Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Mudar Zahran and the Right Wing Jewish Conspiracy (Judean Rose)

When I first heard about Mudar Zahran, I thought it was too good to be true, that people are way too gullible. I shook my head. How could it be that an Arab would take our side in this way?

I asked this not just as a rhetorical question, but to people in the blogging world, people on my same side, the right side of Israeli politics.

I was referred to the Jordan is Palestine Facebook page, where Zahran held forth before a captive and adoring Jewish audience, protesting his ardent love for the Jewish people and for Israel. Zahran's plan was and still is, to bring down King Abdullah and install himself, Mudar Zahran, as prime minister of Jordan.

The beauty of this is that Israel wouldn't have to give away any more land. The solution would be the solution that already is. It's the British Mandate for Palestine solution. You know, the one in which 78% of the Mandate was carved away from what Balfour promised the Jews and given to the Arabs to be their national homeland, Transjordan, the Palestinian state. All we needed to do is get that durned Hashemite, Abdullah, off the throne.

Could it really be that Arabs and Jews might bring peace to the region via this Arab initiative? It was a wild concept. But all the right people were telling me Mudar was the real deal.

We'd get peace for doing absolutely nothing at all!! We just had to support this guy, the self-described "putative prime minister of Jordan" and spread the word.

But what happened next was ugly. I found out the guy was a fake, but in a way that hurt me. I mean really hurt me. I'd lost my innocence in a deep and profound way.

I wrote up the entire story in a blog piece for the Times of Israel I called: My Lost Arab Hope. I called Mudar "M." I would link to the piece here, except that the Times of Israel removed the piece Tuesday, some four years after I wrote it, subsequent to this post on Facebook.

Here are some excerpts from that 2013 TOI piece:

I ask if I can interview him for a blog. We agree on a time for a Skype call. I wait. M doesn’t show.

Days later M apologizes, reschedules. Again, he is a no-show. He mentions something about being on the run again, more death threats.

Finally, we manage our Skype call. We get through a number of my questions. At one point, I think I hear a toilet flush. I pretend I don’t hear it. We agree he’ll answer the rest of my questions by email.

I wait. M doesn’t follow through.

Then one day, he sends me a link to a webpage all in Arabic. I can’t read Arabic. He swears up and down that the webpage is an anti-Israel article written by a well-known Arab Israeli journalist. One I respect.

The article, M tells me, was written many years ago. He swears up and down that it says what he says it says and that his sources are very high up.

It doesn’t sit right with me. I tell him I want to have someone translate the piece into English, so I can verify what he tells me.

M is offended. He makes me feel guilty for spurning his offer of truth. Is he not my friend, M asks? Would a friend lie to a friend?

I hem and haw, and hurt, he lets me go.

I look for someone to translate the article and find someone. He’s busy, perhaps tomorrow.

Before my translator friend can get to the work, M writes: it was all a huge mistake. The journalist he smeared the day before is a prince among Arab men.

I am gobsmacked.

And offended.

Had I spread the slander to my contacts, my credibility would now be in tatters. I would be reviled for sloppy work and for besmirching the name of a respected journalist.

I log on to Twitter and confront M’s tweet: “[Respected journalist M smeared the day before] is a prince among Arab men.”

It lights my fuse to read this. I tweet, “Funny. That’s not what you said yesterday.”

M messages me on Facebook. “My contacts misled me. I apologized to [said journalist]. It’s all been worked out. Please remove your tweet.”

I do so.

One week later, M messages me, “Dear precious varda, it was a moment of weakness and treason from someone I trust, I care for you much, and respect the wonderful things u ve always said and done.......I did injustice to [said journalist], and it was because of a sleeper who abused my trust......forgive my dear and I truly hope we start a new page at least as fellow zionists!”

And I see M has unfriended me.

It is a spear to the heart.

I try to reason with him. People who are “dear” and “precious” aren’t written off, I tell him.

M will not budge. He writes something a bit firmer, more hurtful, and blocks me.

. . .

M unblocks me. He sends me a friend request. He makes it seem chivalrous: he thought my actions showed I no longer want his friendship.

We chat. I tell him I’m not like him. I am no good at flowery language. My people are from Lithuania, renowned for being cold and unemotional.

M writes, “Ukraine has beautiful people, yet they hate Jews in such a strange fashion. I remember how when the Nazis arrived the locals took the initiative to round up Jews. Amazing, why so many people hate Jews.”

And suddenly I hear it. Not the error in geography. The trope.

The words trip off something essential inside me, turning my veins to black ice. Now I know him. Now.

Had he said, “Some of my best friends are black,” I would have laughed, would have appreciated the joke. But suddenly I know. I know it in my gut: M hates Jews absolutely.

Why is any of this at all interesting now? Because after all these years, the Jews are still being duped by Mudar Zahran, a man who claims to be a political refugee. The Jordan branch of the HSBC bank, meantime, published this advertisement shortly after Zahran left Jordan and arrived in London. The bank did this because Mudar owed the bank 47,000 Jordanian Dinars (the rough equivalent of $66,000), and his whereabouts were unknown.

This is no secret. It's all on the web.

Mudar's own father very publicly and repeatedly condemned and disowned him. This too is easily found on the web. Now think what it means in the Arab culture when a father condemns a son, a culture most concerned with honor. It means that Mudar is an outcast. Since he is an outcast, no one can claim damages against his family. And this outcast has the stupid Jews duped that he could rule Jordan!

What I didn't say in my Times of Israel piece (because it hadn't yet happened, duh) is that approximately one year after I'd severed all contact with Zahran, someone purporting to be Israeli and Jewish threatened me in a private message on Facebook. I thought of going to the police, but did not. I'm told now that Zahran creates fake Jewish profiles on Facebook and threatens people. One of those people he threatened is way smarter than I, because that one person did file a police report.

Aside from what people tell me and the threat I experienced, I've seen with my own eyes the abusive comments and obnoxious threats directed at a friend of mine, with Zahran calling her Abu Toameh's girlfriend, because she takes him to task for his libelous comments.

What I don't get is how the guy continues to have so many followers when people like Ruthie Blum, Caroline Glick, and Harold Rhode are saying it straight out: HELLO-O. This guy's a fraud.

Excerpt from Caroline Glick's longer Facebook post

I mean, Gatestone Institute deleted his entire archive. GATESTONE INSTITUTE. You know, the Gatestone Institute of which Ambassador John Bolton is chairman? They deleted Mudar Zahran's archive. There must have been a good reason.

Ambassador John Bolton

A post shared by Varda Epstein (@epavard) on Jun 20, 2016 at 7:55am PDT

Khaled Abu Toameh, on the other hand, is an honest journalist for whom no one has a bad word—except for Mudar Zahran who has some kind of bug in his psychotic ear about the guy—is it jealousy??? Abu Toameh is one of the few writers I seek out when looking for something good, something real to read, knowing that whatever he writes will be the truth. There's no bias, no slant in his work. He's straight up. A professional. Which is why he won the 2014 Daniel Pearl Award. When Mudar ripped into Khaled, that's when the jig was up for me. It just did not pass the smell test.

Award-winning journalist Khaled Abu Toameh

Mudar's Jordan is Palestine Facebook page is rife with posts attacking Khaled Abu Toameh, to the point that it is practically an all-Khaled, all-the-time page. It's some kind of obsession with Zahran.

Happily, not everyone is duped.

And if you read Arabic, you can see that some Arabs are none too happy with the way Zahran manipulates information. For instance, Zahran uses photos from various Jordanian events, and pretends they are connected to his upcoming conference. That's a classic example of deception. The photos are obviously for illustrative purposes only. Zahran, however, creates a false impression that the people you see in the photos are connected to his conference and are his supporters. In Arabic he claims that Jordanians have been invited to the conference.

The comments are hot. There is much cursing and talk of suing the website, believed to be managed by Zahran. Zahran is accused of forgery and termed a deceiver.

Note that Zahran is posting his anti-Khaled screeds mostly under aliases with fake Facebook accounts, some of them "Jewish." Michael Ben Avraham and Michael Ben Abraham are, by the way, two of the names Zahran uses to fake people out about his Jewish support. You might have seen blogs by these Michaels, such as this one.

Abu Toameh says that Mudar's friend Rachel Avraham helps him with these aliases. Avraham posted a slanderous article under the byline Michael Ben Abraham for Jerusalem Online (JOL) where she was, at the time, an editor. The article was swiftly removed by her seniors and Abu Toameh was informed that Rachel Avraham had been relieved of her duties at JOL. After this, more slander-filled articles appeared, with a slight change in the spelling of the byline (Michael Ben Avraham). Abu Toameh' s lawyers are now preparing a libel suit against Rachel Avraham and JOL despite the removal of the article.

Both Rachel Avraham and Mudar Zahran continue to claim that Michael Ben Abraham is a real person and that he's a Republican Jew and lobbyist named Michael Ross.

Moving right along, here's some irony for you: what Mudar has done is to create a Jewish conspiracy in the flesh. He has the Jews trying to help him overthrow the King of Jordan! And the Arabs are talking about this! In Arabic. They see the upcoming "Jordan is Palestine" conference (slated for October 17) as part of a wider Israeli-Jewish conspiracy against Jordan.

The Arab media is mocking the fact that Zahran is affiliated with "extremist right wing Jews" who believe he can be the president of a Palestinian state in Jordan. The Arabs are saying: the Jews are helping Mudar Zahran overthrow the king (except they aren't, because no one in the Arab world takes Mudar Zahran seriously). Not a one of them supports him or would vote for him. But those stupid Jews. . . oh how they are throwing money at him to do this thing. It's a crazy Zionist conspiracy!

It's true what they say: the Jews supporting Zahran are some of the most right-wing, most religious Jews I know, and these oh-so-right-wing Jews are helping Zahran plan this foolish going nowhere Jewish conspiracy. They're helping him plan that conference. The only problem is financing it. To that end, a Gofundme campaign was initiated 18 days ago by the International Jewish-Muslim Dialogue Center (IJMDC).

If you Google the International Jewish-Muslim Dialogue Center (IJMDC) you'll find a Facebook page and this spammy-looking website with some dude named Michael Ross listed as "Executive Director" but who is actually the only member of the board listed under the plural heading "Board of Directors." There is no biographical information offered about this Michael Ross, no link, nothing. The Facebook page of the IJMDC, meanwhile, is all about Mudar Zahran and carries two reviews, one of which was written by Mudar Zahran.

In other words, the Gofundme campaign is organized by none other than Mudar Zahran. The good news is that in 18 days, he's only managed to raise 461 pounds (as of this writing) out of 18,000 pounds. Not going well at all. Tsk. That conference may have to be canceled.

But never mind, because really, what could Zahran viably bring to such a conference? The photo for the Facebook account of his "Shadow Secretary for Homeland Security" Naseem Gheewan, for instance, is of an U.S. pilot who died ten years ago.

At this point I want to shake my right wing fellow bloggers and friends who still support this nothing burger of a man, Mudar Zahran, and say to them, "What the hell is wrong with you??"

via GIFER

UPDATE: Reader David Fink reminded me that nothing ever disappears from the 'net. My Times of Israel article, My Lost Arab Hope, can be accessed HERE.

UPDATE (EOZ): Mudar Zahran is threatening to sue me (not for the first time), claiming everything Varda says here is a lie. So for the record - he disagrees with this post. He says he doesn't hate Jews. He says there was no toilet flushing. He gave me a laundry list of what he says are lies.

I'm sure that there are some Jews he likes. After all, some of them have been supporting him. Outside of that, for the record, I believe Varda more than I believe him. I also believe Khaled Abu Toameh more than I believe him. And if he wants to sue me, go ahead.

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Hamas Recruit Disappointed By Lack Of Jumping Through Flaming Hoops In Actual Combat (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Gaza City, September 27 - A new fighter for the militant Islamist group that governs this coastal territory confessed today that given the prominence of jumping through flaming hoops that had characterized his training, his duties in resisting Israel since entering active duty has featured a surprising absence of any such displays.

Muhammad Nur, 17, of the city's Suja'iyya neighborhood, now serves in a unit dedicated to excavating and maintaining a network of tunnels snaking under residential buildings in the city and connecting various Hamas positions with ammunition storage dumps and other military resources. In the recruitment materials that attracted him to the Izzedin al-Kassam Brigades, he encountered video clips and still photographs of athletic recruits making acrobatic dives through rings that had been set alight, to cheers and applause from onlookers. However, Nur's responsibilities have yet to include jumping through a single flaming hoop, let alone being applauded for it.

"Most of what I do involves schlepping," he lamented. "Sometimes I get to do some training and we crawl along the ground and shoot at cardboard silhouettes of Israelis, but most of the time I'm checking on ventilation systems and carrying replacement parts for pumps and lighting, and looking for cracks in the concrete of the tunnels. I doubt there would even be enough room down there to jump properly through a hoop. That's a shame. I was really looking forward to it being part of my job."

In his spare time, Nur still practices his flaming-hoop jumping, to keep his capabilities sharp in case the Zionists suspend burning rings larger than a man's hips between him and where he intends to reach. "You know you can't be too prepared for this. I'll be ready when the time comes."

A Hamas commander who declined to be identified by name acknowledged the discrepancy between the exciting clips of young Palestinians leaping through fiery hoops and the grim drudgery of using the Gazan civilian population as human shields above the tunnels. "Listen, everyone indulges in a bit of embellishment for marketing purposes," he explained. "You think every fighter is going to march triumphantly on Jerusalem? I'm under no illusion any such thing will happen anytime soon, no matter what our propaganda screams. But you have to make things look compelling or exciting, or the young people just won't want to be a part of it."

"I mean, what are we supposed to do - stop trying to kill Jews? Don't be ridiculous," he added.

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09/27 Links Pt1: Dennis Ross: Memories of an Anti-Semitic State Dept.; Israel gifts UNESCO Arch of Titus replica

From Ian:

Dennis Ross: Memories of an Anti-Semitic State Department

Former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson repeated the well-worn narrative that Jewish neoconservatives promoted the invasion of Iraq - and are beating the drum for a conflict with Iran. Of course, most Jews are not neoconservatives, and most neoconservatives are not Jewish. In any case, it was two influential non-Jews, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who played the central role with President Bush in deciding to invade Iraq in 2003.

When I began working in the Pentagon during President Jimmy Carter's administration, there was an unspoken but unmistakable assumption: If you were Jewish, you could not work on the Middle East because you would be biased. However, if you knew about the Middle East because you came from a missionary family or from the oil industry, you were an expert. People with these backgrounds were perceived to be unbiased, while Jews could not be objective.

Secretary of State George Shultz tried to change the culture of the State Department during the Reagan administration. Shultz was more interested in your knowledge than your identity. He made me and Daniel Kurtzer members of the small team working with him on Arab-Israeli diplomacy.

Tweeting that Jews are pushing for a new war is the definition of prejudice. How can it not be when you label a whole group and ascribe to all those who are a part of it a particular negative trait or threatening behavior? And once you have singled out groups, the leap is small to imposing limits on them, quarantining them and rationalizing violence against them.

In unsubtle critique, Israel gifts UNESCO Arch of Titus replica

Israel handed a replica of a frieze from the Arch of Titus to the head of UNESCO, using the monument commemorating Rome’s victory over Jerusalem for a not-so-subtle critique of the organization’s resolutions that ignore Jewish links to the holy city.

The idea originally came from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization passed a resolution last year that used only Muslim names for the Jerusalem Old City holy sites.

The replica will be exhibited in UNESCO’s Paris headquarters as a “greeting from the historical truth about the existence of two Temples on the Temple Mount,” said Carmel Shama-Hacohen, Israel’s ambassador to the agency.

Shama-Hacohen handed the replica to UNESCO’s outgoing director-general Irina Bokova, who, in her speech, offered a more subtle critique of one-sided anti-Israel resolutions passed routinely by her organization’s member states.

“2,000 years ago the Romans destroyed the Temple and removed it from the Jewish people. And today, UNESCO is trying to destroy and remove the history of Jerusalem from the Jewish people,” Shama-Hacohen said at the event.

“When the executive board of UNESCO adopts every six months a resolution that denies the connection between the Jewish people and the Temple Mount, they are not only adopting a political resolution, they are adopting a resolution that negates the right of the State of Israel to exist and the Jewish people’s right of self-determination,” he said.

Furthermore, such resolutions “pave the way for spreading anti-Semitism and terrorism,” Shama-Hacohen went on.

I call on the Arab countries to cooperate with the Palestinians and with us to advance an economic peace. An economic peace is not a substitute for a political peace, but an important element to achieving it. Together, we can undertake projects to overcome the scarcities of our region, like water desalination or to maximize its advantages, like developing solar energy, or laying gas and petroleum lines, and transportation links between Asia, Africa and Europe.
Address by PM Netanyahu at Bar-Ilan University, 14 Jun 2009

Two days ago, Trump’s chief negotiator Jason Greenblatt declared Trump had decided upon a new approach to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process:

“It is no secret that our approach to these discussions departs from some of the usual orthodoxy – for after years of well-meaning attempts to negotiate an end to this conflict, we have all learned some valuable lessons,” he said.

“Instead of working to impose a solution from the outside, we are giving the parties space to make their own decisions about their future.

Instead of laying blame for the conflict at the feet of one party or the other, we are focused on implementing existing agreements and unlocking new areas of cooperation which benefit both Palestinians and Israelis.”

President Donald Trump. Source: Wikipedia

This follows on the heels of Greenblatt's visit in July, when he praised 2 Israeli-Palestinian agreements, increasing the water supply to the Palestinian Authority and the power supply to Jenin, as examples proving “cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians that will lead to economic improvement in the lives of the Palestinians.”

i24News news anchor Eylon A. Levy explained this "radical new" approach to peace:

But if this new approach to Israeli-Palestinian peace sounds familiar -- it should.

Back in August 2009, things were looking up for the "West Bank":

The International Monetary Fund had concluded that the West Bank’s economy improved dramatically in the last year
Israel's US ambassador Michael Oren pointed out in a Wall Street Journal editorial that six thousand new jobs had been created since 2008, trade with Israel increased 82%, tourism to Bethlehem increased 94%, and agricultural exports were up 200%
There were 10 manned roadblocks in the entire West Bank according to Haaretz, excluding those linking the territories with Israel, compared to the 35 during Ehud Olmert’s administration
All of this had taken place under Netanyahu's right-wing coalition government

Prime Minister Netanyahu. Credit: Wikipedia

Netanyahu was not the only one looking to capitalize on the economic improvement.

On August 23, 2009, then-Prime Minister Salam Fayyad came out with his own plan for reform. The following year, in 2010, he announced a "one-year countdown to independence".

According to Foreign Affairs, as opposed to "armed struggle" and peace negotiations, the Palestinian Prime Minister had come up with a third path:

Fayyad's strategy is one of self-reliance and self-empowerment; his focus is on providing good government, economic opportunity, and law and order for the Palestinians -- and security for Israel by extension -- and so removing whatever pretexts may exist for Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian territories. Fayyad's aim is to make the process of institution building transformative for Palestinians, thereby instilling a sense that statehood is inevitable.

Some gave Fayyad credit for the approach and called this strategy and its implementation "Fayyadism."

former Prime Minister Salem Fayyad. Credit: Wikipedia

Not only was there debate over who deserved credit for the plan, there was disagreement over whether the plan had even begun to make a difference:

On July 9, 2009 - Haaretz reported "Palestinians Reject Netanyahu's 'Economic Peace' Plan
Top PA officials refuse to meet Israelis over issue, worry Israel will use plan to avoid political process

Prior to the elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented his program for "economic peace," which he said would improved the quality of life for Palestinians in the West Bank. However, 100 days after having formed his coalition government, there is no practical progress on economic projects.

The main reason for this is the refusal of senior Palestinian Authority officials to cooperate with Netanyahu and Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, who has been assigned the task of promoting the "economic peace" initiative.

But what a difference a week makes:

Just a week later, July 16, 2009 - The New York Times reported: Signs of Hope Emerge in the West Bank

For the first time since the second Palestinian uprising broke out in late 2000, leading to terrorist bombings and fierce Israeli countermeasures, a sense of personal security and economic potential is spreading across the West Bank as the Palestinian Authority’s security forces enter their second year of consolidating order.

The International Monetary Fund is about to issue its first upbeat report in years for the West Bank, forecasting a 7 percent growth rate for 2009. Car sales in 2008 were double those of 2007. Construction on the first new Palestinian town in decades, for 40,000, will begin early next year north of Ramallah. In Jenin, a seven-story store called Herbawi Home Furnishings has opened, containing the latest espresso machines. Two weeks ago, the Israeli military shut its obtrusive nine-year-old checkpoint at the entrance to this city, part of a series of reductions in security measures.

Whether all this can last and lead to the consolidation of political power for the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah, as the Obama administration hopes, remains unclear. But a recent opinion poll in the West Bank and Gaza by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, a Palestinian news agency, found that Fatah was seen as far more trustworthy than Hamas — 35 percent versus 19 percent — a significant shift from the organization’s poll in January, when Hamas appeared to be at least as trustworthy.

...The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it shares the goal of helping Mr. Abbas, which is why it is seeking to improve West Bank economic conditions as a platform for moving to a political discussion.

Read that entire article and you'll notice that Fayyad is not mentioned even once.

But the fact remains that in the US, Fayyad was given credit for the economic peace plan.

A Washington Post editorial in November 2009 exclaimed:

At the moment, the most promising idea comes from Mr. Abbas's prime minister, Salam Fayyad, who has vowed to build the institutions of a Palestinian state within the next two years, with or without peace talks. Negotiations between the current Israeli and Palestinian leaders could provide indirect support for that initiative, even if there is little progress. But the administration would do well to refocus its efforts on supporting Mr. Fayyad.

Just as credit for the resurrection of the plan will go to Trump.

Note that one of the goals of the economic peace plan may have been to keep Hamas in check - a goal that Greenblatt echoes now in calling for the Palestinian Authority to assume control over Gaza.

But in the end, whether it was called Netanyahu's economic peace plan or Fayyadism, the fact remains that the plan fell apart, leaving the question of whether it will work now.

What went wrong?

In July 2010, The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace came out with a report explaining why Fayyadism failed. The key conclusions were:

Government circumventing democracy. The unaccountable governing process that Fayyad has had to invent is not just postponing a democratic system—it is actively denying it.
Isolated successes do not create rule of law. The increasing number of cases seen and submitted to the courts indicates growing efficiency and confidence, but security services continue to act outside the law under the guise of cracking down on Hamas.
Lack of institution building. While Fayyad’s cabinet has managed to make a few existing institutions more effective and less corrupt, there has been regression in other governing bodies. Palestinian civil society is showing signs of decay as well. Ironically, there was more institution building and civil society development under Yasser Arafat than there has been since the West Bank-Gaza split in 2007.
Disillusionment increasing among Palestinians. Popular support for Fayyad is growing but he still has no organized base. And Palestinians are increasingly cynical about the prospects for long-term development.
Fatah is in disarray. The party remains bitterly divided. Party leaders recently forced Fayyad’s cabinet to cancel local elections when Fatah could not organize itself on time.

Have the Palestinian Authority and Fatah made any progress since then?
Is there more democracy?
Is the government less corrupt?
Are the Palestinian Arabs lets disillusioned or cynical?
Is Fatah, especially with Abbas aging with no clear successor, any less in disarray?

The peace movement PAX came out with a report Analysing Israel's economic policy towards Palestine and the practical implications of Netanyahu's economic peace which focused on 2 reasons for the failure of Netanyahu's "economic peace":

...However, there are several features to the Israel-Palestinian conflict that seriously hamper the applicability of the economic peace theory to this particular conflict. First, the theory asserts that economic integration reduces the probability of states to start a violent conflict, but does not necessarily apply to protracted conflicts. Second, the theory considers economic interdependence between states, and not a situation of asymmetric relations and dependence of one party on the other, such as exists in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [emphasis added]

Again, both reasons still apply today.

Whenever there is talk of renewing peace talks, there is criticism of trying again what has failed so many times before. Yet, regardless of the similarities to the previous "economic peace" plan, the concept itself is fairly new and for that reason alone -- and because automatically restarting peace talks is being rejected -- there is reason for patience, if not a bit of hope, that some progress can be made.

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Kurds really are the new Jews

One of the most stunning and perplexing things about Monday's non-binding referendum on Kurdish independence was the opposition to it - from the US, EU and UK, on the same side as Turkey and Iran.

The official reason given, in the words of the UK Foreign Office, is "The referendum may increase instability in the region, at a time when the main attention should be paid to the victory over ISIS."

But there will always be risks with doing anything productive. And there will always be strong opposition to any national movement.

The UN Charter speaks about the importance of “equal rights and self-determination of peoples” and later declarations elaborated on it:

By virtue of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, all peoples have the right freely to determine, without external interference, their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development, and every State has the duty to respect this right in accordance with the provisions of the Charter.
Every State has the duty to promote, through joint and separate action, realization of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter, and to render assistance to the United Nations in carrying out the responsibilities entrusted to it by the Charter regarding the implementation of the principle, in order:

To promote friendly relations and co-operation among States; and
To bring a speedy end to colonialism, having due regard to the freely expressed will of the peoples concerned;
and bearing in mind that subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a violation of the principle, as well as a denial of fundamental human rights, and is contrary to the Charter.
Every State has the duty to promote through joint and separate action universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Charter.
The establishment of a sovereign and independent State, the free association or integration with an independent State or the emergence into any other political status freely determined by a people constitute modes of implementing the right of self-determination by that people.

The UN doesn't say that people's right to self-determination should be pushed off indefinitely if it might upset other people.

The supposedly enlightened and liberal world suddenly thinks that these words no longer apply - when it comes to Kurds.

Why?

The real reason is that the world regards the Kurds the way it regards Israeli Jews. It knows that those who oppose both Kurdish and Jewish nationalists are irrational, terror supporting states who can threaten the West with terrorism. And the Kurdish and Jewish nationalists (except for the PKK in Turkey) are not going to start setting off bombs in Western cities.

That's really it. Terror has become the most successful political tool on the planet, because it causes Western nations with supposedly liberal values to suddenly throw out all their principles - and justify that hypocrisy after the fact. An irrational, violent actor gets its way while the rational ones who seek peace but true justice are asked, sometimes nicely and sometimes not so nicely, to stop being so demanding.

We've seen this hypocrisy many times before.

Maybe it is time to repeal the UN Charter, or to modify it to say "all of these principles only apply when it doesn't inconvenience anyone too much."

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Three things you should know about the terror attack in Har Adar

1. It happened

Those who follow the news about Israel closely will probably have read about the terror attack in Har Adar yesterday morning (Tuesday Sept 26th). It’s not likely you will hear about it on your news.

While CNN and BBC can go on and on for days about an attack in London that kills no one, Jewish lives, especially if they happen to be Israeli Jews, are less “media worthy”. Why is that?

The facts are as follows:

Har Adar is a small Jewish community (aprox 4,000 residents) located near Jerusalem.

The neighboring Arab village, Beit Surik, is under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority and yet many of the residents have work permits that enable them to be legally employed in Israeli territory. A number of them, including the terrorist work in the Har Adar community.

The guards at the gate of Har Adar recognized that something was not right about the terrorist and, instead of letting him enter the community like he does almost every day, they ordered him to stop for inspection. That is when he pulled out a gun and shot them at close range.

The terrorist murdered three Israelis and wounded a fourth.
Border Policeman Solomon Gaviriya, from Be’er Yaacov was just 20 years old.
The two additional murdered Israelis were private guards for the community and identified as Or Arish of Har Adar, 25, and Youssef Ottman (an Israeli Arab) from Abu Ghosh.
The doctors declared that the community’s security coordinator who had been wounded from the gun shots will be able to regain full health following the surgery done to repair his wounds.

2. That sick feeling

Israelis tend to be loud and boisterous. Visitors from abroad usually don’t notice that when there is a news update, the Israelis around them go dead silent. While our visitors blithely continue talking, we are listening. Has anything terrible happened since the last news update?

I don’t want you to be able to understand what that sick feeling is like. I hope you never have that experience...

That sick feeling, I had this morning when I reached for the phone and read the news updates about the terror attack: “Three Israelis murdered in Har Adar”

That sick feeling, I had when I realized that Har Adar is where someone I love is staying right now.

That sick feeling when I turned on the t.v. and heard the details of the attack, of knowing that three people died today. Had they not have stood between the terrorist and the community, had they not been alert, it would be other families mourning today. Maybe it would have been me.

That sick feeling when I heard more about the terrorist. He worked in Har Adar. He went there almost every day. The people there knew him and he entered their homes. They talked to him about life in Israel and even about his personal problems. They tried to support him and even gave him their own clothes and food to take home, to make his life easier. It is sickening to know that, despite all of this, these are the people he decided to murder.

Sickening but not surprising.

Why?

3. Blood money

Why would a man decide to murder people who employed him, who helped him, who showed him care and compassion, who treated him like a member of their own family?

Jew hate is one explanation. The Arab media, from schoolbooks to songs on the radio to television programs, the way their news is reported etc. is packed with incitement against Jews and Israel. It is no surprise that people told from childhood that those who kill Jews are “martyrs”, heroes, grow up believing that killing Jews is a good thing. Some become “martyrs” themselves, others celebrate and honor these martyrs.

But even this is not enough of an explanation for today’s terror attack. Often it is hot-headed teenagers and twenty-somethings who, believing the incitement, decide to kill Jews for “glory”.

Today’s terrorist, a 37 year old father of four has a different profile. It’s possible that he was a successful actor, so talented that he convinced the good people of Har Adar that it was ok to let him in to their homes, that they didn’t feel his hate when they spoke with him, when they reached out to him with support and compassion. It’s possible but not likely.

Blood money is the driving incentive.

Today’s investigation revealed that the terrorist beat his wife so severely that her family smuggled her away from him, to Jordan. He was left with their four children and his solution was to go kill Jews. This would provide his children with ample financial support for life. Much more than he could provide, even with the good job he had in Har Adar.

Money. The Palestinian Authority pays terrorists (or the family of the terrorist) an impressive monthly salary for killing Jews. ‘Palestinians’ who work for Israeli businesses get a much higher salary and all the social benefits according to Israeli law. This is much more than they can ever hope to receive working in PA territory. Even so, this cannot compete with the salaries the PA provides for terrorists, prisoners and ‘martyrs’.

They get money for Jewish blood. Blood money.

This money comes from the budget of the Palestinian Authority. That money comes from foreign aid sent by EU countries, the United States etc.

You need to know that if your country is sending foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority, your money, your taxes are blood money. You are funding our murder.

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

09/26 Links Pt2: Who deserves a state, Kurds or Palestinian Arabs?; Leila Khaled invited EU parliament

From Ian:

Who deserves a state, Kurds or Palestinian Arabs?

There are over twenty Arab states throughout the Middle East and North Africa, but the world demands, in a chorus of barely disguised animosity towards Israel, that yet another Arab state be created within the mere forty miles separating the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan.

Remember, there has never existed in all recorded history an independent sovereign nation called Palestine - and certainly not an Arab one. The name ‘Palestine’ has always been that of a geographical territory, such as Siberia or Patagonia. It has never been a state.

But there is a people who, like the Jews, truly can trace their ancestry back thousands of years and deserve a sovereign, independent state within their ancient homeland. They are the Kurds, and it is highly instructive to review their remarkable history in conjunction with that of the Jews. It is also necessary to review the historical injustice imposed upon them over the centuries by hostile neighbors and empires.

Let us go back to the captivity of the Ten Tribes of Israel, who were taken from their land by the Assyrians in 721-715 BCE. Biblical Israel was de-populated, its Jewish inhabitants deported to an area in the region of ancient Media and Assyria - coincidentally a territory that roughlyincluded that of modern-day Kurdistan. Assyria was, in turn, conquered by Babylonia, which led to the eventual destruction of the southern Jewish kingdom of Judah in 586 BCE. The remaining two Jewish tribes were sent again to the same area as that of their brethren from the northern kingdom.

The Persian conqueror of Babylon, Cyrus the Great, allowed the Jews to return to their ancestral lands, many Jews nevertheless remained (and continued to live) with their neighbors in Babylon - an area which included modern-day Kurdistan. The Babylonian Talmud refers in one section to the Jewish deportees from Judah receiving rabbinical permission to offer Judaism to the local population.

A large segment of the general population, accepted the Jewish faith. Indeed, when the Jews in Judea rose-up against Roman occupation in the 1st century AD, the Kurdish queen reportedlysent troops and provisions to support the embattled Jews. By the beginning of the 2nd century CE, Judaism was firmly established in Kurdistan, and Kurdish Jews in Israel today speak an ancient form of Aramaic in their homes and synagogues. Kurdish and Jewish life became interwoven to such a remarkable degree that many Kurdish folk tales connect with Jews.

Kurds overwhelmingly back independence as first votes in referendum tallied

Iraqi Kurds voted Monday in a landmark referendum on supporting independence, with initial results confirming predictions of overwhelming support for breaking away from Baghdad, in a move billed by the Kurdish leadership as an exercise in self-determination, but viewed as a hostile act by Iraq’s central government.

Neighboring Turkey even threatened a military response.

To Baghdad, the vote threatens a redrawing Iraq’s borders, taking a sizable chunk of the country’s oil wealth. In Turkey and Iran, leaders feared the move would embolden their own Kurdish populations.

Polls closed just after 7 p.m. in the Kurdish region of Iraq, with some 72 percent of 4.5 million eligible voters casting ballots, according to the Kurdish Rudaw news website. With just under 300,000 votes counted, 93.4% of Kurds backed independence, according to a tally published by the site.

The vote — likely to be a resounding “yes” when results are made official later this week — is not binding and will not immediately bring independence to the autonomous region. Nevertheless, it has raised tensions and fears of instability in Iraq and beyond.

Just hours after polls closed Monday night across the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, the Defense Ministry announced the launch of “large-scale” joint military exercises with Turkey.

Kurdish leader says 'yes' vote won independence referendum

Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said on Tuesday that Kurds had voted “yes” to independence in a referendum held in defiance of the government in Baghdad and which had angered their neighbors and their U.S. allies.

The Kurds, who have ruled over an autonomous region within Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, consider Monday’s referendum to be an historic step in a generations-old quest for a state of their own.

Iraq considers the vote unconstitutional, especially as it was held not only within the Kurdish region itself but also on disputed territory held by Kurds elsewhere in northern Iraq.

The United States, major European countries and neighbors Turkey and Iran strongly opposed the decision to hold the referendum, which they described as destabilizing at a time when all sides are still fighting against Islamic State militants.

In a televised address, Barzani said the “yes” vote had won and he called on Iraq’s central government in Baghdad to engage in “serious dialogue” instead of threatening the Kurdish Regional Government with sanctions.

The Iraqi government earlier ruled out talks on Kurdish independence and Turkey threatened to impose a blockade.