Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

12/23 Links Pt1: Why Palestinians Love Baby-Killers; Cruz: Close DC's PLO terror office

From Ian:

Samir Kuntar murdered four Israelis. One of his victims was a four-year-old girl, Einat Haran. Kuntar smashed her skull. Kuntar was killed this week in Syria while helping President Bashar Assad commit war crimes against his own citizens.
Senior Palestinian official Sultan Abu Al-Einein evidently believes that murdering Jews is not a "despicable crime," but killing an arch-terrorist such as Kuntar is a "despicable crime."
When the Western-backed Palestinian Authority openly endorses terrorists and names streets, squares and schools after them, Palestinian leaders are sending a message to their people that murdering Jews is a noble and dignified act. This show of solidarity with a baby-killer is the direct result of ongoing incitement against Israel and Jews in mosques, the press and social media in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In this sick, twisted society that the Europeans have bought and paid for, anyone who murders Jews is considered a role model. Anyone who supports peace with Israel is denounced as a "traitor."

Douglas Murray: The Establishment Is In Denial — Yet Again

Worst was in the wake of November’s atrocity in Paris when the story went around from the Wall Street Journal to the Huffington Post and the Daily Mail that one of the suicide bombers at the Stade de France football stadium had been stopped and turned away by a Muslim security guard called Zouheir. The story was reported around the world and heralded across social media. Amid a night of bloodshed which allegedly had nothing to do with Islam here was a security guard who had everything to do with Islam saving hundreds of lives. This seemed such a good meme that it became one of the most popular “stories” of the night on Twitter. Except that it turned out — as the BBC was unusual in being good enough to concede — that the tale was fabricated. There was a guard in the stadium of unknown religion called Zouheir but he had been elsewhere on the night and had not seen any bombers. He had relayed part of a colleague’s story to a reporter. Why had this all become about him? For the simple reason that people wanted it to be.
The point is that all these things are varieties of self-distraction. They are things we have set up to stop us coming to the conclusions based on the evidence before us. Parliament discusses sending a few planes to bomb IS, but is aware that this minimal action could cause maximal pain at home. The media reports the terrorist attacks while scouring to find a news story that will show Muslims in a good light.
Many worthy sentiments may be mixed up in all this. But at the root of them, living through them and watching this doubt from the top to the bottom, it is hard not to reflect that we are living in the in-between years. At some point the atrocities will come here again and only then will we again be able to see that these years were largely wasted.

Ted Cruz to Obama: Shut Down DC's Terror-Supporting Palestinian Office

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is demanding that the Obama administration close the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) office in Washington for “celebrating the murder of Jews,” “glorification of terrorism,” and paying salaries to jailed Palestinian terrorists.
The United States government has an obligation to publicly denounce the PLO’s actions and should immediately revoke its waiver,” reads a letter signed by 30 Republican lawmakers and sent to Secretary of State John Kerry by Cruz and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC).
The letter, released Monday, further states that Israel has “seen a dramatic increase in deadly attacks carried out by Palestinians sympathetic to the message of hatred and intolerance proclaimed by leaders” of the PLO.
The PLO has been banned by Congress from maintaining a D.C. office. However, the legislation allowed the president to temporarily waive the requirement and since 1994 this waiver has been in effect.
But Republican lawmakers are insisting that the waiver be revoked due to a string of terrorist attacks “directly connected to the Palestinian government’s teaching of hate and glorification of terrorism.”

US State Department rejects lawmakers' calls to close PLO office

State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau confirmed that the department had received the letter and said Kerry would respond to it.
"We believe that closing the PLO office would be detrimental to our ongoing efforts to calm tensions between Israeli's and Palestinians, advance a two-state solution and strengthen the US-Palestinian partnership," Trudeau told reporters.
She said every US administration since 1994 had used the waiver to keep the PLO office open.
"We believe the PLO has a valid place ... and we'd oppose those efforts" to close the office," Trudeau said, adding that Kerry had condemned the attacks.

Memorial for terrorist Kuntar to be held in Brussels

A terror-supporting group called Samidoun scheduled a memorial for arch-terrorist Samir Kutar this coming Saturday at the Arab Cultural Center in Brussels:

Unfortunately for them, the Centre Culturel Arabe gets funding from the belgium government and when people complained, the Center shut the event down.

So Samidoun is rescheduling the event - but they won't tell anyone where it is. You must contact them directly (at samirkuntarbxl@gmail.com) to find the location.

Perhaps someone will politely ask where the event will be held. I'll be happy to let everyone know.

(h/t Rudi)

This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

UNRWA human rights worker laughs at Israelis fleeing a terrorist

Nahla Holly works in UNRWA's Human Rights program in Gaza.

She posted this on Facebook, making fun of a video of Israelis fleeing a terror attack in Jerusalem.

She wrote, "Ha-ha-ha, look at the difference between us and them... when the rockets were falling on our houses, the children would run there in order to collect copper and aluminum."

Yes, a UNRWA human rights worker thinks that Jews running for their lives is funny. Because Jews aren't quite human and deserve no rights in UNRWA's world.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

The Palestinian Ministry for Prisoner Affairs held a memorial for child-murderer Samir Kuntar in Ramallah yesterday.

The Minister of Prisoner Affairs, Issa Qaraqe, spoke at the event and extolled Kuntar as "the martyr Samir Kuntar, a Palestinian symbol."

"We meet today in the presence of the martyr Kuntar, to honor a martyr in the name of all the Palestinian people, and to assure him and anyone who fought for Palestine that they will stay present in all of our lives, we will not forget your sacrifices, we'll proudly tell all the generations to come about you and how Kantar rubbed the occupier's nose in dirt."

It is not certain if he is referring to the child that Kuntar murdered, whose nose was in the dirt after he bashed her head in.

Qaraqe has testified about supposed Israeli crimes to the UN, including accusations that Israeli pharmaceutical companies perform medical experiments on prisoners.

There was another ceremony honoring Kuntar held in Ramallah yesterday which Fatah officials attended, but the memorial presided over by Qaraqe showed that the official Palestinian Authority position is to honor a child murderer.

Counterfeit camel urine

From The Daily Mail:

Saudi authorities have closed down a shop selling traditional camel urine drinks after discovering the owner had been filling the bottles with his own bodily waste.

Health inspectors swooped on a vendor in the port city of Al Qunfudhah, in south-western Saudi Arabia, and confiscated more than 70 full bottles.

The practice of drinking camel's urine mixed with milk is believed to date back centuries while some insist it has health benefits.

But the shopkeeper's business was closed down indefinitely amid claims he had been selling his own urine to unsuspecting customers.

The traditional camel urine drink is believed to have originated from a passage in the Hadith.

The Muslim holy book contains quotes from the prophet Muhammad and it says: 'Some people of Ukl or Uraina tribes came to Medina (in Saudi Arabia) and the climate did not suit them.

'So the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of (milk) camels and to drink their milk and urine (as medicine). So they went as directed and afterwards they became healthy.'

I sincerely hope that there is a class-action suit. I mean, what is worse than finding out that the camel urine you are enjoying with friends is mislabeled?

(h/t Martin)

End of year appeal: Donate to EoZ!

(This post is pinned on top for today, scroll down to see the latest articles.)

Help get the truth about the Middle East out to the world!

For over eleven years, we have been in the forefront of digging out and publicizing the truth amid all the slanders about Israel that come from the media, NGOs and academia. We have built a brand that, despite the ironic name, is trusted and relied upon by thousands of daily readers.

But we need to do more. We need to get the message out to more people, more institutions, more media. And we are starting some initiatives - outreach to synagogues, improving our daily email digest, and others.

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In recent months we have made a difference. We got news agencies to change their articles to be more objective, we ensured that funding of antisemitic Palestinian organizations would not be without consequences, and we continued to put pressure on UNRWA for allowing hate to be spread under its name.Readers lauded several of my essays as particularly good: one about media bias in the Independent, my analysis of the current intifada, an essay on Islamism in the wake of the Paris bombings, about the absence of peaceful voices on the Palestinian side, and more.

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12/22 Links Pt2: NYTs Turns Jewish Berenice Into Islamic 'Queen of Palestine'; Upholding San Remo 1922

From Ian:

New York Times Remakes Jewess Berenice Into Islamic 'Queen of Palestine'

In a feature on French literature, The New York Times' art department takes a creative turn in depicting Berenice, a first-century Jewess, the daughter of King Agrippa I, king of Judea, and wife of Herod, king of Chalcis, a tiny principality in the Lebanon mountains, as a "queen of Palestine."
After Herod's death, Berenice ruled together with her brother Agrippa II before the Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire. The Romans renamed the Holy Land Palestine in 135 CE, dozens of years after Berenice's rule came to an end and long after she died. (Indeed, nothing more is known of her after the year 79, when she returned to Rome, following her love affair with Titus, which ended in 75.)
In a news article about the "Islamic world . . . looming large in French literature this season," Rachel Donadio would have readers believe that Berenice, a Jewish queen, was in fact a Muslim queen of Palestine ("The French Literati and the Arab World Do a Complicated Dance").
"Three of the four novels shortlisted in October for France’s most prestigious book award, the Goncourt Prize, concern the Arab world," intones Donadio, and it's not clear whether or not she includes among the three the story of the Jewish queen Berenice, who resided and ruled in Judea some six centuries before the Arab conquest of the region. She does not specify whether the novel not concerning the Arab world is the Berenice novel or, alternatively, "Ce Pays Qui Te Resemble" ("This Country That Resembles You") by Tobie Nathan, also shortlisted for the Goncourt Prize, about the Jewish community of Cairo in the 1920s.
Note this 2011 New York Times music review which more accurately refers to Berenice as "queen of Judea."

Politically Incorrect - Interview von Mr. Merkava mit Caroline Glick (JP)

NGO Monitor: Breaking the Silence: Details of European Government Fundin

Breaking the Silence (BtS) has been receiving direct and indirect funding from various European governments for many years. In 2014 (latest comprehensive data available), 61% of BtS’ annual budget was from foreign (European) governments (direct and indirect combined). The total income for this NGO in 2014 is listed as NIS 3.8 million (accessed July 12, 2015).
The main governmental direct donors in 2014 were the European Union, the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands), and Norway.
In addition, in December 2015, following inquiries from NGO Monitor, the EU disclosed that it was providing to BtS an additional €236,000 (~1 million NIS) in 2015-2017, under a project titled “Educating for Change: Human Rights Education in Israeli Society” (Table 1 below).
NGO Monitor research reveals that most foreign governmental funding frameworks exhibit a lack of transparency and accountability pertaining to process, objectives, and evaluation. The criteria used to approve the grants remain unclear, as is the degree to which these criteria correspond to the official foreign policies of the funders. Similarly, there is little transparency regarding measures used to evaluate the activities of recipient NGOs, in contrast to self-reporting.

The (Jewish) wise men at Mohammed's birth

It appears that according to some legends, Jews foretold the birth of Mohammed in stories that seem unusually familiar at this time of year.

Al Ahram relates that two rabbis in Syria spotted a rising star that signified that a new prophet was about to be born, and they went to Mecca where one proclaimed "O people of Mecca will be born in this month, the prophet of this nation...Under this star shall be born The Most Praised."

In another version the Jew said "O People of Makkah! Very soon a child will be born among you. Arabs and rest of world will follow him and he will conquer the rest of world. His time of birth is close. Who ever will obey him, he will be successful and who ever will go against him, he will fail."

The idea of a star heralding the birth of a prophet was told to Moses and passed down from generation to generation of Jews.

Another legend says that at the moment that Amina gave birth, a light came from her and her baby, a light which was so bright that it lit up distant palaces, so that Amina could see the necks of the camels in Bosra. Then the baby raised himself up, saying, “There is no God but Allah, and I am his prophet.” His aunt Safia, who was there with Amina, said that she did not have to cut the baby’s umbilical cord. [Others say he was born circumcised - EoZ] And some people say three personages, as bright as the sun, appeared: one presented a silver goblet to the child, one an emerald tray, and the third a silken towel; these three personages washed the baby seven times, then blessed him, calling him the Prince of Humanity

A different version of a three visitor legend names them as Hagar, Mary and "Queen Asiya" who raised Moses.

But there is another legend about Jews and the birth of Mohammed that is a bit less Christian-sounding:

On the day of the birth of Abdullah, the father of Muhammad (PBUH), the Jewish elders in Syria saw the blood-stains become fresh and drip off miraculously from John the Baptist’s (PBUH) preserved blood-stained clothes, until they became pure white. Thereupon some of the learned Jews came from Palestine and Syria to Mecca to enquire about this newborn child. When they saw the ‘Nur-e-Muhammadi’ (Light of Muhammad) on the forehead of the child Abdullah, they recognised him and said this is ‘Nur-e-Muhammadi’ of the Promised Prophet. Hence they realised that Abdullah was going to be the father of the Promised Prophet; as foretold by Jesus Christ (PBUH) in relation to the blood-soaked clothes of John the Baptist (PBUH).

Amongst these Jews, there were some who had grown proud and jealous. Not realising the Will of Allah, they did not wish to see an Arab prophet. Their pride enshrouding them in darkness, they decided to send an armed band of 70 persons from Syria to kill Abdullah. This incident took place when Abdullah had grown up into a young man, before he got married. They conspired to prevent the birth of the Promised Prophet, so as to ensure that the prophethood which had for so long been amongst the children of Isaac (PBUH), may not get transferred to the children of Ishmael (PBUH) as foretold repeatedly in the Holy Bible. Before the 70 attackers could even touch Abdullah, a number of horsemen came down from the sky and slew them all.

Gresham College in London dates from Tudor times, established through a bequest by wealthy merchant Sir Thomas Gresham, and is a kind of quasi-university that presents lectures and discussions that members of the public may attend. It current professor of law is a prominent international human rights lawyer, Sir Geoffrey Nice. Back in October Sir Geoffrey chaired a panel discussion addressing the issue of whether during its operations against Hamas in Gaza Israel committed “war crimes”. The panel was apparently cherry-picked in order to achieve a pre-ordained outcome and, as Nice’s own speech showed, over-relied upon the historical narrative of one of the panellists, ProfessorAvi Shlaim. If Colonel Richard Kemp had been a member of the panel, he would certainly have put Nice right about the true and precise military meaning of a “disproportionate” response.

Little wonder that, during the question-and-answer session that followed the speeches, distinguished educator Baroness Deech – daughter of renowned Yiddishist and biographer of Herzl Josef Fraenkel – declared that fellow members of the audience should be aware that they “have been subjected to the most inaccurate and one-sided history that I have heard in recent years”. And so it was – an absolute disgrace, in fact, with no mention by Nice during his speech of the fledgling Jewish State’s immediate invasion by several exterminatory Arab armies, and with Shlaim inveighing (to applause) that since its birth Israel has been “too ready” to participate in military conflict! (Arab aggression and rejectionism, anyone?)

British blogger Richard Millett has provided a neat critique of Nice’s views, quoting some of the most noxious passages, such as: “Israel as a state was thus imposed on and within Palestine in 1948 … an as yet unfinished state project because the territorial ambitions of Israel were not satisfied. Thereafter, claiming to fight for the security of their people and preservation of their land, Israel fought their Arab neighbours, expanding Israel’s borders.”

Having watched the relevant video, one assertion by Sir Geoffrey strikes me as singularly noisome.

During the question-and-answer session he volunteered how, not so long ago, his eyes were opened to the fact that a “one state” solution is probably the way to proceed. After all, he pointed out, “we in Northern Europe” no longer live in countries composed of a single ethnicity or culture … (you really have to watch the video to appreciate the casual obnoxiousness of the remarks).

No consideration, of course, of what a single state would entail, demographically, for the Jews of Israel. No nod to the fact that Israel is a thriving democracy and already home to minorities who are equal before the law, including, let’s not forget, people of Vietnamese origin taken in as refugees from Communism when much of the world shunned them. No remembrance of the fact that Arab women, still treated as mere chattels and subject to “honour” killings in much of the Arab and Muslim world, were enfranchised in 1948 by Israel, the first Middle Eastern nation to give them the vote. No acknowledgment that it is effrontery in the extreme to suggest that a sovereign state should be dismantled in order to be incorporated in the entity that Sir Geoffrey Nice and his cohorts will find acceptable. No recognition of the fact that many people would consider such a suggestion antisemitic since the sovereign state offered up on the altar of abolition is the world’s only Jewish one.

No admitting of the fact that there is just one Jewish State on planet Earth and a very significant number of Arab ones, indeed a large number of states that are constitutionally, to a greater or lesser degree, self-defined as Islamic states in which, to some extent at least, disabling legislation against non-Muslims and the operation of sharia law applies.

There is, of course, Saudi Arabia, that most extreme of fundamentalist Arab states, in which no Jews may officially set foot and no churches are allowed, towards which a discrete silence reigns in view of the West’s reliance on the desert kingdom for oil and, Saudi Arabia’s export of Wahhabism notwithstanding, its tacit alliance with the West and Israel: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a sovereign Arab Islamic State with Islam as its religion. God’s Book and the Sunna of His Prophet … are its Constitution ... Government in Saudi Arabia derives from the Holy Quran and the Prophet’s traditions ... the State protects Islam, it implements its Sharia...”

And then there’s post-Taliban Afghanistan, whose Constitution proclaims: “the religion of the State of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is the sacred religion of Islam ... The state shall devise and implement a unified educational curriculum based on the provisions of the sacred religion of Islam ... Presidential candidates ... should be ... Muslim.” Post-Saddam Iraq: “Islam is the official religion of the state and it is a fundamental source of legislation. No law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam may be established.”

And take Mauretania: its Constitution (1991) declares that country “an indivisible, democratic, and social Islamic republic … Islam shall be the religion of the people and of the state … the President of the Republic shall be a Muslim”. Or Pakistan, proclaimed as an “Islamic Republic” in 1956, which oversaw a radical islamification of its Constitution in 1985, and the following year foreshadowed the persecution of Christians with the making of blasphemy against Islam a capital offence, and where since 1993 basic constitutional rights are based upon the Quran and Sunna. Or Egypt (“the Egyptian people form part of both the Arab and Islamic community … Islam is the state religion .... The principles of Islamic law form the main source of legislation’), Iran, and Malaysia, where conversion to a religion other than Islam is regarded as apostasy and in Iran liable to capital punishment.

With the exception of Turkey, officially still secular as Ataturk intended yet showing increasing signs of re-islamification under Erdogan, Islam is, I believe I’m correct in saying, entrenched in the constitutions of the remaining Muslim states.

I think we can all make an educated guess as to how long Nice’s “one state solution” would last before it, too, adopted a Constitution that enshrined the supremacy of Islam and the effective dhimmitude of its minorities.

12/22 Links Pt1: Why Western Leaders Refuse to Call Jihadist Terror by Name; ISIS as a symptom

From Ian:

The United States and Islam: What Is Going On?

The irony is that no major power in recent history has gone out of its way as has the United States to help, respect, please and, yes, appease Islam. And, yet, no other nation has been a victim of vilification, demonization, and violence on the part of the Islamists as has the U.S.
The politically correct crowd has turned Islam into a new taboo. They brand any criticism of Islam as racist, ethnocentrist or simply vile, all crammed together in the new category of "Islamophobia." Is it Islamophobia to question a religion whose Middle East leaders often preach "Death to America" and hatred for Western values?
More prevalent than Islamophobia is Islamophilia, as leftists treat Muslims as children whose feathers should not be ruffled. The Islamophilia crowd invites Americans and Europeans to sacrifice part of their own freedom in atonement of largely imaginary sins against Muslims in the colonial and imperialist era.
Many Muslims resent the kind of flattery that takes them for idiots at a time that Islam and Muslims badly need to be criticized. The world needs to wake up and ask: What is going on?

Why Western Leaders Refuse to Call Jihadist Terror by Name

Above all, we should never say that upholding Western values like universal human rights, even by force in some cases, is sometimes desperately needed by those many Others who suffer oppression, violence, terror and genocide.
Ask Nadia Murad Basee Taha, a Yazidi woman who recently testified before the UN Security Council about her unimaginably brutal treatment at the hands of the Islamic State. She pleaded with the council to intervene. I doubt that Taha would agree with gender theorist Judith Butler that jihadi movements like, say, Hamas, should be considered part of the “global left.”
Some observers – many in Israel – believe that now that terrorism has struck Paris and California, the West will wake up and realize that democratic values need active defense. But it’s doubtful whether such optimism is warranted. When the democracies’ immune systems are so slow to wake up from their beauty sleep, democracy’s enemies fill the vacuum. When the political left and center are so preoccupied with cleansing their own conscience, the extreme right rises in their stead.
This is true in the international arena, where reactionary powers like Russia and Iran are filling the void that the Obama administration has left in the Middle East. Meanwhile, in domestic politics, people like Marine Le Pen or Donald Trump are poised to reap the sour fruits of public fears.
Those who have been so careful not to criticize the Other because of their inflated fears of being labeled bigots have opened the door to real bigots. It’s doubtful whether they have rendered good services either to themselves or the Others they proclaim so loudly to care about.

PMW findings used to confront PA officials

A delegation of Australian and British politicians visiting Israel and the Palestinian Authority used Palestinian Media Watch's findings to challenge and question PA officials. After confronting the PA officials, Australian MP Glenn Sterle "strongly recommended a briefing from Palestinian Media Watch before any meetings with the PA," The Jerusalem Post reported.
The Australian and British delegation had heard a presentation by PMW director Itamar Marcus, which, among other things, documented the PA's practice of glorifying terrorists who have killed Israeli civilians. After the PMW presentation, the delegation met with PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and PA Minister of Education Sabri Saidam. The British and Australian delegates confronted and questioned the PA officials about the PA practice of naming schools and sporting events after terrorists and their educating Palestinian children and youth to hate Israelis and Jews.
PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah denied that any schools in the West Bank are named after terrorists, despite the fact that PMW has clearly documented this. Hamdallah even "defend[ed] the practice of 'honoring' terrorist-suicide bombers," Australian MP Glenn Sterle said. Hamdallah had further told the delegation to "check their information." [The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 15, 2015]
After the meeting with the Australian-British delegation, the PA Minister of Education Dr. Sabri Saidam said that he "was surprised by the group's 'explosive, blunt and rude' questions about Palestine's education system." "There was a lot of incitement I would say on behalf of the delegation meaning or implying that the Palestinians are the ones terrorizing Israel," Saidam said. He complained that Australian Federal Industry Minister Christopher Pyne had not discussed education with him but instead about "political difficulties." Minister Saidam stated that Minister Pyne "had a list of questions and they were misinformed." [SBS News, Dec. 16, 2015]

Hamas leader Bassem Naim writes on Facebook what upsets him about the possible agreement between Turkey and Israel.

Sensitive to Hamas' own relations with Turkey, Hamas has been careful not to publicly criticize the Muslim state, saying last week only that it is "not good news" and pointing out that it may affect Turkey's relations with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Yesterday, however, Turkey did something that Naim could not stop himself from criticizing.

Ömer Çelik, spokesperson for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said on December 20 “Certainly the Israeli state and the Israeli people are friends of Turkey."

That is going too far for Hamas. Naim, under the hashtag "#unacceptable," wrote:

It is understandable for [Turkey] to take their interests in international relations into account, but for the deputy chairman of the Justice and Development Party Mr. Omer Celik to say that the State of Israel and its people are friends of Turkey is not acceptable at all, and incompatible with the general context of Turkish policy. #Israel_NotAFriend_ToMuslims

The media has been assuming that reports that Turkey will deport Hamas leader Saleh al-Aruori and close his Hamas office is upsetting to Hamas, but Hamas has not said anything against that. Shlomi Eldar, writing in Al Monitor, claims that Aruori has been a thorn in Hamas' side, by orchestrating terror attacks without coordination with other Hamas leaders (most notably the kidnapping of three Israeli teens in 2014.) Eldar is downplaying Hamas' role in the current stabbing spree - some of the attackers were openly affiliated with Hamas and Hamas has publicly encouraged attacks - but his analysis says that Turkey is offering Hamas two carrots: the easing of Israel's closure of Gaza and getting rid of Arouri. If that is true then it would explain Hamas' relative silence on the matter.

But calling Israel a "friend" crosses all red lines.

The Muslim scholar that described the Jewish Temples in Jerusalem

Today is the Tenth of Tevet fast day, commemorating the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, which culminated in the destruction of the first Temple.

In 2013 I posted one of those articles that must be bookmarked and used every time Muslims claim that there was never a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount.

As we have seen numerous times in recent years, Muslims(and their useful idiots) are trying their hardest to say that the Temple Mount never housed either Jewish Temple.

However, a 15th century book by Jalal-addín [or Shams al-Dîn] al Síútí, translated in 1836 by James Reynolds, shows that Muslim tradition believed without a shred of doubt that the Al Aqsa mosque was built on the spot of both Jewish Temples.

The title of the book is "The history of the Temple of Jerusalem." It is some 600 pages long. It is filled with Islamic distortions of Jewish traditions, as can be expected, but it leaves no doubt that the Temple preceded the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Here are a few excerpts:

Know that there are many names, all expressive of the Glory of the place in question. Thus, to use the words of the author of the ' Descriptive Characters of the Mosques,' for forming a judgment upon mosques — " I have collected seventeen names of this Temple, all bearing upon the precious privileges (and pre-eminence) attached to the Masjidu- l-Aksa. It is called Al Aksa, because it is the most distant mosque towards which pilgrimage is directed.....Moreover, it is called the Consecrated House, (Baitu-l-Mukaddas,) ... signifying a pure place, sacred from idols. [Note the similarity between Baitu-al-Mukaddas and Beit Ha-Mikdash, the Hebrew term.]

...Al Makatil observes, In the land of the Baitu- l-Mukaddas did God call David and Solomon (peace be with both !) unto repentance. In the Baitu-l-Mukaddas God sent his angel to Solomon ; in the Baitu-l-Mukaddas God announced joyful tidings to Zacharias and to John ; in the Baitu-l- Mukaddas the angels showed a descriptive paint ing of the Tower to David ; in the Baitu-l-Mukad das God put all that walked the earth, or flew in the air, under subjection to David ; in the Baitu-l- Mukaddas, the prophets (God's peace and blessing be with them !) offered sacrifice ; upon the Baitu- l-Mukaddas the angels (peace be with them!) descend every night ...

Now we are told by Ibn Almubarak, from Othman, When God commanded David (with whom be peace !) to build this Temple, he said, O Lord, where shall I build it ? Who said, Where thou shalt see the angel with a drawn sword. David then did see the angel in that place. David there fore fixed the corner-stones of its foundation, and raised the walls ; but when the walls were raised, they were pulled down again. David then said, O Lord, thou didst command me to build a house for thee ; and now that I have raised the walls, thou dost pull them down. Then he said, O David, it is because I have not appointed thee my vicegerent among created beings; nor must thou alienate the place from its possessor without a price. As to that building, a man of thy sons shall construct it. Again, it has been said that the meaning of the building being pulled down after it had been raised, was, that the place be longed to the whole community of the children of Israel, every one of whom had a right in it.

...All this happened when he had reigned eleven years : but he died before he had accomplished the building, and enjoined his son Solomon (peace be with him !) to build it ; which he did, and built it in nine years : and when he had finished it, the children of Israel feasted therein upon twelve thousand oxen. It is again said, that the cause of this was, that David (peace be with him !) saw angels, with flaming swords, ascending by a golden ladder from the Rock unto heaven. Then said David, This is a place whereon it is fitting that a Mosque should be built to God Almighty. Thus therefore he built it ; but,dying before it was completed, he enjoined Solomon to build it ; who built it, and finished it.

...Again, by another tradition, Solomon, when he had built the Consecrated House, and finished it, closed up the gates, and fastened them, lest they should open : nor were they ever opened until he said, after the words of the prayer of his father David, " Open ye the gates ! let the gates be opened ! " Also, Solomon constituted ten thousand companies of Readers of the children of Israel; five thousand for the day, and five thousand for the night; that there might not be one moment, by night or by day, wherein God was not adored....

Also, from the beginning of the building by David, unto the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, and the overthrow of the dynasty of the sons of Israel, elapsed 454 years. Again, from Abu Abdallah Almubarek, the Temple remained in ruins until it was built by a Persian king, named Kushak ; for Al Baghooee says Kooshan-Ibn-Kushak-lbn-Achundash, built it seventy years after its demolition by Nebuchadnezzar. Then certain weak kings conquered Syria; the kings of Rome giving them the government thereof. These kings caused Syria to embrace their Christianity, until God brought Islam. Among these kings was Jabil-Ibn-Al-Ayham. And God gave the Moslem an entrance into Syria, at the time of Omar-Ibn-Al-Khattab, (God rest content with him !). Then the Temple was surrendered to Omar by capitulation, and continued in the hands of the Moslem from the Omarian conquest until the Franks seized upon it, and wrested it from the hands of the Moslem, and ruled over it, under the dynasty of the Fa- themites, until God again opened Syria to the hand of the Sultan of Islam and of believers, Salah-ud-din, (God show mercy to him !) according to the victories and the great events which will be accurately embodied (please God!) in a chapter of this book, which is to follow.

The translator is unsure of the exact identity of the author, but apparently he is a well-regarded commentator on the Koran.

New Israel Fund Photoshops MK to make her look sinister

In 1994, Time magazine was forced to apologize after darkening a mugshot of OJ Simpson to make him look more sinister. The implication was that the blacker the man, the more evil he is.

Today, the New Israel Fund is very upset over people saying bad things about its members:

The new campaign by the extremist Im Tirtzu group, naming and inciting against four human rights leaders, is designed to further delegitimize the proper work of human rights organizations while endangering the personal safety of these leaders who are our friends and allies.

You see, an enlightened organization like the New Israel Fund would never stoop so low.

Except, they have no problem combining the immorality of Time and the name-calling of Im Tirtzu in this poster they placed on their Hebrew site of Ayelet Shaked, captioned "Minister of Hate:"

They took the official photo of Ayelet Shaked (below), added blemishes to make her look ugly, and darkened and slanted her eyebrows to make her look hateful.

So when the heads of an Israeli NGOs funded by NIF are named and insulted, it is an awful crime of incitement. But when a member of Knesset is Photoshopped to look evil and called "Minister of Hate," that is righteous.

In fact, the Facebook post accompanying this poster calls her "The face of darkness and hatred" to which they say "Fear and hatred are not Zionism. Hate speech and violence are not values."

How exactly is this not hatred and incitement?

And what is Ayelet Shaked's crime that the NIF calls hateful? She insists that NGOs in Israel disclose their funding sources. She wants transparency - something the NIF is fighting against. And its response to a very reasonable demand is to treat Shaked as a criminal - and to incite against her.

I wasn't thrilled with Im Tirtzu's advertisement, but this episode shows that the NIF has no moral high ground whatsoever. It proves its hypocrisy thrice; with the insult, the photo manipulation and its hysterical reaction to a very reasonable request for transparency.

Which proves the NIF has something to hide.

(h/t Yenta)

12/21 Links Pt2: Bernard-Henri Lévy Calls for ‘Muslim Nostra Aetate; Death knell for NPT

From Ian:

In United Nations Address, French Philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy Calls for ‘Muslim Nostra Aetate’

Famed French philosopher and humanitarian Bernard-Henri Lévy last week called on the Muslim world to formulate its own version of the famed Nostra Aetate declaration by Pope Paul VI in 1965.
The document, which denounced antisemitism and effectively absolved Jews for the death of Jesus, amounted to a historic reset of Catholic-Jewish relations and also outlined the Church’s modern attitude to other world faiths.
Speaking at an event at the United Nations on Wednesday, co-hosted by the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC) and the Nuncio of the Vatican to the UN, Lévy said, “I would say, with all possible humility and respect, that it would be so great, it would make such a difference, it would be such a revolution, maybe a revolution as big as was the revolution of Nostra Aetate, if there were tomorrow, or in 10 years, but tomorrow would be better, a Nostra Aetate inside the Muslim world.”

Why Im Tirtzu launched its campaign

In the past week grass-roots Israeli Zionist NGO Im Tirtzu launched a campaign designed to highlight the connection between some 20 Israeli NGOs which regularly attack the State of Israel and its core institutions, such as the IDF, with allegations including war crimes, crimes against humanity, apartheid, etc., and the foreign governments, mostly in Europe, that are directly or indirectly funding them.
We believe it is important to delineate the compelling reasons for calling the public’s attention to what we believe is a destructive state of affairs that impinges on Israeli sovereignty, allowing foreign governments to use local NGOs to further their own anti-Israeli agendas.
We live in increasingly perilous times for Israel and Jews throughout the world. In Israel, we have been subject to an unrelenting series of vicious, random, murderous terror attacks with the common thread their being directed at Jews qua Jews. In other words, it is a racist-based terror wave motivated by anti-Semitism, pure and simple.
At the same time, many of the NGOs highlighted in the campaign report are actively seeking to neutralize efforts to stop terrorists, deter further attacks and protect the people of Israel.
Despite the ritualistic incantation of Never Again, it is no secret that it has once again become open season on Jews throughout the world. The cynical fig leaf of anti-Zionism has been stripped to expose unvarnished anti-Semitism in its pure and virulent essence. In many quarters, anti-Semitism has become not only acceptable, but a desirable response to “Palestinian oppression” and every other ill, even racial tensions in the US.

Fred Maroun: No morals and no excuses: The Arabs living in the West

Anti-Semitism has reached nauseating levels, and while some Western politicians recognize this, they have done little to address the problem. The world is highly biased against the one and only Jewish state, non-Israeli Jews are increasingly victims of violence, and Israeli Jews are under threat from multiple fronts while the criminals attacking their civilians are called a “resistance” movement.
A terrorist attack on French civilians raised the world’s ire, but almost daily stabbings of Israeli civilians over weeks and months go practically unnoticed. In fact, Jews are blamed for defending themselves. We live in an age of heightened human rights awareness, but human rights abuses against Jews are considered unimportant.
There are three parties mainly responsible for this anti-Semitism:
- The Arabs who refused to accept the 1947 UN partition plan, fought over a dozen wars trying to destroy Israel, and continue to promote hatred against Jews.
- The Muslims who blindly support anti-Zionism while using Israel as an excuse for their own crimes.
- The modern West that has allowed anti-Semitism to disguise itself as anti-Zionism and infect its universities and much of its media and political class.

It is an annual event - clueless journalists reporting that, somehow, Israel is discriminating against Christians in areas that are so terrible that Muslims are happily filling the vacuum.

This year's first such report comes from USA Today:

After 2,000 years, Christians disappearing from Gaza

Despite the packed pews at Gaza’s Church of St. Porphyrius just weeks before Christmas, Christianity is not booming here. Rather, the worshipers at the 1,600-year-old shrine believe they may be the last group of Christians in Gaza, where they have lived and prayed since the birth of Jesus.

The ongoing Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and the highest unemployment rate in the world are prompting Christians to leave the besieged area in droves, some using the holiday season to their advantage.

Although Israel rarely grants permits to leave the Palestinian territory, dozens of Christians are allowed to visit Bethlehem and Jerusalem during Easter and Christmas, and some take the opportunity to never return home so they can start a new life elsewhere.

“People might think we’re leaving because of Hamas, but no it’s because of ... (Israeli) policies on Gaza,” Jaber Jilder, an official with the Greek Orthodox Church said, referring to the militant group that governs Gaza and is labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and others.

Let's parse that bolded sentence. Israel supposedly doesn't let Palestinians leave (which is false) but the Gazan Christians who are being particularly discriminated against by Israel are deciding to live in a different territory under Israeli control. Hmmm.

The Christian population in the West Bank has also been on the decline for similar reasons, said George Abueed, a Palestinian-Christian from Bethlehem.

"Palestinian Christians ... receive no tolerance or mercy from the Israeli occupation. Their land has been confiscated, their houses have been destroyed, and they have been subjected to daily humiliation on checkpoints when they travel," he said. "Same discriminatory measures for everyone. Christians and Muslims."

Um, then why are only the Christians fleeing? And if everyone suffers the same, how is it discrimination?

USA Today's reporter doesn't think about such simple questions. If the Christian Gazans who have been leaving since the beginning of Palestinian Authority rule say that it is because of Israel, then it must be true.

Forget reports about Muslim intimidation of and attacks on Christians in Bethlehem and Gaza. Forget about Christians from Gaza - when not talking to Western media - bitterly upset over Muslims kidnapping them.

I noted last year in a similar AFP article that the Christians who want to blame Israel for their woes proudly use their names, but those who mention attacks and intimidation by Muslims prefer anonymity when talking to reporters. Obviously, Christians who are frightened of their wonderful Muslim neighbors are going to go public with the politically correct story of everything being Israel's fault. This is a consistent pattern with articles about Christians in Gaza that bother to look slightly beneath the platitudes.

But this reporter didn't even bother to look for those who might tell the truth. Because when you have an agenda, why spend time trying to derail it?