Wednesday, April 09, 2014

  • Wednesday, April 09, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
An Israeli hacker team managed to take over the PCs of at least 16 of the "#OpIsrael" hackers who targeted Israeli sites earlier this week.

The "Israeli Elite Force" remotely controlled the pseudo-hackers' machines and even took photos of them with their own webcams!




Many of their other social media accounts and passwords were revealed in a document the Israeli team published.

The #Opisrael hackers apparently are more than happy to click on links that allowed the Israeli hackers to take over their machines.

Too funny.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

  • Wednesday, April 09, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Ma'an:
Gaza families who lost members in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on Tuesday shut down the PLO's main office in Gaza City protesting unpaid allowances.

A spokesman of the Martyrs’ Families in the Gaza Strip group told Ma’an that angry families closed a PLO-affiliated office in charge of allowances and donations for families of Palestinians killed or injured in the course of the conflict.

Additionally, offices of Fatah-affiliated lawmakers as well as senior Fatah leader Zakariyya al-Agha were also shut down by the protesters. Some protesters attempted to break into the office of member of Fatah central committee Nabil Shaath.

“We have been asking for our rights in a civilized manner for 13 months, but nobody in the leadership has replied and now we became impatient,” Alaa al-Barawi, the spokesman, said.

He urged President Mahmoud Abbas, members of Fatah's central committee and members of the movement’s revolutionary council to work out a solution for the families who haven’t received their allowances for five years.
A significant portion of the PA budget is to pay families of terrorists, both alive and dead. In 2012 it was estimated to take up 6% of the PA budget, and tens of millions of dollars more were added this year.

I don't know the details of why the Gaza families are apparently not getting paid. Perhaps they are families of those killed by Hamas which puts their "martyrdom" credentials in doubt.
  • Wednesday, April 09, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
Anti-Israel group Adalah-NY writes:
On Sunday, April 6, our first day of flyering outside Zabar's, 94 people signed our petition asking Zabar's to deshelve SodaStream, including at least one Israeli who signed in Hebrew. Many were familiar with SodaStream's operations in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories, and thanked us for being there and standing up for human rights. Others were less supportive, and the disagreement sparked spirited discussion among shoppers and passersby alike. We handed out almost 500 postcards with information about the boycott of SodaStream, and encouraged people to mail them to Zabar's.

At one point, owner Saul Zabar came out of the store. When asked why he did not respond to our request for a meeting, he responded, "I didn't think you were worth it." He informed us that he will not be de-shelving SodaStream.

All the more reason for us to go out there again!
Sure, if you like to waste all your weekends on a lost cause, go for it!

I believe this is Saul Zabar telling the BDSers that they are worthless (UPDATE: This isn't Saul.)


Zabar's, while not an exclusively kosher store, does sell a number of kosher gift baskets for Jewish holidays. They have been selling Sodastream since 2010.

Saul is about 85 years old now, gives to Jewish charities, and knows how to run his business. The likelihood that he would cave to a bunch of Israel haters handing out postcards filled with lies is pretty much zero.

(h/t Avi Mayer)

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

  • Tuesday, April 08, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Globes:
Last August, First Sergeant Naor Blanco joined a Netzah Yehuda battalion (Kfir brigade) nighttime operation to arrest a wanted man suspected of terrorist activity in the Jenin refugee camp. Blanco, a combat cameraman working for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson’s Unit, arrived ready for the mission, however, as is often the case on the battlefield, things got complicated. “Shortly after we went in, they started shooting at us from different directions,” he recounts. “We acted according to regulations, and our forces returned fire when they had identified the sources of the shooting. While advancing in one of the alleyways, a large brick hurtled towards me and fell a short distance from me. That whole time, I held the camera and documented the battle and the exchanges of fire. I turned towards the direction from which the brick was thrown at me, and I identified a terrorist standing on a nearby rooftop. He was about to throw another brick at me. I realized I was in a life-threatening situation.”

Blanco didn’t hesitate: “I had no doubt about what I needed to do in the situation, and I acted swiftly. I put the camera in my vest, and I raised my rifle. The clip was already loaded. The terrorist was about 30 or 40 meters away from me. I aimed, pulled the trigger, and shot a single bullet, which hit him precisely, below his knee. He was injured, and neutralized, and no longer a threat to me or my fellow force members.

The operation ended with the suspect killed, and two Palestinians injured in the confrontation with IDF forces. But even after the forces left Jenin, Sergeant Blanco’s work continued. “When we finished at the refugee camp, I immediately made contact with the chief IDF Spokesperson representative in Central Command Major Ran Baroz and brigade representatives in Judea and Samaria. I understood from them that according to reports that had already been released by Palestinian sources, the IDF had purportedly perpetrated crimes in the nighttime operation, and a 14 year old youth had been injured. I took out my playback equipment, and sent the video documenting the development of the event. The material had been through preliminary editing, the images were distributed to all the communications networks, and within a short time, the tone of the reports cooled down.

“The visual material proved that it was a planned operation to capture a terrorist, and there was clear documentation of the fact that it was the terrorists who opened fire on us. The footage left no doubt that the forces that operated in the field acted with restraint, and the soldiers only fired when a life-threatening situation arose. The footage included cries of “Kill the Jews,” which could be heard constantly in the background. There is nothing better than seeing something with your own eyes, so headlines saying “The IDF invaded Jenin” were switched within minutes and updated to say “The IDF carried out an anti-terrorist operation in Jenin.”

“This is the pinnacle, from every perspective, on every level,” he admits with a glint in his eyes. “I know that the communication networks hate to retract reports they have published. And here, my footage from the field changed the entire thrust of the event’s coverage.”

...The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit is planning to continue the program and train more such documenters, so it will be possible to send fighters armed with cameras even to the complex operations of Squadron 13 other elite units. “It will happen. No one has any doubt of that,” said an IDF Spokesperson. “Today, we can only imagine how the Muhammad al-Durrah incident (during the Second Intifada) would have unfolded had we had a combat documenter at the scene.
This is great....but I wish they would release more footage! The leftists who film riots often edit out the parts where the Arabs are throwing stones or to make it appear that the IDF shot tear-gas before any rioting, and we need more of the IDF videos to show the truth.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

From Ian:

UN: When Palestinian Men Beat Their Wives, It’s Israel’s Fault
In her recent report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay revives the bizarre charge, made by one of her colleagues in 2005, that when Palestinian men beat their wives, it’s Israel’s fault:
By Navi Pillay regurgitating Erturk’s 2005 canard, the UN is once again telling Palestinian men that they have no moral agency, and bear little or no responsibility for their inhumane actions against women.
What the UN is doing, once again, is to displace moral responsibility and prime agency. Palestinian men are not primarily to blame for their violence against women, says the UN. Israel is.
Australia opposition chief: ‘Some’ settlement activity illegal
The question of the legality of Israeli settlements is once again stirring debate in Australia, after the head of the opposition and Labor Party chairman Bill Shorten said that “some settlement activity in the West Bank is illegal,” leading even members of his own party to protest that he should have left off the word “some.”
The Jewish community, however, welcomed Shorten’s stance, suggesting that the government in Canberra is growing increasingly aware of Palestinian efforts to “deliberately distort the realities of the settlement question for political purposes.”
Shorten’s comments came about four months after the country’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, caused a controversy when she indicated in a Times of Israel interview that settlements might not be illegal under international law.
Anti-Zionist MK Hanin Zoabi's Relative: A Proud Zionist Arab
Muhammad Zoabi, 16, an Arab Muslim from Nazareth, is causing anger in Muslim circles, and considerable joy in Jewish ones, by stating in a unique interview that he is a Zionist and loves the state of Israel.
"I really believe that I'm a lucky Arab and a lucky human being and a lucky Middle Eastern[er] that I was born in this little tiny piece of land!”, he stated. Pointing to the Golan Heights from the window of his interviewer's home, in the Israeli community of Massad, he noted how bad life is beyond the border, for Syrians.
Muhammad's enthusiastic Zionism is made all the more intriguing by the fact that he is related to notorious anti-Zionist MK Hanin Zoabi, of the Arab-nationalist Balad party.

  • Tuesday, April 08, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestine Press Agency reports that a song played at a wedding caused the newlyweds to get a divorce.

It's the old story: the Montagues and the Capulets, the Jets and the Sharks, Fatah and Hamas.

The bride's family are Hamas members while the groom comes from a Fatah family.

Despite family pressures, the couple decided to get married anyway. But it was the groom's music choice that caused the problem.

The groom's family asked the DJ to play a Fatah-linked song called "Ali Keffiyeh" which was famously sung by Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf.

The brother of the bride became very upset and pulled her out of the wedding reception. A scuffle between the two families ensued and police had to be called, where they separated the families including the couple.

The news media is now saying that there is no solution to this impasse except for divorce, which the humiliated bride's family is insisting on.

Incidentally, the fact that a song about the keffiyeh causes such tension between Hamas and Fatah proves pretty conclusively that it is not merely a decorative scarf but a political symbol.
  • Tuesday, April 08, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestine Today quotes the head of the Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights, Rami Abdo, saying that NGOs from Europe are asking Turkey to demand a ferry of sorts between Turkey and Gaza in the context of its negotiations with Israel.

Goods would be imported and exported between Gaza and Turkey exclusively, and from there to the rest of the world.

Abdo says that he will present the plan to Turkey in the next two days.

He says that it could be considered another border crossing like Rafah, and that EU observers could be there the way they used to be at Rafah to ensure that no weapons get transferred.

Turkey would likely be enthusiastic about such a plan, since they have made "lifting the siege of Gaza" one of their conditions for resuming diplomatic relations with Israel and this could qualify.

Israel would seem certain to reject this outright, because its naval blockade was carefully and legally set up and (as far as I can tell) one cannot legally have a partial blockade - if Israel allows Turkish ships into Gaza then it would have to allow al ships.

Chances are this will not see the light of day, but it seems likely that anti-Israel NGOs will try to use this as a PR weapon against Israel.

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: What's Behind Abbas's Renewed Courtship of Hamas?
Abbas is now waging a battle aimed at extracting as many concessions as possible from Israel and the US. He has used the decision to apply for membership in 15 international organizations and treaties as a means to intensify pressure on the Israeli government and US Administration to accept his demands for pursuing the peace talks.
Abbas may not be sincere about achieving reconciliation with Hamas. He knows that such a move would be counterproductive and that Hamas would take advantage of the reconciliation to advance its goal of seizing control over the West Bank.
But for Abbas, the issue of reconciliation with Hamas is yet another legitimate weapon to scare the Israelis and Americans into submitting to his demands and pre-conditions. It now remains to be seen whether the US Administration will take the bait.
Re-evaluate basic assumptions
As the prominent Palestinian advisor Professor Ahmad Khalidi has said: "The concept of Palestinian statehood is nothing but a punitive construct devised by our worst enemies -- the United States and Israel -- to constrain Palestinian aspirations and territorial ambitions."
Or as Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas made clear to U.S. President Barack Obama last month, the Palestinian liberation movement will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state or agree to forgo the so-called "right" of refugee return. He wants his state, but without an end to the conflict. He wants a state, rather, in order to continue the conflict.
In fact, there is no internal Palestinian constituency whatsoever pressing Abbas to compromise now and cut an end-of-conflict deal with Israel. Instead, the Palestinians really think they can pressure Israel by recourse to international institutions, in order to push Israel back from its red lines.
The Retrograde Israeli Left
Listening to Israel’s “progressives” you might think it was still 1994, as if two decades of failed peace efforts, Palestinian intransigence, and unrelenting incitement and terrorism had simply never happened. They speak as if they’re still living in some heyday of the Oslo peace accords. Naturally, it is the role of the political opposition in any democracy to find fault with the actions of governing political rivals, but what Israel’s left-wing politicians are saying goes far beyond normal critique of government policy despite the fact that, although they would never admit it, the current government’s strategy for peace talks is not fundamentally different from what they themselves propose. (h/t Norman F)

  • Tuesday, April 08, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
From The West Australian:

Commonwealth authorities have effectively banned live cattle exports to the Gaza while they investigate shocking images of animal cruelty in the streets of the Palestinian territory.
...

DAFF revealed that it had not approved consignments of cattle for Gaza since November when it began investigating allegations raised in the Israeli media.

"The allegations are serious and information obtained during the investigation is considered when assessing any application from any exporter to send livestock to Gaza," a DAFF spokesman said. "Currently, all exporters to Israel are required to comply with additional conditions to ensure livestock are unloaded in accordance with international animal welfare standards."

LSS said last week that a ship bound for Israel with 10,000 cattle had been stopped at Fremantle because of an alleged breach of the Commonwealth's exporter supply chain assurance system.

LSS general manager Garry Robinson suggested the delay was linked to the leakage of the handful of cattle from the approved supply chain in Gaza.

He warned a zero-tolerance approach to leakage could cost lucrative live trade markets.

The Bader III eventually left Fremantle on Friday.

The footage from Gaza shows a bull being "knee-capped" by a man armed with an assault rifle, another stabbed in the eye and others having their throats hacked open.

LSS, owned by Jordanian company Hijazi and Ghosheh Group, self-reported a possible ESCAS breach in November when it became aware of the footage.

Its own investigation found a discrepancy involving nine cattle it sent to Gaza. Two of the cattle shown in the footage could be identified by their ear tags. LSS said then that the release of nine cattle from the supply chain was "unacceptable" and it suspended exports to the Gaza facility.
Here's the video that apparently caused the ban:



Gaza authorities denied the report, sort of. They deny that any cattle comes from Australia directly to Gaza, but they get their cattle from Israel. This story says that, though.
  • Tuesday, April 08, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Reuters:

The Palestinian ambassador to Prague who died in a blast in January was most likely killed by a decades-old charge of Semtex plastic explosive concealed in a book, a newspaper reported on Tuesday citing a police investigator.

Police had decided Jamal al-Jamal was not assassinated, but had simply unwittingly opening a book booby-trapped years earlier, the source told daily newspaper Mlada Fronta Dnes.

"It was an unfortunate accident. The ambassador was a thorough man who wanted to put some old things in order, and among them there were two books with explosives," the paper quoted the source as saying.

It did not explain why such a book might have been left at the embassy in Prague.

Officers investigating the explosion found other explosives and firearms at the mission dating back to the Cold War.

The Palestinians had said they were old gifts from officials of Communist Czechoslovakia, which has friendly relations with the Palestine Liberation Organisation of the late Yasser Arafat.

The explosion took place as the Palestinian mission was moving its embassy and residence in the capital. Al-Jamal died of his wounds in hospital.

"We are awaiting another expert opinion, but it was Semtex with 99.9 percent probability. The explosive was roughly from the 1970s. It was at least 30 years old," the police source told the newspaper.
Ah,that explains it. Exploding books are of course a standard item at all embassies.

I mean, no one would make a big deal out of a Norwegian embassy being found to have deadly espionage items like that, right? So anyone who thinks this is newsworthy is clearly an anti-Palestinian racist.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

  • Tuesday, April 08, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
A couple of years ago, Arab media started reporting that Tzipi Livni had admitted to sleeping with prominent people to extort/steal information while she was at the Mossad.

The rumor was utterly fabricated. She had actually said that she was never asked to sleep with the enemy..

Nevertheless, within a week the rumor morphed into the accusation that she slept with Saeb Erekat and Yasser Abed Rabbo presumably during the 2007 negotiations.

Now the rumor has resurfaced, by none other than George Galloway, speaking on his Iranian PressTV program, who has added more details: Livni bragged about this in a book she supposedly wrote, and now her victims include "hundreds" of men!



At the YouTube link you can see videos of Galloway's alleged ex-lovers talking about his hypocrisy and lies.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

UPDATE: BillPoser in the comments says:
This is great! The moron said it in England, which has nasty libel laws. And in English common law, impugning a woman's chastity is defamatory per se. She can nail Galloway to the wall in court.

Anyone want to call Shurat HaDin?

  • Tuesday, April 08, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
Frank Barat's byline in Mondoweiss says that he is a "Human Rights activist based in London."

Mondoweiss publishes his adulatory interview with Leila Khaled, the notorious hijacker from the 1970s, who says that Palestinian Arabs didn't use enough terror during the intifada:

Q: How are you Leila? What are you doing nowadays in Amman?

Leila Khaled: I am fine as long as I am a part of the struggle for freedom, for our right of return and for an independent State with Jerusalem as capital. I know it is not going to happen in the near future, but I am fighting nevertheless. Here in Amman, I am the chief of the department of refugees and Right of Return in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (P.F.L.P).

...Barat: If negotiations do not bring peace to the Palestinians, what will? What should the leadership do?

LK: Resist! That’s how you achieve your rights as a People. ...

Barat: P.L.O stands for Palestine Liberation Organization. Do you think it has lost its true meaning? Bassam Shaka in 2008 told me that the P.L.O, before anything, needed to go back to its roots as a liberation movement.

LK: No liberation is achieved without resistance. My party has not changed. It has stuck to its original program. We are calling to escalate the resistance. People talk about popular resistance. It does not only mean demonstrations. Using arms is also popular. We have people who are ready to fight.

Barat: What does peaceful and non-violent resistance means for someone like yourself, who chose armed resistance as a mean for liberation?

LK: Resistance takes more than one face. It can be all kinds of resistance. Non violent and violent. I am ok with those who choose non-violence. We are not going to liberate our country by armed struggle only. Other kinds of resistance are necessary. The political one, diplomatic one, the non violent one. We need to use whatever we have got.

... We chose armed struggle. We did not achieve our goals. Then the intifada broke out and the whole world took us seriously. We gained the support of people all over the world. Still, we did not reach our goals because the leadership was not brave enough at that time to escalate the intifada, to take it to another level.

..Every year, around December, I look back at the past year and then decide to do something for the coming year. This year, I decided to quit smoking, so I did.

Barat: Mabruck!
Israel-haters don't have the slightest shame about their hypocrisy of pretending to care about "human rights" while discussing how to murder the most Israeli Jews in order to achieve their aims. Barat has not the slightest discomfort when Khaled says that blowing up buses and restaurants was not enough for her.

But at least we learned one thing from the terrorist Khaled: when "pro-Palestinian activists" say "popular resistance" it does not necessarily mean "non-violent resistance."

(h/t Gary@CiFWatch)

UPDATE: Ma'an also published the interview.

Monday, April 07, 2014

  • Monday, April 07, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
This might not be quite as funny as "Meltdown Girl," but it is great nonetheless.

An anti-Israel protester, appropriately named Dick, apparently went crazy when a pro-Israel person played a kazoo during the weekly protests that Sussex Friends of Israel have effectively countered.



The amount of frustration that the haters have at finding themselves losing is a sight to behold.

From Ian:

John B. Judis and the Future of Liberal Support for Israel
Judis’ historical narrative, where it is not outright erroneous, is marked by the tendentiousness of someone with an ideological ax to grind. For example, he usually describes Arab violence in low-key terms, and mostly explains it as a response to Zionist actions; whereas Jewish violence repeatedly seems to amount to wanton brutality.
The Arab riots of 1929, for one, are presented as being triggered by Jewish provocation. The Palestinian leader, Haj Amin al-Husseini, writes Judis, “was not trying to start protests, and certainly not a riot, but… when Zionist groups began to claim that the [Western] wall was theirs, Palestine’s Arabs took to the streets.” Omitted is the fact that Jewish claims were voiced peacefully, while the Arabs quickly turned to brutal violence. Judis does note that “In Hebron, Arab mobs killed between 65 and 70 Jews and in Safed 18 Jews were killed,” but the whole affair seems to come out rather even. “Overall, 123 Jews were killed and 116 Arabs—the latter primarily by British police.” This anodyne summary contrasts with that of Sir John Chancellor, the British High Commissioner, who reported “acts of unspeakable savagery” being “perpetrated upon defenseless members of the Jewish population regardless of age or sex.”
More on that destructive Obama interview about Israel
Last month, Jeffrey Goldberg published an interview with President Barack Obama, ahead of Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to the United States to attend the AIPAC conference. The President wasn’t at all friendly in the interview, warning (in Goldberg’s words) that “time is running out.” Roughly four weeks later, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority refused to continue negotiations with Israel. Is there a connection between the two?
Put a different way, in the words of Neo-Neocon Did Obama Sabotage Kerry on Peace Talks?
The answer is “yes,” and here’s how.

There are two points that Obama made in his interview worth recalling.
1) Obama implies that if Israel doesn’t make peace he may no longer be willing to defend it in international fora.
2) Israel has a unique opportunity to make a deal with Abbas, something it may not have again.
Democracy, Friedman-style
What remains for Thomas Friedman now that his idols have failed him? The same thing other Jews have done throughout history -- beat on their people's battered chest. Eureka, Friedman declared, I have found the most amazing analogy: Sheldon Adelson and the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have something in common: "They are both trying to destroy Israel. Adelson is doing it by loving Israel to death and Khamenei by hating Israel to death." Lovely, isn't it? Courtesy of the newspaper that caters to people who have long ago stopped thinking of themselves as thinking people.

  • Monday, April 07, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
From MEMRI:



Muhammad Al-Daya, longtime bodyguard of Yasser Arafat, said in a recent TV interview that Arafat used to lie when he denounced bombings in Israel. Arafat "would condemn the bombing in his own special way, saying: 'I am against the killing of civilians.' But that wasn’t true," said Al-Daya, in a BBC Arabic interview which aired on April 3, 2014.

Following are excerpts:


Interviewer: Ariel Sharon used to say that Arafat was a pathological liar. Many politicians who had dealings with Arafat said he was an excellent liar.

Muhammad Al-Daya: Islam allows you to lie in three cases: In order to reconcile two people...

Interviewer: For the sake of reconciliation.

Muhammad Al-Daya: If your wife is ugly, you are allowed to tell her she is the most beautiful woman alive. The third case is politics. You are allowed to lie in politics.

Interviewer: So you acknowledge this...

Muhammad Al-Daya: Yes.

Interviewer: So he used to lie in your presence?

Muhammad Al-Daya: Abu Ammar? Yes. When there was a bombing in Tel Aviv, for example, he would say... This would happen due to pressure, especially by President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak would call Arafat and say to him: “Denounce it, or they will screw you.” Arafat would say to Mubarak: “Mr. President, we have martyrs. The [Israelis] have destroyed us. They have massacred us.” But Mubarak would say to him: “Denounce it, or they will screw you.”

Then Arafat would condemn the bombing in his own special way, saying: “I am against the killing of civilians.” But that wasn’t true.
This is no surprise to those who followed Arafat's reflexive "condemnations" of bombings during the Oslo "peace" process.

Even The New York Times almost, almost noticed the lie back in 2002:
Before Yasir Arafat condemned "terror against civilians" on Saturday, his wife, Suha al-Taweel Arafat, told an Arabic-language magazine that she endorsed suicide attacks as legitimate resistance against Israeli occupation.

In an interview published Friday in Al Majalla, a London-based, Saudi-owned weekly, Mrs. Arafat said that if she had a son, there would be "no greater honor" than to sacrifice him for the Palestinian cause.

"Would you expect me and my children to be less patriotic and more eager to live than my countrymen and their father and leader who is seeking martyrdom?" she was quoted as saying.
Other media would occasionally notice Arafat's doubletalk.

It was described well in Barry Rubin's biography of Arafat about a 1997 incident:



Of course, there are whose who have a vested interest in pretending that Arafat was a saint. Daoud Kuttab, award winning journalist, claimed in 2002 that Arafat condemned terror attacks in Arabic without the slightest skepticism. Of course, that happened years after he was called on not condemning terror in Arabic.
  • Monday, April 07, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
Rabbi Eric Yoffie in Haaretz asks why young US Jews are supposedly turning off from Israel. What he doesn’t realize is that he is part of the problem.

To be sure, students don’t want to hear sweeping generalizations about how everyone, everywhere is hostile to Israel and the Jews. Rabbi Daniel Gordis, speaking recently in Atlanta, told his audience that “the Palestinians hate Israel (and let’s be honest, the Jews, too) far more than they care about themselves.” American Jewish students are just not buying this; they are appropriately skeptical about Palestinian intentions, but are open-minded about the possibility of some kind of settlement. Their professors—and their parents—have taught them to avoid dismissive, categorical, uncritical thinking; and they know that Israel still has champions and friends, and that yes, moderation does exist, even in parts of the Arab world.

In short, our students are a sensible bunch. Why then do we have a problem with them? Because I have described only the first half of the discussion—the part where the basic arguments are made. But there is always a second part, during which the students prod and challenge. What about settlements, they want to know? If Israel is committed to two states, as I say it is, why the unending declarations from Israel’s government about more settlement construction? How is that consistent with a desire for a Jewish and democratic Israel? How are they to explain settlements to the anti-Israel activists on campus? How are they to explain settlements to themselves?

And even if I am right that Palestinian refusal to accept Israel is the heart of the problem, what, they ask, does Israel propose to do about it? How does it make sense for Israel’s government to do nothing other than build more settlements and wait for a restive, impoverished Palestinian population to explode?

Well, I admit, they are right. And I explain possible courses of action that Israel could take to ease the dangers of international isolation and strained relations with the United States: A unilateral withdrawal from some of the territories; a general settlement freeze; a decision by Israel to define its borders; an announcement that settlement will be confined to the major settlement blocs.

But, the students want to know, will Israel actually do any of these things? I hope so, I tell them, but I just don’t know.

What’s wrong with this picture?

First of all, it is very saddening to see that a rabbi who used to head one of the major American Jewish denominations seems to believe that the bulk of a college student’s Zionist education must occur on campus and that support of Israel is dependent on Israeli actions. Being pro-Israel must have solid arguments behind it, to be sure, but very few people become Zionists because of arguments. There is no substitute for experience - both the experience of growing up in a home with committed Jewish values and the experience of actually going to Israel for a week, month or year and seeing things first-hand.

The Jewish commitment to the Jewish state is not dependent on who is leading the government and whether you support them.

This doesn’t mean Jews cannot criticize Israel, but it does mean that supporting Israel is a wholehearted effort that is driven by emotions and love of your people; and that if you want to change Israel then the proper way to do it is by moving there and starting or joining with those who believe as you do, not by lobbying foreign organizations to bypass Israeli democracy.

Secondly, Yoffie doesn’t even seem to know that Israel’s settlement building is already being done inside existing settlement blocs with extraordinarily few exceptions. The idea that the West Bank is being steadily taken over by Jewish-owned homes is simply a lie, the percentage of the WB that is being taken up by Jewish settlements is virtually the same as it was 20 years ago. His inability to articulate that and instead to commiserate with students who don’t know any better indicates that perhaps Yoffie is not the best candidate for defending Israel on campus. Even liberal Jews should support building in communities that will remain in Israel no matter what, especially within Jerusalem's boundaries.

Thirdly, Yoffie completely ignores the fact that there is a Jewish claim to some or all of the territories. Whether it is a legal claim, indicated by UNSC 242’s wording of “secure and recognized boundaries,” or the emotional and historic claim of Jews having the right to have access to their holiest places in Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, Shechem and elsewhere, he does not seem to mention that to these students. Whatever you think about the wisdom of Israel’s actions in Judea and Samaria, you must at least acknowledge that the negotiations are partially over the final borders, and it is silly for Israel to unilaterally concede land that is terrifically important historically, religiously and strategically - especially to people who say explicitly that they want to use that land as a springboard for the next phase of their campaign to destroy Israel.

As much as Yoffie thinks he loves Israel, he seems to be conflicted, and he is passing his own insecurities to the students that he thinks he is empowering. You can be sure that none of the “pro-Palestinian” speakers on campus are betraying any doubts about their cause. And students will naturally gravitate towards those that seem more sure of themselves.

Even that may be forgivable if Yoffie was willing to honestly describe the "right wing" or religious or national defense perspective on these topics and give them a fair airing while saying that he disagrees. Someone who really loves Israel also loves those he disagrees with. From this article, it appears that he cannot give the benefit of the doubt to the democratically elected Israeli government.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie needs to figure out his own feelings before he attempts to give what he thinks is a pro-Israel message to students who are very attuned to self-doubt.

From Ian:

The Myth of the Thirsty Palestinian
The latest line of anti-Israel attack claims the Jewish state withholds water from the Palestinians. As usual, the haters have their facts wrong.
The issue of water rights in the West Bank is constantly raised in regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, appearing again and again in public discourse around the world. According to critics of Israel, the Jewish state selfishly exploits the area’s water supplies and denies access to the local population. In doing so, the critics say, Israel is not only abandoning its responsibilities to the West Bank Palestinians, but ruthlessly and illegally abusing the natural resources of the occupied territory. This idea has become extremely widespread in the international media, and was recently voiced from the Knesset plenum by the President of the European Parliament, Herman Schultz, causing a minor scandal in Israel and abroad.
As with all attacks on Israel, the truth is much more complicated and, to a great extent, precisely the opposite of what the critics claim. When one examines the relevant data, it becomes clear that, under Israeli rule, the Palestinian water supply has become larger, more technologically sophisticated, of higher quality, and much easier to access; almost entirely due to Israeli efforts.
Erekat: Hamas Not, and Never Was, a Terror Group
The Palestinian Authority, controlled by the Fatah terror group, is once again trying its hand at “unification” with its sister terror group, Hamas. As a sign of Fatah's “goodwill,” Saeb Erekat, the PA's top negotiator and a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, called on Hamas to implement all previous agreements with Fatah in order to “fight together against Israel.”
Erekat made the comments Saturday at a conference titled “The Strategy of Resistance.” Erekat said that “we demand that Hamas, more than ever before, implement the Cairo and Doha agreements. The political movements have an obligation to resolve their differences at the ballot box, and not through bullets.”
“I hereby declare, in the make of President Mahmoud Abbas and the directorate of Fatah, that Hamas is a Palestinian movement, and is not and never was a terror group,” Erekat added.
NATO’s new secretary-general: Problematic not only for Israel
Stoltenberg spoke at several meetings over the years in which there were brutal verbal attacks on Israel, while he remained silent. A prime minister indicates his support by not confronting these attacks.
The most recent case was at the May 1 celebration of the umbrella Trade Union LO in Oslo in 2013. Salma Abudahi from Gaza’s Union of Agriculture Work Committees (UAWC) spoke at the event. Earlier she had given an interview in which she called rockets a “symbol of resistance” and said that occupied people have a right to defend themselves. “It is important,” said Abudahi, “to understand the proportions. The Israelis are killing our loved ones all the time.” This was yet another example of Palestinian hatemongering.
Stoltenberg spoke after Abudahi at the meeting and ignored her incitement in his speech.
If NATO states believe that out of all potential candidates this person is the most qualified to coordinate the workings of the alliance and head its staff, this is indication of poor judgment. Regarding Israel’s contacts with this powerful organization, Stoltenberg’s anticipated appointment is at best moving several steps backward.
Stop UNRWA War Education : What You Can Do
The collapse of talks with the Palestinian Authority leave an agency in tact which is capable of galvanizing nearly half a million Palestinian students into violent, direct action against Israel, under the slogan of the “right of return”.
That agency is UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
During the second week of March, 2014, education experts Dr. Arnon Groiss and Mr. Jonathan HaLevi provided academic presentations at venues in the US Congress and the British Parliament concerning lethal aspects of UNRWA education:

  • Monday, April 07, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
There was a press conference in the Al-Ram neighborhood Sunday morning, sponsored by the "Consumer Protection Association", to emphasize the importance of Palestinian Arabs buying Arab products rather than Israeli products. The name of the conference was "Palestinian Products First."

Speakers at the conference included the PA Minister of Communications, the head of the Consumer Protection Association, and the Under Secretary of Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs, as well as a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture.

During the conference, one of the attendees went to the head table and plopped down a box of Israeli biscuits, saying that these were the cookies being served at the hospitality table at the entrance of the meeting! She recognized them and retrieved the box from the kitchen.



The organizers scrambled to remove the offending box of biscuits. The head of the consumer protection  organization who organized the conference, Azmi Shyoukhi, claimed that the biscuit box was planted there "in order to sabotage the conference and to promote the products of the settlements in front of the cameras."

Al Quds newspaper confirmed that the cookies were indeed there, as someone innocently simply went to a local market to buy cookies to serve at the entrance without realizing their poisoned provenance.

After the story was published, the Al Quds reporter who wrote the story received a threatening phone call for daring to publicize such an embarrassing incident.

Note also that the PA department that guards against using Israeli goods is the Consumer Protection Association, presumably because of Jew-cooties.  Also note that the embarrassed official referred to the Israeli cookies as a "settlement product."

  • Monday, April 07, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
This week, Israel is supposed to be besieged by cyber-attacks by one of the "Anonymous" groups.

“On April 7, 2014, we call upon our brothers and sisters to hack, deface, hijack, database leak, admin takeover, and DNS terminate the Israeli Cyberspace by any means necessary,” the group said in a YouTube video posted on April 2.
An early list of sites that have been hacked include an insurance company, a business consultant, a meditation/yoga site and a construction company. (Turn down your speakers if you want to see the hacked sites.)

Hardly earth-shaking targets.

Another target was  a Michigan swim club that the hackers thought was Israeli!

Most notable, however, is that one of the sites they bragged about hacking is a service that offers therapy for cancer survivors. And, unlike the swim club, they knew exactly what it was.

It appears that the #OpIsrael hackers are just as moral as the other "pro-Palestinian" groups, willing to hurt any Israeli Jew in the name of "rights."

  • Monday, April 07, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Egypt Independent last week:
Power outages could be extended from two and a half hours to 6 hours aday due to fuel shortage, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker told CBC Channel Wednesday.

If the fuel available to the Ministry of Electricity becomes 10 percent less than the required quantity to run power plants, deficit in the capacity of electricity will reach 3,000 megawatts, which means power outage would be from two and a half hours to three hours a day, the minister said.

He added if a shortage in fuel reached 20 percent, power outage could extend to six hours a day.

The Minister of Petroleum Sherif Ismail said more quantities of natural gas would be available between July to September and the crisis could be solved if liquid fuel was used to run power plants.

Ismail added that using available liquid fuel would decrease power outage daily to reach only one hour and a half or two hours. Ismail called for rationalizing the consumption of electricity in peak hours saying the ministry would do its best to provide the needed fuel.
And Sunday:
Cabinet sources said Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb is meeting on Sunday evening with the ministers of electricity and petroleum to discuss ways of ending the power cuts problem and appease public anger.
Israeli gas is not yet ready for export to Egypt, and little upsets people more than regular, extended blackouts.

Things will be heating up in Egypt this summer, quite literally.

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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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