This comes from a 1922 book called "Truth about the Jews, Told by a Gentile" by Walter Hurt. I have no doubt that Hurt felt he was sympathetic to Jews and that his advice was meant to help Jews worldwide. Yet his analysis, which sounds so thorough, was shown by history to be thoroughly wrong.
Zionism is sentimentalism. Its impractical aspects should be apparent to any who gives the subject serious analysis. This fatal sentimentalism is shown at the outset in the selection of Palestine as the site for a Jewish commonwealth. Sentiment alone, unmixed with any practical considerations, could have governed such a choice. Palestine is a comparatively unfruitful country, partly an arid region and partly malarial marshes. Its arable soil is sterile, its natural resources are exhausted, its topographical advantages are few and unimportant, it is not contiguous to centers of either supply or consumption, it is without navigable streams and has no adequate harbor, it is surrounded by hostile hordes and is internally overrun by antagonistic Arabs. All worth while that remain to it are its traditions, and, while these are historically precious, they are a poor foundation for an economic state. Moreover, the claim to its shrines must be shared with the mass of mankind, for every Christian and Moslem as well as the Jew calls it the Holy Land.
Modern Palestine is, in truth, a land of desolation. It may be the Holy Land, but it is not a happy land.
Because of its territorial limitations (its area is some 10,000 square miles—less than the little state of Maryland), it is not possible in these days for Palestine, however plethorically peopled, to become a national entity of importance and power sufficient to justify its existence.
And what Jews would migrate to Palestine? The persecuted and oppressed? The old Order of racial oppression rapidly is vanishing and soon will be no more than a historical memory. The Zionist movement was originated, I believe, chiefly to provide refuge for Jews from the cruelties of Russia, Poland, and Roumania. But such sanctuary no longer is needed. The regime of Russian tyranny has passed, Poland's barbarous power is broken, and Roumania will be made to behave itself. Persecution of Jews, incidental to their presence among Gentiles, persists to some extent in all lands, but this now is too limited to drive them to Palestine from the ends of the earth.
The comfortable classes will not go. Zangwill says of these that he finds "the majority more united for civilization than for colonization."
Prosperous Jews certainly can not be expected to emigrate to Palestine from the countries of their present contentment. The less affluent who are established in employment could not benefit by severing existing associations and removing to Palestine to make a fresh start.
Self-appointed leaders of Zionism have no intention of personally joining the Palestinian colony. They are leaders who will remain in the rear. They are no Moseses.
...What, then, is the aim of the Zionists as to the personnel of the Palestinian State? Do they plan to dump all their defectives, incompetents, and other dependents into the Holy Land, where collectively they can be cared for least expensively? These scarcely would make a creditable colony, one that would reflect favorably before the world the national aspirations of the race. They are not the material for the building of a powerful and permanent state. They could not successfully manage industries, direct government, and develop culture. Moreover, I fear there are not enough failures among the Jews to constitute a very extensive colony.
If the least capable are thus to be colonized, they inevitably would be exploited by designing demagogues of their own race, as well as become the prey of all predatory foreigners.
...There is no need today for a Jewish homeland, for there no longer are homeless Jews except as a common condition of European warfare. The Jew now is a powerful part of nearly every great nation, enjoying civic rights equally with the Gentile. When other governments shall cease fighting Russia, directly or indirectly, and allow the nation to function normally, that vast region of almost virgin resources will afford desirable residence for the Jews or any other race, and be a fit field for Jewish enterprise. Also, Australia, Canada, the United States, and all LatinAmerica give ample area for Jewish expansion.
Palestine is a land of traditions, where, if the Jew be thence transplanted, the burden of the past will weigh heavily upon him. He needs to dwell in new lands, where he always would face the future. It were better for him that he have a fresh outlook, instead of turning his vision forever backward.
The denationalized Jew is welcomed into every progressive community because he enlarges its productive capacity; he is cordially accepted by every advanced government because he adds to the aggregate of taxable wealth. As a national entity he would be a bone of contention among rival powers and an object of collective spoliation.
Among the diverse difficulties confronting such a colony would be the lack of a universal language. Few things are more conducive to inharmony among mankind than what Roget, the English philologist, laments as "that barrier to the interchange of thought and mutual good understanding between man and man, which now is interposed by the diversity of their respective languages."
As a practical vehicle for intercommunication, Hebrew virtually is a dead language. In its purity it is habitually spoken by only 5 per cent of the Jews of the world, being kept alive to this limited extent chiefly by the Chassidim. Consequently, the Jews in Palestine, gathered from all quarters of the globe, would be hampered in their intercourse by a polyglot nomenclature, consisting of Yiddish, Ladino, and other Jewish jargons, as well as all the various vernaculars of the different countries whence the colonists were transplanted.
From this condition would result a "confusion of tongues" such as we are told in biblical lore prevailed at the building of the Tower of Babel, where, according to Kipling's description, "each man talked of the aims of Art, and each in an alien tongue."
...Realized Zionism would be a reversal of the process of progress, a backward step across the chasm of 2000 years. Judaism should be expanded by emigration, not contracted by colonization. It is but natural, perhaps, that the Jews should chafe at their anomalous position of being a nationality without a nation—a people unique in this as in all other things. But it is precisely because the Jews are not a nation that they can become a part of all nations, to achieve international redemption. Israel was'' dispersed to discharge a mission to spread the principles of truth and justice and be a model of righteousness unto all the nations of earth." How, then, may it fulfill this mission if it withdraw again unto itself?
Modern Zionism simply would make of Palestine a magnified ghetto. The true Zion is a spiritual domain whose dimensions can not be defined by metes and bounds.
Jews should realize that Zionism is not exclusively their own concern. The Jewish mission is a world mission, affecting all the inhabitants of earth.
Wherefore, the destiny of Israel is not an individual destiny; it involves the destiny of all humankind.
It behooves the Jews to bear faithfully in mind the primal promise to Abraham, "Thou shalt be a father of many nations"—not just one paltry political state. And when disposed to be forgetful of the magnitude of their mission they should recall the covenant with Jacob that "in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." For myself, I am one Gentile who is unwilling to be cheated of his part in this patrimony, but would hold the Jews to the ancient bargain with their fathers.
...Zionism holds in its plan a fatal contradiction. It would re-establish Jewish nationalism as a means of preserving the Jews as a people. A part of the purpose is to relieve the Jew of oppressive restrictions. As a matter of fact, persecution has been his only preservative. Racial cohesion is a consequence of resistance to invasion of his rights. Remove this cohesive agent, and Judaism would dissolve like a lump of salt in water. So, the pressure of persecution being all that binds the Jews together, Zionism aims a death-blow at Jewish solidarity.
But the Jews now are so cosmopolitan in character, so thoroughly intermingled with other peoples, so firmly affixed in their associations, and have such enduringly established interests that never again will they attach themselves collectively to a territorial unit. They will remain distributed throughout the world, the better to disseminate the doctrines of Judaism.
Incredibly, after arguing that Jews are better off sprinkled throughout the world to spread their universal message, and that modern nations welcome their Jewish citizens, Hurt does a complete turnaround to justify the next argument:
...It is by no means a rash statement to affirm that at bottom Zionism is not a Jewish, but an anti-Semitic movement, despite the unimpeachable sincerity and unquestioned devotion of its Jewish proponents. Crafty Gentile leaders openlv encourage the colonization plan, while a majority of the dominant class secretly promote the project. Why? Is it because they love the Jew and have his best interests at heart? You know it isn't! Jews should again be reminded to "beware the Greeks bearing gifts." Now that the Jew has grown too strong in his dispersion to be longer despoiled, the Gentiles desire no more of him and would be rid of his presence among them. They would have the Jew go to Palestine, that they may seize upon the opportunities he will leave behind. In confession of their weakness, they would relieve themselves of his successful competition.
Again, while there is strength in unity, not always is there strength in concentration. Israel distributed but unified can effectively defend itself; Jews gathered in a single concentration camp can easily be suppressed and controlled. This was proved in a small way by the Pale. Shall Palestine become a larger Pale?
Progressive civilization soon will compel an end of pogroms; but a Jewish nation is a logical object of armed attack in "legitimate" warfare, pretext for which readily can be provided in conformity with "international law." With the Jews collected in Palestine and virtually defenseless, their wholesale slaughter can more conveniently be accomplished. This may be the Gentile solution to the Jewish Problem. This incredible suggestion will, of course, provoke skeptical smiles from confident and confiding Jews who have learned nothing precautious from the sanguinary lessons of racial history, nor even grasped the stupendous significance of the present world-wave of anti-Semitic agitation.
If preservation and not destruction of the Jews is the desire of the Gentile nations, why do they, while approving Zionism, permit in Europe exterminative war against the Jews without so much as a polite protest?—indeed, abetting that slaughter even to the extent of providing the Polish murderers and the anti-Semitic renegade Russian commander, General Wrangel, with the very bullets with which they butcher Jews. None can be so credulous as for one moment to suppose the complaisant powers could not, did they wish to do so, instantly stop this slaughter of Jews merely by indicating that wish. Certain it is that this result could be assured by refusing further aid until the atrocities cease.
Also, the Gentile fears the fulfillment of Israel's mission, which in his blindness he can not see as a universal blessing, thinking it means Jewish material dominance instead of spiritual supremacy—which misbelief is shared by some Jews. Furthermore, the Jewish ideal is opposed to his selfish interests. He would delay the New Dispensation with its reign of social righteousness, that he still may trample truth and justice. In Zionism he sees the surest means for the miscarriage of the Jewish mission and the defeat of humanity's highest hope.
...It is not a part of the predestined program of Jewish emancipation that the Jew should emigrate en masse from the lands of his persecution. That would be defeat. He must tarry and triumph. It is his mission to remain and civilize his persecutors, to the end that persecution may cease; thus, in self-defense, fulfilling his ordained destiny.
If he would be true to his mission, the last place a Jew should leave is the country of his oppression; that is where he most is needed. Instead of forsaking the inhospitable land for a place of paternalistic refuge, he should remain to redeem it and make it fit for the abiding of all men.
Zionism means evacuation and retreat—a desertion of the field and defeat for the cause.
Again, I really believe that the author believed that he was giving honest advice - and that he truly felt that the best thing for persecuted Jews to do is to stay and convince their persecutors to become better people. Unfortunately, too many Jews nowadays still hold onto this bizarre mindset.
Who are this generation's Hurts - Peter Beinart?Thomas Friedman? Roger Cohen?Ian Lustick? We have no shortage of self-proclaimed "experts" whose analysis and predictions are just as painfully wrong as Hurt's, yet who are just as earnest as he was.
The fact is that no one can predict a single move ahead in a geopolitical chess game where the opponent is playing with different rules, a different board and a different frame of reference. It is a generalization of what I have called the If/Then Fallacy - people say that if Israel/Jews do X, then the reaction will definitely be Y. And almost invariably, they are wrong.
None of these "experts" can predict a single future conditional event accurately, let alone a cascade of such events over the course of years or decades. If this essay above proves anything, it is the truth of the famous phrase of David Ben Gurion: "In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles."
Just as Walter Hurt's assumptions were proven to be thoroughly at odds with what actually happened, today's "experts" replace the lessons if history with their hubris, making wild assumptions and predictions of dire consequences that are no less invalid than Hurt's was.
When Transjordan conquered the West Bank in 1948 and annexed it in 1950, it did so on a territory that had been allocated to Jewish self-determination by post-World War I international treaties. Hence Jordan's sovereignty over the West Bank was never recognized by the international community (with the exception of Britain and Pakistan). When Israel conquered the West Bank in June 1967, it did so in a legitimate act of self-defense (as opposed to Jordan's military aggression in 1948). Israel did not cross an international border, but a temporary armistice line. It did not conquer a recognized sovereign territory, but one that had been allocated to the Jewish People by the League of Nations and that had been unlawfully controlled by Jordan for 19 years. Therefore, many international lawyers dispute the assertion that the West Bank is an occupied territory and that the 1949 Geneva Convention applies to it. Article 49 of the convention, which prohibits the mass transfer of populations into occupied territories, was meant to prevent what was a common German practice during WWII, not the voluntary settlement of Jews in a land that was allocated to them for that very purpose by the League of Nations. The actions brought against Israeli companies that operate beyond the 1949 Armistice Line are therefore legally groundless, even according to the disputable opinion that Israel's presence beyond that line is illegal. However, were other European courts to vindicate anti-Israeli boycotters in the future, then hundreds of European companies would be exposed to lawsuits because of their activities and investments in countries that occupy territories or that control disputed ones. The list includes, among others, China (over Tibet), Russia (over Abkhazia), Turkey (over Cyprus), and Morocco (over Western Sahara). Although BDS activists do not have a case, they are potentially exposing hundreds of European companies operating in the above countries to liability. I say bring it on and give Europe a taste of its own medicine.
As a strong supporter of the two state solution and a critic of Israel's settlement policies, I am particularly appalled at efforts to impose divestment, boycotts and sanctions against Israel, and Israel alone, because BDS makes it more difficult to achieve a peaceful resolution of the Mid-East conflict that requires compromise on all sides. The BDS movement is highly immoral, threatens the peace process and discourages the Palestinians from agreeing to any reasonable peace offer. Here are ten compelling reasons why the BDS movement is immoral and incompatible with current efforts to arrive at a compromise peace.
As the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement becomes more popular with both the Hard Left and Hard Right in America (spurred on by both rabid anti-Semites as well as anti-Zionist Jews who somehow are fine to be in alliance) it is important that we who support the Zionist dream of Israel have the right answers and tools necessary to argue our cause in a rational and easily understood manner. Before we start however it is important to recognize that the goal of BDS is the elimination of the State of Israel. Nothing more, nothing less. They want Israel as it was conceived gone.
Moreover, many recent BDS "victories" are actually optical illusions. Take, for instance, the announcement by Denmark's largest bank that it's divesting from Bank Hapoalim. But as Hapoalim pointed out, "Denmark's Danske Bank has no investments, of any kind, with Bank Hapoalim." Similarly, the Norwegian Finance Ministry recently ordered its sovereign wealth fund to divest from two other Israeli companies–but again, the fund had no investments in those companies. Such "faux boycotts" are obviously still damaging, because they create the illusion that BDS is gathering steam. Nevertheless, they're a far cry from real boycotts that do real economic damage. In short, despite John Kerry's warnings that if peace talks fail, anti-Israel boycotts will metastasize, BDS remains a fringe movement that can still be thwarted. It will grow to threatening proportions only if Israel and its allies make no effort to challenge it.
The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday it expects Israel's GDP growth to remain stable at 3.4 percent in 2014, but noted that social disparities pose a threat to the economy. "Israel's economic fundamentals remain strong. GDP growth is solid, unemployment is low and inflation remains firmly anchored within the one-three percent target range," the International Monetary Fund said after its latest review of the economy. "The financial sector is in good health and the external position is strong," the report added.
Just days after The Jerusalem Post broke the story that the Stones were closing in on a June 10 show at Ramat Gan Stadium, the BDS movement opened a Facebook page Wednesday, calling on the band to cancel their plans to play in Israel "due to the state's crimes against humanity." A Thursday post on the Facebook page claimed that pro-Israel hackers had unsuccessfully attempted to take down the site.
Rajoub, a senior Fatah official and former Palestinian Authority security commander, said that the Palestinians won't accept any compromises or half solutions to solve the problems facing Palestinian athletes and sports. "We will demand the expulsion of Israel from FIFA and the International Olympics Committee," Rajoub told reporters in Ramallah.
British photographer Rankin has launched a blistering attack on what he called "powerful Jewish zealots" in the United States and blamed "extreme Judaism" for the Israel-Palestinian conflict. In an interview with the Independent, the portrait and fashion photographer criticised actress Scarlett Johansson for leaving her ambassadorial role with Oxfam over a row regarding Israeli West Bank settlements.
A French court on Wednesday ordered controversial comic Dieudonne to remove two sections of a video he has posted on YouTube which has been widely condemned as anti-Semitic. In a ruling that will increase the pressure on the video-sharing website to ban the comedian from its platform altogether, a judge ruled that one of the passages breached French law on Holocaust denial and another one amounted to incitement to racial hatred.
So according to Shihab-Eldin not only is the charge of anti-Semitism inappropriately used, it also doesn't exclusively refer to discrimination against Jewish people. So, what – in this guy's opinion – is the correct term to be used for hatred of Jews alone? On his Monday show, Shihab-Eldin hosted Professor Stephen Walt, author of "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," a book personally recommended by Osama Bin Laden, which asserts that American Jews have a stranglehold on U.S. foreign policy to the detriment of the American people. The segment was titled: "Stephen Walt On Israel: 'More Open Discourse,' Anti-Semite Smear 'Overused.'"
It's hard to see how self-respecting Presbyterians can set foot in PC(USA) churches! The denomination has been hijacked by people who have it in for Jews and their homeland. When it comes to promoting peace and human rights, PC(USA) peacemakers have Jews on the brain. Just how bad is it? A Presbyterian report prepared by the denomination's peacemakers – and sold on the denomination's website - has gotten glowing reviews from both David Duke and Iran's PressTV. Here is David Duke's victory lap:
Herman Van Rompuy claimed that the poem, "The Seagull," written by Cyriel Verschaeve, was a favorite of his mother-in-law's, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday. Verschaeve, a Catholic priest, was a leading Flemish nationalist, and long admired German imperial culture. After the Nazi occupation of Belgium, he recruited soldiers for the volunteer SS Flemish Legion, and was appointed by the Nazis to head the Flemish cultural council. He met with Heinrich Himmler in 1944.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center sent a strongly-worded letter to Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Frans Asscher Tuesday addressing a major degradation of the attitude in the Netherlands toward Jews and the State of Israel. The specific issue the letter addresses is a statistic from the University of Bielefeld showing that 39% of Dutch citizens believe Israel is conducting a "war of extermination" against the Palestinian Arabs.
Our Jewish brothers in Venezuela have emigrated by the thousands, many of them to Miami, others to Spain, Panama, Peru, Costa Rica, Chili and Mexico. Some have made aliya. Throughout the world they still manage to sit for Shabbat, several generations together, and dream of rebuilding their lives. They know that hatred did not cease last year on the 27th of January when the National Assembly unanimously approved an agreement in memory of Holocaust victims – when Chavistas in parliament devoted the occasion to slander and demonization of Israel on the grounds that they consider it to be committing a genocide.
The latest pieces were found at the property in Salzburg belonging to Cornelius Gurlitt, his spokesman said Tuesday, just months after the art world was rocked by news of a spectacular trove of more than 1,400 works unearthed at his German home in 2012. A first inspection indicates there is no Nazi loot — artwork that the fascist regime stole from Jewish owners or bought from them cheaply under duress — in the latest discovery, spokesman Stephan Holzinger said.
The new George Clooney film, "The Monuments Men," tells the thrilling story of U.S. military personnel who during World War II risked their lives to rescue paintings by the likes of Rembrandt, Picasso, and Chagall that the Nazis had stolen. But for Connecticut civil rights attorney Bill Bingham, the story is one of tragic irony. His father, Hiram Bingham IV, was a dissident U.S. diplomat who helped rescue Marc Chagall after the Roosevelt administration abandoned the painter—the same administration that later made such efforts to recover Chagall's paintings. Save the artwork, abandon the artist? It's a peculiar legacy, as Bingham explains in this exclusive interview.
Joining Clooney on the red carpet at the Odeon Leicester Square was Harry Ettlinger, one of the original Monuments Men. The actor introduced him to the audience inside the theater. "We have been able to travel with a 'young man' who at 13 had to leave Germany for being Jewish," Clooney said before Ettlinger bowed in front of the audience, according to London's Evening Standard. "He fled to New Jersey and ended up fighting for the U.S. army. We are absolutely delighted to have Harry here with us this evening."
Israel Aerospace Industries is launching a new research and development center in Singapore on Thursday, with the aim of finding new techniques and technologies to provide early warnings of impending cyber attacks. The center is the first that an Israeli defense corporation has opened in the Far East, and its work force is expected to comprise 80 to 90 percent Singaporean staff, including scientists, engineers and professional computer analysts (known as white-hat hackers). (h/t Yoel)
Negotiations for control of Israeli dairy cooperative Tnuva are moving forward, as the company's controlling shareholders—British investment firm Apax and Mivtach Shamir Food Industries Ltd.—consider selling Apax's share in the company to China's Bright Food Group. According to sources close to the negotiations, if the deal goes forward it would be for some 8.5 billion to 9.5 billion shekels ($2.4 billion to $2.7 billion). The emerging deal is said to be serious, but contrary to recent rumors the Chinese company is not planning to send representatives to Israel in the near future, according to Israel Hayom.
The world's first HIPAA-compliant mobile application for cardiac patients and high-risk cardiac patients was launched for the U.S. market on Tuesday, February 11. Developed by Israeli Danny Oberman, the app is known as CathMaps+ and provides emergency assistance by integrating a patient's cardiac history with an interactive map of Cath Labs. CathMaps+, owned by Kickstart LLC, is available for most Android and iOS users, and provides cardiac patients with tailored emergency tools in case of a follow-on incident, as well as GPS mapping of the nearest catheterization labs in many countries around the world. It also allows cardiologists fast access to critical medical history in an emergency, ensuring more informed, personalized and effective treatment.
While there seems to be consensus that women on both sides should not be scared, and that awareness and testing are key, Ruth and Ibtisam are optimistic about the relationships between Israelis and Palestinians fostered by Cope. "There is a true solidarity and empathy within our group," says Ibtisam. "I see how some of the Israeli ladies are saying to the Palestinian ladies: 'Let me take you to my doctor in Tel Aviv. Give me your tests so that I can have my doctor look at it for you.' That gives me hope."
Though Energy Industries has been around for 40 years, it wasn't until changing hands three years ago that it began to boom. Originally dealing in boilers and piping, it is now a leading problem solver in the field of energy conservation, at home and abroad. One of its signature systems – utilizing alternative energy sources to heat greenhouses in cold climates – was recently sold to the government of Georgia. Another, which involves extracting the natural gases emitted from garbage landfills and turning it into electricity, earned the Israeli company a contract to build a plant in Ghana.
After its recent coup as the first and only company commissioned by Bob Dylan to make a music video of his most famous song, Israeli start-up Interlude is putting its interactive video platform to work for the Israel Ministry of Tourism. A new interactive video by the Ministry presents potential visitors to Israel with a full range of Israel tour experiences, all in a five minute video. Tourism Minister Uzi Landau introduced the video Wednesday at the International Mediterranean Tourism Market, going on this week in Tel Aviv. Using Interlude's platform, the video offers viewers dozens of itineraries by making interactive selections as the video plays.
As I try to shovel myself out of the current break in Snowmageddon, I received a couple of tweets that show how incredibly stupid (and offensive) the hate Israel crowd is.
Hmmm...that's a toughie. Why are those evil Jews demanding that Muslims and Christians not be allowed to visit and pray in their holiest places in Jerusalem?
And why wouldn't they be happy with the huge amount of access that Muslims have given Jews throughout history to their own holy places?
These are all very difficult questions, way too difficult for mere mortals to fathom.
His timeline also has a Latuff cartoon, which is what I was tweeted by another moron shortly thereafter:
A Lebanese web developer has been sentenced to two months in prison for insulting President Michel Sleiman on Twitter, a judicial source told AFP.
"Jean Assy was sentenced to two months in jail for defaming and insulting the president via Twitter," the source said.
"The court decision can be appealed within 10 days."
The case is thought to be the first time a Lebanese citizen has been sentenced for views expressed on a social network, though people have previously been charged for similar insults.
Assy said the case stemmed from tweets he wrote about Sleiman in January and February of last year.
"I wrote that the president is castrated, politically castrated, and I wrote the minister of interior is stupid, and things like this," he told AFP.
He has not yet been arrested and said he plans to appeal the decision.
"I'm not going to spend two months in jail because of a tweet. I'm going to fight it, I'm not going to allow him to punish someone who tweeted against him while he is ignoring all the problems in the country," Assy said of Sleiman.
Assy, 26, has nearly 6,000 followers and regularly tweets harsh and at times vulgar criticism of many of Lebanon's politicians.
He says he is not a political activist, but acknowledges his support for Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and his Christian ally Michel Aoun, who are spared his online wrath.
Yes, Lebanon's liberals are just as intolerant as Hezbollah is.
Here is what Human Rights Watch said:
The verdict was immediately criticized by Human Rights Watch, whose deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa called it a "negative development."
"Criminalizing and sending someone to jail for expression that someone deems insulting or inflammatory violates Lebanon's international obligations to protect expression," Nadim Houry told AFP.
"Lebanon has a decision to make," he added.
"Does it want to go down the route of so many other countries in the region... or does it want to preserve and maintain its reputation for a great tolerance for free expression in the Arab world?"
When Lebanon does something outrageously against human rights, HRW still compliments it. Can you imagine them sugarcoating any criticism of Israel, for any reason?
I really should do a comparison between how Lebanon treats Palestinian Arabs and how Israel does - and then compare how many NGO reports are written about each.
But for [Mordechai] Kedar of Bar-Ilan University, the question is not one of genes but one of cultural and linguistic heritage. "There is no doubt that Jews lived here in the past, while there's no proof of Arab connection to this land before the seventh century," he said. "There is no connection between the Arabian nations and the Canaanites: not ethnic, not cultural, nothing. They produce these myths to justify the fact that they are here." Palestinian family names speak more than anything to the foreign origin of their bearers, Kedar added. The Al-Masri family from Nablus obviously originated from Egypt (Al-Masri means Egyptian in Arabic). The Houranis came from the Houran region in southwestern Syria. Saeb Erekat's clan in Jericho prides itself in originating from Saudi Arabia, Kedar noted. "Since when did they become Palestinians?" he wondered.
Last week, Jonathan Tobin wrote here of how we were on the eve of a fourth Palestinian "no" to a peace agreement. It would appear that has now arrived, albeit slightly sooner than anyone had expected. Many observers assumed that once Secretary of State John Kerry got around to submitting his framework for a negotiated peace, Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas would then set about finding an excuse for rejecting it. What few could have predicted was that Abbas would find a way to reject the proposal before it was even submitted. Yet, this is precisely the impressive feat that Abbas has now accomplished. Earlier today, Abbas's spokespeople in Ramallah announced the PA's new set of red lines in any negotiated peace settlement. Each and every one of these red lines blows to pieces anything Kerry was about to propose, as it does to the prospects for an agreement between the two sides in general. These red lines which Abbas details in a letter being sent to the U.S. and the Quartet seamlessly preempts whatever Kerry was likely to outline in his own peace parameters. In this way Abbas artfully dodges a scenario in which the Israelis would agree to a peace plan and the Palestinians would come under pressure not to derail yet another effort to resolve the conflict. (h/t Norman F)
In a January 28, 2014 article published by the Palestinian news agency Maan, Professor Muhammad Al-Dajani Al-Daoudi, a lecturer at Al-Quds University, called upon the Palestinians to take more flexible positions rather than reject every Israeli demand or condition, because their nay-saying does not serve their objectives and they might ultimately regret it. He urged them to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, agree that East Jerusalem be awarded special international status, consent to the presence of Israeli forces in the Jordan Valley, and assent to a demilitarized Palestinian state. It should be noted that a few weeks ago Al-Daoudi published an article urging the study of the Holocaust in PA schools.
Almost all of the focus in the mainstream media on the Middle East peace process tends to be on the decision taken by only one of the parties involved in the negotiations. The perennial question from pundits and even veteran kibitzers like the New York Times's Thomas Friedman is whether or not the Israelis are ready to take risks in order to achieve peace. That was the conceit of his latest column, "Israel's Big Question," and if it seemed familiar to readers, it was no accident. Friedman has been writing the same column for decades in which he asks Israelis whether they will leave the West Bank in order to retain both the Jewish and democratic identities of their nation. If they don't, and Secretary of State John Kerry's initiative fails, Israel's doom is, he says, sealed. There are two problems with his reasoning and they are the same that apply to every other stale Friedman article on the subject that has been published since the Clinton administration. One is that Israel has already tried to trade land for the promise of peace and failed. The Palestinians turned down three offers of statehood in almost all of the West Bank, Gaza, and a share of Jerusalem. And there is every indication that they will turn down a fourth offer of up to 90 percent of the West Bank that is being mulled by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's government. Israelis have made the decision to take risks and make peace several times in the last 20 years and seem prepared to do it again if real peace—which means the end of the conflict rather than merely a pause in it—is on the table.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Abbas, told the official PA daily Al-Ayyam that the American paper must include an Israeli withdrawal "from all Palestinian territories occupied in 1967″ within a time frame of three to four years, followed by the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The agreement must also explicitly refer to East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state. Abbas's list of "red lines," sent to the Middle East Quartet ahead of its meeting in Germany in early February as well as to US President Barack Obama, also includes a call to solve the refugee issue based on UN General Assembly Resolution 194, and a refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
The study sampled the DNA of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon, and compared them to the genomes of volunteers from France, Scandinavia, Britain, Hungary, and the Netherlands. Aside from the obvious external features such as hair and eye color, the researchers noticed that they were unable to get blame-RNA to bind to the Palestinian DNA at all, indicating that Palestinians are biochemically incapable of blameworthiness. "This explains so much," said head researcher Postka Lonja-Liszt, Professor of Genetics at The University of Budapest, who was not involved in the study. "They have isolated the genetic basis for European policies vis-à-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
"It would be great, I think, to help the UN glue this thing, you know, f**k the EU," Assistant US Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was heard saying in a private telephone conversation with the US Ambassador to Ukraine. The tape of the conversation was leaked to the media, presumably by the Russians. Although Nuland's language was undiplomatic, to say the least, her exasperation with the EU is understandable. After her remarks were leaked, Nuland apologized to Ashton and other European authorities, but it is doubtful whether she has changed her mind about the EU's diplomatic services. No one in the world takes the unelected, unaccountable and untransparent EU seriously, except its members -- least of all the Iranians, who benefit so much from their greed and naïveté.
The point here is not so much that Beinart is out of touch with both Israeli opinion and the reality of Palestinian intransigence, but that in order to justify his stand he is willing to trash the idea that Israeli democracy matters. The position of AIPAC is not that it seeks to justify perpetual Israeli rule in all of the West Bank. It is one of support for the right of Israel's democratic government to wait until the Palestinians are ready to make a genuine peace before risking a repeat of what happened in Gaza when the Jewish state withdrew every settlement and soldier. Rather than Israel's defenders engaging in dishonesty, it is Beinart and his colleagues who have twisted the truth in this debate. The question in the Middle East is not whether Israel will let the West Bank become a democracy but whether the one true democracy in the region—Israel—will continue to exist. AIPAC and its supporters stand with the people of Israel in their efforts to defend their country. Those like Beinart, the BJ rabbis, and the assorted anti-Zionists who joined with them to denounce de Blasio have placed themselves in opposition not so much to AIPAC but the people of Israel and echoed the arguments of those in the BDS movement that wage economic war on the Jewish state. If they wish to truly renew and cleanse Jewish life as they claim, they should look in the mirror before casting aspersions on either Israel or its defenders.
Lifting the blockade on Gaza to improve relations with Turkey is not on the agenda, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said Wednesday, responding to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's making this a condition for ending the Mavi Marmara saga. The issue of easing the blockade has not been on the table in the talks with the Turks to come to an agreement that would normalize ties between the two erstwhile allies, and will not be on the table in the future, the sources said.
While it may be premature to discuss a thaw in relations between arch-enemies Israel and Iran, ministers from the two countries did sit down at the same table in Abu Dhabi last month, it was revealed on Wednesday. A talk given by Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom in Abu Dhabi was attended by his Iranian counterpart Energy Minister Hamid Chitchiyan, reported commentator and chief of the Iran-Israel Observer, Meir Javedanfar.
A series of recent reports and developments have refocused attention on links between weak Palestinian institutions and endemic Palestinian corruption, underlining decades-old worries that internal structural barriers that may hamper the creation of a viable Palestinian state. Analysts have long called attention to at least four fundamental dynamics that risk rendering any Palestinian state a failed state: a lack of political legitimacy for Palestinian governments, a lack of economic sustainability in either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, the existence of rival governments in territories claimed by the Palestinians for a state, and the inability of Palestinian governments to check armed groups unconnected to those governments.
In recent weeks, Palestinian security forces have searched refugee camps for militants and sparked gunfights that have ended with the deaths of two people, injuries to several security personnel and camp residents, and the arrests of dozens of refugees. Mr. Inbari said the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, appears to have lost control over several of the camps, including the Balata camp near Nablus, the Jenin camp in the northern West Bank, and the Qalandia camp near Jerusalem. "The PA tried the diplomatic approach, first by trying to reason with the gunmen and the residents, but that has failed. They then tried launching military assaults, but those, too, are not working," the security analyst said.
Some 40 Palestinians are being held in Palestinian Authority prisons on suspicion of having fought alongside Syrian rebels against the forces of President Bashar Assad, senior Palestinian sources told The Times of Israel on Thursday. The fighters were arrested upon their return to the West Bank. During questioning the prisoners revealed that they had joined a variety of radical Islamic organizations that are active in the civil war in Syria, including Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, both of which are affiliated with al-Qaeda and designated as terror organizations by Israel and the United States, the sources said.
The Lebanese Army arrested a senior Al Qaeda leader Wednesday - Naim Abbas, who is the deputy chief of the Al Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades. "After he came out of the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilwen near Sidon in the south, the army intelligence in Beirut made the arrest of Naim Abbas, who is being questioned under the supervision of the judiciary," the Lebanese army said, in an official statement.
A new smartphone app in Lebanon lets citizens automatically tweet, with one convenient tap of the finger, "I am still alive! #Lebanon #Latestbombing." The BBC reports that the creator of the app intended to highlight the country's deteriorating security situation with an ironic solution. The jarringly upbeat sales pitch on the app's homepage reads, "Every time there is an explosion, we have to spend a lot of time contacting our loved ones…Not anymore!"
Horrific accounts of life in Homs have surfaced Wednesday, as the mass exodus from the besieged Syrian city continues. Fox News reports that about 1,300 people have fled the city so far, which has been under siege for over 18 months. UN officials announced that of those, 500 were children and 20 were pregnant women; many disabled also accompanied the mass exodus. Syrian government forces have allowed aid to enter the city, survivors and journalists at the scene say - but they have forced most men of fighting age, between ages 15 and 55, to stay behind.
Prosor spoke as part of the council's open debate on "Protecting civilians in armed conflict." In his short speech, he referenced the saying from the Talmud that "if a person saves one life, it is as though he has saved the whole world." "In Syria, almost 130,000 worlds have been destroyed," he said. "We will soon mark the third anniversary of the Syrian conflict, with no end in sight. We cannot sit comfortably in this chamber, discussing the protection of civilians in armed conflict, when before our eyes the crisis in Syria has reached catastrophic proportions." Prosor called this "spinning in the mud of debates and dialogue."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared on Tuesday that Iran would continue bolstering its atomic program "forever," the latest in a string of intransigent statements from top Iranian officials that had already weeks ago been labeled a diplomatic "train wreck" by CNN host Fareed Zakaria. Rouhani's boasts came a few days after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed hopes for a compromise with the U.S.:
Watchdog group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) on Tuesday called on the Obama Administration to reconsider its decision to lift sanctions on Iran's state broadcaster, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), which had been punished for its involvement in the Iranian regime's human rights abuses. Among other offenses IRIB has jammed foreign broadcasts, televised forced confessions and broadcast show trials of political prisoners.
With the upsurge in attacks on Iranian interests, and on interests affiliated with Iran's proxies, in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan, the Iranian leadership and its mouthpieces have launched a campaign of harsh criticism against the Saudi regime, accusing Saudi Arabia, and particularly Saudi security chief Bandar bin Sultan, of responsibility for attacks on Iran and on the resistance axis in the region. Iran's senior officials and media are calling the Saudi regime a takfiri (i.e. heretical) Wahhabi stream that is acting against Islam and the Muslims, in cooperation with the U.S, Israel, and Zionism. It should be noted that the extreme language that Iran previously reserved for anti-Israel statements is now being used against Saudi Arabia.
An Al Qaeda-linked group is issuing paper bills in western Iraq featuring images of Osama bin Laden and the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed in the September 11 attacks, according to local media reports A tribal leader in western Iraq's Anbar Province showed the media a photo of one of the bills issued by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) printed in the amount of "one Islamic hundred pounds."
Yesterday I reported that Hamas was upset at the UNRWA "human rights" curriculum being taught in Gaza schools - because it was alienating students who want to grow up to kill Jews.
The good parts, including parts that Hamas would object to:
The content includes social, behavioral and environmental values such as: good social manners, mutual respect, tolerance, equality between members of the different sexes, races, socio-economic classes etc., personal hygiene, care for personal and public property, non-discrimination against the poor and the handicapped, mutual help, conversation manners, time management, freedom of expression and respect for others' views, cooperation, respect for the law, integrity, protection of the environment, peace and non-violence, love for family members and friends, social responsibility, patriotism, equal opportunities, free elections, peaceful collective expression of views (that is, meeting, assembly, rally, demonstration, etc.), non-smoking, social activity through NGOs, respect for others' feelings, listening, negotiation, peaceful solution to conflicts, the courage to admit mistakes, respect for others' privacy, respect for others' rights, recognition of the right to be different, the importance of education, the importance of order and cleanliness, respect for one's parents, etc. The discussion of these values repeats itself along the grades.
The bad parts:
What is missing from this list - with no justification - is freedom of religion, religious equality and religious tolerance. In fact, the books are totally devoid of any mention of religion.
· The Middle East war is absent from the books. None of the values mentioned: peace, tolerance, peaceful resolution of conflicts, non-violence, etc. is given an interpretation in connection to the conflict. On the other hand, there are few references to aspects of the conflict - all presenting the Palestinians as victims. For example, an exercise includes a picture of two girls sitting next to a tent with a demolished house in the background. The caption reads: "A family whose house was demolished lives in a tent" (Human Rights Curriculum, Grade 3, Part 2 (2010) p. 34). In another example the children of Gaza fly kites "in spite of the [Israeli] siege" (Human Rights Curriculum, Grade 5, Part 2 (2010) p. 66).
· In conclusion, the books - if they are indeed used in school, which I could not ascertain - contribute to the creation of more tolerant atmosphere within Palestinian society (save for Muslim-Christian relations). Their contribution to a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is nil, if not negative.
So even according to UNRWA, human rights are only something that apply to Palestinian Arabs, but Jews do not deserve any.
But even this was too much for Hamas to stomach. And UNRWA, naturally, gave in.
Most Western countries have laws and regulations prohibiting support for terrorists or former terrorists. The US, the UK, Holland, Norway, Sweden and others have debated, proposed and/or passed laws or motions in parliament against giving the Palestinian Authority money that ends up in the hands of terrorists. In spite of their laws and their opposition, these countries continue to fund the PA's general budget, thereby paying tens of millions of dollars to terrorists as salaries and other payments.
Last week, the PA announced that it will be giving an additional $46 million a year to released prisoners, a category which includes hundreds of murderers of civilians. Since the PA cannot cover its monthly budget payments without Western aid, these additional payments to terrorists will also be facilitated both directly and indirectly by Western donor money to the PA.
The official announcement was made by the PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake, who said that the PA government has approved a regulation of the Prisoners' Law that "is concerned with improving conditions for released [prisoners]," a regulation whose "budget... has been estimated at 160 million shekels a year."
This 160 million shekels ($46 million) for terrorists, including mass murderers, is made possible by international donors. This was made clear in the PA Minister's announcement. He explained that the PA was not able to fund this financial support for released prisoners in 2013 because of its "large budget deficit," so it will only start in 2014:
"Karake noted that the government has acknowledged the importance of the regulation and the need to implement it according to the rules. However, due to the large budget deficit and the PA's financial situation, establishing the budget, which has been estimated at 160 million shekels a year, has been postponed until April [2014]." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 6, 2014]
Significantly, the PA did not cover its 2013 budget without hundreds of millions of dollars from Western donors, tens of millions of which went directly into the bank accounts of terrorists. Since there have been no reports of massive improvements in the PA economy freeing it of the need to receive Western aid to pay its budget, clearly the PA is counting on Western donor money to facilitate this $46 million to terrorists as well.
The PA has its priorities. The question is, for how long will Western nations tolerate their money being used this way?
This video from November shows this same PA minister Karake mocking Western concerns over giving money to terrorists, as he strongly defended the practice.
The Europeans want their money that comes to us to remain clean - not to go to families of those they claim to be 'terrorists.' [They] need to renounce this occupation (Israeli) mentality. These [prisoners] are heroes, self-sacrificing fighters (fedayyeen), and fighters who fought so that we could live in dignity... These heroes, whom you [the audience] are applauding, must live in dignity, so that we will continue to hold our heads high. We appreciate the people of the revolution and are proud of them.
For some reason it only has a few hundred views on YouTube so far - yet it should be required viewing for every member of every Western parliament that gives money to the PA.
Doctors from a public hospital in Nablus organized a demonstration on Wednesday to protest the assault of a colleague by the relatives of a patient being treated in the pediatrics ward.
Dr. Hussein al-Sleibi was assaulted in Rafidia hospital on Tuesday by two relatives of a child, doctors told Ma'an. The family members threatened al-Sleibi and two nurses with a knife during the incident after claiming they were neglecting the patient.
Doctors said they organized the demonstration to protest a growing number of assaults against medical teams.
Director of the Nablus office of the Ministry of Health, Amirah al-Hindi, told Ma'an that the last decade has seen a spike in violent incidents against hospital staff.
It is not surprising. Palestinian Arabs have been attacking UNRWA, for example, since the very beginning - an organization funded by the world to specifically coddle them. Their leaders say terrorists are heroes. Violence is an inherent part of Palestinian Arab culture, as is the sense of entitlement.
Attacking those who are trying to help them comes naturally.
Given that, what are the chances of real peace with people they hate?
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