Thursday, September 27, 2018

Billboard meant to celebrate Iran's soldiers actually showed Israeli soldiers

A hilarious item from Sputnik News:

In an embarrassing error, a billboard in the Iranian city of Shiraz meant to commemorate the country’s eight-year-long war with Iraq accidentally featured images of soldiers from the Islamic Republic’s more perennial rival: the Israel Defense Forces.

Iran is in the middle of its Sacred Defense Week, a week-long holiday meant to commemorate the Iran-Iraq War, fought between the two countries from 1980 until 1988. Unfortunately, one ad in Shiraz, a city in Fars that is Iran's fifth-largest, purported to show Iranian soldiers gazing out from a mountaintop at the horizon, but instead showed soldiers from Israel, a country revolutionary leader and Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called "the little satan" (compared to the United States' "big satan").

What's more, the original photo featured a female soldier, who was edited out for the Shiraz billboard, and clouds were put in to replace the original backdrop of a suburban locale. The soldiers' uniforms in the ad don't look like Iranian army uniforms, either.

Once the ad's true nature became known, it was quickly taken down.

Here's the billboard:

And here's the original photo of IDF soldiers who were looking out from a hill near Gush Etzion:

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09/26 Links Pt2: Linda Sarsour’s Blood Libel; Corbyn says UK will immediately recognize Palestinian state if he’s elected; Pat Condell: O Come All Ye Jew Haters

From Ian:

Linda Sarsour’s Blood Libel

When police officers in America shoot unarmed black people, Jewish hands lurk in the background — so says Linda Sarsour, perhaps the most visible Muslim political advocate in the United States. She was a co-chair of the national Women’s March, and is a campaign surrogate for politicians, including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

A program sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that takes American police officials to Israel for a week-long seminar is fueling police brutality, Sarsour said earlier this month at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)’s annual convention.

The ADL, she said in response to a question, “has been a purveyor of Islamophobia against our community,” and complained that the group still enjoys a positive reputation.

ADL officials “positioned themselves as somehow being part of the progressive movement,” she said. “But what they do is, I’ll give you an example of something that they do — if you are part of a criminal justice reform movement, if you believe in the idea of ending police brutality and the misconduct of law enforcement officers across the country, then you do not support an organization that takes police officers from America, funds their trips, takes them to Israel so they can be trained by the Israeli police and military, and then they come back here and do what? Stop and frisk, killing unarmed black people across the country.”

“That [statement] is so horrific,” says Nisi Jacobs. Jacobs is a co-founder of the Women’s March for All, a group that broke away from the national Women’s March because of antisemitism concerns about Sarsour and national co-chair Tamika Mallory. Among its activities, Women’s March for All has circulated a petition calling on Sarsour and Mallory to be replaced.

“It’s [beyond] anti-Semitic,” Jacobs said. “She’s lying to a bunch of gullible, hurt people. She’s like a horrible guru that just lies because she has her own agenda.”

IsraellyCool: The Bolt Report on Ari Fuld Murder and Eurovision Boycott Attempts

The wonderful Andrew Bolt recently spoke to Australian Jewish politician Michael Danby about the murder of Ari Fuld z”l, as well as BDS-hole hypocrisy towards Israel.

As usual, it is worth watching, solely for the fact that it is like watching a current affairs show from an alternate universe, in which Israel is portrayed accurately, and the real bad guys portrayed as bad guys.

Corbyn says UK will immediately recognize Palestinian state if he’s elected

The leader of Britain’s Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said Wednesday that he would immediately recognize a Palestinian state if elected to lead the country, while also acknowledging that his party has faced a tough summer grappling with the issue of anti-Semitism.

During his keynote speech at the annual Labour conference in Liverpool, Corbyn protested “the ongoing denial of justice and rights to the Palestinian people” and declared Labour was “united in condemning the shooting of hundreds of unarmed demonstrators in Gaza by Israeli forces and the passing of Israel’s discriminatory nation-state law,” referring to recent Knesset legislation defining Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

“The continuing occupation, the expansion of illegal settlements and the imprisonment of Palestinian children are an outrage,” he said, referring to minors convicted by Israel of terror activities.

According to AP figures, more than 130 Gazans have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of weekly border clashes dubbed the “Great March of Return” at the end of March. Hamas, an Islamist terror group that seized control of Gaza in 2007 and seeks to destroy Israel, has acknowledged that dozens of the fatalities were its members.

What do you do when your beliefs and living where you do places your child in mortal danger? Some people would change their beliefs or move. Others would not, aware in some dim recesses of the mind that others think they are shirking their parental duty and risking the lives of their children. But what if it’s about your principles: about living in Eretz HaKodesh, the Holy Land?

We were proud of our 18-year-old son when he went out and got his first real job without any clout or help from us. But we were surprised to hear he’d gotten a job as a busboy at Greg, a café at Canion Harim, the mall at the Gush Etzion Junction. We’d expected he’d get a job locally, in our town of Efrat, or perhaps something in Jerusalem.

The issue was immediately apparent: how would he get to and from work? Especially when he stayed to close up, late at night? Would his job prove to be a liability, with my husband always driving him there and back, on call for this exclusive purpose?

Because while we feel safe enough at home, the Gush Etzion Junction is a known hotspot for terror. It’s not far from where the three boys were kidnapped and murdered, and Dalia Lemkus stabbed to death. It’s where Ezra Schwartz and my children’s beloved teacher Rabbi Yaakov Don were killed. And it’s where Ari Fuld was murdered only a week ago.

Ari Fuld (HY"D) collided with this glass door during the attack that took his life and it shattered on impact.

There have been other incidents. Stabbings and ramming attacks. And I always know when one is happening, because I can hear the sirens of the multiple ambulances and security vehicles speeding toward the scene. I can hear them in my living room. It’s a trick, something about the way the sound carries. And yet, we live that close, though we might as well be very far away: close enough to hear, far enough away to feel safe from harm.

I have never bought into the idea that the only place Jews are safe is in Eretz Yisrael. On the one hand, I know that statistically, even the Gush Etzion Junction is safer than a New York street corner. But that is cold comfort. The fact is, terror does strike at the Junction and has. On numerous occasions. I’d be a fool to pretend otherwise.

Makeshift memorial to Ari Fuld (HY"D) on the spot of the terror attack that took his life.

But I have always believed that Jews should live in every part of Eretz Yisrael. Use it or lose it. This personal precept was, in fact, something I shared with Ari Fuld, something I mentioned to a colleague who asked me for a personal anecdote about Ari for an article she was writing:

There was a pro-Israel bloggers meet-up last year. It was in "East" Jerusalem and anyway, I don't drive, so I asked if I could get a ride with Ari.
He took a route to Jerusalem that I hadn't taken since maybe the 1st intifada, a road considered "dangerous."
I was surprised and pleased. We talked about that, how important it is to travel in parts of Israel that are even dangerous. We had a meeting of minds on the subject.
I don't have too many friends who get that. So I knew he was the real deal.

I remember some years ago, the same son who took the job at Greg, was invited by a neighbor to take a day trip during the Sukkot festival to see a part of Israel that was off the beaten track. My husband initially said no: it was too dangerous. But when Dov told me about it, he was surprised to hear, after ascertaining that the father who was driving would be armed, that I thought my son should go. My true, deep feeling is that if we don’t own the roads of our land, don’t use them, they will become even more dangerous, so dangerous that it will be as if they no longer belong to us. They will become exclusively Arab.

Makeshift memorial in the shape of a Star of David at the site of Ari Fuld's murder (HY"D)

A hand-lettered sign memorializing Ari Fuld (HY"D) at the site of the murder by the people of Maale Michmash. It says, in part, "The eternal nation is not afraid of the long road ahead."

It is a mitzvah, a commandment, to travel in and see Israel. You get a brownie point for every four cubits you walk within the land. To me, this article of faith is not a myth but a fact. I believe it more deeply than I believe just about anything at all.

The sign on the Gush Etzion Junction felafel shop quoting its propietor.

And now I am being put to the test. Will I tell my son to quit his job, urge him to do so, when all his life I have demonstrated that I believe in traveling to parts of Israel that are even “a little dangerous” as I related in my anecdote about Ari Fuld?

So far, Dov has given our son rides where needed, and a co-worker has been generous enough to give him rides home late at night. My son knows that if he doesn’t have a ride, he can call home and my hardworking husband will get out of bed, get dressed, and go pick him up. I hope my son doesn’t hesitate to do so, worried about awakening his father.

Dov told him that if he becomes nervous, if it becomes too much, he can look for other work, and left it at that. The values with which we raised our son are now being put to the test. At 18, he’s a man. It’s now up to him to assume the mantle. Or not.

Next year he goes into the IDF where he takes with him everything we’ve poured into him to defend our people and our land. I could think of this as a delicate precipice where he leaves the shelter of youth to risk everything for others. Or I could think of it as a continuation of how we’ve always raised him: that security and safety are ephemeral. That what is true and right is our heritage: our God-given right to the land.

(Thanks, Leora Hyman and Dov Epstein for photos)

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Arabs freak over Jews singing Hatikva on Temple Mount

Arab media is upset over some Jews singing the Israeli national anthem while visiting the Temple Mount:

The articles say they were singing it "loudly" but it is apparent that the main singer has his mouth very close to the microphone, and is not singing loudly at all. Certainly the guards do not seem fazed.

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09/26 Links Pt1: Trump: 'We're with Israel 100%'; The Palestinians' Three No's: What They Mean; Fatah TV host anticipates taking Israelis hostage to "release our captives"

From Ian:

The Palestinians' Three No's: What They Mean

When Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad talk about "paying a political price," they are referring to demands that the Palestinian terrorist groups lay down their weapons, halt terrorist attacks on Israel, and abandon their dream of eliminating Israel. These are terms, of course, to which no Palestinian terrorist group could ever afford to agree.

Accepting such conditions would make them look bad in the eyes of their supporters, who would then accuse them of betraying the Arabs and Muslims by failing to fulfill their promise of destroying Israel. As far as these groups are concerned, keeping their weapons is tremendously more important than improving the living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

To be clear: when the Palestinian terrorist groups talk about "resistance," they are referring to terror attacks on Israel. These include suicide bombings, launching rockets towards Israel, and hurling explosive devices and firebombs at Israeli soldiers and civilians. These groups do not believe in any form of peaceful and non-violent protests. For them, there is only one realistic option to achieve their goal of destroying Israel: the armed struggle.

Why are the Palestinian terrorist groups conducting indirect talks with Israel to reach a new truce agreement in the Gaza Strip under the auspices of Egypt and the UN? The answer is simple. They want a truce, or period of calm, so that they can continue preparing for the next war against Israel without having to worry about Israeli military operations.

“UNRWA is not serving Palestinians. It's a political arm that claims to serve Palestinians. We have for two years asked UNRWA to reform itself because it has this ongoing number of refugees that is unsustainable. We can’t sustain—and the world knows.” @NikkiHaley, Sept. 4, 2018 pic.twitter.com/e9Uacg4N3W
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) September 25, 2018

PMW: Fatah TV host anticipates taking Israelis hostage to "release our captives"

Commemorating the anniversary of the capture of 8 Israeli soldiers and holding them hostage in Lebanon in 1982, until Israel released 5,900 Palestinian and Arab terrorists from Israeli prisons, a Fatah TV host expressed his wish for a similar "operation" to "release our captives" - i.e., terrorists and murderers sitting in Israeli prisons.

Interviewing Fatah Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul about the taking of Israelis as hostages in the 1980s, Muwaffaq Matar, host at the Fatah-run Awdah TV, described the 8 Israeli captives as "the hens that would lay golden eggs," because they were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.

Fatah Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul: "They [Fatah fighters] shouted at them [Israeli soldiers] to lay down their weapons... There were six of them. The guys arranged them in one row, took their weapons from them, and ordered them to raise their hands... The two [additional Israeli] soldiers who were behind the hill advanced... laid their weapons on the ground, and raised their hands..."
Fatah-run Awdah TV host Muwaffaq Matar: "We had... 'the hens that would lay golden eggs'... the captives through whom, or through the exchange of whom, about 5,000 Palestinian prisoners were released... We think that this Palestinian wisdom... the Palestinian fighter will undoubtedly bring a new victory and a new quality operation one day. The conditions might have changed, and the means might change, but this hope and this promise will release our prisoners." [Official Fatah Facebook page, Sept. 4, 2018]

Israel’s Nationality Law, UN Resolution 181, and the Arab List

Ever since 1988, when after 40 years of rejection, the PLO feigned acceptance of UN General Assembly Resolution 181 on the partition of mandatory Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, the resolution has been the document used most frequently by Palestinians to underscore two of their major claims — the right to statehood within borders that were larger by far than those envisaged by the Oslo “peace” process, and the supposed Palestinian “right of return.”

For these reasons, Resolution 181 holds center stage in one of the PLO’s most famous documents — the Palestinian declaration of independence, which was approved by the Palestine National Council (PNC), the PLO’s legislative body, in Algiers in 1988.

It can be self-defeating to cite documents without having read them. And the Palestinians learned this in their attempts to mobilize Resolution 181 behind the Palestinian cause.

One major contradiction concerns Jerusalem. According to the partition resolution, Jerusalem was to be governed by an international regime that was separate from both the Jewish and Arab states. This, of course, directly contradicts the vision of Jerusalem as the Palestinian state’s future capital. (For this and other reasons, the document is never quoted by Israeli officials either.)

Even more blatant is this contradiction: the traditional PLO stance is to reject the existence of Israel as a Jewish state (or the state of the Jewish People), but the partition of Mandatory Palestine was to have been between a Jewish state and an Arab one. It was unproblematic at the time to define the future state with a Jewish majority as the “Jewish state.” The drafters of the document took it for granted that the Jewish state was to be the state of the Jewish people, which may be one of the reasons why the Arab states uniformly rejected the document and its contents.

Continuing from last time, a BDS debate involving South Africa usually follows certain predictable patterns. BDS advocates claim that those involved in the struggle to topple Apartheid in SA see the Arab-Israeli conflict in the same terms with Israelis serving as stand-ins for the Boers. Various names are dropped, but since most Americans are unfamiliar with the cast of characters (and because most students at schools targeted for BDS campaigns weren’t even born when Apartheid existed or ended), the only two names with any resonance are Desmond Tutu and, of course, Nelson Mandela.

Because Reverend Tutu is a four-square champion for BDS, his support for a boycott or divestment program can only be trumped by invoking the name of Mandela whose relationship with Jews and Israel is more ambiguous. One of the reasons an attempt a few years ago to break ties between the University of Johannesburg and Ben-Gurion University in Israel failed was because of Mandela’s involvement in the relationship between the two centers of learning. This is why the endorsement of Mandela is so sought after that BDS advocates are not beyond using fraud to pretend to obtain it.

Like most things, the actual relationship between Israel and South Africa (like the relationship between South Africa and every other country in the world – including Israel’s loudest critics) was a complicated affair. As is usually the case when $$$s mix with global politics, few hands are clean when it comes to international affairs vis-à-vis pre-Mandela SA. And South Africa’s relationship with Israel since Apartheid fell is as multi-faceted as one would expect between two such intense and vibrant societies.

But when BDSers lay down their Tutu card (as they do in nearly every BDS battle) or supporters and opponents of boycotts try to read the Mandela tea leaves, they are taking for granted the assumption that the South African experience gives those that fought against Apartheid unique moral weight in discussion on other topics (notably the Middle East). But, without diminishing the courage and patience of all those involved with the successful overthrow of Apartheid, is this a reasonable assumption?

After all, if suffering and courage lent all who practiced it unquestioned moral authority, why are Jews (who suffered one of history’s greatest mass murders only to revive and build a thriving nation and Diaspora) treated by BDSers as uniquely damaged by these experiences? Apparently, if the South African experience created saints who cannot be criticized in any way (lest critics be banished from decent society), the Holocaust turned Jews into proto-Nazis who learned nothing from the experience other than how to behave like their former tormentors.

This knot can be untangled if you look at the world not through the lens of ideological need, but of actual human experience. As has been pointed out before, the BDS “movement” is part of an “Apartheid Strategy” designed to brand Israel as the inheritor of the mantle of the late 20^th century’s most reviled nation and political system. But on its own, the “Apartheid Strategy” is simply an accusation, one that can be counter by facts and blunted by counter-accusation of the Apartheid-like nature of Israel’s most vocal critics.

Which is why the endorsement of those involved with the original fight against the original Apartheid becomes so critical. And just as importantly, we are asked to take it on faith that any South African endorsing the Israel=Apartheid analogy must be doing so based on nothing more than an unvarnished quest for justice.

But South Africa is a real place containing real people involved with real political (now geopolitical) decision-making. Yes, they won a marvelous victory against a vile and bigoted political system, and projects like Truth and Reconciliation commissions showed the world that there were options other than vengeance when old orders make way for new. But why were the Arabs states who supplied Apartheid with the oil it needed to run its machinery of repression given a unique pass from this Truth and Reconciliation process? Why do South Africa’s leaders, considered saints when they hurl their barbs at the Jewish state, behave with the same mix of vision, patriotism, virtue, venality, greed and hypocrisy seen in every other political leader in human history?

The voice of South Africans with regard to the Middle East (as with any other issue) are many and varied and the motivation behind some South Africans (including Tutu) endorsing BDS projects can and should be subjected to the same scrutiny as any political statement made by any other political leader. No supporter of Israel I have ever met has demanded that all political discussion stop because a Jew (even a Holocaust survivor) has spoken (quite the opposite, in fact). And without in any way diminishing the valor of those who helped bring down the Apartheid system, it is well past time that the same approach be taken with regard to South Africans.

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Video and photos of Gaza children trying to cut Gaza fence. Of course Hamas sends them.

Journalist Joe Truzmah tweets this video:

He also tweeted this photo of a child setting fire to a tire wedged at the fence, meant to weaken it:

Hamas operatives stay hundreds of yards behind the fence and send kids (and other civilians) with the wirecutters and tires to go to the fence - and hopefully be shot by the IDF so they can claim Israel kills innocent kids.

It is a cynical game, and one that journalists fall for every time.

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Lebanon's acting Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil reveals some hypocrisy that the world happily accepts.

In Al Monitor (quoted in The Daily Star):

Caretaker Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said that the U.S.’s decision to cut UNRWA funding will be discussed during meetings at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, and that he didn’t oppose conditioned peace with Israel.

In an interview published Monday with the United States-based Al-Monitor news website, Bassil said that the cuts were one of the ways of preventing the Palestinians in Lebanon from returning to their homeland and staying there.

The cuts “have a very heavy political weight on the idea of keeping the Palestinians in Lebanon because, you know, this is a step forward to, one, deprive them from the right to return and, two, to somehow take the title of refugee and turn them into integrated people in our country,” Bassil said.

But Bassil also has some interesting things to say about Syrian refugees:

As Lebanon's foreign minister, Gebran Bassil has in recent months taken steps to quicken the return of Syrian civilians who in the past seven years crossed the border to flee civil war.

Speaking to The National, Mr Bassil hesitates to call such Syrians refugees, instead describing them as "migrants" and "displaced".

"Lebanon does not accept Syrians to be refugees, not one of them," he said on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

His argument is that Lebanon is not a signatory to the Convention Relating To The Status Of Refugees, a UN multilateral treaty agreed in 1951, and thus is not required to grant refugee status.

He is also sensitive to the need and some public desire for repatriation of the more than one million Syrians in Lebanon because of the war.

"It's stipulated in our constitution, it’s related to the existence of the country that’s based on a certain equilibrium and balance, you cannot all of a sudden introduce 50 per cent of its population to the country."

Lebanon doesn't legally consider Palestinians to be refugees - but it happily calls them refugees when it is convenient.

Isn't it funny that no one is calling Lebanon racist for deciding on its ethnic character in its constitution?

It gets even worse:

On 21 March - Mother’s Day in Lebanon and a little more than a month before the country’s first parliamentary election in nine years - Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil announced he would submit an amendment to the country’s nationality law that would give Lebanese women married to foreign men the right to transfer their nationality to their children.

The initiative “applies the principle of equality between all Lebanese women and men”, Bassil said.

But there is one significant exception in the minister’s proposal: the right would not extend to Lebanese women married to citizens of “neighbouring countries”, meaning Syrians or Palestinians. Bassil said he would also seek to remove the right of Lebanese men to confer citizenship to their Syrian or Palestinian wives and the children of those marriages.

This wonderful paradigm of a liberal foreign minister spoke at Princeton University this week, where he blames ISIS and Israel for forcing Lebanon to have discriminatory citizenship and refugee laws.

Yet rock stars and other artists happily play in Lebanon. There is no BDS movement against Lebanon. Racist laws and accepted as part of the reality and the world shrugs.

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09/25 Links: At UN, Trump hails Israel, urges world to isolate Iran, which sows ‘destruction’; Israel-Russia crisis artificial, driven by anti-Semitism; Tamimi: Our goal is to remove Israel

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Mahmoud Abbas Should Be Barred from Entering the U.S.

The U.S. government should bar Palestinian Authority Chairman and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Mahmoud Abbas from entering the United States on Wednesday for the opening of the United Nations.

In the days that have passed since Queens, New York, native and dual U.S.-Israeli citizen Ari Fuld was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist, we have learned several things about how his murder came about.

Together, they make a compelling case to take action against Abbas when he arrives at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. (Abbas is scheduled to arrive in New York to address the UN General Assembly meeting on Thursday.)

Ari Fuld, a 45-year-old father of four, was stabbed in the back by Palestinian terrorist Khalil Jabarin last Sunday morning outside a shopping center at Gush Etzion Junction in Judea, south of Jerusalem.

On Tuesday, Palestinian journalist Bassem Tawil provided significant evidence that recent statements by Abbas may have encouraged 16-year-old Jabarin to murder Fuld – or any other Jewish person. Jabarin is from Dura, a village about a half hour south of the shopping center – a convenient site for his attack.

Tawil reported that Saturday, the day before the murder, Abbas gave a speech to the PLO’s Executive Committee in Ramallah. In his address, Abbas reportedly “repeated the old libel that Israel was planning to establish special Jewish prayer zones inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” which is on the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, the site of the Second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Report: PA leader aims to undercut US peace plan at UN

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is ‎planning to host a conference of world leaders and ‎high-ranking diplomats on the sidelines of the ‎United Nations General Assembly this week with the ‎expressed intention of undermining U.S. President ‎Donald Trump's regional peace plan, Channel 10 ‎News reported Monday.‎

Relations between Washington and Ramallah have been ‎‎‎particularly strained since U.S. President Donald ‎‎Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel's ‎capital last December and subsequently moved the ‎U.S. ‎Embassy there in May. The move outraged ‎Palestinians, who envision east Jerusalem as the ‎capital of a future Palestinian state. ‎

Abbas has ‎since refused ‎to engage with any of ‎Trump's Middle ‎East envoys, saying that the U.S. ‎bias in favor of Israel ‎proves ‎it cannot act as an ‎impartial mediator in ‎‎regional peace talks.‎

The Trump administration has taken ‎several other steps ‎against the Palestinian ‎Authority, including ‎suspending the large U.S. ‎contribution to the U.N. aid ‎agency assisting ‎Palestinian refugees and shuttering ‎the Palestine ‎Liberation Organization's mission in ‎Washington. ‎‎

The United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and ‎‎Germany, as well as diplomats from 40 nations and ‎international organizations, have been invited to the conference ‎scheduled for Wednesday, the ‎report said. ‎

Titled "Salvaging the Two-State ‎Solution, ‎Defending the ‎International Rules-Based ‎System,"‎ the conference is set to take place at the Grand Hyatt ‎hotel in New York.‎

Former envoy: Israel-Russia crisis artificial, driven by anti-Semitism

The crisis between Israel and Russia resulting from a Russian military aircraft being shot down over Syria last week is "calculated and artificial, unrelated to reality or the facts, because the Russians want payment," former Israeli Ambassador to Russia Zvi Magen told Israel Hayom in an interview.

Now a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, Magen underscored that "it doesn't matter what Israel does. From the moment the other side wants a crisis, there's no way of preventing one.

"The media blamed Israel on the day of crisis in a well-timed orchestrated manner, filled with anti-Semitic elements. This wasn't random."

According to Magen's analysis, the Russian defense establishment never changed its stance, even after Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin visited Moscow to present Israel's findings on the incident.

Anti-Semitism rears its head

A Russian Defense Ministry statement repeating gross accusations about Israel being responsible for shooting down a Russian military plane over Syria last week is a signal that, at least outwardly, Russia is unwilling to turn over a new page and move on from the past.

The inaccurate, unfounded, and even false claims in the ministry's findings should not come as a surprise to anyone. After announcing that Israel was at fault, the Russians have not been able to back down, not even after an Israeli Air Force delegation showed them clear proof that Israel had operated within both nations' coordination guidelines. It goes against the Russian culture of power to publicly admit to a mistake. The Russian government will never let facts confuse its citizens' belief that Russia is always right.

The false accusation against Israel has awakened the ghosts of anti-Semitism that always existed in Russian society and which the ruling powers have made an effort to hide these past few decades. Russian television stations permit themselves to make harsh statements about Israel and a number of speakers, including senior delegates in the Russian parliament, have demanded that military air bases in the Jewish state be bombed in retribution. Until last week's incident, such remarks were effectively prohibited in public in Russia, because officials were certain that the person at the top – President Vladimir Putin – objected to them.

But the new situation in which a major government entity in the form of the Russian Defense Ministry talks about Israel in language reminiscent of the Cold War has unleashed anti-Semitic language in Russia in general.

Chag Sameach!

I will not be posting anything until Tuesday night at least because of the Sukkot holiday.

Have a great chag!

The people arguing against @UNRWA cuts in Jordan know that Jordan is Palestine - and a Palestinian state is bad news

Since the US stopped funding UNRWA, there have been articles about how this is bd for Jordan.

The Christian Science Monitor, WSJ and others are emphasizing how any loss of UNRWA services may destabilize Jordan.

Let's think about this.

If there is a legitimate fear of Jordan being destabilized from UNRWA cuts, that means that Palestinians in Jordan would revolt over the loss of their free benefits and being forced to be treated like all other citizens of the kingdom. They would have to pay for their own houses, and compete with other Jordanians for spots in classrooms.

The fear is that Palestinians, who according to many make up a majority of Jordanian citizens, would topple the regime and take over.

Which would make Jordan into a Palestinian state.

So in short, the fear is that the majority citizenship of Jordan would take over Jordan and make it Palestinian. Which would be disastrous, because Jordan is a reliable ally and a Palestinian Jordan would not be.

The supporters of UNRWA in Jordan - a place that they should not have been since the early 1950s when Jordan offered them citizenship - are tacitly admitting both that Palestinians have a claim on controlling Jordan and that a Palestinian state that replaces it would be a terrible, terrible idea.

Now, I am very skeptical that US cuts to UNRWA will close the agency in Jordan and if it did, that the kingdom would fall. But the people that are making that argument are saying that without the artificial UN agency's presence in Jordan, it would become a Palestinian state - and one that would likely be a state that could fall to terrorist supporters like Hamas.

Doesn't this tell you something about what these supporters of UNRWA think an independent Palestinian state would be like?

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09/23 Links: IDF rejects Moscow claim of ‘criminal negligence,’ vows to keep targeting Iran; Why is Mahmoud Abbas a free man?

From Ian:

IDF rejects Moscow claim of ‘criminal negligence,’ vows to keep targeting Iran

The Israeli military on Sunday rejected the Russian defense ministry’s claim that it was entirely to blame for the downing of a Russian spy plane by Syrian air defenses during an Israeli strike last week, reiterating that Syria was at fault.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces maintained its version of events — that the Russian reconnaissance plane was shot down as a result of indiscriminate Syrian anti-aircraft fire — and said it would continue to act to prevent terrorist groups from obtaining advanced weapons.

“The full, accurate and factual details are known to the Russian military professionals involved in the matter, and from them it is clear that the deconfliction mechanism worked and did so in a timely manner (as it has for the past two and a half years),” the IDF said Sunday evening, referring to a hotline between the two militaries meant to avoid such inadvertent clashes and casualties.

Israeli fighter jets conducted the airstrike last Monday night on a weapons facility in the coastal city of Latakia that the IDF said was going to provide weapons to the Hezbollah terror group and other Iranian proxies. During a Syrian air defenses counterattack, the Russian spy plane was shot down by a S-200 anti-aircraft missile, and its 15 crew members were killed.

Earlier on Sunday, the Russian defense ministry released the findings of its investigation into the downing of the plane and the deaths of the crew. Moscow said Israel alone was responsible for the incident, accusing the IDF of failing to give notice of its attack in a timely and accurate manner, and claiming the Israeli pilots used the Russian surveillance aircraft as cover during their strike.

The IDF rejected all the Russian findings.

“The Israeli Air Force does not hide behind any plane, and the Israeli jets were in Israel’s airspace when the Syrians struck the Russian plane,” the military said.

“The downing of the plane by the Syrians was tragic and difficult, and we take part in the sorrow of the families and the Russian people,” the IDF added.

MEMRI: Russia's Reactions To The Russian Plane Crash In The Mediterranean

What Happened

On September 17, a Russian Ilyushin-20 was shot down with 15 servicemen aboard over the Mediterranean. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, radio contact was lost with the Ilyushin-20 plane, 35 kilometers away from Syria’s shore, as the plane was returning to the Khmeimim air base.[1]

The Russian Defense Ministry's View Of What Happened: It Was An Intentional Provocation
The Russian Defense Ministry later said that the Ilyushin-20 (IL-20) was shot down by the Syrian air defense. The Russian Defense Ministry originally charged that Israeli F-16s, which were bombing targets in Latakia, had used the Ilyushin-20 as a cover, thus making it vulnerable to the Syrian S-200 air defense system.

Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov stated: "By using the Russian plane as cover the Israeli air pilots made it vulnerable to Syrian air defense fire. As a result, the Ilyushin-20, its reflective surface being far greater than that of the F-16, was downed by a missile launched with the S-200 system."

Konashenkov added that four Israeli Air Force's F-16s carried out a strike with guided air missiles against Syrian facilities in Latakia at about 22:00 on September 17. He stated that the Israeli pilots approached the target from the Mediterranean at a low altitude and intentionally created a threatening situation for ships and aircraft in the area.

Konashenkov added: "The bombing raid was near the French frigate Auvergne and in close proximity to the Ilyushin-20 plane from Russia’s aerospace force that was about to land… [The Israeli pilots] could not but see the Russian plane, which was approaching the runway from an altitude of five kilometers. Nevertheless they deliberately staged this provocation."

Konashenkov also stated: "A hotline warning was received less than one minute before the strike, which left no chance for getting the Russian plane to safety."[2] After the attack, the Syrian air defense troops responded and as a consequence the Ilyushin-20 was shot down.

Konashenkov also threatened that Russia reserve "the right to take adequate tit-for-tat steps."[3]

Don't be fooled, Moscow and Jerusalem still need each other in Syria

In an interview just two months ago following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, US President Donald Trump said Putin has a soft spot in his heart for Israel.

Putin, Trump said, is “a believer in Israel; he is a fan of Bibi and really helping him a lot – and will help a lot, which is good for all of us.”

That was just two months ago.

Following the Russian Defense Ministry's announcement Sunday angrily pinning the blame on Israel for Syria's downing last week of a Russian spy plane, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now has to be hoping that Trump was accurate in his read of the Russian president.

Netanyahu, and Israel, will need all the good will he has built up over the past nine years with the Russian president to ensure that the current crisis does not seriously harm Israel's ties with Moscow, something that would impair Israel's ability to deal with what it views as an enormous strategic threat: an entrenched Iranian military presence in Syria, and the unhindered transfer of precision-guided missiles from Iran through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In a turn of events that could only happen in the Middle East, the Syrian army shoots down a Russian spy plane following an Israeli attack on an Iranian facility meant to manufacture precision arms for Hezbollah in Lebanon – and Israel gets blamed.

That chain of events brings to mind Menachem Begin's famous line after the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1982: “Non-jews kill non-Jews, and they immediately come to hang the Jews.”

Avi Abelow Picks up the Torch (Michael Lumish)

Avi Abelow Picks up the Torch

Michael Lumish

Abelow on left, Fuld on right

with two other gentlemen

I think that it may be fair to say that few were wounded more by the murder of Ari Fuld -- outside of his family -- than was Israeli-American social media personality, Avi Abelow.

I like Avi because he has both strength and joy.

He analyzes the worst of the conflict while also spreading gladness in his participation in Israeli and Jewish life.

What can I say? I am an American. Any American Jew, like Avi, who makes aliyah and is an old friend of Ari Fuld and promotes baseball in Israel is a good guy in my book.

He even coaches Ari Fuld's kid as anyone with access to Facebook can see on Ari Fuld's Israel Defense Page.

Abelow, like many of us, was wounded by the murder of Fuld, but Abelow knew him personally for many years. And so when I say that he is a social media figure that is willing to face the very worst side of the conflict, this is probably the very hardest example of it for him personally. He did not need to make aliyah and stand up for the Jewish people and, therefore, face the murder of friends... but he did so.

He could easily have stayed in the United States.

I honestly do not know that it is appropriate for me to promote a media person upon the death of his friend, but I am doing so, anyway. Abelow has been around for awhile and I know him best for his live discussions with journalists and scholars like Caroline Glick and Melanie Phillips.

He is also the founder of 12Tribe Films which he describes as:

dedicated to promoting creative projects about the Jewish people and the land of Israel that connect, entertain, and inspire. As the name of the organization suggests, our creative projects address Jewish issues, with a greater focus on the Jewish values that connect us as a whole. While the projects of 12Tribe Films address religious, political, sociological, and current events effecting Israel and the Jewish people, our goal is to be an informative and educational resource that focuses on the underlying Jewish values and human experiences beneath the issues.

But, again, what I most appreciate about this guy is his willingness to stare the devil in the face while also expressing the beauty and significance of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. That is quite a tight-rope. That is not an easy thing to do, especially when the world begins to expect you to get up every morning and do it again and again and again. Half the time he is calling out antisemitic anti-Zionism and the other half he is either showing us the grace of Jerusalem or tossing around a ball with the kids in the park.

There are media people, such as Gideon Levy or Amira Hass of Ha'aretz, who make their bread from spreading hatred toward their brothers and sisters in the land of the Jewish people.

What we need now -- more than at any time in recent memory -- are people like Avi Abelow who are willing to stand up for the memory and strength of Ari Fuld.

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Syria shoots down a Russian plane and Israel is blamed? But of course. (Poster)

The headline seems strangely familiar:

Russia: Israel 'entirely to blame' for loss of military plane near Syria

Somehow, Syria shots down a Russian plane and Israel is the only party to blame?

This fits a pattern.

Sabra and Shatila. Blaming Israel for Palestinians abusing their wives. Blaming Israel for US police brutality.

Somehow, it is always the Jews' fault.

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From "Country cooperation strategy for WHO and the Occupied Palestinian Territory 2017–2020":

Palestinian public finances have depended on foreign aid to a significant extent over the past decade, albeit marked by large fluctuations and unpredictability. Despite increasing needs, aid for Palestine has declined, dropping 30% in 2015 from the previous year, resulting in a US$ 650 million budget gap reported in early 2016.17 Factors contributing to this gap include the global economic recession, an increase in humanitarian needs in other countries and regions, and donor “fatigue” or “occupation fatigue”, due in part to the lack of any progress towards any political resolution of the conflict.

For some reason, even though the entire world has been cutting aid to Palestinians for years, only when Donald Trump does it are there dire headlines about how awful it is.

Usually any news story about the dire needs of Palestinians is simply window dressing for an anti-Israel story. The proof of this is the dearth of stories about Palestinians who are in much worse shape in Lebanon or Syria.

But now the media is just as interested in the anti-Trump narrative as in the anti-Israel narrative, so suddenly Trump's moves are denounced when identical moves by other countries, notably Arab Gulf countries, are roundly ignored by the world.

(h/t Irene)

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