Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, October 26, 2015

10/26 Links Pt2: Winning a Debate with an Israel-Hater; Rivlin: Rabin ordered us to defend Jerusalem

From Ian:

Legal Insurrection: Winning a Debate with an Israel-Hater

How to challenge anti-Israel extremists in your neighborhood or campus.
“It often happens in the middle of an otherwise pleasant day — you’re shopping, or walking across a college campus, and you encounter THEM. They’re holding signs that claim Israel is an “apartheid state” and charge Israel with committing “genocide” against Palestinians. They’re calling for boycotts against Israeli products, and divestment from companies that do business with Israel.
You know supporting Israel is the right thing to do. And you’re not alone. For decades, polls have shown a large plurality, usually a majority, of Americans back Israel. But here’s the problem: you don’t know how to respond – or if you even should – to these Israel haters.
This is an all-too-familiar sight, and has become more frequent in the past decade as Israel-bashing extremists have taken their hostility into the public square.
Their words don’t represent a simple disagreement with specific actions or policies of the Israeli government. Instead, they’re an open call for the elimination of the one country that shares American values in a region full of despots and anti-American fanatics. Simply put, they’re not just promoting a Palestinian state, they’re demanding that it replace the Jewish one.”
This is the opening of my new book, “Winning A Debate with an Israel-Hater“, published earlier this month by Shorehouse Books.

Rabin ‘ordered us’ to defend Jerusalem, Rivlin says at memorial

President Reuven Rivlin on Monday led the state tributes to Yitzhak Rabin, telling participants at a memorial service at Mount Herzl cemetery that the legacy of the slain prime minister was to “safeguard Jerusalem,” and that dividing it would be an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination, the president drove home the prime minister’s connection to his hometown and the city’s relevance.
“We are in the throes of a struggle in Jerusalem for Jerusalem, and Rabin [was] one of its great fighters and liberators,” Rivlin said, referring to the weeks of Palestinian unrest and violence against Israelis in the capital.
The memorial at Rabin’s grave site was attended by Rabin’s family and Israeli dignitaries, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Supreme Court President Miriam Naor.
“Rabin was the one who cleared our path to Jerusalem [in 1948], he’s the one who united Jerusalem for us [in 1967], and he’s the one who commanded us, the supporters and opponents of the Oslo [Peace Accords],” Rivlin said. “Today it’s clear to us all that we can’t continue to ignore East Jerusalem. We can’t continue to suppress its existence.”
Rivlin cited Rabin’s opening speech to the 13th Knesset in 1992, in which he said: “This Government, like all of its predecessors, believes there is no disagreement in this House concerning Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel. United Jerusalem has been and will forever be the capital of the Jewish People.”

Britain’s Former Chief Rabbi Tackles the Roots of Islamist Terror in New Book

An ominous shadow has swept across the Middle East and North Africa, leaving chaos and carnage in its wake. Mad men armed with Kalashnikovs and depraved convictions commit unspeakable acts – all safe in the knowledge that they are doing God’s work.
How the civilized world counters the Islamic State and its associates is the subject of Lord Jonathan Sacks’ timely new book, Not In God’s Name.
The former Chief Rabbi of Britain sees the battle against ISIS and similar groups as the defining conflict of the 21st century.
The frontline might be Syria and Iraq, but the battle is being fought everywhere and targets everyone — especially Jews.
In Europe, radical Islamists have spilled Jewish blood in Paris, Brussels, and Copenhagen in recent months. For Lord Sacks, Jews are the canaries in the cage. “The hate begins with Jews but never ends with them,” he says. “That’s why Jews must never be left to fight anti-Semitism alone. If it’s not safe to be a Jew in Europe today, it’s not safe to be a European in Europe today. Anti-Semitism is a sign of something larger and even more dangerous.”

Another disgusting incitement cartoon on @UNRWA teacher page

UNRWA teacher Mohamed Odeh posted this on his Facebook page:

The entire purpose is to incite.

By the way - guess who pays his salary?

This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

At the start of its “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,” the French National Assembly” (1789) declared: “All men are born and remain free and equal in rights … No person shall be molested for his opinions, even such as are religious, provided that the manifestation of these opinions does not disturb the public order established by the law”. Two years later, in 1791, the same body explicitly acknowledged the Jews as full citizens of the Republic, and, subsequently, in territories where the French Revolutionary armies proved victorious ghetto walls fell and the Jews were liberated in the name of the ideals of the French Republic. In 1806 Napoleon – reflecting the widespread contemporary continental view that Jews were benighted followers of an atavistic creed – convened a so-called Assembly of Jewish Notables, sometimes dubbed the Paris Sanhedrin, in order to satisfy himself, through their replies to a number of questions posed to them, that France’s Jews could adapt to modernity, were capable of assimilating (in the integrationist sense), and therefore merited equality.

Many if not most of Elder’s readers will, of course, be well aware of this episode in modern European history, but for those who don’t, or need reminding, let’s run through a few those questions – there were a dozen in all – and the answers given.

Question One: Is it lawful for Jews to marry more than one wife?

Answer: It is not lawful for Jews to marry more than one wife; in all European countries they conform to the general practice, marrying only one. Moses [the Lawgiver] does not command expressly to take several, but he does not forbid it. He seems even to adopt that custom as generally prevailing, since he settles the rights of inheritance between children of different wives. Although this practice still prevails in the East, yet their ancient doctors have enjoined them to refrain from taking more than one wife, except when the man is enabled by his fortune to maintain several. The case has been different in the West; the wish of adopting the customs of the inhabitants of this part of the world has induced the Jews to renounce polygamy. But as several individuals still indulged in that practice, a synod was convened at Worms in the eleventh century, composed of one hundred rabbis, with Gershom [of Mainz] at their head. This assembly pronounced an excommunication against every Israelite who should in future take more than one wife. Although this prohibition was not to last forever the influence of European mores has universally prevailed.

Question Two: Is divorce allowed by the Jewish religion? Is divorce valid when not pronounced by courts of justice by virtue of laws in contradiction with those of the French Code?

Answer: Repudiation is allowed by the Law of Moses, but is not valid if not previously pronounced by the French Code. In the eyes of every Israelite, without exception, submission to the prince is the first of duties. It is a principle generally acknowledged among them that in everything relating to civil or political interests the law of the state is the supreme law. Before they were admitted in France to share the rights of all citizens, and when they lived under a particular legislation which set them at liberty to follow their religious customs, they had the ability to divorce their wives, but it was extremely rare to see it put into practice. Since the Revolution they have acknowledged no other laws on this head but those of the Empire. At that juncture when they were admitted to the ranks of citizens, the rabbis and the principal Jews appeared before the municipalities of their respective dwelling places and took oaths to conform in everything to the laws and to recognize no other rules in all civil matters.

Question Four: In the eyes of Jews, are Frenchmen considered as their brethren? Or are they considered as strangers?

Answer: In the eyes of Jews Frenchmen are their brethren, and not strangers. The true spirit of the Law of Moses is compatible with this mode of considering Frenchmen. When the Israelites formed a settled and independent nation their law made it a rule for them to consider strangers as their brethren. With the tenderest care for their welfare, their Lawgiver commands to love them, “Love ye therefore the strangers,” says he to the Israelites, “for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” …. A religion whose fundamental tenets are such – a religion which makes a duty of loving the stranger … must surely require that its followers should consider their fellow-citizens as brethren. And how could they consider them otherwise when they inhabit the same land, when they are ruled and protected by the same government and by the same laws? When they enjoy the same rights, and have the same duties to fulfil? There exists, even between the Jew and Christian, a tie which abundantly compensates for religion – it is the ties of gratitude. This sentiment was at first excited in us by the mere grant of toleration. It has been increased these eighteen years by new favours from government, made to such a degree that now our fate is irrevocably linked with the common fate of all Frenchmen. Yes, France is our country, all Frenchmen are our brethren, and this glorious title, by raising up our own esteem, becomes a sure pledge that we shall never cease to be worthy of it.

I mention these particular questions, and their answers, because the scrutiny then applied to Judaism starkly contrasts with the attitude of “liberals” in France, and for that matter “liberals” elsewhere in Western Europe, regarding the large and growing Islamic presence in the continent. Just last week, French academic Guy Mollière – a warm and outspoken admirer of Israel – observed in a typically thoughtful and cogent article (http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6721/muslim-invasion-europe) – please read it! – that ‘Cultural identities in Europe have been eroded to such a point that saying that Europe is based on Judeo-Christian values has become controversial. Any criticism of Islam in Europe is treated as a form of racism, and "Islamophobia" is considered a crime or a sign of mental illness. Islam has not melted into a smooth multiculturalism; it is creating increasingly distressing problems that are almost never brought to light.’

The Gatestone Institute’s publications contain many examples of such “distressing problems” that European elites prefer to ignore, not only problems that impact adversely on Jews, Christians, and state welfare systems themselves, but on women. The Swedish journalist Ingrid Carlquist, for instance, has written often of the blind eye turned by her country’s authorities towards sexual crimes against Swedish women committed by Muslim immigrants. A recent article (http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6753/germany-migrants-demands) describes, inter alia, the despicable, male supremacist contempt for German women, including professionals trying to help them, displayed by Muslim arrivals in Germany.

As for polygamy, what Napoleon was not prepared to tolerate in Jews is being tolerated by supine governments throughout Western Europe, so long as it’s only Muslims who have more than one spouse. These polygamous unions, with all that they portend for the demography of the continent (some Muslim men in Britain, and no doubt in other foolish lands, have 20 children!), are made possible by the welfare payments paid to ostensibly single parent households (the households of the surplus wives). In Britain, several members of the House of Lords are currently warning of the horrendous effects of polygamy and of the discrimination suffered by Muslim women by sharia courts. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11952163/Muslim-men-having-20-children-each-because-of-polygamy-peer-claims.html).

“The Influence of European Mores Has Universally Prevailed”. O, the bitter, bitter irony!

10/26 Links Pt1: Jerusalem mufti denies Temple Mount ever housed Jewish shrine

From Ian:

Jerusalem mufti denies Temple Mount ever housed Jewish shrine

The grand mufti of Jerusalem, the Muslim cleric in charge of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, said Sunday that there has never been a Jewish temple atop the Temple Mount, and that the site has been home to a mosque “since the creation of the world.”
Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein said in an Arabic interview with Israel’s Channel 2 that the site, considered the third holiest in Islam and the holiest to Jews, was a mosque “3,000 years ago, and 30,000 years ago” and has been “since the creation of the world.”
“This is the Al-Aqsa Mosque that Adam, peace be upon him, or during his time, the angels built,” the mufti said of the 8th-century structure commissioned by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.
Hussein has held the post of mufti since 2006; he was appointed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He has previously endorsed suicide bombings against Israelis.
He vehemently denied that there has ever been a Jewish shrine atop the Temple Mount, despite rich archaeological and textual evidence to the contrary, including from Muslim sources. The 10th-century Muslim historian Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Shams al-Din al-Muqaddasi wrote in his description of Syria and Palestine that “in Jerusalem is the oratory of David and his gate; here are the wonders of Solomon and his cities,” and that the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque “were laid by David.”

PMW: PA street named after murderer who stabbed 2 Israeli civilians to death

Terrorist Muhannad Halabi stabbed and murdered 2 Israelis, Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Bennett, and injured Bennett's wife, Adele, and their 2-year-old son in the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 3, 2015. Palestinian Media Watch has reported that Abbas' advisor honored him for these murders, that Abbas' Fatah movement even brought holy soil from the Al-Aqsa Mosque to his grave and that the PA Bar Association chose to honor Halabi by posthumously awarding him an honorary law degree.
As an additional honor, the municipality where the murderer lived has decided to name a street after him. "This is in order to honor Halabi, who carried out a stabbing and shooting operation (i.e., terror attack) against settlers in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem," the independent Palestinian news agency Donia Al-Watan reported. [Oct. 14, 2015]
"This is the least we can do for Martyr Halabi," Mayor Muhammad Hussein stated about the glorification of the killer, and went on to say that naming the street after him is "intended to emphasize the national role played by municipalities."
Wanting to honor the murderer further, the municipality of Surda-Abu Qash suggested that the mourning "take place in a municipality building, as Halabi is a pride and badge of honor for the whole village."

Gregg Roman on the 'Inextricable Connection' between Islamists and Hitler

Middle East Forum director Gregg Roman appeared alongside Mouin Rabbani, a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies, and Sakarya University professor Norman Finkelstein on Al-Jazeera English on October 22 to discuss Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial statement that Palestinian Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini contributed to Nazi planning of the Holocaust.
Moderator: Gregg, do you think Netanyahu expected such a backlash?
Gregg Roman: No, but I also think there were several points in Netanyahu's speech that were not factually accurate, like Mr. Finkelstein said. For instance, he said the mufti died in Cairo in 1974 from cancer. He actually died in Beirut. But I think the real element of what we have to look at here regarding the mufti's involvement, not just with the Holocaust but [with] Palestinian and Arab incitement against Jews, is the history of the mufti's meetings with Hitler.
In February 1941, an invitation was extended from Hitler to the mufti in Jerusalem [to come to] Berlin. The meeting didn't take place until November 28, 1941. This is all available in the German foreign record ... The mufti and Hitler met in Berlin. There were four agreements that came to be. And of those agreements, one would be the use of the mufti's propaganda trying to rally Arabs in coming for a Middle Eastern Holocaust that was going to be planned. And this is also part of the historical record.

10 Things to Know About the Latest Wave of Palestinian Terror

The current state of affairs in Israel is full of lessons and truths. The sooner we learn them, the ‎sooner we can stop the attacks.‎
‎1. We can stop feeling guilty‎.
A few good things have come out of the recent wave of terror in the streets of ‎Israel. The first is that the facade that jihadis are somehow struggling for self-determination, ‎social justice, or any other noble idea has been unmasked. It is clear to us now that, unlike what ‎we’ve been urged to believe for the last 30 years, jihadis don’t want peace. They want to ‎annihilate Jews, Judaism, and the State of Israel. This is great news. Because once the ‎pretense is dropped, we stop falling for it and begin unloading the guilty feeling that we are at ‎fault for everything. We drop the idea, for example, that building in Jerusalem or Judea is causing this war. Those few ‎voices who still try to blame the victims sound delusional and their ideas are being debunked. At ‎the same time, there is a realization that within Israel is a hostile minority that simply ‎does not accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state. Clarity is forming, and it will lead to victory.‎
‎2. The Jewish fighting spirit is back‎.
The second good thing is that the Jewish fighting spirit is back on the streets. Men and women, ‎old and young, are responding to terror with defiance. Pepper spray, rolling pins, umbrellas, ‎selfie sticks, kicks, fists, running, and especially shooting — Israelis are shooting bad guys (and ‎gals). Yes, there have been some horrific videos of Jews being gouged as though we’re back in ‎a medieval Polish countryside. But even in those videos, soon enough, a gun-toting Jew ‎vanquishes the jihadi zombie. We don’t cower and shriek as they wish we would, and it ‎demoralizes them. Our people’s healthy fighting instincts have (amazingly) not been ‎corrupted by the media, or by the ideology of weakness. Remember: Fighting back is good, so ‎stay tactical out there, folks!‎

The Mufti with the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood

Amid the new spotlight on the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husayni, few are looking to see how his fellow Muslims besides Palestinians view him.

The answer? The Mufti was a pioneer of modern jihad.

A biography written about him by Hosni Adham Jarrar in 1987 was entitled "Haj Amin al-Husseini / Pioneer and Champion of the cause of Jihad."

A book review from 2004, when a new edition was published, says "The Mujahid was one of the few in Palestine and the Arab and Islamic countries who knew the Jews for what they are." It also emphasizes that the Mufti's speeches were always using the terminology of Jihad against the Jews and later the British.

The Muslim Brotherhood Wiki also has an entry for the Mufti as a seminal modern jihadist. It says that "carried the banner of holy jihad against the Jewish usurpers." It details his relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, especially when he fled to Cairo in 1946.

Another online biography emphasizes the jihadist nature of the Mufti, saying that he was explicit in using Jihadist terminology when raising funds to fight the Jews, creating "an extensive campaign across Egypt to collect donations for the Mujahideen of Palestine under the name "Push Pounds to Palestine."

The Mufti was the one person to integrate Nazism with modern Jihadism, the effects of which we are all witnessing today.

From The Guardian:

Binyamin Netanyahu has said he hopes an agreement to maintain the status quo on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem will reduce tensions that have triggered serious violence in recent weeks, but Palestinian leaders quickly dismissed a plan to install security cameras in the al-Aqsa mosque.

The Israeli prime minister told cabinet colleagues on Sunday that a statement agreed with the US and Jordan affirmed that there would be no changes to longstanding rules about access for Jews to the ever sensitive religious compound – al-Haram al-Sharif for Muslims and Har HaBayit for Jews – in occupied East Jerusalem.
...
Riyad al-Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, told the Voice of Palestine that the plan was a trap, because Israel would use video footage to arrest Muslim worshippers it claims are inciting against it.

Reuters' reporting of Maliki's words was similar.

But the PA's Foreign Minister said much more than that.

A statement from his office railed against "allegations of the existence of the right of Jews in Al-Aqsa Mosque" and said that by Netanyahu allowing Jews to visit, without praying, it "confirms his determination to enforce a temporal partition of Al-Aqsa Mosque...in its commitment to have constant visits by non-Muslims to the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, which means clearly the continuation of the extremist Jewish groups daily visits to the mosque."

Nabil Shaath, member of the Central Committee of the Fatah, also said that any solution must not allow "Jewish extremists and settlers" from visiting the site, meaning it must be free of Jews altogether.

According to the PA government, the "status quo" for the Temple Mount means the status of the area under Jordanian occupation. It is pure racism not to allow Jews to visit simply because they are Jews.

But the media will not mention that. They will mention that Palestinian Arab leaders are against cameras, but they will never say that they are against Jews, even when they say that explicitly in Arabic.

PA security forces explicitly allow firebombing, stoning and stabbing Jews

From the NYT:

Here in El-Bireh and at other frequent flash points, Palestinian forces no longer try to prevent protesters from heading toward Israeli checkpoints and watchtowers. Instead, plainclothes officers just watch for instigators and weapons beyond stones and firebombs.

Uniformed troops take positions on nearby hills, where they can observe developments and spot potential gunmen while remaining unseen by the crowds.

“We are not standing at the D.C.O. checkpoint to spy on our people and write their names down,” said one intelligence officer, referring to the checkpoint on the outskirts of El-Bireh, where protests have raged throughout the month. He spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing government protocol.

He said the forces were under orders to ensure that protesters did not open fire at soldiers, because it would prompt a harsher response.

Mahmoud Abbas, purported peacemaker, believes that his people can stab and stone and firebomb Israelis, but they mustn't start shooting soldiers.

When they allow people to approach checkpoints, that means that they know that stabbings will occur. In fact, one reason that the stabbings at checkpoints has increased seems to be this decision. Which means that the PA made a decision to allow their own people to be killed, to stoke more rage.

And the reason isn't because of any morality or ethics,but simply because he knows that Israel would respond more forcefully to shootings and that would threaten him personally.

Here's the latest "peaceful" image from Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Facebook page, with the hashtag "Jerusalem Wrath."

Abbas isn't trying to calm things down. He's trying to be seen as a leader of an intifada without major consequences.

Fatah group celebrates every stabbing

While the world continues to believe Mahmoud Abbas is trying to stop the violence, his Fatah group continues to incite and celebrate.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade - Nidal Brigades are ecstatic every time they hear about a stabbing.

The stabbing attack on a Jew who was moderately wounded in Ariel on Sunday is called a "heroic operation."

A similar attack in Gush Etzion on Sunday is being followed closely.

They especially like to find photos of Jewish blood.

Then again, the site also refers to Kalashnikov as an example of "modern Palestinian heritage."

Perhaps they can insist that UNESCO recognizes their heritage of Kalashnikovs.

Antisemitic cartoon - and Al Aqsa incitement - from UNRWA teacher

From the Facebook page of UNRWA teacher Lubna Habrumman:

The Arab world is worshipping Western money while the stereotypical Jew steals the Dome of the Rock.

John V. Whitbeck is a lawyer who has advised the PLO. He is openly anti-Zionist, and is on the record as believing that 9/11 was an "inside job." He also has said that Jews in Israel should be encouraged to move to other countries so Arabs can take over.

Naturally, Arab media outlets love an American-born supposed international law expert. (So does France24, where he is a frequent guest.)

He writes for Ma'an:

This comfortable situation for Jewish Israelis, with the occupation being essentially free of costs and even inconvenience, must change. It could change either through nonviolent economic and political pressure sustained by the Western world or through violent insecurity sustained by the occupied Palestinian people.

European states could apply meaningful and intensifying economic sanctions to Israel until it complies with international law and relevant UN resolutions and withdraws fully from occupied Palestine. Simultaneously, European states could apply strict visa regulations to all Israelis, requiring those seeking to visit Europe to provide clear documentary evidence that they neither live nor work in occupied Palestine.

In light of the years that the European Union has spent agonizing over even properly labeling the produce of illegal settlements sold in Europe, there can be scant optimism that European politicians will soon see it as in their personal interests to play such a principled and constructive nonviolent role.

Unfortunately, that leaves only violent insecurity. While one cannot advocate violence against civilians, one can nevertheless hope that such violence as does occur is limited in nature and produces constructive results. The current low-tech, knives-and-screwdrivers violence, producing a great deal of fear and anxiety but relatively few Jewish Israeli fatalities, may be the most effective and lowest-cost form of violence capable of producing the essential change in Jewish Israeli perceptions of their own interests.

If seemingly random and unpredictable attacks on Jewish Israelis were to continue for a significant period of time, they just might cause a critical mass of Jewish Israelis to conclude that perpetual occupation and oppression are not, in fact, the best of all possible worlds for them and that the quality of their lives would be enhanced by ending the occupation and permitting the Palestinian people to enjoy the same freedom and human dignity – whether in two states or in one – that Jewish Israelis demand for themselves.

Yes, this international lawyer has just written his official justification for terrorism. But only the type of terrorism that he approves, that gets the proper results.

You have to break a few eggs, or kill a few Jews, to make a really delicious omelet.

Whitbeck doesn't think it is worth mentioning that many of the attacks are happening within the Green Line. He doesn't seem to think that perhaps the wave of attacks is forcing Israelis to re-evaluate whether Palestinian Arabs could ever be a peace partner, and is pushing them to the right.

Which means, in Whitbeck's bizarre worldview, if Israelis are too stubborn to give in to terror as he demands, then the terror will have to be ratcheted up, and up again, until they realize that they must do the right thing that the murderers want them to do. Because "occupation" is a far worse evil than murdering lots and lots of Jews.

Whitbeck is a truly disgusting person.

10/25 Links: Greasing the wheels of hate; 'Pro-Israel' J Street says Jews not indigenous to Israel'

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Unwanted guest

The decision by South Africa’s ruling ANC Party to host a Hamas delegation last week should have aroused shock and dismay among countries truly committed to achieving a more peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians than is currently the case. Instead, the silence was deafening.
South African President Jacob Zuma chose to meet with Khaled Mashaal, the leader of the Gaza-based terrorist organization that openly declares its intention to establish an Islamic state upon the ruins of the State of Israel.
As Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote in a letter to Zuma, “This meeting serves to legitimize Hamas, an unabashed terrorist organization, whose ultimate goal is the establishment of an Islamic Palestinian state through the violent destruction of the State of Israel.” Indeed, during the current wave of Palestinian violence in Israel, Hamas has called for an escalation of attacks against Israelis, including reportedly suicide bombings, and has publicly cheered terrorist attacks that have killed and wounded Israeli civilians.
“The reception of Hamas by the leader of South Africa and its ruling party gives official legitimacy to this terrorist, pro-violence, anti-peace, anti-Semitic organization,” the ADL said.
“This meeting will likely be seen as an act of hostility towards Israel, and create significant discomfort and apprehension among South Africa’s Jewish community.”

'Pro-Israel' J Street says Jews not indigenous to Israel'

It would seem to be a fairly basic principle for a pro-Israel organization to accept: that the Jewish people is an indigenous nation to the Land of Israel.
Not so for J Street and several other self-defined "liberal Zionist" organizations.
At the World Zionist Congress last week, a proposal entitled “Recognition of the Jewish People as Indigenous to the Land of Israel” was proposed by LAVI, a relatively small but active group of newcomers to the World Zionist Organization's legislative body.
While it seemed to be stating the obvious, the authors of the bill emphasized that expressing the principle of Jewish indigenous status in such clear terms was necessary to "answer... the core anti-Israel accusation that Jews are foreign colonialists in the country and instead affirms that the Jewish people have indigenous rights to live in their ancestral home."
But instead of receiving the unanimous support one might expect, the proposal faced dogged and determined opposition from J Street and other liberal factions - much to the incredulity of its supporters.
Making the opposition all the more bizarre was the fact that the bill clearly expressed that it does not necessarily "does not negate the indigenous status of any other people."

Bibi’s critics must not commit ‘Mufti denial’

Those who claim that Bibi singled out the Mufti from among hundreds of Nazi fellow-travellers and antisemites to ‘delegitimise’ the Palestinian cause ‘for political gain’ are engaging in ‘Mufti denial’.
How many antisemites went as far as the Mufti and recruited tens of thousands of Muslims to his three SS Bosnian Muslim divisions? They committed crimes so unspeakable that Yugoslavia demanded that the Mufti be indicted at the Nuremberg trials. According to Dr. Yosef Sharvit, the Mufti was even considered a greater Nazi criminal than Adolf Eichmann.
The failure of the Allies to bring the Mufti to trial meant that the Arab world was never de-nazified. Instead, 2,000 Nazi war criminals were given shelter in the Arab world, there to take antisemitism to stratospheric heights.
Antisemitism is not a by-product of the Arab-Israeli conflict: it has deep ideological roots. The Mufti’s alliance with the Nazis and with the German-funded Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, was not a mere matter of anti-colonial expediency. Their legacy of religious bigotry is still with us today, in the beheadings committed by Da’esh in Iraq and in the stabbings on Israel’s streets.
Some good may come out of the current controversy: more people may be moved to focus on the Mufti’s hugely significant role, a role that academia and the media have hitherto been inclined to ignore or downplay.

I feel reasonably certain that there is not a single individual on the planet today under more intense political pressure than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

If the guy blinks in the rain he gets smacked around from people throughout the world for not doing it correctly. I have never seen such persistent malice directed toward a western-style political figure. I am not even sure that Richard Nixon received this kind of unending abuse... even at the hands of Hunter S. Thompson. And, the thing of it is, what terrible crimes can you really lay at the guy's feet?

The man started no wars. Even last summer's strangely named Operation Protective Edge was a response to thousands of rocket attacks into southern Israel that went on for years without international complaint. His older brother, Yoni, was the lead in the elite Israeli army commando unit Sayeret Matkal that stormed Entebbi, Uganda, saving all those kidnapped people, and the only Israeli to have died in that operation. This makes Benjamin Netanyahu the younger brother not only of an Israeli national hero, but of a Jewish national hero, as well.

Now there is hysteria because he had the audacity to suggest that it was the Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem that convinced Hitler to slaughter the Jews.

The fact of the matter is that that the Mufti was all in favor of slaughtering the Jews in the Middle East to the very last man, woman, and child, unless they were willing to submit to Muslim rule, perhaps even then.

University of Maryland historian, Jeffrey Herf, has some words:

In his now famous comments at the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem on October 20th, Netanyahu claimed that Haj Amin al-Husseini convinced Hitler to change his anti-Jewish policy from one of expulsion to one of extermination.

“Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time [of the meeting between the mufti and the Nazi leader]. He wanted to expel the Jews,” Netanyahu said. “And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here [to mandatory Palestine],’” continued the prime minister. “‘So what should I do with them?’ He [Hitler] asked,” according to Netanyahu. “He [Husseini] said, ‘Burn them.’”

In the Knesset in 2012, the Prime Minister asserted that Husseini “was one of the leading architects of the Final Solution,” and that “he, more than anybody else, convinced [Hitler] to execute the Final Solution, and not let the Jews leave [Europe]. Because, God forbid, they would come here. Rather that they would be annihilated, burned, there.”

Jeffrey Herf is an important historian of Nazi Germany and he denies that the Mufti convinced Hitler to exterminate the Jews rather than deport them.

Herf is one of the prominent scholars, along with Matthias Küntzel and Paul Berman, among a few others, that is analyzing the connection between Nazi ideology and the rise of Islamic Jihadism in the twentieth-century via organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and their little off-spring such as Hamas and the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL). What he suggests is that Netanyahu overreached in an effort to "push back against efforts to diminish Husseini’s role as a collaborator and ideological soulmate with Nazi Germany."

As far as I am concerned, good for Netanyahu. It was the Mufti who screamed for Jewish blood in the 1920s for "defiling" al-Aqsa, just as the filthy-footed dictator Abbas does today.

Herf assures us that "while (the Mufti) agreed with Hitler about fundamental ideological issues, he was in no position to have a major influence on decision-making about German policy toward the Jews in Europe."

Nonetheless, Mohammed Effendi Amin al-Husseini, the Nazi Mufti, was important to Hitler's plans in carrying out the Final Solution in the Land of Israel and throughout the Middle East. Hitler's intention was to hand the baton over to Husseini once the Axis powers defeated the Allies in the Middle East.

In his self-defense Netanyahu said this:

My intention was not to absolve Hitler of his responsibility, but rather to show that the forefathers of the Palestinian nation, without a country and without the so-called ‘occupation’, without land and without settlements, even then aspired to systematic incitement to exterminate the Jews.

Netanyahu is correct.

This is not a war over land rights. This is not even a war wherein both sides desire to fight one another. The Jews do not want this fight and are willing to share the tiny Jewish homeland. The Jews in Israel are far more interested in creating computer software, medical technology, good food, unnecessary litigation, and Natalie Portmans, than they are in trying to stave off violently-crazed, Koranically-obsessed Arabs.

Herf notes:

The lies that Mahmoud Abbas and others have told in recent weeks about Israel’s supposed desire to somehow infringe on the rights of Muslims to pray at the Al Aksa Mosque have their origins in lies that are now at least 75 years old.

It goes on and on and on and on.

Mahmoud Abbas tells Israeli-Arabs - as Arafat did before him and as the Mufti did before him - that Jews want to conquer Al-Aqsa... which is, frankly, looking more and more like a perfectly dandy idea, if you ask me. In the 1920s, as they have done every decade, they draw the knives against old Jewish women and 13 year old Jewish boys on bicycles. One of the Mufti's major contributions toward the persecution and murder of the Jews during the Holocaust, aside from encouraging the British exclusion of Jews from "Palestine" with the White Paper of 1939, was his war time radio broadcasts in Arabic throughout the Middle East, calling on his fellow Arabs to launch themselves upon head-chopping sprees against their Jewish neighbors.

As Caroline Glick notes in an article for the Jerusalem Post entitled, Crazy like a fox:

Husseini used his position as well to scuttle British attempts to trade German prisoners of war for Jews. In one such documented episode, in 1943 Husseini appealed to SS commander Heinrich Himmler to cancel a deal to exchange 4,500 Jewish children and 500 Jewish adults from Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria to cancel the deal and send the Jews to Auschwitz.

Himmler bowed to his appeal. The Jews were sent to the gas chambers.

Glick also speculates that Netanyahu's gaffe may have been anything but:

Due to his “gaffe,” every Western media outlet reported on Husseini’s actions. Some even mentioned that in his PhD dissertation, current Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the Holocaust was both a myth and a joint Zionist-Nazi project. For most Westerners, this is the first they’ve heard of the fact that the Palestinian’s George Washington was a Nazi war criminal.

Like I said, crazy as a fox.

Whatever Netanyahu's intentions, people must be made to understand that the roots of the Palestinian National Movement are fascistic, violently anti-Semitic, and deeply influenced not only by Koranically-based hatred toward Jews, but also by forms of early-mid twentieth-century anti-Jewish racism of the type that the Nazis excelled at and spread into the Arab world.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Arafat's uncle and the father of Palestinian-Arab nationalism, may not have convinced Hitler to undertake the Holocaust in Europe, but he was an enthusiastic supporter of the project and hoped to import not Jews, but the Holocaust, itself, into the Middle East.

If the Palestinian-Arabs had gotten their way during World War II there would be very few Jews left in this world. There are, in fact, very few Jews left in the world as it is, mainly due to Muslim and European racist efforts to trim Jewish numbers over the course of many centuries.

There are somewhere around thirteen to fourteen million Jewish souls worldwide, today. If the Mufti had his way there would be none of us left and this is the "George Washington", as Glick puts it, of the Palestinian National Movement.

The man was a racist and a murderer and his followers were Nazis.

Whatever Netanyahu may have gotten wrong, he certainly has that right.

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.

Fatah English message exact opposite of Arabic (poster)

Hypocrisy from Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party:

Source for English
Source for Arabic plus this
Arabic text: "Jerusalem's rage" #Jerusalem's rage
Fatah - Palestinian National Liberation Movement
The Commission of Mobilization and Organization

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Some crude propaganda from the official Facebook page of Fatah (detail):

To illustrate "Israel," they choose Bibi, Yehuda Glick - who was nearly assassinated for demanding Jews have equal rights on the Temple Mount - and three generic Orthodox Jews.

As always, the minority of haredim are used to represent Israelis. Because, despite their protests that they have nothing against Jews, their entire hatred for Israel is based on the fact that they hate Jews. Nothing has changed in over 100 years,

The funny part is that their own photos of their heroes on the same Facebook page resemble the ISIS member pictured here a lot more than any Jews do.

Like this:

And this image supporting stabbing Jews:

And this:

The Sunday Times (UK) and IBT report on @UNRWA hate and incitement

The pressure is mounting on UNRWA and Chris Gunness to be more open about their big incitement and antisemitism problem.

From The Sunday Times (UK, paywalled):

A UN agency that runs schools and social services for Palestinians is facing calls to sack employees using social media to celebrate attacks on Israelis.

Facebook posts by UN staff have included photographs showing blood- drenched knives held by Palestinian men and women in keffiyeh scarves, throwing stones at Israel’s defence forces.

Almost two dozen UN employees have been exposed for publishing their support for a recent bout of stabbing attacks by Palestinians that targeted Israelis.

UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog, has called on the body, United Nations relief and works agency (Unrwa), to dismiss those who have posted the hate-filled messages.

Hillel Neuer, the director of UN Watch, said incitement to hatred, particularly by teachers, would only contribute to violence in the Middle East. He called on the UN to demonstrate that it would not turn a blind eye to racism among its staff.

“Governments that fund Unrwa would not tolerate this behaviour,” he said. “We have submitted screen shots of postings by 22 individuals, including by teachers, advocating the stabbing of Jews, and we don’t know what action is being taken against them.”

The UN conceded last week that some of those on its payroll had faced disciplinary action for violating the organisation’s rules on social media.

However, it also added that more than 90 “imposter Facebook pages” had been wrongly attributed to its staff by critics.

There are no figures for the number of staff involved in disciplinary action or the type of punishments meted out.

Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for Unwra, said one account identified by Neuer was attributed to a school in Syria that no longer existed and the former staff were no longer on the UN payroll.

“The school in question, because of the war, had long ceased to be an Unrwa school. It was that specific story that I called out as false,” Gunness told The Sunday Times.

“I am in no way defending staff who are found . . . to have violated neutrality rules. We are taking these allegations seriously and staff who are found to violate UN neutrality will be reprimanded.”

A total of 10 Israelis have been murdered in stabbing attacks and 49 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 27 said to be attackers. One suspected attacker was shot dead yesterday by the Israeli military at a Jerusalem checkpoint.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, met Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II yesterday as part of attempts to defuse the crisis.

Kerry secured backing for new rules on access to the Temple Mount, the holy site for Muslims and Jews at the heart of the crisis.

US congressional sources said the State Department had cut $80m (£52m) from its $370m economic grant to the Palestinian Authority to send a message that incitement could not be condoned.

The International Business Times also reported on the story.

I have been wondering why there are supposedly so many "imposter pages." Why are so many people supposedly pretending to be UNRWA teachers?

Here's someone I identified as an UNRWA teacher last month, Jordanian Emad Sbeihat. He posted pro-terror photos and an antisemitic cartoon.

Now, his Facebook page no longer identifies him as associated with UNRWA. No job is listed now.

However, his posts indicate that he still works at UNRWA. He recently linked to an UNRWA memo about school canteen, for example, and to posts from an UNRWA school in Jordan that he probably works for. He has posted announcements to protest the potential delay of UNRWA school year last August. And he has photos from within classrooms.

All while he posts "God curse the Jews and Zionists."

All evidence points to Sbeihat still working for UNRWA, but being forced to hide it on his Facebook "About" page. And he does not seem to be the only one.

Meaning that UNRWA is still trying to sweep the problem under the rug.

(h/t UK Media Watch)