Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

NYT op-ed by @michelleinbklyn: The problem with Ilhan Omar's tweet is not antisemitism, but that it helped Republicans

Michelle Goldberg, who most recently defended anti-Zionism and then BDS in "as-a-Jew" op-eds in the New York Times, tackles Rep. Ilhan Omar's tweets, and she is not happy.

Not because it normalizes antisemitism in the US. Not because it was disgusting on its own merits. Not because it started an avalanche of antisemitic support on Twitter and brought left-wing Jew haters out of the woodwork.

No, Goldberg zeroes in on what she considers to be the real problem with Omar's tweet - that it empowers Republicans.

Excerpts:

Left-wing anti-Semitism is a gift to the right.

Consciously or not, Omar invoked a poisonous anti-Semitic narrative about Jews using their money to manipulate global affairs. ...Her words were a gift to Republicans, who seek to divide the Democrats over Israel, even as their president traffics in anti-Semitic imagery and stereotypes. The knives were out for Omar and she ran right into them.

Omar herself has been subject to vicious Islamophobic smears, and has also come under attack for supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which seeks to use economic pressure to secure Palestinian rights. Perhaps such criticism is why she’s sometimes seemed unwilling or unable to distinguish between disingenuous political pile-ons and good-faith calls to respect Jewish sensitivities. But whether from carelessness or callousness, her weekend tweets damaged her political allies and squandered some of her own hard-won power.

Goldberg is doing everything she can to minimize Ilhan's statement.

Worse, she disgustingly provides a link to an anti-Israel organization which came out with a self-serving definition of antisemitism that is mostly centered on Protocols of the Elders of Zion-type Jew-hatred, ignoring of course the antisemitism that is associated with demonizing and wanting the destruction of the Jewish state, or evilly comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa. The essay she links to is obsessed with "Ashkenazi dominance" and supposed white Jewish racism towards Mizrahi Jews.

Her link includes this bigoted piece of crap:

In effect, Goldberg is promoting that kind of antisemitism where "white Jews" are evil colonizers and racists.

Goldberg does refute the idea that AIPAC is influencing Americans to support Israel, noting that much support comes from Americans who she considers to be bigots:

I certainly have no problem with denunciations of Aipac, which plays a malign role in pushing American policy in the Middle East to the right. [AIPAC has been supportive of the two state solution for a long time now and plenty of moderate Democrats support AIPAC. - EoZ]

In truth, while Aipac’s influence is extensive, no one needs to pay off conservatives to make them support Israel. Evangelicals, a far bigger constituency than American Jews, tend to be pro-Israel for religious reasons; some believe that the return of Jews to their biblical homeland is a precondition for the rapture and the Second Coming of Christ. Plenty of others on the right love Israel because it’s a nationalistic, pro-American power in the middle of the Middle East. You can’t blame Jewish money for Kevin McCarthy’s terrible politics.

Apparently, no one supports Israel because it is the only Jewish state in a world that has historically treated Jews badly. No one supports Israel because it is a liberal bastion in a shockingly backwards Middle East. No one supports Israel because it has managed to survive after seven decades of attacks, both militarily and politically. No, if you support Israel you must be a crazy religious nut, or a white supremacy apologist.

Not long after Pelosi’s statement, Omar released one of her own, apologizing “unequivocally.” She wrote, “Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes.” Personally, I’m happy to accept her apology.

Goldberg sickeningly refuses to publish the rest of the text of Omar's "apology," where she said "At the same time, I reaffirm the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics, whether it be AIPAC, the NRA or the fossil fuel industry. It's gone on too long and we must be willing to address it."

That means her apology about the power of the "Jewish lobby" is anything but unequivocal. And even after Goldberg notes how wrong Omar's opinion of AIPAC is, she doesn't have a problem with Omar maintaining that opinion even after her supposed apology.

And later Omar praised another thread where someone claims to have seen a candidate for office jump through hoops to get a $5000 donation from AIPAC. It is a lie - AIPAC does not give money to candidates, since it is not a PAC, and even a $5000 contribution from a pro-Israel donor would be only a tiny amount of the million dollars that candidate raised.

It is obvious that Omar's apology is not real, but it is good enough for Michelle Goldberg (and many others like Chelsea Clinton), who need any excuse to go back to de facto supporting left-wing antisemites and using antisemitism as just another political weapon rather than attacking it by and of itself. There are antisemitic dog-whistles on both sides and pretending that the ones on your side can be excused with a fake apology is not fighting antisemitism.

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J-Street issued a press release over the Ilhan Omar kerfuffle, and showed itself to be even more hypocritical than we knew. It says that, sure, "elected official" should be careful with their words... but Omar sort of had a point:

Elected officials should be particularly sensitive and careful on the question of the role played by campaign contributions in influencing US policies toward Israel and the Middle East. There is no doubt that money often plays a major role in our political system.

Since the only group Omar specifically mentioned in her offensive tweet was AIPAC, it is obvious that J-Street is agreeing with her that traditional lobbying for Israel is problematic and potentially could cause officials to change their positions to follow the money.

J-Street is stunningly hypocritical.

J-Street absurdly styles itself as being "pro-Israel" even though there is very little daylight between its positions and those of the PLO. And the J-StreetPAC page brags that the largest "pro-Israel lobby" in the US is - J-StreetPAC!

Not only that, it brags about its money influencing Congress!

In the 2018 midterm election, J Street successfully worked to shift the balance of power in Washington by electing a diplomacy-first Congress that will act as a check on President Trump’s dangerous agenda and ideology. JStreetPAC shattered its own records in the 2018 cycle, distributing nearly $5 million for 163 congressional candidates, including nearly $2.3 million for House challengers, 30 of whom were victorious. JStreetPAC reaffirmed its status as the nation’s largest pro-Israel PAC, raising over 53 percent of all pro-Israel PAC money distributed this cycle. The success of diplomacy-first candidates in some of the country’s most competitive districts confirmed a major shift in the politics of foreign policy.

If pro-Israel PACs are problematic for the amount of money they give to candidates, then J-StreetPAC - which gave more to its candidates than all the real pro-Israel PACs combined in 2018 - must be worse!

So which is it, J-Street? Is money to candidates a good thing or is it evil?

Obviously, their money is kosher. Actual money from Zionists is immoral.

________________________

J-Street continues on with its slander:

Elected officials should also refrain from labeling all criticism of Israeli actions or policies as “anti-Semitic,” in a transparent effort to silence legitimate discussion and debate. Such attacks only undermine the vital effort to counter the actual scourge of anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world.

NO ONE DOES THAT. No elected official has ever said that all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. No leader of any Zionist organization has ever said that.

Criticism of Israel is antisemitic when it violates the 3D test that Natan Sharansky posited back in 2004 - when Israel is demonized, delegitimized or subjected to double standards. The test is pretty easy to understand and is the best definition of when criticizing Israel is crossing the line out there.

It is the people who want to violate the 3D test who are the only ones who complain that "all" criticism of Israel is considered antisemitic.

J-Street obviously does not subscribe to the 3D test of what is antisemitic. In fact, J-Street seems to consider no criticism of Israel - or even calls to boycott the Jewish state - to be antisemitic. while I see lots of charges on its site that Republicans are antisemitic, I cannot find a single time where J-Street admits that Arabs have said a single antisemitic thing. Equating the Jewish state with Nazi Germany - silence. Calling Israel an 'apartheid state" - silence.

This press release where J-Street pretends to be "nuanced" shows, when analyzed, that J-Street's position towards Israel is indeed perilously close to those of the antisemites who are obsessed with destroying the Jewish state.

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02/11 Links Pt2: Ilhan Omar Promotes Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories, Retweets 'Hook-Nosed' Tweet; Tlaib Wrote Op-Ed for Farrakhan in 2006; Warren fails to dispute ‘apartheid state’ accusation of Israel

From Ian:

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar suggests Jewish money behind US support of Israel

Newly elected Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar suggested on Sunday that Jewish money was behind American elected officials’ support for Israel, sparking widespread condemnation and fresh allegations of anti-Semitism.

Omar, one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, was responding on Twitter to Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCathy’s vow to “take action” against her and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, both of whom support the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

“It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” Omar tweeted, reacting to another tweet from the prominent journalist Glenn Greenwald, who said it was “stunning how much time US political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans,” referring to McCarthy’s pledge.

Benjamins are a slang term for $100 bills, which feature US founding father Benjamin Franklin.

When one journalist followed up by saying she wondered who Omar thought was paying American politicians to be pro-Israel, Omar responded: “AIPAC!,” referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

While the pro-Israel lobby wields considerable influence in Washington, it does not contribute to campaigns, nor does it make endorsements.

Omar, a Somali-born refugee from Ethiopia, was recently appointed to the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee. In recent weeks, Omar and others have been vociferous critics of two anti-BDS bills that are being pushed in Congress.

Ilhan Omar Promotes Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories, Retweets 'Hook-Nosed' Tweet

Anti-Semitic Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on Sunday and retweeted a tweet that said "[Omar] might as well call [Jews] hook-nosed."

Omar's vile remarks came in response to a Haaretz report that stated that Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was going to take action against anti-Semitic Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Omar.

"If [Democrats] do not take action I think you’ll see action from myself," McCarthy said. "This cannot sustain itself. It’s unacceptable in this country."

Omar, who has promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that were used by Nazi Germany, said that the GOP's support for Israel was "all about the Benjamins baby."

An hour later, Omar promoted another anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, falsely stating that The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is paying American politicians "to be pro-Israel."

Omar then retweeted the following tweet that stated she "might as well call [American Jews] hook-nosed."

"I’m one of those American Jews who opposes the occupation, laments Israel’s anti-democratic drift, and doesn’t regard the country as especially central to my Jewish identity," Politico magazine editor Joshua Zeitz tweeted. "And I know exactly what the congresswoman meant. She might as well call us hook-nosed."

Congresswoman @IlhanMN just retweeted a criticism of her anti-Semitic tweet which said that “she might as well call us hook-nosed.” pic.twitter.com/VLjEglThZf
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) February 11, 2019

Ilhan Omar To Speak Alongside Man Who Praised Killing Jews, Report Says

Embattled anti-Semitic Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is scheduled to speak alongside a senior charity official who has praised the killing of Jews on social media.

"Islamic Relief USA is hosting a fundraising dinner for aid to Yemen on February 23," the Middle East Forum reports. "Rep. Ilhan Omar is due to speak alongside senior Islamic Relief USA official Yousef Abdallah, who was widely criticized in 2017 after the Middle East Forum found he had expressed violently anti-Semitic ideas on his social media accounts."

The Middle East Forum's report provides screenshots and descriptions of numerous anti-Semitic social media posts from Abdallah:

Abdallah, who serves as Islamic Relief USA's "operations manager," shared a "very beautiful" story about "martyrs" who provide guns to "kill more than 20 jews" and "fire rockets at Tel Aviv."

Other posts referred to Jews as "stinking," and claim "the Jews put the outside wall of Al Aqsa [the mosque in Jerusalem] on fire." Abdallah also 'liked' a comment on his Facebook post that calls on God to wreak "revenge on the damned rapists Zionists. O God they are no challenge for you . Shake the Earth beneath their feet and destroy them as you destroyed the peoples of ʿĀd, Thamud and Lot."

And in 2014, after Republican politician Chris Christie apologized for referring to the West Bank and Gaza as "occupied," Abdallah wrote: "Christie kneels down on his knees before the jewish lords and says 'I am sorry'. Only money makes stuff like this happen. Mr. Christie.. Muslims should remember this very well."

‘Hateful and Offensive:’ Omar Slammed by Fellow Democrats for Saying Israel Support Is Bought by AIPAC

Another day, another anti-Semitic controversy for freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.).

This time, she found herself being called out by one of her own Democratic colleagues, Jewish organizations and even Chelsea Clinton for tweets claiming Republican support for Israel is bought and paid for by AIPAC.

Omar linked to a tweet by left-wing journalist Glenn Greenwald, who was criticizing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) for threatening punishment against Omar and fellow anti-Israel Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.). She wrote, "It's all about the Benjamins baby" with musical notes, a reference to $100 bills with Benjamin Franklin's face on them.

Forward opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon criticized Omar for tweeting an "anti-Semitic trope" and said she'd love to know who is "paying American politicians to be pro-Israel." Omar responded, "AIPAC!", the name of the pro-Israel lobbying organization.

Omar's tweets were met with sharp criticism even from members of her own party, including Rep. Max Rose (D., N.Y.). Rose, who is Jewish, tweeted out a statement calling her words "hateful and offensive."

Clinton tweeted in agreement with Ungar-Sargon that the congresswoman had again crossed a line.

"We should expect all elected officials, regardless of party, and all public figures to not traffic in anti-Semitism," Clinton wrote.

Bipartisan Condemnation Erupts Over Ilhan Omar's Anti-Semitism

On Sunday, after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) displayed her blatant anti-Semitism by tweeting that GOP support for Israel was "all about the Benjamins," and followed by accusing AIPAC of paying American politicians to support Israel, bipartisan condemnation of her remarks erupted, although no leading Democrats said a word about their colleague’s vile rhetoric.

Omar’s initial anti-Semitic tweet was triggered by famed anti-Semite leftist Glenn Greenwald, who tweeted, "GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy threatens punishment for @IlhanMN and @RashidaTlaib over their criticisms of Israel. It's stunning how much time US political leaders spend defending a foreign nation even if it means attacking free speech rights of Americans."

Omar delightedly responded, "It’s all about the Benjamins, baby."

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, an incredibly staunch supporter of Israel who saw Israel get attacked incessantly at the U.N., fired back, "To see this at the UN was a fight every day. This CANNOT be tolerated in our own Congress by anyone of either party. In a time of increased anti semitism, we all must be held to account. No excuses."

McCarthy himself blasted, “Anti-Semitic tropes have no place in the halls of Congress. It is dangerous for Democrat leadership to stay silent on this reckless language.”

Former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who has been virtually the only Democrat willing to call out members of his own party for their anti-Semitism, snapped, "Defending Israel from antisemites is 'all about the Benjamins'? Really? It’s about money? Another antisemitic trope for @Ilhan Omar? She’s like an antisemitic pinball machine that spits out old canards as the ball bounces around her brain. She’s the gift that keeps on giving!"

The time has come to demand Dem leaders speak out against @ilhanmn for her vile antisemitism. This isn’t going away. Where is @nancypelosi @SenSchumer @RepJerryNadler @RepEliotEngel @RepAdamSchiff @DWStweets and DNC leadership? Have they lost their ears, eyes, or damned minds? pic.twitter.com/mRhtDMJSJC
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) February 11, 2019

Israel haters love to claim that Israel engages in organ trafficking, or that Israel takes out organs of Palestinian terrorists without their permission.

Yet these oh-so-moral people are silent when there is real organ trafficking by Arab nations.

From The Guardian:

According to a 2018 report, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has collected data on 700 incidents of organ trafficking, primarily from north Africa and the Middle East. Yet these figures are conservative, at best. The true scale of the industry is difficult to assess, as the majority of cases go unreported, with victims reluctant to come forward for fear of deportation, arrest or shame.

The trade appears to be flourishing in Egypt, bolstered by an EU-funded clampdown on refugees by security forces. There, the hostile environment created by the arbitrary detention of migrants, and the hike in smugglers’ fees, is creating a perfect opportunity for unscrupulous organ brokers who prey on those desperate to raise funds to cross the Mediterranean.

Outrageous? Nah. Arab countries are expected to act this way, so the moral police are OK with it.

(h/t Yoel)

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Palestinians threaten intifada if Israel deducts salaries to terrorists

Palestine Today quotes an "expert" that says that there will be a "third intifada" if the PLO cannot pay the salaries of terrorists and their families as a result of Israel deducting that amount from tax revenue.

Abdel Hadi says , "If the Palestinian Authority can not raise other funds to fill the funds that Israel intends to deduct from the Palestinian Authority revenues, this decision will affect the security situation, especially since the budget of the Palestinian Authority already suffers from a great shortage."

He says that if the Palestinian Authority is unable to provide the amount estimated tens of millions of shekels, the resulting demonstrations "may be the spark of a third intifada."

There have been regular threats of a third intifada for over a decade now.

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02/11 Links Pt1: Tony Blair: Don't Make the Mistake of Dismissing Iran's Ideology; PA: If we have one dollar we will spend it on prisoners & martyrs; UNRWA Is a Total Failure as a Refugee Organization

From Ian:

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair: Don't Make the Mistake of Dismissing Iran's Ideology

Hopes that the 2015 nuclear deal would lead the Tehran regime to moderate its behavior have proved misplaced. The ayatollahs may have kept to the letter of the deal, but they have intensified their malign policies around the region. Where Israel is concerned, they implacably oppose not only government policy but also the country's very existence.

This hatred of Israel is not confined to the clerics. It is also the declared position of figures that the West has misidentified as "moderate." So it is misguided to see Iran as following the principles of realpolitik. It is ultimately defending and where possible extending ideological interests. The ideology is driven by a belief that religion should be converted into a political system of government. Such a worldview necessarily becomes totalitarian.

This politicization of religion is the bane of the Middle East. In a world where economies succeed by being open, and countries prosper by being open-minded, such a view of religion divides people, misdirects political energy and causes extremism.

Where Iran is exercising military interference, it should be strongly pushed back. Where it is seeking influence, it should be countered. Where its proxies operate, it should be held responsible. Where its networks exist, they should be disrupted. Where its leaders are saying what is unacceptable, they should be exposed. Where the Iranian people are protesting for freedom, they should be supported.

Forty years of disappointment should make us clear-eyed. The revolution has made Iran the single biggest destabilizing force in the Middle East. Ultimately the Iranian people will find a way to the future without this outdated theocracy.

Iranian commander threatens to ‘raze Tel Aviv and Haifa’ if US attacks

A senior commander in Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps threatened on Monday to destroy two of Israeli’s largest cities if the country is attacked by the United States.

“The United States does not have the courage to shoot a single bullet at us despite all its defensive and military assets. But if they attack us, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground,” Brig. Gen. Yadollah Javani was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA, according to Reuters.

Top political and military leaders in Iran regularly call for Israel’s annihilation, with a senior general recently claiming it would defeat the Jewish state “within three days” in the case of a war.

Javani, the deputy for the IRGC political bureau, was speaking at a rally marking the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, when the US-backed monarchy was overthrown and replaced in power by Islamic fundamentalists.

Along with the chants “Death to America” and banners bearing slogans calling for “Death to Israel,” Monday’s marches were also a backdrop to the military’s display of Iranian-made missiles, which authorities showcase every year during anniversary celebrations.

UNRWA Is a Total Failure as a Refugee Organization

Uri Akavia, a researcher at Kohelet Policy Forum, recently published a new paper titled “Is UNRWA’s hereditary refugee status for Palestinians unique?” In it, of course, he details the origins of the issue since 1948, the year Israel was established, and its ensuing state of affairs.

“People have finally realized that UNRWA [U.N. Relief and Works Agency], is a very large and important organization that is perpetuating a problem that should not have even existed after 70 years,” he told JNS.

When U.S. President Donald Trump announced last year that he would pull $300 million in funding for UNRWA, which is in charge of resolving the Palestinian refugee problem, Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat realized that he now had an opportunity to kick UNRWA out of Shuafat, a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem the body considers to be a refugee camp.

“The U.S. decision has created a rare opportunity to replace UNRWA’s services with the services of the Jerusalem Municipality,” he said. “We are putting an end to the lie of the ‘Palestinian refugee problem’ and the attempts at creating a false sovereignty within a sovereignty.”

For Akavia, Barkat and those who have followed the situation closely, UNRWA, tasked with resolving the Palestinian refugee problem, has only perpetuated and not solved the refugee problem. They argue, and many Israelis agree, that it has utterly failed in its mission.

According to Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, “UNRWA has so many problems,” he told JNS. “The fact is that so many of the worst Hamas terrorists were educated in UNRWA schools, and UNRWA was used as a place where Hamas could store its weaponry in violation of all kinds of U.N. resolutions that prohibit conversion of refugee camps to military facilities.”

However, Gold pointed to what he thinks is UNRWA’s worst sin: The “conversion of the Palestinian refugee problem to a challenge locked into perpetuity.”

Forward editor "tears down black people" (according to her own logic)

Only a month ago, Forward editor Batya Ungar-Sargon ripped into Jews calling out antisemitism and support for Palestinian terror from black people, saying "We Jews need to stop being the face of tearing down black people, or anyone of color who supports Palestinians."

This was accompanied by a photo of Angela Davis smiling next to a convicted terrorist.

She wrote an article a few days later where she defended prominent blacks against Jews pointing out their antisemitism, seemingly because of their skin color - and the skin color of the Jewish critics of antisemitism.

It has been a sort of obsession at The Forward where someone's blackness is a defense against antisemitism or of supporting Palestinian terror, for example Marc Lamont Hill invoking the antisemitic libel of Jews poisoning the wells of Palestinians, or Tamika Mallory's defense of antisemite Louis Farrakhan as the "greatest of all time." (The Forward has been fairly consistent in criticizing Alice Walker.)

But this weekend, Ungar-Sargon seems to have done the same herself. In response to Minnesota member of Congress Ilhan Omar saying that Congress supports Israel because of Jewish and AIPAC money, Ungar-Sargon wrote that this was antisemitic.

The funny thing is that Omar's assertion, while ignorant and false, is arguably less antisemitic than what Walker and Lamont Hill said.

Is Batya Ungar-Sargon now guilty of the racism that she accused the organized Jewish community of by pointing out antisemitism among black leaders? Or is there some loophole in intersectionality calculations that allow some Jews sometimes to defend themselves against accusations from black people without being considered evil racists?

Since I created the intersectionality calculator that has been eerily accurate as far as which side "progressives" would be on in any disagreement or conflict based only on external factors, I am curious if there is some adjustment I need to make. But I don't think so - based on the tweets in the threads, plenty of "progressives" are taking Omar's side over that of Batya or even Chelsea Clinton, who also called out Omar's offensiveness.

And of course, Omar as a Muslim and a black woman, has a much higher intersectionality score (21) than Batya (2) or Chelsea (5).

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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.