Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Listening to a living legend – Israeli singer Yehoram Gaon (Forest Rain)

His voice is now a shadow of the spine tingling, hair raising, rich sound his throat once produced. The small man with the huge smile that was standing on stage, in front of me, is a living legend. That is why the audience came. Most were already aware that he can no longer sing like he once could but that didn’t really matter. How often do you have the opportunity to see a legend?

Yehoram Gaon was born in 1939. Next month he will turn 78, older than the re-established State of Israel.

In between songs he told the audience stories from his history, which is also our history, the history of our country. Some were funny, about performances as part of the Yarkon Bridge Trio (where he sang with Arik Einstein and Benny Amdursky). He talked about getting the theater role that changed his life, lead role in the musical Kazablan. Other stories were touching in the heart rending way that only Israeli stories can be.

Ours are not the fantasy stories in a novel or even those of the best thriller, adventure movies. Ours are the original saga, documented in the most popular book ever written and still continuing, to this day.

Yehoram Gaon told of the terror of the Yom Kippur war when Israelis did not know if the young country would survive, or if it would be the final genocide of the Jewish people. He had been called to perform for soldiers stationed in the Sinai desert, almost at the border with Egypt. The soldiers request him to sing Me’al Pisgat Har Hazofim, a song about Jerusalem.

Think about that. So far from home, in such danger, they wanted to hear the ode to Jerusalem that declares:
“Hundreds of generations I dreamed of you, to be granted to see the light of your face, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Shine your face to your sons! From your ruins, I will build you!”

He told us: “I must tell you, I sang quite nicely. I was a little offended when they all ran away.” He thought that they were being attacked or were about to be hit by a missile but the soldiers were running to a command-car that had suddenly arrived at their desert position. It was Rabbi Goren, the Rabbi who was there when the Temple Mount was freed, the Rabbi who insisted the holy Tomb of the Patriarchs remain under Jewish administration. This man, a walking symbol of holiness and connection to the land of Israel, had two bags in his hands, full of small books of Psalms.

Yehoram Gaon’s face twisted in anguish as he recounted how the soldiers grabbed the tiny books, shoving them in to every pocket available, as if wrapping themselves in holiness. As if the Psalms would serve as a barrier, as armor, guarding them from the bullets and the bombs.

Next Yehoram Gaon sang a song about the heroic rescue at Entebbe. The song explains that every Jew is connected to Israel and to Jerusalem, like to a mother through the umbilical cord and each of her sons are connected to each other, for better or worse. That this nation will not allow her children to be left to the “mercy” of strangers.

Finishing the original song, Yehoram Gaon explained that a new stanza had been added to the song in honor of Major Roi Klein who died in Lebanon to save his soldiers. Heroism mixes with heroism, one generation to the next and we pray for the day that heroism is no longer necessary.

Yehoram Gaon ended the show with the audience enthusiastically singing with him.

I found myself thinking about a decorative plate my mother owns. It is ceramic, and rather hideous, but I love it anyway. No matter where we lived, that plate was always there. It is a sign of home. Yehoram Gaon is like that too. His songs were what I heard as a child in Detroit. His voice was my connection to the Israeli experience. Now I was among the audience listening to him, forgiving the weakness in his voice for the beauty he has granted us all for so many years. His stories, his songs are our experiences; the glory and wonder of this nation, the trials and tribulations we have endured.

His songs are Israel. They mean home.

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11/21 Links Pt1: Palestinians freeze all US contacts; Glick: Holding the PLO accountable

From Ian:

Palestinians freeze all US contacts over threat to shutter PLO office in DC

The Palestinians have frozen all contacts with the United States after it decided to close their representative office in Washington, officials said on Tuesday.

“In practice by closing the office they are freezing all meetings and we are making that official,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki told AFP.

A spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization confirmed that it had received instructions from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “regarding closing down all communication lines with the Americans.”

The Palestinian move comes as the Trump administration seeks to broker the long-out-of-reach Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Speaking in the Spanish Parliament today, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians were “committed to a historic peace deal [with Israel] under the auspices of President Trump.”

Caroline Glick: Holding the PLO accountable

Is the PLO’s long vacation from accountability coming to an end? How about the State Department’s? In 1987 the US State Department placed the PLO on its list of foreign terrorist organizations. The PLO was removed from the list in 1994, following the initiation of its peace process with Israel in 1993.

As part of the Clinton administration’s efforts to conclude a long-term peace deal between the PLO and Israel, in 1994 then president Bill Clinton signed an executive order waiving enforcement of laws that barred the PLO and its front groups from operating in the US. His move enabled the PLO to open a mission in Washington.

In 2010, then president Barack Obama upgraded the mission’s status to the level of “Delegation General.” The move was seen as a signal that the Obama administration supported moves by the PLO to initiate recognition of the “State of Palestine” by European governments and international bodies.

Whereas Obama’s PLO upgrade was legally dubious, the PLO’s campaign to get recognized as a state breached both of its agreements with Israel and the terms under which the US recognized it and permitted it to operate missions on US soil.

Palestinians: If You Do Not Give Us Everything, We Cannot Trust You

The Palestinians are once again angry -- this time because the Trump administration does not seem to have endorsed their position regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians are also angry because they believe that the Trump administration does not want to force Israel to comply with all their demands.

Here is how the Palestinians see it: If you are not with us, then you must be against us. If you do not accept all our demands, then you must be our enemy and we cannot trust you to play the role of an "honest" broker in the conflict with Israel.

Last week, unconfirmed reports once again suggested that the Trump administration has been working on a comprehensive plan for peace in the Middle East. The full details of the plan remain unknown at this time.

However, what is certain -- according to the reports -- is that the plan does not meet all of the Palestinians' demands. In fact, no peace plan -- by Americans or any other party -- would be able to provide the Palestinians with everything for which they are asking.

Marc Goldberg has written a great first-hand memoir of what it is like to be an IDF grunt in the territories during the second intifada.

Goldberg, who wrote about some of this in his blog, made aliyah from England and joined the IDF as a "lone soldier." He dreamed to become Chief of Staff.

But things didn't work out how he wanted.

In "Beyond the Green Line," Goldberg gives a great description of how the IDF selects who will go to which unit. For example, the officers aren't looking at recruits who are the strongest or fastest - but the ones who help their fellow soldiers.

Marc is nothing if not honest. He describes his problems learning Hebrew, his disappointment at not making it into the Sayeret Tzanhanim and instead joining Orev, and his experiences at boot camp. Goldberg tries to be the best soldier he can be and he is a wonderful storyteller as he describes the tough training he went through - which is nothing like what you see in movies about the US Army.

After he finally passes and becomes a paratrooper, he is ready to face the enemy. But in 2003, the enemy was not the Syria army - it was the Palestinian terrorists of the second intifada.

The new soldier knows he is doing important work. But it is hardly what he wanted. He has to watch Arab families whose home needs to become lookouts for operations elsewhere in the Arab city. He mans checkpoints, finding Arabs with sheep in their trunk. He confronts British "peacemakers" who try to get under his skin.

But he also picks up suspected suicide bombers. Acting as s lookout, he notices the crucial clue necessary to catch two wanted terrorists.

Goldberg tries on occasion to inject some humanity in this strange situation where the IDF needs to operate among a mostly civilian population. He kicks a soccer ball back and forth with an Arab kid. At one point he even feeds a bunch of kids who would otherwise have been throwing rocks.

And Goldberg is not shy about describing his frustration at going on meaningless missions. In Nablus, his unity tried to enforce a curfew - and everyone ignored them. Rubber bullets were shot - no reaction from the people going about their business. Finally tear gas - and the people avoided the tear gas but remained doing their business.

Goldberg is chosen (probably because he knows English) to babysit Birthright participants. Even more bizarrely, he is then chosen to go to America and be a prop for very rich Jews to raise money or show off their IDF connections. He felt guilty that he was being treated to this luxury while his buddies were slogging through the rain and mud.

The most exciting part of the book is where Goldberg and his team get hit with a booby-trapped bomb. Luckily, the bomb had no shrapnel or ball bearings - it knocked them down but on one was injured.

Goldberg also describes the not-so-nice parts of the IDF. Sometimes, soldiers do things they aren't supposed to; they do take advantage of the Arabs in ways beyond what the mission requires. And he is sick about it.

Finally, Goldberg describes his difficulty at adjusting back to civilian life, in his usual uncensored style. He is as hard on himself as he is on anyone else.

This book is not about heroism or major battles. It is an account of a lone soldier, who must follow commands even when they make no sense, and who is not allowed to fight the way he was trained. Goldberg is unsparing in his descriptions of what this life is like, the frustrations, the abuses but also the successes when a wanted man or woman is apprehended and people's lives are saved. This is the war that Israel is forced to fight, a war that soldiers are not trained for, but as with everything else, the IDF needs to improvise- sometimes imperfectly - to secure the Jewish state.

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Israeli blogger visits Saudi Arabia, causing uproar

An Israeli blogger called Ben Tzion was recently in Saudi Arabia, taking selfies of himself with Saudis.

Here he is in a Riyadh hotel - wearing a keffiyeh featuring a Star of David pattern:

Here he is in the second holiest site of Islam in Medina, the Prophet's Mosque:

At that same mosque he is carrying his tallit (Jewish prayer shawl) and tefillin bag!

This one-man peace mission is, frankly, amazing.

But now that these photos are being published, the Arab media is going a bit nuts. There are several articles about this today, all of which say that his visit "a wave of condemnation and disdain among activists on social networking sites."

They didn't notice the tallit bag, yet.

The comments at the Al Jazeera Facebook page are mostly, but not entirely, negative, with some pointing out that Jews are allowed to visit mosques. (Ben Tzion didn't try to sneak into Mecca, which would be forbidden by Islamic law.)

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UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness was interviewed by Xinhua where he did what he always does: lying, exaggerating and blaming Israel for horrible things the Palestinians do to each other.

The spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) Christopher Gunness warned the precarious situation of both UNRWA and Gaza Strip.
UNRWA, which is considered the world's oldest humanitarian organization, remains on the edge of its financial predicament with the growing humanitarian crisis in the region that are overshadowing the growing dependency of Palestinian refugees on the services of UNRWA.

The Red Cross is 153 years old, more than twice the age of UNWRA. Not sure if this was Xinhua's mistake or if they parroted Gunness.

"The world may not be paying attention to them, but the situation in Gaza has gotten incrementally worse hour by hour, while that attention has drifted to other parts of the world," he said, warning that "you now have 64 percent unemployment," which is a "record."

Yes, world. Stop paying attention to Yemen where literally tens of thousands of children are starving to death (as opposed to Gaza, where the number is zero.) Yemen has five times more people in danger of dying than Gaza has people.

Stop paying attention to Syria, where more Palestinians have been killed than in the Gaza wars - yet where UNRWA's fundraising is far more muted. And, of course, don't even consider any humanitarian crises in sub-Saharan Africa where there are wars and famine. Gaza faces unemployment!

In recent months, it was made public that 95 percent of the water in Gaza is undrinkable and power outages last for long hours every day, which has lead to a series of setbacks in the health, reconstruction and psychological situation of Gazans, among others.
Gunness said despite this dark situation, he sees a ray of hope for Gaza in the Palestinian national unity government that has recently taken over the executive bodies in the coastal enclave, after rival political parties Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo last October, ending a decade of the control of the Islamic Hamas movement on Gaza.

So the PA is the savior of Gaza?

The entire reason that Gaza is having a crisis now, the reason that there is such a shortage of drinking water and sewage treatment, is because the PA has reduced electricity and medicines there - and those restrictions are still in place!

The very people who have created the current crisis in Gaza are the ones that Gunness is praising. He bases his entire fundraising effort on demonizing Israel. He will not say a single bad thing about Hamas or the PA, not about their infighting and not about their support for terror and their prioritizing buying weapons over helping people in Gaza. Of course he won't talk about how UNRWA itself teaches children about how wonderful it is to sacrifice your life by attacking Jews.

Gunness is a thoroughly despicable man in every respect.

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11/20 Links Pt2: JVP Attacks Latina employed by ADL; When Was the "Palestinian People" Created? Google Has the Answer.

From Ian:

I’m A Latina Who Works For The ADL. JVP’s Attack

For months now, the far-left anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has been targeting our exchange program with Israel with a campaign called “Deadly Exchange”. Now, ADL is a 104-year-old organization, and becoming targets of both fair criticism and inaccurate attacks from the right and the left of the political spectrum comes with the territory for an established institution like ours. But in my time at ADL, I’ve been especially surprised at JVP’s ignorance, dangerous dogmatism and blind efforts at intersectional cause-making.

In their campaign against our program — a program that is designed to save lives — JVP makes the case that American Jewish institutions are responsible for rising levels of police brutality and racism against minorities here in the United States, thanks to their support for these types of exchanges between American and Israeli law enforcement agencies.

In other words, JVP believes Jewish institutions control how the police racially profile people of color in the United States.

I was shocked by this attack. It hewed so closely to anti-Semitic canards about the Jews secretly controlling the levers of power. How could a Jewish organization make such a hateful claim?

This radical — and willful — misunderstanding of our program was compounded last week when JVP came to protest ADL at our New York headquarters.

As the head of communications for the organization, I went to greet them and to receive their petition. But I was only seconds into my conversation with a JVP spokesperson before she demanded to know: Why didn’t ADL send anyone to hear their stories?

“I’m right here,” I said, confused.

Then she asked me point blank how a woman of color could work for ADL. Hadn’t I personally experienced racial profiling?

Yes, she actually asked me that.

Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/national/387789/im-a-latina-who-works-for-the-adl-jvps-attacks-shocked-me/

When Was the "Palestinian People" Created? Google Has the Answer.

All people born in British Mandatory Palestine between 1923-1948 (today's Israel) had "Palestine" stamped on their passports at the time. But when they were called Palestinians, the Arabs were offended. They complained: "We are not Palestinians, we are Arabs. The Palestinians are the Jews".

After invading Arab armies were routed and the Arabs who had fled the war wanted to return, they were considered a fifth column and not invited back. The Arabs who had loyally remained in Israel during the war, however, and their descendants, are still there and make up one fifth of the population. They are known as Israeli Arabs; they have the same rights as Christians and Jews, except they are not required to serve in the army unless they wish to.

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese." – PLO leader Zuheir Mohsen, interview in the Dutch newspaper Trouw, March 1977.

#BDSfail

Israel's economic data came out. Guess what? The campaign to destroy Israel through economic boycotts is not only unfair, misleading and wrong, but it's also a failure. Again.

Signed agreements between Israel and the PLO state:

Both sides shall respect and protect religious rights of Jews, Christians, Moslems and Samaritans to wit:
Protecting the holy sites.
Allowing free access to the holy sites.
Allowing freedom of worship and practice.

So this story from AFP is interesting:

Hundreds of Israeli Jews held a rare prayers session by a mosque in a Palestinian village on the occupied West Bank early Sunday, an AFP photographer said.

The Israeli army accompanied busses carrying over 300 ultra-Orthodox men, mostly from the Breslov Hassidic sect, to Younis mosque in Halhul, north of Hebron, where according to Jewish tradition biblical prophets Gad and Nathan are buried.

One worshipper told AFP it was the first time in 18 years that Jews were allowed to pray at the site, deep in a Palestinian-controlled area.

A military spokeswoman said the army and police forces accompanying the worshippers were attacked by Palestinians hurling "rocks and firebombs", with the forces responding with riot dispersal means to "prevent further escalation".

18 years? And when the Jews finally go - Jews who are hardly Zionist - they get attacked with a barrage of rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Could anyone trust Palestinian security to protect Jews wanting to worship in their holy places? Ever?

This is what "access to holy places" is like under Arab rule.

According to tradition, the graves are located inside the mosque, but the Jewish worshippers did not enter the holy site, rather held an hour of pre-dawn prayers on the road outside before leaving, the photographer said.

Naturally, if there is a Jewish holy site, a mosque must be built on top of it. So Jews can't enter.

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Linda Sarsour’s white knights: Max Blumenthal, David Duke & Richard Spencer

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

It’s terrible. Every morning Linda Sarsour wakes up – and because she has apparently set Google alerts for her name, she wakes up to “a new headline, a new google alert.” She finds it “exhausting,” “so damn exhausting.” Maybe cancel the Google alerts? Or maybe grow up and accept that newspapers have op-eds and that not every op-ed writer falls for your hypocrisy and bigotry???

But here’s the good news, dear Linda Sarsour: in the past few days, three sort of well-known guys came to your defense. Among those heroes was your fellow-Israel-hater – and award-winning antisemite – Max Blumenthal, who happily joined so many of your wonderful fans in denigrating the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt, who had the temerity to doubt your absolutely FABULOUS credentials as an antisemitism expert. After all, the expertise you get from learning by doing is unbeatable, isn’t it…

And of course you love it when your fans strike back and tell Greenblatt that compared to you, he and his organization are just utterly clueless about antisemitism. I mean, the ADL has been fighting antisemitism, racism and bigotry for a century, but really, that means absolutely nothing, nothing at all if they can’t see that there’s no antisemitism expert as brilliant as you are, right?

Indeed, we should all remember that you never really liked the ADL. For example, you had a big problem with the ADL’s campaign against Hamas back in the summer of 2014; indeed, you condemned the ADL for “inciting hate here in the US” with this campaign. Absolutely right – why oh why should anyone hate Hamas???

And naturally, dear Linda Sarsour, you were appalled [archived version doesn’t have link] when the ADL’s Abraham Foxman condemned the kidnapping and murder of three teenaged Israeli students by Hamas terrorists: “The ADL should be the PDL (Pro Defamation League) - defaming Palestinians. Shame. Shame.”

Well, dear Linda Sarsour, there’s no doubt that Hamas fan Max Blumenthal fully agrees with you on all these issues.

But let’s have a quick look at the other two heroes who came to your defense. Admittedly, David Duke was a bit lukewarm, comparing you to a broken clock that is right twice a day…

But hey, I think David Duke and you could find a lot of common ground when it comes to the ADL – he would surely LOVE your witticism about the “Pro Defamation League” given that the ADL has described him as “perhaps America’s most well-known racist and anti-Semite”…

And let’s not forget that alt-rightist Richard Spencer also came to your defense – indeed, given your complaints about how exhausting you find it to get criticism, you’ll surely appreciate his thoughts about why you are so terribly unfairly criticized.

Mea culpa, mea culpa is all I can say: I’m afraid I was the first one to highlight this tweet of yours, along with a whole lot of similar ones…

But in any case, there can be little doubt that also Richard Spencer would just LOVE your “Pro Defamation League” quip – can you imagine that the evil ADL has accused him of trying “to mainstream racism and anti-Semitism”???

You see, the ADL isn’t just defaming Palestinians – they’re also defaming the likes of David Duke and Richard Spencer, and of course, worst of all, they’re defaming you, dear Linda Sarsour!!! But isn’t it a consolation that you are in such great company???

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11/20 Links Pt1: More Kerry lies: "Israel Doesn't Want Peace"; Arab League condemn Hezbollah as 'terrorist organization'

From Ian:

PMW: Muhammad ordered kids to throw rocks at Jews, according to PA-funded PLO magazine for children

A poem in the Palestinian youth magazine Zayzafuna teaches children that throwing rocks at Jews is something mandated by Muhammad, Islam's prophet. The funders of the magazine include the Palestinian Authority.

The following lines were part of the poem printed in the magazine's October issue together with the image above of a kid throwing rocks:
"O children of my country, sing to the occupied homeland so it will be liberated...
Sing by the order of Prophet [Muhammad] that we carry a rock that we will throw at the people of the Gharqad [tree]" [Zayzafuna, October 2017]

That Jews are the intended target is clear from the reference to the Gharqad tree - "the tree of the Jews." According to Muslim tradition Jews will try to hide behind the Gharqad tree when the Muslims come to kill them on Judgment Day.

The story of a stone or tree beckoning a Muslim to kill a Jew appears in numerous Islamic texts. One example is the following Hadith from the Sahih Muslim book of Hadith:
"The last Hour will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them until the Jews hide behind a stone or a tree, and the stone or a tree will say: 'Muslim, or servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him'; but the Gharqad tree will not say [this], for it is the tree of the Jews."

Palestinian Media Watch has documented problematic content in the magazine before. One story, allegedly a dream by a young Palestinian girl, glorified Hitler and presented his killing of Jews as a positive accomplishment for the benefit of humanity. Another issue of Zayzafuna published sayings that it attributed to Hitler.

John Kerry Issues Another Huge Lie: Israel Doesn't Want Peace

The former Secretary of State for Barack Obama, John Kerry, who has been infamously lying since his formative years as a politician, beginning with his lies about Vietnam, decided to trumpet one of his biggest whoppers: that Israel doesn’t want peace with the Palestinians.

Recorded last year in Dubai, Kerry lauded the Palestinians, gushing, “The Palestinians have done an extraordinary job of remaining committed to nonviolence. When the intifada took place [in 2015] they delivered non-violence in the West Bank.” He added, “This is overlooked by the general [Israeli] populations because it is not a topic of discussion. Why? Because the majority of the cabinet currently in the Israeli government has publicly declared they are not ever for a Palestinian state.”

Kerry continued, “If you see 40,000 kids marching up to the wall every day with signs saying, ‘Give us our rights,’ I mean I don’t think Palestine is going to be immune forever to the civil rights movements that have swept other nations in the world and somehow Israel’s ignoring this. That’s not leadership. … If you don’t have leaders who don’t want to make peace, if the equation doesn’t change, I’ll be amazed if within the next 10 years if we don’t see some young [Palestinian] leader come along who says, ‘We have tried non-violence for the last 30 years and look, it hasn’t gotten us anything.’”

The recordings were published earlier this week by Channel 10, an Israeli TV news station.

Kerry has hated Israel for years; in 2014, speaking to the Trilateral Commission a few days after PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas signed a unity deal with the murderous Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups, Kerry said that if Israel didn’t make a deal with the Palestinians, it would either cease to be a Jewish state or become “an apartheid state.” That ignored the facts on the ground showing the burgeoning Jewish birth rate obviated that possibility as well as the fact that if any areas should be labeled apartheid, they would be the Palestinian areas, which are Judenrein.

If the Palestinian National Movement Is to Succeed, “Armed Struggle” Must Go

“Without ‘armed struggle,’” wrote two Palestinian journalists in an essay published in the New Yorker last summer, the Palestinian “national movement had no clear ideology.” Robert Nicholson responds to this observation, taking as an example the case of three men named Jabareen who killed two Israeli policemen in July and were then shot and killed by police:
How could the Jabareens have possibly thought killing Israeli police officers would advance their cause? Didn’t they realize these senseless murders would make Israelis even more vigilant? Didn’t they understand that Palestinian violence has never worked since the time of the British Mandate? Apparently not. But the Jabareens aren’t alone. . . . Palestinian culture gives mythical power to the word shahid (“martyr”), making it impossible to contemplate gritty compromises like the 1947 partition plan and other peace deals. Far better to die in purity.

If martyrdom is the greatest Palestinian virtue, tatbi’a, or normalization, is the greatest Palestinian sin. A normalizer is a Palestinian who accepts Israel, cooperates with Israel, or suggests that Palestinians should get used to a Jewish state living next door. . . . This basic inability to cope with the fact of Israel is a major obstacle that needs to be overcome. . . .

The starkest difference between Israeli and Palestinian political culture is self-criticism. Israelis never stop criticizing each other and their policies; Palestinians almost never do, at least in public. . . .

The current position of the Palestinian Authority is that the future state of Palestine will be free of Jews—Judenrein, as [the Nazis] used to say. This is a position that Christians like me cannot endorse. Jews are an ancient people who belong there as much as [Arabs] do. . . . The real Palestinian martyr will be the one who stands up and delivers this bold message to his people, even if he is killed immediately afterward.

From the New York Post:

A children’s book titled “P is for Palestine” is infuriating some New York Jewish mothers — who charge that it’s nothing but anti-Semitic propaganda disguised as a kids’ alphabet book.

“Omg. Crazy. I’m livid at this,’’ one woman wrote on Facebook. “I can’t believe it’s real and in NYC!”

Another post reads, “You have gall advertising your incredibly politically insensitive book on this site.

“You must have known you would be igniting a political firestorm by posting that in the hopes of drumming up sales for your ridiculous book . . .It’s disgraceful.’’

And still another Facebook user wrote, “A children’s book on Palestine that doesn’t recognized the state of Israel . . . is very sad.’’

But the author, Golbarg Bashi, a Pace history professor and former Rutgers Iranian-studies instructor, told an audience at a bookstore reading Saturday, that she “came up with the idea for this book after I couldn’t find a book about Palestine for children.’’

The book says, "I is for Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up/for what is right, if you are a kid or grownup!"

Yes, killing Jews in buses and pizza shops is "rising up for what is right."

Nothing offensive there.

But there have been other children's books about Palestine and Palestinian Arabs. For example, this second-grade lesson from The Children's Friend, Volume 2, 1903:

There are passenger as well as freight caravans; that is, persons traveling often go in bands. This is on account of the fear of robbers along the way. When we missionaries used to go about, the Turkish government always furnished us a soldier for protection. The government treats all foreigners thus. But as the natives have no such care, they go in groups for self-protection.
The robbers there are not so select in their choice as are our kind, ours want only money or jewelry, but those in Palestine take everything they can get, even stripping their victim of his clothes.

Or this 1920 book about the natives of Palestine:

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This article in Egyptian Streets is sort of mind-blowing:

Contrary to widespread belief, in 1917, and for over a decade after that, the Balfour Declaration was not seen by most Egyptian intellectuals as a sentence detrimental to the Palestinians. Interestingly enough, some Egyptian Muslim & Christian families held parties to celebrate the declaration. Telegrams of gratitude were sent to Lord Balfour such as the then-Governor of Alexandria Ahmad Ziour Pasha, a Muslim.

“The Governor of Alexandria Ahmad Ziour Pasha – later Prime Minister of Egypt – went to a party in the city celebrating the Balfour Declaration, that culminated in their sending a telegram to Lord Balfour to thank him,” according to Leila Ahmed in “A Border Passage”.

A delegation of leading Muslims and Christians traveled to congratulate the Jews of Palestine. Many Egyptian Zionist leaders were also Egyptian nationalists and fully committed to the cause of independence from Britain.

Egyptians support of the Balfour Declaration lasted beyond 1917. The Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar officially hosted Chaim Weizmann in 1918, co-author of the draft of the declaration submitted to Lord Balfour, when he visited Egypt on his way to Palestine. The Grand Sheikh have allegedly made a donation of 100 EGP to the Zionist cause. Weizmann’s cultivation of regional support for the Zionist movement extended to his efforts with the rulers of Hijaz where he executed an accord with Emir Faisal endorsing the Declaration.

The Hebrew University was one of the early dreams of the Zionist movement, in 1918 construction commenced. Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, the renowned Egyptian nationalist, political leader and first director of Cairo University joined the celebration for the grand opening of the Hebrew University in 1952. [sic - 1925]

Also, in 1944, Taha Hussien, one of Egypt’s most influential literary figures also visited the Hebrew University.

As the Jewish migration to Palestine continued, tensions between the Palestinians and the migrant population also increased. The hardline Zionists, referred to as Revisionist Zionists, a political movement which emerged from the struggle for the Jewish homeland, and early Islamists such as Mufti Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, played a large part in whipping up mutual resentment, fear and anger.

These tensions culminated in the 1929 Palestine Riots in late August with the massacres of Jews in Hebron, Safad among others.

The reaction in Egypt remained decidedly pro Zionism well into the first half of the 1930’s, the Government reportedly banned the word ‘Palestine’ from Friday prayers, according to the Leila Ahmed.

The Wafed Government shutdown the sole Palestinian publication with the charge of being pro Palestinian propaganda. Zionist newspapers and magazines continued to operate freely well into the late 1940’s, according to Awatef Abdel Rahman.

The article goes on to claim that while refugee ships from Europe during the Holocaust were routinely turned back by Western nations, Egypt welcomed them. I have no idea if this is true.

....Yad Vashem, other memorials and Holocaust history in general, offers no special recognition of the role that Egypt and Egyptians played in saving the lives of Jews. A disgusting byproduct of the recent rise of anti-Semitism in Egypt with the wide circulation of books by Holocaust deniers states that few Egyptians are even aware of this important history that Egypt and all Egyptians should be proud of.

This seems incredible. If true, this should all be publicized.

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Palestinian terror groups choose Iran over fellow Sunnis

From CNN:

Saudi Arabia ramped up its campaign against Iran's growing influence in the Arab World Sunday by persuading most of the 22 member states of the Arab League to condemn Iran's Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, as a "terrorist organization."

Palestinian terror groups all decided to attack the Arab League, and support Iran's proxy Hezbollah.

The " Coalition of Palestinian Resistance Forces" condemned the decision, saying that this is a service to Israel and the United States and to satisfy Saudi Arabia. it said the decision was "dangerous", saying that "Hezbollah represents the most important forces of resistance against Israel and terrorism."

Islamic Jihad and the PFLP explicitly denounced the Arab League as part of this "coalition." When this alliance was founded in 1993 in Damascus, it included 10 terror groups including Hamas, the DFLP, PFLP-GC, as-Saiqa, Fatah al-Intifada, the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF, Abu Nidal Ashqar faction), the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF, Khalid ‘Abd al-Majid faction) and the Palestinian Revolutionary Communist Party (PRCP). It is unclear who them members are today, and indeed it looks like the organization exists only on paper.

As of this writing, I have not seen official Hamas or Fatah reaction to the news. Their media have largely ignored the news because they know it puts them between a rock and a hard place. They know that whoever's side they choose means losing financial support from the other.

Everything is about financial support.

But it seems clear that given a choice, Palestinian terror groups are more ideologically aligned with Iran over the Sunni coalition. Unlike the shift of attitudes towards Israel in the Gulf, the Palestinians instinctively choose whomever.is more anti-Israel.

Which is a very basic reason why there is no peace today, and why the Gulf countries have been increasingly impatient with the Palestinian cause.

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Encyclopedia Judaica (2007) is downloadable

The 2007 edition of Encyclopedia Judaica is downloadable as a 277 MB PDF file from archive.org.

It isn't often you can get a $2200 work for free.

Encyclopedia Judaica is an astonishing feat of scholarship.

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From the Hamas Al Qassam Brigades website:

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas commends one of its heroic Mujahideen of Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, who died after a fatal illness.
The Qassam Brigades said in a statement that Mujahid al-Qasami, Rami Fuad al-Louh, 32, from the Suhaib al-Roumi mosque in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, died on Sunday 19/11/2017.
They stated: "To go to his Lord after a blessed life full of sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice and sacrifice for the sake of Allah, we will count him as the righteous and pure martyrs.
We ask Allah to accept him as a martyr, to paradise...

Didn't it used to mean something to be a martyr? Kill a few Jews, or something?

Now, you can be a martyr from a tunnel collapse, a traffic accident and a heart attack from eating too many Hamasburgers.

Do you think Allah is concerned about martyr inflation?

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11/19 Links: Nick Cave: BDS Movement is Responsible for My Coming to Israel; Iran’s Immoderate ‘Moderate’

From Ian:

IsraellyCool: Nick Cave: “In Certain Way, BDS Movement is Responsible for My Coming to Israel”

We are seeing more and more artists come to Israel and speak out strongly against BDS. But I have to admit – Nick Cave’s rejection of BDS is particularly satisfying, and not just because he’s a fellow Aussie.

He has actually thanked BDS for making him more determined to come perform herel!

Nick Cave decided to perform in Israel this week as a direct result of the attempt by the BDS movement to silence artists, the performer said on Sunday.

“In a certain way, the BDS movement is responsible for my coming to Israel,” Cave said at a press conference Sunday in Tel Aviv ahead of his two sold-out shows Sunday and Monday nights at the Menorah Mivtachim Arena.

The acclaimed Australian singer/songwriter said that a few years ago, British musician Brian Eno approached him about signing a pro-Palestinian petition that called for boycotting performances in Israel.

“I didn’t want to sign that petition. I didn’t connect to it, I don’t like lists,” said Cave, adding that he’s had a bad feeling, because despite not signing the petition, he hadn’t appeared in Israel for some 20 years.

“That made me feel like a coward, so as soon as I planned this tour, it was important for me to come out against this silencing of artists.

I like Israel and Israelis and it was important for me to do something.” Cave’s current tour in support of his latest album Skeleton Tree, the first since the accidental death of his 15-year-old son, has been meet with superlatives around the world.

That Nick Cave, he’s no bad seed.

Needless to say, Roger is going to be pissed!

JPost Editorial: Bigotry’s leader: Linda Sarsour to speak at antisemitism discussion

The New School, a Manhattan-based university, has aroused controversy over its choice of speakers to appear on a panel discussion about antisemitism given by a group that self-identifies as anti-Zionist and features BDS poster girl Linda Sarsour.

The event, titled “Antisemitism and the Struggle for Justice,” is scheduled for the end of this month and is sponsored in cooperation with the Jewish Voice for Peace and Jacobin Magazine, both of which promote the misguided causes of the alt-Left, one of which is its pretense that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.

Sarsour is a well-known Muslim and Palestinian activist who supports a Palestinian state but denies Jews the right to national self-determination. Moreover, she has appeared alongside a convicted Palestinian terrorist murderer whom she has lauded for her “resistance” to the Zionist occupation.

Sarsour told an audience recently that she was “honored to be on this stage with Rasmea Odeh,” a member of the PFLP convicted in 1969 for her involvement in the bombing of a Jerusalem supermarket that murdered two university students and maimed nine more.

Jonathan Greenblatt, national director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, slammed the New School for agreeing to host Sarsour. “Having Linda Sarsour & head of JVP leading a panel on #antisemitism is like Oscar Meyer leading a panel on vegetarianism,” he wrote on Twitter. “These panelists know the issue, but unfortunately, from the perspective of fomenting it rather than fighting it.”

'A Palestinian state is a deathtrap for Israel'

The Sovereignty Movement founded by Women in Green is publishing a protest following the publication of the alleged principles of the Trump outline for a political settlement between Israel and the PA.

"Anyone who has forgotten: A Palestinian state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River endangers the State of Israel. We are shocked by the weak memory that characterizes the planners of the deathtrap of the State of Israel."

"For all those who have forgotten the fundamental principles of Zionism, we will recall that the Land of Israel is our land, and the only way to lead to true peace is to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria," say the leaders of the Sovereignty movement.

“An Israeli concession to the Zionist-historical principle that this land belongs to the people of Israel alone, will lead to further concessions as has been proven in the past. Israel is once again asked to continue to pay in the currency of territory for insignificant signatures of the Arab side on pieces of paper" says the Sovereignty movement "and reminds “ that there is no country in the world that desires to live that gives up its achievements in a war that was forced on it."

"Israel will not be able to exist in a reality where an Arab terror state is established in its heart, a state that will lead to the Hamas takeover of the territory, the massive emigration of millions of Arab refugees to that country that will arise out of nowhere with the end result that the Jewish demographic majority is lost between the sea and the Jordan. In addition such a state would be a security threat to the entrance to Israel, to the Ben-Gurion Airport that will be shut down, Arab missiles will be launched towards the center of Israel and and Iron Domes will become an integral part of the entire of the landscape.