[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 02/02 Links Pt1: Palestinian students honor terrorist Dalal Mughrabi who murdered 37

From Ian:

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WP Editorial: Sharing the blame for Gaza's tragic cycle

International donors — above all, the Arab states — have meanwhile held back the reconstruction funding they pledged. The result was that the U.N. refu­gee relief agency in Gaza was forced to suspend payments to families last week. Its director, Robert Turner, issued a statement saying that "people are desperate and the international community cannot even provide the bare minimum — for example a repaired home in winter — let alone a lifting of the blockade, access to markets or freedom of movement."
U.N. officials, like much of the rest of the world, are quick to blame Israel for this horrific situation, even though Egypt's border "blockade" is tighter. It's certainly striking that while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to consider the danger of Iran so serious that it justifies his violation of diplomatic protocol to address a joint meeting of Congress, he appears to have no policy for Gaza — the source of the most lethal attacks on Israelis in recent years.
Israel, however, can hardly be expected to facilitate Hamas's relentless preparations for more war, to which concrete and other reconstruction materials have been diverted in the past. An Israeli official told Mr. Booth that Gazan workshops were "assembling new rockets as fast as they can" and that the strip's militias would be fully rearmed and trained within months. Sadly, that is likely to be the next time the world pays heed to Gaza — when war with Israel again erupts.

David Singer: Obama Should Realize That Israel Alone Must Determine Where Its Secure, Recognized & Defensible Borders Are To Be Located

The furore engendered by House Speaker John Boehner inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress on March 3 – supposedly in breach of Presidential protocol – marks the first step in Congress flexing its muscles to persuade President Obama to re-think his concerted attempts to undermine the written commitments made by President Bush to Israel's then prime minister Ariel Sharon in his letter dated 14 April 2004 – as overwhelmingly endorsed by the House of Representatives 407:9 on 23 June 2004 and the Senate 95:3 the next day ("American Written Commitments")
Those 2004 American Written Commitments to Israel have become even more critical in 2015 – as a completely changed political environment sees America
1. leading negotiations with Iran on curbing Iran's nuclear program
2. heading a coalition of 62 States seeking to degrade and destroy Islamic State
3. forming part of the London 11 countries' backing the unsuccessful bid to oust Assad from power in Syria
4. witnessing the shredding of the 2003 Bush Roadmap calling for the creation of a second Arab State in former Palestine – in addition to Jordan – as PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas chooses instead to travel the road leading to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court

Iran may already have its bomb, but it is not nuclear

Thanks to events over the past weeks, Yemen's Houthi rebels, aligned with Iran and supplied and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, have seized the Red Sea port of Hodeida, a mere 30 kilometers from Djibouti. For the first time Saudi Arabia's archrival now has the ability to control the Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. Iran now is as close as it has ever been to controlling the strategic link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. Through it, three million barrels of oil pass daily.
Straits in the Middle East are more than geographical features. They are nothing less than lifelines for the region's countries. The blocking of the Straits of Tiran by Egypt triggered the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Iran has in the past threatened to block the Straits of Hormuz if it was attacked by the West. The access to the Red Sea by Iran's allies makes the threat of an effective use of sanctions against Iran smaller. Iran is poised to push back the West in the nuclear negotiations.
President Obama's strategy of focusing on Iran's nuclear ambitions ignores Tehran's overall objective of asserting itself as the regional superpower. Failure to deal with the threat of an Iranian takeover of Yemen has now contributed to vastly increasing the cards that the Iranian regime can play. Further complacency will make it even more difficult to tackle this ever-increasing threat to regional and global stability.

Palestinian students admire terrorist Dalal Mughrabi who lead killing of 37

Dalal Mughrabi, the terrorist who led the most lethal attack against Israel, in which 37 people were murdered in 1978, was born in January and her date of birth has been celebrated and honorably noted by Abbas' Fatah movement and others.
Awdah TV, whose General Supervisor is Fatah's spokesman Ahmad Assaf, broadcast at length from a party celebrating the terrorist's birthday. Fatah's logo was displayed on stage.
"Martyr Dalal Mughrabi raised the Palestinian flag from the heart of occupied Palestine," stated the Awdah reporter. "On her birthday we renew the promise to her and its fulfillment. Martyr Dalal Mughrabi will remain a path for the next generations to follow." [Fatah-run Awdah TV and Awdah TV Facebook, Jan. 3, 2015]

Fatah TV broadcasts video celebrating terrorist Dalal Mughrabi on her birthday




Fatah event honors terrorist killer and calls Israel "the poison in the snake's fangs"

The video shows a poster with a large photo of terrorist Bassel Arif and the Fatah logo.
Text on the poster: "The Palestinian National Liberation Movement - Fatah and its military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Palestine. To the heroic prisoner Bassel Arif: Patience, brother; do not despair; prison has no meaning."
Folk singer: "I'm Palestinian, and the neighborhood is my neighborhood. The wounds on my heart are still open. If Israel is the poison in the snake's fangs, my young men will pull out the snake's fangs... The tears appeared and moistened my eyes. We have taught the world a lesson in honor, when our heroic prisoner, our hero, Bassel, on the land of his people, made the song of heroism heard with the sound of our bullets (i.e., shooting and killing of an Israeli civilian)."
[Official PA TV, Jan. 9, 2015]
Note: Bassel Arif – Palestinian police officer who carried out a shooting attack near the Israeli town of Ofra on May 28, 2002, killing Israeli citizen Albert Malul and injuring one other person. He is serving two life sentences.

Hamas, not Israel, is responsible for suffering in Gaza

Oregonian guest columnists Ned Rosch and Maxine Fookson write a plaintive cry on behalf of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, describing Gazans heart-wrenching situation, suffering the consequence of this past summer's Hamas-Israel conflict — the third since 2009. They blame Israel for the terrible situation of these Palestinians. But Israel is no more to blame for the suffering of the Gazans than the Allies were to blame for the terrible suffering of civilians in Nazi Germany as they bombed German cities, or for the suffering of Serbian civilians when the United States bombed Serbia to stop the attempted genocide in Bosnia.
Hamas kidnapped three Israeli teens this summer and then began firing waves of missiles into Israel, targeting Israeli civilians. In the week after the teens' murdered bodies were found, Hamas fired 180 missiles at Israeli towns and cities, including Tel Aviv, and attempted twice to invade Israel through tunnels it built into Israel. For the third time in six years, Israel was forced to protect its citizens by force.
Hamas' elected term ended five years ago. The U.S., European Union and Japan all recognize it as a terrorist organization. Jordan bans its leaders. Its charter calls for the murder of Jews everywhere and the "obliteration" of Israel through "jihad."

Top House leaders urge Kerry to cut PA funding

Leaders from both parties on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee urged Secretary of State John Kerry to suspend funding to the Palestinian Authority until it withdraws from the International Criminal Court.
"The United States should not support direct economic assistance to the PA until it demonstrates a meaningful reversal of this destructive course and proves it can be a willing partner for peace," said the letter sent January 22 and relayed to reporters late last week.
The letter, signed by the top Republicans and Democrats on the committee and each of its subcommittees, stopped short of a threat to take congressional action.
The only subcommittee leader not to sign was Californian Representative Karen Bass, the top Democrat on the Africa subcommittee.

V15 bid to unseat Netanyahu linked to US-based 'OneVoice'

Beyond Gitzin's comments, it appears the connection between OneVoice and V15 is not coincidental. In the organization's global report for 2014, former Labor MKs Colette Avital and Braverman were listed as members on its Honorary Board of Advisers.
Israel Hayom has learned, meanwhile, that OneVoice has signed a form declaring it was not involved in political activity. The form is a procedural requirement for foundations seeking eligibility for donation tax exemptions from the American tax authorities. According to documents from the American Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations, received by Israel Hayom, OneVoice answered "no" when asked if it participates directly or indirectly on behalf of or against political candidates running for a public office. The goal of the V15 campaign, however, as stated, is the removal of Netanyahu from the prime minister's office and the replacement of his government.
OneVoice said in response that the matter was pending inquiry with the American organization, and that it would issue a response soon.

'OneVoice' Used US Grant to Promote 'Non-Violent Resistance'

American taxpayers' money helped fund a pro-Palestinian Authority group to encourage "non-violent resistance to end the occupation," according to material gleaned from the website OneVoiceMovement website, which is involved in the "V15″ campaign against Prime Minister Netanyahu, as reported here.
"OneVoicePalestine" received grants from the U.S. State Dept. until last November, weeks after most political observers said it was only a matter of time before the Netanyahu coalition would collapse and new elections would be held.
The hammer fell in December, and two months before, OneVoicePalestine (OVP) launched "The Land is Ours" campaign last September 25 to promote the stated American policy of a "two-state solution" and the un-stated policy of deciding the borders for a Palestinian Authority country.
The OneVoice site, in a blurb on the video it produced, stated its aim is to "encourage young Palestinians to participate in non-violent resistance to end the occupation, realize the two-state solution, and establish an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital."

V15 group issues incitement complaint against Likud

V15 issued the complaint, claiming that in a video clip shown by the Likud at the press conference, the group was portrayed as supporting terror.
"The Likud video proves that it has become a branch of the Lehava organization," V15 stated, referencing the extremist right-wing anti-assimilation group.
The group added that its activists were "Israelis who serve in the army, do reserve duty, pay taxes and work for a better future for Israel."
"This incitement does not scare us and it will not block our path to victory."

Will Obama Give In to Iran? He Already Has.

But even more to the point is the fact that, as President Obama's comments about the negotiations have made clear, the goal is not so much to end the nuclear threat as it is to work toward a sort of reconciliation with Tehran without requiring it to halt their support for terrorist groups and cease working toward production of ballistic missiles, let alone give up their nuclear ambitions. Though the president wants to help Iran "get right with the world," what his efforts are really doing is to advance their efforts toward regional hegemony. This position has influenced the U.S. to form an informal alliance with Iran in Iraq and Syria and frightened and alienated moderate Arab nations as well as the Israelis.
So far from being "nonsense," Netanyahu's concerns about the president's diplomatic goals are very much to the point in the debate about sanctions. With the president showing no sign that he will ever admit that the negotiations have failed, the need to toughen the American position has now become imperative. Democrats might be forgiven for rallying around their leader when they perceive he is under attack. But those who care about nuclear proliferation and a potentially genocidal Iranian threat to both Israel and the West need to forget about protocol and start asking tough questions about what kind of a deal the administration is trying to conclude. Unless something drastic happens to change the American position, the problem isn't that Obama might adopt a position that will let Iran become a nuclear threshold state. It's that he has already done so.

McCain: Relations With Israel 'the Worst I've Ever Seen'

Republican Senator John McCain on Sunday said that the relationship between the United States and Israel is "the worst that I've ever seen in my lifetime".
Speaking to CNN's "State of the Union" program, McCain admitted that President Barack Obama is not the only one to blame for the tensions, but also said that Obama has "unrealistic expectations" of Israel.
The relationship between Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is "poor, as we know", said McCain, adding, "And it's the worst that I've ever seen in my lifetime. And that in itself is a tragedy because it's the only functioning democracy in the entire Middle East."
Asked why he thought the relationship is the worst he's seen, the Arizona Senator replied, "I think because the president had very unrealistic expectations about the degree of cooperation that he would get from Israel, particularly, on the Palestinian issue, as well as the nuclear issue with Iran."

Giuliani: Perfect Time for Netanyahu to Address Congress

Speaking to Channel 1 News, Giuliani, who is currently visiting Israel, noted that Netanyahu has addressed Congress before and added that it makes sense for him to do so again now, when Congress is discussing a possible deal with Iran over its nuclear program.
"The fact is the Prime Minister has addressed Congress before. He's been invited to address Congress before," Giuliani said. "What you should know is that right now Congress is holding hearings on Iran, so this would be the perfect time to ask him to come and speak, testify, whatever."
"I think this is more their schedule than his schedule," he added.
"In my own country, many people in my country support your Prime Minister's position. I do," Giuliani continued. "So does just about every member of my party which is the majority party in the Senate and the House, so my government is not just the President. It's also the House of Representatives which is Republican, the Senate which is Republican, and a majority of members in both those houses support your Prime Minister's position."

'UN peacekeepers failing to stop weapons smuggling to Lebanon'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused United Nations peacekeepers on Sunday of failing to enforce a resolution barring Hezbollah terrorists from smuggling weapons into Lebanon.
In a phone call with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Netanyahu blamed Iran, Hezbollah's main sponsor, for Wednesday's flare-up that killed two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish peacekeeper and wounded seven other Israelis in the worst fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
Netanyahu said the resolution ending that 34-day conflict was "not being implemented," and that the peacekeepers, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, "aren't reporting on weapons smuggling into southern Lebanon."
The Israeli soldiers and Spanish peacekeeper died when Hezbollah terrorists fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli vehicles on the border, and Israel responded with artillery shells and an air strike.
Netanyahu expressed sorrow for the U.N. soldier's death and said he had agreed with Spain to jointly investigate the circumstances, a statement from Netanyahu's office said.

CiF Watch prompts correction to Telegraph claim that Shebaa Farms is in Lebanon

A report in The Telegraph on the Hezbollah attack on Wednesday which killed two Israeli soldiers ('Israel strikes target in Lebanon', Jan. 28th) included the following passage:
However, though Hezbollah claims that Shebaa Farms (an area on the Western slopes of Mount Hermon in the Golan which Israel captured from Syria in 1967) is "an area of south Lebanon", to justify its continued existence, the UN confirmed that Israel withdrew entirely from southern Lebanon in 2000 and, thus, that Shebaa Farms is not part of Lebanon.
Following our communication with Telegraph editors, they amended the passage.

Burned to Death by Arabs in Revenge Attack

The Jerusalem Magistrates Court on Monday lifted a gag order on details showing that the fire in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev that claimed the life of a young Israeli woman ten days ago was caused by Arab arson.
In the apartment that was set on fire, a young Jewish woman from the Neve Ya'akov neighborhood in northern Jerusalem lived with her partner, an Arab man named Ahmed Bardan.
The couple had been in conflict with another couple in the apartment building for several months, and apparently Bardan was in conflict with other Arab residents of the area.
It is suspected that Orit London fell victim to an arson attack targeting the couple's apartment that was below hers, in a revenge attack not connected to her at all.

IDF Foils Two Potential Stabbing Attacks in Hevron

IDF forces successfully foiled two stabbing attacks on Sunday, both in the area of the Machepelah Cave (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hevron. Both potential stabbers – Arabs from the area – are in custody Sunday night.
In one incident, an Arab from Hevron who arrived at a checkpoint near the Machpelah Cave aroused the suspicions of border guards, and they detained the Arab, who was found to be carrying two large knives. He was arrested and taken to the Hevron police station for questioning.
Several hours later, another Arab youth was arrested at another nearby checkpoint, also after arousing suspicion due to his behavior. He was found carrying a knife in his backpack. Police arrested him as well.
The two arrests were just the latest in a long line of similar detentions by police of Arabs in the Machpelah Cave area who were found to be be carrying knives. At least three similar incidents occurred just in the Machpelah Cave area in the past month, IDF officials said.

Egged Bus Attacked Traveling to Western Wall in Jerusalem

An Egged bus was attacked by Arab terrorists as it traveled Sunday morning on the road to the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Arabs hurled rocks at the Israeli public bus, smashing the windshield and several windows on the vehicle as it reached the Nablus Gate at the Old City entrance.
An IDF soldier was treated at the scene for light wounds to his hand from flying glass.
A dragnet was thrown around the area as Jerusalem District police opened a search to hunt down the attackers.

IDF Chief of Staff Gantz: Entire Middle East is Upside Down

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said Sunday that Israel could "not afford" to let the northern front get too active. "We cannot allow the front to heat up too much with terror attacks launched against us," Gantz said. The instability in Lebanon, he said, was a good example of how the old order in the Middle East was being eroded - and it is not clear what will replace it.
Speaking at a memorial service for former IDF Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who passed away four years ago, Gantz said "we are currently at what could be called a historical junction. There is a wide chasm between the way the Western countries split up this region 100 years ago through various agreements – mostly for their own convenience – and the reality of today," with the arrangements for the nation-states decided upon in previous agreements between France, Britain, and other countries falling victim to revolution in places like Syria and Libya.
"As a result there is a conceptual threat to the entire structure of the Middle East, as we have known them," said Gantz. "There are several different groups struggling now – the radical Sunni Jihadists, who are attacking countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt. There is also Lebanon, which is now torn between different forces, and the group that seeks to preserve Syria and Lebanon's connection with Iran. And of course, there is the 'Arab street,' which is making itself heard loudly, even in Egypt, where even President a-Sisi cannot ignore it."

'I dragged my friends to safety while firing back at the terrorists'

Fifty-four soldiers and officers who took part in last summer's Operation Protective Edge and who have been cited for their extraordinary bravery under fire will receive on Monday their decorations at a ceremony at Palmahim Air Force Base.
Among them is 21-yearold St.-Sgt. Ceirgio Albarran, who served in the 202 Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade, and whose quick thinking and lightning responses helped save eight of this fellow soldiers in the midst of battle. Albarran shared his story with The Jerusalem Post.
He moved to Israel from Venezuela in 2006 with his siblings, and today lives with his girlfriend near Ashkelon.
On July 23, in the middle of Israel's ground operation against Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip, his unit arrived at a neighborhood on the outskirts of Khan Yunis.
"We got to three buildings that the company had to focus on, in order to control the sector. As we searched the buildings, we found that one of the rooms was filled with weapons, grenades, mortars, and vests. After our company commander saw this, he decided to check some of the other homes around us. We got to the third structure, a small home, and in one of the rooms, we found two Kalashnikovs and two vests," he recounted."

Meet the woman who prevented terrorists from infiltrating Zikim

Without Cpl. Noa Teitel's watchful eye and quick responses, a disaster would likely have befallen Kibbutz Zikim during Operation Protective edge this past summer.
Teitel, 19, spotted a group of terrorists approaching the entrance of the kibbutz, and alerted troops before they could breach the gates.
She was awarded a certificate of appreciation for her actions from the Israel Defense Forces, which was later amended, along with the rest of the certificates given to female soldiers, in response to criticism that their language was discriminatory and patronizing. The wording in the certificates praised each female soldier for "not losing her composure," phrasing which was corrected and for which the IDF apologized.

Video: From the Eyes of A Soldier - First Person View of the IDF

From skydiving to deep sea diving: The IDF has produced an incredible new viral video "from the eyes of a soldier," giving a brief first-person view of the various arms of the Israeli military in action.
Apart from jumping from or piloting airplanes, soldiers are also shown with their feet on the ground, exhibiting the diverse terrain IDF groundforces are trained to operate on; running through the desert, up hillsides and into urban warzones.
The clip also features some of the state-of-the-art equipment utilized by Israeli soldiers, including unmanned mini-drones, battleships, machine guns, tanks and surface-to-air-missiles.

Eyes of A Soldier: First Person View of the IDF


Brother of Jordanian jihadist's Israeli victim opposes her release to IS

The Israeli brother of a terror victim whose murderer was slated to go free as part of a prisoner swap between Jordan and the Islamic State has reportedly pleaded with the Hashemite Kingdom to keep the female al-Qaeda operative behind bars.
Jordan's government renewed an offer Sunday to trade Sajida al-Rishawi for a Jordanian pilot in captivity. Al-Rishawi, a failed suicide bomber, faces death by hanging in Jordan for her role in a 2005 hotel attack that killed 60 people.
Ibrahim Abu-Garuf of Umm El-Fahm sent a letter to King Abdullah II imploring him "not to give in to terror, or make a deal with an organization of murderers," the Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported on Monday.
Ibrahim's brother Hussam, who was on a business trip in Jordan, was killed in a bombing at the Hyatt hotel in Amman in November 2005. Al-Rishawi was involved in a string of deadly attacks that day, and was poised to blow herself up at a hotel, but the explosives failed to detonate. The would-be suicide bomber then fled to the home of her relatives, and was later caught by Jordanian authorities and sentenced to death by hanging for her involvement.

American employee of Israeli defense firm Elbit mysteriously dies in Saudi Arabia

There is a major mystery surrounding the death of Chris Cramer, 50, in Saudi Arabia, an employee of Kollsman Inc., a US subsidiary of Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems Ltd.
Authorities in the Sahara Makarim Hotel in the Saudi city of Tabuk claimed that on Friday Cramer, an American defense contractor from New Hampshire, probably fell from the third-story window in an apparent suicide, Fox News reported on Sunday.
However, family and friends say there is no way he committed suicide and he was likely murdered for interfering with a significant arms deal.
Cramer family attorney Noah Mandell told Fox News, "The problem was with the customer. The missile system was already sold to the Saudi company and they were complaining that it wasn't working."

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas ready to cooperate with Iran 'to destroy Israeli occupation'

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar on Sunday called on Iran to provide his movement with additional funds and weapons to enable it to "destroy the Israeli occupation."
Zahar told the Hezbollah TV station Al-Manar that Hamas is prepared to cooperate with Iran "for the sake of Palestine."
Zahar's remarks came amid reports that Hamas and Iran have agreed to restore relations, which were strained following the Islamist movement's refusal to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Sources close to Hamas said that the movement's Doha-based leader, Khaled Mashaal, is expected to visit Tehran in the coming weeks as part of the rapprochement between the two sides.
The sources confirmed that Iran has agreed to resume financial aid to Hamas in the aftermath of last summer's Operation Protective Edge.

Hamas Official: Egypt's Decision a 'Coup Against History'

A senior Hamas official on Sunday slammed a decision by an Egyptian court to brand Hamas's "military wing" a terrorist organization.
Meanwhile, the group's spokesman toned down Hamas's initial response to the move, in which it said that Hamas no longer viewed Egypt as a mediator between the group and Israel.
Mousa Abu Marzouk said that the Egyptian ruling against the Al-Qassam Brigades "is a coup against the history, ethics of Egypt and its principles," reported the Alresalah news website.
"History recorded the Qassam Brigades has always been civilized in dealing with Egyptian intelligence … Is it today a terrorist organization?" Abu Marzouk reportedly wrote on Facebook.
"In a move, the first of its kind, Cairo Court for Urgent Matters, considers the Qassam Brigades as a terrorist organization; for the first time in the Arab and Muslim world, alongside with most countries in the world except for Israel and its supporters in the West, the Palestinian resistance has been condemned," he continued.

Here's what a Hamas training camp for teens looks like

Judging by the orderly rows of hundreds of young wanna­bes lined up in crisp military fashion at their graduation ceremony here Thursday, the armed wing of the Islamist movement Hamas will have plenty of eager recruits this year.
More than 17,000 fresh-faced teenagers and young men, ages 15 to 21, mustered at a dozen camps over the past week in the Gaza Strip to climb ropes, practice close-order drills and fire Kalashnikov rifles, all of them pledging to defend the coastal enclave and ready to fight the next war against their Zionist enemies.
They also learned how to perform first aid and throw a grenade. They watched — but did not touch — as instructors showed them the basics of improvised explosive devices.
For the first time, the Hamas military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, hosted the Gaza teens and young men for a week of training in the martial arts at previously off-limits Qassam bases. In the past, the ­military-style camps have been run by Hamas's political wing, and during the summer sessions, the camps included lots of sports, religion and playtime on the beach.

Thousands of Gaza Youth Train at Hamas Military Wing Camp


Jordan to return ambassador to Tel Aviv, citing Israel's steps to ease Temple Mount tensions

The Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday that Jordan is returning its ambassador to Tel Aviv after he had been recalled in November over what Jordan referred to as Israeli "aggression" on the Temple Mount.
Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said Israel had taken significant steps to ease tensions and had lifted restrictions on Muslim worshipers at the holy site in Jerusalem. King Abdullah is the official custodian of the site, the third holiest in Islam and also the location of the holiest place in Judaism.
"We noticed in the last period a significant improvement in Haram al-Sharif with numbers of worshipers reaching unprecedented levels," Momani said. Haram al-Sharif, known in Judaism as Temple Mount, is where al Aksa mosque is located.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the Jordanian decision, calling it "an important step that reflects Israeli-Jordanian joint interests, first and foremost stability, security and peace."

Egypt's Foreign Minister: Muslim Brotherhood/State Dept Meeting 'Incomprehensible'

Questions had been raised during that Jan. 30 briefing regarding criticism of the State Department for meeting with officials from the Muslim Brotherhood, especially given the recent spate of terrorist attacks in the Sinai believed to be at least supported, if not perpetrated, by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Psaki acknowledged that amongst the delegation were former parliamentarians from the Freedom and Justice Party. Psaki said that amongst the State Department officials who met with the delegation was the deputy assistant secretary for democracy, human rights, and labor.
Shoukry told Egyptian media on Saturday that any kind of communication with a group affiliated in "terrorist attacks is not understandable, as they are not a political party, and according to the Egyptian law they should be treated as a terrorist group," the Cairo Post reported.

Al-Qaradawi and Sayyid Qutb books banned

The confiscated books of the Qatar-based Muslim cleric Youssef Al-Qaradawi from the Cairo International Book Fair that started Wednesday, 28 January, saying they were removed by the publisher, The publisher removed the books due to "disapproval and dismay".
Ahmed Megahed, director of the General Egyptian Book Organisation, confirmed that Dar El-Shorouk withdrew the books from its wing. The ministry said that it "believes in freedom of expression and does not put any restrictions or censorship on which books are be displayed and which books are not. Thus it was not informed that these books will be displayed" and neither interferred to remove them. The ministry said that the only books that are subject to censorship are books that come from abroad, as "they fall under different rules that the ministry has no authority over."
Dar El-Shorouk is the publisher of the works of Al-Qaradawi since many years. It also publishes the works of radical Islamist author and educator Sayyed Qutb, the former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who was executed in 1966.

Egypt policeman kills hospitalised Islamist

An Egyptian policeman was arrested Sunday for having shot dead an Islamist detained in a Cairo hospital with injuries from his arrest, the interior ministry said.
The ministry, on its Facebook page, said the victim was a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood arrested as he tried to plant a bomb in the capital's Al-Warraq district, without giving a date.
The suspect had insulted and provoked his police guard in hospital, threatening to kill him. The enraged policeman had shot him dead, it said.
The ministry said the policeman was arrested and an investigation opened.

Outspoken Saudi royal launches pan-Arab news channel

Outspoken billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal on Sunday launched a pan-Arab satellite news channel aimed at challenging established networks in the region.
From a studio lit in green and white, the Bahrain-based Alarab News Channel took to the air, leading with a story about Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, whom the Islamic State extremist group claimed in a video late Saturday to have beheaded.
Alarab is the latest player in the Arabic-language television market, after Qatar-subsidized al-Jazeera became the first regional news broadcaster 19 years ago.
It will also be a rival for Dubai-based al-Arabiya, established in 2003 and owned by Sheikh Waleed al-Ibrahim, a brother-in-law of Saudi Arabia's late King Fahd.

YouTube flooded with terror content

Google Public Policy Manager Verity Harding said that about 300 hours of video material is being uploaded to YouTube every minute, making it virtually impossible for the company to filter all images.
Harding spoke at a European Parliament meeting of the ALDE liberal group on a counter-terrorism action plan.
She said that "to pre-screen those videos before they are uploaded would be like screening a phone call before it's made."
The European Union's counter-terror chief believes it is time to help companies to contain the security risk by having experts from member states flagging terror-related content.

Tunisia Joins Israel as Only 'Free' Countries in Middle East

2014 saw a distinct decline in global freedom, according to an annual report from the watchdog organization Freedom House released Sunday - with the Middle East the worst region for freedom worldwide.
The annual Freedom Report ranks 195 countries by political rights and civil liberties, with scores assigned to each country via a complicated scoring system over the country's legal, judicial, and executive systems as well as current events.
In 2014, 89 were rated "free" (46% overall), 55 (28%) are "partly free," and 51 (26%) are "not free" - a sharp decline since 2013 which Freedom House noted is due not only to ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but Recep Tayyip Erdogan's restrictions on internet freedom in Turkey and the extended Russia-Ukraine conflict. China has also centralized its government monitoring, it noted.
The report cites a number of factors for the overall decline, including a global shift toward authoritarian methods, a decline in internet freedom, and the cumulative effect of terrorism over years of conflict in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The only two countries listed as "free" in the Middle East were Israel, which was joined for the first time by Tunisia. Syria, by contrast, had the lowest Freedom Index rating for any country in over ten years.

Tunisia Busts Through Arab Glass Ceiling

There isn't much good news coming out of the Arab world nowadays—civil war in Syria and Libya, state failure in Yemen, sectarian repression in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and the struggle against the Islamic State and radical Shi'ite militias in Iraq—but Tunisia is increasingly becoming a consistent exception to the rule.
Tunisia was the birthplace of the Arab Spring. After overthrowing dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisians had a rough couple of years: Ben Ali stole billions, and it has been a constant struggle to recover even a fraction of those lost resources. The root of the Arab Spring was a desire for economic and political accountability, but the achievement of that is easier said than done. Throw into the mix the collapse of state control in Libya and the flood of Libyan weapons and refugees throughout the region, and Tunisia seemed to be buffeted by, if not in the midst, of a perfect storm. As the Egyptian-American sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim characterized it, in the decades before the Arab Spring, political organization devolved into a competition between the autocrats and theocrats; any more liberal group that sought to occupy the space in between ended up attacked by both sides.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/02/2015 12:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Mahmoud Abbas embraces a mass murderer, no one cares

From Reuters, January 30:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) greets Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir at the opening ceremony of the 24th Ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) at the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, January 30, 2015.

Bashir is the only current head of state for whom there is an arrest warrant by the ICC on counts of war crimes (pillaging and intentionally directing attacks against civilians) and crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape).

Mahmoud Abbas, that well-regarded peacemaker, has absolutely no problem with literally embracing a war criminal who has been accused by the US of being involved in genocide.

This happened three days ago, and no media outlet felt that this is newsworthy. Which goes to show how much the media bends over backwards to give Mahmoud Abbas a pass, in order to keep alive the fiction that he is a moderate, peace-loving leader.

(h/t Ido Daniel)




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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/02/2015 11:31:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Muslim women harass Jew for drinking water on Temple Mount (video)

This is happening more often:




I wonder if they would react the same for a presumably Christian diplomat, from, say, Great Britain, if he wanted to drink water? Is this only an anti-Jewish thing? Or would they allow the diplomat to drink because they know that he is probably on their side in making the Temple Mount free of Jews?



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/02/2015 10:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] "Anti-Jew" rally in London scheduled for March 22

A Facebook page called "Liberate Stamford Hill" is holding a rally in London, ostensibly against a Jewish Neighborhood Watch-type group:

LIBERATE STAMFORD HILL:
Against Anti-White Oppression

Sunday, March 22nd (1400-1600hrs): Assemble at Clapton Common in Stamford Hill, Hackney.

We are demonstrating against the illegal and unlawful Shomrim Police that are enforcing talmudic law on British streets. These armed thugs are impersonating our police yet they have not been arrested in doing so, in fact, they are supported by the Metropolitan police. In Stamford Hill, Whites are openly spat at in the street and made to feel as if they are Second-Class citizens in their own country, we say ENOUGH White Man, It's time we fightback!

Recently, signs were placed around Stamford Hill that told Women to walk on the opposite side of the road to men, this form of Talmudic law is worse than Sharia law and yet nobody is confronting it!

Join us on March 22nd, 2015 at 1400 Hours where we will demonstrate against the Shomrim Police of Stamford Hill.

Shomrim members are trained by and cooperate with the London police. There is nothing secretive about them and in the wake of the HyperCacher massacre they have stepped up their patrols - to protect Jews against the very people who are now demonstrating against them.

(The signs they are referring to were put in place during a Jewish celebration and were not meant as a demand for the general public to adhere to.)

Even though this Facebook page pretends that they have some legitimate grievances against Shomrim, the other posts there and comments show that this is nothing but pure hatred of Jews.

Neo-Mazi website The Daily Stormer (not linking to it) makes that clear:

The yids are flipping their lids over a planned anti-Jew rally next month in London, and as of right now attendance is required for all Daily Stormer readers who live within striking distance.

On March 22nd, in the highly Jewed-out neighborhood of Stamford Hill, those fed-up with the Jew control of the once-proud nation of Britain will meet to stand against the parasite and demand he leave the country.

The protest is being organized by the heroic Jew-fighter Joshua Bonehill.

Bonehill is a proud Jew-hater:

I want to draw your attention to the on-going foreign occupation of a White district in London. Stamford Hill, a district of London, based in North Hackney under the parliamentary control of prolific Labour Party Racist, Diane Abbott, has been taken from the White man and occupied by the foreign Jewish enemy. Stamford Hill was once an ancient Anglo-Saxon settlement where the White man flourished in his rightfully owned lands, now today we see an occupation force of approximately 50,000 Jews occupying this land. If the sheer number of Non-White immigrants was not bad enough, the Jewish occupiers of Stamford Hill have now established their own Police Force to which is known to them as the “Shomrim Police”. This undemocratic and false police force wear uniforms supplied to them by the Metropolitan Police, they receive training from the Metropolitan police and are supported by the Labour Party MP, Diane Abbott.

The Shomrim Police enforce their own evil Talmudic Jewish Law...

Due to the Jewish program of Eugenics, the Jews of Stamford Hill are breeding at an alarming rate, further expanding their criminal territory into other London boroughs. There have been reports of White people having to sell up their homes and move out of London because the Jews have harassed them, with allegedly Anti-White campaigns of hatred and racism. I use Stamford Hill as an example of the Jewish Problem, but one must understand that this is repeated up and down this country, in every major city and town.

I just checked the calendar, and, yes, this is 2015.

(h/t O)



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/02/2015 08:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Photo of PA prime minister with Israeli beverages upsets PalArabs

A photograph of Rami Hamdallah, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, has created controversy - because it includes Israeli water and juice:

Hamdallah was visiting the courthouse at Yatta, south of Hebron, and the photo was published on the website of the Supreme Judicial Council.

Social media users slammed Hamdallah for consuming Israeli products.

The Supreme Judicial Council website then replaced the photograph with another that did not show the offending beverages. I cannot tell if the bottles were removed before this image was taken  or if they were Photoshopped out. My bet is Photoshop since if this second image was available when the article was written they would have used it. Also, the new image was created 8 hours after the initial image was.

Looks like a very good image editing job, though.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/02/2015 05:59:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] UNESCO study confirms Arab nations - and many others - don't teach the Holocaust

UNESCO just published a report on how textbooks teach, or don't teach, the Holocaust in countries worldwide.

The summary map showing the level of Holocaust education in each country is here:

Areas that did not even mention the Holocaust even implicitly (light beige) include Angola, Antigua & Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Benin, Bolivia, Brunei, Cameroon, Dominica, Egypt, Fiji, Ghana, Guyana, Iceland, Micronesia (Federated States of), Iraq, Jamaica, (Kosovo)**, Lebanon, Nepal, New Zealand (!), "Palestine," Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Seychelles, Thailand, and Zambia.

Nations that only mentioned World War II or Nazism without mentioning the Holocaust (light orange)include Algeria, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Burkina Faso, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gambia, Georgia, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Scotland, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Switzerland (Jura, Lausanne), Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

Many Muslim nations that probably do not teach the Holocaust did not submit textbooks for this study (white), including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, , Iran,  Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and many others.

Interestingly, the US state of Maryland is the only one called out for not teaching the Holocaust as its own topic and instead only as part of a more generalized human rights curriculum.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/01/2015 10:59:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Introducing the First International Ayatollah Khamenei Cartoon and Poster Contest

(As a reponse to this...)

I am pleased to announce the First International Ayatollah Khamenei Cartoon and Poster Contest.

The goal of the contest is to make fun of the Supreme Leader of Iran in as original (and preferably offensive) way as possible.

Any theme is fair game.  Artwork that has a high likelihood of giving him a fatal heart attack will have the best chance of winning. (But try to ensure that it could be shown on a family blog.)

First prize winner will receive $50, second prize $25.

Here are examples I quickly made up:

I encourage people to take their favorite submissions and to spam Khamenei's Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts.

Deadline for submission is February 28.

Submit your artwork by linking to it from the comments of this post.




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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/01/2015 05:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Hasby Award: Best Pro-Israel Video

The nominees for the Best Pro-Israel Video Hasby Award are:

Why I Support Israel, Pat Condell

Caroline Glick tells off Danish Ambassador

Ami Horowitz at Berkeley

Hamas, Ari Lesser

10 minutes about living on the Gaza border, Dana Bar-On

And the winner is....

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Ami Horowitz at Berkeley



This is a brilliant video, exposing how obscene and poisonous the anti-Israel narrative has become on college campuses - by showing that Berkeley college students are insulted by the Israeli flag while they have no problem with the ISIS flag.



It has received well over 700,000 views and lots of media attention. From a hasbara standpoint, this video was very effective, even more than the other excellent nominees (all of which you should watch.)

Mazal Tov, Ami!



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/01/2015 03:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 02/01 Links: Rabbi Sacks: The Return of Anti-Semitism; HC: World better without Balfour

From Ian:

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Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: The Return of Anti-Semitism

Last Tuesday, a group of Holocaust survivors, by now gaunt and frail, made their way back to Auschwitz, the West’s symbol of evil—back to the slave-labor side of the vast complex, with its mocking inscription Arbeit Macht Frei (“Work makes you free”), and back to the death camp, where a million and a quarter human beings, most of them Jews, were gassed, burned and turned to ash. They were there to commemorate the day, 70 years ago, when Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz and saw, for the first time, the true dimensions of the greatest crime since human beings first set foot on Earth.
The moment would have been emotional at the best of times, but this year brought an especially disturbing undercurrent. The Book of Genesis says that, when God told Abraham what would happen to his descendants, a “fear of great darkness” fell over him. Something of that fear haunted the survivors this week, who have witnessed the return of anti-Semitism to Europe after 70 years of political leaders constant avowals of “Never again.” As they finished saying Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for mourners, one man cried out, “I don’t want to come here again.” Everyone knew what he meant. For once, the fear was not only about the past but also about the future.
The murder of Jewish shoppers at a Parisian kosher supermarket three weeks ago, after the killing of 12 people at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, sent shivers down the spines of many Jews, not because it was the first such event but because it has become part of a pattern. In 2014, four were killed at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. In 2012, a rabbi and three young children were murdered at a Jewish school in Toulouse. In 2008 in Mumbai, four terrorists separated themselves from a larger group killing people in the city’s cafes and hotels and made their way to a small Orthodox Jewish center, where they murdered its young rabbi and his pregnant wife after torturing and mutilating them. As the Sunday Times of London reported about the attack, “the terrorists would be told by their handlers in Pakistan that the lives of Jews were worth 50 times those of non-Jews.”

IsraellyCool: History Channel Knows How To Have A Lot Fewer Problems And Jews

Well, yes, if by “problems” you mean Jews (and Christians) then yes, I’m sure there would be fewer Jews in the middle east today were it not for the existence of little Israel, the only oasis of sanity in the Middle East today.
Here’s where that line was taken from: a trailer for a forthcoming History Channel look at WW1.
Aside from the nonsense about Britain and France breaking up the Arab states: what Arab states? Britain and France CREATED the Arab states. As Anjem Choudry said in his interview a couple of weeks ago with Voice of Israel, modern nation states are an anathema to Islam. The Ottoman empire was a loosely governed amalgam of tribal areas.
It’s not too much of a stretch to say that the only recognisable nation today that should have been created is Israel! If anything created a lot of problems, it was the overlaying of Arab nationalism onto an Islamic base: perhaps they should have left the Arabs as highly fractured, waring fiefdoms and not encouraged to band together in nations at all. Because the only thing Arab nations have ever agreed on is hating Israel (and the Jews who run it).

Trailer about WW1: world better without Balfour


The Hypocrisy of Iran's Holocaust Cartoon Contest

The purpose of the contest, according to the organizers, is to highlight Western hypocrisy over the value of free speech. Following the attack on Charlie Hebdo, people around the world expressed solidarity through the ubiquitous "Je Suis Charlie" slogan, indicating a defense of the newspaper's right to satirize religious piety. Critics of the newspaper, though, pointed out that Muslims weren't offended by Charlie Hebdo's irreverent speech. They were instead insulted that white Parisians mocked religious values held by France's immigrant population, a group that has long been marginalized within French society. And according to Massoud Shojai Tabatabai, one of the organizers of the 2006 conference, the Western commitment to free speech doesn't always include denying the Holocaust, which remains a criminal offense in countries like Austria.
"Why is it acceptable in Western countries to draw any caricature of the Prophet Mohammed, yet as soon as there are any questions or doubts raised about the Holocaust, fines and jail sentences are handed down?" Tabatabai told the Observer that year.
But there's a difference between drawing an offensive caricature and participating in the negation of an established historical fact. And while Holocaust denial didn't begin with Iran, Tehran's contribution to the practice has been especially shameful. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president from 2005 to 2013, claimed that the Holocaust was a "myth" designed to protect the existence of Israel. In 2006, the year of the first cartoon contest, Tehran sponsored an international conference to "review the global vision of the Holocaust." Ahmadenijad's successor Hassan Rouhani acknowledged and condemned the Holocaust upon taking office in 2013, but neither he nor his suave, U.S.-educated Foreign Minister Mohammed Javaid Zarif have expressed regret for their country's role in its denial. Ayatollah Khameini, Iran's Supreme Leader and the man who controls the country's foreign policy, has called the Holocaust a "distorted historical event."

Neo-Nazis Plan Rally in London Jewish Neighborhood

A Neo-Nazi group has announced plans for a demonstration in a north London neighborhood that is home to Europe's largest Orthodox Jewish community.
The racist group, calling itself "Liberate Stamford Hill," says the rally is to oppose the "Jewification" of the UK, and particularly to protest Stamford Hill's local "Shomrim" neighborhood watch initiative.
The protest's organizers point to an incident last year in which signs requesting men and women to stand on opposite sides of the street were left over from a Torah scroll dedication ceremony - which some residents mistook as being aimed at the general public, causing some controversy - as "proof" that Shomrim were attempting to implement "Talmudic law" in the area.
"We are demonstrating against the illegal and unlawful Shomrim Police that are enforcing talmudic law on British streets," read an announcement on one of several Facebook pages advertising the demo. "These armed thugs are impersonating our police yet they have not been arrested in doing so, in fact, they are supported by the Metropolitan police. In Stamford Hill, Whites are openly spat at in the street and made to feel as if they are Second-Class citizens in their own country, we say ENOUGH White Man, It's time we fightback!"
Contrary to the statement, however, Shomrim are not armed at all and coordinate closely with local police - even receiving praise for their work from local police chiefs. The volunteer initiative - which exists in several other Jewish communities in the UK and US - exists solely as a response to concerns over rising crime in the area.
The event's poster claims to show a menacing-looking "Shomrim" volunteer, but is in fact a scene from Woody Allen's spoof movie "Faded Gigolo" featuring actor Liev Schreiber.

Honest Reporting: Blatant Bias and Inept Journalism in The Independent

It’s impossible to miss the blatant bias in The Independent‘s coverage of the Israeli announcement of new home building in Jewish settlements.
"The green line was laid out in 1949 armistice agreements between the armies of Israel and its neighbours after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Israel has since breached these lines and it is now currently illegally occupying parts of the Palestinian territories."
How exactly has Israel “breached these lines?” The journalist conveniently omits a whole chunk of history which includes the 1967 Six-Day War when Israel came to control territories in a war of self-defense. And as for “illegally occupying” territory, a description that journalist Jon Stone scatters liberally throughout the article, the correct terminology would be “disputed.”
He continues:
"The Israeli government says it needs to occupy Palestine for security reasons, despite repeated resolutions from the United Nations calling for it to withdraw."
Of course, no Israel government has ever said this and one wonders where Stone is getting his flawed information. Firstly, there is technically no “Palestine” to “occupy” irrespective of whether one favors the creation of such a state. This use of terminology certainly is not appropriate for a newspaper claiming to be dealing with accurate information.

No one immune from Israeli preemptive strikes, says PM

Israel will continue to preempt enemy plans against the Jewish state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday, all but publicly confirming the country’s involvement in an airstrike in Syria last month that left at least seven Hezbollah and Iranian operatives dead.
“We have proven that nobody is immune from our intention to foil attacks against us. Thus we have acted and thus we will continue to act,” he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
The comments constitute the strongest hint yet by a senior Israeli official that Israel had carried out the January 18 strike on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights that killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian brigadier general, Mohammed Ali Allahdadi.
Hezbollah and Iran have spent the weeks since the strike threatening grave consequences for Israel.
On Wednesday a Hezbollah cell fired five anti-tank Kornet rockets at a convoy of IDF infantry commanders driving along the northern border, killing two soldiers and wounding seven.
“Today the cabinet will be briefed on recent events on our northern border,” Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting. “On Friday, the defense minister [Moshe Ya’alon] and I visited our soldiers who were wounded in the terrorist attack on the northern border. I was very impressed by their determination and their desire to rejoin their comrades at the front and defend our country.”

Gantz: Border villages need better defense from Kornet missile-type threat, attack tunnels

Only days after an IDF unit was hit by a Kornet missile fired by Hezbollah from a significant distance, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz warned Sunday that Israel's border villages on the northern front must be better defended from similar threats as well as from attack tunnels.
The clear implication was that Hezbollah now has long-range attack capabilities "even from kilometers away," and besides firing inaccurate rockets, now has advanced missiles like the Kornet and attack tunnels, which have radically altered the danger it can pose to border villages with virtually no warning.
Last week, Hezbollah terrorists launched five or six Kornet missiles from a distance of at least four kilometers from their targets, striking two IDF vehicles as they drove two kilometers from the international border, and killing two soldiers.
Gantz said that in the past one could count on observing movement on the border above ground to anticipate attacks, but that the new long-range capabilities and attack tunnels have changed that.

Powerful Iran general met with Hezbollah chief after Golan strike

Qassem Soleimani, a shadowy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force, also visited the graves of Hezbollah fighters killed in the January 18 airstrike on the Golan Heights widely attributed to Israel.
Soleimani traveled to Lebanon a day after the strike, which killed six Hezbollah men and an IRGC brigadier general, Mohammed Ali Allahdadi, according Lebanese media reports.
Israeli media reported at the weekend that Soleimani appointed two Quds Force members to help orchestrate Hezbollah’s response to the strike, last Wednesday, in which two IDF soldiers were killed and 7 injured in a cross-border missile attack.
The January 18 attack highlighted the increasingly public Iranian involvement in Hezbollah’s activities, both in southern Lebanon and in Syria, where the Lebanese group is fighting in that country’s civil war to support the forces of the Assad regime.

FBI: Ex-Venezuelan Ambassador to Lebanon Fundraised for Hezbollah

The FBI has added a former Venezuelan ambassador to Lebanon and Syria to their Terrorism “Seeking Information” list, after evidence indicated that Ghazi Nasr al Din was using his position to help fundraise for the Shiite terror group Hezbollah.
Nasr al Din, a dual Venezuelan and Lebanese citizen, served both of his terms under socialist leader Hugo Chávez before his death and has also served at the head of the Shi’a Islamic Center in Caracas, Venezuela, according to the United States Department of Treasury. The Treasury designated Nasr al Din a “supporter” of Hezbollah in 2008, with Adam J. Szubin, Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), stating at the time, “It is extremely troubling to see the Government of Venezuela employing and providing safe harbor to Hizballah facilitators and fundraisers.”
Al Din also served as the head of political affairs in the Venezuelan embassy in Lebanon.
On Thursday, the FBI issued a release requesting any information on Nasr al Din’s whereabouts. Nasr al Din stands accused of seeking “donations” for Hezbollah in his role as an ambassador and meeting with Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon to “discuss operations.” A local report from NBC affiliate WPTV claims the FBI believes he may he hiding in southern Florida.

BBC’s ‘In Pictures’ compromises accuracy with sloppy caption

The ‘In Pictures’ section of the BBC News website included the image below in the latest edition of its ‘Week in pictures‘ feature. The photograph is captioned:
“Sahar, girlfriend of Israeli soldier Dor Nini mourns during his funeral in a cemetery at Shtulim village near Ashdod. He was one of two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish UN peacekeeper killed as Hezbollah militants traded fire with Israeli forces on the Lebanese border.”
St. Sgt. Dor Nini and Maj. Yochai Kalangel were killed by Hizballah terrorists who deliberately targeted the vehicle in which they were travelling (and additional ones), on a road also used by civilians, with Kornet guided anti-tank missiles from around 4 to 5 kilometers inside Lebanese territory. They could not and did not ‘trade fire’ with their attackers.

Are Democrats Planning to Skip Netanyahu Speech to Congress?

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi hinted that Democrats may skip next month's address to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Asked if most House Democrats would attend the March 3 speech, Pelosi said, "I don't know."
"With all the respect in the world for the prime minister, and all the love in the world for the state of Israel, I don't know that even everyone in Israel is supportive of the invitation," she told reporters at a Democratic retreat in Philadelphia.
President Obama and the White House is still furious that House Speaker John Boehner invited Bibi. The White House is in sensitive negotiations with Israel foe Iran and Obama contends he does not want to affect the March 24 Israeli election.
Netanyahu has telephoned Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, in hopes of lessening their opposition to his visit. The calls, according to congressional aides, did not change minds.

DNC's Wasserman-Schultz *Shocked!* by MSM's Bias Against Israel

Shark Tank Media has released audio of Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) expressing shock over biased coverage at the hands of MSNBC and CNN in reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
While speaking to a group of Jewish Americans in her home state, Wasserman-Schultz described witnessing first-hand -- presumably for the first time -- the bias of a media usually in her party's favor.
Readying herself for the speaking engagement, Wasserman-Schultz recalled tuning into MSNBC and immediately noticing a clear Palestinian-only perspective emerge as she watched, taking in the devastating images of the war in Gaza:

The foreign-backed campaign to unseat Netanyahu

One of these groups is named V15 -- Victory 2015. Over the weekend, the Likud Party filed a petition with the Central Elections Committee seeking an injunction against this group. V15 began making headlines last week when it emerged that it hired the same campaign advisers as U.S. President Barack Obama. But V15 is certainly not alone -- there are a large number of non-profits and organizations with a similar objective – to end Netanyahu's leadership -- working alongside them.
V15's website reveals the scope of its activities: On Friday, dozens of volunteers around the country went door to door in efforts to convince Israeli citizens not to vote for Netanyahu face to face. The activity was overseen by fully paid field coordinators. According to assessments, the group's payroll includes dozens of paid staff. The total cost is estimated at 10 million shekels.
The group's objective is to reach more than 150,000 homes before election day.
Former MK Yoel Hasson, formerly of Kadima and now number 16 on the joint Labor-Hatnuah (Zionist camp) list, claims that he holds no post in the umbrella organization called OneVoice, whose activities are linked with V15. But until this weekend, Hasson's name and picture appeared on the organization's Web page as a member of the board. On Saturday, the picture was removed.

 Likud Press Conference to Expose Obama-Labor Link

The Likud party intends to hold a press conference in Tel Aviv Sunday in which it will expose details about “V15 – Victory in 2015,” a campaign it says is using foreign money, and lots of it, to boost Labor and Meretz in the elections.
Likud has filed a motion to the Elections Committee, according to which V15 is carrying out an illegal indirect campaign with a connection to Labor and Meretz. V15 is “making criminal use of foreign sources of funding,” adding that the sums involved were “very high” and their sources unknown.

V15 US Political Operative Marinated in Hate-Israel Activism

Jeremy Bird, the Team Obama community organizing campaign wizard, has come far from his early midwestern roots. He is currently ensconced in a tiny office in Tel Aviv, working to defeat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming March elections through the V15 campaign vehicle of the Peaceworks Network Foundation.
While in Cambridge, Bird came under the wing of Edmund Hanauer, a bilious defamer of Israel. In 1972, Hanauer founded Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel. Hanauer firmly believed that Israel was able to “disregard international law, human rights and democratic values” because of the amount of U.S. aid it received.
On Feb. 25, 2002, while Bird was working with him, Hanauer penned an op-ed which ran in the Milwaukee Sentinel, “The Double Standard Must End.”
The loathing for Israel is woven through his words, even as he used a tagline with an invaluable hecksher: “Edmund Hanauer, American Jewish political scientist.”
In that op-ed, which ran just days before Bird appeared with Hanauer at a Bash Israel event at Harvard – more on that in a moment – Bird expresses outrage that President Bush condemned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s actions as “terrorism,” while failing to similarly demand that “Sharon stop Israeli state terrorism.” That is what Hanauer considered the evil American double standard. He called it “selectively” defining terrorism.

Kerry’s grotesque love letter

When Margaret Thatcher died in 2013, the U.S. sent no senior dignitaries to her funeral. Next to Winston Churchill, Thatcher was the most consequential prime minister the U.K. had in a century, and she was an indispensable ally to the U.S., in the Cold War and the first Gulf War too. But the only representative from Barack Obama’s administration was the local ambassador.
Various retired American officials attended, including Hillary Clinton. But, like Dick Cheney and Henry Kissinger, she was no longer in office. It was an Obama snub.
Just like two weeks ago at the great Paris march in defiance of the Muslim terrorist attacks in that city. Forty-four world leaders attended; Canada sent a cabinet minister. But from the Obama administration: just the local ambassador.
Why? Why did Obama snub the U.K., by some measures the greatest U.S. ally? Why did Obama snub France, America’s first ally?
Contrast those diplomatic slights with the shocking press release issued by John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, upon the death of Saudi Arabia’s dictator, King Abdullah last week.
“This is a sad day. The United States has lost a friend, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, and the world has lost a revered leader,” the press release started.
A revered leader? A theocrat, a fascist, a dictator for life, whose government financially and morally bankrolls Muslim terrorism around the world? A polygamist with an estimated 14 wives, plus countless mistresses?

Army shoots dead Palestinian throwing firebomb at car

Paratroopers identified two men hurling firebombs at cars near Yitzhar, south of Nablus. The troops fired at the two, killing one and hitting another in the leg. The second man was promptly arrested, the military said.
The army told Ynet News the section of road in question had suffered dozens of rock-throwing and firebombing attacks over the past year, and said the troops had been deployed in the area for the express purpose of finding such assailants.
The IDF noted that troops had been instructed to use live fire against anyone throwing firebombs.
Last week the military prosecution submitted an indictment against two Palestinian teens in connection with a December firebombing attack south of Nablus that left 11-year-old Ayala Shapira critically wounded.

Israeli arrested for fighting with Islamic State in Iraq

A resident of Nazareth was indicted in Israel on Sunday for joining up with the Islamic State terror group and taking part in fighting in Iraq.

Maharan Yosef Hachmi Chaldi was arrested by the Shin bet security service three weeks ago, officials said Sunday.
Chaldi was stopped in Ben Gurion Airport as he was returning from Iraq via Turkey.
According to the indictment, in the beginning of October 2014, Chaldi, an Israeli citizen, left for Syria through Turkey and from there carried on to Iraq.

Palestinian Authority Criticizes Hamas for Importing Israeli Products

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party criticized Hamas for allowing the import of Israeli products into Gaza, according to a report by Khaled ABu Toameh.
The Fatah party said “Boycotting Israeli goods is a national, religious and moral duty.”
Apparently reducing the quality of life down in Gaza is a Palestinian Authority imperative.
There is no word when the Palestinian Authority will stop importing electricity and water from Israel, or when the average PA Arab will be giving up their made-in-Israel Milky snacks.

Hamas says Egypt no longer a viable mediator with Israel

A source close to Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said Saturday the group no longer recognizes Egypt as a broker with Israel, following an Egyptian court’s decision to label the group a terrorist organization.
Meanwhile, Egypt announced plans for a unified task force to combat militants in the Sinai peninsula as its president vowed a long and difficult battle against terrorism.
“After the court’s decision Egypt is no longer a mediator in Palestinian-Israeli matters,” a Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday, hours after the court’s ruling. Cairo has long been a go-between for both parties and has played a pivotal role in brokering a number of ceasefires in Gaza, including at the end of last summer’s war.
Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s former prime minister in the Gaza Strip, lambasted Cairo over the announcement, saying “you [Egyptians] have lost your sense of justice.”

Jewish Students Confront Anti-Semitism At UC Davis

For several weeks Boycott proponents whipped the campus into a venom filled frenzy against the Jewish state – culminating in a sure to pass resolution against Israel. The small minority of Israel supporting, mostly Jewish students never stood a chance against the angry mob.
But Aggies for Israel leader Julia Reifkind is not one to stand silent in the face of hate. Addressing the standing room only auditorium, Reifkind expressed her disgust and defiance of these proprietors of the oldest hatred. As she concluded her remarks she called upon those on the side of truth and justice to join her as she walked out of the senate chamber. This is what she said.
“To those of you who have brought this toxic resolution forward today, with the knowledge it will pass, I say this to your so called “victory”… You have divided our campus and damaged lives. And I tell you now, you have not won. The real victory belongs to us. We will continue to celebrate our beliefs on this campus and keep the integrity of our message strong. … This is our victory. And we who are victorious need not legitimize the words spoken in this empty hearing. So if you are here tonight in opposition to this resolution, I invite you now to Stand UP. Stand up and join me in walking out of this room.”

ASUCD Passes Resolution in Support of Divestment From Israel; Katehi Issues Statement in Opposition

UC Davis joins UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Riverside as UC schools to pass Israeli Divestment resolutions through their student governments.
Yesterday morning Chancellor Linda Katehi issued a statement. She wrote, “Last evening the ASUCD Senate passed a resolution urging the UC Board of Regents to divest from four corporations that, according to the resolution, ‘aid in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.’”
She stressed, “This, however, does not reflect the position of UC Davis or the University of California system. The investment policy for the University of California system, including UC Davis, is set by the UC Board of Regents. The Board and Office of the President issued a statement regarding student resolutions that urge the Board to divest from companies doing business with Israel. The statement reiterates the Board’s position that this type of call to action will not be entertained.”
Chancellor Katehi continues, “We recognize that this is a sensitive topic for many on our campus, one that is very personal and emotional. It is for this reason that we must exercise sensitivity, restraint and respect in relation to the issue. Prior to the debate last night, those in attendance were reminded of our Principles of Community. We affirmed the right to freedom of expression, but also affirmed our commitment to the highest standards of civility and decency toward all.”

Meet the UC Davis student who celebrates Hamas and Sharia: Azka Fayyaz.

Who is Azka Fayyaz, the Student Senator at UC Davis who celebrated BDS as a victory for "Hamas and Sharia " on her campus?
There is nothing in her campaign statement that indicates she will use her position to advocate for divestment There is nothing in her campaign platform to indicate her support for avowed terror groups.
If divestment wasn't part of the platform that led to the election of Azka Fayyaz, why does anyone think she has a mandate from the student body to proceed in that direction? There is nothing in her platform to indicate her extremist politics.

Jewish fraternity in California defaced with swastikas

Two swastikas were painted on the walls and steps of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house, located just of the campus of the Sacramento-area school.
Some Jewish organizations and students on campus claim the vandalism, which Davis police are investigating as a hate crime, is the result of a weeks long feud between pro-Israel groups and boycott, divestment and sanctions organizations on campus..
Last week, Associated Students of UC Davis voted to recommend the University of California board of regents divest its holdings in Israeli companies, a move the fraternity vocally worked against. Pro-Israel activists staged a walk-out during the vote in protest.
“From that bill, there have been Facebook posts that have been unbelievably derogatory toward Jews,” Fraternity Vice President, Nathaniel Bernhard, told the local Fox News affiliate.

Swastika painted onto UC Davis Jewish Fraternity


Daphne Anson: An Appalling Advertising Outlet For A Respectable Aussie College

The Chisholm Institute is a respected provider of further education in Australia. Imagine my friend's surprise, then, when he clicked on a Facebook link and was confronted with the following:

How appalling that a respectable and respected institution should be (against its will or knowledge I have no doubt) featured in an ad on such a page. My friend assumes he is seeing this ad because the fact that he attended a similar college to Chisholm appears in his Facebook profile.
Strange what Facebook tolerates, eh?

ISIS executes second Japanese hostage

Islamic State militants said on Saturday they had beheaded a second Japanese hostage, journalist Kenji Goto, after the failure of international efforts to secure his release through a prisoner swap.
The hardline Islamist group, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq, released a video which seemed to show the beheaded body of Goto and threatened further attacks on Japanese targets. Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said the video appeared to be genuine.
Islamic State had said Goto, 47, was held along with a Jordanian pilot. Efforts to win their release had focused on the possible release of an Iraqi would-be suicide bomber jailed in Jordan 10 years ago. The video did not mention the pilot.

Jordan doing ‘everything’ to secure pilot held by jihadis

Jordan vowed Sunday to do all it could to save an airman held by the Islamic State group after the jihadists killed a Japanese journalist they had been holding.
The kingdom “will do everything it can to save the life and secure the release of its pilot,” Maaz al-Kassasbeh, who was captured by the jihadists after his plane crashed in Syria in December, government spokesman Mohammed al-Momeni told the official Petra news agency.
IS has been demanding the release of a convicted Iraqi jihadist on death row in Jordan in exchange for Kassasbeh’s life, a demand the government has expressed readiness to accept provided it is given proof he is still alive.
“All state organizations have been mobilized to secure the proof of life that we require so that he can be freed and returned to his home,” Momeni said.

Berlin Imam: Women Should Be Confined to the Home and Never Say No to Sex with Husband


Saudi Historian: Our Women Should Not Be Allowed to Drive Lest They Get Raped


Serbian president urged to apologize for Holocaust remarks

Serbian human rights groups called on Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic to apologize for saying at a Holocaust commemoration that Nazis targeted Jews because of their over-representation in certain professions.
Nikolic “is spreading stereotypes about the Jewish people, saying that this minority was “over-represented in prestigious professions,'” said the January 28 statement signed by a number of Belgrade-based human rights monitors and civil society groups.
Among the signatories were Belgrade representatives of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.
In his speech on January 27, Nikolic said that for the Nazis, “the biggest threat was seen in the Jewish people, probably on the account of their characteristics and being prominent in the prestigious professions in the domains of finances, art and science,” according to a report by the government-run broadcaster, Voice of Serbia.

PreOccupied Territory: Trees Totally Oblivious Tu Bishvat Coming (satire)

The trees in this wooded patch of the city remain completely unaware that the country around them is preparing to celebrate them on Wednesday, sources within the arboreal community report.
Jewish tradition cites the fifteenth day of the month of Shvat, a winter month, as the “New Year for Trees.” The occasion chiefly refers to how fruit tithes may be grouped, but in recent decades has become a celebration of the Jewish connection to the land of Israel through its produce. The pine, olive, acacia, almond, carob, and other species of tree, whether fruiting or not, have shown no sign of knowing, let alone caring, that Israelis intend to celebrate them in any fashion.
Experts attribute the apparent aloofness to a highly evolved sense of patience among trees. “It takes a long time for a tree to reach real maturity,” notes botanist Alon Oren of Bar-Ilan University. “Unlike humans, who never really mature. Trees have no need for our fickle sensibilities, and our tendency to seize every moment.”

Superbugs may meet their match in TAU discovery

If the world doesn’t watch out, bacteria that just a few years ago were held at bay by antibiotics could reassert themselves in an aggressive and deadly manner. Drug-resistant bacteria are already responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, and that could climb to millions in the coming decade if something isn’t done.
So far, the response of science has been to develop ever-stronger antibiotics. But researchers at Tel Aviv University believe they have a solution that will be a lot more effective in the long run. The TAU solution uses fire to fight fire – inserting a virus that makes the antibiotic-resistant bacteria “sick” and weak enough to be killed off by drugs.
In a paper published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Prof. Udi Qimron and a team from the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine showed how a bacteriophage – a virus that infects and replicates within a bacterium – changes the DNA of bacteria, crippling the activity of a protein that allows it to maintain its cell structure. Without that protein, the bug essentially collapses on itself. It’s destroyed completely, or becomes easy pickings for current antibiotics.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/01/2015 01:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] The Pathos of Jewish anti-Zionism (Mike Lumish)

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I must admit, there is often something very touching about heartfelt expressions of Jewish anti-Zionism.

On Daily Kos (a significant left-leaning political blog) we recently saw another soulful "diary" calling for the dissolution of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people.  As is sometimes the case, this one came from a fellow Jew... a very sad fellow Jew.

Jewish anti-Zionism often has a pathos to it.

It tends to have a kind of self-indulgent, guilt-ridden, weepy quality.

It enacts or portrays the supposed torment of a Jewish soul before a non-Jewish audience comfortable with Jewish weakness and entirely uncomfortable with Jewish strength.

My suspicion is that such portrayals are sincere and that there is a definite throwing oneself upon the mercy of the court quality to it all.  The saintly David Harris-Gershon fairly ooozed this sort-of righteous self-flagellation as he fretted about what gift he should purchase for the children of the terrorist who murdered two of his friends and who almost murdered his wife in the cafeteria of Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

You know how this goes.  When your typical Jewish anti-Zionist was young he was allegedly filled with the heroic spirit of Moshe Dayan and David ben Gurion.  But now the Arabs, and their western allies, have shown him the error of his ways and he is willing to publicly rend his shirt and acknowledge his immoral mistake.

We have one such example up at Daily Kos written by Burtfrombrooklyn entitled, Israel and the paradox of theocracy.

After much soul-searching over many decades, he tells the world:

I've come around to a belief in a one-state solution.  But that new state could no longer be a Jewish state...

Burt, a middle aged Jew who has never set foot in Israel has decided, on moral grounds - no less - that Israel should no longer exist as the national homeland of the Jewish people.

Why?

He writes:

In maintaining its status as a Jewish state, how can it also stay true to its founding vision of a society that offers equal rights and protections to all citizens, not just Jews?

Asking how Israel can maintain "equal rights and protections," which is to say democracy, while being a Jewish state is no different from asking how France can maintain democracy as a state of the French or Britain as the state of the Brits or Ireland as the state of the Irish.

What makes the Jews so special that there is something inherently inconsistent about Jewish democracy, but not, say, Mexican democracy?

There are two issues of primary importance around this discussion that distinguishes Israel from all other countries.  The first is that Israel is held to an anti-Semitic double-standard, which is why it is the only country on the planet wherein millions of people around the world - despite the Holocaust - think that Jews need to return to statelessness and, thus, helplessness.

The second is that the word "Jewish" also refers to the religion, which allows the less well-read to sometimes accuse Israel of being a theocracy.

This is precisely what Burt, from my dear old dad's town of Brooklyn does:

The paradox:  how can a government simultaneously be theocratic and humanistic -- committed to being a Jewish state, and committed to being a social democracy that values human and civil rights? 

Israel is actually the least religious country in the entire region and was set up quite specifically not to be a theocracy, which is why its legal statutes are not Torah-based.  Religious questions sometimes arise in legal proceedings, as they do in the United States, as well, but the last thing that Israel is is a theocracy.

Unlike in Tehran, there is no rule by an authoritarian religious elite.

Therefore, the entire premise of this particular call for robbing Jewish people of even a chance at safety and sovereignty is grounded in dangerous nonsense.

Below are a few comments from beneath the article that will give you a sense of how many of Burt's associates feel:

Thank you for a thoughtful and thought-provoking diary.

I am sorry for the howls of rage that will no doubt fall on your head for having the courage to question whether an Israeli theocracy can be sustained.

by officebss on Wed Jan 28, 2015 at 09:52:17 AM PST

But there is no Israeli theocracy.

theocrats usually believe they are humanists (1+ / 0-)

In fact they believe that only theocrats can be humanists.  Their argument is that God desires the good of humanity, therefore to follow God is automatically to do good for humanity.

by Visceral on Wed Jan 28, 2015 at 10:05:38 AM PST

But there is no Israeli theocracy.

Excellent and thought-provoking diary. (3+ / 0-)

I, too am an American-born Jew, 64 years old.  You and I share much of the same experience.

Israel as a nation was never a matter of faith, but cultural identity. 

I find your solutions very compelling.

by 57andFemale on Wed Jan 28, 2015 at 10:11:07 AM PST

His solutions mean total war.

If one is interested in seeing very many dead people then definitely advance BDS, because if it is successful that will be the outcome.

Furthermore, of course, if Israel is grounded in cultural identity rather than faith, then how could it possibly be a theocracy and, thus, just what does this person find compelling?

What I find compelling is the shear idiocy of any such Solution to the Jewish Problem that requires war against us, which is precisely what anti-Zionism / BDS will need if it is to succeed.

Expulsion of the local Arabs has been part of the Zionist toolbox since Day One, back in the 19th C.

Current Israeli policy is not to evict them all or kill them all outright,  but to severely restrict the Arabs' collective airway in hopes that they'll move.

by oblomov on Wed Jan 28, 2015 at 10:45:41 AM PST

oblomov's view is in no way reflective of Israeli history or the history of the Jewish people in the region.

If transference of the Arabs were a general Jewish policy than just why did the Jews beg the Arabs in Haifa to stay during the War for Independence?  As David Margolick wrote in a 2008 New York Times book review of historian Benny Morris' 1948: The First Arab-Israel War:

Transfer — or expulsion or ethnic cleansing — was never an explicit part of the Zionist program, even among its more extreme elements, Morris observes. The first Arabs who left their homes did so on their own, expecting to return once the Jews lost or the fighting stopped. The Jewish mayor of Haifa begged Arab residents to stay; Golda Meir, then head of the Jewish Agency Political Department, called the exodus “dreadful” and even likened it to what had befallen the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.

When someone like oblomov makes unjust and malicious accusations against Israel he is, essentially, calling for violence against a long persecuted minority.  He is, for all intents and purposes, acting in the fashion of a Nazi in the sense that he, like the Nazis did, is spreading hatred toward the Jews in preparation for whatever violence is to come.

The truth is, one cannot despise Israel without despising the Jewish people and wishing us harm.

One cannot stand for social justice while simultaneously pointing the trembling finger of blame at the Jewish people.

Perhaps this is something that needs to be clarified.

Some people, it should be noted, stood up and told this "diarist" that his musings were nonsense, but they represent the distinct minority within most left-leaning venues.

The bottom line is that those who call for the dissolution of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people or who, in their consideration of the long war against the Jews, either take the Arab side or constantly denigrate the Israeli side, are playing a very sick and dangerous game with the future of your children.

Self-righteous Jews like David Harris-Gershon, who wear the hair shirt and give public testimony to false allegations of Jewish malice, are spreading hatred toward their own people and this certainly goes for someone like the Daily Kos diarist who believes that Israel needs, somehow, to be dismantled.

The elimination of Israel as the Jewish state can only happen through full-on war.

Ultimately, this is what anti-Zionism points toward.

If you think that Israel should not exist as the nation state of the Jewish people... or if you favor the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction the lone, sole Jewish state... or if you think that Israel is a racist, militaristic, imperialist, theocratic, apartheid, colonialist entity... then you are pushing for lots and lots of blood.

But, don't worry, unless you happen to be Jewish - or live in or near Israel - chances are the blood will not be yours.

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

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/01/2015 11:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] British Consul-General in J'lem defends retweeting bogus "settlers kidnap toddler" story

McPhail, desecrating Al Aqsa
while discussing how to keep it
Judenfrei

Last week I blogged about a bogus story in Ma'an of how a female "settler" supposedly tried to kidnap an Arab toddler - a story whose only "witnesses" happened to be relatives of and supporters of a murderer?

Besides the story being literally unbelievable to begin with, Israellycool also showed discrepancies in different versions of the story by the same "witnesses."

As usual with Ma'an, no attempt was made to verify this story. No one questions why Ma'an cannot bother sending a reporter to do even a modicum of fact-checking, something that any legitimate newspaper in the world would do before publishing such allegations.

Just as with their long history of stories about wild boars that settlers allegedly raise in order to have them attack Palestinians, and other ludicrous allegations, this ridiculous story is believed by people who are already predisposed to believe anti-Israel libels.

Such as British Consul General in Jerusalem, Alastair McPhail, who uncritically retweeted the story.

McPhail defended his tweet after someone pointed him to my post:

@dunn_martin @elderofziyon @MaanNewsAgency The blog doesn't disprove the article. And there's plenty of video of olive tree destruction.
— Alastair McPhail (@CGAMcPhail) February 1, 2015

I replied, and he responded; here's the thread:

@elderofziyon @dunn_martin @MaanNewsAgency Of course not. But settlers have attacked Palestinians and destroyed crops. That's not disputed.
— Alastair McPhail (@CGAMcPhail) February 1, 2015

@CGAMcPhail and how many toddlers have been kidnapped by settlers? @dunn_martin @MaanNewsAgency
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) February 1, 2015

@elderofziyon @MaanNewsAgency Of course not. But settler violence and crop destruction well documented. UK MPs witnessed latter last year
— Alastair McPhail (@CGAMcPhail) February 1, 2015

.@CGAMcPhail When both stories have the exact same amount of credibility and "eyewitness" proof. @MaanNewsAgency
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) February 1, 2015

.@CGAMcPhail You don't think Israeli media would be all over a story like this if it was credible? @MaanNewsAgency
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) February 1, 2015

McPhail is fixated on my writing that "That's why there are so many stories about thousands of olive trees being destroyed but the only photo accompanying the story is a generic, staged 'Arab woman wailing' photo. I wasn't saying that there is no crop destruction by Jews; I'm saying that it is vastly exaggerated and many of the specific stories have been proven false. (It is very, very hard to uproot an olive tree.) 

McPhail has courted controversy before, notably when he wore this keffiyeh that erased Israel and said "Free Palestine". The Islamic charity that published the photo sort-of apologized months later under severe pressure, but McPhail never did. 

By the way, Ma'an's comment system is heavily moderated; many of my comments never get posted. However, this antisemitic comment on that article made it through with no problem - and it has remained up many hours after I pointed it out.

Hey, its only an antisemitic blood libel. No need to moderate that!

This is the source that the British consul is trusting when he decides what to retweet. 

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/01/2015 08:45:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Tunisian politician, on TV, argues that "Protocols" are a myth

This is rare but welcome:



There have been a couple of other Arabs who have been vocal about the forgery of the "Protocols."

This recent article in Al Araby by Saqr Abu Fakhr goes through the history of the "Protocols" as well as making fun of the Arab conspiracy theories that sprung up around how printers of the "Protocols" were being assassinated by Jews, one of them supposedly by cancer cells introduced into his mucus by Jewish spies.

Another Arab thinker, Dr. Youssef Zeidan, gave a lecture last November also debunking the myth of the "Protocols."

So while the myth is widely accepted as fact in the Arab world, as the host of the Tunisian program proves, at least some Arabs are speaking up.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 2/01/2015 06:28:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Moroccan magazine dresses Hollande as Hitler, says Muslims in France are like 1930s Jews

From Newsweek:

Moroccan Arab-language newspaper Al-Watan al-An has published images of French President François Hollande retouched to look like Adolf Hitler, sporting a swastika armband with the headline “the French are reopening Hitler’s concentration camps to exterminate Muslims”.

The controversial image was on the cover of Al-Watan al-An was dated yesterday, only two days after the 70th anniversary of Holocaust Day, which marks the allied liberation of the largest Nazi concentration camp in 1945 in Auschwitz, Poland, where over a million Jews, Poles and allied prisoners of war were exterminated by the Nazi regime.

Commenting on the images, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Abderrahim Ariri was not apologetic, and insisted the photomontage of the French head of state was meant to highlight the French government’s bias towards protecting its Jewish citizens and neglecting the security of French Muslims.

“This is a small part of what the French President deserves,” Ariri told Moroccan French-language weekly TelQuel.

“The government of France cannot ensure the security of Muslim citizens in France, in the same way that they do for the Jewish community,” he added.

Funny, I had no idea that the Jewish community was being so well protected. After all, only Jews have been killed in France for bias reasons, not Muslims.

And isn't it interesting that instead of demanding protection for Muslims, Abderrahim Ariri has to imply that there is too much protection of Jews, who are of course being threatened by people who come from the same part of the world that Ariri comes from?

France24 adds:

Contacted by FRANCE 24, the editor of the magazine said he did not regret the comparison between the two men nor the timing of the publication.

“I chose this photomontage myself and I fully assume responsibility for it,” Abderrahim Ariri said by telephone from Casablanca. “Since the Paris attacks I have received many emails from fellow Moroccan Muslims who live in France and who tell me they are living through hell.”

“They are in danger… I want to send a strong message to French authorities. I want François Hollande to step up security for Muslims, for their places of worship. If not, there could be abuses,” Ariri added.

According to France’s National Observatory of Islamophobia, 128 anti-Muslim acts were recorded across France in the two weeks that followed the massacre perpetrated by masked gunman at the offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo – as many incidents recorded by the rights group all of last year.

From what I can tell, the National Observatory of Islamophobia counts self-reported acts, not incidents reported to police.

There are anti-Muslim incidents in France. But as I pointed out last week, in 2014, 61% of all violent racist attacks recorded in France by police, 241, were directed against Jews, who are less than 1% of France's population. By comparison, only 55 violent racist acts were anti-Muslim. This means that in France, a Jew is nearly 50 times as likely to be the victim of bias violence as a Muslim is.

Are Muslims in France feeling so endangered that the want to move out of Europe? I mean, if they are living through hell, surely some of them must have moved back to Algeria or Tunisia or Morocco or Libya by now, right?

The magazine cover accomplished three things: it falsely shows Muslims as the major victims of racism in France, and it trivializes the Holocaust, and it minimizes the very real threats that Jews in France have to deal with every day - mostly from Muslims - that dwarfs the danger that Muslims are in.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 1/31/2015 09:28:00 PM

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