Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

01/24 Links Pt2: How Arafat Eluded Israel’s Assassination Machine; Saving the Syrian Jewish Brides; Why Do Western Gays Abandon Their Islamic Brothers?

From Ian:

NYTs: How Arafat Eluded Israel’s Assassination Machine

The choice facing Ivry on that day in October 1982 was only one example of a dilemma that has confronted many Israeli authorities over the course of the nation’s brief history — the violent and sometimes irreconcilable clash between the fundamental principles of democracy and a nation’s instinct to defend itself.

As a reporter in Israel, I have interviewed hundreds of people in its intelligence and defense establishments and studied thousands of classified documents that revealed a hidden history, surprising even in the context of Israel’s already fierce reputation. Many of the people I spoke to, in explaining why they did what they did, would simply cite the Babylonian Talmud: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” In my reporting, I found that since World War II, Israel has used assassination and targeted-killing more than any other country in the West, in many cases endangering the lives of civilians. But I also discovered a long history of profound — and often rancorous — internal debates over how the state should be preserved. Can a nation use the methods of terrorism? Can it harm innocent civilians in the process? What are the costs? Where is the line?

Increasingly, people want to talk. It was during a conversation in 2011 with a senior officer in a North Tel Aviv cafe that I heard for the first time about how Sharon had ordered that transport plane carrying Arafat to be shot down in 1982. He described everything in detail but set a stiff condition for publication of the story — another person had to describe the event on the record as well. Only by doing that could I publish the story. I went to see that person, knowing how difficult it would be to get him to speak about the episode. I approached in a roundabout manner before I touched on the relevant point. The man looked at me with his steely gaze, but then a softer and slightly sad expression came over his face. “For more than 30 years,” he said, “I have been waiting for someone to come and ask me about this story.”

No target thwarted, vexed and bedeviled the Israeli assassination apparatus more than Yasir Arafat, the charismatic P.L.O. leader who died in 2004. Sometimes he would simply escape, and sometimes the officials overseeing an effort would call it off because the target could not be confirmed or because the price in civilian lives was deemed too high. Time and again, the desire to kill Arafat placed Israel at the center of the ongoing debate about what a nation can and cannot do to survive. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

David Collier: Uni of Warwick – false accusations of aggressive & misogynistic behaviour

And it is important to remember that the issues mentioned are serious, but localised. After I released the last report, some press articles lost both perspective and context, painting Jewish existence at Warwick as an image of constant peril. Little could be further from the truth. As someone who constantly seeks context rather than headlines, and in support of Jewish students at Warwick, I need to address some of this here.

As a result of the exaggerated threat, Jewish students on Warwick released a statement that is worth reading. These students firmly believe that Warwick is one of the ‘greatest campuses’ in the UK for Jewish students. They remain proud of the growth and activity of the Warwick Jewish Israeli Society.

The facts speak in their favour. They firmly defeated the BDS motion, and passed a ‘Warwick Against Antisemitism’ motion in the students union, organising a ‘whole week celebrating the diversity in Israel and hosting holocaust survivors’. It was the BDS defeat that led to the small group of Faculty founding ‘Warwick for Justice in Palestine’ in the first place.

They accept they have issues with university support and individuals within the Student Union, but are insistent this does not reflect on their experience of Warwick as a whole. For them, most of the Faculty, and most of the student body are on-side and supportive. Anti-Israel activism is in general seen for what it is. Remember, only 10-15 students turned up for the event last Wednesday. On a campus that holds thousands.

This small group of activists are an issue, and whilst holding the greater picture in focus we must be allowed to deal with it. In context, and bearing in mind the real-life issues of the students. I am absolutely certain many of the Faculty on Warwick are appalled by the actions of the few. I am also certain over-exaggeration, confuses the issue, complicates life for all students on Warwick, and in many cases can be self -defeating.

What everyone deserves, is for the university to recognise the problem that does exist, and deal with it. The only question is – do they have the guts?

Abbas, May, Trump

Please join me here as I discuss with Avi Abelow of Israel Video Network the implications of Mahmoud Abbas ripping off his mask, as well as the pressure building for Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May to go and the May/Trump fiasco.

The first inkling I had that fear would inform at least part of my visit to the States came while waiting to board the first leg of my journey, Tel Aviv to Paris. I was on my way to visit my mother in Pittsburgh, who was about to celebrate her 91^st birthday. An Arab sat down beside me and began to read a book entitled L'Or d'Al-Qaida.

As it turns out, the book is a thriller. But I didn’t know that, and the spotty wifi at the airport didn’t allow me the luxury of Google. I knew it was probably nothing to worry about, but I couldn’t take the chance of doing nothing. I decided I’d better tell a representative of the airline, Air France, of my concerns.

The representative waved off my concerns, telling me not to worry, without even bothering to get the details or look at the man reading the book. I was just some Jew worry wart, my report not worth serious attention.

And since I’d now given up my seat to tell someone, anyone about the possible security issue, I was now forced to stand until boarding, no empty seats now in sight.

But once that small concern came to me over a dumb thriller, I was unable to shake the feeling, my entire trip, that it might be dangerous for people to know where I live. I wavered between fear of discovery, and wanting to tell people the truth about Israel, wanting to inform, to fill in where there were gaps of knowledge because the real story is not being covered by the mainstream media.

Or because people are being fed lies.

At times, it wasn’t so much fear of discovery, as it was unpleasant to discover how people feel about Israel and Israelis. There was, for instance, the Air France representative in Paris, who asked to see my passport. I showed her my Israeli passport and she blanched. “This is a problem,” she said, and began asking me about visas and things.

I pulled out my American passport and asked, “Does this help?”

“Much better,” she said.

I was left wondering about the real meaning behind her consternation. Was it visas that concerned her, or the fact that I come from Israel? Did she see me as an oppressor, someone who colonizes Arab land, a Zionazi, a sh*tty little Jew??

Or was I imagining all that?

Understand, please, that I live in a small town over the green line with an all-Jewish population. It is rare for me to see people from other cultures within Efrat, though I see plenty of Arabs at the supermarket and in Jerusalem. For me to be in Charles De Gaulle Airport, however, was to mix with European gentiles, and of course, Muslims of all stripes.

In this space, I was a minority. One that is reviled.

European and Muslim hate of Israel and antisemitism are not foreign to me as concepts, because of my reading and writing. So I believe my paranoia was well founded. Still, I was glad to get to the United States, where, I think, most people have a warm spot for Israel.

And still, I couldn’t quite shake off that fear.

When asked to register for the store’s card at Macy’s or JC Penney’s, I would say, “No thanks. I’m just visiting.”

They’d say, “It’s good everywhere,” and I’d have to reply, “I live abroad.”

Even in America, I found, I was afraid to say the “I” word--to say I live in Israel.

Because Pittsburgh, my hometown, is a friendly place, it got easier. Asked where I lived, I no longer had any choice but to speak the truth, “Israel,” I’d say, and wait, a bit worried, for the reaction.

I shouldn’t have worried. Almost every time I told salespeople and others where I lived, they’d be fascinated and want to know what it’s like, why I live there.

A longer conversation happened with Linda. My mother can no longer drive, or walk unassisted. She has Linda to take her around.

Once upon a time, Linda was a single, black mom, trying to get through college. My mom was typing papers to bring in some extra cash, having been widowed young, and possessing excellent typing skills. Linda saw my mom’s typing ad on Chatham's bulletin board and my mom began typing all her papers.

Some instinct told my mother that Linda needed a bit of mentoring. Her English writing skills were poor. My mother, at a certain point, not only typed, but edited Linda’s papers. Linda struggled to pay her bills and couldn’t always afford to pay my mom. My mom helped her anyway.

Linda told me, “I wouldn’t have gotten through college without your mother.”

I told my mom what she said and my mom said, “That’s true.”

I’d heard about Linda for years, but somehow we’d never met. Now was my opportunity, since Linda was the means by which my mom and I could go places together. While we were driving places, Linda and I were getting to know one another. She had a lot of questions about Israel.

Here are five things that Linda did not know about Israel:

1. Linda did not know that jailed Arab terrorists receive stipends and their families, financial assistance for killing Jews (pay to slay).

2. Linda did not know that Israel expelled 11,000 Jews from Gaza and Samaria to give Gaza to the Arabs asking nothing in return. She did not know we destroyed all those lovely Jewish homes, since the Arabs did not want them. She had never heard of Disengagement.

3. Linda did not know that Israel has a housing crisis because every time there are “peace” negotiations, the Arab side, via the U.S., forces us to freeze the building of homes in our ancestral territories, Judea and Samaria.

4. Linda did not know that in Israel, phone recordings and food labels are often in at least four languages: Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and Amharic. She didn’t know there’d been a mass immigration of black Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

5. Linda did not know that Martin Luther King was pro-Israel.

Linda did not know these things because the media is doing a poor job of informing people about Israel. It is clear that people are hungry for information, and fascinated by what I had to tell them. I told Linda, for instance, how my grandson Shmuel had his first haircut at Samuel’s tomb, and I think she grasped what a big deal that was to me as a God-fearing person.

Linda asked me what made me want to live in Israel. I explained that no matter whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew, you know that the Jews are the Children of Israel. That I had always had a yearning to live in Israel. That I believed that it was where every Jew should live. How today it is so easy to get to Israel, to have a real life in Israel, that there is no excuse not to live in Israel.

Once I told Linda about Israel, it became easier to tell the shopkeepers and salespeople, and whoever else wanted to know. People are just curious. They want to know about a life that differs from their own. At least that is the case in Pittsburgh.

I became ill on the second leg of my journey and as a result, required wheelchair assistance during my layovers there and back. While my wheelchair helpers on the way to Pittsburgh were Arabs, on the way back to Tel Aviv, they were not. In Pittsburgh, my wheelchair guy told me how he dreams of coming to Israel because as a Catholic, he wants to “walk in the footsteps of Jesus.”

His wife won’t go with him. Too terrified of terror attacks. But she has given him her blessing for him to go it alone.

I told him I live quite close to Bethlehem. He said, “I know that Jews don’t accept Jesus as their lord and savior, but most Jews think that Jesus was a great prophet.”

I held my tongue. The truth is, no Jew I know thinks Jesus was a great or any other kind of prophet, but rather a naughty little Jewish boy who caused untold trouble and bloodshed for his people. But I wasn’t about to say that to him. Let him believe whatever he likes. No skin off my teeth.

A lovely Ethiopian Christian woman helped me in Atlanta. When she saw my boarding pass, she was delighted to tell me about her dream of visiting the church in Jerusalem.

She told me her entire life story, how every time she prayed for something, it came true: the three beautiful boys she birthed, the new job, a way out of her troubles. We just had this wonderful rapport of one woman, one believer, to another (though our beliefs differed in the details). On parting ways, we agreed we’d see each other in Jerusalem someday. We thought this might really happen.

My travels accomplished their mission which was for me to spend quality time with my mother. I think I also learned that while it’s not safe to trumpet my country of origin to Europeans, it’s really nice to talk to Americans about Israel. They seem to want to know more, and their mainstream media is utterly failing them.

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Hamas Fighter Drawn To Bright Light In Tunnel, Not Realizing He's Dead (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Rafah, January 24 - Confusion reigned in the subterranean passages that snake through and out of the Gaza Strip today after a terrorist killed in a collapsing section remained unaware of his situation because his immediate post-death experience of being drawn toward an inviting light at the end of a tunnel differed in no way from his situation a moment before.

Faqhin al-Aghal, 22, met his demise (today) Wednesday afternoon when a portion of the concrete ceiling in the tunnel in which he was training failed, resulting in several tons of rocky debris crushing him to death. The speed of the collapse and fatality was such that al-Aghal had no chance to notice it happening. Owing to the similarity between his environment and what the consciousness sees in the moments following death, the Khan Yunis refugee camp native did not realize he had perished, and his consciousness continued to move along the remaining section of tunnel toward an illuminated target.

"It might take him a few more moments for reality to hit him," predicted one observer. "Soon he'll notice the sense of detachment, perhaps even bliss, that often accompanies this experience, and that will give him pause. He will stop, look around, and realize he's not embodied. He might even notice the presence of ancestors, deceased loved ones, or others clearly out of place in a tunnel intended for use in combat against Israel, and then it will hit him, so to speak."

"Of course there's also the chance that the realization will involve anxiety and fear, rather than bliss," remarked another. "Up to one fifth of dead or dying people experience that. There's no telling until it happens."

"Right now he might be seeing his life pass before his eyes," continued the first. "But given the stress of his situation before he was fatally crushed, that might not seem so inappropriate, so it won't clue him in that he's kicked the bucket. The incongruity of the other elements of the experience, I think, will make the difference, and he'll probably want to go back to look at his body to make sure."

The prospect of al-Aghal witnessing the condition of his mutilated corpse will most likely be a source of agony, surmised a third source. "His reaction might be different if he were embarking on a suicide bombing, not engaging in a routine training exercise," explained the source. "In such a case he would expect, even feel gratified, to see his body dismembered. I can't see that being the case here. Time will tell."

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01/24 Links Pt1: Note Who Curses America, and Who Blesses It; Col Kemp: We must end this appeasement and ban Hezbollah; Have Republicans Tried to Redefine “Pro-Israel?”

From Ian:

Trump in the Middle East: Note Who Curses America, and Who Blesses It

President Donald Trump has promised that in the Middle East under his presidency, “there are many things that can happen now that would never have happened before.” Two speeches of the last ten days offer dramatic confirmation of the emerging reconfiguration of America’s relationship with Israel and the Middle East under his leadership.

In a two-hour speech before the Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) last week, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, denounced the British, Dutch, French, and Americans for having conspired, ever since the 1650s, to create a Jewish colonial outpost that would “erase the Palestinians from Palestine.” As Abbas tells it, all this reached a climax on the eve of World War I, when the West realized that it was on the verge of collapse and that the Islamic world was “poised to inherit European civilization.” To put an end to this threat, the Western nations went about carving up the Muslim world so that it would be forever “divided, backward, and engulfed in infighting.” As for the United States, it has been “playing games” of this sort ever since then, importing, for example, the disastrous Arab Spring into Middle East.

Abbas summed up by demanding an apology and reparations from Britain for the Balfour Declaration and denying that the United States can serve as a mediator in the Mideast. Finally, he went to the trouble of cursing both President Trump and the U.S. Congress: Yehrab beitak (“May your house be razed”), he said.

I have been following the speeches of the PLO and its supporters in the Arab world for 30 years. Nothing here is new. These are the same things that Yasser Arafat, Abbas, and the mainline PLO leadership have always believed. It is a worldview that reflects an abiding hatred for the West, blaming Christians and Jews not only for the founding of Israel but for every calamity that has befallen the Muslim and Arab world for centuries.

Col Kemp: We must end this appeasement and ban Hezbollah

Hezbollah is the most powerful terrorist organisation in the world. Yet Britain has proscribed only part of it: its military wing. This Thursday the MP Joan Ryan will lead a parliamentary debate aimed at designating the whole organisation, as the US, Canada and the Netherlands already do. Her chances are slim. The film Darkest Hour has reminded us of British ministers’ penchant for appeasement and, like Churchill, that is what she’s up against.

Hezbollah, the creation of Iran, emerged onto the world stage in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 US Marines and 58 French paratroopers in the most devastating terrorist attack before 9/11. Since then it has attacked in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East and planned strikes from Cyprus to Singapore. Last summer US authorities charged two Hezbollah terrorists with planning attacks in New York and Panama. Hezbollah is fighting to keep Assad in power in Syria and maintains an arsenal of 100,000 rockets in Lebanon, pointed at Israel.

During the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hezbollah was involved in Iranian-directed bombings that killed well over 1,000 British and US servicemen. Despite this, in Britain and elsewhere in Europe Hezbollah can freely raise funds for terrorism. Its supporters flaunt their assault rifle-emblazoned flags on our streets. They maintain sleeper cells in this country: planning, preparing and lying in wait for orders to attack.

When I worked for the Joint Intelligence Committee I monitored Hezbollah’s activities. I knew there was no division into peaceful and warlike elements. The regional states don’t buy it either; the Arab League designates the entire organisation. Even Hezbollah’s leaders don’t make any such pretence. In 2009 its deputy secretary-general confirmed that it was one unified organisation.

One Raid Shows All You Need to Know About Israel’s Current Predicament

You wouldn’t think that one isolated Israeli counter-terror raid could explode every major myth about Israel’s conflict with the Palestinian Arabs. But last week’s raid in Jenin came pretty close to doing just that.

Overnight on January 17, Israeli commandos entered the city of Jenin in search of two particular Arab terrorists. When the operation was over a few hours later, the Israeli forces withdrew

Wait — the Israelis withdrew? But isn’t Israel “occupying” the Palestinians? That’s what J Street and Jewish Voice for Peace are always telling us. Just this week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, wrote that Israel is “ruling over millions of Palestinians.”

I guess that Rabbi Jacobs hasn’t been to Jenin lately. In fact, I would imagine that he hasn’t been there since at least 1995. That was the year when Israel withdrew all of its forces from the city (and the other areas where 98 percent of Palestinians reside), and a new power took over: the Palestinian Authority (PA). Counter-terror raids like the one in Jenin are the only occasions when Israeli forces enter PA-ruled cities.

Today's UNRWA irony

UNRWA is going on a new fundraising drive to allow future generations of Palestinian Arabs to remain stateless, disenfranchised, dependent on outside charity, and victims of discrimination in the entire Arab world because of their artificial designation as "refugees," a designation that they cannot escape according to UNRWA rules.

The name of this initiative? "Dignity Is Priceless."

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It appears that Palestinians who are still absurdly labeled as "refugees" are victims of apartheid - by their own people.

All the documents I'm seeing about whether they can vote in municipal and national PA elections are contradictory. But no one is saying that they have full voting rights.

Passia in 2003 writes:

The camps in the Palestinian Territories have become symbols of territorial illegitimacy because of two processes, one from above and one from below. From above, the camps are invisible in the Oslo process. The new regime of control by Israel divides the Palestinian Territories into Areas A, B and C, while the PNA divides the land according to refugee and non-refugee areas. It excludes the refugee camps from any urban or infrastructural project. From below, the camps as heterotopic places, in the Foucauldian sense, disconnected from the social and urban tissues in their neighboring areas. To an extent this disconnection has happened gradually, and has been expedited by the local elections, which excluded the refugee camp dwellers from voting.

Badil, 2005, says:

Refugees outside the camps are illegible [sic]to vote in national legislative council and municipal elections, but refugees in the camps only participate in the national election

It appears that some of the reason that the "refugees" can't vote is because their (self-appointed) camp leaders don't want their people to vote, and claim that they are making that decision for their own good:

Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 29, 2004
“The Supreme National Committee for the Protection of the Right of Return, announced yesterday that it opposes the participation of the refugee camps in the local elections that are expected to take place in the Palestinian territories. The committee justified its objection as protecting the unique status of the refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank, considering them testimony to the crime that the occupation state made against our nation for 56 years. The committee warned of the dangers of integrating the refugee camps into the urban housing units.”

Forced Migration also says this was a decision of the camp leaders:

In the late 1990s when the PNA began to consider holding municipal elections Palestinian refugees decided that those living in camps would not participate in order to avoid the impression that the camps were no different from West Bank and Gaza Strip towns and villages i.e. that the refugees were settled and no longer required a durable solution.

The most recent article I found was from Ma'an last year:

Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA -- the UN agency responsible for providing services to some five million Palestinian refugees -- and residing in refugee camps across the West Bank are also barred from voting in elections. According to Palestinian rights group Badil, Palestinian refugees residing outside refugee camps are permitted to vote in national legislative council and municipal elections, while those residing in the camps are only allowed to participate in national elections.

Two things are clear: Palestinian "refugees" do not have full voting rights - and the hundreds of Western reporters and think-tanks who are so fast to warn about any potential erosion of Israeli democracy show zero interest in the fact that Palestinians treat their own so-called "refugees" with contempt.

No one is calling this "apartheid."

But it is.

And even worse: the so-called "refugees" are kept in that status specifically as cannon fodder against Israel.

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From The Jerusalem Post:

While the White House confirms that since the "Jerusalem Declaration" there has been a complete disconnect between the Palestinian Authority and the Trump administration, it turns out that the previous administration actually maintains contact with PA officials. Ma'ariv reported that former US Secretary of State John Kerry met in London with a close associate of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Hussein Agha, for a long and open conversation about a variety of topics. Agha apparently reported details of the conversation to senior PA officials in Ramallah. A senior PA official confirmed to Ma'ariv that the meeting took place.

During the conversation, according to the report, Kerry asked Agha to convey a message to Abbas and ask him to "hold on and be strong." Tell him, he told Agha, "that he should stay strong in his spirit and play for time, that he will not break and will not yield to President Trump's demands." According to Kerry, Trump will not remain in office for a long time. It was reported that within a year there was a good chance that Trump would not be in the White House.

Kerry offered his help to the Palestinians in an effort to advance the peace process and recommended that Abbas present his own peace plan. "Maybe it is time for the Palestinians to define their peace principles and present a positive plan," Kerry suggested. He promised to use all his contacts and all his abilities to get support for such a plan. He asked Abbas, through Agha, not to attack the US or the Trump administration, but to concentrate on personal attacks on Trump himself, whom Kerry says is solely and directly responsible for the situation.

According to the report, referring to the president, Kerry used derogatory terms and even worse. Kerry offered to help create an alternative peace initiative and promised to help garner international support, among others, of Europeans, Arab states and the international community. Kerry hinted that many in the American establishment, as well as in American intelligence, are dissatisfied with Trump's performance and the way he leads America. He surprised his interlocutor by saying he was seriously considering running for president in 2020. When asked about his advanced age, he said he was not much older than Trump and would not have an age problem.

In a report on the conversation, Agha said that Kerry appears to be "crazy about things," very energetic, and someone who is yearning to help realize the dream of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Kerry explained, according to the report, that even in the Republican Party they do not know what to do with Trump and are very dissatisfied with him and that patience and breathing time are needed to get through this difficult period.

Trump's Middle East decisions are arguably the best and most effective moves he has made since becoming President. But they are dependent on forcing the Palestinians to recognize reality, and to stop their fantasies that they can achieve a state without negotiations and without Israeli cooperation.

John Kerry is acting to undermine his president and US national interests, apparently in a delusional effort set himself up for another presidential run. He is giving support for Abbas' intransigence.

Kerry actually believes that he is the messiah who can bring peace, and he is willing to undercut his own country's diplomatic efforts to do so.

This is even though his efforts in the past showed that Abbas is the one who is not interested in peace. Kerry knows this as well as anyone. Yet now we know that Kerry is actually encouraging Abbas to be intransigent, to act against the wishes of not only the US but much of the Arab world, and to continue to hold his own people hostage in order to avoid negotiations and compromises for peace.

People say, for good reason, that Trump often appears to set aside US interests for his own ego. John Kerry is doing exactly that, today. But he won't be criticized for it.

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The female reporter Kotel kerfuffle (updates)

Every story I read about Vice President Pence's visit to the Kotel (Western Wall) included how upset female reporters were for being stuck in the women's section of the plaza, where they could not as easily take photos because the men were closer and blocked their view.

NPR and the Washington Post had entire stories about this.

They are right to be upset. They are wrong to be so upset.

Under normal circumstances, the main plaza of the Western Wall is a synagogue that follows Orthodox practice. Observing the rules of the area is to be expected. There is a balance between freedom or religion and equal rights.

In my opinion, during Pence's visit, the Kotel was not a synagogue. All Jewish worshipers were barred from the area for four hours for security purposes.

There is no Jewish legal reason to separate the men and the women when the Wall is a prop for a photo op. Many (but not all) Orthodox synagogues regularly allow men and women to sit in the main sanctuary when there is a lecture or similar event.

But the people who run the Kotel are allowed to enforce rules that go beyond the letter of the law. They may be worried about a slippery slope, given the controversies around egalitarian prayer in the area in the past several years. It might not be wise, and I don't think it is necessary, but forcing them to change their policies for a photo op is not much better than clearing the area of worshipers for a photo-op.

The coverage of the women's anger, though, is over the top. It is worth mentioning as a sidelight, but to have entire stories about it makes one think that the editors are looking for a juicy reason to trash Israel (and smear Pence by association.

I do not recall a single article, ever, about how difficult it is for women reporters to do their jobs in Saudi Arabia. And they have severe restrictions:

Women traveling alone are not allowed to enter the country unless they will be met at the airport by a husband, a sponsor or male relative. The Saudi Embassy advises women to dress conservatively in public; that means wearing ankle-length dresses with long sleeves and not pants. In many areas, particularly the capital, Riyadh, women are pressured to wear a full-length black covering called an abaya and to cover their heads. Women in restaurants not accompanied by a male relative often are not served, and religious police known as the Mutawwa travel in public watching for violations of social mores. Any public display of affection is considered offensive. A woman traveling with a man who is not her husband, sponsor or a male relative can be arrested.

But women who are restricted, rightly or wrongly, from covering a relatively unimportant story have made this into a big deal.

And when Nikki Haley visited the Wall, she stayed on the women's side with the other worshipers. Female photographers - who were also segregated from men - had the best shots.

(Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Gali Tibbon, AFP/Getty

If gender segregation is so evil and anti-democratic, then why didn't anyone complain about the preferential treatment that women received at the exact same spot?

This is a tempest in a teapot, and it is driven more by politics than by news.

UPDATE: One female reporters says that the system was rigged in favor of males when Haley visited:

When Nikki Haley visited the Wall, coverage access was also rigged to favor male reporters. Until Israeli news orgs & professional Israeli journalist orgs take gender discrimination seriously, or until we force them to so, we will continue to be in the back row. @NTarnopolsky
— Tovah Lazaroff (@tovahlazaroff) January 23, 2018

I found more pictures of Haley from women than men, so I don't know.

UPDATE 2: A tweet from Jacob Kornbluh shows that male reporters were stuck behind a partition as well when Hilary Clinton visited the wall.

Shame that the male reporters were “forced” to stand behind a fence to cover Hillary’s visit to the Western Wall 🤪 pic.twitter.com/fJqruX5Zbf
— Jacob Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) January 24, 2018

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01/23 Links Pt2: Maajid Nawaz: Human rights are universal, Amnesty. Even Jewish rights; Partisan divide over Israel in the U.S. at historic level, poll finds; Yad Vashem slams 'incorrect' Haaretz piece

From Ian:

Maajid Nawaz: Human rights are universal, Amnesty. Even Jewish rights

It seems that officially partnering with pro-jihadists was not off limits for the once great and greatly admired Amnesty International, yet hosting Israeli speakers with whom they disagree is. If ever there was proof that the regressive left rot is spreading into the core of our liberal culture, look no further than the way it has politicised this once bright beacon of human rights.

This week, Amnesty UK cancelled a Jewish Leadership Council organised debate it was due to host between Fred Carver of the UN Association, and Hillel Neuer of UN Watch. Amnesty had initially agreed to join the panel debate, but withdrew their speaker months ago.

On Monday they went even further by denying use of their venue entirely. The reason ostensibly cited by Amnesty was that because they are “currently campaigning for all governments around the world to ban the import of goods produced in the illegal Israeli settlements” they do not “therefore, think it appropriate for Amnesty International to host an event by those actively supporting such settlements.”

Amnesty is well within its legal rights to permit or deny whomever it likes to and from its own venue. But the right to do something is very distinct from it being the right thing to do.

So let’s get this straight. Because Amnesty International opposes trading in goods produced in the occupied West Bank, in one clean sweep they’ve decided to extend this boycott to human beings who simply express an opposing view.

The average American is likelier than Europeans to defend Jews, experts say

It’s better here: That was the message of a panel of experts considering the rise of the extreme right and of antisemitism in the United States and Europe.

That was the good news at Monday’s forum, sponsored by Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization. The less good news was that no one could quite pin down why Americans were more resistant to antisemitism than Europeans.

“It’s far from perfect,” said Ira Forman, until January the international antisemitism monitor for the State Department. “We do it now better than we did 50 years ago, there’s no guarantee we will continue to do it, and frankly, we do it better with antisemitism than with anti-Muslim rhetoric and with racism.”

Forman cited American communities that spontaneously rallied to counter antisemitism in their midst, like the citizens of Whitefish, Montana who a year ago demonstrated ahead of a planned neo-Nazi march targeting the town’s tiny Jewish community, and civic leaders who, in 2013, called on an Oklahoma lawmaker to apologize for using the phrase “jew down.”

In both cases and in many others, he said, the drive to counter anti-Jewish rhetoric came in communities with small Jewish communities and seemed driven more by non-Jews who were repelled by the rhetoric.

Partisan divide over Israel in the U.S. at historic level, poll finds

Never has there been a greater divide between Democrats and Republicans on the subject of Israel in forty years of polling, according to a new survey published on Tuesday.

The Pew Research Center findings show Republicans more sympathetic than ever toward Israel, with Democrats increasingly divided, now equally likely to support the Palestinian cause. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains a particularly divisive force.

The poll is released as US Vice President Mike Pence continues his tour of Israel touting the policies of the Trump administration, which 30% of Americans believe "favors Israel too much," according to the report.

Overall, 79% of Republicans sympathize with Israel in the survey compared to only 27% of Democrats.

Americans who are more favorably inclined to Israel are less likely to believe a two-state solution is possible than those inclined to the Palestinians. And belief in the possibility of peace is correlated with age: the younger you are, the more hopeful you are likely to be that an agreement can be reached.

"Since 2001, the share of Republicans sympathizing more with Israel than the Palestinians has increased 29 percentage points," the pollsters found. "Over the same period, the share of Democrats saying this has declined 11 points."

BDS (and Palestinians) upset over Netanyahu selfie with Bollywood stars

When Netanyahu was in India, he took a selfie with major Bollywood stars, and this is making the Israel haters go even more insane than they were before

Amitabh Bachchan, Karan Johar and other Bollywood stars met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who attended the Shalom Bollywood event in Mumbai yesterday. Not only did PM Netanyahu attended the much-anticipated Bollywood event last night but he also called all the Bollywood stars to join together for a selfie - which was shared by him on his official Twitter handle. In the selfie, which is now viral, PM Netanyahu was joined in by stars like Big B, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi and Madhur Bhandarkar among others. In his speech, PM Netanyahu referred to one of the most viral pictures of all time that took place at the Oscars, in which several celebrities including Brad Pitt took a selfie.

Will my Bollywood selfie beat @TheEllenShow Hollywood selfie at the Oscars? @SrBachchan @juniorbachchan @rajcheerfull @imbhandarkar @vivek_oberoi @ pic.twitter.com/v1r0GIhKLy
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) January 18, 2018

His tweet was "hearted" over 54,000 times.

Naturally, the Palestinian Authority and BDS movement are spitting mad over this.

From Wafa, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority, in English:

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) in South Asia and other pro-Palestinian activists have slammed some Bollywood actors, actresses and figures for welcoming and embracing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to India.

Speaking to the Middle East Eye, Apoorva Gautam, head of the BDS movement in South Asia, expressed disappointment in Bollywood for falling for Israel’s “cultural propaganda”

“These initiatives are ultimately part of a wider move by the Israelis to improve its image globally as it continues to perpetrate war crimes against the Palestinians,” he said.

You almost have to feel sorry for the BDSers who cannot stand the idea of Israel being portrayed as anything other than evil incarnate in any media woridwide.

Almost.

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

Before International Holocaust Remembrance Day it seems appropriate to share this in honor of those who survived and those that did not.

The Holocaust was such a huge milestone in history that sometimes we forget that the people involved were individuals. I wrote this following an experience I had in 2014 and the example of one survivor who will forever influence the image I have in my mind of what it means to “survive.”

**************************

“Will I ever see you again?”

As I turned around I saw that these words were not meant for me. They were directed at the stones of the Kotel, the Western Wall of the destroyed Jewish temple, in the heart of Jerusalem.

Hanna Marx had tears in her eyes as she told me: “The last time I was in Israel I would never have imagined that I would be able to come back here again. That I would live this long, be strong enough. This is the greatest place on earth. Thank you for bringing me here.”

Hanna came to Israel with her friend of many years, Gerhard Maschkowski. Gerhard and Hanna are both survivors. He survived Auschwitz. She survived two concentration camps and a two and half month long death march. The fact that they are alive today is a miracle (or maybe, to be more accurate, countless small miracles).

Lenny and I spent a weekend with Hanna (86 years old) and Gerhard (89). They stayed at the Dead Sea, for the unique health benefits of the location. Although both had been to Israel before, Lenny could not bear the thought of them not visiting any other place in the country so he decided to take them to Jerusalem and the Kotel before they flew home to the USA.

Hanna Marx & Gerhard Maschkowski in Jerusalem Sept 20th, 2014

I had not imagined that the brief time at the Kotel would be so moving to Hanna. (Please read more about Gerhard at https://forestrain.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/a-sign-upon-your-arm/ an article I wrote after his previous trip to Israel).

Survivor. What a small word for something so huge. Survival. Triumph. Overcoming the most unspeakable horrors…

From now on, when I hear the word “survivor” Hanna’s image will come to my mind. An iron lady, even at 86 years of age, it seems like nothing can stop her. After what she endured as a teenager, what could stop her?

Hanna (like Gerhard) is unusual in that she is able to talk freely about her experiences during the Holocaust while not showing signs of bitterness or hate. She has smile lines and a joy for life. She magnetizes people to her and, when she can, teaches them.

Many survivors refuse to talk, saying they don’t want to burden the younger generations with the horrors of the past. Others do articulate their memories but are also trapped by them, stuck in bitterness. Some have difficulty connecting with their families, difficulty showing emotion, afraid to love because everything they once loved was ripped from them.

Hanna said that for many years she did not tell her children about her experiences. They heard about them in a roundabout way and then began asking questions. After that she began telling her story in front of school children, teaching them about the Holocaust.

Candidly Hanna told me that her beloved husband (also a survivor, now deceased), did not like it when she gave talks about her experiences because on the nights after she’d spoken she would cry and sometimes scream in her sleep and he’d have to hold her until she could stop shaking.

Calm, pleasant and articulate in the day, the horrors she remembered haunted her at night.

Although she didn’t tell me much of her story, some of the experiences Hanna described gave me nightmares too. I can’t imagine how it is possible to survive such experiences. How is it possible to smile, be happy and loving? How is it possible to trust other people?!

I asked Hanna about the death march. For two and a half months she and some 5-6 thousand were forced to march. They weren’t given any food. They had no shelter or even warm clothes (I wonder how many had decent shoes?). Anyone who collapsed or lay down was shot and left on the side of the road. They ate snow. How can you survive on snow? How can you have enough strength to walk mile after mile? They slept at night on the side of the road and in the morning, those that were still alive were forced to get up and march.

She said that sometimes farmers had piles of food outside in the field, vegetables meant for their animals to eat. When they could, Jews that saw this ran in to the fields and grabbed whatever there was and ate it – raw, dirty, it didn’t matter. Often they would be shot for running in to the field but they didn’t care. People that died on the way had their clothes taken by the freezing, starving survivors.

By the end of the march only some 300 hundred Jews were still alive.

I asked Hanna if, during the march she believed she would survive. She said no.

I asked, if she thought she was going to die, what made her keep getting up in the morning, keep walking? It would have been easy enough to lay down and die.

Her answer was that she didn’t know why. Something in her made her keep moving. Something in her tells her that despite the horrors she endured, God was with her, watching over her.

Two miracles helped Hanna through the Holocaust.

The first was when a German officer made a decision that saved Hanna’s mother and allowed mother and daughter to remain together. At the beginning of the war there were 58 people in Hanna’s family. At the end, 4 remained. Hanna lost her father and brothers but remained with her mother until they were both liberated.

The second miracle came at the end of the death march when German soldiers sent with grenades to blow up a hanger that housed the Jews that survived the march, changed their minds. The Russians were coming and the soldiers were supposed to act quickly. Instead of committing mass murder they decided to simply walk away.

Hanna’s mother spoke to the soldiers and her perfect German made them see her as a human being (most of the other survivors of the march were Polish and Latvian). She did not match the anti-Semitic caricatures of Jews prevalent in Nazi propaganda. She was a proper German lady. One of the soldiers said to the other: “I was raised in church and was taught that if I have to fight to protect myself that is ok but I must not kill innocent people and I am not going to kill these people.” He left and the other soldier followed him.

A few hours later the Russians liberated the surviving Jews.

Even in the darkest places, the most horrible times, there is still hope.

Hanna has attained “Jewish revenge” the ultimate “davka” – although she was subjected to unspeakable horrors, she has survived and more. She has thrived! Although her family was ripped from her, she created her own family, married and lived many happy years with the love of her life. They had children, grandchildren and now there are even great grandchildren! Each member of her family is happy and successful in their own right, leaving her free from worries about their future.

Hanna’s message to the world is one of acceptance, tolerance and kindness:

“Be good to people and it will come back to you”.

“If you are discriminated against, prove that you are better. They will respect you later.”

“Survivor” means so much more than the one little word can convey… After Hanna’s example how can I say: “I’m dying of hunger” or “I’m dying for a drink”? How many of us feel we can’t survive without that vacation, new car, pair of jeans, shoes or whatever? How many of us waste time whining, complaining, taking for granted, wallowing in misery, giving up… We who live in the relative comforts and freedoms of the west are spoiled and don’t even realize it.

The world we live in is shaped by our attitudes. It’s not about what happens to you, it’s about what you create out of what happens to you. Hana not only survived, she thrived because of her attitudes, because of what she made out of what life gave her.

Now the question is, what will you chose to create?

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms –
to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
~ “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Victor E. Frankl

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

01/23 Links Pt1: A shining speech in Jerusalem – the city upon the hill; Glick: Jordan’s King Abdullah Disrespects America — Because He Can; Don’t Blame Trump for Abbas Rejecting Peace

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Jordan’s King Abdullah Disrespects America — Because He Can

So long as majorities reject the values of liberal democracies generally, and hate the U.S. specifically, there is little chance of America leading a democratization movement that will result in anything positive. Minority regimes may make unreliable allies. But popularly elected regimes that embrace bigotry and reject the U.S. and democratic values will reliably be enemies.

In Abdullah’s case, while his dependence on the U.S. ensures his loyalty, his regime is inherently weak because he lacks popular support. To avoid widespread unrest, Abdullah proclaims and occasionally adopts extremist positions against Israel and the US and in favor of terrorists.

Abdullah benefits twice from his hostile policies. On the one hand, he keeps his opponents at bay by satisfying their anti-Americanism and hatred of Israel. On the other hand, by encouraging the public to hate America and Israel, he makes it less likely that any pro-American alternatives to his regime will emerge that could reduce U.S. and Israeli dependence on him personally.

To modify his behavior, the U.S. can and should demand that Abdullah bar anti-American and antisemitic incitement in his state-owned media. He should be required to extradite Tamimi to the U.S. and run programming explaining why she is a terrorist, not a hero.

Such steps can begin to move back the dial of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in Jordan, if only minimally.

Over time, such basic steps may diminish Abdullah’s perceived need to buy off the mob at his gates with pro-terror policies and reduce America’s need to accept his double-dealing, as Pence was forced to do on Sunday in Amman.

PMW: Abbas: "Israel is exporting drugs to the Palestinians in frightening amounts"

In his recent speech to the PLO Central Council, PA Chairman Abbas repeated the PA libel that Israel floods Palestinian society with drugs deliberately to ruin the young generation:

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "We have a plan to fight the drugs. Israel is exporting drugs to us in frightening amounts. We need to pay attention in order to defend our young generation and defend it from the drugs."
[Official PA TV, Jan. 14, 2018]

Palestinian Media Watch has reported that a host on official PA TV and the Palestinian Coordinator of the Project of the War on Drugs in Jerusalem accused Israel of being responsible for Palestinian drug problems:

PA TV host: "Jerusalem is probably the Palestinian district that suffers the most from drugs, [because] the occupation mainly targets young age groups in Jerusalem..."
Coordinator of the Project of the War on Drugs in Jerusalem, Issam Jweihan: "A war is being waged [by Israel] against Jerusalem. This is an unconventional war in which unconventional weapons are being used. The goal of the war is clear - to Judaize the city and empty it of its [Arab] residents. They are using unconventional weapons. The weapon that brings the best results for the Israelis is drugs."
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, June 21, 2017]

Fatah official: Trump stole from Arab nation, gave keys to Jerusalem holy sites to the Jews

Fatah official: Israel is “a racist and fascist occupation... a distorted model, even for the Nazis”