Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

05/12 Links Pt1: Kontorovich: A Tale of two blockades; Palestinian Authority's "Crimes of High Treason"

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: A Tale of two blockades

In Gothenburg, Sweden, a ship has set sail to run Israel’s blockade of Gaza, in a reprise of a now common activist tactic. At the same time, an Iranian ship has set sail from Bander Abbas to relieve the Saudi coalition’s blockade of Yemen, which has half the country on the brink of starvation.
Both blockades arise in what much of the international community regards as “non-international armed conflict” (NIAC). [The reasoning for both characterizations as NIACs is quite strained, in my view.]
In a new post at OpinioJuris, I discuss the legality of the Saudi blockade, showing that much previously neglected state practice supports the use of blockades in NIACs. Indeed, the only time it has been argued that such actions are illegal is in relation to the Gaza blockade. But the international community’s acceptance of the Yemen blockade (though not necessarily the particulars of its administration) shows that any potential anti-blockade norm has failed to materialize.
One wonders whether the new Gaza flotilla will meet a different response from the international community, now that it has remembered that blockade is legal. One also wonders whether the Yemen blockade, which by Oxfam’s description of it has turned it into what one would elsewhere call “the world’s largest open air prison” will manage to get half the international attention as the Gaza one.

Eugene Kontorovich: Libya’s shelling of Cook Islands ship gives New Zealand its own Maersk Tigris moment

The Libyan Navy has attacked a civilian ship off that country’s coast, as it was apparently bringing supplies for an Islamist rival militia, which Turkey has been accused of backing. The Turkish-owned ship was shelled from the shore and then attacked from the air. It caught fire and was towed to port, with at least one crew-member killed.
Some quick observations:
1) The vessel was flagged out of the Cook Islands, a Pacific nation with much the same defense relationship with New Zealand as the Marshall Islands have with the U.S. While under the former relationship, the Cooks must formally ask for assistance, it is unlikely that Wellington would brave the Barbary Coast to release the captured vessel.
It is quite a historical moment when the security benefits of being a New Zealand protectorate are indistinguishable from those of being an American protectorate.
2. It is unclear from news accounts if the ship was in territorial waters, but given the resulting loss of life, this is a matter of international note. One wonders how long it will be before the U.N. creates special commissions to investigate, as has been its past response to the violent loss of life on Turkish vessels.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian Authority's "Crimes of High Treason"

Hamas is at least being honest about its intentions to destroy Israel and replace it with an Islamist state. But the Palestinian Authority leadership in the West Bank continues to deceive not only its people, but also the international community, with regards to the refugee problem.
By sponsoring, funding and encouraging Palestinians to take to the streets to "mourn" the establishment of Israel and remain committed to the "right of return," Abbas and his officials in Ramallah are not being honest with their people. They are undoubtedly afraid of telling their people that Israel would never allow millions of Palestinians into its borders. They are even more afraid of admitting to the refugees that Arab and Palestinian leaders have been lying to them since 1948 by asking them to stay in their camps because one day they will return to non-existent villages and homes.
If and when the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ever resume, PA leaders will not be able to make any concessions on the refugee issue. They will not because they know that their people would not accept any kind of concessions on this matter. Once again, the PA leaders will have only themselves to blame for having radicalized their people over the years to a point where Palestinians consider any concessions to Israel as a "crime of high treason." This stance not only applies to the refugee issue, but also to other matters, such as the two-state-solution, the status of Jerusalem and the future borders of a Palestinian state. Neither Abbas nor any future Palestinian leader will be able to reach a compromise with Israel when the Palestinian Authority itself continues to promote such anti-Israel sentiments.

Palestinians really hate not being the center of attention

The Camp David summit between the US and six Gulf states plans to address "the integration of ballistic missile defense architecture, more military exercises to address maritime, counterterrorism, air and missile defense challenges and government infrastructure against cyber hackers."

Obviously even if the official agenda didn't mention it, Iran will also be a major topic. The participants will make sure of that.

Poor Saeb Erekat. Among all the articles written about this summit and its political implications fo rthe entire Middle East, no one is talking about Palestinian Arabs. And his job is to make sure that the world always keeps the Palestinian issue front and center.

So Erekat issued a press release:

Executive Committee of the PLO member Saeb Erekat confirmed that the Palestinian issue will be present at the Camp David summit, which will bring together US President Barack Obama and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Erekat stressed in a statement "that the Palestinian issue in all its aspects is the central issue of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and all Arab countries," stressing that ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem is the key to security and stability in the Middle East.

Funny how none of the Arab leaders mentioned the word "Palestinian" in relation to this summit. In terms of priorites, it is dead last.

Erekat, acting in the same fashion that we have seen the Palestinian Arab leadership use so often, is like a toddler at a dinner party interrupting his mother's conversation by saying "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"

Unlike the Palestinian issue, he US relationship with Israel is cause for concern among the Gulf states:

To quote the informal and unattributable words of a prominent Arab diplomat recently: “We always suspected that the United States would sell us out to Iran, but we thought we had a safety net with Israel. The Americans, we thought, would not sell Israel out, but now we see that they are selling us all out together.”

Last week:

Washington on Thursday called Israel’s approval of building 900 apartment units in a Jewish neighborhood of East Jerusalem “damaging and inconsistent” with its commitment to a two-state solution.
The condemnation of the move by the State Department came less than a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the formation of a new governing coalition.

“This is a disappointing development, and we’re concerned about it just as a new Israeli government has been announced,” US State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said at a press briefing. “Israel’s leaders have asserted that they remain committed to a two-state solution, and we need to see that commitment in the actions of… the Israeli government.”

Rathke said that the US government would “continue to make our position clear that we view this as illegitimate.”

Of course, the EU piled on:

Israel's determination to continue its settlement policy despite the urging of the international community, not only threatens the viability of the two state solution but also seriously calls into question its commitment to a negotiated agreement with the Palestinians.

A simple look at where the construction is planned shows that in no way, shape or form does building at Ramat Shlomo hurt the two state solution.

Here is Peace Now's map of the planned construction at Ramat Shlomo, in red, when 1500 units were planned:

Here is the same area from satellite:

The new construction is on the southern end of Ramat Shlomo, towards the Jewish neighborhoods of Sanhedria, Har Hotzvim and Ramat Eshkol - that are mostly within the Green Line.

In other words, there is no possible way that the land that is being built on would ever, in any universe, not remain in Israeli territory. Not under any peace plan ever promoted by any serious group. Never.

Even the far left Geneva Initiative, one of whose members was PA minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, included major Jewish neighborhoods much further to the north than Ramat Shlomo as remaining in Israel:

When the US and EU say that Israel cannot build anything at all for Jews in Jerusalem who live in areas that everyone agrees would be part of Israel forever, they are saying that Jerusalem must remain static and unchanging They are also saying that the rules for Israeli Jews are different than for Israeli Arabs, who have moved into Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem and whose additional construction approval do not get condemned by the EU or US.

This is not helpful to "peace." It just signals to Israel that it is alone, and that its opponents have bought the extreme anti-Israel positions of the Palestinians, and that their rules are particularly against Jews.

Which in turn makes Israel less likely to negotiate over other areas, since the third parties that want to be part of the solution have already signaled their extreme bias against any Jews - and only Jews - living in any part of Jerusalem that happen to live across what was meant to be a temporary armistice line.

Who wants to negotiate their own destruction? Who wants to negotiate under the friendly auspices of people who have loudly announced their bias against you?

Arab writer admits Arabs must take their share or responsibility for "Nakba"

Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar has an article by Majed Kayali that is highly unusual in the Arab world.

While it of course blames Israel for the "nakba" in 1948, this is the first time I've seen an Arab columnist admit that Arabs must take some responsibility for the Palestinian Arab situation today.

Excerpts:

Since the beginning we have regarded the Nakba as the product of a Zionist colonial act, and this is true, but it is not the whole story, or does not explain the truth of what happened.

In particular, the Nakba didn't happen suddenly, but it came within the framework of a series of events and developments, related to the establishment of the Zionist movement, and directing Jewish immigration to Palestine, and the establishment of the nuclei of political, military and economic and educational entities to Israel, before 1948.

The talk about the Nakba raises the question year after year, as to how the Arab reality not only could not do anything for the Palestinians, but for that very reason the Nakba continues. With all due respect to talk about the centrality of the question of Palestine, the love of Palestine, this has not translated in a practical way that makes it easier for the Palestinians, who have been the subject of all kinds of discrimination and extortion and being used in the Arab world.

In addition to all the above, the Arab system is responsible for preventing Palestinians from statehood. Arabs aborted the "All-Palestine Government" [puppet government in Gaza in the 1950s], and they annexed their land, which did not fall under Israeli control, namely the West Bank and Gaza.

Under the Arab system, Palestinian refugees have no rights, no power, under the pretext of maintaining their unity.

So you can not talk about the Nakba without a critical review of history, because history is written recounted a particular story, focused on the creation of Israel, and history is withholding of stories on the responsibility of Arab nations for the Nakba, within which they facilitated the migration of Jews from Arab countries to Palestine / Israel to the extent that this State doubled its population within three years, and 80 percent of Jewish immigrants came from Arab countries.

UNRWA spokesman pathetically trolls for compliments (update)

I missed this bizarre tweet from UNRWA PR flack Chris Gunness:

He is trying to pretend he has a sense of humor about his crying on air last year and by making that bad Photoshop* from an old TV show, but his desire to have people tell him that they like him is real.

And pathetic.

But if Gunness really wants to insert himself in a TV show, here's one that might work:

UPDATE: Gunness didn't make the first poster above; it was done at Israellycool.

05/11 Links Pt2: Behind Breaking the Silence; St. George was a Palestinian?; The Holy Land in 4K

From Ian:

Swedish trawler leaves for Gaza in attempt to break naval blockade

A trawler left its port in Sweden to travel some 5,000 nautical miles in order to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The boat, named Marianne of Gothenburg and purchased jointly by Ship to Gaza Sweden and Ship to Gaza Norway, left on its journey on Sunday evening. It is the first ship in the Freedom Flotilla III to leave for Gaza, according to the website of Ship to Gaza Sweden.
The Marianne will stop at ports in Helsingborg, Malmö and Copenhagen, as well as other ports that will be announced later, according to the website.
The boat does not have room for a significant cargo, but will be carrying solar panels and medical equipment, according to the organization.
It is carrying five crew members and eight passengers. Among the passengers are: Israeli-born Swedish citizen Dror Feiler, a musician and spokesperson of Ship to Gaza; Henry Ascher, a professor of Public Health and pediatrician; Lennart Berggren, a filmmaker; Maria Svensson, pro. tem. spokesperson of the Feministiskt initiative; and Mikael Karlsson, chairperson of Ship to Gaza Sweden.

Swedish deputy PM compares migrant crisis to Holocaust, apologizes

Sweden’s deputy prime minister has apologized for comparing the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean to the horrors of the Holocaust.
In a televised party leader debate Sunday, Asa Romson deplored the desperate situation of migrants trying to make the perilous and often deadly crossing to Europe, saying “we are … turning the Mediterranean into the new Auschwitz.”
Critics, including Jewish leaders, called the comparison to the Nazi death camp misguided and offensive. About 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed in Auschwitz during World War II.
Romson, who represents the Green Party, apologized Monday on Twitter, saying “It was wrong to make the comparison with Auschwitz.”

Swedish expo on WWII White Bus rescue mission made Judenfrei

An exhibition on Sweden and Denmark’s “White Bus” operation to rescue people from concentration camps at the end of World War Two has been vandalised, officials said Saturday, with the perpetrators cutting out a large chunk of text concerning the Jews who were saved.
“They have consciously cut out the part that concerns the Jews, nothing else was touched,” Reverend Mikael Ringlander, one of the organisers, said of the attack that occurred overnight to Saturday.
“We held a ceremony in the synagogue yesterday. It must have angered someone,” he said, adding the incident has been reported to police
The weekend exhibition in Gothenburg had been staged to mark 70 years since Sweden’s Red Cross together with the Danish government in the spring of 1945 sent hundreds of buses to German-occupied territories to rescue people imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps.

"Saudis attacking Houthis because Saud family is Jewish"

Syria-based DamPress has an article saying that the entire reason Saudi Arabia is attacking the Houthis in Yemen is to defend Jews.

The article is called "A war for Israel" by Ali Abboud.

The cartoon says "Jerusalem is that way!" as the Saudi fighter goes towards Yemen. (The words on the garment are a derogatory reference to the Saudi royal family.)

According to the article, the Saudi leaders know that Houthi slogan, "God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Damn the Jews, Power to Islam." The phrase that makes them upset is "Damn the Jews."

Abboud says that without understanding this "fact," one cannot explain why the Saudis are bombing the Houthis.

According to this article, Israel is most concerned that a Houthi-dominated Yemen would close the Mandeb Strait between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, so the Saudis are defending Israel from that possibility.

Why is Saudi Arabia so concerned over Israel? Not because they are Zionist.

It is because, you see, the Saudi royal family is really Jewish!

Jews who were fleeing persecution ended up in the Gulf and pretended to be Arabs, according to his version of the legend. They prayed with Muslims and buried their dead in Muslim cemeteries.

But those crafty Jews, who took over Arabia, created the Wahhabi faith in order to destroy Islam from within.

This idea that the al-Saud family is really Jewish has been around for a long time.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Gulf leaders snub Obama, but no one calls it an "insult"

From AP:

It is not just the Saudi king who will be skipping the Camp David summit of U.S. and allied Arab leaders. Most Gulf heads of state won't be there.

The absences will put a damper on talks that are designed to reassure key Arab allies, and almost certainly reflect dissatisfaction among leaders of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council with Washington's handling of Iran and what they expect to get out of the meeting.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced late on Sunday that newly installed King Salman will not be attending. The ostensible reason was because the upcoming summit on Thursday coincides with a humanitarian cease-fire in the conflict in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting Shiite rebels known as Houthis.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is also interior minister, will lead the Saudi delegation and the king's son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is defense minister, will also attend.

President Barack Obama had planned to meet King Salman one-on-one a day before the gathering of leaders at the presidential retreat but the White House did not take his decision to skip the summit as a sign of any substantial disagreement with the United States.

Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a professor of political science at Emirates University, said Gulf leaders were staying away from the Camp David gathering to signal their displeasure over the nuclear talks.

"I don't think they have a deep respect, a deep trust for Obama and his promises. There is a fundamental difference between his vision of post-nuclear-deal Iran and their vision," he said. "They think Iran is a destabilizing force and will remain so, probably even more, if the sanctions are lifted. ... They're just not seeing things eye to eye."

I have yet to read a single commentary saying that a coordinated snub of the President of the United States is an "insult," or that it is "increasing tensions."

But in the same article:

Netanyahu has been an outspoken critic of the deal, raising tensions with the White House.

Israel expressing its opinion on Iran is couched in terms of how terrible and ungratefully Netanyahu is acting towards the US. But oil-rich Arab states don't have to worry about anyone saying anything bad about them in the media.

05/11 Links Pt1: PA honors terrorists who lynched Israelis; Venezuela: Israel trafficked babies in Nepal

From Ian:

PMW: PA honors 3 terrorists who lynched two Israeli reservists

Last week, Palestinian Authority Member of Parliament and Director of the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake visited the families of three of the terrorists who took part in the lynching and murder of two Israeli reservists in 2000. Karake honored these murderers by giving their families "plaques of honor." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 9, 2015]
Karake has stated that Palestinians have an unequivocal right to "resistance" and "struggle" - PA euphemisms for violence against Israel. He calls the murderers of Israelis "heroes."
On Oct. 12, 2000, a Palestinian mob brutally murdered and mutilated the bodies of two Israeli reservists who had accidentally entered Ramallah. A well-known picture from the gruesome murder showed a Palestinian raising his bloodied hands heroically, showing the crowd his hands covered in the blood of his victims. The bodies of the two Israelis were thrown out of the window, and the mob dragged them through the streets of Ramallah. (Photo credit: Agence France Presse)

Israeli aid to Nepal covered for baby trafficking, Spanish-language TV claims

Israel used its humanitarian aid mission to Nepal as a cover for trafficking 25 Nepalese babies, two Spanish-language networks reported.
Iranian HispanTV and Venezuela’s Telesur networks broadcast the reports. Telesur is the national public television channel in Venezuela, which is rebroadcast throughout Latin America on other public television networks.
HispanTV broadcast the original report, which quotes an unnamed NGO as stating that “Israel uses humanitarian help as a cover for trafficking of 25 babies in Nepal.” Telesur picked up the report last week.
The report stated, correctly, that of the 25 babies that were taken to Israel, “15 of them were born through Tammuz, an Israeli surrogacy company which provides services to Israeli couples unable to bear children, particularly homosexual couples.” The other babies also reportedly were born to surrogate mothers for Israeli parents.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned the report.
“The ‘Tehran-Caracas axis’ even perverts humanitarian aid to victims of natural disasters such as the Nepal earthquake, just as they had accused the Israeli medical mission of harvesting body parts in the Haiti catastrophe,” said Dr. Shimon Samuels, director for International Relations of the Wiesenthal Center. “Through these Spanish-language television satellites, Iran foments anti-Semitism across the Americas, just as it sponsors global terrorism, slanders the Holocaust and pursues its nuclear program.

Radical Offshoot of Human Rights Watch Sends Strike Team to Nepal to Assassinate Victims Saved by Israel (satire)

After Human Rights Watch’s head Kenneth Roth tweeted condemnation of Israel for constructing a 60 bed field hospital in Nepal, sources tell The Israeli Daily (TID) that a radical offshoot of the organization called ‘No Jewish Human Rights Watch’ has dispatched a strike team to hunt down those Nepalese who accepted Israel’s offer of life saving assistance.
“Defending human rights requires shedding blood,” wrote NJHRC’s leader, Sub Commander Fred. “Usually that’s Jewish blood, so nobody really cares, but this situation requires more direct action. We must make an example of those selfish Nepalese traitors who chose Zionist aid over death.”
While Roth did not defend NJHRC’s tactics, he understood their passion. “For some, it just isn’t enough that we focus so much of our attention on the tiny Jewish State, even while hundreds of thousands of Syrians are murdered and Iran jails reporters brave enough to criticize their regime. But could we focus even more on Israel? Probably. Fred’s methods may be wrong, but his heart is always in the right place.”
This is the first time NJHRC has threatened direction violent action. Israeli security officer, Major Chaim Shitz, however, voiced no concern. “Once those guys realize that they can’t get a soy latte in Nepal, we’re pretty sure they’ll scurry back to Berkeley.”

Al Jazeera reports that the Egyptian army blew up three mosques on Saturday night in Rafah.

The mosques were in the buffer zone that Egypt is building to curb illegal smuggling tunnels to Gaza. Clearly, the Egyptian government believed that Hamas would have no problem using mosques as entrances to the tunnels to smuggle weapons - in either direction.

What? You mean you didn't hear about the destruction of three mosques? Funny how that happens.

While Al Jazeera says that this caused a furor, I am not seeing anything about it in other media. Egypt has jailed some Al Jazeera journalists, and AJ is not a fan of the regime, so it likes to make it look bad.

Arab towns surrounded by Jewish communities have 0% unemployment

Mas-ha, Qarawat Bani Hassan and Biddya are three Arab towns that, according to the conventional wisdom, should be suffering more than most due to the suffocating presence of Jewish settlements surrounding them.

Here is a detail of B'Tselem's map showing the towns as islands of Arab brown among a sea of Jewish blue areas.

Yet today there is an Arabic article in Safa that says that the towns have a zero percent unemployment rate.

The article characterizes the issue as how the towns manage to thrive even though the evil Israelis built their evil apartheid wall (the dotted lines are for barriers that have not been built.)

The towns were commercial centers before the second intifada, and it appears that they used to get lots of Jewish customers to department stores lining their main street during the peaceful Oslo period when blowing up Jews only happened several times a year.

But when the suicide bombings became bad, they lost customers so the town leaders decided to re-orient their economy around manufacturing. Now they are filled with factories making glass, furniture and other goods.

This has caused their land prices to increase tenfold, from 10,000 Jordanian dinars per dunam to 100,000 dinars.

The new manufacturing sites are attracting Arabs from all over the West Bank, and factory owners cannot keep up with the demand for skilled workers. They claim that their wages are comparable to those of Arab workers in Jewish settlements, between 4000-7000 shekels a month.

Here's the kicker.

The business leaders of Qarawat Bani Hassan complain that the Palestinian Authority is doing nothing to help them. On the contrary, they say that they are taxed heavily by the PA and that they get literally nothing in return.

In fact, they say that the PA looks at them suspiciously. One business owner says that the Ministry of Finance considers successful businessmen to be thieves, sometimes accuse him of tax evasion, and at other times of money laundering.

The only people who seem threatened by the towns' success are the kleptocrats of the Palestinian Authority, and perhaps the NGOs who have little power over using these towns as propaganda against Israel (although they try.)

The story of Mas-ha, Qarawat Bani Hassan and Biddya shows that it isn't settlements that are ruining the economy under PA rule. It is PA rule itself, where jobs are used as political favors and corruption is the norm, where innovation is punished and laziness rewarded.

It also shows that the entire PA strategy isn't for helping their people but instead to do everything they can to demonize and diminish Israel on the world stage.

The people don't matter. "Winning" their zero sum game with Israel is the obsession of the PA, and the people who are abandoned are forced to do what they can in spite of their corrupt leaders.

From an op-ed in the popular Egyptian newspaper Youm7 by Massad Ismail:

Jews lie as easily as they breathe, a fact that we Arabs who live in our homelands since ancient times know well. We know the temperament and lies ranging from major lies like saying that God gave them the land of Palestine, causing them to kill much of the population of Arabs and forcing them out and setting up their own state, in preparation for their expansion to occupy Arab land from the Nile to the Euphrates.

And when the world discovered the extent of their ambitions symbolized in their flag, they discovered that some of their books increase the hatred of the world for them and expose their plans for corrupting the land, so they resorted to discredit these books and claim they were forged.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum of American writes about the book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, saying

It is the most notorious and widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times. Its lies about Jews, which have been repeatedly discredited, continue to circulate today, especially on the Internet. The individuals and groups who have used the Protocols are all linked by a common purpose: to spread hatred of Jews.

The Protocols is entirely a work of fiction, intentionally written to blame Jews for a variety of ills. Those who distribute it claim that it documents a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world. The conspiracy and its alleged leaders, the so-called Elders of Zion, never existed.

This is a lie of lies of the Jews, who want to cleanse their evil history with big lies like the Holocaust, [but the Protocols] exposes their desire for sovereignty over all human beings

Brussels Jewish Museum invites BDS advocates to "reflect" on antisemitism

From The New Antisemite:

It is a well established fact that Israel-bashing is one of the main causes of antisemitism in Europe. Or isn't it? Well, the Museum is organising a conference entitled Reflexions on antisemitism and islamophobia" and the two guest speakers are two militant Israel-bashers and pro-BDS. They are Nadia Fadil and Anya Topolsk. Both are signatories of the BELGIAN CAMPAIGN FOR AN ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL (BACBI) petition - by the way, only a tiny minority of academics signed it - of whom a couple of Jews. Sadly, these are the people the Museum has invited, and Belgian Jewish representatives don't seem either to mind or, according to a source, to be aware of their speakers' anti-Israel stance...

This is the same museum where an "anti-Israel" terrorist - one who no doubt supports BDS - walked in last year and murdered four people.

Speaker Nadia Fadil signed a petition in 2009 urging the EU to take Hamas off its terror list.

Are there no Jews left in Belgium with any self-respect?

(h/t Rudi)

At least J-Street is admitting whose side they are on

From the National Iranian American Council, April 6:

For Immediate Release

Contact NIAC: Jamal Abdi

jabdi@niacouncil.org, 202.386.6408

Contact AAI: Waseem Mardini

wmardini@aaiusa.org, 202.652.4987

Contact J Street: Jessica Rosenblum

Jessica@jstreet.org, 202.279.0005

Washington, DC – The Arab American Institute (“AAI”), J Street, and the National Iranian American Council (“NIAC”) issued the following joint statement regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action framework struck by Iran and the P5+1:

We congratulate President Obama, Secretary Kerry, and the U.S. negotiating team for successfully reaching an historic agreement that provides a framework for preventing a nuclear-armed Iran and averts a disastrous war. While there is much work to be done to address our remaining concerns regarding Iran’s objectionable policies, reaching a final agreement by June on the nuclear issue is an important step to enhancing American and regional security.

As Arab Americans, Jewish Americans, and Iranian Americans, we are especially cognizant of what this agreement may mean for the Middle East. This deal may provide an important first step towards de-escalating regional tensions and pave the way for resolving the many conflicts that still persist. The lesson that we all must learn from these successful negotiations is that diplomacy works. This deal demonstrates that no disagreement should be so deeply entrenched that it cannot be resolved through the give and take of serious diplomacy.

Instead of taking the easy road and continuing to escalate, President Obama and his administration decided to give diplomacy a chance to succeed. Today, the world is better off thanks to the work of all the diplomats involved in these negotiations, and those who supported their work. If the lessons of this long process can be successfully applied to our continued concerns with Iran as well as the myriad other issues that continue to confront the region, there is hope for a brighter future in the Middle East.

The National Iranian American Council is often described as an unofficial Iranian lobby in the US.

J-Street has partnered with the NIAC since at least 2009, and NIAC has contributed thousands of dollars to the J-Street PAC.

Many Iranian Americans are very upset at the NIAC for its pro-mullah positions. But for J-Street, they make a lot of sense.

(h/t EBoZ)

05/10 Links: NGOs, Antisemitism, and Government Funding; Nepal expresses 'deep gratitude' to Israel

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: NGOs, Antisemitism, and Government Funding: NGO Monitor’s Report to the 2015 Global Forum on Antisemitism

Antisemitism is a very virulent and enduring form of racism that has unfortunately been reemerging to levels not seen since the 1930s, in the period leading up to the Holocaust. Throughout Europe, Jews have been deliberately targeted, violently attacked and murdered at synagogues, schools, kosher markets, and museums. Jews wearing yarmulkes (skull caps) or other religious markings are subject to harassment and violence. Crowds at soccer matches chant “Jews to the gas” and other genocidal taunts. Mass demonstrations in European capitals, ostensibly to protest Israeli actions towards the Palestinians, are rife with antisemitic and Nazi sloganeering and imagery. University campuses have seen extreme targeting and singling out of Jews. In Iran, state-sponsored Holocaust denial and calls to “wipe Israel off the map” are entrenched. Arab media is filled with vitriolic antisemitism and blood libels.
As antisemitism rises and reaches crisis levels in Europe, NGOs that claim to promote human rights and humanitarian agendas in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict and executing the Durban Strategy have fueled and exacerbated hatred of and discrimination against Jews, promoting antisemitic themes and imagery, as at the Durban Conference. These groups, which include international, Palestinian, and Israeli NGOs, also fail to report on or condemn antisemitism and incitement against Jews.
Despite the extensive evidence of NGO antisemitism – egregious examples are provided below – governments, in particular in Europe, continue to fund these groups with hundreds of millions of dollars, pounds, euros, and kroner, and enable the problematic activities and rhetoric.
Click here for PDF version

Richard Millett: Galloway gone! Ward ousted! Liberal Democrats demolished! Labour decimated! SNP in.

For five years Labour has been isolationist on the foreign policy front. It voted not to assist the Syrian people being slaughtered by Assad.
There was, however, one country on which Labour was not isolationist: Israel. Precious parliamentary time was wasted by Labour MPs these last five years smearing Israel as evil and debating, and voting for, a future Palestinian state.
But despite the election results there is no room for complacency for British Jews. The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) have virtually swept away Labour in Scotland. They grew from six to an astonishing 56 MPs!
The SNP like to paint themselves as supportive of multiculturalism but there is, again, one country they are not too accepting of: Israel.
These are SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon’s words to the ‘Ending Scottish Arms Trade with Israel’ conference only yesterday:
“As you may be aware, during the recent conflict in Gaza the Scottish Government wrote to the UK Government urging an embargo on arms sales to Israel. The Scottish Government is a firm friend of Palestine and we will continue to press this issue after the election.”
An SNP council also once voted to ban Israeli books in its libraries.
No doubt the SNP will soon be joining forces with Labour, what’s left of the Liberal Democrats and Caroline Lucas of the Green Party to attack Israel.
In the meantime the average hard-working grassroots pro-Israel activist can enjoy some well-earned schadenfreude at the demise of Galloway and Ward.

UN Watch: Fighting Dictatorships, Defending Human Rights

May 2015 update on UN Watch's latest battles to confront dictatorships at the UN with the truth of their human rights abuses.

Fighting Anti-Israel Bigotry - UN Watch in 2014-2015

Screened at UN Watch Gala in Geneva on May 7, 2015. How Schabas was fired -- and more on incredible work of UN Watch to expose and combat the anti-Israel selectivity of the U.N. and its grossly biased Human Rights Council.

Mike Lumish has decided to put his weekly column on hold, saying it is on hiatus.

From Turkey's Anadolu Agency:

Rajab al-Toum, a 126-year-old Palestinian man, says the history books fail to accurately describe the days that followed the Palestinian Nakba ("catastrophe" in Arabic), which coincided with the establishment of Israel on May 15, 1948.

Al-Toum still vividly recalls events, including the atrocities committed by Jewish terrorist gangs against the local Palestinian population – memories that still bring tears to his eyes.

"The massacres that took place at the time remain etched on my memory," al-Toum told Anadolu Agency.

Already 59 years old when the Nakba occurred, al-Toum had been working on a farm in Beersheba (in what is now southern Israel) when violent Zionist gangs forced hundreds of thousands Palestinians to flee their homes and villages.

He remembers seeing Jewish soldiers dragging a young pregnant Palestinian woman away before killing her in front of her husband and children.

"I trembled in fear when I saw this," al-Toum said. "I was afraid they would kill me too."

Given that the oldest verified person ever was 122, and the oldest person alive is almost 116, it appears that his claim of massacres is as accurate as his claim of how old he is.

In an earlier interview:

When the British ruled, the Palestinian story began and revolutionaries emerged, he said. “I was with them and I had a gun; I knew how to carry it and shoot. We used to go at night and destroy bridges used by occupiers.”

See also Israellycool from last year where he doesn't seem to remember how many children he had.

UPDATE: In 2013 he was said to be born in 1885. So he must be 130!

(H/t Bob K)

From JTA:

Four Danish buses that had recently removed pro-Palestinian ads were destroyed in a suspected arson attack.

The buses were found burning early Friday morning at a Copenhagen bus station, BBC News reported. Danish police say a fifth bus was found with anti-Israel graffiti.

Police are investigating a possible link to the city’s transit department decision last week to remove from the buses ads that called for a boycott of Israeli goods. The ads were paid for by the Danish Palestinian Friendship Association, which according to BBC News works “to influence the Danish public and the Danish authorities to do more for the Palestinians’ right to self-determination.”

Based on the graffiti, which said "Boycott Israel - Free Gaza," it sounds like the anti-Israel community in Denmark reacted a bit strongly to their messages being removed.

Abbas joins despots in Russia to celebrate victory over Abbas' heroes

From Ma'an:

President Mahmoud Abbas was among up to 30 world leaders on Saturday to attend a huge military parade in Moscow commemorating Russia's 70th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany.

Victory Day unites Russians from all walks of life irrespective of political sympathies and huge crowds were expected to flood into central Moscow.

But the Kremlin parade has been overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis, with the West laying sanctions on Moscow over Russia's seizure of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

In what has been seen as punishment for the Kremlin's meddling in Ukraine, Western countries have been boycotting the May 9 festivities, and United States President Barack Obama has snubbed the festivities, as have the leaders of Russia's other key WWII allies Britain and France.

The most high-profile guests on the podium next to Russian President Vladimir Putin were Chinese leader Xi Jinping, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon, and India's President Pranab Mukherjee.

Other leaders in attendance included President Abbas, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, Raul Castro of Cuba, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Jacob Zuma of South Africa.

As I recently pointed out, Abbas considers the infamous Mufti of Jerusalem, who was a partner with Hitler in planning the genocide of Jews, a hero.

The irony of his celebrating the defeat of the Nazis when his political forebears were solidly pro-Nazi is lost on the world.

05/09 Links: Brainwashed at Bowdoin; Bye-Bye, George Galloway, David Ward and Natalie Bennett

From Ian:

William Jacobson: Brainwashed at Bowdoin: Anti-Israel Boycotters Miss a Teachable Moment

Bowdoin College in Maine recently held a student-body referendum for a full academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Unlike more common student-government resolutions seeking “divestment” from a handful of companies, the Bowdoin referendum sought an unprecedented cutoff of all academic and cultural ties. The referendum was initiated by Bowdoin Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), part of a growing national SJP movement on campuses.
I have covered SJP antics at Vassar (the picketing of a classroom because a course involved a trip to Israel, and later posting of a Nazi cartoon), Cornell (a protest leads to physical and verbal harassment of pro-Israel students — and me!), Northeastern University (a protest over suspension included chants of “Long live the intifada,” the bloody suicide-bombing and terrorist campaign), and New York University (the posting of mock eviction notices), and elsewhere.
Wherever I see SJP, I see a messianic absolutism directed at the deligitimization and demonization of every aspect of Israeli society. It is a view that presents Israel as uniquely evil, and Palestinians as uniquely pure victims.
The most messianic of all are some (not all, by any means) left-wing Jews who lead SJP chapters or are fellow travelers like the members of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). For that sub-group of left-wing Jews, demonizing Israel has become a religion.

Ben-Dror Yemini: A manipulation of human rights

The IDF is not perfect, and some of Breaking the Silence's claims on the fighting in Gaza may be true, but these deviations have been put on display, without any context or proof.
The report released by Breaking the Silence is already making waves around the world. Isn't it simply wonderful to preach human rights? It's a position in high demand. The thing is, we're dealing here with another piece of major deception, another link in the chain of effort to turn Israel into a living monster, and more help for the BDS campaign.
Why deception? First, when Israel is accused of harming civilians, or when people talk about proportionality, one has to ask: What are the proportions? It turns out there aren't any – and not by chance either. Because every comparative review definitively shows that Israel causes less civilian casualties than those witnessed on other similar battlefields.
Second, a country like Britain also has anti-war organizations. But no foreign country supports exposing the testimonies of British troops who have returned from conflict zones. So why the hell does Britain allow itself to finance Breaking the Silence? Why do the British think their dual morality is morality?
Third, four other countries – Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark – are funding a Ramallah-based organization, the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat, which also aids Breaking the Silence. HR IHL funds a series of groups such as Al-Haq, BADIL, Al-Mizan and others, which are a part of the BDS campaign network.
We're not dealing with criticism of Israel, but an ideology that opposes the very existence of Israel. This is the ideological environment of the Breaking the Silence report.

Bye-Bye, George Galloway

Within that big picture are some huge specific wins. Specifically, the losses by anti-Israel maniacs George Galloway, David Ward and Natalie Bennett.
George Galloway is the poster child for anti-Israel hate, an obsessed creep who spews anti-Israel conspiracy theories, regularly appears on Iranian Press TV, attacks critics of the Mullah regime, and Jew-baits under the guise of anti-Zionism, British MP George Galloway storms out of debate when finds out opponent is Israeli:
Also losing was Liberal Democrat Party member David Ward, who had previously been suspended by his own party for his anti-Israel comments. Ward notoriously demanded that Holocaust Remembrance Day include remembrance of Palestinian refugees, and tweeted that if he lived in Gaza he would fire rockets at Israel. Ward’s reaction to the Paris unity march after the Charlie Hebdo massacre was to say he was “sick” that Benjamin Netanyahu was in attendance.
Rounding out the threesome, Natalie Bennett, Chair of the Green Party, also lost. Bennett is a big supporter of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Bennett’s fanaticism was just the tip of the iceberg, England’s Green Party Has an Anti-Semitism Problem: