Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

In a largely good article, the NYT can't resist throwing in some anti-Israel lies

Diaa Hadid in the New York Times has written some surprisingly good articles in recent weeks. Earlier this week she wrote one about how Israeli doctors, through the Save a Child's Heart program, saved the life of an Afghan boy in Pakistan with a heart defect.

I've written about SACH in the past and even visited them. It is a great organization that is happy to help whenever it can. It is not political and does only good.

For the most part, Hadid's article is positive, describing how the child, Yehia, managed to get to Israel and be helped. She give background on the organization:

Yehia — whose father spoke on the condition that the family name not be published for fear of a backlash if it became known he had taken the boy to Israel for treatment — is the first Afghan treated by Save a Child’s Heart in its 20 years of operations. About half the charity’s 4,000 patients have been Palestinian; 200 others were children from Iraq and Syria, and the roster includes patients from Tanzania, Ethiopia and Moldova.

But she cannot resist finding someone to accuse the dedicated doctors of SACH of "med-washing:"

Tony Laurance, head of a group called Medical Aid for Palestine, said that while providing children “world-class surgery” was “an unequivocal good,” it should not obscure the broader impact of Israeli policies on medical care for Palestinians. Gaza hospitals are perennially short of medicine, equipment and well-trained staff because of Israeli restrictions on travel and trade, and many Gaza residents struggle to get exit permits for care outside the territory.

“What gets up my nose,” Mr. Laurance said, “is that it presents an image of Israel that betrays the reality.”

Israeli doctors saving Muslim lives "gets up his nose" because it "betrays reality"? Laurance is saying that positive articles about Israel must not be published because they blunt the impact of the unrelenting anti-Israel propaganda that he and his organization pushes.

Laurance's idea of "reality" is that Gaza suffers shortages of medicine and equipment because of Israeli policies, a statement that Hadid does not check. It is unequivocally false. While a tiny percentage of medical equipment going into Gaza may be delayed because it could be considered dual-use, if it is legitimate it gets through. And there are no restrictions on medicines altogether. Teh medicine restrictions are because of infighting between Hamas and Fatah, plus Hamas stealing aid. It has nothing to do with Israel.

Laurance lied, and Hadid allowed the lie to be published unchallenged in the New York Times.

Even his statement about "many Gaza residents struggle to get exit permits " is skewed. I have no doubt that there is paperwork to complete and approvals involved, but they are traveling to another country - the restrictions are not any worse than with most international travel. Beyond that, Mr. Laurance conveniently decides not to say a word about that other country that borders Gaza, an Arab country, that refuses virtually all patients from entering. Which calls into question the true interest he has in Medical Aid for Palestinians (the actual name of the organization) - how much of it is altruistic and how much is political?

There was no reason to include his mini-diatribe in the article, and in fact it is a jarring departure from the tone of the rest of the article. But what is worse is that the casual reader would think that the NYT agrees that Israel restricts medical aid to Gaza.

(h/t EBoZ)

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Saeb Erekat wrote an article in Newsweek that is the usual mix of half-truths, lies and omissions.

Israeli government officials have announced further measures against nonviolent actions by civil society. During the First Intifada, the Israeli occupation authorities deported non-violent activists and tried to prevent any peaceful demonstration against the imposed and oppressive policies. Nowadays, Israel, with some international support, is trying to quash a growing solidarity movement with the Palestinian cause for freedom and independence.

Over the past year, the Israeli government and other organizations have conducted a campaign against any expression of disapproval of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, its crimes and its racist policies. Palestinian human rights organizations, such as Al Haq, have been victims of orchestrated efforts aimed at jeopardizing their funding, including vicious attacks and hateful incitement that has led to death threats against some of their employees.

Regrettably, this campaign against Palestinian civil society and partners has been somehow accepted and even encouraged by some members of the international community. We were astonished to see an official European Union presence at two anti-BDS conferences, with the EU representative to Tel Aviv not only praising Israel for its “human rights record,” but also by publicly stating that “settlement products are welcome in European markets.”

The PLO is clearly panicking over anti-BDS moves in Europe. And Erekat is happy to publicly support BDS, which supports the destruction of Israel.

Erekat doesn't want readers to know that the point of BDS isn't peaceful protest against Israeli policies but a campaign to destroy Israel itself, as its leaders admit. No other nation faces such a challenge, which is the reason that the EU has been backtracking on its support for BDS. Europe's anti-BDS moves are based on existing EU anti-discrimination laws, something else Erekat doesn't want the readers to know.

Another thing that Erekat doesn't want Newsweek readers to know is that BDS is against any peaceful cooperation between Israel and Palestinians. The movement condemns any joint sports programs, peace seminars or any other contact between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs - in direct opposition to the EU, which pours money into such programs to help establish an atmosphere of peace in the region. BDS is fundamentally against a two-state solution that the EU supports.

BDS rules would prohibit any nation from competing against Israel in the Olympics, and it supports athletes from refusing to compete and refusing to shake hands with their Israeli opponents. That is something else Erekat desperately wants people not to know.

The biggest omission is the statement from Mahmoud Abbas himself in 2013:

“No, we do not support the boycott of Israel,” the Palestinian leader told a group of South African reporters on Monday. “But we ask everyone to boycott the products of the settlements. Because the settlements are in our territories. It is illegal.

“And the Israelis should first of all stop building in our territories, should stop everything in our territories,” he stated, according to South African media outlet The Star.

“But we do not ask anyone to boycott Israel itself,” he reiterated. “We have relations with Israel, we have mutual recognition of Israel.”

That reluctance to publicly associate the PA with BDS continues to this day.

Erekat most certainly doesn't want Newsweek readers to know that - because it undercuts his entire thesis that such boycotts help the cause of peace.

It is interesting that Erekat has chosen the very time that BDS is failing as the time to try to prop it up, against the PA's own policies. Either it is another example of spectacularly bad timing on the PLO's part, or an attempt by Erekat to bolster his own chances to succeed Abbas as the PA and PLO leader.

(h/t Dan P)

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Palestinians agree: they have little or no freedom of expression. What does this mean for the media and NGOs?

Here is another major finding from the recent JMCC poll I mentioned earlier also didn't get any attention in the media either.

The survey asked, "There has been a debate recently on the issue of freedom of expression in the Palestinian society. In your opinion to what extent is the freedom of expression permissible in the PA-controlled territories?"

The answers are telling. 21.2% said that there was freedom of expression "to a very great extent" (2.2%) or "to a great extent" (19.0%).

However, a total of 74.3% said that freedom of expression was "low" (32.8%), "very low" (18.1 %) or "not permissible at all" (23.4%).

There are ramifications to this news.

If Palestinians themselves agree that there is little or no freedom of expression, then that means that their newspapers, TV stations and even social media are not accurate barometers of reality. The news that is published is the news that is allowed to be published by the governments of Fatah and Hamas.

It also means that Palestinian stringers for major networks and wire services have no more freedom of expression than any other Palestinian. This naturally implies that any reporting from areas under Palestinian control is ab initio suspect .

None of this is a surprise, but it shows that the news media that operates in the territories is not being honest by default. If they cared about accuracy, they should say that the reporters and news services are under pressure - sometimes overt, often covert - that shades the coverage towards the story that the authorities want the world to hear. If news services valued accuracy, they they must inform their readers of any factors that could be coloring their stories, and let the readers decide what the truth is.

There is another ramification. If the Palestinians widely believe that they have no freedom of expression, then one would expect NGOs to pressure their leadership on this issue. Amnesty and other NGOs have elaborate programs to defend freedom of expression worldwide.

Yet I have not seen any initiative of any consequence targeting Palestinian territories. The topic is mentioned briefly in the annual Amnesty report, but the last time I can find that there was a report specifically on the topic of freedom of expression under the PA was in 2000. HRW is somewhat better, but often feels it must "balance" its reports by throwing in gratuitous anti-Israel accusations for no reason.

What it also means for the NGOs is that they must adhere to known fact-finding standards in order to ensure that what people tell them reflects reality, not what people think that their local security services want them to say. Palestinian Arabs have made up anti-Israel accusations without any support many times - a phenomenon that Amnesty itself has noted. But as long as the NGOs refuse to use published standards that can eliminate bias, their reports themselves will continue to suffer from the same bias that Palestinian Arabs see in their media every day.

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08/16 Links Pt2: The Palestinian Charity Trap; The Illiberal Left and Political Islam

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: The Palestinian Charity Trap

World Vision officials have professed to be “shocked” by the arrest in Israel last week of Mohammed El-Halabi, the head of the megacharity’s Gaza operations. Mr. Halabi is accused of repurposing over the course of 10 years up to $7.2 million a year, in cash and materials, to Hamas. That’s approximately 60% of World Vision’s total aid to Gaza.
The broader problem is that due diligence for humanitarian aid in war and terror zones requires the allocation of significant resources and a professional staff capable of detaching itself from the pressures and sympathies of the local environment. World Vision, like most aid groups operating in Gaza, clearly failed in this respect.
World Vision’s troubles in Gaza reflect the broader moral failures of the humanitarian-aid industry. The narrow vision of aid workers contribute to a willful blindness to terrorism. The competition for publicity and donations results in alliances with brutal regimes and corrupt warlords. But thanks to the NGO “halo effect,” many donors also neglect due diligence, instead relying on the pure reputation of the recipient organization.
Aid groups also need to obtain and use intelligence information, particularly regarding employees and their activities. Some of this can be developed internally, and some can be purchased from consulting firms. And instead of adopting the Palestinian culture of noncooperation with Israeli security, it is in the interests of these organizations to quietly open channels of communication and information sharing.

The Illiberal Left and Political Islam

The liberal dread of being labelled Islamophobic, a penchant for tolerating the intolerant, combined with the fear of provoking violence, has effectively silenced intelligent debate about the rise of political Islam in Europe and its impact on secular democratic politics. Over the past decade, not only the media but also the art world has opted for collusion and self-censorship.
The combination of Islamophobia, balance and the omnipresent threat of violence means that it has become impossible to organise a conference or even a debate on political Islam and freedom of expression on a British or Australian campus. The preoccupation with “safe spaces” on Western campuses, along with the fact that the Gulf States endow chairs in Islamic Studies at Oxford, Princeton and Griffith University in Australia further inhibits discussion. Of 198 member states of the UN, ninety-four have blasphemy laws and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation regularly pushes for the UN Human Rights Council to recognise the defamation of religion.
The rising price of political freedom, it seems, is too high for many Western governments to pay. The long war for cultural freedom which began in 1989 is in serious danger of being lost. As Karl Popper observed of an earlier totalitarian threat to the open society, “If we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.” We should therefore claim “in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant”. Unfortunately, this argument does not gets much air-time, let alone political support.
The UK media and the national student union now consider any mention of inconvenient facts about vote rigging in Asian, primarily Muslim communities, or the imposition of sharia law in some UK communities, as “Islamophobic”. Thus the Guardian, the BBC and academe ignore or condone the profound change in the character and conduct of UK politics that the resistible rise of Sadiq Khan and Naz Shah intimates.
“Life imitates art, far more than art imitates life,” Oscar concluded his essay on lying. Yet the slow-motion collision of mainstream Islam with the multicultural transnational Left has led to a Ben Abbes-style transformation of liberal democratic London into a progressively illiberal, Islamophile Londonistan that exceeds even Houellebecq’s fervid imagination.

Michael Lumish: This Week on Nothing Left (August 16, 2016)

These guys are a breath of fresh air.
Nothing Left - Episode 112 - 8/16/16
Rev Willem Glashouwer & Andrew Tucker (Christians for Israel)
Aussie Dave (Israellycool)
Julie Nathan (Executive Council of Australian Jewry)
Michael Kuttner (The Israel Resource News Agency)
Isi Leibler (Jerusalem Post)

There are three reasons I'm posting this bigoted, hateful, and inciteful speech given by Palestinian cleric Sheikh Issam Amira at Judaism's holiest spot.

One is to show what Islamic preachers say to their congregants, even when the cameras are rolling. Imagine what happens when the cameras are turned off.

Two is to see if any mainstream Muslim figure will denounce him, or at least disagree with him publicly on his interpretation of the Koran. Because if what he is saying is true, then that is a problem for the West than goes beyond worries about immigration and silly arguments about burkinis.

And three is to see if any supposedly liberal group will condemn these words.

I'm not betting on either #2 or #3.

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Jewish time is different. In addition to being unusual, this difference is important because it is one of elements that that has preserved the Jewish people over the centuries.

What's 2000 years?

Americans think that 100 years is a long time. Many do. There are other nations that know better, for example the Greek and Italians who can see the evidence of their ancient history and know the impact their culture has had on the world.

It is not the existence of a glorious past or even the sheer number of years that make the difference - it is the way they are remembered. Time is shaped by memory.

On Tisha B'Av, the 9th day of the month of Av (Jewish calendar) we commemorated the day when both the first and second Temples were destroyed, the first by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.; the second by the Romans in 70 C.E.

Tisha B'Av is a day of mourning, fasting and introspection. Secular Jews may not fast but do spend the day thinking about hatred (which is what led to the destruction of the Temple) and how we can make our society a better, kinder place.

The Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E. it is now 2016. Nations rose and fell, borders were drawn and redrawn. Many wars occurred. A number of genocides. The Holocaust. Indoor plumbing, electricity, cars and the internet. It is next to impossible to fathom all the changes that have occurred in that time.

One thing has not changed. The Jewish people still exist, remember the Temple in the heart of Jerusalem and mourn its loss.

The Temple that stood on the Temple Mount was built on top of the Foundation Stone, the rock tradition says God used as a foundation for creating the world. The Ark of the Covenant was placed on top of the Foundation Stone, in the Holy of Holies, making the Temple the physical home of God in the world. God is intangible and everywhere but that is the spot that marked God's resting place thus making it the center of the world.

The Temple was the center of Jewish culture. It was the place the Nation of Israel looked to, gathered in and focused on. Destroying the Temple was meant to destroy the Jewish people. The exile that followed, scattering the Jews across the globe, should have eliminated any cohesive nationhood that existed. The people should have become like the nations they lived amongst and forgotten their Jewishness, that they belonged to Israel and that there is supposed to be a Temple on the mountain in the heart of Jerusalem.

It didn't work.

Why?

You could say the religion helped preserve Jewish culture (and it did) but throughout history there have been other nations whose religion was not enough to preserve them. You could say sheer stubbornness. That is also true but many other people are also stubborn so obviously that is not enough either. People of faith will exclaim: "It is God who made this so! The story of the Jewish people is that of prophesy being fulfilled."

I believe most people view the restoration of Israel as miraculous, whether they believe it is a miracle from God or a man-made miracle of sheer determination. Either way the question becomes, how was this possible?

It is easy to forget. Do you remember what you did this day one year ago? Now try imagining 2000 years ago… impossible right?

Jewish time is different. It is fluid in a way no other time is, due to Jewish memory.

Every year when we celebrate Passover, tradition commands us that we REMEMBER being slaves in Egypt. It is not our ancestors who were saved from slavery, it is each and every one of us. We were slaves. We experienced the Exodus. The Torah was given to us.

Not to people that lived thousands of years ago but to each and every one of us living today.

Ever since the Exodus from Egypt Jews have been telling their children that the rise from slavery to a free nation was their own personal miracle. Ever since Jews have been teaching their children to REMEMBER.

Today many Jews have become secular. They may never pray at all or even believe in God and yet they still preserve the tradition of telling their children of the exodus from Egypt in the present tense: "We were slaves in Egypt and God rescued us."

Jewish memory is reinforced with Jewish experiences.

Jewish women that light the Sabbath candles know that at the very same time there are women throughout their country and around the world doing the exact same thing. This is the same action and ritual that was done by countless women, over the generations, across the globe, for centuries. When I light the Sabbath candles I am not just me, I am also all of those women.

Jews lived (and are still living) in vastly different cultures. The experiences of Jews in India were different from those of Jews in France and yet they were also the same, connected by rituals, traditions, holidays, priorities and values that all stem from Judaism. Even the non-religious Jews knew they were connected by mutual heritage. Jews may live in other countries but they all belong to Israel.

It is the living memory that has preserved the traditions which, in turn have preserved Jewish culture. Our nationhood was not determined by the Temple that was the center of all Jewish experience or even by the possibility of living in the land where our nation belonged. Remembering our connection to God, Israel and each other did. Sometimes it was the nations that Jews lived amongst that helped us remember that we belonged to each other and not to them but it was always our belonging to the same memory that came first.

After the re-establishment of Israel as the Jewish State many Jews feel that their belonging to the State can replace their sense of belonging to the traditions or religion. This is dangerous in that it weakens the ties of the collective memory.

The secular Jew may teach their children of the Exodus from Egypt but forget to teach about the Temple that was once at the heart of the Nation. Religious Jews remember to grieve for the Temple, for the connection to God and the rich culture that was lost. Many secular Jews do not see this as their personal loss and this is dangerous.

Memory is what gave our people meaning and preserved it over centuries. It upheld the Jewish people through terrible experiences. It facilitates belonging, the connections of a nation between people who can live continents apart and still belong together and to the same country.

Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are central to all of this. They are what symbolize our connection to God and to the land of Israel. For centuries Jews have yearned for Jerusalem saying every year: "Next year we will be in the rebuilt Jerusalem." Jewish weddings cannot be completed before the groom publically states that Jerusalem comes before all other joys and the destruction of the ancient Temple is commemorated. It is not our holidays or our rituals that have held the Jewish people together (although they have helped) it is our core, the anchor on earth, the center of Jewish consciousness and meaning: Jerusalem and the Temple that once stood in the heart of the city.

If this is forgotten or neglected what will preserve the nation in the years to come?

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08/16 Links Pt1: Fatah Slams Hamas For Stealing Humanitarian Aid; ISIS Copies a Palestinian Tactic

From Ian:

Al Jazeera: Diabetes is the the leading indirect cause of death in Palestine

An estimated 15 percent of Palestinians have been officially recorded as suffering from diabetes, compared with a global average of nine percent. But Abu al-Halaweh believes the real number in Palestine is higher - more than 20 percent.
"In the surrounding areas of Yatta, we believe half of the adult population has Type 2 diabetes. But many of them don't know they have it," he told Al Jazeera, blaming the region's high unemployment rates and lack of education for the increased rates.
The Israeli occupation has exacerbated the diabetes crisis in a number of ways, "especially the psychological stress that comes from it", Abu al-Halaweh added.
"People in Gaza or Palestinian refugees suffer from an even poorer diet," he said, noting that one-third of Palestinians are considered to be short of food. "They may not have nutritional deficits in terms of calories, but the food aid they receive can be pallets of canned tuna eaten for weeks. Such an unvaried diet is not optimal."
The mobile clinic roaming the streets of the occupied West Bank is the only such service in Palestine for screening and treating diabetes patients. It also functions as a tool for educating Palestinians about the dangers of diabetes.

IsraellyCool: Fatah Slams Hamas For Stealing Humanitarian Aid Money & Arresting Journalists

The following cartoon was posted on the official Fatah Facebook page.
They seem to be taking a swipe at Hamas for misusing funds earmarked for humanitarian organizations like World Vision and the UN.
Interestingly enough, even though they post everything in Arabic, they accompanied the cartoon with the words “No comment” in English – clearly aiming it at an international audience.
They have also posted the following – again with an English description.
This all follows their biting video response to the Hamas video showing how great life in Gaza is.
Fatah are clearly on the warpath against Hamas. One can only hope this goes beyond social media and leads to a terrorists vs terrorists war of epic proportions.
My only concern is whether I have enough popcorn in the house.

Hezbollah terror cells, set up via Facebook in West Bank and Israel, busted by Shin Bet

Israel’s security services broke up two terror cells, which had been created by the Hezbollah terrorist organization, arresting nine suspected members over the past few months, officials revealed Tuesday.
Hezbollah operatives from the group’s Unit 133 — its foreign operations unit — working out of Lebanon and the Gaza Strip recruited members in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and within Israel through social media sites, notably Facebook, the Shin Bet security service said.
The terror cells had planned to carry out suicide bombings and ambush IDF patrols in the West Bank. They received funding from Hezbollah, and some members had begun preparing explosive devices for use in attacks, the Shin Bet says.
“The Hezbollah organization has recently made it a priority to try to spark terror acts, doing so from far away, while attempting to not clearly expressing its involvement,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.
The terror operatives were arrested earlier this summer, but information about the case was kept under a court-issued gag order. The Shin Bet has credited their operation with thwarting a number of terror attacks against Israeli targets in the West Bank and Israel.
According to Israel’s security forces, the ringleader of the West Bank terror cell was Mustafa Kamal Hindi, 18, a resident of Qalqilya.
During his interrogation, Hindi told interrogators that he’d been recruited through a Facebook page, “Palestine the Free,” where Hezbollah posted “anti-Israel and pro-jihad content,” the Shin Bet said.

A recent poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, together with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, asked the usual questions from Palestinians about which candidate they would vote for if elections were to be held today.

But they also asked questions that Westerners rarely see:

94.1% of Palestinians fasted all or nearly all the days of Ramadan and 86% prayed every day. (Keep in mind 2% of Palestinians are Christians.)

86% are against coeducational secondary schools.

82% say that the Palestinian Personal Status Law should be either fully or partially based on sharia (Muslim religious) law.

The only answers that seemed consistent with liberal viewpoints was that a large majority is against marriage for women under 18, and about 2/3 were against having multiple wives.

The poll didn't even ask the most incendiary questions. In 2013, a Pew poll asked questions in the Muslim world about attitudes towards alcohol, honor killings, sharia, stoning for adultery and other topics, and the results among Palestinians were shocking. Yet this truth about Palestinian fundamentalism and fanaticism is rarely discussed in the media or by think-tanks.

These results are important to understand. When Westerners say that they will propose peace plans, or fund human rights NGOs, or really get involved in any way in the Middle East conflicts, without knowing the mindset of the people involved, the initiatives are probably doomed.

Of course, this applies to Israel as well. Of course there are fundamentalist Jews as well. However, the percentage of Jews in Israel with fundamentalist and closed-minded opinions is far lower than that of Muslims in the territories.

While critics of Israel routinely throw around terms like "theocracy," they rarely apply the same standards to Palestinians.

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Yesterday, Israel released Sufian al-Maqdisi Abdo from prison after a 14 year sentence.

He was greeted as a hero by scores of cheering Palestinian Arabs.

What was his crime that they are so happy about?

He was convicted of attempting to poison Israelis at a Cafe Rimon in Jerusalem. Working with an Arab cook there, the plan was to insert a poison that would not take effect for many hours after diners ingested it for maximum deaths.

Luckily, the plotters were caught before they could implement the plan. But that failure to murder Jews seems to have been enough to set him free now, even though there is no difference between how he acted in his attempt to murder Jews and how he would have acted had it been successful.

The Shin Bet said that his bid to kill Jews was to avenge the death of Hamas activist Salah Shehadeh.

Abdo's friends and family in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood in Jerusalem placed him on their shoulders and cheered his release.

The first thing he did was to visit the Al Aqsa Mosque and to pray there.

Because terrorists have more rights on Judaism's holiest site than Jews do.

(h/t Shahar Azani)

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The "you are pro-Israel" accusation has lost its sting among Muslims

There was a fascinating report in MEMRI this week:

Over the past month, the Saudi press has featured a number of highly unusual articles harshly critical of the antisemitic discourse in Arab and Muslim society, and calling to avoid its generalizations regarding the Jews. The articles argued that Koranic passages against the Jews only applied to specific groups during specific time periods, and should not be applied to Jews in general. They added that blind hatred of Jews everywhere has prevented Arabs and Muslims from learning the lessons of Jewish experience and advancement.

It should be mentioned that these articles came against the backdrop of a heated debate in Saudi Arabia over the issue of normalizing relations with Israel, which erupted after a July 2016 visit to Israel by a Saudi delegation headed by Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Anwar Eshki, chairman of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies in Jeddah, and the publication of photos of the delegation with Israeli politicians. While Eshki claimed that he represented only himself and that "official Saudi elements did not know of the meeting in advance, as it was of a personal nature" and was the result of an invitation by the Palestinian Authority, he stressed that "the kingdom does not prevent anyone from holding such visits." He also did not rule out indirect Israeli-Saudi intelligence cooperation as part of efforts to combat terrorism.[1]

The visit, which was seen as a Saudi step towards normalizing relations with Israel, sparked harsh criticism inside and outside the kingdom. Several hashtags attacking the visit were launched on social networks, including "Saudis Against Normalization."[2] Likely as a response to the criticism, the Saudi Foreign Ministry distanced itself from Eshki, arguing that "people like Anwar Eshki do not represent us, have no ties to any governmental elements, and do not reflect the positions of the Saudi government."[3]

However, despite this statement, and despite the Saudi regime's denial that the visit heralded normalization with Israel, the publication of Saudi articles attacking antisemitic discourse specifically at this time is no coincidence, and is likely meant to lay the groundwork for public acceptance in the country of normalized relations with Israel.

The article goes on to include lengthy quotes from the Saudi articles attacking antisemitism.

Perhaps more fascinating is that Iran's state run Al Aram news agency decided to quote the MEMRI article nearly in full - in order to try to discredit the Saudi regime for being too pro-Jewish and too pro-Israel.

Accusing other Muslims of being pro-Israel is a standard weapon in the Islamic arsenal when trying to discredit a political opponent. Funny thing though: it no longer works.

You'll still see it here and there - Fatah and Hamas accuse each other of "collaborating" with Israel, Hezbollah will still use that rhetoric, and some Egyptian or Moroccan papers might show pictures of their rivals with Israelis, and Malaysian politicians still embrace that theme with gusto.

But the Sunni hate and fear of Shiites, and Iran in particular, is far more potent than their antipathy towards Jews and Israel nowadays. I

In a very real way, when Iran trots out its "you are pro-Israel" card, they are in fact pushing their Muslim enemies into wanting to be more pro-Israel! At this time, Israel represents security when the Arab world has little, it represents a consistent political position when the US has become flaky, and it represents an anti-Iran bulwark when the Sunni world is scared silly of Iran.

Although they have no love for the Jewish state, the Gulf states are no longer frightened of being labeled pro-Israel by Iran. And that is a really major change that occurred in only the past couple of years.

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08/15 Links Pt2: Be ready to defend Israel on campus; Friends Don’t Let Friends Vote for Jill Stein

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: Soros Documents Highlight Irresponsible and Unaccountable Funding to Political NGOs

On August 14, a number of leaked documents from the Open Society Foundations – a political framework funded by George Soros – were posted anonymously on the DC Leaks website. The material covered many different aspects of this activity around the world. For background information on OSF and other Soros funding mechanisms, see Bad Investment: The Philanthropy of George Soros and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (How Soros-funded Groups Increase Tensions in a Troubled Region), Alexander H. Joffe and Gerald M. Steinberg, NGO Monitor, 2013.
OSF’s declared objective is “to work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people.” This is the basis for OSF’s often intrusive activities in both closed and democratic societies, including large scale funding of political NGOs.
A number of these as yet unverified documents deal with OSF’s grants to political NGOs through its “Arab Regional Office (ARO) – Palestinian Citizens of Israel” department. Headed by Ammar Abu Zayyad, the ARO is one of a number of funding mechanisms for Israeli and Palestinian NGO’s in the OSF network.
The secrecy and lack of transparency inherent in the OSF’s activities is highlighted in the ARO documents: “For a variety of reasons, we wanted to construct a diversified portfolio of grants dealing with Israel and Palestine, funding both Israeli Jewish and PCI (Palestinian Citizens of Israel) groups as well as building a portfolio of Palestinian grants and in all cases to maintain a low profile and relative distance—particularly on the advocacy front.”

Soros email hack reveals plans to fight ‘racist’ Israeli policies

Hacked emails show that the Open Society Foundations led by Jewish billionaire George Soros have as an objective “challenging Israel’s racist and anti-democratic policies” in international forums, in part by questioning Israel’s reputation as a democracy.
The documents are available on a website, reportedly backed by Russia, that uses anti-Semitic stereotypes to attack Soros.
They reveal that Open Society, which was founded and is chaired by the hedge fund billionaire and philanthropist, gave nearly $10 million since 2001 to groups advancing the rights of Arab Israelis, with an emphasis in recent years on countering what one document says are Israel’s “restrictive measures” against minorities.
“In recent years the radicalization of public opinion and consecutive Israeli right-wing governments have resulted in more restrictive measures against Palestinians within Israel,” a Sept. 1, 2015 review of Open Society’s Arab Regional Office’s work said.
It cites as an example the Jewish Nation State bill, advanced by its sponsors to entrench Israel’s Jewish status, but decried by some Arab Israelis as further marginalizing non-Jewish minorities. The bill has yet to pass.
Among achievements listed in the document, the Arab Regional Office includes increased advocacy by “Palestinian citizens of Israel,” or PCI, in international forums, challenging Israel’s “racist” policies in the face of its reputation as a democracy.

George Soros funds Ferguson protests, hopes to spur civil action

There’s a solitary man at the financial center of the Ferguson protest movement. No, it’s not victim Michael Brown or Officer Darren Wilson. It’s not even the Rev. Al Sharpton, despite his ubiquitous campaign on TV and the streets.
Rather, it’s liberal billionaire George Soros, who has built a business empire that dominates across the ocean in Europe while forging a political machine powered by nonprofit foundations that impacts American politics and policy, not unlike what he did with MoveOn.org.
Mr. Soros spurred the Ferguson protest movement through years of funding and mobilizing groups across the U.S., according to interviews with key players and financial records reviewed by The Washington Times.
In all, Mr. Soros gave at least $33 million in one year to support already-established groups that emboldened the grass-roots, on-the-ground activists in Ferguson, according to the most recent tax filings of his nonprofit Open Society Foundations.

Two more Hamas martyrs over the weekend. Pass the candy!

Over the weekend, this 22 year old Hamas member, Ibrahim Hamada Majaydeh, supposedly died of "natural causes."

On a beach in Khan Younis.

Healthy young man hanging out ar the beach and dropping dead. Sounds perfectly kosher to me.

Also over the weekend, this upstanding Hamas member electrocuted himself in a terror tunnel.

Mohammed Khamis Shalluf was 26 years old and died from electric shock in a tunnel in Rafah, which probably means that Hamas is still trying to smuggle weapons from Egypt.

If all deaths are tragic, these are a bit less tragic than the others.

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When Max Blumenthal exposes an antisemite… (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

As you all probably know, Max Blumenthal is an award-winning author – sort of: in 2013, he made the Simon Wiesenthal Center list of the “Top 10 Anti-Semitic/Anti-Israel Slurs” in the category “The Power of the Poison Pen.” It was a well-deserved award for his book “Goliath,” which presents Israel as the Nazi Germany of our time. Just as the Nazis were convinced that “the Jews are our misfortune,” Blumenthal and his fans are convinced that the world’s only Jewish state is our misfortune. So it’s no coincidence that Blumenthal has fans wherever there are Jew-haters.

But of course, Max Blumenthal has long complained that it is terribly terribly unfair to consider his writings antisemitic, and he was therefore no doubt enormously pleased last week when he could finally show the world – or at least his Twitter followers – who the real big bad antisemitic wolves are: isn’t it a dreadful scandal, and definitely a groise shanda, that Max Blumenthal caught “digital McCarthyite @JGreenblattADL favoriting an anti-Semitic account that defends him”?!?!?!?!

So yes, this would be Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Director Jonathan Greenblatt palling around with antisemites – but no, most definitely NO, Max Blumenthal doesn’t get sarcasm when it comes to his own antisemitism … In fact he knows so little about antisemitism that he doesn’t even realize that antisemites are not in the habit of defending the ADL. But perhaps Max Blumenthal thought the ADL is paying antisemites to pretend being all for the ADL??? You know, sort of like the “pro-Israel lobby” bought Congress and would LOVE to buy Black Lives Matter in order to muzzle them???

Incidentally, the article on the “hate site” Mondoweiss that Blumenthal linked to attacks the ADL, and in particular Greenblatt. And it just happens to be written by the very same “professional poker player and dog trainer” who not that long ago valiantly defended Max Blumenthal’s vilification of Elie Wiesel.

But back to the image that provided Blumenthal his gotcha moment. It was posted by Twitter user Randy Barnes – who describes himself in his Twitter bio as a Zionist Jew and has “עם ישראל חי” in it (something few antisemites really like). From this alone it should have been quite obvious that Barnes meant to mock Blumenthal’s own world view. After all, Blumenthal is one of the leading anti-Israel activists who try to connect pretty much everything that can be criticized in the US to Israel in a desperate attempt to piggyback on social unrest that has nothing whatsoever to do with Israel. (That’s in addition to being convinced that the “pro-Israel lobby” is on a shopping spree in the US…)

In any case, Barnes eventually got back to Blumenthal, telling him: “I consider myself honored to be at the receiving end of one of your FactFree™ smears, Max. כל הכבוד!” Blumenthal – who can’t really afford to admit that he made an embarrassing mistake because such a habit would take a really big chunk of his time – responded: “Glad to have confirmation that @JGreenblattADL approved of you appropriating Nazi propaganda to harass Jews who oppose apartheid.”

Sometime somewhere we can now probably look forward to a book, or an article, or at least a presentation in which Max Blumenthal will claim that ADL Director Jonathan Greenblatt approves of “appropriating Nazi propaganda to harass Jews who oppose apartheid.” Barnes really was on to something when he mentioned Blumenthal’s “FactFree™ smears,” because this is exactly how Blumenthal proceeded when he was smearing Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or, for that matter, Elie Wiesel. “FactFree™ smears” is actually an excellent description of Max Blumenthal’s modus operandi.

What’s a bit strange is that Max Blumenthal now seems to regard himself as a ‘Jew who opposes apartheid.’ Makes you wonder what happened: Blumenthal was so proud of all his hard work demonizing the world’s only Jewish state as the Nazi Germany of our time, and soon afterwards, as the Jewish version of the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group – and now we’re back to calling Israel just an apartheid state?!? Or maybe Max Blumenthal felt it just wouldn’t have sounded so good if he tweeted: “Glad to have confirmation that @JGreenblattADL approved of you appropriating Nazi propaganda to harass Jews who oppose Nazi-ISIS-Israel”???

Could it be that Max Blumenthal is worried about exposing himself as an antisemite?

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08/15 Links Pt1: Ten False Assumptions Regarding Israel; Malaysia Loses FIFA Event Over Israel Ban

From Ian:

PMW: Kids play “Zionist jailers” executing Palestinian prisoners, in Fatah camp named after terrorist

As part of the closing ceremony of a summer camp for Palestinian children organized by the Palestinian National Committee of Summer Camps and the Fatah Movement, Palestinian children performed a play showing the alleged "cruel attitude of the Zionist jailer towards our [Palestinian] heroic prisoners." [Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, Aug. 12, 2016]
Photos from the play at the summer camp show children apparently playing the role of Palestinian prisoners, kneeling blindfolded and handcuffed in a row on the floor, while other children portraying Israeli prison guards stand aiming guns at them. In one photo, three children are lying on the floor, after having been "executed" by the children playing "Zionist jailers.".
The summer camp was named after terrorist Muhammad Al-Shubaki, who stabbed and wounded an Israel soldier at the entrance to the Al-Fawwar refugee camp on Nov. 25, 2015. The terrorist's father spoke at the closing ceremony of the summer camp, expressing his "pride and thanks for the gesture of memorializing the heroic Martyrs."
The children's play repeated the PA libel that Israel abuses Palestinian prisoners and kills them in cold blood, often documented by Palestinian Media Watch. Other educational activities for Palestinian children have repeated additional libels. Just a few months ago, PMW reported on a high school play showing Israeli soldiers planting knives on innocent Palestinians and then murdering them in cold blood. In an elementary school play, Palestinian children enacted the "execution" of an Israeli soldier.

Malaysia Loses FIFA Event Over Refusal to Issue Visas to Israelis

Malaysia has relinquished the rights to host the 2017 FIFA Congress, a sports official said Monday after the predominantly Muslim country refused to issue visas to Israeli delegates.
“We were advised by the government to withdraw from hosting the congress due to security issues,” Affandi Hamzah, deputy president of the Football Association of Malaysia, told AFP.
Affandi declined to elaborate on the “security issues” but said the move was tied to comments by Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi over the weekend.
Zahid had said Malaysia was unable to provide visas to Israeli officials because it did not have diplomatic ties and could rile up local sensitivities.
“Some of the conditions of hosting the event include placing the (Israeli) flag on the table during the congress,” he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times online.
“After comparing the benefits and the risks, it is better for Malaysia to avoid playing host.”

Amb. Alan Baker: Ten False Assumptions Regarding Israel

Israel is inundated with one-sided international resolutions, declarations, “peace plans,” and advice from governments, international organizations, leaders, pundits, and elements within the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities.
Most of the above rest on widely-held, false and mistaken assumptions regarding Israel, its leaders, government, policies, and positions held by the vast majority of the Israeli public.
These false and mistaken assumptions need to be addressed:
1. “Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank territories (Judea and Samaria) will provide Israel with security and international acceptance.” Wrong.
Prior to Israel’s entry into the territories in the 1967 war, the Arab states made every effort to attack and weaken Israel militarily and diplomatically.
The Arab and Iranian attempts today to challenge Jewish history in the Biblical land of Israel and in Jerusalem and the legitimacy of the State of Israel as a Jewish state still resonate in the international community, most recently in UNESCO.
The Palestinians are committed to eventually establishing their state over all of mandatory Palestine and they indoctrinate their children this way.

From the New York Daily News:

City pols are blasting City Council candidate Thomas Lopez-Pierre for his latest inflammatory comments about “greedy Jewish landlords.”

Lopez-Pierre, who ran a fringe campaign for an uptown Council seat in 2013 that drew attention for his racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric, is now running against incumbent Mark Levine.

He blasted out a fund-raising e-mail earlier this month with the subject line “SAVE HARLEM from Greedy Jewish Landlords.”

“Greedy Landlords and NYC Council Member Mark Levine are working together to push Black and Hispanic tenants out of Harlem!” he wrote, going on to charge that Levine, “the only Jewish person in the race,” only won in 2013 because there were eight black and Hispanic candidates running against him.

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Controller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Letitia James, Rep. Jerry Nadler and others penned a letter to Lopez-Pierre demanding he apologize.

“Such rhetoric has no place in our society, and certainly does not belong in a political campaign,” they wrote.

“Your repeated references to ‘greedy Jewish landlords’ in your most recent email play on a long-established anti-Semitic trope,” the group of 14 elected officials wrote.

“Your reference to your opponent as the ‘only Jewish candidate in the race’ and frequent depiction of him in religious garb amount to gratuitous targeting of him based on religion.”

Lopez-Pierre's webpage doubles down on the accusation, citing a Forward article about Jewish landlords as evidence that "fighting Jewish landlords isn't anti-semitic." He chooses a photo of Mark Levine in a yarmulka for his site even though Levine does not normally wear one.

It is true that there are many corrupt Jewish landlords in New York. There are also many corrupt non-Jewish landlords and many Jewish landnords who care deeply about the people in their buildings. Lopez-Pierre is using black and Hispanic antisemitism as his main campaign theme to run for office.

I had a feeling that the Daily News was downplaying Lopez-Pierre's antisemitism, and sure enough, I found this open letter he wrote in 2013 to a local journalist during his previous campaign where he he tried to explain exactly why he isn't antisemitic - because he enjoys sleeping with Jewish women:

Let me use this email to state as plainly as possible my views on Jewish people without you interrupting me.

I have dated some very sexy Jewish women, I just love Jewish women; the sex was always good if not at times great.

The truth is that as I am sure you must know, Jewish women have great oral skills - they really know how to communicate their interest to Black men - smile.

And if it's NOT your birthday, you can forget all about Black women………………..trust me I know, I dated my fair share of Black women.

As you may know, Jewish women just love them some big Black men (yes, the stereotype is true - do NOT hate - trust me, take my word for it or ask any Black women who also dates Jewish men - she will tell you how small Jewish guys are compared to Black men)!

Forgive me, I digressed.

As I was saying, I have the greatest respect for Jewish women and I am honored to call many Jewish males, friends.

...My people [Blacks and Hispanics] are angry and scared and they fear that they will be next to be pushed out of their homes by White/Jewish landlords.

And the sad truth is that today, in Upper Manhattan we have Uncle Tom Nigger Black and Hispanic elected officials who have taken campaign funds from White/Jewish landlords to look the other way while thousands of thousands of Black and Hispanic tenants were pushed out of their apartments for people who would pay higher rents (mostly White/Jewish people who were priced out of the rental market downtown).

As a candidate for the 7th NYC Council District, I believe it is very important for me to fight for those Black and Hispanic tenants being pushed out of their homes by White/Jewish landlords.

I want Black and Hispanic voters to know who is behind the ethnic cleansing in Upper Manhattan and it is White/Jewish landlords with the help of Uncle Tom Nigger Black and Hispanic elected officials.

My opponent is Mark Levine, a White/Jewish upper middle class, Harvard educated, son of a doctor, political opportunist who has taken thousands of dollars of campaign money from greedy White/Jewish landlords - and lives outside of the 7th NYC Council District with his wife and children in a high-end condominium apartment

...I fear that Mark Levine, the White/Jewish candidate will steal the election because of the long history of White/Jewish people in Upper Manhattan supporting their own people.

I have to tell you that I have the greatest respect for Jewish people. Jewish people are never ever afraid to take political and economic power from other racial groups even if their numbers do NOT warrant such a power grab.

One of my political role models is NYS Assembly Member, Dov Hikind; a Democrat who endorsed Republican candidate Michael Bloomberg for mayor against a member of his own political party - why? Because Michael Bloomberg is Jewish and gave his people a better deal.

The Uncle Tom Nigger Black and Hispanic elected officials in Upper Manhattan have a lot to learn from NYS Assembly Member, Dov Hikind.

NYS Assembly Member, Dov Hikind is never ever afraid to put his people and the State of Israel before the interests of the United States.

I, Thomas Lopez-Pierre have the greatest respect for NYS Assembly Member, Dov Hikind.Let me end by saying that I am sorry if I hurt your feelings by saying bad things about White/Jewish landlords.

Yeah, I'd say I'm on safe ground to call Lopez-Pierre an antisemite.

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