Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 16, 2017

Abbas' news site censorship choices are very interesting

The Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank has blocked 11 news websites associated with their Gaza-based rivals Hamas and other political adversaries critical of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, according to Arabic media reports.The shutdowns were ordered by the Palestinian Attorney General's office, with Palestinian media outlets quoting one anonymous official as saying that the sites blocked were in "violation of the rules of publications" which bars the dissemination of alleged fake news and defamation.The editor of the Jordan-based Amad news website, Hassan Asfour, said in a statement that the sites were blocked over their "bold reporting" on the Palestinian Authority's "dirty deals."

What's interesting is that these are not all, or even mostly, Hamas sites. Some are anti-Hamas sites from Fatah but who support Mahmoud Dahlan, Abbas' rival. Abbas is trying to shut down internal Fatah dissent.

How long will it take before the Western world realizes that Abbas isn't a democratically-elected moderate but rather he is a dictator, a despot, a terror cheerleader and a corrupt criminal?

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06/16 Links Pt1: Glick: Burying Obama's legacy; How the NYTs Divulged Vital Israeli Secrets;

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Burying Obama's legacy

The real reason that Trump appears to be burying Obama’s legacy is because unlike the ideologically- driven Obama, Trump is willing to consider evidence and facts when determining his opinions.
In May, Abbas came to the White House and told Trump that he abjured terrorism. Israel then presented Trump with evidence that Abbas publicly incites terrorism and uses the Palestinian Authority budget to support terrorists and their families.
Trump took in the information and upbraided Abbas for lying to him.
True, this week Secretary of State Rex Tillerson falsely told Congress that Abbas had cut off the payments. And true, Tillerson doubled down on his assertion after both the Palestinians and Israel said the payments have not been cut off.
True as well that Trump continues to believe that he can make “the deal” that his predecessors failed to secure.
But the fact is that Trump has given Netanyahu support as he has walked away from the failed policy paradigm of the Obama years.
In other words, Netanyahu’s moves this week, and the fact that the Trump administration has left him alone to make them without being second-guessed or condemned by Washington, indicates that we have finally moved past Obama’s legacy.
Where we are going is still unknown. But what is certain is that by going after the sources of the continued malignancy of the conflict and pushing back against the lies that informed Obama’s policies, both Israel and the US have abandoned them.

Elliott Abrams: How the “New York Times” Divulged Vital Israeli Secrets

Last month, a scandal broke out when it became public knowledge that President Trump shared with the Russian foreign minister highly classified information—provided by Israel—about Islamic State’s plans to get bombs onto airplanes. The president was soon accused of jeopardizing Israeli and American intelligence operations against Islamic State (IS) by providing specifics about intelligence-gathering to an unfriendly nation.
What specifics in particular? Relying on information provided off-the-record by current and former U.S. officials, the New York Times undertook to disclose them. Israel, it reported, had been conducting an extremely sophisticated cyber-intelligence operation against IS that gave it access to detailed information about terror plots.
Now that this information has been published, writes Elliott Abrams, IS will surely be able to identify and guard against the “tool” that Israel is using to spy on its operations. Other countries, too, will likely be able to protect themselves against similar espionage, forcing Jerusalem to cease making use of a piece of software that likely took years to develop and could have otherwise yielded much more vital information.
It’s hard to tell how much damage was done, [by the president’s comments to his Russian guests], because he did not reveal how the information [about IS] was acquired. That task was left to the New York Times and to the American officials who leaked highly classified information to the Times. Those officials committed a crime. . . .
I don’t know whether the president’s disclosure infuriated Israelis, [as the Times reports], but I know that the Times’s unprincipled and irresponsible disclosure damaged not only Israel but our own safety. It helped IS. . . .

Seth J. Frantzman: Hezbollah: Bigger, Stronger, Nastier than Ever

The problem in Lebanon is that both the Christian and Sunni opposition are neutered. They gave up their weapons after the civil war and allowed Hezbollah to keep theirs. The likelihood that Jihadist and Salafi networks will put down roots in Lebanon grows in response to the power of Hezbollah. Whatever fantasies Israel once had for an alliance with Lebanese Christians and the idea that Lebanon, a formerly peaceful country seen as the “Paris” or “Switzerland” of the Levant, could be a good neighbor, is gone forever. Hezbollah will only grow. It is a key Iranian asset, one that is indispensable in the Syrian civil war. Nasrallah has taken to commenting on crises in Yemen and elsewhere, looking beyond Lebanon in hopes of playing a regional role.
Withdrawals always have a price. The U.S. fears it cannot leave Afghanistan without handing it back to the Taliban. The U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam allowed the communists to take over the country. While countries should manage their military withdrawals so chaos does not ensue, they should also be willing to cut their losses when need be. Israel cut its losses in Lebanon and Gaza, and saved lives by doing so. It has regained its deterrence.
The lesson from this is that states should be wary of long-term military control of enemy areas. It is better to increase deterrence through absolute domination and destruction of the enemy, withdraw quickly, and wait for the next round. Long-term combat with terrorist groups allows them to learn and become more effective while sinking roots into the civilian infrastructure and presenting themselves as legitimate military and political entities.
The question Israel has to ask itself is whether Hezbollah has been bloodied enough in Syria that it will remain quiescent, or whether it will think a new war with Israel will bring it more power. In addition, it must be asked whether Iran thinks it can use Hezbollah against Israel to gain leverage. Political power has not made Hezbollah more moderate—the great myth of most policymakers in the West. It is as murderous and extreme as it was before. It now has the burdens of being a more conventional military force. It doesn’t do truck bombings and kidnappings; it has graduated to long range missiles and armored personnel carriers. In other words, it is a terrorist group that has come to control a state, using that state to conduct terror by other means.

Yesterday there was a rally in Nablus to protest the jailing of two members of the Halawa family accused of killing two PA security personnel a couple of years ago.

PA police responded with tear gas, live fire (according to witnesses) and arrests.

People being held in prison without trial? Police shooting tear gas and bullets at a supposedly peaceful rally?

Aren't those things that Israel is supposedly doing?

But I'm not seeing any NGOs say anything about this. Wonder why.

By the way, one of the prisoners escaped and is in hiding, showing the seriousness of the Palestinian prison system. It's a revolving door.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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The current PA-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, says that 90% of all the sources of terrorism would dry up if the "Palestinian issue" was resolved.

He was careful to denounce terrorism, which means ISIS, saying they should not use the Palestinian issue as a reason for their attacks.

But what does Hussein himself think about Palestinian terror?

He directly supports if, ruling in 2006 that suicide bombings are permitted. "It is legitimate, of course, as long as it plays a role in the resistance."

OK, then. what does he envision to be the solution to the Palestinian issue that would help end terror worldwide?

Why, the destruction of Israel and the genocide of Jews, of course!

Hussein has said that all of "Palestine" is Islamic land, meaning there is no room for a Jewish state - or Jews - there. He said this with his boss Mahmoud Abbas in the audience.

And he has also said at a Fatah rally that Muslims will kill all the Jews, quoting the famous rocks and trees hadith, which he put in the context of the "Palestinian revolution" - directly claiming that the genocide of Jews is a Palestinian obligation.

But he emphasized in his speech yesterday that Palestinians are innocent of all accusations of terror.

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Palestinian "tolerance, brotherhood and social cohesion" - of terrorists and their families

Earlier this week there were several Ramadan festivals and outings for kids in Gaza.

But these festivals weren't for all Gaza children. No, they were organized specifically for the children of terrorists in prison in Israeli jails.

Middle East Monitor quoted an organizer:

Ahmad Al-Afifi, a member of these youth groups, said: “We volunteer during this holy month in order to show people that this is the month of tolerance, brotherhood and social cohesion."

Yes, one cannot accuse Palestinians of being anything less than tolerant of, and maintaining a brotherhood with, terrorists.

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06/15 Links Pt2: MLA members pass ANTI-BDS resolution by 2-1 margin; The Holocaust Did Not Create Israel

From Ian:

Alan M. Dershowitz: Oliver Stone's Response to Being Laughed at for Defending Putin: Blame the Jews

When film director Oliver Stone could not come up with a plausible response to Stephen Colbert's tough questions about why he gave a pass to Vladimir Putin for trying to influence the American presidential election, Stone resorted to an age-old bigotry: blame the Jews – or, in its current incarnation, shift the blame to the nation state of the Jewish people, Israel. Colbert was interviewing Stone about his new documentary, "The Putin Interviews" – a film comprised of conversations he had with the Russian president over the past two years. The exchange regarding Israel did not make it to air but was relayed to the New York Post's Page Six by a source who was in the audience.
When pressed by Colbert about his apparent fondness of the Russian dictator, Stone replied: "Israel had far more involvement in the U.S. election than Russia." He then said again, "Why don't you ask me about that?" Colbert responded: "I'll ask you about that when you make a documentary about Israel!"
If Stone's absurd response were not reflective of a growing anti-Semitism by the intolerant hard left (of which Stone is a charter member) it would be laughable. Indeed, Stone resorted to the "socialism of fools" (which is what German Social Democrat, August Bebel, coined anti-Semitism) precisely to save face because he was being mockingly laughed off stage by Colbert's audience for giving Colbert ridiculous answers. Some of Stone's bizarre pronouncements included:
"I'm amazed at his [Putin's] calmness, his courtesy...he never really said anything bad about anybody. He's been through a lot. He's been insulted and abused." Stone also expressed his "respect" for Putin's leadership. But no answer was more ridiculous than his bigoted claim that Israel did more to try to influence the election than Russia.

Israeli envoy slams TV channel for dropping anti-Semitism documentary

In an unusual move, Israel’s ambassador to France criticized in harsh terms a French-German television channel’s nixing of a documentary on anti-Semitism.
The decision, announced last week by the state-funded Arte channel citing the film’s alleged focus on Muslim countries, is “an obfuscation of information and an encroachment on the public’s right to information,” Ambassador Aliza Bin-Noun wrote in an open letter addressed to Véronique Cayla, the president of Arte’s France division. The letter was published Wednesday by the Actualite Juive weekly.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry rarely comments publicly on content in the media of friendly countries that does not involve Israel directly.
Arte’s program director, Alain le Diberder, told Deutsche Welle that his channel decided not to air the program because its creators, Joachim Schroeder and Sophie Hafner, had said the documentary would focus on anti-Semitism in Europe, whereas in reality it ended up dealing mainly with the phenomenon in the Arab world.

Kosovo charges 9 with plotting attacks at Israel-Albania soccer match

Kosovo prosecutors said on Wednesday they had charged nine Kosovar men with planning attacks at a World Cup soccer match in Albania against the visiting Israel team and its fans last November.
Last year, Kosovar police arrested 19 people - including the nine charged on Wednesday - on suspicion that they had links with ISIS (also known as the Islamic State) and were planning attacks in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania.
At the time, fearing such attacks, Albanian authorities moved the Nov. 12 qualifier to a venue near the capital Tirana from a stadium in the northern town of Shkoder.
The state prosecutor said some of the nine men charged were in contact with Lavdrim Muhaxheri, a prominent ISIS member and the self-declared
"commander of Albanians in Syria and Iraq" from whom they received orders to attack. Police and family members told Reuters last week that Muhaxheri has been killed in Syria.
The group was also planning to launch attacks inside Kosovo against local and international institutions and buy weapons with money received from Muhaxheri, the prosecutor said.

Times of Israel reported a heartwarming story this week:

A Palestinian Authority official has donated tens of thousands of shekels to the Rambam Medical Center after receiving life-saving treatment at the Haifa-area hospital, the hospital said.

According to a statement from Rambam, the unnamed PA official made a financial contribution to help hospitalized kids in an effort “to build peace through medicine.”

The official, who chose to remain anonymous, was hospitalized at Rambam earlier this year for cancer treatment and said he was motivated to donate after witnessing the coexistence in practice.

“When I arrived at Rambam, I saw a medical team that treats its patients with dedication, but I also saw the suffering of sick children,” he said according to the statement. “Palestinian children, Israelis, Syrians, and children from other countries who are being treated at Rambam for serious illnesses and are in need of all the help they can get.”

His donation will go toward building a kids’ playroom in the Institute of Radiology of the Joseph Fishman Oncology Center.

“I decided to make a donation to help save human lives apart from any political considerations,” he said.

“Both Israeli and Palestinian societies suffer from violence and I am striving for a situation where we all can contribute to peace and health: to treat children, save lives, share knowledge, and train Palestinian doctors at Rambam, in order to improve the state of the health systems and the capacity to treat people in the PA areas, and to encourage others to donate and contribute to the betterment of health within our two nations.”

“Medicine is a bridge between peoples and my hope is that with the help of this small contribution and others like it in the future, we will all see a better tomorrow,” the official added.

This is a wonderful story that shows that Palestinian Arabs can appreciate how at least some Israelis treat them.

But there is one problem.

The official chooses to remain anonymous.

Instead of telling his people that he is making this donation out of appreciation and in the interests of bringing peace, he is staying silent.

Because his career and reputation would be over if his Arab neighbors knew that he donated a sizable sum of money to a "Zionist" hospital.

In fact, chances are such a move would result in death threats.

Later, official PA media named the supposed official and denied the story altogether!

The government Thursday denied media reports that a senior Palestinian official donated money to a non-Palestinian hospital.
Government spokesman Yousef al-Mahmoud rejected claims that Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Abu Amr had donated money to any hospital outside Palestine after receiving treatment there, describing the reports as “baseless.”
Al-Mahmoud said Abu Amr was well and working normally, noting that he was not aware that Abu Amr was receiving any kind of treatment at Palestinian or foreign hospitals.

How dare anyone consider that a Palestinian officia donates money to a "non-Palestinian" hospital?

The PA is forced to deny the story on the official's behalf, because it is so threatened by the very idea of a Palestinian showing any appreciation to Israeli Jews. It couldn't even ignore the story - it had to deny it.

For honor.

Think about that. It is a point of honor not to show gratitude to Israeli doctors.

And understand that as long as Palestinian Arabs are brainwashed to hate Israel and Jews, to the point that they must issue statements denying gratitude to even Israeli hospitals that cater to them, there is no chance of peace. Ever.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

Gaza’s electricity shortage has recently become critical. Gaza gets its power from Israel and Egypt, and has a small power station of its own. But due to a decision of the Palestinian Authority to further reduce the amount it pays Israel for electricity, the 3-4 hours a day during which Gaza is illuminated will be reduced by another 45 minutes or so – unless money is found somewhere.

Hamas is threatening that there will be an “explosion” unless something is done. It is a big problem for the population, because food is not being refrigerated, sewage is not being processed, water is not being pumped, and hospitals are unable to operate. And the weather is getting hotter.

Israel presently supplies Hamas with about 125 megawatt-hours (MWh) per day, and Egypt provides a smaller amount. Gaza’s own power station is presently not operating due to lack of fuel. It’s estimated that a 24-hour supply of electricity would require 400-500 MWh per day.

Negotiations are under way (Wednesday) for Western and Arab countries to pick up some of the slack. After all, think of the children. And nobody wants an “explosion.”

But there is a solution that nobody seems to have proposed yet. Let’s begin by asking a question: why doesn’t Hamas have money for electricity? After all, it levies heavy taxes on goods coming into the strip (both legally via the crossings from Israel and illegally via tunnels from Egypt) and on almost every other form of economic activity. It got money from Qatar until recently, and has now started receiving aid from Iran again. International donors pledged large sums for reconstruction after the 2014 war, although there was very little rebuilding done. Where did the money go?

The answer is simple: some of it enriched Hamas insiders, but most of it was used to dig tunnels, to manufacture rockets and for other weapons and military infrastructure. Hamas officials were ready to see their children (well, the children of other Gaza residents) hungry and wading in sewage if it advanced their project to destroy Israel.

In effect money was converted into weapons. And that provides a way to solve the problem: we can convert it back.

For example, what if Israel agreed to provide Hamas with 2 MWh for every stockpiled Qassam rocket turned over to us? They have thousands of these, which could keep the lights on for weeks. Not to mention longer-range rockets, which would be worth more. And tunnels – I’m sure we would be happy to give them a whole day’s worth of electricity for the precise location of a terror tunnel. Just give us the coordinates and we’ll do the rest! Anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons are valuable, too. A nice shoulder-fired SAM is probably worth 10 MWh. Even rifles and mortar shells could help keep the juice flowing.

You get the idea. From Israel’s point of view, it would be far cheaper than the tamir rockets used by Iron Dome to shoot down the Qassams ($50k -$100k each!), and the amount of effort needed to find the tunnels. Hamas would get its electricity – and we would get some peace and quiet for a change.

I’m calling it the Watts for Weapons program. I'm sure they'll go along with it. Only someone who prefers killing Jews to keeping his own people alive could possibly turn it down.

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06/15 Links Pt1: Iris Yifrach: Unity after tragedy; 10 Years of Hamas in Gaza; Qatar's Comeuppance

From Ian:

Unity after tragedy

Three years have passed since that dreadful day when three of our boys -- Naftali, Gil-ad and Eyal -- were kidnapped and murdered. Three handsome, talented young men became angels and their names are on all our lips in painful memory.
And we are here, still.
They are missed and so loved. We remember the days when, for a moment, we put aside all our differences and made room in ourselves for others. For a second, our hearts emitted one single great light. It was so special.
The summer of 2014 was a difficult one. We had days of agonizing fear and concern for their safety. In the days following the abduction, there was an outpouring of solidarity, thanks partially to the absence of judgement and criticism. Every one of us found the goodness that exists within us. We united as one, despite the vast differences between us, driven by an internal desire to live a better life, without discord.
It is true that in our everyday lives, it is difficult for us to give of ourselves to others. It is easier for us to focus on the problems, and each one of us is convinced that their way is the right way. Does anyone ever wonder if it is possible to live together, side by side? We are so different; we don't even speak the same language.
Keep in mind that it actually happened, just a moment ago. In reality, not in a dream, we were one big group that wanted, knew, how to be together without trying to change one another. We are still those same people, with the same views. During those 18 days of solidarity, no one tried to impose their views on the other, or change the other -- we were just there, next to one another, shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart. The entire country stood together for one single purpose -- to bring the boys home.

If We Can’t Dismantle UNRWA, Here’s How We Can Reform It

Virtually every media outlet took the recent UNRWA condemnation of Hamas terror tunnels found under an UNRWA school at face value. Yet none of these outlets acknowledged that the UNRWA teachers and workers unions in Gaza have been under the tight control of Hamas since 1999 — without a word of disapproval from UNRWA.
The timing of the tunnel discovery was ironic; it took place just before Hamas will conduct its annual summer military training camp to teach upwards of 50,000 UNRWA students, aged 9-15, how to use live guns (and, in the future, kill Jews).
In light of UNRWA’s complicity in Hamas’ activities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently called for the organization to be “dismantled.” Unfortunately, it is not within Israel’s power to ”dismantle” UNRWA– as it operates under the mandate of the UN General Assembly.
Furthermore, if Western democratic nations were to cut funds to UNRWA, two scenarios would likely occur:
First, the radical Islamic state of Qatar, which has a presence in Gaza and Judea/Samaria, would likely step in to replace any income lost from Western cuts.
Second, Saudi Arabia, which recently stepped up its funding of UNRWA (and is now the third largest donor), would likely increase its contributions to make up for the difference.
If Qatar and Saudi Arabia become the largest donors to UNRWA, Israel and the West will lose all leverage over the organization — and UNRWA would likely become even more beholden to Hamas.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians' Real Tragedy: Failed Leadership

What is funny and sad is that the Palestinian Authority, which has been criticizing Hamas's crackdown on freedom of expression in the Gaza Strip, has long been resorting to similar measures against its critics in the West Bank.
The latest victim of the PA's suppression of public freedoms is Nassar Jaradat, a 23-year-old political activist who was arrested earlier this week for criticizing senior Palestinian official Jibril Rajoub. PA security forces arrested Jaradat after he posted a comment on Facebook in which he criticized Rajoub for acknowledging Jews' right to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. A PA court has since ordered Jaradat, an engineering student, remanded into custody for 15 days on charges of "insulting" a top Palestinian official.
Last year, the PA demonstrated that it does not hesitate to arrest even one of its own if he dares to criticize Palestinian leaders. Osama Mansour, a senior PA security official, was arrested and later fired because he criticized Mahmoud Abbas for attending the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Such arrests have become commonplace under the PA in the West Bank. Almost every week, Palestinians hear of another journalist or blogger or activist who has been arrested or summoned for interrogation by the PA security forces for nothing more than posting remarks critical of the government on social media.
Palestinians were hoping to achieve an independent state of their own. In the end, however, they got two separate states -- one in the West Bank and the second in the Gaza Strip -- as a result of the power struggle between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. But the real tragedy for the Palestinians is that neither the PA nor Hamas values human rights or public freedoms. The real tragedy of the Palestinians over the past few decades has been failed leadership -- whether it is the secular PLO or the Islamist Hamas.
Given the current state of the Palestinians, it is hard to see how they could ever make any progress towards establishing a successful state with law and order and respect for public freedoms and democracy.

Now that the smoke has cleared, we can see that Secretary of State Tillerson was wrong. His announcement that Abbas agreed to end stipends to imprisoned Palestinian terrorists was greeted with skepticism from the start. While on Tuesday Tillerson claimed the Palestinian Authority "changed their policy" about terrorist salaries, just a day later he had changed his tune and said instead there were "active discussions" and made reference to vague "assurances" given to Trump during his visit in Israel.

Official portrait of Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson
Credit: US State Department

Similarly, on June 5 it seemed that Abbas had cut off salaries to Hamas. It could be that Abbas was referring to those cuts when he spoke to Trump, but there too, Hamas ended up getting their salaries.

In any case, the payment of terrorist salaries -- and the anti-Israel incitement caused by rewarding attacks on Jews -- continues.

But just how long have Palestinian terrorists been receiving these stipends?

To answer that question, Palestinian Media Watch focuses on the PA Government Resolution of 2010, while acknowledging that the resolution merely "formalized what has long been a PA practice."

In their article The Department of Pay-for-Slay, Douglas J. Feith and Sander Gerber point to the Amended Palestinian Prisoners Law No. 19 (2004), noting:

Legalism is a trait common among authoritarians. Nondemocratic societies lack rule of law, but they generally don’t lack laws. Their laws, in fact, tell us a lot about them.

Their point is that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority go beyond words to incite hatred of Israel. The stipends represent the lengths they go to encourage attacks against Israel, enacting legislation to spur violence, while at the same time maintaining that are willing to negotiate for peace.

Feith and Gerber note that the PA's success can be measured by the fact that in 2014, President Obama said that Abbas “has consistently renounced violence” and has consistently pursued a “peaceful solution” that allows Israelis “to feel secure and at peace.”

But these terrorist payments actually go much further back.

In her book, Humanitarian Rackets and their Moral Hazards: The Case of the Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon, Rayyar Marron writes that these payments began long before Abbas -- and originate with Arafat back in 1964:

Yasser Arafat with Gaddafi in 1977. Credit: Rex Features; Wikipedia

The purpose of the fund at the time was to help establish the centrality of Arafat and the PLO. Marron goes on to detail other methods that Arafat used as well, all of which had the result of

providing them [Palestinian Arabs] with jobs, but it simultaneously destroyed the pre-existing civilian bureaucracy, built on utilising people's competence, rather than on nepotism as increasingly was the case under Fatah's domination.

Abbas apparently learned from the master manipulator. In recent weeks, we have seen Abbas exploiting the funds at his disposal to pressure Hamas by cutting off payments for electricity as well as threatening to cut off salaries.

Mahmoud Abbas Credit: www.kremlin.ru.(Wikipedia)

Maybe that explains why the terrorist stipends have been controversial for years and not for decades.

At first, originating with Arafat, the stipends were a political tool to gain and centralize power.. It was only much later, especially under Abbas, that funding the imprisoned terrorists has been recognized as a subtle form of encouragement -- along with naming buildings and events after terrorists while allowing incendiary sermons by Imams -- to incite attacks on Israelis.

Abbas has demonstrated that he is a good student that would make his teacher Arafat proud.

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From a BBC article on Israeli cuisine:

In reality, Israeli cuisine has long been more closely associated with its immediate environment, a fusion of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern traditions and ingredients. The early Zionists eagerly adopted Palestinian dishes, such as falafel, hummus, and shawarma, while in recent years Israelis have developed a more diversified palate.

There were never any "Palestinian dishes".

Falafel is generally considered to have originated in Egypt, perhaps created by Copts. The falafel sandwich actually originated in Israel by Yemeni Jews.

Hummus seems also to be Egyptian, with it mentioned in 13th century Egyptian literature.

Shawarama, roasted on a vertical spit, is from 19th century Turkey.

All of these foods are Levantine or Mediterranean or Middle Eastern. It is not at all accurate to call these foods in the days of pre-state Israel "Palestinian."

While this isn't the point of the article, that sentence just shows again that even BBC food writers subscribe to the lie of the Jews coming and co-opting "Palestine."

(The article is mainly about why such traditional "Jewish" foods like bagels and lox, or deli, or kugels, are not a staple of Israeli cuisine. But the premise is silly too: those "Jewish" foods all came from other cultures as well and became associated with Jews. Similarly, today falafel is associated with Israel because Israelis have gone crazy over falafel. I looked at 19th century books about cuisine in the Levant and no one mentioned falafel or hummus, instead elaborating on various lamb-based dishes, or roasted corn, or yogurt-based dishes. No doubt the dishes were there but I would argue that it was Israelis who popularized those dishes worldwide.)

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Israel Hayom (Hebrew) reports that Mahmoud Abbas is poised to declare Gaza to be a "rebel province."

It would place an immediate declaration of a state of emergency in the Gaza Strip. Hamas would be declared an illegal organization and its assets would be frozen. Arrest warrants would be issued against its leaders. The Palestinian Authority would cease to transfer money, including payments of salaries to civil servants in the Gaza Strip.

Ten years ago, Israel declared Gaza to be a "hostile territory." In response, Mahmoud Abbas said "this oppressive decision will only strengthen the choking embargo imposed on 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip, increase their suffering, and deepen their tragedy."

Ashraf Ajrami, a minister in Abbas' government, said "It is collective punishment against the people of Gaza, and discourages serious political discussion."

Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki said, "We are going to ask the Americans to pressure Israel to refrain from taking such action."

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general at the time, said:, "[Gazans] should not be punished for the unacceptable actions of militants and extremists. I call for Israel to reconsider this decision."

Today, Abbas wants to go beyond what Israel did. He wants to cut off electricity altogether, which Israel decided was against international law as collective punishment (although it did restrict electricity for a time to force Hamas to decide to use power for hospitals or rocket manufacturing.)

Moreover, Abbas plans to demand that the UN, the Arab League and international organizations to stop providing international aid to the Gaza Strip altogether, according to the Israel Hayom article.

The decision has not yet been made, but even considering that decision proves yet again what a hypocrite Mahmoud Abbas is.

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Egypt censoring pretty much everything that upsets it

From The Register:

Egypt has embarked on a new wave of online censorship, blocking news websites and killing off VPN services in order to limit its citizens' access to information.

Over the past three weeks, the Egyptian authorities have blocked access to more than 50 news websites, including Al Jazeera and local newspapers Daily News Egypt, Al-Borsa, and Al-Mesryoon.

On Monday, as more and more Egyptians turned to VPN services as a way to get around the blocks, ISPs started blocking access to the websites of companies offering such services. Meanwhile, the newspapers themselves have tried to bypass the censorship by hosting their content on different domains.

The Daily News Egypt, for example, for a while used the thedailynewsegypt.com domain instead of its previous dailynewsegypt.com – although that address has now also been shut down.

The start of censorship coincided with a report, published in the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper on May 25, in which the authorities claimed to have the right to block the newspapers through anti-terrorism powers.

In that report, the government of Egypt used examples of other countries blocking websites as justification for its own censorship. It did not mention the Egyptian Constitution, however, which most legal scholars agree actively prohibits limiting access to information. It also does not provide much by way of legal justification.

Egypt's official news agency also quoted a high-level security official as saying 21 websites had been blocked and Reuters quoted an official at Egypt's telecoms regulator, the NTRA, as saying: "So what if it is true? It should not be a problem."

The situation it being monitored and reported on by a number of organizations, most notably the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE). When contacted by the AFTE, service providers claimed that the website outages were the result of website failures rather than content blocking. The government of Egypt has also refused to formally acknowledge the blocks.

This is the downside of making friends with authoritarian regimes.

Then again - everyone ignores these things when it is in their self-interest to do so. They always have and they always will, notwithstanding grandstanding at the UN.

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06/14 Links Pt2: Why Believing Atrocity Stories About Israel is Stupid, Even When They’re on CNN

From Ian:

Harvard Law Review: U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, United Nations Security Council Asserts Illegality

In Resolution 2334, an outgoing U.S. administration — pressed for time and diplomatic opportunity — handed Abbas a lawfare victory that will fuel this project of patience. When the Trump Administration presses for good-faith negotiations, the PA can now cite to the Secretary-General’s quarterly reports concerning Israel’s noncompliance, each time riding the tide of “social alarm” until the winds of global politics shift back in its favor. In 2011, back when time was still on its side, the Obama Administration understood this well, vetoing a similar resolution on the grounds that it would “encourage the parties to stay out of negotiations.” Six years later, when the prospects of an Obama-brokered deal had vanished, the Administration reversed course, entrenching the PA’s preconditions and rewarding its preference for international fora over bilateral talks.
But what of the Obama Administration’s stated concern that settlement expansions imperil a two-state solution? Critically, the argument assumes that recent settlement activities risk foreclosing a contiguous Palestinian state. Yet Israel’s political geography proves to the contrary. Around eighty percent of Israel’s settlers live within miles of the Green Line and could be kept within its borders by “swapping territory equal to about four percent of the West Bank.” In the event of agreement, the remaining settlements, which cover less than one percent of the West Bank’s territory, would either be dismantled or allowed to remain within a Palestinian state. Removal would certainly meet resistance from the Israeli right; but even Netanyahu has acknowledged “some Jewish settlements . . . would not be part of [Israel].” Alternatively, the 100,000 or so Jews living outside the blocs could simply remain in the Palestinian state, just as almost two million Arabs live as a minority within Israel. Though the approach isn’t free of difficulty, it reveals that the truly intractable obstacle to peaceful coexistence isn’t settlements, but Abbas’s insistence on an Israeli-free Palestine. Settlement activity needn’t foreclose a contiguous Palestine.
Even crediting the contiguity objection, condemnation by yet another U.N. organ was unlikely to slow the settler movement; instead, it would foreseeably harden Israel’s resolve and expedite its settlement project. In celebrating 2334, Islamic Jihad, an Iran-funded terror group in the Gaza Strip, discerned what many within the Obama Administration professed not to see: that while the resolution alone wouldn’t deter settlement construction, it would advance the Palestinian lawfare objective of “isolati[ng]” Israel through “prosecutions” and “boycotts.”
The political gridlock between Israel and the PA has translated into immense human suffering for Jews and Arabs alike. And yet Abbas insists he will “wait for Hamas to accept international commitments” and “wait for Israel to freeze settlements.” So long as the international community embraces the Palestinian narrative without reservation and enshrines it into law, the PA will continue to wait for these unrealities; and in the interim, people will suffer. By abstaining on 2334, the United States countenanced this patience and the irredentism that lies beneath it. The result was to render peace an ever-distant dream.

Have you been to Ramallah? UNHRC says it is like Dachau

Amnesty International never asked to boycott the occupation by Indonesia of East Timor or Papua, nor of Turkey in Cyprus, Russia in Georgia and Crimea, Morocco in Western Sahara, or China in Tibet. There is only one state that Amnesty invokes for a selective boycott: the Jewish State. And what better occasion than the Israeli celebrations of the fifty years since the 1967 war to invoke the ban on its goods?
So Amnesty has just invoked a boycott of Israeli goods produced in the post 1967 lands. Kate Allen, head of Amnesty in UK, said Britain and other European countries have “the legal and moral duty” to introduce “the ban on goods produced in Israeli settlements”. The Board of Deputies of the Jewish community in England has condemned Amnesty for “ignoring the Palestinians stabbing, car attacks and gunfire attacks” Israel suffered. Marie van der Zyl, vice president of the Jewish organization, said that “Amnesty should remember that human rights are universal and apply to the Israelis as well”.
But hate doesn't obscure the minds of the humanitarian only on the Thames. On the shores of Lake Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council has just accused Israel of transforming Ramallah, the capital of Palestinian autonomy, into a concentration camp.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, head of that UN council, just said during the general session: “I grew not far from the Palestinian refugee camp at Baqa'a. I worked in the Wihdat refugee camp. I've been to Auschwitz-Birkenau, I visited Dachau and saw Buchenwald ...”. Hussein went on by comparing the “Palestinian suffering” with the Shoah.

Six Unknown Photographs from a Visit to Nazi Germany by Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini

Six photographs documenting a visit to Germany by Mufti Haj Muhammad Amin al-Husseini. [Germany, ca. 1943].
The photographs show al-Husseini, accompanied by a number of Nazi senior officials, dressed in uniforms, and a number of government officials, dressed in civilian clothes, during a tour apparently held at a camp in Germany (possibly, a camp of The German Labour Front). A lineup held for the visitors of the camp is seen in some of the photographs.
All the photographs are marked on reverse with the stamp "Photo-Gerhards Trebbin". The photographer's mark attests that they were developed in Trebbin, Germany, and may have been shot in its environs.
These photographs, previously unknown, document an unidentified visit to Germany by al-Husseini. We were unable to identify the men in the photographs. However, according to some speculations, among the photographed are possibly the Croatian politician Mile Budak (a member of the Ustase Party who served as Croatian envoy to Germany in 1941-1943), Iraqi politician Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, Fritz Grobba (the German ambassador to Iraq, later in charge of Middle Eastern affairs at the German Foreign Ministry, known for his ties to al-Husseini and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani during al-Gaylani's revolt against the Iraqi government and in the following years) and the Austrian politician Arthur Seyss-Inquart.

Jenni Heltay Menashe is a charismatic lady who likes to show people around the Temple Mount. I'm a little in awe of all the people involved with the revival of our rights to this holiest site of the Jewish people—see for instance, my interview with Yosef Rabin—and I knew I had to interview her. I wanted to know more about what she does, what she knows about Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount. Getting out this column was the excuse to get an in depth look at all the amazing things this 51 year-old powerhouse is doing. I know you'll enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed the digging and prying into Jenni's life.

We live in exciting times!

Varda Epstein: Do you work for yourself?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: I work with a couple of orgs. One is called Kapot HaManul and the other is called Keren L'Moreshet Har HaBayit. They offer tours every day.

All of the organizations connected to the Temple Mount are now under a single umbrella, United Temple Mount Movements. There's really so much going on today, so many organizations. There's actually a kollel, a learning collective for Torah scholars on the Mount! A bunch of Haredim (black hat orthodox) come every day and they learn about things like the avoda, the Temple service. There are great people involved, for instance, Yaakov Hayman, who took over where Yehudah Glick left off because Glick couldn't go up to Har Habayit after he became an MK. Elyahu Weber was the mashgiach, the supervisor, for the Eda HaHaredit (an important board of haredi rabbis), and a teacher. He was a giant who gave up his position to run the kollel. He's awesome. A talmid chacham (a learned man).

Varda Epstein: How long have you been doing this work?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: Two years. I have been a tour guide with the Western Wall Heritage Foundation for 17 years working in and around the Old City. I am there anyway so I began to get involved with Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount). I'm not a licensed tour guide, but I did take courses at the Tower of David Museum and at the Jerusalem City Hall.

Today, Jews from every sector visit the Temple Mount

Varda Epstein: How would you describe yourself religiously? I'd guess Chardal?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: Yeah. I'd probably call myself chardal (haredi leumi or strict National Religious). I definitely wouldn't call myself haredi. Our posek (halachic arbiter, rabbi) is Mordechai Eliyahu.

Varda Epstein: Where are you from originally—I'm hearing a Canadian accent? When/why did you make Aliyah?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: I was born in Edmonton and grew up in Winnipeg. When I came to Israel in the 1980's I was going to be a Conservative rabbi. I came with USY on a year program. Once I was here, I became religious, became shomer Shabbat (Sabbath observant), and I stayed.

Varda Epstein: When did you first go up to the Mount?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: I was 13. I came with my parents for my bat mitzvah in 1979. We weren't religious. In those days, you could go up there anytime, no problem.

Varda Epstein: What was that like?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: We had a secular tour guide, he wasn't religious. We went into the mosque and walked all over the mountain. Today, non-Muslims can't go into any building on the Mount.

Varda Epstein: What buildings are there aside from the mosque?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: There's the museum. They display things like rocks they threw at Jews, bloody shirts, you know, anything that has to do with their "struggle."

Varda Epstein: So you went up when you were 13. When was the next time?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: The next time was after I did the course with Kapot HaManul. This is a wonderful organization founded and run by Avia Frankel, a young PhD candidate. The main mission of Kapot HaManul, is to ensure there's a tour guide available at the Mount to explain things properly during all the hours the Mount is open to non-Muslims, for instance Christians and Jews. We help explain things about the kedusha (holiness) of the place and so forth.

Jewish women go up to the Mount, as well.

Varda Epstein: Do you receive a salary for your work?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: We receive a small stipend. We're paid for our time. We have to be there at 7 AM. During summer hours, for instance, the Mount is open to non-Muslims from 7:30-11:00 AM and then from 1:30-2:30 PM, though during Ramadan, there are no afternoon hours for non-Muslims.

Only one group of Jews is allowed up at any one time and only with a police escort. There are the regular police and the Waqf (Jordanian Muslim Authority) security in attendance. We always have Waqf security people. Their job is to watch to make sure no one's lips move in prayer. They're paid by Jordan to make sure the Jews don't pray, God forbid.

Varda Epstein: How many police accompany a group?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: There's no rhyme or reason to it. There might be 25 people in a group accompanied by 10 policemen and 7 Waqf people. Once I went by myself and I had 3 regular police and 2 Waqf guys and I felt like a rock star!

It's a little silly to be honest, but it is what it is. So for instance, last week when they were throwing rocks, the regular police moved us away very quickly as soon as we realized what was happening and the yazam, the antiterrorist police, blocked off the mosque so the guys in the mosque throwing rocks, couldn't get out.

I can tell you as someone who's been going up for a long time, there's been a change. It was tense. The police were there to keep us in line for the Waqf, but since Rosh Hashana there's a new police commander, there's new staff at security where you go in, and they're much more relaxed. It's so much more pleasant.

I credit the commanders for this change in attitude. I think that part of that is because of Avia, because part of her job is to negotiate with the police. But the new people are great. That would be Danny Mizrachi who is police commander for all of Har HaBayit, and Yuval Kaminetz on security at the entrance. A lot of the regular police are Druse—the people on tour get nervous: why are they speaking all of this Arabic? But they're Druse. They're great!

Varda Epstein: So what do you do during the tours, exactly?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: We explain to people why we go where we go and why we don't go where we don't go. This is what we're trained for. It's important. Some of the rabbis are afraid to go up because they're afraid they'll go to the wrong areas.

Varda Epstein: Speaking of rabbis, do you know Rav Yisrael Ariel? I worked on a museum exhibition for him, on the bigdei kahuna (priestly garments). Some of my handspun linen thread is in those garments.

Jenni Heltay Menashe: Sure! He's so interesting to tour with. Rav Ariel was one of tzanchanim, the parachutists who liberated the Mount.

Rav Ariel is one of the few people who understands the relative importance of the Mount as compared to the Kotel (Western Wall). The Kotel is a consolation prize.

Actually, this is a really bad analogy, but it's like a contest between Miss America or Miss Congeniality, and we're picking Miss Congeniality. I'm not saying Miss Congeniality isn't important; there's always a Miss Congeniality. But we went to the Kotel because we couldn't go to the Temple Mount. Now that we can, there's no reason we shouldn't.

Of course, there's the issue of tvila, the need for ritual immersion before ascent. Some rabbis were looking into this. There's a place near Shaar HaShvatim (Gate of the Tribes), along the northern wall, an entrance you can go into without tvila. But Nashim L'Maan HaMikdash (Women for the Sanctuary) were against that. It's a good thing to do tvila before ascending to the Mount.

Nashim L'Ma'an HaMikdash is basically Rina Ariel and her sisters. You know who Rina is, the mother of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, HY"D (may God avenge her blood)? They make an aliya (go up) to Har HaBayit twice a month. Usually on yod chet, which is chai, life, and somewhat the middle of the month; and also on Rosh Chodesh, the first day of each new month.

The Mosque was built on the site of the Kadosh HaKadoshim, the Holy of the Holies.

Varda Epstein: I know they were pushing to rename Mughrabi Gate "Shaar Hallel," Hallel's Gate.

Jenni Heltay Menashe: Oh, we all call it Shaar Hallel. Those women are amazing. They have a Beit Midrash Mikdash (a Sanctuary study hall) in three locations, Kochav Yaakov, where I live, Kiryat Arba, where the Ariels live, and I think in Mevasseret. We learn all about Har HaBayit and the avoda, and sometimes we do physical things connected to the Mount like weaving or making challah in the style of the lechem panim, the display breads or shewbread.

And there are other groups. There's a group that does practice runs for the Korban Pesach (Passover Sacrifice) and they do the Omer (harvest offering) on the first intermediate day of Passover. You can't do it on Har HaBayit, so they did it in the Rova (Jewish Quarter of the Old City). People can come and see them do a practice run for all kinds of things. On Shavuot, they did the shewbread with the 2 loaves of bread.

We're so close we're practicing the ancient rituals. So when we finally can, we'll know how to do it. And I find it's one of the things that's bringing achdus, unity, because all of the different eidot (factions) are coming together to do the avoda of the Beit HaMikdash.

Varda Epstein: Why do you think Moshe Dayan gave the Temple Mount back to the Waqf in 1967?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: Dayan. Bless him. I'm really convinced he believed that giving the Waqf control of the Temple Mount was going to bring peace. He thought it was the war to end all wars and that now there would be peace. Hey, they all thought that! The fact that there's no peace is shocking to them.

He really thought it would bring peace. I think he was misguided but he wasn't being nasty or anti-religious. I am convinced he wanted peace.

I don't want to think so badly of anyone and there is this element of him being a hero. History will tell whether he was the smartest or dumbest man in history. We had the Mount and now we only have it in a very limited way. Look at Mearat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, in Hebron. Jews and Muslims split it half-half. Why can't it be like that with the Mount?

We thought it was such a miracle, what happened in '67. They thought there would never be another war. It's difficult for us to understand that, but if you speak to the men who were soldiers then, that's what they all say.

The Waqf threw a tarp over these ancient wooden beams which have been carbon dated and go back to Temple times.

Ancient beams made from the wood of cypress and cedars of Lebanon trees, discarded as refuse in the Shaar Rachamim compound on the Temple Mount.

Varda Epstein: What should we be doing to take back the Temple Mount?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: 991 Jews went up on Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day—it was a record. They should have called in the Guinness people. But it should be like that all the time. Why should we have to wait to go up? The police are going to have to change their rules, so we don't have to wait.

Maybe we need to lobby the Knesset. They close Har HaBayit to Jews on all these Muslim holidays, why couldn't they open it up on Jewish festivals for Jews only?? We need to force the government to make changes for the better.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is open all the time. Why are there limited hours for Jews to visit the Mount? It should be open all the time.

How many Jews make trouble on the Mount? Go up there specifically to pray? And anyway the law says we can pray there. So why can't we do it?

They call it a provocation. We need clearer laws.

Ya know: in what other country would a people give up their holiest place and say, "We won't pray in our holiest place, we'll take the consolation prize?"

We need to shift our mentality back. Shift it back to what a Jewish mentality should be.

Varda Epstein: What do women need to know about going up to the Temple Mount?

Jenni Heltay Menashe: Women have to separate from their husbands either 3 days or two days, so there's a shalom bayit problem, a problem for married couples. There's a 1-day leniency for some. Then a woman has to dip in the mikveh, the ritual bath. There's an issue with single girls going to the mikveh. Some mikveh attendants won't allow this.

Anyway, because of the separation between husbands and wives, a lot of the rabbis are against it (women going up on the Mount). And that's the major difference between men and women. Men don't have to separate from their wives. They just tovel (dip in the ritual bath) in the morning, no problem.

It's a problem for a woman to take a break (from marital relations) for three days. There are already so many days a woman can't be with her husband (because of menstruation). You have to have a husband who is pro (women going on Har Habayit). If he's anti, she definitely shouldn't go. The biggest issue, of course, is you must plan it all out.

But a lot of what is happening today in this sphere, with Har Habayit, is due to women, the push of the women, like in Egypt and in the desert, how the women helped perpetuate our nation. Do you know there's even Beit HaMikdash jewelry, beautiful jewelry with symbols that evoke Har HaBayit. Sarah Feld of Beit El makes amazing jewelry. Maayan Ayash designed Rina Ariel's necklace with a gate that says "Zeh HaShaar, Shaar Hallel" (This is the Gate, Hallel's Gate).

The entrance to the Holy of Holies with the Hebrew words "Oro Shel Olam" or Light of the World. Original Jewelry by Sarah Feld.

Pomegranate with pearl reminds us of the Priestly garments. Original jewelry by Sarah Feld

There are new things at the Kotel, too. There's something called A Look Into the Past, which is a virtual tour of the Beit HaMikdash, you sit on a chair, put on these goggles, turn 360 degrees, and you tour the Beit HaMikdash, it's like you're really there. Everyone raves about it. I've taken people there and they just cry.

The other tour there is the Journey to Jerusalem, a computer-activated program where the Bayit Sheni (the Second Temple) has just been destroyed. The Jews have to run away: where do you go? You have options.

It's been good for the Jews for a couple hundred years, then, all the sudden, it's not so good, so where do you go? You could do the program 200 times and never get the same journey. I've done it 50 times and never get the same thing. These days there's so much more than the Kotel.

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