Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Who's right, Romney or the PLO?
Muslims claim Jews wearing priestly garments storm Al Aqsa
Tuesday night links

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 10:00 PM PDT

Over the past couple of days, Mitt Romney was slammed for saying, among other things:

I'm torn by two perspectives in this regard. One is the one which I've had for some time, which is that the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish. Now why do I say that? Some might say, well, let's let the Palestinians have the West Bank, and have security, and set up a separate nation for the Palestinians. And then come a couple of thorny questions. And I don't have a map here to look at the geography, but the border between Israel and the West Bank is obviously right there, right next to Tel Aviv, which is the financial capital, the industrial capital of Israel, the center of Israel. It's—what the border would be? Maybe seven miles from Tel Aviv to what would be the West Bank…The other side of the West Bank, the other side of what would be this new Palestinian state would either be Syria at one point, or Jordan. And of course the Iranians would want to do through the West Bank exactly what they did through Lebanon, what they did near Gaza. Which is that the Iranians would want to bring missiles and armament into the West Bank and potentially threaten Israel. So Israel of course would have to say, "That can't happen. We've got to keep the Iranians from bringing weaponry into the West Bank." Well, that means that—who? The Israelis are going to patrol the border between Jordan, Syria, and this new Palestinian nation? Well, the Palestinians would say, "Uh, no way! We're an independent country. You can't, you know, guard our border with other Arab nations." And now how about the airport? How about flying into this Palestinian nation? Are we gonna allow military aircraft to come in and weaponry to come in? And if not, who's going to keep it from coming in? Well, the Israelis. Well, the Palestinians are gonna say, "We're not an independent nation if Israel is able to come in and tell us what can land in our airport." These are problems—these are very hard to solve, all right? And I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say, "There's just no way." And so what you do is you say, "You move things along the best way you can." You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem. We live with that in China and Taiwan. All right, we have a potentially volatile situation but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it. We don't go to war to try and resolve it imminently.

Outside of Romney's idea that the West Bank borders Syria, and a little oversimplification, this is pretty accurate. Even under the most rosy scenarios, the chances that a Palestinian Arab state would end up being controlled by Iranian proxies within a couple of years is unacceptably high. After all, Hamas did win the last elections, and Gaza today could easily be the West Bank tomorrow.

But here was the reaction from the PLO's envoy to the US:

"The leaked statements by the Republican presidential nominee once again show complete ignorance of facts and realities regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Maen Areikat said in a statement.

"Romney's allegations that Palestinians are committed to the destruction of Israel are baseless given the fact that Palestinians have expressed support for the two-state solution, and repeatedly recognized Israel's right to exist."

And here is what Saeb Erekat said:

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said Tuesday that comments by US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that the Palestinians did not want peace were "absolutely unacceptable."

"We consider these statements absolutely unacceptable," he told AFP.

"No one has an interest in peace more than the Palestinian people, because peace for the Palestinian people and the Palestinian leadership means freedom and independence from the Israeli occupation," Erakat said.

So let's look at the numbers.

The latest PSR poll for which we have the full results, from June 2012, shows that 49% of Palestinian Arabs oppose a two-state solution.

The last Bir Zeit poll (from 2007) showed that 67.5% of those polled preferred a solution where Israel is destroyed.

In the latest PCPO poll from February only 15% supported peace negotiations, as opposed to an imposed solution or a new intifada.

And The Israel Project poll last year showed that the vast majority of those who said they wanted a two-state solution wanted it as a stage to take over all of the area and destroy Israel.

Of course, you can look at this video and see how many Palestinian Arab organizations show their desire for a two-state solution:

On balance, it seems that Romney's off-the-cuff remarks reflect reality more than the outraged soundbites of the PLO's official liars.

But what about the official position of the PLO itself? Surely it supports two states, right?

Well, yes - as long as both states are Arab-majority.

The PLO and the PA has consistently and adamantly refused to accept the formulation of "two states for two peoples." They want "Palestine" to be allowed to ethnically cleanse some half million Jews from its borders, while insisting that Israel must accept millions of Arabs as full citizens in the 1949 armistice lines. I've documented this exhaustively.

Erekat and Areikat are feigning offense at being told what they in fact believe themselves. But if you don't believe me, just find a reporter to ask them the question plainly: do you support two states for two peoples? We know what the answer would be.

(By the way, since Romney's leaked remarks are so newsworthy, when are we ever going to see the videotape of Obama's 2003 remarks at the dinner honoring Rashid Khalidi? Why is one off-the-record video leaked and the other one purposefully buried by the media? What is the line between good journalism and partisanship?)

Muslims claim Jews wearing priestly garments storm Al Aqsa

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 07:15 PM PDT

Qudsmedia "reports:"

Extremists and settlers broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque dressed as priests of the alleged Temple and performed Talmudic rituals especially in various parts of the al-Aqsa mosque, guarded by Israeli occupation forces. They stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the afternoon and wandered at the Dome of the Rock, and then led biblical and Talmudic rituals, despite the attempts by Aqsa Mosque guards to prevent it.

In recent days in the al-Aqsa mosque, it was noted that there are extremists and settlers deliberately if surreptitiously performing some biblical rituals in al-Aqsa mosque, wearing clothes for the "priests of the Temple", and then walked the path specified around the Aqsa mosque, and performed multiple biblical and Talmudic rituals, provocatively and noticeably, especially when they came out of the al-Aqsa mosque towards the door, some barefoot.

Here is what these dangerous stormers looked like:

Two of them are wearing kittels, a white garment that some Jews wear on Rosh Hashanah. It is not a priestly garment. (The guy with the earflaps is not exactly wearing a priestly garment either!)

Tuesday night links

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 05:40 PM PDT

From Ian:

Berlin Jewish Museum event calls for Israel boycott

Jewish institution hosts Judith Butler, who renews support of BDS movement; 700-strong audience cheers boycott call.
"The German taxpayer-funded museum's decision to showcase a speaker in the capital city, which during the Nazi period served as the launching pad for a boycott movement against German-Jewish businesses, has raised eyebrows about the management's direction of the museum.
In an email to The Jerusalem Post on Saturday, Professor Gerald Steinberg, who heads the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, termed the cultural institution the "Berlin anti-Jewish Museum."

PM Netanyahu on Meet the Press (VIDEO)

Arabs Try To Burn Books of Psalms on Mount of Olives

Three Arab youths were caught Saturday night desecrating Jewish holy books at a sacred Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem.

Merkel: Still hope for political solution on Iran

German chancellor says Tehran poses a threat not just to Israel, but to the whole world, yet political solutions have not been exhausted; EU foreign policy chief to meet Iranian negotiator as IAEA talks continue.

Australia: Girl, 8, calls on Islamic youth to back jihad

"AS PM Julia Gillard struggled to explain how Muslim children could be used to incite violence, eight-year-old Ruqaya yesterday fronted a congress of Islamic fundamendalists in Sydney to espouse her love for jihad. Addressing a 600-strong crowd at the Australian chapter of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Bankstown in the city's west, the young girl urged all Muslim youth to fight for the restoration of the Islamic caliphate, a single global government for all Muslims established under strict sharia law."

In anti-Islam movie furor, a filmmaker's lies have legs

Many still believe an Israeli-American real estate developer named Sam Bacile made movie, and that 100 Jews funded it
"Still, there are those who continue to cling to the false notion that Jews were behind the film. Days after the Jewish connection was shown to be a fiction, the English-language website of Iran's Press TV was repeatedly citing the disproved reports that the film was made by Jews. Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a statement blaming "evil Zionists" and the US government for the film."

Innocence of Muslims: A Review

Liberals used to mock conservatives for worrying that violent and sexually explicit movies could have an impact on audiences - now they don't question it.
"I watched a ten-minute clip of the movie because a) I wanted to know what all the fuss was about and b) I write film criticism professionally and have an interest in movies that cause a stir. It is the worst film I have ever seen that didn't star Adrian Grenier. The acting is terrible, the plotting non-existent, the cinematography amateur, and the tone vicious and bigoted. It's like The Birth of a Nation as directed by Ed Wood."

French Jewry alerted to watch out for 'fake Jews'

Local security services say terror groups may try to conduct reconnaissance and gain access to community buildings

Hamas calls on Egypt to reconsider shutting smuggling tunnels
Haniyeh and Mashaal to visit Cairo on Monday and discuss tunnels, economy and reconciliation

Rosh Hashanah in purgatory

My father, Alexander Breuer, fled the Nazis in 1938, only to return several years later with the US Army. He was among the first Americans to enter Buchenwald and witness, firsthand, the decimation of European Jewry. And on the scorched earth of occupied Germany, in 1945, he celebrated the High Holidays

Mitt Romney Recalls His Trip to Israel in Rosh Hashana Message VIDEO

New Book on William Cooper

A new book has been written about William Cooper, the Aboriginal who lead a march to the German Consulate to protest Kristellnacht in 1938…one of the few recorded protests world-wide.

Muslim Rage & The Last Gasp of Islamic Hate

Once again the streets of the Arab world are burning with false outrage. But we must hold our heads up high. Ayaan Hirsi Ali on how she survived Muslim rage—and how we can end it.
"How often have I endured bizarre conversations with government officials who cling to the illusion that the threat is temporary or that it can be negotiated. And then there are the even more delusional positions staked out by some prominent intellectuals who blame the writer, the politician, the filmmaker, or the cartoonist for provoking the threat. In the days after van Gogh was murdered, too many prominent Dutch individuals expressed precisely this position, declaring smugly, "Yes, of course killing is wrong, but Theo was a provocateur ..." Will they never cease looking for ever more ingenious ways of apologizing for free speech?"

Islamic Terror and the American Story

"Islamic terrorism has been part of the American story, since the first (1801-1805) and the second (1815) U.S. wars against Libya, Tunisia and Algeria-based Muslim pirates. Anti-U.S. Islamic terrorism has been fueled by Islam's imperialistic vision, inflamed by core American values — irrespective of American national security policy — systematically and deliberately targeting innocent Americans in the U.S. and abroad."

The psychology of the Muslim rioter
Muslims are frustrated with themselves. By directing anger towards the West, they are providing a distraction

Ryan: Obama Admin Treats 'Israel with Indifference Bordering on Contempt'

Speaking at the Values Voter Summit on Friday, Ryan said the Obama admin treats "Israel with indifference bordering on contempt." Obama's critics on this issue cite his administration's hesitance to stand with Israel should they strike Iran, their refusal to set red lines that might prevent a strike from being necessary in the first place, and Obama's recent decision to meet with David Letterman instead of Israeli PM Netanyahu as evidence of this indifference.

Maureen Dowd Goes Borderline Anti-Semitic: 'Neocons Slither Back'

"Maureen Dowd, on the eve of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish new year, decided to write a column dripping with anti-Semitism to attack Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan's hardline positions on the Middle East and national defense. In her rant, titled "Neocons Slither Back" Dowd used ancient anti-Semitic imagery."

Syria Tested Chemical Weapons Systems, Witnesses Say

"The Syrian army is believed to have tested missile systems for poison gas shells at the end of August, statements from various witnesses indicate.
The tests took place near a chemical weapons research center at Safira east of Aleppo, witnesses told SPIEGEL. A total of five or six empty shells devised for delivering chemical agents were fired by tanks and aircraft, at a site called Diraiham in the desert near the village of Khanasir. "

Khamenei blames 'Zionists' as Iranians protest film

Supreme leader says West must prove its innocence in US-made anti-Islam film; Iran FM asks UN's Ban to take legal action.

Iran claims its nuclear facilities could now survive enemy 'missile attacks and raids'

"Iran's nuclear chief said Monday that "terrorists and saboteurs" might have infiltrated the International Atomic Energy Agency in an effort to derail his nation's atomic program. He also said his country's nuclear facilities could now survive enemy attack."

Iran: Saboteurs cut power lines to nuclear bunker

Explosives used to cut power to Fordow plant last month, Iranian nuke chief claims; says "terrorists" have infiltrated IAEA.
Explosives were used to cut the electricity power lines to Iran's Fordow underground enrichment plant last month in an apparent attempt to sabotage Tehran's atomic advances, its nuclear energy chief said on Monday.

Freedom House: 'Arab Spring' countries at risk

Report finds that democratic governance declined worldwide in 2011, ME and N. African states may slip back into dictatorships.

Gaza court convicts 4 for Italian activist's murder

"Three of the defendants were identified by the Hamas-run court as Hamas security men who had been working for the Salafi group for ideological reasons. Two received life sentences and one was jailed for 10 years. The men flashed defiant smiles as the sentences were handed down.
The fourth man, a fisherman, fled Gaza after the killing and was sentenced in absentia to 12 months. Two other men were killed in a gun battle with Hamas forces trying to rescue Arrigoni."

Pro-Hamas bloc wins control of UNRWA union in Gaza

Islamist coalition takes 25 out of 27 seats among 10,000 Palestinian workers
The development underscores Hamas' influence among Gaza's professionals even though it has been criticized lately for ignoring the needs of the poor.

Egypt's Islamic TV talks with iron Salafist

A Muslim cleric hosting an Egyptian television show recently outlined his version of Islamic instructions for wife-beating. In another show, a cleric claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood, now governing Egypt, one day will rule the world.

PM Erdogan: Islamophobia should be recognized as crime against humanity

Pakistani Protester Burns American Flag and Dies From Smoke