Thursday, December 10, 2015

12/10 Links Pt2: Col. Kemp: The need for the closest friendship between Britain and Israel

From Ian:

Col Kemp: The need for the closest friendship between Britain and Israel

Ninety-eight years ago tomorrow (December 11) General Sir Edmund Allenby entered the Holy City after defeating the Ottoman forces in the Battle of Jerusalem. This was one of Britain’s great victories in the First World War and a much-needed uplift for our national spirit, reeling from the 300,000 casualties sustained in the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium that ended the previous month.
This anniversary reminds us of the shared history and values of Britain and the State of Israel; and, with the perils we face in the world today, of the need for the closest friendship between our two countries.
According to Lieutenant General Sir George Macdonogh, director of British military intelligence during the Great War, Allenby’s conquest of Palestine in 1917 and 1918 was made possible by the Jewish intelligence network, Nili. Led by the distinguished botanist Aaron Aaronsohn and his sister Sarah, Nili took tremendous risks to pass vital information on the Turks to Allenby’s forces. Some, including Sarah, sacrificed their lives to help the British.
Within Allenby’s army was the Jewish Legion: the 38th, 39th and 40th Battalions of The Royal Fusiliers, which had been raised in the British Army to fight the Ottomans. Formed and led by British Christian officer Lieutenant Colonel John Patterson and Russian Zionist leader and soldier Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the Legion was made up of Jews from Britain, the US, Palestine, Russia, Canada, Argentina and the Ottoman Empire. They fought valiantly in battles to the north of Jerusalem and in the Jordan Valley.
The Jewish Legion was the first formed Jewish fighting force since the Maccabees, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called John Patterson the godfather of the IDF.

Gerald Steinberg: Amnesty International and the Tragedy of Human Rights Day

In the past year, Amnesty’s moral bankruptcy was further highlighted by exposure of wider connections to terrorists. In August, The Times (London) published a series of articles revealing that Yasmin Hussein, the NGO’s Director of Faith and Human Rights and formerly Director of International Advocacy, has links to the Muslim Brotherhood and possibly to Hamas. Hussein’s husband, Wael Mussabeh, holds a position in the Human Relief Foundation (HRF), a member of the Union of Good, an organization designated by the US and Israeli governments as involved in funding terror groups. Before working at Amnesty, Hussein was employed at Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), also banned by Israel in 2014 for its alleged financial connections to Hamas.
In addition, Amnesty’s lack of credibility in accusations and allegations of human rights violations and war crimes is increasingly visible. In 2015, the organization associated itself with a flashy project known as “forensic architecture” based on pseudo-scientific methodologies. In a series of publications, Amnesty officials marketed what they referred to as the Gaza Platform, an “online tool” that purports to “map Israeli attacks” during the 2014 conflict. A promotional video titled “CSI: Gaza” intersperses highly emotive images of dead children with shots of staffers purporting to be remotely “investigating” the Gaza “crime scene”.
However, the Gaza Platform provides no real evidence, relying exclusively on publications by Palestinian NGOs which themselves have no credibility, no independent verification capabilities, and often contradictory allegations. Information that is essential for the establishment of war crimes allegations – such as the location of enemy forces and military targets, nature of combat, and intelligence available to commanders at the time of the fighting – is entirely absent. And the “Gaza Platform” based on “forensic architecture” fails to mention more than 4,000 rocket attacks from Gaza. (This exercise in propaganda was funded by a European Research Council grant.)
In contrast, in many places where real atrocities and human rights violations are committed daily, such as in Syria and Iran, Amnesty is irrelevant. The limited human rights reporting that does take place is provided by local groups with much smaller budgets, and by people with more interest in the substance than in the public relations aspects.

EU Makes Up Bogus Laws to Target -- Guess Who?

Israel's occupation of the West Bank is fully legal under the terms of UN Resolution 242 (1967), which was carefully drafted to guarantee Israel's rights to remain there until such time as there is a "Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."
When the EU states that its aim is "to ensure the respect of Union positions and commitments in conformity with international law on the non-recognition by the Union of Israel's sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967," it refuses to recognize the validity of UN Resolution 242, and it gives no proper explanation of what is meant by "sovereignty."
As only Israeli armed forces will be required to withdraw in the event that such boundaries are created, the presence of Israeli settlements there will remain legal under the terms of the original League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, which stipulates that there should be close Jewish settlement in all areas. Those Mandate provisions were incorporated in the UN Resolution 181, which established a Jewish and an Arab state.
The European Union has never demanded that China, Morocco, Russia, Pakistan or India -- all with territories under dispute -- label goods in ways like those demanded of Israel.
"The EU does not have a general set of rules for dealing with occupied territories, settlements or territorial administrations whose legality is not recognized by the EU. Rather, the EU has special restrictions aimed at Israel." -- Law Professors Eugene Kontorovich (Northwestern University) and Avi Bell (University of San Diego).

Chanukah Video Night 5: Lift Yourself Up (Shir Soul) + bonus: SAR Academy

Why are there so many acapella Jewish groups?

Bonus:

This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column:

History stands at the beginning stages of Islam’s latest attempt to dominate the world.

That’s a very broad statement, of course. Do I mean political subjugation and occupation, as in the Arab conquests of the 7^th century? Do I mean some kind of ideological domination and political control, as with the Soviet empire?

Actually, both. Islam is both a religion and a political ideology, an ideology that is essentially expansionist, one that wants to expand dar al islam (the lands of Islam) at the expense of dar al harb (the lands of the sword; and they mean that literally). This struggle for domination, violent or not, is called ‘jihad’.

Is there a ‘radical Islam’ and a ‘moderate Islam’? Not really. To quote Turkish PM Erdoğan, “There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.” Of course there are radical Muslims who try to achieve their goals by means of war or terrorism, and there are others that prefer more civilized means such as persuasion, propaganda, infiltration/subversion, migration, politics or demography. The latter are the ‘moderates’. But there are none who do not believe that it would be better if everyone in the world were Muslim.

There are two main headquarters of the worldwide jihad today: Iran and Saudi Arabia lead the Shia and Sunni factions respectively. Iran’s tactics are radical, including terrorism and war, while the Saudis are more moderate, mostly using their petrodollars to buy influence. There are also autonomous and semi-autonomous groups. The Islamic State (Da’esh) practices the most radical form of jihad, conquering territory by force and coercing the inhabitants to become Muslim by violent means (when they don’t just kill them for the effect).

While there are doctrinal disagreements between those waging jihad, most seriously between the Sunni and Shia branches, they often cooperate and support each other against their common enemies (Shia Iran helping Sunni Hamas is an example).

Although it’s impossible to find a single hand coordinating the worldwide jihad, we can see various tactics being applied in various places:

In Iraq and Syria, Da’esh and Iran are both attempting to conquer territory and subjugate the inhabitants by force.
In Israel (but also Europe and North America) terror groups are inciting ‘decentralized’ acts of violence, inspired and incited – but not directly controlled – by them. These are almost impossible for security forces to prevent, because the perpetrators (often young people) have no records and few direct connections to known organizations.
In Europe, the mass migration of Muslims, few of whom are actually ‘refugees’, is combined with murderous terrorism, both organized and spontaneous.
In the US, terrorism continues, much or all of it decentralized. In addition, tactics of infiltration, subversion and propaganda are employed to prevent the authorities from responding and to open the doors for additional migration. The very Muslim-friendly Obama Administration almost seems to be cooperating to facilitate the jihad.

Terrorism is the deliberate murder of noncombatants to achieve political goals. In this post, I would like to take a closer look at terrorism as a tactic of jihad.

How does stabbing a few Jews on the street or shooting up a concert or a meeting at a government agency advance the goal of jihad? Actually, quite a lot. Terrorism has multiple objectives:

It provokes responses from the authorities which can be used to justify more terrorism and to impugn the victim in world opinion.
It attracts attention to Muslim grievances and prompts concessions to them.
It intimidates the population. The psychological effect is to cause someone to seek safety for himself by identifying with the terrorists. Recent well-publicized terrorism in Paris and California coincided with a spike in Americans calling for an increase in immigration of Muslim ‘refugees’, and undoubtedly an increase in those seeking to convert to Islam, as happened immediately after 9/11. I can’t prove it, but I speculate that there is a connection.
It damages confidence in governments and authorities and destabilizes them. The pressure to “do something” about terrorism turns the public against their leaders.
It accumulates ‘honor’ for Muslims, who often feel that they have been humbled by Western colonialism and economic and technological superiority.
It encourages jihadists – violent and non-violent – to redouble their efforts.

In the case of Israel, jihadists believe that they can make life unpleasant enough for the Jewish ‘colonists’ to get up and ‘go back to where they came from’. This is a serious misunderstanding of Israeli attitudes, especially of those of Mizrachi descent, who are not prepared to go back to Morocco or Iraq, for example, or for those whose parents survived the Holocaust.

In the past, terrorism persuaded some Israeli politicians that they should make concessions to the Arabs, whom they foolishly expected to respond by stopping it. So the Oslo accords followed the first Intifada, and the withdrawal from Gaza (the ‘disengagement’) followed the second. Unfortunately, concessions only facilitated and encouraged more pressure and more terrorism.

The Israeli electorate has learned its lesson, and will not vote for this type of politician in the future. Somewhat ironically, since it is becoming generally known that the Palestinian Arab leadership is not interested in any outcome in which a Jewish state continues to exist, terrorism is less effective at extracting concessions to them.

Israelis are also much harder to intimidate than Europeans or Americans, since several generations have grown up with terrorism as a daily companion. Nevertheless, there are still some cases – especially in the shrinking Israeli Left – of the so-called “Oslo Syndrome,” which causes sufferers to internalize the anti-Jewish attitudes of their persecutors. For examples, see anything by Gideon Levy in Ha’aretz.

The recent wave of terrorism has definitely caused a great deal of criticism of the Netanyahu government, which has struggled to contain decentralized terrorism with little success. So in this respect, it is achieving its goal. On the other hand, nobody thinks the Opposition has any better ideas.

In Europe and the US, it seems that the use of terrorism to promote concessions and to intimidate has been much more effective. In Europe, political leaders have welcomed Muslim immigration and blamed Israel for Muslim terrorism. In the US, the Attorney General has suggested that the threat of a backlash against Muslims is more worrisome than that of actual Islamic terrorism (two words that the President is unable to bring himself to say).

The policies of the US and most European governments are inconsistent and ineffectual. They do not inspire confidence in their ability to overcome the Islamic jihad. In many cases they aren’t even able to define their problem and name their enemy.

Israel is on the ‘seam line’ between Islam and the West, and therefore is a prime target of terrorism. As I’ve suggested, Israel is the single nation best adapted to fight terrorism and to deal with its effects. But unfortunately its jihadist opponents have been remarkably successful with their propaganda aimed at Europe and the US, falsely portraying Israel as a colonialist oppressor, war criminal and apartheid state. Europeans and left-wing elements in the US (including the Obama Administration) have become convinced that Israel, rather than a bulwark against Islamic jihad, is a ‘problem’ that needs to be solved by forcing it to surrender to the jihadists.

As a result, Israel is unable to be a source of support for Europe and the US, and indeed needs to devote considerable resources to counteracting their efforts to push it into the hands of its enemies.

This is stupid, self-defeating behavior on their part. If the democratic West wants to survive, it must cooperate with all those who are also targets of the jihad, especially the one country that probably has the best intelligence in the region and the most experience in dealing with their common enemy.

Even if that country is the Jew among nations.

12/10 Links Pt1: Fatah official: Murderers of 4 are “giants and leaders”; Pres. Carter Banned Iranians

From Ian:

JCPA: Do Stabbing Attacks Constitute Terrorism?

It is curious to note that Sweden recently adopted a “New Swedish strategy against terrorism” as presented to the Swedish parliament by its minister for home affairs on August 28, 2015.
This strategy states:
Terrorism threatens international peace and security, national security and our fundamental rights and freedoms. Every year, numerous terrorist attacks are carried out around the world. Recent years have seen a sharp increase in problems related to foreign terrorist fighters and there is presently no indication that this trend will abate.
The strategy sets the goal of all counter-terrorism activities – to keep terrorist attacks from being carried out, including a specific reference for the need to prevent terror through influencing “the intent of individuals to commit or support terrorist crime”.
Clearly, stabbing attacks by individuals – even against Israelis – would enter within the need, as set out in the Swedish strategy against terrorism, to “Prevent, Preempt and Protect against such terror.”
Why did the Swedish leadership, while acknowledging the need to prevent individuals from carrying out acts of terror, nevertheless appear to have maintained such a blatant double-standard in denying that knife attacks by individuals against Israeli citizens could be acts of terror?
While any prime minister and foreign minister are human and may even make mistakes, one might assume that in any efficient governmental system, statements on major issues of a legal nature issued by senior governmental representatives, regarding actions of friendly states, would be based on accurate knowledge and awareness of the legal principles involved and devoid of partisan double-standards. It appears the Swedish government may be taking a crash course on these anti-terrorist principles.

PMW: Fatah official: “Whoever succeeded in killing, this is a big thing”

After mentioning by name two terrorists who in total murdered four Israelis, senior Fatah official Abbas Zaki praised all Palestinian attackers, and in particular those who succeeded to murder:
“Whoever succeeded in killing, this is a big thing, and whoever [was killed but] succeeded in at least scaring the Israeli pedestrian is also a Martyr.”[Official PA TV, Oct. 31, 2015]
According to Zaki, all those who attacked Israelis are “giants,” “leaders,” and “pioneers” and those who died attacking Israelis are “Martyrs.” Although terrorist Raed Jaradat did not “succeed” in killing anyone, but “only” stabbed and critically wounded an Israeli soldier, Zaki singled him out, stating that he is “just like” the murderers, i.e., just as honorable. Zaki exemplifies the PA policy Palestinian Media Watch has documented of turning terrorists into role models and heroes for society, stating that this stabber surely will have something named after him:
“I believe that, Allah willing, something will be built and named after him [Raed]. When Palestine is liberated, Allah willing, he will have at least an institution named after him, and a statue [made] of him.”

PMW: Rock-throwing dolls for Palestinian children misrepresented by PA

A container load of dolls holdings rocks in their raised hands (see picture above) and wearing Palestinian headscarves - keffiyehs - with the inscriptions "Jerusalem is ours" and "O Jerusalem, here we come" was intended for Palestinian Authority children to play with. However, the Israeli Customs Authority confiscated the dolls shipped from the United Arab Emirates as "inciting material" this week.
The official PA daily referred to the confiscation as the "Israeli war against children's dolls" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 9, 2015] and pretended the problem was the Palestinian headscarf: "Israel confiscated 4,000 dolls whose faces were covered with a Palestinian keffiyeh!" The paper did not mention the fact that the doll is positioned to throw a rock and is promoting child violence.
However, this reaction is not surprising as the rock-throwing doll fits nicely the hate and violence messages of PA children's education. Palestinian Media Watch has reported that a PA school recently honored and named a football tournament after a terrorist who stabbed and seriously injured two civilians. Similarly, Fatah official Tawfiq Tirawi praised his 2-year-old son for singing "Daddy, buy me a machine gun and a rifle, so that I will defeat Israel and the Zionists":

On Sunday I reported (for the second time) about the virulent antisemitism of the leader of the Palestinian Commission for Refugees Rights Protection and how that organization has been funded and/or supported by places like USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Anna Lindh Foundation, the UN Development Program and others.

Many of my readers wrote to these organizations. So far, only the National Endowment for Democracy has responded, and in fact NED's spokesperson pro-actively wrote to me as well. Here is her response:

Dear EoZ,

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has been made aware of your recent blog post about the Palestinian Commission for Refugees Right Protection (PCRP) by some of your readers.

While we are working on a more thorough response, I did want to let you know that NED has not supported this group for several years. NED did provide 4 grants to this group from 2007 – 2011, and to the best of our knowledge, Dr. Gamal Abdel Nasser Mohammed Abu Nahel was not affiliated with the group during that period, and until your post, we knew nothing about him. I want to assure you that NED has zero tolerance for anti-Semitism or incitement to violence.

I will get back to you as soon as I can with a more detailed reply – but wanted it to be clear that NED has not provided support to this group since 2011.

Sincerely,

Jane Riley Jacobsen Senior Director, Public Affairs, National Endowment for Democracy

This is exactly what I predicted in my article. Here was my response:

Hi Jane,

I appreciate your response.

Given your past support, I think it would be appropriate for the NED to publicly (and privately) respond to this pattern of antisemitism at the PCRP by telling them that they cannot expect any future funding as long as Dr. Nahel is allowed to be part of that organization, and that this behavior is unacceptable.

I firmly believe that the only way to combat endemic antisemitism in the PA is to publicly denounce it, and as a former partner, NED has a chance to not only dissociate itself from the organization but to actively help fix the problem. For too long the media and NGOs have been treating this hate as "one of those things" and it is past time to demand the same accountability from the Palestinian side that would rightly be demanded from Israel. NED can be part of the solution.

Thanks again,

Elder

I have not seen any responses from USAID, Anna Lindh or UNDP. Please write to these organizations and demand answers as to why they support an antisemitic organization (the hateful articles are linked to from the PCRP's official Facebook page) and ask what they plan to do to counter it.

Head of Al Azhar U tells students to read the "Protocols of Elders of Zion"

In 2009, during his Cairo speech, President Obama said:

I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning; and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement.

...As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam -- at places like Al-Azhar -- that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment.

Today, we can see exactly how enlightened Al Azhar University is.

"The damned Jews keep accusing us of antisemitism!"

The president of Al-Azhar University, Dr. Abd El-Hay Azab, while re-opening the university dormitory following last year's violence, demanded students read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to get familiar with conspiracies the nation is facing.

"I swear to God there is a new colonial war that is targeting our youth in order to destroy your country and homes with your hands," he said, warning the youth against "institutions of fitna" (other religious institutions with different agendas), and requesting the read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to fortify themselves against such conspiracies.

He also said "Zionists are working for the security of Israel through [creating] instability in the region, particularly Egypt," saying that this was a conspiracy against all Muslims and pointing out that these conspiracies against religion in general and against Al-Azhar in particular, as they are spreading the idea that Al-Azhar is stronghold of terrorism.

(h/t Shawarma News)

I noted last week that Palestinian leaders will take any international conference and try to hijack it for anti-Israel purposes.

Today is International Human Rights Day. Mahmoud Abbas' speech on the occasion says nothing specific about how Palestinians should respect human rights (outside of signing human rights agreements) - only that this day must be used to attack Israel.

Here is the entire speech so you can see how little Abbas cares about his own responsibility to provide human rights for his people:

In the same year when the international community adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to ensure the maintenance of freedom and fundamental rights, and the preservation of human dignity, the Palestinian people faced to their misfortune a project that aims to eradicate them from his land and the denial of their existence, and while this announcement confirmed that the rights contained therein must ensure that each man has basic rights, the Palestinian man was deprived of the most basic national and individual rights, especially the right to life and freedom.

Taking salute today, December 10, of the International Day of Human Rights, the sons of our Palestinian people are targets of a new attack from the Israeli occupation and settlers in the framework of the continuous aggression on the rights and land and holy places of Christianity and Islam, which targets mainly children and young people, protectors of the dream and the future generation.

I've cited in the aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014 nearly 2200 Palestinians, including more than 500 children. Since the beginning of October 2015, 117 Palestinians have been killed so far, including 25 children, as well as arrest and torture campaigns against our people, including children, with more than 10,000 Palestinian children arrested, since 2000 to now.

In this regard, the State of Palestine decided to revive this day, particularly in schools all over the country, to highlight the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian child, and the emphasis on their right, like the children of the world, to live in freedom and dignity upon the soil of his homeland.

Our Palestinian people will continue our struggle to achieve our objectives of freedom and independence and return, and will, at the same time, promote a human rights system and the protection of freedoms and ensure equality and non-discrimination as a basis for our independent state, as a state of all its citizens, male and female, different religions and beliefs, opinions, social circumstances, and the consolidation of National Unity and pluralistic democratic society and human dignity concepts.

Our national unity has been formed and our social solidarity is the guarantor and protector of the national fabric, despite displacement, occupation and illegal practices of colonization and siege and wall barriers.

Our Declaration of Independence has been confirmed in 1988, including the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people in the face of the occupation, and it also stressed the respect and safeguarding of fundamental human rights principles to be protected as stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so as to consolidate the gains of our people in the framework of continuous struggle, and the embodiment of an independent Palestinian state, and an expression of its continuing quest to ensure the rights and freedoms of the Palestinian people in the face of the occupation, and meeting for the sacrifices of our people and their aspirations, and Palestine is now an observer in the United Nations and its accession to international agreements, especially in the field of human rights, without any reservations, to promote our national and state struggle to assure every citizen of his rights, and assume the maintenance of law and protection of human rights, as guaranteed by us as we sign these conventions of rights and pledge to fulfill our obligations towards them, through the harmonization of our law and policies with those principles and international conventions.

On this day, we reaffirm our commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and appeal to provide international protection for the Palestinian people, especially children and youth, and the need for accountability of the occupation for their crimes, and to support us in the path of independence and to ensure all national and individual rights of the Palestinian people. Palestine remains the most important test of the international system, and countries must fulfill their obligations to respect and ensure respect for international law, and cut any links between their governments, bodies and companies with the settlements and their products and the occupation forces that protect them, and to link relations with Israel to its commitment to international law and peace.

As we address the people of Palestine in all parts of the country and in the Diaspora, in the camps, cities and villages, to commemorate the International Day for Human Rights and the confirmation of their rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and they continue to be deprived of them, tell the world that we are students of the life and dignity, freedom and peace, and the world must respond to the call of the youth of Palestine, whose steadfastness will defeat the occupation and oppression and triumph of the right and freedom.

Peace, mercy and blessings of God

What a great national leader! When Abbas speaks about the importance of human rights, he means the importance of Israel to cave to his blackmail, not his responsibilities to provide human rights to his people!

This is in stark contrast with how real heads of state act. For comparison, here are statements about Human Rights day from Trinidad/Tobago and Pakistan in years past (the first ones I found from national leaders), where they speak of the challenges of providing human rights to their people.

One other thing: Abbas' last part about the youth whose "steadfastness" will "defeat the occupation" comes very close to supporting knife, car ramming and stoning attacks against Israeli civilians.

"Plaintiffs for Israel"

(This is an advertorial.)

David Abrams is a NYC-based attorney who has an interesting idea. From his "Plaintiffs for Israel" website:

I am an attorney in New York in the United States and a proud Zionist. I regularly engage in litigation in support of Israel and I am a graduate of Shurat Hadin's training program for activist lawyers; and I serve as the Executive Director of the Zionist Advocacy Center. As an example of my work, in conjunction with Shurat Hadin, I filed an unfair labor practices charge against a union which adopted an anti-Israel boycott resolution. You can read about it here.

Like many supporters of Israel, I am concerned about the movement in Western countries to boycott Israel. Although the boycotters claim to be motivated by human rights, they do not seem to care about countries with far worse human rights records than Israel. Although the boycotters claim to be concerned about Palestinian Arabs, they do not seem to care about various Arab countries which formally discriminate against Palestinian Arabs in many different ways.

I also practice civil rights law and I believe that many efforts to boycott Israel violate various laws against discrimination. I believe that many efforts to boycott Israel would not survive a legal challenge, but there is a problem: As an attorney, I normally need a client with "standing," in other words a person who is a direct victim of the discriminatory action who can be the Plaintiff in a legal claim. This is a problem because after a boycott action is announced, it can be difficult and time-consuming to find a suitable client.

The purpose of this web site is to address this problem. I hope to have thousands of people sign up and provide information about their job, school, and so forth. Then, if a boycott is announced, I can quickly find a Plaintiff and spring into action with a demand letter, an administrative charge, or a lawsuit. I am admitted to practice law in New York and New Jersey so this web site should not be taken as an advertisement outside of New York or New Jersey. Nevertheless, if you end up involved in matter in some other jurisdiction, I would attempt to find and/or work with a suitable attorney.

I've met David and can vouch that he is for real.

If you belong to an organization or school that looks like it might someday discriminate against you because of your support of Israel, it is better to register for this ahead of time and then if something happens you can be empowered to reach out and fight back rather than be forced to quit.

12/09 Links Pt2: Why Israel became Europe’s whipping boy; Could Houellebecq's World Happen?

From Ian:

Brendan O’Neill: The wretched reason why Israel became Europe’s whipping boy

It isn’t Israelis who are paranoid; it’s anti-Israeli Europeans. They’re the ones who madly look upon one nation, one people, as toxic, destabilising, destructive, out to get us all and do over world peace. Such swirling paranoia often means anti-Zionism crosses the lines into anti-Semitism.
Some Israelis I spoke to seemed more upset about the turn against Israel in Europe than they were about the more immediate threat posed Islamists in the Middle East. It wasn’t hard to work out why. As one said, “We considered Europe a friend”: “We thought Europe and Israel had a lot in common, being Western and democratic.”
This cuts to the heart of the Euro-elites’ paranoia about Israel, their turn against it: it is really European values, the ideals of modernity and democracy, they’ve given up on. The thing that riles them most about Israel is that it reminds them of what they used to be like, of the values they once espoused, before they lost the moral plot and sank into the cesspit of relativism and post-Enlightenment self-loathing.
Plucky, keen to protect its sovereignty, considering itself an outpost of liberalism… Israel is a painful reminder to today’s morally anchorless European thinkers and agitators of what their nations once were. They hate Israel because they hate themselves.
Israel has become the whipping boy of guilt-ridden Western liberals who’ve given up on the very idea of the West.

Col. Kemp: The ban on visiting Israel is an absurdity

Royals must honour the fallen of our forgotten Middle East war
No fewer than 16,000 British and Commonwealth troops died during the Palestine campaign in the First World War and are buried in the land where they fell. Yet a long-standing Foreign Office ban on royal visits to Israel looks likely to deny these men the honour that has been afforded to British soldiers killed in Europe, Gallipoli and other theatres of war during the centenary years. This policy must be overturned now to ensure their sacrifice is properly recognised.
Ninety-eight years ago today, on December 9, 1917, the Ottoman governor of Jerusalem surrendered the Holy City to General Sir Edmund Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force at the end of a bloody battle against the Turks that began on November 17.
The Palestine campaign has received little attention during the First World War commemorations, but was the second largest British theatre of operations in terms of strength of forces, with troops from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India. It achieved the first defeat of a central power in the war.
British Empire forces sustained 554,828 casualties during the campaign, including 16,000 dead. At the Jerusalem War Cemetery on Mount Scopus this year I visited the graves of two of them, Edwin Beard and Leonard Frost, both boys from my school, Colchester Royal Grammar. It saddened me to think that the British Foreign Office is ready to deny these British soldiers the honour they deserve.

Isi Leibler: British Jews Under Pressure

Reviewing the status of Anglo-Jewry can lead to diametrically opposing conclusions. Residing in a northwest London Jewish suburb, one can easily be deluded that life for Jews in the U.K. is rosy. Jewish cultural and religious life is thriving, as exemplified by the mushrooming of synagogues and kosher facilities, not to mention the highly successful educational initiatives like Limmud. Indeed, insulated from the outside world and living and socializing primarily in a Jewish “ghetto,” it is not difficult to convince oneself that life in this Anglo-Jewish Diaspora is almost idyllic.
But this picture is delusional and a far cry from reality. The demographic projections reflect snowballing intermarriage offset by the high birthrate of the ultra-Orthodox — which will make them the dominant element in the Jewish community within the not too distant future.
More importantly, even though British Jews have not yet suffered from the bloody jihadi violence and murders of their French counterparts, as European Jews they will ultimately face the same threat, and if they believe they are in a different category, they are in denial.
Although Muslim jihadi elements are currently less dominant in the U.K. than in France, they face very similar threats from ISIS followers and homegrown terrorists. Moreover, indigenous antisemitism in the form of feral anti-Israelism is as blatant in the U.K. as in France.

Chanukah Video Night 4: SHALOM - Adele "Hello" Chanukah Parody - plus a storybook

Bonus:

Two videos about people in Israel you won't see on the mainstream media

The Druze and the Circassians of Israel:

The Settlers:

UK To Attack Islamist Militant Stronghold Of 'France' (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

London, December 9 - British Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans this afternoon to send the Royal Air Force to conduct airstrikes against a concentration of militant Islamic radicals in a place called France, news sources reported today.

The BBC and Sky News published items on their websites to the effect that Cameron had given orders to the military to conduct the strikes, which will target areas of known Isalmist activity that have not yet been hit by the western bombing campaign. France, said Cameron, has long been a source of recruitment for ISIS fighters, and the strikes against it will be part of a larger effort to reduce the threat of terrorism emerging from that area.

Military experts estimate that thousands of Islamic State fighters have joined the organization from various parts of France, both in Iraq and Syria. Certain areas of France are more known than others as hotbeds of militant Islamism, and those regions will face the initial wave of assaults to help reduce them and perhaps hamper ISIS's recruitment efforts. If successful, the bombing campaign will be expanded to other Islamist strongholds, such as Belgium and Sweden.

"Unfortunately, the West has tolerated this cauldron of hateful, violent militarism under the guise of Islam for too long," said the prime minister. "That must end. The Royal Air Force, with intelligence help from several allies, will deploy to hit France mercilessly. The campaign will not cease until we are satisfied that France no longer poses a threat to our way of life."

Cameron insisted that no ground troops would be sent to France. "We will coordinate with other forces on the ground, but the British public can rest assured we will not become mired in a ground campaign. Our priorities are to conduct this operation from the air, and avoid direct entanglements with the enemy. If necessary, we will coordinate efforts with other forces that are on the ground in France," he added.

Opposition leaders called the move foolish. "There are far more pressing matters to be dealt with at home while the prime minister tries to focus public attention on matters overseas," charged Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. "The Royal Air Force has better things to do than waste its time over France, which is probably a lost cause." Corbyn suggested that the RAF might target several of Britain's largest banks, whose assets should be confiscated by the government and redistributed among the country's Muslim immigrants.

12/09 Links Pt1: Terrorist privilege; Murray: The ‘Victim blaming’ trend; Samantha, Powerless?

From Ian:

Terrorist privilege

Two people take 14 lives in California.
Fourteen beautiful people: A woman from Iran, another woman whose family fled Vietnam, a Mexican man. They slaughter the diversity that makes America great. These victims did community service and cared for others.
And what happens? The murderers almost become the victims in the narrative.
No one protests against the extremism and hatred the perpetrators had for others. No one is particularly angry at them. People are outraged at gun laws.
Newspapers run editorials about guns.
A newspaper bashes politicians for offering prayers. US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump makes an outrageously discriminatory remark about Muslim immigrants, and suddenly he is accused of being the reason that “jihadists demonize the US.” There is more anger about climate change and the rise of Marine Le Pen’s right-wing Front Nationale in France than there is hatred for the perpetrators and ideology behind the Paris attacks.

Douglas Murray: ‘Victim blaming’ after terrorist attacks is a pernicious new trend

The term ‘victim blaming’ is most commonly used to describe people who claim that a woman walking out in a short skirt is ‘asking to be raped.’ But even this claim is not quite as gut-wrenching as the claim that some people are ‘asking to be killed’ or once killed are effectively ‘guilty of their own murder.’
This most malicious form of ‘victim blaming’ was rolled out in the American press at the weekend by the interestingly named Linda Stasi. In a column in Saturday’s New York Daily News Ms Stasi wrote about one of the 14 people massacred in an Isis-inspired attack in San Bernardino, California (a terrorist attack so terrible that it has made even President Obama admit that a certain type of terrorism might exist. Anyhow – Ms Stasi’s piece is a quite remarkable exhibit on the moral insanity of our time.
Last week after having apparently pledged allegiance to Isis, a husband and wife called Tashfeen Malik and Syed Farook walked into a party at Farook’s own workplace in San Bernardino and began gunning down the guests. The couple – now designated as ‘terrorists’ by officials – were then killed in a shoot-out with police. A subsequent search of their home turned up an arsenal of weaponry. So far so bad. But these are strange and confusing times for some people, and Ms Stasi is perhaps the most confused of all.

Little girl demonstrates art of stabbing: “Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!”

Palestinian Media Watch documents the Palestinian Authority and Fatah leadership's messages to its population, showing both the PA ideology as well as how it directs the population to act. The current Palestinian terror wave is an excellent example of how the Palestinian population has responded to the leadership's message. Mahmoud Abbas and other PA leaders sparked the current terror and violence by frequently reiterating the PA libel that Israel is planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and they called on Palestinians to "defend it," "bless[ed] every drop of blood spilled" for it, "congratulated" the murderers and much more. Responding to the call, and following the praise and support from PA and Fatah leaders, among them Abbas, who referred to stabbings as "peaceful popular uprising," Palestinians are - independent of the leadership - inciting to murder on social media, including encouraging people to slit the throats of Jews, and committing murder themselves.
The following are examples of social media murder promotion by Palestinians on Facebook.
One video shows a little girl glorifying stabbing. She is asked:
Man: "What do you tell [Palestinian] youth in the West Bank?"
Girl demonstrates with a long knife: "Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!"
[Facebook page of the Jerusalem Intifada's Young People Coalition, Nov. 12, 2015]

Video on Palestinian Facebook page - Little girl encourages stabbing Jews

From JCPA:

The Fatah Central Committee gave its backing to a strategy that combines the terror intifada with diplomatic and legal moves in the international arena aimed at achieving recognition of the state of Palestine as well as an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders with no political quid pro quo from the Palestinians.

The Fatah Central Committee, convened on Sunday, December 6, 2015, at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah. Fatah is led by Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who also serves as president of the state of Palestine, chairman of the Palestinian Authority, and leader of the PLO.

The decisions taken by the Fatah Central Committee shed light on the Palestinian leadership’s policy toward Israel.

The [Central] Committee discussed…the increase in severe attacks against members of our Palestinian people in the occupied state of Palestine (the West Bank, Al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip), including the field executions… The meeting began with readings of Surat Al-Fatihah in remembrance of the souls of the heroic martyrs, and it [the Central Committee] conveyed its condolences and appreciation to the families of the martyrs with hopes for the speedy recovery of the wounded, emphasizing its determination to continue to act in every way to have the prisoners freed and the bodies of the heroic martyrs returned.
The Central Committee did not condemn the acts of violence and terror being perpetrated by Palestinians as part of the Al-Quds Intifada, which is also called the Knives Intifada. On the contrary, it characterized the foiling of terror attacks as “executions,” chose to call the perpetrators “heroes,” and promised to assist their families. The Palestinian leadership thereby gave full backing to the continuation of the terror wave against Israel.

There was more that can be seen in the JCPA article. For example:

The Central Committee condemned the decision of the occupation municipality to establish new facts in the Al-Buraq [Western Wall] area, and views this as a continuation of the change of the existing situation in the city of Al-Quds and particularly in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings.
The wording indicates that the Palestinian leadership, with Abbas at the helm, denies the Jewish right to the area of the Western Wall and regards it as a sacred Islamic site that is an inseparable part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

But one other part of the meeting caught my attention:

The Central Committee also called for the enforcement of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 on the territory of the State of occupied Palestine (the West Bank and Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip), especially with regard to the protection of civilians in time of war.

What they are trying to say is for the settlements to be destroyed.

But in fact, Israel is not enforcing the Geneva Conventions in Area A and (in some ways) in Area B under the laws of occupation. If the territories would be considered occupied, then Israel would have to control the PA. Israel would have the right to dissolve the government and to get rid of Abbas.
When Fatah demands that Israel adhere to Geneva, they are being mighty selective in their interpretation of the conventions.

Today's loving @UNRWA teacher

Zia al Talouli is a teacher for UNRWA at the Beit Hanoun Elementary School in Gaza.

He has a lot of love in his heart.

His Facebook page is called "Abusamer Love."

See how much love he has for his charges:

He also loves the idea of stabbing Jews :

Finally, he loves the idea of Palestinian unity - in killing Israelis:

The gun says "The Palestinian reconciliation," and the flag "The Israeli occupation."

See how much love this UNRWA teacher has! What do you think he is teaching his students?

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Rami Hamdallah, the PA's prime minister, said on Monday that there has been a "sharp decline," in grants and external financial aid to the Palestinian Authority of 43% since 2011.

In a press release, on the sidelines of a meeting with a delegation from the Palestinian private sector, to discuss the partnership between the two sides (government and private), Hamdallah said that "aid is still in steady decline, according to the Palestinian budget numbers."

Grants and financial aid received by the Palestinian government since the beginning of the year until the end of October was 685.4 million US dollars, a decline of 27% compared with the corresponding period of last year, according to Palestinian Ministry of Finance figures.

He said, "the government implemented a policy to optimize expenditures, to coincide with the decline of financial grants, and it raised tax revenues during the current year to a monthly average of US $ 175 million, compared with $ 90 million in 2011.

My guess is that the bulk of the decline came from Arab nations who have been losing interest in Palestinian issues for years, but now have their own problems that makes the supposedly keystone Palestinian issue fall way down the priority list.

The New York Times has an interesting article by Isabel Kershner about the (2013) discovery of an ancient synagogue in Migdal and especially its carved stone block that seems to depict the Second Temple - during the Second Temple period.

The archaeologists in charge of the excavations say that this proves that Second Temple-era synagogues served more of a sacred role than a community center role, as many (but not all) had assumed.

But one sentence may reveal the NYT's way of looking at Jews and Arabs in Israel:

In contrast to the current tensions over the contested site in Jerusalem that is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, where the ancient temples once stood, and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, the Magdala project has emphasized religious harmony. The land belongs to a Roman Catholic religious order, the Legionaries of Christ, and the archaeologists who are managing the dig and who found the stone are Dina Avshalom-Gorni, an Israeli Jew, and Arfan Najar, a Muslim.

But Arfan Najar is an Israeli as well.

So why does the article emphasize that the Jewish researcher is Israeli but not the Muslim?

It could be because Palestinians hate when people refer to Israeli Arabs - they claim that they should all be called "Palestinian" (or , in Arabic, "1948 Arabs.") My guess is that the NYT has accepted that argument and does not want to refer to Israeli Muslims or Israeli Arabs for fear of offending anti-Israel Palestinians by being accurate.

A 2012 NYT article by Jodi Rudoren about the very topic of self-identification among a subset of Israeli Arabs pre-judged the NYT's mindset by starting off with

NAZARETH, Israel — Three young Palestinian women sat on the floor at a summer camp this week surrounded by Legos and 3-year-olds. As the toddlers played, the women taught them the color of each block, repeating the words in Arabic, azrak for blue or akhdar for green.

But the seemingly simple scene here in the Galilee was actually caught up in some of the most contentious issues confronting Israeli society: How do Arabs reconcile their identity as citizens of a Jewish state? What is the appropriate role for a growing Arab minority in a state determined to be democratic and Jewish?

Clearly, the NYT has answered that question for all Israeli Arabs by calling them "Palestinian" before asking the question itself.

I don't know how Arfan Najar refers to himself, but clearly the NYT is leaning towards the Palestinian insistence on their terminology and away from the Israeli views, even though thousands of Israeli Arabs live proudly as Israelis.

(h/t Joshua)

12/08 Links Pt2: Answering John Kerry; Tibor Rubin, Holocaust survivor and Korean War hero, dies at 86

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Answering John Kerry

Unfortunately, the Secretary of State's presented options are fantasies.
Finally, Kerry asked, “And wouldn’t Israel risk being in perpetual conflict with millions of Palestinian living in the middle of a state?” The answer is that Israel is at risk of perpetual conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world as a whole for as long as the Arabs hate Jews. The millions of Palestinians living within Israel’s borders constitute a far smaller strategic danger to Israel than the millions of Jew-hating Arabs, who have terrorist armies, perched on its international borders.
At the outset of his remarks, Kerry explained that as far as US Middle East policy is concerned, “Our goal, our strategy is to help ensure that the builders and the healers throughout the region have the chance that they need to accomplish their tasks.”
Sadly, this is neither a goal nor a strategy. It is the sort of platitude you’re likely to find inside a Chinese fortune cookie.
If Kerry is interested in an actual strategy, he can fork out 20 bucks and buy my book.

Danny Dannon: Artificial wound of Palestinian refugees has festered too long

Every time Palestinian leaders sit down at the negotiating table, or give a public speech, they never fail to raise the plight of the 700,000 Arab-Palestinians displaced when they refused to accept Israel’s existence in 1948.
For too long, the State of Israel and the global Jewish community have done too little to memorialize and honor the other side of that story — the 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
For many Jews, these are personal stories, family accounts told around the Shabbat table. It is now our duty to ensure that the world finally recognizes the stories of these forgotten refugees.
For over 2,000 years, places like Algiers and Aleppo, Tunis and Cairo, Aden and Tripoli and so many others across the Arab world were vibrant centers of Jewish life. The Jews in these communities did not always have much in the way of material possessions, but they were rich in culture and in the spiritual heritage of our people.

Douglas Murray: The left is to blame for the creation of Donald Trump

A few weeks ago I recorded a podcast with the American author and neuroscientist Sam Harris. He is one of the few people on the political left in Europe or America who recognises the problem of Islamic extremism and doesn’t mind talking about it. For this he gets – I think it is safe to say – more trouble than the average liberal left-wing west coast American might wish to expect. But his role on the left, along with Bill Maher, Dave Rubin and a very few others, is incredibly important not least because it should remind people that the great problem of our time does not have to be a partisan issue.
But the political left has a problem at the moment. In Britain it is – as I said here recently – unsalvageable, led by people who have spent their life tolerating and stoking anti-Semitic racism and whose track record shows them not only excusing our enemies but urging them to win. In America the left has not gone this rancid, but the wider political problem is in some ways even starker because in response to the political left failing to identify the problem, the political right has started going off.
The American left has a huge problem in the form of a President who refuses to name Islamist terrorism or identify where it comes from. His likely successor, Hillary Clinton, has the same issue. Of course the word-play this leads to may be perfectly well-meaning, and the desire to ensure that you’re not talking about ‘all Muslims’ when you use the term ‘Islamist’ for instance is a legitimate concern. But when you have 14 people being gunned down in America again apparently in the name of a specific extremist ideology, not identifying where it comes from becomes part of the problem, driving people on all sides mad with rage and making them wonder what else is being kept from them.
Which brings us onto Donald Trump. Last night Donald Trump announced a new ‘policy’ idea which would be to stop any more Muslims going to America. He would even, it seems, prevent Muslim Americans who are currently out of the country on their holidays, from returning home. This is – it need hardly be said – a back of the envelope policy. And it has already had the desired effect. The social justice warriors who mistake Twitter for real life, have been busily signalling their utter outrage at Trump’s remarks. Journalists have seized the opportunity (which the New York Times and others have been trying all along) to insinuate that Trump is in fact the new Hitler. The reaction is as ill-tempered as the original comment. But we should know how we got here.