Palestine Papers: Erekat admits he's a liar

I missed this little gem that was picked up by Foreign Policy a couple of weeks ago - another Palestine Paper conversation that inexplicably did not make it into The Guardian or Al Jazeera..

In a meeting between Saeb Erekat and Yossi Gal from Israel's foreign ministry, the conversation starts this way:

SE: How have you been?
YG: Not too bad, can't complain, how about you?
SE: I'm lying, I've been lying for the last weeks.
YG: Between jogging?
SE: No, no, lying, lying.  I was in Cairo, I was in Jordan, I was in America. Everybody is asking me what is going on Israel, what is Olmert going to do?
YG: And you are telling everyone we are on the verge of success.
SE: And I always tell them this is an internal Israeli matter, a domestic Israeli matter and I keep lying. If somebody sneezes in Tel-Aviv, I get the flu in Jericho, and I have to lie. So that's my last week -- all lies.
YG: As a professor of negotiations, you know that white lies are allowed now and then.
SE: I'm not complaining, I'm admitting -- and sometimes I don't feel like lying.
YG: Well, around this table we won't be lying.

(h/t tweet by jmalsin)

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Libya already has protests before "Day of Wrath"

Here's a video of a demonstration in Libya that occurred yesterday. It started off as a protest by families of arrestees in Benghazi but soon others joined in.


Tomorrow there is a much larger demonstration planned, with a lot of input from Libyans who live outside the country, calling for Gaddafi to step down.

(h/t Missing Peace)

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Reform rabbi dismantles Richard Falk

I blogged about the execrable Richard Falk's essay about Jewish identity, where he concluded that Jews who care about the welfare of their fellow Jews are pretty much doomed to be racists, last month.

Falk gets lots of adoring comments on his blog, as well as some explicitly anti-semitic comments that he does not respond to.

A reform rabbi, Ira Youdovin, writes a thoughtful response that is too good to be relegated to an almost dead comment thread on a little-read blog. While I do not agree with everything in the comment, it shows quite well what a sick self-hating quasi-Jew Falk is:

Despite his annoying habit of calling Israelis Nazis, I have never accused Prof. Falk of being a self-hating Jew. While his animus toward Israel is apparent, I have no way of determining if it stems from an animus toward Judaism and the Jewish tradition, which is the defining characteristic of a “self-hating Jew,” of from something else. But now that he has revealed his thoughts about Jewish identity, I may have to revise my assessment.

Prof. Falk’s problem is not only with Judaism. He disdains faith communities per se, defaming them as “tribes,” whose doctrine “unconsciously and indirectly gives rise to the murderous mentality of warfare and gives a moral and religious edge to many forms of persecution, culminating in a variety of inquisitions.” Had he been born an Episcopalian, he might be beating up on the Archbishop of Canterbury. But as his essay is entitled On Jewish Identity, we must explore the evidence he brings in applying these sweeping generalizations to Judaism.

Astonishingly for a scholar of Prof. Falk’s stature and reputation, he cites precious little evidence. He mentions the “often bloody exploits of the ancient Israelites.” But those atrocities occurred in the ancient middle east, where “bloody exploits” was standard operating procedure for almost everyone. This doesn’t excuse the atrocities reported in Scripture, but it does make them unexceptionable. Some balance is achieved through praise for the “moral clarity of Old Testament prophets,” and Rabbi Hillel’s version of the Golden Rule—a forerunner of Jesus’ more famous version. The historical screen then goes dark until we are propelled into Prof. Falk’s familiar riff on the evils of contemporary Israel.

In the process, he ignores a formative period of two millennia during which Judaism evolved from a temple-based sacrificial cult to a prayer and study-centered religion. If one wants to learn about Jewish identity, that’s where one has to look. But Prof. Falk doesn’t. Although I’m not an academician, I think that a student submitting a paper entitled “On Jewish Identity” with so little supporting material would, or should, receive a failing mark, even in this era of grade inflation.

My hunch is the omission of Jewish references stems from the inconvenient truth that Prof. Falk knows very little about his subject. Perhaps he doesn’t want to know. Even a cursory study of Jewish history discredits many of the sweeping generalizations he employs to dismiss and defame Jewish identity.

Exhibit A: Prof. Falk maintains that being committed to one faith precludes “being open and receptive to the insight and wisdom of other traditions.” In fact, Jewish history demonstrates precisely the opposite. Early biblical books, including Genesis, reflect the theology and symbolism of the Akkadians and other peoples of the ancient middle east. Later books, such as Ecclesiastes, are clearly influenced by Greek philosophy. The Mishna, which was completed around 225 CE, organizes biblical legislation into categories, a format learned from the Romans. Recent scholarship has discovered an on-going dialogue between the rabbis and church fathers covering several centuries. Both sides shared ideas which each adopted and built into its separate theology. Maimonides, perhaps the greatest of all rabbis, was an Aristotelian who sought to reconcile traditional Jewish teaching with wisdom he learned from Muslim scholars during the era of Convivencia in Medieval Spain. Reform Judaism is a product of the Enlightenment. Zionism was nurtured in the intellectual soil of Romanticism. Walk into many synagogues today and you’ll find classes and spiritual exercises in yoga, meditation and other practices taken from eastern religions. The list of things borrowed and things lent is endless.

Exhibit B: Prof. Falk dismisses as “benevolent and temporary” the Jewish self-understanding that being a Chosen People bestows no privileged status, but is a mandate to pursue social justice. The historical record refutes the “benevolent and temporary” caveat. Jews have always pursued social justice, following a commandment articulated in the Book of Deuteronomy. Here inAmerica, where Jews at long last have the opportunity to participate in the larger society as full citizens, we have been leaders and workers in the pursuit of equal rights and freedom for all. And Israel, despite its flaws, remains the one democracy in the Middle East, albeit an imperfect one.

To be sure, there are Jews in Israel, the United States and everywhere who are guilty as charged. They are especially visible in certain West Bank settlements where a desire to subjugate the Palestinians prevails. But they constitute a small minority. To extrapolate a community-wide character from their aberrant (and abhorrent) behavior is polemic, not scholarship.

A word must be said about Prof. Falk’s self-aggrandizement as one who has succeeded in putting his being human ahead of his being Jewish, so that unfettered by xenophobia, he is able to savor the rites, practices and wisdom of all religions. That’s gratifying, but during my forty years as a rabbi, which should make me a Super Xenophobe, I bet I’ve attended, witnessed and participated in more Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, et al worship services than Prof. Falk, along with a slew of interfaith worship experiences. I have marched, rallied and demonstrated alongside interfaith colleagues for a long list of causes. Several years ago, my partner and I joined with a group drawn from our synagogue and a local Methodist church to rebuild an African American church in rural Alabama that had been destroyed by arson. Contrary to what Prof. Falk believes possible, being a Jew enables me and many others to be better human beings. I can say the same thing about friends who are strongly committed members of other faith communities, but frequently enjoy one another’s rituals, practices and teachings.

Most disturbing is the flagrant disconnect between Prof. Falk’s claim to an “ecumenical and inclusive spiritual identity, and associated ethical and political commitments,” and his work for the United Nations. “Ecumenical” and “inclusive” strongly suggest a deep commitment to even-handedness in addressing ethical and political issues. But the mandate he accepted when becoming Special Rapporteur of the of outrageously misnamed United Nations Human Rights Council is to report only on perceived Israeli violations on the West Bank, while turning a blind eye on Palestinian suicide bombers and the like. That’s akin to refereeing a football game while calling penalties on one side only, especially when there’s no counterpart Rapporteur to monitor the Palestinians.

You read that correctly. In a conflict fraught with extraordinary complexities, where right and wrong exists on both sides, Prof. Falk choose to play an utterly one-sided, prejudicial and destructive role. On the one hand, he tars Judaism with the accusation that its doctrine “unconsciously and indirectly gives rise to the murderous mentality of warfare.” And on the other, he is indifferent to radical Islam as it drives Hamas and HIzbollah. I can’t believe that he’s unaware of this cruel absurdity. Somehow, he manages to live with it, and also with the knowledge that the UN’s interest in him is enhanced by his being Jewish.

As one who has argued frequently and fervently that criticism of Israel is not necessarily anti-Semitism, I am appalled by the damage Prof. Falk’s essay does to my case by alleging that perceived Israeli injustices are a natural, even inevitable consequence of what he condemns as an age-old Jewish religious tradition and identity. It’s a straw man on both sides of the equation, but red meat for those who delight in believing the worst about Jews. It’s no accident that the piece has been reprinted by the Intifada-Voice of Palestine website, as well by an e-screed called Foreign Policy Journal whose publisher, Jeremy R. Hammond, recently wrote a piece entitled “The Myth of the United Nations’ Creation of Israel. “

One final thought. Did anyone blanch at Prof. Falk’s proclamation that he is a proud Jew? Huh? Proud of what? Proud of belonging to a “tribe whose religious doctrine gives rise to the murderous mentality of warfare and gives a moral and religious edge to many forms of persecution, culminating in a variety of inquisitions?”

My question as a rabbi is not whether anybody else believes him, but whether he, himself, does. A little soul searching might help him appreciate the toxicity of the things he says about Jewish identity. These insights, in turn, might help him to recognize and understand the prejudice that fuels the toxicity of what he says about Israel.

Rabbi Ira Youdovin
Santa Barbara, CA

Falk gives his typical evasive response:

Dear Rabbi Ira Youdovin:

As you are probably aware, we have common friends here in Santa Barbara, making me particularly sad that you chose to insult me so intensely and unfairly. To begin with I have never equated Israelis with Nazis, and find the accusation odious. Further, I never purported to be doing more than express my sense of my own identity as a Jew in response to allegations that I was self-hating. Further still, I received several communications from rabbis that were much kinder than yours, and even supportive of what I was trying to express. And finally, on the substance of the Israel/Palestine conflict my effort and UN mandate is not to be ‘balanced’ but to be truthful; given the structure of the occupation this is what I have tried to do. Even Richard Goldstone, with lifetime Zionist credentials, fared no better than I have when he entered the no man’s land of responsible criticism of the Israeli occupation policies.

Again, I am disappointed that you did not see fit to attempt even a civil discourse on these matters of obviously deep personal concern to you.

I'll ignore most of Falk's whining but will answer his laughable assertion that I highlighted above. Here is what Falk wrote in 2007:

[I]t is especially painful for me, as an American Jew, to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as ‘holocaust.’ ...

Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not.

Falk defended the comparison in this BBC interview the following year.

As far as his assertion that he is simply trying to be "truthful" in reporting on human rights violations, he requested that the UNHRC ignore any Palestinian Arab violations of their own people's human rights.

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Wikileaks: Russian anti-semitism way down (updated)

Here are sections from a very interesting Wikileaks cable from December 2009:

As the country that a century ago produced "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," saw state-sponsored pogroms that prompted the emigration of millions of Jews under the Tsars, and saw the development of anti-Semitism as a policy under Stalin and his predecessors, Russia for many years was synonymous with anti-Semitism. After the notoriety of both Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union in this area, the collapse of the Soviet Union unleashed yet a new threat to Jews in the form of violent neo-nationalist groups. However, in recent years both societal and official attitudes towards Jews have showed a marked improvement, and contacts of ours in the Jewish community, whose current population is approximately one million, tell us that they have never before felt this comfortable living in Russia. Although occasional incidents of vandalism and attacks still occur, racist groups have shifted their focus from Jews to Central Asian and other dark-skinned immigrants and migrant workers.

Not surprisingly, the most prominent Jewish leaders have scrupulously maintained friendly relations with the GOR. Rabbi Berel Lazar of the Chabad community, one of Russia's two Chief Rabbis, has for years maintained the line that life is good for Russian Jews.

...Other Jewish leaders have confirmed this rosy assessment of official relations. Shayevich told us that "there is no doubt of any kind" that life has significantly improved for Russian Jewry, and that relations with the GOR are "completely different" from those of the Soviet period. He noted that he had just received Hannukah greetings from members of the State Duma, as well as from Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov, who attended Hannukah services at the Synagogue. ...both Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev make a point of publicly sending holiday greetings to Russia's Jewish population, although thus far they have stopped short of donning yarmulkes and attending services themselves. Lazar told us that the overall message is that Jews "are a part of the Russian community."

More substantively, Lazar told us that two years ago, GOR officials brought him a list of anti-Semitic books and publications that they promised to eliminate, and that they had since made good on this promise, based on his people's examination of stores and book expos. In a November 6 conversation, Svetlana Yakimenko, who runs the Jewish women's rights NGO Project Kesher, agreed that "at the official level, the attitude towards Jews is the best ever." She said that the GOR has announced that it will do anything necessary to fight anti-Semitism, and that police have standing orders to close down any known anti-Semitic groups.

Many other Jewish leaders in the NGO world have also striven mightily to establish good relations with the GOR, and the effort has paid dividends. Natalya Rykova, whose Moscow Bureau of Human Rights (MBHR) has such a close relationship with the GOR that she and fellow MBHR denizen Aleksandr Brod inspire disdain among most of the human rights community, has shared with us her chilling memory of emerging from her apartment in the early 90s to see threatening graffiti from the anti-Semitic group Pamyat. MBHR's habit of toadying up to the GOR on matters such as the Georgia conflict and North Caucasus policy is designed to provide its members with iron-clad "cover" against anti-Semites, a point that Rykova readily acknowledges.

Alexander Axelrod of the Jewish Anti-defamation League explained to us on October 23 his belief that, while in the past official anti-Semitism was more of a problem than social anti-Semitism, now it was the other way around. However, he added that he did not see social anti-Semitism as a significant problem at this point. Other contacts agreed that anti-Semitism has become increasingly marginalized in the social sphere. Shayevich said that, although there is still some "street" anti-Semitism, the number of attacks had decreased in the past several years. Lazar asserted that Judaism is now "on a par with other religions" in most people's minds, and said that "if the trend continues, we will be wholly integrated." (Note: Thanks to the 1997 Law on Religions which defined Judaism as one of Russia's four "traditional" religions, Judaism enjoys special status relative to less established religions. End Note.) He described an experiment that he carried out for several days during the Jewish High Holidays in September, in which his employees, clearly dressed as Chabad followers, conducted man-on-the-street interviews regarding people's views of Judaism. According to Lazar, the response was overwhelmingly positive, with very few exceptions. Lazar added that this activity received uniformly friendly media coverage as well, including on state-run television.

Anti-Semitism has been a part of Russian culture for such a long time that it would be unrealistic to expect it to disappear overnight. Russians, including those with entirely friendly attitudes towards Jews, routinely distinguish between a person who is "Russian" and one who is "Jewish," something that would be inappropriate in the United States.

Shayevich noted that economic factors may exacerbate suspicion towards Jews, as the crisis has inflamed xenophobia generally, and public perception of Jews as crafty money-grubbers persists. This perception was not helped by the significant portion of 1990s oligarchs who were Jewish (even though, as Shayevich noted, in the past Jews were often forced to find new, "unofficial" ways to acquire wealth because of official restrictions against them, and the oligarch phenomenon should be viewed in that context). Even some of the apparently positive attitudes towards Jews may at times tie in with this perception, as with the woman who told Lazar's researchers that she "wished she were Jewish, too."

Kesher also alluded to examples of ingrained suspicion towards Jews in society; for example, at a Project Kesher roundtable on tolerance in Orel five years ago, FSB representatives appeared and advised participants not to use the word "Jewish" too loudly. ...

Another factor tipping the GOR and Russians towards a more favorable attitude towards Jews is the palpable warming trend in Russian-Israeli relations. In an April news poll, 52 percent of Russians viewed Israel favorably, a figure slightly less than that in the U.S. (56 percent). As a result of many decades of Russian immigration to Israel, Israel's Russian population, one million, now equals Russia's Jewish population. Israel's current Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, visited Russia in June to great fanfare, with widespread favorable media coverage. Lieberman announced that he felt as if we were "coming home" to Russia (he was born in Moldova), and news reports focused on his use of fluent Russian in his meetings with GOR officials. Back in Russia on December 6, Lieberman praised the visa-free system established last year between Russia and Israel -- which is expected to double the number of Russian tourists traveling to Israel to 400,000 this year -- while Putin said that Israel's Russian community "unites us with you like no other country." Axelrod dismisses the idea that rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Russian society is changing attitudes towards Jews or Israelis, but agrees that Russia is hedging its bets in the region and moving away from Arab or Muslim client states, and that this official attitude is likely percolating down to the societal level....

Tsevi Mirkin of the Israeli Embassy in Russia told us December 17 that the positive trend in Russian-Israeli relations began in the 1990s, but has especially improved in the past five years. He attributed this to many factors, including the disappearance of "the official Soviet hatred towards Israel." He added that there is a high level of interest in Israel in Russian society, with many Russians having friends, relatives, or classmates there, and that the two countries trade 2 billion USD in products each year. Sadly, Mirkin noted, one other reason for improved views of Israel is racism among Russians; "they see Israel as a 'white' state in a non-white region." He related an encounter he had, as he was entering the Israeli Embassy, with a Russian man who told him, "The Americans don't deserve you guys," and explained that his positive feelings about Israel related to its status as a bulwark against "blacks."

Who would have imagined, even twenty years ago, that Russia could ever be a comfortable place for Jews to practice their religion?

UPDATE: Commenter Vandoren, from Moscow, takes exception to this:

Comparing with pogroms in Czarist Russia and Stalin times it looks good, but we are living in the 21st century! There were always anti-Jewish feelings in Russian public. Ben Lazar whose Russian even worse then my Rnglish is living in another world. Russian Jews don't respect him cuz he's a Putin puppet. And never trust any poll in Russia.

And about Israel. Yes,comparing with UK and other Europe people are mostly pro-israel. It happens because the media in Russia does not demonize Israel; you can hear anti-israel bias only from Euronews and BBC Russian. Only a tiny part of Russian anti-semitism is about Israel and Arabs. Most popular slogans are about that Jews control Russia. Also that all liberals (not British style left-wing) are Jews and they want to destroy the country.

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HRW appoints PFLP terrorist as an advisor. Really.

From The Daily Beast:

A Palestinian whom Israel’s Supreme Court has described as a “Jekyll and Hyde” of international terrorism has been appointed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) to its advisory board that oversees the sensitive reporting on Arab-Israeli affairs.

The man at the center of the dispute, Shawan Jabarin, runs the human rights organization Al Haq in Ramallah on the occupied West Bank. In 1985 he belonged to a Birzeit University student group associated with the PFLP, indicted as a terror group, by 30 countries including the U.S., the European Union, and Canada. He was convicted of recruiting members for terrorist training outside Israel and served nine months of a 24-month jail sentence.

After he had served his time in jail, Jabarin was engaged as a field worker by Al Haq. He rose to become Director General in 2006 and has been nominated for several international awards but Israel in 1999 banned him from international travel. Jordan, also, has refused him entry on grounds of security. On Al Haq website Jabarin said he had lost track of the number of times he’d been arrested and detained. He estimated that he’d spent a cumulative eight years in administrative detention and claimed to have been beaten on numerous occasions.

In its 2007 judgment, the Supreme Court found that alongside activity in Al Haq, Jabarin was also a senior figure in the Popular Front terrorist organization: “This petitioner is apparently active as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In part of his activities, he is the director of a human rights organization, and in another part he is an activist in a terrorist organization which does not shy away from acts of murder and attempted murder which have nothing to do with rights, and on the contrary deny the most basic of all human rights, the most fundamental of fundamental right, without which there are no other rights—the right to life.”

Jabarin petitioned the court again in 2008. The court said it could understand the frustration of Jabarin’s lawyers in not being able to see the intelligence against him, but explained that the judges’ own examination of the classified material had led them to two conclusions: “First, that it is reliable information according to which the petitioner is among the senior activists of the Popular Front terrorist organization; second, the divulging of this material to the petitioner involves the exposure of important sources of information, and thus certain harm to national security.”

The Court examined the case a third time in March 2009. It reported that it had twice tried to find “a creative solution” that gave Jabarin some limited freedom of movement but concluded: “We found that the material pointing to the petitioner’s involvement in the activity of terrorist entities is concrete and reliable material. We also found that additional negative material concerning the petitioner has been added even after his previous petition was rejected.”
The judgment emphasized that the ban was not “punishment” for forbidden activity but “due to relevant security considerations.”

Calls over several days to [HRW's Sarah Leah] Whiston were not returned. In a telephone conversation, [HRW's Ken] Roth at first said it was “not true” that Jabarin had been a member of PFLP, then added: “And if he had been, it’s ancient history.” He would not discuss the Supreme Court judgments. In an email, Roth defended the appointment saying Jabarin had had no association with the PFLP or any other political organization since joining the staff of Al Haq in 1987.

In fact, Jabarin was arrested by Israel in 1994 for heading the PFLP - while he was already working for Al Haq.

And in 2003, Israel allowed Jabarin to travel to Jordan - and Jordan refused to let him in because of his terror record.

Al Haq is hardly an unbiased "human rights" organization either. It engages in "lawfare" against Israel. One of the papers on its website justifies terrorism as legal:

[R]esistance against occupation and its arbitrary practices is legitimate under international law, and these acts are considered a part of the Palestinian people‘s resistance and struggle against occupation in order to achieve their right to liberation and independence, the occupation forces call it “terrorism”...

So not only is HRW trying to appoint a terrorist who has been shown to be a credible current threat by Israel's Supreme Court, but they are using his service to a "human rights" organization that supports terror as their main proof that he is not a terrorist!

No wonder that HRW's founder, Robert Bernstein, said, "I am of course shocked but even more saddened that an organization dedicated to the rule of law seems to be deliberately undermining it."

(h/t Alex and Zach)

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Tantalizing hints to evening links

Instant Stuxnet. With details only a geek can love.

MSNBC gets schooled.

Morris on Egypt. Plus an Islamist group returns. And the MB turns up the heat, slowly.

As always, it's all Israel's fault. (But good hasbara might help.)

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Ma'an editor misleads Just Journalism

Just Journalism interviews an editor of Ma'an News Agency, George Hale. Since I have been carefully following Ma'an for years, I was interested in what he had to say about censorship of his paper by Hamas and Fatah:

GH: The PA frequently harasses and arrests journalists. A TV reporter, Mamdouh Hamamreh, was recently arrested because his Facebook profile displayed an image poking fun at Abbas. They’re actually using this old Jordanian law that, believe it or not, prohibits criticizing the king! It’s fitting considering Abbas’ term expired two years ago last month.

But there you have another example which raises questions about Fayyadʼs two-year plan, which vows to reform these outdated and unusual laws. He says he’s taking initiative but the monarchy law is, inexplicably, still on the books. Why is that?

MW: Ma’an’s journalism, though, seems pretty unfettered in terms of the damning information it relays about either government. On the whole, how would you describe freedom of speech in the West Bank?

GH: For me, excellent. People often have a hard time believing Ma’an operates without input from the authorities. But this is my third year on desk, and not once have I found evidence of serious pressure for anyone to ignore a story or to publish another. This is to the government’s credit, but their other tactics muddle that record.

Fayyad’s authority is praised for its support for liberal principles. The reality is that Palestinians are more afraid, not less, to criticize his government than they were when he was appointed. The evidence isn’t anecdotal: In 2007, results of a semi-annual survey showed some 57 percent of Palestinians felt they could criticize the PA. The percentage by late 2010, more than a year into the lauded plan for statehood, should astound. It dropped to 27 percent following a consistent three-year decline.

Look no further than this poll the next time you wonder why a case like Abbas’ Facebook insult usually appears first in the Israeli press: Israelis don’t have to put up with the Palestinian Authority. Our sources have much more to lose.

MW: And how does that situation compare to the one in Gaza?

GH: Israel prevents our international staff from obtaining credentials to enter from the West Bank or inside Israel (unlike all other journalists). But by most accounts I understand the situation is much worse. According to that same poll, for instance, the number in 2007 was 52 percent but by last December, it was down to 19 percent.

Last month the mood for us in Gaza took a dark turn, when a Hamas-run newspaper published an ”investigation” into our Gaza office. The Hebrew Department is staffed by “Zionists,” Gazans were told. All our reporters — each of them identified in the report by their initials and places of residence — are tied to “Fatah security,” it says. We’re agents of Fayyad and Dahlan, basically. And so on.

Such clear-cut incitement to violence would not be worthy of reply if it weren’t so dangerous. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, our member of the International Federation of Journalists, sided with Ma’an. But this means little because the union has been practically taken over by Fatah. A victim of the ongoing state of political disunity here.

Meanwhile, Hamas authorities have yet to speak out against its mouthpiece’s “reporting” about Ma’an. Since they will not disassociate themselves, it looks more and more like a precedent has been set for targeting us. Nevertheless, our reporters in Gaza are among the bravest Palestinians in journalism. They will not be intimidated.

Sorry, but Hale is describing Ma'an before the Hamas coup. The change in coverage was dramatic after the coup, and Ma'an even reported on the event that changed it:

The chief editor of Ma'an News Agency threatened to close the agency's Gaza office as a result of the pressure exerted on him and the agency's correspondents and photojournalists. The Al-Qassam Brigades visited the office, but did not harm any employee or property. Meanwhile, Hamas and their Fatah allies criticised Ma'an's reports and some issued threats.

Also in 2007, Hamas threatened journalists with death for reporting things they didn't want, and even in 2009 Hamas paid friendly visits to Ma'an to make sure that they keep toeing the Hamas line.

Ma'an's change in coverage was immediate and clear. While they had formerly been critical of Hamas, all of that ended. The only negative reporting one sees of Hamas in Ma'an is when they report what other entities have already mentioned, as when PCHR accuses Hamas of human righs abuses.

Original reporting that is negative about Hamas has disappeared from Ma'an's coverage, and while perhaps its Gaza reporters are brave, Hale's statement to Just Journalism is misleading.

Some of the interview is interesting, despite these problems.

(h/t T34)

(UPDATE: Changed the headline at Ma'an editor's request, "lie" was a bit strong but I do think it is misleading to say that Ma'an journalists "will not be intimidated" when clearly they are.)

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Amy Winehouse bombs in Dubai

From Al Arabiya:

Known for her powerful contralto vocals, the British singer Amy Winehouse left a throng of 10,000 fans disappointed after poor performance in one of her concerts in Dubai on Friday.

Winehouse not only mumbled through four or five sings, twirled her hair in cheekiness, but the songstress showed faux pas gestures such as picking her nails, nose and scratching her arms in disdain, all in front of her dozens of thousands of fans who paid at least $100 each for their tickets.

Winehouse left intermittently the stage to leave the burden on the backup singers to take over and entertain the crowd for the next few songs. Once back on stage, the nose and arms scratching and hair twisting continued and exacerbated with her avoiding eye contacts with the crowd and forgetting the lyrics to many of her major hits.

The video shows that the fans are correct; Winehouse looks distracted and bored as she phones in her performance.


If Dubai bans her from entering the country again, it isn't because of anti-semitism.

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The Guardian supports continued misery for PalArab "refugees"

Here is another article I wrote for NewsRealBlog, written a couple of weeks ago but that just got published, based on this article in The Guardian.

Excerpt:

To give these people hope that they will one day “return” is an act of cruelty. They have been in limbo for six decades holding on to this false hope that is fed to them by cynical Arab leaders looking to destroy Israel demographically.

This article makes it clear that The Guardian wants them to remain in perpetual misery as well.

This article has a single purpose — to keep the lie that they will one day “return” alive. The Guardian is using these people as pawns, exactly the same way that the Arab leaders have for generations: keeping them in camps as poster children for Israel’s supposed cruelty, with never a mention of the Arab responsibility for maintaining this situation for decades. Their continued misery today translates into a new generation of terrorists tomorrow.

As has been clear for a while, the Guardian wants Israel to disappear. This article is simply one more bullet in their arsenal of lies.

Read the whole thing.

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Latest Arab rumor: Mubarak in Israel!

From Ma'an:

Ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak is in a luxury hotel in the Israeli city of Eilat, the Israel-based news site Al-Arab reported Tuesday.

Locals said there was a huge presence of Israeli security forces surrounding the hotel, and airplanes were hovering above monitoring activity in the area, the Arabic-language report said.

A hotel employee revealed that Mubarak was a guest at the hotel, according to the news site.

The hotel declined to comment.

This comes after previous rumors that Mubarak fell into a coma immediately after his speech (and fainted twice while recording it,) that his sons argued bitterly during the speech, that he planned to flee to Dubai, and that he had gone to Germany.

(h/t T34)

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Teenage Syrian blogger sentenced to 5 years in prison

From Al Arabiya:

A special Syrian security court sentenced a teenaged blogger on Monday to five years in jail on charges of revealing information to a foreign country, despite U.S. calls to release her, rights defenders said.

The long jail term for high school student Tal al-Molouhi, under arrest since 2009 and now 19 years old, is another sign of an intensifying crackdown on opposition in Syria in the wake of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, they said.
Molouhi had written articles on the Internet saying she yearned for a role in shaping the future of Syria, which has been under the control of the Baath Party for the last 50 years.

She also asked U.S. President Barack Obama to do more to support the Palestinian cause. A security court charged her several months ago with "revealing information that should remain hushed to a foreign country."

Wearing trousers and a cream colored wool hat, Molouhi was brought chained and blindfolded under heavy security on Monday to the court, which convenes at a cordoned section of the Palace of Justice in the center of the Syrian capital.

We looked at her blogs here.

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PLO dismantles negotiations unit - funded by Europe

From Ma'an:

The Palestine Liberation Organization has decided to wind up its Negotiations Support Unit after damaging leaks about the concessions it was prepared to make to Israel, an official told AFP on Monday.

The decision by the PLO Executive Committee will take effect next month, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Committee member Ahmad Majdalani told AFP that the unit would be restructured and placed under the direct supervision of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

Formed in 1999 to provide technical assistance to the Palestinian negotiating team, the unit had received funding from a number of European governments, particularly Britain and the Scandinavian countries.

The leaked papers reveal how exactly the NSU was trying to manipulate world opinion and influence the US towards their position and against Israel.

Is it appropriate for European countries to fund a group whose entire purpose is to go against Israel in negotiations? Would they have funded an Israeli negotiations unit? Why is it not considered a conflict of interest when some members of the Quartet are openly supporting one side in negotiations?

Furthermore, are these countries reviewing the papers to see if their money was spent appropriately?

When the PLO, through the NSU, says that there is no such thing as a Jewish people - does that reflect the intent of the Scandinavian and British funders of the NSU?

There are a lot of issues that the leaks bring up, and these issues are being ignored by the media.

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The Mafia Mentality of the MidEast (NewsRealBlog)

My latest article in NewsRealBlog has been published. Excerpt:

In the new topsy-turvy worldview, peace is dependent on ethnic cleansing of Jews.

In any other context, ethnic cleansing is considered a war crime. Only in the territories is it considered a prerequisite for peace.

In any other place in the world, a divided city is considered a tragedy. Only in Jerusalem is it considered a necessity for peace.

And why do these inherently immoral things lead to peace? Because if the Jews are not banned from the cities of their heritage, the Arabs will --start a war!

Over the decades, what was easily seen as a crazy perversion of morality has gained universal acceptance among people who otherwise are proud to support human rights. The Jewish rights of self-determination and to live in the land of their forefathers morphed from an admirable ideal into a virtual crime.

Read the whole thing.

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PA settles with Jewish family for 1996 terror attack

From AP:

The Palestinian Authority has settled a federal lawsuit in Rhode Island over the shooting deaths 15 years ago of a couple returning home from a wedding in Israel, according to court papers filed Monday.

The documents don't reveal the terms of the settlement, and it's unclear how much, if any, money the Palestinian Authority offered to resolve the case. A federal judge in 2004 had entered a $116 million default judgment against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization for refusing to respond to the lawsuit, but that punishment was vacated as part of the settlement.

U.S. citizen Yaron Ungar and his pregnant wife, Efrat Ungar, were killed by gunmen from the Islamic militant group Hamas while returning from a wedding near Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem. Several Hamas members were convicted in the attacks.

The Ungars' relatives sued in Rhode Island, where their lawyer practices, under a federal statute that allows the estates of U.S. citizens killed by terrorist attacks overseas to recover damages.

Islamic Jihad is very upset at the PA for agreeing to a settlement. Sheikh Khader Habib called the agreement "rubbish" and is demanding that the PA apologize to the Palestinian Arabs for even considering payment. He called it "a stab in the heart of Palestinian struggle."

Interestingly, the victims were murdered by Hamas, not the Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades.

Notice also that this terror attack occurred while the Oslo "peace process" was in full swing. Somehow, Israel seems to have made itself safer when the "peace process" is moribund. Just one of the ways in which "peace" means something completely different in the Middle East than it does in English.

UPDATE: Here is what the complaint stated about the PA/PLO:

Plaintiffs allege that the PA and PLO: refused requests for the surrender of terrorist suspects, see id. ¶ 31; granted material and financial support to the families of members of Hamas who have been killed or captured while carrying out terrorist violence against Jewish civilians in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, see id. ¶ 33; assisted Hamas and its members in avoiding apprehension and punishment, see id. ¶ 34; and solicited Hamas and the individual Hamas Defendants to commit the attack on the Ungars’ vehicle, see id. ¶¶ 17-18, 36. Plaintiffs also claim that the PA employed several members of Hamas and other terrorist groups suspected of or charged with the murder of U.S. citizens as police officers and/or security officials. See id. ¶ 32.

(h/t SoccerDad)

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Gaddafi to join anti-government protests?

Arabic media is quoting Tunisian sources that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, facing massive anti-government protests called for Thursday, has decided to join the protests and be on the front lines against his own government!

It could be just a bizarre rumor, but nothing is really too bizarre for Gaddafi.

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Hamas renames "Mubarak Hospital"

A hospital in the Gaza Strip, that was named after Hosni Mubarak since the 1990s, has been renamed "Liberation Hospital" by Hamas in solidarity with the Egyptian revolution.

It is funny to see how Hamas is now pretending to have always been against Mubarak - but they never changed the name of this hospital before.

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Morning links

So many links, so little time....

The Israeli video I mentioned in yesterday's linkdump showing footage from the Mavi Marmara as well as more generally how the Israeli navy trains and works is now on YouTube. Still only in Hebrew, though.

One of the potential next leaders of Egypt wants to trash the peace agreement with Israel, and says that he would hold a referendum on the issue.

An Egyptian writes an op-ed saying pointing out what I did last Friday - Egypt is now under military rule and we don't yet know how this will play out.

Jeffrey Goldberg links to a Cliff May piece that quotes Time magazine analysis of Iran in 1979 that is as wrong as much of the analysis of Egypt probably is today. Goldberg also links to a good David Frum piece on how little we really know about Egypt:

80 million people in the country. 17 million in Cairo. 200,000 protesters in Tahrir Square. Only the ones who speak English appear on our TV.

When we talk about the reach of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egyptian society – or conversely the appeal of democracy – we are talking about things about which nobody knows very much and probably nobody can know very much. One out of seven Egyptians cannot read. Half of them live on less than $2 a day. What do they think? What do they want? And it may be an equally urgent question to know: who leads, guides and controls what they think and want?

Of course, the Thomas Friedmans of the world have a vested interest in pretending to know the answers to these questions. They don't get paid to say "I dunno," and their parachuting into the middle of Tahrir Aquare to form an instanalysis gives them ridiculous credibility when they don't even know Arabic.

Which country will be next domino? Saudi Arabia? Iran, Bahrain, Yemen?

Louis Harovitz looks at The Fairness Police:

In the Western world, among the people who know the history of the twentieth century and follow current events, no one is objective about Jews. Some people try to be fair, but that is very different from being objective. To find objectivity, read Chinese scholars (not affiliated with the government) who specialize in the history of the Jews. You will almost feel as if you’ve entered an alien world. You will never see anything like the pervasively judgmental rhetoric of the Fairness Police. A Chinese scholar would have great difficulty discerning any fairness at all in the actions, rhetoric, or demeanor of the Fairness Police.

Finally, another Goldberg piece excerpts an interview with an IAEA official who says that even after Stuxnet, Iran is "somehow" steadily producing enriched uranium and hellbent on building their nuclear program.

And an interesting profile of a religious Jewish jazz musician.

(h/t Mr. B., SoccerDad, Silke)

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Prisoner news you won't read anywhere

The number of Palestinian Arab prisoners in Israeli jails have gone down to 5,642 in January, according to B'Tselem.

This makes 25 consecutive months where the number of prisoners has been reduced.

AFP had a story this week that said that there are 7000 Arab prisoners in Israeli jails. There hasn't been that many since October of 2009.

Arab activists usually say "over 10,000." There were never that many prisoners. The high was a little less than 9500 in 2006.

Prisoners has been one of the major issues that the Palestinian Arabs bring up in negotiations, yet Israel is releasing them outside the context of peace talks.

If Israel would have held on to, say, 8000 prisoners between the beginning of 2009 and now, and then offered to release 2500 in exchange for Gilad Shalit, they might have gotten a deal. It is hard to imagine even Hamas telling Gazans that 2500 prisoners isn't enough.

But instead, Israel has released thousands of prisoners slowly, without fanfare - and without getting anything in return.

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Palestine Papers: PLO doesn't consider attacks on Jews "terrorism"

In the Palestine Papers we find some draft language created by the US to implement the Tenet Understandings in 2002, especially in the areas of PA responsibility for security.

Here is one of the original paragraphs, and the PLO's suggested revision:

Even though this was written during the height of the Palestinian Arab suicide bombing spree in Israel, the PLO specifically excises any reference to terrorism.

Even then, the "moderate" PA could not admit to the US that the attacks against Israeli civilians were the textbook definition of terrorism.

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Jews pray. Arabs freak.

Ma'an reports that the Al Aqsa Foundation is seething - again.

Apparently, Israel's Channel 10 had a video report showing Jews on the Temple Mount - their holiest site - praying!

The report showed shocking footage of Jews silently praying in different parts of the Temple Mount.

The bigots at Al Aqsa say that this is proof that the Jews are about to start doing Talmudic rituals on the site, and the report was created by the Israeli authorities in order to get people acclimated to the idea of Jews praying on the Har HaBayit.

Bokra.net published the press release as well and illustrated it with these shocking photos:

Of course,  silent Jewish prayers in their holy sites are incompatible with peace.

Every knowledgeable Westerner knows that the only way for true peace is to rid the Jewish holy places of Jews. It's so obvious that to dispute that proves that you are an anti-peace fanatic.

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