09/01 Links: 25 Years after Oslo Accords: Why Did Rabin Fall for Them?; U.S. Muslims Increasingly Harassed for Working With Jewish Groups; Until It Reforms, UNRWA Remains an Obstacle to Peace ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Efraim Karsh: Israel 25 Years after the Oslo Accords: Why Did Rabin Fall for Them?

Conclusion

It is a historical irony that it was Benjamin Netanyahu, who had vehemently opposed the Oslo process from the outset, who publicly announced Israel’s support for the creation of a Palestinian state, both in his June 2009 Bar-Ilan speech and May 2011 address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. [43] In doing so, he went further not only from Rabin’s “Palestinian entity short of a state” but also from Peres’s preferred vision of peace. For, contrary to the conventional wisdom, Peres did not consider the creation of a Palestinian state an automatic, or even desirable, consequence of the Oslo process. Rather he subscribed to Labor’s old formula of a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation, which he sought to sell to Rabin, Arafat, King Hussein, presidents Bill Clinton and Egypt’s Husni Mubarak, and Morocco’s King Hassan II, among others. [44]

It was thus Beilin who shrewdly steered his two superiors towards a path they had not planned to take despite his keen awareness of the untrustworthiness of the “peace” partner. As he put it on one occasion:

"I never had any illusions regarding Arafat. I never considered him an important world leader. I think he has committed numerous follies. He could have achieved a lot for his people many years ago, and his personal record includes almost every possible mistake … But since I have only Arafat, despite all the stupidities he utters, I must negotiate with him." [45]

This approach probably makes the Oslo process the only case in diplomatic history where a party to a peace accord was a priori amenable to its wholesale violation by its cosignatory. There have, of course, been numerous agreements where one or both parties acted in bad faith. The September 1938 Munich agreement, to give a prime example, was conceived by Hitler as a “Trojan Horse” for the destruction of Czechoslovakia, a strategy emulated by Arafat fifty-five years later with the Oslo process. But while there was little Czechoslovakia could do given its marked military inferiority and betrayal by the international community, in Oslo, it was the stronger party that allowed its far weaker counterpart to flaunt the agreement with impunity—with devastating consequences that would haunt both sides for decades to come.

Daniel Pipes: Israel 25 Years after the Oslo Accords: Why Israelis Shy from Victory

One day, imagine, a U.S. president tells an Israeli prime minister: “Palestinian extremism damages American security. We need you to end it by achieving victory over the Palestinians. Do what it takes within legal, moral, and practical boundaries.” The president continues: “Impose your will on them; induce a sense of defeat, so they give up their 70- year-old dream of eliminating Israel. Win your war.”

How might the prime minister respond? Would he seize the moment and punish the incitement and violence sponsored by the Palestinian Authority (PA)? Would he inform Hamas that every aggression would temporarily stop all shipments of water, food, medicine, and electricity? Or would he decline the offer?

The answer? After intense consultations with Israel’s security services and heated cabinet meetings, the prime minister would reply to the president with, “No thanks. We prefer things as they are.”

Really? That’s not what one expects, given how the PA and Hamas seek to eliminate the Jewish state, the persistent violence against Israelis, and how Palestinian propaganda hurts Israel’s international standing. But why? For four reasons: a widespread Israeli belief that prosperity undermines ideology; awe of Palestinian resolve; Jewish guilt, and timid security services. Each of these views can be readily refuted.

Prosperity Doesn’t End Hatred
Many Israelis assume that if Palestinians gain sufficiently from the economic, medical, legal, and other benefits that Zionism brings them, they will relent and accept the Jewish presence. Based on a Marxist assumption that money matters more than ideas, this outlook holds that fine schools, late-model cars, and handsome apartments are the antidote to Palestinian nationalist dreams. Like Atlantans, prosperous Palestinians will be too busy to hate.

Haaretz: U.S. Muslims Increasingly Harassed for Working With Jewish Groups, Activists Say

Zainab Chaudry got pushback as soon as the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom began circulating a flyer about its upcoming conference.

She was slated to give a workshop on how to translate passion for social justice into activism. But then, she says, an onslaught of emails, calls and social media messages arrived, telling her the conference’s funders are Zionist organizations supporting settlement construction in the West Bank.

Chaudry’s “trusted sources” warned her about the Charles H. Revson Foundation, which has supported SoSS for the past few years. But they were wrong. The Revson Foundation does not fund anything like building in the West Bank. In fact, it funds myriad groups that do the opposite, working to strengthen Jewish-Muslim relations, including between Palestinians and Israelis.

The Maryland spokeswoman and director of outreach for the Council on American-Islamic Relations – which describes itself as America’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization – Chaudry withdrew from the SoSS conference set for November. She posted on Facebook on August 15: “Faith-washing apartheid and sanitizing oppression to make the oppressor appear more like the oppressed is a disservice to this critical work. I want no part of it.”

She told Haaretz that while she supports the idea of Muslim-Jewish dialogue, she won’t participate in organizations if "they are santiizing the Israeli agenda against Palestinians" and "if they accept funding from sources that do not actively resist the occupation and they bill themselves as apolitical then that's a red flag.”

SoSS organizers wanted to keep her withdrawal and statements out of the news. A prominent Sisterhood supporter contacted this reporter, asking me not to damage “the fragile field” by writing about it.

But Chaudry’s position and statement are not isolated ones. Those in the field say that pressure is increasing on Muslims who engage in Muslim-Jewish relations, and that sentiments like Chaudry’s are a growing obstacle for those committed to building connections between the two communities in the United States. (h/t Zvi)

After defunding UNRWA, US said seeking to limit others’ aid to it, then close it

A day after the US announced it will not give any further funding to UNWRA, the UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees, Israeli officials said the Trump Administration has made clear to them that it intends to see UNRWA closed down altogether and all its functions taken over by other agencies.

The US will not prevent the Gulf states, Arab nations, and others from providing emergency funding to keep UNRWA (the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) functioning this year, Israel’s Hadashot TV news reported on Saturday, quoting senior Israeli diplomatic sources. But it will condition its consent to further funding by US allies in the Arab world on a reevaluation of UNRWA’s role and a redefinition of who the agency defines as a Palestinian refugee. Ultimately the TV report said, the US goal is to “close down UNRWA altogether.”

The US, which is shortly set to issue a report on the whole Palestinian refugee issue, in which it will reportedly state that there are only some 500,000 Palestinian refugees — as opposed to the 5 million-plus claimed by UNRWA — considers that there are only some 20,000 genuine Palestinian refugees outside the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the TV report also said.

It said the US will now look for other organizations to take on the work done by UNRWA, in education, medical assistance, food aid, and more — with Palestinian recipients acknowledged to be in need of aid, but not considered to be refugees.

To this end, the TV report said, the Trump Administration has already asked King Abdullah of Jordan to take over responsibility for UNRWA’s educational network in Jordan — but has been rebuffed. Similarly, it wants Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority to take responsibility for UNRWA schools in the West Bank and Gaza — but this idea is a non-starter at present, with the PA boycotting the Trump Administration.

Israel welcomes end of US funding for UN Palestinian refugee agency

Israel welcomed Saturday a US decision to end funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), accusing the organization which supports some 5 million Palestinians of perpetuating the Middle East conflict.

“Israel supports the US move,” an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on condition of anonymity.

“Consolidating the refugee status of Palestinians is one of the problems that perpetuates the conflict.”

The Trump administration announced Friday it is cutting nearly $300 million in planned funding for the UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees, and that it would no longer fund the agency after decades of support. Instead, it said it would seek other channels by which to aid the Palestinians.

The administration castigated the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) for failed practices, and indicated that it rejected the criteria by which UNRWA defines Palestinian refugees, whereby the UN agency confers refugee status not only on original refugees but on their millions of descendants.

The State Department said in a written statement that the United States “will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation.”

TIP CEO: Until It Reforms, UNRWA Remains an Obstacle to Peace

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) must undergo significant reform to advance the chances of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Joshua S. Block, CEO and President of The Israel Project, wrote in an op-ed published by The Algemeiner on Tuesday.

“This issue is not a matter of left or right. Advancing peace, reconciliation, and coexistence is a moral imperative, not a political matter. Those who want to see a lasting settlement between Israelis and Palestinians — particularly my fellow Democrats and progressives — should embrace those efforts,” Block argued.

With the ‘Right to Return’ UNRWA “has created a mentality of perpetual victimhood” among the Palestinian population, which “is a major impediment to peace,” Block charged. UNRWA is the only UN refugee agency dedicated to a single group of people and the number of registered refugees has been inflated by the organization “to the point of absurdity.”

Based on UNRWA’s criteria, every Palestinian born since the Arab-Israeli war of 1947-1949 is a refugee, including Palestinians with other nationalities and those who never left Arab-Palestinian territory, but relocated to the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. This number has now reached 5 million.

“In UNRWA’s 70 years of existence, the agency has made no notable political advancements towards a better future for the peoples of the region, Arab or Jewish, despite adopting an inherently political agenda,” Block said.

Palestinians slam ending of US aid to UNRWA as a ‘flagrant assault’ against them

A spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas assailed the US for announcing Friday that it will end all funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, calling the move a “flagrant assault” against all Palestinians.

“The consecutive American decisions represent a flagrant assault against the Palestinian people and a defiance of UN resolutions,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh told the Reuters news agency late Friday, alluding to a series of US moves opposed by the Palestinians including the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution,” he added.

His remarks came shortly after the Trump administration announced it is cutting nearly $300 million in planned funding for the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which it castigated for failed practices, and will no longer fund the agency at all.

The US also indicated that it rejected the criteria by which UNRWA defines Palestinian refugees, whereby the UN agency confers refugee status not only on original refugees but on their millions of descendants.

Saeb Erekat, the main Palestinian negotiator in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, also slammed the US over the move and called on other countries to do likewise.

“The United States of America has no right to support and bless theft of Palestinian lands and illegitimate Israeli colonialism on Palestinian land. It has no right to support and bless the theft of Jerusalem and its annexation to Israel, and does not have the right to act according to the whims of Sheldon Adelson and Benjamin Netanyahu,” he said referring to the American casino magnate, in a statement published on the official PA news site Wafa.

“The American administration’s decisions on Jerusalem, refugees and settlements embody annihilation of international law and security and stability in the region. They are gifts for radical forces and terrorism in the region,” Erekat added.

EU urges US to reconsider its defunding of UNRWA, but also calls for reform

The European Union on Saturday said the US decision to end decades of funding to the UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees and their descendants was “regrettable,” but vowed to continuing fund the agency. “The regrettable decision of the US to no longer be part of this international and multilateral effort leaves a substantial gap and we hope that the US can reconsider their decision,” it said in a statement.

It also urged UNRWA to reform its operations, however, and “engage in a transformative process.” It did not elaborate on what this process might involve.

EU Foreign Ministers and their international and regional partners, it said in the statement, would now hold discussions on “how to ensure sustainable, continued and effective assistance to the Palestinians, including through UNRWA, at this difficult juncture.”

At the same time, the EU called for ongoing reform at UNRWA, the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. “UNRWA has recently expanded its donor base and taken internal management measures to increase efficiencies and reduce costs,” the statement said. “UNRWA should pursue these reforms and further engage in a transformative process. The EU is committed to continue discussing these matters with UNRWA so as to secure the continuation and sustainability of the agency’s work which is vital for stability and security in the region.”

The EU noted that UNRWA “runs schools for over 500,000 Palestine refugee children,” and other essential services. While the US was the biggest single donor to UNRWA, the statement noted that “the EU and its Member States are collectively the largest contributors to UNRWA’s budget.”

UNRWA laments US decision to cut aid, pushes back against criticism

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said it was disappointed and surprised by the US decision on Friday to stop financially supporting it, while also rejecting criticism its operations are “inherently flawed.”

The State Department said earlier it would end all aid to UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) due to its “unsustainable” structure and fiscal outlays. Noting the United States has been the largest donor to UNRWA, it also chided other countries for not providing a larger share of the agency’s costs.

In response to the US move, UNRWA stressed its “deep regret and disappointment” and expressed surprise in light of understandings it reached with the US in December 2017 on future funding.

“We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that UNRWA’s schools, health centers, and emergency assistance programs are ‘irredeemably flawed,'” said spokesman Chris Gunness in a statement, noting the plaudits UNRWA has received for its work from other countries and international organizations.

He said the agency would now move forward with “even greater determination and engagement” to raise funds from current and new donor states to make up for the US defunding.

“We will continue to provide high quality services and assistance to over 5.4 [million] Palestine refugees in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria,” he said.

While lamenting the Trump administration’s decision, Gunness noted the “much valued contribution” to UNRWA’s activities the US has made as its “largest and most generous donor.”

Kerry reveals his lost faith in PM, how Trump choice of envoy influenced UN vote

Netanyahu’s tense relationship with Obama was exacerbated in the final days of the administration after the US opted not to veto Resolution 2334, giving the green light for the first Security Council resolution condemning settlements since 1979.

The Israeli government reacted fiercely, withdrawing ambassadors from countries that sponsored the resplution and threatening retribution. Netanyahu subsequently accused the Obama administration of secretly formulating the “despicable anti-Israeli resolution” with the Palestinians.

“We all understood the political firestorm we would face if we didn’t veto the resolution,” Kerry writes. “There were some who argued for sucking it up because it wasn’t worth the political price. President Obama wasn’t willing to make a decision that he thought was counter to US interests simply because of the politics.”

Kerry claims that the announcement by Donald Trump, then president-elect, that he would appoint David Friedman as ambassador to Israel influenced the decision not to veto, as did Israel’s advancement of a bill that would allow the state to legalize West Bank outposts.

“President-elect Trump had announced he was going to appoint an ambassador to Israel who was a hard-core proponent of the settlements and an avowed opponent of the two-state solution,” the former secretary writes. “At the same time, the Israelis had shown themselves to be completely disdainful of our policy by starting a process of formally legalizing outposts… We could not defend in the UN Israeli actions that amounted to a massive and unprecedented acceleration of the settlement enterprise.”

Mich. Dem Gubernatorial Candidate Declines to Oppose Israel Boycotts

Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer is coming under scrutiny for declining to take a stance on boycotts of Israel and congressional legislation aimed at cutting funding to groups backing such efforts, raising further questions about her support for Israel in light of her running mate's earlier support for the Hamas terrorist group and harsh criticism of Israel's supporters.

During a town hall event with constituents earlier this week, Whitmer avoided answering questions about boycotts of Israel and her stance on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS, an anti-Israel effort aimed at isolating the Jewish state and choking its economy.

Asked where she stands with respect to the BDS movement, Whitmer declined to take a stance, instead pivoting her remarks toward efforts to protect free speech. A cornerstone of BDS supporters' efforts to counter the pro-Israel community has focused on spinning these boycotts as a free speech matter.

Whitmer's reluctance to take a stand on BDS has raised concerns among some in the pro-Israel community, which has been fighting against a wave of far-left Democratic candidates who have openly criticized the Jewish state and opposed the United States' close alliance with Israel.

Questions surrounding Whitmer's stance on key pro-Israel issues have been compounded by 2009 tweets from her running mate, Garlin Gilchrist, supporting Hamas and belittling those who kiss "Israel's ass."

"I recognize the fundamental rights are that we have the right to speak," Whitmer said in response to the BDS question, according to a video of the event obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. "No one gets to infringe on those rights on my watch."

New Book Examines the World of Female and Child Palestinian Bombers

The number of Palestinian female suicide bombers are many.

There was Muneira, who planned to blow herself up at a hospital near Tel Aviv. There was Jemilla, who escorted a young boy to his suicide bombing at a market. And there was Sabiha, who prepared explosives and trained other women to do the same.

With courage and compassion, Anat Berko, a criminologist and member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of Israel’s Knesset, interviewed them all.

Their stories, and the insights they provide into the motives and lives of female suicide bombers, fill the pages of The Smarter Bomb: Women and Children as Suicide Bombers, newly released in paperback. Though first published in 2012, the release of a new edition underscores the difficult, ongoing challenges that suicide bombers pose, and the continued efforts to understand the relatively new phenomenon of women suicide bombers and the role of women in violent jihad.

Berko spent 15 years visiting Palestinian women in Israeli jails, gradually developing relationships that, if they could not be described as “friendships,” were built on mutual trust and an unexpected respect. What she found, and what her readers discover through her, are women who seem never to have fully understood the weight of their own actions, puzzlingly detached from the reality of the murders they took part in — or had hoped to.

For example, she asked a woman she calls “Ayisha” if she “felt anything for her potential Israeli victims.”

“I saw the blood of Palestinians and I didn’t think about my mother or my family,” Ayisha replied, “so how could I think about Israelis I didn’t know?”

Dozens of Palestinians Hurt in Anti-Israel Riots in Gaza, West Bank

Israeli security forces wounded dozens of Palestinians taking part in riots in the West Bank and along the Gaza Strip border on Friday, witnesses and medical officials said.

At the West Bank village of Ras Karkar, hundreds of Palestinians threw stones at troops, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, injuring at least a dozen people.

Israeli authorities had no immediate comment.

In Islamist Hamas-controlled Gaza, thousands of Palestinian massed near the border fence as part of weekly demonstrations launched at the end of March.

Gaza medics said 180 Palestinians were wounded, a third of them from live fire.

The Israeli army said troops opened fire to disperse Palestinians who rolled burning tires at the fence, posing a breach threat, and, in one case, threw a grenade across it.

POOF HE’S GONE! MSNBC and ABC crop out Louis Farrakhan from Aretha Franklin funeral photo

By now you’ve probably seen this photo from Aretha Franklin’s funeral with Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton…

Liberals: Radical hate preacher Louis Farrakhan isn't part of the Democratic party!

Also: Farrakhan sits next to Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, & Bill Clinton. pic.twitter.com/hkludPuGhp
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) August 31, 2018

…or, maybe you haven’t if you get your news from MSNBC:

Rev. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and fmr. President Bill Clinton attend Aretha Franklin's funeral celebration. https://t.co/MTlJAs1ET2 pic.twitter.com/hI7Z4GtvnV
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 31, 2018

Jeremy Corbyn's leadership on anti-Semitism is a 'shambles', claims Lord Blunkett as he calls for 'seismic change' in the Labour Party

Lord Blunkett has attacked Jeremy Corbyn's leadership on anti-Semitism as a 'shambles'.

The former home secretary, who as David Blunkett was a key figure in Tony Blair's New Labour government, said Frank Field's resignation should act as a 'catalyst for seismic change' in the party.

Without it, Labour risked falling into 'decline and irrelevance', 71-year-old Lord Blunkett warned in an article for the Daily Telegraph.

The devastating intervention from the Labour grandee also warned that Mr Corbyn's 'so-called 'new style of politics' is anything but'.

'Labour has to put its own house in order as decisively and speedily as possible,' Lord Blunkett said.

'What matters for the health of our democracy and the continuity of the existence of the Labour Party, of which I have been a member for 55 years, are the actions taken and the quality of leadership and standing of Jeremy Corbyn and his colleagues over the next seven days.

'Mobilising internally and ensuring that rational voices within the powerful trade unions are heard could even now turn things around – specifically at the National Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday, which will be critical to sorting out the shambles which has been the leadership's response to deep-seated concerns over anti-Semitism.'

.@MaajidNawaz delivers a damning explanation as to why he believes the Labour Party can now be considered institutionally racist. pic.twitter.com/tqj02WK4xO
— LBC (@LBC) September 1, 2018

Some of the Worst Islamist Hate Preachers Gather at ISNA’s Houston Conference

From August 31 to September 3, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) will host its 55th Annual Convention in Houston, Texas. Although ISNA is one of the largest Muslim advocacy groups in the United States, the organization has a history of inviting extremist speakers to address its crowds. This year’s conference fits ISNA’s usual pattern. Titled “In God We Trust,” the convention once again features speakers with long histories of inciting hatred against Jews, women, homosexuals, and other minorities.

One Muslim commentator noticeably missing, however, is Wajahat Ali, a prominent Muslim-American attorney and journalist. His invitation to the ISNA conference was revoked after he took part in the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative, a program that “invites North American Muslims to explore how Jews understand Judaism, Israel and Jewish peoplehood.”

According to Ali, his involvement with this interfaith initiative, as well as an article he wrote about his conversations with Israelis, led to his expulsion.

While Ali appears beyond the pale for ISNA and its supporters, some of America’s most extreme Islamist clerics and activists have been judged to be fine additions. Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum, has put together a small dossier of the worst of these speakers.

Among them is Indonesian imam Shamsi Ali, who has received international praise for his interfaith work. Ali has styled himself as an interfaith advocate in the US — all the while posting very different views, written in Indonesian, on his social media accounts.

U. of Michigan Prof Juan Cole's Muhammad Biography Strains Credulity

If this interview (not to mention the title) is any indication, University of Michigan professor Juan Cole's new book, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires, is an exercise in hagiography, not scholarship. A sampling of his commentary includes such whoppers as "Muhammad saw himself as an ally of the West," "Peace-making and turning the other cheek are very important themes in the Qur'an," and "Christians have fought a lot of wars and even been involved in genocide, but we all also know about the Quakers and Mennonites. Only a few authors have written on the history of peace movements in Islam."

Israeli festival organizers accuse Lana Del Ray of publicity stunt in nixed gig

Israeli organizers of a festival in which American singer Lana Del Rey had been slated to perform — and from which she abruptly pulled out at the last minute — have blasted her decision as a public relations stunt.

Organizers of next week’s Meteor Festival in the Galilee told Hadashot TV news Del Ray had been the one to contact the festival expressing an interest in performing, only to suddenly cancel her gig at the last minute.

Del Ray had explained the cancellation by saying she had wanted to play both in Israel and in the Palestinian territories, but this proved impossible. Organizers said they had been unaware of any plans for a performance to Palestinians.

“It’s important for me to perform in both Palestine and Israel and treat all my fans equally,” Del Rey wrote on Twitter.

“Unfortunately, it hasn’t been possible to line up both visits with such a short notice and therefore I’m postponing my appearance at the Meteor Festival until a time when I can schedule visits for both my Israeli and Palestinian fans, as well as hopefully other countries in the region.”

Why Did Nearly 40 Percent of Norwegians Compare Israelis to Nazis?

Not long ago, a poll taken in Norway showed that 38 percent of Norwegians actually believe that Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated Jews. Around the same time, the Oslo municipality published a study on harassment of children in Oslo high schools. It found that one-third of Jewish high school students were harassed verbally or physically at least twice a month. In any culture, the tone comes from the top — and Norway’s festering zeitgeist of antisemitism proves this point.

A few weeks ago, former Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, unleashed another one of his hate-filled salvos against the Jewish state. The Norwegian Labor Party opposition leader asserted that decisions taken in Israel in recent months make the country an apartheid state. Støre insisted that there are people who are treated unequally in Israel, which is contrary to democracy. Still, the veteran anti-Israel hate-monger falsely insisted that his party is not only a friend of the Palestinians, but also of Israel.

Over the years, Støre’s statements about Israel confirm that he is an astute inciter. He delivered his latest slander at the annual gathering of the party’s youth movement, AUF, on the island of Utøya. Indeed, anti-Israel incitement is traditionally part of the youth movement’s retreat. In this way, the Labor Party ensures that the next generation of Norwegian Social Democrat leaders will also be Israel haters. The annual AUF Utøya meetings became internationally known when Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik murdered 69 participants there in July 2011.

Ivar Fjeld was a local AUF leader when he participated in the Utøya camps in 1986 and 1987. Years later, when he became a Christian activist, he exposed what took place in those AUF camps. Fjeld said that, in his time, there were Palestinian participants who used drugs and shared them with Norwegian youngsters. Complaints to the AUF leadership did not lead to any action at the conference.

Poland computes it lost over 5 million people, $54 billion under Nazi occupation

A parliamentary commission in Poland reported Friday that the country lost more than 5 million citizens and over $54 billion dollars (46.6 billion euros) worth of assets under its Nazi German occupation during World War II.

The commission announced the numbers as part of the current Polish government’s declared intent to seek damages from Germany. It said the figures were preliminary estimates.

The leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, argues that as the first country the Nazis attacked in 1939, Poland also was the first to put up resistance and suffered the greatest losses.

Observers say the talk of pursuing damages from Germany is addressed largely to elderly Polish voters. Poland has not made an official appeal, and Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said earlier this year that the issue was not weighing on Warsaw’s good neighborly relations with Berlin.

Poland spent decades under Soviet domination after the war and wasn’t able to seek damages independently. However, Germany has made payments to Polish survivors of Nazi atrocities.

The preliminary calculations done for the commission by university experts put the number of Polish citizens killed from 1939 to 1945 at 5.1 million, including 90 percent of the Jewish population that numbered about 3.5 million before the war.

Poland asks US for files on deported ex-Nazi guard

Poland has asked the US to share all the documents gathered on a deported former Nazi concentration camp guard in the hope they may provide grounds for charging the 95-year-old with World War II-era crimes, a prosecutor said Friday.

Jakiw Palij, an ethnic Ukrainian, was deported to Germany on August 21 for having lied and concealed his Nazi wartime past to enter the US after the war. He was stripped of his US citizenship in 2003.

Palij is of interest to Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, which is investigating the Trawniki concentration camp that was run by occupying Germans in Poland where he trained and served as a guard in 1943. The state institute’s task is to investigate and prosecute wartime crimes.

Prosecutor Jacek Nowakowski said the US files may help “fill in the gaps” in documents held by the institute regarding Palij, and could provide information that could lead to charges against Palij.

Nowakowski, of the institute’s Lublin office in the southeast region where the Trawniki camp was, said the US files may help establish whether Palij took part in the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.

TV show examines boat drowning that halted Nazi nuke program

A new National Geographic program looks into a sunken boat in Norway that the Nazis used to transport barrels of heavy water for their secret nuclear weapons program.

The 170-foot ferry SF Hydro was blown up by Norwegian resistance fighters in 1944 on Winston Churchill’s orders.

Scientists working with the program “Drain the Oceans” used advanced sonar technology to find out what’s inside the drowned ship.

The team discovered at least 18 barrels of heavy water — a key ingredient in making nuclear weapons — on board the sunken ferry at the bottom of Lake Tinn, 100 miles outside Oslo.

Historians credit the sinking of the Hydro for effectively ending the Nazis’ nuclear weapons program.

“After the war, those involved in the German nuclear program said that the loss of the heavy water was absolutely decisive,” naval historian Professor Eric Grove told the Telegraph. “It stopped their reactor program in its tracks.”

Israel’s ‘Mizrahi revolution’ enters a new stage

Bennett’s Mizrahi revolution has won support from the general population, even though many people still don’t understand what is being taught and what the actual innovation might be.

“It sounds like an excellent idea,” the artist Lilach Ben Yaakov of Kiryat Tivon told Al-Monitor. The mother of four children, two of them in high school, Ben Yaakov further stated, “Overall, I’d be glad if they took this opportunity to teach the history and heritage of Eastern Europe and the Arab states from other perspectives as well, such as culture, the arts, the family and demographic shifts. They should move away from wars and conquests and incorporate materials that are both broad and deep.”

In this, Ben Yaakov expresses the same confusion and lack of understanding about the content as do teachers in the education system, who cannot criticize the system at large. Still, Bennett deserves some latitude. After all, he is trying to introduce deep changes to a vast system where it is difficult to make any change at all, particularly when the content being changed has had 70 years to take root. It is unreasonable to approach these changes as organic from the outset. It could take years to implement them, just as it does to change any other historical process.

When looking at the big picture, it still seems as if there are glaring holes and that most of them are structural. It looks like it will take years before this new content is fully integrated and accepted as a natural and sought-after part of the curriculum, rather than something imposed upon it from the outside. What is certain, however, is that the banner has been raised. The struggle for cultural justice and the inclusion of Mizrahim has just scored a major victory, even if it still has a long way to go. (h/t Zvi)

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