Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, April 04, 2016

Another major Palestinian official with Jordanian citizenship

Here is a minor, but telling, detail from yesterday's spectacular Panama Papers expose that concerns the PA's former deputy prime minister and minister of national economy Mohammad Mustafa, who was described by Foreign Policy as "the most important man in the Palestinian economy."

While the things revealed about Mustafa, mostly his relationship with the (British Virgin Islands-based) Arab Palestinian Investment (Holding) Company Ltd., APIC and the Palestine Investment Fund, do not point to any obviously illegal activities, his passport picture is interesting:

Mustafa uses a Jordanian passport, even though he was a deputy prime minister of "Palestine" at the time the passport was valid.

While Jordan has stripped citizenship from nearly all West Bank Palestinians, some well-connected officials managed to hang on to theirs.

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Arabs freak over UN-censored Israeli exhibit

i24News reports:

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, expressed his outrage Sunday over the intergovernmental organization's decision to disqualified major sections of a special exhibition about Israel which presented information about topics such as Zionism, Jerusalem and Arab Israelis.

The exhibition was created together with the pro-Israel NGO StandWithUs and was scheduled to be opened at the UN on Monday.

Danon said that he was disappointment about the censorship of the exhibition and demanded that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon reverse the move.

"By disqualifying an exhibition about Zionism the UN is undermining the very existence of the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people,” said Danon. "We will not allow the UN to censor the fact that Jerusalem is Israel’s eternal capital."

"According to this scandalous decision, Zionism is not worthy of the UN so we are taking appropriate measures. We will make sure that these banned exhibits will be viewed by millions around the world," Danon added.

The envoy demanded that the UN reverse "this outrageous decision and apologize to the Jewish people."

"Zionism and Jerusalem are the foundation-stones and the moral basis upon which the State of Israel was founded," Danon concluded.

Even though the UN banned the exhibit, Arabs are upset that it could even exist.

In a hilariously unhinged article about this, Alwset News writes that the idea that Jews are indigenous to Israel is their "latest fraud."

The author was upset over all of the censored posters, but the first one especially rankled:

The newspaper writes:

There are no limits to Israeli Zionist propaganda and fraud in its ongoing quest to justify the Nakba and robbery of Palestine and the dispossession and uprooting events all as nothing more than the process of the return of "the indigenous people" to their historic homeland. A popular way of thinking in literature and research politics and sociology in the twentieth century is to restore the right of indigenous peoples who suffered from Western colonialism.... The use of this expression in the official propaganda of the Zionist marks a major shift in its advertising and media discourse.

The article never gets around to saying why the fact that Jews are indigenous to the region is not true.

The article critiques the other censored posters, shown below, again without showing why they might be inaccurate. It was just wild charges of lying and propaganda.

Here are all of the posters that the UN will not allow to be shown in their halls:

If the publicity for this example of UN censorship is higher than publicity for other UN exhibits then Danny Danon might end up making these posters far more famous than they would have been otherwise.

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"Israelis are building marijuana farms for the US on Palestinian lands"

The always amusing Iranian FARS news agency claims that there is a joint US-Israeli initiative to grow marijuana in the territories.

The germ of truth to the report comes from this story from last July:

There’s yet another use for marijuana: It may help to heal broken bones, according to a new study.

Researchers found that cannabidiol – an element of marijuana that does not get people high – improved the healing process in rats with broken leg bones after eight weeks, according to a study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research by Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University.

Yankel Gabet of Tel Aviv’s Bone Research Laboratory who led the study, said it found that the element “makes bones stronger during healing,” which could prevent future fractures. This process occurs as cannabidiol, or CBD, enhances the maturation of collagen, the protein in connective tissue that “holds the body together.”

“After being treated with CBD, the healed bone will be harder to break in the future,” Gabet said in a news release.

Iranian media took this story to say that the US is now paying Israel to build pot farms in the West Bank in order to create these lucrative bone-healing drugs and thereby stealing land from Palestinians.

You have to admit, these guys have imaginations.

Here was the graphic illustrating the story:

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04/03 Links: Max Blumenthal recorded praising Hamas massacre; UN & EU support murderer-honoring NGO

From Ian:

Charity backing anti-Israel rallies has state cash pulled

The statement comes as the Telegraph obtained undercover recordings of events where anti-Semitism, demands for the destruction of Israel or naked support for terror were expressed by academics and others at meetings in some of Britain’s most prestigious universities.
One speaker, Max Blumenthal, the son of a close adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, praised a massacre by Hamas as sending an “incredible message” and said that taking up arms should be “normal” for Palestinians. He compared Israel to the terrorist group Isil, describing it as “the Jewish State of Israel and the Levant, Jsil”.
At another rally – sponsored by War on Want – a speaker said that British government policy was created by “Zionist and neo-con lobbies”.
A second speaker at the same event spoke of a “rumour” that Israelis were harvesting dead Palestinians’ organs.
The meeting, at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), was the London launch of Israeli Apartheid Week, held across UK university campuses to “raise awareness about Israel’s ongoing settler-colonial project” and demand boycotts of Israel. They were secretly recorded and passed to the Telegraph.
War on Want, whose logo appears on publicity materials for Israeli Apartheid Week and the meeting, has received £260,000 in funding from Dfid over the last two years.

Clinton Confidante's Son: Palestinians Recover Their 'Dignity' In Violence Against Israelis

UK government halts funding to BBC quoted and promoted charity

As was reported here last year, this is not the first time that ‘War on Want’ has been active in the organisation of ‘Israel Apartheid Week’ in British universities and its activities include additional forms of anti-Israel campaigning.
Among the other bodies funding ‘War on Want’ is the charity ‘Comic Relief‘ which – as has been noted here before – receives considerable support from the BBC. In addition, BBC Radio 4’s charity appeals slot has featured ‘War on Want’ on several occasions.
In light of the circumstances which prompted the decision taken by the Department for International Development, one would of course expect that ‘Comic Relief’ and additional funders of ‘War on Want’ will be reviewing their position.
That same background should of course also prompt the BBC to ensure that on the fairly frequent occasions upon which it hosts representatives of ‘War on Want’ on its programmes, care should be taken to meet the existing BBC editorial guidelines on impartiality which require that audiences be made aware of the association of contributors with a “particular viewpoint”.

Not too long ago Laurie and I met some friends for dinner at a sort-of upscale soul-food joint in Oakland. I ordered the southern fried chicken... because I love me southern fried chicken. About fifteen minutes after our food arrived our waitress asked, in passing, "Is everything good?" I - being the pain in the ass that I tend to be - raised my hand and called her over.

"I have a problem with this chicken," I said.

"Oh, I am sorry. What is the problem?," she asked.

"You guys do it better than I do and I really hate that!"

She practically patted me on the head with a smile before moving on to her next table.

This is basically the way that I feel about Rosenthal.

You guys have to check out his most recent piece, entitled "Tolerance and terrorism" at Abu Yehuda and the Elder of Ziyon.

The thing with Rosenthal, that I appreciate, is that he is a straight-shooter.

Listen to this:

The truth is that whether they know it or not, all of the non-Muslim world is at war, a war being fought by unconventional means, but a war nevertheless. The enemy is a loose confederation of Muslim groups, from militias to nations, that agree on little other than that the entire world should be ruled by Islam, and that jihad is the way to bring this about. It is entirely correct to call it a war of Islamic conquest.

"...a loose confederation of Muslim groups, from militias to nations..."

It is not all Muslims and it has nothing whatsoever to do with race or skin color or ethnicity... at least not from our end. This is about a segment of the Muslim population throughout the world that wants to kick your ass in the name of Allah. The reason that they want you dead is because you have refused to submit to their religious dictates and imperatives.

According to Islamists or Jihadis or Islamofascists or advocates for Political Islam - or whatever terminology makes you most happy - anyone who is not on-board with the Caliphatic agenda is worthy of death and that is why they slaughtered those poor bastards in Brussels.

What needs to be most emphatically understood is that none of this has anything to do with payback for the behavior of westerners or Jews.

The Jihadi war against the West, and against the Jewish people, is not some sort-of natural response to western or Jewish imperialism or colonialism because it is Islam, itself, which is the single most successful imperial-colonial power since the demise of the Roman Empire. Within one hundred years of the death of Muhammad, in 632 CE, Arab Muslims poured out the Saudi peninsula and conquered the entirety of the Middle East, while already banging on the gates of Europe.

Rosenthal writes:

Israel is very much on the front line of this war. Her location is highly strategic; she is considered a Western outpost in a region that by rights should be Muslim. She has become symbolic of the struggle since the Crusades. Many Muslims live in the territory Israel controls – that Jews control – a situation that is intolerable for them.

And this why the work of people like Ryan Bellerose is important. He insists, rightly, upon reminding the Jewish people that we are the indigenous population within the Land of Israel. What both Rosenthal and Bellerose know full-well is that the enemies of the Jewish people - on both the Left and the Right, but most particularly the Left these day - falsely accuse the Jewish people of being interlopers on our own land.

The Elder reduced the issue to its primary structure in this graphic.

This is the message that we need to bang home consistently and without reservation, because it also happens to be historically truthful. This is not open to question. This is not a matter of a little of this and a little of that. No. The Jewish people are the indigenous people of that little part of the world and what much of the western-left is telling us is that Judah is Arabian land.

It isn't.

The Jewish people are willing to share that land with our Arab neighbors, although it might be nice if their media would stop encouraging their children to run out into the streets to stab random Jews for political-religious reasons.

Until the Palestinian-Arabs forgo their Jew Killing Policy they will get nothing, because they deserve nothing.

Israel represents .02 percent of the landmass of the Middle East.

.02%.

The Jihadis can either accept that or go back to their home in that Islamic Shangri-la, Saudi Arabia.

My guess is that Rosenthal would agree.

_____________________________________________________________________

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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Jiri Bader with his schoolmates before being deported

On April 1, 1943, Jiri Bader celebrated his bar mitzvah in the ghetto at Terezin. The celebration came a year late because his family was deported right before his 13th birthday from Kyjob, Czechoslovakia.

His friends at the ghetto made a bar mitzvah album for Jiri, illustrated by a relative of his, celebrating his life.

Excerpts:

Passover fair in the 30s. Everything is in motion, dynamic, and even though it is April 1st, everyone wants to believe that this is not a joke: the much wished-for son has arrived at the Bader home. All the relatives are glowing: grandfathers and grandmothers, uncle and aunts, for he has declared his presence with gusto: a son. They called him Jiri.

He is growing up surrounded by love. Grandpa and grandma delight in his talking about "Gaga" [the ducks] and his discovery that the nanny waits for the "mail".
...Years come, years pass, and the future looks secure and rosy. But things are turning out differently… because in our good old house – which stands firm as in days gone by – many things have changed: the Aryan landlord is busy.

They sent all of us away from our dear, beloved homes, where we were happy. Now we live in Terezin, but even here, we manage to live. All kinds of entertainment, opera, "clothes store", café, fleas, mashed potatoes and vegetable soup. ... Terezin has the best cook: a cook called "hunger".

...Today, Jiri, you are being accepted into the established, larger community. Here too you are enveloped in love and friendship.
Remain loyal to your people, even when times are hard, and never be small. Grow and become strong, and God-willing you will be one of our best.

Even in the midst of unspeakable horror, the Jewish community tried to ensure that their children - most of whom were doomed - would be raised with as much love and happiness as possible.

Jiri and his father were murdered in Auschwitz in October, 1944.

Exactly 73 years later, on April 1, 2016, the SkyLand amusement park in Ramallah opened up his facilities to all children of "martyrs" and terrorists in Israeli prisons.

The attitude behind this gesture was the polar opposite of that which animated the Jews of Terezin to raise their doomed children in as normal a manner as possible.

A drawing of the Dawabshe baby who survived the arson attack last year was prominently displayed during the Ramallah ceremony to get the audience good and angry at Israel.

Ramallah's governor, Laila Ghanam, said that "we are responsible to put a smile on the face of the martyr's kids... the oppression of the Palestinian children is the responsibility of the world that is silent in the face of our people's suffering under occupation."

She also said "Happiness is resistance, happiness is victory over the occupation that wants to plant desperation in our hearts, but we insist on being happy, and it is the right of the children of the martyrs that sacrificed themselves for our freedom to have us stand with them," adding that they will remain steadfast until the flag of Palestine flies over Jerusalem's mosques and churches and walls.

For the Jews in Terezin, providing happiness for their children was the goal. They didn't try to sugar-coat their circumstances; instead they accepted the bleak situation with black humor and by attempting to keep life as normal as possible. The children were the future and the adults felt their prime responsibility was to ensure they were "enveloped in love and friendship."

For the Arabs in Ramallah, children aren't prioritized - only those whose fathers were murderers and attempted murderers. To the Arabs in Ramallah, happiness for its own sake is worthless. Joy is fuel for anger and happiness is a means to exact vengeance. Ghanam expressed it succinctly when she said that the Palestinian goal was to raise children to believe that "happiness is resistance" and that the hated Jews want to take that away from them. The very concept of joyfulness is enmeshed with fantasies of violence and revenge.

The Jews celebrated life amidst their own genocide. 73 years later, the Palestinians are fetishizing murdering Jews while inside an amusement park.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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A team of German and Egyptian archaeologists discovered two six-pointed stars that resemble Stars of David in a dig in the island of Elephantine in the Aswan district.

The Egyptian Antiquities Authority issued an urgent decree to remove the entire surrounding set of stone blocks to investigate it further.

The German archaeologists at first refused to remove the stones, wanting to keep them in their original location, but they relented when the Egyptian authorities threatened to end the dig altogether which was meant to restore an ancient temple on the site.

The stars are only 10 centimeters tall, but the Egyptian authorities insisted on removing the entire section that was 3 meters high and 10 meters wide.

Israeli sources report that the Egyptians are worried that Jews will use this as an excuse to claim Egyptian lands as their own.

The temple that is being excavated is from the Ptolemaic dynasty, from between 305 and 30 BCE.

Jews had lived in Elephantine since the 6th century BCE, and many more arrived during the Hellenistic period, although six pointed stars were not associated with Judaism at that time to the best of my knowledge.

It is not at all clear that these symbols have anything to do with the Jewish community there at the time. But the idea of a Jewish presence in the area, even though proven from some famous papyri found on the island, is so inflammatory to the Egyptians that they would rather not risk having any tourists see the same symbol that is on the Israel flag when they visit.

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Nasrallah confirms: The Twelfth Mahdi has been seen!

Wikipedia says:

There is no explicit reference to the Mahdi in the Qu'ran, but references to him are found in hadith (the reports and traditions of Muhammad's teachings collected after his death). According to Islamic tradition, the Mahdi's tenure will coincide with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (Isa), who is to assist the Mahdi against the Masih ad-Dajjal (literally, the "false Messiah" or Antichrist).[5] Differences exist in the concept of the Mahdi between Shia Muslims and adherents of the Sunni tradition. ...For most Shia Muslims, the Mahdi was born but disappeared and will remain hidden from humanity until he reappears to bring justice to the world, a doctrine known as the Occultation. For Twelver Shia, this "hidden Imam" is Muhammad al-Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam.

From the Iranian ABNA agency:

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah confirmed that the meetings between Imam Mahdi (PBUH) and certain personae during the different epoch's of his major occultation aims at preserving the faith of the Twelver Shias in order for some of them not to be influenced by the propaganda that doubts the truth of his apparition.

In an exclusive interview with Lebanese Al-Manar Channel on the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Bahjat, Sayyed Nasrallah asserted that he has learned from authentic sources that the Iranian cleric met with Imam Mahdi (PBUH) several times for his deep faith and piety.

The leader of Hezbollah, and arguably the most powerful person in Lebanon, believes fairy tales about the Hidden Imam popping up and chatting with his favorite ayatollahs.

Later in the article Nasrallah says that the same Bahjat sent him a special prayer to prevent him from being murdered. .

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04/02 Links: What’s Palestinian Peace Education?; Leahey's dangerous letter; Obama: Iran agreement 'a substantial success'

From Ian:

Hamas finally acknowledges holding 4 Israelis, including bodies of 2 soldiers

Hamas on Friday publicly acknowledged for the first time that it was holding four Israelis: two Israeli citizens who crossed into Gaza on their own accord and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014’s Gaza war.
The group published photos of the four: slain soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, 29-year-old Avraham Mengistu, and a Bedouin-Israeli citizen whose name has not been released for publication.
Hamas denied reports in recent days that Israel and Hamas may be nearing a prisoner swap for the four, with a spokesman for the group claimed the reports were misdirection by the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Netanyahu is lying to his people” and “deceiving the families of the captive soldiers,” spokesman Abu Obeida said in a statement.
“There are no talks or negotiations relating to the prisoners. The enemy will not get information about the four without paying a clear price before and after the negotiations,” he added.
On Monday the London-based daily Asharq al-Awsat quoted a source in the Gaza-based Islamist group as saying that though there were currently no direct negotiations between Hamas and Israel, international mediators were trying to broker a prisoner swap.

What’s Palestinian Peace Education?

Hroub is also part of the narrative of his wife’s motivation for teaching peace since she conceived it as a reaction to seeing her husband shot by Israelis and experiencing the terror of her children. But I haven’t seen her mentioning the terror felt by her husband’s victims and their families in any account of her receiving the prize.
Today, Omar Hroub is an official with the Palestinian Authority and, according to most of the coverage of his wife’s honor, supports PA President’s policies. If so, he is no supporter of peace since the PA has spent the last year supporting the “stabbing intifada” and fomenting exactly the kind of religious-based hatred against Jews that his wife’s curriculum is supposed to be combating.
But even if we leave the husband out of the discussion, a New York Times feature published today that includes an account of a visit to Hroub’s classroom gives us a taste of what Palestinian peace education means.
When most observers think of Middle East peace education, the assumption is that the students are taught the sorts of things that are a routine element of most Israeli schools: respect for the other side and their culture and language, the importance of non-violence and recognizing the rights of all ethnicities and faiths even in the midst of a struggle between two peoples for their own separate national identity and sovereignty in one land. It’s a difficult thing to teach in a country where violence and hatred against Jews is being promoted by the other side and there are those that resist the message. But despite the claim that Israel is becoming more intolerant, the rarity of incidents of anti-Arab violence, and the generally tolerant nature of Israeli society at a time when their nation is under assault from a wave of terror testifies to the success of its peace education curriculum.
But, in the Hroub classroom, peace education isn’t about how to get along with Israelis and Jews. It’s about teaching the children how to peacefully disagree with each other and their teacher. That’s a good thing for them to learn, especially at a time when so much of Palestinian popular culture and official media encourages violence. But it is not the same thing as promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

04/01 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: Bewildered Britain still doesn’t get it; Zionist 'joins' radical leftist tour

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Bewildered Britain still doesn’t get it

The British still don’t understand, though, that the UK and Europe have long funded and connived at not just Palestinian terrorism, but the incitement that causes it.
They don’t understand that this incitement is based on anti-Semitism, not a dispute over land boundaries.
They don’t understand that anti-Semitism is the signature motif of a deranged culture that should be treated as a pariah rather than excused, sanitized and rewarded, as Britain does with the Palestinians.
They don’t understand that the anti-Semitic derangement that drives the Palestinians also drives the Muslim war against the West.
They don’t understand that by indulging the lies, intimidation and moral inversion of Palestinian Jew-hatred, Britain and Europe have made it impossible to fight off the Islamist threat to themselves.
They will only start to defend themselves properly when they start treating Israel as their indispensable ally rather than a cosmic foe.

David Collier: Jews and Hamas propaganda at Birkbeck

The event started and the ‘Palestine Remix’ product itself is impressive. The technology behind the website allows for the user to engage with documentary evidence, search videos using text references and then take the chosen excerpts to share on social media, download or to ‘remix’ into a bespoke documentary. All available in several languages. ‘Heady stuff’.
And they want to push this as an education tool in our schools and in our universities. Coming just a day after I attended a dire Zionist event, this highlights the gulf between the tired, lifeless, self-indulgent Zionist leadership in the UK and the fresh, innovative and spirited defence emerging from the Palestinian side. And a useful tool it would be too if it were not total propaganda. Al-Jazeera has delivered an instrument of total historical revisionism. The timeline of 1948 does not include a single violent Arab action. This, the underlying distortion in the Arab narrative that turns a bloody civil war and a battle for survival into a one sided and brutal rout.
There is even a documentary about Moroccan Jews who describe Zionist actions that ‘conned’ them into fleeing Morocco. As hundreds of thousands of Jewish Arab refugees were created through persecution and expulsion, this website passes it off as a self created ‘Zionist plot’.
Rawan Al-Damen relies on the exception/rule strategy that fuels the entire Palestinian propaganda machine. They take the rule (Arab violence and rejectionism) and make it look like an exception whilst taking the exception (Israeli extremist action) and make it look like the rule. This way, they get to turn the entire story on its head and the victim becomes the aggressor. This piece of software should get nowhere near children or students, it is a brain washing machine.

Hamas whines that its Twitter accounts were closed

From AFP:

The Palestinian group Hamas lashed out at Twitter on Friday, after the social media giant allegedly closed a number of its accounts.
The party's military wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said its English and Arabic-language accounts had been closed for the third time in two weeks.

One of the closed accounts had more than 140,000 followers, it said in a statement.

Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by the European Union and many Western nations.

Al-Qassam accused Twitter of showing a "clear bias to the Israeli occupation where it should (adopt a) neutral position toward both sides."

It said that Israeli officials were allowed to encourage "racism, extremism and terrorism" on the site, and called on the company to reopen the accounts.

Just for fun, here is one of Hamas' socially responsible videos, along with a couple of screen shots showing the translation.

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From pan-Arab news site Alwset News:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) revealed that 63 mosques and Islamic centers in America had been attacked in anti-Muslim incidents during the year 2015, and this number was the highest since September 11, 2001 attacks.

These statistics might suggest, given the continuous talk in the media about Islamophobia, that Muslims in the United States are the religious group most vulnerable to attacks. But the truth is, and it may even be a surprise: the Jews are the most vulnerable to religious hate crimes.

In the year 2014 , there were 1092 hate crime against religions, and Jews were the victims in more than half of them, with 58.2 percent, while attacks against Muslims came in second with 16.3 percent, according to what is stated in the report on hate crimes, published by the American FBI every year.

In 2013 , Jews also ranked first among vulnerable groups of religious hate crimes with 59.2 percent, while Muslims also came second at 14.2 percent.

This sounds like something I could have written.

In fact, I have.

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04/01 Links Pt1: Palestinians: Presidents for Life, No Elections; Eleanor Roosevelt on the "Nakba"

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Presidents for Life, No Elections

Senior figures who have dared to challenge Abbas's autocratic rule have already found themselves targeted by the president and his men. Ask former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who had his organization's bank accounts seized by Abbas, or Mohamed Dahlan, the former Fatah commander and minister who was forced to flee the Palestinian territories after falling out with Abbas and his sons. Perhaps deposed PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo, who overnight was stripped of his powers and thrown to the dogs for speaking out against the president, would have a word to say. In Ramallah, they call them the "Abbas victims."
We would need a crystal ball to know what will happen the day after Abbas disappears from the scene. Perhaps, say some, we shall witness a scene reminiscent of the old days of the Soviet Union "Politburo," with the next president chosen by a group of Fatah and PLO leaders who will meet in Ramallah. This seems the most likely scenario, in the absence of any chance of free and democratic elections, and in light of the continued split between the two Palestinian entities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
We do not need a crystal ball, however, to know that Abbas will leave a legacy of chaos. His adamant refusal to name a deputy or even discuss the issue of succession in public has already created tensions among the top brass of the PLO and Fatah. The Palestinian public, for its part, has precious little confidence in its leaders.
The behind-the-scenes power struggle that has been quietly raging in Ramallah for the past few months is likely to lead to a state of paralysis in the Palestinian arena and leave the Palestinians without an acceptable leader. Or, as senior Fatah official Tawfik Tirawi put it, Abbas will be the last president for the Palestinians.
Palestinians are plagued with leaders who desire one thing: personal power. The Palestinians are marching away from achieving a state, partly because they seem incapable of the fundamental political principle of free and democratic elections. The day after does not look promising.

Eleanor Roosevelt on the "Nakba"

We have history.
They have narrative.
Eleanor Roosevelt was more than the wife of Franklin- she was one of the most articulate champions for human rights of her generation.
Her archives are digitized and are available online
In her March 23, 1956 column "My Day", read what she has to say about the Arab refugees who fled Israel (In 1956, they were not yet called "Palestinians")
NEW YORK—I have an anonymous letter which asks me what is being done by the United Nations about the plight of the nearly one million Arab refugees of Israel aggression.
Isn't it astonishing how many mistakes can creep into one sentence.
There are 800,000 refugees who are being cared for by the U.N. and have been cared for since, during the war, their own Moslem mufti in Jerusalem called upon the Arabs in Israel to leave.
Israel was not the aggressor in this war. The Arabs were the aggressors. The partition of Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel was the result of U.N. action.
The Arabs did not accept the new state. So Israel fought and gained more land, holding it by defeating her Arab attackers.
The Arabs who did not heed the call of the Mufti and leave Israel during the war are still living there. As a minority, they have certain grievances. But, by and large, with eight representatives in the Knesset (the parliament), they have a voice, as citizens of Israel, to demand redress for their wrongs. (h/t Bob Knot)

Cash for terror: how PA duped British backers

This is an extended version of an article that first appeared in the 'Mail on Sunday'.
A new report by Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli NGO, suggests Western donors have been duped. It details a series of documents and official statements exposing how the PA continues to fund salaries of convicted terrorists.
Evidence includes the Ministry of Finance saying last year in an official statement that it transfers almost half its budget to Gaza, adding that this included "the salaries of prisoners, the released and the families of the Martyrs and wounded".
The report also reveals the PA transferred an extra 444m shekels (£81m) to the PLO in 2015 - significantly, only marginally more than the 442m shekel budget given to its own Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs the previous year before it transferred responsibility.
Itamar Marcus, the report's author, argues the move was a facade to appease donors.
"There is willful blindness by the UK and EU, who were happy not to even carry out the simplest investigation," he said.
"This money sends a message to people that it is heroic to kill Israelis. And it gives these people a social status, so they can buy nice cars and kids aspire to be like them."
The group also discloses two cases of individuals claiming to have carried out attacks for cash. In one Khalad Rajoub, a father-of-seven arrested for attempted murder two years ago, told police he had big debts and planned to die during an attack.

.@UNRWAUSA goes to anti-Israel groups to hire interns

Earlier this year this site (and others) exposed the fact that essentially every employee of UNRWA-USA expressed anti-Israel views on social media. All of those accounts were made private or taken down as a result.

Just in case you need more evidence that American Friends of UNRWA is an anti-Israel organization, meet their intern from last summer, Hashem Abi Sham'a:

He explicitly calls Israel an "apartheid state" and supports BDS:

Earlier, he said that Israel is not part of a Middle East that he envisions.

Sham'a's internship has ended, he now goes to school in Ireland.

But how was this anti-Israel activist recruited to work fror UNRWA-USA?

UNRWA-USA recruits its interns directly from people who are members of anti-Israel groups!

UNRWA-USA does not even pretend to be even-handed - if you hate Israel, you are a candidate to work for UNRWA USA!

(h/t Bob Knot)

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"When (the knifer) dies, he becomes a shahid."

Mahmoud Abbas gave an interview to Ilana Dayan of Israel's Channel 2 in which he explicitly says he is against knifings and other attacks on Israelis and claims that they come from desperation and hopelessness:

Abbas : If I know that (my grandson) had a knife you think I would shut up about it?! You know, we, our security services, go into schools to look for in schools, students' bags, to check whether they have knives. You do not know it. In one school we found 70 boys and girls carrying knives. We took the knives from them, talked to them and told them it was a mistake. "We do not want you to kill and die". "We want that you will live and others live".

Ilana Dayan Could be that they just do not listen to you?

Abbas : When a child goes and takes a knife, he does not consult with anyone. Even with his parents, nor his brother. He doesn't say: "I'm taking a knife and going out". No sensible person would allow his son to come to him and tell him: "I want to take a knife and kill", and he will answer him: "you are wise." It is not possible. It is not possible. He will take away the knife and lock him inside. Parents do not want it.

Ilana Dayan but afterwards they become a shahid, or martyr, they are praising them ...

Abbas : Sorry, when he died ...

Ilana Dayan: They get consolation from you, and they get compensation, and become saints ...

Abbas : When he died, he is a martyr. When he dies, he becomes a martyr. Shahid ...

Ilana Dayan: But then it becomes a next example for...

Abbas : No, no.

Ilana Dayan: ..he becomes a role model. And then another one wants to be like him.

Abbas : Once he dies, it is another matter. Another matter. I do not want him to be a martyr. I want him to live. But after he dies, it was over. I do not know where he is going. So don't settle accounts with us over this.

Ilana Dayan: So why this keeps happening?

Abbas : Ask yourself why this boy, 15, takes a knife and knew he was going to die, and still going. Ask yourself why. This is because there is no hope for him.

Despite Abbas' insistence that kids who die while trying to murder Israelis are "martyrs," this is theatre meant for the Israeli left to make them believe that Abbas is peaceful. And this is easy to prove.

All of Abbas' major speeches and statements and meetings are published on the official PA news agency site, Wafa. But Wafa didn't mention this interview. Instead it mentioned a phone call between Abbas and the Egyptian Foreign Minister.

The official PA daily newspaper, Al Hayat al Jadida, didn't report on this interview. But at the same time that Israeli media reported on it, Al Hayat reported that Abbas issued a decree to restructure the Central Election Commission. And it has a video of a school event honoring the mothers of "martyrs."

Abbas' meetings and statements are also published on his Facebook page. But the only entry from about the same time as this interview being published was about Abbas giving awards to some teachers and journalists.

If Abbas and the PA is against knife attacks, then where are the news stories about that?

If there was a school where 70 children brought knives in their backpacks, why was this not reported in Palestinian news media? Why are there no op-eds that say that the knife attacks are immoral?

On the contrary, only this week the official Fatah Twitter account published this image of a knife, saying "Israel is forcing the young Palestinians to follow this path to Jerusalem. Leave our land, you, your occupation, and your soldiers, and let us live in peace."

And Fatah's social media has been explicit in supporting knife attacks in the past as well, such as this one from Facebook showing a Jew being stabbed captioned "Here is Jerusalem, you crazies, beware!"

If Abbas is against murdering Jews, then why is this not said in Arabic on the media that he controls? Why is the message being given the exact opposite, that martyrdom is wonderful and praiseworthy?

It's too bad that Ilana Dayan didn't ask these questions.

Abbas is trying to do to Israeli Jews what J-Street is trying to do to the American Jewish community - fragment them and weaken them by appealing to those who really, really want peace and are willing to believe the words of a proven liar rather than the facts.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.