Wednesday, January 18, 2017

  • Wednesday, January 18, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon
From MEMRI:



Jordanian businessman Talal Abu Ghazaleh said that there was an “easy solution” to the Palestinian problem: “Let every Palestinian return to Palestine and every Jew return to his own country.” Abu Ghazaleh said that he decided not to return to his home in Jaffa, because MEMRI - which was monitoring “all our broadcasts, including this one right now” - “consider my statements to be antisemitic because I want to cleanse Palestine of the Jews.” Abu Ghazaleh made these comments during a BBC Arabic TV interview on January 9. The MEMRI video Abu Ghazaleh refers to can be watched here: https://www.memri.org/tv/jordanian-businessman-talal-abu-ghazaleh-911-was-carried-out-taliban-part-zionist-scheme-us-san

Interviewer: "Have you been back to Jaffa? Have you gone to see your home...?"

Talal Abu Ghazaleh: "No, I haven't. Do you want me to tell you why on air?"

Interviewer: "Why not?"

Talal Abu Ghazaleh: "I need courage for this. I was interviewed on Abu Dhabi TV on economic matters. At the end of the interview, the TV host decided to ask me about the solution to the Palestinian problem. She asked: 'Is this a vicious circle with no solution?' I said that the solution is easy. 'What is it?' she asked. I said: 'Just like the Jews believe in the Right of Return, we Palestinians believe in the Right of Return. Let every Palestinian return to Palestine and every Jew return to his own country.' The first to leave should be the Israeli foreign minister at this time, Lieberman, whose job is secure. I'm prepared to secure jobs for them all, and to run an international plan to transfer them. They won't need to worry about passports or visas, because they all have dual citizenships – Israeli citizenship and citizenship of his country of origin.

"Israel has this organization called MEMRI, which monitors all the broadcasts, including this one right now. Its job is to determine whether something that was said is antisemitic. They consider my statements to be antisemitic, because I want to cleanse Palestine of the Jews."

Interviewer: "So that's why you didn't return to Jaffa."

Talal Abu Ghazaleh: "Therefore, I am a wanted man, an antisemite, in their view."
You can't make this up.

(h/t Josh K)



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From Ian:

'This Man Is a Spite Machine'; Obama Blasted on Social Media for Appointment of Ben Rhodes to Holocaust Memorial Council
Outgoing President Barack Obama’s choice on Tuesday of top aide Ben Rhodes to serve on the US Holocaust Memorial Council drew a slew of online ire over Rhodes’ controversial record on Israel-related issues.
Rhodes — whose role as Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications will come to an end on Friday with the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump — was a leading advocate of the Iran nuclear deal and a vocal critic of Israeli settlement policies.
“So Ben Rhodes, who is a veritable enemy of Israel, Obama appoints to Holocaust Memorial Council,” American Spectator Managing Editor Melissa Mackenzie tweeted. “The man is a spite machine.”
UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer tweeted, “No joke: Obama names aide who bragged of whitewashing Iran’s Holocaust-denying regime to Holocaust memorial council.”
Appointing Ben Rhodes to Holocaust Memorial Council is massive Obama middle finger of triumph
Who is Ben Rhodes?
He’s the Obama communications operative who admitted to deceiving the American public and manipulating the media in support of the Iran Nuclear Deal. (He also ran the Benghazi disinformation campaign.)
David Gerstman wrote a devastating takedown of the deal and Rhode’s deception last May, Grand Deception: How Obama and Ben Rhodes Lied Us Into the Iran nuke deal. Read the whole thing.
Part of Rhodes deception was to create the media narrative, and a media echo chamber, pushing the claim that negotiations were a byproduct of the rise of a moderate faction in Iran. It was a lie meant to suggest that the Iranians were moving away from their genocidal desire to destroy Israel and thus an agreement which legitimized and legalized Iran’s nuclear program was not a worry.
In fact, we know that the nuke deal puts Iran on a certain path to be in a position to produce and deliver a nuclear weapon down the road, and that’s assuming Iran honors the deal. And that supposed rising moderate Iranian government is nowhere to be found. Flush with cash and renewed international business connections, the Mullahs are as violent as ever and increasingly throwing their military weight around in the region.
For Obama to appoint the man who deceived us into putting 6 million Israeli Jews in danger on the Holocaust Memorial Council is a big FU by Obama to critics of the Iran nuke deal.
Eugene Kontorovich (PODCAST): Scholars On Israel And The United Nations
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on the U.S. decision to abstain from a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements has triggered intense debate on the future of U.S. policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We discuss President Obama’s legacy on Israel and Palestine and U.S. policy going forward with Eugene Kontorovich, professor of law at Northwestern University and contributor to the Washington Post's Volokh Conspiracy blog, and Rashid Khalidi, professor of Arab studies at Columbia University and author of numerous books on the Middle East, including Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East.


For weeks now, those who care about Israel have been worried about what the Paris summit would portend. We were told that in Paris, impossible parameters for "peace" would be foisted upon us complete with Auschwitz borders. We were told that after Paris, Israel would be well and truly a pariah state, in complete isolation from the West. Finally, we were told that what was decided in Paris would embolden the terrorists, the knowledge of which woke up that sick feeling in the bellies of all Israelis, the flickering fear  and the panic sowing visions of knives and blood and fire.
In the end, however, Paris was a big, fat, zero. It wussed out, a giant anticlimax. We wondered why we worried, lost sleep, and experienced all that fear.
It was a lot like Y2K.
But the media must still report what happened (even if not very much happened) and of course, since all the mainstream media wants to do these days is bash Trump, that figured largely in how the Paris summit was reported. The Wall Street Journal, in particular, took the Trump thread and ran with it.
Top diplomats from world powers gathered in Paris to affirm their stance on peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, days before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office threatening to upend the international consensus behind addressing the long-running conflict.
Some 75 governments and international organizations used Sunday’s meeting to send a message to Mr. Trump that the only viable solution to the conflict is the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Yeah. 'Cause that's worked so well until now.
Noting that a new administration was poised to take power in Washington, French President François Hollande said that decades of talks to create a Palestinian state can’t be “improvised or overturned.”
Wait. So because this is the way you did it for decades with the result that it didn't work, we have to keep doing it without changing a single thing? See Einstein's theory of insanity.
“This solution is the only one possible for peace and security,” Mr. Hollande said during the meeting.
But the Arabs reject this solution. And if they reject this solution, it can't be implemented. Also, just because you say it's the only solution, does not make it true. Even if you say it very firmly in front of a whole bunch of people, the representatives of 75 countries.
The conference marks another flashpoint over Israel between the international community and Mr. Trump, who has forcefully backed the Israeli government since winning the election. Mr. Trump’s team objected to the conference in talks with French diplomats ahead of the meeting, a French official involved in the discussions said.
“They made it clear that they did not think it was a good idea,” the official said. The Trump transition team couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
Could it be that Trump thinks the Wall Street Journal is a "pile of garbage" reporting fake news and therefore refused to comment? (Heh heh.)
Mr. Trump’s moves on Middle East policy have threatened to upset the delicate balance that the U.S., Israel’s most important ally, has striven to preserve between Israel and the Palestinians. He has pledged to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a step seen by Palestinians as backing Israel’s claim on the contested city as its exclusive capital.

DING DING DING. Media bias. This is supposed to be a straight news piece, not an opinion piece. Yet right here authors Matthew Dalton and Rory Jones reveal their blatant anti-Trump bias with phrases such as "Trump's moves," "threatened," and "upset the delicate balance."

The authors' bias is based on Trump's perceived but as yet untried policy toward Israel. But actually, it is the Paris summit and not anything Trump said or did that threatened the delicate balance. That would be the "delicate balance" between war and peace in Israel on any given day.

The Arabs, we know, were watching and waiting for their cue from Paris to terrorize Israeli civilians. The more concessions made toward the Arab narrative, the greater the censure of Israel in Paris, the more likely it would be that the Arabs would respond by unleashing terror against Israeli civilians. That was the very real existential threat we were feeling in our bellies these past few weeks. Obama's final present to Israel.

And by the way, Jerusalem is not "contested." It belongs to Israel exclusively and Israel has made it clear that it will not negotiate it away. Israel is a sovereign nation and has decided that Jerusalem is her capital, and this is her (exclusive) right.

Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French foreign minister, on Sunday called Mr. Trump’s remarks a provocation. “A question as sensitive as Jerusalem can only be addressed in the framework of negotiations between the parties,” Mr. Ayrault told reporters after the conference.
Sorry. No. The French foreign minister does not get to decide how the "question" of Jerusalem will be addressed. Jerusalem belongs to Israel. Forever. Europe does not get to kill 6 million Jews and then tell us that our holy city is held over as some kind of "question." There is no question. There never was. Jerusalem is ours. Forever.
Mr. Trump’s pick to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel, his personal lawyer David Friedman, has further fueled international concern. Mr. Friedman is known for his hard-line, pro-Israel views and has provided financial backing to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are a key stumbling block in the talks.
Why does anyone call Judea and Samaria the "West Bank?" You can't see the Jordan River from anywhere in Judea and Samaria. The only body of water you can see glimpses of, and then only very rarely, on the clearest of days, is the Dead Sea. If you want to pay lip service to the lie that Israel stole its own indigenous territory from Jordan then don't talk about giving the land to a third party: one that is neither Jordan nor Israel.

The authors speak of Israeli settlements as a "key stumbling block in the talks." This is a lie. Homes are not a stumbling block to talks. Arabs and their terror are a stumbling block to talks. They refuse to sit and talk and negotiate. They refuse to stop attacking Israelis.

The stalemate on peace has nothing to do with settlements and nothing to do with homes. This is just the authors editorializing and exposing their bias anew. They're repeating themselves. Repeating the same old platitudes.

So let me spell it out for them: It's not the settlements, Stupid. It's that the Arabs don't want to wheel and deal or negotiate on any level with the Jews whatsoever. It's that Arabs don't want to talk to Jews. The Arabs don't want to recognize Israel. The Arabs don't want the Jews to have even a single inch of Israel. They want all the land, all to themselves, and they want it Judenrein.

In short, it is the Arabs that are the key stumbling block to talks. Not homes, for crying out loud. Arabs. Arabs and Arab terror.

Late last year, Mr. Trump slammed the Obama administration’s decision not to veto a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements. Western diplomats worry that without peace talks under way, tensions between the two sides remain at risk of exploding into full-blown conflict. A truck attack earlier this month by a Palestinian killed four Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem, breaking a period of relative calm.

Now here's a quizzical statement. The authors tell us that it's the lack of peace talks that caused the truck ramming in Jerusalem. That's another big whopper of a lie. Actually, Israelis are quite convinced it was UN Security Council Resolution 2334 that ignited the terror in Jerusalem, emboldening the terrorists into thinking that the West is on their side.

Why not? Resolution 2334 says that it is illegal for Jews to be in Jerusalem!

That's all the license a terrorist needed to kill Jews in Jerusalem and that is what that terrorist did on that no-good, tragic, awful day, thanks to all those horrible people who clapped as Resolution 2334 was passed. Four dead Israeli youths can thank Obama's abstention for their deaths, with that abstention breaking the long-standing pact between the U.S. and Israel, and killing those soldiers as surely as bullets shot from a gun.




The international summit comes as support for the two-state solution is waning domestically in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Here is the truest statement in the entire piece. One that belies the conclusions of the authors as well as those attending the summit. Neither Arabs nor Jewish Israelis believe in the two-state solution. The Arabs don't want it, so the two-state solution doesn't work as the basis for talks. The Jews have no way to give this solution to the Arabs without sacrificing their security, so they don't want it either. We saw and see, what happened with giving them Gaza.

Besides, the Arabs already have Jordan. They have Gaza. They have 22 other states in the region which could absorb them in two shakes of a lamb's tail with some economic pressure applied judiciously by the worthless UN. In any of those Arab states, the Arabs of Israel might speak their own language, be among their coreligionists, and feel culturally right at home.

But Israel? It's the only Jewish State there is. And it's all we've got. It's tiny.

Moreover, Europe, you have NO RIGHT to cut up our land and give it to others. You have no right to decide the future of Jerusalem. You killed 6 million of us. But we are done satisfying your evil whims. Done.

“This conference is among the last twitches of yesterday’s world,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Sunday after the weekly cabinet meeting. “Tomorrow’s world will be different and it is very near.”

A-frickin' men.



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EU-IranLondon, January 17 - Officials in Tehran followed British Prime Minister Theresa May's speech yesterday with interest, noting that if, as she declared, the UK will remove itself from the European Union, the Islamic Republic of Iran will be more than happy to offset the kingdom's departure by joining.

May gave an address Tuesday afternoon in which she announced her government's intention to complete the country's exit from the Continental union, following last year's referendum that called for such a move. The Brexit, as it was dubbed, has left other countries in the European Union uncertain as to the future of the arrangement itself, and the government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has begun to reassure the leaders of Germany and France that Iran will step into the breach created by Brexit.

Already, economic ties between Continental enterprises and Iran have tightened, enabled by last year's nuclear deal that removed myriad economic sanctions on commercial dealings with Tehran and the businesses under its rule. European aviation giant Airbus has signed a lucrative contract for delivery of passenger and cargo aircraft, and the energy sector promises further development, in addition to the automotive and other consumer industries hungry for new markets. While British contributions to the Union outweigh Iran's potential by a considerable margin, Tehran's military and political clout in the Middle East may prove advantageous to an EU looking to expand its commercial relationships into that part of the developing world.

"Culturally and in its essence, the EU is a better fit for Iran that it is for Britain - at least under the current British government and political atmosphere," observed Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, the body's foreign relations arm. "As the Union's immigration policies and attitude toward the Arab-Israeli conflict demonstrate, we're much more on the same page as the Ayatollahs than we are with Ms. May and the voters who chose Brexit. The loss of Britain's economic might will certainly be felt, but we can manage without them, especially with the infusion of new blood, if you will, when Iran does join."

British opponents of Brexit voiced bitterness at the prospect of not participating in the Union with Iran. "As I see it there's no reason for anyone to wait before accepting Iran as a member, regardless of Brexit or no Brexit," remarked Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party. "We could accomplish so much together, since we have so many friends in common - Hamas, Hezbollah, and who knows how many militias dotting Iraq and Syria."




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From Ian:

Evelyn Gordon: The Obama/Kerry Tailwind to Terror
A few weeks ago, the security threat Israel faced from Palestinian terror looked relatively low. But then Barack Obama and John Kerry decided to meddle. The consequences were eminently predictable: They got to enjoy feeling self-righteous, while Israelis and Palestinians pay the price in blood.
Consequently, the PA felt free to ramp its incitement back up to full force. And it did, to deadly effect.
Shortly before the resolution passed, for instance, a Jerusalem Post reporter who asked more than two dozen east Jerusalem Palestinians what they thought of reported plans to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem couldn’t find a single one who cared. But then the PA, bolstered by the resolution and Kerry’s speech, ordered all imams under its control to devote their sermons on Friday, January 6 to why the embassy move was unacceptable and would/could/should lead to violence. After all, the world could hardly object to that. Kerry himself had said exactly the same thing. And on January 8, an east Jerusalem Palestinian carried out the car-ramming that killed four soldiers. His relatives said he did so after hearing a local imam assail the proposed embassy move in his Friday sermon.
But Palestinian incitement isn’t just deadly to Israelis; it’s even deadlier to Palestinians. Whenever violence breaks out, Palestinians always end up with the higher death toll; that’s inevitable, given Israel’s superior weaponry. Unfortunately, that has never yet deterred the Palestinian leadership from fomenting it. Thus, by reassuring the PA that it will face no international consequences for inciting, the Obama/Kerry team guaranteed bloodshed on both sides.
Two and a half years ago, I detailed how another Obama/Kerry effort to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace ended up sparking a war instead. But either they learned nothing from that fiasco, or they simply don’t care how many Israelis and Palestinians die for the sake of enabling them to posture self-righteously on the world stage. After all, they’ll be out of office at the end of the week. Israelis and Palestinians will still be here bleeding.
PMW: Trump responsible for blood in Jerusalem if he moves embassy
When the Palestinian Authority wants to prevent a political action either by Israel or other governments, one PA tactic is to threaten violence. That is precisely what is happening following US President-elect Trump’s pledge to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The following are 25 statements, threats and warnings from official Palestinian Authority and Fatah sources, selected from among many more. These are in addition to the PA threats of religious war and bloodshed that Palestinian Media Watch reported last week.
There has not been this high a concentration of warnings and threats of violence by PA and Fatah officials, since September - October 2015. At that time, the PA and Fatah leadership warned and threatened violence because Israel, they alleged, was defiling and planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The PA’s political goal at that time was to try to prevent visits by Jews to the Temple Mount. That PA incitement, which was subsequently intensified by private social media incitement, sparked many months of Palestinian terror which left over 40 Israelis and hundreds of Palestinians killed.
Trump responsible for blood
The official news agency of the Palestinian Authority, WAFA, warned in a video report that if Trump moves the embassy, he will be responsible for blood spilling in Israel/Jerusalem and the West Bank:
Trump will be responsible for blood spilled in Jerusalem if he moves US embassy warns PA news agency


Trump's UN nominee to slam world body over approach to Israel
US President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be US ambassador to the United Nations will blast the world body over its treatment of Israel at her Senate confirmation hearing, reports claimed on Wednesday, citing a testimony seen by Reuters.
"Nowhere has the UN’s failure been more consistent and more outrageous than in its bias against our close ally Israel," Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said in the opening remarks for her appearance on Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
According to Reuters, Haley's speech also said that "any honest assessment also finds an institution that is often at odds with American national interests and American taxpayers."
Haley's expected remarks arrive at an especially strained period in the relations between the US and Israel, serving as a potential indication to the possible shift in the nature of the rapport between the world power and the Jewish State as US President Barack Obama is expected to officially leave the White House later on Wednesday, with President-elect Trump assuming office this coming Friday.

  • Wednesday, January 18, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon



Ida2at, which appears to be a pro-Palestinian Egyptian intellectual website, decided to publish Joseph Goebbels with essentially no comment except that it "sheds light on the nature of Nazi antisemitism."

The accompanying graphic, shown above, equates the swastika and the Star of David.

It is published in the section of the website called "The Palestinian Cause."

The article includes this:

The Jew has corrupted our race, soiled our morals, undermined our values, and broken our strength. He is the reason we today are the pariah of the whole world. As long as we were German, he was a leper among us. When we forgot our German nature, he triumphed over us and our future.

The Jew is the plastic demon of decay. Where he senses filth and decay, he appears from his hiding place and begins his criminal slaughter of the peoples. He puts on a mask of friendship before those he wants to betray, without the innocent victim noticing that his neck is already broken.

The Jew is uncreative. He produces nothing, he only trades in products. With rags, clothing, pictures, gems, grain, stocks, mining shares, peoples, and states. And everything that he deals in was stolen somewhere and somehow. As long as he is against a state he is a revolutionary; as soon as he has power he preaches peace and order so that he can enjoy his theft.

“The Jew is also a human being.” Certainly. None of us has ever doubted it. We only doubt that he is a decent human being.

The Jew is our greatest misfortune.
This was not a critical essay on Goebbels. There is not one negative word about this article, which in many ways has been mirrored thousands of times in Arabic media. It was an excuse to publish the purest form of antisemitism under the guise of education..




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  • Wednesday, January 18, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon
I've looked at both antisemitism and what I've called misoziony (irrational hatred of Israel) for a long time, and yet I'm still astonished at stories like this (I edited the two stories together):

Syrian opposition figures making a rare public appearance in Israel called Tuesday for stepped up Israeli assistance to the Syrian opposition, including help in establishing a safe zone for rebel elements in southern Syria along the Golan Heights.

Speaking to a packed auditorium at an event sponsored by the Hebrew University’s Truman Institute, Germany-based opposition activist Issam Zeitoun made a blunt appeal for help. “All Syrians have suffered under this regime. Something must be done. The Syrian people are too weak. We need the help of the international community.”
As the conference progressed, several Arab students began yelling at the Syrian speakers and reprimanding them for entering a dialogue with Israel. "The Golan has been occupied since 1967; you're a traitor and a conspirator!" yelled one of the student protestors. Zitun answered the students by saying, "Shame on you; you live in paradise compared to Syrians."
 Kajjo and Zeitoun’s remarks were repeatedly interrupted by Arab students angry that they were breaking a taboo and according a kind of recognition to Israel. “You are a disgrace to Syria” one student shouted at Zeitoun.

After a tense few moments, she and another student left the hall, and she said outside.

“They shouldn’t ask for this help from Israel. Our people are dying here, we are Arab.”

But the shouting continued: “You should be giving voices to the voiceless, not pandering to the occupation,” a woman shouted.

Zeitoun defended the appearance. “We should be everywhere including Israel to explain the Syrian problem to the world, to convey their voices,” he said.
These Arabs are complaining that Syrians who are desperate to save thousands of lives and are willing to ask anyone for help are "conspirators" with Israel and "traitors" to Syria.

And these are Arab students who are attending Israeli universities!

Begging Israelis to help save Syrian lives is treacherous - but attending classes at Hebrew University is perfectly fine.

This goes beyond political positions. It is beyond deranged.  The irrational, hypocritical hate of Israel and Jews goes way beyond any normal explanation.

It is a psychosis, and it should be studied as such.

Everyone who assumes that these young people are just expressing their considered opinions on a matter are wrong. These students are engaging in a public expression of insanity and hypocrisy that goes so far beyond normal that it can only be described in psychological terms, not as an understandable reaction to reality.

Everyone who has tried to explain historic antisemitism and its more modern version of anti-Zionism has missed the issue. The real answer is that some people simply are consumed with hate that is so pervasive, and so delusional, that it overrides any other human attribute including self-preservation. It cannot be explained any more than schizophrenia can be explained. It may be chemical.

It is time that psychiatrists started to look at the hate shown by anti-Zionists and antisemites from a clinical viewpoint. Because it sure isn't going to be solved with facts, logic, or anything less than full-blown intervention into the sick mental processes of the haters.

(h/t Yoel)




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  • Wednesday, January 18, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon

AFP reports:

The main Palestinian parties on Tuesday announced a deal to form a national unity government prior to the holding of elections, after three days of reconciliation talks in Moscow.

"We have reached agreement under which, within 48 hours, we will call on (Palestinian leader) Mahmud Abbas to launch consultations on the creation of a government" of national unity, senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad told a press conference, speaking in Arabic.

After the government is formed, the Palestinians would set up a national council, which would include Palestinians in exile, and hold elections.

"Today the conditions for (such an initiative) are better than ever," said Ahmad.
Palestinian media has not made a big deal over this. They continue to write about how Hamas and Fatah are insulting each other.

This small part of the AFP article might explain why:
The non-official talks in Moscow began on Sunday under Russian auspices with the goal of restoring "the unity of the Palestinian people." Representatives came from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other factions.

And what was accomplished? "Within 48 hours, we will call on (Palestinian leader) Mahmud Abbas to launch consultations on the creation of a government."

In a couple of days they'll ask Abbas to consider the idea.

In other words, nothing happened - except that Russia is showing how it wants to be more of a player in the region, and the Palestinians are anxious to see that happen on the eve of a Trump administration.

Notably, Islamic Jihad was part of this, and wants to be involved in any unity government. So the mythical unified PA would be dominated by three terror groups, not just two.




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Tuesday, January 17, 2017

  • Tuesday, January 17, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon
I received an email from J-Street:

From: Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street
Date: Tue, Jan 17, 2017 at 12:17 PM
Subject: Some political news that's actually positive 

You may not have seen it on the news, but J Street recently scored an important achievement on Capitol Hill.
...Those who pay close attention to the political conversation around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the two-state solution noted that something significant took place in the House of Representatives. While a resolution criticizing the Obama administration's abstention at the UN Security Council did pass, many principled Members of Congress protested and refused to support it.
When the bill came up for a vote, 80 Members voted against it, while four voted present.
This is a major shift in the conversation about US policy and what it truly means to be pro-Israel. Before J Street was founded, one-sided, inaccurate and unhelpful resolutions like this one would have passed with near unanimous support.
Those days are over. Increasingly, thanks in part to the work of J Street, Members of Congress know that they have the political space and support to engage in honest and substantive debate about what kind of American leadership is best for securing Israel’s future.
  And a very similar email from the "US Campaign for Palestinian Rights," a BDS umbrella group.
 Last week, we let you know about an imminent vote in Congress on H.Res.11 to object to the US decision to abstain on UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which reiterates the illegality of Israeli settlements.Hundreds of you called your Representatives urging them to oppose H.Res.11, and your advocacy paid off!
Even though the resolution passed, the 80 votes registered against it was the largest no vote on any Israel resolution since the US Campaign started in 2002.  With 342 Representatives voting in favor of Israel’s colonization drive, this might not seem like progress, but believe me, it’s a huge step forward in breaking the nearly unanimous support for Israel on Capitol Hill.
Both of these groups are thrilled that they got 80 members of Congress to vote against the bill. But J-Street claims that they were opposing it because they are pro-Israel, and the Palestinian group says that they were opposing it because they want to see Israel disappear.

If J-Street is "pro-Israel," why are they campaigning for the same things that anti-Israel activists are?




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From Ian:

In Secret Recording, Participants at ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ Conference Heard Attacking America as ‘World’s Greatest Imperial Power’
In a never-before-released recording obtained by The Algemeiner of part of a closed-door anti-Zionist student conference at Virginia’s George Mason University in November, participants are heard accusing the United States — “the world’s greatest imperial power” — of enabling and perpetrating crimes in the Middle East.
The blatant anti-Americanism was voiced at the 2016 National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) conference, during a panel on “Syrian-Palestinian Liberation.” Panelists included Palestinian-Syrian activist Wael Elasady, co-founder of Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights, and International Socialist Movement member Ashley Smith.
In the tape, Elasady is heard blaming US “imperialism” for facilitating the Assad regime’s alleged war crimes in Syria and for causing regional instability, which allows the world to turn a blind eye to Israel’s “ethnic cleansing of Palestine, increas[ing] its Judaization of Jerusalem and expand[ing] its settlements without repercussions.”
Smith said that while he saw the conflict in Syria as a “popular uprising of the people…for democracy, for equality, for a liberation from a tyrannical regime,” he took issue with those on the Left who viewed the struggle purely through the lens of “imposed American imperialism.”
He specifically called out activist journalist Max Blumenthal for “reversing his position” on Syria — first referring to the civil war as a “right of revolt” of the people, and then calling it a “‘color revolution’ orchestrated by the US with the project of regime change.”
Who’s Really Behind the Academic Boycott Against Israel?
The USACBI might protest that they cannot be held responsible for Al-Awda’s racism and support for violence, and it goes without saying that well-meaning supporters of academic boycotts should not be considered guilty by association. Yet the USACBI itself has demonstrated that it is, at minimum, very tolerant of extremism and hate.
Steven Salaita and Jasbir Puar continue to hold prominent positions in the organization, despite being repeatedly exposed for using classic antisemitic slurs to slander and dehumanize Israelis. As a matter of policy, the USACBI boycotts all, “academic activities and projects involving Palestinians and/or other Arabs on one side and Israelis on the other,” unless the Jewish and Israeli side agrees in advance to effectively oppose its own right to self-determination. This is not a stance an organization that is genuinely committed to justice and peace would ever take.
The USACBI cannot claim to support principles like justice, equality and non-violence while gaining significant financial benefits from what can only be described as a hate group. At a time when antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of racism increasingly threaten campus life, there is no place for political agendas that fan the flames of hatred and further divide our diverse communities. Al-Awda’s deep involvement in campaigns like the one that was waged against Israeli academics in the MLA is yet another reason why people of conscience should stand up for their values and reject the academic boycott.
The road to peace can only be found through building bridges of understanding and tolerance between peoples, not through further alienation and estrangement. It seems nothing could be more true and relevant in today’s Middle East.
Alan Johnson: Showing up to defend Israel’s right to exist (not lying in bed)
Why am I speaking at an academic conference on Israel’s right to exist at University College Cork (UCC) in March? After all, ‘International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Exceptionalism and Responsibility’ is the conference cancelled two years ago by Southampton University following protests from the Jewish community.
I am attending because I believe – like Marshall Brickman, Woody Allen’s co-script writer for the Oscar winning film Annie Hall – that ‘showing up is 80 per cent of life.’ Brickman added ‘Sometimes it’s easier to hide home in bed. I’ve done both.’
What does it mean to ‘hide home in bed’ when it comes to defending Israel’s right to exist in today’s intellectual culture? And what does it mean to ‘show up’?
‘Hiding in bed’ can take many forms.
It can mean creating lots of nice warm echo-chambers where Israel’s friends get together, tell each other how right they are, how perfect Israel is, and cheer each other up. Nothing wrong with that. Israel’s friends need to be heard and we all need a bit of cheer sometimes.

  • Tuesday, January 17, 2017
  • Elder of Ziyon
I posted this small sanity check on Mahmoud Abbas on Twitter a couple of days ago.





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From “recognizing Palestine” to voting against Israeli “settlements” Europeans are simply feeding the crocodile…

A trend started in Europe in 2014: Parliaments in various European countries began holding “symbolic votes” to “recognize the State of Palestine.”

These votes are symbolic in that they don’t have the power to create a Palestinian State. There is no State called “Palestine” and historically there is no such thing as “Palestinian People.” The invention of the Palestinian people is, on the timeline of history a very new thing and it’s possibly the greatest marketing spin ever (it is certainly proof that if you say the same thing over and over, with enough vehemence, eventually people will believe anything).

The invention of a Palestinian people occurred for the same reason that Israel was twice called Palestine by conquering nations – to break the connection between the Land of Israel and the People of Israel.

The European governments voting to recognize Palestine as a State have said that their goal is to express their displeasure to Israel about the lack of progress in the “peace process” and in resolving the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

The conjunction of these “symbolic votes” with the wave of terror attacks against Israel illuminates their dishonesty.

Teenagers kidnapped and murdered on their way home from school, women and babies murdered while waiting for the busses and trains. Men murdered while praying in a synagogue. People stabbed while shopping for groceries. Police attacked. Public transportation attacked. Kindergartens attacked. Cars attacked. The list goes on and on but maybe, in the European mind, it is logical to blame the victims for the attacks on them – especially if they are Jews.

Winston Churchill, one of the greatest statesmen that ever lived, said “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”

I believe this is the true motivation behind these votes. The European countries are feeding their local “crocodiles”, hoping to be eaten last.

It won’t work.

To the Swedes that have declared their recognition of “Palestine” – I declare that I recognize the Free State of Malmo and the other Swedish cities and areas that have submitted to the will of Allah and the growing Islamic State.

To the British that have declared their recognition of “Palestine” – I declare that I recognize the Islamic Emirates of Britain which currently include Birmingham, Bradford, Derby, Dewsbury, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Sheffield, as well as Waltham Forest in northeast London and Tower Hamlets in East London. May you enjoy the freedom of submission to Allah. I will encourage all British women saying, the hijab will give you freedom. The burqa is even better. This way your Muslim brothers will know that you are decent God-fearing women and that it is the kufar that should be raped, not you.

To the French that have declared their recognition of “Palestine” – I declare that I recognize the freedom of the Islamic Zones of France. Paris, Lyons, Marseilles or Toulouse won’t change much under sharia rule, will they?

Sadly, the list goes on. Spain, maybe Belgium next. In the Kuregem district of Brussels, police are forced to patrol the area with two police cars: one car to carry out the patrols and another car to prevent the first car from being attacked. In the Molenbeek district of Brussels, police have been ordered not to drink coffee or eat a sandwich in public during the Islamic month of Ramadan.

In the Netherlands, a Dutch court ordered the government to release to the public a politically incorrect list of 40 “no-go” zones in Holland. The top five Muslim problem neighborhoods are in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht.

The list goes on and on.

Recognizing Palestine is simply an attempt to appease and deflect local Islamic wrath. Unfortunately for the countries of Europe, putting the focus on Israel and Jews does not halt the creeping sharia that is taking over Europe.

Israel can be fed to the crocodiles but their hunger will not be assuaged.

The truth is, there is no “Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. There is a conflict between Islam and all other religions and cultures. Israel and Jews are a convenient target because we are an island in a sea of Islamic nations. We are close. And our ideals directly appose theirs.

We are an example, not the cause. Placing the blame on us will not “save” anyone else.

Recognizing Palestine will not stop people like “jihadi-John”. Interesting that the British got so worked up over that British beheader and seem to have forgotten that Lee Rigby had his head chopped off in the streets of London, in broad daylight.

Recognizing Palestine will not stop the harassment non-Muslims are experiencing in France, Holland, Norway, Germany… It will not stop the violence against women or the attacks on police.

It will not stop bombings, stabbings and hijackings in the cities of Europe or the heartland of America.
The world has lost its head. Logic has left the building and there is no sign of it ever coming back.
Appeasing the bully never works. Blaming the victims is never right.


The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is being spread by with bombs, guns and torture. It is much easier in Europe. Little violence is needed to convince Europeans to cede their countries and their culture. Creeping sharia is chomping huge bites out of Europe. Soon the “crocodiles” will swallow it completely.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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