Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, July 28, 2016

07/28 Links Pt2: The ‘Termite’ Infamy and the Jews; Carlos Santana To BDS-Holes: Stop Whining, Complaining and Bitching!

From Ian:

Johnson, of course, is a Democrat representing Georgia’s 4th district. Greenblatt, to his credit, retweeted Johnson’s “apology” with the heading, “yes there was an apology, but no ‘point’ justifies referring to human beings in such an abhorrent, inappropriate manner.” The ADL retweeted Greenblatt’s personal tweet, but has yet to issue an actual statement on the controversy. In an election cycle that has enlivened anti-Semitism on both the far right and the far left, the ADL should have treated this moment with the gravity it deserved, responded in a professional and substantive manner, and used Johnson’s crude remarks as an opportunity to educate the electorate on anti-Semitism in all its iterations.
Another organization that has failed spectacularly this week? J Street. It is overtly anti-settlement, and, in striving to achieve its political aims, J Street makes rating and endorsing candidates a core part of its mission. Hank Johnson has been the beneficiary of both J Street’s endorsement and its fundraising. Thus in the wake of his remarks, the organization had an opportunity to demonstrate true leadership.
But how did it respond to this vile imprecation? The J Street statement incoherently contended both that “there is no place…. For personal insults or slurs against whole groups of people including settlers in the West Bank,” and that “the Congressman was clearly referring to the corrosive impact of the settlement enterprise… and not to individuals.” Indeed, the organization delivered a sharper rebuke to the media for breaking the story than to Johnson himself.
For Jews around the world, the three week period of mourning leading up to the fast of Tisha Ba’av has just started. The Talmud explains that the destruction of the Second Temple—one of the tragedies Jews mourn during the fast—happened as a result of Sinat Chinam, which is usually translated as “baseless hatred” within the nation. The phrase is often invoked to demonstrate how division renders the Jewish people weak and ripe for targeting. The responses from the ADL and J Street are distressing indicators of the condition of American Jewry as our mourning begins.

The ADL Should Not Accept Congressman Hank Johnson’s Phony Apology for Calling Jews ‘Termites’

It’s wrong for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to have failed to condemn as blatant antisemitism Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA)’s “termites” label for Jews living in Judea/Samaria.
It’s also wrong for the ADL to have accepted Johnson’s phony apology “tweet,” which read: “Poor choice of words – apologies for offense. Point is settlement activity continues slowly undermine 2-state solution.”
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is not alone in feeling this way.
Prominent Las Angeles Rabbi David Wolpe wrote: “That is not an apology. ‘I am sorry I said something stupid and anti-Semitic’ — that would have been a fitting apology. These are not trivial issues. . . . To call Jews ‘termites’ is base and vile.”
Commentary editor John Podhoretz tweeted: “How about using the term “anti-Semitic,” you cowards? He compared Jews to TERMITES, for f —‘s sake.”

Gideon Levy is outraged at Israelis:

One hundred and eighty babies and children up to the age of 5. One hundred and eighty helpless babies and toddlers that the Israel Defense Forces killed in Gaza in the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict. In their sleep, in their play, as they fled; in their beds or in their parents’ arms.
Try to imagine – the army killed 546 children in the course of 50 days. More than 10 children a day, a classroom every three days. Try to imagine.
But these updated, verified figures, released by the B’Tselem NGO on the second anniversary of the killing, are hard to imagine. It’s easier to dismiss them with a shrug, a look in the other direction or the lame excuses of Israeli propaganda.
The figures that should have haunted Israeli society and keep it awake at night – that should have sparked a stormy public debate and shaken it– are of no interest at all. Any natural disaster at the end of the world would have evoked more human feelings here than this slaughter, which Israel committed an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv.

As usual, Levy is only telling a small part of the story.

Because most of these innocent children were human shields. It is Palestinian society which is so sick as to willingly put their own children (and many other family members) at risk in the hopes that Israel would not attack their terrorist relatives.

Here is a very partial list of children killed in Gaza who happened to be killed along with their terrorist relatives.

Hussein Yusef Kaware’, 13
Bassem Salem Kaware’, 10
Muhammad ‘Ali Kaware’, 13
‘Abdallah Muhammad Kaware’, 12
Siraj Iyad ‘Abd al-‘Al, 8
Qassem Jaber ‘Adwan Kaware’, 12
Protecting Odeh Kaware, Hamas

Dunia Mahdi Hamad, 16
Protecting Hafez Hamad, top commander for Islamic Jihad in the Beit Hanoun (northern Gaza) area, who was directly responsible for the rocket fire on Sderot during escalation leading up to Operation Protective Edge

Asil al-Masri, 15
Muhammad al-Masri, 14
Protecting Amjad Hamdan

Nidal Nawasrah, 4
Muhammad Nawasrah, 2
Protecting Salah Nawasrah, 24

Sa'ed al-Haj, 16
Fatmeh al-Haj, 14
Protecting Omar al-Haj, Hamas

Muhammad al-Batsh, 17
Manar al-Batsh, 13
Qusai al-Batsh, 12
Anas al-Batsh, 10
Amal Bahaa al-Batsh, 2
Protecting Yazif al-Batsh

Ru'ya a-Zweidi, 5
Nagham Mahmoud a-Zweidi, 2
Protecting Mohammad Khaled Jamil al Zweidi, 20, PIJ

Umamah al-Hayah, 8
Khalil al-Hayah, 5
Hamzah al-Hayah, 4
Protecting Usama al-Hayah, Hamas

Hiba a-Sha'er, 15
Muhammad a-Sha'er, 5
Protecting Salah a-Sha'er, top commander for Islamic Jihad in Khan Younis, who was directly responsible for both rocket fire and terror attacks in Israel;

Sha'ban Ziyadah, 12
Protecting Muhammad al-Maqadmeh

Razan Abu Jame', 14
Jawdat Abu Jame', 13
Aya Abu Jame', 12
Fatmeh Taysir Abu Jame', 12
Ayub Abu Jame', 10
Haifaa Abu Jame', 9
Ahmad Abu Jame', 8
Maysaa Abu Jame', 7
Sajidah Abu Jame', 7
Husam Abu Jame', 7
Rayan Abu Jame', 5
Tawfiq Abu Jame', 4
Bitul Abu Jame', 4
Siraj Abu Jame', 4
Soheila Abu Jame', 3
Rinat Abu Jame', 2
Nur Abu Jame', 2
Bisan Abu Jame', 6 months
Nujud Abu Jame', 4 months
Protecting Ahmad Sahmoud, 34, top Hamas commander in Khan Younis

Najiyah al-Hilu, 15
Maram al-Hilu, 2
Karim al-Hilu, 5 months
Karam al-Hilu, 5 months
Protecting Muhammad al-Hilu, 29

Nariman Daher, 13
Shaymaa Daher, 10
Dana Daher, 1
Protecting Muhammed Daher, Hamas

Amin Siyam, 17
Ahmad Siyam, 15
Mustafa Siyam, 9
Ghidaa Siyam, 7
Mu'in Siyam, 5
Bader Siyam, 4
Dalal Siyam, 9 months
Protecting Muhammad Mahrus Siyam, 27

Nabil al-Astal, 13
Protecting Ashraf al-Astal, 28

Nada al-Astal, 5
Amin al-Astal, 4
Protecting Muhammad Al Astal

Abed Abu Hasanein, 14
Hadi Abu Hasanein, 12
Protecting Salah Abu Hasanein

Muhammad Abu Dabagh, 12
Ahmad Abu Qadus, 13
Abd al-Karim a-Darazin, 5
Muhammad a-Darazin, 3
Protecting Ghassan Yusef Salem Abu Dabagh. 25, Popular Front

Shamma Abu Zeid, 16
Bisan Abu Zeid, 12
Abdallah Abu Zeid, 5
Protecting Ahmed AbuZeid (apparently)

Arwa Dheir, 16
Omar 'Omar Dheir, 12
Salameh Dheir, 12
Mariyah Dheir, 12
Muamen Dheir, 9
Tasnim Dheir, 8
Muhammad Dheir, 7
Ghidaa Dheir, 7
Yamen Dheir, 6
Protecting 'Izat Salameh Mahmoud Dheir.

Nidal al-Agha, 17
Daliya al-Agha, 17
Iyad al-Agha, 16
Dina al-Agha, 14
Fadel al-Agha, 11
Protecting 'Abd and 'Ata al-Agha

Hala Abu Jaber, 9
Muhammad Abu Jaber, 3
Lin Abu Jaber, 2.5
Salma Abu Jaber, 1.5
Sama Abu Jaber, 1.5
Tuqa Abu 'Issa, 1
Protecting Ahmad Hamdan Muhammad Abu Jaber and Jaber Hamdan Muhammad Abu Jaber.

Liali a-Najar, 2
Aya a-Ramlawi, 9
Ousamah Breikeh, 16
Jana Breikeh, 3
Lama Breikeh, 1
Yazan Mu'ammar, 3
Hala Mu'ammar, 1
Omar Abu 'Amer, 12
Muhammad Ahmad Abu 'Amer, 12
Abd al-Ghani Abu 'Amer, 11
Imad Abu 'Amer, 10
Marah Abu 'Amer, 10
Yasser Abu 'Amer, 9
Issa Abu 'Amer, 8
Marwa Abu 'Amer, 5
Iz a-Din Abu 'Amer, 4
Suliman Abu 'Amer, 2
Protecting Muhammad Zaki Hassan a-Najar. 29

This does not cover all the houses bombed in Gaza - I stopped doing this exercise after identifying these 108 human shield children. There are definitely more.

Sometimes, the target escaped alive. I cannot verify those cases.

Sometimes, the target was a command and control center or a weapons cache or a tunnel opening under the houses where children lived. I cannot verify those cases.

Sometimes, the target was erroneously identified as a civilian by B'Tselem.

So there are a lot more kids who were killed while being forced to defend terrorist targets.

What becomes clear when looking at so many examples of Israel hitting homes that we know did have terrorists inside is that the IDF was not randomly firing at every building. These were valid targets. Considering that there are 1.8 million people in Gaza, the chances that so many children killed would coincidentally be in homes of terrorists is too tiny to consider.

The fact that children died is not proof of any immorality on Israel's part. That can only be proven if it can be shown that there was no valid military target and Israel knew that and attacked anyway.

What this list does prove is that Hamas and Islamic Jihad and other Gaza groups knowingly placed military targets among their own family members.

Gideon Levy isn't crying about what sort of society would do such a monstrous thing. Because he doesn't really care about the dead children. He wants to do what Hamas does - use them as a weapon against Israel. Just like B'Tselem. Just like Amnesty. Just like Human Rights Watch.

Which means that it is Gideon Levy and these NGOs who are the real monsters for not saying a word about - or worse, exonerating - Hamas and other Gaza armed groups for literally using their children as weapons in war.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

I like to say that I’m a tribalist. Imagine my surprise to find out that this really means Jewish conspirator aspiring to world domination!

Even if it isn’t used as a stick to beat Jews with, tribalism has a terribly bad name. Law professor Glenn Reynolds defines it as “The tendency to defend our own tribe even when we think it's wrong, and to attack other tribes even when they're right, just because they're other,” and blames it for escalating violence between police and blacks in the US. Economist Barry Brownstein calls it “the worst idea in history.” His definition is “the belief in the supremacy of one’s group identity over the rights of individual human beings.”

Have you met my superhero friend, Straw Man? These professors are well acquainted with him. In order to attack an idea, they first define it as something between torturing puppies and murdering old ladies. Then, surprise, they show how it is horrible, dangerous and evil. They would define a tree as a piece of wood growing out of the ground used to lynch people on.

The fact is that tribalism is a natural human characteristic, which has developed over hundreds of thousands of years of biological and social evolution, that simply means the propensity to prioritize the good of members of one’s own group over others.

It doesn’t mean one has to hate outsiders or refuse to help them if they need help. It doesn’t mean that one is obligated to defend one’s own no matter what they do. It doesn’t mean that non-group members are inferior beings, or don’t have rights. It most assuredly doesn’t mean that outsiders should automatically be treated as enemies.

Tribal feelings apply to all sizes of groups, from the nuclear family to extended families and clans, to regional groupings and to nations. In particular, there is the idea of a people: a group whose members self-identify as belonging to it and who may share a unique language, religion, origin, ancestry, folklore, place of residence, or even certain physical features.

The paradigm case of a people is, of course, the Jewish people. This is the model that the ‘Palestinians’ would like to adopt, although they lack the language, religion, origin, or physical features. Yes, they live here now and have plenty of folklore, although it’s considerably more modern than ours. They’ve been self-identifying as ‘Palestinians’ since the 1960s.

When a people has a sovereign state, it is called a nation-state. A people can exist before the state and create it, as in the case of the modern state of Israel, or the state can be formed by diverse peoples who then grow together to become one people. This is the much-maligned “melting pot” model of the United States: Americans of diverse origins became unified as a people as a result of their experience building and defending their country. Today many Americans, under the influence of universalist ideas, are uncomfortable with this conception, seeing the demand that immigrants learn English as an excess of tribalism or even “cultural genocide.”

In any event, the tribal feelings of a people for their nation-state is called ‘nationalism’, something which is almost as strongly derided lately as tribalism in general. Nationalism is blamed for wars and genocides and almost every form of collective human bad behavior.

The position opposing tribalism is universalism, the belief that one should treat all humans exactly alike, regardless of their relationship. The corresponding antithesis to nationalism is, naturally, internationalism.

In an attempt to improve human behavior after the horrors of the first half of the 20^th century, the victorious elites decided to engineer tribalism out of humans and impose an internationalist world order. Not everyone agreed with them, but those who didn’t and wanted a piece of the action pretended to do so. Thus arose the internationalist United Nations and European Union.

The failure of the UN to achieve its primary goal of ending war is due to the fact that no rational national government was prepared to give up its freedom of action while others kept theirs. In hindsight, this isn’t surprising. But as a result the UN has become a huge boondoggle, supporting countless bureaucrats and agencies. The only area in which it has been even slightly successful is in providing a way for relatively weak nations that want to gang up on Israel to do so. Even that has been unsuccessful so far, as Israel continues to thrive.

The European Union is failing today for several reasons; its aspirations to become a super-state clashed with the unquenchable nationalism of its members, and its decision to try to maintain a unitary currency for countries with totally different economic cultures was a mistake. One of the major reasons for the British vote to leave the union was the feeling that they ought not to outsource control of anything, particularly anything related to security, to outsiders, who – in tribalist manner – might put their own interests first. Universalism and internationalism (and socialism!) only work when everyone cooperates, and of course they never do.

Nationalism and, more fundamentally, tribalism, could not be suppressed, and are popping up all over, even in places like Europe where they are still strongly opposed by the elites. In America, minority groups paradoxically behave in a strongly tribal way, while at the same time they appeal to universalist ideals to justify their tribal demands. There is also the explicitly tribal (although to a great extent incoherent) Trumpist movement challenging the official universalist dogmas of the establishment.

Zionism is Jewish nationalism, and in Israel it is experiencing a political and cultural resurgence. The founding generation, which dominated the country’s early days and was strongly Zionist, was replaced by a new leadership which allowed its desire for peace to override rational constraints – the fact that Israel was opposed by strongly tribalist enemies – and adopted a universalist “solution,” the Oslo Accords. The Arabs responded rationally and tribally, grabbing as much strategic advantage as possible and stepping up the terrorism which they saw as responsible for their partial success.

The pendulum is now swinging in the opposite direction, with Israeli voters rejecting politicians who espouse universalist ideas. There is also a growing cultural backlash against the universalist elites who still dominate many areas of Israeli society, which is exemplified by the strong popular support for a soldier who (probably) violated military protocols by killing a wounded Arab terrorist after the Arab had tried to kill his comrade in arms. The fact that this places the general population in opposition to the elite army brass is significant.

It is not a surprise that tribalism, which after all developed over many millennia, can’t easily be snuffed out – especially when people who are being told to adopt more universalist views are facing enemies that are as tribal as ever. But I believe that this is not a bad development.

Tribalism and nationalism per se should not blamed for the disasters of the 20^th century. It is not the idea, for example, that Germans should look out for Germans first that gave birth to the Holocaust – it is the myth of “Aryan superiority” and the ethically unwarranted belief that there is no obligation to treat outsiders humanely. Most people care more about their families than they do about their neighbors. But this does not give them the right to murder or enslave those neighbors. The fact that you care more about your country than the one next door is not a green light to invade it.

On the one hand, tribalism can become dangerous when pushed to extremes. But it is not the tribalism that is the problem, it’s the extremism. On the other hand, attempting to apply universalist beliefs as guides to action often results in worse outcomes. For example, the Oslo accords attempted to break down the barriers of suspicion between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs. But the process was not successful, primarily because the Arabs were not prepared to give up their goal of total victory. Thousands of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs died as a result.

A healthy nationalism which creates national pride will have a beneficial effect on the life of a nation, by promoting cooperation, enterprise and obedience to laws. It will also encourage individuals to sacrifice personal benefits for the good of the nation, such as by doing military or other national service.

Rather than struggling against the result of evolutionary development and trying to remake mankind according to an (inconsistent) universalist ideal, why not work with it? Why not accept the positive aspects of tribalism while opposing extremism?

Personally, I prefer Naomi Shemer to Kumbaya.

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07/28 Links Pt1: Chief PA Peace Negotiator Condemns ‘Criminal’ Killing of Hamas Terrorist; Summer of terror

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: When will our politicians accept the reality of Islamic terrorism?

How is your Merkelsommer going? For now, Britain seems to be missing the worst. True, a couple of men of Middle Eastern appearance tried to abduct a soldier near his base in Norfolk for what was unlikely to have been an interfaith dialogue session. But Britain’s geographical good fortune, relative success in limiting weapons and our justified scepticism of the undiscriminating ‘open borders’ brigade mean that we have so far been spared the delights of what Angela Merkel’s growing army of critics refer to as her summer of terror.
It is now a fortnight since Mohammed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ploughed a truck along the Nice seafront, killing 84 people. The following Monday Mohammed Riyad, who said he was from Afghanistan but almost certainly came from Pakistan, screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ while hacking with an axe at his fellow passengers on a Bavarian train. The next day another Mohammed, this time Mohamed Boufarkouch, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and stabbed a Frenchwoman and her three daughters (aged eight, 12 and 14) near Montpelier. Mixing things up a little, that Friday’s shooter in Munich was a child of Iranians called Ali David Sonboly. Skip forward a couple of days and a ‘-Syrian asylum seeker’ with a machete was hacking a pregnant woman to death in Stuttgart. The next day another ‘Syrian asylum seeker’, Mohammad Daleel, carried out a suicide bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, Bavaria. And a little over 24 hours later two men shouting the name of Isis entered a church in Rouen during Mass, took the nuns and congregation hostage and slaughtered the priest with a knife.
Although the public know what is going on, the media seems loath to find any connection between these events. Indeed, the same papers that blame an exaggerated spike in ‘hate crime’ on everyone who voted for Brexit seem unwilling to put the blame for these real and violent attacks on the individuals carrying them out. ‘Syrian man denied asylum killed in German blast’ was the Reuters headline on the Ansbach story, neatly turning the suicide bomber into the victim and the German asylum system into the perpetrator. As Reuters went on: ‘A 27-year-old Syrian man who had been denied asylum in Germany a year ago died on Sunday when a bomb he was carrying exploded outside a music festival.’ How terrible for him to lose his bomb in such a way.

The Spectator Podcast: Summer of terror

In a week in which both Germany and France have suffered terror attacks, the question of the relationship between Islamic terrorism and Europe’s refugee crisis is once again rearing its head. In his Spectator cover piece, Douglas Murray argues that whilst the public knows that ‘Islamism comes from Islam’, Europe’s political classes are still refusing to tackle the problem at its core. So how can we bridge this gap between what politicians are saying and what the public are thinking? And does Europe have to come to terms with a new reality of domestic terrorism? On this week’s podcast, Douglas Murray speaks to Lara Prendergast. Joining them both to discuss Europe’s summer of terror is Haras Rafiq, Managing Director of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank.

NGO Monitor: The Message Behind B’Tselem’s Fatally Flawed Statistics on the 2014 Gaza War

Rather, as noted in its press release and in social media posts, B’Tselem is pushing the line that its research “casts doubt on Israel’s claim that all the targets were legitimate and that the military adhered to the principle of proportionality during the attacks and took precautions to reduce harm to civilians.” B’Tselem’s campaign asserts that “The Israeli government almost totally shirked its responsibility for the massive harm to civilians in the operation,” and that “the moral and legal responsibility for this massive harm to civilians lies with” Israeli decision makers.
These blatant political statements and the related goals of demonizing Israel and bolstering international investigations are among the main reasons that B’Tselem publishes statistics that are fundamentally flawed and meaningless. The number of civilians allegedly killed has no relevance to war crimes allegations.
In order to evaluate whether a particular IDF strike was a war crime, we must first know the intended target. Was it a combatant, a weapons storage facility, a tunnel, or a military command center? Or was a civilian targeted? B’Tselem cannot possibly know this crucial piece of information. They have no idea (in most cases) of the nature of the target, so it is impossible for them to make judgements on the legitimacy of any attack. Perhaps the civilian casualties, when these occurred, were a result of an errant Hamas missile or secondary explosions from munitions on the ground.
Moreover, B’Tselem does not have access to Israeli military operational and intelligence documents that would provide a more definitive answer to some of these central elements.
Next, B’Tselem identifies Palestinians who “were taking part in the hostilities at the time of their death, or held a continuous combat function in an armed group in the Gaza Strip,” and labels all others civilians.
This is problematic in two respects. One, as already noted by the blogger Elder of Ziyon, B’Tselem ignores evidence of the militant affiliations of some individuals it labels as “civilian.”

I had the opportunity to speak with acclaimed film maker Pierre Rehov in a French cafe in Tel Aviv. He is a very colorful character, and prone to lots of expletives.

Rehov described how his family was chased out of Algeria when he was a child. He knew nothing about Judaism and didn't even understand that he was Jewish, but antisemitism was growing there. One night a Muslim man who was a patient of Rehov's dentist father knocked on his door. The father thought it was a dental emergency, but the man said, no, he had come to buy the apartment. He warned him that in the coming week his cousins were planning to come, rape his wife, kill his children and they will take the apartment. So it was better to sell it to the man now and flee for their lives.

Pierre described how he started getting into creating films after seeing how antisemitism in France was being increased by incidents like the Al Dura hoax.

Rehov is very angry at official French anti-Israelism. After he achieved some level of fame, Rehov says, the French government went after him. The French IRS auditors disallowed every deduction from expenses that he spent in Israel. In the end, he had to declare bankruptcy.

Rehov says that once in Gaza, around 2003, he saw people selling figurine ashtrays. The top seller was Osama bin Laden, and the second best seller was Saddam Hussein. he said that you would expect the third best seller to be Yasir Arafat, but no - it was Jacques Chirac.

At the same time, Rehov says, "When I went to visit the headquarters of Hamas in Gaza City, on the same floor - here you have a door, a small corridor, and here you have another door - the other door was the AFP, Agence France-Presse. In the middle, [between the two offices,] was a water cooler, and they were sharing the same water cooler. So you had the journalists of fucking AFP drinking the same water as the fucking terrorists from Hamas. And this is how information would go to France from Gaza."

"When I was doing my investigation in Jenin, I was obviously posing as a French journalist, because when you are a French journalist, they love you. So with my French passport I could see everything I wanted.

"[Using a hidden camera] I was able to record an amazing scene of Palestinian doctors, Palestinian journalists, around a woman who they claimed that she had given birth at a checkpoint because the Israelis wouldn't let her through. The woman said, 'No! It didn't happen like that! The ambulance was late...' But they told her, "No. You have to say that the tanks were pointing their cannons to you.' The guy who was with her, the poor husband, who was also trying to play the game, says, 'Yeah, and I helped her give birth while I was driving...'

"This guy was my fixer, He thought I was a French journalist... I was giving compliments to Talal Abu Rahma, who was the guy who filmed the story of Mohammed al-Dura. I was saying how it was so great for Palestine what he did, and also for himself, 'Everybody's talking about him, he's so famous, and he got awards...' My fixer said 'Are you interested?' I said 'What do you mean? Am I interested in what?' He said, "The easiest thing is to kill a kid. That's so simple. ' I asked 'What do you mean?' He said, 'Listen. Every family has some kid that they are ready to sacrifice. Are you ready to pay $10,000?'"

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International Olympic Committee violates its own ethics guidelines, backs terror supporter Jibril Rajoub

Yesterday, Palestinian Media Watch released a comprehensive dossier of terror-supporting statements by Jibril Rajoub, Chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee.

For example, on January 2, Rajoub said on PA TV:

“Yesterday in Hebron, they escorted 17 Martyrs, (among them murderers of civilians –Ed.) to burial. This is of course a source of pride for all of us. I say that whoever carried out individual acts of heroism, we in the Fatah movement bless and encourage them. We consider them heroes and a crown on the head of every Palestinian. At this point, when there is weakening and frustration, there is a group of people, beginning with our brother Muhannad Halabi (who murdered 2 – Ed.) and ending with the last Martyr... There is a competition between individuals. This is one of the issues we need to address - are we for or against it? I say that we in the [Fatah] Central Committee have discussed this matter, and we are in favor."
[Official PA TV, Jan. 2, 2016]

This is only one of many statements officially supporting and promoting terror documented by PMW.

In addition, Rajoub is also explicitly against competing against or working with Israeli sports:

The response by the IOC to similar complaints by Hillel Appelbaum shows that they have no intention to take any of this seriously.

From: Pâquerette Girard Zappelli
Date: 2016-05-31
Subject: RE: Complaint – Ethics in the matter of Jibril Rajoub
Dear Mr Applebaum,

After a thorough read of all the documents you provided, it clearly appears that the words of Mr Jibril Rajoub are not recent (2012 and 2014) and were spoken in his political capacity and not as an NOC official.

Our understanding is that the two National Olympic Committees are doing their best to improve relations between the two countries through sport. Owing to this, the competitors of the two organisations will together participate peacefully in the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Your sincerely,
Pâquerette Girard Zappelli
Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer
International Olympic Committee

These are miserable excuses for explicit support of terror by the PA's top Olympic official. And they directly contradict the Olympic Committee's own Code of Ethics.

The first three paragraphs of the Code say:

1.1 Respect for the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play;
1.2 Respect of the principle of the universality and political neutrality of the Olympic Movement;
1.3 Maintaining harmonious relations with state authorities, while respecting the principle of autonomy as set out in the Olympic Charter;

And it doesn't apply only to when officials are acting in their official capacity. The code explicitly applies to "the International Olympic Committee (IOC), each of its members and its administration, and the National Olympic Committees (NOC) and their officials, at all times and in all circumstances.

Zappelli is ignoring her own organization's published standards to allow a terror supporter and antithesis to Olympics ideals to keep his job.

She is the only person who can refer cases to the Ethics Commission, so by her ignoring the evidence she is personally subverting the entire ethics complaint process and making it clear that the supposed Olympics dedication to ethics is a joke.

If the IOC does not suspend Jibril Rajoub based on the copious evidence of his explicit support for terror and his attempts to stop any sports cooperation with Israel, it proves that the IOC is a corrupt institution.

(h/t Josh)

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The 27th Arab League summit just ended in Nouakchott and the final statement reflected a far smaller focus on the Palestinian issue than in years past.

As summarized at the conference website, "The Declaration emphasized the centrality of the Palestinian issue in the joint Arab action. In this regard, the Arab leaders commended, in their declaration, the recent Egyptian efforts to push the peace process and welcomed the French Initiative that calls for the convening of an international peace conference." The specific statement mentioned "supporting the Palestinian people's steadfastness in the face of systematic Israeli aggression" and called on Israel to withdraw to the 1967 lines with the West Bank, Syria and Lebanon and an end to settlement activity in the context of an international conference.

What is more interesting is what was not said.

Comparing this year's statement with the 2012 Arab League statement in Baghdad, the differences in emphasis are striking. The 2012 conference included six paragraphs dedicated to the Palestinian issue, including condemning "continuous Israeli aggression on them, their lands, sacred places, and heritage...and the continuation of Israeli settlement activities," "reaching a just and agreed-upon solution for the problem of Palestinian refugees including the Right of Return","expressing our solidarity with the prisoners detained in the jails of the Israeli occupation" and calling for an international conference to release them.

Earlier summits included other resolutions that have disappeared over time, such as supporting the Palestinian Authority, lifting the blockade on Gaza, calling on the UN to send observers to "protect" the Palestinians.

In short, previous Arab League conferences rubber stamped whatever the PLO told them to say. This year those demands were largely ignored. Nothing about prisoners, nothing about "Right of Return," nothing about protecting holy places from supposed Israeli aggression, nothing about the "blockade" of Gaza. Asserting the "centrality" of the Palestinian issue is understood to be window dressing for the fact that the issue has gone way down in the priorities of the Arab world.

These omissions are a stunning loss of prestige for the Palestinian Arab leadership.

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I found the interview that Hamas leader Khaled Meshal gave to some reporters from India where the media reported it as if he was "moderate."

In the interview, Meshal stressed that Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but that it was a group of freedom fighters.

We are a national resistance movement, not a terrorist organisation. We have the right to resist occupation. We have gained legitimacy because of our election victory. We are not random killing machines like terrorists....These labels don’t bother us. Our history shows that we had never engaged in random killing sprees of either occupiers or settlers....We are not resisting Israel because they are Jewish, or that they are ethnically different from us. We lived side by side with Jews in Jerusalem for centuries. .... Our people are attacked and our land is occupied. We have a right to resist and fight back, and it is not terrorism.

Hamas has been attacking Jews since 1993. It bombed a Passover seder with many old people. They were responsible for many bombing attacks on buses, cafes, hotels, public squares, universities, restaurants, markets, and medical centers. Hamas bombed a bus only this year, aiming to kill as many "random" Jews as possible. As always.

This interview shows that - surprise - besides murdering people, terrorists also lie. This seems to be a concept that reporters cannot quite grasp. As a result, the interviewers were too ill-informed to call Meshal out on his blatant attempts to rewrite history..

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Jewish woman needs a stem cell donor within 5 weeks

A press release I received:

A Jewish family in the UK has just five weeks to find a stem cell donor to save their mother's life after discovering her leukaemia has returned.

Sharon Berger, 65, of London was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) in 2012, and was told that the only available cure was a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor.

Doctors have now told the family that Sharon has just five weeks before she needs a second transplant.

‘It means that her body has not responded to the anonymous matching donor which seemed to have saved her life, and now needs another transplant,’ explains her son Jonni, who - together with his sister Caroline - spearheaded the 2013 #Spit4Mum campaign, which led to a 1,100 per cent increase in the number of British Jews registering as donors.

Blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan is now searching the world’s combined stem cell registries for someone whose tissue type matches Sharon’s. But the search is proving difficult because of Sharon’s combination of rare tissue types.

Because of Sharon's Jewish heritage, her best match is likely to be an Ashkenazi Jew. But the family are encouraging everyone who is eligible to join the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow register, as a potential match.

A recent study found that of patients who receive a second transplant, one in three survived for at least another five years.

‘This means that if we can find Mum another match in the next five weeks, there is a good chance that she will have a second chance at life post-transplant,’ says Jonni.

Sharon celebrated her 65th birthday only a few weeks ago, and recently saw the birth of her second grandchild. ‘We're all in a state of shock. It's always in the back of your mind that it could come back, but we thought we were in the clear. We got used to the good times,’ adds Jonni.

Sharon is being treated in isolation at Hammersmith Hospital and on Monday started a six-week course of chemotherapy.

If a donor isn’t found in the next five weeks, doctors may have no choice but to perform the transplant using stem cells from Jonni or Caroline - a procedure which has a much smaller chance of success because her children only share half her tissue type. Two thirds of UK patients who need a transplant cannot find a matching donor within their own family.

Asked how his mum was coping with the latest setback, Jonni said: ‘She was shocked too, of course, and worried, because she's fully aware of the situation and knows how painful the side effects can be, but she's resilient and determined. She's prepared for the challenge. Let's hope the community can rise to the challenge too.’

Ann O'Leary, Head of Register and Development at Anthony Nolan, said: ‘‘We’re extremely saddened to hear that Sharon’s cancer has returned and out thoughts are with her in her upcoming treatment. We will be doing all we can to support her and family in the search for a donor.

‘Sharon and her family have made an incredible contribution to the register by raising awareness among the Jewish community, and as a result they achieved a well-deserved special commendation for BAME Advocate of the Year at the Anthony Nolan Supporter Awards in 2013.

We would urge anyone who hasn’t joined up yet from around the world to consider doing so – it’s straightforward and could help save the life of someone like Sharon.

To join our register, you must be aged 16-30, in good health and weigh at least 50kg. We are particularly looking for people from Jewish and other ethnic minority backgrounds to join, as they are currently underrepresented on the donor register.’

Sharon's son, Jonni, adds, ‘It really is a race against time - in five weeks' time she will need a bone marrow transplant, and a good match has not yet been found.’

To register to donate stem cells please go to Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide or www.bmdw.org which is a global database of lifesaving stem cell donors.

Residents of Israel can join the register via Ezer Mizion by clicking here for Hebrew and here for English or www.ezermizion.org/

Residents of the UK can join the register via the Anthony Nolan charity by clicking here . For more information, please visit www.anthonynolan.org.

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07/27 Links Pt2: Protesters torch Israeli flag outside DNC; Lethal Journalism Made Simone Zimmerman

From Ian:

American Jewish Groups Rally Against Anti-Israel Bias at UN

Over 50 Jewish groups joined forces this week to take action against anti-Israel bias at the United Nations and its agencies, which have often been accused of discriminating against Israel.
The initiative, which was launched by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, consists of a formal declaration and a national and international campaign to “counteract the spate of anti-Israel actions at the United Nations.”
“For years we have witnessed and protested the escalating discriminatory practices and actions against Israel at the UN,” Conference of Presidents Chairman Stephen M. Greenberg and CEO Malcolm Hoenlein said in a statement.
“As we have seen in recent months, this bias is being manifested in outrageous and flagrant ways,” they added. “These actions not only distort the truth about Israel, they also undermine the principles of the UN and its Charter. It has to stop.”
“Despite the efforts led by the United States together with Israel and a handful of other countries, vitriolic anti-Israel rhetoric continues to intensify in UN resolutions, reports, and in the official statements from many member states,” the statement continued. “Since November 2012 the Palestinian strategy of using the UN as a weapon against Israel has led to a disturbing increase in the number of anti-Israel resolutions presented in UN bodies.”
They pointed out that resolutions adopted in the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, UNESCO, the World Health Organization, and various other UN sponsored committees and events “reveal an alarming intensification of baseless accusations and demonizing rhetoric against Israel.”

IsraellyCool: Lethal Journalism Made Simone Zimmerman

The lethal journalism which comes from both elite media and partisan or hate sites like +972, Mondoweis and Electronic Intifada become the primary source of information for people like Simone.
Once those sources have hooked her in, the foreign government funded lying NGO’s like B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence step in to organise tours and feed “the narratives” which these kids have been primed to believe. They’ve bought the indoctrination and now believe the media and main stream politics is run by a shadowy Jewish Lobby which only presents Israel in a positive light.
At the core of all the hardship stories she believes is a replacement ideology of Muslim Arabs as the new Jews. This replacement ideology is stealing our Jewish identity with their fake and invented “Arab Palestinian” claims to obviously Jewish lands. This “Palestinianised” narrative is fed by well funded NGOs into every elite news agency in Israel for their stamp of official approval and then amplified and twisted by the same NGOs out to this lost generation of Jewish youth.
I can’t leave without offering an answer. Just repeating facts and exposing lies isn’t enough. It’s necessary, of course, because it’s a vital weapon in our arsenal. But we need to hit back harder than ever with our own identity story. This Jewish identity story, as has been explained here at Israellycool for a few years, is blind to that nonsense crayon line from 1948 that people like Simone obsess over.

Michael Lumish: Nothing Left # 109

Michael Burd and Alan Freedman from J-AIR, Nothing Left.
3 min Editorial: Leftism and the media
10 min John-Michael Howson
35 min Ruthie Blum, journalist
56 min Martin Sherman, political
1 hr 25 min Michael Lumish, Israel Thrives blog, USA
1 hr 36 min Isi Leibler, Jerusalem
Part of what I like about these guys, aside from the fact that they give me a venue, is that they attract big names.
Anyone who knows anything about the Long War knows about Isi Leibler's and Martin Sherman's contributions to the conversation.

Belgian school supports teacher who won Iran Holocaust cartoon contest

From The New Antisemite:

Luc Descheemaeker (aka O-Sekoer) of Belgium was awarded a special prize ("honorable mention") at the infamous Holocaust cartoon contest organised by the Iranians. He also received $ 1,000 cash prize.

Luc Descheemaeker teaches art and "culture" at the Sint-Jozefsinstituut at Torhout, a Catholic school in Flanders. Regards, a Belgian Jewish magazine, (July 2016 issue) contacted the school and was told that they were immensely proud ("très fière") that one of their teachers had been awarded the prize.

Belgian media proudly reports on their award-winning cartoonist without mentioning what he received the award for.

Antisemitism is mainstream.

(h/t Rudi)

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Israeli Entrepreneurs Increase Export Sales Of Blinders To EU, US (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Hertzliya, July 26 - Israeli manufacturers of devices meant to restrict the vision of the wearer have noticed a marked uptick in sales of their products to countries recently experiencing increased terrorist attacks by Islamists, an industry representative said today.

E-Ver Enterprises, a trade group, said that since the terrorist attacks in Paris two years ago, Israeli sellers of blinders have seen a 700% increase in exports of those items to France, Germany, Belgium, and the US, with smaller but noticeable increases in the Scandinavian markets.

Sanve Rim, President of the trade group, told reporters that the sharp increase reflected increased demand for blinders that fit the human head, as opposed to the variety designed for horses, which until recently had accounted for the bulk of sales worldwide. "We were fortunately well placed to take advantage of this emerging market," explained Rim. "Industry analysts keenly predicted the need in certain countries for devices to eliminate direct awareness of phenomena that might distract from a specific, narrow perspective on events."

Specifically, he noted, the analysts foresaw how the political leadership of the Western countries directly targeted in Islamist terrorist attacks would struggle to maintain the view that the attackers do not represent a global movement that must be recognized in order to be defeated. "Our chief competition is the shovel industry, but fortunately for us, they were slow to react to this emerging trend," he said. "Besides, blinders are a much more efficient and portable solution for these purposes than burying one's head in the sand, which requires an investment of time and effort. It's fine for people or institutions with no expectations of moving anywhere, and there's little chance of misplacing a hole, but overall there's a bigger market for blinders than for shovels in this regard."

Rim said he and his colleagues expect demand to remain steady at the current elevated levels for at least two years. "I can't see change happening anywhere anytime soon, except maybe Britain," he predicted. "None of the countries currently importing blinders at unprecedented rates have shown any indication that they intend to change course. What I think we can expect, though, is that other Western countries will similarly increase their purchases of blinders - I'm thinking of Austria, for example, as well as Greece, Italy, and Spain."

Concurrent with increased demand for blinders in the West, Rim identifies the opposite trend in the Arab world, with countries such as Saudi Arabia gradually decreasing its reliance on anti-Israel blinders. However, he notes, Israel has no formal trade relations with most of those countries, and therefore its export of blinders is not expected to suffer as a result.

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07/27 Links Pt1: Jihadis: Who Are Their Targets?; Islam and the French Republic

From Ian:

PMW: PMW calls to ban Jibril Rajoub, head of PA Olympic Committee, due to terror support

Palestinian Media Watch is calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Jibril Rajoub, chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, from all activities and events related to the Olympics, and to demand his removal from his position within the Olympic organization.
This comprehensive PMW report documents that Jibril Rajoub has consistently supported terror and even incited to murder. The report includes documentation of Rajoub's support for attacks
during the recent terror wave (2015-2016); his use of his title as Chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee when glorifying terror; and his prohibiting Palestinians from participating in peacebuilding sports activities with Israelis.
As an overt supporter of Palestinian terrorism, Rajoub represents the antithesis of Olympic values. At a time when terror is being fought throughout the world, permitting Rajoub to participate in Olympic Committee activities and events disgraces the International Olympic Committee and the entire Olympics community.

Douglas Murray: Jihadis: Who Are Their Targets?

The attacks did of course also give rise to a flush of virtual solidarity. The "Je Suis Charlie" ('I am Charlie') tag prevailed not only in demonstrations but also across Twitter and other social media. In the 18 months since then, the hashtag became repetitively and wearily wheeled out: "Je Suis Paris", "Je Suis Bruxelles" and so on after every attack. Perhaps some people learned subsequently that solidarity on social media -- while having the advantage of making people feel slightly better -- has no effect whatsoever on diminishing or ending the terror. Meanwhile, one of the most important acts of actual solidarity was sorely missing.
The Pope's intervention into the debate after the Charlie Hebdo attack was one of the most regrettable of the whole period. Speaking to journalists on his plane in the week after the attack, Pope Francis signalled to a Vatican official beside him and said, "If my good friend Dr Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch in the nose." Pretending to throw a punch, the Pope then said: "It's normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others."
Charb and his colleagues -- living and dead -- would have expected nothing more from the Pope whose church had been such a constant target of their pens. Nevertheless, it was a painful intervention. Not only was the representative of a religion whose founder is known for peace now talking the language of violence, but the remark suggested an irreconcilable divide between the religious and the secular in an age of Islamic violence. Where alliances should have been easy, they looked suddenly fractious and impossible.
The brutal slaughter of Father Jacques Hamel opens up this question from the other end. What "provocation" had Father Hamel provided? If any good can come from an act of such savagery. it would be in the possibility of healing such a rift. Obviously the Pope has condemned the killing of a priest of his own church. But many other anti-clerical figures in France may well pause before the enormity of what the jihadists have once again done. You do not have to be religious to experience revulsion at such an act being done to a man of God in the act of celebrating the Eucharist. The usual debates in French life over the role of the church and its role in the state may be able at least to pause during this period, raising the possibility of a more suitable and lengthy pause in hostilities.

Un Watch: UN made discussion of Islamist ideology taboo

Hillel Neuer of UN Watch challenges UN's Durban Racism Program for turning blind eye to genocidal ideology that led to ISIS.

Over the past couple of days I have documented some clear errors and missing context in B'Tselem's new, supposedly exhaustive report on casualties Operation Protective Edge. I have other examples of B'Tselem's inaccuracy, for example claiming that four of the nine people killed in a July 19 airstrike were civilians, when the Abu Rish Brigades claimed all of them - including a 15 and 16 year old - as members:

Never have any NGOs spent as much time and effort to document a single war - a war whose casualties are far fewer than most wars - as Amnesty and B'Tselem are spending on Protective Edge, even two years afterwards. What are they trying to accomplish and why are they trying to claim that so many terrorists were civilian?

The answer perhaps may be seen in the International Criminal Court Office of the Prosecutor Strategic Plan for 2016-2018.

The ICC now looks at NGOs as partners in determining whether war crimes were committed - and some NGOs are salivating at the idea of prosecuting Israel.

The Office of the Prosecutor (OPT) writes:

[T]here are also the first responders—international forces, human rights organisations, non-governmental organisations (“NGOs”), media, etc.—who deploy into areas where the OTP has not been able to be present (e.g. due to jurisdiction, required agreements, or security implications for staff or witnesses). While respecting each other’s mandate and independence, the Office has begun to discuss with the NGO community how first responders could support the Office in its work and what support could be expected from the Office.

In relation to investigations, the Office will continue to implement the present strategy. It will focus, in particular, on the following priority areas:
 Closing the time gap between events on the ground and the Office’s investigations by creating partnerships with first responders, creating a gateway for crime reporting and working with partners to preserve relevant information on the internet.
 Increasing its ability to collect different forms of evidence other than witness statements through continually enhancing its scientific and technology-related capabilities. Additionally, it will develop further partnerships to support this strategic need, so that in-house capacity is only developed where it is justified.
 Continuing to strengthen the Office’s analysis function through the further roll-out of the Factual Analytical Database, the upgrade of analytical software, the roll-out of the Gender Analysis, and through strengthening the use of analytical products in investigative decision-making for planning, case selection and case review.

[T]echnology is evolving so rapidly that it will be impossible for the Office to keep current if it does not combine investing in its own expertise with developing strategic partnerships for the purposes of outsourcing, when needed, and for understanding and shaping how future technology can assist it to execute its mandate. The Office has been working with the law enforcement community, NGOs and academic institutions to explore new possibilities to support the identification, collection and presentation of evidence through technology.

The ICC is overwhelmed and need help to determine what to prosecute. But the fatal mistake it is making is that it is appearing to assume that the NGOs it chooses to partner with are unbiased.

In these cases, nothing could be further from the truth. In respect to Israel, we have documented exhaustively how each of these NGOs are advocates against the State of Israel, not objective gatherers of data that can be trusted.

But the ICC OTP document indicates that there have been talks for a while between the ICC and NGOs regarding the "help" they can give. Amnesty and B'Tselem are putting together very professional websites where their ability to present data in new and attractive ways mask the fundamental problem, known to all computer science students: garbage in, garbage out.

The ICC prosecutor, who freely admits that she does not have adequate technical expertise, can easily be fooled into mistaking flash for accuracy. Just because the B'Tselem and Amnesty sites have lots of information does not mean that the information is accurate. Their methodologies range from flawed to outright dishonesty and flagrant malice. They are hiring people to gather statistics who are themselves biased, or basing their information on questionable sources. They do not use any known methodology for fact-finding that can eliminate bias. And their data shows that they are ignoring any facts that do not conform to their pre-existing biases.

In short, biased and anti-Israel NGOs are taking advantage of an overworked, under-teched ICC to "help" it come to the conclusions that they have already decided on before they started their Gaza projects: that Israel is guilty of war crimes. Both Amnesty and B'Tselem say this or broadly imply this in their literature.

Dead children are not evidence of war crimes. Without knowing the targets and what the commanders knew at the time of the strikes, one cannot come to that conclusion. That is what international law says. But the Amnesty and B'Tselem websites hide or mis-state relevant information that could exonerate Israel. They cynically parade an army of dead Palestinian children to overwhelm the person looking at the data while purposefully hiding evidence that shows that it is Hamas, not Israel, that is responsible for their deaths. These NGOs are representing themselves as honest fact-finders to the ICC at the same time that they are falsely telling the world that Israel is guilty.

They should not be trusted partners to an organization that is dedicated to impartiality.

This is a cynical attempt to twist international law into a weapon against Israel. And the ICC prosecutor does not seem to realize - indeed, she simply does not have the tools to understand - that her "partners" are biased as hell. They are respected, they are praised, and one has to dig to see that there is rot in the foundation of their beautiful castles.

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