Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 05, 2016

Palestinian activist struggles to explain why his cause is more important than Syria (video)

We've been mentioning how the Arab world seems sick of the Palestinian issue.

Now that fatigue, which had been confined to behind-the-scenes decisions on funding, is starting to spill over into popular media.

From MEMRI:

During a July 24 interview on the Syrian opposition Orient News TV channel, host Dima Wannous asked her guest, Muhammad Masharqa, spokesman for the Free Palestinian-Syrian Assembly, why the Palestinian cause remained "the world's number one cause" over the years, even though the total number of Palestinians displaced equaled the number of people who fled Syria and Iraq in the past three months. Masharqa's response that the establishment of the state of Israel "was a colonialist enterprise with Western goals" did not satisfy Wannous, who said that unlike the Palestinians, the Syrians would not have forgiven Saddam his crimes against his own people merely for fighting their enemy. The Free Palestinian-Syrian Assembly, which was established in May in Gaziantep, Turkey, emphasizes Palestinian involvement in the Syrian revolution.

Dima Wannous: "Why has the (Palestinian cause) become the world's number one cause? I mean, the calamities of the other Arab nations over the years were no less tragic than the tragedy of the Palestinian people."

Muhammad Masharqa: "You can look at it from another perspective. The colonialist enterprise that brought about the state of Israel did not target only the Palestinian people but the entire Arab region. All the destruction in the Arab world can be traced back to the fact that there is an advanced post in the region for the colonialist powers, and it is called 'the state of Israel.'"

[...]

Dima Wannous: "In 1948, the years of the Nakba, the Palestinian people were driven out of their homes and their land. Approximately 750,000 people were displaced. You know the figures better than me. 750,000 Palestinians were displaced, only 150,000 of whom were expelled from Palestine. The others remained in their historical homeland, although in different places. If you take the total figure of 750,000, this is equal to the number of people who fled Syria and Iraq in the past three months. I repeat the question in another way, because you did not answer me the first time. Why is the Palestinian cause the world's number one cause?"

Muhammad Masharqa: "It is not the world's number one cause..."

Dima Wannous: "Well, after five years, many Syrians are asking why their cause has already been forgotten by most people. Moreover, the Palestinians are blaming the Syrians that their revolution is Islamic, and has failed to produce any free democratic ideology. They say that the Syrian revolution emerged from the mosques, and so on. How come yours is the world's number one cause? With all the great crimes perpetrated by the Israeli enemy - how many people were killed in the Palestinian 'Land Day?' You know better than me. Six people were killed. That's what I've read."

Muhammad Masharqa: "Look, it is important to seek answers in history. In what context was Israel established? Was the context Palestinian or did it pertain to the entire region? From this perspective... It constituted... It cooperated with the Apartheid regime in South Africa, and with other forms of colonization equipped with a myth. But it had clear political and economic goals right from the start. The centrality of the Palestinian cause stems from this. This is an objective thing. It is not because the Palestinians were good at propaganda."

Dima Wannous: "In other words, you've benefitted from the enemy being Jewish and Israeli..."

Muhammad Masharqa: "No, it was a colonist enterprise with Western goals."

[...]

Dima Wannous: "Saddam Hussein was idolized by the masses for firing 36 or 39 Scud missiles at Tel Aviv, while he was perpetrating crimes on a daily basis against his own people. The Palestinian greatly appreciated Saddam Hussein for this deed. If we want to talk about the Palestinians' approach to the liberation of the peoples, is it conceivable for them to support a murderer, an arch-killer, a dictator - all the foul terms apply to these leaders - just because he fired missiles at Tel Aviv? What about the (Iraqi) people?"

Muhammad Masharqa: "Consider this within the context of the historical culture of this nation, since the Prophet Muhammad and to this day. This culture still views the individual leader... All the people evoke the image of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, whom we consider to be just caliph..."

Dima Wannous: "You are talking about people in general, but I'm talking about the Palestinians."

Muhammad Masharqa: "The Palestinian culture did not land from another planet..."

Dima Wannous: "It's not, but on this issue, it is different, because the Syrians would not have fallen in love with Saddam - if he were still alive - if he had started fighting the Syrian regime..."

Muhammad Masharqa: "That's just the way Arab Islamic culture is. Since the days of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab... We talk about Saladin, the savior, the hero, the inspiring leader. This is the culture of Arabs. This is the Arab-Islamic culture."

[...]

Dima Wannous: "Most of the Palestinians today support Hassan Nasrallah, considering him to be an instrument of liberation, but today, Hassan Nasrallah is doing his 'liberation' in Aleppo, not Palestine."

Muhammad Masharqa: "Who has the statistics...?"

Dima Wannous: "It's not about statistics. We watch and read what's going on. Obviously, I can't go one by one and ask each Palestinian for his opinion."

Muhammad Masharqa: "In my view, this generalization is inaccurate. Like all the people on Earth, the Palestinians are divided on these issues."

Wannous makes an important point that is all but ignored in the West: most of the victims of the so-called "naqba" were not refugees because they stayed in "Palestine," so they would have been considered "displaced persons" in today's language.

Syria has millions of those.

(h/t Yoel)

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ICRC to close office in Jerusalem after Palestinians attack

Every once in a while, Palestinian protesters attack the offices of the ICRC in Jerusalem, mostly to complain about not seeing their terrorist relatives in prison often enough.

A few weeks ago the Red Cross announced that it would cut the sponsored visits in half, causing great anger.

Apparently, a protest turned violent on Wednesday evening, although I cannot find any news stories about it. Nevertheless, the ICRC announced that they will suspend operations in their Jerusalem location as a result of the protesters breaking into their offices, and will not work until the safety of their employees is assured, starting on Sunday.

Relatives of terrorists turning violent? What a surprise.

No one reporting it? What a surprise again.

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08/04 Links Pt2: Clinton And Trump Must Honour Bush-Congress Commitments; Arabs Must Turn a New Page with Israel

From Ian:

David Singer: Israel – Clinton And Trump Must Honour Bush-Congress Commitments

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have yet to signal their readiness to honour the commitments made by President Bush in his letter dated 14 April 2004 to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Bush’s letter – overwhelmingly endorsed by the House of Representatives 407:9 on 23 June 2004 and the Senate 95:3 the next day – supported Israel’s proposed unilateral disengagement from Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank.
Bush further reassured Israel that in final status negotiations with the Palestinian Authority America would support Israel:

not returning to the 1949 armistice lines

demanding recognition as the Jewish state

refusing Palestinian Arab refugees being resettled in Israel

Bush’s assurances were absolutely crucial to Israel resuming negotiations with the Palestinian Authority – Israel’s then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert telling world leaders gathered with Bush at Annapolis on 27 November 2007:
“The negotiations will be based on previous agreements between us, UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the Roadmap and the April 14th 2004 letter of President Bush to the Prime Minister of Israel.”

Fred Maroun: Arabs Must Turn a New Page with Israel

We must look at Israel not as foreign presence, which it is not, but as a unique and remarkable component of the Middle East that enriches the region.
The creation of such a Palestinian state under today's conditions is likely to result in a Hamas-dominated state that is violently hostile towards Israel. The Palestinian Authority must be transitioned into a peaceful and stable entity before it can be expected to run a state.
Binyamin Netanyahu recently suggested an approach to make the peace initiative work, but Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi rejected it out of hand. This is not how harmonious relationships between nations are built.
"We must all rise above all forms of fanaticism, self-deception and obsolete theories of superiority." — Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat, 1977.

UK's Labour Whitewashes Its Anti-Semitism

The Chakrabarti Report was a missed opportunity, the importance of which extends far beyond the parlous state of the Labour Party or the wider British Left. Across Europe, Islamist assassins and vandals are targeting Jewish schools, businesses, museums, synagogues, cemeteries, and kosher food establishments. It has become a cliché that a wave of anti-Semitism is washing over Europe.
Some on the Left have taken notice. Four days after the murder of four Jewish hostages during the siege of the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris, France’s Socialist Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, described “the intolerable rise in acts of anti-Semitism in France” as a “symptom of a crisis of democracy [and] the French Republic.” But such urgent and necessary diagnoses from the political Left have been notable for their scarcity.
For the most part, the Left has remained stubbornly indifferent, retreating into denial and moral cowardice or, worse, advancing boldly into outright complicity. In the name of anti-racism, anxieties about Muslim immigration and intolerance are routinely denounced as xenophobic bigotry. In the name of Palestinian solidarity, responsibility for lethal anti-Semitism is routinely laid at the feet of an Israeli government held to be insufficiently dedicated to the pursuit of peace. And in the radical Leftist circles in which Jeremy Corbyn moves, Islamists are routinely embraced by politicians and human rights activists who insist on mistaking a politics of hatred and supremacism for a principled opposition to Western Imperialism and Israeli policy in disputed territory.
The Chakrabarti Report is a paradigmatic example of this political and moral failure. As I have argued in a previous essay for The Tower, hostility to Israel and Zionism has roots in Left-wing ideologies and axioms that stretch back decades, and it is this history that ought to have been the focus of Chakrabarti’s inquiry. But its evasions and obfuscations are a product of those ideologies and axioms, a symptom of the very problem it purports to explore. It was, in short, an inquiry that was always intended to go precisely nowhere.

EoZTV: Harold Rhode: How Islam Can Reform

It won't be easy, and it may need a catastrophic event to trigger the change, but it is possible.

And Egypt's president wants to see it happen.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

Hasia Diner and Marjorie N. Feld, two academics, intellectuals and Jews, recently published a manifesto of sorts, entitled “We’re American Jewish historians. This is why we’ve left Zionism behind.”

The existence of yet another two Jewish intellectuals who despise the Jewish state is not news. Their justifications for it and for the “repulsion” (Diner’s word) they feel for Israel are thoroughly eviscerated here by Richard Landes, who points out that instead of actual arguments, all they have are “Palestinian myths – which they have allowed to colonize their minds, and which they regurgitate without any critical thinking at all.” And see Elder of Ziyon’s comments here.

But what makes good scholars, which I am assured that Diner and Feld are, incapable of critical thinking in their own discipline?

For Feld and others like her (but not Diner), the answer is simple: their cowardice in the face of pressure from their friends and colleagues has paralyzed them, causing them to put aside their analytical abilities in favor of joining the herd. When faced with the need for a fight-or-flight response, they choose to fly.

Feld’s own words explicitly describe her terror at being perceived as a political outlier:

From non-Jews I met in liberal and left organizations in college, I first heard strong critiques of Zionism as Western colonialism, as a militarist project, as racism. Very smart friends of mine were articulating these critiques, and they made me terrifically uncomfortable.

A feminist scholar I met at a conference asked me directly if I considered myself a Zionist, and I gave an indirect answer. Her anger became palpable. She nearly shouted: “You’ve read Chomsky, haven’t you?” I had not yet read Noam Chomsky’s writings on Israel, I confessed. As I recall she turned away and didn’t speak to me again that evening. That might be hyperbole, or more likely my own sense of shame. [my emphasis]

She responded by volunteering for re-education, like a good Stalinist:

I reeducated myself, stopping to look at all of the facts that I had bumped up against for years. The 1947 radio broadcast of the votes at the UN that declared the Jewish people had a home and would never face genocide again: I had listened to this recording and this interpretation dozens of times in the sites of my Jewish education. Now I interpreted it anew. The founding of Israel was the Nakba, the great catastrophe, for Palestinians, with ethnic cleansing, destruction, and no right of return.

The utter irrationality of her conversion is shown by the way this historian ignores the fact that the 1947 partition resolution called for a Jewish and an Arab state, which the Arabs rejected, and that the nakba followed the invasion of Palestine by Arab armies.

Diner’s motivations are something else entirely. Her remarks in this short manifesto tell us only that she had “read too much about colonialism and racism to maintain what I now see as a naïve view…” Her romantic vision from summer camp in 1958 of Israel as a socialist paradise was dispelled not only by the acquisition of territory in 1967, but by her belief that Israel has been a colonialist and racist enterprise from its founding. There is no doubt that Diner read Chomsky, early and often. Unlike Feld, she has not been terrorized: she is more likely to be the one who terrorizes.

While she opposes an academic boycott of Israel (at least she did in 2015), she calls Israel “a place that I abhor visiting, and to which I will contribute no money, whose products I will not buy, nor will I expend my limited but still to me, meaningful, political clout to support it.” She does not see BDS as essentially antisemitic, and she is a member of the Academic Council of Open Hillel, an organization calling for university Hillel groups to partner with groups promoting BDS.

In case you haven’t read the BDS movement’s manifesto, it calls for the dismantling of the Jewish state’s defenses, its transformation into a binational state, and the entry of millions of descendents of Arab refugees into Israel. Supporting BDS simply means supporting the end of Israel, probably a quite bloody end. There are no “moderate BDSers.”

Diner does not believe that Israel has a responsibility to help or defend Jewish communities in need, nor does she feel any responsibility as a Diaspora Jew to defend Israel. She sees Diaspora Jewry as a vital entity that does not need Israel to survive, and resents Israeli expectations of support from it. She feels shame as a Jew and as an American citizen for Israel’s behavior (I presume that she means both Israel’s “racist and colonialist” character and her attempts to defend herself).

She wants “daylight” between Israel and the Diaspora, but at the same time feels responsible for Israel’s actions.

I think there is a process underway here analogous to a young adult breaking away from her parents and making her own way in the world – sometimes in a direction different from what the parent had in mind.

Israel was born of the Diaspora-based Zionist movement. The Jews that built theyishuv, then established the state and then defended it, began as indistinguishable from Diaspora Jews and totally dependent on them. They spoke Yiddish, Russian and Polish at first, and transplanted the ideology of the youth movements of Europe to the new land.

Little by little, a new Hebrew-speaking culture developed, along with a Hebrew politics. Immigration of Jews from all over the world – which Diner sees as destructive to their home Diaspora communities – enriched the Israeli culture, and created a whole which was more than the sum of the Diaspora parts. Diner prefers a multicultural Diaspora to a “homogenized” Israel, but her multicultural paradise lacks two essential ingredients for Jewish survival: the ability to protect itself and a birthrate above the replacement level.

Like any parent-child relationship, the end of dependency puts pressure on the relationship. Diner is uncomfortable with what she perceives as our value system and she doesn’t understand at all (despite her studies in Chomskyism) our security situation and relationship to the Arabs. It bothers her that we didn’t keep the collectivist economy that she prefers, and she doesn’t grasp the way Israelis relate to Judaism. Many other Diaspora Jews have similar feelings. The tension makes them do destructive things, like Diner’s flirtation with BDS.

But the child has grown up, moved out and started her own family. Israel has her own priorities, her own values and traditions, her own bank account and her own politics.

It’s time for the Diaspora to realize that, to worry about the considerable problems in its own communities and to let go of its feeling of ownership and its need to control the state that it gave birth to.

You say that you’ve left Zionism behind, and that’s fine – as long as you don’t adopt anti-Zionism in its place, and don’t assist those who want to wipe us out.

Much as it irritates the hell out of you, Israel will be here if you need her.

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08/04 Links Pt1: Hamas 'infiltrated int'l Gazan aid group,' stole tens of millions of dollars; When ‘Savage’ Is Too Kind a Word for a Palestinian Terrorist

From Ian:

Israel charges senior Gaza aid worker with funneling tens of millions to Hamas

Over the course of several years, the Hamas terrorist organization siphoned off “tens of millions of dollars” from the US-based World Vision charity for its military wing, the Shin Bet security service said Thursday.
Those funds — allegedly 60 percent of the charity’s total budget — were used to purchase weapons, dig tunnels and construct military installations for Hamas, investigators said.
Muhammad Halabi, a Hamas member and manager of operations for World Vision in Gaza, was indicted on a number of security-related charges in a Beersheba court on Thursday for his role in the alleged scheme. He was arrested in a joint Shin Bet-IDF-Israel Police operation at the Erez Crossing on June 15 as he tried to return to the Strip, the Shin Bet said.
Halabi, a member of Hamas from a young age, was handpicked to infiltrate the international charity in 2005 in order to steal money for the terrorist organization, according to the investigation.
“This was a meaningful and important investigation that showed — above all — the cynical and crude way in which Hamas takes advantage of funds and resources from international humanitarian aid organizations,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.
In a statement released following the indictment, World Vision defended Halabi and denied the allegations against him.

Israeli minister: Gaza charity likely ‘turned blind eye’ to terror funding

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan on Thursday warned that the links between terrorist organizations and aid groups in the Gaza Strip are substantial, and urged donor states to ensure that their money does not end up in the hands of terrorists.
“I imagine that in the World Vision organization, which is very anti-Israeli, they turned a blind eye,” Erdan told Army Radio after a senior Palestinian aid worker in Gaza was indicted for allegedly funneling millions of dollars in donations to the Hamas terror group.
“The connections that were uncovered today are part of a much wider and very serious phenomenon,” Erdan said.
“Israel will not permit this, and we will take action against these organizations and their activists,” he said. “We expect donor countries and international organizations to carefully check the destination of the money.”
The Shin Bet security service said earlier Thursday that the Hamas terrorist organization siphoned off “tens of millions of dollars” from the US-based World Vision charity over a period of several years, using the money to fund its military wing.

Palestinians proud of sewer covers that say "Palestine"

This has been going around social media for at least six months:

People on Facebook and Twitter are saying that this is proof that "Palestine is for the people of Palestine, no matter what they tried, history can not be erased."

Let's look closer at the image.

P.W.D. stands for Public Works Department. It was created in 1921 by British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel.

As with all public institutions, in 1948 it transitioned to become Israel's Public Works Department. There is nothing Arab about it.

In fact, in 1937 Arab rioters attacked a P.W.D. location.

In 1996, Israel issued a stamp to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the P.W.D., emphasizing its role in building Israel's roads..

There are other sewer covers from before 1948 that don't exactly point to an Arab nation of Palestine:

So who is erasing history again?

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From JPost:

Hamas infiltrated a large international aid organization operating in Gaza and redirected tens of millions of dollars - 60 percent - of the organization's budget to its military wing, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced on Thursday, following an investigation that lasted almost two months.

The World Vision organization, which operates in 100 countries and employs 46,000 people, fell victim to a complex, pre-planned Hamas takeover scheme, a senior Shin Bet source said, adding that Hamas's military wing stole 7.2 million dollars a year from the budget, aimed at food, humanitarian assistance, and aid programs for disabled children, and channeling the funds to weapons acquisitions, tunnel building, and other preparations for war with Israel.

The source named Gazan civil engineer Muhammad Halabi, who has been heading World Vision's Gaza branch, as the operative who infiltrated the organization in 2005, rising through its ranks to become head of the branch in 2010.

"The scope of the infiltration by Hamas to this international organization is an unusual event," the Shin Bet source said. "It reveals a certain pattern," he added.

World Vision was unaware of the fact that it was being exploited to channel funds towards war, the source stressed.

When Halabi was arrested in June, World Vision issued a statement:

World Vision stands by Mohammad who is a widely respected and well regarded humanitarian, field manager and trusted colleague of over a decade. He has displayed compassionate leadership on behalf of the children and communities of Gaza through difficult and challenging times, and has always worked diligently and professionally in fulfilling his duties.

World Vision boasts of how transparent its fundraising is:

If this organization was infiltrated and used to send tens of millions to Hamas,. how many other NGOs are doing the same?

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From Asharq al Awsat:

An official from the Fatah Movement headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinians are requesting an apology from Tehran after some Iranian officials had offended Abbas who had met with leading Iranian opposition figure Maryam Rajavi last Saturday.

A Palestinian official, who wished to remain anonymous, was surprised about the attack launched by Iran following Abbas’ meeting with Rajavi, and said it was not their first meeting and that it had no political dimensions.

Following Abbas’ meeting with Rajavi on Saturday, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the president only updated Rajavi on the latest developments in the Palestinian territories and the Middle East.

Sources from the Fatah Movement told Asharq Al-Awsat that Palestinians did not want to deepen the crisis, however, they insist on receiving an apology, as previously voiced by Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary General Saeb Erekat who said Palestinian leaderships would not remain silent vis-à-vis the Iranian insults. [Erekat now denies making that demand - EoZ]

Tehran had strongly lashed out at Abbas during the past few days for meeting with Rajavi in Paris over the weekend. A top adviser to the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hussein Sheikh al-Islam, said the Palestinian leader “has been a collaborator with the Central Intelligence Agency for a long time.”

Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei said in a post on his Instagram account on Monday that Abbas was the most incompetent individual in the Fatah party.

Iran not only attacked Abbas, but had also asked its Palestinian allies to join the campaign.

The Alliance of Palestinian Forces in Syria issued a statement describing the meeting of Abbas with Rajavi as “a stab to the Palestinian-Iranian relations.”

Fatah strongly replied to the Iranian attack by accusing Tehran of creating division between Palestinians.

“They have vied and are still vying to destroy and ruin the Palestinian people,” a statement carried by Fatah said.

It added: “A careful reading of adviser to the Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Sheikh al-Islam’s statements make it clear to us of the horror that many people are carrying out to serve the Zionist project through organized campaigns against the president of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian issue.”

Fatah isn't the only one accusing Iran of Zionist ties:

Meanwhile, Mohammad Mohaddessin, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) accused Tehran of sending 80,000 members from its armed forces to Syria.

He said: “Terrorists linked to them (Iranian regime) were performing the ugliest crimes in several regional countries, including Bahrain.”

Asked about the accusations launched by Iran against other regional states for collaborating with Israel, Mohaddessin said: “Tehran used to buy weapons from Israel during the Iraqi-Iranian war.”

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Keffiyeh cultural appropriation news

It's been a while since I looked at Jewish versions of the keffiyeh, which always drive Palestinians and their fans crazy. Because, of course, the keffiyeh symbolizes "resistance" and if you are not a supporter of blowing up Jews, you do not deserve to wear it. ("Did these fashionista hipsters sport the Keffiyeh when the intifadah popped off to show support?")

To add insult to injury, an early manufacturer of an Israeli-style keffiyeh now makes keffiyeh tallitot - Jewish prayer shawls. (And keffiyeh tzitzit, as well.)

I haven't seen any complaints about that yet, but perhaps the haters haven't heard about it.

Last February, Mondoweiss became very indignant about an Israeli designer who used keffiyeh patterns to make sexy clothing ("eroticizes the Palestinian keffiyeh.")

The red dress is not based on the Palestinian keffiyeh pattern at all, but the Jordanian one. Not that Philip Weiss would know the difference:

I can’t imagine Dodo Bar Or is considering the sentiments of 20 percent of the Israeli population, let alone the millions under occupation a few miles away. Many are sure to be offended by these clothes.

No, Phil wanted to manufacture some outrage on behalf of the eternally outraged. The shop has been selling these patterns in Tel Aviv for 18 months and I haven't seen any protests from Israeli Arabs, much as Weiss wants them to.

There was also no outrage about "cultural appropriation" when an Arab non-Palestinian created a bulletproof keffiyeh in Lebanon:

Perhaps the most iconic of Arab clothing items, the keffiyeh now takes on a sinister new symbolism in bulletproof form.

Beirut-based architect Salim al-Kadi fashioned the “K29 Keffiyeh” - featured during this summer's Beirut Design Week - from Kevlar, a synthetic material used in bulletproof vests. According to Dezeen Magazine, al-Kadi smuggled the material into Lebanon, where a woman living in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp then hand-wove it into the headscarf’s traditional fishnet pattern.

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08/03 Links Pt2: IDF reservists group takes stance against Haaretz; Stuff that Israel-Haters Say

From Ian:

Palestinian Olympians deserve better than Jibril Rajoub

‘The goal of Olympism,” proclaims the Olympic Charter, “is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”
Well, that’s one approach. Jibril Rajoub takes a somewhat different view.
Rajoub, a longtime senior official of Fatah, the militant Palestinian faction founded by Yasser Arafat, harshly condemns efforts to promote good will through athletics, at least when the athletes include Israelis. “Any activity of normalization in sports with the Zionist enemy,” he declares, “is a crime against humanity.”
When the Peres Center for Peace hosted a soccer match between Palestinian and Israeli kids in 2014, the children enjoyed themselves immensely — “I love it when we play together like this,” 11-year-old Qusay, a Palestinian boy, told an AFP reporter. But Rajoub was furious. It was “a disgrace to use sports for this purpose,” he thundered, and issued a “demand that all individuals and institutions distance themselves from such activities.” He was equally implacable when the president of the Barcelona Football Club, during a good-will tour of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, proposed a match between the renowned Spanish team and a squad of Israeli and Palestinian players.
“Impossible, impossible!” exclaimed Rajoub in a Palestinian TV interview. “Impossible that there be any sport-related contact with the Israeli side, in any situation.”

Honest Reporting: Stuff that Israel-Haters Say

Atlantic Columnist Jeffrey Goldberg Sparks Twitter Frenzy With Harsh Criticism of ‘Hateful’ Haaretz Invective Against Israel

A renowned liberal American columnist announced on Tuesday that he was done reading the left-wing Israeli daily Haaretz, due to its “sub-par” articles and “hateful invective” against Israel, which, he said, is exploited by antisemites to illustrate the ills of the Jews and the Jewish state.
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, famous in particular for his highly publicized one-on-one interviews with US President Barack Obama, aroused the ire of Haaretz reporters and editors when he tweeted his intention to take a breather from the publication, explaining his move by linking to a recent op-ed in the paper titled, “We’re American Jewish Historians. This Is Why We’ve Left Zionism Behind,” written by Hasia Diner and Marjorie N. Feld.
When called to task by an angry Haaretz reporter, Anshel Pfeffer, Goldberg responded: “Look, when neo-Nazis are e-mailing me links to Haaretz op-eds declaring Israel to be evil, I’m going to take a break, sorry.” This tweet was accompanied by a link to a piece by notorious Israeli far-Left columnist Gideon Levy, titled: “Stop living in denial, Israel is an evil state.”

@AnshelPfeffer Look, when neo-Nazis are e-mailing me links to Haaretz op-eds declaring Israel to be evil, I’m going to take a break, sorry.
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) August 2, 2016
After Haaretz readers and writers continued to attack Goldberg for his criticism, he tweeted: “I like a lot of the people at Haaretz, and many of its positions, but the cartoonish anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism can be grating.”

IDF reservists group takes stance against Haaretz

The IDF reservists group Reservists at the Front is taking aim at the Haaretz newspaper as part of its new campaign against the international boycott movement against Israel, which launches on Wednesday.
The campaign will distribute 20,000 copies of a publication similar in design to Haaretz, containing a selection of anti-Israel articles published by that newspaper. The items featured include calls by Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken to the international community to pressure Israel; headlines such as "Israel is an evil state"; "Human beasts, child killers"; and "Judeo-Nazis," and columns by Gideon Levy and other writers. The pamphlet bears the slogan: "Stay in Israel, leave Haaretz behind," which in the original Hebrew is a play on words.
According to Reservists at the Front, Haaretz has become a mouthpiece for hateful propaganda against the State of Israel and the IDF. The group argues that supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement frequently use reports and items from the paper to demonize Israel.
"The BDS [movement] often uses these articles, and it's important that the public know that," explains Maj. Amit Deri (ret.), chairman of Reservists at the Front.

Mamdouh Hamza, an Egyptian professor and political activist, wrote a series of tweets that were discussed by the Misr5 news site.

Hamza was discussing a rumored proposed law where Egypt would sell citizenship to people who wanted it, in order to raise badly-needed cash.

But Hamza i very concerned about this alleged law. You see, Jews could become citizens of Egypt and use this to turn Egypt into an Israeli colony to fulfill the Biblical requirement that the Jewish state go from the Nile to the Euphrates. They will do this by reclaiming the land that was taken from them when they were forced out of Egypt in the 1950s and 1960s. Somehow they will become citizens in such high numbers that they can overturn Egyptian laws that confiscated their land, even though there are far more Egyptians than there are Jews in the world.

But then the Jews will do something sneakier. They will buy the land from Rafah to El Arish and turn that into a Palestinian state! Even though they will have a Greater Israel, for some reason they will want to give some of that away so the Palestinians would have no claim to the territories and forfeit their "right to return."

And this is not a crackpot. He is a respected activist and academic. The newspaper felt that his tweets merited an article, and it wasn't a sarcastic one.

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Unprecedented Trouble For 2016 Games Definitely Mossad's Doing (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Rio de Janeiro, August 3 - This year's Olympic Summer Games, scheduled to open on August 5, have seen a level of controversy and mismanagement unmatched in all prior Olympiads, leading observers to conclude that only the Israeli secret intelligence service could have coordinated such a confluence of misfortune.

Pollution, corruption, political instability, violent crime, infrastructure problems, doping scandals, and other troubles have plagued Rio de Janeiro's bid for the 2015 Summer Olympic Games since even before the International Olympic Committee named the city as the venue for the event, but experts believe that mere South American incompetence does not sufficiently explain the extent to which the Rio games have become a quagmire of ineptitude and poor execution. Instead, or in addition, a number of commentators point to the Mossad as the only factor capable of surreptitiously engineering such a mess.

"I'll be the first to agree that anyone who comes from south of the Rio Grande isn't capable of managing things," explained Dr. David Duke, an expert on security and ethnic relations. "But dog carcasses and old tires littering the ocean near Rio, threatening the proper conduct of surfing and sailing events and endangering the health of the participating athletes? That takes things far beyond the familiar notions of Latin American clumsiness and laziness and into the realm of malice aforethought. And I think we all know who stands to gain from disaster on an international scale."

"Just look at what happened the last time there was such a problem at the games," concurred Jibril Rajoub, a Palestinian Olympic official, referring to the 1972 Munich Olympics, at which terrorists tortured and murdered 11 Israeli athletes. "They just...wait, I didn't mean to say that. It defeats my whole argument. Please strike that from the record."

Rajoub pointed to the fact that Israeli firms won various contracts to provide security for the Rio Olympics. "They're in a position to favor their own athletes and embarrass everyone else, especially the countries they don't like," he warned. "Put it all together: Zika, slums, the flow of untreated sewage, crumbling infrastructure, crime - if you turn your head just right and squint as I instruct you, it spells out 'Mossad' clear as day."

He also claimed that Israel was behind the disqualification of Russian athletes for steroid use. "It would be just like the Zionists to insist that, technically, the use of performance-enhancing drugs is banned by the IOC," lamented Rajoub. "They insist on playing by some stodgy rule book, when everyone knows international organizations are only meant to be hijacked to bludgeon political and diplomatic opponents."

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08/03 Links Pt1: Fatah again brags it killed 11,000 Israelis; Secret Annex Gives Iran Breakout Time of 4 Months After 13 Years

From Ian:

PMW: Fatah again brags it killed 11,000 Israelis

Fatah yesterday posted a list of Fatah’s achievements on behalf of Palestinians. Significantly, Fatah did not cite even one peace-seeking or peace-promoting achievement, but only listed Fatah acts of violence and terror. Fatah even boasted that its attacks have killed 11,000 Israelis. While Fatah and the PLO have been killing Israelis since 1965, this number is a gross exaggeration.
One of the acts it bragged about was being the "first Palestinian faction to reach the [Israeli] nuclear reactor." This is a reference to Fatah's bus hijacking and murder of three Israeli civilians on their way to work at the Dimona nuclear plant in 1988.
Throughout the recent terror wave, Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA and Fatah have promoted violence and terror against Israelis, both in Israel and in the West Bank.
The following is yesterday's Fatah post celebrating and bragging about Fatah's murder of Israeli civilians:
"To those who argue [with Fatah], to the boors, and to those who do not know history:

Fatah has killed 11,000 Israelis

Fatah has sacrificed 170,000 Martyrs (Shahids)...

Fatah was the first to carry out operations (i.e., terror attacks) during the first Intifada (i.e., Palestinian violence and terror against Israel, 1988-1993), and it was the first Palestinian faction to reach the nuclear reactor in Dimona (i.e., 1988 murder of 3 working mothers on way to the Dimona plant)

Fatah was the first to fight in the second Intifada (i.e., PA terror campaign 2000-2005) (Baha Al-Sa'id, an officer in the Preventive Security Forces, infiltrated an Israeli settlement on the border with Gaza) [parenthesis in source]...

Fatah was the first to defeat the Zionist enemy (Battle of El-Karameh) [parenthesis in source]...

Fatah led the Palestinian attack on Israel in the UN."

PM ‘shocked’ by clip of Palestinian father urging soldiers to kill son

In the latest in a string of social media videos, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged the Palestinian leadership to stop encouraging “parents to call for the death of their own children,” citing recently filmed footage of a Palestinian father telling Israeli soldiers to shoot his own son.
The clip by the prime minister was spliced with footage filmed by Palestinian activists during a protest in the West Bank village of Ni’lin last week. In that footage, a Palestinian man was seen carrying a young boy toward Israeli border police, who were standing next to an armored jeep. The man then pushed the boy toward the officers, challenging them to “shoot this little boy.” As the boy turned back, his father urged him to approach the armed police, while shouting at them, “Kill him. Shoot him.”
“I’ve just watched a video that shook me to the core of my being,” Netanyahu told the camera in English from his Jerusalem office. “In just a few seconds, it shows why our conflict persists,” he said.
When the boy, described by Netanyahu as having “his shirt tightly tucked into his bright red shorts,” reached the officers, one of them extended his hand and the boy gave him a high-five.
This interaction was cut out of a version of the footage broadcast on Palestinian TV, according to the Palestinian Media Watch watchdog.

Israel's Statement at UNSC's debate on Children in Armed Conflict

"Instead of nourishing their youth with the dreams of a bright future, Palestinian children are fed a steady diet of hatred for Israel and glorification of violence. We are paying the price of this glorification of terror on the streets of Israel today."
Amit Heumann, Israel's Legal Adviser, addressed the Security Council debate on Children in Armed Conflict.
Share if you believe children shouldn't be educated to hate.

From the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs' Pinchas Inbari:

The most significant recent development in Hebron and Mount Hebron is the revival of an old institution that had been dormant and inactive: the Mount Hebron Tribal Council (Majlis a-Sei’r Jebel al-Khalil). Noteworthy is that its latest conference was held in Amman, Jordan, opened with the Jordanian national anthem, and was adorned with the Jordanian flag. Pictures of Jordan’s King Abdullah and the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Hussein, were displayed in the background.

According to sources in Mount Hebron, the person behind the revival of the Tribal Council is a Jordanian senator, Muhammad Khalil Dawaima, whose origins were in the abandoned village of Dawaima.2 He had circulated in the Mount Hebron area for several months; the person who helped him reestablish the council was Nafez Jabari of Hebron. Earlier this year, Jabari held an event at his home – a warm reception for the senator in which 150 notables of the city and the district took part.

This is just one anecdote that is part of a much longer and very interesting article about how the Palestinians cannot govern themselves. Even though some Hebronites are fans of Jordan. others are fans of Hamas. And the PA exercises very little control over Nablus which is run by criminal gangs.

Even Ramallah is in a power struggle between the PA (the "Tunisians" from the old guard of the PLO) and Palestinian NGOs funded by Europe, which iare made up of veterans of the first intifada. Europe is convinced that Abbas' successor will come from the PNGO ranks, even though they are far more anti-Israel and pro-violence than Abbas.

In short, the PA is disintegrating.

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