Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 03, 2018

12/03 Links P2: Every Time You Wish Someone ‘Happy Hanukkah’ You Acknowledge The Historic Jewish Claim On Jerusalem; Yisrael Medad: The Arabs Started Shooting on November 30, 1947

From Ian:

Every Time You Wish Someone ‘Happy Hanukkah’ You Acknowledge The Historic Jewish Claim On Jerusalem

On Hanukkah eve, I tweeted out a somewhat reductionist thought commemorating the bloody Maccabean rebellion against the Seleucid Empire and their traitorous Hellenized Jewish accomplices. It seemed to upset some of my followers.

Why are you politicizing such a pleasant holiday? Does wishing someone a “Merry Christmas” now mean that you accept Jesus as your lord and savior?

Well, first of all, the story of Hanukkah isn’t pleasant. Violent, brutal, and passionate, maybe. But not pleasant. And of course wishing someone a “Happy Hanukkah” isn’t an endorsement of any theological position, any more than wishing someone Merry Christmas is (although we appreciate the recognition of the Jewish presence in ancient Bethlehem). Mostly it’s convention and good manners. Thank you.

Fact is, there isn’t a ton of theology to worry about. Hanukkah is not a Jewish “yom tov,” which in the literal translation means “good day” but in religious terms means the holiday was not handed to the Jewish people through the Torah. Unlike Passover or Yom Kippur, there are no restrictions on work. The two books that deal with the Maccabees aren’t Jewish canon. The “miracle of the lights” — which you might be led to believe is the entire story of the holiday — is apocryphal and was added hundreds of years later in the Talmud.

But whatever reasons you have for offering good wishes, Hanukkah itself is a reminder that Jews have a singular, millennia-long historic relationship with Jerusalem. By the time Mattathias rebelled against Hellenistic Syrian king Antiochus, who had not only ordered a statue of Zeus to be erected in the Holy Temple but that swine be sacrificed to him, Jerusalem had likely been a Jewish city for more than 1,000 years. As some readers have suggested, Hanukkah might be the only Jewish holiday that celebrates events confirmed by the historical record. The Hasmonean dynasty, founded by Mattathias’ son Simon, is a fact.

.@jeremycorbyn hasn't found the time to deal with the antisemitism in his party.

But he found the time to send the Jewish community the WEIRDEST Hanukkah message ever.

We made a response video. pic.twitter.com/80bYYSsjBl
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) December 3, 2018

Yisrael Medad: The Arabs Started Shooting on November 30, 1947

The newspapers in Mandate Palestine reported in the editions of December 1, 1947 that the previous evening Arabs had attacked Jews, shooting and killing and injuring them.

In Jerusalem, as Davar reported, at 8:45 PM, nurses being transported to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus were shot at while driving through the Nashashibi neighborhood:

The bus was riddled with eight bullets. The Nashashibi neighborhood is today's Sheikh Jarrah. The first Nashashibi clan house was built where now the Ambassador Hotel stands. They were driving along the road that later would be the site of the Hadassah Convoy Massacre, now called Derech Har HaZeitim*.

The Palestine Post reports, it would seem, an additional incident in Jerusalem as well as the major terror attack on Tel Aviv's border with Jaffa:

World chess contest moved from Saudi Arabia after two Israelis complain of ban

The governing body for international chess confirmed Monday that an upcoming tournament that was to be held for the second year in Saudi Arabia has been relocated to Russia because of the kingdom’s policies, which exclude some eligible players.

Two Israeli chess players had appealed to the FIDE chess federation over concerns they would be prevented from playing at the World Rapid and Blitz tournament, as they were last year when Saudi authorities refused to grant them visas to enter the kingdom.

“The Championships were moved from Saudi Arabia to Russia due to the policy adopted by Saudi organizers,” FIDE director general Emil Sutovsky told The Times of Israel in an email.

Although Sutovsky did not specify the block against Israeli players in particular, the decision to move the event came after Israeli chess grandmaster Ilya Smirin and chess organizer Lior Aizenberg sent a letter to FIDE in November demanding that it take action to preserve their right to participate in the federation contest.

The letter was sent with the assistance of the Lawfare Project, a nonprofit organization that says it seeks to protect the civil and human rights of Jewish people around the world.

Chanukah video night 2: Hanukkah - a Jewish Africa parody by Shir Soul a cappella

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Scorpion by Nature: PTSD and other labels
What do a tattoo artist, an IDF wounded warrior and a scorpion have in common?
by Forest Rain www.inspirationfromzion.com

Brilliant blue eyes and smile lines etched in his face could not diminish the horror of the event he was describing. Possibly it was this inherent charm, his almost apologetic leaning towards me as he spoke, as if subconsciously pleading for understanding, that evoked in me an intense reaction to what he described so calmly:

“It was in 2000. On the way home from the army, the car I was in was ambushed by terrorists. The soldier next to me was shot. I was shot too. I got out, returned fire and killed two terrorists. We drove off but they had already spread the news and before we got much further a lynch mob was waiting for us. I was shot again, in the chest. I killed two more terrorists and then we got away. They told me later I had been mortally wounded.”

Ambushed. Shot twice. Surviving the first ambush only to end up in a much worse situation. Battling for his life. Struggling to protect himself and the other passengers in the car while he was bleeding out. How is it possible to do something so amazing?!

A man like Yossi would probably answer: “How is it possible not to? What other choice did I have? Death by lynch mob is much worse than death by bullets and there were other people with me.”

I say probably because I didn’t ask. That’s just what people like Yossi say.

I have lived in Israel long enough to learn that no real hero will call himself a hero or be comfortable with other people giving him that title. He will tell you about the people he didn’t save. He will tell you about others who deserve grand titles more than he does. He will tell you he did his best, that he wishes he could have done better. That he just did what needed to be done.

“Just.” Such a small word…

What comes to mind when you hear the term “hero”? Do you think of a Superman, a comic-book superhero? Someone with big muscles and a loud voice? Strong and self-assured?

How would you label someone like Yossi?

For many it is difficult to understand that the scars left by bullet holes that almost killed you can be negligible compared to the trenches extreme trauma can dig into your psyche. Physical wounds usually heal. It is the wounds of the soul that cause the worst damage.

Quietly, not searching for sympathy, just as an explanation, Yossi told me that because of his PTSD he cannot work indoors, in a typical job so he works outside, in construction, volunteering to help others who are suffering. When he was injured, after the physical wounds healed, there was no one who could really help him with the emotional burden. Now he helps other soldiers who have been through traumatic experiences.

Who would ever imagine that it would be a tattoo artist from South Africa who would step up to help Yossi?

Nicholas Mudskipper is a nice guy.

Nick came to Israel as part of a group of tattoo artists of an international caliber participating in a unique program called Healing Ink. The goal of the program is to utilize the art of tattooing to bring psychological and emotional support to people suffering from trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The tattoo serves as a type of talisman for the recipient, a permanent piece of artwork to transform an ugly experience of violence and hate into a conscious choice of beauty. The act of choosing the tattoo empowers the recipient who did not choose to experience the traumatic event. Sometimes recipients choose tattoos that covers physicals scars, incorporating them into the art created. Others choose symbols of things they need to be reminded of when the darkness of remembered trauma overwhelms them, a kind of light to hold on to when everything else seems too overwhelming.

Historically Jews have an aversion to tattoos – due to the practice being explicitly forbidden in the Torah and the more recent memory of our parents and grandparents being forcibly tattooed with dehumanizing numbers by Nazis. Today the practice is becoming more socially acceptable in Israel. Heavily tattooed people are not common in Israel but people who have one or two tattoos are no longer a rarity.

In Israel, seeing someone like Nick, covered as he is in tattoos, is unusual. The question is, would you stop to talk to him and learn about his art or would the tattoos on his arms (and legs) distract you? Would you see the man or the paintings on his skin?

To me it seems that most tattoo artists must reject labels. It takes guts to decorate your skin with permanent art and disregard what others might think as a result.

Coming from South Africa to Israel, to help IDF wounded warriors must not have been an easy thing. I can’t imagine that in the country that would rather go without water than accept Israeli technology that would solve the crisis, many would find the concept of offering support to one of our soldiers acceptable.

But Nick didn’t see the labels so many others put on Israelis. He saw people, individuals he could help, just by being himself, doing what he does best. This wasn’t about supporting a political cause or a “side”, this was about recognizing human pain and using art to minimize suffering.

Like I said, Nick is a nice guy.

Most people find it difficult to understand PTSD. Often negative or traumatic experiences are conflated with PTSD. This is similar to people saying: “I forgot where I put my keys, I must have Alzheimer’s Disease!” Many people have had traumatic experiences. These leave a residue of negative memory. This is nothing like PTSD that repeatedly pulls the sufferer back into the horror in a full sensory experience that is not a memory but the experience relived. Over and over and over. (Read this to get a better understanding of PTSD).

One of the biggest challenges for someone suffering from PTSD is recreating their relationship with the label: “normal”. Imagine yourself in Yossi’s shoes. Would you ever be able to shake the fear of being trapped in a situation that could kill you? Can you imagine doing something normal like getting in a car to drive home? What would it be like to suddenly be caught in a traffic jam, cars piling up and no way to get out?

Interestingly it was Nick’s open mind and heart that brought normality to Yossi. For the time they spent together, Yossi wasn’t a label: IDF soldier, hero, injured, PTSD… he was just a guy.

They discovered that both were interested in the same sports. Both are MMA fighters and do similar workout routines. That was enough to create an instant connection. It was easy to overcome the differences in language and life experiences because they weren’t divided by labels.

It was the scorpion that threw me for a loop. I watched Nick and Yossi excitedly discuss the story they were both familiar with about the scorpion and the frog:

A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion says, "Because if I do, I will die too."

The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp "Why?"

Replies the scorpion: "It’s my nature..."

Yossi wanted Nick to tattoo a big scorpion on his back, next to the scars left from the bullet holes. At first the choice seemed incomprehensible. Why would Yossi want to brand himself with the scorpion that stings even when he knows it will kill himself? Why did Nick feel this was a cool and positive choice to make? What was I missing?

When I came back at the end of the session and saw the final tattoo, it’s meaning began to dawn on me.

Yossi straightened himself, to stand proud, his body no longer apologetic. The scars are still visible but it is the scorpion that draws the eye – his choice, not what was inflicted on him.

The scorpion is dangerous, it stings, it can kill. Knowing this, Yossi chose to put that on his back. He did not choose the ambush. He did not choose the PTSD that changed his life forever. His desire to carry the scorpion on his back is an acceptance of his “new normal” and a bold statement of power and freedom.

It is a declaration that being fully aware of the difficult, harsh and sometimes damaging nature of this new normal, he is strong enough to carry it.

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12/03 Links P1: Why the Palestinians Are Right to be Worried by Israel’s Outreach to Muslim Countries; Why Iran Funds Palestinian Terrorists; US envoy: UN cannot vote away Jerusalem's status as capital

From Ian:

Why the Palestinians Are Right to be Worried by Israel’s Outreach to Muslim Countries

You might not remember the debate about whether the road to Middle East peace ran through Jerusalem or Baghdad. In the early 1990s, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker believed that peace between Israel and Palestine was the key to solving the main problems of the Middle East. During the second Bush administration, a reverse suggestion was made — and debated: that solving the problem of Baghad would hasten a peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Time proved both theories wrong, or at least premature. Peace was not achieved, and the Middle East still has problems. Very few people still believe in a so-called “linkage.”

Of course, peace with the Palestinians has merit, but avoiding the linkage between achieving that goal and pursuing other Middle East advances removes some of the pressures on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. The Palestinians cannot hold all other Middle East advances hostage until their issue is resolved. The world no longer lives under the illusion that Israel-Palestine peace is the first priority (more important than, say, Iranian nuclear advances). Israel is no longer blamed — at least not by serious people — for causing trouble in other areas in the region.

With that linkage basically put aside, Israel is now aiming for the jugular of the second linkage: whether it can be legitimized in the Arab Muslim world when its conflict with the Palestinians is still an open wound.

Egypt was the first country to erode this linkage when it signed a peace agreement with Israel (with provisions aimed at advancing a solution for the Palestinians). Jordan likewise signed a peace agreement with Israel in the early 1990s, when Israel and the Palestinians seemed for a while as if they were moving toward resolution.

The situation today is much changed. It is clear that Israelis and Palestinians are not moving toward peace. It is also clear that when Arab Muslim countries get closer to Israel that they are not doing it because of the Palestinian issue but rather in spite of it. They are doing it because they have other priorities — concerns about Iran; economic or technological needs Israel can satisfy; or political needs that can be addressed through Israel’s ties in Washington.

Why Iran Funds Palestinian Terrorists

The message that Iran is sending to Palestinian families is: "If you want money and a good life, send your children to die on the border with Israel." This is a message that is likely to reverberate far and wide among Arabs, well beyond the Palestinians.

The declared goal of the Iranian-sponsored World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought is to forge unity between Muslims. For the Iranians and their proxies, Islamic unity is a prerequisite to advancing the ultimate goal of removing the "cancerous tumor" (Israel) from the face of the earth. Iran has been doing its utmost to achieve this goal.

Were it not for Iranian support, the Lebanese Shiite terrorist organization, Hezbollah, would not be aiming tens of thousands of rockets and missiles at Israel. Were it not for Iranian military and financial backing, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups would not have been able to fire more than 500 projectiles at Israel in 24 hours, as they did last month.

To set the record straight: Iran cares nothing for the Palestinians; Iran seeks to obliterate Israel, and if it could, obliterate the US, as its expansion into South America suggests.

It seems that some mullahs in Iran cannot wait for Khamenei's prediction of Israel's destruction in 2040. The Iranian money promised to the families is meant to encourage other all Arabs and Muslims to send their children to launch rocket attacks on Israel and throw stones and firebombs at Israeli soldiers.

Palestinian Authority says Chanukah menorah at Kotel erected "in the heart of Al Aqsa Mosque"

Every year, a giant Chanukah menorah is erected in the plaza of the Kotel, the Western Wall.

The official Palestinian Authority news agency, Wafa, describes it as "the introduction of the Jewish 'candelabra' into the heart of the blessed mosque."

It goes on:

The alleged temple groups began their celebration of Hanukkah by erecting a huge candelabra in the Al-Buraq courtyard (the western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque) and calling for visits to the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the holiday. The so-called "Third Temple Institute" Under the pretext of performing Talmudic rituals and reconstruction it for the Jews.
This holiday is considered one of the most popular holidays in connection with the "alleged temple" and a danger to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in particular. The other festivals are not related to the Temple or the location directly, but this holiday is associated with an alleged purge of the Temple.

The supposed holiness of the Kotel to Muslims is a new phenomenon from the 19th century. The legend of Mohammed's flying steed does not say where he supposedly tethered the magical animal; early Muslim sources associated it with the southern wall of the Mount, and then later with the southwest corner, and only in the 19th century with the area of the Western Wall.

As with everything else in Israel, Muslims consider something holy only in relation with how sacred the Jews consider it.

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David Duke's tweets sound exactly like those of leftist "critics of Israel"

When does criticism of Israel cross the line into antisemitism?

Ask white supremacist leader David Duke, who freely admits he is antisemitic!

He is tweeting his love for leftist anti-Israel stories and personalities. And Duke's straight anti-Israel tweets would be perfectly at home on leftist anti-Israel sites.

Duke at least admits that it is antisemitism that animates his feelings about Israel. But when you can't distinguish his anti-Israel tweets from the tweets of those who pretend to be merely "anti-Zionist," and indeed when he says he agrees with the leftist anti-Zionists and uses their talking points about Israel, it is a strong indication that there is in reality no difference between the two.

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Major Egyptian paper upset at CNN report on European antisemitism

Al Ahram, one of the oldest newspapers in Egypt, is not happy about the series of reports CNN aired last week showing how much antisemitism there still in in Europe.

The headline, autotranslated:

The article starts off by saying that CNN is attempting to create "emotional blackmail" to help Jews in the United States and Europe by showing this series.

Anecdotes about how Jews are targeted today are dismissed by Al Ahram as events that could happen to anyone, anywhere.

Why would an Arab news outlet be concerned about a report that says that Jews are still targeted in Europe, today?

One reason is that Egypt is still a deeply antisemitic country, and Jews being perceived as victims rather than as oppressors is a challenge to the hate that is taught implicitly and explicitly by the schools and the media.

The other is that a lot of antisemitic attacks against Jews in Europe comes from Muslims and Arabs, and that story must be dowbplayed or ridiculed.

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Chanukah video night 1: Bohemian Chanukah (Six13)

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12/02 Links: Saeb Erekat Flounders In Face of Difficult Questioning; 148 nations disavow Jewish ties to Jerusalem, Temple Mount; The genocidal ideology of Marc Lamont Hill

From Ian:

IsraellyCool: Saeb Erekat Flounders In Face of Difficult Questioning

Chief Palestinian ~~Negotiator~~ Propaganda Minister Saeb Erekat recently sat with Tim Sebastian of DW’s Conflict Zone. The result is priceless.

I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Another one at least.

I don’t know where to start. Just watch and enjoy!

Warning: attempting to play a drinking game where you drink a shot every time Erekat lies could lead to alcohol poisoning!

'Something to do with Palestine': Paid protesters rally against embassy move

Indonesian rent-a-crowd 'protesters' were paid less than $3.50 each to attend a rally opposing any move by the Australian government of its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

About 250 people attended the rally on Friday, the fourth rally in the last five days, outside Australia's sprawling embassy compound in Kuningan, south Jakarta and which was organised by the Indonesian Muslim League, a little-known group.
Protesters, some of whom were paid to attend, sit around bored at a rally outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

Protesters, some of whom were paid to attend, sit around bored at a rally outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

But while some attending the protest appeared to be genuinely fired-up by the prospect of Australia shifting its embassy to Jerusalem, perhaps half the crowd appeared largely disinterested and showed little enthusiasm for the speaker imploring them to agree to "occupy" the embassy.

Fairfax Media confirmed with three of the 'protesters' hanging around on the fringes of the rally that many had been paid to attend.

Many members of the crowd looked bored, posed for selfies, played with their phones, hid in the shade away from the afternoon sun and appeared not be listening to the speakers at the rally.

The 'protesters' said they and at least 35 of their friends had been paid to come to the rally on Friday and express their 'opinion' - a practice that is common in Indonesia.

Airbnb Sides with Palestinians Against Jews in Biblical Heartland

Professor Eugene Kontorovich, director of International Law at the Kohelet Policy Forum, said the Airbnb policy is discrimination.

"Airbnb's policy discriminates grossly against people of the Jewish faith and people of the Jewish ethnicity. They treat Jews living in the West Bank different[ly] from any other group," he said.

Kontorovich said that in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, the PA punishes Palestinians who sell land to Jews with death.

"So if you have an area where Jews are not allowed to buy houses, Jews are not allowed to live and Airbnb says, 'there we have no problem listing.' You have the Jewish areas where anybody can come, anybody can go, there's free access and Airbnb says, 'you're not allowed to list'. So Jews living in their biblical homeland is the one group that Airbnb is keeping off their platform and that should be very disturbing," he said.

Kontorovich also noted that in the whole world, Airbnb chose to make its point here.

"There is indeed a political dispute about the West Bank, but they're not saying, 'we're not taking listings from the West Bank, they're saying, 'we're not taking listings from Jews in the West Bank. That's not just a double standard, that's naked discrimination," he said.

Elder gets results, twice

Last week I broke the story of how National Geographic said that the Oslo Accords were meant for Israel to "return" land to Palestinians, even though no Palestinian entity or people ever had control of that land to begin with. Honest Reporting contacted them and the story was corrected.

CAMERA contacted them and they issued a speedy correction:

Also last week I also reported on a bizarre conspiracy theory in a Canadian Arab newspaper involving Jewish Freemasons building the Titanic in order to kill three (Jewish) businessmen who were on its voyage because they were against the idea of the Federal Reserve, controlled by Jews. The editor of the paper that published this was running for office in Ottawa.

A Canadian journalist saw this and made a couple of calls to ensure that the editor would not be chosen to represent anyone:

Nice fast work by National Council @CPC_HQ. Medhat Oweida will *not* be the party's candidate in Mississauga Streetsville, no way, no how. Confirmed. pic.twitter.com/nvU0SmqFu4
— Terry Glavin (@TerryGlavin) November 30, 2018

Also, the article itself has been removed from the site (you can see it archived here.)

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Newsweek thinks there was once a Palestinian state

A very odd correction from Newsweek on an article about the Marc Lamont Hill story. I wish I could find a copy of the original:

"Updated 11/30 12:14 a.m.: This story has been updated to remove information that includes an error that says no Palestinian state has ever existed."

So Newsweek retracted the fact that no Palestinian state has ever existed?

A little searching as we can see the paragraph that was deleted:

When challenged about the comment on Twitter, Hill responded to say that he believes in a "single secular democratic state for everyone." [At this point Newsweek has a tweet from Hill where he adds "This is the only way that historic Palestine will be free."] However, Hill's statement about a "historic Palestine" appears to be inaccurate as no Palestinian state has ever existed.

Newsweek was quite accurate.

"Historic Palestine" is a fiction of how modern Palestinians farcically refer to the area of the British Mandate, although it was never an independent state and its borders were drawn by Western powers. There is nothing historic about it.

Any map of Palestine prior to World War I includes parts of what became Jordan and Lebanon, and none of the Negev.

Marc Lamont Hill, by invoking "historic Palestine," is consciously choosing a false construct meant to completely overlap with the territory that modern Israel controlled in 1967. The very term "historic Palestine" has zero to do with Palestine or Palestinian land, and everything to do with taking away any rights of Jews to any land in the Middle East.

It is an antisemitic term.

Newsweek was right in saying that no Palestinian state never existed. Hill know this very well. He knows that he is consciously choosing the areas that Israel controls, and nothing else, when deciding that this is what the borders of "Palestine" should be - just like the 1964 PLO Covenant explicitly excluded the West Bank that was then controlled by Jordan as part of "Palestine."

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List of journalists who attended an anti-Israel "journalism" conference

Recently there was a conference in Istanbul for journalists to meet and to discuss how to push the Palestinian narrative in world media.

Not how to be objective.

No, every so-called "journalist" who attended the conference was there to figure out how to demonize Israel and make Palestinians look as sympathetic as possible to the world.

Every "journalist" who attended makes a conscious decision to violate all journalistic ethics and push an anti-Israel agenda. There was even a workshop on how to address Arab media that is not hateful enough towards Israel.

The forum published a list of the attendees. I highlighted the ones from Western countries and media outlets.

Aarfa Khanum (India) Senior Editor at Thewire.in
Abdallah Elbakkali (Morocco) Director of the National Syndicate of Morrocan Press
Abdallah Marouf (Palestine) Professor of Jerusalem Studies
Abdullah Abu Awad (Morocco) Academic Professor & Communications Expert
Abdullah Al-Saafin (Palestine) Media Trainer
Abdullah Almosawi (Kuwait) Researcher and Political Analyst
Abdullatif Najim (Palestine) Digital Media Expert - Tawasul
Adam Ali Adam (Chad) President of the Association of Arabic-Speaking Chadian Journalists
Adam Bensaid (Algeria) Deputy Producer at TRT World Digital
Adnan Abu Amer (Palestine) Expert in Israeli Affairs
Ahmad Hasan Al Zoubi (Jordan) Jordanian Journalist and Writer
Ahmad Hela (Palestine) Palestinian Media Consultant
Ahmed Al-Shaikh (Palestine) Veteran TV Journalist
AjÅ¡a Hafizovic Hadzimesic (Bosnia And Herzegovina) Editor at IIN Preporod Newspaper
Alfredo Jalife Rahme (Mexico) Professor & Political Analyst
Ameen Izzadeen (Sri Lanka) Editor of Intl Desk at Wijeya Newspapers Group
Amer Lafi (jordan) Correspondent of Aljazeera - Istanbul
Angel Phiri (Zambia) Broadcaster at MUVI TV Zambia
Angela Lano (Italy) Journalist & Editor of InfoPal Press Agency
Antony Loewenstein (Australia) Australian Journalist, Author & Filmmaker
Anwar Abdelhadi Abu Taha (Palestine) Director General of Palestine TV today
Anwar FarrÃ¡n Veloso (Chile) Journalist & Filmmaker
Ashraf Ali (India) Founder Editor of Asia Times Online
Asma Alhaj (Palestine) TV Presenter at TRT Arabic
Assaad Taha (Egypt) Documentary Filmmaker and Audio-Visual Expert
Ayman Gaballa (Egypt) Director of Aljazeera Mubasher TV
Ayman Zeidan (Palestine) Deputy Director-General of Al Quds International Institution
Azzam Al-Tamimi (Palestine) Director of Alhewar TV Channel
Ben White (UK) British Journalist & Author
Britt Hendrix (Netherlands) Human Rights Advocate
Carmen Corda (Italy) Italian Journalist & Researcher
Catherine Dorcas Ageno (Uganda) News Producer at NTV Uganda
Clare Short (UK) Former Secretary of State for Intl Development of UK
Dareen Abughaida (Palestine) Principal Presenter at Aljazeera English
Daud Abdullah (UK) Director General of MEMO - UK
Dorothea Ionescu (Romania) Journalist & Strategic Communications Consultant
Edison Mutumba (Kenya) Cinematographer & Drone Operator
Elijah Mwangi (Kenya) TV Producer & Media Consultant
Farid Abudhier (Palestine) Professor of Media at Al-Najah University - Nablus
Farrah Adeeba (Malaysia) TV Presenter
Fatih Er (Turkey) Director of News, Programmes & Visual at TRT World
Francis Ameyibor (Ghana) Deputy News Editor at Ghana News Agency
Gustavo Abu Arab (Argentina) Acredited Journalist at National Governemt House - Argentine
Hani Al Masri (Palestine) Director of Masarat Research Center
Hasina Kathrada (South Africa) Senior correspondent at SABC
Hassan Haider (Palestine) Executive Director of Quds Press International News Agency - UK
Hisham Qasem (Palestine) Director General
Hossam Shaker (Palestine) Media Consultant
Houreye Thiam (Senegal) TV Programs Presenter
Hugh Miles (UK) Editor of ArabDigest.org
Imad Musa (Palestine) Digital Media Expert
Isra Al-Modallal (Palestine) Journalist & TV Presenter
Issa Qaraqe (Palestine) Ex-Minister of the Bureau of Prisoners Affairs
Jaber Alharmi (Qatar) Chief Editor of Al-Sharq Newspaper - Qatar
Jamal Rayyan (Palestine) Media Expert & TV Presenter
Jasim Al-Azzawi (Iraq) Anchor and Media Expert
Jimi Matthews (South AfrÄ±ca) Veteran Journalist & Former Head of News at SABC
John Quigley (USA) Professor of Law at Ohio State University
Johnny Mansour (Palestine) Palestinian Historian and Writer
Jonathan Steele (UK) Veteran Journalist & Guardian Columnist
Jorge Ramos Tolosa (Spain) Professor of Cont. History at the University of Valencia
Khaled Taha (Jordan) Technical and Media Consultant
Khalil Mabrouk (Palestine) Correspondent of Aljazeera.net - Turkey
Leila Nachawati Rego (Spain) Spanish Writer & Human Rights Activist
Luca Steinmann (Italia) Italian Journalist & Political Analyst
Luisa Morgantini (Italy) Former Vice President of the European Parliament
Malik Ayub Sumbal (Pakistan) Political Commentator, Award Winning Journalist & Broadcaster
Martin Lejeune (Germany) Journalist, Photographer & Human Rights Advocate
Marwah Jbara (Palestine) Palestinian Filmmaker & CEO of Zainab Productions
Matteo Meloni (italy) Italian Journalist & Communication Professional
Metin MutanoÄŸlu (Turkey) Chief Editor of Anadolu Agency
Moeti Mohwasa (Botswana) Journalist and Writer
Mohamed Mansour Injay (Senegal) An announcer in Tubah channel - Senegal
Mohiyiddin Haris (India) Executive Editor at Tejas Daily
Monica Maurer (Germany) International Filmmaker
Montaser Marai (Palestine) Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Journalism - Al Jazeera Media Institute
Mouad Khateb (Palestine) Human Rights Activist
Muad Zaki (Maldives) Journalist & Writer
Nada Atieh (Palestine) Ù€ournalist at Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ)
Nafiz Abu Hasna (Palestine) Director of Palestine Today TV
Noureddine Miftah (Morocco) Moroccan Federation of Publishers
Nur Hasan Murtiaji (Indonesia) Deputy Chief Editor of Republika Newspaper
Olivier Pironet (France) Journalist at Le Monde Diplomatique
Omar Abu Arqoub (Palestine) Researcher in Media Issues & Engineering of Consent
Omar GarcÃa (Nicaragua) TV & Radio Newscaster
P. KOYA (India) Managing Editor at Tejas Daily
PatrÃcia Campos Mello (Brazil) Journalist & Special Reporter
Pizaro Gozali (Indonesia) Chairman of JITU - Moslem Journalists Union
Prashant Tandon (India) Media Strategist & Consultant
Ramzy Baroud (Palestine) Journalist and Media Consultant
Rawan Damen (Palestine) Filmmaker and Media Consultant
Resul Serdar AtaÅŸ (Turkey) Director of News & Visuals at TRT Araby
Romana Rubeo (Italy) Editor at The Palestine Chronicle
Saadiah Mufarreh (Kuwait) Kuwaiti Journalist and Writer
Said Abu Moalla (Palestine) Lecturer at Arab American University of Jenin
Salma Aljamal (Palestine) Palestinian Journalist at Aljazeera TV
Samia Labidi (France) Coordinator of the Palestine Films Meetings, Filmlab: Palestine
Seema Mustafa (India) Editor-in-Chief of "The Citizen"
Shafeeq Al-Ghabra (Kuwait) Political Analyst & Writer
Shafiq Morton (south Africa) RADIO JOURNALIST
Shahin Hasnat (Bangladesh) Vice President of Dhaka Union of Journalists
Shaker Aljawhari (Jordan) Director of Jordanian Digital Journalism Society
Siddharth Varadarajan (India) Founding Editor of thewire.in & former Editor of The Hindu
Sles Nazy (cambodia) President of Cambodian Muslim Media Center
Soraya Misleh (Brazil) Member of International Ciranda of Shared Communication & Director of Institute of Arab Culture
Susana Mangana (Spain) Columnist & Political Analyst
Sylvain Cypel (France) Veteran French Journalist with Le Monde & Orient XXI
Talib Al Maamari (Oman) Journalist & Writer
Temiloluwa Bamgbose (Nigeria) Communications Consultant
Umud Mirzayev (Azerbaijan) President of International Eurasia Press Fund
Urmilesh Singh (India) Former Executive Editor at RSTV
Yassir Abu Heen (Palestine) Director of Safa News Agency - Palestine
Yousef Alshouly (Palestine) Palestinian Journalist
Zainab Ismail (Kenya) Senior news Anchor at Nation TV
Ãngel MartÃnez (Spain) Chief Editor of International Section at El Confidencial
Ä°smail Sinani (Macedonia) Chief Editor of News at TV SHENJA

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12/01 Links: Glick: Europe beats Iran’s war drums;Dear Progressives, Do Not Whitewash Marc Lamont Hill’s Anti-Semitism; Code Pink Activist makes a fool out of herself

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Europe beats Iran’s war drums

Last Saturday, Iran’s “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani called Israel “a cancerous tumor” in a speech at the regime’s annual Islamic Unity Conference.

Rouhani’s fellow speakers included deputy Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. Both terror bosses called for the destruction of the “cancerous tumor.”

With the predictability of a Swiss clock, the Europeans rushed to condemn Rouhani. The EU in Brussels condemned Rouhani. The German Foreign Ministry condemned Rouhani. And so on and so forth.
We could have done without their statements.

Just two days after Rouhani’s Jewish cancer speech, his representatives sat down with senior EU officials in Brussels to discuss Iranian-EU nuclear cooperation in the framework of the 2015 nuclear deal. Following the talks, EU Foreign Affairs Chief Federica Mogherini’s office put out a statement claiming that the sides “expressed their determination to preserve the nuclear agreement as... a key pillar for European and regional security.”

As Mogherini and her colleagues were sitting with the Iranians, the Wall Street Journal reported that the French and German governments have agreed to set up a back channel, in the form of a joint corporation, owned by European governments, whose job will be to arrange for payments for Iranian exports in a manner that bypasses and so undermines US financial and trade sanctions on Iran.

How are we to understand Europe’s behavior? What is possessing Germany and France and Brussels and even Britain, (which is reportedly considering joining the Germans and French in their sanctions-busting operations) to stand with Iran against the US?

It isn’t because Iran has proved its good intentions to them. To the contrary, over the past six months, Iran has plotted three terror attacks in Europe. In June, Iranian operatives murdered a regime opponent in Holland. In July, Belgian authorities prevented an Iranian plot to attack a regime opposition rally in Paris. And in October, Danish authorities intercepted an Iranian terror squad en route to assassinate the head of an organization of Ahwaz Arabs, Iran’s Arab minority that suffers from harsh repression at the hands of the regime.

Pompeo: Iran tested multiple warhead missile which can hit Middle East, Europe

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday accused Iran of testing a medium-range ballistic missile capable of “carrying multiple warheads,” which he said could strike “anywhere” in the Middle East and even parts of Europe.

In a statement, Pompeo said the missile test violated United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which was adopted as part of the 2015 nuclear deal curbing Iran’s nuclear program and bans Iranian tests of nuclear-capable ballistic weapons.

He not specify when the test took place, but said it had “just” occurred.

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“As we have been warning for some time, Iran’s missile testing and missile proliferation is growing. We are accumulating risk of escalation in the region if we fail to restore deterrence,” Pompeo said.

He also called on Iran to “cease immediately all activities” related to the development of ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads.

David French: Dear Progressives, Do Not Whitewash Marc Lamont Hill’s Anti-Semitism

No one should whitewash, rationalize, or excuse what former CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill did this week. He spoke at a gathering of anti-Semites at the UN, a notoriously anti-Semitic institution, and called for violence against Israel and for destruction of the Jewish state. There is no other explanation for his actions that make the slightest bit of sense. He did not use a “dog whistle.” He stood and shouted.

Simply put, his actions were the left-wing anti-Semite version of walking into a white nationalist meeting and speaking the infamous 14 words.

On Wednesday, Hill spoke at a U.N. event honoring the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and made two despicable statements. First, he at length defended violent Palestinian resistance against Israel. He condemned romanticizing or fetishizing peace, scorned the politics of “respectability,” and compared Palestinian resistance to slave rebellions. He added that while “we must promote non-violence at every opportunity” he could not “endorse narrow politics that shames Palestinians for resisting, for refusing to do nothing in ethnic cleansing.”

This is important context for his second statement, an explicit call for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.” In other words, he called for violence with an explicit anti-Semitic goal — the physical destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.

Why do I compare this statement to the white supremacist’s 14 words? (For those who are blessedly ignorant of white-supremacist propaganda, the 14 words are “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”) Because of content and context. The content is plain enough. “Palestine” is not Israel and Israel is not Palestine. Any two-state solution would not result in a Palestine “from the river to the sea.” He is expressing a desire for a one-state solution, and that state is not Israel. A free Palestine in that context means the destruction of the Jewish state. Full stop.

CNN Silent When Pressed for Specific Reasons Behind Marc Lamont Hill’s Dismissal as Contributor

Mediaite reported first on Thursday that Hill had been dismissed, quoting a CNN spokesman with a one-sentence statement: "Marc Lamont Hill is no longer under contract with CNN." That same statement went out to multiple other outlets, although it was unclear at first when he had been dropped—an IQ Media search showed he hadn't been on the network since September. The Washington Free Beacon confirmed with a separate source that Hill had been terminated that day.

The spokeswoman handling the matter, Barbara Levin, did not return multiple calls and emails on Thursday and Friday asking for elaboration. CNN also did not outright condemn his comments in any statement. The Free Beacon will update the story if it gets responses.

Some labor disputes end with both sides agreeing to remain silent, although it's unclear if that's the situation regarding Hill and CNN.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a nonprofit that works to combat global anti-Semitism, praised CNN for its reporting on anti-Semitism in Europe and for terminating Hill, but he said it would be "appropriate and helpful" for CNN to be explicit about what merited the firing.

"The Simon Wiesenthal Center is appreciative that CNN, through its poll and reportage on anti-Semitism, has generated a global focus on history’s oldest hate that will hopefully help to break down the apathy and lack of understanding of the scope that it poses to Jews here in the Americas and Europe," Cooper told the Free Beacon in a statement.

"We are also grateful that CNN took decisive action in firing Marc Lamont Hill as a commentator after his horrible speech at the United nations," Cooper continued. "This is one of the few times in recent memory where there has been a price to pay for this kind of behavior. It would be appropriate and important for CNN to add in a sentence or two, linking their decision to Lamont Hill’s extreme anti-Israel/anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist views and rhetoric. It would be appropriate and helpful if CNN would state for the record, if they haven’t already, that he was let go for those reasons."

On Friday, I reported that the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, voted to rename Sandton Drive after PFLP terrorist hijacker Leila Khaled.

It turns out that the US Consulate in Johannesburg is on 1 Sandton Drive.

I hope that the US State Department lodges a serious protest against being forced to reside on a street named after a terrorist who hijacked and then blew up an American plane, TWA flight 840.

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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11/30 Links Pt2: Bari Weiss: Europe’s Jew Hatred, and Ours; CNN Was Right to Fire Marc Lamont Hill; From 1947 to 2018 – the miracles of November 29; BBC history programme rekindles Arafat death conspiracy theory

From Ian:

Bari Weiss: Europe’s Jew Hatred, and Ours

Bigotry extends to the ballot box. The Alternative für Deutschland, led by a man who dismissed the Nazis as a mere “speck of bird poop” in Germany’s otherwise glorious history, is now the country’s third-largest party. The National Front in France, founded by a man who called the gas chambers a “detail in the history of World War II,” got 33.9 percent of the vote in the last presidential runoff elections. The Freedom Party in Austria, founded by ex-Nazis, is now part of the governing coalition. Then there is the rise of Law and Justice in Poland and Golden Dawn in Greece — developments cheered by those countries’ Jew haters.

But the story of European anti-Semitism isn’t simply a case of the resurgence of the neo-fascist right.

A large number of physically violent acts committed against Jews in Europe are perpetrated by radical Muslims. The incidents at the top of this article were not carried out by far-right goons but by Islamists, most of them young and some of them immigrants.

Now add a third ingredient to this toxic brew: the fashionable anti-Semitism of the far left that masquerades as anti-Zionism and anti-racism.

No political leader in Europe embodies that sentiment more than Britain’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. He paid respects at the memorial of the Palestinian perpetrators of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. He objected to the destruction of a street mural depicting despotic hooknosed Jewish bankers. He participated for over a decade in the activities of a group called Deir Yassin Remembered, which was led by a Holocaust denier. He publicly defended a virulently anti-Semitic vicar named Stephen Sizer. He invited an Islamist preacher who believes Jews use gentile blood for religious reasons to tea at Parliament. And so on.

And yet he adamantly denies being an anti-Semite, on the grounds that he has devoted his life to “exposing racism in any form.”

Anti-Semitism, though, isn’t just a brand of bigotry. It’s a conspiracy theory in which Jews play the starring role in spreading evil in the world. While racists see themselves as proudly punching down, anti-Semites perceive themselves as punching up.

From 1947 to 2018 – the miracles of November 29

When supporters of Israel worldwide think about November 29, they think about miracles.

In the year 1897, Theodore Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.

This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its national home.

November 29, 1947, marked one of the greatest milestones along the road to realizing the miracle of the modern Jewish state. On that day, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their state is irrevocable.

Subsequent events cemented this miracle, including how the nascent Jewish state proceeded to declare independence, and then to defy the odds by overcoming formidable Arab armies in the War of Independence. But the roots of miracle were planted at the UN on November 29.

I’ve dedicated both my career and personal life to appreciating, advocating for, and preserving this miracle. Now, quite fittingly on the date of November 29, I’ve added an even more personal layer as to my part in the sacred responsibility that we all share of securing this miracle.

On Thursday, I began my new role as world chairman of Keren Hayesod – UIA (United Israel Appeal). Born and raised in a religious Zionist environment in Miami Beach, I’ve long savored the realization of a modern Jewish state and the Jewish people’s miracle of sovereignty in their ancestral homeland. But even as I advanced in my career working on behalf of the State of Israel, it would have been hard to imagine that I would find myself at the helm of an organization that has the most direct connection possible to the state itself by serving as the fund-raising arm of the global Zionist movement.