Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

01/07 Links Pt1: Can Israel say ‘No’ to the US?, Iranian Cleric: ‘Nukes Necessary to Put Down Israel’

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The long-term cost of releasing terrorists

One of the reasons that most Israelis now recognize that the peace process is a hoax is that the PLO continues to signal that a “final” accord will not settle all Palestinian claims against Israel. The PLO intends to use a “Palestine” in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and Gaza to threaten and weaken Israel’s sovereignty in its remaining territory. The PLO’s demand that Israel free its own citizens from prison for acts of treason and murder is a clear indication that this is in fact the group’s long-term plan.
Kerry’s support for the PLO’s demands on terrorists shows Israel two things.
First, at a minimum, Kerry doesn’t have a problem with the Palestinian claim that Israel’s sovereign rights over non- Jews – and hence Israel’s right to sovereignty generally – is limited at best. Second, it shows that there are no concessions that Netanyahu can make to Kerry that will not have dire long-term consequences for Israel.
Walking away from the phony negotiations will be painful. But as Kerry’s demands indicate, the price for remaining at the table gets higher by the day.

Khaled Abu Toameh: U.S. Fiddles while Palestinians in Syria Starve

The plight of the Palestinian refugees in Syria serves as a reminder to all Palestinians that their Arab brothers do not care about their suffering. In several Arab countries, especially Lebanon, Palestinians continue to be treated as a "fifth column" and an "enemy from within."
The Palestinians once again feel betrayed by their Arab brothers, who continue to pay lip service to the Palestinian cause while at the same time starving them to death, killing them and displacing them.
As for the international community, no one seems to be worried about the starving Palestinians in an Arab country. After all, this is not taking place in
Israel and no Israelis are involved.

Confidence Game: Losing American Support, the Gulf States Scramble

An increasing body of evidence has begun pointing to a major shift in American foreign policy in the Middle East. Over the course of the Obama Administration’s tenure, amid the turmoil of the Arab spring, the United States has shown itself unwilling to defend some of its traditional allies (such as the military in Egypt), or to stand by its own threats and red lines (such as punishing the Syrian regime for using chemical weapons); in many cases willing to cede significant influence to other outside powers (such as Russia); and to attempt to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran that is far more conciliatory to Iranian demands than had been the previous policy (such as allowing for uranium enrichment).

Juan Cole remains a lying idiot

The lying, fifth rate academic Juan Cole is at it again, with a spectacularly stupid post called "Recognizing Israel as a Jewish State is like saying the US is a White State."

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is adding a fifth demand to his negotiations with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas: That the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.”

As I've noted, this is not a new demand, and it was originally created by Olmert and Livni, not Netanyahu. But, hey, Juan Cole is an "expert," right?

Now comes the straw man arguments:

For Netanyahu’s demand to make any sense, he first has to define “Jewish.” “Jewish” has a number of possible meanings. It can mean “those recognized by Talmudic law as members of the Jewish ‘race’ via maternal descent.” The latter is the legal definition of Jewishness in Israeli law itself, and for this reason we must presume that it is what Netanyahu has in mind. It can also mean “adherents of the Judaic religion,” and we can explore those implications, as well.

Of the some 6 million self-identified Jews in Israel, about 300,000 are not recognized as “Jewish” by the Chief Rabbi and there is no prospect of them being recognized as Jewish any time soon. They were allowed to immigrate to Israel because they had at least one Jewish grandparent, but if their mother was not Jewish neither are they.

So if Israel is a “Jewish” state, is it a state for these (largely Russian and Ukrainian) “non-Jewish” Jews? Many of them are Jewish by religion, but not all are. None of them are Jewish by the Talmud.

He then goes on and on with discredited genetic studies and other points to buttress his moronic point that if any Israelis aren't considered Jewish by some definition, then they are being disenfranchised. And, of course, all Israeli Arabs are disenfranchised as well.

Here's a news flash for Cole, that he must not be aware of in his years of scholarly research: Israel has defined itself as a Jewish state for 65 years now, and somehow none of these supposed showstoppers have slowed down the Jewish state one tiny bit!

According to Cole, it is simply impossible - yet here it is. Imagine that.

Here's another news flash for Cole: Judaism is more than a religion. It isn't a race. Jews are a nation/people, and have been a people for over 3000 years.

Don't trust me. The famed 14th century Arab historian and intellectual Ibn Khaldun says explicitly that Jews are a people. Jewish prayers have said the same thing since before Islam existed. The Bible says so (e.g., 1 Kings 8:16.) . Perhaps Cole has heard of that work, it's fairly famous.

It is possible to join a nation, so this isn't a racial or genetic group. It isn't purely a religious group.

Cole's entire thesis is not only invalid, but laughably absurd.

Apparently Cole subscribes to the PLO's "logic" that the Jews aren't a people, because if they are a people, that means they have rights as a people.

Oh, and Cole also seems unaware that Israel defining itself as Jewish is not at all analogous to the US defining itself as white - it is analogous to many nations defining themselves as Arab. And guess who does that?

If he wants to be morally consistent, Cole must condemn every single Arab state that defines itself as "Arab." This disenfranchises all non-Arabs who live in Arab nations. It is discriminatory, according to Cole.

But Juan Cole isn't interested in consistency. He isn't interested in morality. He is certainly not interested in the truth. His major interest appears to be to deny the Jewish people their human rights. The very idea that Jews have such rights is anathema to lying pseudo-academics like Cole who use their pretense of knowledge to deny human rights to the Jewish people.

(h/t Adam)

Israel's file of recent Palestinian Arab incitement

From Israel's PMO:

05/01/2014
The Cabinet, at its weekly meeting today for over two hours, discussed incitement and the culture of hatred in the Palestinian Authority.

...
The findings show that incitement against Israel and the Jewish People is continuing on official media channels including – inter alia – by bodies that are very close to the Palestinian Authority Chairman and in educational and religious networks. The findings also show that during the period of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians not only did incitement not lessen, in certain areas it even increased, and that recently, the use of prominent Nazi elements – such as the image of Hitler – has also increased.

From the data, it is clear that incitement activity is concentrated in communicating several main messages:

1. Israel has no right to exist, certainly not as the state of the Jewish People, which, in any case, have no link to the holy Land;
2. The disappearance of Israel is unavoidable and is expected soon;
3. The Jews are sub-human creatures and must be dealt with accordingly;
4. In principle, all forms of struggle, including terrorism, are legitimate in order to realize the final goal.

Minister Steinitz said, "We must not ignore the fact that the Palestinian educational system and media, under the patronage of Abu Mazen and during the negotiations, are educating and inciting – on a daily basis – for the destruction of the State of Israel."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "This is a very severe phenomenon. True peace cannot exist without stopping the incitement against Israel, and educating for peace. The refusal of the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish People and declare the end of national demands – this is the root of the conflict. This is also the reason why we are insisting on significant security measures, so that we will be able to defend ourselves by ourselves in any situation."

Here is the slideshow that was released by the government of Israel:

(h/t Asher)

Iran's Supreme Leader's Twitter is a goldmine of humor

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, often puts graphics on his Twitter account. Here's the latest, in somewhat fractured English:

OK, so he is against sectarianism in Islam and says that the people who practice it are really helping the "enemy," meaning Israel and probably the US.

But minutes earlier, he tweeted this:

Many #Salafis & #Wahabis who are nourished by oil money & act as #terrorists, don't know they are enemy’s operatives.6/5/2009
— khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 6, 2014

No fostering schisms there!

Iranian media rages about "Zionist New World Order"

Here's a new op-ed in Iran's state-controlled PressTV by someone named Anisa Abd el Fattah:

What is in store for the world, should we not succeed in our efforts against global Zionism and stop it in its tracks, is a world where global corporations and banks rule and where we the people are little more than slaves.

How do we know this? Just look at what the NWO is doing and what is happening in the world as global Zionist rule takes shape.

It’s clear that the primary interest of the NWO is economic. Its social perspective is shaped solely by its need for quiet as it initiates its transition period. This is why we have the militarization of law enforcement in most countries and also the common training, uniforms, equipment, etc.

...Laws are being passed that prohibit criticism of sacred cows like Zionism, war, occupations, poverty, monarchies, presidents and those traitors who open up their countries to NWO control.

....They also want wars. Contrary to the belief that a one world government can bring peace to the world, the reality is that the Zionist one world government is dependent upon perpetual war.

It must keep people and states at war with one another to prevent them from unifying against the authority’s abuses; its greed, brutality, racism, elitism, etc.

The greatest downfall of the Zionist global economic scheme in my opinion is the destruction of sovereign domestic economies and the enslavement of entire populations to the international banks through debt.

...Global markets and economics are part of the Zionist world order scheme to break down domestic sovereignty of all kinds with the hope of transitioning failed states along with their failed economies into a single entity, governed by a single Zionist government.

...In such situations, the people are left with only two choices, both of which serve the interests of the Zionists. They either protest, creating disorder which leads by design to chaos, or they submit. The only way the people win is if the goal of the protests is to bring down the corporations and the banks, not the governments.

Such protests can succeed globally but only if the working people of the world unite and carry out protests that are coordinated and share a single message, that being to end corporate control and to shut down the international banking cartel.

Controlled by those "Zionists," of course.

El-Fattah claims to be "a political analyst and human/civil rights activist...she been published in many of the major newspapers in the United States such as the Boston Globe, The Washington Times and the New York Times and has lectured at some of the United State's most prestigious universities including Georgetown University, Columbia University in New York and the American University in Washington DC."

I couldn't find any evidence of her being quoted anywhere outside extremist sites. Her resume seems to be mostly wishful thinking.

But for some reason PressTV's blurb didn't mention that she ran for President in 2012, that she is a 9/11 "truther" who claims that Muslims had nothing to do with it, and that she has apparent Hamas ties. You can spend a week following her Internet trail to terrorism.

01/06 Links Pt2: PA 1st to buy Israeli Natural Gas, NYE Desecration of Berlin Holocaust Memorial

From Ian:

Natan Sharansky: The free world has betrayed democratic dissidents

“When the [uprising] against Assad began, 90 percent of the opposition was democratic. Today 90 percent of the opposition is fundamentalist,” he said. Obama’s “red lines” on Syria’s chemical weapons were ignored almost as soon as they were uttered.
“In this situation, the only forces which can succeed are those which are already well-established: either civil dictatorships or fundamentalists… From the point of view of the free world, there should be no difference between Assad and the Muslim Brotherhood coming to power in Syria.”
The West’s “betrayal” of democratic dissidents in Iran’s 2009 Green Revolution has sent an extremely negative message to democratic Arab oppositionists in the Middle East today, Sharansky argued. If no democratic forces emerged in the Arab world, the West should simply stay out.

How small is the Israel-Palestine conflict? Fun with statistics

So I ask- why is the world so obsessed with the Palestinian question in terms of media time, attention, foreign aid and diplomatic efforts? Is it something to do with oil money? Is hating Israel an integral part of a prevalent ideology? Or are the other conflicts, other displaced and hungry and embattled people of the world too boring to cover on the news and sprinkle with aid money? Does CNN think that they’re ugly? Is this bias fair?
I don’t know. But anyone who spends their time painting a red X on the Star of David that is superimposed on an Israeli flag, or designing fabulous ‘Bethlehem seperation walls’ to decorate churches with, may want to ask themselves that same question. And when they ask- if these ‘Palestine activists’ decide that a Palestinian life is more valuable than the life of a Papuan’s, a Sudanese person’s, or a Colombian’s that they spend all their time focusing on that issue even if they have never been to Gaza, then they need to ask some serious questions about their perception of humanity.

Palestinians to be first buyers of Israeli natural gas

The first buyer of natural gas from Israel’s largest gas field will be the Palestine Power Generation Company, which will purchase some $1.2 billion-worth of gas over 20 years, one of the major partners in the field announced on Sunday.
The Leviathan group will sell the PPGC, which supplies power to Palestinian areas in the West Bank, as much as 4.75 billion cubic meters of gas when the Leviathan reserve begins to yield in 2016 or 2017, the Delek Group said in a statement.

The Palestinian Whining State

UNRWA workers are on strike in the West Bank.

Why?

Because when you live in a culture that says that the world owes you everything for free, you believe it.

Demonstrations were held on Monday for the second day in a row in Bethlehem in protest against policies of the UN's Palestine refugee agency as one of 27 hunger strikers was taken to the hospital.

An UNRWA employee was taken to the hospital as five local employees continued their hunger strike for the fifth day running in protest of the termination of their contracts.

They held signs saying "the termination of the contracts of 50 employees is a great crime," "UNRWA employees union is the first line of defense for the issues of refugees," and "No to the systematic reductions policy," among others.

The hunger strikers called for their reinstatement at their places of work and demanded their full rights.

A member of the UNRWA Arab employees' union Ibrahim Hamdan said that "the UNRWA administration terminated the contracts of the hunger strikers after 10-12 years of employment."

"These employees must be given fixed contracts, and not dismissed," he said.

There are 27 UNRWA employees on hunger strike in the West Bank, from 55 whose contracts were terminated, and Hamdan said the UNRWA is responsible for their health.

Gunness told Ma'an on Thursday that the employees who were on hunger strike were temporary employees whose contracts were not renewed. The funding that provided those employees with salaries had been cut from $40 million to $25 million, he said.

UNRWA advertised 27 job openings after the layoffs took place, but "those on hunger strike did not apply," Gunness said.

The employees were aware that their positions were "never permanent. ... It seems a bit strange to go on hunger strike for that reason."

Notice the language used by the protesters - they use the language of "rights" because that is the only rhetoric they know, from years of insisting on "rights" that don't exist anywhere else.

Only with such a twisted view of the world can these people claim that temporary jobs give them the right to full employment with full medical benefits and higher salaries than their neighbors.

Yes - that is one of their demands:

[Union leader] Mahmoud Hamdan added that employees were calling for a fixed exchange rate to be applied to their basic salary to a assure a steady income.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian workers' union said in a statement that the crisis in Gaza was partially due to UNRWA's policies, without elaborating.

In response to the strike, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said in a statement that the agency's "staff are paid over twenty per cent above the equivalent salaries in the Palestinian Authority. This is in accordance with our salary policy, which aims to keep our staff paid at the same rate or above PA equivalent."

Meanwhile, the "Popular Committees" in the camps - staffed by self-appointed "leaders" - are also protesting and shutting down services, because they say they are supposed to get paid by the PA.

A spokesman for the popular committees in the West Bank refugee camps, Imad Abu Simbel, said that the committees closed their offices and halted services on Monday in protest against UNRWA policies and the government's failure to transfer funds to them for the last three years.

"The directors of the committees took this step in response to the negligent policies of UNRWA and because government has not transferred the earnings of the committees for three years," Abu Simbel told Ma'an.

"It seems that the government is uninterested in ending the suffering of refugees in West Bank camps, through pressuring the UN or even transferring the earning of popular committees," Abu Simbel added, "as if camps are not part of the nation."

These self-serving committees are defining themselves as being the camps themselves!

There is an entire fake nation filled with people who only take, take and take some more, who literally believe that the world owes them free housing, medical care, schooling and guaranteed employment. The PA does nothing to dispel these demands, and indeed it fuels them - after all, it demands outside funding to prop itself up.

In the 20 years since Oslo, an entire generation of high-tech entrepreneurs could have been raised. The Muslim world could be relying on Palestinian Arab tech expertise, done remotely. Petrodollars could have been pouring in to create an economy that isn't based on bureaucracy, tons of international NGOs, and 19th century agriculture and construction techniques.

Not only has this not happened, but there are no major plans to do this in the next 20 years.

I have yet to see an op-ed in a Palestinian Arab paper that tells its people to grow up and start to actually work at state-building and taking responsibility. No, all you see is more whining about how awful everything is and it is the fault of someone else (usually Israel, but it could be Hamas, or the West, or Egypt, or anyone besides themselves.)

A state with such a mindset would collapse in about a week without being propped up by other countries. It would descend into chaos and violence in no time. It doesn't take clairvoyance to see this happening.

But the creation of such a doomed state is a vital world priority.

For "peace."

PLO's phased plan to destroy Israel is alive and well

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Syrian TV host: "When they talk about [the US] imposing a solution, we know that it will be deficient."

Member of Fatah Central Committee Abbas Zaki: "You can relax. We find ourselves united for the first time. Even the most extreme among us, Hamas, or the fighting forces, want a state within the '67 borders. Afterward, we [will] have something to say, because the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages."

[Official Syrian Satellite TV Channel, Dec. 23, 2013]

The "phased plan" to destroy Israel was spelled out by the PLO in 1974, and has never been rescinded.

And there is evidence that Mahmoud Abbas subscribes to it as well.

01/06 Links Pt1: Netanyahu: We Are Not Foreigners in Hebron or Bet El, PA Incitement Funded by U.S.

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Israeli Arabs: We Do Not Want to Live in Palestinian State

It is much easier for Palestinians to accuse Israel of racism than to admit they do not want to be part of a Palestinian state.
"This is an imaginary proposal that relates to the Arabs as if they were chess pieces that could be moved around according to the wish of the players." — Ahmed Tibi, Member of Knesset.
If the Arab Knesset members are so worried about becoming citizens of a Palestinian state, they should be working toward integration into, and not separation from, Israel, and listening more to their constituents rather than the voices of Fatah and Hamas.

Palestinian Terror Education: Funded by U.S. Taxpayers

A ninth-grade PA textbook indoctrinates students into martyrdom. In an exercise where students are asked to connect two sentence, a correct answer links the phrase “Morning of glory and red redemption, nourished by the blood of Martyrs” with the concept of “hope for the liberation of Palestine.”
When UNRWA promotes such sentiments, UNRWA schools violate children’s basic right to protection from harmful influence. The question remains: Will US citizens file complaints against UNRWA with Congress and with the courts, or will US citizens let this kind of US-funded education for terror continue unabated?

The Palestinians want to dance at two weddings

Abbas can’t dance at two weddings at the same time, nor can he have his cake and eat it. If he is declaring a Palestinian state based on Resolution 181, and if he genuinely wants a peaceful settlement, he must acknowledge the Jewish state called for in the Resolution.
The State of Israel is not changing its official name, even if it is, in the words of the Balfour Declaration, “a national home for the Jewish people.” It is totally different from the case with Muslim countries.
At least four countries -- Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Pakistan, -- officially term themselves “Islamic Republics.” Even the Palestinian Basic Law of 2003 touches on the issue. Article 4 says, “Islam is the official religion in Palestine…Islamic Sharia shall be a principal source of legislation.”

The Guardian says only Jews can be considered settlers

CiFWatch looked at The Guardian's style guide and found this:

Israeli Arabs who live - or move - into neighborhoods across the Green Line cannot be considered settlers - only Jews can!

And there are, indeed, Israeli Arabs who live across the Green Line - including many who moved there from other parts of Israel!

Only Jews can be "illegal settlers." Only Jews must be evicted from their homes en masse. Only Jews can violate international law. Which is pretty much the definition of antisemitism.

We've seen this type of double standard before. In 2012, Israel announced new building on the other side of the Green Line - but only the Jewish neighborhoods were condemned by the EU, not the Arab neighborhoods being built by Israel at the exact same time.

However, this definition makes this racist double standard official.

Judea and Samaria must be Judenrein, in the conventional wisdom of the enlightened West,and the people who hate the idea of Jews having rights to live there won't let little things like double standards and antisemitism stop them.

In the case of the Guardian, the antisemitism is there for everyone to see, in black and white.

It's the latest "style."

(h/t Yoel)

In 2012, as the Syrian civil war raged, Hamas moved its headquarters out of Damascus.

Khaled Meshal moved his offices to Doha, and his deputy Abu Marzouk moved to Cairo.

Now it looks like Egypt is not going to tolerate Hamas' presence there for much longer.

Egypt, which has labeled the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and has accused Hamas of complicity in some Sinai terror attacks, is reportedly considering expelling Abu Marzouk. Hamas is expecting to be kicked out, and is considering either consolidating its offices in Doha or movng Abu Marzouk to Gaza, which is seen as less likely.

A few months ago there were rumors that Hamas' position in Qatar was similarly threatened, and that it was considering moving to Khartoum, as the Arab world has become less tolerant of an organization that was flying high only a year ago.

The birth of a new anti-Israel stunt - the soccer ball

From Ma'an:

A group of children in a Palestinian village south of Tulkarem have taken the unprecedented step of writing a letter directly to the United Nations in a bold attempt to win back their soccer ball from Israeli occupation authorities.

The children in the village of Kafr Sur sent the letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon via social media, asking him to intervene after the ball fell into lands confiscated by Israeli authorities to build the separation barrier through their village.

The campaign began after a local youth named Amir was playing soccer in the village and kicked the ball too far, hitting it into an area in the village under Israeli military control and beyond barbed wire, according to municipality head Imad Zibda.

The group of children spoke to Ma'an on Saturday, explaining that the Israeli occupation had impinged on their rights by not allowing them to retrieve their ball, which had disappeared behind the barbed wire of the separation barrier.

Ma'an helpfully publishes five staged photos of the kids playing soccer (somehow, they managed to find another ball for the photographer.)

When did the incident occur? Did the kids ask to get the ball back? We don't know, because the point of the story isn't facts, but propaganda.

They stressed that they have the right to play in their own lands without any restrictions. They expressed their fear that the ball would never be returned because it had fallen on the other side of the barbed wire.

They feared that all of the lands that had been confiscated from the village would suffer a similar fate, they added.

Really? No prompting from any adults to come up with perfect anti-Israel quotes for the media?

Arabic reports do mention that it was an adult's idea to write to the UN and disseminate this story on social media. The letter is clearly written by an adult in a child's voice, starting off with "We are a group of children in Kafr Sur who collected a sum of money by ourselves and bought a football for the exercise of our right to play like other children." Yeah, kids say stuff like that all the time.

Clearly the adults in town found that this is a media-friendly story and ran with it to make a soccer ball into an international incident, with the helpful collusion of Arab media. Now they are just waiting for it to go viral, and given how much people hate Israel, the chances are very good it will.

Indeed, a version of this story was played out, virtually, in 2009, to worldwide headlines.

The Israeli company Cellcom made a popular commercial then showing this same scenario. Look at how the IDF responds there:

The tagline is "We all just want to have fun." The company said the commercial was about overcoming obstacles.

At the time, the Israel haters made their own version, with the IDF responding to a soccer ball with tear gas and gunshots:

That episode showed very clearly which side actually wants to live together with the other side in peace and which side will take every opportunity to demonize the Other. The Israeli commercial humanizes the Palestinian Arabs; the PalArab response demonizes Israelis.

Can you imagine the outcry if an Israeli had made a commercial showing the soccer ball returning to the Israeli side as a shrapnel-filled bomb? That is the equivalent of the second ad - but only one side is expected and encouraged to hate.

One solidarity group barred from entering Gaza, another barred from leaving

Egyptian authorities seem to enjoy jerking around Gaza solidarity activists.

On January 2, after a number of days of pleading, Egyptian authorities allowed an Italian delegation (with the name "never forget the right of return") to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing, even as it kept that crossing closed for actual Gazans.

The Italians had a wonderful time mugging for the cameras and doing nothing to actually help any Gazans. (Yes, they pretended to bring in some token "medical supplies.")

On Saturday, this same delegation was barred from leaving Gaza. They spent three hours at Rafah and the Egyptians said they did not make the proper request to leave, so they are stuck.

Meanwhile, "Miles of Smiles" attempted their 24th visit to Gaza - and were also promptly barred by the Egyptians.

Of course, regular Gazans are banned from travel. Rafah has opened sporadically over the past four months but even when it is open the number of people allowed to leave is very small.

Still, no outraged op-eds, no UN resolutions and no NGOs condemning Egypt's capricious and near-total siege of Gaza.

Using facts against Israel haters is like speaking to a wall

Here is a synopsis of the debate at St. James Church last night, about Israel's separation barrier, which really says all you need to know, From "amie" in the comments section of Harry's Place:

Alan Johnson of Bicom spoke brilliantly; cogently articulating the case for the wall as a security issue. His rhetorical devices were masterly, as he spoke of the realities of the actual wall as against the never never world of the pretend wall, which in turn facilitated the calcification of the intellectual wall which refused to recognise the reality of the need for the real wall.

He cited famous harrowing instances of bombing and terror.

He showed graphs of how the level of terror decreased dramatically after the wall.

He cited last week's abortive bus bombing where the terrorists had got through a breach in the wall, from Bethlehem.

When he finished, (to a good round of applause from the substantial pro Israel presence there.)

Jeff Halper, the next speaker, opened his mouth wide and bellowed: This wall has NOTHING to do with security.

And without his having to say a single thing more to back up or verify this bellow, the hall erupted into cheers and applause.

I watched two attractive young women behind me as their faces broke into delighted beaming smiles of relief, clapping wildly. Without more, everything they had invested in, momentarily in danger of panicky disturbance by Johnson was reassuringly reinstated by this single, unsubstantiated bellow.

...Halper just shouted total outrageous lies, that Israel was killing children with chemicals which melted their insides, (White Phosphorus again?) and with weapons with whirling blades which shredded them. All to wild cheers.

Saeb Erekat - so moderate in English, so crazy in Arabic.Original post here.

01/05 Links: The end of dhimmitude, London 'Peace' Festival Organized by Terrorism Advocates

From Ian:

The end of dhimmitude

We are now witnessing one of the most dramatic developments in the historic configuration of relations among Jews, Christians and Muslims. Christians in Israel’s Galilee are courageously promoting their pre-Islamic non-Arab identity as an old-new collective Aramean/Aramaic-speaking Oriental narrative. This is a cultural and political game-changer with revolutionary significance, for Israel, the Middle East and the global scene.
Under the leadership of Father Gabriel Nadaf, an Orthodox priest from Yafia near Nazareth, and Shadi Khalloul, a Maronite activist and army reserve officer from Gush Halav, the Christian Recruitment Forum has been established. While all non-Jews in Israel, excepting the Druse and Circassians, are exempt from the military draft, a new promotional effort has been undertaken to further encourage Christian youth to voluntarily enlist. This initiative expresses both a desire to serve the state and integrate into Israeli society, conveying that Christians are committed to the security and welfare of the Jewish state of Israel.

London "Peace" Festival Organized by Terrorism Advocates

Interpal was an inaugural member of the Union of Good, a coalition of charities that manages the financial support required by Hamas for its terrorist activities.
These links, which have been comprehensively detailed before, include recent Palestinian news footage showing Interpal's primary trustee, Essam Mustafa, attending a press conference hosted by Hamas to honor Interpal's work.
Interpal's other trustee, Ibrahim Hewitt, has referred to the "so-called Holocaust." In a pamphlet written by Hewitt, 'What Does Islam Say,' he advocates the killing of apostates and adulterers, and demanded that homosexuals suffer "severe punishments" for their "great sin."

Richard Millett: Israel’s “beautiful resistance” to suicide bombers: A response to Lucy Winkett

Moreover, St James’s Church’s Bethlehem Unwrapped festival has attracted antisemites, Holocaust deniers, those campaigning for the destruction of Israel and those who condone violence to that end.
This may not have been St James’s Church’s intention but this is what has happened and for this Rector Winkett should apologise to Britain’s Jewish community which is bearing the main brunt of the backlash.
The biggest irony is that St James’s Church itself is protected by a security fence; a tall metal fence that contains a locked door. When the door is unlocked it is heavily guarded. Some may call this a checkpoint.

Roger Cohen sort of compliments me

After my latest takedown of the NYT's Roger Cohen was published on Algmeiner, he sent out two tweets. One linked to Mondoweiss attacking him from the crazy Left:

One take: Roger Cohen (who doesn't live there) explains the need for 'my Jewish state' http://t.co/EHJbPS7Nou
— Roger Cohen (@NYTimesCohen) January 3, 2014

And the next linked to mine:

Another take (involving a huge amount of research on "Palestinian Arabs") http://t.co/GzGA6C1YUG
— Roger Cohen (@NYTimesCohen) January 3, 2014

He obviously doesn't understand why I say "Palestinian Arabs" instead of "Palestinians," which is something Menachem Begin used to be particular about. And I didn't do any real research for the piece beyond what I had already done for years. Which means that, in effect, Cohen is admitting that I posted stuff he was unaware of - as I wrote in the piece.

Also, by putting my post and Mondoweiss' next to each other, Cohen is being self-congratulatory that since he is being attacked from both sides the truth must be in the middle where he thinks he is, which is a rather poor assumption.

(h/t DE)

Another EU program to take land away from Jews

The EU continues to ignore the Oslo Accords and to actively work to grab as much land in Area C as possible and give it to Palestinian Arabs without coordinating with Israel.

Here's a new initiative.

Innocuously called the "Land and Water Development Programme," here are its objectives:

The global objective of this Call for Proposals is to promote social and economical development in the 'Area C' of the West Bank through supporting agriculture growth and profitability.

The specific objective of this Call for Proposals is to enhance the access to and the utilization of land and water.

The priority-components of the Action/project that will stem from this Call for Proposals are:

land reclamation of non-utilized agricultural lands (including rangeland reclamation).The activities related to land reclamation under this Call for Proposals, will be of the kind of 'heavy reclamation works', such as land levelling, building or rehabilitating of retaining walls, etc. The 'light reclamation works’, such as ploughing, fencing, planting seedlings or intercropping, etc., will be the responsibility of the farmers and/or of their associations or cooperatives;

rehabilitation of agriculture roads to facilitate access to markets, inputs, equipment and services.The rehabilitation of agriculture roads will be carried out with the purpose of improving productivity and competitiveness;

increase water availability for agricultural purposes (rehabilitation or construction of rainwater harvesting cisterns, community-reservoirs, small dams, steel water tanks, rehabilitation of wells and springs, water conveyance systems, etc.) and,

capacity development to farmers' associations/cooperatives to strengthening their management skills, including women's empowerment initiatives, and improving agriculture practices, in particular, the development and adoption of good practices in water demand management.

Besides pre-determining the outcome of negotiations, the EU is also ignoring its own positions. If Israel is the legal occupier of Area C, then it is the party responsible for governmental functions like land registration, digging wells, building roads and so forth. By the EU ignoring Israeli responsibilities for the area, it is - ironically - not recognizing Israel as the occupier under international law.

The EU, quoting the PA's "Agriculture Sector Strategy 2011-2013," says this initiative is meant to "Promote farmers' perseverance and attachment to their land and retention of their occupations - Palestinian farmers’ adherence and attachment to their land is one of the most important components of resisting the occupation and settlement activity."

Expert: "Palestinians may have used Czech Rep for arms transit"

From Ceske Noviny. as a followup to the story of the Palestinian Arab envoy to Prague being killed by an explosion:

Palestinians may have used the Czech Republic for weapons transit, former Czech chief-of-staff Jiri Sedivy has told server Aktualne.cz, reacting to the unregistered weapons the police uncovered at Palestine´s embassy in Prague where a safe explosion killed the ambassador on Wednesday.

The safe exploded in the brand-new building that is to become the embassy´s new seat.

"Maybe the affair in question involves a well organised weapons and explosives distribution network, including the weapons´ further recipients," said Sedivy, who now heads the security studies section at Prague´s CEVRO Institut university.

He said he was not speaking of terrorism but of the gathering and distribution of military equipment that could be used in an action if need were.

"This is the worst of the variants I´m thinking about," Sedivy said.

According to available information, 70 firearms, unregistered by Czech authorities, have been found in the future embassy building in Prague 6-Suchdol.

The Palestinians have not explained the weapons´ presence in the building.

"I´m horrified. This is not only a blatant violation of diplomatic norms and habits but also of security rules related to keeping such an arsenal, that also implies the tragic death of ambassador Jamal al Jamal," said Sedivy.

He said he is afraid that apart from Prague, similar arms arsenals may also be secretly kept at other Palestinian embassies in Europe and overseas.

"I my opinion this is very probable. The [Prague] blast, which occurred by sheer coincidence, may have uncovered something incredible...on the verge of monstrosity," Sedivy said.

He said Palestinian representatives have "played theatre" within the investigation into the case so far.

Their possible explanation that the weapons were to help defend the embassy is unacceptable. No one jeopardised Palestinians in Prague, Sedivy said.

"From the beginning it has not been a mere minor local scandal that would be soon over...but an incident of international dimensions," Sedivy said.

He said the find of the weapons at the future Palestinian embassy is a far more complex issue than how official places have presented it.

Sedivy also said he does not trust the version about the exploding safe that killed the ambassador.

"This is utter nonsense...In my opinion he died as a result of improper manipulation of an explosive," Sedivy said, adding that the ambassador probably did not respect safety rules for handling an explosive.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Czech anti-terrorism official pointed out the possibility that the Palestinian embassy in Prague served as a transit point to freely ship firearms to any of the 26 Schengen Area countries (European countries that do not have passport or immigration controls.)

A further article in Aktualne has a columnist asking other military experts and diplomats if they agree with General Sedivy, and most of them agreed, although some preferred to remain anonymous.

The former head of Czech foreign intelligence service Karel Randák said bluntly: "What did you expect?! Sure General Sedivy is right. This is without a doubt! I'm bot surprised at all.

"If this scandal of a collection of weapons and explosives cannot be plausibly explained by the Palestinians, the Czech authorities should terminate that mission without pardon. Diplomats who violate every conceivable principle have no business being in the Czech Republic," he said. "But I can not think how they can explain this. It's Inexplicable and indefensible, so that - at least in my opinion - we have no choice but to expel the Palestinians. Let's start with the new Palestinian diplomats on a green field - for me, there's no other way."

The story also recalled the discovery in 2003 of an entire arsenal, including an anti-tank weapon, in the Iraqi embassy in Prague. The intended target was found to be Radio Free Europe.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

St. James Church won't let supporters of Israel in

Last week when one of the people behind the "Bethlehem Unplugged" anti-Israel stunt wrote in The Guardian:

When we have been challenged about "taking sides" and "politicising the church" – which is a fair discussion to have – we are clear that we are not "pro" one side or another but we are instead campaigning for equal human rights for all people regardless of ethnicity or background.

Well, that isn't true.

From Sussex Friends of Israel:

Historic Lebanese Christian library torched by angry Muslims

From RT:

Two-thirds of a historic collection of 80,000 books have gone up in smoke after a library was torched in the Lebanese city of Tripoli amid sectarian tensions. The blaze was started after a pamphlet insulting Islam was reportedly found inside a book.

Firefighters struggled to subdue the flames as the decades-old Al-Saeh library went up in smoke on Friday in the Serail neighborhood of Tripoli. Despite firefighters’ best efforts, little of the trove of historic books and manuscripts was recovered from the wreckage.

“Two thirds of some 80,000 books and manuscripts housed there,” a security source told Agence France Press, referring to the items destroyed. The source added that the blaze was started after a manuscript insulting the Prophet Mohammed was found hidden in the pages of one of the library books.

A demonstration had been planned in Tripoli after the pamphlet was found but was reportedly called off after the library’s Greek Orthodox owner spoke with Muslim leaders. Lebanese news outlet Naharnet also reported that one of the library workers was shot and wounded Thursday night.

“The library owner, Father Ebrahim Surouj, met with Islamic leaders in Tripoli. It became clear the priest had nothing to do with the pamphlet, and a demonstration that had been planned in protest over the incident was called off,” the source said.

However, Ashraf Rifi, former head of the Internal Security Forces, told AP the attack had nothing to do with a pamphlet and was, in fact, triggered by speculation that Father Surouj had written a study on the internet that insulted Islam.

"This criminal act poses several questions [about] the party behind it that aims at damaging coexistence in the city and ruining its reputation,” Rifi told AFP. The Lebanese police have launched an investigation into the incident.

Naharnet says that the protest was because of rumors that "claimed the father had published a book deemed insulting to Islam."

[T]he Greek Orthodox priest forgave those responsible for the attack, in a statement aired on television on Saturday.

The contrast between how Muslims and Christians act could not be starker.

01/04 Links: Prague Mayor: kick out Palestinian 'embassy', Let there be more Stephen Harpers

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: Absolute moral squalor on display at a London church

It is utterly disgraceful that St James’ church has presented this partial view of Israel while ignoring the plight of their co-religionists. Here are some festivals we are very unlikely to see taking place at St. James’s Piccadilly anytime soon.
A festival set up to highlight the victims of suicide-bombings which murder Christians while leaving church in Pakistan.
An installation — ‘Borno Unwrapped’ — commemorating the 12 people killed last weekend (whilst ‘Bethlehem Unwrapped’ was going on) in two Christian villages in northeast Nigeria, including the eight Christians murdered by Islamists at a wedding reception in Tashan-Alede village.
A small event organised to condemn the savagery which led Islamists in Iraq to plant three bombs at churches and other Christian areas in Iraq on Christmas Day, and which murdered 37 people as they were celebrating the birth of Jesus

Where Are the Other Replica Security Walls?

Here, then, is an instructive question: why is there no art installation decrying the EU's 'apartheid' security barriers on the Spain-Morocco border? What about the human rights of impoverished Moroccan and sub-Saharan African illegals, who surely deserve a temporary monument in a major capital city (and an accompanying festival) at least as much as jihadis determined to infiltrate Israel and murder innocent men, women and children, deserve one? Perhaps such a project will be next on the agenda for the baleful coterie of trendy British priests and fading, 'socially conscious' media figures currently assembled at St. James's Church.
A list of security walls, barriers and fences around the world: (h/t Bob Knot)

Human Rights Watch Should Rescind Reports

What is truly reprehensible, however, is that given the questions now surfacing with regard to al-Karama, Human Rights Watch has not rescinded the reports in whose development it had partnered with al-Karama. Take the case of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which last year successfully busted a coup plot by al-Islah, the local affiliation of the Muslim Brotherhood. Human Rights Watch condemned the UAE and accused it of torture in a study that it conducted in conjunction with al-Karama. Now it seems that its partner’s leader was committed not only in rhetoric but also fact to advancing al-Qaeda’s goals. Can HRW really, in hindsight, take seriously the group’s work which castigated a government which has cracked down on al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood? Frankly, it seems plausible that al-Karama’s leadership wanted to use HRW’s mantle to castigate those it saw as ideological enemies.

NYT again downplaying Palestinian Arab rejectionism and embrace of terrorists

The New York Times has an editorial about the current negotiations, and as usual it places the blame for poisoning the atmosphere primarily on Israel.

Signs of failure are everywhere. On Thursday, standing beside Mr. Kerry, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a harsh assessment of his Palestinian counterpart, President Mahmoud Abbas, and, implicitly, the prospect of a Middle East peace agreement. Days earlier, Israel let it be known that it would build more settlements in the West Bank, further poisoning the political atmosphere while shrinking the territorial space for a deal. Hard-liners in Mr. Netanyahu’s government are pushing a bill that would annex settlements in the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank, where about 6,000 Israeli settlers and 10 times as many Palestinians live.

There are questions about the Palestinian commitment as well. Palestinian leaders have said that any new settlement activity could lead them to seek membership in the International Criminal Court and sue Israel there, a move they had promised not to take when peace talks started in the summer. An official close to Mr. Abbas has dismissed Mr. Kerry’s push for a "framework agreement" as biased toward Israel.

In his remarks on Thursday Mr. Netanyahu claimed that members of the Palestinian security force were involved in a recent attack against Israelis. Mr. Abbas should investigate the claim and, if it is true, bring those responsible to justice. He also needs to crack down on the incitement of hatred against Israel in Palestinian schools, textbooks and government-controlled media.

To its credit, the NYT at least mentions incitement, an issue that it has been all but silent on in its news pages. Even so, the bulk of the complaints are against Israel.

It is silent about the daily insistence by the PLO leadership of their "red lines." As I wrote yesterday, here is one recent list given by Saeb Erekat:

First we can not accept Israel as a Jewish state. Secondly we can not accept any Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, without Jerusalem. Thirdly we can not accept any Israeli on Palestinian territory, sea or air, after the completion of the gradual withdrawal. Fourth we can not accept any solution without the exercise of the refugees' right of return according to Resolution 194, the right of return and compensation, and (fifth) the release of all prisoners at the signing of the agreement. This is the Palestinian position.

It doesn't exactly sound like the PA is preparing its people for any compromises whatsoever. The hawkish, absolutist position of the PLO has not changed in over 25 years. Yet the NYT doesn't bother to mention that, as it never does.

Here, though, is where the NYT again shows that it is willing to give Abbas the benefit of the doubt, no matter what he does:

As part of the negotiating process, Mr. Netanyahu agreed to release 104 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails over nine months rather than halt settlement construction. But when Mr. Abbas welcomed the latest group to the West Bank this week, Mr. Netanyahu accused him of embracing terrorists, even though Mr. Abbas never condoned the prisoners’ crimes.

He never condoned their crimes? He called them heroes, multiple times! It's not like he was hiding it - Abbas was there, in the middle of the night, to greet them and embrace them personally, one by one, to kiss them and then to speak out about how they were heroic!

It takes a special kind of wishful thinking to look at that scene and then try to minimize it by saying that Abbas didn't condone their murders. The PA is offering these murderers free jobs for life, paid for by Western funding.

But the NYT, like other mainstream media, has its narrative of a "hawkish" Israeli leadership and a "moderate" Palestinian Arab leadership and it will do everything it can to protect that narrative. Thsi op-ed is a prime example.

(h/t Herb)

01/03 Links Pt2: Five Years Later Goldstone Revisited, First Chinese-Israeli Car Sold!

From Ian:

Five Years Later: Operation Cast Lead and the Goldstone Report, Revisited

The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center report: “Hamas and the Terrorist Threat from the Gaza Strip: The Main Findings of the Goldstone Report Versus the Factual Findings” published in March 2010 (pp.82-83), found that the decision by Hamas to violate the lull/ceasefire long predated the November 4 tunnel incident:

“Hamas’ unilateral decision to the end lull and the escalation it initiated played a major role in the events which ultimately led to Operation Cast Lead. On September 18, the Hamas leadership met to discuss whether or not to extend it. Opinions in the Gaza Strip leadership of Hamas were divided, while the Damascus leadership, headed by Khaled Mashaal, chief of the political bureau in Damascus, decided to bring it to an end in an attempt to achieve a new lull with better conditions for Hamas. The decision was made knowing that it would lead to an escalation. The leadership, however, assumed Hamas would be able to control and contain it. Hamas was joined it its decision to end the lull by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations.

CAMERA Prompts NY Times Correction on Gaza Shortages, "Palestinian" Cities
The newspaper commendably published the following correction on Dec. 31:

"An article on Dec. 19 about Mohammed Assaf, a Palestinian singer from Gaza who has become a star in the Arab world after winning the “Arab Idol” competition, referred incorrectly to cities in Israel Mr. Assaf sings about. While they had largely Arab populations before Israel became a state in 1948, they were not “Palestinian” in the sense of being part of a Palestinian political entity. The article also referred incorrectly to shortages of water, gas and electricity in Gaza. While Israel places restrictions on some goods coming into Gaza, and many Palestinians blame Israel for shortages, they were worsened by Egypt’s closing of smuggling tunnels and by a tax dispute between the militant Hamas faction, which governs Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority."

BBC Watch: As Sharon’s health deteriorates, BBC updates profile claiming he sparked second intifada

As can be seen in the screenshot above, that article also links to the newly updated profile of Ariel Sharon which – despite its recent amendment – features repetition of the long-promoted BBC myth that the second Intifada began because of Sharon’s pre-coordinated thirty-four minute visit to Temple Mount in September 2000.
That BBC myth has been previously addressed on these pages and readily available statements by numerous Palestinian figures relating to the fact that the intifada was pre-planned have been presented.

Terrorists care about the strength of the shekel

The fact that Palestinian Arabs use the shekel as their currency means that Arabic terrorist media will regularly publish the exchange rates of the shekel against other world currencies.

This means that we have a situation where Islamic Jihad media closely follows the strength of the shekel against the dollar, euro, Egyptian pound and Jordanian dinar.

A strong shekel means that they can buy weapons for a better price.

The terrorists know quite well that if a Palestinian Arab currency would be created, as some urge, it would be a disaster. Staying with the Israeli currency is good business for terrorists.

01/03 Links Pt1: Kerry vs. Rabin on Israel’s security, IHH Smuggling Weapons into Syria.

From Ian:

Kerry versus Rabin on Israel’s security

Given his warm praise of Rabin and Rabin’s perspectives on the parameters of a genuine, durable peace, one would expect any blueprint from the Secretary of State to incorporate what Rabin defined as areas vital for Israel’s defense.
Rabin, like the authors of UN Security Council Resolution 242 – still the foundation stone of Israeli-Arab peace negotiations – recognized that Israel’s pre-1967 armistice lines left the nation too vulnerable to future aggression. He insisted Israel must hold onto a significant portion of the West Bank to block traditional invasion routes and to protect both Jerusalem and the low-lying coastal plain, the latter home to some 70% of the nation’s population. In his last speech in the Knesset before his assassination, Rabin declared:

The Israel-Palestinian Negotiation and the American mediation: The Jerusalem case

Now John Kerry tries again with the clumsiness of an elephant in a porcelain shop to bring the parties to conclude an agreement, while the issues raised for the “solution” are not the real issues. The US continues to see the subject matter with its wrong mistaken mirror image, as if the “occupation” of the 1967 territories, and the Palestinian refugee issue of 1948, and the Issue of Jerusalem as the capital of the newborn Palestinian state, are the main obstacles to conclude the peace agreement. The US continues to stumble as if she has the formula that brings the parties not only to the negotiation table, not only to a peace agreement, but to peace relations between Israel and the Palestinians. Moreover, the US continues to believe that by reaching this end, most of the issues in the Middle East are solved, and harmony and tranquility reigns over the region.

Language and Lenses: “West Bank” versus “Judaea and Samaria”

Until the Arab-Muslim world gives up its Koranically-based hatred and disdain for the Jewish people, it will be impossible to have any faith that a “Palestinian” state on historically Jewish land will be anything other than a terrorist state devoted to the annihilation of the Jewish state, if not the Jewish people.
Whatever the eventual outcome of this long-standing Arab-Muslim war against the Jews of the Middle East, it should be obvious to Jewish people that denying our own history in that region cannot be a benefit to our people.
It is one thing to give away Jewish land, but it is another thing entirely to give away Jewish history. The former, in my view, might be acceptable if the recipients were kindly disposed toward their Jewish neighbors in acceptance.
The latter is an abomination. (h/t Bob Knot)

EU-funded TV show demonizes Jews

From Palestinian Media Watch:

EU-funded NGO for youth dehumanizes Jews as "crows"

PA TV narrator: “Sometimes we are reluctant to raise our heads in the streets of Jerusalem, because the sight above the walls disturbs us (i.e., of the Israeli flag). Its blue color has nothing to do with the sky or the sea. Its white color is not the color of peace but the color of a rag dipped in our blood. The Star [of David] in its center does not light our way... We may wake up to locked gates and expropriated houses in Jerusalem. The crows pass by and caw (visual of religious Jews) and the rats are armed (visual of Israeli soldiers). But we know that the gates will smile only when we enter them... Jerusalem will never accept any language other than Arabic and any nationality other than Palestinian, no matter how much the flags of the foreigners fly in its sky.”

Note: The Palestinian Youth Association (PYALARA), the producer of this program, is funded by NDC. NDC's international donors include: the European Union, the World Bank, the French government’s Agence Française de Développement, a donor consortium of Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, the Islamic Development Bank, the United Palestinian Appeal, and the Palestinian private organization the Welfare Association. [NDC website, accessed December 2013]

NDC is a Palestinian Arab NGO.

PYALARA is also funded by the Olof Palme International Center, the umbrella organization for the Swedish labor movement.

(h/t Ian)

Saeb Erekat, that moderate darling of the West, keeps making preposterous statements in Arabic that the Western media ignores.

His latest is that he is fearful that Abbas would meet the fate of Yasir Arafat - meaning, of course, that Israel would assassinate Abbas the way that Erekat fearlessly accuses Israel of killing Arafat.

He added, "I'm telling you: if Mother Teresa was Chairperson of the Palestinian people and Montesquieu was the Chairman of the Parliament and Thomas Jefferson was president and prime minister and favored a Palestinian state on the '67 borders and Jerusalem as its capital and resolving the refugee issue, our partners [Israel] would describe them as terrorists and say they should get rid of them."

Erekat then showed off his flexibility and moderation by once again listing the PLO's red lines:

First we can not accept Israel as a Jewish state. Secondly we can not accept any Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, without Jerusalem. Thirdly we can not accept any Israeli on Palestinian territory, sea or air, after the completion of the gradual withdrawal. Fourth we can not accept any solution without the exercise of the refugees' right of return according to Resolution 194, the right of return and compensation, and (fifth) the release of all prisoners at the signing of the agreement. This is the Palestinian position.

In other words, if they cannot be allowed to destroy Israel demographically, the Palestinian Arabs would prefer not to have a state at all. A peace agreement is less important than allowing murderers to go free and become heroes. Taking away Jewish rights to practice their religion in their holiest city is a basic Arab right. If the PLO does not receive all of its demands, then it would prefer not to have a state with compromises. It would prefer that millions of Palestinian Arabs remain stateless for the next 65 years. It would consider terrorism as a right to get what it demands (as the Fatah platform states explicitly.)

Doesn't this sound just like something Mother Teresa or Thomas Jefferson would say?

The media, of course, is hiding Erekat's absurd words.

Erekat made the same comparison over a year ago. The ever vigilant media missed the story entirely.

Ma'an reported on the assassination accusation - but studiously ignored the part about Mother Teresa that was in the very same article.

But there's more.

Nine years ago, Erekat made another version of this statement that is even more outrageous - and that showed that he justifies terror.

Erekat added that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory "would have turned Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela into terrorists."

This is what Erekat really believes - not that Israel falsely considers Palestinian Arab leaders to be terrorist, but that they have the right to be terrorists.

Over the years he has honed that message to be a bit more Western-friendly. He still says stupid things, but he can rely on the media to edit his words so he is not embarrassed. After all, he is the chief negotiator for the Palestinian Arabs - it wouldn't be right to show that he is an immoral supporter of terrorism, right?

"Quenelle 4 Ever" scrawled on St James Church stunt wall

In the Guardian "Comment is Free" article I referenced earlier about the pathetic defense of the "Bethlehem Unplugged" wall stunt in Piccadilly, the writer claims, "Anything offensive written on the wall has been removed immediately."

Oh, really?

"Quenelle" refers to the neo-Nazi salute that Jew-haters are performing worldwide, often in front of Jewish institutions and sites of atrocities against Jews.

This comes courtesy of Sussex Friends for Israel, which is holding a demonstration against the stunt on Saturday night.

Here is an excellent flyer they are handing out, click to enlarge.

St. James Church's immoral arguments

In "Comment is Free," Lucy Winkett defends St. James Church for its anti-Israel "Bethlehem Unplugged" stunt.

We are supporting a peaceful Palestinian principle known as "beautiful resistance"; expressed in theatres, music projects and festivals that exist to counter military dominance with a commitment to non-violent artistic expression.

According to Winkett, lies and anti-Israel incitement are OK as long as it is positioned as "art". When the lies are built into plays, exhibits such as this, and music, they are transformed from incitement into something "beautiful."

We are acutely aware that antisemitism is real and pernicious and we stand strongly against all forms of racism including antisemitism.

I will donate $100 to St. James Church if they publish an unambiguous and undiluted statement on their website specifically condemning Arab antisemitism.

It is easy to say that you are against antisemitism as an abstract concept, but how courageous are you when you might offend a few hundred million Arabs who learn antisemitic lessons from their newspapers, miniseries, TV shows and schools every day?

We support the state of Israel's right not only to exist but to flourish as a member of the international community within secure, internationally recognised borders.

Let's look at this statement. Israelis were suffering a wave of suicide bombings. Clearly the borders between them and the Palestinian Authority ruled areas were not secure - by definition. So what could Israel have done to secure its citizens, in church logic? Again, it is easy to say Israel has the right to security, but if the church condemns Israel's actions to achieve that security and (by implication) would prefer that the status quo be maintained, then their statement that they support Israel's existence in secure borders is nothing but hot air.

Secondly, we have been challenged that the installation does not acknowledge the government position that the wall was built for security reasons to protect Israeli citizens. It is important therefore to repeat that this is articulated on every leaflet, every display board, and on the festival and church's own websites.

The problem is that the church doesn't recognize that the wall has saved countless lives. Here is how it is mentioned in the St James Church website:

The stated aim of the wall at its inception in 2002 was to protect Israeli citizens from terrorism.

The implication is that this is what the Israeli government claims, with no evidence backing it up.

Yet the number of suicide bombings dropped dramatically as the barrier was erected, and the terrorists freely admit it.

Whether Winkett admits it or not, the very idea of building this stunt wall in London shows that St James Church dismisses the value of Israeli lives. There is no other way to interpret their negative views of the separation barrier.

Back at the St James Church site, we see another whopper:

This wall is symbolic of walls all over the world that divide and confine peoples, restricting free movement and dominating the imagination of those who live behind them.

Ah, so this wall is not to condemn Israel - they are just using it as a symbol of all other walls!

So why choose Israel's?

Well, just like all other people who hate Israel and pretend that they are being morally consistent, "one has to start somewhere." For some reason, that somewhere is always the single Jewish state.

What an astounding coincidence.

01/02 Links Pt2: Even Peaceniks are terror targets, Yemeni Columnist Denounces Calling Jews 'Apes And Pigs'

From Ian:

Even Peaceniks are terror targets

Winston Churchill famously remarked “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
I’ve often suspected the reason some Jews join with our enemies is that the belief that if they support terrorists who want to destroy Israel and the Jews, they will be spared. Many learn too late that it doesn’t matter if you’re a self-hating Jew who is happy to denounce Israel and your fellow Jews; to a terrorist you are still a Jew.

MEMRI: Yemeni Columnist Denounces Custom Of Calling Jews 'Descendants Of Apes And Pigs'

Dr. Youssuf Al-Hadhiri, a columnist for the Yemeni paper 'Aden Al-Ghad, came out against the practice of Muslim clerics and preachers to call the Jews "descendants of apes and pigs" and entrench this expression in the Muslim public discourse. In a recent article, he discusses the Koranic verses that are the source of this expression in order to prove that it is false, and argues that the use of this expression only damages Islam. (h/t Bob Knot)

In Europe, Elites Create the Atmosphere That Allows Popular Anti-Semitism to Grow

One group cloaks its prejudice in high minded rationalizations. The other openly appeals to people’s most base hatreds. The elites might never personally assault anyone or espouse violence. However, they create an atmosphere that allows others to more freely engage in anti-Semitic actions. It is not a matter of one group being worse than the other. It is that both are necessary for the perfect storm. This storm might take a very long time to gather to gale force—but the atmospheric elements increasingly seem to be falling into place.
Yet, before reading this as a license to panic, let’s remember how different things are today than in the Europe of the 1930s. Even before Jews protested and demanded a response to Anelka’s salute—something we can freely do today—political leaders, commentators, and public intellectuals were already condemning it as an expression of racist and anti-Semitic prejudice. Many among them were clear about seeing the ideas underlying the silly hand gesture as a threat to the kind of society in which they wish to live.
Dieudonné, Anelka, and Parker have all responded defensively, variously insisting that their actions have nothing to do with anti-Semitism or were misconstrued. Thankfully, no one believes them.

Has the earliest Hebrew inscription been decoded?

From Times of Israel:

An ancient eight-letter inscription — dating back to King Solomon’s reign in Jerusalem some 3,000 years ago — was deciphered by a researcher from the University of Haifa, shedding light on the Solomonic kingdom’s impressively sophisticated administrative system.

The carving was discovered on a clay jug in the Ophel area, near the southern wall of the Temple Mount, by a Hebrew University archaeological team headed by Dr. Eilat Mazar. It is considered the most ancient Hebrew engraving to emerge from the archaeological digs in Jerusalem to date.

However, the meaning of the cryptic inscription eluded researchers until Professor Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa interpreted it as a classification of a type of wine stored in the jug. He published his findings in the journal “New Studies on Jerusalem.”

Galil estimated that the carving was written in the middle of the tenth century BCE, after King Solomon built the First Temple, his palaces, and the surrounding walls that unified the three areas of the city — the Ophel area, the city of David, and the Temple Mount. These tremendous infrastructural projects contributed, Galil said, to the sudden need for copious quantities of poor-quality wine.

“This wine was not served on the table of King Solomon nor in the Temple,” Galil wrote. “Rather it was probably used by the many forced laborers in the building projects and the soldiers that guarded them. Food and drinks for these laborers were mainly held in the Ophel area.” His theory is shored up by pottery fragments found in Arad, Galil wrote.

Haaretz had details:

Galil suggested that the letters were early Hebrew and identified the key word as "yayin", meaning wine.

Of all the region’s languages, Galil noted, only southern Hebrew wrote the word yayin with two instances of the letter yod, rather than one.

According to Galil’s interpretation, the inscription describes the wine that was in the jar bearing the inscription. The first letter is a final mem, which could be the end of the word "esrim" (twenty) or "shloshim" (thirty,) referring to either the twentieth or thirtieth year of Solomon’s reign. Next comes the word "yayin" (wine) followed by the word "halak", and then the letter mem, the first letter of the wine’s place of origin.

"Halak" is an oenological term from the Northern Syrian language of Ugarit. It referred to the lowest of three types of wine – “good wine,” “no good wine” and lowly "halak". Galil speculated that the poor-quality wine was drunk by the king's conscript labor force working on various building projects.

Here is Galil's illustration of the letters in the ancient Semitic alphabet:

The three rightmost letters are partially conjecture on Galil's part; most of them fall outside the actual piece of pottery:

When you see that, then the "two yod" theory seems much less strong - those points could be part of other letters of the alphabet at the time.

The word "halak" (h-l-q) seems to be the best evidence for the missing letters to spell "yayin" but it is not a sure thing. This paper from July posits that the letters should actually be read right to left, and he also assumes that some letters are different than Galil's assumptions - for example, instead of h-l-q it might be h-p-q or h-l-r.

Still, Galil's hypothesis is interesting and any inscription in Jerusalem from First Temple times is spectacular.

(h/t DM)

The hundredth school to condemn ASA's boycott of Israel

Avi Mayer has been keeping track of the colleges and universities who have condemned the ASA for their boycott of Israel. So far, one hundred have joined the condemnation.

(I am hearing noises that the ASA itself might not survive this kerfuffle.)

The hundredth institution is Catholic University of America, and their letter is worth posting here:

STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT JOHN GARVEY

ON THE AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION BOYCOTT OF ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES

The American Studies Association’s recent call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions is lamentable. The Association has appointed itself as a kind of inept volunteer fire department, aiming to put out the Israeli-Palestinian conflagration by throwing gasoline on the fire. That’s not exactly right. It has decided to pour gas not on the source of the fire but on bystanders, some of whom are trying to extinguish the flames. No good can come of punishing academic institutions for the shortcomings, real and perceived, of their nations’ leaders and policies.

Rather than restricting academic freedom to advance political causes, academic organizations like the ASA should be working to foster dialogue with their foreign interlocutors, perhaps especially those they disagree with. The academy – universities, faculties, and satellite institutions – is a place where research, open discussion, and creative thought can lead to reforms and new approaches to longstanding problems. I hope the ASA’s call for a boycott produces just the opposite of its intended result – a proliferation of U.S. linkages with Israeli universities and other universities in the Middle East.