Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, March 11, 2018

03/11 Links: UNHRC report: Settlements are a war crime; PMW: PA TV host's libel: Israel "has built itself on the bodies of children"; Putin’s comments on Jews like ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’

From Ian:

UNHRC report: Settlements are a war crime

Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem is a war crime, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein charged in a report he issued last week.

“The establishment and expansion of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory by Israel, including the legal and administrative measures that it has taken to provide socioeconomic incentives, security, infrastructure and social services to citizens of Israel residing in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, amount to the transfer by Israel of its population into the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” al-Hussein, who is a Jordanian prince, said.

He continued, “The transfer of the population by an occupying state into an occupied territory is a grave breach of article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and therefore a war crime.”

His report on Israeli settlement activity was published on the UN Human Rights Council website on Wednesday.

It is one of six reports on Israel that will be presented to the council on March 19.

Five charge Israel with human rights abuses in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and the sixth focuses on Israeli actions on the Golan Heights.

One of the reports also dedicates a third of its content to charges of human rights abuses by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and by the PA and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israel remains the only country with so many reports issued against it. The Human Rights Council, for example, has issued only a single report each on human rights issues in countries such as Syria and Iran.

PMW: PA TV host's libel: Israel "has built itself on the bodies of children"

The host of a program on official PA TV taught viewers that Israel "murders, imprisons, and tortures" Palestinian children, and accordingly "has built itself on the bodies of children."

Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake then "confirmed" this, stating that Israel "executes" children:

Official PA TV host Walaa Al-Battat: "The occupation government, (PA euphemism for Israel) which claims it is democratic and has won the support of some of the world's super powers, has built itself on the bodies of children, and it still murders, imprisons, and tortures them with the most extreme types of torture."

Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake: "[Israel] is still going further and further with arrests of the [Palestinian] children - not just arrests, but also execution and murder. Children have been summarily executed... This has occurred based on official decisions made by the Israeli government, which has decided that live bullets should be fired at what it calls "the rock throwers." [Official PA TV, Who is the Judge?, Feb. 9, 2018]

The host of the program, Walaa Al-Battat, is well-known from her hosting of PA TV's children's program The Best Home. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that Al-Battat has used this program to teach children the libel that Israel targets and murders children. During the Palestinian terror wave in November 2015, when young Palestinian terrorists were attacking Israelis with knives, the host explicitly told Palestinian children "not to walk alone," because Israel "targets children everywhere... these are barbarians," who "try to kill people for no reason":

Michael Oren: Getting out of the Iranian check

While Israel is mired in domestic scandals and coalition crises, the greatest threat the country has known since the eve of the Yom Kippur War – perhaps since the War for Independence – is steadily taking shape. This menace, posed of course by Iran, essentially consists of a wide range of growing threats closing in on us. The Iranians, who invented the game of chess, are exceedingly adept at playing several boards simultaneously, with the winner's prize no less than control of the entire Middle East and beyond.

The bottom chessboard is regional. The Iranians cunningly took a step back and allowed the superpowers to destroy their main enemies in the region. The Americans weakened the Taliban and eliminated Saddam Hussein, and, along with Russia, they annihilated the Islamic State group. The Iranians also helped Shiite militias exhaust and chase American forces from Iraq. The resulting vacuum in Iraq and Syria was filled by the Iranians and their proxies.

Today, Iran is penetrating deeper across the Middle East and is guiding the Shiite majorities in eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. It has also established a foothold among the Houthis rebels in Yemen. Just several days ago, Bahraini forces thwarted a coup attempt orchestrated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. At the same time, the Iranians have forged unprecedentedly strong alliances with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Together with their complete control over Lebanon, the Iranians have laid siege to virtually the entire Middle East.

The upper chess board is the international sphere, where the Iranians have secured a nuclear deal. This achievement grants them all the advantages of military nuclear capabilities without the costs. While Iran doesn't have to fear a military strike on its nuclear facilities, sanctions relief and lucrative business deals have provided the immense funds it uses to realize its regional aspirations. In around 10 years, when the nuclear deal expires, no country will step in to stop Iran if it continues developing nuclear weapons, for fear of squandering its vast investments in the Islamic republic.

Ryan Bellerose is a friend of the pro-Jewish / pro-Israel community who, like many of us, has grown increasingly skeptical of the two-state solution.

I met the guy online when he arrived at Israel Thrives a couple of years ago for the purpose of kicking the holy crap out of one of my regulars.

Bellerose is a Métis from the Paddle Prairie settlement of northern Alberta - I want to stress northern Alberta - and a fighter for the rights and well-being of indigenous peoples, including the Jewish people.

This makes him highly unusual among indigenous rights activists because he is with the very few who recognize Jewish indigenous rights. Jewish people, for progressive-left internal political reasons, have been left out of the Indigenous Rights Club.

Instead, we are considered white, imperialist, racist, militaristic, colonialist, inhumane, apartheid-lovers.

In a recent article for Tablet, Bellerose writes:

Now, to understand indigeneity, one must also understand indigenous people, how we see ourselves, and how we see the world. At its simplest, indigenous status stems from the genesis of a culture, language, and traditions in conjunction with its connections to an ancestral land, most commonly derived from ties to pre-colonial peoples. Once a people have such a cultural, linguistic, and spiritual genesis as well as a coalescence as a people, they are generally acknowledged as an indigenous people.

Bellerose's discussion of indigeneity is grounded in a 1981 report to the United Nations Economic and Social Council written by anthropologist José Martínez Cobo.

Bellerose, it should also be understood, stands up on the street as well as in the pages of Tablet.

I very much wish that he had been around during the vigils for Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner.

Reem Assil, of Reem's antisemitic restaurant, for reasons that defy the moral imagination, venerates the genocidal Jew murderer, Rasmea Odeh. Furthermore, she is now actually being rewarded for that hatred.

The New York Times recently published a piece concerning Assil's joint by Rebecca Flint Marx entitled, An Arab Bakery in Oakland full of California Love.

Full of California Love.

One of the hysterical things about this article is that Marx made a correction in the body of the text shortly after it was published reading:

In 1970, Ms. Odeh was convicted by Israeli courts for her role in the murder of two students.

So, the Times acknowledges that Odeh is a convicted murderer, yet the headline still reads, An Arab Bakery in Oakland full of California Love.

The only conclusion that I can come to is that the New York Times thinks that you're a bunch of idiots.

Furthermore, Justin Phillips of the San Francisco Chronicle tells us that Reem Assil continues meteoric rise with new fine-dining restaurant at Jack London Square.

Oh, joy.

{But I digress.}

The reason that Bellerose matters is because he encourages a widening of our understanding of the conflict.

By rightfully insisting upon the indigeneity of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel he forces an expansion of the conversation both geographically and historically.

This is not a fight merely between Israelis and Arabs residing within the Jewish home. This is a fight between the indigenous Jewish population and their former Arab and Muslim conquerors who have yet to give up on reinstating theo-political domination. This makes it a struggle between the tiny Jewish minority in the Middle East and the far larger Arab and Muslim populations that surround them.

That is the obvious implication of insisting upon Jewish indigeneity because the very idea of Jewish indigeneity to the Land of Israel contradicts Arab and Muslim imperial ambitions within the Jewish home.

It is inescapable.

Another obvious implication is that this is not merely a modern conflict. History did not begin in 1948, nor 1967.

Anyone with even a glancing understanding of the history of the region acknowledges that between the time of Muhammad until the failure of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Jewish people - and other such dhimmi-sorts - lived as second and third-class non-citizens.

The late professor Martin Gilbert described dhimmi status under Muslim rule as follows:

There could be no building of new synagogues or churches. Dhimmis could not ride horses, but only donkeys; they could not use saddles, but only ride sidesaddle. Further, they could not employ a Muslim. Jews and Christians alike had to wear special hats, cloaks and shoes to mark them out from Muslims. They were even obliged to carry signs on their clothing or to wear types and colors of clothing that would indicate they were not Muslims, while at the same time avoid clothing that had any association with Mohammed and Islam. Most notably, green clothing was forbidden...

Other aspects of dhimmi existence were that Jews - and also Christians - were not to be given Muslim names, were not to prevent anyone from converting to Islam, and were not to be allowed tombs that were higher than those of Muslims. Men could enter public bathhouses only when they wore a special sign around their neck distinguishing them from Muslims, while women could not bathe with Muslim women and had to use separate bathhouses instead. Sexual relations with a Muslim woman were forbidden, as was cursing the Prophet in public - an offense punishable by death.

Under dhimmi rules as they evolved, neither Jews nor Christians could carry guns, build new places of worship or repair old ones without permission,or build any place of worship that was higher than a mosque. A non-Muslim could not inherit anything from a Muslim. A non-Muslim man could not marry a Muslim woman, although a Muslim man could marry a Christian or a Jewish woman.

.

Martin Gilbert, In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2010) 32 - 33.

The conflict is greater in scope both geographically and historically then most people realize and that is particularly true of progressive-left enemies to the Jewish people who see the conflict as a result of twentieth-century "Zionist" aggression.

By insisting upon the indigeneity of the Jewish people to Israel, Bellerose forces us to rethink dominant formulations around the conflict in two fundamental ways.

1) The Jews are the colonized indigenous population who managed to free themselves from thirteen centuries under the boot of Arab and Muslim imperialism.

2) This is not a conflict between "Zionists" or Israelis versus Palestinian-Arabs. What we are seeing, rather, is the current moment in the long Arab and Muslim war against Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East grounded in Koranic malice.

The concept of indigeneity is key and while Bellerose knows it, most Jews do not.

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.

EU essentially calls the Israeli government liars

An amazing statement from the EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy:

This week, the Israeli Knesset adopted legislation which empowers the Israeli Minister of Interior to revoke the permanent residency status of persons involved in terrorism, treason or espionage.

The European Union rejects terrorism in all its forms, and the crimes set out in this legislation are very serious. However, the new law could make the residency status of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, a protected population under International Humanitarian Law, even more precarious than it already is today. The new law could be used to further compromise the Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem, which would further undermine the prospects of a two-state solution.

In line with international law, the European Union does not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, including East Jerusalem, and does not consider them to be part of Israel’s territory, irrespective of their legal status under domestic Israeli law.

The European Union will closely monitor if and how this new law is applied to Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

The EU is saying that while the law clearly points out that the revocation of residency is for very serious crimes.

But then they say that they don't trust Israel to actually implement the law that it drafted, and they fully expect the Israeli government to use it as an excuse to expel Arabs for no reason in its insatiable desire to rid Jerusalem of all Arabs.

Oh, sorry, I got confused as to whether I was reading a statement from the EU, ostensibly an ally of Israel, or a statement from the Arab League.

The EU is calling the Government of Israel liars.

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.

An Islamic Jihad terrorist was killed on Saturday night in an "work accident" explosion, and another man was injured.

The official Wafa news agency preferred to report the dead man as a civilian.

Islamic Jihad issued a statement that said "to emphasize that the blood of the martyrs will remain a shining light for the Mujahideen towards the path of pride and dignity and to move forward in the resistance approach until the liberation of the beloved Palestine."

Keep on blowing yourselves up, guys. Maybe the shining light from the blood can reduce Gaza's need for electricity.

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.

03/10 Links: Putin suggests ‘Jews with Russian citizenship’ behind US election interference; Dershowitz: What Is a "Refugee"? The Jews from Morocco versus the Palestinians from Israel

From Ian:

Putin suggests ‘Jews with Russian citizenship’ behind US election interference

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the NBC network over the weekend that Russians who sought to influence the results of the 2016 presidential elections could have been “Jews, but with Russian citizenship.”

In the interview, a full transcript of which was released by the Kremlin on Saturday, the Russia president said “I do not care at all, because they do not represent the government.

“Maybe they are not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews, but with Russian citizenship, which should also be checked; maybe they have dual citizenship or a green card; maybe the US paid them for this. How can you know that? I do not know either,” he said.

Putin insisted such efforts could not be tied to the Kremlin.

“Why have you decided the Russian authorities, myself included, gave anybody permission to do this?” Putin asked in the often-combative interview.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is conducting a wide-ranging investigation to determine whether President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow to help elect him.

Last month Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies for allegedly backing Trump’s campaign, maligning his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and engaging in other election interference.

Alan M. Dershowitz: What Is a "Refugee"? The Jews from Morocco versus the Palestinians from Israel

Approximately the same number of Jews were displaced from their Arab homelands during this period. Nearly all of them could trace their heritage back thousands of years, well before the Muslims and Arabs became the dominant population. Like the Palestinian Arabs, some left voluntarily, but many had no realistic choice. The similarities are striking, but so are the differences.

The most significant difference is between how Israel dealt with the Jews who were displaced and how the Arab and Muslim word dealt with the Palestinians who had been displaced by a war they started.

Israel integrated its brothers and sisters from the Arab and Muslim world. The Arab world put its Palestinian brothers and sisters in refugee camps, treating them as political pawns — and festering sores — in its persistent war against the Jewish state.

It has now been 70 years since this exchange of populations occurred. It is time to end the deadly charade of calling the displaced Palestinians "refugees." Almost none of the neatly five million Arabs who now seek to claim the mantle of "Palestinian refugee" was ever actually in Israel. They are the descendants — some quite distant — of those who were actually displaced in 1948. The number of surviving Arabs who were personally forced out of Israel by the war started by their brethren is probably no more a few thousand, probably less. Perhaps they should be compensated, but not by Israel. The compensation should come from Arab countries that illegally seized the assets of their erstwhile Jewish residents whom they forced to leave. These few thousand Palestinians have no greater moral, historic or legal claim than the surviving Jewish individuals who were displaced during the same time period seven decades ago.

In life as in law there are statutes of limitations that recognize that history changes the status quo. The time has come – indeed it is long overdue – for the world to stop treating these Palestinians as refugees. That status ended decades ago. The Jews who came to Israel from Morocco many years ago are no longer refugees. Neither are the relatives of the Palestinians who have lived outside of Israel for nearly three quarters of a century.

Melanie Phillips: The Right Is Sticking by What They Think Is Right

Although Women’s March leaders said Farrakhan’s statements were “not aligned with the Women’s March Unity Principles,” other progressives have supported Mallory. New York Civil Liberties Union executive director Donna Lieberman called her “a fearless fighter against racism.”

According to The Daily Caller, at least seven Democrats had meetings with Farrakhan while in Congress, with Rep. Danny K. Davis calling him an “outstanding human being.” And in 2013, Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman Keith Ellison, who worked for the Nation of Islam for 18 months (although he subsequently damned its antisemitism), dined with Farrakhan and Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani when the latter visited the United Nations in 2013, and was said by Farrakhan to have dined with him again in 2016.

In Britain, transgender activist Munroe Bergdorf was appointed by the Labour Party as an adviser on LGBT+ issues, even though the previous year she had made a number of offensive comments, including claiming that all white people were racist and calling the suffragettes “white supremacists.” When this was revealed in the press, it was another week before she resigned.

Not surprising: Such black-on-white racism is common on the left. And its open antisemitism is now a running sore. This week, the Labour Party launched an investigation into claims by the blogger David Collier that party members posted antisemitic comments on a closed Facebook group run by Palestinian activists, which included discussions of conspiracy myths about the Rothschilds and supposed Israeli involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as well as links to material produced by neo-Nazi groups.

Trump and Netanyahu supporters may hold their noses for the greater good. But on the left, bad people are supported because the left believes bad things.

Dry Bones, December 20, 2015

I spoke for a short while with a European who works for the US Consulate in (east) Jerusalem. His role is to help train PA security forces.

From the State Department:

A three-star officer serves as the United States Security Coordinator (USSC) to assist the PA to transform and professionalize its security sector; engage with the Israelis and Palestinians on security initiatives that build trust and confidence; and support U.S. and international efforts that set the conditions for a lasting and peace agreement. INL (US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs) works closely with the USSC to implement security assistance programs for the PA, and provides the funding necessary to support the PASSTP and related U.S. efforts. The U.S. also coordinates with the Government of Israel in order to implement this program.

Goals: The INL program began in 2007 with a key goal to establish at least nine special battalions within the PA National Security Force (NSF), a gendarmerie-like force with the mission to provide a rapid reaction capability to support the Palestinian Civil Police (PCP). After attaining this milestone in 2012, the program’s overall focus shifted from build, train, and equip to one focused on assisting the PA to develop further the institutional capacities to maintain these gains. The program now continues to assist the PA to professionalize its security forces, and assist the PA to build, maintain, and sustain security and justice sector institutions necessary for a future Palestinian state.

I wasn't aware that the US was still actively working with the PA on security training. I was aware of a similar initiative by the EU called EUPOL-COPPS.

I asked this man whether the PA has stopped coordination with the US program since the Trump declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, as they claimed they would. He answered with an anecdote.

One day, when he and his coworkers - most of them not US citizens - drove up to Ramallah, they were stopped by the PA police. This had never happened before; up until then the PA police would just be hanging out and not doing anything. But this time they were hostile and not letting them through, even though the group has diplomatic plates.

The PA policeman asked what country they were from, and one of them answered honestly that he was Canadian. Suddenly, the PA officer became very friendly, and said that Canadians are his favorite people, and let them go.

I'm not quite sure how to interpret this story. It seems that the coordination and training is still happening but in a lower-key way where the American source of the training is being downplayed.

This is a very honor/shame type story, where for honor purposes the American presence must be declared to be illegal in the PA, but as long as there can be a pretense that this training comes from the EU and elsewhere.

I do not understand why the US has outsourced this role almost completely to non-Americans.

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.

03/09 Links Pt2: Farrakhan and the Left; Antifa: the militant wing of authoritarianism; Caitlyn Jenner’s Love & Admiration For The Jewish People And Israel

From Ian:

TWS Editorial: Farrakhan and the Left

How strange that self-proclaimed “intersectional” feminists such as Sarsour, Mallory, and Perez would support an openly misogynistic and racist demagogue like Farrakhan. Among his more recent offerings: “When a woman does not know how to cook and the right foods to cook, she's preparing death for herself, her husband and her children.” He’s also observed that “man is supposed to have rule, especially in his own house . . . and when she rules you, you become her child.” Directly to women he asserted: “You are a failure if you can’t keep a man, no profession can keep you happy!” One wonders what it is about him that these feminists find so alluring.

More troubling, perhaps, is the recently surfaced photo of a 2005 Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) meeting with Farrakhan. It featured then-senator Barack Obama posing for a photo with the Nation of Islam leader. The photographer, Askia Muhammad, now says the CBC asked him to suppress the image because it might have derailed Obama’s campaign. Nor is that the only time CBC members hobnobbed with Farrakhan: As Jeryl Bier pointed out in the Wall Street Journal in January, several of them can be seen shaking hands and hugging in a 2009 YouTube video.

We doubt the photo with Farrakhan would have hurt Obama, who easily weathered revelations of his long association with the similarly anti-semitic and anti-American Jeremiah Wright. These associations are troubling all the same, however the preponderance of mainstream journalists may wish to look the other way. We suspect that if a photo emerges some day of Donald Trump or George W. Bush grinning with Richard Spencer, the New York Times will make room for it on page 1A.

When asked about the CBC’s meeting and his relationship with Farrakhan, Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.) defended his relationship with Farrakhan by remarking that “the world is so much bigger than Farrakhan and the Jewish question and his position on that and so forth.” That phrase, “the Jewish question”—where have we heard that before?

Women's March says it loves, but spreads hatred instead

Interesting how the Women’s March claims to be “inclusive” and for “free speech” when they only allow the opinions of giddy liberal women who have no clue what’s really going on. And they are decidedly pro-Palestinian to the exclusion of every other group in spite of their claims otherwise.

“Pro apartheid” is a common statement used as propaganda by the pro-Palestinian crowd. The Jewish women were even called “Nazis” by one woman on the page a term that cuts at the heart of who the ladies are. The Women’s March claims to be inclusive, yet have thrown Jewish women out of the marches so often, that a new band of progressive Jewish women formed their own group, according to Algemeiner.

Another Women’s March organizer Carmen Perez is also a fan of Farrakhan. In this picture below from her Instagram account Perez (on the right) honored the hater as a valued elder.

When the ADL asked Ms.Perez about her association with Farrakhan, Perez refused to denounce his anti-Semitism and instead retorted: “There are no perfect leaders.” In other words, “of course he is a hater, but who cares.

The Women’s March could write 100-page manifesto declaring how they love everybody–but the truth is, the women leading the Women’s March and the organizations it associates with are haters. or people who condone hatred, and should be labeled as such by the media, and by all people who abhor bigotry.

Dem Rep Who Had Called Farrakhan An ‘Outstanding Human Being’ Releases New Statement Condemning Him By Name

Rep. Danny Davis (D., Ill.) released a new statement Thursday evening denouncing anti-Semitic Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan after an earlier, weaker statement led liberal Jewish group J Street to say it was reevaluating its endorsement of him.

A month early, The Forward reports, Davis called Farrakhan an "outstanding human being."

The congressman had also downplayed the importance of Farrakhan's anti-Semitism by saying "The world is so much bigger than Farrakhan and the Jewish question and his position on that and so forth."

After criticism from the Jewish community, Davis' statement Monday did not address his own words about "the Jewish question" and instead blamed media for asking him about the controversy, although it was titled "Statement of Danny K. Davis on Anti-Semitism."

"Recently the ultra-right propaganda site The Daily Caller attempted to impugn my character," his statement began.

"History is replete with the horrific consequences of racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, male chauvinism and other forms of hatred and bigotry and discrimination," Davis wrote, saying that those who promote those views are "pursuing an agenda which I will never accept."

03/09 Links Pt1: Glick: Achieving AIPAC’s mission; Does Hamas have the courage to admit failure?; UNRWA Textbooks Still Contain Endless Incitement

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Achieving AIPAC’s mission

AIPAC’s mission to cultivate and maintain bipartisan support for Israel in the United States is an important mission. Unfortunately, the messages AIPAC’s leaders delivered during the organization’s annual policy convention this week in Washington indicate that they are at a loss for how to achieve their mission in the contentious political environment now prevalent in post- Obama America.

Their befuddlement is not surprising. For the eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency, AIPAC’s leaders showed a consistent inability to understand the challenges they faced. And since they were unable to understand how or why the Obama administration was undermining AIPAC, they couldn’t protect AIPAC or advance its mission during his tenure in office.

At this week’s AIPAC convention, the message emanating from the speeches AIPAC’s senior leadership delivered was that they still don’t get what happened.

And largely as a consequence, they do not understand the challenges they face as an organization moving forward. And again, since they don’t understand what happened, or what is happening, they are incapable of meeting today’s challenges to AIPAC’s mission in a constructive way.

In a 2014 article in Tablet online magazine, Lee Smith set out precisely what Obama was doing to AIPAC and what his motivations were. Smith’s article was published shortly after Obama brutally scuttled AIPAC’s attempt to lobby Democrats to support additional sanctions against Iran for its illicit nuclear program. In the course of the Obama’s White House’s onslaught against AIPAC, administration officials were quoted referring to AIPAC lobbyists as “warmongers” for seeking additional sanctions against Iran – sanctions that enjoyed the support of huge majorities of lawmakers in both parties and houses.

In the end, Obama strong-armed Democrats to oppose the sanctions bill. Republicans were willing to pass the sanctions without Democratic support, but AIPAC – in the name of bipartisanship – told the Republicans to lay off. In other words, AIPAC sacrificed its central goal and its credibility with Republican lawmakers to placate the White House, which had just used a veiled antisemitic slur to delegitimize AIPAC.

Jason Greenblatt: Does Hamas have the courage to admit failure?

Jason Greenblatt is an assistant to President Trump and special representative for international negotiations.

Last month, a spokesman for the terrorist group Hamas dismissed our peace plan as “worthless” — even though he has never seen it — in a vain attempt to preemptively undermine any chance of a political agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. The barb was predictable; after all, such an agreement would terminate Hamas’s raison d’être.

But after ruling Gaza with an iron fist for a decade, Hamas has a pathetic track record. In response to the burgeoning humanitarian situation in Gaza, key countries and stakeholders are preparing to act: There was a meeting in Cairo on Thursday, and there will be a brainstorming session at the White House next week to find real solutions to the problems that Hamas has caused.

Increasing pessimism has led to paralysis on Gaza. Tragically, many seem to believe that Hamas’s rule is intractable and the suffering of the Palestinian people inevitable. The Trump administration, and particularly those of us on the peace team, beg to differ. Past failures do not absolve us of the responsibility to try to help. We are beholden to find a path to a brighter future for the Palestinians of Gaza.

Hamas, not the United States or Israel, has hijacked vast fortunes and spent it on weapons to terrorize Israelis, instead of spending it on hospitals, water, schools and the many other things so desperately needed in Gaza. Hamas, not Israel, has inflicted ever-greater restrictions on Gaza by repeatedly hiding materials to make weapons in shipments of humanitarian aid and other goods being moved into Gaza.

The Palestinians of Gaza have the opportunity to reject the failed policies of Hamas and turn toward a legitimate governing body that invests in them wisely and encourages their prosperity. Of course, it will take time to get there — a great deal of time — but we should start this journey today. It is a journey so critical to all of the children of Israelis, Palestinians (those in Gaza and the West Bank), Egyptians and beyond.

White House to convene ‘brainstorming session’ to help Gaza

The White House will convene a meeting next week of “stakeholders” to improve life in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, said the top Trump administration Middle East peace negotiator.

“In response to the burgeoning humanitarian situation in Gaza, key countries and stakeholders are preparing to act: There was a meeting in Cairo on Thursday, and there will be a brainstorming session at the White House next week to find real solutions to the problems that Hamas has caused,” Jason Greenblatt wrote Thursday in an op-ed in The Washington Post.

The op-ed was the first announcement of the meeting. A spokesman for Greenblatt declined to say who the stakeholders and countries are. It’s not clear who took part in the Cairo meeting, although Hamas officials were recently in the Egyptian capital to discuss reconciliation with the Palestinian Authority.

However, there are a number of possible players who might balk at participating in the talks should they be public. Additionally, there are potential parties whose participation could embarrass the Trump administration.

The Palestinian Authority, for instance, has formally retreated from efforts by the Trump administration to reconvene peace talks, citing President Donald Trump’s recognition in December of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Hamas, the group controlling the Gaza Strip, is designated by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist group. Qatar, a country that has been involved in attempts to better the lives of Gaza residents, is being shunned by a key U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia. And Turkey, which also has been deeply involved in Gaza in the past, currently has tense relations with the United States over U.S. backing for Kurds in Syria’s civil war.

To slur a pro-Israel Muslim, just call him Jewish

A truly weird article in Modern Ghana:

For Years, India and Israel has comprehensive defence cooperation agreement, under which members of the Indian spy agency Raw are being trained by Israeli Mossad. Extreme intimacy between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is no secret. It is believed that, Mossad had groomed Modi and transformed him into a seasoned politician and played key role behind Modi's rise as one of the strongest political leaders in today's world.

...Bangladesh not only considers Israel as an enemy state but also has been sending locals to Palestine to fight against Israeli occupation forces. Israel became angry when Bangladeshi Prime Minister in her speech in the United Nations General Assembly in 2016 repeated her government's solidarity with the Palestinian people and demanded establishment of an independent Palestine with Jerusalem as it's capital.

Another reason of Israeli's annoyance is because of imprisonment of pro-Israeli journalist and a self-proclaimed Zionist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, who has been in Bangladeshi prison since 2012. Israel and the Jewish policymakers in the world consider Shoaib as their best ally.

For Years, Israeli nationals as well as various thinktanks and Jewish lobby groups in Israel and the world, including American Jewish Committee (AJC) and AIPAC had no hesitations in extending support to Shoaib and AJC even issued a statement in 2014 condemning Bangladeshi authorities for convicting Shoaib Choudhury in a treason and blasphemy case. Several Jewish activists such as Dr. Irwin Cotler, Richard Benkin, Adam Simon, Daniel Pipes, David Harris and many others have been working in favour of this pro-Israel journalist, who also is believed to be closely associated with Mossad.

Bangladeshi intelligence agencies consider Shoaib Choudhury as an exposed representative of Israel and thr Jewish interest groups. Since 2003, Shoaib has written a number of books and published dozens of articles in the newsmedia condemning jihad, Palestinian people's struggle for their own country, and the Muslim nations like Iran.

Shoaib Choudhury also has been branding Muslim Brotherhood as a terror outfit and Hamas as mega-terrorist group. He has also demonized Iranian leader Ayatullah Khomeini, Malaysian leader Maharhir Mohammed and others. From the activities of this man, it seemed as if he had declared crusade against Islam and the Muslim ummah. For this reason, he enjoys unimaginable support from the enemies of Islam....

For Israel and the influential Jewish lobby, imprisonment of Shoaib seems to be a matter of annoyance.

According to the Palestinian intelligence sources, Shoaib Choudhury not only is an operative of Mossad, but he also is a Jew in disguise. He had left Islam many years ago and were getting converted into Judaism under the guidance of Rabbi Sue Levy, a native of Houston, Texas. Since his release from the prison in 2005, Shoaib was organizing reception parties during each of the Jewish festivals. He was studying Jewish Torah and Zohar. He stopped attending Friday prayers in the mosques and even didn't go to eid prayers. Shoaib began meeting the small number of BangladeshI Jews and were planning to establish a synagogue in Dhaka.

Palestinian sources claim, Shoaib got the Bangla version of Torah printed and distributed in Bangladesh. He also was wearing Jewish charm Star of David in his neck and had Jewish charm named Hamsa displayed both in his house and office.

So the best way to discredit Choudhury is to say he's Jewish. Because no one can possibly accept the existence of Jews as normal members of society.

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From "contested" to "occupied"

From the New York Times:

The diplomatic compound that will serve as the American Embassy until a permanent site is found lies partly in a contested zone known as No Man’s Land.

No Man’s Land encompasses the area between the armistice lines drawn at the end of the 1948-49 war and was claimed by Jordan and Israel. Israel won full control of it in the 1967 war, so the United Nations and much of the world consider it occupied territory.

Exactly what is the legal basis for considering land that is unquestionably disputed to be "occupied"?

The answer is, the rules don't apply to Israel. Just call is "occupied" and the label will stick.

The State Department has avoided taking a clear position on the matter but relies on the fact that Israel and Jordan had informally divided the contested enclave.

The provisional embassy site, in the Arnona neighborhood, “has been in continuous Israeli use since 1949,” the department said in a statement last week. “It is today a mixed residential-commercial neighborhood.”

I found evidence that Israel and Jordan had allowed each side to move into the zone from a National Geographic article in 1959:

(h/t Ronald)

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Does Rabbi Shmuley Boteach represent Jewish values?

Recently, "America's Rabbi" Shmuley Boteach engaged in a vociferous campaign against prominent American Jewish and Zionist leaders - especially Orthodox Jewish leaders - for meeting with Qatari's emir.

He wrote in November:

The first responsibility of rabbis is to know the difference between right and wrong.

The recent news report in The Jerusalem Post that a group of prominent rabbis and Jewish leaders, led by Rabbi Menachem Genack, traveled to Qatar to meet with the country’s emir is shocking and heartbreaking. Here you have Qatar, the world’s largest funder of Hamas—a terrorist organization dedicated to the annihilation of not just Israel, but Jews anywhere—being whitewashed by Orthodox rabbis. And not just any Orthodox rabbis, but the head of the Orthodox Union’s global kosher authority.

That’s pretty ironic.

You can kosher cheese and you can kosher steak. But how can you kosher the financing of terror? The first biblical rule of kosher food is that blood is not kosher (Leviticus 17:10-12).

How can rabbis in America condone the killing of Jews in Israel by meeting and legitimizing the government that pays for their murder?

A few weeks ago, I was myself invited to meet the emir by the man organizing the whitewashing effort. My organization responded with two full-page ads in The New York Times declaring, “If Qatar Wants a PR Makeover, Stop Funding Terror.” On the bottom we added the headline, “Meeting with Qatar Condones Murder.”

Why? Because this is exactly what Qatar wants—to finance the slaughter of Jews without paying a price in international diplomacy.

Who would have thought that Orthodox Jews would be at the forefront of this legitimizing effort?

I admit that the idea of these prominent Jewish American leaders visiting Qatar makes me uneasy. Qatar indeed has bankrolled Hamas and its Al Jazeera mouthpiece has been indirectly responsible for terrorism (it was unabashedly pro-Al Qaeda immediately after 9/11.)

The optics aren't great.

But I also know that people like Rabbi Menachem Genack and Malcolm Hoenlein, who visited the emir, know what they are doing politically. They are indefatigable supporters of Israel and the Jewish people. What they said or did in their meetings will not be made public, and it is of course possible that they were duped. But to dismiss and insult them as being automatically in the wrong without knowing what is going on is premature. And claiming that they condone the murder of Jews is sickening.

Rabbi Boteach has an organization called the World Values Network, and last night he hosted a very expensive and swanky dinner at the Plaza Hotel in New York City called the "6th Annual Champions Of Jewish Values International Awards Gala."

One of the honorees was Caitlyn Jenner.

Jenner, Boteach notes in a video on his Facebook page, has said nice things about Israel and Israel's support for the LGBTQ cause.

But there is no way to say that celebrating the LGBTQ cause is a Jewish value. It may be a secular Zionist value, but it isn't a Jewish value.

Boteach is positioning himself as the champion and arbiter of Jewish values by leading this organization and hosting these expensive fundraising dinners in the name of Jewish values.

I am not saying that there should be an ounce of discrimination against LGBTQ people. There shouldn't be. Equal rights is not up for debate. No one should look down at them. Indeed the Torah says that everyone is created in God's image and as such deserves respect. Additionally, Zionists should be proud that Israel is a bastion of liberal values in a sea of hate.

However, there is a world of difference between fighting for equal rights for all and promoting a message that is antithetical to traditional Jewish values. That is a message that Jenner represents, through no fault of [his/her] own.

Boteach has an optics problem at least as bad as those of the Jewish leaders who met the Emir. His recent actions make it appear that he is more interested in self-promotion and making money for his organzations than he is in Judaism.

These aren't the only problematic actions from Boteach recently. His recent campaign against singer Lorde also appeared to be an exercise in egoism.

How many poor people could have been fed for the price of Boteach's full page ad attacking singer Lorde for canceling her concert in Israel? Was spending that money - which accomplished nothing beyond giving Boteach more publicity - a Jewish value?

Falsely claiming that rabbis who meet with an Emir are "condoning the killing of Jews in Israel" is not a Jewish value. Celebrating a lifestyle that is explicitly against Jewish law is not a Jewish value. Raising and spending hundreds of thousands just to buy full page ads that are nothing beyond self-promotion is not a Jewish value.

It pains me to say it, but Boteach is not representing Judaism or Jewish values. He is representing himself and his own self-promotion.

Humility is a Jewish value as well. And I see none of that from "America's Rabbi."

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03/08 Links Pt2: Corbyn was part of an anti-Semitic Facebook group; Breaking the Silence…with Holocaust Deniers?; Republican Jews Call on 7 Democrats to Resign Over Farrakhan ties

From Ian:

Before elected Labour leader, Corbyn was part of an anti-Semitic Facebook group

Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s Labour party, was an active member of a Facebook group which contained Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites, it has been revealed.

Corbyn appears to have been a member of the Palestine Live group for at least a year, and left it shortly after he became head of the opposition in September 2015.

In a 280-page report released Wednesday, David Collier, a researcher and blogger, details a slew of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel material shared by members of the group.

One member said they were reading “Mein Kampf,” and suggested: “Everybody should be forced to read it, especially Jews who have their own agenda as to why they were not liked.”

Others discussed the use of the terms “ZioNazi” and “JewNazi,” debated whether the BBC was controlled by Zionists, and shared conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family and Israel’s supposed involvement in the 9/11 and 2015 Paris attacks.

Members of the 3000-strong secret group — who include Holocaust denier Paul Eisen — are also said to have shared articles by David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and links to neo-Nazi material.

New Accusations of Anti-Semitism Rock Labour

Britain’s Labour Party has been trying to get its anti-Semitism problem under control in preparation for national elections that could come sometime in the next couple of years: The party expelled the anti-Zionist activist Tony Greenstein last month, and recently extended the suspension of former London mayor Ken Livingstone, who has repeatedly insisted that there were close ties between the Nazis and the Zionist movement. But two new controversies shows just how deeply alleged anti-Israel extremists have penetrated the party, which has veered sharply left under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

This week, the Daily Mail reported that Joss Macdonald, a Corbyn speechwriter, wrote a tweet in which he appeared to characterize Israel’s actions as “genocide” shortly after the 2014 conflict in Gaza. A few years earlier, Macdonald tweeted his view that “Apartheid Israel has killed the two-state solution,” leaving “a bi-national democratic Palestine” as the only possible outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Andrew Percy, a member of parliament for the governing Conservative party, has already said that Corbyn “should reconsider his decision to employ this man,” according to the Mail.

In the annals of Corbyn-era Labour anti-Semitism rows, this ranks as a refreshingly mild one. Macdonald only wrote two questionable tweets, one of which was composed nearly a decade ago; the belief that a binational state is the only fair outcome to the conflict isn’t exactly an unusual one among left-leaning Europeans either. The “genocide” accusation came in the context of an exchange with a pro-Israel Twitter user in which Macdonald paraphrases his opponent’s argument in a way that strongly suggests Macdonald agrees with the caricatured version. A single, isolated, and fleeting reference to Israeli genocide is nothing compared to receiving $26,000 from Iran’s state television network, which Corbyn has received, or laying a wreath at the grave of one of the Munich Olympics terrorists—indeed, it would be unfair for Macdonald to lose his job when his boss is guilty of far less ambiguous dalliances with anti-Semites and anti-Semitism.

Breaking the Silence…with Holocaust Deniers?

Thanks to the work of the researcher David Collier, a secret antisemitic Facebook group called Palestine Live has been exposed. At one time, the group’s membership included Jeremy Corbyn, the man who now leads the UK Labour Party.

In this group, Holocaust denial material was shared as well as other explicitly antisemitic material, whilst the idea that there was antisemitism in the Labour Party was ridiculed.

The group has over 3,000 members, two of them are or were Avner Gvaryahu and Eran Efrati, the former and current heads of the left wing group Breaking the Silence.

This came as a blow to me personally. I’ve gone to bat for Breaking the Silence a couple of times in the past, and took their tour of Hebron, which I found to be a truly eye-opening experience.

I thought that this was a group of people with Israel’s best interests at heart. Clearly, they’ve lost their way.

Palestine Live was founded by a lady called Elleanne Green, who has shared posts claiming Israel was behind terrorist attacks in France, claiming that the Kotel isn’t Jewish, that 9/11 was a conspiracy, and on and on:

PM asks Trump to allow ex-spy Pollard to leave for Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked U.S. President Donald Trump this week to lift parole restrictions on the convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in order to allow him to relocate to Israel, Israel Hayom has learned.

Pollard was arrested in 1985 and eventually struck a plea bargain in which he pleaded guilty to spying for Israel while working as a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst. He received Israeli citizenship while in prison in 1995.

Pollard, 62, was paroled in November 2015 after serving 30 years and currently lives in New York City. Under the strict conditions of his parole, he must remain in the United States for five years, wear an electronic bracelet and submit to monitoring of his work computer and other devices he uses despite not being exposed to classified material during his 30-year incarceration. He is also barred from speaking to the press.

Netanyahu raised the issue of Pollard's parole terms when he met Trump some six months ago, but during this week's Oval Office meeting, the Israeli prime minister asked that Pollard be allowed to move to Israel as a gesture marking the upcoming 70th anniversary of Israel's founding this May.

Netanyahu said it was time the two countries put the affair behind them. The administration has yet to respond to this request.