Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 27, 2014

02/27 Links Pt1: Hamas says Teaching Human Rights is Against Palestinian, Islamic Culture

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas: Teaching Human Rights is Against Palestinian, Islamic Culture

What is also worrying Hamas is that UNRWA is seeking to teach Palestinian children about the disastrous repercussions of wars and violence by depicting a child burning a military uniform. "This does not serve the cause of human rights," the Hamas official said. "They want to raise children on calmness."
The Hamas protests forced UNRWA to suspend its plan to teach the subject of human rights in its schools. Some Palestinians criticized UNRWA for "succumbing" to threats, while others said they were aware that the international agency had no choice but to comply.
In an attempt to calm Hamas, UNRWA denied that its school curriculum contravened Palestinian tradition and culture.
A spokesman for UNRWA said that his agency consults with "all components of Palestinian society" about its human rights courses.
Hamas's real problem with the UNRWA curriculum is that it could spoil the Islamist movement's ongoing efforts to stir the hearts and minds of Palestinian children to wage jihad against the "enemies" of Islam.
Hamas wants Palestinian children to be taught how to become suicide bombers and seek the death of Jews and "infidels."

Israeli Foreign Ministry report on PA incitement with links to PMW reports

This week, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a press release criticizing Palestinian Authority incitement. The government's release included a section entitled "Examples of Incitement" with examples taken from Palestinian Media Watch reports. PMW welcomes the Israeli government's utilization of our findings. Below is a shortened version of the MFA press release into which we have added links to the original PMW bulletins to enable viewing of the videos, reading of the full translated texts and citation of the original sources:

IAEA nixed delicate report on Iran nuclear program

A UN report on Iran’s nuclear program was shelved by the International Atomic Energy Agency for fear that publicizing sensitive information contained within the report would anger Tehran and harm the international community’s efforts to reach an interim agreement with the Islamic Republic, Reuters reported Thursday.
Sources familiar with the subject told the news agency that the IAEA had planned last year to issue the report, which contained what one source called worrying information about the state of Iran’s nuclear program. This may have included new information on the possible military aspects of the program.
But officials decided against it after Iran and Western powers announced they would begin negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear aspirations.

David Ze'ev Jablinowitz is an English-language Kol Israel reporter. This is from his Facebook page:

So I'm speaking on a US campus, and during the question time that followed my remarks, a student asks how it can be that Judaism is older than Islam if the State of Israel wasn't established until 1948.

He adds:

This anecdote is part of an upcoming article; will keep you posted.

I am looking forward to it!

A commenter asked him what he answered, and he replied, "We have a little work to do here."

Unfortunately, he wouldn't say what campus he was on at the time.

(h/t Yisrael Medad)

Muslims attack church in Gaza

Palestine Press Agency reports that two nights ago people attacked a Latin church in Gaza City, and they spray painted slogans against attacks on Muslims in the Central African Republic.

The attackers tried to blow up a car belonging to the pastor, Father Jorge Hernández, but their Molotov cocktail failed to ignite.

Before they left the scene the attackers wrote that they vowed revenge for the Muslims in the Central African Republic, writing "The days of you O worshipers of the cross, in revenge for the Muslims in Central Africa."

Gaza has about a thousand Christians remaining after a series of attacks in the early days of Hamas rule.

Proof of bias in Amnesty's "Trigger-Happy" report

As I mentioned yesterday, Amnesty released a ridiculously biased report against Israel this morning. Now that the report is released, we can confirm Amnesty's bias.

Here is their commentary on one incident, in August in Qalandiya, where the IDF fired live ammunition at stone throwers:

Although the army stated that Palestinians were posing a danger to Israeli soldiers’ lives when the latter opened fire, the fact that one soldier only was lightly injured in the incident inevitably raises the question whether the Israeli soldiers who used live ammunition gunfire against the Palestinians protesters acted proportionately or resorted to the use of lethal force when this was not justified.

Here is video of the incident. Notice the size of the stones being thrown, including those stockpiled on the roofs, as well as some stones coming from much higher roofs that are out of the view of the camera:

Nah, nothing life-threatening about that!

According to Amnesty, the IDF must wait until a soldier is killed before using lethal force. I guess there is a concept in international law that I am unaware of that you may not defend yourself until you are physically injured first.

Or does that only apply to a single party?

A quick comparison:

This report on Israel killing (by Amnesty's count) 22 civilians in 2013 is 87 pages long. It goes into detail about every single one of those deaths, humanizing the victims and interviewing multiple friends of each, al lin an attempt to paint Israel in the worst light possible.

Amnesty's report about Egyptian repression since July 2013, where 1400 people were killed, is only 49 pages long. It only provides details on a few specific cases, and most of those aren't even for people being killed but for other violations of human rights.

In the report about Israel, Amnesty serves as judge and jury in its "conclusions and recommendations:"

Israeli soldiers have repeatedly committed serious human rights and humanitarian law violations, including unlawful killings, in response to Palestinian opposition and protests in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The cases documented in this report represent only a minority of the cases that have occurred over recent years and which follow a general pattern, in which Israeli forces use excessive, often lethal, force against Palestinians who pose no threat to their lives or the lives of others. Soldiers are permitted to do so effectively with impunity – inasmuch as the official system established to investigate alleged human rights violations or other abuses by Israeli soldiers is neither independent nor impartial. This creates a situation of absolute absence of justice and the growing environment of impunity which the Israeli army and police enjoy

But for Egypt, Amnesty makes no such determinations. It does not flatly accuse Egyptian forces of human rights violations. It is merely "concerned" about the 1400 deaths, sexual abuse cases and destruction of basic freedoms:

Amnesty International is concerned that the Egyptian authorities are utilizing all branches of
the state apparatus to trample on human rights and quash dissent. Armed with repressive
legislation, including the latest assembly law; unaccountable security forces ready to
implement it against political opponents; and a complacent judicial system that punishes
critics while allowing perpetrators of human rights violations to walk free – the Egyptian
authorities have the necessary tools to take the country further on the path of repression.
Unless, the authorities change course and comply with commitments to respect human rights
and the rule of law, the future of Egypt looks bleak and the hopes of the “25 January
Revolution” have little chance of becoming a reality.

The anti-Israel bias is blatant.

The epic meltdown of an Israel hater at UCLA (NOW WITH MUSIC VIDEO!)

If you haven't seen this yet, you have got to check it out. From The Daily Caller:

A student at the University of California Los Angeles broke down in tears after the student government voted against the resolution she favored, which would have condemned the state of Israel and asked the university to support divestment.

The unnamed student was taking notes at the meeting where the vote occurred, according to Legal Insurrection. After the result — a 7-5 vote against the anti-Israel resolution — was announced, the student began crying hysterically and swearing at the student representatives for their failure to take a firm anti-Israel stance.

I wasn't going to post this, but I promised commenter jzaik that I would if he could provide a transcript. It is far from complete but it is the best anyone has. And even his best guesses are funny.

I never talk and I'm always like
(I don't always on the side..)
I always like respect all of you all so much.
But I've never been more F'ing disappointed than tonight.
Voting yes......Terrorize.
I respect all of you all so much.
I'm not like trying to be..
I'm so deep throat?
And I always bite my tongue through these meetings.
But I have my opinions
But I've never been so F'ing disappointed than tonight.
And we could've stopped it.
And we F'ing blew it.
I'm sorry. 12 hours
I'm sorry I'm like
And I'm just so disappointed.
I just want you to know that like
I know I've like done it all the time
But like..I still think it
And there were so many.....
I don't understand...
last thing
he got Paris.
it was just so terrible
And my sister was like
Cause she saw me on live screen
She's like oh what's wrong...why are you crying?
The whole world should be crying right now.

UPDATE: I couldn't resist.

02/26 Links Pt2: Norwegian Chain Quits SodaStream Boycott; ASA Cal. rejects Israel Boycott

From Ian:

Norwegian Store Chain Drops SodaStream Boycott

MIFF notified Staples it would publicize that Staples was a boycotting company, thus potentially hindering its international sales. Staples announced: “We want to make it clear: We still sells SodaStream. We take no position on political issues.”
General data shows BDS organizations have failed not only with Staples and SodaStream, but in regards to all trade between Israel a Norway. Norway’s Bureau of Statistics has recently published the preliminary figures for Norwegian external trade in 2013, and statistics show that Norwegian imports from Israel were at a total of 807 million Norwegian Krones (NOK), ($131 million), up from 761 million NOK in 2012.
In fact, for the fifth consecutive year imports from Israel to Norway have increased more than imports from other countries.

California Chapter of ASA refuses to apply anti-Israel academic boycott

Despite the ASA Executive Committee attempt to shut down the flow of information to me from ASA Regional Chapters, I again reached out to multiple Chapters as to whether the boycott would be applied at the regional level.
I can confirm that one of the most active ASA Chapters — the California American Studies Association (CASA) — will not apply the boycott to any of its activities, incuding the upcoming regional conference in April in Berkeley.
…. CASA has no intention of adhering to the ASA resolution; the boycott guidelines will not be applied to our upcoming conference in April…. The CASA officers discussed the ASA resolution, and we all agreed that CASA would not abide by the boycott.

UCLA Student Council rejects anti-Israel divestment resolution

After an all-night session, the UCLA student council defeated an ant-Israel divestment resolution by a vote of 7-5. (Featured image is moment vote announced.)
The vote received enormous attention, and was trending in the U.S. on Twitter.
This is a huge defeat for BDS on campus. Divestment resolutions recently were overturned at UC-Riverside and defeated at UC-Santa Barbara. I can’t say whether this is a national trend, but it does signify that pro-Israel students now are more organized than in the past.

BDS bad Karma: Co-op to report worst results in history

The Co-op Group's losses for 2013 are expected to be greater than £2bn, by far the worst in its history, when they are announced on 26 March.
I also understand that as the first stage in trying to revitalise the group as a whole, its chief executive, Euan Sutherland, will tell members of the Co-op's regional boards on Saturday that its substantial farming operation, which includes 15 farms, will be sold.
He will also reveal that Co-op is actively considering the sale of its 750 pharmacies, which generated revenues of £764m in 2012. "They are likely to be sold, but a formal decision hasn't yet been made," said a source. (h/t Rabbi Burns)

Jordanian group intimidating stores into not selling Israeli products

A new Jordanian group to boycott Israeli goods has started going to stores in Jordan to ensure that they do not sell any "enemy" products.

When stores are found to adhere to the boycott, they are asked to prominently display this tasteful poster of a bloody handprint on an Israeli flag so people know they can buy goods safely there.

The poster says:

Don't pay the price of the bullet that kills our sons
This store has no enemy products

The Nasheron gathering - cleansing initiative

According to the organizers, 30% of Jordan's shops already don't sell Israeli goods, 50% weren't aware of the issue and are willing to join the boycott, and 20% don't care.

Judging from the history of anti-Israel boycotts, we can expect soon to see violent threats and physical attacks against stores that sell Israeli goods in Jordan.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Amnesty proves its anti-Israel bias yet again

Tomorrow, Amnesty International is releasing a new anti-Israel report.

Before it is even released, we already know how ridiculously biased against Israel it will be - because of the title.

It is called "Trigger-happy: Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank."

Let's look at some numbers.

Last year, according to B'Tselem and the UN, the IDF killed 27 Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank. Compared to 2012, when 8 were killed in 2012, that is a 237% increase. It can be assumed that Amnesty will trumpet that number as evidence of the "trigger-happy" IDF.

What the report won't calculate is the percentage increase of Israeli deaths at the hand of West Bank Palestinian Arabs during the year. You see, in 2012, there were no Israelis killed by Arabs from the WB, but in 2013 there were five.

That's not an increase of 237% or 1000% or a million percent. That is an increase of infinity percent.

If Amnesty is going to compare percentages between two years, they should do it for both sides of the equation. But you know they won't, just like the UN didn't.

Now, let's return to the title.

Of the 27 killed, according to B'Tselem, the vast majority were either known terrorists, were involved in throwing stones or Molotov cocktails at soldiers, or were resisting arrest raids. Maybe 5 or 6 were in the wrong place at the wrong time during riots.

That isn't exactly wonderful, but it is a far cry from "trigger happy." One killed every two weeks when there are several violent riots every week, and over 75% of those killed being involved in attacking the soldiers first or being terrorists, is hardly a bad record and far from indicating the IDF being "trigger happy."

In contrast, in Egypt earlier this year, in a single day, over 54 protesters were killed. since July there have been nearly 1500 killed by Egyptian security forces. They are not called "trigger happy" by Amnesty.

In the Ukraine, more than 70 protesters were killed last week. Amnesty did not call Kiev's police "trigger happy."

Venezuela killed 11 protesters in the past couple of weeks. Nothing about them being called "trigger happy" by Amnesty.

Amnesty has never titled any other of its reports with the phrase "trigger happy."

All the others countries, while perhaps acting excessively, aren't as anxious to kill as those bloodthirsty, trigger-happy Zionist Jews, if reading Amnesty's report titles indicates anything.

We already knew that Amnesty was hopelessly biased. I've seen it first hand.

This is just another in the long line of examples, and yet another reason to prove that at least when it comes to Israel, Amnesty is utterly untrustworthy and hateful.

(h/t NGO Monitor)

02/26 Links Pt1: Amnesty's Moazzam Begg Arrested in Terror Case; Jordan's Panic over Peace Talks

From Ian:

Ex-Gitmo detainee latest to be suspected of terrorism

Western human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, promoted Begg's account of his experiences as a U.S. detainee but their association with him was controversial even among their own staffers.
Gita Sahgal, who headed Amnesty International's gender unit, was suspended by the organization in 2010 after objecting to Amnesty's association with Begg, whom she described as a leader of a pro-jihadi group and "Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban," according to the London paper The Guardian.
The arrest of a former Guantanamo prisoner in England on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism is the latest example of a failed release program that is setting free unrepentant jihadists, an analyst says.
United Kingdom authorities on Tuesday arrested Moazzam Begg, a British citizen of Pakistani descent, on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism in Syria. Three others were arrested with him.

Guardian fails to reveal that Brit arrested for terror is ‘Comment is Free’ contributor

As we first learned from Guido Fawkes, Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who became a spokesman for the “human rights” group Cageprisoners, was arrested by British police on Tuesday morning for terror offences which he is alleged to have committed in Syria.
Begg is widely believed by American intelligence officials to have been a jihadist involved with Al-Qaida and reportedly attended terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the UK “so he could assist in waging jihad against enemies of Islam.” Begg reportedly assisted several prominent terrorists, recruited young operatives for jihad and provided financial support for terror camps.

Amnesty International Report Reflects Lack of Expertise and Methodology

Report based on faulty data calls for sanctions, coincides with annual BDS campaign
Jerusalem – A report scheduled to be released by Amnesty International tomorrow, Trigger-happy: Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank, falsely and maliciously accuses Israel of “callous disregard for human life,” according to analysis by NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research organization. The report also repeats Amnesty’s calls for political warfare against Israel, in the form of an arms embargo.
“Amnesty International accusations are reckless, blatantly biased, and reflect the lack of a credible research fact-finding methodology,” said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. “Amnesty lacks the expertise and credibility to analyze or assign blame for deaths in the context of violent confrontations in the West Bank. As in the past, the allegations in this report repeat unverifiable Palestinian ‘testimony.’”

Peter Beinart, hypocrite

From Peter Beinart in Haaretz:

Last spring, some students at New York’s most prestigious Orthodox Jewish high school, Ramaz, eager for a greater diversity of perspectives on Israel, invited me to speak to their club. I did - and enjoyed it immensely - but told them I hadn’t solved their problem. If they wanted a truly open discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I ventured, they needed to do more than hear from both hawkish and dovish Zionists. They needed to hear from Palestinians.

To my surprise, they asked me to help make it happen. I recommended Columbia Professor Rashid Khalidi, partly because he’s a world-renowned expert on Palestinian history and partly because I know Orthodox Jewish graduate students who consider him a mentor and friend. Khalidi agreed; the students were thrilled. He was set to speak on February 19.

Next thing I knew, the head of the Ramaz Upper School had canceled the talk and students had gathered a petition demanding “open dialogue” about Israel.

...What does it say about the administrators at Ramaz that after immersing their high school students in a passionately Zionist environment for years and years, they lack the self-confidence to expose them to one lecture from a Palestinian?

When Peter Beinart was the editor of the ill-fated "Open Zion" experiment, he did not seek to include a single Jewish resident of Judea and Samaria as a regular writer. (He had one token right winger, and people he claimed were right-wingers but who support a two-state solution.)

I have never seen a Jewish resident of Judea and Samaria invited to speak at any event at Amnesty International, at Human Rights Watch, at any non explicitly Zionist event at any university, at any "Jewish Voice for Peace" event, or at any "Peace Now" event.

Why isn't Beinart deriding all of these groups for being against "open dialogue?" Doesn't their failure to invite right-wing Zionists to speak prove their lack of self-confidence in their positions?

Oh, no. Only right wing Zionists and right wing Orthodox Jews are uninterested in dialogue.

The media is filled with anti-Zionism as a given. The idea that Jews have a right to live in their ancestral lands - even those legally purchased by their very grandfathers - is anathema in the press. Right-wing Zionists are far, far more exposed to leftist opinions than vice versa. The extent of leftist knowledge of right-wing Zionist positions is that they are all either religious fanatics or hell-bent on ethnic cleansing; they could not even fathom any arguments for Jews living in Judea and Samaria based on international law, human rights or basic ethics. I've seen their arguments, and they do not usually go beyond proof by assertion. Doesn't that betray a lack of self-confidence in their positions?

Beinart, supposedly so interested in openness, only advocates openness for one side.

High school students don't exactly have the most mature knowledge of subject matter, yet Beinart insists that Zionist students be exposed to positions that go against their upbringing and their parents' wishes. But right-wingers are not welcome by leftist groups meant for adults!

Who is lacking self confidence?

Are there any Catholic high schools that would invite an atheist to speak to their students? Are there any that would invite gay activists to speak to their students? For that matter, would any public high schools ask people who advocate open marriages to speak? Would they invite the people behind websites that encourage people to cheat on their spouses to discuss Internet entrepreneurship? Isn't everything fair game? Doesn't this show a lack of self-confidence?

Or is that only an issue for Zionist Orthodox Jewish high school students?

If Ramaz students want to hear from Khalidi, there is no shortage of ways for them to access his books and articles. No one is stopping them. But that doesn't mean that their private school must invite an entire gamut of opinion that is antithetical to what that school teaches. This is common sense - to all except Peter Beinart.

Even worse, Khalidi - who Beinart praises so highly and wants to speak to young Zionists - is a liar. He claims that the 1936 riots that killed hundreds in Palestine were "non-violent." He claims that Jews are not a people. He lies about Avigdor Lieberman's positions. His history is filled with inaccuracies. And here we see that he pushes bizarre conspiracy theories.

So Beinart wants a lying, viciously anti-Israel activist who is against a two-state solution to spout propaganda to impressionable young Jews, but he does not say a word about dedicated Zionists making a fair case to non- and anti-Zionists. (Of course, Beinart's brand of "Zionism" is the most right-wing that is acceptable for dialogue, everyone to the right of him must not be heard.)

Is that hypocritical? You bet.

(h/t Alex)

Hezbollah on Tuesday charged Israel with planning to demolish the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Now, where have I heard that before?

Maybe in 1929.

And in 1931, seen here.

And in 1936.

And 1991.

And in 2001.

And in 2007.

And in 2009.

And in 2010.

And in 2012.

And in 2013. Including from Abbas.

It sure takes a long time to do a simple demolition job, doesn't it? It's taking Israel longer to destroy it than it took people to build it!

Egyptian army says it cures AIDS, hepatitis C (update)

On Sunday, the Egyptian army held a press conference where they announced that after years of research, they have developed cures for the AIDS and hepatitis C viruses.

The cures are virtually total and there are no side effects, according to the spokesmen.

The cure seems to be a combination of pills and some sort of medical device. It was found ten years after the army came up with a simple device to detect the viruses.

After animal testing, clinical trials showed a near-100% cure rate.

According to documents shown in this stirring video announcement, the devices use "innovative electro-magnetic signals" to eliminate the diseases.

Here is a picture of the device that either detects or cures the disease. It does not touch the patient at all!

The President of Egypt as well as General Sisi and other officials praised the announcement.

Unfortunately, a leading Egyptian scientist is raining on this parade.

Dr. Essam Heggy, Science Advisor to the President of the Republic, launched a sharp attack on the invention, describing the innovation as a "scientific scandal." In remarks to Al-Watan newspaper, he said that the invention is not convincing and has no scientific basis and this is clear from the demonstration of the device which was broadcast on TV. In addition nothing about this "cure" has been published in any prestigious scientific journals.

"In my personal opinion this hurts the image of the state, and would be counterproductive in scientific research, and I had hoped that there will be greater advanced warning about what was said in the dissemination of such information," Heggy said.

"I want to be clear and explicit, what has been said and published about the invention of the armed forces hurts the image of scientists and science in Egypt; the foreign press will translate the press conference announcing the invention and it will be used negatively in abusing the image Egypt internationally."

UPDATE: MEMRI has video, and it is hilarious:

NYU responds about Lisa Duggan's anti-Israel ASA conference

JTA picked up on my scoop about the anti-Israel ASA conference scheduled for NYU this weekend:

The New York University American studies program’s annual conference this year is focused on the boycott-Israel movement and dominated by its supporters.

The student-organized conference is scheduled to take place this Friday and Saturday and is titled “Circuits of Influence: U.S., Israel and Palestine.”

A flyer advertising the conference promises discussion on how “recent American Studies scholarship on the political economy of racialization, empire, and settler colonialism led the highlighting of this particular ‘triangle.’”

The flyer notes the American Studies Association’s decision in December to boycott Israeli educational institutions.

Lisa Duggan, a professor of social and cultural analysis at NYU who is the president-elect of the ASA, is moderating one of the conference’s panels, on the “History & Efficacy of Boycotts.”

Individuals and organizations identified with the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement feature throughout the conference.

The conference’s three workshop sessions are all led by representatives of groups that advocate for various Israel-related boycotts: Adalah-NY, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. These sessions focus on activism, with titles like “Movement Building,” “Student Organizing” and “Public Engagement.”

A pro-Israel blog, Elder of Ziyon, on Sunday re-posted the conference flyer after Duggan posted it on Facebook. In a comment below her Facebook post, Duggan asked that the flyer not be widely distributed, writing, “We are trying to avoid press, protestors and public attention.”

NYU downplayed the event:

In a statement issued to JTA, New York University said that the conference was intended for academics, not the press or the public.

“This weekend’s American Studies Program Annual Conference is an annual academic conference that is organized by graduate students in NYU’s American Studies Program and designed for faculty and students in this and related disciplines,” said Philip Lentz, the university’s director of public affairs. “Given the purpose of the conference and space considerations, it is not open to the general public or the press.”

Duggan told JTA in an email that nothing was unusual about how the conference was planned or announced.

“It is not ‘secret,’ it is simply a limited registration academic conference, not a public event,” she wrote in her email.

She said that the student organizers did not deserve to be caught up in “the maelstrom of publicity surrounding the ASA boycott vote.”

“I wish our students could have their conference in relative peace and obscurity, as is usual for their conferences,” she wrote.

This is somewhat contradicted by Duggan's Facebook post about the conference, where she urged like-minded Israel bashers to "Feel free to share [the conference invitation] with friends, colleagues and grad students." She said nothing about limiting it to faculty and students only.

Likewise, the registration page says nothing about the conference only being intended for academics and students. And neither did the flyer.

It appears that this limitation on who could attend was created after the publicity from my scoop. I am quite certain that if Mondoweiss or Electronic Intifada wanted to send someone to report about the conference, no one there would have objected. In fact, I still expect them to post articles about the conference afterwards.

NYU is simply covering for its American Studies Program and trying to avoid bad publicity.

02/25 Links Pt2: German Paper Depicts Zuckerberg as Hook-Nosed Octopus; Harold Ramis dies at 69

From Ian:

Palestinian State of Failure

A fascinating discussion from Jonathan Schanzer on the John Batcheler show.
Listen to the whole thing and learn yourself something.
I was not aware, until Batcheler’s introductory comments, about the NYC bomb plot targeting Golda Meir. Guess who uncovered the plot. The NSA.
Note how Fatah was formed in 1959, 8 years before the “occupation” of the West Bank. It’s never been about the West Bank, it’s been the failure to recognize Israel, and the use of the “peace process” as just a stepping stone.
Schanzer’s book is State of Failure: Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State.

The punching bag bigots of anti-Israel boycotts

The question worth asking would be; what drives elements like Hamas and Hezbollah to hate Israel. It is not about the “settlements”, the “refugees” and the “occupation”. It is about the very existence of Israel; the existence of a free, humane and enlightened society in a neighborhood of bigotry, despotism and tyranny.
The contempt and hatred of Israel is in fact contempt and hatred of Western Democracy and Civilization. The radical Left in the West hates the values signified by Israel just as much as the religious supremacists in the Arab world do. It is a match made in hell in which the BDS campaign plays cupid bringing these sadists and masochists together to form an unholy alliance.
It would be hilarious, if it wasn’t so tragic. The BDS campaign uses the avenues and free spaces provided by the liberal and open societies to hit at the very core of values that built them in the first place. It uses University campuses, faculty unions and student bodies to divide and polarize. It targets trade unions, local communities and churches to spread the mean-spirited gospel of BDS.
The BDS campaign will never achieve its intended goal of “bringing Israel to its knees”. However, it is bound to have unintended consequences.
The practitioners of BDS are bent upon disrupting the free flow of knowledge, academic discourse and civilizational advancement in the Western World. They must not be allowed to do so, for we are all in peril if they are.

Stand With US "Divestment" in Action on Campus

Naftali Bennett on BBC Hardtalk (video)

(h/t Yerushalimey)

The truth behind Palestinian water libels

Two weeks ago I noted how the PLO was successfully using water as a weapon against Israel.

Here is the beginning of a must-read paper by Prof. Haim Gvirtzman showing the truth about the water situation in the territories.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Water shortages in the Palestinian Authority are the result of Palestinian policies that deliberately waste water and destroy the regional water ecology. The Palestinians refuse to develop their own significant underground water resources, build a seawater desalination plant, fix massive leakage from their municipal water pipes, build sewage treatment plants, irrigate land with treated sewage effluents or modern water-saving devices, or bill their own citizens for consumer water usage, leading to enormous waste. At the same time, they drill illegally into Israel’s water resources, and send their sewage flowing into the valleys and streams of central Israel. In short, the Palestinian Authority is using water as a weapon against the State of Israel. It is not interested in practical solutions to solve the Palestinian people’s water shortages, but rather perpetuation of the shortages and the besmirching of Israel.

A significant public debate has been sparked by the assertion of European Parliament President Martin Schulz that the amount of water available to the average Israeli unfairly overwhelms the amount of water available to the average Palestinian. The main issue that should be discussed – and has not been sufficiently analyzed – is: What are the causes of Palestinian water supply problems?

The discussion must be informed by the following basic facts:

1. The Oslo agreements grant the Palestinians the right to draw 70 million cubic meters from the Eastern Mountain Aquifer (ground water reservoir). Yet this water resource is not currently being capitalized on by the Palestinians; the waters spill untapped underground into the Dead Sea. As per the Israeli-Palestinian agreement, some 40 sites were identified for drilling into this aquifer in the eastern Hebron hills region, and permits were granted to the Palestinians by the Israel-PA Joint Water Committee. Nevertheless, over the past 20 years, the Palestinians have drilled at just one-third of these sites, despite the fact that the international community has offered to finance the drilling of all sites. If the Palestinians were to drill and develop all these wells, they could have completely solved the existing water shortage in the Hebron hills region. But the Palestinians have preferred to drill wells on the Western Mountain Aquifer, the basin that provides groundwater to the State of Israel. Instead of solving the problem they have chosen to squabble with Israel.

2. The Palestinians do not bother fixing water leaks in city pipes. Up to 33 percent of water in Palestinian cities is wasted through leakage. Upkeep on the Palestinians’ urban water infrastructure has been completely neglected. By comparison, leakage from Israeli municipal water pipes amount to only 10 percent of water usage.

3. The Palestinians refuse to build water treatment plants, despite their obligation to do so under the Oslo agreement. Sewage flows out of Palestinian towns and villages directly into local streams, thereby polluting the environments and the aquifer and causing the spread of disease. Despite the fact that donor countries are willing to fully fund the building of treatment plants, the Palestinians have managed to avoid their obligations to build such facilities. (Only over the past two years has Israeli pressure moved the PA forward a bit on this matter.)

4. The Palestinians absolutely refuse to irrigate their agricultural fields with treated sewage effluents. By comparison, more than half the agricultural fields in Israel are irrigated with treated waste water. Irrigating Palestinian agricultural fields with recycled water instead of fresh water would free up large amounts of water for home usage. This would greatly reduce the water shortage in many places.

5. Some Palestinian farmers irrigate their fields by flooding, rather than with drip irrigation technology. Drip irrigation, as practiced in Israel, brings water directly to the root of each plant, thereby reducing water consumption by more than 50 percent. Flooding fields causes huge water evaporation and leads to great waste.

6. The international community has offered to build a desalination plant for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians have refused this gift. A desalination plant could completely solve the Gaza Strip’s water shortages. The Palestinians refuse to build this plant because they claim they have the right to access the fresh groundwater reservoir in Judea and Samaria, and they are prepared to suffer until they realize this dream. In the meanwhile, Gaza residents suffer from severe shortages of water.

These basic, undeniable facts are extremely important because they have wide-ranging consequences.

Today, the Palestinians consume some 200 million cubic meters of water per annum in Judea and Samaria. The Palestinians could easily raise that amount by at least 50 percent, without any additional assistance or allocation from the State of Israel. This would require several simple actions:

If the Palestinians were to begin drilling the Eastern Mountain Aquifer, at the sites already approved for drilling, they very quickly would secure an additional 50 million cubic meters of water per year.

If the Palestinians were to reduce urban water waste from 33 percent to 20 percent by fixing the main leaks in their urban water pipes (something that can be done without great effort), they would immediately benefit from 10 million additional cubic meters of water per annum.

If the Palestinians were to collect and treat their urban waste water, they would gain at least 30 million cubic meters of water a year. This would free up 30 million cubic meters (per annum) of fresh water, currently used for agriculture, for home usage. This would allow them both to improve their urban water supply and to expand agricultural lands.

If the Palestinians were to adopt drip irrigation technology, they would save 10 million cubic meters a year. This would allow them to expand their irrigated lands.

In the Gaza Strip, too, the Palestinians could easily double the amount of water available, without additional assistance from the State of Israel. If the Palestinians agreed to build a desalination plant on the Gaza coast (funded entirely by the international community), they would increase the amount of water available by 60 to 100 million cubic meters a year. If they fix leakages, treat and recycle sewage, and adopt drip irrigation, they would double their water allocation, as well.

...The sum total of the situation described above is that the Palestinian Authority is using water as a weapon against the State of Israel. It is more interested in reducing the amount of water available to Israel, polluting natural reservoirs, harming Israeli farmers, and sullying Israel’s reputation around the world than truly solving water problems for the Palestinian people. The Palestinians are not interested in practical solutions to address shortages; rather, they seek to perpetuate the shortages, and to blame the State of Israel.

Unfortunately, President Schulz’s Knesset address, with its seemingly straightforward but baseless accusations against Israel, suggests that the PA is succeeding in this effort to befuddle international observers and besmirch Israel.

An astonishing 150-200 million cubic meters of water a year are available to Palestinian Arabs, virtually for free, with only changes to policy and accepting help from the West. They are refusing to take it.

This proves two things:

Palestinian Arab leaders don't care about their own people.
Rather than act as a peace partner, Palestinian Arab leaders prioritize demonizing and damaging Israel in the international arena.

The water issue is merely a symptom, albeit a very important symptom, of a much larger problem, a problem that the international community refuses to recognize. Every single action that the Palestinian Arab leaders - namely, all of their "red lines" in negotiations with Israel - adhere to these same two principles.

And the world closes its eyes.

02/25 Links Pt1: The Myth of Israel’s Refusal to Make “Tough Decisions” for Peace

From Ian:

The Myth of Israel’s Refusal to Make “Tough Decisions” for Peace

The relentless calls for Israel to take difficult decisions for peace not only neglect to account for the attitude of the Palestinian side but also of the extensive concessions already offered by the Israelis. Both under Ehud Barak during the Camp David talks in 2000 and certainly under Ehud Olmert in 2008, Israel’s offers for peace went just about as far as possible without Israel either ceasing to exist as a Jewish state or rendering its remaining territory indefensible. Similarly, the current Israeli negotiating position does not appear to be measurably different from that of Barak or Olmert’s. Certainly, if Prime Minister Netanyahu’s negotiating stance was falling significantly short of previous offers then his dovish chief negotiator, Tzipi Livni, who served in the Olmert government and remains a political rival to Netanyahu, would doubtless call him out on this. Israel is once again offering as much as it can without ceasing to survive as Israel. But then this is the crux of the matter. It really looks as if it may just be the case that no offer that leaves the Jewish state in existence will be acceptable to Palestinians. (h/t Bob Knot)

Challenging the Long-Held Notion That Israeli Settlements Are ‘Illegal’

In a 2010 column for the American Interest, Nicholas Rostow, then-counsel and vice chancellor for legal affairs at the State University of New York and today director of the Center for Strategic Research at National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies, described five of the arguments made by those who disagree that the Geneva Convention prohibits Jewish Israelis from living legally in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
In their view, the Geneva Convention is inapplicable because under Article 2, the Convention applies only to territory that is occupied by “a High Contracting Party.” Because no country has a legally recognized claim to the “occupied territories,” the argument goes, the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem do not belong to any contracting party.
Rostow wrote: “In making this argument, advocates of legality stress that the international community did not recognize Jordan’s annexation of the West Bank and that now Jordan has withdrawn its claim.”

Terrorism pays – literally

Nor is jail time a deterrent. “Nobody believes they’re going to serve [a full] sentence,” he said, “because they are going to be part of the next prisoner release, or of the next discussion even to have a discussion about a prisoner release.”
Indeed.
This travesty is supervised by the Palestinian Ministry for Prisoners and written into PA legislation. The law determines an ascending pay scale for terrorists: The more the carnage and the longer the prison term, the higher the salary.
According to [Edwin] Black, “This takes up $5-7 million a month – approximately six percent – of the PA budget. If you add in the other payments [to terrorists] for weddings, social events, special bonuses, academic scholarships, it comes to 16% of the Palestinian budget.
"And where does the money come from? From American and European taxpayers.”
Until the blood-for-money law is rescinded, he said, “There can be no peace between Palestinians and Israelis.”

Ukranian, Arab, Iranian, French antisemites together blame Jews for Ukraine violence

It seems to have started with an Iranian PressTV reporting:

Ukrainian media have reported that a former Israeli army officer is playing a leading role in the anti-government protests in the former Soviet republic.

According to reports, the unnamed Israeli commands a group of 20 Ukrainian militants.

Four other Israelis, who had previously served in the army, were recently reported to have taken part in opposition rallies in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev.

They were born in Ukraine but migrated to Israel and joined its armed forces before returning to the European country for the demonstrations.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian media said that an Israeli tycoon provides financial support to the opposition in Ukraine, adding that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency is one of the instigators of the unrest in the country.

That's it. No names, no source listed, nothing. Yet it was quoted by International Business Times (UK). (UPDATE: There are sources for this.)

Then a little known French antisemitic website named "PlanetNonViolence" claimed that "the Jewish mafia" is behind the Ukrainian protests, that Israel is sending "surveillance equipment and other high tech gadgets ostensibly to protect Jews" to the region, and that Israel is fomenting violence in order to get Jews to leave the Ukraine and move to Israel.

Now mainstream Arab media is reporting all of this as fact, adding that a Jewish Ukranian businessman, Viktor Pinchuk, is also acting behind the scenes to foment revolution so he can get the Ukraine to get into the orbit of the EU to help his fortune.

No doubt the Jew-haters will claim that the Mossad was behind this Molotov cocktail attack on a synagogue in Zaporozhye on Monday, captured by security cameras.

State Dept envoy met with viciously anti-Israel Palestinian Christians

Yesterday I reported that the US State Department silently sent its new head of Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, Shaun Casey, to meet with Palestinian Christian leaders, although apparently not to meet with Jewish leaders.

The leaders that Casey chose to meet with are anti-Israel (and antisemitic) extremists.

Yisrael Medad points out that Bishop Munib Younan of the Lutheran Church, who Casey met, signed the Kairos Palestine document which argues, on theological grounds, that the concept of a Jewish state is illegitimate and an affront to human rights. It also implicitly supports anti-Israel terror and it implies that the "occupation" is over all of British Mandate Palestine, not just the portions over the Green Line.

However, Younan is not only a signatory to this anti-Israel screed - he was one of the authors. He later asked to have that role erased so he could maintain his relationship with Israeli and Jewish leaders.

Another bishop that Casey met with is even worse. In an interview with Famiglia Cristiana he said:

The Talmud, the holy book studied by the ultra-orthodox, more highly venerated than the Bible itself, invites religious hatred, speaks badly of Jesus, and even worse of Mary and, in general, of Christians” he said, adding that “in Israeli schools love for the other is not taught but rather the destruction of the other.

His statements on the Talmud echo those of the most vicious antisemites through history, and his blanket statement that Israeli schools teach genocide is reprehensible.

And this is one of the people Casey decided to meet.

The fact that Casey chose these people to meet, combined with the secrecy over the trip altogether, is concerning. If he would have met with any Jews who would argue that non-Jews should have no political rights between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river he would be universally condemned, yet the people he met with make the same argument about Jews, and worse.

What is Casey's - and the State Department's - objective in choosing to meet with these anti-Jewish extremists?