Wednesday, May 16, 2018

05/16 Links Pt2: Making Up International Law For Fun and Sport; Western celebrities, Israel and inferiority complexes

From Ian:
Noah Pollak: Making Up International Law For Fun and Sport
Media coverage of Hamas's attacks on the Israeli border have been, as usual, a dumpster fire of idiocy and ignorance. Hamas itself now admits that "50 of the 62 martyrs" were card-carrying terrorists. One of the heads of Hamas just boasted to an interviewer: "This is not peaceful resistance." No facts or admissions will intrude on the media narrative, which is that Israel is diabolically slaughtering civilians because Israelis enjoy killing people.

One of the tropes that is being repeated everywhere is this one, promoted here with complete credulity by the New York Times:
International law allowed for the use of lethal force only as a last resort in the face of an immediate threat to life or serious injury, Mr. Colville noted. Those laws "appear to have been ignored again and again," he added.

"An attempt to approach, or crossing or damaging the green line fence do not amount to a threat to life or serious injury and are not sufficient grounds for the use of live ammunition," he said.

This farcical claim originates with "human rights" groups such as Human Rights Watch (whose Israel director, Omar Shakir, is a BDS activist) and Amnesty International (which calls for an arms embargo on Israel).

The problem is this alleged requirement of "international law" doesn't exist. It is made-up, an example of the new trend of human rights groups claiming "international law" that doesn't actually exist in, say, the Geneva Conventions, but is merely what these groups wish was enshrined in international law because it gives their hatred of Israel a sheen of moral high-mindedness and impartiality.
‘The Ugly American’: Official Palestinian Authority Daily Demonizes US History and Politics in Attack on Jerusalem Embassy Move
The Palestinian Authority’s main daily newspaper launched a vitriolic attack on the United States this week, following the opening on Monday of the new American Embassy in the Israeli capital, Jerusalem.

In language reminiscent of Palestinian propaganda targeting the legitimacy of Zionism and Israel, an official editorial in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on May 15 portrayed the US as a nation bereft of moral principles, and a creature of colonialism.

“None of the American administrations were noted for nobility of spirit or for human traits such as compassion, tolerance and understanding of the other,” the editorial — translated by analysts at the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) — stated. “America has always employed brutal policies towards small and poor nations. That is how it behaved toward the Native Americans, whom it called ‘Indians,’ during the violent and blood-soaked period of its birth.”

The editorial went on to strongly recommend the writings of Munir Akash — a Syrian-born American academic who has previously accused the US of promoting the mass sterilization of women in the developing world.

The editorial brandished “The Ugly American” — a factually-based political novel about US diplomacy in Southeast Asia that caused a sensation in the late 1950s when it was first published, but is a less-familiar cultural reference today — as the main evidence of US malign intent throughout its 242-year history.

“It would be difficult to continue relating all the stories that appear in The Ugly American, which are full of bloodshed, systematic violence, a culture of brutality and attacks on small nations,” the editorial asserted — listing alleged traits of the US that are routinely associated with Israel and Jews in the Palestinian media

Douglas Murray: The Suicide Of Europe
"The civilization born of Judeo-Christian values, ancient Greek philosophy and the discoveries of the Enlightenment is staring at the abyss, brought there by its own hand," says Douglas Murray, author of "The Strange Death of Europe," in a new PragerU video. "To put it starkly: Europe is committing suicide."

"How did this happen?" asks Murray. "It’s a complicated story, but there are two major causes. The first is the mass movement of peoples into Europe. This has been going on steadily since the end of World War II but sped up massively in the migration crisis of 2015, when more than a million migrants poured into Europe from the Middle East, North Africa and East Asia."

The second cause, argues Murray, is that "Europe lost faith in itself — its beliefs, its traditions and even its very legitimacy."


Kialo Peddles Antisemitism with Sponsored Tweet (Judean Rose)

Kialo advertises itself as, “The only platform designed specifically for rational debates,” but based on its recent, sponsored tweet, it is anything but. Instead, Kialo is just one more vehicle for far-left Big Brothering ala Facebook. The tweet in question reads:

“Is it ok to physically modify yourself as a symbol of a religious bond? What if your parents do it while you're still an infant? Join the Kialo debate on banning infant male circumcision!”

Kialo pretends that it offers a way to have balanced debate “with clear, concise arguments from both sides. That makes it easy to weigh the pros and cons without all that editorial noise.”
But here we have a very leading few sentences in a sponsored tweet. Kialo is telling the Twitterverse what to think about circumcision. They are putting doubt in your minds just by asking the question of whether people have any right to “modify” themselves as a symbol of a religious bond.
And in fact, the question itself is antisemitic. The only people who “modify” themselves as a symbol of a religious bond are the Jews. Muslims circumcise for other reasons.
Notice, as well, that you don’t see anyone complaining about the lip-stretching or scarification practices of some African tribes, or the tooth-sharpening practice of the Mayans and Balinese. How about the neck-accentuation practices of some Thai women in which they wear up to 25 coils, each weighing four and a half pounds, beginning at age 5, to elongate their necks?


No. You don’t hear anyone complaining about any of that. But if you did, it would not be framed as "mutilation" but as diversity. Woe to anyone who dares to cringe or shudder at the nature of these practices, lest he be accused of closed-mindedness and prejudice.
Of course, if you really wanted to address religious mutilation, it would not be circumcision, with its proven health benefits, but female genital mutilation (FGM). Female genital mutilation is known to cause "recurrent infections, difficulty urinating and passing menstrual flow, chronic pain, the development of cysts, an inability to get pregnant, complications during childbirth, and fatal bleeding. There are no known health benefits."
Only when it comes to the Jews, it seems, do people think they are justified in saying we have no right to practice our religion. That our beliefs are wrong, our Torah is wrong, our God wrong. That our age old rite is "mutilation."
But here’s the thing: Jews are obligated to circumcise sons. Banning circumcision effectively bans Judaism. Think how it was in Soviet Russia, how Jews risked death to have their sons circumcised in secret, in the middle of the night. Think how the Romans outlawed Jewish rites like circumcision and how, when Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai criticized them, he and his son were forced into hiding for 13 years in order to evade certain execution. We did not risk death to arrive at the point where our religion and fate can still be debated by outsiders.
And yet, Kialo dares to ask, “What if your parents do it while you’re still an infant?”
With this question, Kialo is making a statement, telling the world to doubt the morality of something that Jews have done for thousands of years. And judging by the responses, Kialo’s implied message has been received, loud and clear.

How, by the way, is it even a debate if Kialo has prejudiced you from the get go? Take a look at the way the “debate” is framed. The question is: “should circumcision be banned” and it’s offered as a choice, pro or con.

But it’s natural for people to choose arguments in favor of things. People like to be positive. They like to be for, and not against things. This is why, for instance, the pro-abortion crowd frames its position as “pro-choice” while telling the world that anyone who disagrees with them is “anti-choice.” And so, given the choice of being pro or anti a ban on circumcision, people are going to take the bait, and choose pro.
Was there a choice about the wording? Of course. Instead framing the question in terms of a ban, Kialo might have written, for instance: “should circumcision be permitted?” and made that as a pro/con choice. It’s clear that the chosen phrasing employing the word "ban"was meant to prejudice participants against Jewish ritual. And at that point, we have to wonder: why should a basic Jewish practice be the subject of “debate?” Why should it even be discussed by people not Jewish?
Can anyone really tell us that we have no right to observe our religion, as mandated by God since Father Abraham was himself circumcised?
Kialo claims it makes it easy to weigh the pros and cons of an argument by giving you “clear, concise arguments from both sides. That makes it easy to weigh the pros and cons without all that editorial noise.”


But here we have a sponsored tweet, issued just as the right to circumcision for non-medical reasons is being debated in Iceland. And the sponsored tweet suggests that the practice of an ancient Jewish rite abrogates an infant’s human rights. How is that NOT editorial noise?
And of course, people responding to the tweet take the bait and run with it. Read the responses. The word “mutilation” crops up numerous times.
Editorial silence, or bias by selective omission, by the way, also provides a kind of “editorial noise” by filtering what it is readers are allowed to see and hear. if you click the link in the tweet, and read the backgrounder for the debate, one paragraph out of five is given over to a detailed explanation of why Muslims perform circumcision. There is, on the other hand, not one word, let alone a paragraph on the reasons Jews perform circumcision. This, though clearly the Muslim rite is based on the Jewish rite, the Jewish rite of circumcision having begun thousands of years before Mohammed was born, the Jewish people having been the first to practice this ritual.
So effectively, Kialo’s tweet tells you to question the Jewish practice of Brit Milah, the Jewish circumcision rite, but tells you absolutely nothing about why Jews perform this ritual. No one should be surprised. Bias by selective omission is a classic tactic of the left. What they keep you from hearing is just as important as what they whisper into your adorable little subconscious.
Which is why this, is utter garbage:
“With Kialo, you can easily visualize every aspect of a complex debate, so you can be more thoughtful about the issues that matter to you and the world.
“Empowering reason.
“Kialo.”
No wait: 

via GIPHY


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  • Wednesday, May 16, 2018
  • Elder of Ziyon

A child at the Gaza border

Here's a video taken by a child at the Gaza border on Monday. He screams "Allah hu Akbar" as people approach the fence (and he follows), and then he cries with joy as (according to the articles) he witnesses Gazans cutting the barbed wire.



Remember, Gaza schools - including UNRWA schools - were closed on Monday to allow as many children as possible to go to the riots.

And, as Hamas intensively hoped, for some of these children to be shot.


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05/16 Links Pt1: Palestinians in Gaza Are Dying for a Photo Op; Dershowitz: Media 'Incentivizes & Encourages' Hamas With Biased Coverage

From Ian:
Hamas official: 50 of the 62 Gazans killed in border violence were our members
A Hamas official on Wednesday acknowledged that 50 of the 62 Palestinians reported killed during Gaza border riots on Monday and Tuesday were members of the Islamist terrorist group, bringing the total number of known members of terror groups among the fatalities up to 53.

“In the last rounds of confrontations, if 62 people were martyred, 50 of them were Hamas,” said Hamas official Salah Bardawil in an interview with the Palestinian Baladna news outlet.

The Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad had said on Tuesday that three members of its Saraya al-Quds military wing were killed by Israeli forces in Khan Younis.

The Israeli military shared a portion of Bardawil’s interview with an Arabic news outlet, accompanied by English captions.

“This proves what so many have tried to ignore: Hamas is behind these riots, and the branding of the riots as ‘peaceful protests’ could not be further from the truth,” said IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, 62 people in total were killed during border clashes on Monday and Tuesday.




PMW: “Bring a knife, dagger, or handgun,” kidnap Israeli civilians, and murder soldiers and settlers - Instructions on Facebook to Gazans for “March of Return”
Two Palestinian Facebook pages and a forum directing rioters in Gaza gave explicit instructions to murder and kidnap Israelis on May 14, the day the US embassy opened in Jerusalem, as well as suggestions on how to accomplish this goal. It is not clear if Hamas itself was the group sending these messages. What is critical is that Gazans were encouraged to bring weapons to the demonstrations and use these weapons to either murder or capture Israelis. Israeli soldiers may have been facing Palestinians who were using the cover of demonstrating civilians to attempt to break through the border with the goal of murdering and kidnapping Israelis.

The following are the instructions to bring weapons, murder "soldiers and settlers," and kidnap Israeli citizens for use as bargaining chips to impose conditions on Israel:

"Rebelling young people, Treat seriously and do not take lightly the requests to bring a knife, dagger, or handgun, if you have one, and to leave them under your clothes and not use them or show them, except if you identify one of the [Israeli] soldiers or settlers. Do not kill Israeli civilians, instead hand them over to the resistance immediately, because this is the point that Israel fears, as it knows that the capturer can set any condition he wants."
[Independent Palestinian Facebook page "The Great March of Return", May 14, 2018]

The instructions also described how masses of Palestinians would "collectively" breach the security fence aided by bulldozers:

Lies, Damn Lies and The Gaza Riots (Daled Amos)



Not surprisingly, journalists and the media in general continue to take their cue from Hamas terrorists and insist on describing attacks on Israel's border and attempts to infiltrate as peaceful demonstrations.

At the start of the organized riots, NBC informed us that
The sit-in demonstration is set to culminate on May 15 — the day after Israeli independence
NBC News, April 5, 2018
Sit in?

If you listen closely, the voices you will hear are definitely not singing kumbaya.

Still, after 6 weeks, the media has begun to notice a thing or two, interspersed among the required proclamation of peaceful demonstrations.

For example, there is some reporting on the fact that what is happening is not spontaneous and that Hamas is behind it. Not only is Hamas pulling the strings, but some newspapers have pointed out that the terrorist group manipulates Gazans by lying to them and deliberately putting civilians in danger.

The Washington Post has noted how the leaders of the riots deliberately endanger lives:
But the protests appeared to have a more violent edge than in previous weeks. Some young men brought knives and fence cutters. At a gathering point east of Gaza City, organizers urged protesters over loudspeakers to burst through the fence, telling them Israeli soldiers were fleeing their positions, even as they were reinforcing them. [emphasis added]
Similarly, The New York Times reported
The atmosphere grew more charged after midday prayers, when more than 1,000 men gathered under a large blue awning. Officials from Hamas and other militant factions addressed the worshipers, urging them into the fray and claiming — falsely, to all appearances — that the fence had been breached and that Palestinians were flooding into Israel. [emphasis added]
With all the trouble Hamas is going through, they are very determined. When Israel tried to impede the riots by warning bus companies in Gaza not to bring people to the border, Hamas threatened to imprison the drivers - leaving them no choice.

Similarly, in order to encourage the largest possible of participants in what was supposed to be the last day of the riots, Hamas declared a general strike and even UNRWA complied and closed down.

Just as the media has begrudgingly mentioned the hand of Hamas in encouraging the riots, journalists have been a bit more forthcoming -- even if they cannot quite bring themselves to admit to the weapons that are being brought and used:



Apparently, not all journalists have bothered to pay attention to what Hamas leaders have been saying from the very beginning:



The fact is, not all that much encouragement by Hamas seems to have been necessary:
While some said they would abide by official calls to keep the demonstrations peaceful, others talked about their enthusiasm to break into Israel and wreak havoc.

“We are excited to storm and get inside,” said 23-year-old Mohammed Mansoura. When asked what he would do inside Israel, he said, “Whatever is possible, to kill, throw stones.”

Two other young men carried large knives and said they wanted to kill Jews on the other side of the fence.
Since this is from the same article that notes how Gazans were lied to in order to get them to the border, it is not actually clear where these "official calls to keep the demonstrations peaceful" came from -- but it is typical of the media's schizophrenic approach, or what they like to think of as 'balanced reporting'.

Whoever it is that was calling for peaceful demonstrations, it sure wasn't this guy:





Since Hamas is doing everything it can to encourage violence and death, it really is difficult to understand who the Washington Post thinks it is referring to:


Hamas is literally drawing Gazans a map on how to infiltrate and invade Israel:


And when some Gazans were successful in infiltrating across the border, they made it very clear they got Hamas's message:


This is not just about people being caught incidentally on film.
The rioters are more than happy to tell journalists what they intend to do:
A young Palestinian man boasted to National Public Radio on Tuesday about putting swastikas on incendiary kites and flying them into Israel, saying that "Jews go crazy" when they see it and "we want to burn them."
And of course, there is always a terrorist video to make the point. This one is from Islamic Jihad:



Hat tip: Elder of Ziyon

Of course, sometimes while talking to journalists, there is always a possibility of getting your lines wrong, as a correspondent for AFP reported:


A bigger problem is coordinating civilians so they can be used as human shields to effectively cover for the Hamas terrorists among them:
Hamas has warned its own members to stay away from the security fence during Gaza’s mass protests, lest they get shot, while actively encouraging Palestinian civilians — particularly children and teens — to approach the border, the Shin Bet added, citing findings from a number of interrogations. If the fence is breached, however, armed Hamas gunmen are poised to enter Israel to carry out attacks.

“There is a prohibition for Hamas operatives to approach the border, from a fear that they will be killed or captured by IDF troops, unless the security fence falls and then they must enter, armed, into Israel under the cover of the masses and carry out terror attacks,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.

...Yahya Ijlah, a 19-year-old Hamas member who entered Israel on April 29, told Shin Bet interrogators that he had been sent to the border in order to steal a security camera along the fence.

According to the Shin Bet, Ijlah said Hamas “is working to make its activities look like a popular uprising in the media, and not a violent operation by its members.”
But despite it all --

With all the evidence of premeditation and advanced planning,

Despite statements in Arabic that are easily available online in translation,

Contrary to statements made  to the media by the rioters themselves,

And even with video of infiltration into Israel, of kites setting fields on fire and of calls for death to Jews,

The media still insists on writing about peaceful protests, bewildered by how Israel uses live ammunition to prevent Gazans from doing what they proclaim to the world they want to do and eagerly accepting whatever explanation Hamas terrorists tell them.


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  • Wednesday, May 16, 2018
  • Elder of Ziyon

Hamas says there were "50 Hamas martyrs" on Monday



Al Aqsa Voice quotes Hamas official  Dr. Salah Bardawil as saying "50 Hamas martyrs  rose [to paradise] during the million man march of return on 14/05/2018."

This sounds pretty damning.

Hopefully some reporters will follow up on this. Oh, sorry - the meme of innocent civilians is already set in stone, and no reporter wants to admit that they were wrong.

That would damage their credibility!

(h/t Yoel)



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  • Wednesday, May 16, 2018
  • Elder of Ziyon

This Gaza teen specifically planned to be "martyred"



Hamas and Islamic Jihad media are celebrating the death of 19-year old Mu'tasim Bellah Fawzi Abu Luli, who was shot by Israeli forces on Monday.

They are most happy about the smile on his face in death.

The articles about him prove that Abu Luli planned to be "martyred."

On Saturday night, his family says, he was singing songs about how he wants to be a martyr. His mother, when asked about his smile, says that he always talked about his desire for martyrdom, and therefore he was obviously happy.

He wrote shortly before he went to protest about the beauty of Paradise: ""It is difficult to live in the world, there is a more beautiful paradise than here. The evening is full of the blood of heroic martyrs who continue to work day and night. The goal is paradise, God willing."

His older brother Mohammed reported that he prepared for the Monday riots by preparing his bag that contained wire cutters so he could cut the fence with Israel.

He said, "His friends told us that he advanced towards the fence only a few meters from the occupation soldiers and managed to cut [the fence] at 11:30 am. His friends told him: 'Go back, ' but he refused to return and insisted on staying until he broke through the fence.".

He continued: "After half an hour, the youths came to him under the cover of thick smoke emitted from rubber tires and found him lying in his blood, he was sniped by Israeli soldiers in his head."

The article also notes that Abu Luli closed his Facebook account shortly before the Monday riots.

Mu'tasim may not have been a member of Hamas, but he was just as much a terrorist. He was manipulated by Hamas and other incitement to want to be killed - and he was going to keep going until he got his wish.

The Western media is not going to bother to tell the story of Mu'tasim Abu Lili. But the Arabic media is anxious to. Because they want to encourage more people to act like him.



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  • Wednesday, May 16, 2018
  • Elder of Ziyon

An Israeli soldier tells the truth about what happens at the Gaza border



I received a copy of this email that was sent to Rabbi Heshie Billet by an Israeli soldier who shows how wrong the media is about Gaza:

_______________________________________________________________

55 killed and over 1200 wounded.

I'm writing this post for my good friends- my moral, humane friends, and for all those who are concerned and angry over today's deaths and injuries on the border with Gaza.

Regarding Israel's exodus from Egypt, when the Egyptian army drowned in the Red Sea just before overtaking the Israelites – our sages say that God scolded the angels and prevented them from singing and rejoicing, saying “my creations are drowning in the sea and you are singing?!”

I write these words with great caution, and from a sense of mission. I can understand and identify with all of those good and moral Zionists who fear that the many Palestinian victims may be our fault, the result of mistakes made by our side.

I’m writing because I am one of the few who was there – in uniform, in the reserves, but I was there. Yes, right there on the fence where the demonstrations are happening. It was last Friday – but I saw it with my own eyes; I was on our side but I could see and hear and understand everything. I want to testify from my firsthand knowledge, not a theoretical point of view. Because I was there.

I want to testify that what I saw and heard was a tremendous, supreme effort from our side, to prevent in every possible way Palestinian deaths and injuries.

Of course, the primary mission was to prevent hundreds of thousands of Gazans from infiltrating into our territory. That kind of invasion would be perilous, mortally dangerous to the nearby communities, would permit terrorists disguised as civilians to enter our kibbutzim and moshavim, and would leave us with no choice but to target every single infiltrator.

That’s why our soldiers were directed to prevent infiltration – in a variety of ways, only using live ammunition as a last resort. The IDF employs many creative means of reducing friction with Gazans and uses numerous methods, most of which are not made public, to prevent them from reaching the fence.

In addition, over the last few weeks there have been serious efforts to save the lives of children and civilians who have been pushed to the front lines by the Hamas – who are trying to hide behind them in order to infiltrate and attack Israel.

When there is no alternative and live ammunition must be used to stop those who storm the fence – the soldiers make heroic and sometimes dangerous efforts not to kill and only to injure those on the other side.

The IDF is stationing senior commanders at every confrontation point to ensure that every shot is approved and backed up by a responsible figure with proper authority. Every staging area has an especially large number of troops in order to make sure that soldiers are not put into life-threatening situations where they will have no choice but to fire indiscriminately.

A situation where thousands of people rush you is frightening, even terrifying. It is extremely difficult to show restraint, and it requires calm, mature professionalism.

55 dead is an enormous number. But I can testify from my first-hand experience, that every bullet and every hit is carefully reported, documented and investigated, in Excel spreadsheets. Literally. I was there and I saw it with my own eyes.

This isn’t the time or place to discuss the situation in general and the desperate plight of the residents of Gaza. I’m not interested in starting a political discussion here, although I do have a clear position.

What I’m trying to do is present, for everyone who really wants to listen, the extent of the IDF’s enormous effort to protect Israel’s borders while minimizing injuries and loss of life on the other side.

And despite all this – the situation on the border with Gaza is deteriorating. I hope that we won’t be called up again soon for reserve duty to protect our country. But if we are, we will go with the knowledge that we are serving a just and morally correct cause. We do not rejoice when we must go to war, but we also don’t go like sheep to the slaughter. Not anymore.

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Tuesday, May 15, 2018

  • Tuesday, May 15, 2018
  • Elder of Ziyon

#Pallywood: The Gaza Pieta

This photo was taken by an AFP photographer in Gaza:


I noted on Twitter how staged this photo was. A person, presumably running to get medical help for his injured friend, stops to allow a photographer to take his picture.

Others noticed that this photo may have been much more staged than I realized. The "injured" person was posed to resemble the Pieta (specifically Michelangelo's Pieta), the famous artwork that shows the Virgin Mary holding Jesus' body.


I think there is something to this.

While the "injured" man dangles his right arm and puts his head back as if he is unconscious (or dead), his left hand is grasping the shoulder of his "Mary."



It really appears like the photographer was trying to subconsciously evoke a strong image of Jesus' suffering for the Christians who see the image and he directed his actors to help him out.




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05/15 Links Pt2: The Quran, The Gospels And Tanach Say Jerusalem Is Jewish So Why Doesn’t Everyone?; The UN Hates Israel — America’s Embassy Move Proved It

From Ian:
The Quran, The Gospels And Tanach Say Jerusalem Is Jewish So Why Doesn’t Everyone?
According to UNESCO, the Palestinians, and the Muslim States, Israel, and the Jewish People have no right to Jerusalem. It is this fake belief that until Donald Trump became president, kept the U.S. from recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the Jewish world. Most of the world outside America continues to believe the Palestinian/Muslim propaganda that ignores that the ancient Greeks, Romans, Christians, and even the ancient Muslims, reported Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were the property of the Jewish people.

Let’s start out with the basics. Jerusalem was NEVER part of a Palestinian State because there was never an independent state of Palestine. After the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE, the Romans punished the Judeans (Jews) for revolting for the second time in sixty years. They changed the name of their country from Judea to Syria Palaestina (after the ancient enemy of the Jews, the Philistines who were destroyed a thousand years earlier). At the same time, they changed the name of the holy city from Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina (literally Capitoline Hill of the House of Aelius). After the Romans threw out many of the Jews, the holy land was ruled by the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and finally, the British mandate before it once again became a Jewish State in 1948. During all that time, the holy land including Jerusalem had a very large population of Jews.

During the period of 135 CE through 1948, which was when Jordan began to occupy Jerusalem, there were large populations of Jews in Jerusalem. In fact, beginning with the earliest information available (1844), there were more Jews in Jerusalem than any other faith.

To the ancient Muslim, Greek, and Roman pagan authors, Jerusalem was a Jewish city. Their text indicates the unanimous agreement that Jerusalem was Jewish by virtue of the fact that its inhabitants were Jews, it was founded by Jews, and the Temple located in Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish religion.
John Podhoretz: The Embassy Moves
So it has happened. The American embassy in Israel is now in Jerusalem, moving from Tel Aviv 70 years to the day the Jewish state came into being and 22 years since U.S. law declared it would move.

Richard Haass, who runs the Council on Foreign Relations, this morning tweeted that the Embassy move was an iatrogenic mistake—iatrogenesis meaning a disease you catch from treating another. Well, that’s fast. There’s no evidence whatever there is any new disease. In fact, there is evidence of diseases healing all over the place.

Last week Arab states expressed support for Israel’s bombing raids on Iranian positions in Syria. I doubt Haass expected to see such a thing before the creation of a Palestinian state. Instead, what we’re seeing is Arab states apparently abandoning their insistence on a Palestinian state as the sine qua non for any relationship with Israel.

Yes, there are staged riots in Gaza right now, but in what sense is that new? Gazans have launched wars with Israel thrice in the past decade. If Haass truly thinks this is about the embassy and not about deeper and longer trends, I have a bridge from Gaza to the West Bank to sell him. The Gazans are goading Israeli forces into firing on them, and Europeans and American Leftists are screaming murder. And, again, what else is new.
Ben Shapiro: Why Democrats Missed the Boat in Jerusalem
Intersectionality posits that Western civilization has victimized particular groups, and that those groups therefore must have the leading role in discussing politics.

Thus, Israel’s success has actually cut against Democratic support: by becoming more prosperous and powerful, Israel now becomes a perpetuator of the “system” intersectionality wishes to attack. Thus, gay Jews waving rainbow flags with stars of David have been barred from Dyke Marches in Chicago on behalf of Palestinian sympathizers – even though rainbow flags likely end with beatings under Palestinian rule. Thus, Linda Sarsour, an openly anti-Semitic fellow traveler of Louis Farrakhan, continues to maintain her popularity with the Women’s March, even as she tweets hatred about Israel.

Israel has become too successful to maintain its appeal to the coalition of victimhood promulgated and celebrated by the intersectional Left. And so Israel must be denied legitimacy.

The problem for Democrats is that in order to deny Israel legitimacy – especially at a time when Palestinians are ruled by terrorist groups Hamas, Palestinian Authority, and Islamic Jihad – Israel’s historical ties to the land of Israel must be soft-pedaled. These terrorist governments have no moral claims to the land – not when they are busily pursuing murder and repression and impoverishment of their own people. So they must make historical claims that deny the Jewish connection with Israel. This, they do with alacrity. At the very least, then, intersectionality dictates that Democrats soft-pedal Israel’s Jewish roots in Jerusalem.

Never has there been less of a case for Democrats to split with Republicans on Israel – not in the face of Iran’s genocidal aspirations, Syria’s horrors, and the rise of terrorist groups on all of Israel’s borders. Yet the split grows wider, not narrower. Until Democrats throw aside victimhood ideology in favor of the morality that used to govern their party, it will continue to widen.

  • Tuesday, May 15, 2018
  • Elder of Ziyon

BDS is a hate group - by definition. Spread the word.

I've been thinking a bit about BDS lately. I started reading a book about BDS on campus by Andrew Pessin and Doron Ben-Atar and I gave a vehement rebuttal to those who believe that boycotting Israel is somehow related to justice for Palestinians.

.Over the weekend my thoughts distilled into this simple and accurate message which I tweeted:


In liberal circles, there is nothing more heinous that a hate group. And the FBI as well as other organizations define discriminating against Israelis as hate. 

From Wikipedia:
A hate group is a social group that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other designated sector of society. According to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a hate group's "primary purpose is to promote animosity, hostility, and malice against persons belonging to a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin which differs from that of the members of the organization."

The Southern Poverty Law Center defines hate groups as those that "... have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics."

Any group that supports BDS goals  that Israelis, no matter what political stripe, must be boycotted, is by every definition a hate group. One doesn't need to get into the argument of whether it is antisemitism or not - BDS by its own words fit the definition of a hate group against citizens and institutions that happen to be located in Israel.

The idea that BDS equals hate is a message that needs to be repeated over and over again, much the same way BDS itself repeats that Israel is an apartheid state. In this case, however, the statement is true. 

A simple look at how unhinged the BDSers get when, say, an Israeli wins a song competition, shows that the movement has nothing to do with helping Palestinians and everything to do with lunatic, deep seated hate. 

Spread the word.




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  • Tuesday, May 15, 2018
  • Elder of Ziyon

“There are no ‘Pro-Palestine’ people. They don’t exist.” (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman



The Forward recently published two fascinating articles on Syria. Both articles are fairly long and include a lot of very interesting information that isn’t easily available elsewhere, but the two pieces are also noteworthy because they were written by Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli with (far-)left views who can’t have found it easy to write what she did.

I think it’s worthwhile to mark some highlights – not least because the articles also show that this are not the best of times for people like Ali Abunimah, who make their living demonizing Israel.

The more recent of the two columns has the straightforward title “The Left Only Cares About Palestinians When It Can Blame Israel” – which is of course something we all have been saying for a long time. But I think it’s still amazing to finally hear it from the far-left.

In the opening paragraphs, Tsurkov describes the devastation recently visited on the Palestinian Yarmouk “refugee” camp near Damascus, and when you read it, you immediately realize that if anything even remotely similar was done by Israel in Gaza, the global media would cover it non-stop as top news.
Just consider this one sentence: “The airstrikes and shelling have not stopped for two weeks, preventing rescuers from retrieving the rotting corpses.”

I haven’t done a scientific study, but I’m pretty sure that the global media were much more interested in Israel’s efforts to prevent Palestinian rioters from breaching the border fence in Gaza than in what happened at the Yarmouk camp.

It’s always the same old story: #NoJewsNoNews – and the title of the piece should perhaps have been: “The Left And The Media Only Care About Palestinians When They Can Blame Israel.”
To her credit, Tsurkov highlights the hypocrisy of activists very clearly [my emphasis]:

“The silence surrounding the brutalization of an entire Palestinian population exposes something few have spoken about: that pro-Palestinian sentiment is often just anti-Israel or anti-American sentiment dressed up in disguise. And when it comes to Syria’s starving, dying Palestinian population, the pro-Palestine left is nowhere to be seen.”

“It’s a glaring double-standard: When Palestinians in Gaza endure Israeli airstrikes and a decade-long blockade, their suffering galvanizes mass protests in Western capitals. When Palestinians in Syria and Syrians are being bombed and starved, the anti-Imperialist Left either goes silent, or even worse, stands on the side of the oppressor.”

“’There are no ‘Pro-Palestine’ people. They don’t exist,’ a Palestinian Syrian from Daraa, whose family was displaced from Haifa during the 1948 war, told me. ‘We Palestinians of Syria have been killed, tortured, bombed, and displaced by the Assad regime and we’ve had no support from the so-called ‘pro-Palestine activists’ whatsoever ….We happen to be the wrong Palestinians!’”

Tsurkov’s other piece has the title “How Israel Won Over The Syrian People” – which is overstating it considerably. Yet, it’s a fascinating piece that opens with the reactions to an Amnesty International video about Ahed Tamimi on a popular Syrian news group on Facebook. As Tsurkov puts it: “most of the group’s members — all of them Syrian — reacted dismissively.”

One apparently typical comment was: “If the Syrian army was like the Israeli army, no one [i.e. no Syrian] would have been displaced from their home …If [Tamimi] had raised her head in front of a Syrian soldier, he would have field executed her.”

Another fascinating story told by Tsurkov is this:

“On April 17, 2018, when Palestinians mark Prisoner’s Day, a popular Syrian opposition website decided to mark the occasion by posting an infographic comparing Israeli prisons and those of the Assad regime.

The infographic shows that while 7,000 Palestinians are incarcerated in Israel, 220,000 Syrians are held in regime detention facilities. According to the infographic, 210 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons since 1967, while 65,000 Syrians have died in regime detention over the past seven years.”

According to Tsurkov, the remarkable shift in attitudes towards Israel is largely due to the humanitarian assistance and medical treatment Israel has provided to Syrians. However, as Tsurkov emphasizes, Syrians also changed their views because of Israeli strikes on the Assad regime and on Hezbollah and Iranian targets in Syria. Even though most Syrians who oppose Assad understand that Israeli strikes are conducted according to Israel’s interests, “they are still pleased to see the regime and its allies humiliated and diminished.”

What I found most amazing is that according to Tsurkov, Israeli strikes “are seen as such a morale boost that opposition media activists and journalists have, at times, knowingly spread fake news about them to lift the spirits of the opposition that has suffered one loss after another since the Russian intervention in late 2015.”
Another important point I was not really aware of is that Syrian opposition supporters have apparently increasingly negative views of Palestinians, because

“all but one Palestinian armed group [in Syria] have fought on the side of the regime as auxiliary militias. These Palestinian pro-regime militias are responsible for grave human rights violations, including the siege of the Palestinian Yarmouk camp south of Damascus by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which resulted in the death by starvation of dozens of people. Liwaa’ al-Quds (“the Jerusalem Brigade”) is infamous for its abuses of civilians, looting and war-profiteering in regime-controlled areas such as Aleppo city and eastern Ghouta.”

Yet, one should not underestimate the effects of decades of indoctrination. As Tsurkov points out towards the end, “even Syrians expressing admiration for Israel are quick to believe conspiracy theories about its motivations, plans and actions.”

She also relates that during a research trip to southern Turkey, she “was peppered with questions from activists, rebel and community leaders about why Israel supports the Assad regime and prevents his removal. Although no evidence exists publicly to support this claim, many pro-opposition Syrians believe that Israel convinced the Obama administration to keep Assad in power because Assad kept the border quiet with Israel, despite the occupation of the Golan.”

Isn’t it truly depressing to think that there are people who blame Israel for Obama’s eagerness to appease the mullahs by letting them have their way in Syria so that he would get his Iran deal?




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05/15 Links Pt1: Ben Shapiro: Hamas Planned The Violence On The Gaza Border. The Media Act As Their Propaganda Arm; Col. Kemp: "IDF is defending border as UK or any other soldiers would"

From Ian:
Ben Shapiro: Hamas Planned The Violence On The Gaza Border. The Media Act As Their Propaganda Arm.
The media coverage of terror group Hamas’ deliberately-crafted border assault on Israel has been egregious: from CNN to MSNBC to The New York Times, mainstream outlets have acted as propaganda vehicles for one of the worst regimes on the planet. Hamas has spent weeks ginning up attacks on the border with the Gaza Strip — an area completely controlled by Hamas, which was elected to power in 2006 after Israel’s withdrawal from the area — and yet the media treat Israel as the aggressor.

That’s insane.

Here’s the proof.

First, meet senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar.

He explains openly on Al Jazeera (translation via MEMRI):

When you are in possession of weapons that were able to withstand the occupation in the wars of 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2014, when you have weapons that are being wielded by men who were able to prevent the strongest army in the region from entering the Gaza Strip for 51 days, and were able to capture or kill soldiers of that army is this really ‘peaceful resistance’? This is not peaceful resistance. Has the option [of armed struggle] diminished? No. On the contrary, it is growing and developing. … So when we talk about peaceful resistance, we are deceiving the public. This is peaceful resistance bolstered by a military force and by security agencies and enjoying tremendous popular support. … This deception does not fool the Palestinian public.


Ben Shapiro: Media goes wild in anti-Trump, anti-Israel fervor
On Tuesday, the New York Daily News ran with another of its desperate appeals for circulation. This time, it blamed Ivanka Trump for Hamas-generated violence in the Gaza Strip.

The cover featured a grinning Ivanka, dressed to the nines, at the inauguration of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. But instead of her gesturing to the placard featured on the new embassy, the Daily News photoshopped in a photo of a wounded Palestinian on the Gaza border — so now Ivanka was gesturing at Palestinian suffering, a smile spread broadly across her face. The headline: “DADDY’S LITTLE GHOUL.”

This is absolutely abhorrent. It’s also reflective of the media coverage of both the Trump administration and Israel overall. The media have been repeating Hamas propaganda — and, presumably, they know it. They’ve been claiming that Israel is killing “protesters,” even though these are Hamas-led riots. They’ve been claiming that Israel has been targeting civilians, when it is clear this is not the case. And now they’re claiming that the Trump administration is to blame. The Washington Post headlined, “Israelis kill dozens of Palestinians in Gaza protesting U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem.”

The violence in the Gaza Strip has been ongoing for weeks, and has been entirely orchestrated by Hamas. Palestinians, including Hamas terrorists, have been throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli troops, as well as explosive devices and stones; they’ve been burning tires and attempting to cut through the border fence with wirecutters. The Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, Ronen Manelis, says Hamas is paying families to protest, and that they have intelligence that Hamas seeks to kidnap an Israeli soldier.
Col. Kemp: "IDF is defending border as UK or any other soldiers would"


You Are Wrong. The Media Is Not Falling for Hamas Propaganda
The media is a knowing accomplice in helping a terrorist group push out its propaganda.

Here is a delightful video of one of those peaceful Palestinians caught on camera walking with crutches to the Israeli border fence. Miracle of miracles, he suddenly walks just fine.

There are lots of people accusing the media of falling for Hamas propaganda. Obviously, several dozen people lost their lives as they tried to storm through the Israeli border with the stated purpose of making their way to Jerusalem to disrupt the opening of the American embassy. And obviously they died because Israeli soldiers shot them. And obviously the media is making a big deal of this.

But no, the media is not falling for propaganda. The media has gone into this as a willful, knowing accomplice with Hamas, a terrorist group. The media has gotten played so much, the media knows exactly what is happening and the media is allowing it to happen. Many of those killed turned out to be directly working with Hamas, a terrorist group. It was that terrorist group that organized the storming of the border knowing people would get killed. It is the media passing by this story suggesting Israel has no other choice but to let people storm its border and oppose an embassy the media itself has a subtle editorial bias against.

There is no campaign to fool the media here. The campaign was waged long ago to get the media on the side of the Palestinians and their terrorist allies. Ever since, the media has just been doing their bidding.


Journalists Should Stop Falling For Hamas’ Deadly PR Efforts Against Israel
Hamas isn’t merely a terrorist organization committed to murdering Jews, it’s a terrorist organization that urges its own people to become cannon fodder as a means of appealing to Western journalists and intellectuals. The higher the death toll, the happier Hamas will be. And few things have more of a detrimental effect on the Palestinian cause than the media’s asymmetrical coverage of this conflict with the Jews.

Until Palestinians shed their hatred, turn from the Israeli fences, and march towards their own governments, they will remain pawns and saps in a decades-long suicide mission. That’s because no amount of bad press about Israel’s efforts to stop violence coming from Gaza will impel that nation to create a terror state on its borders. It’s untenable, not to mention immoral. We would never contemplate such a thing. Nor would any rational country.

Despite what you’ve heard, the 35,000 Palestinian “demonstrators” massed along the security fence between Israel and Gaza — the ones throwing firebombs and other explosives, burning tires, chucking rocks (if you think these are aren’t deadly, you should see one landing; I have), and those attempting to light fires to burn crops and vegetation — are only ostensibly protesting the United States moving its embassy to Israel’s capital. I know this because Hamas doesn’t accept a U.S. embassy anywhere in Israel, as it doesn’t recognize Israel at all.

Hamas has openly asserted that it’s attempting to create incursions into Israel, and that has absolutely nothing to do with East or West or North or South Jerusalem. For Palestinians this is about the 70th anniversary of Israel — or, as they see it, Nakba. It’s about an ongoing historic effort — an intermittently theocratic or nationalistic effort, depending on the trends — to play victim.



  • Tuesday, May 15, 2018
  • Elder of Ziyon

Anti-Israel NGO @Gisha_Access has "FAQ" on "Great Return March" without mentioning the word "Return"



The Israeli NGO Gisha, which is dedicated to helping Gazans have "freedom of movement," published a "Frequently Asked Questions" document about the weekly riots at the Gaza border.

Here's how they describe their seven page document:

 What precipitated the current wave of protests in Gaza? 
To promote a better understanding of the situation in Gaza, one that goes beyond the provocative, but reductive explanations making headlines in recent weeks, we have compiled key elements of Gisha’s research and professional analysis so as to provide answers to some frequently asked questions about the Gaza Strip.
The weekly demonstrations are called by their organizers the "Great Return March." They make it explicitly clear that the point of the riots is to storm the Gaza fence and enter Israel en masse, in an attempt to publicize the Palestinian "Right of Return" and flood Israel with millions of Palestinians, destroying the Jewish state.

Yet this joke of an NGO does not mention a word about this. Even the name of the riots, "Great Return March," is somehow missing in this "professional analysis.

No, the only reason that the "researchers" at Gisha can find for the riots is - Israeli restrictions on Gaza. 
For more than 10 years, residents of Gaza have lived under excessively harsh restrictions on movement implemented through Israel’s closure of the Strip’s land, sea and air space. 
Gisha answers the question of "What precipitated the current wave of protests in Gaza?" by taking pains not to mention what the protests are about. The explicit demands of the organizers, and of their Hamas sponsors, are not mentioned:
Regardless of the political affiliation of the protestors, who organized the protest, or the agenda they wish to promote, international law prohibits the use of lethal force against civilians unless they participate directly in acts of hostility or pose a concrete risk to life, and even then, only as a last resort and only to the extent necessary to alleviate the risk

This is not only deceptive - it is demeaning to Palestinians .The very group that claims to want to improve the lives of Gazans is telling their Western audience not to listen to what Gazans themselves say about the protests, but only listen to their own spin. The message being given is that Gazans cannot be trusted to define their own feelings and motivations. The good people at Gisha know Gazans better than Gazans know themselves, and letting Palestinians explain their own point of view would just muddy the crystal-clear anti-Israel waters that Gisha is trying to create.

It is NGO-splaining.

The rest of this document that blames Israel, and only Israel, descends into farce at times. In answer to the question "Why does Gisha place responsibility on Israel and not on Hamas?", after saying how horrible Israel is, it allows that
Hamas, as the de facto government and also as a party to conflict, is subject to international humanitarian and human rights law as well. Its violations of these do not relieve Israel of its obligations. 
Which means that this is another question that Gisha raises and does not answer in its own FAQ. If they know that Hamas has the legal obligation towards its own people, then why doesn't Gisha write anything negative about Hamas (unless shamed into it?)

It also blames Israel, and only Israel, for the PLO's decision to block electricity and fuel to Gaza. Why should a FAQ actually mention any facts?

The FAQ goes on to reluctantly mention that Gaza has a border with Egypt that is almost always closed, but it doesn't demand that Egypt do anything, just as it doesn't demand anything of Hamas.

Only Israel is the blame for violent riots that are explicit calls to overrun Israeli territory. That's Gisha's position, and facts are inconvenient things to be swatted away.

I have a question for Gisha to answer in their next FAQ: Why are you afraid to mention the truth about Gaza? The answer, of course, is that their European funders aren't interested in facts or nuance, but in blaming Israel.

That's where the money is.

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  • Tuesday, May 15, 2018
  • Elder of Ziyon

Here are three of the "innocent civilians" killed yesterday, members of the Al Quds Brigades. One was 16 years old.


Islamic Jihad has published a death notice for three of the members of its Al Quds Brigades who were killed yesterday.

The one on the right is  Ahmed Adel Mousa Al-Shaer, who was 16 years old. Yes, at least one of the "children" killed yesterday was a member of a terror group.

Here we have photographic evidence that Gaza terror groups recruit children for terror. And that terror groups are hiding in the middle of the protests to prepare acts of terror.

And that Israel isn't killing people randomly.

Which means - more evidence that the media will ignore.



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