Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

EU's Federica Mogherini praises Jordan's "special role" in protecting Jerusalem's holy places. (Who cares that they deny Jewish rights?)

EU High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini released a joint press statement with Ayman Al Safadi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan.

Some of her statements are problematic, to say the least.

Today we will focus on how to bring the Middle East Peace Process forward. We will have the opportunity to listen to your views that coincides largely with our views. The European Union has been very clear in its position and very much united.

It sounds like she is saying that the EU and Arabs all largely agree on what is needed for peace. It is only those pesky Israelis who are against peace.

Let me say, today in particular, one word on the closure yesterday of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in protest to certain Israeli steps planned or announced. We hope that a solution can be found quickly. Jerusalem is a holy city to the three monotheistic religions. This special status and character of the city must be preserved and respected by all. And I am saying this, in particular, standing next to you, as His Majesty [Abdullah II] King of Jordan has a very special role - a very appreciated role - when it comes to the Holy Places in Jerusalem. He knows that he can always count on our full support. And I think that the developments yesterday showed that there is a special attention we need to pay to this aspect.

This is truly outrageous.

Remind me again of what Jordan's history with preserving access to the holy places in Jerusalem is? Oh, yeah - Jordan didn't allow any Jews - not Israelis, but Jews - to visit the Jewish holy places in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and elsewhere for 19 years. Jordan destroyed 50 synagogues. Jordan desecrated the oldest and largest Jewish cemetery in the world.

Even today, Jordan denies all Jewish rights in Jerusalem.

Jordan's record in Jerusalem and the West Bank in preserving religious rights is not just flawed, but abysmal. Yet Mogherini is praising Jordan's monarch for - what, exactly? Denying that Jews have any rights to the Old City of Jerusalem?

And under Israeli rule, there are more Muslims living in Jerusalem than ever before. There are far more Muslims visiting the Al Aqsa Mosque than ever visited under Jordanian or Ottoman rule.There are far more Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem than ever before. Israel has uncovered and preserved Muslim archaeological treasures while the Jordanian Waqf has continuously destroyed priceless Jewish artifacts.

It is beyond disgusting that an EU official implies that Jordan would be better at preserving Jerusalem's religious heritage than Israel is, against all facts, history and logic.

The words might have been couched diplomatically, but there is a sickening rot not far under the surface of Federica Mogherini and the EU.

(h/t Irene)

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Iran today announced the Israel Hourglass Festival, a planned annual gathering and contest to countdown to Israel's destruction within 25 years, as Ayatollah Khamenei has predicted.

The festival’s press conference was held on Tuesday in Tehran, during which the main agenda and objectives of the festival were explained by the organizers.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Secretary-General of the International Conference on Supporting Palestinian Intifada and an international advisor to Iran’s Parliament Speaker, told the press conference that the “Hourglass Festival” is a symbol of the imminent collapse of the Zionist regime of Israel, as predicted by the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

He emphasized that fighting Israel is part of Iran’s national security because if the country fails to overcome the Zionists near their borders, it will have to fight against them in Tehran where they are assassination Iranian scientists and citizens.

Asked about the Islamic Republic’s plan to realize the victory of Palestinians over the Israeli regime, he said Iran is not the only one responsible for supporting the Palestinian cause, and all Muslim states must play their role in this regard.

He said he cannot publicize the Islamic Republic’s plan to realize the Leader’s prediction that the Israeli regime will collapse within 25 years, but it will definitely happen.

It is essentially a contest for people to submit anti-Israel videos, posters, cartoons, mobile apps, mobile and web-based games, social media and websites, where they will be publicly displayed in Tehran in April.

The subjects of the submissions to the festival are:

Why down with Israel?
The Quds-occupier regime (Israel) and human rights;
The Quds-occupier regime (Israel) and oppression;
How did the Quds-occupier regime (Israel) form?
The Quds-occupier regime (Israel) and Islamophobia;
The Quds-occupier regime (Israel) and terrorism promotion;
Zionist child- killing regime;
The Quds-occupier regime (Israel) would not survive the next 25 years;
Israel, a cancerous tumor;
Israel, a fake, racist and colonialist regime

Note that Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says that Israel's destruction is not merely a prediction but an active plan by Iran.

There is a large countdown clock in Tehran showing the supposed number of days Israel has left before it is destroyed in 2040, since Khamenei made his prediction in 2015.

It is unclear why the festival shows 25 years instead of 22 years to adjust for the original timeframe. Maybe it isn't as catchy, and this festival is all about creating memes.

One other part about the announcement that is interesting

The organizers will work with 2,400 anti-Israel NGOs in Europe, North America, Latin America, and Eastern Asia to promote the festival across the world, Qomi said.

2400 anti-Israel NGOs? That's more than one NGO for every 3000 Israeli Jews.

I'm curious if Iran is counting Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem and Oxfam in their count of anti-Israel NGOs.

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02/26 Links Pt2: Israel is the Ultimate Anti-Imperialist State; It’s not easy to be a South African Jew

From Ian:

Israel is the Ultimate Anti-Imperialist State

In his recent anti-Semitic rant, PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas repeated the lie that Israel is a “colonial project”. This is part and parcel of a long Muslim Arab tradition to wipe out the Middle East’s indigenous pre-Islamic civilizations.

Imagine if mainstream voices in the 21st century demanded that all non-German Europeans ”integrate into proper Europe” by embracing German culture, language, identity and the Lutheran religion. In a post-Second World War Europe, it would be rightly considered unacceptable supremacist racism. By contrast, many “liberal” Jew-haters demand that Israel “integrates into the proper Middle East” in the name of “peace” by letting itself be swallowed up by the surrounding Muslim Arab world.

In an era of Western post-colonial guilt, the Middle East is often presented as a hapless victim of former European imperialism. This myth was successfully promoted by the late Arabist Edward Said and his influential propaganda book “Orientalism”, which was enthusiastically embraced by numerous Middle East departments at Western university campuses.

It is a frequently ignored fact that former European imperialism in the Middle East was preceded by Islamist imperialism. In his book Islamic Imperialism: A history, professor Efraim Karsh, documents the long and violent history of Islamic imperialism. At its height, Islamist imperialism carved out a giant Muslim empire stretching from Spain in the West to India in the East. This once mighty empire eventually fragmented and the last Muslim empire collapsed with the end of Ottoman rule in 1917.

However, Islamist imperialism largely succeeded in wiping out pre-Islamic indigenous civilizations by imposing Islam and Arabic as the new norm across the Middle East and North Africa. The Jews were one of the few indigenous nations that managed to survive Islamic imperialism and maintain a separate identity and culture.

For centuries, Jews were the ultimate “other” in a predominantly Christian Europe. Today, the reborn Jewish state is the ultimate “other” in a predominantly Muslim Arab Middle East. Persians, Turks, Kurds and Berbers have largely embraced Islam but maintain separate cultural and linguistic identities from the surrounding Arab majority.

Ancient Christian and Zoroastrian communities are oppressed and threatened under Islamic rule. Israel stands out as the only remaining independent non-Arab and non-Muslim state in the wider Middle East region.

Anti-Jewish history revisionists often claim that Israel is a “foreign body” in a “Muslim Arab” region. In reality, the reborn Jewish state is the only remaining viable and indigenous fragment that survived the onslaught of Islamic imperialism.

The New Israel Fund Harms Israel, Yet Still Gets Support

A fundamental component of all strands of Judaism is supporting Israel as the Jewish state. Whether one believes in Orthodox or Reform Judaism, follows Shabbat, etc., believing that Israel should be the Jewish homeland is something that all Jews must believe in.

That’s why I don’t understand how American Jews can support the New Israel Fund (NIF) — an organization that harms Israel on many fronts. The latest development is a joint press release from Adalah (which received more than $2 million from the NIF from 2008-2016) and Hamoked (which received more than $700K during the same period). The press release claimed that, “it is illegal upon international law to impose upon East Jerusalem residents an obligation of loyalty to the occupying power.”

As the press release notes, these organizations sent a comprehensive letter to the Interior Ministry “detailing their grave concerns regarding a newly-proposed bill to amend the Entry into Israel Law. This new bill will allow the revocation of residency status of East Jerusalem Palestinians on three possible grounds: for ‘breach of loyalty’; in cases where the status was granted on the basis of false information; and in cases where ‘an individual committed a criminal act’ in the view of the Interior Ministry.”

The new bill was drafted following the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision in September 2017 denying the revocation of permanent residency of four Palestinian parliamentarians from East Jerusalem — on the grounds of “breach of loyalty.”

These organizations argued that East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory under international humanitarian law (IHL), and that its Palestinian residents are a protected civilian population. The groups claim, therefore, that it is illegal under IHL to impose upon them an obligation of loyalty to the “occupying” power — let alone to deny them permanent residency status on this basis.

The lowdown on Israel’s foes

HOLDING aloft Alex Ryvchin’s new book, The Anti-Israel Agenda: Inside the Political War on the Jewish State, Colonel Richard Kemp, one of its contributors, referenced Benjamin Netanyahu’s Munich speech in commending the collected essays to attendees at its Victorian launch.

Kemp described Netanyahu’s February 18 appearance at the Munich Security Conference, where the Israeli PM held up a piece of an Iranian drone fired on Israel from Syria, warning the Jewish State’s enemies not to “test Israel’s resolve”.

Waving the book, the visiting Briton exclaimed, “That is also a weapon — that is a weapon you need to arm yourself in your fight to defend the State of Israel.”

The former chief of command for British forces in Afghanistan, whose testimony before the UN Human Rights Council probing the 2014 Israel-Gaza war is detailed in Ryvchin’s new work, paid tribute to the Ukrainian-born Australian writer and lawyer, who is the public affairs director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

Liberal and Labor MPs, including Michael Sukkar (Deakin), Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports), Tim Wilson (Goldstein), and Victorian senators Kimberley Kitching and James Patterson, were on hand for the launch, co-hosted by ECAJ, the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, the Zionist Federation of Australia and Zionism Victoria.

Sukkar described Israel as “the frontline of freedom in the world … yet there’s no nation probably on the earth that’s under a greater existential threat … works such as what we’re launching tonight … are so important in pointing that out”.

The 16-day old strike by hospital janitorial staff that has closed at least one hospital in Gaza has been suspended as the workers are negotiating with the Palestinian Authority to pay them. But if the negotiations don't work out over the next two weeks, they will strike again.

Meanwhile, all government employees, including at schools, went on strike today to protest their own non-payment of salaries and benefits. All government institutions in Gaza are shut down today.

And so are public schools.

The protesters are noting that it has been months since the supposed reconciliation agreement between Hamas and the PA, where Mahmoud Abbas' government promised to take over the Hamas-run institutions, but things are worse now than they were before.

Also, UNRWA contract workers. mostly engineers, are protesting a decision not to renew their contracts. So they are shutting down UNRWA facilities in Gaza as well.

But the only Gaza news that wire services will report is the news that includes the word "Israel."

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As the world looks on in horror at the Syrian regime's merciless attacks on people in eastern Ghouta, which has claimed the lives of hundreds and accusations of Syrian use of poison gas, the regime is claiming that they are simply attacking bloodthirsty Zionist terrorists.

A Syrian apologist named Afraa Dagher wrote in conspiracy site Global Research last week:

Over 30,000 terrorists are located in this area which is one of the most dangerous terrorist strongholds in Syria, along with Idlib. Eastern Ghouta’s terrorist enclave presents an even graver danger than those in Idlib due to its proximity to the capital. This has been made all the more worrying as Damascus has always been the penultimate target of the original enemies of Syria, the western alliance and Israel.

Al-Ghouta is now home to factions of radical Islamists whose slogan is: ‘we are coming to slaughter you’. ...

The pain theses terrorists cause to our people everyday, could simply not be the product of a Syrian mind, it could only be a Zionist mind that could conceive of such a systematic plot to kill Syrians and destroy their lives. Syrians realise that a covert “Israeli” hand is behind the attacks on Damascus, a city that is not only Syria’s capital, but whose location is perilously close to the border of the occupier entity. Indeed, some of “Israel’s” covert actions are unmasked as blatant when Israeli missiles are fired at Damascus in tandem with Islamist missiles from al-Ghoutha.

Finally our Syrian Arab Army has to stop these terrorists – these armed terrorists who have every kind of advanced weapon, medicines and equipment that most regular Syrians no longer have. Sometimes these weapons were smuggled to them via the soft Turkish border and at other times via “Israel”.

All the while, the Godfather of the terrorists, Israel has used its media machine to defend the terrorists saying President Assad decided to end the “rebellion” in al-Ghouta. Israeli media has claimed that these terrorists are “rebels” who are ‘innocently’ bombing our children because those children are in so-called “pro-regime” schools. It’s no wonder, as “Israel” continues to pursue its age old dream of creating a buffer zone in southern Syria controlled by the al-Nusra front terrorist group.

At the same time, western mainstream media rely on the White Helmets, a group aligned with the al-Nusra jihadists of al-Ghoutha telling lies that it is their hospitals which are flowing with blood. These are the same people who staged and propagated the discredited “chemical attack” in al-Ghouta in 2013. Indeed, Israeli media always simultaneously publishes the same fake stories coming from the pro-jihad White Helmets.

As a Syrian, we in Syria recognize that every missile against our children, every attack against our homeland is an “Israeli one”, whether by “Israeli” planes and missiles or by terrorist groups covertly working with “Israel” in order to pursue “Israel’s” longtime goal of destroying Syria, irrespective of whether such groups call themselves al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, ISIS etc – all the while US coalition airstrikes kill our soldiers and civilians in Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa just as they killed Iraqis in Mosul. This is the reality for a people besieged on all sides.

Syria still thinks that blaming Israel is the way to unify Arabs against their enemies. (Iran still clings to that idea as well.)

But more and more Arabs are publicly acknowledging that this thinking has only contributed to their own problems. Jordan Times has an op-ed that says:

Today, extremists in the Middle East put on explosive vests and blow themselves up in houses of worship of other sects. To end this tragedy, perhaps we should start thinking of our conflicts not as a scourge inflicted upon us by the omnipotent Imperialist-Zionist conspiracies, but as problems of our making, which should be solved through reason.

The author is Western-educated, of course. This kind of actual thinking needs to be put into Arab schools and universities if any real progress is to be made in the Middle East.

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02/26 Links Pt1: Hamas: Full steam ahead to nowhere; Phillips: The UK Needs Another Churchill to Confront Iran; The Palestinians' failed gamble

From Ian:

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: Hamas: Full steam ahead to nowhere

The Arab nationalist movements have sunk into the deep morass of despotism. Not one of them has managed to establish and maintain a democratic nation-state on the lines of Israel. The Zionist movement succeeded exactly where the Arab nationalist movements failed, and the Hamas movement was supposed to offer an alternative religious ethos that could unfurl its flag over all the tribal and religious groups living in "Falestin": Muslims, Christians, Cherkassim, Achmadim. The religious movement failed dismally, one of the reasons being its inability to abandon the principle of Jihad long enough to join up with the PLO and establish a Palestinian Arab state alongside Israel until the time is ripe to destroy the Jewish State. Hamas does not see a way to accept the Jewish states' existence, even on a temporary basis, and is obligated to maintain a constant state of war with Israel. Let me emphasize: not an active war but a state of war. Waging a war would lead to the destruction of Gaza and topple the heads of the Hamas leaders, while a state of war gives them justification for the sad state the movement and the Gaza Strip have reached. The residents of Gaza are the albatross hanging on the neck of Hamas, weighing it down as it tries in vain to navigate a stormy sea.

The situation in Gaza provides another proof, for anyone who is still in need of one, of the inability of an Islamic movement to establish and maintain a modern state that can live in peace with its neighbors and tolerate ideologies that differ from its own.

The schism dividing the PLO and Hamas is a cultural divide expressed by means of political conflict. There is no way to create unity or a true, long-lasting reconciliation between the two groups, so that anyone counting on one unified Palestinian Arab state had better align his expectations with bitter Middle East reality, widely different from what we have become accustomed to in Europe, America and Australia.

The PLO failed because the secular nationalist ideology that does so well in Europe, cannot make a go of it in the Middle East. It has failed in every country that tried to base its existence on that kind of ideology – Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan are the exemplars. The Hamas movement is a failure because fundamentalist Islam cannot maintain a modern state with European democratic standards based on human laws. Turkey, while returning to Islam since the nineties, is also distancing itself more and more from the accepted Western model of a constitutional democracy.

The conclusion all this leads to is completely clear: There is neither a religious or secular basis for establishing a Palestinian Arab state. The only solution is the natural base of Middle Eastern society: The tribe. Only emirates in Judea and Samaria based on local families, - like those in the Gulf emirates – can operate legitimately in this region.

Melanie Phillips: The UK Needs Another Churchill to Confront Iran

Recently, there have been extraordinary scenes in cinemas throughout the United Kingdom. People have leapt to their feet in standing ovations, and grown men have been weeping. The source of the emotion? The wartime speeches of Winston Churchill in the movie, The Darkest Hour.

It’s not just because of Gary Oldman’s tremendous performance as the former prime minister. No — the movie has touched something very deep in the British psyche: the call to summon all one’s courage and resolution to defend their nation.

Showing how the UK’s previous prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, vainly tried to appease Adolf Hitler, the movie illustrates the catastrophic error of trying to compromise with a regime whose agenda brooks no compromise.

During the 1930s, the United Kingdom didn’t acknowledge this until it was almost too late. Churchill — the lone voice warning that the county needed to re-arm to deal with the Nazi threat — was scorned as a warmonger. People didn’t seem to realize that the choice before them was not between war and peace, but between war from a position of strength and war from a position of weakness.

When Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in March of 1939, Chamberlain’s response was to return from meeting the German dictator in Munich and announce “peace in our time.” Only when Hitler invaded Poland in September of that year did Britain finally go to war.

Victory over fascism was accordingly a close-run thing. But the point is that Britain launched a pre-emptive strike. It realized that the attack on Poland showed Hitler posed a direct threat to its own nation, and that it needed to destroy that threat before the Nazis got any closer.

Palestinians: Israel is One Big Settlement

Let us be clear about this: When Palestinians -- and some of their supporters in the international community, including Europe -- say that they want an end to the "occupation," they mean they want to see an end to Israel's existence, full stop. They do not want to throw the Jews out of their homes in the settlements; rather, they want Jews to be expelled from the whole country.

The conflict, as far as the Palestinians are concerned, did not begin in 1967, when east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip came under Israeli control. In the eyes of the Palestinians, all Jews are "settlers" and "colonialists." All the land, they argue, stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, is Muslim-owned land, and no Muslim is entitled to give up any part of it to a non-Muslim. For the Palestinians, accepting Israel's "right to exist" with Jews is seen as an act of treason.

What is really bothering the Palestinians is that Israel, with Jews, exists, period. The Palestinians want all of Jerusalem. They want all of "Palestine." They want Israel removed from the planet. It is time to listen carefully to what the Palestinians are saying -- in Arabic -- to understand that the conflict is not about Jerusalem and not about settlements.

Every year or so, I’ll notice a fight breaking out in the Jewish press regarding whether or not we are winning or losing the fight against BDS.

Most recently, the UK’s columnist Liron Velleman and US Commentary contributor Jonathan Tobin talked about the decrease in Israel Apartheid Week activities in the US and abroad, as well as the lack of success BDS has had in slowing Israel’s rapidly expanding economy and growing diplomatic ties across the world (including the Arab world). This was met with harsh rebuke by Jack Saltzberg, founder of The Israel Group, who pointed out that BDS is unconcerned with causing Israel actual economic harm, but is instead embarked on a project to turn the next generation against the Jewish state through propaganda facilitated by boycott and divestment campaigns.

Both sides in this debate rely mostly on anecdotal information, although the accumulation of anecdotes (such as number of Apartheid Week activities or student government divestment votes – or votes won or lost) can indicate trends.

Given how much of my earlier work was based on embedding the BDSFail meme into discussion of this topic, I have seen these same arguments again and again (with this piece contrasting various measures of Israel’s success with the failures of BDS tending to draw the most criticism from Israel supporters fearful that a “BDS is a failure” storyline might cause us to miss what the boycotters are actually up to).

While I have tremendous respect for all of these writers and the arguments they are making, they are similar to previous sides taken in similar debates in that they focus too narrowly on a tactic (BDS) without analyzing the wider framework into which that tactic fits.

Before BDS (a brand that came into vogue in the mid-2000s), there was simply “divestment” (the name of campaigns that started with the 2001 “anti-racism” conference in Durban). And before divestment there were campaigns to get the US to end its financial support for the Jewish state. Before those, there were calls to get schools, churches and governments to pass motions condemning Israel for this or that alleged crime. Woven into all these projects was the strategic goal of branding Israel as the successor to Apartheid South Africa.

This strategic goal was and is part of a wider project. For if Israel = Apartheid in the minds of enough people, then its demise would be considered not sad and evil, but wonderful and good. And if the ultimate goal of those pushing this propaganda campaign is to see the Jewish state destroyed (which it is), then BDS can be seen as the propaganda arm of a wider military strategy, with militaries and terror groups allied with Israel’s national enemies assigned the role of carrying out the actual violence for which anti-Israel propaganda provides cover.

What this means is that we cannot judge the success or failure of anti-Israel movements by looking at just this student council vote or that state anti-BDS legislation (or even the number of them increasing or decreasing over time). For anti-Israel agitation has been with us since before the BDS acronym was invented, and will continue – organized around different tactics – if the Israel haters drop boycott and divestment tactics altogether.

While part of the reason behind a slow-down in BDS activity can be chalked up to our side’s successful efforts to organize resistance to it, there are also geopolitical reasons for why we find ourselves where we are today. Most notably, the chaos in the Arab world and growing understanding by Sunni nations of the threat of Iran means traditional supporters of every aspect of the global anti-Israel crusade (such as Saudi Arabia) are losing interest in both the Palestinians and those that support them.

Also, whatever you think about chaotic US politics, there is clearly a difference in how the current administration treats Israel and the Middle East vs. the last occupant of the White House.

As outlined here, one has to understand the field of battle before understanding whether one is winning or losing on the ground. And, despite where conflicts are taking place, the actual battlefield is not the chambers of student or municipal government. Rather, those skirmishes are part of a wider plan to damage or destroy the walls (physical, military, economic, diplomatic and emotional) that protect the Jewish state from harm

This means we need to determine if the siege warfare Israel’s strategy for survival is based on is working or not. If it is, then we should continue to support anything that makes Israel’s position stronger while weakening her enemies. If it’s not, then we should find out where the cracks are in the Jewish nation’s defensive barriers and put our effort into patching them and shoring up protective barriers in hope that those who began this war (Israel’s enemies – the only ones that can end it) eventually come to their senses.

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US consulate annex, Jerusalem

JTA has an article interviewing various Zionists about the idea of billionaire Sheldon Adelson funding, or partially funding, the building of a new US Embassy building in Jerusalem.

The people interviewed, who all strongly support the embassy move, are unanimously against private funding for the building. One example:

Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, who is close to Adelson, referred to AP’s reporting that Adelson might seek other funders, including among pro-Israel Christians.
“This is a United States government project and policy, I don’t think it should be ‘the evangelicals, the Jews made this happen.’ It should be crystal clear the U.S. government made this happen,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for any private citizen to pay for the U.S. Embassy to be moved.”

I agree. Already Arab media is using the Adelson story to make it look like it is rich US Jews who are influencing the administration's policies.

The positive impact of the US decision to move the embassy is precisely because it was made by the US government, not because there were special interests involved. If other countries will follow the same path and open their own embassies in Jerusalem, it will be because the US led the way as the moral and correct move - and if that fact is tainted by the idea that it was only supported by an influential interest group, it will dilute the effect of the embassy move. It will no longer look like the US is doing it because it is the right thing to do, but because rich Jews influenced the US to do so.

The people interviewed did point out that the US accepts private funding for specific embassy events, as well as for artwork that is displayed there. Adelson can happily bankroll bringing in American artists to spread American culture, something embassies and consulates do all the time.

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Reuters reported on yesterday's closing of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre:

Church leaders in Jerusalem shut the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Sunday in protest at a new Israeli tax policy and a proposed land expropriation law which they called an unprecedented attack on Christians in the Holy Land.

Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian church leaders said the holy site, a popular stop for pilgrims and where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried, would remain closed until further notice.

...The churches’ protest was also aimed at the recent cancellation by Israel’s Jerusalem municipality of a tax exemption it has granted to church-owned commercial properties in the city.

“This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe,” the church leaders said.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said on Twitter it was illogical to expect that church-owned commercial property, including hotels and retail businesses, would continue to enjoy tax-exempt status.

“Let me make it clear: we are not talking about houses of worship, who will still be exempt from property tax, according to law,” he wrote.

Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, pilgrims voiced their disappointment at finding its doors shut.

“I am very upset. It’s my first time here and I made a big effort to get here and now I find it closed,” said Marine Domenech from Lille, France.

EoZ contributor Irene points out to me:

As a Catholic, I am outraged that Christian leaders closed a church to protest a government policy. These people live in a democracy and in a society that affords them many ways to protest or challenge government actions. Closing one of the holiest churches in Christiandom should not be one of them.

Pilgrims from all over the world travel (at great expense) to Jerusalem just to visit Christian sites. Presumably quite a few of them will be traveling home without having been able to attend mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

I think that Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat should announce that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher just lost its tax exempt status because it is being used for political purposes rather than worship, as evidenced by its closure, which apparently included locking its doors. He should assess taxes at least for the day(s) it is closed.

And then she pointed me to an overview article of American tax law and religious institutions. It makes several points:

Tax Exemptions Are Not a Right

The most fundamental thing to understand is that no group and no church is “owed” a tax exemption. These exemptions on various taxes are in no way protected by the Constitution — they are created by the legislatures, regulated by the legislatures, and can be taken away by the legislatures. At the same time, tax exemptions — including those for religious groups — are not prohibited by the Constitution.

No Tax Exemptions for Commercial Activity

Tax exemptions are almost entirely restricted to those affairs which are religious rather than commercial in nature. Thus, there are numerous tax exemptions on property owned by churches and used for religious worship, but exemptions are normally denied on property used for commerce and business. The site of an actual church will be exempt, but the site of a church-owned shoe store will rarely if ever, be exempt.

Court Cases:
Diffenderfer v. Central Baptist ChurchGibbons v. District of Columbia

The same is true for income from sales. Money a church receives from donations of members and from financial investments are normally treated as tax-exempt. On the other hand, money which a church receives from the sale of goods and services — even including goods like religious books and magazines — will normally have sales tax applied, though not income tax at the other end.

Court Cases:
Jimmy Swaggart Ministries v. CaliforniaHaller v. Pennsylvania

For church leaders in Jerusalem to compare taxing commercial church property to persecution of Jews in the Dark Ages - by their Christian ancestors! - is a special kind of perversion.

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J-Street's Jeremy Ben Ami lies again, claims Abbas accepts "two states for two peoples"

In a new mailing from J-Street, Jeremy Ben Ami waxes poetic over Mahmoud Abbas' "peace plan" of giving up nothing and demanding everything be handed to him on a silver platter:

Last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made an important speech to the UN Security Council.

Abbas laid out explicit support for the two-state solution and put forward a serious proposal for how to get there.

Of course, if Ben Ami had been paying attention, Abbas was not showing the slightest willingness to make any hard decisions for peace - as he and his predecessor have adamantly refused to do so for over twenty years.

But then Ben-Ami goes into complete fantasyland:

So it’s stunning when you realize that, today, of the three, the Palestinians are the only party willing to publicly endorse the goal of two states for two peoples.

This is a breathtaking lie.

Never has Abbas recognized Israel as a Jewish state, and he never will. He certainly didn't do so in his speech. Without that, there are no "two states for two peoples."

This has been what Israel has insisted upon since Camp David. The very expression "two states for two peoples" is Israeli. Israel has never stopped endorsing it. The phrase is mentioned numerous times on Israel's Foreign Ministry website, today.

Sometimes, Palestinians and apologists for their double talk like Jeremy Ben Ami will claim that Palestinians do accept two states for two people - but when they say that they mean the "Israeli" people, not the Jewish. people. That is almost certainly what Ben Ami meant - and he is knowingly deceiving his readers who do not realize the depth of his hate for Israel as a Jewish state.

But actual people who care about actual peace know that he is throwing dust in their eyes with this lie.

After all, J-Street itself is against Israel being recognized as the Jewish state. They knowingly obscure their "two states" demand by saying things like this:

J-Street does not say that Jews have the right to self determination, but "Israelis." Which makes no sense, since there was no "Israeli" people before 1948 - so whose self-determination was realized with the rebirth of the state of Israel?

There is no daylight between the official Palestinian position stated to the world and J-Street. It is not pro-Israel in any sense.

And people who believe that all peoples have the right to self determination but not Jews, which seems to be J-Street's position, are antisemitic.

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

02/25 Links: Cheering Netanyahu says US embassy move will have ‘long-term implications’; The Dark Return of Polish Anti-Semitism; Iran Wants to Join the World Order It Undermines

From Ian:

Cheering Netanyahu says US embassy move will have ‘long-term implications’

The US decision to relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem will have “long-term implications,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, reiterating his praise of the announcement and thanking US President Donald Trump for the “historic” move planned for Israel’s 70th Independence Day anniversary in May.

“This is a great moment for the citizens of Israel and a historic moment for the State of Israel,” Netanyahu told his ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. “All the citizens of Israel will celebrate it together. It has long-term implications and great historic significance.”

Repeating comments he made in a Saturday night video praising the US announcement, Netanyahu thanked the Trump for the planned move, whose timing was announced Friday, following the US president’s declaration in December recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“I want to thank President Trump, on behalf of the entire government and the entire people, for both your leadership and friendship. President Trump you are a great friend to the State of Israel. We thank you,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu is expected to invite Trump to Israel in May to inaugurate the new US embassy, Hadashot TV news reported on Saturday.

The US State Department notified Congress on Friday that the Jerusalem embassy would open in May to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel declaring independence, speeding up the process by converting a building currently housing consular services into the embassy.

The State Department confirmed the timing of the move.

May 14th 1948, President Truman recognizes Israel.

May 14th 2018, @POTUS Trump will move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

70 years apart.Two historic decisions. One united capital.

🇮🇱🇺🇲
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) February 23, 2018

Why is the U.S. speeding up its Jerusalem embassy move?

When Tillerson made his comments about 2020 and beyond, he was thinking of what it would mean to relocate an entire, permanent embassy, which is a huge production that entails having to find a site, negotiate terms, provide security, and build the building.

When it indeed appeared that this would take years, other eyes started to look into the matter, including those of Friedman, and other scenarios were evaluated, one of which was to do the move in stages.

The logic behind this was that if the decision was already made, then it should be implemented as quickly as possible. The idea was also that Trump, having made the decision against the advice of most of the world, should reap the political benefits and see it happen by at least the end of his first term.

But why wait that long? What is gained by waiting that long? If security is a concern, then the existing complex in Arnona – one of the most secure sites in Jerusalem – provides a solution. And what better time to do it then to have it coincide with the 70th Independence Day.

According to this explanation that the decision was based primarily on logistical considerations, the decision to make the move now is just the result of looking at the options and realize that it is possible to make the move much earlier – if done in stages – than originally anticipated.

Scoop: Palestinian NGO "Save Gaza" "Charity Coalition" is a Hamas terrorist front

Over the past month a new slick social media campaign has popped up called #SaveGaza, on Twitter and Facebook. The initiative has already managed to produce quite a few press events with statistics about how bad things are in Gaza, all blaming Israel.

Its inaugural event was described this way in Al Bawaba (English):

The Gaza Strip has officially become a “disaster zone," the Charity Coalition, an umbrella organization for Islamic charity groups, said Thursday.

“We therefore announce the launch of the Safe Gaza Initiative with a view to meeting the basic needs of Gaza’s two million inhabitants,” coalition coordinator Ahmad al-Kurd said at a press conference in Gaza City.

Al-Kurd called on Arab and Muslim relief agencies, along with international aid organizations, to take immediate steps aimed at “rescuing Gazans from the steadily deteriorating conditions they face."

There was a demonstration organized by the same group with disabled Gazans holding up signs in Arabic and English asking where their rights are for food, water and treatment.

Today, the same group, using bogus statistics, claimed that Israel's "siege" of Gaza has claimed 1000 lives so far. They come up with this number by counting people who have died waiting for PA approval for medical treatment outside Gaza, by counting people who have died in fires started by dangerous kerosene and wood heaters and candles (blaming Israel for lack of power, which is false,) and by counting 350 people who supposedly died while looking for jobs.

Ahmad al-Kurd, in the press conference, is begging for help from the world to help the poor Gazans dying from the "siege."

"We are launching a loud cry today for the whole world to save Gaza from these catastrophic circumstances," he said. "How many victims must die?"

What is not being reported is that Ahmad al Kurd is a senior Hamas official and his "charities" are all Hamas fronts, designated as such by the US government, back in 2007.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated the Al-Salah Society, one of the largest and best-funded Hamas charitable organizations in the Palestinian territories. Al-Salah Society's director, Ahmad Al-Kurd, was also designated today.

"Hamas has used the Al-Salah Society, as it has many other charitable fronts, to finance its terrorist agenda," said Adam Szubin, Director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). "Today's action alerts the world to the true nature of Al-Salah and cuts it off from the U.S. financial system."

The Al-Salah Society supported Hamas-affiliated combatants during the first Intifada and recruited and indoctrinated youth to support Hamas's activities. It also financed commercial stores, kindergartens, and the purchase of land for Hamas. One of the most senior Gaza-based Hamas leaders and founders, Ismail Abu Shanab, openly identified the Al-Salah Society as "one of the three Islamic charities that form Hamas' welfare arm." The Al-Salah Society has received substantial funding from Persian Gulf countries, including at least hundreds of thousands of dollars from Kuwaiti donors.

The Al-Salah Society is directed by Ahmad Al-Kurd, a recognized high-ranking Hamas leader in Gaza. Al-Kurd's affiliation with Hamas goes back over a decade. During the first Intifada, Al-Kurd served as a Hamas Shura Council member in Gaza. As of late 2003, Al-Kurd was allegedly the top Hamas leader in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza. Since mid-2005, he has served as the mayor of Deir Al-Balah, elected as a Hamas candidate.

The Al-Salah Society has employed a number of Hamas military wing members. In late 2002, an official of the Al-Salah Society in Gaza was the principal leader of a Hamas military wing structure in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza. The founder and former director of the Al-Salah Society's Al-Maghazi branch reportedly also operated as a member of the Hamas military wing structure in Al-Maghazi, participated in weapons deals, and served as a liaison to the rest of the Hamas structure in Al-Maghazi. At least four other Hamas military wing members in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza were tied to the Al-Salah Society.

The Al-Salah Society was included on a list of suspected Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad-affiliated NGOs whose accounts were frozen by the Palestinian Authority as of late August 2003. After freezing the bank accounts, PA officials confirmed that the Al-Salah Society was a front for Hamas.

The new coalition of Hamas front groups is much savvier, making sure that their videos are in English and using the disabled and children to tug at heartstrings.

In fact, much of the money raised is going to build rockets and tunnels.

The #SaveGaza hashtag is becoming more and more popular; it is unclear whether the groups using it are aware that they are promoting a terror group.

Hamas is in worse financial shape lately since it lost its funding from most Gulf countries. This "Charity Coalition" is an extremely cynical use of charity to raise funds to kill Israelis.

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Over the weekend, the the head of the Qatar National Committee for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Al-Emadi, criticized PA president Mahmoud Abbas over his collective punishment of Gazans to pressure Hamas, which includes withholding medicines, fuel and salaries.

Al Emadi told reporters, "I've said to President Abbas before: You are the president of the Palestinian people in full, give something to your children, leave the politics aside and do not give anything to Hamas or anything else; just give something to your people."

He warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is on the verge of "total collapse...where the citizens have no one to help them.. There is a government that does not fulfill its duty, ... and only the people pay the price."

"We told Israel that the situation in Gaza is intolerable. You have to find a solution to this. You have the key and you are the jailers. There is also blame for the Palestinian Authority and blame for Egypt, which does not open the Rafah crossing," he said.

The head of the Fatah media office Mounir Jagoub responded that "Qatar's statements themselves deny the human character, and reflect incomprehensible positions that are abusive to the Palestinian leadership."

Jagoub continued, "Al-Emadi's political statements before the news agencies against Brother Abu Mazen is an attempt to exploit the tragic situation in Gaza, disguising what we offer our people there under our duty of support as we share with them money and medicine. " He called on Al-Emadi to "retreat from his positions, which are consistent with the campaigns aimed at perpetuating division and spreading division among our people."

Qatar has been boycotted by other Gulf states for its refusal to cut ties with Iran, and the country has been on a charm offensive centered on right wing American Jewish leaders, who have surprisingly allowed themselves to be used in this cynical way to provide cover for the country.

Qatar has been trying for years to position itself as an honest broker in the Middle East, talking with anyone - including Israel - presumably to increase its own prestige as a power player. And it has done the same in Gaza, cooperating with Hamas in providing aid to Gazans.

And yet, the impression I've gotten from watching its actions in Gaza is that despite its political ambitions and its current setbacks, Qatar is the only Arab country that seems to care about actual Gazans and their welfare. Much of its help has been towards purely humanitarian projects - housing, medicine and the like. It is true that when Hamas had full control over Gaza, Qatar's funding made it easier for Hamas to abdicate its own responsibility as the de facto government there, and instead put its money into building a terror infrastructure. Still, Qatar's willingness to put hundreds of millions into Gaza has shows that the other Arab nations' pro-Palestinian rhetoric is hollow.

Hamas is willing to use Gazans as human shields. The PA is willing to hurt them in its attempt to retake Gaza. Egypt has nothing against Gazans themselves but it will not risk its own security just to help them out. Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states consider Hamas to be the enemy both because of its Muslim Brotherhood origins and its friendliness with Iran, so they only pay lip service to Gaza.

Qatar is no paradigm of morality, but it seems to care more about Gaza than the rest of the Palestinians themselves do, let alone the rest of the Arab world and the many supposedly "pro-Palestinian" NGOs that will never say a word against anyone besides Israel.

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

A completely false "history " of Jerusalem, written by an Egyptian academic in 2016, is receiving rave reviews in Arabic media since it claims that the Arabs built the city and Jews have no claim whatsoever.

Dr. Qasem Abdu Kassem is the head of the History Department, at Zagazig University. "Jerusalem ... History and a Civilizational Identity - Jerusalem tells its story", is not meant to be read by scholars, though - it is propaganda meant to be read by Arabs in the form of an "autobiography" of Jerusalem.

Extended quotes from the book are written in two separate reviews published since the US announcement of moving the embassy.

The very beginning exposes the lies that underlie the book:

I am not a normal city like all the cities in this world: I have been a holy city since my birth.....
I was born when my family built me: the Jebusite Arabs who had migrated from the Arabian Peninsula with the Canaanites in the fifth millennium BC. ...

There is no evidence that pre-Israelite Jerusalem was a holy city when it was founded, although there is some Biblical evidence that it had achieved that status in Abraham's time.

There is no evidence that the Jebusites (or any of the Canaanites) are Arabs who migrated from the Arabian Peninsula.

The book goes on to claim that the Israelites were Bedouin nomads for hundreds of years:

For one reason or another, the Jews fled from Egypt to Sinai and lived in the [Sinai] peninsula for a period of time. The period was called "Taha" because they were wandering in the Sinai ...
After the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, the Prophet Moses did not know me, and I did not know him: he never reached Palestine. Moses' journey in the Sinai with the Israelites was not easy at all; they lived on the peninsula, which was the "land of tranquility" for them for hundreds of years: they worshiped the [golden] calf without God, and resisted Moses, peace be upon him. They only reached Palestine after three hundred years or more. They lived the hard-boiled Bedouin life that made them forget the stable urban life they knew in Egypt. And so their generations were then nomads ...

This is obvious anti-Israel propaganda, written by a respected historian (who had previously written many more academically-oriented books about Egypt's history) as a popular history of Jerusalem.

It seems likely that variants of this fiction are being taught to children, today.

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

02/24 Links: Father of Taylor Force, the Military Vet Murdered in Palestinian Stabbing Attack: We Are Not Suckers; Rasmea Odeh the terrorist deported from US invited to speak in Amsterdam

From Ian:

Father of Taylor Force, US Business Student and Military Vet Murdered in Palestinian Stabbing Attack: We Are Not Suckers

Stuart Force — the father of the late Taylor Force, the American business student and military veteran who was murdered in a stabbing attack in Israel in 2016 — spoke on Friday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington, DC, and called on the Senate to approve a pending piece of legislation, named for his son, that would cut off US government funding of the Palestinian Authority if it continues to pay monetary rewards to terrorists and their families.

“The Palestinian Authority leadership tells the world that these payments are simply social welfare payments,” Stuart Force said. “But we aren’t suckers. We know that these are US taxpayer dollars being used to incentivize and fund terror.”

“It has been emotionally distressing to relive the loss of our son over the past two years,” Force told the crowd at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. “But we have come to realize there are so many more good people in the world than there are evil ones. The evil ones seem to get all the attention, online and in the media. The good people of the world deserve better. Passing the Taylor Force Act and stopping the terror funding is a great place to start the process.”

“The House [of Representatives] has passed its version of the act,” Force explained. “The next step is to allocate floor time on the Senate, pass its version, reconcile the two, and send it to President Trump for his signature.”

“This is not a partisan issue, this is an anti-terrorism issue,” Force went on to say. “This is a right versus wrong issue. We look forward to being in the Senate gallery when the act passes with unanimous, bipartisan, support, and we can fist bump, hug, and cry, like we did in the House gallery.”

Bret Stephens: Don’t Count Bibi Out — Yet

If you follow the news from Israel, you might surmise that Benjamin Netanyahu’s days as prime minister are numbered. The police recommend that he be charged on multiple counts of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Fresh charges may yet be brought in additional investigations. A former top aide to Netanyahu agreed this week to serve as a witness against him. Press reports suggest a man clinging to power.

Don’t be so sure. If an election were held tomorrow, Bibi — as Netanyahu is universally known in Israel — and his Likud party would likely win, according to recent polls. Roughly half of Israelis think the prime minister should quit, but that’s down from 60 percent in December. Netanyahu has no intention of resigning, even if the attorney general chooses to indict him. The Likud rank-and-file remain loyal to their leader. His coalition partners may detest him, but for now they see greater political advantage in a wounded prime minister than in a fresh one.

Besides, Bibi has been, for Israelis, a pretty good prime minister. Some indicators:

Economy: Since Netanyahu returned to power in 2009, the economy has grown by nearly 30 percent in constant dollars — nearly twice the growth rate of Germany or the United States. Some 3.6 million tourists visited Israel in 2017, a record for the Jewish state. On Monday, Israel announced a $15 billion dollar deal to export natural gas to Egypt from its huge offshore fields.

Diplomacy: Netanyahu’s personal ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are exceptionally close, as they are with Japan’s Shinzo Abe. Israel’s relations with African countries and the Arab world are the best they’ve been in decades; reaction in Riyadh and Cairo to the Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem amounted to a shrug. Netanyahu’s 2015 speech to Congress opposing the Iran deal, billed as an affront to the Obama administration, turned out to be an inspiration for Israel’s neighbors. And Netanyahu’s arguments against the deal now prevail in the current White House. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Palestinian ex-terrorist deported from US invited to speak in Amsterdam

Right-wing Dutch lawmakers have protested a far-left group’s invitation of a Palestinian ex-terrorist who was deported from the United States to speak in the Dutch capital.

Machiel de Graaf and Gidi Markuszower of the Party for Freedom expressed opposition to Rasmea Odeh’s planned visit in a query they submitted Thursday to Justice and Security Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus.

“Do you agree that a convicted terrorist and immigration fraudster has nothing to look for in the Netherlands? If not, why not?” the lawmakers wrote, adding: “Are you prepared to deny her entrance? If not, why?”

In the Netherlands, lawmakers use parliamentary queries to draw the media’s attention to issues and direct scrutiny of the actions of the ministers queried, who have up to three weeks to reply.

Odeh was invited to the Netherlands by Anakbayan-Europe, a Filipino communist group, and another fringe left organization called Revolutionary Unity.