Tuesday, April 20, 2021

04/20 Links Pt1: Minivan Driver Arrested in Hit-and-Run Assault on Brooklyn Hasidim; Sarah Halimi Atrocity — There Is No Law Without Justice; Israeli Military Officials Unite in Opposition to Biden Admin’s Iran Deal

From Ian:

Minivan Driver Arrested After ‘Horrific’ Hit-and-Run Assault on Brooklyn Hasidim
New York police have arrested the driver responsible for a deliberate hit-and-run attack Saturday on five Brooklyn Hasidim, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

The minivan driver was caught on camera intentionally backing up into five pedestrians in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, striking the victims twice and initially lingering on the scene before ultimately speeding away.

“Horrific antisemitic attack in Williamsburg,” tweeted the American Jewish Committee. “A driver pulls over, waits for a group of Jewish men to cross the street, and intentionally hits them twice with his car. We stand in full solidarity with the victims and thank @NYPD90Pct for the swift arrest of a suspect.”

The NYPD reportedly nabbed the suspect — Shokhobiddin Bakhritdinovon, 26 — on Sunday, after his car was spotted by members of Shomrim, a neighborhood watch group.

The Daily News reporting that the victims were five male relatives ranging in age from 11 to 82, with the oldest individual requiring medical attention for a foot injury.
Sarah Halimi Atrocity — There Is No Law Without Justice
By saying that Sarah Halimi’s willful, hate-filled murderer is not responsible for his crimes, the Cour de Cassation has definitively deprived Sarah’s family of a trial essential to their mourning, but also the People of France of a necessary trial of antisemitism.

To put it simply, murdering Jews is no longer a criminal act in France if the killer can make a certain case to the court system.

By basing its decision on Article 122-1, Paragraph 1 of the Penal Code — which does not make a distinction according to the origin of the mental disorder used as an excuse — the Cour de Cassation has used the law to deprive the French people of justice.

The magistrates of the Cour de Cassation lacked courage and showed cowardice. Rather than take the courageous responsibility of a landmark decision, they passed that task to the legislators.

In addition, expert psychiatrists disagreed about the killer’s mental state, and if he should have escaped accountability. Without unanimity between the different experts, the doubt should have benefited the victim, not the accused.

The verdict, whatever it would have been, would at least have been delivered in the name of the French people. Montesquieu tells us that, “A thing is not right because it is law, but it must be law because it is just.”

The French people have been denied justice at the expense of “the law.”

The author is the President of Crif.
The Murder of Jewish French Woman Sarah Halimi: Brother Reacts to Verdict of Killer

  • Tuesday, April 20, 2021
  • Elder of Ziyon

80 years ago: US senators back a Jewish homeland; British and Turkish diplomats protest, saying that it would be better if Jews stay under Nazi rule



In April 1941, 70 US senators joined in calling for "every possible encouragement to the movement for the restoration of the Jews in Palestine" as being the "declared policy of the United States," and offering support to the re-establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, in an effort spearheaded by Senator Robert F . Wagner, chairman of the American Palestine Committee .

The declaration noted:

280,000 refugees came into Palestine since the advent of the Nazi regime in Germany in 1933. The unprecedented work of rehabilitation of the Holy Land and the restoration of a people has proceeded uninterruptedly and is continuing even now despite war conditions.  
Palestine has been recognized and set apart by Great Britain with the approval of the United States and other nations as a haven for the Jewish people, and refugees are streaming to its shores despite restrictive measures recently enforced by the Administration of that country.  
The tragic plight of refugees fleeing from persecution and finding no home, a situation brought so dramatically to the attention of the world by the sinking of refugee ships with their human cargo, must compel our attention and strengthen our resolve to extend every possible encouragement to the movement for the restoration of the Jews in Palestine as a great humanitarian effort and in accordance with the spirit of biblical prophecy.

US State Department archives describe the reaction to this declaration by diplomats in Turkey and Britain. They say that letting Jews remain under Nazi rule is the lesser evil compared to upsetting Arabs.

On April 21, A Mr. Butler of the British Embassy, acting on behalf of British ambassador Lord Halifax, met with US Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles. Welles wrote:

Mr. Butler first spoke of the great concern occasioned the Embassy by the announcement of the dinner which was to be held in Washington on April 30 under the aegis of Senator Wagner and some other equally prominent Senators and of Mr. William Green of the American Federation of Labor at which Doctor Weizmann is due to speak in behalf of the Zionist movement in Palestine.

The British Embassy feels that German propaganda is now directed in the Arab world towards making it appear that the British Government is completely under the domination of the United States and that the United States would force Great Britain at the end of the war, if Great Britain is victorious, to open up all of Palestine to Jewish resettlement. The British Government believes that this is an exceedingly dangerous form of propaganda and that if speeches are now made in the United States by prominent persons high in the Government advocating the immediate opening up of Palestine to the Jewish resettlement planners in the event of a British victory, very great unrest will be created in the Arab world, particularly in Iraq, where a highly critical situation already exists. The British Government urged that the Executive branch of this Government do what it could to make this situation clear to the sponsors of the dinner.

 I said that I would be very glad to look into the matter and that I would let Mr. Butler know in the immediate future what steps, if any, could be taken in that direction.

On April 22, the Turkish ambassador to the US made a visit to the State Department as well:

 While calling today on another matter the Turkish Ambassador said that he had been rather disturbed by a newspaper report to the effect that seventy United States Senators had joined in making a declaration calling for "every possible encouragement to the movement for the restoration of the Jews in Palestine". The Ambassador said that in his opinion such activities were particularly harmful to the British cause in the Near East and might also be expected to have unfavorable repercussions for the Jews themselves. 

Ambassador added that his Government had had long experience in dealing with the Arabs and knew their mentality thoroughly. There was not the slightest question in his mind that activities in the United States favoring further Jewish immigration into and control of Palestine were used by the Axis Powers in their propaganda with the Arab countries. Every such activity as that of the American Palestine Committee only further inflamed Arab opinion and increased the difficulties of the British in the vital area of the Near East.

I told the Ambassador that of course the Senators and Members of Congress were quite free to join any committee which they pleased and that obviously the executive branch of the Government had no control over. such activities.

...The Ambassador went on to say that any activities which served to inflame the Arabs in the Near East and to add to the difficulties of the British were naturally. of great interest to his own Government, which was in alliance with Great Britain He added that the question indeed went beyond the Arab countries and affected India as well. He said that he had many close friends among the Indian Moslems and that he could give me his solemn assurance that the Moslem group in India upon, whom Great Britain depended for support in that country could be only adversely affected by statements such as that made by the seventy Senators. He said that it was unnecessary for him to stress the importance to Great Britain of the loyal Moslems of India and the unfortunate repercussions that might ensue if they felt that their coreligionists in Palestine were not being given equitable treatment.

Notice how the diplomat tried to say that it would be better for Jews to stay in Europe to be slaughtered than for it to appear that the US supports their moving to safety.

When given a choice of dead Jews or angry Arabs and Muslims, polite diplomats prefer dead Jews.







  • Tuesday, April 20, 2021
  • Elder of Ziyon

Was Quds Force deputy "heart attack" really an assassination by Iran?

As soon as the news was announced that Mohammad Hejazi, the deputy commander of Iran's elite Quds Force died of a heart attack, there was intense skepticism whether that was the true cause of death.

One prominent Iranian tweeted that Hejazi did not die of a heart attack, but his post was removed almost immediately.


Now, Ava Today says that he might have been murdered by Iran - as a suspected Israeli spy!

Two sources inside IRGC told Avatoday that Hejazi’s death is suspicious among his circle as they knew he was being monitored by the regime for the last 10 days.  

According to one of the sources, “IRGC was suspicious of several of its members who were close to Hejazi to have a role in last week's explosion in Natanz nuclear site.”

“Also, several members of Lebanese Hezbollah who were Israeli insiders, were close to Hejazi,” the sources said.
I have no idea of any of this is true.

If Israel is recruiting agents at that high a level in Iran, that would be amazing. And if Iran only suspects that so many of its top officials are really Israeli spies, that is a good thing, too. 







  • Tuesday, April 20, 2021
  • Elder of Ziyon

The TikTok intifada - Arabs attacking religious Jews to make "funny" videos




Hebrew media has been documenting a large increase in attacks by Arabs on religious Jews in Israel - with the videos being uploaded to TikTok with humorous music.

We showed one example earlier this week, where a group of Arabs videoed a premeditated attack on a religions Jew on the light rail.  But there have been many more.

Here are three videos of Arabs knocking off the hats from religious Jews.

      






Arabs throwing stones at religious Jews in Jerusalem, and then making fun of one of the victims.

Attacking a Jew on a bicycle. Laughing about making a religious man flinch.

Chanting "Allahu Akbar" while Jews are praying the silent Amida prayer. This is pure antisemitism, Nazi style humiliation of Jews. 

It isn't only TikTok. Arabs have been using social media elsewhere to show off their ability to terrorize and humiliate religious Jews.  Earlier this year, a pair of Palestinian skateboarders filmed themselves zooming through Jewish neighborhoods in Antwerp with Palestinian flags on the Sabbath, harassing the Jews they passed by.

People who film themselves will do more and more outrageous stunts to gain views - and the built-in Jew-hatred of these TikTok devotees makes the haredim an obvious target. 

 This won't stop from people complaining about it. It won't stop from articles in the media. The only way it will stop - whether in Jerusalem, Antwerp or Blacks attacking Jews in Brooklyn - is if religious Jews themselves start defending themselves and beating these guys up. 

The modern Nazis choose their victims specifically because they are not fighters. It is way past time for them to learn to defend themselves, not only for themselves personally, but because that will stop these Jew-haters before they start escalating to murder videos.

These disgusting events usually happen in heavily haredi Jewish neighborhoods. A small crowd of Jews can do a great deal of damage to their attackers if they wanted, and it would stop the epidemic cold. 

Convincing them to act that way will be an uphill battle, but it is necessary.
 




Monday, April 19, 2021

04/19 Links Pt2: Macron calls for change in law following Sarah Halimi ruling; When did Palestine become Palestine?; Why do Jewish academic centers smear Israel?

From Ian:

France's Macron calls for change in law following Sarah Halimi ruling
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a change in the law after the highest French court of appeals last week ruled the murderer of Sarah Halimi could not be held criminally accountable for his actions since he took cannabis before he committed the crime.

“Deciding to take drugs and then ‘becoming mad’ should not in my eyes remove your criminal responsibility,” Macron told Le Figaro in an interview published Sunday.

“On this topic, I would like the minister of justice to submit a change to the law as soon as possible,” he said.

“It is not for me to comment on a court decision, but I would like to tell the family, relatives of the victim and all fellow citizens of the Jewish faith who were awaiting this trial of my warm support and the determination of the Republic to protect them,” Macron said.

The French Jewish community was angered by the Court of Cassation’s ruling.

In April 2017, Kobili Traoré, a 27-year-old Muslim man, beat Halimi, his 65-year-old Jewish neighbor, while screaming “Allahu Akhbar” and antisemitic slogans before throwing her out of the window of her third-floor apartment.

A lower court ruled in December 2019 that Traore was not criminally responsible for his actions since his heavy intake of cannabis had compromised his “discernment,” or consciousness.




Martin Sherman: When did Palestine become Palestine?
With Joe Biden in the White House, the question of Palestinian statehood is now back on the international agenda, after being largely sidelined under the Trump administration.

For decades, the discourse on the “Palestinian issue” has been dominated by the Palestinian-Arabs contention that Judea and Samaria (a.k.a. “The West Bank”) has long been their ancient homeland.

Preaching Genocide
However, many would probably be interested—and certainly very surprised—to learn just when realization dawned on the Palestinian-Arabs that this territory supposedly comprised their yearned-for motherland.

Indeed, long before Israel held a square inch of “the West Bank”—before there was any “occupation” or “settlements”—the Arabs claimed all the territory of pre-1967 Israel i.e. within the Green Line—as “Palestinian” territory and threatened to reclaim it by force of arms, and annihilate all its Jewish inhabitants.

Thus, in March 1965, over two years prior to the 1967 Six-Day War—after which the “West Bank” came under Israeli administration—Egyptian President, Gamal Abdul Nasser threatened, with chilling genocidal malevolence: "We shall not enter Palestine with its soil covered in sand, we shall enter it with its soil saturated in blood".

No less blood-curdling were the words of Yassir Arafat’s predecessor as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Ahmed Shukeiry, who on the very eve of the Six-Day War—in a somewhat premature flush of triumph—crowed:

“D Day is approaching. The Arabs have waited 19 years for this and will not flinch from the war of liberation…This is a fight for the homeland – it is either us or the Israelis. There is no middle road. The Jews of Palestine will have to leave.[but] is my impression that none of them will survive...We shall destroy Israel and its inhabitants and as for the survivors — if there are any — the boats are ready to deport them.”

“…Jordanians & Palestinians are considered … one people."

Significantly, the first version of the Palestinian National Covenant was formulated three years before the Six-Day War—in May 1964—in East Jerusalem (then under Jordanian control).

In it, the Palestinian-Arabs explicitly foreswear any sovereign claim to the “West Bank” (or to Gaza):
At NY Times, Myth of Edward Said’s Jerusalem Home Is Tenacious
A book review in The New York Times’ print edition yesterday (“The provocative polymath,” page BR17, and online here) repeats an error about Edward Said’s childhood that The New York Times twice previously corrected, most recently on March 25.

Ayten Tartici errs, writing about Said:
At the time [1986], he had not been back to the place of his birth, what was then Mandatory Palestine, since fleeing in December 1947 at the age of 12.

While Said was born in Jerusalem in 1935, his family left for Cairo at a very young age, and that is where he spent his childhood — not in Mandatory Palestine. He did not “flee” Palestine, a falsehood about his life story that he told “as an allegory of the Palestinian people,” as the late scholar Justus Weiner, who uncovered the truth about Said’s biography, said.

As the March 25, 2021 Times correction, about a separate Times review of Timothy Brennan’s book about Said (“Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said”), states:
An earlier version of this review misidentified the city that was Edward Said’s childhood home and misstated details about Jerusalem’s division into Jewish and Arab areas. Although Said was born in Jerusalem, his family’s home was Cairo; they did not move from Jerusalem. Jerusalem was not partitioned into Jewish and Arab halves in 1947. In 1949, control of the city was divided as part of an armistice.

When the digital article was amended March 25, the false claim that “Said’s family moved to Cairo in 1947 after the United Nations divided Jerusalem into Jewish and Arab halves” was replaced with accurate information: “Said grew up in Cairo.”

Previously, on Oct. 1, 2003,The Times published the following correction regarding Said’s obituary:
An obituary on Friday about Edward W. Said, the Columbia University literary scholar and advocate of a Palestinian state, misidentified the city that was his childhood home and misstated the date of Jerusalem’s partition into Jewish and Arab areas. Although Mr. Said was born in Jerusalem, in 1935, his family’s home was Cairo; they did not move from Jerusalem. Jerusalem was partitioned in 1949, not 1947.

According to British Mandate records, Said’s parents neither owned nor rented the Jerusalem dwelling that he at times falsely portrayed as his childhood home.
  • Monday, April 19, 2021
  • Elder of Ziyon

Elder Comix redux!

Last year I made a series of comic panels from frames in old public domain comic books. As always, tey are written from the perspective of the terminally woke.

I don't think these are quite as good, but they aren't bad. Enjoy!












  • Monday, April 19, 2021
  • Elder of Ziyon

Lebanese TV features Jordanian Holocaust denier


Just some Holocaust denial and anger when Arabs commemorate the Holocaust, on Lebanese Al Mayadeen TV:

Jordanian analyst Muhammad Faraj denounced a Holocaust memorial ceremony held in the UAE, saying that restoring the memory of the Holocaust is a UAE attempt "to cover up the real massacres" perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians and Arabs. He made his remarks in an interview that aired on Mayadeen TV (Lebanon) on April 8, 2021. 

Narrator: "Tel Aviv is rejoicing today. For the first time in an Arab country, Holocaust memorial ceremonies were held in the UAE, with the participation of Emiratis and Israelis. They commemorate the so-called Jewish Holocaust, while ignoring the holocaust of the Zionist enemy against the Palestinians."

Muhammad Faraj: "Commemorating the Holocaust is an Emirati attempt to bring the occupiers victimhood to the forefront, in order to cover up the real massacres that were perpetrated against the Palestinians and the Arabs, and which are still taking place here and now.

[...]

"Under no circumstances does Israel have the right to play the victimhood card - especially not here in the East. As the Jordanian poet Assad Qasim said: 'I was not a guard in Auschwitz oh child killer.' The second depiction included in the message [of the ceremony] has to do with the lighting of six candles, symbolizing six million [Jewish victims]. It should be noted that the death toll in World War II was 42 million. Focusing on a specific group is a Zionist strategic policy, with is followed by the UAE today. Another important issue concerns senior writers and historians, such as Roger Garaudy and David Irving, who argued that this number is historically incorrect. Some said that there were only hundreds of thousands, others said that the main cause for these deaths was typhus, and so on. These senior historians and thinkers were persecuted by the Zionist lobby through fierce Zionist propaganda."


 


Some Arabs are being progressive. Some Arabs, like these, are remaining regressive.

The irony is that self-described "progressive" Westerners support the regressive Arabs.





04/19 Links Pt1: America’s Racial Self-Flagellation at the UN Only Helps Rogue States; In J Street speech, Abbas urges Biden to scrap US law deeming PLO a terror group

From Ian:

America’s Racial Self-Flagellation at the UN Only Helps Rogue States
Racial discrimination against minorities is a chronic sickness in American society.”

“…the challenges facing the United States in human rights are deep-seated. They did not just emerge over the past four years, such as Black Lives Matter.”

“[S]lavery is the original sin of America. It’s weaved white supremacy and black inferiority into our founding documents and principles.”

What distinguishes these relatively similar remarks about America’s flawed past and imperfect present? The first two were delivered by Communist Chinese officials in an effort to embarrass the United States on the world stage. The third is an indictment of the United States by the United States itself.

That particular remark comes from the head of the American mission to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in a March speech before the UN General Assembly. She recently reiterated the themes of that speech in an address to the non-profit group founded by Rev. Al Sharpton, the National Action Network. “Of course, when we raise issues of equity and justice at the global scale, we have to approach them with humility,” Thomas-Greenfield conceded. “We have to acknowledge that we are an imperfect Union and have been since the beginning.”

Thomas-Greenfield is presently focused on getting the U.S. back into the United Nations Human Rights Council, an organization from which the U.S. withdrew in 2018—and for good reason.

The UNHRC is an organization plagued by corruption. It elevates miscreants like China, Algeria, Congo, Cuba, Pakistan, Venezuela, Russia, and Qatar to membership. It maintains a permanent agenda item—Item Seven—dedicated to the criticism of Israel. It elects people like Richard Falk, a 9/11 conspiracy theorist and obsequious apologist for the terror group Hamas, to oversee the situation in the Palestinian territories. It selects individuals like Jean Ziegler, a co-founder and recipient of the preposterous “Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights,” to defend Venezuela’s murderous Maduro regime as a victim of America’s “economic war.” And so on.
In J Street speech, Abbas urges Biden to scrap US law deeming PLO a terror group
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday urged the Biden administration to revoke a US law that deems the Palestinian Liberation Organization and its affiliates a terror group.

In a video address to the national conference of the left-wing, pro-Israel J Street lobby, Abbas said he looked forward to “develop[ing] and strengthen[ing]” ties with Washington, which Ramallah severed in 2017 after the Trump administration recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

However, he noted that doing so would require “the elimination of some obstacles, most important of which” was addressing the 1987 Anti-Terrorism Act.

Abbas maintained that the law’s relevance had elapsed, as the PLO and Israel both recognized one another as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian and Israeli peoples in the 1993 Oslo Accords, with Ramallah, Jerusalem, and Washington subsequently signing agreements to fight terrorism together.

The Times of Israel reported in December that the PA is prepared to alter the way it pays stipends to Palestinian security prisoners, as well as the families of terrorists and others killed by Israelis, in an effort to convince the Biden administration to scrap the law.

Abbas appeared to hint at such plans during his J Street address. The PA president first called for the dovish lobby’s “assistance with the US administration and Congress to repeal all laws that block the road toward enhancing Palestinian-US relations.

“On our part, we will remove all obstacles to achieve this goal,” he added, not specifying which steps the PA plans to take.


Media Silent as Abbas Calls on Biden to Remove PLO’s Terrorist Designation
Abbas’ ‘Sole Path to Achieving Peace’
During his J Street address, Abbas claimed:
We are ready to resume peace negotiations with our Israeli counterpart on the basis of international legitimacy resolution, the signed agreements, and under the auspices of the international Quartet…. We believe that dialogue and negotiations are the sole path to achieving peace.”

Yet, the reality on the ground effectively reduces the probability of this potentiality to almost zero. In this respect, the PA continues to incentivize the murder of Jews with its “Pay-for-Slay” policy, which entails paying “salaries” to those who perpetrate violent attacks — with more money being doled out to terrorists who shed the most blood.

Though every public record of the law requiring that seven percent of the PA’s budget be allocated toward this “Martyrs Fund” was removed in 2018, former Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avi Dichter, who is fluent in Arabic, has confirmed its existence.

Indeed, it was this PA- mandated rule that led to the passage in 2018 of the Taylor Force Act, which suspended American aid to Ramallah so long as it continued to pay reward terrorism. Congress passed the law following the murder of Taylor Force, a 28-year-old US Army veteran who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian in Tel Aviv.

Turning ‘Palestine’ Into One of the Most Antisemitic Places on Earth
Moreover, Abbas used the opportunity to address some 4,000 people who reportedly registered for J Street’s virtual event to tar Israel, blaming the Jewish state for the failure to implement a two-state solution.

That this is a patently false assertion — especially when considering that Abbas in 2008 rejected a comprehensive peace offer by then-Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert — is underscored by the PA chief’s rampant antisemitism. Abbas has accused Israeli rabbis of planning to poison Palestinian water wells, and claimed that Jews fabricated their ancient connection to Israel.

In 2018, Abbas argued that the Holocaust was not the end-result of rabid antisemitism but, rather, a response to the financial activities of European Jewry.

It is not surprising, then, that the Anti-Defamation League found that Palestinians in the West Bank are, on the whole, one the most antisemitic people in the world, with more than 90 percent of them harboring racist attitudes toward Jews.
  • Monday, April 19, 2021
  • Elder of Ziyon

PLO implies that four prisoners died of COVID-19 in Israeli prisons. None did.




This is from an English-language PLO press release for Palestinian Prisoners Day:

The spread of CORONA-19 [sic]  pandemic caused the prisoners' infections rose to (368), as a result of poor health care and protection measures, and a scarcity of protective tools, which led to the death of 4 prisoners inside the Israeli occupation prisons during the year 2020, PNC added.
It is hard to parse the poor English but either the PLO is saying that prisoners died of COVID-19 or of Israeli medical negligence.

Here were the prisoners who died while in Israeli custody in 2020:

Jaber Al-Barghouthi - fell unconscious while in a bathroom
Daoud al-Khatib - heart attack
Sa'di al-Gharabli - 75, cancer and diabetes
Kamal N. Abu-Wa’ar- throat cancer

If the critics can think of ways to keep people with terminal cancer or heart attacks alive, I think that not only Israel would welcome the news, but the entire world.






  • Monday, April 19, 2021
  • Elder of Ziyon

Of course the PLO is still a terror group. Its 1968 charter is still in force, today.

At the J-Street conference yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas said, "We seek to develop and strengthen bilateral relations with the new US administration for the common interest of both countries and the interest of peace and prosperity in our region. However, this requires the elimination of some obstacles, most important of which is removing the PLO name from the terrorism list pursuant to the Congress Anti-Terrorist Act of 1987."

The Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 does not give a list of terror groups. It refers only to the PLO. It says:

 ...Congress determines that the PLO and its affiliates are a terrorist organization and a threat to the interests of the United States, its allies, and to international law and should not benefit from operating in the United States.

... 

It shall be unlawful, if the purpose be to further the interests of the Palestine Liberation Organization or any of its constituent groups, any successor to any of those, or any agents thereof, on or after the effective date of this chapter
...
(3) notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, to establish or maintain an office, headquarters, premises, or other facilities or establishments within the jurisdiction of the United States at the behest or direction of, or with funds provided by the Palestine Liberation Organization or any of its constituent groups, any successor to any of those, or any agents thereof.
The prohibition of having an office in the US can be waived annually, first by the President and since 2010 by the Secretary of State. But the law is still in force, and that is what Abbas wants to abolish.

One of the proofs given by the law of the PLO's terrorist nature was a reference to its 1968 charter, which ways (among other things) that "armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine, thus it is an overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase."

The 1968 PLO Charter supporting terror is still in force, today. It is shown in PLO websites today without any caveat or indication that it has been superseded. 

Don't take my word for it. An analysis by Heba Baydoun in Ma'an last year looked at this exact question and concluded that the supposed vote to change the charter held in front of Bill Clinton in 1998 was all a show and had no legal force.

She says that the meeting that was held on December 14, 1998 in Gaza with Clinton in attendance where there was a supposed "vote" to amend the charter was not an official meeting of the Palestinian National Council. If you look at the list of official meetings of that council, it isn't listed - it happened between the 21st (1996) and 22nd (2009) meetings. The official invitation to the meeting didn't indicate that it was anything other than a gathering to listen to Clinton speak. Unlike official meetings, there was no opening session, no count of a quorum - many of the attendees who "voted" were not members of the National Council.  There was no agenda, the president and vice presidents of the National Council did not attend (which is mandatory,) the secretary didn't lead the session, there was no final statement at the end of the meeting, and it was never recorded among the records of official National Council meetings.

It was political theatre to fool the US into thinking that the charter was changed. The show of hands vote was purely symbolic. 

Moreover, if the charter had been amended and the offending terrorist sections removed, where is the new charter? It has never been published. 

Because it doesn't exist. 

(On April 24, 1996, during the official 21st PLO National Council meeting, one decision was that its Legal Committee would reformulate the National Charter, and it will be presented to the Central Council. That never happened.)

So the current PLO charter says:
Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. This it is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase. The Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute determination and firm resolution to continue their armed struggle and to work for an armed popular revolution for the liberation of their country and their return to it .

Commando action constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular liberation war.

The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal, regardless of the passage of time, because they were contrary to the will of the Palestinian people and to their natural right in their homeland.

The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong.

The Arab Palestinian people, expressing themselves by the armed Palestinian revolution, reject all solutions which are substitutes for the total liberation of Palestine and reject all proposals aiming at the liquidation of the Palestinian problem, or its internationalization.

Zionism is a political movement organically associated with international imperialism and antagonistic to all action for liberation and to progressive movements in the world. It is racist and fanatic in its nature, aggressive, expansionist, and colonial in its aims, and fascist in its methods. Israel is the instrument of the Zionist movement, and geographical base for world imperialism placed strategically in the midst of the Arab homeland to combat the hopes of the Arab nation for liberation, unity, and progress. Israel is a constant source of threat vis-à-vis peace in the Middle East and the whole world. Since the liberation of Palestine will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence and will contribute to the establishment of peace in the Middle East, the Palestinian people look for the support of all the progressive and peaceful forces and urge them all, irrespective of their affiliations and beliefs, to offer the Palestinian people all aid and support in their just struggle for the liberation of their homeland.

The demand of security and peace, as well as the demand of right and justice, require all states to consider Zionism an illegitimate movement, to outlaw its existence, and to ban its operations, in order that friendly relations among peoples may be preserved, and the loyalty of citizens to their respective homelands safeguarded.
Anyone who says that the PLO has abandoned these principles needs to show proof. There is none. 

Therefore, the PLO is still a terror organization, even if it has temporarily chosen for tactical reasons not to emphasize that aspect of its "resistance." And we know that because the Fatah political platform of 2009, way after Oslo, still emphasizes that "armed struggle" as legal and rightful - and that platform is also in force today. 






  • Monday, April 19, 2021
  • Elder of Ziyon

Hezbollah stockpiling goods from Iran, planning for Lebanon's economic collapse. (If only Lebanon would join the Abraham Accords.)




From Naharnet:

Hizbullah party is reportedly making preparations in anticipation of the “complete collapse” of Lebanon’s faltering economy, media reports said on Saturday.

The party is reportedly issuing food ration cards, importing medicines and equipping tanks to store fuel from Iran.

The move is a response to a serious economic crisis in Lebanon, which will represent an expansion of the services provided by the group to its Shiite base, with a network that includes charities, a construction company, and a compensation system, said reports.

It sheds light on the growing fear of the collapse of the Lebanese state, a situation in which the authorities become unable to import food or fuel.

Hizbullah sources said on condition of anonymity that the plan prepares for the worst-possible scenario, that accelerated with the state approaching a halt on subsidies on basic goods like wheat, fuel and medicine, raising concerns of unrest and hunger.

The growing role of Hizbullah in dealing with the crisis is highlighted by the services it provides that are usually the government's prerogatives.

The plan also reflects concerns in Lebanon that the collapse will lead people to depend on political parties for food and security, as was the case with militias during the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990.

The sources added that "Hizbullah’s" ration card actually helps hundreds of people to buy basic Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese commodities in Lebanese pounds, at a much cheaper price and with a discount of up to 40% with the party's support.

The card, bearing the name of a Shiite imam, could be used in cooperatives, some of which are new in the southern suburbs of Beirut and parts of southern Lebanon where Hizbullah has influence.

The Lebanese currency has lost more than 85 percent of its value on the informal market since 2019, as the country runs out of dollars. Food prices rose by 400 percent with no government plan in sight to salvage the country.

It sounds like Hezbollah would benefit from  an economic collapse, relatively speaking. Since it has built its own state within a state, with its own imports and its own aid from Iran, it would emerge the as the best organized group  - and if it is the only place to get food in Lebanon, then it can impose its will on the entire country. 

The Jerusalem Post notes that food is only the latest way Hezbollah is build a parallel state that would be all that's left:

Hezbollah has created parallel construction and development entities such Jihad Al-Binaa and the Waad project, its own communications network, TV stations and radio communications networks. It has taken over healthcare, education, welfare and finance in parts of the country. ...

Hezbollah even undertook projects like providing drinking water for parts of Lebanon, claiming this was part of its “resistance” against Israel. In short it got the government to outsource part of government responsibilities to Hezbollah and then it had an iron grip on the country. It even put its own fiber optic communications network to use to bypass the government. Any attempt to stop the takeover is met with Hezbollah violence. 


This does not look good for Lebanon at all. 

If Lebanon would throw a Hail Mary and make peace with Israel, it could leverage that into turning the entire country around. Not only Israel but the Gulf states would be happy to work to bring Lebanon into the orbit of the Abraham Accords and inject billions into its economy, as well as guide it towards a functioning market system. (France would probably have to play a large role.)

Lebanon is so dysfunctional, the idea that it would save itself by doing something that would benefit the entire Middle East and resurrect Lebanon itself is more a joke than a possibility. 

Yet Lebanon does have a choice: fall apart and let Hezbollah run the country, or join with the more liberal states in the Middle East and plan a real future. 




Sunday, April 18, 2021

Cartoon of the Day: Almost Islamophobic (plus video of Brooklyn attack)


This is inspired by an insane video of an attack last night by a hit and run driver against a group of Chassidim in Brooklyn, that was clearly deliberate.


Here's a photo of the driver from another video.



He doesn't look like a white supremacist, meaning that the usual "Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism" crowd will be silent, as they always are.





04/18 Links: Cary Nelson: Accommodating the New Antisemitism: a Critique of ‘The Jerusalem Declaration’; In France, Antisemitism Is Systemic; Jaffa yeshiva rabbi assaulted - 2 arrested

From Ian:

Cary Nelson: Accommodating the New Antisemitism: a Critique of ‘The Jerusalem Declaration’
In this comprehensive critique Cary Nelson argues that the recent ‘Jerusalem Declaration’ on Antisemitism should be rejected because it accommodates, rather than challenges, what has been called ‘the new antisemitism’. After reviewing the debate (and the falsehoods) about the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, to which the Jerusalem Declaration presents itself as an alternative, Nelson rejects the Declaration for several reasons: for defining antisemitism in an excessively narrow way, uncomprehending of the ideological versions of antisemitism that are now so influential; for dissolving antisemitism into antiracism, discrediting and obliterating Jewish identity; for employing rhetorical strategies that repeatedly draw empty or banal distinctions to disclaim antisemitic content; for naively absolving the anti-Zionist industry of any probable freight of hatred; and for being marred by a conceptual confusion about, and an impoverished history of, antisemitism. Nelson also reviews, and more positively, the ‘Nexus Declaration’ on antisemitism, described by its authors at the University of Southern California as complementing and clarifying IHRA. We invite the signatories of the Jerusalem Declaration and the Nexus Declaration to respond to Nelson’s essay in Fathom.

Controversy is swirling anew around the Working Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2016 and subsequently endorsed by a wide range of nations, agencies, and organisations. The Definition opens with a brief summary definition of antisemitism and then lists eleven major forms or examples of contemporary antisemitism, such as ‘accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust’ and ‘using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterise Israel or Israelis.’ [I use ‘Definition’ in initial caps to refer to the entire document, not just the brief definition at its outset]. The Definition includes numerous warnings that these examples should not be applied without analysis that takes their contexts into account. Nor does the Definition claim the list of examples is exhaustive; it does, however, enumerate much of the antisemitism encountered in contemporary writing and daily life, including the antisemitism now focused on the State of Israel and the antisemitism that proliferates on the internet and through social media.

The history of the Definition dates to 2005, when the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) issued the first version of a Working Definition. From the outset, it provoked warnings that it could inhibit free speech or even be used to sanction it. Indeed, in 2011 I coauthored an open letter (distributed by the AAUP) stating that the EUMC Working Definition should not be used ‘to censor what a professor, student or speaker can say.’ But debates about that potential intensified after IHRA issued a version of the Working Definition that began to be both endorsed and officially adopted worldwide. Widespread commitment to free speech, academic freedom, and the IHRA Definition’s own guidelines have prevented the fears of pervasive restrictions on speech from ever materialising, though a growing chorus of dire warnings and unfounded complaints about the IHRA Definition persists nonetheless. The mounting number of attacks on the Definition suggest frustration at its increasing legitimacy.

Lara Friedman, who runs a left-wing organisation called the Foundation for Middle East Peace, has been among the Definition’s leading critics. Her annotated list of ‘Challenges to the IHRA Definition’ has 21 entries for 2018, 23 for 2019, 41 for 2020, and 55 for the first three months of 2021.The 2021 increase is due in part to the publication of two new formal definitions of antisemitism, both adapting the structure of the Working Definition. Like the IHRA Definition, they begin with a revised definition and general comments, and then follow with examples. Instead of just listing examples of antisemitism as the Definition does, however, they each offer two lists—with examples differentiated between those the authors consider antisemitic and those they think are not. The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism criticises IHRA and aims to replace it. The Nexus Document has been described by its authors as complementing and clarifying IHRA, effectively a friendly amendment. But these new lists have generated a further round of critical debate and multiplied the confusion over what IHRA does and doesn’t say or do. After giving an overview of the current state of competing views about the IHRA’s Working Definition, I will discuss the Jerusalem Declaration in detail, followed by comments on the Nexus Document.
Funding the Palestinian Authority Is a Betrayal of American Values
The Biden administration has announced that payments will be “consistent with US law,” but that is impossible. Any money the United States gives the Palestinian Authority frees up funds to be used for the nefarious activities of the dictatorship.

Only recently, the PA, through its propaganda machine, accused Israel of failing or refusing to provide COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinians — something that the Israeli government, of course, has no obligation to do. However, the Israeli government did in fact make such an offer, but the Palestinian Authority turned it down. They proudly claimed they could — and would — get the vaccine on their own.

The PA continues to deny Israel’s right to exist, and continues its relationship with other terrorist groups, especially those in the Gaza Strip. The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that for prior fiscal years, the USAID office “did not consistently ensure” that grants would not be passed along to terrorist groups and individual terrorists.

Why, when our own needs are so great and we are in terrible debt as a result of the recent pandemic, are we giving money to those who not only hate our country, but are waging a continual war of annihilation against the Jewish people? Have we not learned the lessons of the Holocaust and genocide throughout the world? When a nation as great as the United States empowers and finances terrorism, the consequences will always rebound to our detriment.

By supporting those who do not share American interests and whose continuing goal is the destruction of the Jewish state, we are betraying our country’s founding values and principles.
Biden’s funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency harms Palestinians
For years, Congress has attempted to shed light on this farce by demanding the State Department release a congressionally mandated report that gives the number of refugees under a normal definition. While this number technically remains classified, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tipped his hat to this truth toward the end of his tenure, pointing out the real number is less than 200,000. While it is probably far less than that, perhaps 30,000, his statement at least acknowledges that people generations removed from the 1947 conflict aren’t meaningfully “refugees.”

The agency’s real job in practice isn’t taking care of refugees but propagandizing against Israel’s existence. Anyone who has seen an agency “refugee” camp firsthand, as I have, will immediately notice two things. First, it’s not a “refugee camp” in any normal sense of the word. There are no tents, temporary facilities, or other signs of a recent catastrophe. Instead, it resembles a poor area of most any city, complete with institutions aimed at helping the needy. Second, it features nonstop propaganda aimed at telling Palestinians that the “right of return” to a country that 99.5% of them have never known is their ultimate goal in life, with a few homages to suicide bombers thrown in. These messages are repeated ad nauseam.

But it isn’t limited only to public artwork. The agency's schools frequently laud violence and demonize Jews, and teachers employed by the agency even praise Adolf Hitler.

These unfortunate realities do not mean that there are no Palestinians in need. Corrupt leadership and the futile, propaganda-spurned efforts to destroy Israel have left many Palestinians far worse off than they ought to be. However, funding the agency is not the right way to help needy Palestinians. The State Department simultaneously announced new funds for Palestinians to be administered through the United States Agency for International Development and not through the agency. While the USAID has its own problems, such as funding extremism, at least it isn’t institutionally dedicated to eliminating Israel.

In other words, the effect of funding the agency is to perpetuate a status quo that leaves Palestinians poor, stateless, oppressed, and dedicated to eliminating Israel rather than building their own polity, economy, society, and culture.

Were the agency to adopt a normal definition of a refugee, not one aimed at ending Israel, and cease funding violent, anti-Semitic agitprop, it could help alleviate problems. But the agency has rebuffed attempts at change from its foul mission of destruction.

The Biden administration should reverse course.
  • Sunday, April 18, 2021
  • Elder of Ziyon

Is an Arab slapping a Jew antisemitic if it happens in Jerusalem? (video)



This video shows an Arab slapping a religious Jewish boy on the Jerusalem light rail line, with clear premeditation.



According to the tweet that publicized this video, a companion of the Arab says to him beforehand, "Go on, kick him or give him a headache."

A musical version of this video was on TikTok as something to be proud of.

Arutz Sheva reports that after an outcry, the Arab was arrested - and then released, because no one could prove "intent."

Excuse me? What possible intent can there be besides naked antisemitism?

And this is happening in Israel!




  • Sunday, April 18, 2021
  • Elder of Ziyon

Most Palestinians consider their leaders corrupt, 30% want to emigrate; 49% of West Bankers won't take a COVID-19 shot



In the latest Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll, Palestinians say that they are living in a deeply corrupt society.

84% of Palestinians think there is corruption in Palestinian Authority institutions and 70% think there is corruption in Hamas institutions. 

Yet when asked if they think that corruption would increase or decrease after elections, if Hamas wins 26% say corruption will decrease and 28% say it will increase. If Fatah wins 16% say corruption in the PA will decrease and 36% think it will increase even more.

Only 43% of West Bankers think people in the West Bank can criticize the PA without fear while 53% think they cannot without being punished. In the Gaza Strip, 40% think people in the Strip can criticize Hamas leaders without fear and 58% think they cannot without being arrested or persecuted.

30% of Palestinians say they want to emigrate due to political, security, and economic conditions. In Gaza the number is 40% and in the West Bank, 23%. 

Another interesting statistic you won't find reported in Western media: 49% of Palestinians in the West Bank have no intention to take the COVID-19 vaccine. (35% of Gazans would refuse to take it as well.)  Which means that even if Israel did provide vaccines for free, COVID-19 would remain rampant in the territories anyway - and you can be sure if the vaccines came from Israel, the number of people who would want the vaccine would plummet because of rumors that the Jews are trying to poison them with the shots.

A majority of 62% believes that the vaccination process in the West Bank has been lacking in transparency and justice while only 33% believe the process has been transparent.  

55% (36% in the Gaza Strip and 67% in the West Bank) are dissatisfied with the efforts made by the PA to obtain the vaccine and 43% (63% in the Gaza Strip and 30% in the West Bank) are satisfied.

A small plurality of  37% say the best means of ending occupation is terrorism ("armed struggle") while 36% think it is negotiations.

All of these statistics contradict what you read about the Palestinian Arabs in Western media, where the impression you get is that corruption is on par with other countries, people are fiercely tied to the land and would never want to leave, the coronavirus pandemic is largely Israel's fault and terrorism is widely opposed by most. 




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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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