11/27 Links Pt1: Libel in official PA daily: Israel and the US behind terror attack in Egypt; PA opposes Jews' visits to Temple Mount ~ EoZ

From Ian:

70 Years after UN Resolution 181: An Assessment
Liora Chartouni

Seventy years ago, on November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 calling for the partition of Mandatory Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Jews accepted the plan with a mixture of joy and hesitation, while the Arabs rejected it and launched a war to forcibly prevent its implementation.

The Arabs denied the Jews any right whatsoever in their ancestral homeland, and a large majority still maintains this view to this day.

Since the Arab states rejected the resolution upon its adoption and prevented its implementation, the Palestinian leadership can neither logically nor legally claim today that Resolution 181 can serve as a basis for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Moreover, the partition plan refers to the creation of an Arab state, not a Palestinian state. Indeed, nowhere does it indicate the creation of a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people. There was never any such designation as “Palestinian” for the Arab population residing in the area.
Finally, according to the UN Charter, General Assembly resolutions are simply recommendations and are not legally binding. Only resolutions adopted by the Security Council under Chapter 7 of the Charter may be obligatory. Thus, Resolution 181 cannot in any manner be considered to be a basis for a Palestinian claim to statehood.

Israel to re-enact historic UN vote that led to its establishment

The Israeli delegation to the U.N. will mark 70 years to the historic vote on Nov. 29, 1947 that resulted in the establishment of a Jewish state in Israel with a festive re-enactment of the vote, to be attended by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and dozens of ambassadors from around the world.

The re-enactment, the initiative of Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon in collaboration with the World Jewish Congress, will kick off a series of celebrations in honor of 70 years to the Jewish state's founding. The event will be held at the original hall where the vote was held in 1947. The hall, which is now located inside the Queens Museum in New York, has been decorated to look as it did on the day of the historic vote, with wooden tables, a stage and a world map hanging on the wall. At the conclusion of the vote, dancers will break out in the hora, just as they did in the actual vote in 1947. Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb will then perform "Jerusalem of Gold."

Pence will be a guest of honor at the ceremony and will be accompanied by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who is Jewish. Dozens of diplomats and ambassadors will also attend the event, including World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder as well as representatives from the 33 countries that voted in favor of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine, as well as local Jewish community leaders.

"We are proud to celebrate with our heads held high the definitive event that led to the establishment of the state and present the achievements and the vast support that Israel has around the world," Danon said. "It is a great honor for Israel to host Vice President Pence at the festivities. The president of the United States 70 years ago, Harry Truman, was the first leader to recognize the State of Israel with its founding. Ever since then, Israel has had no better friend than the United States."

On Tuesday, New York's Times Square will show clips from the historic vote alongside Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion's declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel as well as footage of modern-day Israel on its megascreens. Dancers waving Israeli flags and wearing shirts saying "I love Israel" will dance in Times Square at the event, the initiative of the World Zionist Organization and the Zionist Organization of America.

Amb. Danny Danon: We fulfilled the dream

Seventy years have passed since the moment that will forever be engraved in the history of our people, and since then, every one of us can picture themselves listening to the radio, tense with anticipation, during that historic vote on Nov. 29, 1947.

Every time we watch or listen to the long minutes of the vote, which seemed to last as long as our 2,000 years in the Diaspora, we get chills.

In 1897, Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl imagined the unimaginable when he wrote, "At Basel, I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today l would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty years, everyone will perceive it."

Fifty years later, the Zionist dream came true. Reality eclipsed anything we could have imagined and the U.N. recognized the establishment of the Jewish state in the land of Israel. Today, 70 years after the vote, we stand with our heads held high, proud of our extraordinary achievements, and continue to believe and dream.

Looking back from where we are today, in a strong, thriving and independent Israel, it might be hard to fathom the tense atmosphere that preceded the vote, how momentous it was or the herculean efforts on the part of the Jewish leadership, which realized that the fate of their people rested on their shoulders.

Today, we are grateful to the 33 nations that voted in favor of founding the Jewish state, thereby changing history.

PMW: Israel and the US behind terror attack in Egypt, libel in official PA daily op-e

The terror attack last Friday in Sinai, Egypt, which claimed the lives of 305 Muslim worshippers in a mosque, served a regular columnist for the official Palestinian Authority daily as an excuse to repeat the libel that Israel and the US are behind terror in the Middle East.

Writing about the attack, Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul explained that the US and Israel are afraid of a strong Egypt, and therefore use "pawns" to carry out terror attacks and "weaken Egypt." This is part of "an American-Israeli decision" that serves the "colonial need":

"Time will tell, after the investigations expose the secrets, divergences, and scope of the barbaric crime, because the one who stands behind it - regardless of the name of the organization to which he belongs, and regardless of the pretexts he promoted for his horrible crime - is Israel and the US...

They do not want Egypt - the symbol of Arabness - to rise, recover, and restore to itself its leading pan-Arab role. The US, Israel, and their pawns know well that the resurrection of Egypt means the resurrection of all the peoples of the Arab nation, and therefore the colonial need dictates keeping Egypt in a state of political, security, economic, and social exhaustion...

There is an American-Israeli decision - which is being implemented by their pawns... to continue weakening Egypt, at least, particularly because the main goal of their plan is to tear unified Egypt into small and scattered states."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 26, 2017]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented this Palestinian libel many times. A Fatah cartoon presented the libel that Jews/Israelis seek to destroy the Muslim world, and are possibly taking advantage of the internal Muslim fighting to do so. The official PA daily has claimed Israel was behind the Paris attacks in 2015, and that the US and Israel direct ISIS terror in Europe.

David Singer: United Nations loses the plot in ignoring Israel-Jordan reality

29th November 2017 marks the 70th anniversary of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) (Resolution) calling for the creation in Western Palestine of independent Arab and Jewish States and a Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem (Partition Plan).

The Resolution did not mention:
⦁ the “West Bank” (a term dreamt-up in 1950) – using instead the terms “Judea” and “Samaria” - their correct geographical place names for the previous 3000 years
⦁ a “Palestinian State” - only an “Arab State”
⦁ one Arab State had already been created in Eastern Palestine on 25 May 1946 named the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan covering 78% of the territory comprised in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (Mandate).

The Partition Plan was accepted by the Jews but vehemently rejected by the Arabs.

H. R. H. Amir FAISAL AL SAUD (Saudi Arabia) fulminated:
We have felt, like many others, the pressure exerted on various representatives of this Organization by some of the big Powers in order that the vote should be in favour of partition. For these reasons, the Government of Saudi Arabia registers, on this historic occasion, the fact that it does not consider itself bound by the resolution adopted today by the General Assembly. Furthermore, it reserves to itself the full right to act freely in whatever way it deems fit, in accordance with the principles of right and justice.

Mr. JAMALI (Iraq) protested:
In the name of my Government, I wish to state that it feels that this decision is antidemocratic, illegal, impractical and contrary to the Charter. It contradicts the spirit and letter of the Charter. Therefore, in the name of my Government, I wish to put on record that Iraq does not recognize the validity of this decision, will reserve freedom of action towards its implementation, and holds those who were influential in passing it against the free conscience of mankind responsible for the consequences.

Lebanon: Is Cheat-and-Retreat Back on the Menu?

Hezbollah's primary victim remains Lebanon, a country that risks becoming an ungoverned space because its state institutions are becoming shadows while real power is exercised by Hezbollah.

We shall soon see whether "cheat-and-retreat" will once again deceive the Arabs and the Western powers into refraining from meaningful action to restore the authority of the Lebanese state.

For Lebanon to regain its dignity as a nation-state, Hezbollah must become a normal political party, not a Mafia-style armed group holding the nation to ransom on behalf of foreign paymasters.

The absence of strong state structures has been singled out by many Muslim scholars as the principal reason for the historic weakness of Islamic nations and their domination by Western powers from the 19th century onward.

In 1883, Jamaleddin Assadabadi, known to Arabs as al-Afghani, gave a lecture at Sorbonne University in Paris, in which he argued that Muslim nations would remain vulnerable for as long as their state structures could not exercise authority in the face of non-state forces controlled by interest groups or foreign powers.

Saudi Arabian pundits take to social media praising Israel

Saudi pundits tweeted up a storm in defense of Israel over the last few weeks, with journalists and academics piping up with pro-Israel perspectives.

A top Saudi Arabian economist thinks once peace is achieved, Israel will become a major tourist destination for adventurous Saudis.

In a Tweet on Friday, Hamza AlSalem, assistant professor at the College of Business Administration at Prince Sultan University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, said, "I expect that if peace were made with Israel and the visa and entering and exiting process were made easy, it [Israel] would become the top tourist destination for Saudis. It is one of God's most beautiful countries in terms of its nature and development. It has combined the spirit of the beauty of the east and west, old and new civilizations. When we have made peace with Israel, exploitation of it will become nonexistent. The government will not accept inciting against it."

Al Salem received his PhD in economics from Clark University in Worcester, MA, USA, in 2005.

Saud Fozan, journalist for AlSharq.net, tweeted in late October, "I am not here to defend the Jews, i.e. the Israelis, but truth be told... show me one Israeli who killed a single Saudi, and in return I can list 1000 Saudis who murdered their own kin with explosive belts by joining Al Qaida and ISIS."

Another Saudi journalist, Mohammed Al Shaikh who writes for al-Jazirah, tweeted, "Yes, Iran is our top enemy, not Israel. My country is being targeted by the Persians. Only a fool and a real jack*ss would think our love for Palestine would come at the expense of our own nation."

Tennessee Imam Accuses ‘Zionists’ of Designs on Sacred Islamic Shrine in Mecca

A Tennessee imam delivered a conspiracy theory-laden sermon on Friday in which he warned that “Zionists” are planning to destroy Islam’s most revered site.

“Today, if we lose Jerusalem – know that it is not going to stop there,” Imam AhmedulHadi Sharif told worshippers on Friday at the Islamic Center of Tennessee in Antioch, TN. “The enemies of Allah will come and try to destroy the Kaaba.”

The Kaaba is a small shrine located at the Great Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Muslim faith holds this spot to be the most sacred on earth for its adherents.

Describing “the Zionists” as “the number one terrorists in the world,” Sharif said he nonetheless made a distinction between “the ethnic Jewish” and the “Zionist oppressors.”

“The Zionists exceeded all bounds in their oppression and tyranny,” he said, before calling for the violent elimination of Israel.

“Oh Allah, inflict Your revenge upon them,” Sharif continued. “Do not let their banners fly high, and do not let them achieve their goals. Make a deterrent example out of them. Oh Allah, defeat them, convulse them, and support us.”

Video of Sharif’s sermon was unearthed by the MEMRI media research institute, after being uploaded to YouTube.

Top US Jewish leader bargains with Qatar for lives of missing Israelis in Gaza

Malcolm Hoenlein, a prominent American Jewish leader, has been holding secret talks with Qatar in an effort to retrieve the Israeli soldiers and citizens being held in the Gaza Strip. Apparently, the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, is aware of these talks, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Hoenlein, the veteran executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, was in Qatar a few weeks ago where he met with the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Last week, Prince Mohammed, the Emir’s brother, attended Hoenlein’s daughter’s wedding in New York.

Hoenlein refused to comment for this report.

A veteran Jewish leader who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hoenlein has for years maintained covert contacts with Arab and Muslim countries and regularly meets with the heads of state of Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and other countries in the Middle East.

In addition to Qatar, he has in the past also asked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to use his influence over Hamas to try and secure the return of the bodies of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul as well as the two Israeli citizens - Avera Mengistu and Hisham Abu-Sayid - being held in the Gaza Strip.

PA opposes Jews' visits to Temple Mount

The Palestinian Arab Quds Press news agency on Sunday published a report on what it called the “break-ins” by “settlers” into the site of “the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque”.

According to the report, 417 Israelis “broke into” the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the past week and 353 “settlers broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque” between November 17 and 23, in coordination with the Israel Police.

The report also stated that 118 of the settlers belong to a group of Jewish students who were authorized to "break into" the mosque and to move around in it.

Quds Press claimed that two men from the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound every morning and evening and that groups of settlers regularly visit the compound, accompanied by police and special armed forces who provide them with full security. On November 17 and 18, the news agency claimed, there were no "break-ins" by "settlers" after the police closed the Mughrabi Bridge.

Palestinian Arab organizations claim that the entire area of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which they say also includes the Western Wall, is a holy area for Muslims only, and that the Jewish people have no religious or historical right in Jerusalem.

Hamas official: Weapons used to fight Israel will be sent to West Bank

Weapons used by Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip to fight Israel will be transferred to the West Bank, Hamas deputy chief in Gaza Khalil al-Hayya said on Monday.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other armed Palestinian groups are thought to possess very few weapons in the West Bank.

“These weapons will be moved to the West Bank to battle the occupation... We want to fight the occupation in the West Bank. It is our right to resist the occupation until it ends,” Hayya told a press conference in Gaza on Monday, without elaborating on how such a plan would be fulfilled.

Since Hamas forcibly ousted the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority from Gaza in 2007, the PA security forces have cracked down on Hamas’s military infrastructure in the West Bank and undermined its sources of funding.

Meanwhile, the IDF has also targeted Hamas’s military activities in the West Bank and arrested Hamas members allegedly planning attacks against Israel.

Hayya also emphatically rejected PA and Fatah demands that militant groups in Gaza disarm as a part of efforts to advance reconciliation and reunite the West Bank and the Strip.

Hamas and Fatah signed a deal in mid-October to restore the PA’s governing authority in Gaza.

Egyptian students protest Sinai attack, call terrorists 'infidels'

"No to terror, only prayer houses," thousands of students in North Sinai chanted in a spontaneous protest against the massacre Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of El Arish, the main city in North Sinai.

The students of Kafr al-Sheikh painted "no to terror" in Arabic.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed more than 305 people and wounded 128 more. But since 2013, Egyptian security forces have battled a stubborn Islamic State affiliate in the mainly desert region, and militants have killed hundreds of police and soldiers.

"This shows the national unity of the students who felt the terrible incident caused by the black terror, which does not distinguish between a Muslim and a Christian," said Mustafa A-Zogabi, director-general of the Education Ministry in the Sinai. Terrorism has no homeland and no religion. We are all one man in the struggle against terrorism."

Dozens of victims were burried Saturday. At the same time, residents of Al Rawdah village cleaned the remaining blood from the mosque and reopened its doors to worshippers as a message against terrorism. The mosque's carpets were removed after the security forces collected evidence, and the villagers gathered together to clean the mosque and the road leading to it from the dried-up blood of the victims.

"We found things belonging to the murdered worshipers," said one resident. "We have hoped that this Friday, we will pray again at the mosque."

Israel says it will ‘lend a hand’ in Egypt’s fight against Islamic State

Israel, according to foreign reports, has assisted Egypt throughout its fight against the Islamic State insurgency in the northern Sinai Peninsula, including intelligence sharing and even allegedly carrying out drone strikes against the terrorists.

But in the wake of the deadliest terror attack ever on Egyptian soil, Israeli officials were evasive on specific actions being taken by Israel following the devastating mosque massacre on Friday that killed over 300 people, including at least 27 children.

“The Israeli defense establishment expressed its sympathies and, as always, is willing to lend a hand to any country in order to help fight terror,” an Israeli security official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“That’s how it was in this case, and how it will also be in the future,” he added.

Asked specifically if Israel was cooperating with the Egyptians, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon told Channel 13 in an interview that “this is an issue to discuss in the cabinet.”

Israel has assisted Egypt throughout its fight with the Islamic State terrorist group in the Sinai, and its precursors. According to foreign reports, this has included conducting drone strikes in the peninsula on Islamic State targets. It has also reportedly taken the form of significant intelligence sharing.

Top Dubai authority calls for bombing Al Jazeera headquarters blaming it for Egypt mosque attack

A top Emirati security official has called for bombing the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television network after blaming the pan-Arab broadcaster for the latest mosque attack in Egypt, which claimed the lives of no less than 300 people.

Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan, who is in charge of the security arrangement in Dubai, wrote on Twitter accusing Al Jazeera of sparking the extremist attack in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula through its coverage of the region.

"The alliance must bomb the machine of terrorism ... the channel of ISIL, al-Qaeda and the al-Nusra front, Al Jazeera the terrorists," wrote Khalfan on Twitter, where he has a following of close to 2.5 million accounts.

"For how long will they [Al Jazeera] continue to tamper with the security of Egypt and the Arab world?" Khalfan asked in one of the series of tweets.

Nearly two dozen masked assailants launched a coordinated gun and bomb attack on the al-Rawdah mosque in a sleepy village when the Friday prayers were on. Though no group has openly claimed responsibility for the onslaught as yet, fingers of suspicion are being pointed at the Islamic State, or Isis, as the attackers carried a banner of the Sunni Islamist group.

Iranian wrestler told to throw match to avoid facing Israeli

An Iranian wrestler appeared to throw a match on Saturday at a wrestling tournament in Poland in order to avoid facing an Israeli opponent in the next round.

Alireza Karimi-Machiani, who was leading against Russia’s Alikhan Zhabrailov at the Senior U23 World Championship, went onto lose the match after apparently being ordered to throw in the towel rather than square off against Israeli Uri Kalashnikov.

In a video clip of the bout, a voice can be heard yelling “lose Alireza” as the Iranian pulled ahead. Karimi-Machiani’s coach then called for a short break to consult with the wrestler, who upon returning to the ring went on to lose the match decisively.

Iran does not recognize Israel and bars its athletes from competing against Israelis at international competitions.

Critics in Iran say the ban on competing against Israel has hurt the development of Iranian athletes, forcing them to forfeit or pull out of competitions in which they might face Israeli athletes. But hardliners in the Islamic Republic insist that ideology trumps sports.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Iranian Engineers Propose Using Cranes For Construction As Well As Hanging Gays (satire)

Technical specialists in Iran’s capital sent a ripple through the country’s construction industry Tuesday morning with the revelation that cranes, from which homosexuals are hanged in public, can also be used in the construction field to move heavy or large objects.

A group of engineers and architects published an article in a local Iranian technical journal this week to the effect that the physical properties and capabilities of construction cranes appear suitable for the lifting and moving of materials and equipment used in construction or renovation of tall buildings. In fact, they posited, such cranes might even find use in clearing large accumulations of debris, such as in salvage or mining operations. The article proposes allocating several of the country’s gay-hanging cranes for purposes of evaluation.

If confirmed, the notion carries the potential to save hundreds of thousands of man-hours each year, in addition to easing the process of erecting buildings. This morning (Wednesday) the Ministry of Housing announced that a team of government-appointed experts is expected to form and lead an investigation into the feasibility of adapting cranes to that secondary function.

Construction industry experts called the discovery earth-shattering. “Next you’re going to tell me a school has a function other than storing weapons to use against Jews,” blurted Hassan Saddegh, who has managed a construction company in Isfahan for twenty years. “I mean, I see the numbers work, and I think I’ve seen photos of cranes at construction sites elsewhere in the world, but I never really made the connection. This could be big.”

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