Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 23, 2017

No deal, Donald (Vic Rosenthal)

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

Donald Trump likes deals. He likes the idea of brokering a deal between Israel and the Palestinians, and thinks that he can do it. He can’t, and here’s why:

The insurmountable obstacle to a deal is that the essence of the Palestinian movement is the denial of a state belonging to the Jewish people (they don’t even agree that we are a people) in any part of the land between the river and the sea. Questions of borders, Jerusalem, Palestinian unity, and settlements – no matter how difficult – are all secondary to this major problem.

This is why the Palestinian understanding of “two state solution” includes a right of return to Israel for the descendents of Arab refugees, and why it does not include recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, or a renunciation of their claim to all of the land. This is the Palestinian bottom line.

Israel is willing to make many compromises (including some that are extremely stupid and dangerous to our security) but we are not prepared to agree to disappear. This is the Israeli bottom line.

Neither side can go any lower.

Mahmoud Abbas understands this very well. This is why he correctly considers direct negotiations with Israel a waste of time. This is why he insists that PM Netanyahu does not accept the two state solution, because he understands that he and Netanyahu mean different things by that expression. This is why he favors getting the Europeans and the UN to force Israel to give him what he wants. He knows that deep down (or not so deep down) many of these elements believe there should not be a Jewish state and would be happy to see it disappear.

There is no hope of changing the bottom line of Abbas and the PLO. But couldn’t we appeal to the ordinary Palestinian, the man or (very occasional) woman on the street? Don’t they want to succeed like all of us, to raise their children in peace, to be secure economically and physically?

No. Or maybe they do want these things, but other things are more important.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an Arab citizen of Israel, often writes about the repression of Palestinian Arab journalists by the PLO and Hamas. He has written about the corruption and brutality of the Palestinian Authority and the attitudes of the Palestinian “street.” Unlike “pro-Palestinian” Jewish writers like Gideon Levy, he understands the language and culture of the Palestinian Arabs and has contacts that provide information rather than propaganda.

So when he tells us that PA Arabs favor armed struggle against Israel, despise Mahmoud Abbas as a collaborator with Israel and the US, and reject the idea of a peace agreement, we should pay attention. Last week, he reported on a demonstration against Abbas in Ramallah:

On the eve of US envoy Jason Greenblatt's visit to Ramallah last week, hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in the city, calling on Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to resign. The protesters also condemned the ongoing security cooperation between the PA and Israel.

"Listen, listen to us, Abbas; collect your dogs and leave us alone," the Palestinian protesters chanted during what has been described as the largest anti-Abbas demonstration in Ramallah in recent years. They also called for the abrogation of the Oslo Accords with Israel, and denounced Abbas as a "coward" and an agent of the Americans. …

Yet this was far from a simple a protest against Abbas and his security forces. It was also a rallying cry for pursuing with further vigor the armed struggle against Israel.

"No to peace and no to all the nonsense, we want bullets and rockets," some of the protesters chanted. Notably, these calls in favor of an armed struggle against Israel were coming from the streets of Ramallah and not the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The protests also reflect Palestinians' rejection of the so-called peace process with Israel. In addition to the calls on Abbas to step down, the protesters demanded as well that the PA leadership cancel all agreements with Israel, first and foremost the Oslo Accords.

In other words, Palestinians are trying extremely hard to get their message across: Israel is our enemy, not our peace partner.

This has been clear since Arafat’s intifada in the early 2000s. Polls consistently show that a majority of Palestinian Arabs believe that “an armed intifada … would help achieve national rights in ways that negotiations could not.”

It’s interesting to note that polls show that a majority of Palestinians also say they favor a “two state solution.” This is because they define it just like Abbas, with a right of return, no recognition, no end of claims. This is why they too consider negotiations fruitless. When they are asked, a majority also say that the two state condition is only a temporary step on the way to the “unification of ‘Palestine’.”

But despite the fact that both the leadership and the population do not want a deal, the Trump administration still thinks one is possible, and this week we have been hearing about it in the context of a “regional solution” involving the Arab league. The theory seems to be that the PLO will make concessions like recognizing a Jewish state or giving up their demand for a right of return if the Arab states tell them to. Abu Toameh believes that this approach is probably even less likely to succeed than direct Israel-Palestinian talks.

First of all, Palestinians don’t trust the Arab regimes, who have always preferred to talk about how badly Israel treats Palestinians to doing anything for them themselves. Lebanon, Jordan and Syria have all oppressed and even killed Palestinians. Palestinians in those places today are second-class inhabitants (in Syria, most are dead or have become refugees). They also provide little or no financial help to the PA. What the PLO wants, Abu Toameh explains, is for the Europeans and the US to force Israel to give in and meet their demands. But this is not going to happen, regardless of whether the Arab League is involved in the negotiations or not.

Secondly, most of the Arab countries don’t see anything good for them in a possible deal. Jordan is afraid that it might end up with the Hashemite regime replaced by a Palestinian one; Lebanon worries about possibly being forced to grant citizenship to the Palestinian refugees it presently treats like dirt; and Egypt fears being asked to cede part of the Sinai to Gaza Palestinians. The Syrian regime is presently in chaos, hates Palestinians and Jews almost equally, and isn’t likely to be a constructive partner.

Finally, Abu Toameh notes that,

Israel as a Jewish state is anathema to Palestinian aspirations. No Arab leader in the world can persuade the Palestinians to give up the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees or accept a solution that allows Israel to retain control over certain parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Any Arab or Palestinian leader who promotes such compromise is taking his life in his hands. And Palestinian history will record him as a "traitor" who sold out to the Jews and surrendered to American and Israeli pressure.

Abbas has been straightforward about rejecting negotiations. But Israeli leaders have acted as though they believed that something positive could come out of them. They have done this either out of naïveté or because they wanted to placate the Americans who were demanding it and threatening to withhold diplomatic or financial support. Israel paid a high price for this: murderers were released who murdered again, and Israel’s honor vis-à-vis her enemies was weakened; Israel froze construction in Judea and Samaria and weakened her claim to be a sovereign nation. But even despite this, the Palestinians didn’t change their bottom line.

Trump should know from his real estate experience that a deal is only possible when both sides think they are getting something that they want. But what the Palestinians want is something that Israel isn’t selling.

It doesn’t matter how persuasive you are. It doesn’t matter what sweeteners one side or the other can throw in. It doesn’t matter how hard you push or what you threaten. Sometimes there just isn’t a deal.

This is what Netanyahu should explain to Trump. There isn’t a deal here.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

03/23 Links Pt1: Jewish Israeli-US teen arrested for phoning in JCC bomb threats; London terror – a lesson from Israel

From Ian:

Jewish Israeli-US teen arrested for phoning in JCC bomb threats

A Jewish Israeli teenager born in the US has been arrested on suspicion of issuing dozens of fake bomb threats against Jewish institutions in North America and elsewhere in recent months, police said on Thursday.
Police said the resident of the southern city of Ashkelon was the subject of a months-long undercover investigation by police’s Lahav 433 cyber unit and the FBI. It said in a statement that the motive behind the bomb threats was unclear. Police said he is 19 years old, but several Israeli media outlets reported him as 18.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the suspect allegedly placed dozens of threatening phone calls to public venues, synagogues and community buildings in the US, New Zealand and Australia. He also placed a threat to Delta Airlines, causing a flight in February 2015 to make an emergency landing.
“He’s the guy who was behind the JCC threats,” Rosenfeld said, referring to the dozens of anonymous threats phoned in to Jewish community centers in the US over the past two months.
The hoax calls were widely regarded as acts of anti-Semitism. The threats led to criticism of President Donald Trump’s administration for not speaking out fast enough. Last month, the White House denounced the threats and rejected “anti-Semitic and hateful threats in the strongest terms.”
Channel 2 reported that the suspect tried to seize the gun of a female police officer when cops arrived at his home to arrest him.

Will the JCC fake bomb threat suspect be extradited

Truth is suddenly far weirder than fiction.
With Thursday's blockbuster and bewildering announcement that the main suspect behind bomb threats against Jewish communities in the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand is none other than a 19-year-old dual US-Israeli citizen living in the Ashkelon area, one of the eventual question will be: will he be extradited?
In some ways, it is way too early to ask this question.
Right now, the suspect is just a suspect and the investigation is ongoing. Also, Israel has said it will indict him in Israeli courts.
But could he be indicted in other countries at the same time and be extradited?
The first principle in extradition is there is no double-jeopardy.
You cannot try someone for the same crime in multiple countries.

London terror – a lesson from Israel

Basic math says the more terrorists you bring in, the more you are bound to suffer the consequences.
Granted, they are not all terrorists, but so inclined from specific countries. Our President, Donald Trump, keeps trying to keep them out.
So far he has not been entirely successful because of certain judges who tolerate anything, including rape, in the name of Tolerance.
In the name of Inclusiveness they give in to terror, and so, an hour after the attack, another Member of Parliament told the BBC:
“We will never give in to terror.”
Have you tried getting on a plane lately – without being near strip-searched? Every big city has quadrupled its police force and its intelligence gathering operations. Walls have gone up all over Europe – and we are building a wall. Check points everywhere. Constant alerts – if you see something, say something.
What is that? That is giving in to terror, and it’s happening all over, and electing a Muslim as London’s mayor stopped nothing.
Over the months, Mayor Sadiq Khan has called Trump’s proposed travel pause offensive and “ridiculous.”
Now what’s he say?
Kahn also said that every big city around the world ought to be ready and to expect terror attacks.
No, Sir, we never expected any such business until we shut our eyes and flung our doors and borders wide open.

The story the Jordanians are telling us is that terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, who masterminded the Sbarro massacre, cannot be extradited to the US, because there is no treaty. The Jordanian High Court recognizes that an extradition treaty was signed with the US in 1995, but that it is null:

The Court of Cassation approved a decision taken by the Amman Court of Appeal not to extradite Jordanian citizen Ahlam Tamimi, to the US authorities.

A judicial source told Jordan News Agency, Petra that Kingdom and the United States singed [sic] an extradition treaty on March 28, 1995, but was not approved by the Jordanian parliament.

The source said that a request sent by a foreign country to concerned authorities in Jordan to extradite criminals, are not usually accepted as long as the extradition treaty is not effective.

Al Tamimi was accused of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against a U.S national. (emphasis added)

The problem is that this is not true.

The extradition treaty between the US and Jordan may or may not have been approved by the Parliament, but it was signed by King Hussein.

More importantly, in 1995 Jordan did recognize the treaty. The New York Times recounts that the same treaty the Jordanian court is now saying is null, was in fact used to allow US agents onto Jordanian soil to extradite a terrorist, a Jordanian national, to the US for the World Trade Center bombing.

At 1 A.M. on Feb. 9, 1993, Federal prosecutors say, Eyad Ismoil, a Palestinian immigrant working in a grocery store in Dallas, received an urgent phone call from a boyhood friend.

A few hours later, Mr. Ismoil bought a plane ticket, and on Feb. 21, he flew to New York to join the friend, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef -- the man prosecutors call the mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing. Five days later, prosecutors say, with Mr. Yousef in the passenger seat, Mr. Ismoil drove a van packed with explosives into the garage below the Trade Center.

...Using airline records, the F.B.I. discovered that Mr. Ismoil had flown to Jordan on the night of the bombing. With the help of the local police, agents tracked him to his home in a refugee camp near Jerash, about 30 miles north of Amman.

Although the F.B.I. knew his whereabouts last winter, the Americans could not arrest him until King Hussein of Jordan signed a new extradition treaty with the United States last week.

...At 2:15 P.M. yesterday, Mr. Ismoil, wearing a bright orange prison suit, was led in handcuffs into Federal District Court in lower Manhattan. The 24-year-old suspect was arraigned in five minutes before Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy on bombing and conspiracy charges. He pleaded not guilty.

Eyad Ismoil. Credit: Total War History Wiki

While The New York Times refers to him as a Palestinian immigrant, Ismoil's family originated in Nablus, then moved to Kuwait, where he was born. The family then resettled in Jordan in 1990 after the Iraqi invasion. Ismoil is a Jordanian national.

If the extradition treaty was in effect in 1995 to bring terrorist Ayed Ismoil to justice, why can't it be used now to extradite the terrorist Tamimi?

If the extradition treaty was not in effect in 1995 because it was not approved by the Parliament, then why were the Jordanians able to hand Ismoil over?

In his book Relentless Pursuit: The DSS and the Manhunt for the Al-Qaeda Terrorists, Samuel M. Katz writes about how Eyad Ismoil, who drove the explosives to the World Trade Center garage, was tracked down -- and extradicted to the US by Jordan.

Amazon describes Katz as an internationally recognized expert on Middle East security issues, international terrorism, military special operations and counterterrorism who has written books and articles and as served as a commentator on television networks.

On page 219, he describes the problem of extradition and how a treaty was drawn up and signed by King Hussein. There is no mention of the Jordanian Parliament being needed to approve in order for the treaty to be valid.

What is mentioned is that the treaty was signed into law in a ceremony in Amman a few months later. Furthermore, as the bottom of page 220 makes clear, not only was Ismoil extradited -- he was handed over to US agents on Jordanian soil.

The treaty surely must have been valid in order to allow agents of a foreign country to enter Jordan and remove the suspect.

So what happened since then that makes the exptradition now impossible? In the third paragraph on page 221, Katz explains the blowback from the first ever extradition from Jordan:

It is clear that the treaty was valid in 1995.

If the only reason that the extradition treaty is not effective now is because the Jordanian Parliament decided to abrogate it, then the Jordanian king, parliament and courts need to stop playing games and tell the truth about why it is refusing to hand an admitted terrorist over to the US.

Even better, Jordan could right this wrong by signing a new extradition treaty with the US so that terrorist Ahlam Tamimi can be brought to justice.

Terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, mastermind of the Sbarro massacre

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

As predicted, clueless "experts" are praising Hamas' "new charter" that changed nothing

Last month, I reported that Hamas was going to release a new manifesto that would not replace its antisemitic charter, but which would use more moderate language without changing Hamas' positions one bit.

I predicted that the media would be fooled by this and would report this document as if it is proof of a new, moderate Hamas.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the accurate analysis of AP's Fares Akram of the new document:

The Islamic militant group Hamas has drafted a new political program it hopes will improve ties with neighboring Egypt and the West, and present a more moderate image that will help it get off Western terrorism lists.

The internationally isolated group, which has ruled the Gaza Strip for the past decade, characterizes itself in the manifesto as a Palestinian resistance movement against Israeli occupation, dropping references to holy war against Jews. It also raises the possibility of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

The document plays down ties to Hamas' parent movement, the regional Muslim Brotherhood, which is being targeted by Egypt's government as a terror organization.

However, Hamas appears to have stopped short of a significant ideological shift amid concerns about alienating its hard-line base at a time when ultra-fundamentalist Islamist groups, such as the Salafists, are making inroads, particularly in Gaza.

The new program, to be made public at the end of the month, will not formally replace Hamas' 1988 founding covenant, which called for the destruction of Israel and for "confronting the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews through jihad."

But Haaretz found an idiotic "expert" named Björn Brenner, who has actually written books on Hamas, who completely believes that the new manifesto replaces the charter, and therefore this proves that Hamas has moderated.

Thirty years after it was founded, Hamas is replacing its anti-Semitic and violent charter with a comprehensively revised document modifying several of its extreme and rejectionist positions. While several of these strategic changes are not completely new - they have at times been talked about by Hamas leaders, but later retracted or contradicted - expressly including them in its charter constitutes something quite unprecedented.

Brenner is wrong. Nothing changed except the tone. The charter is not being replaced. Senior Hamas leader Salah al Bardawil said explicitly "This new document of the Hamas organization will never be considered to constitute an alternative to the organization's founding charter."

Hamas has never - not once - contradicted what is written in the charter. When it says it will accept a Palestinian state in the territories, that doesn't mean it accepts Israel in any borders, only that the destruction of Israel will take place in phases. We've seen gullible Westerners swallow Hamas' implications of moderation many times before, but every single time, if you read their words carefully, you will see that their positions have not changed at all, only their emphasis.

The funny thing is that in 2013, "moderate" Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal released a document that seems very similar to what is being discussed now. It was a nineteen point position paper that I translated then. It allowed for non-violent resistance and it claimed that Hamas was not against Jews, just like the upcoming manifesto. Here are the first ten points:

1. Palestine from the river to the sea, and from north to south, is a land of the Palestinian people and its homeland and its legitimate right, we may not a waiver an inch or any part thereof, no matter what the reasons and circumstances and pressures.

2. Palestine - all of Palestine - is a land of Islamic and Arab affiliation, a blessed sacred land, that has a major portion in the heart of every Arab and Muslim

3. No recognition of the legitimacy of the occupation whatever; this is a principled position, political and moral, and therefore do not recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and recognition of "Israel" and the legitimacy of its presence on any part of Palestine no matter how long; and it will not be long, God willing.

4. Liberation of Palestine is a national duty; it is the responsibility of the Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic nation, it is also a humanitarian responsibility in accordance with the requirements of truth and justice.

5. Jihad and the armed resistance is the right and real method for the liberation of Palestine, and the restoration of all the rights, together with, of course, all forms of political and diplomatic struggle including in the media, public and legal [spheres]; with the need to mobilize all the energies of the nation in the battle

6. Resistance is a means and not an end, if we have another way without blood and painful sacrifices to liberate the land and ending the occupation and the restoration of rights we would take it, but history proves that there is no option to expel the occupiers and restore the land and rights without using all forms of resistance, led by armed resistance.

7. We are not fighting Jews because they are Jews, but are fighting the Zionist Jews occupiers, the aggressors, and we will fight anyone who tries to attack us or usurp our rights or occupy our land, regardless of religion or affiliation, race or nationality.

8. The Zionist project is a racist project based on murder and terrorism, and so it is the enemy of the Palestinian people and the nation, and is a real threat to them, and a huge threat to its security and interests, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a danger to the security of the humanitarian community and the interests and stability.

9. Jerusalem is an Islamic and Christian [holy place], we many not give it up nor relinquish any part of it, it is our right and our spirit, our history, our present and our future, which is the capital of Palestine, and dearest to the hearts of Arabs and Muslims.... Israel has no legitimacy and no right to to Jerusalem at all, nor any legitimacy nor right to all of Palestine. And all actions of Israel in Jerusalem to Judaize and settle and falsification of facts and attempts to fabricate history are void.

10. Upholding the right of return of Palestinian refugees and displaced persons to their homes from which they were expelled, or were prevented from returning, both in the occupied territories in 1948 or 1967, to all of Palestine; we refuse to compromise in any way for this right. At the same time reject all settlement projects or alternative homelands.... [some detail on how people proposed Lebanon or Jordan or the Sinai as alternate homelands]

There is nothing moderate here, and there is nothing moderate in the upcoming manifesto. People who are desperate to mainstream Hamas are willing to blind themselves to believe what they want to believe about Hamas and ignore Hamas' actual words.

Of course, these same experts are keen on pretending that their tortured reading of potential new Hamas papers is more reflective of reality than explicit genocidal statements by Hamas leaders, today.

Be on the lookout for the other willfully blind "experts" and reporters who will dutifully pretend that this new document replaces Hamas'genocidal charter. In the next two weeks there will be plenty of them.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Last month, I reported that Kuwait was seeking to expel Israel from the International Parliamentary Union.

But they can't just kick out Israel, That doesn't look good. They need to use the existing bylaws of the IPU in order to get rid of Israel. And if the existing laws aren't adequate, they need to add new ones.

So they have put together an elaborate plan over the next couple of years - all with the goal of getting rid of Israel - within the rules.

It is instructive to see them lay out their plans now, because this is how the anti-Israel forces work. They use moral reasons to justify their antisemitism, but as in this case, they know they hate Israel/Jews before they come up with the bogus reasons why they hate them. The IPU has no bylaws to kick out Israel, so the Arabs must create them.

In this case, they are very public about their plans.

Kuwaiti National Assembly Speaker, Marzouq Al-Ghanim said in a speech to the Arab Parliamentary Union conference on Tuesday, that the goal was to remove the Israeli Knesset from the Union.

He told reporters on the sidelines of the conference in Rabat that the Kuwaiti Parliamentary Group is going to propose amendments to the Statute of the Inter-Parliamentary Union to allow the creation of penalties for violation of what they will call "fundamental principles" that are aimed directly at Israel.

In this case, Kuwait will try to propose that any country that ignores certain UN resolutions be expelled. He specifically cited UN Security Council Resolution 2334 that passed late last year and Israel's law that could legalize specific settlements after the fact.

The anti-Israel amendments will be presented to an Executive Committee meeting to be held in Dhaka in April. The proposed amendments will then be placed on the agenda of the Governing Council in St. Petersburg in Russia next October.

But Al Ghanim was careful to tell reporters that all of these moves to expel the only Jewish state was not being done out of racist motives, but because Israel's transgressions are so "flagrant and obvious."

He stressed that "the duty of every Arab member of the group (and not just the Kuwaiti parliament) is to win for the cause of the Arabs and Muslims and all of the free world, which is the Palestinian issue."

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Xerox tries to convert the Jews to Christianity!

Xerox has an amusing advertisement, actually an update of a much older commercial, showing Brother Dominic, who, after painstakingly writing a manuscript, is instructed to make 500 copies and (in the update) to translate it and distribute it worldwide.

The monk, naturally, uses Xerox technology to do this. His words are spread worldwide.

Notice at what happens at the 0:45 second mark.

Religious Jews are discussing Brother Dominic's words!

Is Xerox advocating missionary activity among Jews?

I'm being tongue in cheek.

But I can imagine some Jewish groups protesting to Xerox over this trifle of a commercial.

Please don't! There are enough real problems with antisemitism that we don't have to make up issues and force apologies over what was simply meant to be amusing.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

03/22 Links Pt2: How to Be Pro-Palestinian on Campus Without Being An Antisemite; In Britain, protesters shut the Falk up

From Ian:

Andrew Pessin: How to Be Pro-Palestinian on Campus Without Being An Antisemite

The times may be a changing, in the campus wars over Israel: the idea that the anti-Israel movement is fundamentally antisemitic appears to be gaining traction. The evidence? In recent weeks several U.K. universities cancelled “Israeli Apartheid Week” events, at least one of which—the University of Lancashire—was explicitly motivated by the U.K.’s December adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. On that definition, certain forms of anti-Israelism are deemed antisemitic, and “Israeli Apartheid Weeks,” scheduled to occur on many campuses in Europe and North America this spring, often include events that appear to fulfill those conditions. Similar winds are blowing in the United States, where the U. S. State Department definition of antisemitism is able to do the same work, famously classifying as “antisemitic” actions that “delegitimize, demonize, or apply double standards to” the State of Israel. Already pro-Israel activists at schools such as Columbia University lobbied hard to cancel “Apartheid Week” events scheduled there starting three weeks ago, invoking the State Department definition and citing the Lancashire precedent. That effort failed, but what is significant is that the effort was made in the first place.
Some campus anti-Israelists are perhaps motivated by antisemitism. But many, perhaps the large majority, sincerely deny they are, and so there is much ongoing and tortuous debate over precisely when anti-Israel activism becomes antisemitism. Can you attack the legitimacy of the Jewish State without being an antisemite? (What if you sincerely believe, on the basis of your historical research, that it was founded illegitimately?) Is it antisemitic to accuse Israel of demonic behavior, if you sincerely believe, on the basis of evidence, that it is guilty of such? (The media is filled with such reports, is it not?) And anyway, what precisely constitute “delegitimization” and “demonization”? Israel’s supporters regularly accuse anti-Israelists of antisemitism; anti-Israelists claim Israel-supporters use that label only to silence their legitimate criticism of Israel. And the debate goes on.
“We are not antisemites,” campus activists proclaim, “we are merely fighting for the welfare and rights of the Palestinian people.” Being “pro-Palestinian” is wonderful, of course; but campus activism sometimes looks more “anti-Israel” than “pro-Palestinian,” and that’s where the trouble begins. On the surface, at least, being “anti-Israel” (or “anti-Zionist”) is not very wonderful: opposing the nation state of the Jewish people, or denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland—which often involves denying Jewish history and even peoplehood—surely looks and sounds like antisemitism, even if it is honorably motivated by pro-Palestinian intentions.

Fred Maroun Linda Sarsour is only the symptom of a much bigger illness

Ayaan stood up to Sarsour, calling her “a fake feminist”. Yet instead of honouring Ayaan, a true hero of feminism and human rights, for defending Western values through this stand and many others, we demonize her. Brandeis University cowardly revoked plans to give Ayaan an honorary degree. The Southern Poverty Law center shamefully listed Ayaan as an Anti-Muslim Extremist.
The Sarsour phenomenon indicates that the West has lost the ability to defend its own values. We appease and even glorify the enemies of our values rather than confront them. This phenomenon also uncovers the West’s (particularly the Western left’s) “racism of lower expectations” (in the words of Ayaan). It explains why we give Sarsour a position of leadership and why we praise her when we would never do the same for a person of European descent who held the same beliefs.
We insist on remaining blind to the need for Islam to reform, and we treat Islam with even more deference than we treat other religions that have already undergone the reformation that Islam badly needs.
We refuse to integrate Muslim immigrants into our culture. Instead, we throw them into a society that they often do not understand, and we expect them to swim. If they do not drown, we hold them up as some sort of miracle, ignoring that they survived only thanks to Islamic extremists within their community, to which they now owe their existence.
If we do not take ownership of this problem, there will be many more Sarsours and many more appeasers among us in the future. Instead of imparting our liberal values to the world, we will find ourselves drowned by the radical Islam that we invited into our home.

BDS, Martin Luther King Jr. and Existentialism

So the reason behind King’s careful engineering of confrontations — such as marches chosen at locations likely to generate harsh responses that would play out on the nightly news — was not to rub white America’s nose in its own bigotry, but rather to create an unnerving contradiction between people’s self-characterization of goodness with ugly images of violence and repression in the name of those same “good people.”
When faced with such a disturbing contradiction, an individual has two choices: change his self-perception to embrace (or at least find room for) justifications of violence and repression, or change the world in order to eliminate the source of that disturbance. King banked on the fact that, as hard as it might be to change the world, changing self-perception — especially one of virtue — is even harder. And thus his brilliantly chosen tactics, dangerous though they were to him and his supporters, were aligned with the internal psychological “flow” of the people he wanted to reach.
Lack of this sort of existential empathy might explain the limited impact projects such as Black Lives Matter have had within the wider culture, since they seem to be more interested in generating feelings of guilt and self-disgust among large segments of the public. And even if you agree that America’s attitudes towards race have been and continue to be shameful, who wants to be involved with a project offering shame vs. one offering uplift?
Insights derived from the belief system that powered King’s movement can help us better understand the BDS project, and inform the best ways to fight against it. And it is to that first item — the BDSers’ existential strategy of destruction — that we will turn to next time.

By Ilan Costica (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

As Jews, we’re always feeling our collective pulse. We read of an antisemitic incident and mentally compare it to events leading up to the Holocaust. How bad is this on a (Kristallnacht) scale of 1-10? Is it time to pack our bags and make an escape?

Well, last week there was an antisemitic event in Valencia, Spain, that rated an 8 on my personal Kristallnacht scale. There was a basketball game. The Hapoel Jerusalem team played Valencia. The lights were dimmed at the start of the game, at which point, cops came to the area where all the Israeli fans were seated and beat the crap out of them.

They used clubs.

The incident got little play in the press. I saw maybe three stories in total.

I shared the Israel National News story on Facebook, which said in part:

“About 30 fans, who came to support their team in their game in Spain, were beaten by local Spanish police officers who used clubs.
“Police said that the Jerusalem fans did not respond to the officers’ demands that they sit only in two rows at the back of the hall, which was not enough for all 30 fans, and claimed that the fans broke chairs and even raised a hateful sign against the officers.
“As soon as the lights in the hall were dimmed, the local police burst into the stands where the Jerusalem fans were sitting, and began to violently remove them from the hall. Anyone who tried to take pictures of the incident was attacked as well.
“Later, the fans were split into two groups - those who had ID cards and those who did not. Those who were without an ID card were physically searched by the officers.
“After ten minutes, during which the Jerusalem fans were surrounded by officers, they were released and were escorted to the nearest train station.
“Journalists who witnessed the incident reported that there were no disturbances by the fans, and that the only reason they were attacked was because they were Israelis.”

Dave Bender tagged Jonty Maresky on the thread, a fellow Efratian, who, as it turns out, is team physician for the Hapoel Yerushalayim basketball team. Jonty wrote:

“I happily found a replacement for this game so I wasn't there, although hopefully we'll beat them today thus forcing a final game in Valencia on Wednesday and I'll be there.
“The Valencia local government recently passed anti-Israel legislation regarding the sale of Israeli products.
“The Hapoel management were helpless in the face of a pre-arranged uniformed ambush, performed as the lights were dimmed thus circumventing the in-house cameras.
“The management announced yesterday that Hapoel will reimburse all the fans for the cost of their air tickets to Valencia.
“Antisemitism has many faces. Especially in Europe we [are] constantly reminded that it tends to be most malignant when it comes down from the administrative ranks of a particular society.....”

When I first read that story on INN, I had to look twice. I expect to see antisemitism in a story about soccer. Antisemitism is just rife in soccer. We’ve seen it in Holland, Bosnia, Italy, England, Poland, Croatia, and more. I figure that soccer is the most popular game in Europe and that it’s the kind of game where testosterone and tensions are going to run high. The kind of game where the common man is going to let loose and express himself, no holds barred.

I think we can pretty much gauge how Europe feels about the Jews from these many antisemitic soccer incidents.

But now Jew-hate appears to have moved into basketball, as well.

We did, of course, have the incident last year in Newton, Massachusetts, during which Catholic Memorial High School fans chanted, “You Killed Jesus,” at Newton North fans. But there, the principal of the Catholic school forced the chanters to apologize. Catholic clergy spoke out forcefully from their pulpits and educational programs on the subject of antisemitism were planned and executed in the schools.

That is how leaders of the community, how educators and the establishment, should handle antisemitism. With action, forceful statements, and education. Instead, what we have in Spain is the establishment actively taking part in the antisemitic proceedings, an outright abuse of power and position, a planned assault on Jewish Israelis by the police.

An “ambush” as Jonty called it.

They waited until the lights were low so the cameras wouldn’t catch it.

They were sly about it.

And it seems to me that when police beat up Jews on the sly, things are going from bad to worse.

Definitely an 8 on my Kristallnacht scale.

When I think about what happened in Valencia, I picture Nazis going after Jews, hitting them over the heads with clubs, pulling out their beards, forcing elderly Jews to scrub the cobblestones of Berlin. That stuff was all very public, while in Valencia, the police waited for the lights to dim. They did it to Israelis, rather than local Jews. It’s when they do it in broad daylight, to random locals Jews that it may be too late for the Jews of Valencia (and Europe) to leave.

What happened is a symptom of an illness that is progressing, getting worse.

Not that there are many Jews in Spain, just 45,000 of them. After all, the Edict of Expulsion wasn’t annulled until 1968. That’s when the Jews began to come back. They opened a synagogue in Madrid and started building communities. Of course, there was no real religious freedom until Franco’s regime ended in 1977. But the Jews are always hopeful.

Front row in order from left to right: Karl Wolff, Heinrich Himmler, Franco and Spain's Foreign Minister Serrano Súñer in Madrid, October 1940

Now it’s time for them to be wary. Things are not looking good when the police beat up Jews in the dark so the cameras won’t catch it. Definitely an 8 on the Kristallnacht scale.

Not looking good at all.

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"I Only Yell At Jews, Because You Have To Start Somewhere" (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

I Only Yell At Jews, Because You Have To Start Somewhere

By Hippo Critt, BDS Activist

: Credit: Takver, via Wikimedia Commons

Berkeley, March 22 - It takes a certain amount of gall to accuse social justice activist such as I of prejudice. Just because I reserve all my vitriol for Jews doesn't mean I'm an antisemite. I just know I can't possibly fight all the wrongs being done in the world in my limited lifetime, so I've confined myself to the wrongs I see being done or condoned by Jews.

If you bring real honesty to this, you will realize just how unfair the charge of antisemitism is. I'm not opposed to Jews - I'm opposed to all injustice, whether committed by Jews or by others. There simply are not enough hours in the day, or days in the week, to cover all human misdeeds, so I have decided to limit my social action to Jewish misdeeds, whether real or perceived. The fact that you see antisemitism in my expressions of social conscience says more about you than it does about me.

Why do you need to see antisemitism everywhere you see Jews attacked when no one else is singled out for identical or similar offenses? I can be perfectly bias-free and still only see the need to call out Jewish or Israeli offenses for reasons entirely unrelated to Jewishness or Israel per se, and it's none of your business what those reasons might be. Why are you oppressing me, you fascist?

You're Jewish, aren't you? I knew it. Not that I'm antisemitic. I couldn't be! I just knew it somehow. Maybe it was my visceral need to call you a fascist that clued me in. And since you're here, I'll take this opportunity to lambast you for what your people are doing to the Palestinians. You goddamn fascist. You're just trying to silence me by painting me as a bigot. It won't work - you and your kind always do that, but history should teach you Jews what happens to fascists. And to Jews who oppose them. Or support them. I have nothing against Jews. They just pop into my head first when I think of people I need to oppose when I fight oppression.

Other causes can attract other people. I focus on Jews. If there's someone who wants to agitate for BDS against China or Russia for occupying someone else's land, I have no problem with that! More power to them! Me, I focus on Israel and Jews. So if no one is actually taking up the cause of the oppressed Tibetans or the dispossessed Ukrainians, that's not my problem. I'm focused on Israel and Jews.

Because you have to start somewhere.

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03/22 Links Pt1: Hillel Neuer: "Algeria, where are your Jews?"; World Shrugs as Hezbollah Prepares for Mass Murder of Israelis

From Ian:

World Shrugs as Hezbollah Prepares for Mass Murder of Israelis

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah recently warned Israel that his Iran-backed terror group could attack targets that would lead to mass Israeli casualties, including a huge ammonia storage tank in Haifa, and a nuclear reactor in Dimona.
Also, Tower Magazine reported last month that since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Iran has provided Hezbollah with a vast supply of “game-changing,” state-of-the art weapons, despite Israel’s occasional airstrikes against weapons convoys.
In a future conflict with the Jewish state, Hezbollah has the capacity to fire 1,500 rockets into Israel each day, overwhelming Israel’s missile defense systems. Should such a scenario materialize, Israel will be forced to respond with unprecedented firepower to defend its own civilians.
Hezbollah’s advanced weapons and the systems needed to launch them are reportedly embedded across a staggering 10,000 locations in the heart of more than 200 civilian towns and villages. The Israeli military has openly warned about this Hezbollah war crime, and the grave threats that it poses to both sides — but that alarm generated almost no attention from the global media, the United Nations or other international institutions.
Like the terror group Hamas, Hezbollah knows that civilian deaths at the hands of Israel are a strategic asset, because they produce diplomatic pressure to limit Israel’s military response. Hezbollah reportedly went so far as offering reduced-price housing to Shiite families who allowed the terrorist group to store rocket launchers in their homes.

"Algeria, where are your Jews?" - Hillel Neuer at UNHRC's day against Israel

12 said hurt in stabbing, car-ramming outside UK Parliament

At least 12 people were reported injured in a stabbing and car ramming outside the British parliament in London and on the nearby Westminster Bridge.
The parliament was on lockdown after an assailant stabbed an officer, then was shot dead by police, officials said. London Police also said officers were called to an incident on Westminster Bridge nearby.
Police aid they were treating the attack “as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise.” They said in a statement that the incident was ongoing and urged people to stay away from the area.
It was not immediately clear exactly what happened or how many people were injured. On the bridge, witnesses said, a vehicle struck several people, and photos showed a car plowed into railings. Witnesses in Parliament reported hearing sounds like gunfire.

Why should Mahmoud Abbas change the narrative when there are so many people who are eager to believe it?

From Palestinian Media Watch:

The international community is becoming more and more convinced that the occupation of the Palestinian state by Israel is the reason for all the disasters that the region and the world are suffering from, and that without a just solution to the Palestinian issue in accordance with the two-state solution – which is included in the Arab Peace Initiative – and the relevant resolutions of the [UN] Security Council, neither peace, nor security, nor stability will be achieved, and the region will remain exposed to very difficult possibilities, especially in light of the growth of the phenomenon of terror and extremism, which we condemn and are fighting against with all of our strength.

-Official PA TV, March 12, 2017

Blaming Israel for ISIS and Syria and Libya and Yemen and Iran is just a more sophisticated form of antisemitism.

The "linkage" argument gets more absurd by the day, and yet Abbas needs it in order to justify his assault on the Jewish state.

But in reality, as always, Abbas is giving the world a threat: as long as he doesn't get his demands met, he is promising more terror and bloodshed.

This is officially-sanctioned blackmail.

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Banksy's "Palestine Museum" indicates Arab "Palestine" is a myth

There were a number of articles over the past couple of weeks as famous anonymous artist Banksy opened up a politically charged hotel in Bethlehem.

The three-storey hotel, its low-lit bar and restaurant decorated like a British colonial clubhouse but with ironic works by the artist covering the walls, was unveiled two weeks ago but has only now opened to overnight stays.

Famous posters are displayed inside the museum at the Walled Off Hotel.

There are 10 rooms, ranging from a budget barracks-style accommodation for backpackers to a presidential suite that can sleep six. None of the rooms has a view -- all of them look out on Israel's five-meter, graffiti-covered concrete wall.

The Daily Beast took lots of photos of the hotel, including this one of a hotel museum with this caption:

Let's take a look at these famous posters in the Banksy Museum of Palestine.

This is obviously a Zionist poster, designed and published at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in 1929.

In 2009, David Tartakover, an Israel Prize laureate, took the first page of his grandfather’s passport and printed the following words on it, in English: “On October 21, 1938, my grandparents left Vienna, Austria, for Palestine.” The passports of David and Rebeka Tartakover bore the swastika and the letter “J,” in red, identifying them as Jews.'

He submitted this as an entry for a poster exhibit in Greece and it was turned down for being too controversial.

It is obviously a Zionist poster.

This was a poster for a shipping line that happened to go to Palestine. Nothing particularly "Palestinian" about it except for the romanticized camel, which is a Western concept of the area more than anything that reflected reality.

A famous Zionist poster from 1936 that has been hijacked by the Palestinian Arabs for years.

Another Zionist poster advertising the beach at Nahariya, 1938.

These are illustrations that accompanied sheet music for two novelty songs from the 1910s. The lyrics show that the authors were just using "Palestine" as an exotic place name; the "Building a Palace" song is about a girl named Alice, which is hardly an Arab name.

The composer of "My Rose of Palestine" was Abe Olman, originally Abraham Olshewitz,

None of the posters in this museum are remotely Palestinian Arab. But then there is this one:

An original BDS poster from 2005, with a violence motif.

So of all the posters in Banksy's museum that we have photos of, almost all are either Zionist posters from the 1920s-1930s and kitschy representations of "Palestine" from American songwriters. Only one is actually Palestinian Arab - and that one doesn't celebrate Palestine but is simply anti-Israel agitprop.

Banksy is pro-Palestinian and a gifted artist, yet his art museum of posters from "Palestine" show only that the Jews are the ones who have an emotional connection to the land, and that the Arabs' only interest is to get rid of the Jews.

This may be the most accurate thing about Banksy's hotel.

(h/t Daniel)

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