Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, September 02, 2017

09/02 Links: Mr. Trump, don't take the bait on ‘UN reform’; BDS Fail: Israel’s Exports up 6 Percent

From Ian:

Congress Looks to Restrict U.S. Aid to Palestinian Terrorists

A new congressional measure would restrict U.S. aid to the Palestinian government by barring any American taxpayer dollars from being doled out to Palestinian terrorists currently imprisoned in Israel, according to language of the measure obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
A small amendment in Congress's yearly appropriations bill would stop the U.S. government from giving aid to the Palestinian Authority if it uses these funds to honor terrorists and pay salaries to those militants imprisoned in Israel for carrying out past attacks.
The Taylor Force Act, first introduced in 2016, would cut millions in U.S. aid to the Palestinian government until it shows proof these payments have stopped.
The appropriations amendment, while similar to the Taylor Force Act, provides a quick fix to the problem by banning all payments by the Palestinians to terrorists as a precondition for continued American aid.
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), who authored the amendment, told the Washington Free Beacon that in past years members of Congress have not been able to offer amendments to the massive appropriations bill that funds the U.S. government and global priorities.
With amendments now a possibility, DeSantis said he took quick action to address the Palestinian government's payments to terrorists.
"It is beyond maddening that American taxpayer dollars flow to an entity that pays the families of terrorists and that adorns their streets and stadiums with the names of terrorists," DeSantis said. "We finally have the perfect opportunity to stop this and we must seize the moment."

KLEIN: Six Reasons Trump Should Stop Funding the UN's Palestinian ‘Refugee’ Agency

According to reports, the Trump administration has pledged to continue providing its annual contribution of more than $300 million per year to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which ministers to so-called Palestinian refugees.
“America has long been committed to funding UNRWA’s important mission and that will continue,” one official at the U.S. mission to the United Nations told Foreign Policy magazine. The U.S. is UNRWA’s single largest donor.
Below, in no particular order, are six reasons the U.S. should stop funding UNRWA and instead take the approach recommended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has called for dismantling the UN’s Palestinian “refugee” agency.
1 – The Palestinians and Arab nations have distorted the history of “Palestinian refugees” to manipulate the international community.
2 – The number of Palestinian “refugees” is the subject of debate.
3 – UNRWA scandalously defines a Palestinian “refugee” in a manner that is different from all other refugees, and does so in a way that sustains the “refugee” crisis instead of solving the problem by finding solutions for the so-called Palestinian refugees.
4 – There is no reason to have a separate agency only for Palestinian “refugees.”
5 – The Palestinians use their “refugee” status to threaten Israel’s existence.
6 – UNRWA has been caught supporting terrorism.

JPost Editorial: Lessons from Guterres

Taken on a photo opportunity in a former Hamas attack tunnel, Guterres confronted the reality of Hamas' anti-Zionism.
In an encounter afterward with an Israeli resident of Nahal Oz, a kibbutz along the Gaza border, he was asked by Oshrit Sabag about the unnecessary suffering of people on both sides.
“We see a huge amount of money that is used in order to build terrorist tunnels and rockets instead of reconstructing the Gaza Strip,” she said, adding, “We think that the people on the other side of the border suffer from Hamas terrorism just as we do.”
Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai told visiting US negotiator Jason Greenblatt at Nahal Oz the same day that it costs some $200,000 to build an attack tunnel 1-kilometer long. This means that the hundreds of tunnels Hamas built over the years – and continues to dig – have consumed enormous amounts of the foreign aid money that supports its despotic Islamist regime.
This, Mordechai noted, is money that should go instead to building hospitals and improving the living conditions in the Gaza Strip. “But Hamas’s priorities are first the military branches’ interests and terrorism, and only then, as a low priority, supporting the civil population,” he said.
Guterres could have addressed the UN complicity in the preservation of Palestinian statelessness. This has been the true function of the UN Relief and Works Agency, which instead of rehabilitating Arab refugees, keeps them in camps that are now generations old.
UNRWA’s greatest roadblock to a Palestinian state is the unique way it defines them as refugees. Arab residents of Mandatory Palestine who fled in 1948 are the only refugees in the world who bequeath their special status to future generations.
This mistaken attitude is a reflection of how well the actual aggressors against the first Arab state in Palestine have persuaded the world that they were the victims. As Guterres said, “Both have a right to live as independent, free people as masters of their own fate.”
Yes, but while the Zionists built a state from the ground up, Palestinian nationalists have devoted themselves to the terrorism of “the resistance” – of reality.
Recently Abbas threatened to sue Britain for the sin of the Balfour Declaration and, as if that were not absurdity enough, PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki two weeks ago pleaded for a “Palestinian Balfour declaration.” There is a simple path to peace, but with Gaza the way it is, that path is moving further and further away.

A test for the "progressives" Is this anti-semitic or anti-Zionist?

Alison Chabloz, a performer at the Edinburgh Festival who sings songs that are both anti-Israel and antisemitic, has just posted another mini-medley on YouTube.

Ask your "progressive" friends who now claim to be aghast at far-right antisemitism if they support her or not. After all, she is singing in support of "Palestine," is she not?

Lyrics:

Sung to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel ‘El Condor Pasa’
I’d rather be a Gentile than a …. non-Gentile
Yes it’s true. So would you. If you only knew. Mm..Mm
All those lies about their history and the past
To guarantee …Israeli hegemony .. Tribal supremacy. Mm ..Mm
Away, O they’ve been sent away, for their crimes, one hundred times.
Why do, we let them in again, to steal what’s yours, take what’s mine?
And then to moan and whine. Mmmm ….Mmmm.
The first great lie concerns the Lord above
They claim to be his choice minority
They alone deserve his love. Mmmm ….Mmmm.
The second lie imposes usury, on you and me
Yes it’s true, since Waterloo. Mmmm ….Mmmm.

The third claims Six Million were gassed alive
Their bodies burnt, or so we learn
I used to question, how this could have come to pass
Now I insist. It’s a damn fine tale, I like the story as it is.

(Switches to the tune of an Israeli song, Hevenu Shalom Aleichem)

The shrunken heads, soap and lampshades
The shrunken heads, soap and lampshades
The shrunken heads, soap and lampshades
I do insist. I like the story as it is.

Electrocution, steam and diesel
Electrocution, steam and diesel
Electrocution, steam and diesel
I do insist. I like the story as it is.

The coloured smoke from the chimney
The coloured smoke from the chimney
The coloured smoke from the chimney
I do insist. I like the story as it is.

Chabloz also tweets "#FreePalestine" which should mean that her songs are firmly on the "liberal" and not "neo-Nazi" side of Jew-hatred. So how would progressives react?

Chabloz has been in the news for earlier offensive songs she posted:

A blogger accused of calling Auschwitz a 'theme park' and gas chambers a 'hoax' appeared in court today in what is believed to be the first private prosecution in the UK for anti-jewish racism.
Alison Chabloz, 52, is accused of posting a 'grossly offensive' video, called 'Survivors', online on June 8 this year.
The prosecution has been brought by the charity the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, which said it decided to do so after the Crown Prosecution Service did not press charges.
The anti-Semitic 'phenomenon' has 'grown enormously' in the UK, a court heard.
The video allegedly included lyrics such as 'Did the Holocaust ever happen? Was it just a bunch of lies? Seems that some intend to pull the wool over our eyes', according to the charity.
The clip also included lines such as 'Now Auschwitz, holy temple, is a theme park just for fools, the gassing zone a proven hoax, indoctrination rules', the charity claims.
Other lines are said to have been: 'History repeats itself, no limit to our wealth, thanks to your debts we're bleeding you dry.
'We control your media, control all your books and TV, with the daily lies we're feeding, suffering victimisation.
'Sheeple have no realisation, you shall pay, all the way, until the break of day.'
Chabloz, who is also a musician, is charged with improper use of public electronic communications network, and appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court today to enter a plea.

This new video would seem to be a violation of her bail conditions for her upcoming trial::

She has also been ordered “not to post or send or cause to be sent via the internet or any other means, whether via social media or Youtube or at all, any message or other material which is in whole or part racist or anti-Semitic and grossly offensive”.

(h/t SpotlightingSA)

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09/01 Links Pt2: Palestinian cleric who called Holocaust a fairy tale to meet UK MPs; Glick: The strategic case for Kurdistan

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The strategic case for Kurdistan

If the leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan aren’t intimidated into standing down, on September 25, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan will go to the polls to vote on a referendum for independence.
The Kurds have been hoping to hold the referendum since 2013.
Whereas Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu restated his support for Kurdish independence earlier this month in a meeting with a delegation of visiting Republican congressmen, the Trump administration has urged Kurdish President Masoud Barzani and his colleagues to postpone the referendum indefinitely.
US Defense Secretary James Mattis, who visited with Barzani in the Kurdish capital of Erbil two weeks ago, said that the referendum would harm the campaign against Islamic State.
In his words, “Our point right now is to stay focused like a laser beam on the defeat of ISIS and to let nothing distract us.”
Another line of argument against the Kurdish referendum was advanced several weeks ago by The New York Times editorial board. The Times argued the Kurds aren’t ready for independence. Their government suffers from corruption, their economy is weak, their democratic institutions are weak and their human rights record is far from perfect.
While the Times’ claims have truth to them, the relevant question is compared to what?
Compared to their neighbors, not to mention to the Times’ favored group the Palestinians, the Kurds, who have been self-governing since 1991, are paragons of good governance. Not only have they given refuge to tens of thousands of Iraqis fleeing ISIS. Iraqi Kurdistan has been an island of relative peace in a war-torn country since the US-led invasion in 2003.
Its Peshmerga forces have not only secured Kurdistan. They have been the most competent force fighting ISIS since its territorial conquests in 2014.

My experience in Israel: It is not what you see on TV

I recently traveled to Israel as part of a study abroad program through the American University in Washington, DC. As a master’s student concentrating on peace and conflict resolution and as a Kurd from northern Iraq, I was curious about the intense hostility toward Jews in the Middle East, the negative bias in the mainstream media and the continuous antisemitic lectures and activities on college campuses, including my own university.
My trip to Israel was unique. I was able to travel there through the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Having departed from the Sulaymaniyah International Airport in the KRI, I was sent off with a smile among my fellow Kurds without any shame, despite the fact that a trip to Israel is taboo among Middle Easterners.
Upon arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport, I was briefly held back by security due to concerns about a first-time traveler to Israel coming from an Arab state with no diplomatic relations (Iraq). This was understandable and expected, I too expect heavy screening towards foreigners entering the KRI due to the hostility of the region. I successfully and peacefully passed through airport security with a visa that would allow me to stay beyond my permitted time.
My first interaction with an Israeli was with a taxi driver driving me to my hotel. His conversations were animated, his politics realistic. He said he doesn’t care what religion one believes in, he just wants to live in peace. I tested the waters and told him I was Kurdish and he was very excited.
His eyes lit up and he immediately called for establishing a Kurdistan without my prodding. “That was easy,” I said to myself.
My time in Tel Aviv was brief, a little over a week. But what the city offered was unprecedented to me, especially in the Middle East. It is modern, filled will young Israelis enjoying life at the beaches, nightlife spots, restaurants. It is also historical and diverse. I witnessed Muslims and Jews intermingling, mosques calling for prayer, Arab families enjoying their time together on the beaches after breaking their fast. No one bothered others; everyone minded their own business. I tried hard to discover instances of negative interactions between the two peoples, but they even smoked hookah together at the local café.

Palestinian cleric who called Holocaust a fairy tale ‘to meet MPs’

The Holocaust denying former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who has called for Britain to be destroyed, is set to visit Parliament next week.
Sheikh Ekrima Sabri will be in Britain from 11 to 15 September, as guest of pro-Palestine group EuroPal to discuss the “recent escalation” in Israel with MPs.
Sabri has a history of anti-Semitic and terrorist-supporting views, which led to his removal as Jerusalem’s Islamic leader by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2006.
He threatened that Jewish prayer at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount would “prompt massacres” and lead to “rivers of blood”. And during interview with Italian newspaper la Repubblica, Sabri flatly denied the Holocaust, stating: “Six million Jews dead? No way, they were much fewer. Let’s stop with this fairy tale exploited by Israel to capture international solidarity.”
A petition has been launched by Christian United For Israel UK (CUFI UK) urging Home Secretary Amber Rudd to ban him. France blocked his entry in 2012. You can view the petition here.
CUFI UK executive director Des Starritt said: “At a time of increased fear of Islamic extremism in our country, it is inconceivable that our Government would grant a radical hate preacher such a platform. This strikes a message of double standards. It implies terrorism against Jews is acceptable.”

Sarsour: If you have a problem with my stealing hurricane relief money, you are a racist!

This story from earlier this week was widely reported:

Linda Sarsour seems unable to pass up any opportunity to make a quick buck, even at the expense of vulnerable Americans. Her latest target? Caring people all across the country who are looking for ways to help the hundreds of thousands of Texans who have lost everything as the result of Hurricane Harvey.

Sarsour recently requested donations for the Harvey Hurricane Relief Fund, which, on its face, sounds innocuous enough. But it turns out that this fund is, in fact, a thinly veiled front for leftist community organizing. From the fund’s website:

Together we will organize and advocate for our devastated communities, shining a spotlight on inequalities that emerge in the restoration of lives, livelihoods, and homes, amplifying the needs of hard-hit communities, and providing legal assistance for residents wrongfully denied government support.

This is pure political activism, not a charitable quest to assist hurricane victims as they rebuild their lives. It’ll reroute the money not to actual charities such as the Texas Diaper Bank or the Houston Food Bank, but instead to the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund, a nonprofit that advances racial and economic justice through community and electoral organizing.”

On its Facebook page, the Project announced that all donations received “will only be used to organize in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.” In other words, not one cent of this money will be donated to people who have lost their cars, possessions, and even their entire homes. Instead it’ll be poured straight into the pockets of activists such as Sarsour as they continue their political posturing, dividing the country over race and “inequality” in the wake of Harvey’s devastation rather than focusing on the nonpartisan goal of helping Texans restore their community.

This week, Sarsour has also actively discouraged people from donating to the Red Cross, suggesting instead that they contribute to sundry political-activist organizations. Sarsour has already shown her willingness to use disunity to turn a profit. Now we know she’s willing to exploit disaster in the same way.

So how does Sarsour react when someone calls her on it?

Her critics are all woman-hating white supremacists!

This tweet tells you pretty much all you need to know about this despicable woman. Although I do wonder exactly what makes her a woman of color and not, say, Israeli women.

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09/01 Links Pt1: Phillips: On the wrong side of America’s culture war; Iran shows 'true colors' by restoring Hamas ties

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: On the wrong side of America’s culture war

David Duke’s website lavished praise on Max Blumenthal’s book, which likened Israel to Nazi Germany, saying his work was “extremely valuable in the study of Jewish extremism.”
By the Left’s own lights, that makes Corbyn, Max Blumenthal and these left-wing sites complicit with neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
Unlike the Left’s tactic of character assassination, however, this is not a wildly unfair smear by association.
For the Left and far-Right are united by their fundamentally anti-Jewish, pathological loathing of Israel. Cast your eye over Duke’s vicious screed “Jewish Supremacy in Action” and you could be reading a column by one of The Guardian’s regular Israel-bashing commentators.
This is surely why the Left is going to such lengths to talk up white supremacists. It is desperately inflating the threat posed by such people in order to mask its own Israel-hatred and Jew-baiting.
Of course, neo-Nazis and their ilk pose a danger to Jews and other minorities, but their numbers are tiny. The immeasurably greater danger comes from the far-left and the Islamists – and from the broad Left who ignore or sanitize what they do.
I have repeatedly listed Donald Trump’s many flaws, which make him a highly unsuitable occupant of the high office he now holds.
But what he’s up against is a liberal establishment and its far-left shock troops (passively facilitated by spineless and resentful Republicans) who are using illegality, abuse of the constitution, contempt for democracy, defamatory lies and character assassination, obstructionism and violence, not just against Donald Trump but against America – and against reason itself.
Unlikely champion he may be, but if Trump goes down America is lost – and the Jews will have squandered one of their warmest friends in the White House.
Unpalatable? Incredible? Sure. But you’d better believe it. This is a cultural civil war, and far too many Jews, alas, have chosen to be on the wrong side.

Rabbis boycotting Trump are ignorant of their own history

The president was correct in condemning all violence. In a viable democracy, there is no excuse for political violence in the streets. The antisemitism of the far Right is palpable, but so too is the antisemitism of the far Left. It’s just that progressive Jews are incapable of confronting antisemitism when it comes from those with whom they share a political agenda on other issues.
The president who most threatened the Jewish community is not Donald Trump but Barack Obama. Obama sat at the feet of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for 20 years while he cursed Jews and America. It was only when Wright’s sermons became public and Wright persisted in his hatred that Obama distanced himself from the man he called “his uncle.”
The Obama administration staked out positions for the Palestinians in their negotiations with Israel. It slighted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by making him come to the back door of the White House and then serving him non-kosher food while Obama retreated to his living quarters. The contrived insults were unworthy of an American president.
The Obama administration gave Iran the bomb and freed up over $100 billion that Iran is now using to fund terrorism against Israel.
Did the ostentatiously publicity- hungry rabbinical organizations ever refuse to take a High Holy Day call from Obama? To ask the question is to answer it.
The self-centered rabbis will bask in the ephemeral limelight of their political exhibitionism. They will join other Jewish organizations that are crafting letters and petitions to attack Trump for not condemning one set of street thugs more than another.
They will indulge their self-important fantasy and receive affirmation from their congregants, who think that Trump is the greatest threat to Jewish existence since Hitler. They will have advanced the real interests of the Jewish community not one iota.

JPost Editorial: PFLP in Germany

It sounds hallucinatory because it is: The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian, a terrorist organization responsible for the deaths of dozens of Israelis – including the 2001 assassination of tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi – will be running candidates for the German Bundestag.
It’s not enough that the PFLP hasn’t been banned long ago for carrying out deadly attacks to advance its agenda of destroying the State of Israel. Representatives of this organization, which openly advocates the use of the most despicable means to achieve its ends, are exploiting the democratic process to gain access to political power and legitimacy. And they are doing it in Germany, a country that should have learned from its own history how fragile democracy can be.
It’s not that the PFLP has slipped under the radar and German authorities have made the simple mistake of oversight. As noted by Benjamin Weinthal, The Jerusalem Post’s European correspondent, MKs from Yesh Atid and German lawmakers have already appealed to German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière to ban Hezbollah and the PFLP in Germany.
But the ministry has refused. In a response to a question from Weinthal, the ministry attempted to shirk responsibility, claiming it was the federal election committee that decided whether or not to disqualify political parties.

Not only Hamas: PA summer camps teach terror too

Palestinian Media Watch reports:

Many Palestinian children participated this summer in camps that promoted hate, terror, Martyrdom-death and denial of the existence of Israel. The camps were organized by the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs and the PA's National Committee for Summer Camps, both of which are funded by the PA Budget. On its Facebook page, the National Committee for Summer Camps has listed itself as a "governmental organization." In Arabic it defines itself as "a governmental institution for children aged 6-12 years with recreational activities aimed to develop the Palestinian child in various fields."

Among the "partners and supporters," listed on the website of the PA's National Committee for Summer Camps, are UNICEF and UNDP (accessed Aug. 30, 2017).

The first photo shows a girl wearing an Arab headdress and playing the part of a terrorist, as she faces off against a boy playing an Israeli. The second and third photos show the Palestinian girl "dead" on the ground with a knife in her hand after the "Israelis" who "shot" her standing next to her. The fourth photo shows a number of children standing behind the terrorist "Martyr" lying on the ground with a Palestinian flag draped over her, as is common practice at the funeral of "Martyrs."

[Facebook page of the National Committee for Summer Camps, Aug. 3, 2017]

These photos and others that PMW posted of play-acting terror attacks don't seem to be on the Facebook page of the National Committee for Summer Camps page any more, so there may have been some sensitivity about that after PMW reported it.

But this shows that the PA is no different in teaching their kids to support and idolize terror than Hamas is. The world's embrace of the Palestinian Authority while considering Hamas a terror group is completely political and not based on their actions nor attitudes.

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UNRWA announced that it distributed 896 live sheep to Gaza families for the occasion of Eid al Adha this year.

These sheep are slaughtered by amateurs. In fact, under Islamic law it is preferable that the owner of the animal be the one who slaughters ("sacrifices") it, ensuring that the animals will die a horrible and painful death. (It is permissible for the owner to hire a professional as long as he witnesses the slaughter, but that is not the best way to fulfill the obligation.)

Videos from previous years shows young men from Gaza stabbing animals to death with short knives, often in large crowds, and it takes many minutes for the animals to succumb. Hamas does not enforce any laws on sacrifice, which often happens in the middle of the street. The UNRWA sheep will undoubtedly be slaughtered in the same crude and cruel way under sickening, dirty conditions. (They were donated by the US branch of Islamic Relief Organization. The UK-based organization is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.)

Today is the first day of the three day festival, so there will be more horrific videos. Today a video of a frighetned bull that ran through a Gaza street before it was recaptured. was shared on social media, but not its subsequent slaughter.

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08/31 Links Pt2: Young Anti-Zionist Jews Claim to Speak For My Generation; Yes, antifa is the moral equivalent of neo-Nazis

From Ian:

Young Anti-Zionist Jews Claim to Speak For My Generation. They Don’t. It’s Time We Called Them On It.

“If six million people were walking around saying that they were ‘chosen,’ you would want to kill them, too.”
A few months ago, I was shocked to hear these words from a fellow Brown University student. With a remarkable degree of ignorance about the history of the Holocaust and Jewish theology, he suggested that the Jews are so repulsive that we brought the Nazi genocide upon ourselves. He shut down another student for daring to bring up her grandparents’ Holocaust experiences at a Shabbat dinner conversation, calling her selfish for recounting her own family’s history. He declared that Jewish religion and ethics are meaningless as long as Israel, which he regarded as the epicenter of global evil, exists.
He was Jewish.
He had internalized a toxic culture of anti-Semitism and grown to resent Holocaust survivors, Zionists, and all who represented resistance to the mentality that he had chosen to adopt. Anti-Zionists had repeated the narrative that they represented “young Jews” and “our generation” until he believed them. He couldn’t stand to be confronted with millennial Jews like me who had taken the harder path, had chosen to name anti-Semitism, talk about it, and fight back.
People like him claim to speak for the whole of my generation, but they are a small minority of Jewish millennials. According to Pew’s comprehensive study of American Jews, a full 81 percent of Jewish 18-29 year-olds consider “caring about Israel” to be “essential” or “important” to being Jewish. Only 11 percent of us say we are “not at all attached” to Israel. We may be critical of its policies and politicians, but not its existence.

Judea Pearl: The Basel Conference — 120 Years Later

However, I believe that Herzl, in effect, founded the Jewish state much earlier. True, Herzl’s specific plan to persuade the Ottoman sultan to allocate land for a Jewish state was sheer lunacy and led to painful disappointments. But transforming Jewish statehood into an item on the international political agenda was a monumental achievement; it maintains this position today.
Moreover, the idea that Jews are reclaiming sovereignty by right, not for favor, completely changed the way that Jews began to view their standing in the cosmos. It transformed the Jew from an object of history to a shaper of history.
This new self-image was the engine that propelled history toward a Jewish statehood already in the early 1900s. The 40,000 Jews who made up the Second Aliyah (1904-1914) were different in spirit and determination from the 35,000 Jews who came earlier with the First Aliyah (1882-1903). At their core, the second wave knew that they were building a model sovereign nation and that Zionism was the most just and noble endeavor in human history. They established kibbutzim, formed self-defense organizations, founded the town of Tel Aviv and turned Hebrew into a practical spoken language. This spirit of hope, purpose and immediacy emanated from the Basel Congress, not from the utopian “in time to come” Zionism of Ahad Ha’am.
The diplomatic efforts that led to the Balfour Declaration and the subsequent ideological immigration of the Third Aliyah (1919-1923) all were direct products of the Zionist movement and made statehood practically inevitable.
The miracle of Israel was planted, indeed, in 1897.
If I had to choose the single most significant impact that the Basel Congress has had on our lives here, in 2017 America, I would name one forgotten statement that Herzl made in his first speech at the Basel Congress. On the morning of August 29, 1897, after 15 minutes of wild cheering, Herzl took the stage and said: “Zionism is a homecoming to the Jewish fold even before it becomes a homecoming to the Jewish land.”
As I observe how the miracle of Israel is becoming the most powerful uniting force among our divided communities, and as I witness the excitement of our children, grandchildren and college students as they internalize the relevance of Israel to their identity as Jews, Herzl’s statement about “homecoming to the Jewish fold“ stands out, perhaps, as more visionary than his prediction about Israeli statehood. It was the future of the Jewish people, not just of Israel, that was forged there in Basel, 120 years ago.

Reflecting on Zionism

Some 120 years after this historic congress, the State of Israel today deals with questions Herzl has already asked. In our day, he represents the connection between the State of Israel in the Land of Israel and the solution to the Jewish problem.
Herzl searched for a real solution to this problem from the roots up. He completely changed how the future of the Jewish people was conceived. The idea of uprooting Jews from Europe and transferring them to Israel depended on re-evaluating the relationship toward Jews by European society and the features of this society. As it was impossible to predict that European society would eventually adapt itself to the values of tolerance, freedom and equality toward Jews, anti-Semitism was understood as a permanent state between Jews and non-Jews that would only get worse if the Jewish problem would remain unsolved.
Today, 120 years after the First Zionist Congress, we have a duty to examine the way we went since then,do some soul searching and evaluate the aims of both the Zionist movement and the state. The Zionist movement succeeded in realizing its dream by virtue of its leadership, ideology and the mobilization of its people. The question is what is the essence of Zionism today. This ideology succeeded in gathering together the Jewish people, not only those who were citizens of one country, but all the Jews living in the Diaspora. Is our leadership capable bringing about the realization and fulfillment of aspirations and form concrete plans for the future, or does it cause us to occupy ourselves with the day-to-day and a decline in the present as we abandon our future?

Avner Inbar is the Co-Chair and Co-Founder of Molad, a Jerusalem-based progressive think tank.

Of course he wants peace with Palestinians. He supports Israel negotiating with Palestinians, Jews talking with Arabs, Israel embracing the Arab Peace Initiative, and Fatah unifying with Hamas.

But some kinds of dialogue are out of bounds.

In an audio recording published in Makor Rishon, Inbar says to a group of American Jews that they must not speak to Israel's New York Consul-General Dani Dayan.

Dayan, you see, is a settler, which makes him far more toxic than Arabs who cheer killing Jews. He told the American leftists that they have to choose sides between his position and that of a representative of the Israeli government. Which is sort of amazing for someone who claims to support Israel.

And what really got him upset was an article in Haaretz that showed that despite Dayan's personal opinions, he has been very effective in speaking to - liberal American Jews.

“I have a lot of respect for Dani Dayan,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president and founder of J Street, the largest Jewish group focused on promoting a two-state solution and opposing the settlements. “We don’t agree politically on almost anything, but as a diplomat, his approach has been exactly the right one for the State of Israel.”...
A participant in one of those conversations said “what I liked about it, was that he [Dayan] didn’t try to sell us the usual explanations about how much the current government wants the two-state solution to happen. He didn’t do hasbara on us. He just said — ‘listen, you and I are probably not going to agree when it comes to the settlements and the conflict. I’m here representing the government’s line, and you have a different line — and that’s okay. But let’s try to find areas where we can work together.’ There was something honest and refreshing about his approach.”

So there is a clear consensus among leading Jewish figures in New York that Dayan’s first year in town was a success: He arrived with the “settler thing,” as one leader described it, hovering over his appointment, and has overcome suspicions and built strong relationships all across the city and state.

Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, was quoted in the Haaretz article as well as being against speaking to Dayan.

So a charming Israeli diplomat is more dangerous to some leftist Jews than Arabs are. Good to know that the "ultra-right" Dayan is more interested in dialogue with those he disagrees with than some so-called liberals are.

(h/t Yoel)

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The attitude of Israelis to African “infiltrators” or “asylum seekers” or “refugees” – what you call them is indicative of how you feel about them – is a manifestation of a broad cultural divide in our society.

There are about 50,000 illegal immigrants (estimates vary) from various African countries, mostly Eritria and Sudan but also numerous others, who came to Israel in the period between about 2005 and 2013, when Israel completed fencing its borderwith Egypt. In 2012 a law was passed that permitted the detention of illegal immigrants, although the Supreme Court, responding to petitions from various “human rights” NGOs, prevented its implementation. Nevertheless, the flow of immigrants seems to have been stopped, primarily by the physical barrier. Here is an interesting analysis of the immigration phenomenon and the attempts of the state to deal with it, albeit from a left-wing perspective.

Most of the immigrants have applied for humanitarian asylum and have been given visas that must be renewed every three months. They are de facto permitted to work, although many receive welfare benefits. Technically, only a few are eligible for humanitarian asylum as refugees, but the government has decided that most of them can’t be deported to their home countries because conditions there are so bad. Most are Muslims. The majority live in neighborhoods in South Tel Aviv.

The Tel Aviv neighborhoods have been severely impacted by the influx. Local residents say that they are afraid to go out at night because of violent crime committed by immigrants. Resources to help disadvantaged people of all backgrounds have been strained to the breaking point by the needs of the immigrants and their children. Long-time residents of the area that own property find themselves trapped, unable to sell apartments for enough money to move somewhere else.

Although it is irrelevant to the argument about what to do about them, I should point out (probably unnecessarily) that no other Middle Eastern or African country would treat illegal immigrants as well. The Egyptians regularly shoot migrants trying to cross their borders, and other countries deny them the right to work or education for their children. And they certainly would not get welfare benefits!

One can argue about their status endlessly – are most of them “economic migrants” or true refugees? But it should be clear that life in Israel is infinitely better in every way than in the places most of them came from, for both human rights and economic opportunities. It’s understandable that they took great risks to get here. What should we do?

On the one hand, you can say that now that the flow has been stopped they do not pose a demographic danger to the state and we should try to integrate them into the state, give them permanent residency and official permission to work, improve their living conditions and try to absorb them. After all, their children already speak Hebrew as their first language.

On the other, if it becomes known that Israel will welcome illegal immigrants, no fence will stop them. They will find a way, and the influx that has been stopped will resume. The ones that are already here have a high birthrate, facilitated by generous welfare benefits, and the 50,000 that are here now present a demographic threat to the Jewish majority, already under pressure from a growing Arab population. There is also the danger of creating a permanent dependent class. Israel is a small nation-state, and its continued existence depends on maintaining an ethnic majority. While the migrants have human rights, they must be balanced against those of the residents of South Tel Aviv, who have received a very raw deal through no fault of their own.

The government has been trying to find a way to reduce the number of migrants in the country. The current law permits the deportation of illegal immigrants to a “third country” where they will not be endangered. Israel has agreements with several African countries to take deportees, but only if they voluntarily agree to go. Last year, the Knesset passed a law that would withhold some of the salary of the migrants, which would be returned to them if and when they leave (the employer also must contribute to the fund, which discourages them from hiring migrants). This has only been in effect a few months and it’s not clear how effective it will be.

In some cases, the government wishes to deport someone who is uncooperative. Until now, this has been possible by incarcerating him until he agrees to leave “voluntarily” to one of the countries with which Israel has agreements.

But this week, the Supreme Court decided (in response to petitions from various “human rights” NGOs) that illegal immigrants can’t be incarcerated for more than two months, because then their agreement to leave wouldn’t truly be voluntary. Paradoxically, it also ruled that Israel does have the right to involuntarily deport them, but since no third country will take them unless they agree, this right can’t be exercised. The court also suggested that the best solution for the Tel Aviv residents was to disperse the immigrants around the country, which would multiply the problems for both local residents and the migrants. This is the latest in a series of decisions which have stymied attempts to deport illegal immigrants.

And this is where we get to the cultural divide. The government believes that it has an obligation to protect the rights of the immigrants, the Tel Aviv residents, and the Jewish majority in the country. But as Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said in a powerful speech at the Bar Association this week, the Court recognizes only the rights of individuals, and not the Zionist imperative to maintain a Jewish majority and Jewish character to the state:

… Shaked sought to make clear that she doesn't make light of … individual rights, saying she considers the system maintaining them to be “almost sacred.”

“But not devoid of context,” she clarified. "Not detached from Israeli uniqueness, our national tasks and our very identity, history and Zionist challenges. Zionism should not—and will not—bow before a system of individual rights interpreted universally in a manner detaching it from the chronicles of the Knesset and the history of legislation we're all familiar with."

Shaked said the Israeli judicial branch operates as if in a “dream,” adopting a “utopian and universal worldview sanctifying individual rights to an extreme degree and ceasing taking part in the struggle for Israel's very existence.”

The Court, she noted, relates its decisions to the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, but there is – as yet – no Basic Law affirming the Jewish character of the state, no “Nation-State Law.”

Shaked was criticized by Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni, both of whom oppose such a law. Livni said, “Zionism isn't bowing down to human rights. It is proudly raising its head, because protecting [human rights] is also the essence of Judaism and part of Israel's values as a Jewish and democratic state.” In other words, the Jewishness of the state is nothing more than its democratic nature. This pernicious idea comes directly from the former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, and is precisely why Shaked correctly demands a Nation-State Law.

It is the primary purpose of a government and all of its subsidiaries, including the judiciary system, to protect the nation’s citizens against internal and external threats. This is the case even if the particular citizens are poor and have little political power, like the residents of South Tel Aviv. The Supreme Court struck down one attempt after another to deport the illegal immigrants that have made their lives hell, and the suggestion that the immigrants be dispersed throughout the country – which, even if it were possible, would mean dispersing their pathologies to other disadvantaged communities, because they certainly aren’t going to be allowed to move next door to Supreme Court justices, or Livni or Herzog – is obnoxious and insulting. It is a subterfuge to justify choosing the welfare of the migrants over the Jewish citizens of the state.

Israel does everything she can to be a moral actor in a world where morality is usually a joke, both when she has to use force to defend herself, and when she can deploy her advanced technology to save lives (e.g., Syria, Sierra Leone and Houston, Texas).

But as Hillel said, if I am not for myself, who will be for me? In this case, justice is on the side of the state. And the Supreme Court should be on the side of justice.

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08/31 Links Pt1: Israel and US Threaten to Cut UN Funding if Settlement ‘Blacklist’ Published; Beware Iranian Sleeper Cells

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: Symposium on Occupation Law: The Necessary Non-Normativity and Temporal Indeterminacy of Occupation Law

Certainly some prolonged occupations are the result of colonialist or annexationist aims. But this is not inevitably the case. The Allied occupation of West Berlin lasted forty-five years, and had the then-dominant views about the duration of the Soviet empire been correct, it could have lasted forever. This was not an occupation of choice but of expedience. Similarly, with Israel’s capture of the West Bank, the situation was even more contingent. Jordan only entered the Six Day War half-way through, and the West Bank was entirely outside of Israel’s original war aims.
Israel retained the territory because immediate attempts at a settlement with the Arab states were rejected, as were numerous internationally-backed good-faith offers of statehood to the Palestinians after the end of the Cold War. Indeed, it is these repeated and rejected offers of statehood that prominently distinguish Israel’s situation from any of the others discussed in the book.
This leads us back to the question of temporariness. Maintaining a status quo over many decades is an impossible task, as nothing in the world stands still. Demographics and migrant flows, as Europe’s recent experience has shown, is one of those things. No one can stop the clock at 1967. Of course, Gross’s position is more nuanced, as it would forbid only changes that benefit the occupier. But this itself is a monumental task, as it effectively burdens the occupier.
Limiting one’s trade and movement with an adjacent territory is a high cost. That which burdens the occupier reduces the other side’s incentives to accept an amicable deal. And indeed, one reason the Geneva Convention may not have anticipated prolonged occupations is that its drafters did not conceive of situations where occupation would not promptly lead to annexation, or a peace deal on terms acceptable to both parties.
Thus an alternative normative occupation regime might, for example, terminate all restrictions on the occupier upon the failure of the other side to accept a good faith diplomatic arrangement that would leave them better off than they were before.

PMW: PA summer camps teach terror and Martyrdom-death for kids

Many Palestinian children participated this summer in camps that promoted hate, terror, Martyrdom-death and denial of the existence of Israel. The camps were organized by the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs and the PA's National Committee for Summer Camps, both of which are funded by the PA Budget. On its Facebook page, the National Committee for Summer Camps has listed itself as a "governmental organization." In Arabic it defines itself as "a governmental institution for children aged 6-12 years with recreational activities aimed to develop the Palestinian child in various fields."
Among the "partners and supporters," listed on the website of the PA's National Committee for Summer Camps, are UNICEF and UNDP (accessed Aug. 30, 2017).
Glorifying terror, terrorists, Martyrdom-death for kids, and non-recognition of Israel's existence
The PA's summer camp messages to children included glorifying terror, venerating Martyrdom-death, and picturing a world without Israel in which all Israel has become "Palestine." Camp activities included children performing plays in which the children depicted Palestinian stabbers carrying out terror attacks and being shot and killed by "Israelis," and dying as honored "Martyrs." Children created sculptures and drawings of the map of "Palestine," which includes all of Israel in addition to the PA areas, encouraging children to disregard the existence of Israel and foresee a world without it. Children were taught that Palestine's border to the north is Lebanon and to the south is the Gulf of Aqaba, again depicting a world in which "Palestine" has replaced Israel.
This report documents how the PA and the PLO transmitted these hate messages to Palestinian children through its summer camps.
Glorifying terror and Martyrdom-death through enactments of terror attacks
At a camp organized by the PA-funded National Committee for Summer Camps, children performed a mock stabbing terror attack at the closing ceremony of the camp.

The Newest Threat: Radical Islamist Piracy

According to a recently published report by a scholar at the Marine Corps University, Islamic State (IS) and perhaps even al-Qaeda, having been driven from their territorial strongholds, are likely to take up campaigns of maritime terror. IS successfully carried out an attack on an Egyptian navy frigate, using anti-ship missiles, in the summer of 2015. Michael Rubin explains what could be next:
[T]he Arabs and the Islamic world more broadly have a long and rich maritime legacy, one in which the symbolism-conscious Islamic State can find inspiration. . . .
[The] al-Qaeda military strategist Abu Ubayd al-Qurayshi first sought to integrate maritime operations into a broader jihadist strategy. Al-Qurayshi argued that doing so was especially important to achieve the goal of undermining the U.S. economy, given the importance of trade and the freedom of navigation. . . .
How might al-Qaeda and Islamic State act in the future? In short, they hope to entice the U.S. Navy into narrow waterways off the coast of hostile regions, such as the waters off Yemen and Somalia [as well as] Libya, Egypt, and Syria, and in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea. While ships have grown accustomed to treading carefully off the Horn of Africa, Yemen is more difficult to avoid: the Mandeb Strait between Yemen and Djibouti is a chokepoint that shipping transiting the Suez Canal cannot avoid. The same holds true with the Straits of Malacca, especially if extremists succeed in their efforts to gain footholds in Indonesia.

Before 1967, American anti-Zionists still demanded Israel to give up land

Here is a letter to the editor in the New York Times from June 24, 1960, by the head of American Friends of the Middle East, Harold Minor:

His points are:
- Any Arab intransigence is a result of Israeli actions
- The Palestinian [refugee] issue is the key issue in the entire Middle East, and if that problem would be solved, there would be no other problems
- The Arabs are justified in boycotting and blockading the Jewish state because of Israeli actions
- Certain parties, i.e., Jews, who speak out against this Arab aggression are engaging in propaganda
- Israel is in violation of UN resolutions, and should go back to the 1947 partition lines
- Arabs look at the US as being pro-Israel and not an honest broker, and the US has to pressure Israel to give up land and (West) Jerusalem and admit a million Palestinians in order to get back in the good graces of the Arabs

These arguments are now seen to be bizarre in retrospect - and yet anti-Israel forces are using slightly updated versions of these same arguments, today. Linkage was alive and well in 1960. Justifying boycotts of Israel was perfectly acceptable discourse. Claims that there can be no peace unless the US pressures Israel - we hear it today. Justifying all Arab aggression by pointing to imaginary Israeli crimes - just like today. (The Israeli Embassy in Washington wrote a good response that was published in the July 5, 1960 NYT pointing out the deceptions in this letter. )

Nothing has changed.

But what is really interesting is that this American Friends of the Middle East was not a grassroots pro-Arab organization.

It was created by the CIA!

In 1951, [CIA Middle East official Kermit "Kim'] Roosevelt – together with two dozen pro-Arab American educators, theologians and writers, including Gildersleeve and Harry Emerson Fosdick – founded an anti-Zionist group called American Friends of the Middle East (AFME). It was Roosevelt who used his role at the CIA to ensure the organization would fund the group through the CIA and Aramco.

It was through groups like the AFME and anti-Zionist activists like Rabbi Elmer Berger, a leader of the American Council for Judaism, that the Roosevelts [Kermit and cousin Archie, also at the CIA] were able to shape the CIA's prism of the Middle East. With Kim Roosevelt's blessing, the AFME led the way in educating policy- makers, journalists and others as to the Middle Eastern "reality" – which coincided with their political biases.

As Wilford writes, "In December 1958, AFME drafted a pamphlet, 'Story of a Purpose,' which eloquently articulated the group's founding values: sympathy towards Arab nationalism and the drive toward Arab unity, rejection of the last vestiges of colonialism and imperialism, and the belief that the Palestine Question is the very heart of the Middle East problems, requiring a US policy of friendly and sympathetic impartiality."

While the PLO's propaganda came straight from the Kremlin, American anti-Zionism has largely been shaped by Foggy Bottom.

What this letter also shows is that even if Israel would give in to today's demands - there are plenty more demands waiting in the wings, and they were all used before 1967.

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2017 Palestinian textbooks (used by @UNRWA) remain as false and hateful as ever

David Bedein, who has done more than almost anyone to expose the hate taught in UNRWA schools, has looked at the latest crop of textbooks published under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority in 2017.

I've spoken to him and he expends a great deal of effort and money to ensure that his translations are as accurate as possible.

Here is some of what he found (images of the pages can be seen at the link):

Zionists adopted Canaanite place names (Social Studies, Grade 6, Part 1, 2017, p. 54)
“The Zionist occupation named its own settlements by these Canaanite names, [thus] having stolen and forged Palestinian national heritage and history.”

Incitement over Al Aqsa: (Social Studies, Grade 7, Part 1, 2017, p. 62)

“The Zionist occupation pursued a policy of erasing Palestine’s Arab and Islamic features in general, and especially in Jerusalem. Since the first day of Jerusalem’s occupation, the Zionists started to change the identity of this Arab-Muslim city and make it [a city] of a Zionist nature. ...They annexed the Islamic features to the Zionist heritage list, as they transformed the Al-Buraq Wall into the Wailing Wall;...they opened Jewish synagogues in Jerusalem’s Old City, and they are striving painstakingly these days to gain control over the Noble Shrine [Al-Haram al-Sharif – the Arabic traditional name of the Temple Mount] by letting the Zionist settlers to enter it daily in preparation for its complete takeover and cut any Muslim connection to this place that is sacred to Muslims.”

The Dimona reactor causes cancer in southern Hebron (Scientific Education, Grade 11, Part 1, 2017, p. 40)

“For research:
Studies indicate an increase of cancer cases in southern Hebron compared to other Palestinian areas. I will investigate the connection of that to its proximity to the Dimona reactor in the Negev desert.”

Israel releases boars to cause damage to the Palestinians’ crops (Social Studies, Grade 9, Part 1, 2017, p. 21)

“The occupation has transformed vast areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip into dumps of poisonous refuse and acted to pollute the Palestinian environment with radioactive and chemical materials, which has caused an increase of the averages of affliction with severe diseases, chiefly cancer. It [also] dumped their markets with spoiled goods beyond their expiration dates in the Zionist markets such as cars and foodstuffs, and released herds of boars that caused damage to the inhabitants and their crops…”

Jews make parties to throw Molotov cocktails at Palestinians (Arabic Language, Grade 9, Part 1, 2017, p. 61)

“…The neighbor: ‘the curfew does not include us in Al-Shurfah [neighborhood]. It is imposed on Al-Natarish [neighborhood]. It seems that there is a barbecue party with Molotov cocktails in one of the buses to the colony [Jewish settlement] of Psagot on Jabal al-Tawil mountain.'

Israel engaging in extermination of Palestinians (History Studies, Grade 11, Part 1, 2017, p. 60)

Let us think and examine:
Land is the pivot of colonialist Imperialism [verbally: settlement-oriented Imperialism – Al-Isti’mar al-Istitani in Arabic, ed.]. It strives as much as it can to take hold of it by all means, even by the extermination [ibadah in Arabic] of the inhabitants and their annihilation [ifna’].”

As the article shows, the US denies that any of this hate is taught - even as USAID helps fund the development of these textbooks.

(The textbooks are all online if you search for them; I verified some of these. For example, that last history book can be downloaded here.)

(h/t Irene/Ian)

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Good news! Juan Cole says Iran is peaceful as a pussycat!

Every once in a while someone sends me a link to a post by ninth-rate academic Juan Cole, and I can't resist showing what a shill for Iran he is.

Here's today's, where he pretends to debunk Netanyahus' warningd of Iran using Syria and Lebanon as springboards to attack Israel. :

First of all, Iran has not vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the map. Rather, Iran has a no first strike policy that has been repeatedly underlined by Ayatollah Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani.

Second of all, Iran has not turned Damascus into a fortress or Syria into an army base. Iran sent Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps officers to Syria to train and advise the Syrian Arab Army. They are the equivalent of special ops. It is likely that there aren’t more than a couple of thousand Iranian military personnel in the country. Iranian officers have died at such a rate that they must have been in the field leading Hizbullah and Iraqi Shiite militias rather than only in the barracks doing training. There are estimated to have been as few as 500 Iranian personnel killed in Syria despite the big battles at places like Aleppo, and so there just can’t be very many Iranian troops fighting there.

Only 500 Iranian killed in Syria! What more proof do you need that Iran isn't fighting in Syria?

Except that Cole is lying. Iranian officials themselves admitted that over 1000 Iranian soldiers had been killed in Syria as of last November.

And Cole conveniently forgets to include Iran's proxy army Hezbollah, which is wholly under Iranian control. Over 1000 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Syria as well. And that's what they admit, the number may be much higher.

According to some reports Iran controls more soldiers (although most not Iranian) than Syria does in Syria - some 70,000 troops that report to Iran.

Cole knows this, but his blog isn't about truth, but propaganda. I wonder if Iran pays him as well.

He goes on:

This tiny rag tag force helped make a difference for the al-Assad regime in fighting Sunni rebels who have only light to medium weaponry. But it isn’t the kind of force that offers a significant threat, or a threat at all, to Israel.

Israel isn't concerned about the current army, but Iran's ability to use Syria as a launching pad for rockets and missiles - like Lebanon has become.

Third, Iran is very unlikely to be building missile factories in Syria and Lebanon, and Netanyahu just asserts these things rather than giving any evidence for them. He is a one man walking fake news. Israel has several hundred atomic bombs and the means to deliver them, and Iran is not so crazy as to send a missile against Israel.

Likewise, Hizbullah, of which Netanyahu is so afraid, is just a regional militia. It has no armor to speak of and no air force.
The only reason for Netanyahu to be afraid of Hizbullah is if he wanted to invade Lebanon and/or Syria. It would put up a good guerrilla defense, as in 2006. But it isn’t capable of offensive action against the Israeli army, the best-equipped military in the Middle East.

Multiple sources, Arab and French, have discussed two of Iran's underground missile manufacturing plants in Lebanon. Oops.

Iran has sent thousands of missiles into Israel. They just used their proxies in Iran and Gaza so Israel wouldn't retaliate against them directly.

And, why worry about 100,000 accurate rockets that are aimed at Israeli chemical and nuclear facilities, according to Hassan Nasrallah himself.There is no real threat from Hezbollah because they don't have an air force. What possible damage can 100,000 rockets do?

Juan Cole says not to be concerned! And he's like, a professor! And he knows Farsi! So he must be truthful, right?

Cole knows every single thing I have written here. He doesn't want his fans to know those facts, though. His twisting of facts and deception is clear to anyone who bothers to look.

But I haven't heard anyone important quoting him for a couple of years, so chances are - everyone knows what a fraud he is by now. And if you don't, just look through the many posts where I proved him a liar and a fraud.

(h/t Dan)

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08/30 Links Pt2: J Street Rewrites History to Create ‘Palestine’; Did the Mossad hack Linda Sarsour's phone?

From Ian:

J Street Rewrites History to Create ‘Palestine’

The US government’s reluctance to demand the immediate creation of a Palestinian state has sent J Street into a panic. With its candidates having been defeated in elections on both sides of the ocean, and its proposals crumbling in the face of reality, J Street is trying one last desperate strategy: rewriting history to claim that Palestinian statehood has been supported by everybody, everywhere, for as long as anyone can remember.
Asked by reporters on August 24 about the Palestinian state issue, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said: “We are not going to state what the outcome has to be. It has to be workable to both sides. That’s the best view as to not really bias one side over the other, to make sure that they can work through it.”
Nauert’s statement was simple, logical and reasonable. But her failure to pledge a full-throated endorsement of the Palestinian agenda sent J Street into a tizzy. The J Street leaders fired off an overheated press release that declared: “For more than two decades, responsible Israeli and Palestinian leaders, US presidents of both parties and virtually the entire international community have understood that a two-state solution is the only viable way to end the conflict.”
Literally everything in J Street’s declaration is erroneous.
American presidents have not supported Palestinian statehood “for more than two decades.” George W. Bush was the first president to publicly support a Palestinian state while in office. That was in 2002, i.e. 15 years ago, not “more than two decades.” Can’t anybody at J Street do basic math?
Not only that, but Bush’s support was conditional. In his June 25, 2002, speech about a Palestinian state, Bush said that such a state could come about only if the Palestinian people elected “new leaders not compromised by terror.” The Palestinians, of course, did exactly the opposite.

Did the Mossad hack Linda Sarsour's phone?

The satirical Twitter handle @TheMossadIL, playing off of Israel’s Intelligence Agency, hinted that they were the ones responsible for prominent Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour’s phone issues.
Linda Sarsour took to Twitter on Tuesday to ask for help with her cellphone but did not get the answers she expected. “I just lost all my text threads? I have an iPhone. Any idea why?” she asked her 230,000 Twitter following. The Mossad Twitter account replied to Sarsour’s post with a simple “Yes,” hinting that the Israeli Intelligence Agency is responsible.
This is not the only joke about information gathering by the satirical account created in September 2016. Recent events such as the solar eclipse in America also caught their eye, where they tweeted “Thank you for using those ‘protective eclipse glasses’ everyone, we have now collected your thoughts.”

See @lsarsour, your first mistake was buying an iPhone. pic.twitter.com/zgQJnji2OQ
— The Mossad (@TheMossadIL) August 30, 2017

Or perhaps you're just a horrifying human and decent people are appalled by your antics pic.twitter.com/KopHidld19
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 30, 2017

PreOccupiedTerritory: Israeli Intelligence Snags KFC’s Secret Blend Of 11 Herbs And Spices (satire)

Israel’s secret intelligence service scored another operational coup last month, agents can finally reveal, when they got their hands on the original Harland Sanders recipe for fried chicken that the KFC company has held as a trade secret since the Great Depression.
Colonel Harland Sanders’s secret blend of eleven herbs and spices, long a famous selling point in the production and marketing of Kentucky Fried Chicken – since 1991 shortened to KFC – has been the subject of speculation, experimentation, and attempts at imitation for decades. Officials at the Mossad reported this morning (Wednesday) that they have been given the green light to disclose that a long-term operation over the course of many years has finally enabled the organization to get its hands on the prized recipe. Sources at the agency declined to discuss how they intend to use the secret information.
“Oh, we’ll think of something, I’m sure,” offered a section chief, licking his lips. “You know us – always focused on enhancing Israel’s security interests. Sometimes that requires the installation of a whole new kitchen facility at our headquarters, if you know what I mean.”
The secrecy behind KFC’s recipe and spice blend occupies such an important role in the company’s operations that its production requires that neither of the two companies supplying the ingredients know what the other contributes to the process. The original recipe is kept in a vault at the headquarters of Yum! Foods, the restaurant division spun off from Pepsico in 2002.