The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation was formed last December from the merger of several other US aid agencies. It is the development finance institution of the United States, responsible for providing and facilitating the financing of private development projects in lower- and middle-income countries, partially as a counter to Chinese development projects worldwide.
Late last month, the DFC issued a press release indicating that it wanted to leverage the Israel/UAE accords to improve life throughout the Middle East:
Building on the historic Abraham Accords, DFC and other delegation members visited Israel to explore opportunities to translate that agreement into tangible initiatives to improve the lives of people across the region. In particular, DFC is pursuing projects with countries such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates that will enhance regional trade, create jobs, increase energy security and reliable access to electricity, and support agriculture and sustainable access to water in the region.
The DFC has a number of Middle East projects, including financing to rehabilitate a gas pipeline from Israeli gas fields to Egypt and a water pipeline from southern Jordan to Amman.
It appears that the DFC wants to help Israel and the UAE offer aid to other Arab countries beyond the aid that the US gives.
(h/t Irene)
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This is the time of the year of the Palestinian olive harvest, and there are lots of stories and photos about how critical this time of year is to the Palestinian economy. Most of the olives are converted to olive oil.
How much is the annual olive oil yield in the West Bank? According to UN-OCHA, it is between $110 and $120 million a year.
Articles try to say how critical the olive oil business is the the Palestinian economy, with figures tossed around that it is the main income for 100,000 Palestinian families. Simple math shows that this is impossible because that would mean each family only has an annual income of $1200, when the average Palestinian family income is over $20,000. Clearly the olive oil industry is not nearly as large as we are told.
But there is another comparison that is useful. The annual budget in the Palestinian Authority to pay prisoners, "marytrs" and their families was $315 million in 2016 - meaning that the Palestinian Authority gives nearly triple the annual olive oil revenues to terrorists and their families every year.
The Palestinian leaders want the world to think that their top priority is the olive oil industry. Clearly paying terrorists and their families is a far, far higher priority.
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About a week ago, Ariella Aisha Azoulay of Brown University gave an anti-Israel lecture at Cornell.
One of the attendees described the lecture this way:
Today I attended a lecture given by Brown University professor Ariella Azoulay who had been invited to talk to a Cornell class in the school of architecture. This lecture was afactual, ahistorical and steeped in antisemitic narratives to the extent that all photographs showing Jews or Israelis she had erased the image of the people (see below) because "I can't bear to look at them". Deeply disturbing and profoundly depressing.
Sure enough, Azoulay tweeted her photos that she showed at the lecture, and they show all Jews who were the early pioneers of modern Israel are deliberately blacked out of the photos.
Even though Azoulay is Jewish, she actually went out of her way to blacken the images of Jews because, in her words, she couldn't bear to look at them. This is dehumanizing Jews and only Jews - there is really no other way to interpret this. (In her caption of an unedited photo advertising the lecture, Azoulay specifically calls out Jewish - not Zionist - soldiers.)
There was no controversy at Cornell over this blatant dehumanizing of Jews. On the contrary - the controversy was over the fact that a few minutes into the lecture s message was placed on the screen, apparently in response to the one-sided nature of the lecture, which said, “We are aware that these topics are sensitive and have multiple view points and would like to assure all participants that the department is looking forward to organizing a future lecture that presents other view points than those that are offered here today and in subsequent talks.”
This message prompted a petition with nearly a thousand signers about how terrible it is for a college to say that they would make alternate points of view available.
This may be the most antisemitic thing I have ever seen in a US university lecture hall.
(h/t Andrew P)
UPDATE: Here's Azoulay's editing of the classic photo of Ben Gurion declaring the State of Israel, along with the original.
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It’s a new Middle East and anyone who has been following the news or more importantly, social media, is discovering an entirely new language with respect to Israel-Arab relations, one characterized by warmth, curiosity and excitement sparked by the recent peace deals signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The people have spoken, and they love each other. It happened so instantly that it has caused some skeptics to raise eyebrows and question the authenticity of this rapprochement, but anyone who is in touch with the “other side” knows that this outspoken sympathy is genuine.
Terms like “warm peace” and “normalization” are often used but only for lack of better description. Truth be told, the peace between Israel and the UAE isn’t just warm—it’s sizzling hot.
“It’s like we’re dating,” said Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, while Chief Rabbi of the UAE Yehuda Sarna believes “Israeli tourists won’t want to leave.”
Emiratis are reacting similarly. Dubai-based businessman Thani AlShirawi, who co-founded the Israel-UAE Business Forum with Hassan Nahoum, says he is “on cloud nine.” Emirati author Omar al-Busaidy, who attended the White House signing ceremony on Sept. 15, said he hasn’t stopped smiling and “you can feel the energy everywhere.”
If anything, the Abraham Accords is a people’s peace. For many Israelis—especially at a time when they face a second coronavirus-triggered lockdown that is compounded by political uncertainty and nationwide protests—this peace is a gift to be enjoyed by generations to come, one the impact of which will be felt long after the COVID and political crises have gone.
Less than a month after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan joined U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House for the signing ceremony, dozens of partnerships have been formed between the Jewish state and the Arabian Gulf power, and the list grows daily.
The United Arab Emirates ambassador has urged British Jews to visit the country as he expressed his wish to be an ally in the fight against antisemitism in the UK and decried hate in parts of the Arab media.
Mansoor Abulhoul made the comments in his first interview with the Jewish media after his country and Israel signed the historic Abraham Accords to normalise relations.
The envoy, who studied at Leeds University and whose British mother moved to the UAE in 1968, said the region had suffered from decades of “indoctrination stemming from the Arab nationalist movement” and been “held back” by a fear of engaging with others. “The narrative that the Arabs should be in endless war with the Israelis is absolute nonsense and the Abraham Accords proves that” he insisted.
“To have a dialogue you have to be at the table and we very much see the Abraham accords as a new pathway to peace. For us to ignore a major power engine we’re denying the region strengths and bonds from which we can build peace. We’re both very dynamic economies and its difficult not to be able to work together.”
He strongly disagrees with any suggestion that the deal doesn’t progress the issue of peace with the Palestinians, whose leadership have accused the UAE of betrayal.
“Where we had looming annexation – which would have sent peace into overdrive reverse gear – that’s been removed. It’s important the Palestinians use this time to come in and engage.”
It is up to the Israelis and Palestinians to decide what sort of solution they finally come to. But the UAE will do all it can to urge both sides to break the impasse. We will be able to help precisely because we can now communicate directly with Israel.”
Great interview by @ReinsteinJosh with MK @CotlerWunsh, one of #Israel's most eloquent and passionate spokespeople, but also an indefatigable champion for Olim community in the Knesset.
Note that the ammunition being used to separate the heretofore special bond between the U.S. and Israel is based on the lie that Israel is a usurper and an “illegal occupier” of another’s land!
To understand the calumny, read for yourselves what is enshrined in international law, as well as in historical fact. The preeminent expert in this legal arena is Howard Grief (deceased, June 2013). All the facts are contained within Legal Rights and Title of Sovereignty of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel and Palestine under International Law
For all intents and purposes, the Democratic Party’s current incarnation (as it moved left-ward, incrementally, over a period of years) is ideologically imbued with those who would like to see Israel’s destruction. America’s, too. Even though the Democrat Party of yesteryear, tradition-wise, has always been supportive of Israel, this no longer seems to be the case.
The party's radical, Marxist/communist element hates Israel for the same reasons they hate America. This tragic truth is plain for all to see, but only if one’s eyes are wide open enough to absorb the seismic upheavals taking place all over America. Akin to the outcome of a civil war, the upcoming 2020 election will determine the absolute fate of the nation. This is so on both the domestic and foreign fronts.
In addition to conservative leaning Americans - those who believe in the Constitution and all that it represents and upholds - the next biggest losers to a Biden win will be those who seek to safeguard the "sacred and special" friendship between America and Israel. This includes not only American Jews who seek to ensure the safety of Israel from within the diaspora, but millions of Christians in America who not only pray for Israel's safety, but support the Jewish homeland in a myriad of ways, seen and unseen.
The upcoming 2020 choice for President of the United States couldn't be any clearer, starker, or more monumental.
Wishing all my readers who celebrate a wonderful Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah!
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On Friday, everything starts fresh. Will we also be able to? Yes, yes, my dear ladies and gentlemen, completely anew. On the morning of Simchat Torah, we will read the 54th and final weekly Torah portion, V'Zot HaBerachah ("and this is the blessing"), immediately after which we will read the beginning of the Torah -- Bereshit ("Genesis").
We must also take the deepest of breaths, inhale the new air, and try starting fresh. To shake off the fatigue of the recent period, the lockdown, and rally together in the common cause of fighting the pandemic. We are well aware that our existence, as a nation and culture, also hinges on the deep-rooted ties to our traditions, historical heritage, the path of our forefathers, and the vision of the prophets.
The Simchat Torah holiday is a reminder that the bond between the people of Israel and the Torah -- the simple yet profound, honest joy of a people's connection to their most fundamental values – cannot be broken. This year, we cannot rejoice with the Torah as in years past. Instead of dancing in our crowded, happy circles, with our children on our shoulders, we will have to pray in limited gatherings in accordance with the directives meant to save our lives. It is very sad, but to ensure that next year we can return to dancing with our loved ones and Torah scrolls, I know we have no other choice.
If we don't fight together, shoulder to shoulder, in the battle for the public's wellbeing, we will fail. We must celebrate the holiday in adherence to the safety protocols, in the spirit of mutual guarantee for our fellow man, in solemn prayer that this scourge will be driven from our land.
Radical groups — the radical left, the radical right, radical Muslims, and the radical African-Americans who champion Louis Farrakhan — are spearheading efforts to erode the core principles that make our country exceptional. The Islamo-leftist alliance, in particular, is gaining momentum. While many Jewish and other civil rights organizations singularly focus on far-right white nationalists as the main generators of extremism, the Islamo-leftist alliance parades in public as a social justice cause while infiltrating and undermining our communities and institutions. Collectively, these radical groups reject the Judeo-Christian values that have supported the foundation of our country and protected all minority communities in America, including Jews.
Proponents of the Islamo-leftist alliance seek to undermine the structures and institutions that keep our country open, democratic, and healthy, including the family unit, businesses, communities, religious institutions, impartial media, law enforcement, the military, and the courts. Increasing antisemitic attacks and the public display of hatred are trial runs for what is to come from these radical movements. For years, Jews have been at the receiving end of this hatred. If we are truly ready to overcome it, we must stop playing the victim and start fighting this head-on together with other Americans.
We will lose as Jews and as Americans if we continue accepting our prescribed role as the sacrificial canary in the coal mine, hoping that others may recognize the danger after it has already consumed us whole. Instead, we need to be eagles looking to the horizon, detecting threats far before they grievously harm us and our country. There are practical actions we must take to go on the offensive against antisemitism. They include (1) investigating and exposing the radical movements that fuel the spread of this hatred by identifying their networks, money trails, and agendas; (2) increasing knowledge-sharing capabilities that inform the American people about the threats and empower them to act; (3) holding the media accountable to the standards of a fair and free press; and (4) supporting legislation that curbs the influence of the hate movements in our institutions.
Presenting antisemitism as a Jewish problem has been a lose-lose proposition because it has not spurred anyone to take meaningful action against it. Rather than griping about the problem, it is now time for all Americans to fight against this hatred and racism and for Jews to stand at the forefront of this fight. Our history and increasingly dangerous reality show that the inalienable rights afforded by the Constitution cannot be taken for granted. We need to fight for our safety and security today so that tomorrow we and future generations can continue living freely and proudly. We must fly into the future as brave eagles and free America from the dangers of antisemitism and the extremism it represents.
Roosevelt noted the Arabs underestimated the Jews and overestimated their own capabilities. “They thought they could do a job on Israel in a very short time with comparatively little effort, and they told their peoples that too, which was about the worst mistake of all.”
Fighting was still going on when he spoke, so he concluded by arguing that the only way to bring peace to Palestine was for the United States “to declare that any further fighting or any further infringement of a truce or an armistice in Palestine would result in a firm embargo by the United States on any kind of shipments, including specifically dollars, to whichever side started the violation.” Though he said this should apply to both sides, his chief concern was what the Arabists saw as Israeli aggression.
During the Q&A, Roosevelt argued the press had a pro-Zionist bias because newspapers were dependent on advertising from department stores, which “are in the hands of people who may not be Zionists themselves, but they are subject to very strong pressure from the Zionists.” He added that some publishers were susceptible to “a kind of friendly insistence that they not allow anything to appear in their papers which could encourage antisemitism.”
Ironically, he followed up this antisemitic trope about Jewish control of the media with the conclusion that “one of the most dangerous elements in this situation … has been the way in which the Zionists have identified antisemitism with anti-Zionism.” Roosevelt argued, “Sooner or later there is bound to develop in this country strong anti-Zionism. There is no strong reason why that should mean antisemitism, but the Zionists are making it all the more likely by their insistence that if you are an anti-Zionist you are an antisemitist.”
According to Roosevelt, not only is it unreasonable to suggest that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, but doing so provokes antisemitism.
Roosevelt may not have been the first to make the argument, but he certainly was not the last. Today, a universal dodge employed by antisemites is their insistence that they have nothing against Jews, only the state of the Jews, and that seeking the destruction of that state — anti-Zionism — is not antisemitism.
This article in Pakistan's Daily Times starts off sounding like a typical demonization of Israel:
According to the founding father of Zionism Theodore Herzl, “the area of the Jewish State stretches from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.”
The recent episode of ‘Middle East Peace Process’ is a proposal of Greater Israel by the Trump administration to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict formally unveiled in White House on 28 January 2020.The Greater Israel strategy is not strictly a Zionist Plan for the Middle East, but is an integral part of US foreign policy. The strategic objective is extending American hegemony beside fracturing and balkanising the complete Middle East region. The plan operates on essential premise that to survive Israel must become an imperial regional power, and must effect the division of the Arab world into numerous small states. Small, here will depend on the ethnic or sectarian composition of each state. The Zionist hope is that sectarian-based Arab states become Israel’s satellites and, ironically, its source of moral legitimation. This is not a new idea, nor does it surface for the first time in Zionist strategic thinking.
But by the end of the article, the author - a retired Pakistani army officer - sees no reason why Pakistan shouldn't have formal relations with Israel!
Hatred against Israel and the refusal to recognise or establish diplomatic relations with Israel is no new phenomenon to Muslim countries in Asia. This abomination is based on feelings of Islamic solidarity with Arab countries and a sense of religious belonging to the global Islamic community. The main factors preventing Pakistan from recognising and establishing diplomatic relations with Israel are solidarity with Muslim countries in general, Saudi Arab in particular, and fear of an adverse response by influential religious groups and militants from within Pakistan.
The key question is why should Pakistan restrain ties with Israel on the basis of the Israel-Arab conflict while many Arab countries have established suitable relationship with Israel?Pakistan and Israel do not have a specific hostility or conflict area. What people don’t understand is that we are losing out against India by not maintaining ties with Israel. If Pakistan carries good diplomatic relations with Israel, it can help winning unfailing support from many developed countries of the world, with which Israel has the strongest lobbying powers. We are so wrapped up in what is good for everyone else; that we are losing sight of what is good for us as a nation. Nonetheless, it is time to be practical and relook genuinely, what Pakistan is losing out by not establishing appropriate diplomatic relations with Israel?
Every day I find myself saying....WOW.
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As the Arab world becomes less antisemitic, the Palestinians are naturally going the other way.
Writing in Egyptian news site Essahra and Palestinian site Mashreq News and also Palestinian news site Al Bousla, Dr. Nasser Al-Yafawi writes that the traditional antisemitic blood libel is absolutely true, concentrating on the Damascus blood libel.
His article, entitled "The truth about the Jews baking pies with the blood of gentiles," start off with "On their holy feasts, especially the Eid al-Kabir, crunchy bread is eaten, and the crime is that this bread is not kneaded unless it is kneaded with the blood of a non-Jew from the goys."
According to his Facebook page, Dr. al-Yafawi is a Director at the Ministry of Education in Gaza for the Palestinian Authority.
Even other Gazans argued with him in Facebook saying that the blood libel isn't true, linking to the Arabic Wikipedia page on the topic, yet he insists that it is true.
This is what Palestinians are taught. Every day.
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Yet there are two critical facts that the late Elhanan Oren, one of the finest historians of Zionist settlement, emphasizes have to be added to the account. The first is that spirit, ruach, preceded official intellect in the creation of these settlements. It was socialist Zionist youth who called to conquer the land, to attack new territory through constructive civilian settlement, rather than make due with passive defense for existing settlements. This was particularly true along the coast (Tel-Aviv) against the Arab challenge, before Zionist officialdom realized the intrinsic geo-strategic importance of these settlements rooted in spirit.
The second point he makes is the argument that took place in Zionist officialdom. The argument was between the “rationalists,” Arthur Ruppin, the expert on German colonization who brought his expertise to bear in promoting Zionist settlement; Eliezer Kaplan, the movement’s leading economic mind who argued to stick to the existing coastal blocks; and the “visionaries,” Moshe Shertok (later prime minister Sharett), Joseph Weitz in the settlement department in the Jewish Agency, and others who called for far-flung settlement to deny the British Peel Commission – which was deliberating Palestine’s future – the option of further partitioning the Land of Israel.
Who was right? Israel’s War of Independence proved the importance of these settlements in staving off the enemy, either Palestinians or even more critically, the Arab states that attacked the fledgling state. Shertok knew when he made the decision to support the “visionary” plan (in the absence of David Ben-Gurion who was in the United States at the time) that the incorporation of these areas would further aggravate the demographic problem. It was a situation in which Jews were less than one-third of the population in the Holy Land. However, Shertock, later known as a “dove,” chose spirit over matter. In the end, spirit combined with matter prevailed.
How much more so should our leaders and warriors value spirit over bureaucratic thinking when the resources of the State of Israel, demographically and economically, are so much greater, and the foe is still adamant about conquering the Land of Israel from “the river to the sea?”
Alas, Reshef and his colleagues, have lost the spirit on which they were nurtured. The Palestinian Authority’s strategic settlement plan from 2011 is a challenge that Israel and Zionism never faced before. That and the more traditional means of burning what Zionists by planted by Hamas launching incendiary devices from Gaza, proves that Homa umigdal is as relevant today as it was in the 1930s, or more so.
The approaching 25th anniversary of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin’s assassination on 4 November 1995 has seen leading left-wing Democratic Party Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) cancelling her planned attendance at a memorial event organised by leftist Americans for Peace Now on 20 October.
Ocasio-Cortez withdrew after journalist Alex Kane tweeted and AOC replied:
AOC Pulls Out of Event for Murdered Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, the First to Recognize Palestinian Nationalism | CNSNews
Alex Kane is telling the truth, but not the whole truth.. Rabin did say to "break their bones" during a violent and murderous Arab uprising in Gaza, but that was because he did not allow the use of guns during that period of attacks against Israelis and instead, gave the soldiers truncheons with which to try to keep the peace. Israeli mothers were less than happy at that decision.
Rabin was indeed a liberal peacemaker and AOC’s decision is to be deplored.
Mendelblit's contempt for the public was on prominent display last month in remarks he made at a Rosh Hashanah toast to his subordinates.
Referring to himself as the "guardian of democracy," Mendelblit spent most of his speech attacking his critics who view his decision to indict Netanyahu on bribery and breach of trust charges for his alleged efforts to win positive coverage from news outlets, as legally and normatively defective. Diminishing studied criticism as mere background noise, Mendelblit said derisively, "the windows [of this building] are sealed off from the noises outside."
Mendelblit expressed pure contempt for Israel's elected leaders whose criticism of his actions he attacked as anti-democratic, and worse. He referred to Public Security Minister Amir Ohana's criticism of his behavior as "a terror attack against democracy."
But then at the end of his remarks he turned to the anti-Netanyahu protests organized by Haskel and his comrades. Referring to them, Mendelblit waxed poetically about the "foundational right to protest" in a democracy.
In recent weeks Mendelblit's subordinates have instructed the police not to charge Haskel and his fellow Netanyahu haters for breaking the laws in the course of their protests, lest their democratic right to protest is trampled.
The glaring contradiction in Mendelblit's remarks – his seething dismissal of "noises from outside" made by those who oppose his deeply controversial efforts to criminalize otherwise lawful political behavior to oust Netanyahu from power on the one hand, and his self-righteous defense of the "foundational right to protest" in speaking about Haskel and his band of Netanyahu haters on the other – is disturbingly similar to the tale revealed by Haskel's videos.
Haskel rejected the foundation of Zionism by demanding the gratitude of the children of Ethiopian Jewry while glorifying the contribution he made to one of its greatest triumphs – the airlift of Ethiopian Jewry to Israel. Mendelblit revealed his contempt for democracy by rejecting the legitimacy of elected leaders while upholding the right of anti-Netanyahu protesters to break the laws in the name of "democracy."
Haskel's anti-Zionist outbursts and Mendelblit's anti-democratic speech show that Israel is not in the throes of an ideological battle between two competing ideological camps. Instead, a large majority of Israelis joined in their dedication to Zionism and democratic norms is being assaulted by an aggressive, hateful and arrogant minority whose leaders cynically exploit Zionist concepts and the language of democracy to undermine both to advance their naked, nihilistic bid for power.
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, France, Germany and Jordan, met in
Amman today to continue their coordination and consultation on means to
advance the Middle East Peace Process towards a just, comprehensive and
lasting peace. The meeting was attended by the EU Special Representative for
the Middle East Peace Process.
The Ministers declared:
...We stress that
the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the
two-state solution, that ensures the emergence of an independent and viable Palestinian state
on the basis of June 4, 1967 lines, living side by side a secure and
recognized Israel,
is the path to achieving comprehensive, enduring peace and regional
security.
The envoy indicated that France prefers a two-state solution, but that
doesn’t mean they can’t accept something else, adding that his country will
accept any solution agreed upon by the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Clearly, France is not ready to dump the two-state solution altogether.
Also, it is clear that France is still supportive of the Palestinian
Authority, the Palestinian Arabs and the idea of their having their own
sovereign state.
But by the same token, France also recognizes that Trump has changed the
rules, and unlike during the Obama administration, the Palestinian Arabs are
no longer in the driver's seat:
The Palestinians must take into account their weak position on the
international and Arab arenas, stressed Danon...They warned that
Palestinians could lose everything now.
“French diplomacy is having a hard time putting all its weight on the
two-state solution, as it becomes unrealistic on the ground,” the diplomat pointed out. “What
the ambassador said is self-evident. That it is important to resume
negotiations as soon as possible. The Palestinians have never been so weak.
They could lose everything.” [emphasis added]
France, one of the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council,
has close ties with Gulf Arab states, in particular Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates, and rarely publicly criticizes internal
political issues. [emphasis added]
It would be in France's interests to support the UAE and Bahrain, not only
in terms of the new agreements with Israel, but also to support the new
potential for different options for peace.
So it is not just a matter of some countries wanting to ally themselves with
Israel in order to get into Washington's good graces -- now there are
advantages of allying with the Gulf states too. And if support for the
Abraham Accords is the price to pay to reap the benefits of better relations
and agreements with rich Arab states, it may not be just the smaller
developing countries that see an opportunity.
Which is just one more way that Abbas's kleptocracy is left out in the cold.
Part of the goal of the Abraham Accords is to further weaken the PA.
Based on France's new stand -- that seems to be working.
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The last paragraph of a +972 article by Sahar Vardi, cofounder of Israeli NGO Hamushim, highlights the anti-Israel tunnel vision of people who ludicrously claim to be peace activists:
As a peace activist, it is strange to do anything other than support any kind of peace treaty. But, this normalization agreement — what the Israeli government is trying to sell as a peace deal — forces us to remind ourselves what we actually mean by peace. An agreement in which the main profiters are arms industries and economic elites, and the losers are the people, is not a peace accord. It is a war agreement — of governments against the people.
Why is Vardi against the agreement? Because, he says, it only profits arms dealers, and everyone else loses:
With this win-win-win for the arms industries, who loses out from it all? Given that the UAE is already using Israeli technologies to prevent dissent and opposition among their own citizens, and considering Abu Dhabi’s role in the war on Yemen, the real losers of this “normalization” are apparent: the people.
In Jerusalem, the local loss is also apparent: firstly, Palestinians, who have just watched countries that have historically claimed to support their rights and independence sign a normalization agreement with their occupier.
Secondly, Israelis, who are now in a second full COVID-19 lockdown amid a devastating economic recession, are having to watch their prime minister spend his time and energy on normalization agreements that have no effect on their daily life, and that profit only the upper echelons of Israeli society.
There is nothing "apparent" about the first paragraph at all. The UAEs astonishing modernization project of the past few decades has attracted huge numbers of workers from throughout the Middle East including as many as 100,000 Palestinians. There are challenges of having such a large expatriate population to be sure, but Arabs and others want to live in the UAE even without citizenship.
The second paragraph isn't true either, except the psychological issue of Palestinians having lived their entire lives in a bubble of free money from their Arab brethren with no responsibility towards their own future - and seeing that evaporate in an instant. Now they will have to live in the real world where their decisions have consequences and compromise becomes part of their vocabulary. That is not a loss - that is a huge gain for Palestinians and the entire world.
The third paragraph is so absurd, one wonders at the mentality of the author.
The Israel/UAE agreement is supported by the vast majority of Israelis. Seven decades of feeling alone under siege has been immensely lessened. The Arab boycott of Israel has resulted in Israel being more hawkish just to survive.
The signed and rumored business deals so far have not been limited to the arms industry, as Vardi ludicrously claims, but also medicine, cybersecurity, tourism and other industries that help ordinary people in both countries. It is the exact economic boost that will help the COVID-19 recession.
But the real point that is ignored by these hypocritical "peace activists" is the larger sea change in the Arab world towards Israel. Suddenly, Arabs in Lebanon and Syria and other antagonistic states are rethinking the wisdom of seven decades of pretending Israel will disappear because of their boycotts. The lose-lose mentality of doing everything necessary to try to hurt Israel has instead hurt Arabs far worse.
Moreover, in a single stroke, the toxic antisemitism of the Arab world has been reduced. Arabic media is interested in the history of Jews in the region. The agreement is like a pressure valve that has been loosened.
None of that means anything to hypocrites like Vardi and the other self-hating Israelis at +972. They continue with the hateful mindset that anything that benefits Israel must be opposed.
The only opponents to the deal are the jihadists, the Palestinian leaders who are losing their own gravy train of endless cash they can skim, and the "peace activists" like Sahar Vardi. That last group is reduced to writing insane pieces like this in +972 to justify their irrational hatred for Israel under new circumstances.
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Ever since Hamas and Fatah announced in late September that they will hold elections within six months, the topic of elections seems to have been dropped in Palestinian media.
This article from a couple of days ago in Al Khaleej Today seems to offer some reasons why. But it is complicated, and it even may involve terrorist Ahlam Tamimi:
While the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is supposed to issue a decree setting the date for the general Palestinian elections according to a timetable not exceeding six months, based on recent understandings between Hamas and Fatah, pressure from Arab countries is increasing to stop this path, in addition to field pressures exerted by the Israeli occupation in the occupied West Bank. Al-Akhbar learned that the Arab rejection of the recent understandings concluded in Turkey delayed Abbas’s issuance of the presidential decree in the elections, especially since some of the objections came in the form of warnings that “Hamas” would drag Abu Mazen into the bosom of Turkey and Qatar away from the “Arab consensus”.
Likewise, Egyptian and Jordanian pressures in particular, and behind them the Gulf, caused the postponement of the meeting of secretaries-general scheduled for the third of this month, during which the election decree was supposed to be issued after presenting the understandings to the rest of the factions. Sources reported that during the visit of the Fatah delegation to Cairo last week (after the Istanbul understandings), the movement was informed that the Egyptians were not satisfied with the way the agreement was announced in Turkey. However, “Fatah” defended by saying that the agreement took place in the Palestinian consulate in Istanbul without Turkish sponsorship or mediation, and that the Palestinians understood through bilateral meetings and achieved a “major breakthrough” in the reconciliation file, in addition to that “the current Palestinian strategy is based on the policy of bilateral meetings.” However, the sources add, this justification did not satisfy the Egyptians, who oppose the implementation of the agreement and even the elections.
Amman is pressuring Hamas through Ahlam Al-Tamimi’s file to deport the husband of the freed prisoner
The Egyptian objection was that Palestinian reconciliation in this way, far from Cairo’s sponsorship, represents a diminution of the latter’s effort after many attempts at reconciliation between the two movements for 14 years. In addition, the current time is not suitable for elections, especially with the absence of international and American support for their conduct, which makes them « A leap not calculated from Abbas ». Complementing this position, the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, expressed “discontent” with the Turkey meeting, because some parties saw in these meetings a message to certain Arab parties, which was the response of the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Liberation Organization, Saeb Erekat, demanding Aboul Gheit to resign from his post against the backdrop of his support of the Arab agreements with Israel and his promotion of the “deal of the century”, noting that a few days ago, the authority announced its abandonment of the presidency of the current session of the League after it failed to obtain any form of it that condemns the recent agreements with the occupation.
Meanwhile, “Fatah” sources revealed that Jordan has expressed, through communication channels with Abbas, its annoyance with the agreement and its signing in Turkey, stressing that it does not support holding the Palestinian elections for fear that “Hamas” will obtain a large share of the positions, in addition to the complications, Especially in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and what it knows of the Israeli intention to prevent the elections, which will open the door for confrontation in the West Bank. At the same time, Hamas sources reported, in an interview with Al-Akhbar, that an indirect Jordanian message reached Hamas to reject the reconciliation agreement, by putting pressure on the freed prisoner belonging to the movement and wanted by the United States, Ahlam Al-Tamimi, to leave the kingdom, through deportation of her freed prisoner husband, Nizar Al-Tamimi, and informing him of the need to leave within days, in preparation for her deportation and delivery to the US administration.
Hamas is concerned about the impact of this on Abbas’s decision, which in turn informed him that it looks with suspicion at his delay in implementing consensuses, including permitting popular resistance in the West Bank and stopping the pursuit of Hamas members, as well as his delay in lifting sanctions on the Gaza Strip, and stopping the distinction between the West Bank and the Strip,
Very convoluted! But in the end, the Palestinians can't do much without upsetting some of their remaining friends, and that is why nothing will be done.
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In 1993, in the Oslo Accords, Arafat was given a foothold in Judea and Samaria and Gaza, along with control over the residents of these areas. The autonomy envisioned by Menachem Begin, meanwhile, did not include Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization, although it did crack open the door for exactly that. Bandar has a score to settle with Arafat—one might say a bloody one.
In the years he served as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Washington, he was one of the more influential figures in the United States and on certain issues pertaining to the Middle East, the energy industry and terror; he was even stronger than then-U.S. President George W. Bush. Bandar was the one who strong-armed Bush and his secretary of state, Colin Powell, to publicly declare U.S. recognition of the Palestinian right to an independent state of their own.
The Bush administration at the time went even further than the Clinton roadmap. It was Bandar who pressured Bush to allow many Saudi individuals, including those tied with Osama bin Laden and the Sept. 11 attacks, to board planes and flee the United States. For comparison’s sake, to this day one poor Jew, former spy Jonathan Pollard, cannot even leave the state of New York let alone fly to Israel.
Bandar did not become pro-Zionist overnight, but when it came to his narrative regarding the Six-Day War, he noted that it didn’t start due to wanton Israeli “aggression,” rather then-Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser’s decision to close the Straits of Tiran.
This moment in time, with the Saudis attacking the Palestinians, exposes the fact that peace with the UAE and Bahrain is essentially peace with the ancient birthmother of Arab nationalism. It was Bandar’s ancestors who rode, swords drawn, with Lawrence of Arabia to liberate most of the Middle East from the Turks during World War I.
Beyond this, the Saudi stance alongside Israel mostly indicates the Arabs’ reduced standing as a global power. They were at their apex in the 1970s and 1980s. From Israel’s vantage point, strategic patience and durability paid off. It appears that true victories aren’t achieved via lightning strikes but through dedicated commitment to a long-term process.
In the outside-in approach, Arab states partially assume Israel’s role to impose defeat on the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Note the elements of what Khaled Abu Toameh terms their “divorce process:” the emerging warm peace between Abu Dhabi, Manama and Jerusalem; the imam of the Great Mosque in Mecca (who has been banned from Western countries for his crude antisemitism) talking about Muhammad’s friendly relations with Jews; the Arab League unprecedentedly turning down a Palestinian initiative and the Arab states reducing their financial support to the Palestinians by 85%.
Does this mean Israel Victory has been superseded? No. Sunni Arab states unfortunately make up only a portion of the Palestinians’ vast and multifaceted support system. Exceptional public relations prowess, combined with antisemitism, transmogrified the tiny, weak and relatively prosperous Palestinian population into the world’s most prominent human rights issue, one which benefits from immeasurably more solicitude than the far more wretched Syrians or Yemenis.
That support system starts with Iran and Turkey, the only countries – in US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s description – to have “vehemently denounced” the recent agreements. Indeed, those two regimes have largely replaced the Arab states (whose last major war with Israel was in 1973) as the Palestinians’ regional stalwarts.
Second, because the foreign policies of Russia and China globally oppose the US, Jerusalem’s tight alliance with Washington makes them both significant Palestinian supporters.
Third, Israel’s Left despises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pooh-poohs the recent accords and touchingly believes that Palestinians will be content with a Palestine adjoining Israel.
Tom Gross: Conversations with friends about their lives: Times of Israel editor David Horovitz
David talks with Tom Gross about his upbringing, about editing the Times of Israel (and before that the Jerusalem Post), about interviewing Paul McCartney and others, about the difficulties of striving for fair and independent journalism in an era of fakery and misrepresentation, and about life in Israel and beyond.
The goal of this campaign is clear: to normalize and mainstream the idea of eliminating a nation. It is to convince a decisive majority of Americans that it would be a good thing, the moral thing, for a nation of eight million people to disappear. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was once called a “warrant for genocide.” Now, a new warrant is being written.
And it is clear that this campaign will push Jews to the forefront. It is no coincidence that Beinart and Rhodes are Jewish, and that they collaborated in firing the first shot. This indicates that the campaign will be directed at Jews as well. It will seek to convince us to abandon Zionism. To persuade us, in other words, that we do not deserve to live.
There is a very good reason for this.
In the 1970s, former Israeli Air Force chief Benny Peled had a remarkable insight. He said in an interview, “Our enemies had to examine the ingredients of our strength, and they of course discovered the thing that we’ve been shouting at full volume: that our strength is our spirit.”
“And they decided to attack that,” he said. “The Jewish people’s strongest weapon.”
The new campaign to eliminate Israel and Zionism is nothing but that: an attempt to shatter the Jewish spirit. And it has to be this way. Because those advocating elimination are not stupid. They know quite well that Israel is strong and getting stronger, and it is doing so very quickly. They cannot eliminate it in the flesh, but they can, or at least they can try, to eliminate it in spirit.
But the ironic thing is that, whatever their fantasies might be, they cannot win. I do not say this out of hubris or chauvinism. It is a matter of historical record. The Jewish spirit, if it can be called that, has withstood assaults far more horrendous than anything Beinart, Rhodes or the Times could come up with. If we have survived what we have already survived, we can certainly survive them.
The ominous question, however, is how much damage they can do in the meantime. If the historical record teaches us anything, unfortunately, it is that the damage could be quite substantial. We should not look away from what is coming, and we should ready ourselves to face it.
The international relations chief at Iran’s Ministry of Sports has waded into the debate on Iranian athletes being blocked from competing with Israelis.
"The Iranian people do not have a view in line with the government and the ruling system on the Israeli issue," Farshid Tahmasebi told Radio Varzesh, in a startling but truthful admission. He went on to decry deep-rooted “cultural issues” in Iranian sports that he said were holding the country back – and even had a bearing on the economy.
For a figure as influential as Farshid Tahmasebi to publicly decry Iran’s foreign policy in sports came as a surprise for some. Tahmasebi’s remarks came without prompting from the interviewer and came after he had already criticized the self-centred management style at the top echelons of Iranian sports. "To this day,” he said, “I have never seen any manager help another manager who replaces him.”
He went on: “Has it ever been the case that the president of Iran has been present at the opening or closing of the Olympic Games? Before the outbreak of coronavirus and the postponement of the Olympics, I suggested that Mr. Rouhani attend the Tokyo games. But they said the president's schedule was full.”
Tahmasebi also made a curious comparison between countries’ sporting records and their economic prowess. "If China is first in the [global] economy, it is also first in the Olympics. So is America. Take a look at the first to fourth ranking of countries in Olympics; they are all at the top of the world economies."
Integrity in politics and integrity in sports, Tahmasebi insisted, were “an ensemble”. “Excuse me, let me be clear,” he said. “In the case of Israel, our people do not agree with the government. If you take the government and leave out diplomacy, you will not get results; it’s impossible. Unless our parliament and our foreign ministry address the problems in Iranian sports diplomacy, nothing positive will happen."
Although this is not unprecedented as the full article shows, the last time that an Iranian sports official tried to change this policy he was forced to resign.
(h/t Tomer Ilan)
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Elah Valley, Philistine-Israelite border region, October 8 - A rhetorical confrontation between a Philistine warrior champion and his opponents, led by Saul, king of Israel, concluded this morning with the former emerging as the clear favorite in the eyes of potential voters, a series of surveys has found.
Goliath, a giant who has taunted the Israelites for several days, continued his jibes against the Hebrews and their God today, with the Israelites barely able to muster a retort. The Philistine warrior dared his foes to send a single combatant to face him instead of settling the conflict with a full-scale battle, a challenge that Saul and his military commanders have so far not accepted. Polls showed the Philistine warrior leading the Israelites by and average of 11% two days ago, and the gap has only increased in the interim, growing to 24.3% as of the unanswered challenge this morning.
Analysts expect a landslide Philistine victory. "Voters know a strong candidate when they see one," explained Doe Egg, an electoral statistician. "The Israelites' inability so far to mount an effective response to counter Goliath's arguments has only hurt them. Some experts believed that ignoring his barbs might make them seem above the fray and the Philistines uncultured and immature, but those analyses failed to account for the visceral resonance Goliath's talk produces. If the numbers hold when voters go to the polls officially, were looking at the Israelites being lucky to garner even forty percent of the votes. That's landslide territory. It's hard to see how Saul and his camp will recover from this development at this stage, let alone close the gap that already existed before the debate."
The Israelite king has struggled to maintain morale among his constituents and loyalists as Goliath has landed rhetorical punch after rhetorical punch. Saul has had to allocate manpower and resources to stem the hemorrhaging of voters, instead of to rebutting Philistine talking points or criticizing Goliath's record or policy proposals, let alone putting forth a positive vision of the future he seeks to create.
As spokesman for the Israelite campaign sought to downplay the significance of the debate. "There are plenty of hours until that actual contest, and a lot can change in that time, and besides, people overstate the impact of debates on these things, since the vast majority of voters have made up their minds," insisted Abner ben-Ner of the royal Chiefs of Staff.
A last-minute write-in campaign in Israelite ranks seeks to name David, a shepherd from Hebron and the youngest of eight brothers, as champion. Experts consider the effort a long shot.
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Monday, October 12, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
