11/26 Links Pt2: Sir Tom Jones speaks out against BDS, Boston Mayor Declares ‘Thanksgivukkah’

From Ian:

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Stand With Us: Fmr Israel Amb to the US, Michael Oren addresses the StandWithUs-IDC Ambassadors Club


Khaled Abu Toameh: PLO "Resignations" and the Peace Process

The message that Erekat and the PLO officials are sending to the world is: "Hold us back from resigning or else there will be no peace process."
The "resignations" and threats to quit are also intended to send a message to the Palestinian public, which long ago lost confidence in the PLO negotiators' performance, that Erekat and his colleagues are playing tough with Israel.
PLO officials are apparently convinced that they can "fool all of the people all of the time." The next time the Americans and Europeans hear threats to resign from PLO officials, they need to react the same way as Palestinians do -- with a wide smile.
They also need to be reminded that Abbas and his predecessor, Arafat, also threatened to quit at least 20 times since the beginning of the peace process.

Almagor: Abbas in Knesset 'Dances on Blood of Terror Victims'

The parents also emphasize their dedication to protesting the move, insisting that if Mahmoud Abbas comes to the Knesset, "we will be there in the name of morality and justice."
"We will block him ourselves, with our bodies," the statement affirmed. "On the day he gets to Jerusalem, heaven forbid, we will be there to [physically] block the Knesset, just as we did with many other [demonstrators] when Arafat wanted to go to Jerusalem."
"If Mahmoud Abbas is received by the Knesset, it will be like dancing on the blood of the terror victims who were murdered by his people," the letter concludes.

PMW:Fatah publicizes threats to kidnap, kill and bomb Israelis

"We are preparing to kidnap Zionist soldiers," is part of a promise made by the terror organization Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - the military wing of Fatah, and published in a video on Fatah's official "Main Page" on Facebook.
In the video, a masked terrorist sitting among dozens of rockets states that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is preparing to kidnap Israeli soldiers in order to "empty out the Zionist prisons." This is a warning that Fatah terrorists plan to follow the precedent set by Hamas, who kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and held him hostage for five years until Israel released over 1,000 terrorists including many murderers, to enable Shalit's release:
"We are preparing to kidnap Zionist soldiers to settle accounts with the Zionist enemy properly, in order to empty out the Zionist prisons." (h/t Ilya Fainshtein)

PA TV: US created the "War of Terror myth" to increase its interference in other nations' affairs VIDEO

Harvard Publication Prints Anti-Semitic Article

The Harvard Ichthus, a Christian journal, published an essay by a Jewish convert to Christianity called “Why Us?” which argues that the Jews have deserved their suffering of the past 2,000 years because of their role in the death of Jesus Christ.
“We, the Jews, collectively rejected God and hung Him up on the cross to die, and thus we deserved the punishments that were heaped on our heads over the last 2000 years,” the anonymous contributor wrote.

US College Sponsored Speakers: Israelis Kidnap, Torture Arab Children

There was an event at Haverford College on Sunday, Nov. 24, called “The Soldier and the Refusenik.” The two speakers who presented are traveling throughout the U.S. on a fundraising tour for their organization, Anarchists Against the Wall. That organization attacks not only the “Occupation,” but Israel’s very existence.
During Sunday’s program, students were told by Israel-critical Israelis such “facts” as:
- Israel uses the “West Bank” and Gaza as its own private lab where it experiments on Palestinian Arabs and then sells the weapons it perfects to the “worst dictators in the world, including the United States”

Sir Tom Jones speaks out against anti-Israel protesters

Now that the singer has performed his concerts, he has decided to speak out against the campaign which has seen musicians including Roger Waters, of Pink Floyd, Annie Lennox and Elvis Costello refuse to visit.
“I was in Israel two weeks ago, where a lot of singers won’t go,” says the entertainer, whose hits include It’s Not Unusual, Delilah and The Green, Green Grass of Home. “I don’t agree with that. I think entertainers should enter­tain. They should go wherever – there shouldn’t be any restrictions. I did two shows in Tel Aviv, and it was fantastic.”
Speaking at the annual dinner of Norwood, a charity supporting vulnerable children, families and people with learning disabilities, Sir Tom tells The Jewish News: “I wanted to go, because the Israeli people asked me. They would like me to sing, and I don’t see any problem in doing that. I don’t see why anyone would mix up the two things – entertainment and politics.”

Deep Purple returning to Israel

Two years after its last successful visit, veteran British rock band Deep Purple is returning to Israel this winter for one concert at Tel Aviv's Nokia Arena on February 22.
The band will arrive in Israel as part of its "The Best of Deep Purple" concert tour, which will include performances of its greatest hits as well as songs from its new album, "Now What?!" (h/t Yoel)

At last: an accurate and impartial BBC report on Syrian patients in Israel

On November 3rd the Israeli media gave extensive coverage to the story of a baby boy born to a Syrian mother in Tsfat’s Rifka Ziv hospital. On November 25th an article by the BBC Jerusalem Bureau’s Kevin Connolly on that specific case and on the general subject of Syrian patients treated in Israel appeared in the ‘Features & Analysis’ section of the BBC News website’s Middle East page. The report also includes filmed footage broadcast on BBC television news programmes.

This year’s 21 UNGA resolutions against Israel (4 on rest of world)

The four that do not concern Israel are: one on Syria, a regime that has murdered 120,000 of its own people, and one each on Iran, North Korea and Myanmar.
There were will be zero UNGA resolutions on gross and systematic abuses committed by China, Cuba, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Zimbabwe, nor on many other major perpetrators of grave violations of human rights.

French Jewish immigration to Israel up by 49 percent

Through September, 2,185 French Jews have immigrated to Israel, compared to 1,469 immigrants during the same time frame in 2012, according to Jewish Agency for Israel figures. The number of immigrants who arrived from France to Israel during the whole of 2012 was 1,907.
Of the immigrants to Israel this year, 3,188 Jews arrived from Western Europe — a 26 percent increase from the same period last year.

Julie Bishop says Australia's shift on Israel UN resolutions is a bid for balance

Australia this month abstained from two UN General Assembly resolutions; one condemning the expansion of Jewish settlements and another calling for the Geneva Convention to apply in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Under Labor, Australia had supported the resolutions.
Ms Bishop said the shift “reflected the government's concern that Middle East resolutions should be balanced”.
“The government will not support resolutions which are one-sided and which pre-judge the outcome of final status negotiations between the two sides,” she said through a spokeswoman.

Almost 2/3 of anti-religious crimes in US targeted Jews in 2012

The ADL criticized the report as faulty, charging that the drop in incidents was due, at least in part, to the failure of many government bodies to properly report hate crimes.
“Due to a deeply disturbing trend of under-reporting and under-participation by law enforcement agencies, including more than a dozen of the largest agencies in the United States, the 2012 Hate Crime Statistics Act report is seriously flawed,” National Director Abraham Foxman said in a written statement.

Point of No Return: Jews were targets before Israel's creation

Three popular myths surround the 870,000 Jews who left Arab countries after Israel was born. The first is that they departed of their own free will. Second, if they did flee as refugees, it was because Arab states lashed out spontaneously against their Jewish citizens like a bull to a red rag (and who could blame them?). Third, the Arab states took revenge on their Jews for the plight of Arabs driven out of Palestine.

India Marks 5 Years since Mumbai Massacre

Victims and government ministers laid wreaths at a memorial in south Mumbai dedicated to police and security forces killed trying to stop the Islamist gunmen during 60 hours of carnage.
Ten terrorists arrived by sea on the evening of November 26, carrying out a massacre at the Jewish Chabad center, hotels, a railway station and a cafe as terrified civilians tried to escape the bloodbath.
Six Jews were murdered at the Chabad House: Chabad emissaries Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivky, who was five months pregnant; Rabbi Aryeh Leibush Teitelbaum, Rabbi Benzion Korman, Norma Shvartzblat Rabinovich and Yocheved Orpaz.

One of the Most Remarkable Books About the Holocaust Was Just Published

“I think I can pinpoint exactly the hour and day when my childhood ended,” writes Slavko Goldstein near the beginning of 1941: The Year That Keeps Returning. The date was April 13, 1941, when Goldstein was 13 years old. That morning, he asked his father if he could go out to play with friends. His father, Ivo, was hesitant: Just two days earlier, German troops had marched unopposed into Croatia, and tanks were on the streets of their small city, Karlovac. But he gave his permission, and Slavko went off.
When he returned that afternoon, his father was gone: He was part of the first group of Karlovac citizens arrested by the new fascist regime. Ivo would never return home again, and by August he was dead, one of thousands of prisoners executed at the Jadovno camp that summer.

Israel hosts 4-nation warplane drill over Negev Desert

Israel began hosting its largest joint air force drill this week with pilots from the U.S., Italy and Greece over the skies of southern Israel.
The exercise, called Blue Flag, will take place in the airspace between central Gush Dan and the Negev Desert.

IAF Launches Largest International Military Exercise in Israel's History


Spotlight: From Iran to the IDF

"On television, Iran did not show good things about Israel, always only bad things," S. explained. "The government there does not like Israel, but the people themselves do not care. They just want to live well. People do not like that the government is investing a lot of money in the nuclear program."
S. says that since her childhood she wanted to move to Israel and join the IDF. "When I got to Israel they asked me to say my name to get an ID card. It was my first time ever using my Jewish name," she recalls. "For me it was a significant moment in my life."

After treating 2,600 patients, Israeli medical team leaves Philippines

The 148-person medical team vacated the IDF’s emergency field hospital in Bogo City on Monday after treating more than 2,600 patients, including 800 children. The team also conducted 52 surgeries and delivered 36 babies.
A European Union delegation replaced the IDF team, which left behind a range of medical supplies, including an X-ray machine and equipment for the delivery of newborns.

Meet the woman who coined the term ‘Thanksgivukkah’

At this point, it is tough to live in America and not know that Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fall on the same night this year. It is also tough to not know that this doesn’t usually happen. That popular wisdom has it we’ve got another 70,000 years to go before this comes up again. (Apparently popular wisdom is wrong.)
But a year ago, it wasn’t a cultural reference point. It was just an oddity Dana Reichman Gitell, a marketing specialist at Hebrew Senior Life in Massachusetts, had noticed on the calendar.

Nov. 28 Declared ‘Thanksgivukkah’ by Boston Mayor

In light of the once-in-a-lifetime convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, Boston’s retiring Mayor Thomas Menino has declared Nov. 28 to be “Thanksgivukkah” in the city.

Israel Daily Picture: The Chatham Library Photo Treasures Part 3, Jerusalem, Holy to All Religions

We express our admiration and gratitude to the archivists at Chatham University for digitizing these hand-colored slides dating back to about 1890.
The picture of Robinson's Arch published above is the base of a massive arch built by King Herod. Archaeologists believe it was the anchor for a large bridge or staircase from the top of the Temple Mount.

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Cornell BDS group justifies hypocritically using Israeli web technology

Last week, the ZF and I discovered that a number of groups that push boycotts for Israel are using WiX, an Israeli web technology, on their websites.

One of those was Cornell University's "Students for Justice in Palestine." People on Twitter made fun of them for their obvious hypocrisy.

Finally, Cornell SJP came out with a long, nonsensical, convoluted justification for their BDS inconsistency; 1500 words of hilarious attempts to make themselves look a little less idiotic:

BDS is a tactic, not a principle, let alone a call for abstention. The charge that any contact with Israeli products negates the logic of BDS can only be made by people who do not understand what BDS actually is, how it’s worked in the past, or why Palestinian civil society is calling for it now.

The idea that supporters of BDS must avoid contact with anything Israeli not only misconstrues the nature of BDS, but also contorts the idea of politics in general. Politics is about making change in the world, not shying from contamination to keep oneself pure. GWF Hegel explored—and put to rest—the idea of the political subject whose only options were abstention and total withdrawal from action. He called it the “beautiful soul” syndrome. We do not strive to be beautiful souls, and we resist a view of politics that demands total abstention. In the words of Built to Spill, “I don’t like this air / But that doesn’t mean that I’ll stop breathing it.”

Those who call us hypocritical for not adhering to a rigid logic of separation simplistically insinuate that if one believes in boycotting Israel one must do it absolutely and deprive oneself of all the innovative benefits of the “Start-up Nation”; since one is opposed to Israel, one must not be in contact with anything Israeli. This separation in turn supports the misguided idea of two clear “sides” to the conflict. It is a troubling binary: on the one side, Israel, a plucky, can-do Zionist spirit, innovation, technology, modernity; on the other, Palestine, poverty, backwardness, violence.

The entire piece is filled with similar straw men.

So, who's right? Is BDS a call to boycott all Israeli products or not?

Well, let's look at the original 2005 source of the BDS call, from BDSMovement.net:

Boycotts target products and companies (Israeli and international) that profit from the violation of Palestinian rights, as well as Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions. Anyone can boycott Israeli goods, simply by making sure that they don’t buy produce made in Israel or by Israeli companies. Campaigners and groups call on consumers not to buy Israeli goods and on businesses not to buy or sell them.

Pretty explicit, isn't it? No nuance, no exceptions for nice web technologies. Nope - a blanket call to boycott Israeli produce and goods and businesses. It is the BDS movement that advocates the "beautiful soul" syndrome, in Hegelian terms (!!!)

Cornell  SJP doesn't support BDS as it is officially defined, because - well, because it would be an inconvenience. They like WiX. They want to boycott Israel, but they only want to ban products that they would never use anyway! They are so moral!

Actually, they admit:

Let us be clear: BDS is not abstention, nor an absolute moral principle.

There's an understatement for you!

Sorry, Cornell SJP. All that hand waving and attempts to change the subject in your very funny screed didn't prove that you aren't hypocrites.

Quite the opposite.

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Another great speech by Ron Prosor at the UN

This speech was given yesterday by Israel's ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor:

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John Fitzgerald Kennedy said, “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie... but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

This is the third year that I am standing before this Assembly to address this agenda item and once again, I experience a sense of déjà vu as I listen to a distortion of history. The greatest legends of Greek mythology cannot rival the fables and fabrications that have come to be associated with this debate.

This debate may take place only once a year, but anti-Israel bias pervades the UN system all year round. In 2012, this Assembly found the time to pass 22 resolutions condemning Israel – compared with only four that single out other nations.

The worst human rights abusers receive a fraction of the condemnation that Israel – the only democracy in the Middle East - receives. These irresponsible actions have irreversible consequences. The states that rubberstamp the anti-Israel resolutions every year, have given the Palestinians a false sense of reality and fed their culture of victimhood.

It has only been one year since this assembly voted to change the Palestinian delegation’s status at the United Nations. To all those who voted in favor of that resolution, I ask the following: What exactly has changed?

Did the resolution give the Palestinian Authority control over Gaza? Not in the least. Gaza comprises forty percent of the territory that President Abbas claims to represent, but he hasn’t set foot in the area in six years. It seems to me that the Palestinian Authority has been asserting more control over some UN bodies than it does over the Gaza Strip. Since 2007, Gaza has been in the hands of Hamas, a terrorist organization that rains missiles on Israel’s civilians.

Did the resolution passed last year motivate the Palestinian Authority to finally hold elections? Not at all. Perhaps someone in this Assembly should remind the Palestinian Authority that its mandate expired in 2009 – and one election doesn’t mean you can rule forever.

At the same time I have to wonder, where are all the countries that claim to stand for democratic values? They are quick to cast judgment on Israel, but fall strangely silent when the Palestinians don’t cast votes.

Did the resolution passed last year inspire the Palestinian Authority to prepare their people for peace? Not in the least. Rather than teaching their children tolerance and mutual recognition, the Palestinian leadership continues to foster a culture of incitement.

Palestinian Media Watch will soon release a report documenting hundreds of examples of Palestinian incitement since the peace talks began. One such example is football teams named in honor of terrorists responsible for some of the deadliest attacks against Israelis. Instead of teaching kids to score goals, the Palestinian leadership’s goal is to glorify murderers.

Israel recently made the difficult decision to release 26 convicted murderers as part of its commitment to advancing the peace talks. Shortly after, the Palestinian Authority announced that each of these 26 terrorists would be rewarded with $50,000 and some will earn as much as Palestinian ministers. The motto of the PA’s pension plan seems to be ‘the more you slay, the more we pay.’

As the PA sings praises to murderers, the international community tunes out and mysteriously loses its voice. I wonder how taxpayers in London or Luxemburg would feel knowing that their tax dollars are being used to reward convicted murderers?

The Palestinian leadership has yet to learn an important lesson. You cannot abuse others and call yourself the abused. And you cannot claim your history is being denied, while denying the history of the Jewish nation.

In Gaza, Hamas is poisoning the hearts and minds of the next generation. They recently published a textbook for 55,000 high school students in which page after page denies Judaism's historical connection to the land of Israel and describes Zionism as racism. Textbooks should be for education, but Hamas uses them for provocation, indoctrination and escalation.

These are just the most recent examples of the incitement targeting the next generation. Terrorism does not begin with an attack on a bus or in a pizza parlor. It begins in classrooms, mosques, and day camps where Palestinian children are being taught prejudice instead of peace; terror instead of tolerance; and martyrdom instead of mutual understanding.

This incitement is having deadly consequences. Between 2011 and 2012, the number of Palestinian terror attacks against Israel doubled. So far in 2013, there have been 1,163 terror attacks against Israelis and dozens of attempted kidnappings.

Just over a week ago, Eden Atias, a 19-year-old Israeli soldier, was stabbed to death while sleeping on a passenger bus. Eden was the latest victim of the escalating terror attacks against Israelis. In September, 20 year-old Tomer Hazan was murdered, two soldiers were injured in an attack near Nablus, and a 9-year-old girl was stabbed while playing in her front yard. In October, four Israeli civilians were injured in a stabbing attack and Sraya Ofer was brutally beaten to death outside his home in the Jordan Rift Valley.

All those who claim to advance peace must remind the Palestinians that there are no shortcuts. Peace is not achieved by changing your nameplate at the UN; it isn’t achieved by unilateral actions or by passing a string of anti-Israel resolutions; and it won’t be achieved in Manhattan, mid-town east, but rather in the Middle East. So long as the Palestinian leadership chooses symbolism over pragmatism, it will be harder to achieve peace.

In a few days, on November 29, the United Nations will recognize the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Let me take a moment to remind this Assembly what really occurred on this day in history. On November 29 1947, the General Assembly adopted resolution 181, which came to be known as the Partition Plan. This resolution provided for the establishment of a Jewish state and an Arab state.

The Jews accepted huge compromises and gave up on dreams the Jewish people had carried for generations. But they welcomed the plan and joyously declared a new state in their ancient homeland. Chaim Weizmann, who later became the first president of the State of Israel, proclaimed: “It is now our primary task to establish relations of peace and harmony with our Arab neighbors.”

Rather than accept the partition plan, five surrounding Arab nations declared war on the newborn Jewish state. Their intentions were made clear by Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League, who said: “It will be a war of annihilation. It will be a momentous massacre in history that will be talked about like the massacres of the Mongols or the Crusades.”

The Arabs not only rejected the UN offer of a Palestinian state, they then declared war against the Jewish state. Since losing this war, the Arabs have perpetuated the Palestinian refugee problem and still have the audacity to demand solidarity.

Broadway may be down the street, but the real theater is here at the United Nations. In these halls, the Arab nations shine a spotlight on the Palestinian refugees, but back home in the Middle East, leave them in the dark. Since 1948, the Arab states refused to accept the Palestinian refugees into their societies, confined them to refugee camps, and passed discriminatory laws.

General Assembly resolution 181 passed in 1947 speaks of the creation of a “Jewish State” no fewer than 25 times. And yet today, 66 years later, have you heard Palestinian leaders utter the term ‘Jewish state’? Of course not.

Palestinian leaders call for an independent Palestinian state, but they insist that the Palestinian people return to the Jewish state. This is a euphemism for the destruction of the State of Israel and the single greatest hurdle to achieving peace.

Many in this room are convinced that the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the settlements. In fact, from the time that Israel gained its independence in 1948 until 1967, the West Bank was in Jordanian hands and Gaza was in Egyptian hands. Throughout this time, there was not a single settlement. Yet the Palestinians still sought our destruction.

Today, just 2% of the Israeli population lives in settlements, but they are blamed for 100% of the problems. The math simply doesn’t add up.

Israel is the ancient homeland of the Jewish people. It is the birthplace of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the land where Moses and Joshua led the Jewish people and King Solomon built the Jewish Temple.

Israel is the place where the bible tells us about David, who was made king and laid the cornerstone for his palace in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. That is King David from Judea, not King David from the ‘West Bank’ – and certainly not King David from the so-called ‘occupied territories.’ After all, you can’t ‘occupy’ your own home.

For thousands of years, Jerusalem served as the capital of the Jewish people. Three thousand years ago, my ancestors walked the same streets that my children walk, spoke the same language that I speak, and prayed at the very same Temple Mount that Jews pray at every single day.

Yet all of these historical facts are brushed aside. Instead, in this Assembly all we hear are rants, rhetoric and biased resolutions. It doesn’t take a fortuneteller to predict the language in these resolutions. After all, the same text is copied and pasted each year – much of it dating back five decades. Yet country after country sees no problem in standing up and parroting propaganda. I’m reminded of President John F. Kennedy who said, “No matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as the truth.”

The resolutions being voted on today have no relationship to the facts on the ground. Just last week the UN adopted nine resolutions condemning Israel. One of these resolutions condemned Israel’s treatment of the Syrian people. Condemned Israel’s treatment of the Syrian people? It is inconceivable that while Israeli hospitals are treating the Syrians who escaped Assad’s massacre; the UN is denouncing Israel’s treatment of the Syrians.

If that weren’t enough, the GA will soon vote on another resolution calling on Israel to hand over the Golan Heights and its residents to Syria. It is nothing short of absurd for the UN to demand that even more civilians be subject to Assad’s brutality.

At the United Nations, there are countless resolutions that delegitimize and demonize Israel. Why don’t I ever hear anyone speak about all the good work Israel is doing for the Palestinians?

While the Palestinians are busy condemning Israel at the UN, Israel is busy supporting the Palestinian economy and developing their infrastructure. Today, more than 100,000 Palestinians earn their living in Israel, making up more than 10% of the Palestinian GDP. Israel is also building four electrical substations and providing more than 1,400 million gallons of clean water annually.

Palestinians receive world-class healthcare services in hospitals throughout the country. In the first half of 2013 alone, more than 94,000 Palestinians received treatment in Israeli hospitals.

And we continue to give, even as our goodwill is knowingly exploited. While the IDF uncovers one terror tunnel after another, the flow of consumer goods continues into Gaza uninterrupted. Each day, the state of Israel delivers 400 truckloads to the Palestinian people via the Keren Shalom Terminal.

George Orwell said, “In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

The truth is that Israel is not just speaking about peace; it is demonstrating its commitment every single day. Peace is a central value of Israeli society and it has been the goal of the Israeli people and every Israeli leader since our state was re-established 65 years ago.

We will not be deterred from this goal. Israel has always extended its hand for peace and it will continue to do so for our children and for our grandchildren. When we faced an Arab leader who wanted peace, we made peace. That was the case with Egypt and that was the case with Jordan. We are committed to negotiating with our Palestinian neighbors so that our two peoples can live side by side in peace, dignity and freedom.

I call on my colleagues in this Hall not to be distracted by unilateral efforts and biased resolutions. Remind the Palestinians to take responsibility and that the only way to reach a comprehensive peace deal is through hard work and direct negotiations.

Working together, we in this room call all make history by making peace. Working together, we can author a better future - one where our people can live in security, free from violence; where the horizon is bright with opportunity; and, where our children can live side by side in peace.

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11/26 Links Pt1: Israel’s FM a Point-by-Point Review of Iran Deal, Hezbollah's 200 UAVs

From Ian:

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Israel’s Foreign Ministry, in Point-by-Point Review of Iran Deal, Sees Much Lacking

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that with the deal, nuclear enrichment continues; the Arak heavy water reactor does not get dismantled; research and development on centrifuges used to enrich uranium continues; Iran’s stockpile of 7 tons of uranium goes untouched; the project is merely paused, not stopped, allowing it to resume at Iran’s convenience; international business ties can resume, and would be hard to roll-back in the future; the six-month deal could become permanent; and, finally, the military question over Iran’s right to develop nuclear weapons “are completely absent from an agreement that envisions restoring confidence in the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program as one of its major goals.”

Caroline Glick: The goal of Obama’s foreign policy

The culmination of this long process of delegitimizing Israel as a warmongering, ungrateful ally and its supporters as turncoats who are forcing the US to endanger itself for the benefit of the Jewish state was the administration’s hysterical campaign against Israel and its supporters in the lead-up to Saturday’s signing ceremony in Geneva. Everyone, from the White House to Kerry, accused Israel and its supporters of trying to force the US to fight an unnecessary war.
When we consider Obama’s decision to wait for a year to sign the deal that enables Iran to become a nuclear power in the context of his main activities over the past year, we understand his foreign policy.
His goal is not to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. It isn’t even to facilitate a rapprochement between America and Iran. The goal of Obama’s foreign policy is to weaken the State of Israel.

Abrams on Iran Deal: ‘This Is Not A Peaceful Energy Program’

Abrams noted that Obama has wanted a deal with since taking office in 2009, and the President’s desire to end the confrontation with Iran is what “really worries the Saudis, the Israelis, and others in the region…they’ve counted on us to defend them from Iran and now we’re not going to be doing that.”
“That’s the real problem here,” Abrams claimed, saying Iran’s enrichment of plutonium is “not a peaceful energy program.”

Melanie Phillips: World saved? Hardly. More a final countdown to nuclear blackmail and war

Journalists who would normally ask themselves ‘why is this lying bastard lying to me?’ if a western politician merely said ‘hello, nice day isn’t it’ (apart, of course, from The One) have suspended all independent powers of observation and thought over this risible farce of a deal.
Viewing it through the prism of ‘after-Iraq-don’t-give me-any-more-lies-about-Islamic-terror/anything-that-sounds-like-compromise-and-lets-us-put-our-heads-back-in-the-sand-must-be-good/war-with-Iran-is-sooo-much-more-terrifying-than-a-nuclear-Iran/new-Iranian-President-Rouhani-sounds-charming-and-moderate-so-phew!-we-can-believe-anything-that-he-says/anything-Benjamin-Netanyahu-is-against-I’m-for’, the chattering classes have apparently decided that yup, this really is peace in our time and any comparison with you-know-what in 1938 is well, just hysterical, and anyway we’ve had it up to here with Israel and they can just shut up.

On my Mind: From Tehran to Damascus

The six-month interim deal does not in itself guarantee an end to Iran’s nuclear-weapons quest, and that’s a lesson no doubt being absorbed in Damascus. Assad may well look at what Tehran got, after years of obstinacy and defiance, and conclude that if he, too, continues to say the right words, he can continue to hold on.
It worked for Assad on chemical weapons, averting an attack by the US and France after his regime murdered Syrians with those weapons of mass destruction. Prospects for the Syrian people are not encouraging. As The Wall Street Journal pointed out so aptly in an editorial, “The most lethal WMD in Syria today is Bashar Assad himself.”

Geneva: The abandonment of the Jews

The United States has recklessly rolled the dice with the fate of its closest ally in the Middle East, inexplicably placing its faith in a rogue regime, one that has repeatedly vowed to finish what Hitler began.
It was 29 years ago, in 1984, that historian David S. Wyman published a seminal volume, The Abandonment of the Jews, on America’s failure to stop the Nazi slaughter of European Jewry. Marshaling painstaking evidence, Wyman conclusively demonstrated that America and its leadership could have saved millions of Jews. In the preface to his book, Wyman concluded with a simple yet chilling question, “Would the reaction be different today?” Sadly, the agreement forged with Iran in Geneva gives us a glimpse of what the answer might be.

Iranian freedom cancelled

This is not a victory of diplomacy, it is a victory of political amnesia. Conflicts like this one can only be solved once and forever when there is a change of regime. Remember Libya? Remember how the world failed to prevent nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea?
The American President has pushed forward with his appeasement agenda despite rightful Israeli security concerns. To me Barack Obama has entered history books as a US leader who not only let the Syrian genocide happen, but also sold out Iran’s civil society to cut a brief and shallow deal with an Islamist dictatorship.

Wife of imprisoned pastor says family devastated after Iran deal fails to secure his release

Saeed Abedini, an American citizen, has been imprisoned in Iran for more than a year for practicing Christianity. The talks over Iran's nuclear program were seen by his family and those representing them as one of the most promising avenues yet for securing his release.
But the White House confirmed over the weekend that Abedini's status was not on the table during those talks.

The Iran deal is a pacifist march to conflict

And so once upon a time when war was bad, the doves may have been singing from the hymn sheet of today’s more hawkish elements on the Iranian issue. Sanctions, not submarines. Pressure, not privates. Resolutions, not railguns. But where were they when the Iranian people sought to rise up in 2009? Where was Britain? Where was America? Where was the European Union? We all know: stuck in our sub-prime miasma – unconcerned with what would lead the headlines for months on end just four years later. This lack of foresight is indicative of just how poor long-term thinkers our leaders have become.
The ‘pacifist’ Peace Pledge Union urged appeasement of Nazi Germany in 1939, believing that giving Hitler a little would mean saving a lot in the long run. It is not just a figurative truth, but a literal one, that our leaders of late have been the sons and daughters of Peace Pledge Union activists.

Why Obama’s Iran Nuke Deal Is a Good Thing

Israel and Saudi Arabia have both issued statements making it clear that they will not accept an Iranian bomb. And unlike Obama, they actually mean it. What they will do about it is another question, but now they, and everyone on the firing line, knows that Obama will do nothing and that sets them free to act.
Iran is in the North Korean cycle of nuclear development, useless sanctions, pointed threats and worthless deals. If the cycle continues, Iran will detonate a nuclear weapon and then it will pass nuclear technology into the hands of terrorists. And the next step is the mass murder of millions.

Iran, North Korea Secretly Developing New Long-Range Rocket Booster for ICBMs

Several groups of technicians from the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), a unit in charge of building Iran’s liquid-fueled missiles, traveled to Pyongyang during the past several month, including as recently as late October, to work on the new, 80-ton rocket booster being developed by the North Koreans, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports.

CNN poll: 53% of Americans think Obama is untrustworthy

Some 53 percent of the American public believes that U.S. President Barack Obama is neither honest nor trustworthy, a CNN poll conducted last week has found. The CNN/ORC International survey, released on Thursday, also found that just 40% of Americans believe Obama can manage the government effectively, a fall of 12 percentage points in the president's approval ratings since June.
According to the report, Obama scored lowest for honesty out of nine personal characteristics tested in the poll.

Senators writing new sanctions in case Iran cheats

The Kirk-Menendez bill demands the administration certify every 30 days Iran’s adherence to the agreement reached in Geneva this weekend, and that it’s not engaged in terrorism against the US.
The administration has promised Iran no new sanctions during implementation of the six-month interim deal.

Cantor: Since when do we trust Iran?

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called the arrangement "dangerous" and said it brings Iran "closer to becoming a nuclear power." He said the deal "bodes very, very ominously for the region and U.S. security."
Speaking to "CBS This Morning" on Monday, Cantor said the terms of the deal were softer than those already in several U.N. resolutions. He said the deal was "not worth the paper it's written on. ... Since when do we trust Iran? I believe that the attitude should be mistrust and verify."
The remark was a twist on then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan's famous statement about arms control. Reagan said he favored arms pacts with the Soviet Union if there was a "trust-but-verify" standard.

2013 Iran Nuclear Deal Repeats Mistakes of 2003 Deal

After defying the E3 and failing to adopt the additional protocol (in addition to other cheating) Iran’s nuclear program is far more advanced than it was ten years ago. Instead of making a new deal with Iran the P5 + 1 should have been enforcing the previous deals.
The case of the “additional protocol” taught Iran that it needn’t observe its commitments and obligations. In the coming months when Iran and the West have a dispute over the meaning of terms of the Geneva deal or the discovery of something suspicious in Iran, Iran knows that it can bluff its way out of suffering any consequences for its bad faith.

Iran FM Zarif Strikes Different Tone in Tehran, Says Nuclear Activities To Go On as Normal

Despite an international treaty to the contrary, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, upon arrival at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport on Sunday, ”underlined that all Iran’s nuclear sites will go on their normal activities” and that “none of Iran’s nuclear programs would stop,” the semi-official Iranian FARS news agency reported on Monday.

Hezbollah Says Nuclear Deal a Victory for Iran

“What was achieved through this agreement is a major victory for Iran and to all the people of the region and it is a defeat for the enemies of these people,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
“(It is) a model victory and world class achievement which the Islamic state adds to its record which shines with victories and achievements.”

Hezbollah has fleet of 200 Iranian-made UAVs

Hezbollah has close to 200 Iranian-made UAVs. Part of the unmanned fleet is destined for kamikaze actions on strategic national targets in Israel or IAF bases during the next crisis which is bound to occur between the adversaries.
The options at Nasrallah's disposal include many models of UAVs, including kamikaze planes capable of low-altitude flights to evade detection by radar.

Egyptian officials defend law restricting protests

The law, issued by the interim president a day earlier, bans public gatherings of more than 10 people without prior government approval, imposing hefty fines and prison terms for violators. It also empowered security agencies to use force to break up protests.
The protest law has caused cracks in the loose coalition of secular and non-Islamist groups that rallied behind the military-backed government installed following the ouster of elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July.

Report: Egypt nabs 17 suspected spies linked to Mossad

Egyptian security authorities have allegedly detained 17 people suspected of working as spies in connection with the Mossad, Kuwaiti daily al-Rai reported Tuesday.
According to Egyptian officials cited in the report, the detainees were members of three spy networks operating in Cairo and several other Egyptian cities gathering security and military information along with intelligence on the country's economic situation.

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Roger Cohen's malice towards Israel continues

Predictably, Roger Cohen in the New York Times praises the Iran nuclear deal in  glowing terms:

Let us be clear. This is the best deal that could be had. Nothing, not even sustained Israeli bombardment, can reverse the nuclear know-how Iran possesses. The objective must be to ring-fence the acquired capability so its use can only be peaceful.

Given that the UN and the US had previously insisted that Iran doesn't have the right to enrich uranium, caving on that technical capability is far from "the best deal that could be had." Essentially, Cohen is saying that since Iran would never agree to anything beyond its red line, that must be accepted as gospel. Meanwhile, US and Israeli red lines are flexible.

But beyond that, Cohen tries to conflate Israel's position on Iran with its position on allowing a terror state sworn to its destruction to be set up next door:

Israel is the status-quo Middle Eastern power par excellence because the status quo cements its nuclear-armed domination. Any change is suspect, including popular Arab uprisings against despotism. As changes go, this U.S.-Iranian breakthrough is big, almost as big as an Israeli-Palestinian peace would be.

Just as the United States has had to adapt to a world where its power is unmatched but no longer determinant, Israel will have to do the same. With enlightened leadership this adaptation could strengthen the Jewish state, securing the nation through integration in its region rather than domination of it. For now Israel is some way from this mind-set. Its overriding prism is military.

Cohen obviously does not inhabit the same planet as the rest of us.

In the real world, Israel has sought for 65 years to be integrated into the Middle East. It sought peace with its neighbors; and its main goal after peace plans are signed is full normalization with its neighbors, with free travel and economic cooperation on both sides. Hell,  Israel even values and integrates Arab cuisine and culture in its own state, which Arabs consider "theft." Nothing would please Israel more than to be able to cooperate with Arab states on issues like water conservation and desalination, deforestation of deserts, medicine and a host of other common issues.

Who is against such integration? One guess.

Security is uppermost in Israeli minds, not its military. Cohen is obviously too obtuse to understand the difference.

Diplomacy involves compromise; risk is inherent to it. Iran is to be tested. Nobody can know the outcome. Things may unravel but at least there is hope. Perhaps this is what is most threatening to Netanyahu. He has never been willing to test the Palestinians in a serious way — test their good faith, test ending the humiliations of the occupation, test from strength the power of justice and peace. He has preferred domination, preferred the Palestinians down and under pressure.

During Netanyahu's first term, he signed the Wye River agreement with Arafat, that transferred land from Israeli control to PA rule. Imagine that.

However, it is true that Bibi wasn't in office when Israel offered a Palestinian Arab state in 2001, and the Palestinian Arabs responded with a wave of suicide bombings. He wasn't in office when Sharon withdrew from Gaza which led the way to unprecedented rocket attacks on Israeli communities. He wasn't in office when another state was offered in 2007 only to be rejected again.

One would have to be either blind or maliciously biased against Israel to think that the Palestinian Arab good faith wasn't tested these multiple times - and they failed every single time.

Cohen isn't blind.

(h/t PC)

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Will a Qatari ship dock in Ashdod to provide fuel for Gaza?

Palestine Today reports that PA prime minister Rami Hamdallah is currently in Qatar to discuss options for easing the Gaza fuel crisis, since Hamas adamantly refuses to pay market prices for fuel for the citizens it supposedly is protecting.

According to the report, two options are being explored.

One is that Qatar will pay the PA to purchase fuel from Israeli sources and that fuel can be pumped into Gaza as it used to be.

The other is that a Qatari fuel tanker would dock in Ashdod and that fuel would be transferred by Israel to Gaza via Kerem Shalom!

Why would Qatar even consider such a move?

Last year, Qatar sent a fuel tanker to Egypt to provide a huge amount of free fuel for Gaza. Less than half of that fuel was delivered; the remaining fuel is sitting in storage in Egypt. Despite numerous diplomatic attempts by Qatar urging Egypt to deliver the remaining fuel, Egypt refuses.

Israel is now considered a more reliable partner to helping Gaza than Egypt - even by fellow Arabs!

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Arabs want to bring back "Palestine Pound" currency. They don't know much history. (update x2)

From Ma'an, by Alex Shams:

In markets across historic Palestine, tourists can buy old coins and bills emblazoned with the phrase "Palestine pound."

The bills often catch visitors off guard, a stark reminder of a world that existed prior to the partitioning of the Palestinian homeland in 1948.

Indeed, the Palestine pound gives lie to the oft-repeated Zionist mantra that Palestine was a "land without a people for a people without a land" as it demonstrates the existence of a shared currency used throughout the British Mandate of Palestine for nearly 30 years by Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike.

The Palestine pound is an inconvenient reminder for many Israelis that a cosmopolitan and tolerant society thrived in Palestine before its dismemberment and exile by the emerging Israeli state.

But the creation of the State of Israel on the majority of mandate Palestine and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, alongside the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by Jordan and Egypt respectively in response, put an end to the currency's usage.

After Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, all of historic Palestine came under the rule of the Israeli lira (and later the shekel), while the Jordanian dinar and eventually the US dollar circulated alongside.

One Palestinian researcher, however, is determined to bring the Palestine pound back, this time as the currency of the newly emerging State of Palestine.

This is the illustration of the Palestine Pound used in the Ma'an article:

Would the revived Palestine Pound include Hebrew?

Now, let's look at the bank name. Hmmm. "The Anglo-Palestine Bank Limited." What is the history of that bank?

It was formed in 1902 - as a subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust, created at the Second Zionist Congress in 1899. Wikipedia notes "The bank opened its first branch in Jaffa in 1903 under the management of Zalman David Levontin. Early transactions included land purchase, imports and obtaining concessions. Branches were opened in Jerusalem, Beirut, Hebron, Safed, Haifa, Tiberias and Gaza. The Anglo-Palestine Bank offered farmers long-term loans and provided loans to the Ahuzat Bayit association which built the first neighborhood in Tel Aviv....During World War II, the Anglo-Palestine Bank helped to finance the establishment of industries that manufactured supplies for the British army. After the founding of the state of Israel, the bank won the concession to issue new banknotes. In 1950, the bank was renamed Bank Leumi Le-Israel (National Bank of Israel). "

The note illustrating the article is in fact the first currency of Israel, used for four years before the Israeli lira was established to replace it. It was not used by Palestinian Arabs who fled to Jordan.

The earlier Palestine Pounds, issued by the British - never by the Arabs - also featured Hebrew. This one had the Kever Rochel - an indisputably Jewish shrine - on the front:

The initials after the Hebrew "Palestine" stand for "Eretz Yisrael."

The adoption of a specifically Palestine currency was pushed not by Arabs, but by Jews, as early as 1917. Arabs complained when the first Palestine Pound notes were issued in 1927 and they wanted to continue to use the Egyptian Pounds that they were used to.

Indeed, the history of the Palestine Pound is nothing but a recent history of the Jews of Palestine, and it is what became the Israeli currency while Palestinian Arabs rejected it.

Alex Shams is a propagandist. The truth about the pound shows a slice of the history of Zionism, not of a "Palestinian people."

UPDATE: Shams is also the author of the bogus "Ukrainian girl claims to have killed kids as an IDF soldier" story. Ma'an must be proud to have hired him.

UPDATE 2: What a surprise - Ma'an silently changed the photo of the Palestine pound away from the one that was used in the new state of Israel and rejected by Palestinian Arabs.

Erasing history is par for the course for Palestinian Arabs. Literally.

They pretend they want to bring back "historic Palestine" but the Palestine they are talking about only thrived because of Zionists! Yes, Zionists created their sports leagues, orchestras, newspapers, tourism initiatives,  and a pavilion at the World's Fair all proudly named after Palestine. 

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SFSU's GUPS president explains that he wants to see all Israelis dead

The San Francisco Examiner wrote about the display of signs saying "MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS KILLED COLONIZERS" at a San Francisco State University event earlier this month:

Uproar over what some are calling an anti-Semitic stencil that showed up at a Nov. 7 San Francisco State University campus event has prompted the school’s president to issue a stern statement against advocating violence and hate.

Tables had been set up close to the event by an array of organizations. One allowed people to make their own placards using a stencil that read, “My heroes have always killed colonizers,” noted the president’s statement.

The term “colonizers” may have been referring to Jews who came to Palestine in large numbers after World War II and subsequently founded the state of Israel in 1948 after fighting a successful war that caused the displacement of many Palestinians.

the General Union of Palestinian Students SFSU called the whole affair a smear campaign against their group.

“We are appalled at this blatant attack against the integrity and principled position that GUPS has maintained throughout its history. We are horrified by the baseless attack and allegations of anti-Semitism that have been leveled against GUPS and the Cesar Chavez Student Center, the organizers of the 6th annual anniversary of the Palestinian Cultural Mural honoring the late professor Edward Said,” wrote Mohammad Hammad, president of GUPS, on the group’s Facebook page.

Commenter and researcher Bob Knot looked a little more at the writings of Mohammad Hammad.

Hammad has three Tumblr accounts, which have all recently become password protected: palestinianliberator, canttouchthisnuhnuhnuh, and astrangerdanger. Between the time that the disgusting signs were publicized and the time that the GUPS realized that they have a public relations problem, Hammad described to his friends on Tumblr exactly who the target of the signs are - and his opinion does not refer only to to Jews who lived in Israel in the 1940s:

You know what?

Israelis ARE colonizers, there is literally no way around it

And you know what else?

My heroes HAVE always killed colonizers

I literally see nothing wrong with this

and my only regret is that not all colonizers were killed

HMM

Now re-read Hammad's defense the GUPS actions in the article quoted above. It sure looks like he says one thing in public and another thing to his friends on Tumblr, doesn't it?

More fun stuff from Hammad:

A photo he uploaded of (presumably) him flipping the bird to a US Marines office (with a "Palestine" banner):

Here is an essay Hammad wrote last April (again, from his recently taken down Tumblr account) where he explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel, with violence if necessary:

I will no longer support the two-state solution, and will vie for the liberation of Palestine through the reclamation of the lands that are rightfully ours through any means necessary. If the Israelis want to live in peace with us, so be it, but this peace will NOT be on their terms. It may be Palestinian freedom fighters who pull the triggers, but whatever lives are lost in the battle for liberation rest squarely on the shoulders of Israel.

Until return, and until liberation, one-state for Palestinians through any means necessary.

The president of GUPS has made it crystal clear, in his own words, that he interprets the "MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS KILLED COLONIZERS" sign as a call to kill Israeli Jews (he is not calling to kill Israeli Arabs!)

Let's see GUPS try to spin this. I predict they will go on a wild attack, because misdirection is the last refuge for people caught with their pants down.

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11/25 Links Pt2: A culture of anti-Semitic poison at Al-Quds University, Video of the Fascist-style rally

From Ian:

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International law and Judea and Samaria: It’s time to return to the facts

In his November 21 article on “Humanitarian law vs. political choices,” Juan Pedro Schaerer, head of the local delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), repeats the longstanding point of view that Judea and Samaria, what some refer to as the “West Bank,” is “occupied territory.”
In fact, Mr. Schaerer is so certain of this opinion, he invites a public debate on the issue.
However, before stating a contrary point of view, it would be pertinent to begin by debunking Schaerer’s own statements. In the article Schaerer starts, as many opinions do, by quoting Article 42 of the Hague Regulations of 1907, writing: “The facts on the ground were such that they fell squarely into the definition of occupied territory, which is codified in Article 42.”

A culture of anti-Semitic poison at Al-Quds University

Nusseibeh is often described as a Palestinian “moderate.” But in a culture as poisoned with vitriolic anti-Semitism as the Palestinian Authority, moderation doesn’t go very far. It doesn’t even go as far as repudiating the Nazi-like salutes and tableaux of dead Israelis during a public rally on an East Jerusalem college campus. Not even to retain the goodwill of an institution as dovish and liberal as Brandeis, a Jewish-sponsored university that was proud of its relationship with Al-Quds.
The genocidal values of Islamic Jihad are no anomaly. They are the values of Hamas and the PLO. They are the values that led the Arab League to spurn the UN’s proposed two-state solution in 1947, and to announce that it would crush the newborn Jewish state in “a war of extermination and a momentous massacre.” They are the values that induced Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the leader of the Palestinians in the 1930s, to form an alliance with Adolf Hitler, eagerly collaborating with the fuhrer in the hope of importing the Final Solution to the Jews of the Middle East.

MEMRI: Nazi-Style Salutes and Glorification of Martyrdom at Islamic Jihad Rallies in Al-Quds University

Anti-Semitism is Rife Among America’s Far Left (REVIEW)

If you’ve ever wondered why “do-gooder” is a pejorative label, Stephen Norwood’s book on “Antisemitism and the American Far Left” will enlighten you. Rarely has there been a group of Americans so prone to mistake feeling good about what they are doing for actually doing good, as “far leftists.”
They comprise Stalinists, Trotskyists, Old Leftists, New Leftists, loyal readers of The Daily Worker, New International, PM, Labor Action, The Nation, Ramparts, Tikkun; members of the CP, SP, SWP, SDS, SNCC, and indeed the whole alphabet soup cooked up by the dissidence of dissent.

Egyptian Nazi Scandal Shows Clear Academic Bias

Had the conference organizers done their due diligence, they would have had a very clear idea of Jan’s toxic beliefs. After all, we’re not talking about a cloak and dagger espionage operation. A few seconds of Googling would have taken them to a video from 2011, in which Jan and other Egyptian Nazis explained their raison d’etre to a shocked Egyptian television host. Also, the Alwaleed Center has a Facebook account, as does Jan. Had the conference organizers paid a brief visit to the Facebook page of a man they were willing to fly to Washington, they would have discovered that he’d posted several pictures of Adolf Hitler alongside admiring tributes to the Fuhrer.

Terror-link group met in parliament

Separately, it can also be revealed that one of the Government’s police and crime commissioners will this week speak on the same platform as a man who has justified the killing of British troops and called for democracy to be replaced by Sharia.
The Commons events — held in March and September — involving the group with links to Hamas were organised by the Emirates Centre for Human Rights (ECHR), which says it is a moderate campaign against rights abuses in the Gulf. However, part of its agenda appears to be anticipating the end of the regimes in the region.

Harriet Sherwood misleads on UNRWA statement about Gaza construction ban

Whilst the language in her Nov. 22 report is not completely clear, if Sherwood is claiming that UNRWA characterized the recent Israeli restrictions on construction materials into Gaza as “illegal”, and as a form of “collective punishment”, it is clear that the outgoing UNRWA Commissioner General never in fact made such an argument.
Alternately, if Sherwood was merely attempting to characterize the Commissioner General’s opinion on the broader issue of the Israeli blockade, then she failed to reveal that this view was definitively contradicted by the UN inquiry which she herself reported more than two years ago.

Compare and contrast: BBC reporting on cross-border missile fire

On November 21st cross-border mortar fire hit an uninhabited desert area in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province. The attack was claimed by an Iranian-backed militia operating in Iraq. A report on the incident appeared on the BBC news website’s Middle East page on the same day.

BBC Monitoring puffs wind in the sails of professional anti-Israel campaigners

Interestingly, part of the BBC Monitoring article focuses on reactions to the amended map provided by the publisher.
Visitors who click on the link to Scholastic’s blog provided in the BBC article will soon realise that many of the writers of the comments there are not mere “readers” as they are described by BBC Monitoring, but veteran – and in some cases, professional – anti-Israel campaigners.
First off the mark is Greta Berlin of the flotilla-organising, Hamas-supporting ‘Free Gaza Movement’ – perhaps more memorable for her promotion of antisemitic material on the internet.
Also popping in to visit was International Solidarity Movement activist Paul Larudee, who was among the organisers of the failed 2012 ‘Global March to Jerusalem’.

Fire Friedman – forthwith

Tom Friedman has surrendered every shred of professional integrity in favor of defending an indefensible policy of an indefensible administration.
He has shown himself to be ill-informed and incoherent; either woefully misled himself or willfully misleading his readers.
But worse, he is exploiting his potent journalistic platform to incite against the Jews, to insinuate–indeed openly accuse – that they are disloyal to their country or, at least, have a greater loyalty to another.

Neo-Nazi’s victory in Slovakia spurs Jewish call for action

European officials must act to reverse the momentum of neo-Nazi political parties, the head of the European Jewish Congress said following a victory in Slovakia by a neo-Nazi candidate.
EJC President Moshe Kantor issued a statement Sunday in the wake of the victory by Marian Kotleba, the ex-chairman of the banned Togetherness National Party.

Egypt: New Book Deals with Jews in Cinema

The book, entitled “Jews and cinema in Egypt and the Arab world” was written by critic Ahmed Raafat Bahgat. It examines the role of Jewish cinema makers and artists in the Egyptian and Arab cinema, according to the report.
In its first chapter, the 490-page book discusses the Egyptian film industry in the context of a monopoly and the beginning of domination, studios, domestic production and distribution of foreign films.

10,000-Year-Old Home Found at Eshtaol

Settlement remains were unearthed at the site, the earliest of which dates to the beginning of the eighth millennium BCE and the latest to the end of the fourth millennium BCE.
The dig at Eshtaol, about 15 km (10 miles) west of Jerusalem, is being underwritten by the Netivei Israel Company. The ancient city of Eshtaol is mentioned several times in the Bible, in the books of Joshua and Judges.

'World's Oldest' Wine Cellar Uncovered in Galilee

Israeli and American archaeologists have uncovered what may have been the world's oldest wine cellar in the Galilee, Business Standard reports. The cellar is estimated to be about 3,700 years old and to have held up to 2,000 liters of strong, sweet wine.

Scientists Find 3,700-Year-Old Wine Cellar


Netanyahu to Meet With Pope Francis

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Italy next Sunday for the annual meeting held between the Israeli and Italian governments, part of Israel’s effort to strengthen ties with European nations.
During the trip to Italy, Netanyahu will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican, Israel Hayom reported. It is expected that the prime minister will officially invite the pope to visit Israel. Netanyahu and Pope Francis will also discuss the Iran nuclear program and Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations.

The man who made DiskOnKey a household word

Equally inconceivable is that Moran considers his sale of M-Systems to SanDisk in 2006 for $1.6 billion as a kind of failure.
“I had thought it would be better to take the company to higher heights. But there was a constellation of factors that necessitated the sale, which benefitted the shareholders.
And when you’re the head of a company, you have to do what is right for them.”

Apple confirms $350m purchase of Israel’s PrimeSense

Last July, it was reported that PrimeSense and Apple were in intense negotiations over a possible Apple acquisition.
PrimeSense developed the Kinect 3D system for Microsoft. Since then, it has developed 3D sensors for consumer electronics, cars, game devices, digital signage, medical devices, and more. The company’s sensors are installed in over 20 million devices.

IDF Humanitarian Aid Team: Why We Came to Help in the Philippines

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"The World Cup Is Jewish Conspiracy"

I love when I get shout-outs from Islamic clerics.

From MEMRI:

In a Friday sermon delivered on November 1, 2013 in Kuwait, Sheik Abd Al-Muhsin Al-Mutairi decried the custom of Muslim youth to watch the World Cup or other entertainment shows on TV. "The Jews were successful in preoccupying the Muslim youth... with the most inane matters... in keeping with 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,' he said.

Following are excerpts from the sermon, which was broadcast on Kuwait TV:

Sheik Abd Al-Muhsin Al-Mutairi: Oh servants of Allah, how saddening and very painful it is to see many Muslim youths glued to TV screens at cafes or at home, passionately watching entertainment shows, like the Football World Cup, in despicable subjugation to the abominations of the other nations – as if we were not a nation with a brilliant history and a lofty civilization.

[...]

The Jews were successful in preoccupying the Muslim youth – except those protected by Allah – with the most inane matters, distracting them from important things, in keeping with what is written in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: "In order to keep the masses in the dark, oblivious to what is being planned for them, we will exert efforts to distract their attention, by creating means of entertainment and diversion, amusing games, and all kinds of sports, as well as things that feed one's desires. Then, we will make the newspapers promote artistic and sports competitions."

The Jews, the Christians, and their hypocritical, mercenary lackeys have invested great efforts in cutting the nation off from its glorious history. They want Muslim youths to fumble about in the darkness of Western culture, which is promoted by the sinful media.

[...]

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Stop press! Palestinian leaders condemn a terror attack!

From Ma'an:

Palestinian authorities on Sunday condemned last Tuesday's suicide bombing attack against the Iranian embassy in Beirut, stressing that the Palestinian individual involved "does not represent the Palestinian leadership."

Palestinian authorities reacted to news that one of the suicide bombers was a young Palestinian refugee in Lebanon named Adnan Mousa Muhammad by saying that "the participation of a Palestinian in such cowardly criminal act represents (only) the individual."

"This act serves only the enemies of our cause and the enemies of our nation," they added, denouncing the bombings on Nov. 19 in the strong terms.

Muhammad's family reacted to the news by condemning their son's participation in the attack and praising Iran for its consistent support for the Palestinian cause.

A relative was quoted by the Lebanese National News Agency as saying, "The family condemns in the strongest terms this criminal act ... which serves only the Israeli enemy."

Wow!

And to think, only a few weeks ago, Mahmoud Abbas was happily posing with people who murdered innocent civilians!



There must have been a major change of heart in the Palestinian Arab leadership in the past few weeks. Surely there isn't any rational way to otherwise reconcile these stories.  Surely the PA condemns all terror attacks, no matter who the victims are.

Otherwise, they'd be monsters. And how could a monster be so honored by the international community?

(h/t PTWatch)

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11/25 Links Pt1: Iran Nuke Deal Reactions, PA Sheikh: Only Solution for Jews is the Sword

From Ian:

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David Horovitz: When the US let Iran off the hook

And as its economy revives, nuclear-threshold state Iran will gradually assert itself as a regional heavyweight, with the leverage and clout to pursue its rapacious territorial and ideological goals, most emphatically including the ongoing effort to weaken and isolate and demonize and threaten Israel. And Israel will find its capacity to respond necessarily limited.
Landau has not entirely given up hope. She notes that a comprehensive deal would need to cover all aspects of the Iranian program, include “highly intrusive verification mechanisms, expose all past weaponization activities and ensure rollback from all military aspirations.” For that to be achieved, she stresses, the international community will have to hold firm on sanctions pressure as Iran complains and obfuscates and argues and exploits divisions in the P5+1 and uses every other trick in the book in the coming months. “You’ll need all possible leverage to get a full deal,” she says. “And without a full deal, you’ve lost.”
Trouble is, the Americans signaled the easing of that crucial leverage in Geneva on Sunday. The US, that is, let Iran off the hook.

Iran deal is riskier than meets the eye

Iran can be expected to spend the next six months trying to divide this shaky coalition, and, aided by the lifting of some sanctions, will seek to whet the appetite of firms from around the world, to lure them back to do valuable business with it in the future.
Today it remains unclear how the White House would respond if the second stage of diplomacy with Iran fails. The US’s military deterrence is deflated, and the Obama administration’s credibility is too badly damaged in the region to cause either Riyadh or Jerusalem to trust the White House’s assurances.
A lack of firm international resolve in responding to failed talks would spell the beginning of the end of the sanctions regime, and leave Iran with its nuclear program intact.

Analysts: Iran Deal “Beginning of End” of Sanctions Regime, U.S. Caved on Enrichment “Right”

More controversially, Iran seems to have secured language under which the international community acknowledges that a comprehensive agreement will still allow Tehran to enrich uranium. The U.S. has long rejected Iran’s claim that it has a “right” to enrich, and last October lead U.S. negotiator Wendy Sherman told Congress that “the President has circumscribed what he means by the Iranian people having access… access, not right, but access to peaceful nuclear energy in the context of meeting its obligations.” The interim language, however, describes a future comprehensive solution as involving “a mutually defined enrichment program with practical limits and transparency measures to ensure the peaceful nature of the program.” Iranian state media carried boasts by among others Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif that the U.S. had caved on its long-standing position. The U.S. and Britain both flatly denied Iran’s interpretation of the interim language with Secretary of State John Kerry saying as much and the White House further denying it on a late-night background call.

Obama advised Netanyahu of Iran talks in September

In the confines of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on September 30, just after the Jewish high holidays, Obama revealed to Netanyahu that his administration had been engaged in secret, high-level diplomatic talks with the mortal enemy of the Jewish state. Netanyahu’s immediate public reaction betrayed no surprise, but a day later he launched a full-frontal attack on Iran, delivering a blistering speech at the UN General Assembly in which he said the Islamic Republic was bent on Israel’s destruction and accused Rouhani of being a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Congress plans tough Iran sanctions if deal fails

Such distrust that Iran was negotiating in good faith ran across the political spectrum in a Congress that otherwise is deeply divided. And ready-to-go sanctions seemed to have rare bipartisan support across both of Congress’ chambers.
President Barack Obama convinced Senate leadership to hold off consideration of the measure while negotiators pursued an agreement. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada agreed to the request but said his chamber would take up new sanctions in December — with or without an agreement with Iran.

15 Senators Vow New Iran Sanctions

“A nuclear weapons-capable Iran presents a grave threat to the national security of the United States and its allies and we are committed to preventing Iran from acquiring this capability," the group said. “We will work together to reconcile Democratic and Republican proposals over the coming weeks and to pass bipartisan Iran sanctions legislation as soon as possible.”

American Jewish Leaders Censure Nuclear Deal; Lauder Says No Way Iran Will Honor Agreement

“Iran must be judged by its actions, not its words and promises, because they are not worth the paper they are written on,” World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder told The Algemeiner. “Nothing in the deceptive behavior of Iran and its leaders in recent years should make the world believe that they will honor this agreement.”
Those thoughts were shared by the leadership of Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center: ”The sanctions had the Ayatollahs on the ropes and the U.S. and West let them win the round and perhaps the match,” Rabbi Marvin Hier and Rabbi Abraham Cooper told The Algemeiner.

What message is being sent?

‘Always believe the threats of your enemies, more than the promises of your friends,” Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel has said. This wise advice is becoming a cold reality for many of America’s longtime allies in the Middle East, amid an unprecedented breakdown in US foreign policy and credibility in the region.
Indeed, America’s allies in an extremely volatile part of the world have been left stunned by a foreign policy – from Egypt to Syria and now to Iran – which has been bumbling at best and damaging at worst. This foreign policy fumble has serious long-term implications for US national security.

Poll: Israelis don't believe Iran will stop nuclear program

According to the poll, commissioned by Israel Hayom from the New Wave Research Institute, 76.4% of respondents said they did not believe Iran would halt its nuclear program, while only 12.6% said they did believe Iran would put a stop to its program. Eleven percent said they did not know.
The poll also found that 57.8% of Jewish Israelis believe that the U.S. harmed Israeli interests by signing the nuclear deal with Iran. Only 20.6% said that the U.S. did not harm Israeli interests by signing the deal, while 21.6% said they did not know.

Dershowitz: Iran Deal Could Be a 'Chamberlain Moment'

"Iran's goal has always been to create a wedge between Israel and the U.S. They are the smartest enemy the U.S. and Israel have faced in recent years. They have proven they are smarter. We fell for the pretext of a new president with a smiley face. It will only turn out for the best if Congress takes strong action."
Dershowitz, a liberal Democrat, added: "I've become a big Lindsey Graham fan. He saw this coming."

Canada to enforce sanctions against Iran despite nuclear deal

Baird told reporters Sunday Canadian sanctions against Iran will remain in "full force" and that Canada will "evaluate this deal not just on the merits of its words," but on verifiable evidence that Iran respects the terms of the deal.
"I remain deeply skeptical of Iran's intentions with respect to their nuclear program," he said.
"Understandably, Prime Minister Netanyahu leads a country which previous leaders of Iran, a mere months ago, have said they want wiped off the face of the Earth.
"Sanctions have been effective," Baird said. "We will be watching closely."

PA Sheikh: Only Solution for Jews is the Sword

The sheikh, Omar Abu Sara’a, made the remarks in a sermon he gave at the Al-Aqsa mosque during which he blasted the “traitor” Palestinian Authority.
He argued that the Oslo Accords did not bring about any results, and that in fact it is now recognized that they were nothing but a mistake that led to "the sale of land to Jews". He stressed that “Palestine” is holy Islamic land and should not be given up under any circumstances.
The solution, said Abu Sara’a, is in the words of the prophet of Islam Muhammad, who said, "Fight them" and did not say that Jews should be negotiated with. In this context he mentioned the tradition quoted by the prophet Muhammad, where a tree and a stone call a Muslim and tell him, “A Jew is hiding behind me, come and kill him."

Court indicts east Jerusalem man for Hamas fundraising

The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office on Monday filed an indictment against Maged Juaba in the Jerusalem District Court for allegedly serving as a money man for the families of imprisoned Hamas terror operatives.
Juaba, 33, of Jerusalem, was formally charged with membership in a terrorist organization and activities relating to funding terrorist purposes.

‘US intends to seek Iran’s help in solving Syrian civil war’

Having overseen an interim deal with Iran on its nuclear program, the Obama administration now intends to try to involve Iran in wider Middle East diplomacy, including an attempt to find a solution to the Syrian civil war, Israeli television reported Sunday night.

Syria War Has Killed More than 11,000 Children, New Report Finds

The Oxford Research Group, which specializes in global security, said in a new study that there were 11,420 recorded deaths of children aged 17 years and under.
The report, entitled "Stolen Futures: The hidden toll of child casualties in Syria", analyses data from the beginning of the conflict in March 2011 until August 2013.

Syrian Rebels Unite, Call for Islamic State

To that effect, leaders of prominent Islamist opposition brigades announced the establishment of he "Islamic Front" (in Arabic, "Al-Jabhat al-Islam") - calling it "a political, military, and socially independent body."
The founding statement of the new body, which was broadcast Friday, said that the new body "seeks to completely topple the Assad regime in Syria" and "to establish an Islamic state which follows the right path."

PA officials condemn Palestinian suspect in Beirut bombing on Iranian embassy

The Palestinian authorities said that Adnan Mousa Muhammad's participation "in such a cowardly criminal act represents (only) the individual," Ma'an News Agency reported.
"This act serves only the enemies of our cause and the enemies of our nation," they added.

Michael Totten: Blowback is a Bitch

Hezbollah did not invent terrorism, of course. Nor would the Middle East be stable and happy if it weren’t for its suicide bombers. But there is a karmic sort of justice at work now that a terrorist army and its biggest state sponsor are themselves victims of their own deplorable tactics.
That deplorable tactic tells us all we need to know about the perpetrators, too, by the way. Whatever Sunni faction carried out the attack, we know for damn sure they are not freedom fighters. Freedom fighters don’t murder diplomats—not even diplomats representing terrorist states like Iran who declare open season on diplomats—nor do they deliberately target civilians. They will murder anyone and everyone who gets in their way and stomp their boots on the faces of the survivors.

Hezbollah fears more suicide attacks

“We fear that [new] suicide attacks might target [Hezbollah] headquarters and Shiite gatherings such as the [bombings] in Iraq," sources close to Hezbollah's leadership told the daily.
The sources also said that Tuesday’s attacks against the Iranian embassy heralded a “most dangerous” stage.
“It is the stage of suicide attacks that no measure could deal with.”

Egypt: "Why Not Us?"

Egypt has an abundance of natural resources and is situated at the crossroads of Africa, Asia and Europe. It should be an economic powerhouse capable of providing jobs and economic well-being for its people, who have suffered enough. But no one in his right mind will invest in a country where persecution – and not the rule of law – is the norm.
Until Islamist clerics learn to follow their own advice and stay out of politics – and allow women and Christians to live in peace – Egypt will remain a backwater. Only when Egyptians look within and admit to themselves that it is their own decisions that are really causing so much unnecessary misfortune, will Egypt be transformed to a modern state.

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