Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, February 23, 2014

"Khazar" study thoroughly debunked

A year ago, scientifically illiterate media started reporting on a study by Eran Elhaik of Johns Hopkins University that claimed that it proved decisively that Ashkenazi Jews descended from Khazars, and not the Middle East.

I showed then not only that Elhaik's paper was sloppy and that the methodology was problematic, but also that Elhaik was clearly painting the bullseye after shooting the arrow - he intended from the beginning to prove the bizarre Khazar theory before gathering data, the exact opposite of how a scientist is supposed to act.

It turns out that the researchers who gathered the datasets that Elhaik cherry-picked to reach his foregone conclusions have demonstratively debunked Elhaik and his methods.

From their paper, named "No Evidence from Genome-Wide Data of a Khazar Origin for the Ashkenazi Jews":

Abstract. The origin and history of the Ashkenazi Jewish population have long been of great interest, and advances in high-throughput genetic analysis have recently provided a new approach for investigating these topics. We and others have argued on the basis of genome-wide data that the Ashkenazi Jewish population derives its ancestry from a combination of sources tracing to both Europe and the Middle East. It has been claimed, however, through a reanalysis of some of our data, that a large part of the ancestry of the Ashkenazi population originates with the Khazars, a Turkic-speaking group that lived to the north of the Caucasus region ~1,000 years ago. Because the Khazar population has left no obvious modern descendants that could enable a clear test for a contribution to Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, the Khazar hypothesis has been difficult to examine using genetics. Furthermore, because only limited genetic data have been available from the Caucasus region, and because these data have been concentrated in populations that are genetically close to populations from the Middle East, the attribution of any signal of Ashkenazi-Caucasus genetic similarity to Khazar ancestry rather than shared ancestral Middle Eastern ancestry has been problematic. Here, through integration of genotypes on newly collected samples with data from several of our past studies, we have assembled the largest data set available to date for assessment of Ashkenazi Jewish genetic origins. This data set contains genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 1,774 samples from 106 Jewish and non-Jewish populations that span the possible regions of potential Ashkenazi ancestry: Europe, the Middle East, and the region historically associated with the Khazar Khaganate. The data set includes 261 samples from 15 populations from the Caucasus region and the region directly to its north, samples that have not previously been included alongside Ashkenazi Jewish samples in genomic studies. Employing a variety of standard techniques for the analysis of population-genetic structure, we find that Ashkenazi Jews share the greatest genetic ancestry with other Jewish populations, and among non-Jewish populations, with groups from Europe and the Middle East. No particular similarity of Ashkenazi Jews with populations from the Caucasus is evident, particularly with the populations that most closely represent the Khazar region. Thus, analysis of Ashkenazi Jews together with a large sample from the region of the Khazar Khaganate corroborates the earlier results that Ashkenazi Jews derive their ancestry primarily from populations of the Middle East and Europe, that they possess considerable shared ancestry with other Jewish populations, and that there is no indication of a significant genetic contribution either from within or from north of the Caucasus region.

...One recent study (Elhaik, 2013), making use of part of our data set (Behar and others, 2010), focused specifically on the Khazar hypothesis, arguing that it has strong genetic support. This claim was built on a series of analyses similar to those performed in our original study that initially reported the data. However, the reanalysis relied on the provocative assumption that the Armenians and Georgians of the South Caucasus region could serve as appropriate proxies for Khazar descendants (Elhaik, 2013). This assumption is problematic for a number of reasons. First, because of the great variety of populations in the Caucasus region and the fact that no specific population in the region is known to represent Khazar descendants, evidence for ancestry among Caucasus populations need not reflect Khazar ancestry. Second, even if it were allowed that Caucasus affinities could represent Khazar ancestry, the use of the Armenians and Georgians as Khazar proxies is particularly poor, as they represent the southern part of the Caucasus region, while the Khazar Khaganate was centered in the North Caucasus and further to the north. Furthermore, among populations of the Caucasus, Armenians and Georgians are geographically the closest to the Middle East, and are therefore expected a priori to show the greatest genetic similarity to Middle Eastern populations. Indeed, a rather high similarity of South Caucasus populations to Middle Eastern groups was observed at the level of the whole genome in a recent study (Yunusbayev and others, 2012). Thus, any genetic similarity between Ashkenazi Jews and Armenians and Georgians might merely reflect a common shared Middle Eastern ancestry component, actually providing further support to a Middle Eastern origin of Ashkenazi Jews, rather than a hint for a Khazar origin.

The paper also publishes this graphic with this explanation:

Figure 6 reports the mean genomic sharing between Ashkenazi Jews and the 11 population groups, and Supplemental Table 2 gives p-values for tests of the null hypotheses of equal mean IBD sharing with Ashkenazi Jews for pairs of population groups. The greatest level of sharing was observed with Sephardi Jews, considerably greater than with other populations. Substantial sharing with Eastern Europeans was also observed, though at a much lower level. Sharing with most other populations was lower still, and with Caucasus populations, the level of sharing was similar to that observed for the Middle East. In accordance with the results from other analyses, the IBD sharing of Caucasus populations with Ashkenazi Jews was relatively low.

Since this is a scientific paper, they can't say that Elhaik was a hack, but it is clear that his methods - using data from these very researchers - prove how low people will stoop to buttress their biases.

Of course, the media will never give this study (written last year) the same coverage that Elhaik's lies received.

(h/t The Jewish Press)

Abbas' "peace plan" (ElderToon, updated)

An old joke but it still holds up.

I have never heard Abbas rescind the PLO's Stages Plan of 1974. Quite the contrary - his Fatah cronies say it is still in effect, today.

UPDATE: Commenter "Rabbi Burns" suggested that I document the idea in the poster itself, so I did.

Israel haters frightened of my "Apartheid?" posters

During the past 30 days, about 50,000 people have viewed my "Apartheid?" poster series page on my blog. It has gone truly viral in the run up to this year's "Israel Apartheid Week" on college campuses.

And the posters are clearly making the haters nervous.

Ben White, whom I have already exposed as a hypocrite who doesn't give a damn about the Palestinians he pretends to be defending, publishes a spoof of my posters on his Facebook page, using the identical style and font, substituting the word "Democracy?" for "Apartheid?":

Let's forget the fact that every democracy in the world has laws limiting who can become citizens of their countries. Lets' forget the fact that there is no Palestinian Arab "right of return" under international law (despite the sputterings of the haters.) Let's forget the fact that the definition of "refugee" for Palestinians is not the same as the definition of refugee for anyone else in the world.

Let's look instead at where White got this photo from.

It comes from an article in the Euro-Mediterranean Academy for Young Journalists written by Maha Al-Kahef, Marina Ferhatovic and Haneen Aweis.

The article is about how Jordan discriminates against its Palestinian citizens!

A quote from this article:

In total there are between 2 and 3 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan. Matar Saqar, press officer at UNRWA, believes that many of them don’t have equal rights as other citizens: “There is discrimination within certain areas of work. Palestinians don’t always have the same possibility to work within the government, police, security or social services. Our loyalty to the state is always under doubt”.

In other words, the photo that White uses to somehow cast doubt on Israel's democracy was meant to show how Jordanians discriminate against their own citizens who happen to identify as Palestinian!

White proves once again that White is not pro-Palestinian in any sense of the word. He takes a picture meant to expose Jordan's own apartheid and ignore the context to try (poorly) to demonize Israel.

So I decided to correct White's failed attempt at turning the tables on what can only be described as a very successful campaign against Israel haters like him.

White does deserve a hat tip for finding a really great photo to illustrate Jordanian apartheid.

(h/t Daphne Anson)

02/22 Links: Syrian rebel leader thanks Israel for medical help; Israeli Vodka in Oscars Gift Bags

From Ian:

Syrian rebel leader thanks PM for standing by wounded

Speaking from Istanbul, Badie thanked those working to assist the Syrian people in their struggle.
He added that Netanyahu’s pubic[sic] presence near the Syrian wounded was an “important message.”
On Tuesday, Netanyahu spoke at an IDF base where injured Syrians are receiving medical care. He said Israel’s humanitarian efforts to help the Syrian wounded highlighted the difference between Jerusalem and Tehran, which backed Assad. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Chloe Valdary: Judith Butler & our will to survive

Butler states that authentic Jewishness is “itself an anti-identitarian project…” She has the audacity to believe she can speak for all of world Jewry and define something which she claims has no definition. She suggests that an ethnic group is merely a blob devoid of all identity.
The abject irony is that to assert that a people’s identity is meaningless and vile is itself expressing discrimination against that people. It is in essence saying that they as a distinctive people do not matter. That she would try to even speak at a museum labeling itself “Jewish” is to contradict the central premise of her treatise.

Judith Butler scraps museum talk over BDS support

Butler, who teaches comparative literature and critical theory at the University of California, Berkeley, was set to speak at an event on March 6 about the writer Franz Kafka.
But supporters of Israel took issue with the museum’s decision to invite her, the Forward reported Thursday. The opponents cited her support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction movement, or BDS, and harsh criticism of Israel.

02/21 Links Pt2: Oxfam Exec in '67 “Now The Jews Are Going To Get It!”; SodaStream aikido

From Ian:

CLAIM: Oxfam Exec delighted: “Now The Jews Are Going To Get It!” On Eve Of ’67 War

But my Oxfam Moment came one summer’s evening when a senior Oxfam executive invited me to dinner at his sumptuous home in the rolling Oxfordshire countryside. He was cultured, brilliant and cool. Every inch the top Foreign Office diplomat, which had indeed been his previous calling. Before dinner, he suggested we take drinks on the lawn. As an afterthought, he asked the butler to bring out his portable radio so that we could listen to the news. It was, after all, the first day of the Six Day War.
The BBC faithfully reported claims by the Israelis that they had destroyed the air forces of Egypt and Syria on the ground. Then, the newsreader intoned the Arab claims that they had inflicted extensive damage on the Israeli army; that Egyptian tanks were advancing; that they were now 25 kilometres from Tel Aviv.
My urbane host lost his cultivated cool. His elderly body shot into the air, fists pumping at the skies: ‘Now the Jews are going to get it... Now they’re going to get it.’ Remember, Israel occupied no territories, nor had it constructed a single settlement. There could be only one explanation for his jubilation: the prospect of Israel’s imminent destruction. When he recovered his composure, he raised his glass and beamed at me: ‘Wonderful news. Simply wonderful.’ I stared back, shocked, not knowing how to respond. To my shame, I said nothing.

Official PA daily crossword: Haifa is "a port in occupied Palestine"

Palestinian Media Watch has documented numerous examples of the official PA daily's use of crossword puzzles to deny Israel's existence. Cities such as Acre, Safed, Lod and even Tel Aviv have been presented as "Palestinian" or "occupied."
The PA uses the many infrastructures of communication at its disposal to promote the message that there is no Israel, but only "occupied Palestine," and that it is only a matter of time and planning before Israel disappears and "Palestine" returns.

Dutch firm says Israel boycott not factor in port tender (paywall soz.)

A report in TheMarker on Monday stating that at least two foreign companies dropped out of the Israeli government tender to develop private seaports due to anti-Israel boycotts has been disputed by two of the companies involved. (h/t Yenta Press)

From MSN News (via Press Association):

Japanese police are investigating after dozens of copies of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl and scores of books about the young Holocaust victim were vandalised in Tokyo public libraries.

The damage was mostly in the form of dozens of ripped pages in the books. Librarians have counted at least 265 damaged books at 31 municipal libraries since the end of January.

Japan and Nazi Germany were allies in the Second World War, and though Holocaust denial has occurred in Japan at times, the motive for damaging the Anne Frank books is unclear. Police are investigating.

In the Nakano district libraries, the vandals apparently damaged the books while unnoticed inside reading rooms, according to city official Mitsujiro Ikeda.

"Books related to Ms Anne Frank are clearly targeted, and it's happening across Tokyo," he said. "It's outrageous."

At least one library has moved Anne Frank-related books behind the counter for protection, though they can still be checked out.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga called the vandalism "shameful" and said Japan would not tolerate such acts.

(h/t Angela)

02/21 Links Pt1: Abbas’s intransigence and insolence; Hamas Tests AA Missiles Against Israel

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Rousing the Americans from their slumber

In several key cases, supporting US allies will require fewer, rather than more, US oversees deployments.
For instance, as Israel’s leaders have stated since the founding of the state, Israel has no interest in having anyone else fight its wars for it. All it requires is the strength – military, economic, territorial and political – to defend itself by itself.
Rather than seek to weaken Israel by coercing it to recede to indefensible borders in order to make room for a Palestinian terrorist state in its historic heartland, the US should abandon its support for Palestinian terrorists and ensure that Israel has the power to defend itself in a region marked by unprecedented instability and danger.
A strong Israel will be a force for regional stability and so advance US security while forming the firm foundation of a renewed US alliance structure in the region.

Sarah Honig: Happy days are (almost) here

We have news for Abbas. Jordan and Egypt, unlike the Palestinians, never sought to replace the Jewish state and the UN already granted us recognition, back on November 29, 1947 – when it divided this tiny land into two entities – one Jewish and one Arab.
The Jews rejoiced. The Arabs declared genocidal war to prevent the birth of a Jewish state. All that has transpired since is the continuation of that war and the ongoing conflict still stems from the refusal to abide a Jewish state.
In 1947 the Arab world didn’t want a Palestinian state – it wanted to destroy the Jewish state. It still does. A nondescript state, temporarily called Israel, will forever remain a candidate for Arabization – one way or another. As long as the legitimacy of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people is not accepted, the Arabs will continue to wage their war to do away with what they cannot accept.
That’s why Abbas’s honeyed blandishments and professions of peaceful intent are as convincing as were Hitler’s when he inveigled Neville Chamberlain to choose appeasement at Munich. The “painful sacrifices” of September 29, 1938 – all Germany claimed to be after – hardly sated Hitler’s appetites. On March 16 1939, he invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia. (h/t NormanF)

US: Peace framework will recognize Israel as Jewish state

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro asserted on Friday that the framework peace deal currently being negotiated by US Secretary of State of John Kerry will include Palestinian recognition of Israel as “the nation state of the Jewish people.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recognize Israel’s Jewishness has been a sticking point in negotiations, with the Palestinians refusing to accede to a demand that would tacitly do away with Palestinian hopes for a “right of return” for refugees and their descendants.

Arafat accepted Israel as a Jewish State

From Haaretz:

One of the interviewers was Haaretz’s editor in chief, the other the paper’s senior diplomatic reporter. Both were first-class professionals with vast experience, and both were lily-white doves. Nevertheless, the two peace-seeking interviewers dared to ask the high-level interviewee a question that’s currently considered beyond the pale in these parts: Should Israel continue to be a Jewish state?

Surprisingly, the evasive interviewee gave a decisive answer: “Definitely.” The two experienced interviewers doubled-checked: Definitely? “Definitely,” confirmed the interviewee, giving an expansive interpretation of the historic decision made by the Palestine National Council 16 years earlier.

Thus it’s no surprise that Haaretz’s lead headline on June 18, 2004 trumpeted his statement: “Arafat: Israel is Jewish.” On the basis of what the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization told David Landau and Akiva Eldar in Ramallah 10 years ago, the paper declared unambiguously that “Yasser Arafat ‘definitely’ understands that Israel must preserve its character as a Jewish state.”

Veteran journalist Amnon Abramovich says the Israeli media lives by the 90-day rule. Under this rule, any article published in the past can be republished as a fresh scoop as long as it hasn’t been published in the past 90 days. So in line with the Abramovich rule, I hereby seek to revive Haaretz’s dramatic scoop: Arafat recognized Israel as a Jewish state. The leader of the Palestinian revolution, president of the Palestinian Authority and commander of the armed struggle accepted the fact that Israel is a Jewish state, and must continue to be one.

This is sort of amazing.

There have been scores of articles official statements and articles in the Palestinian Arab press, in English and Arabic, explaining why recognizing Israel as a Jewish state is a non-starter, is unacceptable and is even racist.

Yet none of these people would ever disagree with Arafat.

Obviously, Arafat was a terrorist, a murderer, and a liar. The full interview is no longer on Haaretz' website; the synopsis says that Arafat said that the PLO "accepted that openly and officially in 1988 at our Palestine National Council." That is more than a stretch; the UN record of the PLO communique at the time certainly doesn't say that. The closest it says is this:

Despite the historical injustice done to the Palestinian Arab people in its displacement and in being deprived of the right to self-determination following the adoption of General Assembly resolution 181 (II) of 1947, which partitioned Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish State, that resolution nevertheless continues to attach conditions to international legitimacy that guarantee the Palestinian Arab people the right to sovereignty and national independence.

If they are attaching their legitimacy to a non-binding UN resolution that they rejected - which is the very reason it has no legal validity - then perhaps one can say that in 1988 they accepted the concept of a Jewish state on the partition lines. Again, he was a master of deception and this seems more than tenuous.

Nevertheless, his wording in this interview is quite definitive and it did not cause any major firestorm within the PLO as far as I can tell. Indeed, the statement has been wholly forgotten.

Notice also that the liberal Haaretz interviewers are mentioning this as a major issue in 2004 - before Netanyahu was re-elected, before Livni made the same demand in negotiations to be rebuffed by the PLO negotiating team in 2007. It is not a new issue.

It will be most interesting to see how Abbas, Erekat and the gang of liars in charge of the PLO will react to this.

New Danny Ayalon video: "The Truth About the UN"

Worth watching, as always:

Two honor killings in Gaza

Arabic media are reporting that a man in northern Gaza beat his 16-year old daughter to death.

The family had buried her on Wednesday claiming she died of natural causes but police exhumed her body a day later and saw that she was beaten.

The reason given was "family problems." The father is divorced.

Also on Thursday, a man stabbed his 19-year old sister to death while she was praying. The reason given was "family honor."

Some 27 women were murdered, apparently for "honor" reasons, in the West Bank and Gaza in 2013, double the number killed in 2012.

Survey of the situation of Jews in Arab states before Israel was reborn

From JTA, reproduced in various Jewish newspapers in August 1947:

Amazing blog post from a Syrian refugee in Istanbul

Yesterday, Israel's prime minister visited the field hospital where Syrian patients are being treated. Here's what he said:

The Syrian opposition condemned Netanyahu!

Khalid Saleh, head of the Media Office, said that “the visit paid by Prime Minister of the Israeli occupation to one of the hospitals where injured Syrians are being hospitalized is nothing more than a publicity gimmick and a deliberate move to hint that there is a certain relationship between the Syrian revolution and the Zionist entity. Israel’s Prime Minister aims at whitewashing his tarnished image in the minds of the Arab and Islamic peoples.” Saleh denounces “Israel’s investment in the plight of the Syrian people and using them as tools to spruce up his besmirched image. Saleh stresses that “the Israeli entity stood against the Syrian uprising from the start when they repeatedly warned of the danger of the weapons falling in the hands of what they described as terrorists. These “terrorists” - wounded civilians who were forcedly taken to Israeli hospitals and are being employed today for marketing their political agenda.” Saleh points out that “forcing some of the wounded civilians to receive treatment in the hospitals of the Israeli occupation as a result of the crippling siege imposed by the Assad regime lays bare Assad’s claims about resisting the Israeli occupation.”

This bizarre response did not go unnoticed by real Syrian refugees.

Aboud Dandachi, a Syrian from Homs, has a blog describing his experiences. Here's what he has to say about this episode:

This one press release by the SNC may very well prove to be one of the most self-damaging statements ever released by a political organization. Not only did the SNC fall into a trap by reacting hastily to goading from its opponents, but by denouncing an act of charity that has saved so many Syrian lives, even from a country that has historically been an adversary to Syria, the SNC has very much called into question the Syrian political opposition’s ability to engage in any post-conflict reconciliation with those communities that stood with the regime during the war. If you can’t even bring yourself to say thank you to medical aid from Israel, how on earth are you ever going to bring yourself to meet the greater challenge of living and let live with those Syrians who fought for the regime over the years. To say nothing of the vindication of those parties very much against any sort of help to the Syrian opposition, whom those parties see as potential adversaries in the future.

Alas, the SNC’s position is by no means an isolated one among the Syrian opposition. Indeed, the coalition probably felt compelled to make a denunciation along these lines to maintain its credibility among the rank and file activists. This one statement is going to have some very far reaching repercussions, especially with respect to any further aid the opposition can expect to receive. Who in their right mind is going to provide MANPADs and advanced anti-tank missiles to an opposition that can’t even reconcile itself to medical aid from a perceived adversary. Frankly, this regrettable episode has demonstrated that the Syrian political opposition still has alot of growing up to do.

The idea that any Syrian should feel apologetic for seeking medical aid from an Israeli hospital is yet one more morally bankrupt notion in a conflict that has already laid bare the moral shortcomings of many formerly esteemed parties and movements. ...This is a regime that has targeted Red Crescent volunteers and murdered a British surgeon for giving the exact same aid the Israelis are providing wounded Syrians. Dr Abbas Khan was rightly hailed as a hero, and Israel’s contribution to treating hundreds of needy Syrians deserves no less praise and appreciation. The pro-regimists have no moral standing or high ground on this issue whatsoever. Far from condemning Benjamin Netanyahu for visiting wounded Syrians, the Assad supporters’ time would be better spent asking where their beloved leader has been hiding out these past months. It is shameful that Angelina Jolie has made more visits to Syrian camps and refugee hospitals than Assad and Asma have combined.

...
Maybe Barack Obama and the naysayers were right after all, maybe they knew us better than we knew ourselves. There are some Israelis and in the West who want nothing whatsoever to do with Syria and its problems, and statements like the SNC’s have validated their worse suspicions, that any Syrian opposition group the West helps are only going to be adversaries after the war. It is an unfortunate fact, that Israeli medical teams have done more for Syrians in the south of the country than all the opposition groups put together, to say nothing of the murderous regime that caused them to seek help in the first place.

...
Of course, nothing happens in the Middle East in a vacuum, and alot of other issues intrude to make any conflict that much more complicated. Some Syrians, and indeed Arabs, are of the opinion that one cannot reconcile even to the slightest degree with Israel and hope to remain loyal to our Palestinian brethren and their aspirations. Frankly, it would not be unfair to say that this sort of hardline stance is most popular among those who have in reality done crap-all in a practical sense for our Palestinian brethren. By all means, go and jump on the BDS bandwagon if it assuages your guilt, and I’m sure the fact that the BDSers have a very flexible and self-serving idea of who is worthy of a boycott makes it that much easier.

...When the war in Syria is over, one of the things that I as a (hopefully) former refugee would want to see addressed, is the disgraceful treatment of our Palestinian brothers and sisters in the Arab world. If it is solidarity with Palestinians that certain Arabs seek, then nothing can improve the Palestinians’ situation more quickly than by granting them the right to work, study, travel and private property ownership in the Arab countries they currently reside in. Because frankly, I doubt there is a single Palestinian in the Levant or North Africa who wouldn’t swap places with an Arab-Israeli in a heart beat.

....Personally, Israel’s kindness to Syrian refugees has demonstrated to me that Syrians and Israelis need not be adversaries in the future, that there is space and possibility for an accommodation on even the most seemingly intractable of issues. There is goodwill and humanity on the Israeli side, despite everything I have been taught to believe during my life.

I hope that in the future, those of the Syrian opposition who currently regard anything Israel does with hostility and suspicion, ask themselves what is to be gained by pandering to morally bankrupt pro-Assadists, whose beloved leader’s family could not, in forty years, regain the Golan Heights either through war or through negotiations. The whole point of an opposition is to give the country a different way of thinking. Knowing who our true friends are would be a good place to start.

(h/t Sarah)

02/20 Links Pt2: The ugly history of the Apartheid Smear; Lawsuit Threat to Oxfam over Terror links

From Ian:

The ugly history of the Apartheid Smear

Here, I want to say something about the revealing historical background to the apartheid smear. There have been three key moments. Each – whatever the sincere hopes of many of its supporters – was a cynical attempt to demonise Israel as a pariah state in order to prepare the ground for its eventual destruction.
The smear originated in "anti-Zionist" campaigns that were waged without let up by the Communist states during the Cold War. Seeking Arab allies, these campaigns frequently descended into antisemitism, the word "Zionist" understood by all as a fig-leaf for "Jew". Many ideas that have since spread around the world, especially amongst "progressives", began here: Zionism equals racism, Zionism equals imperialism. Israel is the USA's "watchdog" in the Middle East, Zionism is complicit with, or even promotes, antisemitism, and, of course, Zionism equals South African apartheid.

Following Scarlett Johansson Furor, Oxfam Threatened With Lawsuit for Providing Aid to Branches of Terror Group

Global charity Oxfam has been threatened with criminal and civil lawsuits for its funding of branches of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terror organization, Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center said in a statement on Thursday. The move comes just weeks after actress Scarlett Johansson ended ties with the charity over a difference of opinion regarding her role as an ambassador for Israeli company SodaStream.
Shurat HaDin, which “represents victims of Palestinian and Islamic terrorism in courtrooms around the world,” demanded that Oxfam sever its ties with the Union of Health Workers Committees (“UHWC”) and the Union of Agricultural Worker’s Committee (“UAWC”), two agencies of the terror organization which it said “were created by the PFLP” and “operate under the direct patronage and in close cooperation with the PFLP.”

Study: Arab-Israeli Conflict Source Of 85% Of World’s Bull$#!@ (satire)

The BS finds its way into the environment through such media as major news outlets that use the term “militant” instead of “terrorist,” for example, or “resistance to the occupation” instead of the more fact-based “attempts to destroy Israel.”
By far the most common type of this pollution involves the term “Palestinian,” a made-up nation with no discrete national history before the 1960′s except as derivative of Syrian, Jordanian, and Egyptian tribal loyalties. But other common types of BS can often outnumber those stool samples on any given day, such as the manifest misnomer “peace process” and an assumed “right” of return for Arab refugees. Still other common examples include “Israel’s blockade of Gaza,” which ignores the coastal strip’s border with Egypt; “1967 borders” as a reference to boundaries that were actually only a messily-defined ceasefire line from 1949, not a recognized national frontier; and anything that comes from a source that supports the BDS movement.

Hezbollah TV: Superman is a Jewish plot to take over the world!

From MEMRI:

According to an Al-Manar TV report, titled "Jews, Movies, Hollywoodism, and the American Dream" and broadcast on February 10, 2014, Hollywood was a Jewish invention, the goals of which were "to take over the greatest superpower in the world, to control all aspects of its daily life, and to harness it in the service of Jewish goals worldwide."

Following are excerpts:

Reporter: [The American Jews] felt rejected by real American society. Therefore, they tried to change society's opinion of them by inventing cinematic characters that would serve as role models. That's when it all began. Everybody wanted to be like Superman, the hero from outer space, who could not fit in society as Superman, so he invented a character that was better suited for American society – the feeble, bespectacled Clark Kent.

Farroukh Majidi, university professor and international photographer: If you hit the heart of somebody, the result is short term, but if you hit his brain, then the result is long term.

Reporter: Incidentally, Superman was invented by the Jew, Joe Schuster.

Farroukh Majidi: They try to make you believe that what you think comes out of yourself.

Reporter: Hollywood is a Jewish invention that changed the way Americans view America, and created dreams, rather than reality. They managed to make the Americans live the dream, divorced from reality. Undoubtedly, the goal was to take over the greatest superpower in the world, to control all aspects of its daily life, and to harness it in the service of Jewish goals worldwide. Whenever someone challenges this, Superman is ready to deal with him.

Farroukh Majidi: What is most dangerous is if you believe their culture. You should focus on that – not about a movie about a Jewish person who was the best, who was a savior, or a hero, or whatever. This is not going to touch us. What is touching us, what is ruining us, ruining our culture, is the penetration of their culture through mass media, through their movies, through this television. This is what we have to be aware of.
[…]
Reporter: The Jews consider [Carl] Laemmle to have saved hundreds of people from the so-called "Holocaust." "Schindler's List" is perhaps one move that implies this. This film was produced and distributed by Universal Studios.

Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Studios, renounced his German identity for the sake of his Jewishness. He made money and used it for the Jewish enterprise. He worked to keep Hollywood in Jewish hands only. This influence continues to this day.
[…]
Farroukh Majidi: I think we should think completely in another direction – to fight against what they want to do. Of course, this is their country, this is their culture, and they want to conquer all the world. As we want. But they know how to do it, and we don't.
[…]
With this technology, with this equipment, with this skillfulness of the people… In this way, you believe that they are different. They know exactly how to use it because they have a lot of specialists, who surround them for making a movie, and we don't have it. Just we think about the subject from a political point of view.

[…]

Jew-hating Arabs have managed to make a big deal over Jews peacefully visiting and praying in their holiest sites on the Temple Mount, the Kotel, the Tomb of Joseph and the Maarat HaMachpela. In each case the Muslims claim that these holy sites are really Islamic, and that the Jews are "usurping" them.

No human rights NGO has ever pushed back and said that Jews have the right to worship in their holy spots.

So this article in Egyptian daily Mesryoon - and at least five other Arabic newspapers - was inevitable.

Dozens of Israeli settlers on Thursday morning stormed the Bilal bin Rabah mosque north of the city of Bethlehem, claiming it is the site of "Rachel's Tomb", and they performed Talmudic rituals inside.

Local sources said that the settlers broke into the area near the Aida refugee camp, and performed provocative religious rituals inside, and that the settlers arrived by bus and were accompanied by patrols of the Israeli occupation.

They were there for several hours during which voices were heard screaming inside the mosque, while performing Talmudic rituals.

Sources reported that the mosque is located inside the wall of apartheid.

The settlers, under the pretext of performing Talmudic rituals, repeatedly desecrate the mosque.

There is no record of Rachel's Tomb being called the Bilal bin Rabah mosque before the 1990s. It is complete fiction. Muslims freely acknowledged that this was Rachel's Tomb, and called it Khirbet Rahil and other names with the word "Rachel" in Arabic.

The simultaneous publication of this news item - when Jews have been visiting Rachel's Tomb virtually every day for centuries except between 1948-1967 - indicates that Arab Muslims are preparing to expand their campaign of lies and slander against Jews and Judaism.

And yet, you will be hard pressed to find any "human rights" organization, or mainstream media fact checker, bothering to point out the obvious lies and antisemitism. Because Muslims are expected to lie, to make up history, to get their fiction to be labeled simply "their narrative" as if the truth and lies are interchangeable, and to usurp Jewish holy places.

Since Muslims are expected to act in reprehensible ways, why should anyone outside Jewish "fanatics" be bothered when they live up to expectations? In the twisted world we live in, only Jews are expected to act like human beings and to care about small matters like being honest with history.

02/20 Links Pt1: Jerusalem’s 90-Year-Old ‘Settlement’; State Dept. criticizes Erekat

From Ian:

Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov: 90-Year-Old ‘Settlement’

Most of these neighborhoods were built and populated after Israel liberated them from largely unrecognized Jordanian control in the Six-Day War of 1967. Of course, they are all built upon the remains of ancient Jewish settlements, or have signs of Jewish life from the First or Second Temple periods. During the construction of Gilo, for instance, archaeologists discovered a fortress and other remains from the times of the first Beit HaMikdash, and a biblical town of Gilo, slightly further south, is mentioned in the Books of Joshua and Samuel II. In Talpiyot there have been discoveries of Second Temple-era graves, and winepresses, graves and more have been found under Pisgat Ze’ev.
But one of these neighborhoods stands out in this respect: The northernmost one, a fascinating area named Neve Yaakov – a full-fledged Jewish community up until 1948. Today it is once again a thriving neighborhood many times larger than it was several decades ago, with a population close to 30,000. Despite this, the Arabs claim that this old-new village is “illegal.
Modern-day Neve Yaakov was first established in 1924 on a 16-acre plot of land purchased by members of the American Mizrachi movement from the Arabs of Beit Hanina. First called Kfar Ivri, its name was soon changed to commemorate Mizrachi leader Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Reines, who had died a decade earlier.

State Department Takes Issue with Erekat

The United States on Wednesday expressed concern over comments against Israel by the chief Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiator, Saeb Erekat.
"We are of course concerned about the recent comments by Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters, hinting that Secretary of State John Kerry would raise the issue during his meeting in Paris with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
"We've said all along that it's important to create a positive atmosphere around these discussions. The personal attacks, quite frankly, are unhelpful, and the secretary will make clear that these kinds of comments are disappointing, that they are unhelpful, especially coming from someone involved in the negotiations, indeed the lead negotiator," said Harf.

Yes Mr. Erekat, Jesus was a Jew

The kindest thing one can say about Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian “negotiator,” is that he suffers, or pretends to suffer, from delusions or fantasies. How else can one explain his statement on January 31, 2014 at a conference in Munich when he specified the reason for the Palestinian refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state? To do so, he said would be “asking me to change my narrative.”
That fabricated Palestinian narrative of victimhood has concocted hyperbolical and inaccurate commentaries about Middle East history and Israeli policies. Erekat has employed it, as so many other critics and boycotters of Israel have done, for political ends.

Q: What's the difference between BDS and terrorism? A: Nothing. (update)

While there is no single accepted definition of terrorism, the dictionary definition of terrorism is:

The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

Terrorism's main purpose is to terrorize, to instill fear in a large population by attacking a relatively small number of people. That's why the threat of a "dirty bomb" is a perfect example of terror - in general, it wouldn't hurt very many people but it would cause panic, which would affect people's behavior.

When Palestinian Arab terrorist groups shoot rockets or send suicide bombers, the number of casualties is relatively small. But if you look at their media afterwards they exult on the larger effects that such actions cause even more than the direct damage. Every time the schools in Ashkelon are closed because of rocket threats, it is reported in the terrorist-leaning Arabic media as a victory. They love making videos showing Israelis running to shelter during Code Red alerts.

To terrorists, fear is the goal - causing panic among a large population by attacking a small number of people.

This story, which may or may not be true given its source*, gives a perfect example of how the goals of BDS are identical to the goals of terrorist groups:

Leading international companies bidding to build private seaports dropped out of the Israeli government’s tender due to concerns over the political repercussions, a report said on Tuesday.

The Israeli daily Haaretz said that Royal Boskalis Westminster, a Dutch operator of ports that had submitted a proposal under the name Holland Terminal in the prequalification stage last December, dropped out shortly thereafter. More recently, Italy’s Condote

Haaretz said that the companies that had initially expressed their interest in the PQ stage last April made their decisions to drop out in recent months as boycott pressure on Israel has grown. The deadline for submitting bids was Monday, the report said.

Notice the reasons given for this alleged dropping of bids. The companies didn't do it because of Israel's policies; they didn't do it for "moral" reasons, they didn't announce that they would never want to work with a country such as Israel because of its supposed mistreatment of Palestinian Arabs..

The story says that they dropped out because of fear that the boycott movement might attack them.

In other words - they were intimidated. They were coerced.

They were terrorized.

The same thing happens with the vast majority of the small number of popular music stars that have decided to cancel concerts in Israel. Except for a couple of hardcore haters like Roger Waters, the stars calculated that any controversy is toxic to their careers and therefore the effort is not worth it.

They, too, were terrorized.

The tactics of Palestinian terrorists are meant to create an environment of fear where Israelis must worry about possibly being attacked by a tiny number of people whose importance gets magnified by their methods. Ultimately, they want to create an environment where Jews would flee Israel because the fear outweighs the benefits of living there.

The tactics of the BDS supporters are also meant to create an environment of fear, where companies and public individuals will be afraid of a backlash from a similarly tiny number of noisy people who can create an impression of being much larger by targeted, noisy use of social media and protests. Ultimately, they want to create an environment where companies and entertainers and governments would abandon Israel because the fear of controversy outweighs the benefits of working with the most liberal and successful country in the region.

Neither side spends too much time trying to actually convince a larger audience of the righteousness of their cause, although they both try to pretend that they have the moral high ground. Both sides are obviously hypocritical. In both cases, the bulk of their time is spent trying to figure out how to cause the most fear in the people they are threatening. In both cases, they celebrate when the targets cave to their threats and change their behavior. Likewise, in both cases, they will make up fake "victories" and celebrate them, because when the goal is to terrorize innocents, perception is more important than truth.

BDSers and terrorists are identical in strategy, in their intent, and in their definitions of victory. The only difference are specific tactics (and the BDSers generally have no problem with terrorism as well, as their leaders have admitted.)

BDS is a terror movement. Its economic impact is negligible but that isn't what they are after - they want to terrorize companies and individuals by creating an atmosphere of coercion and fear. Their victims need to understand that they are being intimidated and coerced by people whose morality and goals are virtually indistinguishable from that of jihadists.

UPDATE: *Israel's Presspectiva proved my skepticism about Haaretz' reliability on stories like these. It is really a shame that their lying about stories they want to be true is so utterly predictable. (h/t Yenta)

Saudi Arabia confiscates dangerous soccer balls (with Israeli flag)

Arabic media are reporting that a soccer ball has been confiscated by Saudi authorities from a shop in Dammam.

The reason? Well, it's obvious:

The Saudi Ministry of Trade and Industry responded quickly on Sunday to a citizen complaint via Twitter about the sale of balls bearing the six-pointed star that symbolizes the flag of Israel.

Teams of of the Inspection and Control division at the Ministry confiscated the balls from the store located in Dammam.

"Activists' thanked the ministry for responding so quickly to what must apparently have been considered a threat to public mental health.

They are continuing their investigation of how such a horrendous thing could have happened.

A few years back, Muslims complained about a flag on soccer balls as well - but not the Israeli flag:

A demonstration has been held in south- east Afghanistan accusing US troops of insulting Islam after they distributed footballs bearing the name of Allah.

The balls showed the Saudi Arabian flag which features the Koranic declaration of faith.

The US military said the idea had been to give something for Afghan children to enjoy and they did not realise it would cause offence.

So kicking the Saudi flag is offensive, but kicking the Israeli flag - a flag that is routinely stepped on in Arab countries - is offensive too.

Then again, the entire sport of soccer is a Zionist plot anyway.

Zarif blames "Zionists" for Lebanon bombing

Earlier Wednesday, UPI and others reported:

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday there is "no doubt" its rivals in Israel were behind twin bombings near the Iranian Cultural Center in Beirut.

At least five people were killed and another 80 wounded when twin explosions struck a Beirut neighborhood housing Iranian government entities, the Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon reported.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said mercenaries used by the Israeli government were behind the attack.

"There is no doubt that the agents behind the terrorist action in Beirut are enemies of Lebanon's stability, security and unity and are the hirelings of the Zionist regime who have been disappointed by the formation of a new government in the country," she said in a statement published by Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency.

It turns out that the "moderate" Iranian foreign Minister also blamed Israel for the bombings:

Zarif said that the terrorists involved in bombing are against stability, security and solidarity of the Lebanese nation and are puppets of the Zionist regime which has been disappointed by formation of the new Lebanese government with participation of all political parties.

As is often the case, the media waters down the news to maintain a false narrative. In this case, since Zarif has been heralded in the mainstream media as a moderate, intelligent, Westernized politician, editors are reluctant to ascribe insane Iranian statements to Zarif. When they mention them at all, they quote lower level officials or spokespeople.

Because the idea that the US negotiating partner is a hateful lunatic must not be publicized.

02/19 Links Pt2: Who Finances BDSM Against Israel?; Why Google loves Israel

From Ian:

Israelly Cool: Who Finances BDSM Against Israel?

Today in the Knesset there is a committee meeting session looking into the financing of the anti-Israel movements. Who pays for the kind of lies and propaganda that lead naive people (for example those in Australia who sell the Cinematic Strings software) to think that boycotting Israelis will somehow help Palestinians and lead to a better world.
The author, Edwin Black, has a book “Financing the Flames” discussing how tax exempt and public money fuel a culture of confrontation and terror in Israel. He’s appearing in front of the Knesset session today.

He appeared on Israeli TV (speaking in English) a few days ago: the introduction is in Hebrew but the main interview is all in English.

There's No Profit in Peace

I was in the Knesset today, listening to Edwin Black, author of Flanning the Flames.
He describes in his book that activists get paid more or only if there is violence that is worthy of being photographed and reported aborad to damage Israel's image, violence that is initiated and planned with malice aforethought by so-called "human rights campaigners". If there would be peace, no money for them.
He also pointed out that had the SodaStream factory and similar had been set up in Kosovo or Cambodia by church-affiliated groups, they may have won international recognition and gratitude for fostering peace and reconciliation. But the double standard is at work with Israel.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Unanimously Nominated to Chair UN Human Rights Committee Election

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, was unanimously nominated to chair a UN Human Rights Committee election on Tuesday, Israel’s UN mission said in a statement. 170 countries voted for Prosor, including members of the Arab bloc.
The selection of Israel’s representative to chair the vote, which was for one of the 18 positions on the Committee, is the latest sign of progress for Israel at the UN, a mission spokesperson told The Algemeiner. It comes just a short while after the Jewish State rejoined the Human Rights Council in Geneva and just days after Israel was admitted into JUSCANZ, the UN’s core coordinating group on human rights.

PA leader supports kidnapping Israeli soldiers

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Senior PA official and Deputy-Secretary of Fatah's Central Committee Jibril Rajoub said last month that the Palestinian Authority encourages Hamas to kidnap Israeli soldiers and hold them hostage in order to exchange them for the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Jibril Rajoub: "If Hamas wants to kidnap soldiers, let them kidnap soldiers. Let them kidnap. Let them kidnap if they [the Israelis] don't want to release prisoners, but want them as prisoners forever, so [the prisoners] will come out as ghosts and skeletons. The Israelis need to understand. It's clear that kidnapping is the language they understand. On the contrary, we encourage them [Hamas]. When they kidnapped [Gilad] Shalit, we congratulated them. When they concluded the Shalit [exchange] deal, in spite of our having a few reservations about it, we also congratulated them."
[Official PA TV, Jan. 2, 2014]

Jordan to buy $500m of gas from Israel

From Reuters:

The partners in the Tamar natural gas field off Israel's Mediterranean coast have signed a deal to sell at least $500 million of gas over 15 years to two Jordanian companies in the first deal outside of Israel.

Under the agreement, Tamar will supply 66 billion cubic feet to Arab Potash and its unit, Jordan Bromine - a joint venture with U.S. Albemarle - at their facilities near the Dead Sea, Noble Energy said on Wednesday.

Jordan is hungry for gas amid numerous attacks on a pipeline in the Sinai peninsula that has halted supplies from Egypt.

Tamar, discovered in 2009, is estimated to hold more than 280 billion cubic metres of gas. It began production last March and has already signed a number of lucrative deals in Israel.

The field came on line months after Egypt halted gas supplies to Israel.

After a lengthy and heated debate, the government last year decided to allow 40 percent of its natural gas reserves for export. It is using gas as an opportunity to improve relations with its neighbours including Jordan. It is also thought Israel could ultimately sell gas to Turkey, although ties between the two countries have been frosty over the last few years.

The nearby and much larger Leviathan field last month signed a 20-year, $1.2 billion deal to supply gas to planned a Palestinian power plant once Leviathan starts production in 2016 or 2017. Leviathan is estimated to hold some 540 billion cubic metres of gas, enough to supply Europe for a year.

Tamar and Leviathan were the two of the largest gas finds in the past decade and overnight turned Israel into a gas exporter.

The JordanZad newspaper says that the gas is coming from "the occupied territories."

Jordan has an active "anti-normalization" group so it will be interesting to see what kind of resistance, if any, comes from Jordanian citizens.

In the end, as we've seen with BDS, even the biggest anti-Israel idiots aren't willing to inconvenience themselves for a bogus "principle" - although they hypocritically insist that others do so.

02/19 Links Pt1: The People Who Always Refuse a State; Iran backs Assad and Al-Qaeda

From Ian:

Palestinian Arabs – The People Who Always Refuse a State

Western intervention only makes things worse, and leads the PA to believe that it can maintain a culture of victimhood and pay no price for its maximalist, uncompromising beliefs. Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Arab culture of incitement, terrorism, and resort to lawfare has only increased, in absolute violation of their commitments to teach and preach peace, dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, confiscate weapons, and arrest terrorists. The PA has not kept those international commitments; so what gives ‎Israel and Western diplomats confidence that any future accords – which will presumably involve Israel relinquishing vital land areas necessary for its security – will be honored? In Arab-Muslim culture, agreements tend to be broken when one side gains the strength to overcome the other, i.e. hudna. In the Middle East, the current status is what peace actually looks like: no paper agreements. At best, a détente, where only force and power prevail and are respected. That is what has enabled Israel to miraculously survive as an oasis of hope, democracy, and freedom in the midst of Arab-Muslim dominated totalitarian states, military dictatorships, and theocracies.‎
Israel ‎‎has no reliable “peace partner” in the Western sense, no matter how the mainstream media, EU, diplomats, and elites want to spin it. These apologists will always somehow find a way to rationalize and justify the Palestinian Arabs’ predictable resort to violence and in turn seek to delegitimize Israel for not making further concessions – regardless of whether it puts the Jewish State in deadly danger. The diplomatic process is not working. There must be far more onus on the PA to make true peace and prepare its own people for it. If and when Palestinian Arabs are ready, willing and able to say “yes,” Israel will be there – but not any sooner.

Comprehensive Report Debunks Bedouin Land Claims in the Negev

The new English-language report by Regavim, which advocates for fair allocation of land in Israel and campaigned successfully against the Begin-Prawer plan, focuses on six key arguments, including whether the Bedouin are indigenous to the northern Negev; whether Bedouin villages constitute historical structures; the claim that only 45 unrecognized Bedouin villages exist; whether Bedouin tribes have been neglected by the State in terms of building rights; whether government budgets are discriminatory against Bedouin tribes; and the percent of Negev lands to which Bedouin tribes lay claim.
Among other issues, the report disproves claims that the nomadic Bedouin are "indigenous" to the Negev, and through the use of historical documentation and aerial photos illustrates how "ancient" Negev villages - including the infamous al-Araqib settlement, a frequent site of clashes between law enforcement and radical activists - were only established very recently.

Last night a photo exhibition opened at the Instituto Cervantes in Tangier, Morocco, teaching the history of Jews in Morocco who were expelled from Spain in 1492, concentrating on those in northern Morocco.

Naturally, Arabs protested.

If stepping on an Israeli flag shows disapproval of Israel, what does this show?

The interesting thing is the reasons they gave for protesting. They can't say "we hate Jews" because the official Arab line is that they have no problem with Jews. So they protested by saying that a Spanish cultural center hosting an exhibit on Spanish Jews in Morocco is a form of - normalization with Israel.

The protesters noted that the exhibit was sponsored by a group called Sepharad Israel which is - shudder -Zionist!

They also heckled the police who stopped them from shutting down the cultural center by saying that they were allied with the Zionists.

Some idiots will, of course, believe them when they say that their motivation is pure anti-Zionism and nothing to do with centuries-old antipathy of Jews in Arab countries.

John Judis' "Genesis" - Blaming Jews for antisemitism

From a book review of John Judis' "Genesis," in the Boston Globe:

Judis rebuts the popular idea that Palestinian anti-Semitism stemmed (and stems) from religious or ideological convictions. Not so, he writes. Rather, as the number of Jews in Palestine increased, and as it became common for Jews to refuse to hire Arab labor, among other ostensibly hostile practices, only then did virulent anti-Semitism emerge.

When Palestinians did start sounding unhinged about Jewish influence, it was because they “had begun importing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories from Eastern Europe.” This implies that the widespread anti-Semitic conspiracy theorizing in the Muslim world originated not from the Koran or deep-seated ethnic hatred, but from Poland, Germany, and Lithuania and in response to secular, concrete frustrations.

Although I have done this before, here are a couple of other instances of how wonderfully Muslims treated Jews in Palestine in the 19th century.

From The comparative geographie of Palestine and the Sinaitic Peninsula by Carl Ritter, 1866:

From Three Weeks in Palestine and Lebanon, 1846, referring to Jews in Jerusalem:

It is so fashionable and chic to blame Muslim antisemitism on Jews. But people who are so ignore the facts.

This is not to say that Muslim and Arab antisemitism was as bad as Christian and European antisemitism throughout history. It is also not to say that Muslim antisemitism didn't increase as Jews in Palestine started demanding rights - rights to return to their ancient homeland, rights to buy land, rights of self-determination. All these rights that would be considered laudable for any people except the Jews.

Yes, some Jews wanted Jewish labor for their farms, because they felt ideologically that Jews must learn to work the land themselves rather than outsource it. But this didn't eliminate a single job from Arabs, since these were farms that didn't exist beforehand. On the contrary, Palestine's economy grew tremendously with the influx of Zionists, and Arabs immigrated to take advantage of the jobs that were created by Zionists.

The Arab and Muslim world at large continued to regard Jews as weak, spineless second class people. It was in reaction to Jews demanding to be treated with respect - something that they had lacked for centuries under Muslim rule - that caused Muslims to increase their hate.

The people who eagerly twist this around have an agenda - that Jews are responsible for Jew-hatred.

There is a word for that.

Gaza preacher: "It isn't about borders, but about Israel's existence"

From Terror Watch:

This was on Hamas TV.

Iranian video threatens to nuke Israel

From Algemeiner:

A short animated film being aired across Iran, shows the nuclear destruction of Israel and opens with the word ‘Holocaust’ appearing on the screen, underneath which a Star of David is shown, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Tuesday.

The film, which started to appear Monday on Iranian websites depicts how the Islamic Republic might respond to an American or Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities.

In the movie, Western nations realize that the Islamic Republic has no intention to cease its nuclear development. To prevent Iran from building a bomb, the United States and its allies decide to take military action to destroy Tehran’s nuclear sites.

In the simulated war that follows, hundreds of Israeli and American fighter planes are seen jetting towards Iran. Ultimately, the jets are beaten back by Iran’s military.

With Iran having successfully defended itself, the simulation then shows Iranian forces going on the offensive. The video cuts to a scene showing Iranian Revolutionary Guard fighter planes flying over Israel, passing through Jerusalem and over the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The final frame of the film leaves little room for doubt as to how this military campaign ends: a nuclear explosion is seen spreading across the screen.

Keep in mind that Iranian websites are controlled by the government; if this video is being placed on websites it is with the approval of Iranian leaders.

Saudi site implies Israel killed JFK

Okaz, which is Saudi Arabia's largest newspaper, has an op-ed analyzing how Jews think and how that in turn makes it inevitable that they will subjugate and terrorize Arabs.

Jews have a doctrine that is composed of three elements. The first is a bitter historical experiences carried by every Jew on his shoulders, the second is the fear of injustice, and the third is the fear of the unknown, and these three elements constitute the awareness of every Jew that lives on Earth, and these elements blended with their attributes mentioned in the Koran forms Israel's policy toward the world in general, and towards the Arabs in particular.

The writer mentions that Eisenhower insisted that Israel withdraw from the Sinai in 1956 and that Kennedy insisted that Israel reveal the secrets behind its nuclear program in the early 1960s. However, "he was murdered for mysterious reasons not known to the world even today."

And since then, US presidents have traditionally been more favorable towards Israel.

And it is all because of those Jewish attributes!

02/18 Links Pt2: Debunking the Apartheid Smear; Blumenthal and the Mainstreaming of Anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The anti-Zionist challenge to the Jewish establishment

As a form of economic warfare, boycotts aim to harm the profitability of targeted entities and either force them to toe the boycotters’ line, or force them out of business. That is, the aim is either coercive or eliminationist.
As a form of cultural warfare, the goal of boycotts of cultural or academic institutions is to place their targets outside of polite society, and so annihilate them culturally, professionally and socially.
In other words, unlike other forms of expression, the principle aim of boycotts is not engagement, or even incitement. It is destruction. Therefore, the question of whether or not boycotts are also a form of speech is entirely irrelevant.

Max Blumenthal’s ‘Goliath’ and the Mainstreaming of Anti-Semitism

While Blumenthal was perfectly capable to adjust his presentations according to the audience he was addressing, he provided a chilling demonstration of what he hoped to accomplish with Goliath during an event at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was hosted on October 17 by political scientist Ian Lustick to promote his book. Lustick noted at one point in the discussion that Blumenthal showed in Goliath that “Israel is not just a little bit fascist, Israel is a lot fascist,” and according to Lustick, this was the “ultimate delegitimizer,” because after World War II, “nothing fascist can even be allowed to survive.” Referring to the biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, Lustick invited Blumenthal to fancy himself in the position of God in order to decide whether there are enough “good people” in today’s Sodom-like Israel to save it from destruction. Blumenthal, who clearly didn’t need convincing that Israel as a Jewish state shouldn’t be allowed to survive, responded by explaining that his first concern was relieving “the suffering of the indigenous people of Palestine.” According to him, the only way to achieve this was by placing “external pressure” – such as the BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions) movement is advocating – on Jewish Israelis in order to force them to choose between emigrating and agreeing to “become indigenized” by accepting Arab dominance in political, cultural and social terms.

Crisis in Arab civilization

The cruel violence among ethnic and tribal brothers in Syria is indicative for the depth of the crisis in that civilization. No coalition of warriors can open the way to the creation of an open civil society. The identities of the groups are being defined by ethnicity and/or religious affiliation. If a coalition of warriors would be able to defeat the other coalitions, a new dictatorship will be created – and this new dictatorship can only equal the old one since there is no prospect of successfully suppressing the traditional value systems while introducing those of liberal open societies.
This is a bitter dilemma for the ruling classes running Arab dictatorships: giving up complete control over the security forces and media to freely elected politicians, the initial conditions for a civil society, leads automatically to unleashing the extremist powers which would immediately overthrow the ruling classes – in other words: giving up control is a form of suicide.
In order to legitimize their hold on power, dictatorships by definition need antagonists.
The ideal enemy is Israel, the land of the Jews, who have been ridiculed by the Arabs since the very beginning of the Islamic religion.

Throwing the Jews into the sea (updated)

Wikipedia says:

In 1973 [British MP Christopher Mayhew] offered £5,000 to anyone who could produce evidence that Nasser had stated that he sought to "drive the Jews into the sea". Mayhew repeated the offer later in the House of Commons (Hansard, 18 October 1973) and broadened it to include any genocidal statement by an Arab leader (The Guardian, 9 September 1974), while reserving for himself the right to be the arbiter of the authenticity of any purported statements as well as their meaning. Mayhew received several letters from claimants, each one producing one quotation or another from an Arab leader, all of which Mayhew deemed to be fabricated. One claimant, Warren Bergson, took Mayhew to court. The case came before the High Court in February 1976. Bergson was unable to offer evidence of Nasser's alleged statement and acknowledged that, after thorough research, he had been unable to find any statement by a responsible Arab leader that could be described as genocidal.

The Internet is filled with this anecdote about the court case, and after much searching it appears to be true (see page 3 here. )

Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, was quoted by the New York Times in 1948 as saying "If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea." That wasn't about Israelis but about Jews in Arab countries.

So did Arabs ever use that phrase concerning the Jews of Israel, or is it a myth?

It does not appear to be a myth.

This book by (unreliable) author Gilbert Achcar says that Nasser quoted the phrase in an ironic way:

The Gamal Abdel-Nasser Foundation's Web site, created in collaboration with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina,'° contains 1,359 declarations and transcriptions of speeches or interviews by the founder of modern Egypt. This electronic resource makes it considerably easier to analyze Nasser's discourse. There one finds an address delivered by Bikbachi (Colonel) Abdel-Nasser before Alexandria's Palestine Club on December 13, 1953.... In it, the future president offers an ironical comment on the Arab attitude during the period when the Zionist plan was being translated into action under the British mandate: "At our meetings and in our speeches, we said we were going to throw the Jews into the sea, and felt reassured after every speech. Then we all went back home:"

So while Nasser may not have made that call directly (and he actually denied ever saying that,) it seems to have been a common enough threat among Arabs themselves.

But did any Arab leader make that threat?

Yes. Here is a statement by Dr. Fadhil Jamali, Iraqi Representative to the United Nations, speaking to the Arab League, February 6, 1955:

I asked them (Arab League members) how Palestine was lost. It had been lost for two basic reasons: one, because we deluded ourselves by underestimating the power of our opponent and by thinking that the Jews were not powerful. The highest official in the League said that with 300 soldiers or North African Volunteers we could throw the Jews into the sea. The war started and His Excellency then said that with 3,000 North African Volunteers we could throw them into the sea. The second reason was that we thought that we were strong enough to face the world but the fact was that we did not estimate our own strength correctly. This then was the issue of Palestine. It seemed a trifling thing at the time but we did not know that behind the Jews of Palestine stood World Zionism with its resources in every major country.

Jamali had no incentive to lie about this for his audience. So while this is second-hand evidence, it seems pretty strong.

UPDATE: The book O Jerusalem, by Collins and Lapierre, mentions that the phrase was used by a number of Arab leaders.

The first one to say he wanted to "throw the Jews int the sea," according to the book, was Kamal Irekat (almost certainly the same family as Saeb Erekat,) a police chief in Jerusalem.

It says that the Mufti of Jerusalem adopted the phrase.

Finally, the book attributes it also to Fawzi el Kaukji, an Arab League field commander.

(h/t David Sigeti)

Jews must have stolen the word "chutzpah" from ancient Palestinians

The Palestinian Authority has accused Israel of "inciting against peace."

Really.

At a meeting yesterday, the PA cabinet issued a statement saying that the Israeli government is waging a systematic campaign of incitement "in word and deed" against the Palestinian people and all the "peace-loving" people worldwide.

"The campaign of incitement and fabrications and fallacies led by the Israeli government is not addressed only to the Palestinian people and leadership, but also towards groups of peace-loving Israeli people, and against American efforts, and the efforts of all peace-loving people in the world, in order to kill the possibility of achieving the two-state solution and to finish off the chances for peace irreversibly, leading to more instability and a foretaste of serious consequences for the entire region," the statement said.

In the very next breath, the spokesman welcomed the decision by the Arab League to hold an emergency meeting to discuss ways to support the prisoners in Israeli jails, at the request of "Palestine" and with the participation of Minister of Prisoners, who will brief the delegates and representatives of the Arab countries and officials of the Arab League on the tragic situation of the prisoners.

Why are these two statements juxtaposed?

Because the "incitement" that the Pa is complaining about is the recent story that the PA is allocating $46 million more annually to terrorists who are now or have been imprisoned. The story hit some major media outlets. Probably some Western donors to the PA raised some half-hearted questions about how their money is being used to support terrorists.

Naturally, when an Israeli organization publicizes facts that are freely available in Arabic media about the PA's monetary support for terrorists, that is "incitement against peace."

Which can only mean one thing.

Just like falafel, hummus and keffiyehs, Jews must have usurped the ancient Palestinian word "chutzpah" and pretended that it was theirs instead of representing a long hallowed Palestinian tradition.

It does take a special brand of chutzpah to claim that pointing out that Palestinian Arab society wholeheartedly supports terrorists - monetarily and emotionally - is "incitement against peace."

Unless you understand exactly what they mean by "peace."

02/18 Links Pt1: Abbas' duplicity; After rockets, Hamas asked Netanyahu for restraint

From Ian:

Mahmoud Abbas' duplicity

According to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, are Israeli students peace partners or are murderers of Israeli students heroes? The answer, it seems, depends on who Abbas is talking to.
Although Abbas told Israeli students yesterday that he wants to live with them in peace - he himself, the PA, and the Fatah movement, both of which he heads, have been telling the Palestinian population that murdering Israeli students is glorious and heroic.
Last week, Israel released the bodies of two Palestinian terrorists to the PA. One, Habash Hanani, murdered three high school students and the other, Ahmad Al-Faqih, participated in murdering four religious studies students. Both murderers were given official military funerals and
both were called heroes by the PA and Fatah.
A poster from Abbas' Fatah movement was placed on the casket of murderer Habash Hanani, praising his killing of three high school students as a "heroic operation," during which he "saturated the soil... with his blood":

Canaanites Deny Being Forebears Of Palestinians (satire)

Amirapu added that he felt personally slighted by the idea that Palestinians might in any way carry his genes. “My mighty kingdom sat astride the crossroads of Assyria and Egypt,” he pronounced. “I resent even the insinuation that these desert people from distant Arabia, whose combined armies could not defeat a ragtag group of Second World War refugees, represent my progeny.”
Erekat was unavailable for comment, said a spokesman, as he was busy writing an article claiming that the Palestinians were already in the Levant when Homo Sapiens moved out of Africa.

Kerry-mocking site now jeers in English

John Kerry Solutions Ltd., which was launched last month by the organization My Israel with the backing of the Yesha Council — the umbrella council of West Bank settlements — is a composite of slapstick animated videos, bad-wig YouTube spots and a handful of semi-biting sections and articles, all designed to mock the secretary of state and his frequent-flier mile-heavy attempts at creating an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
The website for “John Kerry Solutions Ltd.,” at en.johnkerry.co.il, paints the secretary of state as a huckster peddling solutions — ranging from the merely half-baked to the downright ridiculous — to a plethora of problems.