Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 04, 2016

Palestinian MOH blames Israel on World Cancer Day

Today is World Cancer Day, which means it is yet another excuse for Palestinians to blame everything evil on Israel.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health released a press statement saying that the rate of cancer in Gaza has increased dramatically from 2009 to 2014, from 65.6/100000 to 83.9/100000, according to a new study.

The press release quoted the study as saying "the impact of the repeated aggression of the Zionist occupation during the past ten years, in which all sorts of internationally prohibited weapons were used that may have contributed to this increase."

The Ministry called for an international conference to discuss how Israel is to blame. Pesticides, smoking and obesity are minor factors compared to "Zionist aggression. "

The interesting thing is that the rate of cancer in the West Bank has increased in the same time period by virtually the same amount, according to an article I quoted last month. Since no one is yet accusing Israel of using depleted uranium or white phosphorus in the West Bank, then perhaps the increase in Gaza cancer has nothing to do with Israel either.

Tellingly, the MOH didn't bother to issue any statistics from the West Bank on World Cancer Day, only Gaza - just to blame Israel for cancer.

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Here's how the official Wafa news agency reported yesterday's terror attack:

Three Palestinians have been fatally shot by Israeli police in Jerusalem, after they purportedly attacked with gunfire and knives Israeli policemen outside Bab al-Amoud Gate in Jerusalem, seriously injuring two Israeli policewomen, according to local sources.

An Israeli police report stated that two policewomen were seriously wounded in the gunfire and stabbing attacks carried out by three Palestinians identified as Ahmad Rajeh Zakarneh, Mohammad Ahmad Kmail, and Ahmad Najeh Abur-Rob.

WAFA correspondent said that, shortly after the incident, Israeli police sealed off Bab al-Amoud area, along with all the gates of Jerusalem’s Old City. Police reportedly attacked Palestinian locals present there with teargas canisters and stun grenades. [This seems to be made up - EoZ]

On January 26th, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was "human nature" for Palestinians to react violently to Israel's nearly 50-year military occupation.

Speaking at the UN Security Council's Middle East debate, Ban said the new year had begun as 2015 ended, “with unacceptable levels of violence and a polarized public discourse across the spectrum in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.”

He added that Israeli security measures were failing to “address the profound sense of alienation and despair driving some Palestinians – especially young people.”

I guess that they didn't read Ban's NYT op-ed where he claimed he was in no way justifying terror attacks.

Or perhaps - they did, and understood him perfectly.

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State Department spokesman makes a moral stand against Palestinian terror (video)

From The Jewish Press:

Finally, after months of calmly responding to the incessant badgering by Palestinian Arab journalist Said Arikat to manipulate the State Dept. spokespeople into making statements that were then promoted as positions attacking Israel, State Dept. Spokesperson John Kirby had enough.

Kirby, a pleasant looking former Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, is generally unflappable, with a calm demeanor and a quick smile lost his cool – as much as he was capable – at the Wednesday, Feb. 3 daily press briefing.

Kirby had just responded to Matt Lee, the Associated Press reporter, who asked whether the State Dept. was going to condemn the terrorist attack by Palestinian Arab terrorists on two border patrol policewomen at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate, which took place earlier in the day.

Kirby said on behalf of the State Dept. “we do strongly condemn the attack in Jerusalem today in which two border police officers were attacked with automatic weapons.

“As before, sadly, once again, we have to extend our deepest condolences to a mourning family and to friends and the community of the victim, and we wish the injured officer a full and complete recovery. As we’ve said before, there’s no justification for these attacks,” the spokesperson said.

What Kirby didn’t mention, but surely knew, was that the police officer who was murdered, Hadar Cohen, was a 19-year-old girl, and her fellow officer who was severely wounded was only 20 years old.

But Arikat could not allow to pass a single statement of compassion made by the U.S. towards Israel. Instead of simply moving on to another topic, Arikat, so conditioned to getting in the last word and twisting any comments into ones that can be construed as
anti-Israel, had to take a stab.

ARIKAT:” But you’re not,” he started, “These border police units, they are part of an occupying force. Correct? You agree with that?

KIRBY: “the-they-this was border police officers that were on duty doing their job.”

ARIKAT: “No, I mean, I understand you want to condemn this and that’s your prerogative, but, I mean, the flip side of that – I mean,” Arikat stumbled about a bit, and then got to his point:”But how should the Palestinians respond to an overwhelming military presence that basically suffocates their lives? How – what they should do, in your opinion?“
And this is when Kirby, finally, lit into Arikat. He didn’t raise his voice and he didn’t use vulgar terms. But finally, after so many months, Kirby gave back to Arikat what Arikat should have been getting all along. Instead of allowing a reporter in the room to use the daily press briefing as an opportunity to aggressively lobby for his people’s political positions, Kirby shut down Arikat with a hard dose of truth.

Kirby responded to Arikat’s effort to turn a brutal terrorist murder of a 19-year-old Israeli girl doing her job – to protect Israeli citizens – into a justified response to the “Occupation.” Kirby said, through ever-so-slightly tightened lips:

Let me tell you what is not the way to do it, okay? The way to not do it is through attacks like today. The way to not do it is to incite those attacks with rhetoric that inflames these tensions. The way to do it – the way to move forward here – is through peaceful dialogue and conversation, and to take affirmative steps in both word and in action to walk people away from this kind of violence. That’s the way to do this.

The sad thing is that most of the world seems to believe what Arikat said, that all terrorism against Israelis are justified because their lives - which are better by nearly every objective measure than that of citizens of most Arab countries - are supposedly being "suffocated."

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02/03 Links Pt2: NY Times gets Pallywooded by JVP; Wix unveils 2016 Super Bowl ad

From Ian:

Amb. Alan Baker: France’s Ultimatum to Israel – Legally Flawed and Politically Imprudent

France Undermines the Oslo Accords It Witnessed
The commitments set down in this agreement, to negotiate the permanent status of the territories as well as other central issues such as Jerusalem, borders, settlements and refugees, are solemn Palestinian and Israeli obligations which France, together with its EU partners, as well as the United States, Russia, Egypt, Jordan and Norway are obligated to honor after placing their signatures on the agreement as witnesses.
By the same token, the UN General Assembly in its Resolution A/50/21 of December 4, 1995, supported by France, expressed its full support for the Oslo Accords and the peace negotiation process.
In its capacity both as a signed witness to the agreement, as well as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, it is incumbent on France, which voted in favor of the UN resolution endorsing the agreement and the negotiation process, not to attempt to undermine the same agreement and process, nor to prejudge issues that are still open and to be negotiated.

Anne Bayefsky: The UN Commemorates the Holocaust with Israel-Bashing

It is hardly a secret that the UN agenda is to find reasons for treating the Jewish state differently — notwithstanding the UN Charter’s promise of equality for nations large and small. The settlements bandwagon is one of many.
In effect, the “occupation” rant is the PC version of ISIS’s “Allahu Akbar.” It has been the Arab cry since the minute of Israel’s birth in 1948 and is the verbiage that presages destruction, not peaceful coexistence. It is the complaint about Jews living on Arab-claimed land, despite the fact that ultimate ownership of this land — according to legal agreement — is to be decided by negotiations, not UN fiat.
The bigger picture tells the story. The UN just wrapped up a year in which there were a total of 26 General Assembly resolutions condemning specific countries for human-rights abuse: 19 — that’s 73 percent — against Israel and one, for instance, against Syria. In 2015, the UN Commission on the Status of Women adopted one resolution condemning a country for violating women’s rights: Israel — for violating the rights of Palestinian women.
Finding excuses for demonizing Jews, discriminating against Jews, delegitimizing Jewish self-determination, and just plain old Jew-hatred, is thousands of years old. It has a name, anti-Semitism.
Which is where the UN’s international Holocaust Remembrance Day comes in. At the UN, it provides cover. So on January 27, Ban Ki-moon showed up at the General Assembly’s annual commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz.
After checking-off “present” in his Holocaust remembrance speech, the secretary-general could manage to mention anti-Semitism only once, and only together with “anti-Muslim bigotry.” His UN secretariat also used the day to promote the claim that there were multiple Holocausts, adding for the first time to the rostrum of the annual event a Sinto speaker, who repeatedly referred to “the forgotten Holocaust of the Sinti and Roma.”

Sir Eric Pickles: A thriving vibrant Jewish community is an integral part of British identity

There is a darkness descending on universities across Europe.
What should be institutions of lightness and open discussions risk becoming places where Jewish students need to move discreetly, avoiding the attention of their peers. Late last year I talked to Jewish students in France, they spoke of violence on their campuses and a conflating of Israel and Jewish opinion. Just as worrying are the consorted attempts to delegitimize Israel and present it on every occasion as outside the community of nations.
This is not a passive policy; it involves the denial of a platform to speak, and the drowning out of opinions when they are expressed. In some cases, it has become the thinnest of veneers for anti-Semitism.
Last week we saw its latest manifestation at one of London’s leading universities, when an unruly mob of protesters attacked a classroom where the former head of the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency), Ami Ayalon, was speaking with a small group of students. Slogans were chanted, fire alarms were set off and windows were broken. A group of bullies set out to frighten those attending into submission, and into silence.

EU funded Ma'an: Moderate in English, incitement in Arabic

We have mentioned previously that the Palestinian Ma'an news network is heavily funded by Western sources. And it is not hard to understand why - among all the English-language Palestinian Arab media, it most closely adheres to journalistic standards.

But in Arabic, it is as biased and inaccurate as other Arab media. And that sometimes even spills over into incitement.

Today, in English, it says:

70 right-wing Israelis tour Aqsa compound, Palestinians denied entry

Dozens of right-wing Israelis toured the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Wednesday under Israeli police escort, while a number of Palestinian men and women were denied entry to the holy site.
Witnesses said that as many as 70 Israelis entered the compound through the Dung Gate, accompanied by nearly 20 Israeli Border Police and two Israeli intelligence officers.

(Even in English, Ma'an leaves much to be desired. Dung Gate is a gate to the old city of Jerusalem, not the Temple Mount; the Moroccan (Rambam) gate is the only one that non-Muslims are allowed to use to enter. And how do they know that the visitors are "right wing"? Some religious Zionists have leftist political positions.)

In Arabic, however, the story reads this way:

Dozens of settlers stormed Al-Aqsa

Dozens of settlers and members of the so-called "border guards" and occupation intelligence officers on Wednesday morning entered Al-Aqsa Mosque, through the Mughrabi Gate.
A Ma'an news reporter in Jerusalem quoted witnesses as saying that 70 settlers, and 19 members of the border guards with their guns and two intelligence officers, stormed through the Aqsa gate during the "morning raids", amid worshipers present in the squares, while preventing women and men access to the Haram for the sixth month in a row, after the inclusion of their names in the lists called "black lists" under the pretext that they stir up trouble in al Aqsa.

In turn, Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib told Ma'an that the occupation is escalating things in the Al Aqsa Mosque on the one hand and against the Islamic Waqf on the other hand in an unprecedented way.

Given that the current wave of stabbings and shootings against Jews are supposedly because of Jews peacefully visiting Judaism's holiest site, by falsely reporting that they are "settlers storming Al Aqsa" Ma'an is inciting its readers.

Ma'an used to routinely use the word "storming" in English as well, but criticism from places like this blog shamed them into being slightly more accurate in English. But in Arabic, they have no shame using the words that are being used to incite terror attacks.

And Western nations are supporting this incitement.

Here are the "storming settlers" - a group of school students:

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Hamas Hires Flintstones To Drive New Tank (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Gaza City, February 2 - The militant Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip unveiled yesterday what it called a tank it had developed, and today announced it had entered into a contract with the Flintstone family to provide the vehicle's locomotive power.

Hamas brought its new vehicle to a rally in honor of the seven fighters who died last week when a tunnel collapsed on them, but photographs revealed that the heavy tank treads that normally moved such a mechanized weapons platform were for appearance's sake only: from certain angles, the wheels of an SUV were visible as the true source of the tank's movement. The images quickly became the subject of ridicule by Hamas's rival movement Fatah. A spokesman for Hamas told reporters today that the use of another vehicle to move the tank - made of fiberglass and sewage pipes - was merely a temporary measure in place during the rally, but that in the long term the movement had engaged the services of Fred and Wilma Flintstone and family, who have extensive experience in innovative solutions for the propulsion of vehicles.

"We are pleased to announce that the Flintstones have agreed to take this contract," said Mahmoud al-Zahar. "They have demonstrated for decades that they possess the technical capacity and experience to move heavy vehicles without dependence on fossil fuels, which is obviously an important consideration for us." The Gaza Strip is entirely dependent on imports of gasoline, natural gas, and other fuels from Israel.

The Flintstones did not return a phone call seeking comment today, but former associates of theirs called the hiring by Hamas a smart move. "One of the bedrock assumptions for Hamas must be that in any large-scale conflict with Israel, which has happened with some regularity over the last several years, they're going to be bombed back to the stone age," said William Hanna. "While Hamas's ideology and politics are a perfect fit for the stone age, their dependence on technology has remained firmly in the anthropocene. Recruiting Fred and his family could serve them not only in terms of providing their new tank with a non-fossil-fuel-dependent engine; it can really help them adapt in the long-term to living like cavemen, which seems to be the lifestyle they prefer, both for themselves and the people of the Gaza Strip."

It remains unclear when the contract will begin. A neighbor and friend of Fred Flintstone, who identified himself as Barney Rubble, told journalists that Fred's schedule might prevent him from taking on more than simply moving the tank. "Fred's bowling league nights are basically non-negotiable, I can tell you that," he said.

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Fatah Facebook page celebrating murderers

From Fatah's Facebook page:

And:

I guess celebrating the murder of a 19 year old woman is "natural."

Hadar Cohen is, of course, a real martyr, who helped stop what would have been a much worse attack.

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02/03 Links Pt1: Policewoman murdered in Jerusalem attack; A Mosque as Extremist Megaphone

From Ian:

Border Police officer, 19, dies after Jerusalem terror attack

A Border Police officer succumbed to wounds suffered during a shooting and stabbing attack near Jerusalem’s Old City Wednesday, after efforts to save her life at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus failed.
The woman was identified as Hadar Cohen, 19, from Or Yehuda.
Cohen was rushed to hospital in critical condition after she was wounded in the attack shortly after 2 p.m. local time. Paramedics who treated her at the scene said she was fighting for her life.
Hospital officials said she was shot in the head. “We succeeded in stabilizing her condition for a time, but her head wound was so severe she never had a chance,” a hospital spokeswoman said.
Another policewomen was in serious but stable condition at the hospital, with wounds all over her body, including her head, the spokeswoman said.

After attack, Jerusalem mayor urges residents to ‘engage’ terrorists

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat told residents of the capital not to fear “engaging” with suspected Palestinian attackers, after three Palestinians carried out a shooting and stabbing attack, killing one border policewoman and wounding another outside the city’s Damascus Gate on Wednesday afternoon.
Officials said the quick response of security forces in shooting and killing the terrorists prevented a much larger attack by the three.
“I spoke to the brave fighters who were not afraid to engage,” the mayor said of the team of Border Police officers who shot and killed the three Palestinians attackers within moments of the attack.
“The preparedness of the policemen is what led to the engagement and saved lives. The residents of Jerusalem need to open their eyes, and in a case like this, not to fear engaging [the attackers]. This vigilance is what will thwart attacks.”

A Mosque as Extremist Megaphone

Despite Al Aqsa’s importance to Islam—it is considered the religion’s holiest site outside Saudi Arabia—few Westerners are aware of the content of the sermons, lectures and lessons offered there. Many of these sermons are posted on the mosque’s two official YouTube channels and have been translated from the Arabic by my organization, the Middle East Media Research Institute.
What we have found at Al Aqsa is a steady stream of calls for jihad and martyrdom, venomous attacks on Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims, and praise for al Qaeda, Islamic State, or ISIS, and other jihadist groups.
Calls for the destruction of the U.S. and the West, including promises that Islam will take over the world, are other common themes. On July 24 last year, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Dweik—a frequent lecturer at the mosque and Palestinian cleric, like the other religious leaders quoted here—said: “The caliphate will come to be, and the nuclear bomb will be produced,” adding that this future Islamic caliphate—will “fight the U.S. and will bring it down” and “eliminate the West in its entirety.”
On July 6, 2015, Sheikh Muhammad Abed, known as “ Abu Abdallah,” declared that from “the land of the Prophet’s nocturnal journey”—a reference to Jerusalem—“armies will set out to conquer Rome, to conquer Constantinople,” and then he added to the list “Washington and London.”
In an Oct. 27 address at Al Aqsa, Sheikh Khaled Al-Maghrabi called for the annihilation of the Jews all over the world, providing justification by quoting the well-known hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) of the stone and the tree: “Oh Muslim there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” Earlier at the mosque, on May 29, Sheikh Al-Maghrabi explained why Jews were killed in the Holocaust. “On Passover,” he said, the Jews “would knead the dough for these matzos with children’s blood. When this was discovered, the Israelites were expelled across Europe . . . It got to the point where they were burned in Germany.”

Latest collapsed Hamas tunnel looks like it was meant to attack Israel

Yesterday was yet another "work accident" where two Hamas terrorists were killed in a tunnel collapse.

Last week seven were killed in a similar collapse.

The tunnel was located "east of Deir al Balah." Since that is not so close to Egypt and not in an urban area, this indicates that this tunnel wasn't meant for smuggling weapons nor as part of a network of urban bunkers used to store weapons and travel from house to house during war.

Meaning that this tunnel could only have been used for one purpose: to attack Israelis by tunneling under the boundary between Gaza and Israel, perhaps towards the communities of Kisufim or Re'im.

Hamas' press release celebrating the deaths of the "martyrs" almost admits this, by saying "the men of the tunnels continue on the same path of jihad and sacrifice, ...both the defensive and offensive tunnels, which gives them the advantage of the resistance and enables them to painfully strike the enemy..."

Here are the latest "martyrs" at their workplace. One was a field commander.

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"Moderate" Arab MK Ayman Odeh supports BDS

Member of Knesset Ayman Odeh, who was described as a "rock star" when he spoke at the HaaretzQ conference in New York last December, has officially come out as supporting BDS.

When asked a question about that at a seminar, Odeh responded, "First, I would like to salute the people who are working on BDS, I think this really puts Israel on the spot in world public opinion."

He then made an intentionally vague statement that could be interpreted as possibly "only" supporting the boycott of Jewish businesses in Judea and Samaria, saying, "So long as it is focused on the occupation it is going in the right direction. For instance, the boycott of settlement products is extremely important. " But he didn't limit his comments to only a boycott of settlement products.

He then went on to say that it is important not to boycott Jews, but the Jewish state, saying, "If we can mobilize as many Jews as we could that would be a win for us."

Of course, the people who claim to "only" boycott settlements are really only boycotting Jewish businesses in Judea and Samaria, not those of Israeli Arabs in various industrial zones, as we have discussed previously. Even the BDSers who want to boycott Israel altogether never say to boycott Arab owned businesses in Israel.

Odeh has been hailed as a "moderate" and even compared to a "saint" in the fawning leftist media. The media often compares him to his supposed hero Martin Luther King.

The bar for Arabs to be considered moderate or saintly by the mainstream media is quite low. Any Israeli politician who would call for a boycott of Arab or Palestinian products would be considered an extremist and criticized as a bigot, but an Arab who calls to boycott Jewish businesses in Israel - which is what he is doing, and everyone knows it - is considered tantamount to a saint. I guess the fact that he is not calling to stab every Jew in Israel is what passes for "moderate" nowadays.

Watch the video here:

(h/t Yoel)

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Jordan has announced that it will no longer allow imports of Palestinian olive oil into the country.

This is apparently to protect its own local olive oil market. Jordan used to be a big importer but now it is an exporter of olive oil.

See how much they care about their fellow Arabs? They dully support the Palestinian cause - right up until such support might slightly affect the life of a single Jordanian.

Israel does apparently buy some of the olive oil that grows under PA control. which means that Israel often treats Palestinians better than their brothers in Jordan do. But we already knew that.

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EoZ (the acronym) hits the big time

I just stumbled onto this from AllAcronyms.com:

And also Abbreviations.com:

But I do have competition from the code of the Elorza airport in Venezuela. And a company that makes pushbuttons and switches.

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02/02 Links Pt2: BDSers make fake NYTs, with more Anti-Israel bias; Clinton only given Anti-Israel Advice

From Ian:

Pro-Palestinians create parody 'New York Times' to slam 'pro-Israel bias'

A group of pro-Palestinian sympathizers fanned out across New York City
earlier on Tuesday and distributed thousands of parodied copies of The New York Times bearing headlines and stories that contradict what they claim to be the newspaper's pro-Israel bias in its coverage of the Middle East conflict.
Commuters in the Big Apple could be forgiven for thinking that the "supplement" they were handed was an actual copy of the Grey Lady, since it uses the Times' famous masthead as well as the same headline fonts, page design, and layout.
The "supplement" – which is titled "Rethinking our 2015 coverage on Israel-Palestine" - was also posted online. It was even given a Twitter account.
The Jerusalem Post was unable to determine the identity of the individuals behind the initiative. The only response given was that the fake newspaper was the brainchild of followers of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement – an ad hoc alliance of pro-Palestinian activists seeking to punish Israel financially over its policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. (h/t Yenta Press)

Shmuley Boteach: Hillary Clinton’s Advisers Gave Nothing But Anti-Israel Advice

It’s already been established that one of Hillary Clinton’s most trusted advisers, Sid Blumenthal, sent her dozens of anti-Israel articles, ideas and pieces of advice during her time as secretary of state. But the stream of anti-Israel advice received by Hillary was much more comprehensive than that which came from just one adviser. In the entire batch of Hillary’s emails, you will be hard pressed to find a single email that is sympathetic towards the Jewish state, from any of the people on whom she relied.
The negative, poisonous approach towards Israel throughout this cache of emails shows the atmosphere that Hillary had established around herself. These emails seem to demonstrate that a huge segment of her close advisers and confidants were attacking Israel, condemning Netanyahu, and strategizing about how to force Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria at all costs.
Take a look at a sampling of the advice being sent to Hillary from her many advisers.

NGO Monitor: HRW´s "World Report 2016": Selective Narrative on Israel and Middle East

On January 27, 2016, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its “World Report 2016,” with a section devoted to “Israel/Palestine: Events of 2015.” Following a long-running pattern, HRW presents a highly selective political narrative and omits any facts that challenge it.
Lack of Methodology: Inconsistent Statistics
The statistics presented by HRW, in particular those on Israeli casualties, are ambiguous and appear to be internally inconsistent. In the absence of footnotes and given the unclear writing, it is impossible to confirm most of HRW’s data.
Distorted Narrative on Gaza
In the Gaza subsection, HRW claims “Israel’s punitive closure of the Gaza Strip, particularly the near-total blocking of outgoing goods, continued to have severe consequences for the civilian population and impeded reconstruction of the 17,000 housing units severely damaged or destroyed during the 2014 war.”
Contrary to these claims, delays in Gaza reconstruction were primarily due to Palestinian infighting (Fatah wanted full oversight over the process); failure of donor countries (mostly Arab) in paying pledges; and diversion by Hamas of cement and other materials to rebuild their own infrastructure and terror tunnels. (h/t Yenta Press)

Khamenei praises athletes who refuse to compete against Israelis

For years, most Iranian athletes have refused to compete against Israeli athletes in international competitions.

And for years, most of the governing authorities of sports federations have turned a blind eye and accepted the excuses of the athletes that they suddenly became "sick" or otherwise couldn't attend.

Now, Ayatollah Khamenei has made it crystal clear that these athletes are doing his bidding, and he has praised them. From Tasnim News:

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei admired the Iranian athletes who safeguard the religious and moral values in the sports events, irrespective of the delusive wave that may prevail in the international arenas.

The Iranian athletes that explicitly safeguard the values in the championship games do a valued deed, Ayatollah Khamenei said in a gathering of officials involved in holding a congress to commemorate the Iranian athletes that have been martyred.

What is even worthier than standing on the championship stage or raising of the country’s flag is an Iranian athlete’s refusal to wrestle with a Zionist Israeli opponent or a female athlete’s decision to attend the medal award ceremony while respecting the Islamic code of dressing and wearing hijab, Imam Khamenei underlined.

In fact, Khamenei released a poster making that same point:

According to the "Supreme Leader," an athlete refusing to compete against Israelis is a greater honor than representing Iran as a champion in international sports.

That's some serious hate there.

Ironically, this photo was taken as Khamenei was honoring Iranian Paralympics athletes, yet last year at the Special Olympics the Iranian and Israeli competitors became friends and the torch was passed from the Iranians to the Israelis at the opening ceremony.

Nonetheless, Khamenei's words prove that it is no coincidence that Iranian competitors refuse to play against Israelis on principle, not due to illness.

Last month, an Iranian chess champion refused to play any Israelis in a Swiss contest and was not allowed to compete for the rest of the competition.

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As most of Elder’s readers will be aware, a week or so ago the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS) rescinded its invitation to Professor Richard Dawkins, the British evolutionary biologist and high-profile atheist, to address it this year. His offence in its eyes was “his approving retweeting of a highly offensive video”. The video in question is this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecJUqhm2g08, entitled “Feminists Love Islamists”. Apparently, when Professor Dawkins posted it, he was unaware (as I was, too, when, quite coincidentally, I linked to it on my blog) that the feminist caricature depicted in the animation is based on an actual American activist who claims to have suffered harassment over the depiction. When he was apprised of that fact, Professor Dawkins did the gentlemanly thing and took it down.

However, the NECSS were determined to exact condign punishment, advising in a purse-lipped little statement (http://necss.org/2016/01/27/a-statement-concerning-richard-dawkins/):

“We believe strongly in freedom of speech and freedom to express unpopular, and even offensive, views. However, unnecessarily divisive, counterproductive, and even hateful speech runs contrary to our mission and the environment we wish to foster at NECSS. The sentiments expressed in the video do not represent the values of NECSS or its sponsoring organizations.”

When one Twitter user demanded to know what precisely is wrong with the video he got fobbed off (http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/sceptics-drop-atheist-richard-dawkins-retweeting-video-mocking-feminists-islamists-1540729):

‘I have specifically challenged the people in NECSS to explain exactly what their issue is with the video ("which line exactly and what's your issue with it?"). They responded that it was inappropriate because the woman had received abuse, so Dawkins was promoting her further abuse.
So then i asked them to come on the record here and now that Dawkins has never received any abuse for being in the spotlight. They refused.
Then, I pointed out that Dawkins was currently being mobbed on twitter due to their actions. "So you've inspired his abuse. Explain the difference in logical terms please."
They never replied.’

I say “fobbed off” because the NECSS statement quoted does not appear to be referring to the perceived insult to the women’s movement activist on whom the video is based (and now that I know who she is and what she looks like I see that it’s obviously meant to be her: she’s much prettier, by the way, if she’ll forgive me for saying so). The statement, despite its avowed espousal of freedom of speech, is condemning the sentiments expressed in the video as “divisive, counterproductive … hate speech” and distancing itself and its “sponsoring organizations” from those views.

I don’t know what, if anything, the activist depicted in the video has had to say regarding Islam and the Quran, but I do know that there’s a video in the public domain that shows she doesn’t mince words when expressing her robust contempt for Christianity and the Bible. However, it appears that the NECSS, for all its adherence to scepticism and what I suppose I may call “the rational,” is too afraid of offending Islam to be seen to support scepticism and – er – rational criticism of it, or to tolerate commentary on the irony of Western “feminist” fondness for an ideology that believes women are inferior to men and must be appropriately subordinate to men.

Such hypocrisy, such Orwellian doublespeak, such claptrap, as appears in the NECSS’s statement are par for the course among leftists, of course. For instance, this is how that politically correct Israel-bashing British newspaper The Independent (home to such delightful types as Robert Fisk) reported matters (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/richard-dawkins-vdeo-twitter-necss-event-feminism-a6841161.html):

‘The video … was shared by Dawkins on [January 27], alongside the explainer: “Obviously doesn’t apply to vast majority of feminists, among whom I count myself. But the minority are pernicious.”. Dawkins later deleted the tweet but the NECSS shared a screengrab of it. The distasteful video, which compares Islamists to feminists and shows two cartoon characters singing about having things in common, was deleted by Dawkins after he apparently learnt the ‘feminist’ character in the song was based on a real person who was subsequently “threatened with violence”. Additionally, he later attempted to defend his post by telling a Twitter user the video was a "joke song satirising the alliance between radical Islamism and radical feminism".’

Now, I’m not an atheist and I’m no fan of Professor Dawkins’ atheistic stance, but his views regarding the strange love that many of today’s “feminists” have towards Islamism are hard for anyone except a perverse blinkered leftist/”pernicious feminists” to fault. On Twitter Dawkins has fought his corner convincingly, and includes this very pertinent tweet (video of Islamists disrupting a speech by an Iranian-born British feminist in the linked article):

Dear @NECSS this is the kind of thing being satirised by the "Feminists Love Islamists" vid for which you banned me

As for that strange love that “pernicious feminists” the Western world over have for the Muslim abusers of their sex, here’s the correct response, hurled by the genuine feminist Ann-Marie Waters of the UK-based Mothers against Sharia at a bunch of foolish Danish women in Copenhagen who were there to heckle her speech that warned of the burgeoning encroachments of Islam on the culture and polity of Europe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTVpyCOmcKY

And the incredible excuses some Western women make for the perpetrators of the “Rape Jihad” seen on New Year’s Eve in Cologne and elsewhere? Consider this obscenity, made by Gaby Hinsliff in the Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/08/cologne-attacks-hard-questions-new-years-eve):

‘Young German women thankfully enjoy historically unprecedented economic and sexual freedom, with their expensive smartphones and their right to celebrate New Year’s Eve however they want. The same isn’t always true of young male migrants exchanging life under repressive regimes, where they may at least have enjoyed superiority over women, for scraping by at the bottom of Europe’s social and economic food chain. It is not madness to ask if this has anything to do with attacks that render confident, seemingly lucky young women humiliated and powerless. But even if it does, the answer wouldn’t be to halt immigration …’

And compare it with this excuse for domestic violence, made very recently by a former Australian Labor politician, Mark Latham (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-22/mark-latham-under-fire-for-triple-m-podcast-domestic-violence/7107650):

"The patriarchy argument is that men beat up women in some cases because they hate women. But I don't think it is about how men look at women, it is about how men look at themselves. They have lost their self-esteem, their job, are welfare-dependent, on drugs or alcohol in their life. They use domestic violence as a coping mechanism to get over all the other crap they have in their lives. Demonising men and making them feel worse about themselves is not going to solve the problem."

No prizes for guessing that the distaff side of the Islam-loving (anti-Israel) Australian Greens/Left Alliance, as silent concerning the attacks by Muslim gangs on women in Europe as they are vociferous in condemning the “patriarchal attitudes” and “misogyny”of white culture, have been down on Latham like the proverbial ton of bricks.

But back to Europe. Lawyer, writer and blogger Phillip Mark McGough has written as incisive a commentary on the situation there as I have ever read (http://quillette.com/2016/01/18/after-cologne-feminism-is-dead/). Inter alia, he observes:

‘[O]ne of the few tragi-comic chapters in the horror story of Nazism concerns a strange little organization called the Association of German National Jews. They were a pro-National Socialist Jewish group whose membership not only welcomed Hitler’s accession but actively promoted the self-eradication of Jewish identity and its absorption into the new, heroic, master-culture represented by the Nazis (it was said of them, tongue only partly in cheek, that their motto was “down with us”). In 1935, predictably and forcibly, the group was disbanded. Whereas Stalin had his useful idiots, for Hitler there could be no useful Jews.

With the above in mind, Marx needs revision. History repeats itself: First as farce, then as tragedy. No longer the unofficial motto of a handful of obscure pre-war self-hating Jews, Down With Us has latterly been adopted (or so it seems) as an official article of policy by the German government itself. Here is a country whose improvident approach to Near Eastern immigration these past few months is quite literally threatening its future as a liberal, progressive, democratically-viable European nation-state. It wouldn’t take an especially imaginative political cartoonist to show Frau Merkel as Frankenstein-throwing levers and blowing fuses as she botches an attempt to graft a million (and counting) Muslim refugees onto the body politic of an increasingly mutilated society. In politics as in cheap Gothic literature, such experiments breed monsters.

Some of us are old enough to remember when refugees consisted almost entirely (and by definition) of the most vulnerable members of any given country in crisis: Women, children, the elderly, and so forth. Today, on the other hand, most of the Muslims arriving in Europe from the Near East seem to be young men of fighting age: Young men whose views regarding Jews, gays, and of course women are completely at odds with Europe’s liberal tradition as it’s evolved these past few centuries; a liberal tradition which Germany, for obvious reasons, has sought to reify in its approach to domestic and international affairs ever since the end of the war. But thanks in no small measure to mass Muslim immigration, antisemitism in its most predatory incarnation is once again the norm on German streets, while misogyny is more or less accepted, even expected. It is to choke on the irony of it all. In the name of a long-cherished tradition of tolerance, Germany is becoming savagely intolerant: Totally unsafe for Jews who dare to display their Judaism in public, and increasingly unsafe for women who dare even to go out in public at all after nightfall (or use a swimming pool; or attend a carnival; or do pretty much anything short of redacting their identity behind a hijab and never leaving the house again)….

We now know that law-enforcement authorities throughout Europe have been conniving for some time in similarly clumsy attempts to neutralize news of the scale of the violence (particularly sexual violence against women) at large within certain sections of newly-arrived migrant communities. Across Europe, citizens are being asked by their own governments to accept that complicity in a conspiracy of silence is the highest form of tolerance. Fortunately, most people aren’t buying into it. Sadly, however, some people are: And, oddly enough, not a few of them are women….’

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