Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

12/30 Links Pt1:US Spied on Israel, Congressmen; Fatah to kids: Water the ground "with blood"

From Ian:

US spied on Netanyahu during Iran deal talks, WSJ reports

The U.S. administration continued to spy on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even after U.S. President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would curtail the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program on friendly heads of state, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The NSA's foreign eavesdropping included phone conversations between top Israeli officials and U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing current and former U.S. officials.
White House officials believed the intercepted information could be valuable to counter Netanyahu's campaign against the nuclear deal with Iran, according to the unnamed officials cited by the Journal.
According to the report, NSA eavesdropping suggested to the White House that Netanyahu and his advisers had leaked details of the U.S.-Iran negotiations, which they learned through Israeli spying operations.
The Journal reported that the NSA's "targeting of Israeli leaders and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups."
Asked for comment on the Journal report, a White House National Security Council spokesman said: "We do not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose. This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike."

Israel: We don’t spy on US, and expect US not to spy on us

Intelligence and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz on Wednesday maintained that Israel does not spy on the US and said it expects Washington to uphold the same standards.
The Likud minister was responding to a report in The Wall Street Journal that said the White House instructed US spies to eavesdrop on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials earlier this year in an effort to counter campaigning against the Iran nuclear deal, despite having promised to curtail listening in on foreign leaders.
The National Security Agency’s spying dragnet was cast so wide it caught conversations Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders had with US officials and Jewish American leaders. This led to what one source called an “oh shit moment,” because of fears that “the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress,” according to the report.
“Israel does not spy on the US, and we expect that our great friend, the US, will treat us in a similar fashion,” Katz told the Ynet news website. “If the information on the subject turns out to be true, Israel must file a formal protest with the American government and demand it stop all activities of this kind.”
Nonetheless, Israel’s former ambassador the US Michael Oren said Wednesday that Israel assumes that the US, and others, attempt to spy on it. “It’s not very nice, but that is the assumption,” Oren, now a Kulanu MK, said on Channel 2.
If he had something absolutely confidential that he had to convey to the prime minister, Oren added, “I got on a plane.”

LISTENING IN: Congress reportedly caught up in NSA spying on Israelis

According to the paper, the enhanced monitoring of Netanyahu began, with the assent of lawmakers from both parties, late in Obama's first term out of concerns that the Israeli leader would pursue a preemptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.
The sweeping up of conversations between Israeli officials and U.S. lawmakers began in earnest earlier this year, ahead of a March visit to Capitol Hill by Netanyahu to speak out against the developing Iran nuclear deal, and continued through this past September, when the deadline for Congress to block the deal passed.
The Journal, citing U.S. officials, reported that Netanyahu's office repeatedly attempted to learn details about changes in U.S. positions during the sensitive nuclear talks. Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Ron Derner, was described as coaching unnamed Jewish- American groups to press members of Congress, especially Democrats, to oppose the deal.

A new definition of "Israel Firster"

A very insightful post at OpenDemocracy from a dovish Israeli, Efraim Perlmutter, who is now a teacher at a Bedouin high school:

About twelve years ago I participated in a conference in Cyprus that was co-sponsored by an American and Spanish NGO. The conference brought together Israeli and Palestinian educators to discuss introducing peace-oriented study in their respective school curricula.

We were all asked to bring material relating to peace already in use, which would be reviewed and from which either side could borrow creative ideas. Palestinian educators had no such material so the time at the conference was spent reviewing Israeli material.

During a discussion about, if I remember correctly, problems of teaching peace in the classroom, one of the Palestinian teachers raised an issue that was quite unexpected by the conference sponsors, and by me for that matter. She, being a Christian Arab from Jerusalem, expressed discouragement at the increasing gap between Christians and Muslims within the Palestinian community. As a lifelong Palestinian nationalist she was disturbed by the fact that her teenage son had more in common with Israeli teenagers that he met on the beach in Tel Aviv than he did with Muslim Palestinian teenagers who were his lifelong neighbors.

After she had expressed her concerns the room went dead silent. It seemed to me that we all recognized that the discussion had taken a sudden turn in a direction that could easily lead the entire conference into an orgy of mutual recrimination, which was definitely not the intention of the organizers nor the participants.

The silence was broken when one of the other Arab participants announced that the problem was obviously caused by “the occupation”. No one, including me, contradicted him. We were all just relieved that the comment gave us an avenue of escape back to the subject of educating for peace.

I recalled this incident when reading a recent opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post about “honor” killings in Israeli Arab society. The author made some valid points but couldn’t help writing, “The government is also responsible for the fact that the unnecessary occupation has caused bloodshed to become a routine and everyday occurrence for Israel’s Arab community.”

One again, the “occupation” allows problems in Arab society, like an unwanted foundling, to be placed at Israel’s doorstep. To the author’s credit, after genuflecting to “the occupation” a pretty good analysis of the phenomenon of the murder of women in the Israeli Arab community followed.

When I first began commenting on articles here at openDemocracy, I was motivated to answer a writer who contended that the State of Israel had intentionally opened the flood gates on one of its dams in order to flood some villages in Gaza.

The article was simply one of many examples where Palestinian leadership misfeasance brought tribulations to Palestinians that were blamed on the Israelis. I have come to refer to such observers as “Israel Firsters”.

The first time I saw the term “Israel Firster” it was used as an anti-Semitic canard by a writer in reference to the alleged dual loyalty of all Jews to their countries of residence and to the State of Israel, with the latter taking precedence.

I have also seen “Israel Firster” used to describe American neo-cons and others of the Jewish faith or Jewish ethnicity. Despite its unfortunate prejudicial origins it seems to me that the term quite accurately describes Jews, Christians, Muslims, Arabs, Europeans and all others who blame the problems and misfortunes of Palestinians (and others) on Israel first. This has had a detrimental effect mostly on Palestinians because it has retarded valid criticism of Palestinian leadership which might have motivated them to do a better job for the Palestinian people. Instead “Israel Firsters” have had the effect of letting Palestinian leadership off the hook, allowing them to go on their way extracting what they can from the situation for their own personal benefit.

For the past few months we (Israelis and Palestinians) have experienced a wave of terrorist attacks mainly on civilian targets. These have mostly been knifings but have also included using vehicles and guns as weapons. For the most part the attackers have been young people, including a few pre-teens, who are inspired to express their nationalism by killing random passersby on the streets. Most of the attackers have been killed in the act, glorified as “shaheed” (martyr) and have become part of the pantheon of Palestinian heroes.

“Israel Firsters” reflexively blame the actions of these young terrorists on “the occupation”. I would suggest that the absence of peace education in most Palestinian Authority schools may have something to do with the motivation of these young people to kill and be killed. A recent article on openDemocracy about reforming education in Egypt, in my opinion, has a great deal of relevance for the Palestinian educational system.

Until Palestinian schools seriously engage in educating for peace rather than glorifying conflict, waves of youthful suicidal terrorism should not be unexpected whether or not “the occupation” continues.

This is similar to the point I have made in the past that many people have "occupation glasses" where everything Israel does, good or bad, is filtered through those lenses.

It isn't just the "absence of peace education in most Palestinian Authority schools" that causes the problem, it is the open incitement to murder in Palestinian schools and on TV and in music videos.

An exchange between exactly one of the people Perlmutter describes and himself is instructive as well:

Michael Hess: Obviously this place has little to do with "democracy" and quite a bit to do with defending Apartheid Israel. It's ironic how you don't even realize that you are carrying on the Israel Firster tradition. The one that says no matter what Israel does, it's the victim's fault, the Palestinians.

Efraim: Every political leader, whether dealing at the international or domestic level, is dealt a set of cards which are almost never equal to the cards dealt his opponent. The success or failure of political leaders usually depends on the value of the cards they are dealt and the skill with which they play their hand. It is my opinion that the Palestinian leadership have mostly overplayed their hand and have, as a consequence, done poorly. In part because observers like you cannot bring yourselves to criticize the Palestinian leadership which remains unaccountable for their failures. Instead you contend that everything is Israel's fault and therefore the Palestinians are never to blame.

Do you think that the Palestinian leadership have played their cards well or poorly?

(h/t JW)

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It is the end of the year and I am seeing lots of emails from professional pro-Israel sites listing their accomplishments for the year (and, of course, asking for money.)

So I thought I'd look back and see how my reporting has made a difference this year (including things that some others take credit for!)

Here are some ways that stories I broke ended up changing things for the better 2015:

An anti-Israel activist named Ariel Gold removed an embarrassing post where she claimed that Sabra Hummus was named after the Sabra and Shatila massacre (done by Christian Phalangists.)
After Jim Clancy of CNN went on a bizarre anti-Israel Twitter rant against me and others, he was unceremoniously dumped from the network.
I noted that the Israeli Gisha NGO that is supposedly supporting free movement of Arabs from Gaza never said anything bad about Hamas' limitations on freedom of movement. Immediately after, they started to report on Hamas.
The New York Times corrected the nonsensical phrase "1967 borders with Palestine" after I pointed it out.
After I reported out that the Imperial War Museum referred to the Jewish Brigade as "terrorists," they corrected it.
The College Board corrected material that said that Jerusalem was a city in "Palestine" after I pointed it out.
After a year of pointing out how UNRWA teachers are pushing hate on Facebook, UNRWA admitted it and sent out a note to its employees to stop being so obvious about their hate.
MSN.com took down an antisemitic article they had republished from the Arab News.
A story I broke about Fatah's hate on its Facebook page got picked up by the mainstream media, forcing Fatah to issue bizarre denials and remove the image.
I reported first about an anti-Israel video game app on the Google store; it was removed.
The New York Times removed a reference to a "2,500-year-old Islamic cultural heritage site" in Yemen after I wrote about how that was quite impossible for a religion that is 1,300 years old.
A Palestinian NGO removed its antisemitic Facebook posts after EoZ readers informed their funders that this was a problem.

None of these could have happened without you. I find the information, but I need my readers to act on it - to tweet and email and shame the offenders. And many of these stories came from reader tips.

So we did make a difference in 2015.

Thanks for your support!

The testimony that "Breaking the Silence" does not accept

From My Truth:

Breaking the Silence's double standards Last week, Nadav Bigelman of Breaking the Silence lectured at the Hebrew University. A former IDF officer surprised him with a question. We couldn't help but notice a certain irony in Bigelman's response...
Posted by My Truth on Monday, December 28, 2015

We are doing everything we can to fight for Israel with hard work, research and - above all - the truth. We need your help.Please donate today.If you have other skills you can volunteer for EoZ, send an email to volunteer@elderofziyon.com

Today's Pallywood

From someone named "Immortal Che Guevera" on Facebook:

Palestinian child is bitten by a dog, which is incited, between laughter, by Israeli terrorist. Where's the humanity better yet where is God
Posted by Immortal Che Guevara on Tuesday, December 22, 2015

It was shared over a thousand times.

Reality: it happened in Algeria in April.

12/29 Links Pt2: Top 10 worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism in 2015; Israel 1st to send aid to Kenya

From Ian:

Wiesenthal Center ranks top 10 worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism in 2015

The Simon Wiesenthal Center ranked the European Union’s labeling of settlement products higher than incidents of Palestinian and Iranian incitement and threats against Israel in its annual 10 worst outbreaks of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism around the world in 2015.
Presented to The Jerusalem Post on Monday, the list enumerates what the organization believes are the worst occurrences of hate against Jews and their state over the course of the past year, which it characterized as of one of “unprecedented explosions of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hatred.”
“Our Top Ten this year shows how pervasive anti-Semitism has become around the world. The 10 examples selected by the Simon Wiesenthal Center are tragically indicative of burgeoning threats and challenges to the Jewish people not encountered since the end of World War II,” the organization said.
Leading the list at No. 1 was the hatred that inspired Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife to murder 14 people in a shooting rampage in San Bernardino, California, earlier this month.

Caroline Glick: Dani Dayan and the challenge to Israeli democracy

Given Brazil’s importance as a market and as a defense partner, Israel needs a serious ambassador posted to Brasilia capable of advancing relations. In Dani Dayan, Israel has such a representative.
Dayan is a native of Argentina. He knows Latin America better than career diplomats.
Dayan was an early hi-tech entrepreneur. He led his company, Elad Systems for 23 years, building it from a small information technology firm into a 500-employee company with an annual revenue stream of NIS100 million. Given his business background, Dayan’s ability to promote Israeli-Brazilian trade is self-evident.
Dayan is a political pragmatist. When he served as the leader of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, he made it his goal to demonstrate to the wider public that the communities are an integral part of Israel. As the council’s representative to the international community, Dayan worked tirelessly to combat the delegitimization of Israel as a whole and of the Israeli communities in the areas. In a sphere where Israel has precious little to show for its efforts, Dayan’s public diplomacy efforts stood out.
In light of this, when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed Dayan to serve as Israel’s ambassador to Brazil in August, the appointment was not seen as controversial. Rather it was widely viewed as a sign that Netanyahu is keen to expand Israel’s bilateral ties with Brazil and more generally, that Israel is interested in seriously advancing its ties to Latin America.
This apparently was bad news for the EU- and US-financed radical Left. For many years radical leftists have made no effort to hide their interest in maintaining and expanding Israel’s international and economic weakness. As they see it, the stronger Israel is, the less vulnerable it will be to foreign pressure to make further concessions to the PLO.
And so, after the government approved Dayan’s appointment, fringe leftists associated with EU- and US-funded political NGOs set out to scuttle the appointment.

Free Beacon: 2015 Man of the Year: Cpl. T

In the Israeli media, the anonymous IDF soldier was identified simply as “Cpl. T.” Other outlets dubbed him “The Terminator.” Whatever his name, the 19-year-old IDF rookie proved himself to be an international hero after he slayed three knife-wielding Palestinian terrorists in a nine-day span last fall.
On Oct. 17, two Palestinian fanatics with knives attacked an Israeli in Gush Etzion when they were put down by bullets from Cpl. T.’s gun. Nine days later, Cpl. T. smoked another terrorist who tried to stab a fellow soldier at a nearby bus stop.
The IDF released few details about Cpl. T., but said he had only been in the military for eight months and was in the “Kfir”—or “Lion’s Club”—brigade. The group is “the youngest and largest brigade in the Israel Defense Forces,” according to the military.
While the young soldier has been lauded for his quick instincts and good aim, Cpl. T. says he was just doing his job.

Why Mohammed is the most popular baby name in Israel

From JPost:

The most popular name in Israel in 2014, among some 2,650 newborns, was Mohammed, according to a report released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday.

The most popular Jewish name for a boy, and the second most popular name overall, in 2014 was Noam, with some 1,600 boys (and 400 girls) given this name. Also making the list of the top 10 most popular names was Ori/Uri, David, Yousef, Eitan, Itay, Ariel, Daniel, Yonatan, and Moshe.

So why is a Muslim name the top result when Muslims take u about 20% of the population? Simple math:

“The most common name among those born in 2014 was Mohammed,” the CBS reports. “This name was very common among the population because it is given to one out of every seven Muslim boys. In comparison, the most common names among Jews and Muslim girls were given to one out of 40 children.”

Which means that the percentage of Muslims naming their sons Mohammed is nearly six times the percentage of Jews naming their sons Noam, or Muslims naming their daughters Maryam.

People were a little freaked out when a similar story came out of London, where Muhammad was the most popular name and Mohammed came in at #10. But that is what happens when there is so little name variation among newborns in one population.

(In Hebrew and Arabic, there is no difference in spelling between Mohamed, Mohammed, Muhammed or Muhammad as there is in English, so the effect is magnified beyond what we see in Western countries.)

Interestingly, Israel's CBS noted that Yosef/Yousef was the fourth most popular name, with 1350 Jews naming their sons Yosef and 600 Muslims naming their sons Yousef.

Considered the most authoritative specialist on matters pertaining to the Jewish homeland since the medieval scholar and author Estori Farhi, Rabbi Joseph Schwarz (1804-65) was a Bavarian-born Talmudist who settled in Jerusalem in 1833 and immersed himself in the history, natural history, geology and geography of Eretz Israel. His notable works include Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine (1850), from which the London-based Jewish Chronicle (3 October 1851), took the following extract:

‘Some years before Mahmud Ali [ruled 1805-48] had assumed the government, and the Arabs had the ability and power to tyrannize over the Jews, a very rich Jew of Constantinople emigrated hither [Jerusalem]. The Mahomedans ardently desired to find some pretext against this rich man, in order to extort money from him, according to their fashion.

One day a Mahomedan, accompanied by a Bedouin, leading two camels loaded with charcoal, entered the courtyard of the Jew, and said that, as no doubt he was in want of coal, he would spare him the trouble to go to market for it, and brought therefore to his house two heavily loaded camels with this necessary article. But the Jew, fearing some evil, made some excuses – was very grateful for the kindness of the other, yet averred that he could not make any use of it, as he was well supplied already.

But all subterfuges were in vain, and the Mahomedan forced him fairly to take the coal; and when the other asked after the price, he answered, “Never mind, give what you think the article is worth.

"Yet, as thou camest but lately in our holy city, it is no more than becoming that thou shouldst invite us, as faithful fellow citizens, into thy house, and entertain us with pipes and coffee, until the camels be unloaded by the servants.”
“Let it be so,” answered the rich man; and, opening the door of his saloon, he told them to enter. Coffee and pipes were brought in; they drank and smoked, spoke of indifferent things, when suddenly the Bedouin sunk down as dead, and gave no signs of animation.

The Mahomedan jumped up from his seat in a great rage, and addressed the Jew with a loud voice—“Murderer! What hast thou done? Thy coffee is poisoned! Shall we tolerate the Jews among us, that they may lay plots against our lives? This murder shall be washed out by the blood of all the Jews.”

The other protested his innocence, trembling, with tears in his eyes, saying, “Have I not drunk myself of this coffee? How, then, can it be poisoned?”

“Then must the Bedouin’s cup have contained poison,” was the furious reply of the other.

The Jew adduced all sorts of proofs of his entire innocence.

At length the Mahomedan was moved, and said, “My friend, I indeed pity thee and all the Jews of the city; but I can think of only one remedy by which thou and thy people can be saved. Have thy courtyard immediately locked up, so that no one from without will be able to enter. I will employ all possible means to suppress this affair and keep it a profound secret; and this evening I will send thee two confidential persons, who shall fetch away the corpse and bury it in all secrecy; and in this way thou and thy brothers will be saved. But to effect this a large sum of money is necessary, which I am sure thou wilt readily and willingly furnish on the spot.”

The trembling Jew esteemed himself happy that the matter could be settled with money, and gave immediately the sum which the Mahomedan had demanded, large as it was, with great willingness and with the utmost unconcern. The other went away, and the corpse was left lying in the saloon.

After sunset two Bedouins arrived with a large sack, in which they thrust the corpse, took it on their shoulders in profound silence, and walked away greatly terrified.
But scarcely were they a few steps distant from the house of the rich man, when the dead Arab jumped out of the sack; and the Jew now learned for the first time that the whole affair was a gross deception, contrived merely to extort from him the large sum he paid for his ransom.’

Oy!

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12/29 Links Pt1: Israeli Aid Workers Abused at UN Refugee Camp (removed); Only Palestinians are 'martyrs'

From Ian:

Israeli Aid Workers Abused at UN Refugee Camp

This article was apparently very poorly researched and Israel Today removed it.

Only Palestinians are 'martyrs'

I will open with greetings for the State of Israel and the Jewish people, whom I view as true friends. As a writer and journalist from Kuwait, who is following the current wave of Palestinian knife and rock terrorism and Palestinian crimes against IDF soldiers and innocent Israelis, I can only express my support for every civilian and military action the free and independent State of Israel takes for the legitimate defense of the lives of its citizens and its land.
I am baffled by the international community's silence in the face of the crimes committed by Palestinian terrorists against the Israeli people. I am equally baffled by the international community's outcry against Israel's legal right to defend itself and its soldiers and against Israel's legitimate right to live and stand strong.
The Arab media has become afflicted with stupidity and delusion and has lost its ability make true distinctions. The words "wisdom" and "reason" are no longer part of its lexicon. It has become debased and mentally challenged. It considers the victims of battles in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. "casualties," whereas the Palestinian terrorists killed in the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank are dubbed "shahids" (martyrs). This same media, which is biased in favor of a group of people called "Palestinians," neglects every human, Arab, or Muslim issue and associates shahada (a martyr's death in the name of belief) with them only.

Israel likens Palestinian incitement to Nazi propaganda

The Foreign Ministry on Monday released a video on social media equating anti-Israel incitement in Palestinian media with Nazi-era imagery and propaganda.
The 49-second clip, which is titled "Nazi Propaganda returns in Palestinian incitement," shows anti-Semitic cartoons that were used in Europe to foment anti-Jewish animus.
The video then cuts to a number of anti-Israel cartoons that use similar themes and which appear regularly in Palestinian and Arab media and textbooks.
Israel has accused the Palestinian Authority of inciting the masses to commit acts of violence, including stabbings and car rammings, against Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Nazi Propaganda returns in Palestinian incitement

Palestine Press Agency has an investigative report that says that Hamas has doled out some 10 million square meters of public land in Gaza since it seized control of the sector - and it has been handing out that land to its cronies.

This is all in violation of a 2006 PA law to stop exactly that sort of practice.

Some of the land has been given out to top Hamas members in lieu of salaries. Much of the land was taken from the former Jewish settlement of Netzarim.

Besides that, Hamas has been allocating land to other organizations. According to the report, 100,000 square meters were allocated to a tourism project, 81,200 square meters for the benefit of the Turkish Red Crescent, and 102,100 for a UAE charity.

3,868,930 square meters were given to the Al Qassam Brigades terror group. Prime beachfront property was given to a Hamas-affiliated Islamic Society to develop as a for-profit resort. Land that was earmarked for a public park in Bisan City in 2009 turned into a for-profit amusement park.

And 115,645 square meters of land were given to another favored Hamas designee - UNRWA. This indicates that UNRWA and Hamas are working together a bit more closely than UN rules would permit.

Today's list of lies by Saeb Erekat

Haaretz reported on Sunday:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed Sunday that despite the arson-murder of a Palestinian family and recent reports of growing Jewish extremism, there was no room for comparison between Jewish acts of terrorism and Arab acts of terror.

"There is a difference between Arab terror and Jewish terror," Netanyahu said at the beginning of the government's weekly meeting. "Here we condemn and they [the Palestinians] praise," the prime minister said.

Netanyahu noted that unlike Jewish terror, which is limited in scope, Arab terror "attacks us incessantly and is wide-spread." According to Netanyahu, while in Israel both the government and informal leaders condemn Jewish terror, in the Palestinian Authority they name squares and streets after terrorists.

"There is a difference between Israeli society's healthy attitude, which condemns terror and works against it, and the Palestinian Authority's, which encourages terror and incites," Netanyahu said. "I suggest we remember these distinctions at a time when we are fighting terror and inciters, wherever they may be."

The PLO's top negotiator Saeb Erekat responded to this with yet another torrent of lies:

Mr. Netanyahu is claiming that the killing of any human being by a Jew is not comparable to the killing of a Jew by a non-Jew.

He said no such thing. In fact, he specifically referred to Jewish terror, and you will never hear Erekat or Abbas refer to "Palestinian terror" no matter how heinous the attack. (Today's Al Quds says explicitly that there is no such things as Palestinian terror, only Jewish terror.)

Mr. Netanyahu’s referral to “Palestinian incitement” as an excuse for Israeli terrorism is a further attempt at erasing his political and legal responsibility as the head of a belligerent occupier that violates the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people on daily basis, including its very right to be free.

Netanyahu said no such thing.

The State of Israel honors the memory of terrorists who were responsible for the assassination of thousands of Christians, Muslims and Jews, including those who assassinated the UN Mediator Count Bernardotte in 1948...

I am unaware of any shrine to the memory of Yehoshua Cohen, who killed Bernadotte.

A prominent case is that of the terrorist Baruch Goldstein who killed 29 Palestinians at the Ibrahim Mosque in Hebron, and who has a shrine at the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement, across a park named after Meir Kahane, another Israeli terrorist.

The Israeli government bulldozed the shrine in 1999 after Israel's Supreme Court prohibited shrines to terrorists ; now there is only a gravestone in a park because Goldstein was not allowed to be buried in a Jewish cemetery based on another legal ruling. The state never honored Goldstein.

As far as I can tell, Saeb Erekat has a perfect record of lying in every public statement he makes. As I wrote last year, this is his strategy:

He literally lives his life by the saying "if you don’t stop a man who is lying after 24 hours, the lies turn into facts."

No one has the guts to tell him that he is a liar to his face and list all his lies, chapter and verse. And it is a very long list.

Erekat knows that once he puts his lies out there, no one will counter him - after all, he is a "moderate" and a "peacemaker," and reporters aren't conditioned to believe that a soft-spoken man in a suit who is considered a "moderate" will lie right to their faces.

There is literally no negative repercussion to Erekat's constant lies. So...why shouldn't he continue them?

EU said to re-affirm "respect for sacred sites" in Jerusalem

From Kuwait's KUNA news agency:

JEDDAH, Dec 28 (KUNA) -- Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, reaffirmed the EU respect for the sacred sites in the occupied holy city of Jerusalem.

In reply message to Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Iyad Madani, she said the EU attaches great importance to, and maintains full respect for, the status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem, according to a press release by the OIC on Monday.

The EU believes that any attempt to change the status quo of the religious sanctities will have serious and profound impacts on stability in the Middle East, the statement said, citing readout of the message.

The EU believes that firm commitment by all parties to the provisions of the international humanitarian law and the relevant international laws, including the accountability for any violations, forms a cornerstone for stability and peace in the region, Mogherini said.

She renewed the EU support to the efforts aiming to reach a fair and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the two-state vision for establishing an independent, sovereign, democratic and viable state of Palestine with territorial continuity.

Mogherini's message was in response to a recent message from Madani calling for international stance against the repeated Israeli violations of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Muslims' third holiest site.

The OIC chief sent similar messages to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the foreign ministers of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.