Sunday, April 10, 2016

Elder gets results! US Visa site now includes Israel and its flag

Last month I noted that the official US visa website took pains not to mention the name "Israel", mentioning that they have offices in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem but without saying the name of the country those cities were in nor showing its flag.

The information reached the State Department where they said that the site was outsourced to a private company and did not reflect official policy. But of course no outsourcer should put something on a website that the US would not agree with.

The site has now been modified to include the word "Israel" and the Israeli flag instead of "Tel Aviv,"

But Jerusalem is still not a part of Israel on this page but the State Department has never accepted that it is.

All three entries point to the same web pages.

(h/t Bob Knot)

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PLO official calls on the world to treat "settlers" as terrorists, war criminals

At a speech in Bloemfontien, South Africa for "Israel Apartheid Week" in March, PLO ambassador Hashem Dajani outlined a number of initiatives to pressure Israel diplomatically.

These initiatives were, for the most part, things we have heard from the PLO for years - recognize them as a state, pressure Israel to stop any building for Jews in "east" Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, unconditional release of all Palestinian terrorists from prison, end the "illegal blockade" on Gaza, and to stop Jews from visiting the Temple Mount ("violations against holy places.")

But it looks like Dajani floated a new idea as well, which is almost certainly part of a strategy by the PLO.

Reading from a prepared text, Dajani demanded, "Terrorist settlers must be considered as war criminals, and should be prevented from entering all countries of the world." He then added, "I think that, at a minimum, friendly countries who support Palestinian rights of self-determination or who recognize the state of Palestine...can help us with this issue. Just put more pressure on the Israeli government not to allow these criminals to enter their states, just because they are criminals."

There is no basis in international law to consider Jews who move to Judea and Samaria to be committing a crime. The usual basis given to describe the settlements as illegal comes from a purposeful misreading of the Geneva Conventions, but even that cannot be interpreted as saying that the "settlers" themselves are doing anything illegal.

Expect to see this idea floated in other forums. The PLO knows that no Western government at this time wants to appear to be "pro-settlement" and therefore they are unlikely to push back against a call for illegal discrimination against Israeli Jews (and only Jews!) based on where they choose to live.

The entire speech can be seen here. It was not reported anywhere as far as I can tell.

(h/t SpotlightingSA)

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04/09 Links: Anti-Israel Indoctrination in American High Schools; 'Sanders must apologize for the lie that he spread about Israel'

From Ian:

Video Exposes Anti-Israel Indoctrination Happening in American High Schools

A new video has been released by Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) that exposes an alarming new trend of anti-Israel indoctrination happening in American high schools and middle schools.
The pattern of bias and bigotry against Jews and Israel is most noted at Newton South High School, found in an affluent suburb west of Boston. Concerned parents there are meeting resistance from school officials that defend the curriculum which APT has discovered comes from very suspect sources.
A statement accompanies the film's release, detailing its many findings:
- Newton's high schools have used Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) maps that falsify the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Newton students were not told that the maps were created by the PLO's propaganda unit.
- Newton's schools presented students with a falsified version of the Hamas Charter. In Newton's doctored version the word "Jews" – as a target of hatred -- is replaced with the word "Zionists."
- In one lesson, Newton students are asked to consider the Jewish state's right to exist. (The legitimacy of no other nation-state's existence is questioned.) The lesson included "expert" opinions, which are drawn overwhelmingly from anti-Israel academics and anti-Semitic activists.
- A book used in Newton high schools has a recommended reading list that includes the extremist writings by Muslim Brotherhood leaders including Sayyid Qutb, and Yusuf Qaradawi, whose sermons call for the murder of Jews and homosexuals.
- Newton schools officials are shown to continuously refuse to make school curricula and teaching materials available to the Newton residents.

Indoctrination @ Newton High

'Sanders must apologize for the lie that he spread about Israel'

Science, Space and Technology Minister Ophir Akunis said on Saturday that US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders should apologize to Israel for misstating the number of Palestinian casualties during the 2014 war with Gaza.
"Sanders has spread horrible lies against the State of Israel and he needs to apologize as soon as possible," Akunis said at a cultural event in Rishon Lezion.
"We cannot interfere in the internal elections of the United States, but when there is libelous misinformation being spread against Israel, we need to react and stand firm on the truth and the facts," the minister said.
For the second time in one week, Sanders on Friday named an inflated number for Palestinian civilian deaths during Operation Protective Edge.

PA arrests 3 missing youths, foils ‘large-scale attack’ against Israelis

Palestinian security forces on Saturday arrested three Palestinian youths who have been missing since March 30, foiling a planned large-scale terror attack against Israeli targets, according to Palestinian Authority sources.
PA forces conducted intensive searches for the three since they were reported missing late last month.
The trio were found in an open area north of the West Bank city of Ramallah by a joint force of Palestinian police and the Palestinian Internal Security service, according to Palestinian sources who spoke to the Times of Israel.
They had a large amount of weapons with them and it is believed they were planning an attack, the sources said.
The three were taken for interrogation. According to the Palestinian sources, they are believed to be members of terror group Hamas.

04/08 Links Pt2: UN Agency Manipulates Data To Demonize Israel; Sanders again inflates Gaza civilian death toll

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: UN Agency Regularly Manipulates Data To Make Israel Look Bad

NGO Monitor on Thursday released a report highly critical of a UN agency deemed so biased in Jerusalem that the Foreign Ministry, according to diplomatic sources, stopped cooperating with it in any meaningful way several years ago.
The organization is the Jerusalem-based UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OCHA oPt).
According to the NGO Monitor report, the group “regularly presents data in a manipulative way that erases the context of terrorism and distorts law and morality.”
OCHA fails to distinguish between Palestinian civilians and attackers, thereby amplifying Palestinian casualty claims, and drawing a false symmetry between legal Israeli self-defense and illegal attacks by terrorists, the report stated.
As an example the report highlighted OCHA’s weekly “protection of civilians report” for the period of February 2-8.
“OCHA presents pie charts purporting to show the number of ‘Palestinian fatalities by Israeli forces in the oPt.’ Yet, this data as presented does not provide any information as to how the fatalities took place, including how many of the fatalities occurred while Palestinians were attempting to murder Israeli civilians or engaged in violent confrontations with Israeli law enforcement,” the report said. “As a result, it is impossible to make any meaningful assessments from OCHA’s figures.”

Sanders again inflates Gaza civilian death toll, though he’s getting closer

A day after he acknowledged that he got his numbers wrong when suggesting Israel killed over 10,000 Palestinian civilians during the 2014 war with Hamas, Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders again cited an incorrect and inflated figure for the civilian death toll in a US television interview.
On Thursday, Sanders and his campaign had belatedly acknowledged that the 10,000 figure he twice cited in a New York Daily News interview was wrong — actually some seven times the figure cited by the United Nations and Gaza’s Hamas rulers. According to the Anti-Defamation League, Sanders told its CEO Jonathan Greenblatt that he had accepted a correction provided during the course of that interview, and that he would henceforth “make every effort to set the record straight.”
Speaking on MSNBC on Friday morning, however, Sanders again cited an incorrect figure — though far less inflated this time. Acknowledging that he hadn’t known “the exact number” when he spoke to the New York Daily News, Sanders said that, “according to the United Nations, over 2,000 civilians were killed” in the war, and repeated his allegation that Israel’s military actions were “disproportionate.”
In fact, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) puts the Gaza civilian death toll in the 2014 war at 1,423, while Gaza’s terrorist rulers Hamas cite a similar number of 1,462. Israel has argued that the figure for civilian deaths is likely lower, since Hamas fought out of uniform in some cases and also had an interest in misrepresenting dead gunmen as civilians. Israel has also stressed that Hamas deliberately placed Gaza civilians in harm’s way, by emplacing its rocket launchers and terror tunnel openings in civilian areas.
The overall death toll in Gaza — of combatants and non-combatants — was 2,205, according to the UN. That figure is presumably the source of Sanders’ ongoing confusion.

New campus idiocy: "Tunnel of Oppression"

This seems like a spoof - but it isn't.

From the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Aleste student paper:

Tunnel of Oppression invites students to open their eyes, minds

One of the greatest parts of moving away from your hometown and coming to college is diving into a sea full of people with different cultures, religions and backgrounds different from your own.

Student Government wants to celebrate those unique differences of diverse organizations on campus by hosting the Tunnel of Oppression scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 7, in the Morris University Center’s Meridian Ballroom.

Second-year pharmacy student Jamal Sims, of Springfield, helped plan the event and said it is the fourth year the Tunnel of Oppression has been held at SIUE.

“The program provides different organizations on campus a way to educate students about their organization such as their religion or current events,” Sims said. “The event can teach students who are different from one another about each other, so it can be used as an educational tool.”

According to Sims, eight campus organizations participate in the Tunnel.

The Gay-Straight Alliance, Arabic Club, Students for Justice in Palestine, Gamma Phi Omega, Black Girls Rock, Student Veteran’s Association, New Horizons and the Hispanic Student Union will all have a display at the event.

Sims said the Tunnel of Oppression differs from last year, because a tunnel was actually built for students to walk through instead of curtains displaying the organizations.

“All the organizations, including members of Student Government, along with housing and the theater department, built a tunnel from scratch,” Sims said. “The tunnel will be very interactive with videos, handouts and quizzes going throughout.”

Sims said the aspects of oppression specified during the event are up to the organizations to decide.

“We give them free range on what [ the organizations] want their display to be, but provide them total budget and help put everything together,” Sims said.

Junior nursing major Danielle Ganassian, of Bloomington, has also worked on this event and said the Tunnel of Oppression is a way for students on campus to get a better understanding of other organizations.

“The Hispanic Student Union and Gamma Phi Omega want to show students that women are more than just housewives, and change people’s view of how people see women and change stereotype per se,” Ganassian said. “The Arabic Club will talk about all that’s going on with the [unrest in the Middle East] and try to give students more of a worldly view.”

"Diversity" now means competition over how oppressed your group is.

And this is something that has been on numerous campuses in recent years.

Celebrating and complaining have apparently become synonyms on college campuses.

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It's a busy erev Shabbat. So feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

04/08 Links Pt1: Memorial held for slain American Taylor Force; Inconvenient genocide; Iron Dome Turns 5

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas's New Way of Poisoning the Minds of Palestinian Children

Since its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has been using children as human shields and "soldiers" in the fight against Israel. Children dressed in military uniforms and brandishing automatic rifles and knives have become an integral part of Hamas's military parades and rallies.
Caught on camera, Palestinian children are taught to hate those who are perceived as enemies of Islam. This is how new generations of Palestinians are raised on the glorification of suicide bombers and jihadists.
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi expressed revulsion over the video, noting that the preachers' sermons were full of intimidation and horror. This behavior, Ashrawi, stated, demonstrates the "reactionary nature" of the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, which would have a negative impact on the development of society and the values of Palestinians. Ashrawi also denounced the practice as a blatant violation of conventions protecting children rights.
Even the Marxist terrorist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has come out against the video. The group voiced outrage at the "inhumane practices" against the children and called for an immediate inquiry into this form of mental torture and degradation. The group also warned against brainwashing the children and indoctrinating them through religious bigotry.
The Gaza City school video captures on camera the Palestinian leaders' brainwashing and abuse of their own children.
It also captures the march of Palestinian society towards endorsing the tactics and ideology of radical Islam and groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Now the peace process in the Middle East awaits an exorcism of its own.

Caroline Glick: Inconvenient genocide

The Christian communities of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon are well on the way to joining their Jewish cousins. The Jewish communities of these states predated Islam by a millennium, and were vibrant until the 20th century. But the Arab world’s war on the Jewish state, and more generally on Jews, wiped out the Jewish populations several decades ago.
And now the Christian communities, which like the Jews, predate Islam, are being targeted for eradication.
The ongoing genocide of Middle Eastern Christians at the hands of Sunni jihadists is a moral outrage. Does it also affect Israeli national interests? What do we learn from the indifference of Western governments – led by the Obama administration – to their annihilation? True, after years of deliberately playing down the issue and denying the problem, the Obama administration is finally admitting it exists.
Embarrassed by the US House of Representatives’ unanimous adoption of a resolution last month recognizing that Middle Eastern Christians are being targeted for genocide, the State Department finally acknowledged the obvious on March 25, when Secretary of State John Kerry stated that Islamic State is conducting a “genocide of Christians, Yazidis and Shi’ites.”
Kerry’s belated move, which State Department lawyers were quick to insist has no operational significance, raises two questions.

BDS activists in France convicted of Holocaust denial

From Liberation (France), translated by Antisemitism-Europe:

Two BDS activists were convicted by a Montpellier court of incitement and Holocaust denial and fined 3000 euro. They will also have to pay a very symbolic one euro in damages to each of the civil parties that joined the case: LDH (League of Human Rights), LICRA (International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism ), France-Israel Association, MRAP (Movement against Racism), Lawyers without Borders, and the antisemitism watchdog BNVCA.

The two, Saadia Ben Fakha (26) and Husein Abu-Zaid (58), are members of BDS France 34, the local branch in Hérault. Abu-Zaid is the group's spokesperson.

In August 2014, the two posted on their Facebook account, an image comparing the Israeli army to Nazi Germany along with a caption saying "The Nazis and Zionists are two sides of the same coin" and that "What Hitler did to the Jews was done so that the world will sympathize with them and give them all the rights".

LDH Montpellier, who often participate in BDS activities, discovered the Holocaust-denial posting and requested that it be removed. However, BDS did not explicitly condemn it until LDH turned to the police, and even then absolved their activists of all responsibility.

The two claimed they had clicked on it by accident, and did not see or read the image before sharing it. BDS 34 supported its two activists and denied they were antisemitic.

What a coincidence that two BDS members happened to accidentally share the same antisemitic graphic and post!

Here is the post, from 2014:

BDS in France rushed to defend their two antisemitic members. They even held a rally in their support.

The original graphic of the pig-tailed "Israeli" soldier was fabricated for this poster. The image was taken and photoshopped from the original art on the right. Since it is too difficult for the haters to find true analogies between Nazis and Jews, they have to make them up.

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Is the uprising over? Terror attacks in Israel lowest since last July

The number of terror attacks in Israel continued to decline for the fifth consecutive month since the terror spree started in October.

The Shin Bet's monthly report for March shows:

March's terrorist attacks killed one foreign national (in a stabbing attack in Jaffa on 8 March) and injured 26, 9 of which were injured in the abovementioned stabbing attack.

Among the non-fatal casualties, 13 civilians and 13 security forces personnel were wounded:

· 17 in stabbing attacks: 10 within the Green Line (9 in Jaffa, 1 in Petah Tikva), 1 in Jerusalem, and 7 in Judea and Samaria;
· 6 in shooting attacks (1 civilian in Jerusalem and 5 security forces personnel in Judea and Samaria);
· 2 security forces personnel in run-over attacks in Judea.
· One civilian in an attempted assault in Samaria.

Following is a distribution of attacks in March 2016 according to regions:

The Gaza Strip – 4 attacks: 2 rocket launchings; 2 small arms shooting.

Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem – 117 attacks: 6 small arms shooting (2 in Jerusalem); 9 IED (including pipe bombs and improvised grenade); 6 stabbing (1 in Jerusalem); 2 run-over; 1 attempted assault; 92 firebombs (33 in Jerusalem).

The "Green Line" – 2 stabbing attacks (in Jaffa and Petah Tikva).

While it is horrible to think that this is "normal," in fact March has been the calmest month since before Mahmoud Abbas started inciting against Jews in September for peacefully visiting the Temple Mount. In fact, the March numbers are the lowest since last July, as this chart shows:

This makes three consecutive months that the number of attacks has been fewer than those from last August, before the incitement.

It appears that the "Al Quds Intifada" has petered out, despite the efforts of Palestinian media to keep it going.

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There was an uproar on Thursday at the statements of Zionist Union MK Zouheir Bahloul:

MK Zouheir Bahloul (the Zionist Camp) stated once again that the Palestinian who stabbed an IDF soldier in Hebron is not a terrorist. “The word ‘terrorist’ has become inclusive and generalizes every Palestinian as one [a terrorist],” said Bahloul during a radio interview earlier today (Thursday).

During the interview, Bahloul claimed that there is a difference between Palestinians who attack civilians and those who direct their attacks against IDF soldiers and military bases. “I agree that whoever murders an entire family is a terrorist,” he stressed. “They are terrorists and also murderers who deserve to be punished. Any person who murders another, destroys the life of an innocent person or stalks and attacks an entire family on their way home from work is a terrorist.”

Bahloul even said that his statement includes all types of citizens, even Israeli settlers in the West Bank. However, he claimed that when it comes to terror attacks against military targets, the Palestinians are not terrorists. “People who attacked families in their sleep would not considered terrorists if they had attacked a military base,” he stated.

“All those who fight for their freedom and independence are considered terrorists in the eyes of Israelis,” he claimed. “According to the [Israeli] people, every Palestinian who fights for his struggle in order to remove the injustice of the occupation is considered a terrorist. I agree that an attacker with a knife is a murderer but he is not a terrorist. My problem is that this word has become inclusive and generalizes every Palestinian as a terrorist.”

The reaction was fierce:

Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog said in response: "I reject and condemn Zuheir Ba'aloul's remarks. A terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist."

"[I]t makes no difference whether that person has gone out to kill a Jew or a Palestinian," Herzog said.

The party also issued a statement making clear that Ba'aloul's comments did not reflect its views, and demanding the government take more effective action to bring what it called "a wave of terrorism" to an end.

Lawmaker Nachman Shai denounced the remark as "sad and unnecessary."

Erel Margalit, of Zionist Union, demanded Ba'aloul retract his "severe" remarks.

Far-right politicians predictably joined in the criticism. MK Shuli Muallem-Refaeli (Habayit Hayehudi) condemned the comment by asserting that it illustrated how "unfortunately the terrorists are also represented politically" in Israel.

“MK [Zouheir] Bahloul’s comments are shameful,” [Prime Minister] Netanyahu wrote in Hebrew on Facebook. “IDF soldiers protect us with their bodies from bloodthirsty murderers. I expect all Israeli citizens, and members of Knesset in particular, to give them their full support.”

So who is right?

Any definition of terrorist must be consistent no matter what the context. Terrorism against Jews and that against Arabs must be defined identically or else the word just becomes propaganda.

Unfortunately, there is no universal definition.

At first glance, Bahloul seems to have a point. There would seem to be a moral difference between attacking civilians and attacking an armed soldier.

But is stabbing a soldier in Hebron terrorism?

There are many definitions of terrorism that people have come up with. One that was indirectly created by the UN, in the context of the 1999 Terrorism Financing Convention, defines a terrorist act as one "intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to a civilian, or to any other person not taking an active part in the hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, when the purpose of such act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population, or to compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act."

I think this is a very good definition. And it cuts to the core of the question of whether attacking IDF soldiers in Hebron can be considered a terrorist act.

Hamas mortars fired at IDF troops are not acts of terrorism. Rockets fired at civilians are. That is why I always call militants in Gaza terrorists - they may sometimes engage in quasi-conventional warfare but a key part of their strategy is to terrorize the Israeli public.

Can soldiers never be terror targets? Clearly, for example, those who are off-duty are not considered valid military targets.*

Here's another question: Is it terrorism to target police, or armed guards? The answer is clearly yes. They have weapons, but targeting them for political purposes cannot be considered anything but terrorism. Their jobs are purely defensive.

Soldiers in Hebron are not fighting a war, at least not in the legal sense. They are acting as police to protect Jewish citizens of Israel who live there. Their IDF uniform does not make them legitimate military targets when there is not a state of war, and I do not believe that the current uprising can be called a war.

It can be called a terror spree. The political motivation to murder a soldier is identical to the motivation to kill a random Jew: it is to instill terror in the population in order to intimidate them and instill fear.

Attacking a person doing police duties is a terrorist act no matter if he or she is wearing the uniform of an armed guard, a police officer or a soldier.

I believe that Bahloul is wrong in this case.

But his point is not as offensive as the reactions made it out to be; the knee-jerk responses against Bahloul by Israeli politicians were more posturing than enlightening. I didn't see anyone answer him with exactly why he is wrong, and that is a shame. (Bahloul was also making a political point, of course, by implying that Jews consider all Arabs to be terrorists.)

We should use this event as a good excuse to further refine the definition of terrorism, not for scoring political points.

*It is not so clear. Gidon Shaviv points out to me that Yoram Dinstein says "Enemy combatants in an international armed conflict can be attacked at all times and in all circumstances. They ‘may be targeted wherever found, armed or unarmed, awake orasleep, on a front line or a mile or a hundred miles behind the lines’." The Conduct of Hostilities Under the Law of International Armed Conflict (p. 34).

But this hinges on the definion of wartime.HRW says "International humanitarian law makes clear, however, that reserve or off-duty soldiers who are not at that moment subject to the integrated disciplinary command of the armed forces are considered civilians until the time that they become subject to military command-meaning, until they are effectively incorporated into the armed forces. Their incorporation into the regular armed forces is most frequently signified by wearing a uniform or other identifiable insignia." And another text on terror says "Similarly, noncombatants can include off-duty members of the military in nonwarfare environments."

Nevertheless, most definitions of terrorism seem to allow it to be possible to have terrorist acts against soldiers under some circumstances, as stated above.

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04/07 Links Pt2: Abbas Calls for Peace Talks Yet Denies Israel’s Right to Exist; The ‘Palestinian’ invasion of the university

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: UNwelcome

A so-called “miscommunication” led the United Nations to ban a display about Zionism from an Israeli exhibition at its New York headquarters this week, a UN spokesman said. That it was ultimately approved by a UN body of Zionism experts fails to explain why two other panels were rejected.
The Zionism panel was one of three that were originally censored by the world body and the only one to be eventually approved. But not the one on Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish people for some 3,000 years, and on Israeli Arabs, Israel’s largest minority.
It is somehow not surprising that the UN should still be in some kind of doubt (denial?) regarding the nature of Zionism. One would think that the body that passed a resolution in 1975 claiming that Zionism is racism and reluctantly revoked it in 1991 would be more familiar with the national liberation movement of the Jewish people.
The Jerusalem panel depicts the Jewish people as “indigenous to Israel” since biblical times. It notes that “Jerusalem has been the center and focus of Jewish life and religion for more than three millennia and is holy to Christians and Muslims as well.”
The panel on Israeli Arabs refers to the group as “the largest minority in Israel, making up 20 percent of Israel’s population.” It stresses that, despite the turmoil in countries surrounding Israel, its Arab citizens have equal rights under the law.
Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon called on Secretary- General Ban Ki-Moon on Sunday to reverse the decision and to “apologize to the Jewish people.”

Former Palestinian finance chief: Global Judaism is a virus, a plague

A former top Palestinian official cited the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forged text produced in Russia at the turn of the last century that purports to outline Jewish plans to take over the world, as proof that the world economy is controlled by Jews.
“Global Judaism, which controls the world’s financial markets, constitutes a virus and a plague which strikes at the entire world,” said Dr. Fouad Bseiso, the former governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, according to a translation of his comments in a TV interview provided Thursday by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
“What was written in the 4th protocol of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion [titled ‘The destruction of religion by materialism’] is now being implemented on the world’s economy through the global Jewish hegemony over the world’s financial markets, he said.

Fmr. PMA Governor Bseiso: Global Judaism Is a Virus, Follows the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Senior Palestinian economist Dr. Fouad Bseiso, who served as the first governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority in 1994-2001 said in an interview with Al-Quds TV that global Judaism is responsible for the global financial crisis of 2008. Dr. Bseiso added that "what was written in the 4th protocol of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is now being implemented." He said that the Jews control the prices of commodities like oil, silver, and gold and that over 30% of Israel’s income comes from its plundering of Arab countries. "Global Judaism," he said, "constitutes a virus and plague which strikes at the entire world." The interview aired on April 5, 2016.

Now Lebanon's Hanin Ghaddar, who sympathizes with Hezbollah, writes that the organization has lost its ideological way.

Years ago, it was an ideological powerhouse:

Hezbollah’s power did not come from its weapons alone. Nor was it primarily founded on social services and Iranian money. These were tools to maintain its control and influence, which grew through decades of building a narrative of allegiance. Hezbollah prevailed because it has won the narrative, by linking three pillars of a Lebanese Shiite identity: the resistance, the collective memory of the battle of Karbala and Iran’s Wilayat al-Faqih.

Lebanese Shiites’ identity was gradually rebuilt to link their collective history of Karbala and the Israeli occupation of the South. Kul Youm Karbalaa (Every day is Karbala) became the slogan that defined the daily lives of the Shiites in the South, because it embodied all of these elements: fighting injustice, remembering Karbala and a deep Shiite identity affiliated with Hezbollah’s Wilayat al-Faqih.

As I grew up in the South, I encountered this narrative every day. It changed the way people dressed, the way they socialized and celebrated religious occasions, even the way they celebrated births and mourned deaths. It escalated to fierce rhetoric during conflicts and wars, and went back to social and cultural conduct between conflicts. Although this narrative was imposed on us by the Party of God, people accepted it. They related to its purpose, the vibes of its power and the way it accentuated our communal identity.

People wanted it; they even needed it to survive. The enemy was clear, the history was common and the purpose was well defined.

The dream of many of my relatives, neighbors and friends as we grew up was to join the “resistance” or help it in any way possible. There were more volunteers knocking on Hezbollah’s doors than young men seeking employment. Many wanted to fight for free, and die for free. But Hezbollah paid anyway, because they knew that it was the best way to structure its army and maintain commitment.

But now, people join just to further their careers:

“I am just waiting for my contract to expire and then I’m out,” Mahdi (25 years old) told me. He – like all others – sign a two-year contract that specifies the salary (between $500 and $1200) and the package of benefits they receive. The thing is that they have to complete the two years. They cannot just give notice and leave whenever they want to. “And they don’t pay compensation packages to martyrs’ families as they used to,” Mahdi added, saying that each family of a martyr used to receive forty thousand dollars, but that this was halted almost two years ago.

Mahdi’s main complaint is that when he joined Hezbollah he thought he’d come back with a victory that would provide him with an office or technical job and secure his future. “Instead, I feel like I took a job at a company where I am required to give everything, including my life, and there are no guarantees for the future beyond these two years.” And victory? He smiled.

And her conclusion provides insight that the Western media has not caught up to:

In fact, many Hezbollah members and supporters have realized in the past few years that they have become the mercenaries of Waliyat al-Faqih in Iran’s war in the region. They will have to go wherever they are required, be it Lebanon, Syria, Iraq or Yemen. The new rhetoric of sectarian regional war has cost Hezbollah its depth in the Arab world. But most importantly, Hezbollah lost its narrative.

For more than thirty years, Hezbollah’s narrative was built on a very clear purpose and specific target. The result was liberating land and gaining political power. However, the “resistance” today is a matter of perspective. The narrative is no longer well-defined or evident. The “enemy” fluctuates too often and allies are mostly strategic or temporary. The US is no longer the “great Satan,” and the Putin – the partner in Syria and ally against imperialism – is also coordinating with Israel.

“We are invaders,” says Mustafa, “this is our role now. Yes, I have many questions, but war is too complicated and I have a family to support.”

The “resistance” has gone corporate and the old beliefs of liberation and freedom are now replaced with ambitions for promotion and better status. It is going to be extremely difficult for Hezbollah to come back from this.

But does it matter? If Iran increases the amount it pays Hezbollah to be its mercenary force in other conflicts (and terror attacks),

On the other hand, the near universal loathing for Hezbollah in the Arab world cannot but hurt the movement and make it even more difficult to attract supporters.

Iran may just be wringing everything it can out of Hezbollah before it implodes.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

I never understood why the more radical Arab members of the Knesset behave so provocatively. Why did Haneen Zoabi take part in the 2010 Gaza flotilla? Why did she, along with her Balad colleagues Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas visit the families of terrorists killed after murdering Jews and participate in a moment of silence for the ‘martyrs’? Why did her party and the Communist (mostly Arab) Hadash party condemn Arab states that declared Hezbollah a terrorist organization?

The simple answer is that they are anti-Zionist and these are anti-Zionist actions. But why so provocative? It has already made them a target of legislation designed to remove them from the Knesset, although it’s doubtful that such a law will pass in a form that would result in Arab MKs being banished, as they so richly deserve.

Gadi Taub, writing in Ha’aretz, argues that they are trying to provoke the Right to propose actions that are anti-democratic, which will cause a response from the Left that opposes the Jewish nature of the state. Thus, the result will be to negate both the democratic and Jewish aspects of the state. According to this view, both the Right and the Left are being manipulated.

I think the answer is more simple: they want to incite and infuriate both Jews and Arabs against each other, to destroy the possibility of coexistence between Israel’s Jews and the 20% of its population (not including Judea and Samaria) that are (mostly Muslim) Arabs. But this coexistence is necessary for the continued existence of the state.

20% is a large minority. France, with all of its troubles, has a Muslim minority of 7-9%; the UK hovers at about 5% and Germany at less than 4%. Given the hostility between ‘Palestinians’ and Israeli Jews, there is great potential for instability here. Politician Avigdor Lieberman has proposed transferring some of the most heavily-populated Arab areas of Israel to Palestinian Authority control in order to reduce the size of the minority (nobody would move; the proposal transfers the territory to the PA). The chances of this happening are infinitesimal, since the Arabs that live there strongly oppose it.

Meir Kahane thought that the present situation was unsustainable. He pointed to a higher birthrate among the Arab population. But since then, with increased education and development in the Arab sector, the Arab and Jewish birthrates have tended to converge.

A 2013 survey showed that 53% of Israel’s Arab citizens recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. That sounds encouraging until you think about the other 47%. Nevertheless, in the recent wave of terrorism (up to March 27) which includes 338 stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks, only a few were perpetrated by Arab citizens of Israel. Most of the terrorists were residents of Judea/Samaria or eastern Jerusalem. While Arab citizens may pay lip service to anti-Zionism, they are far less militant than their cousins in the territories.

Although the narrative of Palestinian victimization is strongly established among Arab citizens of Israel, most appreciate the practical benefits of being a minority in a functioning state rather than a majority in a failed one. They have eyes and ears and are aware of the conditions in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and the Palestinian Authority.

They do believe strongly that they are victims of discrimination in Israel. To a great extent this is exaggerated. Consumption levels for Arabs and Jews in Israel are quite similar, and large sums of government aid go to Arab municipalities. There is a great deal of corruption in the Arab towns and cities, which results in a lower level of service to their population. But this is not because the national government discriminates against Arabs. There is also a problem of crime and illegal weapons, and in this case the complaints are justified. The police have had a hands-off attitude, which has allowed crime to flourish. The new head of the Israel police has promised to take action.

Last year the Hamas-linked Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel was outlawed because of its incitement of violence on the false grounds that Israel was endangering the al-Aksa mosque, a perennial favorite of Muslim Israel-haters since at least 1920. Several terrorists attributed their actions to their concern for the mosque and the Temple Mount.

Much propaganda against Israel turns on the supposed discrimination against Arab citizens. Recently a right-wing member of the Knesset, Betzalel Smotrich, was severely criticized for saying that maternity wards should separate Jewish and Arab mothers because his wife didn’t want to be disturbed by Arab haflot [parties] in the rooms, and that today’s Arab baby might become tomorrow’s terrorist. Naturally, this was picked up with glee by those who seek anything negative about Israel, but his statement was widely derided, including by the head of his party.

Foreign funders like the American New Israel Fund and the EU fund a number of organizations (e.g., Adalah, Mossawa Center) which allegedly defend the rights of Arabs in Israel, but actually are trying to create discord between Jews and Arabs, as well as to promulgate the usual propaganda which accuses Israel of racism and bias.

All of this represents another line of attack against the Jewish state, focusing on its internal behavior rather than its relations with ‘Palestinians’ living in Judea and Samaria, or its alleged ‘disproportionate’ response to Hamas rockets and tunnels.

The potential for chaos if there were a widespread Arab revolt is very great. But on the other hand, good relations between Jews and Arabs could be a powerful tool for Israel in its effort to fight delegitimization. Not much can be done with the PLO, whose reason for being has always been to destroy Israel. But mutual understanding – or at least mutual acceptance – can be achieved with our Arab citizens.

The government was right in banning the Islamic movement, the flow of foreign money to hostile Arab NGOs should be stopped, the police should make serious anti-crime efforts in Arab towns, and Smotrich should shut up and keep his nastiness to himself. The calculated actions of Zoabi and company are nothing less than treason, and should be treated as such.

Jews and Arabs can get along. They must. Both groups would suffer from the alternative.

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04/07 Links Pt1: Oren: Sanders should apologize for Gaza ‘blood libel’; Israel Has The Right To Defend Itself, But…

From Ian:

Michael Oren: Sanders should apologize for Gaza ‘blood libel’

Bernie Sanders should retract and apologize for his “libelous” suggestion that Israel killed more than 10,000 innocent Palestinians during the last Gaza war, MK Michael Oren said Thursday, asserting that the Democratic candidate’s misrepresentation ultimately serves the interests of Hamas and other terrorist groups.
Oren, who served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States between 2009 and 2013, argued that the presidential candidate’s comments delegitimize the Jewish state and endanger its security.
“First of all, he should get his facts right. Secondly, he owes Israel an apology,” the freshman lawmaker (Kulanu) told The Times of Israel in an interview.
“He accused us of a blood libel. He accused us of bombing hospitals. He accused us of killing 10,000 Palestinian civilians. Don’t you think that merits an apology?” Oren went on.
“He doesn’t mention the many thousands of Hamas rockets fired at us. He doesn’t mention the fact that Hamas hides behind civilians. He doesn’t mention the fact that we pulled out of Gaza in order to give the Palestinians a chance to experiment with statehood, and they turned it into an experiment with terror. He doesn’t mention any of that. That, to me, is libelous.”

Sanders yet to correct claim Israel killed ‘over 10,000’ Palestinian innocents

Two days after the New York Daily News published the transcript of its editorial board’s interview with Bernie Sanders, in which the Democratic presidential candidate twice inaccurately said he believed that Israel killed “over 10,000” innocent Palestinian civilians during the 2014 Gaza War, he had yet to correct his misstatement or issue an apology as of Wednesday evening.
Earlier Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League, a major Jewish organization that monitors civil and human rights issues, urged Sanders to correct his misstatement. “Even the highest number of casualties claimed by Palestinian sources that include Hamas members engaged in attacking Israel is five times less than the number cited by Bernie Sanders,” noted ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt. “We urge Senator Sanders to correct his misstatements.” The ADL, a tax-exempt nonprofit, generally avoids inserting itself into the fray of political elections and declines to take positions on candidates running for public office.
Following the transcript’s publication, The Times of Israel reached out repeatedly to Sanders campaign communications director Michael Briggs and national press secretary Symone Sanders to ask whether the Vermont senator would acknowledge and correct his mistake in massively inflating even Hamas’s own estimation of how many civilian lives were lost during Operation Protective Edge. There was no response from either official.

Petition: Tell Bernie Sanders to Retract His Statement That "10,000" died in Gaza

Even Hamas, the existing government in Gaza, predicted a total death toll of 1,462 civilians killed in the conflict not 10,000.
Regardless of who we support in the upcoming election, we the undersigned call on Bernie Sanders to immediately retract and disavow his inaccurate and dangerous assertion about the death toll in the conflict in Gaza.
(Full disclosure, I am a supporter of Bernie Sanders but believe he needs to be called out when he gets it wrong)

Israeli minister says US candidate Sanders' Gaza death figures "loony"

An Israeli cabinet minister described as "loony" on Thursday an account by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of the number of Palestinian civilians killed in the 2014 Gaza war that went well beyond any official assessments.
The minister, Zeev Elkin, commenting on an interview by the Vermont senator in the New York Daily News on Monday, took a forgiving tack, saying politicians "sometimes make mistakes" in the heat of a campaign.
"I don't remember the figures, but my recollection is over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza. Does that sound right?" Sanders told the newspaper. "I do believe and I don't think I'm alone in believing that Israel's force was more indiscriminate than it should have been."
Sanders, who trails Hillary Clinton in the pledged delegates needed to win the nomination ahead of the Democratic party's July convention in Philadelphia, also criticised Gaza militants for launching rockets at Israel from civilian areas.
The war killed around 2,100 Palestinians, according to Gaza officials, Israel and foreign observers. The Palestinians say most of the dead were civilians. Israel says more than half were fighters. Israel lost 67 soldiers and six civilians in the war.
Asked about Sanders' toll, Elkin, using the Israeli military's term for the Gaza war, said in a radio interview: "Anyone who knows a little about what happened in Operation Protective Edge understands that this was a weird and loony statement."

The story has already been well covered. Bernie Sanders, campaigning for President, said to the New York Daily News:

Daily News: And I'm going to look at 2014, which was the latest conflict. What should Israel have done instead?

Sanders: You're asking me now to make not only decisions for the Israeli government but for the Israeli military, and I don't quite think I'm qualified to make decisions. But I think it is fair to say that the level of attacks against civilian areas...and I do know that the Palestinians, some of them, were using civilian areas to launch missiles. Makes it very difficult. But I think most international observers would say that the attacks against Gaza were indiscriminate and that a lot of innocent people were killed who should not have been killed. Look, we are living, for better or worse, in a world of high technology, whether it's drones out there that could, you know, take your nose off, and Israel has that technology. And I think there is a general belief that, with that technology, they could have been more discriminate in terms of taking out weapons that were threatening them.

...I'm just telling you that I happen to believe...anybody help me out here, because I don't remember the figures, but my recollection is over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza. Does that sound right?

Daily News: I think it's probably high, but we can look at that.

Sanders: I don't have it in my number...but I think it's over 10,000. My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed. So yeah, I do believe and I don't think I'm alone in believing that Israel's force was more indiscriminate than it should have been.

The problem isn't only that Sanders overstated the number of civilians killed in Gaza by about a factor of ten.

Because if and when a reporter calls him on it, he'll just say that he said he wasn't sure but a thousand civilians killed and hundreds of buildings leveled is still something that indicates indiscriminate attacks.

And that is the problem.

Israel didn't engage in indiscriminate attacks in Gaza. Anyone who has the least familiarity with the IDF's code of conduct, the checks and balances involved in every bombing campaign, international law and the law of armed conflict know that there was very little wrong with how Israel conducted the campaign.

Last Summer, Amnesty international tweeted almost daily specific events of civilians being killed in Gaza a year earlier. In the vast majority of those cases cited, I was able to find a legitimate target in the immediate area. And the laws of war does not say that a legitimate target must be spared just because it is surrounded by civilians, although the doctrine of proportionality must be adhered to - something Israel does. Without knowing the value of the target, or indeed what the target is, no "researchers" can conclude that Israeli attacks were indiscriminate or disproportionate.

Bernie Sanders chooses to believe the lies of Amnesty and Human Rights Watch over word of the US' own chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

To put it bluntly, someone whose knowledge of the laws of armed conflict is exactly the opposite of the truth wants to be the Commander in Chief of the US armed forces.

That is a lot worse than just being very wrong on the numbers of civilians killed.

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