Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, April 21, 2016

04/21 Links Pt1: PA seeks "right" to kill Israelis; Hamas Claims Responsibility Jerusalem Bus Bombing

From Ian:

PMW: PA seeks international recognition for "right" to kill Israelis

The Palestinian Authority has claimed for years that they have a right under international law, confirmed by a UN resolution, to kill Israeli civilians in all places and at all times. Accordingly, those Palestinians who have killed Israelis are said to have done something positive and heroic. Palestinian murderers of Israeli civilians are presented as heroes and role models.
Now the PA is taking its ideology to the international forum and seeking recognition for these fundamental principles of PA ideology. They are asking that Palestinians have an internationally protected right to murder Israeli civilians, that will also be recognized as a positive act that should be awarded.
As a means to attain this recognition, the PA is asking the international community to award an imprisoned Palestinian terrorist with the Nobel Peace Prize. As the leader of the Tanzim, Fatah's terror wing, Marwan Barghouti orchestrated many terror attacks in which Israelis were murdered. He was convicted in an Israeli court and is serving 5 life sentences for murder.
According to the head of the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake:
"The candidacy [of Barghouti] is essentially a call to recognize the legitimacy of the prisoners' struggle... and also a response to the claims and Israeli terms that do not recognize the legitimacy of their struggle, and treat them as 'terrorists and criminals'..." [Donia Al-Watan (independent Palestinian news agency), April 14, 2016]
The PA's request of the world to "recognize the legitimacy of the prisoners' struggle" is the PA euphemism for "recognizing the legitimacy" of Palestinian killing of Israelis.
Barghouti was convicted of five murders - for the killings of the five people below. The PA wants the international community to "recognize the legitimacy" of their murders, by awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize:

Hamas Branch in West Bank Claims Responsibility for Jerusalem Bus Bombing

The West Bank branch of Hamas claimed responsibility on 20 April for a suicide attack on a passenger bus on Jerusalem’s Moshe Baram Street three days earlier on 18 April, which had injured 21 people and marked the first large-scale attack on public transport since a 17 April 2006 suicide attack in Tel Aviv. The claim came after Hamas initially released a statement praising the attack – something it does regularly following small-scale attacks – but which came short of taking credit for it.
The modus operandi of the attack and Hamas’ claim mark a potential escalation in the group’s attempts to begin staging more concerted attacks in Israel, amid a rise in the number of small-scale stabbing attacks – primarily carried out by Palestinian perpetrators undirected by Hamas – since June 2015.

Bus bomber threatened Jews ahead of attack: 'Your day will come'

A day after a man wounded in Monday’s bus bombing in Jerusalem died from his injuries, new details have emerged regarding the alleged terrorist.
Immediately following the attack, which left at least 16 people wounded, Israeli police suspected that the most severely wounded passenger on the bus was the bomber responsible for the attack. The explosive device had been placed on the bus floor between his feet, suggesting that he was in fact the bomber, and that the device had exploded prematurely.
On Wednesday the Hamas terror organization claimed responsibility for the attack, telling Al-Jazeera that the alleged bomber was a member of the group.
New details emerged on Thursday regarding the suspected bomber, who has been identified as Abd al-Hamid Abu Srour, a 19-year-old from the Bethlehem area.
Israeli police have yet to confirm the identity of the young man, who was carrying no identification on the day of the attack.

The Maccabeats do some Justin Bieber songs.

Aish does its thing, also with Bieber but also Adele and Cecil B. DeMille:

The Y-Studs channel Michael Jackson (a"h):

Six13 does "G-d Split the Ocean."

Very brief greetings from Tel Aviv University:

And a mashup of well-known songs by Elliot Dvorin and the Key Tov Orchestra:

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Palestine Press Agency reports that the Palestinian intelligence service wrote a memo to Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian intelligence service that revealed that a Zionist organization was funding Palestinian media to wage campaigns against the Palestinian Authority and Prime Minister Dr. Rami Hamdallah.

According to the memo, the Al Hadath media company says that it gets all its funds through advertising but that an examination of its expenses show that this is impossible. Therefore, it must be getting its money for its anti-PA articles from outside sources.

And this crack intelligence team found out that the editors of the newspaper met with J-Street representatives at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem.

The so-called intelligence agency says that one of the goals of the "well-funded" J-Street is to distort and disrupt the PA's political system. It also goes on to find connections between the Al Hadath newspaper and Hamas.

There you go!

J-Street, of course, is in love with Mahmoud Abbas and his government, and never says anything against him, reserving its "pro-Zionist" message only against Israel (with the occasional anti-Hamas message thrown in for balance.) This memo reveals only that the PA is hopelessly paranoid and incompetent.

But I would love to know what J-Street tells its Palestinian media pals at the American Colony Hotel.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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The bus bomber was a Hamas member; Palestinians celebrate

Yesterday, the bomber of the Jerusalem bus officially became a suicide bomber.

Hamas said that 19-year old Abed al-Hamid Abu Srour was a member of the group, announcing that "his martyrdom proves that the Jerusalem Intifada is ongoing and that attempts to stop it failed."

The terror group reported that scores of youths in Bethlehem marched to the family home of Abu Srour to celebrate..

A Palestinian cartoonist drew a picture of a woman handing out candies in front of the bombed-out bus.

Hamas media celebrated the return to the glory days of "martyrdom operations" as well. Al Resalah has an article fondly remembering attacks such as the massacre at the Park Hotel "which was packed with hundreds of Jews celebrating Passover" and the Dophinarium disco massacre.

It should be recalled that only a couple of months ago, a popular music video was released that encouraged the return to bus bombings, "The Roof of the Bus Goes Flying," with lyrics like:

Oh bearer of good tidings, wrap the explosive belt around your waist. Oh bearer of good tidings, wrap the explosive belt around your waist. The story of the Intifada will only be told when the roof of a bus goes flying.

Oh Martyrdom-seeker, heed the call of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, make the blast of the bomb reach further and further. Make Netanyahu flee in shame, unable to count the number of casualties. Scatter them all over, strike fear among their people. Show no mercy to their settlers. Dispatch them to Hell. Nothing awaits them but the grave.

Step up and take revenge on behalf of your religion. Blow it up – may you be successful. Oh you who wears the explosive belt, your head is held high, when we bring the good tidings.

Oh Martyrdom-seeker, put on your explosive belt, and blow it up. This is your finest hour. How sweet are your bombs and explosives. Blow up the shameless Zionist.

This song is now being sung at gatherings that have been celebrating the terror attack.

Abu Srour's Facebook page shows that he became radicalized two years ago, when he started changing his cover photo to show terrorists.

Before that he had photos of people smoking pot and slightly risque jokes.

But he clearly identified with Hamas specifically over time.

Here he is indoctrinating the next generation.

His last cover photo was of Yehya Ayyash, Hamas' master bombmaker known as "the Engineer." The video celebrating bus bombings was released on the anniversary of his death.

Incitement directly leads to terror.

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A guide to survival in the Middle East (Mordechai Kedar)

Translated from here:

__________________________

A guide to survival in the Middle East

To my brethren and friends, the Jews who live in Israel and abroad.

It saddens me to let you know that those attacks from which we have been suffering today, yesterday, a week, a month, a year, a decade and a century ago, are indeed the same war that our neighbors have been waging against us for over 100 years. Sometimes they fight with a great fire, with tanks and ships and airplanes, and sometimes they fight with a simmering fire, “Terror” they call it, with explosions, stabbings and shootings. This war is called “Jihad” in Arabic, and it is directed at Jews wherever they may be.

It saddens me to remind you that this war began a long, long time before Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948. The pogroms of 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1936-39 were not caused by the creation of Israel, nor by the “occupation of 1948”, as our enemies refer to it. This war is most certainly NOT waging because of the “1967 occupation”. The Hebron Jews who got massacred were not a part of the Zionist movement. The Organization for liberation of Palestine (the Fatah) was established in 1959, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (the PLO), in 1964, years before the “1967 occupation”.

It saddens me to remind you that the calls we heard during our war of independence were “Itbah al-Yahud” - “Slaughter the Jews” - Not the Israelis or the Zionists. This is because their problem is with Jews (and for that matter, Christians as well) refusing to live under the mercies of Islam as “Ahel D’ima” or “Proteges”, as obliged by their religion. To this day, in various Arab countries around the world children sing: “Palestine Baladna wa’al-Yahud Kalabna” - “Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs”. The dog, according to Muslim tradition, is an impure animal, and according to Sharia law if a Muslim is praying and a dog, a pig, a donkey, a woman, a Jew or a Christian passes before him, his prayer becomes impure and he has to start over.

It saddens me to tell you that a common chant with Israel’s enemies is: “Khybar, Khybar ya yahud, Jish Muhammad siaud” - Khybar is an oasis in the Arab peninsula in which Jews used to live until Muhammad slaughtered them in 626 AD. The chant is to remind people of what happened and says “Khybar, Khybar oh Jews, Muhammad’s army will return” - to do it again. According to the Koran, Surah 5:82, Jews are “Muslims’ fiercest enemies”, and in verse 60 it states that Allah’s curse and wrath are on the Jews and he turned them into monkeys and pigs. So, who gave them the right to own a country? Since when do they have the right to sovereignty?

The Language of Power

Despite what you may think, the peace with Egypt came about only after Sadat realized that despite the Arab’s efforts to eliminate Israel in 1948’s was of independence, in 1956’s Sinai war, in 1967’s six day war, in 1970’s war of attrition and in 1973’s Yom Kippur war which started as a complete surprise, Israel not only survived but managed to move the war into enemy grounds. Realizing that Israel is unbeatable, Sadat begrudgingly turned to peace, even if the peace will be temporary and based on the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah from 628 AD, in which Muhammad gave the Mecca infidels temporary peace for 10 years, only to retract it two years later.

The Oslo accords with Arafat did not stem from his belief in peace either. They were a con, a trojan horse which Arafat himself called “Treaty of Hudaybiyyah”. The entire purpose of the Oslo accords was to create a Palestinian entity with an army and weapons, one which will eliminate Israel when the time is ripe. He said it day in and day out, and our policy makers said that it was for “internal consumption only”, and when suicide bombers exploded in our streets, they called them “victims of peace”. Since when does peace require victims? And how long before the guns we gave them are turned on us?

It saddens me to tell you that all of Israel’s efforts to appease Hamas in Gaza were for naught, and that Hamas has turned from a terrorist organization to a terrorist state. Deadly rockets, attack tunnels, suicide bombers - those are all viewed as legitimate instruments by Gaza’s Jihad government. They do not give a single hoot about the lives, health, property or prosperity of the people, the women and children in the strip. The residents of Gaza are pawns in the hands of Hamas, the Jihadists and the Salafis, who make their current lives hell while “allowing” them to be sent to heaven.

It saddens me to tell the gentle peace lovers in Israel and around the world that the concrete and iron we were forced to provide Gaza’s Jihadists with to rebuild the destruction, were used to build tunnels of death - death to Israelis and death to the sons of Gaza. Instead of rebuilding their hospitals, schools and infrastructure, the Jihad people have built the infrastructure for death, suffering and disaster. You made the mistake, again, of basing your policy on hopes, dreams and delusions instead of on data and facts. And even the commentators (myself included) share the blame: We all said with one voice that when Hamas will assume responsibility over food, electricity and the livelihood of Gazan population, they will moderate, and become realistic and pragmatic. Well, we were wrong: The Hamas movement, despite its evolution from an opposition organization to a governing body, has left Jihad against Israel at the top of its priority list, and did not moderate its absolute negation of “The Zionist Entity” one bit.

The Blinding Peace Vision

It saddens me to spoil the “Two peoples, two states” party. What happens today in Gaza will, with absolute accuracy, happen in the Palestinian state you are trying to create in Judea and Samaria. Hamas will win the elections to the legislative assembly in the same way they did in January of 2006, and they will win the presidential elections. If not, they will simply enact a violent revolution just like they did in Gaza in June of 2007. And when that happens, what will you say? “Oops… We didn’t realize… we didn’t think…?” So, now you know and you don’t have to think. This should be your working assumption. And if today Gaza’s Hamas digs tunnels in the sand, the tunnels in Judea and Samaria will be dug in rock, making them that much harder to find and destroy.

And for those with a particularly short memory: In July of 2014 Hamas managed to close the Ben Gurion airport for a day with rockets they sent from Gaza. If and when they control Judea and Samaria, they will be able to close the airport with even a slingshot - they will have direct view of it from Bet Arieh hills. If you don’t believe me, just take a short drive to the hills just east of the airport, those that are in the “occupied territories” (occupied from whom, exactly?). Because of the wind patterns, most planes approach the runways from the east, passing exactly above those hills. Will Hamasland allow Israeli airplanes to approach and land from above its territory? And what price will Israel have to pay after a plane was taken down with a machine gun or an RPG? Shall we give them Jerusalem to keep them quiet?

Speaking of Jerusalem, what will you do when Hamasland serves you with an ultimatum: Jerusalem or war? Temple mount, or we close Ben Gurion Airport? And when the world shows their support of those demands, appeasing extremist Islam with Israeli payments, what will you say? And when the sharpshooters are again dropping pedestrians in Jerusalem over the walls of the Old City, just like their Jordanian brethren did in 1967, where will you hide? Behind concrete walls? Or a safety fence? Will you transfer Israel’s capital to Tel Aviv?

It saddens me to inform you that the worst thing to ever happen for hope and peace is the various peace movements, those who call upon Israel to let a terror state rise in Judea and Samaria and to give east Jerusalem up. In the Middle East, those who ask for peace, those who sing about their passion for peace and those who offer their land and their country in exchange for a piece of paper which says “peace”, are perceived as those who were defeated in war and are now begging for their lives. The peace movements have painted Israel as soft, weak and defeatist - an image which, in the middle east, does NOT get you peace. In this extremist, violent corner of the world in which Israel is trying to survive, being perceived as weak will earn you a swift kick in the you know what, and get you thrown out harshly on a good day, or beheaded on a normal one. In the middle east, “Peace” means that your enemies leave you alone because you are too strong, too aggressive and too dangerous to mess with. In the middle east, peace is only for the invincible.

Those who refuse to accept these facts, those who are not ready for blood, sweat and tears, those who are anxious for “peace now”, should not be in the middle east. It is a place for the strong, the brave, the determined, who firmly believe in their way. For all others, they should probably find a different place to live. Somewhere quiet and prosperous, like Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Boston or San Bernadino.

(h/t Miki for translation)

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04/20 Links Pt2: Glick: Where UNESCO and ISIS converge; Harvard Students Hurl Anti-Semitic Slurs at Livni

From Ian:

Hamas: Fatality in Jerusalem bus attack was the bomber

Palestinian terror group Hamas said Wednesday night that the man who died earlier in the evening of wounds sustained in Monday’s Jerusalem bus bombing was the terrorist who placed the explosive device in the vehicle.
The terror group identified him as a 19-year-old Palestinian from al-Ayda refugee camp outside of Bethlehem. His name was still barred from publication on Wednesday evening amid the ongoing Israeli investigation of the attack.
The Hamas announcement appeared to fall short of a full claim of responsibility for the attack, in which 21 people were injured.
Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital confirmed earlier Wednesday that a man who was seriously injured in the Jerusalem bus bombing on Monday had died of his injuries. Police were said to still be investigating whether he was the bomber in the terror attack.

Caroline Glick: Where UNESCO and ISIS converge

Bokova said Palmyra “carries the memory of the Syrian people, and the values of cultural diversity, tolerance and openness that have made this region a cradle of civilization.”
Bokova added, “The deliberate destruction of heritage is a war crime, and UNESCO will do everything in its power to document the damage so that these crimes do not go unpunished. I wish to remind all parties present of the absolute necessity to preserve this unique heritage as an essential condition for peace and the future of the region.”
The problem is that UNESCO commits the very crimes for which it condemns ISIS. Indeed, it committed the crime of seeking to wipe out history, whose preservation is “an essential condition for peace and the future of the region,” the day it passed its resolution on Palmyra.
Right after UNESCO’s board unanimously passed its resolution on Palmyra, it also passed a resolution whose goal is to erase Jewish history in the land of Israel.
The resolution, titled merely “Occupied Palestine,” (a country that doesn’t even exist), defined the Temple Mount, Judaism’s most sacred site, as an exclusively Muslim site. Jews who visit it were referred to derisively as “right wing extremists.”
The Western Wall, Judaism’s second holiest site, was similarly referred to as an exclusively Islamic site.
The resolution reinstated a previous resolution’s false claim that the tombs of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people in Hebron and Bethlehem are mosques. The resolution, like the one from last week, was also a war crime, where UNESCO acted with malice to destroy the historical record.

Online petition: UNESCO must not erase Jewish Temple Mount ties

An online petition has been launched calling on UNESCO to reverse its recent "insulting" resolutions which deny any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount or Western Wall.
Last Thursday the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) provoked outrage when it adopted an Arab-sponsored resolution in which the holiest sites in Judaism - the Temple Mount and Western Wall - were labeled as Muslim sites. In the resolution, the Temple Mount was referred to as "Al Aqsa", while the Western Wall was labeled the "Al-Buraq Wall," the latter a reference to a relatively recent Muslim legend that claims Mohammed once tethered his mythical winged horse at the wall.
The shocking decision followed a similar move to deny Jewish heritage at two other holy Jewish sites - the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem.
Now, the International Legal Forum and StandWithUs are asking people throughout the world to sign an online petition in protest of the latest move to erase Jewish heritage in Israel.
As of the publication of this article, the recently-launched petition has garnered more than 1,700 signatures.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom just released a report on bias in Pakistani school textbooks, and as one might expect, there is plenty of antisemitism being taught in this populous state with nuclear weapons.

Examples:

BALUCHISTAN TEXTBOOKS: GRADE 5 – ISLAMIC STUDIES (1)
Chapter: Jesus (p.114–115)

1. “The Governor of Rome remained neutral as he knew the deceitfulness of Jews. He left the decision [of Jesus’ punishment] on religious scholars of Jews. Upon the decision of the Crucifixion of Jesus, the Jews became happy. They tortured Jesus badly. Jesus was surrounded by a crowd of Jewish enemies.”

BALUCHISTAN TEXTBOOKS: GRADE 7 – SOCIAL STUDIES (8)
Chapter: Muslim World and the Colonial System (p.23–30)

“Jews were few in number but the Englishmen treated them fairly. They promised to establish a Jewish state before they came into power [. . .] The Jews occupied a large area, this created restlessness in Arabs and several disputes surfaced, but the British kept supporting the Jews [. . .] Israel exterminated all the Muslims in the region and those who remained were exiled from their own country. Arab people stood against the Jews but the United States, United Kingdom and other western nations supported/helped the Jews at every step.”

Chapter: Muslim Freedom Movements (p. 38,44)
“Jews forced out thousands of Palestinians from their own country and they become homeless. Due to this threatening attitude from the Jews, 14 Arab state representatives gathered in Cairo.”

“In 1969, when Israel set fire to the Aqsa mosque, the act created distress in Muslim world.”

KPK TEXTBOOKS: GRADE 6 – URDU (1)
Chapter: Organization of Islamic Countries (p.76)

“In the last half of the twentieth century, the Muslim world was free from Western oppression, but the West continued its conspiracies to keep Muslims disempowered so that Muslims could never become a super power of the world again... In 1949, the Jews tried to set fire to the occupied Al-Aqsa mosque.”

SINDH TEXTBOOKS: GRADE 5 – URDU (1)
Chapter: True Stories (p.77–78)

“We are Jews and designated by our nation to reach the grave of your prophet and take out His Holy body. We were about to accomplish our goal when you arrested us. Upon listening to this, the King became furious and beheaded them with his sword.”

There is, of course, lots of anti-Christian and Hindu material in these textbooks as well.

(h/t Solomon2)

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UNESCO Mulling Denial Of Egyptian Connection To Pyramids (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Geneva, April 20 - On the heels of a resolution ignoring the Jewish pedigree of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and accusing Israel of forging roots in the land by planting what it called fake graves, the United Nations Educational and Social Council (UNESCO) is considering a similar measure that explicitly denies anything Egyptian about the pyramids.

Council insiders with knowledge of the organization's proceedings told reporters this afternoon that the general sense among UNESCO delegates was that they had to appear more balanced and consistent, especially regarding Israel, and would therefore entertain draft proposals in keeping with this week's blatantly ahistorical and discriminatory resolution against Israel and Jewish history. A leading candidate for such a follow-up resolution involves the rejection of anything Egyptian about the pyramids, ancient monumental tombs for the Pharaohs and other important figures.

"It's long been a trope that UN agencies single out Israel for negative attention," conceded a delegate who spoke on condition of anonymity. "So we've been looking for ways to counterbalance that image. While it's true that in general, UNESCO itself has generally taken a less staunch anti-Israel line, the most recent resolution makes that irrelevant, almost denying its own history. Appropriately enough."

The delegate further revealed that in addition to denying an Egyptian connection to the pyramids, the Council was considering declaring the Great Wall of China not Chinese, though that idea has generated less support. Less likely scenario also involve a UNESCO denial of indigenous status to Inuit populations in Canada and dismissal of the notion that Arabic bears any connection to ethnic Arabs. Given the sway Arab countries have in the organization, the latter proposal will in all probability not be advanced.

"We were looking for ideas that would convey the same seriousness as when this body addresses Israel," explained another representative. "I think the proposals we've received so far do a good job of accomplishing that, each in its own way. Personally, I would have preferred to see more representation of South American culture, but the group working on the proposal to deny the Amazon as part of Brazil was sidetracked by the impeachment of the president there."

Several other proposals never made it past the initial stages, as UNESCO personnel quickly realized the absurdity would not be as obvious as that of the original anti-Israel resolution. Among those were a denial that global warming has anything to do with human industrial activity, and a rejection of democracy as compatible with Islamic culture.

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04/20 Links Pt1: Sanders Advisor: Israel Will Be ‘Eliminated’ By International Community; Fatah: kill Israelis, be a Martyr

From Ian:

Israel Will Be ‘Eliminated’ By International Community, Says Ex-U.S. Official Who Advised Sanders

Former U.S. official Lawrence Wilkerson, who has reportedly advised Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)’s presidential campaign, used a recent radio interview to claim that Israeli behavior will see the Jewish state “eliminated by the international community if not the 350 to 400 million people around it who are opposed to it.”
He used the interview to call for a total reassessment of the U.S. relationship with Israel, claiming that “Israel is becoming such a strategic liability for us, that it’s detrimental to our own national security.”
Without citing any specific evidence, Wilkerson espoused a conspiracy theory that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has designs for a “greater Israel” that would encompass parts of Lebanon and Syria, and possibly all of Jordan.
In the interview, Wilkerson recognized that his words would probably ensure against his working in American politics in the future.

Obama redefines Palestinian terrorism; Israel will pay the price

Obviously the State Department has a right to condemn Israel's security tactics if it believes those tactics are unjustified. No country, not even America's staunchest ally, should be above criticism. But the administration does not have a right to redefine some types of Palestinian terrorism, in order to classify them as non-violence, so that Israel's response to them qualifies as "excessive."
The State Department does not deny the principle that Israeli soldiers are justified to shoot at Palestinians who are attacking them. But it is now redefining what constitutes an "attack." As examples of "excessive force," the report points out that during the past year, there were "numerous" instances of "the ISF (Israel security forces) killing Palestinians during riots, demonstrations, at checkpoints, and during routine operations…"
So if an Israeli soldier kills a Palestinian "during riots" or "demonstrations," that automatically constitutes "excessive force," according to the Obama administration. In other words, "riots" and "demonstrations" are not in the category of actions which could justify a lethal Israeli response.
Anyone who has ever seen footage of Palestinian "riots" and "demonstrations" --and the footage is freely available on YouTube-- knows that they typically consist of mobs of Palestinians hurling Molotov cocktails, bricks, and rocks at Israeli soldiers.
If a Molotov cocktail strikes a soldier, it sets him on fire. It can burn him to death. If a brick or a rock strikes an Israeli soldier in the head, it can blind or even kill him. At least fifteen Israelis have been murdered by Palestinian rock-throwers over the years.

Joe Biden Versus the Israeli People

If Israelis don’t trust the Palestinians, it is because of that precedent and the fact that the moderates of the PA, upon whom Jewish leftists and the likes of Biden regularly fawn, also applaud and encourage terror. During Biden’s recent visit to the region, a non-Jewish American army veteran was murdered during a rampage by a Palestinian terrorist in Jaffa not far away from whether the vice president was dining. But not even that was enough to force Abbas to issue a condemnation of the attack. To the contrary, the PA and its official media continue to foment violence by lauding terrorists and spreading canards about Israel seeking to harm the mosques on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
As Biden ought to know, there were majorities in the Knesset for concessions to the Palestinians in the past. Indeed, the Israeli people supported the Oslo Accords and would probably embrace any new agreement if it indicated that the Palestinians were offering real peace. But those majorities evaporated after the second intifada and the disastrous retreat from Gaza. The latest intifada and Abbas’s support for terror have marginalized the views embraced by Biden and J Street within Israeli politics. Indeed, even the head of the Labor Party opposition in the Knesset — the leader of Shaffir’s party — has indicated that the two-state solution is impossible for the foreseeable future because there is no Palestinian partner for peace.
Why can’t J Street and the administration see what the overwhelming majority of Israelis see? Perhaps they are too blinded by political bias and by their illusions about the Palestinians. Perhaps they are also too ideologically committed to their critique of Netanyahu to be able to realize that his three consecutive election victories is the consequence of Palestinian choices — which were illustrated yesterday by a bus bombing in Jerusalem and the discovery of a new terror tunnel that reached into Israel from Gaza — about which Israelis have no control. Israelis understand that until a sea change in Palestinian political culture occurs, there is nothing to do but to manage the conflict, and many Americans can’t seem to be able to forgive them for this realistic attitude or to understand that the verdict of Israeli democracy deserves as much respect as U.S. elections.
As Biden’s speech indicated, U.S. policy and the views of people like Bernie Sanders and J Street are out of touch with the reality of the Middle East when it comes to their critique of Netanyahu. More importantly, they are angry with Israelis for preferring common sense to the advice of American liberals who have the hubristic notion that they can save Israel from itself. Until these liberals sober up and accept reality, Israelis will have to live with their disdain.

If B'Tselem had been in ancient Egypt.... (cartoon)

Who says we cannot make the Seder relevant while sticking to the story?

(h/t and translation thanks to Yoel)

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Tradition! Abbas justifies honoring murderers

An interview that Mahmoud Abbas gave to Der Spiegel is filled with more of his outrageous lies:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In fact, Israel is plagued by a wave of Palestinian violence in months. The offenders are mostly very young and act spontaneously . Many speak of a "knife-Intifada".

Abbas: That's no intifada. We need to understand why these young people to perpetrate such attacks . This generation witnessed daily violence and humiliation of the occupation regime and experienced it as their land is occupied by more and more settlers. If Israel ceases thus, no child will go out with a knife.

As I've noted, in Arabic the reasons given for the knifings has never been "humiliation." It's been specifically because of Palestinian incitement of claiming that Jews are attacking the Al Aqsa Mosque (and then revenge for those killed while trying to murder in the name of Al Aqsa.) The idea that these attacks are because of "humiliation" is a lie that Palestinians tell the Western media, but not the reason they tell each other.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Netanyahu government accuses them of inciting the perpetrators. What's your response?

Abbas: I am against these attacks and say this again and again.

Not in Arabic. The only times I've seen this mentioned in Arabic is when Arab media quotes Abbas making these claims to Western media.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So you have no influence on the younger generation?

Abbas: If a young person has lost hope, then he does not care whether I condemn his actions.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You, however, meet with the members of this attacker and write condolence letters. Does this not send the wrong signals?

Abbas: If a Palestinian dies, we support his family. This does not mean that we support his actions.

Here's just one of many posters that had been published on Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party's official Facebook page:

We began with stones and we will end up with a state

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You call the killed attackers martyrs. Does this not imply heroism?

Abbas: We do not encourage our young people to violence. But if someone comes through the hands of the Israeli security forces to death, then we call him a martyr. This is our tradition.

However, Abbas' party also celebrate as "martyrs" people who were not killed by Israel - they celebrate suicide bombers, as recently as last week!

So Palestinian "tradition" is not to celebrate people killed by Israel as "martyrs," but to celebrate people who kill Israelis and die as a result.

And not only Israelis. Palestinians also celebrated the murder of 3000 Americans in the not too distant past.

Tradition!

There are lots of other lies in this interview, of course, like Abbas claiming that the conflict has nothing to do with religion when he was the one who incited his people to attack Jews with his two weeks before the outbreak of the most recent stabbing spree:

“We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem... With the help of Allah, every shaheed will be in heaven, and every wounded will get his reward … Al-Aqsa is ours, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is ours, everything is ours, all ours. They have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet."

Lying to Western media is apparently another of those sacred Palestinian traditions that you must not question, because that would show a severe lack of respect for their culture.

(h/t Quintessenz)

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Does JP Morgan Chase restrict debit cards for visitors to Israel?

I received a disturbing message from Pam Bloom, currently traveling in Israel:

I'm in Israel right now and was unable to use my Chase debit card at 3 machines. I called Chase. I was informed that I could not set up a "travel notification" for Israel due to Israel being on "list of restricted countries". When pressed, what that meant, they said that Israel was high risk. When pressed, they cited high risk for fraud. Following my call, about an hour later I tried again, my card worked, for 400 NIS.

Below are two screenshots, where I went to the Chase website and put in travel for Israel, with the Chase warning that my action could not be completed. For the Palestinian territories, my request was accepted. I continued to try Cuba, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Iran-all were not accepted, along with Israel.

________________________________________________________________________________

Chase told me that my card would possibly work but that they cannot guarantee it. I am now completely locked out of Chase but I will try again tomorrow.

In tweeting them, I finally received the Tweet, attached, that Chase now cites OFAC as why they can't process my request. I have a credit card, United card through Chase (probably white labeled), my travel notification works OK there so this appears to be a "business decision" and not a US government decision.

Here's the tweet:

@Telecombarbie There're countries that are identified as high-risk through OFAC that aren't sanctioned. We don't have a list to provide. ^NA
— Chase Support (@ChaseSupport) April 19, 2016

OFAC's only public list is of countries that are under sanctions, at the moment. Israel is of course not on any of them, and there is a sanctions wiki that seems comprehensive.

This is very weird, and Chase should explain this policy which only seems to affect their debit cards, not credit cards. Although it is true that far more damage can be done to a consumer from having their debit card hacked than a credit card, so perhaps Chase is assuming Israel is a country that it is likely for people to be defrauded.

Either way, people who travel to Israel should know about things like this before they go so they can make appropriate decision.

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