Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, August 03, 2017

Palestinians: "The US is not an honest broker. It doesn't support murdering Israelis" (ElderToon)

Has anyone else noticed how utterly insane this is?

Palestinians demanded Israel remove all security measures installed at the Temple Mount following the July 14 shooting. Greenblatt and Trump’s senior adviser (and son-in-law) Kushner made behind-the-scenes efforts to defuse the crisis. The Palestinians argue that the administration backed the Israeli government’s position while dismissing the Palestinian point of view.
“Greenblatt picked a side and represented Netanyahu throughout the crisis,” an unnamed senior Palestinian source told the Al-Monitor website this week.

The truly insane thing is that Israel caved on its own security in the face of Arab threats.

(Although I believe that, behind the scenes, Israel is going to quietly put increased security on the entrances to the Temple Mount over the next year without drawing any attention to it, betting that the Palestinians won't make as much of a stink without a noisy crisis accompanying it to mobilize them, like the one day closing of all access to the area. Whether these hidden cameras or whatever are as effective as metal detectors is a separate question.)

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Remember after Trump won the election, how the media suddenly became so concerned about antisemitism? We were bombarded with editorials and op-eds about a sharp rise in Jew-hatred, insisting that Trump bore the brunt of responsibility.

You might have forgotten.

After it saw the potential in attacking Trump for alleged ties to Russia, the media apparently dropped the "Trump encourages antisemitism!" meme and decided to pursue a more promising line of attack.

But over the course of one week, from February 15 through 21, the media claimed antisemitism was on the rise because of Trump, and The Washington Post featured pieces such as these:

o Trump was asked a question about anti-Semitism. His answer was about the electoral college.
o A CNN panel debates the president’s anti-Semitism trump card: His daughter Ivanka
o President Trump thinks asking him to condemn anti-Semitism is ‘insulting.’ Why?
o Why was it so darned hard to get Trump to condemn anti-Semitism?
o A brief history of Donald Trump addressing questions about racism and anti-Semitism

Matters had gone so far that by March 8, David Bernstein wrote a piece at The Washington Post on how out of proportion the claims of a rise in antisemitism had become:

...I’ve been rather taken aback by the panic in the Jewish community over American anti-Semitism since Donald Trump won the election. The recent spate of hoax bombing threats to Jewish community centers and other Jewish institutions around the country has been a precipitating factor, but the fear is drastically out of proportion to the threat; no bombs have been found, and there are no indications that there is any real physical threat to Jews.

Meanwhile, from February 21 to 23, The New York Times chimed in with:

o At Jewish Cemetery, Seeking Answers Amid Heartbreak
o The New American Anti-Semitism
o When Hate Haunts a Graveyard

At the end of that month, Ira Stoll wrote about Trump’s Big Achievement: Making the New York Times Care About Antisemitism, noting that while there were 10 incidents of Jewish graveyard desecration from 2008 to 2016, only 2 of them were reported by The New York Times.

Well -- good news!

Judging by the media's change in focus over the last few months, antisemitism is apparently no longer a problem.

Or is it just that the media has gone back to ignoring antisemitism again?

That would explain the media's reaction to 2 actual cases of antisemitism, cases that cannot be blamed on Donald Trump.

Imam Ammar Shahin. Source: YouTube screenshot

On July 21, Imam Ammar Shahin delivered a sermon at the Islamic Center of Davis, northern California -- inciting hatred against Jews:

Allah does not change the situation of people 'until they change their own situation.' The Prophet Muhammad said: 'Judgment Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Jews hide behind stones and trees, and the stones and the trees say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah...' They will not say: Oh Egyptian, oh Palestinian, oh Jordanian, oh Syrian, oh Afghan, oh Pakistani. The Prophet Muhammad says that they time will come, the Last Hour will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews. We don't say if it is in Palestine or another place. Until they fight... When that war breaks out, they will run and hide behind every rock, and house, and wall, and trees. The house, the wall, and the trees will call upon the Muslims. It will say: Oh Muslim... It will not say: Oh Palestinian, oh Egyptian, oh Syrian, oh Afghan, oh Pakistani, oh Indian... No, it will say: Oh Muslim. Muslim. When Muslims come back... 'Come, there is someone behind me – except for the Gharqad tree, which is the tree of the Jews. Except for a certain tree that they are growing today in Palestine, in that area, except this form of tree, which they are growing today... That's the tree that will not speak to the Muslims. [emphasis added]

In that sermon, Shahin quotes a Hadith known for its inclusion by Hamas terrorists in their charter:

The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,' except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews." (Recorded in the Hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim)

While he does not quote the last part about the trees telling Muslims to kill the Jews, Shahin's audience that day was likely familiar with the Hadith and could guess the point he was making, based on the rest of his sermon.

Jews in the area got the Imam's point too:

“He spelled out what he wishes for every Muslim who follows the Quran and the Hadith to follow what the Hadith says which is …find the Jews hiding behind trees and stones and kill them,” said Sorele Brownstein.

“To me, it’s clear this is direct incitement,” said Shmary Brownstein.

Rabbi Shmary Brownstein and his wife Sorele are the leaders of the Chabad in Davis. They say they’ve been on guard since the video was posted online. Their family is now being harassed by drivers passing by their home, which is also a house of worship.

Following the outcry over his sermon, and before his "apology" Shahin's gave an interview to CBS News -- and Shahin was not inclined to be apologetic:

The mosque where Shahin preaches was also not in an apologizing mood:

The mosque said in a statement Tuesday: “MEMRI, an extremist agenda driven organization that supports Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land, and other Islamophobic news organizations, accused Imam Shahin of anti-Semitism, quoting edited, mistranslated, passages of the sermon out of context.

“If the sermon was misconstrued, we sincerely apologize to anyone offended,” it said. “We will continue our commitment to interfaith and community harmony.” [emphasis added]

Only after the outcry persisted, did Shahin finally apologize.

Meanwhile, on the same day Shahin preached against Jews, another California Imam, Mahmoud Harmoush, was praying for the destruction of Israel:

"Between World War I and World War II, so much of the immigration that came from Europe toward the Islamic world, whether North Africa or the Mediterranean area – Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and all of this... Muslims were opening their homes and saying: Those are our brethren, persecuted by the Christians in Europe. The Jews were coming from Germany, Poland, Italy, and everywhere else, and [the Muslims] would give them rooms, shelter them, and help them out, not knowing that there was a plan. Within the thirty years between the two incidents, until 1948 and the British occupation, everything was plotted to take over that beautiful land, in the way that we all know – with killing, crime, and massacres..."One brother sent me a video, showing a naked woman walking into the holy mosque under the occupation forces, just to insult more and more the psyche, honor, and dignity of the Muslims..."Allah wants us to have jihad in our lives, no matter what and where we are and what is happening. That's until in our hearts, we accept what is true and we reject what is false..."When you happen to be in Jerusalem, for example, around the holy mosque, and people are shooting you, putting you in the hospital, or killing you, you have to resist and fight back as much as you can. Otherwise our life will be meaningless..."Dear brothers and sisters, the conflict is not only in Palestine. They are going there, and they will be demanding that next..."I promise you, it is not only Palestine. If you are going to be like that, most of the Middle East, and even, as I said, Mecca and Medina...They will say: 'Muhammad has died. He left only daughters.' Muhammad died, and he left female children, who cannot fight. Then they will call, in their fighting: 'Oh, we will take revenge for Khaybar.' Where is Khaybar? They will go back to it. They will make every Muslim pay, one way or the other. Wake up, it is time to be a Muslim. Prayer is not the only thing..."Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque and all the Muslim lands from the unjust tyrants and the occupiers. Oh Allah, destroy them, they are no match for You. Oh Allah, disperse them, and rend them asunder. Turn them into booty in the hands of the Muslims. [emphasis]

Like Shahin, Harmoush, does not directly mention Israel; he directs their hatred -- and Allah's destruction -- toward Jews.

So how did the media -- the same media that was so concerned about antisemitism early in the year -- react to these antisemitic sermons?

The reaction of the Washington Post was not to report on the antisemitic sermon when it was actually given. Instead, the newspaper waited until after Shahin finally apologized.

At Legal Insurrection, David Gerstman wrote that the Washington Post whitewashes California Imam’s “Annihilate the Jews” sermon:

For a full week The Washington Post was silent about this crude anti-Semitism. Only a week later did the Post cover it and a number of things are readily apparent.

1. The Post only reported once Shahin offered a dubious apology.
2. The Post never reported on Harmoush’s sermon. Harmoush did not apologize.
3. The Post reported uncritically a false claim made by Shahin and one of his supporters.
4. The Post got an expert to reinterpret part of his sermon so that it was somewhat less offensive.
The first two items are related. The news, which was first reported by MEMRI, on July 21 was that two California imams gave virulently anti-Semitic speeches calling for the killing of the Jews. That was the news.

The false claim referred to is that Israel supposedly closed the Al Aqsa Mosque. The truth is that it was closed at first after Arab terrorists killed 2 Israeli guards at the Temple Mount, while Israel finished its investigation. The Al Aqsa Mosque was then reopened, but Muslims were urged by the Waqf not to enter, because of the cameras and metal detectors installed for security.

The expert reinterpretation referred to was done by Nair Harb Michel, who basically substituted "desecrations of the Jews" for "filth of the Jews" and "defeat each of them" for "annihilate them".

Gerstman also notices that the reporter, Boorstein, acknowledges receiving a statement from Shahin on Wednesday -- 2 days before her article came out -- but held off until Shahin officially offered his public "apology". Again, The Washington Post appeared more interested in the damage control than in reporting about the kind of antisemitism they were apparently so keen on reporting earlier this year.

But regardless of how you translate the sermon, the fact remains that Shahin quoted a Hadith which clearly describes, if not encourages, killing Jews.

The Washington Post was not the only newspaper to play down the threatening nature of Shahin's sermon.

CAMERA noted that the Sacramento Bee Sanitizes Anti-Semitic Sermon. Among the criticisms made about the newspaper story:

o The Sacramento Bee reported the sermon's content as "Islamic texts about an end-times battle," deliberately concealing from its readers Shahin's actual language about Muslims fighting Jews.
o The Sacramento Bee reported that Mosque officials claimed the imam was mistranslated and thus taken out of context, yet in his sermon Shahin made statements about a "corrupted" Jewish Torah and the "Muslims fight the Jews," which were made in English and clearly illustrate his intent.
o The reporter, Anita Chabria, asked University of California, Berkeley, Near East professor Hatem Bazian to check the MEMRI translation, which he said "missed nuanced distinctions". However, CAMERA notes that Bazian:

is the founder of the radical anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine, slurs Israel as an apartheid state, and is affiliated with, and fund-raised for, groups and individuals that have illegally financed Hamas, a designated terror organization committed to Israel's destruction.

CAMERA also refers to MEMRI, which notes that Shahin's sermon from the previous week was along the same antisemitic lines:

May Allah protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the harm of the Jews. Oh Allah, protect our brothers in the land of Palestine. Oh Allah, let us pray in the Al-Aqsa Mosque before we die. Oh Allah, allow Jerusalem to be liberated. Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews. Oh Allah, show us the wonders of Your ability that you inflict upon them. Oh Allah, show us the black day that You inflict upon them. Oh Allah, show us the black day that You inflict upon those who wish ill upon [the Al-Aqsa] Mosque. Oh Allah, keep them preoccupied with one another, and make a deterrent example out of them. Oh Allah, count them one by one and destroy them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them. Oh Allah, destroy them and do not spare their young or their elderly. Oh Allah, show us the black day that You inflict upon those who occupy Palestine. Oh Allah, show us the wonders of Your ability that you inflict upon them. Oh Allah, turn Jerusalem and Palestine into a graveyard for the Jews.

On the other hand, The New York Times settled for a bare-bones report about the sermon, provided by the Associated Press. It noted:

In a July 21 sermon, Shahin condoned the annihilation of Jews and those restricting access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The truth of course is that Shahin did not condone the annihilation of Jews -- he was encouraging it. His apology is noted, but leaves unclear how an imam can talk about annihilating Jews yet can apologize -- and apparently have his apology accepted.

As opposed to The Washington Post (30 paragraphs) and the Sacramento Bee (23 paragraphs) which go into depth in their whitewash of Shahin's sermon, The New York Times uses the AP story, which amounts to playing down the incident in 9 short paragraphs, as if the whole thing is not worth the reader's attention.

How did Jew-hatred suddenly become so unworthy of being considered a news item?

Trump should only be so lucky.

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Ma'an denies it promotes terror. It is lying.

On Tuesday, I was the first one to report on a music video, produced in Hebrew, that glorified killing Jews. I pointed out that Ma'an News Agency was pushing this video on its Arabic website.

Now Ma'an has responded on its English website:

Far-right Israelis denounced Ma’an news agency on social media on Wednesday for publishing an article about a song advocating for violence against Israelis, erroneously claiming that the song itself was written and produced by Ma’an.
On Tuesday, Ma’an’s Arabic-language site posted an article entitled “A song in Hebrew for the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” reporting that a Hebrew-language video clip called “Defending Al-Aqsa” was being shared on social media, and clarifying that neither the singer nor the songwriter were identified.
The song threatened the use of violence against Jewish Israelis, with lyrics such as “Intelligence, soldier, settler, and police/ I’ll attack, stab, and smash you,” and calls to “cleanse Palestine of Jews.”
Ma’an General Director Raed Othman has confirmed that Ma’an did not produce the video, but had only written about its existence.
Both the article and the video have since been removed from Ma'an online platforms.
However, a number of Israel supporters shared a link to one of Ma’an’s Youtube accounts -- on which the news agency uploads all videos it links to on its website -- showing the video out of context and claiming that it was created and condoned by Ma’an.

I certainly didn't claim that Ma'an was behind the video. As far as I can tell, neither did anyone else. But there is no doubt that Ma'an publicized it, without a negative word about its violent, pro-terror and antisemitic content.

It acted as a marketing partner for a video that incites violence without the least moral qualm.

Every single other Arabic site I could find, that mentions the video, links to Ma'an's (now removed) YouTube post of the video, not the original, indicating that if it wasn't for Ma'an, no one would have heard of it. If it was going viral on social media than at least one other news site would have linked to the original instead of to Ma'an's edit. It was difficult to track down the original on YouTube. That video only had a few thousand views - hardly evidence of it being popular considering the hundreds of thousands of views we've seen other videos get.

Moreover, as far as I can tell, Ma'an only mentioned the video being removed on its English website. It didn't publish this denial on its Arabic website. The reason is because Ma'an's Arabic website is the one that routinely calls any dead terrorist a "martyr" and that indeed tacitly celebrates terror attacks. In Arabic, Ma'an was clearly linking itself with the video, although not explicitly. It only denies such linkage for its Western donors who don't bother to read the Arabic site.

Ma'an didn't seem to try too hard to find out who the originator of the video was, which seems strange for a news organization that pretends that it only published the video because it was newsworthy. Without any background, any indication of how popular it is, any quotes from anyone about the video, Ma'an wasn't reporting about a newsworthy video - it was simply advertising it.

Putting all of these together, Ma'an is acting disingenuously by denying something that no one really accused it of (as far as I can tell) and by only distancing itself from the video in English, not in Arabic.

I found another Hebrew-language music video that celebrates murdering Jews even more explicitly with similar graphics and a similar theme that was released in February, that also did not achieve any real fame. YNet says that this was from Hamas, which indicates that the other one was from Hamas as well. (h/t Israellycool)

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08/02 Links Pt2: Camp Stupid USA; Former UN Rapporteur Falk is a member of antisemitic FB groups

From Ian:

Camp Stupid USA

Ordinarily a story like this – the “Palestinian” flag flying over a Jewish camp for kids in Washington State, USA – would rate scant attention, except that it symbolizes two points: 1. Our desperate need to be loved. 2. It happened at the time when an Islamic preacher in California got caught sermonizing death to all Jews.
That imam at Davis, CA lamely apologized (to stem the bad PR), and so did the officials at Camp Solomon Schechter who explained that they won’t do it again, but that they hoisted the flag because some Arab kids were coming to visit so this would be a good time for some solidarity.
According to them at the camp, it was meant to provide “a teachable moment” and to foster “empathy…”hope”…”love”…and “peace.”
Talk like that is not exclusive to that camp where the leaders meant no harm and no disrespect to Israel. Their apology, I do believe.
They were simply caught being stupid.
Stupid is who we are when we keep pleading for acceptance against enemies who just won’t take love for an answer.
Groveling is what we do even at home in America and even with Israel at our side; blessings that ought to make us feel high spirited and invincible instead of pathetic and submissive. (Borrowed from and based upon the novel “The Bathsheba Deadline.”)
I guess it’s too late to remind (some) American Jews that the “Palestinian” flag represents nothing, zero, since there is no “Palestinian” country or nation…and if it does mean anything, it means precisely what that imam preached – “the annihilation of all Jews everywhere.”

Author of anti-Israel UN report is mixed up in antisemitic FB groups

Richard Falk, an American professor who has held multiple positions at the United Nations which he has in the past notoriously used to propel an anti-Israel agenda, was discovered to be a member of an antisemitic hate group on Facebook.
Sources close to The Jerusalem Post discovered Falk is one of 5,408 members of "Shoah," the Facebook group of an organization by the same name. The British group began operating in 2011 with the aim of ending "Zio-Nazi oppression" and the "environmental destruction of Palestine."
Although the complete members list and the true total number of members is visible only to accepted members, The Jerusalem Post obtained a screenshot of Falk's membership as of Sunday, July 30, 2017:
Screenshot of Richard Falk's membership in the Shoah: Palestinian Holocaust Facebook Group, taken in July, 2017.Screenshot of Richard Falk's membership in the Shoah: Palestinian Holocaust Facebook Group, taken in July, 2017.
The Shoah Facebook group has spread severely anti-Israel and antisemitic imagery, often depicting Israel and global Jewry as one and the same:
When questioned about his membership in the group, Falk told The Jerusalem Post, "Thank you [for] notifying me. I had never heard of this group before. I went to the link for the group, and found out that I had been added by someone named John Phoenix, whom I don't know..."
This is a curious statement, considering Falk is friends with John Phoenix (the administrator of the Shoah group) on that same Facebook account. Being "friends" on Facebook requires action by both parties:

Breaking silence, AIPAC announces support for Taylor Force Act

A day before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will consider a revised version of a measure that would strip US funding to the Palestinian Authority over its practice of paying terrorists and their families, the most powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington broke its silence and came out in support of the bill.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) urged the committee Wednesday to vote yes on the Taylor Force Act. The committee is due to meet on Thursday and the bill is on the committee’s agenda. Passage would send the bill to the entire Senate chamber.
For the last several months — since South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) introduced the motion in February — AIPAC has refrained from unequivocally endorsing the bill, instead saying simply that it supported its principle objective.
But after the Senate unveiled an updated version Tuesday, AIPAC was prepared to fully embrace the bill.
The new text incorporates some of the concerns expressed among committee members, like allowing for continued funding to the PA for humanitarian efforts and security cooperation, but it does not include a waiver that would grant the US president the ability to disregard the law on national security grounds.
AIPAC signaled on Wednesday that the provisions were critical for earning its backing.

Michael Behar broke an important story this week, though you've probably never heard of him. He's the guy who first wrote about Camp Solomon Shechter flying a Palestinian flag. But you'd never know it from reading the coverage of that story. Because not a single one of the news outlets that subsequently ran the story thought to credit him.

Not the JTA nor any of the various news outlets that subscribe to this resource, for instance, Fox, Tablet, and Israel International News.

Not that Michael cares. What he cares about, is Israel. That is at the heart and soul of all the work he does.

(Of course, I thought it was DISGUSTING. Journalists and bloggers who do that sort of thing—yoink stories without credit—are generally shunned. Basic journalistic standards demand crediting one's sources for stories. It's just not right what they did, those news outlets.)

That story was a shocker. The camp did its best to clean up the mess it made after the fact, but its apology ran far short of even a modicum of sincerity. The administrators of the camp seemed only to be sorry about the fact that things got "political." As if it were not "political" for a Jewish camp to fly the flag of a wannabe state that would be founded on the principle that Israel cease to exist.

Now Mike and I have been friends for five years. He has shared every single piece I've ever written during that time (and that's a considerable number of pieces). We also collaborated on articles here and there.

No one has been as staunch a supporter of my views as Michael Behar. So naturally, I was going to share his shocker of a story. But I was going to share it even if I didn't know Michael from a hole in the wall. Because it was a huge story. And being that it was, in fact, coming from Michael, I knew it was a TRUE story, to boot.

He's the most honest guy I know.

Friends were sharing my share of his piece, and oddly, people kept sending me the link to it by PM. That's how I knew this was a big story. The kind of story bloggers dream about. Except for bloggers like Michael, who really don't care about fame and page views. (In case you're wondering, his piece got over 9K likes, which is all but unheard of in blogging circles, an amazing number.)

Like I said, Michael cares about Israel. So much so that during the last war with Gaza, Mike and his wife had siren apps on their phones so their kids would know what Israel was going through, and empathize. Michael's blogs are all about fighting the good fight for the land he loves most of all.

Imagine my surprise then, to wake up to a message request from one Yohanna Kinberg. She wrote:

"Please do not share anything from the Mike Report. He brings shame to Israel and the Jewish people through his lies, propaganda and hatred. He targets other Jews and fosters baseless hatred in our community. Sharing his words reflects poorly. Please delete what you shared, especially what he wrote about Camp Solomon Schechter. You do not want to be a part of spreading such negativity and animosity towards fellow Jews. Ahavat Yisrael: let us foster love and not hate."

This to me, was worse than what the journalists did by not crediting Michael for breaking the story. Kinberg was saying terrible things about Michael, horrible things, things that seemed the complete opposite of what I knew to be true. This, during the nine days leading up to Tisha B'Av, a time when observant Jews attempt to rectify the sin that led to the destruction of the Temple, that of baseless hatred.

Moreover, Michael's piece was honest. The camp did, in fact, fly the Ashaf (PLO) flag. Note that the PLO's charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Not to mention continued terror against Jews. Which they call "resistance."

Why did Kinberg want to suppress Michael's blog piece? Why was she smearing him, a hateful act, and accusing him of "baseless hatred?" How does it foster love to fly the flag of a people determined to annihilate us?

It sure did seem like the animosity was all hers: all Rabbi Kinberg's.

I went to Michael and asked him if he knew her, and what this was all about. He said:

"Look, my blog focuses on the intersection of Israel and the Pacific Northwest so naturally as a local public figure, Rabbi Kinberg’s anti-Israel activism from my perspective is newsworthy. I’ve been told that Rabbi Kinberg has been on some sort of angry personal crusade against me, that’s okay—I see it as a symptom of the frustration she and her cohort feel over not having a monopoly on the narrative. I don’t take it seriously; she pretty much just lashes out online in the same way President Trump does when the press doesn’t frame a story to his liking.

"I am amused by her serial contradictions. Let me give you a few examples. She asserts that it is noble and brave to publicly vilify the Jewish state, but divisive and cowardly for bloggers to report that she has publicly vilified the Jewish state. She railed against a local synagogue for screening a film critical of J-Street, saying it was divisive, and then joined a public rally against AIPAC. She marches with the rabidly anti-Israel group IfNotNow and then excoriates anybody who dares to question her pro-Israel bona fides."

I was beginning to understand. "But," I wondered aloud, "Doesn't it bother you, her going behind your back and saying such awful things about you?"

"Nope. Aside from when I am reporting on her anti-Israel activities, I give her not a moment’s thought."

"Wow," I said. "I couldn't do that. I would be up all night tossing and turning."

"Well, I bear no animosity towards Rabbi Kinberg, I believe she is in many cases wrong, but she is entitled to her opinion.

"She seems to sincerely believe that she can march in an anti-Israel rally and that nobody is allowed to report on it unless it includes praise for her resilience, virtue and bravery. Her idea of Israel advocacy is marching with IfNotNow, a radical group that is agnostic on whether or not a Jewish state should even exist. She seems to be upset that I identified the anti-Israel march in which she participated. She libels as haters those who love Israel and long for peace.

"If she wishes to foment hate towards her fellow Jews that is her right, but it doesn't reflect well on her or her congregation."

"No it certainly doesn't," I said. "Especially so close to Tisha B'Av."

"Exactly," said Michael, "At a time when we need to have difficult conversations with those with whom we disagree Rabbi Kinberg is doing real damage to our community. She simply labels good people as haters and tries to shut them down.

"Baseless hatred brought destruction to our people. My prayer is that Rabbi Kinberg will open her heart to her fellow Jews, even Israel lovers. She cannot seem to fathom that those with whom she disagrees may be good people who long for peace as much, if not more so than her."

"Okay," I said. "But to simply shut people down, to try to suppress opposite viewpoints??"

"Shutting down the conversation is exactly the wrong approach, we need to be able to listen to one another," said Michael. "She has a history of trying to shut down different perspectives. She tried to stop a pro-Israel film from being screened in Seattle and seems to think supporting Israel is hate speech. To her, those who disagree are not just wrong, they are expressing anti-Jewish values. Of course, she gets to decide what Jewish values are."

All that day and during the long Tisha B'Av fast, I tried to make sense of it: Michael telling the truth, Rabbi Kinberg attempting to suppress his piece and calling it hate. Should it not be somewhat shocking to be approached during the Nine Days by a rabbi spreading rechilut (defamation) and lashon hara (harmful gossip)? This, in fact, was why the temple was destroyed.

In Rabbi Kinberg's words, I saw nothing of peace, understanding, or love. I saw one Jew denigrating and demonizing a fellow Jew, someone I knew to be a lover of peace and a lover of Israel.

My friend, Michael.

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Truck Drivers Unloading Tons Of Food In Gaza Unaware Of Brutal Siege (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Kerem Shalom Crossing, August 2 - Logistics personnel handling the hundreds of tons of foodstuffs, commercial goods, medical supplies, and other essentials that move into the Gaza Strip each day from Israel remain oblivious to the fact that the Gaza Strip is under siege, with nothing allowed in or out, local sources are reporting.

Truck drivers, fork lift operators, and other cargo delivery and processing professionals on the Palestinian side of the facility handle hundreds of incoming truckloads of such goods and materials each day from Israel, receiving delivery and coordinating further distribution of the cargo throughout the coastal territory. However, not a single member of the staff at the facility, nor a single driver, clerk, or other functionary appears to know about the cruel Israeli siege that is stifling Gaza's economy, causing shortage of medical and other crucial supplies, and threatening the entire population of almost 2 million Palestinians with starvation. Instead, they continue to process the importation of thousands of tons of goods per day to deliver, to supermarkets, warehouses, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, luxury boutiques, and other establishments that have imported the goods from or through Israel, as if no siege is underway.

"I don't know how they can be so ignorant," remarked Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch. "Don't they get their news from the same sources as the rest of us, according to which Israel's blockade and control of the border with Gaza are causing rampant malnutrition, power outages, and other disasters?"

The mystery of the workers' apparent ignorance deepens when one examines official Palestinian rhetoric, notably that of the Islamist Hamas organization that runs the Gaza Strip. "There is no way they can be unaware of the barrage of 'we're under siege' and 'they are depriving us of basic necessities' talk from Palestinian sources inside and outside Gaza," observed Jacob Burns of Amnesty International. "It's axiomatic that Israel's policies are the root of all Palestinian suffering - the human rights industr- I mean community established that long ago. Its doubly confusing to have such people who must answer to the Palestinian leadership, owing to the nature of their jobs, not aware that they are supposed to be acting accordingly, not just receiving tons and tons of goods without so much as a mention of the deadly, sadistic, illegal siege."

"In fact it's so bad that Gazans have taken to desperate measures to assuage their own suffering," he added. "It's painful to watch."

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08/02 Links Pt1: When a murderer is called a martyr; Kedar: Israel vs. Jordan; Phillips: The Temple Mount trap

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The Temple Mount trap

I wrote here that Israel’s removal of the metal detectors from Temple Mount was a mistake, and that those in the west approving of the move merely showed how badly they failed to understand the Arab Muslim religious war against the Jews.
On the day the metal detectors were removed I attended a meeting in Jerusalem where Israel’s minister for housing, Yoav Galant, said erecting the barriers had been “a mistake”.
Staggered by this language which played directly into the Arab and Muslim “strong horse” mindset in which any retreat is viewed as a signal to redouble the attack, I asked Galant whether such a move wasn’t going to be taken as a sign of weakness which would merely incentivise more violence. “No!” he snapped before stalking off.
It was subsequently reported that Galant had been the prime mover inside the Israeli security cabinet to get the metal detectors removed.
What has followed, however, has been as predictable as it is alarming. The Palestinian Arabs have been crowing that they have Israel on the run. That has accordingly galvanised them to further violence, rioting on Temple Mount and attacking from this supposedly sacred Islamic space Jewish worshippers praying at the Western Wall. (It was a attack from al Aqsa upon Israeli police officers, two of whom were murdered, which led to the metal detectors being installed in the first place).
Palestinian Authority leaders then endorsed two weeks of Arab rioting at Temple Mount, calling on Palestinians to “rage” and “come to the defence of al Aqsa” against the entirely fictional threat from Israel.
Palestinian Media Watch published the cartoon reproduced here which Fatah (the party of the “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas) posted on its Facebook page and whose text PMW translates as “Victory is better than sleep”. It also published another showing metal detectors running away from cheering Arabs at the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount.

Mordechai Kedar: Israel vs. Jordan

When Israel placed magnometers and security cameras at the Temple Mount entrance about two weeks ago, the King of Jordan, Abdullah, contacted America and European countries and warned that the security measures Israel implemented on the Temple Mount could potentially undermine his government. Since Jordan has a special status regarding Jerusalem, Israel’s actions will spark the rage of Muslims in Jordan and throughout Middle East against his government, because his inaction to influence Israeli policy on the Temple Mount would be seen by the Muslim world as collaborating with Israel. Therefore, in order for Abdullah to maintain his already unstable government, he demanded that the Israeli government remove the security measures it had recently installed on the Temple Mount. This request is unthinkable, and one wonders how Abdullah musters the chutzpah to demand such a request which implies that Israel should endanger its own police and citizens, so that he can remain secure in the monarchy inherited from his great grandfather who received it illegitimately from the British after World War I.
Israel’s conduct vis-à-vis Jordan, illustrates that here also, similar to its dealing with the Palestinians, the Israeli government continues to prefer short term tactical interests over long term strategic interests, such as allowing the Hashemite Kingdom to be toppled and replacing it with a Palestinian Arab state. The Hashemite Kingdom is living on borrowed time, and its fate will likely be similar to other Arab governments throughout the Middle East that were toppled; and these governments were stronger and more stable than the Hashemite Kingdom. The events of the last week prove that the peace agreement with Jordan not only limits Israel’s sovereignty and ability to defend its citizens, but also serves as a vehicle which allows Jordan to apply diplomatic pressure on Israel.
The Hashemite Kingdom in Jordan owes its life to Israel, and therefore the Israeli government need not acquiesce to their demands. Regretfully, it is difficult to expect the Israeli government, which surrenders to terror, to navigate correctly through the uncertain roads of the Middle East. The State of Israel needs to invest many resources to restore its image which has been severely damaged by this sad decision to remove the security measures from the Temple Mount. Maybe the time has come for Israeli citizens to demand a head of state who has the determination and backbone necessary to stand up for the security of its citizens.

The State Department's Report on Terrorism Should Be Discredited

At the top of the list of supposed "continued drivers of violence" in the Palestinian Authority (PA) is an assertion even more fabricated: "a lack of hope in achieving Palestinian statehood..."
It is not "lack of hope" that drives Palestinian violence. On the contrary, it is precisely the propping up of hope -- that intimidation and terrorism work and deliver concessions, such as UNESCO's fraudulent rulings that try to strip the Jews of their history, or Israel's recent removal of metal detectors and cameras from the Temple Mount -- that keeps the Palestinians on the offensive.
The report's allegations are perceptibly false. The PA has absolute control over the content of school books, print and broadcast media pieces, and sermons in mosques, all of which are rife with blatant anti-Semitism and glorification of terrorism and terrorists. This means that the incitement to spill Jewish blood is approved by the PA leadership, when not directly planted by it.

1962 documentary on Israel - narrated by Frank Sinatra (including concert for the IAF)

The Jewish Virtual Library put together a non-comprehensive list of artists that have performed in Israel, most of them in the past few years. Over a thousand singers and other entertainers have been in Israel.

In the list I noticed Frank Sinatra was in Israel twice, in 1962 and 1975.

I found an amazing video, narrated by Sinatra himself, about his visit to Israel in 1962. He shows how Israel helps immigrants, teaches medicine to African doctors, and provides the best healthcare. There is also footage from Israel's 14th Independence Day celebrations.

The video is a fundraiser for the Israel Histradut Campaign.

It also includes footage of Sinatra singing at an IAF base.

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From Iran's Mehrnews:

Iranian official Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said attempts by certain Arab countries to normalize ties with Israeli regime “will get nowhere” due to public opinion’s awareness and attention to the Palestinian issue.

During the meeting, Amir-Abdollahian voiced Tehran’s support for Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad within the framework of a united Islamic world and in the fight against the Israeli regime.

“Today, a great part of regional security and combating terrorism is provided through the unity and strength of the Resistance Front,” the Iranian official stressed.

The Resistance Front has achieved the expected results in the fight against terrorism and Zionism, he said.

Terrorist organizations are the leaders in the fight against terror. Orwell couldn't make this up.

The funny part is that Arab nations now consider Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah to be terror organizations too, and they hate Iran more than Israel. So these statements paradoxically push the Arab world closer to Israel, not further away.

Meanwhile, Iran is trying hard to leverage the Temple Mount incident to get the Arabs to hate Israel:

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed the recent cases of Zionist aggression and provocation in the city of al-Quds (Jerusalem) and called for a united Muslim campaign against the Tel Aviv regime’s expansionist policies.
“We should not allow any agenda or cause to compromise the main goal of this Organization to enhance the unity of the Ummah against Zionist expansionism and in support of the establishment of a viable independent Palestinian State with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital,” the Iranian top diplomat said on Tuesday in an address to an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Executive Committee.

Iran always wanted to be leader of the Muslim world, but that is not working out too well for it.

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Google's "what is toxic" algorithm doesn't notice antisemitism

Tablet has an interesting article about the new Google Perspective API that is meant to notice what kinds of statements might be perceived as "toxic".

I ran a few unquestionably antisemitic statements through the algorithm to see what Google thought. These are some that came out less likely to be considered "toxic." Many came from Arab media.

"The Jews believe that their Lord has created Gentiles to serve them." 35% likely to be perceived as toxic

"The world is divided into two groups: the Jews and the Goyim, and the creation of non-Jews is to serve Jews, enslave them, steal from them." - 20%

"Israel is an apartheid state." - 44%

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are a fact." - 1%

"The Israel lobby controls America." 2%

"Jews were behind the World Trade Center attacks." - 11%

("Muslims were behind the World Trade Center attacks." - 9%)

"Much of the culture of mutilation practiced by Jews against Arabs comes through movies, books, newspapers, magazines and entertainment programs on satellite channels." - 1%

"The Jordanians will regain their rights with their hands, and Jews will pay the price sometime, as they did in Khaibar and in Germany. " - 13%

"With the whole world mortgaging their possessions to Jewish money, the Jews have excelled in all fields and disciplines and transformed Zionism into a political movement that has attracted international attention. They have also sought to develop science and Jewish culture and their scientists won a multitude of Nobel prizes, and here we can only say they have succeeded with resounding success in all of their tyrannical and scientific methods. They created the largest terrorist movement in history through this Zionist family's leadership, famous for the planning of the killing and bloodshed against Arabs and Muslims." - 12%

"The Shylock character in "The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare is the finest embodiment of the Jewish character, which reflects his greed and hatred and desire for bloody revenge better than any other." - 9%

"Jews are still are planning and holding conferences for many years on how to destroy the world and to eliminate their enemies, they have conspired to anyone who stands against them or who impedes the achievement of what they are seeking." - 22%

"Let us all be aware of the hostility and conspiracy hatched and planned by the Jews to fight Islam and Muslims." - 44%

"Jews lie as easily as they breathe, a fact that we Arabs who live in our homelands since ancient times know well." - 34%

"Jews only understand the language of force." - 14%

"The Zionist enemy seeks to create economic and political crises to many countries with different interests, specifically Egypt. " - 1%

"We ask God Almighty to foil their evil schemes against the Islamic nation, (as there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,) and [we ask Allah to] cleanse the land of Palestine from defiled Jews and their supporters, and to support the mujahideen everywhere in Burma, Syria, Palestine, ...and may this century herald the era of the beginning of Islamic Renaissance, God willing." - 34%

"Abusing the Torah, they [the 'Rabbinic Council' of Israel] managed to turn its teachings into a real-estate book with ‘Divine Entitlements’ to possess Palestinian lands by Jews only as 'the chosen people of God. " - 2%

"Such egotistical doctrine being taught to Israeli youth brings back to memory the doctrine of 'the master white Aryan race' which ignited 'the Holocaust." - 1%

"The racist mentality prevailing in Israel has deep roots entrenched and nourished by the Ashkenazi (western) Talmud written to explain the Torah by Ashkenazi Rabbis who abandoned the Sephardim Talmud written by the Arab Jews who originally came from Arabia representing the real Hebrew community. " - 29%

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Today, August 2, is the anniversary of the Palestine Currency Law, which in 1926 established the Palestine pound as the legal tender for the area of British Mandate Palestine.

What I didn't realize is that the Palestine pound was the only legal currency in Transjordan as well until 1949!

So Transjordan used Palestinian currency until Israel was founded, and possibly for a year afterwards (when the Palestine pound was issued by the Anglo-Palestine Bank, owned by the Jewish Agency!)

Arabs in Palestine objected to using the currency at the time, wanting to keep the Egyptian pound as their official currency.

So when Palestinians claim that the Palestine pound was "their" currency that they want to recreate, are they also claiming sovereignty over Jordan which used that currency as well?

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08/01 Links: Melanie Phillips: A day to teach the world; When Progressives Embrace Hate

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: A day to teach the world

And that’s what so many in the west also don’t grasp – that the Jews alone are the indigenous people of the land, and that Judaism is based on an actual nation which practised its religion in the actual historic kingdom of Judea.
But because Islam holds that any territory ever occupied by Muslims remains Muslim for ever and can be ruled by no-one else, the Muslim world will not accept this. That’s why the war over Temple Mount is not being waged in the name of the Palestinians or even the Arabs but – according to Mahmoud Abbas amongst others – all Muslims.
It is an Islamic holy war – not just against the State of Israel but against Judaism itself. For both the Temple and the land of Israel are central to Jewish religious belief. Not all Jews are Zionists, for sure. Neither are all Jews religiously observant. But Judaism is inextricably composed of the people, the religion and the land. Those who want to strip away the land from the Jewish people are attacking Judaism itself.
Some Jews question why Tisha b’Av remains a day of mourning when Israel has been so triumphantly reborn from the ashes of history. But today it’s surely more important than ever to mourn. For the destroyers are still with us, the Temple Mount is still occupied and the stones are still being hurled down from it. The only difference is that the murderous destroyers hurling the rocks today are not the Romans but the Arab Muslims.
Well, the enemies of the Jewish people didn’t destroy us before; against impossible odds the land of Israel was restored to its indigenous people, the Jews; and they won’t succeed in destroying us now, or ever.

NYTs: When Progressives Embrace Hate

What wasn’t to like?
A lot, as it turns out. The leaders of the Women’s March, arguably the most prominent feminists in the country, have some chilling ideas and associations. Far from erecting the big tent so many had hoped for, the movement they lead has embraced decidedly illiberal causes and cultivated a radical tenor that seems determined to alienate all but the most woke.
Start with Ms. Sarsour, by far the most visible of the quartet of organizers. It turns out that this “homegirl in a hijab,” as one of many articles about her put it, has a history of disturbing views, as advertised by . . . Linda Sarsour.
There are comments on her Twitter feed of the anti-Zionist sort: “Nothing is creepier than Zionism,” she wrote in 2012. And, oddly, given her status as a major feminist organizer, there are more than a few that seem to make common cause with anti-feminists, like this from 2015: “You’ll know when you’re living under Shariah law if suddenly all your loans and credit cards become interest-free. Sound nice, doesn’t it?” She has dismissed the anti-Islamist feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the most crude and cruel terms, insisting she is “not a real woman” and confessing that she wishes she could take away Ms. Ali’s vagina — this about a woman who suffered genital mutilation as a girl in Somalia.
Ms. Sarsour and her defenders have dismissed all of this as a smear campaign coordinated by the far right and motivated by Islamophobia. Plus, they’ve argued, many of these tweets were written five years ago! Ancient history.
But just last month, Ms. Sarsour proved that her past is prologue. On July 16, the official Twitter feed of the Women’s March offered warm wishes to Assata Shakur. “Happy birthday to the revolutionary #AssataShakur!” read the tweet, which featured a “#SignOfResistance, in Assata’s honor” — a pink and purple Pop Art-style portrait of Ms. Shakur, better known as Joanne Chesimard, a convicted killer who is on the F.B.I.’s list of most wanted terrorists.

Best Friends: Linda Sarsour and Muslim Brotherhood Supporter Omar Suleiman

In late August 2014, Linda Sarsour declared that Imam Omar Suleiman made her “more proud to be a Muslim and a Palestinian.” One year later, she praised him as one of several Muslim “scholars … who speak truth w/ courage & w/o apology.” Suleiman responded: “jazakiallah khayr [may Allah reward you with goodness] and thank you for being a leader in the trenches!”
In July 2016, Sarsour promoted a glowing tribute to Suleiman and told [archived] her Twitter followers: “Check out this profile of one of America’s most prominent imams @omarsuleiman504. Proud to call him a friend.” Suleiman warmly returned her compliments, responding: “Just following in your footsteps 🙂 It’s an honor to have you as a sister, friend, and leader.” And just a few weeks ago, Sarsour shared yet another article praising Suleiman; she told her followers: “Imam @omarsuleiman504 has inspired me to love my religion even more. A man of spirituality, conviction & justice.”
We all know the saying, “Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.” So perhaps finding out who Omar Suleiman is will tell us a bit more about the controversial activist Linda Sarsour.
Suleiman describes himself on Twitter as “Scholar & Community Servant. Founder & President of @YaqeenInstitute, Professor @SMU, Resident Scholar @ValleyRanchIC.” According to the first article that Sarsour shared, Suleiman is also “a new kind of American imam” with “a wildly popular social-media presence, with more than a million likes on his Facebook page and tens of millions of views for his YouTube sermons.”

We've seen before how BDS activists talk big about boycotting Israel - meaning, everyone else must boycott Israel.

We know how Omar Barghouti wants everyone to boycott Israeli universities while he attended (attends?) one. We've seen how BDS groups happily use Israeli website technology - and even try to justify it!

Add to this list Saeb Erekat. Erekat has publicly called for BDS in Europe. But now, he needs medical help in Israel, and he doesn't hesitate to use it:

Palestinian Authority chief negotiator and secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization Saeb Erekat has a serious lung disease and is currently on the waiting list for a transplant in Israel and the US, according to a report Tuesday on the Ynet news site.

Erekat, 62, was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis over a year ago and had been on medications that were effectively treating the disease. However, the drugs stopped working several months ago, and his condition has since deteriorated dramatically.

The chief PA negotiator has been receiving additional treatment at a hospital in central Israel, but doctors have warned that his condition cannot improve without an immediate transplant, the report said.

Suddenly, Israeli goods and services seem to be not so terrible!

Erekat could go to Europe or an Arab country to get the transplant and treatment. But - he chooses Israel.

The hypocrisy doesn't end there. The PA has recently slashed the number of medical permits for Gazans to get treated in Israel, but for Erekat, of course, he must get the best medical care possible.

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Mourning the destruction of the ancient Jewish Temple is a wake-up call for our future (Forest Rain)

The 9th day of the month of Av (Jewish calendar) is the day when both the first and second Temples were destroyed, the first by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.; the second by the Romans in 70 C.E. It is a day of fasting and mourning for religious Jews around the world.

The destruction of the Temple meant the destruction of the centerpiece of Judaism, tearing apart of the foundation of Jewish culture and the Nation of Israel.

This and the exile that followed should have been enough to eliminate the Jewish people. It wasn’t.

2000 years did not make the Jewish people forget.

The image people around the world today have of the Temple Mount is that of the golden domed mosque which was built on the ruins of the Temple in 691 C.E. Since that time the Dome of the Rock has been a holy place for the Muslim people – although not central to their religion. Considered the third holiest location in Islam, it is not mentioned a single time in the Koran. In fact, the reason Al-Aqsa became important in Islam was to further a political agenda, not a religious one (See the historical explanation by Dr. Mordechai Kedar here ).

Within the Dome of the Rock is the Foundation Stone, the foundation on which it is believed that God created the earth. This was the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was placed, within the ancient Jewish Temple.

Although the Nation of Israel has re-established the State of Israel we have not really returned to the heart of our nation, the pulsing center, the source of the holiness of Jerusalem – the Temple Mount in the heart of the capital of our State. Jews are not allowed anywhere near the site that is most holy to us. We may not enter the Dome of the Rock, not even to look. Ascending to the Temple Mount is highly restricted and prayers are strictly forbidden. International attempts are being made to deny Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and to Jerusalem, for the same reason ancient conquerors did.

Today we mourn what was lost to our people. Today we mourn what we have yet to regain.

This is our legacy. Through Judaism, this is also the legacy of the Christian world. Will we allow ourselves to be denied our roots in order so others may have our future?

“May my tongue cleave to my mouth, if I ever think not of thee, if I ever prize not Jerusalem above all joys!” Psalm 137

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