Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, October 03, 2017

Linda Sarsour claims she fights Arab antisemitism and racism. Really? When??

At the New York March for Racial Justice on Sunday, hundreds of New Yorkers, many of them Jewish Americans, gathered in solidarity with communities of color and protested against mass incarceration, police brutality, anti-immigration policies and systematic racism.

As the protestors gathered in anticipation of the march across Brooklyn Bridge, the three female organizers behind the Women’s March on Washington - Tamika D. Mallory, Carmen Perez, and Linda Sarsour - passionately urged the crowd to do more to fight white supremacy.

“It is not enough to be here," Sarsour said, adding that what matters is "whether we are doing it in our places of employment, public schools, churches and synagogues and mosques."

"One of the hardest things I have ever done is combating anti-black racism in the Arab-American community, challenging my own people on issues around racism, around anti-Semitism. That is my job to do, not your job to do."

Really? Because when an Arab American looked into Sarsour last year, it was found that she is indeed a racist herself:

It turns out Sarsour is known to harbor an ugly racism towards African-Americans which makes her latching onto the BLM movement all the more galling. She rarely associated with or interacted with African-Americans (this explains why she views African-Americans through the prism of racist, media stereotypes) until the “activist” with political aspirations realized it can be to her benefit. Sarsour’s racism which she is now trying to hide is common knowledge among the Arab-American community in NY.

I would love to find a single article, tweet or shred of evidence that Sarsour has ever said a thing about antisemitsm to her Arab community. In fact, from that I can tell, she has no standing in the Arab-American community altogether. Her claim to fame is among the whites that she regularly disparages as being inherently racist.

I found an old tweet of Sarsour's that, combined with what else we know about her, says a lot: “There’s no such thing as reverse racism. Racism is bigotry + power. The group that doesn’t have power can’t be racist.”

But Sarsour admits that she is (was) white, and enjoyed "white privilege." before she put on her hijab.

Before putting on her hijab, Linda Sarsour admits she was white. Now she claims to be a "person of color." Neat trick! @lsarsour pic.twitter.com/4km7rs0sjj
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) September 4, 2017

Sarsour put on a hijab (even though she is not a religious Muslim) in order to deflect people from examining her own anti-black and antisemitic positions!

Because a white girl from Brooklyn who hates blacks is a white supremacist. But when she puts on a scarf she suddenly becomes a protected minority who, in her mind, cannot possibly be considered racist!

Now, the idea that Arabs cannot be racists and Sarsour's claims that she fights Arab racism are, of course, contradictory. But Sarsour changes her message depending on her audience at the time anyway.

Sarsour is a fraud. She is not considered a Muslim leader and she is not a person of color. Her hijab is political, not religious. (She eats on Ramadan, according to the article mentioned earlier.) Her statements show her own hate for white people, for Jews and for anyone who believes that Jews are a nation that predates Islam. She has a known history of being a racist herself in her own community. But the media is too scared to call her on her lies, contradictions and play-acting, out of fear of being labeled "Islamophobic."

Which is what Sarsour has built her entire career on.

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.

EU-inspired decoration - for the outside of your sukkah

You know how the EU funds all of these illegal buildings in Area A?

I took some photos last year:

Now you can put one of those EU signs on your sukkah!

After all, the sukkah is the epitome of humanitarian aid (having guests) and civil protection (from God Himself!)

(h/t Yosef)

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.

Rima Najjar is a retired professor of English literature at Al-Quds University who was educated in the US. She often writes for sites like Electronic Intifada, because, you know, she's an intellectual.

Writing at the site "Global Research," Najjar says:

Palestine is the only and last active act of settler colonialism. Since the creation of the UN, “more than 80 former colonies [including several in the Arab world] comprising some 750 million people have gained independence since the creation of the United Nations.”
Why the exception in the case of Palestine? Because the ideological driving force behind the process, Zionism, is the most virulently and insidiously powerful force on the planet.

There you have it. Love isn't the most powerful force on Earth. Neither is gravity or electromagnetism. Not hurricanes or earthquakes. Nor the desire for food or sex or fame. There is no political or ideological or biological or physical force today more powerful than Zionism.

We rock!

Yet somehow Israel still takes up less than 0.004% of the world's surface area. Somehow Israel can't just annex the territories it supposedly controls and expel the Arabs, which people like Najjar know is what Zionism is all about. The most powerful and insidious force on the planet can't do what countless nations have done to far more people in the most barbaric ways without an ounce of guilt.

What is wrong with us Zionists? By now you would have thought we'd have taken over Asia at least, and killed a couple of million Arabs. Especially since we're so immoral and intent on expansionism and colonialism, addicted to destroying other peoples and (probably) poisoning wells and killing prophets and killing gentile children to drink their blood.

Najjar also calls Zionism a "Jewish supremacist ideology that is dismissive of the human rights of non-Jews." This coming from someone whose entire article is dismissive of the human rights of Jews to self-determination.

These Israel haters are unhinged. The question is why they get any respect whatsoever by the world at large. Why are Najjar's rants (such as saying that Jewish nationalism is akin to white nationalism) considered reasoned discourse and not on par with those of David Duke or Richard Spencer?

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.

The difference between Muslims and Jews encapsulated

Earlier this week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sent out a Yom Kippur message:

This seems to be sincere, and it is altogether a nice message.

Publicly asking for forgiveness is direct proof that someone lives in a guilt culture, where people take personal responsibility for their actions.

We've noted here many times that the Arab and Muslim worlds live with a different mindset, the honor/shame culture. where what you do it not as important as what others think you do. Your own actions are not relevant.

So how do Arabs look at this message from Zuckerberg?

In Al Quds al Arabi, this message is called an "embarrassing situation" for Zuckerberg! A person who publicly admits mistakes is a person who is shaming himself in public, in the honor/shame world.

The very thing that helps people improve themselves - looking honestly at themselves and trying to learn from mistakes - is anathema to most people who grew up in honor/shame societies, where the primary concern is not to put yourself down but to puff yourself up for appearances sake. The idea of a public apology sounds insane to those in the shame culture. The apology itself is shameful, whether or not it is warranted.

Between Zuckerberg's tweet and Al Quds al Arabi's response, you can learn a great deal about the difference between Arabs and even the most assimilated Jews.

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.

10/02 Links Pt2: Australians should say sorry to Jews; Is it Time to Boycott Spain?

From Ian:

Rowan Dean: Australians should say sorry to Jews for our lack of understanding

IF YOU bump into anyone today who’s Jewish, do yourself a favour. Reach out, shake their hand and say “I’m sorry.”

When they look at you with a puzzled expression and say “but you didn’t do anything”, you can reply “I know. But I should have.”

You can add: “I should have done lots of things that I didn’t do. I should have stood in silence at the Sydney Olympics for a few minutes to remember the Israeli Olympic athletes butchered by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich games 45 years ago this month, but I didn’t.
Mosab Hassan Yousef said the Palestinian Authority is “the greatest enemy of the Palestinian people”.

“I should have been outraged at the slayings of Jews during the intifadas, but I was told it was their own fault.

“I should have wept tears of grief for Malki Roth, the young Aussie girl blown to bits along with 14 others in a pizza parlour, but it didn’t seem relevant. I should have been incensed when the murderess who organised that bombing was feted as an Arab TV celebrity.

“I should have been less critical of Israel’s settlements and more cynical about the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to agree to any peace proposals, but I condemned the first and merely shrugged at the second.
Netanyahu Blames Deadly Attack on Palestinian Authority's 'Systematic Incitement' Credit - Israeli Prime Minister via Storyful

“I should have spoken out against the BDS campaign against Jewish businesses, but I figured it had nothing to do with me, so who gives a toss?

“I should have been more aware that what Israel has been going through for the past five decades is largely driven by the same fanatical passions and twisted religious fervour that now threatens shopping malls and rock concerts across the Western world, but I never joined the dots.”

Several things happened this month which shine a different light on how we in the West should view the Israel-Palestine “conflict”, and more importantly, how we should respond.

Melanie Phillips: The Faces Said it All

Musab Hassan Yousef is the so-called “Green Prince”. The son of one of the founders of the Hamas, Yousef turned against that terrorist organisation and became such a supporter of Israel that this Ramallah-born Arab served for some years as an informant for the Israeli Shin Bet security service.

Thus much is well known: there is a book and even a movie about this man. Nevertheless, when the campaigning group UN Watch brought him to speak to the UN no-one seems to have expected what was coming.

The reaction was as comical as the underlying situation is unforgiveable. The UN, the crucible of defamatory lies and libels against Israel because of the dominance there of the Arab block and its global allies, rarely hears the brutal truth about the Palestinian leadership – and certainly not by someone with Yousef’s pedigree. Watch this video of what Yousef said – and watch the faces around him as he said it.

Is It Time to Boycott and Divest from Spain?

Like Kurdistan, struggling to free itself from the violence of Arab and Persian imperialism, Catalonia now wishes to realize its national destiny and banish the long shadow of General Francisco Franco’s Spain—a fascist Catholic state that tried to Hispanicize the Catalans and Basques by eliminating their national languages, cultures, and legal rights. Franco’s ostensibly democratic successors in Madrid have hardly been kinder to the Catalan and Basque nations, and have repeatedly repressed their legitimate aspirations for statehood through brute force. The resulting cycle of violence, which has continued for decades, has badly undermined Spain’s own claim to democratic legitimacy.

Historically instrument used to unite the Iberian peninsula—once a “golden land” where Basques and Catalans dwelt peacefully side by side, as did Catholics, Muslims and Jews—was, of course, the Spanish Inquisition. It’s hard to see how an idea of Spanish “unity,” founded in the mass murder and cultural genocide of the peninsula’s Muslims and Jews, is worth preserving as a political idea in the 21st century, especially at the expense of innocent Catalan women, children, and elderly people who are savagely beaten in the streets on the orders of grasping politicians in Madrid. Surely the EU can understand the threat that repressing Catalan nationalism in such an ugly way in front of the entire world poses to its own project of cleansing Europe of the horrors of racism, colonialism, and the Holocaust.

Those of us who are proud Zionists know intimately the hardships of wrestling with colonial forces for independence, and understand just how valiant the struggle of indigenous people can be when they resolve to exercise their natural and historical rights and form a sovereign nation on their ancient homeland. That the European Union stands idly by as Spain violently suppresses these rights is a shame.

In his classic Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell captured the bravery of the local men and women who resisted the Nazi-backed Fascists in Madrid, aided by throngs of Jewish volunteers who came to fight on the side of liberty. “If you had asked me why I had joined the militia,” Orwell wrote, “I should have answered: ‘To fight against Fascism,’ and if you had asked me what I was fighting for, I should have answered: ‘Common decency.’” Those of us who believe in common decency should share the outrage and the wild hopes of the Catalans. If you believe that applying pressure on oppressive and imperialist regimes until they break is the right tactic, begin by boycotting and divesting from Spain.

From Hezbollah's Al Manar:

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah on Sunday called on the Zionist settlers, especially the Jews, to leave the occupied Palestinian territories into the countries from where they had come, adding that if the US-Israeli command decides to launch a war on Lebanon and other regional countries, they would have neither enough time to escape nor a safe place in Palestine to resort to.

During Hezbollah crowded ceremony held in Beirut’s Dahiyeh to mark Ashura anniversary, Sayyed Nasrallah said that the stupid Israeli command does not have accurate data about the military capabilities that will confront the Zionist army during any upcoming war.

The Israeli political and military leadership does not have a clear view about the battlefields, the participators, and the horizon of the war, according to Sayyed Nasrallah who added that the enemy PM Benjamin Netanyahu in cooperation with the US President Donald Trump is planning to launch a war against Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.

“If this war happens, the Zionist settlers will pay a heavy price, and the entity will reach its demise.”

Do not let your command, which lies to you when it exaggerates its ability to emerge victorious from any war, involve you in a war which may cause your end, Sayyed Nasrallah warned the Israeli settlers.

Sayyed Nasrallah added that the Jews have been used by Zionism to fuel its imperial policies which serve the US-UK interests in the region, stressing that Hezbollah’s war is against the Zionists, not the Jews as followers of a divine religion.

"I call on non-Zionist Jews to leave occupied Palestine to the countries they came from so that they don't be the fuel of the next war, seeing as they might not have enough time to leave," Nasrallah added.

A few points for those who don't follow Hezbollah closely.

When Nasrallah says "settlers" he means all Jews in Israel.

When he says "occupied territories" he means all of Israel.

He is saying that Jews should leave to save their lives in the next war - but strangely he doesn't call for 2 million Arabs to leave. Meaning that either he wants to see them killed or he's blustering.

Since he is so interested in having people go back to their countries of origin, perhaps it is time for Nasrallah - who claims to be a direct descendant of Mohammed through his daughter (that's what Sayyed means) - to return to the areas where Mohammed lived.

Because Mohammed sure never lived in Israel. And the Jews sure did.

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.

All mixed up about Jerusalem’s Mosques of Omar? (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

A recent EoZ post quoted an interesting article from the current issue of the Middle East Quarterly (MEQ) that explores the question how the Western Wall came to be seen (mistakenly) as Judaism’s holiest site. But the MEQ article includes a regrettable error, which remains uncorrected at the time of this writing, even though I contacted the publication already a week ago and pointed it out.

As you can see from the screenshot below, one paragraph of the article cites a British report from 1930 that explains that after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans, “the Jews wailing-place at that time seems to have been the stone on Mount Moriah where the Mosque of Omar [in the Christian Quarter] now stands.”

Quite obviously, the insertion in square brackets – i.e. “in the Christian Quarter” – makes no sense whatsoever, since “the stone on Mount Moriah” can only refer to the rock that is now covered by the Dome of the Rock.

If you check the original British report, you will see that the quoted sentence (from part III. HISTORY) does not have this misleading insertion. Moreover, shortly before the quoted passage, the British report features a “DESCRIPTION OF THE WAILING WALL AND ITS ENVIRONS” that states very clearly that the destroyed Jewish temples have been “supplanted by Moslem Mosques,” naming one of the mosques as the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the other as “the Dome of the Rock (in Arabic, Qubet Al Sakhra), or, as it is usually called, the Mosque of Omar,” which “is situated in the middle of the Harem area.”

Indeed, if you google “Dome of the Rock Mosque of Omar”, you will find plenty of old images that show the Dome of the Rock, but refer to it as “Mosque of Omar” (e.g. here and here); there are also several websites that note the fact that the Dome of the Rock is often mistakenly called “Mosque of Omar” – supposedly because of “a tradition that it was built by Caliph Umar I,” even though in reality it was not built by Omar and it is not a mosque.

This confusion – which is apparently shared by Muslims – is all the more interesting given the fact that there is actually a Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem, which is located opposite the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, i.e. in the Christian Quarter; this is presumably the one mentioned in the misleading MEQ insertion. According to Muslim tradition, this small mosque marks the place “where the Caliph Umar […] performed salah [i.e. prayer] after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Muslims in 638 CE.” The story Muslims associate with this mosque is that the Patriarch of Jerusalem was showing the victorious Muslim leader the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and when the time for Muslim prayer came, he offered Omar a place to pray in the church. However, Omar declined, “explaining to the Patriarch, ‘Had I prayed inside the church, the Muslims coming after me would take possession of it, saying that I had prayed in it.’” He therefore went outside, and – likely replacing an earlier mosque at a different location – the current Mosque of Omar was built in 1193 to commemorate this event.

The story associated with the Mosque of Omar is arguably very interesting: it shows the victorious caliph as a tolerant man who had no illusions about the intolerance of the “Muslims coming after [him].”

It is interesting to note that this story, as well as the confusion about the Mosque of Omar, is reflected in an article that appeared in the English-language magazine of a United Arab Emirates company some ten years ago. The July-August 2006 issue of the magazine includes a piece on Omar that is illustrated with an image of the Dome of the Rock and presents all sorts of legends and myths as a historic account put together by the company’s “Information & Research Department.”

Here is the relevant part of the story:

“Another incident occurred when Palestine was conquered. Omar came in person to Jerusalem, where he signed the famous Peace Treaty. It ran as follows:

‘From the servant of Allah and the Commander of the Faithful, Omar: The inhabitants of Jerusalem are granted security of life and property. Their churches and crosses shall be secure. This treaty applies to all people of the city. Their places of worship shall remain intact. These shall neither be taken over nor pulled down. People shall be quite free to follow their religion. They shall not be put to any trouble...’

The gates of the city were now opened. Omar went straight to the place of the Dome of the Rock, where he said his prayers. Next he visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the city. He was in the church when the time for the afternoon prayer came.

‘You may say your prayers in the church,’ said the Bishop.

‘No,’ replied Omar, ‘if I do so, the Muslims may one day make this an excuse for taking over the church from you to build a mosque in its place.’

So he said his prayers on the steps of the church. Even then, he gave the Bishop a written undertaking stating that the steps were never to be used for congregational prayers nor was the Adhan (call to prayer) to be said there.

Omar wanted to build a mosque in Jerusalem. He asked the Bishop which place would be suitable for the purpose. The Bishop suggested the ‘Sakhra,’ or the rock on which Allah had talked to the Prophet Jacob. Here the Christians had heaped garbage to bait the Jews.

Immediately the Sakhra was cleared of garbage. Omar himself worked like a labourer with the rest of his men. Jerusalem, the city of David and of Christ, witnessed the equality of Islam. When the Sakhra had been cleared of every trace of dirt, a mosque was built on the site. The mosque stands to this day and is known as Omar’s Mosque.”

So you see: the Christians were really terrible – they “had heaped garbage” on the rock “to bait the Jews;” but the Muslims were simply wonderful and demonstrated their amazing tolerance by building a “mosque” over the Jews’ most holy site…

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.

10/02 Links Pt1: The Big Middle East Lie; Oslo at twenty-four - Failing the “crystal ball” test

From Ian:

The Big Middle East Lie

Nimer Mahmoud Jamal, the 37-year-old Palestinian terrorist who on September 25 murdered three Israelis at the entrance to Har Adar near Jerusalem, had a permit from the Israeli authorities to work in Israel.

His family and friends say he also had a good life and was considered lucky to have been employed by Jews because he received a higher salary and was protected by Israeli labor laws. The night before Jamal set out in his murderous mission, he spent a few hours at the fitness gym in his village, located only a few miles away from Har Adar.

So, Jamal, the murderer of the three Israelis (two of the victims were Arab Israelis), was not poor. He was not unemployed. In fact, according his friends, Jamal earned much more than what a senior police officer or school teacher working for the Palestinian Authority or Hamas brings home every month.

What was it, then, that drove Jamal to his murderous scheme, gunning down three young men who were supposed to be facilitating his entry into Israel? Was it because he could not provide for his children? No. Was it because his landlord was pressuring him about the rent? No: Jamal lived in a nice place of his own, complete with furniture, appliances and bedrooms that any family in the West would be proud to own.

Jamal wanted to murder Jews because he believed this was a noble deed that would earn him the status of shaheed (martyr) and hero among his family, friends and society. In Palestinian culture in particular, and Arab culture in general, murderers of Jews are glorified on a daily basis.

They are touted as the lucky ones who are now in the company of Prophet Mohammed and the angels in Paradise. Male terrorists are also busy with the 72 virgins they were awarded as a prize for murdering Jews. The murderers -- as Muslim clerics and leaders hammer into the heads of Palestinians -- are also given access to rivers of honey and fine drinks once they set foot in their imaginary Paradise.

Jamal's friends and family are now convinced that he has been rewarded by Allah and Prophet Mohammed in Paradise for murdering three Israelis. They do not care about his children, whom he left behind, and certainly not about the families of the three Israelis he murdered.

Exposé: CNN and NYT ignored US Defense Secretary revelation on Taliban

We are living in a sick,news world, not a “fake news” world. Two of the largest pillars of the American established news media, the New York Times and the Cable News Network (CNN) just happened to omit the central point of US Secretary of Defense James Mattis’,explicit comments during his trip to Afghanistan.

He said that Russia and Iran were arming the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Wall Street Journal ]reported Mattis’ comments accurately, publicizing the declaration referring to Iran and Russia arming the Taliban in Afghanistan, “Those two countries [Russia and Iran] have suffered losses to terrorism, so I think it would be extremely unwise if they think they can somehow support terrorism in another country and not have it come back to haunt them.”

We are living in a truly ‘sick news’ world in which the NYT and CNN, due to some bizarre-world political slant, fail to report that the US Defense Secretary has openly accused Russia and Iran of actively helping murder our troops in Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a new Iranian ‘malign’ development. In fact,as Yogi Berra would say: With the US in Afghanistan, it’s the US Iraqi Military Catastrophe Groundhog Day all over again. In Iraq from 2004-2010, Iran, the ultimate terror-state, and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad (the same genocidal-psychopath that’s still there), armed the Sunni al Qaeda in Iraq to murder thousands of US soldiers and all the while Presidents Bush, and Obama, and the US military did absolutely nothing to stop them.

Israel’s security precautions

Sir, – After reading Mike Murphy’s opinion piece, one would wonder if Mr Murphy had actually travelled to Israel or if he had simply read a guide to the worst slurs against the State of Israel and decided to regurgitate them for the purposes of this article (“Degradation of Palestinians shocking to witness”, Opinion & Analysis, September 23rd).

In a piece littered with mistruths, one of the most heinous has to be his claim that Israel wants the Palestinian people to disappear. Apart from the fact that a fifth of Israel’s own citizens are Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, Israel has repeatedly called for a two-state solution where Israel will stand side by side with a democratic Palestinian state. Since the beginning of peace talks in 1993, we have made repeated and courageous offers of full statehood to the Palestinians, only to be rebuffed. The late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin paid the ultimate price for his courage in pursuing peace with the Palestinians.

Unfortunately, the current Palestinian leadership seems to lack the courage to recognise Israel’s right to exist and move forward in direct negotiations to bring about a Palestinian state. Instead they pursue their quest for statehood in the international arena, seeking symbolic recognition, which does nothing to achieve the objectives of two states for two peoples.

Numerous false allegations about how Israel treats the Palestinians are littered throughout Mr Murphy’s article. I would suggest that if Mr Murphy has an issue with the conditions of the roads around Bethlehem, he take it up with the Palestinian Authority who are responsible for the governance of that area.

Stephen Walt rewrites history to double down on "Israel lobby controls America"

Writing in The Forward (where else?) Stephen Walt - one of the co-authors of the book widely derided as antisemitic, "The Israel Lobby," ten years ago - continues his propaganda, claiming that "history proves us right":

Unfortunately for Israel as well as the United States, the past 10 years provide ample evidence that our core argument is still correct. ...

The clearest illustration of the lobby’s enduring power is the Obama administration’s failure to make any progress on settling the Israel-Palestinian conflict. President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were strong supporters of Israel, and both believe a two-state solution is, as Obama put it, “in Israel’s interest, Palestine’s interest, America’s interest and the world’s interest.” But even with backing from pro-peace, pro-Israel organizations such as J Street, their efforts to achieve “two states for two peoples” were rebuffed by Israel, working hand in hand with AIPAC and other hard-line groups. So instead of seriously pursuing peace, Israel expanded its settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories, making it more difficult than ever to create a viable Palestinian state.

Given AIPAC’s enduring influence in Congress and its unyielding opposition to any meaningful compromise with the Palestinians, Obama and Kerry ultimately could offer Israel only additional carrots (such as increased military aid) to try to win their cooperation. Like their predecessors, they could not put pressure on Israel to compromise by threatening to reduce U.S. support significantly. As a result, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had little incentive to make a deal. The result is that the two-state solution, which the United States has long sought and Netanyahu has long opposed, is now further away than ever. This outcome is bad for the United States and for Israel.

Haaretz reported last summer that the US proposed a peace plan in 2014 that Netanyahu accepted and that Abbas rejected. They then sweetened it and Abbas never responded.

Walt is, simply, a liar. It wasn't Israeli intransigence that impeded peace - it was Palestinian rejectionism. Netanyahu accepted it. AIPAC would have accepted it.

The facts are clear, but Walt doesn't want you to know the facts. He wants to pretend that J-Street is a powerful movement for peace that assisted Obama instead of an obscure group that Obama raised in order to counter AIPAC and the wishes of most American Jews and Zionists - including those of us who desperately want peace.

He doesn't want to mention Obama's allowing an anti-Israel resolution to pass in the UN Security Council, instead pretending that even Obama was forced to kneel before the all-powerful lobby that he ignored.

He doesn't want to mention that the Obama administration's coddling of Abbas and the PA, offering only carrots and no sticks, is what contributed to Abbas' intransigence - by Abbas' own words.

Later on, showing how Walt is lying when he pretends to want peace and is working in Israel's own interests, he refers to the rabidly anti-Israel "Jewish Voice for Peace" as a "progressive group".

The anti-Israel crowd has no arguments - so they must resort to lies. And The Forward is their medium of choice (along with Haaretz, which has not revisited its own scoop so as not to remind readers that the "extremist right-wing Likud" was the party that wants peace and the "moderate peace-loving Palestinians" are the ones who consistently reject any attempts.

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.

Varda forwarded to me a message that a friend of hers received from the US Social Security Administration last week:

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has consolidated its overseas operations into several regional offices that provide a full range of SSA services for U.S. citizens residing outside of the United States. Effective this Sunday (October 1, 2017), individuals residing in Israel who require social security services or have questions about SSA benefits must contact the SSA Federal Benefits Unit (FBU) located at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, rather than the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv or the U.S. Consular Agency in Haifa.

Among the most common Social Security services that the Embassy and the Consular Agency can no longer provide is the acceptance of the SS-5 (Application for a Social Security Card) associated with Consular Report of Birth Abroad applications; applicants will need to submit those directly to the Federal Benefits Unit in Jerusalem. Individuals of any age seeking to apply for a first-time or replacement Social Security card will also need to submit their applications directly to the Federal Benefits Unit in Jerusalem.

Please, be advised that as of this Sunday (October 1, 2017) the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consular Agency in Haifa can no longer accept telephone calls, emails, or walk-in consultations regarding Social Security issues, including inquiries from individuals seeking to determine whether they have ever been issued a Social Security number.

For more information or any questions about the services provided at the Federal benefits Unit in Jerusalem and how to contact them, please visit their webpage at: https://jru.usconsulate.gov/u-s-citizen-services/social-security/. You can also reach them at FBU.Jerusalem@ssa.gov.

Why would the US move some of its services from its embassy in Tel Aviv to a consulate in Jerusalem only?

This news directly contradicts how the US Consulate webpage describes its historic functions:

The American Citizen Services Unit of U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem provides information and assistance to U.S. citizens in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. U.S. citizens visiting or residing outside these areas are served by the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Could this be a subtle move by David Friedman to move some of the embassy functions from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem?

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.

The PA Minister of Waqf issued a statement claiming that Israel "attacked"Muslim holy sites 110 times in September.

Here are some of the "attacks" they mention:

The occupation forces assaulted one of the guards of Al-Aqsa Mosque...
They arrested a member of the reconstruction committee, and removed another from his work place for 15 days....The occupation has been working for years on the establishment of Talmudic gardens in the vicinity of the historic wall of Jerusalem to obliterate the Arab monuments and give a Talmudic character to the holy city....
The occupation, as usual, especially on Friday, intensifies its strict measures in the city, erecting barricades, military barriers on the gates of the Old City near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, running foot patrols in Old Jerusalem, and horses in the streets and adjacent roads, while a helicopter and a radar plane flew over the holy city to observe the worshipers.
...The continuation of the so-called "alleged temple" organizations and their incitement to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and worshipers, amid calls for more intrusions, especially during their holidays.
The Antiquities Authority, accompanied by a military officer, stormed the Marwani chapel, and carried out a suspicious and provocative exploratory tour in the area
Members of the Knesset broke into the Aqsa Mosque and the continuation of the policy of political, economic and technological siege on the Al Aqsa and the city
In the Ibrahimi Mosque, the occupation prevented the prayer from being heard for 65 days, and closed it for four days with the pretext of the holidays (how they closed it for 65 days in September is a mystery)
In the area of the airport, the Israeli occupation forces and their crews stormed the neighborhood and photographed residential buildings in the neighborhood, including a mosque threatened with demolition.

I'm sure some NGOs are taking note of these statistics so they can launder them into new reports showing the "increase of Israeli attacks on Muslim holy places enumerated by religious officials."

The official Wafa news agency published this as well, meaning this is how the PLO officially views Jews visiting the Temple Mount too.

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.

Sukkah building open thread

How can anyone be expected to blog when all these holidays are piling up next to each other!

Here's an open thread. Not that you guys need one!

By the way, Son-In-Law of Ziyon mentioned to me that certain brands of bamboo fencing sold at Home Depot are kosher for the schach (sukkah roof.) I bought three 6x16 versions of these for $25 each this morning, an incredible bargain compared to bamboo mats that are sold in Judaica stores.

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.

10/01 Links: Why Did the EU Parliament Embrace a Palestinian Terrorist?; Blair blasts Roger Waters

From Ian:

Israel Is Going to War in Syria to Fight Iran

Looked at from Israel, this process is a mixed bag. Sunni Islamists are hostile to Israel, of course, and for the most part, their failure to assemble a lasting power bloc is welcomed in Jerusalem. Senior Israeli security officials describe, for example, Sisi’s 2013 coup deposing the Muslim Brotherhood as a species of “miracle.” In Syria, however, the insurgent efforts of the Sunni Islamists had at least the benefit of distracting the attentions of the more formidable enemy — the Iran-led regional bloc. For five years, Israel was largely able to sit by while Sunni and Shiite political Islam were in a death’s embrace just north and east of the border. Russian and Iranian intervention, however, appears to have tipped the balance against the Sunni rebels, threatening to bring the long chapter of active civil war in Syria to a close.

From an Israeli point of view, we are back to the pre-2010 Middle East, when Israel and pro-western Sunni powers understood they were in a direct faceoff with the Iranians and their allies. But in 2017, there is the additional complicating factor of a direct Russian physical presence in the Levant, in alliance or at least in cooperation with Israel’s enemies.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which remains exclusively focused on the war against the Islamic State, has done little to assuage Israeli concerns. Trump and those around him, of course, share the Israeli assessment regarding the challenge of Iranian regional ambitions. The impression, however, is that the administration may well not be sufficiently focused or concerned to actually take measures necessary to halt the Iranian advance — both military and political — in Syria, Iraq, or Lebanon.

Where does this leave Israel?

First, Israel’s diplomatic avenues to the international power brokers in Syria remain open. When it comes to Washington, Israel’s task is to locate or induce a more coherent American strategy to counter advance of the Iranians in the Levant. Its goal when it comes to Moscow is to ensure sufficient leeway from Putin, who has no ideological animus against Israel and no special sympathy for Tehran, so that Israel can take the measures it deems necessary to halt or deter the Iranians and their proxies.

Second, Israel will continue to rely on its military defenses, which remain without peer in the region. And as shown in Masyaf, they can be employed to halt and deter provocative actions by the Iran-led bloc where necessary. Nevertheless, as seen from Jerusalem, the shifting regional tectonic plates are producing a new situation in which the Iran-led alliance is once again directly facing Israel, consequently raising the possibility of direct confrontation. Masyaf was not the first shot in the fight between Israel and its proxies in the Levant — and it is unlikely to be the last.

Abbas: I will continue terrorist payments

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas reiterated his support for Arabs who were captured or killed while committing terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens.

In an interview with Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Abbas stated that, "Israel incites the US to see prisoners and martyrs as terrorists. They are soldiers and the sons of our nation...and they are the martyrs of the Palestinian people. And since then (1965), we have provided them [and their families] with allowances."

"Israel and the US says that this is supporting terrorism...I will not back down on this issue. The families of the martyrs will continue to receive their allowances in full." he added.

In response to the question of whether the allowances will continue to be extended to prisoners in Israeli prisons, Abbas answered, "certainly."

NY Post Editorial: Interpol’s invitation to terrorism

It’s hard to think the world could get more dangerous, but it just did — as Interpol accepted the nonexistent “state of Palestine” as a member. Who’s next, ISIS?

In a secret ballot Wednesday by the international police group’s General Assembly, 75 nations agreed to accept the Palestinians’ bid for inclusion, with 24 voting nay and 34 abstentions.
see also

The secrecy ensured that no country would pay a price for its vote, so nations were free to express their true anti-Israel/anti-Semitic hostility — and thus provide a better (and more depressing) picture of how extensive that hate really is.

Make no mistake: Israel has much to lose here. It’s not just that yet another international body has recognized “Palestine” (the UN, UNESCO and other groups have all offered it some form of membership), thereby boosting its standing.

Worse: Palestinians can now try to use Interpol to push bogus “law-enforcement” efforts (travel bans, extraditions, etc.) aimed at Israelis. Worse yet: Sensitive Interpol intel may fall into the hands of Palestinian terror groups.

Think about it: Washington has designated Hamas, one of the two groups that run “Palestine,” as a terrorist organization. The other, the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, also backs terror, albeit less systematically.

Just this week, Fatah praised Tuesday’s attack by a Palestinian terrorist that left three Israelis dead. The PA reportedly will pay his family $1,700, plus $740 a month for life.

In a Facebook post, our friend Susan George references a Ha'aretz article by Yehuda Bauer, professor emeritus at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at Hebrew University, entitled, The Danger of Alienating Diaspora Jews.

As a non-Jewish supporter of both Israel and the Jewish people, George is curious about pro-Israel Jewish thoughts on the article.

I will toss in my two cents.

The first thing that I noticed, of course, is that the opinion piece is published in Ha'aretz which immediately sets off "alarm bells" for the simple reason that Ha'aretz is an anti-Israel newspaper.

Ha'aretz would not even support the Israeli baseball team - the Mensches on the Benches - because it had too many Americans.

They publish Gideon Levy and Amira Hass. Hass believes that Arabs have a moral right to throw stones at Jewish children, and both are despicable from anything that resembles a pro-Israel / pro-Jewish perspective.

Referring to American Jewry - and this is the article's primary thesis - Yehuda Bauer writes:

Without their support, the State of Israel would not have been established, and it cannot exist without such support today either.

Both claims are false.

The State of Israel was built by Jews and many Arabs who in the decades prior to 1948 created the infrastructure - physical, transportational, military, agricultural, industrial, and political - for the establishment of the country.

The role of American Jewry was significant, economic, but adjacent.

It was not central.

Israel most certainly can exist despite decreasing American Jewish friendship, although it would obviously be more difficult. Thankfully, Israel also has tremendous support among large swaths of self-identified American Christians who have far more political influence in the United States than does the American Jewish community.

Furthermore, American Jewry is not abandoning Israel.

According to a 2013 Pew Research Poll:

emotional attachment to Israel has not waned discernibly among American Jews in the past decade, though it is markedly stronger among Jews by religion (and older Jews in general) than among Jews of no religion (and younger Jews in general).

The enemies of Israel, and of the Jewish people, would like to divide and conquer, but this is not going to happen anytime soon.

Jewish Democratic Party Obama supporters are not abandoning Israel. Instead, they will kvetch. They will bitch and moan and whine and complain but at the end of the day, they will stick with their family.

{Bets, anyone?}

But the fact of the matter is that Israel has more economic, scholarly, scientific and diplomatic connections throughout the world today than it ever has in its history.

While the Jewish people in the Middle East remain under considerable threat by the much larger Arab-Muslim population surrounding it, it is also considerably stronger than at any previous point.

Bauer suggests that most American Jews care about internal Israeli religious squabbles.

He writes:

The Israeli government’s policy toward non-Orthodox streams of Jewry, which represent 90 percent of American Jews, threatens the connection that American Jews have to Israel, and is liable to weaken that link to such an extent that it results in apathy and a refusal to act on Israel’s behalf even during a crisis. Simply put, the policy of the current Israeli government is endangering Israel’s existence.

This is also false.

According to a January 24, 2017, article entitled, American and Israeli Jews: Twin Portraits From Pew Research Center Surveys, only fourteen percent of Israeli Jews and eighteen percent of U.S. Jews consider "social, religious, or political problems" to be central.

Most American Jews have very little interest in the arcane doings of Israel's religious policies toward "non-Orthodox streams of Jewry."

Most of us simply do not care.

Although we generally support Israel we honestly tend not to fret over Israel's Jew v. Jew religious disputations. Speaking strictly for myself, I find them vaguely annoying, but little beyond that and I am someone who follows Israel on a daily basis. As a lightly religious Jew I do not much care and my bet is that my lightly religious fellow American Jews do not much care, either.

Thus what I conclude from Professor Bauer's article is that it represents a growing tendency for western political divisiveness, more generally.

The American spirit of emotive chaos that came into place in the months prior to Donald Trump's fantastical defeat of Hillary Clinton is causing far greater ruptures in American society than anyone expected.

In the United States, people are at one another's throats.

Families are rendered.

Friendships are broken.

And there is violence in the streets from Charlottesville to Berkeley.

But the truth is that most American Jews remain supportive of Israel and most do not worry about Jewish interreligious squabbles within that country.

You can be reasonably sure that going forward - despite Jewish pearl clutching - American Jewry will, at least within our lifetimes, continue to strongly support Israel.

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.

Kids in Gaza celebrating terror. Like every other day.

The Salah-al-Din Brigades of the Popular Resistance Committees held a "celebration" of the 17th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Intifada. (So did many other groups.)

Here are some photos of this celebration of terror that includes kids:

People are freaking out over far right movements marching in the US and Europe and pretend to be aghast at the antisemitic statements that they make. But many of these same people seem to be oddly tolerant over the antisemitic groups that openly march with weapons in Gaza and the West Bank.

Nor that many of these groups are involved in negotiations to become part of the PA government without any expectation of them changing their positions.

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.