Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, July 24, 2017

07/24 Links Pt1: Israeli Sovereignty Over the Temple Mount Is Crucial for Peace; Palestinians Protesting Metal Detectors

From Ian:

BESA: Israeli Sovereignty Over the Temple Mount Is Crucial for Peace

Regardless of its direct security merits, Israel’s decision to place metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount has been transformed by adversaries and Israel alike into an issue of sovereignty over the Temple Mount. Power-sharing there has always constituted a slippery slope to disaster. The murder of two Israeli policemen at the Temple Mount is an appropriate moment to rectify the situation by reasserting Israeli sovereignty over the holy site.
Why is Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount so important? Because international “partnership” arrangements in political hotspots not only rarely (if ever) work, but make matters much more volatile and dangerous. At the Temple Mount, only exclusive Israeli sovereignty can work.
Many partnerships over contested areas have been attempted, and they have led to only one outcome: failure. In 1949, for example, the UN tried to broker deals between Israel and Syria over demilitarized zones delimited in the Armistice Agreement. The three areas were perennial hotspots over which much blood was shed. They were only resolved (as are most Middle Eastern political conflicts) by a decisive victory and the establishment of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Before that, it was bedlam. Since then, there have been 40 years of quiet.

Palestinians Protesting Metal Detectors

It would be difficult to imagine a less sympathetic grievance to attract Western support to the Palestinian cause. In fact, the Palestinian response will appear contemptible to anyone who bothers to read even the basic facts of the matter. Israelis can’t go into shopping malls and bus stations, let alone visit the Western Wall, without passing through a metal detector. But Israeli-style security measures are a fact of life in the West as well, with metal detectors now a ubiquitous presence at sports events and, yes, outside religious sites like Notre Dame in Paris.
There is also of course a deep historical irony. With the possible exception of al-Qaeda, Palestinian terrorism—which pioneered the use of plane hijackings, airport attacks, and suicide bombings—has perhaps done more to force the introduction of metal detectors into our daily lives than just about any other cause.
The Israelis might try to look for a way out of this confrontation. Violence within the al-Aqsa complex is rare. The Israelis might well decide that the metal detectors have caused more trouble than this is worth, despite the fact that the Palestinian response is being driven by unsubstantiated paranoia about Jewish conspiracies to overturn the Temple Mount status quo. But if this kind of issue is going to be the chief grievance of the Palestinians, they shouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the world shrugs.

Reward and repetition are two of the best ways to ensure certain types of behaviors continue. And if such motivations are in place long enough, behavior becomes permanent as rewards harden into entitlements and repetition becomes habit.

We’re seeing something like this play out in the latest iteration of what Ruth Wisse urges us to start calling “The Arab War Against the Jews,” a more descriptive title for what even Israel’s friends keep calling called the “Arab-Israeli” conflict, which presumes an inaccurate “cycle-of-violence” narrative.

This time, the so-called “cycle” consists of Palestinians (urged on by leaders in both official and popular media) using their own holy places as the launch-pad for murder, then using Israeli security measures at those same holy places as a pretext for riots, further murder and demands for global protest.

To any rational observer, this mini- or pre- Intifada III is ultimately destined to suffer the fate as have previous ones with lots of people – Jew and Arab – losing their lives, a degradation of whatever progress Palestinian society might have made since the last “uprising,” and hopes for co-existence pushed ever further away. These are actually important goals for those urging on the killing (even if those actually holding the knives are motivated primarily by the urge to kill any Jew they can reach).

Needless to say, those “Friends of the Palestinian People” here on our shores have risen up to “stop the violence,” specifically the violence Israeli police, soldiers and citizens use to prevent their children from being stabbed, run over, shot and blown up. As for the killing spree itself, well – as usual – this crowd of Peace Warriors has little time for such trifles.

One of the few interesting things about this entirely unsurprising set of behaviors is the way those hoping to anchor their already-scheduled propaganda campaign to the current crisis are no longer even bothering to hide the transparency of the falsehoods they embrace and espouse.

On one level, the laundering of murderers (by, for example, presenting killers or would-be killers gunned down during an attack on their Jewish prey as “victims of Israeli aggression”) seems cynical beyond belief.

But after two decades of fauxtography (including presenting victims of murderous violence everywhere else in the Middle East as Palestinian “victims”), why not go the next step and simply lie to suit your needs without a second thought? Especially since fewer and fewer people outside the circle of Israel’s regular supporters show the slightest interest in calling SJP/JVP/BDS out on their fabrication, manipulation, and atrocious behavior.

This is where the repetition phenomenon mentioned at the top of this piece starts to provide some descriptive (and, sadly, predictive) utility. For just as Palestinians have been trained over the last two generations to automatically blame everything wrong with their lives and history on the Jews (a process which only accelerated once the “Peace Process” kicked in two decades ago), our local anti-Israel propagandists have been trained to expect almost no challenge to their endless propagandizing and lies – not from the media, not from cowed or corrupted academia, and not from the governments who fund the Palestinian polities working tirelessly to ensure violence continues.

And if you bother to ask why “human rights activists” have so little time for the rights of humans beyond Palestinian ones (although only the ones under Israeli jurisdiction), out comes the accusations of “changing the subject” (presuming the boycotters don’t ignore critics altogether).

I guess the one dim light in this otherwise depressing environment is that a political movement which thinks it has others in their pocket tends to get lazy and careless as feelings of invulnerability coupled with fantasies of impending triumph leads to poor decisions and overreach. It remains to be seen, however, if anyone will ever be willing to break the cycle of rewarding Israel’s enemies for the suffering they bring upon themselves and everyone else.

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Once again, Palestinians are behaving irrationally.

Once again, no one knows what to make of it.

And once again, once you apply the honor/shame construct, it all makes perfect sense.

Abbas didn't want to see the terror attack on the Israeli policemen. But he is bound by the social rules of his society, and once the events were set in motion, he has no choice but to act like a typical Arab leader who is too cowardly to face down the insane shame culture.

Israel closing down the Temple Mount for two days was a source of a huge amount of shame. It showed that Jews ultimately control the area, and the myth that the Waqf controls it was shown to be a lie. The idea that Jews control the purported third holiest site in Islam is a source of deep shame that has been buried for years by the fantasy of Waqf control.

Once the shame started, it cannot be erased.

The fact that Israel re-opened the area in less than 48 hours is irrelevant; the metal detectors - or cameras or extra guards or wands or anything - just add to the shame of reminding the Arabs of who is the boss of the Temple Mount in the sense of who ultimately provides security. All else is irrelevant.

Once we have entered the honor./shame universe, actual facts or logic are meaningless - all that matters are symbols. And symbols don't get bigger than pretending to "defend Al Aqsa." (Which is what the stabber in Petah Tikva shouted this morning, as he stabbed an Arab mistaking him for a Jew.)

Abbas cannot act in a way that diminishes his honor, so he needs to double down on demanding honor and refusing shame. He must use all the weapons in his arsenal to "win". Because the other aspect of honor/shame societies is the zero-sum game, and if Israel gets anything out of this episode that it didn't have before- like normal security that any society would demand - Abbas thinks he loses. Winning the zero-sum game becomes more important than human lives. Abbas therefore ups the ante and says he will end security cooperation - the biggest weapon in his arsenal. He feels he has to go for the big guns because if he loses, he is finished - his shame will end him as a leader.

So now a very reasonable Israeli expectation for basic security becomes a life-or-death pissing match to the Palestinian leadership. They cannot back down. If Israel would offer to compromise by painting a stick figure of a camera on all entrances to the Mount the pushback would be exactly the same. Actual facts are of no interest.

Meanwhile, the honor/shame dynamic is played out with more terror attacks. Hamas' leader called the father of the murderer of the father and his children in Halamish explicitly in terms of honor, saying that "Your son brought pride to the nation." Abbas cannot be seen as less interested in national pride than Hamas, to do so would be politically costly, although he cannot explicitly praise the attack either or risk alienating his Western friends. So he stays quiet. But he will pay the salary of the murderer for the rest of his life.

As often happens, the logical West is confronted with the irrational Middle East. Usually the West blinks before dealing with these seemingly crazy people who would happily start a war over metal detectors. Because crazy people are scary and unpredictable and passionate, while normal people just want to live their lives without that drama.

The interesting part of this saga is how the Western world reacts. Israel's requirement for security in the face of a proven threat reflects what every other nation would do. The PA's reaction is completely bonkers by any normal yardstick. If the world wasn't so reflexively "pro-Palestinian" it wouldn't coddle the crazy demands, but the Palestinians have made an art form of these kinds of crazy demands that end up sounding reasonable over the years of constant repetition.

This time might be a little too crazy for, say, Western Europe at least. Palestinians have been losing their support behind the scenes, especially in Arab countries but cracks are appearing in the West as well. Their UN victories are getting narrower, and European parties are pushing back more against the UNHRC bias. They believe in the two state solution but they are not quite as certain that the 1967 lines are so sacred. Palestinian intransigence is being seen more and more as an obstacle to peace.

This episode may hurt the Palestinians in the long run much more than a symbolic victory would gain them. And this can be accelerated if the West uses the honor/shame dynamic to shame the Palestinians into acting like responsible adults.

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Second synagogue in Turkey attacked after police left, Erdogan condemns attacks

YNet reports:

Two threatening demonstrations and mounting cases of vandalism against synagogues in Turkey—apparently carried out with the regime's tacit support against the backdrop of the Temple Mount crisis—are raising concerns among the country's Jewish community.

On the night between Thursday and Friday, dozens of demonstrators attacked the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul, threw rocks at the synagogue, kicked its doors and tried to break in.

Some protesters shouted, "If you do not let us enter our holy place, we will not let you enter your holy place."

The Jewish community was stunned that the police patrol car—which regularly protected the synagogue as it is a target for terror attacks—had left the area shortly before the demonstration started.

On Saturday, the ancient 15th century Ahrida synagogue in Balat, Istanbul was also attacked. As in the first case, the police car also left before the demonstration began, and the demonstrators charged the synagogue, blocking entry and chanting anti-Israel slogans.

The fact that the police left the area in both cases may indicate that the demonstrations were held with the quiet consent of the authorities, which made it possible to "let out steam" against the Jews.

However, Turkish leader Erdogan condemned the actions, as did some members of the parliament, even as they continued to blame Israel for its actions to secure lives:

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan harshly slammed the attack on the Neve Shalom synagogue by an ultra-nationalist group. The group had claimed the protest was a response to the restrictions on the al-Aqsa mosque.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport before heading to Saudi Arabia on July 23, Erdoğan said rights violations in Jerusalem may never be grounds for Muslims to violate the rights of others.

“We are members of a deeply rooted civilization that has provided peaceful coexistence to all religions, especially Jerusalem [sic], for centuries. The violations of rights in Jerusalem should never be a reason for Muslims to violate the rights of others. Reactions must be measured in the framework of the law,” he said.

Erdoğan also highlighted the importance of freedom of worship.

“To harm the freedom of worship of those who are members of other religions and their place of worship has no place in our society. Based on this understanding, we are putting forth efforts to ease the tensions in Jerusalem at once and for peace to return around Masjid al-Aqsa once again,” he added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım also criticized the synagogue protest, calling for restraint.

“We are inheritors of a civilization that regards differences as richness without discriminating against religion, sect, language and race. For this reason, we do not approve of the actions against the worship of our Jewish citizens, we call on our citizens to practice self-restraint,” he said on the Prime Ministry’s official Twitter account.

Here is video of the Neve Shalom attack.

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Jerusalem Arab denies any Israeli police were killed by Arabs, "Yahud always lie" (video)

This English-speaking Arab says that the Israeli police killed each other, that Jews always lie and that she hopes for violence.

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Here's the story from Ammon News (Jordan):

A Jordanian man was killed and an Israeli wounded in an exchange of fire inside the Israeli embassy on Sunday.

The man was reported to be involved in an attempted security breach at the embassy.

Two Jordanians were involced, one was killed and the other arrested.

Another newspaper, Al Ghad, identifies the dead man as a 17-year old Jordanian involved in a 'quarrel" in the embassy. It says that the man had been shot twice in the shoulder and the Israeli employee was stabbed in the chest.

Jordanian security is surrounding the area.

Al Wakeel News says that it was a quarrel over installing furniture.

UPDATE: Apparently the Israeli is in surgery now with multiple stab wounds to the abdomen and in critical condition.

Newer stories say the Israeli was shot as well, not stabbed.

UPDATE 2: Bloomberg says 2 Jordanians dead:

Jordan’s Anadolu news agency said one man was shot dead after stabbing an embassy staffer, citing an unidentified security official. The death of the second Jordanian was reported by al-Jazeera. Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the shooting, including on the identity and condition of its injured citizen, because of a government censorship order.

The story is still being censored in Israel, even though the wire services have it worldwide.

UPDATE 3: YNet reports:

The Foreign Ministry believes the incident to be a terrorist attack related to the events surrounding the Temple Mount.

Additionally, according to ministry officials, the 17-year-old attacker entered the home of an embassy official apparently to replace furniture, whereupon he happened to encounter the Israeli security guard and the Jordanian property owner.

The terrorist then came up behind the security guard and proceeded to stab him with a screwdriver, prompting the guard to produce a firearm and open fire at his attacker, killing him and the landlord.

But Ammon News seems to imply that the attacker stabbed both the doctor/landlord and the Israeli during a quarrel (unclear whom the quarrel was with.) Another carpenter was arrested by Jordanian authorities.

This is causing a diplomatic crisis as Israel does not want the guard questioned.

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07/23 Links: Hours before murderous attack, Fatah encouraged Palestinians to "rage," called for "escalation" and glorified death

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The slaughter of the Salomon family

So now the non-stop Palestinian Arab incitement against Israel has resulted in yet more Palestinian barbarism.
The Salomon family had gathered for a Friday night Shabbat dinner, celebrating the birth of a grandchild, in their home in the Israeli settlement of Halamish. A 19 year-old Palestinian burst in armed with a large knife and began stabbing members of the family.
He killed the grandfather, Yosef Salomon, 70, his daughter Chaya Salomon, 46, and son Elad Salomon, 36. Yosef’s wife Tova, 68, was seriously wounded.
The Times of Israel reports: “In initial questioning, Abed said he bought the knife two days ago, wanting to commit a terror attack because of events surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.”
This murderous attack is the direct result of the incitement by Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders. They are promoting this on the deranged pretext that Israel is somehow attacking Muslims at Temple Mount – all because Israel erected security barriers on the compound after one week ago Palestinians burst from al Aqsa mosque fully armed and murdered two Israeli Druze police officers stationed just outside.
The Palestinians are supported in their war of extermination against Israel by Europeans who are funding this incitement, having bought into this sick narrative of lies. Yet another Israeli family is destroyed by this madness. Let’s see how this latest savagery is reported by the western media, whose own hands in this spiral of Palestinian hysteria and murder are far from clean.

PMW: Hours before murderous attack, Fatah encouraged Palestinians to "rage," called for "escalation" and glorified death

On Friday, a few hours before a Palestinian terrorist murdered 3 Israelis by stabbing them to death in their home, Abbas' Fatah Movement encouraged Palestinians to "rage" and glorified death in a post on Facebook:
Posted text: "If I fall I will not be the first to die, and not the last to die
#Rage!
#Friday_of_dignity"
Text at top of image: "Palestinian National Liberation Movement - Fatah"
Text in center of image: "If I fall I will not be the first to die, and not the last to die
O my brothers, I write my will with my blood, please guard my revolution with your blood
Through Fatah's masses sweeping to attack
I am Fatah, I am a revolution, I am a storm (i.e., Al-Asifa, another name for Fatah)
[Fatah] Mobilization and Organization Commission's Information Office
#Rage_of_Jerusalem" [Official Fatah Facebook page, July 21, 2017]
PA official, Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh, Laila Ghannam asked Allah for "victory over [our] enemies" and that He "guard the Al-Aqsa Mosque from evil" and "have mercy on the Martyrs of Palestine" :

Temple Mount: What's the point in praying if you can't bring your gun?

This week a lot of people died in Israel. How did it all happen? What critical facts did the media leave out? And why do some headlines make it look like there's no moral difference between the victims and the attackers who killed them? We break down the events, the facts and the media failures.

Watch Israel vs. Greece FIBA U20 championship match here at 2:15 EDT/18:15 GMT

Israel's under 20 team has won every game so far in the series:

ISRAEL

Date	vs	Score
22 / 07	France	74 - 52
20 / 07	Iceland	74 - 54
19 / 07	Italy	79 - 71
17 / 07	Ukraine	91 - 83
16 / 07	Lithuania	94 - 88
15 / 07	Latvia	90 - 54

(h/t Yoel)

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The human right to kill Jews and Israelis with impunity

Mahmous Abbas' "moderate" Fatah published this poster on their Facebook page, showing that they would not accept any security measures on the Temple Mount, no matter how innocuous.

In short, Israelis have no right to protect themselves, according to Mahmoud Abbas. he pretends that he is against violence, but he strongly believes that Arabs have the right to carry weapons to their holy places. Why? Obviously to kill Jews or other Israelis in what they claim is "defense."

Today Israel installed security cameras at Lion's Gate that supposedly could identify potential weapons, although how they can find weapons in a backpack without a metal detector is unclear. The metal detectors remain for now.

Once again, Arabs refused to visit their "third holiest spot" today, pretending that Israel is banning them and calling for an Arab League emergency meeting this week.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera published an op-ed by Hamas lawyer Stanley Cohen, making the case that Arabs indeed do have the human right to murder Jews, as long as they call it "resistance." This idea is absurd - the entire Geneva Convention is not overridden by vague General Assembly resolutions. But he calls himself a "human rights activist" while he condones stabbing Jews so Al Jazeera regards his rants as being worth publishing.

In the end, the Palestinians appeal to the leftist world by invoking the biggest human right of all - the right not to be offended. On any random month they declare that something new offends them and threaten violence unless their enemies back down from the unforgivable crime of offending them.

And no one dares to call them on it.

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Neturei Karta seems to violate Jewish law (update)

Fatah has a video of an anti-Israel protest in New York City, seemingly on Saturday, where they claim 2000 people showed up marching towards the Israeli consultate. (I could find no record of any protest on Saturday, so it is possible that Fatah is recycling an old protest to make it sound like there is worldwide support for abolishing security measures, but who knows?)

I noted one sign that was from the marginal, purportedly ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta group (NKUSA) - but the person we could see in the video holding the sign was clearly not a member of Neturei Karta, whose members dress all in black as if they were normative ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Apparently, Neturei Karta hires some non-Jews to protest for them, presumably for the Sabbath.

And according to Jewish law, this would not be allowed. Jews are not allowed to hire non-Jews to do activities for them specifically on the Sabbath that Jews would not be allowed to do themselves, and carrying a sign in Manhattan qualifies as such an activity.

It should be re-emphasized that every other ultra-Orthodox group has condemned Neturei Karta, even other anti-Zionist sects.

If this rally really was on this past (or any other) Saturday, Neturei Karta is breaking Jewish law. If not, then Neturei Karta is hiring people to protest on its behalf.

UPDATE: Edgar Davidson has seen Neturei Karta directly violate the Sabbath last month in British "Al Quds" rallies, carrying banners in Trafalgar Square. Others have observed the same.

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07/22 Links: Netanyahu: Terrorist is a 'beast incited by wild hatred'; Victims Named: Yosef Tzvi Salomon (70), and his children Haya (46) and Elad (36)

From Ian:

PM Netanyahu: Terrorist is a 'beast incited by wild hatred'

In a Saturday night statement, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed "deep sorrow over Friday night's murder of three family members in the community of Halamish."
"This was an act of terrorism committed by a beast incited by wild hatred," he wrote."The security forces are doing their utmost to maintain security and, to this end, will take all necessary measures."
Also on Saturday night, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin attempted to comfort the bereaved families and community.
"At this difficult time our hearts go out to the bereaved family in Halamish, and to all the community there, after the incomprehensible loss they endured last night," he said. "The horrifying pictures, and the thought of the children who fled for shelter now dealing with the terrible news – it is truly heartbreaking."
I pray for the wounded's recovery, and wish to express my support for all the security forces working ceaselessly to ensure our safety, especially over the last few days. I am confident we will show no tolerance for those who plot against us, and will fight terrorism single-mindedly and mercilessly."
"This is the time for the whole free world to denounce terror and incitement, and join with the State of Israel in the war against terror and incitement. One who does not denounce terror is a partner to it, and has a hand in the deterioration of the whole region into a needless, bloody war, which no one wants."

Victims of Halamish terror attack named

The three victims of the Friday night terror attack in Halamish were named on Saturday as Yosef Salomon, 70, his daughter Chaya Salomon, 46, and son Elad Salomon, 36.
The names were released once other family members had been notified following the end of Shabbat. Funeral times have not yet been set.
The three were killed on Friday night when a 19-year-old Palestinian, Omar al-Abed, from a nearby village, burst into their home at the Halamish settlement armed with a large knife and began stabbing the family members. There were apparently 10 people in the house, enjoying their Shabbat eve meal, when he entered. The gathering was a festive one, marking the birth of a new grandson.
Yosef Salomon’s wife Tova, 68, was seriously wounded and taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem where she underwent surgery on Saturday morning. When she came out, she was given the news that her husband and two of their children were dead.
The couple are survived by three other children.

Mother managed to lock away, save children during onslaught

When the terrorist burst into a house in Neve Tzuf (Halamish) and started stabbing those assembled, the wife of one of those killed managed to lock five children into a room and call the Police. Her quick thinking likely stopped the body count from being even higher.
According to reports, as soon as the woman saw the terrorist enter, she shoved five children into a side room, saving them from the terrorist onslaught. Meanwhile, a soldier on leave from the elite Oketz K-9 special forces unit heard what was going on and shot the terrorist through the window, ending the attack in progress.
"I operated instinctively" said A., whose name cannot be revealed due to the sensitive unit in which he serves. "I didn't want to waste time, and fired through the window."
The terrorist, Omer al Abed, had climbed over the fence of Neve Tzuf Friday night, and entered the residents' home, where they had gathered to celebrate the birth of a new grandchild. Al-Abed killed Yosef Tzvi Salomon (70), and his children Haya (46) and Elad (36).

07/21 Links Pt2: Israeli Aid Gives an Unexpected ‘Glimmer of Hope’ for Syrians; Macron’s Terrorism Idiocy

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Europe remains blind because it doesn’t want to see

The Islamists’ key insight is that progressive views have hollowed out Western societies, particularly in Europe, so that they no longer know what values they need to defend against the Islamic jihad.
What secularists fail to grasp is that the values they most prize, such as the power of reason or belief in human rights, were created by Judaism and expressed in the West through Christianity.
Human rights rest on the belief that all are created equal in the image of God. The power of reason rests on the revolutionary concept in the book of Genesis that there is an intelligible universe.
Secular ideologies, however, are positively anti-Judaism.
Moral relativism denies the moral codes of Mosaic law. Deep green environmentalism repudiates the belief embodied in the creation that mankind is superior to the natural world. Scientific materialism dethrones God and puts man in his place.
Judaism is an obstacle both to the unconstrained individualism of Western libertines and also to the Islamist attack on reason, equality and freedom. Small wonder Western progressives make common cause with Islamists against the Jewish people.
Macron is a universalist who doesn’t believe in defending Western national identity. Nor does he believe in France. He said last February: “French culture does not exist; there is a culture in France and it is diverse...
French art? I never met it!” Anyone who believes Macron will defend the Jewish people, the free world or France itself is in for a rude awakening. As are the rest of Europe and the West, while they continue to misjudge the central importance of Israel and the Jewish people to their battle to survive. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Macron’s Terrorism Idiocy

According to Macron, climate change causes droughts and migration, which exacerbates crises as populations fight over shrinking resources. If Macron really believes that, France and Europe are in for some tough times.
First, droughts are a frequent, cyclical occurrence in the Middle East, the Sahel, and the Horn of Africa. The difference between drought and famine is the former is a natural occurrence and the latter is man-made, usually caused by poor governance. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the Horn of Africa, where the same drought might kill a few dozens of Ethiopians but wipe out tens of thousands of Somalis.
Second, the common factor in the wars raging in the Middle East today is neither climate change nor extreme weather, but brutal dictatorship, radical ideologies, and the militias supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Yemen could be a breadbasket. Its terraced fields rising up thousands of feet in the mountains grow almost every fruit imaginable. Yemen also catches the tail end of the monsoon. If Yemenis planted exportable crops like coffee rather than the mild drug qat, which does not bring in hard currency, they might be fairly prosperous.
It is not climate change that denied the Syrian public basic freedoms and liberty for decades, nor was it climate change that dropped barrel bombs on civilian neighborhoods, tortured and killed 13-year-old Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, or used chemical weapons. For that matter, when it comes to radicalization, the problem is Syria was less climate and more decades of Saudi-and Qatari-funded indoctrination and Turkish assistance to foreign fighters.
Regardless of all this, another obvious factor nullifies Macron’s thesis: When drought occurs in regions outside the Middle East, the result is seldom suicide bombing.

A Non-Hyperbolic, Non-Apologetic Analysis of the Proposed Israel Boycott Law

Some of you may have read a recent Intercept post claiming that Congress is considering banning support for the boycott of Israel (by "some of you", I mean half my twitter feed). Unsurprisingly, this piqued my interest. On the one hand, the Intercept is not exactly an outfit known for letting accuracy get in the way of hyperbole. On the other hand, plenty of bad/regressive/poorly drafted laws are introduced in Congress, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in particular tends not to bring out people's sense of care and proportion.
So in my ongoing effort to help reintroduce the endangered species of calm, non-hyperbolic discussion of Israel on the internet, here's my best attempt at a calm, non-hyperbolic analysis of what this bill actually would do. But first, a bit of background.
American law already prohibits the boycotting of a country friendly to the United States where it is done at the behest of a boycott call by a foreign country. This law came about for a very particular reason: the threat of secondary boycotts by Arab countries. Companies which might have no interest in boycotting Israel might do so if, say, Qatar (whose business they value much more) said "you can't do business with us if you do business with Israel." The U.S. law counters by saying "you can't follow the Qatar boycott if you want to stay within American law". Even for companies where Qatar > Israel, the U.S. is > > > Qatar, so the law effectively neutralizes foreign calls for a secondary boycott.
The most anodyne way of describing this new law is to say that it merely extends the preexisting ban on boycotting an ally of the United States at the behest of a foreign country (e.g., Qatar) to include doing so at the behest of an International Governmental Organization (e.g., the EU and UN). If the current law isn't unconstitutional (and it's been upheld against challenge, see Briggs & Stratton Corp. v. Baldrige, 728 F.2d 915 (7th Cir. 1984)), why would this one be problematic?