Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

01/30 Links Pt1: Antisemitic Amnesty Campaign Targets Historic Jewish Sites in Israel; The clever cognitive war strategy deployed against Israel; Israel and the Arabs Have Common Interests

From Ian:

‘Antisemitic’ Amnesty International Campaign Targets Historic Jewish Sites in Israel, Watchdog Says

Human rights group Amnesty International has been criticized for pursuing a “discriminatory, antisemitic” campaign against digital tourism companies that publicize Jewish historical and cultural sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

“Precisely because tourism to Israel is at an all time high, Amnesty International is targeting this sector,” Professor Gerald Steinberg — founder and president of the Israeli watchdog NGO Monitor — said in a statement on Tuesday. NGO Monitor noted that Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Expedia.com, Hotels.com, and Booking.com were among the leading online tourism sites being targeted by Amnesty.

“Amnesty is specifically contesting Jewish historic connections to biblical sites, including in Jerusalem,” Steinberg said. “In essence, Amnesty faults Israel for preserving Jewish historical and cultural heritage, as well as places that are holy to Christians.”

Earlier on Monday, Amnesty published a report titled, “The Tourism Industry and Israeli Settlements,” that accuses Israel of deliberately locating Jewish communities near major archaeological sites in the West Bank.

The report held that Israel had established a “settlement tourism industry” to help “sustain and expand” the Jewish presence in the territory, taken control of by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel’s interest in Jewish archaeology was based on making “the link between the modern State of Israel and its Jewish history explicit,” while “rewriting of history [which] has the effect of minimizing the Palestinian people’s own historic links to the region,” Amnesty claimed.

Steinberg argued that in “the foreground of Amnesty’s campaign is a long history of antisemitism.”

So according to @amnesty advertising a Jewish tour of the Western Wall is a war crime. This is NGO hate - not human rights. @TripAdvisor https://t.co/ak79nkV09f
— NGO Monitor (@ngomonitor) January 30, 2019

Why is @amnesty targeting #Jewish holy and historical sites in #Israel? #NoJewsAllowed #amnestyantisemitism pic.twitter.com/vsZbai1EEl
— NGO Monitor (@ngomonitor) January 30, 2019

Prof. Phyllis Chesler: The clever cognitive war strategy deployed against Israel

Following in UNESCO’s 2017 footsteps, Amnesty International has just released a Report which accuses Israel of trying to Judaize Jerusalem (!) According to Gerald Steinberg at NGO Monitor:

"On January 29, 2019, Amnesty International published “The Tourism Industry and Israeli Settlements,” a report alleging that “the Israeli government has political and ideological reasons for developing a tourism industry in occupied East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank.” According to Amnesty, “Israel has constructed many of its settlements close to archaeological sites … [as] part of an active campaign to normalize and legitimize Israel’s increasing control of the OPT.”

This publication is “part of a broader campaign of BDS to bolster the forthcoming UN BDS blacklist. Amnesty denies Jewish connections to historical sites – including in the Old City of Jerusalem – and in essence faults Israel for preserving Jewish historical and cultural heritage, as well as places that are holy to Christians. (Further), by suggesting that foreign tourism to Israel is about supporting settlements, not about religious and/or historical interest, Amnesty International erases the Christian connection to the Holy Land."

The propaganda against Israel which desires its isolation and de-legitimization exists on every continent. It is deeply rooted and geographically expansive. The following is just one of hundreds, if not thousands, of daily, ongoing, campaigns against the Jews in cities all across America.

This past weekend, on January 26th, 2019, the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary sponsored its 21st Racial Justice Summit. The third panel of the day was titled “Rewriting the Narrative: Reimagining the Future.” Someone in attendance wrote to me, in a small panic. She is afraid to be quoted by name but sent me a video of the third panel which, quite frankly, frightened and appalled her.

I have now viewed most of it. And I share her concern. Yes, Pittsburgh is where the abominable massacre of eleven Jews at prayer took place last fall. One might expect a heightened sensitivity, especially among justice-seeking Christian theologians. One’s hopes would be misplaced. Sadly, few progressives are willing to understand the connection between Jews and Jewish Israel, or the way in which the issue of Palestine is being used to defame Jews and incite large populations of aggrieved justice-seekers to potentially exterminate the Jews—yet again.

In Pittsburgh, it’s not only what invited panelist Susan Abulhawa, identified as a Palestinian-American novelist, said. It’s also who the moderator was. The same Big Lies, are, alarmingly everywhere, and increasing at warp speed. According to Abulhawa:
"Initially, when Zionism was born in Europe it was a political movement that was conceived by wealthy Jewish businessmen in eastern Europe and the idea was to establish a Jewish homeland. When all these Zionists started immigrating to Palestine and eventually took over the country and kicked the indigenous people out, the narrative was that these Europeans who had been in Europe for thousands of years, who had documented European history for thousands of years, in literature, and art, and culture, in science and politics, that these people were actually indigenous to Palestine and the indigenous people who had been there were, in fact, the squatters…"

Some reminders about TIPH

People are upset that Israel will not renew the mandate for the Temporary Independent Presence in Hebron, which did everything it could to delegitimize Jewish rights to the city.

It is worth remembering some things that have happened over its history.

TIPH observers were attacked not by Jews, but by Palestinian Arabs:

On 26 March 2002 two observers, Catherine Berruex and Turgut Cengiz Toytunç were killed, and another observer wounded after their car was shot on a road near Halhul. The wounded observer said the shooter was dressed in a Palestinian police uniform and that he kept shooting after the observers told him they were from TIPH. The TIPH car was marked with large orange TIPH stickers, a marking well known to the area's residents. An Israeli military court found a Palestinian man guilty of the murders, in September, 2003. Israeli authorities said that three people were involved in the killing.

In February 2006, TIPH staffers fled and evacuated their offices following an attack by hundreds of Palestinians high school children who threw rocks and broke car windows. The attackers shouted their opposition to the publication of Muhammad cartoons in Denmark and Norway.

These were the people they were protecting!

As far as their impartiality goes....

In July 2017, a TIPH employee punctured the tires of a car owned by a Jewish family. The incident, which was caught on film, shows a TIPH marked vehicle arriving at the scene and man wearing a TIPH vest crouching near the tire as two other men from the vehicle stand watch.According to the Israeli foreign ministry, TIPH head Einar Johnsen expressed his regrets for the incident and said that "TIPH monitors that were involved in inappropriate activity were immediately sent back to the countries".

In July 2018, the legal counsel of the TIPH was filmed slapping a 10-year-old Jewish boy across the face. After the footage was released, the TIPH member was ordered to leave Israel. The Swiss ambassador to Israel apologized for the actions of the observer.

Apologies notwithstanding, these incidents show that TIPH was made up of people who were anything but impartial. And the only reason these incidents were discovered was because they were filmed - imagine how many similar incidents happened when the cameras weren't rolling.

TIPH did nothing positive, and it is good that they are being forced to leave.

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This is part of a video animation released by the Palestinian government in November bragging about its medical care, in English.

Furthermore, the occupied city of Jerusalem is a top priority for the Palestinian government, which seeks to strengthen the resilience of the holy city and its citizens. Therefore the government made medical transfers to the hospital inside the occupied city of Jerusalem worth 240 million shekels.

The PA government is saying in this video that it transfers patients to the Jerusalem hospital not for their own good, but for political purposes to "strengthen the resilience of the holy city and its citizens."

How many patients received worse quality care, or were hurt by an ambulance trip that wasn't necessary? How many may have died because of this policy?

And isn't it interesting that the Palestinian leaders are bragging about their apathy towards patient care?

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Today, Amnesty International released another incredibly biased report, about how Israeli tourism to Judea and Samaria is somehow a war crime..

The hate that Amnesty has for Jews who choose to live where their forefathers lived, and for the Jewish history that nearly all occurred there, is palpable.

This Amnesty report sheds no new light. NGOs keep trying to find new ways to demonize the Jews of Judea and Samaria and the flavor of the year is tourism.

Most of the report doesn't even mention tourism but is a rehashed litany of old, ridiculous accusations, such as Israel is violating "the right to adequate housing" - in an area where anyone can drive around and see opulent mansions belonging to Arabs.

Examples of the hate in this report:

Within East Jerusalem, the government is developing ambitious plans to build tourism infrastructure in Palestinian parts of the city.

Which were Jewish parts of the city 3000 years anyone ever heard of Palestinian Arabs.

In 2017, tourist arrivals grew by 25% to a record 3.6 million visitors, bringing in US$5.8 billion. This growth has brought financial benefits both to Israel and to businesses operating in occupied territory. This is because most foreign visitors also enter the OPT. The top three most visited places by foreign tourists in 2017 were all in Jerusalem’s Old City, which Israel annexed in 1967 along with the rest of East Jerusalem.

The footnote says that these three places are the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Yes, two of them are Jewish and one Christian. Apparently visiting these places is a terrible crime because it supports Israel's "occupation" of the areas - even in Jerusalem.

Did anyone visit the Jewish Quarter or the Western Wall before "occupation"? No - Jordan demolished the old Jewish Quarter and did not let any Jews visit the Western Wall.

But why should Amnesty bring that up? They'd rather blame Israel for allowing Jews to visit their own holy sites! Amnesty is saying that they prefer a world where Palestinians will bar Jews from visiting their holiest sites in Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, Shiloh, Bet El et. al. to a world where Jews have indigenous rights in their historic lands.

In addition, gift shops and visitor centres at tourist sites in the OPT sell produce grown and manufactured by Israeli settlers, such as wine, olive oil, handicrafts and cosmetics.Tourists visiting these attractions and spending money in the restaurants and other sites directly contribute to the maintenance and growth of settlements, since businesses are owned or managed by settlers.

Oh. My. God. How dare Jews who live in Judea actually make and sell products?

Tourists to Jewish holy places must, according to Amnesty, avoid buying a Coke from a Jewish-owned store and instead try to find an Arab-owned store. Sure, the tourists - especially the Jewish ones - might be stabbed for walking into the store, but at least they won't be drinking cola contaminated with Jew cooties.

Settler groups supported by the Israeli government emphasize the Jewish people’s historic connections to the region.

Egads! Settlers are so evil that they actually have the chutzpah to tell visitors that the Bible mentions their history!

Is Amnesty saying the Jewish people do not have a historic connection to the region? It sure seems like they would prefer that this information is buried, because when Jews actually have a connection to their heritage, it makes other Jews and Christians want to visit. And that helps out settlers! The inhumanity!

By the way, do tourists in Palestinian Arab areas hear anything about the Jewish history in the land? Would Amnesty ever complain about it if they don't?

Of course not. Because the subtext of this report is that the Jewish connection to the land is the real problem. It brings tourists. It is suspect. It is one-sided. The Palestinians are the only legitimate residents and the Jews really don't belong. Amnesty is thisclose to saying that Jews are Khazars and imposters.

It is the same message that Hamas and all the other antisemites give.

Israel has constructed many of its settlements close to archaeological sites to make the link between the modern State of Israel and its Jewish history explicit.

Um, no. Jews moved to these areas to be close to where Biblical events occurred. You can find this secret information out by - gasp - asking them.

Amnesty is saying that such connections are nefarious, when they are natural - if you actually give any credence to Jewish history.

In addition, websites and visitor maps issued by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and Israel’s Ministry of Tourism do not show the West Bank’s borders. Instead, the area is marked as “Judea and Samaria”, a term for the West Bank used by the government and settlers and not by Palestinians. This suggests a deliberate attempt to conceal from tourists that these places are in the OPT.

How dare Israel use Biblical names instead of the name that Jordanians made up in 1949? Clearly, they aren't interested in preserving Jewish history, but in destroying Palestinian history!

Amnesty knows that the tourists in Judea and Samaria are primarily Christians and Jews who are attached to the Bible. But it still quotes a Palestinian approvingly, saying:

“Tourists coming here are brainwashed, they are lied to, they do not know this is our land.”

Can Amnesty list a single lie that the tour guides are saying? If not, why does it quote someone calling them a liars?

The Bedouin in the OPT self-identify as Indigenous Peoples.As such, they enjoy certain special rights over the land they occupy and the natural resources they use to sustain their traditional livelihoods and way of life.

Ooooh, they self identify as indigenous?

Guess what, Amnesty? - So do the Jews who live there!

Amnesty knows its audience would be horrified to know that Airbnb, Booking.com and others list rentals in these areas:

TripAdvisor also had several listings in Kfar Adumim and the surrounding area. These included two properties that can be rented through its website. The first is a one-bedroom apartment, which boasts a jacuzzi. The second is a two-bedroom family home, with views of Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. In addition, TripAdvisor provided details and reviews of a hotel, two restaurants and five “things to do”, including the Ein Prat park.

Anywhere else in the world, this news would hardly be expected to be featured in a human rights report. Indeed, it is difficult to know exactly how Jews renting out apartments is a human rights violation. But Amnesty knows it is, and it lists dozens of specific places that are tourist spots or apartment rentals - as if it is revealing major crimes against humanity.

Amnesty hates Israel and Jews so much that it is even upset at people who give positive reviews to visits in Judea and Samaria in TripAdvisor! Here are three quotes in the Amnesty report:

“For those interested in Israel and Judaism, this is a really phenomenal & highly recommended day trip. I thoroughly enjoyed it!” - Hebron tour TripAdvisor review
“A must see with a good, knowledgeable guide. Try to go when the Muezzin is not calling for prayers or you won’t be able to enjoy as much.” - City of David TripAdvisor review
“Every visitor of the land of Israel should definitely come visit this site. It can give you a better perspective of Israel. Fun place!” - Susya Tripadvisor review

This, ladies and gentlemen, is antisemitism. Amnesty hates Jews and Jewish history so much that they cannot even stomach the idea that visitors enjoy going to historic Jewish sites. It reveals far more about Amnesty and its supporters than it does about how evil these Jewish "settlers" are for welcoming guests, of all the terrible things they do.

Perhaps the most absurd section of all the inanities in this report is this:

The City of David National Park is already one of the most visited attractions in Israel. In 2017, it received 17.5% of all foreign visitors (some 630,000 people).205 Hundreds of thousands of Israelis also visit the site each year, including many groups of school children, students and soldiers,helping to entrench the settlers’ presence in the area. As with the other sites managed by settlers described above, Elad presents a distorted historical narrative of the area, emphasizing the Jewish people’s roots in the area while excluding those of Palestinian residents.

Let's talk about the "Palestinian residents" of Silwan that the tour guides don't mention. From Wikipedia:

In the mid-1850s, the villagers of Silwan were paid £100 annually by the Jews in an effort to prevent the desecration of graves on the Mount of Olives. Jewish visitors to the Western Wall were also required to pay a tax to the inhabitants of Silwan, which by 1863 was 10,000 Piastres. Nineteenth-century travelers described the village as a robbers' lair.Charles Wilson wrote that "the houses and the streets of Siloam, if such they may be called, are filthy in the extreme.” Charles Warren depicted the population as a lawless set, credited with being "the most unscrupulous ruffians in Palestine.”

Does Amnesty want the tour guides to describe the extortionists, robbers, and filthy ruffians who were the historical Palestinian Arab residents of the area? OK, let's tell the City of David to emphasize this history.

This report is all the proof you need - as if you needed more proof - that Amnesty is not interested in human rights of Arabs so much as they want to strip Jews of their own human rights to even visit the lands of their ancestors, let alone live there.

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01/29 Links Pt2: Still Want To Boycott Israel? Israeli Scientists Find Cure For Cancer, Report Says; Intel confirms massive Israel investment plan; Tlaib Belongs To Holocaust Denier Group Which Calls Jews ‘Satanic'

From Ian:

Still Want To Boycott Israel? Israeli Scientists Find Cure For Cancer, Report Says

For all the Israel-haters out there, they’d better hope that that Israelis are forgiving if they are stricken with cancer, because if a new report out of Israel turns out to be true, scientists in the Jewish state have discovered a cure. And not just a cure for certain forms of cancer, but a complete cure for the deadly disease.

According to Dan Aridor, chairman of the board of Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi) and CEO Dr. Ilan Morad, their treatment will not need time for the body to acculturate to it before it works. Aridor stated, “We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer. … Our cancer cure will be effective from day one ... and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market. Our solution will be both generic and personal.”

As the Jerusalem Post reports, “An estimated 18.1 million new cancer cases are diagnosed worldwide each year, according to reports by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Further, every sixth death in the world is due to cancer, making it the second leading cause of death (second only to cardiovascular disease).”

The treatment is called MuTaTo (multi-target toxin), and works much like antibiotics do in targeting bacteria. MuTaTo is based on SoAP technology, which works by finding, binding and removing bacteria by utilizing bacteriophage-derived proteins. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria.

MuTaTo inserts DNA coding for a protein into a bacteriophage. Once inside, the protein shows up on the phage’s surface, making it apparent to researchers who can use the phages to find interactions with other proteins, DNA sequences and small molecules. Unlike 2018 Nobel Prize-winning scientists George Smith and Gregory Winter, who used phage display to evolve new proteins or antibodies, the Israelis are producing peptides, which Morad says are better equipped for the job because they are smaller, less expensive and less difficult to manage.

Intel confirms massive Israel investment plan, which ministers say is worth $11b

Intel said Tuesday it was expanding its operations in Israel, where government ministers said the US computer chipmaker will invest nearly $11 billion in a new plant.

“Intel today announced it will submit a business plan to the government of Israel for continued investment in the company’s Kiryat Gat manufacturing site,” a statement from Intel’s Israeli representatives said.

Daniel Benatar, the general manager of the company’s manufacturing plant in Kiryat Gat, said the plan shows the tech firm “continues to demonstrate the strong performance of Intel Israel and we continue to lead in terms of corporate economic and social investment in Israel.”

The tech giant said it would not comment on schedules, costs and technologies of the project.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said late Monday he was informed by Intel of its decision “to invest another 40 billion shekels (almost $11 billion), an unprecedented decision expected to bring thousands of jobs to the south.”

Economy Minister Eli Cohen said Intel had chosen to “build its most advanced plant here in Israel.”

Desalination and the BDS.

The 2000s drought in Australia, which was also known as the Millennium drought was said by some to be the worst drought recorded since European settlement.

However plans for a desalination plant in Sydney were temporarily halted in 2005 after public opposition and the discovery of new underground aquifers.

By late 2006, however, with Sydney’s water storage plunged to their lowest levels since the 1950s – around 33% of capacity – the authorities decided to reinstate the project. A $1.8 billion desalination plant was then constructed at Kurnell, in southern Sydney, opening in the summer of 2009-10.

Interestingly the Sydney Desalination Plant is powered by 100% renewable energy.

My brother, who was one of the project managers on the Kurnell desalination plant, was sent by his company for a month to the Middle East, to study their plants, many of which including the one at Durrat Al Bahrain, like most in Australia use the Israeli invented and manufactured reverse osmosis membrane and other technology.

Around this time the BDS activity was at the height of its activity, in the main holding their screaming sessions outside Max Brenner Chocolate shops.

Max Brenner, come off it, there’s blood in your hot chocolate
Max Brenner you can’t hide you support genocide.

The reason behind these slogans is the fact that Max Brenner supports the Golani Brigade.

The joke, not lost on those of us defending Max Brenner, was that the shop next door was ‘Sababa’, an Israeli owned falafel shop!! That they completely ignored. The funny part about this was that our leadership offered to support legal action against these idiots, but the franchise owner said the media coverage this was creating was the most amazing advertising possible and business was booming!

This photo is at a Max Brenner rally. The screaming mob is behind me. You see police and you also see 3 hijabbed Arab girls drinking Max Brenner hot chocolate!!

Whilst this was happening the Kurnell desalination plant was now in operation and producing fresh water for the first time.

I deliberately got into conversation with the leftist rabble asking them, if they would be not drinking Sydney water, given the fact that the plant was using the Israeli made reverse osmosis membrane. Most were shocked and horrified to hear what I had to tell them. Every one of them said they would buy bottled water.
Hang on!!
What about showering, cooking, watering the garden? No comment.

Norway falsely says that evicting TIPH from Hebron may violate Oslo

From Reuters:

OSLO (Reuters) - Israel’s decision to eject observers in Hebron may be a breach of the implementation of the Oslo accords, the Norwegian foreign minister said on Tuesday.

“The one-sided Israeli decision can mean that the implementation of an important part of the Oslo accords is discontinued,” Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said in a statement to Reuters.

while Oslo II does call for the re-establishment of TIPH (after the first one was created in the wake of the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre) the mandate for the current TIPH, #3, is not from Oslo but from a separate 1997 agreement between Israel and the PLO.

The last paragraph of that agreement says:

The TIPH may commence its operation immediately upon the approval of its modalities of operation by the two sides, and shall continue to function for a period of three months renewable for an additional period of three months unless otherwise agreed between the two sides. With the consent of the two sides, the TIPH may extend the period or change the scope of its operation, as agreed.

So Israel (and the PLO) always had the right to not renew the agreement.

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Watch Israeli documentary on Shurat HaDin - going after sources of terror funding (video with English subtitles)

The parts I watched so far look great:

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Reuters reports:

The Palestinian government officially submitted its resignation to president Mahmud Abbas Tuesday, a statement said, though it will remain in place while a new administration is formed.

Analysts see the change in government as an attempt by Abbas to strengthen his position and further isolate his political rivals Hamas as a decade-long split in Palestinian politics deepens.

"The government of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah submitted on Tuesday its resignation to President Mahmud Abbas," official news agency Wafa said in English following a cabinet meeting.

The government "will continue to serve our people wherever they are and shoulder all its responsibilities until a new government is formed," it added.

Hamdallah had offered to resign Monday, after the central committee of Abbas's Fatah movement recommended the formation of a new government that would comprise members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

The Islamist movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, is not part of the PLO.

Hamas condemned the government's resignation, saying Abbas was seeking to establish a "separatist government" to serve his interests.

It's sort of funny that this is barely news. The cabinet doesn't make too many decisions, it mostly issues statements every week congratulating itself and condemning Israel for various things.

But the real story here is that Mahmoud Abbas is trying to get rid of the slightest possibility of any independent thinking in the Palestinian government.

He already dissolved the Palestinian Legislative Council last month, using a "Supreme Court" that had only members that he appointed and that seems to have never done anything else.

The cabinet is mostly comprised of independents rather than Fatah members - the prime minister has been associated with Fatah but has been reported to be an independent, and was a head of a university before taking this job. Fatah, led by Abbas, wanted to make sure that no one could oppose Abbas even theoretically, even though the cabinet has been a rubber stamp for Abbas since it was formed in 2013.

This is not about Hamas, which was not part of the cabinet. This is about Abbas being the one and only decision maker in Palestinian politics.

He is, as I've mentioned before, just as much of a dictator as Assad. But the Western media insists on portraying him as a moderate peacemaker.

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01/29 Links Pt1: Preparing for Peace - The Palestinian Way; After Israel suspends Hebron observers, Palestinians call for permanent UN force; Senate clears major hurdle to vote on pro-Israel, anti-BDS bill

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Preparing for Peace - The Palestinian Way

If, in the eyes of the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership, normalization with Israel is an act of "treason," a "crime" and a "big political and national sin," the Trump administration may well be wasting its time and prestige on a peace plan that envisions peace between the Arab countries and Israel, at least at this time.

To achieve peace with Israel, Palestinian leaders need to prepare their people -- and all Arabs and Muslims -- for peace and compromise with Israel, and not, as they are now doing, the exact opposite. Shaming and denouncing Arabs who visit Israel is hardly a way to prepare anyone for peace, or the possibility of any compromise.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration and the international community would be doing a real service to the Palestinians if they start paying attention to assaults on public freedoms, including freedom of the media, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Holding Palestinian leaders accountable for their systematic abuses of public freedoms, assaults on journalists and incitement is the only way to encourage badly needed moderate and pragmatic Palestinians and Arabs to speak out.

After Israel suspends Hebron observers, Palestinians call for permanent UN force

A top Palestinian official on Tuesday asked the United Nations to deploy a permanent international force in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, a day after Israel said it would not extend the operations of a temporary observer force in the city of Hebron after more than 20 years.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Monday it would not extend the mandate of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, an international observer group, following a number of incidents over the past year in which its members scrapped with settlers in the flashpoint West Bank city.

“We will not allow the continuation of an international force that acts against us,” Netanyahu said.

Palestinian diplomat Saeb Erekat responded in a statement that the UN should “guarantee the safety and protection of the people of Palestine not only ensuring the continued presence of TIPH in Hebron but also to deploy permanent international presence in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, until the end of Israel’s belligerent occupation.”

Erekat called Netanyahu’s announcement “an additional step towards Israel’s nullification of all signed treaties” and “further evidence that Israel is a rogue state that abhors international legitimacy and places itself above and beyond international order and the international community.”

Israel Boots Hebron Monitors, Media Boots Context

Israel announced that it will not renew the mandate for a group of international peace monitors stationed in Hebron.

The UN-affiliated Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) has been stationed in Hebron for more than 20 years. Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy and Turkey have contributed civilians to act as monitors on the ground in Hebron since the organization’s establishment in established in 1994 following the Tomb of the Patriarchs massacre, during which Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinians at the holy site. Because the Hebron monitors’ mission was originally meant to be “temporary,” its mandate had to be renewed twice a year by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The announcement to send the Hebron monitors packing was picked up the three main international wire services: Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) — none of whom shed any light on the questions of why.

So why are the Hebron monitors no longer welcome? Why is this happening now?

Reuters and AFP cited vague Israeli accusations of TIPH bias but reported that the Prime Minister’s announcement didn’t offer any reason for the move. AP’s four-paragraph piece didn’t even say that.

You’d think the nasty Israelis booted out the observers for no good reason.

The Women's March Is Not The First To Be Hurt By Its Association With Farrakhan (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

It's common to think that Farrakhan's poisonous antisemitic rhetoric carries no consequences with it.

o There are no condemnations from African American leaders.
o  Politicians show no reluctance to appear with him
o  Community leaders in general do not condemn his Anti-Jewish attacks
o  Farrakhan is a popular leader among African Americans

That is why the backlash against Women's March is so surprising.

Apart from the antisemitism of the Women's March leadership itself, as documented by Tablet Magazine and The New York Times, their ties to Louis Farrakhan and their refusal to condemn his ongoing antisemitic attacks have been a stain on that movement.

But historically, the Women's March is not alone in bearing the consequences of the albatross that is Louis Farrakhan.

Edwin Black, the author of "IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation," wrote a background article in 1986 about Louis Farrakhan.

Black reveals Farrakhan's plan in the 1980's for a project known as POWER, People Organized and Working for Economic Rebirth, which included a plan for selling toiletries and personal products to African Americans:

Black toiletry manufacturers would be subcontracted for production. POWER consumers would commit to a minimum monthly purchase of $20, ordering via an 800 telephone number. Merchandise would be delivered from POWER directly to the consumer's door. Distributors and retailers would be eliminated, doubling POWER's sales income. By this brilliant strategy—combining the best capitalistic experience of Avon, Proctor & Gamble, Fuller Brush, and the Book-of-the-Month Club—the Nation of Islam would make money every time a black customer gargled or went to the bathroom.

POWER had the potential to be the biggest African American enterprise in the country, capable of sales of over $150 million within its first 5 years and $1 billion within its first 10 years.

The Nation of Islam sought support in Chicago of Johnson Products, which manufactured cosmetics and household products. Farrakhan suggested raising the necessary capital to start production by selling tapes of his speeches at $10 each at various rallies he would hold around the country, with the expectations of drawing 6,000-10,000 people at each rally, in order to raise the necessary millions.

So in 1985, Farrakhan launched a well-publicized speaking tour, starting in Detroit on January 19. But between cold weather and technical difficulties, sales were less than expected.

That is when Farrakhan turned elsewhere for the help raising the money: Muammar Khaddafi.

This is the same Khaddafi who, in 1975, gave NOI leader Elijah Muhammad a $3 million interest-free loan to build a national mosque. Now, on February 24, 1985, Khaddafi had a special address beamed by satellite to a Chicago meeting hall as the climax to the Nation of Islam's annual "Savior's Day" convention. The Libyan leader, who financed terrorist groups around the world, did what came naturally. On a large TV screen, Khaddafi

called upon American black servicemen to desert from the military and engage in wide-spread sabotage and rebellion with weapons he would provide.

A few days later, Farrakhan held a Washington press conference, where he formally renounced the offer of weapons. As Farrakhan put it, the offer "was appreciated but unacceptable unless [Khaddafi] wanted to offer monetary weapons to get the proposed program off the ground."

In the end, Farrakhan got a $5 million interest-free loan from Khaddafi. Khaddafi, of course, was not Farrakhan's only favorite Arab despot. During a 1985 tour of the Middle East:

o He visited Syria, where he had visited earlier with Jesse Jackson to win the release of downed pilot Robert Goodman
o In the UAE, Farrakhan met with Dr. Ibrahim Ezzadine, an adviser to the leading Emirate sheikhs
o He visited Saudi Arabia, where he located and spoke with Idi Amin, who he claimed was a great man
o In Sudan, he met with Omar al-Bashir who had recently come to power as a result of a coup and would later be accused of war crimes

So his attacks on Jews helped Farrakhan cement his friendship with Arab despots, as well as energize his base.

In fact, when he returned home, Farrakhan's attacks increased, targeting the US, Christians and Jews which had the effect of increasing the size of his audiences among Black Americans even further.

And that is when the problems started:

It was one thing to enter a pro-black business venture. It was quite another to participate in an enterprise conceived and advertised as anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-white, and anti-Semitic.

Eventually, word got out about Khaddafi's involvement in the POWER project and that Johnson Products was involved, tying the company with an Arab despot who was an enemy of the US.

And Farrakhan just kept digging:

Farrakhan began publicly mentioning Johnson as a courageous black manufacturer willing to stand up to white society and the Jews. The Minister even asked blacks to increase their purchases of Ultra Sheen as a gesture of thanks. Johnson's Jewish business associates were shocked at his involvement, and soon the heat was on.

Farrakhan's antisemitic statements combined with pressure from Jews who helped Johnson start his business and invested in it forced him to call Farrakhan and tell him that his company could not be associated with Farrakhan in any way. Farrakhan took the news badly and insisted Johnson was backing out because Jews wanted POWER to fail because it would do something to help black people.

At a rally at Madison Square Garden a little later, Farrakhan publicly lashed out at Jews, whom he accused of being "bloodsuckers of the poor." Soon after, George Johnson issued a formal written statement disassociating himself from Farrakhan and POWER. He gave Farrakhan's antisemitism as the main reason.

The problem didn't stop there.

Farrakhan's connection with Khaddafi became a headache for the small black-owned Independence Bank in Chicago, where Farrakhan deposited the $5 million he received from him. Black notes in his article that Khaddafi's $5 million, provided $50,000 in annual profit, about 5% of the bank's total. At the time of the article, the bank had canceled the lock-box service for contributions to POWER and from tape purchases. A bank source indicated that in any case, very few checks had come in since the bank had terminated the service -- and it was considering further measures.

Black points out that Farrakhan mixed his personal politics with the product line that formed the basis of POWER, undermining the project.

Farrakhan's friends in the Women's March leadership seem to be doing the same. Phyllis Chesler, a feminist leader starting in the 1960's, writes "The Women’s March is a Con Job":

Most concerning, though, is that the Women’s March leadership appears to have no particular interest in the independent women’s liberation movements. I have read their literature extensively and all I can find are issues, which, however worthy they may be, are not, strictly speaking, feminist issues. The Women’s March addresses things like “immigration reform” and “police violence against black men.” They say they are “anti-racists,” more than they are “anti-sexists.” And they prioritize “queer and transgender” politics, but never plain old garden variety women’s issues.

Women’s issues — even those that are impacted by race, class, religion, and ethnicity — are still woman-specific: sexual harassment on the job; rape; incest; domestic violence; economic, social, and legal discrimination; and of course reproductive rights, including access to birth control, abortion, and prenatal care.

...Sex trafficking? Child marriage? FGM? Forced face veiling? Honor Killing? None of these issues are being addressed by the American Women’s March leadership.

What is going on?

Back in 1985, Farrakhan made his product line for POWER secondary to his politics and the rhetoric of hate that he is dependent on to energize his base. The leadership of Women's March, with its admitted admiration for Farrakhan, has sublimated women's issues to their own politics.

Both are strident in their anti-Jewish and anti-Israel rhetoric.

In the end, a project that had the potential to benefit the black community fell apart.
Whether the same fate will befall The Women's March remains to be seen.

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Last week, Masha Gessen at The New Yorker published a ridiculously one-sided article about Hebron. It started off this way:

The stories of Hebron are the stories of the absent and the unseen. They are the stories of the occupation and of Palestinian life that has been caged in or displaced. No one who lives in Hebron, and very few of those who visit the city, can see the entirety of the displacement or appreciate the scale of the absence. Hebron is divided in such a way that some will only ever see the empty streets, while others see a crowded and bustling town—one bound by fences, walls, and barbed wire, beyond which the emptiness begins. To see the emptiness is to understand some of the effects of the occupation; to see it from the point of view of Palestinians, who have been rendered almost entirely invisible, is to understand much more.

For those who want to attack Israel over the "occupation," Hebron is not invisible - it is the alpha and omega of everything evil about Israel. There are thousands of articles, videos and photos of Shuhada Street, the tiny part of Hebron that Arabs no longer can easily live in since the 1990s. To say that the stories of Hebron are untold and unheard of is ridiculous.

For several years, two activist groups, one Israeli and one Palestinian, have been leading tours of the occupation of Hebron. I recently went on both, crossing from the living city of Hebron to its hollow shadow and back several times.

Both of these tours - from Issa Amro and Breaking the Silence - are critical of Israel, of "settlers" and of the idea of Jews living in their second holiest city. The article frames going to both tours as showing all sides of Hebron from the Israeli and Arab sides - and this is not even close.

Because the author didn't bother to speak to a single Jewish resident of the area.

I have. I've visited the apartments of Jews who live in Hebron. I have seen the bullet holes from Arab snipers that are still there. I have spoken to relatives of those killed - not only in 1929 but after Jews returned to the city after it was ethnically cleansed.

In 1997, as part of the Oslo peace process, Israel and the Palestinian Authority drew a line splitting Hebron in two. The area designated as H-1 is controlled by the Palestinian Authority; in H-2, the Palestinian Authority has civil administration over Palestinian residents and the Israeli military controls everything else. H-1 is far larger, and in the past two years its population has roughly doubled, while H-2’s has dwindled because settler violence and I.D.F. restrictions have made life unbearable for Palestinians. But H-2 contains the city’s historic center, its most popular square, and its wholesale, vegetable, spice, and other markets—all of them now hollowed out.

Gessen here briefly touches on, and then ignores, the salient fact that Hebron itself is a huge, bustling, successful city where Arabs flock to live - and where Jews are forbidden to live in practically all of it. But the vegetable market is now closed.

Why is that? From reading the article one would think it was because Israel simply wants to grab land it has no rights to. Any excuse is used to oppress Palestinians.

But for the residents of Hebron, the memories of the terror attacks are real. Jews walking home from prayers on a Friday night ambushed and slaughtered in 2002. An infant who was shot by a sniper, specifically aiming for her, in 2001.

I once spoke to the daughter of Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan, who was horrifically killed in his own bedroom in 1998:

Screams of terror and pain pierced the silent Hebron night. The screams were coming from the bedroom where Rabbi Shlomo Ra’anan, was preparing to retire for the night. Chaya Ra’anan, who was in the dining room, barely recognized the sound of her husband’s voice, whom in their thirty-five years of marriage, had never been heard to raise his voice. Seconds later, the rabbi, covered in blood, staggered out of the bedroom, while the terrorist, who held a long and bloody butcher knife in one hand, tried with the other hand to drag him back into the bedroom. Stunned, Chaya screamed while she instinctively tried to pull her husband out of the terrorist’s grasp. A tug-of-war ensued until finally the terrorist let go, not before hurdling the butcher knife at the mortally wounded rabbi and setting the trailer on fire. It was too late to save her husband. Chaya, being a nurse, knew from the gaping wound in her husband’s main artery that his condition was fatal. Seeing the flames around her it was now up to her to alert the six other families living in the neighboring inflammable trailers before they too went up in flames. Chaya threw open the door and shouted, “Fire! Fire!”

How many articles have you ever seen that humanize the Palestinians of Hebron - and how many that humanize the Jews who live there? And this is only one of dozens killed by Palestinian terrorists in the area over the years.

Gessen isn't interested in speaking to Rabbi Ra'anan's daughter. No one is. The only people that the world media is interested in are the Arabs.

The Jews who heroically want to maintain a presence in the holy city of Hebron, where Jews lived for 1500 years before Islam even existed, are the ones who are silenced.

You can legitimately discuss whether Palestinians should be treated better in Hebron, but articles like this commit two crimes: they only tell one side of the story, and they pretend that Hebron is somehow a microcosm of the West Bank when in fact it is the only place (outside Jerusalem) where Arabs and Jews live in such close proximity.

And when that happens, it is the Jews what need protection far more than the Arabs. If the Arabs would have left the Jews alone, there would be no army there.

That is the real story, and it is one that The New Yorker will never touch.

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In the Jewish Journal/Sun Sentinel of Florida, Rabbi Bruce Warshal writes a quite false op-ed about Birthright, under the headline "How morally silent do you have to be for Birthright?"

Two months ago, Birthright began to require that all participants sign a new contract with Birthright in which they agree they will not “coerce, force or suppress opinions, hijack a discussion or create an unwarranted provocation.” Translation: don’t ask anything about Israeli Arabs, the West Bank, Gaza or the Occupation.

How do we know that this is its intent? Six weeks ago, Emily Bloch wrote in the Forward: “On the fifth day of my Birthright trip…I asked our trip leader if the towering concrete wall I could see from my window was the wall that separates the West Bank from Israel. Two hours later, I stood on a street corner in Tel Aviv with two other participants, watching our trip’s bus drive away without us; we were officially kicked off of Birthright.”

She further writes that Birthright indicated that..."for engaging in the most Jewish way possible – asking questions about injustice – I was told that I am not welcome.”

This is an outrageous mischaracterization of what happened, of course. Emily Bloch and her friends had pre-planned to hijack the conversation. They are members of IfNotNow, an organization that is explicitly against Birthright's very existence as a program to instill pride in Jewish youth. In reality, Birthright guides deal honestly and forthrightly with questions about Arabs, although from an Israeli perspective. Dozens of Birthright participants report that they ask questions about Palestinians and Arabs all the time without any incident.

The only issue of morality here is the morality of knowingly lying about the incident and about Birthright.

Surprisingly, the Sun Sentinel doesn't mention that Warshal is a leader of Peace Now, showing that he leads an organization dedicated to hiding any facts about Israel that show it in a good light. He had previously written an op-ed defending BDS.

Warshal isn't the only one to misrepresent Birthright. In December, the Forward and Haaretz were very happy to report the news that there was a "Sharp Decline In Number Of American Jews On Birthright Trips" this season. They gave lots of reasons for this alleged 20%-50% drop, which Warshal mentions as well - American Jewish youth don't care about Israel, they do care about Palestinian perspectives, and lots of other conjectures.

But what they didn't say is that if you add up all the seasons, Birthright had a record year in 2018, with 48,000 participants from abroad visiting Israel on the trips.

“As anticipated, 2018 saw a record volume of participants,”Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark said. “The project continues to excite young Jews around the world and participants say the tours are extremely meaningful.”

The people who are so upset over Birthright's supposed "silence" on topics it actually does address are themselves silent over the truth about Birthright as well as over their own affiliation with anti-Birthright organizations.

That is the only moral issue happening here.

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Malaysian actress apologizes for being in a photo with her boyfriend - without a hijab

From the New Straits Times:

Actress Emma Maembong publicly apologises for her intimate photos which went viral today.

In her latest entry on her Instagram, she wrote: "I’d like to apologise to everyone for being careless. It (being photographed without a hijab and in close proximity with a man) was my mistake, not others. Thank you for your advice, and to those who are disappointed and upset with my actions, I sincerely apologise... Thank you for your support too. Love you guys so much. Again, I’m sorry."

The photos showed her sans the headscarf and in a rather intimate position with Syed Abdullah Syed Abdul Rahman, the elder brother of Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq.

In a photo, Emma had her hand over Syed Abdullah’s shoulder, at a dining table, while another, depicted the pair in a room. Emma was sitting in between his legs.

According to a news report today, the photos had been taken sometime last week.

Here are the photos that upset the Malaysians so much (but no too much to avoid sharing them over social media):

The man's brother was the sports minister who claimed that banning Israeli athletes from Malaysia was necessary because of Malaysia's concern for "human rights."

Malaysia does not mandate women wear hijab. Emma Maembong seems to have built her career on being covered, which is why these pictures are so controversial.

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01/28 Links Pt2: Rachel Riley: The Left’s Embrace of Antisemitism; Behind Europe’s Antisemitism ‘Perception Gap’; Telling the truth about Israel is a new Catch-22 situation

From Ian:

Presidential Message on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

On April 27, 1945, a young soldier of the 12th Armored Division of the United States Army wrote these astonishing words to his wife in the United States: “Although I may never talk about what I have witnessed today. I will never forget what I have seen.” Aaron A. Eiferman’s division was moving to a new position near Dachau when they “came across a prison camp.” His historic account, like all subsequent descriptions, lacked the words to adequately convey the horror and the suffering that occurred at Dachau and in the other concentration and death camps of the Holocaust.

The Third Reich, and its collaborators, pursued the complete elimination of the entire Jewish people. Six million Jews were systematically slaughtered in horrific ways. The Nazis also enslaved and murdered Slavs, Roma, gays, people with disabilities, religious leaders, and others who courageously opposed their cruel regime. The brutality of the Holocaust was a crime against men, women, and children. It was a crime against humanity. It was a crime against God.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we hold in our hearts the memory of every man, woman, and child who was abused, tortured, or murdered during the Holocaust. To remember these men and women—those who perished and those who survived—is to strive to prevent such suffering from happening again. Any denial or indifference to the horror of this chapter in the history of humankind diminishes all men and women everywhere and invites repetition of this great evil. We remain committed to the post-Holocaust imperative, “Never Again.” “Never Again” means not only remembering—in a profound and lasting way—the evils of the Holocaust, but it also means remembering the individual men and women in this Nation, and throughout the world, who have devoted their lives to the preservation and security of the Jewish people and to the betterment of all mankind.

Rachel Riley: The Left’s Embrace of Antisemitism

Until she spoke out against the plague of Jew hatred that has infected the British Labor Party of Jeremy Corbyn, Channel 4 game show hostess Rachel Riley was known chiefly for high heels and short skirts. Now, as detailed in a recent address, she is a designated target of the Left

If you told me this time last year that, come January 2019, I’d be standing in Parliament, addressing a room full of people at a Holocaust memorial event, describing the hideous abuse I’ve been receiving daily since I started speaking about the growing problem of antisemitism in the UK, I wouldn’t know where to begin with my incredulity.

My own identity as a Jew has been a confusing one. As I often joke, my mum’s Jewish and my dad’s Man United, and we’ve worshipped far more often at the Theatre of Dreams than I’ve ever been to shul. As a child, I knew not to sing the Jesus bit in the assembly hymns but the bacon sandwiches mum would feed us meant I didn’t quite know where we fit into all of this.

But one part of my Jewish identity, that forms part of my very being, is the deep and irreparable sorrow I feel in relation to the Holocaust.

I’ve always known that having just one Jewish grandparent, in the lifetime of my own Jewish grandparents, was enough for some to feel justified in carrying out unspeakable acts of inhumanity against them, like ripping babies out of mothers’ arms and smashing them against walls.

I visited Auschwitz for the first time in November. Most memorable to me were the videos in the Shoah exhibition of normal looking people in the 1930s – Jews – having fun in swim suits on the beach, playing cricket, enjoying family together, who would soon be reduced to dust.

The enormous mountain of hair, including little girls’ plaits, some blonde, some brunette, tied neatly, presumably by their loving mothers, before they would have to say goodbye forever, with all that would be left of them, cut off to be made into fabric. I’ve never experienced the literal feeling of being emotionally punched in the stomach like I did standing by that display.

Holocaust Denial, Dementia and Israel

International Holocaust Remembrance Day takes place on January 27 every year, on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on this day in 1945. Remembering the Holocaust provides us with universal lessons on the depth human evil can reach, and, conversely, the love of life and the heroism of adults and even children who thwarted human barbarity with their own survival.

I think about my dear relatives who were murdered at Sobibor and Auschwitz. They included Poles and Italians, as well as my father's little brothers who, while my father just barely escaped deportation, were killed, and my heart is filled with unbearable pain.

What hurts the most is that in Europe, the mother of genocidal anti-Semitism, its contemporary growth is all too visible. 58% of French Jews and nearly half of the Jews in Germany are worried about physical attacks. The bottom line is that we need to address the memory of the Holocaust in contemporary terms.

Most European schools and universities continue to teach Israel's history as a continuation of European colonialism in which the Palestinians are occupied and exploited by "evil" Jews who practice apartheid or even genocide. Traditional tools against anti-Semitism do not work when the cultural platforms endorse claims that the Palestinians are victims of the Jews.

Iraqi newspaper praises Israel

An Iraqi columnist asks why Iraq can't be more like Israel.

Khudair Tahir writes:

The State of Israel has achieved a political miracle at all levels to the point where it has exported to Europe and America its technology and shares military plans with them.

The miracle of Israel was achieved thanks to honest politicians and heroes who loved their country and sacrificed for it, and presented creative ideas for it and did everything for the purpose of progress.

In 1924, 24 years before the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel, the Jewish community established a university and a research institute in the present Land of Israel, it established an army and various institutions and it was ready at the moment of the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel. ...

In Israel, they have achieved a miracle within a miracle. The community has achieved the highest degree of success in teamwork. You find Jewish institutions operating in different parts of the world....We don't hear about disagreements and struggles for leadership and theft of public money.

Another miracle is the Israeli patriotism, which blended religion with politics and employed it to serve the interests of the country. The Israeli reached the peak of feeling of national belonging and sacrifice, imagining the Jews leaving their work and original homeland in Europe and America and joining the army to perform military service and then returning to their native country.

By the way, the daughter of US President Trump is Jewish and persuaded his wife to change her Christian religion to Judaism. Although he is a US citizen, he has traveled to Israel to serve in Israel. He serves as president's adviser several times a day.

The question is: Why did not Iraq produce sovereign national politicians like Israeli politicians?
My personal opinion after seeing the failure of the Iraqis and Arabs residing in Europe, America, Canada and Australia to absorb and digest the civilization .... they have a lack of respect for the law and democracy and public freedoms and their lack of values of sincerity and honor of belonging to these countries to credit them ...

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