Monday, January 25, 2016
Elder of ZiyonThe winner of the Hasby Award for Best Video of 2015 is....
Monday, January 25, 2016
From Ian:
Palestinian twin sisters accused of making bombs for attacks
Palestinian twin sisters accused of making bombs for attacks
Israeli security forces arrested 18-year-old bomb-making twin sisters from Shwaika, outside the Palestinian city of Tulkarem in the West Bank last month, the Shin Bet security service announced Monday.Teen stabber had ‘urge’ to act, says relative
Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Shin Bet officers discovered pipe bombs and other explosive materials in the home of Diana and Nadia Hawila in late December 2015, officials said.
In addition, they found knives, Hamas headbands and “equipment for riots,” the Shin Bet said in a statement, though it did not claim that the twins were, in fact, Hamas members.
“This investigation again shows the motivation to carry out terror attacks, especially among those who are not a part of terrorist organizations, including women,” the Shin Bet said.
In interrogation, Diana Hawila admitted that she had purchased the fertilizer and other chemicals necessary to create the explosives.
She learned how to create bombs by watching instructional videos online, according to the Shin Bet. Diana also watched Islamic extremist videos that encouraged women to take part in terror attacks against Israelis and Jews, which “strengthened her decision to act,” the Shin Bet said.
A relative of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, who was shot and killed on Saturday when trying to knife a security guard at a West Bank settlement, said she had an “urge” to act and was influenced by other terrorists.Israel strikes Hamas terror target in Gaza in response to rocket fire
At the same time, other family members of Roqaya Abu-Eid questioned why she had been killed rather than subdued. Her father said there had been no need to kill her.
Abu-Eid was shot by a civilian security guard at the entrance to Anatot, near Jerusalem, when she rushed at him with a knife, police said. She lived in the nearby Palestinian village of the same name.
Israel Police said after an initial investigation that the girl had fought with her parents and stormed out the family home with the knife, declaring that she wanted to die, a claim rejected by her family.
A teenage relative told Channel 2 on Sunday that she had been inspired to carry out the attack by seeing other incidents.
The Israel Air Force struck a Hamas military compound in the center of the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Monday in retaliation for a Gazan rockets fired on the Southern region of Israel.
The rocket was fired from the Gaza strip at southern Israel on Sunday evening setting off the color red sirens in the Sha'ar Hanegev region, sending local residents fleeing for cover.
The rocket exploded in an open area, failing to cause injuries and there was no damage, the army said.
In the response a few hours later, IAF aircraft struck a Hamas military installation, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.
On Saturday night, Gazan terrorists fired a rocket towards Israel. The rocket landed inside Gaza in open territory. The color red siren was not sounded.
Monday, January 25, 2016
Elder of Ziyon
A must read by Israel's deputy foreign minister in the WSJ:
One often-cited key to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is economic development. To that end, there seems to be broad agreement about the importance of extending development aid to help the Palestinians build the physical and social infrastructure that will enable the emergence of a sustainable, prosperous society. But few have seriously questioned how much money is sent and how it is used.
Such assistance will only promote peace if it is spent to foster tolerance and coexistence. If it is used to strengthen intransigence it does more harm than good—and the more aid that comes in, the worse the outcome. This is exactly what has been transpiring over the past few decades. Large amounts of foreign aid to the Palestinians are spent to support terrorists and deepen hostility.
For years the most senior figures in the Palestinian Authority have supported, condoned and glorified terror. “Every drop of blood that has been spilled in Jerusalem,” President Mahmoud Abbas said last September on Palestinian television, “is holy blood as long as it was for Allah.” Countless Palestinian officials and state-run television have repeatedly hailed the murder of Jews.
This support for terrorism doesn’t end with hate speech. The Palestinian regime in Ramallah pays monthly stipends of between $400 and $3,500 to terrorists and their families, the latter of which is more than five times the average monthly salary of a Palestinian worker.
According to data from its budgetary reports, compiled in June 2014 by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the PA’s annual budget for supporting Palestinian terrorists was then roughly $75 million. That amounted to some 16% of the foreign donations the PA received annually. Overall in 2012 foreign aid made up about a quarter of the PA’s $3.1 billion budget. More recent figures are inaccessible since the Palestinian Authority is no longer transparent about the stipend transfers.
Embarrassed by public revelations of the misuse of the foreign aid, in August 2014 the Palestinian Authority passed the task of paying stipends to terrorists and their families to a fund managed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, also led by Mr. Abbas. Lest there be any doubt as to the purely cosmetic nature of the change, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah made assurances as recently as September 2015 that the PA will provide the “necessary assistance” to ensure these terror stipends.
This procedural ruse apparently calmed the consciences of donor governments that continue to transfer aid. It is difficult to think of another case in which such a forgiving attitude would be taken regarding foreign aid to an entity that sponsors terror.
This situation is particularly disturbing given the disproportionate share of development assistance the Palestinians receive, which comes at the expense of needy populations elsewhere. According to a report last year by Global Humanitarian Assistance, in 2013 the Palestinians received $793 million in international aid, second only to Syria. This amounts to $176 for each Palestinian, by far the highest per capita assistance in the world. Syria, where more than 250,000 people have been killed and 6.5 million refugees displaced since 2011, received only $106 per capita.
A closer look at the remaining eight countries in the top 10—Sudan, South Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo—is even more alarming. CIA Factbook data show that these countries have a combined population of 284 million and an average per capita GDP of $2,376. Yet they received an average of $15.30 per capita in development assistance in 2013. The Palestinians, by comparison, with a population of 4.5 million, have a per capita GDP of $4,900.
In other words, though the Palestinians are more than twice as wealthy on average than these eight countries, they receive more than 11 times as much foreign aid per person. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a case in point: Its 79 million people have a per capita GDP of $700, yet they receive only $5.70 in aid per person.
Between 1993 (when the Oslo Process began) and 2013, the Palestinians received $21.7 billion in development assistance, according to the World Bank. The Palestinian leadership has had ample opportunity to use these funds for economic and social development. Tragically, as seen in Hamas-run Gaza, it prefers to use the funds on its terrorist infrastructure and weaponry, such as cross-border attack tunnels and the thousands of missiles that have rained down in recent years on Israel.
In Judea and Samaria, the “West Bank,” the situation is equally disturbing. Aside from funding terrorists and investing in hate speech, the PA stubbornly refuses to remove hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from “refugee” rosters, deliberately keeping them in a state of dependence and underdevelopment for no purpose other than to stoke animosity toward Israel.
It is difficult to come away from these facts without realizing the deep connection between the huge amounts of foreign aid being spent, the bizarre international tolerance for patently unacceptable conduct by the Palestinians and the lack of progress toward peace on the ground.
Donors to the Palestinians who support peace would do well to rethink the way they extend assistance. Money should go to economic and civic empowerment, not to perpetuate a false sense of victimhood and unconditional entitlement. It should foster values of tolerance and nonviolence, not the glorification and financing of terrorism.
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- Monday, January 25, 2016
- Elder of Ziyon
Last year, the PLO published a document meant to provide proof that Israel is violating the sanctity of the Temple Mount.
It is filled with lies; for example it blames Israel for the fire at the Al Aqsa Mosque set in 1969 by an Australian. For now, we will concentrate on one specific claim, about the status quo.
When it defines the history of the status quo, it says:
The Treaty of Berlin of 1878 has this to say about holy places under Ottoman rule:
Analysis of this article throughout the decades that discuss the status quo all concentrate on who is allowed to make physical changes to designated Holy Places and who can act as administrators.
The major conflicts over the status quo of holy places were by various Christian denominations who were perpetually fighting (often literally) over rights to Christian holy places. This is described by L. G. A. Cust in 1929:
Freedom for all to visit and even to pray individually at holy places is not considered as a violation of the status quo, as the examples given here show.
Clearly the status quo on the Temple Mount itself allowed visitors throughout the 20th century, as the Waqf itself published a guidebook for visitors. (This is the guidebook that said that it is "beyond dispute" that this is the site of Solomon's Temple.)
Did the Waqf forbid any non-Muslims to silently pray? Not based on this booklet, which gave specific examples of what visitors should not do - smoke or bring in dogs.
To say, as the PLO claims, that religious Jews visiting the Temple Mount and even silently praying there violates the status quo is just another lie.
It is filled with lies; for example it blames Israel for the fire at the Al Aqsa Mosque set in 1969 by an Australian. For now, we will concentrate on one specific claim, about the status quo.
When it defines the history of the status quo, it says:
The Treaty of Berlin of 1878 has this to say about holy places under Ottoman rule:
Article LXII. The Sublime Porte having expressed the intention to maintain the principle of religious liberty, and give it the widest scope, the Contracting Parties take note of this spontaneous declaration. In no part of the Ottoman Empire shall difference of religion be alleged against any person as a ground for exclusion or incapacity in matters relating to the enjoyment of civil or political rights, admission to public employments, functions, and honors, or the exercise of the various professions and industries, in any locality whatsoever. The freedom and outward exercise of all forms of worship shall be assured to all, and no hindrance shall be offered either to the hierarchical organization of the different communions, or to their relations with their spiritual chiefs.Tha section on the status quo is not even an entire sentence of the Article, and the Article itself makes clear that religious liberty is the highest goal and the maintenance of the status quo is not meant to limit that freedom to worship.
Ecclesiastics, pilgrims, and monks of all nationalities traveling in Turkey in Europe, or in Turkey in Asia, shall enjoy the same rights, advantages, and privileges.
The right of official protection by the Diplomatic and Consular Agents of the Powers in Turkey is recognized both as regards the above-mentioned persons and their religious, charitable, and other establishments in the Holy Places and elsewhere. The rights possessed by France are expressly reserved, and it is well understood that no alterations can be made in the status quo in the Holy Places. The monks of Mount Athos, of whatever country they may be natives, shall be maintained in their former possessions and advantages, and shall enjoy, without any exception, complete equality of rights and prerogatives.
Analysis of this article throughout the decades that discuss the status quo all concentrate on who is allowed to make physical changes to designated Holy Places and who can act as administrators.
The major conflicts over the status quo of holy places were by various Christian denominations who were perpetually fighting (often literally) over rights to Christian holy places. This is described by L. G. A. Cust in 1929:
The present position therefore is that the arrangements existing in 1852 which corresponded to the Status Quo of 1757 as to the rights and privileges of the Christian communities officiating in the Holy Places have to be most meticulously observed, and what each rite practised at that time in the way of public worship, decorations of altars and shrines, use of lamps, candelabra, tapestry and pictures, and in the exercise of the most minute acts of ownership and usage has to remain unaltered. Moreover, the Status Quo applies also to the nature of the officiants. Thus, the Franciscans alone of the Roman Catholic Orders are allowed to celebrate Mass independently in the Holy Places, although the clergy of any Roman Catholic Order can attend. The Patriarch himself, of course, has the right to pontificate. Similarly, of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches none other than the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has any standing in the Holy Places. The Russian Church during the last quarter of the 19th century made strenuous efforts to obtain independent privileges and to maintain altars of their own, for the saying of the Liturgy in the Russian language, but this was successfully opposed by the Hellenic elements. \ Russian clergy are, however, able to take part in the services.
Freedom for all to visit and even to pray individually at holy places is not considered as a violation of the status quo, as the examples given here show.
Clearly the status quo on the Temple Mount itself allowed visitors throughout the 20th century, as the Waqf itself published a guidebook for visitors. (This is the guidebook that said that it is "beyond dispute" that this is the site of Solomon's Temple.)
Did the Waqf forbid any non-Muslims to silently pray? Not based on this booklet, which gave specific examples of what visitors should not do - smoke or bring in dogs.
To say, as the PLO claims, that religious Jews visiting the Temple Mount and even silently praying there violates the status quo is just another lie.
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- Monday, January 25, 2016
- Elder of Ziyon
rogel alpher
Rogel Alpher, one of the Ha'aretz columnists whose columns are often so extreme as to appear to be a parody, has done it again:
His thesis is that to Arabs, the lyrics of Israel's national anthem are just as offensive and extreme and frightening as Jews hearing the Arab chant, “in spirit, in blood, we shall redeem Al Aqsa."
What are the equally offensive lyrics of Hatikva, according to Alpher? “To be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem.”
Let's see. Hatikva expresses a millennia-old hope for Jews to return to their ancestral homeland. it doesn't say that this return should be violent, or even that it should dispossess other people.
The chant of “in spirit, in blood, we shall redeem Al Aqsa" appears to be much more recent - from 2002, coined by extremist Islamist Raed Salah, head of the northern branch of the Islamic movement. It is meant to be nothing less than violent and antisemitic. (Another source traces it to the same person but in 2000.)
The phrase reached the public consciousness in a 2011 rally sponsored by the Islamic Movement in Umm al-Fahem. Some 30,000 Arabs chanted the phrase. The rally also reatured a play showing ultra-Orthodox Jews destroying the Al Aqsa Mosque.
I can certainly understand why Israeli Arabs might not want to sing Hatikva. However, Alpher self-righteously claims to speak on behalf of Arabs in his assertion that Arabs feel physically threatened by the words of Hatikva - he says that "when Jews sing 'our hope has not been lost, the two-thousand-year-old-hope,' it scares [Israeli Arabs.]"
The only hate that I see from any Israeli Jew in his columns is that of Rogel Alpher himself, who despises his own nation so much that he has called the Israeli flag a "fascistic symbol" and who had pledged to leave the country because of how immoral it is.
Amazingly, he still hasn't left, since Ha'aretz apparently still thinks that he has useful things to say.
(Not surprisingly, this column is being translated into Arabic for Palestinian newspapers.)
UPDATE: As is often the case, PreOccupied Territory takes my story and runs with it.
His thesis is that to Arabs, the lyrics of Israel's national anthem are just as offensive and extreme and frightening as Jews hearing the Arab chant, “in spirit, in blood, we shall redeem Al Aqsa."
What are the equally offensive lyrics of Hatikva, according to Alpher? “To be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem.”
Let's see. Hatikva expresses a millennia-old hope for Jews to return to their ancestral homeland. it doesn't say that this return should be violent, or even that it should dispossess other people.
The chant of “in spirit, in blood, we shall redeem Al Aqsa" appears to be much more recent - from 2002, coined by extremist Islamist Raed Salah, head of the northern branch of the Islamic movement. It is meant to be nothing less than violent and antisemitic. (Another source traces it to the same person but in 2000.)
The phrase reached the public consciousness in a 2011 rally sponsored by the Islamic Movement in Umm al-Fahem. Some 30,000 Arabs chanted the phrase. The rally also reatured a play showing ultra-Orthodox Jews destroying the Al Aqsa Mosque.
I can certainly understand why Israeli Arabs might not want to sing Hatikva. However, Alpher self-righteously claims to speak on behalf of Arabs in his assertion that Arabs feel physically threatened by the words of Hatikva - he says that "when Jews sing 'our hope has not been lost, the two-thousand-year-old-hope,' it scares [Israeli Arabs.]"
The only hate that I see from any Israeli Jew in his columns is that of Rogel Alpher himself, who despises his own nation so much that he has called the Israeli flag a "fascistic symbol" and who had pledged to leave the country because of how immoral it is.
Amazingly, he still hasn't left, since Ha'aretz apparently still thinks that he has useful things to say.
(Not surprisingly, this column is being translated into Arabic for Palestinian newspapers.)
UPDATE: As is often the case, PreOccupied Territory takes my story and runs with it.
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Sunday, January 24, 2016
As I keep playing with the idea of regular videocasts, I wanted to try a straight news program, with stories that I have mentioned here as well as others.
So here is what I came up with. Only one major software glitch with some dead air, but otherwise not too bad.
Stories include:
As always, feedback is welcome!
So here is what I came up with. Only one major software glitch with some dead air, but otherwise not too bad.
Stories include:
- Abbas' views on Armenians don't extend to another indigenous people
- Human Rights Watch has a problem with Jews
- Saeb Erekat freaks out over Bibi's overtures to Arab countries
- PA supports occupation and settlements - by Morocco
- Hamas likes luxury hotels
- Soccer on the Temple Mount
As always, feedback is welcome!
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- Sunday, January 24, 2016
- Elder of Ziyon
- Hasby 2016
- Sunday, January 24, 2016
- Elder of Ziyon
This past week Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald passed away at the age of 82.
Outside Orthodox Jewish circles, most people have not heard of him, but he led an amazing life that was often as much cloak-and-dagger as being a community leader.
Greenwald worked tirelessly to free Jews who were in prison throughout the world. From Wikipedia, here are four of them:
But Greenwald was very busy besides flying all over the world to gain prisoner releases. He founded a girl's high school and a popular summer camp. He was involved in helping victims of sexual abuse in the community and he also founded a network of homes for mentally handicapped girls and women. He was the Jewish liaison for the Nixon administration and used that position to help get government aid for the Jewish poor.Natan SharanskyIn perhaps his highest profile case, Rabbi Greenwald worked closely with Representative Benjamin Gilman (R-NY) and East German lawyer Wolfgang Vogel to secure the release Soviet dissident and Refusenik Natan Sharansky from Soviet prison in the late 1970s. He made more than 25 trips across the "Iron Curtain" to East Germany as part of that effort.[5] The Rockland Journal News reported that Rabbi Greenwald was the "man behind the talks" that freed Sharansky.[6]Miron Markus
In conjunction with Representative Gilman, Rabbi Greenwald negotiated the rescue a 24-year-old Israeli citizen named Miron Markus in 1978 who was living in Zimbabwe. Markus was captured when an airplane piloted by his brother-in-law, Jackie Bloch, was forced to land in Mozambique, where Mr. Bloch was killed and Markus taken hostage. Rabbi Greenwald, Congressman Gilman and others arranged for a complex swap that involved four countries Mozambique, Israel, the UnS and East Germany, convicted East German spy Robert Thompson and U.S. student Alan van Norman.[5]Raul Granados
Granados was kidnapped by leftist guerillas in November, 1979 while at a soccer game in Guatemala City. Rabbi Greenwald, working again with Representative Gilman, helped broker the exchange of Mr. Granados in exchange for a ransom payment of $4,000,000.[7]Vladimir Raiz
Vladimir Raiz, a Soviet molecular biologist, had been denied permission to leave the former Soviet Union for 18 years before Greenwald entered the picture. According to Steve Lieberman in the Rockland Journal News, Greenwald secretly met with Raiz in Lithuania in 1989. Following negotiations with Soviet authorities, Raiz and his family were permitted to emigrate in 1990.[8]
I have heard him talk and it is hard to imagine such an unassuming man to be involved in such high-stakes international intrigues.
He will be sorely missed.
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From Ian:
Honest Reporting: Fading Truth on the New York Times Editorial Page
Honest Reporting: Fading Truth on the New York Times Editorial Page
The Fading Two State Solution is a New York Times editorial that makes the observation that “even truth telling can ignite a firestorm.” Quite a claim considering the lack of truth-telling in the editorial itself.PMW: PA daily: US suspected of causing the 9-11 attacks to create anarchy in Arab world
The editorial begins by defending U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro’s speech in which he accused Israel of having double standards when administering law and order in the disputed territories.
Palestinians have been victims of assaults and acts of vandalism by Jewish extremists, including an arson attack in July that killed a toddler and his parents in the West Bank village of Duma. None of this is acceptable.
The reality is that in the case of the Duma arson, the security establishment has been pursuing the case with the same sense of urgency and tools that would be used against Palestinian terrorists. Many would argue that the state is using more resources to bring the perpetrators to justice than in other cases.
Yet this is one egregious case of an attack in which the victims are Palestinians. The Times implies that there are more attacks that are comparable to the terrorist attacks in which Jews have been the victims. But the numbers prove this is not the case.
Since 13 September 2015, 29 people have been killed (including a Palestinian, a foreign worker and a U.S. citizen), and 289 people injured in Palestinian terrorist attacks. These attacks include 110 stabbing attacks, 38 shootings, and 22 vehicular (ramming) attacks. During the same period, there have been no stabbing, shooting, or vehicular attacks against Palestinians. This, of course, does not include cases where Palestinians have died in the course of committing these attacks. Is the Times claiming that there is no difference between self-defense and unprovoked attempts at murder?
An op-ed in the official PA daily accuses the US of being behind all the turmoil and civil wars in the Muslim and Arab world, even the Sunni-Shiite fighting. Moreover, the writer claims that this turmoil, which the US is allegedly orchestrating, is the direct result of the 9-11 attacks on the US. The US utilized this attack to create "an imaginary enemy called 'terror,' and it supervised the cultivation of the idea until it ripened into what is known today as the Islamic State organization," the writer states. Moreover, the writer claims that the evidence and facts indicate that the US itself is the number one suspect in the 9-11 bombings.Terrorist killed by own bomb during attempted attack on security forces
The accusation that the US is behind all the crises and wars in the Middle East, sometimes in collaboration with Israel, has been voiced often in the official PA daily and documented by Palestinian Media Watch, as well as the claim that US and Israel are behind and controlling the Islamic State terror organization.
An 18-year-old male Palestinian died late Saturday night after a pipe bomb he intended to throw at Border Police officers stationed at a security checkpoint near Abu Dis, adjacent to Jerusalem, exploded in his hands.Edgar Davidson: Terrorist death creates crisis for world media
“He had a pipe bomb that he was planning on throwing at security personnel in Abu Dis and it accidentally exploded before he threw it, and he died of his wounds,” said Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld on Sunday.
“He was not a suicide bomber,” Rosenfeld added, noting inaccurate media reports claiming the teen was wearing an explosive vest. “We’re talking about a Palestinian with a small explosive.”
None of the officers were wounded in the explosion, he said.
The body of the suspect, identified by Arab media as Muhammad Halbiya, was transferred by Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics to a nearby medical clinic.
The story tonight from Israel that a terrorist has been killed by his own bomb without any intervention of any Israeli during an attempted attack (as reported in the Jerusalem Post) is causing panic and hysteria among the international media.
They are searching frantically for a headline that can make Israel the aggressor (earlier today after a female terrorist was shot dead in the act of stabbing a security guard the New York Times led with the headline shown at the bottom of this post).
Assuming that even they will not fall for the inevitable Arab spin on the story ("Israel kills Palestinian with planted bomb") my bet is that the media will come up with one of the following compromises:
"Palestinian killed in Israel bomb attack"
"One Palestinian killed, no Israelis killed in latest Israel violence"
For the time being the entire Western media seems to playing safe and doing what they do when only Israelis are killed in terrorist attacks: refusing to report the attack at all.
- Sunday, January 24, 2016
- Elder of Ziyon
- lumish
I don't know, Kate.
Sometimes it just seems pointless.
Sorry to be downbeat, but I feel like I am glaring into a howling thunderstorm. In California we could use the weather, but I worry about my friends elsewhere.
You may be aware that the Washington Post just published an infographic on displaced peoples around the world since WWII and while they cover the Palestinian-Arab displacement after '48 they do not reference the Jewish displacement from "Arab lands" at that time. In 1948 the Jews in "Arab lands" outside of Israel posed no threat to their Muslim neighbors. Nonetheless, they were driven out of their homes with only the clothing on their backs and somehow this has been removed from the dominant narrative. The Washington Post thereby erases Jewish history on land that Jews have lived upon for millennia.
I find this kind-of passive-aggressive stance by "the powers that be", as represented by the Washington Post, to be both depressing and antagonistic.
I expect this kind of mierde from the New York Times, but the Times has never been a friend of the Jewish people. They buried the Holocaust, while it was happening, in the back pages of the publication as you are probably aware, and for which I will never forgive them. As I write this I am looking at a copy of a 1986 book by Deborah E. Lipstadt entitled Beyond Belief: The American Press & the Coming of the Holocaust 1933 - 1945.
Lipstadt documents the various ways in which the American press, following the New York Times, downplayed the Holocaust to the back-pages, when they even bothered to discuss it. This little piece of American history is, in my opinion, grotesque. Because Sulzberger did not want the Times thought of as part of the Jewish press - you know, the little rags coming out Brooklyn - he failed to cover the Shoah for the wider audience within the United States.
On a daily basis I scan the Israel-Jewish headlines and read articles - many pointed out by you and many pointed out by Ian - and it can be just overwhelming. The EU wants to boycott Israeli goods. Many western academics want to boycott Jewish-Israeli academics. "Crybullies" on American college campuses demand "safe spaces" from conflicting opinions even as they spit hatred at, and threaten violence toward, Jewish kids who support the Jewish state.
The hypocrisy is profound. As you know, the Jerusalem Post recently published an article entitled, Uproar on Trump’s Muslim ban; silence on Abbas’s Jewish ban, by Morton Klein and Daniel Mandel of ZOA fame.
They write:
Last week, Abbas described the daily onslaught of stabbings, car-rammings and other murders, claiming the lives of 24 Jews, as “justified popular unrest.”Had Abbas’ words, suitably adjusted, been uttered by an Israeli leader, newspapers around the world would carry detailed reports on their front pages; parliaments around the world would vote to condemn him and the society that tolerated such words; human rights organizations would organize petitions and rallies condemning Israel; international leaders would issue statements of condemnation and the United Nations would surely be called into special session to consider formally condemning Israel in the harshest terms.
So, we have a racist American administration that objects to Jews building housing for themselves in Judea and Samaria, the very place that Jewish people come from. Yet they could not care less that Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority will not even allow Jews to live on that land if, and when, the Palestinian-Arabs ever accept a state for themselves.
I am sometimes reminded of a scene from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle where a rotund black man, quietly reading a book on civil disobedience, has this exchange with Harold, his cell-mate:
HAROLDSo what are you in here for?TARIKFor being black.HAROLDCome on. Seriously.TARIK sits up. He looks at OFFICER PALUMBO who, with his Walkman on, is oblivious to their conversation.TARIKI am serious. You wanna know what happened?Harold nods.TARIKI was walking out of a Barnes and Noble, and a cop stops me. Evidently, a black man robbed a store in Newark. Therefore,since I’m black, it was probably me, right?Harold shrugs his shoulders.TARIKWell that was the logic the cop used. I told him I haven’t even been to Newark in months. Then he pointed a gun at me and told me to stop resisting arrest. I said, “Hey, I’m not resisting anything.”
So he starts beating me with his gun, screaming at me, telling me to stop resisting.
The analogy only goes so far, but I think that you get the point. No matter how often Israel agrees to a Palestinian-Arab state on Jewish land, and no matter how many times the Palestinian-Arabs refuse to accept such a state for themselves in peace next to the Jewish people, the western cops keep smacking around the Jews.
The situation is fundamentally unjust yet it never ends and the Jews are perpetually in the dock.
Unlike poor Tarik, however, the Jewish people are not entirely without resources or options.
Israel must act unilaterally because negotiations with the Arabs are entirely pointless, as has been proven over and over again during the last one-hundred years, and the West, particularly the EU, is growing more and more hostile and, therefore, more and more toxic as a negotiating partner or interlocutor.
What we need to see, in my not so humble opinion, is greater aliyah out of ugly neighborhoods... such as Sweden, Germany, France, and Britain. The Jews who remain in Europe in the coming decades will not likely face another Holocaust, but they will face continued harassment by Arab-Muslim émigrés from North Africa and the Middle East, making life for them exceedingly uncomfortable within the countries of their birth.
Israel should also declare its final borders and remove the IDF to behind those borders. What those borders will be, given that the Palestinian Authority refuses to accept a Jewish state on any bit of Jewish land, should be entirely up to the Jewish people of the Middle East via the government of Israel.
Finally, Israel needs to look eastward for commercial and scientific partnership. The international economic center of gravity is falling upon the Far East Asian Pacific Rim and, therefore, Israel is developing mutually beneficial economic ties with countries like China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam.
Israel will continue to maintain good relationships with the United States, particularly upon the forthcoming departure of the malicious Obama administration, but Europe is looking more and more like a lost cause.
This may sound hard and insensitive coming from an American Jew to a British Jew, but the coming generations of European Jewry will survive under two possible conditions.
Either they hide their Jewish identity or they fight the hell back.
And, make no mistake, the kids need martial arts... particularly the girls.
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.
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- Sunday, January 24, 2016
- Elder of Ziyon
i24News reports:
Ma'an is funded by an array of Western sources, as its 2014 financial statement shows:
Remember, Halbiya was not killed by Israeli forces. He accidentally killed himself when trying to attack. Even so, he is praised as a "martyr," showing that for the supposedly moderate and independent Western-funded Ma'an, attacking Jews is in itself a praiseworthy event. Ma'an believes that blowing oneself up prematurely is a heroic act as cause as long as the target is Israeli.
In the past, Ma'an has defended itself for using the term "martyr" in Arabic as just the vernacular of its readers. But this story shows that Ma'an isn't using the word as a neutral term but to praise the bomber.
Do the Dutch, Swedish and Americans who fund Ma'an agree that Halbiya should be described in such glowing terms? Does Catholic Relief Services believe that an institution that praising terrorists is a worthy grant recipient? What does "Save the Children" think about a (possible) child who blows himself up in an attempt to kill others?
Arab media, including Jordanian and official PA media, are angry at a delay in allowing Red Crescent ambulance to reach the dead teen. None of them are upset at the idea that a teenager wants to throw bombs at Jews.
The funeral for the terrorist shows anger, not sadness. Since Israel had nothing to do with his death, the anger is instructive.
A Palestinian assailant was killed late Saturday at a military checkpoint at the entrance to East Jerusalem after a botched attempt to hurl the explosive he was carrying at Israeli border policemen, Israeli media reported.Ma'an Arabic has flowery praise for the would-be terrorist whom they claim was 14 years old, saying that "Muhammed was the fruit of the spirit of resistance and firmness planted by his grandparents to the next generation" and repeatedly referring to him as a "martyr."
No Israelis were hurt in the incident, which apparently saw the terrorist detonate the explosive prematurely.
The botched attack took place near the town of Abu Dis. The terrorist was named as Muhammad Halbiya, 18.
Ma'an is funded by an array of Western sources, as its 2014 financial statement shows:
Remember, Halbiya was not killed by Israeli forces. He accidentally killed himself when trying to attack. Even so, he is praised as a "martyr," showing that for the supposedly moderate and independent Western-funded Ma'an, attacking Jews is in itself a praiseworthy event. Ma'an believes that blowing oneself up prematurely is a heroic act as cause as long as the target is Israeli.
In the past, Ma'an has defended itself for using the term "martyr" in Arabic as just the vernacular of its readers. But this story shows that Ma'an isn't using the word as a neutral term but to praise the bomber.
Do the Dutch, Swedish and Americans who fund Ma'an agree that Halbiya should be described in such glowing terms? Does Catholic Relief Services believe that an institution that praising terrorists is a worthy grant recipient? What does "Save the Children" think about a (possible) child who blows himself up in an attempt to kill others?
Arab media, including Jordanian and official PA media, are angry at a delay in allowing Red Crescent ambulance to reach the dead teen. None of them are upset at the idea that a teenager wants to throw bombs at Jews.
The funeral for the terrorist shows anger, not sadness. Since Israel had nothing to do with his death, the anger is instructive.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
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- Sunday, January 24, 2016
- Elder of Ziyon
Avi Issacharoff in Times of Israel writes a detailed description of the meeting last week between Israeli journalists and Mahmoud Abbas, and for the most part he is admiring of Abbas' performance:
Once again, reporters seemed so star-struck by the Holocaust-denying Abbas that they let him off far more than they would have treated any Likud politician. Questions about corruption in the PA, about why the PA doesn't seem to support the Palestinian city of Rawabi, about why there are still "refugee camps" in the areas of British Mandate Palestine - none of them were asked.
Societies depend on journalists to do their jobs. In this case, the Israeli reporters fell far short.
UPDATE: Here is the video of the meeting, can anyone determine if there are any good questions and evasive answers?
Lahav Harkov of the Jerusalem Post thought that the Channel 2 reporter asked some good questions, including two from my list.
Abbas’s meeting with the Israeli press was one of his more impressive appearances of recent years. He was at ease, sharp, confident (not always the case) and good-humored.What was disappointing was that even Israeli journalists seemed reluctant to ask him hard questions (I have a list of dozens of them), and when he answered the few that were halfway decent, they didn't follow up showing his lies.
Abbas came well-prepared for the Israeli reporters’ critiques. “They say that I incite (against Israel)? Okay then,” he said, and proposed the convening of the long defunct joint Israeli-Palestinian-American committee on incitement. He did not deny that there is incitement, but proposed an ostensibly simple mechanism to deal with it: “Let the American representative (on the committee) decide what to do about incitement. And let them show me where exactly I incite.”The amount of incitement on official PA media outlets in recent months has been documented very well by Palestinian Media Watch. So is the amount of incitement on official Fatah websites and social media, all under Abbas' control. The idea that reporters didn't come prepared with specific examples to counter his claim is unconscionable.
He was also asked why he had accused the Jews of desecrating the Al-Aqsa mosque with their presence. He claimed to have been referring only to those who go to the compound to stir up trouble.Let's go back to Abbas' official Wafa news agency, were we have read news stories like this:
Tens of settlers, under Israeli forces’ protection, desecrated on Sunday Al-Aqsa mosque yards, according to witnesses.Is this "desecration" according to Abbas? Do they have "filthy feet?" And how does he know that they were 'settlers," anyway? Are all religious Jews "settlers?"
One of the guards of the mosque told WAFA “settlers’ entry to the yards started early morning by small groups and continues till now.”
Once again, reporters seemed so star-struck by the Holocaust-denying Abbas that they let him off far more than they would have treated any Likud politician. Questions about corruption in the PA, about why the PA doesn't seem to support the Palestinian city of Rawabi, about why there are still "refugee camps" in the areas of British Mandate Palestine - none of them were asked.
Societies depend on journalists to do their jobs. In this case, the Israeli reporters fell far short.
UPDATE: Here is the video of the meeting, can anyone determine if there are any good questions and evasive answers?
Lahav Harkov of the Jerusalem Post thought that the Channel 2 reporter asked some good questions, including two from my list.
@elderofziyon I thought @usegal asked good Qs, from what he said on air. Abbas dodged em, but in a presser u dont always get a follow-up— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) January 24, 2016
@elderofziyon @usegal If I remember correctly, he mentioned questions 3 and 14 from your list https://t.co/BceoSjbtUU— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) January 24, 2016
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