Israel has offered to release a new group of 400 Palestinian security prisoners, in addition to the fourth and final group of longtime terrorism convicts who were set to go free this weekend, if the Palestinian Authority agrees to extend peace talks for another six months, The Times of Israel learned from Palestinian sources on Saturday night. The US, anxious to arrange for the continuation of the talks, backed the offer. As of Saturday evening, however, PA President Mahmoud Abbas was insisting that the fourth group of longtime prisoners first be released before he would consider extending the talks beyond their current April 29 deadline.
One of America's elite universities became the focus of attention today as photos emerged showing students apparently engaging in support for international terrorism during the past year. The two students, identified as Fadi AbuNe'meh and Taka Yamaguchi, were apparently leading activists with the campus chapter of J Street U, an organization that describes itself, inter alia, as "pro-Peace." An especially vibrant part of the group's peace activism, apparently, includes wearing T-Shirts that say "Resistance is Not Terrorism," and sport a picture of Leila Khaled, a notorious PFLP terrorist who hijacked airplanes in 1969 and 1970, caressing an AK-47.
This is what "Liberal Zionists" on the Jewish left have been demanding, they must be so pleased that someone finally took them seriously enough to reply, right? Wrong. As ever, rather than take on any of these accusations directly, they have simply gone for that tried and tested method of shutting down debate by demonizing anyone who criticizes their views. The most recent, and indeed most astonishing example of this comes from Bradley Burston writing in Haaretz. In his piece J-Streetophobia, and the U.S. Jewish right's hatred for American Jews Burston argues that this documentary is a window into the minds of what he calls "the Jewish right," exposing how this seething faction is driven by its resentment of the rest of the Jewish community. In fact most of the voices in this film seem broadly in line with the pro-Israel consensus. What is perhaps most striking about this line of argument is the one-directional set of standards that it operates on. When Jewish liberals in America criticize, condemn, and yes at times demonize Israelis, they tell us they do it out of love. Yet when those with a more "hawkish" perspective have the temerity to try and pick holes in liberal arguments, well then it must obviously be motivated by hate. It's not a particularly sophisticated worldview: liberals are innately nice and conservatives are by their very definition nasty.
Besides erroneously presenting the BDS movement as "supporters of the Palestinians" rather than a politically motivated campaign to delegitimise and dismantle Israel, Knell mainstreams the so-called "cultural boycott", promotes the partisan narrative of "Palestinian land" and fails to inform listeners of the existence of alternative views regarding "international law", in clear breach of BBC editorial guidelines on accuracy and impartiality. Not for the first time by any means we see Yolande Knell acting as a mouthpiece for unadulterated amplification of the PA narrative in this radio interview. The type of terminology she chooses to use, her presentation of a morally equivalent view of terrorism and her mainstreaming of BDS are part and parcel of the promotion of that narrative. Notably too, this interview joins numerous other BBC reports in failing to even try to clarify to BBC audiences the rationale behind the Israeli demand for recognition of Israel as the Jewish state and why the issue of that Palestinian – and wider Arab – recognition is crucial to the success of any agreement.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) really likes Israeli-made products and even prefers them over those of other countries, according to newly released statistics. In fact, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported Friday, the PA has seen an increase in both importing from Israel and exporting to Israel. According to the statistics, in January, the PA's exports declined by 8.7 percent compared with the previous month, but its scope, which amounted to 68.6 million, was still larger by 10.1 percent compared to the same month last year. Almost all the PA's exports in January, 90.2 percent, were to Israel, the statistics found. As for imports, the PA's imports in January rose by 7.9 percent compared to December of 2013. Imports from Israel grew at a rate of 17.2%, while imports from other countries were down 16.4% compared to January of 2013.
First, the 1947 U.N. partition plan was rejected by the Palestinians and never implemented. Recognition of a Jewish state from the Palestinians is thus outstanding. Second, Arafat did not accept Israel as a Jewish state in 1988; he merely summarized the text of the 1947 U.N. partition plan — a ploy that was rejected at the time as disingenuous by both Israel and the United States. In 2004, in the midst of a terrorist war against Israel waged at his direction, Arafat merely uttered these words, outside any diplomatic context, to two left-wing Israeli journalists — scarcely proof positive of a Copernican revolution in Palestinian thinking. (Incidentally, the two Israeli journalists described Arafat's 2004 statement at the time as being "the first time Arafat has said he recognizes the state's Jewish character" — indicating that even these two proponents of the theory of an Arafat 2004 conversion didn't think much of Arafat's 1988 words, upon which Mr. Kerry now places such emphasis.) As we have since learned, an Israel that remains a Jewish state is precisely what the Palestinians do not accept. The Palestinian leadership from Mr. Abbas on down started being insistent on this point ever since they were quizzed about it years ago. As Mr. Abbas once put it, "I say this clearly: I do not accept the Jewish state, call it what you will."
Spurred on by Washington's appeasers, Abbas has demanded even more one sided concessions. Having effectively torpedoed the talks, he is now offering to extend them but only under certain conditions. According to the Palestinian Ma'an news agency, he wants Israel to release the remaining prisoners and also implement a freeze in settlement construction. All this despite the fact that the conflict will continue no matter what is agreed in the talks. Naturally, if Israel refuses, Abbas can tell a gullible world that a 'hard line' Netanyahu was to blame. At the same time, he can keep intact the Palestinian narrative of victimhood and western perfidy which has kept his people trapped for so many decades. Here's the final point. In a year's time when these talks are but a distant memory, who will the world blame for this continuing conflict -- the 'victim' Abbas or the 'intransigent' Netanyahu? Must we even ask?
Fatah official Hazem Abu Shanab told the PA-based Ma'an news agency that the release of the final group of terrorists would be pivotal in determining the future of Israeli-PA relations. He added that the international community will be inclined to hold Israel responsible for hindering the peace process. "The release of prisoners is a legitimate, lawful, and human right. Their freedom should not be linked to concessions regarding extending or continuing the diplomatic process," Abu Shanab told Ma'an. (h/t Jewess)
Eighty-seven percent of Palestinians believe the Palestinian leadership should renew its UN statehood efforts if the fourth and final batch of prisoners are not freed, according to a poll published by the Palestinian Centre for Public Opinion on Saturday. The prisoner release "is a prerequisite for any future progress of the negotiations," the center said, as the overwhelming majority of Palestinians consider it to be "the most crucial issue that must be treated in order to continue with the peace process." (h/t Jewess)
Israeli forces fired on two armed gunmen as they attempted to cross into the Golan Heights from Syria on Friday, the IDF said, reportedly killing both of them. The suspects were trying to sabotage "operational infrastructure" along the border, a spokeswoman for the army said. Troops opened fire and confirmed hitting the two, she said. The incident occurred near kibbutz Ein Zivan in the northern Golan.
There is ample reason for concern. Over the past 18 months, drones piloted by Hezbollah—but almost certainly built and supplied by its patron, Iran—have penetrated Israeli airspace, coming unnervingly close to key infrastructure sites and major population centers. Soon, they may be joined by others sent by Hamas: In October, near the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian security personnel arrested a team of operatives preparing to launch a drone packed with explosives. The events have set off alarms within the Israeli Defense Forces, which last April released a statement declaring unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be a serious threat to the country. Hezbollah's drones represent the next evolution of warfare-by-remote-control, when weaponized robotic planes give terrorist groups de facto air forces. As Matthew Levitt, director of the Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, points out, each flight into Israel is at minimum a significant propaganda victory for the militia. "They gain more credibility anytime they compete with the mighty Israeli air force," he says. "They love being able to say, 'Israel is infiltrating our airspace, so we'll infiltrate theirs, drone for drone.' " At the same time, Levitt adds, "If Israelis don't feel like their government is in complete control of the airspace around the border, that's something that could cause real panic." But the stakes extend far beyond the psychological. Drones flown kamikaze style could easily match the casualties of a suicide bombing and be much harder to stop. Hezbollah's unmanned aircraft could also improve its planning of future offensives by providing surveillance footage of Israeli border facilities and troop movements.
Israel's enemies – led by Hezbollah and Hamas – will possess precision guided missiles within five years, according to the country's former prime minister, Ehud Barak. "We will continue to see many more missiles, a lot more accuracy, and within five years the missile will reach a maximum level of accuracy that will allow them to choose which building in Israel to hit. These means will proliferate, and will be cheaper for terror organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza," he added. "In the future we will see terrorism backed by science and technology."
The Obama administration is considering allowing shipments of new air defense systems to Syrian rebels, a U.S. official said Friday, according to The Associated Press (AP). President Barack Obama's possible shift would likely be welcomed by Saudi Arabia, which has been pressing the White House to allow the man-portable air-defense systems, known as "manpads," into Syria. Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia on Friday for meetings with King Abdullah. Allowing manpads to be delivered to Syrian rebels would mark a shift in strategy for the U.S., which until this point has limited its lethal assistance to small weapons and ammunition, as well as humanitarian aid.
National Journal on Wednesday conveyed details of what the outlet described as an "explosive" hearing held that day by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which saw senators from both parties "eviscerate" Obama administration officials over what Sen. Bob Corker described as a "delusional" understanding of the Syrian conflict. Corker leveled the characterization at Tom Countryman, State's Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, after Countryman suggested that the Bashar al-Assad regime has sustained "actual losses" due to a deal in which the regime committed to giving up its chemical weapons arsenal.
Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Al-Ja'afari, on Friday accused the governments of Turkey and Israel of a "public alliance of supporting terrorism" in his country, the Turkish Cihan news agency reports. "Terrorists" is the word that the Syrian regime uses to describe the rebels fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
Iranians angered by what they perceive as their government's indifference to the fate of a border guard kidnapped and killed by Pakistani militants this week took to social media over the weekend to urge the administration of President Hassan Rouhani to take a page out of Israel's playbook. According to The Times of London, Iranian nationals posted messages on Facebook and Twitter seemingly envious of the country which their government derisively calls "the Zionist entity" and "a cancer," particularly over the manner in which the Israeli government secured the release of one of its captured soldiers, Gilad Schalit, after he fell into Hamas captivity in 2006. "Keep saying 'Death to Israel' but they freed 1,027 Palestinians in return for the release of one of their own," an Iranian is quoted by the Times as writing on his Facebook account.
Al-Monitor on Thursday reported that top House lawmakers are in the early stages of drafting terror-related sanctions – the outlet described any legislation as "a work in progress" – that would target Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors due to the group's global terror activities and its fighting on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. "I think it's important to make the point that it's not all hugs and kisses. Hezbollah could not exist without the support of Iran," Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, told Al-Monitor. He said Congress cannot allow Iran to "blackmail" the United States through terrorist proxies. "Hezbollah continues to be a terrorist organization; it has turned the tide of the civil war in Syria in favor of Assad," he said. "And to me, it's one of the ironies, I guess, of the fact that at a time when we're sitting and negotiating with Iran over their nuclear program, they continue to do mischief with terrorist groups like Hezbollah. It irks me."
Embroiled in political turmoil, Turkey's leader has declared war on a shadowy enemy, a Muslim cleric he accuses of running a parallel "deep state" from faraway rural Pennsylvania. Out on the campaign trail ahead of Sunday's local elections, there are few doubts about who Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has in mind when he vows to "liquidate" his foes. His declared nemesis is the moustachioed 73-year-old imam Fethullah Gulen, an estranged former ally turned alleged puppet-master plotting the strongman's downfall.
The restrictions on YouTube come roughly a week after a globally ridiculed, largely failed, and legally overturned decree banning access to Twitter, and Ars noted that it appears that Turkey's telecommunications authority had initially implemented both bans similarly, by changing the Domain Name Service listings for the targeted sites. Ankara had subsequently escalated how it prevented access to Twitter – specifically by instituting a block to the microblogging platform's IP addresses – and Ars suggested that the Turkish government will eventually get around to similarly restricting YouTube.
Turkey last week suspended access to Twitter, which has been a conduit for links to recordings suggesting government corruption. It then blocked access to YouTube following the leak of an audio recording of a government security meeting. Twitter announced late Friday that a Turkish court had ruled in its favor, calling the decision a "win for freedom of expression." The former minister's lawyer confirmed the ruling on Saturday, adding that it would be appealed.
The man, 57, a fan of the Southampton Saints, made the remarks Sunday during a Premier League match against the host Tottenham Hotspurs, which has many Jewish supporters who sometimes call themselves the "Yid army." However, the term often is used derogatorily by opposing fans. The arrested man used a much more loaded anti-Semitic term, according to Haaretz.
A suspected fraudster has been targeting Canadian Holocaust survivors with a scam that has been described as "vile," Canada's National Post reported on Thursday. Letters delivered in Alberta and Ontario ask for the recipients' personal information in order to facilitate the transfer of funds, telling them they are entitled to a share of $75 million from the "Holocaust Claims Processing Office." The communique says the restitution will be transferred to a "secure numbered account" and asks for 60 percent of the money as a "fee." Scammers typically push victims to pay "fees" in advance falsely promising to deliver even greater funds at a later stage, according to the National Post.
The number of Israelis taking the 90-minute flight to Turkey surged 50 percent in February to 7,600 from a year earlier, the Turkish government reported March 25, as the countries work to mend a rupture over a deadly Israeli raid on a Turkish ship. "What's sparking it is the political and diplomatic calm, all the business about the flotilla and the boycott stopped," Noam Ron, director of marketing at the Tel Aviv-based ISSTA travel agency, said in a phone interview.
Israel's economy is doing well enough that the country can now be considered "high-income," according to ratings company Standard and Poor's (S&P) in its latest evaluation of the country's fiscal state. In its ratings statement, S&P said that with a per capita annual income of over $38,000, "we now view Israel as a high-income economy, with trend growth at the higher end of its peer income group."
J Street's 'Big Tent' is open only to one side - the anti-Israel and BDS-supporting hard left of its own position; pro-Israel centrists are censored.
By Alan M. Dershowitz | Mar. 27, 2014 | 10:44 PM
J Street, the American organization that calls itself pro-Israel and pro peace but that always seems to be taking positions that are anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, is asking America's Jewish leadership to have a big tent and to open its doors to J Street. While I generally support that position, it is imperative that J Street's hypocrisy be exposed. J Street insists that all major pro-Israel organizations be open to speakers who favor opposing views—such as supporters of the BDS movements, supporters of the single secular binational state approach, and those who oppose Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
In the abstract, this open tent policy seems commendable. We should be committed to the open marketplace of ideas in which views prevail on their merits not on the basis of exclusion.
Now let's see how J Street itself fares with regard to an open tent policy. It has categorically refused to allow speakers like me, who oppose J Street's policies on Iran and other security matters, to speak to its members at its conventions. I have repeatedly and persistently sought an opportunity to present my perspective—which is shared by many American supporters of Israel—at the J Street convention, or at other events officially sponsored by J Street. When J Street invites BDS supporters and those oppose Israel's right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people to speak at its events, it claims that it does not necessarily support these positions, but it believes in encouraging its members to hear views that are different from its official positions. That is total nonsense. J Street only wants people to hear views to the anti-Israel hard left of its position. It categorically refuses to allow its members to hear views that are more centrist and more pro-Israel, such as my own.
... And there is a good reason why they have placed this cone of silence over its critics. J Street survives, and even expands, largely as the result of speaking out of two sides of its mouth. It seeks to attract centrist members by advocating the two-state solution, an aggressive stance towards peace negotiations and criticisms of Israel's settlement policies. These are positions I fully support, and if they were J Street's only positions, I would have joined that organization many years ago. But in an effort to expand leftward, particularly hard leftward, it has taken positions that undercut Israel's security and that virtually no Israeli center-leftists support. It placed its imprimatur behind the despicable and mendacious Goldstone Report by bringing Richard Goldstone to Capitol Hill and introducing him to members of Congress. In doing so it undercuts the efforts of the Obama Administration, which was supportive of Israel's self-defense efforts in Gaza and not supportive of the Goldstone Report.
... J Street has also spoken out of both sides of its mouth on the issue of whether the Palestinian leadership should recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. While first appearing to oppose such recognition, it now seems to be saying that this issue should be left to final stage negotiations, but it leaves open the possibility that it will continue to oppose such recognition if and when such negotiations are reached.
Moreover, J Street has accepted funding from sources—such as George Soros—who are openly anti-Israel, and have kept this fact secret so as not to alienate its centrist supporters.
It is easy to understand therefore why J Street doesn't want me, or others who hold positions like mine, to enter into its tent. It does not want its own members to be confronted with the reality of J Street's double talk. If I speak at its convention, I will be speaking at the same time to those centrists it seeks to attract and to those hard leftists it wants within its tent. Both sides will be shocked by J Street's duplicity in telling each what they want to hear.
So here is my challenge: at the next J Street convention, show the film The J Street Challenge: The Seductive Allure of Peace in Our Time to all of its members, invite me to speak to them, allow me to distribute its conflicting position papers and positions and let the marketplace of ideas remain open to its members. Only when J Street opens up its tent to views critical of its own should it be demanding that pro-Israel groups open its tent to them.
Now look at Ben-Ami's "response" where he doesn't respond at all:
...Instead of organizing to meet this existential threat, some on the far right of the American Jewish community are focusing their effort and their fire in a different direction – on members of their own community. In particular, there is a new well-funded and energetic campaign to defame and delegitimize J Street, centered on an hour-long attack-umentary called the "J Street Challenge."
Sadly even a couple of mainstream, established Jewish organizations and figures are associating themselves with it - contrary to our community's firm commitment to civil debate on issues of legitimate disagreement.
Those who've made the film and are hawking it are, however, missing the real challenges that J Street is posing to the Jewish community. Here are a few of them:
• With the world losing patience with Israel's policy toward the Palestinians, will we rally to urge the national homeland of our people to change course before it loses its democracy or its Jewish character?
• As the BDS Movement against Israel gains traction, will we recognize that the best way to defeat it isn't spending our energy on preventing its supporters from being heard, but on ending the conflict in two states for two peoples?
• If you recognize the existential necessity of a two-state solution for Israel to survive as a Jewish and democratic homeland, isn't it time to acknowledge the price that has to be paid to achieve it? How can we say we support a two-state solution but oppose establishing borders based on the pre-67 lines with swaps? How can we say we support two states and oppose a Palestinian capital in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem?
• Is it appropriate to call those who criticize Israeli government policy anti-Israel or anti-Semitic? Plenty of Israelis including security chiefs, former Prime Ministers and Members of the Knesset are critical of present policy, and they're certainly not anti-Israel. In fact, using the anti-Semitism label to describe criticism of Israeli policy demeans the horror of real anti-Semitism.
• Is it right or smart to limit the right to speak in Jewish communal spaces to those with whom you agree? The more we limit admission to Jewish communal spaces by imposing ideological litmus tests regarding Israel, the smaller our Jewish community will be.
• Are we, as a people, treating the Palestinian people the way we ourselves want to be treated? Are we living up to the moral standards of our people and have we learned the lessons of our own oppression through the centuries and across the globe?
• Can we finally stop ignoring what is happening beyond the Green Line? The day-to-day maintenance of a 47-year occupation of another people runs counter to the interests and values of Israel and the Jewish people. It places all the wonder and accomplishment of the state of Israel at risk. It is time for the occupation to end.
We urge those attacking us to spend a little less time leveling baseless accusations against a now-established Jewish organization and a little more time addressing these fundamental challenges facing the Israel we love. ... In Jewish communal venues here and across the globe, let's call an end to the attack videos and mudslinging and let's start discussing the significant challenges that really threaten not just Israel but the heart and the soul of the Jewish people.
The members of the student government should be applauded for their moral and intellectual courage. Although no democracy can long survive without a citizenry capable of displaying such strength of convictions and basic decency, these characteristics are becoming all too rare on campuses. Indeed it is the rarity of such devotion to truth that makes the council members' behavior so heartening. But it is due to the rarity of such displays of moral courage that a campaign to defeat the rising tide of anti-Semitism on college campuses cannot rely on the moral and intellectual fortitude of students and on their willingness to stand up not only to the campus brownshirts, but to their enablers in the administrations. The developments at Northeastern and Brooklyn College make clear that the only way to defeat the anti-Semites on campus is to go after the administrations that enable them. Only the threat of civil lawsuits, federal investigations of civil rights violations, and alumni threats to withhold gifts will force university administrations to take action against the anti-Semitic thugs that are instituting a reign of terror at university after university. The lesson from Brooklyn College and Northeastern is that the pressure should be unrelenting. In both cases, the steps the administrations took this month were the minimal steps they think they can get away with. They need to be forced to do more.
Max Blumenthal is an American provocateur, radical activist and author of a new book whose extremist views appeal primarily to far left and fringe elements. Along with a tendency for being caught inventing facts, Blumenthal asserts Israel must choose between forced exodus and forced assimilation in a greater Arab society. Yet, despite Blumenthal's outrageous views, he was introduced to La Presse readers as a mainstream journalist and respected author, in an interview by Nicholas Berubé. His radical pedigree was an important piece of information that was entirely ignored. In his new book, with chilling chapter titles such as 'Exodus Party," "The Concentration Camp," "The Night of Broken Glass, and "How to Kill Goyim (non-Jews) and Influence People", Blumenthal purposefully and egregiously evokes comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, an analogy which has been deemed anti-Semitic by the European Union, the London Declaration and the Ottawa Protocols. In an effort to demonize Israel, Blumenthal refrains from introducing context (such as the threats emanating from Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran..). Blumenthal offends even important figures on the left such as author and peace activist David Grossman who, as he recounts in his book, tells Blumenthal to tear up his phone number when told of Blumenthal's view of dismantling Israel.
If the Israeli presence in the West Bank, and the "settlements" from 1967 on, are the root cause of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, then why does Article 14 of the 1964 PLO Charter call for the destruction of all of Israel? Because Judea and Samaria had no recognized sovereign, apart from the Ottoman Empire, prior to the illegal Jordanian occupation, the current Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria cannot possibly be designated as illegal. It seems therefore that nothing Israel offers that is less than 100% of its entire land -- in other words if Israel agrees not to exist -- will affect the Palestinian Authority's willingness to make peace.
Like the other Arab governments, the Kuwaitis are a harsh, unsentimental bunch. Ironically, the Palestinians know this only too well: in 1991, after a U.S.-led coalition liberated oil-rich Kuwait from Iraqi occupation, the entire Palestinian population there was accused of having collaborated with Saddam Hussein. The fact that some did and that many others did not didn't matter. Over a six-month period, around 200,000 Palestinians were booted out of the emirate in a campaign of violence and terror. PLO leader Yasser Arafat, in a rare moment of candor, asserted that Kuwait's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians was "worse than what has been done by Israel to Palestinians in the occupied territories." The Bedoon have faced a similar but more gradual onslaught, albeit without the extensive media coverage which the Palestinians receive. Human rights organizations aren't in the habit of paying attention to them: a recent article in the Arab newspaper Al Akhbar cited a Human Rights Watch report on the Bedoon from 2011, adding that such documentation is "rare." As a result, not only do most of us not know who the Bedoon are, but it's probably also safe to say that the vast majority of westerners have never even heard of them.
"True" Islam, so the narrative goes, is intrinsically free of anything "bad." It's the nut-jobs who hijack it for their own agenda that are to blame. More specifically, we are told that there exists a "moderate" Islam and an "extremist" Islam -- the former good and true, embraced by a Muslim majority, the latter a perverse sacrilege practiced by an exploitative minority. But what do these dual adjectives -- "moderate" and "extremist"-- ultimately mean in the context of Islam? Are they both equal and viable alternatives insofar as to how Islam is understood? Are they both theologically legitimate?
Isaac, a Palestinian Christian and CATC conference organizer who is about to receive his Ph.D. from the Oxford Center for Mission Studies, spoke on the night of Thursday, March 13, 2014, the second to last day of the conference. The scripture he was using in his talk was the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37), which tells the story of a man being robbed and left for dead by the side of the road. According to the parable, two religious men a priest and a Levite (Jews) walk passed him ignoring his plight. Finally, a man (known as the Good Samaritan), stops and helps him. Isaac then says the following:
By the way, the two religious people, why did they not stop? This question was asked to a Sunday school boy and the boy answered, "Well because he had no money left."
The implication is that if the man suffering by the side of the road, the priest and the Levite, both Jews, would have stopped to help the man if he had ... money. A slight smirk can be seen on Isaac's face before the camera cuts to the audience to show many (but not all) of them laughing.
In other words, Israeli counter-smuggling measures along the Gaza Strip coast are within the terms of an agreement signed with the internationally recognised representative of the Palestinian people – the Palestinian Authority. Rather than being mere "fishing boats" as reported by Hamas and the BBC's Gaza correspondent, the vessels involved in this incident appear to have been engaged in smuggling – likely as an alternative to smuggling via the cross-border tunnels in Rafah which have been rendered inoperative by the Egyptian army in recent months.
We were recently alerted to the following entry in a March 25th edition of the Guardian's Corrections and Clarifications: Here's the full text of the original letter – co-written by Gwen Backwell, an anti-Israel activist and former head of Liverpool Friends of Palestine - which was removed from the Guardian's site, per a cached page we located: Thought we're of course glad the Guardian deleted the letter, it would seem that even 'letters to the editor' are normally vetted by professional editors to prevent the publication of exactly the kind of wild, completely unsubstantiated defamation the paper saw fit to print last month.
As CAMERA reported, Barghouti is also widely considered to have been one of the main leaders in the Palestinian campaign of violence during the 2nd Intifada and helped found and lead the Fatah-based militias (the Tanzim and the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades) which carried out numerous deadly suicide attacks. Barghouti also reportedly was complicit in a suicide bombing at a crowd of shoppers on King George Street in Jerusalem on March 21, 2002 which claimed the lives of three and injured 86 others. Yonatan Bauer, then age 7, was severely wounded in the attack when a screw from the suicide vest passed through his brain. Obfuscating terror; falsely imputing peaceful intentions; and prioritizing the suffering of a terrorist's family over that of the Israeli victims? It looks like Harriet Sherwood can be confident her replacement at the Guardian's Jerusalem desk will be following in the proud tradition of pro-Palestinian "journalism" which represents the unique ideological niche of the London broadsheet.
There is a town in Spain called Castrillo Matajudios, and in Colombia "Matajudios" is a common surname. The problem is, in Spanish one meaning of the name is "Kills Jews." Which has led a Colombian emigre cashier in Argentina to attract the ire of a Jewish organization there. It all started when Adrian Marguiles, a customer at the Expoalimentos supermarket in Argentina's San Isidro district, discovered, upon reviewing his receipt, that his cashier went by the name Ivan Matajudios.
Germany has faced criticism from around the world for failing to publish immediately the full list of artworks, for keeping silent for nearly two years about the trove and for potentially having had no legal right to seize the pieces. Gurlitt wants to "return all (artworks) that have been stolen or robbed from Jewish ownership to each of their owners or descendants," lawyer Christoph Edel was quoted as saying on Wednesday by Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Authorities made Edel the provisional legal custodian for Gurlitt, who is in his 80s, after doctors ruled he was too sick to look after his own business interests.
A German-born Internet tycoon who is fighting extradition from New Zealand to the United States for racketeering is under fire for admitting he owns a rare signed copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf. Kim Dotcom, whose actual name is Kim Schmitz, is the founder of MegaUpload, a file-transfer website that US authorities shut down in 2012. He has just launched the Internet Party to contest New Zealand's election in September, but denies being a Nazi sympathizer, saying the book was an investment because it will increase in value.
Last year, Denmark and Israel commemorated the 70th anniversary of the rescue of Denmark's Jews in October 1943, when Danes helped 7,000 Jews in their Nazi-occupied country escape to Sweden and thereby avoid deportation to concentration camps. This seminal event – which resulted in 99 percent of Danish Jews surviving World War II – was commemorated in a series of events both in Denmark, with the participation of Denmark's queen and the prime minister, and in Israel, which Danish Crown Prince Frederik visited in October. In addition, at the end of this month, Denmark and its Jewish community will mark the 200th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation of March 29, 1814, under which Jews became regular citizens of the Danish state. The main event will take place on Sunday, March 30, in the Copenhagen Synagogue, with the participation of the country's deputy prime minister and the head of the Jewish community.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a U.S. Government's development finance institution, has approved a $250 million loan for the Ashalim 2 Concentrated Solar Power plant being built in Israel. The OPIC's Board of Directors gave green light to the loan last week to fund the project developed by Negev Energy, a consortium comprising Spain's Abengoa and Israel's Shikun & Binui Renewable Energy.
The Times of Israel reports that in addition to helping California address its water shortage – Israel Desalination Enterprises is building the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere in San Diego – Israeli technology is helping a number of other states and localities meet their water requirements Akron, Ohio is working with a number of Israeli companies to keep its water supply safe. One of these companies is Mekorot, Israel's national water carrier, which is helping monitor the quality of the city's water. Massachusetts recently held a competition for the most innovative water technology. The competition was won by an Israeli company TACount, that monitors water for contamination. TACount was chosen "as the company that best demonstrates a solid business plan, a strong management team, compelling technology, financing, and customer traction." Illinois, last year, entered into an agreement with Ben Gurion University to improve the state's "deteriorating" water supply.
Israeli mobile security start-up Accells Technologies was acquired this week by US cloud security firm Ping Identity – itself on Forbes' 2013 list of Most Promising Companies. Terms of the deal were not announced. Described by Ping as "a pioneer in context-based mobile authentication," Accells will continue developing in its office in Petah Tikvah, continuing to develop its mobile authentication system. "Authentication in a mobile world is an incredibly complex problem that Ping Identity is taking on with full force," said Andre Durand, CEO of Ping Identity. "Acquiring Accells speeds our efforts by adding to our industry pedigree an elegant user experience; secure, context-driven multi-factor authentication; and an expert team to expand our mobile capabilities quickly."
Nanotechnology, in Israel and around the world, could be called a "verge" technology — as in, "it's on the verge of breaking out into many industries, and revolutionizing them," according to Israel's Chief Scientist, Avi Hasson. Speaking exclusively to The Times of Israel on the sidelines of the NanoIsrael 2014 conference in Tel Aviv, Hasson said that after almost a decade of painstaking research, "we in Israel are ready for the next level – the widespread commercialization of nanotechnology.
Away from the glare of media attention, away from the limelight of jet-set diplomacy – a revolution is taking place. It offers no allure, no spectacular footage, but a revolution nevertheless. Today Israeli innovation and technology is changing the way farmers in rural and interior India cultivate and harvest. To strengthen this co-operation, a high-level Israeli business delegation made up of top agriculture companies is visiting India this week (March, 24-27). The "Food Security and Agriculture Delegation" is attending series of business events to promote India-Israel Agricultural Cooperation in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh and explore business opportunities in India.
Hen Mazzig, StandWithUs Northwest's Israeli representative, is an energetic, engaging, tremendous representative of Israel's next generation. Hen is a former lieutenant in a unit called COGAT, and worked as an intermediary between the the IDF and the Palestinian Authority (the PA) the UN, and the many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work in the West Bank. Hen's unit was responsible for overseeing the construction of medical facilities, schools, environmental projects, roads, and water-related infrastructure in the Palestinians, and part of the Palestinian Authority for security coordination with the Palestinian Security Forces. Hen describes the chain of events that led him to join the IDF's COGAT Unit- the humanitarian branch of the IDF that helps the Palestinians by building infrastructure. He talks about the hope and the vision of Israelis and Palestinians, working together for a better future.
Israel's primary aerospace and aviation manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd., on Thursday said its order book stood at $10 billion, a record, with $3 billion expected to be completed in 2014, and 85% of the new business from exports, according to Israel's Globes business daily.
Contrary to reports, the ongoing Foreign Ministry strike may end in the coming weeks, and, even if it were to continue, the work stoppage would not impact the Papal visit, sources said. Other measures have been taken by various arms of the Israeli government and relevant non-profits to enable the trip to proceed, the sources said. They added that to meet the Pope's expectations for the trip, a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres, a personal friend, was a must-have, meaning that the trip would have to move forward before Peres retires this year. Based on the details of the trip revealed on Thursday, Pope Francis will fly from Rome to Jordan, take a helicopter to Bethlehem then on to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. At each stop, he will be meeting with political and religious leaders. From start to finish, the Pope will be away from the Vatican for about 62 hours.
"Everyone in Wadi Nis knows me," he said, navigating his way through the village's bumpy alleyways. "There's almost not a family here I haven't treated; many children whose lives I've saved. From day one I saw it as an important value to help the Palestinians in the towns around us." Through the Efrat Emergency Medical Center, an evening clinic, Glick provides Palestinians from the area with two types of service: emergency care, and consultations from volunteer specialists he invites. These specialists are either residents of Efrat — a community of 8,000 boasting around 250 doctors — or Jerusalem hospital physicians who come in several times a month for a few hours of pro bono work. (h/t Predictor92)
World War I was not only waged in Europe, but across the Middle East as well. The armies of Turkey, Germany and Austria fought the British Empire's armies from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and India. The Austrian soldiers in the picture above marched into Jerusalem in 1916. The Australians arrived in Palestine with General Allenby's troops in 1917, and were famous for their daring cavalry charge that captured Be'er Sheva before German and Turkish troops could blow up the wells of the oasis.
From Elinu Stone: I have seen reports that the government decided not to go through with release of prisoners. That seems excellent news. Of course, the Palestinians are painting this as: 1) a failure on our part to abide by our commitments. 2) a slap by us to America.
(This seems a particularly ridiculous time to have our foreign ministry on strike…)
Israel's commitments to sacrifice are not made in a vacuum – that there were specific conditions made for this commitment and the Palestinians broke their promises first. They negotiated in bad faith and they are the ones slapping the Americans.
We tired to death of being played for suckers in a desperate hope that our concessions will bring peace or even the mere opportunity to talk about peace. The continued and incessant incitement which was part and parcel of the first three releases show the true intent of the Palestinians. the routine and insistent praise heaped by the "moderate" PA leadership upon murderous thugs – who are touted as heroes and role models by PA state organs and media – and whose acts of murder and mayhem against innocent civilians are praised as "resistance" – is nothing short of abominable. It is utterly wrong, heinous and despicable.
Furthermore, we will not be a party to the ruination of yet another generation of Palestinian society. The continued glorification of convicted murderers – precisely for their murderous deeds in particular-- can never end well and bodes disaster as much for Palestinians as for Jews and Israel.
In regard to Abbas' threat to pursue international recognition via UN bodies it is most significant that Abbas chose last week to deny Jews' right to pray at the Kotel.
Out of every state in the Middle East, only in Israel is there reliable institutionalized protection of all religions' holy places. Indeed it is sui generis that Jews have restricted their own rights to pray at their own holiest sites in order to avoid inflaming others' sensibilities – I would submit that this behavior is as ineffective as it is morally obtuse. I find it incredible that I, as Jew, cannot even visit my forefather Isaac's tomb, because the Palestinians who have no connection to Isaac have usurped that tomb in particular. While Abraham - who is holy to Islam- is buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, all the others buried there are connected to the Jewish – rather than Islamic - narrative of the Land. Yishmael (Ishmael) is not buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs. And yet – we have a time sharing arrangement between Jews and Moslems, there. That is not enough for the Arabs – who are now railing against even the possibility of such an arrangement on the Temple Mount.
Territorial exchanges, the release of convicted murderers and unilateral building freezes will neither resolve this issue nor move the Arab/Palestinian position on it one millimeter. There is no freedom of religion in Arab countries – they simply do not understand the concept. They also have not a scintilla of respect for real democracy.
In this context, the fact that Abbas went to the Arab League to have it rubber stamp the absolute refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish state - (not a new idea, as it was the basis for UN resolution 181 in 1947 – which the Arabs all rejected) – indicates that the Arab/Israeli conflict still continues. There is no Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians are merely proxies for the continuation of the Arab/Israeli conflict under a new conceptual framework.
After 1967 the Arabs understood that it would be nearly impossible to beat Israel by sheer force of arms. The 22 member states of the Arab League also realized that, in a world where being the perceived underdog provides immense soft power – and that public opinion can be mustered to cause interference with the progress of armed conflicts, they could not hope to win public sympathy if they were perceived as monolith ganging up on Israel – 22 against 1. Therefore, they carefully cultivated the image of an asymmetrical conflict – not one that pitted 22 oil- rich and largely despotic Arab states against Israel – but rather one where the poor, stateless "democratic" Palestinians are the opponent of the Goliath - Israel. The Saudis even put forward a 'comprehensive' peace plan, that could never be accepted by all parties. The Arabs don't care about the Palestinians one whit –except insofar as their status can be used as a weapon against Israel. (A quick look at what is happening in Palestinian camps in Syria makes that point with sinus-clearing certainty.)
As the Palestinians move for statehood in the UN bodies we should emphasize strongly that they are talking about a 23rd Arab state, that will be Islamic and forever opposed to any religious freedom for Jews – and anyone else. The PLO charter still calls for the destruction of Israel and remains subject to an approval process that can never result in its approval. Abbas has pledged never, ever to accept a Jewish state – and to put any concessions at all through an "approval process" involving every Palestinian in the world. Clearly, Abbas has no intention of moving toward peace and is leading everyone who believes otherwise by the nose.
Our refusal to release convicted terrorists at this juncture sends an important message that we will no longer make unilateral concessions that the Palestinians can simply pocket and then ask for more. The ratcheting strategy they have used so far must be called for what it is – and stymied.
There appears no good will on the Palestinian side and none has ever been cultivated by Abbas or the other Arab states. They should be called on this, in public. Unless there is mutuality there will be never be any hope for a negotiated peace here. UN bodies should understand that granting legitimacy to yet another rejectionist Arab state will do nothing but exacerbate problems here and world-wide. Abbas should be called to account.
Finally, if President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry still choose to coddle Abu Mazen in the mistaken hope of salvaging the current process, we should continue to speak the truth, firmly and clearly. I do not believe that we will be isolated if we articulate our position with resolve. We should look to Netanyahu's 2011 address of a joint session of Congress where he ably reiterated all the main points of contention in this conflict - and did a particularly good job of setting out our right to be recognized as a Jewish state, specifically. Of the scores of standing ovations Netanyahu received during his address, a particularly strong one - some 18 seconds - is evident when he noted specifically that the failure of the peace process was squarely due to the refusal of the Arabs - and Palestinians in particular - to recognize Israel as a Jewish State. What I [EoZ] am afraid of is that Israel will reject the prisoner release, MKs will strut about how they stopped it, and then the government will buckle under to pressure from the US. So they will lose the advantages of not releasing them, look like their resolve is paper-thin and also lose the (relatively slight) goodwill advantage of releasing them.
I would be very surprised if this is not what happens.
Quite clearly, the US president and secretary of state don't subscribe to George Orwell's ever-relevant observation that "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." *Therefore, woe to the Quixotic sorts – both on America's home turf and abroad – who insist on telling Obama and crew precisely what they're loath to hear. Woe all the more to the recidivists who persist in upsetting the Obama administration's omniscient ones. Very obviously Israel's defense minister Moshe Ya'alon is among the least stomached recidivists, even if he speaks his mind at closed meetings or in private conversations. Ya'alon must come to grips with the fact that freedom of speech isn't universally countenanced in our Obamaesque existence. Someone can be counted upon to leak or record uncomplimentary evaluations of the dear leader and then woe to him who dared tell it like he sees it.
There is a feeling among many Arabs and Palestinians that the Obama Administration has no clue as to what it wants from the Arab world. They point out that the Obama Administration has failed in its policies toward several Arab countries, especially Egypt, Libya and Syria. Abbas, in wake of growing US pressure on him, evidently sees the Arab summit as a "victory" for the Palestinians. As one of his aides explained, "The Arab summit's announcement is a political and moral boost for the Palestinian leadership." Abbas might eventually agree to the American demand to extend the peace talks at least until the end of the year. But this does not mean that he is going to change his position regarding recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Nor does it mean that Abbas is about to make real concessions on any of the core issues, such as the future of Jerusalem or the issue of borders. The extension of the talks means only one thing: that Abbas will be able to use the new time given to him to try to extract further concessions and gestures from the U.S. and Israel, while all the time bearing in mind that Obama and Kerry are willing to do almost anything to avoid a situation where they are forced to admit that their efforts and initiatives in the Middle East have failed.
Bowing to new pressure from the powerful Arab Group in the race to replace controversial official Richard Falk, the president of the U.N. Human Rights Council has decided to ignore the vetting committee's official choice, and instead appoint Christine Chinkin — co-author of the Goldstone Report, and a law professor at the London School of Economics – as the UN's next special rapporteur on "Israel's violations of the bases and principles of international law." In a second highly controversial move, the president also announced that he would name Falk's wife, former Turkish government adviser Hilal Elver, to another top U.N. human rights post. The only power that can yet stop these outrageously partisan and problematic appointments before tomorrow's plenary decision is the Obama Administration. When council president Baudelaire Ndong Ella tomorrow moves the nominations, the U.S. — if it is to live up to its pledge to use its UNHRC membership to fight bias, politicization and double standards — must take the floor, call a vote, and vote No.
UN blasts Israel, Hillel Neuer calls out hypocrisy of Russia, Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey
Falk was always going to be a tough act to follow. This is the man who has accused the Jewish state of "slouching toward nothing less than a Palestinian Holocaust." Yet, the monitoring group UN Watch has complied a rogues gallery of some of the other candidates. Many had their money on Falk's friend and close associate Phyllis Bennis who assisted Falk in compiling a number of his reports, some of which were so pro-Hamas that the Palestinian Authority actually blocked Falk from presenting one of them. Then there was the application from British lawyer Michael Mansfield, who along with the eminent Pink Floyd guitarist Roger Waters served as a leading "juror" for the Russell Tribunal, which has been described as a Stalinesque show trial of one-sided evidence against Israel. Mansfield also acted as the attorney defending the Palestinian bombers convicted of the 1994 attack on London's Israeli embassy and has condemned the killing of Osama bin Laden. Among the other applicants was the already mentioned Makarim Wibisono, who has gone out of his way to talk down Israeli suffering, referring to "the handful of Israelis who have died," and claimed that Israel uses terrorism as a "flimsy pretext" for its acts of aggression. Then there was former Dutch ambassador to Saudi Arabia Jan Wijenberg who has claimed that the European Union is an instrument of Israeli foreign policy and that a "creeping genocide" is taking place in Gaza.
The Anti-Defamation League said Wednesday that a resolution expected to be passed by the United Nations Human Rights Council later this week goes beyond the international community's ordinary criticism of the settlements, is akin to a call for boycotts against Israel, and jeopardizes the current peace talks. Other Jewish and pro-Israel groups joined the organization in attacking the council's alleged anti-Israel bias, calling on it to remove from its agenda a fixed item dedicated exclusively to criticizing the Jewish state. "Once again, a UN body makes it its business to inappropriately delegitimize and isolate Israel," Abraham Foxman, the national director of the New York-based ADL, said.
Israeli organizations opposed to Israel's settlements and policies toward the Palestinians expressed puzzlement today after the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly condemned North Korea and Russia, respectively, without singling out Israel for opprobrium. The organizations said they remain at a loss to explain why anyone would want to focus on the faults of countries other than Israel. "Our assumption has always been that the best way to bring Israeli policies in line with our vision of nihilism is to enlist the international community in the effort to undermine Jewish sovereignty," said Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now, which calls for Israeli withdrawal from all areas beyond the 1949 armistice lines, which will ease the eventual transition into just another Arab state that persecutes Jews. "But we're challenged by these new developments, which clearly imply that the same international community has actual ideals in mind."
Abbas's Kuwait performance was another example of how depressingly little goodwill there is on the side of the Palestinians. Recognition is an issue on which the Palestinians could have shown flexibility. On other issues the situation is no less bleak. The sides are deeply split on anything from military arrangements in the Jordan Valley to the return of Palestinian "refugees," to the status of Jerusalem, to the question of settlement blocs. Under the circumstances, with practically no headway made in the talks till now, what good could possibly come of the release of prisoners, many of whom are murderers? Indeed, the very concept of releasing prisoners is morally problematic. When the present round of negotiations was launched under the ambitious leadership of Kerry, we opposed the very concept. Conditioning Palestinian agreement to talk on the release of Palestinian terrorists – many of whom are guilty of the intentional murder of women and children and the elderly – made no sense, we argued, as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continued to rage. At the end of a process of reconciliation and mutual recognition between Israelis and Palestinians, it could conceivably be argued that the release of prisoners would be a part of a healing process. These prisoners would in that future day of peace not be received as heroes by Palestinian society, but as sad reminders of a violent time when Palestinians mistakenly believed that they could use terrorism to secure a homeland.
Israel will not release a fourth batch of 26 Palestinian security prisoners Saturday night as stipulated under the framework deal that led to the renewal of negotiations last July. The five-minister committee chaired by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that is empowered to choose which convicted terrorists will be released would need to have met on Wednesday to make a Saturday-night release possible. The names must be made public 48 hours – not including Shabbat – prior to the prisoners going free in order to allow appeals to the High Court of Justice against the move. No date for convening the committee was publicized.
Amidror highlighted the importance of Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Such recognition, he said, is not important for Israel — which will continue defining itself as it wishes — but for Palestinian society, to "close the issue of 1948," or the very existence of Israel. "The more I speak to Palestinians, the more I understand that the real issue for them is 1948, not 1967," he said. "It's clear to me that if the agreement with the Palestinians does not include recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, it's not worth the paper it's written on."
Qaraqe said that he holds Israel responsible for the consequences of not releasing the terrorists on time, warning of the "anger in the Palestinian street." Israel agreed, when talks began in July, to release 104 terrorists in four batches, as a "gesture" to the PA. Three of the four releases have already gone through. However, there has been little progress in the talks so far to justify the fourth release. In addition, the PA chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, admitted earlier this month that Abbas was staying in talks solely for the sake of the terrorist releases. In the wake of these statements, government ministers have been pressuring Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu not to go through with the fourth release.
The BBC fails to inform readers that the prisoner releases were from the very beginning tied to the talks' progress – of which there has been little to date – as explained by the Israeli prime minister to his electorate last July. The BBC fails to inform audiences that the subject of which prisoners are to be released and when is decided by a committee of Israeli ministers – not by the Palestinian Authority. Of course no attempt is made by the BBC to point out to audiences the absurdity of the discordant assumption by the Palestinian Authority that it can demand the release of murderers who are citizens of the state in which they are imprisoned due to their having killed citizens of the same state.
The Canadian government reiterated its position that the fate of Jewish refugees from Arab countries should be considered in any final peace deal with the Palestinians, but hinted that the current negotiations should be allowed to proceed without the issue complicating them. "Fair and equal acknowledgement of all refugee populations arising out of the Arab-Israeli conflict requires the recognition of Jewish refugees," Foreign Minister John Baird said in a statement Wednesday. "Such recognition does not diminish or compete with the situation of Palestinian refugees." Baird's statement follows a decision by the House of Commons, which earlier this month adapted a report submitted to parliament last year to recognize the experience of Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.
In the fall of 2013 the organization Rabbis for Human Rights boasted that it found new evidence about Bedouin land rights in the Negev. On November 24th, they published their report "primary Zionist document reveals Bedouin ownership." They were so sure of themselves they even posted the 1920 report on the net. Pro-Bedouin researchers Ahmed Amara, Oren Yiftachel and Sandy Kedar then published an op-ed in Haaretz, mentioning this document and claiming that the Negev "never belonged to the state" and "Bedouin claims stand on firm historical and legal problems." Unfortunately the newly revealed document doesn't show anything of the sort. Let's take a tour through the new claims. Luckily for all concerned, the reader can go check the documents themselves. In fact, this open-source presentation of material and evidence for all to see is for the best. Scholars and organization like RHR have for years hidden behind claims of having "specialized knowledge" of these issues and framing them with fancy terms about "justice" and "settler-colonialism." But the emperor has not clothes - the documents prove the diametric opposite of what the activists claim they show.
When the missiles were falling on Haifa during the 2006 Second Lebanon War with Hezbollah, Israelis scurried down to bomb shelters. But not everyone was able to make it down to safety; the elderly, the infirm, and especially those hospitalized in northern Israel had no choice but to hunker down and pray that Hezbollah's missiles missed them. To prevent such a scenario from recurring, Rambam Medical Center in Haifa spent over $100 million and eight years constructing the world's biggest fortified hospital. This week, it conducted a drill simulating what it would be like to move hundreds of patients from entire units — including the intensive care units — downstairs into the Sammy Ofer Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital.
Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon on Thursday accepted the recommendation of Major General Yoav Mordechay, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), to approve the entry of construction materials, electrical equipment, telecoms and plumbing materials to assist and support the construction of a Turkish hospital in Gaza. According to the Turkish request that Israel approved, the building material comprises 500 truckloads, with 70 truckloads containing electrical and communications equipment. Major Guy Inbar, the COGAT spokesman, described the background of the hospital project as being emblematic of the instability of the Gazan regime.
With that in mind, Hamas has taken great pains to keep the underground channels secret from the prying eyes and ears of Israeli intelligence, always substantial in Gaza. In October, after Israeli troops discovered a mile-long tunnel, Haniyeh said "thousands of heroes have been working in silence, below ground, to prepare for the coming battles in Palestine." But an Israeli official says that in the interests of operational security in fact only about 100 fighters are involved, carefully vetted from Hamas' military wing. Precautions around the digging itself sound like scenes familiar to prison escape movies: The work is slow, in order to prevent detection by Israeli surveillance. In any given moment only between five to seven people work underground, says the Israeli official. The waste and dirt are evacuated in sacks and boxes in order not to raise suspicion. The official says the tunnel typically starts a few hundred meters from the fence, inside a house or chicken coop owned by Hamas supporters, who give their consent and receive compensation. (The Israeli military located a tunnel originating in the side room of a mosque, apparently on the assumption that Israeli forces would not attack a holy place.) The depth at the entrance runs to a depth of 18 to 20 meters. As the diggers proceed, engineers follow pouring concrete to reinforce the walls and the ceiling. The electricians follow later, installing lights, and ventilation. Communication lines are also spread along side the tunnel in order to enable communication between the various parts of the tunnel, in the absence of a cellular reception, which at any rate, would be vulnerable to interception by Israeli's signal-intelligence services.
Egypt has accused the Hamas regime of harboring Brotherhood leaders in the Gaza Strip. On March 1, Brotherhood deputy guide Mahmoud Ezzat was said to have been killed in a shootout in a hotel near Gaza City. Ezzat was said to have been directing the revolt in Egypt with help from Hamas and Al Qaida-aligned militias. The sources said most Hamas members were believed to live in Cairo and Alexandria. But they said the Interior Ministry assessed that at least several thousand were based in the Sinai Peninsula, undergoing a revolt since 2011. "We believe that we will find a good portion of these terrorists and send them back to where they came from," the source said.
Violence generated by the Syrian conflict spilled across both the Turkish and Lebanese borders on Monday and into Tuesday, deepening worries not just that chaos will splash beyond Syria but also that other actors may be drawn into the fighting. A series of incidents erupted between Turkey and Syria, including one that saw Syrian missile systems lock onto nearly half a dozen Turkish F-16s patrolling the Turkey-Syria border.
An influx of almost 1 million refugees from Syria into neighboring Lebanon poses a serious threat to the already fragile country, but donor nations may not grasp the potential impact of further destabilization, a UN official said on Thursday. "There is not a single country in the world today that is shouldering as much in proportion to its size as Lebanon," said Ninette Kelley, regional representative for Lebanon for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "If this country is not bolstered, then the very real prospect of it collapsing and the conflict of Syria spreading full force to Lebanon becomes much more likely," she said during a visit to Washington.
Erdogan has been in power since 2003, and has a track record on Israel, and it is a sorry track record that has essentially destroyed the political and security elements – though not the business components – of a once thriving relationship. No one in Jerusalem is buying the idea that after the municipal elections, if Erdogan wins and his political fortunes receive a boost, all will return to normal. If anything, the concern is that the opposite will occur.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday denounced as "villainous" the leaking of a recording of top security officials discussing possible military action in Syria to the video-sharing site YouTube. Turkish authorities ordered the shutdown of the site. Erdogan's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the posting a "declaration of war," an apparent reference to an escalating power struggle between Erdogan and rivals. The anonymous posting was an audio file with photographs of the officials involved.
Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades (E.Q.B) the military wing of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, mourned on Friday, March 29th, 2014, the death of the Qassam member Hamza Ayman Abu Eid (20), from Al Qarara city – South of Gaza Strip.
The brigades confirmed in a press statement released on Friday morning, that the martyr Abu Eid has died accidently [sic]while cleaning hi [sic] weapon, adding that he was martyred after a long bright path of Jihad, hard work, struggle and sacrifice
Al Qassam Brigades mourn the death of the mujahed, reaffirms the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces.
According to reports, he shot himself in the head.
It is remarkable that for all the "ethnic cleansing" Israel is supposedly engaged in, terrorists in Gaza manage to kill more of each other and their fellow citizens than the IDF does.
By my count, about 12 people - mostly terrorists - have been killed in Gaza so far this year from "work accidents" and rockets falling short.
Ariel University, located in Samaria and "boycotted" according to EU guidelines for being over the 1949 Armistice line, has started a new initiative: a prayer room for Muslim Arab students.Roughly 600 Arab students are enrolled at the Samaria-based university, which has sustained that number since at least 2011. The Arab students make up roughly a fifth of the student body. Nevertheless, MK Ahmed Tibi (Raam-Taal) refused interviews with students of the university's communications department last November, calling them a "settler station."An Arab student who led the initiative stated "we obligated ourselves not to hold any political activity in the prayer room. We really don't intend to hold political activities or incitement of any kind. ...If we wanted to incite, we would have done that a long time ago."Ariel University's chancellor in 2012 emphasized only students loyal to Israel were accepted, noting that every student, Jew or Arab, is required to take a course in Judaism, Zionism or Israel each semester."If the university opposed the process, it would have harmed the principle of equality, and we could have even taken it to the Supreme Court," noted an Arab student. "We were glad that our request was received immediately and we were told that the process is underway."
#BDSFail
Today's BDSFail's come from China, Intel, Windsor (update) and Georgia.
The Tourism Ministry forecasts that the number of Chinese visitors will surge 60% this year to 40,000 as Israel tries to take a bigger bite into the more than $100 billion that Chinese tourists spend annually.
OrCam's [smartglasses] product helps blind and visually-impaired customers by using audio feedback to relay visual information.OrCam's system uses a small wearable computer that is clipped onto a pair of glasses. With the help of a five-megapixel camera, the computer uses audio feedback to relay visual information that the user can't see. Priced at $2,500, the device can read text, and with the help of the user it can be taught to recognize faces and objects.
The issue was scheduled for discussion at a UWSA council meeting Thursday night.Prior to the meeting, UWSA president Rob Crawford said: "In my opinion, we cannot ratify (the referendum) because it was not legitimate."
Meanwhile, true to form, the BDS crowd are making inflammatory statements claiming that pro-Israel national politicians are responsible for this #BDSFail.
Most of the comments beneath the article are severely critical of the BDS crowd.
"I think this program should be studied by police departments from around the world," [Robert R. Friedman, director of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange and professor emeritus of criminal justice at Georgia State University] said. "Virtually every department I have brought to Israel has adopted a number of elements in Israel's model with great success."
Amid reports that Turkey and Israel may be on the verge ofreconciling ties, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon approved plans by Turkey to construct a hospital in the Gaza Strip, authorities announced on Thursday.
On Friday, two local Arabs were captured by the IDF after they breached the Gaza security fence. The two were heading towards Israel for intents that remain unclear.
Here's a suggestion for the Palestinians. Stop killing your girls.
When this trend became apparent last year, the Palestinian Minister of Women's Affairs, Rabiha Diab, blamed….Israel: "The Israeli occupation is the one practising the utmost violence … it's the main thing keeping us from advancing."I would argue that the main thing keeping them from advancing is their refusal to take responsibility for anything, and to blame Israel reflexively no matter what.
(Thanks, Zvi, but that was written by me! - EoZ) Quirky
I finally got a copy of "Zionism Unsettled," the Presbyterian Church USA's 80-page "study guide" to teach Presbyterians how awful Israel is that was in the news a month ago.
After describing how much pressure Jews are under to not say anything bad about Zionism, it goes on to quote a hundred years' worth of anti-Zionist writings by Jews.
It has a sidebar of an "unsung hero of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising" - because he was anti-Zionist.
It gives Brant Rosen, the anti-Zionist reconstructionist "rabbi," an entire chapter to describe his pseudo-theological basis for hating Israel.
It says in a pull-quote "There are similarities between Zionism, South African apartheid, and Jim Crow segregation in the Southern US."
I thought it would be helpful to reproduce the PCUSA's timeline of the region's history to show how easy it is to lie with facts and factoids - when you get to select which ones to use.
Like all anti-Israel histories of the conflict, they start with the 19th century. Jewish people living in the Land of Israel from Biblical times aren't good to mention because that undercuts the fundamental argument that the land is Arab land that Jews came and took away.
And the "First Aliya" was hardly the first wave of Jews to return to Israel. They came throughout the centuries, perhaps not in waves but there was always a desire in Jewish culture to return. Major rabbis made "aliya" from Babylonia to the Land of Israel in the 2nd-5th centuries CE. They never stopped coming.
Also not mentioned is that the large majority of Palestinian Arabs in this timeframe did not want an independent state but they wanted to be part of Syria, just to forestall the possibility of a Jewish state. Then, as now, the point was not to establish a state but to end one.
Notice anything missing?
They don't want to mention the deadly anti-Jewish attacks in 1920, 1921 and of course the pogroms in 1929 where many Jews lost their lives and many more lost their homes. Yes, Jews were driven out of their homes by Arabs (in Jaffa, Hebron, parts of Jerusalem and elsewhere) long before the "nakba." Yet only one set of people have rights according to PCUSA.
The 1936-9 revolt was not only against Jewish immigration - it was against Jews altogether. It was a violent uprising and hundreds were killed. Not worth mentioning, of course.
Here the writers are engaging in sophisticated deception. Zionism of course predates the Holocaust and by the eve of World War II there was already a functioning Jewish government in Palestine in readiness for statehood. No such parallel government existed on the Arab side.
But PCUSA wants to frame Israel's founding completely as a result of the Holocaust, with the implication that the Arabs did nothing to deserve suffering at the hands of the Holocaust victims. Of course, the Holocaust contributed to the urgency of establishing a haven for Jews (as well as Western reticence at accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees) but the timeline minimizes Zionism's pre-war accomplishments.
The last item is a lie. There were certainly not 250,000 Arabs displaced by any Jews by mid-December, 1947. In fact, before the partition vote Jews were forced out of their homes in Jaffa in August 1947 - once again, the first victims were Jews. Arabs shot at the Jews from minarets of mosques.
Tens of thousands of Arabs did flee at the first attacks of Arabs against Jews in the hours after the partition vote. They remembered 1936-39 and those who had the means decided to flee to Lebanon and elsewhere to sit out the fighting. It was completely voluntary.
Why put "war of liberation" in scare quotes? Well, if you don't believe that Jews have a right to their historic land, then it isn't liberation, is it?
Plan Dalet is not described here, but it is certainly being misrepresented as a plan to ethnically cleanse Arabs. This is a lie.
Deir Yassin is mentioned - but not the Hadassah hospital convoy massacre a few days later which had a similar number of victims. How's that for bias?
Why is the UN adopting the UDHR mentioned here? Obviously because PCUSA claims that Jews violated it - and not Arabs.
Wars just somehow break out. Nothing about incessant fedayeen attacks on Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. Nothing about Arab threats to annihilate Israel and throw the Jews into the sea. Nothing about Yasir Arafat's first terror attack in 1965, before "occupation." Nothing about how the original PLO charter specifically excluded the West Bank and Gaza from its goals. Nothing about Israel warning Jordan to stay out of the war, but Jordan attacking anyway - and losing the West Bank. No, we cannot have Jews feeling real fear, can we?
In the text of the booklet, PCUSA says "Sadat had taken the initiative by his historic trip to Jerusalem in November 1977. Begin resisted responding to Sadat's peace initiative until public pressure forced his hand." This is a flat-out lie. Israel responded to Sadat's speech in Cairo within hours with an invitation to Jerusalem. Begin had made numerous contacts with his Arab neighbors to negotiate peace between entering office and Sadat's trip to Jerusalem.
Who massacred the Arabs in Sabra/Shatila? PCUSA implies it is Israel, because they haven't said a word about Lebanese Christians, so who else could it be?
The 1994 entry shows how one can write a completely factual statement and still lie.
The first Arab suicide attack in Israel was in 1989 and it killed 16 people- but it wasn't a bomb.
There were two other suicide attacks against Israelis in 1993 - but they were in Judea and Samaria.
PCUSA mentions the Hebron massacre first to imply that Palestinian Arab terror was in reaction to it. That is clearly not true. But they only publish the facts that make their anti-Israel case.
There were dozens of terror attacks during the 1990s. Over 150 Israelis were killed in suicide bombings. Not worth mentioning. But PCUSA wants to imply that the second intifada was the result of Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount - in reality is was an excuse, not a cause.
Israel's peace offers in 2000 and 2001 (and 2007) that were rejected by the Palestinian Arabs are not mentioned. The unacceptable Arab League proposal which could have destroyed the Jewish state demographically is highlighted, so Israel alone appears rejectionist.
Notice that Hamas is not mentioned here as a terrorist or even an Islamist group. Hamas rejected the roadmap outright, but that is not worth mentioning either.
Ah, so Hamas has some militants -but they only attack Fatah militants. They never do anything bad to their oppressor Jews.
Not a single mention of thousands of Hamas rockets being shot at Israeli civilians. Not a mention of who started the war in Gaza (by calling it a war on Gaza PCUSA is purposefully ignoring the Gaza rockets during the war.)
This is only the tip of the iceberg, but the pattern is clear - PCUSA will not write up any history that makes Israeli Jews look like anything but a bloodthirsty aggressors hell bent on dominating and controlling poor, innocent Arabs. (It will not mention that some IDF soldiers, politicians and diplomats are Arab and Druze, because they want to imply that Jewish exceptionalism - a major theme of the booklet - is responsible for all ills.) If anything contradicts that narrative it must not be mentioned.
People who are not familiar with the real history of the region see a timeline and they assume that it must be an accurate portrayal of history. Yet the lies and omissions are all in the same direction - to demonize Israel and to whitewash Arab threats and terror, which are virtually nonexistent in the 80 pages of the booklet.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how Israel-haters lie with cherry-picked facts.
