Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, March 09, 2020

Salon praises Gaza astrophysicist - without mentioning he is a Hamas member

Salon published a piece originally in Undark that describes the difficult life of a leading Gazan astrophysicist - without mentioning that he identifies as a Hamas member and his brother was a major Hamas terrorist.

The article says:

[A]strophysicist Suleiman Baraka's life's work — along with that of his students and mentees — illustrates the promise and challenges of astronomy in Gaza.

Baraka studies space plasma, the electrically-charged soup of ions and electrons that constitutes the vast majority of space. And he creates kinetic models that simulate how these charged particles in solar wind interact with the magnetosphere of the Earth. He holds a part-time appointment at the National Institute of Aerospace in Virginia, and he also has a teaching position in Gaza, at al-Aqsa University. Colleagues around the world have praised his efforts to bring astronomy to Gaza.

Baraka graduated in 1987 from al-Quds University in East Jerusalem with an undergraduate thesis on the formation of black holes and an offer to study astrophysics at the Australian National University in Canberra. ....
He never made it to Australia, though this isn't unusual. Scientists in Gaza are "essentially isolated," says Robert Williams, an astronomer and former president of the International Astronomical Union. In 2010, Williams attempted to enter the Gaza Strip to attend an astronomy event, but was denied entry. And even within the West Bank — the Palestinian territory not under blockade by Israel — it is difficult for scientists to travel from one place to another, due to checkpoints and travel restrictions.

Really? Any examples of how Western scientists were stymied in traveling through the West Bank? No, just a commonly accepted "fact."

In 2008, almost four decades after first seeing Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, Baraka started his fellowship as a post-doctoral researcher for the National Institute of Aerospace — the closest a foreigner can ever get to working with NASA.

But three months into that appointment, a rocket tore into his house in Gaza, destroying his father's books and critically injuring his 11-year old son, Ibrahim. The boy was transported to an Egyptian hospital, where doctors tended to shrapnel wounds in the left side of his brain. Baraka says he flew from Virginia to Egypt and sat by his son's bed for four days until his son's body was sent back to Gaza in a coffin.

Why might Israel have targeted this house?

Probably because Salon doesn't mention that the Baraka family is Hamas.

Suleiman's brother Noor, a cleric, was a field commander for the Qassam Brigades in 2008 when this rocket attack occurred. He was killed in 2018 after a firefight with the IDF.

Suleiman himself had been arrested twice by Israel. He told the reporter that one arrest was for helping foreign journalists report on the region, and one for secretly teaching Palestinian students. That was accepted as truth in the article.

But as YNet notes, Suleiman has admitted to more than that:

Recently, Suleiman gave a speech at a Palestinian TED event and received loud applause from the Gazan audience as he recounted his life-story in the Arab world. .... "But in the end, like my brother Nour, I belong to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades," he said.

Yes, a Palestinian who has reached the heights of fame for his scientific work also identifies as a member of Hamas' "military wing" that is responsible for the deaths of thousands, and no one wants to mention that.

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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From Daily News Egypt:

Ethiopia announced on Friday its rejection to the Arab League’s Wednesday resolution that showed solidarity with Egypt in protecting its historical rights to the Nile River water and refused any unilateral measures that might be taken by Addis Ababa regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile.

Tensions between Cairo and Addis Ababa have been escalating recently after Ethiopia missed the last US-sponsored ministerial meeting with Egypt and Sudan in Washington to conclude a deal over the rules of filling and operating the GERD.

Egypt accused Ethiopia of not attending the last round of talks in Washington “to deliberately hinder negotiations.”

Ethiopia has justified its absence that it needs more time to consider the matter, and that it would commence filling the dam’s reservoir in parallel with its construction.

While Ethiopia, an upstream country, puts a huge development strategy based on GERD, Egypt is concerned it might affect its 55.5bn cubic meter annual share of Nile water, if the filling of the dam’s reservoir was executed in less than 7-year period which would cause low flooding seasons.

Afterwards, the war of words heated up some more. On Saturday evening the Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a heated statement that said, in part, "Ethiopia’s posture and position during these negotiations, which has been criticized by the Arab League, evinces its intent to exercise hydro-hegemony and to anoint itself as the unchallenged and sole beneficiary over the Nile. This is especially apparent in its insistence on filling the GERD unilaterally in July 2020 without reaching an agreement with downstream states, and while holding negotiations on the GERD hostage to domestic political considerations. This constitutes a material breach of the DoP and demonstrates, beyond any doubt, Ethiopia’s bad faith and its lack of political will to reach a fair and balanced agreement on the GERD."

This is the sort of thing wars break out over, although analysts are minimizing that possibility. Still, you cannot minimize the importance of the Nile to Egypt's culture as well as its economy. This crosses from an economic or food issue into an honor issue, and as such anything can happen.

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"Jewish Voice for Peace" uses a terrorist group poster for International Women's Day

A tweet from the quite misnamed "Jewish Voice for Peace:"

The graphic that they chose is from a 1985 poster by a terror group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Here are some other posters for International Women's Day by the PFLP and other Palestinian groups over the years that JVP supports:

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03/08 Links: David Collier: SOAS hosts Islamist linked fake Jewish group – created to attack Jews; The ironic bigotry of progressive activism; 1620-2020: the 400th Anniversary of the US-Israel Alliance

From Ian:

David Collier: SOAS hosts Islamist linked fake Jewish group – created to attack Jews

This exclusive account demonstrates that SOAS has been the venue for a hate-infested political group set up explicitly to attack mainstream British Jewry. The official minutes from this group’s meetings demonstrate-
- That it was set up by academic(s) at SOAS. The university hosts the group’s strategy meetings
- Calls itself Jewish even though it is driven by non-Jewish antisemites
- The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) – the radical Islamist group behind the pro-Hezbollah Al Quds demonstrations -gives them directives to act against the Jewish community
- A volunteer from Interpal and the Campaign Manager for the PSC have also been part of the ‘Jewish’ steering group
- At its first public outing -two of the three official attendees were non-Jews who share antisemitic conspiracy theories
- They do not have a connection to a single Rabbi and struggled to find somebody who could fill the role
- They prepared a ‘lecture series’ to tour on UK campuses which will create hostility towards Jewish people in the UK and destabilise the Jewish community

There is no justification for SOAS continually being permitted to get away with so much flagrant antisemitic activity. It isn’t just about the poor Jewish students who study there – SOAS is incubating groups that align with Hezbollah, Iran, Islamist movements – and that are created with the purpose of helping to tear the world of British Jewry apart. And if you complain – they will shield antisemitic political activity as being under the umbrella of ‘academic freedom’. How toxic is that!

The ironic bigotry of progressive activism

Though they claim to stand for inclusion and universality, progressives these days are managing to denounce more groups than they include. Anyone who does not share their politics is, at best, persona non grata; at worst, they are downright demonized. Progressives condemn hate, unless it’s toward an individual or group they’ve deemed worthy of hating. The most glaring and pernicious example today is the obsessive delegitimization of Israel, the very embodiment of Jewish people hood.

The first prong of attack is the Left’s gross mischaracterization of Jews as predominantly “white,” and therefore powerful, in contrast to Muslims, who are perceived as “brown,” and therefore oppressed. In fact, global Jewry is dominantly brown-skinned, and millions of Muslims are actually white. But it is a small lie to tell for the sake of one’s sacred political theory.

Such a fallacious mode of thinking about group oppression begs the question: Who gets to determine the “universal” hierarchy of victimhood? Muslims may be an oppressed group in China, but in the Arab world, Muslims are doing the oppressing. Palestinians may be a persecuted minority in Lebanon, but in Gaza and the West Bank, their leadership is persecuting Christians and practicing gender apartheid against women.

The anti-Israel activist group IfNotNow has gone so far as to blame an Israeli victim of a terrorist attack for his own murder, decrying the teenager’s participation in a government they deem a colonialist regime. At the same time, they never disclose that the very term “Palestine” was an imperialist invention of the Roman Empire.

What we know so far:

1. Ken Roth solicited gift from Saudi billionaire promising NOT to defend #LGBT rights

2. HRW had reported on this donor's enslavement of workers

3. Roth's HRW had $223 million net assets & didn't need the money

4. HRW is now questioning Roth's leadership https://t.co/TsEobzcKEF
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 8, 2020

Mike Wallace interviews Abba Eban, 1958

This past week, American Zionism on Twitter posted the Mike Wallace interview with Abba Eban in 1958.

I had posted it in 2012, although the videos on that articles no longer available. Here is is again with my comments from the time.

Mike Wallace interviews Abba Eban, 1958

After CBS' Mike Wallace died Sunday, it is illuminating to see this combative 1958 interview he held with Abba Eban.

Wallace pressed Eban about Israel's "aggression" in 1948 and demanded how Israel could justify holding onto the 1949 armistice lines!

Many people today believe that those 1949 armistice lines were considered "international borders." They were nothing of the sort, and this interview shows where Israel was reminded over and over again at the time that those armistice lines were temporary and fragile.

It is also instructive to see how Israel's critics were saying then that Israel could not possibly survive economically, mirroring arguments that were made before Israel was born and those made years after this interview. Israel is still here, those critics are not. (Eban's sarcasm saying he is touched by the critics' concern is hilarious.)

Wallace also echoes the Walt and Mearsheimer argument that US friendship towards Israel was at too high a cost compared to what it could lose from the Arab world, showing again that the constant kerfuffles created by Israel's critics are hardly original.

Finally, Wallace quotes a Jewish anti-Zionist, reform rabbi Elmer Berger, echoing the charges made today ("Israel-Firsters") that Israel demands loyalty from world Jewry at the expense of their own countries. It seems that even then Jewish critics of Israel gained much fame and fortune for their opinions among certain crowds - and yet they and their hate are soon forgotten, to be replaced by newer editions of the same old arguments. (Berger praised the Soviet Union's treatment of its Jews and supported the Arab side of the 1967 war.)

Eban does very well in this interview. Wallace comes across as being hostile towards Israel's very existence.

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The Palestinian National Council issued a statement "recalling the role and contributions of Palestinian women to the Palestinian national struggle for liberation from occupation."

In a statement issued by its president, Salim Al-Zanoun, on the occasion of International Women's Day, the National Council "saluted the Palestinian women in the homeland and diaspora, especially the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of the martyrs, the prisoners, and the wounded, who were patient and endured, and who bore great responsibility after the loss of the breadwinner."

They also showed appreciation for "the steadfastness of the struggling female prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons."

"At a time when the world celebrates women and their accomplishments in various aspects of life, Palestinian women still live in suffering, injustice, occupation, arrest and deprivation of their rights, and still feel the pain of losing a husband, son and brother, whether he is a martyr or a detainee," the statement said.

To the Palestinian leadership, women's jobs are to support their terrorist husbands and sons, except for the exceptional ones who perform terror attacks themselves. Otherwise, Palestinian women are not expected to be strong, independent women - not professors or doctors or programmers or politicians or peacemakers. They are defined by old men to be supporters of terror against Israel, and to be used as propaganda to play the part of passive victims of Israel's existence. To them, Palestinian women have no aspirations to go beyond that. Not a word about battling inequality, about women's rights, about the theme of helping women in the workplace.

Palestinian leaders show through their International Women's Day statement that Palestinian nationalism is defined by opposition to Israel rather than building a state and that women have no use except for being assistants for this goal of erasing Israel.

Palestinian leaders issued a fundamentally misogynist statement for International Women's Day. Yet feminist leaders won't call them out on it - because they have embraced the falsehood that Palestinians are nothing but victims to show solidarity with, rather than a culture that relegates women to bit roles, a culture that should be fought by everyone who cares about human rights.

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The first paragraph of an article in Algeria's Shourouk News:

World Zionism is a reality - a real force present in its actions, plans, effects, propaganda, intentions and goals .. It organizes groups of people who are known since ancient times in history, and in all books of law, for their ruthlessness and cruelty ... rebellion and disobedience ... they did not know in their history anything like loyalty or devotion to obedience to those who take charge of their affairs .. even their prophets .... and in all the societies in which they lived there appeared their isolation and partisanship .. and their uniqueness in residing in private places and neighborhoods .. and their specialty was blackmailing the nation's money, with greed and exploitation .. They seek the help of their fifth columns, who manage their affairs for them in every country and in every field .. and work - secretly from behind the curtain - nurtured by the fanaticism of the hatre for the whole world.

Either Zionists have been around since the time of the Prophets, or they are talking about Jews.

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03/07 Links: Why Abbas Rejects Trump's Deal (And Any Other Deal With Israel); Melanie Phillips: The real centre ground the only political show in town; Remembering a one-armed Zionist hero

From Ian:

Ha'aretz: Why Abbas Rejects Trump's Deal (And Any Other Deal With Israel)

Years passed, and, responding to Trump’s plan at a January 28, 2020 press conference in Ramallah, Abbas exposed the deeper layer of the PLO’s beliefs, saying: “Dear brothers, I consider this deal as the culmination of the Balfour declaration… The ‘Deal of the Century’ is based on the Balfour Declaration, which was created by America and Britain. Some may find this strange. America? Yes, America! And Britain. It was America that formulated [the Balfour Declaration], in agreement with Britain, and it was America that incorporated it into the Covenant of the League of Nations… America founded the Balfour Declaration, and it has now begun to implement it.”

Indeed, according to Article 20 of the 1964 Palestinian Covenant, “The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void.” And so, even 22 years after the ceremony in which the covenant was “abolished,” the PLO continues to consider the Balfour Declaration a source of continuous injustice that has been done to the Palestinians. It is in this spirit that in his article marking the centenary of the declaration titled “The Burden of Lord Balfour” (The Cairo Reviews of Global Affairs, November 17, 2017) Abbas wrote: “Lord Arthur Balfour was a British foreign secretary who decided to change the identity and fate of Palestine, a land that he did not own, by promising it to the Zionist movement, and dramatically altering the history of the Palestinian people... The Balfour Declaration of 1917 symbolizes the international role in the Palestinian catastrophe and exodus, the Nakba of 1948.”

In that article Abbas also proposed a solution to the refugee issue: “We also reiterate that, in order to end claims with Israel, there must be a just solution for the seven million Palestinian refugees based on the choice of every refugee,” i.e., his choice between returning to his family’s original home in Israel and accepting financial compensation.

The meaning of this permanent demand is that the PLO is not authorized to represent the will of each individual refugee, and hence the PLO is unable to agree with the Israeli government on any quota of refugees that would be allowed to settle in Israel. Hence, the PLO is unable to include in any agreement the vital component of “mutual end of claims.” This barrier is in addition to the PLO’s ongoing claim to the entire territory of Israel, a demand on which organization still educate its youth.

The new American “Peace to Prosperity” plan implicitly anticipates that, within the next four years, the PLO leadership will return to the negotiation table. In order to avoid future mistakes, we must abandon the erroneous theory that “the PLO is the solution.” We must not close our eyes to the simple fact that, for the PLO, the core issue is the hundred-year-old “injustice” embedded in the very existence of Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine. This gap cannot be bridged, and no plan that any Israeli government can accept can also satisfy the PLO. Therefore, a peace treaty with the PLO cannot and will not be signed.
Ze’ev B. Begin is a researcher in MEMRI, The Middle East Media Research Institute.

How Bad Is Antisemitism In Europe? Surveys Suggest It’s Rampant

Pew Research nodded toward this issue last year, while studying European attitudes 30 years after the Berlin Wall’s fall. Jews were not the poll’s focus, but it’s striking that Jews were rated favorably by their fellow countrymen in “the Netherlands (92%), Sweden (92%), the UK (90%) and France (89%).”

Seventy-four years after the Holocaust’s end, Pew also learned that only 12 percent of Germans in former East Germany and 5 percent in former West Germany viewed Jews unfavorably. Eighty-six percent of Germans told Pew they had favorable opinions of Jews in 2019, compared to 53 percent in 1991.

Unfortunately, other surveys don’t echo these upbeat numbers. Asked about this, a Pew Research spokesman, who pointed to some questions posed by Pew’s “international religion survey team” in 2017, emailed, “Neither survey set out to measure antisemitism. In fact, we are very careful NOT to make any claims that our questions are actually measuring antisemitism.”

So, stipulating that Pew’s surveys do not expressly study antisemitism, lack the qualitative data Pew’s spokesman considers necessary, and include few questions, let’s look at the 2017 data, because Pew remains a reputable source. That year, surveyors asked Europeans in 15 countries whether they would accept a Jew as family or a neighbor, whether Jews “pursue their own interests” rather than their home country’s, and whether Jews “overstate how much they have suffered.”

I’d submit that the number of Europeans opposed to Jewish relatives is irrelevant here. While it reflects a form of prejudice and is upsetting to any people involved, it doesn’t threaten Jews’ ability to live freely or safely.

By contrast, not wanting Jewish neighbors is housing discrimination and affects every Jewish citizen. So when 12 percent of Italians, along with 10 percent of Irish and Portuguese respondents say they wouldn’t “be willing to accept Jews as” neighbors, that matters.

When 36 percent of Portuguese respondents, along with 32 percent of Spaniards, 31 percent of Italians, and 28 percent of Belgians agree that “Jews always pursue their own interests and not the interest of the country they live in,” that’s concerning.

And when 36 percent of Italians, 33 percent of Portuguese, 30 percent of Spanish, and 28 percent of Belgian respondents tell Pew pollsters they agree that “Jews always overstate how much they have suffered,” that’s a red flag. Neighbors who believe you’re exaggerating about historical suffering are unlikely to empathize over your contemporary concerns.

Anti-Zionist Propaganda, Conspiracy Theories Fueling Rise of Antisemitism in Italy, New Report Shows

Anti-Jewish incidents in Italy climbed sharply in 2019, the latest report from the country’s main antisemitism monitor revealed on Friday.

Data gathered by the Milan-based “Osservatorio Antisemitismo” (Antisemitism Observatory) showed that there were 251 incidents of hatred targeting Jews last year, compared with 197 such incidents in 2018.

About 30,000 Jews live in Italy, concentrated in a handful of major cities.

The majority of the 2019 incidents — 173 — involved antisemitic posts online that were reported to the Observatory. In other categories, there were 31 incidents of verbal abuse, 23 instances of antisemitic graffiti and two violent assaults, one involving a woman in Rome who was slapped and spat upon by her assailant, and the other a man in the northern town of Prunetto who was punched and insulted with anti-Jewish epithets.

Stefano Gatti — the editor of the Observatory’s report — told the Italian Jewish news outlet Bet Magazine Mosaico that part of the reason for the increase was a greater willingness among victims to report attacks.

Equally, Gatti emphasized that the available data was likely an “underestimate” of the scale of the problem, “because they only include explicit complaints and not cases that are unknown or unreported.”

Asked to explain the broader context around the rise of antisemitism in Italy, Gatti pointed to the visibility of anti-Zionist propaganda demonizing the State of Israel and the related popularity of conspiracy theories centered upon Jews.

Two of the incidents recorded by the Observatory in 2019 — the cancellation of a concert in Sardinia by the Israeli musician Eyal Lerner and a public campaign for the boycott of Israeli goods — were characterized as antisemitism promoted by Italian supporters of the effort to subject the Jewish state to boycotts, divestment and sanctions.

“In the pro-Palestinian rhetoric, the themes, myths and symbols of anti-Judaism re-emerge,” Gatti commented. “Deicide, the blood libel, exclusivism, hatred for the rest of humanity: Anti-Zionist propaganda is hybridized with anti-Jewish myths.”

Palestinian PM shops at local grocery to assure people about Covid-19 - but the shop sells Israeli products

Palestinian Authority prime minister Dr. Muhammad Shtayeh too a tour on Saturday evening of a number of shops. He said, "The people's morale is high and there is no shortage of food supplies. Our people are great in giving and in a spirit of solidarity in crises."

At least one of the stores he visited had a product with Hebrew prominently displayed at checkout (see at left in photo.)

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03/06 Links Pt2: Top Sanders Surrogate: Zionism Is a ‘Racist’ Ideology; Former Nazi camp guard, 94, who lived in US for years, to be deported; The End of the Jaffa Orange Highlights Israel Economic Shift

From Ian:

Top Sanders Surrogate: Zionism Is a ‘Racist’ Ideology

A top surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I., Vt.) presidential campaign claimed Zionism is a "racist" ideology and even criticized Barack Obama for saying otherwise.

Phillip Agnew, a self-proclaimed militant, was published by Ebony magazine in 2015 arguing that Zionism "is a racist, exploitative, and exclusionary ideology."

"There is no direct line from Zionism to the Black Freedom struggle," Agnew wrote. "No rhetorical imagination-acrobatics can conjure one, and no amount of intimidation can chart one. It is a racist, exploitative, and exclusionary ideology."

Agnew, who also goes by Umi Selah, criticized then-president Obama for comparing the right of Jews to "have a homeland and to feel safe and free of discrimination" to African Americans having equal protection under the law. He called it a "lie" and a "figment of our well-manicured imagination."

The Sanders campaign and Agnew did not respond to requests for comment.

Agnew's viewpoint is out of line with even the United Nations, which has a history of heaping scorn on the Jewish state. The international body voted overwhelmingly in 1991 to revoke a statement it previously passed, saying, "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination."

"The official count found 111 nations in favor of repealing the statement and 25 nations, mostly Islamic and hard-line Communists, voting against," the New York Times reported at the time. "Thirteen nations abstained. Seventeen other countries, including Egypt, which recognizes Israel, and Kuwait and China, did not take part in the voting."

Agnew is the cofounder of Dream Defenders, a group that promotes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which advocates an economic boycott of Israel and its people.

Jonathan Tobin: Did Bloomberg give ammunition to anti-Semites?

There are a lot of people who are relieved that Michael Bloomberg has dropped out of the Democratic primary race, and not all of them are named Biden.

The withdrawal of the former mayor of New York City gives a boost to former Vice President Joe Biden. Bloomberg's jumping on the Biden bandwagon removes the last competition for more moderate Democratic primary voters and lessens the chances that Sen. Bernie Sanders will become the Democratic nominee. That's a relief for both centrists who fear the Vermont Socialist can't beat President Donald Trump, as well as supporters of Israel who have been rightly outraged by Sanders's slanderous attacks on AIPAC and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But Bloomberg's exit from the presidential contest also brings a sigh of relief to those who feared that his wild spending was providing ammunition to anti-Semites.

The idea that Jews buy political influence to pursue secret agendas has been a trope of anti-Semites dating back to the publication of the fake Protocols of the Elders of Zion at the start of the 20th century. It's been revived in various forms, including by some anti-Semitic supporters of Sanders, such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who claimed that supporters of Israel were purchasing Congress in her now-famous quip: "It's all about the Benjamins."

Indeed, the fact that Bloomberg and two other billionaires with Jewish ties, George Soros and Tom Steyer (who has a Jewish father and who also recently ended a futile presidential bid) have been the largest donors to Democratic candidates and liberal political causes in recent years has created an unhealthy dialogue about campaign finance and anti-Semitism. The slightest hint of criticism of the trio – who have invested large sums promoting liberal politicians and policies – has been seized upon as evidence of Jew-baiting.

Ex-deputy NSC head: Israelis unaware of collapse in support among Dems

From Iran, to Syria to the Palestinians, if a Democrat wins the US presidency, especially Bernie Sanders, Israel will need to make major policy adjustments, former deputy National Security Council head Chuck Freilich told The Jerusalem Post.

Under Sanders, “I would advise for everyone to pray,” he said, adding that confronting a nuclear Iran with Sanders in the White House “is a horror.”

But Freilich, who advocates many moderate national security ideas, said Sanders in some ways is a symptom of issues that have festered much longer.

If in November a Democrat wins the presidency, “whether [Joe] Biden or Sanders, there is a critical role of repairing to be done,” he said.

“I don’t think the people of Israel are fully aware of the collapse of support – the absolute free fall in support for Israel especially among younger people in the Democratic party – and in the Jewish community, which votes in the high 70% range for Democrats,” Freilich said.

“There is pent up fury with decades of frustration over the policy regarding Palestinians in the West Bank,” which was exacerbated by the direct confrontation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Obama administration over Iran and by Netanyahu’s cozying up to the Trump administration, he said.

“There are also tectonic changes in American demographics, which have nothing to do with Israel,”Freilich said. “The fastest-growing groups are Latinos and the religiously unidentified. Latinos are not interested in Israel,” and if people who are more religious tend to support Israel, people who are less tend not to.

Here are a couple Arab political cartoons in Hamas media against Mahmoud Abbas, showing opinions one normally doesn't see in Western media.

The road-sign points towards "Palestinian rights" and Abbas is depending on the UN to give him those rights, symbolized by a dead horse. Abbas is sitting on a carriage marked "negotiations". The wild horse that is tied is marked as "resistance."

Abbas is seen sniffing cocaine that spells "security coordination" (with the IDF), while holding a sign saying "glory to our martyrs and freedom for our prisoners".

Cocaine is at least as prohibited in Islam as alcohol, so this is especially vicious.

(Al Jazeera.net is not the same as the famous Al Jazeera from Qatar.)

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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03/06 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: Democrats and anti-democrats; Coronavirus: For Once, Israel and the Rest of the World Are on the Same Side; Jews and Saudi Arabia

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Democrats and anti-democrats

In Israel, the checks and balances move in only one direction. The Knesset and the government – that is, the elected branches of government – are fully checked by the legal fraternity. The justices, attorney general and state prosecutors, for their part, have no checks on their power at all. The reason they keep seizing the powers of the Knesset and the government is because they can.

Whereas Likud and its coalition partners are committed to pursuing significant reform to check the power of the prosecutors and justices, Blue and White's platform dismisses outright all possibility of reform. The Left knows what its source of power is. And it isn't the people.

On Wednesday, Blue and White announced it will seek the passage of a law barring indicted officials from serving as prime minister. In so doing, Blue and White formalized its rejection of democracy. If passed into law, Blue and White's bill will do two things which are both antithetical to democracy.

First, it will give the unelected attorney general the power to decide who can run for office. If all that is needed to block a politician from running is a criminal indictment, then the only person who matters in Israeli politics will be the attorney general.

Second, the bill seeks to cancel Monday's election. More than two million Israelis voted for Netanyahu, either directly by voting for Likud, or indirectly, by voting for its coalition partners. And the Blue and White bill intends to throw their ballots into the trash.

If the law passes, Israel's parliamentary system will have more in common with Iran's parliamentary system than with Britain's. In Iran, the Guardian Council of the Islamic Revolution decides who can run for office. In Israel, the Guardian Council of the legal revolution will perform the same function, and to the same end.

It's not at all clear how we can proceed from this point. But what is clear enough is that we have reached an inflection point. Either three members of the Blue and White coalition break ranks and join Netanyahu to form a government and save Israeli democracy, or Israel will cease to be a democracy.

Coronavirus: For Once, Israel and the Rest of the World Are on the Same Side

Israel is a country that has known more than its share of national emergencies. Over time its citizens have weathered Arab invasions, ballistic missiles and terror bombing campaigns. The sudden attack of coronavirus is something new. For once, we and the rest of the world are on the same side.

In the first stages of the virus, Israel's aggressive instincts have kicked in as it has adopted emergency measures. Tourists from countries affected by the virus have been sent home. Foreigners from "contagious" nations were banned. Avoiding panic is central to the government's strategy. Officials want to contain the virus as much as possible. It appears to be working. No Israelis have yet died from corona and less than two dozen are hospitalized.

"We are in control of the situation, thanks to the great caution we have adopted," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the country on Wednesday. "We have been forced to take very severe steps to slow the spread of the virus in Israel and that is what has happened. We have ordered quarantines and mass checkups that many other countries haven't done."

Critics say that the hardline virus defense policy is exaggerated. But that is unknowable in advance. Risking lives to placate treasury officials, tourist agencies, business travelers or disappointed children on Purim is a step responsible officials can't contemplate.

El Al cancels flights to San Francisco, Europe amid ‘unprecedented’ virus crisis

El Al on Friday cut back flights to San Francisco and a number of European cities amid a global drop in travel over fears about the new coronavirus, with a senior company official calling it “an unprecedented crisis.”

Flights that left for San Francisco Friday morning were combined, according to El Al, due to the low number of passengers on each plane.

In Europe, the Israeli airline was cancelling some flights to Berlin, Barcelona and Zurich. All three cities are located in countries which Israel began restricting the entry of non-nationals to on Friday as part of efforts to slow the spread of the virus.

“This is an unprecedented crisis,” a senior El Al official told the Ynet news site.

“The consequences of this crisis are huge and we are trying to do everything we can [to handle it],” he said.

El Al was also expected to cancel flights on Sunday to Munich, Budapest, Amsterdam, Brussels, Bucharest, Vienna and Marseille.

Amid Coronavirus, Netanyahu Asks Israelis to Use Indian Namaste Greeting instead of Shaking Hands

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday encouraged his countrymen to adopt ‘Namaste’ - the Indian way of greeting - instead of the normal handshake as one of the measures to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

At a press conference following a review meeting to fight the spread of coronavirus, Netanyahu said that several measures will be announced to prevent the spread of coronavirus but some simple measures like avoiding the normal handshake while greeting people may possibly be replaced with other forms of greetings like the Indian ‘Namaste’.

He also demonstrated at the press conference as to how the Indians do ‘Namaste’ while greeting people.

Netanyahu said that “we are in the middle of a global epidemic”, but Israel has done well as it was quick in taking action to prevent the spread of the virus in the country.

Palestinian Arabic histories online continue to create fantastic new facts about a people who never existed before the last century.

This article in Al Watan by Ali Oqla Arsan about the history of Jerusalem says that Arabs were in the area from the fourth millennium BC, something that historians would be interested in knowing.

For the purposes of the article, though, everyone in the area had to be Arab because then, if they were between the Mediterranean and the Jordan they could be considered "Palestinians."

As a result, the Jebusites who controlled Jerusalem - who we only know about from the Jewish scriptures - are Palestinians.

In his fantasy retelling of history, the writer says that the native Arabs resisted the invasion of the Jews. Even David wasn't able to wrest control of Jerusalem from the Arabs. During the days of David and Solomon, Jews only had a kind of limited autonomy that was graciously granted by the Arabs of the area.

My favorite part is this:

The Arab Canaanites who gave the world the alphabet from 1400 to 1200 BC - as the Phoenicians are part of the Canaanites - remained the people of civilization, the people of the lands, and the people of sovereignty in most of the cities of the Levant in the time of that city-state. Their struggle with the Jews continued after they entered the Levant, and the invaders were not able to extend their control over the region nor to provide it with a special cultural presence - just as they could not form a prominent presence in it even at the military level except in the time of David And Solomon (1000-923 BC).

In this "history" the Jews contributed nothing to civilization and the "Palestinians" introduced the world to everything.

Not only that, but history is viewed from the distorted lens of how Arabs see the world today. Therefore, when Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Israel, he was being lobbied by Babylonian Jews who were his advisors - just like AIPAC does today!

I've seen previous articles that claim Palestinians invented chariots - because of the Hittites.

These inspired me to tweet:

Hey Palestinians:

Canaanites weren't Arab.
Jebusites weren't Arab.
Phoenicians weren't Arab.
Hittites weren't Arab.
Philistines weren't Arab.

𝗡𝗼 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝗮𝗯.
— Elder Of Ziyon ҉ (@elderofziyon) March 6, 2020

Ali Oqla Arsan is from Syria.

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Every year, Gallup polls the world for their attitudes towards American leadership.

In 2013, 80% of Palestinians disapproved of the job performance of Obama administration. This was the highest disapproval rating in the world at the time.

Things didn't change much during his last year in office, when the disapproval rate among Palestinians of the US leadership was at 79%.

In 2007, under Bush, the disapproval rating was 83%.

And now? In the 2019 survey (for 2018), the Palestinian disapproval rating for the Trump administration was 81%.

The Palestinian attitude towards the US barely changed under the most pro-Palestinian administration ever compared to the previous and following administrations.

There is a strange mindset among many that if only the West would be nicer to those who hate us, then they wont hate us as much. These people think that goodwill will be reciprocated. But it doesn't work that way: it didn't work with Iran and it didn't work with the Palestinians.

When people say they hate you, giving in to their demands doesn't make you more loved.

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Hossam Khader, a Fatah member in the Balata camp near Nablus, was arrested from his home in the middle of the night by Palestinian Authority security forces.

He had been critical of Mahmoud Abbas recently. When doctors threatened to strike, Abbas criticized them and Khader in turn criticized Abbas, demanding that he apologize.

Khader's daughter said that the arrest by Palestinian security was brutal and they forcibly retrained her.

Khader himself has been an outspoken critic of the "old guard" leaders of Fatah for decades. He criticized Arafat to Western media in the early 2000s and he was attacked by Abbas supporters in 2009.

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