Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 06, 2017

Jealous for Jerusalem: Trump's Semi-Recognition (Judean Rose)

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not. If I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy. (Psalm 137: 5-6)

The deadline for delaying the implementation of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, has come and gone, with no signature having been affixed to the provision. President Trump hasn't signed the waiver that lets the U.S. off the hook for moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. It is the first time this has happened since 1998, when the provision for what turned out to be a permanent biyearly delay, signed by president after president, took effect.

On Tuesday, President Trump announced he would indeed be moving the embassy, however it would take time to plan and execute the move. Four years. So he's going to sign the waiver yet again.

From the Jerusalem Post:

For technical reasons involving funding, Trump will have to sign that waiver until such time as the doors of a new embassy open in Jerusalem, the official said.

Trump, meantime, has offered his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State.

With a caveat:

“The specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations,” [U.S.] officials said.

This, in other words, is President Trump saying that Jerusalem is for sale, a property that can be negotiated. Whether or not Israel agrees.

In what universe is this friendship?

This sort of "recognition" is the last thing Israel needs.

Even the president's declaration that the U.S. embassy will be moved to Jerusalem, meanwhile feels like it may be a bluff, a cover-up for kicking that can down the road.

To underscore that new policy understanding Trump [will direct] the State Department to create a plan to relocate the embassy to a site in Jerusalem, the officials said, adding that it could take at least four years to execute the move.

This is nonsense. All the talk of security needs, of finding a suitable physical plant, and etc., is very nice and all these things can be implemented with the passing of time. But moving the embassy technically requires only changing a sign. The American Consulate is already in Jerusalem. The sign affixed to that building can be changed to read "embassy" instead of "consulate."

And that can be done right now. It could have been done in May. It could have been done on the first day that Trump assumed office.

All these years, Jerusalem has been shunned. Her honor sullied. And some people think that Jerusalem has now regained her rightful place in the eyes of the world, as a result of the announcement of the intentions of a sitting U.S. president.

This man, at the same time, says that the borders of Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem are yet to be determined. This being the case, how is it that those on the Trump Train remain gleeful? What right does anyone have to say that our capital, our holy city, is negotiable?

I am jealous for Jerusalem, as all of us should be. Jerusalem has now been snubbed, scorned, and rebuffed every six months by presidents Clinton (who let the Jerusalem Embassy Act pass by leaving it unsigned on his desk) through Trump. Trump signed the waiver in May, breaking his promise to the Jewish people. Now Trump says he will move the embassy, but will sign the waiver anyway; recognizes Jerusalem, but says it is a piece of real estate to be negotiated.

In this game of opposing statements: a capital that can be negotiated, recognition and nonrecognition, President Trump lets the State Department win, and spurns Jerusalem once more.

And still, everyone knows the truth. Which makes this worse in a way. Makes all these machinations of U.S. officials ugly and dishonest toil. Because we all know that the Jews were in Jerusalem before Christ, and before Mohammed. Before there was an Arab people.

Jerusalem is mentioned 850 times in the Torah, not once in the Quran.

The Jews have prayed for Jerusalem for generations, yearned for it to be rebuilt speedily in our time, at weddings, holidays, and in our daily prayers. No other people has Jerusalem playing so central a part over thousands of years.

The Christians know it. The Muslims know it.

Everyone knows that Jerusalem is ours.

No one gets a pass. Not Donald Trump. Not anyone.

Situating and maintaining the American Embassy in Tel Aviv has been a continuous slap in the face to America's best friend in the Middle East: Israel. It's been an ongoing slap in the face to the Jews. And a slap in the face to God Himself, many times over.

Europe (plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose), which tried and failed to eradicate the Jews, has been desperate to keep Trump from recognizing Jerusalem as a Jewish city. Various Arab and Muslim entities, meanwhile, threaten to go out and kill the Jews should the embassy be moved. And the State Department uses these threats to pressure the president to sign the waiver once more.

It's ironic. The Arabist State Department uses terror as its cover to rob the Jews of Jerusalem. Yet terror is ever-present in Israel. So it's a very flimsy cover that doesn't make sense to any thinking person.

And if Israel is willing to take the risk of terror in exchange for moving the embassy, why should it be any concern of the U.S.?

The State Department fears that the entire region could blow up with internecine warfare (with attendant universal fallout)?

Now? With Israel having cordial relations with so many Arab countries and with said Arab countries having bigger fish to fry?

This is not to say that moving the embassy would not bring an increase in terror. Of course it will. They'll go out and do their thing, the terrorists, if Trump moves the embassy. That will happen even with this half-recognition of Jerusalem using mere words. The terrorists? They'll call terror "legitimate resistance."

Which means: Kill the Jews.

But the terrorists would do that anyway. They're always doing that. Trying to kill us and sometimes succeeding.

If we were to let that stop us, let the killing deter us from reaching important goals, the State of Israel would not now be here. We wouldn't be the awesome friend that we are to the U.S., sharing technology and knowledge, and helping to defend U.S. interests.

If we allowed the terrorists to win, Israel wouldn't be, would cease to exist.

And anyway, the State Department could, if it truly wished, put a damper on that terror. All it has to do is close the wallet. Close the PLO office.

Instead it makes empty threats, and then caves.

Here is something President Trump needs to know: Arabs respect strength. If you live in the Middle East, you come to understand this and appreciate it. You have to meet their bluff, even when it's not a bluff, but the real thing.

It's how you end up on top. The only way.

Weakness is the reason the Arabs hated Obama. They hated him because he actively supported terrorists, and looked away from evil.

For all that it looks as though Trump is the most friendly president ever, a good friend to the Jews, by not changing that sign on the consulate, and by saying that Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem is negotiable, Trump is slapping the Jews in the face, and showing weakness to the Arabs. He's giving the terrorists a leg up, and pushing the Jews down, forcing them to grovel for tidbits.

It's wrong. And it's no way to treat a friend.

We should all be jealous for Jerusalem's honor. We should demand that justice be done instead of congratulating ourselves over President Trump's recognition/nonrecognition of our capital.

The president should have moved the embassy on day one of his presidency. He should have had that sign on the American Consulate changed.

He could do that today.

It is sad to say, but the president has wronged Jerusalem.

And this has been recorded in the annals of history.

For all time.

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Arabs Threaten Violence If Westerners Don't Stop Stereotyping Arabs As Violent (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Jerusalem, December 6 - Arab threats of violence in response to possible American recognition of this city as Israel's capital has Arab leaders voicing resentment that Western media portray them as violent, local sources reported Wednesday.

Specific legal details remain unresolved, but US President Donald Trump declined to sign the six-month waiver to postpone the move of US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as per a 1995 law, leading to speculation that the administration will recognize Israel's claim to the holy city as its capital. Whereas most countries refuse to acknowledge Israel's claim and all foreign embassies are currently in Tel Aviv, the prospect of American recognition of Israel's connection to Jerusalem has Arab leaders in the region and beyond threatening an explosion of violence and the effective end of any American-brokered peace effort between Palestinians and Israel. At the same time, the leaders take offense that they are depicted in Western media and politics as violent and given to threats of violence merely because they threaten or commit violence in response to developments they dislike.

"If the US recognizes Israel's claims to Jerusalem that will mean the end of an honest role for the US in negotiations," declared Palestinian official Saeb Erekat. "The Arab street will not tolerate such an affront to its honor once the signal is given from Arab governments to riot and to target American facilities or interests in the region. One-sided acceptance of Israeli claims and policies is an affront to Arab honor, as is the expectation that Arabs resort to violence or the threat thereof as a political or diplomatic tool. What a horrible bit of prejudice."

"Western media, adopting a lazy posture, assumes that Arabs are characterized by the tendencies the media notices," lamented commentator Reza Aslan. "It just oozes bias. How do you get from the default Arab reaction to setbacks being violence - as in the response to those Danish cartoons of Muhammad; the Second Intifada; ongoing Palestinian violence; Syria; Iraq; Yemen; Lebanon; Egypt - to the idea that you can only expect Arabs to react with violence when they don't get their way?"

Arab officials warned not to underestimate the violence that will erupt if the stereotyping continues. "We have our red lines," admonished Sheikh Raed Salah of the Islamic Movement, Northern Faction. "One of those is negative portrayals of Arabs or Muslims. We will go to the greatest lengths to protect our collective honor, even violent lengths if necessary, to defend our people from being characterized as predisposed to violence."

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12/06 Links Pt1: Trump to recognize Jerusalem as capital, plan embassy move; Netanyahu: Today, Israel's national identity is recognized

From Ian:

Trump to recognize Jerusalem as capital, plan embassy move, White House confirms

US President Donald Trump will announce in a speech on Wednesday that he is formally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, while asking the State Department to formulate a plan for moving the US embassy there from Tel Aviv, White House officials confirmed Tuesday evening.

The recognition of Jerusalem, widely expected to anger the Arab world and cast a shadow over US-led peace efforts, will also be accompanied by Trump committing to support a two-state solution should both Israel and the Palestinians back it, the officials said, in a likely bid by the administration to balance the announcement seen as heavily favoring Israel. Israel’s leadership has warmly welcomed the anticipated Trump moves on Jerusalem.

Trump will stress that the “boundaries” of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem require negotiation in the context of a peace accord, the officials said, and they added that his moves do not constitute a change to the status quo at the Temple Mount.

“On December 6, 2017, President Trump will recognize that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,” one US official said, confirming a series of reports on Trump’s planned speech from the White House, slated for 1 p.m. Wednesday ( 8 p.m. in Israel). The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The White House repeatedly referred to the recognition and embassy move, which will likely take years, as “acknowledging a reality,” noting the city’s role as the seat of Israel’s government but disregarding Palestinian claims there.

Netanyahu: Today, Israel's national identity is recognized

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided not to comment on the expected American announcement Wednesday declaring Jerusalem Israel's capital, he posted a video hinting at the upcoming event, saying that on this day, Israel's national identity is "being recognized."

U.S. President Donald Trump was expected to officially announce Wednesday that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that it is making preparations to move its embassy there, breaking with longtime U.S. policy and potentially stirring unrest.

In an impromptu video featuring the prime minister riding in his car to the Knesset, Netanyahu remarked that "our historical, national identity is being recognized in important ways every day, but particularly on this day. I will obviously have something to add to this later today on something having to do with Jerusalem."

Jerusalem Mayor: US Embassy move can be done in '2 minutes'

Moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the holy city could take "two minutes," Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said Tuesday.

Senior U.S. officials have said U.S. President Donald Trump is likely on Wednesday to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital while delaying the relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv for another six months, though he is expected to order his aides to begin planning such a move immediately.

As an outcry grew across the Middle East and among world powers against any unilateral U.S. decision on Jerusalem, officials said that no final decisions had been made.

Barkat said the United States would only have to convert one of its existing assets in the city, such as its existing Jerusalem consulate.

"They just take the symbol of the consulate and switch it to the embassy symbol – two American Marines can do it in two minutes, and give the ambassador, David Friedman, a space to sit in," Barkat told Israel Radio.

Barkat said that this decision could be implemented immediately, and the process of moving the rest of the employees to provide embassy services could take place in a more structured manner.

Trump Happiness Montage

The State Department considered moving the embassy in 1951 - but worried about upsetting Arabs

From a US Department of State Policy Statement marked "secret," February 6, 1951:

A special policy problem has developed as a result of the United Nations concern with Jerusalem. The Israel Government has proclaimed Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, an act which, while not specifically prohibited by the United Nations, is in clear violation of the spirit of the special status recommended for the city by the General Assembly. The Department advised the Israel Government against moving its capital to Jerusalem, but without effect.

There is thus created the problem of whether the establishment of the capital in this city should be recognized by moving the United States Embassy, which has remained in Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem. Since the UN General Assembly has reach no definite decision on Jerusalem, consideration should be given to moving the Embassy to Jerusalem after consultation with other appropriate nations.

A difficult factor in the Palestine dispute is that the Arab states regard anything favorable to Israel as being unfavorable to themselves. The Department is endeavoring to convince the Arabs of US impartiality as between them and Israel, and care should be taken in dealing with Israel to avoid giving an impression of favoritism which would be resented by the Arabs.

That's been the issue for 66 years. Arabs have veto power over doing what's right because the right thing might be "resented." Therefore, the Arabs have incentive to keep resenting.

Even though, as the author of this memo observed, the Arabs don't look at the pros and cons. They believe in a zero-sum game. If Israel benefits - they lose. Therefore, anything that benefits Israel will be opposed - and therefore, in the logic of Western diplomats, it must be resisted by them as well.

So for those who claim that "now is not the right time" to move the embassy - that has been the official position of the US Government since 1951.

That excuse seems a little hollow when viewed in perspective.

----------------------------

The memo has an interesting bit on UNRWA as well:

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, set up by the General Assembly in 1949 to administer relief and to undertake development projects for the employment of the refugees, has concluded that the only hope of reintegration for any substantial number of these people lies in resettlement in the Arab countries.

But again, the Arabs considered that solution to be something that would help Israel, and therefore it must be opposed.

The result is nearly seven decades of a "refugee" problem - all because Western diplomats are too afraid to confront Arab intransigence that is meant to do only one thing, to hurt Israel, all other considerations be damned.

Only when the world calls these Arab bluffs will there be clarity on how to reach solutions to solve these problems rather than kowtow to vague fears of Arab anger.

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Arabic media has lots of articles like this one:

Prime Minister Dr. Rami al-Hamdalla met with consuls, ambassadors and representatives of the European Union on Wednesday at his office in Ramallah....
The Prime Minister stressed that the insistence of the US administration on its decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem and recognize it as capital of the state of Israel will fuel the conflict and will lead to the growth of violence in the entire region, because Jerusalem does not only mean Palestinians but the peoples and Arab and Islamic countries that reject this decision.

These warnings of violence and murder are all over:

Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar which is the supreme Islamic institution of Sunni Muslims, on Tuesday warned that “the gates of hell” will open if the United States goes through with plans to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy to Jerusalem.
In a statement published following his meeting with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, el-Tayeb said such a move would ignite the feelings of anger among all Muslims, endanger global peace and increase tensions, divisions and hatred around the world.

Given the supposed inevitability of violence that we have been warned about for several days, you would expect normal leaders to issue calls for calm, to insist that people protest peacefully and to eschew violence.

I cannot find a single call for calm among any Arab or Muslim leaders.

I have often pointed out that what doesn't happen is as newsworthy as what does. Here we have Arab and Muslim leaders, both religious and political leaders, who are warning the West that their people will erupt.

But they aren't asking their people not to. They aren't saying that violence is not acceptable, or that they will ensure that protests don't go out of hand.

No, their warnings to the West are mirrored with a winking message to their own people: We want you to become violent.

They need violence. They need people to be killed, preferably by Israelis. Because if there are no newsworthy violent protests, then they know that they cannot credibly warn of violence the next time they insist that the world do their bidding.

This is what is not being reported by the hundreds of seasoned Middle East journalists and analysts. The warnings of violence are really calls to violence, as the absence of calls for calm proves. Frightening the West with such warnings of irrational Muslims sweeping through the streets, or possible terror attacks, is an integral part of Arab and Muslim political calculus.

Threats of violence is an essential part of Muslim nations' international politics, but it requires some actual violence for it to remain potent.

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Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party calls for "martyrs in the millions" over Jerusalem

The official Fatah Facebook page includes this poster that says "Good morning! A million martyrs marching on Jerusalem," a phrase that Arafat made famous.

It also has a letter from Fatah Youth saying that US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital would "open all the doors and options before us in defending Arab Jerusalem." - a keyphrase for violence.

The page also approvingly shows Palestinians in Bethlehem - in Manger Square, next to the Christmas decorations - burning images of Trump.

And also this violent, antisemitic cartoon showing "Palestine" cutting the arm off of a stereotypical big-nosed Jew reaching for the Dome of the Rock.

And this poster which makes it very clear that Fatah is calling for armed violence as well.

This is incitement to violence by Mahmoud Abbas is directly responsible for.

But it is incitement that the world ignores - because the idea that he is a "man of peace" cannot be contradicted, even from explicit hate like this coming from the organization he leads.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Suddenly, the Green Line has disappeared in Jerusalem

Whenever Israel builds new houses or apartments in the parts of Jerusalem liberated in 1967, the world is up in arms about how Israel is building in "occupied territory."

Whatever happens in pre-1967 Jerusalem is OK - the problem, we are told, is only because Israel is building in neighborhoods that Jordan illegally occupied for a whopping 19 years.

But suddenly, when the US is poised to announce moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to the part of Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty since 1948, the Green Line has mysteriously been erased.

Instantly,, activities on the west side of the imaginary line that no one cared about become very important.

In backgrounders on why moving the embassy is considered a big deal, writers for the Guardian and AFP don't mention the Green Line once.

Ian Black at The Guardian (a visiting senior fellow on the Middle East at LSE) says, flatly, "Recognition...clashes with Palestinian demands that East Jerusalem must be the capital of a future independent Palestinian state."

I wish it did, but it doesn't. That is an Arab lying talking point, not a fact.

AFP adds its own lies in its backgrounder. It says garbage like " If the US unilaterally declares Jerusalem as Israel's capital, it would be seen as deciding an issue that was supposed to be left to negotiations, breaking with the international consensus." No one has ever suggested that pre-1967 Jerusalem was open to negotiations.

Except for now.

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12/05 Links Pt2: UK Govt. funds PA salaries to terrorists; The Taylor Force Act Has Been Gutted; Is Europe Promoting the Next Mideast Massacre?

From Ian:

PMW: UK Government contributes to PA payment of salaries to terrorists

The UK Government has decided to grant 20 million pounds to the Palestinian Authority's general budget. According to PA sources, a large part of the grant "will be allocated for the education [sector]." [WAFA, official PA news agency, Nov. 25, 2017]

When deciding to contribute to the PA general budget, the UK Government presumably took into account the fact, as Palestinian Media Watch has shown, that the PA uses no less than 7% of its general budget for both paying salaries to terrorists and their families and for the glorification of terrorists in general.

The Palestinian terrorists who receive salaries from the PA include the members of UK proscribed terrorist organizations and murderers of UK citizens. For example, to-date, Mousab Abu Shkhidem, Nidal Shehadeh, Is'haq Arafe, and Hussein Kawasmeh, the murderers of Mary Jane Gardner, a UK tourist murdered in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem on March 23, 2011 have each received over 33,000 pounds sterling from the PA, for carrying out the attack and being sent to prison. Jamil Tamimi, the murderer of Hannah Bladon, a UK student murdered in Jerusalem on April 14, 2017 has received over 2,500 pounds sterling from the PA, for carrying out the attack and being sent to prison. Kifah Ghneimat and Iyad Fataftah - who on Dec. 18, 2010 near Beit Shemesh attacked and seriously injured UK citizen Kay Wilson and murdered US citizen Kristine Luken - have each received over 41,000 pounds sterling for carrying out the attack and being sent to prison.

A number of Palestinian terrorists have cited the payment of salaries by the PA as the motive for committing terrorist attacks. The salaries have also been used to fund terrorist attacks.

While the international community has demanded that the PA stop paying salaries to terrorists, PA officials have rejected any change of this policy. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas even went as far as to say that "Even if I have to leave my position, I will not compromise on the salary of a Martyr or a prisoner." [Official Fatah Facebook page, July 2, 2017] In addition to the payment of the salaries to terrorists, the PA also constantly glorifies terrorists.

The Taylor Force Act Has Been Gutted

The Taylor Force Act started out as a powerful and long-overdue tool for pressuring the Palestinian Authority (PA) to stop paying terrorists. But the legislation has been diluted, weakened and compromised in so many ways that it is now a pale shadow of its former self. The Taylor Force Act has been gutted.

Known in the Senate as S. 1697, the Taylor Force Act is named after a young Vanderbilt University student — and US Army veteran — who was murdered by a Palestinian Arab knife-wielding terrorist in Jaffa in 2016. The lead Senate sponsor is Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) initiated the House of Representatives version, H.R. 1164.

The idea behind the bill was to reduce US aid to the Palestinians in proportion to the amount that the PA pays to terrorists.

Thanks to the good work of Israeli Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser and the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, we know that the PA has a precise and sophisticated system of providing financial incentives to the murderers of Jews.

An Arab who is imprisoned for attacking (but not killing) Jews receives a monthly salary of $400 from the PA. The amount goes up according to the length of the terrorist’s prison sentence. An Arab who succeeds in killing a Jew receives a monthly salary of $3,400.

FULL Version of KuwaitAirways JewBoycotting @Heathrow

An Egyptian site has an article about "The story of the Jewish rabbi who refused to leave Egypt and criticized Zionism."

The article says:

On December 21, 1956, Haim Nahum, the Chief Rabbi of the Jews in Egypt, issued a statement denouncing the triple aggression against Egypt, and published by Al-Ahram newspaper.

"We once again wish to join our citizens in condemning the brutal British-French British aggression against our dear homeland Egypt, and we extend to the Almighty the warmest calls for the glory and well-being of Egypt and the happiness of all its people.

"Egyptian Jews are an integral part of the Egyptian nation, and they enjoy all that is enjoyed by the good Egyptian citizen. Therefore, no foreign country, whether it is Israel or any other country, has the right to speak for themselves, since the Egyptian Jews are Egyptians First, they share their patriotic sense of patriotism. "

The rabbi was a popular and respectable figure in various political, cultural and popular circles. When the establishment of the so-called "Israel" was announced, he refused to immigrate to it. He thought that those who migrated from Egypt were foreign Jews. The Egyptian Jews were not required to emigrate. .

"Zionism is something and Judaism is something else; Zionism is a political movement that incites to immigrate to Israel. Judaism is a religion like any other religion, religion of God and loyalty to the homeland," he said in his various media interviews in Egypt and abroad.

There is a bit more to this story.

Rabbi Haim Nahum Effendi was actually chief Sephardic rabbi of Egypt and as such he was a Senator of Egypt's Legislative Assembly. He was remarkably well educated and a true scholar.

As far as how he led his Jewish community in the face of Arab antisemitism:

The community of which Rabbi Nahum served as religious leader started to feel uneasy and unwelcome with the rise of Arab nationalism, the rebellion against colonial British authority in Egypt, and the support of Egypt for the Arabs of Palestine. Under the terms of the "Company Law" passed in 1947, at least 75 percent of office employees and 90 percent of the workers in any business in the country had to hold Egyptian nationality. This caused an employment crisis for Egypt's Jews, who were an important part of the nation's business life. Thousands were fired from their jobs or unable to find work and, being unable to earn a living, were forced to leave the country.

While all foreigners were targets of Egyptian displeasure in the late 1940's, Jews fell under especially dark clouds of suspicion with the outbreak of hostilities in Palestine. The Zionist movement and Zionist youth groups, which sought to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine, had indeed gained many adherents in Cairo and Alexandria, but Jews found themselves accused whether they had been active in the movement or not. Large numbers of individuals were arrested and interned for alleged Zionist activity. Jewish businesses were sequestered, Jewish bank accounts frozen, and exit visas could only be approved by a special government Agency for Jewish Affairs.

During these eventful years, as Rabbi Nahum witnessed the sorrows of his flock, he sought to intercede and to minimize the impact of all these rules with the Egyptian authorities. He himself had to tread very carefully in the face of government opposition, fearful that the entire Jewish community might suffer because of his words or actions. Rabbi Nahum was frequently asked to make statements denouncing the Zionists. During the few times he complied with such orders, he was sure to make his statements as short and as vague as possible. During Israel's War of Independence, he was also asked to have prayers recited at all of Egypt's synagogues for the victory of Egyptian forces. These orders he refused to follow at all.

Rabbi Nahum also was educated in a yeshiva in Tiberias when he was young.

One other item of interest now that Egyptian try to misuse him as an example of a wonderful Egyptian Jew.

Around 1950, at age 78, Nahum became totally blind, but continued to carry on his duties as best he could. He continued to officiate at the Shaar Ha Shamayim synagogue, and could give long quotations from the Hebrew Bible and rabbinical texts from memory. However, he became greatly depressed by what he realized was the inevitable decline of Egyptian Jewry. Suffering from increasingly severe medical ailments, he finally succumbed in 1960 at the age of 88. He was buried at the Bassatin cemetery outside Cairo. Nahum's funeral was attended by thousands, including many Muslims and Christians.
In the decades that followed, much of the cemetery was vandalized and desecrated. Rabbi Nahum's tomb is now inhabited by squatters.

Yes, that's how much respect this "anti-Zionist rabbi," who in fact had done many great things for the Egyptian government, has in Egypt today.

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The Tehran Times reports:

Mohsen Rezaee, the secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, said on Monday that there is a special intelligence office in the U.S. Treasury Department tasked with targeting Iran’s economy.

Rezaee said the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which is targeted at Iran, Russia, and North Korea, was compiled and written by this special office in the Treasury.

“This special unit which is called TFI has established several offices in American embassies in Iran’s neighboring countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the UAE tasked with monitoring Iran’s financial and economic activities,” Rezaee told a seminar on the Dimensions of the Economic War against Iran at Imam Hossein University in Tehran.

According to Rezaei, this special organization is chaired by the U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart A. Levey, “who is a Zionist”.

“Levey traveled between different capitals and met more than 100 chief executive officers and warned them not to do any business with Iran. That’s why no major bank has resumed financial trade with Iran after the implementation of the JCOPA [sic] and only some small banks resumed financial transactions with Iranian banks,” explained Rezaee, a former IRGC chief and trained economic expert.

Stuart Levy does sound like a "Zionist" name, doesn't it?

Stuart A. Levey was indeed the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence - but he left that job in March 2011, way before the JCPOA.

The funny thing is that all his successors appear to be Jewish as well (David S. Cohen, Adam Szubin, Sigal Mandelker.)

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12/05 Links Pt1: Trump tells Abbas, Jordan king of ‘intention’ to move embassy to Jerusalem; Living with the Palestinian ‘No!’; It’s Time to Prepare a Military Option on Iran

From Ian:

Trump Delays Jerusalem Embassy Move Announcement

President Donald Trump will not announce Monday evening whether he will move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

The president faced a deadline Monday for deciding whether to move the nation’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but White House officials told reporters aboard Air Force One Monday evening that will announce his formal decision “in the coming days.”

Trump was expected to sign a waiver Monday that would push-off the relocation from Tel Aviv for another six months. The president campaigned for the presidency promising to relocate the embassy, a move many have expected since the first day he took office in January.

Congress passed a law in 1995 that ordered the U.S. embassy to be located in Jerusalem, but every U.S. president since the mandate became law has decided to delay it, arguing that a relocation must come through negotiations, not a decree.

Trump is slated to give a speech Wednesday that reportedly will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, that has some fearing violent backlash in the Middle East.

Evelyn Gordon: It’s Time to Prepare a Military Option on Iran

North Korea’s demonstration of a ballistic missile capable of reaching most of the United States prompted gloomy commentary in Israel about the failure to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear program and, by analogy, the seeming impossibility of stopping Iran’s nuclear program. As Haaretz commentator Anshel Pfeffer put it, Kim Jong-un “proved that a dictator who wants a nuclear weapon badly enough,” and is ruthless and determined enough, “will ultimately achieve it.” Yet the North Korean example proves no such thing because it says nothing about the efficacy of the one tactic America never tried: military action, or at least the credible threat thereof.

North Korea has proven, if anyone had still any doubts, that sanctions and negotiations alone can’t stop a determined dictator from acquiring nukes. In contrast, the jury’s still out on military action. It has only been tried twice, both times by Israel, in Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007. And it’s still too soon to say conclusively that it worked. But at least so far, neither country has nuclear weapons.

Moreover, many of the arguments against military action are fatuous. Take, for instance, the claim that military action is pointless once a country has the know-how to build a bomb, because “You can’t bomb a people’s knowledge out of existence,” as New York Times columnist Roger Cohen said of Iran. That’s true, but it’s completely irrelevant. Knowledge is only one of many components needed to build a bomb. Get rid of the others–like Iran’s heavy-water reactor, its stockpile of enriched uranium, and its centrifuges for enriching more–and no amount of knowledge will suffice to produce nuclear weapons.

Then there’s the argument that military action does nothing but buy time. That’s far from self-evident. Some countries might conclude that the effort of rebuilding their nuclear program only to be bombed again isn’t worth it. But even assuming that’s true, buying time has also been proven to be the most sanctions and negotiations can achieve (except in the rare cases where countries actually agree to give up their nuclear programs.

Thus the relevant question is which course of action buys more time, because the more time you buy, the better the chances of an unexpected development—say, regime change in Iran—that could lead to permanent success. Israel’s bombing of Iraq’s nuclear reactor, for instance, bought just enough time for Iraq to make a critical mistake nobody could have foreseen: the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which led to the Gulf War and America’s subsequent imposition of an intrusive and effective nuclear inspection regime.

MEMRI: Amman Friday Sermon by Ahmad Shahrouri: Only the Sword Will Resolve the Struggle with the Zionists

During a Friday sermon at the Al-Zaytoonah University Mosque in Amman, Jordan, Dr. Ahmad Shahrouri berated the "fraudulent politicians" for "wasting a hundred years of the life of the Islamic nation." "Nothing will resolve the struggle but pure swords in humble hands," he said. The November 3 sermon was posted on Dr. Shahrouri's YouTube channel. ...

Linda Sarsour's support of Saddam Hussein: So predictable! (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

Since I first began researching and writing about Linda Sarsour in the summer of 2016 – after she complained about the lack of support for the “Palestinian cause” at the Democratic National Convention – I have been a bit astonished that, whenever I come across some new information about her, it fits in amazingly well with what I’ve learnt about her previously.

The perhaps most striking example is one that goes back exactly 14 years. On December 15, 2003, the New York area paper Newsday ran a report about reactions from local residents to the capture of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The article begins with the view of an imam:

“Asked what should be done with the captured Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi-born leader of a mosque in Queens said the kindest thing would be a public hanging. ‘If you put him in the streets [of Baghdad] now, in a little while you would find him in pieces,’ said Fadhel Al-Sahlani, the imam, or spiritual leader, of the Al-Khoei Benevolent Foundation mosque.”

Then we get a short summary:

“Opinions in the local Muslim community varied yesterday on what should be done with Hussein. The judgment depended largely on the national origin of the person interviewed. For instance, one woman of Palestinian descent said that Hussein, despite his many faults, was a hero to many people in her community. But those who lived in or around Iraq - and knew his brutality firsthand - were harsh in the judgment of the deposed dictator.”

Sorry, no prize for guessing who the “woman of Palestinian descent” was who spoke up for the widely loathed Iraqi dictator…

“Linda Sarsour, who is American-born and of Palestinian descent, said many Palestinians viewed Hussein as a hero because he steadfastly supported Palestinians in their struggle against Israel. She and other Palestinian New Yorkers felt humiliated by the way Hussein was caught and shown, disheveled and pathetic-looking, on international television, Sarsour said. ‘I think he’s done a lot of things he shouldn’t have done, but I was hurt. My Arab pride was hurt,’ said Sarsour, 23, of Bensonhurst. ‘Palestinians are under so much oppression and no other Arab country ever helped them.’”

Well, what can one say about Linda Sarsour’s “Arab pride”…

But it’s worthwhile recalling the context of 2003, when Linda Sarsour rightly described Saddam Hussein as a Palestinian “hero” who “steadfastly supported Palestinians in their struggle against Israel.” The support was primarily “financial support for Palestinian terror groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Liberation Front, and the Arab Liberation Front, and … money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. In April 2002, Iraq increased the amount of such payments from $10,000 to $25,000.”

This increase of payments to Palestinian terrorists was of course Saddam Hussein’s way to contribute to the murderous Al-Aqsa Intifada that was going on at the time, and it is very telling that Linda Sarsour was so willing to show her appreciation for Hussein’s efforts to encourage Palestinian terror attacks, which included many suicide bombings targeting buses, restaurants and shopping areas.

Let’s now turn to a very recent story: you’ve probably heard that longtime Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian, who co-founded “Students for Justice in Palestine,” was recently caught sharing what has rightly been described as “insanely anti-Semitic memes.” When Berkeley condemned the tweets, Bazian came up with “[the] world’s least convincing apology;” one reason that his apology was so unconvincing is that he has a long history “of presenting anti-Semitism under the guise of anti-Zionism.”

So it’s of course entirely expected that Linda Sarsour is a fan…

As far as Sarsour is concerned, Bazian is one of those Muslims “who speak truth w/ courage & w/o apology;” she has also praised Bazian “for speaking truth to power & standing for Palestinians w/ the utmost integrity.” Last year, Sarsour described Bazian as “a revered leader in the Muslim community;” and just two weeks ago, Sarsour declared she was “proud” of Bazian’s relentless BDS activism.

On this last point, I actually agree with her: Bazian is clearly an exemplary BDS activist, and it’s easy to see why Sarsour would be so enthusiastic about him…

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