Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, April 30, 2017

04/30 Links: Collier: Israel to honor another 97 fallen; When Mark Regev went to SOAS

From Ian:

Memorial Day 2017 Israel to honor another 97 fallen

Over the past year, another 97 soldiers and officers serving in Israel’s security forces, including 37 wounded veterans who succumbed to their wounds, have joined the ranks of Israel’s fallen, according to numbers released by the Defense Ministry ahead of Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism, which begins Sunday at 8 p.m. with a siren that will be heard throughout the country.
Since the beginning of the modern Jewish movement in the Land of Israel in 1860, a total of 23,544 have died defending the State of Israel, including those fighting with pre-state defense forces, IDF soldiers, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the Mossad, police officers, and officers of Israel’s Prisons Services.
According to the National Insurance Institute, there are a total of 9,157 bereaved parents in Israel, thousands of bereaved siblings, 4,881 widows and 1,843 orphans under the age of 30. In addition, 3,117 civilians have been killed in hostile acts such as terror attacks since the birth of the the State of Israel, including 122 foreign nationals and 100 Israelis killed in attacks abroad.
In a letter to IDF soldiers and commanders, IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot wrote that "in their death, the fallen have left us with a legacy and a will to be the defenders of the people and to hold the sword for its freedom in its land."
"With the legacy of the fallen, we are charged to preserve the values that they adopted in their lives—courage and mental fortitude, responsibility and dedication, a sense of mission and belief in the righteousness of the way. The values that beat in the hearts of the fallen are the secret to the strength of the Israel Defense Force to this very day. The IDF spirit is the common language shared by those who serve."

'Thanks to the fallen, we rose; thanks to them, we are alive'

Ahead of the official start of Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism on Sunday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, and other state officials took part in a ceremony dedicating a new national memorial edifice on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
The new memorial hall, which was unveiled last Thursday, features the name of each one of the 23,544 fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism in Israel's history. Each name is inscribed on a separate brick, and the bricks are arranged by the dates of death.
Throughout the year, the names of those whose anniversaries are approaching will be illuminated by electronic candles. In the coming days, the site will be open to bereaved families only. It is later scheduled to open to the general public.
Speaking at the dedication ceremony Sunday, Rivlin said: "'The world is full of remembering and forgetting, like sea and land. Sometimes the memory is the solid, existing land, and sometimes the memory is like the sea that covers everything.' So said my teacher, the poet Yehuda Amichai. Today, as the eve of Memorial Day approaches, here at the memorial hall, memory becomes tangible. It is like the sea that covers everything.
"Memory is not just remembering the past. The secret of the power of the Israeli memory is its continuity. It's a memory that goes from the past to the present to the future."

IDF chief: Remember the fallen, embrace their families

Israel Defense Forces commanders, soldiers, and employees: In these moments, we stand together, bow our heads in respect, and remember our common, unifying purpose -- the shared fate for which our brothers and sisters, the IDF fallen throughout the generations -- gave their lives.
When they were alive, the fallen worked for the same goal: to ensure the security of the state and its residents. From the moment they enlisted in the IDF, they devoted all their energy to fulfilling their obligation to their people. In their deaths, the fallen left us a legacy and a directive: to serve as a shield and wield a sword to ensure the people's freedom in their own nation.
The legacy of the fallen requires us to examine the values they held when they were alive: a path of heroism and courage of spirit; a path of responsibility and devotion; a path of belief in the righteousness of their mission, the justness of their path. The values that beat in the hearts of the fallen are the secret of the Israel Defense Forces' success through today. The spirit of the IDF is that of a common language among those who serve in it.
The legacy of the fallen requires us to work in constant cooperation and be friends to one another, like the Prophet Isaiah said: "They help each other and say to their companions, 'Be strong!'" And also that we join forces, acknowledging that we have a single destiny: we all wear a uniform, we all hold a weapon, and we all work together for the security of the state.

23,544.

Last year the number was 23,447.

Tonight Memorial Day for IDF soldiers and victims of terrorism begins.

23,544. What is a number? Can it even be understood?

It is only when you see the faces behind the numbers that you begin to comprehend the enormity of the loss… Benayah Sarel, Hadar Goldin, Oron Shaul, Chagai Lev, Shiri Negari, Kobi Mandell & Yosef Ishran, Noam Apter, Revital Casus-Ohayon, Matan Casus-Ohayon, Noam Casus-Ohayon, Roi Klien, Eyal, Gil-Ad and Naftali… 23,544 people, families and friends left behind.

I wrote about this more than a decade ago. The words I wrote then are even more relevant today.

August 15, 2006

I feel so, so sad today. For the past few days I’ve felt like I can’t breathe. I can’t rest. My throat is choked with unshed tears.

All I can think about is numbers.

Israelis often seem obsessed by numbers. The over 6 million murdered by Nazis. The over 6 million that currently populate the state of Israel. The number of Arabs living amongst us. The years there were wars. The date a husband, brother, child or friend was killed. The number of people who died alongside them. The identifying numbers of the resolutions passed by the UN. The amount of explosives in a bomb detonated by a suicide bomber… Israelis have good reason to be obsessed with numbers.

During this war with Hezbollah the TV stations showed us a different number each day, letting us know how many days we fought for our lives. A good thing too – I tried to keep track of the days but everything ran together. Night and day turned upside down. I had a hard time remembering what day of the week it was, much less how many days had gone by. Each day I tried to count the sirens and the explosions and each day I lost count. There were so many explosions I lost the ability to tell the difference between the sound of a katusha slamming into Karmiel and the sound of artillery fire being shot from the near-by hills, over the border into Lebanon.

I’m not sure exactly why numbers are so important. I suppose being able to count, to differentiate and isolate separate events helps create order. It carves sanity out of insanity. I tried to count, to keep track. Each day I failed. Each new day I tried again. The numbers on the TV screen helped, a little.

An American friend told me that the people around her have a hard time understanding why Israelis get so upset over what American’s consider a “minimal loss of life”. In response, she contrasted the populations of both countries: The day after Hezbollah attacked Israel (this time) she wrote:

The last census taken in the US gave us a population of 299, 206, 827 people. The last census taken in Israel gave them a population of 6,352,177. Yesterday 8 IDF soldiers were killed. In comparison with the population, this would have resulted in the loss of 377 US soldiers in one day. There are 3 IDF soldiers being held captive at the present time. This would equal to 141 US soldiers being kidnapped and held hostage.

During this past month 157 Israelis were killed. That would be 7,395 Americans. As if 9/11 happened twice in one month.

Even so, it’s not the numbers that matter. It is what they represent that counts.

In Israel, the news comes on at proscribed times. The worse the situation the more news updates are added to the regular schedule. During this past month, there often was no break in the news. On better days, it came just on the hour. If we were lucky a few hours went by between updates. The special 11pm news that I was watching a few days ago went straight on into the normal midnight news.

The news crew, desperate to show something pleasant decided the reporter should interview a group of soldiers resting between combat missions to show how our boys were doing. Sprawled outside, leaning on whatever was convenient, the camera revealed a group of handsome guys. Built like men, with the gleam of youth in their eyes, they were chatting companionably between themselves. They included the reporter they had so often seen on their TV screens at home as one of their own. With typical Israeli abruptness, one of the soldiers interrupted the reporter, calling out: “Moshe! You forgot to ask the most important question!” “What’s that?” Moshe asked. The soldier, Sagi Eko, from Karmiel, said with a grin: “You forgot to ask what we miss the most!”

Sagi explained, “Right now, the girlfriend doesn’t matter, I don’t care about food or even a shower. All I want is my mom!” Sagi’s friends laughed and chimed in with their assent. “Bring me my mom so I can hug her for about ten minutes,” said Sagi “and I will be set to fight for another month or so!”

I’m sure Moshe would have been happy to produce Sagi’s mother for him. What a small request to ask in return for risking his life to protect his people and his country. The best the news crew could do was to try to get in touch with Sagi’s mom. They posted the studio phone number along with the message: “If you are Sagi’s mother or a member of his family, please call us”. Sagi’s mother DID call. She couldn’t talk to her son; most likely by the time she called he was already back in the midst of yet another hand-to-hand, life and death battle. The man reading the news spoke to Sagi’s mom on air, asked her if she had seen the piece with her son and made sure to tell her how much her boy loves her.

You might think such an event would be rare but here in Israel it’s not. The next day I saw footage a different group of soldiers had filmed, documenting themselves (via their cell-phone video cameras) inside Lebanon. They were resting between battles. Some of the soldiers were sleeping. One was praying. Another was singing a song that basically consisted of the chorus: “Mother, mother, oh how I love my mother”.

People overseas don’t understand why we love our soldiers so much. They don’t understand why we are devastated when one is hurt or killed. Some, like my friend, try to use numbers to explain. Israelis (especially those employed by the State Department) often attempt to use numbers, statistics and ratios to explain, without realizing that it is that very insistence on using numbers that enables people to ignore what stands behind the numbers.

The Nazis thoroughly understood that mechanism – that is why they carved numbers into the arms of Jews. They turned people into numbers, which can be erased without any qualms.

For this very reason those who combat this horror memorialize the murdered by plucking names out of the numbers. On the Memorial Day for the Holocaust people read the names of each person known to have been murdered. They are not a faceless 6 million. They are people with names and with stories. They had shoes and glasses and suitcases too… It’s not the numbers that make the difference; it’s the people the numbers stand for that matter. On the Memorial Day for our soldiers a TV channel is dedicated to one single thing – displaying the name of each soldier killed protecting Israel. It takes 24 hours to go through the list of all those killed in the different wars. The people of other nations sometimes understand this as well. That is why there are names on the Vietnam memorial wall. That is why the names of those murdered on 9/11 were read during the memorial ceremony.

Numbers are important but the most important thing is to remember what the numbers represent. It’s not, “How many?” It’s,“Who?”

People might say: What is one person? To them I say –

One person is Sagi. Or his mother. Or me. Or YOU.

One person is everything.

And until people learn see the faces behind the numbers, nothing will ever change.

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Look at the beautiful house of a terrorist family, thanks to your tax dollars

Samer al-Mahrum, a member of the PFLP terror group, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1986 murder of yeshiva student Eliyahu Amadi in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1986. He was released in the Shalit deal after 25 years of his sentence, but was re-arrested in 2014.

He managed to smuggle out his semen and his wife gave birth to a child last December.

Al Mahrum is now celebrated as one of the more prominent hunger strikers in prison.

Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Facebook page highlighted a news story from the official Palestinian news agency WAFA about how awful his family situation is because of his imprisonment and how difficult life is for his wife and mother.

Here is a screenshot from the video showing his mother holding a poster. His new baby can be seen here as well.

His house, decorated with images of "resistance," is gorgeous!

How can a family whose patriarch was in prison for 27 of the past 31 years afford such a beautiful home?

It is because the terrorists who murder Jews get paid a handsome salary from the Palestinian Authority, which gets its budget from the West.

Yes, your tax dollars paid for the home of Samer al-Mahrum.

You can be sure that 99% of the "pro-Palestinian" protesters who say how awful Israel treats the Palestinians do not live in homes this nice. In fact, 99% of the entire world population does not live in homes that are this spacious and well decorated. Most of the people living in Egypt or Jordan would kill to live so well as this poor, deprived family who openly show their allegiance to terror groups.

It pays to be a Palestinian terrorist.

Here is a photo of Eliyahu Amadi, his victim.

(Incidentally, one of the others who was convicted in Amadi's murder was Omar Zayed. He went on on his own hunger strike and escaped from the hospital in 1990, managing to get to Bulgaria where he married and had a nice life until Israel requested his extradition. He fled to the Palestinian embassy in Bulgaria where he was not very welcome and then was found dead under mysterious circumstances.)

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Ma'an News, as one of the few independent news agencies in the territories and perhaps the only one that has a full English news desk, is relied upon by many lazy Western reporters to get their stories

On Friday, Ma'an wrote:

Israeli authorities opened the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing between Israel and the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday to allow limited amounts of fuel into the coastal enclave.
The Gaza Petroleum Committee said that some 500,000 liters of diesel, 100,000 liters of fuel and 120 tons of cooking gas are expected to enter.
The Karam Abu Salem crossing has been opened intermittently since the beginning of the year, affecting the small Palestinian territory’s access to fuel to power the enclave’s sole electricity plant.

The link from "opened intermittently" went to a story from March, that said:

Israeli authorities decided on Thursday to open the Karam Abu Salam (Kerem Shalom) crossing on Friday between Israel and the Gaza Strip to allow fuel into the besieged coastal enclave.
Kerem Shalom was opened earlier this month, and twice last month to allow diesel into the small coastal territory.

The links to the two other stories were similar.

However, Kerem Shalom is open every day from Sunday through Thursday, and it pumps fuel every one of those weekdays.

Ma'an is making it sound like it is hardly ever open.

What's going on?

Here's what appears to be happening: Israel sometimes opens Kerem Shalom on Fridays when there is reason to believe that Gaza needs extra fuel. So whenever Israel decides to open the crossing on a Friday there are some press releases in the Arab press letting people know the situation.

The Ma'an English editors appear to not understand these stories, and assume that when the Arabic media reports that Kerem Shalom is opening on a exceptional basis on a friday, that means it is not open the other days of the week.

Every story in the link chain from Ma'an is for a Friday opening.

Are the current Ma'an English editors simply ignorant of the basic fact that Israel opens Kerem Shalom every day except holidays? (The reason it was opened on Friday is almost certainly because it will be closed this coming week for Yom Ha'Atzmaut.)

Or are they interested in putting a false picture of Israel to the world?

Either way, Western reporters should take any Ma'an report with a large grain of salt.

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Jews dancing upsets Arabs. (Evergreen headline)

Shourouk News and Asrar and Al Ghad TV and Arab48 and AlArab News and Qatar News Agency all reported that "Jewish settlers" were performing "provocative Talmudic rituals" in the courtyard of "Bab al-Amud," which is Damascus Gate, "under heavy police protection."

Further reading shows that some Jewish kids were dancing ahead of Yom Ha'Atzmaut at the entrance to the Old City.

That'a it.

This isn't even in "occupied territory."

So the next time someone tries to tell you that there would be peace f only Israel withdraws from the territories, ask them exactly why so many Arab news sites try to incite their readers into a frenzy with antisemitic overtones over Jews dancing on the west side of the Green Line.

(It is also entirely possible that the Arab world is trying to lay the groundwork for a campaign against Jews in any part of Jerusalem, as the upcoming UNESCO vote will deny any Israeli sovereignty over any part of the city.)

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04/29 Links: N. Korea threatens Israel; Trump proclaims May Jewish American Heritage Month

From Ian:

N. Korea threatens Israel after Liberman calls Kim a madman

North Korea threatened to punish Israel and accused Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Saturday of “rash and malicious” statements that insulted its leadership, after he criticized the Asian nation and called its leadership “extremist and insane.”
In an official foreign ministry statement, Pyongyang said Liberman has challenged North Korea by making “rash and malicious” comments against the nation.
“Our consistent message is to mercilessly punish those who offend the dignity of our leadership,” the statement said.
“We warn Israel to think twice about the implications of its defamation campaign against us.”
The statement further condemned Israel for its nuclear policy, and accused the Jewish state of abusing the rights of Arabs across the Middle East.
“Israel is the only illegal possessor of nuclear weapons that enjoys the support of the United States, but Israel is attacking North Korea for possessing nuclear weapons,” the statement read, going on to claim this was a cynical move intended to distract from Israeli “occupation” and “crimes against humanity.”
On Thursday Liberman said Pyongyang “seems to have crossed the red line with its recent nuclear tests,” adding that its nuclear weapons program posed more of a threat to world order than Iran or any terrorist group.

At UN Security Council, Tillerson Presses for Economic Sanctions on North Korea

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took the escalating threat of a nuclear North Korea to the United Nations Security Council Friday, urging member countries to financially cut ties with Pyongyang and freeze access to funds that could be used to build up that nation’s nuclear arsenal.
Tillerson called on the international community to fully implement U.N. sanctions and to suspend or downgrade diplomatic ties as well with North Korea.
“With each successive detonation and missile test, North Korea pushes northeast Asia and the world closer to instability and broader conflict," Tillerson said. "The threat of a North Korean attack on Seoul or Tokyo is real."
Tillerson added that it was “only a matter of time” before Pyongyang takes aim at the United States and said the international community must take concrete steps now in order to prevent North Korea from making good on threats.
“Business as usual is not an option,” Tillerson told 15 top diplomats at the U.N. meeting.
The secretary of state’s comments capped off an intense week in Washington that included closed-door briefings between the Trump administration and U.S. lawmakers over the escalating threat.

John Bolton: If North Korea Gets Nuclear Missiles, ‘Iran Could Have That Capability the Next Day by Writing a Check’

Breitbart News National Security Editor Frances Martel joined the conversation to ask Bolton about the deep relationship between the nuclear issues in Iran and North Korea, which are generally treated as entirely separate matters in media coverage.
“The media don’t get the connection, and that in part is because the national security bureaucracy doesn’t get, or doesn’t want to talk about, the connection,” Bolton replied, portraying it as “a classic bureaucratic example of what they call silos.”
“You’ve got the people dealing with Iran there in one silo, you’ve got the people dealing with North Korea in another silo. They might as well be on different planets,” he explained.
“But the fact is, again, from publicly available information going back 30 years, we know that the North Koreans and the Iranians have been in close cooperation on the development of ballistic missiles for that entire period. North Korea sold Iran the first SCUD missiles that were the basis for the Iranian missile program. They’ve cooperated in multiple ways since then. It makes perfectly good sense for that to happen. They’re both using the same Soviet-era SCUD missile technology for their missile programs, so they’ve got a common scientific and engineering base. Their objectives for the missile programs are exactly the same. It’s to deliver nuclear weapons, not launch communications or weather satellites. On that score, it’s just absolutely clear,” Bolton said.
“It is less clear in terms of publicly available evidence on the nuclear side, but I think there is substantial reason to believe there’s close cooperation there as well,” he continued. “The reactor that Israel destroyed in Syria in September of 2007 was being built by North Koreans. It was a clone of the North Korean Yongbyon reactor. Most people don’t think Syria had the financial wherewithal to pay for building that kind of reactor, and the North Koreans don’t do anything for free, so where did the money come from? I think it probably came from Iran.”
“I think there are a lot of other connections that have been noted, the Iranian scientists in North Korea and vice versa. Forget the Iran nuclear deal for a minute – it’s entirely foreseeable that the day North Korea gets the capability to drop a nuclear warhead on the United States via ballistic missile, Iran could have that capability the next day by writing a check in the right amount of money, so this relationship is extremely important,” he warned.

04/28 Links Pt2: This never-ending meltdown over Israel is the distress of fools; Jerusalem: Rooted in 3,000 Years of History

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: This never-ending meltdown over Israel is the distress of fools

To see how illiberal and outright irrational anti-Israel sentiment has become, look no further than the fear and horror that has gripped SOAS over tonight’s visit by Mark Regev.
Yes, in a brilliant PR move, Regev, the colourful Israeli Ambassador to the UK, has agreed to speak about the prospects for peace in the Middle East at SOAS, a Uni known for its agitation with all things Israeli. It’s like the Chippendales visiting a convent, or Shane MacGowan crashing a meeting of temperance-movement bores. It’s hilarious.
People at SOAS don’t find it funny, though. It’s questionable whether they ever find anything funny, so steeped are their minds in the depressing creeds of postcolonial studies and ethnographic theory. No, they think Regev’s visit will cause “substantial distress” to the SOAS community. Really.
According to the Guardian, there are “fears” that Regev’s visit won’t only “spark unrest” — par for the course: every visit by an Israeli representative to a British campus sparks unrest — but that it will also lead to “substantial distress on campus”.
More than 150 academics from SOAS and other universities have written to SOAS director Valerie Amos to plead with her to call off the Regev meeting and save SOAS students from the “substantial distress” of having someone with a different opinion to theirs on campus.
The first thing to note here is how craven it is — a McCarthyite level of cravenness — for academics to demand the silencing of a speaker they disagree with.

INSANE: Newsweek Labels Palestinian-Arab Terrorist A ‘Man of Peace’

Contrary to what the great Benjamin Franklin once said, there are actually three certainties in life: Death, taxes, and that members of the "Palestine" Liberation Organization (PLO) are perennial liars. The third certainty could not be more accurately depicted than in a dumpster fire article in Newsweek written by Dr. Hanan Ashrawi in defense of convicted Palestinian-Arab terrorist Marwan Barghouti.
Barghouti, who rightfully rots in an Israeli prison for murdering five innocent Israeli civilians, entered the spotlight almost two weeks ago for writing an op-ed in The New York Times accusing Israel of committing "judicial apartheid" and justifying why Palestinian-Arab terrorist prisoners started a hunger strike. In that article, he described himself as a "Palestinian leader and parliamentarian" rather than a former Fatah terrorist who was convicted in Israeli civil court for murder. Despite the deliberate lies and misrepresentation of Barghouti from The New York Times, Ashwari used her pedestal with Newsweek to describe the terrorist as a "man of peace."
First, Ashwari accused Israel of committing a "character assassination" regarding Barghouti, claiming that the terrorist "proved to be a strong advocate of good governance and human rights, including women's rights." As comical as that assertion is, Ashwari goes even further to claim that Barghouti has never possessed terrorist ambitions:
Even after he was deported by the Israeli occupation in 1987, he frequently met with the negotiations delegation and expressed his full support for a peaceful negotiated settlement. While Barghouti believes in the Palestinian people's right to resist occupation by all available means under international law, he always opposed attacks against civilians. In recent years, he advocated peaceful means and civil disobedience to achieve our freedom.
This spin-doctoring of a man convicted of killing innocent civilians represents another attempt by leaders within the PLO to brainwash ill-informed Western liberals that Israel is an oppressive force that is preventing peace. Unfortunately, history has proven that the Palestinian national movement itself has been the consistent cause for a lack of peace between the Israelis and the Palestinian-Arabs. This reality has been eloquently articulated by David Brog in the PragerU video below:

How ‘The Deranged Ones’ Are Reshaping France

On the day before her killing, Sarah Halimi had, it seemed, complained to the concierge about her future killer. The killer and his brother were known in the small cité for being noisy troublemakers who were often under the influence and prone to fighting, and she was fed up. The young man was not only a drug user but also a dealer and sources close to the investigation indicate that he owned his suppliers a great deal of money, and the day the murder occurred was consequently very agitated.
Under the influence of drugs, and probably drunk, he then started to knock on several doors before someone opened a door to him. That someone was, coincidentally, Sarah Halimi’s neighbor. Did he know where he was going when he started to climb up the balcony leading to Sarah Halimi’s apartment? Or did he identify her only afterward? Did he start to beat her because he’d recognized her as the Jewish woman whose children he and his family had insulted for years, the neighbor who’d complained about him the day before? Did he hit her because she screamed and fought him? And when and why did he begin to shout “Allahu akbar”?
It appears that the murder was the result of a spiral of chance events, engineered by psychosis as much as by drug abuse, but with an anti-Semitic impulse in the background, which a significant portion of the French media and judicial apparatus is determined to edit out of the story, partly because it is confusing and partly for what might politely be termed “social hygiene.” What is clear is the reason the three police officer on the scene not only did nothing to stop what was unfolding but even prevented the neighbors from intervening.
France is not convinced by its own reassuring rhetoric about “the deranged.” The country has become so nervous and paranoid about terrorism that here is what, according to sources, apparently happened: Although the man was indeed deranged, the policemen hearing the killer shouting“Allahu akbar” thought they were dealing with a terror attack. They, therefore, backed off and waited for instructions and backup when they could have — and should have — intervened to save Halimi’s life.
A few days after her statement, and in a completely unrelated intervention, Marine Le Pen abruptly denied that France had anything to do with the deportation of Jews during World War II. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

I commented on this piece in Newsweek by Hanan Ashrawi:

The person writing this heads an NGO named Miftah that has published numerous articles that explicitly support terrorism (they removed some but not all when it was pointed out.) One famous article also said that Jews drink the blood of Christians for Passover.

Ashrawi is hardly a reliable source.

Even within this article she repeats the laughable lie that Israel has arrested 800,000 Palestinians since 1967. Simple math and research shows this to be an absurd claim.

Oh, and the prisoners are also demanding - get this - a larger selection of satellite TV channels.And education at Hebrew University. The really have it rough.

Barghouti was convicted in an Israeli civilian court. He headed a group that is designated a foreign terrorist group by the US and EU. This article is a whitewash of the truth and Newsweek should do some basic fact checks on Ashrawi's many, many lies.

(h/t Georgia)

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Lawmaker apparently doesn't recognize Belgian Jews as citizens

From The New Antisemite:

It is common in Europe to view Jews as Israelis and as "eternal" foreigners and immigrants. At the same time, many also believe that Jews have no rights to Israel.

The late Ulrich Beck, professor of sociology at the University of Munich, wrote in 2003 an article about antisemitism arguing that the majority of the Germans and of the Europeans do not accept the distinction between Jews and Israelis, although such a distinction is essential for German-Jewish reconciliation. He relates that in the course of an informal chat after a talk by the President of Israel, Ignaz Bubis, the chairman of the German Council of Jewish Association, was told as a compliment that the address by "his" President had been excellent. Ignaz Bubis replied that talks by Roman Herzog, the then President of Germany, were always excellent. His interlocutor replied: "No, no, I'm referring to Mr. Weizman, your President".

Christian Laporte of La Libre Belgique reports that during a debate on the limitations of ritual slaughter of animals, Véronique Waroux a lawmaker of the Walloon regional Parliament told Philippe Markiewicz, president of the Consistoire organization of Belgian Jewry, that she had just returned from "his" country, i.e. Israel. Thus implying that Jews are not Belgian citizens and that they are citizens of the State of Israel. Unsurprisingly Waroux is a Israel-basher.

Again unsurprisingly, there were no protests.

Challenged by a reader of this blog, she adamantly refused to apologize or express regrets, instead she was furious at his daring to make such a request.

Mr Philippe Markiewicz is a Brussels-based lawyer and his family has lived in Belgian for six generations.

Curiously, Ms. Waroux - who is so quick to accuse others of not being true Belgians - chooses an image as the header to her Facebook page that could open her up to charges of dual-loyalty, at best.

(h/t Rudi)

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04/28 Links Pt1: Getting Away with Murder; Where Are the Moderate Muslims?

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Getting Away with Murder

American taxpayers’ money is being used by the Palestinian Authority to encourage and glorify murderous terrorism. A group of Republican lawmakers has drafted legislation to end this scandalous state of affairs and Israel should support this legislative effort, even if it risks destabilizing the PA .
The tragic story of Taylor Force has become a rallying cry in the push to force the Palestinian Authority to stop funding the families of so-called martyrs and payrolling convicted terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons.
On March 8, 2016, Force was stabbed to death on the Jaffa beachfront after Bashar Masalha, a Palestinian from Kalkilya, went on a murder spree that left 12 others wounded, including a pregnant woman.
Israel knew that Masalha’s funeral would become a demonstration of support for terrorism and delayed the release of his body until May.
According to a transcript provided by Palestinian Media Watch, the official PA news agency reported that friends, family and people of the region celebrated Masalha’s funeral as if it were “a large national wedding.” Why a wedding? Because “martyrs” who die while carrying out an act considered to sanctify Islam are rewarded in the afterlife with 72 “virgins of paradise.” Nowhere in the news coverage was Masalha’s “martyr” status challenged.
Other-worldly compensation is not the only kind enjoyed by terrorists like Masalha. Official PA policy provides an annual stipend for “martyrs” who are killed while attempting to murder innocent civilians, thus incentivizing murderous terrorism.

Caroline Glick: Netanyahu’s bold move against Europe

For instance, one of the major ways that European- funded groups subvert the government is by suing the government in local courts. The government must require the foreign governments that fund these groups to appear as sides in the court battles. In this manner, the government can ask the courts to compel these foreign governments to hand over documents relevant to the cases being adjudicated.
So, too, the government should require foreign government- funded groups to submit all communications between their representatives and those governments, and all internal documents of foreign governmental funders relating to their decision to fund the Israel-registered group. Given that the goal of the funding is to interfere with domestic Israeli affairs, those communications should not enjoy diplomatic immunity.
The penalty for failing to present all the required documents will be the imposition of a 100% tax on the foreign government contributions to the Israel-registered nonprofit.
Perhaps the most discouraging aspect of Netanyahu’s diplomatic gambit this week is that opposition leader MK Isaac Herzog refused to support him. Instead, Herzog sided with Gabriel. He insisted that Netanyahu harmed Israel’s relations with Germany by demanding to be treated in a manner that comports with international norms.
For decades, the political Left has claimed that it can manage Israel’s diplomatic ties better than the Right, which it castigates as inept, incompetent and dangerous to Israel’s international standing. By failing to recognize why Netanyahu’s move was vital for Israel’s international standing, or to understand that international conditions have changed sufficiently to allow Israel to stand up for itself, Herzog and his colleagues showed that their boastful claims to diplomatic capabilities are empty.
Netanyahu took a necessary first step toward implementing a constructive strategy for handling Western diplomatic warfare. More steps are still required for this strategy to succeed. But at least, for the first time in years, Israel is finally taking a constructive position in its own defense. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Douglas Murray: Terrorism teaches a lesson that some still refuse to learn

Another knife-attack was thwarted yesterday in Westminster. Overnight there were anti-terror raids in Kent and London. These were unconnected, but police say that they have foiled an ‘active terror plot.’ All this will blend into the background soon, as much as last month’s attack in Westminster already has. Not because we don’t remember anything, but because we never learn anything.
After last month’s attack in Westminster there seemed to be an even more concerted effort than usual to say that the perpetrator – a Muslim convert called Khalid Masood – probably suffered from some mental illness, was a mere madman, criminal or drug addict. Various Muslims who knew Masood promised in the media that he hadn’t really been religious at all.
This swiftly became the story. Man drives car into pedestrians on Westminster bridge and stabs a policeman to death. Nothing to see here. Certainly nothing to do with Islam. Probably to do with everything else in the world. But nothing to do with Islam.
The Church of England helped to spread around this fudge. At an interfaith service held in Westminster Abbey shortly after the attack (and before PC Keith Palmer was even buried) the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend John Hall declared that the nation was ‘bewildered’ by the attack (as it may well be with the amount of disinformation and misleading speculation going around).

Prager U: Where Are the Moderate Muslims?

After every terrorist attack, politicians and pundits reassure us that the atrocity does not represent the true beliefs of the "moderate Muslim majority." But how many moderates are there? And what exactly does "moderate" mean? Military instructor and researcher Hussein Aboubakr explains.

Amazing Israeli initiative to educate children in hospitals showcased at the UN

The World Jewish Congress issued a press release:

The World Jewish Congress and Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations launched the fourth installment of the Education Without Borders exhibition this week, at the UN headquarters in New York. The exhibition, which is open to the public through May 12, showcases a unique Israeli initiative to provide education to children of all backgrounds hospitalized for more than three days, as mandated by Israeli law.

The Education Without Borders initiative is a partnership of Israel’s Ministry of Education, SASA Setton Kav Or, and World ORT, run in 35 hospitals across Israel. Through computer-based applications and other activities, children can pursue the studies despite their prolonged absence from school. The program is open to all children in Israel, irrespective of their background and including refugees from Syria and other places.

According to the Education Ministry's directives, every child hospitalized in Israel for over three days is entitled to free education. The exhibition, featuring photographs by Shahar Azran, aims to highlight Israel's uniqueness with regard to human rights, particularly concerning the support and protection of children.

“In Israel, education is not merely a privilege, it is a human and civil right entitled to by all children, without exception. Hundreds of thousands of children hospitalized in Israel, including Syrian refugees and Palestinians, have already benefited from this important initiative,” said World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer. “We thank the United Nations for allowing us to host this exhibition at its headquarters in New York, and to expose the true face of Israel to the family of nations.”

The exhibition first launched at the Palais de Nations in Geneva in September 2015, and has since run at the Hotel de Ville in Strasbourg, and the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Details in the catalog that accompanies the exhibit:

Every year, 120,000 children and teenagers are hospitalized in Israel for periods of over three days. In addition to taking care of their physical needs, the medical system has the medical system has joined together with the SASA Setton Foundation, the Ministry of Education, World ORT in Israel ("Kadima Mada") provide a comprehensive educational solution for each of these children, ensuring that they continue their studies and keep connected with their schools and friends, and that they are kept occupied with enriching activities and positive experiences throughout their hospital stay.

While hospital and medical staff are concerned with the physical healing of their patients, schools and teachers usually focus on educating entire classes and large numbers of students. Neither profession is accustomed to delivering educational solutions for individual, isolated children suffering from trauma. It is both a pedagogical and logistical challenge, with thousands of children of a wide range of ages and backgrounds spread across large medical campuses.

For two decades, the Kav-Or organization has been developing unique computer systems and curricula, which enable children and teenagers to continue their schooling – even during lengthy hospital stays – and to study, play and enjoy new and exciting experiences, despite going through the most difficult time of their young lives.

Here are some of the photos from the catalog.

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"Kairos" claims over 2 MILLION Palestinians have been detained by Israel.

Kairos is the antisemitic Palestinian Christian organization that teaches supersessionism.

From Wafa:

A statement by Kairos Palestine, which describes itself as the Palestinian Christian voice, said it “expresses its support for the just and humanitarian demands of prisoners – children, women and the sick – and their families.”

It said “Kairos deems it intolerable to see prisoners engaged in an all-out hunger strike to obtain basic rights and humanitarian demands that should be granted to them as human beings and are applicable to all under international law.”

Remember, the "basic rights" being demanded under "international law" include a larger choice of cable TV channels, access to their own kitchens and free university education.

The statement said: “We view all prisoners as human beings whose dignity is granted by God; no man or occupying power has the right to deprive them of what was granted by God. The norm is freedom and a just peace for them and the entire Palestinian people. It is unjust for the majority of a people to experience detention and imprisonment in occupation prisons because they demand their freedom and dignity."

Hold on. The Palestinians were just getting to the point of falsely claiming that a million of them have been arrested and detained, but Kairos is now saying that a majority of them - meaning, presumably, more than half of the 4 million Arabs under PA control (or perhaps more than half of the 5.6 million Arabs in Israel and the territories, or maybe even more than half of the 10 million "Palestinians" worldwide) have been arrested by Israel or have been incarcerated in "occupation prisons."

Kairos is claiming between 2 and 5 million Arabs having been arrested by Israel!

It gets better:

In the name of the humanitarian values espoused by every religion, and in the name of Christian values and teachings, we express our support for prisoners as human beings who possess dignity granted to them by their creator. We support them and demand their freedom; we support their humanitarian demands.

Terrorists must be freed - it is a "Christian value." This way they can kill more people who can turn the other cheek as they are being stabbed!

And now that we understand Kairos math and its alleged Christian morality to free terrorists, we are introduced to Kairos logic on the validity of the hunger strikers' aims:

Prisoners risk their lives with this demanding step of a hunger strike, but it also proves that their demands and stance are justified and sound.

The very fact that they are on a pseudo-hunger strike (which includes vitamins, sugar and salt) is proof that they are justified in wanting better TV channels!

The biggest irony is that Kairos, which traffics in lies, pretends in its own slogan that it tells the truth.

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The Daily Mail reported on the protest by some 500 Israel-haters at SOAS as Israeli ambassador Mark Regev spoke.

Inside the university, security was heightened with specialist police and dogs patrolling the corridors as well as plainclothes security personnel.

Nory, a student, told MailOnline: 'I support Palestine. I am against the occupation and the oppression. In 2017, a country like Israel should be ashamed. I hope there is not violence here today but if there is, I could maybe understand it.

'I'm a Malcolm X supporter. I believe that in certain circumstances, violence is justified. A revolution never happened without violence.'

This small section was, to me, chilling:

Ben Paul, 46, a former Jewish Society president, was wearing an Israeli flag around his shoulders.

'I'm here with my flag saying talk to me,' he said. 'I don't care what side you're on, talk to me.

'I've had a few people bump into me quite hard. I get it, I'm wearing an Israeli flag. But I hope it doesn't get any worse than that.'

It is the very definition of intimidation to "bump into" people "quite hard." Imagine that happening to you in any public venue, especially one patrolled by police.

But even worse is Ben Paul's acceptance of that fact. "I get it." This means that the idea of publicly supporting Israel on a college campus is expected to be met with physical intimidation.

This anecdote should send chills down the backs of anyone who cares about freedom of expression.

The final irony is that the anti-Israel thugs are the ones claiming that a low-key talk is intimidating - to them. The harassers are claiming that the existence of a Zionist anywhere on campus is provocative, and that their rights are somehow being threatened by the existence of free speech.

The Israel-hating drones, by the way, were instructed by their leaders not to engage in any discussion about Israel. Haaretz notes:

Organizers handed out leaflets urging demonstrators to keep to a code of conduct: “Don’t talk to cops,” “don’t talk to media,” and “don’t interact with Zionists,” were the main suggestions. “Consider covering your face to shield your identity from haters,” was another.

A modern college campus spawns students who are explicitly against freedom of speech, who are against dialogue and debate, and who are encouraged to hide their very faces to give them freedom to physically harass anyone who disagrees with them.

The most shameful part is that the world does not consider this shameful.

(h/t Zvi)

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04/27 Links Pt2: Being a Zionist is even worse than being an Islamophobe; Israeli downs Syrian drone over Golan

From Ian:

Prof. Phyllis Chesler: Being a Zionist is even worse than being an Islamophobe

In classic Islamic fashion, I was dis-invited by the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Arkansas Law School one and half working days before the 8-day holiday of Passover began--a time when both I and many colleagues, including those who would be celebrating Easter the following weekend, would be away from our desks and unable to "break" any news.
However, several most worthy colleagues stepped right up to the task. I am indebted to Yisrael Medad, at his site, My Right Word), and to all those who linked to his website; to Richard Landes who "fisked" the email chain that led to my dis-invitation, at his site The Augean Stables and to all those, beginning with Rochel Sylvestsky at Israel National News, who introduced and posted, or linked to, and tweeted out Landes' work. Finally, I am grateful to Winfield Myers of Middle East Forum (who worked long and hard on a piece that has yet to appear) and to Bruce Bawer whose piece will appear sometime this week.
Despite this extraordinary and diligent collegiality, the specific significance of my dis-invitation still hovers far below the radar.
We know that many worthy souls are also, almost routinely, dis-invited. I have been covering this precise phenomenon for the last fifteen years. In the last week and months, many recent news stories and op-ed pieces have covered the threatened--and actual violence towards both Milo Yiannopolous and Ann Coulter; Charles Murray and Heather McDonald.
Over the years, I have covered the hostile working conditions as well as dis-invitations that truth-tellers about Islam and about Israel have faced on campus: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nonie Darwish, Brigitte Gabriel, David Horowitz, and Robert Spencer, etc.
In what way is my dis-invitation different?

Richard Millett: MP calls armed police to evict Jewish blogger from Parliament event on ‘Palestine’

At the Houses of Parliament last night the Palestine Return Centre (PRC) held an event called The Question of Jerusalem. It was hosted and chaired by Mark Hendrick, Labour MP for Preston.
Prof. Wendy Pullan, Senior Lecturer in the History and Philosophy of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, went first and described Jerusalem as “a badly damaged city” the blame for which she lumped on Israel due to “50 years of conflict and occupation”.
She explained that Israel’s urban planning had led to Israelis and Palestinians vilifying each other and she compared Israel’s security barrier to the Berlin Wall.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s Kamel Hawwash then told of how he had recently been refused entry to Israel and treated badly at Tel Aviv airport while his wife and child were let through. He was put on a plane back to the UK. He said “Israel was an expert at inciting hatred and was not a country that wanted peace.”
Finally, Prof. Penny Green, Professor of Law and Globalisation at Queen Mary University of London, described how one of her friends who works at Hebrew University was attacked and “called a filthy Arab which is very common”.
She described the “segregation wall” and road network in the Palestinian territories as “apartheid” and said that the wall “is not about security”. She also condemned the checkpoints where Palestinians queue before they can enter Israel to work saying they are where “humans are treated worse than cattle”.
She compared the barrier to the Berlin Wall as well.

Israel vilified in Parliament, four Jews protest and get thrown out

Another Palestine Return Centre meeting in Parliament. They have it in clover: get a tame MP or Lord to book a room at no charge; that MP/Lord chairs it and calls for anyone who challenged the lies to be thrown out (four Jews last night); the police outside the door then enforce the decision, however undeserved; the meeting then continues as an Israel hatefest with no-one to bear witness. All courtesy of the taxpayer.……..
Tonight’s meeting was about Jerusalem chaired by Mark Hendrick, a Labour MP with a safe seat (Preston) – so he does not need to worry about campaigning for the upcoming election. The leadership ranks him as ‘neutral’ regarding Jeremy Corbyn but not hostile. His electorate is 18.5% Asian.
The speakers: Professor Wendy Pullan, Professor Kammel Hawwash and Professor Penny Green.
Professor Pullan spoke about how the ‘occupation’ has been bad for Jerusalem. She neglected to mention that in 2015 Jerusalem was 36% Muslim and 61% Jewish, versus just 21%/75% after the Six Day War in 1967. She also said that Har Homa is a “settlement”. It isn’t. Most of the land — 75% — was expropriated from Jews. She talked about the security fence – of course without mentioning WHY it was built – to save lives from terrorist attacks. She suggested that Israel creates National Parks in order to obstruct Arab development.
Professor Hawwash told us about how he had recently been refused entry to Israel. I wonder why he was barred …. maybe because he is a leading advocate of a boycott to sabotage Israel’s economy and the Vice Chair of the PSC – which he calls an ‘anti-Israel government policy’ organisation, not an anti-Israel organisation. Appallingly he suggested that Israelis are “breaking into” the Al Aqsa Mosque and that Israel “is an expert in inciting hatred”. The truth Is that Jews have very limited access to the Temple Mount – and are not allowed to pray there! As for ‘inciting hatred’ – one look at Hamas TV or Palestinian schoolbooks shows who is ‘inciting hatred’. The fact that Israel wants peace has been demonstrated time and time again: eg the Peace Treaties with Egypt and Jordan and the exodus from Gaza in 2005.
Professor Green also has form. And here. Last year she was on the shortlist of two for the position of UNHRC Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories (she lost out to Michael Lynk). She is on record as saying that Israel has a “criminal government”, and she believes it is “time to stand up against Israeli state violence”. She supports the total boycott of Israel, wants Hamas de-listed as a terrorist organisation, and has wondered why the British and Americans have not begun “bombing Israel for its massacres”. Tonight she was true to form. All the defamatory hate clichés came out: “settler-colonialism”, “the State of Israel is in many senses premised on ethnic cleansing”, “unique form of apartheid”, “800,000 Palestinians evicted from their homes at gunpoint in 1948” (Not true of course).

There are some legal proceedings this week in a continuing case against a dozen Egyptians and Germans (in abstentia) accused of illegally taking archaeological samples from the Great Pyramid in 2013.

The article says that the Minister of Antiquities in Egypt have charged the Germans of working for German Jews to find proof that the pyramid was built by Israelite slaves and not Egyptians.

This is of course ludicrous, as the Pyramids predate Jacob by centuries. No one seriously believes that the Israelites built them, although Menachem Begin did say that they did in a rhetorical flourish in 1977.

Every so often Egyptian newspapers publish articles saying, no, really, we built the Pyramids and not the Jews. There were at least two such articles in the past week alone.

It appears that this accusation about the Germans being paid by a Jew to find evidence of Israelites building the pyramids was originally made by the previous Minister of Antiquities in Egypt, Zahi Hawass. Al Masry al Youm reported in December 2013:

Dr Zahi Hawass, ex Minister of State for Antiquities, revealed that the robberies of King Khufu’s cartouche was done on behalf of, Robert Bauval, an Egyptian Jew working in Belgium, who has been trying by every means to prove that the pyramid is ‘a Jewish and not Egyptian product’. Hawass said in a special statements that Muhamed Ibrahim, the Minister of Antiquities has said in one of his media interviews that Khufu’s cartouche had was stolen in 2006, which is not true, as the inspecting agencies and the police have proved that the robbery took place in 2013, and the passports of the Germans showed that they entered Egypt last April. Hawass wondered ‘how the theft could have taken place in 2006 while the investigations were conducted with current officials and not those responsible for the pyramid area at the time? While the investigation result came to confirm my words, and all those responsible for the crime have been removed from the pyramid area after their involvement, one way or the other, has been proven’. He added: “I would like to make it clear that the foreign vandals are led by an Egyptian Jew living in Belgium, who had previously sent more than one person, who were all forbidden completely, and with whom I have had many battles, and he wrote a book before trying to prove that the pyramid was not Egyptian”.

Bauval is a researcher on ancient Egypt. He is not Jewish. He never met the Germans before this incident. The entire accusation is a series of lies from the paranoid former Egyptian antiquities minister.

There is lots more at Bauval's site.

One would think that if there is any historical event that Egyptians could feel secure in, it would be the building of the Pyramids. Their frightened reactions to some Hollywood depictions of Jews building the Pyramids reveals a lot more about the Egyptian inferiority complex than about history.

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