Monday, June 24, 2019
- Monday, June 24, 2019
- Elder of Ziyon
- analysis, Divest This
Some bad news hit Oberlin College recently in the form of a $33,000,000 judgement against the school for libel ($11M in compensatory damages, $22M in punitive), a bill that might go higher if the school has to cover the legal fees of the plaintiff.
Legal Insurrection covered (and continues to cover) the Gibson’s Bakery vs. Oberlin case, so I suggest you head over there to get the details of what happened. I bring up the story now not because BDS was specific to events that led to the suit, but because it reminded me that Oberlin might be the third example of the gods punishing bad choices in strange and unexpected ways.
The first example is Evergreen College in Washington State, ground zero in the Northwest for the boycott and divestment “movement.” Evergreen was the school Rachel Corrie attended when she was recruited by activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and taught how to sneak into Israel, find her way into a conflict area, and protest by putting herself in harm’s way.
Her death during one of those protests triggered and then anchored anti-Israel activities at the school and beyond for years. As BDS hardened into dogma on that campus, it became clear that anyone with interest in identifying with or supporting the Jewish state should apply elsewhere, and so campus political life became more homogenized and radical.
In fact, the ability to say and do what they wanted without fear of challenge (much less punishment) turned the students of Evergreen into strange sorts of monsters who have been on a rampage in recent years, attacking professors and administrators who do not accept and embrace ever-enlarging lists of required beliefs and associated demands.
Behavior that once turned off any Jewish student who did not adhere to the BDS party line now seems to have turned off anyone not interested in going to a college where they might get threatened with baseball bats for saying or thinking the wrong thing. Understandably, Evergreen’s enrollment plummeted and budgets were cut to make up for the shortfall. In an era when colleges that can’t make ends meet are closing their doors, it is a very real possibility that Evergreen might one day have to decide whether to continue or close up shop.
One famous school already facing that stark choice is Hampshire College in Massachusetts. BDS-followers will remember Hampshire as the place where modern BDS project got kicked off after the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter created the momentum for campus divestment by claiming the school was the first college to divest from the Jewish state, a hoax the boycotters continue to spread today.
In the case of Hampshire, the school did the right thing by denying that divestment had taken place and chastising the students spreading that lie. But that wise choice did not prevent leaders at the school from allowing SJP to make the lives of Israel-supporting students (mostly Jewish) hell for years afterwards.
One amusing element of the whole Hampshire debate was that the school has always had one of the smallest endowments of any college, meaning there was very little to divest in the first place. But that small endowment became less of a joke once the school hit financial difficulties and had no cushion to fall back on. While the demise of Evergreen is speculative, the end of Hampshire is a very real possibility with the current entering class consists of just fifteen students hoping the school figures out a way to bail itself out of the current crisis, possibly through a merger with another institution.
Again, Hampshire’s current crisis has nothing to do with BDS, although I do wonder if the school might have had more good will to draw upon in seeking a partner to save them had they not earned a reputation for thoughtless radicalism through the “heroic” efforts of SJP years earlier.
Which gets us to Oberlin. Like Evergreen and Hampshire, anti-Israel forces have been in the ascendant at that college for years, driving supporters of the Jewish state underground (or causing them to apply elsewhere) and this success may have emboldened students towards even greater radicalism. All of the pathologies we have seen on college campuses: accusations of systematic bigotry (targeting a school that was at the forefront of abolition and civil rights movements no less) and demands for ever more subservience to the radicals have been turned up to eleven at Oberlin, which may explain how the college ended up looking down the wrong end of a nine-figure legal settlement.
While it is impossible to read minds or Tardis our way into the past to attend meetings where decisions were made, it seems likely that administrators at the school thought the most effective way to diffuse student attacks against them as being bigots was to deflect student fire towards an innocent small business that some students were accusing of racial profiling after an African American undergrad was arrested for shoplifting at the store.
That seems to be the storyline that won over the jury, and while the college continues to insist it did nothing wrong, there seems to be no acceptance that the school has a responsibility to use its voice to prevent students from harming others (in this case, harming a hundred-year-old small business that had to suffer days of protests – participated in by both and at least one college administrator – where the family that owned the store was condemned as racists).
The world is too complex to draw a direct line between tolerating intolerance towards one group (Jewish supporters of Israel) to tolerating intolerance generally, but it certainly makes sense that once you have decided to throw one group to the wolves that the wolves might take that as an open invitation to demand more food.
In the case of Oberlin, the food bit back and it remains to be seen if other places where BDS reigns supreme will suffer similar fates as Evergreen, Hampshire and Oberlin, now that we know even seemingly permanent institutions (including colleges and universities, academic associations, even centuries-old churches) might not last forever.
From Ian:
Eugene Kontorovich (WSJ): Take the Palestinians’ ‘No’ for an Answer (click via tweet)
Palestinian Leaders To United States: We Don’t Need Your Stinking Money
Eugene Kontorovich (WSJ): Take the Palestinians’ ‘No’ for an Answer (click via tweet)
This week’s U.S.-led Peace to Prosperity conference in Bahrain on the Palestinian economy will likely be attended by seven Arab states—a clear rebuke to foreign-policy experts who said that recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the Golan Heights as Israeli territory would alienate the Arab world. Sunni Arab states are lending legitimacy to the Trump administration’s plan, making it all the more notable that the Palestinian Authority itself refuses to participate.
The conference’s only agenda is improving the Palestinian economy. It isn’t tied to any diplomatic package, and the plan’s 40-page overview contains nothing at odds with the Palestinian’s purported diplomatic goals. Some aspects are even politically uncomfortable for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Given all that, the Palestinian Authority’s unwillingness to discuss economic opportunities for its own people, even with the Arab states, shows how far it is from discussing the concessions necessary for a diplomatic settlement. Instead it seeks to deepen Palestinian misfortune and use it as a cudgel against Israel in the theater of international opinion.
This isn’t the first time the Palestinians have said no. At a summit brokered by President Clinton in 2000, Israel offered them full statehood on territory that included roughly 92% of the West Bank and all of Gaza, along with a capital in Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority rejected that offer, leading Israel to up it to 97% of the West Bank in 2001. Again, the answer was no. An even further-reaching offer in 2008 was rejected out of hand. And when President Obama pressured Israel into a 10-month settlement freeze in 2009 to renew negotiations, the Palestinians refused to come to the table.
After so many rejections, one might conclude that the Palestinian Authority’s leaders simply aren’t interested in peace. Had they accepted any of the peace offers, they would have immediately received the rarest of all geopolitical prizes: a new country, with full international recognition. To be sure, in each proposal they found something not quite to their liking. But the Palestinians are perhaps the only national independence movement in the modern era that has ever rejected a genuine offer of internationally recognized statehood, even if it falls short of all the territory the movement had sought.
The Palestinian’s no-show this week in Bahrain should be their last. Don’t reward their rejectionism, writes @EVKontorovich https://t.co/SRiCkmtuVK via @WSJ
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) June 23, 2019
Palestinian Leaders To United States: We Don’t Need Your Stinking Money
The Palestinian Authority also attended a “counter-conference” in Bahrain last week, titled “The Holocaust of the Century in Bahrain… Its Signs, Consequences, and Ways to Deal With It,” bizarrely applying terminology that describes Nazis’ genocide against the Jews to an economic conference with a $50 billion proposed investment.Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians and the Bahrain Conference: Condemning Arabs While Asking for Arab Money
The boycott and calls for violence rehash the same unproductive methods the Palestinians have used in the past to thwart peace measures, only this time the incoherence of the boycott is made more evident by the fact Israel will not even attend. Palestinian leaders continue to promulgate the notion that the workshop is some devious machination of the West or President Trump or both, despite many Palestinian-Arab neighbors agreeing to attend and host.
If anything, their attendance shows the Palestinian-Arabs’ gradual isolation among the Gulf States, who have grown weary of the Palestinian Authority’s political gymnastics and obsession with destroying their Jewish neighbors. Bahrain will prove another missed opportunity for Palestinian leadership to engage with their neighbors in a significant way. Palestinian leadership sees the political capital to be had in human suffering, so any attempts to mitigate such suffering meet serious skepticism from Palestinian officials.
Since rejecting the suggested partitioning the 1937 Peel Commission, Arab leaders have thwarted the creation of an Arab state west of the Jordan River more than six times, depending on whether one considers refusal to talk to mean refusing the possibility of a state. Thus, if anything is to be gleaned from the Bahrain conference boycott, it is that the Palestinian leadership does not have a genuine interest in bettering the lives of their own people—and perhaps that they are quite unprepared for actual statehood.
The Palestinian strategy is clear: to incite the Arab masses against their leaders and governments. The Palestinian attacks are no longer directed against US President Donald Trump... Now the targets are the Arab heads of state, particularly those who are seen by Palestinians are being in collusion with Israel and the Trump administration.
As the Palestinians were condemning Arabs for agreeing to attend the conference in Bahrain, Palestinian leaders repeated their appeal to the Arab states for financial aid. On the one hand, the Palestinians are condemning Arab countries for attending a conference aimed at boosting the Palestinian economy and improving living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On the other hand, Palestinian leaders have no problem begging their Arab brothers for urgent financial aid.... The Palestinians are asking the Arabs to give them $100 million each month to help them "face political and financial pressure" from Israel and the US administration.
The Palestinians realize that some of the key Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, are no longer prepared to wait for them and have decided to board the train whose final destination is prosperity and economic opportunities for both Palestinians and Arabs.
The decision of six Arab states to attend the Bahrain conference despite the Palestinian boycott call shows that the Arabs have chosen to endorse a new direction – one that will leave the Palestinians to fend for themselves in a hell of their own making. For their choice to thumb their noses not only at the US but also at influential Arab states, the Palestinians are likely to emerge as the biggest losers.
- Monday, June 24, 2019
- Elder of Ziyon
- AmericanZionism
I am pleased that the amazing tweeter American Zionism agreed to write an occasional article for EoZ.
Arab/Muslim Immigration to the Holy Land
Part 1 - Bosnia, Algeria, Morocco, and
Egypt
A Bosniak Muslim Colony in
Caesarea
Colonies from North Africa
The Maghrebins of Jerusalem
The Algerians of Palestine
Gaza’s Egyptian Character
and the Galilee’s Egyptian Colony
The Odd Case of the Al-Simalni
Tribe
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.
_____________________________
Arab/Muslim Immigration to the Holy Land
Part 1 - Bosnia, Algeria, Morocco, and
Egypt
We know a lot about Jewish immigration to the
Holy Land because the Ottomans and then the British did such a good job at
keeping Jews out that it became global news. But what about Arab/Muslim
immigration to the Holy Land during the same period. The usual narrative you
will read online is that the Jews arrived in the late 19th & early 20th
century, but that the “Palestinians” had been there since the beginning of
time. Is that true?
If you have ever spent time on social media
talking about Israel, you may have come across this quote from Robert Kennedy
“The
Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs, in the 12 years
between 1932-1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions
existing in no other Arab state …”
Kennedy, a young, recent college graduate and wise beyond
his years, made the remark after a trip to the Holy Land in March of 1948
- after the UN partition of Mandatory
Palestine and on the precipice of the Israeli War of Independence, which began
in May. The quote appeared in the Boston Post, in a series of articles about
his experiences on the trip. Kennedy was a supporter of the nascient state of
Israel and of the Jewish people and it is what eventually lead to his
assassination in 1968.
I’ve often thought about that quote. I’ve even referred to
it on social media. But, I haven’t seen much in the way of support for that statement. Did Arabs really
immigrate to Palestine to take advantage of the improved living conditions thanks
to the Zionists enterprises? Did they immigrate to Palestine at all? Could I
find any proof of Arab/Muslim immigration to the Holy Land in the 19th or early
20th centuries? I began studying
historic documents to see if Jews were the only people that immigrated to the
land of Israel or if they were joined by Arabs. As conditions in the Holy Land
improved, Arabs/Muslims did indeed come from around the Mediteranean, other
parts of the Levant, Egypt, and even from Europe at the same time as the Jews.
They immigrated, built colonies, and eventually became a component of the
people that would go on to call themselves Palestinians. Here are some of those
stories. This article is part one of what I discovered.
A Bosniak Muslim Colony in
Caesarea
Murray's Handbooks
for Travellers were among the oldest and most respected travel
guides in Europe. Their guides were well researched and revised as needed.
Their first guide on Syria and Palestine appeared in 1858. In the 1903 edition,
they report that a colony of Bosniak Muslims settled in the ancient seaside
city of Caesarea in 1883 (page 202). Later it states that the Bosniak colonists
were engaging in building operations (Page 205).
It certainly doesn’t sound like they were
planning on going anywhere. They were building a society. One question remains
from the passage. Murray’s guide mentions that the colony was ravaged by
malaria and that it might become extinct. Did it become extinct because of
malaria?
If you have ever taken a tour in Europe or
looked for a tour from Europe, chances are you’ve dealt with Thomas Cook. One
of the most well known travel agencies in the world, dating back nearly 200
years, Thomas Cook is a name that people trust. They also happened to produce
travel guides in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1907, four years
after the Murray guide, they published Cook's Tourists' Handbook to Palestine and Syria. In the section under Ceasarea, they also mention that
Bosnian immigrants lived in Caesarea and “have houses among the ruins” of the
ancient city ( page 169).
Baedeker is known around the world for their travel
guides. They are so ubiquitous with international travel that the name Baedeker
came to mean “guidebook” in the dictionary. In the 1912 edition of Baedeker’s
Handbook for Travellers Palestine and Syria, on the section about Caesarea,
they mention that “Bosnians have been settled here since 1884 and can supply
rough nightquarters in case of need.” (page 237) This was nine years after
Murray mentioned them and five years after Cook.
Not only were they still in Caesarea, but they were the
only group mentioned that supplied sleeping arrangements in the city.
Obviously, the Bosnian colony did not become extinct and most likely grew,
eventually to be absorbed into the community that would go on to call
themselves Palestinians.
Colonies from North Africa
The Maghrebins of Jerusalem
In the 1876 edition of Baedeker’s Handbook
for Travellers Palestine and Syria, regarding the population of the city of
Jerusalem, it states “Among the Muslim Arabs is also included a colony of
Africans (Moghrebins).” (page 162) The Maghrebs are Muslim of North Africa,
mostly Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, and are either Arabs or Berbers. They
were previously referred to as Moors by Europeans. In the 1894 edition of
Baedeker, eighteen years later, it repeats the same statement about the Maghreb
colony and mentions that out of 40,000 residents of Jerusalem, 7560 are Muslims
including that community.
The 1907 edition of Cook's Tourists' Handbook to Palestine and Syria it lists the
population of Jerusalem at 50,000 with 12,000 Muslims and among them “a colony
of African’s from Morocco”. (page 65)
The 1912 edition of Baedeker’s also mentions North African
Maghrebins located near the Western Wall in Jerusalem, only this time they’ve
graduated from a colony to residents of the city.
If the colony existed at minimum 36 years and
the members were absorbed into the population at large, there is a good
probability that they eventually became part of the future Palestinian people.
The Algerians of Palestine
Emir Abdelkader was an amazing man. He was an
Algerian religious and military leader who staged a rebellion against the
French occupation of Algeria in the mid 1800s. He eventually failed and was
forced to flee with his supporters to Turkey and then eventually settled in
Damascus, Syria where he lived out the rest of his days. In the 1907 edition of
Cook's
Tourists' Handbook to Palestine and Syria on Page 286, it mentions that part of
the population of Safed in northern Galilee, one of the four holy cities of
Judaism in Israel, contains a large number of Muslims, including Algerians who
followed Abdelkader into exile after the failed rebellion. This episode is
interesting for two reasons. The first is that we have written proof that there
were North Africans who had a community in Safed. The second, is that since
Abdelkader went from Algeria to Turkey to Syria, it would logically follow that
those that settled in Safed came over from Syria. We know from history books
and other travel journals that the Ottoman occupiers of the Holy Land
restricted the number of Jews who could immigrate and live in the Holy Land,
while the same restriction did not apply to other populations and the border
was open to them. This entry supports that claim.
The 1907 Cook handbook lists two other
Algerian colonies in the Galilee. The first was the village of Kafr Sabt, which
is described as an “Algerian colony” (page 274). Kaft Sabt is often noted as a
Palestinian village on the Internet, but in 1907 it was cleary a strictly
Algerian colony.
The third reference to Algerians in the 1907
Cook guide can be found on page 287 and mentions an Algerian settlement near
the village of Ain ez Zeitun.
So far the only references to Algerians
immigrants is in the 1907 Cook guidebook. Are there any other references? In
the 1912 edition of Baedeker’s Handbook
for Travellers Palestine and Syria, it references the village of Kafr Sabt
as being “a village inhabited by Algerian peasants” (page 251) corroborating
the account in the Cook guidebook.
That is at least three separate Algerian
colonies in the Galilee that came from at least two different areas in the
Middle East (North Africa and Syria) and were established in the late 19th
century at the same time as Jews were settling in the area. We can draw some
conclusions. The first being that the Algerian communities did not return to
Algeria. There is no record to suggest it. They undoubtedly became part of the Palestinian people. They
were not a group of people who originated in the Holy Land and whose ancestors
had lived there for thousands of years, but recent North African immigrants.
The second is if it’s true that there were Arab/Muslim colonies established by
Algerians at the same time Jews were establishing colonies, then if you call
Jews “colonists” you have to also call the Palestinians colonists, since part
of the Palestinian collective was composed of recent immigrants that
estabilised colonies and settlements. As we will see, these weren’t the only
Arab/Muslim colonies.
Gaza’s Egyptian Character
and the Galilee’s Egyptian Colony
In 2012, Hamas’ Minister of the Interior and National Security,
Fathi Hammad, speaking from the Gaza Strip, declared on video that
“half the Palestinians are Egyptians and the other Half are Saudis”. Was he
just trying to get money from the Egyptian government when he said it, or did
some Palestiians actually immigrate from Egypt? Gaza is on the border of
Egypt’s Sinai peninsula and the connection between Egypt and Gaza goes back a
thousand years or more, including the Egyptian Mamluk occupation of Gaza in the
14th century and Modern Egypt’s occupation of Gaza between 1948 and 1967. Gaza
has served as a major stop in the trade route between Syria and Egypt, so it
would make sense that over the long history of the two, Egyptians would have
settled in Gaza. But do we have any historical proof to back it up?
In the 1894 edition of Baedeker’s Handbook
for Travellers Palestine and Syria (page 156), it gives a description of Gaza as having a
“semi-Egyptian character”, that the veil of the Muslim women “closely resembles
the Egyptian”, and that the bazaar too “has an Egyptian appearance.”
All three of those descriptions allude to the area being
inhabited by people who came over from Egypt. The 1906 edition of Baedekers
repeats the description of Gaza as having a semi-Egyptian character.
In the 1822 travel journal Travels Along The
Mediterranean Vol.2 by Robert Richardson, a Scottish physician and
travel writer, he writes that the southern half of Gaza below the town of Deir
al Balah (Dair), including Khan Yunis (Hanoonis), pays tribute not to the Pasha
of Acre or Jerusalem, but to the Pasha of Egypt (pages 195-196). Not only does
it seem like Gaza was a distinctly Egyptian area in feel, but part of it may
have actually been part of Ottoman Egypt.
That’s all fine, but it could be argued that the Gazan’s
adopted the looks and customs of the Egyptian traders and that who they paid
tribute to doesn’t reflect who they were. Even if they were Egyptians, who is
to say they didn’t come over during the Mamluk conquest 500 years prior and
remain? Is there any proof that Egyptians came as immigrants during the time
Zionists were cultivating the land? In fact there is, and they didn’t only
settle in Gaza.
In the 1903 edition of Murray's Handbooks for
Travellers it states that Ibrahim Pasha established a colony of Egyptian
peasants in the year 1840 in the ancient city of Bethshan now called Beisan
(page 213). It even states that the village is almost exclusively made up of
the Egyptian colony. What is interesting about this account is the location of
Beisan. It is not located in Gaza or even along the coast. Beisan is in the
Jordan Valley in the North close to the Jordanian border.
The Odd Case of the Al-Simalni
Tribe
The most fascinating story of immigration from Egypt might
be the story of the Al-Simalni Bedouin tribe in the Galilee. In 1924 the
Mukhtar of the tribe announced that they were secretly Jews and wanted to
officially convert to Judaism. The British were skeptical and determined that
it was probably not true and mostly likely motivated by economics. Whether or
not they went through with the conversion is unknown at this time. What is
known and more important in the context of this article is the background of
the Al-Simalni.
On August 30, 1924, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
ran a story about the Al-Simalni tribe, including an interview with their
Mukhtar Shiekh Mustapha. When asked why they wanted to convert to Judaism, he
explained that the founder of the tribe, Simlon was of Jewish origin and came
to Palestine from Egypt 80 years ago. He married a woman from Transjordan
(Jordan) and had six children. The tribe emerged from that union. What is not
clear is whether he came from Egypt with other Bedouins or he came alone.
What is clear however is that it was a Bedouin tribe in
the Holy Land that was not there since “the time of Abraham” as is often
sensationalized in books and articles about the history of the region, but one
that came from Egypt and Jordan in the mid 19th century! It’s always possible
that they were descendants of a Jew. That we will never know. What we do know
is they were Arab Muslims who came from Egypt and Jordan and became part of
what is know known as the Palestinians.
The story of the Al-Simalni also appeared in the August
31, 1924 edition of the Louisville Courier-Journal.
This by no means is an exhaustive list of Arab/Muslim
immigration to the Holy Land during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
These are just a few examples of Arabs/Muslims that settled in the Holy Land at
the same time as Jews and who became part of the people we now know as
Palestinians. These were not people who had lived on the land from the
beginning of time or biblical time that converted to Islam as so many claim. These
were immigrants who established colonies and built communities just like the
Jews, whether for economic reasons to take advantage of the advances and
technologies brought by the Zionists or for other reasons. You probably didn’t
know about this wave of Arab/Muslim immigration because while Jewish
immigration was restricted, Arab/Muslim immigration was not, so it wasn’t noteworthy and rarely reported. Not all is as
it seems in the news and social media. It is important to search deeper.
In Part 2, we will discuss more settlements of
Arabs/Muslims in the land of Israel from the Middle East, including World War I
refugees and unauthorized immigration.
@americanzionism
- Monday, June 24, 2019
- Elder of Ziyon
Alkawnnews.com is the 13th most popular site of any type in Jordan.
An article published there by writer Abdul Hamid Al-Hamshari spins a fanciful conspiracy theory around the Bahrain conference that involved Jews, Freemasons and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
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.
An article published there by writer Abdul Hamid Al-Hamshari spins a fanciful conspiracy theory around the Bahrain conference that involved Jews, Freemasons and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The purpose of this workshop is to market the Jewish state and to impose it as an essential component of the new Middle East, which is being promoted and marketed by the United States, which takes the approach of Ferdinand and Isabella as a way to destroy the Arab-Islamic presence in the Middle East.Nah, nothing antisemitic about that.
Of course, the Jewish state will be the actual leader of the Arab communities in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. In other words, the implementation of what Jehovah's Witnesses promoted in 1887 would be the Jewish state in Palestine, the basic building block of a global civil government that rules the world by the Old Testament.
This workshop enabled the Jews in the hands of the Arab and Muslim Masons to take over the entire Middle East and conduct its affairs according to the Basel Conference in Switzerland in 1897, where the evil will spread to all the Arabs in the hands of the Freemasons who follow the implementation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The settlement of the occupied Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, the end of UNRWA and the annexation of the occupied Syrian Golan to the occupation entity is in preparation for the liquidation of the Palestinian cause all culminates in the Bahrain workshop.
For the last two decades of the last century and the first decade of the current century the goal is to get rid of everything that was believed to be a stumbling block in the implementation of the Jewish state that Zionism seeks. They destroyed Iraq and Libya and Yemen and others, on the same path to describe the atmosphere of Jewish tampering in the region with the support of American Masons.
This workshop is based on Masonry to serve Zionism and global imperialism and to destroy values and morals in the Arab countries, especially from the cradle of the message of Islam to the Arabian Peninsula and to the end of the world. The Arab and Muslim builders are the ones who have the responsibility of promoting the Zionist presence and the ownership of Palestine to the Jews by legislative status. Abdul Hameed al-Othmani was isolated for refusing to allow the Jews to settle in Palestine and then he was destroyed by the Ottomans, the Ottoman state whose tolerance for the embrace of the Spanish Jews had put the snake in its hole that ended its existence.
This paragraph is hilarious. It shows that the reason the author hates being under the thumb of his imagined Jewish overlords is because he wants the Arabs to be the ones who control the world!
This workshop is not aimed at the economic revival of Palestine or the countries of the Middle East. These countries have enough economic resources if there is good intentions and honesty with self to lead the entire world economically and politically and impose their will on it, but their self-destructive tendencies leadthe Arab region to fall and subjugation and humiliation.
- Monday, June 24, 2019
- Elder of Ziyon
We have seen this weekend, and will continue to see this week, a Palestinian leadership refusing to accept a detailed economic package that everyone can agree would help their people tremendously.
Let us make explicit what the reporting only hints at.
When Abbas says "no" to $50 billion in economic aid that would build an infrastructure, create universities, empower women and provide tens of thousands of jobs, he is saying that he wants more. He demands a state, half of Jerusalem, the "right of return," Israel releasing thousands of prisoners including the most heinous terrorists, 100% of the territory on the Jordanian and Egyptian sides of the 1949 armistice lines, and more.
If he doesn't get that, there is an "or else." An "or else" that no one talks about, because when it is defined, it shows that Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah leaders are monsters. The idea is too terrible for tender Western sensitivities so it gets papered over.
What are the "or elses"?
The first and most popular "or else" has been said over the years in a passive way. It states that if Palestinians don't get what they demand, then the region will always be in turmoil. The threat goes that unless Palestinian leaders get the state that they demand, without compromise, they will continue to use terrorism against Israeli civilians. They will continue to shoot rockets at Israeli communities. They will start an uprising. (In times past, they would also threaten to inflame the "Arab street" to destabilize lots of Arab regimes, but I'm not sure anyone believes that anymore.)
In short, the first and foremost "or else" is a permanent return to terror. Within that threat is the hint of a wider threat, that Muslim extremist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda will become strengthened, that the terrorist spree of the 1970s will return, that there will be more 9/11s.
It is a mafia-style threat of "give me what I want or I will make life miserable for you."
That is bad enough, and it already exposes Abbas and his team as despicable. But more recently there is another "or else," another threat which reveals the Palestinian leadership to be absolute monsters.
The "or else" is that if Abbas doesn't receive aid in the format that he demands, he will allow his own people to wither and die. He refuses to send his people to Israeli hospitals that can save their lives. He refuses to accept USAID aid. He refuses to accept tax revenue from Israel where some 6% is deducted for the amount he pays terrorists and their families.
And he refuses to even consider aid that could bring his people out of the limbo they have been placed in. Money that could give them dignity and a future.
In this insidious "or else," Abbas is telling the West that he doesn't give a damn about his own people, but he knows that the hated Israelis and Americans do care about all human life.
He is saying to do what he wants, or else he will let his own people die.
That is not just bargaining. That is callous and despicable. It is the exact opposite of leadership. It is disgusting.
Yet no one is calling him out on this.
Sunday, June 23, 2019
- Sunday, June 23, 2019
- Elder of Ziyon
Continuing my series of re-captioning single panel cartoons....
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.
From Ian:
Ben-Dror Yemini: Kushner is repeating the same mistake
Palestinian Authority: U.S. economic plan is a new Balfour Declaration
Ben-Dror Yemini: Kushner is repeating the same mistake
John Kerry, who served as US Secretary of State under former US President Barack Obama, claimed more than once that poverty leads to terror. We'll give the poor economic prosperity, he thought, and the level of terror will drop. If anyone thought that the Trump administration had changed direction - the "deal of the century" proves that nothing has changed.David Singer: Trump should not pour $6.5 billion into Gaza and 'West Bank'
The economic workshop, to be held this week in Bahrain, is proof. We'll give the "Palestinians" economic prosperity, says Jared Kushner, who leads the Trump administration's peace deal staff, and the level of enmity will drop.
Both Kerry and Kushner, along with many others, should know that this is an illusion. The poor in Africa do not choose terror. There are millions of poor people in Nigeria. They don't choose terror. And among the "Palestinians" as well, those who choose violence are not necessarily poor.
The city of Shechem (Nablus) has enjoyed relative prosperity in recent years, thanks to the buying power of Israeli Arabs. Has it changed anything for Zakaria Zubeidi? After all, in recent years he has enjoyed status and is well-to-do financially. But he went back to terror. Because the brainwashing and incitement are a lot stronger than the options of money and prosperity. All the mass terror attacks in the US were carried out by successful, middle-class Muslim youth. Did any of that prevent them from choosing terror? (h/t IsaacStorm)
President Trump should not allow the euphoria that swept the world following the 27 November 2007 Annapolis Conference to infect the Manama Conference being jointly hosted by himself and Bahrain on 25-26 June.
Yet his just released 40 page document “Peace to Prosperity” threatens to do just this – offering US$6.5 billion in Grant and Equity Funding and Concessional Funding to carry out a variety of programs in Judea and Samarai (aka 'West Bank') and Gaza including:
- Starting Equity-Matching and Lending Facilities
- Border Crossing Points Upgrade
- Power Plant Upgrades
- Tourism Lending Facility and Site Rehabilitation
- New Palestinian University
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s closing remarks at Annapolis were brimming with hope:
“The conference began with the joint announcement by Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas that they will begin negotiations to establish a Palestinian state and to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace with the goal of concluding an agreement by the end of the year 2008”
Under their Joint Understanding Olmert and Abbas committed:
“...to immediately implement their respective obligations under the Performance-Based Road Map to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israel-Palestinian Conflict, issued by the Quartet on 30 April 2003 (hereinafter, "the Roadmap") and agree to form an American, Palestinian and Israeli mechanism, led by the United States, to follow up on the implementation of the Roadmap”
Palestinian Authority: U.S. economic plan is a new Balfour Declaration
Palestinian officials on Sunday stepped up their attacks on the economic portion of the US administration’s Middle East peace plan, calling it “Balfour Declaration No. 2” – referencing the 1917 public statement by the British government announcing support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.Tensions Rise Over US-Led Bahrain Peace Workshop
Meanwhile, Palestinian factions called for launching three days of protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip against the US-led Bahrain economic conference, which is expected to be launched in Manama on Tuesday. The factions and Palestinian officials in Ramallah expressed disappointment over Jordan’s and Egypt’s decision to participate in the conference despite Palestinian calls to boycotting it.
“Day after day, the reality of the American intentions and attitudes against the Palestinian people and their rights are exposed,” the PA Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Referring to the unveiling of the economic plan by the White House on Saturday, the ministry said it was US President Donald Trump’s “ominous declaration, or Balfour Declaration No. 2.”
The PA ministry accused the US administration of denying the existence of the Palestinian people and dealing with them as a “group of people.”
It said that the US economic plan, called “Peace to Prosperity,” was an extension of the US administration’s political bias in favor of Israel. “This plan does not mention the economy of the Palestinian state and its components, but is trying to whitewash the occupation and settlements,” the ministry added.
GUESTS: IDF LT. COL. (RES) Alon Eviatar – Palestinian Affairs Expert, FMR. COGAT Advisor and Dr. Mustafa Barghouti – Leader of Palestinian National Initiative discuss the Israeli Palestinian tensions amid the upcoming Bahrain US-lef Bahrain conference.
- Sunday, June 23, 2019
- Elder of Ziyon
Continuing on with the UN's large permanent exhibit on the UN and the Palestinian question, we see this timeline:
The 1948 entry is wrong. Palestinian Arabs started attacking Jews way before May 1948 - they started within hours of the partition plan vote in 1947. They killed scores of civilians before Zionist forces started defending themselves.
But the astonishing thing about this history is what is missing. Even though it is a history of the UN involvement in the issue, it doesn't mention the UN accepting Israel as a state in 1949. The 1956 war is ignored completely, as are the fedayeen attacks on Israel from its inception through 1967. The threats of Arab nations against Israel - ignored. The actual 1967 and 1973 wars are essentially ignored. The formation of Fatah and PLO and other terror groups - ignored. Black September - ignored. Palestinian airline hijackings in the 1960s and 1970s - ignored.
The latter is especially important because there was at least one UN Security Council resolution demanding the hijackers release the passengers of one of those hijackings. The UN cannot claim that his history is only of its direct involvement with Palestinians and the other information is not relevant - because a UNSC resolution is a big deal yet it is ignored in this history, because the point isn't to inform visitors of Palestinian history in the UN but to whitewash it.
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.
The 1948 entry is wrong. Palestinian Arabs started attacking Jews way before May 1948 - they started within hours of the partition plan vote in 1947. They killed scores of civilians before Zionist forces started defending themselves.
But the astonishing thing about this history is what is missing. Even though it is a history of the UN involvement in the issue, it doesn't mention the UN accepting Israel as a state in 1949. The 1956 war is ignored completely, as are the fedayeen attacks on Israel from its inception through 1967. The threats of Arab nations against Israel - ignored. The actual 1967 and 1973 wars are essentially ignored. The formation of Fatah and PLO and other terror groups - ignored. Black September - ignored. Palestinian airline hijackings in the 1960s and 1970s - ignored.
The latter is especially important because there was at least one UN Security Council resolution demanding the hijackers release the passengers of one of those hijackings. The UN cannot claim that his history is only of its direct involvement with Palestinians and the other information is not relevant - because a UNSC resolution is a big deal yet it is ignored in this history, because the point isn't to inform visitors of Palestinian history in the UN but to whitewash it.
- Sunday, June 23, 2019
- Elder of Ziyon
When anti-Israel voices speak of the first Intifada to Westerners nowadays, it is invariably described as a grassroots, popular movement, largely nonviolent.
The Nation says "Palestine’s First Intifada Is Still a Model for Grassroots Resistance." Ma'an has, in English, a "factbook" about the intifada where Israel is portrayed as killing non-violent protesters who are simply trying to demonstrate.
In Arabic, things are a little different.
Yesterday, the mother of a "martyr" from the first Intifada died. Fatah honored her on behalf of her son, Ibrahim Jalamneh.
Here are a couple of photos of Jalamneh.
Jalamneh was a member of a group of assassins from Jenin named the Black Panthers. This site mentions a few attacks including a shooting attack on a civilian bus.
Jalamneh and others were killed in a fierce firefight in Jenin in 1992 that also killed an Israeli soldier.
This is the part of the first intifada that Palestinians don't want Westerners to remember.
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.
The Nation says "Palestine’s First Intifada Is Still a Model for Grassroots Resistance." Ma'an has, in English, a "factbook" about the intifada where Israel is portrayed as killing non-violent protesters who are simply trying to demonstrate.
In Arabic, things are a little different.
Yesterday, the mother of a "martyr" from the first Intifada died. Fatah honored her on behalf of her son, Ibrahim Jalamneh.
Here are a couple of photos of Jalamneh.
Jalamneh was a member of a group of assassins from Jenin named the Black Panthers. This site mentions a few attacks including a shooting attack on a civilian bus.
Jalamneh and others were killed in a fierce firefight in Jenin in 1992 that also killed an Israeli soldier.
This is the part of the first intifada that Palestinians don't want Westerners to remember.
- Sunday, June 23, 2019
- Elder of Ziyon
Mahmoud Abbas again said Saturday that he is not interested in the Bahrain economic workshop, saying that there can be no economic progress without a diplomatic solution fo rpeace.
The position is, frankly, ludicrous.
After looking at the vision document for the Bahrain economic workshop, I see very little that anyone could object to.
Israel is barely mentioned except as a neighboring country with which Gaza and the West Bank could trade.
There are thirteen "breakout" program ideas, including:
Startup Equity-Matching and Lending FacilitiesFINANCING:
$100 million in grant equity funding
$300 million in concessional financing
PROJECT OVERVIEW:This project will support the creation of equity-matching and lending facilities focused on Palestinian startups and emerging technology companies. The equity-matching component will encourage venture capital and private equity firms to invest in Palestinian startups.
“Power Gaza” Power Plant UpgradeLOCATION:
Gaza
FINANCING:
Up to $590 million in grants and concessional financing
PROJECT OVERVIEW: Stage One of this project will provide up to $90 million in grant funding to support the conversion of the Gaza Power Plant from diesel fuel to natural gas and connect it to a natural gas supply. This will increase electricity supply in Gaza by approximately 70 megawatts (MW) and significantly reduce the cost of electricity for Palestinians. In Stage Two, an additional investment of $500
million will expand the production capacity of the Gaza Power Plant by an additional 400 MW
Regional TourismLOCATION:
West Bank and Gaza, Egypt,Jordan, Lebanon
FINANCING:
Up to $1.5 billion in concessional financing
Up to $500 million in grants
PROJECT OVERVIEW: With its culture, natural beauty, and historical and religious sites, the region has extraordinary tourism potential. This project will support private-sector domestic businesses and public-private partnerships to develop tourism sites and infrastructure in West Bank and Gaza, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon.
New Palestinian UniversityFINANCING:
Up to $500 million in grants
PROJECT OVERVIEW: To prepare Palestinian students to join the workforce of the 21st century, this project envisions the construction and development of a new flagship liberal arts and sciences university in the West Bank and Gaza. The project will incorporate input from Palestinian academic leaders to construct facilities that use the latest technology to deliver the highest-quality education.
Career Counseling and Job PlacementFINANCING: Up to $30 million in grants
PROJECT OVERVIEW: Peace to Prosperity envisions women within the West Bank and Gaza receiving the financing, market opportunities, and workforce training to succeed as entrepreneurs and private business owners. As a part of promoting the adoption of a comprehensive strategy to advance economic opportunities for women, this project will support the development of a central institution to facilitate career counseling and job-placement services for women and young Palestinians throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
Abbas is saying that there can be no university, no tourism initiatives, no job programs for Palestinian women, no fixing the Gaza power plant - until Israel gives in to his blackmail.
Who exactly is suffering in the meanwhile? Of course, only Palestinian Arabs. There is precisely zero relationship between most of these initiatives and progress in moribund peace talks.
Abbas doesn't want the world to realize that he could have worked himself to help his people in the years since he has been in office, because he could have gotten Arab and EU money to do these exact things if he wanted.
Allowing the US and Arab countries to work on these things shows how poor a leader Abbas has been, and it highlights how easily he throws his own people under the bus to achieve his own selfish political aims.
Saturday, June 22, 2019
From Ian:
UK rabbi to House of Lords: Rise in antisemitism today similar to Holocaust-era
UK rabbi to House of Lords: Rise in antisemitism today similar to Holocaust-era
The UK’s House of Lords debated the subject of antisemitism in the country’s politics, with Britain’s former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks describing the rise of antisemitism in Europe today being similar to that of Holocaust-era Europe.In First Jewish refugees from the MENA debated in UK Parliament
Sacks expressed his shock that when he visited Poland, he found that the Warsaw Ghetto was located in the city center.
“Try to imagine 400,000 Hindus or Sikhs imprisoned within ghetto walls in the middle of London,” Sacks said on Thursday. “Imagine people passing those walls every day, knowing that behind them, thousands were dying or being sent to their deaths, and no one said a word. How did it happen?
“It happened because, in the 19th century – in the heart of emancipated Europe – antisemitism, once dismissed as a primitive prejudice of the Middle Ages, was reborn,” Sacks continued.
Earlier today, I spoke in a @UKHouseofLords debate on worldwide #antisemitism. Here is a video of my remarks in which I argued that a society, or a political party, that tolerates antisemitism or any form of hate, has forfeited all moral credibility. pic.twitter.com/gkZgWn6i8Q— Rabbi Sacks (@rabbisacks) June 20, 2019
Sacks mentioned the different politicians during the Holocaust who allowed that same medieval antisemitism to prevail. “That is where we are today,” he emphasized. “Within living memory of the Holocaust, antisemitism has returned exactly as it did in the 19th century, just when people had begun to feel that they had finally vanquished the hatreds of the past.
“Today, there is hardly a country in the world, certainly not a single country in Europe, where Jews feel safe,” Sacks declared. “It is hard to emphasize how serious this is, not just for Jews but for our shared humanity.”
For the first time, the issue of Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa was debated in the UK Parliament on 19 June 2019. The hour-long debate in Westminster Hall, secured by MP Theresa Villiers, obtained unanimous approval by all parliamentarians present for Jewish refugees from the MENA to be ‘considered’ by the House. You can read the full HANSARD transcript here.European Commission holds first-ever working group on antisemitism
Participating in the debate were Dr Andrew Murrison, the junior minister in charge of the Middle East at the Foreign Office and Opposition spokeman Fabian Hamilton, nine back-bench members of Parliament from both the main parties (no Liberal Democrat MPS attended), as well as representatives of the Northern Irish DUP and the Scottish Nationalists.
However, in reply to questions from MPs Zac Goldsmith and Matthew Offord, junior minister for the Middle East Dr Andrew Murrison refused to commit the UK government to following the lead of the US Congress and the Canadian Parliament: both had passed a resolution calling for explicit recognition for Jewish refugees. Dr Murrison referred to Security UN Resolution 242 as the template for considering the rights of both refugee populations ‘in the round’. He did not comment on the imbalance in UN resolutions, 172 of which dealt with Palestinian refugees, not one on Jewish refugees.
The minister (pictured above) mentioned ‘examples of countries that have done relatively well in a dismal scene’. “I cite Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan*….as countries where there has been a more benign attitude towards Jewish refugees,” he said.”This must not obscure the general awfulness,” he acknowledged.
Introducing the topic, Ms Villiers said that the 856,000 Jews ethnically cleansed from pre-Islamic communities in Arab countries were the key to understanding the Middle East conflict. She agreed with MPs Andrew Percy (who had relatives of a persecuted Yemenite family in his constituency) and Stephen Crabbe that awareness of the issue was key to debunking the ‘false narrative’ that Israel was a creation of the West and that no Jews had ever lived in the Middle East. She pointed out that a disproportionate amount of airtime was devoted to the Palestinian refugees. Despite the early hardships, the integration of MENA Jews into Israel had been a ‘huge success”, with Mizrahi Jews today a valued part of the fabric of Israeli society as well as in the West.
As Europe grapples with a rising tide of antisemitism, the European Commission held its first-ever “working group” on the matter Thursday.
The meeting, which convened almost 100 representatives of Jewish communities, EU Member States and international organizations, spent a full day discussing security, including risk assessments, building trust and physical protections, EU staffer Johannes Börmann tweeted.
“The Commission is acting together with Member States to counter the rise of Antisemitism, to fight holocaust denial and to guarantee that Jews have the full support of the authorities to keep them safe,” EU Justice commissioner Věra Jourová said in a statement before the session. “The Working Group will help Member States coordinate their actions and fight Antisemitism efficiently together.”
The EU was presented with its first action plan to combat antisemitism in February, when the European Jewish Congress (EJC) called on EU Member States to adopt in full the IHRA Working Definition on Antisemitism.
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