Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, March 20, 2017

03/20 Links Pt2: Pro-Israel media also exists; Hamas opposes changes to UNRWA curriculum

From Ian:

There is no doubt that the pro-Israel news videos by Canadian journalist Faith Goldy for The Rebel media website are a breath of fresh air in the continuous heat wave of the anti-Israel global media.
The most recent video, which includes additional insight on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gathered from Goldy's recent trip to Israel, quickly reached about a million viewers and even roused the curiosity of Channel 2, which dedicated an item to the video, even if it seemed a bit forced, during Friday night's broadcast. The viral video, which was filmed in the Golan Heights with Syria in the background, seeks, like Goldy's other reports, to challenge the average viewer -- who has been fed on a diet of fake news about Israel -- by busting common myths.
Take, for example, the myth that a "high wall divides between Palestinians and Israelis," which has recently generated buzz anew thanks to graffiti artist Banksy's Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, which promises "the worst view in the world." Goldy addresses the barrier, saying, "It's not a wall! It's a giant fence! Only about 5% of it is a wall!" She goes on: "We found that Palestinians can actually freely come into Israel so long as they're not carrying any pipe bombs or explosive vests. They have to go through the sort of security that's akin to essentially going through an airport." She then explains to her viewers that it is the Israelis who are not allowed to cross over to the other side of the fence.
And for those who think that the difficulty in crossing over is only a problem for Israelis, Goldy clarifies that she, as a Christian, sought to visit Bethlehem, but cannot safely do so because the city is full of mosques and posters praising and sanctifying terrorists and acts of terrorism. The Western world already knows this story. And then she brings up another fact that you wouldn't hear from the media that is hostile to Israel -- the Israeli military hospital on the Israeli side of the fence treats Syrian women aged 8 to 80 who have been brutally raped by Islamic State operatives.

Barry Shaw: BDS violence in Amsterdam: I was there

When I visited Holland to speak to Jewish and Christian audiences and to have private meetings with pro-Israel leaders I was told how Dutch Jews were increasingly fearful about speaking out or showing their support for Israel. Their main fears derived from the threatening atmosphere being stoked up by anti-Israel protesters and BDS activists.
I was introduced to Rabbi Benjamin Jacobs, the head of the Dutch Jewish community, who has been the victim of five attacks as Jews have been targeted in proportion to the rise of BDS and other anti-Israel activism in Holland.
So it was surprising to find my talk to the Jewish audience in the Liberal Jewish Center in Amsterdam attended by what I was told were three of the leading members of the Dutch BDS. Here they were sitting in the Anne Frank Hall in the presence of the people who told me they are fearful of them.
I purposefully engaged one of them in a public dialogue. One openly admitted that the BDS cause was to achieve a One-State solution and not the achievement of a two-state peace deal. In other words, he was loyal to Omar Barghouti, the BDS founder, who has always advocated the end of the Jewish state of Israel. This character wearing his brown shirt emblazoned with ‘BOYCOTT ISRAEL’ stickers on a background of a Palestinian flag certainly subscribes to a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea.”
In the end I wiped the floor with him in an exchange in which I deconstructed all the emotional tropes he could hurl at Israel. I showed him, but more importantly the audience, how the insults he threw at Israel applies in spades to the Arab regimes that surround Israel and to the Palestinian themselves .

Hamas opposes changes to UNRWA curriculum

Gaza Deputy Education Minister Dr. Ziad Tabeth and a Hamas official have stated they completely oppose the proposed changes to the UNRWA textbooks, and claim UNRWA must use the textbooks provided by the "host country," the Palestinian Authority.
According to Tabeth, the PA education officials printed new textbooks for all Arab schools.
Palestin reported that UNRWA main headquarters sent a booklet to UNRWA in Gaza explaining the changes to the textbooks used in UNRWA schools.
During the first stage, the changes focus on the subjects of Islam, math, civics, and the study of Arabic in grades 1-4. The second stage of the plan focuses on the middle school curriculim.
According to Arab reports, UNRWA is trying to change chapters which deal with "violence," meaning those which address the Arab-Israeli conflict. The changes also affect chapters dealing with gender, and coed situations, and leave out any mention of the politics which make up the basis for "Palestinian" propaganda.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority protested the changes to the curriculum, calling the idea of change "very dangerous."

"Trump: Good for the Jews? symposium part 4: Gidon Shaviv

Here is part 4 of the video of last week's symposium in Jerusalem on Donald Trump that I organized.

Gidon Shaviv, an expert on "fake news" and Pallywood, disputes the premise of the question altogether.

Parts 1, 2, 3

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Arabs still suffer from Israel Derangement Syndrome (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

Maybe I’m wrong, but when I read Rami Khouri’s recent article on an Arab Center poll that, according to him, “shows Arab realities, as opposed to US mythologies,” I couldn’t help sensing that Khouri was quite pleased with one particular result of the poll. As he put it in his column:

“It was fascinating to see that while the U.S government and Israel are seeking a mythological alliance of Arabs and Israel against Iran, the survey found that the overwhelming majority of Arabs (86 percent) reject official recognition of Israel by their governments. This reflected widespread perceptions of Israel’s colonialist policies towards the Palestinians and its expansionist threat to other Arab countries. Dr. Mohammad Almasri, Coordinator of the Arab Opinion Index, explained this Arab animosity towards Israel as reflecting political actions, rather than being framed in cultural or religious terms.”

Right: “Arab animosity towards Israel” is of course due to Israel’s evil “political actions,” and Arab Jew-hatred has nothing whatsoever to do with it. And Professor Rami Khouri – a “Palestinian-Jordanian and U.S. citizen” who is “director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut,” and who also held various academic positions in the US and is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center – seems quite happy that his fellow Arabs oppose any official recognition of Israel because of its “colonialist policies towards the Palestinians and its expansionist threat to other Arab countries.”

So to look at just one telling example: like all people oppressed by “colonialist policies,” the Palestinians have more diplomatic missions around the world than their cruel colonial master Israel… It’s obvious: Worst. Colonialism. Ever. And then there is of course Israel’s dreadful “expansionist threat to other Arab countries” – I don’t have to give you details on that, I’m sure you heard in yesterday’s news that Israel has just conquered another Arab country; I mean, nobody can even keep count, so we can’t be quite sure for how many Arab countries Israel’s “expansionist threat” has already spelled doom. It’s really a miracle that there’s still an Arab Center that can conduct polls in Arab countries that have somehow managed to escape Israel’s “expansionist threat” – so far, at least… No doubt by the time you read that, yet another Arab country will have fallen victim to Israel’s “expansionist threat.” SAD.

But in the real world, there is something much sadder, as I outlined in a recent post on “The depth of Arab misery” – which has nothing whatsoever to do with Israel. Instead, according to the latest UN Arab Human Development Report, the dire situation and the grim prospects for the future of Arab countries are due to the misrule of autocratic governments and to factors like “high levels of social and religious intolerance” and the related disempowerment of women. The severe form of Israel Derangement Syndrome from which the vast majority of Arabs suffer is simply a symptom of a broader refusal to move into the 21st century.

But according to Khouri, “the U.S. and other Western lands … still largely deal with an imagined, rather than the actual, Arab world” – yet arguably, the problem here seems to be that “the U.S. and other Western lands” underestimate how much Arabs believe in the imaginary evil of Israel or, for that matter, the US: as the poll shows, 89% of Arabs believe Israel poses “a threat to the stability of the Arab region” and 82% also see the US as posing such a threat. Iran, which has been busy stoking murderous sectarian violence in the region for years, was seen as a threat by 73% -- which does show that despite the intense Arab hatred for Israel and the US, a bit of reality sometimes manages to assert itself.

On the other hand, it is a telling coincidence that, while 89% of Arabs believe that Israel poses “a threat to the stability of the Arab region,” 89% also have a “negative” view of the brutal terror organization Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). Consider these findings in light of the various available (usually partial) lists of ISIS atrocities (e.g. here); a good perspective can also be gained by reading e.g. this UN report from 2014 on the toll of the just beginning fight against ISIS in Iraq:

“Overall, at least 24,015 civilians have been killed or injured in Iraq during the first eight months of 2014. […] The actual numbers could be much higher. Additionally, the number of civilians who have died from the secondary effects of violence, such as lack of access to basic food, water or medicine, after fleeing their homes or who remained trapped in areas under ISIL control or in areas of conflict are unknown. […] As of August 2014, an estimated 1.8 million Iraqis had been displaced due to the ongoing violence.”

That is the toll for just part of 2014, and just in Iraq, where most of the victims are Arabs – yet, Arabs think Israel is about as bad as ISIS. Moreover, as Khouri himself admits: “it is also worrying that 5 percent, or 20 million Arabs, had positive views of it [ISIS].”

I agree with him on this one: it is really worrying that about 20 million Arabs approve of a savage terrorist group like ISIS.

And, to put this into perspective: if some 20 million Arabs have “positive views” of ISIS, there are about three times more Arab ISIS fans than there are Jews in Israel.

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03/20 Links Pt1: Toameh: Abbas's Empty Promises; More than Just Another Anti-Israel U.N. Farce

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas's Empty Promises

Abbas's pledge to prevent inflammatory rhetoric against Israel seems to have missed his editors and journalists.
Take, for example, the Palestinian Authority-controlled media's response to last week's Jerusalem marathon. In the PA media, the sports event is depicted as part of Israel's scheme to "Judaize" Jerusalem and change the "Arab and Islamic character" of the city.
In addition, Abbas's media continues to portray visits by Jews to the Temple Mount as "provocative invasions" of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Jewish visitors are described as "settler gangs" who carry out "suspicious tours" of Islamic religious sites. It is precisely this kind of terminology that is driving many Palestinians to carry out stabbings and car-rammings against Israelis.
Abbas can make all the promises in the world to the new US envoy. Fulfillment of any of them, however, is a different story altogether.
Abbas has had multiple opportunities to reach a "historic" deal with Israel, yet he has never delivered. Quite the contrary: he has repeatedly rejected offers for holding direct talks with Israel, insisting instead on pursuing his campaign to internationalize the conflict with the hope of imposing a solution on Israel.
Abbas knows anyhow that he would never be able to win the support of a majority of Palestinians for any peace agreement he signs with Israel. No Palestinian leader is authorized to offer any concessions to Israel in return for peace.
The "cordial" and "positive" meeting with the new US envoy will change nothing -- certainly not Abbas's stripes.
Abbas's modus operandi is to flee from his problems at home by presenting himself to the international community as a leader who seeks peace. With every lick of the flames that threaten to engulf his palace of deception, the 82-year-old Abbas runs to seek sympathy among world leaders and international public opinion. Abbas's promises of peace are as empty as the political sway he parades to his Western donors.

Hillel C. Neuer: Why Theresa May must expel former UN official Richard Falk for ‘anti-Semitism’

Human rights organisation UN Watch, which is accredited by the United Nations to monitor the world body’s adherence to the principles of its Charter, has sent the following letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, urging her to consider expelling disgraced ex-UN official Richard Falk, who is set to speak this week at events in London.

March 19, 2017
Dear Prime Minister May
In a recent speech, you said, “I made sure we kept extremism—including the sort that peddles anti-Semitic vitriol—out of our country,” and you cited your barring of antisemites like Dieudonné, and your expulsion of terror supporters like Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada.
In that regard, we wish to inform you that Mr. Richard Falk—a disgraced ex-UN official who was officially denounced by the United Kingdom on at least three separate occasions for antisemitism, and whose glorification of the Hamas terrorist group was so severe that the Palestinian Authority sought to expel him from the UN—is currently in your country, and is planning to speak this week at various events in London.
We urge your government to examine the following facts and legal precedents, and to consider whether to expel this exponent of antisemitism and glorifier of Jihadist terrorism from the UK.

More than Just Another Anti-Israel U.N. Farce

A new United Nations report libels Israel, promotes hatred, and makes peace even less likely.
The report comes at a particularly inopportune time for those hoping President Trump’s surprising interest in reviving peace talks might bear fruit. The Palestinians rejected President Obama’s efforts to tilt the diplomatic playing field in their direction. They torpedoed the negotiations sponsored by Secretary of State John Kerry, embracing efforts to get the U.N. to grant them statehood without first requiring them to make peace with Israel. Their unwillingness to make compromises will only be strengthened by a report that encourages them to regard Israel as having no rights whatsoever. They are likely to make Falk’s and Tilley’s findings the basis for renewed efforts to sue Israel in the International Criminal Court, as well as for renewed provocations in other U.N. bodies such as the Human Rights Council or even UNESCO, which in the past year has taken up measures that denied the historical Jewish ties to Jerusalem and some of Judaism’s holiest sites.
Just as unfortunate is the way the report will be used to buttress the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement against Israel, which is one of the primary engines of anti-Semitic incitement both in Europe and the United States. While BDS claims to be merely a protest against Israel, wherever its banner is raised, anti-Jewish hate speech and actions soon follow. Those who subscribe to the notion that the Jewish state has no rights that need be respected are not merely promoting bias on the international stage, but also are part of an effort that leads inexorably to anti-Semitic hate speech.
Liberal groups have labeled President Trump as the main source of encouragement for the uptick in anti-Jewish incidents in the United States. This is due in part to his inflammatory statements during the election campaign, the support he received from anti-Semites in the small but loud alt-right and far-right elements of his base, and his refusal to quickly disavow such hate once he became president. Partisans have overstated this argument while failing to take into account Trump’s close Jewish ties, his support for Israel, and the things most of those actively promoting anti-Semitism actually care about. The U.N. report is a reminder that in our time, the singling out of Jews for discriminatory treatment is primarily driven by anti-Israel propaganda, which serves as a thin veil for a new and insidious form of anti-Semitism. Those looking for the reason behind the rising tide of hate against Jews around the globe would do better to read Falk and Tilley than to read Trump’s tweets.

I’ve frequently compared BDS to a virus that preys upon civic organizations unfamiliar with its tactics and ultimate propaganda goals. But like a virus, BDS has created its own antibodies that contribute to its rejection within whole categories of civic institution after a troubling infection breaks out and then is cured.

We’ve seen this play out at different stages with colleges and universities over the years. In the early 2000s, for instance, petition-driven divestment campaigns were big news when they cropped up at high-profile schools like Harvard and MIT, leading to their replication at schools across the country. But once these campaigns sprang up, so did counter-campaigns to resist them. These consisted of anti-divestment petitions that outpolled pro-BDS ones 10:1, as well as sound arguments for rejecting divestment.

When those arguments became accepted universally by schools administrators (all but blocking off genuine divestment at colleges and universities), the battle moved to student government. At first, BDS debates at schools like Berkeley became so ugly and divisive that other schools avoided similar fights since they tended to alienate students from their representatives, as well as invite condemnation from administrators, alumni and the media. But, as time went on, the BDSers found a solution to representatives refusing to speak in the name of those they represented on controversial international issues: replacing them with new leaders who were BDS activists first, student representatives second (if at all).

While calls to have BDS motions passed by student government are still rare, and the boycotters lose more often than they win, new antibodies continue to spring up to protect the organism (the campus as a whole) from the BDS infection. Most importantly, pro-Israel students have mobilized to ensure that no BDS call goes unanswered, with support from on-campus resources such as local Hillels.

BDS excess, especially with regard to shouting down pro-Israel speakers and bullying pro-Israel students, has also led to the involvement of responsible adults in the debate. The University of California system’s adoption of a definition of anti-Semitism that recognizes anti-Zionism as a form of Jew hatred was a huge step forward, as was this recent report from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) on the threat BDS poses to campus discourse, freedom of speech and inquiry.

As in the early 2000s, the most powerful contribution groups like UC leaders and ACTA have made are intellectual ones. For by providing a sound set of arguments for why BDS is not just one more form of legitimate protest, and focusing those arguments not on the Arab-Israeli conflict but the threat BDS activity poses to core values of academia, they have created a foundation others can build on to continue the fight against boycott, divestment and sanctions projects.

Years ago, another institutions (food cooperatives) immunized themselves from the BDS threat by creating similar arguments that showed how boycotting Israeli goods ran counter the founding principles of the Coop movement as a whole (called the Rochdale Principles) as well as showing how boycotts might run afoul of anti-discrimination law. As a result, today boycotts are all but dead in the coop movement.

The number of BDSholes involved with the campus branch of the global anti-Israel propaganda campaign is larger than those involved with the ultimately failed effort to turn food cooperatives into their latest weapons of war. But our side too is mobilized and is fighting back, not with shouts and manipulative rhetoric, but with sound arguments – strongly and confidently presented – that continue to win the day.

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In the digital version of this high school textbook by Pearson you can look up the definitions of phrases. Here's how "Holy Land" was defined:

If the book intended to define the term as the Crusaders would have, then even this would be inaccurate. A quick look through the texts of the Crusaders does not turn up any mention of "Palestine." Jerusalem is really the goal, its country is not named.

But for something being written today this is essentially a whitewash of Jewish history.

(h/t Andy)

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Khamanei says treating women as equals is a Zionist plot to destroy humanity

From Iran's Mehr News Agency:

Addressing a gathering of religious eulogists on Sunday morning on the occasion of anniversary of birth of Hazrat Fatimah Zahra (SA) as the National Women's and Mothers' Day, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei deemed actions of that great lady of Islam both is the role of a true leader as well as a great wife and mother as a perfect role model for Muslim women.

He underscored that raising certain topics in support of women’s rights will actually undermine their position reiterating that exploiting women as means of pleasure and joy in the West is most likely a Zionist conspiracy aimed at destroying human society.

“Unfortunately, sometimes inside the country and in some Islamic environments, tasks and expectations are ascribed to women which in fact collapse and humiliate their roles.”

“Today, Western scholars and those who pursue issues like gender equality all regret their actions for the corruption they caused,” highlighted the Leader expressing hope that views of those who raised similar issues inside the country were not based on the Western misconception.

Of course, in Iran women are not allowed to show their hair in public, married women cannot leave the country without their husband's permission, a woman's testimony is worth half that of a man and men can marry up to four wives. Anyone against that is of course part of the Zionist plot to destroy human society.

Oh, and Iran is a world leader in human trafficking of women for sexual exploitation:

The Islamic Republic of Iran is a transit and destination country for trafficking in person as well as a country of origin for victims of trafficking. The Iranian state has always faced human trafficking issues due to geographical location and lack of measures by the Iranian authorities to prevent trafficking and to develop strategies that address the root causes and risk factors. The issue has been invisible by lack of official statistics and estimations, freedom of expression, freedom of associations and free press. In December 2013 the semi official Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) quoted Iran's passport issues police department chief, General Mahmoud Sadeghi: “We do not deny girls’ trafficking to Arabian countries but the number is not considerable” at an INTERPOL Regional Operational Workshop on “Combating Trafficking in Human Beings” in Tehran. At the same event Homayun Hashemi, the head of Iran’s government-run Social Welfare Organisation, was quoted: “Certain statistics have no positive function in society; instead, they have a negative psychological impact. It is better not to talk about them.”

Women and girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation domestically and externally into Persian Gulf countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan, more limited to European and Asian countries as well as more recently to China. Additionally Afghan, Pakistani, Eastern Europeans, Chinese and Iraqi women are trafficked into the I.R. Iran.

There are specific vulnerability factors for women and girls of becoming trafficking victims in the I.R. Iran such as poverty, drug addiction, sexual abuse, domestic violence, pre-arranged marriages as well as divorce as case studies of “Runaway Girls in Social Emergency and Rehabilitation Centre of Shiraz, Iran” specifies. In recent years also the number of girls as well as boys on the streets has increased.

The good news is that Khamenei is clearly afraid of rights that Iranian women are demanding and how his eighth-century society looks to the world. When he calls something "Zionist" that is a last ditch effort to demonize something that even most Iranians know is inevitable.

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Looks like UNESCO may become even more anti-Israel

As UNESCO has descended into anti-Israel madness, its head, Irina Bokova, has been trying to keep it from sinking altogether.

When UNESCO passed a resolution that implicitly denied a connection between Judaism and Jerusalem, Bokova issued a statement denouncing it:

The heritage of Jerusalem is indivisible, and each of its communities has a right to the explicit recognition of their history and relationship with the city. To deny, conceal or erase any of the Jewish, Christian or Muslim traditions undermines the integrity of the site, and runs counter to the reasons that justified its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
...We have a collective responsibility to strengthen this cultural and religious coexistence, by the power of acts and also by the power of words. This requirement is stronger than ever, to bridge the divisions that harm the multi-faith character of the Old City.
When these divisions carry over into UNESCO, an Organization dedicated to dialogue and peace, they prevent us from carrying out our mission. UNESCO's responsibility is to foster this spirit of tolerance and respect for history, and this is my absolute daily determination as Director-General, with all Member States.

Bokova received death threats for these words.

In 2015, Bokova "deplored" an attempt by Muslim states to declare the Western Wall to be part of Al Aqsa Mosque.

While she capitulated to Arab pressure to postpone a UNESCO exhibit on the ties between Israel and the Jewish people, she strongly supported the newer exhibit, according to organizers.

Bokova is stepping down this year after two terms - and four Arabs are on the shortlist of nine people to replace her.

The Arab countries say that an Arab has never had that position and it is time.

The candidates are Egypt's Moushira Khattab, Qatar's Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari, Iraq's Saleh al-Hasnawi, Lebanon's Vera el-Khoury Lacoeuilh, Guatemala's Juan Alfonso Fuentes Soria, Vietnam's Pham Sanh Chau, Azerbaijan's Polad Bulbuloglu, China's Qian Tang, and France's Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay who may have the inside track because UNESCO's headquarters is in Paris.

Azoulay has a Moroccan Jewish background. Her father was an adviser to Morocco's King Mohammed VI.

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Varda Meyers Epstein on Trump at EoZ symposium, Jerusalem, March 14 (video)

Here is Varda's talk, and the QA afterwards, from the symposium I held in Jerusalem last week.

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03/19 Links: German MPs investigate anti-Israel hack Finkelstein; Rare signs of fairness at the UN

From Ian:

Germany MPs investigate pro-Hezbollah academic Finkelstein

In a dramatic widening of an academic antisemitism scandal at the Max Planck Institute for the promotion of lectures delivered by a pro-Hezbollah instructor, German Green Party lawmakers began a parliamentary inquiry on Friday into Dr. Norman Finkelstein’s talks.
The Jerusalem Post obtained a copy of the Green Party questionnaire sent to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration, which includes her Education Ministry’s criticism of allegedly shoddy scholarship practiced at the Max Planck Institute in Halle.
Stefan Müller, an undersecretary of the Education Ministry, wrote that the ministry “sees with concern that in the context of a controversial academic discussion possible antisemitic theses were given a platform.”
Müller, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, said the government called on the president of the Max Planck Institute, Martin Stratmann, to clear up the alleged misconduct. Stratmann, according to Müller, has not provided answers to the Merkel administration.
Pro-Hezbollah activist and US academic Finkelstein delivered two lectures, including one titled “Gaza: An Inquest into its Martyrdom.”
The talks were held in January at the Max Planck Institute branch in the city of Halle, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Stand With Us: American Victims of Palestinian Terror: Naftali Moses

Nothing can prepare you for the loss of a child. Nothing can prepare a parent to hear the news of a terror attack and slowly discover that his son is among the eight shot down in cold blood. Nothing can prepare a father for the heartrending pain that burying his firstborn son brings.
On March 6, 2008, Naftali Moses’ 16 years old son, Avraham David, was murdered by a terrorist who opened fire on teenagers who were studying in a library in Jerusalem. On that day his life changed forever.
Hear the story of an American Victim of Palestinian Terrorism.
To support American Victims of Palestinian Terrorism sign the petition: www.stop-terror.org/takeaction/

The UN 101: The UN Human Rights Council

What is the UN Human Rights Council and who is being helped by it?

Rare signs of fairness at the UN

The report, which consisted entirely of some of the worst anti-Semitic propaganda the world has seen since the Holocaust, was authored by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, a whitewashed name for a group of Arab states. Not that the organization's other reports were objective. You won't find any condemnation of Arab tyrants there, or any concern for those the committee members refer to as Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Even news exposes about the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, ranging from corruption scandals to incitement to jihadi terrorism and anti-Semitism, are routinely ignored by the committee.
But this time the hypocrisy and lies of the haters of Israel were too much even for an organization that has been accustomed to swallow them in large gulps. A document accusing Israel of apartheid practices was coyly presented as the official stance of the U.N. without having been approved by the regular channels. In other words, it's a fake. Guterres demanded that the committee shelve the delusional creation, and committee chairwoman Rima Khalaf was forced to resign.
The story doesn't end there. In our world, there is always someone who looks out for anti-Semites and lends his hand to anyone who makes war against the Jewish state. In case you were wondering, that is Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He didn't waste a minute before calling the fired anti-Semitic Khalaf, expressing his deep appreciation and informing her that the PA would be awarding her its highest honor. You can judge people by their friends.

Lavarnway, Freiman, and Zeid (Seoul, 2017)

Japan beat Team Israel last Wednesday to eliminate the "Mensches" from the World Baseball Classic (WBC).

Nonetheless, Israel did far better than anyone thought possible. Manager Jerry Weinstein and the guys were not expected to even qualify for the tournament and the oddsmakers pegged them at a 200 to 1 longshot to win the whole kaboodle.

Israel defied expectations by not only qualifying for the series, but making it into Round 2 until the Netherlands and Japan blocked their run in the Tokyo Dome. Still, the guys did phenomenal and my poker-money says that they will do so again in 2021.

The primary question for those of us covering the Team Israel, however, is just what to make of their terrific effort? Is there some larger meaning that can be culled? Does the Mensche on the Bench, as conjured by outfielder Cody Decker, really have Kabbalistic powers?

I suspect not, but what is clear is that Ha'aretz - Israel's version of the "paper of record" - is not a big fan of Team Israel.

One thing that I will always remember about this series, aside from the Mensche, himself, is the contempt of Ha'aretz for their own national ballclub. It's a bit sad, but I never much liked Ha'aretz, anyway, because I am not "post-Zionist."

While it is obviously true that not all Jews are citizens of the sovereign state of Israel, we are part of the nation of Israel because we are part of the Jewish people. The very word "Israel" - whether Ha'aretz likes it or not - refers to both the Jewish State as well as to the Jewish people as a whole. The general policy of the State of Israel since 1948 - and of the yishuv in the British mandate - was to hold Jewish people close as brothers and sisters as those of us in diaspora do likewise.

I am not convinced that Ha'aretz is quite on-board with this old-fashioned notion, however.

"This Spit" (Sweden, 2016)

Once it became clear that Team Israel was doing well in the tournament - after their surprise upsets in the preliminaries in Brooklyn, New York, and then the amazing sweep at Gocheok Skydome in Seoul, South Korea - it was just too much for Ha'aretz.

In two articles attached to their rather flat description of Israel's victory over Team Cuba in the first game of Round 2, Ha'aretz spat at their American bat-wielding brothers.

On March 9, Simon Spungin portrayed Team Israel as comprised of foreign usurpers and on March 12, Chemi Shalev did the same.

In At World Baseball Classic, I'm Rooting for 'Team Nice Jewish Boys' Spungin wrote this:

Sure, they're Jewish and, by Israeli law, they could become Israeli if they wanted to. But they're not. They are Americans and they have been brought in as ringers, plain and simple.

This is unjust, malicious, and the title oozes condescension.

The point of the World Baseball Classic is to promote baseball to an international audience. This is why any player eligible for citizenship in any country may play for that country and that is why we see Major Leaguers from the United States playing for teams all throughout the world. In fact, Team Israel does not have a single player currently in the bigs, but this is not true for other countries who have non-national big league stars playing for their country.

In a September 28 ESPN article, How Israel made major progress at World Baseball Classic qualifying, Thomas Neumann explains:

We know what you're thinking. Why is a de facto Jewish-American all-star team representing Israel?

WBC eligibility rules are more flexible than those which govern most federated international competitions, including the Olympics. By WBC rules, a player is essentially allowed to compete for a nation if he fulfills the criteria whereby he would be eligible to become a citizen of that country. Israel isn't the only country that benefits from this rule, but its religious status makes for a unique situation among WBC teams. The nation's Law of Return allows anyone with a Jewish parent, grandparent or spouse to become a citizen.

MLB established this policy with the idea of growing the game globally. After all, a tournament where a handful of established teams crush inexperienced competition would serve as an insincere invitation to nations where MLB has growth interest.

Notice how much more kindly that ESPN is to Team Israel than is Ha'aretz.

Is there any other newspaper in the world that represents itself before an international audience as the voice of that country that so fiercely attacks its own sports teams during international competitions?

I sincerely doubt it.

The WBC did not devise this rule out of some nefarious Zionist plot to rob more virtuous people from their proper baseball glory to the benefit of the Jews. Someone needs to inform Ha'aretz that the WBC created this rule because they want to promote the game and hope to see it permanently reinstated as an Olympic sport which is why the best players from anywhere in the world can play for any team so long as they are eligible for citizenship in that country.

I have never seen this before.

Why would Ha'aretz go after Team Israel if not to niggle at political divides between Jewish Israelis and their brothers and sisters in the diaspora?

In order to further delegitimize Team Israel on March 12 Ha'aretz published this gem by Chemi Shalev entitled, Why Stop at Baseball? Israel Should Also Recruit Scarlett Johansson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Bernie Sanders:

We may view it as a natural expression of the eternal link between Jews and their Promised Land, but one can hardly blame others if they take a more cynical view of a baseball team that uses God’s Covenant with Abraham as a pretext for manning their pitching roster.

Tell me, does this just not drip with arrogance and condescension?

None of this, obviously, has anything whatsoever to do with "God's Covenant" because the game - Billy Crystal's cosmic baseball dreams aside - has nothing to do with theology. I am no one's idea of a rabbi, for chrissake, but I am pretty sure that baseball does not figure highly in Torah learning.

Cody Decker hugs the "Mensche"

The pitching roster reflects the team and the team reflects Israel and Israel reflects the Jewish people.

And that is precisely what Ha'aretz cannot swallow.

We all know that Ha'aretz pays money for anti-Semitic anti-Zionists like Amira Hass and Gideon Levy to retch hatred at Jewish people who do not toe their political line. For example, Hass actually believes that stoning Jews in Israel is "the birthright and duty" of Palestinian-Arabs.

So, while many of us have long understood that Ha'aretz is the toxic little Israeli brother of the New York Times, I never figured that they would actually hurl poison at Jewish ballplayers in order to get a kitzel behind the ear from New York.

As far as I am concerned Ha'aretz can go straight to hell.

It speaks neither for the Jews in Israel, nor for those of us in diaspora.

It speaks only for the Democratic Party which, itself, is neither a friend to the Jewish people, nor the Jewish state.

It might as well bring on anti-Semitic anti-Zionist and Democratic Party activist Linda Sarsour to decide its editorial policies.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

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Palestinian kids in Doha are taught to support terror and that Israel doesn't exist

Today, Mahmoud Abbas dedicated a school in Doha that is open only to students of Palestinian descent.

I believe that this school has been around for a few years, because there is a (currently inactive) website and Facebook page for "Pal-school.net."

Let's look at what they teach.

First, Israel doesn't exist. The only country between Egypt and Jordan is "Palestine."

Second, violence is wonderful.

Third, UNESCO supports this school.

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