Thursday, May 30, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
Thursday, May 30, 2019Elder of Ziyon
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has voiced interest in a tripartite confederation with Jordan and Israel, in what would appear a dramatic departure from his longstanding insistence on a two-state solution, according to Israeli peace activists and a Palestinian official.
According to the dovish Peace Now group, a senior delegation of which met Abbas on Sunday in Ramallah, the Palestinian leader said senior US administration officials Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt asked him recently about his opinion of a “confederation with Jordan.”
“‘I said [to Kushner and Greenblatt]: Yes, I want a three-way confederation with Jordan and Israel.’ I asked them if the Israelis would agree to such a proposal,” a statement by Peace Now quoted Abbas as saying.
A press conference on the occasion of Quds Day was held today at the headquarters of the Russian Federation, which included the ambassadors of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the State of Palestine and Iraq, as well as the First Deputy of the Russian Mufti.Given that Iran doesn't accept Israel in any solution, this praise of Iran's position perhaps is more relevant than any talk of a two state solution or a confederation.
The ambassadors spoke about the importance of Jerusalem for the Muslim and Arab world and stressed the importance of a two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital .
In an interview with "Sputnik" the Palestinian ambassador in Moscow Abdul Hafiz Nawfal praised the initiative of Imam Khomeini on Quds Day, and said:
"We appreciate the great initiative of Imam Khomeini on Jerusalem, and we consider it an honor to all of us. We remember and emphasize on this occasion the importance of Jerusalem, not only the Palestinian people, but all peoples and foremost the Iranian people. We thank Iran for this initiative and approach, to reach a Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Wednesday, May 29, 2019Elder of Ziyon
American Jews, dhimmi, diaspora, Goldstone Report, Opinion, security chaos, self-defense, Vic Rosenthal
Caroline Glick, author and former Jerusalem Post columnist, is known for her fiery rhetoric about Israeli politics and security. But antisemitism?
Glick sat down with Avi Abelow, CEO and co-founder of the Israel Video Network, to discuss what she described as a growing concern that antisemitic views are being pushed onto the global public through the realm of fake news.
"You use fake facts in order to rationalize violent facts against Jews," Glick explained.
She said antisemitism throughout the ages has manifested itself as fake news or fake facts, such as the idea that Jews make Passover matzah with the blood of Christian children
"That is a fake fact," she said. "So then, antisemites will say, 'It is not that we hate Jews. We are concerned and we need to deal with the fact that these Jews are eating our children.'"
As a result, when people become brutal or genocidal against the Jews, they can justify their behavior, Glick said, as "just taking the normal action that anyone would take if someone were eating their children."
BuzzFeed, facing a torrent of backlash for its blatant, fact-devoid smear, tweeted out a "correction" that instead claimed that the Jew-hating vandal claimed his road to radicalization included his wife reading Shapiro.
But it turns out that this "correction" was just as much a grotesque fabrication as was the original smear. As Daily Wire Senior Editor Emily Zanotti observed, "After looking at the FBI interview doc, it appears the only place [Shapiro's] name appears is in a sentencing document, submitted by the defense, arguing (weirdly) that this guy was radicalized by others and did the crime to please his wife."
In other words, Shapiro's name was only mentioned in a defense attorney-produced sentencing memo. "[The wife] moved on to writings by Ben Shapiro and articles on Breitbart News which bridged the gap to the notorious white supremacist and anti-Semitic propaganda site Stormfront," the memo claimed.
But why on earth would a news outlet report a criminal defense attorney's memo — a document definitionally designed to elicit sympathy for a criminal defense client, to deflect away and mitigate moral culpability, and to lower a sentence as much as possible — as if it were inerrant Gospel truth? A criminal defense attorney has one goal and one goal only: To get the lowest possible sentence for his client. While it cannot be said for sure whether the vandal's wife ever did consume Shapiro's content, it can be said for sure that the defense attorney's incentives, in submitting such a memo during the course of attempting to secure the lowest possible sentencing for his bigoted scofflaw of a client, are not necessarily perfectly aligned with the complete, neutral, unbiased truth. And it can also be said, more generally, that the notion that Torah-observant Jewish lion and adamant Zionist Ben Shapiro could ever be implied as responsible for the vandalization of a synagogue is patently absurd beyond any possibly describable measure.
Rabbi from synagogue that was vandalized responds to suggestion promoted by Buzzfeed & WaPo that @benshapiro contributed to vandal's radicalization:
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) May 28, 2019
"only way you can link @benshapiro to antisemitism is if you decide you hate Ben Shapiro."https://t.co/KuFIl7VrhH
via @tonykatz
Notorious Nazi Leader Ben Shapiro Outed As Jewhttps://t.co/NegoehwtY9
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) May 27, 2019
Wednesday, May 29, 2019Elder of ZiyonHRWIn 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.Here is a short list I compiled of Human Rights Watch's incontrovertible bias against Israel a few years back:
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:
- HRW condemned Ariel Sharon for his indirect role in Sabra and Shatila when he died - but never condemned the Christian Phalangists who actually did the killings. It never condemned any other world figure at the moment of their death.
- HRW does not support equal rights for Palestinians in Lebanon who want to become citizens.
- HRW twists international law in regards to Israel repeatedly.
- HRW has one definition of "occupation" for Israel, and another for the rest of the world.
- 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.
- The Sunday Times once showed HRW's obsession with Israel out of proportion to every other conflict.
- 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.
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.The Palestinian War on the Trump Peace Plan
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.PA President Mahmoud Abbas: May the Deal of the Century Go to Hell
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).
Wednesday, May 29, 2019Elder of ZiyonOn 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.
Very important: 61%
Fairly important: 29%
Not very important: 10%
Very close: 30%
Fairly close: 40%
Fairly distant: 21%
Very distant: 8%
Not sure: 1%
Agree: 69%
Disagree: 28%
Not Sure: 3%
War in Iraq: 16Concern 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.
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
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]
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 the current climate, Trump can do no right.
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.
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.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.
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]
Wednesday, May 29, 2019Elder of Ziyon
Wednesday, May 29, 2019Elder of Ziyon
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.Howard Jacobson: Free Palestine
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?Alan M. Dershowitz:It is Not Surprising to See an Increase in Jew-hatred in Western Europe
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.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019Elder of Ziyoncartoon of the day
Tuesday, May 28, 2019Elder of Ziyon
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
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) May 27, 2019
Tuesday, May 28, 2019Elder of Ziyon
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.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 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.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019Elder of Ziyon
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
