Monday, August 17, 2020
Elder of ZiyonMeet Jeff Wyatt, a white supremacist, antisemite and racist who Twitter thinks is fine.
He loves to quote that other “racial consciousness” account.)
Of course, his tweets on Zionism would fit right in with those of the “progressives” whom he otherwise hates so much.
There are other instances in which the UN temporary peacekeeping force – UNIFIL – has directly or indirectly hurt Israel's defense and security interests in the area and limited the IDF's ability to respond. The main claim voiced in the defense establishment at the time was that the forces had no real power and were too small to carry out their mandate of restoring peace and security and helping restore control to the South Lebanese Army.Woke anti-Semitism
But in 2006, after the Second Lebanon War was over, that idea crashed on the rocks of reality. The UN Security Council resolved to increase UNIFIL forces nearly fivefold, to 10,900 personnel, and expanded both its enforcement mandate and budget. Nevertheless, the increased forces failed in both motivation and efficacy when it came to taking action against violations on the Lebanese side of the "Blue Line." Since then, Hezbollah has dug attack tunnels under the border into Israel under the very noses of the UN troops, with the hope of carrying out a mega-terror attack against communities in northern Israel.
In biased reports to the UN Security Council and by its very presence in the region, UNIFIL "whitewashes" violations by Hezbollah and the Lebanese army, allowing them to act freely. If another war in the north takes place, UNIFIL's presence will likely hamper the IDF's ability to maneuver in south Lebanon, and serve as a de facto human shield for Hezbollah.
The next few weeks will bring a unique opportunity to improve security in the North and reduce the UN's biased intervention against Israel. This has to do with the nature of the UNIFIL mandate, which is extended on an annual basis in the Security Council. The next date for an extension is Aug. 31. Our leaders would do well to take advantage of the window of opportunity in which our friends in the Trump administration still have diplomatic influence and demand the cancellation of the mandate or that the forces be cut significantly. This request would fall in line with the Trump administration's aspiration of cutting back on bloated, ineffective international missions.
It would be a mistake for Israel to trust the illusion of stability created by the UNIFIL forces. The reality is fluid, Hezbollah is sedulously preparing for the next war, and the IDF needs to be ready for a rapid strike, without having its maneuvers restricted by UN soldiers. Cancelling or cutting back the mandate will be helpful to Israel's strategic interests in the region and will illustrate the defense ethos that Israel defends itself, by itself.
Hirsch describes 2020 ‘as a year that shredded complacency’. Yet her own spotlighting of morally dubious ‘anti-racist’ activists demonstrates the woke congregation’s appalling complacency regarding anti-Semitism. Why is it that someone like Hirsch, who tirelessly campaigned for the removal of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square for its connotations of historical racism, is happy to laud living, breathing activists with ongoing links to Jew-haters?David Collier: Wikipedia, Urban Dictionary and the chaos of anti-truth
Anti-Semitism is a real problem on the woke left. The so-called Forever Family Force, which marched in Brixton recently as part of a reparations demonstration, made headlines for its paramilitary-style gear. Since then it has been revealed that FFF leader Khari McKenzie has made a series of anti-Semitic posts. Like Farrakhan, he blames Jews for slavery and has described the Jewish community’s alleged role in the slave trade as ‘the original holocaust’. Unsurprisingly, McKenzie was also quick to jump to grime artist Wiley’s defence after his anti-Jewish Twitter tirade last month.
This troubling undercurrent in progressive activism is an inevitable product of an intersectional ideology that labels certain groups as innately ‘privileged’, and thus evil, and others as eternally ‘oppressed’, and therefore virtuous. Jews (and indeed, truth itself) are mere collateral when it comes to the woke mission to deconstruct an allegedly evil society. And regrettably, this woke anti-Semitism is very much in vogue.
Online anti-truth terrorism
A better use of the word ‘massacre’ would be as a description of what happens to history and truth on Wiki’s pages. Jews are a tiny minority up against enemies that vastly outnumber them. Jews, nor their allies are capable of policing history. The more time goes on, the more distorted reality becomes.
The example I want to present now, amongst many I found, is a subtle one. It refers to a quote 120 years old made by the former mayor of Jerusalem, Yousef al-Khalidi.
This is how the Wiki page describes it:
“In 1899 he wrote a letter to the Zadok Kahn, the chief rabbi of France in which he stated “Who can deny the rights of the Jews to Palestine? My God, historically it is also your country!”
The source for the quote is ‘Palestine: Une terre, deux peuples’ by Dominique Perrin. Better still, Wikipedia link to an online version of the book, with the quote highlighted for our benefit. And here we run into real trouble.
Because in the source Wiki uses, the Mayor says ‘my god, historically it is your country”. The word ‘also’ clearly missing.
So who added the word ‘also’? It is an addition that clearly carries major political implication.
On 24 Jan 2019, a one-time user entered the page, made the single edit and left. It is highly likely this is the act of a more regular user who sought to make this change anonymously.
An online anti-truth terrorist.
As we know for a fact there are organised online armies on social media platforms using their numerical superiority to manipulate popular thought, isn’t it obvious they would also swarm inside the internet’s primary reference resource?
Outnumbered and outgunned
I am positive that it will take a proper Wikipedia editor about 4 seconds to clean up that quote – but this isn’t the point. It is just another piece of evidence of this endless whack-a-mole game that Jews are left playing.
There are just 15 million of us – perhaps just 10,000s are in some way politically active online. We cannot mobilise an entire people. In the other corner are 100,000s, if not 1,000,000s – some part of online gangs explicitly set up to swarm and distort the truth. In a world of ‘up-votes’, we are both outnumbered and outgunned.
Monday, August 17, 2020Elder of Ziyon
Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki said in a TV interview that the UAE is violating its own constitution by planning to normalize relations with Israel.
Zaki described the agreement as "an earthquake that deeply affected the Emiratis because their constitution does not permit what (Mohammed) bin Zayed (the Crown Prince of the Emirates) did."
He added, "UAE law prohibits and imposes penalties and imprisonment even for those who compliment the Israelis, let alone those who recognize them at the expense of the Palestinians."
Needless to say, there is nothing in the UAE Constitution that would be violated by normalization with Israel. Its penal code adheres to the Arab League boycott of Israel, which is still in force and widely ignored by nearly every Arab state.
Meanwhile, Kuwaiti academic Abdullah Al-Nafisi revealed four Israeli goals for normalization with Arab Gulf states.
#1 is Gulf oil. He doesn’t seem to realize that Israel is now an energy exporter.
#2 is to expand into the Gulf consumer market.
#3 is to cause strife and wars between Arab states.
#4 is to settle 3 million Palestinians in the deserts of the Gulf.
Yes, this kind of thing gets taken seriously. But is it any crazier than the “pinkwashing” theory of the Left?
Monday, August 17, 2020Elder of Ziyon
analysis, Daled AmosBy Daled Amos
The Israel-UAE agreement has been described as groundbreaking.
And rightfully so.
But just for context, how long has this agreement been in the making?
One of the key reasons for this agreement, and for potential Israeli alliances with Arab Gulf states in general, is the need for unity in the face of the common enemy of Iran.
But this is not the first time that Israel and Arab countries found a common enemy in their back yard.
In his book "Personal Witness: Israel Through My Eyes," Abba Eban wrote:
Saudi Arabia, as the pivot of the Desert Storm operation [August 2, 1990 – February 28, 1991], began to see Israel as a fellow victim of Saddam Hussein's Scuds and as a potential collaborator in postwar economic enterprises. A year later, it even proposed a transaction whereby Israel would freeze new settlements and Saudi Arabia would cancel the Arab boycott regulations. If Shamir had accepted this proposal, as any other Israeli prime minister would have done, Israel's economy would have taken a forward leap. (p. 638) [Emphasis added]That was about 30 years ago.
...aspects of Israel are worthy of promotion, including its culture and arts; its accomplishments on environmental matters such as water desalination, solar energy and clean technology; its high-tech successes and achievements in higher education; and its involvement in international aid, he added.The idea that rebranding Israel's image could improve its international relations was not mentioned.
Getting Canadians – both Jewish and non-Jewish – to see Israel in that light is part of the branding effort. Not only would that change Israel’s image, it could lead to more tourism and investment, educational exchanges and other benefits, Aharoni said.
o In 2017, Hungary abstained when the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to reject the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.Obviously, improving relations and building alliances with Arab countries can bring political dividends, as well as economic -- and of course defense against Iran.
o Hungary joined the Czech Republic and Romania in blocking a European Union statement criticizing the US for moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.
o In November 2019, the EU failed to get all of its 28 member states behind a joint statement condemning the US decision to no longer consider Israeli settlements as illegal. Hungary blocked the move. As a result, instead of issuing a joint statement of the entire EU, they had to settle for a statement by then-EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
o In January of this year, the EU again failed to get a consensus, when it tried to unanimously condemn Trump's peace plan.
o Hungary and the Czech Republic are also among the countries that will file an amicus brief with the ICC in response to ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's statement last December that there was enough evidence to investigate alleged war crimes by Israel.
The U.S. would offer military and intelligence support to the alliance, beyond the kind of limited backing it has been providing to a Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, the officials said. But neither the U.S. nor Israel would be part of the mutual-defense pact.The article goes on to describe various reasons Arab members of the coalition gave for opposing the idea of including Israel -- reasons that apparently no longer stand in the way:
“They’ve been asking diplomatic missions in Washington if we’d be willing to join this force that has an Israeli component,” said one Arab diplomat. “Israel’s role would likely be intelligence sharing, not training or boots on the ground. They’d provide intelligence and targets. That’s what the Israelis are good at.” [Emphasis added]
Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are putting forth their own demands in exchange for cooperating with Israel, officials said. Those two countries want the U.S. to overturn legislation that could see their governments sued in American courts by families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, they said.And this was years before the idea of "annexation" was broached.
Arab diplomats have told administration officials they would pursue more overt cooperation with Israel if it ceases settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem—something Israel refused to do under intense pressure from the Obama administration.
The diplomats also said their countries’ cooperation would be contingent upon the Trump administration refraining from moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, an effective recognition of Israel’s claim to Jerusalem as its capital. In recent weeks, the administration has walked back previous statements supporting settlement construction and moving the embassy. [Emphasis added]
The "Netanyahu Doctrine," as I understood it from many years ago, says simply - instead of letting Israel drown in negotiations that will not lead to an agreement with the Palestinians, we had better make a bypass, a broad flanking movement, that leaves the Palestinian Authority at the end of the line.In 2009, The Telegraph fretted that Israel's isolation -- from the US in particular -- could drive Israel to do something desperate. The problem was that the Obama administration was concentrating on the Arab world -- "Mr. Obama is attempting to rebuild relations with the Arab world in the wake of the invasion of Iraq."
According to Netanyahu's view, and not from today, Israel needs to build its international relationship and then leverage it to create a bridge to Arab countries. This is in order to deprive the Palestinians of the right to veto the attitude of the Arabs and others towards Israel.
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| Cartoon by Moshik Gulst, The Israeli Cartoon Project, 2017 |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expects more Arab countries to normalize their ties with Israel after last week’s agreement with the United Arab Emirates, and that the process will eventually also drive peace with the Palestinians.President Rivlin invites UAE crown prince to Jerusalem
In a video statement posted to his Facebook page Sunday, Netanyahu heralded what he described as a new doctrine of a strong Israel that would seek peace with Arab nations rather than conditioning ties on first ending the conflict with the Palestinians by withdrawing from territory.
“This historic change will also advance peace with the Arab world and, in the end, peace, true peace, monitored, secure, with the Palestinians as well,” Netanyahu said.
The agreement reached with the UAE, the first peace deal with an Arab state for 26 years, is unlike those with Egypt and Jordan, the other two Arab states to have formal ties with Israel, he said.
“It is different from those that preceded it in that it is based on two principles ‘Peace for peace,’ and ‘peace through strength’,” Netanyahu said. “Under this doctrine, Israel is not required to withdraw from any territory and together the two countries openly reap the fruits of a full peace: Investments, trade, tourism, health, agriculture, environmental protection and in many other fields, including defense of course,” he said.
“This peace was not achieved because Israel weakened itself by withdrawing to the 1967 lines,” he said. “It was achieved because Israel strengthened itself by cultivating a free economy, and military and technological strength, and by combining these two strengths to achieve unprecedented international influence.”
The new doctrine, he said, is “in complete contradiction to the perception, until a few days ago, that no Arab country will agree to make formal and open peace with Israel before an end is achieved for the conflict with the Palestinians.”
President Reuven Rivlin extended an official invitation to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohamed bin Zayed to Jerusalem in a letter sent on Monday.
Rivlin lauded the prince for a courageous, visionary, ground-breaking move, which the president anticipated will have far-reaching results that will affect the region as a whole.
"I am full of hope that the agreement being drawn up between our countries will help build and strengthen the trust between us and the nations of the region," Rivlin wrote. "Trust will promote understanding between all of us, will march our region forward and will bring economic welfare and provide prosperity and stability to residents of the Middle East."
Rivlin wrote that he had no doubt that future generations would value the manner in which two courageous leaders have renewed the dialogue for peace.
I sent a letter to Crown Prince @MohamedBinZayed and invited him to visit Jerusalem. I am hopeful that the agreement between our countries will help build and strengthen the trust between us and the peoples of the region, bring economic benefit and regional stability. pic.twitter.com/swz50lJUmT
— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) August 17, 2020
Israel and Oman are holding a dialogue aiming to have official diplomatic ties, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and Oman's minister of state for foreign affairs Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah agreed to keep in contact, strengthen ties between their countries and to “promote the normalization process in the Middle East.”Bin Abdullah affirmed Oman's support "to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East and the need to resume the peace process negotiations and to fulfill the legitimate demands of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital," the ministry said.
Ashkenazi said that he appreciates Oman’s commitment to peace and stability in the Middle East.
Following the conversation, Ashkenazi wrote on twitter that he and bin Abdullah “discussed recent developments in the region, the normalization agreement with the UAE and the need to strengthen ties between the countries.”
Bin Abdullah also spoke to Jibril Rajoub, secretary general of the central committee of the Palestinian Fatah group.
Monday, August 17, 2020Elder of ZiyonA person who calls himself a comedian, Matt Lieb, tweeted:
Allow me to expand his tweet, because it applies to all self-righteous Israel-hating hypocrites:
“I’m merely against colonialism, except for Muslim colonialism that made the Middle East what it is today.
“I’m merely against apartheid, except I have no problem with Lebanon or Syria or Jordan or every Arab country discriminating against their own Palestinian residents.
“I’m merely against racism, except for the slavery that happens in Arab and Muslim countries today.
“I’m merely against Islamophobia, except when Muslims are oppressed in China or Myanmar.
“I’m merely against antisemitism, but damned if I will say a word against Roger Waters or Ilhan Omar or Professor Griff or Mahmoud Abbas.
“I’m merely against occupation, even though I have no clue about any real occupation by Turkey or Morocco or Russia.
“I’m merely against ethnic cleansing, which occurs daily all over the world in places I never tweet about.
“I’m merely against bulldozing of Palestinian homes, even though it is perfectly legal and exactly the same as enforcing zoning laws around the world. (Atlantic City bulldozed lots of homes to create room for casinos, but I want to perform there, so it is OK.)
“I’m merely against ethnoreligious states even though I have no problem with dozens of states that declare themselves to be Arab or Muslim or Hindu or Christian – just the Jewish one.
That’s the hypocrisy part. This is not to mention that Israel isn’t guilty of any of these - it is not a colonialist state, it is not guilty of apartheid, it is not racist any more than any other state, it is more tolerant of Muslims than any non-Muslim state Lieb can name, it is not an occupier (this is the only one he can make a case about but it is not true,) it is not guilty of ethnic cleansing by any definition.
This is what passes for intellectual critique, when it is lazy ignorance. It shows that Lieb as well as many of his fellow Jewish antizionists going along with the crowd while pretending to be “edgy” and “brave.” And by singling out Israel and only Israel for critiques that they don’t give a damn about anywhere else, they are engaging in antisemitism – no matter how much they protest that they light Chanukah candles once in a while for a holiday about Jews fighting for the only land that they insist must be Judenrein.
Monday, August 17, 2020Elder of ZiyonThe fallout from the UAE/Israel announcement of normalizing relations continues to come, and it has shaken up long standing assumptions about the Middle East and the Muslim world.
Palestinian foreign policy has been largely based on the myth of Arab and Muslim states’ unity in supporting whatever they demand about Israel. Yet that unity has been only on paper for well over a decade. Already back in 2010, the Arab League pledged a half billion dollars to the Palestinians to “defend Jerusalem,” whatever that means, and they didn’t pay a dime.
Smart leaders would have noticed that their Arab brethren’s support was paper thin and would plan accordingly for how to deal with the day that the Arab rhetorical support would follow their monetary support. But Mahmoud Abbas is not a smart man – great at seizing and consolidating power, not too bright at seeing the trends that have been staring at him in the face.
Instead, Palestinian leaders and their media would pump up stories about support from Islamic extremist groups in Pakistan or trade unions in Jordan and pretend that this meant that there was universal consensus on Arab and Muslim support for their cause. They didn’t make the simple realization that if Arab and Muslim nations refused to invest money in the Palestinian cause it is because they no longer saw that cause as their own.
Arab media love to quote the fake Protocols of the Elders of Zion, saying that the Jewish plan to dominate the world includes fracturing Arab unity. What we saw over this past week will be looked upon as proof of this plan. But it is nothing so nefarious: it is simply Arab and Muslim nations acting in their own self-interest rather than subsume themselves under a unified position. The same thing has been happening in the EU: nationalism is ascendant.
Most Arab nations have not made a statement one way or another about the UAE deal. Egypt, Oman and Bahrain support it, Libya and Yemen oppose, Jordan and Qatar issued cautious statements and the rest of the Arab world has been silent. What we certainly have not seen is the chorus of automatic anti-Israel statements that the PLO could have orchestrated only a year ago.
The larger group of Muslim states have been similarly divergent in their opinions. Mauritania’s statement of support for the agreement is perhaps more explicit in explaining why: it said that “the United Arab Emirates possesses absolute sovereignty and complete independence in conducting its relations and assessing its positions in accordance with its national interests, the interests of Arabs and Muslims and their just causes.”
In other words, members of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are unhappy at being told what positions to take by these organizations. They want to act in their own self-interest, not based on what Palestinians have been telling these organizations to parrot.
The Palestinian stranglehold on the pan-Arab and pan-Islamic organizations has been so seemingly strong that Saeb Erakat arrogantly called on the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, to issue a statement condemning the Emirati-Israeli agreement or to resign from his post. His hubris is telling – it is one thing to demand the condemnation of Israel which costs members of the Arab league nothing, it is another to demand the condemnation of a major Arab member. The PLO is so ossified in its ways that it continues to treat the Arab League and the OIC as its own personal platform. His threats just marginalize the PLO even further.
As it is, the PLO demand for an emergency Arab League meeting has so far gone nowhere and the organization has not commented on the UAE-Israel agreement, which has not gone unnoticed in the Arab world.
The UAE has forced into the open what observers have recognized for years: there is no Arab or Muslim unity. The Arab and Muslim world used the Palestine issue to give the impression of such unity because it was the only thing they could agree on. The PLO took full advantage of this and took virtual control of these groups to make it appear to be a leader of the Arab world. But behind the scenes, Arabs were sick of Palestinian rejectionism and refusal to accept a state offered by Israel, and it was only a matter of time before some Arab states realized that aligning with Israel is a better idea than being led by the nose by the Palestinian leadership.
The Palestinian reaction is one of horror at the realization that their position as the ones who set the agenda has been toppled. The support and silence of most of the Arab and Muslim world towards the UAE/Israel agreement has shattered their confidence and destroyed their strategy, yet they have no other because they were too overconfident to create one.
Monday, August 17, 2020Elder of Ziyon
If the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and other potential Arab peace partners of Israel would allow Palestinians to become citizens, it would be an even bigger political earthquake than those countries normalizing relations with Israel.
Right now there are 150,000 Palestinian workers in the UAE and about 250,000 in Saudi Arabia, along with at least another 100,000 in other Gulf countries. These countries have huge outside worker populations.
Palestinians are desirable workers. They work harder than Gulf Arabs and are generally better educated. Many of them know Hebrew which will make them more important as Gulf countries slowly normalize with Israel.
If the UAE and Saudi Arabia would announce that they would accept Palestinians as citizens, motivated Palestinians from the territories would move there, as well as many more from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. It would help the Gulf countries’ economies and it would help Palestinians who want to live in s stable Arab land where they can raise their families.
Perhaps most importantly, it would puncture the myth that somehow purposefully keeping Palestinians in a stateless limbo for over seven decades is for their own good.
Once Palestinians are shown to be happy, productive members of the Gulf states, other countries that deny them citizenship like Egypt, Syria and Lebanon would be shown to be mistreating them not out of solidarity but out of bigotry.
The “Palestinian right of return” which has no basis in international law would be exposed as a means of using Palestinians as cannon fodder.
And the Middle East would be that much closer to real peace.
Let’s hope that this is part of the negotiations.
Sunday, August 16, 2020Elder of ZiyonGlobes points out:
Israel's normalization agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will give Israeli business an official, stable bridge to the entire Arab world, particularly the other Gulf states, with Saudi Arabia, which was in on the secret all along the way, at their head. The opportunities that have been opened up in the Arab markets for Israeli firms are huge, and could dramatically boost Israel's exports, to the UAE, and via them to other Arab countries.
A prominent businessperson, formerly a senior officer in the security forces, told "Globes" that although there were substantial ties with the UAE beforehand, this agreement puts everything above board, and lends legitimacy to buying from Israel for companies and governments throughout the Arab world, through UAE intermediaries. In one way or another, this happened before, but now "the sky is the limit".
A source in Saudi Arabia told "Globes" that the Arab world had a great deal to gain from Israel. This is a breakthrough. The Palestinian issue has not gone away and will continue to be an obstacle to some degree, but the road is open.
Existing ties were mostly beneath the surface, and came to light here and there, such as the collaboration of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. and Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) (IAI) with Group 42 in the UAE, medical technology companies working on solutions to the coronavirus pandemic. This agreement was reported two months ago.
The new normalization agreement will bring to light a wide range of economic and technological collaborations that has existed for years.
This is a huge blow for BDS - and they are reacting with hysteria..
When President Trump took office, the Middle East was in a state of extreme turmoil, even by the low standards of a region long plagued by danger and violence. Islamic State terrorists controlled an area in Iraq and Syria approximately the size of Ohio. The peace process between Israel and the Arab world had stalled. Iran was spreading instability through proxy fighters in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.
It was to this region that President Trump took his first trip abroad as president. In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the president laid out his vision for a more peaceful, secure and prosperous Middle East. He described to the leaders of dozens of Arab and Muslim countries a region with vast potential, held hostage by extremism and the conflicts of the past.
President Trump recognized that, to tap this potential, the region required a strategic realignment. In the new Middle East, nations must chart their course based on shared interests and common values, not old hatreds and rivalries. The president also recognized that building this future would require altering a U.S. policy that for far too long had accepted these historic animosities and even nurtured them.
That’s why instead of rewarding America’s enemies, we pledged to draw our partners closer. Rather than lecturing America’s friends, we committed to taking forceful action against the evils of extremism and terror. Finally, we resolved to pursue these goals grounded in the realities of today, not the ghosts of the past.
Three-and-a-half years later, this strategic realignment continues to pay off. The Islamic State caliphate has been destroyed, its brutal leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed. Iran remains a pariah state but is more constrained than ever before. And thanks to the courageous leaders of Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East this week took a great step toward a future in which people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds can live together in the spirit of cooperation and peace.
Ultimately, it is up to the people of the Middle East to decide the future they want for their children. The United States cannot and should not choose for them. But the remarkable progress over the past several years is clear evidence that the people of the Middle East are finally on a path to a very bright future. And today, more than ever, they can count on the United States’ support every step of the way.
Since Israel’s inception, Arab nations have taken the position of refusing to recognise it because its establishment took place at the expense of Arab inhabitants of that land. But as the world has witnessed, this stance has yet to achieve any concrete progress or benefits for the Palestinian people. Indeed, over the years, several Arab states have realised that making peace with Israel, and ensuring that our Israeli neighbours feel secure in the region, is the best way to guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people, while also bringing benefits for the region as a whole. The UAE is now joining their number.Qanta Ahmed: Israel-UAE agreement will likely lead more Arab nations to recognize Jewish state
But this is not an entirely new step. The UAE and Israel have worked together before, most recently in the fight against Covid-19. We are a country that constantly looks towards the future. We recently launched the Arab world’s first mission to Mars. We have demonstrated an exemplary response to the ongoing pandemic. In light of this philosophy, we see peace and dialogue as the means to achieve a safer and stronger Middle East.
But this new agreement will by no means preclude our support of the Palestinian cause in line with the Arab consensus. There will be no embassy in Jerusalem until Jerusalem is also the capital of the future Palestinian state. We will continue to steadfastly defend the Palestinian right to statehood and dignity. And indeed, any and all progress on the matter must derive from direct dialogue between Palestine and Israel themselves. But this new deal will allow us to push ever harder for such an outcome.
We in the UAE are proud of this progress and look forward to the achievement of a more secure future for the Palestinian people, to the growth of our new partnership with Israel, and to the betterment of the region as a whole.
Much credit for the Israel-UAE agreement and the earlier Israeli-Palestinian peace plan goes to Jared Kushner, President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law. He and other U.S. officials have worked hard to establish personal friendships with Muslim leaders across the Middle East, which leads me to conclude that the agreement announced Thursday will be followed by the establishment of relations between Israel and more of its neighbors.
It is no surprise that the seven-member federation of the United Arab Emirates — now under the leadership of the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and commander in chief of the UAE’s formidable armed forces, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed — has become the first Muslim nation to normalize relations with Israel since Egypt and Jordan did so. His courage and long-term vision means Israel and the UAE will now have embassies in each other’s capitals.
Muslims will be able to fly directly from the UAE to Israel to pray at the third-holiest site of Islam –- the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Israelis will be able to visit, work and trade with the UAE — one of the most intensely forward-thinking regions in the world. They will be able to admire the remarkable Shaykh Bin Zayed Mosque, peruse the astonishing art the region has amassed and see the world’s preeminent Falcon hospital — a personal favorite of mine, as a physician.
Israelis and residents of the UAE will also be able to get to meet and know each other on a personal basis, establishing both friendships and professional relationships. The UAE is home to some of the most educated and empowered Muslim women in the region, including Maj. Mariam Al Mansouri the UAE’s first female fighter pilot, who led the first airstrike her country launched against ISIS. I’m sure she would get along well with Israeli military women I know.
All of us who are friends of peace between Israel and the Arab and Muslim world should now hope that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia follows the path of his neighbor and ally the UAE in establishing normalized relations with Israel.
It is in the self-interest of all Muslim nations— including the 16 remaining Arab nations that continue the boycott of Israel — to at long last accept the fact that the modern state of Israel exists and is here to stay.
Crown Prince Mohammed of the UAE has long been a behind-the-scenes source of wisdom, guidance and strategic policymaking for Crown Prince Mohammed of Saudi Arabia, and both nations have worked together in an intensely difficult time.
The neighboring countries have together dealt with the rise of the ISIS terrorist group; the deepening hostilities and undeclared open conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran; the rise of the terrorist group and Iranian proxy Hezbollah; the Syrian civil war; and the dangerous threat they face from Iran itself.
Israel can be a natural ally to Arab nations against these threats. Let’s hope and pray that the announcement by President Trump establishing ties between Israel and the UAE is followed by more such agreements with Arab and Muslim nations. That would serve America’s best interests and the best interests of all the countries following the road to peace and cooperation.
AHMED: #IsraelUAE peace deal is EPIC - here’s why @petehegseth on @foxandfriends ?cc ?@IWF? ?@aviberkow45? #ISRAELUAEPEACEDEAL pic.twitter.com/CzLM1mZPcJ
— Qanta Ahmed (@MissDiagnosis) August 15, 2020
AHMED: #UAE clearly the keystone nation in the region- deeply engaged w #israel on aid, #COVID19 , Rafael defense systems , Israel aerospace. VISIONARY ?@MohamedBinZayed? FORMIDABLE strategist & global player cc @iwf ?@aviberkow45? pic.twitter.com/WTp2VyRg4l
— Qanta Ahmed (@MissDiagnosis) August 15, 2020
Sunday, August 16, 2020Elder of ZiyonThis Tehran Times article shows the real fear that Iran has: that Israel will take over lands closer to Iran, just as Iran has taken over Syria and Lebanon and parts of Gaza to threaten Israel.
President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday condemned an agreement between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Zionist regime of Israel to normalize ties, warning Abu Dhabi that the agreement must never prepare the ground for the presence of the Zionist regime in the Persian Gulf region.
Noting that even until the present time the UAE has done a “great mistake and treasonous act”, Rouhani said, “We warn the Emirates that lest it (agreement) finds a place for the Zionist regime in the region… then it will be different and they will be treated differently,” Rouhani said while speaking at a meeting of the National Task Force for Fighting Coronavirus.
Recent interest by Israel in the history of Jews of the Gulf, including the Himyar kingdom in what is now Yemen and parts of Saudi Arabia, has been fueling this – an article in Al Sharq this weekend makes it sound like Israel has only shown interest in this topic after the Israel/UAE agreement.
That same article refers to a recent conspiracy theory that a Saudi development initiative named NEOM is in fact a cover for Israel to recreate a fictional Hebrew Biblical kingdom of “Noam.”
This has been a theme in the Arab world – especially in Jordan where many are convinced that Israel is planning to make a Biblical claim on Petra.
But it is natural for Iran to be concerned with an Israeli presence on its doorstep – so much so that it has warned the UAE that an agreement with Israel would make it a legitimate military target.
Sunday, August 16, 2020Elder of Ziyon
From Naharnet:
President Michel Aoun seemed to leave the door open to eventual peace with Israel, in an interview with French news channel BFMTV.
Lebanon has technically been at war with neighboring Israel for decades, with tensions sporadically flaring in the border area in Lebanon's south, stronghold of Iran-backed Hizbullah.
Asked in an interview on BFMTV whether Lebanon would be prepared to make peace with Israel, Aoun responded: "That depends. We have problems with Israel, we have to resolve them first."
His statement came in the wake of an announcement Thursday that Israel would normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates, only the third Arab state to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel since its creation in 1948.
"It's an independent country," Aoun said of the UAE.
Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement has for years been politically allied with Hizbullah.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday of the Israel-UAE agreement that "it's a betrayal of Jerusalem and the Palestinian people. It's a knife in the back."
Lebanon and Syria have been the most anti-Israel Arab countries, and Lebanon has been among the most antisemitic countries in the world. Even allowing for a possibility of a peace agreement with Israel is a huge shift.
Aoun is not ideological – he will align with whomever will save his political career (as would many Lebanese politicians.) And of course Hezbollah will block any possible peace with Israel. The reason that Aoun’s statement is groundbreaking is because it indicates that he is seeing the Lebanese people angry at Hezbollah as a major culprit in the Beirut explosion and he is hedging his bets with any possible popular uprising against Hezbollah and Iran.
More importantly, even this mild statement weakens Hezbollah. Hezbollah pretends that it needs its arms to defend Lebanon from an Israeli enemy – if Israel is not the enemy, Hezbollah loses its entire reason for existing. The Lebanese have deep memories of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and the wounds will not heal soon, but they are living under Hezbollah’s and Iranian implicit threats today. They are seeing Hezbollah’s leader Nasrallah trying to blame Israel for the Beirut blast and they recognize it for what it is – an attempt to move attention away from Hezbollah’s responsibility for putting hundreds of thousands of dangerous weapons literally under Lebanese homes, mosques and churches.
If Hezbollah issues a blistering anti-Aoun statement, they risk losing a key ally and alienating many Lebanese even more. But it cannot ignore his words either. As of this writing, Hezbollah’s Al Manar news site has remained silent.
Practically speaking, what are the disputes between Israel and Lebanon today? Some very minor land border disputes and some fairly important disputes over maritime borders where there are significant natural gas reserves. Israel would be very flexible on those issues in exchange for real peace.
And peace is the last thing that Hezbollah wants.
(Notably, a UAE businessman makes the case for peace between Lebanon and Israel in Haaretz.)
Sunday, August 16, 2020Elder of Ziyon
All of these stories were published in Mehr News, an official Iranian news site, in English:
FM Zarif discusses UAE’s betrayal with Palestinian groups
Emirati-Israeli normalization a stab on Muslim World’s back
UAE move in normalizing ties with Israel, ‘strategic folly’
UAE-Israel agreement, clear violation of Palestinians' rights
Emirati people not involved in UAE-Zionist ties
UAE move in normalizing ties with Israelis, clear betrayal
Israeli-UAE deal betrays Palestinian cause
Iran's Armed Forces condemns UAE-Israeli tie normalization
VIDEO: Palestinians hold protest against Israel-UAE deal
Iran issues strong warning to UAE
Yemen condemns UAE’s ‘betrayal’
Fight against Zionist regime will continue with power
Turkey may suspend diplomatic ties with UAE: Erdogan
UAE-Israeli agreement ‘a stab in regional countries’ back’
UAE’s ‘hypocritical’ behavior ‘unforgivable’: Turkey
UAE to be engulfed in Zionism’s fire: advisor
Hamas, Fatah slam UAE, Zionist regime agreement
Iran condemns UAE-Zionist tie as ‘strategic folly’
I think Iran isn’t happy with the agreement.
Never in a million years did I believe there would be a deal in my lifetime where an Arab Gulf state would recognize the Jewish state. Watching the news this week of Israel and the United Arab Emirates normalizing relations was something of a dream come true.
From the age of eight until adulthood, I called the UAE home. It was a place I enjoyed most of my firsts: my first day of school, the first time I ditched school, my first kiss, my first chicken shawarma, crashing my first car.
It’s also where I had my first experience with anti-Semitism. Of course, I didn’t know what that actually was at the time.
Calling Israel and its Jewish inhabitants the enemy of Islam and God was as common as breathing while I was growing up. Anti-Semitism was in my home. It was in the school hallways and yard. You heard it at the café while having a hookah, enjoying a chicken shawarma and playing a hand of tarneeb.
At Friday prayers, a religious cleric at any given mosque was sure to make a comment about how Allah will one day destroy Israel from the map and all the yahoud that live in it so that our brothers may finally be free.
Believing in conspiracies like the idea that Israel was the true mastermind behind 9/11 or that Israel is funding ISIS was prevalent, mainstream, part of the culture. It was a hate taught and passed down through generations by people who had never once interacted with a Jew.
It’s so weird looking back at it now, trying to understand how it is that I had this hate in my heart for an entire group of people I had never met.
I myself didn’t meet a Jewish person until I was about 25 years old and traveling through New York. He also happened to be an Israeli.
I’m not going to lie: I was nervous when he first told me where he was from. I didn’t know how to feel about, if I was supposed to walk away, or punch him in the face.
But something came over me, a curiosity, a deep desire to know more about this person I was taught to just hate. We talked about a wide range of topics in the short time we spent together, but the one that interested me the most was Israel.
You could tell he loved his country; there was a glow about him when talking about his favorite bakery that he would go to on the marina, or how he enjoys his chicken shawarma with pickles and garlic paste — just the way I would eat it as a kid in the UAE.
From my interview on @WIONews on why peace agreement between #Israel & #UAE is so historic!
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) August 14, 2020
I should add, as #India 🇮🇳 has important strategic relations with all 3 countries - 🇮🇱 🇦🇪 🇺🇸 - they can have crucial role to play in advancing this peace process!https://t.co/V8Vy5bg7wC
To say that Israel is reeling today is a cosmic understatement.
All of Israel–left, right, center–was dealt a knockout blow by the indefatigable Netanyahu on Thursday when the Oval Office announced on Thursday the agreement between Israel and the UAE to immediately formalize “full normalization” of diplomatic, economic and all relations.
The revelation was so surreal, in fact, that in this hopelessly gossipy nation, where everything leaks, nothing did. It was the equivalent of an atomic bomb. In terms of sheer force, not devastation. A good atomic bomb.
For the Emiratis to engage openly, fully, and proudly has left this nation stunned. In the best way. It was totally unexpected.
Perhaps it was best expressed in a tweet by former MK Einat Wilf, who wrote: “Israeli Jews are keenly aware of their minority status in an Arab and Islamic region and so yearn for peace with the Arab and Islamic world. The #UAE showed today yet again that when the Arab world comes to us with offers of genuine peace, they always find in us willing partners.”
Mired in an evergreen domestic political morass, PM Netanyahu, “the magician,” has clearly worked for years to pull off the impossible, as he was sliced and diced six ways to Sunday by local scandal and subterfuge.
“Full normalization.”
Peace, in the vernacular. With one of the most important, progressive, influential Middle Eastern countries, the UAE.
Israeli media reports that this agreement has been brokered by Jared Kushner, Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen, and others. But foremost, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, ruler of the UAE, has boldly led the Middle East into what will not just re-align the region’s geopolitics, but quite likely those of the world. And, in a flash, the notoriously aggressive Israeli media was rocked back on its heels, collective mouths agape, at the unsurpassed brilliance of Bibi.
If Shakespeare were alive, he would have to reinvent his canon, which has become the literary foundation of Western story-telling. With Bibi, there simply is no Act V–no denouement. We are stuck in Act III, where the hero is unstoppable. Where his brilliance and unsurpassed triumphs continue, mere human frailties notwithstanding.
“On regional strategy, this shows the benefit of the U.S. standing by its historic allies in the Middle East. Pres Obama shunned Israel & the Gulf states and sought to normalize Iran. His nuclear deal, an economic boon to Tehran, was a means to that end.”https://t.co/IFnZRW4ajj
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) August 15, 2020
Under the leadership of Obama White House alumni Jonathan Greenblatt, in recent years the ADL has tried to reinvent itself as a progressive group that focuses mainly on criticizing the other side of the political divide.NY Democratic Socialists asks City Council candidates to pledge no Israel visits
The ADL's fervent efforts to ingratiate itself among progressives places in stark relief the "Open Letter to the Progressive Community" signed by more than a hundred groups calling for ostracizing it. It shows that today's Democrat party is unwilling to accept Jews or politicians who are both progressive and pro-Jewish.
This brings us to Omar's primary victory. It wasn't particularly surprising that Omar won the poll. Her national profile has made her a lightning rod in national politics. While as a bigot she is justifiably hated by many, leftist donors and activists adore her and back her as an anti-Semite.
While predictable, three aspects of her win are particularly significant. First, the main difference between the Omar and the progressive black opponent she defeated is that unlike Omar, Antone Melton-Meaux isn't an anti-Semite. Rather than drawing praise from progressives for his lack of bigotry, Melton-Meaux was decried by progressive activists who accused him of being controlled by Jews.
The second significant aspect of Omar's win is that despite her open anti-Semitism, her reelection bid – and that of her anti-Semitic comrade Rashida Tlaib – was endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi even donated $14,000 to Omar's campaign from her political PAC. Pelosi was long viewed as a friend to both American Jews and to Israel. The fact that she monetarily supported an out and out anti-Semite speaks volumes about the direction of the party.
The final significant aspect of Omar's win is that it was a testament to the rapidly growing power of the radical left in the Democrat party. Two years ago, four female radicals with harshly anti-Israel positions were elected as first-time lawmakers. The joined together, called themselves "The Squad" and proceeded to drain all the air out of the policy discourse in their party.
As the Squad members rose in power and prestige, moderate Democrats insisted their voice was out of synch with their actual power. To be sure, the moderates argued, the likes of Omar and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have the loudest microphones, but they represent but a fraction of the party's Congressional delegation.
So far, Tlaib and Omar handily won their primaries and three new candidates with their same brand of radical, anti-Israel positions just won their primaries replacing moderate lawmakers who either retired or were defeated. These victories point to two things. First, the squad has already nearly doubled its numbers in one Congressional term, and two, they have become, without a doubt, the rising force – and with Pelosi's backing, the dominant force in the Democrat party.
In light of all of this, it is self-evident Omar's primary victory was far more significant than Biden's selection of Harris as his running mate. Biden and Harris, weather vanes both, will not lead their party. They will follow their party's grassroots and donors as they lead the Democrats every further along on their great march into the anti-Semitic leftist abyss.
Lots of candidates for New York City Council are expected to seek an endorsement from the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, a rising force in city politics, in next year’s elections.
To apply for the endorsement, the candidates will have to decide if they will pledge not to travel to Israel if elected.
According to a screenshot of a candidate questionnaire from the DSA posted to Twitter by local reporter Zack Fink, candidates are being asked to “pledge not to travel to Israel if elected to City Council in solidarity with Palestinians living under occupation.” (The party did not immediately confirm that it had distributed the survey.)
The group also asks candidates if they support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which is part of the New York City DSA chapter’s platform.
Some candidates declared their answers already on Twitter. “Easy: 1. No. 2. No,” Eric Dinowitz, a teacher (and son of a state Assemblyman) who is running for City Council in the Bronx, posted late Thursday.
The questionnaire comes after pro-BDS activists were vindicated this month when Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who have voiced support for the BDS movement, both won their Democratic primaries. Both represent overwhelmingly Democratic districts where they are likely to be reelected to Congress. A third congressional candidate who has indicated support for the BDS movement, Cori Bush in Missouri, also defeated a longtime incumbent in her primary.
With 35 out of 51 city council seats up for election this year due to term limits as well as open elections for citywide offices like mayor and comptroller, citywide elections in New York City next year present a rare opportunity to reshape most of New York City’s government.
The DSA is considered to be a rising force in New York City after helping Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeat incumbent Joe Crowley in 2018. In this year’s Democratic primary, DSA member Jamaal Bowman defeated Eliot Engel, a longtime incumbent and champion of Israel. Far from pledging to boycott Israel, Bowman has indicated his backing, last week telling City & State, “I am in full support of Israel.”
A few years ago, I had an amazing learning experience when I visited Israel and I encourage my colleagues to be open-minded and travel there to form their own opinions. I refuse to be a part of this litmus test/cancel culture movement. Let’s do more engaging not less. https://t.co/djZDrhTWg5
— Senator Brian Benjamin (@NYSenBenjamin) August 14, 2020
As it turns out, it isn't Rodney Muhammad who is on the spot in the controversy about the NAACP and anti-Semitism. The people who should really be worried about the controversy engendered by Muhammad are the Jewish members of the national board of the NAACP, like Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, who are being discredited by the organization's failure to draw a line in the sand about Jew-hatred.
Muhammad is the Philadelphia chapter president of the venerable civil-rights group who sparked controversy last month with a blatantly anti-Semitic Facebook post. The post combined pictures of African-American celebrities who had recently made anti-Semitic statements, and included the image of a Nazi-style caricature of a hook-nosed Jew above a fake quote from Voltaire that said: "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." The obvious point was the false claim that powerful and sinister Jewish forces are working to suppress criticism of their fiendish hold on society by courageous but oppressed black people.
While Muhammad was bitterly criticized by various Jewish groups, as well as local politicians and public figures, he doesn't seem so concerned about his future as a public figure, even after such a gross display of prejudice. The national leadership of the NAACP was slow to issue a statement about the incident and when it did, its condemnation stopped well short of demanding Muhammad's resignation or his firing by the Philadelphia chapter.
As the African-American newspaper The Philadelphia Tribune reported, local black leaders such as Bishop J. Louis Felton, the first vice president of the Philadelphia chapter, said they had not received any instructions or guidance from the group's national office. Instead, the Tribune reported that NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson would be meeting with Muhammad, as well as local community and faith leaders, to "open a dialogue and continue the educational conversations." But the time for dialogue about this scandal is over. That statement could be reasonably interpreted as an indication that the national leadership has no interest in breaking with Muhammad, despite the fact that a state board could vote to The reluctance of the NAACP to take swift and decisive action is disappointing. Jews were active in the organization's founding. And there is a direct precedent in which the NAACP was faced with a similar situation in the not-too-distant past.
In August of 2000, Lee Alcorn, president of the group's Dallas chapter, sparked controversy by denouncing the selection of Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) as the Democratic candidate for vice president. Alcorn said he opposed Vice President Al Gore's running mate because "if we get a Jew person, then what I'm wondering is, I mean, what is this movement for, you know? … So I think we need to be very suspicious of any kind of partnerships between the Jews at that kind of level because we know that their interest primarily has to do with money and these kind of things."
NAACP president Kweisi Mfume responded immediately. He not only condemned Alcorn's remarks as "repulsive, anti-Semitic, anti-NAACP and anti-American," he also immediately suspended him from the organization.
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
