יום שישי, 7 בפברואר 2014

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Egyptian media upset over Israeli 2nd graders singing about Passover

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 09:30 PM PST

Egyptian media on Thursday got hold of a shocking video.

Popular Egyptian site Youm7, as well as other media outlets, say that this is a video of Jewish extremist children who are being taught that they were slaves in Egypt - and that they must return to Egypt.

Here's the offensive video, of the second grade class  in the Binyan Olam school, singing songs about and play-acting the Passover story. (It's a pretty bad video. You can skip the first 1:10 of musical introduction to get to the other five minutes of watching kids repeat songs and verses they memorized.)



And here's how Youm7 describes this video:
Jewish extremist Rabbi Eliyahu Yisraeli published a video clip on YouTube of a group of Jewish children, students in one of the Jewish "yeshiva" schools. They do rituals to commemorate the holiday of Passover, where they are celebrating the anniversary of the Exodus from Egypt.

The video clip shows the young children on a trip to a village located on the Sea of Galilee, which was created to serve as a model of what was experienced by the children of Israel in Egypt, since Moses split the sea and took the children of Israel out from Egypt.

The video shows the children reading some passages from the distorted books of the Torah which tell the full stories of the children of Israel, and it used the word "slavery" in a reference to Egypt.

It presents to the children during their studies in the "yeshiva" the extent of the suffering experienced by both the children of Israel during the era of Pharaoh, and the miracles of God known in the Torah as the "ten plagues" in addition to the years of wandering in the Sinai.

Israeli extremist Jewish schools in this video indicate their incitement of hate for Egypt and Egyptians, saying that it was the land of bondage, and the Jews must return to Egypt again because it is a religious duty.
The last phrase, that Jewish children are being taught that they must return to Egypt, is the headline in every version of this article.

Almost certainly that ridiculous interpretation is a result of a couple of stories in Egyptian media last year. One was that a Muslim Brotherhood leader said that (after Israel is replaced with an Arab state) Jews should be allowed to return to Egypt. He was mercilessly attacked for months afterwards, and the idea still rankles Egyptians, worried that the Jews might sue them for the huge amount of land and capital that were stolen from them when they were expelled.

Another crazy but related rumor in late 2012 was that US ambassador Anne Patterson said that DNA evidence showed that Jews owned Egypt, King Tut was Jewish and by the end of 2013 Egypt would be under total control of the Jews.

One other fact that might be making the Egyptians so nervous about Jews taking over Egypt: It says so in the Quran! Chapter 44, verse 28, has been interpreted to say

Thus (it was)! And We made other people inherit them (i.e. We made the Children of Israel to inherit the kingdom of Egypt).

Given that Egyptians are so sensitive to the idea of Jews returning to and taking over Egypt, that fiction is apparently what is fueling so much interest in this video. Egyptians believe that Jews want to rule over their country  - and they think that these second graders' songs about the Passover story prove it.

Another terrorist's body being returned on Sunday. Let's talk about one hero he killed.

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 05:00 PM PST

Ma'an writes:
Israel will return the remains on Sunday of a Palestinian killed by soldiers over a decade ago, an Israeli human right groups said on Thursday.

Israeli rights group Center for the Defense of the Individual (HaMoked), said in a statement that the remains of Ahmad Ayid Faqih from the Hebron area town of Dura, will be returned via the Tarqumiya checkpoint west of Hebron on Sunday evening.

The remains matched DNA samples taken from relatives, HaMoked said.

Faqih was killed on Dec. 27, 2002 after he and Muhammad Mustafa Shahin broke into the Israeli settlement of Otniel south of Hebron and opened fire inside a Yeshiva school. The attack killed two Israeli soldiers and two settlers before Faqih and his companion were shot dead in the ensuing firefight.

At the time Faqih was 20 years old.

The Islamic Jihad movement claimed responsibility for the operation, which came at the height of the Second Intifada, a Palestinian uprising in the 2000s against the decades-long Israeli occupation.
Here is what happened:

On Friday night, 27 December 2002, over 100 students and faculty members of Yeshivat Otniel were getting ready to have dinner in the dining room of the Yeshiva, while in the adjacent kitchen, four yeshiva students on kitchen duty organized the first course of the Sabbath meals. Two of the four students on kitchen duty were IDF soldiers on leave without pay from the army.

Meanwhile, two Palestinian militants of the Islamic Jihad, disguised as Israeli soldiers and equipped with battle vests, M-16 rifles and hand grenades, made their way to the settlement through the valley located between Othniel and the town of Dahariya,[2] and managed to infiltrate into the settlement. The militants cut the rickety fence which was erected around the building of the Yeshiva[2] and afterwards, around 19:45 pm, they snuck into the building through the back door of the kitchen. The students on kitchen duty had just finished preparing the main dishes on serving plates and were about to bring them into the dining room when the militants entered the kitchen and opened fire at them. In the last moments of his life, Staff Sergeant Noam Apter, upon immediately realizing what was happening, managed to lock the sliding door separating the kitchen and the dining room, before he was murdered by the militants. In doing so, Noam prevented the militants from entering the dining room and carrying out a far deadlier attack. Nevertheless, after killing the students on kitchen duty, the militants smashed the window of the sliding door and began shooting through it into the dining room, wounding four yeshiva students, one of them critically.[2] The majority of the students in the dining room managed to hide underneath the tables while some of them, whom were carrying weapons with them, returned fire at the militants.
Noam Apter saved possibly dozens of lives with his quick thinking - and sure knowledge that his locking the door meant that he would be murdered within seconds.

No doubt Faqih will receive a hero's welcome on Sunday, just like last Sunday.

To Israel, a hero is someone who saves lives. To Palestinian Arabs, a hero is someone who murders.

And by the sick calculus of the enlightened Western world, each side's positions are equally valid.

02/06 Links Pt2: Friedman’s Colleagues Call Him an ‘Embarrassment’; Hummus is a laughing matter

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 02:30 PM PST

From Ian:
In Memoriam: Barry Rubin
In his 64 years, he worked tirelessly to defend and promote both U.S. and Israeli interests. He was also dedicated to the research and commemoration of his ancestry and those who perished in the Holocaust. In 2013, he published Children of Dolhinov, a historical account of the Jews of Dolhinov (today part of Belarus). He wrote, "If we don't respect those who came before us, and who made our existence possible, how can we expect anyone to respect us?"
In addition to his professional and academic achievements, he was a loving father and husband. He is survived by wife Judith and his two children.
The Woman Who Makes the Jihadis Squirm
Civil lawsuits, it turns out, are not just a great way to help victims find justice and compensation for their misery. They are also an enormously powerful tool in fighting terror. Because they are not initiated by any government, they cannot be stopped through ordinary diplomacy or with back-channel deals. The can be initiated spontaneously, unpredictably—effectively turning the tables on the terrorists, who are used to being the unpredictable ones. Once filed, they are in the hands of an independent judge who follows the law, not the political needs of the moment.
And because civil lawsuits have lower thresholds of proof than do criminal proceedings, and it is therefore usually much easier to prove liability than criminality, civil attorneys can very often succeed where prosecutors fail. For this reason, Western intelligence agencies often happily cooperate with civil cases against terrorists, providing crucial evidence for the plaintiffs—for they are doing the work that government cannot.
Thomas Friedman's New York Times Colleagues Call Him an 'Embarrassment'
Jewish New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, often criticized for expressing anti-Israel views, was slammed by his own colleagues in an expose published on Tuesday by the New York Observer. The article came as a Friedman-penned Op-Ed in The Times on Wednesday claimed that a "Third Intifada is underway."
The Observer said it interviewed some two-dozen current and former NYT staffers about a split between the news team and the editorial pages, run by Andrew Rosenthal, son of former NYT editorial leader AM Rosenthal, who publishes work by Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner. The staffers's concerns, as embodied in The Observer headline, 'The Tyranny and Lethargy of the Times Editorial Page,' were that, as one put it, the Op-Eds are "completely reflexively liberal, utterly predictable, usually poorly written and totally ineffectual," and that the editorial page was frequently trounced by crosstown rival, the Wall Street Journal. Most of The Observer article criticizes Rosenthal's vision and ability to manage a team that has grown to 14 employees, plus assistants, but staffers reserved plenty of venom for Friedman's role in destroying The Times editorial page.



Jewish roots in Israel go back over 300,000 years
Don't believe me? Good, you shouldn't. These claims are complete nonsense and any scholar (and even most laymen) will tell you so.
But the claim of Judaism's 300,000 year lineage in the Holy Land is no less preposterous than Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat's claim that the Palestinian people trace their roots back to 5500 years before Joshua. Of course he was just following in the tradition of Yasser Arafat and Faisal Husseini who claimed that the Palestinian people are descended from the Jebusites, from whom David conquered Jerusalem. It doesn't really matter that no scholars other than the Palestinians themselves place any shred of validity in these ridiculous claims.
Tel Aviv University Retracts Nasrallah Invitation; 'Too Zionist' (satire)
The university had issued the invitation for a conference on post-Zionism to take place early next month. Nasrallah was asked to address some of the political implications for Lebanon once Israel ceases to exist as a political entity and the Jewish inhabitants remaining in the land are relegated to second-class citizens or cannon fodder. The notable exception, in the university's assessment, will be the enlightened left-wingers of North Tel Aviv, where the institution makes its home, who of course will be seen as allies and not corrupt Western Godless infidels.
But last week a group of students and faculty presented a petition to the university administration pointing to problematic statements by Nasrallah in which he did not foresee the immediate annihilation of the Zionist Entity. They also noted Hezbollah's strategic decision to enmesh itself in the Syrian civil war, thereby proclaiming that Israel was not the number one danger to Lebanon or Hezbollah itself, but a more distant threat than the insurgents fighting the government of Basher Assad.
Jennifer Rubin: Oxfam defends, NGO Monitor dissects
Oxfam has a track record that belies its claim not to be anti-Israel. NGO Monitor President Gerald Steinberg responded to Oxfam's defense via e-mail, telling me that the BDS movement is itself an action designed to undermine Israel's legitimacy, not simply force return of the post-1967 territories: "Oxfam claims that their funding for [Coalition of Women for Peace] CWP (which led the attack on SodaStream and Scarlett Johansson) as well as similar activities related to demonization does not constitute supporting "a boycott of Israel". But the explicit goal of the BDS movement is to use boycotts of Israel to achieve 'the complete international isolation of Israel as an apartheid state,' as stated in the Final Declaration of the NGO Forum of the 2001 Durban conference. This NGO declaration launched the BDS and demonization campaigns." He went on to cite evidence that the BDS movement is not merely about the 1967 territories:
Jpost Ed: Oxfam vs SodaStream
The SodaStream Mishor Adumim plant is precisely what Oxfam should promote as its ideal for coexistence and cooperation.
Would it be better by Oxfam's yardstick if the factory were shut down and its Palestinian employees went hungry (and subsequently perhaps needed Oxfam handouts)? In all likelihood, Oxfam would then vociferously denounce Israeli occupation for creating poverty, a charge Oxfam executives relentlessly level against Israel.
Such lopsided logic not only offends common sense, it exposes deep-seated anti-Israel bigotry. In effect, Oxfam tells us that it is acceptable for Palestinians to work for any firm, so long as it is not Israeli. Does this not negate the very notion of peace?
Boycotters' contempt for ordinary Palestinians
The curious case of SOS – Scarlet, Oxfam and Sodastream – has enabled us to hear something almost totally inaudible most of the time – the voice of ordinary Palestinians. And what they are saying doesn't quite match the much louder voice of boycott campaign groups, one of which it seems Oxfam has become.
Instead of backing international NGO calls for a boycott of settlement goods, workers at the Sodastream factory in the West Bank have come out overwhelmingly in favour of Scarlet Johannsen's opposition to BDS. So why are ordinary Palestinians at odds with the groups that claim to support them?
One of the biggest traps of the whole international BDS campaign is that it depersonalises the lives of ordinary people, both Israelis and Palestinians. The campaigners, including Christian NGOs and churches, simply do not care about the circumstances, hopes and dreams of ordinary people.
Al-Jazeera America Not To Be Trusted For Israel News – Example
An Al-Jazeera America Jan. 30, 2014 report may well have led many viewers to the incorrect conclusion that an advertisement for an Israeli product, SodaStream, was rejected by Fox Television because the ad promotes an Israeli company operating in the West Bank. The ad featured actress Scarlett Johansson and was to, and did, run during Fox's February 2 broadcast of the National Football League's Super Bowl. The Al-Jazeera America report included 69 seconds of essentially anti-Israel propaganda (a 19-second West Bank video clip, 23-second Oxfam statement (Johansson resigned as an Oxfam representative in protest of the group's anti-Israel animus), 27-second Palestinian labor minister polemic), which more than doubled the 28 seconds of air time allotted for a statement by the Israeli CEO of SodaStream.
But the actual reason (never mentioned by Al-Jazeera America) that the ad was (temporarily) rejected was because it was dismissive of two Fox advertising clients ("Sorry, Coke and Pepsi") in a jibe at the end of the commercial. In fact, the Super Bowl ad ran Sunday during a commercial break at 9:35 PM (with 9:48 remaining on the game clock in the final quarter) with the offending phrase omitted.
The boycott mirage
Indeed, it takes a lot of imagination to see a concerted international effort to boycott the Jewish state. If Israel continues to make products with a clear qualitative edge at competitive prices, there will be many to buy them.
Kerry is simply echoing the arguments of the Israeli Left, which claims that an agreement with the Palestinians is the only way to escape international isolation. Moreover, irresponsible elements of the Israeli Left are asking for foreign pressure on Israel, realizing that they have no chance to change Israeli policies by the ballot box. The electoral decline of the Israeli Left makes it more desperate and less democratic when reaching the conclusion that "Israel has to be saved from itself" by the international community.
Whitewashing BDS and antisemitism in the New York Times
The inconvenient truth is that as long as BDS activists like Omar Barghouti remain firmly opposed to a two-state solution that would result in the peaceful coexistence of a Jewish and a Palestinian state, their activism has nothing to do with human rights. Try as he may, Barghouti cannot conceal that he is actually campaigning for what he regards as the most fundamental and non-negotiable Palestinian "right:" the supposed "right" to finally achieve what the Arab war against the emerging Jewish state failed to accomplish. The Palestinians who fled this war that was supposedly waged on their behalf have served as pawns ever since, clinging to their refugee status and the illusion that it could be passed on through generations reared in the belief that the Jews of Israel are their "misfortune." But then as now, their misfortune was the unwillingness of the Arabs to acknowledge the simple fact that the Jews are one of the Middle East's most ancient peoples who, in modern times, could claim as much of a right to self-determination as the Arabs. People like Omar Barghouti are still unwilling to acknowledge this simple fact and are devoting all their energies to convince the world that Jewish self-determination is the misfortune of the Palestinians and that it is therefore their "right" to insist that the Jews in the Middle East should be forced to once again live as a minority under Arab Muslim rule.
Dutch pension fund says no reason to boycott Israeli banks
Dutch pension fund ABP, one of the largest pension funds in the world, announced on Wednesday that after looking into the matter it sees no reason to end its relationship with three Israeli banks.
The fund's announcement runs firmly against the grain of the increasing public perception that Israel is on the verge of wholesale boycotts by European financial institutions. (h/t Yenta Press)
On 10th Anniversary, Facebook Says 'Jewish Ritual Murder' Page Doesn't Violate 'Community Standards'
Jewish human rights group, the Anti-Defamation League, said that social media giant Facebook's assertion that a page entitled "Jewish Ritual Murder" doesn't violate their Community Standards is an "unacceptable excuse," in a statement issued on Wednesday.
The ADL's comments, also calling for the page to be "removed immediately," came a day after Facebook celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Hungarian Jews set to 'physically hinder' Neo-Nazi rally in former synagogue
As part of its political campaign, Jobbik is planning on staging a rally at the former synagogue in the city of Esztergom, whose Jewish community was wiped out during the Holocaust.
Party leader Márton Gyöngyösi has previously called for the government to draw up of a list of "people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian Parliament and the Hungarian government, who pose a national security risk to Hungary."
While the local Jewish community has called upon Esztergom Mayor Éva Tétényi to prohibit the gathering, it is also preparing itself for a physical confrontation, Mazsihisz president András Heisler told the Post.
Tory MP Aidan Burley who organised Nazi-themed stag in French Alps to stand down at the election
The Tory MP who organised a Nazi-themed stag do for a friend and then tried to downplay his role in planning the party, last night announced he would step down at the next election.
Aidan Burley was allowed to remain as MP for Cannock Chase after pictures were published in the Mail on Sunday of him attending the distasteful event – despite a party inquiry last month which called his actions 'stupid and offensive'.
The Oxford graduate always insisted that the stag do, which took place two years ago in the French ski resort of Val Thorens, was not anti-Semitic.
Hummus is a laughing matter
For those who prefer their Onion-type humor with some Middle Eastern spice, a new, satirical, Muslim-oriented, faux news website, The Hummus, launched in December, to little or no fanfare.
Other stories, such as "State-Run Media Is Most Reliable Source of News According to State-Run Study" and "Efficient New Democracy Will Feature Single Un-Elected Representative" highlight the totalitarian nature of some Muslim regimes.
From Zion shall go forth… Arabic web content?
In what is perhaps the ultimate in Internet irony, citizens of countries where even speaking to an Israeli can land them in jail or worse may soon find themselves using the latest in Israeli technology to access information on the Internet, read books and documents on devices, shop online, use advanced location tech apps in their native language, and more. While there are plenty of web sites in Arabic, according to Dona Haj Manaa, Arab Sector Manager of the UK-Israel Tech Hub, they are generally just static repositories of data – and there are precious few ways for people to access and use that data in apps for devices like cellphones and tablets. "Our program aims to bring that technology to them, using the latest in Israeli-made tech," she told The Times of Israel.
Revealed: Beyonce's Daughter Digs Israeli Duds
The glamour icon, famous around the world for her exquisite fashion sense, recently uploaded a picture of her and baby daughter Blue Ivy to Tumblr. The image shows the undisputed queen of pop music sitting with her precious princess, who just so happens to be wearing a get up designed by the famous 'Nu Nu Nu' Israeli clothing company, Walla said.
And it turns out that Beyonce is not alone in her Blue and White fetish. Israeli fashion brands are currently starring all over Hollywood, especially among the children of celebs.
Among the other beautiful people whose little tikes have been seen on the red carpet in threads spun in the Land of Milk and Honey: Gwen Stefani, Orlando Bloom, Ben Affleck and Celine Dion, Walla reported.
Renowned Jewish Canadian MP, law scholar to retire
Canadian MP and former justice minister Irwin Cotler announced on Wednesday that he will not run in the 2015 federal election.
"I have enjoyed the honor and privilege of serving my riding, Parliament, and the Canadian people as a whole for close to fifteen years. I look forward to completing my mandate and continuing the pursuit of justice in other arenas," Cotler posted on Facebook.
Israel's Peres Aims for Guinness Record With 6,500-Student Online Civics Class
Israeli President Shimon Peres will on Thursday deliver what is expected to be the world's largest online civics class, setting a new Guinness World Record, with 6,500 students from 215 classrooms.
In a statement on Wednesday, Peres's spokesman said the class will be broadcast from Cisco's Israeli headquarters, in Netanya, to Jewish and Arab students in Jerusalem, Beer Sheva, Tel Aviv, Kuseife, Ofakim, Dimona, Hadera, Tiberias, Tayibe, Nahariya, and other communities across Israel.
1,700 years of Jewish history come alive in downtown Cologne
Several years in the planning, the Archaeological Zone/Jewish Museum, as the Cologne municipality calls the project, will be spread out over an area of more than 10,000 square meters (approximately 110,000 square feet). Besides the ancient shul, visitors will get to see (and learn about) ancient medallions, clay marbles and ivory dice, animal bones (which shed light on the Jews' eating habits) and a Hebrew inscription above a private house that contained instructions about how the "feces are to be taken out." Archaeologists also found countless slates with inscriptions, including one museum officials consider "a true historical sensation" — the oldest Yiddish writing on stone.

Politician claims PM preparing for Jews to take over Greece

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 12:30 PM PST

From Enet English:

There has been widespread condemnation of claims made by a Syriza politician that the name of the country's new state broadcaster Nerit has Jewish roots and that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's recent visit to Thessaloniki Synagogue was an act threatening Greece.

Theodoros Karypidis, who was selected at the weekend as Syriza's candidate for the post of regional governor of Western Macedonia, made the comments in a Facebook post on June 15 that came to light on Wednesday.

In the post, Karypidis claimed that the new station's acronym is linked to the Hebrew word for candle - Ner - and that candles lit during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrate Jewish victory over ancient Greece.

"Samaras is lighting the candles (Nerit) in the seven branched candelabra of the Jews and lighting Greece on fire after his visit to Thessaloniki Synagogue ... He is organising a new Hanukkah against the Greeks," wrote Karypidis, a journalist who has hosted Golden Dawn figures on his local television show.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the American Jewish Committee said it was is "appalled by the antisemitic statements".

"Vile, outrageous expressions of antisemitism in Greece are coming not only from Golden Dawn on the far right but also, as Theodoros Karypidis's Facebook post illustrates, from the far left," said the AJC's executive director, David Harris.

"Prime Minister Samaras and his government laudably reject these dangerous attacks and recognise the right of the Greek Jews, like all Greek citizens, to live in peace and dignity."

"Whipping up hatred of Jews, for all kinds of alleged conspiracies, is an all-too-familiar and long-time tactic of political extremists with nothing constructive to offer about real-life issues facing their country," said Harris.

"It also reveals once again that, for all their purported differences, far-right and -left politicians can have more in common than they might otherwise admit - the capacity for blind hatred, bigotry and demagoguery." he continued.
It looks like Kaypidis' Facebook post also said that Jewish girls born during Chanukah are named "Nera" and that Chanukah is an anti-Greek holiday.

(h/t Yosef)

Coke invests in SodaStream competitor; will Pepsi buy SODA?

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 10:30 AM PST

From Business Week:
Coca-Cola (KO) announced on Wednesday that it's buying a 10 percent stake in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) for $1.25 billion. It's not a move to get into the coffee business but rather an aggressive push to compete directly with SodaStream (SODA), which sells do-it-yourself carbonation machines as well as the flavor syrups that go with them. Coke will be the first company to feature its brands in Green Mountain's new Keurig Cold machines, set to debut in 2015.

Keurig Cold will make soda and noncarbonated drinks like juices and teas using pods similar to those in Green Mountain's Keurig coffee brewers. That means consumers could soon make their own Hi-C or Fuze, not just home-bubbled Diet Coke or Sprite. Compatibility with familiar and valued soft drink brands is clearly going to be the selling point, just as it is with the big coffee brands such as Starbucks (SBUX) and Dunkin' Donuts (DNKN) available as K-Cup pods.

Israel's Calcalist reports that in the wake of the SodaStream SuperBowl ad, it appears that the soft drink giants are getting very nervous. There were rumors of talks between SodaStream and Pepsi six months ago, and now people are talking about both Pepsi and Dr. Pepper as potential buyers or investors in SodaStream.

The day after the Super Bowl, SodaStream stock went down 2 points, causing much cheering from the Israel haters who were certain that their whining caused the drop.

If the SodaStream ad had bombed as the haters pretended, then Coke wouldn't have to drop one and a quarter billion to get into that market, would it?

Today, SODA is up 4 points, an 11% gain, on the rumors of a new partner for SodaStream.

Sorry, haters.

(h/t Ori)

02/06 Links Pt1: Putin’s Occupation Olympics; Do ‘Syria,’ ‘Iraq’ and ‘Lebanon’ Still Exist?

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 09:00 AM PST

From Ian:
Eugene Kontorovich: Putin's Occupation Olympics
The international silence about the deepening occupation of Georgia seems even more like acceptance when contrasted with the diplomatic outrage the U.S. and EU express about what they regard as occupation elsewhere.
For example, the EU has recently taken the position that it would be illegal to do business with Israeli companies that operate in the West Bank. Of course, by this standard any participation in the Sochi Games — from corporate sponsors, to contributions and fees from national Olympic committees — would be forbidden. Making "ending occupation" the centerpiece of U.S.-EU foreign policy while playing the Occupation Olympics magnifies the extent of the West's Caucasian capitulation.
Four years ago, former U.S. ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker wrote that "attending the 2014 Olympics … would make all of us complicit in cementing in practice Russia's changing European borders by force, even if we reject those changes in principle." Now, the cement has set — cement that was itself taken from Georgia.
Isi Leibler: Candidly speaking: Friends of Israel must speak up now
But when a US secretary of state indirectly encourages Europeans and others to pressure Israel with sanctions unless it makes further concessions, friends of Israel must protest publicly or this could develop into a tsunami and we will be abandoned.
Not surprisingly the traditionally outspoken ZOA immediately protested. But it was significant that ADL head Abe Foxman, hardly a hawk, sent Kerry an open letter bitterly criticizing his remarks, which he charged would be construed as "an incentive by Palestinians not to reach an agreement" and "as legitimizing boycott activity." Israel's supporters around the world should today unite and speak out.
The government and Diaspora leaders should initiate a Day of Global Solidarity with Israel in which Israelis, Americans and Israel supporters worldwide gather in Jerusalem to express their support for Israel's commitment to peace, and condemn those seeking to force Israel to compromise on its basic security needs. We must demonstrate that a genuine peace can only be attained when both sides are committed to peace and treated fairly.
Ed Royce: Anti-Israel Incitement Must End
The scene has become a depressingly familiar one: while the United States works to advance peace negotiations in the Middle East, the Palestinian Authority's state-controlled media and educational systems teach their citizens and, most troubling, children to hate Israel and its Jewish people.
It often seems more like the Palestinian Authority is preparing its people for war instead of preparing them for peace.
The PA's state-sanctioned media and educational systems systematically deny the existence of a Jewish state, arguing that Israel's existence is a direct threat to Palestinians; even asserting that the destruction of Israel is justified.



US condemns planned construction in East Jerusalem
The US State Department criticized on Wednesday the announcement that municipal planners had approved the construction of 558 new apartments in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.
"Our position on Jerusalem is clear," said State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters at a daily briefing. "We oppose any unilateral actions by either party that attempt to prejudge final status issues, including the status of Jerusalem."
"We've called on both sides to take steps to create a positive atmosphere for the negotiations."
It's Settled, It's Only Illegal When Jews Do It
The horror, Israel approved 558 homes in Jerusalem
BBC's sleight of pen doesn't inform its readers that actually 603 permits were approved in east, north and south Jerusalem, as mayor Nir Barkat posted on his Facebook page:
You see, the missing 45 approved building permits are in Arab neighbourhoods. The resident of these neighbourhoods are, for the most part, entitled to an Israeli ID, can participate in local elections and run for council.
Yet the world is obsessed with just the Jewish residents who live in an area once occupied by Jordan.
Israel said willing to give up 90% of West Bank
Citing anonymous Israeli, Palestinian and American sources close to the negotiations, Walla News reported on Thursday that Israel is seeking to annex about 10 percent of the West Bank's land area in a final deal. Meanwhile, the Palestinians are seeking to have Israel annex only around 3% of the West Bank, the report said.
Some 70-80% of Jewish West Bank settlements will be transferred to Israel whether Israel retains 10% or 3% of West Bank land, the report noted. According to a source on the American side, "it is clear" that Israel is "willing in principle to give up" control of 90% of the West Bank.
Kerry to Israeli critics: I've been 'attacked before by people using real bullets'
"Israel needs to understand we will always stand by its security needs," he continued. "But no one should distort what we're doing or saying because they're opposed to the peace process or don't like two states or whatever. And, you know, words — I have to tell you, my friend, I've been, quote, attacked before by people using real bullets, not words, and I am not going to be intimidated. I am not going to stand down with respect to President Obama's commitment to trying to find peace in the Middle East."
Kerry famously served in the Vietnam War. As for Bennett, he served in Israel's elite special forces unit, Sayeret Matkal. (h/t MtTB)
J. William Kerry
As tempers flare between Israel and America over Secretary of State Kerry, the thing to remember is that he came into public life courtesy of Senator J. William Fulbright. It was Fulbright who, as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, lured the young Mr. Kerry onto Capitol Hill. Fulbright chaired the hearing at which Mr. Kerry, then just back from his brief tour in Vietnam, accused his fellow GIs of committing war crimes in Vietnam in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan. That was the act that set Kerry up for his long climb.
Fulbright, who died in 1995, stood for three things in his time. Capitulation to the communists in Vietnam, segregation of the races, and, most relevantly here, hostility to the Jewish state. This element of the story is being ignored by President Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, who is the administration official defending Mr. Kerry from criticism in Israel. She calls personal attacks on Mr. Kerry being heard from Israel's cabinet ministers "totally unfounded and unacceptable."
Israeli Widow Blasts 'Insensitive' Kerry Claim
Israeli victims of terrorism lashed out at Secretary of State John Kerry for his "insensitivity" after he inaccurately claimed "not one Israeli was killed by a Palestinian from the West Bank" in a recent speech.
During a controversial speech over the weekend in Germany, Kerry threatened Israel with economic boycotts and claimed that the Jewish state is enjoying a respite from Palestinian terrorism.
"There's a momentary prosperity, there's a momentary peace," Kerry said. "Last year, not one Israeli was killed by a Palestinian from the West Bank."
However, this is untrue. At least five Israelis were murdered by West Bank Palestinians in 2013.
Telegraph posts 3 stories on settlers' Kerry spoof, but ignores PA incitement
While one can reasonably find the video objectionable, it's curious that Tait would frame one short (and relatively benign) YouTube clip as somehow injurious to peace efforts while, like most of this fellow British journalists, failing to devote serious coverage to genuine incitement to violence by high level Palestinian politicians.
Indeed, just a few weeks ago, the Telegraph failed to even note a disturbing clip of PA President Abbas applauding a PA Minister of Religious Affairs after he called for jihad in Jerusalem.
Antisemitic Remarks by Jordanian MPs during Debate of Kerry's Initiative
MP Zakaria Al-Sheikh: In a hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah, the Prophet Muhammad said: "Judgment Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims will kill them." In another version, it says: "You will fight the Jews – you to the east of the river and they to the west of it." One of the Prophet's companions asked him: Which river? He replied: The Jordan River.
Historical Palestine is the occupied Islamic, Arab, Palestinian land, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. It contains Islamic and Christian sites, and nobody has the right to relinquish a single inch of it.
The Palestinians are the original owners of Palestine, who lived on its land when they moved from the western Mediterranean Basin to its east, in 7000 BCE.
Zoabi thrown out of Knesset meeting for implied threat to Arab Christian IDF officer
An Arab Christian IDF officer accused Arab MKs of racism during a heated Knesset committee meeting Wednesday, and Balad MK Haneen Zoabi was thrown out of the session for implying a threat to him.
The exchange took place as the Knesset Labor, Health, and Welfare Committee was discussing a bill to give Christians separate representation on the Advisory Committee for Equal Opportunity in Employment.
Shin Bet Chief: Rise in Palestinian Terror Due to Internal Strife, Not Stagnating Peace Talks
Providing government officials and cabinet ministers with an updated assessment of Israel's security situation, Cohen said that over the last few years approximately 2,000 acts of terrorism have been committed across Judea and Samaria, characterized by gun fire and the hurling of Molotov Cocktails. According to the report, Cohen asserted that in many cases, the crimes have been perpetrated by minors.
Cohen conveyed that the violence seems to be increasing of late, telling the committee that in November of last year, 160 terrorist acts were committed in Judea and Samaria, and in December, 100 such crimes were perpetrated, Channel 10 said.
Cohen added that the Shin Bet has recently foiled several attempts by Palestinian Arabs to kidnap Jewish civilians and soldiers, according to the report.
Report: Israel Reaching Out to Dahlan
A report Thursday said that Israel was carrying out secret talks with banished Fatah terrorist Mohammed Dahlan. According to a report in Maariv, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has dispatched a senior official in the Prime Minister's Office, Yitzchak Molcho, to meet with Dahlan in Dubai, where he absconded to in 2010 when he was thrown out of Ramallah.
Dahlan, former security chief for the Palestinan Authority, has often been at odds with the PA leadership. He developed strong contacts in the CIA and with Israeli intelligence officials, and in 2001 upset then-PA and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat by calling for reforms.
Israel Indicts Palestinian for Working with Al-Qaeda, Holding Biological Weapons
A Palestinian has been indicted in an Israeli military court on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda operative who possessed biological weapons and planned to train others in their use. The indictment charges him with undergoing military training, contacting the enemy and conspiring to commit murder.
Samar al-Barak, from the West Bank town of Kalkilya studied microbiology in Pakistan and underwent military training in Afghanistan. He was recruited into al-Qaeda in 2001. In August 2010 he was arrested when he tried to return to the West Bank via the Jordanian border.
East Jerusalem Terror Cell Planned to Use Mini Uzi Guns for Wedding Hall Shooting Attack
According to the indictment, which was made public on Wednesday, the four Arabs from the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, planned to dress as ultra-Orthodox Jews and enter Jerusalem's Nof wedding hall in the Bayit Vagan neighborhood with their weapons concealed and then open fire.
The suspects had met with a Palestinian arms dealer in the West Bank, who promised to sell them the Uzi submachine guns, and another man to help them raise money for the guns, the Times of Israel reported.
Jerusalem Hamas chiefs sentenced to prison
Three East Jerusalem residents were sentenced by a Jerusalem court on Thursday for affiliation with Hamas and for illegally transferring funds to a terror group.
According to the sentence, the three suspects — Ya'qub Abu Asab, Kifah Sarhan, and Ahmed Alian — were found guilty of operating as Hamas leaders in the capital, and of actions "in the areas of religion, education and welfare" intended "to bring the public closer to Hamas ideology and to advance its aims." The court found that the three also visited the homes of deceased terrorists and met with security prisoners.
Hamas Redeploys Forces Along Border with Israel
The Hamas government in Gaza has redeployed security forces along its borders with Israel to prevent rocket fire, the Ma'an news agency reported Tuesday.
Islam Shahwan, an official from the Gaza Interior Ministry, said that the ministry's role is to "secure and fortify the home front and the agreements approved by resistance factions to realize our people's interests, security and stability."
Pentagon Study Vindicates Israel on Iran Nukes
The Defense Science Board "Assessment of Nuclear Monitoring and Verification Technologies" has concluded that American intelligence agencies are ill equipped to detect when foreign powers are developing nuclear weapons or ramping up their existing arsenals.
The report contends that the detection abilities needed in cases like Iran — including finding "undeclared facilities and/or covert operations" — are "either inadequate, or more often, do not exist."
The bigger concern may be that major nuclear programs were entirely missed by American officials: a North Korean-built reactor in Syria, when the Israelis alerted them and destroyed the facility in 2007. (h/t Bob Knot)
Iran Nuke Chief: "Entire Nuclear Activity of Iran is Going On," Iran Can Reverse Nuke Concessions in "A Few Hours"
Dr. Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, recently gave a speech to PressTV in which he evaluated the effects of the recently implemented Joint Plan of Action (JPA) and the likely contours of a comprehensive nuclear agreement between the international community and the West.
The wide-ranging discussion included evaluations of Iran's uranium program and its plutonium program. It came after a wave of other controversial interviews – with among President Hassan Rouhani, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and former top nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian – in which current and former top Iranian officials flatly ruled out dismantling parts of Iran's uranium enrichment and plutonium production infrastructure. Whatever else might be said about Salehi's comments, they were at a minimum on message:
Republicans said set to push Iran bill to a vote
The Daily Beast reported that Republican senators were planning on utilizing procedural tools on Thursday to pressure Reid into allowing the bipartisan Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act to be voted upon. The Obama administration has been adamant in its opposition to the legislation, which was initiated in December by Senators Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ).
The bill currently has 59 co-sponsors, hovering just below a veto-proof majority in the upper house. While 13 Democrats support the bill, a number have chosen to sit on the fence in a struggle that pits the administration against powerful lobbying groups such as AIPAC.
Syria Misses Deadline to Hand Over All Critical Chemicals
Syria on Wednesday missed a deadline to hand over all the toxic materials it declared to the world's chemical weapons watchdog, putting the program several weeks behind schedule and jeopardizing a final June 30 deadline.
Under a deal reached in October between Russia and the United States, which helped avert a U.S.-led missile strike against the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, Syria agreed to give up its entire stockpile of chemical weapons by February 5.
Russia said on Tuesday its ally Damascus would ship more chemicals soon, but Western diplomats said they saw no indications that further shipments were pending.
Carney Gets Defensive When Asked About Syrian Chemical Weapons Deal Falling Apart
ABC reporter Jonathan Karl asked White House press secretary Jay Carney if the Obama administration was concerned that the Syria chemical weapons deal may be falling apart Wednesday in the White House press conference. Carney defensively interjected "absolutely not," but added Syria's main partner and sponsor of the chemical weapons deal Russia has "a great deal at stake" should the agreement fail:
British PM: Destruction of Syria's Chemical Weapons Too Slow
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday expressed concern about the lack of progress in the operation to destroy Syria's chemical weapons, the BBC reports.
Efforts to destroy Syria's chemical weapons are slowing and information is being withheld from those overseeing it, said Cameron, adding the UK would continue to apply pressure "on all parties" to make sure Syria's chemical weapons stocks were eliminated.
After Three Years, UN Secretary-General Issues His First Report on Children in Syrian War
After 3 years of violence, for the first time the UN Secretary-General has reported to the Security Council on the horrendous violations of children's rights in Syria. Covering the period from 1 March 2011 to 15 November 2013, the report provides information on grave violations against children committed by Assad's forces and members of the opposition.
The UN report concludes that "suffering endured by Syrian children is unspeakable." Yet John Kerry and the State Department are spending more time and energy speaking about (and pressuring) democratic Israel than any other nation - as has the UN. What can Syria's children now expect? Another report next year.
Russia opposes humanitarian resolution on Syria
Russia said Wednesday it opposes a new UN Security Council resolution on the humanitarian plight in Syria, an announcement that is likely to torpedo a Western and Arab-backed draft that would pressure the government and opposition to allow desperately needed aid into the country.
Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told a press briefing that "hard, pragmatic and purposeful work is necessary" to resolve specific humanitarian issues — not a council resolution which will almost certainly aim "to politicize the problem."
Do 'Syria,' 'Iraq' and 'Lebanon' Still Exist?
For the West, as in the region itself, this has very serious implications. Dealing with it effectively will required an equally massive paradigm shift in strategic thinking on the Middle East, one that is capable of dispensing with previous illusions and admitting that sovereign borders once regarded as sacrosanct are swiftly becoming meaningless.
There are new borders taking shape, defined by sectarian divisions that the West ignores at its peril. Despite fantasies of withdrawing from the region, the security of global energy supplies and the maintenance of regional stability are still essential to Western interests. The West has as large a stake in the outcome of this sectarian conflict as the regional players involved. If it cannot adapt to the new Middle East that is swiftly taking shape, it will find itself on the losing side.

British appeals court rules that selling Ahava products is "perfectly lawful"

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 07:00 AM PST

In November, 2010:
Pro-Palestinian activists blockaded an Ahava store in London's Covent Garden on Monday, resulting in temporary closure of the store.

Two activists reportedly locked themselves to a cement-filled barrel at the entrance to the property. Police were called to the store, and the two were subsequently arrested on charges of aggravated trespassing, and taken to a central London police station.

They were convicted, and they appealed, on numerous grounds.

All of which have been thoroughly rejected by the UK Supreme Court.

Their 13-page judgment disproves the arguments made by the Israel-haters to support their position. There are four conditions for being guilty of this category of trespass. The four categories are:

i) the defendant must be a trespasser on the land;

ii) there must be a person or persons lawfully on the land (that is to say not themselves trespassing), who are either engaged in or about to engage in some lawful activity;

iii) the defendant must do an act on the land;

iv) which is intended by him to intimidate all or some of the persons on the land out of that activity, or to obstruct or disrupt it.
The haters claims that part 2 doesn't apply to them because selling Ahava products is illegal. They brought a number of specious arguments.

First, they claimed:

i) The company running the shop was guilty of aiding and abetting the transfer by the Israeli authorities of Israeli citizens to a territory (the OPT) under belligerent occupation; the transfer was said to be contrary to article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of August 1949, and aiding and abetting it to be an act ancillary to a war crime, made a criminal offence in England and Wales by sections 51 and 52 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001.
The court answered:
It is very doubtful that to employ such people could amount to counselling or procuring or aiding or abetting the Government of Israel in any unlawful transfer of population. Such an employer might be taking advantage of such a transfer, but that is not the same as encouraging or assisting it. Even if that company could have been aiding and abetting such transfer, that cannot amount to an offence by the separate retailing company, whatever the corporate links between the two companies. And even if the companies had been the same, such a crime of assistance was not an integral part of the activity carried on at the shop, which was retail selling. On the contrary, it was antecedent to, and remote from, the selling. The selling was perfectly lawful. The defendants, for their own reasons, elected to trespass and to stage a sit-in which was intended to (and did) stop that lawful activity in its tracks. They thereby committed the offence under section 68.

Their other arguments were equally ridiculous and dismissed accordingly; for example that the products were mislabeled as being from "the Dead Sea, Israel," the court noted that even if they were mislabeled that does not make their sale illegal. Similarly, they claimed that since the labeling said Israel, it violated a Cosmetic Products Safety Regulation where the country of origin must be prominently displayed, but the judgment found that this was a consumer safety issue and while "the Regulations are not directed at disputed issues of territoriality" the clear labeling that it came from the Dead Sea was accurate. (Which indicates that the UK legally considers the territories to be disputed, not occupied!)

The conclusion was that
It follows that of the postulated offences all were either not demonstrated to have been committed by the occupants of the shop at the time of the defendants' trespass or were at most collateral to the core activity of selling rather than integral to that activity. The occupants of the shop were, accordingly, engaged in the lawful activity of retail selling at the time and section 68(2) provided no defence to the defendants.

It is so funny how, in the echo chamber of the haters, they assert that so many things are illegal, and when courts actually rule otherwise they are shocked that all those "experts" in their social media were wrong.

(h/t SFI)

Iran's "moderate" Foreign Minister meeting with Islamic Jihad terrorists

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 05:00 AM PST

Secretary General of Islamic Jihad Ramadan Abdullah met today with Iran's Foreign Minister, Mohammad-Javad Zarif.

Zarif noted that "enemies" have failed to divert the world's attention from the Palestinian issue. Presumably he means with such unimportant issues like Syria.

He complimented "Islamic resistance in Palestine" (i. e., terrorism) as uniting various Palestinian factions.

Zarif made headlines a couple of days ago with purported statements that the Nazi Holocaust against Jews was "tragically cruel and should not happen again." In a little reported followup, Iranian officials denied these statements.

The Islamic Jihad leader also met with Ali Larjani, chairman of the Parliament of Iran, who said "Fighting the Zionist entity is the only way to fulfill the rights and liberate Palestinian land."

UC Berkeley professor forcing students to tweet against "Islamophobia"

Posted: 06 Feb 2014 02:15 AM PST

From Tarek Fatah in The Toronto Sun:
Two weeks ago, I received a panicked message from a student enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley.

He wrote: "I've been told by one of my professors I will be required, as part of my grade, to start a Twitter account and tweet weekly on Islamophobia. I can't help but feel this is unethical. This is his agenda not mine."

The professor conducting this exercise was Hatem Bazian as part of a course titled, "Asian American Studies 132AC: Islamophobia".

When I asked him to elaborate on his concerns the student wrote: "There are 100 students in the class, all of us forced to create individual Twitter accounts. I'm not wholly clear on what our final project is yet (I find it very interesting that he excludes both the Twitter account requirement AND the final project from his official syllabus), but we have to meet with a group in San Francisco, and our class will be surveying people of color on the impact of some ads put out by (anti-Sharia blogger) Pamela Gellar. Now I'm no Pamela Gellar fan, I think she's nuts, but I feel ... between the Twitter stuff and the final project he's basically using us as unpaid labor to work on his agenda."

I wrote to Prof. Bazian, who co-founded "Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)" at Berkeley, asking why he was using his students to pursue what appeared to me to be a political exercise meant to propagate a specific message to the Twitterverse.

Bazian replied, without referring to Islamophobia:

"My course is designated as an American culture community engagement scholarship class … Students are asked to send at least one posting per week on something related to the course content, be it from the actual reading or anything they read or came across."

When I asked him why all the tweets by his students so far are about Islamophobia, he replied:

"The class is titled De-Constructing Islamophobia and the History of Otherness … (Students) are asked to post based on … examining Islamophobia through looking at earlier historical examples."

The fact remains Prof. Bazian appears to be using his position of authority to make 100 students — mostly non-Muslims — tweet about Muslim victimhood in America, irrespective of how it's defined or whether it exists.

No student I have seen on Twitter has yet posted a tweet saying Islamophobia is a myth, nor has any student challenged the validity of the term.

Here is a sampling of tweets by Prof. Bazian's students:

One tweeted: "How difficult it is to be a Muslim woman in America"; Another wrote about "Islamophobia in Canada"; while a third tweeted, "One perspective of Islam is to view it as inferior to the West. Where does this notion of cultural superiority come from?"
Bazian's history should make him ineligible for any academic position whatsoever - even Berkeley -  in a sane world.

In May 2002, Bazian was the sole speaker for a two-day event at San Francisco's George Washington High School so inflammatory as to generate formal letters of apology from the school administration to the public. Advertised as a Middle Eastern "cultural assembly," the event featured a rap song by a student comparing Zionists to Nazis as students ran back and forth with Palestinian flags. Student and faculty observers called the supposedly multicultural event "pure pro-Palestinian propaganda."

In October of 2002, at the University of Michigan, at the Palestinian Solidarity Movement's annual conference, Bazian shared a forum with revisionist historian Ilan Pappé and the now-jailed academic and terrorist fundraiser Sami Al-Arian of Florida Atlantic University. At Michigan and elsewhere Bazian consistently denies being an anti-Semite, calling the accusation a ploy of opponents. "(The charge of) anti-Semitism is used as a means of neutralizing the opposition so the mainstream American public will distance itself from the 'extremists.'"

Yet, Steven Emerson, in his book American Jihad, quotes Bazian sermonizing at the American Muslim Alliance conference in May 1999 in Santa Clara, California, promoting the Islamic State of Palestine. Excerpts from the quote read, "'In the Hadith, the Day of Judgment will never happen until you fight the Jews ... and the stones will say, 'Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him!'" 
Also:

At an April 10, 2004 anti-war rally in San Francisco, Bazian told the cheering crowd, "we're sitting here and watching the world pass by, people being bombed, and it's about time that we have an intifada in this country that change[s] fundamentally the political dynamics in here." He added: "They're gonna say, 'some Palestinian being too radical' — well, you haven't seen radicalism yet!"

After a 2002 Students for Justice in Palestine rally at UC Berkeley resulted in the arrest of 79 protesters, Bazian spoke at a follow-up rally protesting the arrests. "If you want to know where the pressure on the university [i.e., to prosecute the demonstrators] is coming from, look at the Jewish names on the school buildings," he said.
Isn't that interesting that a leading expert on "Islamophobia" has an anti-Jewish agenda?


(h/t Ishai)
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