Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 09, 2016

02/09 Links Pt2: Israel’s dangerous anti-strategic game; In France, it's dangerous to be a Jew

From Ian:

Israel and the Apartheid Narrative: 2 South African Student Leaders Weigh In

About two-dozen people file into Dodd 175 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus on a Thursday night, scouting out seats and picking at the kosher pizza in the back of the lecture hall.
Miyelani Pinini knows the drill. A former student president of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, she’s attended and even organized her share of free-pizza events.
But now she and a fellow South African student leader were the stars of this one, brought to campus by StandWithUs, a pro-Israel education and advocacy organization, and Students Supporting Israel, a national network of pro-Israel campus groups.
Having traveled to Israel and the West Bank on the inaugural trip for the South Africa-Israel Forum (SAIF) in January 2015, she and law student Jamie Mithi undertook a whirlwind southern California speaking tour, weighing comparisons between Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and the South African apartheid regime.
“Our apartheid narrative is literally being stolen right under our feet just as our resources have,” Pinini told the lecture hall at UCLA on Feb. 4.

1975 anti-Semitism speech to UN even more relevant today, UK historian says

In 1975 Chaim Herzog gave a firebrand speech to the UN General Assembly vehemently rejecting its resolution that equated Zionism with racism. Today, 40 years later, prizewinning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore describes the address as “one of the great speeches of the 20th century.”
He speaks from knowledge: A 2013 book Sebag Montefiore edited, “Speeches That Changed the World,” features Herzog and his speech, alongside figures ranging from Jesus to Churchill.
1975’s infamous UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 had been promoted by the Soviet and Arab blocs as part of a diplomatic campaign to isolate Israel. Although the anti-Israel resolution was denounced by the Western, democratic states which opposed it, it was adopted on November 10, 1975, by a vote of 72 to 35 (with 32 abstentions) following a furious debate.
Herzog, who refused to be put on the defensive during the debate, declared, “For us, the Jewish people, this is but a passing episode in a rich and an event-filled history.” He further stated that the resolution’s supporters were motivated by the “two great evils” of “hatred and ignorance.”

Seth Frantzman: Israel’s dangerous anti-strategic game

Israel has a difficult strategic problem. In the long term its support in Europe is eroding. Its support in America is likely to erode as a new generation takes the reins of the Democratic Party. It has new allies in Asia and the disintegration of the Middle East is both a benefit and a threat. It is so entangled in the West Bank its ability to withdraw is in doubt.
The worst thing for Israel is the constant abdication of responsibility by its political elites. “They hate us” is not an answer to a strategic goal. Israel chose to conquer the West Bank. It chose to export a half million citizens into the West Bank. It chose to annex east Jerusalem. In all these choices the local Palestinians were not asked their say in the matter. All of the choices are Israel’s. Yet the rules of the game are such that the media and international community are biased against Israel or hold it to a higher standard.
Israel abdicates responsibility by deciding that despite knowing the rules of the game, it will continue to play by the Palestinian timetable, waiting for peace and love to breakout, managing the conflict and complaining that the rules won’t change.
Someone needs to remind Israelis and their supporters: The rules are never going to change. The international community and media will continue to be biased against the country. Most Palestinians will never change their overall views of Israel. Brand Israel will continue to be toxic in the West. You have more to lose, and time is probably not on your side. There is dire need for a long-term strategy to address that. It’s time to ask the right questions, rather than just feign irresponsibility.

"Apartheid" Poster 2016: Lucy Aharish

I am continuing my viral poster series to combat "Israel Apartheid Week," which is spread out through Febrary and March, with actual facts.

The entire series is here. It has received over 200,000 hits so far.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Reginald Neale Shutte (1829-92) was a Cambridge-educated Anglican clergyman who spent some time in Morocco, whence so many of north-western Europe's present day young male immigrants derive, contributing his impressions (distinctly unfavourable ) to the local newspaper in Exeter, Devon, where he had spent ten years as rector of St Mary's Church. His six "Letters from Western Barbary" appeared in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette over half a dozen consecutive issues during 1865. I happened to stumble across them, and thought the following extracts might interest Elder's readers.

'.... A few years ago a Ramadan was not considered complete unless a Christian, or at least a Jew, was murdered by the frantic population. I am happy to say that this custom has fallen into disuse.* But though motives of policy restrain the murderous propensities of the Moslems, their tempers suffer a good deal from the fast .... I have seen more fights during this first week of Ramadan than during the whole of my residence in Barbary.... The fast certainly gets into the head of these people, and it is well to carry a thick stick, or give them a wide berth, particularly when they happen to be "saints" ...

They ["saints"] tramp about in rags which are odoriferous beyond all belief, and demand alms pretty much in the fashion of Dick Turpin [a notorious eighteenth-century British highwayman]....

..... "Saints" in Barbary are of two kinds. The first are those who, by frequent acts of devotion and extraordinary asceticism, have acquired a reputation for special holiness. These ever may be known for their filth, emaciation, and insolence.... The second class are idiots and madmen, who are supposed to be under the special influence of Heaven. As there are no lunatic asylums in this country, where madness is very common, protection is in this way ensured to those poor wretches. who would otherwise be treated with great cruelty.

.... Occasionally they strip off all their clothes and run about the streets, assaulting everyone they meet. A friend of mine saw one of these saints split his own head open with an axe. Knowing the peculiarities of these people, it is just as well to keep one's eyes upon them when out for a ramble....

.... When a man wants a wife he goes to his mother, or, if he is dead, to the nearest female relative, and declares his intention of marrying .... Off this good lady goes to all her friends ... and enquires among them for the most eligible lass. The age selection ranges from 9 to 15. At 25 a woman is old, and at 30 she is utterly unpresentable. Long before this age she has usually made way for another and more attractive wife, and quietly subsides into the condition of a servant....

When the happy day has been fixed, an ox is killed before the bridegroom's door, and another before that of the bride ....

This slaughtering of animals on the public streets is a very nasty operation. The gutters run with blood ... to say nothing of the quivering victim lying all across the [narrow] street... The Moors regard the sight very complacently, and seem to take pleasure in the sufferings of all kinds of animals....

.... The four days of feasting being ended, the man goes to fetch his bride. She is placed in a box about three feet high by two-and-three-quarters wide ̶ just large enough, in fact, to allow of her being huddled together all of a heap inside. The box is covered with gaudy muslin and is surmounted by pieces of coloured silk. When the bride has been snugly caged, she is placed in her box upon a mule, the nearest male relatives walking on either side and holding her on....

She cannot see much, I should fancy, through the muslin ... these poor creatures remain in the box for several hours, and it need hardly be added, are often taken out more dead than alive....

.... Let is suppose the bride not to have been absolutely frightened out of her senses, or to have arrived in safety at the house of her future husband. The box is taken down from the mule's back, and deposited in one of the rooms... The male relatives retire, and the lady friends take the bride out of her box. Her husband is not permitted to see her until four days afterwards.... Nothing can exceed the strictness with which the Moors guard their women. To be seen on the streets without permission of their lord would be followed by instant divorce....

The days of feasting being over, the husband makes his appearance, and sees his wife for the first time, and henceforward she becomes first a plaything and then a household drudge. The old age of these poor creatures is something tremendous. It makes one's heart bleed to see the poor rejected wives, no longer veiled, but ragged and dirty, carrying loads of wood from the country, large enough to make a donkey groan. Such is matrimony in Morocco.'

*'An old Moorish proverb runs "To the hook with the Christian, to the spit with the Jew" ̶ a principle which has not been put into practice, at any rate not these many years.'

Dundee Evening Telegraph, 8 September 1908.

(Note Reuter's Telegram, Aberdeen Journal , Tuesday, 17 November 1903: 'Marnia [Maghnia](Algeria) Monday. Moorish Jews from Taza state that the Sultan's troops during their occupation of the town, massacred a large number of Jews, violated women and girls.)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Ma'an reports that sources in the PFLP terror group have confirmed that Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled will meet with Dimitrios Papadimoulis, Vice President of the European Parliament, in its headquarters in Brussels next Wednesday.

There will also be PFLP meetings with Sinn Fein (Ireland), the Socialist Party (Portugal), AKEL (Cyprus) and the Workers' Party (Belgium) and other "progressive" parties.

Khaled is famous for hijacking planes in 1969 and 1970, which is what is considered "progressive" nowadays.

Papadimoulis is a member of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left party.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

02/09 Links Pt1: Glick: Syria and the real demographic threat; Heroines in green

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Syria and the real demographic threat

Unfortunately, despite the collapse of Syria and Iraq, and despite the rising threats to Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, for the most part, Israeli analysts continue to base their view of Israel’s options moving forward – particularly in relation to the Palestinians – on a regional map that is no longer relevant.
Sunday the Labor Party endorsed party leader Isaac Herzog’s plan to unilaterally withdraw from much of Judea and Samaria. Given the regional population changes, the notion that Israel can transfer more land along its eastern flank to the chronically unstable, and hostile Palestinian Authority today is reckless at best. For all their weaknesses, both the Jordanian and Lebanese regimes are far stronger than the PA. And they have been unable to stop the refugee flows across their borders.
It is impossible to imagine that a Palestinian state on the western side of the Jordan River could block refugee flows from the east, particularly when the Palestinians demand the free immigration of millions of ethnic Palestinians from Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
The demographic transformation of Jordan and Lebanon in recent years shows that the greatest demographic threat to the remaining states in the region is not natural growth, but refugees from states that have collapsed. The integration of Palestinians into Israel is far less dangerous to the long-term survivability of Israel than the influx of millions of refugees from neighboring states into a Palestinian state on the western side of the Jordan River.
In the hopes of keeping the Syrians displaced by the war in their country from turning to Europe for refuge, last week Western countries held a donor conference for Syria in London.
Speaking at the conference King Abdullah warned that Jordan is at a “boiling point,” and told the West to commit to donating $1.6b. over the next three years before the “dam bursts.”
Unfortunately, the dam is already leaking. And if Israel doesn’t want to be flooded as well, the time has come to understand that old thinking about demography – and just about everything else – is no longer relevant.

3 Arab MPs suspended from Knesset following PMW report

3 Arab MPs suspended from Knesset after PMW exposed their meeting families of terrorists and their standing for "a minute of silence for the souls of the "Martyrs"
Two Israeli Parliamentary committees met yesterday in response to Palestinian Media Watch's report on Thursday, which exposed that three Arab MPs from the Balad Party met with families of terrorist murderers and stood for "a minute of silence for the souls of the "Shahids" (Martyrs). A video of the father of Baha Alyan - murderer of three Israelis, was posted by the Balad Party on its Facebook page, where the terrorist was referred to as "The Shahid (Martyr) Baha Alyan."
The Knesset House Committee met first and invited PMW director Itamar Marcus to present the information documenting the meeting of the Arab MPs. The Committee passed on its recommendations to the Knesset Ethics Committee which voted to suspend two of the MPs, Hanin Zoabi and Basel Ghattas, for 4 months each, and the third MP, Jamal Zahalka, for 2 months.
As part of his testimony, Itamar Marcus stressed the severity of the Balad Party's referring to the murderers as Shahids. He first explained the Islamic meaning of the words, citing a sermon from PA TV in which the PA Minister of Religious Affairs explained that: "The Shahid has merit with Allah, a merit that no one else has..."

PMW report triggers political storm in Israel

Palestinian Media Watch sparked a political storm in Israel on Thursday by releasing a report in Hebrew that documented that three Arab members of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, met with families of terrorists who recently attacked and murdered Israelis.
The meeting with the terrorists’ families was condemned all across the political spectrum from Prime Minister Netanyahu who said “those who comfort terrorists’ families don’t deserve to be Members of the Knesset,” and other heads of government, to leaders of the opposition parties (Their statements appear below). PM Netanyahu also asked the Attorney General and the Parliamentary Ethics Committee to investigate the Israeli Arab MPs.
As the political storm continued, PMW Itamar Marcus was invited to speak today in the House Committee of Israeli Parliament, which met to discuss different courses of action to take regarding the Israeli Arab MPs who met with terrorists’ families. Marcus showed committee members the original documentation exposing the meeting and showed additional documentation of Arab MPs defending the meeting.

Israeli TV interviews Itamar Marcus - PMW report sparks political storm in Israel

Xinhua reports:

A senior Palestinian official said on Tuesday that Israeli and Palestinian officials will hold a security meeting in Jerusalem this week to discuss the security situation in the West Bank.

Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), who was speaking to Voice of Palestine Radio, did not give further details about the meeting.

However, a senior Palestinian official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that the Palestinian delegation will convey a clear message to the Israeli side on the Palestinian commitment to agreements and treaties signed in the past between the two sides.

But, "if Israel kept storming the Palestinian-controlled territories, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) would soon reconsider all these agreements," the official said.

But the message being given in Arabic is different:

Secretary of the Executive Committee of the PLO Dr. Saeb Erekat confirmed that a meeting will be held this week with the Israeli side in order to start the implementation of the Palestinian Central Council decisions.

The Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization decided to halt security coordination with Israel and move forward in international efforts to achieve all the Palestinian rights, as well as to continue the process of reconciliation with the "Hamas" movement.

The Central Council of the PLO is the second highest decision-making body of the Palestinians, after the National Assembly.

Erekat told the official Voice of Palestine network on Tuesday morning that the Palestinian delegation will meet with the Israeli side in Jerusalem in order to inform them of the start of implementation of the decisions of the Central Council.

These two reports are seemingly based on the same radio interview!

Notice that the decision was made by the Central Committee of the PLO, not the PA, even though supposedly security is under the PA. It just shows once again that the idea that the PA was "democratically elected" is a joke, since it reports to and follows decisions of the self-appointed PLO.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

The girl with the bunny on her shirt and a knife in her backpack

TOI reports:

A Palestinian teenage girl armed with a knife was detained outside the West Bank settlement of Carmei Tzur.

The girl, said to be around 13 [other reports say 16] was arrested by the security guard at the entrance of the settlement in the Etzion bloc.

Here are photos of the girl, wearing a shirt with a cute bunny on it that seemingly says "I Love You", and the contents of her school backpack.

Teens! Who can figure them out? Some girls are fans of One Direction, other girls want to stab Jews. But deep down they are all the same, aren't they?

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

The President of the Arab Parliament, Ahmed al-Jarwan, has written a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon thanking him for his justification of Palestinian terrorism in his New York Times op-ed entitled "Don't Shoot the Messenger, Israel."

Arab media reports the PLO's representative to the Arab Parliament said that that Jarwan praised Ban Ki-Moon's article for asserting "the right of all peoples of the world to resist occupation, including the Palestinian people" and that this "right" cannot in any way be taken away.

Ban's article did not say that, but it is telling that this is how the article - which the UN insists was a condemnation of terror - is being interpreted by Arab leaders.

According to the reports, Jarwan's letter stressed to Ki-Moon's that "the frustrations and the growing sense of injustice has become entrenched in the minds of the Palestinian people especially with the growing frequency of [Israel's] infringing on Islamic and Christian holy sites and increase of settlement businesses, which lead eventually to undermine efforts to negotiate in order to reach a two-state solution."

Meanwhile,

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday that Ban “stands by every word he has used.”

Dujarric said the secretary general has repeatedly condemned “terror and has said that absolutely nothing, nothing, justifies terrorism.”

Not one Arab source that I have seen has quoted Ban Ki Moon's condemnation of terror attacks. The only message that the Palestinian Arabs and their leaders have read from Ban Ki Moon's words is a green light for more terror attacks - with UN support.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Palestinians release music video inciting people to blow up Jews in buses

Here is a new music video, with fairly high production values, inciting people to blow up Jews in buses.

The bomber plans the operation, prays, and horses around with his beloved younger brother before going on his mission to kill Jews. We see the victims, including an Orthodox Jewish character, boarding the doomed bus.

Over forty people were involved in the production of this video, according to the credits.

This new music video shows - once again - how utterly disgusting Palestinian society is for not only tolerating but for celebrating the murder of Jews.

(For those offended by that statement, I ask once again to find me a single Arabic article in Palestinian media that condemns this video or any similar video. I will happily retract. So far, no one has found that single article for me.)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Vote for Best Satire/Humor Hasby Award!

The nominees for Hasby Award for Best Satire/Humor 2016 are:

PreOccupied Territory

Mideast Beast

Daily Freier

This Is Palestine
Judge Dan

survey service

Voting open until Sunday.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

02/08 Links Pt2: The Israeli Settler Movement Isn't What You Think; Sanders’s (anti)Israel Advisers

From Ian:

Forward: The Israeli Settler Movement Isn't What You Think

Your cover story painted a distorted and unjust picture of the reality we live on a daily basis — especially as it relates to our young people and the focus of their lives and energies.
We are fully aware of the fact that there is a group of young people who are extreme. Those of us who live in the communities are pained by their actions and speak out against them. However, it is important to know that these youngsters represent a marginal group. Many of these extreme youngsters are dropouts who have been unable to integrate into the regular educational system. They are youth at risk who have no connection with their parents and, like children elsewhere in Israel whose circumstances are compromised, choose a negative path. These children don’t accept the rules, they violate our laws and, sadly, have acted violently against Arabs. These children do not have respect for any authority, including that of the rabbis.
The majority of residents in the communities condemn them, their actions and their ideology. The “price tag” violence has been conducted by a small group and we, in the communities, have begged the police to find them and arrest them.
In addition, we do not generalize and think that all the Arabs are terrorists. We, living in this hostile area, have Palestinian neighbors whom we talk with and from whom we hear their hopes to have a normal life. They are not involved in violence and they know that the situation ruins their lives, too.
We invite the editors, writers and readers to meet us, the average residents in Judea and Samaria. Come and see and hear for yourselves. And we will introduce you to some of our Palestinian neighbors. It will be a huge surprise to discover how the oft-repeated stories about the “settlers” and their children have turned into ingrained misconceptions. We should all have learned the lesson by now that a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth. Let’s work together to get the real story told.

Bernie Sanders’s Questionable Israel Advisers

Bernie Sanders gave a glimpse at his potential foreign policy on Sunday, and his choices of BDS supporter James Zogby and left-wing J Street raise serious questions.
Sanders, the Jewish Senator from Vermont, is infamous for his avowed socialism. On foreign policy, he is more or less a blank slate, making his choice of foreign policy advisers a valuable window into his mindsight and the least-worst predictor of a President Sanders’s policy.
On Sunday, two of the three advisers Sanders chose to identify were vehemently anti-Israel. Sanders told Meet The Press he met recently with Larry Korb, Jim Zogby and J Street.
Legal Insurrection readers will be well familiar with J Street – see one thorough discussion here. Self-described as “pro-Israel, pro-peace,” J Street nevertheless consistently promotes positions antithetical to Israel’s interests. It was founded with funding from George Soros and predictably pursues an agenda similar to his virulent anti-Israel views.
J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami distanced himself and the organization from Sanders’s comment.
This is really beside the point, though. The salient issue is that Sanders sees J Street as a legitimate and valuable source of advice, whether or not J Street claims or desires a formal relationship.
James Zogby is President of the Arab American Institute. In June, 2015, he wrote an article for Huffington Post titled “BDS: A Legitimate and Moral Response to Israeli Policy.” (h/t Yenta Press)

Jew-hatred ‘recurrent problem’ in Dutch schools

Anti-Semitism is a persistent problem in some Dutch schools and especially among Muslim pupils, according to a new government-commissioned report on discrimination in education.
The findings appeared in a 55-page report titled “Two Worlds, Two Realities – How Do You Deal with It as a Teacher,” which was published last week by Margalith Kleijwegt, a Dutch-Jewish journalist, at the request of the Dutch ministry of education.
The report, which is based on visits to schools and conversations with dozens of teachers since January 2015, say that teachers sometimes feel powerless to change the deep-seated biases and violent attitudes of some pupils, including on Jews.
One female teacher from Amsterdam of high school pupils following a vocational education program told Kleijwegt of a lesson about democratic values and against discrimination, in which a female pupil of Moroccan descent stood up and said: “If I had a Kalashnikov [assault rifle], I’d gun down all the Jews.” She then made shooting gestures and sounds.
Shocked, the teacher tried to make the pupil empathize with a Jew but felt she was not getting through to the pupil.
“I wasn’t getting there,” the report quotes that teacher as saying. “I asked her to imagine a 5-year-old Jewish girl who lives here. What would she have to do with Israel’s policies? Unfortunately, there was no place for empathy. The pupil didn’t care about that girl. She had only one message: The Jews should die.”

Cairo Book Fair has session dedicated to bashing Jews

Yesterday I noted an article in Arab media about research done by Dr. Hassan Zaza who had done "research" about how evil Jews have been throughout history.

It turns out that Dr. Zaza died in 1999. The reason that he is suddenly in the news again is because at the Cairo International Book Fair, being held now, there was an entire session dedicated to promulgating his antisemitic views.

Four academics - Dr. Ibrahim Bahrawy, Dr. Laila Abul-Magd, Dr. Jamal al-Rifai, and Dr. George Kadis - discussed the lasting legacy of the antisemite.

Bahrawy said "Jerusalem is 100% Arab, and the Zionist entity is trying to occupy the region by spreading lies, because they have a dream of a Jewish state from the Nile to the Euphrates." He added that the defeat in 1967 was very painful and Dr. Zaza was instrumental in explaining the Jewish psyche to Egyptians so they can eventually defeat the Zionists. He added that Egypt inflicted heavy losses on Israel during the War of Attrition, but Israel hid the deaths in order to pretend that they were invincible. The jig was up when Dr. Zazs noticed Hebrew poems by girls who were mourning their dead boyfriends.

Bahrawy went on to say that all of the upheaval in the Arab world are because of Israeli machinations behind the scenes, quoting the Oded Yinon "plan" that has convinced generations of haters that the blueprint for Israeli domination was published in an otherwise obscure Israeli journal in 1982.

Dr. Abul-Magd said that the idea that God promised Israel to the Jews is not true because they forfeited their claims on an land after worshiping the Golden Calf.

Dr. al-Rifai seems to have pushed his hate of Jews into Muslim apostasy, saying that King Solomon never existed or was greatly exaggerated. But, you might ask, the Quran mentions King Solomon? "The Quran is not a history book," answers Dr. al-Rifai.

There were other controversies at the Cairo International Book Fair that involved Israel. A couple of publishing houses apparently showed copies of books from leftist Israelis translated into Arabic, which led some to accuse them of "normalizing" relations with Israel. In at least one case (sorry, I am going from memory here) the publisher answered that the original Israeli author didn't make a dime on the book sales because they didn't seek permission to publish him to begin with.

(h/t Bob K)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Israel Hayom reports:

Most of the Israeli public supports taking action against Balad MKs Hanin Zoabi, Basel Ghattas and Jamal Zahalka over their meeting last week with the families of Palestinian terrorists, an Israel Hayom survey conducted Sunday by the New Wave Research Institute has found.

Asked "What course of action do you think should be taken in the case of the three Arab MKs who met with Palestinian terrorists' families?" 57% of respondents said they should be expelled from the Knesset and 35% said they should be prosecuted for incitement. Only 8% said they believed the MKs had not exceeded their authority and no action should be taken against them.

How Palestinian Arab media reported this:

An opinion poll conducted by the newspaper "Israel Hayom", shows the extent of racist extremism among Israeli Jews, with 57% of them supporting the expulsion of Arabs from the Knesset.

The 35% of respondents believed that they must be brought to trial.

And only 8% said that Arab MPs had acted within the framework of their office.

This exposed the Arab members of Knesset to a fierce attack by the occupation government, parties and other parliamentary blocs in the Knesset showing their racist attitudes towards those that reject the Israeli occupation.

The Arab media pretends that Israelis upset over members of their government openly supporting murderers are really just racist.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

02/08 Links Pt1: UN chief heckled at NY synagogue during Holocaust speech; Iran Infiltrates the WB

From Ian:

UN chief heckled at NY synagogue during Holocaust speech

UN Director General Ban Ki-moon was met with jeers and heckling Saturday at the Park East Synagogue in New York, where he delivered an address in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Congregants at the Manhattan synagogue accused the UN chief of justifying terror, with some saying his comments attributing a wave of near-daily Palestinian attacks to “frustration” was like rationalizing the 9/11 attacks, the Walla news site reported.
Two weeks ago, Ban’s comments — that “it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism” — drew a furious response from Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused him of “stoking terror.” The UN has “lost its neutrality and its moral force, and these statements by the secretary-general do nothing to improve its situation,” he said in an angry video statement.
Ban subsequently reiterated his harsh criticism of Israel’s policies in the West Bank, but stressed that his words under no circumstances amounted to a justification for terror attacks.
Ban did not mention Israel in his speech on Saturday.

Israeli envoy Danon: Palestinians citing UN Secretary General to excuse terror

In a speech at the monthly Security Council debate on the Middle East earlier this month, Secretary- General Ban Ki- Moon, addressing the issue of Palestinian terror, said that “as oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism.”
Ban made his remarks on the same day that terrorist victim Shlomit Krigman, 23, was buried in Jerusalem. The young woman was fatally stabbed on Monday evening by two Palestinian terrorists.
"Palestinian terrorism is using your words to excuse its actions," Danon wrote in response to the statements made by the Fatah spokesperson.
"Your words have created two categories of terrorism: Terror against Israel, and then the rest of the world," Danon explained.
Danon explained to the Secretary General that an additional terrorist attack had been executed in Israel's capital city of Jerusalem since his statements, and that only the bravery of Hadar Cohen, a 19 year old police officer, prevented a large scale attack by paying the price of her life.
"Since when is it the job of the UN to find justifications for terror?," asked Danon. "Since when does the UN create two categories for terrorism and its victims?"
In closing, Danon wrote, "I urge you to retract your statements and to make it clear that there is no justification for the bloodshed of Israeli victims."

Jewish boy, 11, stabbed and wounded in Ramle

An 11-year-old Jewish boy was stabbed and wounded Monday in an attack in the central Israeli town of Ramle.
The attacker fled the scene, apparently toward the Jawaresh neighborhood of the city.
The boy was hospitalized with moderate injuries, the Magen David Adom emergency service said. The child said that the assailant was an Arab. A 17-year-old Arab youth was arrested a short time later on suspicion of carrying out the attack.
The victim said he was walking down the street when an Arab teen asked him for a lighter, and stabbed him when he answered he did not have one.

Here is the EoZTV version of the story I broke yesterday about how Travel+Leisure magazine apparently caved to threats by haters when they couldn't stand the idea of the word "Israel" being in their Instagram feed.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

2014 attack against Red Cross vehicle in Gaza

Yesterday, AP reported:

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it is temporarily closing its Gaza office after protesters repeatedly tried to storm it.

Spokeswoman Suhair Zakkout said the office will operate remotely until "local authorities in Gaza provide assurances that our premises, work and staff are respected."

Dozens of Gazans have protested daily at the office in recent weeks in solidarity with a Palestinian hunger striker detained by Israel, demanding that the Red Cross help bring about his release. They tried to enter the building forcefully on Sunday, smashing garage windows and causing other damage.

Mohammed al-Qeq, a 33-year old journalist, has been on a hunger strike for 75 days.

Israel's Shin Bet security service says al-Qeq is involved in militant activity.

Last night there was an apparent agreement between Hamas and the Red Cross that would allow it to re-open today. ICRC spokesperson SZ Zaqout told the media that the Red Cross agreed to resume work as usual today. It appears that a side deal may have been struck between the protesters - many of them journalists - and the ICRC to have the organization be more vocal in protest over Israel's holding of al-Qiq who is said to be close to death.

Paletinian media have been filled with posters in support for al-Qiq.

Today, despite Hamas' assurances, the Red Cross offices in al-Bireh were again forced to close by a group of protesters.

There is a long history of Palestinians violently protesting the NGOs that are dedicated to helping them. When it happens to UNRWA, usually the agency tries to sweep the incidents under the rug, which is one reason that the media ignores those stories. In this case the Red Cross publicly said that they refuse to work under conditions that would endanger their employees.

The difference is that UNRWA does not want to shame their Arab clients by publicizing their violent activity. The Red Cross, on the other hand, values its own mission more than the honor of the violent protesters. Even though this local office was still closed, the fast response by Hamas in this case as opposed to their foot-dragging when it happens to UNRWA shows that shame is a powerful weapon against obscene behavior by Arabs - but it is a weapon that Western NGOs and reporters and politicians are loath to use.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Frustrated Gazans ask jetsetting leader Khaled Meshal to "Come live in Gaza"

A new social media campaign from Gaza is "spreading like wildfire," according to Karama Press.

24 year old and unemployed Gazan Ahmed Nafez started the hashtag "#Khaled_Meshal, #Come_live_in_Gaza" as a way to express indignation and anger at the Hamas leaders in Gaza.

Khaled Meshal, the political leader of Hamas, is an obvious target, as he is known for traveling in style between villas and luxury hotels in Doha and Ankara.

Despite the tightening control Hamas exerts over Gaza's Internet, others quickly created their own versions.

A 19-year old woman named Nola Mohammed joined in, creating numerous posters targeting Meshal. Her father was not able to pay her university tuition this semester, but at the same time he sees her neighbor who is prominent in Hamas with a modern car whose two sons enjoy full scholarships in universities in Turkey.

(h/t Bob Knot)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Hasby Awards voting: Best Own Goal

For Super Bowl Sunday (please don't sue me NFL), what could be more appropriate than to open the voting for the Best Own Goal Hasy Award, given to the best example of an anti-Israel idiot making an even greater fool of him or herself.

The nominees are:

BDS fail for Matisyahu in Spain

Marsha Levine, horse expert

Roger Waters, Lifetime Achievement

William Schabas quits UNHRC commission

#AskHamas Twitter campaign

web survey

Voting will be allowed all week.

(Hopefully more polls will be coming soon, been busy...)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

02/07 Links: PA official: 'Do we have to hijack planes for you to care about our cause?'

From Ian:

Letter to Ban Ki-moon on Terrorism & “Human Nature”

Dear Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,
Tomorrow when you attend synagogue to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day—after two weeks when you singled out Israel at the Security Council and in the New York Times—I hope you will pay heed to the following verses of Exodus in the weekly Bible portion that will be read out before the congregation:
“Do not spread a false report… Do not follow the crowd to do evil; neither shall you testify in a dispute by siding with the multitude to pervert justice.” (Exodus XXIII)
As you begin your 10th year as Secretary-General of the United Nations, I hope you reflect upon these words, and on how your conduct has changed over time.
Because I remember when, during your first year in office, in 2007, you admirably criticized the Human Rights Council after it decided to permanently single out Israel under a special agenda item at every one of its meetings. You were sharply rebuked for this by the 56-strong Islamic group.
Today, perhaps because you have been stung by such rebukes from the multitude that dominates your organization—including the 120-strong Non-Aligned Movement, now chaired by Iran—too often your own actions, and those carried out by U.N. officials under your command, spread false reports, follow the crowd to do evil, and deliver testimony that perverts justice.
Mr. Secretary-General, your op-ed was entitled “Don’t shoot the messenger, Israel.” Perhaps you ought to consider that the U.N. is not a messenger here, but a key actor; and that, too often, your organization’s actions encourage, enable and legitimize terrorism.
If you unequivocally condemn terrorism that strikes French, American, and Nigerian victims, without expressing sympathy and understanding with the alleged grievances of the murderers, you should do no different when the victims are Israelis.
I conclude again with the words of the Bible:
“Do not spread a false report… Do not follow the crowd to do evil; neither shall you testify in a dispute by siding with the multitude to pervert justice.”

Poll: Palestinian support for 'intifada' is falling

During a similar poll that was conducted in November, 63 percent of the people asked responded that they were in favor of another intifada breaking out. In the recent poll that number diminished to only 42 percent. A majority of Palestinians who answered, some 54 percent, said that they were against another intifada breaking out. 50 percent believe that such an intifada would delay the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Other statistics that were published in the poll included results from questions about Palestinian governance and hypothetical election results. Through the responses it was revealed that 79 percent of Palestinians are against the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority and returning full control of area "A" to Israel, whereas 14 percent of Palestinians support the move.
Questions regarding the Palestinian leadership to follow President Mahmoud Abbas were asked, and based upon the answers Fatah would gain a minority government in both the PA and Gaza. However an overwhelming majority felt that open elections were the best method to select their next leader.

Senior PA official: 'Do we have to hijack planes for you to care about our cause?'

A senior Palestinian Authority official has suggested that the West ignores the Palestinians when they maintain security, rhetorically asking if they have to resort to "hijacking planes" and "destroying airports" to garner Western support for the Palestinian cause.
In an interview translated by MEMRI on the PA-backed station Awdha TV last week, Nabil Sha'ath asserted that being moderate does not turn heads.
He sought to substantiate his claim by drawing attention to the ongoing refugee situation in Europe: "If the Syrian problem had not been exported to Europe - through refugees, on the one hand, and terrorism, on the other - the Europeans would not have cared even if the entire Syrian people had died."
Sha'ath stated that the European decision to finally deal with the Syrian crisis was not motivated by good-willed humanitarianism, but rather by a fear that the massive influx of "non-Anglo-Saxon" refugees would alter the composition of the population.
"But when all of a sudden there were four million Syrian refugees in Europe, and when this was accompanied by ISIS operations in France and elsewhere...it started a debate about racial transformation, the entrance of non-white, non-European races," he said in the interview.

Nabil Shaath on International Peace Conference: Anything Is Better than U.S.-Led Negotiations

Hamas executes one of its own for "moral excesses" (update)

The Al Qassam Brigades of Hamas announced that it executed its own member, Mahmoud Rushdie Eshtewi, for what it called "behavioral and moral excesses."

In a statement on its website, it said "The Martyr Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades at 16:00 pm on Sunday, 28 April 1437 H corresponding 7-2-2016, implementated the death sentence against a member of the al-Qassam Brigades, Mahmoud Rushdie Eshtewi, by military courts and the sharia judiciary of the al-Qassam Brigades for behavioral and moral excesses."

Usually, when Hamas executes a suspected spy or "collaborator" with Israel, they do not announce his name. Either this is a change of policy or he was sentenced to death for some other equally heinous crime, like homosexuality.

Palestine Press Agency says that this is the first time Hamas has ever executed one of its own members. Eshtawi was arrested last summer and his family has been staging sit-ins to find out his fate. According to the article, he was ranked fairly highly and had been the target of Israeli airstrikes.

It will be interesting to see how strongly "human rights" organizations denounce this application of the death penalty - if at all.

(h/t Bob Knot)

UPDATE: TOI adds:

Websites linked to the Palestinian Fatah group had in the past alleged that Eshtawi had led Israel to the hiding place of Hamas commander Muhammed Deif during the 2014 Gaza war, resulting in a failed assassination attempt against him, according to Israel Radio.

Executions have previously been carried out in the Gaza Strip, including in public squares in the Palestinian territory, but it appeared to be the first time Al-Qassam itself had sentenced one of its own through a court martial and executed him.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.