| Arabs have been predicting Israel's demise for seven decades. They still are.noreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 05 Apr 04:45 AM Iyad al-Baghdadi achieve | | Iyad al-Baghdadi achieved a level of fame during the Arab Spring as an advocate of liberty in the Arab world. He calls himself a Palestinian who now lives in Norway, but his name betrays that his ancestors came from Iraq, not the Levant. He tweeted that Israel has no chance of surviving the next twenty years: Israel is a fundamentally unsustainable project. Over the next 20 years, every one of its unsustainabilities will come to a head. Smart Israelis know it. Meanwhile the oblivious majority still think they've "won". Israel is fundamentally unsustainable and its myriad unsustainabilities will boil over in the coming two decades. No amount of disinformation or pile-ons will change this fact. Time will prove these tweets true. Arabs have been making similar predictions for as long as Israel has existed. I found this op-ed by Egyptian president Mohammed Naguib, written in January 1954, published in the Indianapolis Star: I cannot understand why the Jews in various countries throughout the world renounce their nationalities, their comfortably organized life and their financial and scientific activities to embark on the hazardous enterprise of emigration to this tiny area—Israel. From contrasting environments in different countries, and speaking various languages, they are crowding themselves together to face a new life full of risks and...Read More |
From Ian: Martin Kramer: The incredible shrinking MESA The membership of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) has endorsed a resolution to boycott Israeli academe. The general referendum took place over nearly two months, and the final count came to 768 for a boycott, 167 against. My longtime readers won't be surprised. I saw it coming eight years ago, and just wish it had happened sooner. That's because I'm not a member or a well-wisher of MESA. I'm pleased it's finally been exposed for what it's mostly become: a pro-Palestine, anti-Israel political society whose members just happen to be academics. I'm not the only one who saw it coming. MESA has a category for institutional membership—mostly university Middle East centers, which pay $1,100 a year for the privilege. A growing list of institutional members has always been a badge of prestige for the association. In 2013, MESA's institutional members included 53 North American universities and university-based programs. As of this moment, there are no more than 31, and maybe less. Most of the dropouts are state universities. Over the past decade, many state legislatures have adopted anti-boycott laws, which prohibit state funding for boycotters. Paying dues to MESA with taxpayers' money might become a problem, and while the anti-boycott laws are open to interpretation, who wants to contest one over MESA? I imagine many of these institutions...Read More |
The official Palestinian Wafa news agency monitors Israeli media for incitement, much as Israeli NGOs monitor Palestinian media for incitement. Their examples are a bit weirder, though. In their latest edition, here's their first example: Maariv newspaper published an inciting article by the lawyer and writer Nadav Hatsani, claiming: "On Tuesday evening, with the news of the identity of the terrorist who carried out the operation in Bnei Brak, Atta Abu Rumaila, Secretary General of the Fatah movement in Jenin, published a message of joy and a declaration of responsibility, in the name of movement in the city. "The president's men continued to build incentives to carry out the next terrorist operations. Mahmoud al-Habbash, the first judge of the Palestinian Authority and an advisor to Abu Mazen, warned in recent days that 'Israel is planning crimes against Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan.' The Palestinian Minister of Religions Affairs Hazem Abu Bakr claimed this week that Israel is trying to Judaize Jerusalem and is committing crimes against Al-Aqsa and the Ibrahimi Mosque. All this according to the constant analysis of the Palestinian...Read More |
Amnesty released its latest annual report on human rights issues worldwide. Here is a chart of how often selected countries are mentioned in the report, which is a pretty good approximation of how much effort Amnesty spends on documenting issues in each country. Yes, Israel is mentioned 118 times - more than Syria, more than Russia, nearly triple that of China, and more than Burundi, North Korea, Algeria and Congo combined. For comparison, here is Statista's list of the worst human rights abusers according to objective criteria: Of course, Israel isn't close to the top. Only antisemites claim it is. The report, as usual, is filled with the usual lies and deceptions. For example, it says, "In an act of institutionalized discrimination, Israel left out around 5 million Palestinians under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza from its vaccine campaign." Amnesty ignores that the Palestinian Authority didn't ask for, nor desire, Israel to provide them with vaccines (with one small exception that Israel agreed.) That's merely one example of dozens of how Amnesty twists facts to make Israel appear to be, literally, the worst human rights violator in the world. Oh, and remember...Read More |
From Ian: David Singer: Jordan and Israel can end the 100 years old Jewish-Arab conflict It took Jordan's King Abdullah II just 10 minutes to fly by helicopter from Jordan to Ramallah on 26 March to meet Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah – which is only 15 minutes' drive from Jerusalem – Abdullah's first trip to Judea and Samaria (West Bank) since 2017. The Arab Weekly reported on Abdullah's visit:
"Well-informed Jordanian sources have linked the previously unannounced visit of the Jordanian king to Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, to the Negev Summit. They said that Jordan was uncomfortable with the new "Abrahamic" peace process between Israel and Arab countries. It particularly resents being marginalised and losing control over its most important card, the Palestinian issue." Abdullah has only himself to blame for Jordan's growing marginalisation – abandoning the policy pursued by his great-grandfather King Abdullah 1, and his father King Hussein in unifying the two banks of the Jordan River between 1950 and 1967. Abdullah instead has been supporting the PLO in calling for the creation of an independent Arab state west of the Jordan River – in addition to Jordan east of the Jordan River: two Arab states within the territory comprised in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (Mandate). Abdullah needs to...Read More |
Here are stories of Israeli and Emirati cooperation from only the past seven days. all from the Emirates News Agency: - The "Negev Summit" in Israel
- The UAE hosted the International Security Alliance which included the interior ministers of UAE, France, Italy, the UK, Morocco, Spain, Israel, Senegal, Singapore, and Slovakia
- The UAE and Israel signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in maritime transport
- The UAE and Israel agreed on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)
- The signatories of the Abraham Accords held a football match at the Dubai Expo along with famous soccer players from dozens of other countries
- The UAE and Israel signed an MoU for mutual recognition of driving licenses between the two
- The UAE, United States and Israel held the inaugural meeting of the Trilateral Religious Coexistence Working Group in Dubai This is a dizzying array of initiatives and cooperation, mostly being done under the radar with little news coverage. Because normalization is normal. What's abnormal is the insistence by some holdover bigoted states...Read More |
Haaretz interviews Dr. Mahmoud Habbash, chief Sharia judge for the Palestinian Authority and top religious affairs advisor for Palestinian president Abbas. He says, "Ramadan is a month of prayer and mercy. But Israel's behavior as an occupying entity in Jerusalem and the West Bank is causing an escalation....." Such a peaceful man, wanting to make sure that things don't escalate during Ramadan and certain that only Israel is fanning the flames of violence. Haaretz, for some reason, didn't ask Dr. Habbash about other statements he has made that haven't been exactly moderate or peaceful. Just last week, he said, "the Holy Land of Palestine will remain the property of the Palestinians only who alone have the right to it and those who have legitimacy. " Which means that Jews have no right to be there. MEMRI has lots more clips of Habbash which show that he is not exactly a moderate peace-seeker. A year ago, he made up a quote by Theodor Herzl, claiming that he said about Palestinian Arabs: 'We must exterminate them. We must throw them in the deserts...Read More |
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