| State Department report on religious freedom is quite harsh on Israelis, goes way too easy on Palestiniansnoreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 19 May 04:45 | |  |
The US State Department issued its annual report on world religious freedom for the year 2022.
Its section on Israel and the territories is huge - over 22,000 words, and it might be the largest chapter in the entire report.
It is also highly problematic.
Its methodology is flawed; it appears to rely on English language newspaper articles and anti-Israel NGO reports, and has a laundry list of supposed Israeli crimes in great detail.
But for the Palestinian Authority, while it does mention a number of cases of incitement on Palestinian TV, it too often relies on their official statements and does not look any further into the issues. It follows that there are a lot of omissions and mistakes when it comes to Palestinian violations of freedom of religion.
For example, it says, "PA land laws prohibit Palestinians from selling Palestinian-owned lands to 'any man or judicial body corporation of Israeli citizenship, living in Israel or acting on its behalf.'" The laws might say that officially, but in reality Israeli Arabs buy lots of properties in the West Bank without any issue - the land laws are specifically meant to stop Jews from buying land.
That's an egregious example of religious discrimination that flew under the State Department radar.
Similarly, while it brings many examples...Read More |
From Ian: Walter Russell Mead: Israel at 75 Is Threatened but Strong For the first 25 years of Israel's independence, American presidents were more interested in cultivating Arab leaders than in aligning with Jerusalem. Only after Richard Nixon concluded that an Israeli defeat in the 1973 Yom Kippur War would empower the Soviet Union across the Middle East did Washington move toward a strategic relationship. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Washington saw Jerusalem as a necessary partner in containing Iran and, after 9/11, the war on terror. American policy toward Israel depends on how a given U.S. president sees American interests world-wide. For the past half-century, American presidents generally believed that the Middle East, thanks to its oil reserves, was a high priority in America's strategy of global engagement and that a close relationship with Israel on balance strengthened America's position in the region and beyond. The likelihood of a wholesale American withdrawal from the Middle East is likely overestimated. The energy transition will probably take longer and be less total than greens hope. And global geopolitical competition is more likely to buttress American support for limiting Chinese influence in the Middle East. In any case, Israel today is orders of magnitude stronger, wealthier and more influential than it was in 1948...Read More |
There is now a Morocco-Israel friendship group within the Moroccan House of Representatives, although no official announcement about it has been made. According to the Parliament's website, the Morocco-Israel friendship group within the House of Representatives is chaired by Nor-Ddin Elhrouchi of the Democratic and Social constitutional group. The other members are Nadia Touhami of the Progress and Socialism group, Abdelmajid Ben Kamra of the Haraki group of the Popular Movement, Tarik Kadiri of the Istiqlalien group of unity and egalitarianism of the Istiqlal Party, Abdellatif Zaim of the authenticity and modernity group of the PAM, El Mehdi El Alaoui of the socialist-opposition group ittihadi of the USFP, as well as two deputies who do not belong to any group, in this case Raouf Abdellaoui Maan Chafika Lachraf. Notably, some of these groups in 2013 proposed bills penalizing any attempt at normalization with Israel, with prison sentences and fines against offenders.
Things can change quickly in the Middle East - even hate for Israel.
There are no members from the opposition Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) nor from the National Rally of Independents, which is a major bloc.
The Hamas Palestinian Legislative Council...Read More |
Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory. Check out their Facebook page. Plains of Moab, May 18 - In deciding which types of produce to invoke in praising the Land of Canaan before the imminent entry of the Israelites, Moses specifically decided not to mention members of the Rubus Idaeobatus subgenus, which he characterized as repulsive, the prophet acknowledged today. Part of Moses's farewell address to the people, contained in the developing book of Deuteronomy, touted the land promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as "A land of wheat, barley, grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranate trees; a land of the oil-olive tree and of honey," the last term of which referred not to the product of the beehive, but of dates. Pointedly, however, Moses refused to mention raspberries, a fruit he finds unremarkable at best, and nauseating at worst. "Verily, I left out that abomination," he confirmed in an interview following today's portion of the address. "The accursed raspberry may well grow in the land the Lord vowed to grant to the offspring of the Fathers. As doth the mosquito, but we sing not the praises of that foul beast, for similar reasons." The Man of God admitted that he had requested of the Almighty approval for a passage, however short, denouncing the execrable raspberry in terms analogous to those barring incest, usury, theft, and judicial...Read More |
From Ian: 'An affront to Holocaust victims': Deborah Lipstadt slams Mahmoud Abbas Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department's top envoy combating antisemitism, condemned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for comparing Israel to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief. "PA President Abbas's equating Israel with the lies of top Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels is an affront to Holocaust victims and survivors," Lipstadt wrote Wednesday on Twitter. "Especially during a time of rising antisemitic violence throughout the world, such rhetoric about the world's only Jewish state is entirely unacceptable." Abbas spoke Monday at a United Nations event commemorating the 75th anniversary of what Palestinians call the "Nakba," the word meaning "catastrophe" that denotes the displacement of Palestinians during and after Israel's establishment. It was the first-ever event at the UN General Assembly commemorating the Nakba. "Israeli and Zionist claims continue by saying that Israel made the desert bloom. As if Palestine was a desert and they made the desert bloom," Abbas told the event in New York. "These are lies. They continue to lie, like Goebbels, and they continue to lie until people believe their lies." Abbas also said at the event that the United Nations should suspend Israel's membership at the body until it allows the establishment of a Palestinian state and recognizes a Palestinian right of return.
JPost...Read More |
Christiane Amanpour yesterday accepted the Columbia Journalism Award and spoke there as a commencement speaker. "Be truthful, but not neutral," Amanpour urged. "Bothsidesism is not always objectivity. It does not get you to the truth. Drawing false moral or factual equivalence is neither objective or truthful. Objectivity is our golden rule and it is in weighing all the sides and hearing all the evidence, but not rushing to equate them when there is no equating." "I refuse any more to say or to concede that we live in a post-truth world because that is lazy and it is ultimately a self-fulfilling prophecy," Amanpour said. "We need to seek to provide and defend the truth." And who decides what the truth is? Why, it is Christiane Amanpour, of course! The same person who said that Lucy Dee and her daughters Maia and Rina were "killed in a shootout" instead of accurately saying they were murdered at point blank range. The same person who compared the presidency of Donald Trump to Kristallnacht. The same person who lied about polling of Palestinians, claiming...Read More |
Earlier this week, Palestinian media published calls to have Jerusalem Arabs enter the Temple Mount early this morning for the explicit purpose of attacking any Jews that want to visit the holy spot on Jerusalem Day. They also urged Jerusalem Arabs to confront and disrupt the Jerusalem Day flag march, especially t Damascus Gate and in the Muslim Quarter.
Because of those reports, the Israeli police ensured that Muslims under 40 could not enter the Temple Mount this morning, and they removed the Muslims from the Qibli prayer hall of Al Aqsa after dawn prayers, knowing that they are likely to do what they did during Ramadan - stockpile stones and fireworks to start a battle. They also closed the shops along the route to minimize any chance of friction.
So now the Muslims are complaining about Israeli restrictions - and using them as incitement.
I don't know if there will be any violence, but when there is, the media starts the story with Israeli restrictions...Read More
|
| | | |
אין תגובות:
הוסף רשומת תגובה