Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Elder (with your help) Gets Results! 2015 roundup

It is the end of the year and I am seeing lots of emails from professional pro-Israel sites listing their accomplishments for the year (and, of course, asking for money.)

So I thought I'd look back and see how my reporting has made a difference this year (including things that some others take credit for!)

Here are some ways that stories I broke ended up changing things for the better 2015:

An anti-Israel activist named Ariel Gold removed an embarrassing post where she claimed that Sabra Hummus was named after the Sabra and Shatila massacre (done by Christian Phalangists.)
After Jim Clancy of CNN went on a bizarre anti-Israel Twitter rant against me and others, he was unceremoniously dumped from the network.
I noted that the Israeli Gisha NGO that is supposedly supporting free movement of Arabs from Gaza never said anything bad about Hamas' limitations on freedom of movement. Immediately after, they started to report on Hamas.
The New York Times corrected the nonsensical phrase "1967 borders with Palestine" after I pointed it out.
After I reported out that the Imperial War Museum referred to the Jewish Brigade as "terrorists," they corrected it.
The College Board corrected material that said that Jerusalem was a city in "Palestine" after I pointed it out.
After a year of pointing out how UNRWA teachers are pushing hate on Facebook, UNRWA admitted it and sent out a note to its employees to stop being so obvious about their hate.
MSN.com took down an antisemitic article they had republished from the Arab News.
A story I broke about Fatah's hate on its Facebook page got picked up by the mainstream media, forcing Fatah to issue bizarre denials and remove the image.
I reported first about an anti-Israel video game app on the Google store; it was removed.
The New York Times removed a reference to a "2,500-year-old Islamic cultural heritage site" in Yemen after I wrote about how that was quite impossible for a religion that is 1,300 years old.
A Palestinian NGO removed its antisemitic Facebook posts after EoZ readers informed their funders that this was a problem.

None of these could have happened without you. I find the information, but I need my readers to act on it - to tweet and email and shame the offenders. And many of these stories came from reader tips.

So we did make a difference in 2015.

Thanks for your support!

We are doing everything we can to fight for Israel with hard work, research and - above all - the truth. We need your help. Please donate today. If you have other skills you can volunteer for EoZ, send an email to volunteer@elderofziyon.com

The testimony that "Breaking the Silence" does not accept

From My Truth:

Breaking the Silence's double standards Last week, Nadav Bigelman of Breaking the Silence lectured at the Hebrew University. A former IDF officer surprised him with a question. We couldn't help but notice a certain irony in Bigelman's response...
Posted by My Truth on Monday, December 28, 2015

We are doing everything we can to fight for Israel with hard work, research and - above all - the truth. We need your help.Please donate today.If you have other skills you can volunteer for EoZ, send an email to volunteer@elderofziyon.com

Today's Pallywood

From someone named "Immortal Che Guevera" on Facebook:

Palestinian child is bitten by a dog, which is incited, between laughter, by Israeli terrorist. Where's the humanity better yet where is God
Posted by Immortal Che Guevara on Tuesday, December 22, 2015

It was shared over a thousand times.

Reality: it happened in Algeria in April.

12/29 Links Pt2: Top 10 worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism in 2015; Israel 1st to send aid to Kenya

From Ian:

Wiesenthal Center ranks top 10 worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism in 2015

The Simon Wiesenthal Center ranked the European Union’s labeling of settlement products higher than incidents of Palestinian and Iranian incitement and threats against Israel in its annual 10 worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism around the world in 2015.
Presented to The Jerusalem Post on Monday, the list enumerates what the organization believes are the worst occurrences of hate against Jews and their state over the course of the past year, which it characterized as of one of “unprecedented explosions of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hatred.”
“Our Top Ten this year shows how pervasive anti-Semitism has become around the world. The 10 examples selected by the Simon Wiesenthal Center are tragically indicative of burgeoning threats and challenges to the Jewish people not encountered since the end of World War II,” the organization said.
Leading the list at No. 1 was the hatred that inspired Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife to murder 14 people in a shooting rampage in San Bernardino, California, earlier this month.

Caroline Glick: Dani Dayan and the challenge to Israeli democracy

Given Brazil’s importance as a market and as a defense partner, Israel needs a serious ambassador posted to Brasilia capable of advancing relations. In Dani Dayan, Israel has such a representative.
Dayan is a native of Argentina. He knows Latin America better than career diplomats.
Dayan was an early hi-tech entrepreneur. He led his company, Elad Systems for 23 years, building it from a small information technology firm into a 500-employee company with an annual revenue stream of NIS100 million. Given his business background, Dayan’s ability to promote Israeli-Brazilian trade is self-evident.
Dayan is a political pragmatist. When he served as the leader of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, he made it his goal to demonstrate to the wider public that the communities are an integral part of Israel. As the council’s representative to the international community, Dayan worked tirelessly to combat the delegitimization of Israel as a whole and of the Israeli communities in the areas. In a sphere where Israel has precious little to show for its efforts, Dayan’s public diplomacy efforts stood out.
In light of this, when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed Dayan to serve as Israel’s ambassador to Brazil in August, the appointment was not seen as controversial. Rather it was widely viewed as a sign that Netanyahu is keen to expand Israel’s bilateral ties with Brazil and more generally, that Israel is interested in seriously advancing its ties to Latin America.
This apparently was bad news for the EU- and US-financed radical Left. For many years radical leftists have made no effort to hide their interest in maintaining and expanding Israel’s international and economic weakness. As they see it, the stronger Israel is, the less vulnerable it will be to foreign pressure to make further concessions to the PLO.
And so, after the government approved Dayan’s appointment, fringe leftists associated with EU- and US-funded political NGOs set out to scuttle the appointment.

Free Beacon: 2015 Man of the Year: Cpl. T

In the Israeli media, the anonymous IDF soldier was identified simply as “Cpl. T.” Other outlets dubbed him “The Terminator.” Whatever his name, the 19-year-old IDF rookie proved himself to be an international hero after he slayed three knife-wielding Palestinian terrorists in a nine-day span last fall.
On Oct. 17, two Palestinian fanatics with knives attacked an Israeli in Gush Etzion when they were put down by bullets from Cpl. T.’s gun. Nine days later, Cpl. T. smoked another terrorist who tried to stab a fellow soldier at a nearby bus stop.
The IDF released few details about Cpl. T., but said he had only been in the military for eight months and was in the “Kfir”—or “Lion’s Club”—brigade. The group is “the youngest and largest brigade in the Israel Defense Forces,” according to the military.
While the young soldier has been lauded for his quick instincts and good aim, Cpl. T. says he was just doing his job.

Why Mohammed is the most popular baby name in Israel

From JPost:

The most popular name in Israel in 2014, among some 2,650 newborns, was Mohammed, according to a report released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday.

The most popular Jewish name for a boy, and the second most popular name overall, in 2014 was Noam, with some 1,600 boys (and 400 girls) given this name. Also making the list of the top 10 most popular names was Ori/Uri, David, Yousef, Eitan, Itay, Ariel, Daniel, Yonatan, and Moshe.

So why is a Muslim name the top result when Muslims take u about 20% of the population? Simple math:

“The most common name among those born in 2014 was Mohammed,” the CBS reports. “This name was very common among the population because it is given to one out of every seven Muslim boys. In comparison, the most common names among Jews and Muslim girls were given to one out of 40 children.”

Which means that the percentage of Muslims naming their sons Mohammed is nearly six times the percentage of Jews naming their sons Noam, or Muslims naming their daughters Maryam.

People were a little freaked out when a similar story came out of London, where Muhammad was the most popular name and Mohammed came in at #10. But that is what happens when there is so little name variation among newborns in one population.

(In Hebrew and Arabic, there is no difference in spelling between Mohamed, Mohammed, Muhammed or Muhammad as there is in English, so the effect is magnified beyond what we see in Western countries.)

Interestingly, Israel's CBS noted that Yosef/Yousef was the fourth most popular name, with 1350 Jews naming their sons Yosef and 600 Muslims naming their sons Yousef.

Considered the most authoritative specialist on matters pertaining to the Jewish homeland since the medieval scholar and author Estori Farhi, Rabbi Joseph Schwarz (1804-65) was a Bavarian-born Talmudist who settled in Jerusalem in 1833 and immersed himself in the history, natural history, geology and geography of Eretz Israel. His notable works include Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine (1850), from which the London-based Jewish Chronicle (3 October 1851), took the following extract:

‘Some years before Mahmud Ali [ruled 1805-48] had assumed the government, and the Arabs had the ability and power to tyrannize over the Jews, a very rich Jew of Constantinople emigrated hither [Jerusalem]. The Mahomedans ardently desired to find some pretext against this rich man, in order to extort money from him, according to their fashion.

One day a Mahomedan, accompanied by a Bedouin, leading two camels loaded with charcoal, entered the courtyard of the Jew, and said that, as no doubt he was in want of coal, he would spare him the trouble to go to market for it, and brought therefore to his house two heavily loaded camels with this necessary article. But the Jew, fearing some evil, made some excuses – was very grateful for the kindness of the other, yet averred that he could not make any use of it, as he was well supplied already.

But all subterfuges were in vain, and the Mahomedan forced him fairly to take the coal; and when the other asked after the price, he answered, “Never mind, give what you think the article is worth.

"Yet, as thou camest but lately in our holy city, it is no more than becoming that thou shouldst invite us, as faithful fellow citizens, into thy house, and entertain us with pipes and coffee, until the camels be unloaded by the servants.”
“Let it be so,” answered the rich man; and, opening the door of his saloon, he told them to enter. Coffee and pipes were brought in; they drank and smoked, spoke of indifferent things, when suddenly the Bedouin sunk down as dead, and gave no signs of animation.

The Mahomedan jumped up from his seat in a great rage, and addressed the Jew with a loud voice—“Murderer! What hast thou done? Thy coffee is poisoned! Shall we tolerate the Jews among us, that they may lay plots against our lives? This murder shall be washed out by the blood of all the Jews.”

The other protested his innocence, trembling, with tears in his eyes, saying, “Have I not drunk myself of this coffee? How, then, can it be poisoned?”

“Then must the Bedouin’s cup have contained poison,” was the furious reply of the other.

The Jew adduced all sorts of proofs of his entire innocence.

At length the Mahomedan was moved, and said, “My friend, I indeed pity thee and all the Jews of the city; but I can think of only one remedy by which thou and thy people can be saved. Have thy courtyard immediately locked up, so that no one from without will be able to enter. I will employ all possible means to suppress this affair and keep it a profound secret; and this evening I will send thee two confidential persons, who shall fetch away the corpse and bury it in all secrecy; and in this way thou and thy brothers will be saved. But to effect this a large sum of money is necessary, which I am sure thou wilt readily and willingly furnish on the spot.”

The trembling Jew esteemed himself happy that the matter could be settled with money, and gave immediately the sum which the Mahomedan had demanded, large as it was, with great willingness and with the utmost unconcern. The other went away, and the corpse was left lying in the saloon.

After sunset two Bedouins arrived with a large sack, in which they thrust the corpse, took it on their shoulders in profound silence, and walked away greatly terrified.
But scarcely were they a few steps distant from the house of the rich man, when the dead Arab jumped out of the sack; and the Jew now learned for the first time that the whole affair was a gross deception, contrived merely to extort from him the large sum he paid for his ransom.’

Oy!

This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 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.

12/29 Links Pt1: Israeli Aid Workers Abused at UN Refugee Camp (removed); Only Palestinians are 'martyrs'

From Ian:

Israeli Aid Workers Abused at UN Refugee Camp

This article was apparently very poorly researched and Israel Today removed it.

Only Palestinians are 'martyrs'

I will open with greetings for the State of Israel and the Jewish people, whom I view as true friends. As a writer and journalist from Kuwait, who is following the current wave of Palestinian knife and rock terrorism and Palestinian crimes against IDF soldiers and innocent Israelis, I can only express my support for every civilian and military action the free and independent State of Israel takes for the legitimate defense of the lives of its citizens and its land.
I am baffled by the international community's silence in the face of the crimes committed by Palestinian terrorists against the Israeli people. I am equally baffled by the international community's outcry against Israel's legal right to defend itself and its soldiers and against Israel's legitimate right to live and stand strong.
The Arab media has become afflicted with stupidity and delusion and has lost its ability make true distinctions. The words "wisdom" and "reason" are no longer part of its lexicon. It has become debased and mentally challenged. It considers the victims of battles in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. "casualties," whereas the Palestinian terrorists killed in the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank are dubbed "shahids" (martyrs). This same media, which is biased in favor of a group of people called "Palestinians," neglects every human, Arab, or Muslim issue and associates shahada (a martyr's death in the name of belief) with them only.

Israel likens Palestinian incitement to Nazi propaganda

The Foreign Ministry on Monday released a video on social media equating anti-Israel incitement in Palestinian media with Nazi-era imagery and propaganda.
The 49-second clip, which is titled "Nazi Propaganda returns in Palestinian incitement," shows anti-Semitic cartoons that were used in Europe to foment anti-Jewish animus.
The video then cuts to a number of anti-Israel cartoons that use similar themes and which appear regularly in Palestinian and Arab media and textbooks.
Israel has accused the Palestinian Authority of inciting the masses to commit acts of violence, including stabbings and car rammings, against Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Nazi Propaganda returns in Palestinian incitement

Palestine Press Agency has an investigative report that says that Hamas has doled out some 10 million square meters of public land in Gaza since it seized control of the sector - and it has been handing out that land to its cronies.

This is all in violation of a 2006 PA law to stop exactly that sort of practice.

Some of the land has been given out to top Hamas members in lieu of salaries. Much of the land was taken from the former Jewish settlement of Netzarim.

Besides that, Hamas has been allocating land to other organizations. According to the report, 100,000 square meters were allocated to a tourism project, 81,200 square meters for the benefit of the Turkish Red Crescent, and 102,100 for a UAE charity.

3,868,930 square meters were given to the Al Qassam Brigades terror group. Prime beachfront property was given to a Hamas-affiliated Islamic Society to develop as a for-profit resort. Land that was earmarked for a public park in Bisan City in 2009 turned into a for-profit amusement park.

And 115,645 square meters of land were given to another favored Hamas designee - UNRWA. This indicates that UNRWA and Hamas are working together a bit more closely than UN rules would permit.

Today's list of lies by Saeb Erekat

Haaretz reported on Sunday:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed Sunday that despite the arson-murder of a Palestinian family and recent reports of growing Jewish extremism, there was no room for comparison between Jewish acts of terrorism and Arab acts of terror.

"There is a difference between Arab terror and Jewish terror," Netanyahu said at the beginning of the government's weekly meeting. "Here we condemn and they [the Palestinians] praise," the prime minister said.

Netanyahu noted that unlike Jewish terror, which is limited in scope, Arab terror "attacks us incessantly and is wide-spread." According to Netanyahu, while in Israel both the government and informal leaders condemn Jewish terror, in the Palestinian Authority they name squares and streets after terrorists.

"There is a difference between Israeli society's healthy attitude, which condemns terror and works against it, and the Palestinian Authority's, which encourages terror and incites," Netanyahu said. "I suggest we remember these distinctions at a time when we are fighting terror and inciters, wherever they may be."

The PLO's top negotiator Saeb Erekat responded to this with yet another torrent of lies:

Mr. Netanyahu is claiming that the killing of any human being by a Jew is not comparable to the killing of a Jew by a non-Jew.

He said no such thing. In fact, he specifically referred to Jewish terror, and you will never hear Erekat or Abbas refer to "Palestinian terror" no matter how heinous the attack. (Today's Al Quds says explicitly that there is no such things as Palestinian terror, only Jewish terror.)

Mr. Netanyahu’s referral to “Palestinian incitement” as an excuse for Israeli terrorism is a further attempt at erasing his political and legal responsibility as the head of a belligerent occupier that violates the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people on daily basis, including its very right to be free.

Netanyahu said no such thing.

The State of Israel honors the memory of terrorists who were responsible for the assassination of thousands of Christians, Muslims and Jews, including those who assassinated the UN Mediator Count Bernardotte in 1948...

I am unaware of any shrine to the memory of Yehoshua Cohen, who killed Bernadotte.

A prominent case is that of the terrorist Baruch Goldstein who killed 29 Palestinians at the Ibrahim Mosque in Hebron, and who has a shrine at the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement, across a park named after Meir Kahane, another Israeli terrorist.

The Israeli government bulldozed the shrine in 1999 after Israel's Supreme Court prohibited shrines to terrorists ; now there is only a gravestone in a park because Goldstein was not allowed to be buried in a Jewish cemetery based on another legal ruling. The state never honored Goldstein.

As far as I can tell, Saeb Erekat has a perfect record of lying in every public statement he makes. As I wrote last year, this is his strategy:

He literally lives his life by the saying "if you don’t stop a man who is lying after 24 hours, the lies turn into facts."

No one has the guts to tell him that he is a liar to his face and list all his lies, chapter and verse. And it is a very long list.

Erekat knows that once he puts his lies out there, no one will counter him - after all, he is a "moderate" and a "peacemaker," and reporters aren't conditioned to believe that a soft-spoken man in a suit who is considered a "moderate" will lie right to their faces.

There is literally no negative repercussion to Erekat's constant lies. So...why shouldn't he continue them?

EU said to re-affirm "respect for sacred sites" in Jerusalem

From Kuwait's KUNA news agency:

JEDDAH, Dec 28 (KUNA) -- Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, reaffirmed the EU respect for the sacred sites in the occupied holy city of Jerusalem.

In reply message to Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Iyad Madani, she said the EU attaches great importance to, and maintains full respect for, the status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem, according to a press release by the OIC on Monday.

The EU believes that any attempt to change the status quo of the religious sanctities will have serious and profound impacts on stability in the Middle East, the statement said, citing readout of the message.

The EU believes that firm commitment by all parties to the provisions of the international humanitarian law and the relevant international laws, including the accountability for any violations, forms a cornerstone for stability and peace in the region, Mogherini said.

She renewed the EU support to the efforts aiming to reach a fair and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the two-state vision for establishing an independent, sovereign, democratic and viable state of Palestine with territorial continuity.

Mogherini's message was in response to a recent message from Madani calling for international stance against the repeated Israeli violations of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Muslims' third holiest site.

The OIC chief sent similar messages to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the foreign ministers of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

The actual text of the letter was not released by the OIC.

Here's what respect for a sacred site looks like, according to the OIC:

And here is what they say desecration looks like:

The first set of photos has never elicited any condemnation from the Western world. The second set is considered a problem that must be solved.

12/28 Link Pt2: BBC - The 2015 Dishonest Reporter of the Year; Saudi Grand Mufti: Destroy all churches

From Ian:

Honest Reporting: The 2015 Dishonest Reporter of the Year: Why the BBC Won

The BBC’s entire future is up for debate thanks to a UK government review of its charter, which is up for renewal at the end of 2016. It would be an exaggeration to claim that the BBC’s biased coverage of Israel will play a prominent role in any rethinking or restructuring of the BBC’s gargantuan news operations.
Nonetheless, the BBC’s treatment of Israel is part of a wider institutional problem afflicting the news department, which is widely perceived to be biased when it comes to any number of issues that don’t conform to a liberal or left-wing perspective that dominates the BBC’s thinking.
At least the BBC can bask in the glory of the Dishonest Reporter Award thanks to a stellar year of anti-Israel bias even by the BBC’s own high standards.

Haters Caught Manipulating Video to Cast IDF as Child Abusers

Of course CJ Werleman, as he calls himself, is au currant and therefore rabidly anti-Israel. He is also an outed plagiarizer and so somewhat of an embarrassment to the radical left who otherwise tended to view his anti-religious mantle as a halo.
But never mind all that, Werleman still has those tens of thousands of Twitter followers who enjoy retweeting his witticisms, whether or not there is substance or truth to his bon mots.
And so when, on Dec. 26, Werleman tweeted a video clip of soldiers beating up on some young boys and labeled those soldiers evil Israelis, hundreds of Werlebots blithely retweeted the calumny.
But some bright folks looked at the video and saw that something did not look right.
In fact, those aren’t members of the Israeli Defense Forces beating up on the young kids in the video at all. The video, which appears to have been intentionally stripped of its banner identifying the source, is actually a video of Guatemalan army soldiers beating up young boys.
One of Werleman’s Twitter followers and apparently a big admirer of Werleman’s is Max Blumenthal, overgrown enfant terrible son of former Clinton White House hanger-on and Hillary’s unofficial and inappropriate “adviser,” Sidney Blumenthal. Blumenthal the son encouraged other like-minded always-ready-to-put-a-hate-on-for-Israel followers to retweet the video falsely accusing Israel of the Guatemalan strong-arm (and leg) police tactics.
Blumenthal simply removed the tweet from his Twitter feed and later merely chided Werleman for not hitting Israel hard enough. (h/t Vandoren)

For many, salvation is not of the Jews but of the Palestinians

For Christians, Muslims, atheists and even Jews, Palestinianism offers a new kind of replacement theology in which Palestine is the True Israel and Israelis are cast out of the family of nations because of their stubborn loyalty to the land.
Replacement theology or supersessionism is the teaching that the Christian Church has replaced Israel regarding the plan, purpose and promises of God. It has been a core tenet of Christianity for much of its existence and holds that the Church replaced the Israelites as the Chosen People and that the New Covenant replaced the Mosaic Covenant.
From very early on, the Church Fathers taught that the Mosaic Covenant had been fulfilled and replaced by Christ. Tertullian, for example, taught that the “old law” and “carnal circumcision” had been “obliterated” by the “new law.” One of the implications of this theological standpoint was that the Jews were seen as an accursed people stubbornly clinging to an outmoded set of rituals that served no divine purpose.
Just by continuing to exist, the Jews were recalcitrant sinners. Worse, their refusal to embrace Christ was an obstacle to God’s salvational plan for the world.

Australian church retracts claim Jesus was a Palestinian

Jesus was not Palestinian, a major church denomination in Australia said after the Executive Council of Australian Jewry challenged an article in a political publication in which the birthplace of Jesus Christ was named as Palestine.
The article was written by two Palestinian members of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, which has links with the Uniting Church of Australia, and appeared in the online publication New Matilda.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network has a relationship with the Uniting Church of Australia, the country’s third-largest Christian denomination, through the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network.
In the article, Samah Sabawi and Bassam Dally wrote: “An official delegation representing our country in Israel has added fuel to the flames of extremism abroad by applauding proven human rights violators and insulting the living descendants of Christ in his home of birth in Palestine.”
In his letter to the president of the Uniting Church of Australia Stuart McMillan, the executive director of the ECAJ, Peter Wertheim, wrote: “The proposition that Jesus was a Palestinian and that the Palestinian Arab population of today are his ‘living descendants’ is so absurd and offensive that it deserves an immediate and substantive rebuttal.“

High correlation between Muslim religiosity and hating Jews

An ISGAP meta-survey of antisemitic attitudes in Europe showed a very consistent finding. It's conclusion:

The review of surveys from different European countries demonstrates that the level of antisemitic attitudes is significantly higher among Muslims than among non-Muslims, although many European Muslims do not share antisemitic beliefs. The level of antisemitism rises with the level of religiosity and with fundamentalist interpretations of Islam.

Notably, demographic and socio-economic variables—that is, educational level, age, gender, social disadvantage, discrimination, and legal restrictions of Islamic practice—cannot explain the differences between Muslims and non-Muslims. This refutes the widespread assumption that Muslim antisemitism is a reaction to discrimination or suppression.

The surveys considered are strong evidence that current interpretations of Muslim identity and belief are major sources for hatred against Jews. Further research should identify which particular interpretations of Muslim identity and Islam are prone to antisemitic beliefs and, perhaps more importantly, which are not. A distinction between Islamism and Islam is surely important, but might be insufficient: although antisemitism is particularly strong among fundamentalist as well as believing and practicing Muslims, the level of antisemitism among less religious Muslims is still higher than in the general population.

Differences related to country of origin indicate the influence of the latter on views of Jews.

So when religious Muslims claim that they have nothing against Jews, only Zionists; or when they say that their hate is the result of oppression - they are lying.

(h/t Ron)

Work accident!

Hamas' Qassam Brigades announced that field commander Abdul Rahman Saleh, 29, of Khan Younis, was killed today after the collapse of a "resistance tunnel."

Here he is in happier times:

"Resistance tunnels" usually mean either tunnels under Gaza cities where weapons and explosives are hidden or tunnels being built towards Israel for kidnap operations. There are still a few tunnels that are used to smuggle weapons from Egypt, though, despite the crackdown by Egyptian authorities.

(h/t israelftw)

12/28 Link Pt1: PM Netanyahu: Israel Condemns Terror, Palestinian Authority Praises It

From Ian:

PM Netanyahu: Israel Condemns Terror, Palestinian Authority Praises It

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the opening of Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting to again condemn acts of Jewish terrorism, but stressed that just as the scope of Jewish terrorism can in no way be compared to the much greater Palestinian terrorism, so too the reaction of Israeli society is completely different than that of the Palestinian Authority.
Netanyahu noted that in Israel there was widespread condemnation of the phenomenon of Jewish terrorism by the government, various institutions and leaders. “Here we condemn it, there they [the PA] praise it [terrorism],” he said.
“In the PA they name squares and streets after them [terrorists], and pay them salaries,” he said. “There is a huge difference between the healthy approach of Israeli society and Israeli democracy that rejects terrorism, condemns it and acts against it, and the PA which, I regret, encourages it and incites toward it.”
The prime minister said that he brought the video of Jewish extremists dancing at a wedding in Jerusalem with guns and knives, while glorifying the murder of the Dawabsha family, to a recent cabinet meeting to make clear that the group in the video was both extreme and on the fringes.
Those in the video “certainly do not represent religious Zionism,” he said. Attempts to identify religions Zionism with that phenomenon, he added, “do a very great injustice to a large public that is loyal to the state, contributes to the state, to the IDF and the most elite units in the IDF.”

JCPA: The Palestinian Authority Will Find No Friend in ISIS

The threats against Israel by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi constitute a change in this terror organization’s line. So far it has avoided such proclamations, and its official organs make almost no mention of the Palestine problem. On the contrary, when Hamas called on ISIS for help during Operation Protective Edge, the group officially rebuffed Hamas’s cry of distress and said the war against Assad was more important.
As for the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, they have not been referring to ISIS at all. The PLO wants to establish a Palestinian state, and that goal totally contravenes ISIS’s ambition to destroy the existing states and create a sharia-based caliphate in their stead.
Furthermore, at the height of the “Al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger” campaign, ISIS circulated leaflets in Jerusalem that completely ignored the “danger” to Al-Aqsa, instead concentrating on anti-Christian incitement. In later announcements it attacked the Christians, and Christians now celebrating in Bethlehem this season are being subjected to pressures not only by ISIS but also, for reasons that are not clear, by different PLO groups.

Douglas Murray: Dumb Idea of the Year Award

It is that Dumb Idea of the Year Award time again, and among the many stellar contenders, one in particular stands out.
The diplomatic convention in Great Britain is that new ambassadors present themselves at the Court of St James. There they meet representatives of the monarch and are officially recognized as representing their state in the UK. So it would be interesting to consider even just the earliest ramifications of the British Independent newspaper contributor Vadim Nikitim getting his way. This is the genius who last week bypassed all those tedious arguments over whether or not ISIS constitutes a state, and proposed not only that we treat it as such but that it is also time to grant ISIS diplomatic recognition.
Mr. Nikitim's argument was that pariah states can be brought in to the international system through such measures, as U.S. President Barack Obama presumably imagines he is doing with Iran. Nikitim invites us to consider the precedent of the USSR. And rather than realizing that the USSR collapsed because its economic system caused it to collapse, Nikitim seems to think that the Soviet Union fell apart because countries such as the US and UK recognized it diplomatically -- demonstrating that there is no better way to get the present wrong than by getting the past wrong.

Jordan considering laws to make it harder for Jews to buy land

Jordan already has laws that make it effectively impossible for non-Arabs to purchase land:

The Law on Economic Boycott and Banning Dealing with the Enemy (Article 6) states that "it is impermissible for foreign persons or corporate entities that do not hold an Arab nationality to purchase, lease, or own directly or indirectly any immovable property in the kingdom." The only exceptions require high level political authorization.

But Jordan is still nervous that Jews might want to buy land in their country, especially in Petra which they are frightened will be taken over by Jews.

Local Petra officials have been strengthening their laws against selling land specifically to stop any chance of selling land to Jews - not just Israeli Jews but any Jews. This follows national laws that were meant to loosen restrictions on foreign investment.

However, other Jordanians believe that this is not enough to counter the danger of Jews buying land. Although the buyers must reveal their nationality, they fear that Jews could go through middle-men and purchase the land that way. As a result, this columnist would prefer that there be no foreign investment in Jordanian real estate rather than allow the slightest chance that Jews could purchase land:

Israelis under these amendments can now buy land, through Jews holding foreign nationality, and the requirement that the buyer reveals any other nationality is unrealistic, because no one is able to make sure the buyer doesn't hold any other nationalities...fWhat can be said here is that the House of Representatives has a duty to answer these amendments and prevent the sale of land in Petra for non-Jordanians, because all the other guarantees of bans of sales to Israeli Jews are not convincing, and we know that there are Arab and international front-men who will come to buy the land, but no one knows who he really represents. ...We are talking frankly that the amendments (allowing foreign investment) make us uncomfortable, even if they are meant to stimulate investment.

The fear of selling land to Jews is quite explicit in these articles.

CAMERA has a nice backgrounder on both Israeli and Jordanian laws for allowing foreign purchase of real estate.