Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

HRW bias shines through in report on Arab child laborers (UPDATES)

Human Rights Watch has released a 74 page report alleging that Palestinian kids are being employed illegally in Jewish-owned farms in the Jordan Valley.

Others have critiqued the report.

NGO Monitor pointed out:

As with many other HRW accusations and publications on Israel, as documented by NGO Monitor, the claims in this publication are entirely unverifiable and based solely on interviews. HRW provides no evidence that it even attempted to confirm any of the claims, many of which quote children, independently. Furthermore, in this instance, the allegations are inherently unverifiable, since there are no permits, pay slips, paperwork, or other documentation for the supposed child workers. Indeed, according to an Israeli official interviewed in in response to HRW’s allegations, “It is a horrific lie. There is no justification for employing children, not just morally and legally but financially as well.”

As the publication’s methodology section makes clear, HRW’s researcher (Bill van Esveld) began with a conclusion condemning Israel, and then sought evidence to persuade the intended audiences, particularly journalists readily influenced by NGO allegations.

UK Media Watch noted:

A 74-page report by HRW on the Israeli use of illegal Palestinian child labor appears to have misled readers by using a photo which actually illustrates the Palestinian use of illegal Palestinian child labor.

(After this was noticed, HRW silently changed the photo on the report.)

Anyway, we cannot believe a word HRW says. As CAMERA reports:

HRW researcher Bill Van Esveld claims that Palestinian children "have no option to work on Palestinian farms. Most of them don't exist anymore."

However, this VOA article from February notes:

According to the Palestinian Agriculture Ministry, there are 1,000 Palestinian farms in the Valley employing 12,000 workers. They produce crops for local consumption as well as for export to Arab countries, Europe and Asia.

How many farms were there in the Jordan Valley under Jordanian rule? We don't know. HRW certainly doesn't even try to find that out. They just say "most of them don't exist."

The bias is, as usual, obvious.

In terms of wages, not to justify paying any kids less than the minimum wage, but HRW claims that " "most earned only 60 to 70 shekels per day." However, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the average wage for Arab farmers working in the West Bank under the PA is 58.2 shekels a day. So the kids, even, when "exploited," make more money than adults working on Arab farms! (h/t Ahron)

In addition, the major role of Palestinian Arab middlemen in hiding the children is buried in the report, in order to ensure that 72 of the 74 pages blame Jews:

Palestinian middlemen who employ children to work for Israeli settler-employers also evade Israeli laws that prohibit children under 15 from working, and that prohibit children from working during school hours. While Palestinians who work in settlement industrial zones or in the construction sector inside settlements must obtain security clearances from the Israeli military to enter the settlements, those who work in agricultural fields can go to work without such permits. According to Z., 19, who has worked in settlements since he dropped out of school in Grade 10, “if you work for a settlement, they check your huwwiya [identification document], but if you work for a farmer, they don’t care.”

S., who was 16 at the time she spoke to Human Rights Watch, said she left school at age 13 because her family needed her to earn money. She worked in Kalia, a settlement, until age 15, when she was fired, along with other members of her family who worked in the settlement. S. did not know whether Israeli labor inspectors ever visited her settlement, but said she hid when on her way to work because of her age. “I would hide under the seats in the [middleman’s] bus on the way [to Kalia] whenever we saw a soldier or security guards, because [the middleman said] I was too young to work,” she said. “Sometimes the soldiers stopped the bus and I told them I forgot my identification card at home. They always let me through.”99 (Israel allows the Palestinian Authority to issue identification documents only to Palestinians aged 16 and above). In some cases, middlemen “employ” their own children.

L., 15, said he dropped out of school when he was 13, in Grade 9, to work in Tomer, where he picked and packed asparagus. “My dad is responsible for me, and for 4 or 5 other people. He has 2 wives and there are 14 people in the family, and me and 3 of my brothers left school to work.” L. said he earned 85 shekels per day – above average – for a six-hour shift beginning at 5:30 a.m. and up to 130 shekels if he worked until 4 p.m. The work required him to bend down low to the ground, which gave him back pains, he said. “I used to spray pesticide but I got a bad allergy in my eyes and had to get eye drops at the pharmacy, so now my dad won’t let me use pesticide.”100

(UPDATE: I had misinterpreted a paragraph about wages in an earlier version of this article, and have deleted my section critiquing it. I regret the error. [h/t Victoria])

UPDATE 2: For some reason, HRW isn't telling us about the worse child labor practices in Israel's neighbors:

Jordan

http://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/jordan.htm

Lebanon

http://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/lebanon.htm

Egypt

http://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/egypt.htm

And, of course, in the PA as well!

(h/t Ahron)

04/14 Links Pt2: HRW’s Israel Obsession and Allegations of Child Labor; Catch Tuvia Tenenbom!

From Ian:

Catch Tuvia Tenenbom!

He brought up Jibril Rajoub, the senior Palestinian Authority official who was the former head of the Preventative Security Services.
“He’s charismatic, a genius, he’s amazing,” said Tenenbom. “He could have put my image [as Tobi the German] in Google and he’d know who I am. He didn’t do that because we matched and clicked.”
There were some people whom he found more difficult to appreciate, such as Israeli peace activists and European foundation employees. During an interview with an employee of a German foundation, Tenenbom, who felt the group was only pretending to be seeking peace in Israel, said, “Listen to me, why are you doing this? We all know the story, Germany and Israel. Why can’t you be a little more sensitive?”
The book, first released in Hebrew, and later in English, has done well, with many but not all reviewers praising it for its humor and sass, as well as for what Tenenbom sees as its major accomplishment: shedding light on what he considers the true nature of European foundations and their presence in Israel.
“There’s a facade of peace and love but it’s all hate and hate,” he said. “The Europeans hate the Jews, they don’t even know how much they hate the Jews. It’s so embedded in their culture, so ingrained in them and that’s what everybody sees but nobody sees.”

Generations of Palestinian refugees are in Iraq

Palestinians sought refuge in Iraq after the creation of Israel in 1948. At best they were second-class citizens. And since the 2003 US-led invasion, they've been caught in the crossfire of a brutal conflict not of their own making.
Awad's father, Khaled Hamad, would like to return to his native land.
"If Israel said come, I'd throw away my Palestinian nationality and become an Israeli," Khaled Hamad said. "I'm serious."
Salma Mohammad, 21, echoes Awad's sentiments.
"All our lives, from our grandparent to our parents to our children, we've been moving from one place to another," Mohammad said. "We want a future for our children, but there's no future in Iraq." (h/t Yoel)

Palestinian refugee condemns 'life of humiliation'

Ripe for Exploitation: HRW’s Israel Obsession and Allegations of Child Labor

On April 13, 2015, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a 74-page publication under the heading of “Ripe for Abuse: Palestinian Child Labor in Israeli Agricultural Settlements in the West Bank.” According to the press statement, which was copied widely in international media platforms, “Settlement Agriculture Harms Palestinian Children” through allegedly “low wages and ...dangerous working conditions in violation of international standards.”
As with many other HRW accusations and publications on Israel, as documented by NGO Monitor, the claims in this publication are entirely unverifiable and based solely on interviews. HRW provides no evidence that it even attempted to confirm any of the claims, many of which quote children, independently. Furthermore, in this instance, the allegations are inherently unverifiable, since there are no permits, pay slips, paperwork, or other documentation for the supposed child workers. Indeed, according to an Israeli official interviewed in in response to HRW’s allegations, “It is a horrific lie. There is no justification for employing children, not just morally and legally but financially as well.”
As the publication’s methodology section makes clear, HRW’s researcher (Bill van Esveld) began with a conclusion condemning Israel, and then sought evidence to persuade the intended audiences, particularly journalists readily influenced by NGO allegations

From Foreign Policy:

Throughout Gaza, armed groups have stepped up their recruitment. Now, each one — including Hamas’s Qassam Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — has a female contingent.

No one knows exactly how many female fighters there are in Gaza, but the Nasser Salahuddin Brigade boasts 80 female combatants working in 25-women units. Each unit has female commanding officers, who answer to a male superior. Hundreds of other women also offer support roles.

“We fit the training around our domestic chores,” said Hadifa, 26, her face obscured by a niqab, while cuddling an assault rifle during a midnight meeting at her Gaza City home. She said the women are trained to use sniper rifles, AKs, RPGs, M16s, and also how to drive cars through war zones, how to fight with a knife, and most recently how to capture an Israeli soldier in battle.

Most of the women, like Hadifa, are either married to brigade members or are sisters of the fighters, and were inspired to join the fighting groups after losing several members of their families in the recent wars. It is not hard to see why they would be a military asset: Women have an easier time moving around war zones, due to the presumption that they are civilians. As a result, they can deliver weapons and food to fighters on the front lines with less risk than their male counterparts.

“We also watch the roads, protecting the men as they move,” said Om Adam, 40, the wife of a senior Nasser Salahuddin commander and one of the oldest of the female fighters.

The article also says:

“The war could start any minute,” says Abu Mujahid. “There is a lot of kinetic movement, so all the fighting groups evacuated the bases, we’ve postponed training sessions, and many of the men have moved underground.”

“There are people right now under your feet,” his wiry second-in-command, Abu Saif, 28, adds with a toothless grin.

If there is a new war, you can bet that none of these reporters will mention that women perform military duties when the body count comes in of "innocent women and children."

See also this story from the Times of London last month where they reported that women did fight in Gaza last summer.

J-Street likes to lie in their direct mail

Here is the title and first paragraph of a J-Street email I received asking me to contact my representative to support President Obama:

Time for a war with Iran!

A once-in-a-decade battle is taking shape in our country between proponents of security through diplomacy, and those who think we can bomb our way to peace.

Yep, every critic of an agreement that all but guarantees Iran a nuclear weapon in about the same amount of time it took North Korea to test one is a warmonger, hell-bent on bombing Iran and the resultant barrage of missiles they would shoot at Israeli cities in response.

These are the sort of lies that J-Street must resort to in order to keep its public face as being mainstream.

First night Pesach this year in Australia’s second biggest city, Melbourne, and I attended a seder at the home of dear friends who not so long ago were strangers within Australia’s gate. Most of the adults, even the 30-somethings, had been born in Belarus or the Ukraine. The oldest, in their mid-seventies, have harrowing memories of their families’ flight eastward ahead of the Nazi invaders.

These seniors had been in the vanguard of the exodus of Jews from the Soviet Union in the 1970s, and were the pioneers of a chain migration which brought relatives as late as the 1990s to this land. The total number of such Jews in Australia today is estimated to be 25,000, out of an overall Jewish population of perhaps 120,000.

The first Jews in Australia were a dozen or so convicts who arrived from Britain in 1788 with the First Fleet, and during the nineteenth century most Jews who settled here were of English and German (often anglicised German) origin. In 1841 there were 1183 Jews in Australia (0.57 per cent of the entire Australian population); by 1891 there were 13,809 (0.43 percent) and in 1911 there were 17,287 (0.37 per cent).

A.A. Phillips, a well-known Aussie intellectual born in 1900, recalled that when he was ‘about eleven’ he was

‘struck by the strange improbability that I was an Australian Jew, when it was much more likely that I would have been born an American Christian or a Confucian Chinese. I was aware that there were “millions and trillions” of Americans and Chinese and only a few thousand Australian Jews…. I was not sure whether I was proud of my special rarity or annoyed with God for making me something so peculiar.’

Rarer still were Jews of Russian, Polish or Romanian provenance. Since it was a new Hebrew-language venture, few Jews in Eastern Europe would have read and been tempted by the frequent and positive reports of life Down Under that appeared in the Hamagid – circulating at various places throughout the Pale – penned by an immigrant from Austrian Galicia who had settled in the prosperous goldfields town of Ballarat, in Melbourne’s hinterland. A respected Aussie demographer using naturalisation records of non-British Jews (males only) found that of a total of 6256 who migrated to Australia between the 1830s and 1914, 1162 came from the Russian Empire (which of course until 1919 included Poland, whence 875 had come; a further 140 came from Romania). There were also Eastern European chalutzim who were driven out of Eretz Israel by worsening economic conditions; the total of male Jews from “Palestine” was 60.

These “foreign” Jews were not especially welcomed by the existing Jewish community. With their distinctive garb and speech they were often regarded with disdain. In 1882, the minister of one of Melbourne’s synagogues (himself German-born and a derider of Yiddish as a “jargon”) proposed to the chief secretary of the colony (now state) of South Australia that an agricultural settlement of 300 to 400 young Jewish “artisans and famers” from Russia be permitted there. He incurred the immediate wrath of Jewish communal leaders fearful that such immigrants would drift to the towns, become a burden on communal coffers, and generally reflect badly on the community’s reputation.

When, in 1891, it was rumoured that the Franco-German philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch, founder of the Jewish Colonisation Association, was investigating the possibility of sending 500,000 pauperised Russian Jews to Australia where they would turn themselves into agriculturalists in a settlement of their own, an established Australian Jew reflected a general consensus when he warned in a letter to the London Jewish Chronicle that “the Russo-Jewish incursion with which Australia is threatened is … calculated to bless neither the man that comes nor the land that receives.” Revealing the mindset that led, in 1901, when Australia became a federated nation, to the “White Australia” policy, he observed that an influx of such Russians would be regarded by Australians “as unfavourably as the Chinese cook, the Hindoo [sic] hawker, the Kanaka plantation hand, the Tamil servant, or the Lascar sailor” and added that America’s “negro problem” provided “an eloquent warning”.

In fact, no “group settlement” in Australia, whether of Jews or anyone else, was permitted in Australia then or later: thus however much some Australians, including certain political figures, might support such schemes, all of the several proposals presented from time to time for rural colonies of refugee Jews in Australia were ultimately doomed to rejection by the federal authorities.

As for the “White Australia” policy, immigration officials were empowered to conduct tests in approved European languages to persons arriving at entry ports, and at first Yiddish was not on the approved list. Jews born in Eretz Israel were classified as “Asiatics” to whom certain welfare benefits did not apply; this injustice was felt most keenly in Perth, Western Australia, and to a lesser extent in Melbourne, the cities with the highest numbers of former chalutzim.

One former chalutz fallen on economic hard times who arrived in Western Australia was Eliezer Margolin (1875-1944). Born in Akkerman (Belgorod) not far from Odessa, he had a broad Russian-language gymnasium education. In 1892 his parents moved the family to Rehovot. Relocating in 1902 to Australia and naturalised in 1904, he in 1911 in Collie, a coalmining town in the Darling Ranges, formed the local company of the 1^st Battalion, Western Australian Infantry Regiment, and on the outbreak of the First World War he, like many, many thousands of Australian Jews, who flocked to the colours out of all proportion to their numbers – there was no conscription in this country – was swift to enlist.

He was soon commissioned in the 16^th Battalion, Australian Military Forces, and distinguished himself at Gallipoli – where he met Jabotinsky, joint founder of the Zion Mule Corps – and subsequently. In 1918, when a lieutenant-colonel, he took command of one of three Jewish battalions formed in the British Army to fight the Turks in Palestine – the 39^th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. He informed his men that “our aim is … the liberation of our homeland” and at Rehovot he was instrumental in the formation of the 40^th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, which also served under Allenby. Smashing through Turkish lines on the Jordan river Margolin’s battalion captured a town in the Ramleh district, of which he was appointed military governor, the Australian Jewish press proudly noting that he was the first Jew in such a position since the time of the Maccabees. In 1919, when the First Judeans (better known as the Jewish League) was formed he became its commander.

Jabotinsky recalled:

‘”He sits his horse like a Bedouin and shoots like an Englishmen” the Arabs used to say of him. He was a huge, strong, silent man, every inch a soldier, a father and brother to his boys, with a masterly ability for organising …. [I]n May, 1921, Herbert Samuel [High Commissioner of Palestine] appointed him chief of the Jewish half of that mixed Jewish-Arab militia which was one of Samuel’s pet notions. Margolin did not ask for anyone’s permission to bring his soldiers fully armed to Tel Aviv in the very midst of the Jaffa pogrom. For that misdeed he was forced to resign.’

Returning to Australia in 1921, Colonel Margolin was generally viewed, like Sir John Monash, as the beau ideal of the “Aussie Digger” – and proved enduringly popular. At his non-denominational funeral in Perth in 1944 – his ashes were reburied in 1950 at Rehovot – the vice-president of the Western Australian Returned Servicemen’s League observed in an affectionate tribute that Margolin “belonged to that illustrious band of people from overseas who have come to Australia and put more into our social life than ever it was possible to take out of it’”

The same could be said of many other Jews of Russian origin who had migrated to Australia, notably the members of a particular chain migration that began in the late nineteenth century with the arrival of a big, flame-haired operatic bass-baritone named Jacob Lenzer (1858-1921), a native of Kritchev, a shtetl in Mogilev, an easternmost province of the Pale. Expelled from the St Petersburg Conservatorium of Music following the passing of the anti-Jewish May Laws in 1882, he served the East Melbourne Synagogue (”the foreigners’ shul”) as minister from 1888 until his death. He was, wrote a contemporary minister, “a great chazan, whose chazanuth alone is worth a journey to hear … a man qualified to take the lead in any large congregation” who was wasted in his present situation.

Following Lenzer to Australia was his brother, who also became a minister here. Their migration triggered that of their relatives the Slutzkins, who became prominent in Melbourne’s clothing trade; that of further relatives, the Baevski brothers, ensued. Simcha Baevski (1878-1934), more familiar to the Aussie public as Sidney Baevski Myer, began with a successful drapery shop in Bendigo. Shortly before the First World War he opened in Melbourne the celebrated Myer Emporium, which developed into a mighty retailing empire. A noted philanthropist to diverse worthy causes, Myer in 1928 backed the trans-Pacific flight of aviator (Sir) Charles Kingsford Smith. He was a keen lover of music, and an integral part of Melbourne life are the concerts held at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

In 1927 Sidney Myer’s cousin Dr Aaron Patkin (1883-1950) migrated to Melbourne, and so too in 1929 did Aaron’s nephew Benzion Patkin (1903-84). Natives of Tatarsk, Smolensk, they had both left Palestine owing to the economic hardship that precipitated the end of the Fourth Aliyah. Aaron, a former barrister and Menshevik, had quit Russia owing to the Bolsheviks’ disavowal of Jewish rights or cultural identity. Author of the Russian Jewish Labour Movement (1947), he was at the forefront of the Australian Zionist movement, and edited The Zionist magazine from 1943 until his death. Benzion was an equally staunch Zionist; his enduring legacy was the foundation of Mount Scopus College, opened in 1949, at one time the largest Jewish day school in the southern hemisphere.

“In Russia we were known as Jews, and in Australia we are known as Russians,” some of my seder companions have been heard to say, with a resigned shrug of the shoulders. They themselves realize that they are as Australian, and as Jewish, as anyone else in what has been affectionately dubbed “the shtetl by the [river] Yarra”. What some of them lacked, through growing up in the Soviet Union, of Jewish knowledge, they have more than made up for by their eagerness to learn from their offspring who, reared in Australia, have given their own children the opportunity to learn Yiddish and Hebrew, and who in some cases are lay leaders of an Orthodox congregation.

It was, of course, Isi Leibler, now of Jerusalem, who in the 1960s first put the issue of the trapped Jews of the Soviet Union on the international agenda. The inspiring story of this struggle for the Refuseniks, and its ultimate triumph, is told in a recently published book by historian Professor Suzanne Rutland and veteran political journalist Sam Lipski: Let My People Go: The untold story of Australia and the Soviet Jews 1959–89 (Hybrid Publishers, Melbourne).

Daphne Anson is an Australian who under her real name has authored and co-authored several books and many articles on historical topics including Jewish ones. She blogs under an alias in order to separate her professional identity from her blogging one.

04/14 Links Pt1: Hamas:‎ We bring our kids up “on love of Jihad and Martyrdom-death”‎

From Ian:

PMW: Hamas:‎ We bring our kids up “on love of Jihad and Martyrdom-death”‎

Hamas does not intend to foster peaceful relations with Israel. Hamas' Ministry of Interior posted a photo on its Facebook page of a little boy, no more than five years old, posing in military uniform and holding an automatic rifle. The text beside the photo explained that children under Hamas rule grow up learning "the love of Jihad" - religious war for Islam - and aspire to die as Martyrs for Allah:
"These are our lion cubs.We have brought them up on the love of Jihad and Shahada (Martyrdom-death)"
[Facebook page of Hamas' Ministry of Interior, April 10, 2015]
Hamas' Ministry of Interior is part of the unity government formed between the PA and Hamas last year. However, in practice, the PA and Hamas have been acting independently in the last few months.

The Middle East Turmoil and Israel's Security

The turmoil in the Arab world is also changing the strategic landscape in the Eastern Mediterranean basin, where elements of radical Islam are gaining control. Tunisia, Libya, Sinai in Egypt, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey all play host to groups with Islamist tendencies, thereby threatening the currently unrestricted access to this area by Israel and the West.
Approximately 90 percent of Israel's foreign trade is carried out via the Mediterranean, making freedom of navigation in this area critical for Israel's economic well-being. Moreover, its chances of becoming energy independent and a significant exporter of gas is linked to Israel's ability to secure free passage for its maritime trade and to defend its newly discovered hydrocarbon fields, Leviathan and Tamar. These developments require greater Israeli efforts in the naval arena. Indeed, Israel is engaged in building a robust security system for the gas fields and has procurement plans for additional vessels.
As with other parts of the Middle East, the assessment in Jerusalem is that the key factor in the developing regional balance of power is Iran's nuclearization. This would be a "game changer" that only Israel has the capability to prevent. Netanyahu's recent electoral victory left in power the only leader that might have the political courage to order a military strike to obstruct the Iranian progress towards acquiring nuclear weapons. Indeed, his victory was quietly welcomed in the capitals of the moderate Arab states that are terrified of Iran and have little time for Obama. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are good examples.
Accordingly, Israel is watching with growing bewilderment the endeavor of the Obama administration to implement a "grand bargain" with Iran. This puts Jerusalem on an inevitable collision course with its most important ally. Israel continues to benefit from a large reservoir of sympathy among the populace of the United States, and most notably within the Republican controlled Congress.
Yet, while Obama is not popular, as president he can extract heavy costs in the military, diplomatic and strategic arenas. The remaining 22 months until he leaves office must be weathered with minimum damage to the American-Israeli strategic partnership, particularly if Israel chooses to make good on its threat not to allow Iran to become a nuclear power. With this in mind, the American-Iranian nexus is the most dangerous challenge for Israel's national security in the near future.

A recent poll by the Yesodot Center reveals that a vast majority of Israelis prefer either for every religious group be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount at any time, or for there to be separate but equal times for the Mount to be open for adherents of major religions.

Based on a sample of 500 adults, 37 percent agreed that there should be free access to adherents of all religions who wished to pray at the Temple Mount, and another 36% said that specific prayer hours should be established for different religious groups.

Just as many self-described secular Jews supported equal rights for Jews on the Mount as religious Jews who answered the survey.

And practically no one liked the idea of the Muslim Waqf maintaining control over the holiest site in Judaism.

Predictably, this poll has caused a firestorm of criticism in Arab media, with headlines like "Israeli poll urges desecrating Al Aqsa."

The PLO's Department of Jerusalem Affairs denounced the poll, saying that it "supports the storming and desecration of the Jews of the Al-Aqsa Mosque" and that "a large proportion of Jewish extremists are in favor of the establishment of Talmudic prayers inside the Aqsa Mosque."

By the way, the PLO Department of Jerusalem Affairs website is filled with the most bizarre articles warning of "Talmudc rituals" and saying that Israel is waging war on the entire Muslim world because of a couple of Jews walking on the Temple Mount or praying outside one of its gates.

Their "history" of Jerusalem says that it was not considered important by anyone until the Persian Empire took it over at the request of Queen Esther, thereby skipping any mention of Kings David or Solomon even though they are in the Quran.

It would be a different world if NGOs would spend 10% as much effort on reporting on Hamas' role in Gazans' misery as they do falsely blaming Israel.

Today there is another story that NGOs like Gisha will ignore (unless this post embarrasses them into reluctantly mentioning it.)

Hamas just imposed a new tax on fruit in Gaza, demanding 100 shekels per ton of fruit. As a result, Gaza's fruit dealers are not willing to import produce that they will not be able to sell.

20 trucks of fruit are stuck at the Kerem Shalom crossing since yesterday because of this decision.

Hamas has previously restricted imports of fruit directly.

Oxfam and other NGOs lie, blame Israel for restrictions on Gaza rebuilding that don't exist

I mentioned yesterday that a series of NGOs released a report about Gaza that was filled with anti-Israel lies.

Further research using their own sources reveal more examples.

From Oxfam's press release:

Six months since donors pledged $3.5 billion towards Gaza's recovery, many people are worse off and not a single one of the 19,000 destroyed homes has been rebuilt. 100,000 people are still homeless and many are living in makeshift camps or schools.

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam, said: "The promising speeches at the donor conference have turned into empty words.There has been little rebuilding, no permanent ceasefire agreement and no plan to end the blockade.The international community is walking with eyes wide open into the next avoidable conflict, by upholding the status quo they themselves said must change."

Only 26.8 percent of money pledged by donors six months ago has been released so far. Even when funded, many reconstruction projects have not yet begun due to restrictions on essential material under the blockade.

Tony Laurance, CEO of MAP UK, said: “The world is shutting its eyes and ears to the people of Gaza when they need it most. Reconstruction cannot happen without funds, but money alone will not be enough. With the blockade in place we are just reconstructing a life of misery, poverty and despair.”

If 26.8% of $3.5 billion has been released, and there has been little rebuilding, then what is the money going towards?

This report from the Shelter Cluster tells us, and the numbers show that somehow, tens of thousands of Gazans have managed to rebuild their homes with building materials that we are incessantly told are restricted from entering Gaza.

We see that some of the money has gone to building temporary shelters and providing rent money for Gazans who cannot move into their homes. But we also learn that there are plenty of Gazans who have rebuilt their partially damaged homes.

The report says that 144,000 homes were damaged during the war. Of those homes, nearly half - 70,700 homes - have been fully repaired.

If 49% of the homes have been repaired while the international community has only paid 27% of their pledges, clearly Israeli restrictions are not the bottleneck. In fact:

As of 15 March, over 73,000 individuals requiring ABC materials for shelter repairs have been cleared to purchase materials under the GRM. Of these, over 59,000 homeowners have procured full or partial quantities of their allocated construction material to date.

What about new homes? Why haven't any been completed? The Shelter Cluster tells us the answer to that as well:

Permanent construction of new houses can take several months and would include several stages such as design proposal, building permit approval, mobilisation of contractors and funds, construction and handover of the final build.

The homeowners are receiving the material and cash for rebuilding, but Gaza's bureaucracy is what slows them down, not lack of building materials.

The lying doesn't end there.

There is a real-time page for the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism that describes exactly what is happening. As of this morning, 87796 beneficiaries are participating in the GRM. Here is their breakdown:

Not a single person is listed as being unable to receive construction material because of Israeli restrictions. 43,000 families have the ability to purchase more building material today but they haven't done so.

Of course, the report doesn't mention that the reason many Gazans have not bothered to rebuild is because they are selling their construction materials on the black market while they take advantage of temporary shelters, some of which can last for years. Some of that material is going to Hamas to build terror tunnels.

Every single NGO that signed onto this report, including major ones like Oxfam, is willingly lying about Israel when they claim that Gazans cannot rebuild.

Here's the list of NGOs behind the lies:

ActionAidAlianzapor la Solidaridad

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

Asamblea de Cooperaciónpor la Paz (ACPP)

CARE International

CCFD-Terre Solidaire

CCP Japan

Christian Aid

Church of Sweden

Council for Arab-British Understanding

Cooperazione per lo SviluppodeiPaesiEmergenti (COSPE)

DanChurchAid (DCA)

Diakonia

GVC

Handicap International

Heinrich Böll Foundation

HelpAge International

Horyzon - Swiss Youth Development Organization

Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)

KinderUSA

Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map – UK)

Medicos del Mundo MDM-Spain

Médecins du Monde France

Médecins du Monde Switzerland

Medicos del Mundo MDM-Spain

medico international

medico international schweiz

Mennonite Central Committee

Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)

Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA)

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

Overseas

Oxfam

Première Urgence – Aide MédicaleInternationale

Quaker Council for European Affairs

Rebuilding Alliance

Save the Children

Secours Islamique France

Secours Catholique - Caritas France

Terre des hommes Foundation

Terre des Hommes Italy

The Carter Center

The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation

The Lutheran World Federation

The Swedish Organization for Individual Relief/ IM - Swedish Development Partner (SOIR)

United Civilians for Peace, Netherlands

The Arabs who fought with the Nazis

We knew about Muslims who were recruited to fight with the Nazis, but some Arab Muslim in North Africa apparently joined Hitler's cause as well.

From YNet:

The Nazis recruited Muslim soldiers to the Wehrmacht during World War II, but did not trust the Free Arab Legion with any major tasks, according to Stefan Petke of the Technical University of Berlin, who says the Arab units did not participate in the extermination of Jews, or guard the labor camps in North Africa.

Petke uncovered rare footage which documents the Nazi army's Arab units, which, he says, were a complete failure in the battlefields of Tunisia in 1943, leading the Nazis to take their weapons and using them as "working soldiers," away from the frontlines.

Ynet spoke to Petke about the role the Free Arab Legion played in World War II and the newly uncovered footage.

(h/t Yoel)

04/13 Links Pt2: Why Hasbara is Necessary; Which British Political Party is the most anti-semitic?

From Ian:

Why Hasbara is Necessary

The director of CAMERA's Washington office, Eric Rozenman, has written a prescient article, "The Theory and Practice of Hasbara" that was published by the Jewish Policy Center in inFocus magazine. Rozenman emphasizes the important role played by Hasbara not only in countering immediate misinformation but in reversing the pervasive influence of the Palestinian narrative that portrays "Zionists as imperialists, Jews as colonialists, and Palestinian Arabs as oppressed, indigenous people."
Rozenman recounts that in September 2000, when the Second Intifada broke out, the Israeli government's media arm was caught flatfooted. Nothing exemplified this more than the Mohammed al-Dura affair. This was the incident where a Palestinian boy was caught on video tape pinned against a wall with his father during a gunfight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian terrorists and allegedly shot and killed by Israeli fire.
According to Rozenman,
Images of the "martyred" youngster, Mohammed al-Dura, traveled across the globe. They turned up as partial, implicit justification in an al-Qaeda montage of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York City's World Trade Center, in images of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's beheading and in mass marches in European cities that featured "Down with Israel" and "Death to the Jews" banners.
Much later, after independent examinations cast doubt on the French television account and even whether al-Dura had been present during the firefight, an IDF re-enactment concluded that if any bullets struck the child and his father, they quite likely had been fired by Palestinian gunmen. This was far too late.
Since then, Israel has taken significant steps to improve its response to opposing propaganda. Rozenman describes the "nearly real-time checks instead of indefinite 'we'll get back to you' handling of press queries" and rapid web postings along with utilization of social media releases and battlefield video showing the IDF calling off attacks when civilians were present. In this way anti-Israel charges ranging from exaggerations to inventions were not allowed to "take on lives of their own" in the media.

Columbia Prof. Who Says Zionists Supported Nazis Speaks at Cornell: Israel Has No Right to be Jewish State

Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad, a controversial speaker who in the past has written and spoken about alleged Zionist-Nazi collaboration and the “Anglo-American gay agenda,” delivered a speech at Cornell claiming Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state, and recognizing it as such is equivalent to recognizing Israel as a “racist state.”
In fact, this claim is a step back from Massad’s previously quoted contention in a 2002 speech at Oxford University that Israel has no right whatsoever to exist: “The Jews are not a nation… The Jewish state is a racist state that does not have a right to exist.”
Massad concluded his speech by remarking: “It is the end of the Zionist colonial adventure, especially the removal of all the racist, legal, and institutional structures that Israel has erected, that is the precondition for lasting… justice and peace for all the inhabitants of Palestine and Israel.”
Massad, a professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History, spoke on Wednesday evening to a crowd of about 35 for an event entitled “Palestinians and the Dilemmas of Solidarity: Is the Two-State Solution Viable?” Cornell Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) sponsored the event.

IsraellyCool: BDS Blumen Fail

Max Blumenthal – the notorious Israel hater, Hamas supporter, toilet stall aficionado, and alcohol smuggler – is an advocate for BDS.
But in his case, it is easier said than done. For Max has created his personal website using Wix.
Made. In. Israel.
Perhaps he got a recommendation for it from fellow BDSholes Code Pink?
Either way, looks like Max found something else to fail at.

AFP says that the West Bank is "blockaded"

AFP, reporting on the latest NGO attempt to slam Israel, writes:

Six months after donors pledged billions of dollars for devastated Gaza, most of the money remains blocked, and reconstruction efforts are painfully slow, a coalition of aid groups said Monday.

The report also condemned the international community for failing to help open the blockaded Palestinian territories up to each other, to broker a lasting ceasefire with Israel and to hold the two sides accountable.

AFP is now claiming (beyond the biased report) that the West Bank and Gaza are both "blockaded."

The word "blockade" has a specific legal meaning, and it routinely used incorrectly in referring to Gaza although Israel does enforce a legal naval blockade of Gaza.

I had missed this one, from Dr. Moustafa El Leddawi, writing in both al-Bayan and Moheet as well as his Facebook page. His profile says he is from Gaza but his timeline on Facebook says he is writing from Beirut.

Palestinians hate the Jewish holiday of Passover, which falls in the month of April according to the ancient Hebrew calendar old. At a time when Jews rejoice, and exchange greetings, and eat and drink blood, and they meet and dance and play, and hold seminars, and hold celebrations, while they sentence the Palestinians to death, and impose on them the siege, and shut their gates and crossings, and impose on them a curfew, and prevent them from traveling and moving, do not allow them to enter or leave, even if they are students or patients...

The suffering and the pain have always been associated with the Jewish Passover holiday, it is an old ritual, and it was their Christian neighbors in the past who suffered and feared the feast of Passover, not wishing to sojourn, and fear what may occur.

The Jews were keen in every holiday to hunt for an immaculate innocent Christian child, who did not know the taste of the wine, and placed them in a barrel of needles, and put underneath a large platter on which to pour the Christian child's blood and to distribute it to large numbers,and then drink four cups of grape wine, and sing to their children, and dancing daughters...

Jews have not forgotten their past bloody deviant rituals; they they used to look for a Christian child to gather his blood, and make from it a pie to rejoice with their children, and their young and their elders ate it; today they killing every Palestinian child, and targeting every boy and girl, killing them in cold blood.

Settlers compete in the mass killing of Palestinian children, in the forms of torture, nothing has changed with the Jews, and none of their habits have changed, Their bitter hatred has taken root and grown...with mechanisms of murder and torture.

There's plenty more, but you get the idea.

(h/t Shawarma News)

04/13 Links Pt1: Netanyahu sets out terms for ‘better’ Iran deal; Fatah is the Problem

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Gaza: Egypt Responsible For Weapons Shortage

President Sisi has now decided to combat Hamas's smuggling tunnels also through legal means. This week, he signed a new law, according to which anyone who digs a tunnel along Egypt's borders would face life imprisonment.
The new law came amid reports that some anti-government jihadists from Sinai had received medical treatment in hospitals inside the Gaza Strip. The reports confirm fears of Egyptian government officials that the jihadists in Sinai are working together with Hamas to undermine security and stability in Egypt.
The new law followed another bloody day, when five people were killed and some 30 injured in bomb blasts outside a security installation, in the Sinai town of El Arish. Earlier, another terrorist attack on security forces left seven soldiers killed near Sheikh Zuweid, a town in northern Sinai near the Gaza Strip border.
Sisi has shown real guts and determination in his war to drain the swamps of terrorists. The tough measures he has taken along the border with the Gaza Strip have proven to be even more effective than Israel's military operations against the smuggling tunnels.
That the Gaza Strip is facing a weapons shortage is good news not only for Israel and Egypt, but also for the Palestinians living there.
It is hard to see how Hamas will rush into another military confrontation with Israel -- where Palestinians would once again pay a heavy price -- at a time when Sisi's army is working around the clock to destroy smuggling tunnels, and the prices of rifles and bullets in the Gaza Strip are skyrocketing.

HRW 'Lies' About Abuse of Palestinian Minors at Jewish Farms

The Jordan Valley regional committee head rejected reports on Monday by the leftist NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), which claimed that Palestinian Arab children were being abused working on Jewish farms in the Jordan Valley.
HRW alleged that "hundreds of children," some as young as 11, work for low wages and in "hazardous" conditions in Jewish farms.
"Israel's settlements are profiting from rights abuses against Palestinian children," HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson claimed. "Children from communities impoverished by Israel's discrimination and settlement policies are dropping out of school and taking on dangerous work because they feel they have no alternatives, while Israel turns a blind eye."
The report is based on the statements of 38 Palestinian Arab children and 12 adults who said they worked on Jewish farms, with it claimed that minors worked over 60 hours a week at times.
Jordan Valley head David Elhayani, himself a former farmer, thoroughly debunked the claims while speaking with AFP.
"They've made up lies. The entire goal of this organization (HRW) is to sully Israel's image. If they'd show me a farmer employing a child, I'd report it to police immediately," said Elhayani.

Fatah is the Problem

Hamas is Fatah without the act, without the sheep's clothing. Fatah is Hamas with political spin. Hamas is the stick, Fatah is the carrot. The goal is only Jihad, not the betterment of their people. The conquest of all land West of the River Jordan, without real concern over what happens to the people after their benefactors in Israel are gone.
But the people know. There have been reports of a dual sentiment among individuals who were interviewed. They want the PA to take over, yet they also want to be a part of Israel. Why is that contradictory phenomenon occurring?
Innocent Palestinians Arabs in the territories want the PA to be successful ,but mainly for sentimental reasons. Like someone voting for a person of their race who runs for political office, even if they do not like their policies. The media does not report there is palpable fear in Arabs of the territories in their daily existence under Fatah rule and also over what happens the day after a potential Israeli withdrawal. On such a day, when the only government that truly is concerned for their social welfare, Israel, is no longer part of the picture.
Palestinian Arabs are keeping their heads low and trying to stay out of the way of the Palestinian Authority. They turn to their local leaders and hope they need not rely on the corrupt and vindictive national leadership of Fatah's Palestinian Authority.

Good Pope. Evil Israel.

Sheesh:

Since becoming pope in March 2013, Francis has made a habit of inserting himself into delicate foreign policy issues, usually in the role of broker. Last June, after visiting the Holy Land, he played host to the Israeli and Palestinian presidents at a “prayer summit” at the Vatican. However, that failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough, and soon afterward, Israeli troops began an assault against the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip.

Even sooner afterwards, Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers. And Hamas shot scores of rockets towards Israeli civilians.

But the New York Times just can't help itself in portraying Israel as an aggressor, spitting in the face of Pope Francis with its violent response to his efforts to bring peace to the region.

(h/t Ronald G)

NGOs insist that Israel help Hamas build tunnels

The Association of International Development Agencies is a consortium of dozens of NGOs, including CARE International , BBC Media Action, Oxfam GB, Diakonia, Save the Children and The Carter Center.

It just released a report urging the international community to step up efforts to rebuild Gaza. But, naturally, it slams Israel.

The report pretends to be even-handed. For example:

All parties should immediately resume negotiations for a long-term ceasefire that addresses the need for sustainable reconstruction, tackles the root causes of the conflict and can deliver long-lasting security for both Israelis and Palestinians. Negotiations should include all concerned parties, particularly women, in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

Both the Government of Israel and Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, must abide by international humanitarian and human rights law in the conduct of hostilities.

The international community must demand an end to violations of international law, and push for greater accountability of all parties, including guarantees of non-repetition.³

Sounds like it includes Hamas, right?

But that tiny footnote 3 refers to:

Articles 30–37 of the International Law Commission Draft Article on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, 2001. http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/commentaries/9_6_2001.pdf, read with Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions, https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions Elaborated at p. 12 below, “Accountability For IHL Violations”

A draft article, never ratified into law, that only applies to states - and not Hamas!

The draft document says that states that illegally attack others must pay restitution, so AIDA is saying that israel's defending itself from Hamas rockets is against international law.

This sort of bias pervades the document. But one more example will do.

AIDA's recommendations include Israel giving Hamas the unlimited ability to build bunkers in Gaza and terror tunnels into Israel.

The report says:

To date, the international community has failed to put forth a plan of action that effectively pressures Israel to lift the blockade; choosing instead to work around it.

The clearest example of "working around the blockade‟ is the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM). Introduced just before the Cairo conference, the GRM was presented as away to address Israel‟s security concerns while allowing the import of cement and other construction materials.

Israel has often stated that the enforcement of the blockade is necessary for controlling the import of cement and other items that they label as "dual use‟. It should be noted that, under the Wassenaar Arrangement,82 dual-use items are defined based on clearly agreed criteria, in particular, their inclusion in the globally accepted munitions list and "the ability to make a clear and objective specification of the item‟ for military purposes. Aggregate, steel bars and cement (ABCs), which are essential for largescale reconstruction, are not listed as prohibited materials, yet Israel continues to define these and many other essential goods as "dual-use‟ in order to restrict their entry into Gaza.83

Since the materials that Hamas uses to build tunnels meant to kidnap Israelis and hide weapons caches underneath civilian structures are the same materials used to build buildings, AIDA is recommending that there be no restrictions on those materials.

Not surprisingly, the entire report does not mention tunnels once - even though they were a major military objective of Operation Protective Edge. And even though the entire purpose of those tunnels is to commit war crimes.

Instead of embracing a mechanism that allows Israel to restrict materials to terror groups, or even attempting to improve that mechanism, AIDA says that all restrictions of materials to Hamas be lifted.

Israeli civilians are not worthy of protection, except maybe from rockets as long as Israel doesn't target rockets that are launched near civilian buildings, which is why Hamas does exactly that with impunity.

AIDA also includes spurious research in its demand that Israel open up all crossings to and from Gaza:

Even if the GRM is able to keep up with the demand for ABCs, it is not clear if Kerem Shalom, the sole crossing for goods between Israel and Gaza, has the capacity to meet supply. According to one senior UN source, „Even if GRM works perfectly, the Kerem Shalom is not enough, even if it operates 24/7‟.⁸⁷

The source?

AIDA interview with UN official conducted in Jerusalem, 26 March 2014

No statistics, no numbers, no name. Some UN official makes a statement and it is accepted as fact.

Of course, one reason Israel has created the huge Kerem Shalom complex was to ensure its security while making it large enough to supply all of Gaza's needs should it need to. But AIDA didn't ask Israeli officials to give them any statistics on its capacity and growth potential, instead relying on an anonymous UN official. Which they footnoted as if there was any credibility to his opinion.

This is what the entire report is like. It pretends to be fair but its bias is obvious if you scratch the surface.

Haaretz columnist praises obscure anti-Israel conference - without revealing his conflict of interest

From Gideon Levy at Haaretz:

...A completely unusual event was taking place at the National Press Club. At a conference on Friday titled “The Israel Lobby: Is It Good for the U.S.? Is It Good for Israel?,” cosponsored by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, remarks the likes of which are rarely heard in the United States were made.

Attendees included members of the U.S. Congress, former diplomats and intelligence officials, Palestinian student leaders, Jewish activists from the left and academics. This was not the Saban Forum, nor the AIPAC Policy Conference: This was the other America. “Welcome to another Israeli-occupied territory: Washington,” someone on the stage half-joked. At a time of a new zenith in Israeli interference in the U.S. capital and a new and inconceivable nadir in American groveling before Israel, the anger, the insistence, the fear and perhaps also the hatred of the few was heard clearly at the conference. If their voice is set to grow, then Israelis should be aware of it.

...Paul Findley, 93, a Republican U.S. Representative from Illinois (from 1961-1983), mentioned a senior diplomat friend of his who knew it was impossible to criticize Israel to the secretary of state through the usual channels, only in one-on-one conversations. There are hundreds of people in the Administration whose salaries are paid by the U.S. taxpayer and who believe their sole mission is to defend Israel, even by destroying freedom of expression, Findley added. His voice shook when he said the conference was a rare opportunity to express such ideas. He spoke of the paralyzing fear of criticizing Israel, lest one be labeled an anti-Semite. It’s not the politicians who run this country; it’s the lobbyists, including the Jewish lobby, Findley said. His remarks were echoed by Nick Rahall, who served as a Democratic U.S. Representative from West Virginia for 38 years and who said American democracy had been hijacked by wealthy businessmen like Sheldon Adelson.

Paul R. Pillar, formerly a senior member of the U.S. intelligence community, explained in a brilliant lecture the advantages of the nuclear agreement with Iran, and argued that Israel’s opposition to it stemmed from the fear that, in its wake, the occupation would become the main issue.

There is, as far as I can tell, there was no English-language* news coverage of this conference anywhere except in this column by Levy in Haaretz. The videos of the conference do not show the size of the crowd so we don't know how many people actually showed up; I would be surprised if more than fifty people attended based on the sound of the applause on the videos and the size of the venue.

But Levy didn't mention a salient fact:

Levy was one of the honored speakers at this anti-Israel hatefest.

Yes, Levy's effusive praise was for a conference which highlighted his own speech there!

This conflict of interest would be required to be revealed in any normal journalistic outlet. But - this is Ha'aretz, where the normal rules for journalism do not apply.

Ha'aretz' ethical standards are as high as their editorial standards.

*While there wasn't any English-language coverage, Arab newspapers gleefully quoted Levy's column "reporting" that former members of Congress say that the Jewish lobby controls America.

Once again, Haaretz has contributed to worldwide antisemitism.

Jews respond to "Allah hu Akbar" taunts with dancing

This video was originally shown on the Al Himna News Facebook page, where they said that "settlers" were taunting the women who scream "Allah Hu Akbar:" at passing Jews.

Keep in mind that this is not on the Temple Mount, but in a street of the Old City outside the complex.

The song that the Jews sang, Yibaneh Hamikdash, translates to "The Temple will be rebuilt; the City of Zion will be restored." It is one of those Zionist songs that were written in medieval times.

I think that this is a proper reaction to the attempts at intimidating Jews in their capital. In fact, I would recommend adapting one of the "Yibaneh HaMikdash" tunes (such as the one that these Jews sang while dancing) to the lyrics "Allah Hu Akbar" and break out into song and dance every time the chant is heard.

(h/t Michael C)

It wasn't only Obama who has flip-flopped on his red lines on lifting sanctions on Iran.

Here's Hillary Clinton writing in 2007:

As a result, we have lost precious time. Iran must conform to its nonproliferation obligations and must not be permitted to build or acquire nuclear weapons. If Iran does not comply with its own commitments and the will of the international community, all options must remain on the table.

On the other hand, if Iran is in fact willing to end its nuclear weapons program, renounce sponsorship of terrorism, support Middle East peace, and play a constructive role in stabilizing Iraq, the United States should be prepared to offer Iran a carefully calibrated package of incentives. This will let the Iranian people know that our quarrel is not with them but with their government and show the world that the United States is prepared to pursue every diplomatic option.

While Hillary has been mostly silent on the current Iranian negotiations, if she still held by these opinions one would expect that the Democratic frontrunner for president would have spoken up.

04/12 Links: Why the Left Wants Iran to Get the Bomb; Netanyahu: Keep the sanctions in place

From Ian:

Why the Left Wants Iran to Get the Bomb

The left does not believe that nuclear weapons are evil. It did not believe that Soviet nuclear weapons were evil. It does not believe that Iran’s nuclear program is evil. It believes that American power is evil.
Iranian nuclear weapons are good because they weaken America. Like Soviet nuclear weapons, they undermine American power. They force the United States to “negotiate” and submit to international law. The more nuclear weapons spread, the more the “hawks” will have to realize that they have no option but to disarm the United States and put their faith in some international order to achieve peace.
That has always been the endgame.
The Council on Foreign Relations’ Foreign Affairs magazine had already run a piece promising that an Iranian nuclear bomb would bring stability to the region. As usual the word does not mean what you think it might. Stability is yet another euphemism for weakening the American coalition to create a new balance of power through Iranian power.
The same arguments now being deployed in favor of the Iran deal will later be redeployed to argue that Iran’s nuclear weapons will actually create stability. And as a bonus, Iran will be able to drive up the price of oil which means more Green Energy subsidies. For the left, that’s a win-win scenario.
The spy-scientists claimed to be concerned with the “safety of mankind” rather than such petty trifles as the security and freedom of the United States and its allies. Today men and women who think like them run the United States. And they are not concerned with the United States, but with “mankind”.
Obama intends to cut a nuclear deal with Iran on any terms and even on no terms at all. He intends to do it for the same old reasons. It’s not just about Israel, though as with regime change in Egypt, undermining the Jewish State is a nice bonus because it further weakens America.
A stronger Iran means a weaker America. And the left believes that a weaker America means a better world.

Netanyahu calls for Iran deal to keep sanctions in place

In a video statement, Netanyahu criticized Iran for insisting in the wake of the framework agreement on maintaining its nuclear capabilities, refusing to allow nuclear inspections, and continuing its aggression in the region.
“Let me reiterate again the two main components of the alternative to this bad deal: First, instead of allowing Iran to preserve and develop its nuclear capabilities, a better deal would significantly roll back these capabilities – for example, by shutting down the illicit underground facilities that Iran concealed for years from the international community. Second, instead of lifting the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear facilities and program at a fixed date, a better deal would link the lifting of these restrictions to an end of Iran’s aggression in the region, its worldwide terrorism and its threats to annihilate Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu’s statement came a day after US President Barack Obama told reporters that the prime minister has not provided any alternatives to the framework agreement signed earlier this month.
“The prime minister of Israel is deeply opposed to it, I think he’s made that very clear,” Obama said Saturday at a news conference at the Americas summit in Panama City. “I have repeatedly asked — what is the alternative that you present that you think makes it less likely for Iran to get a nuclear weapon? And I have yet to obtain a good answer on that.”

Netanyahu: West Must Reassert Original Demands on Iran

Zionist Union: Israel should seek green light to strike Iran if nuclear deal violated

Zionist Union co-leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni on Sunday presented their "alternative plan of action" on how Israel should deal with the P5+1 group of world powers framework nuclear deal with Iran signed earlier this month.
The party suggested that Israel should seek an understanding from the US that, should Iran violate the nuclear deal and threaten Israel's existence, the Jewish state would be authorized to take military action to protect itself.
The party said that some of the parameters presented by the West and the Iranians are "problematic," and they hold within them "real potential dangers for the long term" that must be fixed in the comprehensive agreement to be signed by June 30.
Despite saying in the document that "there is no coalition or opposition" when it comes to Iran, the Zionist Union took a dig at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the Iranian nuclear issue, saying, "Instead of a policy that leaves Israel without a meaningful influence on the world powers' decision-making process, Israel must immediately hold a comprehensive, intimate and deep strategic discussion with the US about all of the relevant issues and to complete the discussion before the completion of the final agreement."

This is a note that I have been meaning to write for quite some time, but little things like Netanyahu's speech to Congress and his re-election as Prime Minister, kept getting in the way. And, of course, there is this never-ending nonsense with Iran which is looking more and more ugly. The EU, the UN, and the US are becoming increasingly hostile to Israel.

And, yet, the Israelis are becoming more and more prolific in their technological and economic productions.

Yosef Hartuv - who Facebook tells me recently had a birthday - is the owner / operator of Love of the Land. Yosef and his wife, Melody, live in Hebron. The pro-Jewish / pro-Israel blogosphere - Judeosphere? - is a small place. If you spend some time talking with people you find that you come to know most everyone within a reasonable short order.

All I want to do on this fine Sunday morning, however, is introduce you guys to Yosef and encourage you to drop by Love of the Land.

I am someone who - after much rending of cloth and gnashing of teeth - came to the conclusion that we must support our brothers and sisters who live in Judea and Samaria. This does not preclude the possibility of an Arab state on some of that small bit of land. What it means is that Jews should be allowed rights to property on the land that Jewish people come from.

And, please, what could be more historically Jewish than Hebron, for Chrissake?

Yosef tells us this:

I visited Hevron in November 2000 after the outbreak of the Rosh Hashanah War to see what could be done to assist in the face of the growing daily attacks on the community. After returning to work for the community in the summer of 2001, a bond and a love was forged that grows to this day. My wife Melody and I merited to be married at Ma'arat HaMachpela and now host visitors from throughout the world every Shabbat as well as during the week. Our goal, "Time to come Home!"

According to Wikipedia, Hebron contains between 175,000 and 250,000 Palestinian-Arabs and somewhere between 500 and 850 Jews. Yosef and Melody are two of those Jews.

One mistake that I believe that we have tended to make as a people is in the tendency to scorn the so-called "settlers" who are merely Jewish people living on the very land that Jews come from. Some argue that these people are somehow an impediment to peace, but this only so if we buy into the racist idea, put forward by people like Mahmoud Abbas and Barack Obama, that Jews should be allowed to live in certain places but not others.

Hebron, of course, is the city of Abraham and this makes it the site of ongoing Jewish habitation stretching into antiquity. There is, in fact, no place on this earth in which Jewish people have more legitimacy for building a community and a home then in the ancient Jewish city of Hebron.

This being the case, all I want to do this morning is wish Yosef and Melody nothing but the best in this world and I very much hope that the Jewish community in Hebron is safe and thriving.

From my perspective, all the land from the river to the sea is Jewish land, just as all the land that comprises France is French land. It is a small bit of land, but certainly no other people have a greater claim to Judea and Samaria then the Jewish people. We need not be greedy, however, and should be willing to share our historical homeland with with the neighbors, if they care to live in peace. But whether they do wish to live in peace, or whether they do not, no one is going to tell me that there are places on that land where Jews should be forbidden from living.

No one is going to tell me that Yosef and Melody have no rights, or should have no rights, to live in Hebron.

The world is a very big place and the Jews are a tiny population, but there are only a few places on the planet where one can live openly as a Jew. I live in northern California and am, therefore, blessed to be living in one of those places. Sure, San Francisco State University might make the unconscionably stupid decision to partner with a university wherein they celebrate the murder of Jews, but it's not as if a Jew would likely get attacked walking through that campus.

Yosef and Melody, however, live in a place where it should be an honor for a Jewish person to live.

I think that they should be proud and that they should have the right to expect some support from the diaspora communities. What we should not be doing, however, is denigrating Jews who choose to live beyond the "green line" any more than we would denigrate, say, Rosicrucians who choose to live in Walla Walla, Washington, or Presbyterians who choose to purchase land in Katmandu, Nepal.

When we do so we are justifying bigotry against our own people and that is never a good idea.

So, it is in that spirit that I wish Yosef a very joyous belated birthday and nothing but happiness and success for both him and Melody.

Greetings from the other side of the planet, my friends.

Peace to you, please.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

There has been a little media attention paid to Yarmouk recently, after ISIS took over most of the area and reportedly beheaded some Palestinian fighters there. This coverage is of course dwarfed by anything Israel does in Gaza, but there is at least a little..

What is funny, though, is that for the two years before ISIS took over, Syria's regime has put the camp under siege. Over 128 have starved to death as of last May, far more than have been killed by ISIS. Over 150,000 residents have fled the Syrian bombing campaign there. And even after the takeover, Assad's regime has been dropping barrel bombs on the camp.

The only reason there is even a little interest in Yarmouk now is because of ISIS, not because of the victims.

There was also a story today, not verified, that 120 Palestinian kids between 12-15 were kidnapped in Mosul recently. I see no keen interest by anyone to track this down.

No Jews, No News 1: 400 kids killed or injured by Saudi airstrikes

A tweet from the Yemen Post:

More than 400 children have been killed or injured from #Saudi Airstrikes according to #Yemen Health Ministry, #اليمن pic.twitter.com/2Ujnpg2i7n
— Yemen Post Newspaper (@YemenPostNews) April 11, 2015

Did you miss the massive rallies in European capitals against "indiscriminate airstrikes" and "disproportionate response"?

At this time, hundreds of people have been killed in Yemen from airstrikes, including many civilians killed every day, versus 3 Saudis.

I haven't seen any scorecards in the media comparing the two numbers either.

Fatah shows how peaceful it is again

From the Fatah Facebook page:

You are noble, oh Fatah

Fatah is the one that began the journey, and it is the one that will complete it

We're Fatah members and we are proud

It must mean "through negotiations." After all, Yasir Arafat - whose pictures are featured in about 30% of all Fatah Facebook posts - wrote in 1993 that "The PLO commits itself to the Middle East peace process, and to a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the two sides and declares that all outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through negotiations. The PLO considers that the signing of the Declaration of Principles constitutes a historic event, inaugurating a new epoch of peaceful coexistence, free from violence and all other acts which endanger peace and stability. Accordingly, the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance, prevent violations and discipline violators."

And he wouldn't lie, would he?

(h/t Ibn Boutros)