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Sunday, November 30, 2014

Matti Friedman, former AP reporter who blew the whistle on how Middle East reporters are biased against Israel in two explosive Tablet articles earlier this year, has added more in another must-read article, this time in The Atlantic.

Here are significant excerpts, but still less than half the article:

During the Gaza war this summer, it became clear that one of the most important aspects of the media-saturated conflict between Jews and Arabs is also the least covered: the press itself. The Western press has become less an observer of this conflict than an actor in it, a role with consequences for the millions of people trying to comprehend current events, including policymakers who depend on journalistic accounts to understand a region where they consistently seek, and fail, to productively intervene.

[H]ow precisely does this thought pattern manifest itself in the day-to-day functioning, or malfunctioning, of the press corps? To answer this question, I want to explore the way Western press coverage is shaped by unique circumstances here in Israel and also by flaws affecting the media beyond the confines of this conflict.


I’ll begin with a simple illustration. The above photograph is of a student rally held last November at Al-Quds University, a mainstream Palestinian institution in East Jerusalem. The rally, in support of the armed fundamentalist group Islamic Jihad, featured actors playing dead Israeli soldiers and a row of masked men whose stiff-armed salute was returned by some of the hundreds of students in attendance. Similar rallies have been held periodically at the school.

Such an event at an institution like Al-Quds University, headed at the time by a well-known moderate professor, and with ties to sister institutions in America, indicates something about the winds now blowing in Palestinian society and across the Arab world. The rally is interesting for the visual connection it makes between radical Islam here and elsewhere in the region; a picture like this could help explain why many perfectly rational Israelis fear withdrawing their military from East Jerusalem or the West Bank, even if they loathe the occupation and wish to live in peace with their Palestinian neighbors. The images from the demonstration were, as photo editors like to say, “strong.” The rally had, in other words, all the necessary elements of a powerful news story.

The event took place a short drive from the homes and offices of the hundreds of international journalists who are based in Jerusalem. Journalists were aware of it: The sizable Jerusalem bureau of the Associated Press, for example, which can produce several stories on an average day, was in possession of photos of the event, including the one above, a day later. (The photographs were taken by someone I know who was on campus that day, and I sent them to the bureau myself.) Jerusalem editors decided that the images, and the rally, were not newsworthy...On the day that the AP decided to ignore the rally, November 6, 2013, the same bureau published a report about a pledge from the U.S. State Department to provide a minor funding increase for the Palestinian Authority; that was newsworthy. This is standard. To offer another illustration, the construction of 100 apartments in a Jewish settlement is always news; the smuggling of 100 rockets into Gaza by Hamas is, with rare exceptions, not news at all.

I mention these instances to demonstrate the kind of decisions made regularly in the bureaus of the foreign press covering Israel and the Palestinian territories, and to show the way in which the pipeline of information from this place is not just rusty and leaking, which is the usual state of affairs in the media, but intentionally plugged.

Journalistic decisions are made by people who exist in a particular social milieu, one which, like most social groups, involves a certain uniformity of attitude, behavior, and even dress (the fashion these days, for those interested, is less vests with unnecessary pockets than shirts with unnecessary buttons). These people know each other, meet regularly, exchange information, and closely watch one another’s work. This helps explain why a reader looking at articles written by the half-dozen biggest news providers in the region on a particular day will find that though the pieces are composed and edited by completely different people and organizations, they tend to tell the same story.

...[I]n Israel and the Palestinian territories, foreign activists are a notable feature of the landscape, and international NGOs and numerous arms of the United Nations are among the most powerful players, wielding billions of dollars and employing many thousands of foreign and local employees. Their SUVs dominate sections of East Jerusalem and their expense accounts keep Ramallah afloat. They provide reporters with social circles, romantic partners, and alternative employment—a fact that is more important to reporters now than it has ever been, given the disintegration of many newspapers and the shoestring nature of their Internet successors.

In my time in the press corps, I learned that our relationship with these groups was not journalistic. My colleagues and I did not, that is, seek to analyze or criticize them. For many foreign journalists, these were not targets but sources and friends—fellow members, in a sense, of an informal alliance. This alliance consists of activists and international staffers from the UN and the NGOs; the Western diplomatic corps, particularly in East Jerusalem; and foreign reporters. ... Mingling occurs at places like the lovely Oriental courtyard of the American Colony hotel in East Jerusalem, or at parties held at the British Consulate’s rooftop pool. The dominant characteristic of nearly all of these people is their transience. They arrive from somewhere, spend a while living in a peculiar subculture of expatriates, and then move on.

In these circles, in my experience, a distaste for Israel has come to be something between an acceptable prejudice and a prerequisite for entry. I don’t mean a critical approach to Israeli policies or to the ham-fisted government currently in charge in this country, but a belief that to some extent the Jews of Israel are a symbol of the world’s ills, particularly those connected to nationalism, militarism, colonialism, and racism—an idea quickly becoming one of the central elements of the “progressive” Western zeitgeist, spreading from the European left to American college campuses and intellectuals, including journalists. In this social group, this sentiment is translated into editorial decisions made by individual reporters and editors covering Israel, and this, in turn, gives such thinking the means of mass self-replication.

Many freshly arrived reporters in Israel undergo a rapid socialization in the circles I mentioned. This provides them not only with sources and friendships but with a ready-made framework for their reporting—the tools to distill and warp complex events into a simple narrative in which there is a bad guy who doesn’t want peace and a good guy who does. This is the “Israel story,” and it has the advantage of being an easy story to report. Everyone here answers their cell phone, and everyone knows what to say. You can put your kids in good schools and dine at good restaurants. It’s fine if you’re gay. Your chances of being beheaded on YouTube are slim. Nearly all of the information you need—that is, in most cases, information critical of Israel—is not only easily accessible but has already been reported for you by Israeli journalists or compiled by NGOs. You can claim to be speaking truth to power, having selected the only “power” in the area that poses no threat to your safety.

Confusion over the role of the press explains one of the strangest aspects of coverage here—namely, that while international organizations are among the most powerful actors in the Israel story, they are almost never reported on. Are they bloated, ineffective, or corrupt? Are they helping, or hurting? We don’t know, because these groups are to be quoted, not covered. Journalists cross from places like the BBC to organizations like Oxfam and back. The current spokesman at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, for example, is a former BBC man. A Palestinian woman who participated in protests against Israel and tweeted furiously about Israel a few years ago served at the same time as a spokesperson for a UN office, and was close friends with a few reporters I know. And so forth.

In the aftermath of the three-week Gaza war of 2008-2009, not yet quite understanding the way things work, I spent a week or so writing a story about NGOs like Human Rights Watch, whose work on Israel had just been subject to an unusual public lashing in The New York Times by its own founder, Robert Bernstein.

Editors killed the story.

Around this time, a Jerusalem-based group called NGO Monitor was battling the international organizations condemning Israel after the Gaza conflict, and though the group was very much a pro-Israel outfit and by no means an objective observer, it could have offered some partisan counterpoint in our articles to charges by NGOs that Israel had committed “war crimes.” But the bureau’s explicit orders to reporters were to never quote the group or its director, an American-born professor named Gerald Steinberg. In my time as an AP writer moving through the local conflict, with its myriad lunatics, bigots, and killers, the only person I ever saw subjected to an interview ban was this professor.

The radio and print journalist Mark Lavie, who has reported from the region since 1972, was a colleague of mine at the AP, where he was an editor in the Jerusalem bureau and then in Cairo until his retirement last year. Lavie believes that in the last years of his career, the AP’s Israel operation drifted from its traditional role of careful explanation toward a kind of political activism that both contributed to and fed off growing hostility to Israel worldwide. “The AP is extremely important, and when the AP turned, it turned a lot of the world with it,” Lavie said. “That’s when it became harder for any professional journalist to work here, Jewish or not. I reject the idea that my dissatisfaction had to do with being Jewish or Israeli. It had to do with being a journalist.”

When Hamas’s leaders surveyed their assets before this summer’s round of fighting, they knew that among those assets was the international press. The AP staff in Gaza City would witness a rocket launch right beside their office, endangering reporters and other civilians nearby—and the AP wouldn’t report it, not even in AP articles about Israeli claims that Hamas was launching rockets from residential areas. (This happened.) Hamas fighters would burst into the AP’s Gaza bureau and threaten the staff—and the AP wouldn’t report it. (This also happened.) Cameramen waiting outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City would film the arrival of civilian casualties and then, at a signal from an official, turn off their cameras when wounded and dead fighters came in, helping Hamas maintain the illusion that only civilians were dying. (This too happened; the information comes from multiple sources with firsthand knowledge of these incidents.)

Colford, the AP spokesman, confirmed that armed militants entered the AP’s Gaza office in the early days of the war to complain about a photo showing the location of a rocket launch, though he said that Hamas claimed that the men “did not represent the group.” The AP “does not report many interactions with militias, armies, thugs or governments,” he wrote. “These incidents are part of the challenge of getting out the news—and not themselves news.”

This summer, with Yazidis, Christians, and Kurds falling back before the forces of radical Islam not far away from here, this ideology’s local franchise launched its latest war against the last thriving minority in the Middle East. The Western press corps showed up en masse to cover it. This conflict included rocket barrages across Israel and was deliberately fought from behind Palestinian civilians, many of whom died as a result. Dulled by years of the “Israel story” and inured to its routine omissions, confused about the role they are meant to play, and co-opted by Hamas, reporters described this war as an Israeli onslaught against innocent people. By doing so, this group of intelligent and generally well-meaning professionals ceased to be reliable observers and became instead an amplifier for the propaganda of one of the most intolerant and aggressive forces on earth. And that, as they say, is the story.
Read the whole thing.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/30/2014 08:00:00 PM
From Arutz-7:

A Tel Aviv synagogue was vandalized Sunday with graffiti reading, “In a place where the Jewish State Bill will be legislated, books will be burned.”


The vandals left a pile of burned books next to the wall that bore the graffiti. The books are not sacred texts.


The attack took place at the The Tel Aviv International Synagogue where Ariel Konstantyn of the Orthodox Zionist Tzohar Rabbis organization, originally of New York, serves as rabbi. Rabbi Konstantyn says the incident has been referred to the police but he views it as a “clear act of anti-Semitism.” According to the rabbi, the timing of the attack and the explicit graffiti seem to indicate that this was perpetrated by radical left-wing activists.

Rabbi Konstantyn expressed his shock saying “It is ironic and shocking that they targeted a synagogue where every perspective is respected and welcomed and where Jews are taught to love each other regardless of their political views.”

The rabbi pointed out that the founding of the International Synagogue was as initiative of the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization as a hub of inclusive outreach to the greater Tel-Aviv community. Over the past few years the synagogue has hosted Shabbat & holiday programs for thousands of Jews from all walks of life and political backgrounds.
Ah, so they burn books as a preventative measure to stop their opponents from burning books, a threat that only exists in their most antisemitic fantasies.

Got it.

But since they are apparently from the Left, we won't be seeing any Reuters or NYT articles on this hose of worship being vandalized. Wwe need to be tolerant of the intolerant leftist haters of Judaism, especially the Jews..

I find it interesting that this attack was so well planned that the arsonists had created a stencil ahead of time to leave their little threat.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/30/2014 05:00:00 PM
I have had the legal arguments of the 2012 Levy Report on the legality of the settlements translated but Regavim translated the entire thing. 



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/30/2014 03:00:00 PM
From Ian:

Ron Prosor: The UN's theater of the absurd
On Nov. 29, 1947, a Saturday night, the entire Yishuv (the Jewish community of pre-state Israel) held its breath. The tiny voice of Brazilian U.N. General Assembly President Osvaldo Aranha blared from the radios in every home. The agenda for the day: Resolution 181 on the end of the British Mandate and the partition plan of Palestine. Holocaust survivors, Jews who were kicked out of Arab lands, the many waves of immigrants to Israel, the pioneers and those who immigrated illegally all cast their lot with the promising institution that would be a magnificent monument to the triumph of good over evil in World War II.
Sixty-seven years after that historical vote -- the U.N.'s shattered dream lies before us. Over the years, it has gone from a monument of victory to a memorial, a remnant of the hope that has vanished. Although it was designed to prevent the reoccurrence of Nazi crimes, the U.N. has become an international arena for Arab criminal bullying. The Arab world attacked the Yishuv only hours after rejecting the outcome of the vote, and it did not stop even after the thunder of the Napoleon cannons subsided at the end of the War of Independence. The unification of Arab and Muslim countries at the U.N. has created the foundation for a 120-state-strong anti-Israel diplomatic cartel.
Douglas Murray: Baroness Warsi's Obsession
What seems odd is this obsession with Israel, with which she has no ties. Yet this Baroness, who claims to be motivated only by moral outrage, is considerably silent on the far worse moral outrages that go on day in and day out in a country with which she does have ties — of which she made a virtue while in office. Yet Baroness Warsi ignores entirely the horrific and continual human rights abuses in her own family's homeland of Pakistan. Whether it is Christians being burned alive or the practice of "bonded labor" (slavery), Warsi appears utterly unconcerned. At present, a Christian mother of four is due to be hanged for blasphemy.
What is far more important is that the obsessions and blind spots of Baroness Warsi are the obsessions and blind spots being taught to a generation.
Elliott Abrams: Business as usual with UNRWA
The Framework concludes this way:
"The United States expects to remain an active participant in UNRWA's Advisory Commission, which meets twice per year, and should endeavor to provide advice and guidance to UNRWA through its engagement at meetings of the Advisory Commission. In 2015, the United States is expected to serve as Vice Chair of the Subcommittee to the Advisory Commission and endeavors to provide leadership and support to the Subcommittee in its capacity as a technical advisory group to the Advisory Commission. The United States and UNRWA should regularly consult bilaterally on policy and program issues identified in this Framework."
Here are some ideas for those regular bilateral consultations in 2015: No more business as usual. Thorough, independent investigations of each rocket incident. An investigation of the health clinic incident. An investigation of the influence of Hamas on UNRWA staff, and through that staff and its union on UNRWA schools and other facilities.
There is no possible claim of ignorance. Last summer's war exposed the UNRWA-Hamas ties yet again. In that context it is shocking that the State Department has signed a Framework that mentions none of this, none at all, and says nothing about curing it and preventing recurrence. Shocking -- but, one has to admit, not particularly surprising.
The West Supports Terrorism Against Israel Through UNRWA
In the past several months, the corruption of the UNRWA has become more evident than ever, though most of the mainstream media has kept it under wraps. Over the summer, for example, during Operation Protective Edge when Israel fought back against Hamas in Gaza after the terrorism against Jews had reached a boiling point, it was revealed that Hamas rockets were being stored in UNRWA schools. In one case, the rockets had “mysteriously” gone missing after discovery and in another, the UN returned the rockets to Hamas despite publicly condemning the terror group for using the school as an arsenal.
The schools served another purpose for Hamas as rocket launching sites. At one point during the war, when a UNRWA school was bombed and Israel was blamed, it turned out that Hamas had misfired a rocket, which exploded on its own school. The initial media outrage was aimed at Israel, but the subsequent findings against Hamas were not quite so newsworthy.
More recently, UNRWA educators have been caught supporting terror, but this news, uncovered by the “Elder of Ziyon” blogger, has not made it to the mainstream media. More specifically, the contents of the social media accounts of UNRWA school principals demonstrate blatant anti-Semitism and full support of terror against Israel. As “Elder of Ziyon” writes, “Is it a UN principle for principals to support terror?”



Irwin Cotler: It’s time to remember the Jewish refugees
Israel is observing the first annual National Day of Commemoration to mark the “exile and expulsion of Jews from Arab states and Iran.” The law establishing this commemorative day – adopted by the Knesset on June 23, 2014 – in part requires the Minister of Foreign Affairs to instruct Israel’s embassies abroad to “increase international awareness and recognition of the Jewish refugees from Arab states and Iran and their right to compensation…”
This commemorative day could not have been more timely and more necessary. For while it is a long-standing need – indeed imperative – to serve as reminder and remembrance of the pain and plight of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran – it also dovetails with – and must serve as a reminder for – the UN and the international community.
It is sometimes forgotten – and often not even known – that the UN partition resolution was the first-ever blueprint for a “two states for two peoples” solution. Regrettably, while Jewish leaders accepted the resolution, Arab and Palestinian leaders did not, and by their own acknowledgment, launched a war of aggression against the nascent Jewish state as well as a war against the Jewish nationals living in their respective countries.
Justice for Jews from Arab lands: support grows in UK
"Jews from Arab lands suffered - their story should be told. They weren't just uprooted; their history was uprooted."
So says Florette Hyman, who was born Florette Menir in Cairo, and who came to the UK in 1957 after her family was forced to leave Egypt.
"Everyone is talking about the Palestinian refugees. I feel that no one has asked the question: What about the Jews from Arab lands?" she said.
Until now, there has been no official date to mark the mass exodus of Jews who abandoned their homes and businesses in the face of increasing persecution in Arab countries after the state of Israel was established in 1948.
"It starts with the Jews. It never ends with the Jews."
JUST the other day, my Christian Lebanese colleague, whom I haven’t seen in two years, sat down across from me at the lobby of a Washington DC hotel and said, “We miss you”. As much as we are friends, he didn’t mean "me" personally.
He elaborated, “We, the Arabs of the Middle East, miss you – the Jews.” I smiled at the irony.
He went on to explain that while it has been more than sixty years since nearly a million Jews of the Arab Middle East have been expelled and forced out of their home countries, it is now becoming evident that this merely foreshadowed things to come.
He recounted his horror by the rising tide of Islamic brutality, genocide, and ethnic cleansing of Christian communities that is taking place everywhere the Islamic State is gaining ground. Just like the Jewish communities, those Christian communities – gone overnight - have been there before the birth of Islam and the Arab conquest of the region.
He said that he is terrified to think of an Arab Middle East without minorities. He expressed fear that the intolerance demonstrated towards the Jews decades ago is now being turned towards almost all other minorities from Christian to Allewaites to Shiites to the Sunni Muslims who fail to uphold the demented standards for Muslim piety set by the Islamic State.
The ghosts of ethnic cleansing are still with us
What is shocking is that 856, 000 Jews were driven from their homes by Nuremberg-style laws just three years after after the full horror of the Nazi Holocaust of six million European Jews had come to light. Nazism had a great following in the Arab world and influenced reactionary movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928. Arab collaborators with the Nazis, such as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, were never tried for war crimes in 1945. Instead, antisemitism in Arab states, much of it using Nazi tropes and memes, has soared to stratospheric heights.
The ghosts of Nazi-inspired genocide and ethnic cleansing are still with us. The victims are still the same victims: the Jews and their state, heretical Muslims, Kurds, non-Muslim minorities. We can begin to exorcise these ghosts by learning about past wrongs – beginning on 30 November.
SPECIAL REPORT: The evils of post-’48 exodus from Arab lands
Other countries have already said the issue of Jewish refugees should be included in any final agreement. The Canadian government recently said it would recognise Jewish refugees, while in 2008, the US Congress declared it “inappropriate and unjust to recognise rights for Palestinian refugees without recognising equal rights for former Jewish, Christian, and other refugees from Arab countries”.
It added that “any resolutions relating to the issue of Middle East refugees… must also include a similarly explicit reference to the resolution of the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries”. The struggle for equal recognition will be greatly aided by Sunday’s commemoration, but is that all Jewish refugees (and their descendants) want? “In an ideal world they’d like both recognition and redress, which includes compensation,” says Julius. “But the latter is difficult. Arab states are in denial over their role. They also can’t afford it. Some can’t even feed their own people, while others are fighting to survive.”
For Shuker, this is not about money. “I’m not looking for thousands of dollars for my home in Baghdad,” he says. “Handled confrontationally, it can be a deal-breaker, but it can also be a bridge-builder.
But Jews and Palestinians have claims. We need a peace fund, to safeguard synagogues in the Arab world and educate Arab children fairly. It’s about justice, about creating a bridge. We need to work together to solve the problem.”
NGO Monitor: Findings, but few facts
‘Fact finding” in armed conflict has become an industry.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issue splashy, full-color publications, accompanied by videos and interactive multimedia. They push their narratives using highly sophisticated and expensive efforts led by media and fundraising professionals; the inevitable harrowing and emotional results of the “investigations” can be leveraged to generate millions in donations.
The PR campaigns also achieve visibility in the biggest news outlets, including The New York Times, the BBC, and Le Monde. The NGOs’ well-circulated conclusions are then adopted by the UN and policy makers.
Despite the nearly ubiquitous presence of NGO fact-finding in armed conflict situations, few responsible consumers of NGO products have actually examined the methodologies and factual bases underlying NGO claims. Surprisingly, no agreed standards exist for NGO fact-finding, and NGOs have largely rejected efforts to regulate it.
Does Israel need the nation state law? Yes
Like many other aspects of Israeli politics, public debate on the proposed law - which has different forms - to re-emphasise the Jewish dimension of the country's democratic framework is often highly distorted, and stripped of both complexity and context.
This initiative cannot be understood without considering the ongoing campaigns to erode and eventually erase the essential Jewish framework of Zionism. For a number of years, anti-Zionist political groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have sought to reverse the definition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and replace it by a state "of all of its citizens".
Many of these NGOs receive major foreign government funding, both directly and through church aid agencies, to promote this objective under the facade of human rights and democracy.
For example, Adalah, an Arab-Israeli NGO funded by the EU, Germany, Sweden, Christian Aid, as well as the New Israel Fund, promotes this agenda through statements and appearances before United Nations committees, and sends numerous "reports" to journalists and diplomats.
5 Myths About the Basic Law Proposal: “Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People”
The Basic Law proposal: “Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People” was actually first proposed by Tzipi Livni’s Kadima party.
The bill was initially proposed in 2011 by Kadima MK Avi Dichter.
The majority of the MKs in Tzipi Livni’s left-wing party supported the bill, as did MKs in the left-wing Labor party.
The bill was likely to pass by a wide nonpartisan majority in the Knesset, but Tzipi Livni did not support it, and killed the bill before it came to vote.
PA leader who promotes religious war to speak about religious tolerance at BGU
Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash has been invited to speak tomorrow, Dec. 1, 2014, at Ben Gurion University on “Religious Aspects of the Israeli - Palestine conflict and the need for religious tolerance.” This is striking since for years, Al-Habbash has been promoting conflict and war with Israel in the name of Islam, as reported by Palestinian Media Watch.
Al-Habbash recently taught that Islam prohibits accepting Israel's existence because the “entire land of Palestine” is Islamic waqf. As such, he forbids making peace with Israel because he believes Islamic law prohibits “facilitat[ing] the occupation of even a millimeter of it”, i.e., “the entire land of Palestine”:
Jordan To Propose Date for “Palestinian” State
Jordan is planning to present a timeline to the UN Security Council for the creation of a “Palestinian” state, according to Arab League General Secretary Nabil Al-Arabi, following an Arab League meeting held in Cairo.
Israel of course has quite a few options it can respond with.
Jordan is currently negotiating with Israel to double the water supply it receives from the Kinneret, Israel could put an end to those discussions.
But sometimes turnabout is fair play.
Israel could agree with the timeline, and say they are prepared to recognize that Jordan is Palestine on that date.
Abbas Presents 'Plan of Attack' for Palestinian State
Abbas is indeed moving forward with plans to turn to the Security Council with a resolution setting a deadline for Israel to “end the occupation”, a unilateral move that is in violation of the Oslo Accords. The move has been accompanied by public threats, with Abbas having recently threatened to cut ties with Israel if his latest unilateral move at the UN fails.
However, this may be the first time that Abbas has revealed the full extent of his scheme to play the political system in the PA's favor and flaunt his ability to do so regardless of the Oslo Accords and other tenets of international law.
Abbas justified this in Cairo Saturday by noting at the end of his speech that, in his opinion, Israel "is no longer a peace partner" and that he intends to internationalize the Palestinian "cause" in accordance with his political action plan.
Abbas: Only Hamas is responsible for the Gaza Strip
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas said that Hamas is completely responsible for Gaza, and not the joint Fatah-Hamas unity government, in a report on Sunday.
"The Palestinian Authority does not exist in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is responsible for the Gaza Strip," he said.
Abbas continued, saying that he will not negotiate over land with Israel, and accused Israel of holding secret negotiations with Hamas.
"I won't give up one inch of [land past the]1967 [borders]; I have evidence that Hamas and Israel are conducting negotiations," Abbas said.
Bloody Battle for Israel at Oxford University
Dennis [Prager], like me, is a veteran of debates on Israel. But I informed him that nothing could prepare him for the ferocity of the attacks on Israel that we were likely to endure.
Indeed, as the debate began before a capacity audience, Dennis seemed stunned at what was being said. Israel is an apartheid regime. Israel is slaughtering the Palestinians and is guilty of genocide. Israel is doing to the Palestinians exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews. What the Jews experienced in the Holocaust is exactly what the Palestinians are enduring at Israel’s hand. Israel in its six-decade history has had one goal: the theft of Palestinian land and the eradication of the Palestinian people. America is like ISIS. ISIS beheads only a few prisoners, but America annihilates innocents in Pakistan each and every day with drone strikes. There is no real difference. Israel is guilty of war crimes. Israel’s security fence is an apartheid wall that is built mostly through the gardens and property of innocent Palestinians. Hamas does some bad things. But it’s all Israel’s fault. Hamas is a bonafide resistance movement to Israel’s occupation. Terrorism directed at Israelis is an organic response to Israeli colonial rule
Many of the arguments came from world-renowned Israeli academic Avi Shlaim, with whom I always had a warm relationship in the eleven years I served as Rabbi to the students at Oxford. The other arguments came from a highly intelligent female Oxford doctoral candidate, with whom I interacted warmly at the pre-debate dinner, and from a Berkeley-Oxford female Professor who was likewise pleasant. The rest of the attacks came from Oxford students in the floor debate segment of the program.
I had heard all these things before. But never from some of the most highly educated people in Europe. And never with such ferocity and vehemence.
Being pro-Israel on campus – fight or flight? (spoiler alert: Fight)
We have covered the thinly veiled and sometimes not veiled threatening and violent behavior of anti-Israeli activists on campus so many times, it’s hardly possible to sum them up in one post anymore. Just scroll through our BDS Tag.
If you read our recent posts about Cornell, you’d know that it can happen anywhere, even on campuses that are not as a whole anti-Israel.
Non-student agitators and faculty often are the catalyst for what now euphemistically is called “direct action,” the new rallying cry for groups like Students for Justice in Palestine.
This video sums up some of what is happening
"Fight or Flight" - What Should the pro-Israel students choose?


They Don't Like It Up 'Em! British BDSers "steal" Jill the pro-Israel poster girl
Like its counterpart across the Irish Sea, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign exhibits an especially virulent strain of the antisemitic anti-Zionism virus.
This weekend, like the anti-Israel movement in English cities (take a look here) as well as here (some familiar as-a-Jews and others in this Alex Seymour/Seymour Alezander video, where the "apartheid" slur is freely made, and in which the London constabulary breaks up the party in the end) it's been staging anti-Israel marches in s number of Scottish localities, as seen, for instance, in these sample photographs:
'Zionists: Only Death Awaits You Here'
On November 29 - a day loaded with the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - Sallah a-Din Nazzal, a Palestinian youth posted a video to Youtube, sending a message to all Jews in Israel.
In 1947, November 29 was the day the General Assembly voted to adopt the United Nations Partition Plan recommending the creation of independent Jewish and Arab states in Palestine.
The resolution was accepted by the majority of the Jewish public, but Arab leaders and governments outright rejected the partition plan and civil war broke out, followed several months later with the outbreak of the War of Independence, when Israel declared itself a state on May 14, 1948.
In the video, the Palestinian boy stands in front of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored guard stand, wearing a traditional keffiyeh around his neck. He stresses his and the entire Palestinian population's determination to fight against the "occupation."
Mubarak verdict leads to widespread unrest in Egypt
Protests erupted at universities across Egypt on Sunday, condemning a court decision to drop criminal charges against Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in the 2011 uprising.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at Cairo University, waving pictures of Mubarak behind bars and demanding the "fall of the regime", the rallying cry of the Arab Spring uprisings that shook governments from Tunisia to the Gulf in 2011.
Police stood ready at the gates to bar students that sought to take their demonstration into the streets.
Two people were killed and nine were wounded on Saturday evening, when security forces fired tear gas and birdshot to disperse about 1,000 protesters who attempted to enter Tahrir Square - the symbolic heart of the revolt that ousted Mubarak.
Mubarak Case Collapses, Killing 1 (satire)
Mr. Mubarak’s fate remains murky. He has already been held for more than the three years mandated under an earlier corruption conviction, a fact that continues to cloud Egypt, impairing vision and leading to numerous fatalities. In one such recent incident, 31 Egyptian soldiers were killed when the checkpoint they were manning came under assault by militants whose source of funding remains shrouded. President Sisi has blamed mysterious “foreign” elements of a conspiracy to undermine Egyptian stability, a charge that further muddies matters, adding fuel to the escalating mudslinging competition between the current government and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The mudslinging has injured and killed dozens, and soiled the government’s reputation as representing a break from the previous regime. More than 150 people were treated at various Egyptian hospitals for mud in their eyes last week alone, mostly former officials with the Brotherhood.
Prosecutors had initially considered the trial against Mubarak an open-and-shut case, but their own missteps brought about the case’s closure prematurely, snagging their fingers in the process. With their digits thus ensnared, prosecutors have been unable to engage in the customary finger-pointing that usually follows a mistake in officialdom. They concede that if they continue to pursue the case against the former leader, whose supporters are now once again firmly ensconced in power, they may find their hands tied.
The Muslim Brotherhood lashed out at the judge and his decision, causing lacerations to several passers by.
Lawrence of Arabia museum set to open amid Islamic State fighting
According to media reports, the museum site is slated to have a four-meter-high anti-sniper wall to protect visitors.
“We don’t expect any danger for now,” Yusuf Osman Diktas, the Turkish regional governor, told The Telegraph.
Lawrence, though widely considered an Arabophile, wrote, “The sooner the Jews farm it the better: Their colonies are bright spots in a desert.”
He encouraged Zionist immigration to then Palestine as part of his mediation efforts between Prince Feisal and Chaim Weizmann, who later became Israel’s first president.
Report: ISIS kidnaps Canadian-Israeli, former IDF soldier who went to fight with the Kurds
Uncertainty abounds concerning the fate of Israeli-Canadian Gill Rosenberg, who was apparently captured by ISIS.
Islamist websites – some of them known to be close, or even serving as a front for ISIS – reported Sunday that the 31-year-old was captured by their warriors during fierce battles with Kurdish fighters in unspecified areas.
According to the websites, Rosenberg was taken hostage following three suicide attacks on sites where Kurdish fighters had barricaded themselves. The websites gave no further details regarding the circumstances of the capture, nor did they provide any proof of it.
Daniel Pipes: Thoughts on the P5+1 negotiations with Tehran
The Nov. 24 deadline came and went for an agreement between Western powers and the Islamic Republic of Iran; on that date, they managed only to extend the existing interim deal for another seven months. The ayatollah crowed and U.S. senators stewed. Looking beyond these responses, the current situation spurs several thoughts:
- If one assumes, as I do, that the apocalyptically minded Iranian leadership will do everything it can to acquire the bomb, then economic sanctions only serve to slow its course, not to stop it. Put more forcefully, the debate over sanctions is peripheral and even diversionary. The arcane financial and scientific minutiae of the negotiations tend to bury the only discussion that really matters -- whether or not some government will use force to reverse the nuclear program.
Erdoganistan Sentences Physics Professor to 12-Years-in-Jail for Opposing Hijab
A prominent Turkish professor on Thursday began a jail sentence after being convicted of preventing a female student wearing a Muslim headscarf from entering the university where he worked, his lawyer said.
Rennan Pekunlu, a former professor of astrophysics at Ege University, was sentenced to two years in prison in 2012 for violating a headscarf-wearing student’s “constitutional right to education” by barring her from entering the faculty.
Pekunlu began his sentence in a prison in the western city of Izmir, becoming the first individual in Turkey to be jailed for such an offence, his lawyer Murat Fatih Ulku told AFP.
Nazi Alois Brunner 'Taught Assad How to Torture'
Dr. Efraim Zuroff of The Simon Wiesenthal Center says that the center has received reliable information according to which Alois Brunner, a top Nazi fugitive whom Final Solution architect Adolf Eichmann called his “best man,” is dead and buried in Damascus. Brunner advised former Syrian dictator Hafez Asssad on torture techniques and repression, said Zuroff.
British news site Sunday Express quoted Zuroff, who directs the Wiesenthal Center's Israel office, as saying: "We have received information from a former German secret service agent who had served in the Middle East who said that Brunner was dead and buried in Damascus.
Zuroff added: "Given his age it would not be surprising and the information came from someone who we consider reliable. There is much evidence of what he (Brunner) did and no lack of clarity about his huge guilt in four different countries.
"We are talking about someone who helped send 128,500 Jews to the death camps, the majority were murdered... The victims' families are a very large group and it's fair to say the people who suffered at his hands would have wanted him to be punished and would be disappointed, but he is not the only Nazi war criminal who got away, far too many got away."
Outbrain finally ready for billion dollar IPO, report says
After months of rumors, Israeli content delivery platform Outbrain appears ready to move forward with its initial public offering.
A report in The Wall Street Journal said that the company had filed a confidential approval to sell shares on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The report said that the company would seek to raise as much as $250 million in an IPO. According to analysts, that would place the company’s valuation at about $1 billion.
If the company succeeds, it would be the third-largest IPO for an Israeli company: Cellphone service provider Partner in 1999 raised $600 million on a NASDAQ IPO valued at $2.3 billion, and in 2007, Cellcom, also a cellphone service provider, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange with a valuation of $1.95 billion and was able to raise $400 million.
It’s not clear when the actual IPO will be filed; the filing does not list a date, the report said.
Remote patrol
In 2009, as part of its altered deployment along the Gaza border after Operation Cast Lead, Israel introduced a unique unmanned ground vehicle that can do the dirty work of patrolling the border. This preprogrammed or remote-controlled car arrives at scheduled times, examines suspicious spots from up close and relays live video, all without putting Israeli lives at risk.
The unit that operates the vehicles is set to receive a highly upgraded platform in early 2015, expanding its role beyond surveillance and its domain beyond the southern brigade of the Gaza Strip where it is currently deployed.
It opened its doors recently to describe its current operations and future goals.
Cpt. Avidav Goldstein, a former soldier in the Golani Brigade and the commander of the unit, stood beside a small TOMCAR — designed by G-NIUS Unmanned Ground Systems and equipped with nine cameras, a microphone and a megaphone — and listed the array of threats facing troops on the border: snipers, tunnels, abductions, anti-tank missiles, mines.
As a result, he said, along the southern part of the Israel-Gaza fence the army does not routinely send flesh-and-blood troops, since their patrols would have to adhere to a schedule that, by definition, would render them vulnerable to ambush.
That “vacuum,” Goldstein added, is filled by cameras, sensors, surveillance posts armed with remote-controlled machine guns, and, filling in the blanks in coverage and performing the daily patrols, unmanned ground vehicles.
David's Sling air defense system to deploy for trial period
The David's Sling air defense system will soon be deployed for a trial period, before becoming operational, the IDF said in recent days.
David's Sling can intercept short-range to medium-range rockets and missiles, including Hezbollah's Katyusha rockets. Its range of coverage is three times that of the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system.
The system will be deployed in various areas around Israel for a trial period, the IDF added.
After that, David's Sling will also be set up to intercept hostile aircraft and missiles with longer ranges. Eventually, it should be able to intercept incoming cruise missiles as well.
Becoming a combat soldier in 90 seconds #IDFStyle


The lion-killer who became an Israeli hero
The ashes of a swashbuckling hero of the British Empire are to be reburied in Israel after a service attended by the country's prime minister. John Henry Patterson was a soldier, big-game hunter and writer, whose exploits inspired three Hollywood movies. The BBC's Kevin Connolly explains why he is so admired in Israel.
The man who was to become a hero to the British and to the Israelis was neither British nor Jewish. Like many servants of the crown in the days of Empire he was an Irishman born in County Longford in 1867 to a Protestant father and Catholic mother. Ireland was then part of the United Kingdom and military service was a popular option for many young Irishmen - partly from a want of other opportunities and partly from a sense of adventure.
In Patterson's case we can assume it was the sense of adventure. By 1898 he'd been commissioned to oversee the construction of a railway bridge over a ravine at Tsavo, in Kenya, but found work was being held up by two man-eating lions who were terrorising the huge camps housing the Indian and African labourers.
It's hard to be sure, but the two lions between them may have killed more than 100 people in all. Patterson wasn't an expert on lions, although he'd shot tigers on military service in India, but to protect his workers and get his bridge finished he resolved to kill the predators.


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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/30/2014 01:00:00 PM


Get Out Final Logo SQDue to never-ending Arab hostility toward Jews in the Middle East I am reading more and more people talking about the possibility of transference.  Mainly in the comments of various pro-Israel blogs and news websites, but among some well respected high-profile analysts, as well, the idea of inducing Israeli-Arabs to move out of the area seems to be growing.

This is a natural response to the efforts of Arabs within Israel to the murder of Jews, up to and including ramming babies with automobiles.  My sense is that Jewish people around the world, although particularly in Israel, have about had it.  From my perspective, Jewish people have a tendency to be rather passive.  As a historically persecuted minority our tendency has been to keep our head down so that others do not take a kick at it, But there must come a point wherein even the most intimidated minority is forced to stand up for itself in order to defend its own survival.

The Arabs have pushed the Jews to the point wherein physical coercion looks more and more likely.  We are, after all, directly within the midst of the Third Arab Terror War (Intifada) against the Jews of the Middle East and my suspicion is that however much fun the previous two were, that Israeli Jews may no longer be in the mood to take the abuse and they should not have to.

Thus some people talk about the necessity of financially inducing Arabs to leave the Land of Israel, while others even discuss the possibility of using armed force to push them out of Jewish lives.  I just want to take a brief moment in order to suggest what a terrible idea forced transference is and I have to assume that most Jews who care about Israel are in opposition to any such policy. The first reason that such a thing needs to be opposed is because it violates Jewish ethics.  Any policy of forced transference would mean that untold numbers of perfectly innocent people would be dragged from their homes and placed within internment camps in preparation for deportation... to G-d Knows Where.

Polling indicates that the Israeli-Arab population despises Jews and looks fondly upon violence toward us.  Nonetheless, not all Arabs of Israel hate Jews and not all want to see violence against us.  To push such people out of their homes would be highly unethical and therefore entirely unJewish.

To my ear the previous sentence sounds a bit too vacuous, a bit too obvious, but maybe it needs to be said, anyway.  While World War II gives us plenty of historical precedents for population transference, any such move would, in truth, be a moral and practical non-starter... if I may steal another man's line.

Also, of course, the rest of the world community might have a thing or two to say about any such operation.  Vicious left-wing anti-Semites already tend to think of Jews as Nazis.  Can you imagine what people around the world will say once they start processing images of the IDF pushing old Arab women and young children into deportation camps?  If you think that they hate us already and it cannot get much worse,  I suspect that you should think again.

The western-left despises Jewish self-defense which they interpret as a form of aggression.  Prior to the strangely named Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, the Gazans shot thousands of rockets into southern Israel, ruining communities and lives.  The rest of the world did not notice, nor did they care.  It was only when Israel finally stood up to undermine Hamas's terrorist infrastructure and destroy those Jihadi kidnapping tunnels that people throughout the world leaped out of their chairs and denounced the Jews of Israel for committing a "genocide" against the perfectly innocent, bunny-like "indigenous" population.

If the Jews were to push the Arabs out of Israel, Europe would go entirely nuts.  If you think that BDS is an annoyance now wait until the boost it gets from any Israeli policy of forced transference.  The Europeans, who are already generally unfriendly toward Israel, would take harsh measures against what would be perceived as a fascistic Israeli policy.  Some might think that due to economic reasons, or reasons to do with scientific exchange and trade, that the Europeans and the rest of the world would gripe, but shortly get over it.  That might be the case, but I would not count on it and it would make for a terrible gamble.

As a poker player, I would not make that bet.

This, however, does not mean that there are not forceful measures that Israel can take in order make Arab hatred toward Jews unpleasant for the Arabs, themselves.

This is what my friend Caroline Glick has to say:

Rather than destroy their homes, Israel should adopt the US anti-narcotics policy of asset seizure.
All assets directly or indirectly tied to terrorists, including their homes and any other structure where they planned their crimes, and all remittances to them, should be seized and transferred to their victims, to do with what they will.
If Israel hands over the homes of the synagogue butchers to the 24 orphans of Rabbi Moshe Twersky, Rabbi Kalman Levine, Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky and Rabbi Avraham Goldberg, not only will justice be served. The children’s inheritance of the homes of their fathers’ killers will send a clear and demoralizing message to other would-be killers.
Not only will their atrocities fail to remove the Jews from Israel. Every terrorist will contribute to the Zionist project by donating his home to the Jewish settlement enterprise.
There are any number of creative measures that Israel can take short of housing destruction or forced transference to show the Arabs that the government means business and will simply not allow this kind of violence toward the Jewish people in the Jewish State.  Seizing assets is one way of showing Israeli-Arabs that if they seek violence toward Jews their family will pay a major price for it.

Another thing that must be done is liberalizing Israeli policy toward the Temple Mount.

That the Arabs have intimidated the Jews into giving up sovereignty of our holiest site is galling, counterproductive, and should not be tolerated.  All people should be allowed free and equal access to the Mount and all people - not just Muslims - should be allowed to pray there.  Jews and Christians and Rastafarians and Rosicrucians and Hindus and Buddhists and Taoists and NeoPagans and the Bahai and the Sikhs, and any and all heathens, should all be allowed equal access to the site with Muslims and all must be allowed to pray there.

Anything else represents deference to Arab-Muslim race-hatred toward Jews and others right in the heart of Jerusalem.

And, needless to say, rock throwing and other attempts at murder should be met with ferocity.  I may be opposed to home demolitions and forced transference of a hostile population, but I also very much believe in Jewish self-defense.


Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/30/2014 11:00:00 AM
Today is Israel's national day of commemorating Jewish refugees from Arab lands and Iran.

Muslims like to pretend that they treated Jews in their lands well throughout history. As we have shown a number of times, that is not at all true. In some cases the Jews were treated reasonably, in others they were treated horribly.

Ali Bey al Abbasi was a pseudonym of a European traveler who disguised himself as a Muslim prince in order to explore the Muslim world from Morocco to Mecca between 1803 and 1807.

Here is his account of the Jews of Morocco, from Travels of Ali Bey: In Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria and Turkey : Between the Years 1803 and 1807:
THE Jews in Morocco are in the most abject state of slavery; but at Tangier it is remarkable that they live intermingled with the Moors, without having any separate quarter, which is the case in all other places where the Mahometan religion prevails. This distinction occasions perpetual disagreements; it excites disputes, in which, if the Jew is wrong, the Moor takes his own satisfaction; and if the Jew is right, he lodges a complaint with the judge, who always decides in favour of the Mussulman. This shocking partiality in the dispensation of justice between individuals of different sects begins from the cradle; so that a Mussulman child will insult and strike a Jew, whatever be his age and infirmities, without his being allowed to complain, or even to defend himself. This inequality prevails even among the children of these different religions; so that I have seen the Mahometan children amuse themselves with beating little Jews, without these daring to defend themselves.

The Jews are obliged, by order of the Government, to wear a particular dress» composed of large drawers, of a tunic, which descends to their knees, Of a kind of burnous or cloak thrown on one side, slippers, and a very small cap; every part of their dress is black except the shirt, of which the sleeves are extremely wide, open, and hanging down very low.

When a Jew passes before a mosque, he is obliged to take off his slippers, or sandals; he must do the same when he passes before the house of the Kaid, the Kadi, or of any Mussulman of distinction. At Fez ami in some other towns they are obliged to walk barefoot.

When they meet a Mussulman of high rank they are obliged to turn away hastily to a certain distance on the left of the road, to leave their sandals on the ground several paces off, and to put themselves into a most humble posture, their body intirely bent forward, till the Mussulman has passed to a great distance; if they hesitate to do this, or to dismount from their horse when they meet a Mahometan, they are severely punished. I have often been obliged to restrain my soldiers or servants from beating these poor wretches, when they were not active enough in placing themselves in the humble attitude prescribed on them by the Mahometan tyranny.

Notwithstanding these inconveniencies, the Jews carry on a considerable trade at Morocco, and have even several times farmed the custom-house; but it happens almost always that in the end they are plundered by the Moors, or by the Government. On my arrival, I had two Jews amongst my servants: when I saw that they were so ill treated and vexed in different ways, I asked them why they did not go to another country; they answered me, that they could not do so because they were slaves of the sultan.


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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/30/2014 09:30:00 AM
But don't call him antisemitic! That would be Islamophobic!

From MEMRI:



Following are excerpts from a show featuring Jordanian MPs discussing parliament's moment of silence in memory of terrorists who attacked a Jerusalem Synagogue, which aired on Roya TV on November 26, 2014:

MP Khalil Attieh: By Allah, it is an honor to incite against the Jews. It is a great accomplishment to provoke and incense them. Let us continue with similar decisions, because this is what the Jordanian people want. Our people in Palestine expect us to support them, and to recite Koranic verses for the souls of their martyrs. This is the very least we can do for the sake of those heroes, who defend the honor of the Arab nation.
[…]
MP Bassam Al-Manaseer, chairman of the Arab and International Affairs Parliamentary Committee: Are we going to call the French who fought the Nazi occupation "terrorists"? If so, we are all terrorists. If what we did in parliament is considered incitement, just because we stood by the Palestinian people, then we welcome the policy of incitement. I thank brother Khalil Attiah for his heroic position. That is the very least that he can do for our people in Palestine.

MP Khalil Attieh: This position is supported by all.

Moderator: The [Israeli] ambassador said that you use anti-Israel sentiment as a means to serve your own personal interests…

MP Khalil Attieh: As my colleague said, if this is terrorism, we are terrorists. Indeed, I make use of the hatred of the Jews, as all Arabs should, because the Jews respect neither treaties nor human beings. They respect nothing. That accursed ambassador did me a great honor by saying that I hate the Jews. Yes, I hate the Jews. I hate the Jews. I hate the Jews.

What have the Jews ever given us? They do not respect Jordanian custodianship [of the Al-Aqsa Mosque]. They do not respect treaties. They kill our people. They prevent worshippers from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They destroy homes and seize control over everything. This is the least we could have done. Thank God that we got them mad.
[…]
Hating the Jews is a great honor for me and it makes me walk with my head high, because they are worthy of hatred. They are decent people. Any man of honor should hate the Jews.
[…]
[Parliament should debate] the statements of [the Israeli ambassador], that pig, the descendent of apes and pigs, who tried to drive a wedge between the parliament and the king. We should hold a debate, and if the government refuses to expel the Israeli ambassador, we should hand in our vote of no confidence in the government.


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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/30/2014 08:24:00 AM
Ma'an reports, in English:

A group of Jewish Israelis entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound early Sunday, witnesses told Ma'an.

Witnesses said that about 50 right-wing Israelis stormed the compound through the Moroccan Gate and tried to provoke Muslim worshipers, who responded by chanting "Allahu akbar," or "God is the greatest."

The Israelis exited the compound through the Chain Gate and proceeded to perform Jewish rituals, the witnesses said.
The Arabic version called the visitors "49 extremists."

Here's video of the "provocation" from two separate Facebook accounts.



I have looked at dozens of videos taken by Arabs on the Temple Mount and have yet to see any Jewish visitor behave in any provocative manner.

Oh, I forgot: the fact that they are Jewish is provocative to begin with!

And in case you still have the slightest, tiniest doubt that the complaints against Jews visiting the Temple Mount is motivated by anything but old fashioned Jew-hatred, here is a cartoon I saw floating around Arabic social media:




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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/30/2014 05:59:00 AM

Saturday, November 29, 2014



Last Saturday, one of the two contestants for "Arab Idol" who have Israeli citizenship lost the competition when she gathered the lowest number of votes:

Manal Mousa, an Israeli contestant on the Arab world's premier singing competition, was eliminated on Saturday's live-performance episodes.

The judges of Arab Idol were shocked by Mousa's elimination, and she thanked them graciously for their support before turning to her political message. "I want to pass a message for the yellow journalism that fought me – I am Palestinian and Palestinian blood flows through me."
She had made a number of anti-Israel statements during her competition:
Mousa, a 27-year-old resident of Deir Al-Assad in northern Israel, set off massive shockwaves with her statements during her time on Arab Idol, as she took to Facebook to demonstrate her pro-Palestinian credentials.

Mousa called Khair Hamdan, the Kafr Kanna who was killed by Israeli police officers, a "martyr" and encouraged protests and demonstrations across the Arab sector. "Palestine is revolting, Israeli Arabs are revolting, Kafr Kanna is revolting," she wrote.
But it seems that one reason she lost is because Arabs were starting rumors that she was pro-Israel!

After Israel's Arabic spokesman Avichai Adraee noted that Israel allowed the two Israeli contestants to travel to Lebanon to compete in the show. This apparent "support" by Israel for the contestants seems to have started a number of rumors, including that she was in the Israeli army, or that her father was in the IDF.

This was the "yellow journalism" she was referring to.

As "evidence" of her family's pro-Israel credentials, a video surfaced of her sister Sabrin auditioning for an Israeli talent show program.



Even though Sabrin sang a classic Arab tune, that fact that she was on the show at all, speaking Hebrew with the judges, and otherwise acting like a person who doesn't hate Israel seems to have turned the Arab voters against Manal by association.

The subtext of many of Manal's critics is that all Arab citizens of Israel as traitors to the Palestinian Arab cause, something which would seem to be a bit contradictory with the idea of "return." Until you realize that "return" is meant to destroy Israel, not to solve any "refugee" problem. As long as Israel exists, Israeli Arabs are considered to be collaborators with the Zionist enemy.

So far, I have not seen the same kind of backlash against the remaining Israeli Arab in the competition, Haitham Khailily.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/29/2014 11:07:00 PM
From Ma'an:

A Palestinian police officer was shot and killed by Egyptian soldiers on Friday after he unwittingly drove his car into a military ambush, Palestinian police in the Sinai told Ma'an.

Imad Fayyad Abdallah, 38, was shot dead near the town of Sheikh Zuweid in the northern Sinai Peninsula.

He had driven his car into an area when Egyptian soldiers had set up an ambush targeting militant groups active in the area, and he failed to stop after warning shots were fired in the air, Palestinian police told Ma'an.

When he attempted to turn his car around to avoid the ambush, meanwhile, Egyptian soldiers opened fire, striking him in the head.
This brings up a number of points.

1. It goes without saying that no Palestinian Arabs will protest this killing even though anyone killed under similar circumstances by Israel would be the subject of numerous outraged protests, op-eds and UN speeches.

2. Egyptian media is, as far as I can tell, silent on this incident. In general, Egypt's media is under a gag order against reporting any civilians or innocents being killed in the protracted campaign against Islamists in the Sinai. However, sometimes, civilians are killed.

3. The story says that the source for this story was "Palestinian police" in the Sinai, besides the victim.

Al Moslim says that Abdallah was member of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah. Wattan TV said that he lived in El Arish, Egypt with his wife and three children, but that he was a colonel in the PA's Preventive Security Force.

Why are there Palestinian police in the Sinai?

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/29/2014 08:00:00 PM
From Ian:

Stand With Us: StandWithUs Pro-Israel Ads On TriMet in Portland Begin November 26, 2014
For the third time in three years, StandWithUs (SWU) is placing pro-Israel ads on TriMet buses to counter anti-Israel ad campaigns. Beginning November 26, two different StandWithUs ads are on 17 buses running on the same routes and for at least the same four-week duration as the anti-Israel ones.
SWU, an international Israel education organization with a Northwest regional office in Seattle, also countered similar ads on Portland light rail and buses in 2012 and 2013.
One StandWithUs bus ad shows that the Palestinians have said "NO" to Israel's peace offers and territorial compromises since 1937. The other StandWithUs bus ad shows a Palestinian and Israeli boy hugging, juxtaposed with an Israeli transit bus blown apart by a suicide bombing, with the words: "Say NO to Palestinian War Crimes," and reminds viewers that Israel needs a partner for peace. The ads direct viewers to www.sayyestopeace.org to learn more.
These SWU ads counter anti-Israel ads placed by The Seattle Mideast Awareness campaign (SeaMAC), Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, and Jewish Voice for Peace - Portland, which accused Israel of war crimes and implied that US tax dollars are being used to support apartheid.
Ad
Ad

Isi Leibler: Coping with religiously inspired terrorism
This latest escalation of incitement is yet another extension of the hatred against Jews inculcated among the Arabs but which accelerated after the Oslo accords. Yasser Arafat and then Abbas have effectively brainwashed generations of Arabs -- from kindergarten age on -- into fanatically hating Jews and sanctifying as "martyrs" those willing to sacrifice their lives and gain paradise by killing them.
The Palestinians have, in fact, been molded into a criminal society adopting a culture of death only comparable to the Nazis who, once in power, also brainwashed Germans into committing barbaric crimes. And those, including Jews, who morally equate this monstrous society with Israel because the Jewish state like any country also includes deviants and degenerates, are making obscene analogies.
Every level of Israeli society, from the leadership to the media and down to the man in the street, reacts with shock, horror, disgust and condemnation against our deviants. Contrast this to the public display, not merely in Gaza but also in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Nablus, as Palestinians celebrated the most recent horror their "martyrs" had inflicted on Jews praying in a synagogue.
Daniel Pipes: Is CAIR a Terror Group?
We who follow the Islamist movement fell off our collective chair on Nov. 15 when the news came that the United Arab Emirates' ministerial cabinet had listed the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as one of 83 proscribed terrorist organizations, up there with the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS.
This came as a surprise because the UAE authorities themselves have a record of promoting Islamism; because CAIR has a history of raising funds in the UAE; and because the UAE embassy in Washington had previously praised CAIR.
On reflection, however, the listing makes sense for, in recent years, the Islamist movement has gravely fractured. Sunnis fight Shi'is; advocates of violence struggle against those working within the system; modernizers do battle against those trying to return to the seventh century; and monarchists confront republicans.
This last divide concerns us here. After decades of working closely with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and its related institutions, the Persian Gulf monarchies (with the single, striking exception of Qatar) have come to see the MB complex of institutions as a threat to their existence. The Saudi, Emirati, Kuwaiti, and Bahraini rulers now view politicians like Mohamed Morsi of Egypt as their enemies, as they do Hamas and its progeny – including CAIR.



Khaled Abu Toameh: Arab League to present draft Palestinian statehood bid to UN Security Council
Arab foreign ministers decided on Saturday to support the Palestinian Authority’s plan to seek a UN Security Council resolution calling for a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.
The decision came following a meeting of the ministers in Cairo to discuss the latest developments in the region and PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s plan to seek a Security Council resolution that sets a timeline for Israel’s pullout and the creation of a Palestinian state.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Araby said Jordan would present the draft, which would include PA demands for a withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines, to the Security Council within days.
However, they said that they would continue to hold consultations with all members of the Security Council, as well as various international parties to win their backing for the proposed resolution.
Abba said that if he does not receive answers from Israel regarding his demand to resume the peace talks on the basis of the pre-1967 lines by the end of today, he would proceed with his statehood bid at the Security Council and join international organizations and treaties, including the International Criminal Court.
Abbas warned that if the Palestinian move at the Security Council is thwarted, “we would move toward defining our relations with Israel by halting security coordination and asking the occupation to assume its responsibilities [toward the Palestinian population].”
Abbas: Palestinians will never recognize Israel as Jewish state
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that the Palestinians would never recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and accused Israel of establishing an apartheid government.
The Palestinian leader was speaking in Cairo at an emergency session of the Arab League with foreign ministers from around the Arab world. His remarks came following a week of intense debate among Israeli politicians about a Knesset bill which would enshrine Israel’s status as a Jewish state in law.
“We will never recognize the Jewishness of the state of Israel,” Abbas was quoted by Channel 10 saying. The news outlet also reported that Abbas threatened to terminate all security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank unless peace negotiations are revived. Talks collapsed in April, and Israel will not resume them so long as Abbas is partnered with the Hamas terror group in a Palestinian unity government.
Arab League Refuses to Recognize Israel as Jewish State
The Arab foreign ministers also announced Saturday their "categorical rejection of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state," the statement said.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has demanded that Abbas, whose Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) recognized Israel in a 1993 accord, affirm the country as a "Jewish state."
The debate over Israel's national identity rose again to relevance this month in light of the proposed Jewish State law, which seeks to enshrine in law Israel’s being a Jewish state.
Jordanians Protest Against 'Dangerous' Jewish State Law
Hundreds of Jordanians on Friday joined a rally organized by the Muslim Brotherhood to denounce Israeli plans to enshrine in law the country's status as the national Jewish homeland.
An estimated 1,500 protesters set off from the Husseini mosque in downtown Amman holding up signs saying "Al-Aqsa is in danger", according to AFP.
"There is a greater danger today, and that is the Jewish state draft law," Hamzeh Mansur, the former head of the Brotherhood's Islamic Action Front party, told the protesters.
"Where is Jordan's custodianship over Jerusalem and where is the promised Palestinian state?" he asked.
Why I Will Vote Against France’s Resolution to Recognize Palestine
Israel is a democracy, the only one in the region, and represents a strong culture of compromise and strength through unity. And this democracy learned how to resist rockets but more importantly, how to reply to gusts of anti-Zionism (and blatant anti-Semitism.)
The hatred towards Jews always grows during a crisis.
The hatred against Israel is enormous.
Shouldn’t the place of France be next to the scapegoat, the minority, the besieged and the democratic?
At least as much as the Palestinian people who legitimately wish to live in peace with recognized boundaries with a legitimate, stable, and democratic government.
This is the reason why I will not vote for this resolution which forgets essential matters.
Because the recognition of a Palestinian state should not occur before there is a partner for peace.
Because we should not recognize a group of leaders that support terrorism.
Because recognizing a Palestinian state goes against the Oslo Accords – a treaty signed by both sides.
Voting yes will only increase extremism and terrorism.
By passing this resolution we are risking the igniting of a fire that could burn the whole region.
I will vote no. Let’s not damage peace.
Palestinian shot by IDF near Gaza border fence
IDF soldiers fired on a Palestinian on Saturday after he approached the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip. Palestinian reports said the 16-year-old was in serious condition.
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According to a report by the Ynet news site, the soldiers fired at the teen’s legs after he didn’t respond to calls to stop and identify himself.
The IDF spokesperson’s unit said that earlier on Saturday three Palestinians approached the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip. The troops fired warning shots but the suspects refused to comply, so the soldiers fired at the lower extremities of one Palestinian, confirming a hit.
Union-led BDS Campaign at University of California Accused of ‘Discrimination’ as December 4 Vote Nears
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists at the University of California will seek to escalate their campaign against Israel’s existence next week, with a union chapter representing 13,000 mainly graduate workers scheduled to vote on a resolution on whether they should join the “global BDS movement.”
Members of United Automobile Workers 2865, a union comprised principally of teaching assistants at nine University of California campuses, will be presented with a ballot paper this Thursday, December 4, asking whether they should “join the global movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, until such time as Israel has complied with international law and respected the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and all Palestinians refugees and exiles.”
The wording of the resolution, which centers on the so-called “right of return” for the descendants of Palestinian refugees of the 1948 war – code for the elimination of Israel as a sovereign state – is consistent with the declarations of BDS movement leaders like Omar Barghouti, a Tel Aviv University graduate student who has proclaimed that the BDS movement opposes “a Jewish state in any part of Palestine… [only] a sellout Palestinian would accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The foundation for the resolution was laid in July, at the height of Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, when the UAW 2865 Joint Council declared its intention “to support our Palestinian counterparts.”
According to informedgrads.org, a group of union members opposed to the BDS motion, the Joint Council has demonstrated utter contempt for basic democratic procedures. UAW 2865 is, the group says, “already sponsoring BDS and anti-Israel activities without waiting for the vote,” engaging in such activities as attending and endorsing anti-Israel demonstrations, including the violent blockade of Israeli ships docking at the port in Oakland. Additionally, around $50,000 of union money has already been spent on promoting the BDS campaign, prompting informedgrads.org to protest at the “redirecting of political capital that should be used to push our university administrators to improve our working conditions.”
Block the Boat Seattle: Hoax in process
Yes, there is another Block the boat protest at the port of Seattle scheduled for Nov. 29, at 4pm, and yes, they are promoting this action with that universal symbol of brotherhood and good will, the Molotov cocktail.
The Zim Djibouti is currently anchored in Washington along with several other container vessels.
They are not delayed by any protesters- they are waiting for their turn, based on the posted schedule for unloading at the Port of Tacoma. That's right, Tacoma, not Seattle at 5pm Nov. 29.
According to the Block the Boat organizers, they are meeting at the port of Seattle at 4pm, yet the object of their affections, the Zim Djibouti isn't due into the Port of Seattle until Dec.1. So why is Block the boat asking people to meet in Seattle and not Tacoma?
What we are seeing is the genesis of the Block the Boat hoax.
IsraellyCool: So I Glorified An Axe Murderer
Remember when Rolling Stone magazine turned the Boston Marathon bomber into a rock star with a cover picture and the whole world went nuts?
Haaretz calls that a “Wednesday”.
Here are the pictures Haaretz used to illustrate a story of the family of the Har Nof Synagogue Massacre’s perpetrators in the last 8 hours:
Just pulls the heartstrings doesn’t it?
What if the New York Times gave us a touching story about 9/11 perpetrator Mohamed Atta’s family barely a week after the attack?
Do they expect us to feel bad?
Let me be loud and clear about this, Haaretz.
I don’t care what happens to the terrorists’ remains. I don’t care what happens to their families who supported their actions. Stop trying to make other people care.
Kevin Connolly’s cameo of a ‘popular’, ‘forgiving’ terrorist on BBC Radio 4
The incident Connolly describes occurred on November 10th and the terrorist did not just ‘stab’ his random victim Almog Shiloni – who, notably, remains unnamed in Connolly’s account – but killed him. Connolly continues:
“Suddenly the weapons are cars or knives – not guns or bombs – and the attacks appear spontaneous: the acts of individuals, not organisations. Israel’s intelligence services are struggling.”
Not for the first time we see the BBC erasing from audience view the fact that among the terrorists who perpetrated the attacks in recent weeks have been several members of known terrorist organisations, some of which have claimed responsibility for the attacks. Listeners then hear Connolly say:
“That young Palestinian was Nur Abu Hashem, a jobbing painter and decorator who often came from his home at Nablus in the occupied West Bank to work without papers in Israel.”
The terrorist is actually called Nur al-Din Abu Hashaya and his entry into Israel was illegal: a fact which Connolly’s euphemistic presentation does not make adequately clear. Neither does Connolly bother to inform listeners that Nablus (Schem) has been under the control of the Palestinian Authority for almost two decades – since December 12th 1995 – under the terms of the Oslo Accords.
BBC WS promotes Hamas claim of “normal right” to carry out terror attacks
Of course there has been no claim made that either Jordan or Turkey as countries were involved in training the terrorist cell, but that training by Hamas terrorists took place in Jordan, Turkey, Syria and the Gaza Strip. But as is the case with the rest of Hamdan’s falsehoods, that one too went unchallenged, meaning that BBC audiences worldwide were misled on that issue as well as by the claim that there is no terror in Israel and that terrorism is a “normal right” under “international law”.
Notably, recent BBC reports on terror-related arrests in the UK have not included promotion of the notion of a “normal right” to murder British citizens. BBC audiences and politicians would of course be unlikely to accept that sort of framing of domestic terror stories but – as we have noted here on numerous occasions – a double standard continues to be employed by the BBC when it comes to reporting terrorism in Israel.
Severe Rains In Gaza May Mean Terror Tunnels Are Flooded
The UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA on Thursday evening declared a state of emergency in Gaza City amid massive rains that have shut down normal life in the city, Ma’an reported. This could also mean damage to the hundreds of underground tunnels that are still being dug fastidiously by Hamas, in preparation for the next war.
Thursday marks the fourth straight day of unusually heavy rain across the region, causing temperatures to dip across the coastal region.
In early November, the Egyptian army launched a program to destroy newly discovered hundreds of tunnels leading from Gaza into the Sinai, which had been used by Gaza jihadists to attack Egyptian security forces. In only a matter of days, the Egyptians cleared 10,000 residents from about 800 homes along the strip’s southern border, to erect an 8-mile buffer where anyone entering would be shot without a warning.
Unlike Israel, the Egyptians can be decisive on fighting terrorism, and they don’t catch international flak for it, either. (h/t Alexi)
Egypt’s Mubarak acquitted of murder, graft charges
The court also acquitted five of his top security commanders of the murder charges. Judge Mahmud Kamel al-Rashidi said Mubarak, the commanders, including the former interior minister Habib al-Adly, were “innocent.”
Mubarak’s two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were also found not guilty of corruption charges related to the gas exports, in the same separate case.
Applause and cheers broke out in the court after the rulings were read, according to reports.
Mubarak, 86, was accused along with the five of involvement in the killing of hundreds of demonstrators during the 2011 revolt that ended his three-decade rule. An appeals court overturned an initial life sentence for Mubarak in 2012 on a technicality.
Pope Condemns 'Barbaric' ISIS Attacks
Just days after he called for “dialogue” with the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, Pope Francis on Friday condemned the group and called for interfaith cooperation in order to combat it, Reuters reports.
The pope, who is visiting Turkey, said that "an extremist and fundamentalist group" had subjected entire communities in Turkey's southern neighbors to "barbaric violence simply because of their ethnic and religious identity."
Islamic State insurgents have persecuted Shiite Muslims, Christians and others who do not share their ultra-radical brand of Sunni Islam as they carved a self-declared caliphate out of swathes of Syria and Iraq.
After meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan the pope said it was lawful to stop an unjust aggressor but urged a concerted commitment to devote resources "not to weaponry, but to the other noble battles worthy of man -- the fight against hunger and sickness".
He called for inter-religious dialogue to end of all forms of fundamentalism and terrorism, and stressed the importance of freedom of religion and of expression.
Woman breakdances on Tehran subway
A video was uploaded to Facebook showing an Iranian woman breakdancing on a Tehran subway, flouting bans on dancing and women in public without their heads covered.
The clip was posted Tuesday on the site My Stealthy Freedom, a page where Iranian women upload pictures of themselves without hijabs, defying laws in the conservative Islamic country.
The woman in the video is seen dancing to the song “Salute” by the British group Little Mix.
Other female passengers look on.
The song encourages women to stand up for themselves.
In Montreal, Jews from France see a future for themselves
When Dan Charbit and his wife, Gaelle Hazan, moved to Montreal from Paris two summers ago, it was meant to be a temporary fix — a year-long attempt for Charbit to reboot his stalled career as a special-effects artist in Quebec’s thriving film and television industry. They agreed to fly home if the experiment failed.
Fourteen months after arriving in Canada, the couple has no desire to return to France. The 43-year-old Charbit, who won an Emmy earlier this year for work on the fourth season of the hit HBO show “Game of Thrones,” started a new job last month as a supervisor at Mokko, a Montreal-based special-effects studio serving the film and television industries. Hazan, 39, has found employment as a construction project manager.
Charbit and Hazan are part of a new wave of French Jews who have resettled in French-speaking Quebec, fleeing France’s dismal unemployment rate, which hit 10.5 percent in September, as well as the shock of anti-Semitism that has reverberated throughout the country in recent months and crested over the summer during waves of anti-Israel demonstrations.
France’s Jewish Community Protection Service reported 527 anti-Semitic incidents in the first half of 2014, compared with 276 in the same period last year. In recent months — and especially in the wake of the most recent Gaza war — there have been incidents of Jews being harassed, even physically assaulted, in the streets, and synagogues and Jewish-owned stores and restaurants being torched.
Oil, Gas Prices Dropping Rapidly Due to American Fracking Boom
Drivers paying less at the pump due to free-falling oil prices can thank the U.S. energy boom for generating shale oil – and weakening OPEC’s ability to keep the cost of a gallon of gas high.
In just a matter of months, the price of a barrel of oil has dropped from more than $100 to about $70, and gas is now cheaper than it has been in years. But a recent report conducted for the American Petroleum Institute claimed oil would cost twice as much as it does now if it weren’t for America’s fracking boom, which wrings oil and natural gas out of shale miles underground.
Former refusenik makes first visit to St. Petersburg since 1970
Yosef Mendelevitch, 67, is scheduled to speak Friday to approximately 350 participants of St. Petersburg’s fourth Limmud conference, the Jewish learning even organized by the Limmud FSU group.
Mendelevitch’s visit to St. Petersburg is his first since arriving here in 1970 from his native Riga, Latvia to carry out Operation Wedding, the code name given to the daring attempt by 12 Zionist activists to hijack a single-engine AN-2 airplane and fly it to Israel in defiance of the Soviet refusal to permit them to emigrate. The KGB arrested him and the other would-be hijackers before they could board the plane.
Mendelevitch, who along with Natan Sharansky was one of the most well-known “prisoners of Zion,” finally immigrated to Israel in 1981 shortly after his release from jail.
On Friday, Mendelevitch who was born in Riga and now lives in Jerusalem, visited the KGB building where he was held immediately after his capture.
UN Partition Plan
66 years today, on November 29 1947, the United Nations voted on establishing a Jewish State in Palestine



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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/29/2014 06:00:00 PM

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