Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

01/17 Links Pt2: Who’s Really Behind the Academic Boycott Against Israel?; The many faces of anti-Semitism

From Ian:

In Secret Recording, Participants at ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ Conference Heard Attacking America as ‘World’s Greatest Imperial Power’

In a never-before-released recording obtained by The Algemeiner of part of a closed-door anti-Zionist student conference at Virginia’s George Mason University in November, participants are heard accusing the United States — “the world’s greatest imperial power” — of enabling and perpetrating crimes in the Middle East.
The blatant anti-Americanism was voiced at the 2016 National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) conference, during a panel on “Syrian-Palestinian Liberation.” Panelists included Palestinian-Syrian activist Wael Elasady, co-founder of Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights, and International Socialist Movement member Ashley Smith.
In the tape, Elasady is heard blaming US “imperialism” for facilitating the Assad regime’s alleged war crimes in Syria and for causing regional instability, which allows the world to turn a blind eye to Israel’s “ethnic cleansing of Palestine, increas[ing] its Judaization of Jerusalem and expand[ing] its settlements without repercussions.”
Smith said that while he saw the conflict in Syria as a “popular uprising of the people…for democracy, for equality, for a liberation from a tyrannical regime,” he took issue with those on the Left who viewed the struggle purely through the lens of “imposed American imperialism.”
He specifically called out activist journalist Max Blumenthal for “reversing his position” on Syria — first referring to the civil war as a “right of revolt” of the people, and then calling it a “‘color revolution’ orchestrated by the US with the project of regime change.”

Who’s Really Behind the Academic Boycott Against Israel?

The USACBI might protest that they cannot be held responsible for Al-Awda’s racism and support for violence, and it goes without saying that well-meaning supporters of academic boycotts should not be considered guilty by association. Yet the USACBI itself has demonstrated that it is, at minimum, very tolerant of extremism and hate.
Steven Salaita and Jasbir Puar continue to hold prominent positions in the organization, despite being repeatedly exposed for using classic antisemitic slurs to slander and dehumanize Israelis. As a matter of policy, the USACBI boycotts all, “academic activities and projects involving Palestinians and/or other Arabs on one side and Israelis on the other,” unless the Jewish and Israeli side agrees in advance to effectively oppose its own right to self-determination. This is not a stance an organization that is genuinely committed to justice and peace would ever take.
The USACBI cannot claim to support principles like justice, equality and non-violence while gaining significant financial benefits from what can only be described as a hate group. At a time when antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of racism increasingly threaten campus life, there is no place for political agendas that fan the flames of hatred and further divide our diverse communities. Al-Awda’s deep involvement in campaigns like the one that was waged against Israeli academics in the MLA is yet another reason why people of conscience should stand up for their values and reject the academic boycott.
The road to peace can only be found through building bridges of understanding and tolerance between peoples, not through further alienation and estrangement. It seems nothing could be more true and relevant in today’s Middle East.

Alan Johnson: Showing up to defend Israel’s right to exist (not lying in bed)

Why am I speaking at an academic conference on Israel’s right to exist at University College Cork (UCC) in March? After all, ‘International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Exceptionalism and Responsibility’ is the conference cancelled two years ago by Southampton University following protests from the Jewish community.
I am attending because I believe – like Marshall Brickman, Woody Allen’s co-script writer for the Oscar winning film Annie Hall – that ‘showing up is 80 per cent of life.’ Brickman added ‘Sometimes it’s easier to hide home in bed. I’ve done both.’
What does it mean to ‘hide home in bed’ when it comes to defending Israel’s right to exist in today’s intellectual culture? And what does it mean to ‘show up’?
‘Hiding in bed’ can take many forms.
It can mean creating lots of nice warm echo-chambers where Israel’s friends get together, tell each other how right they are, how perfect Israel is, and cheer each other up. Nothing wrong with that. Israel’s friends need to be heard and we all need a bit of cheer sometimes.

"Man of Peace" (poster)

I posted this small sanity check on Mahmoud Abbas on Twitter a couple of days ago.

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From “recognizing Palestine” to voting against Israeli “settlements” Europeans are simply feeding the crocodile…

A trend started in Europe in 2014: Parliaments in various European countries began holding “symbolic votes” to “recognize the State of Palestine.”

These votes are symbolic in that they don’t have the power to create a Palestinian State. There is no State called “Palestine” and historically there is no such thing as “Palestinian People.” The invention of the Palestinian people is, on the timeline of history a very new thing and it’s possibly the greatest marketing spin ever (it is certainly proof that if you say the same thing over and over, with enough vehemence, eventually people will believe anything).

The invention of a Palestinian people occurred for the same reason that Israel was twice called Palestine by conquering nations – to break the connection between the Land of Israel and the People of Israel.

The European governments voting to recognize Palestine as a State have said that their goal is to express their displeasure to Israel about the lack of progress in the “peace process” and in resolving the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

The conjunction of these “symbolic votes” with the wave of terror attacks against Israel illuminates their dishonesty.

Teenagers kidnapped and murdered on their way home from school, women and babies murdered while waiting for the busses and trains. Men murdered while praying in a synagogue. People stabbed while shopping for groceries. Police attacked. Public transportation attacked. Kindergartens attacked. Cars attacked. The list goes on and on but maybe, in the European mind, it is logical to blame the victims for the attacks on them – especially if they are Jews.

Winston Churchill, one of the greatest statesmen that ever lived, said “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”

I believe this is the true motivation behind these votes. The European countries are feeding their local “crocodiles”, hoping to be eaten last.

It won’t work.

To the Swedes that have declared their recognition of “Palestine” – I declare that I recognize the Free State of Malmo and the other Swedish cities and areas that have submitted to the will of Allah and the growing Islamic State.

To the British that have declared their recognition of “Palestine” – I declare that I recognize the Islamic Emirates of Britain which currently include Birmingham, Bradford, Derby, Dewsbury, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Sheffield, as well as Waltham Forest in northeast London and Tower Hamlets in East London. May you enjoy the freedom of submission to Allah. I will encourage all British women saying, the hijab will give you freedom. The burqa is even better. This way your Muslim brothers will know that you are decent God-fearing women and that it is the kufar that should be raped, not you.

To the French that have declared their recognition of “Palestine” – I declare that I recognize the freedom of the Islamic Zones of France. Paris, Lyons, Marseilles or Toulouse won’t change much under sharia rule, will they?

Sadly, the list goes on. Spain, maybe Belgium next. In the Kuregem district of Brussels, police are forced to patrol the area with two police cars: one car to carry out the patrols and another car to prevent the first car from being attacked. In the Molenbeek district of Brussels, police have been ordered not to drink coffee or eat a sandwich in public during the Islamic month of Ramadan.

In the Netherlands, a Dutch court ordered the government to release to the public a politically incorrect list of 40 “no-go” zones in Holland. The top five Muslim problem neighborhoods are in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht.

The list goes on and on.

Recognizing Palestine is simply an attempt to appease and deflect local Islamic wrath. Unfortunately for the countries of Europe, putting the focus on Israel and Jews does not halt the creeping sharia that is taking over Europe.

Israel can be fed to the crocodiles but their hunger will not be assuaged.

The truth is, there is no “Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. There is a conflict between Islam and all other religions and cultures. Israel and Jews are a convenient target because we are an island in a sea of Islamic nations. We are close. And our ideals directly appose theirs.

We are an example, not the cause. Placing the blame on us will not “save” anyone else.

Recognizing Palestine will not stop people like “jihadi-John”. Interesting that the British got so worked up over that British beheader and seem to have forgotten that Lee Rigby had his head chopped off in the streets of London, in broad daylight.

Recognizing Palestine will not stop the harassment non-Muslims are experiencing in France, Holland, Norway, Germany… It will not stop the violence against women or the attacks on police.

It will not stop bombings, stabbings and hijackings in the cities of Europe or the heartland of America.

The world has lost its head. Logic has left the building and there is no sign of it ever coming back.

Appeasing the bully never works. Blaming the victims is never right.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is being spread by with bombs, guns and torture. It is much easier in Europe. Little violence is needed to convince Europeans to cede their countries and their culture. Creeping sharia is chomping huge bites out of Europe. Soon the “crocodiles” will swallow it completely.

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01/17 Links Pt1: Glick: Trump, the pistol and the olive branch; Phillips: Britain gets it right. Twice. What gives?

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Trump, the pistol and the olive branch

Trump will take office on Friday. Since he was elected, he has given every reason to believe that Abbas and his deputies and their European and American enablers will have to either put up or shut up.
Speaking of the president-elect, Henry Kissinger said that Trump is the first man in recent memory who doesn’t owe anybody anything for his victory.
The only people he is answerable to are the voters who elected him.
Trump’s electoral victory owes to his success in tapping into the deep reservoir of popular disaffection with the elitist culture and policies that have governed post-Cold War West. He has used the mandate he received from American voters to revisit the basic assumptions that have driven US policies for the past generation.
His skepticism at NATO and the EU are examples of his refusal to simply accept the received wisdom of his predecessors. Just this weekend he told Germany’s Bild magazine that he continues to question the purpose of NATO, which is a drag on US taxpayers and doesn’t fight terrorism.
He similarly restated his ambivalence toward the EU and that its open border policy has been a “catastrophic failure,” and he expects more countries to follow Britain’s lead and exit the EU.
Trump’s position on the PLO and the Palestinian war on Israel is of a piece with his wider rejection of the common wisdom of Western elites. Just as he didn’t hesitate to say that the EU mainly serves as an instrument for Germany to dominate the European market, so he has made no mystery of his rejection of the moral equivalence between Israel and Palestinian terrorists which forms the basis of the twostate formula.
Not only won’t Trump join the Obama administration and the French in criminalizing Israeli homeowners, Trump is celebrating them. He has invited the leaders of Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria – that is, the so-called “settlements” – to attend his inauguration.
And he appears dead serious about moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

Melanie Phillips: Britain gets it right. Twice. What gives?

Extraordinary! The British government has started making bold and good moves. No fewer than two such sets of developments have been spotted in as many days.
On Sunday, at the Paris conference called ~~to get the Middle East peace process back on track~~ stick the knife into Israel good and proper before Obama leaves the White House, Theresa May’s government refused to sign its closing statement. “There are risks,” said the UK Foreign Office,“that this conference hardens positions at a time when we need to be encouraging the conditions for peace. We have particular reservations about an international conference intended to advance peace between the parties that does not involve them – indeed which is taking place against the wishes of the Israelis.”
You don’t say.
Not content with that, according to Ha’aretz the UK this afternoon used its veto to prevent the EU Foreign Affairs Council from passing a French resolution adopting the Paris conference conclusions.
Can this really be the same British government that just over three weeks ago not only voted for the infamous Israel-bashing UN Security Council resolution 2334 but helped draft it and push it through? No wonder Ha’aretz called today’s move “highly irregular”.
It would be thoroughly uncharitable to suggest that Britain’s stance at Paris, like Mrs May’s onslaught on US Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech attacking Israel a few days after resolution 2334, happened because she suddenly became aware that it might not be the most brilliant strategy to thoroughly cheese off the incoming, pro-Israel US President. So I won’t.
It would be even more uncharitable to suggest that because President-Elect Donald Trump stated in his interview with The Times (£), published today but conducted last week, that “the UK may have another chance to veto if what I’m hearing is true, because you know you have a meeting as you know, this weekend”, Mrs May promptly fell into line. So I won’t suggest that either.

“Occupied” Territories? Hebrew Origins of Palestinian Arab Towns in Judea-Samaria

With the approval of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which declares as illegal any Israeli presence beyond the 1967 “Green Line” — including the Old City of Jerusalem and its Temple Mount (Judaism’s holiest site) and the Mount of Olives cemetery where Jews have been burying their dead for more than 3,000 years– and an earlier UNESCO resolution disassociating the Jewish People from Jerusalem and other holy sites, one wonders how the U.N. and UNESCO ambassadors involved in these decisions can keep a straight face.
Given the recorded history of that land from the Bible and other recognized sources, a well-known phrase from Shakespeare is instructive: “What’s in a name?” When it comes to Eretz Israel, plenty. The place-names verify the absurdity of accusations that Jews are colonizers, strangers to this land and “occupiers of” these areas.
It is equally absurd to claim that the Arabs are the indigenous peoples of Israel, because virtually all the place-names used by local Arabs are non-Arabic in origin, and derived either from biblical Hebrew names or from later Greek or Roman names.
The Romans renamed the entire region Syria-Palestina (named for the Philistines and Assyrians) after they destroyed the Second Temple so as to erase its Jewish roots. This was later shortened to Palestina and it eventually became known as Palestine. As noted scholar Daniel Pipes points out: “Palestine (Arabic: Filastin) as a political unit only came into use as a Zionist triumph when imposed by the British occupiers following the issuance of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. Palestinians (Arabic: Filastiniyun) also came into use only in the twentieth century.” (“Is There A Palestinian People? Can It Be Defeated?” 1-10-17, Middle East Forum blog).

The official Fatah Facebook page shows photos from an arts festival in Tyre, Lebanon last Sunday that celebrated the 52nd anniversary of Fatah's first terror attack.

The speakers said, among other things:

We meet here today in the city of Tyre, the city of rebel martyrs rebels and the Liberals to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the start of Fatah. We say that the struggle and revolution is not only weapons and fighting but also struggle with the pen, poetry and art in all the revolutionary methods to reach the goal to deliver our truthful ideas to the whole world.

Congratulations to Fatah on the anniversary of its launch, and congratulations to our Palestinian people on the birth of a revolution, a revolution that is still going on to this day. It is manifested today by the Palestinian people resisting the Zionist enemy with the knife; we will kill you with the stone, God willing, and will defeat you, and with reason, culture and art. We are a people worthy of life and you people should go into extinction.

Hail to the heroes, our prisoners in the prisons of the usurper enemy, wishing for the healing of our wounded heroes, and glory and immortality for all the martyrs of a free and Arab Palestine. It is a revolution until victory.

The theater did not seem to be exactly crowded.

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Since there are so many experts who are confidently predicting that the Arab world will rise up in intense anger if the US moves the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, I decided (again) to find evidence of this groundswell of anger that will spill over into extreme violence.

Finally, after weeks of searching, I found two protests.

This one in a West Bank city had perhaps 30 lethargic protesters:

And in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Culture organized a protest that still had a pathetic turnout:

Chances are, the earlier protest was also organized by the PA, given the consistency in the flags being flown. Someone clearly organized it.

So there you have it. This is the current state of the "spontaneous" and "angry" protests against the US because this issue is considered such a tinderbox by so many supposed experts who generally have their own agendas. And this is after weeks of warnings and at least two weeks of direct incitement in mosques.

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Palestinian media are buzzing about a statement from Hamas leader Ismail Radwan, saying that Hamas was ready to hand over the reigns of the government in Gaza to the Palestinian Authority.

Radwan reportedly said that Hamas is ready to hand over all its government functions and ministries to the government led by PA prime minister Rami Hamdallah, as long as the PA is committed to its responsibilities and duties towards the Gaza Strip and its people, according to previous and unimplemented agreements.

Hamas has been under unprecedented popular pressure over the past week over the lack of electricity in Gaza. Qatar and Turkey have pledged to provide more fuel for the power plant.

It is probably too early to celebrate any "unification."

Palestinian Minister of Labour Mamoun Abu Shahla reacted cautiously, saying he was waiting to see if this was a serious offer and not an empty political statement. He said the PA was waiting for more details to see if Hamas was ready to end "this obnoxious division."

Perhaps the biggest indication that this is not serious is the fact that mainstream Hamas media has not reported this, as far as I can tell.

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Zvi compiled this list from this document: (h/t Johannan Edelman for slight corrections)

Who participated in the farce in Paris? Over HALF of the participants (36) are at best supporters of 2334 and at worst virulently anti-Semitic.

GROUP 1: Officially reject Israel's right to exist. No diplomatic relations with Israel. Most are overtly anti-Semitic.

1. Algeria
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Bahrain
4. Bolivia (severed diplomatic relations 2009-10)
5. Djibouti
6. United Arab Emirates
7. Indonesia
8. Iraq
9. Kuwait
10. Lebanon. A failed state whose foreign policy is controlled by Iran, whose official policy is to destroy Israel.
11. Libya. A failed state.
12. Morocco. The occupier of Western Sahara.
13. Mauritania (severed diplomatic relations 2009-10)
14. Oman
15. Qatar
16. Venezuela (severed diplomatic relations 2009-10)
17. Arab League
18. Organization of Islamic Co-operation

GROUP 2: Officially extremely hostile toward Israel, although they maintain embassies or diplomatic missions. Invariably vote to harm Israel and Israelis in every international forum.

1. Egypt (Original sponsor of 2334. Cooperates when it needs help, but not when Israel needs help)
2. Ireland
3. Jordan (cooperates when Jordan needs help, but not when Israel needs help)
4. South Africa
6. Sweden
7. Turkey
8. United Nations

GROUP 3: Supported UNSC 2334. Almost always vote to harm Israel in international forums.

1. Angola (Voted for 2334)
2. China (voted for 2334. Occupier of Tibet. Sponsors Iran & other horrific regimes)
3. France (voted for 2334)
4. Senegal (co-sponsored 2334)
5. Japan (voted for 2334)
6. Russia (voted for 2334. Occupier of the Crimea, S. Ossetia, etc. Sponsors Iran and Syria, & therefore indirectly sponsors Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Recently committed war crimes in Aleppo)
7. Spain (voted for 2334)
8. UK (Voted for 2334. But sent only junior staff to Paris, and pointedly refused to sign "Joint Declaration")
9. Ukraine (Voted for 2334)
10. Uruguay (Voted for 2334)

GROUP 4: John Kerry

1. United States (Sneakily drove 2334. Refused to veto it)

GROUP 5: EU members. Couldn't really stay away. But the UK "and several Balkan countries" blocked the EU from adopting the summit's final declaration (JPOST).

1. Germany
2. Austria
3. Belgium
4. Bulgaria
5. Croatia
6. Cyprus
7. Denmark
8. Estonia
9. Finland
10. Greece
11. Hungary
12. Italy
13. Latvia
14. Lithuania
15. Malta
16. Netherlands
17. Poland
18. Portugal
19. Czech Republic
20. Romania
21. Slovakia
22. Slovenia
23. European Union

GROUP 6: Recently friendly toward Israel

1. Australia ("While the Australian government was represented at the Paris conference this does not mean we agree with every element of the final statement." - FM Julie Bishop )
2. Canada ("Canada must maintain its principled stance on Israel and support our democratic ally, particularly given the fact that no Israeli representative will be in attendance,” Mostyn said. He added even the title of the conference is strange because many conflicts in the Middle East have nothing to do with Israelis or Palestinians.).
3. India (Briefly: still sucking up to the Arabs, trying to gain benefits of friendship with Israel, don't want to have anything to do with Israel-Arab conflict or its resolution. Showed up because they want to look like players.)

GROUP 7: Misc.

Most of these remaining participants reliably vote to harm Israel in every international forum, but they usually smile to Israel's face.

1. Argentina
2. Brazil
3. Chile
4. Kazakhstan
5. Mexico
6. Norway
7. Holy See
8. Switzerland
9. South Korea

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

01/16 Links Pt2: MLK on Israel - Ari Lesser; Al Jazeera brings Middle Eastern antisemitism to the UK

From Ian:

What Martin Luther King Really Said about the Six-Day War

Supporters of Israel have marshaled two pieces of evidence to demonstrate that the great civil-rights leader shared their commitment to the Jewish state: first, that he was among a number of prominent Christian theologians who signed a strongly worded pro-Israel statement that was published in the New York Times on the eve of the 1967 Arab-Israel war; and, second, that he once rebuked someone in a private conversation, “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism!” Critics of these positions have found sufficient reason to question whether the New York Times statement accurately reflects King’s views, and whether he ever made the second remark at all. Having thoroughly investigated the matter, Martin Kramer concludes that King did in fact equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism (although it is unclear whether he had in mind anti-Zionism in general or specific anti-Zionists) but also had regrets about signing the public declaration in support of Israel. From here Kramer offers some general thoughts about King’s positions:
King’s careful maneuvering before, during, and after the Six-Day War demonstrated a much deeper understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict than critics credit him with possessing. . . . Palestinian-Americans who sought to dismiss the [anti-Zionism] quote suggested that the conflict “was probably not a subject he was well-versed on,” and that his public statements in praise of Israel “surely do not sound like the words of someone familiar with both sides of the story.”
Not so. King had been to the Arab world, had a full grasp of the positions of the sides, and was wary of the possible pitfalls of favoring one over the other. He struck a delicate balance, speaking out or staying silent after careful assessments made in consultation with advisers who had their ears to the ground. .

MLK on Israel - Ari Lesser

A new song from Ari Lesser in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day today and celebrating MLK's embrace of Israel, Zionism, and the Jewish people:

How Zionists Helped Destroy Segregation in Baltimore

After a year when Jewish and African-American relations were strained by the Black Lives Matter’s denunciation of Israel and other uncomfortable incidents, it’s worth recalling a little-known episode that points to the kind of intergroup relations that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. worked so hard to foster.
In the autumn of 1946, Zionist activists known as the Bergson Group sponsored a Broadway play called “A Flag is Born,” which was authored by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter and playwright Ben Hecht. Starring a young Marlon Brando and Yiddish theater luminaries Paul Muni and Celia Adler, “Flag” depicted the plight of Holocaust survivors in post-war Europe, and the fight for Jewish independence in British Mandatory Palestine.
The London Evening Standard expressed horror that large audiences were flocking to what it called “the most virulent anti-British play ever staged in the United States.” American publications took a different view: Time called the play “colorful theater and biting propaganda,” while Life complimented its “wit and wisdom.”
After a successful 10-week run on Broadway, “Flag” was scheduled to be performed in various cities around the country, including the National Theater in Washington, DC. When the Bergson Group realized that the National barred African-Americans from attending, they quickly looked for an alternative venue.

The minister for Jerusalem affairs in the Palestinian Authority, Adnan al-Husseini, said that Israel implemented "policy of ethnic cleansing" against the Arabs in the city.

In a press release issued today he said that " the occupation authorities" deliberately demolished Arab homes to make way for Jews to move in.

He said that the "occupation is aimed at uprooting and expulsion of the largest number of Palestinian citizens from their homes and build more illegal settlements."

How many Jerusalem homes were demolished in 2016? According to the article, 183.

Let's compare that two two recent stories..

In 2015, Israel approved 2,200 new Arab units to be built in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood in Jerusalem, and retroactively approved the illegal building for 300 other units. Arab leaders complained about it!

In 2016, Israel approved 600 new Arab home units in Beit Safafa.

If Israel is approving far more Arab homes than it is destroying, then "ethnic cleansing" doesn't quite seem accurate.

One would think that there would be one or two English-language reporters for mainstream media, somewhere in Israel, who would do what I just did.

I haven't found them.

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The depth of Arab misery (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

Several recent articles provide a wealth of data that indicate how truly miserable conditions in many Arab countries are, and how grim the outlook for much of the Arab world is. The most shocking data are from Syria (though the situation in Yemen is probably similarly dire). A recent NYT article outlines the devastation wrought by five years of war in Syria:

“Let’s take a look at the numbers. (While the following statistics are estimates, they will, if anything, get worse with the continuing matrix of wars in Syria.) More than 80 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line. Nearly 70 percent of Syrians live in extreme poverty, meaning they cannot secure basic needs, according to a 2016 report. That number has most likely grown since then. The unemployment rate is close to 58 percent, with a significant number of those employed working as smugglers, fighters or elsewhere in the war economy. Life expectancy has dropped by 20 years since the beginning of the uprising in 2011. About half of children no longer attend school — a lost generation. The country has become a public health disaster. Diseases formerly under control, like typhoid, tuberculosis, Hepatitis A and cholera, are once again endemic. And polio — previously eradicated in Syria — has been reintroduced, probably by fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Upward of 500,000 are dead from the war, and an untold number of Syrians have died indirectly from the conflict […] With more than two million injured, about 11.5 percent of the prewar population have become casualties. And close to half the population of Syria is either internally or externally displaced. A 2015 survey conducted by the United Nations refugee agency looking at Syrian refugees in Greece found that a large number of adults — 86 percent — had secondary or university education. Most of them were under 35. If true, this indicates that Syria is losing the very people it will most need if there is to be any hope of rebuilding in the future.”

But the future also doesn’t look rosy for the rest of the Arab world. MEMRI recently summarized some of the relevant findings of the latest UN Arab Human Development Report (AHDR), which focuses on “challenges and opportunities facing youth in the Arab region.” Needless to say, the comprehensive UN report is carefully “balanced,” which is to say it tries hard to package all the bad news with some slightly better news or upbeat talk about opportunities that are waiting to be seized.

As the MEMRI summary notes:

“While we would have wished otherwise, in reviewing the report we find that the critics of the ‘Arab Spring’ were more realistic in their assessment of the events of 2011 than those who were inclined to see bright stars in the sky. […] Arab youth today remain mired in poverty; they are politically marginalized and voiceless, economically disenfranchised, and socially prone to radicalization and violence. Theirs is a fragile and often volatile existence.”

“The [UN] report highlights the fact that in the last decade the region has experienced ‘the most rapid increase in war and violent conflict’ compared with other regions of the world. The Arab world also has ‘the dubious distinction’ of comprising the largest number of failed states showcasing a high scale of ‘fragility and failure’ in addition to being the source of the largest number of refugees and displaced people. While the report would not predict the level of conflict in the region, it does project that number of people living in conflict areas will increase from 250 million in 2010 to over 305 million in 2020.”

If you check out the report itself, there are plenty of findings that indicate how dire the situation in many Arab countries is and how little chance there is for rapid improvement – indeed, further decline seems more likely:

“the region still scores lower than the world average on the HDI [Human Development Index] and already lags three of the world’s six regions, namely, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. By the year 2050, the region is projected to rank fifth, only a little ahead of sub-Saharan Africa.”

“Evidence shows that the prospects of young people in the region are, now more than ever, jeopardized by poverty, economic stagnation, governance failure and exclusion, all compounded by the violence and fragility of the body politic.”

“Overall, the quality of education is poor. Standardized international tests in education such as the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment show Arab countries scoring well below the average.”

“The rise of women in Arab countries is inseparably and causally linked to the future human development of the Arab region. The pervasive disempowerment of women in Arab countries is grounded in cultural, social, economic and political factors. As the 2005 and 2009 AHDRs observed, the seeds of discrimination are embedded in cultural beliefs and traditions in childraising, education, religious structures, the media and family relations.”

Among the particularly noteworthy figures in the report is the following, which shows that the overwhelming majority of Arabs consider religion, i.e. mostly Islam, as “an important part” of their daily life:

This is also an interesting finding in the context of the ongoing mass migration to very secular Europe – a migration that is most warmly welcomed by liberals who don’t think much of their own religious fellow citizens and look down on religious Americans. The importance of religion for Arabs is also noteworthy in the context of another finding in the UN report:

“It is mainly because of its high levels of social and religious intolerance that the region stands out among countries at similar levels of development around the world. Tolerance is a core value in pluralistic societies and a cornerstone of more democratic systems. […] This wide regional deficit and lack of progress on values of tolerance are worrying for the future of democracy in the region.”

While Israel has so far managed to remain “a villa in the jungle” – as Ehud Barak once put it famously – it is clearly bad news that the region looks set to remain mired in conflict and that so many fundamental factors are likely to impede social progress and economic development. A year ago, a still very relevant article in The New York Jewish Week outlined the resulting problems for Israel as explained by veteran political analyst Ehud Yaari. The article begins with an anecdote:

“Ehud Yaari characterizes his friend Bernard Lewis, the eminent scholar of the Middle East [who turned 100 last May], as possessing ‘this ability to see into the future.’ Over a recent dinner in Israel, Yaari asked Lewis what he thought the Middle East would look like in fifty years. Without hesitating, Lewis leaned over the table and said decisively, ‘Any Arab who can will be out of here.’”

Unfortunately, many of those who can’t escape the hopelessness of the Arab Middle East may end up fueling sectarian conflict and bloodshed. And for frustrated young Palestinians, it is obviously tempting to commit terror attacks. In a very interesting piece published a few days ago, Yaari writes about Israel’s efforts to curb the wave of attacks that started in fall 2015, and it turns out that the motivations of the mostly young perpetrators clearly reflect the deep discontent and frustration as well as the religious fervor described in the UN report on the Arab world:

“most of the attackers came from the fringes of West Bank society: young people struggling with social marginalization, who had experienced repeated setbacks in their private lives or faced insurmountable personal or financial hardship. The collective profile of the assailants identified most as frustrated individuals who felt that their lives had reached a dead end, to the point that many sought salvation through martyrdom. Many of those captured during assaults told interrogators that they believed that death for the sake of jihad would reward them with the recognition they failed to obtain in life.”

Regarding the motivations of the surprisingly high number of female assailants, Yaari writes:

“Investigations showed that almost all of these women—including a 72-year-old grandmother from Hebron—were seeking to escape family hardships, such as pregnancies out of wedlock, arranged marriages, violence within the family, and so forth. Quite often it seemed that these women were seeking death or arrest in order to break away from their environment. In more than one instance, a young woman would wave a kitchen knife or scissors far from the Israeli soldiers, not posing any real threat, knowing that she would be immediately taken into custody.”

For some more on Palestinian frustration and discontent, you can check out this recent lament on “A Life of Degradation and Bitterness under Fatah Rule,” and this curse of “Israel, Hamas and Fatah” – the latter by a Palestinian who was “born and raised as a proud refugee from the Jabalia Refugee Camp in Gaza.” As much as the Palestinians may see themselves as part of the Arab world, it is definitely uniquely Palestinian to be “born and raised as a proud refugee” in a Palestinian city among Palestinians.

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01/16 Links Pt1: A farce in Paris; Paris Peace Conference: Wrong Message, Wrong Time, Wrong Place

From Ian:

A farce in Paris

The conference in Paris belongs to the legacy of U.S. President Barack Obama's administration: A moment before it all falls apart, strike a blow at the Jews. Just before French President Francois Hollande's government falls apart (the candidates from his party are "hiding" their involvement in his administration), the French have remembered to strike a blow at the Jews. For one long moment -- too long -- the enormous massacre in Syria, in Aleppo, was forgotten. Also forgotten is the ongoing return of Arab states to tribal and clan structures and the dismantling of the nationalist structures forced upon them by Colonial France and England after the World War II. The crazed rise of jihadi Islam has been forgotten, too. The hundreds of murdered citizens of France and Germany, killed in bizarre manners by Muslim fanatics, have been forgotten. Everything has been forgotten, because the reason for all this chaos has been discovered: the settlements.
Hollande said that "the two-state solution is threatened by the continued building of settlements, by the weakness of the peace camp, by mistrust between the two sides, and by the terrorists who have always feared a peace settlement." We have grown far too accustomed to this intellectual disgrace, having heard it from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in his last speech, from Hollande on Sunday evening and from other leaders (including the U.N. Security Council's scandalous resolution), according to which there is a correlation between the settlement enterprise and terrorism. We must not agree with this lie, which indirectly justifies the murder of Jews and ignores the reasons for the murder of Christians on European land. This approach is a recipe for the defeat of Europe at the hands of those seeking to destroy it.
We are focusing too much on the war against the Islamic State group, Hollande complained, and if we want to "stabilize the Middle East," we must not forget the "oldest conflict," the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Absolutely not, Mr. Hollande. The oldest conflict, which began several hundreds of years prior, is that between Islam and Christianity. The first Crusade left primarily from France toward Jerusalem some 920 years ago, at the encouragement of Otho de Lagery, or Pope Urban II.
Now, it has become clear that almost a millennium later, the French have submitted to the Muslims. They are seeking to liberate Jerusalem from its rightful owners and to transfer it to Muslim occupiers, in the hope that they will be spared and that the killing campaign in the streets of Europe will stop. What a shameful defeat.

Senior State Department Correspondent Says Paris Peace Conference ‘Marks End to Obama’s Failed Mideast Diplomacy’

Ahead of the Mideast peace summit held in Paris on Sunday, Associated Press correspondent Matthew Lee, known for his piercing questions at State Department briefings, indicated that the gathering of world representatives in the French capital would be the culmination of the “Obama administration’s eight years of unsuccessful Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy.”
Analyzing the reason for US participation in the conference, which he said “isn’t expected to produce any tangible progress,” Lee wrote:
At a time when President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is promising a fundamental shift toward Israel, the State Department said Kerry was only participating in the French-hosted event to ensure America’s interest in a two-state solution to the conflict is preserved. The blunt statement reinforced the dwindling hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough.
Lee said that because no representatives from either Jerusalem or Ramallah were among the diplomats from more than 70 countries attending the summit, “[T]he US is primarily focused on shielding Israel from unfair criticism and ensuring concerns about Palestinian incitement to violence aren’t ignored.”
However, he wrote, “[T]he administration may find its voice ignored. While the US received credit from close allies in Europe and elsewhere for abstaining” from the vote on the anti-settlement UN Security Council Resolution 2334 last month, “America’s partners have grown tired with its leadership on the peace process.”

Hillel Neuer: No, President Hollande, focusing on Israel won’t bring “stability” to Syria, Iraq or Yemen

My open letter to French President Francois Hollande in response to his speech at the Paris Middle East Peace Conference.
January 15, 2017
Dear President François Hollande,
In your speech thjs afternoon, after you cited the wars in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, and the struggle against the Islamic State, you sought to justify the focus of today’s Paris summit on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by saying the Middle East cannot “regain its stability” unless we address “the oldest of its conflicts.”
Are you not aware that today’s Middle East wars in the name of Jihad, and internecine conflicts such as the Sunni-Shiite schism, are 1300 years older than the Arab-Israeli conflict?
Do you really believe that increased world focus on the Israeli-Palestinian issue will cause Syria—a country that has disintegrated from Bashar Assad’s genocidal bombings of his Sunni population, backed by Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia—to somehow “regain stability”?
Do you really believe that what Israel does or doesn’t do will affect the Islamic State’s genocidal massacre, abductions and rape of Yazidis and Christians in Iraq?