03/29 Links: Pro-Terror Activism by J Street Campus Leaders; PA Increases Imports from Israel

From Ian:

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‘Israel offers to free 400 more prisoners if Abbas extends talks’

Israel has offered to release a new group of 400 Palestinian security prisoners, in addition to the fourth and final group of longtime terrorism convicts who were set to go free this
weekend, if the Palestinian Authority agrees to extend peace talks for another six months, The Times of Israel learned from Palestinian sources on Saturday night. The US, anxious to arrange for the continuation of the talks, backed the offer.
As of Saturday evening, however, PA President Mahmoud Abbas was insisting that the fourth group of longtime prisoners first be released before he would consider extending the talks beyond their current April 29 deadline.

Concerns at Wash U. Over Apparent Pro-Terror Activism by J Street U Campus Leaders

One of America’s elite universities became the focus of attention today as photos emerged showing students apparently engaging in support for international terrorism during the past year. The two students, identified as Fadi AbuNe’meh and Taka Yamaguchi, were apparently leading activists with the campus chapter of J Street U, an organization that describes itself, inter alia, as “pro-Peace.”
An especially vibrant part of the group’s peace activism, apparently, includes wearing T-Shirts that say “Resistance is Not Terrorism,” and sport a picture of Leila Khaled, a notorious PFLP terrorist who hijacked airplanes in 1969 and 1970, caressing an AK-47.

Caroline Glick: Interview on The Dennis Prager Show discussing The Israeli Solution

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to discuss The Israeli Solution on the Dennis Prager Show.

Anne Bayefsky: The UN "Human Rights" Council & Israel

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Dershowitz eviscerates Jeremy Ben Ami, who sputters in response

From Haaretz:

J Street’s hypocrisy must be exposed

J Street’s 'Big Tent’ is open only to one side - the anti-Israel and BDS-supporting hard left of its own position; pro-Israel centrists are censored.

By Alan M. Dershowitz | Mar. 27, 2014 | 10:44 PM

J Street, the American organization that calls itself pro-Israel and pro peace but that always seems to be taking positions that are anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, is asking America’s Jewish leadership to have a big tent and to open its doors to J Street. While I generally support that position, it is imperative that J Street’s hypocrisy be exposed. J Street insists that all major pro-Israel organizations be open to speakers who favor opposing views—such as supporters of the BDS movements, supporters of the single secular binational state approach, and those who oppose Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

In the abstract, this open tent policy seems commendable. We should be committed to the open marketplace of ideas in which views prevail on their merits not on the basis of exclusion.

Now let’s see how J Street itself fares with regard to an open tent policy. It has categorically refused to allow speakers like me, who oppose J Street’s policies on Iran and other security matters, to speak to its members at its conventions. I have repeatedly and persistently sought an opportunity to present my perspective—which is shared by many American supporters of Israel—at the J Street convention, or at other events officially sponsored by J Street. When J Street invites BDS supporters and those oppose Israel’s right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people to speak at its events, it claims that it does not necessarily support these positions, but it believes in encouraging its members to hear views that are different from its official positions. That is total nonsense. J Street only wants people to hear views to the anti-Israel hard left of its position. It categorically refuses to allow its members to hear views that are more centrist and more pro-Israel, such as my own.

...
And there is a good reason why they have placed this cone of silence over its critics. J Street survives, and even expands, largely as the result of speaking out of two sides of its mouth. It seeks to attract centrist members by advocating the two-state solution, an aggressive stance towards peace negotiations and criticisms of Israel’s settlement policies. These are positions I fully support, and if they were J Street’s only positions, I would have joined that organization many years ago. But in an effort to expand leftward, particularly hard leftward, it has taken positions that undercut Israel’s security and that virtually no Israeli center-leftists support. It placed its imprimatur behind the despicable and mendacious Goldstone Report by bringing Richard Goldstone to Capitol Hill and introducing him to members of Congress. In doing so it undercuts the efforts of the Obama Administration, which was supportive of Israel’s self-defense efforts in Gaza and not supportive of the Goldstone Report.

...
J Street has also spoken out of both sides of its mouth on the issue of whether the Palestinian leadership should recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. While first appearing to oppose such recognition, it now seems to be saying that this issue should be left to final stage negotiations, but it leaves open the possibility that it will continue to oppose such recognition if and when such negotiations are reached.

Moreover, J Street has accepted funding from sources—such as George Soros—who are openly anti-Israel, and have kept this fact secret so as not to alienate its centrist supporters.

It is easy to understand therefore why J Street doesn’t want me, or others who hold positions like mine, to enter into its tent. It does not want its own members to be confronted with the reality of J Street’s double talk. If I speak at its convention, I will be speaking at the same time to those centrists it seeks to attract and to those hard leftists it wants within its tent. Both sides will be shocked by J Street’s duplicity in telling each what they want to hear.

So here is my challenge: at the next J Street convention, show the film The J Street Challenge: The Seductive Allure of Peace in Our Time to all of its members, invite me to speak to them, allow me to distribute its conflicting position papers and positions and let the marketplace of ideas remain open to its members. Only when J Street opens up its tent to views critical of its own should it be demanding that pro-Israel groups open its tent to them.

Now look at Ben-Ami's "response" where he doesn't respond at all:

...Instead of organizing to meet this existential threat, some on the far right of the American Jewish community are focusing their effort and their fire in a different direction – on members of their own community. In particular, there is a new well-funded and energetic campaign to defame and delegitimize J Street, centered on an hour-long attack-umentary called the “J Street Challenge.”

Sadly even a couple of mainstream, established Jewish organizations and figures are associating themselves with it - contrary to our community's firm commitment to civil debate on issues of legitimate disagreement.

Those who've made the film and are hawking it are, however, missing the real challenges that J Street is posing to the Jewish community. Here are a few of them:

• With the world losing patience with Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians, will we rally to urge the national homeland of our people to change course before it loses its democracy or its Jewish character?

• As the BDS Movement against Israel gains traction, will we recognize that the best way to defeat it isn’t spending our energy on preventing its supporters from being heard, but on ending the conflict in two states for two peoples?

• If you recognize the existential necessity of a two-state solution for Israel to survive as a Jewish and democratic homeland, isn’t it time to acknowledge the price that has to be paid to achieve it? How can we say we support a two-state solution but oppose establishing borders based on the pre-67 lines with swaps? How can we say we support two states and oppose a Palestinian capital in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem?

• Is it appropriate to call those who criticize Israeli government policy anti-Israel or anti-Semitic? Plenty of Israelis including security chiefs, former Prime Ministers and Members of the Knesset are critical of present policy, and they’re certainly not anti-Israel. In fact, using the anti-Semitism label to describe criticism of Israeli policy demeans the horror of real anti-Semitism.

• Is it right or smart to limit the right to speak in Jewish communal spaces to those with whom you agree? The more we limit admission to Jewish communal spaces by imposing ideological litmus tests regarding Israel, the smaller our Jewish community will be.

• Are we, as a people, treating the Palestinian people the way we ourselves want to be treated? Are we living up to the moral standards of our people and have we learned the lessons of our own oppression through the centuries and across the globe?

• Can we finally stop ignoring what is happening beyond the Green Line? The day-to-day maintenance of a 47-year occupation of another people runs counter to the interests and values of Israel and the Jewish people. It places all the wonder and accomplishment of the state of Israel at risk. It is time for the occupation to end.

We urge those attacking us to spend a little less time leveling baseless accusations against a now-established Jewish organization and a little more time addressing these fundamental challenges facing the Israel we love.
...
In Jewish communal venues here and across the globe, let’s call an end to the attack videos and mudslinging and let’s start discussing the significant challenges that really threaten not just Israel but the heart and the soul of the Jewish people.

Amazing, no?

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03/28 Links Pt2: Campus brownshirts rising; An Israeli doctor helps his Palestinian neighbors

From Ian:

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Caroline Glick: Campus brownshirts rising

The members of the student government should be applauded for their moral and intellectual courage. Although no democracy can long survive without a citizenry capable of displaying such strength of convictions and basic decency, these characteristics are becoming all too rare on campuses. Indeed it is the rarity of such devotion to truth that makes the council members’ behavior so heartening.
But it is due to the rarity of such displays of moral courage that a campaign to defeat the rising tide of anti-Semitism on college campuses cannot rely on the moral and intellectual fortitude of students and on their willingness to stand up not only to the campus brownshirts, but to their enablers in the administrations.
The developments at Northeastern and Brooklyn College make clear that the only way to defeat the anti-Semites on campus is to go after the administrations that enable them. Only the threat of civil lawsuits, federal investigations of civil rights violations, and alumni threats to withhold gifts will force university administrations to take action against the anti-Semitic thugs that are instituting a reign of terror at university after university.
The lesson from Brooklyn College and Northeastern is that the pressure should be unrelenting.
In both cases, the steps the administrations took this month were the minimal steps they think they can get away with. They need to be forced to do more.

What La Presse Didn’t Tell you About Anti-Israel Activist Max Blumenthal

Max Blumenthal is an American provocateur, radical activist and author of a new book whose extremist views appeal primarily to far left and fringe elements. Along with a tendency for being caught inventing facts, Blumenthal asserts Israel must choose between forced exodus and forced assimilation in a greater Arab society. Yet, despite Blumenthal’s outrageous views, he was introduced to La Presse readers as a mainstream journalist and respected author, in an interview by Nicholas Berubé. His radical pedigree was an important piece of information that was entirely ignored.
In his new book, with chilling chapter titles such as ‘Exodus Party,” “The Concentration Camp,” “The Night of Broken Glass, and “How to Kill Goyim (non-Jews) and Influence People”, Blumenthal purposefully and egregiously evokes comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, an analogy which has been deemed anti-Semitic by the European Union, the London Declaration and the Ottawa Protocols.
In an effort to demonize Israel, Blumenthal refrains from introducing context (such as the threats emanating from Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran..). Blumenthal offends even important figures on the left such as author and peace activist David Grossman who, as he recounts in his book, tells Blumenthal to tear up his phone number when told of Blumenthal’s view of dismantling Israel.

European Boycotts of West Bank Products Based on Faulty Premises

If the Israeli presence in the West Bank, and the "settlements" from 1967 on, are the root cause of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, then why does Article 14 of the 1964 PLO Charter call for the destruction of all of Israel?
Because Judea and Samaria had no recognized sovereign, apart from the Ottoman Empire, prior to the illegal Jordanian occupation, the current Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria cannot possibly be designated as illegal.
It seems therefore that nothing Israel offers that is less than 100% of its entire land -- in other words if Israel agrees not to exist -- will affect the Palestinian Authority's willingness to make peace.

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The insanity of further prisoner releases (guest post)

From Elihu Stone:

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I have seen reports that the government decided not to go through with release of prisoners. That seems excellent news. Of course, the Palestinians are painting this as: 1) a failure on our part to abide by our commitments. 2) a slap by us to America.

(This seems a particularly ridiculous time to have our foreign ministry on strike…)

Israel’s commitments to sacrifice are not made in a vacuum – that there were specific conditions made for this commitment and the Palestinians broke their promises first. They negotiated in bad faith and they are the ones slapping the Americans.

We tired to death of being played for suckers in a desperate hope that our concessions will bring peace or even the mere opportunity to talk about peace. The continued and incessant incitement which was part and parcel of the first three releases show the true intent of the Palestinians. the routine and insistent praise heaped by the “moderate” PA leadership upon murderous thugs – who are touted as heroes and role models by PA state organs and media – and whose acts of murder and mayhem against innocent civilians are praised as “resistance”  – is nothing short of abominable. It is utterly wrong, heinous and despicable.


Furthermore, we will not be a party to the ruination of yet another generation of Palestinian society. The continued glorification of convicted murderers – precisely for their murderous deeds in particular-- can never end well and bodes disaster as much for Palestinians as for Jews and Israel.

In regard to Abbas’ threat to pursue international recognition via UN bodies it is most significant that Abbas chose last week to deny Jews’ right to pray at the Kotel.

Out of every state in the Middle East, only in Israel is there reliable institutionalized protection of all religions’ holy places. Indeed it is sui generis that Jews have restricted their own rights to pray at their own holiest sites in order to avoid inflaming others’ sensibilities – I would submit that this behavior is as ineffective as it is morally obtuse. I find it incredible that I, as Jew, cannot even visit my forefather Isaac’s tomb, because the Palestinians who have no connection to Isaac have usurped that tomb in particular. While Abraham - who is holy to Islam- is buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, all the others buried there are connected to the Jewish – rather than Islamic - narrative of the Land. Yishmael (Ishmael)  is not buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs. And yet – we have a time sharing arrangement between Jews and Moslems, there. That is not enough for the Arabs – who are now railing against even the possibility of such an arrangement on the Temple Mount.

Territorial exchanges, the release of convicted murderers and unilateral building freezes will neither resolve this issue nor move the Arab/Palestinian position on it one millimeter. There is no freedom of religion in Arab countries – they simply do not understand the concept. They also have not a scintilla of respect for real democracy.

In this context, the fact that Abbas went to the Arab League to have it rubber stamp the absolute refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish state - (not a new idea, as it was the basis for UN resolution 181 in 1947 – which the Arabs all rejected) – indicates that the Arab/Israeli conflict still continues. There is no Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians are merely proxies for the continuation of the Arab/Israeli conflict under a new conceptual framework.

After 1967 the Arabs understood that it would be nearly impossible to beat Israel by sheer force of arms. The 22 member states of the Arab League also realized that, in a world where being the perceived underdog provides immense soft power – and that public opinion can be mustered to cause interference with the progress of armed conflicts, they could not hope to win public sympathy if they were perceived as monolith ganging up on Israel – 22 against 1. Therefore, they carefully cultivated the image of an asymmetrical conflict – not one that pitted 22 oil- rich and largely despotic Arab states against Israel – but rather one where the poor, stateless “democratic” Palestinians are the opponent of the Goliath - Israel. The Saudis even put forward a ‘comprehensive’ peace plan, that could never be accepted by all parties. The Arabs don’t care about the Palestinians one whit –except insofar as their status can be used as a weapon against Israel. (A quick look at what is happening in Palestinian camps in Syria makes that point with sinus-clearing certainty.)

As the Palestinians move for statehood in the UN bodies we should emphasize strongly that they are talking about a 23rd Arab state, that will be Islamic and forever opposed to any religious freedom for Jews – and anyone else. The PLO charter still calls for the destruction of Israel  and remains subject to an approval process that can never result in its approval. Abbas has pledged never, ever to accept a Jewish state – and to put any concessions at all through an “approval process” involving every Palestinian in the world.  Clearly, Abbas has no intention of moving toward peace and is leading everyone who believes otherwise by the nose.

Our refusal to release convicted terrorists at this juncture sends an important message that we will no longer make unilateral concessions that the Palestinians can simply pocket and then ask for more. The ratcheting strategy they have used so far must be called for what it is – and stymied.

There appears no good will on the Palestinian side and none has ever been cultivated by Abbas or the other Arab states. They should be called on this, in public. Unless there is mutuality there will be never be any hope for a negotiated peace here. UN bodies should understand that granting legitimacy to yet another rejectionist Arab state will do nothing but exacerbate problems here and world-wide. Abbas should be called to account.

Finally, if President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry still choose to coddle Abu Mazen in the mistaken hope of salvaging the current process, we should continue to speak the truth, firmly and clearly. I do not believe that we will be isolated if we articulate our position with resolve. We should look to Netanyahu's 2011 address of a joint session of Congress where he ably reiterated all the main points of contention in this conflict - and did a particularly good job of setting out our right to be recognized as a Jewish state, specifically. Of the scores of standing ovations Netanyahu received during his address, a particularly strong one - some 18 seconds -  is evident when he noted specifically that the failure of the peace process was squarely due to the refusal of the Arabs - and Palestinians in particular - to recognize Israel as a Jewish State.

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What I [EoZ] am afraid of is that Israel will reject the prisoner release, MKs will strut about how they stopped it, and then the government will buckle under to pressure from the US. So they will lose the advantages of not releasing them, look like their resolve is paper-thin and also lose the (relatively slight) goodwill advantage of releasing them.

I would be very surprised if this is not what happens.

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03/28 Links Pt1: Arabs No Longer Take Obama Seriously; Another outrageous UN appointment

From Ian:

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Sarah Honig: Some are more equal

Quite clearly, the US president and secretary of state don’t subscribe to George Orwell’s ever-relevant observation that “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
*Therefore, woe to the Quixotic sorts – both on America’s home turf and abroad – who insist on telling Obama and crew precisely what they’re loath to hear. Woe all the more to the recidivists who persist in upsetting the Obama administration’s omniscient ones.
Very obviously Israel’s defense minister Moshe Ya’alon is among the least stomached recidivists, even if he speaks his mind at closed meetings or in private conversations.
Ya’alon must come to grips with the fact that freedom of speech isn’t universally countenanced in our Obamaesque existence. Someone can be counted upon to leak or record uncomplimentary evaluations of the dear leader and then woe to him who dared tell it like he sees it.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Arabs No Longer Take Obama Administration Seriously

There is a feeling among many Arabs and Palestinians that the Obama Administration has no clue as to what it wants from the Arab world. They point out that the Obama Administration has failed in its policies toward several Arab countries, especially Egypt, Libya and Syria.
Abbas, in wake of growing US pressure on him, evidently sees the Arab summit as a "victory" for the Palestinians. As one of his aides explained, "The Arab summit's announcement is a political and moral boost for the Palestinian leadership."
Abbas might eventually agree to the American demand to extend the peace talks at least until the end of the year. But this does not mean that he is going to change his position regarding recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Nor does it mean that Abbas is about to make real concessions on any of the core issues, such as the future of Jerusalem or the issue of borders.
The extension of the talks means only one thing: that Abbas will be able to use the new time given to him to try to extract further concessions and gestures from the U.S. and Israel, while all the time bearing in mind that Obama and Kerry are willing to do almost anything to avoid a situation where they are forced to admit that their efforts and initiatives in the Middle East have failed.

Hillel Neuer: Another outrageous UN appointment

Bowing to new pressure from the powerful Arab Group in the race to replace controversial official Richard Falk, the president of the U.N. Human Rights Council has decided to ignore the vetting committee’s official choice, and instead appoint Christine Chinkin — co-author of the Goldstone Report, and a law professor at the London School of Economics – as the UN’s next special rapporteur on “Israel’s violations of the bases and principles of international law.”
In a second highly controversial move, the president also announced that he would name Falk’s wife, former Turkish government adviser Hilal Elver, to another top U.N. human rights post.
The only power that can yet stop these outrageously partisan and problematic appointments before tomorrow’s plenary decision is the Obama Administration.
When council president Baudelaire Ndong Ella tomorrow moves the nominations, the U.S. — if it is to live up to its pledge to use its UNHRC membership to fight bias, politicization and double standards — must take the floor, call a vote, and vote No.

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Work accident!

A 20-year old Hamas member was accidentally killed by a gunshot, according to the Al Qassam Brigades of Hamas.

The English announcement says:

Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades (E.Q.B) the military wing of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, mourned on Friday, March 29th, 2014, the death of the Qassam member Hamza Ayman Abu Eid (20), from Al Qarara city – South of Gaza Strip.

The brigades confirmed in a press statement released on Friday morning, that the martyr Abu Eid has died accidently [sic]while cleaning hi [sic] weapon, adding that he was martyred after a long bright path of Jihad, hard work, struggle and sacrifice

Al Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the mujahed, reaffirms the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces.

According to reports, he shot himself in the head.

It is remarkable that for all the "ethnic cleansing" Israel is supposedly engaged in, terrorists in Gaza manage to kill more of each other and their fellow citizens than the IDF does.

By my count, about 12 people - mostly terrorists - have been killed in Gaza so far this year from "work accidents" and rockets falling short.

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Zvi's news roundup

From Zvi:

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"Evil Rightwing Settler University" Ariel University Plans Muslim Prayer Room

Ariel University, located in Samaria and "boycotted" according to EU guidelines for being over the 1949 Armistice line, has started a new initiative: a prayer room for Muslim Arab students.Roughly 600 Arab students are enrolled at the Samaria-based university, which has sustained that number since at least 2011. The Arab students make up roughly a fifth of the student body. Nevertheless, MK Ahmed Tibi (Raam-Taal) refused interviews with students of the university's communications department last November, calling them a "settler station."An Arab student who led the initiative stated "we obligated ourselves not to hold any political activity in the prayer room. We really don't intend to hold political activities or incitement of any kind. ...If we wanted to incite, we would have done that a long time ago."Ariel University's chancellor in 2012 emphasized only students loyal to Israel were accepted, noting that every student, Jew or Arab, is required to take a course in Judaism, Zionism or Israel each semester."If the university opposed the process, it would have harmed the principle of equality, and we could have even taken it to the Supreme Court," noted an Arab student. "We were glad that our request was received immediately and we were told that the process is underway."

#BDSFail

Today's BDSFail's come from China, Intel, Windsor (update) and Georgia.

Number of Chinese Tourists to Surge 60% this Year (Haaretz)

The Tourism Ministry forecasts that the number of Chinese visitors will surge 60% this year to 40,000 as Israel tries to take a bigger bite into the more than $100 billion that Chinese tourists spend annually.

Intel to invest $15M in OrCam

OrCam's [smartglasses] product helps blind and visually-impaired customers by using audio feedback to relay visual information.OrCam’s system uses a small wearable computer that is clipped onto a pair of glasses. With the help of a five-megapixel camera, the computer uses audio feedback to relay visual information that the user can’t see. Priced at $2,500, the device can read text, and with the help of the user it can be taught to recognize faces and objects.

University of Windsor Update (Windsor Star)

The issue was scheduled for discussion at a UWSA council meeting Thursday night.Prior to the meeting, UWSA president Rob Crawford said: “In my opinion, we cannot ratify (the referendum) because it was not legitimate.”

Meanwhile, true to form, the BDS crowd are making inflammatory statements claiming that pro-Israel national politicians are responsible for this #BDSFail.

Most of the comments beneath the article are severely critical of the BDS crowd.

Israeli Innovation in Community Policing (JPost)

“I think this program should be studied by police departments from around the world,” [Robert R. Friedman, director of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange and professor emeritus of criminal justice at Georgia State University] said. “Virtually every department I have brought to Israel has adopted a number of elements in Israel’s model with great success.”

Russia/Kazakhstan/Belarus/Israel free trade zone process continues (ITAR-TASS)

Honestly, I think that the point of ITAR-TASS's publishing this story was to piss off Obama and the EU.

Now we know why Turkey is making noises about reinstating ties with Israel

Amid reports that Turkey and Israel may be on the verge ofreconciling ties, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon approved plans by Turkey to construct a hospital in the Gaza Strip, authorities announced on Thursday.

But don't expect gratitude from Arabs (Arutz Sheva)

On Friday, two local Arabs were captured by the IDF after they breached the Gaza security fence. The two were heading towards Israel for intents that remain unclear.

Palestinian Honor Killings Skyrocket, Israel Blamed

Here's a suggestion for the Palestinians. Stop killing your girls.

When this trend became apparent last year, the Palestinian Minister of Women’s Affairs, Rabiha Diab, blamed….Israel: “The Israeli occupation is the one practising the utmost violence … it’s the main thing keeping us from advancing.”I would argue that the main thing keeping them from advancing is their refusal to take responsibility for anything, and to blame Israel reflexively no matter what.

(Thanks, Zvi, but that was written by me! - EoZ)

Quirky

Violin Virtuoso Yitzchak Perlman on Israel (HuffPo Interview)

The interviewer gets to Israel in the last 3rd of the interview.

"It's an amazing country. Every time I come there, things are changing. It's an incredible place,"...And of course the music is always there… .

Oh, and, ummmm, at 16:20 or so, he plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on a kitchen blender… .

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How PCUSA twists history to justify their hate of Israel

I finally got a copy of "Zionism Unsettled," the Presbyterian Church USA's 80-page "study guide" to teach Presbyterians how awful Israel is that was in the news a month ago.

Others have done a good job showing how bad it is - and it is very bad. For example:

• After describing how much pressure Jews are under to not say anything bad about Zionism, it goes on to quote a hundred years' worth of anti-Zionist writings by Jews. 
• It has a sidebar of an "unsung hero of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising" - because he was anti-Zionist.  
• It gives Brant Rosen, the anti-Zionist reconstructionist "rabbi," an entire chapter to describe his pseudo-theological basis for hating Israel. 
• It shows The Map That Lies. 
• It says in a pull-quote  "There are similarities between Zionism, South African apartheid, and Jim Crow segregation in the Southern US."

I thought it would be helpful to reproduce the PCUSA's timeline of the region's history to show how easy it is to lie with facts and factoids  - when you get to select which ones to use.

Like all anti-Israel histories of the conflict, they start with the 19th century. Jewish people living in the Land of Israel from Biblical times aren't good to mention because that undercuts the fundamental argument that the land is Arab land that Jews came and took away. 

And the "First Aliya" was hardly the first wave of Jews to return to Israel. They came throughout the centuries, perhaps not in waves but there was always a desire in Jewish culture to return. Major rabbis made "aliya" from Babylonia to the Land of Israel in the 2nd-5th centuries CE. They never stopped coming.

Also not mentioned is that the large majority of Palestinian Arabs in this timeframe did not want an independent state but they wanted to be part of Syria, just to forestall the possibility of a Jewish state. Then, as now, the point was not to establish a state but to end one. 

Notice anything missing?

They don't want to mention the deadly anti-Jewish attacks in 1920, 1921 and of course the pogroms in 1929 where many Jews lost their lives and many more lost their homes. Yes, Jews were driven out of their homes by Arabs (in Jaffa, Hebron, parts of Jerusalem and elsewhere) long before the "nakba." Yet only one set of people have rights according to PCUSA.

The 1936-9 revolt was not only against Jewish immigration - it was against Jews altogether. It was a violent uprising and hundreds were killed. Not worth mentioning, of course.

Here the writers are engaging in sophisticated deception. Zionism of course predates the Holocaust and by the eve of World War II there was already a functioning Jewish government in Palestine in readiness for statehood. No such parallel government existed on the Arab side. 

But PCUSA wants to frame Israel's founding completely as a result of the Holocaust, with the implication that the Arabs did nothing to deserve suffering at the hands of the Holocaust victims. Of course, the Holocaust contributed to the urgency of establishing a haven for Jews (as well as Western reticence at accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees) but the timeline minimizes Zionism's pre-war accomplishments.

The last item is a lie. There were zero Arabs displaced by Zionists in mid-November, 1947. In fact, before the partition vote Jews were forced out of their homes in Jaffa in August 1947 - once again, the first victims were Jews. Arabs shot at the Jews from minarets of mosques. 

Tens of thousands of Arabs did flee at the first attacks of Arabs against Jews in the hours after the partition vote. They remembered 1936-39 and those who had the means decided to flee to Lebanon and elsewhere to sit out the fighting. It was completely voluntary. 

Why put "war of liberation" in scare quotes? Well, if you don't believe that Jews have a right to their historic land, then it isn't liberation, is it?

Plan Dalet is not described here, but it is certainly being misrepresented as a plan to ethnically cleanse Arabs. This is a lie.

Deir Yassin is mentioned - but not the Hadassah hospital convoy massacre a few days later  which had a similar number of victims. How's that for bias?

Why is the UN adopting the UDHR mentioned here? Obviously because PCUSA claims that Jews violated it - and not Arabs.

Wars just somehow break out. Nothing about incessant fedayeen attacks on Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. Nothing about Arab threats to annihilate Israel and throw the Jews into the sea. Nothing about Yasir Arafat's first terror attack in 1965, before "occupation." Nothing about how the original PLO charter specifically excluded the West Bank and Gaza from its goals. Nothing about Israel warning Jordan to stay out of the war, but Jordan attacking anyway - and losing the West Bank. No, we cannot have Jews feeling real fear, can we? 

Also missing: Black September, when Jordan killed and expelled thousands of Palestinians.

In the text of the booklet, PCUSA says "Sadat had taken the initiative by his historic trip to Jerusalem in November 1977. Begin resisted responding to Sadat's peace initiative until public pressure forced his hand." This is a flat-out lie. Israel responded to Sadat's speech in Cairo within hours with an invitation to Jerusalem. Begin had made numerous contacts with his Arab neighbors to negotiate peace between entering office and Sadat's trip to Jerusalem. 

Who massacred the Arabs in Sabra/Shatila? PCUSA implies it is Israel, because they haven't said a word about Lebanese Christians, so who else could it be?

The 1994 entry shows how one can write a completely factual statement and still lie.

The first Arab suicide attack in Israel was in 1989 and it killed 16 people- but it wasn't a bomb. 

There were two other suicide attacks against Israelis in 1993 - but they were in Judea and Samaria. 

PCUSA mentions the Hebron massacre first to imply that Palestinian Arab terror was in reaction to it. That is clearly not true. But they only publish the facts that make their anti-Israel case. 

There were dozens of terror attacks during the 1990s. Over 150 Israelis were killed in suicide bombings. Not worth mentioning. But PCUSA wants to imply that the second intifada was the result of Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount - in reality is was an excuse, not a cause. 

Israel's peace offers in 2000 and 2001 (and 2007)  that were rejected by the Palestinian Arabs are not mentioned. The unacceptable Arab League proposal which could have destroyed the Jewish state demographically is highlighted, so Israel alone appears rejectionist. 

Notice that Hamas is not mentioned here as a terrorist or even an Islamist group. Hamas rejected the roadmap outright, but that is not worth mentioning either. 

Ah, so Hamas has some militants -but they only attack Fatah militants. They never do anything bad to their oppressor Jews.

Not a single mention of thousands of Hamas rockets being shot at Israeli civilians. Not a mention of who started the war in Gaza (by calling it a war on Gaza PCUSA is purposefully ignoring the Gaza rockets during the war.)

This is only the tip of the iceberg, but the pattern is clear - PCUSA will not write up any history that makes Israeli Jews look like anything but a bloodthirsty aggressors hell bent on dominating and controlling poor, innocent Arabs. (It will not mention that some IDF soldiers, politicians and diplomats are Arab and Druze, because they want to imply that Jewish exceptionalism - a major theme of the booklet - is responsible for all ills.)  If anything contradicts that narrative it must not be mentioned.

People who are not familiar with the real history of the region see a timeline and they assume that it must be an accurate portrayal of history. Yet the lies and omissions are all in the same direction - to demonize Israel and to whitewash Arab threats and terror, which are virtually nonexistent in the 80 pages of the booklet.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how Israel-haters lie with cherry-picked facts.

(h/t Ari)

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Surprise! U. of Windsor BDSers violated numerous university rules in vote

A few weeks ago, the Students' Alliance at the University of Windsor in Ontario voted to divest from Israel, in a move that involved some serious intimidation and criminal activity.

It turns out that the BDSers, as usual, did all they could to rig the voting against university policy. From CTV News Windsor:

A controversial referendum at the University of Windsor was not carried out correctly according to an investigation by the school’s lawyer.

In an email sent out to students, UWindsor president Dr. Alan Wildeman released the findings of the investigation that looked at the process used by the University of Windsor Student Alliance regarding a BDS referendum.

Lawyer Raj Anand addressed five major allegations, all of which he says have been substantiated by the investigation.

“The petition to hold the BDS referendum that was submitted to the UWSA council had at most 404 valid signatures (not the required 500), and as such the BDS referendum was not properly brought to the council,” the email states.

The Palestinian Solidarity Group put forth the referendum which would have seen a boycott of products, divesting from companies that create those products and sanctions against companies that are from Israel.

On March 2, a total of 798 eligible students out 1300 voted in favour of the referendum. The vote follows a break-in at a university office, where an anti-Semitic slur was spray painted onto a flag.

Anand’s other findings are as followed:

• Changes have been made to the structure of the UWSA executive group in ways that are in violation of the bylaws and the constitution of the UWSA, and those changes resulted in participation in UWSA meetings and votes by individuals who were not entitled to participate in those meetings and votes.
• Over the past year the UWSA Executive and council have contained members who do not meet the criteria of membership set out in the UWSA constitution.
• The motion to hold a BDS referendum occurred without legitimate quorum and involved votes cast by non-members.
• The BDS referendum was unclear and ambiguous, and contained several questions rather than one question as required, and therefore was not consistent with Bylaw 85.

As a result, the university says the referendum failed to follow the bylaws and constitution of the UWSA.

Earlier this month, Wildeman requested the UWSA defer discussion on the referendum until the investigation could be completed.

(h/t Zelig)

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Fatah publishes The Map That Lies

We've discussed, and taken apart, different versions of The Map That Lies, the ubiquitous and lying set of four maps that purport to show how Israel is taking "Palestinian" land.

The official Fatah Facebook page has an even worse version that they tweeted this morning:

Mahmoud Abbas is, of course, the leader of Fatah.

Every nation has some founding myths. "Palestine" has nothing but  myths.  And by a strange coincidence, every one of those myths are meant to destroy another state.

(h/t Judge Dan)

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03/27 Links Pt2: Professors school anti-Israel divestment forum, and get results

From Ian:

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Professors school anti-Israel divestment forum, and get results

The greatest contrast during the night was that while the pro-divestment speakers lashed out at Israel with great vitriol, the anti-divestment speakers — many of whom were critical of some Israeli policies — were even-tempered and rational.
This student rejected attempts to pigeonhole black students into an anti-Israel vote:
But the stars of the night were the opening guest speakers.
The pro-divestment group picked Max Blumenthal, who gave a predictably flame-throwing anti-Israel speech.
While anti-Israel advocates on Twitter and in the room were excited by Blumenthal’s tongue lashing of Israel, that excitement dimmed when two real professors took to the stage, one in opposition to the resolution and one selected to give a historical overview.
First up was Michigan State – James Madison College Associate Professor Yael Aronoff, who responded directly to Blumenthal. She spoke somewhat quickly so as to leave time for other guest speakers against the resolution, but basically destroyed Blumenthal by pointing out the one sided presentation and the resolution:

Prof. Yael Aronoff against anti-Israel Divestment

Prof Victor Lieberman U Michigan Divestment Debate 3 25 2014

Anti-Israel academic boycott turns ugly at Vassar

I began looking into these events several days ago, and have had extensive conversations with the two Vassar professors who were the target of anti-Israel rage. I also have obtained documentation not previously published.
What transpired was anti-Israel vitriol directed at Professors and students taking a course that involved travel to Israel and the West Bank, an intimidating protest outside a classroom, and a campus forum in which the Professors and Jewish students were belittled, heckled and mocked in such crude ways that it left even critics of Israel shaken. Yet the Vassar administration has done little in response, and would not comment for this report.
The bigger story is that these events at Vassar reflect how the American Studies Association academic boycott of Israel has emboldened anti-Israel students to cross previous lines of academic respect and freedom. The “anti-colonial” and other rhetoric focusing on Israel’s supposed European roots, inaccurately used by the boycott movement to demonize Israel, has injected a racial context to the protests (as at U. Michigan) which is boiling over but only in one direction — towards supporters of Israel. (h/t Alexi)

Victim Breaks Down in Footage From Aftermath of Brutal Anti-Semitic Attack in France (PHOTOS/VIDEO)

Speaking on camera a day after his assault, the victim – a 59-year-old Jewish teacher only identified as David – said he was attacked by three North African “Maghreb men” at 10 p.m. on March 20 after leaving a kosher restaurant in Rue Manin, Paris, and making his way to a subway station.
“They started to curse me out: ‘dirty Jew,’ ‘death to the Jews,’ ‘son of a b***,’ etc. Then they started to beat me up,” David says in the clip before breaking down in tears. “I was hit on my face, I got my nose fractured… And then one of them took something out of his pocket, I thought it was a knife… It was a marker… And this is what they did to me (showing his chest), a swastika as they were screaming ‘dirty Jew.’ ”

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I don't think PA schools are teaching peace with Israel...

From the official Facebook page of the Qibya Girls High School:

From the official Facebook page of the Al-Zahra Secondary Girls School in Jenin:

It sure sounds like they are saying that Israel shouldn't exist.

(I looked up about 12 schools, all girls, on FB. Most of the boys' schools did not have FB pages. Of those schools these were the only political posters I found, although one school did have a photo of the funeral of a terrorist last week calling him a martyr.)

Clueless Westerners love to point to surveys saying that Palestinian Arabs want a two-state solution, but you won't find a single poster advocating peace in their school websites. 

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"I am the very model of a BDSbyterian" (Divest This!)

A truly brilliant music parody by Divest This!, to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Modern Major General:"

The Ballad of the BDSbyterians

I am the very model of a BDSbyterian

I’m open to all points of view (especially if they’re Syrian)

Don’t bother me if you’re a Kurd, Tibetan or Nigerian

I am the very model of a BDSbyterian

 

Don’t talk to him if you’re a Kurd, Tibetan or Nigerian

Because he is the model of a BDSbyterian

 

I’m also well acquainted too with Judith Butler’s fond advice,

I understand facts fed to me by Hezbollah and Mondoweiss

I’ll happily toe Barghouti’s line regarding stocks the Church should ban

Because I am the model of a BDSbyterian

 

He’ll do whatever Omar says, yet claim to be a thinking man

That shows he is the model of a BDSbyterian

 

I also am the model of a terrorist apologist

My power for projecting guilt would stun a trained psychologist

How could this be? I do not know!  Go ask an anthropologist

I am the very model of a terrorist apologist

 

How could he warp his conscience so?  Go ask a trained psychologist

I guess it’s cause he’s made himself a terrorist apologist

 

I wipe my mind of what they do to Jew or homosexual

By leveraging the force of all my powers intellectual

Hamas missiles bore me so, I’ve not regard for where they land

Because I am the model of a BDSbyterian

 

Once rockets launch he has no care for whom they hit or where they land

Because he is the model of a BDSbyterian

 

One last point which proves that I’m a BDSbyterian

The Church must do my bidding or I’ll simply make them vote again

Divestment voted down five times just a speedbump to my brilliant plan

And that’s why I’m the model of a BDSbyterian

 

He’ll make them vote a hundred times, or more because he know he can

And that’s why he’s the model of a BDSbyterian

 

My self-regard is buttressed by inflated moral vanity

My ego soaring while ignoring crimes against humanity

So IPMN writes pamphlets that are high-fived by the Ku Klux Klan

That’s not my problem cause I’m just a BDSbyterian

 

So what if David Duke is now his own committee’s biggest fan?

He doesn’t care because he is a BDSbyterian

This needs to be made into a video, preferably with full costume.

(h/t Barbara M)

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03/27 Links Pt1: PA religious leaders say Jews must not pray at Western Wall; Is it 1947 or 2014?

From Ian:

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PMW: PA religious leaders: Jews must not pray at Western Wall

The Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash and the former Chief Justice of the PA's Religious Court both recently declared that the PA's Islamic belief and political position is that Jews are prohibited from praying at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA denies Israel's history and rights in Jerusalem, but these statements by top religious leaders go even further.
The PA claims that the area of the Muslim holy site, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, includes not only the mosque itself, but extends over the entire Temple Mount and includes Judaism's holy site - the Western Wall.

JPost Editorial: Recognition

Now it is official – again. The Arab League capped its two-day summit in Kuwait with the following statement: “We express our total rejection of the call to consider Israel as a Jewish state.” This was essentially a repeat of the second of the “three noes” issued at the 1967 Arab League summit at Khartoum.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas now has all the backing he needs to continue to refuse the Israeli demand to recognize the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. Abbas has consistently opposed such recognition, presenting it as a completely new, never-before mentioned, Israeli condition for peace.
The fact is, however, that defining Israel as a “Jewish state,” if for no other reason than to differentiate it from an Arab or a Palestinian state and to ensure that at least one country in the world is set aside for the Jewish people, dates back to Israel’s very inception. Palestinian rejection of this term happens to be just as old. The 1947 United Nations partition plan, which the Arab nations and the Palestinians rejected, and which the majority of the nations of the world as well as the Jewish leadership in Palestine affirmed, called for the creation of “Arab and Jewish states.”

1947 or 2014? Arabs reject Jewish State

1947: The United Nations General Assembly approved yesterday a proposal to partition Palestine into two states, one Arab and the other Jewish, that are to become fully independent by Oct.1. The vote was 33 to 13 with two abstentions and one delegation, the Siamese, absent….
The vote on partition was taken at 5:35 P. M. Representatives of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen, four of the six Arab member states, announced that they would not be bound by the Assembly’s decision and walked determinedly out of the Assembly Hall at Flushing Meadow. The Egyptian and Lebanese delegates were silent but walked out, too.
2014: The Arab League announced on Wednesday its full backing of a Palestinian refusal to meet Israel’s demand to be recognized as a Jewish state, a condition Jerusalem says it requires for peace.
“We express our total rejection of the call to consider Israel as a Jewish state,” read a statement from the final day of the Arab summit in Kuwait.

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How anti-Israel rhetoric infects even serious reports

Today, at the Brookings Institution, a report about early childhood development in the West Bank and Gaza will be discussed. The report was written by the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA.)

For the most part, the report is serious and well done. It talks about the importance of early childhood education and nutrition and where children in the territories fall short.

Yet even in a report like this, anti-Israel rhetoric manages to enter. I don't think it was deliberate; I think it is just that the authors of the report were not attuned to how anti-Israel activists will politicize facts and make up others.

The report says:

One of the most critical issues facing Palestinian preschool children (aged 3-6) is that of malnutrition. The combined effects of the Israeli siege and poverty in Gaza have resulted in the widespread development of anemia among women and children; consequently, stunting in Gaza’s children is on the rise, affecting about 31.4% of children under the age of two.16 The consequences of poor nutrition resulting in underweight, stunting, and anemia are enormous and seriously impair the child’s physical, cognitive, and social faculties.

The footnote to this statistic doesn't go to a scientific study or a World Health Organization report. No, the source is the Electronic Intifada hate site, in an interview with anti-Israel activist, terror supporter and serial liar Dr. Mads Gilbert. He said there:

As a result of the Israeli siege, there has been widespread development of anemia among children and women due to malnutrition as a result of siege and poverty. Stunting, where a child is more than two standard deviations shorter than what it should be, is sharply on the rise. In 2006, around 13.5 percent of children were stunted. In 2009, 31.4 percent under age two were stunted.

Where did these statistics come from? I have no idea. The closest I have found is this 2012 study that only discusses specific poor sections of North Gaza, which are known to be in much worse shape than the rest of Gaza. The BBC mentioned in 2009 that Gaza children have a 10% stunting rate but in portions of northern Gaza the rate approaches 30%. Gilbert, if he is not making up the numbers from thin air, seems to be comparing a study of poverty stricken north Gazans with Gazans as a whole.

In fact, the World Bank in 2011 looked at the stunting statistics of Gaza children and called the results "outstanding" compared to other countries. Indeed, Gaza is better off than most Arab countries in this regard.

Now, Gilbert says two things. One is the statistics, which seem dubious at best. The other is his opinion that this is "as a result of the Israeli siege." That is completely unsupportable, and provably false.

Because Israel has not had any restrictions on food into Gaza for years.

So this lying quote from Mads Gilbert, and his unsupported opinion, from an anti-Israel hate site, gets used as a scholarly source for a serious report on Palestinian Arab children.

To its credit, ANERA gives legitimate reasons for Gaza nutritional problems that have nothing to do with Israel. It notes that anemia in Gaza is actually significantly lower than in the West Bank which makes no sense if Israel's "siege" had anything to do with nutrition in Gaza. It mentions that giving children excessive amounts of tea to drink, a widespread practice in the territories, contributes to anemia.

Yet the anti-Israel narrative is so prevalent that no one at ANERA thought to check twice that their accusations about Israel were lies. It is simply a given that Gaza misery is associated with Israel, and not worth taking the time to verify.

(h/t Solomon2)

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