[Elder of Ziyon] Morning snippets

Why has Queen Elizabeth II never visited Israel?

[A]midst all the accolades, state dinners, and thousands of "Jubilee beacons" being lit around the world, one aspect of the Queen's resume stands out for its inexplicable absence: In six decades of reign she has made hundreds of royal visits to 129 different countries, though never once been to Israel.

No comparable nation has been even remotely ignored in this way. There are only two incidents of British royal family visiting Israel over the past 64 years – Prince Philip at a ceremony honoring his mother, and Prince Charles attending the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin. Yet both times the British were careful to emphasize that these were private, non-official visits.

...Surely Israel doesn't need the Queen for recognition or legitimization. However, upon this occasion of her diamond jubilee, what a propitious time for Queen Elizabeth to make a strong statement of support by visiting the Jewish State! This would go a long way to dispel the lingering cloud of delegitimization. It would surely be another jewel in the Queen's glorious crown.

Donald Rumsfeld thinks that the Obama administration very possibly would leak any Israeli plans to attack Iran. (Breitbart)

CAMERA notes how the NYT allowed a lie to be published in an anti-Israel op-ed:

In the racist state of California, there are over 50 laws on the books that discriminate against Latino citizens.

Actually, that's a lie. But it is a lie that the New York Times, according to editors, would have no problem publishing.

We know this because the newspaper recently published an Op-Ed containing the outlandish claim that Israel has "over 35 laws" that "discriminate against Palestinians who are Israeli citizens." This falsehood, the latest version of a shopworn anti-Israel canard, was cleared for publication by fact checkers despite journalism's ethical guidelines calling for opinion pieces to be held to the same standards of accuracy as news stories.

CAMERA has asked editors to provide substantiation for the allegation, which appeared in a May 23 Op-Ed by Yousef Munayyer entitled "Not All Israeli Citizens Are Equal."

They have yet to provide a credible source. And it seems clear that this is because no such source exists.

Even the hyperlink from the passage about "35 laws" in the online version of the column leads to a web page that fails to substantiate, and in fact contradicts, Munayyer's claim. That reference discusses "bills" and "legislation submitted to the Knesset" as well as laws, which are said to discriminate against minorities including "refugees and migrant workers." In other words, it includesproposed laws that if passed would supposedly discriminate against non-citizens (as laws sometimes do — see the right to vote).

But even the website Munayyer and the Times link to fails to name the supposed 35 laws and bills. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately is the better word), we already know what such a list would look like. Cyberspace is littered with anti-Israel web pages that wildly twist and contort to present evenhanded and innocuous laws as discriminating against Arab citizens.

The BBC on how some Germans are thinking of re-evaluating their policy towards Israel.

Melanie Phillips on "A Jewish Pathology":

The part played by these Jews in the global bullying of Israel, and the tacit or explicit support they are thus lending to those whose aim is the extermination of the Jewish state, cannot be overstated. For those in the wider world who want Israel destroyed not only use the bogus arguments of these Jewish Israel-bashers but also use their Jewishness as a human shield, to insulate themselves against the charge of Jew-hatred.

How can there be anything bigoted about these arguments, they say, if Jews and Israelis are themselves using them? Very easily, actually; throughout the long centuries of Jewish persecution, the terrible fact is that Jews themselves have always been prominent in such murderous campaigns. The Judeophobic malice of today's left, indeed, which can be traced back to the French Revolution, was supplied with rocket fuel by Karl Marx whose own Jewish ancestry managed to morph into virulent hatred of Judaism and the Jewish people.

(h/t John W., Yerushalimey)

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder of Ziyon at 6/06/2012 09:00:00 AM