יום שישי, 8 ביוני 2012

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder of Ziyon

CNN gives Erekat a pass (Honest Reporting)

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 02:00 PM PDT

From Honest Reporting:

The Independent notices that Arabs treat Pals like dirt (updated)

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 12:00 PM PDT

You don't see this every day in the mainstream media:
It is a cynical but time-honoured practice in Middle Eastern politics: the statesmen who decry the political and humanitarian crisis of the approximately 3.9 million Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in Gaza ignore the plight of an estimated 4.6 million Palestinians who live in Arab countries. For decades, Arab governments have justified their decision to maintain millions of stateless Palestinians as refugees in squalid camps as a means of applying pressure to Israel. The refugee problem will be solved, they say, when Israel agrees to let the Palestinians have their own state.

Yet in the two decades since the end of the Cold War, after two Gulf wars, and the rise and fall of the Oslo peace process, not a single Palestinian refugee has returned to Israel – and only a handful of ageing political functionaries have returned from neighbouring Arab countries to the West Bank and Gaza. Instead, failed peace plans and shifting political priorities have resulted in a second Palestinian "Nakba", or catastrophe – this one at hands of the Arab governments. "Marginalised, deprived of basic political and economic rights, trapped in the camps, bereft of realistic prospects, heavily armed and standing atop multiple fault lines," a report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) in Lebanon recently observed, "the refugee population constitutes a time bomb."

The fact that the divided Palestinian political leadership is silent about the mistreatment of the refugees by Arab states does not make such behaviour any less reprehensible – or less dangerous. Some 250,000 Palestinians were chased out of Kuwait and other Gulf States to punish the Palestinian political leadership for supporting Saddam Hussein. Tens of thousands of Palestinian residents of Iraq were similarly dispossessed after the second Gulf war.

In 2001, Palestinians in Lebanon were stripped of the right to own property, or to pass on the property that they already owned to their children – and banned from working as doctors, lawyers, pharmacists or in 20 other professions. Even the Palestinian refugee community in Jordan, historically the most welcoming Arab state, has reason to feel insecure in the face of official threats to revoke their citizenship. The systematic refusal of Arab governments to grant basic human rights to Palestinians who are born and die in their countries – combined with periodic mass expulsions of entire Palestinian communities – recalls the treatment of Jews in medieval Europe. Along with dispossession and marginalisation has come a new and frightening turn away from the traditional forms of nationalism that once dominated the refugee camps towards the radical pan-Islamic ideology of al-Qa'ida.
The comparison to Jews is offensive, of course. The Jews of medieval Europe didn't have the political voice that the Palestinian Arabs enjoy; they didn't have the ability to turn international pressure on their enemies at will, and they didn't have an international agency with billions of dollars at their disposal to help them out and provide a security blanket no matter what they did.
...
The inclusion of the descendants of Palestinian refugees as refugees in UNRWA's mandate has no parallel in international humanitarian law and is responsible for the growth of the official numbers of Palestinian refugees in foreign countries from 711,000 to 4.6 million during decades when the number of ageing refugees from the 1948 Israeli war of independence in was in fact declining. UNRWA's grant of refugee status to the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original Palestinian refugees according to the principle of patrilineal descent, with no limit on the generations that can obtain refugee status, has made it easy for host countries to flout their obligations under international law. According to Article 34 of the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, "The Contracting States shall as far as possible facilitate the assimilation and naturalisation of refugees," and must "make every effort to expedite naturalisation proceedings" – the opposite of what happened to the Palestinians in every Arab country in which they settled, save Jordan. For all the easy criticism that can be levelled at UNRWA, it is hard to see how many Palestinian refugees would have survived without the agency's help.

...
After 60 years of failed wars, and failed peace, it is time to put politics aside and to insist that the basic rights of the Palestinian refugees in Arab countries be respected – whether or not their children's children return to Haifa anytime soon. While Saudi Arabia may not wish to host Israeli tourists, it can easily afford to integrate the estimated 240,000 Palestinian refugees who already live in the kingdom – just as Egypt, which has received close to $60bn in US aid, and has a population of 81 million, can grant legal rights to an estimated 70,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants. One can only imagine the outrage that the world community would rightly visit upon Israel if Israeli Arabs were subject to the vile discriminatory laws applied to Palestinians living in Arab countries. Surely, Palestinian Arabs can keep their own national dream alive in the countries where they were born, while also enjoying the freedom to work, vote and own property?

A practical solution to the crisis of the Palestinian refugees in Arab countries will focus on Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, which together play host to approximately 3 million of the estimated 4.6 million Palestinian refugees living outside the West Bank and Gaza. While each of these countries has chosen different legal and political approaches to the 1948 refugees and their descendants, they share a political desire to sublimate the rights of Palestinian residents, treating them as unwanted guests or as tools to be used in pursuing wider political interests – but rarely as fully-fledged members of society. Lebanon, where Palestinians led by Yasser Arafat are widely blamed for having sparked the 1975 civil war, is the worst offender against international norms. Yet even in Jordan, which is in many ways a model for the humane treatment of a large refugee population, Palestinians today feel markedly less secure than they did two decades ago, or even five years ago.

...The fact that the living standard of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has been deemed "catastrophic" by both UNRWA and by the Lebanese government can therefore be understood as a deliberate result of official state policy that is supported by all parties across Lebanon's divided confessional spectrum. As a member of the Lebanese parliament, Ghassan Moukheiber, explained in an interview with the ICG, "our official policy is to maintain Palestinians in a vulnerable, precarious situation to diminish prospects for their naturalisation or permanent settlement".


...For many of these refugees at the bottom of Jordan's social and economic pecking order, life without papers means hiding from the police who constantly patrol their camp's streets, being too poor to send any of your eight to 10 children to college, a lifetime of menial labour, and only a threadbare dream of returning to a homeland that most of them have never seen. There is strong suspicion of the state, but also of their neighbours, who are divided into "'48 people" and "'67 people". "Some of the newcomers would give away Al Aqsa for a Jordanian identity card," says Heba, a mother of eight, mentioning Islam's celebrated mosque in Jerusalem, one of its holiest shrines.

"We're Jordanians," says her son, Mustapha, a slender, 20-year-old in a bright orange T-shirt emblazoned with meaningless words in unknown languages. "This is the best place in the world," he says, pointing around the bare living room whose worn rugs and threadbare pillows cover the floor on which he and all his siblings sleep. "We would never leave here. But I'm loyal to my country, and I would like to visit it one day."

He seems perplexed when asked which is his country – Jordan or Palestine. "We have no security here, but we are Jordanians," replies Mustapha, who lounges on a mattress in a two-storey cement house down the road while one of his five daughters offers tiny glasses of steaming herbal tea and cardamom-scented coffee. "Everything I have is here. This house. My car. My job. What would I have in Nablus or Be'ersheba?" he declares. "My children know nothing but Jordan. And we will stay here."

That determination, echoed repeatedly through the dilapidated cement homes that line Baqa'a's gravelly streets and dust-filled shops, is precisely what terrifies Jordan's East Bank establishment. Jordanians have reason to fear their Palestinian guests. Many Jordanians have not forgotten "Black September", the civil war launched by Arafat's Fatah organisation in 1970 which nearly toppled King Hussein's kingdom.
Read the whole thing.

I don't know how long the authors worked on this article, but I would suspect that it would never have seen the light of day had not American senators brought up the issue of redefining Palestinian Arab refugees. That is all it takes to allow the world to start seeing the truth, or at least being informed about basic facts of the Middle East that have been suppressed - overtly or covertly - by so many for so long for their own selfish political purposes.

(h/t @avimayer)

UPDATE: I didn't realize that this article was from October, 2009. (h/t Brad)

More embarrassingly -  I had blogged it then.

How things were when we had those wonderful "1967 lines"

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 10:30 AM PDT

Today is the 45th anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem from its illegal Jordanian occupation. But to the world, it was the day that Israel started its "illegal occupation" of part of the city.

Here's an article from December 1959, from Elmore Philpott of the Vancouver Sun, describing Jerusalem, in those wonderful days before it was "occupied":



This is the "status quo" that lasted for a mere 19 years that the entire world wants things to return to.

Oh, they won't say it - they'll say that there will be continue to be free access to both sides, especially  to the holy places.

Just like the Arabs agreed in 1949.

Links from Ian, and more links from me

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 09:00 AM PDT

EI (not linked) are whining about Finkelstein's "broken clock" moment again, this time he's talked too much about Jews and called BDS a pointless "historically criminal" cult.

The Democracy Now interview. Norman Finkelstein Waning Jewish American Support for Israel Boosts Chances for Middle East Peace

"You read the last sentence of the 2004 International Court of Justice opinion on the wall that Israel has been building in the West Bank, and the last sentence says, "We look forward to two states: a Palestinian state alongside Israel and at peace with its neighbors." That's the law.
And if you want to go past that law or ignore the Israel part, you'll never reach a broad public. And then it's a cult. Then it's pointless, in my opinion. We're wasting time. And it's only a wasting of time. It becomes—and I know it's a strong word, and I hope I won't be faulted for it, but it becomes historically criminal, because there was a time where whatever we said, it made no difference."

The West should condition aid to the Palestinian Authority on cessation of terror-promotion
After two decades of policy failure, is it not about time the West tried a more demanding approach toward the Palestinian Authority?

Most Arabs prefer living in Israel, accept Jewish character of the state
"A full 68.3 percent of Arabs prefer to live in Israel over any other country in the world, according to a survey carried out by Professor Sammy Smooha of the University of Haifa. The survey, held annually, was conducted among a representative sample of 1,400 Israelis, about half of whom were Arabs."

German Government in Hot Water for Supporting Israel's Right to Exist
Re Israel's new submarines
"The right-leaning government is being accused of actively participating in Israeli nuclear deterrence, and is being asked to justify its positions. Isn't it curious that the same parties will not condemn Iran uranium enrichment, even though they are livid about the German civil nuclear program? Or that the socialist party will not speak out about human rights in Iran? It appears that when it comes to politics there is only one easy target everybody can agree on: Israel, and anyone who aids it."

FBI Probes Leaks on Iran Cyberattack
Democrats Join GOP in Condemning Leaks on Military, Intelligence

Israel and pro-Israel forces across the world must think up ways to mitigate the damage should the Hashemite regime fall.

Arafat moneyman gets 15 years for corruption

Two suspects arrested in anti-Semitic attacks in France
New French Socialist Government Does Little about Rising Antisemitic Violence

OECD Israeli technology can alleviate global water crisis


Also:

Jonathan Shcnzer in FP on Mahmoud Abbas' sons' remarkable business success. I'm sure it's all legit.

A reporter goes undercover as an African migrant in Tel Aviv.

The Netherlands came up with a compromise plan on kosher and halal slaughter that makes everyone happy.

More from Jennifer Rubin on the refugee racket.

A huge treasure trove from Roman times found near Kiryat Gat.

And a 13-year old kid with a yarmulka wows the judges on America's Got Talent.

A Palestinian Arab myth disproven yet again

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 07:30 AM PDT

Yesterday, another 925 Palestinian Arabs with Egyptian mothers became Egyptian citizens.

This proves yet again that Palestinian Arabs would prefer to be citizens of Arab countries rather than be used as pawns by their leaders promising them "return" to a land most never lived in.

And  it proves yet again that all the Arab leaders (and Western NGOs) that declare that "return:" is the only solution are acting against the wishes of the Palestinian people they pretend to care about.

The "human rights" organizations and Arab leaders who do not pressure Arab host nations to naturalize their stateless "guests" are hypocrites when they say they are doing it for Palestinians.

More details from this previous post.

Did Obama say that Abbas may not want peace?

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Yesterday, in YNet, it was reported that in a meeting with Jewish leaders, President Obama said that he feared that the Palestinian Authority was no longer interested in advancing the peace process with Israel.

The article has since been changed and it no longer says that, even though the headline yesterday was "Obama: Abbas may not want peace":


The new article says "US President Barack Obama told Orthodox Jewish leaders on Tuesday that PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority may be too politically weak to deliver a peace agreement and that he fears that the window of opportunity for a deal is closing."

There is a bit of a difference between not wanting peace and being too weak to achieve peace.

The Times of Israel confirms YNet's original account:
He said peace was critical as the Arab democracy movement swept the region, but worried that the Palestinian leadership was no longer as interested in advancing toward peace.
Arab media were upset over the report, and Palestine Press Agency reports today that, according to PA resident liar in chief Saeb Erekat, The White House denied the statement:
Negotiations Affairs Department in the Palestine Liberation Organization leader Saeb Erekat said on Wednesday that the White House provided clarification on the remarks of President Barack Obama, about the commitment of President Mahmoud Abbas to the peace process, which stated 'that what was attributed to President Obama was disgraceful, and President Obama did not question the intentions of President Abbas and his commitment to the peace process'.

President Obama re-confirmed his commitment to continue to make every possible effort to push the peace process forward.
There is no such clarification on the White House website.

On the other hand, I can see some of the Jewish leaders misquoting or misunderstanding the president in an off-the-record meeting.

The fact that Abbas and the Palestinian Arab leadership are not interested in peace is not in doubt, as I have documented countless times. It would be very interesting if President Obama realized this and stated it, though. Not the same as doing it publicly - which is what is really necessary - but interesting nonetheless.

EU expands definition of PalArab "refugees" beyond UNRWA's

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 02:49 AM PDT

From the EU Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection website:

Palestinians in Lebanon: In 2012 ECHO continues its assistance to around 100,000 Palestinian refugees, which is almost 40% of the Palestinian refugee population living in Lebanon. With €5 million, the aid ensures shelter, safe water and sanitation, access to secondary health care, psychosocial support, protection and legal aid. Particular attention is paid to those refugees who do not receive aid from UNRWA and other organizations, especially those living in the 42 unofficial 'gatherings', and those lacking the legal status to benefit from UNRWA's aid programme.
Who are these Palestinian Arab "refugees" who do not receive aid from UNRWA?

From their 2012 report:
Refugees non registered and with no IDs: In addition to the registered refugees, an estimated 35,000 non-UNRWA registered and 3,000 non-identified Palestinians live in Lebanon without any official means of identification. The absence of an appropriate legal status and protection has put these refugees in a situation of extreme vulnerability.

This means that, according to the EU, there are some 38,000 Palestinians who do not qualify for aid by UNRWA, but are considered "refugees."

But the very definition of a Palestinian refugee is one who falls under UNRWA's mandate!

The only reason that Palestinian Arab "refugees" retain their anomalous status of being defined as refugees even though they do not fit the criteria listed by the 1951 Convention on Refugees is because of the loophole written specifically for them in article 1, paragraph D:
This Convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance.
That meant that those receiving aid from UNRWA in 1951 were considered refugees even if they did not meet the other criteria listed in the Convention. That disconnect has gotten orders of magnitude worse as UNRWA's "working definition" of refugees expanded to include descendants and did not establish any criteria for losing refugee status.

These 35,000-38,000 people do not fit even under UNRWA's expanded definition of "Palestinian refugee," therefore they are not refugees.

They are stateless, however, because of Lebanese bigotry against Palestinian Arabs and refusal to allow people born on Lebanese territory to become citizens, but they are not refugees by any legal or UN definition of the term.

No doubt they need help and the EC is doing a service by providing it to them, but the EU is doing them a disservice by referring to them as "refugees". If it cared about them more than about the fear of Arabs complaining to them, the EU would be pressuring Lebanon to give citizenship to these stateless people - people who are in their current situation because of Lebanese actions.

But to this humanitarian organization, politics is more important than finding a true solution.
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