Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 11, 2019

This week we'll find out if Palestinians still have any political clout in the Arab world

This week is the US State Department's "Ministerial To Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East" in Warsaw:

The “Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East,” held jointly by the United States and Poland, will take place in Warsaw, Poland on February 13-14. We have received very positive responses from our partners and allies around the world, with dozens of countries expressing their willingness and intention to participate in this constructive dialogue.

This Ministerial will be an opportunity for countries to share their perspectives both from within and outside the region. This includes a conversation on current regional crises as well as international efforts to address them. During the Ministerial, participants will also discuss the following topics:

Regional crises and their effects on civilians in the Middle East;

Missile development and proliferation;

Cyber security and emerging threats to the energy sector; and

Countering extremism and illicit finance.

Countries will come together to prioritize these regional challenges, share information, and discuss how we can cooperate more effectively to address them. There will be a press briefing held at the conclusion of the Ministerial to summarize the event’s discussions as well as present a joint statement by the Ministerial co-chairs – the United States and Poland.

Notice that the Palestinian issue is not mentioned at all.

The Palestinian Authority was invited, but their response was pretty much that unless the Palestinian issue is the central focus of any conference on the Middle East, they want nothing to do with it.

Not only that, but the Palestinians have been lobbying Arab governments to boycott the conference:

Fatah spokesman Osama Qawassmeh warned that any Palestinian or Arab who accepts Trump’s “deal of the century” would be accused of betraying Jerusalem and Islamic and Christian holy sites. ...
In the past two weeks, several PA officials have called on the Arab countries to boycott the upcoming conference and to remain committed to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which calls for normalizing ties between Israel and the Arab countries only after a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines.

Qawassmeh warned on Saturday that any Arab leader who meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Warsaw conference would be “stabbing Jerusalem and our Palestinian people.” The Palestinians, he added, are opposed to any form of normalization “with the Israeli occupation entity because that would be a free gift to Tel Aviv.”

The PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the US of “declaring war on the just Palestinian cause” and international resolutions.

It claimed that the US was convening the conference in Warsaw as part of its effort to impose a new world order. The ministry warned all countries against participating in the conference, saying it was also part of an American-Israeli “conspiracy” to eliminate the Palestinian issue.

This conference will be a test of waning Palestinian political power. If Arab governments ignore the PLO's demands to boycott the conference, it shows that there is no longer any fear on their part to appear to be turning their backs on Palestinian demands.

The list of attendees will be very interesting indeed.

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A Saudi preacher ignited a big controversy by saying that the sacrifice that Abraham did was of Isaac, as the Torah says, and not Ishmael.

On a TV show on MBC TV, Salih al-Mughamsi said that his interpretation of the Quran is that the "sacrifice" is of the prophet of God, Isaac, not his brother Ishmael.

He said that Ibrahim (Abraham) left Hajar (Hagar) and his son Ishmael in Mecca, then at the age of 75 returned to his people to preach to them, and then married Sara, who gave them Isaac, and God ordered him in a dream to slaughter his son.

The thing is - the Quran doesn't contradict him!

The story of the sacrifice in the Quran doesn't mention Ishmael once. Isaac is mentioned after the event, which is why many Quranic scholars believe that the main passage doesn't refer to Isaac.

The Quranic text (37:99-113) says:

And [then] he said, “Indeed, I will go to [where I am ordered by] my Lord; He will guide me. My Lord, grant me [a child] from among the righteous”. So We gave him good tidings of a forbearing boy. And when he reached with him [the age of] exertion, he said, “O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think.” He said, “O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast”. And when they had both submitted and he put him down upon his forehead, We called to him, “O Abraham, You have fulfilled the vision.” Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good. Indeed, this was the clear trial. And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice, And We left for him [favorable mention] among later generations: “Peace upon Abraham”. Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good. Indeed, he was of Our believing servants. And We gave him good tidings of Isaac, a prophet from among the righteous. And We blessed him and Isaac. But among their descendants is the doer of good and the clearly unjust to himself.

According to this site, 38 of Mohammed's companions support the Isaac theory, and only 28 support the Ishmael theory. Both traditions have serious support within Islam.

It is interesting that a preacher is willing to even say this out loud nowadays.

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Arab media, while not glorifying Ori Ansbacher murder, still dehumanizes her

Ori Ansbacher hy"d

The horrific murder of Ori Ansbacher by a Palestinian terrorist on Thursday is not, as far as I can tell, being celebrated in Palestinian Arab media.

This is only the second time I have seen what appears to be a little embarrassment about Palestinian terrorism in hundreds of attacks over the past 15 years. (The first was the massacre of the Fogel family.)

This is possibly because the attacker has not yet been associated with any organized terror group, or because of the reports of how Ansbacher was raped.

However, this doesn't mean that the Arabic media is sympathizing with Ansbacher, either.

Every report I've seen refers to her as a "settler." And some refer to her as a "soldier" (she was active in National Service, but not the army.)

Jews who live beyond the Green Line, and soldiers, are considered deserving of being killed by Palestinian media.

The characterization of her as a "settler" and "soldier" is also useful in case a terror group does take credit. In that case the media doesn't have to backtrack about whether they support the murder or not.

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02/10 Links: Human Rights Watch head claims Israel interfering in UK politics; Glick: Time for the U.S. to End Aid to Lebanon; PA minister ignores brutal murder of young Israeli woman but criticizes Israel for searching in mosque for murderer

From Ian:

Human Rights Watch head claims Israel interfering in UK politics

Human Rights Watch has lost all legitimacy regarding Israel, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said Sunday after a senior HRW official supported a conspiratorial claim that Israeli manufactured the antisemitism crisis within Britain's Labor party.

Sarah Leah Winston, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division, embeded a tweet on her Twitter account on Saturday from Asa Winstanley, a writer for the Electronic Intifada website that said, We're on the cusp of a major new wave of manufactured ‘Labour antisemitism crisis’ stories, much like spring/summer 2018. Buckle up”

Why is this #israel interference in domestic UK politics acceptable? Is it only a problem when Russia does this? https://t.co/frsAdFXpez
— Sarah Leah Whitson (@sarahleah1) February 9, 2019

Above the tweet, Winston wrote, “Why is this #israel interference in domestic UK politics acceptable? Is it only a problem when Russia does this?”

Nahshon tweeted in response that HRW “has lost all legitimacy when it comes to Isarel. Obsessive hatred and conspiracy theories worthy of the worst antisemites.”

Nahshon said that it has been a “long time” since the Foreign Ministry last cooperated with the organization.

Winstanley's article on the anti-Israel Chicago-based Electronic Intifada, headlined "Israel running campaign against Jeremy Corbyn," claimed that the Israeli government operates an application that urges its users to call out Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for antisemitism.

“This is the latest evidence of an Israeli campaign of psychological warfare against the UK’s main opposition party,” he wrote.

Wow! This conspiracy theory by HRW’s Mid East Director @sarahleah1, blaming Israel for manufacturing Antisemitism in UK Labour is sickening new low in Jew hatred & actual vile Antisemitism even by @hrw’s standards!

Mind you, this is same Sara Leah Witson: https://t.co/ymcdkM7LDv pic.twitter.com/aJhVbgxXff
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) February 9, 2019

Hey @KenRoth, yet ANOTHER case of antisemitism within your org @hrw. What do you plan on doing to address it? https://t.co/PemWBuYTYa
— Ozraeli Dave (@Israellycool) February 10, 2019

Maajid Nawaz on the state of Labour's anti-Semitism row: "All those old Nazi slurs are coming back in the disguise of criticising Israel when actually it's all an obsession with Jews"@MaajidNawaz | #AntiSemitism pic.twitter.com/0qeomuCKAx
— LBC (@LBC) February 10, 2019

Blair on Labour Anti-Semitism

On February 1, Jordan stopped allowing imports of Palestinian olive oil.

Even families crossing the Allenby Bridge cannot bring olive oil into Jordan.

The rule was relaxed in November when imports of olive oil from the West Bank was allowed and families were allowed to bring in four jugs apiece.

This is apparently to protect the local Jordanian olive oil market.

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Egyptian TV host calls to execute actresses who danced in their underwear

From Egypt Today:

Egyptian security forces arrested Egyptian actresses Mona Farouk and Shaimaa al-Haj on charges of committing a flagrant act after featuring on porn videos.

Both actresses claimed that Egyptian director Khaled Youssef shot these videos for them in 2015 in an apartment owned by him in El Mohandessin district.

Farouk and El Haga said that Youssef married both of them customary and that they obeyed all his demands to help them in their artistic career and give them roles.

The film was shown on Israeli TV, and from what I can tell between that and Arabic news stories, the actresses were dancing in their underwear.

The article makes it sound like the director "married" them both before he filmed them. He is now in Europe with his real wife and says he will explain all.

Israeli news showed an Egyptian TV host who said that the two actresses must be executed for this heinous crime of dancing in their underwear.

(h/t Yoel)

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In 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik shot and killed 14 and injured 22 more at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. They were killed in a shootout with police later that day.

Farook had a life insurance policy and checked it to make sure it was still valid right before the attack, and his mother fought to remain the beneficiary.

In 2017, a state representative in Minnesota introduced a bill that would allow insurance companies to limit payments to beneficiaries if the insured’s death occurs directly or indirectly because of “furtherance of terrorism.”

The bill passed 127-2.

One person voted against it because he thought there was a loophole that could cause insurance companies to not pay for legitimate claims.

The other person was Ilhan Omar, new member of Congress.

Omar literally wanted terrorist families to be paid by life insurance companies if they get killed by police after their attacks.

Knowing her politics and sympathies, I don't know any other way of interpreting her vote except as an explicit support for terrorists on American soil.

(h/t Yerachmiel/John Cardillo)

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02/09 Links: Bret Stephens: The Progressive Assault on Israel; Why Palestinians Oppose an Anti-Iran Coalition; Bernie Sanders Has His Own Ben Rhodes

From Ian:

Bret Stephens: The Progressive Assault on Israel

To say, as progressives sometimes do, that Jews are “colonizers” in Israel is anti-Semitic because it advances the lie that there is no ancestral or historic Jewish tie to the land. To claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, when manifestly it is not, is anti-Semitic because it’s an attempt to Nazify the Jewish state. To insist that the only state in the world that has forfeited the moral right to exist just happens to be the Jewish state is anti-Semitic, too: Are Israel’s purported crimes really worse than those of, say, Zimbabwe or China, whose rights to exist are never called into question?

But the most toxic assumption is that Jews, whether in Israel or the U.S., can never really be thought of as victims or even as a minority because they are white, wealthy, powerful and “privileged.” This relies on a simplistic concept of power that collapses on a moment’s inspection.

Jews in Germany were economically and even politically powerful in the 1920s. And then they were in Buchenwald. Israel appears powerful vis-à-vis the Palestinians, but considerably less so in the context of a broader Middle East saturated with genocidal anti-Semitism. American Jews are comparatively wealthy. But wealth without political power, as Hannah Arendt understood, is a recipe for hatred. The Jews of the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh are almost surely “privileged” according to various socio-economic measures. But privilege didn’t save the congregants of the Tree of Life synagogue last year.

Nor can the racial politics of the United States or any other country be projected onto the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as some have desperately sought to do. Nearly half of all Jewish Israelis have Middle Eastern roots; some, in fact, are black. Martin Luther King Jr. preached nonviolent resistance; Yasir Arafat practiced terrorism. The civil rights movement was about getting America to live up its founding ideals; anti-Zionism is about destroying Israel’s founding ideals.

As for the oft-cited apartheid analogy, black South Africans did not have a place in the old regime’s Parliament, as Israeli Arabs have in the Knesset; nor were they admitted to white universities, as Israeli Arabs are to Israeli universities. Israel can do more to advance the rights of its Arab citizens (just as the United States, France, Britain and other countries can for their own minorities). And Israel can also do more to ease the lives of Palestinians who are not citizens. But the comparison of Israel to apartheid South Africa is unfair to the former and an insult to the victims of the latter. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Palestinians Oppose an Anti-Iran Coalition

Osama Qawassmeh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction, also lashed out at Iran:

"Iran has not provided anything for the Palestinian people. It is shameful that some think that the economic crisis in Iran is because of its support for the Palestinians. We never heard that Iran helped build a school or hospital or university or any other developmental project."

Iran's support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad, he explained, does not mean that it supports the Palestinian people. "This is a huge misconception and mistake," he said.

In addition, Abbas loyalists have accused Iran of supporting Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007. One official claimed that the Hamas terrorists who staged a coup against the Palestinian Authority back then had received military training in Iran and "some Arab countries."

Another sign that the Arab countries have turned their backs on the Palestinians was provided by the recent convening of Arab foreign ministers in Jordan to build a consensus among Arab states on regional security issues. The Palestinians were not invited.

The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank city of Ramallah should ask itself why is everyone disparaging the Palestinian cause," said Palestinian political analyst Fayez Abu Shamaleh. "Why is the Palestinian cause no longer at the center of the attention of Arabs and Jews? Even the candidates running in the Israeli election have ignored the Palestinian issue."

The Palestinian fears do not seem unjustified. Several Arab countries appear completely fed up with the Palestinians, particularly the continued bickering between Fatah and Hamas. Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries have tried in the past decade to help the two rival parties resolve their differences, to no avail. Egyptian intelligence officials have devoted years trying to convince Hamas and Fatah to work together for the benefit of the Palestinians.

Instead of doing so, however, Palestinian leaders are preoccupied with blocking Arab participation in a conference that could see the creation of a coalition against Iran -- the same country that Abbas and his loyalists hold responsible for the ongoing divisions among the Palestinians. Might it be possible that the Arab countries are finally rousing themselves from their long slumber and beginning to seek better lives for themselves and their neighbors?

Michael Lumish: "Palestinians" and BDS

Note the use of "Palestinian" in quotes by the creator of the image below.

The reason for this is because he understands that the Arabs who live in the Land of Israel -- which is to say, the land of the Jewish people -- only came into recognizable existence around the time that Paul McCartney was writing "Yesterday."

The people who we call "Palestinians" come from throughout the entire Arab world and that world is a world of conquest by Arabs against non-Arabs. This is not a matter of debate. It is a matter of fact.

It is a matter of known historical knowledge.

Were Israel to be the twenty-third Arab-Muslim state, rather than the lone, sole Jewish state, it would be hailed as the most enlightened country throughout the Middle East. It is only hated by Arabs and their western-left allies because it is the single Jewish state.

Thus, many of us who favor the ongoing well-being of the Jewish people in an entirely hostile world often put the word "Palestinian" in quotes.

Once again the Arab League met and offered platitudes of support for Palestinians.

The Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Saeb Erekat, spoke there and railed against the normalization of relations between Arab nations and Israel.

Erekat said that the prerequisites for any relations with Israel are "when Israel withdraws from the occupied Arab territories and ends its occupation, including East Jerusalem, the occupied Arab Golan, the rest of Lebanese territory and solves the refugee issue."

Which is pretty much full Israeli surrender.

He said, "normalization with the occupation authority is a stab in the Palestinian blood and a reward for the occupation authority, which practices terrorism of all kinds against our people, in addition to field executions, colonial settlement and arrests and closure."

Erekat added: "We hope that no Arab-Israeli meetings will be held on the sidelines of the upcoming Warsaw Conference. What President Trump's administration wants is to change the Arab peace initiative and to reward Israel with normalization. This is totally unacceptable. We hope that our Arab brothers will speak the language of interests. 3 resolutions issued by previous Arab summits, namely, Amman, Baghdad and Cairo, stipulated that the Arab countries sever their relations with any state that recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transfers its embassies to it and what is required to implement it."

Of course, all of these Arab resolutions are roundly ignored by the Arab world. Not one Arab country, as far as I know, has severed relations with any country that recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. And, remember, Russia does as well, at least part of Jerusalem.

The Arab League will talk a good game of support for Palestinian aspirations but in reality they are sick of the issue, sick of the Fatah/Hamas split and sick of the Palestinians refusing all Israeli initiatives for peace. They still cannot say this quite so publicly but op-eds in official Arab media are starting to change their tune from being gung-ho pro-Palestinian.

Erekat better get used to being stabbed in the back.

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02/08 Link Pt2: Danny Danon: When anti-Semitism pretends to be just anti-Israel; American Jews Thank Trump in Full Page New York Times Ad; Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP) What the Media is Concealing

From Ian:

Danny Danon: When anti-Semitism pretends to be just anti-Israel

Instead of viewing anti-Semitism against Israelis as the irrational bigotry that it is, the world often attributes it to rational motives, part of a legitimate national struggle.

Western apologists justify violent rioters shouting “Jews, we’re coming to slaughter you!” at the Gaza border, claiming such hateful outbursts are an understandable reaction to the “occupation.” Ditto for the 17-year-old Palestinian who last year murdered Ari Fuld, an Israeli-American Jew, in cold blood.

People who would rightly condemn violence against Jews for being Jews as anti-Semitism lose their moral bearings when it comes to Israel, where political, territorial or economic reasons are offered as alibis for what is, at the core, anti-Semitism.

And when Israel is forced to defend itself, world leaders often draw a false moral equivalence between a Jewish democracy and its terrorist enemies. Naturally, they blame Israel for any resulting casualties. The inability or unwillingness to unequivocally condemn the anti-Semitic perpetrator is uniquely applied to Israel — the “Jew” among the nations.

Such biased attitudes allow the boycott, divest and sanctions movement to conceal its true goal of destroying the Jewish state. They also enable the likes of Corbyn to normalize overt hostility against Israel, something that was once considered beyond the pale in the West. Finally, elite tolerance for Israel-focused anti-Semitism has led to Jews being ostracized from supposedly “progressive” rallies in the West. You can claim that you find Zionism “creepy” when really you detest Jews.

This new form of anti-Semitism is especially pernicious, as it will bide its time until an ever-changing political climate allows it to reveal its true nature and turn on its ultimate target: the Jewish people everywhere.

It is imperative for the world to recognize that, to paraphrase the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., anti-Semitism anywhere is a threat to Jews everywhere. An attack against a Jew for being a Jew must be condemned for what it is — bigotry — regardless of whether it occurs in New York, Paris or Jerusalem.

American Jews Thank Trump in Full Page New York Times Ad

American Jewish leaders took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times on Thursday to thank President Donald Trump for his efforts to combat anti-Semitism across the globe and criticize Democrats for their open embrace of causes advocating the destruction of Israel.

The advertisement, signed by more than 50 leading American Jewish voices, comes on the heels of Trump appointing Elan Carr as the new State Department Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism, a post that has become increasingly important in recent years as anti-Semitism and violence against Jews flourishes across the globe, particularly in Europe.

"Thank you, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for the appointment of Mr. Elan Carr as Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism," states the ad, which was purchased by the Republican Jewish Coalition.

"Anti-Semitism must be confronted and defeated," the advertisement declares. It also contains a direct quote from Trump in which he declares, "The scourge of anti-Semitism cannot be ignored, cannot be tolerated, and it cannot be allowed to continue."

In Ad Dustour, a major Jordanian news site, there is an article about the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. It starts with:

Israel was founded on the land of historic Palestine... the leaders of the Zionist movement planned to achieve this goal soon after they held their first World Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897 under the chair of Theodor Herzl, founder of the hateful Zionist movement.

Its planners developed strategic plans to control the world politically, economically, intellectually and through the media. They called these schemes the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", which is what the leaders of Israel have been following and implementing with great precision from that date until the present day.

It is wise to review the most important of these satanic protocols. Perhaps we may learn lessons, and see the scope of the wits, intrigues and machinations that our Zionist enemies dream up.

Poisoning more minds, day by day.

(h/t WC)

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02/08 Link Pt1: Hundreds mourn Ori Ansbacher, 19, murdered in Jerusalem; PMW called on FB to close terror supporting account

From Ian:

Ori Ansbacher, 19, named as Jerusalem murder victim

Ori Ansbacher, 19, from the West Bank town of Tekoa, was named Friday as the murder victim whose body was found a day earlier on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

President Reuven Rivlin sent a message of condolence to the victim’s family, saying “the heart breaks at the loss of life.”

On Thursday evening, Ansbacher’s body, with “signs of violence” on it, was found in Ein Yael to the south of Jerusalem, police said.

She had been reported missing since early Thursday.

Ansbacher’s parents, Noa and Gadi, told Hebrew-language media their daughter was “a holy soul seeking meaning, with a sensitivity for every person and creature and an infinite desire to correct the world with goodness.”
Israeli security forces search the scene where a body of a 19 year old woman was found in Ein Yael, in the outskirts of Jerusalem, February 8, 2019 Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

One of her high school teachers told Channel 13 news that Ori was “a smart and honest girl with an original and creative intellectual openness. She cared for the environment and was sensitive to others.”

Ansbacher was carrying out a year of national service at a youth center in Jerusalem at the time of her death.

‘The heart breaks’: Hundreds mourn Ori Ansbacher, 19, murdered in Jerusalem

Hundreds of mourners attended on Friday the funeral of Ori Ansbacher, 19, whose body was found a day earlier in the outskirts of Jerusalem. The funeral was held in the West Bank settlement of Tekoa, where Ansbacher lived.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on the murder, saying Ansbacher was killed “with shocking brutality.”

“At this difficult hour we all embrace the Ansbacher family and the people of Tekoa. The security forces are investigating the murder — we will find those responsible for it, and we will bring the matter to justice,” the prime minister pledged.

President Reuven Rivlin sent a message of condolence to the victim’s family, saying “the heart breaks at the loss of life.”

Ansbacher’s sister, Tama, eulogized Ori to the gathered mourners. “Last Saturday you said that you do not believe that you will be 20 years old at the end of the year, and now you have gone. You taught me so much — to sing, to dance with all your light. All the time you tried to fix things and to grow. I love you so much and I’m sorry I didn’t always tell you that, goodbye Ori,” she said.

Ansbacher’s father, Rabbi Gadi Ansbacher, tearfully told mourners that he was at a loss for words.

“I do not believe it, I do not know what to say. I think about you now – how you saw everything so sharp and clearly. In the last year you did it, Ori, you won. You lived a whole life,” he said.

Netanyahu: we will find those responsible for murdering Ori Ansbacher

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed great sorrow at the murder of Ori Ansbacher of Tekoa, who was murdered Thursday in Jerusalem.

"In this difficult hour, all of us embrace the Ansbacher family and their home town of Tekoa. Security forces are investigating the murder; we will find those responsible and bring them to justice," said Netanyahu on social media.

President Reuven Rivlin also mourned Ansbacher's death, saying "the heart shatters when faced with such a loss of life at the peak of bloom, and the pain is too great to bear, Ori's generous doing to help others and her kindness will shine even after her great light was put out."

I get no satisfaction over writing these posts, but I think it is important to expose what the other side is about. May Ori's memory be for a blessing. #Israel https://t.co/Qm5eP5XVzM
— Ozraeli Dave (@Israellycool) February 8, 2019

State Department found that @UNRWA was still inciting hate in classrooms - and hid that fact in report to Congress

In 2017, UNRWA issued this memo in response to a report on how UNRWA schools in the West Bank and Gaza used PA textbooks that included hate.

23 of the books reviewed in the report are being used in our schools and we have reviewed them rigorously under our curriculum framework, which aims to ensure that our curriculum is in line with UN values. In the small number of instances where issues of concern were found, we have created enriched complementary materials for use in our classrooms and we will be rolling out training on this to our teachers in the coming months. UNRWA’s condemnation of all forms of racism is a matter of public record.

Now that a GAO report on how the State Department report on UNRWA curricula was inaccurate has been made public, we can see what the truth is.

It is true that UNRWA created supplementary material for the classrooms. But they were never distributed to teachers!

I have a copy of the report (without the tables and illustrations, unfortunately) and it says that when UNRWA attempted to train teachers on these supplementary materials, either they opposed using the materials or boycotted training.

A normal organization would fire employees who refuse to do what they are told. But UNRWA caved - if the teachers want to teach hate for Jews, then that's OK.

Worse, Congress was falsely told that the supplementary materials were being taught when they weren't:

The State Department seems to have found that UNRWA was still teaching incitement - and it didn't tell Congress!

Beyond that, the report doesn't address whether problematic parts of the textbooks found by independent NGOs were considered to be violations of UN guidelines for UNRWA. If UNRWA doesn't consider certain problematic texts to be hate - a good example would be materials that praise the concept of martyrdom - then the UNRWA review is close to useless anyway.

(h/t /Miriam Elman)

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From its website:

In 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages, based on a recommendation by the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

At the time, the Forum said that 40 per cent of the estimated 6,700 languages spoken around the world were in danger of disappearing. The fact that most of these are indigenous languages puts the cultures and knowledge systems to which they belong at risk.

In addition, indigenous peoples are often isolated both politically and socially in the countries they live in, by the geographical location of their communities, their separate histories, cultures, languages and traditions.

And yet, they are not only leaders in protecting the environment, but their languages represent complex systems of knowledge and communication and should be recognized as a strategic national resource for development, peace building and reconciliation.

They also foster and promote unique local cultures, customs and values which have endured for thousands of years. Indigenous languages add to the rich tapestry of global cultural diversity. Without them, the world would be a poorer place.

In a world that isn't antisemitic, Hebrew would be featured as the one and only success story in reviving a language to everyday use. If you want to learn how to preserve and revitalize an indigenous language, you should be sending all your experts to Israel.

But Hebrew isn't mentioned as an indigenous language by the UN.

Everything this site says about indigenous peoples apply to the Jews throughout most of the past two millennia - "often isolated both politically and socially in the countries they live in, by the geographical location of their communities, their separate histories, cultures, languages and traditions."

Hebrew is indeed the language of the indigenous people of Israel and Judah. But the UN and UNESCO will never acknowledge that, because that would show that it it the Jewish people, not the Arabs, who are the original (or oldest remaining) inhabitants of the area later to be known as Palestine.

Sometimes, antisemitism isn't seen in what is said, but in what is studiously avoided. Ignoring Jews and Hebrew in this initiative is not only an indication of deep hatred, but it is also counterproductive to the entire point of the celebration - because the Jewish people are probably the only success story of an indigenous people who were reborn with their own political entity, using their own original (but modernized) language.

Jews and Hebrew and Israel are the models that should be emulated, and they would be if the UN wasn't so incredibly filled with hate.

(h/t Irene)

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From Jordan Times:

AMMAN — The government on Tuesday warned Israeli occupation authorities against its recurrent attacks on Islamic awqaf employees and Al Aqsa Mosque.

Awqaf Minister Abdul Nasser Abul Bassal, in a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, warned against the increasing number of break-ins at Al Aqsa Mosque.

The Israelis are playing with fire, he said.

Citing 5,000 raid incidents in 2005, Abul Bassal added that occupation forces and settlers carried out 30,000 raids in 2018.

30,000 raids? In 365 days?

Obviously he means the number of Jews who visited the Temple Mount in 2018, counting each as a "raid" and each group as a "raid incident." But even that number is a bit nutty.

Given that Jews aren't allowed to visit on Fridays and Saturdays, as well as during Islamic holidays, it still comes out to about 20 "raid incidents" a day.

Needless to say, there are no "break-ins" and very few "raids" - occasionally the Israeli police go in to quell riots.

This is nothing but incitement for Jordanians to hate Jews.

Abul Bassal expressed his utmost rejection of these provocative practices and the attacks by extremists and extremist ministers, Knesset members and military personnel, who enter the facilities of the mosque by force of arms.

The only reason any military presence is necessary is to protect the Jews from being murdered by the Muslims who are taught that any Jew stepping foot in the area is desecrating it.

These acts provoke the feelings of the faithful and Muslims all around the world, he said, calling on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League, Arab and Islamic countries, UNESCO and relevant international organisations to pressure Israeli escalatory measures and attacks against Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem to a stop.

Meaning he wants the UN and UNESCO to officially say that Jews have no religious rights to their holiest spot. (And, of course, they have already said that, which is more outrageous than these statements.)

He also called for supporting Jordan in the face of Israeli aggressions that, if continued, will take the region to a religious war that His Majesty King Abdullah has always warned against.

Who is inciting a religious war? This statement itself is more inciting that anything any Jew or Israeli official ever says. But this incitement, which is seen daily in Arab media, is ignored by the world.

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