Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, January 29, 2016

01/29 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: Hope is not a strategy; US, UK spied on IAF for 18 yrs

From Ian:

The lesson from these miserable experiences is clear enough. Since Israel is going to be attacked no matter what it does, we might as well do things that advance our interests.
Since we will be vilified for building “settlements” even when the government freezes construction, we might as well build settlements.
Since the price for expanding existing buildings is the same as the price for building new neighborhoods and communities, there is no reason to pay full price for a fraction of the benefit. Indeed, since the Obama administration and the EU plan to attack us no matter what we do, we might as well go ahead and apply Israeli law to the Jordan Valley and Gush Etzion.
Likewise, since the same forces will viciously condemn us for advancing legislation that will do nothing to curb their funding for Israeli agents or curtail the hostile actions of those agents, we might as well get viciously attacked for doing something to curb their funding and curtail their actions. Given the ferocity of the criticism Israel is enduring over the Shaked bill, it makes sense to redraft the bill and turn it into something useful.
We get it. The Obama administration and the EU aren’t attacking Israel because we did something wrong. They’re attacking us because they want to hurt us. That is their goal. Recognizing this sorry truth, the public elected the Likud and its coalition partners to defend our interests and our rights. Hope is not a strategy. Building new communities and neighborhoods, expanding the writ of Israeli law and curtailing the activities of subversive foreign agents is a strategy. And a good one.

In huge Israeli intel breach, US, UK have spied on air force for 18 years

US and British intelligence services have spied on the Israeli air force for at least 18 years, after cracking the IDF’s special encryption system for communication between fighter jets, drones and army bases, Israel’s military censor approved for publication Friday, after reports of the spying operation appeared in two overseas publications.
The two countries have reportedly used this access to monitor IDF operations in Gaza, watch for a potential Israeli strike on Iran, and keep tabs on the drone technology that Israel exports. Israel said later Friday it was disappointed but not surprised by the revelations.
Based on documents and photos leaked by US intelligence whistle-blower Edward Snowden, which had previously been classified, the news reports said the US and Britain have for years been able to track the transmissions of Israeli aircraft, and effectively view images and videos broadcast to IDF commands during drone operations in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and near the Jewish state’s northern border.
The tracking has been done from a Royal Air Force installation in the Troodos Mountains, near Mount Olympus, the highest point on the Island of Cyprus, according to The Intercept, which, along with German newspaper Der Spiegel, first published the documents.

Israel ‘disappointed, not surprised’ by massive US, UK spying exposé

Israel said it was disappointed, but claimed not to be surprised, by the revelation that the US and British intelligence services have spied on its air force operations for at least 18 years. The intel breach was described by one Israeli security source Friday as “an earthquake… the worst leak in the history of Israeli intelligence.”
The US and UK cracked the IDF’s special encryption system for communication between fighter jets, drones and army bases, Israel’s military censor approved for publication Friday, after the long-term spying operation was reported in two overseas publications. The two countries have reportedly used this access to monitor IDF operations in Gaza, watch for a potential Israeli strike on Iran, and keep tabs on the drone technology that Israel exports.
Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz claimed Friday that he was not surprised by the exposé, because Israel is aware that “the Americans spy on the whole world, and also on us, also on their friends.”
“But still,” added Steinitz, a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “it is disappointing, inter alia because, going back decades already, we have not spied nor collected intelligence nor hacked encryptions in the United States.”

Fatah has caused a stir by insulting Hamas and the seven dead militants who were killed in a tunnel collapse.

On the official Fatah Facebook page, it described Hamas leaders as "group of warlords and who know nothing about life except how to bury their youth with sand."

"When will they stop messing around with the talents and dreams of our youth oppressed in Gaza? And when will they recognize that making our children targets for Israeli weapons in any coming confrontation will not change the fact they accomplish nothing but adding numbers to the lists of martyrs?" Fatah's statement said.

"Who here is not convinced that Hamas might actually prefer losses in Gaza to taking any steps towards Palestinian reconciliation? [Who doesn't believe- that Hamas is trying to get out of its internal crisis through new missions that bury young Gazans dying in new tunnels which are made out of the newly displaced aid?"

Hamas responded by saying that Fatah is "trying to compromise the blood of the martyrs who pay the blood price of the freedom and dignity of our people."

The Gaza-based terror group also called this "an attempt to undermine the martyrs of the program and the resistance" and said that "it is a continuation of the crime of collaboration with the enemy in the name of security coordination... an attempt to hurt all the pride and dignity for our people and the laying of the foundation of surrender and normalization and to obey the Israeli entity."

"Stop this disgraceful behavior and speech, which only serves the occupation and the enemies of our people," Hamas concluded.

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.

The purpose of the 1995 US product labeling regulation was for Arab goods, not Jewish goods (update)

YNet, among others, reports:

US Customs passed recently issued a reminder notice to importers in the US to not label products that come from the West Bank as "Made in Israel" and made it clear that those who do not comply would be sanctioned, according to a Channel 1 News report.

This is not a new guideline, but rather a reissuing of one from 1995 - which is a byproduct of the Paris Agreement and the Oslo Accords - that set different customs regulations for Israel and the West Bank. Human rights groups complained to US Customs that it was not enforcing its own guidelines, so that products from the settlements are sold in the United States under label "Made in Israel".

US Customs issued a message last week to all US importers under the title "West Bank Country of Origin Marking Requirements. The message reads: "The purpose of this message is to provide guidance to the trade community regarding the country of origin marking requirements for goods that are manufactured in the West Bank.

Per Treasury Decisions goods produced in the West Bank or Gaza Strip shall be marked as originating from ‘‘West Bank,’’ ‘‘Gaza,’’ ‘‘Gaza Strip,’’ ‘‘West Bank/Gaza,’’ ‘‘West Bank/Gaza Strip,’’ ‘‘West Bank and Gaza,’’ or ‘‘West Bank and Gaza Strip.’’ It is not acceptable to mark the aforementioned goods with the words ‘‘Israel,’’ ‘‘Made in Israel,’’ ‘‘Occupied Territories-Israel,’’ or any variation thereof. Goods that are erroneously marked as products of Israel will be subject to an enforcement action carried out by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Goods entering the United States must conform to the U.S. marking statute and regulations promulgated thereunder.

But if you look at the actual 1995 regulation, it is clear that the intent was to only label goods that were produced under the Palestinian Authority after Oslo, because they had a new and different tariff system and it no longer made sense to label Palestinian Arab products as "made in Israel" as had been done before 1995.

It is obvious that anything produced outside of areas that were under Palestinian Authority control were not meant to be included in this regulation. Unfortunately, that exception was not explicitly stated, because in 1995 it was assumed that a peace agreement was coming soon where Israeli-controlled areas would no longer be referred to as "West Bank."

This regulation was not ignored up until now - it was enforced in the way it was meant to be, to give recognition to the PA as the effective governing body in Areas A and B.

This re-issuance of the guideline is therefore not simply a repeat of a forgotten policy. It is a deliberate re-interpretation of a guideline meant separate the PA-ruled areas from Israeli-ruled areas into a new anti-Israel

To claim that this is simply a restatement of existing policy is deceptive. It is a new policy by the Obama administration dressed up as a legacy regulation that was meant to encourage Palestinian autonomy, not to penalize Jewish settlements.

This is pure politics.

UPDATE: Another indication that settlement goods were not intended to fall under this program comes from this memo released a few weeks earlier than the 1995 guideline in the same US Customs Cargo Systems Messaging Service:

                                 5086071                                 
                              MARCH 27, 1995                              

CATEGORY:  GSP                          CO:TP  LAC                        

TO     :  DISTRICT DIRECTORS                                              

FROM   :  DIRECTOR                                                        
          TRADE PROGRAMS DIVISION                                         

RE     :  PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION 6788, DESIGNATING WEST                
          BANK AND GAZA STRIP AS A BENEFICIARY OF THE                     
          GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES                               

PASS TO:  IMPORT SPECIALISTS, INSPECTORS AND OTHER INTERESTED             
          PARTIES SUCH AS BROKERS AND IMPORTERS                           

     ON MARCH 17, 1995, PRESIDENT CLINTON SIGNED PRESIDENTIAL             
PROCLAMATION 6788 (60 FEDERAL REGISTER 15455), DESIGNATING THE            
WEST BANK AND GAZA STRIP AS A BENEFICIARY OF THE GENERALIZED              
SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES (GSP).                                              

ACTION:                                                                   

1.   EFFECTIVE WITH RESPECT TO ARTICLES ENTERED OR WITHDRAWN FROM         
     WAREHOUSE FOR CONSUMPTION ON OR AFTER APRIL 7, 1995, GENERAL         
     NOTE 4(A) TO THE HTS IS MODIFIED BY INSERTING "WEST BANK AND         
     GAZA STRIP" IN ALPHABETICAL SEQUENCE IN THE ENUMERATION OF           
     NON-INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES.  NOTE THAT THE            
     WEST BANK AND THE GAZA STRIP ARE TREATED AS ONE ENTITY FOR           
     PURPOSES OF THE GSP.                                                 

2.   THE EXTENSION OF THE GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES               
     PROGRAM TO THE WEST BANK AND GAZA STRIP PURSUANT TO THIS             
     PROCLAMATION APPLIES ONLY TO GOODS PRODUCED IN THE AREAS FOR         
     WHICH ARRANGEMENTS ARE BEING ESTABLISHED FOR PALESTINIAN             
     INTERIM SELF-GOVERNMENT, AS SET FORTH IN ARTICLES I, III,            
     AND IV OF THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON INTERIM SELF-             
     GOVERNMENT ARRANGEMENTS.

This is not specific to the labeling regulations but it shows what the intended scope of those regulations were.

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.

EoZTV: Remember to vote for Best Speech #Hasby Award!

The newest edition of EoZTV takes a look at video snippets of most of the speeches up for the Best Speech Hasby Award. Mrs. Elder and I briefly discuss the speeches.

The nominees for Best Speech Hasby award are:

The shocking words of this pro-Israel pastor

Bibi's UN speech - with 45 seconds of "deafening silence"

Matti Friedman's speech to BICOM dinner

Mayor Giuliani's speech at Iranian American Community of Arizona event

Ron Dermer at Israel Bonds event

Marco Rubio Speech on Obama's Assault on Israel
The Reason I'm an Israeli-Arab Diplomat Not a Palestinian Refugee - George Deek
Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp "The Amoral Revolution in Western Values, and its impact on Israel" (text)

Due to technical difficulties, we were not able to show snippets of the last two speeches, and Ron Dermer's speech is text-only.

Vote now!

polls

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.

World Medical Association head seems sick of BDS lies

Last week:

A group of 71 doctors in the United Kingdom are pressuring the World Medical Association to remove the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) from the global body’s membership, an IMA representative said at the Israeli Knesset this week.

“The professional British journals have adopted the idea of letters to the editor that libel Israeli doctors,” Dr. Ze’ev Feldman, IMA’s chairman, said Jan. 20 during a Knesset Science and Technology Committee meeting, Israel National News reported. “They claim our doctors perform medical torture on Palestinian patients.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote to the head of the WMA with concern that such an initiative filled with lies could occur.

Although the response from the head of the WMA was written diplomatically, the tone seems to indicate that he considers the BDSers to be irritating jerks.

Just as with BDS resolutions on college campuses, and international forums that Palestinians try to flood with anti-Israel initiatives, these haters just want to make it appear that there is a groundswell of opposition to Israel - and they are upsetting the members who hate to see their institutions hijacked by these bigots.

UPDATE: Here are the 71 doctors (plus Jenny Tonge):

> Dr Chris Burns-Cox Physician Wotton-under-Edge (lead signatory)
> Sir Iain Chalmers James Lind Library Oxford
> Baroness Tonge House of Lords London
> Dr Pauline Cutting OBE Emergency Medicine Consultant Bangor
> Professor Sami Timimi Child Psychiatry Lincoln
> Dr Ben Alofs General Practice Bangor
> Dr Derek Summerfield Psychiatry London (convenor)
> Dr Swee Ang Orthopaedic Surgery London
> Dr Zeyn Green-Thompson Psychiatry Cambridge
> Dr Mostafa Mohanna Psychiatry Lincoln
> Dr David Halpin Orthopaedics & Trauma Newton Abbot
> Dr Philip Thomas Psychiatrist Hebden Bridge
> Dr Tia MacGregor General Practice Oxford
> Dr Sukaina Hirji General Practice Watford
> Dr Alex Scott-Samuel Public Health Liverpool
> Dr Daniel McQueen Psychiatry London
> Dr Tom Gilberthorpe Psychiatrist London
> Dr Maha Elias Anaesthetist Weston Super Mare
> Prof. Marco Chiesa Psychiatry London
> Dr Chris Evans Psychiatry London
> Dr Alison Payne General Practice Coventry
> Dr Numan Shah Trauma & Orthopaedics Leeds
> Dr Suman Fernando Psychiatry London
> Dr Kamilia El-Farra Gynaecologist Bishops Stortford
> Dr Nik Husain Anaesthetist Kingston-Upon-Thames
> Dr Pam Wortley General Practice Sunderland
> Dr Catherine Houghton Respiratory Medicine Bury
> Dr Sonia Allam Anaesthetist Larbert
> Dr Nuri Gene-Cos Psychiatry London
> Dr Suheib Abukmeil Psychiatry Northampton
> Dr A Ravalia Anaesthetist Kingston-upon-Thames
> Dr Ala Jebreel Ears, Nose, Throat Sheffield
> Dr Maged Agour Psychiatry Doncaster
> Dr Assaddullah Reha Psychiatry London
> Dr Coral Jones General Practice London
> Dr Brian Robinson Psychiatry Milton Keynes
> Dr Charles Essex Paediatrics Leamington Spa
> Dr Colin McKean General Practice Liverpool
> Dr Tim Paine General Practice Bristol
> Dr Felicity de Zulueta Psychiatry London
> Dr Walid Abdul-Hamed Psychiatry Chelmsford
> Dr Sushrut Jadhav Psychiatry London
> Dr Katy Briffa Psychiatry Tavistock
> Dr Rhodri Huws Psychiatry Sheffield
> Dr Duaa Saeed-Chesterman Histopathology London
> Dr Khalil Hossenbux Internal Medicine London
> Dr Sylia Chandler General Practice Evesham
> Dr Jo Moncrieff Psychiatry London
> Dr Mamdouh El-Adl Psychiatry Northampton
> Dr Tomasz Pierscionek Psychiatry Newcastle
> Dr Neil Wellappili Psychiatry London
> Dr Rukyya Hasssan Psychiatry Manchester
> Dr Aneesa Peer Psychiatry London
> Dr Tessa Harris Population Health Research Institute Reading
> Dr Musa Sami Psychiatry Kent
> Dr Ghada Karmi Public Health London
> Dr Eric Windgassen Psychiatry Manchester
> Dr Bob Johnson Psychiatry Isle of Wight
> Dr Sandra Oelbaum General Practice Liverpool
> Dr M Makhdum Psychiatry Colchester
> Dr Jane Hamilton Perinatal Psychiatry Stirling
> Dr Ian Kerr Psychiatry Stirling
> Dr Roger Allen Dermatology Nottingham
> Dr Stephen Ginn Psychiatry London
> Dr Norbert Andersch Psychiatry/Neurology London
> Dr Carine Minne Forensic Psychiatry London
> Dr Betty Gordon Surgery London
> Dr Hisham Al-Qassab Physician London
> Dr Anna Livingstone GP/medicolegal reporting London
> Dr Estela Welldon Forensic Psychiatry London
> Dr Brian Martindale Psychiatry Newcastle

(h/t Spotlighting)

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.

01/28 Links Pt2: US Customs issues 'Reminder' WB Goods Cannot Be Marked 'Made in Israel'

From Ian:

US requires Judea-Samaria goods to be labeled

A mail from the Cargo Systems Messaging Service of the US Customs and Border Protection dated to this Saturday, and revealed by Channel 1's "Mabat" show on Thursday, shows the US is now required products from Judea and Samaria to be labeled differently.
In new instructions on marking requirements sent out to American importers, goods from Judea and Samaria are not to be marked "Israel." Those who do not comply are to be sanctioned.
"West Bank Country of Origin Marking Requirements," reads the title of the mail, which begins by clarifying that "the purpose of this message is to provide guidance to the trade community regarding the country of origin marking requirements for goods that are manufactured in the West Bank."
"Goods produced in the West Bank or Gaza Strip shall be marked as originating from 'West Bank,' 'Gaza,' 'Gaza Strip,' 'West Bank/Gaza,' 'West Bank/Gaza Strip,' 'West Bank and Gaza,' or 'West Bank and Gaza Strip.'"
"It is not acceptable to mark the aforementioned goods with the words 'Israel,' 'Made in Israel,' 'Occupied Territories-Israel,' or any variation thereof," warned the mail. It threatened that such goods that are marked as products of Israel "will be subject to an enforcement action carried out by U.S. Customs and Border Protection." (h/t Yenta Press)

Isi Leibler: The requiem for the Oslo Accords warrants a unity government

The controversy over the Oslo Accords, which bitterly divided the nation over the past quarter- century, is no longer a contentious issue.
The late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin personally told me on numerous occasions of his concern that the deal with Yasser Arafat, whom he despised as a murderer, was a gamble that Israel had to take in order to satisfy itself and the world that it had sought every opportunity to achieve peace.
In contrast, Shimon Peres, then foreign minister, in response to a few critical questions I posed in the days after the Oslo announcement, lost his cool and angrily stated, “They took Entebbe away from me, but they will never do the same with the peace process.” Today Peres is possibly the sole remaining senior politician who still maintains that the deal with Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization should be retained as the basis for a peace settlement.
The consensus, extending beyond right-wing politics, which recognizes the failure of the Oslo Accords, was articulated by the former director- general of the Foreign Ministry Prof. Shlomo Avineri, an esteemed intellectual doyen of the Zionist Left. In an article published last October in Haaretz, Avineri enumerated a host of reasons on both sides that contributed to the failure. But overriding these was the fact that the Palestinian position did not consider the conflict as territorial but regarded all of Israel as a colonial implant which had to be uprooted. Avineri concluded that we are obliged to face the reality that there is no way Israel could achieve any mutually acceptable peace agreement in the foreseeable future.

Accusing Others of Dishonest Language, Beinart Distorts an Ambassador's Words

To help push along his goal of turning readers against Israel, Peter Beinart erased the murder of Dafna Meir. He didn't gloss over it. He didn't fail to mention it. He actively erased it.
Beinart's Jan. 27 column in Haaretz is similar to most of his columns. It uses a hook from the news to make the case that Israel and its supporters should be blamed for the continuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In this particular piece, he seized on criticism of Israel by the US ambassador to Israel, and a follow-up statement by the ambassador about the poor timing of his comments, to rebuke not only Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, but also the US ambassador, Dan Shapiro.
Shapiro said during a Jan. 18 speech that "at times there seem to be two standards of adherence to the rule of law: one for Israelis and another for Palestinians."
Netanyahu responded harshly: "The ambassador's statements, on the day when a mother of six who was murdered is buried, and on a day when a pregnant woman is stabbed – are unacceptable and wrong." This and similar criticism prompted Shapiro's follow-up comments that in which he said that "the timing" of his criticism wasn't ideal, and that "if it has, god forbid, hurt the Meir family or other mourners then I sincerely regret it."
But however innocuous and appropriate the follow-up may have been, to Beinart it was an outrage. On Twitter, Beinart took Shapiro to task, insisting he had "apologized" for making a "mild" and "true" statement.

IsraellyCool: The Truth About Brian’s Facebook Video On Israeli TV

Last night the very popular Channel 10 Program “Hatzinor” ran a segment based on the video I made about Facebook. This is the one that was then taken down by YouTube and finally reinstated. With help from friends here is the segment with English subtitles.
The show is pretty huge: they shared this clip on Facebook mid morning and it’s had 71,000+ views in 8 hours. I’m glad this topic is getting widespread public attention here, especially today, the International Holocaust Memorial Day.
Huge thanks to D@rLin|{ and Rahel Jaskow for helping with translations and subtitles. If you need professional translation or copy editing in Israel please contact me

Brian John Thomas talks about Facebook hate on Israel Channel 10

UNRWA's existence and Arab intransigence allow EU to discriminate against Palestinians

Palestine News Network writes:

According to the Institute of Palestine studies, [Palestinian Syrians fleeing to Europe] often remain without legal status at first. Those who have family members in Europe may have an easier time attaining residency, but even many of those with family networks must find a way through the bureaucratic hell that characterizes both the asylum and family reunification procedures.

Greece and other European countries have created a special refugee status whereby Syrians may apply for and receive political asylum on the same day, but, for Palestinians, the process can be much more difficult because they do not have Syrian nationality. According to Professor Susan Akram, director of Boston University Law’s International Human Rights Clinic, there is considerable confusion and conflicting interpretations within and among European states about the status of Palestinian refugees in Europe under the 1951 convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Most European countries either do not recognize or incorporate Article 1D of the 1951 Refugee Convention into domestic law or interpret the article incorrectly, which cites:

“This Convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance.” [meaning UNRWA - EoZ]

So while Palestine receives support and protection from organs such as the UN, displaced Palestinians may not receive this support:

“This excludes from the benefits of the 1951 Convention those Palestinians who are refugees as a result of the 1948 or 1967 Arab/Israeli conflicts, and who are receiving protection or assistance from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)”. “While paragraph 1 of Article 1D is in effect an exclusion clause, this does not mean that certain groups of Palestinian refugees can never benefit from the protection of the 1951 Convention”
The conclusion of the Convention is rather unclear:

“The position of Palestinian refugees under international refugee law is complex and continues to evolve. This Note clarifies some pertinent aspects of the position of such refugees and is intended to serve as guidance for use in refugee status determination.”
According to Badil, practically, this means that Palestinian refugees in Europe are placed outside of the international protection system for refugees worldwide. Palestinian refugees often face difficulties when they apply for asylum, residence based on family reunification, employment etc.

To me, the UNHCR convention and its note of clarification for Palestinians are pretty clear - if UNRWA cannot help them (for example, in Europe) then UNHCR can. But the interesting part is whether European countries accept that interpretation for their own asylum laws. And if we are to believe this article, they are not doing that.

This means that the exclusion cause for Palestinians not to fall under the remit of UNHRC - which was meant to keep them in refugee status forever - is now causing them even more grief as they attempt to rebuild their shattered lives.

The PNN article of course blames Israel, but it is obvious that 67 years of Arab national discrimination against their Palestinian residents has resulted in them being treated badly today even by non-Arabs. This is a direct result of what the Arab League codified in Resolution 1547 of March 1959: that Arab nations do not give citizenship to Palestinians "to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right to return to their homeland."

Syrian refugees of Palestinian origin are being discriminated against in Europe because of a combination of the entrenched UNRWA regime that create an exception to UNHRC rules on refugees plus Arab nations' explicit decision to keep them stateless.

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.

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column:

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.—Pericles (Athens, c. 430 BCE)

America hasn’t been invaded since 1812, and after the Civil War (which only peripherally involved other nations), all of its wars were fought on battlefields comfortably far away. The Imperial Japanese came the closest to striking America at home, but were not able to follow up their successful attack on Pearl Harbor with an invasion. Americans have been almost uniquely isolated from the rest of the world, and especially the tribal complexities of the Middle East until very recently, and in general they still tend to be remarkably ignorant about them. Even presidential candidates.

Andrew McCarthy noted recently that Donald Trump, for all his attitude, has trouble distinguishing his ass from a hole in the ground in this connection. Some of the other candidates, like Bernie Sanders are not much better. And Hillary Clinton, while she certainly is better acquainted with the players, may or may not be on the right team.

Here in Israel, security is the number one issue in politics, for obvious reasons. The US hasn’t reached that point yet, although its enemies are pushing it harder and harder. But the American in the street and some in Congress are often less well-informed than even The Donald.

Not that the Middle East is simple. Several years ago I asked the late Barry Rubin why Shiite Iran was helping the Sunni Hamas in Gaza, while it opposed the ideologically similar Muslim Brotherhood. This was despite the fact that Iran’s deadly enemy Saddam Hussein was close to both Hamas and the PLO. Arafat famously took Saddam’s side in the first Gulf war and got Palestinian guest workers kicked out of Kuwait, and the families of Hamas suicide bombers received stipends from Saddam. Rubin just laughed and said that when I understood that I would understand the Middle East.

The broad Sunni-Shiite struggle is reflected in American politics, too. Historically, the US has been on the Saudi (Sunni) side, a result of the Saudis’ massive purchases of influence with American politicians and academic institutions. Sometimes working through oil companies and sometimes by promising huge sums of money (payable after a politician leaves office) as in the case of Jimmy Carter and the Clintons, the Saudis seemingly locked up the US. Even the supposedly tough Israel lobby couldn’t beat the Saudis when they went head to head (as happened when the US sold AWACS aircraft to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s).

When Barack Obama was elected, everyone expected that he would maintain the cooperation with the House of Saud like Reagan, Clinton and the Bushes. But in a move that shocked many, Obama turned against the Saudis and toward Iran, making a deal that greatly strengthened the Islamic Republic in its bid to replace the US-Saudi axis as the dominant power in the region.

One explanation for this shift in policy is that Obama seems to have bought into the 2006 Iraq Study Group report, lock, stock and barrel. The report argued that in order to stabilize the Middle East, the US had to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by creating a Palestinian state in the territories, and engage with Syria and Iran. The report was wrong-headed, both in its misunderstanding of the objectives of Iran and its acceptance of the idiotic ‘Linkage Theory’, in which the root cause of Mideast problems is Israel’s occupation of territories captured in 1967. In any event, it became the keystone of his foreign policy.

To be fair to the authors of the report (one of which was Obama advisor Ben Rhodes), they may not have intended to translate ‘engagement’ as ‘surrender’. But that is how Obama sees it, with his ideology of apology, his belief that most of the world’s ills are due to the use of Western, particularly American, power. He wishes to engage in order to withdraw.

America’s abandonment of the Middle East is a major change in a policy that has been more or less constant since the end of the Second World War. It will probably be the one thing that students of history 50 years hence will know about the presidency of Barack Obama, in addition to the fact that he was the first ‘black’ president. But we will see the fruits of the deal much sooner, probably within the next five years, in the form of a regional war in the Middle East, a massive increase in worldwide terrorism, and perhaps even ‘man-made disasters’ in the US.

Although Hillary Clinton endorsed the Iranian nuclear deal and claims to favor ‘engagement’ with Iran, she did not actively campaign for it. She did not take part in the negotiations with Iran; she was replaced by John Kerry in February 2013, and the initially secret channel with Iran was opened in March of that year. Maybe she stepped down in advance because she did not want to participate in this process.

Why wouldn’t she? Well, the Clinton Foundation had recently received $25 million from Saudi Arabia, and multiple millions in grants and speaking fees from other Gulf states worried about Iran. Bill and Hillary Clinton have reported to have been paid over $125 million (and there may be more payments that were unreported) by companies and foreign governments since 2001, many in the Middle East. She is certainly in the Saudi corner.

She also might be smart enough to realize that nothing good can come from the deal, and doesn’t want to be associated with it when the fallout hits the fan.

She has been very guarded about what her actual policies would be if elected, and she is not – how can I put this delicately – someone known for excessive truthfulness anyway. From an Israeli point of view, some of her connections, like Sid Blumenthal, Thomas Pickering and of course Huma Abedin are troubling. And there is a long list of more-than-questionable things said and done by Ms Clinton in connection with Israel over the years.

The coming presidential election will be immensely important, because it may not be too late to reverse the course set by Obama. As an Israeli, I care that the American president be one that will reassert power in the Mideast – and one that will support Israel. And as an American, I want one that understands the danger that the civilized world faces from expansionist Islam of both the Sunni and Shiite variety, and who will keep America safe from the very real threats that Obama pretends not to see.

That certainly isn’t Trump, Clinton or Sanders. It might be Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. Choose wisely.

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.

01/28 Links Pt1: Another UN disgrace; Commemorating dead Jews while hating the living

From Ian:

Anne Bayefsky: UN fails to learn lessons of Holocaust. It focuses on showmanship

Analogizing Palestinians to the Jewish victims of the Nazis: that’s how the UN is marking this week’s “International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.” The epicenter of modern antisemitism on a global scale is not somewhere over there, but in the middle of Turtle Bay.
For public tour groups, and their busloads of impressionable American students from around the country, the UN ‘s permanent “Palestine” exhibit has now been arranged to be within a few feet of the UN’s permanent Holocaust exhibit.
This week’s activities follow suit.
On January 25, 2016, a temporary exhibit called “Holocaust by Bullets” was opened in the UN visitors’ lobby. The painstaking research of the French organization Yahad-In Unum substantiates how two million Jews were shot to death in the presence of normal folks all over Europe.
But “Holocaust by Bullets” follows the UN’s December exhibition, which is titled “Palestinian Children: Overcoming Tragedies with Hope, Dreams, Resilience and Dignity.” That month-long display in the visitors’ lobby consisted of scenes of Palestinian children suffering from “devastating” wanton, unprovoked Israeli “operations.”
Father Patrick Desbois opened Yahad-In Unum’s exhibit by explaining that his team locates the bodies of Nazi victims and then honors the dead. He is driven to ensure that Europe does not bury “all its values” by building its future on unacknowledged and unvalued human beings in mass graves.
Palestinian UN representative Riyad Mansour opened December’s exhibit with a different set of values – incitement for Palestinian children to kill more Jews. As Mansour explained: “we are so proud that in this popular uprising, the backbone of this uprising are the youth of Palestine.”

Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt: We have gone back to the Middle Ages and face religious war with the fascists of radical Islam

If the 20th century could be characterised as a battle between territories, then I believe the 21st century has seen a return to the religious wars of the Middle Ages. The rise of Isil has followed fifteen years since 9/11 where Islamic religious terrorism has become the premier menace to democracy. In fact, the attacks on 9/11 ended the 20th century, in which secular totalitarian ideologies, such as Nazism and Communism challenged the existing world order and world peace.
One of the many challenges this new war poses is that it goes against the tolerant, inclusive society that has developed in the Western World over the last fifty years. For that reason, the first reaction of many is to divorce terrorism from religion. Many feel that the only way to protect religious freedoms is to deny radical elements. We need to understand the fact that there are radicalised aspects within many faiths, in particular Islam. Its fascist offshoot, Isil, is a strain of Islam and must be treated as such. These interpretations of Islam must be denounced but we must realise that we have now entered a religious war.
Islam, as it is practised today in some parts of the Middle East, is similar to Christianity in the premodern times, it has not yet developed or learnt to integrate into society. Therefore, by definition, it is entirely medieval and contrary to the basic tenets of a liberal state or democracy. But it would be ridiculous to assume that more than one billion Muslims are radical and dangerous. Instead we need to learn to differentiate between those strains that have developed and those strains that are a genuine danger to the developed world.

MEMRI: For International Holocaust Remembrance Day: Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei Publishes Holocaust Denial Video

Today, January 27, 2016, International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei published on his official website a three-minute video clip titled "Are The Dark Ages Over?" In it, he expresses doubt about whether the Holocaust actually happened, rages about Europe's ban on public questioning of the validity of the Holocaust, and hints at a conspiracy on the part of Western Europe and the U.S. – which champion freedom of speech yet at the same time prevent open discussion of whether the Holocaust happened, and rages about Europe's ban on denying the Holocaust.
Khamenei attacks what he calls the hypocrisy of the West that champion the value of freedom of speech yet prevent any discussion of whether the Holocaust actually happened. This silence about the Holocaust that is imposed by the West on their citizens, he hints, is a conspiracy by the Western countries and the Zionist regime, aimed at establishing falsely, justification for Israel's existence, as it expels the Palestinians.
He then calls on the Muslim ummah, in a religious message, to come together to fight Israel and her Western patrons, because it is they who are perpetrating the real "Ignorance" – Jahiliyya – a reference to the era of ignorance that preceded the advent of Islam.
The clip also features images of leading European Holocaust deniers such as Roger Garaudy, Robert Faurisson, and David Irving, and highlighted the alleged persecution of them by Western authorities.

Supreme leader of Iran marks Holocaust Memorial Day by publishing Holocaust denying video

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, has marked Holocaust Memorial Day by publishing a Holocaust denying video on his official website.
While nations around the world remembered the millions of people who were killed in Auschwitz and other concentration camps, Iran’s hardline leader questioned whether the Holocaust “is a reality or not”.
Khamenei's website promotes the video with a banner across its homepage, featuring a montage of images, including one of Adolf Hitler.
Wednesday was also the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland where more than one million people were killed during World War Two. The majority were Jews and the former extermination camp is the world's biggest Jewish cemetery.
Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis attempted to annihilate all of Europe’s Jews. In one of the largest genocides in history, approximately six million Jews were killed by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime and its collaborators.
Khamenei's message comes as President Hassan Rouhani tours Italy and France, attempting to drum up trade and diplomatic links after his country signed a historic deal to limit its nuclear ambitions.

Qatari newspaper Al Sharq published an article yesterday that says that the Jewish issue is the most serious issue today, especially the danger posed by Jews to the Islamic nation.

Mustafa al-Maleh cites the Quran to say that the Jews have no religion nor ideology nor ethics nor humanity.

Jews, we are told, only care about Jews and want to kill everyone else. They are racist selfish arrogant bloodsuckers, as can be seen in their Torah.

Jew throughout history are the very model of corrupt rotten morality, and the evil attributes have become hereditary, part of the Jewish genetic code in every time and place.

The Jews are liars and sly traitors but the Jews are also fools and cowards and misers and keen to break agreements, quick to do sins and transgressions and make mischief in the land and divert men from the way of God.

Finally, we are told that the Jews play a huge secret role to achieve their goals no less what they do in public. They commit conspiracy, murder, espionage and they ignite revolutions using multiple methods including creating strife, controlling the media, assassinations and a psychological war against Islam and Muslims.

As far as I can tell, none of the world leaders who spoke at Holocaust Memorial Day ceremonies yesterday said anything about the major source of today's antisemitism - the incitement being published daily in the Arab and Muslim worlds.

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.

A video response to a small part of Vox's "history of ME conflict" video

Recenly, Vox.com released a video that claimed to explain the "Israel-Palestine" conflict in simple terms.

It is filled with deceptions, omissions and lies. Others have taken it apart nicely in print.

This was an experiment to see how easily I could create a video to critique another video in near real time. Yet even though I only look at the first 3 minutes of Vox's video, my response clocks in at 17 minutes - way longer than I expected. And I still didn't say everything I wanted to (I didn't mention the Mufti, or Arab ethnic cleansing of Jews especially in Jerusalem, for example.)

I'm not certain I will create parts 2 and 3, because I don't know who will want to spend maybe 45 minutes listening to a critique of a ten minute video. Literally every ten seconds I needed to stop to respond to another distortion or lie. But let me know what you think.

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.

Facebook removes EoZ poster for "violating community standards"

Yesterday I posted a report that showed that well over half of the antisemitic posts on Facebook remain even ten months after complaints are lodged.

Yet it only took Facebook a day or so to remove a poster I created this week that was reposted by the Israel's Voice organization:

Posts by the people who call these murderers heroes permeate Facebook, but pointing out that fact violates the rules!

I just looked at a thread from Shehab News Agency mentioning that the Jew who was stabbed yesterday in Givat Ze'ev was in serious condition, and the righteous Arab Facebook commenters are wishing that he dies and goes to hell.

Meanwhile, the Felesteen newspaper has a fawning article about a girl in Gaza who paints stones to celebrate attacks on Jews:

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.