Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Dershowitz lecture: Defending Israel in the court of public opinion

A September 15th lecture by Alan Dershowitz can be heard (or downloaded) here (M4A) or here (MP3)

(h/t Russell)

All of the PLO's historic anti-Israel documents are on their UN website

The UN website of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine contains all of the major PLO foundational documents.

These include such classics as the PLO's 1964 Charter - before the "occupation" - where they say:

Article 24: This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area. Its activities will be on the national popular level in the liberational, organizational, political and financial fields.

And their 1974 10-point program where they proclaim:

4. Any step taken towards liberation is a step towards the realization of the Liberation Organization’s strategy of establishing the democratic Palestinian State specified in the resolutions of the previous Palestinian National Councils.

Interestingly, they have hidden the 1968 PLO Charter that said:

Article 9: Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. This is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase. The Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute determination and firm resolution to continue their armed struggle and to work for an armed popular revolution for the liberation of their country and their return to it. They also assert their right to normal life in Palestine and to exercise their right to self-determination and sovereignty over it.

Article 10: Commando (Feday'ee) action constitutes the nucleus of the Palestinian popular liberation war. This requires its escalation, comprehensiveness, and the mobilization of all the Palestinian popular and educational efforts and their organization and involvement in the armed Palestinian revolution. It also requires the achieving of unity for the national (watani) struggle among the different groupings of the Palestinian people, and between the Palestinian people and the Arab masses, so as to secure the continuation of the revolution, its escalation, and victory.

Article 11: Palestinians have three mottoes: national unity, national (al-qawmiyya) mobilization, and liberation.

It is not under the link of the 1968 Palestine Charter but under "Decisions and Actions Related to the Palestine National Charter."

Under the 1968 Charter it says:

1. The PNC met in a special session on 26 April 1996 to consider the issue of amending the Palestine National Charter and adopted the following decision:

A. To abrogate the provisions of the Palestine National Charter that contradict the letters exchanged between Chairman Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of September 9 & 10 1993.

B. To mandate the legal committee of the PLO to present a new text of the Palestine National Charter.

The decision was adopted by more than the required two-thirds majority by a vote of: 504 in favor, 54 against, and 14 abstentions.

Yet nowhere can one find a list of which articles of the 1968 charter were abrogated, nor may one find the text of any subsequent charter.

And of course the PLO never did remove the denial of Israel from the charter. (h/t CHA)

(h/t Asher)

Poster: The PLO's strategy

Nabil Sha'ath said a lot of similar statements before and after the PLO supposedly embraced the two-state solution in 1988.

The insistence on the "right to return," Jerusalem and a Judenrein Palestine is nothing less than the realization of this long-standing PLO policy of destroying Israel in stages.

Source

Kosher BBQ competition in Memphis attracts Muslims as well

From JTA:

If there’s anything that can bring the Jews of Tennessee together, it would be barbecue.

This past weekend, the 23rd annual Kosher BBQ Contest and Festival drew thousands of Jews from Tennessee and around the country.

It attracted a group of Muslims, too. Turns out they're not bad at cooking kosher brisket: The Memphis Islamic Center’s team, the "Halal Smokers," won a third-place award for their brisket entry.

The commingling of Jews and Muslims among tables heaped with baked beans, hamburgers and ribs provided a counterpoint to anti-Muslim protests in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and death threats aimed recently at mosques elsewhere in this state.

“This is what America is all about,” Adam Itayem, who manned the Halal Smokers’ booth, said during the event. Itayem is also the owner of Tom’s Bar-B-Q in Memphis.

“People from all over the community feel comfortable coming year after year,” observed Rabbi Joel Finkelstein, the rabbi of Anshei Sphard-Beth El Emeth, the Orthodox synagogue that organizes the annual event and holds it in its parking lot.

Every May, this Mississippi River city hosts the famed World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, held each year on a Saturday. That contest has an overwhelmingly porcine character.

The synagogue cooked up its contest more than two decades ago so that its Shabbat- and kosher-observant members could get in on the barbecue action.

“It is the only event I know that brings the entire Jewish community together,” said Steve Kaplan, a longtime organizer of the event. He estimated that 3,000 people in all came to the festival.

The kosher barbecue contest has become so popular that attendees from far and wide are trying to copy the Memphis model.
The Memphis Islamic Center’s booth drew a lot of curious Jews who chatted with the cooks about the similarities and differences of the laws governing halal and kosher meat.

I was wondering how the kosher status is assured, as well as other details, and I found out - from a local Memphis newspaper:

Attaining the kosher seal of approval requires that all teams use the synagogue's own kettle-style grills that are stored year-round under lock and key. Teams also must preorder meat, cooking supplies and spices through the synagogue so that event staff can ensure that they are kosher.

Everything from the meat to the salt must be inspected by the rabbi and certified as kosher. Finally, the utensils must undergo a mikvah, or ritual cleaning.

Without access to personal smokers, and with a limited amount of time to cook, the playing field is somewhat leveled. Even the most confident backyard griller must succumb to the limited space and heating capabilities of the kettle. The fear of overcooking the meat is palpable. Teams are primarily judged on taste (45 percent) and tenderness (45 percent). Looks aren't everything, just 10 percent.

Unfortunately, I cannot find any recipes online.

Ma'an reports on the planning for the rallies in support of a unilateral declaration of "Palestine" tomorrow in Ramallah.

It says that all government workers are being given off to attend the rallies.

The rallies will include concerts to attract more people.

Classes will be cancelled so students from grade 7 and up can attend, including those at Bir Zeit University.

Stages are already set up, complete with lots of flags, at Clock Tower Square.

Free buses are available.

So when you see the throngs of crowds in Ramallah tomorrow, you'll know that it would be an act of will for people to stay away, and that it does not reflect any serious popular support for the UN stunt. Not that the media will notice.

(I wonder if UNRWA is shutting down for this....)

"Debunking the Palestinian Lie" (video)

Really good:

(h/t Sophie and Daled Amos, via Pajamas Media)

Abbas the totalitarian dictator

Independent Palestinian Arab media has been somewhat lukewarm about the unilateral declaration of independence that Abbas is planning this week at the UN, and one major reason is that they felt that he was not including anyone else in the decision making.

I have pointed out that at least one PLO Central Council member has complained that no other institutions were informed about the move, even those that are supposed to be the official decision making bodies of the PLO.

And plenty of Palestinian Arabs, in the entire political spectrum, have said either that they are against the bid or that they have serious reservations about the potential repercussions.

Looking again at Abbas' interview on Fox, one is struck about how he is speaking:

"You promised me a state by September 2011. I hope you will deliver."‬

"I felt there is no way for negotiations..."

Everything is in the first person singular.

He is not speaking as if he is representing his people - he is speaking as if he is the only person whose opinion matters.

Like a dictator.

This is not a one-time thing. Challah Hu Akbar noticed this Ma'an article yesterday:

President Mahmoud Abbas says he does not plan to form a new cabinet on his return from New York, where he will submit an application for full UN membership.

Asked by Ma'an if he would form a new government on his return to Ramallah, the president said he would only consider doing so when the situation was "more stable."

The Palestinian Authority cabinet resigned in February, but Abbas swiftly reappointed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and tasked him with reforming the Ramallah cabinet.

Despite several announcements that the new cabinet was imminent, it has not yet been formed. Since February, the resigned cabinet has been acting in a caretaker capacity.

It was the third time Abbas had designated Fayyad to form a new Palestinian Authority government since June 2007, when Hamas split from the government and took power in Gaza.

No elections have been held since 2006, and the mandate of the president, legislative council, municipal leaders and cabinet have ended. Analysts, and Hamas, said that disbanding the cabinet in February was a tactical move in response to concerns raised about the government's legitimacy as a wave of popular protests swept the region calling for the ouster of unrepresentative leaders.

And Jonathan Schanzer wrote last week (also from CHA)

With the arrival of Salaam Fayyad, then finance minister and now prime minster, the PA began to experience a degree of accountability and transparency. Indeed, it appeared the PA was cleaning up its act. However, in recent years, Fayyad has been sidelined by PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas has consolidated power, and he is now abusing it.

One egregious example is the Palestine Investment Fund. The PIF was created in 2002 to manage and distribute the money and commercial interests owned by the PA.[10] The bylaws were established so that its operations would be transparent, since the PIF effectively functions as a sovereign wealth fund. The PIF succeeded in bringing hundreds of millions of dollars of commercial assets in the Palestinian budget into the light of day. The PIF's operating procedures call for the Fund to operate as an independent vehicle for economic stimulus for the benefit of the Palestinian people. In recent years, however, Abbas changed the charter, installed his own choices for board members, placed the PIF under his full control, and neglected to have the PIF audited by outsiders. Today, Prime Minister Fayyad has zero oversight of the PIF, despite his celebrated mandate for transparency.[11]

The "moderate" monicker becomes less and less relevant every day. Abbas has more in common with Syria's Bashir Assad than with any Western leader.

Maybe that's why the anti-Syria protest yesterday in Ramallah fizzled. No support from the government.

Giant blue chair unveiled in Ramallah. Really.

Style over substance.

Today, in Ramallah, a giant blue chair was unveiled in support of Mahmoud Abbas' bid for "Palestine" to become a recognized nation.

This chair symbolizes everything wrong about the Palestinian Arab leadership.

No effort is put into actually building a nation - only in appearing to build a nation to make the West happy.

No effort is put into finding a peaceful compromise with Israel - only in appearing to look more moderate than Netanyahu.

"Unity" with Hamas, pretending to change the PLO Covenant - everything the Palestinian Arabs do is for show, with no real value.

They are great at symbolism, because that's all they know how to do.

The circus this week at the UN is just another method to avoid doing real work for peace and instead rely on fooling the world with stunts. It is a magician's act where the audience doesn't want to look behind the curtain, fearful it might ruin their enjoyment of a great show.

Puppet shows: Islamists attack them, Israelis celebrate them

From The Jakarta Globe last October:

First it was churches and a minority Islamic sect, then the gay community and a former Playboy editor. Now the country’s much-derided Muslim hard-liners are reportedly targeting one of its most beloved icons: Wayang.

Ki Slamet Gundono, a world-renowned dalang (puppet master) for the traditional Javanese shadow puppetry, on Wednesday said hard-liners in Sukoharjo, a town south of Solo, had broken up several performances in the area.

“A bunch of youths calling themselves Laskar Jihad [warriors of jihad] attacked a wayang performance taking place in Sembung Wetan village in Sukoharjo on Saturday night,” he said.

“They threatened members of the audience and forced them to disperse. “We strongly condemn this violence,” he added.

Gundono said he only recently learned about the incident from fellow wayang practitioners who were afraid to report it to police.

“We have decided to take a united stand to protect the arts and culture against violent acts by any group,” he said, adding people should not be afraid to hold future performances.

Joko Ngadimin, founder of Sekarjagad, a wayang and gamelan music troupe, said several similar attacks had occurred before.

“The latest incident on Saturday happened near my house,” he told the Globe.

“Two people were injured and the performance was forced to stop. The attackers from Laskar Jihad were throwing rocks and brandishing swords.”

He added the attackers all wore turbans and kept yelling “ Allahu Akbar! ” (“God is great!”) while running amok.

Meanwhile, in Israel:

The 14th annual International Puppet Theater & Film Festival recently took place at the Israel Puppet Center in this suburb of Tel Aviv.

Holon, a child-friendly suburb of Tel Aviv, is one of Israel's puppetry hubs. Each year since 1997, the Israel Puppet Center there presents the Holon International Puppet Theatre & Film Festival. The festival showcases workshops and shows for children and adults.

"Our festival offers something for everybody. So that means, for children and for adults," says Ilan Savir, artistic and general director of the center and the festival for the past eight years. The Holon facility also houses a puppetry school and a museum.

This year, in addition to Israeli groups, the festival included performances by the Figura Puppet Theater from Iceland and the Happy Puppetry Company from Taiwan.

(h/t Ian, Silke)

PA minister says statehood would legitimize Arab terrorism

From PMW, quoting Al Hayat Al Jadida, September 8, 2011:

[PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa] Karake while visiting prisoners' families at Qalandiya refugee camp... explained that the international recognition of the Palestinian State changes all the imprisoned Palestinians into prisoners of a state, prisoners of war held hostage in another state... He noted that the recognition of the state means recognition of the legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle that the Palestinian nation fought, in the search for freedom and independence. In addition, it [recognition of a state] indicates that the struggles (Arabic- Nidalat) of the prisoners are legitimized and legal according to UN Resolutions, international laws and the third and fourth Geneva Conventions.

Isn't that special.

The parts of anti-Israel protests that don't get publicized

Yesterday, I noted that a man participating in an anti-capitalist protest on Wall Street was openly anti-semitic. I don't know whether similar sentiments were expressed in Saturdays' larger protests, but if they were - chances are no one would ever know.

Last night there was a protest in Vancouver against Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman who was speaking at the Jewish Community Center. A number of left-wing sites show the protesters in heroic terms as they denounce Lieberman as a "racist."

A peaceful protest is fine, and they have the absolute right to hold one.

However, an EoZ correspondent tells me that protesters were also saying that the Holocaust was a Jewish plot meant to gain sympathy for Jews.

In a similar little-reported event, protesters at the Paris airport on Sunday prevented passengers from checking in at the El Al counter by screaming "Death to Israel" and "Death to Jews."

Also, thugs tried to break into a kosher wine tasting in Paris, also screaming "Death to Jews" - and they tried to break down a glass door to the event. Police took their time before responding. The witness to the event said it felt like Kristallnacht.

These are the parts that you do not usually hear about when these protests occur.

(h/t EG, Jr.E)

Bomb scare in France outside Israeli consulate (updated)

A bomb threat:

Israel’s consulate in the southern French port city of Marseille was temporarily evacuated Tuesday when a bomb disposal squad found a mock device placed in a van parked outside.

Police were alerted after an anonymous caller telephoned in a bomb threat, and found a pressure cooker with protruding wires and marked with a radiation warning sticker in a Renault van parked outside the Israeli mission.

The area was cordoned off and specialist officers investigated, but the wires were found to be attached to a car radio hidden in the pot, and radiation tests proved negative, a police official said.

The alert was called off an hour-and-a-half after it began.

Israel denies any evacuation:

The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denied reports that a bomb threat forced the evacuation of the Israeli consulate in the French port city of Marseille.

According to the Foreign Minstry, there was no evacuation of the building and they were not made aware of any bomb threat.

Does this mean that the French police didn't inform the diplomats of the threat altogether? That seems scarier than the bomb threat itself.

UPDATE: Jonathan-Simon Sellem of the excellent JSSNews site tells me that a friend of his who works there said that there were no need of evacuation. The police work closely with the consulate, and they do a good job. They also checked for radioactivity to see if it was a "dirty bomb."

Reporters too stupid to challenge Abbas on his lies

From Fox News:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has a message for President Obama: ‪

"You promised me a state by September 2011. I hope you will deliver."‬

‪In an exclusive interview with Fox News, the Palestinian president said he's willing to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations this week.

Abbas told Fox News he hasn't given up on negotiations.

"I will meet any Israeli official any time," said Abbas. "But there is no use if there is nothing tangible."

"I felt there is no way for negotiations because the American administration including President Obama exhausted their efforts to bring Netanyahu to the negotiating table. They couldn't convince him to cease the settlement activities."

As we showed yesterday, President Obama did not promise a state to Abbas by September 2011.

And Israel has offered everything "tangible" for peace - nearly all the West Bank and all of Gaza. He has refused to even give a counter-offer that is remotely acceptable for Israeli security.

Moreover, the US did pressure Israel to freeze construction in the territories - and Abbas still refused to negotiate for nine out of the ten months of the freeze.

Abbas knows that he has been treated deferentially by the media for years, and he has no fear that a real reporter will challenge him on his lies. So, why shouldn't he keep lying?

Palestinian Arab rally for Syria FAIL

On Monday, there was a series of tweets from Joseph Dana, an anti-Zionist journalist who traveled to Ramallah to cover an important news story:

Demonstration in support of Syrian protesters about to start in Ramallah's Manara sqaure.

Protest in solidarity with the Syrian people slowly getting started in Ramallah

Palestinians are wearing shirts saying 'your blood (syrians) is our blood. You struggle is our struggle'

'Yalla, Leave Bashir' chants now in Ramallah

solidarity with syrian people rally is now marching through ramallah

More and more PA police are showing up. March has about 50 people but growing

Unfortunately, his breathless tweets of social action in Ramallah ended there.

So was there really a major demonstration against the murderous Assad regime? Did the rally grow into a major event? Did Palestinian Arabs actually show some selflessness and caring for people who are in worse shape than they are - for once?

I found a video of this giant rally that proves that Palestinian Arabs care deeply about other people besides themselves:

That's right - maybe a couple of dozen people, tops, showed up.

Compare this to, say, this rally put together by Islamic Jihad in October 2009 (a similar sized one was held last year):

If it was a Hamas rally, you could explain - they forced employees to go, they shut down schools, and so forth.

But this rally was for Islamic Jhad, a pure terrorist group with no political representation. And still they get tens of thousands to show up at any rally they set up.

I don't really expect the anti-Zionist left to make the observation that getting Palestinian Arabs to celebrate violence is much, much easier than getting them to condemn it. They will continue to cover non-events like what happened today and they will continue to ignore the massive support for terrorism that exists in the territories.

The sad fact is that the photo above represents far more Palestinian Arabs than the video taken on Monday. And there is nothing on the horizon that will change that.

Photo of an anti-semite on Wall Street

Today I happened to be on Wall Street, where there was some leftover anti-capitalist protesters from Saturday's fizzled out "Day of Rage."

Here was one of the demonstrators:

I will declare that (for today at least) I was a Wall Street Jew. However I am not a Jewish billionaire (yet) and I believe that 3 out of the 5 Federal Reserve Board governors are Jewish.

To help raise the SEO of this post, I will write the word "Jewish" a few more times, because, after all, this guy wants you to Google the word "Jewish" to find out our nefarious plots.

It is a shame I was in a hurry to get somewhere when I saw him, or else I would have interviewed him. I would love to know what was the point of his sign, what he has against Jews, and what kind of job he holds that allows him to take a day off and rail against the Jews who supposedly have all money.

Like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or the Walton family, who I imagine he thinks are hidden Jews.