Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, October 20, 2017

Jasbir Puar's intersectional anti-Israel academic gibberish

Jasbir K. Puar of Rutgers University is publishing a book called The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability.

The blurb:

In The Right to Maim Jasbir K. Puar brings her pathbreaking work on the liberal state, sexuality, and biopolitics to bear on our understanding of disability. Drawing on a stunning array of theoretical and methodological frameworks, Puar uses the concept of “debility”—bodily injury and social exclusion brought on by economic and political factors—to disrupt the category of disability. She shows how debility, disability, and capacity together constitute an assemblage that states use to control populations. Puar's analysis culminates in an interrogation of Israel's policies toward Palestine, in which she outlines how Israel brings Palestinians into biopolitical being by designating them available for injury. Supplementing its right to kill with what Puar calls the right to maim, the Israeli state relies on liberal frameworks of disability to obscure and enable the mass debilitation of Palestinian bodies. Tracing disability's interaction with debility and capacity, Puar offers a brilliant rethinking of Foucauldian biopolitics while showing how disability functions at the intersection of imperialism and racialized capital.

It is, as always, an amazing coincidence that such a high percentage of so-called "academics" somehow manage to find Israel to be the paradigm of whatever evil they identify - "settler-colonialism" is a classic example, but even campus rape and racism have been linked to Israel through the magic of the new intersectionality where any two concepts can be linked as long as the author hates both of them - and one of them is Israel.

We looked at the hate that animated a speech of Puar's last year, when she attempted to link Israel to pretty much everything evil at a conference on gender and ecological issues:

In centering in human entities and temporalities how Palestine matters resituates the geopolitical that has been oddly alighted in the resurrection of the ecological and the geographical and emergent fields of new materialisms and Anthropocene studies. Many scholars have rapidly noted that much of the Anthropocene talk has been enabled through a rather bald-faced appropriation of long-standing native and indigenous cosmologies. So the book attempts to offer a counter genealogy to the surge of theories of object-oriented ontology and theories of post-humanism by putting them into direct relation to the fields of post-colonial theory, questions of imperial occupation and settler colonialism and disability studies.

This is the germ of her idea for this new book.

But first, let's look at the first paragraph of Puar's new book's preface, before she completely descends into pseudo-academic gobbledygook:

The intensification of the writing of this book, and the formulation of “the right to maim,” its most urgent political theoretical contribution, began the summer of 2014. This was the summer police shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the summer of Operation Protective Edge, the fifty one-day Israeli siege of Gaza. Organizers protesting these seemingly disparate events began drawing connections, tracing the material relationships between the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the militarization of police in Ferguson, from the training of U.S. law enforcement by the Israeli state to the tweeting of advice from Palestinians on how to alleviate tear gas exposure. Descriptions of the militarized containment of civilians in Ferguson
echoed those of the settler colonial occupation of Palestine. It was not long before the “Ferguson to Gaza” frame starting taking hold as an organizing rubric. Ferguson-to-Gaza forums sought to correlate the production of settler space, the vulnerability and degradation of black and brown bodies, the demands for justice through transnational solidarities, and the entangled workings of settler colonialism in the United States and Israel. The comparisons, linkages, and affective resonances between Ferguson and Gaza were not perfectly aligned, and they did not always yield immediate alliances. But these efforts were convivial in their mutual resistance to the violent control of populations via targeted bodily assaults, and reflected desires for reciprocating, intersectional, and co-constituted assemblages of solidarity.

Puar accidentally highlights the sequence of events that contradicts her entire academic career. Israel-hating activists (like Puar herself) decided to tenuously attempt to link protests against US police practices to Israel which even Puar admits is "disparate" and that the connections between the two are not obvious. The desire to link the two completely disconnected issues precedes the actual supposed linkage. Puar the quasi-academic is willing to embrace and fabricate these linkages not because there is any truth to them but because they fit her politics. Facts are merely props for foregone conclusions where context is the enemy.

As a thought experiment, decide: Which is closer linked to each other, Israeli practices with US police brutality, or Palestinianism and Nazism? The links between Palestinianism and Nazism are direct: the founder of the Palestinian national movement was an open antisemite who proudly supported the Nazi aims of genocide against Jews; Palestinianism aims to remove Jews from positions of political power as the Nazis did in the 1930s, Palestinian media today continues to publish articles that are antisemitic and which include the blood libel and Holocaust denial just as Nazi media did, the Palestinian leadership violently suppresses any dissent within their own areas of power. Yet can one even imagine an academic paper pointing out these links ever getting published, let alone an entire book by an academic press?

The linkages that Puar and her ilk claim where Israel is the personification of whatever is fashionably evil at the moment are not only tenuous - they are fictional. One can literally choose any topic and any nation and find linkages that are at least as believable. All one needs is the desire and the links come by themselves. It isn't research - it is dumpster diving.

In fact, the next two paragraphs of Puar's preface highlight exactly that. She claims that US police (as if all the police departments in the US are magically linked to each other in what she calls the "US security state") have a seeming default "shoot to kill" policy against blacks, but Israel's policy not to kill Palestinians is framed instead as a "shoot to maim" policy: They are, obviously, opposite.

One striking aspect of the connective tissue between Ferguson and Gaza involved security practices mining the relationship between disability and death. Police brutality in the United States toward black men and women in particular showed a definitive tendency to aim for death, often shooting numerous bullets into an unarmed, subjugated, and yet supposedly threatening body—overkill, some might call it. Why were there seemingly so few attempts to minimize the loss of life? The U.S. security state enacted powerful sovereign entitlements even as it simultaneously claimed tremendous vulnerability. ....

The might of Israel’s military—one of the most powerful in the world—is built upon the claim of an unchanging ontological vulnerability and precarity, driven by history, geopolitics, and geography. Alongside the “right to kill,” I noted a complementary logic long present in Israeli tactical calculations of settler colonial rule—that of creating injury and maintaining Palestinian populations as perpetually debilitated, and yet alive, in order to control them. The Israeli Defense Forces (idf) have shown a demonstrable pattern over decades of sparing life, of shooting to maim rather than to kill.This is ostensibly a humanitarian practice...

The ostensible "US security state" policy of shooting to kill is linked to the IDF policy of trying to avoid death.

Yet, sure enough, Puar finds a linkage between the two in the next paragraph - because anyone can find any linkage to anything when they look hard enough.

Indeed, immediately after that she describes the egotism that caused her to try to link the movement for the rights of the disabled with Black Lives Matter and therefore Israel:

On this particular day [July 10, 2016] the main Black Lives Matter protest in New York City was happening in Times Square. Not far from this location, the Second Annual Disability Pride parade, marketed as a festival and celebration, was marching on Broadway from Union Square to Madison Square Park. International in scope, the parade included veterans and actors involved in the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I was in a part of Manhattan equidistant from both activities, one being an action and the other being an event. The relationship between the two confounded me.

Why does there have to be a relationship between two completely different marches in Manhattan on a single day? Because Puar wants there to be one. After all, she was equidistant from both - that must have some sort of divine (sorry, intersectional) meaning, right?

And, of course, Puar succeeds in finding that link, which is the basis for this entire book!

This isn't research. This isn't innovation. This is simply hate dressed up in academic clothing, and the hate that Puar has is just as toxic and noxious as the racism she pretends to oppose.

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.

Arabs consider the Holocaust a myth - until it becomes convenient for them to say Jews are worse than Nazis

A few years ago, Jordan's Al Rai newspaper wrote an article that says that there was nothing special about the Holocaust, saying that Nazis killed lots of people besides Jews, and that the Holocaust itself is "surrounded by doubts an ambiguity" and raises many questions, and that there were many other "holocausts".

Also that Palestinians suffered from multiple "holocausts" at Deir Yassin and Sabra/Shatila and Gaza.

The Holocaust denial and soft-pedaling is sadly typical in Arab media.

But when one can make a political point, then Holocaust events become much more believable.

Two weeks ago, according to Haaretz, a large group of Jewish teens rioted in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem.

According to Palestinian eyewitnesses, approximately 400 youths marched through the Old City from the Western Wall towards the Muslim Quarter's Damascus Gate, allegedly shouting, beating the doors of houses and shops, throwing rocks and smashing car windows.

As they approached Damascus Gate, the youths stormed an open shop and attacked the shop's Palestinian owner. The owner was taken to Hadassah University Hospital to be treated for his wounds and was released in the morning, his injuries described as "light."

A police force of about 20 officers later arrived at the scene and escorted the rioters out of the Old City however no arrests were made. Police issued a statement on Thursday morning saying that there had been a fight between two groups of youths.

"During the night, a confrontation broke out between young people on Hagai Street in the Old City, during which stones were thrown," the police said.

Police say that it was a fight between two groups, not a group of Jews rioting -and Ma'an says "dozens" of Jews, not 400, were involved - but Haaretz' headline still lies and says "Hundreds of Jewish Teens Run Riot in Muslim Part of Jerusalem's Old City."

One Palestinian shopkeeper was lightly injured, according to the report.

I'm not defending anyone rioting or causing damage. But following Haaretz's lead, the same Al Rai newspaper that said that the Holocaust is questionable now says that what happened in Jerusalem was - yes, you guessed it - Kristallnacht.

In the two days of Kristallnacht, over 250 synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, 91 Jews were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by.

Comparing the disturbances in Jerusalem two weeks ago with Kristallnacht is as obscene as comparing Israel responding to rockets to the Holocaust.

But for Israel haters, the Holocaust only exists as a prop to say that the Jews are worse than Nazis.

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.

10/19 Links Pt2: UN Promoting Anti-Semitic Hate Groups, Terrorism; Outside the UN, BDS Is Losing Badly

From Ian:

Report: UN Promoting Anti-Semitic Hate Groups, Terrorism

The United Nations has formally endorsed and approved scores of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate groups that promote terrorism against Jews from within the halls of Turtle Bay and elsewhere, according to a new report that exposes how these organizations have been granted privileged status by the U.N., potentially in violation of the international body's own bylaws.

The U.N. has formally accredited scores of non-profit organizations that use their legitimacy to spread anti-Semitic propaganda promoting terrorism against Israel and Jews, according to an in-depth new expose by Human Rights Voices, a watchdog organization.

The report, which provides pictorial evidence of this behavior, exposes how these organizations use their U.N.-accredited stature to slander the Jewish state and promote terror groups such as Hamas.

The report is likely to galvanize the Trump administration and pro-Israel supporters in Congress to further scrutinize the U.N.'s systematic promotion of anti-Israel propaganda, according to those familiar with the matter.

The Trump administration has already removed the United States from a U.N. cultural organization known as UNESCO due to its repeated efforts to pass anti-Israel resolutions that claim Jewish historical sites do not belong to the state of Israel.

Evelyn Gordon: Outside the UN, BDS Is Losing Badly

Until now, because most boycott initiatives have been small-scale, it’s been possible for people who advocate “just boycotting the settlements” to ignore what that actually means. The irony is large-scale initiatives like the UNHRC blacklist, by publicly spelling out exactly what it entails, make it much harder for people to keep ignoring the truth: that “boycotting the settlements” actually means boycotting Israel.

Nevertheless, this realization isn’t going to sink in without a lot of work on the part of both the Israeli government and Jewish and pro-Israel activists worldwide. Indeed, that’s one of the main lessons of the victories to date.

When the BDS movement first emerged, many well-meaning people advocated ignoring it rather than fighting it on the grounds that fighting it would simply inflate the importance of an otherwise insignificant movement. But victories like those of the past few weeks show why that strategy was wrong. The growing understanding that BDS is anti-Semitic didn’t happen because Israel and overseas activists ignored the movement; it happened because both the Israeli government and overseas activists relentlessly explained the connection between boycotting Israel and anti-Semitism. And a similar effort will be needed to explain that “boycotting the settlements” is just a euphemism for boycotting Israel.

Even though large swaths of polite society are now perfectly comfortable with anti-Semitism as long as they can tell themselves it’s just “anti-Zionism” or “fighting the occupation,” open avowals of anti-Semitism are still taboo. Once stripped of the comforting pretense that it’s not anti-Semitic, BDS will be finished. And groups like the Austrian student union and the Bavarian Green Party are now tearing that pretense to shreds.

Why Europe's New Nationalists Love Israel

There is another path, taken by the United States, which allows that every nation can be "almost chosen," in Lincoln's memorable phrase. It can emulate Israel without seeking to supercede it. What distinguishes American culture is the radical Protestant belief that the City of God cannot be realized in the City of Man, that life is a pilgrimage whose goal is ever beyond the horizon. This concept defines and shapes American literary as well as popular culture, as I tried to show in this essay.

The existence and success of the State of Israel changes everything. It is not merely a promise, spiritualized by Christianity into a vision of another life beyond this one, but a living, breathing people that punches above its weight in every field of human endeavor. Perhaps the people of Israel will help fulfill their mission to be a light unto the nations by example. Europe's new nationalists may attempt to emulate Israel not but superceding it or by asserting their claims for election against each other, but by seeking to identify its virtues.

Post-nationalist Europe bears an irrational hatred of Israel, I wrote in this space in 2014.
The flowering of Jewish national life in Israel makes the Europeans crazy. It is not simply envy: it is a terrible reminder of the vanity of European national aspirations over the centuries, of the continent's ultimate failure as a civilization. Just as the Europeans (most emphatically the Scandinavians) would prefer to dissolve into the post-national stew of European identity, they demand that Israel do the same. Never mind that Israel lacks the option to do so, and would be destroyed were it to try, for reasons that should be obvious to any casual consumer of news media.

It is too early to judge the direction of the new European nationalism, which has some elements that make me cringe, and some that make me release the safety-catch on my Browning. But it also has men and women who do not want to disappear into the dustbin of history and look to Israel for inspiration. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

The Palestine Children's Relief Fund styles itself as a "non-political" organization that only cares about Palestinian children's lives.

Here is a snippet of a speech by Hanan ashrawi at their annual dinner in Atlanta this past weekend, where she accuses Israel of having no interest in peace.

Non-political?

Ashrawi gave a speech at another PCRF gathering in 2015 where she accused Israel of attempting to destroy Palestinians not only physically (11:27 -"Israel is a settler colonial project is attempting to complete the Nakba that started in 1947-48") but culturally (" a people [Jews] are attempting to eradicate the very
presence, the very history, the very culture, the very identity of another nation and to take over not just that land but that narrative.") She claimed that Israel created towns where they stole Arabic names and Hebraized them, which is the exact thing Arabs have done to Biblical-era sites.

Ashrawi mentioned Israel 85 times in this speech, which seems curious for a "non-political" organization that is only concerned with treating Palestinian children (and most of their actual work does seem to be to treat them, especially Syrian Palestinian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon.)

Hundreds of well-heeled Arabs pay to attend fancy dinners where they tell themselves they care about Palestinian children but the star of the show is spewing anti-Israel lies (and barely talking about Palestinian children, except to say that they are being blown up by Israeli missiles.)

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.

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

The Jerusalem Post reports,

Israel's representatives to the judo Grand Slam event in Abu Dhabi have been told that they will once more not be allowed to compete under their country's flag.

The blue-and-white delegation to the final Grand Slam competition of the year is set to include 12 athletes, but Israel Judo Association chairman Moshe Ponte was informed by the organizers that they won't be able to have the Israel flag on their judo uniform, as they do in every other event across the world. Instead of having ISR (Israel) by their names on the scoreboard and on their backs, they will have to take part in the contest as representatives of the IJF (International Judo Federation). The national anthem will also not be played, should an Israeli win a gold medal.

This is something Israelis and supporters of Israel have grown used to.

We are not, in the minds of the Emiratis, a country. And if asked, they would doubtless agree with the spokespeople of the Palestinian Arabs that the Jews are not a people. Maybe even that Jews are not people at all, although this isn’t something they would admit in public.

Miri Regev, our combative Minister of Culture and Sport, wrote a harsh letter. Maybe Abu Dhabi will drop its insulting demand, maybe we will not send our athletes to compete, or maybe we will do what most of the non-Muslim world does over and over (including the government of Israel) in the face of lunatic Muslim demands for submission, and submit.

I’m sick of it.

Here’s a personal story. I’m an amateur radio operator (a “ham”). Many of us engage in competition to contact as many different “entities” as possible. There is a list of 340 entities, defined by political and geographic criteria. Some are normally uninhabited and inhospitable to human presence, and some have few amateurs. They may only be available for short periods of time, as when someone organizes an expensive expedition to a place like Bouvet Island, in the South Atlantic near Antarctica. Contacting a large number of them is quite difficult, and requires patience and time. Amateur radio is in a sense a sport, although perhaps a sedentary one; but like other sports it strives to stay above politics.

The location of a station is identifiable by its call letters, and there are currently 7 or 8 countries (Iran, Yemen, Libya, etc.) who do not permit operators within their jurisdictions to contact stations in Israel. So we are automatically at a disadvantage in competition. But rarely does anyone complain. It is expected. Israel is special.

This is probably less important than Judo, which in turn is less important than the UN Human Rights commission, which has passed about 70 resolutions condemning Israel since 2006, more than all other countries put together; or UNESCO, from which the US and Israel have removed themselves because of its ludicrous bias. Or the UN General Assembly.

But all of these “little” insults add up. Like an abusive relationship in a marriage or between a parent and a child, in which every interaction provides an opportunity for the abuser to belittle and insult the victim, there is a cumulative effect on both the target of the abuse and bystanders. No matter how secure she is, there is a feeling that if she weren’t doing something wrong, she wouldn’t be a target of abuse. And if there is more than one abuser, the effect is even greater.

What begins as verbal abuse between partners becomes physical; and minor physical abuse can become major and even lead to murder. In the international realm, a sustained campaign of delegitimization can be a precursor to war or genocide. It’s happened more than once.

When the state of Israel was founded despite the violent opposition of the Arab world, the conflict surrounding her was mostly contained in the region. The Arabs attempted to enforce an economic boycott, which was only spottily effective. But with the artificial creation of the Palestinian movement in 1967, and even more so with the Durban Conference in 2001 and the program of associating Israel with the modern-day deadly sins of racism, apartheid and colonialism, bullying Israel became a worldwide endeavor. Europeans jumped on the bandwagon with glee, picking up what Richard Landes called a “get out of Holocaust shame free card” by accusing Israel of being worse than the Nazis. And in North America, liberal Jews who wanted to belong to the fellowship of the intersectional Left were easy prey.

Even many Israelis (some of whom work for important media outlets) wilted under the onslaught and began to believe that their country actually was a racist, colonialist enterprise and even an apartheid state.

Another personal story: when I was 8 or 9 years old I had a friend who liked to tell me how dumb I was. One day, after he’d called me stupid four or five times, I picked up a large two-by-four (for non-Americans, a wooden beam about 5 cm by 10 cm thick) and swung it at him. Luckily for both of us, it struck his shoulder instead of his head. My parents explained that I might have killed him, and didn’t I know that I wasn’t dumb? “I know, but I’m tired of hearing it,” I said.

Israel needs to express that she, too, is tired of abuse. Getting a divorce from UNESCO was a good start, although I’m embarrassed that we had to wait for the US to do it first. We should tell the hosts of the Judo competition in Abu Dhabi that their singling out Israel is unacceptable; either they drop their special rules or we will not participate. And we should demand that the International Judo Federation does not accept the results of any contest that does not treat all competitors with respect.

Now I think I’ll try some similar judo on the committee that governs amateur radio competition.

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.

10/19 Links Pt1: Mass murderers honored at PA Uni; The Big New Palestinian Lie

From Ian:

Alan M. Dershowitz: Why Are So Many Claiming That Iran Is Complying with the Deal, When Evidence Shows They Aren't?

Yet, even if Iran were to comply with the letter of the nuclear agreement, it would still be able to build up a vast nuclear arsenal within a relatively short timeframe. The approach adopted by the Trump administration – articulated in a statement delivered by the president several days ago – is justified by the realities on the ground. By announcing that he is decertifying Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement, President Trump is giving Congress 60-days to act. Not only is President Trump giving the United States back some of its leverage, but he is also sending a powerful message to the rogue leaders in Iran and North Korea – who are believed to have cooperated on missile technology – that the era of containment and deterrence policies is over. The United States is returning to its original mission of prevention.

Interestingly, in the aftermath of President Trump's address, the Saudi Press Agency reported that King Salman called the U.S. President to offer his support for America's more "firm strategy" on Iran and commitment to fighting "Iranian aggression." Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, offered similar praise for the new U.S. posture, saying in a statement that President Trump "has created an opportunity to fix this bad deal, to roll back Iran's aggression and to confront its criminal support of terrorism." It is no secret that these two previously discordant states are now cooperating in unprecedented ways as they try to counter the threat posed by a nuclear Iran. When Israel and the Gulf States are on the same page, the world should listen.

There are those that argue that by decertifying, President Trump has undercut American credibility and sent a message to the world that it can't count on one American president following through on deals made by his predecessor. But the fault for that lies squarely with President Obama who refused not only to make his deal a binding treaty, but also to seek any congressional approval – both of which would have assured greater continuity. He knew when he signed the deal that it could be undone by any future president.

The goal, of course, is not to undo the deal but rather to undo its sunset provision and to make Iran keep the commitment it made in the prologue: never to obtain "any nuclear weapons."

The available evidence now strongly supports the conclusion that Iran is not keeping that commitment: that it is determined to develop a nuclear arsenal capable of being mounted on intercontinental ballistics missiles. If the current deal is not changed, it is likely that Iran will become the new North Korea – or worse – before very long.

The Big New Palestinian Lie

It is precisely the inflammatory speech of Abbas and his senior officials, expressed at every possible podium, which has been trying to turn the conflict into a religious one.

If any side has turned the conflict into a religious one, it is the Palestinian side, which has long depicted Jews as sons of monkeys and pigs, enemies of Allah, and killers of prophets. When Abbas and other Palestinians accuse Jews on a daily basis of "storming" and "desecrating" the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they are firing the first shots in their religious war against Israel and the Jews.

By turning the conflict into a religious one, the Palestinians are hoping to avoid any discussion about important issues such as security, borders, the status of Jerusalem, anti-Israel incitement and assaults on public freedoms under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Palestinian leaders do not feel comfortable discussing any of these issues; that is why they prefer to make the debate appear as if it is about religious issues.

PMW: Mass murderers honored at Palestinian University

Students at the Palestinian Al-Quds Open University (Dura branch) were welcomed this week at a reception for new students by a large banner teaching them who Palestinian "heroes" are. Students looked up to see a huge banner on stage with pictures of founders and heads of terror organizations who are responsible for the deaths of many hundreds of Israelis:
Abu Ali Mustafa, head of PLFP
Fathi Shaqaqi, founder of Islamic Jihad
Ahmad Yassin, founder of Hamas
Yasser Arafat, former PLO and PA Chairman
Salah Khalaf, head of Black September
Abu Jihad, head of the PLO terror organization's military wing

Ahmad Yassin was the founder and leader of Hamas and was responsible for dozens of suicide bombings on buses, on streets and in cafés in which hundreds of Israelis were murdered.

Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) headed the PLO terror organization's military wing and planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks in the 1960's - 1980's. These attacks, which murdered a total of 125 Israelis, included the most lethal in Israeli history - the hijacking of a bus and murder of 37 civilians, 12 of them children.

Salah Khalaf headed the terror organization Black September, a secret branch of Fatah established by Yasser Arafat. Attacks he planned included the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (Sept. 5, 1972) and the murder of two American diplomats in Sudan (March 1, 1973).

The banner at Al-Quds Open University included the logo of the university's branch of Fatah's student movement Shabiba that includes the slogan: "From the sea of blood of the Martyrs (Shahids) we will create a state," as well as the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas in the colors of the Palestinian flag. The logo of Al-Quds Open University also appeared on the banner, next to an additional PA map of "Palestine" in the colors of the Palestinian flag.

"10 Jewish dishes Arabs eat every day"

This article in a seemingly Saudi-Egyptian news site (and then another Arabic news site) threw me for a loop.

After years of seeing Arab propaganda that Jews stole Arab cuisine, this article purports to name 10 "Jewish" foods that Arabs like to eat - including foods that most Arabs claim as their own!

The accuracy of this article isn't important. The fact that it was written at all is astounding.

10 Jewish dishes eaten by Arabs every day:

1. Shakshuka (really Tunisian)

2. Couscous (but the description is actually of Israeli couscous; I'm not sure if Arabs eat that)

3. Macaroni with Bechamel sauce (they say that it is eaten during Jewish holidays, I have no idea what this is.)

4. Salata Baladi (Arab Salad, or what many call Israeli Salad

5. Sambousa and Burekas (which are Arabian/Asian and Balkan in reality)

6. Falafel. Yes, really. They identify it accurately as "Israel's national dish."

7. Challah! I had no idea Arabs enjoyed challah, but there is at least one Haaretz article about that in specific circumstances.

8. Krembo, “Ras Al-Abd” (Slave’s head) and Marshmallow
The article itself talks only about the Krembo. You can see about Krembo and “Ras el Abd” here:

9. Kubba (Levantine)

10. Chicken Al-Banih - Schnitzel

The article notes that schnitzel originated in Austria and Germany but says the Jews made it with chicken rather than pork, as do Arabs nowadays.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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.

A bizarre tweet from UK in the UN:

Let us remember, there are 2 halves of #Balfour, 2nd of which has not been fulfilled. There is unfinished business. @AmbassadorAllen #Israel pic.twitter.com/BoAXOcsKdz
— UKUN_NewYork (@UKUN_NewYork) October 18, 2017

Wow, what could the other half be?

Here's the full text of the Balfour Declaration:

Foreign Office
November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you. on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet

His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours,

Arthur James Balfour

Balfour explicitly said that a Jewish national home should not be used as an excuse for other states to revoke the rights of Jews in their countries. Yet that is exactly what happened in very single Arab nation. Could that be the other half that the diplomats are referring to?

The tweet cannot possibly be referring to the establishment of another Arab state, since Balfour says nothing about an "Arab homeland in Palestine." And at the time it was written, Palestine included Transjordan, and the initial partition of Palestine into two parts would have taken care of that even if Balfour declared another Arab state.

So what can this tweet possibly be referring to?

Obviously the UK diplomats are referring to the part that says "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." But there is nothing that prejudices the rights of Arabs in the Jewish national home, which is now Israel.

This is an uncalled for slam against Israel and it is in direct contradiction to the UK's principled stand to celebrate the centennial of Balfour rather than apologize for it, as the Israel-haters demand.

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.

Haaretz reports:

Eight European Union countries wrote an official protest letter to Israel, demanding over €30,000 ($35,400) in compensation for confiscating and demolishing structures and infrastructure which the countries had built in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli control.

A senior European diplomat told Haaretz that the letter, which is the first of its kind, was expected to be delivered to senior Foreign Ministry officials within a few days.

According to the European diplomat, Belgium was leading the move. The other countries involved in drafting the letter are France, Spain, Sweden, Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland and Denmark. All eight countries are members of the West Bank Protection Consortium, a body through which they coordinate humanitarian assistance to Area C.

The countries were protesting the confiscation of solar panels they had installed in Bedouin communities and the demolition of mobile structures that were financed in various Bedouin communities to serve as classrooms.

The existence of the protest letter was first reported by the French newspaper Le Monde. In the letter, the eight countries stressed that if Israel does not unconditionally return the equipment it seized, they would demand compensation. The demolition and seizure of humanitarian equipment, including school infrastructure, and the interference in the transfer of humanitarian assistance contravenes Israel’s obligations under international law and causes suffering to the Palestinian residents, the letter said.

The letter is the second step these countries are taking on this issue. A month and a half ago, diplomats from the eight countries came to meet with the head of the Foreign Ministry’s Europe desk, Rodica Radian-Gordon, to protest Israel’s actions against Bedouin communities in Area C.

According to a senior Foreign Ministry official, Belgian Ambassador to Israel Olivier Belle said during the meeting that if Israel did not return the equipment it had seized, his country would formally demand compensation. Belle was the only one at that meeting to raise the issue of compensation, but in the ensuing weeks he apparently managed to persuade his colleagues to turn the demand into a joint agreed-upon position that would be officially conveyed to Israel.

Israel categorically rejects the demand for compensation. Israel’s position is that the European activity in Area C is not humanitarian assistance but illegal development that is being done without coordinating with Israel and with the aim of strengthening the Palestinians’ hold on Area C. The European position is that under the Geneva Convention, Israel is responsible for dealing with the everyday needs of the Palestinian population in Area C, and since it is not doing so, the European states are stepping in with humanitarian aid.

The official EU position towards Area C is totally at odds with international law. The Oslo process says that Area C remains under Israeli control until there is an agreement over borders, but the EU says that Area C is Palestinian - period.

From their own website:

Israel retains almost exclusive control over law enforcement, planning and construction in Area C.

In line with the recommendations of the EU Foreign Affairs Council Conclusions, the European Union works in Area C on two fronts: humanitarian assistance and development.

The EU provides humanitarian assistance to communities in need in Area C in accordance with the humanitarian imperative. At the same time, the EU works with the Palestinian Authority to develop Area C and support Palestinian presence there. This includes projects promoting economic development and improving the quality of life of Palestinian communities in the areas of the private sector development, the environment and agriculture. The EU consults with the local communities themselves and the Israeli authorities where necessary.

The EU obviously doesn't consult with Israel when it builds buildings and other structures. But they admit that their primary partner in deciding what must be done in Area C is the Palestinian Authority - even though they know quite well that Israel controls construction and planning.

In other words, the EU's presence in the area is an end-run around signed agreements and an attempt to impose facts on the ground. They are saying it themselves.

The idea that this is humanitarian is a joke. They are trying to attract more Palestinians to Area C and away from the areas under partial or full PA control.

The reason? To stick it to Israel.

Last August, the EU quickly erected several schools in West Bank villages right before the school year began. Each building took only a day or two to build. There were no permits and in fact for one of the schools Israel explcitly gave an order to stop all work on the building.

The EU ignored Israeli policy, and indeed Eu-recognized international law (if you assume that Area C is "occupied" then Israel has the sole right to decide what gets built and where.)

Israel destroyed the illegal structures.

The EU called their media buddies at the Independent to write anti-Israel articles and to describe how awful it was that the children had lost their school that they never had.

And that's when Belgium first demanded compensation - literally 24 hours afterwards.

The entire episode was a made-for-TV drama, with sad kids being "forced" to study in a tent. 80 children that had been in other nearby schools the year before were portrayed as being stuck without a chance at an education.

I've seen these villages that these people live in. They are being constructed all over Area C, with EU flags displayed prominently outside. A dozen or so shacks and mobile homes placed haphazardly on hills that were empty a few years beforehand. This is all illegal EU building, and also an illegal transfer of people from their homes in Areas A and B to Area C where they can pretend to suffer from Israeli restrictions.

Here is a time lapse from Google Earth showing how these structures have been placed to maximize the land grab in Area C over the past few years in just one small section of Area C near Jerusalem:

The EU is not trying to build communities with orderly roads and infrastructure. It is trying to steal as much land in Area C as it can to give to Palestinians.

And now it wants to sue Israel to be compensated for acting illegally?

This is chutzpah, and it is proof positive that the EU is rabidly anti-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.

The Golem of Prague's new job

A friend of mine is visiting Prague and toured the synagogue where, legend has it, the Golem of Prague can be found in the attic.

(There is no Golem in the attic, as an Israeli news show visited a few years ago and took video.)

But as my friend continued his tour, he found the Golem - but instead of protectingthe Jewish community, he was guarding a chocolate shop.

(h/t Marten)

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.

10/18 Links Pt2: Balfour Declaration: Haters Declare War; Israeli Arabs’ Growing Israeli Identity

From Ian:

Ex-AP Reporter Reveals: Int’l Media Coverage of Israel is a “Bluff”

“The way the Israel is portrayed by the foreign press is not only broken, there are times when a talented but inexperienced reporter who has been assigned to cover Israel will get in front of a TV camera and literally bluff his/her way through a story with a straight face,” Matti Friedman, a renowned former reporter for the Associated Press (AP), revealed to a gathering of Christian journalists from all over the globe, attending this week’s Christian Media Summit in Jerusalem.

Despite the fact that his personal politics run to the left of the spectrum, Friedman admitted that he refused to follow the overwhelmingly liberal international media herd in Israel, which in the aftermath of the Six Day War, collectively decided that the on-going simplistic narrative would be, “If Israel ends the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, there would be peace. As a former IDF soldier the gap between what I was writing, as part of the narrative and the reality that I knew as a soldier was too wide for me to accept, so I left AP.”
Advertisement

Friedman added, “Anyone who lives here knows that there’s no on-going Palestinian-Israel conflict. That’s fiction. There is a much broader regional conflict in the region which includes Iran, Hizbollah, Hamas, Syria, Lebanon of which Israel’s role in all this is one small part of a bigger dynamic.”

Friedman pointed out that the skewed coverage of the so-called on-going “violence in Israel” is borne out by eye-opening statistics. “Last year, the total number of violent deaths across Israel including terror attacks, domestic disputes etc. was only 18. In Jacksonville, Florida a small American city perceived to be quiet and safe, 119 people were killed in a violent manner. Journalists covering Israel have decided to create a reality that doesn’t always match what is really happening around them.” (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Balfour Declaration: Haters Declare War

STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH
Back in the present day, who better than Manuel Hassassian, the official Palestinian representative to the UK, to make it clear what his campaign against the Balfour Declaration is really about in another story from The Guardian:

There has been a 100-year-long cover-up of Israel’s crimes: its ethnic cleansing of the majority of the Palestinian population in 1948; its unrelenting years of aggression and present brutal occupation.

Given that Israel has only existed for nearly 70 of the 100 years that Hassassian refers to, it appears that the issue is less about a territorial issue that arose in 1947-48 and everything to do with Palestinian rejection of Jewish rights going back way before the actual birth of the State of Israel.

Ultimately, the campaign against the Balfour Declaration and demands for an apology from the British government (which have been categorically rejected) are simply part of the wider delegitimization campaign against Israel. This latest focus on Balfour 100 will undoubtedly increase in the coming weeks.

BRILLO SPEECH AT HOLOCAUST EDUCATIONAL TRUST DINNER

Must-watch Andrew Neil speech on the dangerous trend of left-wing anti-Semitism at the Holocaust Educational Trust annual dinner last night.

By Alan Kotok from Arlington, VA, USA (Saeb Erekat) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Chief PA peace negotiator and Secretary General of the PLO executive committee Saeb Erekat underwent a successful lung transplant in northern Virginia on Friday. There is no doubt that Erekat needed that lung. He was in such bad shape from pulmonary fibrosis that he was on oxygen and could no longer walk.

Erekat was diagnosed some five years ago and had been receiving treatment in Israel. There isn't any decent hospital in PA or Hamas administered territories where he might have been treated or received a transplant because the Arabs use much of their considerable foreign aid on things like schoolbooks that teach their children to kill Jews; stipends to Jew-murdering terrorists and their families; and terror tunnels used to infiltrate Israeli territory in order to kill Jews and for transporting items to be used to kill Jews. That is, instead of spending that aid on building hospitals and providing decent medical care to their people.

Once the doctors determined that Erekat needed a lung transplant or it was goombye Saeb, he didn't have much choice but to look elsewhere for a transplant. According to Israeli policy, non-Israeli citizens can't be placed on the transplant list. They can be considered only after it is decided that a donated organ is not suitable for any of the Israeli citizen on the waiting list. Note that an Israeli Arab would have the same chance as an Israeli Jew in being considered for an organ transplant.

It's not that Erekat is an Arab or a Muslim, it's that he's not a citizen of Israel.

An LA Times article notes:

Eighty-nine Israelis are on the waiting list for a lung transplant, said Dr. Tamar Ashkenazi, director of the transplant center at Israel’s Ministry of Health. Last year, 50 patients received donated lungs.
Ashkenazi said that in the event an available organ has no match in Israel, she will reach out to the deceased’s family and request special permission, above and beyond the legal necessity, to offer the organ to foreigners. Under similar circumstances, she once sent a child’s liver to Germany.
Erekat, who is of average height, suffers yet another disadvantage.
“I have no idea why, but we have many tall donors here,” Ashkenazi said, noting that height is a crucial factor for matching lungs. “A tall patient might wait two weeks, and a shorter person can wait two years.”

The New York Times quotes David Bitan, Israeli coalition whip for the Likud Party: “I am for humanitarian aid, but there is a problem with lung transplants. We can barely manage lung transplants for the citizens of the State of Israel.”

Israel National News makes it clear that the list for organ transplant is ordered according to medical criteria, quoting a joint Facebook statement from Israel's Ministry of health and its National Transplant Center:

"In cases where no Israeli patient is found to receive the organ, it is possible to transplant the donated organ to a non-resident of Israel, subject to the consent of the donor's family, in coordination with the transplant center. Such cases are extremely rare.”

It makes sense then, that Erekat decided to do what needed to be done to get on the waiting list for a lung Stateside. It is also interesting that he received a lung in the States within two short months of us reading about his need for a transplant. As of October 12, there were 1,374 people on the U.S. wait list for a lung.

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) website says that "geography plays a part" in moving to the top of the list:

There are 58 local donor service areas and 11 UNOS regions that are used for U.S. organ allocation. Hearts and lungs have less time to be transplanted, so we use a radius from the donor hospital instead of regions when allocating those organs.

The website also helpfully tells us how long each organ remains viable for transplantation after donation:

Kidneys 24-36 hours, pancreas 12-18 hours, liver 8-12 hours, heart/lung 4-6 hours.

In other words, you have to be close by to move to the top of the waiting list to get a lung, because you've got, at most, 6 hours to get that transplant. You have to be close to the donor hospital.

At the same time, the UNOS website tells visitors that there's no preferential treatment involved in rising to the top of the transplant list:

Only medical and logistical factors are used in organ matching. Personal or social characteristics such as celebrity status, income or insurance coverage play no role in transplant priority.

Before he got so sick, Erekat was often interviewed by the Western media. He used these opportunities to accuse Israel of state-sponsored apartheid, genocide, and war crimes. In 2014, for example, he told Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio) that the Israeli response to the kidnapping and brutal murder of three Israeli teenagers followed by scores of rocket attacks on Israeli towns, constituted "genocide."

"96% of those killed in the (Gaza) Strip were civilians, and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed. I know Israelis protest against the use of the term 'genocide,' but that's the reality on the ground."

Never mind that Hamas was using human shields, placing rocket launchers in, for instance, homes and nursery schools.

In 2013, Erekat accused Israel of apartheid. "Today in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem ... I can sum up the situation with one word—apartheid. Worse than that which existed in South Africa. Today Israel justifies its apartheid by the term security."

Arabs free to be with Jews at this event held in "apartheid" Jerusalem
photo credit: The Real Jerusalem Streets

Referring to his hopes for John Kerry's (doomed-to-failure) mediation efforts and for statehood, Erekat said, "we are going deeper into the evil apartheid that exists in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”

Why does any of this matter now? According to Arab Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, Saeb Erekat is a frontrunner to replace Abbas on retirement. From the same LA Times article cited above,

“In recent years his position has gotten a lot stronger,” Abu Toameh said. “He’s become the leading candidate to replace Abu Mazen,” another name for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 82. “Among Palestinians he is considered the most prominent symbol of the Oslo process, and he’s taken a lot of flak for being the flag bearer of ongoing negotiations and contacts with Israel.”

Saeb Erekat has been saved from an untimely death. Whether the short waiting time for a lung was coincidence, luck, or something else, it's impossible to say. But having earned a second chance at life, Erekat may end up making a return to the political stage, as well.

Hat tip to reader Evan Parke for planting the seed and for research help.

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.

Twitter 'Mentions' Notifications Making Blasphemy Detection Much Easier (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

San Francisco, October 18 - Heavenly enforcers raked with identifying and tracking blasphemy have had a much easier time since social media platforms began alerting users when others mention them in posts, a divine spokesangel stated today.

Speaking to journalists outside the Twitter offices, Archangel Michael told reporters this afternoon that thanks to Twitter and Facebook Notifications features, the detection of online blasphemy, use of God's name in vain, and sundry other rhetorical sins has seen a remarkable jump in efficiency in the last ten years.

"It used to be much more tedious, but at least in the online realm the detection of blasphemy has become more or less instantaneous," explained the archangel. "Twitter's notifications alert Heaven whenever God is invoked, and our enforcement division can immediately review the content of the tweet to determine whether any speech against Him has been committed." Those who retweet or share blasphemous content are similarly identified and investigated, but those who merely "Like" a tweet are considered as having performed no action at all.

Michael lauded Twitter for its quick action on enabling the feature, but withheld full-throated praise from other social media platforms such as Facebook. "We salute Jack Dorsey and his team for facilitating this welcome development," he pronounced. "Other companies in the arena would do well to follow suit, and not force their users to suffer through unreliable alert systems and overlapping or repetitive notifications."

The angel declined to divulge the number of blasphemy incidents detected since Twitter implemented notifications for mentions, but did indicate that fewer of the cases than one might expect would result in capital punishment. "I'm not at liberty to say how often a blasphemer receives judgment, but I can reveal that when most people think they are cursing God they are actually cursing their own misconstrued, flawed version of God, and not God Himself," he observed. "This often constitutes grounds for leniency, and lies behind the apparent discrepancy between the number of people who bad-mouth the Creator and those who get what's coming to them as a result."

Divine opinion has yet to coalesce regarding other Twitter features, such as the experimental new expansion to a 280-character format, but the Heavenly spokesangel hinted at a measure of Godly displeasure. "God created all of physical existence with just a few utterances," he noted. "Since then, divine communication has occurred infrequently, and not always in verbal form. A wise consideration of these facts should lead one to conclude that more words are not always better."

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.

10/18 Links Pt1: Isi Leibler: A fusion of evils; UN Watch: Key Facts on U.N.’s Rogue Culture Agency

From Ian:

Isi Leibler: A fusion of evils

World leaders continue to delude themselves that the Palestinians can be induced to make peace if Israel continues to appease them.

Even more delusional is the near-universal consensus that a merger between Fatah and the more radical Hamas is a step toward achieving an accommodation. Such a fusion of evil entities can have no positive consequences.

This potential merger is a result of Hamas' concerns, in the face of economic meltdown, that unless it stems the ongoing collapse of services, it could suffer domestic insurrection.

Hamas agreed that Gaza's administration would be under the Palestinian Authority's political umbrella. However, though the PA will supervise border crossings, Hamas leaders are adamant that security will remain entirely under their control, and they will not lay down their weapons.

Nor would they agree to cease building terror tunnels under the Israeli border. On the eve of the reconciliation, Hamas promoted some of its most fanatical terrorists to key positions and also reiterated that it would not contemplate any accommodation with Israel.

The fusion of these two terrorist entities is likely to enable Hamas to ultimately assume control of the Palestinian Authority or displace it entirely. The objective is to apply similar tactics to those Hezbollah employed in Lebanon and, while initially allowing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to posture as the national leader, Hamas would take effective control of the West Bank.

UN Watch: Why the U.S. Pulled Out of UNESCO: Key Facts on U.N.’s Rogue Culture Agency

The U.S. decision to pull out of UNESCO followed failed efforts to reform the agency. While UNESCO’s mission to promote education, science and culture is noble, the agency has become hijacked by dictatorships. Following are a few examples.

Anti-Israeli Obsession: Between 2009-2014, UNESCO adopted 46 resolutions against Israel; 1 on Syria; and none on Iran, Sudan, North Korea, or any other country in the world. See here and here. Betraying its mission to protect world heritage and culture, UNESCO repeatedly denies the ancient Jewish heritage and culture of the holy cities Jerusalem and Hebron, which was this year declared a World Heritage site of “Palestine.”

Electing Syria’s Assad to Human Rights Committee: In 2011, UNESCO elected Syria’s Assad regime to its human rights committee. When UN Watch exposed the outrage and launched a protest campaign, the U.S. and UK were embarrassed and tried to remove Syria — but failed to get enough votes to do so.

Glorifying Violence: In 2013, UNESCO enshrined “The Life and Works of Ernesto Che Guevara” in its “Memory of the World Register” —even though Che Guevara led the first firing squads of the Cuban Revolution, and founded Cuba’s “labor camp” system that would later be used to incarcerate gays, dissidents and AIDS victims. President Obama’s representative demanded that UNESCO’s program not “not be used as a tool to glorify or legitimize violence.” His objection was ignored.

Naming Prizes for Dictators: UNESCO created a $3 million prize in 2008 named for and funded by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the brutal and corrupt dictator of Equitorial Guinea. His state radio announced that Obiang “can decide to kill” without anyone calling him to account because he is in “permanent contact” with God, “who gives him this strength.” In addition, UNESCO created an education prize in the name of, and sponsored by, the despot of Bahrain — the “King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize.”

“World Philosophy Day” in Tehran: In a 2010 address, UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova spoke of her efforts over two years to sponsor a “Philosophy Day” in Tehran — despite Iran’s horrific record of repression and censorship after the fraudulent elections of 2009. Absurdly, Bokova said “I hope this will be a major opportunity for free intellectual debates around the topics.” Eventually UNESCO was forced to cancel the event.

Melanie Phillips: The west takes up its usual position

What is it about unconscionable agendas that sends the western head plunging ever deeper into the sand? Please join me here as I discuss with Avi Abelow of Israel Video Network the reaction to President Trump’s speech on the Iran deal, the new pact between Hamas and Fatah and Tony Blair’s latest contribution to the west’s incorrigible myopia.