Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Eugene Kontorovich's talk at NYU on Israel's borders

Yesterday, I attended a talk by Professor Eugene Kontorovich on "Disputing Occupation: Israel's Borders and International Law" at NYU. Here is a synopsis, based on my memory.

Kontrovich started off by saying what international law is not. It is not UN General Assembly resolutions. It is not advisory opinions from the ICJ (which, he pointed out, was answering a loaded question that assumed illegality when it gave its opinion on the security fence.)

The first legally important act after the fall of the Ottoman Empire that is relevant to Israel's borders is the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, which noted the "historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country." After the British partitioned Western Palestine from Trans-Jordan, the implication is that all of the remaining Palestine would be the area of the Jewish nation.

If the Arabs had accepted the 1947 Partition Plan, then the further partition of Palestine into an Arab and Jewish state would have legal weight. But since they didn't, the Jewish claim on all of Palestine remained in force.

The 1949 Armistice Lines (mistakenly called the "1967 borders") are emphatically not national boundaries. They are explicitly stated in the armistice agreements as "not to be construed in any sense as a political or territorial boundary, and is delineated without prejudice to rights, claims and positions of either Party to the Armistice as regards ultimate settlement of the Palestine question" (from the Egyptian armistice,the Jordanian one says "without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines or to claims of either Party relating thereto.") Their position (generally) had no demographic, political or geographic significance; they were simply where the opposing armies ended up at the last truce, with some minor adjustments. From the perspective of international law, they are not borders.

Jordan's sovereign claims to the West Bank were not recognized by the international community.

The next important legal document is UN Security Resolution 242 at the end of the 1967 war. (While it is a Chapter 6 resolution, Kontotovich noted that it was referred to in some Chapter 7 resolutions, meaning it might have the strength of the stronger Chapter 7 resolutions itself with respect to international law.) He discussed the famous missing "the" from the phrase "Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" and noted that this was done deliberately to make the resolution purposefully ambiguous as to whether Israel must withdraw from all the territories. He noted that in the end, when Israel relinquished the Sinai and later Gaza, Israel had withdrawn from some 99% of the territories, so it cannot be accused of violating the spirit of the resolution.

He also noted that the legality of Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights is a completely different topic from a legal perspective, and he did not get into it.

Kontorovich said that there is a big question in international law about whether one can legally acquire territory via conquest in a defensive war. He looked up five sources written before 1967 on the question; 2 said yes, 2 said no and one didn't think about it. In the case of the 1967 war, as with many things about Israel, the legal issues are completely unique and anyone saying that international law says something definitively on something that never happened before is generally not to be trusted. (I asked him whether the preamble of 242 meant that the UN considered the war not to be defensive; he answered that besides the fact that preambles are not part of the law, it would not make sense to interpret it that way because in that case Jordan also couldn't lay claim on it. He concluded that it was placed there in order to encourage the parties to come up with a negotiated border, as 242 states, and not a border created by conquest.)

The next legally important event for determining Israel's borders was the 1993 Oslo Accords. This is where Israel is relinquishing part of its occupied land (he noted that from Israel's perspective the land is occupied since it was not annexed, although it is legally occupied) to give to an ultimate Palestinian Arab entity.

Here is where he said something new.

In Professor Kontorovich's opinion, at some time after Oslo, Palestine became a state under international law.

The definition of a state is given by the Montevideo Convention. I had argued, and so had others, that "Palestine" does not constitute a state under its definition:

The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.

Kontorovich didn't get into the issue of Gaza, which may seem to be a problem since it has a different government, but he argues that since Area A is unquestionably part of what is claimed to be Palestine, that West Bank entity is undoubtedly a state. Having defined territory is not the same as having defined borders, and "Palestine" has st least some territory that it can call its own.

Therefore, the professor says, the entire issue nowadays between Israel and the Palestinian Arab state is not an issue of occupation or legality - it is simply a border dispute that must be resolved the way all border disputes are resolved (or not.)

One other point, not dwelled on in his slides, is that the Fourth Geneva Conventions article 49 on transferring people to occupied territory does not apply because in Israel's case the people moved there voluntarily, and Geneva implies government organized mass transfers.

It was a very interesting and thought provoking talk, and I spoke to him afterwards; he's a really nice guy. He's doing a fellowship in Princeton now but he is based out of Northwestern University.

If you want to hear him talk, here are some upcoming presentations he is making:

Cherry Hill, NJ on Feb. 12, One State, Two State, Three State, Four: The PA Bid for UN Recognition, sponsored by the RJC Southern New Jersey Chapter:

Princeton, NJ Feb. 12: International Lawfare, BDS. and the Delegitimization of Israel, sponsored by Advocates for Israel.

University of Florida Law School, Feb 15 at 12:15, Disputing Occupation: Israel's Borders in International Law

East Windsor, NJ March 28th: Say It Enough, it Still Isn't True: Illegal Occupation, Settlement, and Apartheid, sponsored (and hosted) by Beth El synagogue and Speak Up for Israel.

The deceptions of the BDS movement (Avishai Don)

Here is an excellent op-ed in the Harvard Crimson by Avishai Don:

Next weekend, the University of Pennsylvania will host the second national BDS conference, an event that will advocate for the “growing global campaign to boycott, divest from and sanction (BDS) the State of Israel.” Last April, Omar Barghouti, a leader and spokesperson of this campaign, spoke at Harvard. He insisted that anyone wanting to learn more about the fundamental tenets of BDS should read his recently released book, aptly titled “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions.”

So I followed his advice—I bought a copy of Barghouti’s book and read it from cover to cover. He writes some things in this work about the aims of BDS that lead me to believe that the movement is being far from forthright about its ultimate goals.

The Penn conference states that the purpose of the global BDS campaign is to isolate Israel economically “until it complies with its obligations under international and human rights law.” Understanding this to mean ending the Israeli occupation and fostering a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, a number of Zionists—that is, individuals who believe in the Jewish state’s right to exist—have either joined the BDS Call or implicitly sanctioned it. Two years ago in the Los Angeles Times, for example, an Israeli professor insisted that he supports BDS because it is “the only way to save his country.” Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization composed of both “Zionists [and] anti-Zionists,” considers itself “proud to be a part of the BDS movement.” Last year, J Street, an American liberal Zionist organization, held a panel at their national conference on the efficacy of this movement’s tactics “as a means to end the occupation.” Although J Street does not endorse the BDS movement, J Street’s presidentdescribes it in his book as a group of “activists who seek to raise pressure…against Israel to end the occupation.”

Clearly, these individuals have not read Barghouti’s work.

“A few Israeli and international activists have a tendency to make the [BDS] struggle Israel-centric, arguing that ending the occupation is good for Israel, above everything else,” Barghouti writes. “We totally reject that ‘save Israeli apartheid’ view.” He goes on to say that although BDS should coalesce with diverse political forces, “caution should be exercised in alliances with ‘soft’ Zionists, lest they assume the leadership of the BDS movement in the West, lowering the ceiling of its demands beyond recognition.”

So what, then, are BDS’s demands? Although Barghouti insists that BDS is neutral on the debate about a one-state versus two-state solution, even a cursory glance at Barghouti’s book reveals that this movement considers the existence of a Jewish state in the region patently unacceptable. For example, Barghouti explains that his movement cannot ally with Israeli peace groups, because even “the most radical Israeli ‘Zionist-left’ figures and groups are still Zionist, adhering to the racist principles of Zionism” that “maintain Israel’s character as a colonial, ethnocentric, apartheid state,” which BDS seeks to dismantle.

If the BDS movement were more open about its aims to purge the Jewish state from the Middle East—rather than just end some of its policies—I could have written an op-ed decrying the movement for its distortion of international law rather than its duplicity. I could have asked, for example, how the movement could possibly believe that a liberal democracy cannot have an ethnic identity when democracies across Eastern Europe—including members of the European Union like Finland, Slovenia and Germany—explicitly privilege one ethnicity over others in areas like immigration and culture. I could have also noted how odd it is that the movement vocally opposes the ethnic nature of the Jewish state, yet says nothing about the myriad Arab states that surround it.

But the BDS movement hides its ultimate goal of dismantling the Jewish state behind its public rhetoric. As a result, it has co-opted numerous individuals—and quite possibly donors—who desire to see both a Jewish and Palestinian state flourish into supporting its campaign. Although some members of the movement might actually support the Jewish state’s continued existence, as Barghouti makes abundantly clear, the Palestinian BDS National Committee—the “reference and guiding force for the global BDS movement”—cannot do so under any circumstances.

So because this movement will not broadcast its ultimate aims loud enough, I will do it for them. If you support the BDS movement, you are supporting an organization that is actively working to undermine the Jewish state. Utilizing the vocabulary of international norms, the movement actually systematically attempts to undermine the international consensus that recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. And if you support this right—regardless of your politics, regardless of your stance on the occupation, and regardless of your feelings towards the current Israeli right-wing government—then there is only one moral option. Boycott the BDS movement.

Hackers apologize for taking down Ha'aretz website

Yesterday, the Ha'aretz Hebrew website (and maybe the English one as well) was taken down by a denial of service attack in the tit-for-tat attacks that anti-Israel and pro-Israeli hacker groups have been launching.

The group AnonPS that claimed the attack, and tweeted:

@AnonPSFree Anonymous

haaretz.co.il Tango Down :) #Palestine #anonymous #Israel

I tweeted in response:

Pro-Palestinian hackers aren't too bright if their target is Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/pro-palestinian-hackers-bring-down-haaretz-hebrew-website-1.409198

Apparently, the hackers ended up agreeing with me! They apologized:

@haaretzprint we are sorry , we didn't know that haaretz is a good newspaper,we sorry about this , and be sure no one will attack u again .

Nice to know that Israel haters know who their friends are!

Meanwhile, the anti-Israel hackers attacked a couple of Israeli hospital websites. So moral!

In case you don't know, it takes zero skill to perform a denial of service attack. It is the cyber equivalent of having a hundred phones calling up the same phone number over and over again so that legitimate callers get busy signals. Calling this a "cyber war" is absurd; it is cyber-graffiti at worst.

(h/t Honest Reporting media cheat sheet)

Islamic Jihad leader calls for "third intifada," dismantling PA

Last month, in a very under-reported story, Fatah invited Islamic Jihad to be part of the PLO leadership.

Today, as always, Islamic Jihad is demanding that the PA be dismantled and that a third intifada be declared.

PIJ leader Sheikh Khader Habib spoke at a festival in solidarity with a prisoner who is on a hunger strike. He said that the PA was a "disaster for our people" and called for a new "jihad" against Israel.

He said that the PA was a "Zionist occupier of our political system," meaning that their joining the PLO is meant to replace it with an Islamist version.

But according to some idiots, its joining the PLO must mean that it is "moderating."

Women sexually assaulted in Tahrir Square

From Bikya Masr:

Heather still doesn’t know how she made it home on Wednesday night after being in Egypt’s Tahrir Square. The Arab-American arrived back at her Cairo flat without pants, having had them torn off downtown. She and her two roommates were victims of a mob attack by people in the iconic square on Wednesday, as protesters demonstrated against the military junta.

According to Heather, an Arab-American living in the Egyptian capital, she and her Swedish and Spanish roommates took to Tahrir as thousands were converging there to mark one-year since the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak.

“They started fighting over who was going to do what,” Heather told Bikyamasr.com in an exclusive interview. She came forward after seeing the report on a foreign woman who was stripped naked and assaulted only hours after her own incident.

“My roommates and I fell to the ground when they attacked us. The people pulled our pants off even as we yelled and tried to fight,” she continued.

The incident occurred around 7:30 PM local time, just as night was taking hold of the city. Heather said the attack happened “in the center of Tahrir.”

She said that after the men pulled their pants off, they continued to grab and grobe the women’s bodies. “It is disgusting. They put fingers up my ass,” she revealed.

Luckily, the women were somehow pulled from the violence by a man and a woman and taken to safety. She said she doesn’t recall exactly how she was saved from the violent attack.

“I was shaking and crying and the man and woman just grabbed us and pulled us out and took us out of the square.”

Later in the night, the issue of sexual violence toward women was sparked after an eyewitness reported on the micro-blogging site Twitter that a foreign woman was stripped, groped and assaulted by another mob of men in the square.

The woman, who’s identity has not been revealed, was taken away in an ambulance after being assaulted for 10 minutes. Her husband reportedly was unable to intervene and witnessed the incident.

“I saw the woman and then dozens of men surrounded her and started grabbing her, when she screamed for help some people came, but they were hit in the face,” wrote one witness.

What happened next was “appalling,” said the trusted witness, who asked for anonymity. “The men just started tearing at her clothes and grabbing her body all over. When she fought back, they pushed her. It was chaos.”

There were unconfirmed reports that the men “violated” her with their hands.

Throughout the day, sexual harassment towards women has been increasing and more and more reports of women being grabbed and groped began being reported.

Heather said that she came forward to talk about what happened to her “because people need to know what goes on. It is the only way to start making it a problem that will have to be dealt with.”

However, many people told her to not reveal what happened to her because she was told, “it would hurt the image of the revolution.” But Heather said after seeing the reports of others and their assaults, “I felt it was right to say something.”

According to studies conducted by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Right (ECWR) in 2008, 98 percent of foreign women and 83 percent of Egyptian women surveyed had experienced sexual harassment in Egypt.

Meanwhile, 62 percent of Egyptian men confessed to harassing women and 53 percent of Egyptian men faulted women for “bringing it on.”

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar@Israellycool)

Iran considering pre-emptive ban of oil exports to EU; China blasts sanctions

From Al Arabiya:

Many Iranian lawmakers and officials have called for an immediate ban on oil exports to the European bloc before its ban fully goes into effect in July, arguing that the 27 EU nations account for only about 18 percent of Iran’s overall oil sales and would be hurt more by the decision than Iran.

“The bill requires the government to stop selling oil to Europe before the start of European Union oil embargo against Iran,” lawmaker Hasan Ghafourifard told the parliament’s website, icana.ir. Debate on the bill is to begin on Sunday, he said.

18% is pretty high, actually, certainly enough to make a noticeable dent in the Iranian economy.

Meanwhile, China blasts the planned embargo:

China said Thursday EU sanctions on Iran announced earlier this week in response to Tehran’s suspected nuclear drive were “not constructive,” state media reported.

“To blindly pressure and impose sanctions on Iran are not constructive approaches,” the foreign ministry was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency, in response to a question on the EU measures announced Monday.

China ̶ a key ally of Iran and its top trading partner ̶ has consistently opposed the use of sanctions, and advocates resolving disputes through “dialogue and consultation” instead.

Beijing’s economic ties with Tehran have expanded in recent years, partly thanks to the withdrawal of Western companies in line with sanctions against the Islamic republic over its nuclear drive.

The Asian powerhouse also depends a lot on Iranian oil, and has strengthened its presence in the country’s oil and gas sector by signing a series of contracts worth up to $40 billion in the past few years.

"Dialogue and consultation?"

But this does bring up the question that if China is increasing its dependence on Iranian oil, could this eventually translate into military cooperation with Iran as well? while China has sold weapons and technology (and even perhaps chemical weapons technology) to Iran's military, as far as I can tell it has not allied with Iran militarily. Could this be an unforeseen consequence of Western sanctions on Iran?

Geopolitics is like a three-dimensional chess game where half the pieces are invisible and sometimes they move for no apparent reason.

New meme: Daily aid to Gaza proves it is a "ghetto"

Ma'an reports:

Israeli forces partially opened the Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza on Thursday in order to allow in 300 truckloads of commercial and agricultural goods.

Israel has also allowed two trucks of flowers and strawberries to be exported from the coastal enclave, Palestinian border crossing official Raed Fattuh told Ma'an.

Twenty-two cars will also enter Gaza together with communications equipment and cement for international projects, he said.

This is pretty much a daily event. Although Ma'an didn't mention it, yesterday there were 270 to 280 trucks loaded with aid and both commercial and agricultural supplies, including 12 trucks loaded with cement and iron for construction and 48 truck of gravel for UNRWA and USAID projects, as well as the construction of a French cultural center. On Tuesday there were 227 trucks of aid.

The amount of aid going through Kerem Shalom has been steadily increasing over the past year, almost doubling.

So how to the commenters at Ma'an view this?

Sarah from Holland says "Whenever I read this kind of messages, I think: feeding time! Say thank you! The zionists are so sick. They really forgot the holocaust, the getto's, how it feld to be humiliated and treated like animals. Zionists are NO Jews."

"AKeenReader" from the UK adds: "sarah/holland - your views are absolutley spot on. It seems they are taking revenge against the Palestinians for what happend to them, although if one experience such terrible acts you would expect them to understand human suffering. Seems they haven't learnt any lesson. Shame as they are digging their own grave. Maybe Iran's attitude towards Israel is to give some comfort to the Palestinains because Iran can deal with Israel unlike defenceless Palestinians. Soon time will tell."

These aren't Arabs saying this - they are "cultured" Europeans who are often more anti-semitic than the Arabs are. But their Jew-hatred is buried under the pretense of caring about Gazans, most of whom are doing economically better than the Egyptians just over the border (whom they naturally don't give a damn about. Guess why?)

By the way, Egypt closed Rafah yesterday to celebrate the January 25th revolution, and on Tuesday Gazans were complaining that there were extra restrictions on them passing through Rafah. Sounds like Egypt is imprisoning Gazans and treating it like a "ghetto," but you won't hear these European human rights defenders say a word about that. (They used to, claiming that Egypt was following Israeli policy, but they can no longer do that - so they just ignore it.)

Fatwa against driving a Chevy

From Now Lebanon:

A Salafi sheikh in Egypt has reportedly issued a fatwa that buying [or driving] a Chevrolet vehicle is haram because the American brand’s logo looks like the Christian cross.

Prominent Egyptian TV presenter Amr Adeeb takes the sheikh’s joke-of-a-fatwa to task, saying, “We’ve reached a really strange place with this.”

“The car’s been around [for a century] and only now did you notice there’s a cross on the car?”

Adeeb also notes that the car is not used or presented as a form of religious iconography: “Do we hold mass for it? Do we pray for it?” And his guest chimes in with a comment about the self-centered nature of the fatwa itself: “As if the people who came up with the logo were thinking that we want to put this special logo on the car just to piss us [Muslims] off?”

The TV presenter concludes, “With all of the problems in Egypt, you’re concerned about the cross?... We’re calling for unity [in the country] and then you come up with [fatwas] like this?”

(h/t Onion Tears News)

Midweek open thread

In other words, I am too busy today to come up with another post.

So feel free to comment away!

Latest on Israeli thinking about Iran (NYT)

Ronen Bergman in the New York Times Magazine writes a long and important article that brings us up to date with what Israeli leaders are thinking with respect to a nuclear Iran. Some excerpts:

“From our point of view,” Barak said, “a nuclear state offers an entirely different kind of protection to its proxies. Imagine if we enter another military confrontation with Hezbollah, which has over 50,000 rockets that threaten the whole area of Israel, including several thousand that can reach Tel Aviv. A nuclear Iran announces that an attack on Hezbollah is tantamount to an attack on Iran. We would not necessarily give up on it, but it would definitely restrict our range of operations.”

At that point Barak leaned forward and said with the utmost solemnity: “And if a nuclear Iran covets and occupies some gulf state, who will liberate it? The bottom line is that we must deal with the problem now.”

He warned that no more than one year remains to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weaponry. This is because it is close to entering its “immunity zone” — a term coined by Barak that refers to the point when Iran’s accumulated know-how, raw materials, experience and equipment (as well as the distribution of materials among its underground facilities) — will be such that an attack could not derail the nuclear project. Israel estimates that Iran’s nuclear program is about nine months away from being able to withstand an Israeli attack; America, with its superior firepower, has a time frame of 15 months. In either case, they are presented with a very narrow window of opportunity. One very senior Israeli security source told me: “The Americans tell us there is time, and we tell them that they only have about six to nine months more than we do and that therefore the sanctions have to be brought to a culmination now, in order to exhaust that track.”

...In the end, a successful attack would not eliminate the knowledge possessed by the project’s scientists, and it is possible that Iran, with its highly developed technological infrastructure, would be able to rebuild the damaged or wrecked sites. What is more, unlike Syria, which did not respond after the destruction of its reactor in 2007, Iran has openly declared that it would strike back ferociously if attacked. Iran has hundreds of Shahab missiles armed with warheads that can reach Israel, and it could harness Hezbollah to strike at Israeli communities with its 50,000 rockets, some of which can hit Tel Aviv. (Hamas in Gaza, which is also supported by Iran, might also fire a considerable number of rockets on Israeli cities.) According to Israeli intelligence, Iran and Hezbollah have also planted roughly 40 terrorist sleeper cells across the globe, ready to hit Israeli and Jewish targets if Iran deems it necessary to retaliate. And if Israel responded to a Hezbollah bombardment against Lebanese targets, Syria may feel compelled to begin operations against Israel, leading to a full-scale war. On top of all this, Tehran has already threatened to close off the Persian Gulf to shipping, which would generate a devastating ripple through the world economy as a consequence of the rise in the price of oil.

The proponents of an attack argue that the problems delineated above, including missiles from Iran and Lebanon and terror attacks abroad, are ones Israel will have to deal with regardless of whether it attacks Iran now — and if Iran goes nuclear, dealing with these problems will become far more difficult.

...After speaking with many senior Israeli leaders and chiefs of the military and the intelligence, I have come to believe that Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012. Perhaps in the small and ever-diminishing window that is left, the United States will choose to intervene after all, but here, from the Israeli perspective, there is not much hope for that. Instead there is that peculiar Israeli mixture of fear — rooted in the sense that Israel is dependent on the tacit support of other nations to survive — and tenacity, the fierce conviction, right or wrong, that only the Israelis can ultimately defend themselves.

An insult to American Jews?

Last month, there was a big kerfuffle over some ads created by Israel's Ministry of Immigrant Absorption that were meant to encourage Israeli expats in America to return. The ads were a bit heavy-handed, but the reaction of anger was explosive.

Jeffrey Goldberg started it off with saying "I don't think I have ever seen a demonstration of Israeli contempt for American Jews as obvious as these ads." The Jewish Federations of North America said it was an "outrageous and insulting message." Abraham Foxman called them "demeaning." The ministry pulled the campaign because of all the publicity.

Now, an Israeli TV show (Eretz Nehederet) is lampooning American Jews as buffoons, taking aim at Jews who go to Israel on Taglit/Birthright trips. (Sorry, no English subtitles.)

While it is true that the first "insult" was from the Israeli government, and the second is on a humorous TV show, will American Jews get all upset over the skit in Eretz Nehederet? Is it an obvious "demonstration of Israeli contempt for American Jews"?

Is being insulted a function of the source, the content - or the observer?

For the record, I do not find either video to be insulting, and the Eretz Nehederet one is pretty funny in that black humor way that Israelis enjoy. The spoof doesn't make me think any less of Birthright.

Both of them contain a grain of truth that is hurtful to some - generally those who need to think a little harder about their own Jewish and Zionist identities.

The Arab-Jewish coexistence that the Left doesn't want you to see

If coexistence is a good thing, why don't you ever hear about this?

At Barkan Industrial Zone near Ariel, the biggest Jewish town in the northern West Bank, Palestinian workers at a plastics factory say they prefer to work with the Israelis because they get paid double than what they would make working for a Palestinian employers.

“We don’t talk politics. I come to here work,” machinist Ramadan Islim from nearby Salfit tells The Media Line. “We work together and for the five years I’ve been here there haven’t been any problems. What happens outside of the factory is the business of the politicians. We are here to work. We have a home and family to support.”

Yehuda Cohen, the plant’s manager, says he moved his factory here from near Tel Aviv because he needed the space. He adds that that the government did not offer him any incentives despite promises.

“After I came here, I can say that the Palestinian workers are the best workers that I can find in Israel,” Cohen tells The Media Line.

A lot of people who call themselves liberal would prefer to see Ramadan Islim unemployed rather than work happily in a Jewish-owned factory in Samaria.

A lot of people who call themselves liberal would prefer to see Ramadan Islim and Yehuda Cohen hating each other to justify their own political opinions and demands.

A lot of people who call themselves liberal are anything but.

(h/t Ian)

Two Oscar foreign language nominations have Jewish themes

Two of the Academy nominees for Best Foreign Language Film have Jewish themes.

One of them is "In Darkness," from Poland:

From acclaimed director Agnieszka Holland, In Darkness is based on a true story. Leopold Socha, a sewer worker and petty thief in Lvov, a Nazi occupied city in Poland, one day encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto. He hides them for money in the labyrinth of the town’s sewers beneath the bustling activity of the city above. What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement turns into something very unexpected, the unlikely alliance between Socha and the Jews as the enterprise seeps deeper into Socha’s conscience. The film is also an extraordinary story of survival as these men, women and children all try to outwit certain death during 14 months of ever increasing and intense danger.

The other is Footnote, from Israel:

Footnote is the story of a great rivalry between a father and son. Both eccentric professors have dedicated their lives to their work [in the Talmud department at Hebrew University.] The father seems a stubborn purist who fears the establishment. His son, Uriel, appears to strive on accolades, endlessly seeking recognition.

But one day, the tables turn. The two men switch places when the father learns he is to be awarded the most valuable honour one can receive. His desperate need for recognition is betrayed, his vanity exposed. Uriel is torn between pride and envy. Will he sabotage his father’s glory?

Footnote is the story of insane competition, the admiration and envy for a role model, bringing father and son to a final, bitter confrontation.

It looks like the favorite to win though is the Iranian film "A Separation."

How the EU should treat UNRWA - if it wants "peace and stability"

From UNRWA:

The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, and the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Filippo Grandi, signed today at UNRWA’s Gaza Training Centre a € 55.4 million financing agreement towards the Agency’s General Fund.

The EU High Representative Catherine Ashton said during her visit [to Gaza] that "the continued EU support to UNRWA is an essential element of the EU strategy to bring peace and stability to the region. The € 55.4 million contribution we are signing today represents our ongoing commitment to Palestine refugees.

If the EU wants to bring peace and stability to the region, it would not support UNRWA.

UNWRA was meant to be a temporary agency with the purpose of helping provide short-term relief services to Palestine refugees (both Arabs and Jews) while encouraging resettlement in their new countries via works programs (the W of UNRWA.) Arab countries refused to allow the resettlement of the Palestinian Arabs in their countries - something that the oft-cited UNGA 194 mentions as a goal of the UN Conciliation Committee for Palestine - and as a result the works programs vanished, leaving a sizable population kept miserable as part of six decades of pan-Arab policy on permanent UNRWA welfare.

UNRWA's definition of "refugee," that Ashton sickeningly accepts, includes both people who have citizenship and people who are already resident in British Mandate Palestine, which flies against every normal definition of refugee used anywhere else. Adding them up and you see that 80% of the so-called refugees aren't refugees - even if you allow for the definition to include descendants until the end of time, as UNRWA jarringly does.

If the EU really wanted to bring "peace and stability" to the region, it would insist that the UNRWA definition of "refugee" be changed to be more in alignment with that of the Refugee Convention of 1951, amended in 1967. In a couple of years, most of the "refugees" would disappear. Then, change the mandate of UNRWA back to its original intention.

Rather than enabling a UN agency whose current policies do not even allow for any refugees to lose that status, the EU should pressure the host countries to integrate and naturalize Palestinian Arabs who have lived there for decades, if they so desire. A five year plan should be made to phase out UNRWA altogether, and to move its ever-increasing budget to the host countries to allow them to build permanent communities to replace the camps.

That would represent human rights. That would help the cause of peace. And that is what the EU should be doing.

(h/t Dan)

What's under the abaya? Sometimes, nothing.

From Bikya Masr:

Kuwaiti police have reportedly arrested three women for not wearing any clothes underneath their abayas at a cafe in the Salmiya commercial complex, the al-Rai daily newspaper reported.

Two of the women were from Gulf countries and are not Kuwaiti, police sources said.

The report said that a local boy told his mother that he had seen one of their naked bodies. The mother then called the police and they were arrested.

The newspaper added that the women, one of whom was a minor – allegedly told police that they had just had sex in an apartment, consumed alcohol and “had become drunk.” They had then gone to the cafe afterwards.

Police reported to have phoned the father of the two GCC girls, but he said he could not come to Kuwait as he was busy. The girls have been referred to the Criminal Investigations Department.

According to Marwa Tarek, a women’s rights activist and blogger in Kuwait, the women could face a number of criminal charges, especially if they are accused of being lesbians.

“The crime and penalty for being gay is not a nice one here and they could be facing years in prison if the accusations they had consensual sex are proven true,” she told Bikyamasr.com.

Tarek said that she questions how the boy saw any of them naked, as the abaya usually covers the entirety of the body and is difficult to see through.

“The boy was probably peeking underneath and then told his mother. It is the boy who should be in trouble, not the three women who did nothing wrong except be in public. I know a lot of women who often wear nothing underneath their abaya because it is so hot and nobody can see,” she added.

Remember this old controversial commercial featuring a 15-year old Brooke Shields?

I don't know how smart it is for a women's rights activist to tell Arab men that sometimes there is nothing underneath an abaya. Arab harassment of covered women was already sky-high.

(h/t CHA)

"Palestinians trying to derail peace talks with Israel" (The Telegraph)

From Con Coughlin in The Telegraph:

Most people in the West believe the main reason the talks are not going anywhere is because of Israel's refusal to compromise on its settlement building programme. But while the Netanyahu government's insistence on building settlements is certainly an obstacle, I am told by Western diplomats close to the exploratory talks that are currently taking place in Jordan between the two sides that the real reason they are running into difficulty is because the Palestinian delegation, led by the veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, is refusing to take the talks seriously.

For example, I am told by a Western diplomat working for the Quartet that when the Israeli delegation arrived for a meeting last weekend in Amman, the Jordanian capital, to present their latest security proposals, Mr Erekat simply refused to enter the room.

My man in the Jordan conference room says that he was surprised at Mr Erekat's behaviour, especially as the topic under discussion was supposed to be one of the two main topics the Palestinian delegation wanted on the agenda for the Jordan talks, which are a precursor for the more formal talks that are supposed to take place once both sides have agreed a negotiating framework.

Mr Erekat's refusal to enter the negotiating room and hear what the Israelis had to say does not bode well for the Quartet's attempts to get the two sides to resume full negotiations, and raises questions about just how serious the Palestinians are about getting a peace deal. With Israel feeling increasingly isolated as world attention focuses on the fall-out from the recent revolts in Libya, Egypt and Syria, there is a growing suspicion among Western diplomats that the Palestinians are working on the basis that, if they draw out the process, they will be able to strike a better deal with Israel.

If that is the case, then they are badly mistaken. The real enemy in the Middle East today is Iran, not Israel, and by playing into the hands of Islamist militants who seek Israel's destruction, the Palestinians could see their cause being overtaken by a far greater regional conflict.

I have previously shown that the Arabic press is saying the same thing, that the Palestinian Arabs never had any intent to negotiate seriously with Israel during this round of talks in Amman and instead have been planning their diplomatic and legal offensive against Israel.

Their lack of good faith has been clear from even before the start of these current talks, as they fought against the Quartet to even do these cosmetic negotiations since September.

(h/t P)

UPDATE: Abbas just said that he does not want to continue the Amman talks, trying (as usual) to blame Israel.

Hezbollah upset at Arab participation in Herzliya Conference

I noted on Sunday that some Arab media were noticing that someone from Qatar would be speaking at the fairly prestigious annual Herzliya Conference in Israel. Looking at the preliminary agenda, I saw also speakers from Jordan, Egypt and the PLO.

Hezbollah is not happy:

Hezbollah said in a statement it issued that “the information about the intentions of some countries, organizations, and Arab figures to take part in Herzliya conference on “the Zionist national security”, which will be held next month, raise concerns due to the negative indications and the normalization signals that this step holds and that signifies the participants’ commitment to the Zionist entity’s security and their attempts to consolidate it.

“While Hezbollah denounces this dangerous approach by some Arabs, it also warns that this Arab participation in the enemy’s security conference comes as the Zionist settlement in the occupied territories is increasing, and as Al-Quds is being Judaized, and tens of Palestinian MPs are being arrested.

...“Moreover, if this participation was the result of personal certainty, than this is a bigger disaster and an indication to their disengagement from the Palestinian cause, and if this participation was a submission to American pressure, than this is an even bigger disaster, since it reveals the participants’ submission to the American will, even if that was on the accountability of the nation and its central cause, the Palestinian cause and its holy capital Al-Quds,” the Hezbollah concluded.

PalArabs plan pots and pans protest against Hamas, Fatah

I wrote this morning that I was astonished that the people in Gaza and the West Bank who protested against Hamas and Fatah selfishness had not caught on to the fact yet that their "unity" has been a sham to shut them up.

Now, Ma'an Arabic reports that 160 Palestinian Arab media figures and intellectuals are calling for a mass protest on February 1 against the PalArab leadership for precisely this reason.

Their document refers to the nearly five years of Palestinian division, their leaders' violations of human rights, the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. It notes the reconciliation agreement signed in Cairo in May "which has not yet become a reality." It calls for a political system that offers a decent living and is "pluralistic and democratic, open to all cultures, a system that respects women and ensure their freedom and equality."

It goes on to say that "the use of methods of peaceful protest organized and sustained and directed clearly against both sides of the split is a key factor to the success of our campaign."

The first phase is to organize a pan-Palestinian Arab protest on February 1 at 7:00 PM where people will go in the streets and bang pots and pans on roofs and from open windows for ten minutes.

The document does not name Fatah or Hamas by name.

The protesters are smart, calling not for people to gather in central squares where they can be harassed by security forces but to protest loudly from their homes.

Last time, Hamas tried to sabotage the popular protests; it will be most interesting to see how they react to this, if it gains traction.

Hebrew/English hip-hop "Shalom Haters"

From The Algemeiner:

Israeli/North African MC SHI 360 releases “Shalom Haters” video which received over 30,000 unique views in one week and debuted on Vibe Magazine’s All Hip Hop site. This Platinum artist from Israel, has toured all over the world with acts from Subliminal to Killah Priest. The video shares a title with SHI 360′s full length break out English record, ‘Shalom Haters’ which hit stores world-wide today on Shemspeed/360 Music Records. SHI 360 sat down with one of Shemspeed’s Sarah Weiss late last week for an exclusive interview on Algemeiner.

SW: Would you call yourself a zionist rapper?

SHI 360: I don’t consider myself a zionist rapper, although many would say otherwise. I rap about social and political issues. In some of the songs I say things that people don’t get in the media and it makes people tag me as a zionist – that’s their problem. I tell it like it is. If a story is one sided, I will do everything I can to give you the other side as well, just so you can get a balanced picture and not be afraid to think for yourself. The media has put a lot of effort into vilifying the word zionism. Zionism simply supports the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish homeland – Zion. The Jewish people are native to the Middle East and Israel is our home. Many people have a problem with the term “Jewish state”. What if it was Muslim or Christian? hmmmm

SW: What’s the story behind ‘Shalom Haters’? The title and cover art looks aggressive, but also in a way playful, it’s definitely catchy, but also controversial. What do you want the world to take away from such a phrase?

SHI 360: Shalom Haters was started by a good friend of mine and an incredible artist called Hebrew Mamita. I really loved it and asked to borrow it and make something of my own with it. With her blessing, this is not only the title track, but the name of the album as well. It is, like you say, very playful. On one hand, haters are real popular in hip hop. But beyond that, the Jewish people have so many haters that you just gotta say “shalom” haha I mean – I throw love at the haters you feel me? It’s the only way…I want people to take away that there is no energy to be wasted on haters. Just say “shalom” and wave.

Egyptian minister: "Israel is the #1 enemy of Egypt and Arabs"

Dr. Gouda Abdel-Khalek, Egyptian Minister of Supply and Internal Trade, has said that the calls by some Egyptians to dismantle the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is "absurd."

He said that the Egyptian military is "the only coherent military institution in the Arab world, capable of facing any external force."

Abdel-Khalek told Al Masry al Youm, "I ask the revolutionaries to cease the demand for dropping SCAF, if they consider that Israel remains the number one enemy of Egypt and the Arabs."

Abdel-Khalek was, unsurprisingly, appointed by the military council. And the Egyptian military owns a lot of Egypt's internal trade, even of non-military items.

PalArab leader: "May elections impossible"

From AFP:

It is “impossible” for the Palestinians to hold presidential and legislative elections in May as planned, a senior Palestinian MP warned on Monday.

Mustafa Barghuti, who heads the Freedom Committee set up to help implement a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, said the preparations necessary for holding a vote in May had not been made.

“According to the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC), it has become impossible to hold the elections this May, and we will have to work fast to hold the elections this year,” Barghuti told AFP.
.
“This requires the commission to begin its work in Gaza,” he said.

Under the terms of the reconciliation deal inked by Hamas and Fatah in Cairo on May 3, presidential and legislative elections are to be held within a year of the signing of the accord.

But the last Palestinian elections were held in 2006, and the electoral register in Gaza has not been updated since, with the CEC yet to begin work in the territory, which is under Hamas control.

CEC head Hanna Nasser confirmed the commission had not yet been able to start work in Gaza, in a statement released on Monday.

“Hanna Nasser confirmed today the continuation of the closure of CEC headquarters in the Gaza Strip despite a statement issued two weeks ago indicating the re-opening of district offices,” it said.

“Nasser indicated that recent communication with officials in Gaza resulted in a promise to tackle this issue soon.”

The commission's failure to begin preparations for the scheduled elections comes as Hamas and Fatah struggle to make progress towards the formation of the interim government of independents called for by the reconciliation deal.

Under the accord, a caretaker government was to have been formed to help oversee preparations for the elections, but disagreements over its make-up and who would head it have yet to be resolved.

Barghuti said it was crucial that progress be made towards forming the interim government.

“Discussions on forming the government haven't started yet, giving the impression that the deadlines don't matter,” he warned.

“We must work quickly to implement what was agreed upon, including the formation of the consensus government.”

In an honor/shame culture, appearances are more important than facts.

So Hamas and Fatah have been concentrating on making it appear as if they are reconciling - and doing essentially nothing.

The entire impetus for their paper "unity" was protests in Gaza and the West Bank last year in the wake of the Arab Spring from discontented young people fed up with the division and the poor leadership. Although the protests were not huge, they did make Fatah and Hamas very nervous.

What is amazing is that these same protesters have not yet seemed to have caught on to the fact that the entire past year has been a shell game by their leaders meant to shut them up, not to make any real change.

About "Arab Jews" (Point of No Return guest post)

Al Arabiya has an op-ed by Naava Mashiah asking "Are 'Arab Jews" extinct?"

Is it an oxymoron to be an Arab Jew? An Arab Jew refers either to a Jew living in the Arab world or whose ancestors came from Arab countries. This term flourished once in the Middle East but is not widely known today. Not long ago there were Jews living in the cities of the Middle East who were integrated into their societies and held influential roles in their communities and economies.

My grandfather, Baba Yona Mashiah, was such a figure in Baghdad. He was, I would say, an Arab Jew. My childhood was sprinkled with stories of his grand personality, power and business acumen. He was a prominent land and real-estate developer and in the 1940s contributed to building “Baghdad el Jedidah”, a chic neighborhood in the Baghdad suburbs. His partners were mostly Muslim and some were prominent government officials.

In the 1950s the Jews of Baghdad experienced an exodus from Iraq. A reluctant exodus, I would claim, which was brought about by a combination of increasing Zionism, anti-Semitic propaganda, envy of the privileged life Jews had when Iraq was under British control and the creation of Israel. The displacement of thousands of Palestinians and the humiliating defeat of the Arab armies were the final blow.

Life had become unbearable for the Jews and even those who had wanted to stay were compelled to leave. Jews were assumed to be a fifth column and turned into scapegoats following the defeat of Arab armies by the Israeli Defense Forces. Baba Yona watched his empire crumble. His peer and neighbor, Mr. Addas, another influential Jew, was hung in the square. He himself was imprisoned for three months, accused of having Zionist connections.

At a certain point the Iraqi government offered a deal for Jews, inviting them to escape to Israel if they would renounce their citizenship and relinquish their property. Baba Yona was forced to leave Baghdad with over 100,000 other Jews to the one country that would accept them at the time – Israel. Ironically, the Zionists, whose movement played a part in alienating Muslims from their Jewish compatriots, were there to save them.

I asked the blogger from Point of No Return to comment, and she kindly responded with a full post:

Naava Mashiah’s article is doing the rounds of the Arab media, gaining prominence in Arab News. Much of what she writes is only partially true, and is designed to ingratiate herself with her Arab Muslim readership.

Is there such a creature as an Arab Jew? Even Naava’s own father says there is no such thing. We agree.

Very few Jews from Arab countries self-define as ‘Arab Jews’, unless they are far-leftists. The ‘Arab world’ is itself a modern false construct, defining identity by language and culture. It’s like saying that a Spaniard and a Peruvian are both bound by a ‘Hispanic’ identity. But whereas a Spaniard and a Peruvian might have the same ancestry, religious communities in the Middle East always kept apart from each other; there was limited social interaction and almost no intermarriage.

Moreover - If you scratch away at an ‘Arab’’s identity, you will often find that he or she is not Arab at all. The region is a kaleidoscope of sects, religions and ethnicities. There is no such thing as ‘Arab’ culture. The famous singer Farid al-Atrash was not Arab but Druze, and many of the stars of Egyptian 20th century cinema were Jews or Copts. The roots of 20th popular ‘Arab’ musical culture in Iraq - the Jewish al-Kuwaity brothers had a powerful influence – could be said to be Jewish.

When she tries to explain why Jews left Arab countries, Na’ava Mashia assigns equal blame to Zionism and antisemitic propaganda. In fact antisemitism alienated Muslims from Jews. Miss Mashiah makes no mention of the 1941 Farhud pogrom, seven years before Israel was established, and the rise of pro-Nazi feeling in the 1930s. Zionist activity in Iraq was a response to the Farhud, not the other way around.

Miss Mashiah’s allegation that Israel ‘effaced’ the identity of Jews from Arab countries is a charge commonly levelled by radical leftists and anti-Zionists. It is true that in its zeal to create a new Israeli, the establishment disparaged ‘Arab culture’, in the same way as it did ‘Yiddish culture’. But whatever the situation in the 1950s – and there was real discrimination then – Mizrahi culture has come back with a vengeance in Israel today.

In the final paragraph, Miss Mashiah herself gives the reason for writing her article: ‘my interest in my Arab roots grew about 10 years ago when I established my business which focuses on economic cooperation between Israel and the Middle East.”

So now we know. Being an ‘Arab Jew’, and downplaying the impact of Arab antisemitism, is good for business.

4 Iranian Revolutionary Guards leaders died in four days

From YNet:

An Iranian opposition website reported Tuesday that four former Revolutionary Guards commanders have mysteriously died in the past four days after suffering strokes and heart attacks.

The website did not point any fingers but hinted that other elements may have been involved in the deaths.

The Hebrew YNet article gives details.

The four are Wafa Afrian (52), Abbas Mahari(52), Ahmad Siafzada (55) and Mansur Torkan (50).

Afrian was the head of Iran Telecommunication Company and previously was a senior commander in the field of electronic warfare. He was reported ill for months.

Mahari, who died of a stroke, worked at the University of Imam Hussein in Tehran, and he had been linked in the past with developing non-conventional weapons.

Siafzada, who died of a heart attack, was high up in the Revolutionary Guards.

Torkan was one of the the senior commanders of the Revolutionary Guards during the Iran - Iraq war, between the years 1980 to 1988. He died of a stroke.

An Iranian army officer was killed in a motorcycle attack on Saturday.

Hmmmm.....

(h/t Yoel)

Animals smuggled into Gaza for zoo (photos)

Hamas' Palestine Times website shows a bunch of exotic animals that have been smuggled into Gaza for a zoo:

A few years ago, Hamas found another use for a zoo in Gaza:

Last week reports began to filter out of Syria that members of Khaled Meshal's family, including his daughter Fatima and her husband, had been arrested by Syrian forces on the pretext of having property registered under fictitious names.

Hamas denied the report, but now Arab newspaper Elaph confirms it. Fatima and her husband were arrested on January 11.

According to the report, Meshal's wife and other children were also summoned by Syrian police on the 15th, and Fatima and her husband were released on 50,000 pounds bail (about $900.)

The harassment is allegedly to show Syria's displeasure at Hamas not supporting the Assad regime more strongly. Meshal has been trying to straddle the fence between supporting the Syrian revolution and not upsetting the regime.

Elaph's sources claim that Meshal's announcement that he will step down as Hamas' political leader is related to this pressure from Syria. Elaph says that Syria prefers that he be replaced with his current deputy, Mousa Abu Marzouk.

An Arab expert diagnoses Israel

Jamal Kanj, writing in the Gulf Daily News, explains it all:

Israel's survival kit is: Perpetuate conflict, insecurity to rationalise collective hate and finally play victim.

Devoid of conflict, Israel implodes internally; without hate, Zionism loses its justification; and playing eternal victim to continue blackmailing the West. In the absence of this holy trinity, Israel ceases to exist.

See? It is all so simple!

If Kanj really believes this, and he really wants to destroy Israel, then the prescription is clear:

Convince Arabs to make peace with Israel.

If all Arab countries and the PLO prioritize peace, accepting Israel's security concerns (which Kanj knows are just excuses to murder tens of thousands of innocent Arabs), then Israel cannot survive, according to Kanj. Israel will be "devoid of conflict" and will therefore "implode internally."

But if that is not enough, then the Arabs must learn to unconditionally love the Jews of Israel. If they truly love Israel, Israel cannot justify itse existence, in Kanj's view.

Putting the two of those together would make it impossible for Israel to "play the victim" anymore. And, soon thereafter, Israel ceases to exist!

I think Kanj is onto something. His plan has great merit. Arabs should put it in motion, in anticipation of the quick demise of the Jewish state. This is easier than incitement, and terror, and war - all of which makes Israel stronger, according to Kanj.

And Jamal Kanj is just the man to spearhead such an initiative.

What do the Arabs have to lose? According to Kanj, it has been Arab intransigence that has strengthened Israel so much. It must end now, so Israel can end as well..

The worst that could happen is that Kanj is wrong, and the Arabs will have to live in peace with their Jewish neighbors forever. Israeli Jews would tour all over the Arab world; Jewish backpackers would visit Iraq and Syria; Jewish scientists would work with their Arab counterparts to try to solve problems like water shortages and medical care; Arab Muslims would be able to visit Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque and other historic sites with a mere passport; and a Palestinian Arab state would be freely trading goods and services with their Arab partners.

I know- that is a pretty bad scenario, and one that Arabs are dead-set against happening. They's rather maintain the state of war and continue to incite against Israeli Jews.

But isn't the chance that they can destroy Israel with peace and love is worth the risk?

The Jews again prove they control the media

Once again, a journalist wrote something that offended Jews , and they quickly forced him to resign.

The owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times has resigned and is seeking a buyer in the wake of a column he wrote speculating that Israel would consider assassinating President Obama.

Andrew Adler, in an email obtained by JTA, announced Monday that he is "relinquishing all day-to-day activities effective immediately" following the publishing of his opinion piece saying that Obama's assassination was among Israel's options in heading off a nuclear Iran.

Adler named staff writer John McCurdy as interim managing editor until a replacement can be found. Adler said he would publish an apology in his next edition and that reaction from readers had been overwhelmingly negative.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta said earlier Monday that it would suspend its relationship with the Atlanta Jewish Times until Adler removed himself from the newspaper's operations. The federation also called on Adler to sell the weekly.

"While we acknowledge his public apology and remorse, the damage done to the people of Israel, the global Jewish people, and especially the Jewish Community of Atlanta is irreparable," the Atlanta federation said in a statement issued Monday to constituent groups.

Proving again that those Jews are against freedom of the press. Except for the press they own, which is all of it. Except for the Atlanta Jewish Times, which they are against, even though they own it, like all the other Jew-owned media.

(I'm sure that some anti-semites will find a bizarre Jew-hating angle in this story, so I wanted to beat them to the punch.)

UPDATE: After I wrote this, I see that J-Street managed to almost do what I satirized here:

[T]he extremism evinced by the Atlanta Jewish Times’ editor is enabled by a broader communal atmosphere in which critics of Israeli governmental policy are regularly called anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic.

While we welcome the outrage that is being focused around this latest incident, we hope that the American Jewish community will take this opportunity to consider the state of discourse over Israel more broadly.

Yes, J-Street believes that being against President Obama's policies is but a small step away from calling for him to be assassinated.

I wonder how much J-Street stays up at night worried about the extreme anti-Israel rhetoric that is "enabled" by J-Street's public positions against the policies of Israel's democratically elected government?

Viola player at synagogue reacts brilliantly to interruption

This was on YouTube for months, but has gone viral in the past day. And for good reason.

The musician is Lukáš Kmiť.

The venue is the Preslov, Slovakia Orthodox Synagogue.

The interesting part starts at 0:36:

"Hamas will never abandon armed jihad"

From Now Lebanon:

Senior Hamas official Mahmud Zahar said on Monday that the Palestinian Islamist movement will never give up its armed struggled against Israel.

The statement comes as Gaza Strip officials openly attacked the movement's leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal, who has decided not to run again this summer for the leadership of Hamas, for prioritizing "peaceful resistance."

"We are fighting for our dignity and rights. Jihad is our path, our life, our pride and we will not renounce it no matter the sacrifices," said Zahar, quoted on the website of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing.

Hamas will "never give up its armed struggle against the Zionist enemy," he said during a speech in Zeitun, a neighborhood in East Gaza, in honor of the "martyrs" of Israel's December 2008-January 2009 Cast Lead operation against the enclave.

Zahar is being mentioned as a possible successor for Khaled Meshal, who is stepping down as its political leader.

Rule One: Always Blame the Jews

Ma'an has a photo-essay:

Artistic glass products, hand-made ceramics and Palestine's one and only producer of the Keffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian scarf, Hebron’s factory district used to be flourishing.

Times have changed, however, amid an increase in settler violence, the economic crisis and a flood of cheaper-made Chinese products. The city's old, family-run factories are struggling to survive.

Here's a look into the secret life of the Hebron manufacturing district's graffiti-sprayed walls, ever-struggling businesses and the beauty of the unique products still being made.

The essay is centered around the Hebron Glass and Ceramics Factory:

Interestingly, at least past of its customers are Jews (see the "Shalom" tiles in the lower left:)

That graffiti the article mentions is Arabic:

So how exactly is "settler violence" affecting this shop?

Answer: It isn't. The shop is situated in around what is known as Glass Junction in this map (in north Hebron):

This is quite a distance from H2, where the Jews of Hebron live. The Jews are not even allowed to go near that section of town!

So when Ma'an blames "settler violence" for the financial woes of this shop, there are no facts behind it. It is just a reflexive condemnation, one that is as automatic as breathing - if a Hebron shop is in trouble, the Jews must be at least partially to blame.