To their credit, Human Rights Watch finally wrote their own eulogy for their founder, Robert L. Bernstein - and they mentioned that he criticized HRW for its bias against Israel. But they immediately dismissed it:
In 2009, Bernstein publicly criticized Human Rights Watch’s reporting on human rights in Israel. Human Rights Watch and its board responded that the organization’s work on the region was tough and accurate, holding Israel to the same principles and standards applied to all governments around the world.
Multiple, huge reports are written about events with death tolls that are a fraction of those in other areas of the world. Here I compare HRW's attention given to every country compared to their Freedom House scores - there is no correlation.
Here are only some examples I've written about over the years:
Ken Roth insulted Israel when it announced plans to save the lives of Syrian Alawites, even as no other country in the world was doing anything for Syrians.
Ken Roth wrote an article castigating Israel that had quite a few lies. he tried to weasel out of some but never admitted his errors.
HRW never answers whether they believe Jews have the right to pray on their holiest spot.
HRW once had its employees write pro-HRW comments on numerous websites pretending that they were ordinary people - engaging in "sock-puppetry" - in defense of their employee with the Nazi memorabilia obsession.
A HRW researcher falsely claimed Palestinian Arabs in the territories live in "shanties" while Jews live in "spacious villas."
This is beyond looking at their reports and press releases on Israel and the numerous patterns of bias, ignoring any facts that contradict their pre-conceived anti-Israel bias, as well as proof of their ignorance of military methods, every time. Ken Roth likes to speak about Israel's "impunity" but HRW is not transparent about their methods of information gathering and reporting, about how they hire their Middle East "experts,"or really about their methods altogether - even as they demand the same from everyone else. It is HRW that acts with impunity against Israel.
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In a recent tweet pointing to the 31 percent Palestinian unemployment rate, senior Trump administration peace envoy, Jason Greenblatt, suggested, “the PA is focused on calcified talking points that have not brought peace but only misery and prevented job creation.” He recommended that the PA “focus on peace AND the economy,” because “Palestinians deserve opportunity.”
President Trump’s peace team, which also includes his son-in-law and Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, repeatedly state that their full plan will also address all of the core political issues in the conflict. In fact, rather than a substitute for a political solution, they have stressed that economic progress can only be achieved if the core political issues are resolved. Both components are necessary for the success of the plan. So why would the PA balk at any opportunity created to bring prosperity to their people?
Part of the answer is the growing disparity between the Palestinian leadership and the people. After all, President Mahmoud Abbas is currently in the 15th year of his four-year term in office. It’s only natural for a certain comfort in the status quo to set in, regardless of whether it best serves the interests of the people.
Take, for instance, the case of Ashraf Jabari, a 45-year-old businessman from the West Bank city Hebron. He believes in economic cooperation and peaceful co-existence with his Jewish neighbors, recently launching an economic initiative to advance joint entrepreneurship between Israelis and Palestinians. He established The Reform and Development Party focused on economic prosperity for Palestinians, with hopes of tackling the issue of high unemployment.
Instead of permitting this effort to proceed, Jabari has become the subject of a well-orchestrated smear campaign and has been denounced as a “traitor” and “collaborator” with Israel. The Palestinian news website, Wattan, even called for him to be brought to trial for treason.
The old Palestinian guard restricts both the political and economic creativity of its people and closes the door on those willing to open up opportunities for growth. This recipe provides for neither a political settlement nor economic growth, sacrificing the future of their younger generations.
The “Peace to Prosperity” economic workshop in Bahrain is a refreshing opportunity for Palestinians to finally take the first proactive step toward a more promising horizon. It is incumbent on West Bank Palestinian leaders to engage constructively and finally choose a future fueled more by their desire to live in peace and realize their economic potential, than their desire to cling to the status quo and the talking points of the past.
The fissures are already visible. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two important, influential counties in the Persian Gulf, announced they will attend the U.S.-led economic conference in Bahrain scheduled for June 25-26. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have already said separately that they will boycott the summit. Egypt and Jordan are still undecided. The rest of the Arab world is licking its wounds. Iran, for its part, is looking on, grinning from ear to ear.
Jordan’s King Abdullah was able to weather the Arab Spring uprising by adopting some of the demands put forth by the masses and changing the election system. His problems didn’t end there, however, and his kingdom is still unstable. At this stage, he’d rather the deal of the century was put on hold, while the uncertainty surrounding the plan’s details is exacerbating his concerns that his country will have to pay a steep price.
Unlike Jordan, Egypt is projecting an aura of self-confidence. It is ignoring the PA in its talks with Hamas over a cease-fire understanding with Israel and has tempered its efforts to mediate inter-Palestinian reconciliation. Egypt supports the Palestinian demands regarding a final-status agreement with Israel but is not backing PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ rejectionist approach to the deal of the century. Cairo feels comfortable enough to speak with Washington honestly and is calling on the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table and to learn from Egypt’s experience with Israel.
Abbas has worked tirelessly to create an Arab front to foil the deal, seemingly without success. The White House hasn’t backtracked from its intention to present the plan after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Even in Israel, voices have emerged in support of postponing the plan, which likely won’t be received with unanimity across the Arab world either. To be sure, since the establishment of the Arab League in 1954, the Arab world has never been this divided.
In the past few days, the Gaza-based groups have issued several statements hinting that they would use all means, including terrorism, to foil the US peace plan.
What is perhaps most worrying for the Arab leaders are the threats coming from Iran's puppets -- Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. It now remains to be seen whether the Arab heads of state will be deterred by these threats or ignore them at the risk of becoming the Palestinians' terror targets.
Clearly, the very Palestinians who are boycotting a conference -- whose aim is to help them move beyond their leadership-imposed economic devastation -- will wind up the big losers in this spiteful scenario of hate. This time, however, it also seems that the Palestinians will not only deprive themselves of billions of dollars, but will also damage -- perhaps irrevocably -- their relations with influential Arab countries. By all accounts, the Palestinians appear to be heading toward another "nakba" (catastrophe).
PA President Mahmoud Abbas: May the Deal of the Century Go to Hell
On behalf of the Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI), Greenberg Research conducted a survey of 1,000 Jewish voters to understand what drives their engagement in politics in advance of the 2020 elections. The results demonstrate that domestic issues dominate the policy priorities of the Jewish community as they determine which candidate to support in the 2020 election, as opposed to issues related to Israel, which remains the lowest policy priority of Jewish voters.
During a conference call, the person who did the poll -- Stan Greenberg himself -- shared a Powerpoint presentation of the data.
Here are the responses he got to the question regarding what are the most important issues affecting voting:
Support for Israel rated next to last in importance in deciding who to vote for. The natural consequence of this prioritizing is that Trump's record on Israel will do nothing to counteract the usual Jewish support for Democrats -- despite Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, his moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan as part of Israel, voiding the Iran deal while reimposing sanctions and Trump's refusal to give the Palestinian Arabs a free ride on economic aid.
But the continued overwhelming support by Jews for the Democratic Party should not come as a surprise.
Jews Care About Israel - But That Doesn't Mean Their President Has To
On issues of Jewish Identity, 90% of the respondents said that "being Jewish" was important to them to some degree:
34. How important would you say being Jewish is in your own life?
Very important: 61%
Fairly important: 29%
Not very important: 10%
70% of the respondents answered that they feel close to Israel
37. How close do you feel to Israel?
Very close: 30%
Fairly close: 40%
Fairly distant: 21%
Very distant: 8%
Not sure: 1%
Almost 70% of those Jews surveyed said that Israel was a very important part of their being a Jew
38. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? “Caring about Israel is a very important part of my being a Jew.”
Agree: 69%
Disagree: 28%
Not Sure: 3%
So, if Jews find Israel to be so important to their identity as Jews, where did Israel rank in their calculations when voting for a president in 2008?
19. In deciding who you would like to see elected president next year, which issue will be most important to you? Please select one of the following:
War in Iraq: 16
Economy and jobs: 23
Terrorism and national security: 14
Health care: 19 Support for Israel: 6
Immigration: 6
Education: 4
Energy crisis: 6
Not sure: 5
Concern for Israel simply does not translate into a priority for considering for whom to vote during a presidential election year. If anything, the fact that 28% now as opposed to only 6% then thought of Israel as a relevant issue is quite an improvement.
Interestingly, in 2007 the concern for immigration was minimal. Only 6% thought it was a consideration in choosing a president. But now, when asked how important it was "whether the candidate shares your views on immigration," 29% responded yes.
That is quite a jump.
Does that increase only reflect an increased concern and heightened sensitivity for those seeking a new life in the US, or is there more to it?
Polls Are As Much An Art As They Are a Science
The media, which tended to be more protective and less critical of Obama, has come all out against Trump since even before he took office, resulting in accusations of "fake news" from both sides.
Similarly, in the current poll itself, one of the questions is limited to "Combatting the influence of white supremacists and far right" -- but completely ignores the issue of racism and antisemitism from the left.
Jonathan S. Tobin sees the results of the poll illustrating What happens when Israel is your lowest priority, but also sees an animus towards Trump explained in part by a degree of bias in the polling:
Greenberg Research is a liberal Democratic polling firm. That bias was reflected in the wording of some of the questions and the fact that it asked respondents their opinion of “white supremacists and the far right,” though didn’t ask about left-wing anti-Semitism. [see slide 7 above]
Tobin points to another example of a leading question used in the poll when respondents were asked "is President Trump at least partially responsible for the targeted attacks on synagogues, including those in Pittsburgh and Poway?" and whether most concerning to them was “President Trump encouraging ultra-right extremists committing violent attacks” -- again, omitting any mention of left-wing antisemitism.
Considering the level of partisanship and the blame attached to Trump, Tobin does not find it surprising that 39% of Jews surveyed believe the answer is to simply work to get Trump out of office, while only 12% see adding to armed security as the answer.
Tobin sees holding Trump responsible for antisemitic attacks as irrational, especially since those who carried out the attacks state their opposition to Trump, whom they believe is too friendly to Jews:
The notion that anti-Semitism was somehow lying dormant until January 2017 and that throwing the most pro-Israel administration to date out of office and replacing it with the party that is prepared to tolerate the likes of BDS supporters and anti-Semites like Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) will make Jews safer strains credulity.
A measure of the extent people will go to blame Trump for racism was recently displayed in the Washington Post, in an article on the measure of racial prejudice since Trump has taken office.
Racial prejudice has not increased among white Americans since the explosive 2016 election, argues political scientist Daniel J. Hopkins. It has actually decreased by some measures, he found, possibly as a reaction to Trump’s unexpected ascension to the White House. [emphasis added]
It seems it was not too difficult to resolve this apparent contradiction between the decline in racial prejudice since Trump took office and the accepted belief that Trump in fact encourages racism:
Hopkins told The Washington Post that the results initially surprised him. Upon reflection, however, “it’s quite conceivable that Trump has simultaneously galvanized a small number of highly prejudiced white Americans while also pushing millions more to affirm that they are not as prejudiced,” he argued.
In other words, Hopkins believes the study provides evidence that the racially incendiary rhetoric and policies issuing from Trump’s White House have pushed the majority of Americans in the opposite direction.
In the current climate, Trump can do no right.
But the poll is not all bad news for Republicans.
The Silver Lining For Republicans, A Concern For Democrats?
Much more surprising, and not in the headlines, was that the survey found that 31% of Jews under 30 (and at least 18) approve of President Trump, higher than any other Jewish age demographic except for slightly higher approval among millenials. But wait, there’s more.
The summary published by the JEI mysteriously excludes Orthodox Jews from its data on Trump approval by age group, but only from the younger cohorts. Thanks to high Orthodox birth rates, Orthodox outreach efforts, and widespread assimilation among the non-Orthodox, Orthodox Jews are a much larger percentage of the younger Jewish cohort than of older Jewish cohorts. 20% is a reasonable estimate of the percentage of American Jews under 30 who are Orthodox. And 57% of Orthodox Jews approve of Trump, but let’s round that up to 60% for the younger cohort, since younger Jews in general are more approving of Trump. That means approximately 37% of American Jews under 30 approve of Trump. By contrast, a recent poll showed that only 33% of Americans ages 15-34 approve of Trump. [emphasis in the original]
Conservatives have been talking about the Jewish vote going their way due to the increasing number of Orthodox Jews for what seems like forever. Here, at least, there is some small indication that this change may be beginning to manifest itself.
We'll have to wait and see.
The Good News Is There Is No Growing Divide Between Israel and Diaspora Jews! The Bad News Is...
Israeli political scientist and author of The Virtue of Nationalism, Yoram Hazony, responded on Twitter to Tobin's observation "that only Orthodox and politically conservative Jews consider Israel a priority is not really news":
In response to Rabbi David Wolpe, Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, who tweeted back, " I hope it leads more to re-engaging efforts than to triumphalism," Hazony replies
The fight over the Jewish vote in next year's 2020 presidential election is symptomatic of the rift between conservative and progressive Jews -- a struggle that expresses itself most clearly in the fight over Israel.
Not so long ago, it was unheard of to publicly criticize Israel. It was a question that was debated. Now, it is not only commonly accepted -- we have groups which go beyond criticism, deliberately questioning Israel's legitimacy without ever saying a word in support of the Jewish State.
Some of the more radical fringe groups openly say Kaddish for Palestinian terrorists.
We can debate how "Jewish" such groups are and who in fact is funding and directing them, but the fact remains there is a rift and it is growing.
Here in the diaspora, lacking the Jewish Land, Language and Life that ultimately bind Israelis together, the connection that Jews in the US feel towards Israel is as important as ever. That connection does not have to dictate who Jews vote for, but the indication that the connection manifests itself mostly in words is an increasingly worrisome problem.
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The NYPD Hate Crimes statistics for the first quarter of 2019 shows that 59% of all reported hate crimes have been against Jews - far more than against all other groups combined.
In previous years, the anti-Jewish crimes reported nationwide were far higher than other anti-religious crimes, but there were still more anti-black and anti-gay crimes than anti-Jewish. In New York, though, Jews are the main target of hate - by far.
66 reports of bias incidents against Jews, and 46 against everyone else.
It is getting worse. The Wall Street Journal reports that through May 19, the total number of incidents this year has grown to 176, ad 83% increase from last year, and again the Jews are the main targets.
"Our residents should feel free to worship without fear–and yet they can’t right now," City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said. "We have an anti-Semitism crisis in New York. It’s a national problem, but New York accounts for way too many incidents." ...
Especially striking is the disparity between anti-Islamic and anti-Jewish bias incidents reported. We ae hearing about an epidemic of Islamophobia, but at least in New York City there is little evidence of it, with only 3 anti-Islam and one anti-Arab incident, which is trivial compared to the 66 antisemitic incidents.
Although the news media has been reporting on the startling increase of attacks by blacks on religious Jews especially in Brooklyn, the NYPD stats shows that crimes against Jews are equal opportunity.
Of twenty incidents for which people were arrested, 12 were done by white men or boys (although it looks like only 6 separate whites were arrested, two for multiple crimes); four black men, one black woman, and three Asian men and boys.
The hate is increasing across the board. It isn't right-wing or left-wing, it isn't only oppressed minorities or white supremacists. It's coming from everywhere, and it is way past time for people to stop blaming their political opponents for the hate that is coming from their own quarters.
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The head of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, Yahya al-Sinwar, said that Hamas and its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, have twice as many rockets that can hit Tel Aviv as they has in 2014.
Speaking at an Iftar breakfast to a group of young Hamas members from southern and central Gaza, he asserted that any confrontation will result in a large number of missiles to hit Tel Aviv.
"In the 2012 war, we hit Tel Aviv and surrounding areas with 17 rockets, and in the war of 2014 we hit them with 107 rockets, and in any future confrontation we have far more," he said.
He also stressed that the weekly "return marches" will not stop until the achievement of all their objectives, which is pretty much the end of Israel. It shows yet again that the marches are not controlled by an independent committee but by Hamas, even though Western journalists and NGOs like to pretend that they are popular uprisings against Israel.
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The American philanthropic foundation, the Tikvah Fund, has decided to challenge the dominance of liberal universalism among Jews and promote instead a Jewish conservative movement. After two well-attended conferences in the US suggesting pent-up sympathy for such ideas, it held a third last week in Jerusalem.
Some 850 people packed into the city’s International Conference Centre to listen to Yoram Hazony, author of The Virtue of Nationalism, Douglas Murray, author of The Strange Death of Europe, and various luminaries of the Israeli conservative scene (yes, there is one).
Both Hazony and Murray pointed out that conservatism resonates in Israel far more than in Britain or Europe. Murray said that, while nationalism and patriotism are not understood in Europe, most Israelis realise these are a force for good.
Israelis recognise strong borders are a prerequisite for survival; in Europe they’re seen as a cause of war. And even most secular Israelis, he said, recognise they are at least “in dialogue with the religion of their forbears”; in Europe, religion and philosophy are viewed as accessories to the cultural crime of merely being the west.
For his part, Hazony observed that Israel’s traditionalism – the Bible being taught in all schools, the orthodox religious marriage ceremony, the nation- state law which is so controversial among Israeli leftists and diaspora Jews – conserves and strengthens the nation.
In 1896, he said, Theodore Herzl wrote that the Jews in Israel should be traditional and conservative. Yet the left, both within and outside Israel, has a problem with the traditional family, the idea of distinct men and women, property rights, immigration controls and so on. “The enlightened liberal world”, he said, “hates not Israel but Israeli conservatism and tradition. It hates the people sitting in this room.” And unfortunately many diaspora Jews sign up to this too.
I’ve been trying to work out why her words offend me retrospectively. Does it go back to her original decision to embrace ideologies and symbols positively inimical to the faith in which she was born? There must be an exhilaration in apostasy. Only imagine the first time the daughter of Jewish parents wraps herself in a keffiyeh. That this is a thrill a number of Jews have chosen to experience in our time should give us pause. Is not sympathy for others enjoined upon us? “Love the stranger,” Deuteronomy commands, and it is a fair point that Palestinians are hardly even strangers in the Land of Israel. Leave the unholy frisson of apostatizing out of it and it is hard to take exception with what E.G. gave as her motive for calling to me in the street—“I just want everyone to have a chance at life.” Who doesn’t?
Ask her why she thinks I don’t, however; ask why she feels confident in asserting that I often speak out against justice for Palestinians—when I never have—and we quickly run into the rigid dualism of the activist, where whatever isn’t wholly good in their eyes must be wholly evil. According to this febrile logic, those who don’t support the cause must of necessity oppose it. Thus, while she is right that I am unlikely to be a friend of Palestine Live, she is wrong to suppose that a hostility to Palestinians is the reason.
This assumption of heartlessness whenever Israel is defended or Zionism embraced bedevils relations between the factions contesting the rights and wrongs of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To speak up even lukewarmly for Israel outside a Jew-friendly environment is to invite obloquy. To declare oneself a Zionist of any kind is to present an incontestable thumbprint of exceptionalism and cruelty.
There is a vicious circularity to this essentialist logic. In the very act of arguing that one or other aspect of the “occupation” is not as it is frequently presented—that one wall does not apartheid make nor one war a genocide—one merely confirms the original charge of inhumanity. Not to grant Palestinians everything is to grant them nothing.
Thus, the Jew remains forever trapped in being Jew. Simply to invoke anti-Semitism is to prove his bad faith. The more he struggles in the birdlime, the faster stuck he becomes.
"But Israel is doing bad things to the Palestinians," the European apologists insist, "and we are sensitive to the plight of the underdog."
No, you're not! Where are your demonstrations on behalf of the oppressed Tibetans, Georgians, Syrians, Armenians, Kurds, or even Ukrainians? Where are your BDS movements against the Chinese, the Russians, the Cubans, the Turks, or the Assad regime?
None of this is to deny Israel's imperfections or the criticism it justly deserves for some of its policies. But these imperfections and deserved criticism cannot even begin to explain, must less justify, the disproportionate hatred directed against the only nation-state of the Jewish people and the disproportionate silence regarding the far greater imperfections and deserved criticism of other nations and groups including the Palestinians.
Continuing my occasional re-captioning of single panel cartoons:
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Saeb Erekat is desperately making calls to some 20 world leaders to urge them to boycott the Bahrain conference that is meant to help his people.
So far, the "only" Arab countries to confirm attendance are the hosts from Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia - and Qatar.
Just getting the Gulf countries and Qatar together in the same room is a pretty big deal. Qatar's ties to Iran have caused most other Arab countries to sever diplomatic relations with it in 2017.
This conference would be newsworthy just for that.
Qatar's attendance makes sense because it already works with Israel to provide aid to Gaza, when the other Arab nations have given up on or are against such aid that may help Hamas.
Add Israel to the mix and even if nothing gets accomplished because of Palestinian intransigence, it is a huge diplomatic win for Israel and the US in bringing cooperation between the countries.
If Obama would have managed to do this, the praise for his brilliance at diplomacy would be dominating the news coverage. But since it is Trump, the conference is being dumped on as a massive failure by the media.
One does not need to be a fan of Trump to realize what incredible double standards are at play here.
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The same day that Hamas official Fathi Hammad promised to "slaughter, exterminate, and annihilate" Israel, Hamas TV broadcast a music video promising to "blow up" Tel Aviv and showing a staged stabbing of a religious Jew by a masked Palestinian: "We have not yet drawn weapons, and yet we have [already] brought down the Zionists
We have brought down the Zionists...
They removed us from the land and stole our beloved homeland...
We haven't forgotten, the children have grown up, and we have started blowing up Tel Aviv
We have started blowing up Tel Aviv...
We will ambush them. We will trample the necks of the enemies.
Visual: A large knife is shown
On the trigger, on the trigger, [I'm] alert and my finger is on the trigger
Footage of Hamas missile hitting Israeli army bus
O occupier, wait for a green [light]. Receive this reduced image.
See how the Kornet [missile] travels slowly...
We are the ones who threaten, and no one threatens us
We are the nation's only sword
We will strike, we will blow up [and] not hesitate
We will do more against the enemy if he continues...
Staged: A Palestinian stabs a religious Jew."
[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), May 15, 2019]
The International Criminal Court preliminary review of war crime allegations against Israelis is part of the Palestinian Authority’s delegitimization and diplomatic campaign against Israel, IDF Military Advocate General Maj.-Gen. Sharon Afek said at a Herzliya conference on Tuesday.
Speaking at the third IDF-sponsored gathering of top foreign military and academic experts on the laws of war from around the world, Afek said that, “As part of its campaign of lawfare and delegitimization, the Palestinian Authority is vigorously pushing for an ICC investigation of Israel.”
He said that, “We see these efforts as yet another attempt to abuse legal institutions in order to achieve political aims. These efforts serve to undermine the function and perception of the ICC.”
Continuing, Afek said that, “It is our firm position that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But even if it had such jurisdiction, Israel is a law-abiding state with a strong and independent justice system.”
“Israel’s actions are not relevant subject-matter for the ICC... Rather than serving as a court of last resort for cases of mass atrocities, the court is diverted from its main purpose and from situations within the court’s jurisdiction that really deserve its attention and limited resources,” he said.
Speaking at @INSSIsrael on 70 years of #Israel - UN relations, @UNWatch’s @HillelNeuer notes @UN’s status as a highly important & influential organization in global affairs ... then proceeds to methodically outline its systematic & structural bias against the Jewish state! pic.twitter.com/BSlIWmQ5GT
On Saturday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave one of his typical speeches from his underground bunker where he pretends to care about Palestinians while insisting that Lebanon continue to treat them as third class residents.
Addressing his supporters via a televised speech broadcast live from the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Saturday evening, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stated that the United States and the Zionist regime (of Israel) are conspiring against Hezbollah in a bid to weaken popular support for the movement.
He stressed that Hezbollah has stood firm in the face of US and Israeli hegemonic schemes for the Middle East region.
“The United States would have offered southern Lebanon to Israel if Hezbollah did not exist. Lebanon is not in a position of weakness. We are standing up for our rights concerning Sheba'a Farms, Kfarchouba village as well as the northern section of Ghajar [village],” Nasrallah said.
“Lebanon can stop the Zionist regime (of Israel) from plundering its oil and gas reserves,” the Hezbollah secretary-general added, according to Press TV.
He further highlighted that his movement fully supports the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian right of return to their homes.
Nasrallah also called on people worldwide to turn out en masse for International Quds Day rallies.
Commenting on a forthcoming US-led conference in Bahrain next month in support of US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal for “peace” between the Israeli regime and Palestinians, dubbed “the deal of the century,” Nasrallah emphasized that the initiative is aimed at liquidation of the Palestinian cause.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Nasrallah said the Lebanese nation rejects permanent settlement of Palestinian refugees in the country, stressing that the latter must not give up on the right to return to their homeland.
While his speeches get coverage in Palestinian Arabic media, I always wonder what actual Palestinians think of him. After all, he has not helped their lives get better at all.
He is against the idea of a two state solution, wanting to destroy Israel in the service of his Iranian masters. He doesn't give Palestinians in Lebanon any money or support. He is tacitly against Lebanon treating Palestinians with basic human rights. His vitriol doesn't help bring about a Palestinian state.
Do Palestinians in the territories - and Lebanon - look at him as a hero for confronting Israel or do they look at him as an ego-driven meddler who is using their cause to justify his staying in power?
I can't find any polls to see Palestinian opinion of Nasrallah and other supposed champions of their cause who don't go beyond empty words. It would be nice to know what they actually think.
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Yesterday, PA president Mahmoud Abbas said that any attempts to help the Palestinian economy can "go to hell" because a political solution where he gets all his demands from Israel is the only possible track he will allow.
He said "Our cause is progressing step by step and we will reach, God willing, an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. The deal of the century which is the deal of shame will go to hell, Allah willing, and the economic project that they are working on next month will go to hell."
He said this while at a meeting thanking donors to the Mahmoud Abbas Foundation.
Some money, apparently, is more halal than others.
The Mahmoud Abbas Foundation is ostensibly meant to provide education for Palestinian youth, especially in Lebanon.
Its description on its website is exactly how one would expect a dictator who is pretending to care about his people to be described.
Its website has not been updated since 2015, although it looks like Cisco gave it some money to build a networking course in 2017. It has apparently not released an annual report since 2015.
Although it claims to have given $2.5 million to Palestinians in Lebanon to attend university, it has only two "success stories" on its site of actual students who received scholarships, along with photos of a computer lab it claims to have helped build - without showing any computers.
Needless to say, there are no audits of its financials, so while it may be a real charity it also might be a means to launder money or a means for Abbas to enrich himself while pretending to be helping his people. Or perhaps an ego trip since other Arab leaders have also established charity foundations and Abbas wants to look like a leader, while his people languish.
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The Israeli government tried to circumvent the economic collapse of the PA government by transferring NIS 660 million to the Palestinian Authority without the latter's knowledge, Israel's Kan television reported.
The channel said that Israel hoped the move would solve the PA's economic problems. However, after several days, the Authority asked the banks to return the money to Israel, and it was actually returned to Israel.
Someone has to say it: THIS IS ALL INSANE. The cash-strapped PA refuses to accept the 94% or so of the money Israel owes it - because it wants to maintain the sacred right of being allowed to pay terrorists and their families.
He is saying that paying terrorists is the top priority of the Palestinian Authority, higher than any other budget item. People who work for the PA are living on half-salaries or worse but the people who tried to or succeeded in killing Jews continue to receive their stipends.
That isn't even the most unbelievable part.
Somehow, the West is not outraged at this immoral gang who is running the PLO and the PA who are so eager and proud to use their own people as pawns. Journalists and diplomats are acting as if the PA has every right to demand that they must pay terrorists and that they can hold the rest of their own people hostage to assert that right!
To add to the insanity, the US and Arab countries are trying to put together a mechanism where tens of billions of dollars can be given to the PLO - the organization that has said quite plainly that rewarding terror is its #1 priority - to provide jobs and dignity to the Palestinian Arab people, and the PLO is refusing to even discuss it.
Who is paying the price? Ordinary Palestinian Arabs.
Who is on the people's side? By any measure, Israel and the US and the Gulf States care more about them than their own leaders do.
Israel is going out of its way to pay those who are saying plainly that they worship people who have killed Israelis.
Reporters and pundits and diplomats are more interested in disparaging the US (=Trump) for attempting to actually help Palestinians - something with no political downside for the Palestinian leadership, because they would not be obliged to accept any dictates on "return" or Jerusalem or "settlements" or their other key demands.
People are trying to throw money at the Palestinians, money that they desperately need, they are proud of refusing it - and the enlightened Western liberals and leftists who pretend to care about Palestinians are applauding them for their principled position to reward terrorists above all else.
Not one Arab or Western leader is willing to publicly say that the PLO is acting like a bunch of crybabies whose bizarrely misplaced idea of "dignity" is to punish their own people and beg for money from other Arab countries and the international community - as long as they don't attach any conditions to the billions the Palestinians pretend they deserve.
If a Hollywood scriptwriter would write such a story as farce, it would be rejected for being too far fetched.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
What is clear is that these strains of anti-Semitism — from the right, from the left and from radical Muslims — have morphed into a resurgence of a blight that should have been eradicated long ago, and that is causing serious anxiety among Europe’s Jews.
A CNN poll last November on the state of anti-Semitism in Europe found that a third of respondents said they knew little or nothing about the Holocaust. Nearly a quarter said Jews had too much influence in conflict and wars; more than a quarter said they believed that Jews had too much influence in business and finance. A 2015 survey by the Anti-Defamation League found that 51 percent of Germans believed it was “probably true” that “Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust.” These are the stereotypes that make anti-Semitism an especially pernicious form of bigotry, a grand conspiracy theory in which Jews spread evil in their countries through some illusory subterfuge, whether controlling capital, or the media, or whatever.
All this is not news to European Jews, who for some time have been feeling less and less safe and welcome in their home countries. After polling more than 16,000 Jews in 12 European countries at the end of last year, the European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights concluded that anti-Semitic hate speech, harassment and fear of being recognized as Jews were becoming the new normal. Eighty-five percent of the respondents thought anti-Semitism was the biggest social and political problem in their countries; almost a third said they avoided Jewish events or sites because of safety concerns. More than a third said they had considered emigrating in the five years preceding the survey.
As appalling as these statistics should be to every European, they should also ring a loud alarm for every American leader of conscience. Speak up, now, when you glimpse evidence of anti-Semitism, particularly within your own ranks, or risk enabling the spread of this deadly virus.
I have to say @kishkushkay is very entertaining in this interview, as she is in real life, even when the subject matter is rather intense https://t.co/csGaVNvM65
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) May 26, 2019
The Friends of Zion and the Jerusalem Prayer Team reached 60 million members on their global social media network of Israel supporters this week. This large group of non-Jewish advocates for Israel joined the network out of an understanding that much of the modern conflict takes place not on battlefields, but online. This newfound support broadcasts that the State of Israel and the Jewish people truly have friends all around the world, even when the world struggles to show it, according to FOZ.
In this day and age, FOZ said, Israel’s adversaries have weaponized the Internet, especially social media, as tools in their attacks against the Jewish state. The Friends of Zion Museum said that it has planned a new approach to fighting these so-called “anti-Israel forces” and is putting together a counterforce to help defend the Jewish people and the State of Israel – including the new FOZ Educational Center, which includes a studio, the first Christian Zionist think tank, an online academy which educates Israel’s friends in how to defend the Jewish state online, and much more.
“The hatred of Jewish people now has a new face – and a new excuse! Now we hear people claim they don’t hate Jews, but they do hate Israel or Zionism,” said founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team Dr. Mike Evans. “It is the same thing. Under the guise of ‘social justice,’ Zionism is being equated with white supremacy, colonialism and slavery. Our members are fighting against this evil and damaging falsehood that is getting Jewish people killed, both in Israel and around the world.”
Why Don't You Support Israel?
Israel is one of the most free and most prosperous countries in the world. Not only is Israel a booming economy and a wellspring of innovation, it is the only democracy in the Middle East. So why is it so controversial to support the Jewish state? Stephen Harper, the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada, lays out several fundamental truths about America’s most critical ally.
Earlier today I made an accurate if somewhat snarky comment to reporter Noga Tarnopolsky when she wrote this:
A real reporter should mention that Israel only withheld the percentage of tax transfers that was going to support salaries to terrorists and their families. The PA has refused to accept the rest of it = >90%. to blame Israel for Pals losing salaries is untrue, @NTarnopolskyhttps://t.co/OR9pXX6K1x
Without responding to me, she tried to make fun of me, to which I responded.
She then blocked me.
I wrote a short thread in response:
Hilarious! "Reporter" @NTarnopolsky couldn't respond to a simple point I made, trolls me while accusing me of being a troll, and when she is called out on it - she blocks me.
I write more articles, do more research and am more transparent in my writing than 90% of the reporters out there. (Psrt time!)
I do this BECAUSE I am anonymous - I WANT people to check my work. And I correct my errors.
But when someone outside the "club" dares to point out how the professionals are wrong, many of them just can't deal with it. They want to be considered authorities, not questioned but believed because of their name.
Sorry, not my style.
There are many good reporters. They welcome corrections, or they engage in discussion without insulting the person who bring up criticism.
Then there are ego-driven hacks like Noga, who simply cannot support her own reporting and therefore wants to shut down the critics.
Maybe I shouldn't have insulted her in my first tweet, but her blaming Israel for Palestinian refusal to accept cash from Israel was risible to begin with. It was not educating her followers, which is what a reporter should do - it was hiding the basic facts. It was propaganda, not news.
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They take more time to create but have a better chance of going viral on Twitter....
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
