths," he explained. "Russia is much better-positioned than the Zionists to play into our hands, and we believe Putin would cause much more destruction and death in Gaza than the Israeli military, if provoked properly. We must still determine both the feasibility of the shift in focus and the ways in which to make it happen."

Working to Hamas's advantage in that regard is a break with Russia's ally Basher Assad of Syria that happened early in that country's civil war. During the upheaval that followed the Arab Spring, Hamas openly sided with the Syrian rebels in a move that prompted their former patron Assad to ban them from the country. Russia, one of Assad's chief supporters, has already demonstrated its readiness to kill in defense of his regime, with a disregard for accuracy and human life that has not only claimed large numbers of civilian casualties, but resulted in one cruise missile hitting faraway Iran by mistake, and another hitting a house in Russia itself.

"Putin has shown he is more interested in attacking Assad's foes than in weakening the Islamic State, the ostensible reason for Russia's involvement," noted Mideast political analyst Kluss Terfuq. "Being on Assad's bad list puts Hamas in a good position to exploit that. On top of that, Hamas considers Turkey an ally, and with the current state of Russian-Turkish relations, that's awfully important."

Terfuq refrained from speculating what specific sort of provocation Hamas could use to target Russia. The group lacks missiles with the range to hit Russia, or even its facilities in Syria. "But now that Israel and Russia are coordinating air operations over Syria to avoid complications, Hamas can just consider an attack on Israel an attack on Russian interests, and continue pretty much as before."

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12/16 Links Pt1: Palestinians in Plot to bomb Israeli Embassy in Berlin; Palestinian Lies Kill

From Ian:

2 Palestinians accused of bomb plot on Israeli Embassy in Berlin

Two Muslim Germans, both reportedly Palestinian, who were arrested on suspicion of planning an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Berlin were brought before a German court on Wednesday.
The men, both aged 21, were arrested in June while trying to prepare an explosive device from firecrackers. The police found a large quantity of supplies for building a powerful explosive device in their possession, Israeli news site Ynet reported.
The suspects have been identified only by their first names — Muhammad and Ali — as per German law.
Officials said they made preparations between December 2014 and July 2015 to carry out an attack on the Israeli Embassy or some other Israeli or Jewish institution, having possibly been inspired by the Islamic State.
They were accused of “preparation of an act of violence that would gravely endanger the security of the state,” according to the charge sheet.

PMW: Official PA TV to kids: Israel will cease to exist

In two recent broadcasts, official Palestinian Authority TV emphasized the PA message to children that Israel's existence is only temporary and will eventually cease to exist. The host of the program Children's Talk stated that Israel is "all ours" and that it "will return to us."
The host explained that Israeli towns like Haifa, Jaffa, Acre and Nazareth are in "the '48 lands" - a PA reference to all of Israel. Following general PA education policies, she instructed a young boy that "this information should be inside of us all the time."
Official PA TV host: "My friend, do you know what the '48 lands are?"
Boy: "Yes, the occupation of lands by the Israelis in the year 1948."
Official PA TV host: "These are the lands that are under the occupation's [Israel's] rule at the moment. Do you know cities from among them, can you remind me - the '48 lands?"
Boy: "In the diaspora?"
Official PA TV host: "No, the '48 lands: Haifa -"
Boy: "Haifa, Jaffa, Acre."
Official PA TV host: "Correct, and Nazareth and many more cities in these lands. We will mention them in the coming episodes, Allah willing. I apologize Yazan, I do not mean to embarrass you, I mean that this information should be inside of us all the time. The occupation must know that we fully believe and are confident that all of this land belongs to us, the '48 [lands] (i.e., all of Israel) are all ours and will return to us, right?"
Boy: "Yes, of course." [Official PA TV, Nov. 13, 2015]

PA TV to kids: Israel is “our land... it will all exist under the name of ‘the State of Palestine’’’

Palestinian Lies Kill

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon sent a message to the (deep breath) "Meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the Question of Jerusalem" which was held in Jakarta.

The conference itself was the usual tsunami of Israel hatred and incitement we expect from the UN. For example, the Jordanian representative said that "the occupying Power had taken measures to desecrate the [Al Aqsa] Mosque, threatening its very existence."

Ban Ki Moon, however, needs to at least pretend to be even handed. And those attempts bring up absurd sentences like this one:

In such a critical context, all parties must refrain from attempts to establish facts on the ground that alter the character of the Holy City or the demographics of the West Bank.

Really? Arabs must not build new buildings in Jerusalem because they change the facts on the ground? Arabs cannot move into, say, the new city of Rawabi because it changes the demographics of the West Bank? Arabs cannot expand their houses in Ramallah because their families are growing?

Doesn't every new Arab child change the demographics of the area?

Luckily, Mr. Moon clarified what he means by "all parties" by saying that settlements are illegal in his next sentence. He says "all parties" have responsibilities but he means "Jews." Jews are the ones that cannot live in or have kids in Judea and Samaria. Jews are the only one who threaten anyone demographically.

Ban Ki Moon also helpfully explained why Arabs like to stab Jews so much:

The anger we are witnessing is bred from nearly five decades of Israeli occupation. It is the result of fear, humiliation, frustration and mistrust. It has been fed by the wounds of decades of bloody conflict, which will take a long time to heal. Palestinian youth in particular are tired of broken promises and they see no light at the end of the tunnel.

The Palestinian representative disagreed. He didn't say the violence is the result of five decades of evil Zionist actions, but seven:

Israel, he said, had held his nation hostage for seven decades by counting on international involvement that had been limited to calling for bilateral negotiations between a colonial occupying Power determined to pursue its colonization and the occupied people, who wanted to fulfil their inalienable rights.

Another Palestinian representative urged all countries to boycott Israeli products, and have the International Criminal Court enforce that as law.

All in all, another UN hatefest.

How do English Arab/Muslim newspapers report on two car rammings?

AFP reports:

Clashes erupted on Wednesday after Israeli soldiers raided a refugee camp near Ramallah and shot dead two Palestinians who sought to ram their cars into troops.

Headlines about the incident from the Arab and Muslim world in English:

Ma'an:

Al Ahram (Egypt):

Albawaba (pan-Arab):

Shahernama (Muslim news site based in India):

Of course, the Arabic headlines are worse, referring to the dead terrorists as martyrs.

So it is not a surprise when polls show that Palestinians support the wave of stabbings. Their media not only makes the stabbers and rammers into heroes but it simultaneously describes them as victims.

Because to them, "human rights" means the rights to murder Jews with impunity.

The only "Jewish value" at J-Street is its chutzpah

Israeli NGO Im Tirtzu just released a video that names specific Israelis who lead NGOs that defend terrorist human rights.

I think the video goes a bit too far; one can and should criticize these NGOs but this goes over the line by using individuals' names and photos. It can easily appear to be inciting against them. But J-Street is seizing on this to insist not on taking the video down or asking for an apology - they want to use this as an excuse to shut down Im Tirtzu altogether!

Their statement is incredibly disingenuous:

Let us be clear: J Street condemns incitement in all of its forms and over the past couple of months has repeatedly called on Palestinian leadership to refrain from incendiary statements that seek to fuel or justify violence.

Indeed, J-Street's site has a couple of pages that condemn Palestinian incitement, but they have no audience for this message. It is a smokescreen to make them look even-handed, but J-Street is not lobbying Congress to pass bills to punish Palestinian incitement, for example. Its J-Street U division talks about incitement, though - it accuses Jews, including American Jews, of doing most of the incitement!:

When we read reports of this incident, we were deeply disturbed that such violence had unfolded on a street many of us knew so well. Yet many of us were not surprised. While our Jewish community regularly speaks out against incitement against Jews within Palestinian society – as we should – when it comes to Palestinians, we often hear rhetoric of broad generalizations and even prejudice, racism, and dehumanization. We hear this language on the streets of Jerusalem. And we hear it too often in our day schools and synagogues.

J-Street's statement concludes with a call to shut down Im Tirtzu:

There is a democratic and Jewish way to conduct the vital debate we need to have at this critical juncture for Israel, the US and the world. But the hateful way in which Im Tirzu pursues its agenda should have no place and no support from the Jewish community here or in Israel.

Isn't it wonderful that J-Street is now pretending to care about Israeli democracy, when its entire purpose is to subvert an Israeli democracy that consistently votes for leaders that J-Street hates?

J-Street believes that giving a platform to those who say that Israel engages in genocide and who compares Israel to ISIS is perfectly OK.

J-Street believes that supporting politicians who give political cover to terror groups is perfectly OK.

J-Street's co-founder says that maybe the entire idea of a Jewish state in the Middle East isn't a good idea, and it thinks that is perfectly OK.

A J-Street speaker and member of their advisory panel goes further and says that Israel should not exist and Jews should live as a minority in a hostile Arab Palestine - and that is perfectly OK, with no one on the stage challenging it.

When J-Street U members are told that Zionism is racist, they don't bother to disagree - and that is perfectly OK.

Act against how Israeli citizens vote, promote those who want to destroy the Jewish state and demonize those who support it - those maxims must be the "democratic and Jewish ways" of J-Street.

12/15 Links Pt2: The West’s wrongheaded analysis perpetuates the conflict; Michael Lumish: Enemies

From Ian:

Michael Lumish: Enemies

There are at least two important reasons why the progressive-left finds it difficult to acknowledge groups like ISIS as an enemy. The first is because the United States is a powerful, largely white country, and people "of color" in the Middle East are considered underdogs and the natural instinct is to protect the underdog even, apparently, if the underdog is burning people alive in cages.
The second reason is because most progressives blame the West for the rise of political Islam due to unjust material factors imposed by Europe for centuries and by the United States since early in the twentieth. That is, they believe that western and American imperialism destabilized traditional societies, subjecting them to war, poverty, and thereby encouraged a rational hatred of the West.
There is only one major problem with this analysis. It infantilizes Arabs in an exceedingly bigoted and prejudicial manner and it fails to acknowledge the linkage between strongly held religious beliefs and behavior. ISIS, whatever else it may be, is a religious-political movement drenched in the Salafist form of Islam. When they say that they wish to carry out the violent Jihad for the purpose of establishing the Caliphate, they mean it. When they say that head-chopping is the pleasure of Allah and that if they die in Jihad they will go to paradise, they mean that, as well.
They act on their beliefs and those belief are not due to the fact that sometimes Jewish people build housing for themselves beyond the Green Line. Their beliefs are grounded in their religious faith and the primary sources of that faith are the Qur'an and the hadiths.

Elliott Abrams: A panel of military experts clears Israel of trumped-up war-crimes charges.

The latter point should be a warning for Americans, whose forces are spread across the globe and do engage in combat. If an Israeli officer can be detained today on some trumped-up charge laid by a far-left political group, an American officer can face that risk tomorrow. And the completely unprofessional and unrealistic standards of conduct being imposed on Israel today can be imposed on our forces tomorrow as well. In fact, the HLMG worries that Israeli standards of conduct are too high:
Following our professional assessment of IDF conduct, several members of the HLMG expressed strong concerns that the actions and practices of the IDF to prevent collateral damage were so extensive, over and above the requirements of the Law of Armed Conflict, that they would curtail the effectiveness of our own militaries, were they to become constraining norms of warfare enacted in customary law.
So the work of the HLMG is welcome, and not just by Israel. “Israel’s experience carries important strategic, tactical and operational lessons for other democratic nations’ armies battling some of the most brutal and dangerous adversaries since the Second World War,” the HLMG notes. This won’t stop Palestinian extremists from calling every Israeli action against terror a war crime, but it should remind us that every ally in the war against jihadi terror should defend the Israeli record — or fall prey to media and NGO critiques and assaults that will make defense against terror nearly impossible.

Video reveals 'foreign agents' subverting Israeli democracy

Zionist group Im Tirtzu has released a powerful short video to accompany the shocking report it compiled, which examines 20 Israeli NGOs that receive foreign funding and are actively involved in anti-Israel activity.
The report illustrates how much money was received by each extreme leftist organization, all of which participate in or actively create programs and media that harm Israel. Such activity includes disseminating anti-Israel propaganda across the globe, working towards preventing the punishment of terrorists, and defending murders of Israeli citizens.
The foreign funding includes the New Israel Fund (NIF), foreign governments, the EU - and over 13 million shekels from a Palestinian foundation based in Ramallah.
Matan Peleg, the CEO of Im Tirtzu, told Arutz Sheva, “We knew that these organizations were sponsored by foreign governments, but we were very surprised at the sheer amount of foreign help that is going towards these organizations. I have no words to describe how bad the situation is.”

Meretz trying to block video exposing European '

MK Zehava Galon (Meretz) is trying to get Facebook to block a video produced by grassroots Zionist movement Im Tirtzu, which singles out four leftist activists as examples of "foreign agents" who are assisting the terrorist enemy.
Galon called Im Tirtzu's video "warped and dangerous," and claims it encourages viewers to physically harm the four "human rights activists," and amounts to "a call to action." The video "accuses them of assisting terrorists and publishes their names and pictures," she claimed, "under slogans like 'they live here and they have been planted,' and 'while we fight terror, they fight us.' "
"It is getting hundreds of 'shares' at this very moment," she said.

Arab yarmulka-phobia

In The Jordan Times, Jawad Anani writes a reasonable article about tolerance.

But the way he begins the article reveals something:

We, in the Arab world, get indignant when American presidents or secretaries of state wear a yarmulke at a Jewish organisation, in a synagogue or at concentration camp memorial. We think that these American officials have stepped out of their way to please the Jewish audience at the Arab’s expense.

He is admitting a bit more than I think he meant to. Why would visiting a synagogue or Holocaust memorial be at Arab expense?

The Arab zero-sum mentality is a bit more ingrained than even I thought. And it shows that the mindset is not zero-sum vis-a-vis Israel, but in respect to Jews altogether.

I’ve decided, after the heavy contemporary themes of the past couple of weeks, dip into the historical archives.

Marcus Landau (c1837-1913), a native of Gomel in the Pale of Settlement, worked as a shochet in his adopted London, where he married a girl from Bavaria and fathered eighteen children. To his credit, this interesting and clever man – among his inventions was a safety lamp for use in coal mines – insisted that his nine daughters should be well-educated and encouraged to achieve their full potential in life, just as their brothers were. As a result, his progeny, both male and female, included some notable figures in the annals of Britain’s Jewish community.

In 1900 his daughter Annie (1873-1945) became headmistress of the famous Evelina de Rothschild School for Girls in Jerusalem, founded in 1854 and renamed in memory of a member of the Rothschild family who died in childbirth in 1866. Miss Landau became the school’s headmistress, and remained so until her death.

During a visit to London on extended sick leave in 1903, Annie Landau gave the Jewish Chronicle (30 October 1903) her impressions of Jerusalem – giving its population as 40,000 Jews, 14,000 Muslims and 6000 Christians – and recalling the difficulty she encountered when she first arrived in Eretz Israel three years previously:

'There is no ill-feeling on the part of the rest of the population to the Jewish inhabitants, according to Miss Landau, except that the Israelites are kept at arm's length from the holy places – even the tombs of their own Kings and Prophets. But the Turkish Government are still very careful about the settlement of Jews in the Holy Land. Very often, by expedients well-known in Oriental countries, Jews are enabled to evade the law which forbids them to settle in Palestine. But whenever the Zionists give signs of activity the screw is put on, it appears, and even the almighty [Thomas] Cook himself is unable to smuggle his Jewish tourists in with the rest of his company. This extra care on the part of the Turk was noticeable at the time of the El Arish negotiations [1902], and a similar cause placed Miss Landau herself in an unpleasant situation the very first day she touched holy soil, which was ... shortly after the meeting of the Kaiser and Dr Herzl [October 1898] ...

When Miss Landau reached the Port of Jaffa and attempted to disembark, a Turkish official intercepted her.

"Ĕtes vous Chrétienne?" he asked.

"Je suis Anglaise," answered Miss Landau, with intentional irrelevance.

The official glanced at her. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "Vous êtes Juive." Miss Landau could not deny the soft impeachment, and the name of Rothschild (the Rothschild School) on Miss Landau's luggage confirmed the man's worst fears.

So off the lady was marched to a sort of hut, and a guard of fifty villainous-looking soldiers was placed over her. Fifty soldiers! If Miss Landau had tried to escape, one feels that the Sublime Porte would have mobilised at least the first division of the Reserves.

However, the lady kept quite quiet, and in the hut she remained for an hour. Meanwhile, the people who had come to meet her had hied [i.e. sped] to the British Vice-Consul for help. This gentleman (a Jew) replied that Miss Landau was to be marched to his place. But Miss Landau, like the brave British subject she is, strongly declined the escort. The Vice-Consul must come to her!

The Jewish Mahomet duly came to the mountain. But all he could suggest was that Miss Landau should sign a declaration undertaking to leave the country for thirty days, and agreeing to deposit fifty napoleons as surety. One napoleon is twenty francs and fifty napoleons was, therefore, a big sum – more than Miss Landau had in her possession. But even if she had had the money she could have entered into no such foolish understanding, seeing that she had come out to Palestine to take up the post of Head Mistress of the Rothschild School. So she declined the Vice-Consul's suggestion.

In the end Miss Landau was allowed to land and proceed to her hotel, the idea being to refer her case to the British Consul at Jerusalem (who was expected that day). Sure enough the Consul, Mr Dickson, arrived, and smoothed things over. Miss Landau was allowed to settle in Jerusalem - but only by virtue of a firman especially issued by the Sultan.

The Cadi [judge] came to Miss Landau and apologised for the trouble to which she had been put. The gentleman was very anxious to be forgiven, and as a sign that he had found grace in Miss Landau's eyes he begged but one thing – that she should pay a visit to his harem. Miss Landau agreed. In the harem she found a whole room of women – from 15 to 20 of them. Their faces were painted, they had belladonna [sic; kohl] under their eyes, their fingernails and hair were coloured with henna, and they lay in what Miss Landau calls "languishing attitudes".

When the visitor entered, they sat and stared at her. Some of them regarded her, no doubt, as the latest recruit to the harem. One of them, with embarrassing politeness, took the narghileh [hookah pipe] from her mouth and offered it to Miss Landau for a smoke. But in those days ladies did not smoke in England, and this Miss Landau duly explained. However, no unpleasant contretemps occurred as a result. The lady resumed her narghileh [hookah pipe]; Miss Landau left the harem; and there was peace between the Cadi and the teacher all the days of their lives.

But two doubtful consolations remain to Miss Landau as a result of her adventures at Jaffa. She is the first British woman that has ever been under arrest in Palestine, and she is the only Jewess on whose behalf the Sultan has issue a special firman.'

12/15 Links Pt1: 22 dead, 252 injured in 3 months of terror; Abbas: ‘Justified popular unrest’

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas: Palestinians attacking Israelis because 'they see no solution ahead'

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that the current wave of attacks against Israelis was the result of the “despair” of Palestinian youths and Israelis’ visits to the al-Aksa Mosque.
Abbas said that continued settlement construction and Israeli military checkpoints were also responsible for the habba jamahiriya (popular puff).
In a speech marking International Anti-Corruption Day [!] in Ramallah, Abbas said he was unable to “ask the Palestinian youths why they are setting out” to attack Israelis.
Abbas, however, did outline what he thought were their grounds for violence. “They set out for several reasons,” he said, referring to the assailants behind stabbing, vehicular and shooting attacks.
“They set out because they have begun to feel desperate about the two-state solution. They wander around and see no logical basis for two states. Our state is non-existent – settlements and checkpoints. They see no solution ahead of them.”

Poll: 2/3 of Palestinians back stabbing attacks, armed uprising

Two-thirds of Palestinians support the current wave of stabbings against Israelis, with the same percentage backing a larger armed uprising, according to a Palestinian poll released Monday.
Sixty-seven percent back the use of knives, while 66% of those asked said an armed intifada or uprising would “serve Palestinian national interests in ways that negotiations could not,” according the survey by the respected Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR).
At the same time, nearly three-quarters said they opposed the involvement of “young schoolgirls” in stabbings.
Asked whether they backed continued attacks on soldiers, 79% said yes and 10% no.

Netanyahu: Given Abbas' incitement, no surprise majority of Palestinians support stabbing attacks

Polls showing that some 60% of the Palestinians support current stabbing attacks on Israelis should come as no surprise, given Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' continued incitement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
Netanyahu, at a visit at the IDF's southern command headquarters with Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, was referring to a poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showing that two-thirds of the Palestinians support the current violence. Another two-thirds said that a two state solution is no longer viable.
“This is not surprising because Abu Mazen [Abbas] continues to incite with lying propaganda about Al-Aksa, lying propaganda about executions and by rejecting all true efforts to come to negotiations,” the prime minster said.
Netanyahu said it was time for the international community to understand that “the reason there is no negotiations and no progress toward peace is not to be found on the Israel side, but on the Palestinian one.”

In numbers: 22 dead, 252 injured in 3 months of terror

Arab terrorists launched no fewer than 169 terror attacks against Israelis in 120 days - killing 22 people and injuring 252.
Of those, 21 were injured seriously, 7 suffered from 'serious to moderate' injuries, 36 were injured moderately, and 177 suffered from light injuries, Magen David Adom (MDA) stated late Monday.
MDA also treated 95 people for anxiety and post-traumatic stress.
The 169 attacks included 74 rock-throwing attacks, 68 stabbings, 19 car attacks, and 8 shootings.
MDA has called on the general public to donate blood in light of the high demand.
"MDA has been on high alert in the last three months, due to the wave of terrorist attacks across the country," MDA Director Eli Bin stated to Channel 2. "We are ready and prepared for any scenario or incident."

UCLA SJP students: "Hating Israel is necessary for my health"

The College Fix reports:

UCLA – ground zero for vehement debates between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students – saw its student government recently pass a new bylaw which ostensibly prohibits it from taking a side in controversial global-political issues such as the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The new bylaw restricts the current Undergraduate Students Association Council to only weighing and voting on “matters directly and substantially pertaining to student welfare issues,” defined as “issues pertaining to student (health), resources, education, safety.”

The student government adopted the resolution by a 9-4 vote on Nov. 17 after a lengthy debate, with some students who supported it saying they were elected to fight for students’ immediate concerns, not get bogged down by divisive global issues.

“USAC is not the United Nations and you weren’t elected to take stances on geopolitical issues that experts can’t solve,” said a student prior to the vote.

It is reasonable to say that the student government should concern itself with things happening on campus and not opine on every issue worldwide. But, of course, many students were offended by this idea, including, of course, Israel-haters.

Members of Students for Justice in Palestine came up with a new reason to oppose this bylaw: not being allowed to spout anti-Israel rhetoric at student government events affects their "wellness." From the minutes of the meeting:

Arnie is the vice president for Students for Justice in Palestine and an Armenian student on campus. "I am here to call you all out on petty bullshit as a clear attempt to undue [sic] the resolution from last year. First you all want to do resolutions that have to do with wellness. For some students that has to do with wellness, who are you to tell them what is their wellness."

-Annie is Arnie’s sister is here on behalf of Armenian Student Association and JSP [sic] and behalf for humans in general. "...You are in a place of privilege and we don’t have the power and this resolution is just really frustrating that we have to constantly reaffirm and what student wellness affects us. If we tell you something is our student wellness you have to believe us you cant [sic] pick and choose. I strongly urge all of you to think about the 28,000 students you represent and think of a different understanding of student wellness."

You cannot parody these idiots; they do such a nice job by themselves.

US started funding Miftah AFTER I exposed its antisemitism and extremism

In March 2013, I revealed that Miftah, a Palestinian NGO, founded and headed by Hanan Ashrawi had published an Arabic article that said that Jews use the blood of Christian children for Passover matzah. After the issue was publicized Miftah took it down and eventually apologized in English after defending it and attacking me for publicizing it.

Of course, the blood libel is not the only problem at Miftah. I documented that they supported terror attacks and they are explicitly against peaceful coexistence with Israel.

Miftah is also one of the signers of the original 2005 Call for BDS.

At the time, Miftah enjoyed monetary support from Oxfam, NED, Norway, Austria, the Anna Lindh Foundation and others.

But since I exposed their hate and lies, they have gained another funder.

The US Consulate.

The very year that Miftah was in the newspapers for pushing the blood libel is when the US decided to give them $175,000, paying that sum over two years.

This was noted in a recent report about BDS from the Congressional Research Service (I could not find it online):

US taxpayers are funding a hate organization.

Did Israel help create Hamas? Jim Clancy thinks so!

Yesterday I decided to check on my old pal, Jim Clancy, formerly of CNN, who now is free to express his hate fearlessly since, as far as I can tell, he's still out of a job. He tweeted:

Worth noting Hamas given license to operate by #Israel in '79 -- because pols wanted "anybody but Yasser Arafat!" https://t.co/o4r0IbYPRG
— Jim Clancy (@ClancyReports) December 14, 2015

I've seen this claim before from Israel haters, so I checked it out.

Unsurprisingly, it is not true.

The first hint comes from the fact that Hamas is celebrating its 28th anniversary, but Clancy is referring to an event from 1979 - 8 years before Hamas was founded..

All of these stories come from a quite good 2009 article by Andrew Higgins in the Wall Street Journal. The title seems to be what caused the Israel haters to have a field day: How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas. Based on that title, articles in other anti-Israel media like WRMEA

The article says not that Israel gave a license to a terror group in 1979, but that it did support a Muslim Brotherhood charitable organization that turned into Hamas.

In Gaza [after 1967], Israel hunted down members of Fatah and other secular PLO factions, but it dropped harsh restrictions imposed on Islamic activists by the territory's previous Egyptian rulers. Fatah, set up in 1964, was the backbone of the PLO, which was responsible for hijackings, bombings and other violence against Israel. Arab states in 1974 declared the PLO the "sole legitimate representative" of the Palestinian people world-wide.

The Muslim Brotherhood, led in Gaza by Sheikh Yassin, was free to spread its message openly. In addition to launching various charity projects, Sheikh Yassin collected money to reprint the writings of Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian member of the Brotherhood who, before his execution by President Nasser, advocated global jihad. He is now seen as one of the founding ideologues of militant political Islam.

Mr. [Avner] Cohen, who worked at the time for the Israeli government's religious affairs department in Gaza, says he began to hear disturbing reports in the mid-1970s about Sheikh Yassin from traditional Islamic clerics. He says they warned that the sheikh had no formal Islamic training and was ultimately more interested in politics than faith. "They said, 'Keep away from Yassin. He is a big danger,'" recalls Mr. Cohen.

Instead, Israel's military-led administration in Gaza looked favorably on the paraplegic cleric, who set up a wide network of schools, clinics, a library and kindergartens. Sheikh Yassin formed the Islamist group Mujama al-Islamiya, which was officially recognized by Israel as a charity and then, in 1979, as an association. Israel also endorsed the establishment of the Islamic University of Gaza, which it now regards as a hotbed of militancy.

Brig. General Yosef Kastel, Gaza's Israeli governor at the time, is too ill to comment, says his wife. But Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who took over as governor in Gaza in late 1979, says he had no illusions about Sheikh Yassin's long-term intentions or the perils of political Islam. As Israel's former military attache in Iran, he'd watched Islamic fervor topple the Shah. However, in Gaza, says Mr. Segev, "our main enemy was Fatah," and the cleric "was still 100% peaceful" towards Israel. Former officials say Israel was also at the time wary of being viewed as an enemy of Islam.

Mr. Segev says he had regular contact with Sheikh Yassin, in part to keep an eye on him. He visited his mosque and met the cleric around a dozen times. It was illegal at the time for Israelis to meet anyone from the PLO. Mr. Segev later arranged for the cleric to be taken to Israel for hospital treatment. "We had no problems with him," he says.

Some moves that Israel made clearly backfired in hindsight:

In 1987, several Palestinians were killed in a traffic accident involving an Israeli driver, triggering a wave of protests that became known as the first Intifada, Mr. Yassin and six other Mujama Islamists launched Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement. Hamas's charter, released a year later, is studded with anti-Semitism and declares "jihad its path and death for the cause of Allah its most sublime belief."

Israeli officials, still focused on Fatah and initially unaware of the Hamas charter, continued to maintain contacts with the Gaza Islamists. Mr. Hacham, the military Arab affairs expert, remembers taking one of Hamas's founders, Mahmoud Zahar, to meet Israel's then defense minister, Yitzhak Rabin, as part of regular consultations between Israeli officials and Palestinians not linked to the PLO. Mr. Zahar, the only Hamas founder known to be alive today, is now the group's senior political leader in Gaza.

In 1989, Hamas carried out its first attack on Israel, abducting and killing two soldiers. Israel arrested Sheikh Yassin and sentenced him to life. It later rounded up more than 400 suspected Hamas activists, including Mr. Zahar, and deported them to southern Lebanon. There, they hooked up with Hezbollah, the Iran-backed A-Team of anti-Israeli militancy.

Many of the deportees later returned to Gaza. Hamas built up its arsenal and escalated its attacks, while all along maintaining the social network that underpinned its support in Gaza.

So Israel supported Islamist charities - indeed, as a counterweight to the Fatah terror group - at a time when the Muslim Brotherhood had not yet emerged as a terror threat.

In fact, if you claim that Israel's support of Mujama al-Islamiya translates into "Israel helped create Hamas," then you have to say that the US helped create Al Qaeda. After all, Al Qaeda also started as a Muslim charity, Maktab al-Khidamat, which at one point opened 33 fundraising offices in the US under the name "Services Bureau." These charities received tax exemptions and, apparently, official recognition. (Not to mention the CIA's role in funding the mujahadeen, again without the benefit of hindsight.)

Imagine the outcry from the hypocritical Jim Clancys of the world if the US or Israel would shut down an Islamic charity before any ties to terror were known! Yet these moral midgets now claim that Israel is responsible for Hamas terror by not being clairvoyant in the 1970s.

Perhaps Jim Clancy can inform us of which charitable organizations exist today that will become fronts for terror organizations in eight years, so we can shut them down now, since according to him it is so damned obvious.

Despite Clancy's obvious disregard for the truth, there is a lesson here that he and many like him will never accept. As the WSJ article notes, Israeli leaders at the time were willing to overlook troubling signs about Sheikh Yassin and early Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Islamism partially because of Israel's desire not to seem Islamophobic.

That is a mistake that should only be made once - but the rest of the world has not yet learned from it.

Work accident! (senior edition)

Arab media are reporting on the death of two Hamas members "while on a mission of jihad."

The Al Qsssam Brigades released a statement saying that Khalid El-Arini and Abdul Ghani Hamdan were killed in the jihad event, which is usually a code word for "they accidentally blew themselves up" or "a rival shot him but we want to pretend he is going to Pradaise."

According to Hamas, Hamdan was 61 years old. while El-Arini was 24.

I have not seen anyone that old being killed in a "work accident" that I can recall. But clearly Hamdan was a Hamas member, so he must be a recipient of their wonderful charitable networks designed to recruit jihadists.

May many more Hamas terrorists speedily achieve their dream of martyrdom without hurting a single innocent person.

12/14 Links Pt2: BHL: Jews, Catholics Must Confront ‘Looming Barbarism’; WH Smith & 'Mein Kampf'

From Ian:

Bernard-Henri Lévy Says Jews, Catholics Must Cooperate to Confront ‘Looming Barbarism’ (INTERVIEW)

Following a meeting with Pope Francis I, and ahead of his upcoming trip to New York to speak at a United Nations event dedicated to Catholic-Jewish relations, famed French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy spoke with The Algemeiner, in an exclusive interview, about the Church’s relationship with Jews.
The Algemeiner: You will be at United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday for an ecumenical meeting of Christians and Jews, is that right?
Bernard-Henri Lévy: “Ecumenical” is not the right word. The event is a celebration — open to the public, including your readers — of the 50th anniversary of the remarkable revolution within the Catholic Church that brought about the decision to move beyond antisemitism. And it was indeed a revolution — one of the few successful revolutions of the 20th century. At the end of it, the church banned antisemitism. That is a far cry from the fancy phrases and hollow dialogue that often fall under the heading of ecumenism.
The Algemeiner: Who conceived the idea of the meeting at the United Nations?
Bernard-Henri Lévy: The Vatican, in part. But also the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC), which I think is accurately described as a coalition of the major Jewish groups in the United States. The architect of the event is Michael Landau, a leader in the American Jewish community. One thing of which I am completely certain is that the two sides have an equally strong interest in seeing the alliance prosper, something that is really critical in the terrifying world we now live in. Together Jews and Catholics will have to confront the looming barbarism. And not just us, of course; we are going to need millions of practitioners of other religions, too, as well as nonbelievers. Joining me at the UN on Wednesday afternoon to take stock of the past half-century and look forward to the next will be Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, as well as prominent Jewish leaders, among them Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom.

German newsweekly owner compares Israel to National Front, fascists

Jakob Augstein, a partial owner of and columnist for German newsweekly Der Spiegel, drew parallels last week between the Netanyahu government and historical European fascism, France’s National Front party and the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD).
Volker Beck, the Green Party spokesman for interior affairs and religion, in what appears to be the first public criticism of Augstein on the issue by a Bundestag deputy, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that in the publisher’s eyes, “Israel is to blame for everything – somehow also still for the right-wing populists of the AfD. Mr. Augstein is once again on the wrong track with his Israel obsession.”
In a column subtitled “Fascism is not a phenomenon of the past,” Augstein wrote, “so right-wing like the German right-wing populists is the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.” Augstein discussed Israel’s government within the context of the National Front.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Post on Sunday, “Sadly, Augstein’s anti-Semitism is not a phenomenon of the past. Unfortunately, his latest article dumping the democratically elected Israeli government in the same basket with far-right and xenophobic parties confirms an anti-Israel bias so extreme that he merited criticism from a leading member of Germany’s Green Party.”

France says ad calling Jerusalem site ‘Palestinian territory’ a mistake

France has hurriedly backtracked after calling a site in west Jerusalem “Palestinian territory” in a recent job advertisement, saying the statement was “a mistake.”
In a recent post to Careerjet.com, a job search engine, the French Consulate wrote that it was looking for a new employee in the French Institute of Jerusalem, located in Safra Square (which also houses City Hall) near the Old City.
Though Safra Square is indisputably a part of western Jerusalem, under the job’s “location” the ad said: “Jerusalem (Palestinian Territories).”

Reuters reports the "Israel changed the status quo" lie

It is fascinating, and frightening, to see how Palestinian Arab lies start to get accepted by the mainstream media.

From Reuters, adding background information to an article about recent violence:

A campaign of stabbings, shootings and car-rammings by Palestinians has killed 19 Israelis and a U.S. citizen since the start of October. Israeli forces have killed 109 Palestinians, around two-thirds of whom the army identified as assailants.

Palestinians are frustrated at the failure of long-running peace efforts with Israel and its 48-year occupation of the West Bank. Many sympathize with Hamas calls for Israel's destruction.

The bloodshed has also been fueled by Muslim agitation over stepped-up Israeli access to Jerusalem's al Aqsa mosque complex, which many Jews revere as a vestige of their biblical temples.

Exactly how has Israel "stepped up" access to the site compared to 2013? 1998?

They haven't, but Arab media have been plastering articles about every single visit by Jews to the area on their front pages for months as a reason to incite violence. And it has worked. The articles often report supposed Israeli plans to build a Temple or divide the site so that only Jews can ascend at certain times. All of them have been false.

There has been no increased Jewish access to the Temple Mount. But there has been a marked increase in Muslims violently opposing any Jews visiting peacefully.

Today, the head of the "Arab Parliament" condemned Jews visiting the Temple Mount yesterday, claiming that their purpose is to provoke the feelings of Muslims worldwide and that any Jews on the Temple Mount is pouring fuel on the fire of Arab resentment. This incitement is constant in Arab media and governmental pronouncements.

And Reuters gives it credence.

The supposed Israeli plans to take over the complex is in fact the entire stated reason for the stabbings and shootings and stonings and rammings. Nothing about "frustration" with the peace process. It is called the Al Aqsa Intifada in Arab media. And it is based on lies.

But Reuters will never say that.

(h/t Meryl)