Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, May 06, 2014

05/06 Links Pt1: Israel Turns 66; Hey John Kerry, What Would A Palestinian State Look Like?

From Ian:

With songs and pageantry, nation transitions from mourning to celebration

Israel crossed over from mourning to celebration on Monday night, as Memorial Day came to a close at sundown and Israel’s 66th Independence Day began.
Mourning and somber speeches gave way to fireworks, concerts and parties across the country as the nation transitioned to Independence Day, with flags raising from half-mast back to full.
The juxtaposition of the two days is a key part of Israelis’ experience of national mourning, ensuring that no commemoration completely excludes the achievement wrought by the sacrifice, and no that the elation of independence is never far removed from an awareness of its cost.

Google Doodle (h/t Yenta Press)

PM Netanyahu's Greeting for Independence Day 2014

IDF Blog: Happy Birthday Israel!

Sheikh Tamimi predicts a "massacre in Al Aqsa" today

Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, "Chief Justice of Palestine" and Secretary General of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem, says that Israel is planning to massacre Muslims on the Temple Mount today, in order to give an excuse to divide it between Jews and Muslims.

Israeli police are limiting the number of Muslims onto the Mount today to avoid problems as a crowd of Jews plan to ascend for Yom Ha'Atzmaut.

As soon as Jewish groups announced their plans to visit the Mount today, Muslim leaders put out a call to have thousands of people "defend Al Aqsa" from being "desecrated."

Tamimi says that today's planned massacre will follow the formula of Baruch Goldstein's murdering Muslims at the Cave of the Patriarchs, implying that it was a Zionist plot to give an excuse for the "temporal and physical division" of the holy spot.

Tamimi has a history of hysterical incitement like this. He once insisted that Israel would destroy Al Aqsa and build a Temple by March 16, 2010. When that date passed without incident, he just started a new rumor. And so on.

So far, this "massacre" is as real as Tamimi's other confident predictions. Although I suspect that he would be quite pleased if such an event occurred.

Oh, and this terror supporting sheikh who spends his days inciting Muslims to attack Jews was one of the esteemed people visited by the State Department's Shaun Casey earlier this year.

Here is a video shown on the Aqsa Heritage Foundation website that shows how violent these evil Jewish settlers were when they visited today.

Hamas releases anti-Hatikva video showing Arabs expelling Jews to Germany (update)

Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades has released a video for Israel's Independence Day, called "The End of the Hope" - a pun on the name of Israel's national anthem, Hatikva.

Set to the tune of the anthem, and filled with Hebrew spelling errors, the video shows a single young rock thrower destroying Israel.

Jews are forced onto ships to Germany by masked Hamas terrorists.

Worshippers are chased out of the Kotel plaza which is destroyed and replaced with the "Mughrabi Quarter."

Armed masked terrorists are seen on the roof of the Dome of the Rock to ensure that Jews can never visit there as they sing that there is no Temple in Jerusalem.

There are still lots of Westerners who twist themselves into pretzels to pretend that Hamas accepts Israel's right to exist. This video won't convince them otherwise, because there are none so blind as those who will not see.

UPDATE: Put up version of video with English subtitles (h/t Judge Dan at Israellycool)

Moderate Arab gets expelled from his union for Auschwitz trip

In March, I posted "An Israeli leftist's lonely search for a moderate Palestinian Arab." Professor Einat Wilf spent months trying to find a single Palestinian Arab who would agree to sign this statement:

"The Jewish people around the world and Palestinian people around the world are both indigenous to the Land of Israel/Palestine and therefore have an equal and legitimate right to settle and live anywhere in the Land of Israel/Palestine, but given the desire of both peoples to a sovereign state that would reflect their unique culture and history, we believe in sharing the land between a Jewish state, Israel, and an Arab state, Palestine, that would allow them each to enjoy dignity and sovereignty in their own national home. Neither Israel nor Palestine should be exclusively for the Jewish and Palestinian people respectively and both should accommodate minorities of the other people."

In the end, she found exactly one. That person was Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, the head of American Studies at Al-Quds University (ironic enough given the hatred of Israel by the American Studies Association) and founder of the Palestinian centrist movement, Wasatia.

If all Palestinian Arab leaders could sign a statement like this today - a very even-handed statement that places a false equivalency between the age-old Jewish attachment to Eretz Yisrael and the recent nationalism of Palestinian Arabs - then there would be peace, real peace, tomorrow.

But only one person has been found to do it publicly.

Dr. Dajani is the professor who led 27 Palestinian Arab students to visit Auschwitz later that month, to withering criticism.

Now, Dajani's membership in his teachers' union has been suspended because of his trip.

From the Facebook page of Rima Najjar, Assistant Professor of English Literature at Al Quds:

DR. MOHAMMAD DAJANI'S UNION MEMBERSHIP AT AL-QUDS UNIVERSITY HAS BEEN SUSPENDED BECAUSE OF HIS VISIT TO AUSCHWITZ

The attached text is a letter published on the Facebook page of Al-Quds University Union of Professors and Employees, in which it is announced that Dr. Mohammad Dajani's membership in the association has been suspended because of "behavior that contravenes the policies and norms" of the association (meaning the academic and cultural boycott of Israeli universities that the association had voted on). The letter does not state this, but the discussion prior to the announcement refers to the trip he took with some students to visit Auschwitz.

She goes on to say that there is no comparison between Arab students visiting Auschwitz and Jewish students visiting an UNRWA camp - because visiting Auschwitz is unforgivable.

She also quotes another prominent Arab academic, Mazin Qumsiyeh, as saying that Dajanis' visit to Auschwitz is antisemitic!

[Dajani] adopted the Zionist perspective that Judaism and Zionism are the same thing and in our opinion this is an antisemitic attitude to equate Zionism and Judaism and somehow link making peace and Zionism with the issues of Jewish suffering around the world.

The fact is that at least 99% of intellectual Palestinian Arabs cannot stomach the idea that Jews have ever been victims of any sort. They viciously attack the extraordinarily few Palestinian Arabs who truly want to live in peace and coexistence.

If anyone can seriously believe that true peace is possible in such a toxic and hateful environment when a simple admission that Jews were slaughtered is controversial and insulted, I'd love to see their logic.

(h/t Bob Knot)

Proud to be a Zionist - 5774 edition

I wrote the original essay around 2002 and I have been modifying it since then. Here is this year's edition:

Every year, the State of Israel seems to be up against yet another unsolvable crisis. These have ranged from wars to suicide bombings to terror rockets to facing the prospect of nuclear-armed enemies. This year the threats are more political, but no less concerning, as haters of Israel attempt to move forward with their decades-old attempts to delegitimize Israel.

Yet, here she is, 66 years old and more beautiful than she was at birth.

In prayers every morning Jews recite a phrase praising G-d, describing Him as המחדש בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית - He who continually renews the act of Creation. In other words, the Jewish concept of G-d has him in an active role keeping the universe running, and as such it is appropriate to praise Him.

It is a little hard to conceptualize this idea, that the very laws of physics, that the world rotating and revolving around the sun is not automatic, but only occurs due to the constant will of G-d. But perhaps it is easier to understand this phrase if we apply it to the modern state of Israel.

Every single day that the Jewish state continues to exist cannot be explained adequately with historical or social or military reasons. Which means that we are witnessing a miracle every day.

When we step back and look at the big picture, Israel is something to be very proud of.

Yes, I am a Zionist and I am proud of it.

I know that Israel has the absolute right to exist in peace and security, just like - and possibly more than - any other country.

I am proud of how the IDF conducts itself during its war on Palestinian terror. There is no other country on the planet, save the US, that would try to minimize civilian casualties in such a situation where innocent Israelis are being threatened, shot at, mortared, rocketed, and murdered in cold blood. At times there are discussions whether the IDF's moral standards are too high and end up being counterproductive - and what other army could one even have that conversation about?

I am also proud that Israel investigates any mistakes that happen on the battlefield and keeps trying to improve its methods to maximize damage to the terrorists while minimizing damage to the people that the enemy is hiding behind. This is not done because of pressure from "human rights" organizations - it is done because it is the right thing to do. Even when everyone knows that the world will accuse it of "war crimes," the IDF retains incredibly high moral standards. It would be so easy for Israelis to say that since the world will accuse them of atrocities anyway, then why bother with holding to such standards - but young Israeli soldiers do, day in and day out. The rare exceptions prove the rule.

I am proud that Israel remains a true democracy, with a free press and vigorous opposition parties, while in a constant war situation.

I am proud of how Israel responds to seemingly intractable problems. In the early days of the intifada there seemed to be no solution - but the IDF found one, managing to bring deadly suicide attacks from 60 in 2002 down to practically none today. The enemy has not stopped trying, and if Israel hadn't acted decisively things would look like Iraq or Afghanistan today. For every "successful" attack (if you can use such a term) there have been many failed attempts, and these are truly miraculous.

There is a right and a wrong in this conflict, and I am proud that Israel is in the right.

Today's battles are completely different. They are battles against Israel's very legitimacy. Jews know something about being singled out, about being judged with double standards. They have been attacked for being too rich and too poor, too successful and too needy, too capitalist and too socialist, too religious and too secular, too insular and too integrated. These same wildly inconsistent attacks are now targeting the Jewish state. Israel will survive and thrive, just as Jews themselves have, despite these attacks.

And the best survival technique is success.

Israel has succeeded and continues to succeed in its many accomplishments in building up a desert wasteland into a thriving and vibrant modern country, with its many scientific achievements, incredible leadership in high-tech and the environment, world class universities and culture. Practically every computer and mobile phone being built today includes technology and innovations from a single small Middle Eastern country. A tiny nation, under constant siege, with almost no natural resources besides breathtaking beauty, has used its brains - and strength - to build a modern success story. In a short period of time Israel made itself into a strong yet open nation that its neighbors can only dream of becoming.

And they are indeed starting to dream. The internal struggles throughout the Arab world are, in many ways, a subconscious cry from Israel's neighbors to be more like the Jewish state. Despite the constant incitement against Israel in their media, ordinary Arabs know that Israel treats its minorities with more respect, and gives them more civil rights, than Arab nations give their own Arab citizens.

I am proud that the vast majority of Americans support Israel as I do, and that the rabid haters we see on the Internet and on college campuses are the aberration.

The word "Zionist" is not an epithet - it is a compliment.

05/05 Links Pt2: Jordanian Palestinian: BDSers Don't Care For My People - They Just Hate Jews

From Ian:

Daphne Anson: BDSers Don't Care For My People – They Just Hate Jews ... We Should Respect & Support Israel's Sovereignty ... as a Jewish State" (video)

A practising Muslim, the personable Mr Zahran has kind things to say about Jews and Israel, and harsh things to say about the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic terrorism, the Jordanian monarch, Arab dictatorships, and the BDS movement.
"I came to this part of Stockholm, where Israel is hated, at considerable risk to my life, to tell the truth," the exiled leader of the Palestinian Jordanians, Mudar Zahran, declares. ".... There have always been Jews in that Holy Land, for thousands of years ..."
"Israel has served as the airbag for the West... If they did not have Israel to fight, they would be fighting you. We should respect and support Israel's sovereignty over all its land, as a Jewish State ..."
"Sooner or later, the weak King of Jordan is going to fall ... As a result we are going to have a Palestinian State for the first time ..."

SJD - Mr. Mudar Zahran, Opposition-leader of the Palestinian's in Jordan)

Director of Halimi Murder Film: ‘Ilan’s Death Reflects a Sick Society’ (VIDEO)

French Jewish film director Alexandre Arcady said the murder of Ilan Halimi, a young Parisian Jew killed by a self-proclaimed Islamist, said, “Ilan’s death reflects a sick society,” according to French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
Describing the housing development where the crime occurred, Arcady said, “Among 500 families living there, some knew what happened but no one spoke… My film is a warning against indifference.”
Arcady’s film, 24 jours: la vérité sur l’affaire Ilan Halimi, or “24 Days: the truth about the Ilan Hamili affair,” was inspired by a book with a similar title written by the victim’s mother, Ruth.

"Social Inequality Does Not Explain The Anti-Semitism, Nor The Misogyny ... Many Muslims in Europe are re-Islamizing Themselves"

"I am pained to see that the French mode of European civilization is threatened. France is in the process of transforming into a post-national and multicultural society. It seems to me that this enormous transformation does not bring anything good....
It is presented to us as the model for the future. But multiculturalism does not mean that cultures blend. Mistrust prevails, communitarianism is rampant – parallel societies are forming that continuously distance themselves from each other."
So declares the famous French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, the son of a Holocaust survivor, in an interview with Der Spiegel online.

Times of Israel has what looks like a heartwarming story:

In a remarkable response to the spate of “price tag” hate attacks by Jewish extremists, a group of youths from the northern Arab town of Shfaram teamed up with Jewish counterparts to send a very different message.

Members of the local school system’s youth leadership group, together with young people from Shutafut-Sharakah — a coalition of Jewish and Arab organizations working to build inclusive Israel — joined hands on Sunday to renovate the ancient synagogue in the Galilee town.

...One of the girls who came to renovate the synagogue said Sunday that Shfaram residents’ history of caring for the synagogue “is an example and a model for coexistence between our two peoples. Every form of worship in the city is part of our heritage, and comes both naturally and unreservedly,” she added.

This sounds wonderful! Jews and Arabs are working together against hate and towards understanding and coexistence.

However, this same event is being reported in Arab media a bit differently, and the message is not nearly as sunny.

Al Quds al Arabi, after spending many paragraphs on how the Jewish state is not taking "price tag" attacks seriously, says that in contrast to Jews who destroy churches and mosques, Arabs are showing how much they respect synagogues.

A youth group in the town of Shfaram responded to 'price tag' attacks by restoring an old synagogue in order to deliver a message about the Arab-Islamic civilization, in dealing with the sanctities of others. National Democratic Alliance official Murad Haddad told Al Quds Al-Arabi "that he wanted to deliver a message to the world that [Muslims] preserve the holy sites of the Jews because they are not part of the conflict. He adds 'in all restoration projects and maintenance of holy sites in the city, we included the synagogue, and this time we wanted to highlight the maintenance of the synagogue at the time that others violate the sanctity of mosques and churches and convert them into animal shelters [or the like.]'

... Murad Haddad emphasizes that the restoration of the synagogue is not related to any 'coexistence' programs between Jews and Arabs and was not initiated by Jews but was a 'self-initiative linked to the core of Arab-Islamic values that has nothing to do with Zionism.

The amount of respect given to the synagogue in Shfaram by the locals is undoubtedly remarkable and praiseworthy. Perhaps this spokesperson does not represent the citizens of Shfaram.

But this is how the restoration is being reported in the Arab media, not as a lesson of coexistence but as an example of Muslim moral superiority. (We don't need to even get into the many synagogues destroyed, deliberately, by Muslims over the centuries.)

The article shows that the leftover synagogues of vanished Jews must be treated with far more respect than living, breathing Jews who want to live in peace and harmony with Arabs.

Hamas kiddie TV show: "Shoot all the Jews!"

From Palestinian Media Watch, the latest episode of Hamas children's TV show "Pioneers of Tomorrow."

Phone conversation between Nahul the bee and Qais, a boy from Jenin (West Bank).
Nahul the bee, (adult in a giant bee costume): "Listen my friend. Are there Jews where you are?"
Boy (Qais): "No. Not at the moment."
Nahul: "I heard they come to you every day."
Boy: "Yes, but not now."
Nahul: "Listen, friend; do like this with your hands [makes fists], and when they come to you, punch them; make their face red like a tomato."
Boy: "Allah willing, so that we can liberate Palestine."
Nahul: "Allah willing." ...

[Nahul talks to TV Host, young girl named Rawan]
Nahul: "My friend Qais - anyway, Rawan, I tell him to take a stone, and when the Jews come, to take it and throw it at them."
Child host (Rawan): "Of course, the Jewish neighbors."
Nahul: "To smash them."
Child host: "If his neighbors are Jews or Zionists? Yes." ...

[Child host Rawan talks to Tulin, a girl in the studio.]
Child host Rawan: "Tulin, why do you want to be a police officer? Like who?"
Girl Tulin: "Like my uncle."
Child host: "Which uncle?"
Girl: "Ahmed."
Child host: "Is he a policeman?"
[Girl nods]
Child host: "OK, so what does a policeman do?"
Nahul: "He catches thieves, and people who make trouble."
Child host: "And shoots Jews. Right?"
Girl: "Yes."
Child host: "You want to be like him?"
[Girl nods]
Child host: "Allah willing, when you grow up."
Girl: "So that I can shoot Jews."
[Nahul the bee claps his hands]
Child host: "All the Jews? All of them?"
Girl: "Yes."
Child host: "Good."

I once made a video about how the mascot/hosts of this show all seemed to die horrible deaths at the hand of the evil Zionists.

I'm surprised Nahul hasn't bit the dust yet. Must be the blockade - tough to get new costumes.

This unity agreement is sure improving peace prospects, isn't it?

05/05 Links Pt1: Israel's Indomitable spirit; Hamas: Do Not Believe Abbas, We Want Jihad

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Indomitable spirit

Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and Victims of Terrorism began on Sunday at sundown and ends at sundown Monday. During these 24 hours, we pay tribute to the 23,169 casualties of war and terrorism who have fallen since 1860, the year marked as the advent of the modern Jewish Yishuv or settlement in the Land of Israel.
In truth, 1860 is an arbitrary date. The Jewish people’s yearning to return to its historic homeland extends far back in history to 70 CE, the time of the destruction of the Second Temple. And the Jewish people’s prayers and hopes for an end to exile stored up over nearly two millennia gave it unique strength.
When asked how the fledgling Jewish state, born into a state of war, managed to overcome the combined armies of the Arab states, Yigael Yadin, one of the founding fathers of the IDF, pointed to the Jewish people’s pent up desire for a state of its own where it could live in freedom and independence. Yadin likened the Jews’ longing to a “spring compressed... to the utmost of its compressibility” over thousands of years of exile, which “when finally released, it liberated.”

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas: Do Not Believe Abbas; We Want Jihad

Abbas's words might sound heart-warming to Westerners, but they must bear in mind that he is not a Hamas spokesman. Above all, the world needs to pay attention to what Hamas itself is saying.
Abbas knows that Hamas has not changed and will not change. Abbas is seeking to avoid a suspension of U.S. and European financial aid and potential Israeli economic sanctions. Abbas is now waiting to see if the Americans, Europeans and Israelis will buy his claim that the unity government will recognize Israel and reject violence. If they do, he will take credit for ensuring continued financial aid not only to the Palestinian Authority, but also to Hamas. If they do not, Abbas will be forced temporarily to suspend the deal with Hamas to avoid losing the aid.
Hamas signed the deal because it sees it and an opportunity to restore its relations with Egypt and other Arab countries, and to benefit from the Western financial aid that is provided to the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu: The Jews would be massacred like our neighbors in Syria without the IDF

Netanyahu cited the deaths of tens of thousands in Syria, as a possible fate of the Jews, without the existence of the state of Israel and the IDF.
"A few kilometers north of Jerusalem a massacre is occurring that has killed tens of thousands that do not have the power to defend themselves. Who would doubt that that would be our fate without the IDF. The IDF is the only thing that separates us from the massacres that our people knew in the past," he said.
"Israel can defend itself against any threat, but this security is gained by the loss of our sons and daughters," he said.
He said the sacrifices of the fallen make life possible in Israel.

Yom Haatzmaut 2014: 66 Israeli Heroes Share a Powerful Message
Powerful Youtube from Nefesh B'Nefesh with the message, Am Yisrael Chai!

Hanan Ashrawi proves her hypocrisy again

Over the weekend, Binyamin Netanyahu proposed a new Basic Law for Israel:

Israel already has Basic Laws that give adequate expression to the country’s democratic nature, and now needs one that articulates its Jewish character, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday, explaining his decision to promote a Basic Law defining Israel as a Jewish state.

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that the law he will promote will define the national rights of the Jewish people to the State of Israel, and that it will do so “without infringing on the individual rights of any Israeli citizen.”

Hanan Ashrawi, who heads an organization that had no problem pushing a blood libel against Jews until its European donors complained, is accusing Israel of "racism:"

This proposal is in itself a reflection of the behavior of racial discrimination practiced by Israel against our people, and rooted set of racist laws that prescribed by the Israeli Knesset, which is the headquarters of the only legislation in the world that recognizes the laws and regulations that are contrary to the laws of humanity and the international principles that deny racism."

Really? A Basic Law that emphasizes the nation's national character is racist?

Then why does the Basic Law of "Palestine" hammer away at the Arabness of Palestinians?

The continuous attachment of the Arab Palestinian people to the land of their fathers and forefathers, on which this people has historically lived, is a fact that has been expressed in the Declaration of Independence, issued by the Palestine National Council....

the right to establish an independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as a capital, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole, legitimate representative of the Arab Palestinian people wherever they exist.

...Palestine is part of the larger Arab world, and the Palestinian people are part of the Arab nation. Arab unity is an objective that the Palestinian people shall work to achieve.

This Basic Law takes great pains to define the "Palestinian people" as Arab, and specifically discusses the "Arab Palestinian people" multiple times.

Why?

The answer is obvious. They want to ensure that Jewish Palestinian people do not have any national rights!

As noted many times previously, before 1948 the word "Palestinian" rarely referred to the Arabs of Palestine, and nearly always referred to the Jews who lived in Palestine. You know...Zionists.

The PLO's charter, written in 1964 and modified in 1968 (to include the West Bank and Gaza among its national boundaries,) also spoke about "Palestinian Arab people" and not just "Palestinians." In those days it was still rare to speak of "Palestinians" as meaning only Arabs.

Hence, these foundational documents of the PLO and "Palestine" take great pains to define "Palestinian" as being only Arab - to the exclusion of Jews, the only non-Arab people who ever called themselves "Palestinian."

When they say, over and over again, "Palestinian Arabs," they mean "Non-Jewish Palestinians."

Is that not racist?

Not only that, but these "Basic Laws" not only deal with the national character of a Palestine in the territories, but they aim at defining the character of Israel as well, by insisting on the "right of return" not to their supposed state of Palestine but to Israel itself!

So the Basic Laws of Palestine are both racist - according to Hanan Ashrawi's own definition - and they are also aggressive against the state that they pretend to the West that they want to live in peace with.

Hamas reiterates that it will never recognize Israel and it will maintain Qassam Brigades

From Ma'an:

Hamas will never recognize Israel and will not accept the conditions laid out by the Middle East peacemaking Quartet, according to the Islamist movement's deputy leader.

Speaking late on Saturday, Mussa Abu Marzouq said Hamas, which recently signed a reconciliation deal with the Western-backed leadership in the occupied West Bank, would never agree to recognize Israel.

"We will not recognize the Zionist entity," he said at a press conference in Gaza City.

Recognizing Israel is one of the key conditions laid out in the 2003 peacemaking roadmap of the Middle East Quartet, which brings together the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.

The other two key demands are a renunciation of violence and acceptance of all prior agreements with Israel.

Abbas, who is to head the new government, to consist of political independents, has insisted it will abide by all three principles.

But Abu Marzouq said Hamas would never accept the Quartet's conditions.

He also said the question of disarming Hamas's armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, was "never mentioned" in talks with the PLO since the unity deal was inked on April 23.

"No one asked to discuss this," he said.

On Saturday, Abu Marzouk and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh visited the houses of the families of terrorist leaders who have been killed by Israel - including Fatah leaders.

Al Monitor has more details on how insistent Hamas is to keep its own, separate terror wing that will not answer to Fatah:

One factor complicating matters, Al-Monitor learned from the Ministry of Finance in the Gaza Strip, is that some 25,000 employees in the Hamas government work in the security services, and most of them belong to the Qassam Brigades. According to one Qassam military official, after the formation of the next government, these employees will take orders from the brigade's military leadership, not their current manager at the Ministry of Interior.

A Hamas leader who spoke on condition of anonymity dismissed all talk of dissolving the brigades. He told Al-Monitor, “This talk doesn’t deserve a response. The Qassam Brigades were created before the PA was established and has its own independent policy in dealing with Israel, away from any tutelage by anyone, including the next government.”

This is apparently what "reconciliation" means.

No one is noting that Fatah also maintains its own terror wings that it refuses to dismantle.

Al Monitor also had an important piece last week that described exactly what Hamas wanted to get out of "unity" - and it sure isn't peace:

Abbas has seemingly made a concession about Hamas’ participation in the PLO and its institutions. This had long been an obstacle to the implementation of all the previous agreements, which prompted Hamas to waive the participation of any of its members or close associates in the next — likely technocrat — government.

The Hamas source said, “The reconciliation agreement cannot succeed without the activation of the PLO and Hamas' participation in it. This is a clear and explicit condition to Hamas, and this is what was signed in previous agreements and emphasized in the latest agreement.”

The PA government is not independent; it reports to the PLO. Hamas' goal is to take over the PLO and thereby taking over the entire Palestinian Arab government eventually. This move is not nearly as much a loss for Hamas as it is being represented, because people forget this crucial fact. (It is the PLO that is recognized as the "State of Palestine" by the UN, not the sort-of democratically elected PA.)

The West keeps thinking that the PA's elections, presided over by Jimmy Carter, were meaningful. Dazzled by this fake display of democracy, they forget that the PA has no independence.

Musings on political correctness and Israel

On Sunday morning, I heard an thoroughly offensive and very misogynist song on the radio.

The singer was threatening, explicitly, to murder his girlfriend if she would be with another man. The women was referred to as nothing more than an object, one without a name, only to be disparagingly called "little girl." If caught with another man, the singer declares, that would be the end of her life. More than once the singer declares that he would rather see her dead.

The disk jockey didn't think that there was anything wrong with playing this song. No comment was made about these sickening lyrics.

What was this misogynist, hateful song?

It was "Run for your Life" by the Beatles.

In an age of extreme political correctness - where a person can be forced out of his job because of a donation he gave to an anti-gay marriage group several years previously - how can such a song be played on the radio today? Why is John Lennon's reputation clean when others who have said far less offensive things, not nearly as publicly, been viciously attacked and often lost their jobs and reputations? (A single radio station in Ottawa banned it in the early 1990s. That's it.)

What are the lines for political correctness?

It obviously has nothing to do with the offense itself - threatening to kill your significant other is certainly no more acceptable than racism is, and if, say, a basketball coach is taped threatening to kill his wife he would likely be fired.

So why is Lennon not vilified? Why is a song threatening murder getting played today?

If we are honest, the reason is because people like the Beatles. When you admire someone, you are willing to let them off the hook. You give them slack, You accept excuses for them (the 1960s were a different time, Lennon really didn't like the song, no one takes it literally....)

People feel they have a special relationship with the Beatles and John Lennon. If a brand new band (outside hip-hop, where misogyny is often considered mandatory) tried to sell such a song today they would be the object of anguished op-eds and boycotts, but people don't want to slam those they already admire.

The people who lose their jobs because of political correctness are often not well known to the public. The first that anyone has heard of them is them crossing the PC line. If they were known ahead of time as human beings, with families that they love and volunteer work they do and charities they support, the damage would be limited.

In other words, a prerequisite to demonizing people is to ensure that they are not seen as three dimensional human beings.

The Israel-haters are obviously not motivated by morality or fair play. They use the same weapons against Israelis that are used against the poor souls who are victimized by the self-righteous PC crowd.

This is why the haters are so incensed when Israel is shown in three dimensions. The bizarre logic behind the "pinkwashing" and other charges is that if Israelis are seen as sympathetic human beings, it is much more difficult for the mud to stick. So whenever Israelis do something admirable it must be silenced, using whatever methods are available.

Context is the enemy. Truth is the enemy. Anything that shows that single-minded demonization of the Jewish state is inaccurate must be blasted and belittled.

The irony, of course, is that the haters are acting exactly the same way bigots and racists have acted throughout history - dehumanizing their enemies - in an attempt to brand Israelis as bigots and racists.

Israelis have a very simple request for those who could be swayed by the haters' arguments: come and visit, speak to them, let them speak on college campuses, get to know them, listen to their side of the story. The haters, naturally, work overtime to ensure that any Israelis who could be seen as human beings be excluded from all discussion - they will do everything possible to silence them (all while they claim that their own freedom of speech is somehow being violated.)

The methods of Israel haters and those of the politically correct crowd are very similar. The way to blunt their effects in both cases is simply to provide context and allow people to see both sides of the story.

And this is what the haters are afraid of most of all.