Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, November 23, 2014

11/23 Links: Why do we keep saying it's not anti-Semitic?; Abbas Calls for "Bridges of Love"

From Ian:

Why do we keep saying it's not anti-Semitic?

There are wars, there are terrorist attacks and there are pogroms. What occurred this week at the Har Nof Synagogue in Israel was age-old anti-Semitism. It was not political, it was not anti-Zionist, it was not an attack against Israel's military actions, it was a religious pogrom; the type of which has been seen thousands of times through the ages - the type which are occurring again.
Yes, I know. It's Israel's fault, isn't it? With their military actions and settlement building, they bring it all upon themselves. And, yes, I know that the majority of Irish people consider the charge of "anti-Semitism" to be a red herring; a convenient way of deflecting attention from Israel's military and political policies in the Middle East. During the summer, some Irish politicians and media networks aired the oft-repeated view that the terrorist group Hamas were no longer anti-Semitic, and that their pre-election manifesto indicated they would remove the call for the destruction of all Jews (and the State of Israel) from their 1988 charter. But, as one of our own politicians might put it, isn't that the sort of thing you say during an election? Hamas needed to take support from the more moderate Fatah party and had no problem misleading the people of Gaza in order to do so.
But the call to kill all Jews and destroy Israel is still there in the charter and, as recently as two months, ago Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdam refused to say that they would consider removing it.
This, to put it mildly, makes Jews living in Israel, surrounded by enemies, more than a little bit nervous. (Can you imagine what would happen if Isis got in there? And we wonder why the Israeli's need to be so militarised and hard-nosed?)

Bashing Israel as Group Therapy

Your average Israeli or Israel supporter will rightly ask themselves whether this means anything. Nu? So there are Jews who think the real Israel doesn't live up to their fantasies and are throwing a fit. We have always had people like that, on both the right and the left, religious and secular. Should I really be concerned?
My answer is no and yes. No, because contrary to Peter Beinart and co., I don't believe the support of many of them matters all that much. There's a high correlation between lack of affinity with Israel and lack of affinity with Jewish identity, and the idea of chasing after such people who don't really care at the expense of the interests of millions of Israeli Jews strikes me as more than a little pointless, if not pathetic. If they want to go that badly, let them. The shortfall in donation money can be made up by opening the local and global markets as much as possible and cultivating other groups who won't treat us like we should be involuntarily committed.
Yes, because liberal Jews in elite positions – like those who write for, edit or own publications like the New Yorker – are capable of doing Israel a great deal of harm. The New Yorker is part of a select group of publications such as Haaretz, the Atlantic, the New York Times and the Guardian, which are read by a highly influential cross-national elite of journalists, professionals and government bureaucrats. Many people of real power – ambassadors, senior officials, parliamentary advisors or foreign office clerks – often rely almost exclusively on such ostensibly 'neutral' and 'balanced' publications for their information and to inform policy decisions. What's worse, if they arrive at the anti-Israel policy recommendations endorsed by such outlets, they can convince themselves that by doing so they are really Saving Israel From Itself™.

Michael Lumish: Abbas Calls for "Bridges of Love"

In a speech Friday in Ramallah, after accusing Israel of releasing wild and vicious Zionist hogs upon the innocent indigenous "Palestinian" population the Jerusalem Post tells us:
Abbas also called for establishing “bridges of love” with Israelis “instead of the racist separation fence.” He warned once again against the eruption of a religious war and called on Israelis “not to come close to our holy sites, just as we don’t come near your synagogues.”
Abbas added: “The Jews know very well that we seek peace and not war.”
So, let me get this straight.
Mahmoud Abbas, the illegitimate dictator of the corrupt terrorist organization known as "the Palestinian Authority," claims that he and his people want "bridges of love" to Jews?
He claims that they don't come near our synagogues?
He claims that we actually know that Israeli-Arabs want peace and not war?
Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!

Most participants here are familiar with Jon Haber and his divestthis! blog.

Jon and I are having an ongoing conversation concerning the western-left and its relationship to the BDS movement, i.e, the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction the Jewish State of Israel.

We both agree that BDS in the west is largely a product of the Left. And we both agree, therefore, that many western-left venues have made homes of themselves for that movement, a movement that I would characterize as anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist. It should be noted that to claim the liberal-left is the emerging home of political anti-Semitism was practically considered heresy among liberal-left western Jews merely a few years ago.

But, times are changing.

That BDS, itself, is anti-Zionist is without question because BDS leaders like Omar Barghouti have told us so directly and thus anyone - or any Jew - who supports BDS is promoting the dissolution of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people... which given the mood of so much of today's Middle East is tantamount to promoting genocide within living memory of the Holocaust.

If you click-through to Jon's most recent response, which he titles The Left and Anti-Zionism (or my “dinner” with Mike) he asks an excellent question:

So if this is the nature of the battle being fought, are we doing ourselves a disservice for condemning a Left that might include the inheritors of an anti-Communist tradition (my emphasis) that is trying to find a way to apply lessons learned in the 20th century fight against Marxism to our current conflict...

The "nature of the battle" in this case is a conflict within the western liberal-left for the meaning of its soul. The direction the western-left takes viz-a-viz Israel and the Jews in the coming years will determine the nature of who they are, morally and politically, for generations. My suspicion is that the more anti-Israel the western-left becomes the more anti-democratic it will become, as well.

Haber writes:

But let’s not forget that last-century’s Marxists lost the Cold War (better termed World War III). And, as much as I admire those conservatives who stood fast against Marxism for a century (which does not include opportunists like Joseph McCarthy who, among other crimes, provided Communists with ideological ammunition they have still not depleted), part of the front against Marxism included progressives, liberals, Leftists (whatever you want to call them) who stood fast against the bullying and blackmail that played such a large part in the revolutionists’ agenda of subversion.

Thus the perfectly reasonable question, do supporters of Israel do a disservice to the cause of safe-guarding Jewish sovereignty when we condemn the Left?

If the Left represents the terrain upon which the argument between Zionists and anti-Zionists is largely taking place, is it not better to cultivate the broader Left rather than alienate it?

This is a tactical question and while tactics are obviously important in politics they can also easily find themselves in conflict with the truth. Pointing out flaws within trends of progressive-left thinking does not automatically suggest condemnation. What always counts most is the truthfulness of the claim.

Let me give you a specific example. Just a few yeas ago we saw the rise of the so-called "Arab Spring." At the time many people, including president Barack Obama, interpreted Arab street action as the great upwelling of Arab democracy.

On May 19, 2011, President Barack Obama said this before the United Nations:

"There are times in the course of history when the actions of ordinary citizens spark movements for change because they speak to a longing for freedom that has been building up for years. In America, think of the defiance of those patriots in Boston who refused to pay taxes to a King, or the dignity of Rosa Parks as she sat courageously in her seat."

Now, it could hardly be more clear that Rosa Parks and, say, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were not part of political movements that in any way resemble one another.

I am smiling as I write this because the notion is so ridiculous that it is just funny.

But while the Arab Spring was happening and while people allegedly far less intelligent than Barack Obama were not the least bit ready to endorse it, the President of the United States stood up before the world and made comparisons between the rise of an entirely savage form of Muslim politics and both the Spirit of '76 and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

{Take a moment a ponder that one, if you will.}

So, I suppose my question would be this:

Should we not acknowledge the obvious due to fear of offending allies who are already behaving less and less like allies? The implication of Jon's question if answered in the affirmative - that, yes, we do ourselves a disservice by condemning the Left - is that we must be careful not to offend. What can one say, however, but that the truth is the truth and sometimes truths are obnoxious and offensive to those who, for ideological reasons, simply do not want to read those truths or incorporate them into their larger political world-view.

Jon knows this at least as well as I do and with that I leave it to him.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

UNRWA used to build beautiful Gaza homes without cement. What happened?

Ma'an reports:

Rather than waiting for construction material to be allowed into the Strip, a displaced Palestinian man from Jabaliya in northern Gaza has recently built a house using limestone and sand.

Mishref al-Irr lost his home when Israeli bombs destroyed it in Operation Cast Lead. He has not had the opportunity to have it rebuilt due to the Israeli siege on Gaza, which severely limits imports of construction material into the territory.

With the help of a Palestinian architect, al-Irr recently decided to build a house with natural material instead of cement.

The architect, Imad al-Khalidi, used limestone and sand to build al-Irr's temporary home.

"Houses that are built using limestone and sand are strong and hold for hundreds of years," al-Khalidi said.

He encouraged other Palestinians to use available resources to build shelters for those displaced by Israel's war on the Strip, but not as a substitute for Gaza reconstruction, which has been promised by the international community.

Al-Irr says the new home is not a permanent replacement for the one that was destroyed.

"It is a place to keep out of the hot sun in summer and the cold in winter until our home is rebuilt," al-Irr told Ma'an.

"Two more wars have passed and we are still waiting for our home to be rebuilt" with proper materials, he added.

Palestine Today has some photos of the stunning "temporary" home:

The story gets more interesting.

The house discussed above was not built recently. It was built in 2010. I reported on it at the time. UNRWA built it in three months for only $10,000. (Comparing the photos in the Ma'an story and the ones in the UN IRIN story from 2010 show that the house is identical, and UNRWA's website shows it has the same owner.)

This brings up a number of questions:

Why is Ma'an (and Palestine Today) reporting this story now when it happened over four years ago?
Why does the owner of this beautiful house, whose architect says will last for over a hundred years, calling it "temporary" and saying that it must be rebuilt with "proper materials"?
Why has UNRWA seemingly abandoned this program of building beautiful, inexpensive homes in Gaza using local materials? They said they would build 120 of these houses in a pilot program, but based on today's stories, it looks like at most only a handful were ever built.
Given that this home has survived so well for four years, why don't more Gazans build these homes with their own money?

Apparently, Gazans cannot build multiple story homes with this material, so it is not a solution in Gaza City. But there is plenty of open space in Gaza that can be used for building these nice, inexpensive homes. The know-how, materials and manpower clearly exist.

It almost seems as if UNRWA wants to ensure that Gazans do not appear too self-sufficient, because if they are perceived that way they might get less outside aid.

Which means that both Hamas and UNRWA get less cash.

Photos of Gazans in miserable tents manage to raise more cash for UNRWA than of Gaza mothers preparing meals in nice kitchens.

Turkish governor calls Jews "bandits," threatens to shut synagogue; officials say he can't

From Hurriyet Daily News:

A historical synagogue under restoration in the northwestern province of Edirne will not be turned into a museum, a top state official has said, despite earlier remarks from the province’s governor.

“All decisions regarding the functions of the buildings owned by the Directorate General of Foundations are taken by the directorate,” Foundations Director General Adnan Ertem told Anadolu Agency on Nov. 22.

“Our intentions is to keep that building as a house of worship to serve all visitors,” he added.

Edirne Gov. Dursun Şahin created uproar when he told reporters on Nov. 21 that he ordered the historical Büyük Synagogue (the Great Synagogue), built in 1907 in the village of Kaleiçi, to be turned into a museum, citing the recent Israeli raid on al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

“While those bandits blow winds of war inside al-Aqsa and slay Muslims, we build their synagogues,” Şahin said.

“I say this with a huge hatred inside me. We clean their graveyards, send their projects to boards. But the synagogue here will be registered only as a museum, and there will be no exhibitions inside it.”

However, Ertem vowed that the building, which has been under restoration since 2010 on a budget of 3.7 million Turkish Liras, would serve both as a place of worship and visit, similar to Süleymaniye and Sultanahmet mosques.

“All visitors should be able easily pray there, which is the biggest synagogue in Europe. That is our intention” said Ertem.

The Jewish community in Turkey had applied to the governor’s office to have sermons and wedding ceremonies at the synagogue, whose restoration is almost complete.

A main opposition lawmaker has called for the governor’s resignation for his remarks.

“If Şahin does not resign to save the dignity of his post and Turkey’s honor, he should be removed from his post immediately,” Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Aykan Erdemir said in a written statement.

It is shameful for a public official to make such remarks, added Erdemir, who argued that “hatred and anti-Semitism have seized the state.”

While the response is admirable, it is clearly becoming easier for people to openly espouse antisemitism.

Hamas, PA each claim the OTHER one is running Gaza security

The farce of "unity" continues....

A Hamas spokesman on Saturday said that Gaza's security services are not under the control of Hamas, but the Palestinian national consensus government.

Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement that "Hamas has no relation to Gaza's security services -- (Prime Minister Rami) Hamdallah is the Minister of Internal Affairs and he should do his job."

Abu Zuhri called on Hamdallah to "stop avoiding his responsibilities."

Hamdallah had said Friday that Hamas was "the actual security authority in Gaza" and that the unity government could not work in Gaza given the "nervous security conditions there," referring to recent mysterious bombings targeting Fatah members in the Strip.

The Gaza Interior Ministry webpage, even though it has PA logos, is clearly still run by Hamas as its articles all mirror Hamas positions.

Al Jazeera op-ed praises synagogue massacre

Professor Abdel Sattar Qassem wrote an op-ed in Al Jazeera praising the murder of innocent Jews.

Of course, the article is only in their Arabic site.

The daring operation carried out by two Palestinians in a Jewish synagogue in Jerusalem left a big impact and it wil leave a big impact on the Palestinian scene for a period of time. It is clear that this operation comes in the context of the Zionist attacks on Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the day after the hanging of the Palestinian bus driver by Jewish settlers.

The operation carried symbolic importance in targeting the synagogue, in a clear message to the settlers and extremists of all varieties and types that the attack on the Arab holy sites would lead to attacks on synagogues and their holy places. Palestinians do not attack the sanctities of other religions, but they are ready to convey the message clearly to all those who abuse their sacred places. The operation also was clear in terms of courage and bravery, coming among a number of bold operations carried out by Palestinians in recent times against the Israelis, especially in the city of Jerusalem, but this operation was the most daring because it was done with primitive weapons. The media picked up that the Palestinians used the gun, but the most important weapons were knives and hatchets. It was the courage of the operation, done suddenly and without warning.

This was not terrorism, as the US and Israel and their supporters say, but it was out of self-defense, and to save the Palestinian people.

In case you think that Al Jazeera was trying to downplay that the terror attack was actually a violent massacre against worshipers, the illustration of the article shows one of the victims being carried out of the shul.

Practically none of the commenters in the Arab world's largest media outlet had anything negative to say about this article, although one said that attacking Jews in synagogue might backfire against the Palestinian Arab cause. Most people, however, praised the article.

Incidentally, this supporter of terror has been the subject of a worshipful interview in Electronic Intifada.

He is a professor at An Najah University in Nablus. He received a master's degree in political science from Kansas State University and a doctorate from the University of Missouri.

11/22 Links: Terror: the enemy of Palestinian statehood; Abbas and the "wild boar conspiracy"

From Ian:

Terror: the enemy of Palestinian statehood

Israel sits at the frontline of the terrorists’ threat and to curtail their radical dystopia from consuming the civilised world a strong and prosperous Israel is vital. This is why free and democratic countries, like Australia, should forge a strong alternative narrative of their own, that can counter the narrative of violence stoked by militant Palestinians and Islamic State. To recognise that an attack on Israeli citizens is an attack on the same fundamental ideals upon which countries like Australia were built: this is the narrative that will demonstrate to Islamic extremists that when they attack Israel — when they desecrate peaceful faith — they attack a camaraderie of nations that will not tolerate violence as a political tool.
We rely on your friendship. This year’s violence has not defeated us, but the people of Israel need to be consoled by solidarity from abroad so that they can trust in the international system to help protect them. Israelis need the international community to be emphatic in condemning the incitement of violence and to encourage Palestinian leadership to curtail violent extremism in their own ranks. The cause of Israel should be the cause of every peace-loving democracy.
Also, Muslims that desire a sustainable statehood for Palestinians should loathe and abhor the recent murder of Israelis as much as anyone else, for, in addition to being an affront to our common humanity, it only damages their aspirations.
Make no mistake; those that employ terrorism as a means of furthering political Islam are the greatest enemies of Palestinian statehood.
The people who live among this conflict need to be able to give their leaders the space to lead. That bands of disgruntled and radicalised Palestinians continue to take matters into their own hands, motivated by blind hatred and anger, only impedes the ability of our leaders to act with the measured clarity that is required.
Shmuel Ben- Shmuel is the Israeli ambassador to Canberra.

"Their Main Goal Is To Eliminate Israel & Establish An Islamic State": Jordanian opposition figure on Palestinian aims (video)

Here's Mudar Zahran, the Jordanian opposition figure of Palestinian background who's very sympathetic to Israel, interviewed on Brett and Jon Rappaport's current affairs series The Final Say about the current situation in the Middle East.
"They are ... in their own world when it comes to radicalism and hatred Of Israel ...Their main goal is to eliminate Israel and establish an Islamic state."
In that quotation, is Mr Zahran talking about Hamas?
No. He's talking about the attitude of Palestinians in the West Bank, where he spent this past summer.
Regarding the people of Gaza, he says
"[T]hey have had enough of Hamas. They would love to see Hamas go."
He is scornful of the Kerry Plan and the current vogue for recognising Palestinian statehood..
The Palestinian Authority is corrupt and affiliated with terrorism."
"Basically the West is pushing Israel as if [statehood] is going to solve all the problems .... It's a bad idea."
His solution?
"[T]he only logical option is a Palestinian state east of the river ...."

Jordanian PM sends condolence letter to families of Har Nof terrorists

The Jordanian prime minister, Abdullah Ensour, sent a condolence letter to the families of the two Palestinian terrorists who killed five Israelis in a terror attack at a synagogue in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.
“I ask God to envelope them with mercy and to grant you with patience, comfort and recovery from your grief,” Ensour wrote in the letter, according to Channel 10.
On Wednesday, Jordanian parliament members held a moment of silence and read Koran verses aloud in memory of the two terrorists, cousins Uday Abu Jamal and Ghassan Abu Jamal from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber.
“Regarding the martyrs who bombed and murdered Zionists, I’m asking the respected parliament to stand up and to read the al-Fatiha [verse from the first chapter of the Quran] to glorify their pure souls and the souls of all the martyrs in the Arab and Muslim nations,” an unnamed MP said, according to a Channel 10 translation of the remarks at the parliament session.

11/21 Links Pt2: Palestinian Culture of Hatred is Main Obstacle to Peace; The Silence of the Dhimmis

From Ian:

WSJ Editorial: Palestinian “Culture of Hatred” is Main Obstacle to Peace

In an unsigned editorial yesterday, the editors of The Wall Street Journal argued that the main obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is not settlements but “the culture of hatred against Jews that is nurtured by Palestinian leaders.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killings, but not without calling for Israel to halt what he called “invasions” of the holy Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Mr. Abbas has previously said the Temple Mount was being “contaminated” by Jews, despite assurances by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque are for Muslim worship only. The Memri news service reports that the Oct. 29 issue of the Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida was full of false accusations that Israel is damaging Jerusalem’s holy sites. …
The murders are the worst in a recent spate of Palestinian attacks, which some are calling a third spontaneous “intifada,” or uprising, against Israel. But there are few spontaneous events in a society dominated by armed military factions. The last intifada, after the failure of Bill Clinton ’s peace talks in 2000, was also said to be spontaneous until it became clear that Yasser Arafat was running it.
The Journal’s editors suggest pressuring the Palestinian Authority to abide by its commitment to stop incitement against Israel:
The best way to prevent another intifada is to reassure Israel that the U.S. supports its self-defense, while warning Palestinians that they will never have a homeland as long as they cultivate a society that celebrates murdering the innocent in the name of religion.

The Silence of the Dhimmis

The November 18th murder of five people at Kehilat Yaakov Synagogue in Jerusalem has shocked the world. Two Palestinian men turned a house of prayer into a killing zone.
One group that has remained remarkably silent about the massacre is Christian leaders in Bethlehem, where the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference takes place every even-numbered year under the auspices of Bethlehem Bible College (BethBC).
Christian leaders associated with CATC and BethBC have offered nary a word of criticism of the attack, nor have they condemned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the inflammatory remarks he has made prior to the attack. He has referred to Jews who want to visit the Temple Mount as "a herd of cattle," accused them as "contaminating" the Al Aksa Mosque and declared they must be prevented from entering the site "by any means."
Palestinian Christians who routinely (and falsely) condemn Israel for denying Christians access to holy sites in Jerusalem have remained virtually silent about these remarks. And they have not offered a word of condemnation for incitement against "'the rabbis' of the secret societies," that was published in an official PA newspaper a week before the attack.
With their silence, these Christians have demonstrated once again that they are not really the “peacemakers” they claim to be, but are merely propagandists who use the language of peace to condemn Israel and encourage their allies in the West to gloss over the sins of the Palestinians.

Remembering the Mumbai massacre victims (and never forgetting why it happened!!)

Tomorrow is the Hebrew date anniversary of the Mumbai massacre in which Rabbi Holtzberg z”l, Rebbetzin Holtzberg z”l and many, many others were, in 2008, murdered and in which many more were injured. The rampage of terror last for 4 days.
The massacre had nothing to do with a territorial dispute in the Middle East, it was not about Muslim v Jewish rights, it was antisemitic, pure and simple, and that’s what makes the situation in Israel impossible to fix.
Antisemitism did not start in 1948!!! Antisemitism would not disappear if all the Jews were to up sticks and leave Israel now!!!

The widows of the Har Nof massacre have asked that this Shabbat be dedicated to 'ahavat chinam' - love for no good reason."

Translation of Widows' Letter:

A PLEA FROM THE WIVES AND CHILDREN OF THE 4 HAR NOF VICTIMS

The widows and orphans of the four men who were slain in the Jerusalem synagogue massacre this week issued a letter calling for national solidarity and unity:

With broken hearts, drenched in tears shed over the spilt blood of holy men - the heads of our families.

We call on our brethren wherever they are - let us come together so that we may merit mercy from Heaven, and let's accept upon ourselves to increase love and comradery, between each individual and each community.

We ask that every person accept upon himself on this Sabbath Eve (Parshat Toldot, November 20-21, 2014), to set aside the day of Shabbat as a day of unconditional love, a day during which we will refrain from words of disagreement and division, from words of gossip and slander.

May this serve to elevate the souls of our husbands and fathers who were slaughtered while sanctifying God's name.

God will look down from the heavens, see our suffering, wipe away our tears and put an end to our tribulations.

May we merit seeing the coming of our Moshiach (Messiah) speedily in our days. Amen.

Signed with a torn heart,

Mrs. Chaya Levin and family
Mrs. Bryna Goldberg and family
Mrs. Yaacova Kupensky and family
Mrs. Bashy Twersky and family

What an incredible contrast between the reaction of these bereaved Jewish women to the constant calls for hate, rage, and revenge that we hear every day in the Palestinian Arab media.

(h/t MtTB)

Open thread

Hey, it's been a long week. Talk amongst yourselves in the comments.

And Shabbat Shalom!

11/21 Links Pt1: Glick: Responding to the slaughter; Blaming Israel for Palestinian Violence Is Racist

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Responding to the slaughter

What we are seeing in Jerusalem today is not simply Palestinian terrorism. It is Islamic jihad. No one likes to admit it. The television reporters insist that this is the worst possible scenario because there is no way to placate it.
There is no way to reason with it.
So what else is new? The horrible truth is that all of the anti-Jewish slaughters perpetrated by our Arab neighbors have been motivated to greater or lesser degrees by Islamic Jew-hatred. The only difference between the past hundred years and now is that today our appeasement-oriented elite is finding it harder to pretend away the obvious fact that we cannot placate our enemies.
No “provocation” by Jews drove two Jerusalem Arabs to pick up meat cleavers and a rifle and slaughter rabbis in worship like sheep and then mutilate their bodies.
No “frustration” with a “lack of progress” in the “peace process,” can motivate people to run over Jewish babies or attempt to assassinate a Jewish civil rights activist.
The reason that these terrorists have decided to kill Jews is that they take offense at the fact that in Israel, Jews are free. They take offense because all their lives they have been taught that Jews should live at their mercy, or die by their sword.

Must Read Of The Day: Blaming Israel for Palestinian Violence Is Racist

I’ve been saying it for years. Never as articulately as this from Alan Johnson of The Telegraph:
Part of the explanation lies in the profound influence that the anti-Zionist ideology (a system of demonising ideas and representations about Israel and the Jews) now exercises in our culture. At the heart of the ideology is a deeply buried, often unconscious, assumption about the dichotomous natures of Israelis and Palestinians that warps our understanding of the conflict. Here it is:Palestinians (and Arabs in general) do not have agency and choice, and so cannot be held accountable and responsible. Israelis do and can; always, and exclusively.
Palestinians are understood as a driven people, dominated by circumstance and emotion, lacking choice, below the age of responsibility, never to be held accountable. Israelis are the opposite; masters of all circumstances, rational and calculating, the root cause of everything, responsible for everything.
It is, palpably, an Orientalist view of the Palestinians as the Other, except this time they are affirmed as noble savages. It’s a bit racist, to be honest. For example, the Liberal Democrat David Ward MP tweeted that the Palestinian synagogue terrorists had been “driven to madness” – which not only removes agency from them but also sanity.
This groupthink is the reason that parts of the media are reluctant to challenge the Palestinian national movement when it is guilty of rejectionism, terrorism, authoritarianism, corruption and the promotion of a vile culture of incitement, demonization and antisemitism. After all, those things are just not the “the Israel story“, are they? As Matt Seaton, comment editor at the New York Times, tweeted recently, his opinion pages will only cover Palestinian racism when “they have [a] sovereign state to discriminate with.”

PMW: PA daily incited against "rabbis" prior to synagogue attack

A week before the brutal murders of four rabbis during prayer and a policeman in a Jerusalem synagogue, the official Palestinian Authority daily published an op-ed that demonized Israel and Jews. It specifically singled out "the rabbis of the secret societies" as the ones giving the instructions to Israel to "set the foundations for an eternal hegemony":
"The danger posed by Israel remains the greatest and most significant of all, and the first [threat] we must come out against. For the Zionist settler ideology does not seek temporary influence or gains, and does not strive to exploit and exhaust resources, but rather sets the foundations for an eternal hegemony based on the instructions of the 'rabbis' of the secret societies. And all this is in order to take revenge on history and their minority and false persecution complex."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 12, 2014]

Mahmoud Abbas Condemns Jerusalem Synagogue Attack; Palestinian Politicians: Rabbis Are Not Civilians

For some reason, there are a lot of stories today about Israel's natural gas reserves.

Ha'aretz reports that the Tamar gas field is looking at a huge expansion.

The Tamar gas field may be upgraded at a cost of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, including the construction of an underwater pipeline to a plant in Egypt run by Spain’s Union Fenosa Gas, the partners that own and operate the field said Thursday.

The partners are considering expanding production with three new wells and upgrading a production platform near Ashkelon, with the aim of doubling the field’s capacity to 20 billion cubic meters annually, said Delek Group, which owns Tamar together with Noble Energy of Texas and Israel’s Isramco and Dor Alon.

The pipeline is contingent on the partners signing a supply deal with UFG, it said. Delek said the expansion program is to be in place by 2017.

TOI reports that Israel is pitching an idea of a pipeline to Europe:

Israel has proposed that EU countries invest in a multi-billion euro pipeline to carry its natural gas to the continent, noting that the supply from Israel would reduce Europe’s current dependence on natural gas from Russia.

A proposal for the “massive” project was introduced by Israel’s Energy Minister Silvan Shalom to energy ministers from Euro-Mediterranean countries who met in Rome earlier this week, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Thursday.

It said the project would require a multi-billion euro investment from Europe to build a pipeline from Israel’s Mediterranean cost to Cyprus, from where the gas would be carried on to Greece and Italy.

The TV report said Cyprus, Greece and Italy were all supportive of the idea, and that Israel would make a formal presentation of the project to European representatives in Brussels in three weeks’ time.

Jordanian media is warning that Israel's actions in Jerusalem are jeopardizing their own agreement with Israel on gas:

A proposal for Jordan to buy $15 billion (Dh55.08 billion) of natural gas from Israel is facing strong opposition in the kingdom because of the intensifying Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which officials fear could delay or even scupper the deal.

Jordan this month took the unprecedented step of recalling its ambassador after Israeli security forces entered Occupied Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque to subdue protesters angered over a move to end a long-standing deal prohibiting Jewish prayer at the site. It was the first time Jordan has officially recalled its envoy to Israel since the two countries signed a peace treaty 20 years ago.

According to Jordanian officials, the 15-year deal to buy gas from Israel’s offshore Leviathan reservoir remains on track.

However, they warn that any renewed tensions over Al Aqsa would jeopardise all areas of economic cooperation — tacitly including the gas deal, which awaits final government approval.

Opposition to the agreement is building among civil society groups and politicians.

Yahya Mohammad Al Saud, an MP and president of the Jordanian parliamentary committee on Palestine, said: “The Jordanian [people are] not willing to accept this agreement. I will return to riding on a donkey and heating my house with wood before I would consider taking gas from Israel.”

At a protest on Sunday in front of Nepco’s Amman headquarters, protesters held up placards opposing “the Zionist gas deal”.

“You cannot depend on the Israelis; they have breached all agreements. And you know what’s going on in [occupied] Jerusalem and at Al Aqsa,” said Rima Abad, one of the demonstrators. “We cannot give them money to support the [colonies] and the occupation.”

Fellow protester Fadi Nashashibi, an engineer who is among the roughly half of Jordanians who are of Palestinian descent, added: “We are building a very good terminal in Aqaba where we could buy liquid gas from anywhere in the world.”

Jordan is constructing a new liquefied gas terminal in the southern city that could allow it to bring in product from Qatar or elsewhere, but officials and analysts say Israeli gas is the cheapest source.

Ha'aretz also has a somewhat strange article interviewing an energy advisor to the Quartet where he says that it is in Israel's interests to help the PA develop the relatively small gas fields off of Gaza, saying it would help Israel to sell its gas to Muslim countries. Sounds like more wishful thinking than anything else.