Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 10, 2014

French Jews looking to make aliyah

By any standard, David Tibi is a French success story.

The 44-year-old dentist and father of five has a thriving practice and a house in the affluent Paris suburb of Vincennes. His wife is a doctor and he is a leading member of the Jewish community and holds a senior post in its Central Consistory of Paris.

But in early July, the Tibi family will pack their bags and join the thousands of Jews now leaving France. The house has been sold. A colleague will be handling the dental practice. The family is leaving on a one-way ticket to Israel.

“If my children are to live their full Jewish identity, their future is in Israel and not in France,” Tibi said during an interview at his office in northeastern Paris, an area packed with kosher stores and restaurants. “Many Jews feel this way. There’s a massive desire to leave.”

Worldwide, immigration to Israel has stagnated and even declined. But French Jews are bucking the trend. Last year, a record 3,270 French Jews made aliyah — or immigration to Israel — a 63 percent hike from 2012. The Jewish Agency, which promotes aliyah internationally, estimates that figure could spike to 5,000 as early as this year, dramatically changing the face of Israeli immigration as well as France’s own Jewish community, the largest in Western Europe.

...[R]ising anti-Semitism may be the strongest driver, manifest not only through rhetoric but also action. In 2012, a radical Islamist gunned down four people at a Jewish school in Toulouse.

More recently, two of Tibi’s children were taunted on a tram. Tibi filled out immigration papers three weeks ago, making good on a project he had contemplated for years.

“My son is always asking me why there are police in front of his Jewish school, why we need to be searched each time we go to the synagogue,” he said. “We are raising our children to live with this fear.”

What troubles Tibi most is the lack of response on the part of the French.

“Once we had one million French on the streets against anti-Semitism. Now we have three million on Facebook and Twitter who are supporting Dieudonne,” he said, referring to a controversial French comic who is known for his anti-Jewish discourse.

...Tibi, who is president of the Paris-area Jewish community, is watching the departures and listening to the talk. “It’s a snowball effect,” he said, predicting the exodus may reach 8,000 Jews a year.

The fallout is already evident, he added. Students are leaving Jewish schools. The community is searching for new leaders and reconsidering costly construction projects.

Tibi is feeling the loss in other ways. “I was born in France. I did my studies in France. I am extremely sad to leave a country that gave me a lot,” he said. “But sometimes even when you love, you have to leave.”

02/10 Links Pt2: Hamas endorses BDS; Hungary’s Jews to boycott state Holocaust ceremonies

From Ian:

BBC’s Yolande Knell dons her campaigning hat yet again

Let’s take a closer look at Knell’s claim of “returning to land” in Ein Hijleh – also spelt Ein Hajla. According to a paper produced by the Palestinian NGO ARIJ in 2012:
“Deir Hajla is one of the oldest monasteries in both Palestine and the world. It contains mosaic floors dating back to the Medieval Ages, which were later renovated. In the north-east side of the monastery there is located ‘Ein Hajla (Hajla Spring) which, according to popular legend, the Canaanite village of Beit Hajla (meaning the house of hopscotch) was built upon. However, in the Roman era, it was called Hajla (the translation of which refers to the partridge bird) (Al Dabbagh, 1991) which is presently frequent in the region.”
Here’s a clue to the origin of that “Roman era” name:
“The Monastery, known in Arabic as Deir Hajla, seems to preserve the Hebrew name Bet Hoglah, which is mentioned in the biblical description of the lands of the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua18:19).”

If Jews attacked Muslims in Mecca, world media would cover nothing else for a month

Imagine that this week, Jews got angry and hundreds attacked Palestinian Arabs with rocks at the holiest Muslim site in the world. Imagine that this violence came after a handful of Muslims came to pray peacefully at the site, and even though hundreds of Jews attacked police officers, only seven were arrested. Can anyone imagine the endless news stories and media reports which would emanate as a result? The New York Times would have three front-page stories; there would be countless United Nations and European Union condemnations, and CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on site. Media coverage would be non-stop.
But, in reality Arabs attacked Jews repeatedly over the last few days at the Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews, so it is barely a news story. Palestinian Arab violence against Jews is a regular occurrence, and as the media seemingly expects the Arabs to throw rocks, they don’t afford it much media coverage.

From the archives: Oxfam and the Israeli “gas chambers”

A less well-known episode, but one that reveals much about the evolution of Oxfam’s attitudes towards Israel, occurred in October 1977. Oxfam’s then director-general Brian W. Walker had just returned from a visit to Jordan and Israel. His observations in the West Bank prompted him to write to Judith Hart, the Minister for Overseas Development in James Callaghan’s Labour Government. His letter contained a number of remarkable suggestions, not least of which was that Oxfam would be happy to assist a British minister to “travel incognito” into Israeli occupied territory via Jordan.
By far the most disturbing aspect of Walker’s letter, however, was the allegation that Israeli policies in relation to West Bank water resources amounted to a crime against the Palestinian people that could be compared to the Holocaust.
“The policy being followed by Israel,” Walker declared, “is in no real sense different from the use of the gas chambers by the Nazis – for a ‘living’ death is, in many respects, worse than death itself.”

Stuff from today's Arab media

Islamic Jihad celebrated the return of the body of a terrorist who killed 4 Israelis in a yeshiva in Otniel in 2002. They inflated the number of people he killed from 4 to 6 and claimed they were all "soldiers."

This article says that the infighting in Egypt and Yemen is a dream of the Jews, "God's wrath be upon them.."

Another article tells us that "Jewish insolence has no limits" as it says that the Holocaust is a hoax, Jews collaborated with Hitler, and all the Jews who left Arab countries all did so voluntarily except for the ones who were frightened into leaving by Jewish terror attacks.

A respected columnist in Al Hayat, Jihad el-Khazen, says that as a graduate of American and Arab universities he is an expert on science and history, and that evidence shows that the Jewish and Christian Bibles are myths. The Quran, however, is perfectly correct.

Another article is entitled "Israel is a racist and a fascist society and doomed to extinction." He goes through a list of supposed Zionist crimes (genocide, ethnic cleansing) and is upset that the UN overturned the "Zionism is Racism" resolution.

Perhaps, you think, I am cherry picking. Well, yes and no.

These are some of the most egregious antisemitic and anti-Zionist articles just from today.

However, you will never find anyone disagreeing.

The insanity never ends: Sheikh Qaradawi accused of being a Mossad agent

One of the more interesting (and relatively under-reported) aspects of Egypt's 2013 coup is the insane hate that the new Egyptian leadership has for the previous one and for Islamists in general. Being more liberal is not at all correlated with intelligence.

Of course, the way to insult fellow Arabs remains the same: just accuse them of being Zionist.

The latest example comes from Egypt's Al Bawabh News, an anti-Muslim Brotherhood newspaper. They are accusing Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi - one of the most influential clerics in Sunni Islam, whose weekly Qatar-based TV show reaches tens of millions, and who explicitly supports killing Israeli civilians - of being a Mossad agent!

Qaradawi is originally from Egypt, supports the Muslim Brotherhood and has been very critical of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries who do not support the Islamist group.

The logic behind this brilliant analysis is that Qaradawi has not specifically condemned recent reports of Jews visiting the Temple Mount.

It just so happens that Qaradawi's weekly broadcast sermon was cancelled for the past three weeks, and at the last minute this week, indicating that he may be ill. (He only admitted to having a cold.) But the Al Bawabh article goes on from there.

It claims that he has visited Israel three times, that he knows Hebrew, and that he has met with senior rabbis (a few years ago he did greet a delegation of Neturei Karta idiots, and has had to fight rumors that he is pro-Israel ever since.)

The article goes on to claim that Qaradawi was praised by the US Congress (according to some news stories, he has been banned from the US since 1999), it quotes an Egyptian professor who calls him a "prostitute" for the West, that there are photos of him with the Chief Rabbi of Israel (in reality, last year Qaradawi boycotted an interfaith conference when he discovered a liberal Jew would attend,) and that he met with Jews in Gaza.

Here is a graphic from the homepage of this same news site, indicating that the Muslim Brotherhood is in fact Zionist itself:

Liberal, religious, Islamist, reformer, secular - there is always one constant in the Arab world, and that is how much they hate Jews and Israel. In public.

02/10 Links Pt1: What “Non-Violent” Palestinian Protests Really Look Like; AQ Recruits Children

From Ian:

What “Non-Violent” Palestinian Protests Really Look Like

Even as IDF forces try to keep the peace, Palestinian “demonstrators” resort to rock throwing and other acts of violence against Israeli soldiers.
Every Friday, a similar scene repeats itself in Palestinian villages throughout Judea and Samaria. As Israeli soldiers do their best to keep the region secure, Palestinians throw rocks in unprovoked attacks against IDF forces. Israel protects the right of Palestinians to protest peacefully, but so-called “Palestinian demonstrations” often turn violent.
In this video, an IDF officer explains to Palestinian demonstrators that they have the right to protest peacefully, but asks them not to use violence against Israeli troops. Their only response is to throw rocks in an attempt to injure or kill IDF soldiers.‬

Rocks kill people

As American Secretary of State John Kerry encourages the possibility of a Third Intifada against Israel, and media worldwide continues to claim that rock-throwing is non-violent, Israelis continue to be injured from Palestinian Arab rock throwers. As this video reminds us Rocks Kill People.
It should be noted that American border patrol police “consider rock-throwing to be deadly force which sometimes demands the same in response.” Throwing rocks is violent behavior – and protection from rocks is vital.
Let us hope and pray that this little girl makes a full recovery.

Iran's snow job continues

From MEMRI (but the video is in English):

Iranian Nuclear Chief Salehi: If U.S. Violates Deal, Iran Will Get "Back on Track" within Hours

In a recent TV interview, Ali-Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, discussed his country's nuclear program. When asked by the interviewer how long it would take Iran, technically speaking, to get "back on track" if the U.S. violates the terms of the Geneva deal, Saleh responded: "A few hours." "Will we do that?" the interviewer asked, and Salehi answered: "If we need to produce 20% - yes, we will do it."

Following are excerpts from the interview, which aired on Press TV (via the Internet) on February 4, 2014.

Interviewer: The United States says that it has managed to dismantle at least parts of Iran's nuclear program. What do you say to that?

Ali-Akbar Salehi: Well, you can come and see whether our nuclear sites, nuclear equipment, and nuclear facilities are dismantled or not. The only thing that we have stopped and suspended – and that was voluntarily – is the production of 20% enriched uranium. That's it.

Of course, there is another thing that we have undertaken. We have committed ourselves not to install main equipment – and it has been defined what that main equipment is – in the Arak 40 megawatt heavy water reactor.

The nuclear facilities are functioning, and our enrichment is proceeding. It is doing its work, it is producing the 5% enriched uranium, and those centrifuges that stopped producing the 20% will be producing 5% enriched uranium.

In other words, our production of 5% will increase, and the entire nuclear activity of Iran is going on.

[...]

The best part of this Joint Action Plan is the research part. It is so clear that R&D has no constraint.

[...]

We have always been at the negotiating table. It's the other side who appeared at some times, and disappeared at other times. We have never declined negotiating with the 5+1.

[...]

We have always shown our good intentions, but we hope that this time, they really come with good intentions and good faith. If they really come in good faith and with good intentions, this is an opportunity that they can utilize. Otherwise, Iran will pursue its natural course.

[...]

Interviewer: If President Barack Obama is defeated by pro-Israeli lobbies in the Congress – the likes of Bob Menendez and Mark Kirk – and the United States decides to violate the terms of the Geneva deal, how long will it take, technically speaking, for Iran to get back on track?

Ali-Akbar Salehi: A few hours.

Interviewer: Will we do that?

Ali-Akbar Salehi: Well, if we need to produce 20% - yes, we will do it.

And from Matthias Kuntzel at TOI:

Last week I attended a discussion with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javed Zarif and witnessed his ability to mesmerise his listeners. The event took place at the German Council of Foreign Affairs in Berlin.

Mr. Zarif succeeded in dazzling his audience – about 250 foreign policy experts — with commonplace sentences such as: “global security is indivisible”, “dialogue is necessary” or “war is not a good option.” He came across as an Iranian Gorbachev, a good-hearted reformer defying the powers of darkness.

Yet a few days earlier he had bowed his head before the grave of a particularly sinister figure — Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh who was not only responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing that killed 241 U.S. soldiers in their barracks building in Beirut, but is also considered the “inventor” of Islamist suicide bombing.

This was not mentioned in Berlin. Zarif presented his country instead as “a status quo power” and an island of moderation within a sea of extremist violence. “We do not support terrorists,” he claimed with a mischievous smile. “We do not fund them.” “We will never start a military operation against anyone.” The audience hung on Zarif’s lips, nobody laughed. The fact, that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards interfere in Iraq and Lebanon and recruit and instruct Shiites from all over the world to conduct military operations in support of Assad was obviously forgotten.

The Berlin audience preferred to believe what Zarif claimed. It willingly surrendered to Zarif’s smile and sonorous bass and rewarded him with applause.

“You have built up today a lot of trust,” stated Paul Freiherr von Maltzahn, the Secretary General of the German Council of Foreign Affairs in his closing words of thanks.

Read the whole thing.

Iran only has to lie. The western media and politicians are very willing to do the rest of the propaganda work for them.

(h/t Josh K)

I haven't bothered to write about "unity" between Hamas and Fatah for a while, because every single attempt for the past few years has been a joke, often meant more to head off internal Arab Spring-type protests than to actually try to unify. Hamas does not want to give up its hold on Gaza.

The latest attempt has a slightly better chance though - because Hamas has been rocked by the Egyptian coup, losing its main monetary sponsor and partner.

Hamas and Fatah will hold meetings to discuss the implementation of a national reconciliation agreement on Sunday evening and Monday morning, members of both movements told Ma'an.

Fatah official Nabil Shaath and Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said they considered reconciliation a top priority, and that an earlier meeting between a Fatah delegation and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh was a success.

"We realize that the road to freedom and independence is still a long one and needs a lot of work, and the first step is Palestinian unity," Shaath said.

"There cannot be a state without Gaza," he said.

Shaath also praised Hamas' recent decision to allow Fatah lawmakers to return to Gaza.

Al-Hayya echoed Shaath's statements.

"We at Hamas want to be united with Fatah and not interfere in Fatah internal issues," he said.

Al-Hayya said Hamas had sent a letter to President Mahmoud Abbas, saying "that we support him in his position of protecting our principles."

Hamas is hurting for cash, and Fatah may be its best hope to stay afloat.

If the Fatah-led PA would take over the Rafah crossing, for example, then Hamas-hating Egypt would probably keep it open more. Exports from Gazs could increase if Israel could deal with the PA directly on those issues.

When the current negotiations between Israel and the PA collapse, Hamas would have one less reason to avoid unity, because one of its conditions has been to stop negotiating with Israel and continue based on jihad.

And when it comes down to it, Fatah and Hamss are not that far apart ideologically, as much as Western media and pundits like to pretend they are. They both explicitly support terrorism and both agree that terror is not in their best interests at this time. Islamic Jihad and other terror groups are convenient to use for today's attacks, and both Fatah and Hamas can claim that they are innocent.

While it is still a longshot, this time there may actually be a chance for some sort of quasi-unity between the two. It would necessarily involve the PA moving away from a peace posture, but the West would provide cover for them since so much of the media and Western governments and NGOs have been so invested in the lie of Fatah "moderation" for so long.

Egyptian fatwa: If your wife is a Muslim Brotherhood member, divorce her

From Al Arabiya:

“If a man discovers that his wife belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, he should divorce her,” said preacher Mazhar Shahin in the show he presents in one of the private Egyptian satellite channels. “It is like having a bomb sleep in your own bedroom,” he added.

In this case, Shain explained, the wife should be given the chance to sever all ties with the Brotherhood, but if she refuses, the husband has to divorce her. Shahin, who is also the imam of the Omar Makram Mosque in Tahrir Square and is known as “the imam of the revolution,” attributed his fatwa to the “jurisprudence of priorities” in Islam, through which, he argued, it becomes obvious that Egypt takes priority over individuals.

“If the interests of my country contradict those of my wife, I would definitely choose my country,” he noted. “A man can find many other women to marry, but there is only one Egypt.”

Belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, however, does not mean the wife should be stripped of her financial rights, according to Shahin, who stressed that the divorce has to “comply with God’s laws.” The fatwa, Shahin said, also gives the right to any woman who finds out that her husband belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood to seek divorce.

For Shahin, divorce is considered the lesser of two evils for the wife because otherwise the husband might report her to the police. “It is better for her to end up divorced than to end up in jail.” Shahin was referring to the case of a man who reported his wife to State Security for belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood.

In his complaint, the husband said that he only found out his wife is a Brotherhood member after Islamist President Mohammad Mursi came to power. “After the Brotherhood was toppled, the group started assigning her missions,” the complaint added. “That is why she traveled to the United Kingdom and Germany.”

Well, at least he didn't say to behead her.

Maybe next year.

News no one talks about: Egypt sends construction material to Gaza

You know how, now that the tunnels from Egypt have been mostly closed by Egypt, Israel is the only source for Gazans to get construction material? And how, when Israel stopped construction for private projects after discovering Hamas terror tunnels, human rights organizations insist that Israel has the sole responsibility for allowing those materials to resume being imported? Egypt, it is assumed, cannot adequately support sending large amounts of building materials into Gaza through Rafah.

Right?

Well, the latest weekly UN OCHA report (January 28-February 3) says something very interesting:

During the reporting period, the Crossing opened for one day to allow 56 truckloads of construction materials to enter for project funded by the Government of Qatar. The previous week, some 215 truckloads of construction materials designated for the Qatari construction projects entered over the course of three days.

...This week (26 January-1 February), nearly 1,000 truckloads of goods entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom Crossing, 13 percent more than during the previous week. The increase is mainly due to the entry of slightly greater amounts of basic construction materials for projects implemented by international organizations and approved by the Israeli authorities (142 compared to 48 truckloads the previous week).

If the truckloads are of comparable size, this means that Egypt is allowing more construction materials into Gaza than Israel is.

Moreover, given that the Rafah crossing is only open sporadically, if Egypt wants it could open the crossing for six or seven days a week, meaning that some 450-500 trucks of building material can go into Gaza for whatever purposes Egypt and Gazans agree on.

There is no rule that Egypt can only allow building material for the Qatar-funded projects. There is no reason why private Gaza builders should not be able to order construction material from Egypt and have it trucked in the next day. Rafah is clearly not only a passenger transit point but it can handle significant amounts of other goods for Gaza. There could be a healthy two-way trade of goods and materials for Gazans and exports of Gaza produce and other goods to Egypt.

Except that Egypt doesn't allow it.

Yet so-called "human rights" organizations are completely silent about demanding that Egypt allow more construction materials into Gaza. They only demand this from Israel, the one country that is the target for Hamas kidnap tunnels built with these very same materials.

Isn't that interesting?

Houthi official explains slogan "Death to America, death to Israel, damn the Jews"

I've mentioned before the Houthi logo and slogan:

From the top, it says "God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Damn the Jews, Power to Islam." In many cases I've seen the fourth line autotranslated as "F--- the Jews."

Al Tagheer (translated by Shawarma News) has an interview with a Houthi spokesperson where we learn a kinder, gentler interpretation:

- Death to America does not mean death to the American people, or the death of an American tourist, journalist, merchant or employee, but it's death to the American Zionist policy in our region and the world

- Death to Israel does not mean death to the "real" Jews who have been living in Palestine for hundreds of years, but it's death to the racist entity implanted in the body of the Islamic nation and the Arab region

- Curse the Jews, we are not referring to all of those who follow the Jewish religion, we are referring to those who were cursed by God in the Koran according to the attributes associated with the curse

It is fairly clear, both to casual readers of the Quran and to ordinary Muslims themselves, that every single Jew was cursed in the Quran.

See how moderate they are? They only want to kill about half of the Jews in the world, and the rest are only damned to become apes and pigs!

Glad he cleared that up. Whew!

(h/t Bob K)

Nourizadeh

The Director of the Center for Iranian Studies in London, Ali Nourizadeh, says that since Hamas' founding it has received more than two billion dollars of financial support from Iran, according to Raya News. At the same time Islamic Jihad receives between $100-$150 million dollars annually from Iran.

On the other hand, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority have not received a penny Since the Iranian revolution so far, but on the contrary, Iran has not paid half a million dollars from the proceeds of the "Palestine" sales pavilion at the Tehran International Fair.

Nourizadeh says that Hamas has received its aid through various sources; sometimes in cash when Hamas leaders visit Tehran and some through Hezbollah. Islamic Jihad receives it money via Hezbollah or from cash transfers from banks in Beirut or Malta.

He adds that "Iran has paid a lot to strengthen its relationship with Hamas to be used as a card but it did not succeed because [Hamas] has good relations with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Arab states and Iran is no longer the main source of funding Hamas, so Iran considers its investment in Hamas to be unsuccessful."

In terms of relationship between Iran and Islamic Jihad, Zadeh says that their fighters were trained in Iran and their weapons all come from Iran; Hezbollah played an important role in achieving this. On the other hand, no more than 500 Hamas fighters were trained by Iran.

There is now a new rapprochement between the PLO and Iran, as Fatah official Jibril Rajoub visited Iran after Abbas and Hassan Rouhani met in New York, according to Nourizadeh.

Three new "Apartheid?" posters

My "Apartheid?" poster series has gone truly viral in the past couple of weeks - over 23,000 views in the past week alone!

Since I hadn't added any new posters in a year, here is a Reality TV edition:

02/09 Links: State Dept: No Guarantee Arab League Will Recognize Israel; Historic 'Palestine'

From Ian:

Israel may pay for tolerance it shows to killers

IF most Palestinians thought like most Israelis, peace would come to their lands.
If most Israelis thought like so many Palestinians — from its leader Mahmoud Abbas down to the shiftless youths seeking to meet Allah via Semtex and Jewish blood — there would be many fewer than the 4.3 million of them.
The tolerance of Israel, as its neighbours bait it, bomb it and demand its destruction, surprises me. Three rockets were fired from Gaza in to southern Israel as I wrote this piece.

Historic Palestine

So there you have it, from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 edition. Rather than being an "indigenous" populations, the Arab population of "Palestine" is composed of Bosnians, Sudanese, Algerians, Armenians, Greek, Kurds and many many others. There is no mention of a group called the "Palestinians".
Colonizers. All of them
Hard to imagine how the indigenous "Palestinians" could have escaped historical scrutiny for so many years. (h/t Bob Knot)

BBC Correspondent Apologizes For Omitting Anti-Israel Bias (satire)

In a news item last week, Philips was seen narrating a segment about a crash on Route 443, part of which runs through the West Bank. A number of Palestinian men were hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at passing Israeli cars, and the driver of one such vehicle stopped his car and chased the group while wielding a handgun, scattering them and stopping the attacks. Philips devoted almost the same amount of time discussing the attack on the motorist as on his brief pursuit, thus departing from BBC policy of specifically painting Israel and Israelis as at fault in confrontations with Palestinians.
“I apologise first to the Palestinians, who depend on the BBC for unstinting propaganda support; second, to my colleagues at the BBC, for showing what could be construed as disrespect for our journalistic standards; and of course to our viewership, who might become confused if we do not paint Israel as thoroughly evil,” Philips wrote in a statement. He attributed the lack of sufficient spin to deadline pressures, but admitted he could have done better.

A powerful video from a Belgian Jewish family fleeing to the US

(h/t Philip S)

Iranian TV shows simulation of attack against Israeli civilians, US aircraft carrier

From Lenz Iran, an 11 minute Iranian video with amateurish graphics showing a simulation of Iranian drones and rockets attacking Israeli targets and a US aircraft carrier.

Note that the Israeli targets include civilian targets, such as Ben Gurion airport and many of Tel Aviv's skyscrapers. (They also seem to think that Ehud Olmert is Israel's prime minister and that the US and Israel have no air defenses whatsoever.)

Even though the video is ridiculous even to non-military types like me, a real expert goes into detail about how comical these scenarios are.

(h/t Bob Knot)

BDS trying mightily to spin Scarlett into some sort of victory

By any objective yardstick, the SodaStream/Scarlett Johansson episode was an unmitigated disaster for BDS. But Max Blumenthal, whose rabid anti-Zionism and series of provable and verified lies have ensured that he can no longer be published except in Mondoweiss and Arab news outlets, writes a fantasy about Scarlett Johansson to try to fit the facts of the past couple of weeks into his very limited worldview - and try to spin a major BDS loss.

Writing in the UAE's "The National," Blumenthal talks about how Hollywood celebrities used to publicly embrace Israel, but are less likely to do so today.

The reason?

These days, celebrities who shill for Israel can expect to be relentlessly harried and forced to declare where they stand on Israel’s ongoing dispossession of Palestinians.

For those who have attached themselves to humanitarian do-gooder causes, the potential for PR damage is considerable — certainly enough to give them second thoughts. As the price tag on pro-Israel activity rises, some performers are quietly opting out of attractive deals before the controversy shatters their image.

But others like Scarlett Johansson, the comely blonde starlet described by Woody Allen as “sexually overwhelming” were not willing to let apartheid get in the way of a sizeable profit.

In January, the Israeli company Sodastream signed Johansson to promote its home soda-making machines in a $16 million (Dh58.8m) Super Bowl ad that featured her sucking suggestively on a straw off-and-on for two minutes.

Johansson, a standard-fare Hollywood liberal who proclaimed in 2008 that her “heart belongs to Barack”, cast her deal with Sodastream as a shining example of “conscious consumerism and transparency”.

She seemed oblivious to the fact that Sodastream operates out of Maale Adumim, an illegal Israeli mega-settlement built on privately owned Palestinian land whose master plan would eventually bisect the West Bank.

Blumenthal exposes his usual disregard for journalistic ethics and basic facts, of course - one minute of Super Bowl advertising cost about $8 million, not $16 million; the ad was only one minute long, Maale Adumim was not built on privately owned Arab land (except for 0.5% of it,) none of Mishor Adumim where SodaStream's factory is located was built on Arab land, even Israel's far left accepts that Maale Adumim would be part of Israel in any peace agreement, and in no way does it "bisect the West Bank."

He even says that Oxfam forced Johansson out, when the truth is the exact opposite.

Proving that Blumenthal is a liar is too easy.

The funny part is how desperately Blumenthal is trying to spin an episode that was a huge disaster for BDS into a victory.

His thesis that no major Hollywood figure today would support Israel as they did in the past is quite demolished by what Scarlett Johansson actually did do - although he blames her love of money, and doesn't mention that she isn't exactly hurting for cash.

True, there are some B-listers - washed-up rock stars and second-rate acts - that have bowed to pressure and joined the boycott of Israel. Why did they do that? Well, according to Blumenthal, it has nothing to do with what they really believe in.

It is because the Israel haters who push the boycott are bullies! And they are proud of it!

Blumenthal says it explicitly: "celebrities who shill for Israel can expect to be relentlessly harried." The haters expect that thin-skinned celebrities, who are allergic to controversy, will scamper away from any hint of trouble. Sometimes, they are right. It has absolutely nothing to do with the righteousness of their cause - it has to do with the fact that the haters can instantly raise an army of brainless Facebook drones to threaten people who are often not very self-confident to begin with.

Johansson not only pushed back against the BDSers she pushed back on humanitarian grounds! She explained why the BDS goals actually would hurt the people they pretend to care about. She exposed their hypocrisy in a very public way. (This is another point that Blumenthal studiously avoids mentioning.)

This episode did not damage Johansson's star power one bit.

The biggest losers were Oxfam and the BDS movement itself.

Oxfam is now sputtering and making itself look idiotic as it tries to justify its desire to throw hundreds of Arabs out into the street without salaries or healthcare. The halo effect of Oxfam being a humanitarian organization has been considerably dimmed.

But Oxfam, in trying to defend itself, has in turn thrown the BDS movement under the bus! It has been publicly forced to say that it does not support boycotting Israel and it is distancing itself from haters like Max Blumenthal.

Whether that is true or not is besides the point - Oxfam does give plenty of money to organizations that do support BDS - but nevertheless a major humanitarian NGO is publicly saying that boycotting Israel is immoral and beyond the pale, and it is jumping through hoops to make fine distinctions so that it cannot be accused of supporting BDS explicitly.

How on Earth can anyone think that BDS won?

The only people who can believe that are those who spend so much time lying that they can no longer distinguish truth from fantasy.

Like Max Blumenthal.

Hating Israel is a good career move in Egypt

Here is a tweet from Wael Mansour a couple of days ago, who says that he was the voice of Donald Duck in Arabic-dubbed Disney films:

Here is the tweet that lead Disney to end my role as Donald Ducks official voice in Arabic dubbed cartoons in the ME pic.twitter.com/ZLdpN1NrMF
— Wael Mansour (@Wa2elMansour) February 6, 2014

In Arabic, he tweeted much the same thing, saying that Disney dropped him because of his anti-Zionist tweet, and he said both in English and Arabic that he is proud about this.

He received thousands of retweets for this.

Here's the funny part: His anti-Israel tweets were last August. The Washington Free Beacon got hold of Disney:

Mansour has previously done Donald Duck voiceover work but is no longer under contract with the company, a Disney spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon.

“He was a third party contractor,” the spokesperson said. “He doesn’t represent the company in any way.”

Mansour was not under contract with Disney when he made his controversial remarks about Israel, the spokesperson said.

Asked if Mansour would be hired for future voice over work, the spokesperson said, “What do you think?”

In other words, he was not fired from Disney - he wasn't working for them at all. However, they won't hire him again, for obvious reasons.

Now, this all happened six months ago. Apparently, Mansour decided to turn himself into a martyr now, and he (correctly) assumed that thousands of Egyptians would rally to support his desire to see Israel destroyed.

In other words, to publicly say you hate Israel in Egypt is a great career move!

Not that we didn't know this already.

In 2001, an overweight, third rate Egyptian singer made a hit record called "I Hate Israel."

In 2012, another Egyptian singer made a sarcastically titled song called "I Love Israel" with lyrics like “May it [Israel] be destroyed. May it be colonized. May it be wiped off the map. May a wall fall on it. May it disappear from the universe. God, please have it banished....May it dangle from the noose. May I get to see it burning, Amen. I will pour gasoline on it. I am an Egyptian man. I am not a coward...May it be targeted. May it go up in flames that will never subside. From the bottom of my heart – may a wall fall on it.”

This is what "peace" looks like.

02/08 Links: Scarlett, soda and Samaria; Truman, The Jewish State, and the NYTs Decline

From Ian:

Richard Millett: Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi apologises for comparing Gaza to the Holocaust

The response to Qureshi’s remarks from the Labour Party itself was an utter disgrace:
“These remarks were taken completely out of context. Yasmin Qureshi was not equating events in Gaza with the Holocaust. As an MP who has visited Auschwitz and has campaigned all her life against racism and anti-Semitism she would not do so.”
However, soon after, Qureshi must have had a pang of conscience and came out with this apology:
“The debate was about the plight of the Palestinian people and in no way did I mean to equate events in Gaza with the Holocaust. I apologise for any offence caused. I am also personally hurt if people thought I meant this. As someone who has visited the crematoria and gas chambers of Auschwitz I know the Holocaust was the most brutal act of genocide of the 20th Century and no-one should seek to underestimate its impact.”
So Qureshi is “personally hurt”? Poor her. Not as “personally hurt” as those who were in Auschwitz or Belsen etc or lost family there.

Truman, The Jewish State, and the Decline in New York Times Standards

The New York Times referred to this presidential statement twice in the past five years, and the way the did so exposes an unfortunate decline in the newspaper's standards. In both articles, reporters mentioned recent Palestinian attempts to cast a last minute change in the language of the statement — one of the letter's two references to "Jewish state" was changed to "State of Israel" — as supposedly showing that Truman did not support the idea of a Jewish state. But while the earlier article gave some clarifying context that suggested Palestinian leaders are misusing the letter, the more recent piece relayed the misinformation with no qualification, leaving New York Times readers severely misinformed about Truman's position.

Melanie Phillips: Scarlett, soda and Samaria

But, as the attacks on her by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions crowd reached fever pitch, Ms Johansson stunned everyone by sacking Oxfam, on the grounds that she was a supporter of “economic co-operation and social interaction between a democratic Israel and Palestine”. Which, by implication, Oxfam was not.
With this put-down, she achieved more than all the anti-BDS activists put together (not to devalue their heroic efforts). For the first time that I can remember, a glamorous personality went on to the front foot against the peddlers of anti-Israel bigotry.
She did not adopt a cringing, defensive posture. She strode on to the moral high ground and, at long last, delegitimised the delegitimisers.
For Oxfam’s part, it dug itself further and further into its ridiculous hole. Its mantra that Israeli “settlements” such as Ma’ale Adumim – the city to which Mishor Adumim belongs — are illegal under international law is simply false.

Lecture by Shahar Azani of NYC Israel Consulate (video)

Long but entertaining:

(h/t Lance)

02/07 Links Pt2: Israel is...By Natalie Portman; The PA’s Self-Inflicted Financial Wounds

From Ian:

Chloe Valdary: Race & politics: From the classroom to the UN

The professor’s lesson plans include scholarly documents written by academics who purport to show that every form of inequality is unjust and proof positive of the racial hierarchy plaguing society today. Historical figures like Che Guevara and Lenin are praised; their crimes against humanity obfuscated because they allegedly represent the great fight against “the system”–which is always dominated by the white colonialist capitalist. Terrorists who lob bombs at buses full of children are depicted as freedom fighters who simply wanted to get a break from the white /capitalist man. And that tired line that nonwhites can never be called racists since they are perpetual victims of the system persists in the professor’s textbooks and syllabi.
Of all the great disputes that plague the world, the Arab-Israeli conflict is perhaps the one that proponents of this ideology obsess over the most. Incessant fixation on the peoples involved, the politics at play, and the absolute necessity of the destruction of Israel as the only pragmatic solution to the conflict are the factors that are discussed by the academics that promote this ideology. Why?

Richard Millett: A day of anti-Israel hatred and Holocaust minimization in Parliament

This is how Britain’s Parliament is sometimes so abused. While innocent Syrians are being murdered and left permanently disabled by barrel bombs dropped out of the sky by Assad’s forces certain MPs are offensive about Israel, Israelis and the Holocaust instead.
While Kaufman voted against any intervention in Syria, Qureshi couldn’t even be bothered to turn up to that vote last August!
Last night’s event launching the “Jerusalem Report” was sold out but due to the strike on the London underground not many people could get there.
It must be galling that when so much effort has been put into producing an evening of hatred, lies and Holocaust minimization so few people are there to appreciate your efforts.

Israel committing Holocaust in UK Parliament

There was a debate in the British Parliament on Wednesday during which Members of Parliament (MPs) took turns to attack Israel. There was a literal barrage of filth heaped upon the Jewish state by MPs from Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats. It must be said that the chair of Conservative Friends of Israel, James Clappison MP was trying to make Israel’s case, though no one was interested in listening.
The woes of the people of Gaza were laid squarely at Israel’s feet and it was “the occupying power’s responsibility” to deal with them. It seems in the British Parliament the IDF never withdrew from the territory. It seems that in the British Parliament the democratically elected government of Hamas cannot be expected to provide any kind of services for Gazans at all. In the British Parliament there is “no greater priority” than dealing with Israel.

On Tuesday, I noted that during a two week period in January, some 37% of rockets from Gaza aimed at Israel fell short or exploded on the launch pad. Over the years a number of Gazans have been killed and injured from these projectiles.

Now, there is a new addition to the list of Gazans killed by their own projectiles, and it is a worthy one.

A mortar exploded, apparently while being launched, on Friday night east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing one terrorist named Ibrahim Mohammed Saidi and injuring two others.

Shabbat shalom!

Getting harder to tell the difference between Arab and European antisemites

From TheJC:

It has emerged that far-right Belgian politician Laurent Louis gave three Nazi-style salutes in parliament.

A supporter of Dieudonné’s Anti-Zionist Party, he was filmed performing the quenelles — made famous by the French comedian — in succession in January.

Returning the compliment, Dieudonné called on Belgians to vote for Louis’s party, Debout les Belges (Down with Belgians), in May’s federal elections.

Louis performed the quenelles after a speech in which he claimed that “the Holocaust was set up and financed by the pioneers of Zionism”.

At the same time, an Amman-based Iraqi "independent news" outlet named Mustaqila has an extensive article denying the Holocaust.

That article notes that the word "Holocaust" comes from the Greek word "holokauston" meaning "completely burnt offering." This, the author says, proves how historically predatory Jews have been - because they stole the word from the Greeks.

The article goes on to say that Hitler was the first Western leader to call for a homeland for the Jews in Palestine (note that this was some 15 years after the Balfour Declaration) and that Jews colluded with him to kill the old Jews but allow the young ones to go to Israel.

The Jews, we are told, are smart and managed to deceive the world about their genocide. But there were no gas chambers, according to this article. Not that the Jews don't deserve it - in the Talmud it says that the world is divided into two groups, Jews and the "goyim" who are slaves.

Human rights groups will defend Lauent Louis' right to free speech, and they will ignore Arab antisemitism. Because that's how they roll.

02/07 Links Pt1: The Eve of the Fourth Palestinian “No”; Abbas the “moderate”

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: We feel the earth move…

Besides, the aforementioned hostility was exposed during Obama’s first term. Israelis have every reason to be ultra-leery of second-term Obama, well after he had waged his last campaign and has become invulnerable to voter backlash.
Obama is anything but an honest broker and he plainly doesn’t deserve the benefit of our doubt. If anything, his established predispositions should dispel our timidity – for the sake of our own self-preservation. To paraphrase Carole king’s classic:
We must not lose control
Down to our very soul
There is no danger that Israeli steadfastness would turn Obama all the more against us. He, Kerry and crew already are against us. We have nothing to lose by saying “no.”

Caroline Glick: Iran’s bomb in the basement

Our leaders continue to hope that a proper mix of concessions to the PLO will convince Obama to stand by his empty pledge to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
Obama will do no such thing. Concessions to the Palestinians will weaken us militarily and politically. And they will give us no advantage over Iran. While it is important to deal with the administration’ hostile insistence on unreciprocated Israeli concessions to the PLO, we cannot ignore Iran.
Iran either has a bomb already or is about to get one. And, having been abandoned by the White House, we face this threat alone.
We must now, immediately and consistently, do whatever we can still do to diminish the Iranian threat.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Fatah and the "Armed Struggle" against Israel

While in English Abbas was voicing his opposition to an armed struggle, in Arabic Palestinian officials were issuing statements in support of "armed resistance" against Israel.
When senior figures of the Fatah urge Palestinians to be prepared for the possibility of "armed struggle"against Israel, they are actually instructing Fatah militiamen to be prepared to launch terrorist attacks.

Father of three "martyrs" dies in Gaza

Islamic Jihad offers condolences to whatever family is remaining of Deeb Osman Alersaana of northern Gaza.

Alersaana, 72, died of a heart attack after evening prayers last night.

He was celebrated by the terrorist organization because three of his sons - Ayman, Mohammed and Osman - have all been "martyred."

At least he was old enough to see his children die, which is a positive thing in the Palestinian Arab culture of death.

Here he is, showing the overabundance of love and kindness that he was known for and that he successfully taught his children.

This is a 60 foot wide mural in Los Angeles put up in 1998 for the Arbeter Ring/Workmen’s Circle Southern California campus, a secular (and socialist) Jewish organization.

Recently, it was defaced:

From The Jewish Journal:

A mural on the south side of the Arbeter Ring/Workmen’s Circle Southern California campus at 1525 S. Robertson Blvd was defaced with graffiti that reads “Free Palestine!!!!”

It was not immediately clear when the graffiti was spray-painted onto the building, as phones at the center were not answered on Thursday morning, Jan. 6 [sic - should be February], the day the Journal learned about the vandalism.

The wall-sized mural itslef – titled, ”A shenere un besere velt,” according to the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (a Yiddish phrase meaning, “A more beautiful and better world) – depicts cultural, biblical and historical imagery. The imagery includes a menorah, Israelites wandering in the desert, a young girl waving Israeli and American flags, and more.

Artist Elisio Art Silva completed the mural in 1998, according to the conservancy organization.

Photos obtained by the Journal on Thursday morning by a Pico-Robertson resident who was driving by and spotted the defaced building show the graffiti spaning nearly the entire length of the building, which, according to the conservancy group, measures 60-feet-long and 15-feet-high.

Robert Adler-Peckerar, executive director of the L.A.-based organization Yiddishkayt, which is a frequent collaborator with the national office and local branch of Workmen’s Circle, said the message of the graffiti reflects an ignorance about the mission of the victimized group. He described Workmen's Circle as being historically committed to ideas of “social progress, equality, human rights, civil rights and the general pursuit of human dignity,” which includes promoting a “progressive, peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said.

“I feel like this [the graffiti] indicates something much more about thoughtlessness than about an actual commitment to a free Palestine,” Adler-Peckerar said in an interview. “And a tremendous amount of cultural illiteracy [on the vandal(s)’ part].”

The Arbeter Ring/Workmen's Circle has traditionally been a socialist movement, anti-religious but very committed to Jewish/Yiddish culture and what it calls "social justice." It would not be called a Zionist organization.

In its statement, it said:

“It is ironic that the slogan defaced the mural of an organization whose observance of kol nidre, a major Jewish holiday, includes an Arabic American singer leading the hymn, ‘Peace, Shalom, Salaam,’ and that includes the aspirations of the Palestinian people in our other secular Jewish observances,” the statement continues.

“We invite those responsible for the slogan-painting to meet with us to discuss far more effective ways of encouraging progress toward a lasting peace between the Israeli and Palestinian states and their peoples,” said Ruth Judkowitz, Chairmentsh (chair person) of SoCal Arbeter Ring/Workmen’s Circle.

This graffiti shows that to many supposedly "pro-Palestinian" activists, their target isn't Israel but Jews. It isn't "thoughtlessness" - it is hate.

It is a shame that an organization that says it pursues justice cannot recognize a hate crime and instead ascribes it to "cultural illiteracy." Even worse is its painful naivete thinking that more cowtowing can remove hate.

(h/t Doris, Bob K.)

UPDATE: New graffiti artists changed "Free" to another four letter word:

The Workmen's Circle response was that "this new defacement proves 'that there are idiots on both sides.'"

I think there are idiots on three sides here.

(h/t Rebbe Yell)

Fatah insists it never abandoned terror

I've mentioned a number of times that the Fatah platform that is in force today supports the continued use of terror.

I even found an English version:

Struggle emanates from the right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation‭, ‭to struggle against settlement‭, ‭expulsion‭, ‭displacement and racial discrimination‭; ‭a right guaranteed by international law‭. ‭Our revolutionary struggle was launched by armed struggle against the military usurpation of our land ‭, ‭but it was never confined to it ‭. ‭Its tools and methods were diverse and included peaceful resistance as was practiced by the first Intifada ‭; ‭demonstrations‭,‭ sit-ins‭, ‭civil disobedience‭, ‭confronting settler gangs‭, ‭political‭, media‭, ‭legal‭, ‭and diplomatic struggle including negotiations with the occupation authority‭. ‭Consequently‭, ‭the‭ Palestinian‭ people’s right to practice armed resistance against the military occupation of their land remains a constant right confirmed by international law and international legality‭.‭ However‭, ‭the selection of struggle methods‭, ‭in time and space depends on the capabilities of our people and our Movement‭. ‭

(Disingenuously, it claims that "‭Fatah always rejected targeting civilians anywhere" which is so laughably ridiculous that one can only say that they regard no Israeli Jews as being civilians.)

Even more interesting is that while the platform insists that killing Jews in Israel is a legal right, they mention in their strategy that they want to have closer ties with Israel's "peace camp." Amazingly, no one in the "peace camp" has anything bad to say about their being manipulated by a party that justifies murdering them.

Just in case you don't believe the actual text written and disseminated by Fatah, here's new video from MEMRI reiterating their position:

During a recent visit to Iran, Fatah central committee member Jibril Rajoub said: "The resistance is still a strategic option, and armed resistance is on the table." He said that he wanted all components of Palestinian society "to maintain the state of conflict between Palestine and the occupation." The interview was broadcast by the Iranian Al-Alam TV network on February 3, 2014.

Following is an excerpt:

Jibril Rajoub: Either a Palestinian state will be established – and this is a condition for stability, peace, and security for everyone – or else the Israelis will not enjoy security, while continuing settlement activity.

TV host: Will you take up arms again?

Jibril Rajoub: We have never given up our arms. We have never left the battlefield, and we have never raised a white flag. No one can lecture Fatah or its leadership in this regard.

The resistance is still a strategic option, and armed resistance is on the table. We consider resistance to be a means to an end, not the goal itself. If negotiations fail, we will reexamine things, with our Arab and Islamic allies.

As I've told you, we want to maintain the state of conflict between Palestine and the occupation. This applies to all components of the Palestinian people, because we want all the Palestinians to participate in the resistance. We want the Palestinians within the 1948 borders to demand equality, the Palestinians within the 1967 borders to demand independence and liberty, and the Palestinians in the diaspora to demand the Right of Return. We want our Arab supporters in the region to be able to embrace this resistance, and we want the world to accept our methods.

I believe that by international law, we have the right to conduct any form of resistance, in the occupied lands and against the occupation, in order to put an end to the occupation.

I'm telling you that there will not be any bus bombings, and there must not be bus bombings in Tel Aviv. But we have 400,000 settlers. What are these people doing among us? According to international law, these [settlements] are illegal. These people will not enjoy security, peace, or stability, as long as occupation and Judaization continue.

Fatah remains Fatah, and in keeping with its goals and values, it still considers resistance to be an option.

So bus bombings in most of Jerusalem are OK. And, sometime in the future, they might be OK for Tel Aviv as well, but just not quite now.

Now, who is the leader of Fatah again? Oh, yeah - Mahmoud Abbas. This is his organization, and he has never contradicted these words.

Egyptian media upset over Israeli 2nd graders singing about Passover

Egyptian media on Thursday got hold of a shocking video.

Popular Egyptian site Youm7, as well as other media outlets, say that this is a video of Jewish extremist children who are being taught that they were slaves in Egypt - and that they must return to Egypt.

Here's the offensive video, of the second grade class in the Binyan Olam school, singing songs about and play-acting the Passover story. (It's a pretty bad video. You can skip the first 1:10 of musical introduction to get to the other five minutes of watching kids repeat songs and verses they memorized.)

And here's how Youm7 describes this video:

Jewish extremist Rabbi Eliyahu Yisraeli published a video clip on YouTube of a group of Jewish children, students in one of the Jewish "yeshiva" schools. They do rituals to commemorate the holiday of Passover, where they are celebrating the anniversary of the Exodus from Egypt.

The video clip shows the young children on a trip to a village located on the Sea of Galilee, which was created to serve as a model of what was experienced by the children of Israel in Egypt, since Moses split the sea and took the children of Israel out from Egypt.

The video shows the children reading some passages from the distorted books of the Torah which tell the full stories of the children of Israel, and it used the word "slavery" in a reference to Egypt.

It presents to the children during their studies in the "yeshiva" the extent of the suffering experienced by both the children of Israel during the era of Pharaoh, and the miracles of God known in the Torah as the "ten plagues" in addition to the years of wandering in the Sinai.

Israeli extremist Jewish schools in this video indicate their incitement of hate for Egypt and Egyptians, saying that it was the land of bondage, and the Jews must return to Egypt again because it is a religious duty.

The last phrase, that Jewish children are being taught that they must return to Egypt, is the headline in every version of this article.

Almost certainly that ridiculous interpretation is a result of a couple of stories in Egyptian media last year. One was that a Muslim Brotherhood leader said that (after Israel is replaced with an Arab state) Jews should be allowed to return to Egypt. He was mercilessly attacked for months afterwards, and the idea still rankles Egyptians, worried that the Jews might sue them for the huge amount of land and capital that were stolen from them when they were expelled.

Another crazy but related rumor in late 2012 was that US ambassador Anne Patterson said that DNA evidence showed that Jews owned Egypt, King Tut was Jewish and by the end of 2013 Egypt would be under total control of the Jews.

One other fact that might be making the Egyptians so nervous about Jews taking over Egypt: It says so in the Quran! Chapter 44, verse 28, has been interpreted to say

Thus (it was)! And We made other people inherit them (i.e. We made the Children of Israel to inherit the kingdom of Egypt).

Given that Egyptians are so sensitive to the idea of Jews returning to and taking over Egypt, that fiction is apparently what is fueling so much interest in this video. Egyptians believe that Jews want to rule over their country - and they think that these second graders' songs about the Passover story prove it.

Another terrorist's body being returned on Sunday. Let's talk about one hero he killed.

Ma'an writes:

Israel will return the remains on Sunday of a Palestinian killed by soldiers over a decade ago, an Israeli human right groups said on Thursday.

Israeli rights group Center for the Defense of the Individual (HaMoked), said in a statement that the remains of Ahmad Ayid Faqih from the Hebron area town of Dura, will be returned via the Tarqumiya checkpoint west of Hebron on Sunday evening.

The remains matched DNA samples taken from relatives, HaMoked said.

Faqih was killed on Dec. 27, 2002 after he and Muhammad Mustafa Shahin broke into the Israeli settlement of Otniel south of Hebron and opened fire inside a Yeshiva school. The attack killed two Israeli soldiers and two settlers before Faqih and his companion were shot dead in the ensuing firefight.

At the time Faqih was 20 years old.

The Islamic Jihad movement claimed responsibility for the operation, which came at the height of the Second Intifada, a Palestinian uprising in the 2000s against the decades-long Israeli occupation.

Here is what happened:

On Friday night, 27 December 2002, over 100 students and faculty members of Yeshivat Otniel were getting ready to have dinner in the dining room of the Yeshiva, while in the adjacent kitchen, four yeshiva students on kitchen duty organized the first course of the Sabbath meals. Two of the four students on kitchen duty were IDF soldiers on leave without pay from the army.

Meanwhile, two Palestinian militants of the Islamic Jihad, disguised as Israeli soldiers and equipped with battle vests, M-16 rifles and hand grenades, made their way to the settlement through the valley located between Othniel and the town of Dahariya,[2] and managed to infiltrate into the settlement. The militants cut the rickety fence which was erected around the building of the Yeshiva[2] and afterwards, around 19:45 pm, they snuck into the building through the back door of the kitchen. The students on kitchen duty had just finished preparing the main dishes on serving plates and were about to bring them into the dining room when the militants entered the kitchen and opened fire at them. In the last moments of his life, Staff Sergeant Noam Apter, upon immediately realizing what was happening, managed to lock the sliding door separating the kitchen and the dining room, before he was murdered by the militants. In doing so, Noam prevented the militants from entering the dining room and carrying out a far deadlier attack. Nevertheless, after killing the students on kitchen duty, the militants smashed the window of the sliding door and began shooting through it into the dining room, wounding four yeshiva students, one of them critically.[2] The majority of the students in the dining room managed to hide underneath the tables while some of them, whom were carrying weapons with them, returned fire at the militants.

Noam Apter saved possibly dozens of lives with his quick thinking - and sure knowledge that his locking the door meant that he would be murdered within seconds.

No doubt Faqih will receive a hero's welcome on Sunday, just like last Sunday.

To Israel, a hero is someone who saves lives. To Palestinian Arabs, a hero is someone who murders.

And by the sick calculus of the enlightened Western world, each side's positions are equally valid.

02/06 Links Pt2: Friedman’s Colleagues Call Him an ‘Embarrassment’; Hummus is a laughing matter

From Ian:

In Memoriam: Barry Rubin

In his 64 years, he worked tirelessly to defend and promote both U.S. and Israeli interests. He was also dedicated to the research and commemoration of his ancestry and those who perished in the Holocaust. In 2013, he published Children of Dolhinov, a historical account of the Jews of Dolhinov (today part of Belarus). He wrote, “If we don’t respect those who came before us, and who made our existence possible, how can we expect anyone to respect us?”
In addition to his professional and academic achievements, he was a loving father and husband. He is survived by wife Judith and his two children.

The Woman Who Makes the Jihadis Squirm

Civil lawsuits, it turns out, are not just a great way to help victims find justice and compensation for their misery. They are also an enormously powerful tool in fighting terror. Because they are not initiated by any government, they cannot be stopped through ordinary diplomacy or with back-channel deals. The can be initiated spontaneously, unpredictably—effectively turning the tables on the terrorists, who are used to being the unpredictable ones. Once filed, they are in the hands of an independent judge who follows the law, not the political needs of the moment.
And because civil lawsuits have lower thresholds of proof than do criminal proceedings, and it is therefore usually much easier to prove liability than criminality, civil attorneys can very often succeed where prosecutors fail. For this reason, Western intelligence agencies often happily cooperate with civil cases against terrorists, providing crucial evidence for the plaintiffs—for they are doing the work that government cannot.

Thomas Friedman’s New York Times Colleagues Call Him an ‘Embarrassment’

Jewish New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, often criticized for expressing anti-Israel views, was slammed by his own colleagues in an expose published on Tuesday by the New York Observer. The article came as a Friedman-penned Op-Ed in The Times on Wednesday claimed that a “Third Intifada is underway.”
The Observer said it interviewed some two-dozen current and former NYT staffers about a split between the news team and the editorial pages, run by Andrew Rosenthal, son of former NYT editorial leader AM Rosenthal, who publishes work by Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner. The staffers’s concerns, as embodied in The Observer headline, ‘The Tyranny and Lethargy of the Times Editorial Page,’ were that, as one put it, the Op-Eds are “completely reflexively liberal, utterly predictable, usually poorly written and totally ineffectual,” and that the editorial page was frequently trounced by crosstown rival, the Wall Street Journal. Most of The Observer article criticizes Rosenthal’s vision and ability to manage a team that has grown to 14 employees, plus assistants, but staffers reserved plenty of venom for Friedman’s role in destroying The Times editorial page.

Politician claims PM preparing for Jews to take over Greece

From Enet English:

There has been widespread condemnation of claims made by a Syriza politician that the name of the country's new state broadcaster Nerit has Jewish roots and that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s recent visit to Thessaloniki Synagogue was an act threatening Greece.

Theodoros Karypidis, who was selected at the weekend as Syriza's candidate for the post of regional governor of Western Macedonia, made the comments in a Facebook post on June 15 that came to light on Wednesday.

In the post, Karypidis claimed that the new station’s acronym is linked to the Hebrew word for candle - Ner - and that candles lit during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrate Jewish victory over ancient Greece.

"Samaras is lighting the candles (Nerit) in the seven branched candelabra of the Jews and lighting Greece on fire after his visit to Thessaloniki Synagogue ... He is organising a new Hanukkah against the Greeks," wrote Karypidis, a journalist who has hosted Golden Dawn figures on his local television show.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the American Jewish Committee said it was is "appalled by the antisemitic statements".

"Vile, outrageous expressions of antisemitism in Greece are coming not only from Golden Dawn on the far right but also, as Theodoros Karypidis's Facebook post illustrates, from the far left," said the AJC's executive director, David Harris.

"Prime Minister Samaras and his government laudably reject these dangerous attacks and recognise the right of the Greek Jews, like all Greek citizens, to live in peace and dignity."

"Whipping up hatred of Jews, for all kinds of alleged conspiracies, is an all-too-familiar and long-time tactic of political extremists with nothing constructive to offer about real-life issues facing their country," said Harris.

"It also reveals once again that, for all their purported differences, far-right and -left politicians can have more in common than they might otherwise admit - the capacity for blind hatred, bigotry and demagoguery." he continued.

It looks like Kaypidis' Facebook post also said that Jewish girls born during Chanukah are named "Nera" and that Chanukah is an anti-Greek holiday.

(h/t Yosef)

Coke invests in SodaStream competitor; will Pepsi buy SODA?

From Business Week:

Coca-Cola (KO) announced on Wednesday that it’s buying a 10 percent stake in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) for $1.25 billion. It’s not a move to get into the coffee business but rather an aggressive push to compete directly with SodaStream (SODA), which sells do-it-yourself carbonation machines as well as the flavor syrups that go with them. Coke will be the first company to feature its brands in Green Mountain’s new Keurig Cold machines, set to debut in 2015.

Keurig Cold will make soda and noncarbonated drinks like juices and teas using pods similar to those in Green Mountain’s Keurig coffee brewers. That means consumers could soon make their own Hi-C or Fuze, not just home-bubbled Diet Coke or Sprite. Compatibility with familiar and valued soft drink brands is clearly going to be the selling point, just as it is with the big coffee brands such as Starbucks (SBUX) and Dunkin’ Donuts (DNKN) available as K-Cup pods.

Israel's Calcalist reports that in the wake of the SodaStream SuperBowl ad, it appears that the soft drink giants are getting very nervous. There were rumors of talks between SodaStream and Pepsi six months ago, and now people are talking about both Pepsi and Dr. Pepper as potential buyers or investors in SodaStream.

The day after the Super Bowl, SodaStream stock went down 2 points, causing much cheering from the Israel haters who were certain that their whining caused the drop.

If the SodaStream ad had bombed as the haters pretended, then Coke wouldn't have to drop one and a quarter billion to get into that market, would it?

Today, SODA is up 4 points, an 11% gain, on the rumors of a new partner for SodaStream.

Sorry, haters.

(h/t Ori)

02/06 Links Pt1: Putin’s Occupation Olympics; Do ‘Syria,’ ‘Iraq’ and ‘Lebanon’ Still Exist?

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: Putin’s Occupation Olympics

The international silence about the deepening occupation of Georgia seems even more like acceptance when contrasted with the diplomatic outrage the U.S. and EU express about what they regard as occupation elsewhere.
For example, the EU has recently taken the position that it would be illegal to do business with Israeli companies that operate in the West Bank. Of course, by this standard any participation in the Sochi Games — from corporate sponsors, to contributions and fees from national Olympic committees — would be forbidden. Making “ending occupation” the centerpiece of U.S.-EU foreign policy while playing the Occupation Olympics magnifies the extent of the West’s Caucasian capitulation.
Four years ago, former U.S. ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker wrote that “attending the 2014 Olympics … would make all of us complicit in cementing in practice Russia’s changing European borders by force, even if we reject those changes in principle.” Now, the cement has set — cement that was itself taken from Georgia.

Isi Leibler: Candidly speaking: Friends of Israel must speak up now

But when a US secretary of state indirectly encourages Europeans and others to pressure Israel with sanctions unless it makes further concessions, friends of Israel must protest publicly or this could develop into a tsunami and we will be abandoned.
Not surprisingly the traditionally outspoken ZOA immediately protested. But it was significant that ADL head Abe Foxman, hardly a hawk, sent Kerry an open letter bitterly criticizing his remarks, which he charged would be construed as “an incentive by Palestinians not to reach an agreement” and “as legitimizing boycott activity.” Israel’s supporters around the world should today unite and speak out.
The government and Diaspora leaders should initiate a Day of Global Solidarity with Israel in which Israelis, Americans and Israel supporters worldwide gather in Jerusalem to express their support for Israel’s commitment to peace, and condemn those seeking to force Israel to compromise on its basic security needs. We must demonstrate that a genuine peace can only be attained when both sides are committed to peace and treated fairly.

Ed Royce: Anti-Israel Incitement Must End

The scene has become a depressingly familiar one: while the United States works to advance peace negotiations in the Middle East, the Palestinian Authority’s state-controlled media and educational systems teach their citizens and, most troubling, children to hate Israel and its Jewish people.
It often seems more like the Palestinian Authority is preparing its people for war instead of preparing them for peace.
The PA’s state-sanctioned media and educational systems systematically deny the existence of a Jewish state, arguing that Israel’s existence is a direct threat to Palestinians; even asserting that the destruction of Israel is justified.