Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, September 22, 2011

List of nations that walked out of Ahmadinejad's speech, plus video

Here is the best list I could piece together of nations that walked out when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad started spouting about the Holocaust.

Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Canada (boycotted the speech)
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Israel (boycotted the speech)
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Monaco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Poland
Portugal
Romania
San Marino
Slovakia
Slovenia
Somalia
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States

And here's the video:

Clinton blames Netanyahu for lack of peace (updated)

From Foreign Policy:

Who's to blame for the continued failure of the Middle East peace process? Former President Bill Clinton said today that it is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- whose government moved the goalposts upon taking power, and whose rise represents a key reason there has been no Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Clinton, in a roundtable with bloggers today on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, gave an extensive recounting of the deterioration in the Middle East peace process since he pressed both parties to agree to a final settlement at Camp David in 2000. He said there are two main reasons for the lack of a comprehensive peace today: the reluctance of the Netanyahu administration to accept the terms of the Camp David deal and a demographic shift in Israel that is making the Israeli public less amenable to peace.

"The two great tragedies in modern Middle Eastern politics, which make you wonder if God wants Middle East peace or not, were [Yitzhak] Rabin's assassination and [Ariel] Sharon's stroke," Clinton said.

Sharon had decided he needed to build a new centrist coalition, so he created the Kadima party and gained the support of leaders like Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert. He was working toward a consensus for a peace deal before he fell ill, Clinton said. But that effort was scuttled when the Likud party returned to power.

This is a bit of wishful thinking on Clinton's part. Sharon's goal in giving up Gaza was to help strengthen Israel's hold on the settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria,and this is why he was so keen on the letter from Bush that said that the 1967 borders are a non-starter. I do not believe that Sharon would have been nearly as generous as Barak was before him and as Olmert was afterwards.

"[Palestinian leaders] have explicitly said on more than one occasion that if [Netanyahu] put up the deal that was offered to them before -- my deal -- that they would take it," Clinton said, referring to the 2000 Camp David deal that Yasser Arafat rejected.

From all publicly available information, the Olmert offer in 2008 went even beyond the Clinton parameters, and the Palestinian Arabs kept on asking for more. So on this point I am calling BS - the PalArabs might have told Clinton this but it is not true.

But the Israeli government has drifted a long way from the Ehud Barak-led government that came so close to peace in 2000, Clinton said, and any new negotiations with the Netanyahu government are now on starkly different terms -- terms that the Palestinians are unlikely to accept.

"For reasons that even after all these years I still don't know for sure, Arafat turned down the deal I put together that Barak accepted," he said. "But they also had an Israeli government that was willing to give them East Jerusalem as the capital of the new state of Palestine."

The reason is simple, and it is the same reason that Abbas didn't accept any peace offers as well - because in the end, they want to ensure that they can continue to make more claims against Israel even after "peace." Whether it is the "right to return" or a demand for 1947 borders or whatever, there has been no desire on the Palestinian Arab side to truly end the conflict.

The Netanyahu government has received all of the assurances previous Israeli governments said they wanted but now won't accept those terms to make peace, Clinton said.

"Now that they have those things, they don't seem so important to this current Israeli government, partly because it's a different country," said Clinton. "In the interim, you've had all these immigrants coming in from the former Soviet Union, and they have no history in Israel proper, so the traditional claims of the Palestinians have less weight with them."

The Russian aliyah took place before Camp David. However, one thing is true - the Russian Jews know a thing or two about dealing with totalitarianism, and they recognize it in the Palestinian Arab leadership and their partners in Hamas. They know the tricks and the subterfuge that they experienced firsthand.

Clinton then repeated his assertions made at last year's conference that Israeli society can be divided into demographic groups that have various levels of enthusiasm for making peace.

"The most pro-peace Israelis are the Arabs; second the Sabras, the Jewish Israelis that were born there; third, the Ashkenazi of long-standing, the European Jews who came there around the time of Israel's founding," Clinton said. "The most anti-peace are the ultra-religious, who believe they're supposed to keep Judea and Samaria, and the settler groups, and what you might call the territorialists, the people who just showed up lately and they're not encumbered by the historical record."

Clinton has fallen into the lazy trap of regarding all Jewish residents of the territories as being religious Jews from Brooklyn!

Clinton affirmed that the United States should veto the Palestinian resolution at the U.N. Security Council for member-state status, because the Israelis need security guarantees before agreeing to the creation of a Palestinian state. But the Netanyahu government has moved away from the consensus for peace, making a final status agreement more difficult, Clinton said.

"That's what happened. Every American needs to know this. That's how we got to where we are," Clinton said. "The real cynics believe that the Netanyahu's government's continued call for negotiations over borders and such means that he's just not going to give up the West Bank."

Why is Israel the only state in the world who is not allowed to change its politics to the right? After all, Netanyahu and his coalition did get more votes than their opponents. That is what would be considered a mandate in any other democratic context.

Turkey can decide on a whim to shut down diplomatic relations with other countries and to start threatening them. People aren't thrilled but no one says that Turkey must always adhere to the most dovish of its previous behaviors. Nations change, populations change, opinions change. And between Camp David and today there was a little matter called an intifada, that was enthusiastically embraced by the majority of Palestinian Arab society until they started losing. That is what made Israeli society move to the right, far more than anything else. To blame Netanyahu means to blame Israel for electing him. (And he has moved his positions leftward as well since he's been elected.)

This is why the goalposts were moved - the majority of Israelis were not comfortable with the direction that Kadima was going in giving up rights of Jewish self-determination.

Clinton is not stupid, and I respect him. But this analysis smacks more of egomania and nostalgia, a refusal to admit that it was Palestinian Arab terror that pushed Israel to the right - terror that was Arafat's strategic choice instead of accepting the Camp David offer. He doesn't even mention the slight problem of a split government between Gaza and Ramallah, and the terrorists that control 40% of the population.

Clinton wants to turn back the clock and pretend that nothing has changed in the past eleven years. It would be nice, but it is fantasy.

UPDATE: read the comments - there are some very good ones.

Also Elliot Abrams slams Clinton in The Weekly Standard.

The errors and misstatements in Clinton’s interview with bloggers are sufficient to change his reputation from that of a firm supporter of Israel into that of a firm supporter of Israelis who agree with his twisted version of the facts. Clinton simply blames the Israeli right for killing peace efforts. He appears entirely—in fact, embarrassingly— unaware of what has actually happened to the Israeli right over the last ten years, where the change has been extraordinary.

(h/t Noah)

My circus poster outside the UN (photo)

Here is a version of my Eldertoons poster as a 4' x 6' banner at the StandWithUs anti-Durban three-ring circus protest:

I hope it gets on the news....

Photo of empty UN seats as Ahmadinejad spoke

From Getty Images:

Reuters shows some of them leaving;

I wonder if the representative of "Palestine" left too? After all, aren't they seeking a free, democratic state just like the nations that did leave?

Jewish satellite news channels - from zero to two?

From JPost:

Call it the battle of the Jewish Al Jazeeras.

Earlier this year Jewish billionaire Alexander Machkevitch of Kazakhstan announced plans to open a 24- hour international news channel with a Jewish twist that would compete with Al Jazeera, the popular Arab media outlet based in Qatar.

But he may have been beaten to it.

This week a separate channel called Jewish News 1 started broadcasting throughout Europe, said Peter Dickson, the station producer, and Brussels Bureau Chief Alexander Zanzer, on Wednesday.

“Some Jews came up with the idea of how to change the world and they wanted to compete with other news channels, including one in particular,” Zanzer said over the phone from Belgium. “I won’t say which one but it starts with ‘al’ and ends with ‘ra,’” referring to the Qatari-based channel.

The nascent Jewish news organization is jointly owned by Jewish businessmen Igor Kolomoisky and Vadim Rabinovich, two of the richest men in Ukraine.

Zanzer said it has a budget of five million dollars, studios in Brussels, Kiev and Tel Aviv, and is available on satellite frequency Astra 1G – 31.5°E.

“We’ll broadcast everything that might interest Jewish people in the world, whether it’s the fall of the euro or what’s happening in Israel,” he said.

Right now the best way to follow Jewish News One is on their Facebook page.

(h/t Russell)

NYT's latest push for "Palestine"

Here's the New York Times doing its usual slanted reporting in a report by Neil MacFarquhar:

The original two-state solution designed to establish separate countries for Jews and Arabs anticipated the day that both would seek United Nations membership.

“When the independence of either the Arab or the Jewish State as envisaged in this plan has become effective,” begins a paragraph deep in General Assembly Resolution 181 from November 1947, then “sympathetic consideration” should be given to the application.

Israel became a member in May 1949. The Palestinians have announced their intention to submit an application to the Security Council, setting the stage this week for the most dramatic annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in years.

And why has it taken nearly 64 years? Could it be because the Arab world could not then - and cannot now - accept the idea of a Jewish state? Could it be that for most of that time they chose war instead of peace? Could it be because on the threshold of a peace treaty in 2000, the Palestinian Arab leadership chose a terror war instead that killed thousands?

Are those facts not relevant when trying to paint a false equivalence between Israel and "Palestine"?

The Palestinians see the membership application as a last-ditch attempt to preserve the two-state solution in the face of ever-encroaching Israeli settlements, as well as a desperate move to shake up the negotiations that they feel have achieved little after 20 years of American oversight.

Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria have not been "encroaching" on any Arab owned land. They have been building within their own boundaries.

Since Oslo, the Palestinian Arabs have gained control over Gaza, they have gained autonomy over practically all of their citizens, and they have gained economically as a result of agreements with Israel. One would think that a reporter could offset how they "feel" with a fact or two.

In the past, as long as Arab despots endorsed American control over the peace process, officials in Washington usually ignored how they treated their citizens.

Excuse me? Is MacFarquhar saying that Arab repression is somehow the fault of the American role in the peace process? I'm sorry, I didn't know that Syria and Tunisia's and Libya's support for Oslo influenced US policy. Perhaps Neil can enlighten us someday.

[Palestinian Arabs] remain under occupation, the number of Jewish settlers has tripled to around 600,000, and they have far less freedom of movement in the territories ostensibly meant to become their state.

Saying that Area A or Gaza is under occupation is obviously false. Occupation means that the occupier can change the government, and clearly it cannot. They indeed have less freedom of movement than they did before the first intifada and before the second intifada. I wonder why that might be? The number of Jews in Judea and Samaria did triple since 1992, from about 111,000 to over 300,000. If you include "east" Jerusalem, which of course the NY Times is, the numbers have not even doubled (282,000 to 517,000.) It is not close to 600,000.

And, as the reporter no doubt knows, Israel is not going to freeze construction of areas that "everyone knows" will always remain part of Israel in Jerusalem's suburbs.

The newspaper of record cannot keep basic facts straight.

(h/t Ian)

What's next for Libya?

The Economist Intelligence Unit has an interesting analysis of what's next for Libya. There is a lot of good information in the document, although I am far more pessimistic about the potential political future of the country than they are.

Here is their summary:

Libya’s rebels have pushed the regime of Muammar Qadhafi out of power, and are poised to take complete control of the country. This in itself is a monumental achievement, but it marks only the start of what is likely to be a long and fraught process of rehabilitation. The new leadership must rebuild a state that for decades was run on the whims of an authoritarian leader, determined both to monopolise and to hold on to power. There are few institutions that work, and even fewer that work to the benefit of the general population, so the challenge amounts to little short of building a functioning state from scratch. Views on what form that state should take are as diverse as the regional, ideological and sectarian interests making up its would-be architects, and these stake holders must be persuaded to support the process—or at least not to obstruct it—before it can even begin.

Libya is strategically placed, adequately supplied with talent and well endowed with natural resources. If the state-building exercise is successful, it can quickly become a stable and thriving economy, offering a range of opportunities to business investors both at home and abroad. But the challenges are numerous and substantial, and a post-Qadhafi dividend is not guaranteed. This report spells out those challenges, and the business opportunities that would be the reward of success.

The first section of the report looks at the political outlook. The Economist Intelligence Unit identifies three scenarios, and attaches probabilities to each.

Scenario 1 (60% probability): According to plan - Elections to replace the National Transitional Council (NTC) with an elected government based on a new constitution take place more or less on schedule, although the election results in a weak government and parts of the country remain insecure.

Scenario 2 (30% probability): Permanent transition - The NTC struggles to overcome internal disputes and is distracted by security problems and by outbreaks of popular protest at its failure to deliver adequate services, and therefore fails to stick to its blueprint. The NTC becomes a de facto regime.

Scenario 3 (10% probability): Prolonged instability - The NTC loses control of security and fails to establish an effective interim government. Local groups including remnants of Qadhafi-era people’s committees and Islamist militias take charge of different parts of the country, threatening the viability of Libya as a unified nation state.

The second section of the report starts from the assumption that our central scenario, that the NTC blueprint is adhered to, comes to pass. We then look at the implications and opportunities for business, sector by sector.

I would reverse the probabilities for each political scenario.

The report does give some reason for its relative optimism that Scenario 3 is unlikely:

We consider this scenario to have a very low probability because of the powerful interest that Libyans have in retaining a functional unitary state. The NTC has already established a solid basis for a new Libyan state, and has overwhelming international support. This means that it will have control over the proceeds of Libya’s oil export revenue (past and present), which gives it immense powers of patronage, which would be denied to any breakaway faction.

I am not convinced that, in the Arab world, what makes sense is the most likely to happen. Although the report downplays the chances for Islamist trouble, if recent history is any guide Libya is going to be a magnet for Islamists in the next few months. Chaos strengthens them. And it only takes a small number of rabid fundamentalists to disrupt the will of the majority.

The US Energy Information Administration came out with its own analysis of the likelihood of Libyan oil flowing again soon.

Either way, timing is important - Libya has only 3-6 months of cash to keep going and it needs to get oil revenues before then.

Tunisia sent aid ship to Gaza - via Egypt

For the first time since the Tunisian revolution, Tunisia has sent an aid ship to Gaza - but they are not going straight to Gaza, rather through Egypt.

Which is why there are no news articles about this.

The Tunisians have been waiting for a few days to get permission from Egyptian authorities to bring the goods through Egypt to the Rafah crossing.

The aid includes wheelchairs and medicines.

Meanwhile, as usual, some 300 trucks full of material are being sent from Israel to Gaza today, including gravel, cement and iron for international construction projects.

Amazing AP bias in opposition to French ban on face veils

Headline: "Veiled Muslim women flout ban in bid for freedom"

Kenza Drider's posters for the French presidential race are ready to go, months before the official campaign begins. There she is, the "freedom candidate," pictured standing in front of a line of police — a forbidden veil hiding her face.

Drider declared her longshot candidacy Thursday, the same day that a French court fined two women who refuse to remove their veils. All three are among a group of women mounting an attack on the law that has banned the garments from the streets of France since April, and prompted similar moves in other European countries.

They are bent on proving that the ban contravenes fundamental rights and that women who hide their faces stand for freedom, not submission.

"When a woman wants to maintain her freedom, she must be bold," Drider told The Associated Press in an interview.

The article frames the French opposition to the veil as a sop to rabid Islamophobes, rather than an issue of security and human rights.

This article is a textbook example of media bias.

Israeli breakthrough in detecting breast cancer painlessly

From Reuters:

The mammogram has long been the test of choice for doctors examining women for signs of breast cancer. The test has a high detection rate, but many women find the procedure uncomfortable and are sometimes left bruised.

Researchers for Israeli company Real Imaging believe they've developed a painless alternative, using infra-red imaging.

Doctor Dhavid Izhaky is Real Imaging's vice president of research.

"Our system provides highest sensitivity for detection of breast cancer, it doesn't involve any ionising radiation, it's very comfort(able) - we do not apply any pressure on the breast and (it) is applicable for women with dense breasts".

Researchers say the system shows instant thermal signals emitted by cancerous cells. Izhaky says results can be analysed and diagnosed immediately without the need for x-rays or professional interpretation.

"We acquire three dimensional infra red imaging from the woman and the uniqueness of our system and the novelty is by providing automatic risk assessment. We do not require the radiologist to diagnose and interpret the images. The system does it automatically".

Electro-optical engineer Boaz Arnon pioneered the system after his mother died of breast cancer seven years ago:

"After several clinical trials, including multi centre clinical trials, we imaged more than 25 hundred patients in the last five years. We have a solution which is accurate, our sensitivity is higher than 90 percent for all ages, not just above 40 or above 50, including all ages, without radiation and the solution is ready".

Clinical trials have been undertaken in six medical centres across the country.

Dr Miri Sklar-Levy ran one of the trials at the Sheba medical centre in central Israel: "We have just concluded our blinded study of almost one hundred woman and the accuracy or the sensitivity was 92 percent with a specificity of 72 percent which is much above the results that we have with mammography."

Trials in Europe and the US are planned for next year.

If successful, Real Imaging hopes to provide a simple and pain-free alternative for breast cancer testing and encourage more women to have regular check-ups.

(h/t HuffWatcher)

Ramallah demonstration was a bust

There were plenty of news reports about the demonstration in Ramallah yesterday, all trying to make it look as large as possible:

But how many people actually were there?

From The World Bulletin:

Thousands of flag-waving Palestinians rallied Wednesday in towns across the occupied West Bank to show support for their president's bid to win U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state. The gatherings were carefully orchestrated, with civil servants and schoolchildren given time off to participate, and the mood seemed largely subdued. Still, a new poll indicated an overwhelming majority of Palestinians support President Mahmoud Abbas' quest for U.N. recognition of a state in the occupied West Bank, besiged Gaza and east Jerusalem.

In the city of Ramallah, the seat of Abbas' government, crowds of youths hoisted Palestinian flags in a downtown square and chanted slogans calling for the establishment of an independent Palestine. Others used the time to mingle and do some window shopping in the newly refurbished town center with tree-lined pedestrian areas.

A large mockup of a blue chair, symbolising a seat at the U.N., and giant Palestinian flags hanging from buildings provided a backdrop for the Ramallah rally, where attendence peaked at several thousand.

AFP says "at least 15,000" were at the demonstration. Considering that schools were out, the government closed, free transportation was provided and the rally included free concerts from popular bands, this is a small rally.

However, what is not as well reported was the possibly larger demonstration in Nablus - which took a distinctly anti-semitic turn:

Tens of thousands of Palestinians turned out in the northern West Bank city of Nablus in support of Abbas. Joined by a small ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect that opposes Israeli state, activists prayed at the nearby Joseph's tomb and raised a Palestinian flag.

Specifically going to a Jewish holy site is not a political move.

(There were also demonstrations in Hebron and Bethlehem.)

Will Obama release Pollard before the 2012 elections?

From the New Jersey Jewish News:

A longtime national activist in the fight to free convicted spy Jonathan Pollard believes his sentence will be commuted by President Barack Obama.

“I believe it will happen sooner rather than later,” said Farley Weiss.

Weiss said he based that assessment on several factors, including support from four prominent political leaders with access to classified information regarding the case. They are former Arizona Sen. Dennis DeConcini, former head of the Senate Intelligence Committee; former CIA director R. James Woolsey; Philip B. Heymann, former deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton; and Clinton White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum.

Moreover, the movement to free the former naval intelligence analyst has picked up the support of hundreds of legislators, legal scholars, and a large segment of the Jewish community, said Weiss. (Earlier last month, Robert Wexler, a former Democratic congressman from Florida and one of Obama’s closest Jewish confidantes, urged the president to release Pollard.)

Pollard has served 26 years of a life sentence for passing classified materials to Israel, longer than anyone else convicted of espionage on behalf of a U.S. ally.

Weiss suggested that Obama could use a Pollard pardon to shore up his faltering support among Jews who are wary of his policies toward Israel.

“This is an era of political expediency and a lot of people think he will do it because it’s politically beneficial,” said Weiss. “There is no constituency opposing Pollard’s release. So when it’s in their political interest and also the right thing to do, eventually a politician will do it.”

Releasing Pollard would definitely make political sense, especially when Obama is being increasingly seen as anti-Israel by the Jewish community and as the Republicans are increasing their attacks on the president because of his Israel policies.

Syrian death toll over 5000!

From IRIN:

Twice as many people have allegedly been killed in Syria - since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began six months ago - than the current UN estimate, and three times the regime's official tally, according to new statistics from human rights researchers and opposition activists in Syria.

The report by Avaaz, the global campaign group and its partner Insan, a leading Syrian human rights organization, said over 5,300 people have been killed.

A team of 60 human rights researchers verified the names of 3,004 people killed in over 127 locations across Syria from 18 March to 9 September, while an additional 2,356 people were registered as dead, but have not yet been verified, the report said.

Each of the 3,004 recorded killings was triple-sourced in line with international protocols for recording casualties of conflict, by at least one family member and two other contacts, such as friends, community leaders, clerks or imams of mosques.

The other 2,356 names have been recorded as killed but Insan researchers have not yet been able to triple-source each case, as the deaths were either reported in the Syrian state media or the bodies were taken away following injury or death and later not acknowledged by the authorities.

The total figure of 5,360 people killed is roughly double the current figure of 2,600 given on 12 September by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, while Amnesty International has documented the deaths of 2,121 people, not including members of the security forces.

The government acknowledges only 1,400 casualties.

“We knew the official numbers were way below,” Avaaz’s Henrietta McMicking said. “The 3,004 names have been verified, while we know that the 2,356 additional people are definitely dead, but we have not been able to verify their names under our stringent criteria.”

The as yet unverified figure includes 308 names of people reported killed in Syrian state-run media, 674 names of military personnel the authorities have reported killed, and 1,374 names of people who have been reported dead, but whose bodies have never been found.

I guess Western-educated ophthalmologists who marry glamorous women can be mass murderers as well. Who would have guessed it.

(h/t Benjamin)

"Non-violent" PalArab protest injures 16 month old baby

From YNet:

Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli security forces in several locations in the West Bank on Wednesday, as the Palestinian Authority launched its official statehood celebrations across West Bank cities.

A 16-month-old Israeli baby suffered light injuries when a stone struck her head in a riot between Tapuah and Migdalim junctions. She was taken to Schneider Hospital in Petah Tikva. Three Palestinians were arrested during clashes, and an Israeli citizen was lightly injured from stones hurled at him while he was travelling near the West Bank city of Halhul.

Around 40 Palestinians clashed with IDF forces near Beit Omar, and dozens of others rioted near the Qalandiya checkpoint.

Some rioters set tires on fire and stoned security forces, who used crowd-control measures to control the scene, including sonic cannons and tear gas.

In another incident, some 200 Palestinians rioted near Zif Junction, east of Hebron. Demonstrators stoned security forces, who used crowd-control measures there, as well.

Here's a photo of the baby:

The 1954 Miss World pageant was won by - Miss Egypt

Al Arabiya has an interesting article:

A sizable portion of Egypt’s intelligentsia tends to compare the years 1954 and 2011, both being transitional stages following revolutions that deposed a regime and changed the history of the country.

The protagonists of the two periods are always at the center of the comparison. Both Maj. Gen. Mohamed Naguib, Egypt’s first president, and Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Higher Council for the Armed Forces, showed support for a democratic state and a multi-party system and advocated the army’s return to its barracks to give way to a civilian rule. Comparisons focus on one power that exercised non-negligible influence in both years – the Muslim Brotherhood, under the leadership of its Supreme Leader Hassan al-Hodeibi in 1954, and its political wing the Freedom and Justice Party, headed by the group’s prominent members Mohamed Mursi and Essam el-Erian.

Despite the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood as a player in the Egyptian political scene following the 1952 Revolution, a remarkable difference can be detected between the way religion was dealt with now and then.

More tolerance prevailed, linking religion to state never seemed that necessary, and the Muslim Brotherhood were the only Islamist group in 1954, whereas in 2011 moderation is quickly diminishing, fanatical interpretations of Islam are gaining ground, and another religious faction emerged as the Brotherhood’s rival and has become more popular in the Egyptian street: the Salafis.

A 1954 beauty pageant is a simple, but important, example of the absence of religious fanaticism at the time. In that year, Egyptians chose Antigone Costanda, an Alexandrian of Greek origin, to be Miss Egypt, and in the same year she was crowned Miss World and appeared on stage dressed in a bathing suit in the ceremony held in London.

It is easy to blame all of the Arab world's fanaticism on Islam, but 1954 Egypt was no less fanatic in hating Israel that today's Egypt - but it was in no way Islamist.

Obama: Peace requires compromise. Abbas: We'll never compromise. (poster)

President Obama's speech at the UN today had some good lines.

Here's one that nicely shows the difference between the Western mindset and how the Palestinian Arab leadership has been acting throughout their history.

Ramallah rally shows map of all of Israel as "Palestine State"

Here's a screen shot from a BBC video report on the rally in Ramallah today.

It shows one of those symbolic chairs decorated with a map of all of British Mandate Palestine - including Israel - as the "Palestine State."

Notice how the headline writer is completely at odds with the plain meaning of the video.

(h/t Anon)

Why a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state is a bad idea (video)

From Jewlarious, a video I missed last month but quite relevant:

"We don't want you in Palestine" (poster)

Based on this article.

Yes, Palestinian Arab leaders have no desire to dismantle refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan or even in "Palestine" after they declare a state - and they specifically refuse to give citizenship to their own people in the camps!

The reason is because they want to continue to use their own people as pawns to pressure Israel even after they have a state.

The goal of a "State of Palestine" has nothing - and I mean nothing - to do with helping a single Palestinian Arab who lives outside the borders of such a state, or those who are considered "refugees" by UNRWA within such a state. On the contrary - they will do everything they can to keep them miserable. No passports, no citizenship, no rights.

In fact, the only state in the Middle East that grants full rights to Palestinian Arab refugees from 1948 is Israel. And that will remain true even if a Palestinian Arab state is declared.

Dershowitz lecture: Defending Israel in the court of public opinion

A September 15th lecture by Alan Dershowitz can be heard (or downloaded) here (M4A) or here (MP3)

(h/t Russell)

All of the PLO's historic anti-Israel documents are on their UN website

The UN website of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine contains all of the major PLO foundational documents.

These include such classics as the PLO's 1964 Charter - before the "occupation" - where they say:

Article 24: This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area. Its activities will be on the national popular level in the liberational, organizational, political and financial fields.

And their 1974 10-point program where they proclaim:

4. Any step taken towards liberation is a step towards the realization of the Liberation Organization’s strategy of establishing the democratic Palestinian State specified in the resolutions of the previous Palestinian National Councils.

Interestingly, they have hidden the 1968 PLO Charter that said:

Article 9: Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. This is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase. The Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute determination and firm resolution to continue their armed struggle and to work for an armed popular revolution for the liberation of their country and their return to it. They also assert their right to normal life in Palestine and to exercise their right to self-determination and sovereignty over it.

Article 10: Commando (Feday'ee) action constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular liberation war. This requires its escalation, comprehensiveness, and the mobilization of all the Palestinian popular and educational efforts and their organization and involvement in the armed Palestinian revolution. It also requires the achieving of unity for the national (watani) struggle among the different groupings of the Palestinian people, and between the Palestinian people and the Arab masses, so as to secure the continuation of the revolution, its escalation, and victory.

Article 11: Palestinians have three mottoes: national unity, national (al-qawmiyya) mobilization, and liberation.

It is not under the link of the 1968 Palestine Charter but under "Decisions and Actions Related to the Palestine National Charter."

Under the 1968 Charter it says:

1. The PNC met in a special session on 26 April 1996 to consider the issue of amending the Palestine National Charter and adopted the following decision:

A. To abrogate the provisions of the Palestine National Charter that contradict the letters exchanged between Chairman Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of September 9 & 10 1993.

B. To mandate the legal committee of the PLO to present a new text of the Palestine National Charter.

The decision was adopted by more than the required two-thirds majority by a vote of: 504 in favor, 54 against, and 14 abstentions.

Yet nowhere can one find a list of which articles of the 1968 charter were abrogated, nor may one find the text of any subsequent charter.

And of course the PLO never did remove the denial of Israel from the charter. (h/t CHA)

(h/t Asher)

Poster: The PLO's strategy

Nabil Sha'ath said a lot of similar statements before and after the PLO supposedly embraced the two-state solution in 1988.

The insistence on the "right to return," Jerusalem and a Judenrein Palestine is nothing less than the realization of this long-standing PLO policy of destroying Israel in stages.

Source

Kosher BBQ competition in Memphis attracts Muslims as well

From JTA:

If there’s anything that can bring the Jews of Tennessee together, it would be barbecue.

This past weekend, the 23rd annual Kosher BBQ Contest and Festival drew thousands of Jews from Tennessee and around the country.

It attracted a group of Muslims, too. Turns out they're not bad at cooking kosher brisket: The Memphis Islamic Center’s team, the "Halal Smokers," won a third-place award for their brisket entry.

The commingling of Jews and Muslims among tables heaped with baked beans, hamburgers and ribs provided a counterpoint to anti-Muslim protests in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and death threats aimed recently at mosques elsewhere in this state.

“This is what America is all about,” Adam Itayem, who manned the Halal Smokers’ booth, said during the event. Itayem is also the owner of Tom’s Bar-B-Q in Memphis.

“People from all over the community feel comfortable coming year after year,” observed Rabbi Joel Finkelstein, the rabbi of Anshei Sphard-Beth El Emeth, the Orthodox synagogue that organizes the annual event and holds it in its parking lot.

Every May, this Mississippi River city hosts the famed World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, held each year on a Saturday. That contest has an overwhelmingly porcine character.

The synagogue cooked up its contest more than two decades ago so that its Shabbat- and kosher-observant members could get in on the barbecue action.

“It is the only event I know that brings the entire Jewish community together,” said Steve Kaplan, a longtime organizer of the event. He estimated that 3,000 people in all came to the festival.

The kosher barbecue contest has become so popular that attendees from far and wide are trying to copy the Memphis model.
The Memphis Islamic Center’s booth drew a lot of curious Jews who chatted with the cooks about the similarities and differences of the laws governing halal and kosher meat.

I was wondering how the kosher status is assured, as well as other details, and I found out - from a local Memphis newspaper:

Attaining the kosher seal of approval requires that all teams use the synagogue's own kettle-style grills that are stored year-round under lock and key. Teams also must preorder meat, cooking supplies and spices through the synagogue so that event staff can ensure that they are kosher.

Everything from the meat to the salt must be inspected by the rabbi and certified as kosher. Finally, the utensils must undergo a mikvah, or ritual cleaning.

Without access to personal smokers, and with a limited amount of time to cook, the playing field is somewhat leveled. Even the most confident backyard griller must succumb to the limited space and heating capabilities of the kettle. The fear of overcooking the meat is palpable. Teams are primarily judged on taste (45 percent) and tenderness (45 percent). Looks aren't everything, just 10 percent.

Unfortunately, I cannot find any recipes online.

Ma'an reports on the planning for the rallies in support of a unilateral declaration of "Palestine" tomorrow in Ramallah.

It says that all government workers are being given off to attend the rallies.

The rallies will include concerts to attract more people.

Classes will be cancelled so students from grade 7 and up can attend, including those at Bir Zeit University.

Stages are already set up, complete with lots of flags, at Clock Tower Square.

Free buses are available.

So when you see the throngs of crowds in Ramallah tomorrow, you'll know that it would be an act of will for people to stay away, and that it does not reflect any serious popular support for the UN stunt. Not that the media will notice.

(I wonder if UNRWA is shutting down for this....)

"Debunking the Palestinian Lie" (video)

Really good:

(h/t Sophie and Daled Amos, via Pajamas Media)

Abbas the totalitarian dictator

Independent Palestinian Arab media has been somewhat lukewarm about the unilateral declaration of independence that Abbas is planning this week at the UN, and one major reason is that they felt that he was not including anyone else in the decision making.

I have pointed out that at least one PLO Central Council member has complained that no other institutions were informed about the move, even those that are supposed to be the official decision making bodies of the PLO.

And plenty of Palestinian Arabs, in the entire political spectrum, have said either that they are against the bid or that they have serious reservations about the potential repercussions.

Looking again at Abbas' interview on Fox, one is struck about how he is speaking:

"You promised me a state by September 2011. I hope you will deliver."‬

"I felt there is no way for negotiations..."

Everything is in the first person singular.

He is not speaking as if he is representing his people - he is speaking as if he is the only person whose opinion matters.

Like a dictator.

This is not a one-time thing. Challah Hu Akbar noticed this Ma'an article yesterday:

President Mahmoud Abbas says he does not plan to form a new cabinet on his return from New York, where he will submit an application for full UN membership.

Asked by Ma'an if he would form a new government on his return to Ramallah, the president said he would only consider doing so when the situation was "more stable."

The Palestinian Authority cabinet resigned in February, but Abbas swiftly reappointed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and tasked him with reforming the Ramallah cabinet.

Despite several announcements that the new cabinet was imminent, it has not yet been formed. Since February, the resigned cabinet has been acting in a caretaker capacity.

It was the third time Abbas had designated Fayyad to form a new Palestinian Authority government since June 2007, when Hamas split from the government and took power in Gaza.

No elections have been held since 2006, and the mandate of the president, legislative council, municipal leaders and cabinet have ended. Analysts, and Hamas, said that disbanding the cabinet in February was a tactical move in response to concerns raised about the government's legitimacy as a wave of popular protests swept the region calling for the ouster of unrepresentative leaders.

And Jonathan Schanzer wrote last week (also from CHA)

With the arrival of Salaam Fayyad, then finance minister and now prime minster, the PA began to experience a degree of accountability and transparency. Indeed, it appeared the PA was cleaning up its act. However, in recent years, Fayyad has been sidelined by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas has consolidated power, and he is now abusing it.

One egregious example is the Palestine Investment Fund. The PIF was created in 2002 to manage and distribute the money and commercial interests owned by the PA.[10] The bylaws were established so that its operations would be transparent, since the PIF effectively functions as a sovereign wealth fund. The PIF succeeded in bringing hundreds of millions of dollars of commercial assets in the Palestinian budget into the light of day. The PIF's operating procedures call for the Fund to operate as an independent vehicle for economic stimulus for the benefit of the Palestinian people. In recent years, however, Abbas changed the charter, installed his own choices for board members, placed the PIF under his full control, and neglected to have the PIF audited by outsiders. Today, Prime Minister Fayyad has zero oversight of the PIF, despite his celebrated mandate for transparency.[11]

The "moderate" monicker becomes less and less relevant every day. Abbas has more in common with Syria's Bashir Assad than with any Western leader.

Maybe that's why the anti-Syria protest yesterday in Ramallah fizzled. No support from the government.

Giant blue chair unveiled in Ramallah. Really.

Style over substance.

Today, in Ramallah, a giant blue chair was unveiled in support of Mahmoud Abbas' bid for "Palestine" to become a recognized nation.

This chair symbolizes everything wrong about the Palestinian Arab leadership.

No effort is put into actually building a nation - only in appearing to build a nation to make the West happy.

No effort is put into finding a peaceful compromise with Israel - only in appearing to look more moderate than Netanyahu.

"Unity" with Hamas, pretending to change the PLO Covenant - everything the Palestinian Arabs do is for show, with no real value.

They are great at symbolism, because that's all they know how to do.

The circus this week at the UN is just another method to avoid doing real work for peace and instead rely on fooling the world with stunts. It is a magician's act where the audience doesn't want to look behind the curtain, fearful it might ruin their enjoyment of a great show.

Puppet shows: Islamists attack them, Israelis celebrate them

From The Jakarta Globe last October:

First it was churches and a minority Islamic sect, then the gay community and a former Playboy editor. Now the country’s much-derided Muslim hard-liners are reportedly targeting one of its most beloved icons: Wayang.

Ki Slamet Gundono, a world-renowned dalang (puppet master) for the traditional Javanese shadow puppetry, on Wednesday said hard-liners in Sukoharjo, a town south of Solo, had broken up several performances in the area.

“A bunch of youths calling themselves Laskar Jihad [warriors of jihad] attacked a wayang performance taking place in Sembung Wetan village in Sukoharjo on Saturday night,” he said.

“They threatened members of the audience and forced them to disperse. “We strongly condemn this violence,” he added.

Gundono said he only recently learned about the incident from fellow wayang practitioners who were afraid to report it to police.

“We have decided to take a united stand to protect the arts and culture against violent acts by any group,” he said, adding people should not be afraid to hold future performances.

Joko Ngadimin, founder of Sekarjagad, a wayang and gamelan music troupe, said several similar attacks had occurred before.

“The latest incident on Saturday happened near my house,” he told the Globe.

“Two people were injured and the performance was forced to stop. The attackers from Laskar Jihad were throwing rocks and brandishing swords.”

He added the attackers all wore turbans and kept yelling “ Allahu Akbar! ” (“God is great!”) while running amok.

Meanwhile, in Israel:

The 14th annual International Puppet Theater & Film Festival recently took place at the Israel Puppet Center in this suburb of Tel Aviv.

Holon, a child-friendly suburb of Tel Aviv, is one of Israel's puppetry hubs. Each year since 1997, the Israel Puppet Center there presents the Holon International Puppet Theatre & Film Festival. The festival showcases workshops and shows for children and adults.

"Our festival offers something for everybody. So that means, for children and for adults," says Ilan Savir, artistic and general director of the center and the festival for the past eight years. The Holon facility also houses a puppetry school and a museum.

This year, in addition to Israeli groups, the festival included performances by the Figura Puppet Theater from Iceland and the Happy Puppetry Company from Taiwan.

(h/t Ian, Silke)

PA minister says statehood would legitimize Arab terrorism

From PMW, quoting Al Hayat Al Jadida, September 8, 2011:

[PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa] Karake while visiting prisoners' families at Qalandiya refugee camp... explained that the international recognition of the Palestinian State changes all the imprisoned Palestinians into prisoners of a state, prisoners of war held hostage in another state... He noted that the recognition of the state means recognition of the legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle that the Palestinian nation fought, in the search for freedom and independence. In addition, it [recognition of a state] indicates that the struggles (Arabic- Nidalat) of the prisoners are legitimized and legal according to UN Resolutions, international laws and the third and fourth Geneva Conventions.

Isn't that special.

The parts of anti-Israel protests that don't get publicized

Yesterday, I noted that a man participating in an anti-capitalist protest on Wall Street was openly anti-semitic. I don't know whether similar sentiments were expressed in Saturdays' larger protests, but if they were - chances are no one would ever know.

Last night there was a protest in Vancouver against Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman who was speaking at the Jewish Community Center. A number of left-wing sites show the protesters in heroic terms as they denounce Lieberman as a "racist."

A peaceful protest is fine, and they have the absolute right to hold one.

However, an EoZ correspondent tells me that protesters were also saying that the Holocaust was a Jewish plot meant to gain sympathy for Jews.

In a similar little-reported event, protesters at the Paris airport on Sunday prevented passengers from checking in at the El Al counter by screaming "Death to Israel" and "Death to Jews."

Also, thugs tried to break into a kosher wine tasting in Paris, also screaming "Death to Jews" - and they tried to break down a glass door to the event. Police took their time before responding. The witness to the event said it felt like Kristallnacht.

These are the parts that you do not usually hear about when these protests occur.

(h/t EG, Jr.E)

Bomb scare in France outside Israeli consulate (updated)

A bomb threat:

Israel’s consulate in the southern French port city of Marseille was temporarily evacuated Tuesday when a bomb disposal squad found a mock device placed in a van parked outside.

Police were alerted after an anonymous caller telephoned in a bomb threat, and found a pressure cooker with protruding wires and marked with a radiation warning sticker in a Renault van parked outside the Israeli mission.

The area was cordoned off and specialist officers investigated, but the wires were found to be attached to a car radio hidden in the pot, and radiation tests proved negative, a police official said.

The alert was called off an hour-and-a-half after it began.

Israel denies any evacuation:

The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denied reports that a bomb threat forced the evacuation of the Israeli consulate in the French port city of Marseille.

According to the Foreign Minstry, there was no evacuation of the building and they were not made aware of any bomb threat.

Does this mean that the French police didn't inform the diplomats of the threat altogether? That seems scarier than the bomb threat itself.

UPDATE: Jonathan-Simon Sellem of the excellent JSSNews site tells me that a friend of his who works there said that there were no need of evacuation. The police work closely with the consulate, and they do a good job. They also checked for radioactivity to see if it was a "dirty bomb."

Reporters too stupid to challenge Abbas on his lies

From Fox News:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has a message for President Obama: ‪

"You promised me a state by September 2011. I hope you will deliver."‬

‪In an exclusive interview with Fox News, the Palestinian president said he's willing to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations this week.

Abbas told Fox News he hasn't given up on negotiations.

"I will meet any Israeli official any time," said Abbas. "But there is no use if there is nothing tangible."

"I felt there is no way for negotiations because the American administration including President Obama exhausted their efforts to bring Netanyahu to the negotiating table. They couldn't convince him to cease the settlement activities."

As we showed yesterday, President Obama did not promise a state to Abbas by September 2011.

And Israel has offered everything "tangible" for peace - nearly all the West Bank and all of Gaza. He has refused to even give a counter-offer that is remotely acceptable for Israeli security.

Moreover, the US did pressure Israel to freeze construction in the territories - and Abbas still refused to negotiate for nine out of the ten months of the freeze.

Abbas knows that he has been treated deferentially by the media for years, and he has no fear that a real reporter will challenge him on his lies. So, why shouldn't he keep lying?

Palestinian Arab rally for Syria FAIL

On Monday, there was a series of tweets from Joseph Dana, an anti-Zionist journalist who traveled to Ramallah to cover an important news story:

Demonstration in support of Syrian protesters about to start in Ramallah's Manara sqaure.

Protest in solidarity with the Syrian people slowly getting started in Ramallah

Palestinians are wearing shirts saying 'your blood (syrians) is our blood. You struggle is our struggle'

'Yalla, Leave Bashir' chants now in Ramallah

solidarity with syrian people rally is now marching through ramallah

More and more PA police are showing up. March has about 50 people but growing

Unfortunately, his breathless tweets of social action in Ramallah ended there.

So was there really a major demonstration against the murderous Assad regime? Did the rally grow into a major event? Did Palestinian Arabs actually show some selflessness and caring for people who are in worse shape than they are - for once?

I found a video of this giant rally that proves that Palestinian Arabs care deeply about other people besides themselves:

That's right - maybe a couple of dozen people, tops, showed up.

Compare this to, say, this rally put together by Islamic Jihad in October 2009 (a similar sized one was held last year):

If it was a Hamas rally, you could explain - they forced employees to go, they shut down schools, and so forth.

But this rally was for Islamic Jhad, a pure terrorist group with no political representation. And still they get tens of thousands to show up at any rally they set up.

I don't really expect the anti-Zionist left to make the observation that getting Palestinian Arabs to celebrate violence is much, much easier than getting them to condemn it. They will continue to cover non-events like what happened today and they will continue to ignore the massive support for terrorism that exists in the territories.

The sad fact is that the photo above represents far more Palestinian Arabs than the video taken on Monday. And there is nothing on the horizon that will change that.

Photo of an anti-semite on Wall Street

Today I happened to be on Wall Street, where there was some leftover anti-capitalist protesters from Saturday's fizzled out "Day of Rage."

Here was one of the demonstrators:

I will declare that (for today at least) I was a Wall Street Jew. However I am not a Jewish billionaire (yet) and I believe that 3 out of the 5 Federal Reserve Board governors are Jewish.

To help raise the SEO of this post, I will write the word "Jewish" a few more times, because, after all, this guy wants you to Google the word "Jewish" to find out our nefarious plots.

It is a shame I was in a hurry to get somewhere when I saw him, or else I would have interviewed him. I would love to know what was the point of his sign, what he has against Jews, and what kind of job he holds that allows him to take a day off and rail against the Jews who supposedly have all money.

Like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or the Walton family, who I imagine he thinks are hidden Jews.

Those Sabbath-breaking settlers again

From the official Palestinian Arab WAFA "news" agency:

Extremist Jewish settlers Saturday set fire to Palestinian farms adjacent to the evacuated Homesh settlement, south of Jenin, said security sources.

They said 15 settlers broke into the area under Israeli army protection, verbally assaulting local residents and setting fire to fields near the settlement.

So not only are these fanatically religious extremist jewish settlers setting fires on their Sabbath - but the IDF is protecting them while they do it! (The same army that is fighting against the "price tag" attacks by some of these settlers!) And it must be true! Because "security sources" said so! And, of course, so did Mondoweiss!

(h/t Sylvia)