יום רביעי, 11 בינואר 2012

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

Elder of Ziyon Daily Digest

ISESCO denies Jewish Temples existed; publishes "media plan" on how to defeat Zionism

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 08:48 PM PST

A press release from ISESCO, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization:

The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) strongly denounced the Israeli occupation army's publication of a photo of the Holy Aqsa Mosque without Qubat Al-Sakhra (the Dome of the Rock).

In a communiqué released today, ISESCO affirmed its rejection of what the so-called religious authority of the Israeli occupation army in the occupied city of Al-Quds did when they published a photo of Al-Aqsa Mosque without the Dome of the Rock. This photo, ISESCO underlined, depicts the true intention of the Israeli occupation authorities to judaize the city and establish the alleged Temple in the so-called "Temple Mount" on "the ruins" of Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially as a model of the Temple has been built in front of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the calls of the Jewish rabbis to demolish the First Qibla and the Third Holy Mosque have increased.
"Alleged" Temple? "So-called" Temple Mount?

I guess we can see the importance of education, science and culture to ISESCO.

Elsewhere, ISESCO makes its Temple denial more explicit:

[N]o trace was found of this temple after many excavations and archaeology digs carried out by Israeli and western archaeologists. An increasing number of Israelis refute the Jewish allegations about the temple, having conducted their own investigations, excavations and studies which all point to the non-existence of the temple in the alleged site at any time in history.
It is this document that proves that ISESCO is a sham organization, whose purpose has nothing to do with Islamic culture or history - but rather to uproot any vestige of Jewish history.

The document is called "Media Plan for Publicising the Cause of Al Quds Al Sharif in the West and Mechanisms for its Implementation." It looks like it was written in late 2004. ISESCO is the architect of a plan on how to spread Islamic propaganda in the West and how to counter Jewish claims to Israel and Jerusalem.

And it makes its goals quite clear, in this paragraph describing its idea of the Jewish view of Jerusalem:
Jerusalem is at the heart of the Jewish faith, the cornerstone of its spiritual and intellectual edifice and of the dream of rebuilding the Hebrew state in accordance with the false Zionist slogan of the "Return to Zion", or "Return to Jerusalem", ensuring its continuity and the continuity of the Israeli presence in the Arab region. This presence is vital for the West since Israel acts as a shield that protects the western civilisation from confronting the so called "Arab backwardness, barbarity and savagery". Thus, Jerusalem is the cornerstone of the spiritual edifice and the Zionist Jewish entity. Were it to be dislodged, the whole edifice and the Zionist entity itself would crumble like a deck of cards.
That is the entire goal of this media plan! It describes short, medium and long term goals to do exactly this dislodging of Jerusalem from Judaism.

For example, do these objectives sound familiar?
1- Gaining the support of some intellectual, cultural and political role-players who can impact on the Western public opinion about the Arab-Israeli conflict and the question of Al Quds, by adopting the international resolutions of legitimacy and the related UN resolutions as a starting point in the media plan.

2- Penetrating Western activities or fields of activities, particularly those of influential media, cultural, intellectual and economic spheres in such a way as to ensure their responsiveness to the other's point of view and their outlook on the official stance of their countries as subservient to and reflective of the interests of the Zionist movement with its various formations and bodies, and not of the interests of their own countries, in particular economic and vital interests.

3- Discreetly and indirectly encouraging trends critical of Zionism and the Israeli judaisation policies in Jerusalem within western circles and in a way that would prevent the targeting, isolation and annihilation of these trends by the Zionists movement and its concealed and visible tentacles.
It is almost as if Walt, Mearsheimer, Blumenthal, Friedman, Mondoweiss and others are acting in a play written by ISESCO!

Can you imagine a genuine cultural or educational organization creating a document on how to spread propaganda in order to destroy an entire culture?

Anyone who wants to truly understand how the anti-Israel crowd is using the media should read this document.

(h/t CHA)

The kosher symbol from the 6th century

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 06:30 PM PST

From Ha'aretz:

A 1,500-year-old seal with the image of the seven-branched Temple Menorah has been discovered near the city of Acre.

The ceramic stamp, which dates from the Byzantine period in the 6th century CE, was found during ongoing Israel Antiquities Authority excavations at Horbat Uza, east of Acre, which are being undertaken before the construction of the Acre-Carmiel railroad track.

It is thought the stamp was used to mark baked goods, and is known as a "bread stamp."

"A number of stamps bearing an image of a menorah are known from different collections. The Temple Menorah, being a Jewish symbol par excellence, indicates the stamps belonged to Jews, unlike Christian bread stamps with the cross pattern which were much more common in the Byzantine period," said Gilad Jaffe and Dr. Danny Syon, the directors of the excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority,

"The stamp is important because it proves that a Jewish community existed in the settlement of Uza in the Christian-Byzantine period. The presence of a Jewish settlement so close to Acre - a region that was definitely Christian at this time - constitutes an innovation in archaeological research," Syon said.

"Due to the geographical proximity of Horbat Uza to Acre, we can speculate that the settlement supplied kosher baked goods to the Jews of Acre in the Byzantine period," Jaffe and Syon added.

Horbat Uza is a small rural settlement where other archaeological finds, a Shabbat lamp and jars with menorah patterns painted on them, have alluded to it having been a Jewish settlement.

The stamp bears the image of a seven-branched menorah, and the handle of the stamp is engraved with Greek letters. According to Dr. Leah Di Segni of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, this is probably the name Launtius, which was common among Jews of the period and has appeared on other Jewish bread stamps.

"This is probably the name of the baker from Horbat Uza," Jaffe and Syon said.
I know, I don't usually highlight archaeological findings that are so new - only 1,500 years old.

But it still predates Islam!

(I wonder if this hechsher was considered reliable...."You trust the seven-branch menorah? It isn't mehadrin!")

New pro-Israel apps developed - over a weekend

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 02:00 PM PST

Last month there was a "hackathon" by Like for Israel to create innovative pro-Israel apps (mobile, Facebook, web.)

Here are some of the apps developed over a weekend:

Israel Challenge trivia game on Facebook

Israeli Foods - wine and food blogs and videos, for Android

2See Israel - Aggregator of Israel photos, for Android

The Truth About Israel - factual information about Israel written in Arabic, for Android (website)

Like Israel - automatically put a "Like" stamp on any nice photos you take in Israel, for iPhone

Delegit - Chrome app that allows you to report any websites that attempt to delegitimize Israel when you come across them

Not bad for a couple of days.

You can visit the Like for Israel Facebook page for more info.

(h/t Niv)

HRW director finds fault with Israel for willingness to help Arabs

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 12:10 PM PST

Ken Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, just proved today that his hatred of Israel trumps his interest in human rights.

Ha'aretz reported:

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said Tuesday that Israel is preparing to absorb Alawite refugees once Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime collapses, which he expects to happen in the coming months.

"Assad is not the same type as [Former Libyan leader Muammar] Gahdafi, who fights until the last bullet down in the sewer. The day that the Syrian regime will fall, it will issue a blow to the Alawites, and we are preparing to absorb those refugees."

At a time that Syrians are being slaughtered by the thousands, Israel is making contingency plans to help an Arab minority who would be in grave danger. This is a moral imperative - and one that not one Arab country has yet publicly accepted.

Does Ken Roth praise Israel? Does he slam Arabs for not doing the same?

Of course not! He's the head of Human Rights Watch, and he knows who to blame for everything!


That's right - this arbiter of morality, the man in the forefront of the human rights movement, chooses to insult the only country that is willing to save people's lives.

It is worth mentioning that Israel, through the years, has absorbed many Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants - well over 100,000 of them. And it offered, a number of times, to accept many more if the Arabs would conclude a peace agreement with Israel. And that the Palestinians are discriminated against, by law, in every Arab country.

But from the perspective of the leader of Human Rights Watch, it is Israel and only Israel that must be insulted and berated, even when it is trying to save lives.

The reason that Human Rights Watch has turned into a parody of human rights is in no small part due to the sickening bias that Ken Roth and his people have against Israel.

Terror attack against Israelis foiled in Bulgaria?

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 10:55 AM PST

JPost reports:
A suspicious package found last week on a bus carrying Israeli tourists from Turkey to Bulgaria was the cause for Israel's request to boost security over its citizens traveling in the country, according to reports in the Bulgarian press.

The Sofia News Agency Novinite quoted Dan Shenar, head of security at the Israeli Transportation Ministry, who confirmed he had requested the increased security. Bulgarian authorities have launched an investigation to determine what was inside the package and who placed it on the bus.
But Bulgaria denies it:
Bulgaria's border police have no information of a bomb being found in a bus boarded with Israeli tourists traveling towards a Bulgarian winter resort, the country's Interior Ministry has stated.

On Sunday, Israeli media reported that Bulgarian authorities last week foiled a bomb attack targeting a bus chartered to take Israeli tourists to a local ski resort. According to the report, there is an ongoing investigation concerning a terrorist group based in Europe and linked with Hezbollah.

The device was allegedly found by Bulgarian authorities last Tuesday.

However, representatives of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry told the Bulgarian National Radio on Monday that they have not received any information of such device being discovered.
There are also reports of increased security in Bulgaria around Israeli tourists, also being denied:
Increased police presence is reported in Bulgaria's top winter resort of Bansko with 50 policemen patrolling, and another 80 expected by the end of the month.

The information was reported Saturday by the Bulgaria "Trud" (Labor) daily. According to it, Defense Minister, Anyu Angelov, had given a permit to include one army company to assist security effort at the resort.

A large number of tourists from Israel are currently vacationing in Bansko.

On Thursday, Russian Israeli website IzRus, published information that the plot was unearthed by Bulgarian secret services, which promptly informed their Israeli colleagues.

The same day, Bulgaria's Interior Ministry refuted allegations that the level of security had been raised due to claims that Hezbollah might be planning attacks on Israeli citizens in the country.

The controversial information was officially rejected by the Foreign Ministry, which said Friday morning that it had received no such tip-off.

The reassurances were echoed Friday by Bulgarian Ministers of Defense, Transport and Economy.
So what is the truth?

A possible hint comes at the end of both the previous links:
On Friday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov advised the media against publishing sensational information about possible terrorist attacks in the country, explaining that such reports would hurt the ties between Bulgaria and the Arab countries.

(h/t Yoel)

Ibish shows his dishonesty again, "proves" Gaza is "occupied"

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 09:30 AM PST

In a sarcastic article in Now Lebanon, Hussein Ibish tries to pretend that anyone who says Israel isn't occupying Gaza is delusional:

Israel continues to control Gaza's airspace, territorial waters, the entry and exit of people and goods (with the exception of the Egypt crossing), its electromagnetic spectrum, a "buffer zone" in which unarmed Palestinians are routinely killed, and deploys into all parts of the territory and withdraws at will. As a consequence, no impartial observer can or does doubt that occupation continues.

It is fascinating: At no point does Ibish bring forth a definition of "occupation." And no wonder. Because the definition is clear - and it shows that Israel is not occupying Gaza by any sane criterion. (Saying the UN calls it "occupied" is not a sane criterion.) And none of the examples he brings has anything to do with the legal definition of occupation.

The Hague Conventions definition of 1907 is the only legal definition of occupation. That's it. The Fourth Geneva Conventions does not define it at all.

And here it is:

Art. 42. Territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army.

The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised.

Amnesty International expanded on this definition when the US invaded Iraq:
The sole criterion for deciding the applicability of the law on belligerent occupation is drawn from facts: the de facto effective control of territory by foreign armed forces coupled with the possibility to enforce their decisions, and the de facto absence of a national governmental authority in effective control. If these conditions are met for a given area, the law on belligerent occupation applies. Even though the objective of the military campaign may not be to control territory, the sole presence of such forces in a controlling position renders applicable the law protecting the inhabitants. The occupying power cannot avoid its responsibilities as long as a national government is not in a position to carry out its normal tasks.

The international legal regime on belligerent occupation takes effect as soon as the armed forces of a foreign power have secured effective control over a territory that is not its own. It ends when the occupying forces have relinquished their control over that territory.

The question may arise whether the law on occupation still applies if new civilian authorities set up by the occupying power from among nationals of the occupied territories are running the occupied territory's daily affairs. The answer is affirmative, as long as the occupying forces are still present in that territory and exercise final control over the acts of the local authorities.
Now, Ibish would argue, Amnesty themselves says that ISrael still occupies Gaza. But that proves that Amnesty is hypocritical, not that Israel is the occupier.

Legal scholar Abraham Bell adds:

[T]here is no legal basis for maintaining that Gaza is occupied territory. The Fourth Geneva Convention refers to territory as occupied where the territory is of another "High Contracting Party" (i.e., a state party to the convention) and the occupier "exercises the functions of government" in the occupied territory. The Gaza Strip is not territory of another state party to the convention and Israel does not exercise the functions of government-or, indeed, any significant functions-in the territory. It is clear to all that the elected Hamas government is the de facto sovereign of the Gaza Strip and does not take direction from Israel, or from any other state.

Some have argued that states can be considered occupiers even of areas where they do not declare themselves in control so long as the putative occupiers have effective control. For instance, in 2005, the International Court of Justice opined that Uganda could be considered the occupier of Congolese territory over which it had "substituted [its] own authority for that of the Congolese Government" even in the absence of a formal military administration. Some have argued that this shows that occupation may occur even in the absence of a full-scale military presence and claimed that this renders Israel an occupier under the Fourth Geneva Convention. However, these claims are clearly without merit. First, Israel does not otherwise fulfill the conditions of being an occupier; in particular, Israel does not exercise the functions of government in Gaza, and it has not substituted its authority for the de facto Hamas government. Second, Israel cannot project effective control in Gaza. Indeed, Israelis and Palestinians well know that projecting such control would require an extensive military operation amounting to the armed conquest of Gaza. Military superiority over a neighbor, and the ability to conquer a neighbor in an extensive military operation, does not itself constitute occupation. If it did, the United States would have to be considered the occupier of Mexico, Egypt the occupier of Libya and Gaza, and China the occupier of North Korea.

Moreover, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that foes of Israel claiming that Israel has legal duties as the "occupier" of Gaza are insincere in their legal analysis. If Israel were indeed properly considered an occupier, under Article 43 of the regulations attached to the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907, it would be required to take "all the measures in [its] power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety." Thus, those who contend that Israel is in legal occupation of Gaza must also support and even demand Israeli military operations in order to disarm Palestinian terror groups and militias. Additionally, claims of occupation necessarily rely upon a belief that the occupying power is not the true sovereign of the occupied territory. For that reason, those who claim that Israel occupies Gaza must believe that the border between Israel and Gaza is an international border between separate sovereignties. Yet, many of those claiming that Gaza is occupied, like John Dugard, also simultaneously and inconsistently claim that Israel is legally obliged to open the borders between Israel and Gaza. No state is required to leave its international borders open.

What do Israel's critics answer to these legal arguments? They don't. They sputter about "blockades" and "airspace" and other irrelevant criteria that have zero legal basis. Like Ibish, they make up their minds first and try to find facts later. Ibish here shows that he is no better than groups like Free Gaza who simply make stuff up to support what they don't know but what they fervently believe.

Ibish shows his dishonesty also by claiming that only Israel's "right wing" says Israel is not occupying Gaza. He's lying, of course. Israel's Supreme Court says that Gaza isn't legally occupied. . As the Turkel Report quoted them:

In Al-Bassiouni v. Prime Minister, the Supreme Court of Israel held that since the disengagement in 2005, Israel does not have 'effective control' over the Gaza Strip. Because of the importance of this conclusion, the actual wording of the Supreme Court is cited below:
'… since September 2005 Israel no longer has effective control over what happens in the Gaza Strip. Military rule that applied in the past in this territory came to an end by a decision of the government, and Israeli soldiers are no longer stationed in the territory on a permanent basis, nor are they in charge of what happens there. In these circumstances, the State of Israel does not have a general duty to ensure the welfare of the residents of the Gaza Strip or to maintain public order in the Gaza Strip according to the laws of belligerent occupation in international law. Neither does Israel have any effective capability, in its present position, of enforcing order and managing civilian life in the Gaza Strip.'

Ibish cannot bring up the slightest legal argument that Gaza is occupied. Neither can anybody else. That's why he instead falls back on sarcasm and the argument that, for example, since the UN Security Council says it is occupied, it must be.

 Yet that same UN Security Council stated (resolution 1973) that a blockade of Libya, enforcing a no-fly zone there, freezing its assets, restricting travel, and bombing the hell out of it, cannot be considered "occupation" ("while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory") - and the allies specifically insisted that they did not want to occupy Libya. Yet what is the difference between what the UN sanctioned in Libya and how Israel treated Gaza? Oh, yes - Gazans can move people and goods through Egypt.

But is there any merit in the Security Council declaring something to be occupied even if the law says otherwise? Not according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, who write in a legal analysis on their site about when occupation ended in Iraq:

From a political point of view, it is difficult to conclude otherwise in the face of a Security Council resolution that clearly states that occupation has ended. However, it is the reality and not the label that matters. As a matter of law, though, a formal proclamation of the end of occupation would be of limited importance if the facts on the ground indicate otherwise. [7 ] The test remains whether, despite any labelling in the Security Council resolution, a territory or part of it is " actually placed under the authority of the hostile army " as required by Article 42 Hague Regulations.

If the Security Council's stating that occupation has ended has no legal consequence, its declaring that it hasn't ended is equally unimportant. The only thing that matters is whether the facts onthe ground support the definition, not the definition itself that may be politically motivated.

The simple fact is that nowhere in the world has there ever been a legal occupation when the occupiers were not physically present on the ground. The fact that Israel-bashers want to change the law and the English language to shoehorn their bizarre theories of what "occupation" means into one that damns Israel and Israel alone does not make it so.

Proof by assertion is still not considered proof, at least by anyone who is honest. If Ibish wants to try to prove that Gaza is occupied, he needs to actually find answers to the legal and definitional proofs that state otherwise. (He also needs to state whether he believes that Israel is legally obligated to provide, say, health care and nutrition education to Gazans, which are things that legal occupiers are obligated to do.) His failure to do so shows that he is not nearly as serious of a scholar as he pretends to be.

How news is manufactured, Al Arabiya style

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 08:20 AM PST

From Al Arabiya:

A Moroccan minister of the ruling moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) told a crowd in Rabat that he anticipates Palestine to be liberated as more "walls" protecting Israel continue to fall during the Arab Spring, Moroccan Media reported on Tuesday.

Abdelkader Aâmara, minister of industry, trade and new technologies, was speaking during an event to commemorate the 2009 war on Gaza organized by the Moroccan initiative for the support of Palestine, Nossra and a student initiative against normalization with Israel.

Meanwhile, Khaled al-Sufyani, a Moroccan activist for a group that supports Iraq and Palestine, seconded Aâmara by saying that the liberation of Palestine will be in the "near future."

"Victory over the Zionist project is coming, as my brother Aâmara has said a while ago," according to Nossra, a web site.

Sufyani warned Moroccans not to rely on prime minister and PJD chief Abdelilah Benkirane alone to support Palestine. He accused André Azoulay, a Moroccan Jew and a senior adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco, of pushing the kingdom toward normalization with Israel.
But here's one interesting detail:
Aâmara, a member of Gaza Freedom Flotilla, decried the small audience at the event, saying that people have to "participate in such events because they are a media message that should reach the world."
So some Israel haters gave a speech to very few people in Rabat - and Al Arabiya features it as a worldwide story!

I found photos of the entire anti-Israel event. Lots of speakers and presentations, and it looks like it was done in a fair sized auditorium, but unfortunately there are no crowd shots.

Jordan banning Israeli tourists from bringing in food

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 07:10 AM PST

From YNet:
Jordanian authorities have issued an unusual order banning the entry of food through its western border crossings, apparently in an attempt to get Israeli tourists to spend more money during their stay in the kingdom.

According to a new warning published on the Israeli Foreign Ministry website, "For security and safety reasons, the entry of packed cooked food into Jordan through the border crossings has been banned."

What does security have to do with cooked food, you ask? Well, a short inquiry reveals that the Jordanians are not really concerned that Israelis are hiding weapons in their pots and pans.

Officially, Jordan explains that it won't allow the entry of food which has not undergone a veterinary health check and has not received a phytosanitary approval. The Foreign Ministry, for some reason, turned this instruction into a security warning.

But the real reason, apart from the sanitary excuse, is that Jordanians have had enough of seeing Israeli tourists avoiding local restaurants and failing to spend any money during their short visits to Petra.

The neighboring kingdom thinks it's unfair that Israelis tour the country, use tourist infrastructures, enjoy Jordanian treasures but infuse no money into the local economy.

According to a Jordanian source, Israeli tourists arriving for one-day visits usually bring along bottles of water, sandwiches and cooked dishes. Some even enter restaurants with the homemade food.

In order to deal with the situation, the kingdom is also planning to raise the entrance fee to the popular Red Rock site in Petra. As of March, the tariff will climb from 50 Jordanian dinars (about $70) to 80 dinars ($113). This is the second price hike in the past year – up from only 20 dinars ($28).

Some 100,000 Israelis visit Jordan every year, many of them for one-day trips which allow them to bring along homemade food and avoid spending money on a hotel.

This isn't the first time Jordanians come up with creative ways to deal with the Israeli "stinginess". In the past, they enacted a law forcing a group of more than six tourists to hire a local guide and increased the border-crossing fee.
I'm not sure if this was intentional, but combined with Jordan's previous ban on tefillin and yarmulkas, and given that there are no kosher restaurants in Jordan, this means that religious Jews can no longer visit Jordan on even short trips unless they don't eat anything beyond potato chips.

Fatah/Hamas "unity" continues as they attack each other

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST

Today's "unity" news:

Ismail Haniyeh's triumphant tour of Arab capitals, meeting with the leaders of countries like Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey, is really upsetting Fatah. He is now in Egypt again, and a source told Egypt's Youm7 that the PLO regards these meetings as proof that Egypt recognizes two governments and two prime ministers, one from Gaza and one from Ramallah, in contradiction with the "unity" agreements forged in Cairo.

Notably, Egypt's prime minister did not meet with Haniyeh on his first leg of his trip to Cairo, but he was pressured to do so by the Islamist elements who regard Hamas as their natural allies.

PLO complaints to Tunisia about them meeting Haniyeh resulted in them inviting Abbas for celebrations on the first anniversary of their revolution.

After Hamas complaints that Ramallah was not sending over adequate medical and pharmaceutical supplies to Gaza, the PA sent over truckloads of aid. But the PA director of public relations for the Department of Health, Omar Nasr, blamed Gaza's shortages on Hamas, pointing out that the de facto government dismissed the person in charge of Gaza's medicine and replaced him with a Hamas hack who doesn't know how to administer the stockpiles.

Meanwhile, the PA Health Ministry called upon international organizations to investigate allegations that Hamas is stealing drugs and selling them to patients rather than providing them for free as they are supposed to.

Yesterday, Hamas angrily denied Fatah statements that there were elements in Gaza who were fighting against reconciliation. Mahmoud Aloul, Fatah Central Committee member, reiterated the charge, in light of the supposedly humiliating delay of Fatah members attempting to enter Gaza on Friday.

The PCHR condemned Hamas for that incident, drawing an angry response.

Meanwhile, Hamas arrested the leader of Fatah Youth in Gaza.

And Mahmoud Zahar criticized the PLO negotiating with Israelis at the Quartet talks in Amman, saying that if Abbas is betting on peace with Israel rather than unity with Hamas, it will lose.

The media ignores Fatah's overtures to Islamic Jihad

Posted: 10 Jan 2012 03:31 AM PST

Last month, the unrepentant Islamic Jihad terrorist organization was invited to be a part of the PLO leadership.

This story was woefully under-reported in the Western media.

As with all stories that violate the false memes carefully constructed by the media - in this case of a moderate and peaceful PLO leadership - it was decided in newsrooms across America and Europe that it is best not to report on information that is unexplainable.

It is the media equivalent of sticking fingers in your ears, closing your eyes and shouting "I can't hear you!"

There is simply no way to square away the idea that Palestinian Arabs want peace with the idea of their "moderate" leadership inviting a terror group to join their ranks.

When the media was faced with reporting on Fatah overtures to Hamas, it faced a similar crisis. But it managed to solve that problem by finding lots of experts to show how Hamas is really pragmatic and how it was abandoning terror and how it hasn't been directly responsible for terror attacks for a real long time, maybe even months. After many such articles downplaying Hamas' murderous nature appeared - most carefully ignoring the daily speeches and interviews of Hamas leaders that directly contradicted this new meme - the media thought they managed to handle the contradiction of a "peace partner" embracing a group of terrorists.

Abu Imad Rifai, Islamic Jihad delegate
But then came the PLO's invitation to Islamic Jihad, which even the most craven of journalists cannot frame as a moderate group.

So, gutless as they are, the hundred of journalists in the Middle East didn't bother reporting the story, or mentioned it briefly in context of the major story of Hamas/Fatah unity without bringing up the obvious fact:

If Fatah is cozying up to Islamic Jihad, it is embracing terror.

Next Sunday, a PLO meeting is to be held in Amman, Jordan. Islamic Jihad was naturally invited.

Jordan - a nation as committed to a Palestinian Arab state as any other - refused to grant visas to Islamic Jihad members.

Because they are terrorists.


The PLO has no such problems with Islamic Jihad. Which should tell you all you need to know about the current leadership of the PLO and how much they want peace.
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