Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, March 09, 2014

Moroccan Christian preacher makes fun of Arabs boycotting Jews (video)

Brother Rashid, a charismatic and popular Moroccan Christian television preacher, has a few choice words for those who would divest themselves of Jewish inventions and products.

I don't know when and where this was broadcast.

(h/t Avi W)

03/09 Links: Scarlett Johansson- I believe in SodaStream; Do Palestinians Really Want a State?

From Ian:

Scarlett Johansson: I believe in SodaStream

Johansson stirred a vehement debate in January when she accepted the role of spokeswoman for SodaStream, which makes home carbonation machines and operates a plant in Ma’ale Adumim, a large West Bank settlement near Jerusalem.
“I’m not an expert on the history of this conflict, and I’ve never professed to be,” Johansson told the British newspaper the Telegraph in an interview published Friday.
“But it is a company that I believe in, that I think has the ability to make a huge difference, environmentally. [CEO] Daniel Birnbaum has said many times that this factory is one he inherited, and that he doesn’t want to fire people – the majority of those people being Palestinian,” she said.

Mordechai Kedar: Time to put an end to the fantasy of a Palestinian people

Despite the benefits of this ambiguous situation, Israel should adopt a clearer policy: Since the PLO has not abandoned its plan to destroy Israel, it must end the dream of establishing a state under the rule of this organization. The Hamas movement began the process in Gaza, and Israel must continue it in Judea and Samaria in order to establish seven city-states and to leave the rural areas under Israeli control.
The seven city-states will free most of the Arab population in Judea and Samaria from Israeli control and Israel can offer citizenship to residents of the rural space. These city-states based on local clans will be real entities and not the fantasies of some Palestinian intellectuals and tired Israeli souls regarding the existence of a single united Palestinian people in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria.

Hevron Children Tackle Left-Wing Extremists - With Sweets

Chief among those groups is Breaking the Silence, a far-left NGO funded by foreign donors (some 45% of its funding comes directly from the European Union), which encourages ex-soldiers to speak out against the IDF to international audiences. Much of the group's activities center on Hevron, where it conducts regular tours and demonstrations, alleging war crimes by both IDF soldiers and local Jewish residents - allegations based almost entirely on hearsay and which have been emphatically rejected as "slander" by residents and the military alike.
Recently, the organization helped bring some 200 people to the holy city to demand the opening of King David Street - also known as Shuhada Street - which was closed to Arab locals after being used as a launchpad for numerous terrorist atrocities against Jewish residents.
But on Friday, as another Breaking the Silence group entered the city's Jewish neighborhood, they were greeted by an unexpected sight: dozens of Jewish children handing out sweets in honor of the upcoming Jewish festival of Purim.

Recent antisemitic cartoons in Arab media

Yisrael Medad found these at Al Quds al Arabi, a UK-based pan-Arab newspaper that is run by Palestinian Arab expatriates:

But don't call them antisemitic! They are really only anti-Israel! Really! They insist that you understand that clearly!

They have no problem with Jews!

As long as the Jews don't demand actual rights, that is.

American Halloween costumes making Ethiopian kids in Hadera happy for Purim

From the JCC at Durham-Chapel Hill:

Thank you to all of you who donated your Halloween costumes. They have arrived in Hadera, Israel just in time for Purim. As you can see from the pictures below – the costumes have made a lot of kids very happy!

The community held a “costume bazaar” where kids could come by and pick out the costumes (that you donated)! It was a great event- and we hope you enjoy seeing the smiles on their faces as much as we do!

(h/t Jeanette)

Now Egyptians are saying the Muslim Brotherhood are part of the Elders of Zion. Really.

Egypt's Karama Press just started a series, that seems to be based on a new book, claiming that the Muslim Brotherhood is really part of the Elders of Zion.

Here's the cover of the book, showing prominent Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas members entwined in that Jewish web of intrigue.

This is hardly the first time that the Muslim Brotherhood has been accused by Egyptian secularists of being secret Zionists or Jews, as we've seen before.

The Jew is the gold standard as a hate object in the Arab world. All others who are despised must be compared to Jews.

The antisemitism is thoroughly embedded in Arab culture. It isn't only a Muslim thing. The Copts, as oppressed as they are, hate the Jews too.

Yet there are still idiots who pretend that it is all because of Israel. Sorry, it isn't.

The seething hatred of Israel isn't because of anything Israel has done - it is because weak, despised Jews have humiliated the great fictional Arab nation.

So anyone else who is hated must be a secret Jew.

Work accident!

From Ma'an:

The military wing of Hamas said on Saturday evening that a field commander was killed in an accidental "internal explosion" in the Hashashin neighborhood of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, while medical sources said that nine others were wounded.

The Qassam Brigades said that Ibrahim Nagib al-Ghoul, 30, was killed in the explosion.

A spokesman for the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qidra said that the majority of the nine individuals wounded in the explosion were suffering from serious injuries.

Al-Qidra said that five of the wounded were taken to Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, while the four others were transferred to the European Gaza Hospital.

No details of the cause of the explosion were released.

Let's all pray for the injured Hamas terrorists to become elevated to the status of martyrs, just like al-Ghoul.

Hamas does have a "training camp" in that neighborhood.

03/08 Links: Chloe Valdary- A letter to the all-knowing Max Blumenthal; Surviving Obama

From Ian:

Chloe Valdary: A letter to the all-knowing Max Blumenthal: Co-written by Daniel Mael

Since you have found us out, we may as well list a few other things the Zionists are planning: We actually work for an organization called ‘The Elders of Zion.’ Perhaps you’ve heard of them? At any rate, we are two of their agents. As you can imagine, we are paid hefty sums of money, $4.6 billion a year to be exact. We are in charge of disseminating information around the globe, regulating U.N. meetings in New York, controlling seagull calls, and sending signals to sharks in the deep blue sea. We elders also work closely with Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and Cinderella’s stepsisters in controlling things that occur in the world. You see, we were the ones who made Cinderella’s glass slipper come off when the clock struck “12.”
We are also behind the misinformation campaign that mischaracterizes Iran’s regime as evil and sinister. The Iranian regime is actually a democracy ruled by angels and ponies. The images on television of Iranian civilians being persecuted and oppressed is actually a vast conspiracy, a television show put on by Zionist actors and directors. The Iranian people are actually treated with kindness and goodness by their leaders; They are even given cute little treats from Candy Crush every day, and some are even selected to visit Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory if they really behave.

Caroline Glick: Surviving Obama

In his speech at the AIPAC Conference on Tuesday, Netanyahu rebutted every position Obama has staked out on the Palestinians and Iran without ever mentioning Obama’s name. By doing so he energized Israel’s supporters while denying Obama the ability to claim that Netanyahu is unsupportive of his policies.
In other words, he humored the White House while staking out an independent Israeli policy for which he secured the support of Israel’s American backers.
But Netanyahu’s skill in maneuvering around Obama is not enough for Israel to safely weather his presidency. Israel needs an overall strategy for securing its interests.

Richard Millett: Bibi declared “most dangerous political world leader today” at Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS.

Khalidi is the Godfather of “Palestine Studies”. Gilbert Achcar introduced him as “the founder of the scientific study on the question of Palestine”. But at the Centre for Palestine Studies on Wednesday night Ilan Pappe had referred to the “so-called scientific research” of Zionism as nothing more than “marketing” by Israel.
Hypocrisy doesn’t come bigger than that. While the study of “Palestine” is “scientific”, the study of Israel is mere “marketing”!
The glitterati of the Palestine Lobby, including “Ambassador” Manuel Hassassian, were present to hear Khalidi describe the Balfour Declaration as “the single most destructive political document on the Middle East in the twentieth century”. But the 16 million dead of WW1 were not even mentioned by Khalidi.

Another pro-BDS academic conference at CUNY

It takes academics to defend things that are indefensible.

Panelists: Professor Bill Mullen (Purdue), Radhika Sainath (Palestine Solidarity Legal Support), Sherry Wolf (International Socialists Review), Professor Ashley Dawson (CSI/GC, CUNY).

April 2, 2014
7:00-9:00pm
Skylight room, CUNY GC

Following the official endorsement of the American Studies Association of the call from Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israel, concerns over “academic freedom” have been repeatedly invoked as reasons to oppose academic boycotts. Moreover, official statements by university presidents, attempts by New York, Maryland state legislatures, and now the US Congress, to outlaw such political affiliations demand that the significance of “academic freedom” and its functionality in the US university system be interrogated and reaffirmed.

This panel discussion specifically addresses the question of academic freedom and political affiliation from the different perspectives of academics and activists working with and around BDS in the US academe today. Panelists interrogate how the pursuit of “academic freedom” has been used to both open and close debate, how it frames the call for solidarity with Palestinian students and scholars, structures relationships with dissenting opinions, and how it applies in a US university system increasingly dependent on a contingent workforce of graduate students and adjunct labor.

Co-sponsored by: The Adjunct Project; the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics; Critical Palestine Studies Association; International Socialist Organization at the Graduate Center; Middle East Studies Organization; Post-Colonial Studies Group; and Haymarket Books.

They even created a graphic for the event that apparently portrays people who are against boycotting Israel as imprisoning pro-Palestinian minds:

I do not support any law that would outlaw any form of speech except incitement for violence. But outlawing boycotts is not the same as "outlawing political affiliations."

Even the description of this academic conference proves that the organizers are liars.

By the way, here is an example of "academic freedom" that not one of these academics would ever condemn. It occurred this week at the National University of Ireland Galway as BDS supporters of "academic freedom" cursed and shouted down the evil Zionists who were discussing - how to fight boycotts.

Will any BDS advocate on this panel about freedom of expression condemn this? You know the answer. They make their decisions first, and justify it later using lots of polysyllabic words. Everyone sees through this but the BDS academics themselves.

Next month maybe these brilliant academics will contextualize rape for us and show how it could be a moral act.

It sounds horrible, I know - how can I even think such a thing?

Yet some Arabs have said that they want to use rape as a weapon against Israeli Jewish women. This turns rape from a horrible crime against women into legitimate resistance against the Zionist oppressor. And BDS' intellectual leaders say, quite explicitly, that all forms of resistance are legitimate, even if they are not tactically appropriate at all times. Anything that is part of the struggle to destroy the Zionist regime - even immoral acts - is by definition righteous.

So is it really so far-fetched that a "rape Israeli women" conference could attract the same kinds of moral midgets who are organizing these jokes on campus?

(h/t David L)

(corrected headline; I had mistakenly said NYU)

03/07 Links Pt2: The Obscenity of Blaming Zionism for the Holocaust; Krake Zuckerberg

From Ian:

The Obscenity of Blaming Zionism for the Holocaust: A Response
Wolfgang G. Schwanitz answers Tablet’s review of his and Barry Rubin’s book

In his Feb. 3 review in Tablet, David Mikics misrepresents our book Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East. It is not a biography of the grand mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husaini, though one is in the making, and Mikics fails to show how it compares to related works. He bit off more than he can chew. Thus, he exaggerates: the book, he alleges, purports to demonstrate that “Zionism caused the Holocaust.” He then calls this invention “their logic, a “flawed conclusion,” as if he were refuting what he has in fact attributed to us. In the light of Barry Rubin’s passing—see the obituary by Lee Smith in Tablet—I will answer here.
Zionists rescued Jews on many occasions: in the attempted genocide in Palestine 1915 to 1917, in the Holocaust of World War II, and thereafter in global pogroms and Middle Eastern conflicts. As we have shown, the seeds of the State of Israel stem from the advent of Zionism and the League of Nations. At its 1922 San Remo conference this world body assigned the mandate of Palestine to Great Britain as 52 states recognized historical ties of the Jewish people with Palestine and favored the “reconstituting of their home” there.

Sarah Honig: Krake Zuckerberg

Most German publications no longer even pretend any wariness about coming off as anti-Jewish. Gone are the days when Germans had to at least appear a tad more cautious than their fellow Europeans. The latter reverted quickly enough to their old Jew-baiting habits but the Germans have willy-nilly caught up.
A cogent example is being consistently provided by Munich’ s left-liberalSueddeutsche Zeitung, which also happens to be Germany’s largest broadsheet daily. It recently featured a cartoon lampooning Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg after his outfit had acquired WhatsApp. The idea was to show Zuckerberg as a voracious octopus that swallows up everything around it. The caption at the bottom left-hand corner of the cartoon clearly read “Krake Zuckerberg” (German for Octopus Zuckerberg.) Up to this point, it’s tolerable criticism.
But the octopus, as drawn by cartoonist Burkhard Mohr, was also given quite a distinctive face. Its function, presumably, was to make sure we don’t lose sight of the fact that young Zuckerberg – innovative enough to have given the world a social network which millions of Germans also use – is a Jew. To that end, Mohr portrayed him with a preposterous hook-nose and thick fish-lips – as per the freakish stereotype sinisterly ascribed to Jews by their tormentors.

Richard Millett: Jews under attack at Centre for Palestine Studies as Ilan Pappe comes to SOAS.

Jews came under fire last night at the Centre for Palestine Studies, based at SOAS and under the chairmanship of Gilbert Achcar. It was irrelevant if you are a Jew in Israel, Scotland, Wales or England. Ilan Pappe, the CPS guest speaker, doesn’t discriminate.
Pappe, a lecturer at Exeter University, started by saying he wished “to answer the riddle of the growing gap between the image Israeli Jews have of themselves and the external image the world has of them”. In North Korea the gap between the view North Koreans have of themselves and that of them by outside world would not be much different, but in Israel there is “genuine difference”.

Saudi Arabia outlaws Muslim Brotherhood - and Saudi branch of Hezbollah

From Al Arabiya:

Saudi Arabia on Friday blacklisted the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, along with three other Middle East-based militant groups, Al Arabiya News Channel reported, citing a royal decree.

The Saudi terrorism list also includes the kingdom’s branch of the Shiite movement Hezbollah and Syria-based militant groups the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front.

Hundreds of Saudi fighters are believed to have joined ISIS and al-Nusra in Syria.

The royal decree gives fighters a 15-day ultimatum to return home. The declaration came after King Abdullah announced on Feb. 3 tough penalties for activities deemed as terrorism.

Under the previous decree, Saudi citizens fighting abroad face up to 20 years in jail. Similar punishments will be applied to “extremist religious and ideological groups, or those classified as terrorist groups, domestically, regionally and internationally,” the state news agency SPA reported at the time.

The royal decree also criminalized taking membership in, supporting and sympathizing with any of those groups “through speech or writing.”

Well, it's official. Israel is more tolerant towards Muslim extremists than Saudi Arabia is. In Israel, someone has to make a public speech advocating terror before he is branded a criminal; in Saudi Arabia you can now be jailed for a tweet in support of the Muslim Brotherhood.

At the same time, Mauritania also outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood.

03/07 Links Pt1: Obama's Worthless Guarantees; Erdogan threatens to ban Facebook, YouTube

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: Worthless guarantees

However, the immediate victims are those who trusted American assurances – like, in this case, the Ukrainians.
Of course, they are not the only ones left with guarantees not worth the paper they were printed on. Many of America’s loyal allies were abandoned in the “Arab Spring.” Obama backtracked from the red lines he himself drew for Damascus despot Bashar Assad, leaving Putin and the Tehran axis with yet another victory. Red lines regarding Iranian nuclear ambitions were just as blithely ditched.
Israel is now being coerced to divest itself of all its strategic assets in Judea and Samaria and expose its soft underbelly – its frightfully narrow and heavily populated central region – to terrorist predations.
Israel’s sole safeguards are to be guarantees disturbingly similar to those supplied the Ukrainians. What now unfolds in the Crimea should serve as a thunderous warning against placing ourselves at the mercy of apparent allies. Here, but for the grace of God, go we.

Elliott Abrams: Iran and 'Karine B'

While we talk of outreach to Iran and unclenched fists, Iran continues to be the largest state sponsor of terrorism. During the nuclear negotiations the Obama administration seems to think it must be on its best behavior lest the regime in Tehran become offended and walk away from the table. So, the administration stops Congress from enacting additional sanctions -- even sanctions never to be imposed unless negotiations fail. News reports say that there was administration pressure on Israel to stop its covert action program inside Iran. And we hear endless discussions of how President Hassan Rouhani is a moderate and we have to help the moderates in their struggle against hard liners inside the regime.
But during this period, while the administration says we must carefully watch our conduct lest we offend Iran, Iran ships advanced missiles to Hamas in Gaza. Iran ships arms to opposition groups Bahrain. The regime in Iran continues a brutal campaign of repression at home. Whatever our approach, theirs is to use this period of negotiations to destabilize the entire region and crush all internal opposition.

Ottomans, British Apparently Unaware Palestine Actually Sovereign The Whole Time (satire)

Palestinian historians examining the administration of the Holy Land during the British and Ottoman periods have discovered that the rulers of that land remained completely oblivious to the fact that they were not really the ones in charge. In reality, say the researchers, the Palestinian people were in control of their homeland, which is why the emergence of Israeli control over the same parcel of land was such a disaster.
While the Ottomans took control of the Holy Land in the first half of the sixteenth century, say the historians, they in fact never truly reigned, despite their monopoly on tax collection, land ownership registration, road construction, military recruitment, and the management of commerce, for example. Throughout the four hundred years of Ottoman rule in the Holy Land, an indigenous people called Palestinians were in fact sovereign, despite there being no record of any indigenous sovereignty since the Second Jewish Commonwealth two thousand years ago.

Lisa Duggan of the ASA tries to attack me

Lisa Duggan, president elect of the American Studies Association who put together an anti-Israel conference last week that made her drool, seems a bit upset:

On February 23, the right wing Zionist blog Elder of Ziyon leveled accusations tantamount to an “exposé“ of our NYU American Studies conference scheduled for March 1: “ASA’s President Elect Hosting Secret Anti-Israel Conference. ”

This post’s allegations, that the event would feature “obscene “ Israel bashers living in an “echo chamber of their own hate,” quickly rocketed around Twitter, generating more posts and an avalanche of hate mail. Extending the expressions of outrage over the American Studies Association’s support for the academic boycott of Israel (well-known throughout the Zionist blogosphere), this post focused its “exposé” on the supposed “secret” conspiracy unveiled in the post. Letters sent to NYU President John Sexton denounced the limited range of views represented, pronounced the supposed secrecy shameful, and demanded that NYU cancel the conference and fire me (the named ASA president elect).

While I am hardly responsible for hate mail generated by exposing a conference that Duggan explicitly wanted to keep quiet, isn't mail demanding that she be fired considered free speech? After all, Duggan just this week signed a petition that pretends to support free speech. She wouldn't want to be considered a hypocrite, would she?

I posted the conference flyer to the CUNY Revolutionizing American Studies faculty seminar page on Facebook, asking the professors and student members to share it only with colleagues and students.

Her exact words were "PLEASE DO NOT post or circulate the flyer. We are trying to avoid press, protestors and public attention. Feel free to share it with friends, colleagues and grad students though." The Facebook page is open to the public, and the description of the group is to expose the program outside CUNY:

This group is one of the public faces of a conversation taking place within CUNY in the field of American studies, and to a vast array of intellectual, political, social, and cultural issues.

This initiative intends to animate a critical engagement with American Studies at and beyond the CUNY Graduate Center.

So Duggan posted the flyer on a public group but then says that it was not intended for the public. But those in the group could invite "friends." It is quite obvious what her motivations were, even as she furiously tries to spin it.

Admittedly, it is very funny watching her fume.

The Elder of Ziyon, well known for inflammatory posts, interpreted this ordinary limited registration academic conference held in a small space as a sinister conspiracy, and our Event Brite registration page overflowed with requests from Zionist bloggers and pranksters like I.A. Tollah.

See - I'm well-known! And inflammatory!

But don't worry, my efforts were all for naught:

There was no migration to the mainstream and tabloid press, there was no massing of protesters at the event site. The conference proceeded smoothly. We proclaimed it a success.

Except that Duggan has already tried multiple times to spin this conference into making it less exclusionary than it was. She failed miserably in her attempt to compare it to private Zionist groups choosing Zionist speakers. The controversy was written up in JTA (republished worldwide, in places like JNS and Haaretz and Times of Israel) and in Tablet.

And, today, the New York Post wrote an op-ed about this very conference:

NYU’s faculty handbook requires instructors to “show respect for the opinions of others.” Too bad a closed-door university event last weekend did nothing of the kind. Which may explain why organizers took pains to keep it quiet.

The annual event, sponsored by four NYU departments, looks like a thinly disguised session aimed at mobilizing support for the anti-Israel boycott movement.

President John Sexton has previously written to the national American Studies Association to express NYU’s “disappointment, disagreement and opposition to” its embrace of the boycott. But he says that to have required sponsors of the NYU event to represent all sides would be tantamount to censorship. That’s more or less the position taken by Lisa Duggan, an NYU professor who is also the ASA’s president-elect. Prof. Duggan supports the boycott of Israel and moderated a panel at the event.

In an e-mail to The Post, Duggan says: “The conference was not secret. It was just a limited registration academic conference in a small space.” And yet before the conference, she posted a warning on Facebook asking people not to circulate the flyer advertising the event to avoid public attention. That post was later removed.

We are a newspaper, so the last thing we want is to censor people or tell them they have to run their conferences in a certain way. What would be nice is to hear some voices from the other side — say, by a concerned trustee or donor.

In the meantime, NYU gets to have it both ways, officially condemning the boycott while professors and departments use NYU facilities to advance it.

Sorry, Lisa. Tens of thousands more people now know about your pathetic attempts to keep your little Israel-bashing conference a secret.

It's almost as if you are embarrassed by what you stand for.

(h/t David L)

Abbas sentenced hundreds of Syrian Palestinians to death in 2013 (poster)

Ma'an reports on a brand new Palestinian Arab lie:

Fatah central committee member Mohammad Ishtayyeh said on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority had attempted to negotiate the return of Palestinian refugees from Syria, but Israel had refused.

Ishtayyeh said in a meeting with diplomats organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Ramallah that the PA had tried with all its might to "end the suffering" of Palestinians in Syria through international mediation.

Israeli officials, however, had refused to allow them to come to the Palestinian territories.

What really happened, from AP, January 10, 2013:

The Palestinian president said he has rejected a conditional Israeli offer to let Palestinian refugees in war-torn Syria resettle in the West Bank and Gaza, charging it would compromise their claims to return to lost homes in Israel.

Abbas said he asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon last month to seek Israeli permission to bring Palestinians caught in Syria's civil war to the Palestinian territories. The request came after fighting between Syrian troops and rebel fighters in Yarmouk, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. About half of the camp's 150,000 residents have fled, according to a U.N. aid agency.

Abbas told a group of Egyptian journalists in Cairo late Wednesday that Ban contacted Israel on his behalf.

Abbas said Ban was told Israel "agreed to the return of those refugees to Gaza and the West Bank, but on condition that each refugee ... sign a statement that he doesn't have the right of return (to Israel)."

"So we rejected that and said it's better they die in Syria than give up their right of return," Abbas told the group. Some of his comments were published Thursday by the Palestinian news website Sama.

Hundreds of Syrian Palestinians have died since then. And it is all because Abbas didn't even give them the choice to live. His "principles" are more important than their lives.

Even as Palestinian Arabs continue to die in Syria, no one is pressuring Abbas to reverse his death sentence. The UN is silent. NGO's are silent. World leaders continue to treat Abbas with respect. Newspaper editorials gush how "moderate" he is.

And Syrian Palestinians continue to die, every day, directly because of a decision Abbas made more than a year ago.

Every single "pro-Palestinian" activist should be asked in every venue they speak if they agree with Abbas. Amnesty International and Oxfam and Human Rights Watch should be asked whether they agree that Syrian Arabs are better off dead than given the even the choice to live.

The Heinrich Boll Foundation, which heard this new Palestinian Arab slander against Israel, should be told the truth.

Shouldn't everyone?

International Women's Day, taking place every year on March 8, is a celebration of women and the gains they have made in the past hundred years. In some countries it is celebrated as a sort of Valentines Day, in others the struggle for women's equality is highlighted.

But in the Palestinian Arab territories, the entire purpose of IWD is not to celebrate and not to look for improvements in society to help women. No, the entire purpose is to bash Israel.

The earliest mention I could find of International Women's Day in the territories is from 2005, from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. That year, and every year after, about 95% of their press is about Israel, with only a passing mention of problems women have in the patriarchal Palestinian Arab society. Honor killings are hardly mentioned, although the 2013 statement is only about 80% about Israel and it does briefly mention Hamas restrictions on women and honor killings.

PCHR also tries to use rhetorical tricks to blame Israel. Obviously, Israel jails and kills far more men than women, since it is mostly men who are attacking Israeli targets. This proves that Israel does not discriminate against women, But PCHR says that because Israel kills men, then women become widows, since Israel jails men, women lose their husband's income. No matter what, this "human rights" NGO will try to twist a day that is meant to help women gain rights into an excuse to attack Israel.

CodePink wanted to go to Gaza this year, as it has in the past, but Egypt blocked them. Looking through their website from previous visits, I can see nothing about problems with women under Hamas, nothing about honor killings in Gaza, nothing about blatant discrimination against women.

We have seen this type of thinking before. The Goldstone Report bent over backwards to find international treaties that Israel violated in the Gaza war, specifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women no less than eight times yet only applying it to Israel, not to Hamas that actually controls the lives of, and specifically discriminates against, Gaza's women.

All of this attention by pseudo-feminists to use feminism as a weapon against Israel has a side effect - it ensures that the Arab women in the territories do not gain equal rights, because no one is advocating for them! All the money and time and effort that should be used to help women are instead used to attack Israel - at the expense of the very women they are pretending to help!

One would think that women who truly work for equal rights would be at least slightly irritated at having their goals subverted by blowhards and hypocrites.

More of the interview with the "Zionist sheikh"

A month ago, I wrote about a Jordanian sheikh who believes that Allah gave the land of Israel to the Jews. It was one of my most popular posts ever.

Now, Mida magazine translated the entire interview that the sheikh gave that caused this uproar. Here are some excerpts:

Honorable Sheikh, could you tell us a little about your past and yourself? How do you see your place in the Kingdom of Jordan?

I was born and raised in the city of Amman in 1952. After I finished high school I continued on to Islamic Sharia studies at the College for Islamic studies in Amman. During my studies I worked in the Jordanian post office in a number of positions, until I resigned from my official position there in 1997. Since then I have dedicated myself to the book of God may He be praised (the Koran), and I expanded my knowledge of the Islamic religion and the life of the Islamic Ummah.

God may he be praised and blessed rewarded me with knowledge of His holy book and chose me to renew the knowledge of God and religion among the Islamic Ummah, and interpret that which needs interpreting in its verses, which most Islamic scholars misinterpret. Among these are the verses which deal with the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) and their rights in particular. There are a hundred holy verses in the Koran which contemporary scholars did not properly interpret. These are verses where there is no connection between their plain meaning and the meaning given by the latter. These verses prove and express God’s will and his intentions: the will and desire for peace and harmony and His instructions for people to ensure them.
...
In response to our request to conduct an interview with you on our website, you quoted a verse form the Koran and called the Jewish People “cousins”. What did you mean?

The Jews are our cousins and therefore we must pray for them and visit them, live alongside them, grant them respect and cooperate with them at the highest levels of esteem and appreciation. This, because we are not more God-fearing, smarter, or better than the Prophet Muhammad may he rest in peace, who lived alongside them and behaved honorably, mercifully and amicably with them. Let us state that it was permitted for Muslims to marry them.

Did your openness towards the People of Israel lead you to recognize their sovereignty of their historic land?

Indeed, I recognize their sovereignty over their land. I believe in the Holy Koran, and this fact is stated many times in the book. For instance “O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you,” [Koran 5:21], “We made the Children of Israel inheritors of such things.” [Koran 26:59] and additional verses in the Holy Book.

And there are additional reasons: this people (Israel) is peaceful and peace-loving, is not hostile or aggressive; [they are] a people that defends itself only when necessary, while trying to minimally harm its enemies. In addition, I recognize the fact that God may He be praised gave preference to these people over humans and demons until the end of days. God does not give preference for nothing but grants all that which they deserve. God may He be praised never turned to any [other] people by name and grant them this honor, aside from the People of Israel, who are named for their ancestor Israel (Jacob), may he rest in peace, as it says in the Koran “O Children of Israel”. In contrast, in approaching others it is said “O Believers” or “O people”, which is a more general greeting.

....

In your opinion, how can we finally put an end to anti-Semitism among Arab and Muslim nations, who feel loathing and hostility to the Jews and refuse to recognize them and live alongside them?

In my opinion the way to end anti-Semitism is to concentrate efforts and call for peace, spreading knowledge and forthrightly educate people of the values of justice and truth in accordance with what appears in the books of God – the Torah, Tehillim, the Ingil [the Gospel] and the Koran, which admired the Israelites, clarified their rights, gave preference to them and bequeathed to them the Holy Land and their direction of prayer – to Jerusalem. The books testify that this is a peace-loving and peace-calling nation, and it is the first people for whom the Creator designated a role in order to serve as its messenger on this earth until the Day of Resurrection.

In the Koran, it is written “Those who have faith and do righteous deeds, they are the best of creatures.” [Koran 98:7]. The intent in the word best is “the best among people”, but regarding the Umma of the Koran – that is the Arabs and those who preach Islam – they have no recourse but to return to the straight and true voice as appears in the Koran that many of its scholars interpreted in a mistaken and deviant manner. They distorted the true will of God may He be praised, as it is expressed in the verses, in a false and fallacious manner to say that murder of Jews is part of the commandment of Jihad for Allah and that this land is not the Land of [the People of] Israel.

They continue to hold this villainous interpretation towards others, and there will be no true peace but with the return of the Ummah of the Koran to the book of the Koran, as God bequeathed to his adherents. My religious education allowed me to strengthen what I say, and I have merited much honor in succeeding in interpreting verses which scholars did not properly interpret. These are verses which spell out the obligations and rights of people and that which is required so that peoples not be hostile to one another.

Why do Jordanian media outlets tend to describe Israelis in a racist and negative manner which does not reflect reality?

...Anyone who calls them by names which Allah did not use is a sinner and a falsifier of the verses of the Koran. It was already said “Those who pervert the Truth in Our Signs are not hidden from Us.” [Koran 41:40], and Ibn Abbas said in his commentary to this verse “the reference is to those who distort and replace and change the verses of God and stray from the truth”. ...

Therefore, anyone who calls Israelis by names which Allah did not use is a villain for the following reasons:

1. He violated religious law, denied the verses of the Koran.

2. He disobeyed Allah’s command, who commanded not to curse or call negative names.

3. If he does not repent and stop his crimes he is a criminal and a wicked man in every sense of the religion of Islam.

4. He acts against the efforts of His Majesty the King of Jordan and his initiative for harmony between religions and his call for peace.

5. He takes an active part in hindering the peace process and increasing hostility before other people.

Media outlets in Jordan, and in the Arab world in general, need to act in a God-fearing manner and call Israelis with names Allah used, and the name he gave to their land. They must stop acting like the five criminals we mentioned above, who bring the wrath of God upon themselves and their people.

...
As a man of religion, do you believe that those who call themselves “Palestinians” have a right to establish a state on the Jews’ historic land?

Allah may He be praised wrote in the Torah that this is the land of the sons of Israel, he bequeathed the Holy Land to the sons of Israel and called the land by this name (the Land of Israel) and so it is stated by the Holy Koran: “O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.” [Koran 5:21]. This holy verse is a “Kushan” (deed) which confirms that this land is granted to the Jews. It is also said “We made the Children of Israel inheritors of such things.” [Koran 26:59], and in the following verse “And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, "Dwell securely in the land (of promise)"” [Koran 17:104] and there are many additional holy verses which prove and confirm this.

So in an answer to your question, how can they (the Palestinians) have the right to establish a State on the Jewish Land of Israel, which Allah granted and bequeathed to the Jews? More than that, even if all the inhabitants of the land forgot their right, or went crazy and collaborated with those who call themselves “Palestinians” to establish a state for the latter, they won’t succeed, and Allah will not allow this until the Day of Judgment, this because Allah Himself willed and specifically wrote in His book that this land will be the land of the People of Israel under Israeli sovereignty so that no-one would later dispute it.

Read the whole thing.

03/06 Links Pt2: Israel and the Rest of the World; Mairead Maguire deported from Egypt

From Ian:

Israel and the Rest of the World

Whatever its detractors may say, Israel declares loudly that it is a country where the best Western values are honored, where democracy, the rule of law, the creation of new laws through an elected parliament, the fair treatment of all minorities, rights for women, for gays, for all citizens, Jews and non-Jews alike, are demanded. But say it is also a Jewish country based on Jewish ethics, and someone of limited intellect will come along clutching a copy of the Torah, the Talmud, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or anything else they can lay their hands on, and declaiming that they can prove Judaism is a bloodthirsty religion that has always worked to defeat and mistreat non-Jews. In the past years, I have only known a violent and angry Islam; yet the world is silent. The world excuses Islamic murder, but focuses on flaws, often imaginary, on the part of Israel.
The very establishment of a Jewish state stood for more than even its founders guessed. It was open defiance of the universal impulse to persecute and kill Jews.

Israel: A failed state (satire)

I grew up in South Africa and left for Israel in the 1970`s. So I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable on South African apartheid. In view of the criticisms of Israel as an apartheid state, I felt it my duty that my understanding and knowledge of apartheid should be put to good cause by exposing the evil manifestations of apartheid in Israel.
I started in my neighbourhood. I went to the municipal park. In South Africa, only whites would have been allowed to enter. I could not believe my eyes. Arabs and Jews were mixing peacefully, Arab and Jewish children socialising and shouting at each other in their home languages. This cannot be, where is the separation? So I went to the shops and restaurants of the adjoining mall. What a major let down! Arabs and Jews shopping together as customers, Arabs and Jews employed together in the shops as assistants and cashiers, Arabs and Jews sitting in restaurants, an Arab dentist with his sign for all the world to see and the only missing ingredients were the “blankes alleen – whites only” signs. Clearly, in matters of commerce and common use of public and transport facilities, open to all, Israel is a failure in implementing apartheid: there is clearly no South African style apartheid to be found in public areas.

Expert bashes UN’s ‘politicized’ West Bank numbers
Claim that 300,000 Palestinians live in areas under full Israeli control is not quite true, says ex-official who drew the map

The OCHA report did not hide the fact that many of the Palestinian communities surveyed are located mostly within Areas A and B. One table in the report indicates that just 241 “residential areas” lie completely within Area C, while 291 residential areas lie partially within Areas A and B. Nearly 176,000 Palestinians cited in the report live in communities which lie mostly outside Area C, while only 67,000 Palestinians live in residential areas that lie entirely within Area C, according to the report.
OCHA carried out a “vulnerability study” on communities located entirely within Area C back in 2008, together with UNRWA. It was not immediately clear why the criteria were changed for the new study. No comment was available by the organization at time of publication.

Egyptian lawyer sues to declare Israel a "terrorist state"

From Hezbollah's Al Manar:

An Egyptian court has slated March 26 for the first hearing of a lawsuit demanding that Egypt sever ties with neighboring Zionist entity and designate it a "terrorist state," according to the lawyer who raised the lawsuit, World Bulletin website reported.

Lawyer Hamed Seddiq told media outlets on Thursday that he had filed a lawsuit requesting that Egyptian authorities ban all "Israeli activity" in Egypt and declare the entity a "terrorist country."

The ban, said Seddiq, would include shutting down Tel Aviv's diplomatic offices in Egypt, including its Cairo embassy.

On Tuesday, the same Cairo court that will preside over the case released a verdict outlawing the activities of Palestinian resistance faction Hamas in Egypt and ordering all of the group's Egypt offices closed.

"The real terrorists are the Israelis, who have killed Palestinians and Arabs for refusing to recognize them," Seddiq said, adding that "listing Israel as a terrorist state is a national duty to protect [Egypt's] territorial unity."

What Al Manar doesn't mention is that this lawyer, Hamed Seddiq, is the Muslim Brotherhood's lawyer!

From what I can tell, Egyptian courts have thrown out every case he had brought since the coup. But anti-Israel sentiment is very high in Egypt, so this might be worth watching - if Seddiq isn't thrown in jail beforehand....

Palestine Today reports that a new football stadium is being built in Gaza.

Scheduled to open in May in front of political and sports leaders, the stadium will have lights, an iron fence and a new carpet of natural grass.

The purpose of the stadium is to "alleviate the suffering" of the existing Gaza soccer teams who don't have enough stadiums to play in.

Just like a concentration camp!

Soccer fields have traditionally been favorite venues for terrorists to launch rockets at Israel.

03/06 Links Pt1: Israel hopes missile-ship intercept will expose Iran; Op. averted threat to millions

From Ian:

Israel hopes missile-ship intercept will expose Iran

From the statements of officials, like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said a secondary goal of the interception had been to expose Iran’s true face, it seems the operation was about more than stopping missiles, it was about painting Iran and Hamas in as harsh a light as possible, not unlike was done to Yasser Arafat in 2002, after the Karine-A arms shipment was uncovered.
Maj. Gen. (res) Amos Yadlin, the former head of military intelligence, called the intelligence work, the operational capacity and the decision-making that went into the raid “fantastic,” noting on Army Radio Wednesday that thousands of ships sail across the Red Sea daily and that it would be “embarrassing” had Israeli troops intercepted an innocent vessel in international waters.

IDF intercepts deadly Iranian arms shipment in Red Sea

There’s more. There’s a sense in which various national policies colluded to suffer these arms to be shipped from Iran, and quite possibly – absent the alertness of Israeli intelligence and the IDF – to get to Gaza.
First of all, Syria manufactures these weapons as a modified version based on China’s WS-1 MLRS. China began exporting missile and rocket technology to Syria in the late 1980s, shortly before Syria first began manufacturing the M-302. China is now Syria’s largest trading partner, although Syria’s largest arms suppliers are Russia, Iran, and Belarus, which together provide 89% of Syria’s foreign-sourced weaponry.
The official flow of arms traffic may be a bit misleading today, as some Chinese arms, like the C802 anti-ship cruise missile, make their way into Syria via Iran. The M-302 has been manufactured in Syria long enough, however, that the “proliferation” occurred some time ago, and directly. (The U.S. in fact imposed sanctions on computer and other IT sales to China because of Beijing’s arms sales to Syria in the 1980s and 1990s. The sanctions were later relaxed under Bill Clinton.)
The Iran connection highlights another global facet of the arms-to-terrorists problem. Iraq and Sudan are serving as conduits for Iran’s arms exports (and now for an attempted Syrian-Iranian export to Hamas). Egypt’s uncertain control of the Sinai Peninsula is another key piece of the arms route. It’s worth reiterating that Iran is prohibited by UN Security Council Resolution 1737 (2006) from exporting arms.

Behind the Scenes: IDF Mission to Stop Iranian Terror

NYT: Palestinian intransigence is Israel's fault

Any relationship between New York Times editorials about Israel and reality is purely coincidental.

In remarkably blunt comments, Mr. Obama said that he had not heard a persuasive case for how Israel survives both as a democracy and a Jewish state absent a negotiated two-state solution, since in Israel and the West Bank “there are going to be more Palestinians, not fewer Palestinians, as time goes on.”

Funny - I was not aware that Israel was negotiating against the creation of a Palestinian Arab state. Every single detail about Israeli negotiations since 2000 showed that they agree with having such a state, but disagree over borders, "refugees," Jerusalem and so forth. Any Palestinian Arab state, no matter what the borders, would end the "demographic problem." So why are people who supposedly care about peace keep pretending that Israel is against a two-state solution and using this nonsensical argument?

He also warned that given Israel’s aggressive settlement construction — 2,534 housing units were begun in 2013 compared with 1,133 the previous year — Palestinians may soon decide that a contiguous state is impossible and America’s ability to help manage the consequences will be limited.

Can anyone at the NYT give us an estimate of much land was taken from Palestinian Arabs for these 2,534 housing units? My estimate is that it is approximately zero square meters, give or take zero. Virtually all of the housing built since 1990 has been within existing settlement blocs. The fact that the NYT doesn't know these basic facts shows just how ignorant it is.

But here comes the doozy:

Negotiators have largely kept silent on details of the talks. But there are fears that the principles might tilt toward Israel, which would mean the final negotiations simply won’t get off the ground.

In the universe inhabited by the New York Times, Palestinian Arab intransigence is not only expected - it is blamed on Israel! PalArab red lines are sacrosanct; Israel's are meant to be destroyed by US negotiators. Any negotiation that does not result in Israel's total capitulation to Palestinian Arab demands is unfairly tilted towards Israel.

This is the answer to the first question. The NYT isn't interested in a two-state solution. No, the Times wants Israel to surrender every single negotiating point, because Israel is assumed a priori to be in the wrong while Palestinian Arab demands that have nothing to do with them having their own independent state are righteous.

Not only that, but any appearance by the US that it might accept some of Israel's own demands as being reasonable - that it might pressure both sides to compromise - means, in the Times' bizarro world, that Palestinian intransigence is Israel's fault for having the gall to make demands to safeguard the security of the Jewish state.

It would be funny if the NYT was not still considered a mandatory religious text to be read every day for every self-respecting liberal, no matter how divorced from reality it is.

(h/t Yaacov Lozowick)