Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

08/14 Links Pt2: California Board of Education rejects proposed curriculum that angered Jews; Matti Friedman: What Really Happened at Masada?; Deals with Terrorists The Summer of ’82

From Ian:

California Board of Education rejects proposed curriculum that angered Jews

The California State Board of Education has rejected a proposed ethnic studies curriculum for the state’s schools, saying it “falls short and needs to be substantially redesigned.”

The Jewish community is among several minority groups that have protested the draft. Earlier this month, the California Legislative Jewish Caucus said that the curriculum “effectively erases the American Jewish experience,” “omits anti-Semitism,” “denigrates Jews” and “singles Israel out for condemnation.”

“Following the Instructional Quality Commission’s review and response to all public comments, a new draft will be developed for State Board of Education review and potential approval,” school board leaders said in a statement Monday. “The Board will ultimately adopt an ethnic studies model curriculum that aligns to California’s values.”

A 2016 law ordered the Board of Education to create a curriculum that would highlight the contributions of minorities in the development of California and the United States. The board has put the model curriculum up for public comment and will vote on it next year.

CA State Board of Education Says Proposed Ethnic Studies Curriculum Will ‘Be Substantially Redesigned’

The California State Board of Education (SBE) announced on Aug. 12 that the proposed anti-Israel Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) will be replaced with an entirely new draft.

SBE President Linda Darling-Hammond, Vice President Ilene Straus and Board Member Feliza Ortiz-Licon said in the statement, “The current draft model curriculum falls short and needs to be substantially redesigned. Following the Instructional Quality Commission’s review and response to all public comments, a new draft will be developed for State Board of Education review and potential approval. The Board will ultimately adopt an ethnic studies model curriculum that aligns to California’s values.”

Myriad Jewish groups have criticized the drafted ESMC for supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and failing to mention anti-Semitism as an example of bigotry; other ethnic groups have also called for the ESMC to be re-drafted. More than 13,000 people have signed an Israeli-American Council petition against the ESMC. The Los Angeles Times also came out against the ESMC in an Aug. 2 editorial.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement to the Journal that the SBE’s decision is a “victory for all Californians and a defeat for anti-Semites and extremists” and they are “Grateful to elected officials who intervened.” The Wiesenthal Center said they are “ready to help revise [the] curriculum.”

Armenian, Hellenic, Hindu, Jewish, and Korean Civic Groups Issue Joint Statement condemning California ethnic studies Curriculum

Its not just the Jewish community that feels left out of the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. The Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America -- Western Region (ANCA-WR), American Hellenic Council (AHC), American Jewish Committee (AJC), Hindu American Foundation (HAF), and the Korean American organization FACE (Faith and Community Empowerment) have showed the state Department of Education just what solidarity looks like:

From the AJC:
Diverse Coalition Urges Department of Education to Rewrite Ethnic Studies Curriculum

Los Angeles – August 13, 2019 – Six major organizations, representing a very large and diverse constituency across California, today called on the state’s Department of Education to set aside the draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum and rewrite the document.

The Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America -- Western Region (ANCA-WR), American Hellenic Council (AHC), American Jewish Committee (AJC), Hindu American Foundation (HAF), and the Korean American organization FACE (Faith and Community Empowerment), issued the following joint statement:

“California high school students deserve an opportunity to learn the role of ethnicity, race and religion in the life of all its citizens, including those previously ignored. But the proposed Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, in its current form, does not come close to achieving this admirable goal."

“The draft lacks cultural competency, does not reflect California’s diverse population, and advances a political agenda that should not be taught as unchallenged truth in our state’s public schools."

“Judeo-Christian” is a term that should be banned from all thy mouths. There simply is no such thing. Thus sayeth The Vard.

When I thought about whether I wanted to write about this nonsense term, “Judeo-Christian,” I decided to do a Google search: *no such thing as judeo-christian*. I wanted to see what was out there, if the topic had been covered. Sure enough, BOOM. Up comes an article with that title by Yori Yanover, of The Jewish Press, “There’s No Such Thing as Judeo-Christian . . .”

“Darn. Somebody’s already done it,” I thought, ready to move on. But then I took a second, closer look. I realized the title actually said, “There’s No Such Thing as Judeo-Christian Values.”

Well! I thought. I'll show him. I’ll go him one better: There's no such thing as “Judeo-Christian.”

Period.

My interest in the topic was sparked by something else. A response to columnist David Brooks, who wrote, “Protestants, Catholics, and Jews did not get along, so a new category was created, Judeo-Christian, which brought formerly feuding people into a new ‘us.’”

Ira Stoll, writing for The Algemeiner, responded, “The term ‘Judeo-Christian,’ though perhaps useful as a political, rhetorical formulation to label the Jewish and Christian alliance against Nazism and later Communism, never really became a practically meaningful ‘us.’”

That’s true. I thought. But I was irked at the thought of Brooks getting away with floating this false idea into the ether: that the term “Judeo-Christian” had been invented because Christians and Jews didn’t get along.

That needs to be addressed. That’s not how the term “Judeo-Christian” came into being. It’s a false etymology and a false story.

The term “Judeo-Christian” was created to make Christianity palatable to the Jews. It does this by comparing the basic elements of Judaism and Christianity side by side, in order to make them look similar.

A missionary might say in response to a Jewish concept, for instance, “We have that, too,” and then cite a verse or practice in Christianity. The purpose of this is to reassure his prospect. It is like saying, “We are really just regular people, like you. We believe in the same things—we just do it in just a slightly different fashion.”

But this is a tautology:

If Christianity borrows from Judaism, then Christianity is like Judaism.

How do we know this is false logic? Because the underlying premise of one religion negates the other.

Judaism does not resemble anything else or share anything with other religions. That is because it is discrete from other things, and certainly other ideologies, or religions. It is distinct. Unique. It is also whole.

To suggest otherwise is an insult. Which makes the term “Judeo-Christian,” an insult.

When you borrow ideas from Judaism and add it to whatever you have, it is no longer Judaism. It also isn’t “like” Judaism. Judaism can’t be attached to things, cannot be a prefix. A thing cannot be “Judeo.” Therefore it cannot be “Judeo-Christian.”

There is no such thing.

I think that people in general, have a sickness. They need to find things in common, things that they “share.” This is not about making connections. It’s about needing everyone to be like you, because it’s really, really scary when they’re not.

“Finding things we share” is a symptom of xenophobia. We can’t stand it when anyone is different, so we have to find the ways that we are the same. Even if we have to invent those things, building towers of words that express false logic, phrases like “Judeo-Christian.”

This is wrong and also very sad. It is okay to be different. Though it does take courage to be an original. Which is exactly what faithful Jews have done for thousands of years: taken courage to remain original and one-of-a-kind. It’s how we made it through being hated and hunted, how we made it through the bloodshed.

It's how we survived.

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Palestine would be a beacon of light of liberalism to the world, if it wasn't for evil racist Israel

The current UNHRC meeting looking at the policies of the Palestinian Authority on fighting racism and bigotry in its society is so instructive.

The Palestinian submission is a 58 page report that says how there is no problem whatsoever with bigotry in the areas under its control. It lists lots of laws and policies against discrimination as if they are enforced, or not overridden by other laws that allow any critic of the government to be arrested and fined. (Meaning, who is going to complain about being discriminated against when their very complaint can put them in prison?)

Of course, the PLO report tried to shift all issues to Israel, and make this into a referendum on Israeli rights issues, not Palestinian.

UN Watch and NGO-Monitor issued their own reports showing endemic bigotry in the PA against Jews, Christians and Samaritans. When the PLO representative was pushed on these issues by members of the UNHRC, he blamed everything on Israel; when they didn't like that answer he asked for some "slack" in being racist.

JPost reported that the PLO ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, called Israel racist and implied that terrorism was a legal right. “We are victims. We are the victims of the European victims,” he said. Also, “What we are facing is occupation, which is illegal. It is our right to use all tools to resist occupation, this is accordance with international law."

The most bizarre response from the PLO when Khraishi said that once the “occupation" is over, his country “will be a beacon of light for the region and for the world."

Keep in mind that the UN has blamed Israel for Palestinian men beating their wives, so this argument will not be seen as bizarre at all by that corrupt agency.

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08/14 Links Pt1: The Palestinian Problem Is Dying of Natural Causes; UNRWA Is Even Worse Than You Think It Is; Team Obama in exile

From Ian:

The Palestinian Problem Is Dying of Natural Causes

By 2040, the stone-throwing kids of the First Intifada will be close to retirement age, and the gun-toting young men who dominate today's Palestinian employment picture (or those who still are alive) will have families. If they missed out on high-tech jobs, the spillover from the West Bank's economic growth—driven in turn by Israel's economic miracle—will keep them employed in service industries. Absent additional violence, the West Bank will flourish while Egypt and Syria descend into penury and chaos.

There is no urgency to make peace, except in the minds of the Palestinians' present leaders. The world has allowed them to rule a little fiefdom as warlords of private armies, with little accounting for billions in foreign aid, and the opportunity to indulge in a grand ideological tantrum on the tab of Western donors.

The window is closing for radical Islam. That makes the present an exceptionally dangerous period, because the radicals know that it is closing. Contrary to what Obama said on May 22, the radicals understand better than anyone else that time and demographics are against them. The Palestinians of the West Bank are better off than any other Arabs in the region by any tangible measure—health, literacy, higher education, per capital income. They have the good luck to reside next to one of the world's most dynamic economies. In a generation the world may have moved beyond the likes of Mahmoud Abbas. That gives Abbas an incentive to gamble while he still has chips on the table. If the radicals can be contained through the present generation, though, they can be extirpated in the next.

The UN Agency for Palestinians Is Even Worse Than You Think It Is

Last month, news broke that the Swiss head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA)—the organization that caters to Palestinian refugees and their descendants—promoted his mistress so that she could join him on his frequent and expensive travels, which his subordinates complain have kept him away from his duties. His deputy, meanwhile, used her influence to have her husband promoted. While these revelations have been greeted with outrage by some of the European governments that fund UNRWA, Alex Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky argue that these abuses are the natural consequence of what has long been known about the organization:

In the past, UNRWA has . . . employ[ed] Hamas members and us[ed] anti-Semitic textbooks [in its schools]. Rockets have also been found hidden at UNRWA schools on several occasions. Perhaps it’s unsurprising that an organization so corrupt at the bottom is even more corrupt at the top. . . .

One lesson to be learned from this scandal is that funders must demand internal controls, external audits, and public access to information. . . . Scrutiny is also needed on the Palestinian Authority, which uses foreign aid to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in pensions to terrorists and their families.

A second lesson concerns the danger of devoting an international organization to a single population. UNRWA was effectively taken over by Palestinians decades ago. Politicization began at the bottom with school curricula, but crept upward. . . .

This latest scandal is an opportunity for the U.S., together with other angry donors, to demand a phase-out plan for the entire organization. UNRWA’s 30,000 employees could join the Palestinian Authority, which would take over its health, education, and welfare responsibilities like the state it claims to be. UNRWA’s expensive international cadre, including lobbyists in Washington and Geneva, should be disbanded. And Palestinian residents of Arab states . . . should become citizens of those states, as they are in Jordan, or of the Palestinian Authority. If Palestinians truly desire a state, they should join the call for UNRWA’s abolition.

PMW: The PA initiated clashes on the Temple Mount

A guide to the Temple Mount published in 1925 by the Supreme Moslem Council of Mandate Palestine declares that its "identity with Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute." This senior Muslim authority repeated this confirmation of Jewish and Christian traditions in 1950 in a new guide, when Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were then under Jordanian rule. Despite these repeated affirmations by the top Muslim authority of the land, the Palestinian Authority is constantly attempting to rewrite even Muslim tradition, by denying the Jewish nature of the Temple Mount. Accordingly, it refers to visits by Jews to this holy site as "invasions" and calls on Palestinians and the International community to defend the site and prevent its "Judaization." The PA deceptively refers to the entire Temple Mount as the "Al Aqsa Mosque", even though the actual mosque sits on a relatively small area in the south-western corner of the mount.

On Sunday, Israel marked the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av. According to Jewish tradition, on that day both the first and second Temples were destroyed. The same day marked the start of the Moslem Eid Al-Adha [Feast of the Sacrifice]

While some sources have blamed the Sunday clashes on the Jordanians, Palestinian Media Watch can show that it was the PA who was most instrumental in instigating the clashes and ensuing violence.

In an attempt to disrupt Jews' right to access the Mount on Sunday, the PA took a number of steps, including changing the times of the Moslem prayers on the Mount and calling for mosques around Jerusalem to remain closed in order to "recruit" as many people as possible to defend the site against the "invasions."

While the published time schedule for the 5 daily Moslem prayers, set the first prayer time for 04.29, the second (last morning prayer) for 05.56, and the third (first afternoon prayer) for 12.44 on Aug. 9, 2019 the PA appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories decided to delay the second morning prayer to 07.30. The goal was to ensure that as many people would be present on the Temple Mount when the Jews were scheduled to start arriving.

Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh met with members of Congress yesterday, and told them, "Israel is waging the war of the narrative, and are pushing the Jewish narrative to control Jerusalem and Palestine, denying the Islamic and Christian narrative, but we are proud of our narrative. The conflict is not a religious conflict, but a political conflict."

There are narratives - and there are lies. The last sentence proves that the Palestinian narrative is the lie, because the only reason he brought up the idea of it not being a religious conflict is because he wants to deny the Jewish religious and historical connection to Israel.

Palestinians make this into a religious conflict every day, by invoking the Al Aqsa Mosque as being under attack, for example. But they know that to a largely Christian audience, the Bible supports the Jewish view, so they want to downplay their own hijacking of Islam to inflate the importance of Al Aqsa and Jerusalem, which were roundly ignored by the Muslim world before Zionism.

There was an interesting article in Gulf newspaper Al Khaleej by Hafez Barghouti where he attacks the ideas that Palestine is not written in the Quran or Bible and that Mohammed's night journey to the "farthest mosque" - "Al-Aqsa" - was not a miraculous flight on a winged steed to Jerusalem but an ordinary journey to a mosque in Arabia, to Taif or the Al-Ja'aranah Mosque near Mecca.

After a long paragraph trying to distract from the issue, Barghouti doesn't end up saying a word that supports Mohammed's supposed night journey to Jerusalem. As far as Palestine is concerned, he lamely says that the Bible mentions the "Land of the Philistines" hundreds of times, pretending that this means "Palestine."

The writer seems to realize that he really didn't debunk anything, and ends off saying, "What needs to be remedied is the hateful debate over the Internet between people here and there about trivial things or based on individual rumors or events..." Meaning, don't look too closely at the arguments of those who say that Palestine and Jerusalem are not mentioned in the Quran because it is a "trivial thing" and distracts from the real issue of trying to destroy the Jewish state, which is the single minded goal of Palestinianism.

To those on the Palestinian side, the narrative has nothing to do with truth. The narrative itself is meant to delegitimize the undeniable Jewish connection to the land. This is why their "narrative" includes the Khazar theory, the idea that the Jewish kingdoms only existed for a short time, that the Temples were not in Jerusalem if they ever existed at all, that archaelogy has not supported the existence of a Jewish people on the land, that history really begins in 1917 and Zionists are European colonialists.

No, it is not competing narratives. It is the truth versus antisemitic lies.

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A street in Hebron to be re-opened to Palestinians. No one is reporting it.

Arabic media are reporting that a street in Hebron that had been closed for 20 years to Arabs is being re-opened on Thursday.

Hebron Mayor Tayseer Abu Sneineh announced an agreement to open Tel Rumeida Street in the Hebron towards the Wadi Al Haria area and Al Karantina roundabout after a 20-year closure by Israeli authorities.

It appears to be the street in red in the center of this detail from a B'Tselem map of area H2 in Hebron:

What gets lost in the headlines is that Israel eases restrictions on Palestinians as often as it imposes them. When the security situation improves, Israel can and does try to make things easier for Palestinians - who wants to man a checkpoint if it is not necessary for security? It is a delicate game - no one wants to be responsible for any terror attack that might occur as a result of such loosening of policy, and things have to be evaluate and re-evaluated constantly.

When Israel does try to make things easier for Palestinians, those acts do not make the headlines that new checkpoints do. People who read the news only see an Israel that is imposing more and more restrictions, and therefore see a skewed vision of the situation. But Israel releases prisoners as often as it arrests new ones, it allows more goods to be exported from Gaza without fanfare, and it has removed many checkpoints over the years as the security situation in Judea and Samaria have improved.

Remember, before the intifadas Palestinians had few or no restrictions on movement. Israel's first responsibility is to provide security for its citizens and that invariably involved separation between the areas that terrorists originate and where Israeli citizens live.

Hebron is the biggest flashpoint due to the extreme violence that has happened there. But if Arabs would accept that Jews have lived there longer than the Arabs themselves, and terror attacks would end, there wouldn't be any closed streets in Hebron. The IDF doesn't arbitrarily choose to make the lives of Arabs miserable and no one on either side wants that.

There is always another side to the story. Too bad the media always ignores it.

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A peace proposal rejected by the PLO in 1965

In May 1965, Israeli premier Levi Eshkol spoke about peace with the Arabs:

Here was the PLO reaction in a letter to the editor several days later:

Notice how in 1965 the Arabs still considered the areas between the partition lines and armistice lines as being stolen land; no one considered the 1949 armistice lines to be borders.

The idea that the Jews are like the Crusaders and will eventually be forced out is mainstream Palestinian thought, taught for generations.

And even then the Palestinians used the word "justice" to mean the destruction of Israel. Nothing has changed there.

Eshkol's offer would generate a little interest today, since it is based on what are now called the 1967 lines, but even then the "right of return" was considered sacred and a deal breaker. Nothing has changed there either.

The rejectionism is the same as today.

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08/13 Links Pt2: Major US Academic Association Votes Down Resolution to Boycott Israel; How Ilhan Omar’s Politics Set Her against Liberal Muslims

From Ian:

Major US Academic Association Votes Down Resolution to Boycott Israel

A controversial resolution promoting an academic boycott of Israel was narrowly voted down at a prestigious social science academic association over the weekend, The Algemeiner learned on Monday.

The resolution, which was co-authored by Melissa Weiner, an associate professor of sociology at the College of Holy Cross, and Johnny E. Williams, a professor of sociology at Trinity College, called on the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) to “promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by academic institutions, and place pressure on your own institution to suspend all ties with Israeli universities, including collaborative projects, study abroad, funding and exchanges.”

However, the resolution failed by a vote of 34 to 37 on Saturday.

“The conversation on the proposed resolution was civil by and large, even though the issue was quite contentious,” William Cabin, vice president of SSSP during the vote, told The Algemeiner. “We are pleased by our membership’s conduct throughout the conversation and vote.”

Ezra Temko, a sociologist at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville who opposed the BDS resolution at the SSSP meeting, wrote that “The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel is an ugly campaign that stands in opposition to social justice.”

McCarthy to Post: Omar and Tlaib pulling Democratic Party away from Israel

The difference between the Democratic and Republican parties on Israel is that while mainstream Democrats support the Jewish state, among Republicans, the whole party does, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

And the problem with the Democrats, he asserted, is that members such as congresswomen Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) are – with their statements and actions – pulling the party away from Israel.

“I think they are the wave of the Democratic Party,” said McCarthy, currently in the country leading a group of 31 Republicans on a week-long study tour organized by an AIPAC affiliated charity. He cited a current poll saying that the most sought after endorsement for Democratic candidates in the upcoming election is – first of all – any former Democratic president, and “the next in line is AOC.

“This is concerning to me,” he said. “They are not a few freshman anymore. They are the movement within the party.”

McCarthy noted that the Republican-controlled Senate passed an anti-BDS bill known as S.1 – Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019 – in February by a vote of 77 to 23, with Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer co-sponsoring the bill, and 21 Democrats voting for it.

But it did not move in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. Instead of bringing the bill to the floor, the Democratic leadership was only able to bring to a vote an anti-BDS resolution, which passed by a landslide margin of 398-17. But, McCarthy stressed, there is a world of difference between a bill and a resolution.

A bill, if it passes both the Senate and the House, then goes to the president to be signed into law. A resolution is just a resolution. “A resolution is a statement, a law is binding,” he said.

Richard Epstein: Israeli Lessons for Mass Shootings

The only strategy that has a fair chance of success to reduce, but never stop, all mass killings, starts from the opposite end. It is beyond dispute that gunmen utilize the element of surprise. It has long been known that most of the death and destruction of a mass shooting takes place before any police or security team has time to arrive. Killers open the door and they start shooting: no warning, no mercy, no pause. Speed is the essence of any police response. Better that a single officer enter the fray immediately than wait even ten seconds before reinforcements can pitch in.

Yet the police cannot be everywhere, so they need reinforcements before they arrive, not afterward. One way for this to work is to make sure that in every mass gathering there are already present trained, armed individuals who can confront any assailant the instant an attack begins. To achieve that goal, there must be an immediate reversal of current policy and the implementation of something similar to current Israeli practice, which states simply enough: “All off-Duty Combat Soldiers Must Carry Their Weapons.” The United States should adopt a similar policy, which applies to the military, police officers, and others who carry and use weapons as a routine part of their job. It is clear that the risk of a terror attack is lower in the United States than in Israel. Indeed, of the 39,000 gun deaths in 2016, only 451 were from mass killings. But the grisly list of mass killings is bad enough. The trend, moreover, has been upward over the last half-dozen years. The public’s frustration and outrage are palpable.

The immediate response from armed individuals already on the premises could do much to deter crazed individuals from making these attempts. They could engage in return fire that could kill or wound the attacker or induce him to flee. And the benefit of this boots-on-the-ground policy is not limited to mass shootings. To be sure, it will be of little use in cases of suicide or domestic disputes. But it could help deter various forms of stranger assaults that take place on public streets or places, like airports, schools, parks, and shopping malls. There is always the risk that the return fire will be misdirected, but the same is true of the actions of SWAT teams that burst belatedly on the scene.

After all, just what is the alternative? The common proposals today all call for more top-down restrictions intended to keep people from acquiring dangerous weapons in the first place. These proposals tend to ignore the impressive array of federal restrictions already in place. Here is a partial list: the National Firearms Act of 1934, which taxes various gun transfers; the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, which initiated a five-day waiting period before any individual could acquire a gun; the Child Safety Lock Act of 2005; and the National Instant Criminal Background Check Act of 2007.

Arabs complain that Jewish women playing laser tag are heavily armed settlers

These photos are causing a stir in Arabic media.

News site are saying "Settlers are storming Nablus with machine guns."

Have you ever seen soldiers carry guns like this? Smiling while pointing at each other?

This is the Sebastia National Park in Samaria. Even though it is in Area C, it is surrounded by Arab villages. Because of the danger from those villages, Jews can only go to with prior notice, and under army protection, but it is an important archaeological site/park.

The women are playing paintball or perhaps laser tag around the old Ottoman train station there, which is also in Area C. They have every right to be there.

Notably, the Palestinian Authority has been encroaching on the area of the train station in recent years, essentially doing a land grab by paving roads and doing other heavy equipment tasks around there. Regavim has details.

A typical reaction to this "heavily armed settler incursion" comes from this Facebook guy who thinks that it is normal for religious Jewish women in long skirts to carry machine guns.

Oooh. such cutting sarcasm!

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

UPDATE: Gidon Shaviv is pretty sure it is Laser Tag.

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Tunisians upset at IDF version of an Arab hit song

A few days ago, IDF Arabic spokesman Avichai Adraee posted what appears to the the acoustic introduction of a popular Arabic song, popularized by a Tunisian artist, done by IDF soldiers.

The song is “Ya Lili” by Tunisian artist Mohamed Saleh Balti together with a child. Adraee wrote that this is “The Tunisian song that stole the hearts of the world. Now a performance by IDF soldiers."

There are dozens of articles in Arabic media denouncing the IDF performing a popular Arab song, especially from Tunisia.

This seems to be a series. Yesterday Adraee posted another IDF version of a popular Arab song:

He also asks what other popular Arabic songs IDF's Arab Facebook fans might want to see covered by the IDF.

Some of the comments on Adraee's Facebook page are quite positive.

While this might not seem to be a major story, it shows again the difference between the positions of Israeli Jews and most (but not all) Arabs.

The IDF versions of the songs are not meant to be theft or parody; they are tributes to Arab music. If an Arab army or artist would create a cover of a popular Israeli song as a tribute, Israelis wouldn't be upset - they'd be thrilled.

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08/13 Links Pt1: UN Watch Shadow Report Exposes Palestinian Antisemitism Ahead of First UN Racism Review; The Palestinian war of attrition; The UK-PA partnership to reward terrorists

From Ian:

UN Watch Presents Report on Endemic Palestinian Antisemitism To UN’s Anti-Racism Committee

Before the UN’s anti-racism committee reviewed the “State of Palestine” for the first time today, UN Watch Legal Adviser Dina Rovner took the floor twice before the committee’s panel of experts to present UN Watch’s 32-page shadow report on Palestinian violations of the anti-racism convention. The first remarks presented below were delivered at a meeting between the panel members and non-governmental organizations. Following those remarks is Rovner’s in-depth speech on the UN Watch submission, parts of which were conveyed in an informal lunchtime briefing with committee members.

Full prepared remarks, delivered at the UN anti-racism committee’s meeting with non-governmental organizations:

We meet today to review the State of Palestine’s compliance with the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Yet one would not know that from reading the Palestinian Authority’s 62-page report to this Committee, which repeatedly blames the “Israeli occupation” for countless alleged violations of Palestinian rights, while seeking to evade responsibility for its own racism and discrimination. We remind all stakeholders that Israel will be reviewed for its actions in November, whereas the proper focus of today’s review is Palestinian compliance with the Convention, or lack thereof.

United Nations Watch submitted a shadow report, which is available at www.unwatch.org/PA-racism. We were disappointed that NGOs like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International which lobbied for the Palestinians to join international treaties saying it would hold them to account did not submit reports for today’s review.

Ironically, the PA report acknowledges that there are almost no minorities in Palestine. According to the statistics provided by the PA, the various minority groups comprise no more than 1% of the population.

The Committee may wish to ask the PA why, by its own admission, it has virtually no minorities. By any objective standard, these figures suggest high levels of racism and discrimination. For example, if 1.9 million Arab citizens live in neighboring Israel, comprising 21% of the population, why is it that there are no Jews at all living under Palestinian jurisdiction?

Today, for the first time since Yasser Arafat & his PLO were brought in to the United Nations in 1974, the Palestinians are being officially reviewed for their policies & practices of racism & discrimination.

We just took the floor before the committee & urged them to ask about: https://t.co/WiQzhWGa1H pic.twitter.com/glV4BGHXOL
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 13, 2019

UN Watch Shadow Report Exposes Palestinian Antisemitism Ahead of First UN Racism Review

UN Watch’s detailed submission reveals that the PA and Hamas routinely violate international commitments to combatting racism, through laws, policies, and statements aimed at denying any Jewish rights in Israel or the Palestinian-controlled territories.

By contrast, in its own report, the PA shirks its obligations as a party to the anti-racism convention by failing to address the problem of racism in Palestinian law and society, and instead seeking repeatedly to blame Israel.

“The PA exploits the reporting process of the anti-racism committee as yet another UN vehicle to attack Israel. This is a waste of the committee’s time and resources, as Israel is subject to its own review later this year,” said Neuer.

Highlighting the deficiencies in the PA’s report, UN Watch urged the anti-racism committee to focus its review on Palestinian laws and policies, detailing the following discriminatory practices for consideration:

1. Racist Palestinian laws criminalize the sale of land to Israeli Jews
Dozens of Palestinians have been arrested for attempting to sell land to Jews — a crime that is considered treason. In December 2018, an American-Palestinian man was sentenced to life in prison with hard labor for violating the Palestinian law prohibiting land sales to Israelis. Palestinian courts have ruled that the death sentence can be applied in such cases as well.

2. Palestinian laws incentivize the murder of Israeli Jews by providing financial rewards to Palestinian terrorists who kill or attempt to kill Israeli Jews
The payment by the PA of salaries and benefits to Palestinian prisoners serving time in Israeli jails for terror-related offenses is mandated in Palestinian law. Each year, the PA allocates approximately 7% of its budget to terrorist payments. This practice directly legitimizes acts of terrorism against Israelis and is aimed at keeping Jews out of areas controlled and claimed by the PA.

President Mahmoud Abbas recently reiterated the PA’s commitment to these payments, stating “even if we have only a penny left, we will give it to the martyrs, the prisoners, and their families.”

3. Regular incitement of antisemitic racial hatred by Palestinian officials, including PA President Mahmoud Abbas
While the PA report referenced Palestinian criminal laws concerning propaganda, it conveniently ignored the problem of rampant antisemitic propaganda that incites Palestinian terrorism. In his speeches and social media posts, Abbas has regularly incited terrorism and spewed classical antisemitic tropes. His comments have praised “martyrs” as the “priority” of Palestinian society, proclaimed that Jews “have no right to defile the Al-Aqsa Mosque with their filthy feet,” and claimed that European Jews were hated for their connection to usury and the banks rather than for their religion.

Several other PA and Hamas leaders have publicly called Jews “apes and pigs” and promoted other antisemitic libels.

Forty-one times over past 13 years, Ken Roth sent his HRW reps to criticize Israel, at every session when it was subjected to stand-alone scrutiny at the UNHRC.

Yet now that the Palestinians are being reviewed for first time ever by the UN racism committee, he submits nothing. pic.twitter.com/ZDznwsQ47C
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 12, 2019

While we were working on our 32-page submission to the UN racism committee documenting Palestinian Authority discrimination against Christians, Samaritans & Jews, Ken Roth & his HRW team were sitting & smiling with the perpetrator, whitewashing his crimes. https://t.co/js07ddaLcF pic.twitter.com/j0yeKIh0fa
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 12, 2019

From the ADL:

TruNews is a fundamentalist Christian streaming news and opinion platform that has increasingly featured anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist content, and also has a long record of disseminating radical Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ messages. Founded in 1999 by Rick Wiles and affiliated with Flowing Streams Church in Vero Beach, FL, where Wiles is senior pastor, TruNews was previously known as America’s Hope, American Freedom News, and briefly as Christian News Channel.

TruNews programming generally consists of Rick Wiles and one or more cohosts or guests praying, reading biblical passages, discussing current events, talking breathlessly about the “End Times” and asking for money. Wiles and his guests frequently espouse extreme conspiracy theories, including alleging that the U.S. government planned to spread the Ebola virus on U.S. soil, that the U.S. and Israel created ISIS and that “western intelligence agencies” were training ISIS soldiers, and that mass shootings are false flag operations carried out by “super-secret covert killing teams” as a way of rallying public support for eliminating the Second Amendment and for “capitulat[ing] to a globalist agenda.”

In the first few months of 2019, Rick Wiles and his cohosts have taken an increasingly extreme anti-Semitic and conspiratorial anti-Zionist position. They have obliterated the distinction between Israelis, Zionists and Jews, using terms like “Jewish lobby” and “Israel lobby” interchangeably. They have railed against “old evil wicked kabbalah wizard rabbis,” claimed that Jews crucified Jesus 2000 years ago in order to build a “Zionist empire” and that Jews are going to kill and persecute Christians in the near future. They also alleged that Jews and Zionists control and promote abortion and pornography and have “attacked Christian culture.”

I listened to TruNews' latest podcast and, yes, Wiles and his team are insane. The antisemitism is off the charts. But it is not at all like what leftists claim white nationalism is like.

Yes, they hate leftists. They emphasize that the Dayton killer likes Bernie Sanders, whom they describe as a "socialist Jew," to associate him with Jews.

The show then talked about how the Anglican Church in Canada took out a text calling to convert the Jews, and they were very upset. They went on a supercessionist rant saying that the Church replaced the Jews, and therefore the Jews have nothing to do with Israel:

God replaced the citizens of Israel. Let you chew on that one. What Jesus did for us, he said I will give it to the Gentiles to make them jealous, yes, well this is what jealousy looks like... Israel and the church are one and the same. God replaced the citizens of Israel, yes the rebellious Jews who crucified Christ and rejected Christ as Messiah were kicked out of Israel. The Jews who believed on the name of Jesus remained in Israel. Israel and the church are the same. Then God opened up the doors to the Gentiles to everybody and said you're all welcome come on in join Israel. That's right, the rebellious Jews were outside of Israel. Right now they they can get back in any day that they want to but their old passports have been expired. They need new passports stamped with the blood of Jesus. And unless a Jew is willing to get a new passport for citizenship and Israel stamped with the blood of Jesus he or she is forever outside the kingdom of God; you're lost.

That wasn't the end of the Jewish topics. They spoke about the controversial movie "The Hunt" which they associated with Jews owning Hollywood. And then they claimed that "Talmudic Jews" are attempting to censor the New Testament and the Quran, to put "trigger warnings" on the texts because of their antisemitism.

A nugget from Wiles: "The Talmud is the oral interpretation of those demon-possessed filthy old rabbis that practice witchcraft Kabbalah-ism."

Every topic on the show they associate with Jew-hate.

They are against Zionists, they are against leftist Jews, they are against "Talmudic" and "Kabbalah" Jews, they claim that Hollywood is a Jewish plot to destroy the youth.

Oh, and they love talking about the "synagogue of Satan," putting them in the same camp as Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan.

The antisemitism of this white Christian nationalist radio show is surprisingly close to that which one sees on Muslim websites, especially the obsession with Talmud, hate of Zionism, claim that Israel was behind ISIS, and the hate of religious Jews.

Leftists claim that white nationalists have much in common with Zionists. It is not even close to true, but listening to Rick Wiles, one can see that at least their flavor of white nationalism sounds a great deal like Muslim antisemitism.

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.

.@Amnesty International tweets more about @TripAdvisor than about China, Syria or Russia

Since January 1, Amnesty International has tweeted about TripAdvisor's listing of Jewish tourist spots in Judea and Samaria 13 times. Here's the latest:

Let's compare and see which are the most important human rights issues for Amnesty this year:

Based on its tweets, TripAdvisor is one of the worst human rights abusers in the world - more worthy of attention than China (which mentioned Uyghur Muslims 3 times), more that Syria, more than Russia.

Human rights groups are not transparent as to how they allocate their resources. They accuse nations of acting with "impunity" but they are just as guilty of that charge given that there is no oversight on how they raise and spend their money. Their politics trumps actual human rights. There is no other way to explain why Amnesty acts like TripAdvisor listings are considered worse human rights abuses than the entire countries of China or Syria, and places with terrible human rights records like Turkey are practically ignored. These aren't "human rights" organizations, they are political organizations using "human rights" selectively to promote their agendas.

Human rights groups demand accountability from their targets. The world must demand no less from human rights groups themselves.

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 Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a webpage that appears to be a copy and paste of guidelines and philosophy from the BDS movement.

Bizarrely, it criticizes the government it is a part of:

The security aspect: The [Zionist] entity is linked to shameful security agreements with the PNA [Palestinian National Authority] and the surrounding Arab countries.

There is no way that the PA would write such a statement slamming its own positions and those of its Arab neighbors.

The entire Foreign Ministry website is amateurish and seemingly only a skeleton of a site; it doesn't have any news since 2016 and the entire page describing its vision states:

The overall vision of the ministry is to make the Palestinian issue an influential and determined element in international diplomacy.

This is probably because the PLO handles all foreign affairs, not the PA which is domestic.

The BDS page states its objectives. Based on the numbers given, it appears to have been written in 2015 or so. It seems laughable now:

The boycott will create economic, social and academic isolation, and this will have serious repercussions on [Israel] and will help undermine it.

The boycott in its advanced stages will result in hundreds of thousands of Zionists losing their jobs and will be forced to reverse migration from within the entity to the outside, in search of the welfare they have lost.

Economic Goals:
The per capita income in the Zionist entity (population of 8 million people) is approximately 35 thousand dollars and is ranked 41 in the world, and if the Zionist economy is affected negatively, per capita income will decline.

Boycotting the Zionist entity will cause it to lose tens of billions of dollars annually from investment, as well as from annual income, and will lead to a significant reduction in the tax revenues earned by the entity.

Academic Objectives:
Depriving the Zionist occupation of benefiting from the scientific expertise, grants and privileges offered by prestigious universities, and communicating with scholars and academic professors, in order to pressure the occupation to stop its arbitrary practices against educational institutions and Palestinian students.

Since this was written, Israel's GDP has increased to $41,000 per capita and it has risen from a rank of 41 to 22 in the world.

Even though I believe that BDS' goals are not economic but propaganda, the failure of its economic program has been stunning when looked upon from this perspective.

Note also that this document's primary wish for this BDS plan was to force Jews to move out of Israel.

The website itself is testimony to how little the PA has bothered in building its own institutions. The site exists to make it appear like there is a government doing normal governmental jobs, but like so many other PA government sites we have looked at, it is just smoke and mirrors.

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.

08/12 Links Pt2: California Introduces Radical Anti-Semitic High School Curriculum; Former Miss Iraq Blasts ‘Antisemitic’ Ilhan Omar, Says ‘She Does Not Represent Me as a Muslim’

From Ian:

California Introduces Radical Anti-Semitic High School Curriculum

Public research materials viewed by the Free Beacon reveal that several committee members behind California Department of Education's Draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum are outspoken critics of Israel.

One member, Samia Shoman, is a Palestinian-American who teaches in the San Mateo Union High District. Her lesson plans on Palestinian history have been featured as a teaching tool by the Qatar Foundation International, a group tied to the nation and its efforts to proliferate boycotts of Israel. Shoman is also a pro-Palestinian activist on Twitter.

Another committee member, Gaye Theresa Johnson, an associate professor at UCLA college of social sciences, also has supported pro-Palestinian causes on Twitter, including retweets from pro-Iran individuals who have deemed Tehran as the victim in the ongoing nuclear standoff with the United States.

A third committee member, Theresa Montaño, a professor at California State University, Northridge, has publicly supported the BDS movement and advocates for Israeli scholars to be boycotted in the United States. Montaño also signed a 2009 letter to then-president Barack Obama that was organized by one of the globe's most prominent BDS organizations.

Masha Merkulova, founder and executive director of Club Z, a Bay Area organization that fosters commitment to Israel, told the Free Beacon that the effort to promote this one-sided curriculum should worry all Americans.

"If we allow this to happen, California's children are going to be indoctrinated in intolerance and hate," Merkulova said. "This is our flashpoint … this ethnic studies curriculum is infused with Jew hatred. Let's call it for what it is, anti-Semitism. Our Department of Education has put bigoted people in charge of writing a curriculum that is supposed to promote inclusivity and tolerance."

"This is an attempt to make anti-Semitism institutional," she said. "This is what the kids are going to learn as part of normal things they learn."

There are no "roads or neighbourhoods that only Israeli settlers are allowed to enter" in the West Bank, @hannahluci and @thetimes

There are areas that Israeli *citizens* can enter. Not just settlers. BTW, Palestinian citizens of Israel are as free to visit as any other Israeli. pic.twitter.com/au4u9XJYMt
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 12, 2019

Record Number of Jews Visit Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av, Despite Riots

According to Army Radio, Netanyahu said in response that he was in favor of allowing access to Jews, but left the decision in the hands of the Israel Police. His office indicated that Netanyahu had issued no closure.

Police responded to the violence by utilizing riot-control measures to end the protests. Reports indicate that the head of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf was injured during the incident, as well as an estimated 14 Muslim worshippers and four police officers.

At 10:30 am, police authorized Jews to enter the Temple Mount in small groups. The worshippers were under close police escort and limited to a very small area, but some reported that police appeared to be more accommodating than usual, allowing them to pray openly and performing security checks less stringently.

Despite the limited Jewish access, Arabs at the site began chanting “Allahu Akbar!” and throwing chairs and other objects at them for the hour, during which police held the site open to Jews. A video Sunday showed Waqf director Azzam al-Khatib and Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Hussein encouraging the angry crowd, telling them: “In spirit and blood we will redeem you!”

At approximately 11:30 am, the site was closed to Jews, but reopened again in the afternoon for one more hour.

Regular visitors to the site noted that the closure time is usually 11 a, but said police held the site open an extra half hour due to the Waqf incitement.

Last year, some 1,400 Jews ascended to the Temple Mount for Tisha B’Av, a record number. However, this year, despite the violence and concerns that Jews would not be given access, more than 1,700 Jews ultimately paid their respects at the holiest site to the Jewish people.

Leftist Jews’ Weaponization Of The Holocaust On Tisha B’Av Is An Act Of Historical Betrayal

Tisha B’Av — the ninth of Av — is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. Traditionally, observant Jews fast and deprive themselves while they pray and remember various major catastrophes in Jewish history. Over time, other calamities have been mourned, including the Nazi Party’s formal approval of “The Final Solution” on Av 9, AM 5701, and the start of the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka one year later. For many, Tisha B’Av is a time of mourning for the Holocaust as a whole.

On Tisha B’Av of all days, thousands of leftist American Jews staged protests across the country against ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

For some time, the Holocaust has been used as a comparative metric in order to condemn the implementation of existing immigration laws. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) famously likened detention facilities to concentration camps and referenced the phrase “Never Again” — synonymous with Holocaust remembrance. The same phrase adorned T-shirts and signs at the protests on Sunday, with the hashtag #JewsAgainstICE going viral.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s weaponization of Jewish tragedy is an example of the uninformed and offensive rhetoric that we have come to expect from the New York congresswoman. However, when the incomparable catastrophe that was the Holocaust is weaponized by leftist Jews in a bid to peddle Democratic talking points, we have moved beyond casual political ignorance and into the realm of deliberate historical destruction.