Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, April 24, 2017

04/24 Links Pt1: Israel pauses to remember 6 million murdered in Holocaust

From Ian:

Israel pauses to remember 6 million murdered in Holocaust

Israelis across the country paused for two minutes Monday morning in memory of the six million Jews who were murdered in Europe under Nazi rule as a siren pierced the clear blue sky in an annual marking of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The 10 a.m. siren was to be followed by ceremonies at schools, memorials and elsewhere in honor of those who lost their lives, as well as Shoah survivors.
The country’s central commemoration event got underway immediately after the siren at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem, where dignitaries will lay wreaths next to a monument commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.
Among those taking part in the wreath-laying are President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein.

Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance) Siren 2017

Today at 10:00 AM something incredible happens: sirens sound all over Israel and for two minutes everything stops. Today we remember the Holocaust.

JPost Editorial: Never Again

Last year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, we published an editorial calling for measures to be taken to ensure that survivors in Israel do not live out their last years in poverty.
Despite the best efforts of volunteer and professional organizations and new legislation that provide some survivors with increased benefits, the goal of providing every survivor with the care and dignity that was robbed of him or her earlier in life is still far from being achieved.
According to data provided by the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Survivors, about 25% of the country’s approximately 200,000 Holocaust survivors live below the poverty line. A fifth skip meals because they do not have enough money to buy food.
A report issued last week by State Comptroller Joseph Shapira highlighted glitches within the system – whether it’s the failure to allocate sufficient financial, housing or medical assistance, or the failure to have a central authority responsible for standing up for Holocaust survivors, while pointing a finger at the government for inadequately safeguarding survivors’ rights.
“The state’s attitude toward survivors may affect the memory of the Holocaust for future generations,” Shapira’s report cautioned.
As The Jerusalem Post’s legal affairs reporter Yonah Jeremy Bob wrote, Shapira warned that time is running out and the government must improvement things for survivors, whose average age is 85.
According to the report, 16,000 survivors are waiting, some for years, to receive subsidized housing for which their eligibility has already been approved. In addition, in 2014 and 2015, NIS 60 million earmarked as aid to elderly survivors was never used for that purpose due to lack of oversight and of plans by the Social Equality Ministry to use the funds.

'The IDF is the voice of those lost in the Holocaust'

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot addressed the annual March of the Living in Poland Monday, marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Eizenkot, who led the IDF delegation to this year’s event, brought the Torah scroll held by then-Chief IDF Rabbi Shlomo Goren (later Chief Rabbi of Israel) during the liberation of the Temple Mount and Old City of Jerusalem.
During his speech, Eizenkot emphasized the importance of the IDF’s inclusion in the March of Life and its role in sustaining the legacy of Holocaust victims and survivors.
“For generation after generation, our brothers and sisters lived scattered and separated from one another, but were joined in spirit, in their hearts, and in their vision from time immemorial to return to the land of their forefathers,” said Eizenkot.
“But before they could build a [national] home and defense forces, disaster struck, and many Jewish communities of Europe were destroyed.
“Here, on this land, they were taken off in darkened cattle cars, brutally ripped away from their families, and led away to the identical fate – extermination.
“Their only sin was being Jewish, and for that they were tortured, crushed, and put to death - because there was no one who would stand up and fight for them.”

During a rally in Bethlehem in support of Palestinians terrorist hunger strikers, I noticed that many of the demonstrators were wearing ski masks (often with keffiyehs) showing the Fatah "destroy-all-Israel" logo:

Terror is so mainstream for Mahmoud Abbas' "moderate" Fatah movement that it is now even manufacturing terror-style ski masks for its members to proudly wear.

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EoZ was the first site to examine and expose the bigoted and pro-terror Facebook posts of many UNRWA employees, including teachers and principals.

According to Arab media, the increased focus on that hate has led UNRWA to withhold salaries from some of their offending employees.

The UNRWA staff union released a statement today saying that UNRWA management has issued sanctions of deducting up to a full month's salary against some employees due to their use of Facebook for "national issues. "

The union's statement said that it absolutely rejects this punishment by UNRWA, denouncing "the arrogance of the Agency's management and attempt to impose its desires on the staff."

It added: "The relief agency and the laws of neutrality" would not be at the expense of Palestinian national identity and the staff that wants to express their anti-Israel views.

The Union warned that "such action would have serious consequences."

UNRWA unions are notoriously antisemitic. The Gaza teachers' union has engaged in Holocaust denial. So has the Palestinian teachers' union in Lebanon, where UNRWA dominates.

Notice that the rank and file of UNRWA staff are not only complicit in promulgating hate, but they bitterly oppose any efforts to rein it in.

It looks like the pressure from the West - and the tying of UNRWA's funding to its behavior - is having results.

Since this is the only thing that has ever prompted UNRWA to barely uphold its own standards, this means that the pressure should only be increased.

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Tel Aviv Stabber was in Israel with "Natural Peace Tours" group

Times of Israel reports:

The Defense Ministry suspended single-day work permits for Palestinians to enter Israel Sunday, hours after a Palestinian teen injured four in a stabbing attack on Tel Aviv’s beachfront.

The attacker, identified as an 18-year-old from the Nablus area of the West Bank, apparently entered Israel with one such pass, as part of a group known as “Natural Peace Tours,” which is supposed to forge relationships between Palestinians and Israelis, a defense official said. He was not named.

The ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said the one-day permits granted to different organizations and groups will be “frozen” until an investigation of the matter can be conducted, the official said.

Four people were hospitalized with light injuries after the attacker, who has not been named, went on a stabbing spree in the Leonardo Beach hotel on Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Street, near the city’s famous beach, on Sunday afternoon.

There is very little about "Natural Peace Tours" online, but it appears to be more a for-profit tourist agency than a "peace NGO." One Facebook page that is no longer online looked like this:

The other Facebook page with that name has very little description but a number of photos of what are apparently Arabs taking tours and having fun in Israel - at the Lebanon border, at the beach, touring old Tiberias.

The best description I could find was a 2010 article in MEPeace.org from a Tel Aviv man named Neri Bar-On:

The idea is to provide a tourist experience for people, Natural Peace Tours provide the services to get the permit plan the tour and arrange the comfort of the customers but for us this is not "Palestinians" these are customers who get the service the deserve and we support them to enjoy the day.

check the photos here
Natural Peace Tours does not think in "conflict terms" we think of human experience term and we want to provide the best experience for the people who decided to spend their day of vocation [sic] with us.

This is a different approach then many "Peace activists" and it is build on Palestinians and Israelis who work together with "business" and "service" mind as it should be in the future of peace we all desire.

we have tours to Tiberia, Akka, Haifa, Tel-Aviv, el hama sorriya, and we provide service to groups and individuals of Palestinians only. all our work is legal and we measure our success with the income Palestinian get from this activity that injected back into the Palestinian economy.

the face book is open only for Palestinians and Arab speakers.
we do not address any political issue, we do not discuss it and do not try to make any political statement. we provide human experience with what exist in our reality we respect all interpretations as private.

Despite its name, the group is not really about peace, but about providing a way for Arabs to visit Israel, doing all the paperwork for a price. I saw nothing about any real interaction with Israelis in these tours.

An unnamed spokesperson for the group told Walla! that they were cooperating with police, and that the stabber could not have taken the knife from their breakfast because they went through security. He claimed that most of the people in that group were women and children.

(h/t Yoel)

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Comparing Trump and Obama Yom HaShoah statements

Here is President Trump's recorded speech to the World Jewish Congress for Holocaust Remembrance Day this year:

On Yom HaShoah, we look back at the darkest chapter of human history. We mourn, we remember, we pray, and we pledge: Never again. I say it, never again.

The mind cannot fathom the pain, the horror, and the loss. Six million Jews, two-thirds of the Jews in Europe, murdered by the Nazi genocide. They were murdered by an evil that words cannot describe, and that the human heart cannot bear.

On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, we tell the stories of the fathers, mothers and children, whose lives were extinguished and whose love was torn from this earth. We also tell the stories of courage in the face of death, humanity in the face of barbarity, and the unbreakable spirit of the Jewish people.

Today, only decades removed from the Holocaust, we see a great nation risen from the desert and we see a proud Star of David waving above the State of Israel. That star is a symbol of Jewish perseverance. It’s a monument to unyielding strength. We recall the famous words attributed to Theodor Herzl: If you will, it is no dream. If you will it, it is no dream.

Jews across the world have proved the truth of these words day after day. In the memory of those who were lost, we renew our commitment and our determination not to disregard the warnings of our own times.

We must stamp out prejudice and anti-Semitism everywhere it is found. We must defeat terrorism, and we must not ignore the threats of a regime that talks openly of Israel’s destruction. We cannot let that ever even be thought of.

To all of you tonight, who have come from around the world, let it be known, America stands strong with the State of Israel.

The meaning of that state for so many is captured by the words of a German Jewish musician. Escaping Germany before 1937, he settled in the ancient land of Israel. Sometime later, he received a visit from a British official, who found him living in a hut, with only his piano for company. The official recognized the musician and said: This must be a terrible change for you. The musician looked back at him and replied: It is a change - from hell to heaven.

Many of you here today helped fulfill the same dream, the dream of Israel for millions, a dream that burned in the hearts of oppressed and fallen and which now draws the breath of life from a joyous people each and every day.

Thank you for your leadership, for your service, and for your vision of a world that is more free, just and peaceful place for all of God’s people.

Thank you, and God bless you all.

Here is President Obama's statement last year on the same occasion:

Today, on Yom HaShoah, we solemnly remember the six million Jews and the millions of others murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

On this day, we honor the memory of the millions of individuals – the mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, friends and neighbors – who lost their lives during a time of unparalleled depravity and inhumanity. We reaffirm our ongoing responsibility as citizens and as a nation to live out the admonition, “Never forget. Never again.” And we commit ourselves to preserving the memories of those who lived through the horrors of the Shoah, so that their experiences are not forgotten by our generation or by our children or grandchildren.

We also honor those who survived the Holocaust, many of them spared from death because of the righteous individuals who risked their lives to save Jews and other victims from Nazi persecution. The stories of these survivors and their protectors remind us to confront persecution wherever it arises, and that silence can be an accomplice to evil. They remind us of our duty to counter the rising tide of anti-Semitism, bigotry and hatred that threaten the values we hold dear—pluralism, diversity, and the freedoms of religion and expression.

Today, and every day, we stand in solidarity with the Jewish community both at home and abroad. We stand with those who are leaving the European cities where they have lived for generations because they no longer feel safe, with the members of institutions that have been attacked because of their Jewish affiliations, and with the college students forced to confront swastikas appearing on their campuses. And we call upon all people of good will to be vigilant and vocal against every form of bigotry.

When we recognize our interconnectedness and the fundamental dignity and equality of every human being, we help to build a world that is more accepting, secure and free. This is the best way to honor the legacy we recognize on Yom HaShoah and to fulfill our responsibilities to repair our world from generation to generation.

President Trump does not have the oratorical skills of President Obama, but his message is a breath of fresh air after the stilted statements from the Obama White House.

Unlike President Trump, President Obama never related the Holocaust to the threats that Israel faces - not in 2016 and not in the previous years either. (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015).

I know that all these statements were drafted by White House speechwriters. But they do reflect the way the President and his administration think.

There is a world of difference between how Obama tried to universalize the Holocaust or would only discuss right-wing antisemitism, and how Trump draws a straight line between antisemitism and today's anti-Zionism.

Obama's White House believed, even if they never said it explicitly, that Israel causes antisemitism. Trump's White House accurately knows that Israel is the antidote to antisemitism.

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The Holocaust in the New York Times, 1942-43

The news this week that the Allies knew about the Holocaust two years before they liberated the camps hardly seems like news.

The New York Times did report on the Holocaust in 1942 and 1943 - just they buried the very few reports they had deep inside the paper, sometimes barely mentioning Jews among the victims.

July 2, 1942, page 6:

February 28, 1943, page 12:

April 20, 1943, page 11:

August 8, 1943, page 11:

August 27, 1943, page 7:

Anyone who cared to know, knew, well before the war ended. Even though this is only a fraction of what was discovered about the Holocaust after the war, already in 1943 it was known that millions of Jews were murdered.

They knew. They chose not to do anything about it.

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04/23 Links: Four wounded in Tel Aviv terror attack; Zionism Denial

From Ian:

Einat Wilf: Zionism Denial

As Israel marks its national Holocaust Remembrance Day, many around the world will secretly roll their eyes. 'There they go again the Zionists, using their precious Holocaust to justify their state, their power, their faults, reveling in a world guilted into silence.'
There are those who believe, too many, that without the holocaust there would have been no Israel. Most of them make this assumption in good faith. The American President himself, in his June 4, 2009 Cairo speech, spoke of "the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied."
But when so many believe that without the Holocaust there would have been no Israel, those who want Israel erased from map and memory, or isolated as an illegitimate state come to resent the Holocaust, or at least its association with Israel.
The American President wanted to make an important stand against Holocaust denial in the capital of the Arab world. He did not understand that by reaffirming the dangerous equation that the global legitimacy for Israel is rooted in the Holocaust, he fanned the motivation to engage in Holocaust denial for those who continue to believe, as they always have, that Israel is not a legitimate state.
Holocaust denial, Holocaust minimization ('6 million is an exaggerated number') Holocaust 'equalization' ('there were other genocides and ethnic cleansings, the Holocaust was no different'), Holocaust reversal ('what the Nazis did to the Jews is what the Jews are doing to others'), Holocaust marginalization ('other people were also killed in the War') and Holocaust by association ('the Palestinians are the secondary victims of the Holocaust'), are all but different facets of the same effort—to rob Israel of what seems like a powerful and indisputable source of legitimacy.
The deceptively seductive canard that 'the Palestinians are the secondary victims of Europe's crimes' is one of the worst of all these lies, since to the untrained ear it sounds logical. In this tale, after World War II, when it became clear that the Final Solution was not final and the Jewish survivors could not be expected or welcomed to stay in Europe the Europeans decided to 'dump' the surviving Jews on unsuspecting Arabs who were living in an area that colonial Europe controlled.

Terrorist accused of killing a British student will be paid £800 a month by the Palestinian government which receives £25m-a-year UK foreign aid

A terrorist accused of murdering a British student in Jerusalem will be paid a salary of more than £800 a month by the Palestinian government – which receives more than £25 million a year from the UK in foreign aid.
Jamil Tamimi, who has a history of mental health issues, killed theology student Hannah Bladon in a frenzied knife attack on Good Friday after the 21-year-old gave up her seat on a tram to a woman with a baby.
The 57-year-old Palestinian told police that he attacked Hannah, a Birmingham University exchange student attached to Jerusalem's Hebrew University, in the hope that a soldier in the carriage would kill him.
Instead Tamimi was arrested and is almost certain to be lauded as a resistance 'hero' by the Palestinian Authority (PA), like hundreds of others before him.

Tom Gross: Trump & the Middle East: On Israel, Palestine, Syria, & Orwell’s “1984”

On Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian policies (“don’t rule out a deal”), and on his airstrikes on Syrian chemical weapons infrastructure (“the right thing to do”)
This is the original English-language interview by Tamas Maraczi for Hungarian TV (April 13, 2017).

On April 24th Israelis will commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. This is not the same date as the International Holocaust Memorial Day. This date was chosen to emphasize the place of the Holocaust in the story of the Jewish people.

We do this by first celebrating Passover. One week later, we mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Exactly one week after that is Memorial Day for IDF soldiers and victims of terrorism. The following day is a joyful celebration, Israel’s Independence Day.

This pattern is deliberate. The message is very clear. The exodus from slavery to freedom is an on-going journey. As we acknowledge during the Passover Seder: “In every generation [enemies] rise up against us, to destroy us, and every time God saves us from their hands.”

In other words, our very existence is a miracle.

The Passover story is relevant to our modern experiences. The lessons remain the same. The defiance of those who did not obey Pharaoh was critical but, alone, that would not have been enough to save the Jewish people. The leadership of Moses, alone, would not have been enough to lead the people to freedom. During the Passover Seder, we explain to our children that God rescued us from slavery – the miracles were a personal gift to us. If there is a child who rejects this legacy we are instructed to still teach the Passover story but to explain: “God saved me, me and not you.”

The miracle of survival is very personal. 3000 years later, nothing has changed. On Holocaust Memorial Day we ponder the memories of our grandparents. The children and grandchildren of those who were there are also part of the story. The horrors perpetrated against those who were there were a direct attack on us as well. If not for those who—miraculously--survived the Holocaust, we would not be here either.

Holocaust Memorial Day is a time of reflection and endless questions: How could the most civilized people on earth commit such atrocities? How could people witness terrible crimes and pretend they did not see? Has the world learned anything from the Holocaust? Have we?

In Israel the day is actually called: “Memorial Day for the Holocaust and for Heroism.” I suppose many would assume that this is a day of solemn grief. It is, but it is also a day of pride, a day to acknowledge miracles and to consider the legacy of those who survived - and those who did not.

It took great courage to defy the oppressor: steal a loaf of bread to feed your family, hide your child to give them the possibility of life even though you know you will not see them grow up, to go on living when the rest of your family is dead…

What would you tell your child if you knew that was the last time you will ever see them? Many Jewish parents instructed their children to survive, to grow up to be good people and to not forget their Judaism. Can you imagine the courage that takes? The legacy that leaves behind?

Jewish revenge is something rarely discussed. It doesn’t look the way most people picture revenge. It’s not about violence or punishing those who attempted to destroy us. (In Hebrew the saying goes: “The tasks of the righteous are done by others.”) At the same time, the revenge of the Jewish people is a roar of defiance heard around the world.

Do you know what it is?

Children. Lots of them.

Those who have been to Israel will probably have noted that our children are different. They are laughing, free and loud. They move fast and are everywhere. One child is everyone’s child. Each one is important and precious.

In other countries it is common for children to be considered something that “should be seen but not heard.” In Israel, the definition of happiness is children. Mothers are cherished because they are the ones that give life. What is more important than that?

I will never forget the soldier interviewed in the middle of the last war in Lebanon (2006) who said he wanted to get home to his mom. Not because he was afraid, just because he missed her and her warmth. His friends didn’t think it was a strange or “unmanly” thing to say. Neither did the reporter who simply asked the other soldiers if they wanted to send a message to their moms too. They all responded: “love you mom!”

During Passover kids have vacation from school while most parents have to be at work. Many, including TV hosts, bring their kids to work. No one thought it strange that the morning show host interviewed people with his son sitting next to him. A few of the interviewees had their kids with them too.

Our revenge is life.

Those that tried to destroy us would be flabbergasted to see Israelis everywhere – in medicine, science, Hollywood, art, politics, business and academia. Everywhere you turn you will find (at the top of each field), Israelis as well as Jews from other countries.

Those who wished us wiped off the face of the earth unwittingly, lit a fire that forged people with a will of steel. Possibly it is by the grace of God that we retained hearts soft with compassion.

We who were once slaves in Egypt see the oppression of people elsewhere.

We who were gassed are sickened by women and children being gassed today.

We who remember those that saw and remained silent refuse to do the same.

Tiny Israel reaches out to people around the world to save them, protect them, heal them, give them tools to make their lives better. We save people from hurricanes and tsunamis, provide medical care to the disadvantaged in the Far East, Africa and yes, to our Syrian neighbors as well as children from other Arab countries. We provide technology to the world, clean water to Africa, California and India. Much of the technology we all use, every day, has at least some element in it that was “made in Israel” or invented by Israeli minds.

We don’t care about race, gender, religion or political affiliation. If we can help, we will. Suffering bothers us. We know there has got to be a better way. If no one else finds it, we will.

We live and live well and the world doesn’t know how to live without us. THAT is our revenge.

Am Yisrael Chai!

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BBC shows clear anti-Israel bias in justification for using "terror" term for UK attack

The BBC used the word "terror" without scare quotes to describe the March attack on Westminster Bridge.

The BBC had no compunctions about using the term "terror" even before the attacker was identified and before any motive was known.

Neil Turner complained to the BBC about why they consider this attack to be terrorism and not the many terror attacks against Israel.

The answer is illuminating, but not in the way the BBC intended:

Thank you for getting in touch about our report on the attack carried out on Westminster Bridge in London and please accept our apologies for the delay in our response.

The BBC sets out clear parameters on how terms such as "terrorist" might be used:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidance/terrorism-language/guidance-full

Where there is an ongoing geopolitical conflict - as in the Middle East - to use the term "terror attack" or similar might be seen to be taking sides. There are those who might consider the actions of the Israeli government to be considered as terrorist acts.

In a situation where a country that is not involved in a direct physical combat comes under attack, it may be reasonable to construe that as a terrorist incident.

The use of such terminology is never an exact science but where a continuing conflict exists, it is reasonable that the BBC would not wish to appear to be taking sides.

Thank you again for raising this matter.

The BBC explanation that "There are those who might consider the actions of the Israeli government to be considered as terrorist acts" as justification for this policy is simple hypocrisy.

Many of those same people would also consider British airstrikes in the Middle East to be terrorism as well, so what's the difference?

There is no logic to saying that attacking Israeli civilians is not terrorism but attacking British civilians is terrorism simply because Israel happens to be located in the Middle East.

The hypocrisy doesn't end there. This explanation is at odds with the BBC's own guidelines. The link that the BBC points to makes no such distinction between whether the location of an attack is in a conflict zone or not. On the contrary, it says that reporters should avoid using the term as much as possible altogether:

We try to avoid the use of the term "terrorist" without attribution. When we do use the term we should strive to do so with consistency in the stories we report across all our services and in a way that does not undermine our reputation for objectivity and accuracy.

The word "terrorist" itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding. We should convey to our audience the full consequences of the act by describing what happened. We should use words which specifically describe the perpetrator such as "bomber", "attacker", "gunman", "kidnapper", "insurgent", and "militant". We should not adopt other people's language as our own; our responsibility is to remain objective and report in ways that enable our audiences to make their own assessments about who is doing what to whom.

The guidelines conclude "This is an issue of judgement. If you do decide to use the word 'terrorist' do so sparingly, having considered what is said above, and take advice from senior editors."

By their own standards, the Westminster Bridge incident should not have been referred to as terrorism, especially before a suspect and possible motive was uncovered.

Which means that "senior editors" have made up this new arbitrary rule about how attacks in Israel are not terror while potentially random attacks in Britain are, and they justify it by using their own anti-Israel bias claiming that Israeli military action can be considered terrorist while (by implication) identical British military actions cannot be given that title.

The BBC's use of the word "terrorist" in this case and its justification for the term in near-contradiction to its own published guidelines shows fairly clear anti-Israel bias.

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From Ma'an:

The Fatah movement has pronounced Friday, April 28 to be a “day of rage,” and called on all Palestinians to "clash" with Israeli forces to express solidarity for an ongoing mass hunger strike underway in Israeli prisons, organized by imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi.

The official statement urged the Palestinian people to "clash with the occupier in all seam zones," referring to isolated Palestinian areas in the occupied West Bank that fall between Israel’s separation wall and the Green Line.

"The excessive practices of the Israeli occupation, particularly those of the Israel Prison Service," necessitated that "we clash with the occupier everywhere across our homeland," the statement said.

Fatah also called for a general strike to be held Thursday, April 27, which is to include "all aspects of daily life,” presumably calling for the shutdown of all businesses and institutions in the West Bank.

"Clash with the occupier everywhere across our homeland" means "attack all Jews we can."

The last time the "moderate" Fatah called for a "Day of Rage," in October 2015, Palestinians murdered three Israelis and burned Joseph's Tomb.

I have yet to see Mahmoud Abbas ever say a word against the political party he heads nor against its own armed factions.

By the way, Fatah never recognized Israel either.

UPDATE: The day after this call for a "day of rage" a Palestinian went on a stabbing spree in Tel Aviv, wounding 4, including a 70-year old.

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Haaretz analyst taken in by joke column about Jared Kushner (update)

Amir Oren is a senior correspondent and columnist for Haaretz and a member of the newspaper's editorial board.

He writes in Haaretz:

Foreign visitors stream to the White House, but there is an embarrassing emptiness there behind the power of Trump’s son-in-law-adviser, Jared Kushner, who boasted that, while waiting to board ski lifts on vacation, he read up on the Middle East on his smartphone.

The source for this story? A joke column written in The New Yorker by Andy Borowitz:

BAGHDAD (The Borowitz Report)—Jared Kushner said on Tuesday that he became “incredibly well-informed” on the Middle East by reading up on the region while waiting for the ski lift on a recent trip to Aspen.

“There would be times when you’d have to wait five or even ten minutes for the ski lift, and that’s when I’d take out my phone and read up on the Middle East,” he said. “I really got into it.”

Kushner said that the Middle East was a “truly fascinating region” because of “all the countries that they have there.”

“There is Israel, and Egypt, but there is also Yemen and places like that,” he said. “Sometimes I would start learning about a new country, but then the ski lift would come.”

Kushner said that, during a meeting on Monday in Baghdad, he “wowed” the Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, with knowledge that he had gleaned about the nation while waiting for the ski lift.

“I told him that Iraq’s main agricultural products include wheat, barley, corn, and rice,” he said. “He seemed really surprised that I would know things like that.”

“Something else that’s interesting about the Middle East is there is a country called Jordan,” he added.

This is the quality of Haaretz' analysts.

UPDATE: Haaretz is still not quite sure if Borowitz is a serious reporter on this topic. They updated the article:

Foreign visitors stream to the White House, but there is an embarrassing emptiness there behind the power of Trump’s son-in-law-adviser, Jared Kushner. The senior adviser boasted that (according to reports, that some say were satirical), while waiting to board ski lifts on vacation, he read up on the Middle East on his smartphone.

Some say Haaretz is an actual newspaper.

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04/22 Links: Gaza: Let Their People Go!; If Palestinians want peace, 'prove it' by halting payments to terrorists

From Ian:

Gaza: Let Their People Go!

“If the borders opened for one hour, 100,000 young people would leave Gaza.”
— Rashid al-Najja, vice dean, Gaza’s Al-Azhar University.
“…I’d go to Somalia, Sudan — anywhere but here.”
— Salim Marifi, student at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, Al Jazeera, May 6 2015.
“96 percent of water in the Gaza Strip is now undrinkable.”
— i24 News, April 9, 2017.
“Each day, millions of gallons of raw sewage pour into the Gaza Strip’s Mediterranean beachfront … turning miles of once-scenic coastline into a stagnant dead zone.”
— Associated Press, May 3, 2016.
“Gaza’s sole power plant runs out of fuel.”
— Times of Israel, April 16, 2017.
The endeavor to transform the coastal enclave of the Gaza Strip into a self-governing Arab entity (or even part of such an entity) has failed.
It has failed resoundingly and irretrievably.
After two and a half decades of futile effort, the time has come to accept this, and to acknowledge that further pursuit of this ill-conceived objective will only compound the current tragedy — for both Jew and Arab alike.
Incapable and uninterested
With the passage of time, it has become increasingly clear that, as a collective, the Palestinian Arabs in general and the Gazan Arabs in particular are totally incapable of and largely uninterested in creating and sustaining an independent political entity for themselves, by themselves.
Underscoring this dour assessment is the increasingly frequent and ominous flow of reports warning of imminent collapse of virtually all the basic infrastructure in Gaza — electric power, water, sewage and sanitation system — and the impending catastrophe this precipitates.

Dore Gold: The Legacy of the Taliban: Sunni Allies of Tehran

The U.S. decision to drop an 11-ton bomb, known as the “mother of all bombs,” in Afghanistan against an ISIS target brought back into focus that entire war and the fact that, aside from the problem of ISIS, there has still been a problem in Afghanistan of the Taliban.
How did the Taliban become so significant over the last number of years since the 9/11 attacks? It’s important to remember that the Taliban are as much a problem as the terror organizations that have congregated on Afghan soil. Taliban policies since the late 1990s involved a number of acts which they undertook which have undermined not just the security of the Middle East but also the security of the world. Of course it was the Taliban who gave sanctuary to Osama bin Laden and to al-Qaeda prior to the 9/11 attacks. They were originally located or protected by the regime in Sudan, but then in the mid-90s, bin Laden moved to Afghanistan where the Taliban had taken control and offered him a location for his training camps. It was there that bin Laden planned and implemented the horrible attack on the United States – against New York and against Washington, D.C.
One thing we’ve learned from this entire experience is that the West must not allow terror sanctuaries to grow, to thrive, and to be used to plan attacks against the West. That is the first lesson from the experience the West has had with the Taliban.
There’s a second experience with the Taliban that should be recalled. In March 2001, the Taliban decided to dynamite Buddhist statues in the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan that were 2,000 years old. These statues were located along the Silk Route and they were treasured by adherents of Buddhism, but all of a sudden the Taliban decided to attack these religious sites. The Taliban attack actually induced a debate in many radical Islamic circles about whether it was the right thing to do. At first, for example, the spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, thought it would be a mistake for the Taliban to attack the Buddhas because it would set up Muslims to be assaulted in Buddhist countries. Later, Qaradawi and others said, “You know what? The attack on these pre-Islamic sites was the right thing to do” and there was even a discussion about destroying pre-Islamic sites in Egypt like the pyramids and the Sphinx.

Paris cop killed in Champs-Élysées shooting was gay rights advocate who responded to 2015 terror attack

The Paris police officer slain in Thursday’s attack on a popular street has been identified as a gay rights advocate who responded to the city’s deadly November 2015 terror attack.
Xavier Jugelé, 37, was killed when a gunman unleashed a hail of bullets at police officers at the Champs-Élysées Thursday night.
Flag!, an association of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender French police officers, confirmed to The Associated Press that Jugelé the killed officer. He was a member of the organization and took part of protests against anti-gay propaganda at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.
“He was a simple man who loved his job, and he was really committed to the L.G.B.T. cause,” Mickael Bucheron, Flag! president, told The New York Times. “He joined the association a few years ago, and he protested with us when there was the homosexual propaganda ban at the Sochi Olympic Games.”
Mourners embrace the day after a fatal shooting left one police officer dead and two others wounded at the Champs-Elysees on April 20, 2017. The gunman reportedly targeted the officers after he got out of a car and opened fire on them.
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Jugelé, who would’ve turned 38 next month, joined the police force in 2010, according to reports.