Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Arab rights group asks ICC to prosecute Egypt for its closure of Gaza border

From the Arab Organization of Human Rights (UK):

Arab Organisation for Human Rights In the UK (AOHR UK) on Monday 25/01/2016 submitted two communications to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) inviting the Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute both the deliberate infiltration of seawater into the territory of Gaza by Egyptian forces, and the closure of the Rafah crossing during Operation Protective Edge and the months that followed the hostilities.

The AOHR is of the opinion that both acts are constitutive of war crimes and crimes against humanity and are therefore acts under the subject-matter jurisdiction of the ICC.

The ICC also enjoys temporal and territorial jurisdiction over the crimes exposed in both communications because the State of Palestine acceded the Rome Statute in January 2015 and issued a declaration under article 12(3) of the Statute accepting the Court’s jurisdiction since 13th June 2014.

With these filings, the AOHR seeks to put an end to the oppressive and criminal policy of the Egyptian authorities at the border and hold those responsible accountable before an international court.

The subtext of these filings is that Egypt is legally at war with Gaza:

Toby Cadman, International Criminal Law expert and head of legal team advising AOHR, notes, the Egyptian policy in the border constitutes “a clear violation of the laws of war and shows evident criminal features”. He added that the International Criminal Court should analyse the situations presented in both communications and demonstrate that there are criminal methods to cause great suffering and serious injuries in entire populations that, nevertheless, do not require the use of guns and tanks. Mr. Cadman argues that “the conditions of life derived from the Egyptian policy in the Rafah border constitutes per se a violent action that affects the entire Strip in a widespread manner. It demonstrates that the heinousness of a crime does not depend on the size of an Army, or on the length of hostilities, but on the cruelty of the policy behind the actions and the party’s desire to capitalize on its position of superiority and the vulnerability of a defenceless region”.

The point of the communications isn't so much to win - I don't see how that is possible - but to pressure Egypt to change its policies both towards Gaza and towards its own people:

A future ICC investigation on these two topics would have extraordinarily positive consequences.

First, it could serve to loosen what are effectively siege conditions in Gaza, and consequently, change the lives of the 1.8 million citizens of Gaza, who have been suffering a years-long humanitarian crisis. As a matter of fact, the UN has predicted that Gaza won’t be a habitable place by 2020, and the closure and flooding of the border only exacerbates this tragic situation and accelerates the process of destruction.

Second, an investigation from the ICC would bring the long-awaited accountability to Egyptian authorities, which have proven to be immune from prosecution in their own jurisdiction despite the serious and widespread nature of the human rights violations committed in Egyptian territory.

The irony is that the entire point of the PA accepting the Rome Statute was to be able to prosecute Israel, but the AOHR is using it to attack a fellow Arab country.

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Fatah says Mahmoud Abbas inspired Palestinians to start their murder spree

The official Fatah Facebook page published "an important announcement" heaping praise on the current wave of attacks on Jews.

It is couched in religious terms, starting off with "In the name of Allah the Merciful: The Almighty said: 'And We desired to show favor unto those who were oppressed in the earth, and to make them examples and to make them the inheritors.'"

The article then went on to praise Mahmoud Abbas for his speech on September 30 at the UN General Assembly, which was, in their words, "the launch of a new phase is in the development of the decisions of the [Fatah] Central Council into action, activating the popular resistance on the ground, in conjunction with the diplomatic offensive and political fights in all arenas of the United Nations and international organizations."

The historic speech of the President in the UN constituted a turning point and a new dawn which manifested itself in the popular uprising, “The Rage of Jerusalem”, that started in the capital Jerusalem and expanded to Hebron and (to the other) the provinces of the homeland, in a heroic and spectacular implementation which restored to the national cause its radiance and status, as all the crimes of the occupation failed to hurt it and deter it, and the popular uprising even succeeded in spreading terror and bringing about a lack of personal security for the colonists, and the streets of Jerusalem and the Palestinian (West) Bank became places of constant friction and clashes…

The Fatah announcement ends off with "It's a revolution until victory ... until victory ... until victory."

And it then shows this photo of a young woman wearing a headband for a youth organization in Fatah called "The Sisters of Dalal," referring to terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who was responsible for murdering 38 Israelis including 13 children.

The choice of Abbas' September 30 speech as the launching point of the murder spree is significant. The very next day was the day that Eitam and Na'ama Henkin were murdered.

Palestinian newspapers are quoting this statement.

At the same time that the media is claiming that Abbas is condemning violence, the organization that he leads is bragging that he is inspiring the murders of Jews.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Vote for Hasby Award - Best Speech

The nominees for Best Speech Hasby award are:

The shocking words of this pro-Israel pastor

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

Matti Friedman's speech to BICOM dinner

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

Ron Dermer at Israel Bonds event

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

Vote by Saturday night, January 30.

polls

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01/25 Links Pt2: How to Spot a Fake Siege; The Disgrace of Associating Toni Morrison With Primo Levi

From Ian:

How to Spot a Fake Siege

I can’t help noticing that the “siege of Gaza” has largely disappeared from the headlines. I’d like to think it’s because, having finally seen what a real siege looks like in Syria, many well-meaning folks who used to decry the “siege” of Gaza have realized that Gaza was never actually besieged at all. But for anyone who’s still confused about the difference between a real siege and a fictitious one, here are two simple tests: First, in real sieges, people die of starvation, because the besieger stops food from entering; in fake ones, the “besieger” sends in 2,500 tons of food and medicine per day even during the worst of the fighting. Second, real sieges get swept under the carpet by the UN; only the fake ones merit massive UN publicity. And if you think I’m joking, just compare the actual cases of Madaya and Gaza.
In the Syrian town of Madaya, which is besieged by the Assad regime’s forces, people were reduced to living on grass because no other food was available. Rice, a staple that costs $1.25 per kilogram in other war-ravaged Syrian towns, was so scarce in Madaya that it sold for 200 times that price – an astounding $256 per kilogram, according to a report by Roy Gutman in Foreign Policy. Women were so hungry their breast milk dried up, leaving them unable to feed their babies. At least 32 people have starved to death so far, and hundreds more are at risk of starvation. One man told Gutman everyone in his family had lost 45 pounds – and they are the lucky ones; they’re still alive.
In Gaza, in contrast, even when the “siege” was regularly making headlines, there were never any reports of people dying of hunger, living off grass or unable to feed their babies. That’s because in contrast to Syrian forces, which prevented food and other humanitarian goods from entering Madaya, Israel allowed thousands of tons of such goods into Gaza every day. Even during the 50-day war with Hamas in summer 2014, while Hamas was regularly firing rockets at the only border crossing between Israel and Gaza, Israel managed to get 122,757 tons of food, medicine and fuel into Gaza through that crossing; in normal times, the volume is much higher. Indeed, Gaza’s life expectancy exceeds the global median, surpassing that in 114 countries worldwide. In places that are really besieged, life expectancy tends to be low.

David Singer: European Union Becomes Irrelevant In Resolving The Jewish-Arab Conflict

This fundamental disconnect between the EU and Israel over the Arab Peace Initiative continues to detrimentally impact on their relationship.
Full Israeli withdrawal from these territories – or even equivalent land swaps as suggested by the EU in its July 2014 manifesto – is a pipe dream – given that the creation of Islamic State since then has seen it:
1. conquer an area of Syria and Iraq larger than Great Britain – resulting in millions of Arabs being brutally slayed, injured, traumatised and physically displaced into Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and even the EU.
2. become a distinct security threat to Israel and its Arab neighbours
The Arab Peace Initiative has been effectively consigned to the dustbin of history as a result.
Stubbornly continuing to support these key elements of the Arab Peace Initiative has led a clearly frustrated EU to take action to unilaterally end Israel’s total lawful control of Area “C” in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) by instigating the following intemperate actions:
1. Requiring Israel to specifically identify goods, products and services originating from Jewish settlements in Judea,Samaria,the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem
2. Funding and actively supporting illegal Arab housing construction in Area “C”
Israel reportedly considers that such actions by the EU give the Palestinian Arabs false hope that if they just hold out long enough – the EU will somehow be able to “deliver” Israel.
EU policy and its conduct since July 2014 has exacerbated the Jewish-Arab conflict rather than playing a constructive role in its resolution.
In reaffirming that policy in 2016 – despite total chaos occurring among Arab States in the region – the EU has clearly become irrelevant and can no longer have any meaningful role in resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict.

The Disgrace of Associating Toni Morrison With Primo Levi

A side benefit of reviewing books is that I often get books I otherwise might not splurge on. A week ago, I received the handsome three-volume set of the collected writings of Primo Levi, Italian survivor of Auschwitz. The set is edited by arguably his best translator, Ann Goldstein, and published by Liveright. I will write a thorough and conscientious book review in due course.
But I am writing this blog post in protest at the inexplicable and offensive fact that the publishers asked the American novelist Toni Morrison to write an introduction. Of all people, they had to choose such an outspoken and biased critic of Israel. Why invite a person who shows such animus towards the homeland of the Jewish people to write an introduction to the work of a man who suffered under a real genocidal regime determined to destroy him simply for being Jewish, given that, for all his criticisms and alienation, Levi remained an avowed Jew?
It’s not just the banality of her introduction, her cold words, her use of “throngs” to describe — impersonally — those who died. She cannot bring herself to mention Jews. She stands for poisonous revisionism. She, together with her partners in prejudice, have accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide. Inevitably this leads to comparisons with Nazis. Which is precisely what the primitive, mentally challenged bullies who use such an abusive slogan in protests love to do. If any of that were true, how come after 65 years of Israel’s existence the Arab population of Israel continues to grow and thrive? Why haven’t they all been gassed? And why are denizens of the Occupied Territories and Gaza still expanding in number?
Why have they not all been killed or expelled? Are the Israelis so incompetent?  It seems that Morrison was contacted and asked to consider the invitation because Primo Levi was a left-wing secular Jew who criticized the State of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and disliked the, albeit democratically elected, right-wing governments (criticisms I too would agree with, incidentally). The presumably liberal, left-wing publishers thought her stamp of approval on this edition would attract like-minded readers and librarians. But that does not put Primo Levi and Toni Morrison on the same moral page. (h/t Jewess)

From Ha'aretz:

Israel Approves New West Bank Homes, Marking End of Informal Building Freeze

Israeli planning authorities approved the construction of 153 new apartments in West Bank settlements last week, effectively putting an end to an informal construction freeze that has lasted about 18 months.

For almost two years now, the government has largely refused to advance new building plans in the territories, due to fear that the U.S. administration would retaliate by refusing to veto anti-Israel resolutions in the UN Security Council. The only plans that did move forward involved either legalization of existing outposts or master plans for areas where petitions to the High Court of Justice spurred the government to act.

There was an 18 month settlement freeze? That must have been big news. No doubt John Kerry celebrated the fact, right?

Well, except in October, when he said, "there’s been a massive increase in settlements over the course of the last years" and linked settlements to violence against Israelis.

And except for when Kerry said in December, "The continued settlement growth raises honest questions about Israel’s long-term intentions and will only make separating from the Palestinians much more difficult."

Israel had a settlement freeze, yet the Obama administration and J-Street and Haaretz and Peace Now all the others who insist that Israel stop settlement construction were all but silent. Israel gained nothing politically from making that decision - on the contrary, it was treated as if settlement construction was accelerating. Netanyahu couldn't argue because of coalition politics, but certainly all of the players who follow the issue knew this very well - and chose to excoriate Israel anyway for implementing a policy that it didn't have.

So what incentive does Israel have to continue the freeze when it is treated like a criminal when it does?

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2016 Hasby Award Winners - Best Video

The winner of the Hasby Award for Best Video of 2015 is....

01/25 Links Pt1: Paris terrorists: 'With Allah's help we will liberate Palestine'; Twin Bombers Arrested

From Ian:

Palestinian twin sisters accused of making bombs for attacks

Israeli security forces arrested 18-year-old bomb-making twin sisters from Shwaika, outside the Palestinian city of Tulkarem in the West Bank last month, the Shin Bet security service announced Monday.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Shin Bet officers discovered pipe bombs and other explosive materials in the home of Diana and Nadia Hawila in late December 2015, officials said.
In addition, they found knives, Hamas headbands and “equipment for riots,” the Shin Bet said in a statement, though it did not claim that the twins were, in fact, Hamas members.
“This investigation again shows the motivation to carry out terror attacks, especially among those who are not a part of terrorist organizations, including women,” the Shin Bet said.
In interrogation, Diana Hawila admitted that she had purchased the fertilizer and other chemicals necessary to create the explosives.
She learned how to create bombs by watching instructional videos online, according to the Shin Bet. Diana also watched Islamic extremist videos that encouraged women to take part in terror attacks against Israelis and Jews, which “strengthened her decision to act,” the Shin Bet said.

Teen stabber had ‘urge’ to act, says relative

A relative of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, who was shot and killed on Saturday when trying to knife a security guard at a West Bank settlement, said she had an “urge” to act and was influenced by other terrorists.
At the same time, other family members of Roqaya Abu-Eid questioned why she had been killed rather than subdued. Her father said there had been no need to kill her.
Abu-Eid was shot by a civilian security guard at the entrance to Anatot, near Jerusalem, when she rushed at him with a knife, police said. She lived in the nearby Palestinian village of the same name.
Israel Police said after an initial investigation that the girl had fought with her parents and stormed out the family home with the knife, declaring that she wanted to die, a claim rejected by her family.
A teenage relative told Channel 2 on Sunday that she had been inspired to carry out the attack by seeing other incidents.

Israel strikes Hamas terror target in Gaza in response to rocket fire

The Israel Air Force struck a Hamas military compound in the center of the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Monday in retaliation for a Gazan rockets fired on the Southern region of Israel.
The rocket was fired from the Gaza strip at southern Israel on Sunday evening setting off the color red sirens in the Sha'ar Hanegev region, sending local residents fleeing for cover.
The rocket exploded in an open area, failing to cause injuries and there was no damage, the army said.
In the response a few hours later, IAF aircraft struck a Hamas military installation, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.
On Saturday night, Gazan terrorists fired a rocket towards Israel. The rocket landed inside Gaza in open territory. The color red siren was not sounded.

Tzipi Hotovely in WSJ exposes the truth on foreign funding of the PA

A must read by Israel's deputy foreign minister in the WSJ:

One often-cited key to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is economic development. To that end, there seems to be broad agreement about the importance of extending development aid to help the Palestinians build the physical and social infrastructure that will enable the emergence of a sustainable, prosperous society. But few have seriously questioned how much money is sent and how it is used.

Such assistance will only promote peace if it is spent to foster tolerance and coexistence. If it is used to strengthen intransigence it does more harm than good—and the more aid that comes in, the worse the outcome. This is exactly what has been transpiring over the past few decades. Large amounts of foreign aid to the Palestinians are spent to support terrorists and deepen hostility.

For years the most senior figures in the Palestinian Authority have supported, condoned and glorified terror. “Every drop of blood that has been spilled in Jerusalem,” President Mahmoud Abbas said last September on Palestinian television, “is holy blood as long as it was for Allah.” Countless Palestinian officials and state-run television have repeatedly hailed the murder of Jews.

This support for terrorism doesn’t end with hate speech. The Palestinian regime in Ramallah pays monthly stipends of between $400 and $3,500 to terrorists and their families, the latter of which is more than five times the average monthly salary of a Palestinian worker.

According to data from its budgetary reports, compiled in June 2014 by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the PA’s annual budget for supporting Palestinian terrorists was then roughly $75 million. That amounted to some 16% of the foreign donations the PA received annually. Overall in 2012 foreign aid made up about a quarter of the PA’s $3.1 billion budget. More recent figures are inaccessible since the Palestinian Authority is no longer transparent about the stipend transfers.

Embarrassed by public revelations of the misuse of the foreign aid, in August 2014 the Palestinian Authority passed the task of paying stipends to terrorists and their families to a fund managed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, also led by Mr. Abbas. Lest there be any doubt as to the purely cosmetic nature of the change, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah made assurances as recently as September 2015 that the PA will provide the “necessary assistance” to ensure these terror stipends.

This procedural ruse apparently calmed the consciences of donor governments that continue to transfer aid. It is difficult to think of another case in which such a forgiving attitude would be taken regarding foreign aid to an entity that sponsors terror.

This situation is particularly disturbing given the disproportionate share of development assistance the Palestinians receive, which comes at the expense of needy populations elsewhere. According to a report last year by Global Humanitarian Assistance, in 2013 the Palestinians received $793 million in international aid, second only to Syria. This amounts to $176 for each Palestinian, by far the highest per capita assistance in the world. Syria, where more than 250,000 people have been killed and 6.5 million refugees displaced since 2011, received only $106 per capita.

A closer look at the remaining eight countries in the top 10—Sudan, South Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo—is even more alarming. CIA Factbook data show that these countries have a combined population of 284 million and an average per capita GDP of $2,376. Yet they received an average of $15.30 per capita in development assistance in 2013. The Palestinians, by comparison, with a population of 4.5 million, have a per capita GDP of $4,900.

In other words, though the Palestinians are more than twice as wealthy on average than these eight countries, they receive more than 11 times as much foreign aid per person. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a case in point: Its 79 million people have a per capita GDP of $700, yet they receive only $5.70 in aid per person.

Between 1993 (when the Oslo Process began) and 2013, the Palestinians received $21.7 billion in development assistance, according to the World Bank. The Palestinian leadership has had ample opportunity to use these funds for economic and social development. Tragically, as seen in Hamas-run Gaza, it prefers to use the funds on its terrorist infrastructure and weaponry, such as cross-border attack tunnels and the thousands of missiles that have rained down in recent years on Israel.

In Judea and Samaria, the “West Bank,” the situation is equally disturbing. Aside from funding terrorists and investing in hate speech, the PA stubbornly refuses to remove hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from “refugee” rosters, deliberately keeping them in a state of dependence and underdevelopment for no purpose other than to stoke animosity toward Israel.

It is difficult to come away from these facts without realizing the deep connection between the huge amounts of foreign aid being spent, the bizarre international tolerance for patently unacceptable conduct by the Palestinians and the lack of progress toward peace on the ground.

Donors to the Palestinians who support peace would do well to rethink the way they extend assistance. Money should go to economic and civic empowerment, not to perpetuate a false sense of victimhood and unconditional entitlement. It should foster values of tolerance and nonviolence, not the glorification and financing of terrorism.

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Does the "Status Quo" forbid Jews to quietly pray on the Temple Mount?

Last year, the PLO published a document meant to provide proof that Israel is violating the sanctity of the Temple Mount.

It is filled with lies; for example it blames Israel for the fire at the Al Aqsa Mosque set in 1969 by an Australian. For now, we will concentrate on one specific claim, about the status quo.

When it defines the history of the status quo, it says:

The Treaty of Berlin of 1878 has this to say about holy places under Ottoman rule:

Article LXII. The Sublime Porte having expressed the intention to maintain the principle of religious liberty, and give it the widest scope, the Contracting Parties take note of this spontaneous declaration. In no part of the Ottoman Empire shall difference of religion be alleged against any person as a ground for exclusion or incapacity in matters relating to the enjoyment of civil or political rights, admission to public employments, functions, and honors, or the exercise of the various professions and industries, in any locality whatsoever. The freedom and outward exercise of all forms of worship shall be assured to all, and no hindrance shall be offered either to the hierarchical organization of the different communions, or to their relations with their spiritual chiefs.

Ecclesiastics, pilgrims, and monks of all nationalities traveling in Turkey in Europe, or in Turkey in Asia, shall enjoy the same rights, advantages, and privileges.

The right of official protection by the Diplomatic and Consular Agents of the Powers in Turkey is recognized both as regards the above-mentioned persons and their religious, charitable, and other establishments in the Holy Places and elsewhere. The rights possessed by France are expressly reserved, and it is well understood that no alterations can be made in the status quo in the Holy Places. The monks of Mount Athos, of whatever country they may be natives, shall be maintained in their former possessions and advantages, and shall enjoy, without any exception, complete equality of rights and prerogatives.

Tha section on the status quo is not even an entire sentence of the Article, and the Article itself makes clear that religious liberty is the highest goal and the maintenance of the status quo is not meant to limit that freedom to worship.

Analysis of this article throughout the decades that discuss the status quo all concentrate on who is allowed to make physical changes to designated Holy Places and who can act as administrators.

The major conflicts over the status quo of holy places were by various Christian denominations who were perpetually fighting (often literally) over rights to Christian holy places. This is described by L. G. A. Cust in 1929:

The present position therefore is that the arrangements existing in 1852 which corresponded to the Status Quo of 1757 as to the rights and privileges of the Christian communities officiating in the Holy Places have to be most meticulously observed, and what each rite practised at that time in the way of public worship, decorations of altars and shrines, use of lamps, candelabra, tapestry and pictures, and in the exercise of the most minute acts of ownership and usage has to remain unaltered. Moreover, the Status Quo applies also to the nature of the officiants. Thus, the Franciscans alone of the Roman Catholic Orders are allowed to celebrate Mass independently in the Holy Places, although the clergy of any Roman Catholic Order can attend. The Patriarch himself, of course, has the right to pontificate. Similarly, of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches none other than the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has any standing in the Holy Places. The Russian Church during the last quarter of the 19th century made strenuous efforts to obtain independent privileges and to maintain altars of their own, for the saying of the Liturgy in the Russian language, but this was successfully opposed by the Hellenic elements. \ Russian clergy are, however, able to take part in the services.

Freedom for all to visit and even to pray individually at holy places is not considered as a violation of the status quo, as the examples given here show.

Clearly the status quo on the Temple Mount itself allowed visitors throughout the 20th century, as the Waqf itself published a guidebook for visitors. (This is the guidebook that said that it is "beyond dispute" that this is the site of Solomon's Temple.)

Did the Waqf forbid any non-Muslims to silently pray? Not based on this booklet, which gave specific examples of what visitors should not do - smoke or bring in dogs.

To say, as the PLO claims, that religious Jews visiting the Temple Mount and even silently praying there violates the status quo is just another lie.

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Haaretz columnist compares Hatikva to Arab threats to kill Jews (update)

Rogel Alpher, one of the Ha'aretz columnists whose columns are often so extreme as to appear to be a parody, has done it again:

His thesis is that to Arabs, the lyrics of Israel's national anthem are just as offensive and extreme and frightening as Jews hearing the Arab chant, “in spirit, in blood, we shall redeem Al Aqsa."

What are the equally offensive lyrics of Hatikva, according to Alpher? “To be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem.”

Let's see. Hatikva expresses a millennia-old hope for Jews to return to their ancestral homeland. it doesn't say that this return should be violent, or even that it should dispossess other people.

The chant of “in spirit, in blood, we shall redeem Al Aqsa" appears to be much more recent - from 2002, coined by extremist Islamist Raed Salah, head of the northern branch of the Islamic movement. It is meant to be nothing less than violent and antisemitic. (Another source traces it to the same person but in 2000.)

The phrase reached the public consciousness in a 2011 rally sponsored by the Islamic Movement in Umm al-Fahem. Some 30,000 Arabs chanted the phrase. The rally also reatured a play showing ultra-Orthodox Jews destroying the Al Aqsa Mosque.

I can certainly understand why Israeli Arabs might not want to sing Hatikva. However, Alpher self-righteously claims to speak on behalf of Arabs in his assertion that Arabs feel physically threatened by the words of Hatikva - he says that "when Jews sing 'our hope has not been lost, the two-thousand-year-old-hope,' it scares [Israeli Arabs.]"

The only hate that I see from any Israeli Jew in his columns is that of Rogel Alpher himself, who despises his own nation so much that he has called the Israeli flag a "fascistic symbol" and who had pledged to leave the country because of how immoral it is.

Amazingly, he still hasn't left, since Ha'aretz apparently still thinks that he has useful things to say.

(Not surprisingly, this column is being translated into Arabic for Palestinian newspapers.)

UPDATE: As is often the case, PreOccupied Territory takes my story and runs with it.

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EoZTV News weekly roundup

As I keep playing with the idea of regular videocasts, I wanted to try a straight news program, with stories that I have mentioned here as well as others.

So here is what I came up with. Only one major software glitch with some dead air, but otherwise not too bad.

Stories include:

Abbas' views on Armenians don't extend to another indigenous people
Human Rights Watch has a problem with Jews
Saeb Erekat freaks out over Bibi's overtures to Arab countries
PA supports occupation and settlements - by Morocco
Hamas likes luxury hotels
Soccer on the Temple Mount

As always, feedback is welcome!

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2016 Hasby Award Winners - Best Article

The Hasby Award for best article of 2015 goes to...

This past week Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald passed away at the age of 82.

Outside Orthodox Jewish circles, most people have not heard of him, but he led an amazing life that was often as much cloak-and-dagger as being a community leader.

Greenwald worked tirelessly to free Jews who were in prison throughout the world. From Wikipedia, here are four of them:

Natan Sharansky

Rabbi Greenwald taking to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, with whom he worked closely in a series of hostage release efforts, including the Sharansky case

In perhaps his highest profile case, Rabbi Greenwald worked closely with Representative Benjamin Gilman (R-NY) and East German lawyer Wolfgang Vogel to secure the release Soviet dissident and Refusenik Natan Sharansky from Soviet prison in the late 1970s. He made more than 25 trips across the "Iron Curtain" to East Germany as part of that effort.^[5] The Rockland Journal News reported that Rabbi Greenwald was the "man behind the talks" that freed Sharansky.^[6]

Miron Markus

In conjunction with Representative Gilman, Rabbi Greenwald negotiated the rescue a 24-year-old Israeli citizen named Miron Markus in 1978 who was living in Zimbabwe. Markus was captured when an airplane piloted by his brother-in-law, Jackie Bloch, was forced to land in Mozambique, where Mr. Bloch was killed and Markus taken hostage. Rabbi Greenwald, Congressman Gilman and others arranged for a complex swap that involved four countries Mozambique, Israel, the UnS and East Germany, convicted East German spy Robert Thompson and U.S. student Alan van Norman.^[5]

Raul Granados

Granados was kidnapped by leftist guerillas in November, 1979 while at a soccer game in Guatemala City. Rabbi Greenwald, working again with Representative Gilman, helped broker the exchange of Mr. Granados in exchange for a ransom payment of $4,000,000.^[7]

Vladimir Raiz

Vladimir Raiz, a Soviet molecular biologist, had been denied permission to leave the former Soviet Union for 18 years before Greenwald entered the picture. According to Steve Lieberman in the Rockland Journal News, Greenwald secretly met with Raiz in Lithuania in 1989. Following negotiations with Soviet authorities, Raiz and his family were permitted to emigrate in 1990.^[8]

But Greenwald was very busy besides flying all over the world to gain prisoner releases. He founded a girl's high school and a popular summer camp. He was involved in helping victims of sexual abuse in the community and he also founded a network of homes for mentally handicapped girls and women. He was the Jewish liaison for the Nixon administration and used that position to help get government aid for the Jewish poor.

I have heard him talk and it is hard to imagine such an unassuming man to be involved in such high-stakes international intrigues.

He will be sorely missed.

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01/24 Links: Fading Truth on the New York Times Editorial Page; Erekat: PA 'waging a war' with Israel

From Ian:

Honest Reporting: Fading Truth on the New York Times Editorial Page

The Fading Two State Solution is a New York Times editorial that makes the observation that “even truth telling can ignite a firestorm.” Quite a claim considering the lack of truth-telling in the editorial itself.
The editorial begins by defending U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro’s speech in which he accused Israel of having double standards when administering law and order in the disputed territories.
Palestinians have been victims of assaults and acts of vandalism by Jewish extremists, including an arson attack in July that killed a toddler and his parents in the West Bank village of Duma. None of this is acceptable.
The reality is that in the case of the Duma arson, the security establishment has been pursuing the case with the same sense of urgency and tools that would be used against Palestinian terrorists. Many would argue that the state is using more resources to bring the perpetrators to justice than in other cases.
Yet this is one egregious case of an attack in which the victims are Palestinians. The Times implies that there are more attacks that are comparable to the terrorist attacks in which Jews have been the victims. But the numbers prove this is not the case.
Since 13 September 2015, 29 people have been killed (including a Palestinian, a foreign worker and a U.S. citizen), and 289 people injured in Palestinian terrorist attacks. These attacks include 110 stabbing attacks, 38 shootings, and 22 vehicular (ramming) attacks. During the same period, there have been no stabbing, shooting, or vehicular attacks against Palestinians. This, of course, does not include cases where Palestinians have died in the course of committing these attacks. Is the Times claiming that there is no difference between self-defense and unprovoked attempts at murder?

PMW: PA daily: US suspected of causing the 9-11 attacks to create anarchy in Arab world

An op-ed in the official PA daily accuses the US of being behind all the turmoil and civil wars in the Muslim and Arab world, even the Sunni-Shiite fighting. Moreover, the writer claims that this turmoil, which the US is allegedly orchestrating, is the direct result of the 9-11 attacks on the US. The US utilized this attack to create "an imaginary enemy called 'terror,' and it supervised the cultivation of the idea until it ripened into what is known today as the Islamic State organization," the writer states. Moreover, the writer claims that the evidence and facts indicate that the US itself is the number one suspect in the 9-11 bombings.
The accusation that the US is behind all the crises and wars in the Middle East, sometimes in collaboration with Israel, has been voiced often in the official PA daily and documented by Palestinian Media Watch, as well as the claim that US and Israel are behind and controlling the Islamic State terror organization.

Terrorist killed by own bomb during attempted attack on security forces

An 18-year-old male Palestinian died late Saturday night after a pipe bomb he intended to throw at Border Police officers stationed at a security checkpoint near Abu Dis, adjacent to Jerusalem, exploded in his hands.
“He had a pipe bomb that he was planning on throwing at security personnel in Abu Dis and it accidentally exploded before he threw it, and he died of his wounds,” said Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld on Sunday.
“He was not a suicide bomber,” Rosenfeld added, noting inaccurate media reports claiming the teen was wearing an explosive vest. “We’re talking about a Palestinian with a small explosive.”
None of the officers were wounded in the explosion, he said.
The body of the suspect, identified by Arab media as Muhammad Halbiya, was transferred by Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics to a nearby medical clinic.

Edgar Davidson: Terrorist death creates crisis for world media

The story tonight from Israel that a terrorist has been killed by his own bomb without any intervention of any Israeli during an attempted attack (as reported in the Jerusalem Post) is causing panic and hysteria among the international media.
They are searching frantically for a headline that can make Israel the aggressor (earlier today after a female terrorist was shot dead in the act of stabbing a security guard the New York Times led with the headline shown at the bottom of this post).
Assuming that even they will not fall for the inevitable Arab spin on the story ("Israel kills Palestinian with planted bomb") my bet is that the media will come up with one of the following compromises:
"Palestinian killed in Israel bomb attack"
"One Palestinian killed, no Israelis killed in latest Israel violence"
For the time being the entire Western media seems to playing safe and doing what they do when only Israelis are killed in terrorist attacks: refusing to report the attack at all.

I don't know, Kate.

Sometimes it just seems pointless.

Sorry to be downbeat, but I feel like I am glaring into a howling thunderstorm. In California we could use the weather, but I worry about my friends elsewhere.

You may be aware that the Washington Post just published an infographic on displaced peoples around the world since WWII and while they cover the Palestinian-Arab displacement after '48 they do not reference the Jewish displacement from "Arab lands" at that time. In 1948 the Jews in "Arab lands" outside of Israel posed no threat to their Muslim neighbors. Nonetheless, they were driven out of their homes with only the clothing on their backs and somehow this has been removed from the dominant narrative. The Washington Post thereby erases Jewish history on land that Jews have lived upon for millennia.

I find this kind-of passive-aggressive stance by "the powers that be", as represented by the Washington Post, to be both depressing and antagonistic.

I expect this kind of mierde from the New York Times, but the Times has never been a friend of the Jewish people. They buried the Holocaust, while it was happening, in the back pages of the publication as you are probably aware, and for which I will never forgive them. As I write this I am looking at a copy of a 1986 book by Deborah E. Lipstadt entitled Beyond Belief: The American Press & the Coming of the Holocaust 1933 - 1945.

Lipstadt documents the various ways in which the American press, following the New York Times, downplayed the Holocaust to the back-pages, when they even bothered to discuss it. This little piece of American history is, in my opinion, grotesque. Because Sulzberger did not want the Times thought of as part of the Jewish press - you know, the little rags coming out Brooklyn - he failed to cover the Shoah for the wider audience within the United States.

On a daily basis I scan the Israel-Jewish headlines and read articles - many pointed out by you and many pointed out by Ian - and it can be just overwhelming. The EU wants to boycott Israeli goods. Many western academics want to boycott Jewish-Israeli academics. "Crybullies" on American college campuses demand "safe spaces" from conflicting opinions even as they spit hatred at, and threaten violence toward, Jewish kids who support the Jewish state.

The hypocrisy is profound. As you know, the Jerusalem Post recently published an article entitled, Uproar on Trump’s Muslim ban; silence on Abbas’s Jewish ban, by Morton Klein and Daniel Mandel of ZOA fame.

They write:

Last week, Abbas described the daily onslaught of stabbings, car-rammings and other murders, claiming the lives of 24 Jews, as “justified popular unrest.”

Had Abbas’ words, suitably adjusted, been uttered by an Israeli leader, newspapers around the world would carry detailed reports on their front pages; parliaments around the world would vote to condemn him and the society that tolerated such words; human rights organizations would organize petitions and rallies condemning Israel; international leaders would issue statements of condemnation and the United Nations would surely be called into special session to consider formally condemning Israel in the harshest terms.

So, we have a racist American administration that objects to Jews building housing for themselves in Judea and Samaria, the very place that Jewish people come from. Yet they could not care less that Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority will not even allow Jews to live on that land if, and when, the Palestinian-Arabs ever accept a state for themselves.

I am sometimes reminded of a scene from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle where a rotund black man, quietly reading a book on civil disobedience, has this exchange with Harold, his cell-mate:

HAROLD

So what are you in here for?

TARIK

For being black.

HAROLD

Come on. Seriously.

TARIK sits up. He looks at OFFICER PALUMBO who, with his Walkman on, is oblivious to their conversation.

TARIK

I am serious. You wanna know what happened?

Harold nods.

TARIK

I was walking out of a Barnes and Noble, and a cop stops me. Evidently, a black man robbed a store in Newark. Therefore,since I’m black, it was probably me, right?

Harold shrugs his shoulders.

TARIK

Well that was the logic the cop used. I told him I haven’t even been to Newark in months. Then he pointed a gun at me and told me to stop resisting arrest. I said, “Hey, I’m not resisting anything.”

So he starts beating me with his gun, screaming at me, telling me to stop resisting.

The analogy only goes so far, but I think that you get the point. No matter how often Israel agrees to a Palestinian-Arab state on Jewish land, and no matter how many times the Palestinian-Arabs refuse to accept such a state for themselves in peace next to the Jewish people, the western cops keep smacking around the Jews.

The situation is fundamentally unjust yet it never ends and the Jews are perpetually in the dock.

Unlike poor Tarik, however, the Jewish people are not entirely without resources or options.

Israel must act unilaterally because negotiations with the Arabs are entirely pointless, as has been proven over and over again during the last one-hundred years, and the West, particularly the EU, is growing more and more hostile and, therefore, more and more toxic as a negotiating partner or interlocutor.

What we need to see, in my not so humble opinion, is greater aliyah out of ugly neighborhoods... such as Sweden, Germany, France, and Britain. The Jews who remain in Europe in the coming decades will not likely face another Holocaust, but they will face continued harassment by Arab-Muslim émigrés from North Africa and the Middle East, making life for them exceedingly uncomfortable within the countries of their birth.

Israel should also declare its final borders and remove the IDF to behind those borders. What those borders will be, given that the Palestinian Authority refuses to accept a Jewish state on any bit of Jewish land, should be entirely up to the Jewish people of the Middle East via the government of Israel.

Finally, Israel needs to look eastward for commercial and scientific partnership. The international economic center of gravity is falling upon the Far East Asian Pacific Rim and, therefore, Israel is developing mutually beneficial economic ties with countries like China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam.

Israel will continue to maintain good relationships with the United States, particularly upon the forthcoming departure of the malicious Obama administration, but Europe is looking more and more like a lost cause.

This may sound hard and insensitive coming from an American Jew to a British Jew, but the coming generations of European Jewry will survive under two possible conditions.

Either they hide their Jewish identity or they fight the hell back.

And, make no mistake, the kids need martial arts... particularly the girls.


Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

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