Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

03/29 Links Pt2: Glick: Israel’s democratic collapse; The Always Reliable United Nations; The EU Can Go to Hell

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Israel’s democratic collapse

Israeli democracy is in critical condition.
Sunday, the High Court of Justice ruled that the government’s natural gas policy is unlawful. The policy, which was negotiated with foreign energy companies, was to be the basis for developing the massive offshore Leviathan gas field. It was supposed to anchor future gas prices, ensure gas revenues for the government and energy security for the country in the coming decades. On the basis of this policy outline, the government negotiated deals to supply natural gas to Egypt, Turkey and Jordan.
Given the enormous cost of developing offshore gas fields, the policy, which was determined in close consultations with legal experts and regulators, determined a base price for natural gas that would be frozen for 10 years. The point of the price freeze was to encourage investors to take the financial risk of exploring and developing Israeli fields. The price freeze guaranteed them a minimal profit on their investment.
In a healthy democracy, the court would never have agreed to adjudicate the populist petition against the government’s gas policy submitted by a consortium of radical NGOs.
Under normal rules of standing that apply in every other mature democracy in the world, the petitioners would have had no right to submit their petition.
In states not controlled by a legal junta, as the people’s elected representative it is the government’s sole prerogative to determine the state’s energy policy and to sign deals with foreign governments and investors.

How a Court Sank Israel’s Economy

For the first several decades of its existence, the state of Israel was the butt of the old Jewish joke about Moses leading the Jews to the one place in the Middle East without natural resources. But after the discovery of vast natural gas fields off its coast (as well as shale oil on land), the jest no longer made sense. As Arthur Herman wrote in a feature in the March 2014 issue of COMMENTARY, the potential bounty from the Tamar field that has already begun producing natural gas and the far bigger Leviathan site on which development has not yet begun had the potential to make Israel the world’s next energy superpower. The prospect of not only energy independence but also of a large export business that would not only enrich the Jewish state but enable economic ties that would create new relationships and alliances that would make it far more secure.
The only worry about all this was not whether the gas could be brought out or whether it would play a part in transforming Israel’s economy. The only problem was whether Israel’s fractious political system and over-regulated economy and a judiciary and bureaucracy that seem most comfortable when stifling innovation and growth rather than enabling it would find a way to gum up the works and stop the gas fields from being exploited. Unfortunately, we now have the answer to that question.
Yesterday’s ruling by Israel’s High Court of Justice struck down a deal that Prime Minister Netanyahu had brokered between the government and Texas-based Noble Energy – which has taken the lead in developing Israel’s big energy project —and an Israeli firm that would have allowed work on Leviathan to begin.
This decision is the culmination of years of maneuvering that pitted Netanyahu’s government against a coalition of left-wing opponents determined to stop the project.

Michael Lumish: The European Union Can Go Straight to Hell

Jihadi violence in Europe, we are to understand, is because the Europeans have failed to suckle Arab-Muslim immigrants close enough to their breasts and if only they would be more open and gracious then the Jihadi immigrants would become harmless accountants and fishermen and shoemakers.
The truth, of course, is that Arab-Muslim imperial ambitions, grounded in hatred of the infidel - particularly the Jew - is what drives their violence throughout the world upon non-Muslims. It is due to western and American racism that the West blames itself for Muslim violence against its own people. It is because western "liberals" think of non-whites as inferior creatures in need of protection that they refuse to assign agency to their "little brown brothers" who are in need of protection against the allegedly aggressive West.
The current western-left attitude toward non-western people "of color" is reminiscent of, and in part derived from, nineteenth-century notions of "white man's burden." The condescension is so rich that the western-left refuses to even acknowledge that it is not their culture, but the Arab culture that has been the most successful imperialist-colonialist power within recorded human history, since the Romans.
The Europeans, in their ideological blinkertude, pay lip-service to Palestinian-Arab responsibility for the long Arab war against the Jews, but they always pressure and blame the Jews.
At the very least, the boycott movement “would swing into virtually nothing” if there was no Israeli-Palestinian conflict “to tag unto,” he argued.
I have to say, I love these European geniuses. What he is saying - if I can figure the math correctly - is that if there were no Arab-Israel conflict there would be no BDS movement against the Jews of the Middle East to begin with.

ISIS denies the linkage with "Palestine" that Abbas threatens the West with

Earlier today I posted that Mahmoud Abbas is trying to blackmail the Western world into believing that if they just pressure Israel to capitulate even more to his demands, then ISIS-style terror would cease.

Abbas claimed Israeli concessions would "ensure the end of all forms of terrorism, remove the pretext of extremists who have taken the Palestinian issue as an excuse to spread terror and murder, like ISIS and al-Qaeda and others, so we must achieve peace and end the occupation."

But ISIS explicitly denies Abbas' "linkage" argument.

MEMRI translates an article from the official ISIS magazine Al Naba:

For decades, the issue of Palestine and its occupation by the Jews has dominated the lives of Muslims the world over. The exaggerators have exceeded in stressing its importance, and the merchants have traded in it – to the point where most people came to believe that Palestine is the Muslims' primary cause. This is after the nationalists declared it to be the Muslims' top priority, and [vowed] that no other issue should be raised until Palestine was liberated, so as not to diversify efforts or waste capabilities. Moreover, many believe that there is no room for jihad [anywhere] but in Palestine. The preachers of fitna and the rulers' scholars everywhere condemn the mujahideen on all the battlefronts, and mislead the ignorant by asking 'why don't these [mujahideen] wage jihad in Palestine?'

Those who deviated [from the true path] hold that... the Muslim ummah has no enemy but the Jews who are occupying Palestine. Even those who do seek to expand the circle [of jihad] to include the Christian Crusaders are deviating from the shari'a by declaring that the only reason for their hatred [of them] is that they support the Jews.[4]

After nearly seven decades of empty slogans, Palestine is still ruled by the Jews, the Shi'ites, and their allies in the deviant parties who trade in the [Palestinian] cause – after ancient Palestine was divided into three parts, each ruled by a Taghout government that purports to be an enemy of the others.[7] Placing the matter of Palestine in the proper religious context, and smashing the idol that people have worshipped for decades – [that is, the idol of] 'the Muslims' No. 1 issue' – constitute an essential foundation for building any genuine action for the sake of this blessed region.

From another angle, Allah ordered His worshippers to fight all the infidels, without exception. Allah said: 'And fight against the disbelievers collectively as they fight against you collectively. And know that Allah is with the righteous. [Koran 9:36].' Therefore, what gave the Jews priority among all the infidels, to the point where those who deviate from the [true] path restrict jihad to them alone, in preference to others? The apostate [tyrants] who rule the lands of Islam are graver infidels than [the Jews], and war against them takes precedence over war against the original infidels. The legitimate jihad is fighting the Jews in Palestine, fighting the [tyrants] and their infidel supporters in every place and at every time, and fighting the Crusaders and all the polytheists in the world. Regarding restricting jihad to the Jews alone – this is an alteration of Allah's law, and constitutes following the delusions of the Taghout who seek to prevent Muslims from waging jihad against the polytheists and infidels in the countries that they themselves control.

ISIS members in Syria trampling Palestinian flag in 2004

ISIS regards the PA as just as much of a target as Saudi Arabia or Iran or the "crusaders" in Europe. Abbas is knowingly lying by claiming that pressuring Israel to concede more land would chill terror attacks.

But, as I wrote, it is in Abbas' interests to see more ISIS terror attacks in Europe so he can sell his lies to an audience that longs to hear that the solution is just to pressure Israel some more.

(h/t Akiva Cohen)

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Edward William Polson Newman, born in Glasgow in 1887, was a politically right-wing author whose works included The Middle East (1926) and a biography of Masaryk (1960). On 5 November 1929 the Portsmouth Evening News, the local daily newspaper of Britain’s premier naval port, carried the following article by him (described as Major E.W. Polson Newman) which Elder’s readers may not find uninteresting. It appeared under the title “How the Jew and the Arab Fail to Coalesce”. Since, given his reference to Shylock, Newman seems hardly what we might consider a “philosemite,” I think his evident sympathy for Zionist enterprise is all the more significant.

Wrote Polson Newman:

‘The despatch of another battleship to Palestine waters draws attention once more to the extraordinary conditions in which Arabs and Jews are huddled together in different parts of the Holy Land. The two peoples are at present “at daggers drawn” with one another, and yet they are in many cases next-door neighbours.

Although in the principal towns such as Jerusalem and Haifa, there are definite Jewish and Arab quarters, these sections of the towns are so mixed up with one another that often Jews are living on one side of the street and Arabs on the other. While the Jewish houses are mostly European in character with the addition of a good supply of Oriental dirt, smell and rubbish, the Arab dwellings are primitive in the extreme when once the door is passed. The Jewish men are industrious, and are usually to be found working at some trade or other, while their womenfolk make fairly good housewives. The Arab men, in spite of their great physical strength, are experts at doing nothing, and are usually to be seen sitting outside on stools, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, while their wives are shut up in the seclusion of the “harem”.

Some of the Jewish houses I have visited could not be distinguished from superior European villas, and the family life was just the same as that of a French, German, or Polish middle-class house. But, when you penetrate into the Jewish quarters of the “Old City” of Jerusalem, you find living reproductions of Shylock wandering about the narrow, cobbled alleyways and dodging in and out of queer-looking doorways leading to dingy and sordid apartments. These quarters are full of little courtyards out of which open dark passages. On either side are the doors of dirty little rooms, in which aged Jews with long beards and side curls pore over the pages of the “Sacred Law” and lament over the misfortunes of the people of Israel in the Holy Land. These are the Orthodox Jews, who suffered severely in the recent riots, although the Arabs have no ground of complaint against them and are chiefly hostile to the Zionist immigrants.

An Arab house is quite unlike anything seen in Europe. It is built entirely of stone, inside and out, and the atmosphere of homeliness finds no place at all. While the women, of course, have their own quarters allotted to them, the men live for the most part in one room. The centre of the apartment is entirely free of furniture, but the walls are lined with a row of sofas and chairs, stretching right around the room. For hours and hours, sometimes for the whole day, the men of the family sit drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and possibly talking politics.

The sanitary arrangements are most primitive, if they exist at all, and the few baths that are visible are usually full of corn for the chicken. Formal meals are serious affairs – much too serious for conversation. The most important part of an Arab house is the exterior, but this love of outward appearance is a characteristic of the entire East. I have visited the most palatial-looking villas whose interiors were almost like pigsties.

The greatest contrast between the Arab and Jewish homes is found in the country districts, where the Zionist agricultural settlements are often within a few hundred feet of Arab villages that might have been built two thousand years ago. On the one hand there is, perhaps, a Zionist cooperative settlement run on up-to-date lines, where Jews from all parts of Eastern Europe live in one community and farm the land. They have a common kitchen, take their meals together, provide collectively for their needs, and arrange their plans of work by mutual agreement. The profits are shared in equal proportion and no one can earn more than his fellow workers. Household work is pooled among the women, whether they are married or not, and this, together with the communal kitchen, enables them to devote their energies to the dairy, the poultry farm, or agricultural work in general. During the working day even the babies are herded together under the care of one mother.

The neighbouring Arab village is a very different affair. Square stone houses, in parts nearly as old as time, form a receptacle for a mass of human beings, camels, donkeys, pariah dogs, and chicken, and vermin of all kinds. Whole families live packed together in these terrible hovels, while the customs and mode of life have changed little since the days of Abraham.

Thus, the latest agricultural methods are employed at the end of a piece of land, while the other is cultivated according to the ways of the ancient Canaanites. In the former, water is pumped by hydraulic machinery; in the latter it is carried in great jars balanced on women’s heads.’

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03/29 Links Pt1: ISIS planning 'imminent' attacks on Jewish children in Turkey; Isn’t It Time To Defund The UN Yet?

From Ian:

PMW letter to Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs: Fatah promotes terror

Responding to Palestinian Media Watch documentation, Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Kristian Jensen admitted he "opposes" a Fatah official's terror glorification. However, the minister continues to view Fatah as "moderate" because the official, he believes, did not speak "on behalf of Fatah, the PLO, the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian government." [Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jan. 22, 2016]
This PMW report corrects the Danish minister's mistake. It documents that numerous senior Fatah leaders, Abbas' advisors, Mahmoud Abbas himself, the Fatah Central Committee headed by Mahmoud Abbas, and official Fatah media are all actively supporting and glorifying the current terror. Neither Fatah, nor any of its leaders, have condemned even one murder of an Israeli during the last 5 months of terror. To the contrary, they have glorified the terror and the terrorists.
PMW welcomes the statement by the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs indicating that were Fatah, its leaders and the PA glorifying terror, Denmark would "reassess" its categorization of Fatah as "moderate."

IsraellyCool: Kay Wilson Talks About Daily Mail Terror Funding On i24News

A few minutes ago Kay Wilson appeared on i24News talking about yesterday’s game changing Daily Mail story.
Also appearing were Ian Birrell, one of the journalists who worked on the story and regular i24News London correspondent, Jonathan Sacerdoti.
If you’re in the UK or a UK citizen abroad, sign the petition to get Parliament to talk about this.

Egyptian news site Sout al-Omma is reporting the Passover blood libel as straight news in its "investigations" section.

It says that Jews kill ten year old children, although if the child is younger that is acceptable, in order to drain his blood for use as an ingredient of matzah, in what it calls "one of the ugliest customs in the world. "[The Jews] think that making the unleavened bread [with blood] and eating it at the Passover feast is pleasing to the Lord and is a way to thank God who loves them," it says.

"Since the Middle Ages the Jews have baked their Passover bread mixed with the blood of human victims that are "sons of the infidels" in their view, of Muslims or Christians or other non - Jews, [murdering them] privately and discreetly," the article says.

The article claims that this is happening today, quoting a sarcastic 2012 Facebook post from Israeli basketball player Ido Kozikaro where he said "There is nothing better than beginning the holiday with matzot dipped in the blood of Christian and Muslim children." (He was detained by police and promptly apologized for the joke.)

It goes on to say that Israel imports children from Brazil and Africa today to murder them and drain their blood, using a nail-studded box to pierce their bodies and capture their blood.

Purim pastries are also made with the blood of gentile children, the "investigative report" adds.

Israeli Arabs live in fear of the weeks leading up to Passover out of concern that their children will be kidnapped and murdered, according to the report, which also delved into famous blood libels in Damascus and Algeria.

But don't call it antisemitism. Egyptians have nothing against Jews, this is just a news report.

The newspaper's Facebook page includes depictions of the ritual from medieval Christian paintings.

(h/t Shawarma News)

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Mahmoud Abbas met with Moroccan Jewish leaders in Ramallah on Monday and he put on his moderate face for his guests.

He said that Palestinians seek to reach an agreement with Israel and yearn live alongside it in peace. He said that he wants an international conference with all the countries of the world, including Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, to decide what would be the best way to reach peace. he said that he's willing to meet with any groups like this one that might help bring peace. He claimed that if only Israel would make peace, then 57 Arab nations would normalize relations with Israel.

He didn't say that the one set of people he is unwilling to meet with are Israeli officials who would actually be the peace partners for any realistic plan. He didn't say a word about the so-called "right of return" where he insists in every single speech given to his own constituents that there can be no peace deal without Israel being destroyed demographically. He didn't address his inciting Palestinians to stab Jews under the guise of "defending al Aqsa." He didn't say that he refuses to normalize relations with Israel today, and neither has any Arab nation that signed a peace treaty with Israel. No, he played to his audience to try to get them to pressure Israel to make concessions for a "peace "that would end up ripping Jerusalem away and from there go to the next stage of destroying Israel.

But one thing he said stands out. It was not the first time that a top PLO official has said this, but it is important to point it out every time.

Abbas claimed that resolving the Palestinian issue with what they consider a fair solution would "ensure the end all forms of terrorism, remove the pretext of extremists who have taken the Palestinian issue as am excuse to spread terror and murder, like ISIS and al-Qaeda and others, so we must achieve peace and end the occupation."

Except that ISIS and Al Qaeda don't usually claim that their terror attacks have anything to do with Israel.

The old discredited theory of "linkage" is an important tool in Abbas' arsenal. He knows that Europe is afraid of Islamic terrorists and he is offering them, against all logic and facts, an idea to hold onto - the idea that the solution to terror is Israeli capitulation to Palestinian blackmail. The argument is absurd but very attractive, because people who feel helpless against an enemy who terrorizes them would naturally have a strong attraction to any simplistic solution that doesn't involve them doing anything.

Abbas is saying that ISIS has nothing against Brussels or Paris or Ankara - they are only attacking the Europeans because Israel refuses to dismantle some Jewish communities that Europe is against anyway!

This seductive argument trumps logic - there is no downside to pressuring Israel and if there is a chance that it will take the wind out of the sails of the jihadists, isn't that worth a try?

In fact, giving in to jihadist demands emboldens the jihadists to redouble their efforts. It helps recruit more of them. It feeds into the fantasy worldview that the world is at war, and the Muslim side is winning on its way to inevitable, Koranically prophesied victory.

Abbas may not be a jihadist, but he is using jihadist language in the PA's official media to justify terror against Jews, and he subscribes to the jihadist idea that concessions are signs of weakness. He knows how to play the game, but his plan is to convince the world to give to him for free what he refuses to negotiate for.

Israel wants peace and security. Abbas is pretending to offer "peace" without any promises, without any concessions, with every intent to use his free gains to begin the next stage of Israel's destruction.

His cynical use of linkage is a double-edged sword, if Western nations woke up.

Here is what the West should answer Abbas:

If ISIS is threatening and killing Westerners on behalf of 'Palestine,' then Palestinian leaders should clearly say that the jihadists are not helping them at all. They should denounce any terror attacks in their name and say that anyone who joins ISIS for that cause is deluded and counterproductive. he should say that in the war between the free world and Islamic terrorists, he and his people choose the free world. In other words, if the terrorists claim linkage, Abbas and the PLO can explicitly break that linkage by dissociating themselves from all terror attacks done in their name.

That would have the exact same effect as Israeli concessions. In fact, it would be more effective because Palestinians would be demanding not to be used as an excuse for terror even before they achieve their political goals.

Abbas would never do that. If France or Belgium demands that Abbas break the linkage that he insists is there, they will find out which side Abbas is really on.

Because Abbas wants his cause to be linked to ISIS. He wants jihadists to continue to attack Western targets. It allows him to use "linkage" to his advantage.

So which side is Abbas really on - the side of peace or the side of the terrorists whose acts, he believes, help him blackmail the West to achieve his aims?

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03/28 Links Pt2: Anti-Semitism on California Campuses; Ryan Bellerose At AIPAC; Reflections of a Lebanese woman in Israel

From Ian:

Anti-Semitism on California Campuses

The problem on campuses across the country is that pro-Palestinian activists, in their zeal to seek self-affirmation, statehood, and "social justice," have waged an extremely caustic cognitive war against Israel and Jews.
Being pro-Palestinian on campuses today does not necessarily mean that one is committed to helping Palestinians be productive, live well, build a free and open nation or create a civil society with transparent government, a free press, human rights, and a representative government.
What being pro-Palestinian seems to have come to mean is continually denigrating and attacking Israel with a false historical narrative and the grotesquely misused language of human rights. What is claimed to be anti-Israel sentiment often rises to the level of raw anti-Semitism.
It is enough to make Jewish students, whether or not they care about Israel at all, uncomfortable, unsafe, or even hated on their own campuses.

Police seek to charge activist who reported Palestinian land-sellers

Police said Sunday they recommend trying the left-wing activist Ezra Nawi, who was exposed in a television report saying he helped Palestinian officials track down and possibly execute Palestinians who were considering selling land to Jews.
Several days ago Judea and Samaria District Police passed on Nawi’s file and that of another activist, Guy Butavia, to the state prosecution, which will decide whether to accept the police recommendation and press charges against the pair for contact with a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit a crime.
Nawi was arrested in January at Ben-Gurion Airport as he tried to leave the country, days after an investigative report in which he was recorded saying he helps Palestinian authorities track down Arabs who attempted to sell land to Jews. Butavia, like Nawi an Israeli activist from the Ta’ayush organization, was also arrested at the time.
Both men were later released despite police requests for them to be remanded in custody.

Reflections of a Lebanese woman in Israel

My black and white image of Israel has been shattered. My understanding has increased. I am truly glad I visited. I am proud to have Israeli friends and I am grateful to my colleagues for their generosity and talent. I will never view that the Occupation is good for anybody, not even in the long run, for the settlers insisting on building there. But I see that there is tremendous decency in Israeli society, that there are people who I really, deeply like, with whom I have common interests and ideas. People who want to live peacefully, do their art, their science, their jobs, raise their children and see them happy. People I can genuinely relate to.
Some Arabs may view me as a traitor and in fact, I have already been called one. But my loyalty is to decency and to people living the best lives they possibly can, rather than to being on one side or another of a fight. I am grateful for the experience I had and am a better informed person as a result.
I am very proud to have taken the culturally bold step of crossing the bridge and experiencing Israel. I was moved deeply when I realized how many Israeli hands reached out to support me during my stay. My attachment to the region and my love for my family there shine as bright as ever but now, when I think of peace, I also wholeheartedly dream for the peace and well-being of Israel and its people.

Al Araby and other Arab media outlets have a strange article calling the menorah that was it in the Jewish Temples a "myth."

Apparently, they are upset that Israel uses that symbol, along with the olive branches on the side.

According to the writer, Dina Ahmed, ancient Jews and their stories are all a myth, as everyone knows that no Jews ever lived in ancient Israel and Judah. So by appropriating a picture of the Temple menorah they are attempting to forge a history that never happened.

Ahmed says that Palestinians are assaulted by these symbols (I suppose this would be called a "microaggression" if Arabic had such a word, as of now it is simply aggression.) The symbol just shoves in their faces the lies of Jewish history that, to her, erases Palestinian Arab history.

There are various Israeli stories that ascribe an origin to the menorah and that connect it to God and prophets "to prove the authenticity of the Jewish religion and history." But, without elaborating, Ahmed tells us that these stories are all misrepresentations and myths.

"We all see this, but few of us know and understand what is behind the machinations and objectives, how this shield with seven branches penetrates in the minds of intellectuals," she warns us.

The olive branches add more insult to injury since they symbolize peace and we all know how little the Jews care for peace.

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A couple of years ago, when he was president of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi was seen on video answering "Amen" after a preacher said this prayer:

Oh Allah, absolve us of our sins, strengthen us, and grant us victory over the infidels. Oh Allah, deal with the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, disperse them, rend them asunder. Oh Allah, demonstrate Your might and greatness upon them. Show us Your omnipotence, oh Lord.

This is actually a very prevalent prayer not only in Egypt but throughout the Arab Muslim world.

An Egyptian TV host, Youssef al-Husseini, has come out publicly against this prayer, saying that Judaism is a sacred religion and it is not appropriate to say this in mosques.

He suggests that Zionists, not Jews, should be the object of Muslim wrath.

The Egyptian-Israel peace treaty is in force, even if Egypt still tells its people in official state media that Israel is the enemy.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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03/28 Links Pt1: Western morality and Islamic jihad; Fatah sanctions stabbing attacks against Israelis

From Ian:

Vic Rosenthal: Western morality and Islamic jihad

In order to survive, we must adopt a different world-view, one that – just as a small example – embraces the Talmudic principle that “when they rise up to kill you, come and kill them first” and rejects the idea that “terrorists are people too.”
Survival will require a more particularistic world-view in which our culture is considered more worthy of continuing than theirs. In this view, enemies are enemies, people to fight, not empathize with. If they try to kill our civilian populations, we must kill theirs too. Deterrence comes from fear, and fear is created by disproportionate responses, not offers to surrender territory. Honor – a concept that has been all but forgotten by the West – is of supreme importance to the jihadists, and we must maintain ours. A man or a nation without honor becomes a target. Killing terrorists who have tried to murder our people, whether on the spot (preferable) or with a sure and speedy death penalty, is a way of preserving our honor.
This kind of moral system is not barbarism. It was commonly accepted several decades ago, and would have been recognized by Churchill, Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Thatcher. The ‘evolution’ of what we call morality since their day, which has brought us multiculturalism, post-colonialism, the insane political correctness in our universities, the UN Human Rights Commission, B’Tselem and Peace Now, has failed to stand against the assault of the Islamic jihad. It will not protect our culture, but rather will lead to its destruction at the hands of the true barbarians at our gates.
It’s time for a massive rethinking. Is it even possible that the West can turn itself around, can re-embrace the values that defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan? And can it change attitudes and behavior in time to save itself? I have no idea.
But I suggest we start here in Israel by dropping the charges against the soldier who simply did the job of every soldier from the beginning of warfare: he killed the enemy.

Noor Dahri: The difference between Palestinian resistance and terrorism: Hamas aren’t freedom fighters

I am heeding to the baseless statement of every Muslim organisation and individual that advocates that the Palestinians are resisting for their rights, their freedom and their stolen land. I asked them many questions regarding the difference between terrorism and resistance, but they could not satisfy me. We cannot label any individual as a terrorist or a freedom fighter but have to examine them through a clear definition of terrorism and Guerrilla warfare.
No doubt, there are 109 definitions of terrorism in the universe but the basic elucidation of terrorism is that mostly civilians have been targeted to attain a political goal. The majority of Muslims experts understand that terrorism and killing of innocent people is prohibited in Islam. Therefore, they do not support any type of terrorism but when the matter of Israel-Palestine raises, they change their posture and support Palestinian terrorism and justify it by stating that Israel is committing atrocities against the Palestinians. Why do they have a double standard when the situation comes to the Israel?
This is the ideology of anti-Semitism. I call it an ideology because hatred towards Jews is their religious obligation to perform whatever the social condition of the person, s/he gives birth to hate Israel and its Jewish citizens.

Killing an injured terrorist may be wrong, but it isn't murder either

Well, it wasn't. In fact, after half a year of daily attacks (and decades of brutal terrorism before that), that one soldier may have lost his calm and shot a would-be murderer in the head is far less worthy of outrage than the daily acts of Arab terror we have sadly become inured to. If anything, we should give pause for thought to just how few such incidents have occurred in spite of the huge pressure and constant dangers faced by IDF soldiers.
To those who answer with the predictable "we should be better than them," I would say that - apart from being a fundamentally racist sentiment (why are "we" better than "them"?) - I personally have no desire to be held to a "higher standard" than anyone else. "Higher standards," too, are a form of racism, particularly when - as is the case with Israel in the kangaroo court of international opinion - they magically apply only to our obligations, but afford us no greater rights or legitimacy.
So, as Israel navigates the difficult yet crucial task of enforcing the rule of law even on the complex and morally challenging battlefield, we must resist the urge to leap to uninformed conclusions, as well as the groupthink which pushes us to sympathize with the terrorist as a victim, and to view the soldier as a cold-blooded killer.
What happens subsequently is up to the military court to decide, and we should be proud of the State of Israel for that.

JTA hired a consulting firm to determine the most influential Twitter users in the Jewish world. It used an algorithm where the top 1000 individuals were (somehow) identified and then the ones who most influenced the others on the list went to the top of the list.

Here is the list:

William Daroff, The Jewish Federations of North America’s Washington office director, @Daroff
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, @netanyahu
Avi Mayer, Jewish Agency spokesman, @AviMayer
Danny Ayalon, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., @DannyAyalon
Peter Lerner, Israel Defense Forces spokesman, @LTCPeterLerner
Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic correspondent, @JeffreyGoldberg
Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to the U.S., @AmbDermer
Dan Shapiro, U.S. ambassador to Israel, @AmbShapiro
Rabbi Jason Miller, rabbi, entrepreneur and writer, @RabbiJason
Barak Ravid, Haaretz diplomatic correspondent, @BarakRavid
Esther Kustanowitz, editorial director of Mayim Bialik’s Grok Nation and L.A. Jewish Journal contributing writer, @EstherK
Avital Leibovich, American Jewish Committee in Israel director, @AvitalLeibovich
Lahav Harkov, The Jerusalem Post Knesset correspondent, @LahavHarkov
Michael Dickson, StandWithUs executive director, @michaeldickson
David Horovitz, The Times of Israel founding editor, @davidhorovitz
Arsen Ostrovsky, human rights lawyer and journalist, @Ostrov_A
Mark Regev, Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, @MarkRegevPMO
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, rabbi, British lord and author, @rabbisacks
Shimon Peres, former Israeli president and prime minister, @PresidentPeres
Yair Rosenberg, Tablet magazine senior writer, @Yair_Rosenberg
Adam Milstein, Israeli real estate investor and philanthropist, @AdamMilstein
Reuven Rivlin, Israeli president, @PresidentRuvi
Khaled Abu Toameh, Arab-Israeli journalist, @KhaledAbuToameh
Peter Beinart, The Atlantic and National Journal contributor and Haaretz correspondent,@PeterBeinart
David Haivri, Israeli settler activist, @haivri

I don't know if I made the top 1000 of the initial list - they stress that these are individuals, not organizations, and they might not consider EoZ to be a human being - but I did some analysis of the top 25.

Of those, I have more Twitter followers than six of them.

I am followed by eleven of them.

And I am blocked by one, Peter Beinart.

So apparently I have a fair amount of influence on the influencers. However, as Yair Rosenberg noted:

Of course, as any true Elder of Zion knows, the real mark of being one of the "most influential Jews" is not appearing on any list, anywhere
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) March 27, 2016

Exactly.

Anyway, this is a good list of people to follow.

JTA also published a list of 25 "guest stars" whose criteria are fuzzy, but they are worth checking out.

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From Ahram Online (Egypt):

A Hamas delegation returned to Cairo on Sunday following a visit to Qatar's Doha with “positive” responses to Egyptian demands.

The visit to Cairo by officials from Hamas, which has ruled the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip since 2006, comes less than two weeks after Hamas officials held similar talks with their Egyptian counterparts in Cairo.

Hamas is expected to respond on Sunday to Egyptian requests made in earlier talks.

Egypt has stipulated several demands to improve its relations with Hamas, according to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, including a pledge of non-interference by Hamas in Egyptian affairs; cooperation with Cairo on investigations over issues that affect Egyptian security; and stopping extremists and hostile parties from entering or leaving the Strip from Sinai.

The demands also include severing Hamas' ties with the banned Muslim Brotherhood and the prevention of cross-border smuggling activity.

A senior Palestinian diplomat told Ahram Online on condition of anonymity that there have been clear indications of Hamas’ intent to strategically repair its relationship with Egypt, making it a major priority due to pressures the movement has been facing.

"These pressures include accusations of involvement in the assassination of Egypt's top prosecutor, as well as an Egyptian media campaign that has harmed the movement's image in front of the Egyptian public, which is considered one of the most important incubators of the Palestinian issue,” the diplomat said.

He added that Hamas was also feeling “the loss of Egyptian leadership, which differs in importance from any other forms of leadership in terms of its general role in the Palestinian issue.”

The diplomat added that Gaza being on the Sinai border makes it imperative that Hamas presents concessions in its policies regarding Egyptian requests that the border be more tightly controlled, which could come through the stationing of Palestinian Authority presidential guards along the border.

The source said that the movement is also required to cooperate in investigations concerning Egyptian security by interrogating individuals wanted in Egypt and informing Egyptian authorities of the outcomes, or handing over fugitives to Egypt.

Egypt has reportedly also demanded the severing of Hamas' ties with the banned Muslim Brotherhood and the prevention of cross-border smuggling activity.

According to media reports, the Palestinian Islamist movement has removed posters and slogans of the Muslim Brotherhood and its leaders around Gaza streets following the first round of talks with Cairo in an act of reconciliation with Egypt.

"What Hamas did in removing these images is a formality, and Hamas still has a long test ahead of it where it has to overcome many obstacles,” the diplomat said.

“The Jordanian [offshoot of the] Muslim Brotherhood has severed ties with the [Egyptian] mother organisation, so why doesn't Hamas take the same initiative? We have to wait and see their policies following their return to Gaza after their series of regional visits."

Hamas will present its requests to the Egyptian side during the visit, including the opening of the Rafah border crossing, which has been closed most days of the year by Egyptian authorities since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013; a halt of media campaigns against the movement, an end to the Egyptian flooding of cross-border tunnels; and the return of four Hamas members who "disappeared" last year in Sinai.

"We have to wait and see Egypt’s response to the requests by Hamas," he added.

Hamas seems desperate, as Egypt is more hostile towards Gaza than Israel is. Hamas has gone from being a valued partner with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood government in 2012 to a despised group by the current government.

It is difficult to know how this will shake out, and what the role of the PA might be especially at the Rafah border crossing.

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Kikar Hashabat reports that Al Aqsa preacher Sheikh Omar Abu Sara was convicted of incitement and racism based on a 2014 sermon he gave at the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Here is the text of that sermon published by MEMRI:

Let me start by saying that talking about the traits of the Jews requires one to get into a special mode, because we are dealing with people to whom every single vile trait has been attributed. They were the masters of these vile traits, and they taught their secrets to others. These traits were registered in the Quran, which depicted all aspects of the lives of the Jews in the most abominable images.

These traits are the same today as they were in the days of yore. Nay, they have become even more vile and evil with the development of means of crime and corruption in this day and age. By Allah, the Jews are the most evil of Allah's creations. They are the most evil creatures to have walked this Earth.

They are the slayers of prophets. Ibn Al-Qayyim said that they had killed seventy prophets in one day, and that they had killed a total of over 10,000 prophets. They tried to kill our Prophet Muhammad twice, as far as we know.

It was the Jews whom Allah turned into apes and pigs, and afflicted with degradation and humiliation.

We are living in a time when the battle with the Jews has drawn near, as our Prophet Muhammad was reported to have said: "You fight the Jews until the trees and the stones will say: Oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim, there is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him."

I say to the Jews loud and clear: The time for your slaughter has come. The time to fight you has come. The time to kill you has come. Allah willing, we are ready for the task – we and the loyal and faithful Muslims, along with the armies of the state of the Islamic Caliphate, which will come to liberate this land from your filth.

We await the day – nay, the very moment – of your slaughter. We are ready. By Allah, we are. Do your worst. The balance of power is tipped in your favor. Go ahead and kill! Go ahead and slaughter! Stones, trees, and humans suffer at your hand. Please do not leave in our hearts a single grain of mercy towards you, oh Jews, because when the day of your slaughter arrives, we shall slaughter you without mercy.

Oh Allah, make that day come faster.
Crowd: Amen.

Omar Abu Sara: Oh Allah, hasten the day of the [slaughter[ of the Jews.
Crowd: Amen.

Omar Abu Sara: Oh Allah, hasten the day of their killing.
Crowd: Amen.

Omar Abu Sara: Oh Allah, hasten the day we fight them.
Crowd: Amen.

Omar Abu Sara: Oh Allah, hasten the day of their slaughter.
Crowd: Amen.

Omar Abu Sara: Allah, hasten the day when the Al-Aqsa Mosque is cleansed of their filth.
Crowd: Amen.

Omar Abu Sara: Oh Allah, hasten the establishment of the state of the Islamic Caliphate.
Crowd: Amen.

Omar Abu Sara: Oh Allah, make it a righteous caliphate in the path of the prophets.
Crowd: Amen.

Omar Abu Sara: Oh Allah, hasten the pledge of allegiance to the Muslim Caliph.
Crowd: Amen.

The judge noted that the Palestinian knifing spree is connected to this sort of rhetoric.

Two weeks ago another Al Aqsa preacher, Sheikh Khaled Al-Mughrabi, was convicted and sentenced to an eleven month prison term for similar incitement. He had claimed that Jews make matzah with gentile blood but his indictment came from calls to destroy Jews in accordance with the Koran.

The pro-Israel NGO Honenu has been instrumental in bringing these videos to Israeli police to force the arrest of the hate sheikhs.

It is nice to see that something is being done - finally - about open incitement to terror.

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Teen terrorist is praised by Haaretz because his martyrdom note wasn't monstrous

The bar for how little Palestinians have to do to be considered saintly keeps getting lower.

From David Sarna Galdi at Haaretz:

[O]n March 9th, as live television broadcasts jumped between different scenes of attempted attacks, one news report caught my eye. Mid-morning at the Zawiya checkpoint in the West Bank, a 16-year-old boy, Ahmad Amer, from the neighboring village of Mas’ha, approached Israeli soldiers with a knife and was immediately killed. Nobody else was injured.

While the troubling details of the attack otherwise fit the familiar pattern, a Haaretz report mentioned that Amer had left a suicide note – an unusual detail. Driven by curiosity, I found a full copy of his letter.

“In the name of God, the most gracious, the most compassionate. May peace, God’s mercy and blessings be upon you.
Dear mother and father, forgive me and be pleased with me for I am a martyr by God’s will. Thank God for everything. I want you to recall my bad deeds and not my good deeds, so that people may forgive me.
I owe money to some people:
Rami Mohyee A-Din - eight shekels
My uncle Hamdallah - twenty shekels
Al-Beek Restaurant - thirty two shekels.”

The short note, in its humble, poorly scrawled simplicity, is a revelation. Not only does it portray complexity and humanity that is invariably lost between the headlines, but it shows us Israelis where we’ve gone wrong.

It's too late to ask 16-year-old Ahmad Amer why he made the poor decision to go up to an IDF checkpoint with a knife that morning - a long walk to what he knew would be his death. Before he could be arrested, interrogated and tried in court, which might’ve given us a clue as to the motive for his act, Amer was shot dead.

Despite Prime Minister Netanyahu and his right-wing government's determined efforts to ignore the deep-seated resentment and frustration behind politically motivated acts of violence, and to dismiss all attackers as zombies infected by incitement and hatred, equal to the Nazis or to ISIS, what emerges from the suicide note is a picture not of a hate-fueled killer robot, but of a boy. Amar believes in God. “Forgive me,” he begs, anticipating his parent’s disappointment. He seeks the forgiveness of his community. “Recall my bad deeds and not my good deeds,” is an unexpected, sophisticated twist of reverse psychology and penitence. This teenage boy believes he is sacrificing himself for what he feels is a greater good: his community’s historic struggle.

But the most astounding thing about the note is that this 16-year-old boy confesses to the money he owes a friend, a family member, and a local business, making one last request: that his parents pay it back. The sums of money in question are so small that the act of contrition would be laughable if it wasn’t so heartbreaking; For Ahmad Amer, a small-town boy with an adult's sense of responsibility and honor, those measly few shekels were crucially important. In the last moments of his life and, in his own moral world — incomprehensible to us — he was concerned with doing the right thing.

And then there is everything Amer’s message isn’t. It isn’t angry or hateful; it doesn’t speak about revenge or glorify killing. It is personal, casual and hauntingly resigned - a world apart from the scripted, Koran-wielding, politicized videos familiar to us from terror group-sponsored suicide attacks.

The suicide note makes it hard to write off Ahmad Amer as a homicidal jihadist monster; it reminds us that no person, even a violent person, is just one thing: good or bad, black or white. A Palestinian, it seems, is also a human being with beliefs, experiences, pathos, and motives that demand consideration. Yes, Palestinians are killing. But these killings are a twisted response to an equally twisted political and social reality that Israel has a strong hand in. In the words of Charles M. Blow, “You can’t condemn the unseemly howl and not the lash.”

Ahmad Amar teaches us that there is always a partner for negotiation, despite Israeli leaders’ claims to the contrary. As the powerful side of the equation, it’s easy to sit back, claim victimhood, blame — or just kill — the enemy and assert that there’s no possible path to a two-state solution.

Ahmad Amer’s suicide note teaches us that there is still hope for a renewal of the dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians founded on the basic mutual recognition of our humanity, and that there no excuse to stop trying to find a way. In another time and place, Ahmad Amer wouldn’t have attempted to kill and had to die for the sins of others, becoming a statistic in a fifty-year-old conflict. Like his death, his note is not eloquent, but conveys a message much more powerful than the sum of its words.

How much wishful thinking is crammed into this piece?

Because a kid who set out to murder Jews is also concerned about repaying debts, he is now considered the paradigm of a peace partner?

Osama Bin Laden was a fan of Whitney Houston, Charles Manson played a flute, John Wayne Gacy was a clown at children's birthday parties. Are they any less monsters because of these personal details?

Ahmad Amar was clearly not raised as a normal child to want to end his life this way. His decision to stab Jews seems to be a far more important detail of his life than his asking forgiveness in his martyrdom note. Also important was the fact that his mother greeted the news with "Thank Allah he is a martyr!"

I'd day that despite his idea that repaying a few shekels of debt is more important than life itself, Amar was closer to being a monster than a misunderstood moral actor.

But people who want to blame everything on Israel see someone who attempted murder as a victim and those who defended themselves - people who incidentally also have girlfriends, hobbies and other complexity in their lives - are the monsters.

The moral universe that Haaretz lives in is one where no matter what, Israelis are evil and Palestinians are saintly. And they don't even realize that they are engaging in the exact stereotyping that they claim Israelis are guilty of - with far less evidence to support that simple-minded conclusion.

Ahmad Amer woke up on March 9 intending to kill. The soldier who killed him did not. And that is a world of difference.

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