Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Arab media noticing Israel's Jewish refugees

Al Quds quotes an Israeli Foreign Ministry report from last month about Jewish immigrants from Arab countries:

Up until the present day, an injustice was done to the Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries. Their property rights and their historic justice were abandoned.

During various efforts and talks in pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, negotiators have overlooked an important element pertaining to the Arab-Israeli conflict - the uprooting of around 850,000 Jews living in Arab nations, the loss of their assets and property, and the difficulties they underwent upon migrating to Israel and their absorption.

But the part they highlighted was this part:

Close to half of Israel's Jewish citizen's today, including their descendents, came from Arab countries.

This is a remarkable statistic.

The MFA's point:

There should be a joint solution between the Arab countries and the international community in order to provide compensation for both Palestinian and Jewish refugees. In order to achieve this goal an international fund will be created that will be based on President Clinton's suggestion from 2000 and the Congress resolution 185 from 2008 in which Israel will also take part, even only in a symbolic way.

This fund will also compensate the countries that had already been working on absorbing and rehabilitating refugees; amongst others Jordan and Israel (retroactively) and perhaps Lebanon if it is willing to rehabilitate the descendants of Palestinian refugees in its territory. Here we should emphasize that the basis for compensation will be the value of assets of the refugees at the time, which according to research was much greater on the Jewish side than on the Palestinian side.

The fund will also deal with the issue of Jewish property that is still in the hands of Arab and Muslim countries, however the so-called Right of Return will not be relevant as the Jews are not interested in returning to the places from which they were deported from.

The State of Israel will not accept the principle of a Palestinian "right of return" but will prefer to provide compensation by an authorized third party. This demand has historic precedents as in the case of Cyprus.

... The Palestinian refugees will be rehabilitated in their place of residence just as the Jewish refugees were rehabilitated in theirs - Israel. There should be an immediate discontinuation of the perpetuation of the Palestinian refugee issue.

However, there is a reason that the almost throwaway sentence highlighted by Al Quds is critically important.

It completely destroys the Arab narrative that Israel is a colonialist entity.

If half of Israel's citizens are from the Middle East, then Israel is not an artificial European colonialist state as the Arab world likes to define it. Israelis are as likely as not to be descended from Jews who lived in the Middle East for centuries.

Of course, even if 100% of Israel's citizens were European Jews, it would not be colonialist either. But this statistic is a much more visceral argument against every stereotype Arabs try to ascribe to Israel, and it is important to highlight the fact that - even after the massive aliyah of Russian Jews in the 1990s - nearly half of Israeli Jews are native to the region by any definition.

Google innovations created in Israel

Forbes lists ten Google innovations created in Israel. I knew about some of them, but others were new to me.

Live Results is being developed in Israel. It allows people to find data they are looking for directly in the Google webpage, without the need to click on a link that will direct visitors to a website. For instance, you search “Weather in Rio de Janeiro” and it directly shows the forecast instead of only links to websites.

Person finder application. An app that was very useful during the Turkey Earthquake. Whenever a natural disaster takes place, the person finder application goes live, aiming to provide reliable and actual information about missing people. People basically have two buttons, “I am looking for someone” and “I have info about someone.”

Google Suggest – The Autocomplete Search Tool that let us “search faster than the speed of typing” was fully developed in Israel.

Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Project. Google has digitized one of the oldest manuscript ever discovered and allows everyone to examine it online with high resolution. For instance, if you search for “And the world shall dwell with the lamb,” you can instantly find the exact location in the digital version of the original scroll. This project was such a success that in the first day it was live more people saw the dead sea scrolls than in the entire year before.

Inna was very excited to present the work Google has done with the Yad Vashem memorial, dedicated to victims of the Holocaust. This collaborationhas created an online collaborative archive of photographs of the museum. Basically, Google uploaded thons of physical documents, such as photos. Anyone, anywhere can not only find information about each person and/or location in the pictures but also easily add information.

Google Insights for search started in Israel and now is being improved by Google engineers all over the world. It is a free tool to analyze search queries. However, only ratios and not the total number of queries are revealed. For instance, you can verify that the total amount of searches for the term “Pele” was about three times higher than ”Maradona” in the past 30 days.

In-Page Analytics was fully developed in Israel. Basically, it lets you quantify precise information about your website. For instance, you can measure the percentage of visitors who clicked on any clickable item in your website.

Receive emails through SMS in Ghana. Google Israel developed an app that allows people to receive emails in SMS format. In Ghana, just like in Guinea Conakry where I worked, broadband internet is not widespread. However, most people have cell phones. When you send an email to someone registered in this service, the person receives the email as a SMS. I hope Google has found a better way of filtering spams than in regular Gmail.

Interactive videos in youtube started in Israel and was taken to Mountain View to be fully developed.

“Got the wrong Bob” for Gmail, Priority inbox for Gmail, Hot topics and hot searches, all started in the Israel office.

Google hires some of the smartest software engineers and programmers on the planet, and even so Google Israel seems to be punching above its weight in creating interesting Google applications.

(h/t Mike)

Major archaeological finds in Israel confirm Biblical accounts from King David's time

From Israel's MFA:

Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, the Yigal Yadin Professor of Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, announced the discovery of objects that for the first time shed light on how a cult was organized in Judah at the time of King David. During recent archaeological excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, a fortified city in Judah adjacent to the Valley of Elah, Garfinkel and colleagues uncovered rich assemblages of pottery, stone and metal tools, and many art and cult objects. These include three large rooms that served as cultic shrines, which in their architecture and finds correspond to the biblical description of a cult at the time of King David.

This discovery is extraordinary as it is the first time that shrines from the time of early biblical kings were uncovered. Because these shrines pre-date the construction of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem by 30 to 40 years, they provide the first physical evidence of a cult in the time of King David, with significant implications for the fields of archaeology, history, biblical and religion studies.

Located approximately 30 km. southwest of Jerusalem in the valley of Elah, Khirbet Qeiyafa was a border city of the Kingdom of Judah opposite the Philistine city of Gath. The city, which was dated by 10 radiometric measurements (14C) done at Oxford University on burned olive pits, existed for a short period of time between ca. 1020 to 980 BCE, and was violently destroyed.

The absence of cultic images of humans or animals in the three shrines provides evidence that the inhabitants of the place practiced a different cult than that of the Canaanites or the Philistines, observing a ban on graven images.

The findings at Khirbet Qeiyafa also indicate that an elaborate architectural style had developed as early as the time of King David. Such construction is typical of royal activities, thus indicating that state formation, the establishment of an elite, social level and urbanism in the region existed in the days of the early kings of Israel. These finds strengthen the historicity of the biblical tradition and its architectural description of the Palace and Temple of Solomon.

According to Prof. Garfinkel, "This is the first time that archaeologists uncovered a fortified city in Judah from the time of King David. Even in Jerusalem we do not have a clear fortified city from his period. Thus, various suggestions that completely deny the biblical tradition regarding King David and argue that he was a mythological figure, or just a leader of a small tribe, are now shown to be wrong." Garfinkel continued, "Over the years, thousands of animal bones were found, including sheep, goats and cattle, but no pigs. Now we uncovered three cultic rooms, with various cultic paraphernalia, but not even one human or animal figurine was found. This suggests that the population of Khirbet Qeiyafa observed two biblical bans - on pork and on graven images - and thus practiced a different cult than that of the Canaanites or the Philistines."

...The stone model helps us to understand obscure technical terms in the description of Solomon's palace as described in 1 Kings 7, 1-6. The text uses the term "Slaot," which were mistakenly understood as pillars and can now be understood as triglyphs. The text also uses the term "Sequfim", which was usually understood as nine windows in the palace, and can now be understood as "triple recessed doorway."

Similar triglyphs and recessed doors can be found in the description of Solomon's temple (1 Kings 6, Verses 5, 31-33, and in the description of a temple by the prophet Ezekiel (41:6). These biblical texts are replete with obscure technical terms that have lost their original meaning over the millennia. Now, with the help of the stone model uncovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa, the biblical text is clarified. For the first time in history we have actual objects from the time of David, which can be related to monuments described in the Bible.

(h/t D)

A Gaza journalist who really does deserve an award

Over the years we have seen many awards given to Palestinian Arab journalists purely based on their anti-Israel reporting. We've even seen Helen Thomas receive a "Courage in Journalism" award purely because she publicly espoused anti-semitic opinions.

But there are some Palestinian Arab journalists who exhibit real courage. Reporting the truth about their political leadership is a hell of a lot more dangerous than writing yet another anti-Israel screed.

Here is one of the truly courageous Arab journalists:

Gaza journalist Asma al-Ghoul has won an international award for courage in journalism, the International Women’s Media Foundation said.

Al-Ghoul, 30, was awarded the 2012 IWMF prize alongside female journalists Reeyot Alemu from Ethiopia, Khadija Ismayilova from Azerbaijan and Zubeida Mustafa from Pakistan.

She has worked for Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam and her popular blog, AsmaGaza, was discontinued in February for unstated reasons.

Her reporting on the Palestinian internal division and social and political issues has earned international acclaim, receiving awards from Human Rights Watch and the Anna Lindh Mediterranean Foundation.

Al-Ghoul has been beaten by security forces at popular protests in Gaza, received death threats against her and her son, and once slept at her office out of fear for her life, the IWMF said.

The foundation added: "In 2007, she wrote an article as an open letter to her uncle -- a Hamas commander -- questioning methods of certain entities claiming to seek peace for Palestine. The article resulted in al-Ghoul’s uncle threatening to kill her."

Putting your life on the line to report the truth is brave. No matter what your political opinions are, Asma al-Ghoul is a courageous reporter.

Observations about Israel's new unity government

I don't usually blog about internal Israeli politics, mostly because understanding them requires total immersion.

One of my Israeli correspondents, who wants to be called Professor X, is a tenured professor in the social sciences who has a background in political sciences, economics and law. I asked him if I could post his thoughts:

Three observations:

Kadima as a party has not proved itself either centrist or pragmatic. It came into existence to pursue a leftist and utterly failed policy of unilateral withdrawal, and then moved to embrace the Labor-left policy of “peace in our time” through the imagined acceptance by the PLO of a generous Israeli peace offer.

As long as Israel keeps getting richer, the gap between rich and poor will continue to grow. It is a continuing matter of astonishment to me that people can look at statistics showing that all Israelis are getting wealthier and proclaim them proof of a broken economic system or a failure of social justice because the affluent are growing wealth faster. The Jewish principles of social justice do not embrace a return to Israel’s failed socialism, high taxes, wasteful spending, and obstructive regulation. It is unclear to me that the general population is generally “underpaid” — I would suspect quite the opposite. The working public is overpaid on average, thanks to the Histadrut, notwithstanding the fact that the labor agreements generally require underpaying the more skilled to subsidize overpaying the less skilled, while pricing many of the less skilled out of the working market altogether. Israel has several serious economic problems — monopolies established during Israel’s socialist heyday, underemployment of the workforce thanks not only to overly generous welfare benefits but also laws that require unemployment in order to enjoy state benefits like exemption from army service, excessive government ownership of land and other sectors of the economy, excessive regulation of land use and ordinary business decisions, and an overly powerful labor union that controls vast sectors of the economy (again a relic of Israel’s socialist heyday). Much of the agenda of the “social protests” was to exacerbate these problems, and, at best, the reforms adopted so far have been a mixed bag. There is little reason to celebrate if the unity government means an adoption of the destructive agenda of the “social protests.” Certainly, it’s not true that Israel has retained failed socialist policies and dirigisme due to the excessive influence of “wealthy donors” who will now be neutralized. And, incidentally, the protests were hardly “student-led.”

The idea that there is no peace with the Palestinians due to a violent fringe of Israelis is unfairly exculpatory to the Palestinians and defamatory to Israelis. Notwithstanding noisy fringes on the left and right (and the left fringe has done – so far as I can see – far more damage to Israel), they have not been players in the game in recent years. Both with and without Kadima, the government has the stability and motivation to reach a worthwhile agreement with the Palestinians. It is absolutely clear that whether Kadima is in or out of the government, Abbas has no interest in such a deal. It is true that Kadima endorses your suggested policy: that Israel should aim for a unilateral withdrawal after trying to use another round of failed negotiations to prove that that there is no realistic possibility of negotiated peace. But I hope and believe that Netanyahu has no such plans, and certainly the public will not demand such a self-destructive course after the Gaza fiasco. If this is the secret agenda of the new government, it is a cause for mourning, not celebration.

Other notable analyses from The Muqata, who looks at winners and losers, and Gerald Steinberg at the Times of Israel.

A number of people were trying to figure out why Netanyahu was calling for early elections, and a consensus of sorts was that it would give him more flexibility in deciding on a military option for Iran since Likud was well ahead in the polls. If that is true, this unity government is even more effective than any election results could have been in giving Israel internal political strength should it make that decision.

Work accident in the "playground of death"

From the Hamas al-Qassam website:

As Al Aqsa Intifada against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip continues, Ezzeddeen Al-Qassam Brigades has its best men to be in the playground of death to defend their people from any attack by the enemy ... Today, Al-Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the Mujahed:

Rantisi in happier times, hanging out in his playground

Faris Mahmoud Al Rantisi,19 years old

Jabaliya refugee camp – North of Gaza Strip

The Mujahed martyred from wounds sustained during training last week. He was martyred on Monday evening May 7th, 2012. He was martyred after a long bright path of jihad, hard work, struggle and sacrifice.

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

Finally, may Allah (swt) accept him and his blessed efforts for the path of Jihad and may Allah grant his family patience and solace for his lose.

I'm not sure if that last word is supposed to be "loss" or "for being such a loser." (Or perhaps he had a pet louse who is inconsolable.)

As usual, the Arabic version is much more flowery in language as they beseech Allah to allow him into Paradise even though he didn't manage to actually, you know, kill any Jews.

French Jews interested in aliyah

From JTA:

Some 5,000 French Jews participated in an aliyah fair in Paris.

The fair, organized and run by the Jewish Agency, took place Sunday as French voters went to the polls and elected Francois Hollande as their new president, beating incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, considered the favored choice in the Jewish community.

“I cannot recall having seen such a massive number of people interested in aliyah since the days when lines of people stretched out of the Israeli embassy in Moscow,” said Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, who attended the fair. The annual fair usually attracts about 2,000 visitors, according to the Jewish Agency.

The French Jewish community is the largest in Europe, with some 500,000 members, according to the Jewish Agency.

The fair comes on the heels of an attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse in which a rabbi and his two young sons and the daughter of the head of the school were killed.

Again proving the necessity of a Jewish state.

(h/t O)

More Zionist racism in the Negev

From Al Arabiya:

Dozens of Bedouin women from southern Israel join the work force after an Israeli phone company opens a service center inside a local mosque, where women feel they can work without any inhibition.

The country’s largest telecom group, Bezeq Israel Telecom, in a joint venture with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, launched the center inside the mosque in an attempt to combat unemployment among Arab Bedouin women.

“Bedouin women would like to work, most of them, and they want to be a part of the work market and to contribute to the economy of the house alongside their husbands. But because there are no work places in the villages and they are not able to work outside the villages, this is preventing many of them from being a part of the work force,” Mahmoud Alamour, director of Rayan Center, said.

Because of their traditional, patriarchal lifestyle, persuading husbands and fathers to allow wives and daughters to go to work was not easy and the best way to allay fears was overcome by housing the call center at the mosque.

”The girls felt safe when we told them that they will work under a mosque. They were so happy because a girl feels she is in a safe place, like in her house and her village. Now we have two shifts, morning and evening and the girls work until 23:00, and we could only get this because we operate from the mosque,” said Naifa al-Nabari, vocational coordinator for Rayan Center.

“As a Bedouin woman I am so proud of myself because as a Bedouin girl I started from zero. This is my first career, I never had another job, it took me not too long in order to be a manager in a company like Bezeq,” said Dalal Abu-kaf, team manager at telephone service center.

“I think I have no problem with this project and if I sometimes need to go out of work in a specific time, like when a child is sick, Bezeq helps me –- they allow us to go and tend to our children,” said Manal Abu-keren, a Bezeq employee.

Itamar Harel, vice president of Bezeq’s private marketing division, said the company recruited workers throughout Israeli society and was happy to take on the Bedouin women in the belief also that investing in their training was economically sound.

Speaking confidently in Hebrew and attired in traditional Arab garb, Bedouin women helped customers solve phone line faults from a call center housed in a mosque in a desert town in southern Israel.

Only some 20 percent of Israel’s Muslim women participate in the job market, according to official figures, and among Israel’s Bedouin, that number is even lower, at around 15 percent, Rayan told Reuters.

Now, how can the anti-Israel crowd spin this to prove Israeli Jewish racism?

That's an easy one. I figure within two days we'll see an article on Mondoweiss about how Israeli occupiers are exploiting Arab women for slave labor.

The commenters at Al Arabiya go beyond that. Charles from Saudi Arabia writes:

Why are you writing nice things about an Israeli company and the hiring of Bedouins. This must be a zionist plot to capture and enslave these women, perhaps to trade them for future israeli hostages

And Ram Jam, also from Saudi Arabia, wrote:

Women who work have higher chances of being promiscuous and unfaithful. Pick the good cherries and dump the brusied [sic] ones....

There ya go.

(h/t Zvi)

Egyptian cleric says MB candidate will liberate Jerusalem

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an address made by Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi at a rally in which he launched the presidential elections campaign for Muslim Brotherhood candidate Muhammad Mursi. The rally aired on Al-Nas TV on May 1, 2012.
Safwat Higazi : We can see how the dream of the Islamic Caliphate is being realized, Allah willing, by Dr. Muhammad Mursi and his brothers, his supporters, and his political party. We can see how the great dream, shared by us all - that of the United States of the Arabs... The United States of the Arabs will be restored, Allah willing. The United States of the Arabs will be restored by this man and his supporters.
The capital of the Caliphate - the capital of the United States of the Arabs - will be Jerusalem, Allah willing.
[...]
Ceremony leader : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Crowds : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Ceremony leader : I am an Egyptian and proud of it.
Crowds : I am an Egyptian and proud of it.
Ceremony leader : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Crowds : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Ceremony leader : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Crowds : Mursi will liberate Gaza tomorrow.
Ceremony leader : Say: "Allah Akbar."
Crowds : Allah Akbar.
Ceremony leader : Say: "Allah Akbar."
Crowds : Allah Akbar.
Ceremony leader : Say: "Allah Akbar."
Allah Akbar.
Safwat Higazi : Our capital shall not be Cairo, Mecca, or Medina. It shall be Jerusalem, Allah willing. Our cry shall be: "Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem." Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Crowds : Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Crowds : Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Safwat Higazi : Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Crowds : Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Ceremony leader : Banish the sleep from the eyes of all Jews.
Come on, you lovers of martyrdom, you are all Hamas.
From the eyes of all Jews...
Come on, you lovers of martyrdom, you are all Hamas.
Banish the sleep from the eyes of all Jews.
Come on, you lovers of martyrdom, you are all Hamas.
Forget about the whole world, forget about all the conferences.
Brandish your weapons... Say your prayers...
Brandish your weapons... Say your prayers...
And pray to the Lord.
From the eyes of all Jews...
Come on, you lovers of martyrdom...
Banish the sleep from the eyes of all Jews.
Come on, you lovers of martyrdom, you are all Hamas.
Safwat Higazi : Indeed, all the lovers of martyrdom are Hamas. I say from this podium, from Al-Mahalla, from the heart of the Delta, the heart of Egypt, so that the whole world may hear.
We say it loud and clear: Yes, Jerusalem is our goal. We shall pray in Jerusalem, or else we shall die as martyrs on its threshold.
Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.
Crowds : Millions of martyrs march toward Jerusalem.

While Mursi is behind in the polls, you can't count out the official Muslim Brotherhood candidate - and you can't trust Egyptian polls that probably undercount the rural population.

UNRWA employees in Jordan go on strike, again

From Al Arabiya:

The majority of Jordan’s 7,500 staff at the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency began an open-ended strike on Sunday after the management failed to meet their demands for better pay and conditions.

“The employees started their open-ended strike today after talks with the management failed,” a top UNRWA official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency employees, including teachers and medical staff, “have been demanding a $140 salary raise, and they do not want their annual bonus cut,” the official said.

The strike forced UNRWA’s 172 schools in Jordan to close, affecting 123,000 pupils.

Remember, the vast majority of "refugees" in Jordan hold Jordanian citizenship - meaning that they aren't refugees at all!

In other words, there is no sane reason for most of the UNRWA camps in Jordan to exist nowadays even if you accept the absurd idea that descendants of refugees are refugees themselves. Their only purposes are to prolong suffering (to pressure Israel) and to discriminate between Jordanian citizens of Palestinian origin and "normal" Jordanian citizens.

As it stands, there are no plans to reduce the number of people on UNRWA's rolls. In fact, UNRWA has no mechanism to take away "refugee" status from any of the people it is responsible for.

So we can expect more and more of these strikes by people who feel entitled to hold on to their artificial jobs for an agency whose existence should have ended in the early 1950s.

Introducing the Zionist Sausage Queen!

And here she is, decades before Lady Gaga made fashion out of meat:

Click to see entire meaty image

Maybe we should call her Lady Gaza.

Apparently, this young lady was promoting the Kosher Zion Sausage Company of Chicago, a venerable institution that existed since the Civil War as we see in this 1956 advertorial: (It is no longer in business.)

Yes, the Jewish reputation for big sausages has a factual basis.

(h/t Dan, who asked me to be careful with this sensitive information. But how could I resist?)

Dying to start a new intifada

From Ma'an yesterday:

Islamic Jihad leader Mohammad Al-Hindi warned Sunday that the death of any hunger-striking prisoner will start the third intifada, referencing the popular uprisings against Israeli occupation.

YNet reports:

Khader Adnan, who was the first prisoner to launch a hunger strike, said "from our perspective, the hunger strike will be considered a success in any case, regardless of whether the prisoners' demands are met or if they die in prison."

"If they die, the victory will be even greater," he said. "In any case, Israel will be held responsible."

This is the terrorist version of win-win.

By the way, one of the prisoners' demands is their essential human right to watch the Rotana cinema satellite channel and BBC2. Really.

Utter stupidity at 972mag

But I repeat myself....

Here's the latest in bizarre anti-Zionist thinking, by Issa Edward Boursheh, where the bizarre claim is made that allowing more citizens to vote in elections is anti-democratic:

In late March, before elections were announced, Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser revived an earlier effort to grant Israeli citizens abroad the right to vote. The argument in support of such a bill is that it could increase the level of overall voter participation. But there is every reason to believe that this is not the true concern of the current government and its leaders.

According to the report (Hebrew) by the JPPI, between 677,000 and 706,000 Israelis reside abroad; 543,000 to 572,000 will be eligible to vote, according to this paper. After all the limitations proposed, the number is reduced to a sum that could add up to about 2-3 Knesset seats (p. 11).

Proponents argue that other Western democracies allow absentee voting, including Canada, Australia and the US. But those democracies are based on universal principles of citizenship. Unlike those countries, in Israel naturalization is based almost exclusively on Jewish identity. Even with some safeguards about residency and the four-year limitation, it is Jews who are more likely to gain citizenship from Israel, and travel or live abroad.

As it stands, the bill could, de facto, lead to gerrymandering the Israeli electorate in favor of the Jewish people, upsetting even the current Jewish-weighted balance. That may eventually cause more harm than benefit to this democracy.

Get that? Since more Jews are likely to be abroad, then Jews are more likely to vote! But since Jews are more likely to be in Israel itself, doesn't that mean that Jews are more likely to vote anyway? Has Boursheh, who goes to Tel Aviv University, not noticed that Israel is a majority Jewish state? Yet to Boursheh, any plan to add more voters is automatically suspect if the majority of those voters are Jewish.

Sounds vaguely racist, no?

It gets better:

According to the Law of Return, Israel is the national home of all Jews around the world. All Jews are entitled, according to the law, to pursue citizenship practically just by stepping on Israel’s soil and by proving Jewish descent, which will turn them into voters too. ...The bill opens the door to the possibility of Jews around the world pursuing citizenship just for the purpose of voting, with only minor obstacles; and those most likely to take advantage of it are, I believe, potentially right-wing voters.

This is lunacy. It is almost unimaginable that any sane person would make a sham aliyah just to be able to vote, let alone hordes of people. The logic is bizarre, to put it mildly.

In fact, if the thesis given by the Peter Beinarts of the world are true, most American Jews actually are far more dovish than Israelis are, and many of them feel very strongly that Israel is doing the wrong thing. Wouldn't they be also likely candidates to go on sham aliyot just to vote against Likud? (Oh, sorry, they are Jewish - and automatically suspect to Boursheh anyway!)

At present, there are more than 300,000 voters who reside outside the Green Line/Israel who practice their voting right – in other words, settlers. Amongst them are government ministers and members of Knesset, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Coalition Chairman Zeev Elkin, to name two. On the other hand, more than 250,000 Palestinians who reside in East Jerusalem are residents of territory that was annexed by Israel’s Basic Law: Jerusalem yet they are not citizens of Israel and are not allowed to vote in national elections. In addition, more than 20,000 Druze live in the Golan heights with similar status to the East Jerusalemites, and they do not participate in Knesset elections either. For the record, this is partly due to the choice of these residents due to the complexity of their reality and fear of where they might end up as a result of future agreements.

So there are some 270,000 Arabs who can, if they desire, become citizens and voters - and choose not to. And this is somehow Israel's fault! (Later on he says that Israel is "denying their basic right" to vote - when it is entirely their choice.)

Wow.

There are serious problems that arise from this debate and it’s crucial to address them. First, are the Israelis who reside abroad Netanyahu’s core supporters (Netanyahu’s many Facebook fans are not from Israel)? Is that the reason he is seeking to include them?

This guy is seriously saying that Bibi's Facebook admirers in Malaysia are really right wing Jews he is trying to get to vote for him???

In reality, if Boursheh had the ability to think rationally rather than try to find a way to bash Netanyahu the Evil, he would realize that the kinds of Israelis who move abroad are the ones who are least likely to be ideological Zionists - because they left Israel! Of course this doesn't describe all of the yordim, but the chances that an Israeli who is living in Los Angeles is an idealistic, right-wing Zionist is certainly no higher than that of a random Israeli in Israel.

This is the state of anti-Zionist discourse. Assume that everything Israel does it evil, and then find insane reasons ex post facto to justify your assumption. This is pretty much the entire modus operandi at 972mag - not always so obvious, but always just as dishonest.

And here's the kicker:

This idiot works as an employee at the State Department, presumably in the US Embassy in Tel Aviv. (He also had a six week stint writing three articles for the Jerusalem Post.)

(h/t JW)

...And all that jazz

From the NYT:

Over the last 15 years, Israel has produced and exported so many serious young musicians that the jazz landscape is hard to picture without their influence, particularly in New York and especially now.

Last week the Anzic label released a pair of albums that illustrate the point: “Suite of the East,” by the bassist Omer Avital, and “Songs and Portraits,” by the collective known as Third World Love, which consists of Mr. Avital, the trumpeter Avishai Cohen, the pianist Yonatan Avishai and the drummer Daniel Freedman. (The label also released “Bamako by Bus,” by Mr. Freedman, the only member of the collective who wasn’t born in Israel.) And over the next week and a half, a different contingent of musicians will take part in Jazzrael, a festival of jazz and world music presented by the Israeli Consulate in New York.

The festival begins on Sunday night at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, with a trio led by Omri Mor, an articulate young pianist from Jerusalem. Its closing event, at Joe’s Pub on May 16, will feature the multireedist Amir Gwirtzman and the singer Nurit Galron, both traveling from Israel for the occasion.

Elsewhere on the schedule are Israeli musicians now residing in New York, like the pianist Alon Yavnai, who leads a big band at Joe’s Pub on Tuesday. A concert next Saturday at Temple Israel of the City of New York, on East 75th Street, will feature Mr. Mor, the flutist Hadar Noiberg and the accordionist Uri Sharlin, among others.

The recent outpouring of musical talent from Israel represents a different strain of Jewish jazz, one less concerned about connecting with a distant heritage. Even with a population under eight million, Israel has both the polyglot cultural mix and the educational infrastructure that are conducive to training in jazz.

Yes, the BDSers are really calling it "jazzwashing."

This also happens to be the 82nd anniversary of this:

Constantinople, May. 6 (JTA) –
Following a two week's run at a local theatre the American moving picture, "The Jazz Singer," starring Al Jolson, has been banned because it contains "Jewish religious propaganda."

But I thought Jews weren't discriminated against in Muslim countries! I thought they were only angry at "Zionists"! Hmmm...Al Jolson must have been a Zionist. Yeah, that must be it.

Is the analogy between those who boycott Israeli jazz today and those who boycotted a Jewish jazz story eight decades ago too obvious?

(The Turkish ban was lifted two months later. The Nazis were not enamored with the movie either.)

Jordanians rally against peace with Israel

From Jordan Times:

Hundreds of activists hit the streets in some urban centres in the country demanding an end to the Kingdom’s ties with Israel.

In protests organised by Islamists, leftists and youth activists, participants called on decision makers to scrap the 1994 Wadi Araba Peace Treaty, which they described as a “disaster”.

In a downtown Amman rally, some 200 leftists and youth activists called on authorities to expel the Israeli ambassador, burning US and Israeli flags and chanting: “Wadi Araba is not peace, Wadi Araba is surrender.”

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood’s youth wing rallied in downtown Amman’s Al Nakheel Square, criticising the government for maintaining ties with Tel Aviv despite Israel’s refusal to honour the agreement.

Addressing the rally of some 300 Islamists, former Muslim Brotherhood overall leader Salem Falahat criticised Amman for supporting policies of normalisation with Israel during an ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands.

Meanwhile, in a series of demonstrations held by governorate-based popular movements, hundreds of citizens rallied in Karak, Tafileh, Ajloun and Irbid, calling for an end to “normalisation” with Israel and protesting against rising prices of basic commodities.

Activists said Friday’s protests were a direct response to the appointment of Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh, a leading figure in the 1994 peace process, who recently stated that if given a second chance, he would still support the treaty, pointing out that Jordan has used the peace pact as a tool to help Palestinians and other Arabs.

Are they still considered "peace activists" when they rally against peace?

A parade in Gaza

The Nasser Saladin Brigades of the Popular Resistance Committees held a parade in Gaza on Satuday:

Hamas won't allow rallies or demonstrations that they disagree with, for example for unity with Fatah.

But this parade by a supposedly independent military force is fine, complete with weapons.

Just more proof that Hamas is encouraging the terrorists while it pretends to be comparatively "moderate" - a ploy that Yasir Arafat used to be the expert at.

Reuters' abridged history of Jews in Tunisia leaves out a lot

Reuters has an article about the upcoming annual Lag B'Omer pilgrimage of Jews to Djerba, Tunisia. The article says as background:

Tunisia’s Jewish community once numbered 100,000 people. But fear, poverty and discrimination prompted several waves of emigration after the creation of Israel in 1948. Many left after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Most went to France or Israel.

Is that an accurate description? Here is how it is described elsewhere:

After Tunisia gained independence in 1956, a series of anti-Jewish government decrees were promulgated. In 1958, Tunisia's Jewish Community Council was abolished by the government and ancient synagogues, cemeteries and Jewish quarters were destroyed for “urban renewal.”

The increasingly unstable situation caused more than 40,000 Tunisian Jews to immigrate to Israel. By 1967, the country's Jewish population had shrunk to 20,000.

During the Six-Day War, Jews were attacked by rioting Arab mobs, and synagogues and shops were burned. The government denounced the violence, and President Habib Bourguiba apologized to the Chief Rabbi. The government appealed to the Jewish population to stay, but did not bar them from leaving. Subsequently, 7,000 Jews immigrated to France.

Since 1948, 99% of Tunisia's Jews emigrated. Such a mass emigration does not come about because of vague fears or because of poverty - it comes from very specific threats to the entire community. And characterizing mob attacks on Jews and burning of synagogues "discrimination" is absurd.

While the Tunisian government has been keen on protecting its remaining Jews over the past couple of decades, it is irresponsible for Reuters to downplay the very real reasons Jews were forced to flee.

Links (Ian)

What the Palestinians Want by Khaled Abu Toameh
“The Palestinians want the US to endorse all their demands and force Israel to give them everything. Palestinians are reminded almost every day that the US, which has been providing them with billions of dollars, is a foe rather than a friend, although no one seems to ask how come a foe is so generous. US aid should be conditioned not only on transparency and accountability, but also on an end to the campaign of hatred and incitement, as officially agreed in the Oslo accords, but never implemented.”
“Many Palestinian journalists who were invited to cover the event also decided to stay away. Their representatives accused the US of supporting Israel and working toward "normalizing" relations between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Hollywood Group Takes on Music Industry Anti-Israel Boycotters
“We’ll see. But in the meantime, CCFP is determined to fight back. As Steve Schnur, worldwide head of music for Electronic Arts (EA) video games, put it: “Musicians that play there don’t have to agree with the current or previous policies of the Israeli government — but they can go there and speak toward it or against it. Where else in the Middle East can an artist do that?”

Red Hot Chili Peppers In Hot Water With BDSers
(They are playing in Lebanon as well this year, but no "pro-Palestinian" protester seems to have a problem with them playing in a country that has laws discriminating against Palestinians.)

Breaking the silence on Jewish property rights
“In 1876 Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities in Jerusalem jointly purchased the site next to Shimon Hatzaddik’s tomb. They built dwellings for the pilgrims on part of the site. The Jewish residents of some 100 homes were among the first to be expelled when hostilities broke out at the end of 1947. Arab families moved into the empty Jewish homes. From 1949 to 1967 Jews could not visit the holy sites under Jordanian rule — a violation of the 1949 armistice agreement.”

Jewish and Israeli students attacked at Toulouse university event
“Toulouse - The president of the French Jewish student organisation has called on the University of Toulouse to combat antisemitism after a talk by Israeli students last week was disrupted by protesters shouting abuse, making threats and singing antisemitic chants.”
"Security had to intervene – it was very upsetting," said Mr Reingewitz. "The protesters were saying 'get out of here' and they sang an antisemitic slogan in Arabic: Khaybar Khaybar is Yahud, Jaysh Muhammad sawfa ya'ud" (Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return)."

Two Egyptian Presidential Candidates Endorsed Jihad Against US

Red Ken is off to a career at PressTV
“Ken Livingstone announces retirement from politics after losing London Mayor election to Boris Johnson”

Vacation

I am going on a vacation this week, and am traveling today, so there will be fewer posts than normal this week. I'm queuing up what I can.

On the bright side, I should get a tan!

Israel's Bedouin out of control (JPost editorial)

This is much worse than I was aware of:

The Knesset Committee on the Status of Women last week turned its attention to Israel’s Beduin. The emergent picture was no less than shocking. Most Israelis wouldn’t imagine such repression within our enlightened country.

Pro forma, we have progressive laws that are enforced vigorously and equitably. However, beneath this enlightened surface lurks a reality so unseemly that it’s hardly inaccurate to speak of another country-with-the-country, where our system of justice is plainly absent.

That country-within-the-country is mostly located in the Negev, but not exclusively so. It thrives wherever Beduin populations congregate. In those areas our laws appear all but irrelevant.

The statistics speak for themselves. More than 70 percent of all Beduin women in Israel are wed by coercion.

Their preferences or aversions are never taken into account.

According to an exhaustive two-year survey conducted by the Itach (Women Lawyers for Social Justice) NGO, 85% of Beduin women report that they are subjected to severe physical and/or psychological violence. Of these, 90% were openly battered in public.

The researchers believe that the true situation is considerably worse because the respondents were visibly frightened and reluctant to answer questions.

It gets worse. Abused women in Beduin communities are the least likely to enlist outside help. Of them, 67% admitted that they refrain from involving outsiders in their misfortune for fear of a backlash from their families, as well as of escalated brutality, ostracism and the loss of their children.

Additionally, these women don’t on the whole have monogamous marriages. The law notwithstanding, Beduin society practices unbridled polygamy. Official Israel’s only input appears in the form of generous child allotments paid to uncontrollably outsized family frameworks, whereby a man can boast 40 or more offspring.

Such social settings do not augur well for women’s welfare.

But the abandonment of these women to a cruel fate right under our noses is only one facet of the conspiracy of silence that envelopes the Beduin enclaves. The result is large areas to which the state opts to turn a blind eye and where it doesn’t exercise its authority.

For years Negev residents have been calling their region the Wild South. The appellation stuck, and has become common also in police and political parlance, and with good reason.

There’s no denying the state of anarchy especially in Beersheba and its vicinity. Beduin operate protection rackets in broad daylight; their victims fear for their lives.

Theft and robbery are daily occurrences. Numerous homeowners pay protection fees to uninvited Beduin “guards.” The protection-providers’ threats are so potent that victims shrink from testifying. Those who stop paying face penalties. Homes are broken into and ransacked and in one case boiling tar was poured throughout the premises.

In Beersheba’s Emek Sarah industrial zone, stores are raided openly and without hesitation during business hours. Pickup trucks are driven through showroom windows and loaded with merchandise before backing out.

Some establishments have suffered numerous attacks.

Most popular are electrical appliance and building supplies outlets.

Insurance firms frequently refuse their services to local entrepreneurs. Businessmen accuse the police of apathy.

The Mekorot national water company installed hidden cameras in its many Negev installations and discovered photographic evidence of gangs dismantling pumping equipment, loading it onto trucks and then engaging in wanton sabotage of what was left, before disappearing down dusty trails. The police often prove helpless. Pumping stations are rebuilt with the clear knowledge that it is only a matter of time before they are again destroyed.

Farmers feel abandoned. Everything – from irrigation equipment to ripe produce packed for distribution – is stolen.

Thousands of illegal Beduin buildings proliferate throughout the Negev while the courts appear dormant.

The conclusion that official Israel has abandoned all authority in and around Beduin communities is inescapable. This extends to all aspects of life – from the sad status of women to drug-smuggling, human-trafficking and tax evasion.

We mustn’t lose sight of the risk that disrespect for the law might spread to other segments of society. Ignoring a problem may be easy but won’t prevent it from mushrooming.

Yet when Israel tries to enforce even the most basic of laws in the Negev, anti-Israel activists claim that they are engaging in ethnic cleansing.

See also my previous post here.

(h/t Sophie)