Thursday, January 07, 2016

2016 Hasby Award Nominations (continuously updated)

(UPDATE: Some great new entries are coming, especially in the social media, grassroots advocate and young defenders category. I hope you check out all the nominees.

( I will open up some categories to voting by you, so stay tuned!)

It is that time of year again where I ask you for nominations for the annual Hasby Awards, the best examples of pro-Israel advocacy for the year.

Below you will find the categories of awards for this year. You can add your own nominees or you can second the ones that are listed in the comments. I have pre-populated nominees from those who had been seconded last year that still apply, but you can nominate additional ones. There is no need to second nominees that have already been seconded. (No nominations or seconds from Twitter or email, they must be placed in the comments.)

As in previous years, no one gets awarded twice for the same category so I list the previous winners.

Some winners are decided by me and others will be based on surveys.. The awards will be given out in January or perhaps February. (If any organization wants to host an actual awards ceremony, let me know!)

BEST PRO-ISRAEL TWEETER (Previous winners: Avi Mayer, No Camels, Margie in Tel Aviv)

Arsen Ostrovsky (seconded)

UK Media Watch (seconded)

William Daroff (seconded)

Hen Mazzig (seconded)

Anarcho-Zionist (seconded

Brian of London (seconded)

NotAntiSemitic (seconded)

Tal Ofer (seconded)

Israellycool (seconded)

Omri Ceren (seconded)

Eugene Kontorovich (seconded)

Judean People's Front (seconded)

Andreas Fagerbakke (seconded)

Gidon Shaviv (seconded)

Dumisani Washington (seconded)
Yishai Fleisher (seconded)
Israel Shield (seconded)
Shim Rational (seconded)
Petra Marquardt-B (seconded)
Hillel Fuld (seconded)
Father Gabriel Naddaf (seconded)

BEST PRO-ISRAEL MEDIA OUTLET/WRITER NOT EXCLUSIVE TO ISRAEL (Previous winners: The Commentator and Melanie Philips, Bret Stephens)

Douglas Murray (seconded)

Gatestone Institute (seconded)

Charles Krauthammer (seconded)

Walter Russell Mead (seconded)

Legal Insurrection (seconded)

Daniel Greenfield (seconded)

Colonel Richard Kemp (seconded)

Brendan O'Neill (seconded)
Mike Lumish
Liberty Unyielding
Jay Nordlinger (seconded)
Sean Hannity (seconded)
Aboud Dandachi

BEST YOUNG DEFENDER OF ISRAEL (Previous winner: Muhammad Zoabi)

Ryan Bellerose (seconded)

Chloe Valdary (seconded)

Daniel Mael (seconded)

Sarah Bernamoff (seconded)

Samantha Hamilton

Jake Birell

Kaseem Hafiz (seconded)
Leora Noor Eisenberg (seconded, thirded, twentied...)

Alexandra Markus (Lex) (seconded)
Binyamin Arazi
Emanuel Miller (seconded)
Shay Alfasi (seconded)
Tomer Kornfeld (seconded)

WINNERS: Alexandra Markus (Hasby) and Leora Eisenberg (Popular vote)

BEST PRO-ISRAEL COMMENTATOR EXCLUSIVE TO MIDDLE EAST/ISRAEL (Previous winners: Barry Rubin, Sarah Honig, Caroline Glick)

Martin Kramer (seconded)

Daniel Gordis (seconded)

Evelyn Gordon (seconded)

Khaled Abu Toameh (seconded)

Mudar Zahran (seconded)

Yishai Fleisher (seconded)

Varda Meyers Epstein (seconded)

Fred Maroun (seconded)
Richard Ferrer
Judith Bergman

BEST SATIRE/HUMOR
PreOccupied Territory (seconded)
Mideast Beast (seconded)
Daily Freier (seconded)
This Is Palestine (seconded) (moved from Best Tweeter)
Judge Dan (seconded)
Benji Lovitt
AllMensch

BEST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE PRO-ISRAEL ONLINE MEDIA OUTLET (Previous winners: Times of Israel, The Tower, Mosaic)

Algemeiner (seconded)

Israel HaYom

Jewish Press

Tablet (seconded)

JPost (seconded)

Israel21c

YNet

Arutz7 (seconded)

Breaking Israel News

i24News (seconded)
CIJ News

The Rebel Media

BEST MAINSTREAM MEDIA WATCHDOG (Previous winners: Honest Reporting, CAMERA, BBC Watch)

UK Media Watch (seconded)

Presspectiva
Honest Reporting Canada (seconded)

BEST WATCHDOG - ARABIC MEDIA AND NGOs (Previous winners: Palestinian Media Watch, MEMRI)

NGO Monitor (seconded)

UN Watch (seconded)

JihadWatch (seconded)

Jonathan D HaLevi

BEST PRO-ISRAEL BLOG (PRESENT COMPANY EXCLUDED) (Previous winners: Daphne Anson, Missing Peace, Israellycool, This Ongoing War)

Israel Matzav (seconded)

Jews Down Under (seconded)

Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers (seconded)

5 Minutes for Israel (seconded)

IsraelSeen (seconded)

Thomas Wictor (seconded)

IsraelStreet (seconded)

Abu Yehuda (seconded)

The Mike Report (seconded)

Israel Thrives (seconded)

ZionTruth (seconded)

Edgar Davidson (seconded)

Beyond the Great Divide (seconded)

Judean People's Front (seconded)

Israel Shield (seconded)

BEST SOCIAL MEDIA ADVOCATE FOR ISRAEL (NON-BLOG)

Varda Meyers Epstein (seconded)

The Muqata (seconded)

Joan Zia Kahn

Miriam Goodman (seconded)
Roger Froikin
Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks
Michal Dar-El
Mottle Wolfe (seconded)
Israelis Under Attack Everywhere
Annika Hernroth-Rothstein

BEST ARTICLE

A Letter To Palestinian Supporters Tempted To Co-Opt Native American Struggles, Ryan Bellerose (seconded)
It’s Not An Argument, Ryan Bellerose (seconded)
The Palestinian Theft of Jewish Identity, Binyamin Arazi (seconded)
The Rage Less Traveled, Kay Wilson (seconded)
Calling BS on BDS - Apartheid Law vs. Israeli Law, Judean People's Front (seconded)
Why I Am Pro-Palestinian (Ryan Bellerose) (seconded)
The Biggest Mistakes Pro-Israel Advocates Make, series (Lex) (seconded)
Is Israel a democracy? (Vic Rosenthal) (seconded)
History Matters (Ryan Bellerose) (seconded)

WINNERS:
Kay Wilson (Hasby) AND Ryan Bellerose (Popular Vote)

BEST BOOK

Catch the Jew, Tuvia Tenenbom (seconded)

Ally, Michael Oren (seconded)
Winning a Debate with an Israel-Hater -Mike Harris (seconded)
Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism: Fighting violence, bigotry and hate - Barry Shaw (seconded)

BEST PRO-ISRAEL VIDEO (VOTING OPENING 1/17)

A special kind of hate

"Why do you hate Israel?" (seconded)

Israel: The world's most moral army (seconded)

Lucy Aharish on the stabbing intifada (seconded)

A special kind of hate (Pat Condell) (seconded)

Top Ten Reasons Why Every Liberal Should Support Israel (seconded)
Beyond Deception Strategy - Pierre Rehov (seconded)
War Crimes in Gaza - Pierre Rehov (seconded)

Bill Whittle: Terrorist Nation  (seconded)
Israel's Legal Founding - Alan Dershowitz (seconded)
Who is Guilty of War Crimes in the Gaza War? - JCPA  (seconded)
KillStarter – Crowdfunding Iranian Terror (Shurat HaDin)  (seconded)
This Is how the Palestinians Raise their Children  (seconded)
Anti Israel Media Bias Much?  (seconded)

BEST PRO-ISRAEL ACTIVIST ORGANIZATION

Regavim (seconded)

Northwest Friends of Israel (seconded)

Sussex Friends of Israel (seconded)

StandWithUs (seconded)

Fuel for Truth

Students Supporting Israel (seconded)

Canary Mission (seconded)

My Truth (seconded)

Im Tirtzu (seconded)

Irish4Israel (seconded)

Israel Advocacy Movement

Calgary United For Israel (seconded)

BEST SPEECH

The shocking words of this pro-Israel pastor (seconded)

Bibi's UN speech - with 45 seconds of "deafening silence" (seconded)

Shmuley Boteach - Hamas is a Greater Obstacle to Peace Than Israel

Matti Friedman's speech to BICOM dinner (seconded)

Mayor Giuliani's speech at Iranian American Community of Arizona event (seconded)

Ron Dermer at Israel Bonds event (seconded)

Marco Rubio Speech on Obama's Assault on Israel (seconded)
The Reason I'm an Israeli-Arab Diplomat Not a Palestinian Refugee - George Deek (seconded)
Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp "The Amoral Revolution in Western Values, and its impact on Israel" (text)(seconded)

BEST "OWN GOAL" (Anti-Zionists acting so stupid they disgust even disinterested parties or backfire spectacularly) (Previous winner: Max Blumenthal/David Sheen)

The stabbing intifada

BDS fail for Matisyahu in Spain (seconded)

Marsha Levine, horse expert (seconded)

Roger Waters, Lifetime Achievement (seconded)

William Schabas quits UNHRC commission (seconded)

The Gaza Platform from Amnesty

Malaysian Government for refusing visas to Israeli windsurfers

#AskHamas Twitter campaign (seconded)

A Map Of Palestine From 1759! (Deebo - Israellycool)

BEST CELEBRITY TWEETER FOR ISRAEL (The David Draiman Award)

Roseanne Barr (seconded)
Josh Malina
Jenna Jameson (seconded)
Mayim Bialik (seconded)
Jon Voight (seconded)

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.

Palestine Today reports that the first shipment of 3,300 tons of Turkish cement will reach the Gaza Strip by Monday.

This is reinforced cement that is stronger than what Gaza has been getting, and it is what UN agencies in Gaza require for their structures.

An average of two ships a week are expected to be coming from Turkey with similar amounts. The ships are offloaded in Ashdod and then would travel to Gaza by truck.

Which means that Israel and Turkey are cooperating in helping Gazans build. One of those stories that you won't see mentioned anywhere.

The article also claimed that the amount of cement needed to repair damaged buildings in Gaza is more than Israeli firms can provide on their own.

A few days ago there were reports that Israel had halted shipments of cement to Gaza after discovering issues with the distribution system, apparently discovering that thousands of people who applied to receive cement were buying more than they were supposed to, with their names being input multiple times into the systems that keep track of it. It sounds like that issue has been solved. (COGAT did not respond to my request for a comment.)

We are doing everything we can to fight for Israel with hard work, research and - above all - the truth. I could sure use your help. Please donate today. If you have other skills you can volunteer for EoZ, send an email to volunteer@elderofziyon.com

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column:

Last Friday saw a spate of rumors that Mahmoud Abbas had suffered a stroke or other serious health crisis. On Tuesday it was announced that he would make a “major speech” Wednesday. There was speculation that he would say that he plans to step down, which would immediately set off a possibly violent struggle to be his successor. He finally made the speech, and said nothing interesting.

There are warnings of serious instability in the PA. What about the possibility, raised by PM Netanyahu on Monday, that the Palestinian Authority might “collapse?” What should Israel do if Abbas were really to die or become incapacitated?

Netanyahu and IDF officials seem to think a PA collapse would be bad for Israel. Suddenly, Israel would be responsible for seeing to it that Arabs living in Areas A and B – populous urban areas in Judea and Samaria – continue to receive services like health care and garbage collection, that they don’t engage in riot and insurrection, and that Hamas or even the Islamic State don’t take over. The US and the EU together fund most of the PA budget. Would they be prepared to continue to do so if Israel were running it? The PA’s massive ‘security’ establishment would have to be disarmed or somehow controlled. If the PA falls, there will be an immediate struggle for power between the various factions.

Netanyahu understands that there will be no two-state solution because a sovereign Arab state in Judea and Samaria would render Israel impossible to defend. He also understands that raising the percentage of Arab citizens of Israel by simply annexing the territories would be destabilizing for an Israel that already has a population that is 21% Arab. And he is not prepared to annex the territories and encourage (coercively or not) most of the Arabs to leave, in some ways the best solution of all.

It appears that they are taking another approach: to somehow turn the PA into a good neighbor. What’s needed is something less than a sovereign state which could maintain an army or invite neighboring armies into it. The ideal PA would be as Rabin envisaged it in his last Knesset speech, an entity that could police its citizens, manage its economy and build infrastructure, without being a threat to the Jewish state. Thus we would try to keep the PA alive and encourage it to evolve into such an autonomous entity.

For this reason, Israel’s moderate leaders support the PA and advise Western allies to continue to fund it, despite the fact that huge amounts of money are stolen or diverted to terrorism against Israel, and despite the PA’s refusal to stop the vicious incitement that has led directly to the present situation in which Israeli Jews (and some Arabs) are stabbed, shot and run over in the streets.

This strategy cannot work as long as the PA is the PLO. The PA as it is constituted will never be the good neighbor Bibi would like to have. Its ideology has not changed significantly since it was formed in 1964, and that ideology calls for the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement by an Arab state. Despite pressure from the US and Israel and repeated promises, the offensive parts of the PLO charter were never removed. The comprehensive system of education for hate and violence established by Arafat, which the PLO also promised to change, has remained. And the incitement in PA media, schools, mosques, and more continues as well.

Abbas, while he is careful not to explicitly call for violence, nevertheless doesn’t hide his (and the PLO’s) intention to reverse the nakba of 1948. There is no room in PLO ideology for a Jewish state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.

The PLO-constituted PA is a hostile entity which, if it is too weak to confront Israel militarily, will nevertheless do so via diplomatic maneuvers, lawfare, plausibly deniable terrorism and subversion. It is not evolving in the direction of becoming a peaceful neighbor; rather, with the help of the EU it is trying to become a confrontation state. Indeed, it’s probably correct that the EU wants to prop up the PA for the opposite reason from that of Netanyahu: they want to use it as a weapon against Israel.

But time may be running out. The popular insurrection that was started by PA incitement has taken on a life of its own and may not be controllable by the PA. Israel cannot be expected to sit still while its citizens are murdered. The financial problems caused by the theft of funds intended for development and infrastructure are becoming acute, and the struggling West may not be able to continue to pump Euros and dollars into the failing enterprise. Finally, Mahmoud Abbas is 81, and even if he turns out to be in good health, the pretenders to his throne won’t wait much longer. The PA’s crisis is imminent.

What should Israel do?

I think the policy of propping up a PLO-based PA and waiting for the moderation beam from the planet Venus to come along and make an ally out of it has proven to be a failure, just like its father, the Oslo accords. But I also understand why Israel would prefer not to take over full control of all the territories in the near future, particularly because it would then have to replace much of the millions presently paid by the US and EU to support the welfare-based ‘Palestinian economy’.

I would like to see Israel present the PA with an ultimatum:

“The PLO is a terrorist organization whose reason for being is to destroy our state.”

“We are not interested in governing or controlling the lives of Palestinians. Hence we support the existence of a Palestinian Authority. But we do not support its control by the PLO, or any group that does not accept the legitimacy of the state of Israel. This is our bottom line.”

“Therefore we will support the continuation of the Palestinian Authority on the condition that the President of the PA and other top officials be replaced by non-members of terrorist organizations. We demand an end to incitement and support for terrorism and terrorists. We demand that the PA ‘security’ forces give allegiance to the new non-terrorist leadership of the PA. In return, we will commit to supporting such a PA administration militarily, as well as transferring customs funds as usual.”

“If the PA does not reconfigure itself according to our demand, we will consider it a hostile entity. We will not cooperate with it in any way, will not participate in funding it, and will intervene militarily when necessary. This might include arresting PA officials, disarming PA security forces or even engaging them in combat.”

Naturally the PA/PLO will reject the ultimatum, which will probably lead to violent clashes. But if the PLO leadership is arrested or exiled, perhaps cooler heads will choose cooperation over chaos. Israel’s official position toward the international community should be that it favors self-government for the Palestinian Arabs, but does not accept their leadership by a terrorist group like the PLO.

The greatest single mistake made by any Israeli government since 1948 was signing the Oslo Accords, and by far the most damaging part of Oslo was to accept the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian Arabs and to permit it to establish the PA. The PLO is no less a terrorist organization than Hamas, and should not be granted legitimacy.

It’s rare that one gets the opportunity to unmake a historic mistake. Perhaps the collapse of the PA will be such an opportunity.

01/07 Links Pt1: Requiem for a Failed Foreign Policy; Israeli tourists targeted in Cairo attack

From Ian:

David Horovitz: Naftali Bennett: We’re literally the border between Islamic State and the free world

The Jewish Home leader says Israel must retain the West Bank ‘forever,’ should do more for its Arab community, cannot allow Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount
The death toll in Gaza last summer, Israel is being destroyed, image-wise over that. Even now, with a hundred plus Palestinians dead in the latest terror wave, Israel is being battered over that, even though most of those who have been killed were in the act of trying to kill us.
Look, the ancient and new sport is to apply the same tools that were applied to individual Jews to the Jewish state. You place any state in our shoes, in perhaps the toughest location on earth, with an amazing tower of democracy, with the way we treat our minorities, the way we conduct ourselves, the vibrancy of this House over here, the Knesset, I’m so proud to be Israeli… you put any other country in our situation: no one would act as morally as we are.
It’s very easy to sit somewhere thousands of miles away from here and second guess us. But we’re fighting the battle of the free world. We’re literally the border between Islamic State and the free world. Quite literally. The Golan Heights, that’s where radical Islam meets the free world. The Lebanese border is where Hezbollah and Iran meets the free world. Physically. And it’s tough. And if we weren’t here, you’d see it all flow to the West. So we’re the front bastion of the free world. That’s how we should be presenting it. We’re certainly being treated unfairly. It’s nothing new. It’s thousands of years old.
Israel can survive even with ebbing international support?
I don’t buy the ebbing international support. I buy that in certain circles, certain diplomatic circles, especially in Europe, there’s always antagonism against Israel. But you go to mainstream America, you go to China, you go to India, you go to Eastern Europe, and you see the degree of respect and admiration even, towards Israeli innovation, Israeli entrepreneurship, Israeli values. For example, in China they value Israeli values, Jewish values. I don’t see this ebbing support. The world was against us 80 years ago and we’ve had boycotts since the inception of Israel. I remember as a kid there was no Pepsi and there was no McDonald’s in Israel.

Egypt Asks Israel to Keep Turkey Away From Gaza

Egypt has approached Israel asking for clarifications regarding recent progress in its reconciliatory talks with Turkey. Senior officials in Jerusalem told Haaretz that Egypt expressed its reservations regarding granting Turkey a role in the Gaza Strip, and asked whether Israel had committed to any easing of restrictions in the closure imposed on Gaza.
These officials, who asked to remain anonymous due to the delicate diplomatic nature of the issue, stated that what caused the Egyptian government’s displeasure was Israeli media reports from a few weeks ago, according to which a breakthrough had been reached in reconciliation talks with Turkey, as well as reports in the Turkish media that Israel had agreed to take significant steps in easing the maritime siege on Gaza.
Senior Egyptian Foreign Ministry officials met with Israel’s ambassador Haim Koren and asked if these reports were correct and whether Israel and Turkey are indeed close to reconciling. The temporary chargé d’affaires at the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv delivered similar messages in a recent meeting with senior Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem. Egypt expressed its opposition to any Israeli concessions to Turkey with regard to the Gaza Strip.
The senior officials noted that over the last two years there has been a serious rift in relations between Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The background for this crisis is the support expressed by Turkey’s government and ruling AKP party for Egypt’s deposed president Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt.

Requiem for a Failed Foreign Policy

Barack Obama’s approach to foreign affairs was never rudderless. It was always founded in what the administration believed provided the president with the most near-term domestic political benefit, which is in part why the only Obama doctrine ever offered by administration officials is inherently retrospective. “Don’t do stupid s***” is a doctrine that can be neither predictive nor prescriptive, since that which is deemed “stupid” is subjective and often only dubbed as much after the fact. For some of this administration’s adventures, though, that which proved in the long run to be “stupid” was foreseeable and obvious. A total reorientation of American alliance structure in the Middle East that shifted Washington away from its traditional Sunni allies in Riyadh and Cairo and toward the region’s Shi’ite-led powers was always going to have a destabilizing effect. It is an effect that has been apparent for months.
When anti-government protests gave way to a civil war, the Obama administration determined that its best course was to avoid any engagement in Syria. The White House did all within its power to evade its commitments to contain that conflict and exact retribution against Bashar al-Assad for violating prohibitions on the use of chemical weapons. As Sunnis from around the Middle East flooded into Syria to take revenge on the dictator who has today slaughtered over a quarter million mostly Sunni Syrians, many of whom became radicalized in the process, the region’s American allies pleaded for Western aid. Their pleas went largely unanswered until the crisis in Syria engulfed Iraq.
This administration’s approach to international affairs in the Middle East was revealed to be hopelessly untethered to anything resembling a strategy when Yemen dissolved into civil war in late 2014. To preserve the White House’s drone war against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula abetted by the ousted government in Sana’a, the administration initially sought continuity by making friendly overtures Houthi rebels now in control of the capital. The Obama White House appeared to disregard the fact that the Houthis were an Iran-backed insurgent force, and their success in Sana’a (and their drive toward the strategically vital port of Aden) was regarded as an acute national security threat in neighboring Saudi Arabia. Only when those overtures were rejected by the “deeply anti-American” Houthi militia did Washington tacitly endorse the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen.
From Syria to Yemen, from Iraq to Bahrain; the Middle East has been characterized by a region-wide proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran since at least 2011, following American withdrawal from Iraq. Obama’s White House should have had no higher priority than to ensure that this conflict retains its character as a geopolitical struggle between two opposing capitals and not come to be regarded as a great sectarian reckoning. It may already be too late to prevent that deadly impression from taking hold.

Even though the Western media hasn't been lately discussing how Muslims are using Jews peacefully visiting the Temple Mount as an excuse for violence, Arab media continue to report every single visit by Jews to the area as a headline story.

Sunday: "Israeli police and special forces have secured protection for 13 settlers who stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque this morning from the Moroccan gate and wandered in the courtyards."

Monday: "Small groups of settlers broke into AL Aqsa Mosque in succession, today Monday, January 4, from the Mughrabi Gate, and carried out provocative rounds, amid under the special protection of the Israeli occupation forces."

Tuesday: "Settlers broke into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque Tuesday morning under the protection of the Zionist occupation police. A state of tension prevails over al Aqsa Mosque because of the repeated incursions."

Wednesday: "Jewish settlers stormed on Wednesday morning, the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, amid tight protection by the Israeli occupation forces. According to a Quds Press correspondent, 21 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque where elements of the Israeli police and the Israeli special forces protected them.

Thursday: "Israeli settlers, on Thursday morning, stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, amid tight protection by the Israeli occupation forces."

Note that they are almost more angry at police protecting the Jews than at the Jews themselves. They don't like being prevented from what they want to do to them.

This is not new. These stories have been published in the Arab press for years, whenever Jews had the audacity to visit their holiest spot. But the stories are deliberate, to keep Muslims angry and to ensure that they direct their anger at Jews. It is part of a program of incitement that is directed at the Arab and Muslim world, day in and day out.

It is also brainwashing.

Yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas made what he had termed an important speech.

Israeli media concentrated on his assertion that the Palestinian Authority will not collapse. He had said the same thing on December 31, but no one else noticed it then. The statement was not a reaction to Netanyahu's mentioning the possibility of the PA's collapse (as the Jerusalem Post and others assume), but from internal Arab problems within the West Bank.

The speech said nothing new at all, but it is useful to see how Palestinian Arabs are reporting on it. They are more likely to understand the real message Abbas wants to make.

Ma'an English emphasized Abbas' assertion that the PLO will decide next week whether to continue security cooperation with Israel. He claimed that it isn't his decision, but it would be decided by "The Executive Committee and the Central Committee of the PLO as well as commanders of Palestinian Authority security services." Of course, Abbas leads them. He is a dictator in every sense of the word.

Ma'an's editor spoke to Abbas a few hours before the speech. He summed up the most important points based on his conversation:

The current wave of violence will continue indefinitely until Israel withdraws to the pre-1967 lines.
He supports a peaceful uprising only as long as no Israeli soldiers kill attackers; otherwise each and every bullet and knife attack are Israel's fault and responsibility.
The PA will not collapse.
Abbas wants a national unity government, "with or without Hamas," whatever that means. He emphasized that Hamas is responsible for the Rafah crossing being closed, not Egypt.
Abbas does not like when Turkey or Qatar send aid and money directly to Gaza, bypassing the PLO.
The PLO is happy to sit still and wait for Arabs to outnumber Jews in the areas of British Mandate Palestine; betting that the frightened Israeli left wing will collapse the Zionist enterprise by playing on the fears of Israeli colonialism.
Abbas is also closely following the controversies over what he termed "racist laws" in Israel, betting that the world will lose patience with "racist Israel and its crimes."
The most important part of the speech, according to Ma'an, is the relentless emphasis on calling for an international conference to resolve the "Palestinian issue," which is "the slogan that will be emphasized for years to come."

The official Wafa news agency curiously did not seem to publish a transcript, but it did quote Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rudainah from a radio interview about the speech.

He emphasized the focus on calling an international conference to impose a solution on Israel.

Rudainah also said that without Palestinian sovereignty over Jerusalem, there will always be violence, "not only in the Middle East, but throughout the whole world."

Which sounds a whole lot like a threat to return to the PLO's heyday of international terrorism in the 1970s.

In a bizarre interview, the new governor of Suez Major Genereal Hilmi Al Heiatmy said that Egypt is in the world's best location, nestled between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

You see, Egypt's geography has an amazing feature, according to the governor.

He said, "The winds that blow towards Egypt are north-western, so anything the Jews shoot at us will return to them."

Egypt has the natural ability to resist rockets. At least from the northwest. By Jews.

Who are northeast of Egypt.

A mighty wind, indeed.

(h/t/ Ibn Boutros)

UPDATE: MEMRI has the clip, and he sounds even dumber. It sounds like he believes that only oceans will rise with global warming, but not seas that are connected to the oceans.

01/06 Links Pt2: A Pro-Hamas Left Emerges; Ariel Uni defeats BDS; Stop Worrying About Israel

From Ian:

A Pro-Hamas Left Emerges

And “So what?” it might be asked. What does it matter that the academic Left yet again criticizes Israel and supports the aims of its enemies? In fact, it matters quite a bit, because political struggles are ultimately battles about ideas and their meaning. What begins in the universities and enjoys the prestige associated with them filters into journalism, the highbrow journals of opinion, the editorials of the media, and the policy think tanks in Washington. In the process, it fosters at best a language of moral equivalence regarding Israel and Hamas. It is also reflected in courses taught in the universities, which in turn have an impact on coming generations. A refusal to speak frankly about the ideas animating Hamas and other Islamist terrorist organizations has become a litmus test for left-wing identity. The fear of being called “Islamophobic” or “right-wing” has the effect of silencing criticism among liberals who don’t want to field criticism on their left.
Moreover, now that the Republican Party’s traditional support for vigorous American leadership is under challenge from a neo-isolationist right, it is all the more important that centrists in the Democratic Party recognize and vigorously respond to the challenge from an effectively pro-Hamas left. We need a renewed “militant democracy” in the center of American politics and intellectual life, one that fights totalitarian ideologies and movements no matter their source. Both within the academy and in the world of politics and policy in Washington, it is essential that there be much more frank speech about the nature of groups such as Hamas. There are some welcome signs that some in the political establishment are finding their voices about these issues. In the academy the voices of “Historians Against the War” are not a majority, but they shout the loudest and are well organized. For those of us in the academy who take a different view, it would be most helpful if more of our political leaders would also speak frankly on these matters. The arrows of influence in the history of ideas and politics can flow in both directions. It is important that they do so.

Stop Worrying About Israel

Inequality is rising. The tie to Barack Obama’s America has been fraying while the European Union is playing with boycotts of Israeli goods and, as in Britain, Israeli academics. There won’t be peace with the Palestinians in this generation, not with the failing state that is the Palestinian Authority. Nor is Israel exactly pining for a two-state deal, not after 20 years of rightward drift. So the pessimists may well be the realists in the accursed lands of the Levant.
But sheer angst à la Rosenbaum? Israel’s strategic and economic superiority is the fitting antidote, as least for level-headed analysts. To boot, there are always miracles afoot in the Not-So-Promised Land. Jewish immigration to Israel reached a 15-year high in 2015, with around 30,000 new arrivals. They come from France where terror against Jewish institutions has become the New Normal. They hail from economic basket cases like Putin’s Russia and war-torn Ukraine. These folks apparently don’t believe that Israel is doomed. Israel’s Bureau of Statistics projects a population of 11 to 12 million for 2035.
“Traumatized,” as Rosenbaum claims, Israel is not. To the contrary, Israel ranks No. 11 in the World Happiness Report, ahead of Canada and the United States. In the world’s fertility ranking, Israel is No. 1 among all Western nations—with 3 births per woman of child-bearing age; the United States comes in at 1.9, and the Europeans at around 1.4. Just to keep the population constant requires 2.1. Fertility isn’t just a statistic. It reflects a nation’s trust in the future. With a rate way above replenishment, Israelis don’t seem to believe that their country is headed for a speedy demise, as foreseen by Rosenbaum.
He approvingly quotes the Jewish thinker Emil Fackenheim who invoked the “614th Commandment” (after the 613 traditional ones): “Thou shall give to Hitler no posthumous victories.” That victory is now “so close,” our soothsayer avers. As a trope of Jewish angst, “Hitler” is of course impossible to beat. As any psychiatrist will tell you, “don’t be afraid” is as productive as homeopathy. It is more reassuring to tally the economic and strategic trends that favor Israel more than at any time in its existence. They don’t corroborate Rosenbaum’s prediction that Israel’s “days are numbered.”
If you don’t trust the hard stuff, take a cue from Sholem Aleichem who quipped: “No matter how bad things get, you have to go on living, even if it kills you.” This is how Jews have survived for 5776 years.

Ariel University defeats the boycott movement

Ariel University in Samaria has been given 430,000 shekels (just over $100,000) in compensation by the Spanish government, after Spain refused to allow the university's students to take part in an international competition.
It happened six years ago, when the Spanish government gave in to pressure from the BDS movement that seeks to boycott Israel. Spain refused to allow Ariel University students to take part in a competition to design "green" environmentally-friendly buildings, which was meant to be open to students from all universities worldwide.
Ariel University students reached the finals of the competition with their design, according to Yedioth Aharonoth.
Their design, entitled "Abraham's Tent," garnered great international interest, but the boycott movement began working overtime to have the students banned from the competition for the simple fact that they study in Samaria.

I count at least ten Arab news sources covering this story, as reported by YNet last week:

Over 30,000 people made aliyah to Israel in 2015, the highest number in over a decade.

Statistics published by the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption and the Jewish Agency on Tuesday showed an increase in aliyah of around 10 percent from 2014 and the highest number of arrivals since the 2003 peak in immigration.

The biggest proportion of olim came from France, with around 7,900 French immigrants arriving in Israel in 2015. This is the second time that France has topped the list of countries of origin for olim, a fact attributed in part to a string of terror attacks that have recently hit the country.

Aliyah from Ukraine has also increased once again, with 7,000 olim arriving from the troubled country – a rise of around 15 percent from 2014 and around 230 percent from 2013.

A further 6,600 immigrants arrived from Russia. In total, the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption and the Jewish Agency recorded 15,000 arrivals from eastern European countries, a 25 percent increase from to 2014.

Meanwhile, around 9,330 olim arrived from Western Europe, a six percent increase on 2014's figure. A slight decrease in aliyah from the US was registered, with 3,768 arrivals in 2015 compared to 3,871 the year before.

Tel Aviv proved the most popular destination for new immigrants, with 3,620 olim making their way to the central Israeli city. Close behind Tel Aviv were Netanya, Jerusalem and Haifa.

The average age of olim has gone down. Around half of the new arrivals in 2015 were under the age of 30, with a 20 percent increase in new olim aged 19 or under.

Minister for Aliyah and Absorption Ze'ev Elkin said that the figures show Israel has a "wonderful window of opportunity."

"While we were all busy with day-to-day problems in Israel, we didn't pay attention to the most meaningful event this year: the number of olim crossing the 30,000 mark for the first time in more than a decade," Elkin added.

Arabs have been trying to stop Jewish immigration to the area for over a hundred years.

The reason for the interest is because Arabs simply do not want to accept Israel's existence, and the nation that has existed for 67 years is still regarded as temporary. Stories like this indicate that Israel isn't going anywhere any time soon.

For Next Trick, Iran To Directly Attack US, Get Away With It (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Tehran, January 6 - Officials in Iran's capital are telling excited followers of its recent dramatic activities that they should stay tuned in the coming weeks, when he Islamic Republic plans to expand its provocative activities to include direct assaults on the United States, and that the Obama administration, fearful of derailing the nuclear deal, will not mount a serious response.

For months, Iran has conducted and sponsored numerous activities aimed at US interests and allies, while President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have been so keen to avoid confrontation with Tehran that they have ignored, downplayed, willfully misinterpreted, or excused each instance, lest severe responses to Iranian aggression or violations thwart the implementation of the nuclear deal reached several months ago. Eager to see how much humiliation they can mete out to the US in that context without facing real consequences, Iran has steadily ramped up its provocations, to the delight of domestic and foreign fans alike.

"We're looking, at a minimum, at a bombing, shelling, or rocket attack of some sort, probably against a military target in the Persian Gulf, but maybe even against an embassy somewhere else in the world," offered Amjasgeddin Startid, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense in Tehran. "Personally, I think we should board a US-flagged vessel, hold its crew captive, given them all wedgies, make them say the're 'fags,' and share it all over social media." Obama will refuse to order retaliation of any sort, promised Startid, because of his concern over maintaining the JCPOA agreement.

Even before formal negotiations over Iran's nuclear program began, the Ayatollahs were funding and training Shiite militias in Iraq, fighters responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American servicemen and thousands injured. However, with Obama and Kerry keen to paint Iran in a positive light, and eager to avoid any move that might jeopardize the deal that eventually emerged, the Islamic Republic intends to abandon the pretense and exclusively roundabout use of force against US targets.

"If current trends continue, we'll probably see an even greater escalation over the next several months," predicted retired US Marine General Albert Facepalm. "Tehran will try to squeeze all of their provocation for now into the last year of Obama's term, not knowing what November, or next January will bring. In the meantime, the most likely scenario will involve Iran's use of a nuclear weapon they've been able to develop in accelerated fashion thanks to the JCPOA, on American or American-allied targets, and Obama will restrain US forces from responding meaningfully, lest such a reaction cause Iran not to agree to temporarily curtail its pursuit of atomic weapons."

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01/06 Links Pt1: US, Israel should ensure Iran not involved in N. Korean nuclear program

From Ian:

Outrage, skepticism greet North Korea's claim of hydrogen bomb test

However, Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert based in Seoul, South Korea, told Fox News that he was "seriously skeptical" that Pyongyang had tested a hydrogen bomb Wednesday. According to Lankov, North Korea would have needed to divert a large amount of scarce funds to construct such a device, saying it would have been "mission overkill."
"I believe it did not have the 'signature' of a Hydrogen bomb," said Lankov, who added that he had "absolutely no doubt" the blast was an atomic test, the fourth carried out since 2006 in definance of international and United Nations sanctions.
Late Wednesday, South Korean lawmaker Lee Cheol Woo told the Associated Press that the country's National Intelligence Service had expressed in a private briefing that they believed North Korea had tested an atomic bomb, not a hydrogen bomb.
According to Lee, intelligence officials said that an estimated explosive yield of six kilotons and a magnitude-4.8 earthquake were detected Wednesday, a smaller blast than the estimated explosive yield of 7.9 kilotons and magnitude-4.9 quake that were reported after a February 2013 nuclear test by North Korea, and only a fraction of a typical successful hydrogen bomb test's explosive yield of hundreds of kilotons.
Lee says the agency told him that even a failed hydrogen bomb detonation typically yields tens of kilotons.

'US, Israel should ensure Iran not involved in N. Korean nuclear program'

After North Korea announced on Wednesday that it had successfully tested a miniaturized hydrogen nuclear bomb, National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Minister Yuval Steinitz linked the test to Israel's suspicions regarding the Iranian nuclear program.
"The test reminds us all that the most important mission is to prevent a similar thing from taking place in Iran: a nuclear agreement first and nuclear weapons later."
Steinitz said that North Korea does not only threaten nations in the Far East, noting that in the past it had transferred nuclear technology to Syria and apparently to Iran as well.
"Israel and the US should increase intelligence sharing in order to ensure that Iran is not breaching its nuclear agreement through involvement in North Korea's nuclear project," Steinitz said.
In July of last year world powers adopted a final, comprehensive agreement with Iran that will govern its nuclear program for over a decade.
In 1994, North Korea signed a nuclear agreement with the US, under the administration of former US president Bill Clinton. He said at the time that the deal meant "North Korea will freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program. South Korea and our other allies will be better protected. The entire world will be safer as we slow the spread of nuclear weapons.”
Clinton said that the “United States and international inspectors will carefully monitor North Korea to make sure it keeps its commitments. Only as it does so will North Korea fully join the community of nations."
Twelve years later, in 2006, North Korea detonated its first underground nuclear explosion.

Daniel Pipes: Two Things That Could Undo the Islamist Movement

But weaknesses within, especially squabbling and disapproval, could undo the Islamist movement.
Infighting became vicious in 2013, when Islamists abruptly stopped their prior pattern of cooperation among themselves and instead began internecine fighting. Yes, the Islamist movement as a whole shares similar goals, but it also contains different intellectuals, groups, and parties with variant ethnic affiliations, tactics, and ideologies.
Its internal divisions have spread fast and far. These include Sunnis vs. Shiites, notably in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen; monarchists vs. republicans, notably in Saudi Arabia; non-violent vs. violent types, notably in Egypt; modernizers vs. medieval revivalists, notably in Tunisia; and plain old personal differences, notably in Turkey. These divisions obstruct the movement by turning its guns inward.
The dynamic here is ancient: As Islamists approach power, they fight amongst themselves for dominance. Differences that hardly mattered when in the wilderness take on great importance as the stakes get higher. In Turkey, for example, the politician Erdoğan and the religious leader Fethullah Gülen cooperated until they dispatched their common enemy, the military, from politics, when they turned against each other.
Unpopularity, the second problem, may be the biggest peril for the movement. As populations experience Islamist rule first hand, they reject it. It's one thing to believe in the abstract about the benefits of Islamic law and quite another to suffer its deprivations, ranging from the Islamic State's totalitarian horrors to the comparatively benign emerging dictatorship in Turkey.
As populations experience Islamist rule first hand, they reject it.
Signs of this discontent include the large majorities of Iranians who reject the Islamic Republic, the wave of exiles out of Somalia, and the massive Egyptian demonstrations of 2013 protesting a single year of the Muslim Brotherhood in power. As with fascist and communist rule, Islamist sovereignty often leads to people voting with their feet.

Isi Leibler: Out-of-the-box thinking needed to combat terrorism

Of course, the greatest and most effective deterrent is to reintroduce targeted assassinations, which will make the leaders think twice before indulging in terrorist acts. Such action is also likely to impact on the PA and oblige it to temper its current incitement.
These suggestions are complex and can lead to other problems. But Israelis can take pride in the fact that they are capable of creative, outside-the-box solutions and have frequently adopted unconventional methods that proved successful.
The status quo is unacceptable and in the absence of remedial action it is likely to worsen.
The government must determine a strategy and convey the message unequivocally to Hamas. Now may be the best time to bite the bullet. That Iran and Hezbollah are currently engaged in a bitter battle in Syria makes it less likely that, in the event of war with Hamas, we would face a two-front confrontation The international community, which is not unduly friendly toward Israel, will presumably again call for restraint and proportionality and Israel will still be condemned in the majority of international forums.
But today, with the fear being generated by Islamic State terrorism around the world, many countries – even as they publicly join the inevitable chorus of condemnation – are likely to have a greater understanding of our determination to protect our citizens from brutal terrorist attacks than in the past.

The most popular book in UN's library

The UN Library tweeted this:

The most popular book among UN diplomats was about how those diplomats and their bosses can be held immune from prosecution for their crimes.

There are two types of such immunity. Functional immunity, immunity ratione materiae, says that any person who in performing an act of state commits a criminal offence is immune from prosecution. The other is personal immunity, or immunity ratione personae, which confers immunity on people holding a particular office - usually diplomats stationed abroad and their families - from the civil, criminal, and administrative jurisdiction.

So when UN diplomats receive, say, parking tickets from New York cops, they can tear them up without fear.

Oh, and they can also own slaves - and even use them as sex slaves - without worrying that they might end up in jail.

Hey - its the law.

Good to know that these public servants are so interested in learning more about international law.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

In 2013, UNRWA declared "Arab Idol" winner Mohammed Assaf to be its "Youth Ambassador" where he would "promote peace, security and other universal values."

Since then he has released music videos and sent out messages on social media that extolled Palestinian terror and violence.

UNRWA, which claims that it is dedicated to neutrality and peace, responded to Assaf's support of violence and widespread criticism of Assaf with a strong statement: it extended his contract as Youth Ambassador so he can continue to spout his hate.

Assaf is doing exactly that:

Mohammed Assaf, the Palestinian winner of Arab Idol was answering questions from fans in a skype phone-in when he received comment from an Israeli caller.

"You should come to Israel...you have Israeli blood," the fan said.

Assaf did not hold back in his response.

"I spit on you and Israel," the singer replied, before returning to answer other fans' questions.

"I don't want to talk about this issue too much. The person who said that wanted to provoke me and it's known that the issue of Palestine and the Palestinian people is one of my top priorities," Assaf told The New Arab.

"At the end of the day, any artist could be subject to a similar incident, however what happened with me is a isolated incident that will no affect my relationship with my fans."

Here's video of the incident:

Well, asking Assaf to visit Israel and saying that he has Israeli blood is obviously a huge insult to any self-respecting UN representative. How can anyone fault him for responding to such a provocation?

Certainly UNRWA doesn't.

Assaf also recently addressed the incitement in his videos, saying "Israeli journalists write about me in the media and accuse me of inciting, they tried to ban my song on YouTube, but I consider this the price we pay because we sing for the homeland and believe the Palestinian National mission."

By the way, before Assaf became famous, he was harassed and arrested by Hamas over 20 times in Gaza in order to discourage his singing career. Apparently, Assaf and Hamas have reached a tacit agreement that what he is doing now is quite acceptable to the terror group.

It certainly is to UNRWA.

(h/t Bob Knot)

On Tuesday, a group of Palestinian "religious and national leaders" launched a new campaign called "Jerusalem is the Capital of the World" using the slogan "Jerusalem is united and steadfast for Muslims and Christians alike."

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Council, said in his speech that this year should be a year of solidarity with the city of Jerusalem, stressing Muslim and Christian support for the city based on justice, love and tolerance, and against injustice, oppression and aggression.

Sabri, a former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem appointed by Yassir Arafat, has expressed his desire for justice, love and tolerance before, by stating, "Six million Jews dead? No way, they were much fewer. Let’s stop with this fairytale exploited by Israel to capture international solidarity. It is not my fault if Hitler hated Jews, indeed they were hated a little everywhere. Instead, it is necessary to denounce the unjust occupation endured by my people."

Sabri has also stated in 2005, "Anyone who studies The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and specifically the Talmud will discover that one of the goals of these Protocols is to cause confusion in the world and to undermine security throughout the world."

Another speaker at the conference was Bishop Atallah Hanna who said "We call for solidarity with the city of Al Quds, the city of love and peace" and he urged all Arabs - Muslims and Christians - to work to liberate the city from its "occupier." He called for solidarity with all the oppressed in the world, although he apparently doesn't consider Jews who are in danger of being stabbed to death by random Arabs in Jerusalem to be among them.

But the speakers didn't completely ignore the topic of Jews and Jerusalem.

Hatem Abdel Qader, who is in charge of the Jerusalem portfolio for the Fatah movement said: "There is no value for Arabs and Muslims without the city of Jerusalem. The Arab and Muslim worlds are witnessing an Israeli attack that is unprecedented, and the occupation authorities are seeking to convert it into a religious capital for all Jews of the world."

See? Jews were mentioned!