The Church of Scotland has big problems with the Old Testament

The Church of Scotland just released a pseudo-scholarly paper called "The inheritance of Abraham? A report on the ‘promised land’".

As the JC writes:

A discussion document compiled by the Church's church and society council suggests that Jews’ claim to the land of Israel could be invalidated by their treatment of Palestinians.

The report will be voted on by the 700 Church members who attend the annual general assembly - the Church's sovereign body - when it meets later this month. If it is passed by a majority, it will become "the considered view of the Church", a spokesperson said.

The goal of the report is to use the mirage of Biblical scholarship to deny Jewish rights to historically sacred Jewish lands.

Since 2003, two new insights have been noted by the General Assembly: in 2007, in the report What Hope for the Middle East?2 the Church of Scotland responded to a declaration from Church leaders in Jerusalem, and endorsed their criticism of Christian Zionism and encouraged members of the Church of Scotland to reject it, and in 2009 Christians in the Holy Land came together and produced Kairos Palestine: a moment of truth, offered as a word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian Suffering.

With the co-operation and support of the World Mission Council, we present this report in 2013 as our latest reflection on the ‘questions that need to be faced’, as the political and humanitarian situation in the Holy Land continues to be a source of pain and concern for us all.

According to the paper:

In general terms there have been three main ways of understanding the promises about land in the Bible:
1. A territorial guarantee
2. A land held in trust
3. A land with a universal mission.

After quoting a number of Hebrew Bible verses that support the first idea literally, where God unconditionally promises the Land of Israel to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Church has no real response - only "questions:"

i) How do we understand biblical texts that tell us that occupation of the land must go hand in hand with obedience to God’s law and God’s concern for justice?

ii) Did the prophets not warn that pursuit of power and wealth would lead to inequality, injustice and the loss of land, as it did in the Exile?

iii) What land is being discussed? Is it the land claimed by Joshua, or the land of David and Solomon, or Judah, or the Northern Kingdom of Israel?

iv) How do we view the narratives on the occupation of the ‘promised land’ in Joshua and Judges? (Violent ethnic cleansing was apparently condoned by God in some passages, while others suggest assimilation.)

v) Do any of the Hebrew Bible accounts really sanction future occupation of the land and the driving out of the people already there? For example, the occupation of the land by Jewish immigration in recent times and the violence used to deprive some 750,000 Palestinian people from their homes at the time the State of Israel was established in 1948? (This is known by the Palestinian people as Al Nakba – the catastrophe).

vi) Clarence Wagner describes the creation of the modern state of Israel as a ‘miracle’. What is meant by ‘miracle’? Was Al Nakba a ‘miracle’ – driving people from their ancestral land and property with no right of reclaim; the creation of the Gaza Strip; all the refugee camps; the occupied Palestinian territory with the destruction of community life; and the impoverishment of the Palestinian people?

vii) Justice is a major theme in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. For example “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) and “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33). Are these not a challenge to the policies of the State of Israel?

viii) How can Christians support the violation of human rights in the name of alleged divinely conferred exclusive rights to a specific area of land?

9/11 "Truthers" and others use a similar appalling lack of logic - they simply "ask questions" to cast doubt, without providing any alternative explanations. Has any Church of Scotland member ever asked a Christian Zionist how to answer these questions, let alone a knowledgeable Jew?

Beyond that, these questions are not meant to honestly find out answers, but they are loaded questions that presuppose lies:

• They assume a mass expulsion of 750,000 Arabs in 1948, which is a lie. 
• They bizarrely blame Israel for the creation of the Gaza Strip, which was where Egyptians dumped all Palestinian Arab refugees in 1948-49 to keep them out of Egypt proper. 
• They blame Israel for the existence of "refugee camps" 65 years after the fact - when in fact every other refugee population gets assimilated into their host countries, and the Arab nations are the ones that have kept them stateless and miserable for so many decades.  
• They assume that Israel, by its very existence, is a violation of human rights. 
• They also skirt close to antisemitic stereotypes by claiming that Zionist Jews today are only engaged in the "pursuit of power and wealth." This is a perverted and thoroughly offensive description of modern Israeli priorities and accomplishments.

All of these "questions," therefore, are not quests for the truth, but attempts to promulgate lies under the rubric of "simply asking questions" - just like 9/11 "truthers" and Holocaust revisionists.

If they can explain how their disgusting "questions" are any different than those other immoral haters, I'd love to hear it. As it is, this section of the paper proves how dishonest and sickening these people are.

The second idea, that Israel is given to the Jews conditionally on their performing God's will, is dismissed by the Church - by arrogantly deciding that Jews are doing the opposite, and that the "Zionist project" is invalid, without a single proof-text:

As long as Zionists think that Jewish people are serving God’s special purpose and that abuses by the state of Israel, however wrong and regrettable, don’t invalidate the Zionist project, they will believe themselves more entitled to the land than the Palestinian people.

Again, the Church is assuming guilt and then twisting the facts to fit their preconceived ideas. They even give the following quote, calling it a "difficulty":

“Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, ‘This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I have carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you here to me. If only you will now listen to me and keep my covenant, then out of all peoples you will become my special possession; for the whole earth is mine. You will be to me a kingdom of priests, my holy nation. Those are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.’”

From a theological perspective, it is a difficulty for the anti-Zionist Christians, not to anyone else. Assuming that God controls the world, He apparently has given the Land to Jews, at least at the moment. Whether it is a test or a precursor to Messianic times no one can say for sure, but to dismiss the current miraculous Jewish state - only a vague idea a century ago - as nothing more than an excuse to oppress Arabs who lived there at the same time is not exactly theologically supportable. Indeed, it is another perversion of the truth.

Finally, the Church comes to what it believes is the true meaning of Israel - that the entire idea of Zion is symbolic and universal, with nothing at all to do with Jews.

I cannot speak for the New Testament concepts written in the paper to support this idea, but their interpretation of the Hebrew Bible is laughable.

The prophetic writings especially were developing a different understanding. In Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, force is used to achieve Israel‘s nationalistic goals. This is continued by the Maccabees in the 2nd century BC and the Zealots in AD 1st century. That exclusivist tradition implied Jews had a special, privileged position in relation to God. But the prophetic tradition stood against this. Narrative of the Babylonian captivity demonstrated that God was not confined to ‘their’ land, or was concerned only for  ‘them’. 

How exactly were prophets such as Samuel against war? David was also a prophet - as well as a warrior. Was he, and the Psalms he wrote, not part of the "prophetic tradition"?

And why should God's promises towards the Jews imply that God ignores them when they are in the diaspora?

The book of Jonah is a key text for understanding the Hebrew Bible’s promise of the land to Abraham and his descendants. Written at a time when Jewish people were turning inwards, the book presents Jonah as a Jewish nationalist to drive home the point: God‘s universal, inclusive love is for all. God in Jonah is merciful, gracious, a liberator of the oppressed and sinful who looks for just living. The people of God even include the hated Assyrians. So Jonah suggests a new theology of the land, because God was not confined within the land of Israel, but also embraced the land of Assyria. 

God's special relationship with the  Jews in the Bible in no way implies that He has nothing to do with the other nations, as the Church bizarrely implies here, any more than a father would ignore his neighbor's kids.  Jewish tradition teaches that all people - not just Jews - can be rewarded by God. God spoke directly to Balaam, a non-Jewish prophet - as well as to at least one Pharaoh. There is no "new theology" in Jonah.

If the Church simply wanted to argue that the Hebrew Bible is outdated by the New Testament - which is in fact its strongest argument - then why try so hard to twist the Old Testament to support their anti-Zionist thesis?

Obviously they feel that the Hebrew Bible is their biggest challenge, one that does not fit in the least with their political theology, and this embarrasses them. The result is ten pages of hand waving to misdirect their readers away from the problems posed by the Hebrew Bible, and to discount the actual words of God - in their own theology - in order to justify their hatred for Israel.

This is not exactly how one would expect a religious institution to act.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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Why the French court decision is significant

I mentioned last week that a French appeals court has apparently ruled that Israel's occupation of the territories was not illegal.

The Times of Israel interviewed some legal experts who claimed that there was very little new legal ground broken here:

Legal expert Frances Raday, the president of the Concord Research Center for Integration of International Law in Israel, likewise said the court decision is only marginally significant for a debate about the legality of Israel’s actions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

“It’s only talking about transport infrastructure,” she said. “I don’t think they actually say anything new, except that an occupying power is not prohibited from putting in place transport infrastructure.”

However, Eugene Kontorovich writes in Opinio Juris:

Crucially, the Court held that only the Government of Israel, and not private parties, can violate the relevant provisions of the Geneva Conventions. The arguments that Israeli communities in the West Bank violate international law start with Art. 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which provides that “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer its civilian population into the territory it occupies.” The provision was also relied on heavily in the lawsuit. The Court ruled that 49(6) only speaks to and applies to action by the Israeli government (“the Occupying power”), and does not regulate Alton’s activities in the occupied territory.

This is an extraordinarily important holding in light of the decades old-debate about the meaning of 49(6) in the context of Israeli civilian migration into the West Bank. It is in direct opposition to the political and international law position on settlements. In the standard narrative, any migration of Israeli Jews past the Green Line, or the expansion of their residences and communities once there, is a war crime. Thus when private citizens decides to buy or build a house across the Green Line, or even expand an existing one, it is a war crime.

Moreover, Israeli citizens who migrate to the West Bank are often said to be guilty of war crimes themselves as aiders-and-abettors. The Versailles decision would seem to reject such a position.

Israel’s critics often claim that “everyone agrees” that international law bans all “settlement activity” as it is broadly called, and that only Israeli apologists could believe the arguments to the contrary. (In the Human Rights Council’s recent report on Israel’s settlements, light rail is itself called a settlement.)

He elaborates in the comments:

[The ruling] does not deal with the liability of the Gov’t – but discussions of settlements usually lay the blame much wider:

1) It clearly says private action is not governed by 49(6).

2) It suggests it is wrong to speak of settlements as “illegal.” Settlements are a mix of private and public action, with the amount of public action most would require being quite thin, and certainly not necessary

3) Compare this the Human Rights Council report, which called all activities whatsoever in the WB “settlements” that are “illegal.” That got report got more play than this decision.

4) Under the Court’s ruling, cases where 1)Israelis buy preexisting Arab houses, usually in Jerusalem or Hebron, and without the government knowing; 2) build additional structures on their houses; 3) are born in WB; 4) make “illegal” settlements, i.e., not recognized by gov’t — would all be clearly legal. There would be nothing to protest about these actions – one could still protest some background government role, if one thinks it is significant enough, but one can’t say these actions themselves are illegal. That itself would be a big change.

5) Yes, much of the issue would still remain – how much state action is required....The reading that 49(6) requires the occupying power to not “enable” people moving to the WB means the provision actually means “shall not deport, and shall prevent individuals from moving,” which is rather different language from that chosen [by Geneva.]

Did you catch the irony? Outposts considered illegal by the Israeli government would not be illegal under Geneva 49(6) - by virtue of Israel's opposition to them!

Another important point: the ruling makes clear that businesses operating east of the Green Line are not violating international law, and all the BDS proponents are lying when they say otherwise.

The UN has been calling Israeli presence in the territories "illegal occupation" for over a decade, and the UNHRC recently reiterated that settlements are "illegal" as well, based on their reading of Geneva 49(6). They are essentially making up international law as they go along. This French ruling is one of the very few actual court cases that addresses these issues that "everyone knows" - and their reasoning is at odds with what the UN and anti-Israel groups have been claiming for years.

(The UNHRC statement that Israel must dismantle the Jewish communities across the Green Line is a huge legal leap beyond anything Geneva states, and in fact I would argue that it would be considered ethnic cleansing and tantamount to a war crime itself.)

By the way, national court decisions are at least as important for their legal arguments as any international court, even for international law issues.

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Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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Israeli Checkpoints Stop Terrorists, not Elections by Khaled Abu Toameh

It is worth reminding those people who profess love the Palestinians that there are no Israeli checkpoints inside the Gaza Strip to foil either Palestinian elections or democracy, and that those in the West Bank do not foil elections or democracy, either.
But the anti-Israel spokesmen in the U.S., Canada and Europe are not going to let facts get in their way. They seem determined to continue spreading lies that are harmful not only to Israel, but also to Palestinians, who want see an end to tyranny and corruption in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

NGO Monitor: B’Tselem Condemns Terror Attacks, Other NGOs Silent

In response to the murder of an Israeli on April 30, 2013, B’Tselem released a statement “strongly condemn[ing] the stabbing attack” (“Israeli civilian killed in stabbing attack, northern West Bank,” April 30, 2013). B’Tselem emphasized that “There is absolutely no moral or legal justification for attacks that deliberately target civilians. Civilians must be kept separate from the fighting. This applies to countries, organizations and individuals.”

Muted Response to Hamas Jihad Program for School Kids

Western nations need to consider this indoctrination in any discussion of a prospective Palestinian unity deal, or of whether to accept Hamas as an acceptable player in peace efforts, Abu Toameh wrote. “By poisoning the hearts and minds of schoolchildren,” he wrote, “Hamas is raising an entire generation of Palestinians on glorification of suicide bombers, jihad and terrorism.”

Hamas leader dismisses Arab peace initiative

Khaled Mashaal claims Kerry-backed plan will benefit Israel while harming the Palestinian cause

Dumbing down terror for BBC audiences

For the BBC, this is a simple story of a “Palestinian militant” on a motorbike killed by an Israeli air strike. It apparently does not believe that its audiences need to know anything more than that.
So much for the BBC stated mission to “build a global understanding of international issues” and to “enhance UK audiences’ awareness and understanding of international issues”.

A letter to the Labour Party (Ken Livingstone et al)

Continued membership of Ken Livingstone (and other antisemitic, terrorist supporters) in the Labour Party

UNIFIL: Hizbullah Replacing Lebanese Troops Near Israel

According to the report, UNIFIL patrols are finding paths blocked and former temporary observation points suddenly out of bounds in what is being interpreted as Hizbullah seeking to flex its muscles on the ground.
UNIFIL officers are privately expressing frustration at the often humiliating confrontations with Hizbullah members, in which the peacekeepers feel compelled to back down.

Saudi Journalist Calls Hezbollah a “Tool of the Mullahs”

Opinion Editor Mshari Al-Zaydi says Hezbollah’s “resistance” slogan has been deceitful for “more than ten years” since the organization takes direct orders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Its blatant fighting on behalf of dictator Bashar al-Assad makes this clear.

Turkey: Iran Behind Syria’s Use of Chemical Weapons

A source in Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development party told Kuwait’s Al-Seyassah newspaper that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were overseeing Syria’s chemical weapons and monitoring their use.

Iranian Officials: Iran Transferred Fajr-5 Missiles To Gaza, Which Were Fired At Israel

Iranian officials recently publicly acknowledged that Iran had sent military aid to Palestinians in Gaza, specifically Fajr-5 missiles with a range of up to 80 km, and expressed satisfaction with the damage they had caused to Israel during Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012.

BRING IT ON - Iran declares war on VEXNEWS

The extraordinary attack – and claimed litigation – by the notoriously vengeful regime comes as the Edwina Storie saga becomes an international embarrassment for Press TV, with dozens of reports appearing around the world based on our initial revelations. The story has been widely reported in Europe, in Greece, Spain, France, Australia’s Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph and Courier-Mail, the Sydney Morning Herald and perhaps sweetest of all, in too many Persian free-Iran websites and forums to list that it warms the heart that we might have contributed just a little bit to those who yearn for Iran to be free.

Greece’s Golden Dawn Neo-Nazi Party Blasts Prime Minister’s Planned AJC Speech

Greece’s neo-Nazi political party, the Golden Dawn, posted an article on its website condemning Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras for a planned visit to Washington, DC, next month, during which he will address the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) Global Forum.

Turkish-Muslim TV Commentator Goes to Bat for Israel

Unfortunately, Ozbudak and her group in Istanbul that supports peaceful coexistence within Israel have been targeted by radical Islamists for their beliefs. Evidently, al Qaeda had a list of targets within Istanbul. The first on the list was a synagogue, yet Muslim scholar Adnan Oktar, with whom Ozbudak is affiliated, was number two on the list.

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Abbas says Fayyad might head next government

The resignation theatre continues...

Mahmoud Abbas told an Austrian newspaper that Salam Fayyad, who attempted to resign last month, might be the head of the next PA government anyway.

According to Arabic translations of the interview, Abbas said "The [unity] government will be composed of independent experts and should not be an alliance between Fatah and Hamas, and Salam Fayyad has the right to keep his job in the next government."

As far as I can tell, Fayyad is still "caretaker" prime minister while Fatah and Hamas bicker over how to pretend they are working towards the next government.

The next moves will be an outcry from Fatah and Hamas who hate Fayyad, with quiet backroom deals to keep Fayyad in office to keep Western aid dollars flowing.

As usual, all Palestinian Arab politicians try to put on a progressive face while speaking to the West and when they speak to each other it is an entirely different universe. The West has far more influence on them than it realizes - after all, they need Western money - but diplomats shrink back from outright hostility, which is the Arab game to keep pressure at bay. This is why we haven't made any progress towards a real peace since Oslo.

Both Abbas and Hamas' prime minister Ismail Haniyeh are now past their four-year terms from previous elections, and Fayyad was never elected to any position. But Jimmy Carter certified that "Palestine" has a vibrant democracy so everything is fine.

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Report: Hamas ready to chop off thieves' hands

Arabic media are reporting that Hamas is drafting a new penal code for Gaza, separate from the one under the PA, and plans to adhere more closely to Sharia punishments.

According to the (anti-Hamas) Palestine Press Agency and others, the proposed penal code Article 290 says that if someone steals goods worth more than 100 Jordanian dinars (about $140) they will have their right hand chopped off. A second offense brings an automatic jail sentence of at least seven years.

The proposed code is also said to enforce a literal interpretation to "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," meaning that the court system will be inflicting injuries. In addition, it is said to punish adultery with lashes.

The report adds that human rights institutions in  Gaza have been silent about this matter so far.

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Using Google to help fight Arab anti-semitism

Two days ago I revealed that an Egyptian newspaper published two articles claiming, in lurid detail, the charges that Jews ritually drink Christian (and Muslim) blood on Passover and Purim.

This is hardly the first time Arab newspapers descend to pure Jew-hatred.

Exposing their hate is important, but unlike doing that for English-language articles, it rarely would cause a change in behavior. Ultimately, the goal is to shame the haters into not wanting to publicize their hate and poison the next generation, even if only a little.

I managed to embarrass the Palestinian NGO Miftah into removing a similarly offensive article, even if they attacked me for pointing out their hate. How can we do the same for an Egyptian newspaper?

Some six  years ago, I routinely highlighted Jew-hatred in a bizarre ultra-left wing site called The People's Voice. I asked my (then much smaller) audience to complain to Google News, because their site was indexed there as a legitimate "news" organization, and Google News has a policy not to link to offensive articles.

Complaints to Google News causes Google to contact the publisher of the sites asking them to remove the offensive article, and if they make a habit of it, Google will pull the source altogether from Google News.

The People's Voice freaked out over this, much like Miftah did, attacking me in a long rambling article claiming I was "censoring" them.

But, in some ways, they changed their behavior. Some articles were silently removed. While they still routinely publish crazed anti-Zionist articles, 9/11 conspiracy theories and the like, they generally stay away from direct attacks on Jews and Judaism as they had been doing, or they at least mask their Jew-hatred by replacing the word "Jew" with "Zionist." Even though this is only a small step, it is an important one.

There is no reason this would not work for Arabic-language hate as well. Letters to the editor would be ignored, but Google has clout. (Chances are, as with The People's Voice, they will misinterpret contact from Google into thinking that Google will stop linking to them even in its general search engine, not only Google News. This will scare them.)

So whenever I highlight Arab anti-semitism - generally from newspapers indexed in Google News - the proper thing to do is to go to this Google News complaint page. This page is not easy to find, so bookmark it. From previous experience, one complaint is not always enough to get Google to act.

In this case, you would need to note the offending article's URL (in this case, http://www.misrelgdida.com/Investigations/112946.html)  and the name of the news source, which in Arabic is  جريدة مصر الجديدة . 

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Britain's Zionist Federation lobbies EU to designate IRGC as terrorist

From EJP:

Britain's Zionist Federation (ZF) has launched a petition aimed at rallying its activists to lobby the British and EU institutions to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) as a terrorist organisation.

According to Paul Charney, Chairman of the UK-based ZF, “the EU and the UK must take practical steps to deal with international terrorism. By proscribing the IRG, it would show its commitment to fighting terrorism and protecting the security of EU citizens”.

The ZF calls on its activists to use its campaign to directly lobby EU institution heads including foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, EU Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso, European Parliament President Martin Schulz and EU Council head Herman Van Rompuy, based on the reasoning that by employing such a united and uncompromising action, “Iran will find it much harder to ignore efforts by both the EU and the US to stop Iran gaining nuclear weapons”.

Iran's PressTV noticed it, and if they are ticked off, then you know you are doing something right:

The IRGC, which was formed by the late Imam Khomeini after the victory of Islamic Revolution in 1979, is internationally popular for its expertise in defending the ideals of the Revolution.

The IRGC’s growing and modern capabilities to defend Iran’s territorial integrity have made Zionist regime and its western allies furious.

For the same reason, Zionist regime’s patrons in the UK are pushing their respective governments to impose unilateral sanctions against Iran’s security forces on the pretext that the force is defending the Islamic Revolution.

Zionist Federation of Britain, which is a staunch supporter of Israeli regime’s atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories, has demanded that the EU and UK blacklist an official force of a sovereign country on unfounded, baseless allegation of posing a threat to international security.

This is while that Iran’s IRGC forces have been engaged in various humanitarian operations both domestically and internationally whenever they have been required in cases of killer quakes, storms and other humanitarian catastrophes.

Ah, so the Revolutionary Guards is a human rights organization!

Harry's Place has more:

The IRG (Iranian Revolutionary Guards) is a vile terrorist organisation, which exports terrorism abroad including attacks on UK soldiers in Afghanistan. It brutally oppresses the Iranian people at home including the crushing of The Green Revolution. I wouldn’t exactly call that humanitarian!

The Guards helps fund Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah-, and helped them carry out suicide bombings, car bombs, rockets and mortar attacks and much more against innocent Israelis. The IRG helped provide Hezbollah with the expertise for the killing of five Israelis and 1 Bulgarian in the Bulgarian sea resort of Burgas. Yet according to Press TV the IRG is just a poor humanitarian group targeted by the big bad West.

The IRG is a vicious terrorist organisation that is one of the major protagonists of global terrorism. The group and all its associates are awash with the blood of innocent civilians. It operates worldwide including in Europe, The USA and Asia. It simply cannot be ignored and yet that has been the policy of the UK Government and the EU in recent years. For all their harsh words against the Iranian Regime, somehow the IRG has escaped censure. It is almost as though, to the EU and UK Government, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards is invisible. Whether the EU and UK like it or not, to deal with international terrorism means dealing with its sources, whether it is Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards or both. One of the best ways of doing this is through cutting off the financing and support to the IRG through listing it as a terror group across the UK and EU. In doing so, the UK and the EU would be putting their words on fighting International terrorism into action.

If like me you believe we need to stand up to terrorism sign the ZF’s campaign petition on the IRG here and for further information on the IRG read this campaign briefing here.

The article also points out that the IRGC, rather than helping earthquake victims, tried to confiscate aid and arrested Red Crescent workers trying to help quake victims.

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Wednesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

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Opposing radical Islamist terrorism is a moral duty
Terrorism will only cease to be a threat when extremist ideology is marginalised.

Meanwhile, some are now arguing that terrorism should be accepted as a normal hazard of modern life, like traffic accidents. Others draw false comparisons between terrorist acts and the rampages of mentally ill gunmen tragically endemic in the US. These sentiments fail to acknowledge the unique characteristics and goals of terrorism. Terror attacks are perpetrated by immoral ideologues, not the mentally ill. This is true whether the terrorist is acting alone or as an operative in an organised network.
As the instigator for terrorism, radical Islamism is not the only global actor, but it is a major player, and to deny this is to deny reality.
A terror attack is intended to send a message that civilians are not safe in public places. The fear that is created by terrorism is leveraged by the indiscriminate nature of the attacks. More than an atrocity, it is an assault on the social contract underpinning society. Moreover, successful terrorist attacks tend to encourage others and touch off a savage game of one-upmanship in a drive to capture global media attention.

Daniel Pipes: Lessons from the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of "Ten Most Wanted" fugitives dates back to 1950 but the list of "Most Wanted Terrorists" dates back to just after 9/11 and a sense that terrorism had become a strategic threat. Today, the list includes 31 individuals, all of them male and with a single exception (Daniel Andreas San Diego, an animal rights extremist), all of them Muslim:

Brendan O'Neill: The 10 stupidest Islamic terrorists

The atrocious Boston marathon bombing was a reminder of the hurt and sorrow that can be caused by Islamic terrorists. It was also a reminder of how fantastically stupid and inept such terrorists can be. Who are the stupidest Islamic terrorists of all?

Saudis said to have warned US of Boston bombing

Saudi Arabia in 2012 sent the United States a written warning naming alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev as a security threat, a British newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Bolton: US Should Resign from 'Clown Convention' at UN

Bolton said that simply firing Falk, who was appointed in 2008 to a six-year term as U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Palestinian territories, wouldn’t solve the problem.
“I’m all in favor of firing him sooner rather than later. But here’s the sad news: He will be replaced with somebody else and it won’t make a bit of difference,” Bolton said. “I think the culture at the United Nations is such that merely firing one guy will not change anything.”
Bolton said the problem is that the entire U.N. human rights mechanism is fundamentally directed against Israel, adding that more resolutions are passed dealing with Israeli human rights violations than “the rest of the world combined.”

Max Brenner exposes the haters to the light

There was a pleasingly vigorous response to recent BDS supported activity to boycott a new Max Brenner chocolate shop at UNSW. Julia Gilard was very clear in her condemnation – as reported in the Australian
“Julia Gillard has denounced the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement ahead of anti-Israeli protest action planned at the University of NSW today.
The Prime Minister said yesterday through a spokeswoman that the government had always been firm in its opposition of the BDS movement, which equates Israel with apartheid-era South Africa.

Israel ads perverted in battle for public opinion in Ireland

An advertising campaign in the Irish city of Cork urging people to visit Israel was defaced almost immediately on its unveiling by anti-Israeli activists. The ad campaign, which featured colourful images of Israeli society with the slogan “Visit Israel,” was overwritten with the slogan “Boycott Israel” and other messages critical of Israeli policy. The vandalism was clearly well organized and photos of the defacement were posted on the Internet and the Facebook page of the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

UN Watch: Tweets for Terror: Mona Seif, Nominee for 2013 Martin Ennals Human Rights Award

UN Watch today called on the jury of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, comprised of Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and eight other NGOs, and chaired by Hans Thoolen, to cancel its nomination of Mona Seif, an Egyptian activist who openly advocates terrorism and war crimes, as a top contender for the 2013 prize. She openly incites to violence against civilians, terrorism and war crimes:

Anti-Semite and war criminal Dr. Erik Fosse awarded commandership of the Order of St. Olav

This is the same Dr. Fosse who allowed armed combatants to take refuge at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza in the Cast Lead operation in December 2008/January 2009. At no point did he protest how the same combatants put the lives of the patients in his care in further damage, but also tolerated that acts of terror and war crimes were planned and executed from this compound.

Pope Francis Accepts Peres’s Invitation to Visit Israel

Israeli President Shimon Peres formally invited Pope Francis to visit Israel during a meeting between the two leaders at the Vatican.
Pope Francis accepted the invitation “with willingness and joy,” a Vatican spokesman said, Reuters reported.

Old Spice Ad Man Finds Hit in Israel With Maccabee Beer Commercial (VIDEO)

Isaiah Mustafa, recognizable as The Man Your Man Could Smell Like in Old Spice deodorant ads, is also making a name for himself pitching beer in Israel.

Regina Spektor coming Israel’s way

Acclaimed alternative folk singer, who can list the Obamas among her fans, to perform in August

From Iraq to Israel, for life saving heart surgery

Three Iraqi children have arrived in Israel for life-saving heart surgery and were received by representatives of the Ministry for Regional Cooperation and members of Save a Child’s Heart charity.
Although Iraq is defined as an ‘enemy state’ to Israel, the Knesset approved the entry of the three children and their mothers on humanitarian grounds.

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Infographic: Palestinian Islamic extremism

Based on the Pew survey I mentioned yesterday.

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Why do Western musicians play in a country that imprisons gays?

The Gothamist reports:

It seems that a rumored deal to bring a soccer stadium to Queens is closer to reality, with the NY Times reporting what Bloomberg News, the Philadelphia Inquirer and other publications had noted: Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan is close to paying $100 million to bring professional soccer to Queens.

While Sheik Mansour, deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, has a personal net worth of $4.9 billion—a.k.a. money to burn—critics of the MLS stadium-in-Queens plan are pointing out his country's human rights failings. City Councilman Daniel Dromm said, "I was shocked to read in the New York Times that the Bloomberg Administration is negotiating to give NYC parkland away to Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, an oil billionaire that helps rule a country where gays or lesbians is a crime punishable by death. This is outrageous. This is also a country where gay and lesbian people could be subject to chemical castration. It is totally unacceptable. I urge my colleagues in the City Council and elected officials across the state to join me in saying that New Yorkers won’t do business with a murderous regime and we won’t sell, trade or giveaway our public assets to those who discriminate and participate in human rights abuses."

If allowing a prince to invest in the US is unacceptable because of his country's anti-gay policies, shouldn't there be at least as much opposition to music artists playing in that country itself?

Yet this weekend Justin Bieber is playing in Dubai. Florence and the Machine follows a week later, a rock festival in June and a jazz festival every year. Other performers include David Guetta, John Cleese, Italian opera singers (sponsored by the Italian embassy) singing La Traviata, and the Wayans Brothers.

How come nobody calls for these artists to boycott Dubai? Indeed, why aren't artists themselves in the forefront of boycotting the UAE?

Funny how selective "moral" outrage can be, isn't it?

(I leave it to my readers to find any artists who boycott the one nation in the region that prioritizes human rights and yet play in Dubai, or Lebanon, without any qualms whatsoever.)

(h/t Ronald)

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Arabs commemorate their massacre of Jews in 1921

Al Quds makes up some history:

Today marks the first of May, the anniversary of the outbreak of the Jaffa uprising, where clashes between Palestinians and Jews, who were backed by the British occupation forces, lasted for 14 days.

The uprising started when a group of Jews on May 1 assaulted the Muslims living in Manshiya in Jaffa, where a massive march of Jews was launched from Tel Aviv towards Manshiya, demanding that British troops "avenge the blood of Jews who were killed in the Nebi Musa revolution in the previous year."

Marchers shot Arab passers-by, and Palestinians attacked the home for Jewish immigrants in the region, and killed 13 Jews and wounded 24 others out of a hundred who lived there, mostly young people, then they widened the clashes and events to cover many parts of the north of Palestine, but continued to peak until mid-May 1921.

Palestinians attacked a number of Israeli settlements, such as Hadera and Kfar Saba and Petah Tikva....47 Jews were killed and 146 injured.

The medical reports proved then, that among the dead Muslims were some killed by boiling (silver?) water, and cutting machines, and they were maimed and tortured before being killed, and among the martyrs were women whose beliies were split open and girls violated.

Now, here's what really happened, from Wikipedia:

The Jaffa riots (Hebrew: מאורעות תרפ"א ‎) were a series of violent riots in Palestine on May 1–7, 1921, which began as a fight between two Jewish groups but developed into an attack by Arabs on Jews during which many were killed. The rioting began in Jaffa and spread to other places.

On the night of 1 May 1921, the Jewish Communist Party (precursor of the Palestine Communist Party) distributed Arabic and Yiddish fliers calling for the toppling of British rule and the establishing a "Soviet Palestine". The party announced its intention to parade from Jaffa to neighbouring Tel Aviv to commemorate May Day. ...The march headed from Jaffa to Tel Aviv through the mixed Jewish-Arab border neighbourhood of Manshiyya.

Another large May Day parade had also been organized for Tel Aviv by the rival socialist Ahdut HaAvoda group, with official authorization. When the two processions met, a fistfight erupted. Police attempted to disperse the about 50 communist protestors, and Muslims and Christians intervened to help the police against the Jews. A general disturbance quickly ensued and spread to the southern part of town.

Hearing of the fighting and believing that Arabs were being attacked, the Arabs of Jaffa went on the offensive. Dozens of British, Arab, and Jewish witnesses all reported that Arab men bearing clubs, knives, swords, and some pistols broke into Jewish buildings and murdered their inhabitants, while women followed to loot. They attacked Jewish pedestrians and destroyed Jewish homes and stores. They beat and killed Jews in their homes, including children, and in some cases split open the victims' skulls.[1]

At 1:00 pm, an immigrant hostel run by the Zionist Commission and home to a hundred people who had arrived in recent weeks and days was attacked by the mob, and though the residents tried to barricade the gate, it was rammed open and Arabs attackers poured in. The stone-throwing was followed by bombs and gunfire, and the Jewish hostel residents hid in various rooms. When the police arrived, it was reported that they weren't shooting to disperse the crowd, but were actually aiming at the building. In the courtyard one immigrant was felled by a policeman's bullet at short-range, and others were stabbed and beaten with sticks. Five women fled a policeman firing his pistol; three escaped. A policeman cornered two women and tried to rape them, but they escaped him despite his shooting at them. A fourteen-year old girl and some men managed to escape the building, but each was in turn chased down and beaten to death with iron rods or wooden boards.

The violence reached as far as Abu Kabir. The Jewish Yitzker family owned a dairy farm on the outskirts of the neighbourhood, in which they rented out rooms. At the time of the riots, Yosef Haim Brenner, one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature was living at the site. On May 2, 1921, despite warnings Yitzker and Brenner refused to leave the farm and were murdered, along with Yitzker's teenaged son, his son-in-law and two other renters.

As in the previous year's Nebi Musa riots, the mob tore open their victims' quilts and pillows, sending up clouds of feathers. Some Arabs defended Jews and offered them refuge in their homes; many witnesses identified their attackers and murderers as their neighbours. Several witnesses said that Arab policemen had participated.

High Commissioner Herbert Samuel declared a state of emergency, imposed press censorship, and called for reinforcements from Egypt. General Allenby sent two destroyers to Jaffa and one to Haifa. Samuel met with and tried to calm Arab representatives. Musa Kazim al-Husseini, who had been dismissed as Jerusalem's mayor on account of his involvement in the previous year's Nebi Musa riots, demanded a suspension of Jewish immigration. Samuel assented, and two or three small boats holding 300 Jews were refused permission to land, and were forced to return to Istanbul. At the same time, al-Husseini's nephew, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a decision that later faced much criticism.

Fighting went on for several days and spread to nearby Rehovot, Kfar Saba, Petah Tikva, and Hadera.

The riot resulted in the deaths of 47 Jews and 48 Arabs. 146 Jews and 73 Arabs were wounded. Most Arab casualties resulted from clashes with British forces attempting to restore order. Thousands of Jewish residents of Jaffa fled for Tel Aviv and were temporarily housed in tent camps on the beach. Tel Aviv, which had been previously lobbying for independent status, became a separate city due in part to the riots.

The spineless British decided after these riots that Jewish immigration was the real cause of the Arab murder spree and they started restricting immigration - a decision that would end up costing untold thousands of Jews their lives during the Holocaust.

No wonder the Arab media is celebrating it. It was one of the first times they found out that the West will often abandon all morality, principles and even written promises in order to try to appease Arab anger. Which, of course, teaches the Arabs that threats, violence and terror are effective in getting their goals accomplished.

A lesson that continues to this very day.

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Wednesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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Barry Rubin: Why the "Arab Peace Initiative" is Both a Good Thing and a Scam

Only a vote of the Arab League’s almost two dozen members can establish an official position. So this was not an Arab League plan at all. To represent it as an official Arab position is, then, untrue.
Indeed, we already know that the Palestinian Authority (PA) opposes this formula. At any rate, the United States cannot even get the PA to negotiate with Israel and yet fantasies of comprehensive peace are spread around by it. The mass media is cooperating in this theme, seeking to make Kerry look good at least.

Netanyahu: Conflict is Over Israel’s Existence, Not Land

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is not over land, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, speaking in a meeting with senior officials in the Foreign Ministry.
The conflict, he said, is over Israel’s very existence. In proof, he pointed to the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, which included the forced removal of thousands of Jewish residents of the area.

‘Your grand finale, Evyatar’

31- year-old Evyatar Borovsky, stabbed to death in a terror attack, was the father of five and a stage actor remembered for always having a smile on his face.

Leaders Urge, ‘Stop Playing with Terrorists’

Samaria Regional Council head Gershon Mesika criticized the Israeli government following the fatal terrorist attack Tuesday at a junction in Samaria (Shomron).
“This despicable murder was the direct result of inadequate action on rock-throwing terrorism, of opening the checkpoints, and of treating daily terrorist attacks as ‘disturbances,’” Mesika accused.

BBC claims attacks on Israelis in Judea & Samaria are “rare”

That means that in the one hundred and fifty-one days from the beginning of November 2012 until the end of March 2013, four hundred and sixty terror attacks took place in Judea and Samaria. That is an average of over three a day.

PMW: Fatah: Murderer of father of five is "The hero, the released prisoner"

Fatah's Facebook page is celebrating the murder and glorifying the murderer. Pictures of the terrorist and the victim were posted by Fatah's Facebook administrator and the text calls the murderer: "The hero, the released prisoner, Salam Al-Zaghal."

British Ambassador Praises Palestinian Police Accused of Torture, Urges More Funding

On this point, too, the Daily Mail is explicit. "Our taxpayers give £33 million direct to the PA, while £53 million is donated by Britain for various aid projects – more UK aid per head than we give any other nation... The UK also provides and pays for the training of middle and senior ranking officers from every PA security agency... The reason why a territory with fewer than 2.5 million inhabitants gets so much money is political.

Jordanians oppose confederation with Palestinians By Khaled Abu Toameh

The petition was signed by retired army officers and representatives of various political parties, parliamentarians and professional unions in Jordan.
It came in response to reports that the Palestinian Authority leadership and Jordan were conducting secret talks about forming a future confederation.
The petition accused US President Barack Obama, who visited Israel, Ramallah and Jordan last month, of working toward “dividing the region so as to serve Western-Zionist interests.” It said that both Palestinians and Jordanians were opposed to the confederation “conspiracy.”

Nasrallah: We will not let Assad fall

Hizbullah leader gives clearest statement yet that the Shi'ite terror group is actively supporting Assad regime

‘Hamas used metal darts to kill protesters during Egypt’s revolution’

Islamist movement also stole police cars and, with Hezbollah fighters, helped political prisoners break out of jail, Cairo’s ex-interior minister claims

Fear and fundamentalism as the 'modesty police' patrol Gaza

Police in Gaza have arrested at least 41 men on charges of immodesty this April, writes Phoebe Greenwood. And now the city is gripped with fear that Hamas is driving the population towards militant Islamic fundamentalism.

Italian police arrest four suspected Islamist militants

Italian police on Tuesday arrested four of six men they suspect are members of an Islamist militant cell which was planning attacks in the United States, Israel and Italy, though no specific targets were named by police.

Scandinavia: No one bid anti-Semitism farewell

A curious question for the amateur historian: Why did the countries of Scandinavia, a democratic region whose people share close ethnic and cultural ties, have such conflicting attitudes toward the Jews during World War II? While Denmark later earned a place card at the table of the “Righteous Among Nations” for saving nearly all its Jews, Sweden prioritized its interests over righteousness, upholding strict immigration policies that prevented Jews from readily entering the country as they sought to escape Nazi terror.

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Infographic: Monthly increases in Gaza rocket attacks

This is an updated and improved graph of Gaza rocket and mortar attacks against Israel, by month, for 2013:

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Egyptian play satirizing Islamists forced to move after threats

It would be bigger news if this hadn't happened:

Chairman of the Cultural Palaces Authority, Saad Abdel Rahman, said that the authority did not ban the play ‘Diwan Al-Baqar’ (Salon of the Cows) by Mohamed Aboulela El-Salamooni, as was reported in the media, but rather decided to "relocate the show, to avoid problems."

The play, which was scheduled to run for seven nights at the Hurghada Cultural Palace, reportedly satirises Islamists and pokes fun at the wardrobe and beards of members of the trend.

Abdel Rahman said that following two nights of the show, it was brought to the attention of Islamist figures that the play was critical of them, "which led them to threaten to stop the show and destroy the theatre."

"In response, the play's troupe called for help from members of the 6 April Youth Movement and the anonymous Black Bloc, which was when we decided to move the show to a different location, to avoid violence," said Abdel Rahman.

Abdel Rahman admits that the director of the Red Sea Cultural Centre called him to deliberate over the situation, and together they decided to relocate the show.

sounds exactly like how Scotland's "pro-Palestinian" crowd acts, doesn't it?

Notice who the people behind the play didn't call for protection - the Egyptian police. That says a lot about how much people trust Egyptian security authorities to protect their remaining freedoms.

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More evidence showing BBC reporter's son was killed by a Hamas rocket

During Operation Pillar of Defense, Western media uniformly reported that Omar Mishrawi, the baby son of BBC reporter Jihad Mishrawi, was killed by an Israeli airstrike. This iconic photo was reproduced all over the media of the father's grief.

I was the first to cast doubt on the idea that this was an Israeli airstrike, based my own observations of the damage to his home, knowledge of the frequency of Gaza rockets that fall short as well as expert military testimony by JE Dyer. The BBC claimed that my evidence was not enough, and continued to say that the baby was "most likely" murdered by Israel.

I was also the first to report that a UN report released in March verified that Mishrawi was killed by a Hamas rocket. The BBC, however - which has no expertise in munitions or forensics - continued to claim that it was an Israeli airstrike responsible, saying that there were no Hamas rocket attacks at the time the Mishrawi home was hit.

Now, of all places, Electronic Intifada - attempting to prove that Omar Mishrawi was killed by Israel - finds more evidence that he was killed by a Gaza rocket, and that the BBC is not telling the truth:

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights published a report on 22 November stating that Omar was killed when an Israeli missile struck the family home, and hasn’t published anything on the case since then. (PCHR did not reply to queries from The Electronic Intifada on the Masharawi case.) But the Gaza-based rights group Al-Mezan says that the UN report is based on its own investigation into the incident.

I spoke with Mohammed Suliman, who works with Al-Mezan, about Omar Masharawi’s case. (Disclosure: Suliman is an occasional contributor to The Electronic Intifada and has blogged for us in the past. Readers may also recognize Suliman from a viral video of an Israeli missile strike dramatically cutting him off during a debate with an Israeli in Ashkelon on CNN during the November attacks.)

The UN fact-finding mission’s conclusions were largely based on Al-Mezan’s fieldwork, though this is not mentioned in its report, Suliman said. Suliman explained to me that Al-Mezan’s fieldworker visited the Masharawi home in the wake of the strike and conducted interviews with people in the area. Its findings at the time were that baby Omar was most likely killed as a result of a Palestinian-fired rocket.

Al Mezan’s findings are based on the type of damage caused to the family home, which it says is not characteristic of an Israeli F-16, Apache helicopter or drone strike. Meanwhile, Palestinian armed groups were firing rockets towards Israel half a kilometer from the Masharawi home and Israeli strikes were targeting the sites of the rocket-launchers at the time of the incident, he said.

“Now, what happened is that during this short period of exchange of fire between Palestinian groups and Israeli war planes, Masharawi’s house was hit. So it was very ambiguous what the cause of that attack was — it could be Palestinian rocket fire or Israeli war planes,” Suliman explained.

“I understand from our fieldworker that the course or the direction of the rocket which hit Masharawi’s house [indicates] that it was Palestinian rocket fire,” in addition to the damage not being characteristic of an Israeli strike.

Of course, Al Mezan (and EI) then try to spin this incident into saying that baby Omar's death is really Israel's fault anyway using their usual tortured logic and sickening spin to absolve terrorist rockets in civilian neighborhoods. They ignore that Omar was not the only child killed by Hamas rockets that was publicly and loudly blamed on Israel.

When looking at actual facts, however, it is increasingly clear that I was right and the BBC was wrong - and that the BBC has been purposefully shading the truth about this case for the past five months. So has Human Rights Watch and other media and organizations that are reflexively anti-Israel whenever possible, even though the evidence on the ground from OCHA-OPT as early as late November indicated that Hamas rockets killed civilians in Gaza including Omar.

When will the BBC apologize for choosing the pathos of its employee's tragedy over accurate reporting? When will Human Rights Watch correct the record?

(big h/t to Anne)

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