Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Why we can’t just get along (Vic Rosenthal)

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

This happened on Tuesday: Palestinian terrorists spilled oil on highway 443 between Jerusalem and Modi’in and threw rocks and firebombs at passing vehicles, as they do on a regular basis. The IDF responded and opened fire at what they thought were the terrorists, killing one Palestinian teenager and wounding two others. Although all the facts aren’t available as I write this, it appears that the soldiers were mistaken about their target, and the people they shot were innocent.

Palestinians are understandably enraged, but it’s also understandable that an Israeli might ask, “what do they expect?” Every day they try and sometimes succeed to kill Jews with their rocks and firebombs, their cars and knives, and sometimes their guns and explosives. Of course we are going to fight back, and mistakes happen.

But how did we get here, to the point that our peoples are killing each other?

The Arabs and their supporters will tell you “nakba, occupation, blah blah.” That isn’t true. It is a rationalization but it is not an explanation. Here is the explanation in two words:

The PLO.

In 1979, I drove with my wife and two-year old son from Jerusalem to Afula. I took route 60, through Samaria. Today I doubt that we would survive that trip, but when we got lost near Shechem (Nablus), local Arabs gave us directions to get back on the right road. They treated us like guests.

Later, during the first Lebanon war, I had a conversation with an Arab from Abu Ghosh, a town that had chosen to be loyal to Israel in 1948. What is the solution? I asked him. We need a state of our own, he said, but not run by the PLO. They are killers and they don’t care about Arabs either.

The PLO was created in 1964 by the Arab league as a club to beat Israel with. It was taken over by Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction in 1967. Its policy has always been to ‘liberate Palestine by armed struggle’ (although Arafat claimed during the Oslo period to have changed the PLO charter, this was not actually done).

The PLO was funded and armed by the Soviet Union and carried out numerous terrorist actions against Israel during the 1970s, including the massacre of the Olympic athletes in 1972, the Ma’alot massacre in 1974, the Coastal Road massacre of 1978, and many more. The IDF invaded Lebanon in 1982 in order to eliminate the PLO, and at the end of the war had the PLO fighters and leadership trapped in Beirut. But a European/American brokered agreement allowed them to escape. French Foreign Legion troops and US Marines escorted Arafat onto a ship, and the PLO reestablished its headquarters in Tunis. Ariel Sharon later said that one of the things he most regretted was not killing Arafat when he had the chance.

Although it perpetrated a few terror attacks from Tunis (notably the Achille Lauro hijacking in 1985), the PLO became more and more irrelevant in exile. But in 1993, Israel made the greatest political mistake in its history and signed the Oslo Accords, breathing life back into the PLO.

In January 1993 the PLO was outlawed in Israel and it was even illegal for an Israeli to meet with PLO representatives. But Yossi Beilin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs under Shimon Peres, began secret negotiations with the PLO without informing the Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin only found out about the meetings in May, and although his conception of an acceptable deal with the Palestinians was very different than that of Peres and Beilin, he had no choice but to embrace the negotiations, especially once the Americans became involved.

The Oslo accords recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinians, brought the execrable Arafat and his gangsters back to Israel (first to Gaza and later to Ramallah) and created the Palestinian Authority, a pseudo-government for the territories, run by the PLO.

Arafat immediately proceeded to kill or expel his enemies – including anyone who did not agree with the PLO program to destroy the Jewish state – and to turn the Palestinian Authority into a massive machine, fueled by money from the US, EU and Israel, to train future soldiers and martyrs for the Palestinian cause.

The PA did nothing for ordinary Arabs, stealing literally billions in international aid to enrich PLO big shots. It did not create the infrastructure for a future state.

The PLO has always been ideologically flexible. It was Arab nationalist while its patrons were Egypt and Syria, Marxist when it needed Soviet aid, and today it is pleased to incite Muslims to murder over the alleged plans of Israel to destroy the al-Aqsa mosque. It even pretends to be interested in building a Western-style democracy to impress the Americans.

But the one aspect of its ideology that has always been the same is its commitment to violently ‘liberating’ Palestine from the Jews, and it has turned all of its institutions to this purpose: schools and universities, mosques, media, arts, literature, sport. All of them focus on teaching the lesson that all the land from the river to the sea is ‘Palestinian’, and the Jews have no claim on any of it.

Israel does not appear on their maps, and they name public squares, schools and sports teams after ‘martyrs’ who have died killing Jews. Their TV programs for children encourage young people to die for the cause, while their adult fare repeats blood libels against Jews from the Middle Ages. Although the PLO under Arafat and now Abbas has promised since the early days of Oslo to stop incitement against Jews and Israel, it has never taken even the smallest step to do so.

The PLO created the generation that goes out every day hoping to kill, and left us no choice but to send armed soldiers against them. The PLO made the bloody world that Israelis and Palestinians are living in today.

But apparently neither side has learned the lesson of the last two decades. The Palestinians have not learned that terrorism will not make us leave, but will only cause us to take stronger and stronger measures to protect ourselves.

And the Israelis? Well, a few days ago it was revealed that Yitzhak Herzog, head of the Labor Party (I can’t bring myself to call it the ‘Zionist Union’), following in the treasonous footsteps of Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres, carried on secret negotiations with Mahmoud Abbas, and proposed a deal in which Israel would transfer all but 4% of Judea and Samaria to the PA/PLO, divide Jerusalem, give the Arabs sovereignty on the Temple Mount, and (my favorite part) ‘fight terrorism’ with a combined force of Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians! Luckily, Herzog lost the election, and recent polls show that the Labor Party is at a historic low in voter approval.

All this is a tragedy. Jews and Arabs can live, if not together, at least in proximity. But not if the Palestinian leadership will continue to be the eliminationist PLO. And certainly not if Israel continues to support and empower the PLO, instead of crushing it for once and for all.

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06/23 Links Pt1: Abbas blames Israel for World Terrorism, Repeats Water Blood Libel In Speech To EU Parliament

From Ian:

If occupation ends, so will terror worldwide, Abbas tells EU

In an appeal to the European Union on reaching a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said an end to Israeli presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem would eradicate terrorism across the globe.
Speaking to European Parliament lawmakers, Abbas also underscored Ramallah’s support for a two-state solution as outlined in the current French peace plan and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, and pleaded with EU lawmakers to save Palestinians from Israeli “provocations,” including what he said were calls by rabbis to poison Palestinians’ water — repeating a hoax story.
“We are against terrorism, in whatever form it may take, and whoever carries it out,” Abbas told members of the European Parliament to a resounding applause.
“Once the occupation ends, terrorism will disappear, there will be no more terrorism in the Middle East, or anywhere else in the world,” he said.

IsraellyCool: Breaking: Mahmoud Abbas Repeats & Embellishes Water Blood Libel In Speech To EU Parliament

A few days ago, I posted about a blood libel originating with the PLO: that a prominent Rabbi had issued a religious decree “allowing Israeli settlers in the West Bank to poison Palestinian water sources in Palestinian towns.”
I thoroughly debunked the blood libel, prompting anti-Israel douchebloggerTM Richard Silverstein to accuse me of inventing it to begin with.
Well now further confirmation this originated with the PLO, with none other than Mahmoud Abbas raising it in a speech to the EU parliament within the last hour.
Based on an auto-translation:
During a speech before the European Parliament ..
Abbas: a week ago, a number of rabbis have declared poisoning the water in order to kill the Palestinians. Is this not incitement?
So now, not only is he repeating the libel, but is now claiming more than one Rabbi has made the decree.

The Peace Process Enabled Hate

The bottom line is that, after more than two decades of PA indoctrination, Palestinians who have been living under Palestinian civilian control are far more anti-Israel and less willing to compromise than they were in 1986, and also than their peers who spent those decades under Israeli civilian control. Nor is that surprising when you examine what the PA teaches its children.
Earlier this month, IMPACT-SE released its latest study of Palestinian schoolbooks. Inter alia, it found, maps generally omit Israel, and even pre-1967 Israel is referred to as land under Israeli “occupation.” Jewish history in the Holy Land isn’t merely ignored, but actively erased: In one egregious example, the Jerusalem Post reported, “Hebrew letters are removed from a trilingual stamp from the British Mandate period.” Some books even actively promote jihad, like this line from an eighth-grade text: “Oh brother, the oppressors have exceeded all bounds and jihad and sacrifice are necessary.”
Last year, Palestinian Media Watch released its own study of Palestinian hate education, which noted that at least 25 schools are named for Palestinian terrorists, whom students are actively encouraged to view as role models. In a film shown on official PA television, for instance, one student at a school named for Dalal Mughrabi–perpetrator of the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history–said her “life’s ambition is to reach the level that the martyr fighter Dalal Mughrabi reached,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
Another clip from televised news in the PA showed a boy saying he learned in school to “fight the Jews, kill them and defeat them,” and another told children that Jews are “Satan with a tail.”
The report also contains chapters on incitement in Palestinian textbooks, educational materials glorifying Hitler, and the PA policy of blocking joint peace-building activities between Palestinian and Israeli children.
Moreover, what children learn in school is reinforced by nonstop incitement from PA officials and the PA-controlled media. Just this week, for instance, the PA Foreign Ministry accused a nonexistent Israeli rabbi of urging his followers to poison Palestinian wells, a libel PA President Mahmoud Abbas repeated in his speech to the European Parliament on Thursday. Also this week, the official PA television station broadcast a Ramadan program telling viewers that Nazareth, Haifa, Jaffa, and Acre–all cities in pre-1967 Israel–are part of “holy Palestine which is a waqf [Islamic trust]. Therefore it is forbidden to relinquish a single grain of its soil.” Last week, the PA education minister visited a school to “honor” the “martyr” who murdered an Israeli policewoman in February.

From the Berkeley Center for Race & Gender:

The UC Berkeley Center for Race & Gender is excited to announce the release of our third collaborative research report with The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) entitled, Confronting Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States.

The report has already been written up in The Guardian and probably elsewhere. It says that over $200 million was "accessible" over a five year period by groups dedicated to promoting hate for Muslims.

It lists a series of groups that it identifies as Islamophobic, both an "inner core" of hardcore Islamophobes and an "outer core" of supporting organizations to Islamophobia.

But it doesn't really describe how it categorized these groups to begin with.

For example, it describes MEMRI as one of its "Inner Core" of Muslim haters. Here's why:

On its website, MEMRI claims to “bridge the language gap between the West and the Middle East” by translating Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and other languages into English. Their translations have been widely criticized for inaccuracy and inflammatory misrepresentation.

How about another "Inner Core" group, the Middle East Forum?

According to its website, the Middle East Forum “works to define and promote American interests in the Middle East and protect Western values from Middle Eastern threats.” The group’s founder and director is Daniel Pipes, known as the grandfather of Islamophobia in the United States.

But Pipes says, over and over again, that moderate Islam is the solution to extremism. I have never seen anything inaccurate at MEF.

CAIR is offended at criticisms of terrorists and their enablers. And Berkeley's CRG accepts, without question, CAIR's criticisms.

But are those criticisms valid? Not at all. In these cases, the report accepts Muslim outrage at the truth as prima facie evidence of "Islamophobia."

The "Outer Core" includes outlets like Fox News and National Review, based on occasional comments or editorials that they deem "Islamophobic."

In other words, this 89 page report has no methodology to back up for its main accusations. If one is going to label an organization as "Islamophobic" one would need some actual evidence - what percentage of its articles attack Islam and Muslims in general, as opposed to radicals and extremists? Does it ever praise moderate Islam and Muslims?

The report claims that it is not against legitimate criticism of Islam:

Caveat: Questioning Islam or Muslims is Not Islamophobia It is not appropriate to label all, or even the majority, of those who question Islam and Muslims as Islamophobes. Equally, it is not Islamophobic to denounce crimes committed by individual Muslims or those citing Islam as a motivation for their actions.

But it gives no proof that (at least some of) the groups it calls out is doing anything other than legitimate criticism.

One of the main accusations that CAIR and others have against Zionists is that they use the charge of antisemitism too freely, and they use it as a club to shut down any criticism of Israel. But this is exactly what CAIR and Berkeley's CRG are doing, by defining at least some legitimate critics of radical Islam as haters - and therefore convincing people not to accept any valid criticism of today's Islamic world.

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It took a couple of days but the Arab media have noticed that Mahmoud Abbas gave a gift of a Zionist newspaper to King Salman.

Shehab News Agency writes:

In a resounding slap to the face of the to the heritage and history of the Palestinian people, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gifted Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz with a souvenir, a historic image of the first Zionist newspaper in Palestine "Palestine Post."

Abbas giving a copy of that paper to the Saudi king shows the level of the decline happening in Palestinian diplomacy, as try to change history and shun Palestinian heritage.

Who told Abbas to offer this scandalous gift? And how did it come about? How could he give a Zionist newspaper that has always aired its poison against our people?

This is going to get good.

As far as the answer to the question of Abbas shunning Palestinian heritage, well, it is not exactly the first time Palestinians have been forced to co-opt British and Jewish institutions as "Palestinian." After all, they didn't consider themselves "Palestinian" until well after the British Mandate of Palestine ended.

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From a press conference with Mahmoud Abbas and EU High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini:

We will also encourage different Palestinian factions to bring the ongoing reconciliation efforts to positive results on the basis of democracy and PLO principles and I know that President Abbas is personally very much committed to that.

What exactly are the "PLO principles"?

Whatever they are, they must be important. Mogherini was not the first to invoke this formula.

In January, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon "urged the Palestinian factions to advance unity on the basis of democracy and Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) principles."

In February, the Quartet said "genuine Palestinian unity, on the basis of democracy and the PLO principles, is essential to reuniting Gaza and the West Bank under one legitimate, democratic Palestinian authority."

I cannot find a listing of the PLO principles on any PLO website - not their UN website, not their Negotiations Affairs site, not in the official PLO website.

The only principles I can find are the ones in the 1968 PLO Charter that supports terror and demands that Israel be destroyed - and which had never been modified.

Plus the principles in the 1974 Phased Plan which included this part which is entirely consistent with how the PLO and PA acts now: "Any step taken towards liberation is a step towards the realization of the Liberation Organization's strategy of establishing the democratic Palestinian state specified in the resolutions of previous Palestinian National Councils" - meaning a step towards Israel's destruction.

If you want to find something more recent, perhaps the Draft Constitution of 2001 includes some principles. For example, this principle that effectively denies Jews the right to visit holy places because Jews just naturally disturb public order by breathing:

The freedom to practice religion and arrive to places of worship shall be guaranteed insofar as it does not disturb the public order or defame monotheistic religion.

(To be fair, they toned this down in the 2003 draft, which says "The state shall guarantee access to holy places that are subject to its sovereignty within the framework of law." - so what is the law? "the law shall regulate [the police] role in the service of the people, defense of the society, and vigilance in preserving security, public order, and public morals." Put them together and you get the 2001 statement.)

So exactly what are the PLO Principles of today? Shouldn't someone ask the EU, the UN and the Quartet since it is so obvious to them?

(h/t Irene)

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Administrivia part 2: Disqus now allows you to block people

From Disqus:

User blocking provides commenters with the ability to manage who they interact with on Disqus and better self-moderate in your community. Empowering commenters to shape their individual discussion experience, this decreases the reliance on site moderators to keep discussions civil.
Blocking someone removes their activity from your experience across the network. This means that you’ll no longer get notifications from them via email or in your Disqus Inbox, nor will you see discussions or comments by them in your Home feed or on discussion threads.

So now you can ignore the trolls across Disqus.

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06/22 Links Pt2: Jews and Israel in a threatened, leaderless and delusional world; Helen Mirren rejects boycott

From Ian:

Isi Leibler: Jews and Israel in a threatened, leaderless and delusional world

The painful lesson of the Orlando massacre is that no place in the world is immune to fanatical religious extremists willing to kill themselves to achieve heavenly salvation.
The Western world is floundering in its pathetic efforts to confront the demonic global forces threatening to plunge it back into the Dark Ages.
Its failure is largely due to the inability of democratic countries to face reality and devise a united strategy to vanquish these Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. Instead, Western leaders bury their heads in the sand and cravenly resort to policies of appeasement, even though there is not a single recorded historical instance in which a millennial terrorist force has modified its behavior in response to such an approach.
Europe, where major cities are suffering suicide attacks from crazed imported and home-grown Muslim terrorists, is now perversely absorbing millions of additional migrants from the Middle East killing fields – migrants ironically rejected by Islamic countries as security risks. The demography of Europe is being permanently altered but any rational discussion of the subject is immediately condemned as Islamophobic.
Contrary to all evidence, most West European governments continue to blame the Israeli-Palestinian impasse as the principle factor inflaming Islamic terrorism. Currently, the French government – France’s Muslim population is estimated to be over 15 percent and expanding dramatically – chooses to ignore the ongoing mayhem in the region and instead seeks to force Israel to retreat to the indefensible 1949 armistice lines.
Much of the current breakdown can be attributed to the influence of US President Barack Obama and the policies he initiated. His overriding objective was to build a bridge between the US and global Islam, and to this end he has fawned on leaders of rogue Islamic states and humiliated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a low-level adversary rather than treating him as an ally.

Pro-settlement NGO urges Brexit over EU’s West Bank policies

An Israeli pro-settlement group is campaigning for Britain to leave the EU, to punish Europe for what it says is the continent’s pro-Palestinian stance, one of its officials said on Sunday.
Regavim is a right-wing NGO that supports Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Its campaign includes a mock video of a masked Palestinian terrorist purportedly from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip urging UK citizens to remain in the European Union because it supports the Palestinians.
Meir Deutsch, director of policy and government relations for Regavim, said the NGO wanted to harm the EU over its “intervention in the internal conflict here between Israel and the Palestinians.”
The EU has helped finance various projects in the West Bank and Israel has regularly demolished those it considers illegal. The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority also receives financial assistance from the EU.
The mock video posted by Regavim on its campaign website shows masked terrorists with the logo of Hamas’ armed wing, the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and in the background a line in English that reads: “Hamas wants UK to stay in the EU.”

Hamas wants UK to stay in the EU (satire)

At this moment I expected to be boarding a plane to (Frankfurt and then) Israel. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that the rules for Israel are that if your passport is expiring within the next six months, you cannot travel there.

At least according to the Lufthansa people.

So I'm on my way back home from JFK and scrambling to see how quickly Mrs. Elder and I can renew our passports and get going. Right now it is a little up in the air. Hopefully I'll still make all my scheduled interviews and events.

One of those events is a talk I planned to give in a shul in Armon HaNetziv, Jerusalem on July 10 at 8:45 PM. Let me know if you are interested so I can get an idea of how many people might come.

Anyway, I've had better days.

But in the end most of the trip is dedicated to providing good, original content for EoZ. Last time we were in Israel we made some good video reports that are still popular. I always try to find interesting people or angles than others don't always find.

So this is a good time to consider donating to EoZ as rescheduling flights and getting emergency passport renewals takes a lot of money (and time.)

Hopefully this will all work out and things can get back on schedule, with your help.

Thanks!

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Hazan Complains MKs On Status Of Women Committee Ugly

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Jerusalem, June 22 - Likud lawmaker Oren Hazan courted controversy again today when he described the female members of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality as unattractive.

Hazan, who has a reputation for crudity, made the remarks following a Likud faction meeting. Several women legislators heard the statement, and said they intend to submit an ethics complaint.

"Those girls could learn a thing or two from Ayelet Shaked and Stav Shaffir," Hazan was heard to say. "Who is going to take these women seriously if they don't take their own looks seriously? I'm sorry, but I don't think the public wants to entrust its assets and its future to a group of hypocrites who pretend to care about the status of women but don't think the rules apply to them."

While the legislator spoke to no one in particular, assorted members of the Knesset clerical staff stared, transfixed, as Hazan held forth on the aesthetics of the women on the committee. Taking that as an invitation to continue, he gave a woman-by-woman breakdown of his opinion on the appearance of each female member of the committee.

"[Yesh Atid MK, Committee Chairwoman Aliza] Lavie, you could tell was attractive when she was younger, but she's already in her fifties, so forget it," he asserted. "I think it says something about the committee that they didn't choose the prettiest girl in the room, or even anyone in the top five. It's disgraceful, come to think of it."

"Then there's [Kulanu MK Merav] Ben-Ari, who might have had a half a chance a decade ago, but she's still single, at age forty-one," he continued. "That's just pathetic. And there's [MK Shuli Moalem]-Refaeli, who might have been kinda cute once upon a time, but she dresses all religious and has had seven kids, which takes a toll on a girl's looks. Dressing all modest-like doesn't undo stretch marks. You just have to be honest about that."

Hazan saved his most damning critique for last, lashing out at Joint Arab List MK Aida Touma-Sliman. "But Aida is the icing on the cake here," he added with rising tones. "Talk about ugly. The fact that she's widowed only strengthens the question for me of how anyone could have found her attractive, but there are freaks in every group, I guess. You'd think that someone with her relatively high economic status would have the brains to use that money for cosmetic surgery, or at least some diet and exercise plan."

The tirade ended when a young female parliamentarian passed by and Hazan went silent, looking her up and down approvingly.

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06/22 Links Pt1: Palestinian terror appeasers; UN makes world peace with yoga

From Ian:

Isi Leibler: West must emulate Israel

The ongoing threat of terror attacks is affecting political attitudes. With the Islamic extremists boasting of sleepers embedded in Western society and poised to inflict further attacks, much of the population has lost confidence in its leaders. A genuine revolt against the established order is reflected in the radical disillusionment emerging across the entire spectrum. In Western Europe, there is a dramatic rise in populist right-wing support, which is clearly a response to fears from Islamic terror, and in the U.S., the populist appeal of Trump on the Right and Sanders on the Left signify a revolt against all establishments.
In this constellation, despite all the challenges facing it, Israel is in a remarkably strong position. The U.S., the Europeans and the U.N. will undoubtedly continue pressuring and passing discriminatory resolutions demanding further unilateral territorial concessions that would undermine our security.
Netanyahu noted that the strength of shared values and popular support outweighs the tensions, and that the U.S. remains our closest ally. But we have also made extraordinary progress extending relations with countries beyond North America and Western Europe, such as India and China. The warmth exuded toward Israel and the Jewish people by Russia has been remarkable. The Algemeiner newspaper even suggested that Putin may use Russia's veto at the U.N. to protect Israel should the U.S. abandon it. I would not hold my breath for this.
Israel is better positioned today than at any time to resist those willing to sacrifice it in order to appease the jihadists. The reality is that in an increasingly tough world in which no city is immune from terrorism, Israel can provide an example of security that other countries could well emulate, and that may ultimately assume an important role in the effort to strategize and neutralize the global jihad.

Palestinian terror appeasers

Can we agree that the politically motivated murder of civilians enjoying a night out is terrorism? That’s the global consensus regarding the Orlando massacre and the Paris slaughter last fall, among other instances. Yet, two Palestinian terrorists murdering diners in Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market receives different treatment. The New York Times overlooked Tel Aviv and Jerusalem when writing: “Orlando now takes a place with Paris, Brussels, Beirut, Bamako, San Bernardino and other cities struck by different incarnations of terrorism.” Even more outrageous, the weekend Orlando murders occurred, a despicable Politico article was titled: “How Israel is inciting Palestinian violence.”
Overlooking terrorism against Israel resurrects Shakespeare’s question for Jews: “if you prick us do we not bleed?” Why is our suffering invisible? Blaming Israel for being targeted by terrorists turns Shakespearean tragedy into Orwellian perversity. How are Palestinians guilty of brutal terrorism absolved, leaving their victims, slaughtered while wining or dining or commuting or schmoozing, guilty of DWI – Dining While Israeli (or With Israelis)? I wonder, as an occasional Politico contributor, whether my esteemed editors would ever run a piece titled, “How the US is inciting ISIS violence” justifying Islamist murders of Americans by detailing American drone warfare.
Yes, there are triggers to events, even to lunatics’ actions. But the civilized world has justifiably walled off terrorism, saying, “no matter your motivation, targeting civilians in a peaceful setting to express grievances is evil” – and generalizing to hold a group accountable in that way is perverse – unless, it seems, Jews are targeted.

It is not the ‘occupation’

As the blood dried at the scene of the latest Tel Aviv massacre, the city’s mayor rushed to empathize with the terrorists’ motives.
“We might be the only country in the world where another nation is under occupation without civil rights,” he claimed. “You can’t hold people in a situation of occupation and hope they’ll reach the conclusion everything is alright.”
This prognosis was quickly followed by the usual Israeli “hope” peddlers.
“The terror will continue as long as the Palestinian people have no hope on the horizon,” argued a Haaretz editorial. “The only way to deal with terrorism is by freeing the Palestinian people from the occupation.”
But this precisely what Israel did 20 years ago.
The declaration of principles (DOP, or Oslo I) signed on the White House lawn in September 1993 by the PLO and the Israeli government provided for Palestinian self-rule in the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip for a transitional period not to exceed five years, during which Israel and the Palestinians would negotiate a permanent peace settlement. By May 1994, Israel had completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (apart from a small stretch of territory containing a small number of Israeli settlements that “occupied” not a single Palestinian and were subsequently evacuated in 2005) and the Jericho area of the West Bank. On July 1, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat made his triumphant entry into Gaza, and shortly afterward a newly- established Palestinian Authority (PA ) under his leadership took control of this territory.On September 28, 1995, despite the PA ’s abysmal failure to clamp down on terrorist activities in the territories under its control, the two parties signed an interim agreement, and by the end of the year Israeli forces had been withdrawn from the West Bank’s populated areas with the exception of Hebron (where redeployment was completed in early 1997). On January 20, 1996, elections to the Palestinian Council were held, and shortly afterward both the Israeli Civil Administration and military government were dissolved.
“What happened... in the territories is the Palestinian state,” gushed environment minister Yossi Sarid. “The Palestinian state has already been established.”

Hilarious: Abbas presents Saudi king with framed Zionist newspaper

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas gave a commemorative gift to Saudi King Salman on Sunday.

A framed copy of a 1930s-era Palestine Post.

Which was a Zionist paper and the precursor to today's Jerusalem Post.

You can't make this stuff up.

When did Abbas grow that third hand?

I actually found the date of the newspaper: August 13, 1935.

It details a visit by the Emir Saud to Palestine, which is why Abbas chose that date. But it also has stories that Abbas might not want the king to read, like "Lucerne Beehive of Activity as Zionist Delegates Arrive" and "Health Spas Ban All Jews" in Germany which was written by the very Jewish "Palestine Telegraphic Agency," or "Vienna Police Seek 2 Arabs" - not calling them "Palestinians" for some odd reason.

Why couldn't Abbas find a non-Zionist newspaper with "Palestine" in the title to show the King this article?

(h/t Yenta)

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In recent months there have been three or four Hamas members who have apparently defected to Israel, bringing with them vital information about the locations and logistics of Hamas tunnels.

The most recent was earlier this month when a major Hamas member with intimate knowledge of the tunnel systems, Bassam Mahmoud Baraka, turned himself and his family in to Israel during the first week of June.

Hamas is panicking.

According to an article in Al Asharq al Awsat quoted by Palestine Press Agency, there is no link between the defectors, with all of them coming from different areas and under different field leadership. Hamas cannot figure out any pattern and is therefore having a hard time identifying potential escapees.

Hamas has already instituted new rules keeping critical personnel away from the border so they cannot escape. Hamas is also concerned that recent tunnel collapses were the result of internal sabotage. The news report says that Hamas seems to have reached a dead-end in its internal investigations on this huge security breach.

The defectors are not only talking about the locations of the tunnels but also details on how they are being built and their features. For example, some tunnels have showers, toilets and kitchens so terrorists can stay underground for extended periods of time.

Hamas engaged in a massive recruiting effort to rebuild tunnels destroyed in the 2014 war and hired hundreds of young men to build them. Now its leaders are wondering if this was a good idea, as some of the defectors were new recruits (even children - one that gave valuable information to Israel was 17 years old.)

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Yesterday, B'Tselem tweeted:

While Palestinians suffer from severe water shortage, settlement swimming pools are full https://t.co/syD4emAPw1 pic.twitter.com/W8KRq9hylW
— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) June 21, 2016

The link goes to a Haaretz article by Amira Hass where Palestinians complain that settlements get all the water and none go to their communities in Judea and Samaria.

The Haaretz article didn't mention swimming pools once.

One person pointed out to B'Tselem public relations director Roy Yellin that Palestinian swimming pools happen to be full:

.@btselem It seems that Waterland in Jericho is opened for business. 30 Shekels for a full day pass. @elderofziyon pic.twitter.com/3oXpmWqaw4
— Mikarov (@YMikarov) June 21, 2016

Indeed it is open, along with numerous other Palestinian water parks and swimming pools.

Yellin simply could not understand how this is relevant right after he retweeted about settlement swimming pools:

@YMikarov @btselem @elderofziyon amusement parks and lux. hotels exist in the poorest places. What's your point?
— Roy Yellin (@ryellin) June 21, 2016

What possible point could there to point out that Palestinian swimming pools are full be right after he complains that Jews have swimming pools? It is a real mystery, I tell ya.

It just so happens that Yisrael Medad told me yesterday that Israel's water carrier Mekorot turned off the water altogether in his community at Shiloh.

That's right, Jewish settlements with no water in the hot summer months.

B'Tselem is not interested in truth. But this is how it raises all that European funds so it can give salaries to people like Yellin.

Truth becomes a burden when you need to pay for your own swimming pool.

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06/21 Links Pt2: The Time Has Come for UNRWA Reform; On wings of El Al, biblical sheep to end 3,000-year exile

From Ian:

The Time Has Come for UNRWA Reform: A Solution to the Palestinian Refugee Dilemma

This reality can be changed. Instead of just throwing money at UNRWA, donors could advance policies to improve the living conditions of UNRWA refugee residents and offer an alternative to the current “refugee status in perpetuity” and “right of return” mantra drummed into the minds of half a million UNRWA students. A new reform initiative could galvanize donor nations to overhaul six UNRWA policy challenges:

Ask for an audit of donor funds given to UNRWA. This would address widespread documented reports of wasted resources, duplicity of services and the undesired flow of cash to Gaza-based terror groups, which have gained control over UNRWA operations there for the past 18 years.

Introduce UNHCR standards to UNRWA, to advance the resettlement of Arab refugees after 67 years. Current UNRWA policy is that refugee resettlement would interfere with the “right of return” to Arab villages that existed before 1948.

Cancel the new UNRWA curriculum, which incorporates principles of jihad, martyrdom and a the “right of return” by force of arms.

Cease paramilitary training in all UNRWA schools. Should UNRWA, as a UN agency, not demonstrate a renewed commitment to UN principles to “peace education”?

Insist that UNRWA dismiss employees who are affiliated with Hamas, in accordance with laws on the books in western nations, which forbid aid to any agency that employs members of a terrorist organization.

Since UNRWA has recently hired a “youth ambassador” — Mohammad Assaf — to travel the world and encourage insurrection and violence, would this not be the appropriate time for donor nations to ask that UNRWA cancel that contract with a promoter of war?

At a time when Israel is pressed to launch a new diplomatic initiative, this is an opportunity to remove the stain of “Arab refugees in perpetuity” as a source of intergenerational incitement.
Remove the Arab refugee issue from the Middle East agenda, and you remove a root cause of violence in the Middle East.

An End-of-Semester Report Card for BDS-Supporting Students

Now that the academic year is over, it is high time to grade the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Like most evaluations, this one is subjective—but it should withstand close scrutiny.
Full disclosure: I am a committed Zionist. I believe Israel is a country that should proudly take its place among the world’s nations. However, I criticize Israeli policies regularly. I disagree with how Israel has handled its occupation of the West Bank. But, as a world citizen, I try to prioritize my rage at the world’s injustices. I try to maintain an intellectual rigor when it comes to oppression and violence. I do not believe the BDS movement does that. To the contrary, I believe the BDS movement allows Tibetans to languish under a brutal Chinese occupation, the Copts to be institutionally discriminated against in Egypt and the Kurds to remain oppressed and stateless—not to mention the systematic injustices against many others.
Now to the grades.
Historical Accuracy: D-
The BDS movement is premised on a historical accounting that contains cleverly construed omissions and distortions. Recently, I listened to an NPR broadcast on Nakba Day. (Nakba means “catastrophe” in Arabic; “Nakba Day” is a commemorative day observed every year by Palestinians on May 15, the day Israel was declared an independent country). In the discussion of the Palestinian loss of land, not once was it mentioned that the United Nations had voted in 1947 to partition Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. In explaining the 1948 War, there was another omission: the attack on the newly born state of Israel by five Arab armies. The BDS historical narrative espoused by students on campus depicts the birth of Israel as an unprovoked, imperialist land grab. According to this erroneous reading of history, in 1967 another unprovoked Jewish attack seized even more land (rather than this capture of land being the result of a war). Other territorial partitions accepted by the international community, such as that of India and Pakistan, are ignored. If quizzed on what happened in 1947, 1948 or 1967, I imagine 90 percent of BDS-supporting students would have no clue about these basic historical facts. (h/t messy57)

JCPA: Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism: Same Idea, New Cloak

This correlation is substantiated in the findings of the AMCHA initiative report of 2016 about U.S. colleges. That report shows:

Strong correlation between anti-Zionist student groups such as “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP) and anti-Semitism,

Strong correlation between the presence of faculty who have expressed public support for an academic boycott of Israel and anti-Semitism,

BDS activity strongly correlates with anti-Semitic activity,

Presence of SJP, faculty boycotters and BDS are strong predictors of anti-Semitism,

Anti-Zionism permeates and is inseparable from contemporary campus anti-Semitism.

Yet, a deeper analysis of the similarities and the differences between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism requires thorough understanding of the broad perspective and context of the effort to delegitimize the existence of the nation state of the Jewish people in its ancestral homeland, which is the purpose and the realization of Zionism. The complex DNA and the ideological and political substructure of this delegitimization campaign, one of whose expressions is the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement, is constituted on the one hand in the Palestinian leadership’s 100 year old terror and ideological warfare against Zionism and its realization in the state of Israel and on the other hand in the extreme radical thinking and the ongoing anti-Semitic feelings in certain radical groups in the West.
As a matter of fact, delegitimization of Israel represents two ideas which are not mutually exclusive. First, it is a manifestation of a modern form of anti-Semitism. In the past hatred of the Jews and their discrimination and persecution were justified by false religious and later on racial argumentations, which are totally inconceivable today. Nowadays this attitude is justified by national argumentation claiming that the Jews should be treated differently from all other nations and that their state represents evil because of both the injustice embedded in its creation and prolonged existence and the horrible nature of the Jews who live there, and therefore its existence is unjustified and illegitimate.

Iran freaks out at Bahrain

From Iran's Tasnim News Agency:

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) strongly condemned the Manama regime’s decision to strip Shiite cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim of his Bahraini citizenship, saying the move will trigger a crushing uprising against the ruling regime and accelerate its downfall.

In a statement on Tuesday, the IRGC took a swipe at the “racist” Al Khalifa dynasty for its “inhumane measure” to revoke the prominent cleric’s citizenship, saying the move runs counter to Islamic values and internationally-recognized norms and is at odds with the dignity of the Arab world people and the Bahraini nation.

The decision is a result of “the anti-Islam strategies of the hegemonic and Zionist system and a plot hatched by the Al Saud,” it added.

The statement went on to say that such an unwise move by the Al Khalifa family will “fan the flames of Bahrain’s Islamic revolution” and trigger a “crushing uprising” against the ruling regime.

The shaky foundations of the US protégées will soon collapse with the will of the Bahraini nation, it underscored.

The IRGC then gave a warning to the rulers of the “illegitimate Al Khalifa regime” that if they do not stop pursuing “Zionist-favored adventurism” and fail to acknowledge the rightful demands of the Bahraini people, they will have to suffer the same fate as that of the late dictators in some other Muslim countries.

Bahrain said Monday that the citizenship of Sheikh Qassim has been revoked, accusing him of sowing sectarian divisions.

Al Jazeera adds:

Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia group, said the decision would have "grave consequences", while Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, gave a warning of armed resistance to Bahrain's rulers.

In a statement published by Fars news agency, Soleimani said: "The Al Khalifa [rulers of Bahrain] surely know their aggression against Sheikh Isa Qassim is a red line that crossing it would set Bahrain and the whole region on fire, and it would leave no choice for people but to resort to armed resistance.

"Al Khalifa will definitely pay the price for that and their blood-thirsty regime will be toppled."

So Iran and its proxies are essentially threatening to start a violent revolution in Bahrain.

If only Israel would make more concessions to Palestinians, we wouldn't have these problems in the Middle East.

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