Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

08/10 Links Pt1: Glick: Obama, Clinton and the power of mendacity; How your tax dollars are funding Hamas’ next terror war

From Ian:
Caroline Glick: Obama, Clinton and the power of mendacity

Over the years, many commentators and observers have argued that Clinton is less dangerous than Obama. Obama they say is an ideologue whereas Clinton is driven by a simple lust for power and, of course, her own convenience. Consequently, she causes damage in little ways – like endangering the lives of US agents – while Obama clears a path for Iran to rise as a regional hegemon and nuclear state.
The problem with this assessment is that it ignores their symbiotic relationship. Clinton has decided that her interests lie with acting like a loyal Democrat and implementing Obama’s policies.
Like Obama, she doesn’t need to worry about the consequences of those policies for the US and the world. Because like Obama, she is sheltered from criticism by a loyal media.
Amiri is dead. Iran is building nuclear plants with Russia. But as the New York Times explained on Monday, “Nobody knows better than President Obama how easy it would be for Donald J. Trump to reverse the policies of the past eight years if he defeats Hillary Clinton this fall.”
Nobody, that is, other than the New York Times, and the Washington Post and CNN and Clinton.
And so they will continue to work together with Obama, to ensure that the public is kept in the dark about the nature of those policies and their horrible consequences for the US and the rest of the world.

Vic Rosenthal: US sends arms to Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese army

Hezbollah has effective control of Lebanon, and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) are thoroughly infiltrated by Hezbollah.
So why is the US providing weapons and equipment to the LAF? There is no way to keep them out of the hands of Hezbollah.
The IDF will be facing these weapons in the near future. Thank you, Barack Obama!

MEMRI: Article In Palestinian Online Daily: The Claim That Jews Are The Descendants Of Apes And Pigs Is Foolish And Primitive

In his column in the Palestinian online daily Dunya Al-Watan (Alwatanvoice.com), Anwar Al-Waridi, a Palestinian poet and author living in Jordan, mocked Muslim clerics who scream about Jews being the descendants of apes and pigs, while Jews control Arab land and have been defeating the Arabs for the past century. According to him, this claim about the Jews is ridiculous, and is indicative of a backwards collective Arab mentality that underestimates the enemy.
The following are excerpts from the article:
"The problem is the Arab collective mentality. The Jews are not the descendants of apes or pigs, but human beings, sons of Adam and Eve. The cry made repeatedly by some of the crazed and primitive Muslim clerics, 'Jews, the descendants of apes and pigs," is shameful. To those who rely on the esteemed verse: 'We said to them, Be apes, despised' [Koran 2:65] or the verse: 'and made of them apes and pigs and slaves of Taghout' [Koran 5:60], [I say as follows]: though there is disagreement among commentators about the meaning of these verses, the favored opinion is that [the Jews] became apes in character, not in form – meaning that they did not physically transform into actual apes, but rather that their attributes became apelike.
"Moreover, the transformation from people to apes [only] happened to some of them [and only] during a certain period, and did not include all Jews. And even if we assume that they did turn into actual apes, and that this happened to all [Jews] – can an ape give birth to a human? How, therefore, can the Jews of today be the descendants of those who turned into apes, in the opinion of these ignorant Muslim clerics? An ape begets an ape and a human begets a human, and therefore the Jews of today are not the descendants of apes or pigs as we scream stupidly and primitively, as though this is a crushing blow to [the Jews]. Moreover, if they are the descendants of apes and pigs, and have managed to defeat us for close to a century – is there honor in being defeated by apes and pigs?

From Jordan's Ammon News:

Border Guards late Monday foiled an infiltration attempt by a vehicle coming from northeastern border with Syria, an army statement said.

The statement added that military observers spotted a vehicle speeding towards the Kingdom's border.

A border patrol applied the rules of engagement taken in such cases, killing the infiltrators and destroying their car.

If this had happened in Israel, there would be immediate reports in the media and from NGOs saying:

* The car was not aiming at the soldiers, there was no risk to human life.
* The people in the car were obviously Syrian refugees who were greeted with deadly force when they tried to escape.
* This was a disproportionate response.
* This was an extrajudicial execution.
* Why couldn't they just fire at the tires?
* The soldiers should be equipped with pepper spray for situations like this. Or pen lasers. Or some other technology that we know nothing about but that must exist to save the lives of the people in the car.
* Did they have to kill all the people in the car?
* Isn't destroying the car afterwards unnecessary? It sounds like gratuitous revenge.
* The rules of engagement are racist. They wouldn't treat Jordanians driving cars the same way.
* We call for a full and transparent investigation (that we can then attack because it is obviously biased.)
* We call on the UN to investigate this incident. Also the ICC.
* This is yet more proof that we live under an evil regime.

I'm sure I missed some....

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Amnesty and Reuters got me! Which ironically proves their bias....

Twice in the past couple of days I received gloating responses from people I communicated with on Twitter.

One was Amnesty UK:

2600+ civilians killed by police in #Rio since city was awarded #Rio2016 Olympics. Support our calls for justice https://t.co/GpR6A1gSlC
— Amnesty UK (@AmnestyUK) August 5, 2016

I tweaked them, wondering whether they were documenting the deaths with as much tenacity as they pretended to do for Gaza:

I'm looking forward to your #RioPlatform to document every one, @amnestyuk.

What, you mean it is not planned? https://t.co/nahMFI8DDA
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) August 5, 2016

But a few days later, they had a response:

@elderofziyon Hi, do you mean the crossfire app? https://t.co/TkeHsKfsny User-generated documenting of shootings at https://t.co/OY3fr631G8
— Amnesty UK (@AmnestyUK) August 9, 2016

Indeed they created an app for people to report violence in Rio and it allows drilling down into each alleged incident.

So they got me.

But, as I responded, why won't they fix the many mistakes and lies in the Gaza Platform?

They ignored that tweet, as they ignored many others about the propaganda site that they pretend documents Israeli war crimes.

Clearly they read my tweets. And clearly they have no intention to correct themselves when they are found to be wrong - or lying.

A similar thing seems to have happened with my assertion that the West Bank has Olympic-sized pools (which normally means 50 meters, a certain depth and other technical details.)

I am no longer convinced that there are true Olympic sized pools in the West Bank suitable for training (although I think there is one in Gaza.) And I was happy to admit my doubts to Luke Baker from Reuters, who happily gloated that I was not being fair and balanced.

But I responded to him about the story that I wrote that started the entire discussion:

.@LukeReuters Didn't @Reuters do the same when you reported that #Israel wouldn't allow swimmer to train? Didn't see any mea culpas from you
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) August 9, 2016

And, of course, as with Amnesty, no response.

This is the difference between those who care about the truth and those who only pretend. I am happy to admit I'm wrong - it does happen, sometimes - because the truth is of supreme importance. But the people at Amnesty and Reuters only pay lip service to the truth. When they are shown to be wrong, they rarely correct themselves unless they would be more embarrassed by their refusal to correct than by the correction itself.

Which means that you cannot rely on Reuters or NGOs like Amnesty to say anything truthful. It is propaganda, adhering to their pre-existing biases, and anything that contradicts their false assumptions is not worthy of being addressed.

These two episodes shows that they read the criticism and they read the proof that they are wrong or lying - and they actively choose not to correct themselves.

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A UN worker in Gaza

Shady Shehada is a project engineer for UNRWA. (Yes, that's how he spells his name in English.)

Previously he worked for UNDP as well in the same role.

So he sounds like a typical Gazan who manages to get jobs at the UN and other NGOs.

His Facebook page has a couple of interesting posts that indicate that he could easily be one of the "aid workers" who would happily help Hamas.

He published this poster with a photo that is taken from a horror movie as "evidence" of Israeli crimes:

He commented, "All Hail the resistors who thrust each weapon in defense of the dignity of the people of defending themselves and the right to life."

And he published this photo of a heartbroken mother and fiancee mourning over their dead son and husband immediately before the Gaza war in 2014.

Who happened to be a Hamas terrorist.

Is it really surprising to learn that UN workers could be diverting funds and materials to Hamas?

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Jordan explains why they won't allow Jews with kipot and tefillin into the country

Jordanian newspaper Ad Dustour explains exactly why Jordan bans any Jews from bringing in kipot or tefillin into the country.

Jordanian authorities prevented Israeli militants from entering the territory of Jordan following the discovery of their intention to establish Talmudic rituals in regions of the Kingdom.

Israeli press sources said Jordanian administration refused entry to a group of Israeli extremists and prevented them from reaching the historic Petra region and a number of tourist areas after their intention to exercise Talmudic rituals. They were found with tools used in Jewish prayer, in addition to wearing "kipot."

Official sources confirmed in a statement to Ad Dustour that Jordan prevented a number of religious Jews from entering its territory after being found in possession of Tefillin prayer tools where two bands of leather are used by Jews on the head and the left hand in the dawn prayers according to Jewish belief.

The sources said that the authorities of Jordan informed the Israelis that they will not allow them to enter Jordan as long as they refuse to surrender their Talmudic tools at the crossing. The aim of the visit by Israeli extremists is prayer at the "Aharon Hacohen shrine" allegedly near Petra, where officials prevented UK visitors from wearing a Jewish skullcap. The sources pointed out that Israelis will not be allowed into Jordanian territory for the same reason, unless the Israelis remove their Jewish hats from their heads before entering the country.

We've reported this before, but it is nice to see it explicitly stated in Arab media.

Note the language: "extremists" and "militants."

Usually, tefillin are only worn for morning prayers and they would not be worn in public. However, a 2012 Jerusalem Post article says that some Jews would put on the tefillin at the shrines themselves, in public.

According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, these complaints have been around for many years.

“For years there were some Israelis who would go to different holy sites of one sort or another and put on tefillin and start praying and you can understand for someone who has never seen a Jew before or this ritual this could be shocking, it could cause a disturbance and people could act badly.”

Palmor said they know of a number of incidents in which disturbances and violence broke out after Israeli Jews who had traveled to Jordan began laying on tefillin and praying in public places. He said eventually the Jordanian authorities adopted a procedure of asking incoming Israeli tourists if they are carrying tefillin, and holding them for them at the border crossing until they leave the country.

If that is true, then the Jews who put on the tefillin in public in Jordan were acting irresponsibly. There is no religious obligation to put on tefillin at a shrine. Their pretense of religious zealotry made it impossible for all religious Jews to ever visit Jordan overnight.

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08/09 Links Pt2: Brazil Nuts: Anti-Semitism at the Summer Olympics; The tourist Trojan horse

From Ian:

Israeli judoka Yarden Gerbi wins bronze at Rio

Israeli judoka Yarden Gerbi overcame an early loss to win the bronze medal at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday, becoming the first Israeli athlete to win a medal at the 2016 games, and the first Israeli Olympic medalist since windsurfer Shahar Tzuberi took home the bronze in the 2008 games in Beijing.
Gerbi defeated Japan’s Miku Tashiru in the repechage to claim the third place spot in the under-73 kg competition.
Gerbi, 27, and the 2013 world champion in her class, thus became the seventh Israeli athlete in history to be honored on the Olympic podium. She was also only the second woman to do so — the first being judoka Yael Arad, Israel’s first-ever medal winner, who took home the silver in Barcelona 1992.
She promptly received a call from President Reuven Rivlin, who called her a “champion” and said that “today, you are our hero.”

David Collier: Norman Finkelstein, the University of Westminster and antisemitism

So why is it antisemitism at Westminster?
The antisemitism doesn’t exist in the supply, it exists in the demand. In theory, for every speech given by an anti-Zionist Jew, there would be scores of Zionist Jews lining up to respond. All things being equal, we should never have heard of these Jewish anti-Zionists. They are insignificant outliers whose presence would only be recognised by sociologists and statisticians before being cast off into the bin titled ‘not to be taken into consideration’. Perhaps a study or two could analyse them to try to find correlating variables that could push forward a theory into their very presence. Bullying at school? The trauma of children of holocaust survivors? I am certain an innovative list could be created.
Yet where these people are selected, for the specific purpose of attacking what it means to be Jewish to the absolute majority, there exists a problem. You cannot hide behind a Jewish anti-Zionist to deflect accusations of antisemitism because the very act of turning the insignificant into a weapon against Jews is an antisemitic act.
I have heard people suggest people like Blumenthal are antisemites themselves. This is a mistake. People like Blumenthal are simply oddities. A handful of people displaying bizarre and obscure thought. When you see their name in print, you see antisemitism at work. When you hear them speak, when you see them listed in a programme, when you see them quoted, shared or retweeted – all antisemitism.
So someone in the States is so messed up he believes you can overstate the Holocaust. A child of holocaust survivors, he dates the rising awareness of his fictitious industry to 1967. Nothing of course to do with the Eichmann trial of 1962, where finally the world got to hear the true horror of events. Nothing to do either with the trauma of the genocide. It’s a money thing, a power thing, don’t forget after all, it’s the Jews we are talking about.
The antisemitism isn’t in his train of thought, it is in those that take the absurd and reward him, fund him and applaud him. Antisemitism is the adoring crowd of the village idiot.
So yes, the appearance of two of the anti-Zionist clowns in a single conference at the University of Westminster that spent so much time dealing with Zionism, Israel and Jews is an antisemitic act. It is about time everyone started realising this is the case.

Bernard-Henri Lévy: A Long-Awaited and Critical Appeal Falls Short

The letter begins with an enumeration of the recent terrorist acts that have beset France.
It does not omit Charlie (“the murder of cartoonists”), Bataclan (“the murder of young people listening to music”), of Magnanville (“the murder of a pair of police officers”). Nor, of course, does it fail to mention Nice (“the murder of men, women, and children celebrating the national holiday”) or Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray (“the murder of a priest celebrating Mass”). Clearly, it purported to present an exhaustive list of the attacks.
Except it left one out. And what it left out was the hostage-taking at the kosher supermarket on January 9, 2015, which occurred less than three years after Mohamed Merah’s murders at the Jewish school in Toulouse.
The omission was immediately noticed. I was disturbed by it, and said so on Twitter — which earned me (and others, I’m sure) an avalanche of insult: “You’re never satisfied … When Muslims are silent, that’s bad; when they speak up, that’s bad, too … What are you doing to national unity? Maybe you’re the one who’s trying to pit French people against one another?”
But the fact is that a slip like this cannot be allowed to go unremarked. And, given the prominence of those who signed the letter, it cannot fail to be upsetting.
What could have been going through the head of the person who (as is typical with this sort of group letter) composed the first draft? Or through the heads of the 41 others who, in the hours that followed, read and re-read the draft (as is also the usual practice), weighing each word, suggesting changes and talking things through before eventually signing?

Michael Lumish: This week on NOTHING LEFT (9 Aug 2016)

This week Michael Burd and Alan Freedman, from Nothing Left of mighty J-Air, out of Melbourne give us:
3 min Editorial: World Vision /Gaza scandal
10 min Noni Darwish, former Muslim talks about Interfaith,Muslim immigration, Sharia Law & the Jews
38min Michael’s view on interfaith (inc R’ J Hausman's view on why his colleagues are not doing their homework/ clip)
46 min Mike Lumish, Israel Thrives blog, USA
51 min David Bedein, investigative journalist
1 hr 14 min Ron Jontoff-Hutter, Berlin based writer
My piece is the final in my Failures of Progressive-Left Zionism series and is concerned with the tendency, which we also see from the Obama administration and the progressive-left, more generally, is the tendency to join with enemies (such as, for example, Black Lives Matter) while spitting hatred at friends.

It is actually against international law to prohibit Jews from praying on the Temple Mount, according to legal scholar and former Israeli ambassador Alan Baker. I interviewed him on July 12.

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Israel doesn't do things the way other nations do and our national anthem is no exception to that rule.

What other nation on earth has had a national anthem at a time when they did not have a State they could call home?

התקווה כּל עו̇ד בַּלֵּבָב פְּנִימָה נֶפֶשׁ יְהוּדִי הוֹמִיָּה וּלְפַאֲתֵי מִזְרָח קָדִימָה עַיִן לְצִיּוֹן צוֹפִיָּה.	The Hope As long as in the heart within, The Jewish soul yearns, And toward the eastern edges, onward, An eye gazes toward Zion.
עוֹד לֹא אָבְדָה תִּקְוָתֵנוּ הַתִּקְוָה בַּת שְׁנוֹת אַלְפַּיִם לִהְיוֹת עַם חָפְשִׁי בְּאַרְצֵנוּ אֶרֶץ צִיּוֹן וִיְרוּשָׁלַיִם.	Our hope is not yet lost, The hope that is two thousand years old, To be a free nation in our land, The Land of Zion, Jerusalem.

The words of Israel's national anthem were written as a nine-stanza poem by poet Naftali Hertz Imber and were first published in 1876 or 1877 (the exact date is unknown). It served as the anthem of the Zionist Movement at the 18th Zionist Congress in 1933.

The original poem was called Tikvatenu (Our Hope), was revised over the years, including by Imber himself and eventually became the two stanza anthem, Hatikva (The Hope), sung today.

Although Hatikva was firmly established in the public’s consciousness as Israel’s national anthem, it was not formally legislated as such until 57 years after the establishment of the state.

For other nations, the anthem is a tool to build and reinforce national consciousness. Their songs speak of pride, superiority, the glory of battle and/or upholding the reign of the ruler. The lyrics reinforce the cohesion of a people based on their similar traits, taking part in the same battles and living in the same land.

Here too Israel is different.

Hatikva mentions no battles, no fight against oppressors and no similar traits belonging to our nation.

The consciousness of Israel as a nation has existed for thousands of years. There is no need to "pump" ideas of brotherhood or belonging together, the "our" in the lyrics comes quietly, naturally, without fanfare.

A people scattered across the globe, we are not bound by similar traits but by our Jewish soul.

Hatikva speaks not of external struggles, although oppression and survival against all odds have been (and still are) a common experience for our people. After the re-establishment of Israel as the Jewish State there were many battles and victories that could have inspired anthems like those of other nations. Instead, Hatikva, The Hope, remained. It was never an external circumstance that held the Nation of Israel together, it was a state of mind or rather a state of spirit.

That was true during the exile and it is still true today.

The hope, the yearning of a people to be free in their own land is the story of the Jewish people but it is also a universal sentiment. The yearning of the soul to be free and shape its own destiny is a human truth, something that all people can identify with.

Our national anthem is unusual because we are unusual. One could say that, as Israel serves as an example of possibility and potential for all people, so does our anthem. Hatikva is the story of hope even in the darkest times, when there is no logical reason to retain hope. It tells us that the soul is stronger than any external circumstances.

Yearning to be free in a place one can call home, is a sentiment that resonates with all souls. To belong, to be safe, to be free are basic human needs.

Zion and Jerusalem are the home of the Jewish soul but they are also the example, the proof that all people can find the home their soul yearns for. Possibly this is the secret of Israel, why she fascinates and why she gives so many, including non-Jews, the feeling that coming to Israel is coming home.

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08/09 Links Pt1: Israel charges UN employee with aiding Hamas in Gaza; Why ISIS Fears Israel

From Ian:

Israel charges UN employee with aiding Hamas in Gaza

Israel on Tuesday accused a United Nations employee of taking advantage of his position to assist the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip, the third such allegation in less than a week.
According to the Shin Bet security service, Wahid Abd Allah Borsh, 38, an engineer in the UN’s Development Program, both funneled resources to the terrorist group and kept Hamas out of trouble with the international organization.
In July, Shin Bet officers arrested Borsh, a resident of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip, as he made his way into the coastal enclave through the Erez Crossing, the security service said.
During his interrogation, Borsh told investigators that in 2014, he was directed by Hamas to “focus on his work in the UNDP in a way that would allow Hamas to extract the greatest possible benefit from him,” the Shin Bet said.
“This investigation also demonstrates how Hamas exploits the resources of international aid organizations at the expense of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip,” the security service said.
The UNDP did not have an immediate response to the allegations, but said it planned to release a statement “within the hour.”

IDF Blog: UN Employee Suspected of Directing Humanitarian Aid to Hamas

Earlier today, Waheed Borsh, a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) official, was indicted in a civilian court in southern Israel for using his position to provide assistance to Hamas’ terror activities in Gaza. He’s admitted to helping Hamas use humanitarian aid funding to build a dock for its naval forces in 2015 and confiscate weapons at building sites marked for demolition. Borsh was arrested in July 2016 in a joint operation by the Shin Bet security service and the Israel Police.
UN employeeWhile working as an engineer at UNDP since 2003, Borsh was responsible for the demolition of buildings damaged during military conflicts and the removal of waste from the demolitions.
In his interrogation, he revealed information on Hamas military posts, terror tunnels, and weapons storage facilities. He began using the program’s funding, information, and access to aid Hamas after being co-opted by a senior Hamas official in 2014. In 2015, he acted to persuade UNDP managers to prioritize the rehabilitation of housing in areas populated by Hamas members. Borsh was acting in response to a request by Hamas. When weapons or terrorist tunnel openings were discovered in houses being handled by the UNDP, Hamas would take control of the site and confiscate the arms and other materials. This is in direct violation of internationally recognized and agreed upon UN procedures.
Hamas continues to exploit humanitarian aid and international funding meant to help the people of Gaza. Instead of acting to reconstruct and build homes, schools and hospitals, the terror organization uses any means possible to further entrench its terrorist stronghold on the Gaza Strip.

British Charity ‘Save the Children’ Investigating Claims Employee Recruited by Hamas

A British charity said it is investigating Israeli claims that one of its employees was recruited by Hamas, the Daily Mail reported on Monday, days after a Gaza-based staffer at an international NGO was revealed to be acting on behalf of the terrorist group.
“We do take any allegations of this nature very seriously and are making inquiries into this matter,” Save the Children said in a statement, adding that it had “not been notified or contacted by the (Israeli) authorities on the details of the allegations.”
The investigation follows Israel’s indictment on Thursday of Mohammed El-Halabi, the head of the Gaza office of the charity World Vision, who was found to be funneling millions of dollars in foreign aid to Hamas.
According to the Shin Bet internal security agency, the investigation into El-Halabi’s activities uncovered a network of additional Hamas terrorists posing as aid workers. In 2014, for example, El-Halabi recruited a Palestinian worker associated with Save the Children, the Daily Mail said.

Rabbi Mark's funeral

In July, I reported about the Arab heroes who helped save the children of the fatally wounded Rabbi Miki Mark. Yet the names of the heroes were not publicized at that time. Only a little later did the New York Times report his name.

At the same time, Palestinians were honoring their versions of "heroes" - a group of children who had viciously attacked Jews with knives.

I wrote then:

The first set of Arabs, the true heroes, do not allow their names to be publicized [the NYT did publish their names afterwards - EoZ}. They don't want their neighbors and friends to know that they saved the lives of Jews.

The families of the second set of Arabs, terrorists who are treated as heroes, are very proud of their sons and are thrilled to announce the names and publish the photos of these murderers and would-be murderers to the world.

Anyone who self-righteously tries to describe the Israelis and Palestinian Arabs as morally equal - those who say that both sides have suffered, both sides are at fault, both sides are in a "cycle of violence" - are very, very wrong. And the proof is right here.

Terrorists like those who murdered the Marks are heroes to the Palestinians, as we have seen countless times.

The actual Arab heroes - the people who saved the lives of their enemies - are not heroes at all to their people, and in fact their heroism is something not to be spoken about in public. Their names and faces are not known. The only articles about them are from Israeli media, not from Palestinian media.

There is no moral equivalence between the two sides. For Palestinians, terrorists are heroes and real heroes are an embarrassment.

Israelis and Palestinians are moral opposites.

This has become even more apparent in this update from Times of Israel:

The Palestinian man who saved the children of a West Bank rabbi after a deadly terror attack that killed him has been fired from his job, according to the head of Har Hevron Regional Council.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Yochai Damari said that the man is now unemployed due to Palestinian opposition to his actions and should be assisted by Israel.

“I met with him and he asked me to help remove any obstacle preventing him from receiving a work permit,” Damari wrote. Such a permit would allow the man to obtain employment inside Israel.

The idea of Palestinians honoring those who save Jewish lives is ludicrous.

What is worse is the hypocrisy of the scores of "human rights" NGOs operating in the territories.

They could step in and honor the couple who first arrived to help the Mark family. They could offer a job for someone who obviously cares about human rights. They could publicize the failings of Palestinian society to help make it better. (Don't they claim that this is why they criticize Israel?)

But they are silent. They condone Arab antisemitism by not saying a word when it manifests itself, and they shy away when given the chance to practice what they preach. And they certainly don't say anything when Arab murderers are honored.

Their concern for human rights ends when the humans involved happen to be Jews - or even Arabs who don't consider Jews to be their enemy.

(h/t Gary Willig, who also wrote about this incident at Times of Israel)

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Now I get it - taking photos is a Talmudic ritual!

The Palestinian Authority's official Wafa news agency reports that "120 Jewish settlers stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque" today and attempted to perform "Talmudic rituals" there.

I found video that claims to show today's Talmudic rituals:

I looked very hard for these Talmudic rituals but all I saw were families strolling and taking photos.

Then I realized the truth: since smartphones use Israeli technology, the taking the photos were the Talmudic rituals!

There was some singing after the group exited the gates but the claim was that these "rituals" occurred within the Temple Mount itself.

I'm also always amazed at how the Palestinian Authority knows that the Jews visiting are all "settlers." They must have a sophisticated database and elaborate face-recognition technology.

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The BBC reported on August 5:

Authorities in Iran have banned the Pokemon Go app because of unspecified "security concerns".

The decision was taken by the High Council of Virtual Spaces, the official body overseeing online activity.

Iran follows a number of other countries in expressing its worries over security related to the game.

But it becomes the first country to issue a ban of Pokemon Go, that challenges players to visit real-world locations to catch cartoon monsters.

Al Hurra (Arabic) gives more details:

Iran, which bans many global news sites and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, banned Pokemon Go days after the launch of the game at the beginning of July because of national security concerns due to the very popular game leading users to sites using GPS on their mobile phones.

Deputy Prosecutor General Abdul Samad Khurram Ebadi told the Tasnim news agency on Friday, "Since this game is a mixture of virtual and physical games it may pose a lot of problems for the country and people for security reasons."

Ebadi stressed that the High Council of Virtual Spaces unanimously decided to ban this game.

Analyst Ali Reza Daoud, a defender of the government's position, told Tasnim, "These games could become a tool to launch guided missiles, and may cause interference with work of ambulances and fire-fighting equipment."

Daoud expressed his fear that the American developers of the game would use it to spy on Iran.

The Al Hurra/AFP Arabic article went on to say that young Iranians are playing the game anyway using virtual private networks to get around the ban.

Because the game concentrates its characters on publicly known popular spots like parks and historic monuments, there are relatively few places in Iran to catch the virtual characters due to a paucity of knowledge about Iran. Many of the players are gravitating to only a couple of major parks in Tehran. Players from towns as far as 30 kilometers away go to the Tehran sites to try to "catch them all."

The authorities expressed concerns over improper mixing between males and females playing the game, but the players are so engrossed in their phones that it doesn't seem to be an issue, according to the article.

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Palestinians say attempts to increase Arabs at Israeli universities is "racist." Really.

Look how diverse the PA's Higher Education Ministry is.

Haaretz reported on Sunday:

The Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry is expected to provide special funding topping 20 million shekels ($5.2 million) for the small minority of schools that teach the Israeli curriculum in East Jerusalem, where nearly all the city’s Palestinians live.

Most schools in the city's east teach the Palestinian curriculum, while graduates of those schools take the Palestinian Authority’s matriculation exam. But in recent years, more schools have begun offering the Israeli curriculum.

This lets students take the Israeli matriculation exam, easing their acceptance into Israeli colleges and universities. Surveys have also found that increasing numbers of East Jerusalem Palestinian parents prefer that their children study the Israeli curriculum to improve their children’s educational and employment prospects.

In Palestinian areas of the city there are 180 schools that are either government institutions or private schools that receive Israeli Education Ministry funding. Last year only 10 of those schools offered classes geared toward the Israeli matriculation exam.

That number is expected to rise to 14 this year, but at most of these schools only some of the students study for the Israeli exam, representing only about 3 percent of the students overall.

The Jerusalem municipality and the Israeli Education Ministry plan to stoke the modest trend. About a year ago, the ministry approved a plan for East Jerusalem that gives priority to schools teaching the Israeli curriculum.

Seems uncontroversial - Israel is trying to encourage Arab schools to use Israeli standards which helps students go to Israeli universities and become productive members of society.

Which naturally means that Palestinians are freaking out over this.

Wafa has a overview of daily Palestinian newspaper stories and this story was the top story in all major papers:

Al-Quds reported Higher Education Minister Sabri Saidam describing the Israeli request as a “declaration of war against the Arab and Palestinian existence in East Jerusalem.”

As far as I can tell, the plan does not take away existing funding; it is purely a reward, not a penalty. But the PA media is pretending otherwise, and the over-the-top statement by Saidam is par for the course.

In fact, Saidam went further and offered free textbooks for schools that refuse to use the Israeli curriculum. His over the top rhetoric continued:

Saidam called this an ugly Israelization campaign, stressing the protection of the Palestinian national identity in the holy city by refusing all attempts of Israelization and policies to impose the Israeli curriculum and fight the national curriculum. The ministry renewed its call to all institutions and human rights organizations and media to address these unfair practices that affect the Jerusalem schools, especially nowadays, which is witnessing a war like no other against education in Jerusalem.

It gets better.

Ma'an reported "The Higher Education Council denounced the racist practices of the occupation concerning the right to education in Jerusalem, led the onslaught being waged against the Palestinian curriculum and procedures by the occupation which seeks to attract Palestinian students to Israeli universities."

Yes, the Israelis are violating human rights by trying to increase the number of Arabs that attend Israeli universities.

If that isn't racism, what is?

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08/08 Links Pt2: The "Anti-Normalization" Campaign and Israel's Right to Exist; Combating Anti-Zionist Antisemitism

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: The "Anti-Normalization" Campaign and Israel's Right to Exist

For many Arabs and Muslims, the conflict with Israel is not about a withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines. These opponents have no intention of recognizing Israel's right to exist, even if it allows for the creation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
A leading cleric, Dr. Ali Daghi, Secretary-General of the International Muslim Scholars, wrote: "There is a consensus among Muslims, in the past and present, that if an Islamic land is occupied, then its inhabitants must declare jihad until it is liberated from the occupiers."
"Anyone who calls for peace with the Zionists should be brought to trial for high treason. Normalization is treason." — Ramzi Al-Harbi, Saudi writer.
Let us be clear: these are not fringe voices. This is mainstream Arab and Islamic society. What bothers them is not the "normalization" with the "Zionist entity," but the fact that Israel exists. For the masses, jihad against Israel is the solution, not another peace initiative endorsed by unelected Arab dictatorships.

Settler leader intervenes as Palestinian loses job for saving terror victims

A Palestinian man who saved the children of a West Bank rabbi after a deadly terror attack that killed him has been fired from his job, according to the head of Har Hevron Regional Council.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Yochai Damri said that the man is now unemployed due to Palestinian opposition to his actions and should be assisted by Israel.
“I met with him and he asked me to help remove any obstacle preventing him from receiving a work permit,” Damri wrote. Such a permit would allow the man to obtain employment inside Israel.
Rabbi Miki Mark was murdered in the July 1 shooting, his wife Chava was seriously injured, and their two teenage children were also hurt. The Palestinian rescuer and his wife, residents of the Hebron area, helped the surviving members of the Mark family escape their overturned vehicle and administered first aid until first responders arrived at the scene.
Now, Damari wrote, Israel owes it to the couple to help them find work.

Combating Anti-Zionist Antisemitism

On Sunday, July 31, 2016, I drove down to Ithaca, NY to give a talk titled “Hate Speech and the New Antisemitism: Why Anti-Zionist Extremism is on the Rise and What We Can Do to Stop It”.
The lecture was sponsored by the Ithaca Area United Jewish Community (IAUJC).
The Ithaca Coalition for Unity and Cooperation in the Middle East (ICUCME), a local grassroots anti-racism organization, assisted with the event logistics and publicity.
A video of my 60 minute lecture is now available on You Tube (full embed lower in the post).
Below I highlight its main themes, breaking the hour-long lecture into segments so that readers can click on to those portions of the talk that are of most interest.
I also summarize several small-group discussion exercises that I moderated after the lecture with the nearly 70 people who attended the event.
Relevant images and hyperlinks to the sources cited in the video have been added to this post. References to prior Legal Insurrection posts that offer background information are also included.

Petra Marquardt-Bigman, whom I worked with to make the video posted earlier about Ben Ehrenreich and the Tamimi clan, published an article in Tablet on the same topic.

It is important to understand that the Tamimis see their “struggle” not just as a fight against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, but against Israel’s existence as a Jewish state in any borders. Because one might expect that open support for terror and the ambition to physically eliminate a UN member state are the kinds of opinions that remain beyond the pale for writers who hope to receive plaudits from The New York Times and the Economist, it is fair to assume that Ehrenreich must have been bamboozled by his subjects or is unable to read basic Arabic—neither one of which reflects particularly well on the likelihood of him having achieved a more advanced form of journalistic truth.

It is obviously also possible that Ehrenreich knew about the Tamimis’ political leanings. Not unlike the Tamimis, Ehrenreich has long believed that “Zionism is the problem,” as he explained in a 2009 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. When it comes to the methods the Tamimis support in order to solve this “problem,” it is certainly disingenuous to ask—as Ehrenreich does—if there is “no form of Palestinian resistance so innocuous that it wouldn’t be condemned.” There is absolutely nothing “innocuous” about the Tamimis’ ardent support for terror and their equally ardent Jew-hatred. (Ehrenreich declined to comment for this article.)

Despite the headline that emphasized the "bamboozled" part, the answer is actually quite clear (Tablet created the "bamboozled" headline, not the author, and Tablet edited the article apparently to emphasize this idea.)

Ehrenreich knows exactly how much the Tamimi family supports terror attacks - and he purposefully tries to fudge that information by making it appear that other relatives or residents of Nabi Saleh are the ones that support terror, not his saintly friends.

In 2013, writing for the New York Times on the article that in many ways became this book, Ehrenreich notes:

In 1993, Bassem told me, his cousin Said Tamimi killed a settler near Ramallah. Eight years later, another villager, Ahlam Tamimi escorted a bomber to a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. Fifteen people were killed, eight of them minors. Ahlam, who now lives in exile in Jordan, and Said, who is in prison in Israel, remain much-loved in Nabi Saleh. Though everyone I spoke with in the village appeared keenly aware of the corrosive effects of violence — “This will kill the children,” Manal said, “to think about hatred and revenge” — they resented being asked to forswear bloodshed when it was so routinely visited upon them.

Ehrenreich waters this down much further in his new book.

In one early bombing in August 2001, a woman named Ahlam Tamimi, a twenty-year-old journalism student from Nabi Saleh, escorted a young man named Izz al-Din al-Masri to a crowded Sbarro pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem. Shortly after she left him there, he detonated an explosive, wounding 130 people and killing himself and 15 others. Eight of the dead were children. ...Her relatives in Nabi Saleh still speak of her with great affection.

Yet Ehrenreich doesn't draw the line between Ahlam Tamimi and the relatives that he relied on to write this book that showed him such wonderful hospitality in Nabi Saleh. It isn't only Ahlam's immediate relatives who love her bombing kids in a pizza shop, it is the entire community including the main subjects for the book. Ehrenreich's mission to canonize Bassem and Nariman and Bilal and Manal Tamimi would be jeopardized by noting that they cheer the murder of dozens of Jews, including 13-year old Hallel Yaffe Ariel, as the video shows.

Here is how Ehrenreich looks at the Tamimis, explicit supporters of murder and terrorism who he considers generous, kind and wise.

The Tamimis aren't the subjects of the book - they are co-conspirators to write a piece of anti-Israel propaganda by pretending to be something that their social media posts prove they clearly are not.

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