Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, June 17, 2019

06/17 Links Pt1: The Pirates of Tehran; Are the Palestinians Capable of Governing Themselves?; The Underground Arms Race in the Middle East

From Ian:

Bret Stephens NYTs: The Pirates of Tehran

On April 14, 1988, the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a frigate, hit an Iranian naval mine while sailing in the Persian Gulf. The explosion injured 10 of her crew and nearly sank the ship. Four days later, the U.S. Navy destroyed half the Iranian fleet in a matter of hours. Iran did not molest the Navy or international shipping for many years thereafter. Now Iran's piratical regime is back yet again.

While Iran categorically denied responsibility for Thursday's attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, the evidence against Iran is compelling. The U.S. Central Command noted that "a U.S. aircraft observed an IRGC Hendijan-class patrol boat and multiple IRGC fast attack craft...in the vicinity of the M/T Altair," one of the damaged tankers.

Staging deniable attacks that fall just below the threshold of open warfare on the U.S. is an Iranian specialty. But it would require a large dose of self-deception to pretend that Iran isn't the likely culprit, or that its actions don't represent a major escalation. Firing on unarmed ships in international waters is a direct assault on the international order. To allow it to go unpunished isn't an option.

The U.S. should declare new rules of engagement to allow the Navy to engage and destroy Iranian ships or fast boats that harass or threaten any ship, military or commercial, operating in international waters. The world cannot tolerate freelance Somali pirates. Much less should it tolerate a pirate state seeking to hold the global economy hostage through multiplying acts of economic terrorism.

Nobody wants a war with Iran. But not wanting a war does not mean remaining supine in the face of its outrages. We sank Iran's navy before. Tehran should be put on notice that we are prepared and able to do it again.

Iran says it will break nuclear deal’s uranium stockpile limit in 10 days

Iran will break the uranium stockpile limit set by its nuclear deal with world powers in the next 10 days, the spokesman for the country’s atomic agency said Monday, while also warning that Iran has the need for uranium enriched up to 20 percent, just a step away from weapons-grade levels.

The announcement indicated Iran’s determination to break from the 2015 accord, which has steadily unraveled since the Trump administration pulled America out of the deal last year and reimposed tough economic sanctions on Iran, sending its economy into freefall.

The spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, made the announcement during a press conference with local journalists at Iran’s Arak heavy water facility that was carried live on Iranian state television.

“Today the countdown to pass the 300 kilograms reserve of enriched uranium has started and in 10 days time we will pass this limit,” he said, putting the date for the breach of a key provision of the agreement at June 27.

The development comes in the wake of suspected attacks on oil tankers last week in the region, attacks that the US, the UK and Saudi Arabia have blamed on Iran and which Iran has suggested were carried out by the US. It also follows four other oil tanker attacks off Fujairah in recent weeks. Iranian-allied rebels from Yemen have also struck US ally Saudi Arabia with drones and missiles.

Netanyahu urges world to reimpose sanctions if Iran ramps up nuclear enrichment

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urged the international community to immediately snap back sanctions on Iran if it goes ahead with its threat to enrich uranium beyond the levels set by a landmark nuclear pact.

Iran said earlier Monday that it would break the uranium stockpile limit set by the 2015 accord in 10 days, and warned that Iran could enrich uranium up to 20 percent — just a step away from weapons-grade levels.

Netanyahu, one of the agreement’s most vociferous critics, said Israel was not surprised by the threat.

“In the event it acts upon its threats and violates the nuclear deal, the international community must immediately impose the sanctions that were set previously. Israel will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon,” he said at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, during a ceremony that commemorated Israeli presidents and prime ministers who have passed away.

The nuclear deal has steadily unraveled since the Trump administration pulled America out of the accord last year and re-imposed tough economic sanctions on Iran, deeply cutting into its sale of crude oil abroad and sending its economy into freefall.

The Monday announcement by Behrouz Kamalvandi, timed for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, put more pressure on Europe to come up with new terms for the nuclear deal.

Europe has so far been unable to offer Iran a way around the US sanctions, and Netanyahu has urged other powers to follow the lead of the US and pull out of the deal as well.

David Friedman said exactly what Jimmy Carter said about Israel retaining territory

Once again, the media is pushing fake news.

We've already discussed how the New York Times misrepresented the words of David Friedman about how Israel would ultimately keep parts of the West Bank as claiming that he tacitly supports "annexation" of the territories.

Yesterday, Jason Greenblatt, speaking at the Jerusalem Post conference in New York, said, “I will let David’s comments stand for themselves. I think he said them elegantly and I support his comments.”

The Times of Israel reported this as if Greenblstt also supports unilateral annexation, editorializing, "In an interview published by the New York Times last Saturday, Friedman suggested that some degree of annexation of the West Bank would be legitimate."

What TOI didn't bother reporting is that Greenblatt said explicitly to look at Friedman's words, not the New York Times headline - which was a lie.

And then it quotes Friedman saying no such thing. “Under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank."

Isn't that exactly what every peace plan since Clinton has said? No one is talking about annexation - they are saying that under any possible agreement, Israel will hold on to some part of the territories, and there might be some land swaps.

Even Jimmy Carter said the exact same thing. Visiting the "settlement" of Neve Daniel in 2009, he said, "This particular settlement is not one that I envision ever being abandoned, or changed over into a Palestinian territory. This is part of the close settlements to the 1967 line that I think will be here forever."

Did Carter say he supported annexation? Not at all, and neither did Friedman or Greenblatt. All of them are talking about Israel retaining territory under a peace agreement.

The false reporting in the New York Times has already spawned J-Street mailings, Palestinian condemnations and a riot at the Gaza border. This is not the first time that the NYT has ascribed motives to newsmakers that align to their own wishful thinking than to their actual words. Irresponsible journalism is not innocuous - it could cost people's lives.

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Israel Hayom adds chilling details to a report that was published yesterday:

The Ofer Military Court on Sunday indicted a Palestinian man for the aggravated rape, assault and kidnapping of a seven-year-old Jewish girl.

The suspect, a janitor at a school in the Binyamin region of Judea and Samaria, met the girl at the school and fostered a relationship with her by occasionally speaking to her and giving her candy.

On the day in question, the suspect took the girl by the hand and forcefully led her to a nearby house, where he brutally raped her. After the act, the suspect released the girl.

Attorney Haim Bleicher from the right-wing Honenu ‎legal aid organization, who represents the family, ‎issued a statement saying, “This was an exceedingly brutal and appalling incident, as other people were present [during the rape], apparently Palestinian laborers who humiliated the girl, degraded her and aided the suspect. It appears to be an act of pure hatred by a group of scum who flouted all human decency simply because the victim was Jewish.”

If more than one Arab was present, this changes from what could have been considered "only" a rape of a child into an entirely new level of depravity. It may have been a full blown, sick conspiracy and pre-planned antisemitic incident where Palestinian workers chose to aid the rape of a Jewish child because she was Jewish.

The indictment did not mention anyone else present, although there is no reason to doubt that the police are still investigating.

Imagine if a group of Jews had been accused of doing this to an Arab girl. The headlines would be screaming and the story would be front page of The New York Times. Left wing Jewish groups would be shouting about how they have nothing to do with such a crime. Amnesty and Human Rights Watch would be falling over themselves to push out press releases and tweets outdoing the other on how this is evidence of a sick Israeli society. (If the story was true, they would be right!)

But this event is mentioned just as another criminal case, and only in Israeli media. NGOs are silent.

As sick as it sounds, there is no doubt that part of the reason that the world media and NGOs will not talk about this story is because the child victim is a "settler," and as such deserves no human rights.

UPDATE: It looks like the police botched the case and nabbed the wrong man, the probe looks like it will be reopened.

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Last week, the UN confirmed that it will send a representative to the Bahrain economic conference sponsored by the US later this month.

The deputy UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Jamie McGoldrick will be representing the organization at the economic workshop in Manama meant to help the Palestinian economy.

This is another blow to the PLO which has been doing everything it can to pressure countries not to attend.

As has been the trend over the past couple of years, the only group of nations that seem to be slavishly following Palestinian demands are the Europeans, who as of yet do not plan to attend.

The PLO's United Nations representative Riyad Mansour downplayed the participation of the UN as being at a "low level."

Taysir Khaled, a member of the Executive Committee of the PLO, said that it is not too late for the withdrawal of the Arab countries from the conference, as he invoked that they should adhere to the Palestinian national consensus to boycott the Manama workshop.

There are conflicting stories as to Israel's level of participation, with the organizers apparently not anxious to have members of Israel's caretaker government attend. Reports indicate that only a private business delegation from Israel will attend.

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Cartoon of the Day: Academic leftist logic 101

Continuing my series of re-captioning or editing cartoons...

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06/16 Links: Abbas' advisor on Islam: "The entire world will pay" if Muslims don't "act" to save Al-Aqsa from "the Israeli plot,"; Dani Dayan: We're fed up with BDS, Louis Farrakhan and Women's March

From Ian:

PMW: "The entire world will pay" if Muslims don't "act" to save Al-Aqsa from "the Israeli plot," threatens Abbas' advisor on Islam

"The entire world will pay dearly," if the Muslim world doesn't "act" to save Jerusalem from Israel's plots - this is the warning from one of the most important religious figures in the Palestinian Authority on his Twitter account.

Repeating the PA libel that Israel is planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs and PA Supreme Shari'ah Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash wrote:
"The Israeli plot against the Al-Aqsa Mosque is becoming more dangerous and expanding from day to day. If the Muslims don't act now, something will occur whose end is bad and bitter, and then the entire world will pay dearly. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is religion and faith, and nothing is too valuable for it. 'So take warning, O people of vision' [Quran, Sura 59:2, Sahih International translation]."
[Twitter account of PA Supreme Shari'ah Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash, June 2, 2019]

The words Al-Habbash chose to end his tweet were a quote from the Quran, which can be interpreted as a warning to Jews:
"So take warning, O people of vision"
[Quran, Sura 59:2]

This sentence is the continuation of a verse that describes Allah's punishment of the Jews:
"It is He who expelled the ones who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture [Jews] from their homes at the first gathering. You did not think they would leave, and they thought that their fortresses would protect them from Allah ; but [the decree of] Allah came upon them from where they had not expected, and He cast terror into their hearts [so] they destroyed their houses by their [own] hands and the hands of the believers. So take warning, O people of vision."
[Quran, Sura 59:2, Sahih International translation].

During a recent sermon he held in the Moscow Cathedral Mosque in Russia, Al-Habbash also called on Muslims to protect Jerusalem in "the struggle between truth and falsehood":

Dani Dayan: We're fed up with BDS, Louis Farrakhan and Women's March

The rise of antisemitism in the US is something to never be tolerated in any capacity, said Ambassador Dani Dayan, Israel’s Consul-General in New York, to an audience on Sunday.

“When we say ‘never again,’ we mean never again,” Dayan said at the start of the Jerusalem Post’s Annual Conference in New York. Dayan explained that “‘never again’ doesn’t mean [just] that another Holocaust will not happen again.”

He told the audience that “the Jewish people will not go back to the days of ‘just’ small pogroms here and there. ‘Never again’ meaning we will not expect cartoons in leading papers [with antisemitic stereotypes], it means that Jews will not be afraid to go to shul on Shabbat.”

“Never again means we are fed up with antisemitism,” Dayan said. “We are fed up with the BDS, with Louis Farrakhan and the Women’s March. We’re fed up with neo-Nazis and white supremacists. The State of Israel doesn’t have jurisdiction outside the country, but it doesn’t mean we don’t care.”

H.R.2407 Is the Nightmare You Expected from Loony Lefty Democratic Congresswomen

The title of the 116th Congress’ proposed bill H.R.2407 is reminiscent of the question, How long since you stopped beating up your wife? It has so many inherent, incriminating assumptions, it’s too late for you to argue you never beat up anyone and besides, you’re single. Here’s the title: “H.R.2407 – Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act.”

Introduced in the House on April 30, 2019 by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), the bill now enjoys the support of the entire lineup of Democratic crazy-left culture heroines: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Pramila Jayapal.

The stated purpose of H. R. 2407 is: “To promote human rights for Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation and require that United States funds do not support military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children, and for other purposes.”

There are countless international agreements demanding special treatment of children in war time and under military occupation, who are defined as human beings under the age of 18. They must receive special care and special protection. But there’s precious little in the broad available literature that deals with military occupation lasting 52 years, in areas that are crisscrossed by different political authorities. And almost nothing about police treatment of minors who engage in blatant violent behavior, including arson and murder against civilians.

Needless to say, in its current version, H. R. 2407 has nothing to say about these real issues. A combined failure of a succession of Israeli governments to either annex or give up the liberated territories, combined with Israel’s decisions in 1993 and 2005 which culminated in the partial or complete takeover of said territories by gangs of Arab terrorists, has created a sadly inadequate combination of off-the-cuff and contradictory laws and regulations over the treatment of children who seek to kill and/or rob civilians.

The UN's false Palestinian history (part 1)

Mrs. Elder and I visited the UN on Friday as invited guests of the Israel Mission to the UN.

Prominently displayed near the Security Council is this large wall display on the "Question of Palestine and the United Nations."

As one would expect, there are a lot of omissions and falsehoods.

Starting with:

Muslims did not consider Palestine a holy land. They considered Jerusalem to be holy (which is what Al Quds means,) and venerated a specific site in Hebron, but I have never heard anyone say that the entire land was considered holy. After all, the boundaries of that land had never been set by Muslims when they controlled it.

There is no wonderment about how the UN General Assembly supposedly violated the UN Charter. And notice how the principle of self determination for peoples does not extend to Jews, according to the Arab rejectionists.

The use of the word "Palestinians" is anachronistic, since the word at the time referred almost exclusively to Jews both by Jews themselves and by the rest of the world.

Again, it probably wouldn't have been called Palestine since that word was associated with Jews at the time, and institutions like the Palestine Symphony Orchestra and the Palestine Post were Jewish.

The exhibit does not wonder why the Arabs couldn't establish a state. It does not mention Egypt's takeover of Gaza or Jordan's illegal annexation of the West Bank.

Nothing is said about the terror attacks by Palestinian fedayeen on Israel's borders in the 1950s and 1960s. Nothing about the founding of the PLO in 1964, or Fatah in the 1950s. Nothing about the constant threats to destroy Israel from Egypt, Syria and other Arab nations.

It doesn't say what country Israel "occupied" the West Bank and Gaza from - because they belonged to no country. Which is one reason the land is not considered legally occupied - Israel had and has a legal claim to the land. It is disputed.

The 500,000 Palestinians supposedly displaced is a made up number. This UN source says between 100,000 and 300,000. I cannot find any source saying any higher numbers.

While there were some tiny villages that were destroyed, the vast majority of Arabs fled because they did not want to live under Jewish rule - Israel did not expel them, by and large, except for known terrorists and suspects. Gazans fled to Jordan on buses provided by Israel!

UNSC 242 did not mention Palestinians. In no way can it be interpreted as saying that any of the territories Israel captured were Palestinian. It didn't mention these "500,000" displaced persons, either.

Israel did not deport or transfer a single Jew to the territories. They went voluntarily. There is no violation of Geneva; in fact the entire reason additional language was added to the Rome Statute saying "transfer, directly or indirectly" was because the Arab world wanted to ensure that international law would find the settlements illegal ex post facto.

The UN doesn't mention that Palestinians were offered a state a number of times and turned it down. It doesn't mention the 1970s airplane hijackings, the two deadly intifadas, bus bombings, suicide bombers. Only Palestinian victimhood is allowed to be mentioned, not Palestinian responsibility.

There's more.

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From Hamodia:

An invitation to several chareidi youths to join in his son’s wedding has cost the mayor of the Palestinian Authority-controlled village of Dir Kadis his job. The four Jews, whom the mayor claims were invited to “embarrass” him, were seen in a widely distributed video singing and dancing at the wedding, clearly as welcome guests – and as a result, the mayor has been fired and removed from his position on the PA’s Education Committee, Haaretz reported Sunday.

The incident took place last Wednesday, as the son of Radi Nasser was wed. Four Jews, residents of Modiin Ilit (Kiryat Sefer), attended the wedding in the nearby village. The son worked with the Jews in Modiin Ilit, and apparently invited them to the wedding. Footage of the event shows a happy circle of dancers, with the Jews hoisted on the shoulders of the guests as they celebrated the event.

But when the footage hit social media sites, the recriminations began. The Fatah movement, of whom Nasser was a member, condemned the dancing, saying that it was “insulting” to Palestinians. Nasser was summarily thrown out of Fatah. Editorials in PA newspapers reiterated the “insult” narrative, saying that Palestinians should not be inviting “representatives of the occupation” to their events.

Nasser attempted to deny that he invited the youths. “They were invited by garage workers at the entrance of the village who fix the Jews’ cars,” he said, adding that they were put up to it by his political enemies, and that he had the youths thrown out of the wedding when he found out what was happening. But the denials fell on deaf ears – at least in part because he is seen dancing with them.

Fatah said that a no-confidence meeting would be held to remove Nasser from office and that the names of the Jewish attendees would be passed on to the Palestinian security forces.

Dar Kadis is near the Jewish community of Modi'in Illit. I am told that while most Jews won't go visit that village any more, there are still plenty that do, to buy inexpensive products or to have their cars repaired. There is enough business from Jews from Modi'in Illit, Hashmonaim, Matityahu and other communities that Dar Kadis businesses are dependent on it for their livelihoods.

So it is not at all surprising that there are friendships between these "Jewish settlers" and their Arab neighbors.

In this case, the antisemitism is directed from the Palestinian Authority as official policy. Being Friends with Jews is a fireable offense.

(h/t Ben Garson)

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Fatah is calling a general strike in the territories on June 25, the day of the economic conference in Manama meant to help the Palestinian Arabs.

Jamal Moheisen, a member of Fatah's central committee, said that all the national forces and the Palestinian people will rally on the 24th before the Bahrain conference on Thursday. On June 25, a comprehensive strike will take place.

He added that "these events come to convey the message of the Palestinian people to the occupation and the world and the people in Manama, that this meeting is a disgrace, a betrayal and a stab in the back of our people and a betrayal of the age."

Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt couldn't have scripted anything better. The point of the conference, from what they have said, is to point out how Palestinian leadership has failed their people for their own political ends. And here, instead of attending the Bahrain conference to help come up with a path to giving the people better lives, they are insisting that the people don't work.

Which means that those who get paid by the hour or the day, or who run small businesses, will not get paid.

And for what? What positive outcome would result from a general strike? None. It doesn't hurt Israel or the US. It only hurts the people they pretend to represent.

In Bahrain, Arab nations will try to come up with ways to help Palestinians, while their own leaders are hurting them. Palestinians aren't idiots. They will see this all happening in real time.

All we need is video of Fatah thugs beating up people who try to open shops.

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06/15 Links: Germany is accused of downplaying anti-Semitic attacks by Muslims; Natan Sharansky: ‘American Jews Forgot To Tell Their Children’; PA: 'We have foiled Trump's peace plan'

From Ian:

Germany is accused of downplaying anti-Semitic attacks by Muslims

The annual al-Quds Day march in Berlin is often cited as a prime example of the rise of so-called new anti-Semitism in Europe: hatred of Jews in connection with Israel, often by people from Muslim societies.

Despite attempts by organizers in recent years to suppress some expressions of anti-Semitism, the march by hundreds of participants features frequent calls about killing Israelis, Zionist conspiracies and chants of “free Palestine from the river to the sea.” Flags of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah are on display, and imams regularly preach anti-Semitic verses from the Quran to the crowd in Farsi and Arabic.

“Under the guise of ‘Israel criticism,’ they use classic anti-Semitic stereotypes, identifying Israel as having ‘Jewish characteristics’: ‘domineering,’ ‘greedy’ or a ‘child killer,’” sociologist Imke Kummer observed about the marchers.

(Iran launched al-Quds Day in 1979 to express support for the Palestinians and oppose Zionism and Israel, and international events of support have followed. Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.)

Such agitation is seen worldwide. To many, it’s especially troubling on streets where the persecution of Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators was so brutal that it moved whole societies in Europe to vow “Never again.”

Curiously, however, some of the incidents documented at the al-Quds Day march in Berlin have been classified by authorities as forms of far-right anti-Semitism, independent watchdog groups have discovered.

Critics say the march example and other mislabeled incidents are facilitating attempts to politicize anti-Semitism and complicating the apparently losing battle to solve it.

“It means we can’t really use the official statistics on anti-Semitism in Germany,” Daniel Poensgen, a researcher at the Department for Research and Information on Anti-Semitism, or RIAS, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

‘American Jews Forgot To Tell Their Children’

There’s a brief but quite telling scene in the remarkable documentary, “From Slavery To Freedom,” that recently premiered at a Jewish film festival in Washington, D.C.

The film is about Natan Sharansky, the most famous of the hundreds of Soviet Jewish “refuseniks,” referring to those who were refused exit visas to emigrate to Israel in the 1970s and ’80s. They lost their jobs, and many were imprisoned. Sharansky’s dramatic plight became the central rallying call for the Soviet Jewry movement. A well-known human rights activist in Moscow, he was accused of being a CIA spy, convicted in a sham trial and sentenced to 13 years of hard labor. He spent nine years in the Soviet gulag, much of that time in solitary confinement, before being released in a prisoner exchange in February 1986 and emigrating to Israel.

In the scene I referred to, Sharansky is shown in 2017 re-creating for the camera crew his walk to freedom across the famous Glienicke bridge, known as the “Bridge of Spies,” connecting East and West Berlin, where he was released by the KGB to U.S. officials on the other side. As he narrates his memories of the emotional moment, he is suddenly recognized by a middle-aged American Jewish tourist who happens to be walking by.

“Natan?” the man asks, stunned to see this iconic figure standing before him.

“Yes,” Sharansky answers.

“Oh, my God,” the man says, his mother at his side. “We marched for you in Philadelphia in 1980,” he exclaims excitedly.

A bemused Sharansky smiles and shrugs it off.

But in a phone interview this week with The Jewish Week from his home in Israel, Sharansky, who recently retired from his nine-year post as head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, acknowledges being “upset” with American Jewry for failing to educate its youth about one of the most successful human rights campaigns in history. (h/t IsaacStorm)

Jewish refugees to be debated at Westminster

The UK Parliament is for the first time to devote an hour-long debate to Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. The debate has been called by MP Theresa Villiers and will take place on Wednesday 19 June at 16:30 in Westminster Hall.

"This is a neglected aspect of the Israel/Palestine conflict and this debate is a long-overdue attempt to give this issue equal prominence with the far more familiar issue of Arab/Palestinian refugees," says Lyn Julius of Harif, a UK organisation representing Jews from the MENA.

Some 850,000 – a larger number of Jewish refugees – were driven out from Arab countries at the same time. The majority found a new home in Israel, but some tens of thousands were resettled in the UK .

In 1947-48 (and in some cases much earlier) Arab countries deliberately targeted their Jewish populations. In all Arab countries, violence, expropriations and expulsions ensured that Jewish communities, which in many cases had existed for thousands of years, ceased to exist. Most who left were forcibly deprived of their property.
·
At the time this injustice was recognised by international actors: the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) recognised on a number of occasions that the plight of the Jewish refugees fell within its remit. This is also why UNSC Resolution 242 refers to “a just settlement of the refugee problem” without specifying the “Arab” or “Palestinian” refugee problem.

Some countries today, namely the US and Canada, have also recognised this refugee issue as the injustice it is.

06/14 Links Pt2: Wiesenthal’s Rabbi praises Trump for being only US leader to deliver; At Oberlin, a Tipping Point; Tel Aviv celebrates Mideast’s largest Pride parade

From Ian:

Wiesenthal’s Rabbi Marvin Hier praises Trump for being only US leader to deliver

Rabbi Marvin Hier has a busy schedule. The Los Angeles-based founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center was in New York for a few days late last month, but he was able fit me in right between a meeting with The New York Times editorial board and lunch. Where he’d have lunch was something he’d figure out over the phone in the middle of our conversation.

The late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, who lived in Vienna, was more of a figurehead to the Simon Wiesenthal Center than an active leader. It has always been Hier’s show. Today the organization works as a monitor of anti-Semitism and arm of Jewish advocacy. It has produced over a dozen films, and maintains its Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance. (A controversial branch has been in the works in Jerusalem since circa 2005.)

Hier, a two-time Academy Award winner for the documentaries “Genocide” and “The Long Way Home,” is regularly spotted on cable news. He is an opinionated (and sometimes funny) man, and it takes about 11 seconds in his presence to feel completely at home. Eighty-year-old Jews who are extremely ready to share their opinions are, perhaps, my favorite people of all.

He’s also someone who still refuses to apologize for leading a prayer at US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. (Read on, as I offer him another opportunity here.) While he does condemn the president’s comments on Charlottesville and did rebuke Trump’s Muslim travel ban (with some commentary), the rabbi is clearly someone who, while not taking sides, has definitely taken sides.

Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha Reviewed by Jonathan Schanzer

In February 2019, two Israelis found a 1,900-year-old coin from the time of the Jewish Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans (132-35 C.E.) in an area southwest of Jerusalem. Inscribed on one side of the coin were the words the "second year to the freedom of Israel."

This kind of evidence connecting the Jewish people to the land of Israel is exactly what Nur Masalha seeks to undermine in his new book, a dense and redundant effort to undercut what he calls "the foundational myths of Zionism."

As an anti-Zionist historian, Masalha exhibits typical contempt for "Zionist settler colonialism," but he distinguishes himself in one important way. He also endeavors to challenge "the fictional narratives of the Old Testament." In other words, he seeks to deny the Jewish connection to the Holy Land.

For example, he asserts that "there is no empirical historical evidence or facts to corroborate positively the Old Testament Exodus text." He further finds a "lack of material or empirical evidence for a 'United Kingdom of David and Solomon.'" He sneers at what he calls Jewish "myths of 'exile and return' and 'return to history.'" When he does acknowledge Jewish connections, he claims that the Jews were "Palestinians"—seemingly with no claim to the land.

In contrast, he posits that "Palestine and its local heritage have survived across more than three millennia through adaptation, fluidity, and transformation." In disjointed, repetitive, academic language, he labors to draw a continuous arc from the Late Bronze Age to the current day. Of course, Arabs have connections to the land they today call "Palestine." But to assert a continuous four thousand-year history is absurd. The territory has changed hands countless times, as Roman, pre-Islamic, Islamic, and modern empires came and went.

At Oberlin, a Tipping Point

The fact that Gibson’s had been serving the community for more than 100 years meant nothing. Nor did the fact that it was Aladin, not Gibson, who broke the law. As the Weekly Standard reported, Oberlin officials even suggested to local businesses that if students were caught shoplifting in the future, the school should be called, not the police, so that the thieves could be given one free pass for their actions.

According to the Legal Insurrection blog, which has followed the case since the beginning, all three of the assailants eventually “would plead guilty to shoplifting and aggravated trespassing, and would avow that Gibson’s was not engaged in racial profiling.” None served any time in jail. Even that non-punishment was too much for Oberlin’s administrator-activists. As Legal Insurrection noted, when news broke that Aladin and his accomplices would receive only probation, “Toni Myers, Oberlin College’s Multicultural Resource Center Director then, send [sic] out a text which said, ‘After a year, I hope we rain fire and brimstone on that store.’”

In 2017, after taking a significant hit to their profits because of the protests, Gibson’s decided to hold Oberlin and its officials accountable for their kowtowing to student protestors. The bakery filed a civil lawsuit against the school (including Raimondo) for “libel, slander, interference with business relationships, interference with contracts, deceptive trade practices, infliction of emotional distress, negligent hiring and trespass.” This week, a jury agreed with the bakery’s claim that the school and its officials had acted irresponsibly and awarded Gibson’s $11 million in damages (if you’re concerned about runaway tort judgments, this might seem like a disturbingly high number for a small bakery, but considering that Oberlin claimed Gibson’s was worth less than $35,000, it’s not surprising the jury responded with a large damage verdict).

During the trial, Gibson’s lawyer argued, “When a powerful institution says you’re racist, you’re doomed.” As anyone who has witnessed the mob mentality among campus progressive activists can attest, student mobs only thrive because administrators allow them to do so. With their courtroom victory in Ohio this week, the Gibson family put college officials across the country on notice that people unfairly victimized and libeled by campus activists are done acquiescing to the mob’s demands. (h/t MtTB)

From the European External Action Service site:

EU celebrates 423 Israeli achievements under Horizon 2020 programme

The EU Delegation to Israel, together with ISERD - the Israeli Director of European R & D- and the Israel Innovation Authority, celebrated scientific cooperation under the Horizon 2020 programme. Grants totalling over € 742 million have been awarded to 1062 Israeli projects from the beginning of the programme until the end of 2018.

Israel has been a partner in the research and innovation framework programmes since 1996, and was the first non-European country to join. Over the years, the EU-Israel partnership has strengthened Israeli academic and industrial excellence, led to investments in research infrastructures and enabled long-term, innovative research.

The programme enabled Israeli companies, researchers and innovators to gain access to European partners, to integrate into a very wide network of European research infrastructure, and to take part in flagship projects. The European Research Council, which is part of Horizon 2020, supports ground-breaking research at the frontiers of human knowledge. Israeli researchers have been extremely successful in the ERC programme. Israeli universities and research institutes can be found among the top 10 organisations, worldwide, hosting ERC grantees.

I don't know how much BDS works to drop ties between EU and Israeli universities, but it doesn't sound like they are doing too well...

(h/t Irene)

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06/14 Links Pt1: Gaza Rocket Strikes School in Southern Israeli City, No Injuries Reported; Tehran Sends Threatening Messages Via Its Proxies In Gaza; Will it take a Jewish 9/11... for us to take security seriously?

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Hezbollah UK terrorist plot kept secret as British continue appeasing rising Iran aggression

As sanctions make the regime feel increasingly cornered, it may be more inclined to use violence. Some analysts believe it won’t risk provoking Washington too far because it knows a U.S. military attack could finish it off.

So it might choose just to sit out the Trump presidency in the hope of a pliable Democrat replacing him in the White House.

The drumbeat of war, though, is increasing. The top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East says he believes the Iranians or their proxies may orchestrate an attack at any moment.

Over the last month, the Trump administration announced that it was sending an aircraft carrier strike group and air force bombers to the Middle East, as well as Patriot missiles and additional troops, to “send a clear and unmistakable message” to Iran.

U.S. officials said that the decision was based in part on intelligence that the Iranian regime has told some of its proxy forces that they could now target American military personnel and assets.

The day after that announcement, four oil tankers were attacked in the Persian Gulf, with Iran being considered the chief suspect. On Thursday morning, two more oil tankers were damaged near the Strait of Hormuz in another suspected attack.

It’s hard to see how the Iranian regime can be stopped without some kind of military action being taken against it. Those like Britain and the European Union who believe that is unthinkable and can best be avoided by the Obama deal are wrong.

Failing to neutralize Iran will merely mean that, a few years down the road, the West will be menaced not just by Hezbollah terrorism, but by a nuclear Iranian enemy bent on the annihilation of Israel and the destruction of the West.

MEMRI: With No Progress In Indirect U.S.-Iran Contacts, Tehran Sends Threatening Messages Via Its Proxies In Gaza

In recent statements and speeches, Yahya Al-Sinwar, head of Hamas's political bureau in Gaza, and Ziyad Al-Nakhalah, secretary-general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), threatened new confrontations with Israel and praised Iran for its support of their organizations. Some of their statements were delivered at a rally organized by the Palestinian factions in Gaza on the occasion of Qods Day, an annual event that was initiated by the Iranian regime and is held on the last Friday of Ramadan.

Coming at this time, these statements by the leaders of Hamas and the PIJ highlighting Iran's support and its contribution to their fighting abilities are more than just a threat aimed at Israel. They constitute a threatening message sent by Iran, via its proxies, to the U.S. and its allies, in light of the lack of progress in the indirect contacts between Iran and the U.S. over the nuclear issue.

As part of these threatening messages, Hamas leader in Gaza Al-Sinwar stressed the increase in the number and quality of the organization's rockets, and its intention to stage massive attacks on targets in central Israel in the next confrontation. He also declared that Hamas plans to provide the participants of the weekly March of Return protests on the Gaza-Israel border with military training. He praised Iran for the financial and technical assistance it has extended to Hamas, which has enabled it to develop its military capabilities. "All the Arabs have sold out Palestine, but not the Islamic Republic of Iran, which continues to support our people against the Israeli enemy," he said.[1]

PIJ leader Al-Nakhalah said, in an interview with Hizbullah's television channel, that the Palestinian resistance is capable of striking strategic targets in the heart of Israel with its locally-manufactured rockets, including rockets with half-ton warheads, stressing that the PIJ utilizes Iranian weapons and expertise and is closely assisted by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). IRGC Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani "knows the men of the [Palestinian] resistance, and they know him well," he said. He added that the PIJ would be part of any regional confrontation between the resistance axis and Israel, and that "the Arab regimes have relinquished Palestine," so their leaders are unfit to lead the Arab nation, whose rights they have relinquished.[2]

Both leaders slammed the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan known as the "Deal of the Century" as well as the U.S.-led "Peace to Prosperity" economic workshop scheduled to be held in Bahrain on June 25-26, 2019 to discuss the economic dimensions of the peace plan.[3] This is in line with Iran's position on the Deal of the Century and with Iran's efforts, reported recently in the Arab press, to unite the resistance axis against it.[4]

Iranian Official Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi: Iranians Fought Alongside Hamas, Islamic Jihad in Gaza; We Will Destroy Israel within 25 Years pic.twitter.com/jt4TnIkym3
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 14, 2019

Is the US planning an UNRWA surprise in Bahrain?

IPSNews writes:

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been forced to justify its existence at the United Nations ahead of a pledging conference later this month.

UNRWA came under fire by Jason Greenblatt, US Special Envoy for International Negotiations, at a Security Council meeting late last month.

“The UNRWA model has failed the Palestinian people,” he said, describing the Agency as an “irredeemably flawed operation” and a “band-aid” solution. Instead, he proposed an integration of the Agency’s services into government and non-governmental organisations’ structures.

UNRWA has for years struggled to meet its budget. Last year, around 42 countries and institutions increased their contributions to erase an unprecedented deficit of US$446 million.

Greenblatt noted the United States was frequently called upon to fill budget gaps. Having pledged around US$6 billion to the organisation over the course of its existence, he reaffirmed his government’s refusal to continue to do so.

Instead, the United States has called for a conference in Bahrain—June 25-26– to discuss possible solutions to the Palestine refugee crisis. Many see this as compensation for withdrawing funding for UNRWA.

I had not seen an explicit link between the Bahrain conference and UNRWA before, but it makes one think: is Greenblatt planning an UNRWA surprise?

Has the US lined up support from the UAE and Saudi Arabia to, perhaps, announce that they would allow Palestinians to become citizens? The Gulf states have had problems with foreign workers who take up two thirds of the Saudi labor force, and replacing them with Palestinians - who are generally more industrious than native Saudis - could help modernize Saudi Arabia and ready it for a post-oil world.

The rush for Palestinian "refugees" to qualify for such a program would show the world how hollow are the words of their leaders when they say that their people would rather remain stateless until "return."

There are going to be some interesting things coming out of Bahrain.

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