Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

02/14 Link P2: Mr. Ellison Goes to Dinner; Qatar-Backed Spy Operation on U.S. Jews Puts Al Jazeera in Congressional Crosshairs; Europe, stop giving lessons to Israel

From Ian:

Sohrab Amari: Mr. Ellison Goes to Dinner

The episode raises serious questions about Ellison’s judgment and his real ideological convictions.

Ellison has spent much of his political career running away from Farrakhan. His ties to the group almost derailed his first congressional run, in 2006. After it emerged that he had worked with the Nation of Islam for at least 18 months in the 1990s, Ellison wrote a letter to the Jewish community distancing himself from Farrakhan and denouncing his “anti-Semitic statements and actions.” Ellison reiterated his opposition to the group’s “anti-Semitism” and “homophobia” in 2016 when he contested the DNC leadership.

But revulsion at his former associates in the Nation of Islam didn’t stop Ellison from breaking bread with Farrakhan in 2013–bread that was provided by the Tehran regime. So which is the real Ellison: The one who drafts earnest letters of apology to Jewish groups? Or the one who, as recently as 2013, saw it fit to dine with Farrakhan under Iranian auspices?

The Ellison-Farrakhan-Rouhani shindig is also a reminder that progressive Democrats had no compunction about hobnobbing with representatives of an anti-American terror state–until recently, that is. Today, Ellison is among the party’s loudest tub-thumpers regarding claims of Trump-Russian “collusion.” Yet he met privately with the Iranian president two years after the Obama administration’s Justice Department uncovered a plot by the Tehran regime to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil.

Ellison does not appear to have done anything illegal in meeting with Rouhani. Nor does this revelation neutralize or invalidate concerns about Russian interference in the 2016 election. But Republicans and conservatives can be forgiven for wondering if the Democrats’ newfound and highly selective hawkishness is a genuine effort to reckon with national-security realities or a ploy in a political game.

Qatar-Backed Spy Operation on U.S. Jews Puts Al Jazeera in Congressional Crosshairs

A months-long spy operation funded by Qatar's Al Jazeera news network targeting American Jews and pro-Israel groups is fueling a new congressional effort to force the Middle Eastern news outlet to register as a foreign agent under U.S. laws, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

Al Jazeera, the Qatari government's state-sponsored news organization, recently conducted a months-long spy operation on a slew of American pro-Israel officials and organizations as part of what Al Jazeera says is an upcoming documentary on supposed Jewish influence in the U.S. government.

The spy effort has prompted Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.) to begin circulating a letter to his colleagues urging support for an effort to force Al Jazeera to register as a state-backed foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, multiple sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon.

The effort is being fueled by Al Jazeera's effort to secretly record American Jews and Israel supporters, according to sources who familiar with the letter.

As part of the upcoming documentary, a mole paid for by Al Jazeera infiltrated these organizations and recorded pro-Israel advocates discussing efforts to combat anti-Semitism and boycotts of Israel.

Ahead of Al Jazeera running this production, it has sent several letters to subjects who were secretly recorded asking them to respond to a range of allegations that the Qatari outlet claims confirm that American Jews are working to influence the American government and block global efforts to boycott Israel, known as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS.

27 years since the Gulf War - why didn't Israel respond?

The release recently by the IDF and Defense Ministry archives of interviews with me and the late Lt.-Gen. Dan Shomron, who was defense minister and chief of staff at the time of the Gulf War, has rekindled the debate about whether Israel should have responded to the Iraqi missile attacks during the Gulf War. Thirty-nine Scud missiles were launched from western Iraq against Israeli targets during the five-and-a-half weeks of the war. Only six landed in populated areas, causing considerable property damage and the loss of a single life.

Throughout the war US president George H. W. Bush did his utmost to keep Israel from responding. US deputy secretary of state Larry Eagleburger and undersecretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz arrived in Israel four days before the aerial bombing of Iraq began, on a mission to convince us not to launch a preemptive attack and to stay out of the war. They assured us that the US armed forces would within days eliminate the danger of Scud attacks against Israel, while Israeli participation might well lead to a break-up of the coalition and ensuing difficulties. Should the US not be successful in eliminating the Scud threat to Israel, they said, the US would acquiesce to an Israeli response.

As it turned out, all American attempts to hit the Scud launchers failed, and throughout the war Scuds kept falling on Israel. Raytheon Patriot anti-aircraft missiles sent to Israel by the US, despite a number of attempts, failed to intercept a single Scud. Nevertheless, Bush in almost daily calls to prime minister Yitzhak Shamir urged him to keep Israel out of the war despite Iraqi “provocations.”

Israeli participation could lead to a break-up of the coalition, he insisted.

New Media Editor Sarah Tuttle-Singer, of the Times of Israel introduced her newest blog, Why I want the security guy at the train station to search me, on the Times of Israel bloggers’ Facebook page with these words, “There are two things I care about when it comes to Israel: Security and equality. And this is why I say with no hesitation: Search Muhammed. And search me. Search everyone.”

The fallacy of these words hit me with immediate clarity. I knew what her blog said without reading it. She was going to say that everyone has to be checked by security guards, both Jew and Arab, in order to protect democracy—that equality means checking everyone, irrespective of whether or not they might be guilty.

But that isn’t equality. Equality is about holding everyone to the same societal standards. If Moshe is a bad boy, he goes to jail. If Mohammed is a bad boy he goes to jail. Because everyone is supposed to be good and obey the law. And when they don’t, there are repercussions.

Because that is how the security apparatus protects our liberties. They have intel. They use it to protect everyone. The intel is what it is. It’s what Moshe or Mohammed make it. And should Moshe’s or Mohammed’s relatives tend to be rowdy, they then become “the usual suspects” and anyone who looks, sounds, or acts like them is identified and scrutinized.

That’s how we protect equality. By making sure that everyone has the right to safety and security. And by setting standards of appropriate behavior. And making sure there are consequences to bad behavior.

And if Moshe or Mohammed don’t want their families scrutinized, they need to behave. Period.

But let’s say one relative doesn’t go along with the rowdy bunch. He’s a good guy. Is it fair that he be profiled, scrutinized, his liberties temporarily curtailed?

Absolutely. Because these standards protect him, too. Which is why, by no stretch of the imagination can it be called collective punishment to more carefully scrutinize Arabs going through Israeli security points. Because 99% of terror attacks in Israel are carried out by Arabs.

Enforcing the law and being tough on criminals or those at risk of becoming criminals, is how we protect our civil liberties and our security. For everyone. Equally. If a terrorist blows up a train, Arabs get hurt, too. The entire point of security is to prevent everyone from getting hurt, both Arab and Jew.

That is real equality, while checking everyone would be a mere performance, a show of equality, not the real thing.

I monitored the comments on the TOI bloggers’ Facebook page. No one was saying what I was thinking. The next day I read the blog, and the comments below. No one had written what I was thinking (as of this writing). So I ventured to say it myself, on the Facebook TOI bloggers’ page:

Equality, yes. Hold peoples to the same standards. Jews are, by and large, not carrying out terror attacks against people in malls and train stations. You can tell by looking at them if they are the rare exception. Which is how the intelligence community managed to infiltrate the youth group of Rabin's assassin (and incite the killer to murder): they knew this was a rare extremist group because of the way they looked, spoke, acted [Tuttle-Singer had referenced Yigal Amir in an earlier comment on the thread, “The only person to assassinate an Israeli PM was a Jewish Israeli.”]

So why should manpower and money be wasted to check every single Jew, when the Jews are by and large, a peaceful people? Equality under the law means holding people to the same standard. A people with a large proportion of terrorists must unfortunately be scrutinized with care, also for the sake of those among them who are innocent and might be harmed by the actions of those among them who are violent.

I too, always thank security guards for checking me, as I know this is for my own safety. But I am also grateful when they use their common sense, look me over, know I'm a granny with arthritis, without a violent bone in my body, and wave me through without further ado.

I am tempted to blog about this, so I hope you will answer me, Sarah Tuttle-Singer. It is not equality to check every single person, when you know which people are the ones [who] may or may not endanger society. Equality is holding peoples to the same standards.

Jews, in general, don't deserve to be treated with suspicion. Certainly not Feige Rochel, for example, whose sector has never perpetrated a terror attack at a bus station, AFAIK. That would just be holding up people to make a show of equality, when the real equality is to hold her sector to the same standard: are Haredim perpetrating terror attacks?

Equality doesn't mean an inconvenient show. It means societal standards of behavioral norms.

Sarah did, in fact, respond to me, as follows:

Varda, for the sake of our Jewish and democratic state we should demand equality. It's essential or we wither.

I'm willing to be inconvenienced and we can and should find budget for more guards if necessary. The prime minister's ice cream budget ought to cover some of the costs.

Search everyone.

Feige Rochel and Varda Epstein and Sarah Tuttle singer and Igal Amir and

Yosef Chaim Ben David and ruvi rivkin and that random barista and Omar al-abed and

Muhammad salim and george dabit and the woman who works in the clothing store on Hebron road and EVERYONE should be subject to same rules

And treatment.

And the guilty should go to jail.

As I didn’t feel this answered my question, I tried narrowing things down further, as follows:

There's an issue with this idea: it means focusing on everyone, which dilutes/diverts the focus away from probable troublemakers.

It harms everyone by making the security apparatus LESS effective.

It's not about the inconvenience or money. It's about the fact that this is not real equality, but a show of equality. The real equality is holding people to the same standard, which deters actual terrorists.

I really hoped that Sarah would see my point and speak to it. But she didn’t deign to respond. She’d doubled down, reiterated her talking points, and closed shop.

Which is a pity. Because I want security and equality every bit as much as she. I want both Moshe and Mohammed to be safe. I want the terror and the fear to end.

And that requires true equality, equality under the law, and not some silly superficial spectacle masquerading as the same.

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J Street Warns Continued Existence Of Israel Will Cause Antisemitism (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Washington, February 14 - The director of a lobbying group that bills itself as "pro-Israel, pro-peace" urged the Jewish State to consider dissolving itself to prevent outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence and rhetoric that are obviously sparked by Jewish sovereignty in the ancient Jewish homeland.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, Executive Director of J Street, told reporters and supporters of the organization today that Israel's ongoing existence invites antisemitism,a phenomenon he described as "marginal" before Israeli statehood in 1948.

"Israel continuing to pursue policies, such as existing, that antagonize antisemites is just asking for trouble," asserted Ben-Ami, whose clout in Washington has diminished significantly since the election of President Trump and of a Republican majority in both houses of Congress. "If there's anything we Jews should have learned in our extended exile, it's that keeping our heads down is a proven strategy for survival, at least some of the time."

"Consider the origins of antisemitism," he continued. "It wasn't such a widespread phenomenon until ancient Jews decided to assert their sovereignty against Rome. I don't have to tell you what happened as a result: the destruction of the Holy Temple, thousands of years of displacement, Christian persecution, and maybe even Muslim persecution, but we're not going to discuss that at length because the Muslim don't like when we suggest they have been anything but tolerant hosts, and they can get violent. Please don't hurt me. I'm one of the good Jews who appreciates dhimmi status. Look, I even brought my fig leaf!"

Analysts consider the right-wing Israeli government's likelihood of adopting Mr. Ben-Ami's proposal low. "Netanyahu has never been one to do the wise thing and just lay low until antisemitic rages blow over," observed political commentator Rashid Khalidi. "He represents a radical fringe of Jews who have the temerity to suggest that Jews are a nation deserving of sovereignty and control of their own security. As you can see, that sentiment is hardly shared by the vast majority of people in the world, let alone in the immediate regional neighborhood where Jews have asserted themselves in such a rude and disrespectful manner."

"It's only a matter of time till someone decides they've had enough of this Zionist uppitiness," he added. "You wait and see, I guarantee some upset Muslim will do something rash and uncontrollable, and it will all be Netanyahu's fault. Mark my words. You can't just upend 1400 years of Islamic tradition with such notions."

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02/14 Link P1: Saeb Erekat Looks for Excuses Not to Negotiate with Israel; PM rejects police bribery report as 'biased, full of holes'; Gaza Needs to Look in the Mirror for Its Problems

From Ian:

Saeb Erekat Looks for Excuses Not to Negotiate with Israel

In an op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times, the longtime PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat declared the U.S. ineligible to broker talks between Israel and the Palestinians given, among other sins, its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Noting Erekat’s two-decade history of prevarication—including his absurd and libelous claims of a “massacre” in Jenin in 2002—Elliott Abrams explains why Erekat cannot be taken seriously. The column, writes Abrams, is in fact about something else entirely:

Erekat returns in the Times to the usual, and sad, Palestinian victimhood trope, criticizing President Trump for failing to recognize “the painful compromises the Palestinians have made for peace, including recognizing Israel and trying to build a state on just 22 percent of the land in the historic Palestine of 1948.” It is striking to call those “compromises”: the first requires Palestinians to do no more than recognize reality, and the second to make their best efforts on behalf of their people. Trying to build a state that can live in peace and engage in economic and social development would not normally be called a huge sacrifice.

Erekat’s message in the Times is that peace efforts must now be multinational, with the United States joined as equal partners by the European Union, Russia, India, Japan, South Africa, and China. PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will soon address the UN Security Council on this point. Good luck with that. There is zero chance that such a group could be formed or could possibly do anything to promote a peace agreement. This is not a serious proposal for moving toward peace but a fantasy designed to forestall any real pressure on the PLO for compromises it does not wish to make. . . .

Erekat concludes by writing that “we are planning to move toward national elections in which all Palestinians, including our diaspora, can take part, with the goals of better representation, more support for our refugees, and strengthening our people’s steadfastness under occupation.” But Abbas has refused to hold elections in the area he controls, the West Bank, since 2006, despite repeated promises to do so. Note that his “national elections” will include the diaspora. This suggests that the “national elections” will not be Palestinian Authority presidential and parliamentary elections that could threaten Abbas’s hold on power. . . .

Palestinians: Abbas's Lies and Falling Mask

For the past two decades, the anti-Israel rhetoric of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership has radicalized many Palestinians, to a point where they are no longer willing to accept any form of compromise or peace with Israel.

By accusing the Trump administration of hostility to the Palestinians, the Palestinian leadership has delegitimized the US to a degree where many Palestinians now feel that Americans are legitimate targets for violence and terror attacks.

How, exactly, do these condemnations conform with Abbas's other claims that he seeks to resume peace talks with Israel? The mask on Abbas's face has fallen once again. That mask has, in fact, been falling for many years. Perhaps one day the world will even see that.

Gaza Needs to Look in the Mirror for Its Problems

Gaza is broke. As Monday’s front-page New York Times feature explained at length, the conflict between the Gaza Strip’s Hamas overlords and the Fatah party that runs the West Bank has resulted in a cash crunch that has left many of the area’s two million people without money. Along with Gaza’s inadequate infrastructure, the resulting poverty from this crisis contributes to a general picture of despair for many Palestinians.

Of course, the notion that everyone in Gaza is starving is an exaggeration. As journalist Tom Gross points out, Gaza’s thriving malls continue to operate, as does its water park, restaurants, and hotels — inconvenient facts that are missing from the Times story and most of the coverage of the current crisis.

But even if we concede that the talk of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is probably exaggerated, there’s no question that most of the people there are poor and have little hope of improving their plight.

This means, as it almost always does, that Israel will be blamed for this awful situation. Since most of the world believes that Israel is still “occupying” Gaza, and is therefore responsible for the coastal territory’s problems, it is only natural that the worse things get there, the more opprobrium will be directed at the Jewish state in international forums and the press.

This is wrong — but not just because Israel hasn’t occupied Gaza since 2005.

From Iran's Mehr News:

Parliament Speaker Special Aide in International Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said here on late Tuesday that the moves by some Arab states aimed at normalization of relations with Israeli regime can jeopardize bilateral ties tremendously.

Given the above issue, thawing ties of some Arab countries with the Zionist regime will incur irreparable damage to the Islamic World in the current situation, he reiterated.

Amir-Abdollahian made the above remark in his meeting with two heads of political parties in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

He pointed to the longstanding positive relationship between Iran and Republic of Azerbaijan and said, “the relations between Islamic Republic of Iran and Republic of Azerbaijan are influenced by the longstanding and age-old historical ties of the two countries. The two nations share many commonalities in various fields.”

Even though Amir-Abdollahian only mentioned Arab states, there is a reason he made this point in Azerbaijan: because Israeli ties to the majority Muslim country are quite good.

Israel established relations with Azebaijan over 25 years ago, and was one of the first countries to recognize it. Wikileaks has released a memo where Azeri president Ilham Aliyev compared his country's relationship with Israel to an iceberg: "Nine-tenths of it is below the surface."

Iran normally attacks any Muslim nation that has ties with Israel, but in this case Iran is acting differently - because it is frightened that the Muslim nation would choose Israel over Iran if it had to make a choice. So the Iranian diplomat said nice things about relations between the two, while giving a warning at the same time.

Iran's actions show that it is very, very afraid of Israeli diplomatic gains, which are occurring not only in reaction to Iran's aggression towards Sunni Arab states but quite independently of it.

Iran knows that it is losing ground diplomatically. But it still cannot resist offering a stick along with a carrot to Azerbaijan.

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Why can't Gazans (or Gaza NGOs) volunteer to clean their hospitals?

Today is the fourth day of the strike by hospital cleaning staff in Gaza who have not been paid their salaries by the Palestinian authority.

There is no solution on the horizon.

Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, warned this morning of major health setbacks in cancer patients and those with blood diseases because of the lack of hygiene in hospitals.

"The suspension of cleaning companies poses a direct threat to the health of patients and public health in 13 hospitals, 51 primary care centers and 22 other facilities in the Ministry of Health through 13 companies," he said.

Photos of the hospitals with overflowing trash are being published in the Palestinian media.

One can certainly sympathize with the janitorial staff who isn't getting paid because of Hamas/Palestinian Authority infighting and pissing contests (a context that is missing in most of the stories about the issue.)

But there is still medical staff in these hospitals. Why don't they pitch in to empty trash cans outside?

We are constantly told about the high unemployment rate in Gaza. Why aren't the hundreds of thousands of idle able-bodied Gazans volunteering to help keep hospitals open by doing the (non-dangerous) cleaning tasks?

Why aren't the many NGOs in Gaza organizing teams to pick up, clean and dispose of the garbage?

Why can't the many Gaza women who posed for media cameras during the last war go to the hospitals and clean them up?

Palestinians constantly talk about how important dignity is to them. Is cleaning a hospital, allowing patients to be treated, too undignified for them?

This story isn't only about a labor dispute, nor is it only about a political dispute that puts people's lives at risk. It is also a story about how an entire culture has sprouted up where people are taught only to complain about what they claim to deserve - but that they aren't willing to lift a finger to help themselves.

(h/t Zvi)

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Palestinian diplomat tells students at UN that throwing stones is fantastic (audio)

From YNet:

A Palestinian diplomat speaking to students at the United Nations headquarters in New York told them the Palestinians were proud to be throwing stones at Israeli forces and will continue teaching their children to do so.

In a recording obtained by Ynet, Abdallah Abushawesh, who serves as a senior adviser to the UN's Development Group and as a member of the Palestinian UN mission, is heard saying in broken English, "We are very clever and very expert at throwing the stones. We are very proud to do that. We will not stop to learn our kids (to do that)."

To the sound of sniggering from his listeners, Abushawesh went on to say that every Palestinian caught throwing stones by Israel gets sent to jail. "We are very proud that we are stone throwers. I'm one of them. Now I became a little bit older, but I stay resistant in the name of my kids," he continued.

The Palestinian diplomat later told the students about his own past as a stone-thrower during the first intifada. "I was in high school. I never missed an opportunity to throw stones. This is our life. We develop our resistance every day. We're proud of it," he said.

Abushawesh was speaking to a group of international relations students from McGill University who were at the UN for a tour and a series of meetings as part of their program.

14 Israelis have been killed, and countless injured, by Palestinian stone throwers, including:

Yehuda Shoham, a 5-month-old baby, was killed when a rock hurled by stone-throwing Palestinians crashed through the window of the car he was riding in, crushing his skull (2001)
Asher (25) and Yonatan Palmer (1) were killed when the car Asher was driving was attacked by stone-throwing Palestinians, causing it to crash killing him along with his infant son.(2011)
Tthe Biton's family car was attacked, near neighboring village of Kif el-Hares, with stones which caused it to get out of control and collide with a truck. Adele Biton was critically injured along with her mother and 3 sisters who were moderately injured, and died two years later.(2013)

The news isn't that Palestinians encourage stone throwing. That has been obvious for years.

The news is that a Palestinian diplomat, at the UN, is proudly telling college students that he supports teaching Palestinian children to use deadly force against Jews - and it isn't making world headlines.

The news media, by treating Palestinian bloodlust as something that is expected and not newsworthy, is complicit in encouraging the continued murders of Israelis.

And what the hell is wrong with the McGill students who laughed when this animal bragged about using deadly force against Jews? That should be front page news in Canadian newspapers as well.

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02/13 Links Pt2: Collier: Will someone please protect the Jewish students?; ADL Rips Ellison For Farrakhan Meeting; It’s Time to Tell the Truth About UNRWA

From Ian:

David Collier: KCL – will someone please protect the Jewish students?

Demonstrators as victims

It is also interesting to record how the demonstrators twist the events. They had chosen to come onto a campus to disrupt an event. The campus security tried, and partially failed to contain the protest. One demonstrator was not permitted inside because he held a megaphone. An instrument clearly designed (outside a door of an event) to disrupt. This became the tweet of the night:

So as Jewish students are huddled in a room, struggling to hear what their invited speaker against a background of vocal hate, the demonstrators portray themselves as the victims. In the footage, the security man explicitly references the megaphone (see under his arm). The person tweeting this is Ayo Olatunji, who is part of the UCL student union, and was part of the UCL protest and disruption in late 2016. More of a concern was this tweet by Ayo:

He claims he was denied, not because of his behaviour, his intent, or the need to uphold free speech, but because he is black. I saw this weaponisation of racism at Cambridge with Malia Bouattia, and recently being used at Warwick by Nicola Pratt. A truly divisive strategy. There is of course nothing about his colour mentioned in the footage.

The protestors have complained to the university. They are in ‘outrage’. Why? Just as I described their dissatisfaction at events at UCL two week ago:
‘They are disappointed that they are not allowing them to do what they want to do. To permit their demonstration, to deny the other, to allow them entry to the building, to let them disrupt the event, to deny the speaker the platform in the first place. They want to be armed with a security force to impose their demands. A fascist mentality. ‘

What of the Jewish students?

This is all intimidation. And it works. The university is not capable of fighting a war for the Jewish students, because this is not a battle of students. Palestine Solidarity Campaign advertise it, Friends of Al Aqsa live stream it, off-campus ringleaders turn up to assist in the organisation.

How many of those Jewish students who may have been intimidated by yesterday’s events, will not attend another meeting of its type? Will supporters of those Jewish students now look over their shoulder and say to themselves ‘it is not worth it’? How many of those who organised the event, will not organise another? Will invited speakers not want to come?

Intimidation works because it works through intimidation, not debate. Non-democratic forces are undermining our academic spaces. Values of equality, democracy, free speech are all under threat. When you have Jewish students forced to leave a room surrounded by haters screaming ‘shame’, alongside posts on Facebook calling these students ‘cockroaches’, then you have to accept you are in dangerous territory.

#Jews run the gauntlet from @jeremycorbyn @PSCupdates #JewHaters @KingsCollegeLon tonight. What’s changed from #1938 #Vienna? @SamGyimah @COLRICHARDKEMP @GuidoFawkes pic.twitter.com/934YYjYwPZ
— Jewish HR Watch (@jhrwatch) February 12, 2018

Our statement about the event we hosted tonight featuring former #Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Dan Meridor. We must continue to protect free #speech on campus & defeat #intolerance.

READ: https://t.co/ntT2Gfjxr9 pic.twitter.com/aPwgarxSg3
— Pinsker Centre (@PinskerCentre) February 12, 2018

BESA: Mahmoud Abbas’s Speech: Who Was the Real Audience?

Mahmoud Abbas’s blatantly skewed account of the nature of Zionism and the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict should bring Israel’s policymakers and opinion shapers to enunciate anew the story they tell their own people and the world at large.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech at the January 14 meeting of the PLO’s Central Council lasted two hours. Apart from the phrase “May your house be destroyed,” which became the headline for the speech, Abbas’s “historical” survey of the chronicle of Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has drawn most of the Israeli criticism. According to Prime Minister Netanyahu, the survey underscored the root of the conflict: “The Palestinians’ rejection of the existence of a Jewish state in any borders.”

For the Palestinians, too, particularly the younger among them, much of the speech must have sounded like a tiresome history lesson. Yet political speeches of this kind often have more than one audience in mind. In this case, Israeli society with its various factions and leaders, along with the international community, was the main audience. Appealing to fashionable legal and moral fads, particularly in Western Europe, Abbas again set forth the supposedly problematic aspects of Zionism. His “historical survey” undoubtedly fails the minimum test of facts, but it is uncritically accepted in many circles. This poses a real challenge to Israeli policymakers and opinion shapers.

By every historical account, the Zionist revolution – the incredible ingathering of the exiles and the establishment of the flourishing and highly successful state of Israel – is a unique and unprecedented phenomenon. Those who insist on viewing it as yet another immigration wave among the 20th century global population movements fail to grasp the real nature of this revolution. In this respect, Abbas touched the key issue that, in his eyes, made the Palestinians the main victim of Zionism: if the Jews yearn for a safe haven, and the international community wants to provide them with one, why does it have to be in Palestine, at the Palestinians’ expense? (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Gazans say they want to march en masse to Israel

Palestine Today reports that there are articles and social media posts encouraging a new kind of "resistance" - a massive march of Gazans towards Israel.

The movement is called "The Great Return March" and it has a Facebook page. The goal is to get "millions" of Gazans to march towards Israel.

After all, they say, Israel does not know how to defend itself against thousands of humans.

One advocate of the march, Akram Atallah, says, "Israel has prepared itself for all wars, but not the possibility of confronting a flood of human beings."

The implication is that Israel would never kill Gaza civilians who don't pose a threat to life. But they won't say that part out loud.

Also, they forget that Palestinians have tried this before. In 2011, protesters from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank tried to simultaneously enter Israel on "Nakba Day." A few hundred from Gaza were deterred when Israel fired some rounds towards them; one was reportedly killed. The Lebanese, Egyptian and Jordanian armies actively stopped the marchers from their borders.

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Every week, Rami Hamdallah, the "prime minister" of the Palestinian Authority, a person who has no real power, has a cabinet meeting where pronouncements are made and nothing is actually done.

The statements do show how much the Palestinian Authority likes to fool itself, and its own people.

This week the statements included:

The Israeli government will pass a law to impose Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, annexing settlement blocs and retaining the Jordan Valley. The Judaization and uprooting confirms the insistence of the Israeli government to renounce all agreements between the parties, a clear expression of its unwillingness to peace or any intention to reach a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Israel has tried to negotiate, the Palestinians refuse. Israel has shown willingness to compromise, Palestinians haven't. But the lies continue.

Taking such a step would not only be the end of the two-state solution, but the end of any hope for peace and would have repercussions for the entire region.

I am still astounded that these regular threats - couched in terms of warnings - aren't recognized as such by the West.

And let me remind you of how seriously the Palestinians take the "two state solution" that they insist they want.

The Council saluted our people to continue expressing their rejection of the unjust American decision and condemned the serious Israeli escalation of the occupation against our defenseless people, which led in recent days to the martyrdom of a number of Palestinian citizens and the occurrence of dozens of injuries, in addition to the wide circle of raids and incursions.

The "salute" includes the two Palestinians who stabbed two rabbis to death, which is what prompted the raids and arrests. The Palestinian leadership tacitly supports such murders.

The Council condemned the draft racist law submitted by the Minister of the Israeli war, "Avigdor Lieberman," deducting the allocations of prisoners and families of the martyrs, from the funds of the Palestinian clearing.

Yes, they are defending paying terrorists and their families - and saying that anyone who disagrees is a "racist."

The Council also condemned the Israeli intention to allow humanitarian aid to be provided by the international institutions to the Gaza Strip while continuing its unjust siege for the eleventh year in a row. Life, it bears full responsibility for the suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip.

Unreal - the PA, which only allowed Israel to restore electricity to Gaza when threatened by Israel, which withholds funds for hospitals and medicines and fuel for Gaza, is complaining when Israel allows humanitarian aid into Gaza - and blames Israel for the situation there, a situation that the PA has been actively exacerbating for the past year!

If only there was a truly free Palestinian media. If only there were journalists on the ground there who had the guts to report on the truth (outside a few Israelis.) If only there was a real opposition movement that truly wanted peace.

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02/13 Links Pt1: Col, Kemp: Failure to support Israel against Iran could end in war; Palestinian diplomat: We'll continue teaching our kids to throw stones; Iran Discovers Our Zionist Death Lizardsᵀᴹ

From Ian:

Col. Kemp: Failure to support Israel against Iran could end in war

This is part of a wider Iranian plan not just to besiege Israel but also to achieve ascendancy over the Sunnis, including de facto control of Lebanon, increased dominance in Iraq, the destabilisation of Yemen, attacks on Saudi Arabia and aggression against international navies in the Gulf. Iran’s project has been largely facilitated by President Obama’s Middle Eastern policies, including his nuclear deal, which emboldened the ayatollahs and released billions of dollars to fund their aggression while paving the way to a nuclear-armed state.

Iran’s latest aggression against Israel could well lead to another conflagration. The IDF is braced for retaliation, mobilising forces and reinforcing air defences along the Syrian and Lebanese borders. Israel is not looking to escalate but Iran could be and a mistake or misreading by either side could trigger open war.

For years Israel has warned of the consequences of Tehran’s aggression, which could result in civilian deaths on a huge scale. Although President Trump is holding Iran to account, Israel’s warnings have been largely ignored by the West and the United Nations. Britain and the European Union could play an effective role in containing Iranian aggression but their answer is appeasement. Instead of sanctioning Iran and supporting Israel they mouth platitudes about restraint by both sides, which further emboldens Tehran. They prioritise saving the flawed nuclear deal that provides cover for their unprincipled trade links with Iran over saving the lives of innocent people.

Palestinian diplomat: We'll continue teaching our kids to throw stones

A Palestinian diplomat speaking to students at the United Nations headquarters in New York told them the Palestinians were proud to be throwing stones at Israeli forces and will continue teaching their children to do so.

In a recording obtained by Ynet, Abdallah Abushawesh, who serves as a senior adviser to the UN's Development Group and as a member of the Palestinian UN mission, is heard saying in broken English, "We are very clever and very expert at throwing the stones. We are very proud to do that. We will not stop to learn our kids (to do that)."

To the sound of sniggering from his listeners, Abushawesh went on to say that every Palestinian caught throwing stones by Israel gets sent to jail. "We are very proud that we are stone throwers. I'm one of them. Now I became a little bit older, but I stay resistant in the name of my kids," he continued.

The Palestinian diplomat later told the students about his own past as a stone-thrower during the first intifada. "I was in high school. I never missed an opportunity to throw stones. This is our life. We develop our resistance every day. We're proud of it," he said.

Abushawesh was speaking to a group of international relations students from McGill University who were at the UN for a tour and a series of meetings as part of their program.

Last week, The New York Times entered the world of dance.

In an interview, Israeli-American choreographer Hadar Ahuvia talked about her latest work - Everything you have is yours? To Ahuvia, that is no idle question. She is the granddaughter of Eastern European Jews who came to Israel -- and then years later, her parents moved with her to Florida and then Hawaii. Ahuvia has developed an interest in what she sees as the Israeli mimicking of Palestinian Arab culture.

Ahuvia touched on this in her interview:

One issue you explore is cultural appropriation, how the pioneers of Israeli folk dance, mostly Eastern European women, drew from social dance forms like Palestinian dabke.
It’s well-documented that these women went to Palestinian villages and watched them dancing and felt they held the steps for what new Israeli dances could be. And so they borrowed steps and wrote new music and created dances that were directly synchronous to the new music, and in this way it becomes a new Israeli dance.
This was their way of participating in the nation-building and what for them was this revolutionary moment. I don’t think that cultural exchange is bad, but I think it’s about the context of whose narratives get told and seen.

In a guest post she wrote for a blog, four days after the interview, Ahuvia goes further:

Increasingly our home [in Florida and Hawaii] began to mimic the Arab essence that is claimed as fundamentally Israeli. Hummus, tahini, olive oil zaatar, pita, baklava. And beside the Palestinian shepherd salad, the syncopated dabke and Yemenite steps, Turkish and Druz inspired melodies of early Hebrew songs and their synchronous dances. These kept us marinating in a Mediterranean Israeli identity, our distinction from the American Ashkenazi diaspora encroaching on us-- ameripoop-- treacherously symbolized by applesauce on latkes.

Ira Stoll, who writes a column for Algemeiner dedicated to exposing examples of New York Times bias, addresses how New York Times Accuses Jews of Stealing Folkdances From Palestinian Arabs.
Stoll addresses the one-sided view presented by the interview and supplies context with the opposing view ignored by the New York Times:

o Former New York Times correspondent David K. Shipler, in his 1986 book Arab and Jew, also wrote about the accusation of cultural theft. He quotes a Ibrahim Kareen of East Jerusalem who claims, “The Israelis have stolen a lot of Palestinian culture...For instance, many dances. The Hora. This is Palestinian. Many dishes.” But Shipler goes a step further and writes, "The roots of folk dance are old and tangled, and while the Hora does bear resemblance to Arab dances, the origins are too deeply buried for any side to make clear proprietary claims.”

o According to the Jewish Women’s Archive article on the history of Israeli Folk Dance, "During the Second and Third Aliyah periods, between 1904 and 1923, the halutzim danced only dances that they had brought with them from the Diaspora — the Horah, Polka, Krakowiak, Czerkassiya and Rondo, with the Horah becoming the national dance."

o According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Israeli folk dance is “an amalgam of Jewish and non-Jewish folk dance forms from many parts of the world,” describing the Hora as Romanian, and then continues that “Widespread enthusiasm for dance followed, bringing with it the creation of a multifaceted folk dance genre set to popular Israeli songs, incorporating motifs such as the Arab debka, as well as dance elements ranging from North American jazz and Latin American rhythms to the cadences typical of Mediterranean countries.”

We can even go a little further.

The Encyclopedia of World Folk Dance has a list of dances and their countries of origin. It includes the dabke. Not surprisingly, the dance is not a Palestinian dance -- it is an Arab dance.

And that fact does not negate the Jewish cultural history of the Jewish dance, The Hora:

(pages 138-139)

According to this, if the Palestinian Arabs are going to accuse Jews of stealing their dance, they will just have to stand in line -- behind Rome, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Georgia and Russia. Interestingly, according to this encyclopedia, the similarities of the Hora to the dabke are attributed to external flourishes to a dance that was already adopted.

All this raises the question of whether the Palestinian Arabs have ever copied anything from the Jews.
Daniel Pipes answers yes.

In Mirror Image: How the PLO Mimics Zionism, Pipes writes that "Palestinian nationalists have time and again modeled their institutions, ideas, and practices on the Zionist movement. This ironic tribute means that the peculiar nature of the PLO can be understood only with reference to its Zionist inspiration."

The similarities go beyond copying the purpose of the organization, such as the National Association of Arab-Americans emulating the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Some Palestinian organizations mimic the original Zionist organization as well:

Palestinian Organization	Zionist Organization
Anti-Discrimination Committee	Anti-Defamation League
the Holy Land Fund	the Jewish National Fund
the United Palestinian Appeal	the United Jewish Appeal

Pipes writes that the emulation goes beyond organizations and agencies:

o Palestinian Arabs sometimes refer to themselves as the "Jews of the Middle East"
o  They claim that like Jews, they suffer prejudice, dispossession and expulsion despite being more educated than the majority population
o  Just as Jews were thrown out of multiple countries, they were forced out of Jordon, Lebanon and Kuwait in only 20 years
o  Palestinian Arabs claim their treatment by Israel is analogous to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust
o  The Palestinian claim to a "Right of Return" mimics the Israeli "Law of Return"

And then, of course, there is Jerusalem:

Jerusalem is the only capital of a Jewish state, as well as a unique city in Jewish history, religion, and emotions. In contrast, the city is so minor in Islam, it is not even once mentioned in the Qur'an. Nor did it ever serve as a political capital or cultural center...

But based on what Israel has been able to accomplish, it is not surprising how far the Palestinian Arabs have gone in order to copy the very Zionists they condemn. The Jews wanted a state, the re-establishment of the Jewish state, so they were not content just to live off of the land.

The Jewish accomplishment during the Mandatory period was indeed impressive: by developing the Jewish Agency into a proto-state institution, Zionists created the bases for the full-fledged government that emerged in 1948. They already had a political authority, a military wing, an educational system, a mechanism to distribute welfare, and so forth. In contrast, Palestinians failed to match these institutions, and so found themselves disorganized when the British withdrew from Palestine in 1948...In effect, the Palestinians are trying half a century later to make up for their mistakes of the Mandatory period.

But we can go a step further. More than what Zionism inspired in Palestinian Arabs in the 20th century, what have Jews contributed to Arabs in general, and to Islamic culture overall, over the generations?
Could be quite a bit.

In Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine, Shmuel Katz quotes Philip K. Hitti, a Lebanese American professor and authority on Arab and Middle Eastern history. Hitti writes in his History of the Arabs

But when we speak of 'Arab medicine' or 'Arab philosophy' or 'Arab mathematics', we do not mean the medical science, philosophy or mathematics that are necessarily the product of the Arabian mind or developed by people living in the Arabian peninsula, but that body of knowledge enshrined in books written in the Arabic language by men who flourished chiefly during the caliphate and were themselves Persians, Egyptians or Arabians, Christian, Jewish or Moslem.

Indeed, even what we call 'Arabic literature' was no more Arabian than the Latin literature of the Middle Age was Italian...Even such disciplines as philosophy linguistics, lexicography and grammar, which were primarily Arabian in origin and spirit and in which the Arabs made their chief original contribution, recruited some of their most distinguished scholars from the non-Arab stock (Battleground, p. 111)

Bernard Lewis writes similarly in his book, The Arabs in History:

The use of the adjective Arab to describe the various facets of this civilisation has often been challenged on the grounds that the contribution to "Arab medicine", "Arab philosophy", etc, of those who were of Arab descent was relatively small. Even the use of the word Muslim is criticised, since so many of the architects of this culture were Christians and Jews.
During the period of greatness of the Arab and Islamic Empires in the Near and Middle East a flourishing civilisation grew up that is usually known as Arabic. It was not brought ready-made by the Arab invaders from the desert, but was created after the conquests by the collaboration of many peoples, Arabs, Persians, Egyptians and others. Nor was it even purely Muslim, for many Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians were among its creators. (p.14, 131)

With all that shared history and shared culture over 1,400 years, maybe the Arabs can share a dance or a falafel for old times sake.

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Israel is once again guilty of Arab/Christian/Transgender/Ballerina-Washing

A couple of years ago I made this poster:

Now, Hanna has been selected as a finalist in the Miss Israel Pageant. With no controversy whatsoever.

It is always instructive that a country that is more liberal than nearly any of the so-called liberal democracies in Europe still gets treated by leftists as if it is far-right.

And when Israel shows, again and again, how liberal and tolerant its citizens are towards women/gays/transgendered/Arabs/minorities, the only way that Israel haters can explain it is the absurd idea that millions of Israelis only pretend to be liberal in order to divert attention from "the Occupation."

It is the biggest conspiracy in history!

(h/t Yoel)

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Suhail Kiwan, apparently an Israeli Arab, writes in Arab48 that Jews weren't the only victims of the Holocaust.

He admits that Nazis targeted Jews. He's not sure how many Jews were murdered, but he magnanimously admits that even the killing tens of thousands of Jews on ethnic grounds like the killing of millions: "the important principle that the regime decided to kill Jews for being Jews."

That's the nicest kind of Holocaust denial.

However, Kiwan asserts, "There are non-Jewish victims of Nazism that must be recognized, and they are many, but the Palestinians are the most prominent."

The reason? Obviously, because the Jews after the war came to British Mandate Palestine, and "the Zionist forces destroyed [Arab ]villages and displaced about 900,000 of them, persecuted them after they were massacred, and killed all those who tried to return and occupied the rest of their homeland to this day."

Therefore, Kiwan says, Palestinian Arabs "have the right to demand compensation from Germany as the Jews received compensation, as well as compensation from all the countries supporting Israel aggression at the expense of their presence."

It takes a lot of energy to constantly try to be the world's biggest victim entitled to free money forever.

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02/12 Links Pt2: The good news about Gaza you won’t hear on the BBC; Now 80, the youngest Schindler’s List survivor won’t stop telling her story; The New Israel Fund has crossed the red line

From Ian:

Tom Gross: The good news about Gaza you won’t hear on the BBC

I am not alone in thinking the BBC is not objective in its coverage. Even Lord Grade, the corporation’s former chairman, has accused the corporation of bias against Israel and said the BBC failed to give viewers ‘the wider context’ about the Palestinians.

This is not true of all BBC output: BBC Arabic will (like other Arabic language media) sometimes report on Gaza’s more prosperous side (see for example, this BBC Arabic report on restaurants in Gaza), in a way that most Western media (including the BBC in English) will not. Yet many Western journalists (and some diplomats) seem bent on painting a distorted picture of everyday life in Gaza, in what can only be seen as an attempt to portray Israel as some kind of monster-oppressor. (With Israel demonised in this way, no wonder anti-Semitic feelings in Britain are now running at an all-time high).

If the situation in Gaza is as bad as many Western journalists and diplomats claim, then why is Gaza’s life expectancy (74.2 years) now five years higher than the world average? I don’t recall any Western reporter mentioning that life expectancy there is higher than, for example, in neighbouring Egypt (73 years). Indeed, life expectancy in Gaza is almost on the same level as wealthy Saudi Arabia, and higher for men than in some parts of Glasgow.

In recent years, it has been difficult to escape reports of the dire situation in Gaza; former US president and Nobel peace prize laureate Jimmy Carter, for example, told us that ‘the people in Gaza … are literally starving’. Only three weeks ago, the lead front page story of the international edition of the New York Times contained further warnings about the risk of starvation. Meanwhile, Qatar’s own Al Jazeera is broadcasting analysis of the thriving consumer sector in Gaza’s economy, complete with restaurant owners discussing the expansion of their business to keep up with demand, and shots of plentiful fruit and vegetable markets.
Gaza’s thriving economy: Al Jazeera shows a side to Gaza that Western media won’t

Melanie Phillips: Damned if you do . . . and Trump and Netanyahu are certainly doing

Day in and day out, two men—two crucial world leaders—remain under a constant barrage of verbal attacks. They are subjected to an obsessional, unhinged and unprecedented stream of abuse, distortion, character assassination and malicious fantasies.

If you haven’t guessed, they are Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald J Trump. The campaign against them signifies a cultural disorder in the West that borders on the pathological.

Netanyahu certainly has his faults. One might list arrogance, moral cowardice and his tendency to be a control freak. He doesn’t take criticism well. He has failed to organize his government to deal with the psy-ops war waged so devastatingly against Israel in the court of Western public opinion. And maybe, who knows, some of the multiple corruption charges against him will stick.

Yet his achievements are formidable. Netanyahu enabled Israel to survive the sustained attempts to weaken it by President Barack Obama, arguably the most hostile American president to date regarding Israel. Netanyahu has led the Jewish state to become a dynamo in the fields of technology and R&D in large measure because of his liberalization of the Israeli economy. He has opened up new alliances through the pivot to Asia. He has held the line against the Palestinian /European axis of attrition. And he is riding the wave of a new regional order involving alliances with Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

In Israel and among the Western intelligentsia, however, it’s hard to overestimate the loathing he provokes. His achievements are ignored or blatantly dismissed. Instead, he is blamed (ludicrously) for preventing a solution to the Middle East impasse. No less risibly, he was held responsible for Obama’s hostility for eight years running. He is said to be an incipient dictator, a racist ethno-nationalist and an “alt-Zionist.” These are not criticisms; these are ravings.

Over in the United States, Trump certainly has his faults. One might list his zero concentration span, his disregard for detail, his carelessness with accuracy, his reckless and compulsive tweeting, his coarse and bombastic talk, and his failure to take criticism.

Yet his achievements after only one year in office are formidable. He presides over a booming economy with huge job growth; he is restoring the rule of law to immigration; he’s rolling back regulation; he’s made stellar appointments to the judiciary; he’s forcing Saudi Arabia to reform; and is confronting Iran, the United Nations and the Palestinians.

It’s impossible, however, to overestimate the contempt and horror with which he is viewed. He is accused of being racist and anti-Semitic, of undermining the rule of law, of behaving like Mussolini. While not a shred to evidence supports the claims against him of colluding with Russia, there is mounting evidence that elements of the FBI and justice department under the Obama administration have acted illegally against him.

PodCast: When Daniel P. Moynihan Stood for Israel, and for Truth, at the UN

In December, Nikki Haley, the current U.S. ambassador to the UN, denounced the world body for its condemnation of America’s recognizing of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Her performance put many in mind of a 1975 speech given by her late predecessor, Daniel P. Moynihan, assailing the UN’s infamous “Zionism is racism” resolution. Six years later, Moynihan returned to the same themes in a seminal Commentary essay, “Joining the Jackals,” in which he skewered the then-outgoing Carter administration for abstaining from two anti-Israel votes at the Security Council and for the generally craven attitude of its UN delegation. Greg Weiner, the author of a biography of Moynihan, revisits the statesman’s career in Turtle Bay and his commitment to Israel and to the West—and to the meaning of words. (Interview by Jonathan Silver. Audio, 31 minutes. Options for download and streaming are available at the link below.)