Isfahan, June 27 - Protesters gathered across the Islamic Republic today amid worsening financial and economic woes, and demanded that the country's leadership address the plummeting currency by mandating payment of wages in the comparatively stable monetary units of pre-Nazi interwar Germany.
Thousands of Iranians attended a march toward the Majlis parliamentary building in Tehran, as well as in cities around the country, and were met by paramilitary units that attempted to disperse them with tear gas. The crowds, standing firm, called on the Ayatollahs who run Iran to stop focusing on foreign adventures in Morocco, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere, and instead take care of the people at home, first and foremost by taking steps to salvage some of the population's spending power as the rial continues to drop in value, perhaps by replacing the rial with early 1920's German marks.
"Mullahs, mullahs, listen, hark - drop the rial, use the mark," some chanted. "To save the rial you're not able, Weimar's mark was much more stable," yelled others. The crowds called on the police to join them instead of suppressing the protest.
Iran's currency has plunged in value over the last several months in reaction to economic sanctions reimposed by the administration of Donald Trump over Tehran's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons and its meddling in the affairs of numerous countries in the region. The crisis has worsened as thousands of foreign companies have ceased their operations in Iran lest continuing to do business with the Islamic Republic subject them to the loss of far more lucrative contracts with entities in the US. While the government continues to insist people and businesses adhere to the official exchange rate with foreign currencies, the official rate does not reflect consumers' and traders' panic, nor the true value of the rial, which has lost almost half its value since the end of 2017 and keeps falling.
Observers note both parallels and differences between Iran's current currency woes and those of early Weimar Germany. Weimar brought its devaluation upon itself by printing gargantuan quantities of currency to trade for gold with which to pay WWI reparations. This move caused a severe weakening of the German mark, which necessitated printing ever-larger amounts to trade for gold, which led to skyrocketing prices, hoarding, and the eventual worthlessness of the currency. Iran's situation, by contrast, arises from more indirect outcomes of government behavior: Tehran's insistence on defiance of US pressure to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons, coupled with its prioritization of expanding the country's regional and global influence over the material welfare of its citizens. In the case of Weimar, the crisis dissipated when France and Belgium occupied part of Germany to appropriate the value of remaining reparations in coal, but the instability formed part of the economic and political picture that proved fertile ground for Nazism. In Iran, the government already adheres to most aspects of Nazi fascism.
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In one of the most introspective moments, the foreign ministry spokesman admitted that they had contemplated quickly farming out terrorized Israeli residents living on the Gaza border to the global media in multiple languages, but had not followed through.
It is such an obviously powerful idea that it is unclear why this was not the first point on the Israeli hasbara list in the pre-crisis preparations.
But the admission on that point was a good sign, as it showed introspection.
IN CONTRAST, there was another exchange between a journalist and another government spokesman, who nominally indicated a readiness to learn lessons, but in practice seemed relatively closed.
The journalist said that Israel was failing through pictures, videos and its spokespeople to explain Hamas’s danger as a “story” to the world. The spokesman responded that they were in touch with all of the relevant “officials,” to which the journalist retorted that answering questions about telling a story globally with a response about messaging all the right elites showed that the spokesman was missing the point.
There are limits to what public relations can achieve with Israel being the stronger side, usually having fewer casualties and controlling more territory. And, relative to other operations, Israel does not seem to have taken as large a hit globally.
But it was not at all clear from the INSS conference that Israeli spokespeople are always asking the hard questions and it seems like they won’t do an optimal job until they do.
How will all of this impact the ICC prosecution, which saw fit to issue a stark warning to Israel about potential war crimes on April 9 – the first public warning in over three years?
While this was understandably not the main issue at the conference, it was surprising that it was not discussed at all.
It appears that the spokespeople feel confident that it is not a problem because of the lack of continued media interest in the issue – and the lawyers seem less worried following the High Court of Justice approval of Israel’s open fire regulations.
This, too, may be wishful thinking – a wishful thinking which may come back to haunt the state.
Israel’s UN envoy has hailed the General Assembly’s passage on Tuesday of an update of its Global Counter Terrorism Strategy that features a condemnation of the use of civilians as human shields by terror groups.
In a statement, Ambassador Danny Danon credited the Israeli UN Mission for the inclusion of the “unprecedented” paragraph on human shields.
“Today’s resolution is another important step in our efforts as we change the rules of the game at the UN,” Danon said. “Less than two weeks ago, a plurality of members in the General Assembly voted to denounce Hamas, and now today’s resolution explicitly condemned terrorists for the despicable double war crime of hiding behind women and children while attacking civilians.”
“There is much work to be done,” Danon continued, “but this milestone accomplishment brings us closer to the day when the UN will focus on truly bringing security and stability to the world.”
The Global Counter Terrorism Strategy was first adopted in 2006 and is reviewed every two years.
The update approved on Tuesday decries the use of “schools and hospitals, for military purposes such as launching attacks and storing weapons,” as well as the use of “civilians to shield military objectives from attacks.”
Some of the more disgusting things in the article:
The price of food at the Holocaust Museum is much cheaper than other US restaurants. Once you enter, you feel that this restaurant is a special service for the Jews.
In a glass room close to the museum's exit, I see Jewish children as young as six or seven who read the Torah. At a certain point, the children began to cry, and I understood that this was a result of the psychological pressure on the children, and you could easily imagine what the rabbi was saying to the Jewish children. Of course he told them that God chose the Jews and preferred them to humans, and we must not forget them. The disaster is what gave us a state and we have to preserve Israel, so that the disaster does not happen again. Of course, the children heard these words and wept.
The Jews throughout their history, and when they were living in any country since their ancient times, usually engaged in trade and lending with interest and overpriced goods, which earned them the hatred of the inhabitants of most of the areas where they lived. Some historical accounts have shown that they usually served as a fifth column in favor of hostile parties, which may be due to their constant sense of persecution, so they conspired against their communities as a kind of search for protection.
Finally, we can say that we have heard a lot in our lives about the Holocaust, and most of us as Arabs see it as a lie, while many people of the world believe it. Some of us pay the price of its curse till today.
The usual question in your head will be: what really happened ?, and the real answer is nobody knows, but that no longer matters. The most important question is: To what extent did the Jews succeed in marketing their myth?
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Just because the English-language media hasn't been covering the fires as much doesn't mean that they are any less prevalent or dangerous than they were a couple of weeks ago.
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First of all, ‘don’t judge a book by its title’… This purely implies the shame you, dear reader, (perhaps) will project on me because I have done something so disrespectful, I should burn in hell. I know my mailbox is about to fill up with threats and angriness again - to all the people typing down their furiosity right now, save your energy. I don’t even open them.
After my escapades in Egypt, I knew that I wanted to push the bounderies of regilion and politics even further. Breaking down the walls that have been build to keep all our wandering souls on this planet somehow under control.
With other words, showing my personal religion in a world where freedom is becoming a very luxurious thing.
Papen decided to be provocative. But the actual photo reveals more about her than just her body.
The airhead artist wants to compare the Kotel to a wall that traps people - a wall that she can help break down. Which is incredibly vile, since it is a place where one can feel like one is directly speaking to God without any intermediaries.
Notice, however, that the photo was carefully composed so as to only show the Western Wall, not the Dome of the Rock (which would be to the left) or the Al Aqsa Mosque (cropped out of the right.)
Papen and her photographer are careful to only insult Jews. Because they know that if the photo would be a little more expansive and include Muslim holy places, then she wouldn't only get angry emails that she can casually dismiss, but actual death threats.
She is only willing to go so far in pursuit of her "art."
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Jared Kushner talks a good game about the Trump administration’s deep commitment to achieving peace in the Middle East.
Last week, Kushner again traveled to the Middle East to talk with Prime Minister Netanyahu and with Arab leaders. While there, Kushner gave a rare interview to a prominent Palestinian newspaper. The aim was presumably to convince the Palestinian people to embrace his soon-to-be-released proposal -- but he spent the interview lambasting President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority’s leadership.
The interview exemplified all that’s wrong with this administration’s approach. While offering empty platitudes about the benefits of peace, Kushner refused to endorse the two-state solution or to promise that he is working toward full Palestinian statehood -- continuing President Trump’s disastrous walk-back of 25 years of US and international consensus.
And he failed to acknowledge that the actions of this administration have alienated Palestinian leadership, empowered Israel’s right-wing rejectionists and shattered American credibility as a good-faith mediator.
So the absence of Kushner's saying certain words is what proves to J-Street that the peace plan is worthless?
J-Street, supposedly pro-peace, is pushing for a peace plan that has failed in 2000, 2001, 2008 and 2013. The not-yet-released deal is already, according to reports, gaining support in Jordan, Egypt, and most Gulf countries - more enthusiasm from Arabs than for anything Obama ever said.
No Arab state would accept a peace plan where the Palestinians don't end up with a state of some type. Yet they are willing to be more flexible in search of peace than J-Street.
Think about that for a minute.
If J-Street was really pro-peace, it would act cautiously. It might express misgivings but it would wait for the details for a true regional peace plan to be released. Instead, it is lobbying against a plan it doesn't know anything about.
That is not pro-peace!
Luckily, J-Street has an ally: Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement is now making posters that neatly complement J-Street's fact-free attack on Jared Kushner:
J-Street's position is aligned with Fatah's, and Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt are more interested in a peace plan than J-Street.
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Britain cherishes its longstanding relationships with others in this part of the world — notably including the Jordanians, the Saudis, and others in the Gulf. The royal family has played a central symbolic role in strengthening those ties, with innumerable reciprocal visits. Those royal visits have gone ahead — and high-volume trade relations, including colossal arms sales, have been maintained through the decades — despite widespread criticism at home of the human rights records of some of these regimes.
Sensitive to the interests and concerns of its partners in this part of the world, and well aware that official royal visits to Israel would not sit well with them, the royals for decades steered clear of the Jewish state.
Today, however, those interests and concerns have started to shift. Britain’s other allies nearby are preoccupied with the threats posed by the rapacious regime in Tehran. And in that face-off, they and Israel are on the same side.
Prince William’s optimistically declared “non-political” visit has yet to enter its more complicated diplomatic phase, when he meets the Palestinians and, especially, when he visits Jerusalem’s Old City — in what Israel regards as its sovereign capital, and what the prince’s official itinerary, to Israel’s dismay, designates as part of the “occupied Palestinian territories.”
But for Israel, an argument over terminology is a very small price to pay for the endorsement of legitimacy provided by a young, well-liked, sensible, and very senior British royal.
The Saudis are being extremely careful in publicly acknowledging the improving nature of their links with Israel. But Prince William’s visit, a substantive milestone in its own right for Israel, is also assuredly a significant indication of a wider positive shift in relations hereabout.
Given all this, one might well ask why the British government sticks to these fictions of Israeli illegality. After all, Theresa May is sympathetic to Israel.
Earlier this week, the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, condemned the UN Human Rights Council for its institutionalised anti-Israel behaviour.
One principal reason is surely that the UK is part of a European progressive order for which international law is the expression of its ideology, elements of which are inimical to the security and even the existence of the state of Israel.
Out of the carnage of two world wars grew the core progressive belief: that the western nation state is the source of nationalism, prejudice and aggression, and so any war in its own defence is by definition unjustified.
In place of the nation state should come a new international order based on transnational institutions and laws representing the brotherhood of man: the UN, EU, international law and human rights law.
War must be replaced by law through negotiation, conflict resolution, peace processes. There can be no victory or defeat. Questions of right and wrong, who is the aggressor and who the victim, are irrelevant. In a fight between God and the devil, western progressives would split the difference and call that a triumph.
So the fact that Palestinian identity is a fiction invented solely to destroy the Jewish claim to Israel is ignored. The evidence that international law upholds Israeli actions is dismissed. The way the UN and international law have been hijacked to destroy Israel is denied.
In Mandatory Palestine, Britain betrayed its legal obligations to the Jews. The FCO has a history of Arabism and antisemitism. Progressive transnationalism seems to have allowed it to progress from all that straight into lawfare against Israel without even passing “Go.”
Please join me here as I discuss with Avi Abelow of Israel Unwired the row over the “crying migrant children” at the Mexico/US border; whether the supposedly mould-breaking new Trump Middle East peace plan will turn out to be anything other than more out of the same old useless US Middle East peace plan mould; and the significance of Prince William’s trip to the Middle East, the first official visit to Israel ever by a member of the British Royal Family.
"We've heard for so many yrs stories that Israel is going face this diplomatic tsunami. So far, thats a tsunami spinning in Israel's favor." - my @i24NEWS_EN segment yesterday, on visit of Prince Williamhttps://t.co/AdiLIGCvvw
As the millennial cohort swings left, a group of young
Jewish activists, IfNotNow (INN), is appealing to a wide swath of Jewry with
proclamations of social justice and progressive ideals. But the seemingly-open and inclusive stance
is a soft veneer for Israel bashing rhetoric.
Worse, INN’s public agitations at times fuel anti-Semitic sentiments.
The group seeks to influence public institutional
change in Jewish organizations that support the State of Israel, yet doing so
fractures the relatively small American Jewish community. The most recent
target of the group’s efforts was the National Ramah Commission, responsible for providing
over 11,000 kids--including myself some years ago--with a fun, Jewish summer
experience and instilling a love for Israeli culture and Jewish traditions.
During my days at the camp, I recall the ‘promotion’of Zionism
manifested through eating Israeli food, singing Israeli songs, and immersing in
Israeli cultural life. INN must take
umbrage at these aspects of camp life for young American Jews since they
recently attempted unsuccessfully to politicize the camp experience by
imploring Ramah leadership to instruct about Israel’s “occupation”policies and
practices. Wouldn’t an inclusive stance encourage a measured analysis of
complex Israeli politics and a love for the Jewish homeland instead of absolute
condemnation?
A good window into the motives of an organization
involves looking at its leadership.
Founder of INN Simone Zimmerman served a brief stint as coordinator of
Jewish outreach for the Bernie Sanders presidential bid, but was let go after
her vitriolic and unwaveringly anti-Israel Facebook posts were exposed. Zimmerman was too left wing and anti-Zionist
for Bernie Sanders’liking, something extremely telling about the founding
principles and doctrines of the INN movement.
Moreover, the co-founder of INN, Max Berger, regularly makes egregious
assertions via Twitter. “The GOP is a white nationalist party,”Berger tweeted
on June 12, later stating that Trump’s cabinet is “full of the dumbest Nazis”on June 15. On June 9 Berger retweeted Sarah Silverman, who compared ICE
immigration officers to Nazis, and on June 7 retweeted Linda Sarsour, the
controversial figure who maintains that feminists cannot be Zionists. These Tweets took place in the span of a week
and are prime examples of the biased beliefs of an INN co-founder, and by
extension, the partisan organization.
As INN gains an increasing base of followers, it
undermines the loyalty of American Jews towards Israel with skewed information
and damaging rhetoric. Ramah’s interactions, along with countless other reputable
Conservative-Jewish and Reform-Jewish organizations, proves how INN has
permeated into the mainstream for American Jews, and along with them, a
lopsided anti-Israel agenda. Per their website, INN’s indoctrination has reached members of key Jewish
youth organizations in America: Union for Reform Judaism, United Synagogue
Youth, Solomon Schechter (my alma mater), Ramah, BBYO, North American
Federation of Temple Youth, and more.
INN has created a “Liberation Syllabus”(#LiberationSyllabus),
a compilation of learning materials, much of which unjustly slanders Israel.
The syllabus features Michael Chabon, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, and many
other people and organizations that maintain a harsh and aggressive stance
towards Israel. Chabon, a known anti-Israel activist gained notoriety--or
apparent clout among IfNotNow followers--during his commencement address at the
Hebrew Union College in California when he condemned Jewish in-marriage and
professed his distaste for religion. Also prominent on the list was B’Tselem (The Israeli Information Center for Human
Rights in the Occupied Territories), the organization which offers a
pro-Palestinian advocacy without acknowledgement of Israeli concerns and
perspectives. Like INN, B’Tselem is an ardently partisan organization pushing an
inherently flawed agenda.
INN does “not take a unified stance on… Zionism or the question of statehood,”yet purportedly supports a two-state solution. What this intentionally
ambiguous verbiage accomplishes is reserving the right for the institution to
allege support for the State of Israel, while accommodating the sizable sect of
their supporters who denounce Israel’s existence altogether.
It’s very troubling that IfNotNow (INN) has gained
traction and credibility among American Jews, especially millennials. INN is virtually silent on the ills
surrounding Israel--including civil war and chemical warfare in Syria--but
focuses exclusively on Israel’s continued control of pre-1967 border land with no
acknowledgement of why or how. No democracy is immune from criticism, certainly
including Israel, but INN does nothing to advance or deepen understanding of
multiple perspectives in this complex region of the world. #YouNeverToldMe
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How can I explain the inner workings of my Jewish soul?
There is something different about the Jewish experience that deeply impacts who we are as individuals and as a Nation but it is very hard to explain to people who do not share the same feeling. Some things need to be felt to be truly understood. This is my attempt to explain…
The day after Shavuot I found myself on the way to Jerusalem with a nice Swedish woman about my age. A guest of my mother and a tourist in Israel, she had very little knowledge about our country but had a friendly attitude, open mind and was interested in learning more.
As we drove up the hills towards Jerusalem I found myself at a loss for words. I can talk about Jerusalem but how can anyone really understand her significance if they don’t know what Jerusalem throbbing in your bones means?
Does it make any sense to explain that time isn’t linear, that in this land, the experiences of thousands of years coexist in the same space?
Every time I drive to Jerusalem I see flashes of my ancestors making pilgrimage to the holy city. While I am comfortable in the car, simultaneously they are there too - trudging up the hills, men, women and children, with their sheep and their cattle, tents, merchandise to sell and sacrifices to present at the Temple. I know the phantom ache in my legs is theirs, not mine and I am grateful to have the luxury of travelling to Jerusalem by car instead of walking, as they did.
Our first stop was Yad Vashem.
Our guest knew about the Holocaust but this was the first time she was faced with the enormity of the horror. There is something about listening to witness testimonies inside the museum and then stepping outside, with the hills of Jerusalem spread out below and seeing Jews walking free in a land they built with their hands and determination, that inspires awe in a way nothing else can…
Maybe the only way to explain a miracle is to actually see it.
Inside the museum I explained to our guest about the Jews of Europe, their lifestyle, the shock and disbelief at their own neighbors who could turn them into non-humans and steal everything they had, including their lives.
Then I found myself utterly robbed of speech. Standing in front of a case of Nazi defiled Torah scrolls, ripped and burnt, I felt a rage welling up inside that can only be expressed with tears.
I am not a religious Jew. It is not religion that evokes this overwhelming reaction, it is identity.
It is not a reaction evoked by seeing an affront to my faith, it is a reaction evoked by seeing an affront to my soul.
Jewish tradition says that God created the universe with words, thus the words have a certain power to them. Each individual letter has its own power and must be formed correctly. Every Torah scroll is lovingly written out by a specially trained scribe. Each letter must be written by hand, perfectly with absolutely no mistakes. Torah scrolls that are in use are dressed in their own special coverings with silver breastplates and crowns on the top of their handles. Scrolls that are damaged cannot be thrown away, they are buried with reverence, like a person, with their own special funeral.
Who preserved these relics of Jewish life in Nazi Europe, so wantonly destroyed? Who took the effort to keep and preserve them while so much else was being lost?
The collective memory of my Jewish soul cries out in indignation at the cruel glee of enemies deliberately destroying what is sacred as a precursor to their attempt to destroy entirely our existence.
Before attacking our bodies, they attacked our souls. It is not Jewish bodies that clung to Zion, it was, it is Jewish souls. Pogroms, concentration camps, wars and terror attacks can kill the body but the soul does not forget.
The Jewish soul is the place where religion, heritage and nationhood collide. It is difficult to comprehend. In Israel and particularly in Jerusalem, layers of the past blend with the present and even the future.
There I was, walking to the Kotel with a tourist and explaining about the Temple Mount, the Kotel and Al Aqsa. We watched men praying in the men’s section. The holiday had brought many people to Jerusalem and as time went by, more and more people came flowing in to the holy site.
Did she feel the reverence in the air? I don’t know.
I took her to see “Ezrat Yisrael”, the egalitarian section that is open for men and women to pray together however they choose. It was the first time I had ever seen anyone praying there (I’m pretty sure the group I saw singing together was a group of Christians, not Jews). By that time, it was already dark.
Standing in the golden glow of the Wall, I was looking up towards where we should have been, on top of the Temple Mount. Suddenly a sound I had never before heard in that place cut through the air.
A shofar was blowing and it sounded like it was coming from atop the Temple Mount.
My heart leapt with joy before my brain managed to explain to my heart that what I had heard was an illusion of sound. The shofar was blown from the roof of Aish Hatorah building on the other side of the Kotel plaza, where a wedding was taking place (a special enough event in itself!). The sound did not come from the Temple Mount.
I didn’t even try to explain.
After the Six Day war and the reunification of Jerusalem Naomi Shemer added to her song “Jerusalem of Gold” words that describe the city returning to Jewish life:
“We have returned to the cisterns
To the market and to the market-place
A shofar [ram's horn] calls out on the Temple Mount
In the Old City.”
A shofar calling out on the Temple Mount is the ultimate sign of Jewish sovereignty.
A shofar on the Temple Mount is a sound I have never heard. That sound will be the sign that our journey from slavery in Egypt to being a free nation in Zion and Jerusalem, will finally be complete.
Will I ever hear that sound? Was it a sound from the future, one that as yet only exists in a dream?
What I know for sure is that it had nothing to do with current reality. That truth hit me hard when we were preparing to go towards the hotel.
My mother (bless her heart) had booked a place in the Old City. When we heard that, we were concerned. Where exactly in the Old City?
Looking on the map, we saw that it was in the Muslim Quarter. Not a place I would choose to stay in good times and one week after the American Embassy was relocated to Jerusalem was not what anyone would call a “good time.” Of course, the people who run a hotel want our money but the people who live in that area and own businesses there are the same ones who laughed at Adel Bennet when she begged them to help her after she and her husband were stabbed. Critically injured, bleeding she fell at their feet and pleaded for assistance. They looked down at her, laughed and told her to die. That happened less than a year ago and now, they had an “excuse” to let out their hatred.
It was too late to cancel and rebook so Lenny and I figured we could go take a look at the place, get a feel for the atmosphere and then decide. Lenny consulted with the policemen, guarding at the Kotel. That night there were more policemen than usual, more with higher ranks and one step away from full riot gear (they were sans shields and helmets).
The officer Lenny spoke with displayed extreme concern when he heard where we were supposed to go. At first he gave the answer that the system demands: “We are in the streets to protect everyone. You can walk the streets.” His eyes told a different story. That led Lenny to press him: “Would you let your sister go there?”
Something burst in the officer and he blurted out: “I wouldn’t let my sister come to Jerusalem at all now. Try to find a different hotel.”
His eyes were full of deep concern. That, even more than his words, frightened me.
I made a few phone calls but to no avail. Not knowing what else to do, we went in the direction of the hotel but at the exist from the Kotel, leading to that direction, came across a police blockade. The police there took one look at us and said: “You can’t go through this way.” Shocked, we stood frozen for a moment. Two teenage boys ran up, the police moved the blockade and let them by. Lenny asked, how come they could go by saying our hotel is that way. The policeman said: “They are Arabs. You are not. You can’t go there. There are violent riots there now.”
Sovereignty?
This is our current reality. Chilled to the bone, we turned away and eventually ended up leaving Jerusalem altogether rather than staying the night as originally planned.
In our national anthem we sing about the yearning of the Jewish soul, the 2000-year-old hope to be free in the land of Zion and Jerusalem. We are not yet there.
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How is it that Hamas’ credibility is treated as equal to that of the IDF and Israeli authorities? Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard journalists complain about the way in which Israel has dealt with their needs in relation to the weeks of violence at the Gaza border. I’ve also heard the argument from at least one journalist that both Hamas and Israel have equal and competing narratives that should be reported equally.
One major difference between the two sides is that one actively lies.
The death of Palestinian eight-month old Leila al-Ghandour on May 14, reportedly as a result of Israeli tear gas, made global headlines. Doubts were raised at the time over the cause of death and Hamas eventually took the baby off its list of casualties of the Gaza border violence. Still, headlines such as the Daily Express’ “Mother’s agony as baby dies in Gaza gas horror” and “Drones drop deadly cannisters” contributed to the libel of Israel as a brutal baby killer.
Despite this framing of the incident, the media cannot be blamed for covering the story. They can, however, be held responsible for taking Hamas claims at face value, not only in this case but more widely.
Reports now suggest that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar paid baby Leila’s parents NIS 8,000 ($2,200) to tell the media that the infant had died due to tear gas inhalation at the Gaza protests. This information comes from a relative of the family arrested and questioned over terror activities at the Gaza border who told Israeli authorities that the baby had died of a fatal blood condition that runs in the family.
Perhaps the media might be skeptical of any information of this nature given that it was apparently obtained from a Palestinian held in Israeli custody. Nonetheless, surely those same media outlets that reported the baby’s death in such a damning manner even while questions remained, have a duty to report this latest development? After all, how can the media not give equal coverage to what they would claim to be equal and competing narratives?
But, aside from a few reports, this new revelation simply didn’t register on most of the international media’s radars. A blood libel, like most of the blood libels leveled at Israel over the years, has essentially become part of the accepted narrative even if it is subsequently proven to be fake news.
In light of Europe’s institutional hostility towards Israel, and given the collective Arab rejection of Israel’s right to exist, it is obvious that Johnson doesn’t want this meeting because he is keen to advance the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
He is working to set up a meeting where the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan gang up on the U.S. and tell the President’s son-in-law that they will not accept any plan that doesn’t reflect their animus towards Israel.
Kushner, for his part, reportedly responded to Johnson’s attempt to railroad the White House into giving the EU veto power over U.S. Middle East policy by saying that while he is open to outside input in the U.S. peace plan, the President will decide its contents.
Kushner’s response hit the proper note. But it bears pointing out that Johnson’s speech at the UNHRC, like his attempt to build a coalition to ensnare the White House in a Middle East policy predicated on hostility towards Israel, show that Europe’s refusal to back the U.S.’s positions at the UNHRC was not a simple disagreement about the best way to achieve common ends.
Rather, Johnson’s efforts reveal a much more basic and unbridgeable conflict between the U.S. and Europe about the proper ends of foreign policy, and the sovereign right of the U.S. to advance its goals in the international arena.
Bernard Lewis issued a startling prediction in 2010: Iran—the land of scowling ayatollahs and flag burnings—would abandon Islamism by the end of the decade, while Turkey—Washington’s stalwart Cold War ally—would turn away from the West and burrow deeper into its Muslim identity. Lewis is no longer with us, and there are still a few years left in his wager, but events in both countries are proving him remarkably prescient.
On Turkey, Lewis has already been vindicated. Witness the ballot-box triumph of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party, or AKP. In the presidential contest over the weekend, Erdogan thumped his opponent, Muharrem Ince of the Republican People’s Party, 53% to 31%. A smattering of pro-Kurdish and secular candidates divided the remaining ballots. Erdogan’s AKP and its allies also locked a majority of seats in Parliament.
The elections were not exactly fair. As the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe observed, the state of emergency imposed following a 2016 coup attempt constricted “freedom of expression and assembly” for the opposition. Erdogan has used the emergency laws to dismiss more than 100,000 soldiers, teachers, police officers, and journalists. And some 50,000 people have been jailed and are awaiting trial, according to rights groups.
With numerous opposition reporters languishing in prison, it came as no surprise that the ruling party dominated the media landscape, which led European Union officials to conclude that “conditions for campaigning were not equal.”
The bias of the UN Human Rights Council against Israel is even worse. It has Agenda Item 7, which makes Israel the only member state that is a permanent agenda item to be regularly discussed.
But the UN is not alone in its one-sided criticisms of Israel.
Nowhere is this more evident than in its work in the Middle East. The region is populated by authoritarian regimes with appalling human rights records. Yet in recent years Human Rights Watch has written far more condemnations of Israel for violations of international law than of any other country in the region. [emphasis added]
But that did not stop HRW op-eds on the Arab-Israeli from focusing on the allegations made against Israel.
Currently, 2015 is the latest year for which NGO Monitor has information.
The number of reports on Israel, in comparison with other countries in the Middle East, appears to be on the rise again.
During all those years, Human Rights Watch has continued to focus criticism of Israel -- in much the same way as the UN Human Rights Council.
So when US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley tried to spearhead reform of the UNHRC, it was not unexpected that HRW (along with other NGOs, including Amnesty International) would try to block the attempt.
Here is the letter Haley sent to each of the NGO's that blocked the US attempt to reform the UNHRC:
Note that Haley's letter indicates that the US did not blindly charge in with an appeal to reform the UN Human Rights Council. She writes that there were meetings with over 125 member states of the UN and that there was "near universal agreement on the need for dramatic and systemic Council reforms."
Yet when the time came for the US to circulate a draft of a resolution for achieving those reforms, not one of those states responded, not even with their own counter-proposal.
Haley refers to a letter that was circulated by Human Rights Watch and other NGO's to undermine attempts to improve the UNHRC and to "block negotiations and thwart reform." According to Haley that letter contributed to the US decision to withdraw from the council.
Like the letter these groups sent out to block reform, what these "more effective policies" are remains a mystery.
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.
Arabic media are reporting a description of the role that Egypt would play in the Trump "deal of the century" for Middle East peace.
According to the reports, which Egypt approves of, under the plan a free trade zone between Gaza and Egypt would be established in the Sinai near the Rafah border. Also in that area a $500 million power plant would be built to provide electricity to Gaza.
Also, a joint Egyptian-Gaza seaport would be built, fully under Egyptian supervision but operated by Palestinians.
In addition, an airport in the Sinai would be built specifically for Gazans and the Gulf would fund a large industrial area on the border.
Previous plans suggested a land exchange with Egypt, and Egyptians always were against those. This plan, according to the Arab sources, is welcomed by Egypt.
Supposedly, Egypt is already allocating land to the projects and getting ready to move people out of the area for these to be built.
This all sounds very credible, and if true, it shows that Jared Kushner - who was widely derided as an inexperienced kid who was in way over his head in working on the most intractable problem on the world stage - has come up with more innovative ideas for peace than 50 years of professional diplomats have.
The reason is because the Trump administration is looking at this as a regional issue, not a "Palestinian/Israeli" issue. And the Arab world is needed to make any peace plan work.
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.
On Sunday, David M. Halbfinger and Rami Nazzal of The New York Times wrote an anti-Israel piece about the potential of Israel destroying illegal Bedouin communities in Judea and Samaria.
This paragraph shows not only the bias of the reporters but how poor their reporting is:
With the Trump administration providing diplomatic cover, right-wing ministers in Israel pressing to exploit that while it lasts and international support for the Palestinians focused for the moment on Gaza, a new ruling by a settler-majority panel of Israel’s Supreme Court appears to have freed the government to proceed with the removal of entire Bedouin communities on the West Bank. Advocates of the Bedouins say this would be a war crime: the forced transfer of a population under the protection of the military occupation.
In one paragraph, the NYT is claiming that Israel's Supreme Court probably allows war crimes, and that its bias is because its panel members are mostly settlers.
First of all, what evidence does the NYT have that the panel members are "settlers?" My source tells me "I'm not sure where Anat Baron lives, but I think it's Tel Aviv. As far as I know, Yael Vilner lives in Haifa, and Noam Solberg lives in Alon Shvut." While one of them is indeed a "settler" in land that would be part of Israel in any deal, two of them are religious, which may have been what caused the reporters to assume that they were "settlers."
But is the legal reasoning sound? That is the only issue that matters, and the NYT - instead of actually looking at the legal ruling and finding holes in it - instead takes unverified claims of "war crimes" and publishes them as if they have the same level of importance as a multi-page and detailed legal ruling. The reporters are impugning the integrity of Israel's Supreme Court, which has issued many anti-settlement rulings over the decades, by claiming bias - with zero evidence.
This isn't reporting. This is a smear.
(h/t Avi)
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On June 10, 2002, Charles Krauthammer delivered the Distinguished Rennert Lecture upon receiving the Guardian of Zion Award from Bar-Ilan University's Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies. Below is an excerpt from the lecture titled "He Tarries: Jewish Messianism and the Oslo Peace."
In the 1990s, America slept and Israel dreamed.
The United States awoke on Sept. 11, 2001. Israel awoke in September 2000.
Like the left and like the reverie that we had in the United States, secular messianism was intoxicated with the idea that history had changed from a history based on military and political conflict to one in which the ground rules were set by markets and technology. This was the infatuation with globalization as the great leveler and the abolisher of things like politics, war and international conflict. This kind of geo-economics was widely accepted in the early post-Cold War era.
It was Sept. 11th that abolished that illusion. It taught us in America there are enemies, they are ideological, they care nothing for economics and they will use whatever military power they have as a means to achieve their ideological ends. This is the old history, perhaps the oldest history of all, the war of one God against another. No new history, no break in history, no redemption from history.
The other source of this secular messianism in the Israeli context was the success of the European Union, which was seen as a model for peace in the Middle East. There was talk of Israel, Palestinian and Jordan becoming a new Benelux, with common markets, open borders, friendship and harmony.
Indeed, if you look at the Oslo Accords, of course there is page upon page of all of these ideas of cooperation on economics, on technology, on environment, all which in retrospect appear absurd. And indeed, this entire idea of the Benelux on the Jordan looks insane in retrospect, but I believe that it was insane from the very beginning, when it was first proposed 10 years ago.
Last week, Charles Krauthammer, one of America’s most incisive and influential political analysts and a profound thinker on issues pertaining to Judaism and the Jewish people, passed away at the age of sixty-eight. In 2016, Krauthammer engaged in an extended conversation with Roger Hertog based on his 1998 essay “At Last, Zion,” on the future of the Jewish people in American and Israel. At the conversation’s end, Krauthammer elaborates on a remark he once made that “I don’t believe in God, but I fear Him greatly.”
Long ago, when I was very young, I went from being a fervent believer to being not so much a non-believer as a skeptic. My theology can be summed up [thus]: the only theology I know is not true . . . is atheism. Everything else I’m unsure about. . . . The idea [espoused by] Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins that . . . there is nothing except what we see, and that’s it, is to me the most implausible, arrogant. It just can’t be, because things don’t create themselves. . . .
I have a deep belief in a transcendent “out there.” I don’t particularly believe in the mythologies that are told by any of the religions. I have an enormous attachment to the Jewish tradition and to the depth and the subtlety of its understanding of life, morality, and of metaphysics. I’ve always been interested in it, and to me . . . it is important for Jews to try to continue that tradition, to make sure it lives, and to make sure that culture is nourished. . . .
As to my own idea [that even if there is no God], “I fear Him greatly,” it’s because I believe in transcendence, some transcendence. [Since] I will never—we will never, as a species—be able to grasp what it is, there is a certain trepidation. In Judaism it’s called the fear of heaven. . . . I’m not really afraid, but in some ways you tremble when you look at the universe and you think, “I think I understand things.” . . . Human beings need to tremble when looking at the universe. If not, they don’t understand what’s going on. That’s sort of the key: to understand how little we can understand. . . .
Britain’s Prince William landed in Israel early on Monday evening, kicking off the first-ever official visit by a member of the royal family since the British Mandate ended and the State of Israel was founded in 1948.
William, the second in line to the British throne, was welcomed at Ben Gurion Airport by Tourism Minister Yariv Levin and MK Amir Ohana, both members of the ruling Likud party.
The Duke of Cambridge’s three-day stay, ending the royal family’s seven-decade unofficial boycott of Israel, is likely to be full of historical symbolism, though it was initially billed as a celebration of the unprecedentedly good bilateral ties between London and Jerusalem.
However, the trip is taking place under a minor cloud of controversy, as Kensington Palace’s official itinerary states that the prince’s visit to Jerusalem’s Old City — where he is likely to stop at the Western Wall and Muslim and Christian holy sites — will take place in the “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
“We will receive today the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, for the historic first visit in Israel of a representative of the British royal family,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier Monday at the start of the Likud faction meeting.
“I must say this is not exactly true because there is a representative, his great-grandmother Princess Alice, one of the Righteous of the Nations who saved Jews in Greece during the Second World War and requested to be buried in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu added.
Addressing Likud lawmakers, he joked that he would have invited all of the party’s MKs to meet the prince, but “it is a little cramped at the Prime Minister’s Residence, so we will welcome him on your behalf and on behalf of all the citizens of Israel — welcome!”
MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. Issues of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement were in focus of a meeting Russian president’s special envoy for the Middle East and African countries and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov had with a delegation of Hamas leaders led by Hamas Political Bureau member Mousa Abu Marzook, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday.
"Key attention was focused on the problems of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement on the basis of the generally recognized international legal documents, including UN resolutions, and on efforts towards restoration of Palestinian national unity on the basis of the agreement signed between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo in October 2017," the ministry said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will attend the final of the 2018 World Cup in Russia with a number of world leaders and heads of state, FIFA's foot Gianni Infantino. Al-Rajoub said in a statement to WAFA that his Excellency will meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin while in Russia, and will discuss bilateral relations and the latest developments.
Something is brewing. Maybe Russia wants to break the Hamas/Fatah deadlock.
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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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Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Elder of Ziyon
Isfahan, June 27 - Protesters gathered across the Islamic Republic today amid worsening financial and economic woes, and demanded that the country's leadership address the plummeting currency by mandating payment of wages in the comparatively stable monetary units of pre-Nazi interwar Germany.
