Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, May 02, 2018

The Truth About Hans Asperger, Nazi (Judean Rose)

Hans Asperger, after whom Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) is named, is oft been depicted as a grandfatherly figure. The kindly white-haired Austrian pediatrician, it is thought, is the reason we’re as far as we are today in our understanding of AS. And there is immense gratitude for that.

The only problem with this fairytale is that it is a lie.

Here is the truth:

· Hans Asperger rose to prominence by default after his more accomplished Jewish colleagues were expelled from the University of Vienna

· Hans Asperger was not first to note the syndrome that bears his name

· Hans Asperger likely lifted his early work on AS from two Jewish colleagues who were booted from the university and expelled from Austria, Georg Frankl and Anni Weiss

· Hans Asperger actively participated in Hitler’s eugenics program, referring children with Asperger’s Syndrome to the Am Spiegelgrund clinic in Vienna for euthanasia

Hans Asperger, in other words, sent children with Asperger’s Syndrome to die. The children he referred for euthanasia were murdered by starvation or lethal injection. The cause of death was listed as “pneumonia.”

Contrary to the benign figure he cut in circles affected by the subset of autism known as AS, Hans Asperger was a Nazi. Did he go along to get along? Did he find the work repugnant?

Edith Sheffer, author of a new book, Asperger’s Children: The origins of autism in Nazi Vienna, argues that Asperger was a willing participant in the murder of “defectives.” According to Sheffer, Asperger may have been attracted to the idea of a fascist collective as embodied by the Nazi concept of Volk: that of an Aryan people unsullied by those with “defects,” be they physical, psychological, or social.

There's also the fact that in 1938, these two things happened:

· The Dean of the University of Vienna Medical School removed over half of its faculty, mostly Jewish doctors
· Hans Asperger was promoted to become director of the Curative Education Clinic at the (very) young age of 28

What happened here? Was Asperger promoted because the Jews were gone? Or was he chosen for his ardent embrace of Nazi ideology?

Did Asperger, drunk with newfound power, simply fall in line with the Nazi killing machine, helping to eliminate all those who could not conform to the image of perfect Aryan? Or did he go along to get along: go along with murdering helpless children because he was afraid he’d otherwise be killed?

Did Hans Asperger experience a twinge of guilt as he sent children with AS to their deaths?

Does it matter?

An editorial in Molecular Autism argues that it matters a great deal. It matters that the story comes to our attention. And it matters that we know the truth.

This is about bioethics and accurate medical history, they say. The editors are unequivocal in stating their belief that Hans Asperger was a willing volunteer, “complicit with his Nazi superiors in targeting society’s most vulnerable people,” based on their review of an article by medical historian Herwig Czech, appearing in the same journal.[1]

Simon Baron-Cohen*, Ami Klin, Steve Silberman, and Joseph D. Buxbaum, authors of this important editorial, write: “We take the unusual step of publishing this Editorial so as to explain our reasons for publishing this article. Two of us are Editors-in-Chief of Molecular Autism (SBC and JDB), one of us served as Action Editor during the long review process of this article (SBC), and two of us served as anonymous reviewers for this article, but have decided to forgo their anonymity (SS and AK).”

Hitler's letter authorizing the murder of the "incurably sick"

The four writers, all Jewish, take the bold step of owning history and making you own history, even when it is unpleasant, even when they might be accused of prejudicial treatment of the facts by dint of their religion.

They don’t CARE what you think. They will do what is right.

Respect!

In contrast, there is Sahil Singh Gujral, “the first openly autistic postgraduate in the UK to win the Wellcome Trust’s PhD studentship.” Speaking to the Guardian, Gujral compares these revelations regarding Asperger complicity in the Nazi eugenics program to Leo Kanner's views on the sterilization of the mentally disabled. But Gujral woefully misrepresents Kanner’s views.

Leo Kanner

Kanner advocated sterilization only for those who were incapable of caring for children. He didn’t for a moment believe that included all people with intellectual disabilities. “In my 20 years of psychiatric work with thousands of children and their parents,” said Kanner, “I have seen percentually at least as many 'intelligent’ adults unfit to rear their offspring as I have seen such 'feeble-minded' adults. I have--and many other have--come to the conclusion that, to a large extent independent of the I.Q., fitness for parenthood is determined by emotional involvements and relationships."

Jay Joseph[2] detailed an important debate between Kanner, a Jew, and Robert Foster Kennedy, chairman of the American Psychiatric Association. Foster Kennedy, advocated a U.S. euthanasia program patterned on the Nazi model that Hans Asperger served to implement. Kanner argued against such a program.

As they lined up for and against the murder of those with disabilities, these two men betrayed their ideological underpinnings. Foster Kennedy's views were likely informed by his academic milieu: he received an honorary degree in 1936 at the University of Heidelberg’s Nazi-sponsored 550-year jubilee celebration. Kanner's views were likely influenced by the fact that he was a Jew, part of a nation that values life.

It is worth reading in full, Joseph’s lengthy recounting of Kanner’s argument against euthanasia for the disabled. Kanner's Jewish humanity is on full display. A taste:

Kanner spoke of ‘the garbage collector’s assistant who has served our neighborhood for many years’. This was a ‘sober, conscientious, and industrious fellow, . . . deservedly respected by his employer, his co-workers and his spare time companions.’ Still, ‘with an I.Q. of 65, he is rated by us psychiatrists as feebleminded or mentally deficient' . . .

Kanner discussed ways in which the ‘mentally deficient’ contribute to society:

“Sewage disposal, ditch digging, potato peeling, scrubbing of floors and other such occupations are as indispensable and essential to our way of living as science, literature and art. Cotton picking is an integral part of our textile industries. Oyster shucking is an important part of our seafood supply. Garbage collection is an essential part of our public hygiene measures. For all practical purposes, the garbage collector is as much of a public hygienist as is the laboratory bacteriologist. All such performances, often referred to snobbishly as ‘the dirty work’, are indeed real and necessary contributions to our culture, without which our culture would collapse within less than a month.”

Although Kanner agreed with Kennedy that ‘idiots and imbeciles cannot be trained in any kind of social usefulness’, he disagreed with Kennedy’s conclusion that, in Kanner’s words, ‘we are justified in passing the black bottle among them’ through the procedure some ‘dignify with the term euthanasia’. Kanner linked such ideas to reports of Nazi atrocities, and asked, ‘Shall we psychiatrists take our cue from the Nazi Gestapo?’

. . . Kanner agreed with Kennedy and others that ‘sterilization is often a desirable procedure’ for ‘persons intellectually or emotionally unfit to rear children’. However, he objected to sterilization performed ‘solely on the basis of the I.Q.’

Kanner objected to sterilizing people on their basis of their IQ. And he certainly never advocated murdering people with Asperger’s Syndrome. Unlike Hans Asperger.

Propaganda poster for the Nazi eugenics program

Here’s an interesting factoid: some believe that Hans Asperger had Asperger’s Syndrome himself. He spoke of himself in the third person. He quoted himself. He was cold and distant, an introvert.

And yet he was sending people just like himself to die of starvation or lethal injection.

No. There is no comparison between Hans Asperger, who sent children to starve to death, and Leo Kanner, who looked at people’s worth rather than at their ability to conform.

Propaganda for Nazi Germany's T-4 Euthanasia Program: "This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community 60,000 Reichsmark during his lifetime. Fellow German, that is your money, too." from the Office of Racial Policy's Neues Volk.

Consumed by this story for several days, I cannot help but enumerate, in my mind, the wonderful people I know who have Asperger’s Syndrome. My brilliant cardiologist, for instance, or a certain young man who leads a local congregation with a voice like an angel.

What would have happened had these two been under Hans Asperger’s care in Vienna?

I think about this until my brain aches then think about it some more: the unfeeling banality of the particular evil of Hans Asperger, who marked for elimination the children he "championed."

I can see the children being marched into the bus that would take them to a place where they would be starved to death, or given a shot of something to steal the breath from their lungs, the sight from their eyes, the world around them.

Collection bus for killing patients. Hartheim Nazi killing center, bus with driver

The true story of Hans Asperger, Nazi, is an important story that must be told far and wide.

For if we do not, who will?

*Simon Baron-Cohen is a renowned autism researcher and expert, a cousin of Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who played, among other roles, Borat.

[1] Simon Baron-Cohen, Ami Klin, Steve Silberman, and Joseph D. Buxbaum, Did Hans Asperger actively assist the Nazi euthanasia program?, (Molecular Autism, 2018), https://molecularautism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13229-018-0209-5

[2] Jay Joseph, The 1942 ‘euthanasia’ debate in the American

Journal of Psychiatry,(Sage Publications, 2005), https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c10d/3408c200077d9123f802a92408859c37d90c.pdf

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Gaza Mother Not Sure Her Baby Ready Yet To Throw Full-Size Molotov Cocktail (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Suja'iyya, Gaza Strip, May 2 - A local couple fell into fierce argument this evening, neighbors report, over whether their preschool-aged child is old enough to participate in violence against Israel, with the father insisting the boys can serve as a human shield at any age, and the mother retorting that no offspring of hers is going to join the Great Return March unless he has grown enough to hurl firebombs the distance necessary to kill a Jew.

Residents in the apartment adjacent that of Ali and Buthayna Hussein related Wednesday that despite agreeing on the value of violent confrontation with the Zionists and on making the latter look bad by placing children in harm's way and blaming Israel for the resulting casualties, the couple differs on the weight each tactic carries in practice. Those differences, note the neighbors, sparked the third such voluble exchange between Ali and Buthayna since the current wave of protests along the border with Israel began several weeks ago.

"Ali is six years older than Buthayna, but she can hold her own in an argument with him," observed Ahmad, who lives next door and is a second cousin to each half of the couple. "Just because he's in Hamas, that doesn't intimidate her - she knows where the glory is, and she's not going to settle for some indirect martyrdom for her baby when not so long from now, little Yahya will be big enough to kill Jews or die in the attempt, which is much more honorable."

"Yeah but we need him as a shahid now," countered Wafa, another neighbor, echoing Ali's contentions. "You can't just wait until Yahya grows up to become another bomb engineer instrumental in killing dozens of Jews on buses, like his namesake Yahya Ayyash. These are desperate times, when the world has begun to care about people other than Palestinians, and someone's got to step up to reassert our proper place atop the headlines. If that means stepping in front of a rock-throwing, fence-cutting, or firebomb-hurling compatriot to take a bullet, so be it."

"Buthayna has dreams," responded Fadi, another resident of the neighborhood who overheard the Husseins' argument. "It's insensitive to her to demand Yahya die as a human shield - there are literally tens of thousands of other babies and toddlers in this area whose parents would be more than happy to sacrifice them for this cause. Leave Buthayna alone and let her continue raising the boy to become a full-fledged mujahid."

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05/02 Links Pt1: Bret Stephens: The Iran Deal Is a Lie; Toameh: The Real Gaza Blockade; Palestinian ‘Journalist’ Killed at Gaza Border was a Terrorist

From Ian:

Bret Stephens: The Iran Deal Is a Lie

“The sanctions lifting will only occur as Iran takes the steps agreed, including addressing possible military dimensions.”

That was State Department spokesman John Kirby in June 2015, speaking just as negotiations for the Iran nuclear deal were wrapping up. But Tehran did not “take the steps agreed.” The deal was founded on a lie.

Two lies, actually. The first was Iran’s declaration to the International Atomic Energy Agency, prior to the implementation of the deal, of the full extent of its past nuclear work. This was essential, both as a test of Tehran’s sincerity and as a benchmark for understanding just how close it was to being able to assemble and deliver a nuclear warhead.

The second lie was the Obama administration’s promise that it was serious about getting answers from Tehran. In a moment of candor, then-Secretary of State John Kerry admitted “we are not fixated on Iran specifically accounting for what they did at one point in time or another” — but then he promised Congress that Iran would provide the accounting.

That was when the White House still feared that Congress might block the deal. When it failed to do so, thanks to a Democratic filibuster, the administration contented itself with a make-believe process in which Iran pretended to make a full declaration and the rest of the world pretended to believe it.

“Iran’s answers and explanations for many of the I.A.E.A.’s concerns were, at best, partial, but over all, obfuscating and stonewalling,” David Albright and his colleagues at the nonpartisan Institute for Science and International Security wrote in December 2015. “Needed access to sites was either denied or tightly controlled as to preclude adequate inspections.”

So much, then, for all the palaver about the deal providing an unprecedented level of transparency for monitoring Iranian compliance. So much, also, for the notion that Iran has honored its end of the bargain. It didn’t. This should render the agreement null and void.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: The Real Gaza Blockade

Recently, the ّIslamic and National Forces, a group of Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, called on Egyptian President Abed Al-Fattah Sissi to open the border crossing to allow wounded Palestinians from Gaza to receive medical treatment in Egyptian and Arab hospitals. Again, ostensibly for "security reasons," their appeal was completely ignored. Emad Al-Agha, a member of the ّIslamic and National Forces group, said there are intensive contacts with the Egyptian authorities to pressure Cairo to open the border crossing for "humanitarian" reasons.

Reports about the suffering of Palestinian travelers at the Gaza-Egyptian border crossing fill Palestinian media outlets, but these reports are almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media in the West. Western journalists are well aware of the Egyptian border closure, but as Israel is not involved, the reporters and their editors do not really care.

Thousands of Palestinians converge on the terminal between Gaza and Egypt whenever there is a rumor that it might be opened. Some wait there for days with their luggage and are forced to sleep out in the open. Some Palestinians are required to pay bribes to Hamas and Egyptian officials to obtain permits to leave the Gaza Strip through the terminal. A Facebook page entitled "The Rafah Border Crossing - Endless Suffering" shows dozens of examples of the humiliation the passengers experience there.

Like most Arab countries, Egypt cares nothing about the Palestinians, especially those living in the Gaza Strip. From the point of view of the Arab states, the Palestinians are Israel's problem alone. Yet Egypt is sending Palestinians to knock on Israel's door and blame Israel for the "humanitarian" crisis in the Gaza Strip, while it is really Egypt that is responsible for the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Arab and Egyptian hypocrisy achieves new heights as journalists from these "countries create "fake news" echo chamber reporting on the "'March of Return" and use it to condemn Israel for sealing its border with the Gaza Strip. When will the real blockade of the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian one, be called out and condemned in the mainstream media?

Iran ordered to pay billions to families of victims of 9/11 terror attacks

By court order, Iran is to pay billions of dollars to the families of the September 11 terror attacks, The Hill reported on Tuesday evening.

US District Judge George Daniels ruled that the Islamic Republic and other institutions must pay $12.5 million per spouse, $8.5 million per parent, $8.5 million per child and $4.25 million per sibling killed in the incident, according to the report.

The lawsuit was first filed in 2004 and was joined by families of the over 1,000 victims of the attack. It accused Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran for aiding the 2001 hijackers although the 9/11 Commission never found direct evidence for Iran's involvement.

The lawsuit was only able to proceed in 2016, when Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, permitting the families of the victims to sue state actors for the terror attacks. Then-President Barack Obama had vetoed the law, arguing it could set a dangerous precedent but Congress overrode that veto.

According to the report, the ruling will probably turn out to be largely symbolic, as Iran is very unlikely to ever pay the damages, which in total amount to 6 billion dollars. There would be no feasible way to force the Islamic Republic, which never even responded to the lawsuit, to make the payment.

There is lot of evidence of Jew-hatred in the Arab and Muslim world, but perhaps the most telling is the desire - actually, the pressing need - to associate one's enemies with Jews.

Egyptian (both Islamist and secular), Turkish, Saudi Arabian leaders have all been damned with the accusations of being secretly Jewish. Fatah and Hamas trade accusations of being Zionist. Malaysian political parties love to accuse their opponents of having Jewish ties. It comes up all the time in Arab and Muslim media.

The latest being published today is about the Qatari royal family. It's a doozy.

Ban Thamer al-Ani, an Iraqi "researcher" with a master's degree from the University of Baghdad - so you know her academic credentials are impeccable - wrote a book called "Iran and Qatar's plots against the Middle East." In it she reveals the startling truth.

Ban says that Iran and Qatar are relying on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to destroy the Arab world.

This "researcher" says that the Qatari ruling family has Jewish roots, and this is the secret of its hostility towards the Arabian Gulf. Ban claims to have found historical documents that the ruling family in Qatar can be traced to a Jewish slave

If I understand the story correctly, in the 1800s a person named al-Khalifa close to some Gulf rulers fell in love with a Polish Jewish woman with the Jewish name of "Helena McCart" or something like that. Helena's father worked in a pig farm owned by one of the Polish feudalists. He was, of course, "one of the Jewish rabbis".

The night before he was to return to the Gulf, Helena took off her clothes and seduced him, and then her father allowed her to marry him and he stayed and joined the Jewish family's pig farming business, seemingly as a slave but he also converted to Judaism. He had four children, who he taught about his people and his country. The boys wanted to go back to the Arab countries their father came from, so the devious rabbi married them off and ordered them to spread in the Muslim countries. You know, to take over the Arab world.

Two went to Palestine and the other two went to the Arabian Gulf. They settled and changed their names from Al-Khalifa to Al Thani, the name that the Chief Rabbi ordered them to use when they settled in the country. (The rabbi must have been promoted.) This unnamed rabbi is said to be famous among the Jews of Poland.

"Those who returned to their father's country numbered fifty-three men and women. A Shaykh from the tribe of Al-Maqar discovered their truth and declared war on them but avoided the war by marrying their most beautiful Jewish woman and giving her a lot of money. And she betrayed him and he killed her and threw her body to the dogs, and he declared war on the rest of the al-Thanis and after several wars the Jewish al-Thanis won.

This historical document is said to have disappeared from the Turkish National Museum and no one knows what it is.

But this "researcher" knows all about the story in detail - without having any documentation. Which is an amazing attribute of Arab historical research altogether.

The story has it all - a Jew, a slave, a pig farmer. If you wanted to come up with the worst possible thing to accuse an Arab of being, this is it.

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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas gave an antisemitic speech that was widely covered in the Israeli and right-wing press, not so much in the Western media.

i24News briefly summarizes what he said about Jews:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made controversial statements Monday evening suggesting the Holocaust was not due to anti-Semitism but rather to the Jews’ “social behavior, [charging interest], and financial matters.”Giving his own “history lesson” of pogroms in Europe during the start of a four-day session by the National Palestinian Council in Ramallah, Abbas highlighted that “such pogroms did not take place in Arab nations, which had Jewish communities."

There obviously were pogroms in the Arab world against Jews, although not to the extent of pogroms in Europe. But a few of them are notable to mention in context of Abbas' speech.

In 1834, there was a huge Arab pogrom against Jews that lasted 33 days in the town that Mahmoud Abbas was born in, Safed (Tzfat.) Chances are some of his relatives participated in it.

This source says 500 were killed:

In 1834 the local Arabs rebelled against the new Egyptian governor who ruled Ottoman Palestine between 1831 to 1841. The rebellion against this governor, Muhammad Ali, expanded to include attacks against the Jews of Palestine. While the Jews of certain cities like Jerusalem were spared, Tzfat was not. A Safed Islamic clergyman named Muhamad Damoor incited the Moslems to attack the Jews of Tzfat. On June 15, 1834, local Arabs and Bedouins, including the Arabs who lived in the Arab Quarter of Tzfat itself, invaded Tzfat’s Jewish Quarter.
The Arabs destroyed homes, plundered synagogues and businesses and burned much of the city. Eyewitnesses described scenes of torture, and murder over the course of 33 days. Historians estimated that over 500 people were killed and many others were blinded and maimed.

I couldn't corroborate the 500 killed, but many were.Here's another description:

The Palestinian Arabs of the Eastern Galilee took advantage of a regional crisis, the war between Egypt and Turkey, to attack their Jewish neighbors and strip them of everything they had: clothes, properties, houses, and the like. In the process people were beaten in the streets, many times to death, synagogues destroyed and holy books desecrated. An entire community of 2,000 souls (Kinglake says 4,000) was forced into hiding for 33 days, in caves, ruins, inhospitable mountaintops, and basements. In that mayhem there were good Arabs who saved lives, like the people of the village of Ein Zeitim and a few individuals, Muslims and Christians from the city itself, but there were also the double crossers who promised to help for a large sum of money, only to hand over the Jews to the rioting mob outside the hideout. For 33 days the lives of the Jews of Safed had practically no value, and anyone of them who showed his or her face in public was at risk of been beaten to death, sometimes by people they knew as neighbors or business associates.

This is a classic pogrom by any definition.

But what about the 1929 riots that killed scores of Jews in Hebron, and the earlier massacre in 1921?

Abbas actually mentioned them in his speech - admiringly - calling the Arabs who butchered Jews "revolutionaries."

Abbas is an antisemite who considers Arabs butchering Jewish woman and children "revolutionaries" - and then tells people that Arabs always treated Jews well.

By the way, when Abbas pretended to walk back his Holocaust denial in 2014, the New York Times wrote a major story about it. Now that he shows that he is an antisemite who blames Jews themselves for being slaughtered, the NYT (as of this writing) has not said a word.

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From an op-ed in The New York Times by Steven Simon, who somehow survived a single year as National Security Council’s senior director for the Middle East and North Africa:

Monday afternoon, just a bit behind schedule, Mr. Netanyahu took to the stage next to an enormous screen. The headlines had suggested he would be in his office at a desk or podium to share news of existential importance. Instead, he presented a minor-league TED Talk — and in English, no less. Outside the elite, fewer and fewer people in Israel speak English, so the notion of a country’s leader supposedly addressing his compatriots in a foreign language on a matter of national security added to the weirdness of the performance.

One would think that a writer freely admitting that he didn't understand why something happened would disqualify him from calling it "weird."

But it wasn't weird. Netanyahu is a brilliant communicator. Dismissing his choice and medium of messaging reveals that Simon cannot think outside his own little box.

Obviously Bibi wasn't addressing Israelis. A good theory of who he really was addressing comes from Michael Weiss, an expert on the Middle East:

Today [Bibi] broadcast to the IRGC that their most guarded facilities are playgrounds for the Mossad. Not a confidence building exercise for Iranians if they seek to go to war.

Netanyahu is playing chess and Simon thinks he's watching a game of tic-tac-toe.

The archive had been stored in what Mr. Netanyahu described as a derelict warehouse in Tehran. The photos he displayed indicated that there did not even appear to be a lock on the door. One wonders how important the Iranians thought these documents were, given the slapdash approach they took to storing them.

Is Simon seriously claiming that the Iranians didn't care about the contents of these archives? Without knowing the content of any of the tens of thousands of documents? Again - he doesn't understand something so he displays his ignorance by disparaging what he doesn't understand.

Why were sensitive documents in this civilian warehouse? Barak Ravid has an excellent Twitter backgrounder on the Mossad operation, and he writes in part:

An Israeli official said the Mossad received intelligence that showed the Iranians were trying to hide all the documents which dealt with the military dimensions of their nuclear program. The official said that in a highly secret operation known to a handful of Iranian officials the Iranians transferred tens of thousands of documents and CD's from several different sites around the country to a civilian warehouse in Tehran. The Israeli official said the Iranians did all that because they were afraid that in post Iran deal inspections the IAEA will discover the incriminating documents The Mossad has put the warehouse under surveillance and started preparing for a possible operation to seize the documents. According to Israeli officials more than 100 Mossad spies worked on this operation.

100 Mossad agents working in a highly sensitive area, and this NYT "expert" claims that there was not even a lock on the door so it was a cinch. Wow, those Mossad agents should have just walked in the unlocked door- what's wrong with them for not consulting with Steven Simon?

Simon goes on to say that everything revealed in the archives was known already. Um, no - there are so many files that the US and Israel haven't finished going through them yet. Ravid again:

In February Mossad started translating & analyzing the documents most of were written in Farsi. A special team with 50 analysts was formed in the Mossad & a separate team is working in the CIA. Both intelligence agencies still haven’t finished analyzing the documents
An Israeli official told me: "The documents tell us new things about the military dimensions of the Iranian nuclear program. Things we didn’t know before. The documents give us new details about Iranian R&D sites, sites for possible nuclear tests & individuals involved"
The official added: "The documents tell us more details than the IAEA knew until toady about the Iranian nuclear program.

And as David Horovitz notes, the documents show not that Iran is violating the deal - but how terrible the deal was to begin with, and how foolhardy it was to offer a deal that gave Iran the pathway to nuclear weapons and delivery systems where research can continue at full tilt.

All this in exchange for a delay of a few years for the weapon itself and many billions of dollars to help pay Hezbollah and prop up the Syrian dictator who gasses his own people to death.

But the New York Times is committed to supporting the deal that should be replaced with something that actually stops Iran's obvious quest for nuclear weapons - something that has teeth.

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Behind the Smoke Screen: Gaza riots from the inside (Pierre Rehov video)

Here's what the Western media will not write about the Gaza riots.

Behind the smoke screen from Pierre Rehov on Vimeo.

(h/t Forest Rain)

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05/01 Links Pt2: Abbas says Jews’ behavior, not anti-Semitism, caused the Holocaust; Manipulating the Truth about Gaza; DR’s Eugenic Project to ‘Resettle’ Jews During WWII

From Ian:

Abbas says Jews’ behavior, not anti-Semitism, caused the Holocaust

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said that the Holocaust was not caused by anti-Semitism, but by the “social behavior” of the Jews, including money-lending.

In a long and rambling at speech in Ramallah at a rare session of the Palestinian National Council, Abbas touched on a number of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories during what he called a “history lesson,” as he sought to prove the 3,000 year-old Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is false.

Abbas said his narrative was backed by three points made by Jewish writers and historians, the first being the theory oft-criticized as anti-Semitic that Ashkenazi Jews are not the descendants of the ancient Israelites.

Pointing to Arthur Kessler’s book “The Thirteenth Tribe,” which asserts Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Khazars, Abbas said European Jews therefore had “no historical ties” to the Land of Israel.

He went on to claim that the Holocaust was not the result of anti-Semitism but rather of the Jews “social behavior, [charging] interest, and financial matters.”

Abbas also claimed Israel was a European project from the start, saying that European leaders such as the United Kingdom’s Lord Arthur Balfour restricted the immigration of Jews to their countries while simultaneously promoting the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel.

Amb. Alan Baker: Manipulating the Truth about Gaza

Who Abuses Gazan Civilians?

In claiming that in three wars Israeli bombing damaged 240,000 Gazan homes, Beinart is cynically implying that Israel chose to willfully and arbitrarily bomb Gaza, for no reason. He overlooked the fact that the three wars were generated and initiated by the Hamas terror organization that governs Gaza, firing nearly 20,000 rockets and mortars from Gazan homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals, stockpiling weapons in private homes and schools, and turning clinics and hospitals into tactical control centers. Hamas used Palestinian residents of Gaza as human shields and even prohibited them from using the kilometers of underground attack tunnels as bomb shelters.

While admitting that Hamas is no “guardian angel,” Beinart subverts logic and presents an apologetic explanation for Hamas by blaming Israel for the Hamas terror: “Hamas did not force Israel to adopt the policies that have devastated Gaza. Those policies represent a choice — a choice that has not only failed to dislodge Hamas, but has also created the very conditions in which extremism thrives.”

In referring to the Israel’s naval blockade and prevention of the passage of dual-use products into the Gaza Strip, which Beinart claims is “a blockade that is not only cruel but in some ways absurd,” he failed to add that this blockade was justified by the United Nations in light of the inherent military threat posed by Hamas.

Beinart’s ultimate expression of moral bankruptcy, absurdity, and self-hatred is the concluding equation that he draws between the 2,000 years of yearning of the Jewish People to return to the Land of Israel, and the Palestinians’ “Great March of Return.”

Today, some call the broadcast of such canards “Fake News.” Beinart’s non-truths reflect the wise saying (attributed to Swift, Twain, Jefferson, etc.): “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is lacing up its boots.”

The boots are laced.

“16 killed, thousands injured, Israeli snipers line the border,” read the brief notification on my phone, and on that of millions of other conscious global citizens relying on the mainstream media for political and global knowledge. I, along with the pro-Israel community, cringed at each of the countless buzzing notifications informing the world of the events transpiring at the Gaza-Israel border in the recent weeks. We have a far greater depth of knowledge about the complexity of the conflict than the larger populace, who generally take less of a keen interest in the specifics of the conflict, and we know for certain that such a headline doesn't nearly encapsulate the Israeli narrative of the scene in Gaza. It fails to acknowledge that at least 80% of those dead are known associates with terror group, that the snipers exercised tremendous caution with live rounds of ammunition, opting for rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the violent demonstrations. And we know that Hamas leaders cowered behind the crowds of civilians thrust towards the border and that they monetarily incentivized the crowds to breach the border fence.

But who cares? What difference does it make what we know? We each only count for one person in a general election, each of us one pro-Israel voice in a sea of voters under the impression--established and reinforced by the headlines on their devices and in the papers--that Israel fires indiscriminately into a crowd of peaceful protesters.

And the misinformation and lack of perspective and adequate figures relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict truly comprises much of Israel’s public relations nightmare. With the concept of a news cycle over a period of time being rendered obsolete by the instantaneousness of today’s news, consumers absorb as much information as possible in as little time as possible. Per the Washington Post and the American Press Institute, “roughly six in 10 people acknowledge that they have done nothing more than read news headlines in the past week. And, in truth, that number is almost certainly higher than that, since plenty of people won't want to admit to just being headline-gazers but, in fact, are.” And according to Forbes, 59% of the articles shared via social media sites are not first read by the ‘sharer.’ Similarly, Twitter has a CTR (click through rate) average across all of its users of 1.64%, meaning that less than one in fifty people elect to digest the information beyond the headline of the article. Media is an omnipresent force in society--particularly those news outlets with the clout and acclaim to sway public opinion on any given issue, where even a single sentence presented (like the lede of an article) can have a profound impact in its connotations and specific phrasing.

In the immediacy of the technological age in which we live, with notifications popping up by the minute, and the needed brevity of the headline/lede to maintain reader-attentiveness while conveying a hasty picture of the situation, lots can be lost in translation. This sizeable fault in the media is much less prevalent with other major global disputes, like the American-North Korean tensions: It’s common knowledge that North Korea is bad and communist, while America is better and democratic, to put the matter simply. So when CNN reports that Kim Jong-Un has just tested the latest intercontinental ballistic missile, and it is capable of reaching Alaska, I immediately understand the danger posed and am not ambivalent when siding against North Korea.

But for issues not so black-and-white such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a simple headline can easily give off the wrong idea and formulate an opinion one way or the other, even if it’s not sufficiently substantiated, as is frequently the case.

As mentioned, headlines regarding events playing out in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict notoriously hold an anti-Israel slant--unintentionally or otherwise. Coupled with readers (or not readers, should I say) not bothering clicking on and considering the factual evidence, but instead relying on headlines, the already-harbored anti-Israel sentiment by tech-savvy, short-attention-spanned millennials and young voters can only trend upwards, shunning the facts in favor of convenience.

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Amnesty misses the good old times when Jews were defenseless (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

No matter how many atrocities are perpetrated all over the world, there is no worse atrocity than Israel defending its citizens – at least as far as Amnesty International is concerned. It seems that the “human rights” organization really misses the good old times when Jews were defenseless: last Friday, Amnesty told its more than one million Twitter followers:

“#Israel must stop the murderous assault on protesters in #Gaza, including killing and maiming 'Great March of Return' demonstrators who pose no imminent threat to soldiers. Countries must stop all military aid to Israel until this assault ends.”

To make sure everyone understood that the world’s only Jewish state behaved in ways that Jew-haters have always seen as characteristically evil, Amnesty posted another tweet echoing the medieval blood libel:

“Malicious tactics are being employed by the Israeli military who are deliberately using weapons of war to cause life-changing injuries to Palestinian protesters. Why are weapons still being sold to #Israel?”

On Facebook, where Amnesty has about two million followers, the organization shared the same posts.

And needless to say, there were not just social media posts, but also a lengthy statement under the title: “Israel: Arms embargo needed as military unlawfully kills and maims Gaza protesters.”

Just in case you were wondering: no, Amnesty doesn’t mention that Gaza’s Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar told a crowd of protesters near the border with Israel: “We will uproot the borders, we will pluck out their hearts, and we will pray in Jerusalem.” No word either about the fact that many of those killed were members of terror organizations; no word about the displays of swastikas (on Hitler’s birthday) or about the successful attempts to start fires across the border in Israel by releasing kites carrying burning rags or fire bombs.

Instead, Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, sounded as if she was a deputy Hamas spokesperson – according to her, the riots at Israel’s borders are just the peace-loving people of Gaza “demanding the right to return to their homes and towns in what is now Israel.”

Right, Ms. Mughrabi: now it’s Israel, but you can always hope it will eventually be Hamastan if Amnesty keeps working as hard as it can to rid the world of its only Jewish state.

So let’s conclude with a picture worth a thousand words to illustrate what Amnesty is cheering on.

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05/01 Links Pt1: Derisive response to PM’s exposé shows world still refusing to get real on Iran; Iran’s past lies are very important now

From Ian:

Iran’s past lies are very important now

Exposing Iran’s past lies is an important tool for inspectors in their pursuit of current truths.

On Monday Netanyahu said the new trove contains evidence that Iran’s Project Amad was “a comprehensive program to design, build and test 5 warheads, each with 10 kilotons TNT yield, for integration on a missile.”

Did the program go away after the JCPOA was enacted? If so, the 2015 deal deserves the accolades of those who continue chiming that the Iranian are “in compliance.”

But after establishing that the deal was based on past Iranian lies, and presenting new documentation to back it up, Netanyahu sounds more credible when he assesses that Iran is storing the material in a secret place “to use at a time of its choice to develop nuclear weapons.”

Especially that Tehran refuses to make the former head of the Amad Project, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, available for inspectors’ interviews. (Fakhrizadeh, a major player in Iran’s military research, is designated by the United Nations for international sanctions.)

The more we know about how Iran deceived us in the past about the depth of its program and its true intentions, the less we can confidently argue that Iran is currently in “full compliance.”

Netanyahu made his presentation after hosting new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Israel and after concluding a telephone call with President Trump Saturday. Contrary to instant commentary, Trump was not the target audience for the drama. Netanyahu made clear the US, as well as other close allies, already have the material Israel unearthed (the IAEA will get it soon, he added.)

Instead, by giving a pause to those, especially in Europe, who maintain that the nuclear deal is “working,” he forced them to try harder to “fix” the JCPOA if they want Trump not to “nix” it.

The deadline is May 12. Tick tock.

Stop playing make-believe

The information revealed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday was meant to prod the international community to stop playing make-believe around the Iranian issue. It essentially shows us that another Iran, benevolent and responsible, does not exist – rather only the same old Iran, dangerous and manipulative, which unrestrained will plunge the entire world into a hazardous tailspin. Israeli officials had poured over this material for several weeks.

Before it was made public, it was also transferred to the Americans, and now it will pass on to other friendly countries – specifically those signed to the nuclear deal with Tehran. Although none of this information is new or implicates Iran of currently violating the nuclear deal, peeling the Iranians' mask off isn't only geared toward pushing Trump to annul the deal (which is expected to happen May 12), but toward reforging an international coalition to again force Iran into a corner – among other means by exploiting its shoddy economy and deepening social rifts between conservatives and reformists. Israel has a double interest in this regard: First, Israel fears a nuclear Iran and wants to delay its path to a bomb as long as possible; and second, it hopes that exposing Iran's activities at this juncture will also disrupt its efforts to establish a foothold in Syria.

These interlocking tracks have yet to garner a great deal of empathy from a fatigued international community (outside of Washington) still hoping to find big and easy money in Iran. Consequently, Israel has been abandoned in this fight. Alone, it has had to gather the intelligence used to expose Iran's clandestine nuclear efforts (an extraordinary achievement by the intelligence community, spearheaded by the Mossad) and its activities in Syria.

Ben-Dror Yemini: Trump’s ‘madness’ may be doing the trick

The nuclear agreement with Iran is a bad agreement, mainly because it gave the Shi'ite country an open-ended ticket to a Middle Eastern expansion. Since the agreement was signed, Iran has turned into a regional power that controls—fully or partially—Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and influences Hamas as well. And its appetite is only growing.

It’s true that Iran is in the middle of an economic crisis. It’s true that the Iranian currency is collapsing. It’s true that there are different streams in Iran. But the thing is, as an exiled Iranian professor told me a decade ago, the Iranian regime doesn’t go by rational or conventional rules. Its logic is similar to Hamas’ logic: The most important thing is the damage inflicted on the enemy, regardless of the harm to Iran’s residents. That’s why it’s more important to invest a fortune in a military infrastructure in Syria than to solve Iran’s economic problems. Just like Hamas prefers to invest tens of millions of dollars in the industry of death than in the Gaza Strip’s reconstruction.

We must admit that the rational Western approach has failed miserably in the face of the North Korean and Iranian madness. Appeasement is perceived as weakness. So to make some kind of change, there may be a need for an American leader whose conduct is slightly “insane.” In this sense, contrary to what I myself thought, the Trump method may be providing to yield dividends. Kim wouldn’t have changed his stance if it weren’t for Trump’s tough stance.

Which leads us to the Palestinian arena. An American success vis-à-vis Pyongyang will weaken Tehran’s bargaining position, which in turn will affect Trump’s peace plan in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s possible, just possible, that the US is delaying the presentation of its peace plan until it reaches a much stronger position after the developments in the Korean and Iranian arenas.

In recent months, the Palestinians have adopted an ultra-scornful approach towards the US in general and Trump in particular. It’s possible that in a few weeks from now, they will meet a new Trump. Granted, that won’t make them give up fantasies like “the right of return,” and the right-wing government in Israel would not rush to accept a peace plan which includes conceding most of Judea and Samaria. But there is a difference between a plan presented by an inarticulate and rejected Trump and a peace plan presented by a president who has scored considerable achievements in the international arena.

We are in the midst of a fascinating diplomatic chess game. Trump is making unpredictable and unrecommended moves in every sphere, including moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. There’s no need to be one of his fans to admit that if he succeeds, we’ll be living in a slightly more civilized world. And I will be forced to eat my hat too. Inshallah.

J Street, founded back in November 2007, made no secret of its agenda in its beginnings. In 2009, co-founder Jeremy Ben-Ami admitted to New York Times journalist James Traub:

Our No. 1 agenda item is to do whatever we can in Congress to act as the president’s blocking back.

Back then, there was also no secret about what kind of candidates J Street was going to support -- all you had to do was check their website.

o  In 2010, J Street endorsed 61 candidates - all Democrats
o  In 2012, J Street endorsed 41 candidates - all Democrats
o  In 2014, J Street endorsed 71 candidates - all Democrats
o  In 2016, J Street endorsed 73 candidates - all Democrats

That's 246 candidates J Street has endorsed during that time, and all of them Democrats.

So much for the importance of bi-partisan support for Israel.

Instead, when J Street claims it is "The Political Home for Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace Americans" -- it should admit that only Democrats need apply!

That page no longer exists.

Instead, these days there is a separate site, J Street Pac, which lists J Street Pac candidates. It lists the candidates according to name, state and office -- but unlike the obsolete page on the J Street site, this page does not list the party of the candidate.

So what kind of candidates is J Street going to support?

Since J Street claims to be pro-Israel, one would naturally suppose that J Street will make a point of supporting only those candidates whose pro-Israel bona fides are impeccable.

But then again, J Street's pro-Israel bona fides are themselves far from impeccable.

True, J Street claims to support Israel, that it is "pro-Israel, pro-peace".

But look at their record:

o Despite their repeated denials to the contrary, in 2008 and 2009 J Street received funding from George Soros, who is on nobody's list of top supporters of Israel.

o In 2009, Ben Ami claimed J Street "refuses to embrace" the Goldstone Report, which criticized Israel on its conduct during Operation Cast Lead (December 27, 2008 - January 18, 2009). But when a resolution was sponsored in Congress condemning the report, Goldstone circulated a document to defend it. The source of the report traced to Mort Halperin of the J Street advisory council. In 2011, Goldstone himself repudiated his own report.

o In fact, J Street went so far as to facilitate visits for Goldstone to the Hill

o Already in 2009, there were connections between JStreet and NIAC, a pro-Iranian advocacy group that would become instrumental in pushing the Iran deal -- which J Street still supports.

o More recently, last year J Street brought "Breaking the Silence" to speak during Yom HaZikaron and Yom Haatzmaut.

So if this is the kind of organization J Street is, we can expect that the candidates it supports reflect J Street's own anti-Israel animus.

Here is a recent example that proves the point.

On April 25, a letter signed by 3 Congressmen was sent to Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to the US to oversee the use of US tax dollars for humanitarian aid in Gaza:

Among the points the letter claims:

o There is a decade-old blockade of Gaza - not mentioning that the blockade was instituted as a response to the bloody Hamas coup that led to the increased threat of rockets and terror attacks. Also not mentioned is the millions of tons of food and supplies provided by Israel, a fact that challenges the claim that there is a "blockade"

o The threat to the water and electricity is mentioned generally, as if Israel is to blame for shortages, with no mention that the government is run by a terrorist organization, which should be held responsible for its actions -- but is not.

o Aid through UNRWA is referred to as having a security function, despite the numerous examples of the anti-Israel bias of UNRWA, as documented by Elder of Ziyon

o Israel denied their request in June 2016 to enter Gaza, a request they claim was without justification. It would be convenient for Israel to give a reason and justification for refusing the request, but the fact remains it is Israel's border and it has the right to refuse.

o The letter suggests that in refusing the request, Israel does not want them to see the worsening conditions in Gaza -- again implying that Israel is responsible for them.

The 3 Congressmen who signed the letter -- Pocan, Kildee and Johnson -- are supported by J Street. What else do we know about them?

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Representative Mark Pocan was identified as the member of Congress who last year anonymously reserved official Capitol Hill space for an anti-Israel forum organized by organizations that support boycotts. In the end, Pocan did not attend the anti-Israel forum he sponsored. A senior Congressional official was quoted as saying

[Pocan] chose to facilitate a pro-BDS smear campaign using taxpayer dollars without even showing his face at the event...As millions of Jews and non-Jews alike celebrate the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, Congressman Pocan and his J-Street lackeys are spending their time working to undermine the state of Israel.

Senator Mark Pocan official photo

Another of the 3 Congressmen, Representative Hank Johnson, referred to Israelis living in Judea and Samaria as...termites:

There has been a steady [stream], almost like termites can get into a residence and eat before you know that you’ve been eaten up and you fall in on yourself, there has been settlement activity that has marched forward with impunity and at an ever increasing rate to the point where it has become alarming.

Johnson's 2016 statement of "increasing" se ttlement activity is easily refuted by the facts. Keep in mind that Johnson is the one who claimed in 2010 that stationing 8,000 Marines on Guam would cause the island to "become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize."

As an apology for his dehumanizing comment, Johnson said his comment was a:

Poor choice of words – apologies for offense...Point is settlement activity continues slowly undermine 2-state solution.

Senator Hank Johnson official photo

As for Congressman Kildee, he was one of 3 Congressman in 2016 who met with Shawan Jabarin, an Arab terrorist affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Mark Pocan and Hank Johnson were among them. Such a meeting implies sloppy vetting - or worse.

Senator Daniel Kildee official photo

When you compare the statements and actions of J Street with those of Senators Mark Pocan, Hank Johnson and Daniel Kildee they do seem to be a good fit -- they all undermine Israel.

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From Jordan Times:

His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday attended the 2018 King Abdullah II World Interfaith Harmony Week prize ceremony at Al Husseiniya Palace and presented awards to the winners.
Launched by the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in 2013, the annual prize is awarded to three activities or texts that best promote the values connected to the World Interfaith Harmony Week, which is celebrated in the first week of February and was launched by King Abdullah and unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2010.

The judges for the awards included:

HB Patriarch Theophilus III – Patriarch of the Holy City, Palestine and Jordan, who has been fighting to annul the sales of church property to Jews in Jerusalem.

And also HE Sheikh Dr Ali Gomaa – former Grand Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt, who has preached:

One day this miracle will take place, when the Palestinians and all the Muslims will fight the Jews until even the stone and the tree will talk, except for the Ghardaq. That is what the hadith says. In Egypt, we have turned this into "Ghardaqa." The city of Ghardaqa is named after the Gharqad trees planted there. They changed the order of the letters, but it's the same thing.
[…]
Some people question the reliability of this hadith, but it is 100% authentic and will come true. Look how the Jews are planting Gharqad trees all over the West Bank. They know that it will protect them when they hide behind it. They believe these sacred texts, while some Muslims doubt them. But most of the Muslims believe in these texts and will continue to do so.

Yes, the people who judge a competition for religious tolerance are themselves intolerant. And they are chosen as representatives by supposedly moderate, tolerant Jordan.

This gives a slight idea of how entrenched antisemitism is in the Arab world.

Somehow I don't think the New York Times will be interested in this story.

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"If Jews have the right to a land, they have a right to return to Saudi Arabia too"

We have pointed out before the major reason behind today's Arab denial of Jewish peoplehood: that if they recognize Jews as a people and not merely members of a religion, then Jews have rights to the homeland of their ancestors. Since the Arabs claim the same land and their claim is far more recent, they must deny Jewish peoplehood - which is a clear manifestation of antisemitism.

In the words of the current editor of Ma'an News, "If we say that the Jews are a people, then there is no place for the Palestinian people on the land of Palestine."

In a piece in Arabi21, writer Rami al-Jundi shows that this logic scares Arabs in other ways. In an effort to discredit the Saudi Crown Prince Salman's seeming recognition of a Jewish people and their rights to a state, he notes that if that is true, then there is a "Jewish right to return to Bani Qinqaa Al-Nadeer and Khaybar" in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Jundi moans that "his declaration is a clear and unequivocal political recognition of the right of the Jews in a state in the occupied Palestinian territories, which is contrary to what Arab leaders have done over the past years. "

I am not aware of any Jews clamoring to return to Khaybar, the site that Arab antisemites like to remind us was a place that Mohammed massacred Jews. But the logic isn't that Jews aren't a people, but that if Arabs recognize them to be what they actually are then their own political positions are compromised, so better to push out a fiction of Jews not being a people.

This fear of Jews demanding a right to "return" to their old cities in Arab lands might make interesting leverage in other contexts, though!

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