| Palestinians really think they are the center of the worldnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 06 Jan 05:45 AM The latest Palestinian Center for Policy an | | The latest Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll of Palestinians, released in late December, does not have any real surprises in the answers to questions that they ask every time. There is still a plurality that believes that terrorism is the best way to achieve a state, far more than those who prefer negotiations.
However, oe new question reveals a great deal. In reaction to the UK government decision to label Hamas as a terrorist organization and the idea of boycotting British products, 49% expressed the belief that such a boycott would be effective in forcing the UK government to rescind its decision while 45% think the boycott would not be effective. The belief in the efficacy of the boycott of British products is higher in the West Bank (52%) compared to the Gaza Strip (45%), among the youth between the ages of 18 and 22 (54%) compared to those whose age is 50 or higher (45%), in villages (57%) compared to refugee camps and cities (46% and 48% respectively), and among women (52%) compared to men (47%). First of all, PCPSR didn't even ask if people agree with calling Hamas a terror group. It is assumed that every respondent disagrees, even though they know otherwise - they see Hamas propaganda first hand. But consider the fact that most of those who expressed an opinion felt that a Palestinian boycott of British good would cause the British to change their minds. How much trade is there between the UK and...Read More |
From Ian: Gil Troy: Israel needs compelling stories, not just facts, to win the PR war Israel must address different audiences with nuanced and customized messaging – from Israel's most ardent Jewish and non-Jewish supporters, to liberal yet still supportive Jews, to often disengaged but instinctively sympathetic Americans, to other Westerners, to often hostile reporters. Israel must stop obsessing about anti-Israel fanatics, be they Jewish or non-Jewish, who frequently run the conversation, pulling resources from more receptive audiences. Each audience needs to hear a more compelling story about Israel – with the day's relevant facts or explanations fitting into a larger narrative arc. Sometimes the story will be reacting to Palestinian terrorism or some internal Israeli squabble. But more often, the story should emphasize Israel's status as the only Jewish state in the world, as the only democratic state in its region, and as one of the few surviving, thriving, progressive Western states. We spend too much time worried about the stories "they" tell about us – overlooking the stories we don't tell well about ourselves. Consider, for example, the two most underappreciated stories of the last two years:
The Abraham Accords have triggered tremendous excitement among Israelis and many Arabs, while eliciting yawns in America. This breakthrough showed that the unrealistic go-for-broke strategy needs to be replaced by a...Read More |
Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal Psychological warfare is not all that different in organization from the kinetic kind. There are campaigns and objectives. Recently the objective of our enemies – the Arab-European axis of antisemitism – has been to destroy the legitimacy of the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria. The attacks have come from several directions, but the objective is the same: to establish in the minds of target populations, which include Israelis, Europeans, and Americans, the idea that Jews living in the territories is illegal, immoral, and detrimental to the prospect of peace in the region; and to force their expulsion. The operations include the EU's requirement for special labeling of products produced by Jews in Judea and Samaria. The decision was made in 2015, but the difficulty of implementing it without appearing to be overtly antisemitic seems to have deterred many countries from following it. In 2019, the European Court of Justice affirmed the ruling, but some countries still show pangs of conscience. A more recent operation has been the "settler violence" campaign of recent weeks, waged by various European-funded NGOs (e.g., B'Tselem and others), that claim...Read More |
As everyone knows by now, actress Emma Watson's Instagram account sent out this message to her 64 million followers: It is not clear if Watson herself, known best for her role in the Harry Potter movies, posted this or some group that she outsourced her account to. Either way, she is responsible. There was the expected backlash and support from the usual players. And it should have stayed there. But Israel's former ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, responded: "10 points from Gryffindor for being an antisemite." I always liked Danny but this was a very stupid thing to tweet. Now the conversation is no longer about the merits of supporting Palestinians at the exact time they were shooting rockets towards Israel. Now it is about whether supporters of Israel reflexively call all critics of Israel - or even ostensible supporters of Palestinian nationalism - antisemites. Pro-Israel activists have emphasized for years that we do not consider all criticism of Israel to be antisemitic. Most follow the IHRA working definition of antisemitism which says explicitly that "criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic." Now the haters have this tweet as evidence that they were right all along. Watson's tweet, on the face of it, was not antisemitic. You can argue that she is wrong, that she is misinformed, that she is clueless, that she is following trends...Read More |
From Ian: Ruthie Blum: Mahmoud Abbas plays Benny Gantz for a fool Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz must have known that hosting Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas at his home in Rosh Ha'ayin would arouse the ire of the right. Otherwise, he wouldn't have cloaked the outcome of his tête-à-tête last Tuesday night with the octogenarian honcho in Ramallah in typically euphemistic language. Following the meeting, Gantz tweeted that he and Abbas had "discussed the implementation of economic and civilian measures, and emphasized the importance of deepening security coordination and preventing terror and violence—for the well-being of both Israelis and Palestinians." His office subsequently released the details of a slew of so-called "confidence-building measures," a phony term suggesting some kind of mutual arrangement that actually means Israeli concessions. These include: VAT, import-tax and excise-duty benefits; a NIS 100 million ($32.2 million) loan; more than 1,000 permits for Palestinian businessmen entering Israel by car; dozens of VIP permits for P.A. officials; and the legalization of the status of 9,500 undocumented Palestinians and foreign nationals living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The above benefits are in addition to the 500-million-shekel ($160 million) "loan" that Gantz vowed to provide the P.A. after convening with Abbas in Ramallah at the end of August. Despite the left's fantasy of a return...Read More |
This headline from AP on September 3, 1935 is awful. Obviously the German Zionists weren't Nazis. The resolution's text, translated from the German report of the Congress, was: The 19th Zionist Congress raises its voice against the systematic disenfranchisement of the Jews in Germany, whose ever increasing vehemence undermines the moral and material existence of the German Jews. This results in a defamation of the entire Jewish people and their intellectual and ethical cultural achievements.... The Zionist Congress, which has always regarded the preservation of Jewish honor as one of its legitimate and most important tasks, resolutely rejects, on behalf of the Jewish people, the defamation of Jews because of their race as contradicting the elementary principles of morality and justice. The protest against this disenfranchisement is not only a matter for the Jewish people, but a task to defend the principle of equal rights for all peoples. The 19th Zionist Congress declares that the Jewish people, which in the course of several thousand years of history have preserved their honor and their character under endless sacrifices, will never, in any situation, surrender their honor. It will defend the claim to equal rights for Jewish citizens in all countries, as well as its right to exist as a people among the peoples of the world, with the same determination with which it is willing to build its...Read More |
From Morocco World News:
Morocco has officially ended the duties of its ambassadors assigned to Iran and Algeria. In its most recent official gazette, Morocco's government announced that the country's Foreign Affairs ministry ended the duties of several of its ambassadors, most notably including Morocco's envoy to Iran Hassan Hami and Moroccan ambassador to Algeria Lahcen Abdelkhalek. Morocco severed relations with Iran in May 2018, with the country saying it had obtained hard evidence that the Iranian embassy in Algeria was facilitating logistic links between the separatist Polisario Front in Western Sahara and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. It looks like Iran's aggressive moves might have helped push Morocco into wanting relations with Israel's orbit - exactly the opposite of what Iran wanted. Meanwhile, tensions between Morocco and Algeria reached a new low in August last year, when Algeria announced its decision to sever all ties with Morocco. Many observers saw in the official severance of relations the tipping point of the long-simmering Algerian-Moroccan tensions. Long before the official rupture of diplomatic relations, however, the two neighbors' rift reached their highest point in years when the Algerian presidency accused the Moroccan government of being involved in a plot to "sabotage Algeria democracy" and undermine Algerian...Read More |
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