Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Amnesty takes part in publicity stunt, "hosting" a play that was never written, to get people to hate Israel

A play by award-winning Palestinian playwright Ahmed Masoud named "Obliterated" was scheduled to be performed on August 9th at Amnesty International. The main actress Maxine Peake is famous in England.

The free event was sold out.

The entire event was a scam, a publicity stunt that was never meant to happen.

Over 2500 people who registered for the play, and who entered their personal information into Eventbrite, received this email from Masoud:

Oblitereated [sic] is cancelled. There was never a play or a show, I didn’t write it and Maxine never rehearsed it.

I am not sure whether I will be able to write or do theatre again.

They took our theatre, and with it our play.

Not even a year ago, on 09 August 2018, Gaza's only theatre the Saeed Almishal Cultural Centre was bombed by Israeli warplanes and ripped to the ground in seconds....

I want to ask questions. Why is art so threatening? Who would find a theatre a danger enough for missiles? What's going to become of the creatives, actors, writers, directors and audiences now?

I cannot write, but I still want to protest, to make my voice heard, to highlight what happens when art and theatre are stolen away. Maxine and I want to invite you, the audience, the 2529 people who booked, to be part of this experience, to be angry at this injustice.

As a writer and theatre practitioner, I wanted to see how it feels to deny people access to this freedom.

I approached Maxine Peake, and together we created Obliterated to express our rage and for us all to participate in this experience of cultural theft.

...I am not sure whether I will ever do theatre again. I am not sure if I have been beaten down too far by cruelty. Maybe on a far-off day, this play will be born again. But for now, I would like to thank Maxine Peake and Amnesty International UK for supporting this creative response. And I want to thank you for being part of this protest, for getting my voice heard.

The cultural center that Israel destroyed was part of an office building that also housed Hamas Interior Security offices. It was in response to hundreds of Hamas rockets to Israel in the days before.

Masoud and Amnesty don't mention that.

Amnesty put out a press release saying the play was canceled out of protest for the cultural center destruction but didn't mention that the play was never written to begin with.

The actor Maxine Peake has cancelled a play due to have been performed in London next week as a protest to highlight the plight of Palestinian playwrights and other artists targeted by the Israeli authorities.

The one-person piece, Obliterated, by the acclaimed UK-based Palestinian playwright Ahmed Masoud, was due to have been performed at Amnesty International UK’s east London headquarters on the evening of 9 August, and was set to star the Dinnerladies and Shameless actor.

The scheduled performance - which is fully booked - would have marked exactly one year since the destruction by an Israeli airstrike of the Mishal Cultural Centre last year, the only working theatre in Gaza which housed numerous arts projects in the beleaguered Palestinian territory.

The play was never written. The actress never intended to perform. There was never meant to be a Q&A afterwards with Israel hater Ben White.

The cancellation was the show, to get people to be upset - and to direct their anger not at Amnesty or Masoud but at Israel.

Amnesty willingly participated in this anti-Israel scam.

Is it appropriate for a human rights organization to actively deceive thousands of people, to lie in order to make people hate Israel?

When you think about it, this is what Amnesty does all the time anyway. Their "Gaza Platform" remains on its site with hundreds of examples of "civilians" killed by Israel who were actually terrorists, even according to the UN and B'Tselem. Their reports are filled with anti-Israel lies that they never correct - they know they are lying to manipulate people to hate Israel.

So putting on a fake play fits in exactly with Amnesty's playbook of making up lies to incite people against Israel.

To thinking people, however, it shows that Amnesty is not a sober and objective reporter of human rights abuses but an active propaganda outlet to incite hatred against the Jewish state.

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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A couple of weeks ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced a major find of an entire city from 9,000 years ago near Jerusalem.

Since the city pre-dates Biblical times, it is obvious that this was not a dig that discovered any Jewish objects.

I made a humorous tweet about how Israel, which according to academic and professional Israel-hater Nadia Abu el-Haj uses archaeology to only pretend to discover ancient Judean and Israelite finds and which ignores all other archaeology, must have made a mistake by publicizing this find.

But...I was told that the Israel Antiquities Authority didn't bother exposing any archaeology that wasn't Jewish! There have been entire books written with that thesis! pic.twitter.com/zWi8c5kbBH
— Elder Of Ziyon ҉ (@elderofziyon) July 16, 2019

Now an Arab site has turned this story around, claiming that Israeli archaeologists are super embarrassed by these findings, which show that people lived in the region before the Jews.

This isn't exactly a revelation to those with a passing knowledge of the Bible.

Archaeologist Abeer Ziad of Al Jazeera looked at the site and - wow - discovered that it was quite old, and she is claiming that the Neolithic people who lived there were, of course, "Palestinians!"

The article says:

She considered this to be evidence that Palestinians had inhabited the area for thousands of years, which refuted Zionist claims that the Jewish people were indigenous.

She explained that there are remnants in Palestine "dating back to a hundred thousand years ago, and this new discovery is evidence of the existence of civilizations and cultures and successive people who preceded the Jewish presence - if proven - by a long time."

Unfortunately for Ziad, those civilizations all disappeared, and the oldest remaining people is indeed the Jews. Which is exactly why Palestinians claim to simultaneously be Arabs and Canaanites or Jebusites when the topic is Jerusalem (not Girgashites or Hittites, for some reason.)

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07/29 Links Pt2: HRW Chief Refuses to Say Israel Has Right to Exist as Jewish State; Rewarding Palestinian child exploitation: Janna Jihad goes to Congress

From Ian:

Head of Human Rights Watch Refuses to Say Israel Has Right to Exist as Jewish State

A top official at the prominent NGO Human Rights Watch proved unable to explicitly say Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state in a recent interview with an Israeli media outlet.

In conversation with Israel’s Kan broadcaster, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth was asked, “Do you support Israel’s self-determination as a Jewish state?”

“Nobody’s ever questioned the right of Israel to exist,” Roth replied. “I mean, every state has a right to exist, but every state also has a duty to apply international human rights principles.”

“As a Jewish state?” the interviewer prodded.

“As a democracy,” Roth said. “In other words …”

“Not as a Jewish state?” the interviewer pressed again.

“Well, I mean, Israel can define itself any way it wants,” Roth said. “I mean, lots of governments define themselves in nationalist terms, but that’s not an excuse …”

“Why do you have difficulty to define Israel as a Jewish state?” the interviewer asked.

“Well, because there are many Palestinians who live in Israel too who are citizens and deserve full rights,” Roth said, seeming to imply that the presence of Arab citizens negates a Jewish right to self-determination. (h/t IsaacStorm)

Human Rights watch Executive Director @KenRoth shares his views on Israel's self determination as a Jewish state. Supports determination as a "democratic state" and refers to Israel's Jewish definition as 'nationalistic'. @kann_news @hrw https://t.co/3WYPL5RfqM pic.twitter.com/3R8Zv61ZQf
— Eran Cicurel (@EranCicurel) 29 July 2019

No, You Don’t Have To Be Jewish To Oppose Anti-Semitism

A particularly disturbing sentiment has been percolating: only those who are Jewish can speak on behalf of Jewish interests, and only those who are black can speak on behalf of black interests, and so on.

Even defining interests based on particular religious or ethnic groups is a murky endeavor. There isn’t political consensus among Jews, just as there isn’t political consensus among African Americans, and with good reason. Intellectual diversity is a hallmark of humanity.

Talia Lavin recently published an article in GQ, however, arguing that the right has been using Jews for politically expedient purposes. She suggests those on the right who have been condemning the left’s rising anti-Semitism are only doing so because it is politically advantageous.

Lavin’s claim is riddled with several false assumptions. The first is based upon the notion that those on the right can’t possibly be truly alarmed by the anti-Semitism allowed to simmer on the left, or disgusted with comments made by the infamous Democrat “squad.” The second is that the right cannot possibly represent Jewish interests. These assumptions are both incorrect.

As a Jewish woman, I am grateful for individuals like Rep. Liz Cheney and Meghan McCain, women Lavin snidely refers to as “blonde Christian Loraxes.” Lavin presents this point as if somehow the religion and physical characteristics of these two women make them “unfit” to call out the left’s alarming anti-Semitism. What jumbled nonsense.

‘Is BDS Anti-Semitic?’ The New York Times Inquires

The Times article appears under the online headline “Is B.D.S. Anti-Semitic? A Closer Look at the Boycott Israel Campaign.” In print, the headline is the more innocuous, “A Look at the International Drive to Boycott Israel.”

It’s often a bad sign when an article fails to answer the question in the headline. The Times waffles. In a section headed, “Is B.D.S. anti-Semitic?” the article reports, “Leaders of B.D.S. insist that it is not anti-Semitic… But many Israelis and American Jews say it is.” That’s not particularly helpful. In a different section, the Times article does eventually concede, “There is some overlap between support for B.D.S. and anti-Semitism.” What a coincidence!

Another unsatisfactorily answered question in the Times article is, “Is there a link between the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe and B.D.S.?” The Times reports,
Anti-Semitism has increased in Europe because of numerous factors, including globalization, populism, loss of national identity and the perceived oppression of Palestinians by Israel. A growing Muslim minority, mostly from North Africa, has viewed Israeli policies toward the Palestinians as anti-Muslim, leading many to support B.D.S.

This is actually so confused it approaches being funny — the Times blaming “loss of national identity” for anti-Semitism. In America, the Times blames nationalism for antisemitism, so it’s a bit jarring, or at least confusing, for the Times to blame “loss of national identity” and “globalization” rather than “resurgent nationalism” for antisemitism. Should one oppose globalization on the grounds that it would reduce antisemitism? The Times has previously told us that using “globalist” as code for Jews is a sign of antisemitism, yet here the paper is earnestly explaining that globalization contributes to antisemitism. In addition, plenty of Europeans and Muslims had antisemitic attitudes well before any “Israeli policies,” leading many Jews, including myself, to conclude that the antisemitism has nothing to do with “Israeli policies.” The whole Times take on this question veers perilously close to blaming the Jews, rather than the antisemites, for the antisemitism.

For an effort that seems designed to explain the issue to Times readers, the whole project amounts to a disappointment, offering lots of questions but few answers. When it comes to the underlying issues, it confuses more than clarifies. It does serve to clarify, though, that the Times is an unreliable guide on these topics.

The Rachel Corrie Palestinian Center for Human Rights appears to be one of these NGOs that spring up in the Palestinian territories seeking funds from Europe to bash Israel.

The goals and objectives of the Rachel Corrie Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the Pursuit of International Justice are that the values of dignity and freedom, the rule of international law and justice can be pursued and the realization of the right of the Palestinians and the establishment of international law as the guardian of the rights of the occupied peoples. ...We are required to build the future on sound foundations to be a state of law and to have human rights organizations capable of prosecuting the Israeli occupation against the international courts.

This center was founded by a Dr. Abdul Hakim Wadi. Its webpage is mostly just reprints of news articles.

But Dr. Wadi sometimes writes his own articles for this sham NGO. And one about terror attacks against Jews in Europe is most interesting.

Written in 2015, during a spate of murders of Jews in Europe by Muslims, it starts this way:

Anyone who attacks the Jews in Europe is a traitor and serves Zionism at the present time. What was appropriate in the 1970s is not appropriate now, for several reasons:

1. All these terrorist attacks do not serve the Palestinian cause.
2. Israel exploits these attacks in Europe to displace Jews towards Israel.
3. The migration of the Jews of the world to Palestine will support Israel humanely, materially and politically.
4. The immigration of European Jews due to terrorism will increase the number of settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem

It goes on like this for 17 reasons, and by the end he spins a conspiracy theory saying that the attacks are all orchestrated by the Mossad anyway.

But notice that this "human rights" NGO does not find Jewish civilians in Europe to be deserving of human rights protections. The reasons not to attack are tactical; back in the 1970s it made sense to kill Jews worldwide but, alas, no longer.

I don't see any connection between this organization and the Rachel Corrie Foundation of Peace and Justice. I don't know if the Corrie family is aware of this NGO and if they disapprove or approve of its positions.

But the fact that a Palestinian "human rights" organization has literally no moral objection to the slaughter of Jews around the world shows that the words "human rights" means something completely different to Palestinians than the rest of the world.

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From AP:

The Israeli military has installed the face scanners as part a multi-million dollar upgrade of the Qalandiya crossing that now allows Palestinians from the West Bank with work permits to zip through with relative ease.

But while the high-tech upgrades may have eased entry for Palestinians going to Israel for work, critics say they are a sign of the ossification of Israel’s 52-year occupation of the West Bank and slam the military’s use of facial recognition technology as problematic.

Israel’s Defense Ministry poured over $85 million into upgrading Qalandiya and several other major checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank in recent years — part of a strategy it says is meant to maintain calm by improving conditions for Palestinians.

Thanks to the upgrades, crossing through Qalandiya takes roughly 10 minutes, even during the early morning rush hour, and has the feel of an airport terminal.

How many articles have we seen over the years about how terrible Qalandiya is? And now that Israel has spent tens of millions to fix it, how inevitable is it that people will complain anyway?

There are two supposed issues mentioned. One is that this entrenches the "occupation." This is too silly to mention - if by some miracle there is a peace, then either it will stay as a new border crossing or it will be dismantled to be replaced by another. No one is going to say, oh, sorry, we won't accept peace because it will be too expensive to replace Qalandiya.

The other comes from B'Tselem:

B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said it was unacceptable that the Palestinian laborers have no ability to object to the use of facial recognition technology. Roy Yellin, a spokesman for the group, called the company’s development of its product through “unwilling subjects” immoral.

Aren't there lots of other checkpoints, according to B'Tselem? If Palestinian workers want to avoid facial recognition and instead wait in hours-long lines, they have that choice.

By any measure, this is a victory for Palestinian human rights. It saves tens of thousands of man hours every single day. But Israeli "human rights groups" like B'Tselem aren't interested in human rights, but in bashing Israel on whatever flimsy pretext they choose.

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07/29 Links Pt1: Top UNRWA officials accused of sexual misconduct, other ‘serious ethical abuses’; Turkey's Erdogan: Whoever is on Israel's side, we are against them

From Ian:

Top UNRWA officials accused of sexual misconduct, other ‘serious ethical abuses’

An internal ethics report has alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees even as the organization faced an unprecedented crisis after US funding cuts.

The allegations included in the confidential report by the agency’s ethics department are now being scrutinized by UN investigators.

The agency — the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — said it is cooperating fully with the investigation and that it cannot comment in detail because the probe is ongoing.

AFP has obtained a copy of the report, which describes “credible and corroborated” allegations of serious ethical abuses, including involving UNRWA’s top official, Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl.

It says the allegations include senior management engaging in “sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent, and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives.”

One senior official named in the report has left the organization due to “inappropriate behavior” linked to the investigation, UNRWA said, while another has resigned for what the agency called “personal reasons.”

Greenblatt to Palestinians: "What You've Been Promised Is Probably Not Achievable"

Jason Greenblatt, the president's point man on peace in the Middle East, told Fox News in an interview: "We want tremendous lives for the Palestinians. We want lives that mirror the lives of Israelis as long as we can keep everybody secure. We are not going to get there with slogans."

The administration sponsored a "Peace to Prosperity" workshop in Bahrain on June 25 to bolster the Palestinian economy. "Not only did the Palestinian Authority boycott the conference themselves, they tried to undermine the conference by asking others not to go. What a tremendous opportunity that they missed."

"Nobody is here to force something on them that doesn't work, but we are also...direct enough to say what you've been promised is probably not achievable."

"Nobody can force a deal on either side but, similarly, the deal that you want is just not there, so the only way you are going to get better lives is by sitting down directly with the Israelis."

"None of us can get the Palestinians and the Israelis to agree on a deal if they don't want to do that deal. It's not for America, it's not for the European Union, it's not for anyone who is interested in this conflict to make decisions for the Israelis or the Palestinians."

"We don't live there, we don't suffer there, we don't fight there, we don't die there. It's really up to the two sides to do [a deal]."

To Fight Terror, Follow the Money

Last month, Paraguay extradited Nader Mohamad Farhat—who runs a major currency exchange in the Tri-Border Area, where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay touch—to the U.S. on charges of money laundering. Farhat is a Hizballah sympathizer, and likely involved with the terrorist group’s illicit dealings in the region. By using legal means to go after people like Farhat, argues Emanuele Ottolenghi, Washington can make important strides in the war on terror:

In 2015, British authorities caught Hizballah-linked operatives stockpiling more than 6,000 pounds of explosives on the outskirts of London, new reports revealed last month. The British deserve praise for unearthing the London bomb factory. But they did not destroy the underlying commercial or financial structures that allowed the group to buy and stockpile such materials.

For too long, counterterrorism operations have focused narrowly on disrupting attacks. Without aggressive prosecution of those who carry out the groups’ financial transactions, the illicit networks that provide financial and logistical support for Hizballah are likely to remain intact. . . .

By focusing on illicit networks and trade-based money laundering, the United States and its allies can move from disrupting planned attacks to depriving terrorists of the means to carry them out. The benefits of this approach would extend into other domains as well. It would protect consumers and manufacturers alike by stamping out the counterfeit goods so prevalent in trade-based money laundering schemes. It would weaken the cartels and criminal gangs that are undermining law and order throughout the Western Hemisphere, a key cause of clandestine immigration. It would punish corrupt politicians, sending a signal of hope to countries seeking to climb out of kleptocracy. In short, it is a more sustainable—and more effective—way to fight terrorism and corruption.

The Levels of Hypocrisy in BDS - And Will You Have Fries With That? (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

In a recent post, Elder of Ziyon pointed out an ignored truth about the campaign to boycott Israel: BDS isn't about boycotts. It is about turning Israel into a pariah state.

Even BDSers admit that they choose their targets of boycott for maximum leverage and publicity, even as they use Israeli products themselves. The boycotts are indeed a sideshow to their real aim - to have average people associate Israel with racism and apartheid.

By repeating the lies that Zionism is racism, Israel is an apartheid state, Israel must be boycotted for human rights abuses, and so on - over and over again - it makes an impression on college students and people who don't follow Israel closely.

When an artist boycotts Israel, it makes a huge impression on people who want to identify as supporting social justice.

When an academic group calls to boycott Israel, it puts an aura of respectability on hating Israel.

BDS is a tactic, it is not a movement whose goal is to remake Israel as the previous boycott movement was capable of forcing change on the level it did with South Africa.

And the strategy behind that tactic is publicity.

Now more than ever, especially in the age of social media, it is possible to reach people without having to engage the mainstream media, who in the past were the gatekeepers who could to a larger degree control who got access to the public audience.

When small groups like If Not Now want attention, they stand outside and say Kaddish for Hamas terrorists -- not Jews who were murdered by terrorists -- because that is what gets attention, and it is that attention that is the crucial oxygen to breathe life into the membership and create the attention that such movements need.

Recently on Twitter, it was pointed out that both Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar -- vocal supporters for boycotting Israel -- used Israeli technology, Wix, for their website:

But the fact that Tlaib uses Wix for her website was already pointed out back in February. This fact made the rounds back then, and to a lesser degree it has been pointed out now. But the fact that Tlaib has not bothered to redo the website means that other than perhaps metaphorically tweaking her nose, this apparent hypocrisy means nothing to her.

She has not bothered to comment.

But back in November 2015, the Times of Israel reported that when it was pointed out that the Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Denver used Wix for their website -- the students defended their actions and claimed to explain why this was not hypocritical

By combining the power of many around the world, boycotts shine a harsh light on Israeli settler-colonialism. Whereas Israel wishes these networks to remain inconspicuous, the BDS campaign uses the power of an organized consumer boycott to expose them, forcing the recognition of our different forms of connection with oppression and the oppressed. When we participate in an organized boycott of Israeli consumer goods, such as Sabra and Tribe hummus (whose owners financially support Israeli institutions of occupation and dispossession) or SodaStream kitchen appliances (made in illegal settlements under conditions of hyperexploitation), we choose to make visible the connections between Palestinians living directly under Israeli occupation and people living elsewhere. With these organized boycotts, this global economic structure, a largely hidden network of financial pipes and tunnels, acts as unwitting accomplice to members of Palestinian civil society in their call for self-determination. Boycotts therefore form a limited but necessary component of the BDS campaign. For supporters of the Palestinian call for BDS, boycotts serve as a tactic within a wider strategy to pressure Israel to change its policies and end its oppression. [emphasis added]

The reference to SodaStream reminds us that this same logic that allows the BDS movement to use Israeli products while boycotting them -- also allows them to put Palestinians out of work for 'the cause' as well.

Putting Palestinians into financial distress through BDS boycotts is only for their own good.

How widespread is this use of Israeli products by members of BDS? Consider Omar Barghouti, one of the BDS leaders.

He has a degree from Tel Aviv University, a blatant and rather public contradiction for someone supposedly embodying the BDS movement. He has been confronted with this on a number of occasions, and while Barghouti has offered a variety of excuses, he never quit the university -- or burned his degree in public.

But the BDS movement has given Barghouti lots of publicity, and any occasional questions about his hypocrisy have not slowed him down.

He falsely claims that he could not have gotten a degree any other way.
Tlaib could have used any number of other products to make her website.
Neither has confronted the contradiction head-on as the SJP students in Denver - and while that article in Times of Israel reports the students' use of Wix in November 2015, the group's explanation is dated November 2013.

Still, it is not hard to figure out that Wix is an Israeli product.
And it is not as if there are not lots of other products that could make a website just as well.

These days, that SJP site uses WordPress.
Maybe that hypocrisy finally caught up with them.

An article in Haaretz earlier this year addresses the larger hypocrisy in the BDS movement:

When push comes to shove, its activists prefer that others do the boycotting and make the sacrifices. Thus Caterpillar and in the past the security company G4s have been popular targets because, after all, how many ordinary people are going to ever be buying a earthmover or employ a security guard? It’s likewise painless to ask a university’s trustees or a big pension fund to divest Israeli shares from their portfolios because that’s someone else’s money.

The requirement to fight the good fight against Israeli oppression is supposed to be borne by others whether they are big, anonymous institutions or useful idiots who take the boycott call seriously. Meanwhile, a boycott campaign is being managed using Israeli website building tools. In the words of SJP Cornell, “BDS is not abstention, nor an absolute moral principle … it is a tactic.”

And again, it is not just that the fight is borne by others, the effects have been borne by the actual people the BDS movement claims to be helping -- as in the case of the Palestinian employees of SodaStream.

These boycotts are not limited to big companies either. Boycotts of performers going to Israel are always guaranteed to draw attention -- and are sometimes successful.

Sometimes the boycotts are local: Dearborn burger franchise founded in Israel delays opening after backlash, threats:

A franchisee has delayed the scheduled opening of his Burgerim restaurant in Dearborn amid backlash from the Arab-American community over the popular burger company’s Israeli roots.

Sam Zahr, a Lebanese-American who lives in Dearborn, said he was too worried to open the restaurant on Greenfield Road after his kids were bullied and he received threatening messages from those opposed to the burger chain founded in Israel.

...A Burgerim location in Royal Oak also owned by Zahr has not experienced as much opposition, he said.

It's not clear if the issue is only boycotting or maybe also a desire to squelch any hint of normalization.

Based on Zahr's success in Royal Oak, maybe an Arab-Israeli business can make it in the US.

Burgerim seems to think so:

BDS can go ahead and make their claim to success.
Israel is opening up new battlefields.

Those SJP students say that BDS is more than a tactic; it sheds a light and sends a message.

Burgerim, an Israeli company, is sending a message too:

Burger
Dill pickle
Soda

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The Secretary of the Revolutionary Council of Fatah, Majid al-Fatiani, said on Sunday that the Palestinian government has already begun a series of measures to gradually disengage from the Israeli occupation, taking into account the interests and needs of the Palestinians, as Mahmoud Abbas said he would do last week.

There has been skepticism about whether Abbas will actually do anything new.

Fathini, speaking to Voice of Palestine radio, said the PA is trying to end the economic relationship with Israel, and gave as his first example stopping medical transfers of patients to Israel.

Yes, the first thing the benevolent PA decides to do to cut ties is to screw the people who need Israel the most!

Of course, this decision was made back in March. Even then the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that the decision was difficult for patients as it was left to scramble for adequate facilities in Egypt, Jordan or in private Palestinian hospitals to handle the patients.

At that time, the decision was framed as a punishment for Israel, but it saved the PA a hundred million dollars a year.

In other words, the PA wants to appear independent from Israel and the very first way it decides to do that is to throw the people who need Israeli help the most under the bus - for "dignity" reasons.

What could be more dignified than to make the principled decision to sacrifice other people's lives for your cause?

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12th grade textbook in Turkey justifies 9/11 attacks

From Nordic Monitor:

The 12th grade modern history book that is being used in public schools in Turkey is full of anti-American and anti-EU references, mirroring what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been preaching at public rallies and meetings.

The 2018 edition, authored by Emrullah Alemdar and Savaş Keles and produced by the government printing office, appears to justify al-Qaeda’s terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people, brands the European Union as a Christian club led by the pope and criticizes the NATO alliance.

“The United States, which has more say with the self-confidence it gained in the aftermath of the Cold War but complies less with international agreements, has started to see itself as one above equals in international relations. From that point forward, deciding which countries would be punished and what systems would be changed relied on definitions and references made by the US. These practices by the US are one of the reasons behind the al-Qaeda terrorist organization’s attack on 9/11,” the book states on pages 262 and 263.

Post-9/11, the US adopted a policy of thwarting possible rivals and securing absolute dominance of the international system, the book says. “The US became the main source of problems in the world with what it did in the aftermath of September 11.”

Here's the cover:

I found this textbook online. Here's a map of the Middle East that accompanies an entry on "Palestine:"

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Palestinians can't erase the Hebrew on their "historic coins"

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency has an "economy" section on its website, complete with a header showing the coins of Palestine.

British Mandate Palestine, that is. You know, the coins with the Hebrew and the Hebrew initials for "Eretz Yisrael."

The graphic artist made use that the Hebrew in the top coin was upside down so difficult to notice. The Hebrew is clearly visible in the small coin behind it, but completely covered in the coin beneath that.

Remember, the Palestinian Arabs at the time were dead set against a Palestinian currency. When they were issued in 1927 their leaders called to boycott the currency altogether and continue to use the Egyptian pound as they had been.

What kind of nationalist wouldn't want their own currency? But that is not the correct framing of a question. In 1927, the very term Palestine was associated with Jews far more than with Arabs. Only Jews identified as Palestinian.

It is ironic that a currency rejected by Arabs in Palestine in 1927 should be celebrated by their descendants today.

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A tweet to Omar Shakir of HRW

From Friday:

Did you "bear witness" to the bustling parts of Hebron only a few blocks away in H1 that no Jews are allowed to enter?

Of course not. Because you are a partisan anti-Israel hack, not a human rights advocate.https://t.co/qxg7IgUss3
— Elder Of Ziyon ҉ (@elderofziyon) July 26, 2019

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07/28 Links: BDS, J Street and the willful blindness of the liberal peaceniks; When You Understand Israel’s May 1948 Borders, You Understand There is No “Occupation”

From Ian:

Ben-Dror Yemini: BDS, J Street and the willful blindness of the liberal peaceniks

The thing is, J Street knows that the essence of the BDS movement is not peace but hatred. At its core is not a two-state solution but the elimination of the State of Israel. It is not anti-violent it is anti-Semitic. It is not a proponent of freedom of speech, but rather seeks to silence every speaker who expresses a different position.

The fact that Jews and Israelis support such a movement does not indicate blindness, for when it comes to blindness, the presentation of facts is supposed to change attitudes. But this is not the case here.

BDS supporters are afflicted with the oldest hatred, so why does J Street, whose movers and shakers support peace and two states, raise their eyes to the heavens and support Omar's proposal, which has an anti-Semitic motive? It seems that it is mainly because hypocrisy has become a central component of what was once a "peace organization."

There is no connection between J Street's official platform and its activities. Granted, Tzipi Livni, Tamar Zandberg and Stav Shafir will attend the organization's upcoming conference in late October, and there will be sane statements made there. But an ultra-liberal obsession has led the organization to activities that are mainly anti-Israel: They even protest Birthright, claiming it is a one-sided organization.

But he fact is that the initiative behind Taglit-Birthright Israel was a byproduct of the anti-Israel brainwashing on campuses. So what do they want, for Judith Butler and Norman Finkelstein to be included in a "balanced" program? What balance does J Street in its campus operations?

Did they invite Dr. Einat Wilf to give a series of lectures on campuses about the book she wrote (with Adi Schwartz) on the so-called Palestinian right of return? Not a chance, but they are happy to complain about others.

The liberal camp was supposed to play an important role. J Street is a legitimate organization that, at least when it was founded, represented a large proportion of the prevailing views among American Jews. Their pro-peace, pro-Israel slogan is also excellent. I am in favor.

But somewhere along the line it all became a fraud. Whoever supports Omar is neither pro-peace nor pro-Israel – they are helping a campaign that opposes Israel's very existence. This did not just happen to J Street – it happened to too many bodies that purport to speak in the name of "peace" and "human rights."

It has afflicted many, and there is no comfort to be found in that. (h/t IsaacStorm)

An open letter to the founder of J Street

So my question is, is there anything other than national suicide that Israel can do to help their adversaries wash out the shame of the establishment of a Jewish state on land claimed by the Arabs as their own? You will recall that in 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert offered to return the entire 'West Bank' plus extra acreage only to have his offer ignored. Other prior offers received the same response.

Shouldn’t the history of Arab rejectionism be included in J Street’s pro-Israel narrative? And while we’re at it, why does J Street not have the desire to compliment and be proud of Israel for all the good it does, the countries it helps, the people it cures (including Arabs), the kids it educates and the water it desalinates distributed to all the communities including Arab ones.

If J Street does not believe that Israel is my country right or wrong, then what can it possibly accomplish by presenting itself as a Jewish organization that believes that my county Israel is always wrong.

What a sad depressing attitude. Surely as Jews, you ought to be proud of the renewal of a Jewish country after 2000 years.

Mr. Ben-Ami, it would appear that many people, organizations and countries believe that supporting Israel is a moral crime. I beg you to think about the implication this has not only for Israel but for our children and grandchildren. Maybe it’s time for J Street to use its brains and resources to fight antisemitism, but first it has to accept the Reverend Martin Luther King’s opinion that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.

The United States Condemns BDS

By a vote of 398 to 17, the US House of Representatives almost unanimously condemned the boycott movement against Israel, alienating Reps Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. Republicans oppose them, Democrats oppose them, and America stands pro-peace and anti-BDS.

An absolutely stunning moment from a member of Congress this morning.

Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib: Israel “exists” to the “detriment” of Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/B1JE7hkgjU
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 28, 2019

(h/t MtTB)