Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, September 04, 2017

British travel document to Palestine doesn't prove what Fatah thinks it does

The Fatah Facebook page shows this:

It describes this to its Arabic-speaking audience:

Photo: "77 year old Historical document "

Entry Visa from the British Consulate on 28/8/1940. The text of the document:
I want you to know that I am authorized to give you a visa to enter the land of Palestine.
Valid until October 5, 1940
This document is a demonstration of the recognition by the British colonial office at the time of historic Palestine and there was no such thing as Israel.

I love how Arabs and other Israel haters feel vindicated when they find out that British documents said "Palestine" for the area of British Mandate Palestine before the founding of the modern state of Israel. They somehow think that Zionists don't admit that there was a mandate for Palestine. Indeed, what they don't want to remember is that the Palestine of the British Mandate was the precursor to Israel, and has nothing in common with today's Palestinian Arab nationalism. The Arabs of Palestine were against the Mandate and its institutions - currency, postage stamps, offices, sports teams, culture. All of that was Jewish.

Although this document was fairly exceptional, it does prove something that Fatah would rather you not notice: At least one British official understood that a Jewish refugee in Lithuania belongs in the Land of Israel.

It is a tragedy that there weren't more such officials.

Here is more of the paperwork that Mr. Blumencwajg had to have to escape Europe.

During this year, several diplomats who were stationed in the city did the unthinkable and went even against the orders of their superiors: they issued life saving visas to hundreds and several thousand Jews and other refugees. Such actions even put their own life at risk, yet, they did so without thinking twice: Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara and Dutch representative Jan Zwartendijk.

Some though managed to obtain other means to flee occupied Lithuania as the holder of this set of documents here did: JOEL BLUMENCWAJG, a young man, obtained the rare “War Refugee Certificate” from the Lithuanian Ministry of Interior, the” Commissioner for War refugees”. The document was translated into French by the well-known Lithuanian dignitary Vladas Daumantas, then acting Kaunas County Court jury translator, who had a rich contribution to the founding of the country after World War One. The certificate was obtained prior to the occupation but put into use afterwards. Young Joel, who found refuge in the small town of Tauragė, transited through Moscow, Turkey & Syria to arrive safely into British Palestine on March 15th, 1941, after crossing the border checkpoint at Nakoura.

Not many where as lucky as he was. Following operation Barbarossa on June 1941, thousands upon thousands were shot in make shift ditches and graves throughout the Baltic States, what would later be the beginning of the end for European Jews: the mass execution of complete communities began following the invasion of the Soviet Union and would not stop until 1945.

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I often see Arabs claim in Arabic media that there is no evidence of Jewish history in Jerusalem.

The charge is absurd because there have been hundreds of archaeological finds that prove otherwise, but mere facts aren't important to these people.

Here are the latest stunning finds from excavations at the City of David. (This is a press release from the City of David and Israel Antiquities Authority.)

BUREAUCRACY AND CLERKS FROM THE PAST:

A collection of seals (bullae) from the late First Temple period, discovered in the City of David excavations, shed light on the bureaucracy and officials of ancient Jerusalem

A collection of seals, some of which bear ancient Hebrew inscriptions, as well as additional new findings, will be displayed to the public at the annual City of David archaeology conference taking place this week.

Who was Achiav ben Menachem? A collection of dozens of sealings, mentioning the names of officials dated to the days of the Judean kingdom prior to the Babylonian destruction, was unearthed during excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the City of David National Park in the area of the walls of Jerusalem, funded by the ELAD (El Ir David) organization.

The sealings (bullae- from which the Hebrew word for stamp, “bul”, is derived) are small pieces of clay which in ancient times served as seals for letters. A letter which arrived with its seal broken was a sign that the letter had been opened before reaching its destination. Although letters did not survive the horrible fire which consumed Jerusalem at its destruction, the seals, which were made of the abovementioned material that is similar to pottery, were actually well preserved thanks to the fire, and attest to the existence of the letters and their senders.

According to Ortal Chalaf and Dr. Joe Uziel, directors of the excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority, “In the numerous excavations at the City of David, dozens of seals were unearthed, bearing witness to the developed administration of the city in the First Temple period. The earliest seals bear mostly a series of pictures; it appears that instead of writing the names of the clerks, symbols were used to show who the signatory was, or what he was sealing. In later stages of the period – from the time of King Hezekiah (around 700 BCE) and up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE - the seals bear the names of clerks in early Hebrew script. Through these findings, we learn not only about the developed administrative systems in the city, but also about the residents and those who served in the civil service.”

Some of the seals bear biblical names, several of which are still used today, such as Pinchas. One particularly interesting seal mentions a man by the name of “Achiav ben Menachem.” These two names are known in the context of the Kingdom of Israel; Menachem was a king of Israel, while Achiav does not appear in the Bible, but his name resembles that of Achav (Ahab) the infamous king of Israel from the tales of the prophet Elijah. Though the spelling of the name differs somewhat, it appears to be the same name. The version of the name which appears on the seal discovered – Achav [sic, should be "Achiav" - Yoel] – appears as well in the Book of Jeremiah in the Septuagint, as well as in Flavius Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews 15: 7-8).

Chalaf and Uziel add that the appearance of the name Achiav is interesting for two main reasons. First - because it serves as further testimony to the names which are familiar to us from the kingdom of Israel in the Bible, and which appear in Judah during the period following the destruction of the kingdom of Israel. “These names are part of the evidence that after the exile of the Tribes of Israel, refugees arrived in Jerusalem from the northern kingdom, and found their way into senior positions in Jerusalem’s administration

(Yoel adds:

But as biblical scholar Gershon Galil points out

The name Menachem isn't just typical of the kingdom of Israel - it also appears on two ostraca from Horvat Uza in Judea and also on an ostracon from the south-west part of the Judean mountains.

So I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that Achiav ben Menachem is necessarily an Israelite and not a Judean.)

Furthermore, the sealings is the fact that the two names which appear on the seal- Achiav and Menachem- were names of kings of Israel. Though Achav (Ahab) is portrayed as a negative figure in the Bible, the name continues to be in use- though in a differently spelled version- both in Judea in the latter days of the First Temple, as reflected in Jeremiah and on the seal, and also after the destruction- in the Babylonian exile and up until the Second Temple period, as seen in the writings of Flavius Josephus.

The various stamps, along with other archaeological findings discovered in the recent excavations, will be exhibited to the public for the first time at the 18^th City of David research conference, the annual archaeological conference held by the Megalim Institute, on September 7^th at the City of David National Park.

(h/t Ze'ev Orenstein, who gave me a tour of Ir David and I feel bad for never editing and posting the video.)

UPDATE:

(h/t Yoel)

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Fatah celebrates Saddam Hussein's memory

The Fatah Facebook page showed a Jordanian (/Palestinian) who dedicated his Eid "sacrifice," a camel, to the elevation of the soul of Saddam Hussein.

Almost all of the comments are positive, including from a former UNRWA teacher.

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Frightened "Jewish Voice for Peace" wants students to shun Birthright trips to Israel (ElderToons)

From Haaretz:

The controversial pro-Palestinian advocacy group Jewish Voice For Peace has launched a campaign to convince young Jews not to participate in Birthright Israel trips, just as college students are returning to campus and registration for the winter visits gets underway.
Under the slogan #ReturnTheBirthright, JVP is working to convince 18-26 year-old Jews eligible for the all-expenses paid 10-day tours to reject the tempting offer.
A “pledge” on its website takes the form of an online petition in which young Jews declare: “We will not go on a Birthright trip because it is fundamentally unjust that we are given a free trip to Israel, while Palestinian refugees are barred from returning to their homes. We refuse to be complicit in a propaganda trip that whitewashes the systemic racism, and the daily violence faced by Palestinians living under endless occupation. Our Judaism is grounded in values of solidarity and liberation, not occupation and apartheid. On these grounds we return the Birthright, and call on other young Jews to do the same.”

This being Haaretz, they don't bother to interview anyone who actually fully supports Birthright for the other side of the story. Instead, they interview someone from JStreetU, who pretty much admits that Birthright is awful, too, but he's not sure it is awful enough to boycott:

Ben Elkind, J Street U director, said that for him, taking a Birthright trip was “an important piece of my engaging around Israel and the broader Israeli Palestinian conflict” and that he believes “it is important to encourage students to engage rather than not engage” with the issue.
“I empathize deeply with the questions and concerns” expressed in the JVP campaign, he said. “I think (people like) Adelson have not been a productive force in the politics of this issue, and I think there are reasons to have real concern about the lack of freedom of movement of Palestinians. But I am not sure the response needs to be to boycott Birthright. I think there are potentially more meaningful courses of actions.”

So I made a cartoon about JVP's real position towards Birthright any indeed any dialogue with any Zionist.

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09/03 Links: Hijacking the Laws of Occupation; Lessons from the Syrian strike

From Ian:

Amb. Alan Baker: Hijacking the Laws of Occupation

There are 40 or more ongoing conflict and occupation situations throughout the world, including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Western Sahara, East Timor, East Congo, Nagorno-Karabakh, Northern Cyprus, and the Crimea.

Curiously, these situations, which involve extensive transfer of people in order to settle in the occupied territory, are rarely seen by the international community as “occupations.” Nor are the respective parties involved described as “belligerent occupants,” “occupying powers,” or “settlers.”

From the extent and volume of international attention directed toward Israel and the excessive number of UN resolutions, one might be led to assume that Israel is considered within the international community to be the only “occupying power.”

The accepted rules of occupation are overly general and do not take into consideration the often unique political, legal, and historical status of the territory in dispute, as is the case regarding Israel.

The language of occupation law has been politicized, and partisan political expressions such as “Occupied Palestinian Territories” have become common language by the UN and by such humanitarian organizations as the International Red Cross.

This terminology has no legal basis and prejudges ongoing, agreed-upon, and internationally-endorsed negotiation issues between Israel and the Palestinians. Their use by humanitarian organizations such as the International Red Cross is incompatible with its own constitutional principles of neutrality and impartiality.

Lessons from the Syrian strike

This week will mark 10 years since the destruction of the nuclear reactor Syrian President Bashar Assad wanted to build in northern Syria, with help from North Korea. Although Israel refrained from claiming responsibility for the reactor strike, it was the Syrians who were quick to blame it on Jerusalem. Later, official American sources, notably then-President George. W. Bush, confirmed that Israel had been behind the strike on the Syrian reactor.
Although there was concern about a Syrian reprisal, Assad avoided the risk of confronting Israel militarily and preferred to ignore the destruction of his reactor, which marked an end to his nuclear aspirations, which he had hoped would make his regime bulletproof against any domestic or foreign threat, and might even have hoped would give him full, absolute strategic balance with Israel's power.
The fact that the Syrians attributed the 2007 strike to Israel helped rebuild Israeli deterrence, which had sustained a severe blow in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. That war ended with the other side feeling that Israel had taken a bad hit and had no effective response to Hezbollah missiles. Damascus had the same kind.
After the 2006 war, Assad even toyed with the idea of following in the footsteps of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and green light terrorist attacks on the Golan Heights and the threat of missile volleys if Israel were to strike Syria in response. Taking out the Syrian nuclear reactor completely changed the direction in which things were headed.

Watch: 'Children should be taught to love, not hate and kill'

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released a new video Sunday, slamming the Palestinian Authority propensity for naming streets and schools after terrorists who murdered Jews.
"I want you to close your eyes and imagine," Netanyahu began. "I want you to imagine a seven-year old girl named Fatima. She is walking to school with her mother, and sees a statue, and asks 'who is that?' Her mother answers-that is Khaled Nazzal. He planned the murder of 22 Israeli school children and four grown ups."
Netanyahu continues on a similar vein, pointing out the various monuments the Palestinian Authority has erected to terrorists Dalal Maghrabi, who murdered 38 Israelis in 1978's Coastal Road Massacre, and Abu Sakkar, responsible for the death of 15 Israelis.
"Children should be taught to love and respect, not hate and kill," Netanyahu concluded. "There are so many champions of peace to dedicate statues to. Why do the Palestinians consistently choose to honor mass murderers?"
The carefully-crafted video style has become one of Netanyahu's trademarks. The Prime Minister started releasing short video clips of himself speaking out on a certain issue back in 2016, with the videos often going viral, racking up hundreds of thousands of views within a few hours.

I have yet to speak out against Donald Trump.

One reason for this is that I do not so easily leap aboard thoughtless Bandwagons of Hatred.

If the anti-Trumpeteers had not done such a terrific job of projecting their toxic racialized bullshit - and thereby throwing the United States into the worst spasms of violent malice that anyone has seen since 1968 - I might feel differently.

But they did and I don't.

More than anything else it is the ideologically-blinkered hypocrisy that is reprehensible.

They despise Trump as a sexist and, yet, do not mind in the least that Bill Clinton committed actual rape in the White House. If any university president did what Bill Clinton did Linda Sarour-following western feminists would climb trees with trombones in order to express their politically self-serving, self-righteous disgust.

They call Trump a "racist" for preferring legal immigration, yet this is normal on its face.

Anyone coming into the United States should do so - as my father did in the arms of my grandmother, Sarah - through regular, legal, channels.

Yet this very notion drives some people into paroxysms of rage.

Also, needless to say, as a matter of common sense and basic human decency, we should endeavor to keep Jihadis out of the United States.

{If this is inconvenient to our Muslim friends, I sincerely apologize.}

Therefore when I observe all of these screaming violent and masked, black-clad idiots in the streets in Berkeley, I shrug my shoulders because I know that they are not reacting so much to Trump administration policy as to what hard-right former Presidential contender and media critic, Patrick Buchanan, is thought to have dubbed "culture war" in his 1992 speech to the Republican National Convention.

And the reason that the progressive-left and their fascistic Antifa allies despise Donald Trump is because, on a cultural level, he curbed transforming the United States into the kind of street turf that feminist anti-feminist and antisemitic anti-Zionist Linda Sarsour would love to dance upon.

Among all the reasons that Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton Hatin' on Whitey is the most prominent to my mind. The white working-class knows when it is being urinated upon which is why they did not vote for Clinton in the hoped for numbers and why some of the more razor-headed are putting on that old twentieth-century racist regalia.

In response, the Social Justice Warriors and Safe Space Seeking Chickenshits began a high pitched squealing early last November that has not lowered its volume or pitch from that day to this. The fascistic anti-fascist Idiots in Black are beating up innocent people in the streets of Berkeley as their progressive-left soul-mates tear down historical statuary all around the country.

It is a disgrace and it is just the kind of thing that will wreck the Democrats in 2020.

However, in terms of Jewish / Israel issues the embassy is second only to that of negotiations.

Writing in the Times of Israel, Raoul Wootliff tells us:

Senior members of the Trump administration and Israeli officials renewed talks over the possibility of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a promise repeatedly made by the president in the 2016 election campaign, during high-level meetings in Israel last week, the Times of Israel has learned.

If the conflict is ever going to end it can only happen after the United States, followed by the EU, acknowledges Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move their embassies to that location. So long as the Arabs see that even the United States refuses to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem then they understand that the Jewish State remains vulnerable because its international support is flaccid.

Therefore they will continue to use Jerusalem, and particularly the Temple Mount, as a wedge.

If they can drive Jewish sovereignty off the Temple Mount then they can continue to dream of re-establishing Muslim dominance on the ancestral Jewish homeland. And this is precisely what keeps the hope of "anti-Zionism" alive.

And that is why it is absolutely imperative that Trump move the damn embassy to Jerusalem.

Such an action, more than anything else at this moment, can snap the status quo and place breaks upon the long-term Palestinian-Arab resistance to the Movement for Jewish freedom. And this is why I am cautiously pleased to see the issue in discussion.

Wootliff also tells us, unfortunately:

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, peace envoy Jason Greenblatt and Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy Dina Powell met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday as part of a visit to the region in a bid to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

Breathing life into the Oslo process - if that is what this means - is a vital mistake.

Have we learned nothing since Bill Clinton stood on the White House lawn with Yitzhak Rabin and that heinous old bastard, Yassir Arafat?

In twenty-five years the "peace process" has brought little but blood and toxic levels of hatred from the duplicitous Europeans. The "peace process" has nothing whatsoever to do with bringing about a harmonious conclusion of hostilities with a Palestinian-Arab state thriving in peace alongside Israel.

On the contrary, it has everything to do with demoralizing Israelis and encouraging violence against them, as well as against Jews around the world.

Everybody and his brother is more than happy to urinate all over Donald Trump, but if he fails to move the embassy and if he forces yet another phony "peace process" down Israel's throat then I will speak out against Trump in Jewish political circles.

For me, however, it will not be the progressive-left Bandwagon of Trump Hatred that we have seen ever since Hillary Clinton took notice of some evil, right-wing version of Kermit the Frog.

That particular brand of semi-hallucinatory political hatred I will leave to others.

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From CBC News:

A British conspiracy theorist known for his outlandish ideas about lizard people and "Zionists" controlling the world is set to perform in a Vancouver civic theatre this weekend, provoking outrage from Jewish groups.

David Icke, a former sports broadcaster, is scheduled to give a full-day presentation at the Orpheum Theatre on Saturday. The theatre is operated by the city, and officials have denied requests to cancel the show from groups like B'nai Brith Canada and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

Aiden Fishman of B'nai Brith Canada described Icke's views as "classic anti-Semitic ideas" and said the booking should never have been allowed.

"It's totally, totally incompatible with the City of Vancouver's role as an open and tolerant multicultural municipality to allow Mr. Icke to speak at a city-owned facility, after we've brought all these concerns to their attention," Fishman told CBC News.

Deep concern from Jewish groups

In an interview Thursday, Icke was furious about the campaign against his show, describing the claims made by Jewish groups as "libellous."

His presentation, according to his website, will cover everything from "reptilians" — shape-shifting alien-human hybrids — to the truth about the moon, which he believes is a hologram projected from Saturn.

"If what they say is true, why will I spend 10 hours talking on Saturday and not even mention Jewish people once? They need to explain that," Icke asked.

But in videos of his lectures posted online, he frequently uses another phrase, "Rothschild Zionists." These are the people he suggests are responsible for causing the 2008 financial crisis, staging the 9/11 attacks and generally controlling the world's banking and political systems.

That phrase, according to Fishman, is pretty obvious code for Jewish people.

Icke claims that he is not against Jews at all, but only "Rothschild Zionists".

In this 2010 essay on his site, he says

Ask most people about Zionism and they will say ‘that’s the Jews’, but while this is the impression the Rothschild networks in politics and the media have sought very successfully to ‘sell’ as ‘common knowledge’, it is not true. It represents only a minority of them and many others who are not Jewish.

Yet when he goes through a list of who he considers "Rothschild Zionists" in positions of power, surprise, they all happen to be Jews (with many of them unknown to be Zionists at all.)

So Icke says with a straight face:

[T]he Rothschild Zionists control the mainstream media; Hollywood and the movie industry; governments, not least in the United States; and crucially in the light of current events, they control global finance and commerce....

Nah, nothing to do with Jews.

Hilariously, Icke quoted a 2008 humor column by Joel Stein, about how proud he was that Jews control Hollywood, to prove that "Rothschild Zionists" control Hollywood - but then he lamely says it has nothing to do with Jews:

The Los Angeles Times columnist, Joel Stein (Rothschild Zionist), wrote an article proclaiming that Americans who don’t think Jews (Rothschild Zionists) control Hollywood are just plain ‘dumb’:

‘I had to scour the trades to come up with six Gentiles in high positions at entertainment companies. But lo and behold, even one of that six, AMC President Charles Collier, turned out to be a Jew! … As a proud Jew, I want America to know of our accomplishment. Yes, we control Hollywood.’

I emphasise again that we are not talking here about ‘the Jews’ owning the media, Hollywood, politics, banking and big business, but a tiny clique answering ultimately to the secret society that I call Rothschild Zionism.

The City of Vancouver is saying that as long as Icke only talks about "Zionists" controlling the world and being responsible for 9/11, then there is no violation of Canadian laws:

In an email, a spokesperson for the City of Vancouver wrote that it cannot infringe on Icke's freedom of speech without evidence that his presentation will include illegal hate speech.
"The City has explicit requirements in its theater rental agreements that govern the conduct of renters and has confirmed with Mr. Icke and his team their obligation to comply with all Canadian laws relating to the content of their presentation," the email reads.

A simple replacement of the word of "Jews" with "Zionists" in any Nazi text would ensure that they can be read in public in Vancouver without violating hate laws.

Come to think of it, this is exactly how the "pro-Palestinian" crowd thinks, too.

And remember that Alice Walker, the prize-winning novelist of the "anti-Israel" crowd, believes in Icke's theories as well.

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From BoingBoing:

Mike Shaughnessy, professor of German at Washington & Jefferson College, translated a letter written one Ernst from Cologne, to his cousin in Pittsburgh, U.S.A. Sent in 1936—after Hitler's rise to power, but before World War II and the Holocaust—it refers glibly and approvingly to the removal of Jews from civil life, even as it reflects the anxieties and growing paranoia of life under fascist government.

Excerpts:

Köln, Machabäerstrasse 46. January 6, 1936.

Dear Wilhelm and Family!

I’ve been waiting a while to get a letter from you in which you would send me the letter from Mr. Früh about your inquiry. Apparently you haven’t received anything, so I’ll inform you that I’ve had to give the government very positive, specific details about our ancestry and where our assets are currently.
...
Things in Germany are looking up thanks to our Führer and the cleansing of the population from the Jews (Those exploiters who are the misfortune of humanity). Since 1/1/1936, they can’t employ Germans as their service personnel, because of the desecration that those good-for-nothings did on the German girls. If one of them even dares nowadays, even if they just insult a girl, they will be put in prison straightaway --those rapists. In addition, German citizenship was revoked for all of them, they are not Germans -- foreign to the German race, and should be sent to Palestine where a lot already ran off to, those bastards.

The winter relief fund was a great success and even a lot of foreigners took part. A lot still needs to be done, because countless people have lost their belongings due to the war and the government run by Jews afterwards. I also lost 500,000 Reichsmark and could therefore make good use of the inheritance.

Well then, I look forward to hearing from you and I wish you and your family a good new year from the bottom of my heart, and hope we resolve the issue soon.

In the meantime I send you heartfelt greetings,

Your Cousin,
Ernst Ries

This is more chilling than reading Mein Kampf or propaganda by Goebbels. This is just an ordinary person who is filled with pure, ordinary hate for Jews, and he is quite at peace with himself for it.

It would be nice to pretend that this particular type of hate is no more.

(h/t Ronald)

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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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