Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 09, 2017

"Palestine Refugees" aren't refugees, and UNRWA knows this

As a followup to my post about UNRWA and defining refugees, it looks like the reality is a bit simpler than I thought.

I asked an international legal scholar about UNRWA's definition of refugees, and he responded simply "There is only one treaty that defines refugees – the 1951 convention."

Reading the Refugee Convention more carefully, this is in fact the case. It doesn't say that Palestinians are or aren't refugees; it merely says that they are not eligible for protection under the Refugee Convention because UNRWA already existed. Their refugee status is simply not addressed in the Convention - because there is only one definition.

Any person who...owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

The first article of the Convention then lists people for whom the Convention doesn't apply, for example those who are guilty of war crimes or those who become citizens of another country. And Palestinian Arabs are excluded as well. This was done at the request of Arab countries. Since UNRWA was considered temporary, the Convention says that Palestinian Arabs will fall under the provisions of the Convention as soon as UNRWA no longer can be responsible for them. Then they would only be considered refugees if they fit under the Refugee Convention definition and not under the rest of its exclusions.

Likewise, in their carefully written policy documents, UNRWA doesn't define the people registered with UNRWA as "refugees." They refer to them almost invariably as "Palestine Refugees." sometimes with the word "refugees" capitalized, but that is nomenclature, not descriptive.

UNRWA also takes pains to say that they are using the term only for the purposes of determining who is eligible for services, not as a legal term. It is a working definition.

UNRWA is not trying to define the term "refugee," because it cannot do that: the Refugee Convention is the only place the term can be defined. All UNRWA can do is decide who they want to provide services to, and the main (but not only) category of those people is what they name "Palestine Refugees." It doesn't mean that they are real refugees any more than the UN calling Gaza "Occupied Palestinian Territory" means that Gaza is legally occupied - something the UN essentially admitted.

It is simply a word game.

Let's look again at UNRWA's definition in its "Consolidated Eligibility and Registration Instructions" with this in mind:

Persons who meet UNRWA’s Palestine Refugee criteria

These are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict. Palestine Refugees, and descendants of Palestine refugee males, including legally adopted children, are eligible to register for UNRWA services. The Agency accepts new applications from persons who wish to be registered as Palestine Refugees. Once they are registered with UNRWA, persons in this category are referred to as Registered Refugees or as Registered Palestine Refugees.

Notice how UNRWA capitalizes "Palestine Refugees" but doesn't capitalize the "r" in "descendants of Palestine refugee males." This is because the descendants are also "Palestine Refugees" but they are not real refugees.

On UNRWA's website, capitalizing the R in refugees is not standard - but the phrase "Palestine refugees" is ubiquitous. Only rarely do they refer to "refugees" without a qualifier of "Palestine refugees" or "registered refugees." Once you are aware of that fact, it is honestly irritating to read their literature. They are trying hard to make the causal reader think that "Palestine refugees" are refugees, but as my lawyer friend points out, they cannot.

So for example this 2010 document that attempts to show the difference between UNRWA and UNHRC consistently says that UNHRC takes care of "refugees" while UNRWA takes care of "Palestine refugees" with the word "Palestine" italicized throughout. Once you understand that "Palestine refugees" is simply a phrase that has no legal meaning these paragraphs suddenly make much more sense.

Palestine Refugees as Defined by UNRWA

Anyone whose normal place of residence was in Mandate Palestine during the period from 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war qualifies as a Palestine refugee, as defined by UNRWA, and is eligible for UNRWA registration. Hence the reference to Palestine refugees, not Palestinian refugees, in UNRWA’s name and official documents.

Here they say explicitly that UNRWA defines what a "Palestine refugee" is but in no way are they saying that they are actual refugees - because only the Refugee Convention can do that.

On the other hand, when the same document refers to "Palestinian refugees" it refers to Palestinians who are real refugees under the Refugee Convention, and therefore (if they are outside UNRWA areas) they are eligible for UNHCR protection. Typically these are refugees from Syria or Iraq who happen to be of Palestinian descent.

UNHCR has a world-wide mandate to protect, assist, and seek durable solutions for refugees as well as for other people in need of international protection. UNHCR’s mandate covers Palestinians who are refugees within the meaning of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which could include Palestine refugees as defined by UNRWA. UNHCR normally takes up the case of Palestinian refugees only when they are outside UNRWA’s area of operations.

Notice how the document distinguishes between "refugees within the meaning of the 1951 Refugee Convention" and "Palestine refugees as defined by UNRWA." Only the former are real refugees under international law, because only the 1951 Refugee Convention defines what a refugee is. Only real refugees can apply for asylum in other countries, not "Palestine refugees" (again, unless they are fleeing persecution for other reasons.) UNRWA merely defines who is eligible for their services and, for most of them, they call the "Palestine refugees." They could call them Blurpies - it would be just as meaningful.

Other UN agencies will not be so particular and will mix up "Palestine refugees" with real refugees. Sadly, even UNHCR - which has an interest in inflating the number of refugees worldwide - will count UNRWA's "Palestine refugees" as real refugees in their annual reports and ignore the definitions in the Refugee Convention. Over the decades, the UN has happily pushed the myth of a growing number of Palestinian refugees - but UNRWA knows better by insisting on calling them "Palestine refugees." The media, of course, is often complicit with this.

The term "Palestine refugees" is meant to deceive. And UNRWA has done a brilliant job in doing exactly that.

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Meet the happy female terrorist supporters at Palestinian universities

These are photos from the Facebook page of a women's student group at Al Quds University that is associated with Fatah:

The name of the group?

"Sisters of Martyr Dalal Mughrabi."

Mughrabi was the terrorist responsible for the 1978 murders of 38 Israelis including 13 children.

There are Fatah-aligned groups with the same name at BirZeit University, Al Azhar University, An-Najah University and various places beyond universities.

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Fake news: Turkish "news" agency calls a road accident a "vehicular attack by settler"

Suleiman Salah Hammad, 85 (or 81), was riding his donkey along a highway south of Bethlehem when he was accidentally hit by a car driven by a Jew.

Hammad and his donkey were tragically killed.

The car sustained severe damage.

Israeli ambulances and emergency personnel helped as best they could and opened an investigation.

Now here is how the Turkish Anadolu Agency reported this story:

The story, and a followup story with video that Getty Images archived, repeats the lie that this was a deliberate attack.

Fake news of this type can be seen every day in certain media outlets.

(h/t Bob Knot)

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02/08 Links Pt2: PFLP Terrorist Calling For Women's Mass Strike;

From Ian:

Former PFLP Terrorist One Of “Feminists” Calling For Mass Strike

In an op-ed for The Guardian, a group of “feminists” have called for a mass strike on International Women’s Day (March 8).
The Women’s March on Washington spawned more than 600 sister marches in more than 75 countries around the world. The turnout in Washington, D.C., alone far exceeded expectations, with an estimated half a million people turning out, while the worldwide estimate sits above 3 million. But despite the impressive crowds the question remains — what happens next? How about a mass strike, where women around the world walk out of work on March 8th in protest against male violence and in defense of reproductive rights? Well, mark your calendar, because that’s precisely what one group of women is calling for.
In an Op-Ed for The Guardian, a group of feminist activists and writers — including Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation; Angela Davis, founder of Critical Resistance, which advocates for prison reform; and Rasmea Yousef Odeh, associate director of the Arab American Action Network — issued a call for “feminism for the 99 percent.”
“Militant” feminist struggle somehow seems appropriate, considering one of these so-called feminists is Rasmea Yousef Odeh, a former PFLP terrorist who was sentenced to life in prison in Israel for her involvement in two terrorist bombings in Jerusalem in 1969, one of which killed two people – but only spent 10 years in prison before being released in a prisoner exchange with the PFLP in 1980.

UH-OH: DNC Candidate Ellison Allegedly Ranted About ‘Jewish Slave Traders’

Democrtaic Congressman Keith Ellison, a Muslim who is vying for the position of head of the Democratic national Committee, has been accused of ant-Semitism because of remarks he has made in the past about jews.
Now there is further alleged evidence of his anti-Semitism. As Mother Jones reports, when Ellison attended the University of Minnesota in the late 1980’s, he reportedly snapped that “European white Jews” were “trying to oppress minorities all over the world," referring to them as “Jewish slave traders.”
Mother Jones details how Ellison was a supporter of the racist Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and wrote op-eds, under the name Keith Hakim, in the student paper, the Minnesota Daily, defending the Nation of Islam leader. Ellison also introduced Kwame Ture, the black-power activist formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, when he spoke at the university; Ture called Zionism a form of white supremacy.
Eager to effect a rapprochement between the blacks and Jews on campus, the university organized a series of conversations between the two groups. But Ellison insisted Ture was not a racist. Michael Olenick, the opinions editor at the Daily, recalled Ellison asserting, "European white Jews are trying to oppress minorities all over the world.” He added, "Keith would go on all the time about 'Jewish slave traders.'" Another Jewish student recalled Ellison ranting, "What are you afraid of? Do you think black nationalists are gonna get power and hurt Jews?"

E.U.-Supported Palestinian University Calls to ‘Blow Up’ Jews

A Palestinian university with strong U.S. and E.U. ties held a militant parade graphically calling for the murder of Jews.
Birzeit University, just outside of Ramallah in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), held festivities to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the Fatah movement on Dec. 31, 2016. Fatah is the dominant movement in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and is led by the authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an organization that translates Arab, Iranian and Russian media, recently issued a report on the event.
MEMRI footage showed armed masked men in military fatigues conducting drills and chanting at Birzeit University’s campus. The men belong to Fatah’s Shabiba student movement. According to MEMRI, during the drill, the student movement members praised deceased Palestinian leader and Fatah head Yasser Arafat and shouted:
“Blow up the head of the settler!”
“We are the guardians of the borders!”
“Oh shabiba, this is a call to arms!”
As CAMERA has noted, Palestinian officials often refer to all Israelis as “settlers,” regardless of where they live.

Europe punishes Israel, blared the headline in Israel National News. “Ha!” I thought to myself. “They kill 6 million of us and then they punish us? What was that, then? The Spring Cotillion?”

"Selection" of Hungarian Jews on the ramp at the death camp Auschwitz-II (Birkenau) in Poland during German occupation, May/June 1944. Jews were sent either to work or to the gas chamber.

Europe. It takes a special kind of chutzpah to be so steadfast, so single-minded in one’s pursuit of hatred’s aim: the Jews. This is a story not lacking in any irony!

Jewish refugees being marched away by British police at Croydon airport in March 1939. They were put on a flight to Warsaw.

Think on it: the Romans oust the Jews from their land and so they go to Europe (some of them dragged there as slaves). Europe tortures the Jews for two-thousand years with all manner of pogroms and expulsions and then tries to finish them off once and for all, while Great Britain prevents them from coming back to whence they came from in the first place.

The Jewish poet Süßkind von Trimberg wearing a Jewish hat (Codex Manesse, 14th century.)

No one else much wants them. Certainly not FDR. Even though he knew exactly what was going on.

But after the Holocaust, all of them are forced to do something: the European nations, America, the UN. And so it is decided they’ll throw money at the creation of a Jewish State, Israel. They’ll give lip service to the idea of a Jewish National Home. Britain, meanwhile, will secretly arm the Arabs from behind the scenes in hopes of counteracting all these efforts.

And the glory of it! Even should the Jews succeed and manage to defend the Jewish State of Israel against all odds, all those Arabs who want them dead after all those Germans who wanted them dead, then at least they’ll all be in one place.

Yes. They managed to murder 6 million Jews, spread as they were throughout Europe. But 6-7 million of the suckers concentrated (get it?) in one tiny country the size of the state of Vermont? What with nuclear weapons a thing, this time they figure they can’t lose. Just point and shoot, as the saying goes.

Fettmilch Riot: The plundering of the Judengasse (Jewry) in Frankfurt on August 22, 1614

That is approximately (okay, so exactly) what went through this author’s head while reading about Europe punishing Israel over the passing of Israel’s brand spanking new Regulation Law, which gives 125% of the value of the land, or an equivalent piece of land to any Arab who can prove ownership of land on which a Jew built a home in Judea and Samaria.

You have to understand: Jews didn’t build in Judea and Samaria indiscriminately, but did their utmost to ascertain that the land in question was public—that there were no previous owners. Then and only then did Jews build homes with the government’s okay and assistance. These claims that keep coming up, they’re BOGUS. The claimants do not even need to show a deed. So of course people are going to claim land they want if they don’t even need to prove ownership with papers of some sort.

Need a crash course in contemporary land rights in Judea and Samaria? You’ve got it. Here’s what historian and political analyst Dr. Moshe Dann, has to say on the subject:

After the Six Day War in 1967 . . . the IDF commander ruled that the IDF would follow Jordanian law completely and exclusively [regarding land ownership in Judea and Samaria], except where it conflicted with IDF rules and regulations. This was an administrative decision, not law, and exceptions were made, for example to apply Israeli law concerning VAT. But regarding land ownership, the Civil Administration (Minhal) followed Jordanian law. This became important several decades later as Jews built new communities and as Arab Palestinians and NGOs Peace Now, Yesh Din and Rabbis for Human Rights, appealed to the High Court claiming that Jews had built their homes and property on “privately owned land.”

Their claims are based on massive land distributions that were carried out by Jordan during the early 1960’s in Judea and Samaria (the 'West Bank'). These arbitrary land grants were unconditional and, according to Mandate and Jordanian law, when recorded in the land registry, gave the recipients title and permanent possession. Most of the land was never used and no taxes were paid, which are required by Ottoman law, and therefore should have nullified any claims of ownership.

Since Jordan’s occupation of Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem was illegal, and its claim to be the legitimate sovereign was rejected by the entire international community, except for England and Pakistan, the IDF was under no obligation to recognize Jordan’s authority, including its laws and legal structure. Three Israeli laws were already in force and should have been employed:

1. The Area of Jurisdiction and Powers Ordinance (1948) requires that Israeli land laws be applied to "any part of Palestine which the Minister of Defense has defined by proclamation as being held by the Defense Army of Israel." According to late attorney and legal expert Howard Grief, this law “was enacted for the sole purpose of recovering for the Jewish State those lands that had been recognized as integral parts of the Jewish National Home under international law in 1920 and had always been considered the patrimony of the Jewish People."

2. The Emergency Regulations (Cultivation of Waste [Uncultivated] Lands) Law (1949) “authorizes the Ministry of Agriculture to declare lands as ‘waste’ lands and to take control over ‘uncultivated’ land.”

3. The Emergency Land Requisition (Regulation) Law (1949) authorizes the requisition of land when it is “necessary for the defense of the state, public security, the maintenance of essential supplies or essential public services, the absorption of immigrants or the rehabilitation of ex-soldiers or war invalids.”

Regarding the new Regulation Law, Dann says the media is making out as though Israel were legalizing land theft, though nothing could be further from the truth. A piece of property could have been registered in someone’s name 60 years ago, though that person is long gone. "Sometimes we can't even find out if that person ever existed. So people claim to be descendants of that person thereby to own land and that certifies them without ever going to court," says Dann.

Now let’s say you didn’t just read about Jordanian land rights and how these claims for land cannot be proven, and don’t even need to be proven in order for the leftist Israeli High Court of Justice to rule in their favor against the settlers. Let’s say you’re completely ignorant of the contemporary history of the area, but you do know that these territories are the heart and soul of the Jewish people, indigenous territory.

How could a European be so bold as to tell a Jew he cannot live in Judea and Samaria? Do Europeans not read their own bible? Are they so utterly ignorant of history that they do not know where Jews come from?

Of course not. Everyone knows it and no one is fooling anyone else. Everyone knows where Jews come from. Just as everyone knows where Arabs come from (hint: Jews=Judea, Arabs=Arabia).

They threw us out of our land, put us in ghettos, forbade us most forms of employment, tortured us with pogroms and expulsions, systematically gassed and burned us by the millions, and now deny us the right to build homes in the land they know we come from. The land that is OURS by birthright.

A 15th-century German woodcut showing an alleged host desecration.
1: the hosts are stolen
2: the hosts bleed when pierced by a Jew
3: the Jews are arrested
4: they are burned alive.

And so, Europe is punishing us! Denying us the pleasure of their company by delaying a meeting between Israeli and European officials. (Oh darn. Don’t you just hate that?)

Oh. Also they chastised us, with various talking heads calling for a repeal of a law that actually goes above and beyond what has been legally required of other countries in similar situations. Prof. Eugene Kontorovich writes:

In several prominent cases, long-term occupiers have used compensated takings, and the international community appears to have acquiesced, and certainly did not declare it illegal. Examples include the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus, where a compensation scheme aimed at permitting Turkish settlers to remain in Greek properties was approved in 2005 by the European Court of Human Rights. Similarly, the Russian occupation of Crimea takes private property with compensation (often in the form of other land), even for highly controversial projects like the Kerch Bridge, which will serve to deeply entrench the occupation and facilitate the transfer of settlers. Yet while many aspects of Russia’s occupation of Crimea have been denounced as illegal by the international community, the use of eminent domain has not. In particular, the ICC Prosecutor’s report on possible Russian crimes in Crimea makes no mention of it. The fact that many aspects of Russia’s Crimean occupation have been explicitly criticized on international law grounds, but this one ignored, suggests that it is not seen as illegal.

Indeed, property owners who have been compensated have no injury to complain of. As the French Government wrote in its submission to the International Court of Justice in the Wall Case, “international law… requires compensation which effectively makes good the entire injury suffered by the owners of the property in question. Indeed, claims of violations of international law are often accompanied by demands for compensation. This may be the first case where it is the payment of above-market compensation is claimed as an international law violation.

In short, prior to the introduction of the Israeli “Regulations” bill, neither the consensus of commentators nor any state practice supported the view that the prohibition on confiscation or seizure of private property in occupied territories applies to land-use regulations accompanied by the payment of complete compensation.

So there you have it: Europe is punishing the Jews for doing more than should be expected of them, especially since everyone knows the territory in question is Jewish indigenous territory, even if they’re all LYING about it, and calling it an “illegal occupation.”

Europe is good at a lot of things: chocolate, cheese, wine. But probably the thing it does best is punish the Jews.

The good news is, we’re just going to keep building homes, having babies, and being a just and democratic nation, and there’s not a thing they can do about it.

So there.

Nyah.

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Activist Rabbi Sure He Saw 'Liberal Values' In Maimonides' 13 Principles Somewhere (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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New York, February 8 - A leading figure in liberal Judaism is struggling to find corroboration for his sensibilities after failing to find modern progressive principles enshrined in the writings of the most prominent medieval Jewish thinkers.

Rabbi Mitt Kademm of Temple Now on Manhattan's Upper East Side could have sworn that self-evident liberal values already appeared in the twelfth-century works of Jewish scholars such as Maimonides, since everything he holds dear indicates they must be synonymous with Judaism. He told confidants that the relevant passages must be in there somewhere, and he just has to keep looking.

Rabbi Kademm has led his congregants in protests against President Donald Trump's suspension of entry permits for citizens of seven terrorism-prone countries; spoke out in solidarity with the women protesting Trump's election; marched with Black Lives Matter protesters; and participated in numerous other events identifying contemporary liberal sensibilities as core Jewish values. In recent explorations of the pedigree of those values, however, Rabbi Kademm has so far been unable to locate any statements that could be understood as endorsement of the progressive weltanschauung.

On the contrary, he notes, the most prominent exploration of core Jewish principles appears in complete contradiction to anything he believes, or exhorts his congregants to follow. "I was looking at Maimonides' Thirteen Principles of Faith, and shuddered," he confessed. "I couldn't find racial equality in there, or multiculturalism, or diversity as a value in itself. I saw such unacceptable notions as the existence of God, the divine nature of the Torah, and anticipation of the Messiah. Worst of all, I saw not a hint of a post-colonialist approach, and this was a man who lived in the Middle East for most of his adult life. Did he not see the exploitation by the West? How am I supposed to call Judaism and progressivism synonymous with any sense of integrity and honesty?"

Moving forward or back through Jewish history has proved little help. "I went back to the Talmud, but my database queries have produced no occurrences of 'diversity' or of 'affirmative action,'" he reported. "The same goes for 'empowerment of women' and the term 'progressive' itself. And even though other, later Jewish thinkers disagreed with Maimonides on his formulation, I couldn't find a one that took him to task on progressive grounds. It may yet take a while to demonstrate that Jewish by definition connotes liberal."

Congregants have noticed the Rabbi's troubled state of late. "His heart wasn't in the ecumenical lox-and-bacon brunch this week," observed Christine Markowitz, a longtime member. "He wasn't really listening to Reverend Sharpton's sermon, I could tell."

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02/08 Links Pt1: Hamas’ Latest Gory Video Full Of Antisemitic Imagery; What if Israel Funded Welsh or Scottish Independence Groups?

From Ian:

IsraellyCool: Hamas’ Latest Gory Video Full Of Antisemitic Imagery

The terrorists of Hamas have released a new video aimed at Israel, threatening us with death and destruction. I guess it’s title Zionist, You Will Die in Gaza gives that away.
The video is hard to get through because of the singing in broken Hebrew to a backing track that sounds like a cross between Riverdance and Pacman, let alone the disgusting scenes.
In case you missed it, here is all the antisemitic imagery, or imagery that otherwise should let you know that Hamas has a real problem with Jews, and not just “Zionists” as the title and lyrics would suggest.

Hamas Music Video: Zionist, You Will Die in Gaza (English Subtitles)
This video has been taken down by YT for ironically Hate Speech
JPost has a non YT link: New Hamas music video threatens to rain down rockets on Israel

'How Would You Feel if Israel Funded Welsh or Scottish Independence Groups?' PM Netanyahu Asks UK Counterpart in Call for Foreign Governments to Stop Giving Money to NGOs That 'Slander' the Jewish State

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the leaders of both the United Kingdom and Belgium this week to stop funding left-wing NGOs that “slander” the Jewish state.
“I will continue to fight the lies and do everything to protect our soldiers,” Netanyahu vowed in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli leader met in Jerusalem with visiting Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. On Monday, Netanyahu was the guest of British Prime Minister Theresa May at 10 Downing Street in London.
In a Facebook video he filmed while in the UK, Netanyahu said, “I asked the British prime minister today: How would you feel if I was funding with Israeli government money organizations that call British soldiers ‘war criminals’? Or called for independence for Wales or independence for Scotland with Israeli government funding?”
“Well, unfortunately,” he continued, “this is what many governments do when they fund groups like Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Adalah, etc. So I asked that the British government cease funding these groups. I think the time has come.”

Rami Hamdallah, the PA prime minister, gave a speech yesterday at the world premiere of a film about Marwan Barghouti.

Barghouti is in Israeli prison for his role in five terrorist murders. He is also considered one of the leaders of the deadly second intifada, which killed over 1100 Israelis. He was the head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group.

Hamdallah said that the PA supports efforts to award this terrorist the Nobel Peace Prize.

He said, "We have announced previously our support for activist Marwan Barghouti to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and reiterate our support for all the efforts that people are expending to achieve this. "

Last year the Palestinians launched a campaign to award Barghouti the Nobel. Some Arab parliaments and fringe European MPs have supported the effort.

There is a webpage to push this effort. In the entire biography of Barghouti on that page, which admits his role in launching the murderous terror spree in 2000, the word "peace" is not mentioned once.

While lots of Palestinians and others say he deserves the Nobel, as far as I can tell none of them actually can cite anything that he has actually done for peace. Instead, they brag about how he was a leader of the "resistance."

Which again shows that the concept of "peace" that Palestinians have is quite at odds with how the rest of the world defines it.

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From The Independent:

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s invitation for the Israeli premier to the centenary celebrations of the Balfour Declaration later this year “speaks volumes” about the closeness of the two countries.

Ms May extended an invite to Mr Netanyahu during an official visit to London which concluded on Monday.

“While the Palestinians want to sue Britain for the Balfour Declaration, the British prime minister is inviting the Israeli prime minister to an event to mark the 100th anniversary of the declaration. That speaks volumes,” Netanyahu said.

Mahmoud Abbas' office went nuts. Xinhua translates from the PA's official Wafa news agency:

Palestinian President Spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeinah on Tuesday deplored Britain's invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend celebrations of the centennial of the Balfour Declaration.

Britain "is responsible for the disaster of the Palestinian people a hundred years ago," Abu Rudeinah said in statements by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

"Instead of correcting the historic mistake and recognizing the Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, it is preparing to celebrate an incident considered by the Arab world and the international community as a tragic reason that the Palestinian people and the Arab region is paying for," the spokesperson said.

Abu Rudeinah urged the British government to correct this mistake in order to maintain security and stability in the region.

That last line shows exactly how the Palestinian leadership views peace: by erasing Israel.

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The PLO website has a daily feature highlighting anniversaries of major events in Palestinian history throughout the year.

With very few exceptions, nearly all of the 240 or so events in their timeline occur within the last hundred years. (They include a date for the Crusades in 1099 and a couple for Napoleonic times in 1799, plus the First Zionist Congress in 1897.)

For February 8, it says that in 1976, "Zionist court decides to allow Jews to pray in Haram al Sharif."

What happened in 1976?

From JTA:

...[A] tiny nationalistic group has continued periodically to attempt to pray on the Temple Mount. On May 8, 1975, eight young members of this group, while ostensibly touring the site, began to pray. They were almost through with their praying when an elderly Moslem noticed them and summoned his friends. A crowd of Moslems soon gathered and altercations broke out. The policemen (most of them Arabs) on duty at the police post on the Temple mount were called in to stop the clash. They detained the young Jews, who were subsequently brought to court.

Magistrate Ruth Or, in her verdict issued Jan. 28, held that the instructions given to the policemen–to prevent Jews from praying on the Mount–were illegal, in that the law establishes the basic right of all believers to pray at their holy places. The magistrate criticized the Minister of Religious Affairs for not having established a praying procedure for both Jews and Moslems at the Temple Mount.

The government had introduced such arrangements for the common use of the Machpella Cave in Hebron by Moslems and Jews, the magistrate noted, but had refrained from doing so on the Temple Mount.

The State Attorney has appealed the ruling to District Court–which may well reinstate the Supreme Court ruling of 1970. Meanwhile, the magistrate’s verdict is an ongoing cause of tension in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The police continue to bar would-be Jewish worshippers from the Mount, but Moslem anger will apparently only be assuaged if the magistrate’s decision is overruled.

Apparently this ruling was overturned.

The President of the High Court of Justice, Aharon Barak, in response to the appeal in 1976, wrote:

The basic principle is that every Jew has the right to enter the Temple Mount, to pray there, and to have communion with his maker. This is part of the religious freedom of worship, it is part of the freedom of expression. However, as with every human right, it is not absolute, but a relative right... Indeed, in a case where there is near certainty that injury may be caused to the public interest if a person's rights of religious worship and freedom of expression would be realized, it is possible to limit the rights of the person in order to uphold the public interest.

This is astonishing, because it isn't the worshipers that would cause injury, but the bigots who refuse to allow the basic human right that Barak claimed to care about. It means that Muslim extremists have veto power over Jewish human rights as long as they espouse violence, which is the exact opposite of human rights.

Even though the magistrate court ruling allowing Jewish worship was never enforced and Israeli police continued to ban Jewish prayer, Palestinians still mark the day (the wrong day, incidentally) as another example of their being oppressed by Jews.

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Syrian opposition group reportedly recognizes Israel (UPDATE)

Russia's Sputnik News Arabic reports that the Syrian opposition group "Salvation Front of Syria" is the first Syrian group to officially recognize Israel.

Fahed Al-Masri, the leader of the group but based out of Paris, has been making overtures to Israel for several months now. He's been on Israeli TV and spoke via satellite at the conference on Syria at Hebrew University last month.

Formerly spokesperson for the Free Syria Army, al-Masri was quoted as saying that in the "new Syria "that he wants to build, "we will not be hostile to Israel or any other country, and we welcome the return of Syrian Jews to Syria, even if they have Israeli nationality."

"The Syrian Jews holding Israeli citizenship would be a bridge to the Syrian people to the West," Al Masri said.

In December, al-Masri said that in his new Syria, the Golan would be returned but the Israelis who live there would become "peace ambassadors." He also said that the new Syria would give citizenship to its Palestinian residents.

This week his group issued a “Roadmap for peace between Syria and Israel “ that called for severing ties between Syria and Tehran.

Part of this publicity campaign is because that Al-Masri is hoping that Israel will take a public stand against Assad and put pressure on the regime that will help the opposition forces.

“Personally, I am ready for the risk [of assassination] if I have any role in achieving real peace between Syria and Israel and the end of Iranian domination over my country,” al-Masri told Media Line.

UPDATE: Al Masri visited here and posted the entire statement in the comments:

Roadmap for peace between Syria and Israel

Further to the open letter addressed by National Salvation Front in Syria, to the Israeli
people last month, we are pleased to offer our vision for the future of the relationship between Israel and Syria , the new Syria,which we hope and aim to be away from any conflicts,whether they are Arab crises, regional or international, and to focus on reconstruction, development, and building a culture of peace.
Security and stability of the State of Israel:

*The new Syria will not be hostile in anyway, to the State of Israel nor any State in the region, or international

*New Syria will not be, and in any case a base, a transit station nor will support or be a training center nor will allow arms , extremism and terrorism to cross its borders.

*The new Syrian state will not provide any facilities for any groups or military, nor acts of sabotage targeting the security and safety of Israel or any country from neighboring countries and Syria.

*There will never be in the new Syria nor on the territory , any foothold for any armed organizations targeting the securit y and safety of Israel or any country from neighboring countries and the world.

*The new Syria will not grant safe haven for all who plan or target the security and stability of Israel and the regional and international security and stability.

*The security and stability of Israel is necessarily linked to the departure of Assad and his regime and the return of security and stability to Syria in the presence of a strong authority to rule the state post-Assad in Damascus.

*Chaos, extremism and terrorism requires the rule of a military junta with strong support and resources and tools to govern the transitional period

*The transitional phase requires support and assistance of a joint Arab and Turkish forces to enter Syrian land under the care and supervision of the United Nations.

Palestinian issues:

•Palestinian refugees in Syria, will be Naturalized Syrian citizens.

*Palestinian refugee camps in Syria will be changed to residential areas and will be disarmed all Palestinian armed groups on Syrian territory

* All activities of any Palestinian organization is prohibited on the Syrian Territory, and in particular anti-Palestinian Authority, led by terrorist organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

*We intend to resolve and prohibit the work and the activity of all Palestinian political organizations on Syrian territory . The diplomatic mission of the Palestinian Authority is the official Palestinian legitimacy and the only one to deal with.

*The new Syrian state and its institutions in relation to the Palestinian issue will confine only legitimate representative that internationally recognized as representative of Palestinian people.

Iran and its tools:

*The expulsion of all Iranian experts and military officers and security.

*The expulsion of all Iranian militias and subdued to Iran, such as Hezbollah and the Iraqi and Afghan militias and others.

*Expulsion of all Iranian diplomats and the closure of the Iranian embassy and cultural centers of Iran

*Closure and ban of all associations, organizations c reated by Iran in Syria since 1996

*Revocation of Syrian citizenship of all Iranians, Iraqis, Lebanese and others whom were granted by the Assad regime since 2003.

*All real estate and land that Iran obtained by force or by purchase from Syrian owners will be considered Syrian property and will be re-owned by the state.,

*Every legal action against the Iranian state and all its affiliated organizations will be considered to demand financial compensation for their participation in the fight against the Syrian people and the destruction of Syria.

* All agreements and treaties signed between the Assad regime and the Iranian regime will be cancelled and the new Syrian state will not assume any obligations as a result of cancelling of these agreements and treaties..

*Confiscation of all Iranian economic investments in Syria and making it property of the new Syrian state as part of the compensation to be paid by Iran to the new Syrian state as a result of their participation in the fight of the Syrian people and the destruction of Syria

*Prohibition of Hezbollah activity and all of Iran's militia on the Syrian territories as terrorist organizations

*Ban the transfer of arms through Syrian territory to Lebanon and the destruction of all secret tunnels

*Lebanese state bears full legal responsibility for the participation of Hezbollah in fighting the Syrian people and targeting of Syrian territory from Lebanese territory and to consider Hezbollah a partner in power in Lebanon.

*Iraqi state bears full legal responsibility for the participation of extremist sectarian Iraqi militias to fight the Syrian people and the targeting of Syrian territory from Iraqi territory even the Iranian Militia who partner in power in Iraq

*Ban the entry of Iranian citizens Syrian territory ,for religious or economic reasons, at least during the transitional era.

The Golan and Israeli peace:

Proceeding from the Rabin deposit and the Arab peace initiative:

*We recognize the state of Israel and we welcome Israel as a safe neighbor for us.

* We are not against giving any international guarantees requested by the Israeli people to live in security and safety, peace and stability as a nation.

*We intend to construct a new historical stage of re lationship between Syria and Israel , based on a culture of peace and cooperation and end the era of slogans and false illusions stage.

*We intend to Find a fair settlement on the Golan issue that satisfies both the Syrian and Israeli peoples.

*We intend to Jump in the relationship between Syria and Israel from the stage of hostility to friendship and alliance, cooperation and strategic relations phase.

* We intend to consider Golan Heights a garden of peace for the two peoples of Syria and Israel.

* We intend to consider Golan Heights an oasis of security and safety.

* All citizens in Golan Heights will be ambassadors of peace, coexistence and rapprochement between the two peoples, which is possible and acceptable now that Israel became a reality recognized by the world.

*Golan Heights is to be considered an oasis of investment projects and economic relations and joint cooperation and a target for tourism in the Middle East.

*We intend to Establish better relations and military and security cooperation, and economic, cultural, scientific and social development.

* We intend To call on Israel and Israeli companies to participate in an economic coalition of American -European aim of the reconstruction of Syria's oil and gas, energy, irrigation and water transport, tourism, telecommunications, agriculture, industry and commerce investment ,banking investment , projects investments.

Syrian Jews:

*Syrian Jews who emigrated to Israel or in the Diaspora are the true messengers of peace between the sta tes of Israel and Syria and their people and pillars to consolidate a culture of peace, development and cooperation and construction considerations.

* Syrian Jews will have the right to recover their property in Syria and to rebuild and take care of the Jewish temples in Syria.

*We intend To consider the Jewish heritage of religious, cultural and humanitarian and civilized in Syria as an integral part of the identity and heritage and the legacy of Syria and the identity and heritage of the entire region as well .

*We look forward to benefiting from the experience of the Jewish people in the pursuit of the Nazis to prosecute the Assad and his regime of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Army and security in the new Syria:

• To Rebuild national army, police and security forces on a professional basis.

•To Ensure the Syrian border security.

• To Adjust the internal situation.

•To fight against extremism and terrorism.

•To Restore Security and stability

*To support the construction and development process and the return of Syrian refugees from neighboring countries.

• The army and the security in the new Syrian state will not interfere or involve in any conflict outside Syria's borders.

• The Syrian army will be armed with defensive weapons to be able to achieve internal security and stability.

• The Syrian army will not possess any kind of internationally prohibited weapons.

• The length of compulsive military service will not exceed six months only to ensure the support of the national army in the fight against extremism and terrorism and restoring security and stability.

We call on Israel and all regional actors to the formation of the regional security council under the auspices of the United Nations where all the regional parties will sit together for better understanding and coordination on interests in the rest of the region. This could dissolve the bulk of the problems and put an end to bloodshed and destruction cycle in the the rest of the Middle East conflict.

We call on the State of Israel to carry out practical steps, to address the Syrian people in clear speech to emphasize that the State of Israel rejects the Holocaust statements in Syria and the continuing massacres against humanity and war crimes carried out by the Assad regime in collaboration with the Iranian ally and militias affiliated to them.

We, the National Salvation Front in Syria, which includes a selection of military and civilian elites carrying a national project for new to Syria, Syria, the future of each of their children and without any discrimination in rights and duties ,approach the Israeli people with a message of love, peace and affirm that the vision of new Syrian state will always be about re building human, land, development and culture of peace.

Fahad ALMASRI
National Salvation Front in Syria
Founder ـ General Coordinator
Paris 0033667474703
almasrifahad@gmail.com

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02/07 Links Pt2: Abbas’s untranslated book; BDS is antisemitism, pure and simple; France's New Islamist Guillotine

From Ian:

Abbas’s untranslated book

On Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s website there are about 20 books listed, that have been translated to dozens of languages.
There is one book, written in Arabic, that has never been translated.
For the past 11 years Abbas has been the chairman of the PA, yet nobody bothered to check his ideology as reflected in this book – The Other Face: The Secret Contacts Between Nazism and Zionism (1984), Dar Ibn Rashid, Amman – based on Abbas’s PhD thesis, written while he was a student in the Soviet Union. (Recently it was reported that Abbas was a KGB agent and his thesis was probably written at the direct order of his Soviet commanders, to demonize Israel and the Jewish people.)
There has been a deliberate institutional silence regarding this issue. No one dared expose Abbas’ thesis, which basically denies the Holocaust. No one wanted to destroy Abbas’s “peaceful” image. Yad Vashem has never published a single article about Abbas’s thesis or book. Other academic institutions simply ignore the issue – which proves that there is no real academic freedom in Israel.
In his book Abbas claims that the Holocaust was a Zionist-Nazi plot, and indicts the Zionist movement and its leaders such as David Ben-Gurion as “fundamental partners” in the destruction of European Jewry. Abbas also wrote that the Zionists thought anything that would cause Jews to immigrate was justified, including antisemitism and cooperation with Hitler.
He makes this case by arguing that the Jews ignored the Holocaust, cooperated with Hitler and encouraged antisemitism and persecution of Jews in Europe – anything to increase immigration to the Land of Israel and speed up the growth of the Jewish National Home in Mandatory Palestine.
Abbas also claims that the Zionists deliberately sabotaged the rescue of the Jewish communities of Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Baltic countries, including a shipment of 3,000 Jews from Hungary.

France's New Islamist Guillotine

It is not racist to accuse Muslims of wrongdoing; Islam is a religio-political system, not a race. This conflation of two very different things already causes endless confusion and miscarriages of justice. Such scattershot accusations fail to make a distinction between genuine hatred for Muslims and fair and balanced criticism of some of their behavior and their religion.
"Anti-racism... an instrument of intellectual terrorism has become today the greatest channel of the new anti-Semitism". — Georges Bensoussan.
The CCIF's charge of "Islamophobia" is almost certainly built, not so much about Arabs but about perceptions of a refusal by Muslim immigrants from North Africa to integrate into French society,
"To say that one drinks in anti-Semitism from one's mother's milk means that it is transmitted culturally. I have not spoken of a transmission through blood, which implies a genetic transmission. And I maintain that in some Arab families in France, anti-Semitism is taught. ... I have not invented the Kouachi brothers, who, after the attack on Charlie Hebdo, asked the printer with whom they took refuge if he was Jewish." — Georges Bensoussan.
"This visceral anti-Semitism proven by the Fondapol survey by Dominique Reynié last year cannot remain under a cover of silence. Conducted in 2014 among 1,580 French respondents, of whom one third were Muslim, the survey found that they were two times and even three times more anti-Jewish than French people as a whole". — Georges Bensoussan.

Jerusalem Syndrome at the Met

An exhibition on the diverse multiculturalism of medieval Jerusalem has been ecstatically received. There’s just one problem: the vision of history it promotes is a myth.
Obviously, the Met doesn’t support anything like Temple denial; but its inability to characterize the “absent” Temple’s importance or to give a sense of the Jewish historical experience in Jerusalem, along with its exaggerations of the glories of Islamic rule and its relentless focus on “internationalism,” unmistakably lends itself to the purposes of those who engage in that nefarious activity—and at least one essay in the catalog, on the Dome of the Rock, silently endorses it. That essay, by Robert Hillenbrand of Edinburgh University, simply omits any mention of something called the “Temple Mount”—this, despite the fact that early Islamic sources did the exact opposite, referring to the site as Bayt al-Maqdis (Hebrew: beyt hamikdash) and to Jerusalem itself as madinat bayt al-maqdis (“the city of the Temple”). Instead, Hillenbrand locates the Dome of the Rock “on the “Haram al-Sharif, the vast open esplanade that, . . . largely empty in the late-7th century,” was described variously as a rubbish dump and a “place accursed” since the Temple was destroyed there. In other words, the Dome of the Rock was erected on unused land—an assertion that is in itself a complete perversion of the very reason why it was built there in the first place. The Mount was called a “dungheap” by St. Jerome in the 5th century: a fulfillment of Christianity’s triumph and the Jews’ curse. Today a comparable historical erasure is being advanced by other parties.
The show’s refusal to confront history in any serious way; the failure to find artifacts that match its multicultural thesis; the depiction of the Jewish presence in Jerusalem as an “absence”—all of these contribute to the impression that, for the organizers of this exhibition, the undeniable facts of ancient Jewish history were the very things that could never be acknowledged. (As, in an opposite way, were the undeniable facts of medieval Islamic history.) Better by far to imagine Jerusalem in this fantasy as an international city without a hint of historical Jewish sovereignty, and a mythical place in which all faiths enjoyed equivalent standing.
In 1995, Edward Said, writing in polemical opposition to continued Israeli control of Jerusalem, yearned for the triumph instead of the “massive Palestinian-Muslim-Christian-multicultural reality in Jerusalem.” Said’s view of Jerusalem’s supposed “multicultural reality,” which he desired to enhance and advance, was just as distended as the view on display at Jerusalem 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven, preserved now in its catalog and in the message it has so effectively promulgated. At least Said, a pro-Palestinian radical, was being open about his ambitions. In the Met’s soft-focus presentation, a variant of the same view came bearing the imprimatur of one of the most imposing aesthetic authorities in the West, and was thus all the more easily gulped down by viewers and reviewers besotted with its dreamy and meretricious promise.
As we approach the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification in the Six-Day war of June 1967, it is necessary to bear this fact in mind: one of the few times in Jerusalem’s history when conquest was not followed by the demolition and appropriation of major holy sites was in the aftermath of that war, when Israel became the sites’ guardian and expanded access to them while ceding control to the authorities of different faiths. This ongoing relationship has hardly been untroubled, but it is far closer to an ideal of genuine diversity than any yet dreamed of while in the throes of Jerusalem Syndrome or its latest mutations.

From Al Arabiya:

Over 30,000 camels are expected to participate in King Abdulaziz’s prestigious Mazayen Al-Ibl heritage festival and camel beauty contest in the capital from March 19 to April 15.

An ancient tradition, the festival will attract over 2 million attendees from across the globe including royalties, celebrities, designers and athletes. A festival organized and managed by King Abdulaziz Darat, the heritage event and competition is held in respect to the role of camels in Bedouin history, preserving the purebred Arabian camel strains, safeguarding and raising awareness for the inherited heritage, culture and way of life for the Kingdom and the inhabitants of the desert and the desert-dwelling nomads of Arabia.

Judged by a committee of selected Bedouin who are considered experts and fully immersed in the ways and culture of Bedouin life and traditions, with winning camels throughout previous years often fetching millions of dirhams in price.

Event prizes will be awarded throughout the festival with camels assessed in five categories, according to breed and color.

From the Al Wadah white camel to the Al Shual yellow camel, the Al Sefr golden camel, the Al Majahateer dark camel and the Al Homor reddish, brown camel, various features considered most beautiful to each breed are closely assessed to determine the deserving winners. These include; the size of the camel’s head, whether the lips cover its teeth, the length of its neck, to the roundness of its hump, the size of its eyes, how long the lashes are, how the nose droops, whether the ears stand back, how high the hump is and where the hump sits.

Miss Universe has some competition.

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How many people stop to consider what life is like, after the terror attack is over?

Very often lives are changed, forever.

The murder of Dafna Meir was one of the more horrifying attacks Israel experienced last year. How many people stopped to consider Renana afterwards? What will her life be like?

Eldest of Dafna and Natan Meir’s six children, it was Renana who interrupted the terrorist in the middle of stabbing her mother to death. It was Renana who saw the terrorist trying to pull the knife out of her mother’s body so he could stab more people.

It was Renana who saw Dafna struggling to keep the knife inside her body so that he couldn’t hurt her children.

3 of her 6 children were in the house. Dafna’s refusal to allow them to be hurt and Renana’s screams were what made the terrorist give up and run away.

The night of the attack I wrote “How can home be the place where the heart is when that is the place where mommy’s heart stopped beating?”

How can you go on living in a house that was a home, a sanctuary that became a living nightmare? How can you walk across the floor your mother laid on while life fled from her body? How can you use that room as if it was just a regular room?

Over the past year, the people of Israel got glimpses of the spirit of the Meir family. We learned more about how extraordinary Dafna was. We also saw how Natan took all his children in hand and made sure their family life continued with light and with love.

For some reason, many assume a man won’t be able to take care of children on his own. Natan was horrified that there were those who questioned whether or not he would continue taking care of the children he and Dafna had adopted. How could that even be a question?! Dafna had wanted a big family. After they had their own children, she wanted to give a warm and loving home to additional children who needed it, so they adopted. How could anyone think that Natan would abandon the children that Dafna wanted so much? How could anyone think he would treat them differently from his biological children? They are all one family.

A terrorist could steal Dafna from them. Violence could break their family unit but it would not ruin their family. No terrorist could steal their family spirit.

Kindness is a choice. Happiness is a choice. Even when the most horrible things happen it is still possible to choose light. It isn’t easy, but it is possible.

The Meir family dramatically renovated their home. They worked on different ways to honor Dafna’s memory. Through sorrow that is difficult to fathom, an experience almost impossible to comprehend or process, they continued to live, always striving for the light.
Interestingly, Meir comes from the Hebrew word for light and means “giving light,” like a candle gives light in the darkness. And that is exactly what they have done - their example has been a light to us all.

“Or” means light in Hebrew. Interestingly, that is also the name of Renana’s fiancé. She recently announced their engagement in a touching Facebook post, saying:

“My Or who tells me not to cry, gives me reasons to be happy.
My Or who feels the evil with me, is the essence of goodness.
My light, on the day of my private devastation, on the backdrop of the Temple Mount where the Temple is sorely missed, chose that together we will build and grow.
Of course I said yes!”

I don’t know Renana and yet my heat leaps with joy to read her words.

I do not need to know her to know that no girl should ever have had to experience what she experienced. I ache for her pain, knowing that time does not heal. One learns to grow with the pain, one choose to live and be happy despite the pain but the loss never goes away.

There will always be a gaping hole where Renana’s mother is supposed to be.

I, who lost my father to cancer at a young age, can imagine what it is like for Renana. Each time she wishes she could tell her mother something, only to be hit with the reality of what happened…

What’s it like to get engaged and not be able to share your happiness with your mom? Hopes and dreams, plans will have to be made with other people…

What will it be like to have children without Dafna? I can imagine but I don’t know how Renana will feel. The only thing I am certain of is that Dafna’s example will make Renana a stronger, better mother.

The daughter who saw her mother die so that her children would not be hurt, can only become a stunning mother herself.

Renana will always carry with her the Meir family light. Now she also has Or who will add to her light. I pray that together they will have a wonderful life, full of happiness, good health and joy, free of troubles and sorrow.

And I hope they have a lot of children.

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02/07 Links Pt1: Kontorovich: Israel’s Settlement Regulations Bill and International Law; Renewing the “Jordanian Option” for the West Bank

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: Israel’s Settlement Regulations Bill and International Law

Israel’s proposed “Regulations Bill” has attracted broad international criticism, including from the U.S. State Department and the European Union, as well as from opposition Israeli politicians and some government lawyers. The bill seeks to solve a situation in which, over several decades, over one thousand Israeli homes in West Bank settlements have been built in open areas to which Palestinians subsequently asserted property claims, typically based on broad give-aways of state land by the King of Jordan during the Hashemite occupation (1949-67). The homes are in communities built with some level of government involvement. Thus the bill provides the government would compensate the landowners 125% of the value of the land, in order to allow the communities that have been built there to remain.
The plots are generally open, uncultivated fields. The frequently used characterization of “private Palestinian lands” is misleading. In the overwhelming majority of cases, no individual Palestinians have come forward to claim the lands. Indeed, in most cases, no property claimants asserted their interests for decades after houses were built, a situation that in common law would certainly warrant the application of adverse possession doctrines, under which long-term possession of property unprotested by owners can change legal title, exactly to prevent these kinds of conflict between long-term users and owners who slept on their rights . Under Jordanian law, rules of prescription, which would turn the land over to its existing inhabitants, would apply. In cases like the community of Amona, which inspired but are not covered by the law, the Court made its determination without any fact-finding, and the lands claimed by the Palestinian petitioners only slightly overlap with those on which the Israeli homes stand.
Thus the law regulates situations where property claims, often difficult to verify, are being belatedly brought against areas that have seen significant improvement and home-building. Moreover, in the background are two legal doctrines that make the property impasse particularly costly. On one hand, the Israeli Supreme Court exercises broad remedial powers. Instead of merely awarding title to Palestinian claimants, it affirmatively requires the government to destroy all structures whose plots may overlap even in part with the claimed lands. On the other hand, bargaining in the shadow of obscure Jordanian land allotments is made close to impossible by a Palestinian Authority law criminalizing the sale of land to Jews. While Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has recently issued an executive order reducing the traditional death penalty to life at hard labor, there are reports that the old punishment may still be enforced de facto.

Caroline Glick: The evolving threat of jihad in the West

ISIS’s mode of operation is a natural progression from the September 11 attacks. Along the way, Anwar al-Awlaki, the commander of al-Qaida forces in Yemen killed in a US drone strike in 2011, was the pioneer of moving the direction of Western jihadists from the physical world to the virtual one. For more than a decade, Awlaki indoctrinated and directed numerous jihadists in the US and the UK. In the beginning Awlaki directed their actions by meeting with them and preaching to them in shared physical space. Later, he decamped to Yemen where he continued his efforts. He preached to them through cassette tapes, through satellite broadcasts and Internet chat rooms. He indoctrinated them through online essays. And he directed their terrorist attacks by email.
An interesting incident in Awlaki’s career came in 1996. At that time, Awlaki was working as a preacher at the Denver Islamic Society. According to a New York Times report from 2010, Awlaki left the mosque, and moved to San Diego shortly after an elder of the mosque upbraided him for telling a mosque member to travel to Chechnya to join the jihad against Russia.
The most revealing aspect of the story is that the elder who criticized Awlaki asked the New York Times not to publish his identity. By 2010, Awlaki had already been publicly implicated in directing scores of Western jihadists to commit attacks in the US and the UK. He was considered the commander of al-Qaida forces in Yemen. And yet, the mosque elder in Denver didn’t feel comfortable openly condemning him.
His aversion indicated where the balance of power in the American Muslim community lies.
Whether or not President Donald Trump is able to reinstitute his executive order mandating a 90-day ban on entry of nationals from Syria, Iraq, Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, the fact is that such a move will be insufficient to diminish the terrorist threat in America. As Callimacci’s article made brutally clear, so long as the intellectual shackles of political correctness block the US and other Western governments from taking concerted action against the creed of Islamic supremacism and its adherents inside their own borders, the virtual terrorism command ISIS now controls will last until it morphs into an even more deadly threat in the months and years to come.