Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 24, 2014

11/24 Links Pt2: Netanyahu: 'This is What They Have to Do Now when the World is Exploding?'

From Ian:

'This is What They Have to Do Now when the World is Exploding?'

In an interview on the i24news network, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu referred Sunday to the anticipated vote in the French parliament on recognizing a Palestinian state:
“Of course I'm worried about this because what they're voting on is Palestine without peace," he said. "That's what the Palestinians want. They want to have a state to continue, not to end the war with Israel, but to continue the war from improved boundaries. That's all they're saying. Look at what has happened. Every time we gave territory to the Palestinians, for example in Gaza, Iran walked in with its Palestinian proxies, fired thousands of rockets on our cities. Does anyone in Paris talk about this? This is what they have to do now when the world is exploding? When Islamist fires are sweeping throughout the Middle East? When every place that we vacate becomes a bastion for militant Islam and for Iran? This is what is going to produce peace?!? To ask Israel to put the suburbs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in the hands of Islamic militants?
"This is irresponsible. It's not conducive to peace. In fact, it hardens the Palestinian positions because it tells them, you get a state – which will be used to attack Israel – you don't have to give anything.

Catalan independence advocate looks to Israel, Germany for funding

Barcelona High Court Judge Santiago Vidal said in the November-December edition of the local Delta magazine that the "facts indicates" that within three years a Catalan state could establish independence through "legal, political and peaceful means."
Without initial membership in the European Union, an independent Catalan state could not appeal to the Central Bank of Europe to finance its debts, said Vidal, a member of a pro-Catalan independence expert group.
"But there is a solution for this," Vidal said in the interview adding that "another state with solvency, basically speaking of Israel and Germany, will serve as our temporary bank."
Vidal downplayed the interviewer's doubts over whether it was "risky" to believe Israel would back a country seeking independence, given the Palestinian issue.
He stated that "the Palestinian issue is characterized by violence. Whereas, the Catalan issue is characterized by civic lessons, pacifism and the doing of good things that we are giving to the whole world. And this is something the Israelis like very much."

Obama's Legacy (and Europe's)

However, relations between the United States and Israel have so deeply deteriorated since the beginning of the Obama presidency, that many Israeli diplomats think a U.S. veto uncertain.
In the context of Iran's unfettered pursuit of nuclear weapons, a "Palestinian state" in Judea, Samaria and Gaza would soon become a vital threat to Israel. Short-range rockets could hit Israel's main population centers. Israel would have to respond decisively. A regional war might well follow.
It is difficult to think that President Obama — or leaders in Europe — actually want their names to go down in history as those who legitimized a rogue entity such as "Palestine," or enabled Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. But just as Neville Chamberlain is looked on as the biggest laughing-stock in history for promising "peace" with Hitler, so can Obama's legacy be that of an even bigger fool. Chamberlain, after all, did not have a Chamberlain to warn him.

Latest photos of evil settler colonizer Jews storming Al Aqsa Mosque, or something like that

Here are yesterday's "stormers:"

Under a tight military protection, settlers storm al-Aqsa mosque this morning. #Palestine #Jerusalem #الأقصى_لنا pic.twitter.com/1FnQOPtFsp
— Palestine Social (@PalestineSocial) November 23, 2014

How dare these Jews desecrate the shrine by walking around!

Muslims, however, know how to treat the holy site with respect, as this photo from Friday shows:

How dare the Jews desecrate the holiest Muslim playground in the world?

Deprived Arab boy complains he cannot play soccer on Temple Mount every day

This is not a joke.

Hona Al Quds has an article about poor Mohamed Ghalib Laban, who lives in Jerusalem.

12-year old Ban likes to go with his friends to play soccer every day at his local playground, which happens to be the Temple Mount. But on some days the evil Jewish settlers come, protected by police, and he is not allowed to play, saying "Occupation police stopped us from bringing the ball when the settlers invaded, because the little ball frightened them."

The title of the article is "Mohamed Laban deprived of playing in Al Aqsa."

If it wasn't for those damn Jews who keep desecrating the Al Aqsa Mosque, young Mohamed would be able to play all he wants.

If that's not a reason for attacking the storming Jews with axes and cleavers, I don't know what is.

I imagine that Human Rights Watch will issue a 85 page report on this violation of international humanitarian law any day now.

(UPDATE: Fixed boy's name and translation, h/t Racquel)

11/24 Links Pt1: Hamas: Rebuild Gaza or We'll Attack Israel; Erdoğan’s Historical Truthiness

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas: Rebuild Gaza or We'll Attack Israel

The only option Hamas faces, therefore, is to attack Israel again as a way of ridding itself of the severe crisis in the Gaza Strip and the growing frustration among Palestinians living there.
Hamas's biggest fear is that this frustration will be translated into disillusionment with its regime. That is why Hamas is now seeking to direct the anger on the Palestinian street toward Israel.
Recent statements by several Hamas representatives show that the Islamist movement does not rule out the possibility of waging another war against Israel, using as an excuse the failed promises to reconstruct the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is now talking about an imminent "explosion" against Israel if the promises to rebuild Gaza are not fulfilled. Some Hamas representatives even have the audacity to hold Israel fully responsible for hindering the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas's threats against Israel should be taken seriously, especially in light of reports that the movement is continuing to prepare for another war. Hamas not only continues to dig tunnels under the border with Israel; it has also been test-firing rockets into the Mediterranean Sea.
Hamas does not have much left to lose in another military confrontation with Israel.
The killing of a few hundred more Palestinians in the Gaza Strip will allow Hamas to shift attention from its failure to rebuild the Gaza Strip to blaming Israel for "waging another war" on the Palestinians. Hamas is also hoping that another war will further increase anti-Israel sentiment around the world and earn the Palestinians even more sympathy.
Abbas also stands to benefit from another war in the Gaza Strip. Renewed fighting would absolve him of his responsibility toward the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Additionally, of course, there is always the possibility that Israel would "do the job for him" and get rid of Hamas. And like Hamas, Abbas too would seek to take advantage of the fighting to wage another campaign of incitement against Israel in the international arena.

IDF Blog: In Their Own Words: Quotes by Palestinian Leaders

In the west, the leaders of terrorist organizations speak moderately and responsibly in their speeches. But in the middle-east, when speaking to their people and their allies, they do not hesitate to deny the existence of the State of Israel and to call for Jihad, battles, and suicide attacks.
Members of terrorist organizations have not hesitated to bless the perpetrators of recent attacks such as stabbings and car rammings. They also praised the kidnapping and murder of three young Israelis in the summer of 2014.
Below is a collection of quotes by Palestinian leaders that will make you think twice about their true intentions.

Elliott Abrams: Closing Rafah: A tale of two narratives

The Egyptian official explanation is that security requires the closing. Recently the Egyptian ‎terrorist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group. In October, 33 ‎Egyptian security personnel were killed by terrorists; last week, five more. Why these events ‎require that people in need of medical treatment may not use Rafah, and how that closure ‎enhances Egyptian security, may be debated.‎
My point is a different one: Were it Israel keeping the key passage closed and simply saying ‎security requires it, this would be a very big deal. The condemnations would be constant. ‎Instead, near silence. Double standard? The usual lack of interest in how Arabs treat other ‎Arabs? The desire not to criticize President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's government in Cairo? So it seems. A ‎Palestinian would be justified in concluding that the world hasn't the slightest interest in the ‎fate of Palestinians, other than as a battering ram to use against Israel. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

New Fatah song encourages murdering Jews with cleavers

From Palestinian Media Watch, seen on Fatah's Facebook page:

I'm coming towards you, my enemy, from every house, neighborhood and street
Our war is a war of the streets.
I'm coming towards you, my enemy
We're going down from every house with cleavers and knives
With grenades we announced a popular war
I swear, you won't escape, my enemy, from the revolution and the people.
How will you escape the ring of fire while the crowds are blocking the way?
I'm coming towards you, my enemy, from every house, neighborhood and street

There is a subtext here: the glee at the successful murder of Jews.

Palestinian Arabs have been frustrated at the fact that their terror attacks over the past few years have been largely ineffective. For a while they celebrated every bus bombing until Israel figured out how to counter and shut down the second intifada. Then rockets were the object of Palestinian Arab love and songs, until Iron Dome killed that. Now they have reason to celebrate again.

Anyone who watches Palestinian Arab media and social media knows well the happiness that accompanies murders of Jews. I've only seen one exception: the slaughter of the Fogel family in Itamar in 2011 did not bring about this kind of bragging. But every single other fatal attack has been cheered, no matter who or where the victims, as long as they were Jewish.

Similarly, almost all condemnations of terror attacks against Jews by Palestinians are nonexistent or muted or "contextualized."

The West refuses to publicize this simple fact because of the emotional investment in the lie that both sides are morally equivalent. Without that fiction, the entire idea of real peace goes up in smoke. So truly outlying racist comments by Jews are exaggerated (even though they are roundly condemned by Zionists) and videos like these are ignored even though there is literally zero backlash visible in Arab media.

There is no moral equivalence, Israelis and Zionists, across the board, are far more moral than the vast majority of Palestinians. Any objective views of both sides' media - both what is written and what is written in response - shows this to be indisputable,

But political correctness makes this fact all but invisible to the world, and anti-Israel propaganda turns the truth on its head.

UNRWA school principals support terror, celebrate Jewish deaths (update)

Mamoun Abunaser is a principal at an UNRWA school in Syria. His profile picture on Facebook says, "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty."

Is it a UN principle for principals to support terror?

Abu Mohammed al-Madhoun is also an UNRWA school principal, heading a school in Gaza . He has this cartoon on his Facebook page, showing a caricature of a religious Jew being imprisoned in a box that is locked with the symbolic Palestinian Arab key.

Luay Shehab is a UNRWA school principal in Nablus. He triumphantly shows photos of dead Israelis on his Facebook page.

UPDATE: The caption says "Oh Allah, make the number of their dead as [every time a Muslim says] "Amen"!

Hassan Zeghan, isn't a principal; he is only a UNRWA teacher in Hebron. But notably he uses this as his profile picture:

He is also a fan of Hamas' Qassam Brigades:

And another photo of his gunslinging idols in Hamas:

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

"Heritage Festival" in Istanbul compares Jews to Crusaders in Jerusalem

Last night was the fifth "Our Heritage In Jerusalem is in Danger" festival in Turkey.

Thousands of people flocked to the Yahya Kemal theater in Istanbul to see examples of Jerusalem's culture, as well as hear preachers talk about the necessity to expel Jews from the holy city.

Clearly attempting to incite a religious war in front of the audience segregated between men and women, the speakers included Sheikh Kamal Khatib of the Islamic Movement in the territories. He said that as long as Jerusalem is not "smiling" with the absence of Jewish presence, then Cairo and Istanbul and Mecca and Medina cannot smile either.

He said, "The Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem was under Muslim rule since the beginning of Islam, with the exception of two periods, when it fell under occupation. The first time was during the Crusader occupation, and the second time since its occupation in 1967 at the hands of the Jews. ...Do you want to know why today's Arab rulers did not seek to liberate Jerusalem? Because they do not deserve the honor of the liberation of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa."

After insulting Egypt's president for choking off Gaza, Khatib said "The Crusader occupation lasted in Jerusalem for 90 years before it was forced to leave, and the Israeli occupation there has been for 47 years and it will be forced to leave."

It is notable that the focus on Jerusalem's culture not only ignored any mention of Judaism, of course, but also seems to have ignored anything about Arab culture in Jerusalem. The costumes shown all seem to be more Ottoman than Arab,

Jewish Voice for Peace says a terrorist has an "exemplary personal history"

Last week, Rasmea Odeh was convicted for immigration fraud for lying about having served time in Israeli prisons on her application to live in the US.

There is no question whatsoever that Odeh was behind the fatal bombing of a SuperSol market in 1969.

Yet there are many people, claiming to be "human rights activists," who consider the Jews she killed to be subhuman, since clearly the victims have no rights whatsoever, while the murderer Odeh is held up as a shining example of perfection.

The absurdity has reached a new peak with a letter sent to the courts by various groups asking for reconsideration of her being held without bond:

Dear Judge Drain:

On behalf of the National Lawyers Guild, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, National Students for Justice in Palestine, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, we write respectfully to request that the Court reconsider its denial of bond pending sentencing, which Ms. Rasmea Odeh requested pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3143(a)(1).

Ms. Odeh’s submissions in support of reconsideration are substantial and, we submit,
would surely sustain her burden of proof, if reconsidered:
...

Ms. Odeh has an exemplary personal history in all respects, except for the nonviolent
offense of making a false statement on her naturalization application.

Yes, these groups - including the doubly oxymoronically named "Jewish Voice for Peace" - are saying that a person who masterminded the planting of bombs in a supermarket to kill the largest number of Jewish civilians possible has "an exemplary personal history in all respects."

What exactly is Jewish, or peaceful, about whitewashing the crimes of someone who targeted and murdered Jews?

Here are the specific people who signed this letter:

s/ Azadeh Shahshahani, Esq., President
National Lawyers Guild
s/ Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director
Jewish Voice for Peace
s/ Maria LaHood, Esq., Senior Staff Attorney
Center for Constitutional Rights
s/ Samer Khalaf, Esq., National President
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
s/ Dima Khalidi, Esq., Executive Director
Palestine Solidarity Legal Support
s/ Andrew Dalack, Esq. [not yet admitted to practice]
Ad Hoc Steering Committee, National Students for Justice in Palestine

Between the justifications being given for murdering Jewish worshipers and those being given for Rasmea Odeh, this has been a month of moral clarity exposing the sheer hypocrisy of the anti-Israel crowd, whose "morals" are easily twisted any which way as long as they are against Israel.

(h/t Nurit Baytch)

Pro-Hamas "news" site says all bearded rabbis are legitimate targets

From the Facebook page of the Palestine Information Center, a Hamas mouthpiece:

According to this "logic," any rabbi - or indeed any religious Jew - is a legitimate target, because of their "teachings" supposedly to kill Arab children and to want Jews to have access to the Temple Mount.

Of course, these rabbis preached no such thing, but the fact that they are Jewish and religious seems to be the only criterion that the "pro-Palestinian" crowd needs before deciding that someone is deserving of death. Oh, and they have evil Joo-beards.

As usual, no Arabs complained about this antisemitic diatribe.

Then, when Jews did complain about the obvious antisemitism, the PIC writer accused them of - you guessed it - bigotry!

(h/t NormanF)

NYT on 1929 massacres of Jews: "More than 100 people on each side died"

Jodi Rudoren, in an absurd backgrounder for the current tensions over the Temple Mount, writes in the NYT:

The site has been a flash point since the advent of modern Zionism. More than 100 people on each side died in a week of rioting in 1929 over access to the Western Wall below.

Really? That's how the 1929 massacres are described?

The Arabs were killed by the British, not the Jews. And the Jews were massacred in the most horrendous ways. To equate the Jews being mutilated and raped to the rioting Arabs being shot by the British is obscene.

Here is how The Palestine Bulletin descibed the events of 1929. Read them and realize how sickening Jodi Rudoren's description is. Also note the many parallels between how the Arab terrorists acted then and how they are acting now in recent horrendous attacks.

Now read Rudoren's description again.

"Even-handedness" has reached a new low.

(h/t Ronald)

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.