Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, April 06, 2017

04/06 Links Pt1: Jibril Rajoub hit with lawsuit upon arrival in US; Russia and UNESCO recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital

From Ian:

Senior Fatah member hit with lawsuit upon arrival at JFK

A senior member of the Palestinian Authority was served with a $250 million civil lawsuit on Wednesday, upon his arrival at a New York airport, over his alleged involvement in the torture and killing of a Palestinian-American man.
Jibril Rajoub, who is a senior Fatah member and heads the PA Olympic committee, was handed the writ for $250 million and a court summons as he descended from the plane at JFK airport, Ynet news reported.
The suit accuses Rajoub of involvement in the alleged torture and killing of Azzam Rahim by the Palestinian Authority security forces in 1995.
The suit was filed by Rahim’s family on Tuesday in their home state of Texas against Rajoub, who at the time of the alleged killing served as head of Palestinian security in the West Bank. According to the writ, Rahim was detained by the PA on September 29, 1995, and tortured to death.
The claimants accused Rajoub of playing a major role in the arrest, torture and death of their relative. The family testified that Rahim was visiting his home town of Ein Yabrud, near Ramallah, over 20 years ago, when plainclothes security forces detained him while he was playing backgammon in a local coffee house and took him to prison in Jericho. Two days later an ambulance delivered his dead body back to the town.

Moscow surprisingly says west Jerusalem is Israel's capital

Russia recognizes west Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated in a surprise announcement on Thursday, obtained exclusively by The Jerusalem Post.
The announcement comes as US President Donald Trump's administration is agonizing over whether to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that would constitute recognizing west Jerusalem as the country's capital. No other country in the world recognizes any part of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry reads, “We reaffirm our commitment to the UN-approved principles for a Palestinian-Israeli settlement, which include the status of East Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state. At the same time, we must state that in this context we view West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”
This is a sharp shift in Russian policy, which until now has formally held that Jerusalem should eventually be under a permanent international regime. The statement appears in English on the Russian Foreign Ministry's Russian web site.
While officials in Jerusalem interpreted this to mean that recognition of west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital will only come once east Jerusalem becomes the capital of a Palestinian state, The Jerusalem Post has learned that Moscow intends this recognition to go into effect immediately.

UNESCO Chief: ‘Jerusalem is the Capital of King David’

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has rebuffed attempts by the UN cultural body to deny a historic Jewish connection to Jerusalem.
“In the Torah, Jerusalem is the capital of King David, where Solomon built the Temple and placed the Ark of the Covenant,” Bokova said last week at the policy conference of the European Coalition for Israel, a grassroots Christian initiative.
“To deny, conceal or erase any of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions undermines the integrity of the site, and runs counter to the reasons that justifies its inscription in the UNESCO World Heritage List,” she added.
Bokova’s comments represent a sharp contrast to previous statements and resolutions issued by the UN agency. In October 2016, UNESCO passed two controversial resolutions condemning Israeli actions at Jerusalem’s holy sites and ignoring Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
Yet in a meeting last month with World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reaffirmed his recognition of Judaism’s historic ties to Jerusalem. Before March’s remarks, the UN chief had said on Israeli radio, “It is completely clear the Temple that the Romans destroyed in Jerusalem was a Jewish temple.”

The Arab online magazine "Highlights" has an article called "The nature of the Jews as the Nazis saw them." The photo-illustration for the article is above.

It is an Arabic translation of an article by Joseph Goebbels written in 1929 that was entitled, simply, "The Jew."

It says:

One cannot defend himself against the Jew. He attacks with lightning speed from his position of safety and uses his abilities to crush any attempt at defense.
Quickly he turns the attacker’s charges back on him and the attacker becomes the liar, the troublemaker, the terrorist. Nothing could be more mistaken than to defend oneself. That is just what the Jew wants. He can invent a new lie every day for the enemy to respond to, and the result is that the enemy spends so much time defending himself that he has no time to do what the Jew really fears: to attack. The accused has become the accuser, and loudly he shoves the accuser into the dock. So it always was in the past when a person or a movement fought the Jew. That is what would happen to us as well were we not fully aware of his nature, and if we lacked the courage to draw the following radical conclusions:
1. One cannot fight the Jew by positive means. He is a negative, and this negative must be erased from the German system or he will forever corrupt it.
2. One cannot discuss the Jewish question with the Jews. One can hardly prove to a person that one has the duty to render him harmless.
3. One cannot allow the Jew the same means one would give an honest opponent, for he is no honorable opponent. He will use generosity and nobility only to trap his enemy.
4. The Jew has nothing to say about German questions. He is a foreigner, an alien, who only enjoys the rights of a guest, rights that he always abuses.
5. The so-called religious morality of the Jews is no morality at all, rather an encouragement to betrayal. Therefore, they have no claim to protection from the state.
6. The Jew is not smarter than we are, rather only cleverer and craftier. His system cannot be defeated economically — he follows entirely different moral principles than we do. It can only be broken through political means.
7. A Jew cannot insult a German. Jewish slanders are but badges of honor for a German opponent of the Jews.
8. The more a German person or a German movement opposes the Jew, the more valuable it is. If someone is attacked by the Jews, that is a sure sign of his virtue. He who is not persecuted by the Jews, or who is praised by them, is useless and dangerous.
9. The Jew evaluates German questions from the Jewish standpoint. As a result, the opposite of what he says must be true.
10. One must either affirm or reject anti-Semitism. He who defends the Jews harms his own people. One can only be a Jewish lackey or a Jewish opponent. Opposing the Jews is a matter of personal hygiene.
These principles give the anti-Jewish movement a chance of success. Only such a movement will be taken seriously by the Jews, only such a movement will be feared by them.
The fact that he shouts and complains about such a movement therefore is only a sign that it is right. We are therefore delighted that we are constantly attacked in the Jewish gazettes. They may shout about terror. We answer with Mussolini’s familiar words: “Terror? Never! It is social hygiene. We take these individuals out of circulation just as a doctor does to a bacterium.

Just in case it isn't clear enough, the translation is placed under the section of the magazine called "The Palestinian Cause."

It is also remarkable how closely Goebbel's advice has been embraced in the Arab world, officially about "Zionists."

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Algerians answer "Where are your Jews?" with "They were ungrateful traitors"

Two weeks ago, Hillel Neuer of UN Watch gave a short speech at the UN Human Rights Council that went viral:

Mr. President, let me begin by putting the following on the record: Everything we just heard — from the world’s worst abusers of human rights, of women’s rights, of freedom of religion, of the press, of assembly, of speech — is absolutely false; and, indeed, Orwellian....

Israel’s 1.5 million Arabs, whatever challenges they face, enjoy full rights to vote and to be elected in the Knesset, they work as doctors and lawyers, they serve on the Supreme Court.

Now I’d like to ask the members of that commission, that commissioned that report, the Arab states from which we just heard. Egypt, Iraq, and the others:

How many Jews live in your countries? How many Jews live in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco?

Once upon a time, the Middle East was full of Jews.

Algeria had 140,000 Jews. Algeria, where are your Jews?

Egypt used to have 75,000 Jews. Where are your Jews?

Syria, you had tens of thousands of Jews. Where are your Jews?

Iraq, you had over 135,000 Jews. Where are your Jews?

Mr. President, where is the apartheid?

This speech caused a minor furor in Algeria.

A columnist for Algerian paper Echorouk Online attempts to answer the question by claiming that the Jews of Algeria greeted the French occupiers with joy, and when the French soldiers looted the Muslim homes, the Jews bought their stolen goods cheap.

So, of course, they deserved to be terrorized, murdered and ethnically cleansed, according to this Algerian columnist.

These are lies, of course. Here's the truth about the Jews of Algeria, from Lyn Julius:

Far from being colonial, Jewish roots go back 2,700 years when Jewish traders arrived in North Africa with the Phoenicians, 1,000 years before Islam; and the first Jewish slaves and expellees from Judea settled among the Berbers soon after the destruction of the 2nd Temple. Some Berber tribes were said to have converted to Judaism. The most famous Jewish Berber of all, the warrior Queen Kahina, fought the Arab Muslim invaders in the 7th century – in vain.

The toshavim, the settled indigenous Jews who managed to survive islamisation, were joined in the 15th century by the megorashim, Jews escaping the Spanish Inquisition. Under Ottoman rule, most Jews lived in abject misery as dhimmis – inferior subjects under Islam. One 19th century traveller, Signor Pananti, wrote: “there is no species of outrage or vexation to which they are not exposed…the indolent Moor, with a pipe in his mouth and his legs crossed, calls any Jew who is passing, and makes him perform the offices of a servant…. Even fountains were happier, at least they were allowed to murmur.”

No wonder then, when Algeria became part of metropolitan France in 1830, the oppressed Jews greeted the French as saviors and liberators. Forty years later the Decret Cremieux, named after a famous Jewish politician and philanthropist, imposed French nationality on the entire Jewish community.

The myth has since developed that only the Jews were offered French nationality. The Muslims were offered it too, but overwhelmingly rejected it, as it would mean compromising their personal status, which was governed by Muslim law.

In Muslim eyes, the fact that the dhimmi Jews could have greater rights than they did caused great resentment. But the Jews were also resented by the pieds noirs. How dare these natives be given the privilege of French nationality and suppose themselves equal to true Frenchmen?

The Jews found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Muslim antisemitism reached its peak with the eruption of the Constantine pogrom of 1934, in which 25 Jews were killed. French antisemitism reached its zenith with the WW2 abrogation of the Decret Cremieux. Under Vichy rule, Jews not only were stripped of their French nationality, but were sacked from public service jobs and subject to quotas and restrictions.

The Decret Cremieux was reinstated in 1943. In some Jews, the trauma of having their French citizens’ rights taken away created an absolute dread of being identified with Arabs: they were Frenchmen of the Jewish faith – francais israelites.

But as the Arabs embarked on an ever more brutal campaign of decolonisation in the 1950s, while the pieds noirs engaged in equally brutal counter-terror, the Jewish community was careful to maintain an official position of neutrality – although in retrospect, the killing of rabbis and bombings of synagogues looked deliberate enough. Some Jews supported the FLN independence fighters. A minority of anti-French Jewish communists earned the title ‘pieds rouges‘.

The Jews could sit on the fence no longer when two events forced them decisively into the French camp: the first was the burning of the Great synagogue in Algiers in December 1960. Arabs went on the rampage ripping memorial plaques from the walls, and torching books and Torah scrolls. The second was the murder in June 1961, while he was out shopping in the market, of the famous Jewish musician, Sheikh Raymond Leyris, a symbol of a shared Arab-Jewish culture and father-in-law of the singer Enrico Macias.

Like the pieds noirs, the Jews were faced with a stark choice: suitcase or coffin. They scrambled to reach seaports and airports. By the time Algeria had declared independence on 3 July 1962, all but a few thousand Jews had left for France.

The watchword was now ‘Muslim Algeria’ not ‘Algeria for the Algerians.’ No ‘foreigner,’ even those who had fought for the FLN, was awarded Algerian nationality, unless they had a Muslim father. There was no place for Jews in the new Algeria, as there is no place for Jews anywhere in the Arab world.

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From Iran's mouthpiece PressTV:

Iran has strongly condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria, underling the need for disarming terrorists operating in the Arab country.

“We strongly condemn any use of chemical weapons, irrespective of who used them or their victims,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Wednesday.

Dozens of people were killed in a chemical attack in the Syrian town of Khan Shaykhun in the northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday.

The United States and its allies were quick to accuse Syrian government forces of carrying out the attack. The Syrian army said, however, that “it has never used them (chemical weapons), anytime, anywhere, and will not do so in the future.”

The Iranian official said that the catastrophe was not the first of its kind in Syria, warning that dealing with the tragedy based on double standards, rash judgment and propaganda purposes and using it as a tool to level accusations against others and reinforce the political demands of certain sides would prevent addressing the root causes of such disasters.

Qassemi said the Syrian government had voluntarily dismantled its stockpile of chemical weapons under the supervision of the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), stressing that it was now time for disarming terrorist groups in the Arab country.

“Considering the transfer, stockpile and use of chemical weapons by terrorist groups in Syria, the Islamic Republic of Iran has always believed that despite the disarmament of the Syrian government through its full cooperation and under the supervision of a joint representative of the UN and the OPCW, ignoring the need for the chemical disarmament of terrorist groups has been a major flaw in the country's chemical disarmament process,” the Iranian official said.

Iran is saying that its ally Syria has complied with international resolutions on getting rid of its weapons of mass destruction and therefore couldn't have been guilty of the horrific attack in Idlib.

Similarly, Iran also says that it has complied with international resolutions on getting rid of its capability of building weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile, Iran's ally North Korea, which does have nuclear weapons, has been threatening other countries with a nuclear holocaust and is testing long range missiles that can carry such weapons. Like Iran, North Korea had also signed an agreement to stop its nuclear weapons program and to allow inspectors free access, and like Iran, North Korea breached that and many other agreements.

Iran's client Syria and its ally North Korea provide the blueprint for Iran's own ambitions to build and threaten the world with weapons of mass destruction while pretending to the end to be compliant with international law and demands.

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04/05 Links Pt2: Sweden and the safe enemy; AI Takes Part in Apartheid Week South Africa

From Ian:

The Obama Administration Allegedly Spied on Pro-Israel Activists. Did They Do the Same to Trump?

This is familiar territory. In spying on the representatives of the American people and members of the pro-Israel community, the Obama administration learned how far it could go in manipulating the foreign-intelligence surveillance apparatus for its own domestic political advantage. In both instances, the ostensible targets—Israel and Russia—were simply instruments used to go after the real targets at home.
In order to spy on U.S. congressmen before the Iran Deal vote, the Obama administration exploited a loophole, which is described in the original Journal article. The U.S. intelligence community is supposed to keep tabs on foreign officials, even those representing allies. Hence, everyone in Washington knows that Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer is under surveillance. But it’s different for his American interlocutors, especially U.S. lawmakers, whose identities are, according to NSA protocol, supposed to be, at the very least, redacted. But the standard for collecting and disseminating “intercepted communications involving U.S. lawmakers” is much less strict if it is swept up through “foreign-foreign” intercepts, for instance between a foreign ambassador and his capital. Washington, i.e. the seat of the American government, is where foreign ambassadors are supposed to meet with American officials. The Obama administration turned an ancient diplomatic convention inside out—foreign ambassadors were so dangerous that meeting them signaled betrayal of your own country.
During the long and contentious lead-up to the Iran Deal the Israeli ambassador was regularly briefing senior officials in Jerusalem, including the prime minister, about the situation, including his meetings with American lawmakers and Jewish community leaders. The Obama administration would be less interested in what the Israelis were doing than in the actions of those who actually had the ability to block the deal—namely, Senate and House members. The administration then fed this information to members of the press, who were happy to relay thinly veiled anti-Semitic conceits by accusing deal opponents of dual loyalty and being in the pay of foreign interests.
It didn’t take much imagination for members of Congress to imagine their names being inserted in the Iran deal echo chamber’s boilerplate—that they were beholden to “donors” and “foreign lobbies.” What would happen if the White House leaked your phone call with the Israeli ambassador to a friendly reporter, and you were then profiled as betraying the interests of your constituents and the security of your nation to a foreign power? What if the fact of your phone call appeared under the byline of a famous columnist friendly to the Obama administration, say, in a major national publication?

The safe enemy

By disproportionately covering this attack and ignoring other, weekly, incidents, the media is perpetuating a myth that the main threat facing the Jewish population is a massive Nazi insurgence, and that when it is squashed, the Jews are once again fair game.
The reason the first incident in Umea was not covered by the national press was that the left-leaning media had no interest in an issue where the political left had hijacked a Jewish day of remembrance to drive their personal cause, and the villains of the story were too close to home and far too close for comfort. So the media kept quiet, and failed not only the Jews of Umea but also their entire profession by choosing to become party to the proceedings.
I feel for the Jewish community in Umea, but I also fear for all of us. This is the thing about us Jews: not even our sorrows are our own. Our victories are celebrated but we remain whatever the world wants and needs us to be. Umea saw their Kristallnacht memorial stolen for political purposes and now I fear their last days will be stolen, too.
I am thankful for the attention being showered on the Jews of Umea, and for all the pledges and promises made by politicians and leaders in support of our cause. But it is tomorrow, not today, that these pledges will be put to the test. When the next attack hits and the other shoe drops, will they still love us then? Will they stand by us even when the attacker doesn't fit the bill? I hope so, I pray so, but I won't be holding my breath.

'Sweden's anti-Semitism has crossed all red lines'

After a Jewish center in Sweden closed in response to anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi threats, World Zionist Organization Vice President and Department for Countering Anti-Semitism Head Yaakov Haguel said "all red lines" had been crossed and the Muslim community was "chasing after Jews."
"This is just a continuation of the previous plots," Haguel said. "Sweden's anti-Semisim has crossed all red lines. The recent events are only the latest in a long line of incitement and blood libels. People are sowing an unjust fear of Jews, and the government is closing its eyes to everything which relates to Jews and israel.
"Jews are running from here, because they're scared of he rising anti-Semitism. There are anti-Israel campaigns which focus on libels claiming Jews steal and sell Palestinian limbs. There have been incidents in which local Muslims literally chase after Jews. And the government supports an anti-Israel stance, unequivocally supporting the Palestinians and Islamic countries.
"All of these should make us do some soul-searching with regards to our relationship with this counry.
"I call on the Swedish government to take responsibility and ensure the safety of its citizens," Haguel concluded.

Chocolate spread. It’s made out of not much more than cocoa and fat. And it’s the most Israeli sandwich spread there is.

Kids love it. Parents love the convenience, but hate the lack of nutritional value. They sigh and give in, especially on Passover, when you can spread it on matzoh to make it taste less like cardboard and more like, well, CHOCOLATE.

My 16 year-old still likes chocolate spread, but he always cautions us to only buy the Hashachar brand chocolate spread. The one with the yellow cap (there’s also a Hashachar chocolate spread with a white cap). That’s why it got our back up when Sarah Tuttle-Singer, the new media director at the Times of Israel, shared an article from Haaretz, calling the spread “racist” and urging her followers to boycott the company.

The Haaretz article, written by Roger Alpher, reads:

“What could be more Israeli than matza with Hashachar Ha’ole chocolate spread on top?” asks a Passover ad for this veteran brand, known to anyone who grew up in Israel.

Even though the ad immediately replies with a list of national symbols such as the flag, the anthem, a chain with a Star of David, as well as cultural symbols such as TV Channel One and popular Israeli melodrama films, it’s obvious that the advertisement assumes that public consensus considers Hashachar Ha’ole to be one of the consumer products most identified with Israeliness. However, it’s patriotic and nostalgic air is tainted: This is a company that donates tens of thousands of shekels a year to the settlements.

“I believe in a Greater Land of Israel, which you call ‘the occupied territories,’ and I wish I could donate even more,” CEO Moshe Weidberg told Haaretz in December 2015.

Regarding the option of donating to human rights group B’Tselem, he said he’d rather go bankrupt. Weidberg devotes part of his company’s profits to financing the occupation and the apartheid regime in the territories, along with its blatant violation of human rights. He espouses an ideology that makes him an enemy of democracy and a supporter of a benighted ultra-nationalistic regime that squelches any criticism. His opposition to any criticism of the occupation is so fierce that he’d rather go bankrupt (not a trivial matter, considering that his is a family business that’s been around since 1955) than donate to an organization that works to end the occupation.

It’s a declaration that’s commendable for its directness, honesty, openness and transparency. Weidberg has no problem with being political and annoying potential customers who oppose the occupation. Good for him. His clear political standpoint should be countered with a no-less clear and strong political stance.

Anyone opposing the occupation should boycott Hashachar Ha’ole, otherwise his or her ideology is meaningless. It’s a moral duty to exact this small price from Weidberg. It’s unseemly that a person objecting to the occupation should continue purchasing his products in the knowledge that he is thereby contributing to the settlements and submitting to Weidberg’s destructive and immoral ideology.

Hashachar Ha’ole is, regrettably, no longer Israeli. Apparently, there is no chocolate spread anywhere in the world more fascist and racist. Weidberg should be forced to face the ramifications of the ideology he is so loyal to. The fact that his products are identified with the occupation and the persecution of left-wing groups should be advertised.

He prefers to go bankrupt over donating to B’Tselem? The required response is that supporters of B’Tselem immediately cease, this Passover, being his customers.

Otherwise, in their apathy and lassitude, they are almost as bad as he is since their money will go to the settlements.

Instead of buying Hashachar Ha’ole products, one may as well directly contribute to the Ateret Yerushalayim yeshiva in the Old City and to the seminary in Elon Moreh. That, at least, will circumvent the self-deception.

“I wish we could give more,” declared Weidberg. Thus, advertisements for purchasing his products this Passover can be viewed as a collection of donations for the settlements.

It’s time Hashachar Ha’ole (the Rising Dawn in Hebrew) turned to dusk.

In other words, Weidberg is a patriot who supports Jews settling their indigenous Jewish territory. No wonder Haaretz is upset. No wonder Sarah Tuttle-Singer is upset. Supporting the building of homes in Jewish indigenous territory?? Unthinkable, when your entire goal is to bring the State of Israel crashing down upon our heads.

Both would have you believe that Jews living in Judea and Samaria are stealing Arab land. Both love to listen and cry big fat crocodile tears as Arabs lie to them, recounting their invented humiliation at being forced to live under the thumb of the oh-so-oppressive Jews. This is what the Roger Alphers and Sarah Tuttle-Singers of the world care about most.

It’s what they write about. They write about the poor Arabs. They write about the need to call out injustice when they see it, about the “occupation.”

They write blogs excusing terrorists.

You know what they don’t write about?

They don’t write about Ayala Shapira’s brave speech to the European Parliament this week. Ayala was on her way home from her gifted math class when an Arab went up to the passenger seat of her father’s car, where she was seated, and threw a firebomb at her window. The Arab well knew that father and daughter always came home around this time. He timed the attack. He planned it. He knew a little girl was sitting there on that side of the car.

Ayala sustained burns on 30% of her face and body. Her face is disfigured. But when she spoke to the European Parliament last week she said, “I can't say, 'I want to be beautiful,' because it means that today I'm not beautiful, and that's not true.”

This was something that didn’t interest Sarah Tuttle-Singer enough to tweet about it, write about it on her Facebook page, or blog about it at the Times of Israel. No. She was too busy writing about the suffering hearts of terrorists and how we shouldn’t kill them. She was just deeply absorbed in writing about boycotting anyone who supports settlement in Judea and Samaria. And when she wasn’t using her writing and her clout as an internet star to work toward bringing down the State of Israel, she was writing about the cute way her kids played with her vibrator.

My kids found my vibrator. I told them it was a back massager. They've spent the last 30 minutes rubbing my back with it.
— (((TuttleSinger))) (@TuttleSinger) March 31, 2017

I always wonder why these people live in Israel in the first place. Why do they live in Israel if they think this constitutes “occupation?”

The answer must be that they are attempting to undermine us from within, to infiltrate. They’re working for the other side. Because how could a Jew possibly find anything wrong with Jews living in their ancestral lands? It makes no logical sense. And a Jew calling to boycott other Jews’ businesses?

Unthinkable. Sick.

But that’s okay. Because in addition to these traitors, we have heroes. People like Ari Fuld. The minute he heard about Sarah Tuttle-Singer and Roger Alpher, he went out and started buying up Hashachar chocolate spread like there was no tomorrow. He bought it to give out to IDF soldiers to help make their Passover celebrations a little sweeter, more festive.

Ari kept us updated.

And of course, with his actions, Ari prompted a wild buying spree. Everyone suddenly had to buy Hashachar chocolate spread. Because that is the only patriotic thing to do! That is, if you care about Israel. Love it with all your heart.

One friend’s daughter took her patriotism and love of Israel one step further. She named her new son Shachar!

Shachar Bakish (photo courtesy Tamar Rubin)

Shachar. It means “dawn.”

Maybe someday, it will dawn on the Roger Alphers and Sarah Tuttle-Singers of the world that they aren’t ever going to succeed at bringing down the Jewish State.

Not as long as we’ve got people like Ari Fuld and Ayala Shapira on our side.

Dawn? We say yes. It's time. Wake up and smell the chocolate.

Buy blue and white. And brown. Definitely brown. Hashachar HaOle chocolate spread. For Passover.

It's good.

h/t Dov Epstein for the heads up on this story.

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Archaeologists Find Remnants Of Obama Red Line On Syria Chemical Weapons (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Damascus, April 5 - Scientists digging in the outskirts of the Syrian capital have discovered fragments of what appear to be one of former US President Barack Obama's "red lines" warning Basher Assad not to use chemical weapons, the excavation leaders reported today.

A team of archaeologists exploring historical features of Syria came upon the pieces of red line, and, based on contextual and chemical indicators, pinpointed the date of the fragments at the latter half of 2014 CE, during Obama's second term. They also utilized analytical tools that gave them what they described as near-certainty" that the original red lines, of which there must have been at least three, came from Obama himself.

"We're confident we have identified the origin of these red line fragments, and have determined that their purpose was a series of ultimatums from President Obama to President Assad, to the effect that deployment of chemical or biological weapons by Syrian regime forces would prompt an immediate and severe US military reaction," explained team leader Linie Roth of the University of Munich.

What remains unclear, noted Roth, is whether the fragments the team has collected and identified all come from a single red line or from several. "When Assad crossed Obama's red lines, it's not completely certain what happened to those lines. Contemporary records indicate that the lines still existed after having been crossed, but the record runs dry by the end of 2014, and the only mentions of red lines are in reference to lines that once existed, presumably these three. We need to examine these specimens closely, and perhaps continue digging to shed light on what became of Obama's red lines on Syrian chemical weapons."

Compounding the difficulty is the Obama administration's own subsequent attempts to conceal or otherwise reduce the identifiability of the red lines it had established. "Unconfirmed accounts from the period place administration personnel in the vicinity of the red lines with deflection, concealment, and denial tools, and the vague picture we have at the moment is consistent with efforts to fudge the record, so we are still cautious," added Roth. "Non-echo-chamber sources are of course held as less credible than those who towed the presidential line, a fact that poses challenges to gaining a coherent picture."

Obama's red lines in Syria are only a fraction of the red lines the previous president laid down, according to scholars. "Accounts from the time of Obama discuss various ultimatums regarding Ukraine, Iran, and something called 'ISIL,'" observed John Kerry, a former US Senator. "None of those red lines, when violated, appear to have triggered anything. I'm at a loss to explain it."

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04/05 Links Pt1: Livingstone’s words have emboldened anti-Semites; A Nobel Prize for al-Qaeda?

From Ian:

UK’s Labour suspends Livingstone for year over Hitler-Zionism comments

The UK Labour Party on Tuesday suspended former London mayor and senior party official Ken Livingstone for one year for comments about Hitler supporting Zionism that a disciplinary committee found “grossly detrimental” to the party.
Jewish groups, who had been calling for Livingston to be expelled, called the move “deeply disappointing” and said it would erode the fractured trust between the party and its Jewish members.
“Given that Ken Livingstone has been found guilty, we are deeply disappointed at the decision not to expel him from the Labour Party. A temporary suspension is no more than a slap on the wrist,” the Jewish Leadership Council said in a statement.
“Livingstone’s antagonistic attitude towards the Jewish community has been longstanding and has had a huge impact on Jewish people,” the group said. “This decision makes us question if the Labour Party wanted to repair its historic and long-standing relationship with the Jewish community.”
Those sentiments were echoed by the Board of Deputies of British Jews. “Relations between the Labour Party and the Jewish community have reached a new all-time low,” said President Jonathan Arkush.

Ken Livingstone’s words have emboldened anti-Semites

A bottled punishment
The Labour National Constitutional Committee (NCC) panel that heard the case should at least be congratulated for the correct ruling, but predictably, they bottled the punishment. Livingstone has brought the party into disrepute and emphatically so, but it does not end there. He has continued, unapologetically, to dig himself into a further hole and in doing so is damaging the Labour party.
In the wake of this bottled decision, I have been receiving emails from those most emboldened by it. I have been asked how much the Jewish lobby will be remunerating me by, why Jewish votes are so priceless and congratulated for “not cringing to…subhumans”.
A cursory search of Twitter and one will find similar comments with Holocaust denial and other foul racism. One supposedly Labour-supporting group posted a message on Facebook stating the decision to further suspend Livingstone was “manufactured in Tel Aviv” a comment straight out of the far-right handbook. The Labour party should be a force for good but what happened yesterday has inspired racists and antisemites. We will have to act.
Gaslighting
This type of revisionism seeks to demean or undermine what happened to Jews and others at the hands of the Nazis. Decent people will rightly be horrified by it. Attempts by Livingstone or others to gaslight what he said must be resisted.
He said Hitler was supporting Zionism. Look up Zionist in the dictionary and you’ll find it explained as a supporter of Zionism. This claim is part of a pernicious form of anti-Jewish hatred. Antisemitism should not be treated differently to any other form of racism.
There is no choice. The leadership of the party must respond and review the decision. I call for anyone that has ever supported Labour to join, step forward and speak out in order to demand the quick change that we need.

Douglas Murray: In defence of Ken Livingstone

As the historian Paul Bogdanor showed in a scholarly article last year, Brenner imbibed his ideas from the well of Soviet propaganda. As opposed to far-right Holocaust fabrications (which either claim that it did not happen, or downplay the numbers), Soviet-inspired anti-Semites tend towards claims that the Jews were themselves involved. Brenner, who was involved in the 1980s with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), clearly helped dig this well, from which Livingstone drank deeply. In Livingstone’s own 2011 memoirs he credited Brenner’s books with having ‘helped form my view of Zionism and its history’.
On international affairs — an area in which he has mercifully never had a meaningful role — Livingstone’s views are a hodge-podge of learning from quacks. But all good quacks lean on nuggets of truth. In the case of Jews in the 1930s, it is true that a small number of Labour Zionists had meetings with Nazi officials in 1933 about helping German Jews emigrate to what was then Palestine. But these were not ‘clandestine’ meetings, as Brenner and Livingstone claim. And their aim was not to cooperate, much less find mutual interest in the creation of a Jewish state, but rather one small part of a desperate scramble to get some people and possessions out of Germany.
Brenner and Livingstone’s take is classic crackpot history. And like Livingstone’s frequent citings of Mosaddegh and the CIA in discussing the wider Middle East, it isn’t that what he’s saying didn’t in any way happen. It’s just that what happened doesn’t remotely support the conclusions he comes to.
Many observers, especially British Jews, wonder why Livingstone wants to keep raking over all this. Is it a demonstration of anti-Semitism? Or senility? Both seem possible. But it is also possible that, armed with his little learning, Livingstone has chosen his version of history, as many people do, and is sticking with it.
He is wildly wrong, of course. If he had any power, his proselytisation on behalf of his theory could be dangerous. But Ken has no power, and his crazy insistence on arguing every inch of ground has instead allowed a public debate about a corner of left-wing pseudo-history that might never otherwise have had a light shone on it to allow for such mainstream debunking.

From Express Tribune (Pakistan):

A Malaysian lawmaker has caused outrage after he suggested rape victims should marry their attackers in order to lead a good life and help solve social problems.

Shabudin Yahya, the MP for the ruling coalition party United Malay National Organisation, said: “The thing is they have an opportunity – with a marriage they can lead a healthy and good life.” The MP’s statement came during a debate on Child Sexual Offences Bill in parliament.

“For a woman that was raped, if she can marry [that person] she would not go through such a bleak future. At least she has someone who can become her husband. So this will be a remedy for social problems,” Shabudin said.

He further went on to defend rapists by saying it was not fair to assume that a person who committed a sexual offence will continue to be a bad person. “Maybe he repents, or regrets. It’s better to have people who regret rather than people who do not regret. So in this case, let us not put an assumption that the person will remain bad. [Marriage] can be an exit clause for this problem,” he said.

He even said girls aged between 9 and 12 can be married off as they hit puberty at that age and the physical state of their body is already akin to them being 18 years old.

There is a secondary story here.

This story is widely covered in English-language Asian media outlets, and Shabudin's statements have been condemned across the board by Muslims and others.

But even though Reuters picked up (and watered down) the story, most Western news outlets have stayed away from it.

The probable reason is that they are afraid to post it because of "Islamophobia" - even though most Muslims on the record are angry at the MP.

This is another dimension of media bias - what the media doesn't report is often as indicative of bias as how they report the stories they do publish.

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Overwhelming number of Palestinians are against teaching their children peace

Mosaic has a must-read article surveying hundreds of Palestinian public opinion polls to find out how interested Palestinians are in peace with Israel.

Answer: They aren't.

[I]n June 2014, the Washington Institute’s David Pollock commissioned and supervised a survey of West Bank and Gaza residents. In the poll, respondents were presented with three choices for the main Palestinian national goal over the next five years. Working for “a one-state solution in all of the land: a state in which Arabs and Jews will have equal rights in one country, from the river to the sea” garnered 10-percent support. “End the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza to achieve a two-state solution” was backed by 27 percent of respondents. The runaway first choice, selected by 60 percent of respondents, was “to work toward reclaiming all of historic Palestine from the river to the sea.”

In June 2015, another poll by Pollock and the Washington Institute, this time in conjunction with the PCPO, asked about the main Palestinian goal for the next five years, and again the option of “reclaiming all of historic Palestine from the river to the sea” was the most popular choice. This result is particularly astounding given that participants were not asked about a long-term dream, but about what they saw as the goal during the next half-decade.

We have reported on these results in the past. But there is one other question that Palestinian pollsters have asked over the years.

When asked on sixteen occasions if they would be willing to “adopt [a] school curriculum in the Palestinian state that recognizes Israel and teach school children not to demand return of all Palestine to the Palestinians,” a massive majority, 88 percent on average, said no, and only 9 percent said yes.

This question about whether Palestinians want to teach their children about peace is arguably more damning than the others. It shows that there is no desire for long-term peace with Israel for the vast majority of Palestinians.

We've seen the fruits of such an attitude with the outbreak of Palestinian youth attacking Israelis that we've seen over the past 18 months. They aren't attacking because of "desperation" or "occupation." They attack because their parents teach them that the Jews are a temporary blight on their land and it is the job of the next generation to get rid of them.

The answers to this question are so damning to Palestinians, apparently, that this question has not been asked since 2008 when only 13% of Palestinians polled supported a curriculum advocating peace with Israel.

(h/t Yoel)

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We have noted for years that most of the Palestinian Authority workers in Gaza are being paid to do nothing, after Hamas took over, to show that the PA did not accept Hamas' political leadership.

Of course, these salaries come from Western funds.

The EU finally woke up with a report in 2013 noting how much money was being wasted, and this year the EU finally said that it would cut the salaries for PA workers in Gaza who do nothing.

It looks like something happened.

Gaza do-nothing employees of the PA are bitterly complaining about a cut in their salaries to stay home and twiddle their thumbs. The salaries have been reduced by about 30% according to Arab media articles.

Fatah leaders in northern Gaza offered their resignations over this issue.

This is part of the Palestinian culture of entitlement, where so many people believe that the world owes them everything and they have no responsibility for their own actions. In this case the PA was partially at fault for instructing their employees not to work for Hamas in 2007 and saying that they would be paid indefinitely. A huge portion of the PA budget goes towards Gaza salaries.

Perhaps the most interesting reaction to the salary cut came from Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group,
which issued a statement saying "we pledge to use all available means in order to stop these measures against the backbone of the Palestinian National Authority employees."

I don't think there is an immediate danger of civil war within Fatah - the Al Aqsa Brigades are mostly based in Gaza, so there is only so much they can do - but this is one of those stories that the West ignores until something explodes.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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04/04 Links Pt2: Rasmea's exit, stage left; Linda Sarsour: NYC’s queen of hate; A BDS Defeat at Columbia

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Leaving the big tent

The divide between Israelis and American Jews seems to be growing. Indications of the widening gap came last week with reports of a confrontation between an American Jewish activist and four members of Knesset, from across the political spectrum, at a synagogue near Boston.
As reported at The Algemeiner, at the end of a forum at Brookline’s Congregation Kehillath Israel, an audience member named Shifrah told the four Israeli lawmakers, “You are losing me and you are losing many, many people in the Jewish community... I cannot look the other way when three Israeli teenagers are brutally murdered and the response is to kill 2,300 Palestinians [in Operation Protective Edge in 2014]. I want to know what you are doing to make peace with the Palestinians. I want to know what the government is doing to make peace.”
Despite the general fractiousness of Israeli politics, the lawmakers, who spanned the Right-Left spectrum, rejected the woman’s claims. Not one of them was willing to accept her view that Israel was morally impaired for defending itself from Hamas’s terror war against it. Each in his or her own way pointed out that the woman’s question exposed a callous indifference and utter ignorance to the actual situation in Israel.
Speaking last, Likud MK Amir Ohana noted that Israel didn’t enter into its war with Hamas three years ago because of the execution and abduction of the three youths by Palestinian terrorists. Israel went to war against Hamas in Operation Protective Edge because the terrorist regime in Gaza began pummeling Israel with tens of thousands of mortars, rockets and missiles.
And as Ohana noted, “Each and every one of them [was] targeted to kill us.”
Ohana concluded, “If I will have to choose between losing more lives of Israelis, whether they are civilians or soldiers, or losing you, I will sadly, sorrowfully, rather lose you.”

Ruthie Blum: Rasmea's exit, stage left

To add insult to injury, Jewish Voice for Peace pressured the management of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, ‎the venue rented for the hate-filled conference, not to allow a pro-Israel group to rent a separate ‎room in which to hold a memorial service for Odeh's victims. This is a classic case of what renowned ‎law professor Alan Dershowitz calls "free speech for me and not for thee."‎
Yes, as long as Jewish Voice for Peace and its non-Jewish counterparts -- such as Students for Justice in ‎Palestine and Black Lives Matter, which use it as a cover for their anti-Semitism -- have the microphone, ‎anything goes. Even glorifying cold-blooded murder. But when an organization like StandWithUs wants ‎to present an opposing viewpoint, any underhanded tactics to prevent it from doing so are kosher.‎
Ultimately, StandWithUs prevailed and conducted a vigil for Kanner and Joffe during the conference, ‎albeit in a different building of the Hyatt complex. But it was a quiet ceremony, unlike that of Jewish ‎Voice for Peace, which cheered Odeh when she said, "We need you to continue resisting Trump's ‎agenda and to continue challenging the Zionists and to continue providing your solidarity and support ‎to the Palestinian and Arab national movement."‎
Odeh, who was 21 when she played a key role in the terrorist attack, failed to mention that if not for ‎Israeli policy, she would have spent the rest of her life behind bars. Instead, she has been a liberated ‎woman since the age of 32. The now 69-year-old also left out the fact that the U.S. justice system -- ‎yes, in Trump's America -- can take credit for her ability to trade jail for Jordan, where she will ‎undoubtedly be hailed as a heroine. ‎
Good riddance, Rasmea; too bad you can't take your sycophants with you. But, as you surely know, ‎Jordanian law forbids Jews from becoming citizens.‎

Linda Sarsour: NYC’s queen of hate

Women’s March co-organizer Linda Sarsour said in her speech to a Jewish Voice for Peace conference in Chicago on Sunday that she’s “providing a service . . . that I’m allowing the Jewish community to have the real hard conversation that it always needed to be having” about whether it should support Israel.
Thanks! Let me return the favor and encourage Sarsour to have a hard conversation about how she is preaching hatred while claiming to be fighting for equality, and putting women down while saying she’s trying to lift them up.
The Brooklyn-born Sarsour, daughter of Palestinian immigrants, shared the dais Sunday with another darling of the feminist “resistance,” Rasmea Odeh — convicted in Israel of killing two Hebrew University students in a 1969 terrorist attack and of planning an attack on the British Consulate. After her release, Odeh was able to immigrate to the United States by hiding her crime. She’s now being deported to Jordan.
Odeh has become a leftist hero. Sunday night, she and Sarsour embraced, and Sarsour gushed to the audience about feeling “honored and privileged to be here in this space, and honored to be on this stage with Rasmea.”
It’s a curious embrace of terrorism and anti-Semitism from a recipient of a $500,000 taxpayer grant from Mayor de Blasio, as Sarsour’s group, the Arab American Association of New York, was last year. Sarsour, in fact, has been an important ally of de Blasio’s since his election — a role she’s sure to reprise in the mayor’s bid for a second term.

Ran Shelef is the head of the Arson and Explosion forensics crime unit of the Israel Police.

In an interview with Mida magazine (Hebrew), Shelef says that of the large wildfires that swept through Israel last November, 90% were terror acts.

He decided to go public because many news articles and politicians were saying that calling the fires arson was "incitement" against Arabs.

"Yes, this was a terrorist arson", he says. "There is not any dilemma and there's no doubt. All the towns that were burned were Jewish, all those arrested or had charges against were Arab, and of a thorough survey we have conducted [looking for similar events] anywhere else in the Middle East, including among the Palestinians, none have experienced a wave of fires of the magnitude we have experienced."

"Weather does not recognize borders," Shelef said. "Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and the rest of the neighboring countries have seen nothing compared to what we went through. We checked [the PA] as well. During that period they continued to start trash fires as they always do, but it was supervised in designated places, not a huge fire like ours."

Shelef went on: "Before I determine if an event is arson or not, I sample the area with dozens of different points so there would be no doubt. In Nirit for example, we found the focus of the fires came from two tires 300 meters from each other. In Zichron Yaakov we have detected a large amount of gasoline. In Neve Tzof-Hallamish the arsonists lit toilet paper to light the fire. In Nataf, the second fire (which burned down a restaurant) was caused by Molotov cocktails thrown from a nearby village. Lucky that it stopped at the restaurant; if the wind was going in a different direction - there goes the town. I can continue to elaborate about every occasion and event. I'm in this business for thirty years, for the police and fire department. I know my job. "

(h/t Yoel)

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J-Street U fantasizes that BDS wouldn't exist if it wasn't for "occupation"

J-Street sent out an email from Brooke Davies, president of J Street U, after the anti-BD conference at the UN last week.

She writes:

Two days ago, I was part of a J Street U delegation attending a major summit at the United Nations dedicated to confronting BDS. We went because we too oppose the Global BDS Movement and wanted to offer a serious, effective alternative to the failed right-wing pro-Israel advocacy that we see every day on college campuses and around the country.

Really? Because J-Street is practically invisible in the fight against BDS on campus. A couple of years ago I asked for a single example of a picture of a J-Street booth or table at any campus in the US handing out anti-BDS literature. Maybe something has changed since then, but I have yet to see it. Someone, please find me some literature that J-Street U passed out during this year's "Israel Apartheid Week".

On the other hand, groups like Stand With Us and grassroots individual campus groups like Calgary United For Israel - which would be considered "right-wing pro-Israel advocacy" by J-Street - are hugely effective. Those are the groups that have been in the forefront of turning back BDS on campus, not J-Street U.

Instead, the event perfectly encapsulated why the Jewish community is losing the fight against BDS -- and turning many young people off of Israel entirely.
When we conveyed the message that effectively confronting BDS requires opposing the occupation, we were met with scorn and abuse.

She returns to this theme a number of times.

Opposing BDS means also opposing the occupation....There’s no way to fight BDS without fighting the occupation. Most support for the Global BDS Movement stems from very real concerns about human rights violations in the West Bank and the threats the occupation poses to Israelis and Palestinians.... I couldn’t help but think that if the Jewish establishment spent as much time fighting for peace as they do fighting against BDS, it would soon be a thing of the distant past -- and Israelis and Palestinians might be much better off....We know that the most effective way of opposing BDS is supporting a two-state solution and opposing the occupation.

How exactly does that work? A BDSer says "Boycott Israel because they occupy Palestinian territory" and J-Street U answers, what, exactly?

Do they say "We agree with you that the occupation is the source of all evil in the Middle East so please don't boycott Israel"?

Do they say "We would prefer that you boycott the settlements and leave Green Line Israel alone"?

Exactly what argument does a J-Street U that says they agree with the official stance the boycotters say they have for boycotting Israel? I can't think of any consistent J-Street argument that wouldn't strengthen the BDSers.

After some searching, I found J-Street U's arguments against BDS used at Vassar College last year:

- BDS is NOT the only way to be pro- Palestinian and anti- occupation
- BDS does NOT support a two state solution
- BDS supports academic boycotts
- BDS disempowers students and orgs from making their own decisions on this issue
- BDS silences the anti-occupation Israeli left
- Our academic environment should be committed to exploring all narratives in an issue, not siding with one
- BDS silences student voices and activism on campus

Notice that J-Street U is not arguing against divesting from Israel, boycotting Israel or placing sanctions on Israel. They are arguing against the BDS movement, not against boycott/divestment/sanctions against Israel! Except for the implication that an academic boycott is wrong, they cannot come up with a reason why people shouldn't boycott Israeli goods or why campuses shouldn't divest from Israeli investments!

This list of reasons to oppose BDS given by J-Street U is a smokescreen for the fact that J-Street U, by accepting the "occupation is evil" argument, cannot defend Israel. They cannot brag about any Israeli accomplishments because they would be targeted for "X-washing the occupation." The same logic that claims that Jews have no rights whatsoever to Judea and Samaria can be easily used to say that Jews have no right to Tel Aviv and Netanya.

J-Street U can't even bring itself to support a Jewish state, instead saying that "Israelis" have the right to self-determination, not Jews.

Of course, J Street U's premise that two states would defang BDS is absurd. Asthe Vassar list shows, even J-Street U knows that BDSers don't care about "occupation;" they want to destroy Israel and they've made that clear over and over again. "Occupation" is an excuse. After all, Arabs boycotted Israel before "occupation" and they brought arguments that were meant to be just as attractive to Western progressives while, in Arabic, they were clear what the real goal was.

If Israel would sign a peace agreement with the PLO tomorrow, next week there would be a new push for "right of return" and UN resolutions stating that "Palestinians who are Israeli citizens are living under apartheid" and a half dozen other arguments that are only meant to justify, ex post facto, the desire to destroy Israel.

Rather than being an effective fighter against BDS, J-Street U's demonization of Israel gives oxygen and ammunition to the BDSers.

In the end, J-Street is an organization that is dedicated to demonizing Israel in the name of "peace." I have yet to see a substantive argument that J-Street has ever given to defending Israel, even at their own conferences.

J-Street cannot say anything nice about Israel.

Just like JVP.

And just like the BDS movement itself.

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04/04 Links Pt1: Over 100 killed in chemical attack in Syria; Disgraced UN agency equates Israeli 'occupation' to US slavery

From Ian:

Over 100 killed in suspected chemical attack in Syria

A suspected chemical attack in Syria's northern Idlib province Tuesday killed over 100 people and wounded over 400 others, Syrian opposition groups reported. The Syrian government has denied using any such weapons on civilians.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 11 children were killed in the attack. The group said an airstrike by Syrian government or Russian jets that pounded the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idib, adding it had serious concerns the number of casualties will continue to grow.
The strikes caused many people to choke, leading to suspicions that the substances dropped was chlorine gas.
If inhaled, chlorine gas, a deadly agent widely used in World War I, turns into hydrochloric acid in the lungs, which can lead to internal burning and drowning through a reactionary release of water in the lungs.
Syrian opposition activists described Tuesday's attack as among the worst poison gas attacks in the country's six-year civil war.
Photos and video from Khan Sheikhoun that surfaced on social media show limp bodies of children and adults. Some are seen struggling to breathe; others appear foaming at the mouth.

Rocket Hits Syrian Hospital Treating Victims of Deadly Chemical Attack

President Bashar al-Assad has been accused of a sarin gas attack in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib that killed 100 civilians, including at least 11 children, on Tuesday.
Doctors treating victims at makeshift hospitals in the area say dozens of victims from Khan Sheikhoun are showing signs of sarin poisoning, including foaming at the mouth, breathing difficulties and limp bodies.
Moments after the attack a projectile hit a hospital in the area, bringing down rubble on top of medics as they struggled to treat victims.
Syrian opposition activists have claimed the chemical attack was caused by an airstrike carried out either by President Assad's forces or Russian warplanes. Russia's military said its planes did not carry out any strikes near the town.
It is believed that another 400 people were injured after being exposed to toxins the attack.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said those killed had died from suffocation and the effects of the gas. The monitor could not confirm the nature of the gas, and said the strike was likely carried out by government warplanes.

Israeli leaders urge action, condemn Syria gas ‘massacre’

Israeli leaders called for the international community to take action Tuesday after a gas attack in Syria killed at least 58 people and injured over 200, many of them children.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “sharply condemned” the attack and called on the international community to complete the process of removing all of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles.
“When I saw pictures of babies suffocating from a chemical attack in Syria, I was shocked and outraged. There’s no, none, no excuse whatsoever for the deliberate attacks on civilians and on children, especially with cruel and outlawed chemical weapons,” he said in English at a memorial service for president Chaim Herzog.
Netanyahu also said the lack of action proved the international community was not to be trusted to come to Israel’s aid.
“This terrible war underlines our main imperative– we will always defend ourselves with our own strength, against any enemy and any threat,” he said.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Being Propped Up By Iran And Russia Is Totally Not Going To Be Shameful For My Regime By Basher Assad, President, Syrian Arab Republic (satire)

We Arabs are a proud people. Honor is perhaps the strongest value in our culture, often trumping life itself. It is a point of pride for an Arab nation to attain self-sufficiency, and a source of ongoing shame that few, if any, Arab states can hold their own without some kind of support – military, economic, or otherwise. But that will totally not be a problem for Syria in the long term as it becomes necessary to rely in greater and greater measure on the non-Arab military and economic support from Iran and Russia just to keep my regime intact, I promise.
Perhaps the greatest source of shame is our collective inability to oust from our midst the Zionist entity, which, by all assessments, we should have swept aside like so much detritus in 1948. They were ragtag Holocaust survivors (not that I’m accepting the historical reality of the Holohoax, but you understand the rhetorical angle here) who shouldn’t have lasted a week against our mighty warriors. Instead we found ourselves outfought even when we weren’t outgunned. Our continued impotence against the Jews only grew worse in 1967 when we lost the Golan Heights, from which we used to spend time taking potshots and lobbing artillery shells at Israeli kibbutzim. Good times.
In the years since, as Israel has emerged as a regional powerhouse whose economy is larger than all of ours combined, you can imagine how shameful the whole things has become for us. This Western colonial enterprise, as we call it, has consistently humiliated us on every front, driving home the reality that we Arabs simple cannot compete with the advancement and influence of the non-Arabs.