Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 30, 2017

A discussion at the seder table (Vic Rosenthal)

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

So we are sitting around the Seder table with our American Uncle Max and he says,

[I] remain convinced that a two-state solution is the only outcome that would quell ongoing incidents of violence, maintain Israel as a secure, Jewish and democratic state, and provide a just and stable future for the Palestinians.

Having had the traditional four cups of wine, my first, immediate reaction would be to say something about 1993 calling and wanting its policy back. But actually this and other surprisingly stupid things appeared in a letter signed by 191 members of the US Congress, read at AIPAC by Nancy Pelosi, and sent to Donald Trump.

Many things have happened in the past 24 years, both in the US and especially in the Middle East, but for these (mostly Democratic) lawmakers, nothing has changed. One wonders exactly what could happen that would change their minds, which seem to have accepted the necessity of an additional partition of the land of Israel as an article of faith.

My second thought is an almost overwhelming feeling of fatigue over the fact that this irrational and dangerous idea will not go away, and that I am yet again forced to argue about it.

So, pay attention, Uncle Max. I am not going to repeat this like the verses of had gadya.

First, there won’t be a “2-state solution.” The Palestinian leadership and man-in-the-street will not agree to anything acceptable to Israel. They have already rejected deals that were better than what Israel would offer today. Their conditions, including the right of return for millions of descendents of Arab refugees and the expulsion of Jewish residents of Judea/Samaria, will always be unacceptable.

But even if some kind of agreement were reached with the PA/PLO, why would we expect them to adhere to it? They have broken countless promises made in the framework of the Oslo agreements, including essential ones like ending official incitement and changing the PLO charter; and they have an ideological/religious mandate to break promises on the smallest of pretexts.

But even if the signers of the agreement did not break it, what guarantee is there that their successors – who could represent Hamas or even more militant radical Islamists – would honor it? If they didn’t, the only option for Israel would be war.

In this connection, it’s interesting that 2-staters often say that “Mahmoud Abbas is the most ‘moderate’ PLO leader,” and that therefore we should get an agreement with him before he is replaced and it is too late. But this is exactly why an agreement with him will be worthless.

But even if Abbas’ successors did not break the agreement, an additional partition of the land of Israel more or less along the Green Line would restore Israel’s pre-1967 indefensible eastern boundary. In addition to the absurdity of reversing the outcome and punishing the winner of a defensive war, it would leave the most populated parts of Israel vulnerable both to terrorism from the high ground in Judea and Samaria, and invasion from the east.

At this point I get my relief map of Israel off the wall and wave it under Uncle Max’s nose. How is it possible to defend Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion Airport from short-range rocket and mortar attacks when terrorists can sit on commanding hills only a few miles away? How can Israel prevent the introduction of weapons and terrorists into these areas if it doesn’t control the Jordan Valley to the east? There are five mountain passes across the Judean and Samarian hills. With Iran controlling more and more territory in Iraq and the unstable country of Jordan tottering, what will prevent Iranian forces from reaching them?

John Kerry in 2014 suggested implementing American-assisted security arrangements that would theoretically protect Israel while allowing Palestinian sovereignty in most of the territories. But former Defense Minister and Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon considered the plan ludicrous, and “not worth the paper it was printed on.” Others have since come up with more sophisticated plans, but Israel is loathe to depend on high-tech sensors, Palestinian cooperation, or (especially) foreign troops. We also need to keep in mind that future American administrations might be even less friendly than the previous one. Only Israel can defend Israel.

***

“But it’s Palestinian land. There’s an international consensus. The settlers are motivated by extremist religious ideas, says Uncle Max.”

Wrong. According to the Palestine Mandate, whose guarantee to the Jewish people is still in force, it’s Jewish land. And the border of Israel legitimately extends to the Jordan River. The “international consensus” is a consensus between the Islamic bloc and the Europeans, both of whom are offended by the idea of a sovereign Jewish state. Both the Muslims and the Europeans, although in different ways, are no less “religious” in their convictions than the observant residents of the territories. The “consensus” is no more than a correspondence of racist anti-Jewish attitudes.

“But wait. Most Israeli Jews support the 2-state solution.”

No they don’t! A new poll shows that there has been a large decrease in support for a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria – from 60% in 2005, when Israel withdrew from Gaza, to 36% in 2017. Apparently Israeli Jews learned something from the Gaza experience.

“But,” Max continues, “the alternative to two states is one state, and Israel can’t absorb all those Arabs and still be Jewish and democratic.”

Wrong. There is no exhaustive dichotomy. Who said Israel has to absorb them? Who said there has to be a sovereign Palestinian state in almost all of Judea and Samaria? How about creating an autonomous territory in a contiguous part of the area – like Puerto Rico is to the US – where the population votes in local but not national elections, and in which external security is provided by the sovereign? That’s just one of many possibilities. Sure, working out the details would be complicated, but no more complicated than the “security arrangements” John Kerry tried to foist on us. And although some Arabs and some Jews might have to move, it would be far less traumatic than the massive expulsion of Jews that is envisaged under a 2-state plan.

“I don’t know,” he says. “There must be a way to make 2-states work.”

No, there isn’t, and that is exactly the problem. You are searching for an answer to the wrong question, one that does not have an answer. The real issue isn’t how to partition the land of Israel yet again. It’s how to guarantee the security of the state and its citizens within its rational, legitimate and defensible borders.

It’s time to say “dayenu” to the 2-state solution. The starting point must be defensible borders, not a Palestinian state.

Of course the Palestinians would find this approach unacceptable, but they also find any 2-state deal that doesn’t provide for the ultimate replacement of the Jewish state with an Arab one equally unacceptable. So why does it matter?

Why do you think we followed Moshe out of comfortable Egypt and into the desert, Uncle Max? It wasn’t in order to create ‘Palestine’!

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03/30 Links Pt1: Nikki Haley Slams BDS Movement at UN; UN body behind ‘apartheid’ report to compare Israel to US slavery;

From Ian:

Nikki Haley Slams BDS Movement at UN: It Is Rooted in ‘Ancient Hatred,’ Has No Connection to ‘Justice’

Haley, who was the first governor to sign legislation to combat the BDS movement, has been an outspoken supporter of Israel in her brief time as ambassador to the U.N. and was a crowd favorite Monday when she spoke at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference.
"The days of Israel bashing [at the U.N.] are over," Haley said at AIPAC to huge applause.
During her remarks Wednesday, Haley took on the BDS movement, which has gained traction on many Western college campuses, including in the United States.
"The effort to delegitimize the state of Israel being waged on college campuses and the anti-Israel obsession at the UN are one in the same," she said. "They both seek to deny Israel's right to exist."
"They are both efforts to intimidate her friends and embolden her enemies," Haley continued. "They are both extensions of an ancient hatred."
Haley called it "tragic" that the U.N. and many human rights activists devote much of their energy to targeting Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, when authoritarian states around the world are committing human rights abuses.
"And how tragic is it that of all countries in the world to condemn for human rights violations, these voices choose to single out Israel, " Haley said. "We should boycott North Korea. We should sanction Iran. We should divest from Syria. Not Israel."
"It makes absolutely no sense. And it has no connection to any reasonable definition of justice," she added.

Why Israelis believe BDS is antisemitic, explained in 60 seconds.

Eylon Levy is an anchor and correspondent for Israeli i24 News and someone with unique insight into the malevolence of the BDS movement. As we noted on these pages at the time, in 2013 at Oxford University, then MP George Galloway was about to participate in a debate with Eylon Aslan-Levy, who was then a student, on the motion: ‘Israel should withdraw immediately from the West Bank’. However, once Galloway discovered that Aslan-Levy was an Israeli citizen, he stormed off the stage and said: “I don’t recognize Israel and I don’t debate with Israelis”.
Galloway was, in effect, indicating that his support for BDS rendered six million Jews beyond the moral pale.
Here’s the Israeli journalist today with a short but extremely effective response to those who ask why Israelis believe BDS is antisemitic.

Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon at Anti-BDS Conference: Threat Lies in Movement’s Ability to Cower Us Into Silence

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told participants at a conference against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement Wednesday that, despite the victories of the pro-Israel movement, “The real danger of BDS is not in [its] numbers…but in its ability to cower us into silence.”Thus, he said — during the second annual “Ambassadors Against BDS” conference at the UN’s General Assembly Hall in New York City — “The fight goes on…We cannot rest even for a moment.”
“We need you,” he appealed to the audience. “My friends, you must remember that silence is weakness. Silence is defeat.”
Danon described a “disturbing and troubling trend of increased antisemitic incidents throughout the world,” and sympathized with students who face BDS on campus, saying that as Israel’s UN envoy, “I know what it feels like to be alone.”
“But, when you stand for the truth you are never alone,” he added, noting that there have been victories for the anti-BDS movement as well, including university administrations rejecting calls from student groups to boycott the Jewish state.

Read what EU High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini said during her speech to the Arab League summit, and see where Israel fits in her vision:

No regional or global power, alone, holds the key to stabilising the Middle East or North Africa. Peace in our region - and I stress our region - requires everyone’s constructive contribution. It requires cooperation between Europe and the Arab world, within the Arab world and within the broader region.

Anyone missing?

But later she does address the specifics of peace between Israel and what she calls "Palestine":

I would like to start from a just and lasting peace between Israel and Palestine. This is and will continue to be a top priority for the European Union. A peaceful solution of this conflict, or even progress in that direction, could set a whole new paradigm for cooperation in the region, including on security. We firmly believe that the two-State solution remains the only realistic way to end the conflict and all claims. We would recognise changes to the '67 lines* only when agreed by the parties, including with regard to Jerusalem.

So the EU is saying that unless somehow the Palestinians voluntarily decide to compromise with Israel, the EU will stand behind them 100% that they deserve every inch of the territories they claim.

Israel's security? Israel's interests? The thousands of years of Jewish history in these areas? All meaningless.

I discussed this with [the Palestinian] President, [Mahmoud] Abbas just days ago in Brussels. We will continue to work for the unity of the entire international community to this aim, including with our American friends, as we have started to do in these days.

You don't have to read very far between the lines to see that the maximal Palestinian demands are regarded as the baseline for peace, and any Israeli conditions for peace and security are regarded as obstacles to peace.

Mogherini could have said that there is an opportunity for Israel to work with its Arab neighbors towards real regional peace and against Islamic extremism. She could have painted a picture of Israeli scientists helping solve medical, agricultural and water issues throughout the region. She could have acted like a leader.

Instead, she meekly said exactly what the Arabs wanted her to say, not showing the slightest daylight between the mindset of conservative, antisemitic Sunni Arabs and European liberals.

That cowardice in speaking the plain truth to the Arab world, and expecting them to act like responsible human beings, is a good part of the reason the region is unstable.

(If you want to laugh, see what Mogherini said after speaking with Abbas a few days ago: "I would also like to thank his leadership and his commitment when it comes to non-violence, when it comes to the difficult work he is doing against incitement and also of maintaining the Palestinian people, and especially the Palestinian youth, committed to peace and to cooperation in the region.")

(h't Irene)

* The written transcript of the speech says "1967 borders." Her actual words in her speech were "'67 lines."

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Here's the best way for BDSers to alienate their biggest supporters.

British comedian Eddie Izzard tweets:

Arrived for my gig tonight in Tel Aviv https://t.co/C6oSpxWCgM and then run the Palestine Marathon on Friday … https://t.co/6GMDntcrOQ
— Eddie Izzard (@eddieizzard) March 30, 2017

But according to BDS leaders, he will not be running in the marathon tomorrow:

Artists for Palestine UK (APUK), whose Artists’ Pledge for Palestine has over 1200 signatories, has been campaigning for British comedian Eddie Izzard to withdraw from his projected March 30 gig in Tel Aviv.

Izzard, known for his progressive views and loved for his outspokenness on a whole range of issues, has – surprisingly – so far declined to comment; but on March 28 he posted a Tweet saying he was looking forward to playing Tel Aviv, and running in the Palestine Marathon the day after:

Now Palestine Marathon organisers have sent back his registration.

APUK commented: ‘It’s hard to believe that someone as politically aware as Eddie Izzard should imagine he could get away with this. He should know as well as anyone that you can’t hunt with the hounds and run with the hare – particularly when the hare in this case is the squeezed and besieged Palestinian population, under illegal military occupation by Israel. Quite rightly, they’ve declined to indulge his patronising desire to run with them the day after he entertains their oppressors. We wish he’d listened to us sooner and avoided this humiliation.’

I don't think Izzard is the one who is going to be humiliated by this.

If this is true (BDSers don't have a reputation for being truthful), this will backfire on Israel-haters big time. Izzard will have a blast in Tel Aviv and then what do you think he will be tweeting? That he is sorry?

Izzard is as liberal as they come. A person who could have been a great advertisement for "Palestine" is instead being insulted for not hating Israel as much as these boycotters demand.

It will be very interesting to see how this plays in British media - and how Izzard will react himself. I cannot find a way that this will make the BDS crowd look good.

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Himmler's telegram to the Mufti on the common war of Nazis and Arabs against Jews

Israel's National Library has unearthed a telegram from Hitler's deputy Heinrich Himmler to the Mufti of Jerusalem.

Believed to have been sent in 1943, it contains a promise by Hitler’s deputy to Haj Amin al-Husseini that the German Reich will stand behind the Arabs of Palestine and support their struggle against “Jewish intruders.”

Published on the library website on Wednesday, the telegraph notes that the struggle against world Jewry has been a principle of the German National Socialists from the start, and that the regime has always followed “with particular sympathy,” the struggle of “freedom-loving Arabs,” especially those in Palestine battling the Jews.

“The National-Socialist movement of the great Germany has made its fight against world Jewry a guiding principle since its very beginning,” Himmler wrote. “For that reason it [the movement] has been closely following the battle of freedom-seeking Arabs- and especially in Palestine- against the Jewish invaders,”

“The joint recognition of the enemy and the struggle together against it are what build the solid basis between the National Socialists of Greater Germany and freedom-loving Muslims of the world,” Himmler wrote.

The telegram concludes with the SS chief sending the mufti his warm greetings on the “unhappy” anniversary of the Balfour Declaration and best wishes for the continuation of the struggle.

You can be sure that no Arab in the 1940s would ever protest against Nazi Germany by claiming that they were only against "Zionists," not Jews.

The language of this letter is identical to the language used in Arab media to this day about Jewish "usurpers" in the land of Israel.

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Mahmoud Abbas is now 82 years old

Mahmoud Abbas' 82nd birthday was March 26.

We hear often that Israel has to make peace with Abbas because he is the most moderate leader the Palestinians ever had.

Even if that is true, what do these people anticipate will happen when Abbas is dead? That the Islamists who replace him would keep whatever agreement he supposedly would make?

Peace cannot be made with a person (and Abbas is the least charismatic person around.) Peace must be made between peoples, and Abu Mazen has ensured that his people will never want true peace with Israel.

It's been 24 years since Oslo. For 24 years, the Palestinian leadership had the opportunity to teach peace and to build the institutions of a state, to gain respect as a people.

Instead, they have chosen terror. They chose to teach an entire generation to hate. They have acted like whiny children who are entitled to the benefits of statehood without taking any responsibilities. they have consistently chosen symbolism over substance, complaints over hard work, glorifying terror over teaching coexistence.

No responsible Israeli leader could have made any real peace with Mahmoud Abbas. Everyone who is honest with themselves know this. And Abbas has ensured that the next few generations of Palestinian leaders will be just as bad.

That will be his legacy.

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(This post will be pinned to the top of the webpage for the day.)

As my readers know, I (and my writers) try to cut through the bull and get to the facts, wherever they may lead. The truth is paramount and interpreting the facts accurately is a skill set that most people don't have.

That is doubly true for most of the people who get paid to interpret the facts. (Including most writers for the New York Times despite its Orwellian "Truth" campaign.")

And as difficult as it has been to ferret out the truth in the past, today it is a much more daunting task. Between a US administration that has only a glancing familiarity with the truth and the media that flat-out lies when covering the same administration, and the reverberations of both trends throughout the world, figuring out what is really going on is harder than ever.

This obligation to ferret out the truth among the half-truths, lies, propaganda and unconscious bias has never been more important.

I think that EoZ's track record is admirable in this regard, better than most media outlets - even though we have almost no resources.

Eventually, pointing out the truth makes a difference in the media that is awash with lies. Small differences to be sure, but Elder of Ziyon has an outsized influence for a niche website.

We've been branching out. EoZ now has eight columnists with other occasional contributors.

I was happy with the seminar I put together in Jerusalem a few weeks ago and I am thinking about doing that more regularly. (Mostly in the US, though.) There are other possible initiatives as well that could bring the message of the truth about Israel and the Middle East to a wider audience.

All of this and more can only be done with your help.

Donate to EoZ so we can continue to cut through the lies and the spin. We want to continue to provide fact-based analysis and news that is simply not available anywhere else.and the ensure that the message gets spread.

You can give a donation via PayPal here (or clicking here.)

Better yet, you can become a patron of EoZ via Patreon.

EoZ is not a tax-deductible charity, but if you want to give a more sizable donation you can pay for an advertisement to be displayed here and that would be a tax deduction. Contact me if interested.

As always, thanks so much for your support, and for those who celebrate, have a wonderful Pesach.

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03/29 Links Pt2: Teen terror victim to European Parliament: Stop funding war; How Blind College Liberals Help Foster Antisemitism

From Ian:

Teen terror victim to European Parliament: Stop funding war

The Friends of Judea and Samaria, a European Parliament caucus that aims to halt European Union funding of Palestinian terrorism and abolish EU trade barriers placed on Jewish goods from Judea and Samaria hosted its first ever conference in Brussels on Tuesday.
One of the speakers at the conference, named "Israel and the West Bank -- Facts and Myths," was Ayala Shapira, whose emotional speech earned her a standing ovation. Shapira was critically wounded in a terrorist attack in December 2014, when terrorists hurled a firebomb into a car she was riding with her father as they made their way home in Samaria.
With her face fully bandaged as a result of the third-degree burns she suffered in the attack, Shapira told conference attendees, "I am Ayala, almost 14 years old. I live in El Matan in Samaria. I like to read, write stories and draw. I want to describe the feeling of having a terrorist attack directed at you.
"One of the terrorists that threw the Molotov cocktail at our car was a 16-year-old boy, only a few years older than me. He did it, among other reasons, to help his family financially. He knew that if he went to prison, the Palestinian Authority would take care of them. I want you to remember that sometimes when you think you are donating money to peace, you are in fact funding the war," she said.

“Raus!”: How Jews were ejected from an anti-Israel meeting in Parliament

I had hoped to report on a meeting in Parliament (Conference Room 1) on 28 March. It was the ‘Balfour Apology Campaign’, chaired by Jenny Tonge. Unfortunately the Chair, Lord Warner (not Tonge – yes I’ll get to that later), threw out the only two Jews in the room, probably in order that the hatefest could not be witnessed.
So who knows what lies, demonisation and anti-semitism were voiced?
But of course, throwing out the only two Jews in the room – on an unfounded accusation in one case and with no reason whatsoever in the other (mine) – itself stinks of anti-semitism.
Down to speak was David Cronin. He writes for Spinwatch, that strange organisation which seems obsessed with ‘Jewish power ‘. Cronin writes from Brussels and is a specialist in demonising Israel and its supporters.
Here for example he writes ‘the Israel lobby is a force not only on Capitol Hill, but in Brussels, too, and … it is attempting to stifle debate about Israel’s sadistic treatment of the Palestinian people.’ He is famous (more accurately, infamous) for attempting (and failing) to make a citizen’s arrest of Avigdor Lieberman in Brussels. And look what he said about Jonathan Freedland in March 2015, when Freedland was thought to be a candidate to become Editor-In-Chief of the Guardian: ‘In a perverse way, it might be a good thing if he gets the job.
With Freedland at the helm, it would be easier to show how a supposedly progressive newspaper is in thrall to the toxic ideology of Zionism’.

How Blind College Liberals Help Foster Antisemitism

“Ending White Privilege Starts With Ending Jewish Privilege,” screams a flyer being distributed on the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois.
The flyer falsely alleges that 44 percent of Jewish Americans are in the top 1% of earners. The threshold for being in the top 1% is $465,626, and as much as 44% of Jewish Americans would like to have achieved that distinction, they haven’t. What the flyer’s authors meant is that 44% of Jewish Americans earn more than $100,000 a year.
Although foreign-born Muslims have not yet achieved the success of Jews, they are far more likely to earn more than $50,00-a-year, compared to native-born Americans. But don’t expect their success to be on a leaflet distributed on college campuses.
Southeast Asian Muslim immigrants — many of them from Pakistanis — are known to value education and go into the professions. They abound in medicine, comprising between 2.7% and 5% of all US physicians, and in high-paying technical fields. They also bring with them an entrepreneurial spirit. Sound familiar?
Rather than commend Jewish success as something to aspire to, the authors of the flyer view it with contempt because in their demented Marxist view of the world, all gain is ill-gotten and a function of privilege. They don’t recognize that a combination of gray matter, hard work and a willingness to take risks also contribute to success.

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is flavor of the month with the Jews, and to a large degree, the warmth with which she has been received is warranted. One could argue that her support of the two-state solution proves her less than a friend to Israel. Haley may be carrying water for the White House with that stance. Otherwise, we’d need to conclude that she is unable to see the illogic of that concept, incapable of coming up with an original idea, or not quite courageous enough to express the idea that there is no real solution in sight to the Arab war against the Jews.

We do love Haley for standing up to the anti-Israel UN and as a result, we make her videos viral on Facebook. There’s this one where she let the UN Security Council have it for having a condemnation agenda that is stuck on one channel that is all Israel, all the time.

And there’s the new AIPAC interview in which she said, “There’s a new sheriff in town.”

That proclamation made for a great sound bite. Most of the Jewish media used the quote as the lede for their articles on Haley’s interview at AIPAC 2017. The sense of that phrase, of course, is that things are finally going to change at the UN. No longer will the US simply abstain from condemning Israel. No longer will the US turn a blind eye to the continuous bashing of its “friend” Israel by the UN Assembly.

It’s almost too delicious to contemplate.

Therein lies the rub. Why do we Jews, as a collective, feel orgasmic delight when things go as they should? Why should we sit by and just let the sucky stuff happen? Why do we yawn when they bash us and simply accept the status quo as SNAFU*? Why hasn’t America stood by us at the UN since approximately 1975, when Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously denounced the Zionism is Racism resolution?

All of it is disgusting. It was disgusting the way we Jews clapped and clapped for Nikki Haley, as if it is Haley that matters, and not the truth. The truth being that Israel is a beacon of light unto the nations and that the UN should be celebrating the existence of the Jewish State and lambasting the Arabs for their ingratitude, terror incitement, and terror.

It is very nice to applaud when good guys make headway, but it’s not nice when we forget that good is how things should be, rather than so unusual as to be remarkable.

It is not Nikki Haley that’s remarkable and I mean that as no insult to Haley. It’s remarkable that all this time, America allowed Israel to be roasted on the spit of public and world opinion and failed to have Israel’s back.

Furthermore, it’s disgusting that Israel has stayed in the UN all this time, hoping against hope that someone would finally be our friend. It’s an abusive relationship. It’s not the way a sovereign nation should act.

That is why, to my mind, the part about Nikki Haley being the new sheriff in town in her AIPAC interview was much less important than the part right at the end where she said, “I appreciate all the support and kindness and everything that you've given to me, but all I did was tell the truth.”

Look at her face. She looks a bit puzzled. She’s thinking: Why do they make such a big deal over me for telling the truth? Isn’t honesty a basic standard of human behavior? I’m just being normal.

And she’s right: since when should humans of any stripe expend all that energy in response to normal or act like normal is amazing and somehow deserving of accolades?

It’s sick, is what it is. You can see that Nikki Haley, alone in that hall, perhaps, is the only one who sees just how sick that is: that normal now deserves our applause.

And that’s the real reason I like her. And conversely, the reason I worry that my people don’t have what it takes to make it in the long run. They shouldn’t be looking at Nikki Haley to raise them up.

They should be rising up on their own. They should be speaking the truth out loud and proud to anyone and everyone.

They/we need to stop being sheeple. We need to stop pretending that Arabs have any rights to our land. We need to stop listening to the media’s lies—stop accepting them without question. We need to stop listening to the lies of intersectionality and study the truth, the facts of our indigenous rights.

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We need to know there’s a Higher Power and that it is neither Nikki Haley nor Donald Trump.

Israel needs to stop acting like it is a vassal state for the U.S. Israel needs to stop looking to people like Nikki Haley to save its butt. Israel needs to save its own butt and stop worrying about what the world will say.

I like Nikki Haley. I love her for telling the truth. But we need to stop the fawning and get real. We need to be dignified and stop getting excited whenever someone speaks up for us the least little bit.

It’s enough to acknowledge that we’re on the same side. It’s enough to acknowledge that Haley is speaking the truth. Putting her on a pedestal makes us look weak and sycophantic, in need of rescue, a damsel in distress.

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We’re better than that. Stronger than that. Prouder than that.

Where is that acclaimed stiff neck?

Now is the time to show it to the world. Beginning now. That’s the beginning of the end to all these lie—all these lies about Israel, all the time.

*Clean version: situation normal, all fouled up.

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Waqf Guide Tries To Explain How Mooning Dome Of Rock Is Sign Of Reverence (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Jerusalem, March 28 - A representative of the religious council that administers the Temple Mount - known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif - encountered difficulty in describing to a group of tourists today how the respect and attachment Muslims feel for the location is manifest in the five-times-daily practice of bending over and pointing their backsides toward the golden dome marking the spot where Muhammad landed with his horse on the way to Heaven.

Ali, a tour guide, detailed for his guests the worship routine at the Al-Aqsa Mosque at the compound's southern end, an Islamic set of rituals that involves recitation of passages proclaiming the greatness of Allah while engaging in a series of prostrations. In the process, worshipers face south, pointedly directing their derrières toward the Dome of the Rock. The location, considered sacred in Islam because of its association with the Prophet, is thus subjected to a collective mooning of up to tens of thousands of Muslim bottoms at a time.

The guide attempted to explain that no slight was intended to Muhammad or his horse Al-Buraq, and that the demonstrable disrespect to the site was a mere function of bowing toward Mecca in what is now Saudi Arabia. A tourist observed that the awkwardness could have been avoided by constructing Al-Aqsa to the north of the Dome, allowing worshipers to display reverence for both locations at once, given that, as the Waqf insists, the Haram al-Sharif is the third-holiest place in Islam.

"I, uh, it's important, but not as important as Mecca or Medina," stammered Ali. "In fact we used to bow to the Rock, centuries ago," he added, with a burst of confidence.

A visitor then pointed out that switching the direction of prostration after a period of bowing toward the Dome was an even bigger insult, as if Muslims were trying to convey that whatever had been there was no longer worthy of respect. "No, you don't understand," answered Ali, tension rising in his voice. "For Muslims the sanctity of this place is very important. We protect it all the time from desecration by, uh, Jewish settlers who storm it and want to bow directly toward the Dome of the Rock!" he paused to consider the import of what he had just said, then caught himself.

"I mean, it's not for Jews to do that - it's too holy," he stammered again. "They desecrate the place with their Talmudic rituals and make false claims about there being a Jewish holy site in ancient times, which is why we started bowing toward Mecca inst- never mind. You people must leave now - you are showing disrespect for a Muslim holy site! Guards!"

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03/29 Links Pt1: PMW calls on US gov. to deny entry to terror supporter Jibril Rajoub; Phillips: The Westminster terror attack

From Ian:

PMW calls on US gov. to deny entry to terror supporter Jibril Rajoub this week

Palestinian Media Watch is joined by families of American terror victims in calling on the United States Secretary of State to prevent Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub from entering US soil. Should he enter the country, we are calling on the US to have Rajoub arrested and investigated for incitement to murder of American citizens. Rajoub is scheduled to speak in New York next Wednesday, April 5th at an event organized by the Israel Policy Forum.
In the letter to Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, PMW notes that Jibril Rajoub publicly incited terror and glorified terrorists throughout the 2015-2016 Palestinian terror wave that claimed the lives of 4 American citizens: Hallel Yaffa Ariel, Taylor Force, Richard Lakin, and Ezra Schwartz. Rajoub also called on Hamas to kidnap Israelis in 2014, just a few months before U.S. citizen Naftali Fraenkel and his friends Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach were kidnapped on their way home from school.
Under US law any alien who "endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity" is "ineligible for visas or admission" to the U.S. [8 U.S.C. 1182 - INADMISSIBLE ALIENS, 2006 Edition, Supplement 5] PMW has documented Jibril Rajoub's continual vocal support for terrorism in its special report The Jibril Rajoub File.

PMW exposé leads Germany to cancel major sports deal with PA

The German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB) is cancelling a recently-announced partnership with the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) because of evidence publicized by Palestinian Media Watch. According to the federation's spokeswoman Ulrike Spits, Germany called off the deal because "not all partners are committed to the high values of sport."
Under the 400,000 Euro agreement, Germany had planned to send sports expert Gert Engels to coach the Palestinian football team over a period of two years. The agreement, the first of its kind, was co-signed by German representative Peter Beerwerth and PFA Chairman Jibril Rajoub.
Immediately after the deal was signed, PMW released the bulletin "Germany signs sports agreement with terror-promoting PA official." The Simon Wiesenthal Center followed up with an official complaint to the DOSB drawing documentation from PMW's The Rajoub File. Today, the German daily taz.de reported that DOSB has withdrawn from the partnership.

Palestinians: We Have the Right to Poison the Minds of our Children

A statement issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Education in Ramallah warned that it would take "punitive measures" against anyone who tries to change or tamper with the curriculum. "Any attempt to change the Palestinian curriculum will be considered an assault on Palestine and an eradication and dilution of our national identity," the ministry cautioned.
The language used by the PA is strikingly similar to that used by Hamas to threaten an organization that has for decades helped millions of Palestinians to survive. In this regard, the Palestinians are once again biting the hand that has fed them. Ask Kuwait and other Gulf countries that used to give Palestinians billions of dollars before the Palestinians supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.
In his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington in mid-April, Abbas is expected to renew his commitment to combating anti-Israel incitement, according to senior PA officials in Ramallah. One wonders how Abbas plans to account for the PA's threats against UNRWA regarding the textbooks.
The PA, like Hamas, plans to continue indoctrinating their children through poisonous textbooks that depict Jews as evil occupiers and land-thieves who build "racist walls" and demolish houses for no reason. They also wish to continue teaching children that the conflict with Israel is not over a two-state solution, but the "liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea," which means the annihilation of Israel. The goal is for the students to believe that Israel is one big "settlement" that has no place in the Middle East.
Moreover, along with Hamas, Abbas and his PA plan to continue inculcating Palestinian children with the idea that they should look to terrorists who kill Jews as their role models. It might be illuminating if the conversation between Trump and Abbas were to be informed by these uncomfortable facts.

As mentioned, Mahmoud Abbas was in Germany for a few days this week to have talks with Angela Merkel and to receive a "peace" award.

An op-ed in Die Welt shows that not everyone is drinking from the "Abbas as peacemaker" Kool-Aid.

Richard Herzinger writes for the newspaper:

It is clear that Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA) are largely incapacitated. The now 81-year old President dare not resign, because for him and his Fatah organization there is fear that the radical Islamic Hamas could prevail in elections.

Abbas travels endlessly around the world playing for time and to get international support for his attitude of refusal towards talks with Israel. And he shows his duplicity: Speaking in the West, as now he says in Berlin, he claims that he strives for nothing but "stability" and peaceful coexistence of Palestine and Israel.

Yet at his home no day passes where the official PA media and schools do not spread anti-Jewish hate propaganda, wild anti-Israeli conspiracy theories and support for the terrorist cult of martyrdom.

Instead of getting obsessed only on the Israeli settlement policy, Berlin should tell Abbas to finally call for a massive renunciation of this glorification of violence. The threat that otherwise we would curtail the huge amounts of aid money to the PA might be helpful.

Slowly but surely, the cult of eternal Palestinian victimhood is being dismantled.

(h/t Quintessenz)

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Why aren't Arabs protesting impending visit by India's PM to Israel?

An amazing article in LiveMint,

When Narendra Modi visits Israel this year, it will be remarkable for two reasons: first, that it will be the first visit to the Israeli state by an Indian head of government; and second, that it will in all likelihood raise no eyebrows—never mind hackles—in the Arab world.

The exact dates for the trip have not yet been announced, but it has been known for some weeks now that it will happen this summer. And yet, no Arab state has voiced any displeasure, not publicly, and not even through diplomatic back-channels.

This is nothing short of astonishing to anyone who, like your humble servant, grew up in the India of the 1970s and 1980s, when it was routine for New Delhi to join the Arab chorus of condemnation for Israel at Tel Aviv’s every turn.

Whether it was because of India’s need for Arab oil, or because there were so many Arab members of the benighted Non-Aligned Movement, or because the Jewish state was tied to the US while New Delhi was chummy with the USSR, or simply because so many in this country genuinely sympathized with the Palestinian cause, a succession of Indian governments avoided diplomatic relations with Israel.

But that prospect is no longer surprising: the two countries began building close ties in the 1990s, and are now locked in a tight embrace of economic, defence and security interests.

What is astonishing, though, is the absence of even a murmur of protest from India’s friends in the Arab world. West Asian diplomats quizzed by my colleagues at Hindustan Times have shrugged off the idea of Modi’s visit as a matter of realpolitik. One expressed the mild hope that the Prime Minister might also visit the West Bank, to show some solidarity with the Palestinians, but acknowledged that this is unlikely.

That is almost as remarkable as the visit itself.

One reason for the Arab pococurantism over deepening Indo-Israeli relations is a resigned acceptance that the two countries have much in common, including their enemies, in the shape of Islamist terrorism.

This shows that even Arab governments put Hamas and Hezbollah in the same category as ISIS and Al Qaeda - which is regarded as a "Zionist talking point" among the "progressive" Western crowd.

Another is a profound sense of Palestine fatigue in Arab capitals, whether on account of the interminable and intractable nature of the problem, or because other Arab peoples—Syrians, for one—are making a more pressing case for sympathy.

I've been making this point for years. But since Arab diplomats reflexively pretend to prioritize the Palestinian issue in every meeting with their Western counterparts, the West is clueless that these are only words. And the proof is that the Arab nations routinely pledge hundreds of millions to the Palestinian cause - and end up reneging on nearly all of it, while the West pays the bulk of aid.

Yet another reason for the lack of concern among Arab governments for India’s friendship with Israel is that many of them would themselves like an accommodation with the Jewish state.

For all the pillorying Bibi gets in the media, both Israeli and from the West, this one sentence shows that he is the one that has had a masterful strategy for Israel's long term security.

Countries like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have for some time now reportedly been making quiet, behind-the-scenes contact with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, and the frequency has grown since January 2016, when the US and other major powers signed a nuclear treaty with Iran.

Arab leaders have determined that Shia-ruled Iran represents an existential threat to their Sunni-dominated regimes, and recognize that, in this, they have a common cause with Israel. Netanyahu’s trenchant tirades against the theocracy in Tehran have an enthusiastic audience in Arab palaces.

This is especially true in Riyadh and Manama, where the threat of Iran is felt most keenly. ...
Arab leaders have determined that Shia-ruled Iran represents an existential threat to their Sunni-dominated regimes, and recognize that, in this, they have a common cause with Israel

...

But Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and most other Arab states have no formal relations with Israel: most of them don’t even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

For six decades, their propaganda machines have portrayed the Jewish state as an abomination, and have normalized anti-Semitism among their citizenry.

The rulers of these states cannot now afford to be seen breaking bread with Israel, and so can only play a form of diplomatic footsie—or rely on sympathetic intermediaries to ferry little notes between them.

So, if Modi does hear from Arab rulers before his visit to Israel, it may very well be in the form of requests to convey cautious felicitations. And it’s just conceivable that Bibi Netanyahu will want Modi to carry a message for Saudi King Salman, who is expected to visit New Delhi later in the year.

This is truly remarkable, all the more so for being true.

(h/t Zvi)

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03/28 Links Pt2: Mosul, Gaza and the world’s hypocrisy; Why Isn't There a Palestinian State?

From Ian:

Evelyn Gordon: The Real Trump Link in the Threats on Jews

In short, for all the criticism he justly earned for his belated and reluctant condemnations of anti-Semitism, Trump took action to stop it in a way his predecessor never did–a point to remember for anyone who believes that actions speak louder than words.
Many commentators have already noted that by rushing to blame Trump and his supporters for the bomb threats despite the complete absence of any evidence, the U.S. Jewish community has made the fight against anti-Semitism more difficult, because next time, its claims are liable to be met with considerable skepticism. But the new police information indicates that the damage was even worse than that: The anti-Trump hysteria actually encouraged the very attacks it was meant to combat.
The lesson here obviously isn’t that Jews shouldn’t react to anti-Semitic acts. But by tying the bomb threats into a broader anti-Trump narrative for their own political purposes, American Jewish leaders and their non-Jewish left-wing allies generated a degree of media hysteria that the acts on their own would not have produced. And that is precisely the type of hysteria that attracts copycats–in this case, not just the original perpetrator (who copycatted his own attacks once he saw they produced the desired media attention), but also the only other person arrested to date.
Absent this media hype, it seems unlikely that Juan Thompson, a black, left-wing radical who was stalking his girlfriend, would have come up with the idea of making trouble for her by phoning bomb threats into Jewish community centers and trying to make them look as if they were coming from her, instead of choosing any number of other possible targets.
In short, by making the bomb threats part of a broader anti-Trump narrative without a shred of evidence, American Jewish leaders discredited both themselves and the battle against anti-Semitism while also actively encouraging copycat attacks. Obviously, they didn’t mean to do any of those things. But there’s a lesson that needs to be learned here, and it goes way beyond the narrow issue of Donald Trump: Jewish interests aren’t identical to those of any political ideology, either liberal or conservative. And when you conflate Jewish interests with political ones, Jews are usually the ones who end up the losers.

Political narratives collapse

The past week had more than its share of big political stories -- a London terror attack, the collapse (for now anyway) of the Obamacare repeal and replace effort, and the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on U.S. President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. Buried among this collection of breaking news was the arrest of an Israeli teenager on suspicion that he had orchestrated a campaign of phoned-in bomb threats at over 150 Jewish institutions across America, plus a few in other countries since the start of the year.
The arrest, made in Israel, undermined a recent theme in American politics since Trump's election: that the president had helped unleash a toxic strain of hatred directed against various ethnic/racial groups, especially Jews, supposedly demonstrated by the wave of bomb threats. The president's nastiest critics portrayed him and his administration as neo-fascists, if not actual fascists. Steve Bannon, the president's campaign adviser and later his strategic adviser, was seen by these misguided Trump haters as the godfather of the "alt-right" and an anti-Semite.
Cartoonist Scott Adams argued that this week marked a very important turning point in the fledgling Trump presidency. According to Adams, the defeat of the health care bill marked the end of the narrative of Trump as Hitler and the emergence of the new narrative of Trump as incompetent. A president who is viewed as incompetent is hardly new to American politics. In fact, it is about as mainstream a criticism as you can get. Conservatives thought Obama was incompetent. Liberals thought George W. Bush was incompetent. If leftists now come to view Trump as an incompetent, it means they might no longer need to be so scared of his presidency, since he is unlikely to get much done that would really disturb the Left (even if he were a fascist).
The arrest of the Israeli teen seemed to be a disappointment as well as a great surprise for many among the organized American Jewish community. A few weeks earlier, an African-American journalist, Juan Thompson, had been arrested in St. Louis for calling in some bomb threats to Jewish organizations. That arrest may also have been a disappointment to the organized Jewish community. After all, if the president is inciting the hard Right and other assorted anti-Semites, an African-American named Juan does not fit the perpetrator profile.

Ben-Dror Yemini: Mosul, Gaza and the world’s hypocrisy

Op-ed: ISIS learned from Hamas how to use civilian populations as human shields. While hundreds of civilians have been killed in US-led airstrikes in Iraq, there have been absolutely no protests and no claims of ‘war crimes.’ Those are reserved for one country only—Israel.
Hundreds of women and children were killed in west Mosul last week. The Americans bombed the area, as part of their cooperation with the Iraqi army against the Islamic State. The tragedy did not make the headlines. Claims of “war crimes” were nowhere to be found either. Neither was something more moderate like claims of “a disproportional response.” There were no protests whatsoever. The hostile sentiments, like the condemnatory headlines, are reserved for only one country in the world—Israel.
The United Nations issued condemnations—not against those who bombed the area, but against the use of civilians as a “human shield.” The New York Times, which constantly condemned Israel during Operation Protective Edge, argued mostly with Trump: “Taken together, the surge of reported civilian deaths raised questions about whether once-strict rules of engagement meant to minimize civilian casualties were being relaxed under the Trump administration.”
One might have assumed that since 2003, or maybe only from 2008, the strict rules of engagement had led to minimum civilian casualties. Well, the figures show that 268,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq since the war began there in 2003. There is no proof that former President Barack Obama reduced the number of casualties. The use of drones, for example, was 10 times higher during the Obama era than during the George W. Bush era.

Why Isn't There a Palestinian State?

Why don't the Palestinians have their own country? Is it the fault of Israel? Of the Palestinians? Of both parties? David Brog, Executive Director of the Maccabee Task Force, shares the surprising answers.

Look at all the Muslims who condemn terror. (Just don't look too closely.)

From The Guardian:

It happened in history class. Heraa Hashmi, a 19-year-old American Muslim student at the University of Colorado, was supposed to be discussing the Crusades with the man sitting next to her. Within a few minutes, however, he was crusading against Islam.

“Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims,” Hashmi’s classmate told her. What’s more, he complained, not enough Muslims were making a stand against terrorism.

Hashmi was perplexed by this analysis. Muslims are constantly denouncing atrocities that have been committed in the name of Islam. Yet many people seem to think Muslims don’t condemn terrorism enough. So Hashmi decided to put the notion to the test. Using Google spreadsheets, she made a “712-page list of Muslims condemning things with sources”, which she tweeted. The list includes everything from acts of domestic violence to 9/11.

“I wanted to show people how weak the argument [that Muslims don’t care about terrorism] is,” she explained.

Her stats struck a chord. Within 24 hours, Hashmi’s tweet had been retweeted 15,000 times. A couple of her followers volunteered to help her turn her spreadsheet into an interactive website and, within a week of the tweet, muslimscondemn.com was born. This was last November, but the website has grown considerably since then and, sadly, flickers into prominence whenever a new attack takes place.

The Muslims Condemn site lists over 5000 cases of Muslims condemning...something. Usually it is terrorism, but sometimes it is something else.

Like 14 who condemned Israel's fighting Hezbollah in 2006.

Or the 32 who condemned the Simon Wiesenthal Center for building a museum near a deconsecrated Muslim cemetery.

There are also condemnations against Israel for "attacking Al Aqsa" and for Gaza. In a database of condemnations of "terror."

Among the terror attacks condemned, I could find very few condemnations for attacks that targeted Jews. The Islamic Society of North America, alone among Muslim groups in this database, condemned the 2014 attack killing 4 rabbis in a synagogue in Jerusalem; and the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe, alone among Muslims quoted in this database, condemned the 20123 Toulouse school murders.

That same Federation condemned the mythical Israeli attacks against Al Aqsa Mosque in 2015 - while Israelis were being stabbed in the streets. No Muslim condemned that, according to this database.

Nobody condemning the Hypercacher attacks, although plenty of condemnations of the Charlei Hebdo attacks.

Nobody condemning the 2014 murders at a Jewish museum in Brussels, but plenty for the 2016 Brussels bombings.

Nobody condemning Hamas rocket attacks towards Israeli civilians, but plenty condemning Israel for defending itself.

Out of the many terror attacks since 200 that targeted Jews for being Jews, very few of these Muslims quoted here condemned any of them. No one, as far as I can tell, condemned more than one of the hundreds of attacks on Jews.

It is easy for Muslims to claim that they are against ISIS attacks in Europe. Many of them claim that the Mossad is behind ISIS.

Yet since nearly all of those, even those who condemn some Islamic terrorism, cannot condemn terrorism when innocent Jews are the victims (and, as we have seen, in fact many celebrate those very attacks,) then the entire basis for this database rings very, very hollow.

(h/t Zach)

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