Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohamed Shayyeh spoke to the EU Committee of Foreign Affairs yesterday and took questions. He made a lot of ludicrous claims, like how "Palestine" is committed to democracy, how Israel has been stopping them from having elections, how not a penny of foreign aid goes to terrorist organizations.
He claimed that there was not a single Palestinian member of ISIS. That is a bald-faced lie.
He claimed at the very end that Palestinians do not have access to the Dead Sea. Another complete lie.
He claimed that Palestinians do not have access to the Mediterranean Sea. What about everyone in Gaza? What about the thousands that visit during Ramadan every year? Or the many that came last August?
Here is where he insists that the EU funds are not misused and that Palestinians cannot swim in the Dead Sea (he mentioned the Mediterranean earlier.)
The prime minister in Ramallah, Muhammad Shtayyeh, expressed the Palestinian side's readiness for a dialogue with "Israel" as soon as possible, but pointed out that the "Israeli side's actions do not reflect an intention for dialogue."
"The Israeli president always talks about that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and others, which suggests to us that it has no intention of ever reaching an agreement with us," Shtayyeh said during a meeting of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.
Apparently, Israel saying that Jerusalem is its capital shows that it is not serious about peace talks, but the Palestinians insisting that Jerusalem is their capital shows that they are serious about peace talks.
Perhaps someone should come up with a list of rules that are different for Palestinians and Israelis. It would be a long list.
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Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday that voting US President Donald Trump out of office is critical for the Palestinians.
“The election is very important. God help us, the EU, and the whole world if there are four more years of Trump,” he said.
Shtayyeh spoke out against Trump’s peace plan, presented earlier this year.
“Trump has wasted four years of everyone’s time,” he said. “The ultimate deal was not delivered. [Trump’s plan] was rejected by the Palestinians, the Arabs and Europe… The US is just too biased.”
Shtayyeh called for Europe to recognize a Palestinian state, saying it would help bring about a two-state solution and called for a full association agreement to be drawn up between the EU and the PA in preparation for statehood.
The PA prime minister lamented Trump’s “unilateral measures,” such as moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and the US cutting aid to the Palestinians.
Among other reasons, the US slashed the aid because of the Taylor Force Act, which halts American funding to the PA until it stops paying terrorists and their families through its Martyr’s Fund. In 2019, the PA spent NIS 517.4 million ($152.6m.) on salaries to terrorists, in and out of prison.
MEP Charlie Weimers of Sweden, a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists, challenged Shtayyeh on this front, asking: “Can you look European taxpayers in the eye and promise that none of their money - directly or indirectly - will be used for terrorism? Can you promise them that you will cease the support for terrorism and embrace peace?”
Weimers highlighted “loopholes in EU counter-terrorism financing legislation, which lead to EU funds to the PA being funneled to EU-listed terror organizations.”
According to former French ambassador to Israel @GerardAraud, Arafat launching a 5 year campaign of suicide bombings, lynchings, stabbings and mass shootings which killed 1000's of Israeli civilians and foreign nationals was simply him "waiting for better people to talk to." https://t.co/EoP1Ff8He5
— The Mossad: Zionists and Loving It (@TheMossadIL) October 13, 2020
A clear majority of Israelis favor the reelection of US President Donald Trump come November’s presidential elections, a new poll conducted for i24NEWS showed Monday night.
Answering the question, “which US presidential candidate do you think will be better for Israel?” 63.3% of respondents chose the Republican leader.
In contrast, Democrat candidate and former vice president Joe Biden came up with a mere 18.8%.
Moreover, 53.2% said they thought the Israeli right would be significantly harmed if Trump was not reelected. A little over 21% replied that “Israel acts independently,” and therefore won’t be influenced by a change in the White House.
Almost half of Israelis (48.2%) thought that US Jews are “mistaken” to support the Democratic Party, versus 35.5% who thought they were “correct” in doing so.
On the question of whether a rift has grown between American Jewry and the State of Israel in recent years, 47% replied that it could be mended, 35.3% said there’s “no rift, only debate,” and 12.4% answered the rift could not be mended.
i24NEWS Poll: Ahead of US Elections, 63% of Israelis Say Trump Better for Israel
In an article titled "Peace Is A Necessity, Not A Choice" in the Saudi state daily 'Okaz, published one day before the signing of the peace agreements between the UAE, Bahrain and Israel, Saudi journalist Fahd Ibrahim Al-Dughaither welcomed these agreements as harbingers of coexistence, economic growth and constructive competition in the region. Al-Dughaither added that Saudi Arabia not only does not oppose the agreements, but has future development plans of its own that require peace and stability; therefore, it has the right to make decisions that serve its supreme interests, at a time of its choosing.
Al-Dughaither wrote further that the Arab states have supported the Palestinian cause for years and have sacrificed for it, yet the Palestinian leaders have been stubborn and corrupt, filling their own pockets with the aid money provided by the Gulf. Responding to Palestinian claims that normalization with Israel is an act of betrayal,[1] Al-Dughaither stressed that the Arab countries that have signed peace agreements with Israel, starting with Egypt and Jordan, have continued to support the Palestinians and their rights. However, he said, the recent decades have seen vast changes in the region, chief of them the growing threat to the Arabs posted by Turkey, Iran and their regional proxies, which is much greater than the threat posed by Israel. These changes have caused the Arab countries to reassess their priorities and to advance towards peace with Israel.
The following are translated excerpts from his article:[2]
"After the signing of the peace and normalization agreement between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain we have begun to see, even if from afar, a new future, different from the past 70 years: a future that contains some hope of coexistence, development, constructive competition and the avoidance of war and military conflicts -- even if it does bring about the realization of all the aspirations related to the Palestinian issue. This is a trend that can isolate the rogue regimes and organizations, which support violence and benefit from the rivalry in our region. This future is very different from the destructive future that former U.S. president Barak Obama envisioned for our region, [namely] the so-called 'Arab Spring'…
"Saudi Arabia certainly does not oppose the trend of peace and has impressive development plans for the future, whose implementation required an environment of stability and mutual interests vis-à-vis all the countries of the world. Therefore, Saudi Arabia has the sovereign right to make decisions according to its supreme interests, whenever it wants and without paying attention to populist rumblings [that are heard] here and there. Let me just remind [the readers] that it was Saudi Arabia that laid down the foundations for the Arab peace initiative, known already in the 1980s.[3] [And] what have I said about Saudi Arabia and its development ambitions is also true for Israel and of all the Arab states…
Wonder Woman hits theaters tonight in some places, but there seems to be a
misconception out there about the film's lead character, and it's frankly a
bit absurd. So consider this a PSA -- if you will --
for those who have called out concerns about there being no person of color
in the film.
It might come as a shock, but there are people of color in the
film, and one of them is in the lead role.
Yep, with a quick google search, it turns out that
Gal Gadot is not actually Caucasian, but is in fact Israeli.
[emphasis added]
Typical of the response to the mistaken impression that Cleopatra was an Arab is an article in The Jerusalem Post -- which notes that Cleopatra was Greek, not Arab.
(On a side note, the article also points out that the above Sameera Khan is
a former journalist for RT, who left the network after her enthusiastic
praise for Stalin’s gulags)
But for me, the interesting part about the outcry for an Arab to portray
Cleopatra is that it illustrates the lack of awareness of the actual
connection of Egypt with Arabs and Islam -- and of Arab conquest and
colonization both inside and outside the Middle East.
In his book, The Crisis of Islam, Bernard Lewis, touches upon the
change in Egyptian identity after the Arab conquest:
There can be few, if any, nations with a better claim to nationhood--a
country sharply defined by both history and geography, with a continuous
history of civilization going back for more than five thousand years [than
Egypt]. But Egyptians have several identities, and for most of the last
fourteen centuries, that is, since the Arab-Islamic conquest of Egypt in the
seventh century and the subsequent Islamization and Arabization of the
country, the Egyptian identity has rarely been the predominant one, yielding
pride of place to the cultural and linguistic identity of Arabism and for
most of their history, to the religious identity of Islam. [p. 19]
In another of his books, What Went Wrong? Lewis outlines in more
detail the many other Muslim conquests:
o Seventh century: Muslim armies advancing from Arabia conquer Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa, all then part of Christendom
o Eighth century: Muslim forces conquer Spain and Portugal and invade France
o Ninth century: Muslims conquer Sicily and invade Italy, sack Ostia and Rome
o Thirteenth century: the Tatars of the Golden Horde conquer Russia. After the Khan of the Golden Horde and his people convert to Islam. Russia, and much of Eastern Europe, are subject to Muslim rule -- until the late fifteenth century. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Turks conquer Anatolia, capture the ancient Christian city of Constantinople, invade and colonize the Balkanpeninsula, and threaten the very heart of Europe, twice reaching as far as Vienna. [pages 4, 6]
That's some list:
Syria (then under Christendom)
Palestine (then under Christendom)
Egypt (then under Christendom)
North Africa (then under Christendom)
Spain
Portugal
France
Sicily
Sacking Rome
Russia
Anatolia
Constantinople
Balkans
Vienna
We know that the Muslim invasion of Europe was turned back, as Lewis himself describes tongue-in-cheek:
But again European Christendom was able to oust the invaders and again,
now more successfully, to counter-attack against the realms of Islam. By
this time the jihad had become almost entirely defensive--resisting the
Reconquest in Spain and Russia, resisting the
movements for national self-liberation by the Christian subjects of
the Ottoman Empire, and finally as Muslims see it, defending the very
heartlands of Islam against infidel attack.
This phase has come to be known as imperialism. [Crisis, p35-36. emphasis added]
Apparently, Zionism is not the first nationalist self-liberation movement to be labeled 'imperialist' by the Muslim world.
As for the movie itself, will there be nearly as much excitement when they announce who will play the part of Marc Anthony?
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Pro-Israel media mistakenly reported on a recent poll by Zogby Analytics, which was misreported by Sky News Arabia, saying that a majority of Arabs in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt support Arab countries having normalized relations with Israel.
The actual results were flipped from what was reported. Only in the UAE itself was there a majority support for the Abraham Accords.
While the majority of Arabs are still against normalization, the number that support it is amazngly high, considering how much opposition there has been over the years.
The 2019-20 Arab Opinion Index, a massive survey of 28,000 Arabs throughout the region sponsored by the Doha-based Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, was released last week. Practically the entire survey was done before the announcement of an agreement between Israel and the UAE.
In that survey, taken between November 2019 and September 2020, the overwhelming majority of Arabs throughout the region - 94% of those who expressed an opinion - opposed recognizing Israel. Note that the question was not about normalization but mere political recognition, a far lower bar.
These numbers opposing any diplomatic relationship with Israel have remained steady over the years:
Which means that in only two months, the percentage of Arabs in Saudi Arabia and Jordan who support Arab relations with Israel skyrocketed from 6% to 41%; in Egypt (which already has relations) it zoomed from 13% to 42%.
These are astonishing numbers.
Once again, it is difficult to overstate how earth-shattering the Israel-UAE agreement is, even though too many "experts" continue to absurdly downplay it, like this New York Times foreign desk editor.
Mr. Trump's transactional approach to the Middle East hasn't blown up in his face as some experts had predicted. But aside from a few more Arab recognitions of Israel, he doesn't have much to show for it. @halbfinger@NYTBen@farnazfassihihttps://t.co/iG5pR0jWZi
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One of the lesser known Palestinian Authority sections is the Civil Society Organizations Commission, an attempt to centralize administration of the huge number of foreign-funded NGOs and "civil society" organizations.
It is headed by Major General Sultan Abu Al-Enein.
Al-Enein just instructed all of the Palestinian NGOs not to cooperate when foreign funders, mostly European, want to put anti-terror clauses on their funding. And if any Palestinian NGO signs a clause that says that they will not hire or fund terrorists, they will be prosecuted under Palestinian law!
The head of the Civil Society Organizations Affairs Authority, Sultan Abu Al-Enein, warned the private sector not to be an entry point for normalization or marketing of liquidation plans for our national project, represented by the "deal of the century", or normalization agreements, through their acceptance of conditional funding or politically oriented programs to put pressure on our leadership and our people.
Abu Al-Enein said that there are intense contacts that some countries or international institutions are making, through civil work, to sign documents that harm the fundamentals of our Palestinian people, in return for financing their programs and societal and cultural activities.
He said that the acceptance by some civil institutions of this conditional funding would be a blow to the steadfastness positions announced by the Palestinian leadership at the level of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the national and Islamic action factions.
He renewed the warning that accepting this funding is national betrayal and a departure from the national ranks, and will not pass without punishment, stressing that the competent authorities will work to prosecute these institutions legally and nationally, and expose those in charge of them in front of the Palestinian public, which rallies around its national constants.
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Facebook said Monday that it will be banning posts that deny or distort the Holocaust and will start directing people to authoritative sources if they search for information about the Nazi genocide.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new policy in a post on Monday, in the latest attempt by the company to take action against conspiracy theories and misinformation ahead of the US presidential election next month.
Zuckerberg said that he believes the new policy strikes the “right balance” in drawing the lines between what is and isn’t acceptable speech.
“I’ve struggled with the tension between standing for free expression and the harm caused by minimizing or denying the horror of the Holocaust,” he wrote. “My own thinking has evolved as I’ve seen data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence, as have our wider policies on hate speech.”
In a separate blog post, Monika Bickert, vice president of Facebook’s content policy, said that the company was “updating our hate speech policy to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust.”
The move, Bickert said, “marks another step in our effort to fight hate on our services. Our decision is supported by the well-documented rise in anti-Semitism globally and the alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people.”
Surveys have shown some younger Americans believe the Holocaust was a myth or has been exaggerated.
The shameful charade of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council is continuing. Tomorrow, the UN is scheduled to hold elections for the 47-state membership of the UNHRC and the list of countries running for a place on the body supposedly dedicated to fighting human rights abuses includes some states better known as abusers than defenders of freedom and justice. Among those likely to be elected are China, Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
This makes a mockery of the whole purpose of the UNHRC.
UN Watch, an NGO dedicated to monitoring the work of the United Nations and promoting human rights, distributed material ahead of the vote and has pointed out the absurdities. It also held a webinar with human rights dissidents persecuted by these very regimes to call on governments everywhere to oppose the election of the states with a record of abuse.
“Electing these dictatorships as UN judges on human rights is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade,” said Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch.
Disconcertingly, despite the valiant efforts of UN Watch and other groups dedicated to fighting human rights abuses, the report shows how Cuba and Russia, which are the only candidates in their respective regional groups, are almost certain to be elected.
In the Asian regional group, where there are five candidates vying for four spots, the election of China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is almost assured, according to Neuer.
“It’s logically absurd and morally obscene that the UN is about to elect to its top human rights body a regime that herded 1 million Uighurs into camps, arrested, crushed and disappeared those who tried to sound the alarm about the coronavirus, and suffocated freedom in Hong Kong,” said Neuer.
A taxi passes by in front of The New York Times head office, Feb. 7, 2013. Photo: Reuters / Carlo Allegri / File.
The New York Times’ Jewish problem is more than a century old. It dates to 1896, when Adolph S. Ochs, publisher of The Chattanooga Times, purchased the failing New York newspaper. A proud Reform Jew, Ochs insisted that Judaism was a religion, not a national identity that might compromise the patriotic allegiance of American Jews and prompt the dreaded charge of dual loyalty.
Constant criticism of Israel in The New York Times — usually focused on Jewish settlements or its failure to reach a peace agreement with the unmovably resistant Palestinian Authority — is not random. It reflects an enduring, by now embedded, discomfort with the very idea, let alone the reality, of a Jewish state in the Biblical homeland of the Jewish people.
It began with Joseph Levy, the Times’ first Jerusalem-based correspondent. He became a partisan advocate during the 1929 Arab riots in Palestine when hundreds of Jews were murdered and the centuries-old Hebron Jewish community destroyed. Levy’s primary sources were the Grand Mufti (who incited rioting with the lie that Jews intended to endanger Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount) and Hebrew University Chancellor Judah Magnes (formerly a New York Reform rabbi) who advocated a bi-national state of Jews and Arabs.
The Times’ nadir came during the Holocaust. By then Arthur Hays Sulzberger, Ochs’s son-in-law, was the publisher. When the slaughter of six million Jews was even noticed, it was buried in the inside pages lest the Times be portrayed as a “Jewish” newspaper. Instead, the Times became the sounding board for the vehemently anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism. The subsequent birth of the State of Israel could not be evaded, but it took the Times five years to finally recognize it as “an outpost of democracy in the Middle East.”
Its belated embrace was short-lived. The Times condemned the trial of Nazi war-criminal Adolph Eichmann in Israel, lest the Jewish state be perceived as representative of the Jewish people. After the Six-Day War editors focused on the plight of Palestinian refugees, while ignoring Jewish refugees from the Middle East and Africa who found a home in Israel. The Jewish state was depicted as a malevolent occupying power.
Israel’s Gabi Ashkenazi and his UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan bumped elbows instead of shaking hands in line with measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus, as they met face-to-face for the first time after their countries signed a US-brokered deal in mid-September to normalize relations.
It was the UAE foreign minister’s idea to visit the site alongside his Israeli counterpart, the Walla news site reported.
In a handwritten message in the visitor’s book at the memorial, the Emirati top diplomat commemorated the “European Jewish victims of the Holocaust.”
“A whole group of humanity fell victim to those calling for extremism and hatred,” he wrote, adding that the visit to the memorial “underscored the importance of human values such as coexistence, tolerance and accepting the other… as well as respect for all creeds and faiths. These are the values upon which my country was founded.”
“I salute the souls of those who fell victim to the Holocaust,” Al Nahyan wrote, before quoting from a Jewish prayer translated into Arabic: “May their souls be bound up in the binds of life.”
“Never again,” he wrote, in both English and in Arabic.
Morocco's Akhbar Ona found the use of the phrase "never again" by an Arab to be "strange and weird:"
The newspaper said that the phrase is "a slogan often used by Holocaust survivors of WWII to justify actions to protect Israel and the Jews."
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The MBC Group, a large Arabic media company headquartered in Saudi Arabia, has taken down what was considered the most important Palestinian historical drama.
Al-Taghreba al-Falastenya (The Palestinian Alienation) is a 2004 "dramatic epic that revolves around the suffering of a poor Palestinian family during the time of the British occupation of Palestine, then the massacres by the Jewish gangs between the 1930s and 1960s."
Earlier this year, when some Arabs were upset over the Ramadan dramas that did not demonize Jews, some of them warmly remembered this series as being from a time when "normalization" would never have been considered.
According to Arab media, the Saudi MBC channel recently abruptly removed the Palestinian alienation series from its "Shahid Net" website.
Palestinian media is assuming that Saudi recognition of and normalization with Israel is merely a matter of time.
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A study published in the United Arab Emirates over the weekend shows growing support for establishing ties with Israel in some Arab countries.
The poll, conducted by US-based Zogby Analytics, found majority support in four Arab states for normalizing relations with Israel and that the driving force behind this shift is a desire to stabilize the political and military situation in the Middle East.
According to Sky News Arabia, the poll included 3,600 Arab respondents living in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, and was supervised by James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab-American Institute.
Sky News Arabia was the only media outlet reporting on the results of the survey.
According to the survey, 59 percent of Jordanians and Saudis, along with 58 percent of Egyptians and 56 percent of the residents of the UAE support normalization agreements between Israel and the Arab world, citing primarily regional stability and economic prosperity. In sharp contrast, the poll said that 61 percent of Palestinians opposed normalization.
A recent study by Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry, however, found that overall, Arab social media users were less enthused about the Abraham Accords than the UAE poll might suggest. The ministry’s data suggests that a whopping 90 percent of all Arabic social media discourse on the recent rapprochement between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain is negative.
The report shows that between August and September, 95 percent of Arabic social media posts commenting on the issue slammed the UAE, with 45 percent of the posts calling the agreement a “betrayal.”
Other allegations against the UAE focused on the ban on signing agreements with the “Zionists” (27 percent), Abu Dhabi’s “hypocrisy” and its “capitulation” to the United States (5 percent).
But not all was negative: 61 percent of the posts favoring the deal cited security benefits, 33 percent noted economic potential and 6 percent said the accords simply made an existing situation official.
The Australian Government has quietly halved its contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The cut to UNRWA funding was not formally announced by the Morrison Government, but was listed in the 2020-21 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade budget papers. In 2020-21, Australia will contribute $10 million to UNRWA, down from $20 million in 2019-20.
It is important to note that despite budgetary pressures due to COVID-19, the Australian Government has not made significant reductions to its contributions to other global humanitarian organisations, including UN agencies.
Support for the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has remained the same, support for the World Health Organisation and UN Children’s Fund is constant, but there was a drop in support for the World Food Programme. UNRWA is the only organisation of its type whose funding was halved by the Australian Government in this Budget.
This decision marks the end of a period when Australia, beginning under then-foreign minister Bob Carr, became one of UNRWA’s most significant funders. In 2012. Carr announced a five-year $90 million funding deal for UNRWA. This was topped up with an additional $4.5 million in 2013. By 2017, Australia was UNRWA’s 12th largest donor.
The Coalition Government extended UNRWA funding, contributing, on average, $20 million a year until 2019-20.
However, there have been calls for the Australian Government, including from the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) to carefully consider whether supporting UNRWA is truly in Australia’s national interest or whether Australia should be making its funding contingent on reforms to UNRWA. It should be noted that the United States withdrew its funding of UNRWA in 2018 due to concerns over its effectiveness and neutrality.
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation was formed last December from the merger of several other US aid agencies. It is the development finance institution of the United States, responsible for providing and facilitating the financing of private development projects in lower- and middle-income countries, partially as a counter to Chinese development projects worldwide.
Late last month, the DFC issued a press release indicating that it wanted to leverage the Israel/UAE accords to improve life throughout the Middle East:
Building on the historic Abraham Accords, DFC and other delegation members visited Israel to explore opportunities to translate that agreement into tangible initiatives to improve the lives of people across the region. In particular, DFC is pursuing projects with countries such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates that will enhance regional trade, create jobs, increase energy security and reliable access to electricity, and support agriculture and sustainable access to water in the region.
The DFC has a number of Middle East projects, including financing to rehabilitate a gas pipeline from Israeli gas fields to Egypt and a water pipeline from southern Jordan to Amman.
It appears that the DFC wants to help Israel and the UAE offer aid to other Arab countries beyond the aid that the US gives.
(h/t Irene)
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This is the time of the year of the Palestinian olive harvest, and there are lots of stories and photos about how critical this time of year is to the Palestinian economy. Most of the olives are converted to olive oil.
How much is the annual olive oil yield in the West Bank? According to UN-OCHA, it is between $110 and $120 million a year.
Articles try to say how critical the olive oil business is the the Palestinian economy, with figures tossed around that it is the main income for 100,000 Palestinian families. Simple math shows that this is impossible because that would mean each family only has an annual income of $1200, when the average Palestinian family income is over $20,000. Clearly the olive oil industry is not nearly as large as we are told.
But there is another comparison that is useful. The annual budget in the Palestinian Authority to pay prisoners, "marytrs" and their families was $315 million in 2016 - meaning that the Palestinian Authority gives nearly triple the annual olive oil revenues to terrorists and their families every year.
The Palestinian leaders want the world to think that their top priority is the olive oil industry. Clearly paying terrorists and their families is a far, far higher priority.
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About a week ago, Ariella Aisha Azoulay of Brown University gave an anti-Israel lecture at Cornell.
One of the attendees described the lecture this way:
Today I attended a lecture given by Brown University professor Ariella Azoulay who had been invited to talk to a Cornell class in the school of architecture. This lecture was afactual, ahistorical and steeped in antisemitic narratives to the extent that all photographs showing Jews or Israelis she had erased the image of the people (see below) because "I can't bear to look at them". Deeply disturbing and profoundly depressing.
Sure enough, Azoulay tweeted her photos that she showed at the lecture, and they show all Jews who were the early pioneers of modern Israel are deliberately blacked out of the photos.
Even though Azoulay is Jewish, she actually went out of her way to blacken the images of Jews because, in her words, she couldn't bear to look at them. This is dehumanizing Jews and only Jews - there is really no other way to interpret this. (In her caption of an unedited photo advertising the lecture, Azoulay specifically calls out Jewish - not Zionist - soldiers.)
There was no controversy at Cornell over this blatant dehumanizing of Jews. On the contrary - the controversy was over the fact that a few minutes into the lecture s message was placed on the screen, apparently in response to the one-sided nature of the lecture, which said, “We are aware that these topics are sensitive and have multiple view points and would like to assure all participants that the department is looking forward to organizing a future lecture that presents other view points than those that are offered here today and in subsequent talks.”
This message prompted a petition with nearly a thousand signers about how terrible it is for a college to say that they would make alternate points of view available.
This may be the most antisemitic thing I have ever seen in a US university lecture hall.
(h/t Andrew P)
UPDATE: Here's Azoulay's editing of the classic photo of Ben Gurion declaring the State of Israel, along with the original.
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It’s a new Middle East and anyone who has been following the news or more importantly, social media, is discovering an entirely new language with respect to Israel-Arab relations, one characterized by warmth, curiosity and excitement sparked by the recent peace deals signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The people have spoken, and they love each other. It happened so instantly that it has caused some skeptics to raise eyebrows and question the authenticity of this rapprochement, but anyone who is in touch with the “other side” knows that this outspoken sympathy is genuine.
Terms like “warm peace” and “normalization” are often used but only for lack of better description. Truth be told, the peace between Israel and the UAE isn’t just warm—it’s sizzling hot.
“It’s like we’re dating,” said Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, while Chief Rabbi of the UAE Yehuda Sarna believes “Israeli tourists won’t want to leave.”
Emiratis are reacting similarly. Dubai-based businessman Thani AlShirawi, who co-founded the Israel-UAE Business Forum with Hassan Nahoum, says he is “on cloud nine.” Emirati author Omar al-Busaidy, who attended the White House signing ceremony on Sept. 15, said he hasn’t stopped smiling and “you can feel the energy everywhere.”
If anything, the Abraham Accords is a people’s peace. For many Israelis—especially at a time when they face a second coronavirus-triggered lockdown that is compounded by political uncertainty and nationwide protests—this peace is a gift to be enjoyed by generations to come, one the impact of which will be felt long after the COVID and political crises have gone.
Less than a month after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan joined U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House for the signing ceremony, dozens of partnerships have been formed between the Jewish state and the Arabian Gulf power, and the list grows daily.
The United Arab Emirates ambassador has urged British Jews to visit the country as he expressed his wish to be an ally in the fight against antisemitism in the UK and decried hate in parts of the Arab media.
Mansoor Abulhoul made the comments in his first interview with the Jewish media after his country and Israel signed the historic Abraham Accords to normalise relations.
The envoy, who studied at Leeds University and whose British mother moved to the UAE in 1968, said the region had suffered from decades of “indoctrination stemming from the Arab nationalist movement” and been “held back” by a fear of engaging with others. “The narrative that the Arabs should be in endless war with the Israelis is absolute nonsense and the Abraham Accords proves that” he insisted.
“To have a dialogue you have to be at the table and we very much see the Abraham accords as a new pathway to peace. For us to ignore a major power engine we’re denying the region strengths and bonds from which we can build peace. We’re both very dynamic economies and its difficult not to be able to work together.”
He strongly disagrees with any suggestion that the deal doesn’t progress the issue of peace with the Palestinians, whose leadership have accused the UAE of betrayal.
“Where we had looming annexation – which would have sent peace into overdrive reverse gear – that’s been removed. It’s important the Palestinians use this time to come in and engage.”
It is up to the Israelis and Palestinians to decide what sort of solution they finally come to. But the UAE will do all it can to urge both sides to break the impasse. We will be able to help precisely because we can now communicate directly with Israel.”
Great interview by @ReinsteinJosh with MK @CotlerWunsh, one of #Israel's most eloquent and passionate spokespeople, but also an indefatigable champion for Olim community in the Knesset.
Note that the ammunition being used to separate the heretofore special bond between the U.S. and Israel is based on the lie that Israel is a usurper and an “illegal occupier” of another’s land!
To understand the calumny, read for yourselves what is enshrined in international law, as well as in historical fact. The preeminent expert in this legal arena is Howard Grief (deceased, June 2013). All the facts are contained within Legal Rights and Title of Sovereignty of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel and Palestine under International Law
For all intents and purposes, the Democratic Party’s current incarnation (as it moved left-ward, incrementally, over a period of years) is ideologically imbued with those who would like to see Israel’s destruction. America’s, too. Even though the Democrat Party of yesteryear, tradition-wise, has always been supportive of Israel, this no longer seems to be the case.
The party's radical, Marxist/communist element hates Israel for the same reasons they hate America. This tragic truth is plain for all to see, but only if one’s eyes are wide open enough to absorb the seismic upheavals taking place all over America. Akin to the outcome of a civil war, the upcoming 2020 election will determine the absolute fate of the nation. This is so on both the domestic and foreign fronts.
In addition to conservative leaning Americans - those who believe in the Constitution and all that it represents and upholds - the next biggest losers to a Biden win will be those who seek to safeguard the "sacred and special" friendship between America and Israel. This includes not only American Jews who seek to ensure the safety of Israel from within the diaspora, but millions of Christians in America who not only pray for Israel's safety, but support the Jewish homeland in a myriad of ways, seen and unseen.
The upcoming 2020 choice for President of the United States couldn't be any clearer, starker, or more monumental.
Wishing all my readers who celebrate a wonderful Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah!
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On Friday, everything starts fresh. Will we also be able to? Yes, yes, my dear ladies and gentlemen, completely anew. On the morning of Simchat Torah, we will read the 54th and final weekly Torah portion, V'Zot HaBerachah ("and this is the blessing"), immediately after which we will read the beginning of the Torah -- Bereshit ("Genesis").
We must also take the deepest of breaths, inhale the new air, and try starting fresh. To shake off the fatigue of the recent period, the lockdown, and rally together in the common cause of fighting the pandemic. We are well aware that our existence, as a nation and culture, also hinges on the deep-rooted ties to our traditions, historical heritage, the path of our forefathers, and the vision of the prophets.
The Simchat Torah holiday is a reminder that the bond between the people of Israel and the Torah -- the simple yet profound, honest joy of a people's connection to their most fundamental values – cannot be broken. This year, we cannot rejoice with the Torah as in years past. Instead of dancing in our crowded, happy circles, with our children on our shoulders, we will have to pray in limited gatherings in accordance with the directives meant to save our lives. It is very sad, but to ensure that next year we can return to dancing with our loved ones and Torah scrolls, I know we have no other choice.
If we don't fight together, shoulder to shoulder, in the battle for the public's wellbeing, we will fail. We must celebrate the holiday in adherence to the safety protocols, in the spirit of mutual guarantee for our fellow man, in solemn prayer that this scourge will be driven from our land.
Radical groups — the radical left, the radical right, radical Muslims, and the radical African-Americans who champion Louis Farrakhan — are spearheading efforts to erode the core principles that make our country exceptional. The Islamo-leftist alliance, in particular, is gaining momentum. While many Jewish and other civil rights organizations singularly focus on far-right white nationalists as the main generators of extremism, the Islamo-leftist alliance parades in public as a social justice cause while infiltrating and undermining our communities and institutions. Collectively, these radical groups reject the Judeo-Christian values that have supported the foundation of our country and protected all minority communities in America, including Jews.
Proponents of the Islamo-leftist alliance seek to undermine the structures and institutions that keep our country open, democratic, and healthy, including the family unit, businesses, communities, religious institutions, impartial media, law enforcement, the military, and the courts. Increasing antisemitic attacks and the public display of hatred are trial runs for what is to come from these radical movements. For years, Jews have been at the receiving end of this hatred. If we are truly ready to overcome it, we must stop playing the victim and start fighting this head-on together with other Americans.
We will lose as Jews and as Americans if we continue accepting our prescribed role as the sacrificial canary in the coal mine, hoping that others may recognize the danger after it has already consumed us whole. Instead, we need to be eagles looking to the horizon, detecting threats far before they grievously harm us and our country. There are practical actions we must take to go on the offensive against antisemitism. They include (1) investigating and exposing the radical movements that fuel the spread of this hatred by identifying their networks, money trails, and agendas; (2) increasing knowledge-sharing capabilities that inform the American people about the threats and empower them to act; (3) holding the media accountable to the standards of a fair and free press; and (4) supporting legislation that curbs the influence of the hate movements in our institutions.
Presenting antisemitism as a Jewish problem has been a lose-lose proposition because it has not spurred anyone to take meaningful action against it. Rather than griping about the problem, it is now time for all Americans to fight against this hatred and racism and for Jews to stand at the forefront of this fight. Our history and increasingly dangerous reality show that the inalienable rights afforded by the Constitution cannot be taken for granted. We need to fight for our safety and security today so that tomorrow we and future generations can continue living freely and proudly. We must fly into the future as brave eagles and free America from the dangers of antisemitism and the extremism it represents.
Roosevelt noted the Arabs underestimated the Jews and overestimated their own capabilities. “They thought they could do a job on Israel in a very short time with comparatively little effort, and they told their peoples that too, which was about the worst mistake of all.”
Fighting was still going on when he spoke, so he concluded by arguing that the only way to bring peace to Palestine was for the United States “to declare that any further fighting or any further infringement of a truce or an armistice in Palestine would result in a firm embargo by the United States on any kind of shipments, including specifically dollars, to whichever side started the violation.” Though he said this should apply to both sides, his chief concern was what the Arabists saw as Israeli aggression.
During the Q&A, Roosevelt argued the press had a pro-Zionist bias because newspapers were dependent on advertising from department stores, which “are in the hands of people who may not be Zionists themselves, but they are subject to very strong pressure from the Zionists.” He added that some publishers were susceptible to “a kind of friendly insistence that they not allow anything to appear in their papers which could encourage antisemitism.”
Ironically, he followed up this antisemitic trope about Jewish control of the media with the conclusion that “one of the most dangerous elements in this situation … has been the way in which the Zionists have identified antisemitism with anti-Zionism.” Roosevelt argued, “Sooner or later there is bound to develop in this country strong anti-Zionism. There is no strong reason why that should mean antisemitism, but the Zionists are making it all the more likely by their insistence that if you are an anti-Zionist you are an antisemitist.”
According to Roosevelt, not only is it unreasonable to suggest that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, but doing so provokes antisemitism.
Roosevelt may not have been the first to make the argument, but he certainly was not the last. Today, a universal dodge employed by antisemites is their insistence that they have nothing against Jews, only the state of the Jews, and that seeking the destruction of that state — anti-Zionism — is not antisemitism.
This article in Pakistan's Daily Times starts off sounding like a typical demonization of Israel:
According to the founding father of Zionism Theodore Herzl, “the area of the Jewish State stretches from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.”
The recent episode of ‘Middle East Peace Process’ is a proposal of Greater Israel by the Trump administration to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict formally unveiled in White House on 28 January 2020.The Greater Israel strategy is not strictly a Zionist Plan for the Middle East, but is an integral part of US foreign policy. The strategic objective is extending American hegemony beside fracturing and balkanising the complete Middle East region. The plan operates on essential premise that to survive Israel must become an imperial regional power, and must effect the division of the Arab world into numerous small states. Small, here will depend on the ethnic or sectarian composition of each state. The Zionist hope is that sectarian-based Arab states become Israel’s satellites and, ironically, its source of moral legitimation. This is not a new idea, nor does it surface for the first time in Zionist strategic thinking.
But by the end of the article, the author - a retired Pakistani army officer - sees no reason why Pakistan shouldn't have formal relations with Israel!
Hatred against Israel and the refusal to recognise or establish diplomatic relations with Israel is no new phenomenon to Muslim countries in Asia. This abomination is based on feelings of Islamic solidarity with Arab countries and a sense of religious belonging to the global Islamic community. The main factors preventing Pakistan from recognising and establishing diplomatic relations with Israel are solidarity with Muslim countries in general, Saudi Arab in particular, and fear of an adverse response by influential religious groups and militants from within Pakistan.
The key question is why should Pakistan restrain ties with Israel on the basis of the Israel-Arab conflict while many Arab countries have established suitable relationship with Israel?Pakistan and Israel do not have a specific hostility or conflict area. What people don’t understand is that we are losing out against India by not maintaining ties with Israel. If Pakistan carries good diplomatic relations with Israel, it can help winning unfailing support from many developed countries of the world, with which Israel has the strongest lobbying powers. We are so wrapped up in what is good for everyone else; that we are losing sight of what is good for us as a nation. Nonetheless, it is time to be practical and relook genuinely, what Pakistan is losing out by not establishing appropriate diplomatic relations with Israel?
Every day I find myself saying....WOW.
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As the Arab world becomes less antisemitic, the Palestinians are naturally going the other way.
Writing in Egyptian news site Essahra and Palestinian site Mashreq News and also Palestinian news site Al Bousla, Dr. Nasser Al-Yafawi writes that the traditional antisemitic blood libel is absolutely true, concentrating on the Damascus blood libel.
His article, entitled "The truth about the Jews baking pies with the blood of gentiles," start off with "On their holy feasts, especially the Eid al-Kabir, crunchy bread is eaten, and the crime is that this bread is not kneaded unless it is kneaded with the blood of a non-Jew from the goys."
According to his Facebook page, Dr. al-Yafawi is a Director at the Ministry of Education in Gaza for the Palestinian Authority.
Even other Gazans argued with him in Facebook saying that the blood libel isn't true, linking to the Arabic Wikipedia page on the topic, yet he insists that it is true.
This is what Palestinians are taught. Every day.
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Yet there are two critical facts that the late Elhanan Oren, one of the finest historians of Zionist settlement, emphasizes have to be added to the account. The first is that spirit, ruach, preceded official intellect in the creation of these settlements. It was socialist Zionist youth who called to conquer the land, to attack new territory through constructive civilian settlement, rather than make due with passive defense for existing settlements. This was particularly true along the coast (Tel-Aviv) against the Arab challenge, before Zionist officialdom realized the intrinsic geo-strategic importance of these settlements rooted in spirit.
The second point he makes is the argument that took place in Zionist officialdom. The argument was between the “rationalists,” Arthur Ruppin, the expert on German colonization who brought his expertise to bear in promoting Zionist settlement; Eliezer Kaplan, the movement’s leading economic mind who argued to stick to the existing coastal blocks; and the “visionaries,” Moshe Shertok (later prime minister Sharett), Joseph Weitz in the settlement department in the Jewish Agency, and others who called for far-flung settlement to deny the British Peel Commission – which was deliberating Palestine’s future – the option of further partitioning the Land of Israel.
Who was right? Israel’s War of Independence proved the importance of these settlements in staving off the enemy, either Palestinians or even more critically, the Arab states that attacked the fledgling state. Shertok knew when he made the decision to support the “visionary” plan (in the absence of David Ben-Gurion who was in the United States at the time) that the incorporation of these areas would further aggravate the demographic problem. It was a situation in which Jews were less than one-third of the population in the Holy Land. However, Shertock, later known as a “dove,” chose spirit over matter. In the end, spirit combined with matter prevailed.
How much more so should our leaders and warriors value spirit over bureaucratic thinking when the resources of the State of Israel, demographically and economically, are so much greater, and the foe is still adamant about conquering the Land of Israel from “the river to the sea?”
Alas, Reshef and his colleagues, have lost the spirit on which they were nurtured. The Palestinian Authority’s strategic settlement plan from 2011 is a challenge that Israel and Zionism never faced before. That and the more traditional means of burning what Zionists by planted by Hamas launching incendiary devices from Gaza, proves that Homa umigdal is as relevant today as it was in the 1930s, or more so.
The approaching 25th anniversary of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin’s assassination on 4 November 1995 has seen leading left-wing Democratic Party Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) cancelling her planned attendance at a memorial event organised by leftist Americans for Peace Now on 20 October.
Ocasio-Cortez withdrew after journalist Alex Kane tweeted and AOC replied:
AOC Pulls Out of Event for Murdered Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, the First to Recognize Palestinian Nationalism | CNSNews
Alex Kane is telling the truth, but not the whole truth.. Rabin did say to "break their bones" during a violent and murderous Arab uprising in Gaza, but that was because he did not allow the use of guns during that period of attacks against Israelis and instead, gave the soldiers truncheons with which to try to keep the peace. Israeli mothers were less than happy at that decision.
Rabin was indeed a liberal peacemaker and AOC’s decision is to be deplored.
Mendelblit's contempt for the public was on prominent display last month in remarks he made at a Rosh Hashanah toast to his subordinates.
Referring to himself as the "guardian of democracy," Mendelblit spent most of his speech attacking his critics who view his decision to indict Netanyahu on bribery and breach of trust charges for his alleged efforts to win positive coverage from news outlets, as legally and normatively defective. Diminishing studied criticism as mere background noise, Mendelblit said derisively, "the windows [of this building] are sealed off from the noises outside."
Mendelblit expressed pure contempt for Israel's elected leaders whose criticism of his actions he attacked as anti-democratic, and worse. He referred to Public Security Minister Amir Ohana's criticism of his behavior as "a terror attack against democracy."
But then at the end of his remarks he turned to the anti-Netanyahu protests organized by Haskel and his comrades. Referring to them, Mendelblit waxed poetically about the "foundational right to protest" in a democracy.
In recent weeks Mendelblit's subordinates have instructed the police not to charge Haskel and his fellow Netanyahu haters for breaking the laws in the course of their protests, lest their democratic right to protest is trampled.
The glaring contradiction in Mendelblit's remarks – his seething dismissal of "noises from outside" made by those who oppose his deeply controversial efforts to criminalize otherwise lawful political behavior to oust Netanyahu from power on the one hand, and his self-righteous defense of the "foundational right to protest" in speaking about Haskel and his band of Netanyahu haters on the other – is disturbingly similar to the tale revealed by Haskel's videos.
Haskel rejected the foundation of Zionism by demanding the gratitude of the children of Ethiopian Jewry while glorifying the contribution he made to one of its greatest triumphs – the airlift of Ethiopian Jewry to Israel. Mendelblit revealed his contempt for democracy by rejecting the legitimacy of elected leaders while upholding the right of anti-Netanyahu protesters to break the laws in the name of "democracy."
Haskel's anti-Zionist outbursts and Mendelblit's anti-democratic speech show that Israel is not in the throes of an ideological battle between two competing ideological camps. Instead, a large majority of Israelis joined in their dedication to Zionism and democratic norms is being assaulted by an aggressive, hateful and arrogant minority whose leaders cynically exploit Zionist concepts and the language of democracy to undermine both to advance their naked, nihilistic bid for power.
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, France, Germany and Jordan, met in
Amman today to continue their coordination and consultation on means to
advance the Middle East Peace Process towards a just, comprehensive and
lasting peace. The meeting was attended by the EU Special Representative for
the Middle East Peace Process.
The Ministers declared:
...We stress that
the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the
two-state solution, that ensures the emergence of an independent and viable Palestinian state
on the basis of June 4, 1967 lines, living side by side a secure and
recognized Israel,
is the path to achieving comprehensive, enduring peace and regional
security.
The envoy indicated that France prefers a two-state solution, but that
doesn’t mean they can’t accept something else, adding that his country will
accept any solution agreed upon by the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Clearly, France is not ready to dump the two-state solution altogether.
Also, it is clear that France is still supportive of the Palestinian
Authority, the Palestinian Arabs and the idea of their having their own
sovereign state.
But by the same token, France also recognizes that Trump has changed the
rules, and unlike during the Obama administration, the Palestinian Arabs are
no longer in the driver's seat:
The Palestinians must take into account their weak position on the
international and Arab arenas, stressed Danon...They warned that
Palestinians could lose everything now.
“French diplomacy is having a hard time putting all its weight on the
two-state solution, as it becomes unrealistic on the ground,” the diplomat pointed out. “What
the ambassador said is self-evident. That it is important to resume
negotiations as soon as possible. The Palestinians have never been so weak.
They could lose everything.” [emphasis added]
France, one of the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council,
has close ties with Gulf Arab states, in particular Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates, and rarely publicly criticizes internal
political issues. [emphasis added]
It would be in France's interests to support the UAE and Bahrain, not only
in terms of the new agreements with Israel, but also to support the new
potential for different options for peace.
So it is not just a matter of some countries wanting to ally themselves with
Israel in order to get into Washington's good graces -- now there are
advantages of allying with the Gulf states too. And if support for the
Abraham Accords is the price to pay to reap the benefits of better relations
and agreements with rich Arab states, it may not be just the smaller
developing countries that see an opportunity.
Which is just one more way that Abbas's kleptocracy is left out in the cold.
Part of the goal of the Abraham Accords is to further weaken the PA.
Based on France's new stand -- that seems to be working.
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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 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.
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Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
