Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, October 29, 2016

10/29 Links: Papyrus Speaks Louder Than UNESCO; China, Israel, and a return to the cloverleaf world

From Ian:

Muslim Imperialism Reaches the United Nations

UNESCO has joined forces with Islamic State. The fundamentalists now have a new weapon: resolutions passed by servile international bodies.
An earlier delay and the opposition of UNESCO's chief, Irina Bokova, had raised hopes that this act of jihadist, barbaric, unjust, and, frankly, arrogant supremacism might be voted down. It was not. Now a new lie was given the sanction of the world's largest and most unaccountable body whose reason for being is to preserve significant sites, not to bowdlerize them.
Lies by UNESCO to rewrite history, erasing all traces of Judaism and Christianity to favour a jihadist Islamic fancy, were already under way in 2015. UNESCO fraudulently renamed two ancient Biblical Jewish sites, Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, as Islamic sites. Historically, Islam did not even exist until the seventh century.
This is the history of Islam, how it takes over -- with both hard jihad (violence) and soft jihad (usurping history, migration [hijrah], political and cultural infiltration), and intimidation (soft jihad with the threat of hard jihad underneath it). What is even more saddening is that often, as with this vote, it is done with the West's cooperation and voluntary submission.
Before the United Nations, with its authoritarian, anti-democratic voting blocs, finishes eradicating Western, Judeo-Christian civilization, as it is clearly trying to do, it is high time for Western democracies to run, not walk, away, before further harm comes to them too, as it surely promises to do.

Papyrus Speaks Louder Than UNESCO

This week the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization—UNESCO—voted yet again to validate Palestinians claims that deny Jewish ties to the holiest places in Judaism. But an unexpected announcement that some of Israel’s critics consider suspiciously fortuitous made clear the ignorant and vicious nature of the Palestinian campaign. On the day of the latest UNESCO vote, the Israel Antiquities Authority unveiled the discovery of an ancient papyrus fragment that has been scientifically dated to the 7th century B.C.E. that mentions Jerusalem in Hebrew. The artifact, which predates the birth of Islam by 1,400 years, is the most effective response imaginable to a UNESCO stand that treats the Temple Mount and the Western Wall as exclusively Muslim shrines.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu made a point of triumphantly mentioning the archeological find this week in his denunciation of the UNESCO vote. But while the timing of the two events ought to be particularly embarrassing for the Palestinians and their European and Third World enablers, it’s not likely that this will cause any of those nations that have stuck to their absurd position to change their votes.
After all, does anyone at the United Nations really doubt that Jerusalem was the capital of a Jewish nation many centuries before the Muslim conquest of the country? Or that Hebrew was the language of the ancient Jewish kingdoms? Do even many Palestinians think the site of the Temple Mount mosques isn’t where the Jews built both of their ancient shrines or that the Western Wall is not the last remnant of that structure? Not likely.
Nor is the point of the Palestinian push at the UN an effort to protect the status quo on the Temple Mount whereby the ancient site is administered solely by a Muslim religious authority (which has carried out construction projects that trashed ancient artifacts), and Jews are forbidden to pray there. Accusations by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas that the Israelis intend to harm the mosques is a brazen lie intended to stir up hatred and violence against Jews. The point of this agitation is that denial of Jewish history is required to justify a Palestinian political culture that continues to see the war on Zionism as intrinsic to their national identity.

British Jewish Leaders Outraged by London University Anti-Israel Protest Which Required Police Intervention

Leaders of Britain’s Jewish community expressed outrage on Friday after a lecture on Thursday night by a former IDF soldier at a London university was stormed by protesters, resulting in the arrival of the police.
Marie van der Zyl, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said in a statement, “We deplore the aggressive and intimidating protests which disrupted a student event in UCL (University College London)…It is disgraceful that in a society which values free speech, students at a top UK university cannot host an open event without being harassed.”
Van Der Zyl also referred to the anti-Israel protesters — who trapped students and visitors inside a lecture hall during the talk by Israeli peace activist Hen Mazzig — as a “hate-filled mob supporting the worst kind of extremism in the Middle East,” who “serve only to bully and threaten.”
The Board said it will be taking its concerns to the government and called on UCL “to initiate a strong disciplinary process against the perpetrators.”
That message was echoed by the Israeli Embassy in London, writing in a statement posted on Twitter: “We are concerned by the shameful violence recorded at last night’s event at UCL aimed at preventing an Israeli speaker from engaging students. We are confident the university will be investigating those responsible.”

Anti-Israel extremists on British university campuses

Last night police were called to rescue Jewish students from anti-Israel thugs at University College London, at the same time SOAS PalSoc had invited notorious Hamas apologist, Tareq Radi, to speak at the campus.
Universities must do more to keep extremists off British campuses.

10/28 Links Pt2: BDS thugs attack Israeli speaker at University College London

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: The New Anti-Racist Racists

There is a trait campaigning groups have that is well known. Once they have achieved their objective, they continue. Usually it is because there are people with salaries at stake, pensions, perks and more.
Suddenly the SPLC seemed to spy a new fascism. The SPLC saw this new fascism in people who objected to people flying planes into skyscrapers, decapitating journalists and aid workers and blowing up the finish line of marathons.
One got the impression that it had become immensely useful for some people to be able to smear those concerned about Islamic fundamentalism, and try to make them akin to Nazis. The only other movements who find this equally useful are, of course, Islamic extremists.
Here is this "anti-racist" organisation, largely made up of white men who present themselves as being anti-racists, and yet who spend their time attacking Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a black immigrant woman. At the top of any list of "hate-groups," the SPLC must in future be sure to place itself.
The SPLC's list of "anti-Muslim activists" also includes a practising Muslim, Maajid Nawaz, one of the most principled and courageous people around calling out the extremists in his faith for their bigotry and hatred. He does so, like Hirsi Ali, at no small risk to himself.

Maajid Nawaz an “Anti-Muslim Extremist” according to Southern Poverty Law Center

Long term readers of this blog may recall Mohammed Shafiq tried to accuse Maajid Nawaz of criminalising the veil. At the time I called this a dangerous game of accusing people, that may be more liberal than yourself, of things which fundamentalists are prepared to kill you for.
“Nawaz tweeted out a cartoon of Jesus and Muhammad — despite the fact that many Muslims see it as blasphemous to draw Muhammad.”
Being “blasphemous” makes you an extremist it seems. The Southern Poverty Law Centre is devoid of context that Maajid Nawaz said he did not find a cartoon picture of Mohammed and Jesus saying hello together to be blasphemous or a challenge to his faith. Two students at a London School of Economics student freshers fayre were ejected for wearing them to advertise their Atheist Humanist Secular society, and this was discussed on a BBC show. Hence Maajid Nawaz tweet.
A reminder that this lead to death threats for Maajid Nawaz. No mention of that by the SPLC.

Pro-Palestinian protesters trap attendees of Israel event in London university hall

Police officers were called on Thursday to an on-campus Israel event at University College London after pro-Palestinian demonstrators were seen trapping attendees in the room where the talk was being held and preventing others from going in.
Israel advocate Hen Mazzig was to speak at the event hosted by the Friends of Israel at UCL in London and CAMERA on Campus, but the protests led by the Friends of Palestine Society began just as he began talking.
In a series of videos from the event, the protesters can be seen banging on the windows and the door to the hall, shouting “Free, free Palestine,” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Outside the room, one attendee confronts a group of protesters who refuse to let him and others into the room to hear the speech.
Mazzig, a former StandWithUs education director who is being sponsored on his campus visits by CAMERA, tries to get through his lecture but the tension is palpable, as is clear in the footage.

Anti-Israel Protesters Assault Jewish Students at UCL

Please answer this question, Roger Cohen

Roger Cohen writes in the New York Times about how awful Israel is for its policy of "occupation":

There is agreement on very little in the fractious Holy Land, but on one issue there is near unanimity these days: A two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more distant than ever, so unimaginable that it appears little more than an illusion sustained by lazy thinking, interest in the status quo or plain exhaustion.

From Tel Aviv to Ramallah in the West Bank, from the largely Arab city of Nazareth to Jerusalem, I found virtually nobody on either side prepared to offer anything but a negative assessment of the two-state idea. Diagnoses ranged from moribund to clinically dead. Next year it will be a half-century since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank began. More than 370,000 settlers now live there, excluding in East Jerusalem. The incorporation of all the biblical Land of Israel has advanced too far, for too long, to be reversed now.

Greater Israel is what Israelis know; the smaller Israel west of the Green Line that emerged from the 1947-49 war of independence is a fading memory. The right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with its contempt for Palestinians and dissenting voices in general, prefers things that way, as the steady expansion of settlements demonstrates.

Cohen - and every liberal columnist in the world, plus the leaders of the EU and the US - are so sure that Israel's steady expansion of settlements is the major problem in the region that they should be able to answer a simple question:

How much new land has been taken from Palestinians since the Clinton parameters in Taba in 2000?

You can answer in dunams or acres.

Everyone is so sure that Israel is expanding the settlements beyond the point of no return, but nobody is putting out any numbers in terms of land that has been given to Jewish Israelis.

Because it is minuscule.

The amount of land taken up by the settlements was less than 2% in 1993 and it remains less than 2% today, as of the latest information I can find. There are essentially no new facts on the ground that make a two-state solution any more difficult today than it was in 2000.

Now, I can tell you what has changed since the 2000 peace plan was rejected by Palestinians.

Palestinians started a terror war that killed thousands, using suicide bombing, shootings and other means. They raised a generation of children to hate Israel, teaching them that eventually and inevitably Israel will disappear. They encouraged knife attacks against Jewish grandmothers. Israel withdrew from Gaza and was rewarded with a terror statelet that shot thousands and thousands of rockets and mortars to civilian areas in Israel itself.

All of those facts tend to make Israelis a little less enthusiastic about peace. But that doesn't mean they don't desperately want it.

If the Palestinians would accept the Clinton plan today, along with true peace between the two states, the supposedly right-wing Israeli public would overwhelmingly support it.

Roger Cohen knows this. But he prefers to blame Israel for the bullheadedness of the Palestinian leadership.

Why are these facts so hard to understand?

Because of "good Jews" like Roger Cohen and Peace Now and J-Street and Tom Friedman, who give cover for Palestinian crimes and intransigence by always primarily blaming Israel and Likud for the lack of peace.

Open your eyes, Roger.

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From Palestinian Media Watch:

The Palestinian Authority often assures its people that among its top priorities is the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel - most of whom are convicted for terrorist crimes including murder.

Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat recently reiterated this, terming actions of terrorist prisoners as "acts of heroism", and stating that Palestinians "bow [their] heads in admiration and honor of the prisoners' sacrifices, for their acts of heroism":

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 19, 2016]

"Our brave prisoners, who gave and sacrificed their freedom for Palestine and its freedom, are worthy of aid, support, and constant activity by us in order to release them and put an end to their suffering. The prisoners' cause is a national and central cause, and we bow our heads in admiration and honor of the prisoners' sacrifices, for their acts of heroism, and for their ongoing battle with the occupation."

Too bad CNN won't bother asking him about this the next time they let him spew his lies on international TV.

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10/28 Links Pt1: Phillips: Palestinians step up the jihad of the lie; Glick: Checkmating Obama

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Palestinians step up the jihad of the lie

The claim that Britain gave a Palestinian country to the Jews is a lie.
On July 24 1922, the League of Nations unanimously gave its recognition to “the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.” As a result, it gave Britain a mandate to settle the Jews there as of right.
In 1917 the Arabs living in Palestine did not identify themselves as Palestinians. They were either nomadic or identified with Arab countries, such as Syria. When people referred to Palestinians in the first half of the last century, they meant the Jews.
The Jews are the only people for whom the land of Israel was ever their national kingdom. It is the Arabs who are bent upon a colonialist crime, seeking to steal the Jews’ land from them once again.
As ever, though, Israel’s government, with its swaggering, macho refusal to deal strategically and forensically with the cognitive war being waged against it, has responded merely with sarcasm and outrage.
Israel needs instead to educate the world in quite how unhinged these lies are.
For many in the West themselves don’t know the true facts and so don’t understand that the Palestinians are motivated by a madness.
These lies prove unequivocally that the real agenda of even so-called “moderate Palestinians” is to eradicate Israel. Their hostility to the Jewish homeland is so pathological they perpetrate the most ludicrous falsehoods to write the Jews out of their own history.
The Palestinians think their big historical lie will finish Israel off. In fact it could rebound on them badly and finish off their own cause – but only if Israel recognizes the opportunity it should now seize.

Caroline Glick: Checkmating Obama

In one of the immortal lines of Godfather 2, mafia boss Michael Corleone discusses the fate of his brother, who betrayed him, with his enforcer.
“I don’t want anything to happen to him while my mother is alive,” Corleone said.
Message received.
The brother was murdered after their mother’s funeral.
Last week it was reported that the Obama administration has delivered a message to the Palestinian Authority. The administration has warned the PA that the US will veto any anti-Israel resolution brought before the UN Security Council before the US presidential elections on November 8.
Message received.
Open season on Israel at the Security Council will commence November 9. The Palestinians are planning appropriately.
Israel needs to plan, too. Israel’s most urgent diplomatic mission today is to develop and implement a strategy that will outflank President Barack Obama in his final eight weeks in power.
Lobbying the administration is pointless. Obama has waited eight years to exact his revenge on Israel for not supporting his hostile, strategically irrational policies. And he has no interest in letting bygones be bygones.
Before turning to what Israel must do, first we need to understand what Israel can do.
A good place to begin is by considering what just transpired at UNESCO, where twice in a week, UNESCO bodies resolved to erase 3,000 years of Jewish history in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
The fight that Israel waged at UNESCO is not the fight it needs to wage at the Security Council. The stakes at the Security Council are far higher.

Charles Krauthammer: Is Obama preparing a parting shot at Israel?

There is a reason such a move has been resisted by eight previous U.S. administrations: It overthrows the central premise of Middle East peacemaking — land for peace. Under which the Palestinians get their state after negotiations in which the parties agree on recognized boundaries, exchange mutual recognition and declare a permanent end to the conflict.
Land for peace would be replaced by land for nothing. Endorsing in advance a Palestinian state and what would essentially be a full Israeli withdrawal removes the Palestinian incentive to negotiate and strips Israel of territorial bargaining chips of the kind it used, for example, to achieve peace with Egypt.
The result would be not just perpetual war but incalculable damage to Israel. And irreversible, too, because the resolution would be protected from alteration by the Russian and/or Chinese veto.
As for the damage, consider but one example: the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, destroyed and ethnically cleansed of Jews by its Arab conquerors in the war of 1948-1949. It was rebuilt by Israel after 1967. It would now be open to the absurd judicial charge that the Jewish state’s possession of the Jewish Quarter constitutes a criminal occupation of another country.
Israel would be hauled endlessly into courts (both national and international) to face sanctions, boycotts (now under color of law) and arrest of its leaders. All this for violating a U.N. mandate to which no Israeli government, left or right, could possibly accede.
Before the election, Obama dare not attempt this final legacy item, to go along with the Iran deal and the Castro conciliation, for fear of damaging Clinton. His last opportunity comes after Election Day. The one person who might deter him, points out Hannah, is Clinton herself, by committing Obama to do nothing before he leaves office that would tie her hands should she become president.
Clinton’s supporters who care about Israel and about peace need to urge her to do that now. It will soon be too late. Soon Obama will be free to deliver a devastating parting shot to Israel and to the prime minister he detests.

The New York Times reports:

The leaders of the two main Palestinian factions met on Thursday in the latest attempt to reconcile after a nine-year schism that has divided their people and complicated efforts to negotiate peace with Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, run by the Fatah faction, met in Qatar with Khaled Meshal, the political chief of Hamas, and Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza. A photograph of the three men smiling was posted online.

The meeting was the first between Mr. Abbas and Mr. Meshal in two years. Fatah operates primarily in the West Bank under Israeli occupation while Hamas controls Gaza, which is partly cordoned off from the outside world by Israel. Repeated efforts to bridge the divide between the factions have collapsed.

The rival leaders agreed that it was time to repair the rift, establish a national unity government and prepare for elections, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. But it was not clear whether the meeting would lead to an actual agreement, or that such an agreement, even if reached, would prove any more enduring than at least five others sealed over the years.

In other words, nothing happened and nothing is going to happen. We've seen this movie before. Hamas isn't interested in giving up Gaza even though it solemnly promised not to turn Gaza into an independent state.

The official Wafa news agency of the PA didn't even bother reporting this on its English site.

Abbas is acting the way he does with Israel. He has no interest in any agreement, but when there is enough pressure on him to make one (in this case, from other Arab nations and his own people) he will do a photo-op to take the pressure off.

Yet even though his intransigence is consistent across the board, he is still regarded as a moderate and everyone he talks to is an extremist, judging from Western media accounts.

The Arab world knows better that the starry eyed US and European and Israeli leftist "experts" who insist that he is a swell guy even as he arrests any West Bank Arab who dares disagree with him.

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EoZTV: Interview of scholar Manfred Gerstenfeld, part 1

In July, I interviewed antisemitism expert and prolific author Manfred Gerstenfeld in his Jerusalem home.

Here is part 1 of the interview where he gives an overview of the three main stages of antisemitism over the past 2000 years.

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Official "moderate" Fatah logo, complete with weapons, hand grenade and map of all of Israel

Fatah is planning to hold its Seventh Congress sometime next month.

These rare meetings are very important because Fatah is what dominates the PLO, which the Palestinian Authority answers to. So who controls Fatah controls the Palestinians.

During the Sixth Congress in 2009, Mahmoud Abbas violated all rules of transparency to hold onto power and marginalize any Fatah groups - like the Mahmoud Dahlan faction, the Marwan Barghouti followers, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - that disagreed with him. There was corruption in the voting process to ensure that Abbas loyalists would win.

Moreover, the final platform released by the "moderate" Abbas-dominated party still supports terror. and the destruction of Israel ("liberation of the homeland.")

The Seventh Congress already has been pushed back more than a year. Even so, Abbas is moving to consolidate his hold on the movement.

From Ma'an:

The Palestinian Authority's (PA) preventive security service arrested former spokesperson for the Jerusalem office of the Fatah movement on Tuesday night, shortly after he gave a televised interview commenting on his removal from office days earlier.
Raafat Elayyan was arrested in his home in the village of Anata in the Jerusalem district of the occupied West Bank.
He was the second Fatah official to be removed from office over participation in a meeting attended by hundreds of local Fatah leaders on Saturday, which was dispersed by Palestinian security forces.
Former senior Fatah leader and lawmaker Jihad Tummaleh, who was also dismissed following the meeting, said on his Facebook page that the meeting was held to discuss "Fatah unity and awakening."
Anonymous Fatah sources at the time said that the meeting was considered “illegal” and that its participants were accused of “delinquency” by Fatah’s Anti-Delinquency Committee.He said there were also internal disputes over the membership of the upcoming seventh congress, expected to be held in November, and over the movement's strategies and priorities regarding international and local relations. "The Fatah movement has reached a point of unclear vision on how to manage relations with Hamas and Israel," Elayyan said.
Amid growing dissent within Fatah, the PA has come under fire for cracking down on Palestinians for criticizing the government, while the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) found in a 2016 poll that at least 64 percent of the Palestinian public are in favor of the resignation of Abbas.

The Fatah members who are being marginalized are generally more militant than Abbas and are just as unlikely to be interested in genuine peace as Abbas is. This is one reason why the West ignores his dictatorship, and pretends that there is some sort of democracy under the PA. And it is also why the West ignores the pro-terror messages from Abbas' official Fatah media.

It doesn't take much digging to see the corruption that Abbas is responsible for. It is a continuation of Arafat's corruption and two-faced nature, but without Arafat's charisma.

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Possibly the first film of the Kotel, and other Jerusalem scenes, 1911 (update)

I saw this as part of a 1963 documentary on Jerusalem directed by David Perlow. It is an interview with a cinematographer who filmed scenes from Jerusalem in 1911, including the Kotel.

(h/t Mike)

UPDATE: Entire film here. (h/t EoL)

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10/27 Links Pt2: Collier: The Jew, the Zionist and antisemitism at the House of Lords; Balfour 100 years later

From Ian:

Abraham Bell & Eugene Kontorovich: Palestine, Uti Possidetis Juris, and the Borders of Israel

Israel’s borders and territorial scope are a source of seemingly endless debate. Remarkably, despite the intensity of the debates, little attention has been paid to the relevance of the doctrine of uti possidetis juris to resolving legal aspects of the border dispute. Uti possidetis juris is widely acknowledged as the doctrine of customary international law that is central to determining territorial sovereignty in the era of decolonization. The doctrine provides that emerging states presumptively inherit their pre-independence administrative boundaries.
Applied to the case of Israel, uti possidetis juris would dictate that Israel inherit the boundaries of the Mandate of Palestine as they existed in May, 1948. The doctrine would thus support Israeli claims to any or all of the currently hotly disputed areas of Jerusalem (including East Jerusalem), the West Bank, and even potentially the Gaza Strip (though not the Golan Heights). View PDF

100 years later

Next week will mark the beginning of the 100th year since the Balfour Declaration. On Friday, Nov. 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour announced in a short letter to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild that "His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
Five years later, the Balfour Declaration was included in the League of Nations resolution to mandate Palestine to the British government, and another sentence was added to it: "Whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country." Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, who, with the assistance of his colleague Nahum Sokolow, worked persistently and wisely on behalf of the World Zionist Organization to obtain the documents, aspired to a clearer commitment, but the modest version was still an important tier in building the State of Israel.
Arab leaders in Palestine opposed the Balfour Declaration as soon as it was made public. They protested the use of the terms "the Jewish people" and "national home" as well as the reference to the Arabs as one of the "communities" with civil and religious -- but not national -- rights. It is for these reasons that the Palestine Liberation Organization determined in article 18 of its 1964 charter, three years prior to "the occupation," that "the Balfour Declaration, the Mandate system and all that has been based upon them are considered fraud." In keeping with his organization's charter, PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas recently stated at the United Nations General Assembly (Sept. 21, 2016): "One hundred years have passed since the notorious Balfour Declaration, by which Britain gave, without any right, authority or consent from anyone, the land of Palestine to another people. This paved the road for the Nakba of Palestinian people and their dispossession and displacement from their land." (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Bedouin family: We will continue to serve Israel

President Reuven Rivlin visited the home of Nimer Abu Amar, the 15-year-old youth from the Negev Bedouin town of Lakiya who was killed by fire from an Egyptian soldier at Israel's southern border Tuesday, to express his condolences to the boy's family.
"We are all citizens of the same country." Rivlin told the boy's father. "We have come to share in your profound grief."
"We are all equal in this country, and there is no difference between a child in Lakiya and a child in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, or Haifa." he added. The Defense Ministry treats a child from Lakiya exactly the same way as it treats every other child, and we will do our utmost to investigate the circumstances which led to this tragedy."
The boy's father, Bassam Abu-Amar, said "I expect the Defense Ministry to act justly in investigating the matter. Our pain is immeasurable. He was our first born son."
The boy's uncle said "We will continue to work with the Defense Ministry. Generation after generation will work for the nation and at the border. We know that the Defense Ministry will investigate and learn the appropriate lessons. He is our child, he is your child and he is my child, and there is no argument about that."
Rivlin the family members present and promised that the relevant officials at the president's office would continue to follow up on the investigation into this tragic incident.

Jenny Tonge invites Kay Wilson to the House of Lords for a cup of tea (UPDATE)

Yesterday was one of the more sickening scenes at the House of Lords:

"If anybody is antisemitic, it's the Israelis themselves"; panel applauds; hard to believe, but this happened this week at House of Lords pic.twitter.com/L8v4cARnK8
— Yiftah Curiel (@yiftahc) October 26, 2016

When Sussex Friends of Israel posted this on Facebook, they wrote:

WATCH-Member of audience at last nights event in Parliament (hosted by Jenny Tonge) which called for Britain to apologize for the Balfour Declaration, says that 'if anyone is anti-Semitic it is the Israelis themselves!' Greeted with much applause by Tonge and her fellow panelists and all done in the House of Lords!

There was then this exchange between the great Kay Wilson and Jenny Tonge among others

Kay Wilson Jenny Tonge Jenny Tonge, Baroness Tonge is a revolting woman, unworthy of the position with which she has been entrusted.

LikeReply1921 hrs

Hide 40 Replies

Jenny Tonge Thank you for that accolade Kay Wilson. What a lovely reasonable person you seem to be.

LikeReply220 hrs

Geoffrey Bernstein Jenny Tonge Tonge, what a smug, self-satisfied and sarcastic reply. Kay Wilson was almost murdered by Palestinians, and her companion was murdered at the same time. They were simply walking in the countryside. Check it out for yourself.

LikeReply1420 hrsEdited

Kay Wilson I am actually. Despite being hacked at with a machete 13 times by Palestinian terrorists and watching my Christian friend murdered in front of my eyes, I have gone on to do all I can for peace. I have hidden a Muslim teenager in my house at the risk o...See More

LikeReply2120 hrs

Jenny Tonge Would some of you like to come to the Lords for a cup of tea? Why can't we talk.

LikeReply219 hrs

Kay Wilson Jenny Tonge I would love to. Please invite me and I courteously accept your invite

LikeReply619 hrs

Kay Wilson This is on record. Jenny Tonge has extended an invite to the House of Lords. As a survivor a Palestinian terrorism, I feel that "dialogue" could be important. I eagerly await confirmation of her invite

LikeReply818 hrs

Sussex Friends Of Israel Love to come Jenny but first I would ask you to to categorically distance yourself from the 'if anyone is anti-Semitic it is the Israelis themselves' comment as in the video above

LikeReply418 hrs

Jonathan Hoffman Jenny Tonge Do you still defend your suggestion that Israel should set up an inquiry to disprove allegations that its medical teams in Haiti “harvested” organs of earthquake victims for use in transplants?

LikeReply618 hrs

Kay Wilson Jonathan hopefully when she accepts my eagerness to meet her in the House of Lords, I can address this issue personally.

LikeReply618 hrs

David Collier Jenny Tonge My problem, as someone who was there last night, is why you seem to fail to recognise antisemitism even when it smacks the Jews across the face in front of you. If you don't see it, I mean really don't see it, isn't it just possible that the problem is with you, rather than me?

LikeReply1218 hrs

Jenny Tonge We can discuss these things when you come.

LikeReply17 hrs

Tonge also defended her call for an independent inquiry into whether Israel was stealing organs from earthquake victims in Haiti:

Jenny Tonge My exact words were via our press office and were
'I congratulate the IDF on their swift response after the earthquake. If they are concerned about these allegations they should have an independent inquiry .' What is wrong with that? I was.a doctor for many years in the NHS.

LikeReply117 hrs

The idea that Kay can break through the hate that Jenny Tonge has is more than fanciful. But it is amazing that she keeps trying.

(h/t Rob)

UPDATE: When I wrote this article, it was before this happened:

Jenny Tonge, a former Liberal Democat peer, has quit the party after she was suspended over alleged antisemitic comments.
She said she had resigned from the party “about the same time” as she was suspended as a party member by its leader on Thursday.
Earlier, a spokesman for the Liberal Democrats said: “She has been suspended. She was not a member of our group in the House of Lords; she was an independent peer, she has had her membership suspended.
“We take her comments very seriously and have acted accordingly.”
Tonge was Lib Dem MP for Richmond Park from 1997 to 2005, but has sat as an independent in the Lords since she was suspended in 2012, also for allegedly antisemitic comments.
Thursday’s move came after Tonge hosted a meeting at the House of Lords this week at which Israel was reportedly compared to terror group Islamic State and Jews were blamed for the Holocaust. The remarks were made by a speaker at the meeting, which was organised by the Palestinian Return Centre, which live-streamed the event on its Facebook page.
The Israeli embassy in London said the meeting was a “shameful event which gave voice to racist tropes against Jews and Israelis alike”.

Not sure that this tea party will ever occur.

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