Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, August 13, 2017

08/13 Links: HRW Sarah Leah Whitson's Jewish Problem; Charlottesville And The Charlatan Linda Sarsour

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: Sarah Leah Whitson’s Jewish Problem Appears Again at Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch (HRW)’s long news release (“Israel: Jerusalem Palestinians Stripped of Status,” August 8, 2017) consists of a compilation of “testimonies” Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem, who are permanent residents of Israel but not citizens.
In the release, and as has been her practice for 15 years, Sarah Leah Whitson, Director of HRW’s Middle East and North Africa Division, attacks Israel with a stream of false claims and demonization. According to Whitson, “Israel claims to treat Jerusalem as a unified city, but the reality is effectively one set of rules for Jews and another for Palestinians” (emphasis added).
The attempt to portray the situation as Jew versus Palestinian is wrong and reflects an on-going attempt by Whitson to manufacture claims of discrimination. The issue has nothing to do with religion or ethnicity. Rather, the key distinction is whether the individual is an Israeli citizen or not. As detailed in HRW’s own report, Palestinians from East Jerusalem are not citizens of Israel. Israeli citizens who live in the eastern part of the city (roughly considered to be based on the 1949-1967 cease fire lines following the Jordanian occupation), whether they are Jewish or Arab (or otherwise), have the same rights as all Israeli citizens. And notably absent from the HRW report is the basic fact that Palestinians in east Jerusalem have the option to apply for citizenship (thousands have been granted such status), but most choose not to for political reasons.
In addition, permanent residents of East Jerusalem are granted many of the same benefits as citizens including national insurance, health care, and free movement throughout Israel, etc. As in all Western countries, however, and contrary to HRW’s claims, the maintenance of residency status is not without requirements. It is also important to note that Palestinians who are permanent residents also have the right to field candidates and vote in Jerusalem’s municipal elections. (Many choose not to.) Many of the “discriminatory” policies falsely alleged by Whitson and HRW actually result from the failure of Palestinians to exercise their right to vote and elect municipal leaders who will implement their desired policy outcomes.

Anna Baltzer is back with a program to make Blacks hate Jews

Anna Piller was a pretty young woman who had a non-religious Jewish mother and gentile father and who, by her own admission, was not raised Jewish nor did she know anything about the Jewish religion. Anna dreamed of getting a job after college that would allow her to travel with a good income and a chance to be in the limelight.
Ida Piller, Anna’s grandmother, narrowly escaped the Nazis in World War II and was a big supporter of Israel who even had her art displayed permanently in Israel. Anna found that sinecure of her dreams working for Hamas and Palestinian terrorists as a “proud Jewish woman” who supports Hamas against the Jews of Israel.
Her family hid this from grandmother Ida by having Anna change her last name to Baltzer and she went on to tour colleges, law schools, churches, even synagogues accusing Israel of atrocities that did not occur and excusing Arab terrorist attacks as “resistance.”
Ida Piller died recently so Anna was able to use both the names Piller and Baltzer. Anna’s mother at first told her daughter she was “brainwashed” by the Arabs, but later decided to support Anna in her campaign of lies and anti-Semitism because, after all, Anna was acquiring money and fame. Who wouldn’t want that for a child? Never mind that she was helping to further the killing of other people’s children for fascists in Gaza.

IsraellyCool: Terrorist Rasmea Odeh Honored at Chicago Farewell Event

Last night was terrorist Rasmea Odeh’s farewell event in Chicago. If the organizers are to be believed, there were over a thousand there to pay tribute to her.
Some of the event was live-streamed on Facebook, but as usual I have gone through the footage to save you having to wade through all the filth yourself, while shining a light on the sickening lies, terror support, and general moral bankruptcy of these people.
We’ll start with “low-lights” of Angela Davis’ keynote address. Note in particular:
Claims the very real immigration fraud and terrorism charges against her were all just trumped-up
Talk of “resistance to the occupation” (i.e. terrorism)
Calling Chicago “colonized land”
Mention of other convicted murderers as heroes, including Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur (with a parallel being drawn between Odeh and the latter)
Insinuating Trump was only elected because of racists
Mention of all kinds of racism except one kind (guess which!)
Accusing Israel of trying to assert racial domination
Imploring the crowd to follow Odeh’s example
Babies cooing during the speech. Yes, people brought their babies
Calls of Free free Palestine after the speech
Next we have Odeh herself. She is first introduced as a wonderful person and heroine by the speaker, after he also speaks of liberating all of “historical Palestine.” The cheers she gets are truly sickening.

According to an op-ed in Jordan's Ammon News, there was a Haaretz article suggesting that Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians would be better off as a single confederation.

This is about as progressive an idea as one can imagine to help Jews integrate into the Middle East.

So the reaction by this op-ed writer, Helmi Al Asmar, is instructive.

He frames this proposal this way:

The Zionist collective mind is constantly working to think of finding ways to legitimize its strange existence among us. The occupation of the usurper was and will remain in the Arab collective collective conscience an emergent tumor that will never be part of the body of this land.
The latest of the tricks that the Zionist mind creates is what Prof. Gabrielle Mucid [?] of Israel: A confederation between Palestine, Israel and Jordan, claiming that there are many reasons, political, economic, security, psychological and historical, make the solution of confederation ideal for the Arab-Israeli conflict!

The idea is of course stupid, and would result in the end of Israel.

But the Arab reaction reveals much more: the idea that Jews actually belong in the Middle East is horrifying and they will never be accepted as people who truly belong where they are actually more indigenous than most Arabs.

The writer, Helmi al Asmar, was born in the West Bank and now lives in Jordan. He is also a poet.

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Hypocrisy alert: Chicago Slutwalk actually HURTS Palestinian women

From Tablet:

About 300 people showed up Saturday at the downtown Chicago park that served as the rally point for the [Chicago Slutwalk], among them a contingent of about a dozen individuals who were part of a movement called Zioness, whose signs depicted a woman dressed in a red t-shirt and proudly displaying the Magen David.

According to Zioness organizer Amanda Berman, who had flown in from New York specifically to attend Chicago Slutwalk, representatives of the movement were there in solidarity, not protest.

“This conversation has been going on for quite a long time I think between the whole Jewish progressive community,” Berman told Tablet. “It took a turn after the [Dyke] March and the messaging that Zionists can’t be feminists, progressives or activists in social justice causes. Zionists and Jews have always been on the forefront of social justice issues, and to be alienated and marginalized because of who we are is unacceptable, hurtful, and bad for the people that we all want to fight for.”

While a series of speakers addressed issues that included sex worker rights and solidarity with transgender women of color, a series of vitriolic pro-Palestine, anti-Israel speeches set the event’s tone. Among participants, too, a battle between signs was waged in the background: While the Zioness representatives were not expelled, every time they held up one of their placards, a group of Slutwalk participants raised red umbrellas—the international symbol of solidarity with sex workers—in order to cover them.

“I was holding up my sign, and two or three people at a time would walk in front of me and pushed my sign out of the way,” a Zioness participant named Judy said. “Whenever I moved my sign, they would follow me to block me. They didn’t say anything. They just assumed I was a hateful person who could not be a feminist because I am a Zionist.”

“They don’t want us to participate and it is unfortunate that we are being targeted because we are Jews,” Berman asserted. “I just asked someone, who said Jews were welcomed but Zionists were not, ‘what is a Zionist?’ She didn’t answer. I asked her why I was not welcome and she replied “I’m done engaging.’”

A more detailed explanation was provided by an invited Palestinian speaker named Leilah.

“You cannot be a Zionist and a feminist!” Leilah insisted to raucous agreement. “If you believe Zionism and feminism are compatible then you believe feminism has the room to accept the genocide, racism and displacement of indigenous people. Not today. Whether you like it or not, we refuse to allow feminism to be a safe space for any form of hate including Zionism.”

Slutwalker organizers responded by leading a prolonged chant of “free Palestine.”

The irony is apparent from this 2015 article in the anti-Israel Middle East Eye that noted that anti-Israel rhetoric crowds out any chance of Palestinian women gaining real rights:

An example of the social oppression of women within Palestinian society is their lack of protection under the Palestinian legal system. Rawda Basir believes that in Palestine “men are always given the benefit of the law”. One example of this is relaxed prison sentences for those who kill in the name of family honour.

Al Jazeera reported a rise last year in Palestinian “honour killings”: murders carried out most often by family members against women accused of “immoral sexual conduct”. Basir also cites the fact that girls under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a man to file charges of rape.

...
When asked about the dual effects of political and social oppression of women in Palestine, Flora Salman, a supervisor at Sawa, responded, “[the occupation] might be a factor but it’s not the main cause for the violence against women.”

Salman instead focuses blame on the patriarchal social structure within Palestine: “The males give themselves the right to behave to the women as if she is his own property.”

When Slutwalk women robotically chant "Free Palestine," they are contributing to the actual repression of women in Palestinian society by sweeping real women's issues there under the rug.

And there is lots of this repression.

A 2014 UN report notes:

A societal culture of shame, the patriarchal nature of Palestinian society, and pressure from family and the community in cases of gender-based violence, make it difficult for women to reveal their plight. Inadequate laws, lack of protection services, and low confidence in justice and security institutions further hamper opportunities for women to seek redress. As a result, most violence cases are not reported and never enter the justice system.

A recent post here listed many anti-woman factors under the Palestinian Authority (things are of course worse under Hamas):

According to the UN, there are no specific laws or provisions in the Palestinian Authority or under Hamas rule that protect women against domestic violence and sexual violence.

If women are not able to provide/show evidence of “force”, “threats” and/or “deception” to support rape claims, they risk being criminalized for “adultery.”

The Palestinian Authority has adopted the Jordanian 1960 "rape marriage" law that says that a rapist will not be prosecuted if he marries his victim. These laws often result in rape victims being coerced by family or courts to marry their rapists.

While rape is illegal, the woman is often the one who must defend herself since the rape laws only apply “provided that such a woman is not a prostitute and is not known for her immoral character.”

Murderers who claim to have murdered women in order to ‘maintain family honor’ can be exempted from judicial sanction.

Marital rape is not against the law.

This study showed that Palestinian women only went public about being abused sexually only where the abuse was extremely traumatic, publicly apparent, and the victim absolved of blame. 10% of the women who went public were murdered. Usually the family would respond with measures like hymen reconstruction, marriage to the rapist, and abortion to “nullify” sexual abuse.

Women are not allowed to marry without permission from their guardian, Men may marry up to four wives.

A Palestinian Arab man can divorce his wife for any reason, but Palestinian women can request divorce only under certain circumstances. When a divorce is initiated by the woman it means that she must give up any financial rights and must return her dowry.

Sexual abuse of women and children are rampant but swept under the rug. 37% of married Palestinian women were exposed to some form of violence by their husbands in the previous year alone, nearly 12% exposed to sexual violence in the previous year. 65% of those who were exposed to violence stayed quiet about it because of cultural mores.

20% of Palestinian women are married before they are 18, almost always to older men, which is a human rights violation. Because of child marriages, 10% of all Palestinian women between 15-19 give birth in any year.

The highest rates of violence against women are found where the families tend to be more religious, in Gaza and Hebron.

The Palestinian Basic Law, by saying that ‘the principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be a principal source of legislation’, can be interpreted in a manner which undermines the rights of women according to a UN study.

I'm not even going into Shari'a law here, which is far worse than Palestinian law for women. (Linda Sarsour has publicly defended Shari'a law, which calls into question her own qualifications to be called a feminist.)

When Slutwalk and Linda Sarsour attempt to link feminism with Palestinian nationalism, they are working to undermine Palestinian women's rights and contributing to physical and psychological abuse of Palestinian women by their own people.

Slutwalk Chicago reportedly says on their Facebook page "we demand an end to sexual violence and to the social codes of shame, silence, and blame surrounding it." Yet they are doing exactly what they claim they are against by silencing the topic of Palestinian women as victims of violence by their own society - silence that is exactly because of shame and blame by Palestinians.

Slutwalk is part of the problem for Palestinian women. And there are no "progressive" women who are willing to say this out loud for fear of, again, being "shamed" by the people who claim they are in the forefront fighting the shaming of women.

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In other news, Gaza has swimming pools

A 5-year old boy drowned in the Gaza Strip in a swimming pool on Saturday.

In other news, Gaza has lots of swimming pools.

Here are some that are in Gaza City itself all from a Facebook page of Gaza City swimming pools.

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08/12 Links: Anti-Israel Curricula Used Across the US; It’s All Right to Enjoy a Good BDS Fail

From Ian:

Anti-Israel Curricula Used in World History Courses Across the Country

A monograph published late last month of anti-Israel curriculum used in Newton, Mass., public high schools has led to revelations of similar materials in circulation at other school districts in the country, the report's researcher told the Washington Free Beacon on Thursday.
Steven Stotsky of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) said that since the release of his findings in "Indoctrinating Our Youth: How a U.S. Public School Curriculum Skews the Arab-Israeli Conflict and Islam," he has received phone calls alerting him to disquieting curricula being used in Michigan and California.
"We turned over a rock and discovered a significant problem," said Stotsky, about his deep dive into textbooks, articles, timelines, and maps used from at least 2011 to 2015—some possibly still in use—for World History course sections on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Islam in Newton's two public high schools, which are among the most prestigious in the country.
The materials included the Arab World Studies Notebook, a textbook the American Jewish Committee has previously condemned as filled with "factually inaccuracies," "overt bias," and "unabashed propagandizing"; a timeline of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that almost entirely omitted instances of Palestinian terrorism; and a misrepresentative translation of the Hamas charter.
Stotsky said procedures must be established for vetting all materials brought into the classroom.
"Teachers are pulling things off the Internet, and a lot of it is fine, but a lot of it not. They can't just be giving this stuff to students," said Stotsky.
He questioned the decision to teach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a history class at all.

Caroline Glick: McMaster’s Policies Completely Contradict Trump’s, Natural Continuation of Obama’s

Jerusalem Post contributor Caroline Glick criticized National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster’s leadership of the National Security Council on Friday’s Breitbart News Daily with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow.
Glick said the problem with McMaster is that “in key issue after key issue, particularly in relation to the Middle East,” he “opposes the things that the president ran on and that he was elected on.”
She quoted Ayaan Hirsi Ali, one of the world’s leading activists against Islamic supremacism, writing in the Wall Street Journal that “President Trump, during the campaign, insisted that it was necessary to go after the political ideology of radical Islam, and he’s just completely stopped.”
“She called on Congress to pick it up and take it on since the president seems to have lost interest in it,” Glick said of Ali’s article. “Whether it’s Iran and countering Iranian influence and rising hegemony in Syria and in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, and, of course, Iran’s nuclear weapons program, these are very, very key issues for the United States and for all of its allies in the Middle East. And on all of these issues, in practice, we see that the policies that the National Security Adviser, H.R. McMaster, is pushing are at loggerheads with – completely contradict – the policies that President Trump ran on and continues to say that he wants.”
“For instance, I wrote in my column in the Jerusalem Post this morning, the United States special forces are fighting side-by-side with the Lebanese armed forces, which are controlled by Hezbollah, to the side of Hezbollah, which is a global terrorist organization, against ISIS,” she said.
“This is President Obama’s policy, was to try to get the United States to help Iran to take over Syria, without allowing the American people to know that, by saying, ‘Well, we’re fighting ISIS in Syria,’” she explained. “Allow Iran and Hezbollah to take over Syria and present an existential threat to Jordan and a massive strategic threat to Israel and to U.S. interests, in the name of fighting ISIS.”
“This, we see, is a policy that President Trump continues to implement,” Glick said with dismay. “It’s a very, very troubling thing.”

It’s All Right to Enjoy a Good BDS Fail

It is tricky to assess the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. On the one hand, one does not want to underestimate the damage to Israel’s reputation done by even unsuccessful campaigns. The campus boycott movement, about which I have written extensively, succeeds not only when students actually vote to divest but also when onlookers, who have no dog in the fight between pro-Israel and anti-Israel activists, come away with the impression that Zionism is, if not a dirty word, at least suspect. We have been fortunate that BDS has done so much of late to discredit itself, but it would be a mistake to underestimate the campaign’s potential.
At the same time, BDS thrives on the appearance of momentum. Even in the midst of astonishing losses, like the most unlikely one it suffered at the hands of the Modern Language Association, BDS does its best to make it appear as though it is on the right side of history and history is coming at us faster and faster. We do not want to do the work of BDS propagandists for them by making it seem as if they are gaining momentum when they are not.
With those considerations concerning campus boycotts in mind, I welcomed Lana Melman’s injunction over at Algemeiner not to underestimate the parallel cultural boycott of Israel. As Melman pointed out, that movement has its ups and downs. Sometimes a rock star like Elvis Costello decides not to play Israel. Sometimes, resisting considerable pressure, other rock stars, like the Rolling Stones and, most recently, Radiohead, perform there. Arguably, 2017 was a good year in this regard. But, as with academic BDS, the cultural boycott succeeds when artists are compelled to question whether Israel is a place they can, or even should, do business.
Still, in the spirit of not seeing momentum where it likely does not exist, I take respectful issue with Melman’s judgment that cultural boycott pressure is mounting. Consider—welcome fans!—the case of Radiohead. Melman observed that more than 50 artists called for the group to cancel its concert in Israel. But is more than 50 a lot? This is not everyone’s yardstick, but I would not consider any group that I could jam into the house for a cocktail party very large.
I would add that the number of artists who signed was only 47 and they needed to count Archbishop Desmond Tutu as an artist to get to that rather sad number. Almost every signatory—I counted at most five who did not fit into this category—was among the usual suspects of the cultural boycott. So is gathering 47 people, virtually none of whom was new to the effort, to get after Radiohead a sign that the movement is gathering steam? Or is it a sign these people need to learn how to work a Rolodex? And, as a reminder, Radiohead performed.

08/11 Links Pt2: Mayim Bialik Talks About Being a ‘Proud’ Zionist; In France: Only the insane murder Jews

From Ian:

Dershowitz: Forward Article is “Most Despicable Ever in Jewish Media”

The National Board of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has released the following statement:
The ZOA is horrified, pained and shocked by the defamatory, obscene, hateful, ludicrous error-filled article published last week by Steve Davidson in the Forward Jewish Weekly in which ZOA President Morton Klein, a child of Holocaust survivors, born in a displaced persons camp in Germany, was listed number 6 (with Jew-killers/Jew-haters ) of “19 people Jews should actually be more worried about than Linda Sarsour.” It’s significant to note that Klein has received Hadassah’s Myrtle Wreath Award, Brith Shalom’s Humanitarian Award for “outstanding dedication to fighting indifference, intolerance and injustice”, the Holocaust Humanitarian Award, Defender of Israel Award, US State Departments Certificate of Appreciation Award for “outstanding contributions to national and international affairs and as distinguished lecturer,” the Jabotinsky Award, Akiba Hebrew Day School National Zionist Leadership Award, and AIPAC’s Certificate of Appreciation for “distinguished service for demonstrated leadership on behalf of a strong and secure US-Israel relationship.” The Jewish Exponent listed Klein as one of the top 12 “activist Jews of the Century.” Morton Klein painfully remarked, “My 95-year-old mother, a Holocaust survivor who lost most of her family due to the most anti-Semitic horror in history, called me crying when she was made aware of this devastating article listing me with the most monstrous Jew haters and Jew-killers of our era. She was hysterically crying in fear for my safety and reputation because of this insane article. She said it reminded her of the hideous Nazi propaganda against Jews during the Holocaust period.”
Eminent Harvard Law professor and prominent liberal Alan Dershowitz wrote “[the] Forward published the most despicable article ever in Jewish media. Lists Mort Klein, President of ZOA, along w/ David Duke and Farrakhan…”
Others on the list alongside Zionist leader Morton Klein include Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the terrorist group Hezbollah; Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme leader; Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the terrorist group Hamas. All of them have called for destruction of the Jewish State of Israel and the murder of Jews. Also included are all “actual violent jihadists”.
The Forward newspaper/Davidson has destroyed its own credibility by promoting major falsehoods in this article and by including Zionist, pro-Jewish, child of Holocaust survivors, president of the oldest pro-Israel organization Morton Klein on a par with the most monstrous Jew haters and Jew-killers of our era! The Forward falsely stated that Morton Klein is more dangerous to Jews than anti-Semite, Israel-hater, pro-BDS extremist Linda Sarsour.

Morton Klein on Forward article: 'Defamatory lies'

Klein, obviously furious, said:. "They call me a danger to Jews? When I fight with my heart and soul for the Jewish people every day for the past 24 years?" he asked. "They write these defamatory lies. They say I cozy up to anti-Semites."
"I cozy up to anti-Semites? I fight anti-Semites." declared Klein. " I have gotten rid of Israel-haters from key government posts. Charles Freeman, who was going to be National Intelligence Director, James Zogby, who was going to work in the State Department, Salam al-Marayati, I led those fights, and I was successful, and they say I cozy up to anti-Semites?"
"James Zogby who heads the Arab-American Institute, one of the most anti-Israel people in the country, wrote an article decrying 'The vocal and muscular ZOA that his risen like a phoenix.' Obviously, everything I've told you makes it quite clear that I am not one of the 19 most dangerous people in the world' said Klein.
"The Boston Globe defended me. The New York Post defended me. Even a top reporter at Haaretz, Amir Tibon told me to send anyone that wants a quote to him, and he would tell them that this is ridiculous. And Amir Tibon is a left-winger!"

In France, a curious fact emerges: Only the insane murder Jews

A Muslim suspect rammed six police officers with his car in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret. Two French officers sustained severe injuries. The French media and authorities had no doubt. “Terror returned to Paris”. “A voluntary act”. Nobody questioned the motive of the Algerian terrorist who tried to shed the policemen's blood. No one called him a lunatic.
“What do you think, should this insane person be put in a psych ward while we contemplate the reasons for his actions?” the Crif, the central organization of French Jewry, posted on Facebook about the attacker in Levallois-Perret. It was a provocative but brave reference to the French establishment for its dealing with the slaying of a Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, by a Muslim man, Kobili Traore, who was sent to observation as per his insanity plea even though he has no record of mental illness. He shouted “Allah Akbar” while killing Halimi and throwing her from the window. The judiciary’s omission of the aggravated element of a hate crime caused by anti-Semitism, according with CRIF President Francis Kalifat, is a “cover up” of the anti-Semitic character of the crime.
The French media only covered Halimi’s death two months after it happened.
We have seen this mechanism before with another Halimi, Ilan, a beautiful Jewish boy kidnapped at the outskirts of Paris, held prisoner for 24 days, tortured to death just because he was a Jew. The brave French journalist Guy Millière wrote that “Ilan 's screams were heard by neighbors because they were especially atrocious: the killers disfigured the flesh of the young man, broke his fingers, burned him with acid and eventually with fire”.
As in the case of Sarah Halimi, anti-Semitism was denied by the political authorities, the police and the media in the death of Ilan. As Francis Szpiner, the lawyer for the family of this boy, said, "the silence killed Ilan Halimi and justice has helped to perpetuate this conspiracy of silence, because the public was not told why he was killed”.
It seems that in France, as in the rest of Europe, a lunatic is especially lunatic if he strikes the Jews. I see the same conspiracy of silence from the European élites when the Palestinian terrorists strike the Israelis living in Judea and Samaria. The double stigma of “settler” and “Jew” makes them unwhorthy of headlines and truth.
Have the European Jews become themselves “settlers”, unworthy of attention, compassion and justice?

What went viral at EoZ recently?

Sometimes, the posts that get the most hits aren't the ones that I like the best.

Here are some posts that received over 3000 views more than my usual posts over the past couple of weeks.

"Israeli spy eagle" shot down over Syria

Jul 31, 2017

29456

Palestinian lawyer says all Jewish land purchases,...

Aug 8, 2017

8414

07/28 Links Pt2: A tale of 2 Israeli heroes; What ...

Jul 28, 2017

4260

Amnesty says Israel "attacked peaceful crowds" at ...

Jul 28, 2017

3988

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

Aug 3, 2017

3940

The "Spy Eagle" post is probably in my top 20 posts of all time.

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Arab countries continue to drop financial support for Palestinians

Palestine Today quotes Israel's Channel Two as saying that the amount that Arab countries have contributed to the PA budget has fallen by 50% in the past four years.

This has been going on for a while .In early 2016, the PA announced that the amount of aid (from all countries) it received for all of 2015 was half the normal amounts Then, in 2016, Saudi Arabia didn't pay a dime of its $240 billion annual pledge from April through November and then announced it would reduce its pledge from $20 million a month to $7.7 million.

This is a large part of the reason that Mahmoud Abbas is cutting funding to Gaza. He won't cut services to his base in the West Bank but in Gaza he has forced thousands of hospital workers and teachers to take early retirement. He's hoping it pressures Hamas to join his government on his terms, but in reality he doesn't have the cash.

The real nightmare of the Palestinians is coming true. Their fear is that they are becoming irrelevant. And in much of the Arab world, this has already happened.

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08/11 Links Pt1:PMW: Gloating over mass murder, Hamas style; Glick: America's strategic paralysis

From Ian:

Recognizing a Palestinian State before a Peace Agreement with Israel Undermines the International Rule of Law

Those who advocate immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, without a peace agreement with Israel, show cavalier disregard for well-established legal principles for the creation of states and their recognition.
The four criteria of statehood set out in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (1933) are widely accepted as the minimum required by customary international law for the creation of a new state. Two of the criteria - a single, centralized government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states - are manifestly not satisfied by any Palestinian entity.
For reasons which are entirely internal to Palestinian society, there is no reasonable prospect for the foreseeable future of any government being formed which would exercise effective control over both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and would have the capacity to give effect to any agreements purportedly entered into by "Palestine."
Recognition of any such entity as a state would be to affirm a fiction, contrary to the imperatives of international law.
Applying the additional requirements for recognition contained in the European Community Declaration and Guidelines (1991), the Palestinians have failed, and are likely to continue to be unwilling to make commitments to respect the inviolability of the frontiers with Israel, to repudiate all territorial claims by Palestine against Israel, and to settle all disputes with Israel by peaceful means.
Recognition of a Palestinian state at the present time would also contravene the internationally recognized and witnessed Oslo Accords between the Palestinians and Israel.

Caroline Glick: America's strategic paralysis

Last week, after the UN Security Council passed a new sanctions resolution against North Korea, the regime’s No. 2 official, parliament chairman Kim Yong Nam, arrived in Tehran for a 10-day visit.
In the past, CIA officials have claimed that Iranian observers have been present at North Korean nuclear tests. Iran also reportedly financed the Korean-built nuclear reactor in Syria that Israel reportedly destroyed in 2007.
Iran’s Shihab-3 and Shihab-4 intermediate range ballistic missiles are based on North Korean designs. Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton recently revealed that during North Korea’s 1999-2006 missile testing moratorium, Iran conducted missile tests for North Korea.
If the circumstantial evidence linking the two nuclear programs is correct, then whatever North Korea has will be possessed by Iran in short order.
It is certainly possible that there is more happening behind the scenes in Washington than anyone can possibly know. Far from the television cameras, US national security officials may be configuring strategic goals and programs that will enable Trump to abandon Obama’s failed policies in relation to North Korea, Syria and Iran and move the US – and the world – in a safer and more secure direction.
Unfortunately, in light of Tillerson’s claim that the US seeks to return to the negotiating table with North Korea, and given the administration’s decision to continue to implement Obama’s pro-Iran and pro-Hezbollah policy in Syria and Trump’s second certification of Iranian compliance with Obama’s nuclear deal, it is certainly easy to conclude that this is not the case.
As Kupperwasser noted in his essay on the dangers the US-Russian Syrian cease-fire deal pose to Israel and Jordan, Trump’s abidance by Obama’s pro-Iranian policies in Syria “worries Israel... because it casts doubt over the depth of American commitment, the ability of the Americans to deliver, or the relevance of the ‘Art of the Deal’ to the Middle East and international politics.”
It is obvious that Trump continues to seek a clean break with Obama’s policies. But as his critics’ piling on against him following his threat to North Korea and the State Department’s determination to maintain Obama’s failed policy of appeasement toward Pyongyang both make clear, more than anything else, Trump needs advisers who are capable of helping him achieve this goal. He needs advisers willing to stand up to the pressure and the inertial force of the foreign policy bureaucracy and capable of having a serious strategic discussion about how to proceed in an international environment that grows more daunting every day.

PMW: Gloating over mass murder, Hamas style

Yesterday, August 9, was the 16th anniversary of the horrific suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizza shop in Jerusalem in which 15 Israelis, among them 7 children, were murdered and 130 were wounded. Among the killed were Mordechai and Tzirel Schijveschuurder and three of their children, Ra’aya aged 14, Avraham aged 4, and Hemda aged 2.
Hamas gloated over the murders yesterday in a post on the website of Hamas’ TV channel. Referring to the guitar case in which the suicide bomber hid the bomb, Hamas headlined its story: “The Sbarro operation - The guitar that shook the [Zionist] entity and reaped 20 Zionists.”
Hamas wrote: “The news of the operation made Palestinians joyous everywhere. The largest celebrations in honor of the hero [suicide bomber Al-Masri]... Masses of people went out to the streets, cheered, and distributed candies out of happiness.”
[Website of Hamas’ Al-Aqsa Channel, Aug. 9, 2017]
The following are pictures of those murdered in the Sbarro bombing:

The article on the Hamas website also describes with pride how the terrorist mingled among the people in the pizza shop before detonating his bomb, which it describes as “playing the melodies of revenge.”
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the Palestinian Authority and Fatah likewise glorify and honor terrorists, and even reward them financially. In 2001 the Hamas student branch at Al-Najah University in Nablus celebrated the murders by creating exhibit of the pizza shop and posted on the wall images of body parts. [Source of images: Malki Foundation website]
In 2014, the Palestinian Authority likewise honored the suicide bomber by giving him a military funeral when his body was returned to the Palestinian Authority:
PA TV reporter: ”Thousands of civilians from the Tubas District, representing all segments of the political activity, took part in the funeral of the remains of the Martyr (suicide bomber who killed 15) who gave his soul for the struggle of a nation that strives for freedom.”
Mayor of Aqqaba Jamal Abu Ara: “The popular gathering around the blood of Izz Al-Din Al-Masri (i.e., the Sbarro bomber) is an honest and true expression of our people’s yearning for national unity (between Fatah and Hamas) and unity of action.”
PA TV reporter: “The flags of the political parties were raised at this national wedding (the Martyr's wedding to the 72 Virgins in Paradise), which demonstrated the national unity and cohesion among our people.” [Official PA TV, April 30, 2014]

Where is @Amnesty's Mosul Platform?

In 2015, Amnesty International spent who knows how many thousands of dollars to create an online database that purported, very falsely, to document every single death and injury (to Palestinians) from the 2014 Gaza war.

Despite my proving how wrong it was (and Amnesty read my posts), they refused to correct their data, which is still online, and still claiming hundreds more civilians killed than any other source including the UN and B'Tselem.

At the time, Amnesty justified its use of this massive amount of (flawed) research and programming by saying "Ultimately, the vision is to create a tool that could be used during future conflicts, whether in Gaza or elsewhere, to report on research findings and reveal emerging patterns that could be used to pressure those with influence over the warring parties to take action to stop violations of international humanitarian law in real time."

And yet, for some reason, Amnesty has not found any reason to spend this much effort in any other conflict. Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan - none of those conflicts are worth Amnesty's efforts.

For example:

More than 40,000 civilians were killed in the devastating battle to retake Mosul from Isis, according to intelligence reports revealed exclusively to The Independent – a death toll far higher than previous estimates.

Residents of the besieged city were killed by Iraqi ground forces attempting to force out militants, as well as by air strikes and Isis fighters, according to Kurdish intelligence services.

Hoshyar Zebari, until recently a senior minister in Baghdad, told The Independent that many bodies “are still buried under the rubble”. “The level of human suffering is immense,” he said.

This is far more causualties, in a much smaller area, with far more civilians killed by both sides.

Wouldn't this be a perfect vehicle for Amnesty to use its platform?

But there is another rule that Amnesty has for these sorts of initiatives. If Israel cannot be blamed, then it really isn't that important to spend much time and money into documenting it.

(h/t Reuben)

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Abbas goes after anyone saying (or reading!) anything he doesn't like on social media

From AP:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has clamped down on social media and news websites — the main outlets for debate and dissent in the West Bank — with a vaguely worded decree that critics say allows his government to jail anyone on charges of harming “national unity” or the “social fabric.”

Rights activists say the edict, issued without prior public debate last month, is perhaps the most significant step yet by Abbas’ government to restrict freedom of expression in the autonomous Palestinian enclaves of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The government has blocked 30 websites in the past month, according to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, or Mada.

Five journalists working for news outlets linked to Hamas were detained this week and charged with violating the new law, according the lawyer of one of those arrested and an official in the association of Palestinian journalists.

Separately, four other journalists were called for questioning about social media posts critical of government policy.

One of those summoned, photo journalist Fadi Arouri, who works for the Chinese news agency Xinhua, said he was shown his Facebook posts and was told that the authorities are concerned “these expressions could lead to disorder in the society.”

The new decree stipulates prison terms ranging from one year to life for those who use digital means for a range of all-encompassing offenses. The list includes endangering the safety of the state or the public order as well as harming national unity or social peace.

Here's the part I like:

Ibrahim Hamodeh, a prosecutor in the attorney general’s office, said the decree was needed to go after those committing electronic crimes, such as hackers and those engaged in on-line libel.

“There is nothing about (restricting) freedom of expression in the new law,” Hamodeh told The Associated Press.

“The law criminalizes distortion, defamation, slandering,” he said. “One can criticize the president and his policy but one cannot accuse the president or anyone else of treason or make fun of him in an image, or something like that.”

I have rarely seen such a complete contradiction in three consecutive sentences. "We don't restrict freedom of expression. we are only going after people who say things we don't like!"

The specifics of the law are actually chilling. According to this site, it is a very wide ranging law that includes:

Article 51 of the law states that, “if a crime is committed online and harms ‘national unity’ or ‘social harmony,’ it will be punishable” by hard labor, ranging between three and 15 years, a sentence impacting all those who partook in the crime.
Articles 32 mandates internet service providers to cooperate with security agencies by collecting, storing, and sharing users’ information data for at least three years, in addition to blocking any website on the orders of the judiciary.
Article 40 allows the Attorney General or one of his assistants to request the court to issue an order to block any website within 24 hours.
Article 16 states that anyone who violates ‘public manners’ online could be sentenced to prison for one year, or fined up to 7,000 USD, or both.
Article 20 similarly punishes any internet user that owns or manages a website that publishes “news that endanger state safety, its public order, or internal or external security.” Anyone who shares these news could be imprisoned for a year or fined up to around 1,400 USD.
Article 31 outlaws any attempt to bypass website blocking or use any system or app to access a blocked website.
Articles 35 mandates the court to give the Public Prosecutor’s office the right to monitor and record online communications as well as obtaining any log-in data it deems necessary for investigations.

So not only does it chill expression, but it also punishes those who try to read things that are banned.

While it is a bit surprising to see AP publish this, a quick look through Google News and Bing News shows that only Voice of America and Fox News have published this as of this writing.

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Palestinian mobile phone provider Jawwal has a promotion on a new service plan, which it is promoting using this graphic:

Yes, that is the Dome of the Rock - which most Palestinians use as symbolism for the Al Aqsa Mosque, their supposedly holy site.

Although the promotion has been out for at least a few days, I have not seen a single negative word about placing the supposedly third holiest site in Islam on a popcorn cup to sell mobile minutes.

I guess the Palestinian definition of "holy" is a bit different than others'. I cannot imagine the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia being used in such a fashion.

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Members of Congress get briefed on how evil Israel is by Palestinian Authority PM (update)

Ma'an reports that PA prime minister Dr. Rami al-Hamdallah, on Thursday at his office in Ramallah, a delegation from the US Senate, "where he briefed them on the latest political developments and violations of the occupation."

He also asked for Congress to give the PA more money.

We know that there are two Congressional delegations in Israel this week, both Republican and Democratic. There are 18 Democrats and 33 Republicans.

The head of the Democratic Party contingent is Rep. Steny Hoyer, and if I am not mistaken, he is the one with the grey hair on the right in this photo with the PA prime minister in Ramallah.

It looks to me like only the Democratic members of Congress made an official visit to Ramallah. (The 33 Republicans wouldn't have fit in the room!)

UPDATE: Naftali Bennett's media advisor Aaron Kalman tweeted to me that the Republicans also met with Hamdallah in a separate meeting.

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