Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, April 10, 2016

BDS leader Omar Barghouti knowingly lies about second Duma fire

The story blaming Jews was widely reported; the exoneration - not so much.

On April 1, BDS leader Omar Barghouti wrote:

Settlers who have torched to death Palestinian toddler Ali Dawabsheh and his parents last year and later celebrated their gruesome acts of terror have yet to be sentenced for the murders. This has naturally encouraged other settlers to torch the house of the remaining eyewitness to the crime, Ali's uncle.

Yet the torching of the uncle's house on March 20 had already been determined not to have been done by Jews a week earlier.

Times of Israel, March 23:

On Sunday, the home of the sole alleged witness to the attack of Ahmed’s home, Ibrahim Dawabsha, caught fire in what local residents described as a deliberate attack. But the Israel Police and Shin Bet, in a joint statement Sunday night, said mounting evidence indicated that Sunday’s fire was not a nationalistic attack.

Israel Hayom, March 30:

The fire that broke out at the home of Duma village resident Ibrahim Dawabsheh a week and a half ago appears to have started from inside the house, Judea and Samaria police and fire authorities reported on Tuesday.

The report also said that in contrast to the claims made by Dawabsheh, a relative and neighbor of the Dawabsheh family who were murdered in an arson attack in their home nine months ago, no Molotov cocktail had been thrown at his house.

From the start, the evidence did not align with the claim that the fire had been the result of a hate crime.

The fact that no accelerant was found at the scene and that the fire burned slowly led to the conclusion that it was not caused by arson. The house was also locked while the fire burned and no windows were broken, contradicting the claim that the fire had been caused by a Molotov cocktail.

Ibrahaim Dawabsheh and his family were summoned for questioning, but denied the police claims. The police investigation is heading in several directions, including the possibility that the family wanted to frame settlers, was trying to commit insurance fraud, or was trying to drum up sympathy to secure money or donations.

The Judea and Samaria Police said in a statement that "the investigation into the recent events has raised a suspicion that the complainants are making false reports and trying to present the fire as a hate crime, and in doing so are disrupting the fragile balance of life by pressing on a complex security period."

Is it surprising at all that Barghouti lies as easily as he breathes?

(h/t SpotlightingSA)

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G4S denies its pulling out of Israel is because of BDS

The BDS crowd has been claiming that the security firm G4S has been forced to leave Israel through their efforts.

G4S disagrees, to the extent that they are placing ads in newspapers to deny it.

The reason? Because some clients are threatening to drop them if they caved to BDSers!

From an ad in today's Sun-Sentinel (South Florida):

(h/t MB)

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04/10 Links: Clinton takes Sanders to task over Gaza; Today's Anti-Semitic Tweet From UK Labour

From Ian:

Clinton takes Sanders to task over Gaza comments

Hillary Clinton blasts fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders over comments he made saying Israel reacted with disproportionate force during its military campaign in the Gaza Strip in 2014.
“Hamas provokes Israel. They often pretend to have people in civilian garb acting as though they are civilians who are Hamas fighters,” she tells CNN’s State of the Union, according to Politico. “It’s a very different undertaking for Israel to target those who are targeting them. And I think Israel has had to defend itself, has a right to defend itself.”
Sanders came under fire last week from Israeli officials and the ADL after he suggested in an interview with the New York Daily News that Israel had killed 10,000 innocents in Gaza in 2014. The former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren, now a Knesset lawmaker with Kulanu, even accused him of spreading a “blood libel.”
Sanders, for his part, doubles down on the contention that Israel reacted disproportionately in Gaza, after acknowledging over the weekend that he got the death toll wrong.

Bernie Sanders Was Asked an Anti-Semitic Question. Here’s How He Should Have Answered.

“As you know,” opened the questioner, “the Zionist Jews–and I don’t mean to offend anybody–they run the Federal Reserve, they run Wall Street, they run every campaign.” As this unfolded, Sanders began wagging his finger in dissent, and interjected to deem “Zionist Jews” a “bad phrase.” His interlocutor, pressed to articulate a question, concluded by saying, “What is your affiliation to your Jewish community? That’s all I’m asking.”
“No, no, no, that’s not what you’re asking,” Sanders quickly replied, in a nod to the question’s underlying prejudice. “I am proud to be Jewish,” he declared, to cheers from the audience. But then Sanders did something odd. Rather than using the question as a teaching moment to address and rebuke its anti-Semitic underpinnings, Sanders instead immediately pivoted to his stump speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Talking about Zionism and Israel,” he said, “I am a strong defender of Israel, but I also believe that we have got to pay attention to the needs of the Palestinian people.” He never challenged the actual contents of the question, let alone labeled it anti-Semitic.
Needless to say, Sanders has mustered far more outrage for Wall Street, systemic racism, and Islamophobia, than he did when confronted with anti-Jewish prejudice. His reserved response to the anti-Semitic questioner stands in stark contrast to his powerful rebuke of anti-Islamic prejudice back in October, when he movingly embraced a Muslim student on stage.
...
All that said, as understandable as Sanders’ response may have been in the moment, it still represents a missed opportunity. Sanders had the chance to educate a young progressive audience about the perils of anti-Jewish prejudice, and he didn’t quite rise to the occasion as he has when coming to the defense of other minorities, or when railing against millionaires and billionaires.

San Francisco State University is among the most racist and anti-Semitic universities in the United States, which is why it is partnering with An-Najah University in Nablus, which is among the most racist universities in the world. This is only fitting. Birds of a feather, and so forth.

San Francisco State University racism takes the forms of progressive-left racism, more generally. That is, the delicate snowflakes at SFSU practice humanitarian racism toward people "of color" while promoting a highly aggressive and vicious form of anti-Semitic anti-Zionism.

Humanitarian racism, of course, is the type of racism that views ethnic minorities (with the sole exception of Jews) as little children who have no agency and, thus, can never be held responsible for their behavior. The quintessential form of humanitarian racism is directed at the Arabs of Israel who are considered the World Champions of Victim-hood. Israeli Jews are considered so horrible that no matter what the Arabs do to them, they are worthy of it. For the humanitarian racist, Arabs have every right to kill Jews as a matter of righteous resistance to The Occupation, with the Big O.

For the precious snowflakes at SFSU the mere presence of Jewish people on traditionally Jewish land is an outrage to the native, indigenous "Palestinians" who are said to have lived on that land since long before the creation of the Earth, itself. As we all know, of course, Adam and Eve were the original Arab-Muslims. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all Arab-Muslims. Moses was an Arab-Muslim. And Jesus was the first "Palestinian" shaheed.

Or, so Palestinian-Arab spokesmen have told us.

Anti-Semitism at SFSU, on the other hand, takes the form of a truly virulent and toxic form of anti-Zionism that transfers classic anti-Semitic themes, such as the blood libel, from Jews, as individuals, to the collective Jew, the State of Israel. So, instead of claiming that Jews enjoy killing Christian babies for the purpose of baking their blood into matzoh, the snowflakes tell one another that the collective Jew enjoys killing Arab children for no reason whatsoever. The Israelis are just brutes. Fascists. A subhuman species of semi-human beings that deserves whatever punishment the Arab world wishes to dish out. If Arabs wish to train their children to Jew Hatred and then send them out into the streets of Israel with hand-axes for the purpose of murdering random Jews, who can blame them?

The snowflakes sit in their "safe spaces" and tell one another that Israel is a racist, colonialist, imperialist, militaristic, apartheid, genocidal, racist state and then march forth to yell and scream and moan and cry and wave around their little "Palestinian" flags - which is really just the flag of Jordan with the star removed - when the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, drops by for an open discussion at the invitation of SFSU Hillel.

According to Jordan Vale, writing in the Golden Gate Xpress:

“The Middle East, Israel in particular, have always been hot topics for this campus,” Assistant Director to San Francisco Hillel Rachel Nilson said before introducing Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat for an open dialogue with SF State students and community members. Her statement turned out to be prophetic when, minutes after Barkat started his opening speech, members of the General Union of Palestine Students stormed Seven Hills Conference Center demanding Barkat’s expulsion from the campus.

“We don’t want you on our campus!” they shouted. “Get the hell off our campus!”

GUPS was joined by members of the Black Student Union, the League of Filipino Students, and Defend and Advance Ethnic Studies. The crowd of about 40 students quickly took up chants, clapping, waving Palestinian flags and thrusting their fists in the air.

“Free, free, free Palestine!” one of the lead protesters chanted, which the crowd behind her echoed.

Snowflakes like their "safe spaces" where they can peacefully gaze at one another's navels even as they spread hatred toward out-groups like the Jews of Israel or, say, white Evangelicals, and whoever else they have deemed worthy of violent hatred. None of this, of course, is the least bit negotiable. They are not interested in dialogue or the free expression of ideas, for if they were, they would not have used bully-boy tactics to prevent the mayor of Jerusalem from being heard.

By all accounts, Barkat endured the yelling and screaming and whining and moaning for about an hour before he excused himself and left campus. The question that many people are currently asking themselves is why the university did not dispatch the campus police to remove the protesters so that the people who came to listen and speak with Barkat could do so in a civilized manner. There was just one cop on hand who, according to reports, did nothing. Barkat had a body guard to protect himself, but the body guard certainly had no authority to try to roust students. All he could do was prevent the snowflakes from attacking the mayor.

Needless to say, it must be acknowledged that the great majority of students on that campus, like the great majority of students throughout the country, are not running around spitting hatred at anyone. Most SFSU students, like most people, in general, simply want to be left alone in order to pursue their particular interests. However, one must ask oneself just why it is that SFSU funds a student organization like GUPS that calls for the murder of Jewish people?

Every time the snowflakes gather at Malcolm X Plaza shouting "Intifada! Intifada! Long live the intifada" they are calling, quite specifically, for the murder of Jewish people and the university gives them money to organize such activities.

When it comes to supporting hatred, few campuses in the United States do a finer job than San Francisco State University.

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Maariv reports that Rabbi Yaakov Nagen, a dean in the Yeshiva of Otniel, visited a Muslim teacher at Al Azhar University in Cairo.

Al Azhar is the most important Sunni Muslim institution in the world.

He went there together with with Rebecca Abramson, a Haredi peace activist, and Professor Joseph Ringel. They went to visit Sheikh Dr. Omar Salem, whom Nagan describes as a friend, and who also promotes dialogue with Jews.

Rabbi Nagen and his wife

Nagen and Abramson disguised themselves as religious Muslims, with Nagan putting on a large white skullcap and Abramson covering herself completely except for her eyes.

"We had a fascinating meeting with Dr. Bakr Zaki Awad, dean of the school of al-Azhar religious law," Nagen told Maariv."His field is comparing the Koran to the Torah and the New Testament. All his life he learns Torah yet he never met a Jew. Suddenly he had a chance to ask all the questions he had accumulated over all these years.

"We went into his office, a huge room full of students and professors, and we had a difficult conversation.

"One of the professors posed a long list of difficult questions about Judaism, we had answers to many of them but we felt that just responding would not allow the positive atmosphere we sought. Instead, I told the professor: these are powerful questions you are raising, much of my life I have been grappling for answers, but I try never to let these questions undermine my knowledge of the essence of the Torah the same way I never let questions I have on the Koran undermine my knowledge of what is the essence of the Koran.
"So I changed the conversation to a language that gives positive energy . I showed them how the Mishna and the fifth Sura of the Koran have virtually identical statement: 'Anyone who saves one life saves the entire world,' that is the essence of the sanctity of life which is also in the Koran and the Torah."

The three Israelis went to visit the Central Synagogue of Cairo, still dressed as Muslims, taking photos and video. People thought that they were performing surveillance for a terror attack and the police detained them until they showed them their (American) passports.

They had one terrifying experience when they went to meet with a professor from the University of the Fayum, the birthplace of Rabbi Saadia Gaon. The soldiers that protect tourists there noticed that they were Jews and started shouting, one asking if they prayed for Palestinian children who are killed. Nagan answered that he did, and asked him if he prayed for Jewish children killed. They were taken to the police and their passports taken away, but in the end they were released.

On Facebook, Rabbi Nagen says "I will end with the powerful story told to us by one of the Al-Azhar professors after hearing that we are Jews: One day someone came and knocked on the gate of the palace identifying himself as the brother of the Caliph. The visitor is ushered in, but the Caliph isn't able to recognize his brother. The Caliph asks "are you my brother through my mother?" "No" is the reply.

"Are you my brother through my father"?
Again the answer in negative.

The caliph continues to think and finally asks again "are you my brother in Islam"?

The visitor answers "I am not a Muslim"

"So how are you my brother?"

"I am your brother as all of us are children of Adam and Eve."

The caliph responds: "you are right, I will treat as my brother to demonstrate this to the world".

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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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