[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 04/30 Links Pt2: Despite everything, Zionism won; Admit J-Street? May as well let in PLO and Fatah

From Ian:

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Despite everything, Zionism won

The days between Holocaust Remembrance Day and Israeli Independence Day tend to reveal the true faces of the many who oppose the modern era's biggest humanist endeavor: the movement to bring Jews back to Israel. The Jewish people have returned home after many years in exile, but our ship, which constantly navigates the tempestuous sea, nearly drowned forever in history's biggest massacre.
The gates of Israel were shut when the survivors came knocking, but the gates did not shut themselves. The British, and their friends, made sure those gates were locked tight. The U.S. did not lag far behind in the race to win over the hearts of the Arab states, be it out of greed for oil or a fundamental lack of understanding of the global order, and more specifically, of the Middle East. Immigration ships were ejected back into the stormy sea as they tried to enter the land of freedom and equality.

MEMRI: Arab Writers Praise Israel's Technological Superiority, Morality And Democracy, Call To Learn From It And Mimic Its Success

Arab media is known to be unsympathetic towards Israel. It even avoids using the country's name, usually using terms such as "the Zionist entity" or "the Hebrew state" instead. Furthermore, reports and editorials in Arab press are rife with expressions of hatred and hostility towards Israel. However, the Arab press occasionally features articles by Arab intellectuals and pundits praising Israel, listing its achievements – mainly in hi-tech – and urging Arab countries to learn from the Israelis in order to better their own global standing.
This report will include excerpts from recent articles praising Israel.

Greetings from Apartheidia
We just need some help here getting with the Apartheid program. This place looks too much like one of those Benetton ads.

So, as that master of diplomatic acrobatics John Kerry so aptly pointed out, there is nothing left for us to do but to come out of the Apartheid closet.
There is just one problem we are all grappling with. Who are we exactly “apartheiding,” if I can put it that way. There have been numerous concerned citizen meetings in our town and others trying to get answers to this.
We asked our Ethiopian gardener about it and he said that he is saving up for an apartment, so if the country goes to hell, it should drive down the price of real estate. Our Arab family GP said no more antibiotics, get out and get some fresh air, even if it meant rubbing elbows with the apartheided.
Our Druze contractor did say that many of his family were being apartheided to death across the border in Syria, but he admitted that this didn’t have much to do with events on this side of the Golan.

Israel Accuses UN Envoy of 'Abusing Position' to Stoke Tensions

UN envoy Robert Serry said he and other diplomats had joined an Easter procession at the invitation of Jerusalem's Palestinian Christian community but were denied access to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at a police checkpoint.
A letter to UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon from Israel's UN ambassador Ron Prosor - made public Tuesday by the Israeli foreign ministry - said that on the day of the Holy Fire ceremony on April 19, the narrow lanes of Jerusalem's walled Old City were packed with worshippers and crowd control was a major challenge.
"Against this backdrop, and instead of taking constructive actions to help mitigate the sensitive situation, Robert Serry, the UN's special envoy to the Middle East, took disruptive steps that exacerbated tensions on the ground," the letter said.
"It is unfortunate that a UN official abused his position and the UN platform to express personal opinions."

Rahm Emanuel Slanders Supporters of Israel

It turns out that American citizens “are not allowed” to criticize Israel.
Or so says Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago and former chief of staff to President Barack Obama.
Emanuel was asked his view of the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace in an interview appearing in the April 21 issue of The New Republic. He ventured to say that while Israel “has a security concern involving geography, geography does not have the same value it did in 1967.”
Emanuel’s strategic notions are highly debatable. Without the territories captured 47 years ago, during the Six-Day War, Israel would be nine miles wide at its midsection. Stripped of the geographical protection of the highlands of Judea and Samaria, Israel’s security would depend entirely on Arab dictators and terrorists abiding by peace treaties.

Dutch Muslims plan ‘Palestinian Holocaust’ event

The Platform Bewust Moslim group, whose name means “Platform Aware Muslim,” is planning to hold the ceremony on May 4 in Hilversum near Amsterdam under the banner ”Palestine, the Shadow Holocaust,” the Jewish television channel Joods Omroep reported on its website Monday.
The event was advertised as a symposium offering “a review of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the passive attitude of the international community” and is slated to take place at Hilversum’s Al-Amal mosque.
May 4 is the Netherlands’ official day for Remembrance of the Dead, when official commemorations are held for Dutch civilians and members of the armed forces killed by enemy forces, in terrorist attacks or in combat. The date was selected after World War II and many of the events held on May 4 are designed to commemorate victims of Nazism, often with an emphasis on victims of the Holocaust.

No takers on my debate challenge to Vassar pro-boycott faculty, but I’m still going

You may recall My debate challenge to Vassar pro-boycott faculty who signed an Open Letter defending the American Studies Association academic boycott of Israel:
"Any or all of the 39 Vassar faculty members are welcome to debate me. All I insist on is equal time cumulatively. If none of the 39 Vassar faculty agree to debate, I will give a lecture on why the academic boycott of Israel should be opposed."
The organizers of the debate, the recently renamed Vassar Conservative Libertarian Union (VCLU), informed me a short while ago that none of the 39 Vassar faculty who signed the Open Letter had accepted my debate challenge by the deadline of last night.

100 Shofars in New York Against BDS

A "100 Shofar" protest was held on Tuesday in New York, in front of the UJA-Federation Building in Manhattan, to condemn the invitation of three pro-BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) groups to the 50th annual Israel Day Parade.
Arutz Sheva contributor and Americans For a Safe Israel National Director Mark Langfan was on scene to record the protest.
The protest follows an April 8 rally in front of the building, which similarly called on UJA to dis-invite "Partners for Progressive Israel," which lists Israeli products to boycott on its website; the New Israel Fund (NIF), which has supported BDS and reportedly been encouraging Arab riots; as well as B'Tselem, whose volunteers have taken part in Arab riots.

Admit J-Street? May as well let in PLO and Fatah

Conference members include span the ideological spectrum from American Friends of Likud to Americans for Peace Now
They may as well be advocating be advocating the admission of Fatah and the PLO. All claim to want peace and are dedicated to the destruction of Israel. J Street is a front organization for the apostate George Soros. Differerentiating among them is making a distinction without a difference.
Leftist Jeremy Ben-Ami is executive director of J Street. an organization that styles itself as a liberal advocacy organization. It is actively funded by the apostate George Soros, but covertly, giving Ben-Ami deniability. Ben-Ami, in the past, supported John Mearsheimer and claims to articulate a philosophy and an agenda of pro-Zionist, and pro-peace Judaism based on religious and humanist values.
He argues for a two-state solution and for U.S. efforts to promote it.
His professed love for Israel is a sham. Sadly, it appeals to some leftists who haven’t done their homework.

Divestment votes surge but largely fail on US campuses

The April 23 votes were part of a surge in student governments at American universities voting on divestment resolutions. In the past two years, at least 16 student governments have weighed divestment measures, including nine this spring, though a majority have rejected them.
“There’s been a significant increase in divestment votes,” said Max Samarov, a senior research assistant with the Israel advocacy group StandWithUs. “I think activists were using previous years to test the waters and are now rolling divestment out as a truly national strategy.”
The divestment measures proposed to student governments generally strongly criticize Israeli policies and urge universities to divest themselves of investments in companies doing business with the Israeli military or with West Bank settlements. Their significance is largely symbolic, since they are not binding on universities.

Guardian’s Former Jerusalem Correspondent Smears Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day

Shortly after the sirens stopped, and colleagues in our office returned to their desks, we noticed a series of Tweets by the Guardian’s former Jerusalem correspondent Chris McGreal.
The anti-Zionist malice of the Guardian “journalist” has been the subject of many posts at this blog. The far left propagandist – who fancies the idea that Israeli snipers target Palestinian children, and has shown himself obsessed with the power of the Israel lobby – has achieved the rare status as one of the few Guardian reporters singled out by the Community Security Trust in their annual report on anti-Semitic discourse.
Here are a few of the Tweets today from McGreal, enthusiastically responding to news that the Jewish state was smeared again with the Apartheid lie.

What the Guardian won’t report: Pew study reveals extreme homophobia in Palestinian society

One of the more bewildering aspects of the UK media’s advocacy on behalf of the Palestinian cause is how many putatively liberal journalists reconcile their views on Israel-Palestine with undeniable evidence attesting to decidedly reactionary political values within Palestinian society.
While news of Israel’s liberal advantages in the region on a myriad of social issues are often cynically dismissed as ‘hasbara’, or even framed as efforts to ‘whitewash‘ the occupation, news of Palestine’s less than enlightened views on the rights of gays, women and religious minorities are either buried or, sometimes, even excused as the result of Israeli oppression.
As case in point of such news which won’t reach the pages of the Guardian – or, likely, any other UK broadsheet – is the recent publication of a Pew Global Survey on Morality.

CiF Watch prompts correction to Robert Fisk’s gross under count of Arab Israelis

Leaving his bizarre use of the word “deleting” aside, Fisk was so far off in is count of Arab Israelis one wonders if he was working without the use of an internet search engine while ‘fact checking’ his work.
As we pointed out in an email to Indy editors, there are over 1.6 million Arab Israelis (not “tens of thousands“), based on statistics published by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Shortly after our correspondence, the passage was corrected.

Reuters’ Bungled Headline

If — instead of skimming the headlines — you bothered to read down to the sixth paragraph, you’ll see that the demolition had nothing to do with the passing of the April 29 peace deadline:
"The Israeli army said in a statement that eight structures, including a “mosque in use”, were demolished because they had been built illegally inside a dangerous live-fire military training zone."

More Advocacy Journalism at The New York Times

Correspondents Jodi Rudoren and Isabel Kershner's current post-mortem on the latest US-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, entitled "Arc of a Failed Deal: How Nine Months of Mideast Talks Ended in Disarray," once again displays the abandonment of journalistic objectivity in the quest to blame Israel. This overtly partisan article could more aptly have been entitled "How Israel Undermined the Peace Process," or "It's All About Israeli Settlements" or "Let's Blame Netanyahu and Justify Abbas."
Following The New York Times' editorial formula, the news reporters began with a pretense of objectivity by suggesting, "In the last few weeks, even as both sides took steps that undermined the process...." That out of the way, they immediately followed with a "but" to indicate that it was Israeli actions, rather than Palestinian ones, that were the problem:

Holocaust Museum, Synagogues Featured on Al Qaeda Hit List

Badat said he went to Pakistan in mid-2001 to use the Internet to research Jewish targets, which included a Holocaust museum, synagogues and the diamond industry.
Under cross-examination from Abu Hamza's lawyer Jeremy Schneider, he said he spent two days preparing a "detailed" report for Al Qaeda bosses on the targets.
He admitted he was willing to see women and children killed should the attacks have gone ahead.
When Al Qaeda asked him instead to blow a US jet out of the sky and murder hundreds of people in late 2001, he confessed that he felt "honored" and "proud".

Hungarian Police Disperse Protest of Holocaust Whitewash

Police in Hungary forcibly removed protesters on Tuesday from the site of a planned World War II monument, which critics say glosses over the country's role in the Holocaust.
Organizers of the sit-down protest said police physically lifted over 20 people, including a number of Holocaust survivors, from the planned site of the monument in the capital, Budapest.
The government says the structure - which will depict Hungary as an angel being attacked by a German Nazi eagle - will commemorate all the victims of the country's 1944 occupation by Nazi Germany.

Holocaust-Complicit French Rail Company Targeted by New York Legislators

U.S. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) and New York City Council Members Mark Levine and Benjamin Kallos on Monday announced their plan to introduce a resolution prohibiting city businesses from working with companies that had profited from the Holocaust and did not compensate victims.
The initiative could impact Société Nationale des Chemin de fer Français (SNCF), the French national railroad company, which deported 76,000 Jews to Nazi concentration camps. SNCF recently won contracts with the states if Virginia and Massachusetts, and is among the top contenders to become the operator of the proposed Purple Line from Washington, DC into suburban Maryland.

Cobblestones to remember murdered Jews multiply in Berlin

The blocks, called "Stolpersteine" or "stumbling blocks," read: "Here lived Dr. Erich Blumenthal, born 1883, deported 29.11.1942, murdered in Auschwitz. Here lived Helene Blumenthal, born 1888, deported 29.11.1942, murdered in Auschwitz."
In Berlin, the blocks have become part of the fabric of the city, their plates glinting amid the grey paving on residential streets and stopping both locals and tourists in their tracks.
Houboi and her husband sponsored the Blumenthals' blocks, traveling across Germany to see them laid in the northeast Berlin neighborhood where Houboi, now 71, grew up in the 1940s.

IDF Blog: #WeAreHere: Interactive Worldwide Map of Holocaust Survivors with family

Today, we commemorate the memory of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust and the bravery of all those who stood up against Nazi barbarism. This year, the IDF put together a special social media project, using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. From all around the world, people sent the IDF social media team pictures of survivors and their descendants from all across the world, with the hashtag #WeAreHere.
We gathered all the pictures sent to us, which included the survivors’ names, ages, and places of residence. We then created an index of all of the photos, and built an interactive map according to location. With this map, we commemorate those who were lost, and produce a dynamic memorial to those who remain across the globe.

The Top 10 Guardians of the Jewish People

With the Passover holiday behind us, and Jews having celebrated our symbolic freedom, I wanted to present a special list of the Top 10 Guardians of the Jewish People, in honor of those individuals who have helped defend Jews in the past year. No voting committee, just the personal choices of me, Ronn Torossian, a New-York based entrepreneur and philanthropist.
In no particular order:
The Israel Defense Forces: The Jewish army that defends the existence and sovereignty of the Jewish nation.
Scarlett Johansson: The beautiful actress sent a clear message that was heard around the world by simply doing the right thing and being so clear in her decision to continue representing Israeli carbonated beverage company SodaStream, despite criticism.

Israel Daily Picture: On Israel Independence Day, Israel Salutes the Women of Israel. We Present Here their Grandmothers who Built Israel. Part 1, The Old Yishuv

Israel Independence Day will be celebrated on May 6.
On its eve, May 5, twelve torches will be lit by 14 honored Israeli women - Jewish and Arab, old and young, social activists, educators, athletes, former political figures. The ceremony commemorates, "The Era of Women -- Achievements and Challenges."

Intel to invest $6 billion in Kiryat Gat facility

Intel announced Wednesday that it would invest $6 billion to upgrade its Kiryat Gat facility, potentially creating thousands of jobs in Israel in the coming years.
Intel did not specify the technology it would be installing in the plant, but it was expected to make a decision this year as to whether it would build a plant to produce its next generation of chips in Israel or in Ireland, where it built its last such plant.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the government has been working with Intel for several years to attract the investment, and praised Intel as an example for other multinational firms to follow. (h/t Bob Knot)

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 4/30/2014 06:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Israel's Navy Transforms Itself

A neat overview of the history and future of Israel's navy, from Ehud Eiran in World Politics Review:

Last month, the Israeli navy took control of a Panamanian ship off the coast of Sudan that was carrying Iranian munitions to Gaza. The Red Sea operation underscored the growth of the navy’s role in Israel’s power projection, which has accelerated in the 21st century after many decades in which maritime strategy was something of an afterthought for Israel’s military.

A maritime perspective was central in pre-state Zionist strategic thinking, because the seas were the gateway for Jewish immigration into Palestine. However, once the state of Israel was created in 1948, the seas and the navy lost their significance in the eyes of Israel's security establishment. The wars that followed featured mostly challenges and responses on the ground and in the air.

In these early years, Israel's military leadership defined five goals for the navy: to guard the coast, to protect ports, to "take action" against a possible naval blockade by Arab states, to "land from the sea, against enemy targets," and to secure Israeli "maritime transportation." With these rather minimalist goals, the navy possessed until the early 1970s a small number of platforms, mostly destroyers. The force reflected a haphazard approach to planning and procurement, rather than a clear vision.

This period also set the contours of the major internal debates the navy would have for decades to come, mostly between the supporters of a surface fleet and the supporters of a force that would focus on maritime sabotage by frogman. These debates were part of what led to the navy’s ethos of maximum utilization of the naval force with an emphasis on technology, an offensive approach, forward deployment of commanders, operational flexibility and a significant investment in training.

One other legacy the navy has retained from these early days is that of viewing the Mediterranean as the main area of operations. This view is also a result of geography: Israel has a 120-mile Mediterranean shore dotted with more than 10 ports serving the nation's major population centers. On the Red Sea, Israel has only a 9-mile shore, serving the underpopulated southern end of the country, with only one port.

The Israeli navy's performance in its early decades was mixed. Alongside achievements such as the capture of an Egyptian destroyer in the 1956 Suez crisis, the Israeli navy suffered a number of major failures: poor performance in the 1967 War and the loss (in action) of a destroyer and a submarine (probably in an accident), both in 1968. In part due to these failures, by the mid-1970s Israel’s navy had transformed itself into a missile-boat based force, supplemented with advanced electronic warfare systems. These changes contributed to the navy's successful performance in the 1973 War.

Also during the 1970s, the navy began to participate in the armed conflict between Israel and the Palestinian national movement. The latter's armed elements then operated mostly from Lebanon. Israel’s navy SEALs conducted dozens of raids on Palestinian targets in Lebanon. Other elements of the navy tried to prevent penetrations of Palestinian combatants from the sea into Israel. The 1982 Israeli-Palestinian War saw Israel’s navy conduct the only large-scale amphibious assault in its history, when it transported Israeli ground forces to northern Lebanon.

The 1990s marked the next phase of change in the Israeli navy. An era of peace talks between Israel and its immediate neighbors contributed to the further decommissioning of the navy’s surface fleet. By the 2000s, Israel’s navy operated only 13 missile boats, down from 24 in the 1980s.

The more significant change, however, occurred under the surface, with the 1990s launch of an ambitious expansion plan for the submarine fleet. The 1991 barrage of Iraqi ballistic missiles on Israel ushered in a greater awareness of the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. In response, the navy was reshaped to meet Israel's most fundamental threat. Though the reports have never been officially recognized, according to the foreign media the six Dolphin- and Dolphin 2-class submarines that Germany is supplying to Israel will be able to carry nuclear warheads, thus providing Israel with a second-strike nuclear capability. If true, this would mark the first time that the navy will play a central role in Israeli deterrence. Moreover, given that Israel does not share a border with Iran, the submarines can also serve as an instrument for other forms of Israeli power projection directed at Iran.

The 2000s brought with them three more changes that are bound to shape Israel’s navy in the coming decades. First, since 2004 Israel has been exploiting massive gas deposits in its exclusive economic zone in the Mediterranean. The centrality of the deposits for its economy led Israel to commit to defending the gas production facilities at sea. The navy will lead this effort and has already requested to expand its surface force. The gas issue has also led to some maritime tension between Israel and Lebanon, as the two countries disagree over the demarcation of their respective exclusive economic zones. American mediation has not resolved the issue, for now.

Second, during the 2000s Israel began to operate militarily in a more pronounced way over the horizon. This was both a response to the rise of the Iranian threat, but also in an effort to thwart the supply of rockets to Palestinian-controlled Gaza. The navy became an important actor in this form of power projection, as illustrated by the March 2014 Red Sea operation to interdict the shipment of munitions to Gaza. Finally, during the 2000s the navy began deploying an unmanned naval combat system, the Protector, perhaps marking the future direction for some of its platforms.

As the Israeli navy moves into the 21st century, it is in the process of transforming itself. From a secondary service operating within a military that saw "an Israeli war fleet as an unnecessary expense," in the words of Vice Adm. Yedidia Yaari, commander of the navy from 2000 to 2004, it is becoming a strategic arm that is entrusted with dealing with Israel's most significant threats.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 4/30/2014 04:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] "Erdogan abandoning Gaza for a few Zionist dollars"

The Jerusalem Post reported yesterday:

Turkey and Israel could move towards reconciliation within days or weeks, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview aired Tuesday.

Erdogan told PBS’s Charlie Rose that the issue of the amount of compensation Israel will pay the families of the nine Turks killed on the Mavi Marmara in 2010 as they tried to break the blockade of Gaza has been resolved.

He said that the “other step of the negotiations,” was the issue of sending humanitarian aid to Palestinians through Turkey.

“With the completion of that phase we can move towards a process of normalization,” he said. “I think we’re talking about days, weeks.”

In Jerusalem, however, officials – who have heard Turkish leaders talk for the last five months about an imminent agreement – were more skeptical.

“We have yet to hear that this is concluded,” one source said.

Another official pointed out that while Erdogan in the past spoke about the need for Israel to remove the naval blockade of Gaza before there would be a reconciliation, in this interview he only talked about “sending humanitarian aid to Palestinians through Turkey.”

The official said this may indicate that Erdogan is no longer demanding that Israel lift the naval blockade as a condition for resuming full ties, something that would make an agreement easier.

An editorial in Firas Press shows that this news, whether it is true or not, is being received with dismay by Palestinian Arabs.

Seemingly overnight the tone of [Erdogan] changed. Before he was demanding a written pledge in which the Occupying Power would lift the siege on the Gaza Strip, as a prerequisite for the normalization relations with the state of the occupation and the restoration of diplomatic ties...

The remarks of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan proves that he is a man without principles who abandoned his previous demands to break the siege on Gaza, after being hailed by the Palestinian people as their savior and as a "Superman for this day and age," capable of ending the siege and stopping the military machine of Zionism.

Now his words have been proven to be the promises of a clown. He is selling the issue of Gaza for a fistful of dollars and decided to restore relations with the occupation. Are there enough of those dollars to erase the shame that will be attached to the man and throw him into the dustbin of history?

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 4/30/2014 02:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 04/30 Links Pt1: Prosor: PA Funds Will Go to Hamas; Syrian dissident 'Israel is our last hope'

From Ian:

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Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas Pumps New Life Into Hamas

Chief PLO Negotiator Saeb Erekat this week went as far as arguing that Hamas is not a terrorist organization. "We might agree or differ with Hamas," Erekat said. "But Hamas is not a terrorist organization. The occupation, according to international law, is the worst form of terrorism."
Abbas's "reconciliation" accord with Hamas is most probably aimed at exerting pressure on Israel to make far-reaching concessions at the negotiating table.
But Abbas's move will soon prove to be counterproductive. Hamas's goal is to seize control over the Palestinian Authority and replace Israel with an Islamic empire. Abbas is deceiving himself and others when he says that a unity government with Hamas would recognize Israel and renounce violence. Hamas has already made it clear that the deal with Abbas does not mean that it would change its ideology or renounce terrorism.

Bibi Reminds Al Beeb's Bowen of the Core of the Conflict (video)

With hectoring naivety, the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen interviews Bibi Netanyahu:
And is reminded of the hard facts.
"The core of the conflict is the persistent Arab refusal decade upon decade ... to recognise the Jewish State in any boundary" ...

Benjamin Netanyahu interview - In full

'Palestinians have a pattern: Demand, delay and desert'

"When I think about the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, there is a predictable pattern on the part of the Palestinians -- demand, delay and desert," Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prosor told the Security Council on Tuesday, the same day that the nine-month period allotted for the latest round of peace talks elapsed.
"While Israel makes tangible concessions to advance peace, the Palestinian leadership has let every window of opportunity fly out the window. This goes to the very heart of the problem. The Palestinians pledge dialogue while fermenting hatred. They promise tolerance while celebrating terrorists. And they make commitments almost as quickly as they break them.
"As we speak, millions of dollars are being channeled to the Palestinian Authority. Now that the Palestinians have signed a unity agreement, that funding will be at the disposal of Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization.
"I wonder how taxpayers in London, Luxembourg and Paris would feel knowing that they will enable Hamas to launch more rockets into Israel, kidnap more Israelis, and send more suicide bombers into our cafés."

State Dept Can’t Name Single Benefit From Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks

The State Department press secretary offered a vacuous response, telling Lee “the benefit is talking about what the end game would be for a peace process where two parties are living side by side in peace and security.”
Some positive developments that occurred in the talks, she said, included Israel releasing convicted terrorists and the Palestinians temporarily agreeing not to pursue further international statehood recognition. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reneged on the latter pledge earlier this month, signing letters to join 15 international conventions.
Lee quickly pointed out one could construe the prisoner releases as a benefit to the Palestinians, but asked Psaki what Israel received in return. “I think there’s a larger goal and larger benefit, that’s the point I was making,” the State spokeswoman said without elaborating.

Hamas Decision Overshadows Kerry’s Slur

If the administration does violate its long-held principles about working with an entity compromised by its terrorist connection, it will mark a clear turning point not only in the U.S.-Israel relationship but also in America’s attempts to combat Islamist terrorism. Though its apologists sometimes speak of Hamas as having evolved into a government in Gaza and being ready for peace, the U.S. has always rightly drawn a bright line between even the most dubious of governments in the Middle East and open practitioners of terror. Erasing or even blurring that line will render Obama’s avowed hard line against terrorism meaningless.
If the administration should choose to walk down this road toward recognition of Hamas, it will do so to the cheers of the foreign-policy establishment and liberal mainstream media that have always chafed against the idea that Hamas was beyond the pale. But if it does, it should also expect that Congress as well as a united pro-Israel community would make them pay a high political price for this betrayal. This is not a battle Obama wants to be fighting in an already difficult midterm elections year. If Abbas is counting on the president to risk some of his scarce political capital on such a cause, then both he and Kerry may have badly miscalculated. But should the Palestinian alliance last into 2015 with a lame duck president already feeling he has little left to lose, then it is entirely possible that Obama could make Kerry’s apartheid flap look like a picnic compared to a decision to recognize Hamas.

US Repeats Threats To Pull PA Funding

US officials warned on Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) may risk losing its American funding, which constitutes $440 million in 2014, if it goes through with creating a unity government with the terror organization Hamas.
"Let me be utterly clear about our policy towards Hamas," Assistant Secretary for the Near East Anne Patterson told a House hearing.
"No US governmental money will go into any government that includes Hamas until Hamas accepts the Quartet conditions. And that's renouncing violence, recognizing previous agreements and most explicitly recognizing Israel's right to exist."

Hamas official: Abbas won’t control our forces

A top Hamas official boasted that the organization’s forces would not be bound to follow instructions from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and dismissed claims that a planned unity government would recognize Israel.
Mahmoud Al-Zahar said in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper Alyoum Sabaa on Tuesday that no militiamen in Gaza would be under Abbas’s control after a planned interim technocrat government is installed.
“The reconciliation deal won’t change the current situation, and the new government’s ministers are to have no authority over diplomacy since it is an interim government,” he said. “The reconciliation deal will not change Hamas at all, and will not bring the organization to recognize Israel’s right to exist.”

'Kerry will resume push for Israeli-Palestinian talks after pause of several months'

Instead of admitting failure, aides said Kerry would continue his Mideast negotiations push after a hiatus of several months. After an initial domestic political boost, the aide predicted, Israeli and Palestinian officials would be forced back to the table by the long-term need for a two-state solution.
"It's a matter of time before they all come back," the aide predicted, "and want to have negotiations."
The nine-month deadline for the Israeli-Palestinian talks expired on Tuesday with the sides trading blame.
“Israel would have liked to be at a different place,” said one government official familiar with the negotiations. “We would have liked to see a successful outcome to the negotiations. But what we saw was a Palestinian side that didn’t engage in good faith when the Americans put on the table principles for final status. In dealing with the core issues, the Palestinians ran away.”

Michael Lumish: Are We Intended to Believe that John Kerry is a Moron?

In the past Kerry has suggested that unless Israel does what he wants – which apparently is to stop the building of second bathrooms in Jewish homes in the eastern section of Jerusalem – then the country will likely face delegitimization and BDS “on steroids.”
We were to understand that this did not represent a threat, but merely a description of what Israel would likely face if it did not heed Kerry’s warnings, although it is entirely unclear what the Jews are supposed to do beyond releasing our murderers and cease building housing for ourselves and our children on historically Jewish land.
Many people took it as a veiled threat because it screams out like a veiled threat and acts as a green light for the Nazi-like BDS movement within the European Union and American college campuses. If it was not a veiled threat then it clearly represents diplomatic stupidity. We cannot read John Kerry’s mind. We do not know what he was thinking when he said what he said. All we know is that he said it. Now, if he said it with the intention to threaten then he said it with the intention to threaten. If he did not say it with the intention to threaten, then just why did he say it?
Are we supposed to believe that the current Secretary of State of the United States is just plain dumb?

J Street Defends Kerry’s ‘Apartheid’ Comments

J Street defended John Kerry after he said that Israel is headed toward becoming an “apartheid state” if it does not reach an agreement with the PLO and Hamas.
Kerry said last week that if Israel does not agree to a two-state solution – despite the PLO’s continuous calls for the genocide of the Jewish people and its partnership with the terrorist group Hamas – it would either become an “apartheid state” or lose its Jewish character. J Street defended this claim in a recent press release.

Carelessness or Candor? The "apartheid" slur has a long history.

The "apartheid" slur has a long history, as Joshua Muravchik explained in an article last year for World Affairs. In 1974, the U.N. General Assembly rejected the South African delegation's credentials, "which meant that the country 'was effectively expelled,' wrote America's then ambassador to the UN, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. . . . The next year, the foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference determined to have Israel expelled in the same way":
The effort to expel Israel persisted into the 1980s, and the Zionism-is-racism resolution was not repealed until 1991, amid the collapse of Soviet communism. The effort to stigmatize Israel has continued in a variety of diplomatic venues.
Surely Kerry knows this history. And by his own acknowledgment he is aware of present-day efforts to stigmatize the Jewish state. "For Israel there's an increasing delegitimization campaign that has been building up," he said in that February Munich speech. "There are talk [sic] of boycotts and other kinds of things."
As the Washington Post reported at the time: "A chorus of Israeli politicians warned Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Sunday that they would not be bullied into a peace deal with the Palestinians by growing threats of boycott and isolation."

Palestinians Echo Kerry on ‘Apartheid’

Lead Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, taking a cue from Secretary of State John Kerry, accused Israel of being an “apartheid” state on Tuesday.
“We believe that the international community must clarify to Israel that it’s choice of settlements and apartheid over peace will have political, legal, and financial ramifications,” Erekat said according to Ynet news.

Hamas-linked Palestinian-Israeli terror cell arrested

Israeli security forces arrested a Hamas-affiliated, Palestinian terror cell, which included an Arab citizen of Israel and aimed to carry out attacks within Israel, the Shin Bet security service said Wednesday.
Several members of the seven-man squad were arrested by Palestinian security forces prior to their arrest by the Shin Bet, but were released, after interrogation, even though a remote control switch designed to activate an explosive device was found in their possession, the Shin Bet said in a press release.
The seven men, including Khaled Daoud, a 21-year-old Israeli citizen, were arrested over the course of the past several months – a period during which the fate of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations often revolved around the release of convicted Arab citizens of Israel from Israeli jails.

Ministry looking to allow Jewish prayer on Temple Mount

“We have drafted regulations that will regulate prayer on the mount,” said Ben Dahan, of the nationalist Jewish Home party. “I expect the prime minister and the government of Israel to adopt and validate these regulations and allow all Jews who desire so to go up to the Temple Mount and pray there,” he told a conference of Liba, an organization that encourages Jews to visit the Temple Mount, via video address.
The regulations would reverse longstanding orders banning Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. The rules have garnered backlash over the last several months amid a renewed interest in visiting the site by Jewish groups, which has served to stoke heated tensions at the site, holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Terrorist 'Lawyer' Commits Suicide Under House Arrest

A terrorist "lawyer" from eastern Jerusalem, who had been charged with passing messages to jailed terrorists, committed suicide in his home on Tuesday.
The "lawyer," Safadi Amjad, was on house arrest on a local court's orders when he put an end to his life.
Amjad had been charged for transferring money and messages from Hamas terrorists imprisoned in Israel to their family members.

Fatah depicts unity with Hamas as unity between two terror organizations

On Facebook, Fatah welcomes the unity with terror organization Hamas, depicting it as a unity between two military organizations. On Fatah's "Main Page" a picture shows two masked men carrying machine guns. One wears the yellow headband of Fatah's military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, while the other wears the green headband of Hamas' military wing, the Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades. Both organizations are listed as terror organizations in the US, the EU and in other countries. The administrator of the page wrote, "Yes to unity and to ending the rift," while the text on the photo proclaims:
"Men's shoulders were created only to carry rifles. Either we will be mighty above the earth, or we will be bones in it." [Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page" April 24 and 30, 2014]

Fatah leader calls for Israel’s destruction

Following the unity agreement between the Palestinian Authority and the terror organization Hamas, many have expressed concern that Hamas ideology may now become part of the PA government's policy. However, even before the unity agreement, PA and Fatah officials have consistently expressed many of the same messages of terror, hate and denial of Israel's right to exist.
Several times recently, Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi has openly rejected coexistence with Israel and called for a "return to the option of one Palestine from the river to the sea." During an interview on Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV, he stated that "the only solution before us is the historic solution presented by Fatah in 1968."

Canada Raids, Designates Hamas-Tied Charity

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has conducted searches in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec as part of an investigation into a Muslim charity organization. Canadian federal auditors accuse the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy (IRFAN-Canada) of sending nearly $15 million to Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization. On Tuesday, the Canadian government officially added the organization to its list of banned terrorist organizations.
"As a consequence, any property or asset belonging to IRFAN is now frozen," said a letter from the RCMP said.
IRFAN-Canada lost its charity status in 2011 following a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) audit that exposed the organization as an "integral part" in Hamas' international fundraising infrastructure. The donations in question were sent between 2005 and 2009.

Hamas could field PA presidential candidate

Hamas lawmaker Khalil Haya said that Hamas had already started making preparations for taking part in the elections for president of the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas also wishes to help decide the makeup of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the Palestinian National Council in order to ensure that those bodies reflect the “true desires” of the Palestinian people, Haya explained.

Al-Qaeda-linked group bashes Hamas over reconciliation

The Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, a group associated with al-Qaeda involved in multiple rocket attacks on southern Israel, published a statement Wednesday calling Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas a “traitor” and accusing Hamas of violating Islamic law by collaborating with him.
“This ‘reconciliation’ was based on a number of serious violations of Sharia accepted by Hamas, which scandalously ignored widespread calls within its ranks to reject it,” read the statement.
“The most flagrant transgression is accepting democracy and the ballot box as arbiter between the sides, vying for a portion of power, as well as affirming the presidency of the traitor Mahmoud Abbas and his right to determine the fate of Muslims in Palestine.”

Scientific Analysis Confirms Use of Chlorine in Syria

A new scientific analysis conducted for the British Telegraph newspaper has found that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is still using chemical weapons against civilians.
In the first independent testing of its kind, soil samples from the scene of three recent gas attacks in Syria were collected by trained individuals and analyzed by a chemical warfare expert.
The results, reported by the Telegraph on Tuesday, show sizeable and unambiguous traces of chlorine and ammonia present at the site of all three attacks.

Israel is our last hope, indicates Syrian dissident

It is extremely rare for a Syrian dissident to speak openly with Israeli media, but Labwani, who has sought political asylum in Sweden, believes the Syrian uprising has shattered many Arab taboos, including the cultural Arab taboo on engaging Israel.
“I am not the only one [who speaks to Israelis]; there are many others like me. Three years of revolution have destroyed many intellectual and cultural principles,” he said. “People today have begun thinking outside the box, exploring two fundamental things: changing ourselves and seeking help.”

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 4/30/2014 12:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Hamas Al Qassam websites very different in English and Arabic

Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades terrorist organization has two separate websites for English and Arabic.

The English-language website highlights topics like human rights:

But its Arabic site shows its real priorities with lots of photos of masked terrorists, "martyrs" and violence that they celebrate:

They are more similar that you might think. Both of them are advocating using the most convenient weapons they have against Israel - suicide bombs and rockets on one hand, and useful Western idiots on the other.

It is amazing how many people get fooled by soothing statements meant for Western consumption and are willing - or anxious - to ignore reality.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 4/30/2014 10:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Israel secretly hands over body of Sbarro's suicide bomber, Arabs celebrate

Arutz-7 reports:

Israel has returned to the Palestinian Authority (PA) the bodies of four terrorists who carried out deadly terrorist attacks against Israelis, including the body of the terrorist who blew himself up in the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in 2001.

The PA-based Safa news agency reported on Tuesday that the terrorists whose bodies were returned include brothers Adel and Imad Osallah, Hamas terrorists who planned attacks against Israel and who were eliminated near Hevron by IDF soldiers in 1998.

In addition to Izz al-Din al-Masri, the Sbarro suicide bomber, Israel also reportedly handed the body of suicide bomber Tawfiq Mahamid, who carried out a suicide attack west of Umm al-Fahm and who belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the so-called “military wing” of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.

The attack at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in August of 2001 was one of the deadliest terror attacks in Israel’s history.

15 people were killed in the Sbarro attack, including five members of the Schijveschuurder family from the community of Neria in Binyamin.

The ever so peaceful Palestinian Authority gave these terrorists an honorable military welcome.



Arnold and Frimet Roth are the parents of one of the Sbarro's attack victims, their daughter Malki. They write:

For the record, the Israeli decision to hand over the body of Al-Masri, the human bomb whose explosion caused so much devastation, grief and ongoing pain to so many Israelis, was made on the basis of zero consultation with the families of his victims. There was also no pre-hand-over official notification to the news media or to the judicial system as far as we know. The Arab media are the sole source of the news.

...Stand by for more of the same as the Palestinian Authority, probably with its new business partner Hamas (who long ago claimed al-Masri as one of its heroes), prepares to celebrate the life and death of the human bomb who murdered 15 innocents. In fact, it's begun...

(And this side question: Will the world's most important organization of Protestant churches take part in the celebration? Will they condemn it? Or sit on the fence? Does their theology teach that "freedom with justice and dignity" applies to people like our daughter's cold-blooded killers and those who stand proudly with them? But not to the victims?)

And prepare - as we will - to scour the news reports for expressions of disgust and rejection from within the Arabic-speaking world for this upcoming latest chapter in the orgy of hate and bloodshed. But be ready to wait a long, long time.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 4/30/2014 08:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] The PLO's lawyer whitewashes Hamas terror

John V. Whitbeck, an international lawyer who advises the PLO, is now defending Hamas. You know...unity.

In a laughable "analysis" in Ma'an, Whitbeck shows that he can ignore the most elementary rules of logic and the English language itself in order to defend terrorists:

When, in response to the threat of potential Palestinian reconciliation and unity, the Israeli government suspended "negotiations" with the Palestine Liberation Organization on April 24 (five days before they were due to terminate in any event), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement asserting: "Instead of choosing peace, Abu Mazen formed an alliance with a murderous terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel."

...The extreme subjectivity of the epithet "terrorist" has been highlighted by two recent absurdities -- the Egyptian military regime's labeling of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has won all Egyptian elections since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, as a "terrorist" organization and the labeling by the de facto Ukrainian authorities, who came to power through illegally occupying government buildings in Kiev, of those opposing them by illegally occupying government buildings in eastern Ukraine as "terrorists."

In both cases, those who have overthrown democratically elected governments are labeling those who object to their coups as "terrorists."

It is increasingly understood that the word "terrorist," which has no agreed-upon definition, is so subjective as to be devoid of any inherent meaning and that it is commonly abused by governments and others who apply it to whomever or whatever they hate in the hope of demonizing their adversaries, thereby discouraging and avoiding rational thought and discussion and, frequently, excusing their own illegal and immoral behavior.

Check out how deceptive Whitbeck is.  He is claiming that since some people may misuse the word "terrorist" and since the word has no "agreed upon definition" then the word becomes meaningless when Israel uses it.

However, there are generally agreed upon definitions of terrorism. For example, the draft UN definition:

1. Any person commits an offence within the meaning of this Convention if that person, by any means, unlawfully and intentionally, causes:
(a) Death or serious bodily injury to any person; or
(b) Serious damage to public or private property, including a place of public use, a State or government facility, a public transportation system, an infrastructure facility or the environment; or
(c) Damage to property, places, facilities, or systems referred to in paragraph 1 (b) of this article, resulting or likely to result in major economic loss, when the purpose of the conduct, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population, or to compel a Government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act.

The FBI says that international terrorism involves violent acts that "appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping."

There are plenty of other definitions. While the definitions may not be identical and they may not be 100% perfect, it is clear that - for example - the 9/11 attacks fall under all definitions of terror. (Although Whitbeck says 9/11 is a hoax. Really.)

Whitbeck is trying to say that the word "terrorism" is meaningless, but it isn't. Just because boundary cases aren't defined doesn't mean that some acts aren't clearly cases of terrorism.

Suicide bombings, rocket attacks aimed at civilians and other acts meant to intimidate and instill fear in a population for political purposes is not "terrorism," all fit in under every single serious definition of terrorism from both a legal and dictionary perspective. Which makes Hamas, by definition, a terrorist organization.

Indeed, Whitbeck is using a silly semantic argument to whitewash Hamas acts which fall under every single definition of terrorism. 

He continues in the same vein:

Netanyahu's assertion that Hamas "calls for the destruction of Israel" requires rational analysis as well.

He is not the only guilty party in this regard. The mainstream media in the West habitually attaches the phrase "pledged to the destruction of Israel" to each first mention of Hamas, almost as though it were part of Hamas' name.

In the real world, what does the "destruction of Israel" actually mean? The land? The people? The ethno-religious-supremacist regime?

There can be no doubt that virtually all Palestinians -- and probably still a significant number of Native Americans -- wish that foreign colonists had never arrived in their homelands to ethnically cleanse them and take away their land and that some may even lay awake at night dreaming that they might, somehow, be able to turn back the clock or reverse history.

However, in the real world, Hamas is not remotely close to being in a position to cause Israel's territory to sink beneath the Mediterranean or to wipe out its population or even to compel the Israeli regime to transform itself into a fully democratic state pledged to equal rights and dignity for all who live there. It is presumably the latter threat -- the dreaded "bi-national state" -- that Netanyahu has in mind when he speaks of the "destruction of Israel."

For propaganda purposes, "destruction" sounds much less reasonable and desirable than "democracy" even when one is speaking about the same thing.

...In the real world, the Hamas vision (like the Fatah vision) of peaceful coexistence in Israel-Palestine is much closer to the "international consensus" on what a permanent peace should look like, as well as to international law and relevant UN resolutions, than the Israeli vision.

You see? In Whitbeck's conception of "the real world," Hamas isn't calling for the destruction of Israel - Hamas is calling for democracy and peaceful coexistence!

Unfortunately for Whitbeck, Hamas leaders' own words show a slightly different story. They say quite clearly and explicitly that they don't quit esubscribe to Whitbeck's fantasies as to what they believe and what they want to do to all Jews in the area. (And Whitbeck knows this very well.)

"The armed resistance and the armed struggle are the path and the strategic choice for liberating the Palestinian land, from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river, and for the expulsion of the invaders and usurpers [Israel]... We won't relinquish one inch of the land of Palestine."

Expulsion of all Jews from Israel. Hmm. It sounds so peaceful and democratic!

Here a Hamas commander calls on Israeli Arabs to destroy Israel from the inside.

Congratulations to our people of 1948 [Israeli Arabs] on the liberation of Gaza. You wish to destroy them [the Israelis] from their inside...

He must mean by voting in elections.

Here's another example of how Hamas cannot possibly mean anything offensive:

"Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah"

Only a fanatical right wing Zionist could possibly interpret that as anything but puppies and flowers and rainbows, right, John?

There are many Israel haters that would read this ridiculous article and sagely nod their heads as if it makes perfect sense.

But that is because they want to justify Arabs killing Jews.

Just like John V. Whitbeck.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 4/30/2014 05:30:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Why J-Street should not be admitted to the Conference of Presidents

The Forward writes:

Several large, mainstream Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, have to decided to vote in favor of admitting the dovish Israel lobby J Street into organized Jewry’s primary umbrella group on Israel. Others, like the Jewish Federations of North America, are leaning towards voting that way, according to informed sources.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which is scheduled to vote Wednesday on J Street’s request for admission, is conducting its process under a shroud of secrecy. The decision will be made in a closed-envelope ballot, and most of the member organizations remained tight-lipped regarding their expected vote.

There is no problem with "dovish" organizations being members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

There is a problem with admitting a member that consistently misrepresents itself as being "pro-Israel."

J-Street pretends that it is being vilified because it supports a two-state solution, and that is its constant refrain, in its press releases and on its website.

But the State of Israel also accepts a two-state solution.

Yet on every substantive issue where there is a disagreement between Israel and the PLO, J-Street sides with the PLO. In no universe can that be considered "pro-Israel." 

As if that weren't bad enough, J-Street demands that Americans lobby their elected representatives to pressure Israel, and only Israel, to make concessions - to those who happily admit that they consider Israel their enemy.

J-Street has no respect for Israeli democracy. It wants third parties to force a solution on Israel that most Israelis have proven - with their votes - that they do not support.

The only reason that J-Street has any traction is its deception in pretending that it is merely interested in two states. But the two states it wants would involve the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Jews, it would create a situation where Jewish holy places are off limits to Jews, it would create borders that are indefensible. And it would empower people who brag in Arabic that their state is merely a stage to destroying Israel.

If that is what Israelis want, that would be fine. But they don't.

Why would the Conference of Presidents want to admit a deceptive, anti-Israel organization?

Even though Americans for Peace Now is already a member, and they also lobby US officials to pressure Israel, at least their parent organization tries to work within Israel's democracy to some extent. J-Street is beyond the pale.

Although the vote will be secret (which is outrageous - members of the organizations deserve to know how their leaders vote!) you can still write to the member organizations of the Conference and let them know why they should vote against J-Street's admission on Wednesday.

And demand that they make their vote public.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 4/29/2014 07:30:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 04/29 Links Pt2: Juan Cole Definitely Uninformed; NYT: Abbas 'Vilified' for Questioning the Holocaust

From Ian:

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New York Times Says Abbas ‘Vilified’ for Challenging Number of Holocaust Victims

In an article today about Abbas’ statement condemning the Holocaust, Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren writes: “Mr. Abbas has been vilified as a Holocaust denier because in his doctoral dissertation, published as a book in 1983, he challenged the number of Jewish victims and argued that Zionists had collaborated with Nazis to propel more people to what would become Israel.”
This passage is characteristic Times treatment of Israel and the Palestinians. Palestinian claims, no matter how specious or unfounded, are treated with neutrality at best, and afforded credibility, at worst. Abbas had written in his dissertation: “it is possible that the number of Jewish victims reached 6 million, but at the same time it is possible that the figure is much smaller – below one million.”
In stating that Abbas “challenged” the fact that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, The Times journalist falsely implies that there may actually have been substance to his claim.

How did the BBC frame Mahmoud Abbas’ remarks on the Holocaust?

Although it once again downplays Hamas’ terror designation by numerous countries, the BBC article notes correctly that:
“Hamas officials have made statements denying the Holocaust, and in 2009 objected to a UN proposal to teach children about it in UN-run schools in Gaza.”
It goes on to state:
“Mr Abbas’s comments were the strongest that he has made publicly on the Holocaust and appear to be an attempt to reach out to a mistrustful Israeli public, the BBC’s Yolande Knell reports from Jerusalem.”
In fact, Abbas has made numerous public remarks in the past regarding the Holocaust, which Knell’s adjective “strongest” might also be used to describe – though in a decidedly different sense. The Israeli public is of course aware of the fact that Mahmoud Abbas’ PhD dissertation was based on a form of Holocaust denial.

PMW: Abbas' and other PA officials' acknowledgement of the Holocaust

Mahmoud Abbas' recent acknowledgement that "what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust is the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era" [Wafa (the official PA news agency), April 27, 2014] is a very rare example of official PA acknowledgement of the Holocaust and that its crimes were directed principally at Jews.
Studying Palestinian Authority officials' statements and PA events publicized in the official PA media, Palestinian Media Watch has found very few other examples of explicit official PA acknowledgement of the Holocaust and its crimes against the Jews and others.

Juan Cole… Definitely Uninformed and Often Wrong

Juan Cole of “Ahmadinejhad really didn’t say he wanted to wipe Israel off the map” fame is at it once again. When it comes to Israel, Cole spends so much time twisting himself and distorting positions that it seems that the man would have to screw his pants on (h/t to Hunter S. Thompson) to get dressed in the morning. On his page “Informed Consent” (a misnomer if there ever was one) Cole writes: John Kerry admits Israeli Apartheid; and 5 Ways he is Understating It. In this article Cole gives us an fact free screed as to how Israel is an “Apartheid State” beginning with his inaccurate headline.
Unless one has the reading comprehension of a small child, it is clear that Secretary Kerry is saying that should there be One State solution (which there is not); Israel would run the risk of becoming an Apartheid type state. What he did not say was “Israel is an Apartheid State”. So, from the very headline this article fails.
From here it simply gets more ridiculous. The entire premise of the article states that there is already a One State solution in place and that Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are in fact Israeli Citizens who are treated as “second class citizens”. NOW, if Israel did annex the West Bank and Gaza and did not offer the right of franchise amongst other civil rights to all of its citizens one could make that argument but the Israelis have not done this. AND even if they wanted to ignore all of the security concerns and everything else exactly to whom would they be handing this land over too (but never mind that I guess)? So with that the entire analogy of conflating Israel to South Africa fails miserably.

A Tour and Census of Palestine Year 1695: No sign of Arabian names or Palestinians

The author Relandi, a real scholar, geographer, cartographer and well known philologist, spoke perfect Hebrew, Arabic and ancient Greek, as well as the European languages. The book was written in Latin. In 1695 he was sent on a sightseeing tour to Israel, at that time known as Palestina. In his travels he surveyed approximately 2500 places where people lived that were mentioned in the bible or Mishnah. His research method was interesting.
He first mapped the Land of Israel.
Secondly, Relandi identifies each of the places mentioned in the Mishnah or Talmud along with their original source. If the source was Jewish, he listed it together with the appropriate sentence in the Holy Scriptures. If the source was Roman or Greek he presented the connection in Greek or Latin.
Thirdly, he also arranged a population survey and census of each community. (h/t MtTB)

Report: UK Aid to Palestinians Misused to Pay Convicted Terrorists

UK newspaper reported on Monday that British aid to the Palestinian Authority helps fund the salaries of convicted terrorists.
The Telegraph report is based on research performed by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) and shows the value the Palestinian Authority (PA) places on terrorists.

It has revealed that under 2004 Palestinian legislation known as the Palestinian Law of the Prisoner, people convicted of terror offences are immediately placed on the Palestinian Authority payroll. The salaries are reserved for those “resisting the occupation”, not those guilty of other crimes.
The more serious the offence, the more money is paid. Based on Palestinian documents, PMW says that the longest-serving terrorists receive £2,075 per month, plus bonuses for wives and children. Grants made upon release can be as much as £50,000. The average Palestinian wage is about £312 per month.

Child recites poem on PA TV: "Smash the oppression and destroy the Zionist's soul"


Fatah leader calls for Israel's destruction: Palestine from river to sea


Fatah leader calls for future without Israel: Haifa, Jaffa, and Acre will all be part of Palestine


UN office in Geneva holds 2-day Israel-bashing confab; bans all but anti-Israel NGOs

The UN Committee, created in 1975 to implement the infamous Zionism-is-racism General Assembly resolution, has held yet another vile session. On April 24 and 25, 2014 the UN "Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People" had what was billed as a "Roundtable on Legal Aspects of the Question of Palestine" in Geneva. All but the opening session were closed to the public. Or more accurately, after the representative of the UN-accredited Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust reported what had occurred at the opening session, she was barred from an additional session which had been advertised as open to the public.
In fact, though the event was advertised as closed except for two sessions, the published "List of Participants" reveals that 9 civil society organizations – all 9 with well-established anti-Israel credentials and 7 based in Ramallah - were actually taking part.

BDS Movement Echoes Germany in the 1930s

In the 1930s, thousands of Jewish professors were kicked out of German universities because they were Jews. Shamefully, today in the U.S., Jewish professors are threatened with being thrown out of scholarly conferences, prevented from publishing in scholarly journals, and denied research or employment opportunities, simply because they are citizens of the Jewish State.

NYU Student on 'Evictions': 'This Flyer is Clearly Spreading Anti-Semitism'

NYU sophomore Laura Adkins appeared on "On the Record" with Greta Van Susteren to discuss the anti-Semitic mock eviction notices that were distributed Thursday morning. Students for Justice in Palestine, the group responsible for the propaganda flyers, denies Israel's legal right to exist and features photos on their Facebook page that call for the annihilation of the Jewish state and claim "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free."
Adkins pointed out the anti-Semitic content on the flyer, which alleges that Israel ethnically cleanses non-Jews and claims that the Israeli government has a policy known as 'Judaization.' She also explained that many students on campus feel threatened and that the mock eviction notices "totally cross the line and became hate speech targeting the Jewish people."

Shapiro: Islamic Groups Pushed Brandeis to Rescind Ayaan Hirsi Ali

TruthRevolt Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro appeared on The Kelly File Friday night to rebut Brandeis President Fred Lawrence's recent letter claiming he rescinded Ayaan Hirsi Ali's invitation to receive an honorary degree based on internal pressure in the Brandeis faculty and students. Shapiro argued instead that the university president had in fact caved to pressure from outside Islamic groups.
Shapiro called the President Lawrence's claims "untrue" because the groups responsible for much of the pressure, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and the Council for American Islam Relations (CAIR), had been coordinating with students and faculty to rescind Ali's invitation. Both Kelly and Shapiro highlighted CAIR's association with Islamic radicals like Imam Webb, who had a history of anti-Semitism, and Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike for connections with Al-Qaeda.

Witnesses Back Israel Activist in Dispute With J-Street Leader at Brandeis

According to The Washington Free Beacon, Talia Lepson called Daniel Mael a “s*** bag” and angrily told the Brandeis junior that “Jews hate you” at 12:45 AM on Friday night.
Moshe Yaghoubian, via Facebook on Sunday, confirmed Mael’s version of events: “I was with Daniel Mael on the Friday night when the incident occurred and I can verify that his account is 100% accurate.”
Student Elad Ohayon said, ”In all honestly, I’ve never heard a lie come out of either Moshe Yaghoubian or Daniel Mael mouths, not even as a joke. I could never imagine either one of them lying about something as serious as the incident that took place.”

J Street issues media Fatwa against its toughest pro-Israel student opponent

Mael has wrapped his keyboard around J Street’s metaphorical political neck, and won’t let go. (That should sound familiar to Legal Insurrection readers.)
One of Mael’s articles even is featured in the trailer for the J Street Challenge (see featured image). Considering that The J Street Challenge is one of the biggest thorns in J Street’s side, it’s not much of a guess to believe that Mael’s affiliation with the movie is not popular at J Street.
Mael’s vigorous opposition to J Street has extended to Brandeis J Street U. Mael penned an expose about anti-Israel actions by leaders of Brandeis J Street U for The Times of Israel, only to have the blog post taken down by The Times after the Brandeis J Street U students complained that mentioning their names would harm their employment prospects.

Fight over NY’s Celebrate Israel Parade reignites debate over New Israel Fund

In a letter Sunday to Richard Allen of the JCC Watch organization, Allen objected to the inclusion of Partners for Progressive Israel, the New Israel Fund, and B’tselem in the annual Zionist march, accusing them of supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
JCC Watch is a rightwing organization with the stated goal of “monitor[ing] treachery by Jewish groups.”
“As coalition chairman at the Knesset in Jerusalem, I am deeply moved by the tireless supporters and marchers in the Celebrate Israel Parade and by the courageous stance of so many friends of Israel involved in the parade, calling to delegitimize those who delegitimize Israel,” Levin wrote Allen. “It is not logical or reasonable for Israel supporters to condone or overlook or indirectly cooperate with BDS groups which represent the antithesis of support for Israel.”

Shot Ukrainian Jewish mayor airlifted to Israel for surgery

The Jewish mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city, in critical condition after being shot on Monday, was flown to Israel early Tuesday morning to receive medical treatment.
Kharkiv mayor Hennady Kernes was hit in the back in an attack while he was out jogging, his office said. Kernes underwent immediate surgery, with local doctors “fighting for his life,” according to a Kharkiv municipal spokesman.
A statement from Elisha hospital in Haifa, where Kernes was taken during the night, said the surgery was successful.

In NYC, Ukrainian Holocaust Survivors & Their Supporters Rally Against Ukrainian Antisemitism

"And one of the things when I think about the Ukraine, and I'm sure there are a lot of wonderful people there, but let me tell you what my mother used to say, that the Ukrainians who worked with the Nazis, were worse than the Nazis. That's what my mother always told us in our home, in terms of brutality and so on."
So declared New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind at a rally in NYC on Sunday morning to mark Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day) and send out the message to contemporary Ukrainian antisemites "Never Again".

On Yom HaShoah, World Leaders Call for Combating of Anti-Semitism

President Barack Obama said in a statement, “On this Yom HaShoah, let us recommit ourselves to the task of remembrance, and to always oppose anti-Semitism wherever it takes root. Together, we must give enduring meaning to the words ‘Never Again.’”
On his Facebook account, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called on the world to “combat anti-Semitism in all its forms.”
“Yom HaShoah reminds us that the Holocaust must never be forgotten and that we must remain vigilant against all forms of prejudice and hatred to ensure that such unspeakable acts of inhumanity never happen again,” Harper said.

Young Jews march through Auschwitz

Thousands of young Jews from Israel and around the world marched on Monday between the two parts of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi German death camp in Poland in memory of Holocaust victims, notably some 430,000 Hungarian Jews who perished there.
The silent annual “March of the Living” began when the shofar, a ram’s horn used for Jewish religious ceremonies, sounded by the former camp’s notorious “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Makes You Free) gate.

FDA okays start of BrainStorm stem cell trial in ALS patients

BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the start of a mid-stage clinical trial of its adult stem cell treatment for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The Phase II trial will be launched initially at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital in Worcester.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Connell O'Reilly Cell Manipulation Core Facility will manufacture BrainStorm's NurOwn cells for these two clinical sites. The trial will also be conducted at the Mayo Clinic, the Israel-based company said on Sunday. The trials are expected to start soon.

Max Brenner wins Webby for best food and drink website

The digital experts and people agree: the best food and drink website of 2014 is that of a chocolate-themed restaurant chain that serves syringes filled with liquid chocolate, pizza chocolate and vanilla ice cream bars with a fudgy dipping sauce and chocolate dots.
In the Webby Awards' coveted food and drink category, Israeli-based chocolate chain Maxbrenner.com was voted the best website by both the public and the academy's panel of experts.

Israel – The wifi nation

Welcome to Israel – the wifi nation. It starts when you arrive at Ben Gurion Airport and are treated to free wifi. Then you get on the train; for over a year now, Israel Railways provides free wifi. The Kavim bus that I take to work offers free wifi.
It doesn’t always work and the speed can be slow, but for basic news and email reading, free public wifi is fine. Enter a restaurant in Tel Aviv and you will likely be served free wifi. Many office buildings offer the same.
As I sat in a Tel Aviv cafe today, a friend agreed. “It’s like air. They just don’t get it in Europe and the US.” There are many things in Israel that need to be fixed, but free wifi access is one area where we are ahead of the game. According to recent news reports, Tel Aviv has over 80 wifi hotspots around the city in places that serve tourists – beaches, attractions and parks.

Want to be a billionaire? Come to Israel

Israel, according to the center’s “Super-Entrepreneurs: And How Your Country Can Get Them” report, has the right conditions for breeding billionaires, who are only the tip of the iceberg of a society that encourages enterprise, innovation, education and leaves entrepreneurs alone to come up with the innovations in advanced industries that create wealth.
The survey of the 34 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which served as the basis for the center’s report, shows that Israel has about two billionaires per million people. Third on the list was the United States, with about 1.4 billionaires per million people, followed by Switzerland (1.3), Singapore and Norway (1.2 each), and Ireland (less than one). Israel has a bigger population than any of the list’s top seven countries, besides the US.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 4/29/2014 06:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] The saga of Christy Anastas, Palestinian defender of Israel, continues

Christy Anastas is a young woman who, during an al Jazeera program, was promised by Saeb Erekat that "Palestine" would have full human rights, freedom of speech and women's rights, among other things.

As a result, she publicly defended Israel in a remarkable lecture at Uppsala University in Sweden.

And all of that talk about freedom of speech went out the window.

This video shows her giving background information, the Al Jazeera segment and her lecture in Sweden.



Her family reacted viciously, as Ma'an reported:

A Bethlehem father whose daughter recently released a pro-Israel video has condemned the move, saying that the family "rejects and distances" themselves from the content in a statement made to Bethlehem's Radio Mawwal.

The Anastas family also denied claims that their daughter had been forced to flee, saying that they feared she had been the victim of "entrapment" and was under "pressure" from sponsors who had promised to pay her enrollment fees and housing costs for university in the United Kingdom.

The statement comes after a video featuring their daughter Christy was released on the internet in which she spoke of her belief that "God has given this land to the Jews as an everlasting covenant," and claimed that she was forced to flee Palestine because of persecution for her beliefs.

The Anastas family expressed their "surprise" at the video, "deploring and condemning" her words, denying that she was ever forced to "flee" but instead that they she had left of her own free will to study abroad.

They added that the video "was a result of direct pressure that Christy is currently experiencing."

The usual "blame Israel" crowd, including this liar I exposed recently, are convinced that Christy is being coerced by some nefarious crowd to say these awful things.

Here's the latest on the story from CAMERA:

Christy Anastas, the 26-year-old woman who has fled the West Bank (where a journalist was recently sentenced to a year in prison for mocking Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on Facebook) will present herself for inspection at a police station in England on the morning of April 29, 2014.

Why?

Because a self-styled “peace and justice” activist has called the police in England, informing the authorities that she may be a “missing person.” Consequently, Christy will present herself at a police station somewhere in England this morning to assure them that she is not being held against her will.

That’s the report from Howard Stern, who along with Christy, is a co-founder of the Emmaus Group, an activist organization that promotes awareness of the mistreatment of Christians in Muslim-majority environments. Stern reports the following:

Christy has lived with my wife and I and our other two grown up kids for two years. We are family. We love her dearly. She is totally part of the family, free to come and go as she pleases. She has friends, drives a car and enjoys church where she helps at youth club. As a family we are all upset by his actions and words as Christy has, is and never will be coerced and forced to do anything she does not want to. We are a Christian household. We are all protective of her and I do chaperone her a lot and speak with her where appropriate but she is strong-minded kid and knows what she wants and what she believes in - taken after her mother in that dept!! [Christy’s mother, Claire Anastas, is an ardent anti-Zionist activist. More about this below.]

When the dust settles, Stern hopes to obtain a formal apology from the self-styled “peace and human rights’ activist who called the police in an attempt to “help” Christy.

In the meantime, Stern writes, “We have reported the matter of his reporting to MPs, our lawyers and senior church officials who we liaise with. Christy will attend a local police station in the morning to confirm all is ok and well.”

One has to wonder why so-called “human rights” activists have not expressed any concern over the possibility that Christy’s mother, Claire, has been testifying under duress on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

It’s a real possibility. Claire has been pretty energetic – if not frantic – in her efforts to focus attention on Israel and legitimize the Palestinian Authority. If she has ever said anything critical of the PA or Hamas – two institutions clearly worthy of criticism – it hasn’t gotten much attention.

In addition to being a favorite of the “peace and justice” types on Twitter, Claire Anastas was a centerpiece in the now notorious 60 Minutes episode that demonized Israel in 2012 and was a prominent source in Yasmine Perni’s 2013 movie, "The Stones Cry Out," which offers a distorted view of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Claire has also spoken at a number of conferences in the U.S. where she has condemned Israel.

Given the dependence of Palestinian Christians on the Palestinian Authority for their safety, why isn’t anyone asking if maybe Claire’s testimony is being coerced or offered under duress?

The reason is simple. Christy Anastas’s testimony is a threat to the narrative of Western “human rights” activists who have been serving the interests of a combine of theocrats and kleptocrats in their fight against a self-critical democracy, Israel, for the past few decades.

Claire’s testimony is exactly what these activists want to hear. Christy’s testimony, by way of comparison, raises the possibility that maybe they have picked the wrong horse in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

No doubt about it, the different treatment received by Christy and Claire Anastas reveals an interesting dichotomy. Palestinian Christian testimony, when it cuts against Israel, is immediately accepted as reliable.

But now that Christy Anastas, a Palestinian Christian, has done the unthinkable by calling out for the PA for its corruption, violence and ineptitude – which no one really doubts – so-called human rights activists question her mental competence and treats her like she’s a modern-day incarnation of Patty Hearst.

In the minds of the pro-Palestinian activists who want to "help" her and in the minds of the Palestinian Christians who denounce her, it's just unthinkable that a sane and rational person could honestly believe what Christy says. And so they describe her testimony as "dodgy." They imply she has been kidnapped and is being held against her will by evil manipulative Zionists. And if these explanations don't work, Palestinian Christians come right out and say she has been bought and paid for.

It’s a form of hysteria, actually. This hysteria is patently evident on the Facebook page of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel, where EAPPI's “peace and justice” activists have shown they have bought hook line and sinker, the story offered by news outlets in the West Bank. The story told in these outlets is that Christy Anastas was spirited away by operatives working on behalf of a vast Zionist conspiracy who have corrupted her mind and soul.

It is funny that no one is surprised when scores of young Jews, pretending to be brave, decide to publicly attack Israel, using their purported Judaism as a club to give their lies authenticity.

Yet when Palestinian Arabs like Christy or Zeina Barakat show true bravery for speaking obvious truths it is a major story and they are attacked relentlessly.

It is clear that Saeb Erekat's promises of free speech and freedom in his quasi-state are simply more of his many lies.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 4/29/2014 04:00:00 PM

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