יום שבת, 8 במרץ 2014

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Another pro-BDS academic conference at NYU

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 02:15 PM PST

It takes academics to defend things that are indefensible.

Panelists: Professor Bill Mullen (Purdue), Radhika Sainath (Palestine Solidarity Legal Support), Sherry Wolf (International Socialists Review), Professor Ashley Dawson (CSI/GC, CUNY).
April 2, 2014
7:00-9:00pm
Skylight room, CUNY GC


Following the official endorsement of the American Studies Association of the call from Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israel, concerns over "academic freedom" have been repeatedly invoked as reasons to oppose academic boycotts. Moreover, official statements by university presidents, attempts by New York, Maryland state legislatures, and now the US Congress, to outlaw such political affiliations demand that the significance of "academic freedom" and its functionality in the US university system be interrogated and reaffirmed.

This panel discussion specifically addresses the question of academic freedom and political affiliation from the different perspectives of academics and activists working with and around BDS in the US academe today. Panelists interrogate how the pursuit of "academic freedom" has been used to both open and close debate, how it frames the call for solidarity with Palestinian students and scholars, structures relationships with dissenting opinions, and how it applies in a US university system increasingly dependent on a contingent workforce of graduate students and adjunct labor.

Co-sponsored by: The Adjunct Project; the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics; Critical Palestine Studies Association; International Socialist Organization at the Graduate Center; Middle East Studies Organization; Post-Colonial Studies Group; and Haymarket Books.
They even created a graphic for the event that apparently portrays people who are against boycotting Israel as imprisoning pro-Palestinian minds:


I do not support any law that would outlaw any form of speech except incitement for violence. But outlawing boycotts is not the same as "outlawing political affiliations."

Even the description of this academic conference proves that the organizers are liars.

By the way, here is an example of "academic freedom" that not one of these academics would ever condemn. It occurred this week at the National University of Ireland Galway as BDS supporters of "academic freedom" cursed and shouted down the evil Zionists who were discussing - how to fight boycotts.



Will any BDS advocate on this panel about freedom of expression condemn this? You know the answer. They make their decisions first, and justify it later using lots of polysyllabic words. Everyone sees through this but the BDS academics themselves.

Next month maybe these brilliant academics will contextualize rape for us and show how it could be a moral act.

It sounds horrible, I know - how can I even think such a thing?

Yet some Arabs have said that they want to use rape as a weapon against Israeli Jewish women. This turns rape from a horrible crime against women into legitimate resistance against the Zionist oppressor. And BDS' intellectual leaders say, quite explicitly, that all forms of resistance are legitimate, even if they are not tactically appropriate at all times. Anything that is part of the struggle to destroy the Zionist regime - even immoral acts - is by definition righteous.

So is it really so far-fetched that a "rape Israeli women" conference could attract the same kinds of moral midgets who are organizing these jokes at NYU?

(h/t David L)

03/07 Links Pt2: The Obscenity of Blaming Zionism for the Holocaust; Krake Zuckerberg

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 01:00 PM PST

From Ian:
The Obscenity of Blaming Zionism for the Holocaust: A Response
Wolfgang G. Schwanitz answers Tablet's review of his and Barry Rubin's book
In his Feb. 3 review in Tablet, David Mikics misrepresents our book Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East. It is not a biography of the grand mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husaini, though one is in the making, and Mikics fails to show how it compares to related works. He bit off more than he can chew. Thus, he exaggerates: the book, he alleges, purports to demonstrate that "Zionism caused the Holocaust." He then calls this invention "their logic, a "flawed conclusion," as if he were refuting what he has in fact attributed to us. In the light of Barry Rubin's passing—see the obituary by Lee Smith in Tablet—I will answer here.
Zionists rescued Jews on many occasions: in the attempted genocide in Palestine 1915 to 1917, in the Holocaust of World War II, and thereafter in global pogroms and Middle Eastern conflicts. As we have shown, the seeds of the State of Israel stem from the advent of Zionism and the League of Nations. At its 1922 San Remo conference this world body assigned the mandate of Palestine to Great Britain as 52 states recognized historical ties of the Jewish people with Palestine and favored the "reconstituting of their home" there.
Sarah Honig: Krake Zuckerberg
Most German publications no longer even pretend any wariness about coming off as anti-Jewish. Gone are the days when Germans had to at least appear a tad more cautious than their fellow Europeans. The latter reverted quickly enough to their old Jew-baiting habits but the Germans have willy-nilly caught up.
A cogent example is being consistently provided by Munich' s left-liberalSueddeutsche Zeitung, which also happens to be Germany's largest broadsheet daily. It recently featured a cartoon lampooning Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg after his outfit had acquired WhatsApp. The idea was to show Zuckerberg as a voracious octopus that swallows up everything around it. The caption at the bottom left-hand corner of the cartoon clearly read "Krake Zuckerberg" (German for Octopus Zuckerberg.) Up to this point, it's tolerable criticism.
But the octopus, as drawn by cartoonist Burkhard Mohr, was also given quite a distinctive face. Its function, presumably, was to make sure we don't lose sight of the fact that young Zuckerberg – innovative enough to have given the world a social network which millions of Germans also use – is a Jew. To that end, Mohr portrayed him with a preposterous hook-nose and thick fish-lips – as per the freakish stereotype sinisterly ascribed to Jews by their tormentors.
Richard Millett: Jews under attack at Centre for Palestine Studies as Ilan Pappe comes to SOAS.
Jews came under fire last night at the Centre for Palestine Studies, based at SOAS and under the chairmanship of Gilbert Achcar. It was irrelevant if you are a Jew in Israel, Scotland, Wales or England. Ilan Pappe, the CPS guest speaker, doesn't discriminate.
Pappe, a lecturer at Exeter University, started by saying he wished "to answer the riddle of the growing gap between the image Israeli Jews have of themselves and the external image the world has of them". In North Korea the gap between the view North Koreans have of themselves and that of them by outside world would not be much different, but in Israel there is "genuine difference".



Vatican denies reports Pope cancels visit to Israel in May
The Vatican denied on Friday reports coming from Israel stating that Pope Francis has cancelled his visit to Israel, scheduled for May, due to the ongoing strike of Israel's Foreign Ministry workers.
"The strike may create difficulties but for now there is nothing further as far as were concerned," said Father Frederico Lombardi.
The Pontiff's May 24-26 trip to Amman, Bethlehem and Jerusalem will mark the 50th anniversary of a landmark trip there by Pope Paul VI in 1964, the first by a pope in modern times. Pope John Paul II visited in 2000 and Benedict XVI went in 2009.
Presbyterians Have It Back-to-Front on Zionism
In the neighborhood of Kerem Hateymanim, the bougainvillea spill out over the terraces. The one-story homes, built higgledy-piggledy, jostle for space. Here, like in much of south Tel Aviv, outsiders have been buying up property as the area undergoes inevitable gentrification. But in the beginning, the neighborhood was constructed out of wooden beams and tin roofs by desperately poor Jews from the Yemen in 1904, before Tel Aviv itself was founded.
It has become almost received wisdom that the first Zionists to resettle in 19th century Palestine were European Jews. Not so. The Jewish immigrants from Yemen arrived in 1882, seven months before the first wave of Jewish farmers from Russia.
The Zionists arriving from Yemen on foot were living proof that their yearning to live as masters of their own destiny in the land of Israel had been a motivating force for Mizrahi (oriental) Jews before Theodor Herzl made his mark. For centuries before them, waves of Sephardi (Spanish) Jews from the Ottoman Empire had resettled in Hebron, Jerusalem, Safed and Tiberias.
Do Funders Like George Soros Pose a Threat to Evangelical Christian Support for Israel?
For well over a century, Christian Zionists have been steadfast in their support for a Jewish homeland. Emerging from this movement, Evangelical Christians have served as the foundation of Christian Zionism due to a number of theological, moral, and political reasons. At the same time, there is a growing movement of mainline Protestants who are critical of Israel.
With the support of anti-Israel Palestinian groups and non-governmental organizations funded by liberal philanthropists like George Soros, some are seeking to sway Evangelicals away from support for Israel.
Can Israel and the Jewish community take Evangelical support for granted, or will Evangelicals follow the path of mainline Protestant groups in their growing criticism of the Jewish state?
"There has always been an undercurrent of anti-Zionism in parts of the Evangelical community. It was always there, but it was a marginal force," Dexter Van Zile, Christian media analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), told JNS.org.
NGO Monitor: "Christ at the Checkpoint" Aims to Weaken Evangelical Support for Israel
In advance of the 3rd "Christ at the Checkpoint" conference, set to take place March 10-14 in Bethlehem, NGO Monitor released a report: Christ at the Checkpoint: How the U.S., U.K. and Dutch Governments Enable Religious Strife and Foment Mideast Conflict. This detailed report, part of theBDS in the Pews project, examines the funding sources of Christ at the Checkpoint, and their impact on the conference's agenda.
BDS in the Pews Director, Yitzhak Santis, said, "Our research indicates that the conference's political purpose is to weaken Evangelical Christian support for Israel in the United States and elsewhere. They do this by providing a stage to delegitimize the State of Israel and rejecting its historical, religious and legal underpinnings."
The conference's sponsors, Bethlehem Bible College and Holy Land Trust, have been directly and indirectly funded by the governments of the United States, the Netherlands, the UK, and prominent religious and educational institutions.
Pink Floyd star falls foul of Sir Gerald Ronson
The hostilities between Roger Waters and the Jewish community has intensified with Gerald Ronson accusing the co-founder of the rock band Pink Floyd of being anti-Semitic.
At a dinner of the Community Security Trust at the Grosvenor House Hotel attended by Ed Miliband, Dominic Grieve, Ed Balls and Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, Ronson, the charity's chairman, made withering reference to the rock star. "You may remember Roger Waters from the rock band Pink Floyd," he said. "Nowadays, at his concerts, he has a giant inflatable pig with a huge Star of David scrawled across it."
To scornful laughter from his audience, he added: "But, he insists that he is only anti-Israel, and is not, of course, anti-Semitic." Ronson was referring to an inflatable pig, stamped with the Star of David, that Waters, a vociferous champion of Palestine, floated during a concert in Brussels last year.
'Disappearing Palestine' Ad Going To Canada Supreme Court
A pro-Arab organization in Canada, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), has resorted to a supreme court petition after its ad campaign smearing Israel was blocked.
The ad campaign features a map series entitled "Disappearing Palestine," depicting the Israeli "occupation of Palestine since 1946." The spurious maps show a "Palestine Mandate" in 1946 occupying nearly all of Israel, in reference to the period of British, not Arab, control. The current end of the spectrum shows only Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria, administered by the Palestinian Authority (PA), as "Palestine."
Ethiopian/Israeli Delegation Headed for South Africa To Counter Apartheid Weeks
The IDC Herzliya, in cooperation with the Zionist Federation of South Africa and StandWithUs, have organized a very special mission to South Africa.
Our tremendous partnership will take a group of Ethiopian Israelis to schools and communities in SA to discuss Israel as a country that stands out as a light among nations because of its diversity and human rights.
Their outreach events on campuses in Johannesburg and Cape Town will counter so-called "Israel Apartheid Weeks", being run by pro BDS-Boycott groups and will help give a different perspective to South African students as they discuss everyday life in Israel, the diversity of Israeli society as well as their own families journey to escape persecution and reach their Jewish homeland.
European Youth Group Votes Against Boycotting Products From Judea and Samaria
The Youth of the European People's Party (YEPP)—a center-right political youth organization representing 39 European countries has cast the first-ever vote against boycotting products and factories in Judea and Samaria.
The Samaria Regional Council in tandem with Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu party youth leaders successfully lobbied to pass the vote against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which took place at the YEPP conference in Hungary. (h/t Yenta Press)
Anti-Israel academic boycotters reaping counter-boycott they sowed
Butler and the academic boycotters are also part of a BDS movement conceived at the anti-Semitic 2001 Durban NGO conference and which at its core is simply the latest in a century of anti-Jewish boycotts directed at Jews and only Jews in the region.
After the American Studies Association anti-Israel boycott, for which Butler actively advocated, there is something of a counter-boycott growing.
Butler is a subject of that growing movement, recently withdrawing from a Jewish Museum event after protests at her invitation.
That's one of the problems with academic boycotts — they are easy to start, but hard to contain. If Butler can boycott Israeli academics, then why can't pro-Israel academics, students and supporters boycott Butler?
Minister Tim Uppal responds to the one-sided anti-Jewish referendum at University of Windsor h/t IsraellyCool


Muslim group urges Egypt to ban Paramount Pictures' 'Noah'
A Muslim group in Egypt is urging the country to ban the Paramount Pictures epic depicting the biblical story of Noah and his ark, Al Arabiya reported on Thursday.
Egypt-based Al-Azhar published a statement Thursday, with the title "Al-Azhar prohibits the screening of a film that characterizes Noah."
"Al-Azhar renews its rejection to the screening of any productions that characterizes Allah's prophets and messengers and the companions of the Prophet [Mohammad]," Al Arabiya quoted the statement as saying.
Rome Jewish leader also received pig's head
The president of the Rome Jewish community revealed that he too had been sent the severed head of a pig about 10 days after pig heads were sent to Rome's main synagogue, the Israeli embassy and a museum with an exhibit on Jewish culture in January.
Riccardo Pacifici made the revelation during testimony Wednesday at the trial of seven right-wing extremists accused of violating Italy's anti-racism, anti-fascism laws by scrawling anti-Semitic graffiti on city walls. Pacifici said he had not alerted the media to the incident earlier in order not to give it attention.
Technion ranked among world's 100 top universities
Times Higher Education -- a weekly business publication based in London and sponsored by Thompson Reuters -- has ranked the Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology one of the world's 100 most prestigious universities. The Haifa-based university and 10 other schools were ranked 91-100 on the 2014 World Reputation Rankings list published Wednesday.
The list is compiled from a survey of 10,536 senior, published academics from 133 countries who were asked to list what they considered the best institutions in their field of expertise. "While reputation is based on subjective opinion, in this case it is the informed, expert opinion of those in the know: experienced scholars from around the world," said Phil Baty, editor at large of Times Higher Education magazine.
University of Colorado gets Holocaust archive
The University of Colorado in Boulder is the new home of an extensive collection of Holocaust-era documents, books and photographs.
The university on Tuesday announced the donation of the Mazal Holocaust Collection, calling it the world's largest privately owned Holocaust archive and the most significant in the United States outside museums.
The collection includes original transcripts of the Nuremburg trials. It was amassed by Harry W. Mazal, a retired Mexico City businessman who lived in San Antonio, Texas, before his death in 2011.
International Women's Day brings IDF servicewomen to the front
International Women's Day is a celebration of women worldwide, but it is easy to forget the girls who place themselves in danger everyday for their nation.
"There are a lot of girls here in the combat unit. That's more than you could say for I think any other country if I'm right," said 26-year-old combat soldier Chaya Winterseld. "The girls give of themselves what they can. They push themselves as much as they can."
IDF Blog: International Women's Day: Facts You Need to Know About Women in the IDF
Women have proudly served in the IDF since its establishment. Almost all positions in the IDF are open to women, and they serve in every branch of our military. This International Women's Day, we are celebrating the growing role women play in defending the State of Israel. Share these facts with your friends.
PM to Hollywood stars: Make movies about Israel
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continued his visit to California with a stop at Israeli movie producer Arnon Milchan's home in Malibu, where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Barbra Streisand.
Kate Hudson and Keanu Reeves were also guests at the gathering, as were Netanyahu's wife Sara and son Yair.
Milchan, a multi-billionaire and leader in the film industry, is behind such films as Pretty Woman and War of the Roses.
Netanyahu Gives Tour of Israel Tonight on PBS
Interested in a tour of Israel led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? You're in luck. Tonight at 8 p.m. on Channel 13, PBS will be premiering the hour-long documentary Israel: The Royal Tour. In it, Netanyahu gives journalist Peter Greenberg a tour of the Holy Land, from the snow-topped peaks of the north to the deserts of the south. Together they float in the Dead Sea, take a boat through the Red Sea, and raft down the Jordan river. They visit the ancient site of Masada before traveling to Haifa to see the high-tech world of the Technion.
"It was a great mix from the Mediterranean Sea to the (Negev) desert. We had a lot of fun. He said that he hadn't been on a bicycle for years because of security," Greenberg told the Jewish Star. "So we put the bikes on the road and jumped on and were racing and the security guards ran after us."
Visit the Knesset with Google Maps
The Knesset, Israel's seat of parliamentary government, on Monday became one of a select group of democracies in the world, also including the White House, 10 Downing Street and the Canadian parliament to launch an interactive tour in cooperation with Google. "Today the Knesset is becoming the House of the people once again; a glass house which can be toured from the inside," Knesset Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein said at the launching of the virtual tour. "There is a real opportunity here to see the beauty of the Knesset, to appreciate its delightful treasures."
Visit the Knesset with Google Maps

Saudi Arabia outlaws Muslim Brotherhood - and Saudi branch of Hezbollah

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 11:00 AM PST

From Al Arabiya:
Saudi Arabia on Friday blacklisted the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, along with three other Middle East-based militant groups, Al Arabiya News Channel reported, citing a royal decree.

The Saudi terrorism list also includes the kingdom's branch of the Shiite movement Hezbollah and Syria-based militant groups the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front.

Hundreds of Saudi fighters are believed to have joined ISIS and al-Nusra in Syria.

The royal decree gives fighters a 15-day ultimatum to return home. The declaration came after King Abdullah announced on Feb. 3 tough penalties for activities deemed as terrorism.

Under the previous decree, Saudi citizens fighting abroad face up to 20 years in jail. Similar punishments will be applied to "extremist religious and ideological groups, or those classified as terrorist groups, domestically, regionally and internationally," the state news agency SPA reported at the time.

The royal decree also criminalized taking membership in, supporting and sympathizing with any of those groups "through speech or writing."
Well, it's official. Israel is more tolerant towards Muslim extremists than Saudi Arabia is. In Israel, someone has to make a public speech advocating terror before he is branded a criminal; in Saudi Arabia you can now be jailed for a tweet in support of the Muslim Brotherhood.


At the same time, Mauritania also outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood.

03/07 Links Pt1: Obama's Worthless Guarantees; Erdogan threatens to ban Facebook, YouTube

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 09:00 AM PST

From Ian:
Sarah Honig: Worthless guarantees
However, the immediate victims are those who trusted American assurances – like, in this case, the Ukrainians.
Of course, they are not the only ones left with guarantees not worth the paper they were printed on. Many of America's loyal allies were abandoned in the "Arab Spring." Obama backtracked from the red lines he himself drew for Damascus despot Bashar Assad, leaving Putin and the Tehran axis with yet another victory. Red lines regarding Iranian nuclear ambitions were just as blithely ditched.
Israel is now being coerced to divest itself of all its strategic assets in Judea and Samaria and expose its soft underbelly – its frightfully narrow and heavily populated central region – to terrorist predations.
Israel's sole safeguards are to be guarantees disturbingly similar to those supplied the Ukrainians. What now unfolds in the Crimea should serve as a thunderous warning against placing ourselves at the mercy of apparent allies. Here, but for the grace of God, go we.
Elliott Abrams: Iran and 'Karine B'
While we talk of outreach to Iran and unclenched fists, Iran continues to be the largest state sponsor of terrorism. During the nuclear negotiations the Obama administration seems to think it must be on its best behavior lest the regime in Tehran become offended and walk away from the table. So, the administration stops Congress from enacting additional sanctions -- even sanctions never to be imposed unless negotiations fail. News reports say that there was administration pressure on Israel to stop its covert action program inside Iran. And we hear endless discussions of how President Hassan Rouhani is a moderate and we have to help the moderates in their struggle against hard liners inside the regime.
But during this period, while the administration says we must carefully watch our conduct lest we offend Iran, Iran ships advanced missiles to Hamas in Gaza. Iran ships arms to opposition groups Bahrain. The regime in Iran continues a brutal campaign of repression at home. Whatever our approach, theirs is to use this period of negotiations to destabilize the entire region and crush all internal opposition.
Ottomans, British Apparently Unaware Palestine Actually Sovereign The Whole Time (satire)
Palestinian historians examining the administration of the Holy Land during the British and Ottoman periods have discovered that the rulers of that land remained completely oblivious to the fact that they were not really the ones in charge. In reality, say the researchers, the Palestinian people were in control of their homeland, which is why the emergence of Israeli control over the same parcel of land was such a disaster.
While the Ottomans took control of the Holy Land in the first half of the sixteenth century, say the historians, they in fact never truly reigned, despite their monopoly on tax collection, land ownership registration, road construction, military recruitment, and the management of commerce, for example. Throughout the four hundred years of Ottoman rule in the Holy Land, an indigenous people called Palestinians were in fact sovereign, despite there being no record of any indigenous sovereignty since the Second Jewish Commonwealth two thousand years ago.



Jeffrey Goldberg Says He Interpreted Obama Comments on Israel as a 'Veiled Threat'
Goldberg paraphrased Obama as saying, "Israel is growing more isolated and we can't defend it in the same way."
"I took it to be a little bit of a veiled threat, to be honest," Goldberg said. "It's almost up there with, you know, nice little Jewish state you got there, I'd hate to see something happen to it."
"It was, look, I want to help you, but you're not helping me help you, and, therefore, there's only so much political capital I'm going to go spend in the UN, with the EU, with the Arab League, on your behalf," Goldberg said. "I think it was all couched very carefully but it's there and certainly the government in Israel feels like it's there."
Jewish Liberals Should Admit They Were Wrong on Obama
The Jewish community overwhelmingly supported President Obama's re-election campaign in 2012, despite his previous track record as being terrible on Israel. As Obama and Kerry continue to pressure Israel extensively, I wonder if Jewish liberals look around and regret their support of Obama. With Obama's countless foreign policy mistakes, the economy struggling to recover, and the fact that there has never been a time when America has been less respected by the world‎, any regrets at all?
At the Heart of the Jewish State Issue
Meanwhile the Palestinians have given every indication that they won't buy into the framework because they fear it will commit them to the one thing they have repeatedly shown no interest in accepting: peace.
Further proof of that comes today from the New York Times in the form of an op-ed from a leading Palestinian academic explaining why his people could never agree to one of the key points in the framework: recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. Ali Jarbawi of Bir Zeit University gives a number of reasons why the Jewish state demand is a non-starter. But the Palestinians would probably be better off if they gave up trying to explain why that is so. The more we understand about the Palestinians' objections to this condition, the less likely peace will ever be agreed to, no matter what the terms.
Not entirely by coincidence, the Times editorial page endorsed the Palestinian position on the Jewish state today. But the paper was far more concerned with seconding President Obama's stance and ignoring Israel's past offers of statehood turned down by the Palestinians (in 2000, 2001 and 2008) and Prime Minister Netanyahu's repeated statements about his willingness to accept a two-state solution if it meant real peace. Their dismissal of the Jewish state demand, which has been accepted by both Obama and Secretary of State Kerry, is however, a key point that should alert readers to the fact that the paper's supposed concern for Israel's future is less than sincere. But those wishing to understand the Palestinian's reluctance to accept the necessity to merely say a few words in exchange for tangible concessions in terms of land from Israel need to read Jaberi's article to understand why this seemingly trivial concern is actually at the heart of the dispute.
Abbas: No recognition of Israel as Jewish state
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said there is "no way" he will recognize Israel as a Jewish state and accept a Palestinian capital in just a portion of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, rebuffing what Palestinians fear will be key elements of a US peace proposal.
Abbas's comments signaled that the gaps between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remain wide after seven months of mediation efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Abbas, whose remarks were published on Friday by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, said he withstood international pressure in the past, when he sought UN recognition of a state of Palestine over Washington's objections.
Khaled Abu Toameh PA: 'Grave mistake' for Abbas to accept unsatisfactory deal
Palestinian officials in Ramallah on Thursday expressed fear that President Barack Obama would exert heavy pressure on PA President Mahmoud Abbas to accept a US-sponsored framework agreement with Israel.
Abbas is scheduled to meet with Obama in Washington on March 17.
It would be a "grave mistake" to force Abbas to accept an agreement that does not satisfy most Palestinians, the officials said.
JPost Editorial: Terrorism's puppet master
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and other government officials involved in the decision-making process demonstrated leadership and a willingness to take calculated risks.
But the seizure of the Klos-C is an important Israeli accomplishment for another reason. At a time when the "moderate" President Hassan Rouhani and his ever-smiling Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have turned on a charm offensive that has succeeded in clinching for the Islamic Republic a partial reprieve from crippling sanctions, Israel has once again reminded the world of the danger of allowing Iran to leverage to a devastating degree its destabilizing impact on the region by achieving nuclear weapon capability.
Comparing Iran to Nazis, Netanyahu vows to expose 'lies'
Netanyahu spoke at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, where exhibits document how 6 million Jews and Europe's lively Jewish culture was destroyed in the Holocaust. He drew a parallel between a 1919 letter on display at the museum in which Adolf Hitler laid out his plans for an "uncompromising removal of the Jews altogether."
"He called then for the destruction of Israel, and Iran today calls for the destruction of Israel," Netanyahu said, after being shown a document signed by Hitler.
"Then, too, there were people who did not want to believe his words. We shall not allow Iran to arm itself with the capability to destroy us," he continued.
PM Netanyahu at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles


WATCH: IDF soldiers boarding ship loaded with Iranian shipment of rockets
The IDF released on Thursday a video showing its forces boarding a ship laden with Iranian weapons bound for Gaza.
The IDF's "Operation Discovery" took place in the Red Sea on Wednesday, 1,500 kilometers away from Israel and some 160 kilometers from Port Sudan. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz oversaw the raid.
EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE: IDF soldiers board the Klos-C


PA honors terrorist who planned murder of Israeli minister Ze'evi for "heroic sacrifice"
Despite the ongoing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, PA leaders persist in their glorification of killers of Israeli civilians. Recently, the PA's Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs chose to honor the families of several terrorists imprisoned in Israel "out of appreciation for their heroic sacrifice."
Among the terrorists honored at the ceremony were Ahed Abu Gholmeh, who is serving a life sentence for planning the murder of Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze'evi ("Ghandi") in 2001, and Ahmad Sa'adat, who is serving a 30-year sentence for heading the PFLP terror organization. A song played at a PFLP event praised Sa'adat for planning the murder of the Israeli minister, but he has not been tried for this crime.
IsraellyCool: Palestinian Insult To Professional Journalism Criticizes Other Palestinian Insult To Professional Journalism
Regular readers know, we really are not fans of the palestinian Ma'an News Agency. To put it simply, they give Saeb Erekat (and pretty much all palestinian leaders) a run for his money when it comes to an aversion to the truth.
We are clearly not the only ones who think so, because here's a piece by palestinian journalist Khalid Amayreh criticizing Ma'an's journalistic quality.
Activists heading to Gaza stuck at Cairo airport
More than 40 women on their way to Gaza as part of a delegation for World Women's Day are staging a sit-in inside the Cairo International Airport after being refused entry into the country since Tuesday, airport officials in Egypt and activists said Thursday.
Among the participants from the US-based anti-war group Code Pink's delegation are US, French and Belgian citizens.
Ann Wright, the US delegation's organizer, said Thursday that a few activists have elected to return home, while at least three activists had been deported, including Mairead Maguire, a 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Medea Benjamin, an American activist, said Egyptian police fractured her shoulder when she refused to board a plane to Turkey.
Syrian Warplanes Approach Border; IAF Deployed
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) was deployed Friday afternoon after Syrian warplanes approached the Israel-Syrian border, according to Channel 2.
The Syrian warplanes were within just a few hundred kilometers to Israel Friday, according to the daily, as it struck rebel outposts near Al Quneitra.
The two air forces did not come into contact with one another, but the IDF does not take threats to Israeli airspace lightly - especially in light of recent spillover from the ongoing Syrian Civil War.
Syria to Miss Yet Another Deadline in Chemical Weapons Operation
In yet another setback to the operation to destroy Damascus' chemical weapons arsenal, sources at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Thursday that Syria will miss a major deadline next week.
Reuters reported that Syria has until March 15 to destroy 12 declared production facilities.
"That will definitely be missed," an official involved in discussions with Syria, referring to the March 15 deadline, was quoted as having said.
In UN complaint, Syria says Israel fired on mosque, school
Damascus on Thursday filed a complaint with the United Nations Security Council over Israeli fire into Syrian territory a day earlier.
In a letter to the president of the council and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Syria claimed Israel fired at a mosque and a school near the demilitarized zone separating the two countries, injuring seven soldiers and four civilians.
According to Israel Radio, the Syrian Army warned the IDF against attempts to test its capabilities.Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday accused Israel of cooperating with Syrian rebel factions to tip the balance of power in the demilitarized zone.
Erdogan threatens to ban Facebook, YouTube
Turkey's prime minister has threatened drastic steps to censor the Internet, including shutting down Facebook and YouTube, where audio recordings of his alleged conversations suggesting corruption have been leaked in the past weeks, dealing him a major blow ahead of this month's local elections.
In a late-night interview Thursday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a TV station that his government is determined to stem the leaks he insists are being instigated by followers of an influential US-based Muslim cleric. He has accused supporters of Fethullah Gulen of infiltrating police and the judiciary and of engaging in "espionage," saying that the group even listened in on his encrypted telephone lines. The Gulen movement denies involvement.
Months after deal, Israeli airlines still not flying to Turkey
Three months after the Civil Aviation Authority announced that Israeli airlines would be able to fly to Turkey again — after nearly half a decade during which they were not allowed to take off or land in that country — local carriers are still effectively locked out of the lucrative market. Meanwhile, Turkish Airlines continues to grow, consolidating its position as the second-largest airline operating in Israel.
"This is the great illusion, which the head of the Civil Aviation Authority was able to create; to my regret, there is absolutely no change," El Al CEO Eliezer Shkedy fumed this week in an interview with The Times of Israel. "We asked to be able to fly to Turkey starting at the beginning of March, to Istanbul and other places across Turkey… We can't fly to Turkey and the Turks continue to operate tens of flights per week.

Lisa Duggan of the ASA tries to attack me

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 07:00 AM PST

Lisa Duggan, president elect of the American Studies Association who put together an anti-Israel conference last week that made her drool,  seems a bit upset:

On February 23, the right wing Zionist blog Elder of Ziyon leveled accusations tantamount to an "exposé" of our NYU American Studies conference scheduled for March 1: "ASA's President Elect Hosting Secret Anti-Israel Conference. "

This post's allegations, that the event would feature "obscene " Israel bashers living in an "echo chamber of their own hate," quickly rocketed around Twitter, generating more posts and an avalanche of hate mail. Extending the expressions of outrage over the American Studies Association's support for the academic boycott of Israel (well-known throughout the Zionist blogosphere), this post focused its "exposé" on the supposed "secret" conspiracy unveiled in the post. Letters sent to NYU President John Sexton denounced the limited range of views represented, pronounced the supposed secrecy shameful, and demanded that NYU cancel the conference and fire me (the named ASA president elect).
While I am hardly responsible for hate mail generated by exposing a conference that Duggan explicitly wanted to keep quiet, isn't mail demanding that she be fired considered free speech? After all, Duggan just this week signed a petition that pretends to support free speech. She wouldn't want to be considered a hypocrite, would she?

I posted the conference flyer to the CUNY Revolutionizing American Studies faculty seminar page on Facebook, asking the professors and student members to share it only with colleagues and students.

Her exact words were "PLEASE DO NOT post or circulate the flyer. We are trying to avoid press, protestors and public attention. Feel free to share it with friends, colleagues and grad students though." The Facebook page is open to the public, and the description of the group is to expose the program outside CUNY:
This group is one of the public faces of a conversation taking place within CUNY in the field of American studies, and to a vast array of intellectual, political, social, and cultural issues.

This initiative intends to animate a critical engagement with American Studies at and beyond the CUNY Graduate Center.
So Duggan posted the flyer on a public group but then says that it was not intended for the public. But those in the group could invite "friends." It is quite obvious what her motivations were, even as she furiously tries to spin it.

Admittedly, it is very funny watching her fume.

The Elder of Ziyon, well known for inflammatory posts, interpreted this ordinary limited registration academic conference held in a small space as a sinister conspiracy, and our Event Brite registration page overflowed with requests from Zionist bloggers and pranksters like I.A. Tollah.
See - I'm well-known! And inflammatory!

But don't worry, my efforts were all for naught:

There was no migration to the mainstream and tabloid press, there was no massing of protesters at the event site. The conference proceeded smoothly. We proclaimed it a success.
Except that Duggan has already tried multiple times to spin this conference into making it less exclusionary than it was. She failed miserably in her attempt to compare it to private Zionist groups choosing Zionist speakers. The controversy was written up in JTA (republished worldwide, in places like JNS and Haaretz and Times of Israel) and in Tablet.

And, today, the New York Post wrote an op-ed about this very conference:

NYU's faculty handbook requires instructors to "show respect for the opinions of others." Too bad a closed-door university event last weekend did nothing of the kind. Which may explain why organizers took pains to keep it quiet.

The annual event, sponsored by four NYU departments, looks like a thinly disguised session aimed at mobilizing support for the anti-Israel boycott movement.

President John Sexton has previously written to the national American Studies Association to express NYU's "disappointment, disagreement and opposition to" its embrace of the boycott. But he says that to have required sponsors of the NYU event to represent all sides would be tantamount to censorship. That's more or less the position taken by Lisa Duggan, an NYU professor who is also the ASA's president-elect. Prof. Duggan supports the boycott of Israel and moderated a panel at the event.

In an e-mail to The Post, Duggan says: "The conference was not secret. It was just a limited registration academic conference in a small space." And yet before the conference, she posted a warning on Facebook asking people not to circulate the flyer advertising the event to avoid public attention. That post was later removed.

We are a newspaper, so the last thing we want is to censor people or tell them they have to run their conferences in a certain way. What would be nice is to hear some voices from the other side — say, by a concerned trustee or donor.

In the meantime, NYU gets to have it both ways, officially condemning the boycott while professors and departments use NYU facilities to advance it.
Sorry, Lisa. Tens of thousands more people now know about your pathetic attempts to keep your little Israel-bashing conference a secret.

It's almost as if you are embarrassed by what you stand for.

(h/t David L)

Abbas sentenced hundreds of Syrian Palestinians to death in 2013 (poster)

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 04:30 AM PST

Ma'an reports on a brand new Palestinian Arab lie:
Fatah central committee member Mohammad Ishtayyeh said on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority had attempted to negotiate the return of Palestinian refugees from Syria, but Israel had refused.

Ishtayyeh said in a meeting with diplomats organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Ramallah that the PA had tried with all its might to "end the suffering" of Palestinians in Syria through international mediation.

Israeli officials, however, had refused to allow them to come to the Palestinian territories.
What really happened, from AP, January 10, 2013:

The Palestinian president said he has rejected a conditional Israeli offer to let Palestinian refugees in war-torn Syria resettle in the West Bank and Gaza, charging it would compromise their claims to return to lost homes in Israel.

Abbas said he asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon last month to seek Israeli permission to bring Palestinians caught in Syria's civil war to the Palestinian territories. The request came after fighting between Syrian troops and rebel fighters in Yarmouk, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. About half of the camp's 150,000 residents have fled, according to a U.N. aid agency.

Abbas told a group of Egyptian journalists in Cairo late Wednesday that Ban contacted Israel on his behalf.

Abbas said Ban was told Israel "agreed to the return of those refugees to Gaza and the West Bank, but on condition that each refugee ... sign a statement that he doesn't have the right of return (to Israel)."

"So we rejected that and said it's better they die in Syria than give up their right of return," Abbas told the group. Some of his comments were published Thursday by the Palestinian news website Sama.
Hundreds of Syrian Palestinians have died since then. And it is all because Abbas didn't even give them the choice to live. His "principles" are more important than their lives.

Even as Palestinian Arabs continue to die in Syria, no one is pressuring Abbas to reverse his death sentence. The UN is silent. NGO's are silent. World leaders continue to treat Abbas with respect. Newspaper editorials gush how "moderate" he is.

And Syrian Palestinians continue to die, every day, directly because of a decision Abbas made more than a year ago.

Every single "pro-Palestinian" activist should be asked in every venue they speak if they agree with Abbas. Amnesty International and Oxfam and Human Rights Watch should be asked whether they agree that Syrian Arabs are better off dead than given the even the choice to live.

The Heinrich Boll Foundation, which heard this new Palestinian Arab slander against Israel, should be told the truth.

Shouldn't everyone?

Using International Women's Day as an excuse to bash Israel

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 02:00 AM PST

International Women's Day, taking place every year on March 8, is a celebration of women and the gains they have made in the past hundred years. In some countries it is celebrated as a sort of Valentines Day, in others the struggle for women's equality is highlighted.

But in the Palestinian Arab territories, the entire purpose of IWD is not to celebrate and not to look for improvements in society to help women. No, the entire purpose is to bash Israel.

The earliest mention I could find of International Women's Day in the territories is from 2005, from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. That year, and every year after, about 95% of their press is about Israel, with only a passing mention of problems women have in the patriarchal Palestinian Arab society. Honor killings are hardly mentioned, although the 2013 statement is only about 80% about Israel and it does briefly mention Hamas restrictions on women and honor killings.

PCHR also tries to use rhetorical tricks to blame Israel. Obviously, Israel jails and kills far more men than women, since it is mostly men who are attacking Israeli targets. This proves that Israel does not discriminate against women, But PCHR says that because Israel kills men, then women become widows, since Israel jails men, women lose their husband's income. No matter what, this "human rights" NGO will try to twist a day that is meant to help women gain rights into an excuse to attack Israel.

CodePink wanted to go to Gaza this year, as it has in the past, but Egypt blocked them. Looking through their website from previous visits, I can see nothing about problems with women under Hamas, nothing about honor killings in Gaza, nothing about blatant discrimination against women.

We have seen this type of thinking before. The Goldstone Report bent over backwards to find international treaties that Israel violated in the Gaza war, specifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women no less than eight times yet only applying it to Israel, not to Hamas that actually controls the lives of, and specifically discriminates against, Gaza's women.

All of this attention by pseudo-feminists to use feminism as a weapon against Israel has a side effect - it ensures that the Arab women in the territories do not gain equal rights, because no one is advocating for them! All the money and time and effort that should be used to help women are instead used to attack Israel - at the expense of the very women they are pretending to help!

One would think that women who truly work for equal rights would be at least slightly irritated at having their goals subverted by blowhards and hypocrites.
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