Continuing from last
week’s discussion of how to tell if we are winning or losing the fight
against BDS, you might think the best way to answer that question would be to
draw from numerical information. Numbers
don’t lie, after all. But do they always
tell the truth?
I thought about this several years ago when I read the exciting subhead
to this
story which explained we don’t need to worry so much about campus
anti-Semitism since BDS is absent from 97% of colleges and universities in
America.
Great news! one would first think in knowing that your cause is aligned
with a big number (97%) vs. a small one (3%) until you realize that this entire
analysis is an inadvertent, but still misleading, example of Proofiness.
That word comes from a 2010
book of the same name which is subtitled "The Dark Arts of
Mathematical Deception." The term
derives from Stephen Colbert's "truthiness," a word the comic
invented to describe "facts" that sound so good, they must be true
(especially if they confirm what you already want to believe).
Proofiness plays with the human tendency to treat quantitative data
more respectfully than we treat other types of information, which is why we
(for example) lap up the latest poll results, regardless of how wildly
divergent they are from one another, and despite the fact that their predictive
power has been shown to be minimal.
(Exhibit A-Z: Polls associated with the last US election.)
Because most people's desire to believe numerical data is coupled with
a lack of understanding of mathematical concepts (for instance, does that
"margin of error" reported in the last set of polls you read about
include potential systemic error – such as poorly worded survey questions – or
just statistical variance?), people can easily be deceived by different types of
mathematical deception.
My favorite of these is the unit
fallacy which you'll see frequently in discussions involving rates or
percentages. This is the one where a CEO
of a company whose profits have risen from 10% to 12% will express this growth
as "our profits have grown 20%," which is technically accurate (if
that 20% is applied to the original percentage, rather than the whole), but
misleading since most people think of "growing 20%" as implying
addition (which would make such a description more suitable for profits growing
from 10% to 30%).
Proofiness is a staple of election politics where candidates play all
kinds of fruity tactics, from cherry
picking data to comparing apples to
oranges. But in the case of the Times
of Israel headline, we are faced with inadvertent Proofiness based on the
seemingly remarkable statistic of only 3% of colleges dealing with anti-Israel
incidents.
On the surface, this certainly seems like a wonderfully positive
trend. After all, 97% is much, much
bigger than 3%, and if I wanted to think of myself as being on the winning
side, I'd far prefer to ally myself with that very large number vs. the very
small one (which explains the Occupy Movement’s "We are the 99%" slogan
– another "proofy" assertion).
But remember that there are over 4000 colleges in the US, which means
that 3% comes out to over 100 schools.
And if you heard a headline that said anti-Israel activity was prevalent
in more than 100 US college campuses, you'd probably react differently than you
would to that 97% vs. 3% figure. Further,
if you looked at a list of those colleges (which would go on for 2-4 pages,
depending on font size), you might not feel victorious at all, especially since
such a list would include some of the biggest and best known schools in the
country (including most of the Ivy League and the vast University of California
system).
But before panicking at a different packaging of the same data, a look
at the original
report the Times story was covering provides a more reasonable description
of the situation, one that will be familiar to most Divest This readers.
For, as that report analyzes (and the Times headline does actually
confirm correctly), US campuses are not aflame.
Anti-Israel activity is not constant, even on the 100+ campuses where it
is regular. BDS, while not a complete
wash out, is hardly on the march (and has yet to trigger even a dollar of
actual divestment from the Jewish state).
Most schools where loud protests, ongoing anti-Israel lectures and film
series, or hectoring professors are a problem, these anti-Israel partisans have
to compete with increasing numbers of pro-Israel students who long ago decided
they had every right to use their own free speech rights to counter Israel's
defamers.
Still, anti-Israel hate campaigns at 100+ schools is a problem
(especially if who is in that 100 changes each year, meaning we could be seeing
seeds planted at 200, 300 or more schools over the course of the decade). But figuring out what to do at a hundred
high-profile campuses is a much smaller (or at least a different) challenge
than having to deal with thousands of flaming campuses, which is why a dose of
reality can actually help our side make more effective decisions on where to
put time and resources.
So rather than panic that the campuses are turning against us, or take the
equally fallacious path of deciding the problem is solved (since it
"only" impacts 3% of schools), we should focus our attention on
ensuring that students on each of the campuses where anti-Israel activity
predominates have the knowledge, the tools and the arguments they need to ensure
the BDSers and other Israel haters continue to be defeated and ignored.
We must also realize that since the war against Israel is not something
we started, that we have no control over when it ends. And so we need to brace for campus (and
other) fights that will go on year after year after year, showing the same
level of persistence and resolve as Israel's foes, but bolstered by better
tactics and the fact that we are in the right.
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.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will be replaced by his deputy, Mahmoud al-Aloul, if he becomes unable to fulfill his duties, Fatah's Central Committee decided in Ramallah on Saturday.
According to Palestinian media outlets, Fatah's Central Committee decided that should Abbas, 82, were unable to continue in his role, al-Aloul will be appointed "acting president of Palestine for a period of three months until elections can be held."
Al-Aloul was elected Abbas' deputy several months ago.
According to senior Fatah officials, the committee, also amended Palestinian law to facilitate the transfer of Abbas' presidential powers to his deputy if it becomes imperative, for the aforementioned three-month interim period.
"The amendment to Palestinian law on the matter of transferring Abbas' presidential authorities to his deputy Mahmoud al-Aloul, was made in light of rumors regarding Abbas' failing health," one council official said.
I think that the story got one detail wrong - it was a Fatah Revolutionary Party meeting, not a Fatah Central Committee meeting.
But why is Fatah, ostensibly a political party, making up laws for the Palestinian Authority? Shouldn't its cabinet, headed by prime minister Rami Hamdallah, be involved?
Who is in charge?
The answer is - Mahmoud Abbas is a dictator. He, and Arafat before him, has created the illusion of being democratically elected but in fact there is no democracy and no independence - it is all him.
The Palestinian Authority is not the government of the so-called State of Palestine. The Palestinian Legislative Council is the "parliament" of the Palestinian Authority but the PA is not the government, as has very limited responsibilities. (The PLC has more Hamas members than Fatah members, so it has effectively been nullified by Abbas.)
The Palestinian National Council is the "parliament" of the PLO, which is really the ruling government of "Palestine" as is recognized as such by the UN. Anyone who says that Abbas was democratically elected - even forgetting that his term expired many years ago - is an ignoramus or a liar. The PA reports to the PLO and it always has, and the UN recognizes the PLO as the government of the "State of Palestine."
Abbas leads the PLO Executive Committee and as such makes all the decisions for the PLO, and for the PA. And he of course leads Fatah, which includes the terrorist Al Aqsa Brigades that everyone likes to pretend don't exist even though they show their loyalty to Abbas.
Needless to say, there is no democracy in electing the leader of the PLO, even though its own Palestinian National Council pretends to have been elected by Palestinian Arabs both inside and outside the territories.
Since Fatah is the dominant party of the PLO, effectively Fatah makes the decisions. I had never seen Fatah claim to make the actual laws before, but in the end the distinction between Fatah and the PLO is artificial anyway. (There are non-Fatah members of the PLO, there to make it look more "democratic.")
I drew up this graphic in 2012 and it is still accurate:
The West, when funding the PA, pretends that the PLO doesn't exist and makes no decisions on how the money is actually spent. But the PLO controls everything in the PA.
Remember when the EU said that it won't pay money to the funds that pay terrorists and their families? The PLO simply moved that budget item from the PA to the PLO itself, so there would be an extra layer of obfuscation and the EU won't feel guilty anymore. But it is all a shell game.
Too bad the media has never caught on to the dictatorship of Mahmoud Abbas, complete with arrests of people who write anything against him.
The closing statement of the Fatah Revolutionary council meeting "reiterated its support for President Mahmoud Abbas and his political outlook." It sounds as comical as a Soviet press release No one bothers to notice how close Abbas really is to a Stalin, while the world media treats him like a Ghandi.
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J-Street placed a full page ad in the New York Times saying that Abbas has accepted a two state solution - but Netanyahu and Trump have not:
Here is a photo of Mahmoud Abbas from last Thursday - after he supposedly accepted a two-state solution at the Security Council - as he attended a Fatah Revolutionay Council meeting.
Note the logo on the folder he is holding. It is the Fatah logo, of the political party he heads. And it does not show a two-state solution. In fact, it urges a violent armed takeover of all of Israel.
There has never been any move to change the Fatah logo to indicate acceptance of Israel's existence, by Abbas or any of this people.
But J-Street knows that the head of the group whose logo boasts three weapons taking over the Jewish state is the peaceful party. .
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Robert Fisk of The Independent defended the idea of Mahmoud Abbas buying his own personal jet (equivalent to a 737-700), claimed that Israelis who criticized it are being hypocritical, and mentioned the parties involved in the transaction:
Buying private jets is a complicated business, and the documents studied by The Independent show that talks started for the purchase of Abbas’s aircraft last autumn – long before Trump’s threats – and that they involved buying the $50m plane from the Chinese Nanshan Jet company through Jetcraft Corporation of Minnesota in the US, and a “good faith” deposit of $500,000 with lawyers Donald H Bunker and Associates in Dubai. Several documents are signed by Wael Sobeih, the aviation portfolio manager of the Palestine Investment Fund, and acknowledged by Rasha Qawasmi, the head of finance. Other papers show that the transaction involved the United Overseas Bank of Singapore and Jet Aviation, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, and, intriguingly, a company called AGAMC of Aruba in the Dutch Caribbean.
Fisk doesn't bother to explain why buying private jets is so complicated, and his intrigue the the involvement of an Aruba company wasn't enough for him to check down that path.
The actual purchase seems to have been through this AGAMC company, as this document shows:
The AGAMC letter is signed by Wael Sobeih, who Fisk identifies as the "aviation portfolio manager of the Palestine Investment Fund."
Clearly, AGAMC is a front for the Palestine Investment Fund.
Its managing director is Mohammed Abdullah Mustafa, and he is also the managing director for another Aruba company, Avmax Group International.
Maybe there is a perfectly reasonable reason for the PLO to set up front companies through the PIF in Aruba, but it doesn't seem quite like the way a real government should act.
(h/t Bill P)
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Two Israeli soldiers and one civilian were wounded in a car-ramming assault in the northern city of Acre on Sunday. Police have confirmed that the incident was a nationalistically motivated terror attack.
The attack took place near the city’s central train station. The driver of the car was shot by a soldier at the scene and taken to a hospital in critical condition.
His name has not been released, but the Hebrew news site Mako identified him as a resident of the Israeli-Arab town of Shfaram.
Police official Benny Avaliya stated, “There is almost 100 percent — if not 100 percent — certainty that we are dealing with a terror attack.”
The driver apparently first struck a policeman, then proceeded to hit two young soldiers nearby. Eli Bin, an official with the Magen David Adom emergency service, told Israel’s Channel 2 that paramedics arrived at the scene and found that the victims were lightly wounded. They were quickly evacuated to a hospital in the nearby town of Nahariya.
Magen David Adom’s Dovi Richter, who was at the scene, said, “I saw two young people around 20 fully conscious. They lay at the side of the road and suffered from light wounds in the head and body. I gave them first aid. I put them in the ambulance and we brought them in good condition to the hospital in Nahariya. We also treated a man around 51 who was wounded in the legs.”
Paramedic Shai Markovitz of emergency service Hatzalah gave first aid to the attacker, saying, “I found a driver who was critically injured after having suffered multiple gunshot wounds.”
The Hamas terrorist organization praised Sunday’s ramming attack in the northern Israeli city of Akko, calling the attack “heroic and brave”.
Earlier on Sunday, an Israeli Arab terrorist rammed an Israeli Border Police officer and IDF soldiers at two different locations in the northern coastal city of Akko before being shot and neutralized. The terrorist was later taken into custody and evacuated for treatment. His condition is listed as moderate.
Police later confirmed that the incident was intentional, and that the attacker had acted out of nationalistic motives.
Later on Sunday, the Gaza-based Hamas terror group praised the attack, hailing it as “heroic and brave”.
A Hamas spokesperson further claimed that the attack was a testament to the “determination” of the “Palestinian people to continue in their use of resistance” to defend their land and holy places.
While glorifying the female terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi who led the most lethal terror attack against Israel, Abbas' Fatah Movement tried to hide the fact that the terrorists murdered children and adult civilians.
In a video on Facebook, Fatah lied, claiming the terrorists killed "soldier passengers," on the bus they hijacked, when in fact they murdered 12 children and 25 adult civilians, in what is known as the "Coastal Road Massacre."
These are 12 of those "soldier passengers":
The video assures that terrorist Mughrabi's name "will remain engraved in golden letters in the history of the Palestinian struggle":
Text in video: "When the woman carried a rifle to liberate the homeland
The date:
March 11, 1978
The place:
The Palestinian coast (i.e., the Israeli coast)
12 members of the Deir Yassin squad
The target:
The Israeli Parliament building
Abu Jihad visited the special forces and told the squad they have a task
The time: 18:40
The squad began to carry out the operation
The plan was
to take over an Israeli army bus and drive to Tel Aviv
Dalal Mughrabi - Military commander of the Deir Yassin squad
The squad took over the bus and all of its soldier passengers
Israel appointed a special military unit led by [Ehud] Barak to stop the bus
The squad confronted the Israeli forces. Dalal and her comrades died as Martyrs, and one fell into captivity.
Then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin admitted that 37 Israelis were killed and over 80 were wounded.
Dalal Mughrabi's name will remain engraved in golden letters in the history of the Palestinian struggle and the resistance to the occupation
Production: Fatah TV Montage: Ali Fa'our"
[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Nablus Branch, Jan. 29, 2018;
Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Bethlehem Branch, Jan. 31, 2018]
Abbas has taken to reiterating his claim on behalf of all Palestinian Arabs that “we are the descendants of the Canaanites that lived in the land 5,000 years ago and continued to live there to this day.”
"We are the descendants of the Canaanites who lived in the land of Palestine 5,000 years ago, and continuously remained there to this day. Our great people remains rooted in its land. The Palestinian people built their own cities and homeland, and made contributions to humanity and civilization."
Abbas could just as well claim that Palestinian Arabs are descended from Jews as well. Maybe he just has not gotten around to it. Or maybe it's just that Joseph Massad has beaten him to it.
"I am a Palestinian Christian, and I know what Christianity is. I am a descendant of the first Christians in the world, and Jesus Christ was born in my country, in my land. Bethlehem is a Palestinian town. So I will not accept this one-upmanship on Christianity. Nobody has the monopoly."
this is how Bethlehem is geographically noted in the New Testament:
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea... And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea...And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah... Matthew 2:1, 5-6 [emphasis added]
So much for Ashrawi's alleged knowledge about Christianity.
But what about this claim that Palestinians are descended from Jews?
Hillel Fendel writes about this claim of Palestinian Arabs descended from Jews in an article for Arutz Sheva. He writes that David Ben-Gurion and Yitzchak Ben-Tzvi wrote a book "100 years ago," apparently a reference to "The Land of Israel: Past and Present," which they wrote in Yiddish in 1918:
If we investigate the origins of the Felahim, there is no doubt that much Jewish blood runs in their veins.
Fendel writes that they imply there were Jews who loved the Land so much they were willing to give up their Judaism rather than leave the land. That may be a reference to an edict in 1012 by Caliph el-Hakim, who reportedly ordered non-Muslims to either convert or leave the Land of Israel. Fendel writes of an estimate that 90% of the Jews chose to convert. The decree was revoked 32 years later.
[13th Century Shafi'i Islamic scholar] Ibn Khallikan and others pointed out that the Jews of Khaybar the Khayabira, were exempt from these decrees. Ibn al-Athir conveys very briefly, without mentioning the year, that al-Hakim ordered (after the destruction of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem, which he claims took place in AH 398, that is AD 1007/8) that all the churches in the realm be destroyed and this was done, and that the Jews and the Christians were then to accept Islam, or emigrate to Byzantine lands. They were also obliged to wear special distinguishing signs. Many converted. What [Arab or Kurdish historian and biographer] Ibn al-Athir has to say about the conversions evidently applies mainly to the Christians, for when speaking of the converts return to their former beliefs when he decrees were no longer valid, he only mentions the Christians. But there were also many Jews who converted to Islam, as Elhanan b. Shemaria [Jewish leader in Egypt at the time] explicitly wrote. However, the evidence of Yahya ibn Said is different. He states that the Jews 'generally managed to evade the decree to convert to Islam and only a few of them did convert.'" [emphasis added]
Fendel also writes about Tsvi Misinai, a former hi-tech pioneer who has researched what he claims are the Jewish roots of the Palestinian Arabs. Here is a video from Misinai's website, The Engagement:
In the video, Misinai points to the roughly 4,000 members of the Sawarka Bedouin, found in the Sinai and Negev. One of their tribal leaders claims, in Hebrew, that they "are all Jewish." The leader goes on to say:
They had no choice but to convert; this was centuries ago… I remember my mother and grandmother wouldn’t light fire on Sabbath, and they had a special mikveh…
Then there are the Arabs in a Bedouin village east of Hebron:
they remember burning a small piece of dough (reminiscent of the Mitzvah of taking challah)
they tear their clothes and sit shiva for seven days, instead of three as is Muslim practice.
they have ritual circumcisions after the seventh day of birth.
The video has pictures of homes in some of the Arab villages that have doorpost indentations for a Mezuzah, with a scroll placed in some of them.
By the same token though, it has to be admitted that the use of 6-pointed stars is not limited to Palestinian Arabs. Misinai himself mentions the use of "Solomon's seal" by Muslims, so it is not surprising to find those stars used in other Muslim countries.
The website Pak Tea House: Pakistan - Past, Present and Future features photos by Malik Omaid of mosaic tiles forming the star of David in the Wazir Khan Mosque Lahore in Pakistan. Omaid writes, "back then it was halal [permitted]. No one said its a Jewish conspiracy behind this mosque."
The Circumcision Room (Sünnet Odası) is thought to have been built during the reign of Kanunî Sultan Süleyman - Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent. It is located on the palace grounds’ most spectacular segment facing the Galata district. This pavilion initially planned as the Sultan's summer kiosk (Yazlık Oda) is referred to as Circumcision Room, due to the fact that it was the venue used for the circumcision – a religious tradition in Islam for cleanliness and purity - ceremony of the princes-sons of Sultan Ahmet III (1703 -1730).
This does not refute Misinai, but it does show that more research is needed when it comes to common elements and customs. It is certainly likely that there are Palestinian Arabs that are descended from Jews, but it is not clear how many there are.
But as pointed out in Misinai's video, if there really are Palestinian Arabs who are descended from Jews, it should be possible to detect that by their genetic markers. The video features Dr. Oppenheim who was part of a group that did research resulting in a report apparently proving that connection. Here is an abstract from one report in 2000 from Hebrew University:
Y chromosome variation in the I&P Arabs was compared to that of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, and to that of North Welsh individuals. At the haplogroup level, defined by the binary polymorphisms only, the Y chromosome distribution in Arabs and Jews was similar but not identical. At the haplotype level, determined by both binary and microsatellite markers, a more detailed pattern was observed. Single-step microsatellite networks of Arab and Jewish haplotypes revealed a common pool for a large portion of Y chromosomes, suggesting a relatively recent common ancestry. The two modal haplotypes in the I&P Arabs were closely related to the most frequent haplotype of Jews (the Cohen modal haplotype). However, the I&P Arab clade that includes the two Arab modal haplotypes (and makes up 32% of Arab chromosomes) is found at only very low frequency among Jews, reflecting divergence and/or admixture from other populations.[emphasis added]
The report, as Oppenheim says in the video, show common ancestry -- but again, this is not conclusive.
Of course, when compared with people from Wales, Jews and Arabs indeed look quite similar. However, when they compared Israeli Jews with the same Arab sample, but this time included comparisons with Kurds, Armenians, Turks, Syrians, Jordanians, Lebanese, and Bedouin, the picture looked quite different. Although all of the Middle Eastern populations bore some similarities to each other (a fairly robust finding confirmed in other works), “Jews were found to be more closely related to groups in the north of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks, and Armenians) than to their Arab neighbors.” For some, this will evoke the biblical account of Abraham’s origins in Ur of the Chaldees, and raise the possibility that the story contains echoes of an ancient population movement. Alternatively, Jews, Kurds, Armenians, and Anatolian Turks may all carry the genetic markers of ancient indigenous populations of the Fertile Crescent, while Palestinian Arabs and Bedouin may largely descend from the Arab conquerors, with their distinctive genetic signifiers. [emphasis added]
But as the Appelbaum's see it, beyond genetics the problem is there are multiple possible ancestors for today's Palestinian Arabs:
o The Muslim Arabs who conquered the land in the 7th century o The conquered inhabitants of the land, who converted o The Arabs who later immigrated to the land when it was economically desirable
Even then, it is impossible to know what proportion of the Palestinian Arab population is descended from each group.
And that leads to the overarching problem that the Palestinian Arabs face, as formulated by the Appelbaum's:
Because Palestinian Arabs are part of an ethnic group historically proud of having arrived as conquerors, the question of how to claim historical primacy has been the source of some perplexity among Palestinian nationalists.
After all, how nationalistic can a Palestinian Arab be if he is descended from the Arab invaders who conquered the land while identifying with the people and religion of Arabia?
It just seems neater and simpler for the Palestinian Arab to just claim that in reality, they have been there all along.
There are some Palestinian Arabs who see and admit, just how absurd that approach is.
In 1997, Rashid Khalidi, then professor of Middle East history and director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago who has also served as an adviser to various Palestinian delegations, put it bluntly:
There is...a relatively recent tradition which argues that Palestinian nationalism has deep historical roots. As with other movements extreme advocates of this view...anachronistically read back into the history of Palestine over the past few centuries, and even millennia, a nationalist consciousness and identity that are in fact relatively modern...Among the manifestations of this outlook are a ...predilection for seeing in people such as the Canaanites, Jebusites, Amorites and Philistines the lineal ancestors of the modern Palestinians. (emphasis added) [See Khalidi, "Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness," pages 33-4]
Such concerns apparently don't bother many others.
Bottom line, no one is challenging Abbas and he is free to lay claim to his Canaanite ancestors to his heart's content. And he is not alone in doing so. In a world where UNESCO can claim Hebron is a Palestinian heritage site, the silence of the UN and EU in face of Abbas's claims - any of his claims - is no surprise. What may be a surprise is the opportunity afforded by Misinai's claim of the Jewish ancestry of Palestinian Arabs.
How soon will it be before we can expect Palestinian Arabs to claim automatic Israeli citizenship based on Misinai's work?
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I am going to Israel later this week to attend a conference in Jerusalem on digital media.
I was hoping to find someone to host a last-minute Hasby Awards next Sunday, one of my few free days there, but so far, no luck. At this point it would be hard to pull it off, but I want to give it one last shot.
If any organization in Israel wants to host either the Hasbys or something similar (I could put together a sequel to my symposium last year on Trump, for example, or I could give a talk), please contact me!
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A UAE-based columnist from Egypt-based Al Shorouk News, Yousef Al Hassan, is upset at Turkish president Tayip Erdogan's bombing of parts of Syria and Iraq.
He is so upset that he won't mention Erdogan's name, instead referring to him as the "new Ottoman sultan" and complaining about how he is interfering in Arab affairs.
To buttress his anti-Turkish comments, the bulk of the article starts this way:
Under the policies of the ancestors of the new Ottoman Sultan, the first seeds of Israeli settlement were planted, and the nucleus of the Zionist movement and its legendary dream were formed by facilitating the emigration of Jewish communities residing in Turkey and Europe to Palestine. Sultan Abdul Majid gave these groups the first Palestinian lands in the middle of the nineteenth century, in Jerusalem. During the reign of Sultan Abdul Aziz, the Jews were given land to establish the first "agricultural" settlement, near Jaffa.
It is a false narrative which some say about Sultan Abdul Hamid that he said "Palestine is not for sale!" and that he tried to prevent Jewish migrations to Palestine! However, his practical policies, documented in his dealings with Herzl and European banks owned by wealthy Jewish families such as the Rothschild family, did not prevent these current settlement migrations, but increased under his reign. The first waves of Jewish immigrants formed the basic demographic and geographic base of the Israeli entity, A few decades, the same Sultan who gave a privilege and Ottoman "Permana" allowance to the Jewish communities to establish and settle in Palestine and issued legislation that responds to its wishes and plans that were not hidden from the subjects of the Ottoman state Arabs and Muslims, especially the Palestinians.
The meetings of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the frequent meetings of the Turkish deal with the leaders of the Zionist movement in Europe, so that the Sultan undertakes to facilitate Jewish migrations to Palestine in return for Herzl and the Rothschild Bank in London to provide funds to the Sultanate and the Sultan to save the Turkish state budget and recruiting Jews to work to make large investments in Turkey.
In the era of the late ancestors of the new Ottoman Sultan, the Jewish communities were told: "Enter this country, as businessmen and money, be friends, and then you can do what you want." In the sense that they can get what they want in Palestine, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, during his reign until 1909, the number of Jews multiplied several times, and the Sultan did not respond to calls from Arabs and Palestinians to close the gates of Jewish immigration to Palestine.
The ancestors of the new Ottoman Sultan were not entrusted with Palestine, but were also in agreement with the Zionist plans to colonize Palestine, obliterate Arab history, strip the Palestinians of their past and their rights, and invent the so-called ancient Israel.
It goes on from there. Most of his points are ahistorical. (Herzl met with the Sultan but, according to him, the meeting was unsuccessful.)
His main argument against Erdogan's actions today is that the Ottomans didn't prevent Jews from moving to their historic homeland, thereby associating him somehow with the early Zionists.
The only way the argument makes sense is if one assumes that the audience is thoroughly antisemitic.
To be fair, there is less of this sort of thing in Arab media in recent years, but there is still plenty of such overt Jew-hatred, associating one's enemies with Jews as a means to discredit them in the Arab mind.
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A Women's March organizer who came under fire this week for attending a sermon by rabid anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan responded to criticism by tweeting a defense from a rapper who shared Farrakhan's bigoted views.
Tamika Mallory was called out by CNN's Jake Tapper after she attended Farrakhan's annual Saviours' Day address, during which the Nation of Islam leader attacked "that Satanic Jew," called Jews "the mother and father of apartheid," and declared that "when you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door."
One of Mallory's defenders was Bronx rapper and political activist Mysonne, who denied that Mallory was an anti-Semite. In appreciation, Mallory shared his tweet on Twitter and Instagram.
But in his defense of Mallory, Mysonne then made a series of comments agreeing with Farrakhan's view that Jews were uniquely to blame for the plight of black people.
"…farakhan[sic] has a view of Jews based on the pain and harm that he can prove they've inflicted on blacks for hundreds of years!" he tweeted to one user who compared him to David Duke, another anti-Semite.
"To disagree with farakhan[sic] is understandable," he tweeted to another user, "but to act as if the violence, pain, control and destruction that people he has evidence that are in fact Jewish have imposed on Blacks is not Realistic.
1. Jew asks @womensmarch co-chair why she supports American anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan 2. Anti-Semite replies "but Israel," as if that justifies Farrakhan's hate, then calls for Jesus to cast "wicked spirit" out of the Jew 3. Linda Sarsour interjects to defend … the anti-Semite pic.twitter.com/Ro1Ss1jLhg
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) March 2, 2018
State Department officials have spent a lot of time in Lebanon recently. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited the country two weeks ago, and Acting Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield made an appearance last week. Among other issues, they are trying to mediate two Lebanese-Israeli disputes. The problem is that only one of these is a quasi-legitimate conflict; the other is a patently illegitimate Lebanese land grab. By treating that claim as legitimate, the State Department is not only encouraging aggression but proving, once again, that international guarantees to Israel are worthless.
The quasi-legitimate dispute relates to where the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon runs. As I noted back in 2011, Beirut is currently claiming maritime territory that it didn’t consider Lebanese as recently as 2007, when it signed (but ultimately didn’t ratify) a deal demarcating its maritime border with Cyprus. That makes the State Department’s proposal to award Lebanon 75 percent of this territory outrageous. Nevertheless, the fact remains that Israel and Lebanon have no agreed maritime border, and international law doesn’t provide an unequivocal answer as to where it should run. So State’s mediation is justifiable, even if its proposal isn’t.
The second dispute, however, is over Lebanon’s claim that Israel’s planned new border wall encroaches on Lebanese territory in 13 places. And on this, there should be no question whatsoever, because a recognized international border, known as the Blue Line, already exists and the UN has twice affirmed that Israel isn’t violating it.
The first time the UN affirmed realities on the ground was after Israel unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon in 2000. Then, the UN Security Council unanimously confirmed that all the areas Beirut now claims were, in fact, on Israel’s side of the border. The second was earlier this month when the UN Interim Force in Lebanon reaffirmed that all the new construction is on Israel’s side of the border.
Name brand sweater, nice looking watch, fashionable jeans...even the ski mask looks like it might be a designer version.
He really looks oppressed, doesn't he?
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The chill winds of secular intolerance are blowing ever more strongly across Europe, with Jews now struggling against the blast.
A bill is being considered by Iceland’s parliament to ban circumcision for children under 18 years old. So here we go again.
Back in 2012, a court in the German town of Cologne ruled that the circumcision of a four-year-old Muslim boy constituted “bodily harm.” After an uproar, Germany hastily legalized ritual circumcisions if performed according to medical practice.
German objections to circumcision nevertheless did not die down. The Icelandic bill is drawing on increasing hostility within Europe to the practice. In Britain, a survey by the National Secular Society indicates that some 62% want Britain to follow Iceland’s example.
This is not the only attack on religious rites. There are bans on ritual slaughter in Denmark, New Zealand, Switzerland and other European countries and jurisdictions.
Although these are attacks on Islam as well as Judaism, they threaten Jewish religious life most of all.
Muslims are more flexible over ritual slaughter by allowing a measure of animal stunning which Jews cannot permit.
Circumcision bans are most threatening of all to Jewish life because the circumcision of eightday old boys, or brit mila, is absolutely fundamental to Judaism.
In Genesis, God tells Abraham all his male heirs must be circumcised and any Jew who breaks this covenant will be cut off from his people.
Brit mila is the nonnegotiable marker of Jewish identity. More than any other practice, it can be said to have kept the Jewish people together throughout the centuries.
A country than bans brit mila is a country that effectively bans Judaism.
The when campaign to do what, you ask? You're excused if the subtitle does not ring a bell, for Richman, a lawyer, talented author, and formidable researcher, has resurrected the failed and now-obscure effort to mobilize American Jews to create a fighting force against Nazi Germany.
On the surface, he relates a story about three grandees of Zionism – Chaim Weizmann, Zeev Jabotinsky, and David Ben-Gurion – who traveled to the United States in the single year 1940 to arouse the world's largest, richest, and freest Jewish population to concern itself with the horrors underway in Europe and to respond by supporting a Jewish army. Each of the three met with frustration because of a prevailing American mood of isolationism and a Jewish leadership fearful of getting out too far in front of general opinion.
But Richman's real story is that of a heroic and visionary Jabotinsky, 59, then at the peak of his rhetorical and organization powers, versus not only the other two Zionist leaders, both too timid, but also against what a Jabotinsky assistant, Benjamin Akzin, more broadly called the "Society of Trembling Jews." Jabotinsky had already organized the Jewish Legion as part of British forces in World War I; now he foresaw something of the terrible fate awaiting European Jewry, an insight even his most distinguished contemporaries (Louis Brandeis, Abraham Cahan, David de Sola Pool, Stephen Wise) were unable to fathom and furious at him for even discussing. Jabotinsky could have organized the noble, important, and necessary reality of a Jewish army drawn from the ranks of refugees, residents in Palestine, and others; but he suddenly died in August 1940 while visiting a Jewish self-defense camp in Upstate New York. With him died that army.
Richman's tale reverberates with implications for today, when again a "trembling" Jewish establishment prefers to remain within the polite consensus than to have the imagination and drive to take on pending disasters. Be polite, they say, be patient, and things will work out. That approach failed in 1940; will it work today?
Even though it was a French plane, the movie (and history) focuses on Israel. “7 Days in Entebbe” reduces it all to prime minister Yitzhak Rabin (the ubiquitous Lior Ashkenazi, great as always) as the prevaricating dove and defense minister Shimon Peres (Eddie Marsan in odd makeup) demanding action.
When the movie eases up and lets these two men behave like human beings, the scenes work. Most of the time, unfortunately, they are forced to blurt out facile positions. The dialogue has all the subtlety of two people yelling at each other on Twitter.
It’s unfortunate because when Padilha is on sturdier ground, he does some creative things. The raid itself, led by Yonatan Netanyahu (Angel Bonanni) and shown through the eyes of a young soldier played by Ben Schnetzer, is riveting and exhilarating.
Schnetzer’s character’s girlfriend is a dancer in an experimental group, which is enough connective tissue to use the Batshev Dance Company, as choreographed by Ohad Naharin, as a recurring motif. At first you may not know what the hell these shots have to do with the movie, but by the end — well, it isn’t that spelled out, really. But it just seems to fit. Frankly, it is the most memorable and engaging part of the film.
What’s unfortunate is how every other moment with spark has to be reigned in by a conflicted creative team that doesn’t feel secure enough to call this moment what it really was — swift, direct action against grievous harm. The very first shots feature expository text: “They called themselves freedom fighters, the Israelis called them terrorists.” Why not just show the event, and even include the typical dialogue about villages ripped apart by encroaching Zionists, and let us figure that out?
Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner’s “Munich” is a masterpiece because it is both a ripping adventure yarn and a rumination about the endless cycle of violence. Its sprawling subject lends itself to that.
“7 Days in Entebbe,” however, would have been far better served to simply tell the story of what happened, not set a stage for political speechifying. Every other movie about Israel does that, you’d think if any story could stay focused on some glory it would be this one.
After
the recent horrific school shooting in Florida I have been watching my American
friends debate the issue of gun control.
It
is amazing what an enormous chasm there is between Israel and America when it
comes to guns.
From
Israel it looks to me like Americans are shouting at each other, no one is
listening to the other and, worst of all, the real issues that need to be
discussed are being ignored.
School safety
It
doesn’t matter what side you are on regarding the issue of gun control, we all
want our kids to come home safe from school. Even imagining the
experience of parents who’ve had their children ripped from them in such
senseless violence is gut-wrenchingly terrible beyond words. The trauma for the
children involved is a burden no child should have to endure. The problem is so
excruciating it is no wonder that many are crying out, “Something has to be
done!”
The
question is: What?
Take
all the guns away? Commonsense gun laws? Lockdown the schools and make everyone
who enters go through metal detectors? Train and arm teachers so they can
protect students?
I’ve seen this meme (right) floating around the internet. One of
my friends actually asked me if this was an accurate depiction. I was glad he
took the time to check because this is an example of using half-truths to
promote an utter lie.
Israeli teachers are not armed. They are certainly not trained and armed by
the State. There are no guns inside Israeli schools.
There are security guards at the entrance to Israeli
schools.
On field trips out of the city kids go with one trained armed
person who could be a teacher or parent and one medic.
The
main point that everyone seems to be ignoring is that, in Israel, we need guns
to protect our kids from terrorists, not from each other. This to me seems to
be the real issue. Why are American kids killing each other?
Instead
of focusing on the kids themselves, the issue being discussed is guns or gun
violence. But what about violence in general? What about safety? We know that
people hell-bent on murder find ways to do it. If there is no gun, there is a
knife, or a bomb, or a car. Guns can save lives and they can take lives. The
deciding factor is the person holding the weapon.
Israeli
attitudes are a world apart from what I am seeing in America.
In
Israel gun control is very strict and most Israelis are against easy access to
guns. Israelis tend to be dumbfounded by American attitude towards guns – we
see guns as necessary tools to be used to defend lives, nothing else. They are
not toys for collecting or weekend entertainment and hunting is not considered
a sport or cool.
When
it comes to security there is actual safety and there is the feeling of safety.
The two are not the same. It makes people feel safe to implement visible
preventative measures, such as metal detectors. These can be useful deterrents
to someone considering committing a crime however this type of measure, on
its own, does not actually prevent the crime. There is always a “technology
race” between the criminally minded and security enforcement in the search for ways
to circumvent the measures implemented.
Actual security necessitates dealing with the source of the problem,
not the symptom. Not the gun, knife, bomb or car – it is the person using these
tools for evil that needs to be stopped.
When
it comes to the issue of school shootings, I again ask – why are American kids
shooting each other? I don’t see how any child in American schools will be safe
until that question is answered.
I’m
utterly horrified to discover that the hashtag #NeverAgain is being used by groups in the USA advocating for
restrictions on the Second Amendment.
Conflating, gun
violence with the Holocaust degrades the enormity of the Holocaust. Were
there no other words to choose from? #NotOneMore? #StopGuns? #ProtectOurKids?
Why were those or other options not chosen?
This
is a real, live, example of rhetoric that is truly dangerous. This is what
Antisemitism looks like.
The
easy use of terminology that is known to be associated with one thing and one
thing only is a minimization and a cheapening of the Holocaust. This ultimately
leads to denial of the Holocaust.
But
who will stand against it?
I
hope and pray that no Jewish organizations, no matter where they stand on
American gun laws will adopt this improper and deeply offensive use of Never
Again. All other decent people should as well. From experience I know that I am
certain to be disappointed. There will be Jews who see the impropriety of this
language and will be afraid to speak up for fear of triggering a different,
even more vicious antisemitic attack. Others will be so wrapped up in the
politics of the here and now that they will feel that achieving the goal
justifies any means, forgetting/ignoring the long-term results that will
ensue.
For
those who like to talk about dangerous and inflammatory language – this is a
perfect example. Using this language enables the normalization of Holocaust
denial, Jew hate and violence against Jews.
Or
does that not matter? After all, violence against Jews, with guns or other
means, would not be categorized as “senseless violence.” That is violence with
a purpose.
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Whether this momentous change is permanent, or merely a tactical alliance with Israel which won’t make even a dent in the profound Jew-hatred which is the default position in the Muslim world and which will in due course revert once again to hate-mongering rejection of Israel, remains to be seen.
For now, though, this geopolitical landscape has been altered in a way that was unthinkable until very recently. And that will undoubtedly have eased the way for a royal visit which Theresa May, as a genuinely warm Israel supporter, will have wanted to happen.
Prince William’s visit will be, however, extremely sensitive. Already the Palestinian Arabs and their cheerleaders in NGO-land are stirring the pot to make trouble.
The British are stressing that Prince William’s visit will be apolitical. The ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey, says : “It would be a visit about the strength of the contemporary partnership and relationship between the UK and Israel. It won’t be a visit about the peace process or issues like that”. He hoped that the prince would get “to see a bit of Israel and to meet as many Israelis as possible,” adding he wanted the prince to get “a flavour of this country, because I think that’s really important when visitors come that there are very special things about Israel, including the people.”
This royal visit to Israel, the west’s sole genuine ally in the Middle East, is not just long overdue. Prince William doesn’t have to say a word about the politics of the place. By bestowing upon Israel such a seal of approval, the visit will in itself send a message to the Arab and Muslim world that the the decades-long attempt by the Palestinian Arabs and their odious British and European supporters to delegitimise Israel has failed.
Israel is not a pariah state, it is not shunned and it is not alone. On the contrary, it is an important and valued ally of one of the most powerful countries in the west – which is now making plain its support, friendship and powerful ties to Israel by sending the Queen’s grandson to advertise this to the world.
The news that HRH Prince William is going to visit Israel is to be wholeheartedly welcomed. A long-standing Foreign Office taboo has been broken, only four months after Theresa May’s extremely warm words about Israel at Lancaster House during the celebration of the centenary of the Balfour Declaration.
Royal visits have always been a central plank of Britain’s diplomacy over the centuries, and this one is a statement that Israel is no longer going to be treated like the pariah nation it so long has been by the Foreign Office. It is no therefore coincidence that although Her Majesty the Queen has made over 250 official overseas visits to 129 different countries during her reign, neither she nor one single member of the British royal family has ever yet been to Israel on an official visit.
Even though Prince Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Greece, who was recognised as “Righteous Among the Nations” for sheltering a Jewish family in her Athens home during the Holocaust, was buried on the Mount of Olives, the Duke of Edinburgh was not allowed by the Foreign Office to visit her grave until 1994, and then only on a private visit. The Duke of Cambridge’s visit – which will be official – is therefore a splendid opportunity to right decades of wrong done to Israel in this regard.
“Official visits are organised and taken on the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth office,” a press officer for the Royal Family explained when Prince Edward visited Israel privately – and a spokesman for the Foreign Office replied that ‘Israel is not unique” in not having received an official royal visit, because ‘Many countries have not had an official visit.’ That might be true for Burkino Faso and Chad, but the Foreign Office has somehow managed to find the time over the years to send the Queen on State visits to Libya, Iran, Sudan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan and Turkey. So it can’t have been that she wasn’t in the area.
Finally, the royal boycott of Israel ends. Tom Gross comments
The queen was happy to warmly embrace President Assad but not to visit the Jewish state.
As early as several months ago, we received hints from the British that a historic visit from Prince William was possibly in the works. We were asked to be discreet about it. We are thrilled this visit has now been made public and official.
This visit is not materializing in a vacuum. It comes amid the backdrop of intensive talks at the highest levels between the two countries and their respective governments on sensitive matters pertaining to national security and Israel's role in matters of defense and the war on terror, in the private sector as well.
Relations between the two countries are exceedingly positive and healthy, as illustrated by the prince's upcoming visit. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has visited Great Britain twice in the past year, in February and November. At the same time, London officially commemorated the centennial anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
Additionally, bilateral trade between the countries stood at a sum of $10 billion in 2017. This marked a 25% increase in one year. Great Britain is the second largest destination of Israeli exports after the United States and there many more examples of the countries' strong commercial ties.
For instance, one in every six medications sold within the framework of the British public healthcare system is Israeli-made. There are 300 Israeli companies with offices in Great Britain, 29 of which are publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange.
We will soon sit down with representatives of the British royal family and together build the prince's Israel itinerary, in a fashion befitting the lofty occasion. I will tell those representatives that when the red carpet is laid out, it will be more than just the Israeli government doing so. Indeed, a large number of Israelis have great interest in and affection for the British royal family.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been criticised after telling a girl in military uniform that she would be honoured if killed while fighting.
"If she's martyred, they'll lay a flag on her," he told the sobbing girl at a televised congress of his AK Party.
In the event, broadcast live on state television, the young girl dressed as a soldier seems to catch the attention of Mr Erdogan, who then invites her to the stage.
"Look what you see here! Girl, what are you doing here? We have our maroon berets here, but maroon berets never cry," he told her, referring to the beret worn by the Turkish Special Operations Forces.
"She has a Turkish flag in her pocket too... If she's martyred, they'll lay a flag on her, God willing," he said during the congress in the southern town of Kahramanmaras on Saturday.
"She is ready for everything, isn't she?" The girl replied: "Yes."
In response, HRW's Andrew Strohlein tweeted:
Turkish President Erdogan tells a sobbing girl in military uniform that she would be honoured if killed while fighting. Glorifying children’s deaths? Promoting child soldiers? Sick. https://t.co/3PW1qKsTuTpic.twitter.com/Ua8rson2BD
Yet there are many examples of glorification of death and encoraging child "martyrdom" in official Palestinian Authority TV, from official Fatah sites and Hamas sites.
And not once has Human Rights Watch called this Palestinian shahid culture, or any of these examples, "sick."
"These are our lion cubs.We have brought them up on the love of Jihad and Shahada (Martyrdom-death)"
Why is an obviously moral position on encouraging childhood martyrdom "sick" in Turkey but not worth mentioning in the Palestinian arena?
One reason is that in Turkey there was actually disgust in social media about Erdogan's actions - but you will be hard pressed to find a similar reaction in the Arab world towards Palestinian aspirations to death for Allah.
In other words, HRW doesn't bother to criticize Palestinians pushing their children to become martyrs, because they would be trying to kill Jews - and there is no local outrage about that goal.
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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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Monday, March 05, 2018
Elder of Ziyon
