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Israel Seen
Thanks to our friend and colleague Elder of Ziyon and h/t to The Israel Project.
B’Tselem’s casualty figures based largely on phone interviews
The UN relies mainly for information on casualties in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) on the NGO Protection Cluster framework which in turn is linked to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the (OCHA-OPT). The OCHA-OPT has in turn appointed three NGOs to provide data on Palestinian casualties: The Israel based B’Tselem and Gaza based Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights and Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), both of which rely heavily on information from the Hamas Ministry of Health in Gaza.
B’Tselem dominates the Palestinian casualty information scene and one should expect that with its international funding and extensive world wide contacts, this organization would observe a rigid standard to maintain credibility in its data collection methodology. Sadly, the opposite is the case. Unfortunately B’Tselem provides the UN and the world with much unverified, inaccurate information.
For example during the recent Gaza conflict B’Tselem relied largely on telephone interviews to provide information that it claims to be reliable. Believe it or not! B’Tselem’s web site declares without embarrassment:
Honest Reporting: Casualties of War
“Israeli officials confirmed that the structure was bombed in airstrikes last week.
The authorities insisted that the building, a weapons storage facility, was a legitimate target and explained that they had conducted detailed surveillance to make sure that no hostages were seen going in or out. But a senior Israeli official who requested anonymity to discuss classified information acknowledged that they had not been able to survey the building around the clock.”
When incidents such as the one above are reported, they lead to international condemnations of Israel, accusations of war crimes, and global calls for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. It does not seem to matter that Israel takes great pains to minimize the chances of civilian casualties, often exposing its soldiers to greater risk and reducing the chances of an effective surprise attack. Nor do Israeli claims that certain targets are legitimate matter in the court of global opinion. But we have gotten used to a knee-jerk reaction to condemn Israel no matter what the circumstances.
What is astounding though, is the difference in the reaction when someone else’s finger is on the trigger.
The above excerpt appeared in a New York Times article.
I made one change, however.
The original article was about an airstrike by the anti-ISIS coalition. I just took the word “American” out and substituted “Israeli.”
Why Does Haaretz Host a Shrine to a Dead Terrorists?
Radical leftist newspaper Haaretz has been embroiled in controversy before, but a new report revealed by the famous Israeli Zionist rapper Yoav Eliasi, better known by his stage name Hatzel, raises serious question marks.
“The following matter left me simply in shock (as much as it is possible to still be shocked by the paper Haaretz…),” wrote Hatzel on Facebook. The shocking discovery: “Haaretz maintained in its basement a locked room that is a kind of temple of pictures praising terrorists.”
The room was found by accident by a worker transferring equipment as part of the paper’s move to a different building, said Hatzel, who received the report from the worker.
The worker “made a last check and came across a door that was always locked but this time was open, and in the room were dozens of pictures hanging just like a museum to terrorists,” wrote Hatzel.
Hatzel noted that among those in the pictures were senior Fatah terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, who led the faction’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during the murderous terror war launched by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 2000, along with “the dead of Al-Aqsa with flowers next to them, pictures of rock throwers and ‘IDF crimes.'”
Sadly, she was allegedly killed by the Jordanian air raid attacks according to ISIS who held her hostage, although the United States says there is no evidence to that effect. The truth of how Kayla Mueller, 26, died may never be discerned. However, despite the sadness at her needless death, the myth that she was wonderful altruistic young woman should be exposed. This is another Rachel Corrie propaganda story in the making, and the western media is falling for it again, or embracing it on purpose.
Kayla Mueller was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who spent at least two years working with that terrorist support group. She was involved in demonstrations against the Jews in Sheikh Jarrah (part of East Jerusalem) after a 20 year long court decision recognized the Jews’ legal rights to homes they were chased from in earlier wars launched by the Arabs. She also participated in demonstrations to interfere with the IDF demolishing the homes of terrorists and suicide bombers after the courts okayed the demolitions.
Just as with Rachel Corrie, the press tries to paint Kayla as a selfless volunteer helping poor Arab refugees. She may have helped injured Arabs in “refugee” camps, but she was working to support the goals of Palestinian irredentists and to interfere with the IDF on behalf of terrorist groups.
As an ISM activist she was a tool for the worldwide jihad.
Shouldn’t Thomas Friedman Also Suspend Himself?
According to Friedman, it was Israel’s immoral behavior in Lebanon in 1982 that transformed him from a supporter of the Jewish state to one of its most outspoken critics. He bravely discovered the truth about the Israelis, and that gave him the moral credentials to pass judgement on Israel from then on–which is exactly what he proceeded to do, first as the Times’ bureau chief in Jerusalem from 1984-1988, and then as a Times op-ed columnist ever since.
The problem is that Friedman’s story, like Brian Williams’ story, is a lie.Friedman did not become a critic of Israel in 1982. He was strongly pro-Palestinian at least eight years earlier, as a leader of a Brandeis University student organization called the “Middle East Peace Group.” When the arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat, gun on his hip, spoke at the United Nations that fall, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin strongly protested and hundreds of thousands of outraged New Yorkers held a “Rally Against Terror.” Friedman and his Peace Group colleagues published an open letter in The Brandeis Justice (the student newspaper) on November 12, 1974, to denounce the rally and oppose Prime Minister Rabin’s stance.
Swedes now tend to view all immigrants as victims of totalitarianism and refuse to acknowledge that not all immigrants think like Swedes. They cannot comprehend that people would flee if they were not hated and threatened. Most Swedes have never realized that one minority group may expose another minority group to violence and intimidation.
Unfortunately, one of the worst offenders trying to hide the truth is a Jewish organization, the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism [SKMA]. What seems to have upset supporters of the SKMA was that Carlqvist compared them to the Organization of German Nationalist Jews, who in the 1930s supported Hitler and claimed that Jews were treated fairly in Nazi Germany.
Instead of breaking up the anti-Israel demonstration, which took place without police permission, the police chose to revoke the Jews’ right to assemble. Malmö’s former mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, surely must have been aware that the perpetrators of anti-Semitic excesses were his own voters. Not one of the many complaints to the police by the city’s Jews has led to indictments, not to speak of convictions.
When it comes to Israel, World Vision needs an eye exam
Last week, an Evangelical publication excerpted a speech delivered by Steve Haas, the vice president of World Vision, to students at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Haas – drawing on his authority as a leader of a Christian relief agency that operates in nearly 100 countries with a $1 billion annual budget – called for a radical course correction within the Evangelical Movement, away from supporting Israel.
The theological rationale that Haas presents is far from revolutionary. It’s basic Christian Gospel 101. Be salt and light.
Care for widows and orphans. Follow the example of the Good Samaritan. Haas argues that evangelicalism has become too focused on Heaven at the expense of advancing social justice in God’s Kingdom on earth, urging his audience of aspiring pastors and theologians to go out to correct evil in the world through love.
So, in our troubled world, which evils and injustices rose to the very top of Haas’ list? Famine and poverty in Africa? Genocide in Syria and Iraq? Boko Haram? Gay men being thrown off of rooftops in the Muslim world? Charlie Hebdo commentators being gunned down in Paris by radical Islamists? Beheadings on YouTube? No – through World Vision’s clouded lens there are only three injustices – past and present – that merit mention: the genocide in Rwanda, AIDS, and ending Palestinian suffering at the hands of the Israeli government.
Judging from the strange caricature that Haas draws of Israel – and the Christians who support it – World Vision has even less sense than it has sight.
Alan Parsons to Roger Waters: Don’t ‘Meddle’
In the process, Parsons drew attention to the immoral nature of the BDS, which is bent on punishing the people of Israel, not the government whose policies Waters claims it opposes.
Waters, whose passion for BDS borders on religious extremism, has personally intervened numerous times when artists such as Neil Young have scheduled performances in Israel. Last week, he published a letter on his Facebook page urging Parsons to cancel his Feb. 10 concert in Tel Aviv:
“I know you to be a talented and thoughtful man, so I assume you know of the plight of the Palestinians and that there is a growing nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement protesting against the abusive policies of the Israeli government.”
Parsons’ reply, however, cut to the heart of what’s wrong with BDS:
“This is a political matter and I am simply an artist. I create music, that is my raison d’être. Everyone – no matter where they reside, what religion they follow, or what ideology they aspire to – deserves to hear it if they so choose.
Music knows no borders, and neither do I.”
Honest Reporting: What Universities Can Learn from Israel’s Status on Campus
In the post-modern university where, at least in the social sciences and humanities, facts are no longer, well, factual, the country of Israel fares badly. Rather than information about the actual country, an abstract idea of Israel has emerged on college campuses over the past dozen years. The Jewish state appears as the single nation of the world deserving boycott of its (actual) products and academic institutions. A Palestinian narrative prevails, but it is a particular, monolithic, Palestinian narrative that leaves out, for instance, the opposition of Palestinians to Israel boycotts.
This abstract notion of Israel also shows up in countless campus forums, classroom lectures, protest demonstrations, associated students’ election campaigns and, on many campuses for two weeks of every year, as performance activism confronting students with staged “checkpoints,” photos of bloody victims and towering, cardboard, “apartheid” walls.
Writing in an important recent collection, The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel, 32 scholars consider gaps between Israel’s campus status and its real life. Among other topics, they address the assault on academic freedom that occurs if academics are boycotted because of their nationality (R. Berman; G. Rahm and A. Romirowsky; D. Hirsh; M. Nussbaum) and the absurdity of maligning Israeli institutions that not only exemplify multicultural learning and teaching but that are themselves bastions of academic freedom; the founder of the boycott Israel movement was getting an advanced degree at Tel Aviv University while advocating for its boycott (S. Wolosky; I. Troen). The book also offers a valuable, concise history of Israel (C. Nelson, R. Harris, and K. Stein), much needed because boycott movements and agitation against Israel on campus exhibit a startling lack of interest in verifiable evidence, dialogue, and the usual expectations of academic argument.
From Brooklyn to Israel’s Front Line against Hamas Terror
Last summer, amid the tension and turmoil of Israel’s 50-day war with Gazan terrorists, Jews throughout the world sprung to action in solidarity with their Israeli brothers and sisters.
Prayers, donations, solidarity missions and countless groups of volunteers were all offered to help the embattled residents of southern Israel during Operation Protective Edge, as well as the IDF soldiers protecting them from rockets and deadly infiltration attacks.
But for David Haies, a 35-year-old father of two living in Brooklyn, that just wasn’t enough. Instead, he packed his bags and joined the Israeli army reserves, where he spent almost a month guarding kibbutzim and other communities along the border with Gaza.
IDF’s Only Japanese Lone Soldier Earns Red Paratrooper’s Beret
Sol Kikuchi, the only lone soldier (without parents living in Israel) from Japan in the Israel Defense Forces, last week finished the grueling 31-mile march required to receive the coveted red beret of the IDF Paratroopers Brigade.
“The march wasn’t hard for me, but seeing my parents, who came from Japan [for my beret ceremony], was really emotional for me and for them,” Kikuchi, 21, told Israel Hayom.
When Kikuchi first enlisted in the IDF, he completed a three-month Hebrew-language course, and vowed he would then volunteer to serve in a combat unit.
“If I am serving, I might as well go all the way and serve in a combat unit like the Paratroopers Brigade,” he said.
“Obviously it’s not easy to be alone in a foreign country, but this is my home now and I am very at peace with my decision to serve as a combat soldier in the IDF,” added Kikuchi.
Addis Ababa to Duvdevan: Staff Sgt. Metoko’s Remarkable Story
Staff Sergeant Metoko’s life is both a sad story of suffering and loss, and an inspirational one of resilience and strength. His life began 21 years ago in the vibrant, yet crowded and impoverished city of Adis Ababa, Ethiopia. Metoko lost both of his parents, but refused to accept the impossible hand he was dealt and persevered.
“I made Aliya when I was five years old, and before I left, my parents had died. My older brother took our upbringing upon himself, which is very complicated, in and of itself,” recounted Metoko. At age 18, his older brother was the caretaker of four orphaned souls, including the five year old Metoko.
His upbringing provided Metoko with an intimate understanding of hardship, and that nothing would be handed to him on a silver platter. He understood what it means to work hard, and to do whatever it takes in order to succeed.
Times of Israel Gala tells Israel’s story in NY
Last summer, Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system protected Israeli civilians from hundreds of Hamas rockets fired from Gaza. Meanwhile, the Waze navigation app helps millions of people steer their way through traffic every day.
Now Iron Dome godfather Danny Gold and Waze founder Uri Levine are hoping their products’ newfound celebrity can help bolster Israel’s international reputation.
“I think we have poor PR and poor marketing,” Levine said of his country. “In general, focusing on the value that we bring to the world is much more important than highlighting the conflict.”
Gold and Levine, in concert with a a bevy of other Israeli luminaries including supermodel Bar Refaeli and former president Shimon Peres, will gather at the Times of Israel Gala on Sunday.
The gala, titled “Telling Israel’s Story,” also marks the three-year anniversary of the launch of the online English-language newspaper, which was co-founded by Seth Klarman, its billionaire chairman and primary funder, and founding editor David Horovitz.
An Administration With a Blind Spot About Anti-Semitism
President Obama’s recent interview with Vox included an astonishing characterization of one of the most notorious recent terror attacks. As he did in his initial reaction to the assault on a kosher deli in Paris, the president did not call it an act of anti-Semitism or say that those slaughtered were singled out for murder because they were Jews. Even worse, he told Vox that those responsible for the attack on the Hyper Cacher had decided to “randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a Paris deli.” The day after such a glaring misstatement of fact, one might expect the White House to walk back this remark in some way. But, instead, both White House spokesman Josh Earnest and State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki doubled down on the president’s tortured logic in a stunning display of Orwellian doubletalk. Instead of just a president with a blind spot about anti-Semitism that comes out when he is interviewed, it is now clear that the United States has an administration with a blind spot about anti-Semitism.
To have made such a statement once might be just a gaffe. To do it twice revealed that the president has a blind spot about anti-Semitism that somehow prevents him from either admitting that the incident was anti-Semitic or condemning it as an incident in which Jews were targeted. But today we learned that this is not just a rhetorical tic. It is now official U.S. policy to claim that when Islamist murderers go into a kosher deli looking for Jews to kill, they are not targeting Jews or acting out of religious bias.
Earnest ‘s insistence that the Hyper Cacher was not chosen by the terrorists because of the likelihood that it would be filled with Jews shopping for the Sabbath is mind-boggling. So, too, is Psaki’s belief that calling it an act of anti-Semitism is a question so complex that only the local French authorities investigating the crime can know for sure.
Why the adamant refusal to label an unambiguous act of anti-Semitism what it is?
State Dept Doubles Down on Obama Claim That Kosher Deli Attack Was ‘Random’
WH Spends 7 Minutes Defending Obama Downplaying Terrorism, Calling Kosher Deli Attack ‘Random’
In a heated back and forth between Karl and Earnest, Karl mentioned the president’s use of the word “random” when discussing the terrorist attack on the Kosher deli in Paris that happened in January. Earnest blamed the media for focusing on the word and said that there were other, non-Jewish people in the deli.
Ed Henry asked whether the Islamic State’s burning of the Jordanian pilot was media hype. Earnest brought up the coalition of 60 members but made no mention as to whether it was media hype.
“The president has succeeded in leveraging the influence of the United States of America, to build this coalition and even to get countries in the region to fly alongside American military air pilots as carrying out air strikes against (Islamic State) targets,” said Earnest.
WH Spends 7 Minutes Defending Obama Downplaying Terrorism, Calling Kosher Deli Attack ‘Random’
Administration Turns Obama Anti-Semitism Gaffe Into Epic Blunder
What makes this so bizarre is that it is not — or at least, was not — administration policy to deny the anti-Semitic character of the obviously anti-Semitic attack on Hyper Cache. In the wake of the attack, the State Department called it a “cowardly anti-Semitic assault.” A few weeks ago, an administration statement denounced “Anti-Semitic attacks like the recent terrorist attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris.” Chief of Staff Denis McDonough called the attacks “the latest in a series of very troubling incidents in Europe and around the world that reflect a rising tide of anti-Semitism.” And the administration has spoken forcefully on the general trend of rising anti-Semitism in Europe.
If Earnest and Psaki are to be taken at their word, the Obama administration is no longer willing to identify the attack on a kosher supermarket as anti-Semitic. Conceivably they have changed the administration’s position on the fly in order to avoid admitting that the president misspoke, turning a gaffe into an official line. More likely (following the general rule that one should not attribute to venality that which can be explained by incompetence) they both failed to anticipate the question and tried to bluff their way through with disastrous results.
The administration is already cleaning up its cleanup:
Yes, Obama Thinks the Paris Kosher Market Attack Was Anti-Semitic
Now, a charitable reading of the president’s words suggests he was speaking colloquially and did not intend to downplay the anti-Semitic nature of the attack. By “randomly shoot a bunch of folks,” Obama did not mean that the establishment was chosen haphazardly–it was targeted because it was Jewish–but rather that the individual victims were just those who had the misfortune to be inside it at the time. Similarly, the president’s use of the word “deli” could be argued to connote a Jewish establishment, at least to an American audience. In other words, Obama did not aim to elide the attack’s anti-Semitism, he just expressed himself poorly.
It would have been easy enough for the president’s spokespeople to clarify these points today and correct his imprecision. But instead, they did just the opposite, and initially doubled down on the more literal, uncharitable interpretation of Obama’s words. Thus, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that “There were people other than just Jews who were in that deli.” And State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki–when asked, “does the administration really believe that the victims of this attack were not singled out because they were of a particular faith?”–dodged by saying, “they were not all victims of one background or one nationality” (they were all Jews) and “I don’t think we’re going to speak on behalf of French authorities and what they believe was the situation at play here” (the French authorities were the first people to label the attack anti-Semitic).
Are the spokespeople’s statements a reflection of a darker, more troubling view inside the White House, one that refuses to acknowledge the reality of anti-Semitism in Europe? Not quite. As Hanlon’s Razor says, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” In this case, what we are seeing is not so much an apologia for anti-Semitism as an apologia for Obama. The president’s team has never been good at admitting his missteps, particularly when it comes to the rhetoric for which he is held in such esteem. This has led Obama’s spokespeople to offer tortured defenses of his least defensible statements, like when he dismissed ISIS as the mere “JV team” of terrorism. In this case, rather than simply admit their boss had erred, Earnest and Psaki tried to reparse his words into something palatable and ended up saying something foolish. Or, as New York‘s Jonathan Chait wryly put it, “Obama fumbles anti-Semitism question, teammates scoop up ball and run into the wrong endzone.”
Joel Pollak: If the Holocaust Happened Today, Obama Would Deny It
On Tuesday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest attempted to argue that Obama had in fact been correct about the Paris attack, because the victims of the shooting had not been selected by name.
The same day, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki declined to say whether the attack in the supermarket had been against Jews, saying that determination was in the hands of French authorities.
The killer, in fact, told a local television station that he had chosen the supermarket as his target because he wanted to kill Jews. In the anti-terror protests that followed, Parisians carried signed saying, “Je suis juif” (I am a Jew) alongside signs reading “Je suis Charlie Hebdo,” referring to the satirical newspaper that had been targeted by murderous Islamist terrorists earlier that same week for mocking Mohammed.
Obama declined to attend that protest, despite the presence of other world leaders.
Holocaust denialists claim Jews were not murdered 70 years ago. The Obama administration denies attacks on Jews today.
French group slams Obama for calling market attack ‘random’
Sammy Ghozlan, founder of the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, and a former police commissioner, spoke out against Obama’s assertion Wednesday in an interview with JTA.
Ghozlan was reacting to an interview Obama gave earlier this week to Vox.com, in which he said: “It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you’ve got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.”
Obama was referring to the slaying of four on Jan. 9 at a kosher supermarket near Paris by Amedy Coulibaly, a jihadist who told a journalist that he was there to kill Jews and who a day earlier killed a police officer near a Jewish school before fleeing the scene.
Coulibaly “did not commit his crimes randomly. They were premeditated,” Ghozlan said, adding that “by not naming the assailants as Islamists, Obama is cynically ignoring reality.”
Jewish ‘Scandal’ Star Joshua Malina Slams Obama for Calling Paris Terror Attack ‘Random’
Jewish Scandal star Joshua Malina blasted President Barack Obama on Monday for suggesting that the Jan. 9 Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket attack in Paris was a random act of terror.
“‘Random?’ Islamic jihadists targeting Jews at a kosher market is ‘random?’” Malina, 49, asked on Twitter, adding, “Umm..seems like it would be better described as ‘specific.”
3 in 4 Israelis don’t trust Obama to keep Iran from nukes
The Times of Israel addressed these issues in its new survey, conducted last week among a representative sample of 824 Israeli adults who indicated that they were very likely or somewhat likely to vote in the upcoming Knesset elections. The survey found Israeli voters have an increasingly negative perception of Obama, and decreasing faith in him to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons.
Asked whether they trust the US president to ensure Iran not get the bomb, an overwhelming 72% do not, compared to 64% in our January 2014 survey.
Israeli voters give Obama a 33% favorable and 59% unfavorable rating, The Times of Israel’s survey also shows. Still, the president’s favorable and unfavorable ratings (33%/59%) aren’t much worse than those of several of Israel’s politicians such as Moshe Kahlon (45%/32%), Netanyahu (41%/54%), Isaac Herzog (38%/43%), or Naftali Bennett (38%/52%). Obama is on par with Yair Lapid’s current rating of 34% favorable and 59% unfavorable, and has a better perception than Tzipi Livni (29%/64%) and Avigdor Liberman (31%/61%).
Majority of Israelis Think PM Should Cancel Congress Speech
As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu begins to re-think the format of his upcoming speech before the United States Congress, Israeli voters weigh in on that controversial speech.
According to a survey conducted by Army Radio and market research agency Millward Brown, a majority of respondents believe Netanyahu has no need to travel to Washington.
However, an overwhelming majority said the trip to the US and the speech there would not affect their vote for looming Israeli elections on March 17.
47 percent of respondents said the Prime Minister should cancel the speech, opposed to 34% who say he ought to go despite pressure within Israel and from abroad. 19 percent abstained.
Staying firm on speech, PM admits ‘profound disagreement’ with US
Acknowledging “a profound disagreement with the United States administration and the rest of the P5+1 over the offer that has been made to Iran,” Netanyahu added, “I intend to speak about this issue before the March 24th deadline and I intend to speak in the US Congress because Congress might have an important role on a nuclear deal with Iran.”
The March 24 deadline refers to a Congressional vote on the Iran sanctions deal, which comes a week ahead of the March 31 deadline of international negotiations with Iran.
Netanyahu was invited to speak before American lawmakers by Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner, but the invitation was criticized by the White House as a “violation of protocol.”
The prime minister has since faced widespread criticism for accepting the invitation.
Mystery Shrouds J Street Claim That ’84 Percent’ of US Jews Back Obama Over Iran
J Street’s Communications Director, Jessica Rosenblum, merely deepened the confusion while trying to clarify it. “The prime minister is personally popular with American Jews. The difference here is that they have deep concerns about the policies he’s pursuing,” she told the Christian Science Monitor. Rosenblum made no attempt to reconcile Netanyahu’s personal popularity among American Jews with the assertion that the vast majority of them reject his position on the main security threat Israel currently faces.
Moreover, a small line of text underneath the ’84 percent’ claim – “strong support for progress made by P5+1″ – indicates that respondents were asked an entirely different question, meaning that J Street’s claim that the vast majority of American Jews reject Netanyahu’s stance contains a heavy dollop of spin.
The Christian Science Monitor also quoted Dylan Williams, J Street director of government affairs, as saying, “I don’t think Jewish Americans are different from where the general American population is on this.” However, a recent Gallup poll pointed towards the polar opposite conclusion, with 84 percent of respondents having a “mostly unfavorable” or “very unfavorable” view of Iran.
J Street is currently running an aggressive campaign opposing Netanyahu’s forthcoming address to the US Congress, using the hashtag #Bibidoesn’tspeakforme. A petition being run by the organization goes so far as to describe Israel’s ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer, as the envoy of Netanyahu, and not the State of Israel.
The offense was compounded by a screenshot which showed that among the petition’s signatories were Nazi leaders “Adolf Hitler” and “Rudolf Hess,” as well as the American black nationalist leader “Malcolm X.”
Abbas Promises to Revive Peace Talks with Israel
Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas torpedoed the last “peace talks” with Israel by forming a unity partnership with Hamas, and is currently pursuing a unilateral International Criminal Court (ICC) lawsuit against Israel in breach of the 1993 Oslo Accords that formed his PA.
But according to Abbas he will work to revive the talks with Israel, in statements made on Tuesday during a visit to Stockholm in Sweden, reports The Associated Press.
During his Swedish press conference Abbas avoided questions about how to end the conflict with Israel or curb the terrorism of his unity partner Hamas – Abbas is himself head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Fatah terrorist organizations, and Fatah took part in Hamas’s latest terror war.
Abbas’s term in elected office ended in January, 2009, but poking at his rival “unity partner” Hamas that ousted Fatah from Gaza in 2005, Abbas said the Palestinian Arabs must be able to pick “who should lead them and if they accept violence or not.”
Sweden Announces Aid Package to ‘Palestine’
Sweden announced a multi-million-euro aid package for the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Tuesday as PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas made his first visit to Stockholm since 2009.
Prime Minister Stefan Loefven stressed that his country’s recognition of “Palestine” back in October, when it became the first major Western European country to do so, came with responsibilities.
“According to us Palestine is now a state. Our expectations of Palestine and their leadership will therefore increase,” Loefven told reporters during Abbas’ visit to Stockholm, according to the AFP news agency.
“There is no contradiction between keeping good relations with Palestine and keeping good relations with Israel,” Loefven added.
Watch: Arabs Attack Jerusalem Kindergarten with Fireworks
Terrorist attacks in Jerusalem have faded into the background in recent weeks after an intense spate of high-profile attacks late last year, but in Ma’ale Hazeitim on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives in the east of the city, the daily terror continues unabated.
On Wednesday morning a gang of Arab terrorists descended upon the Jewish neighborhood’s kindergarten, firing potentially lethal fireworks and hurling rocks at the institution.
The description of the video, which shows three security personnel eventually chasing off the rioters after a long period of unchecked assault, notes that the fireworks set off a fire adjacent to the kindergarten.
Regarding the fire, it was confirmed that the fireworks fired by the Arab rioters from the adjacent Ras el-Amud neighborhood set off a fire in the small field of greenery surrounding the kindergarten.
Labor ‘Submits to Arabs,’ Pulls Support for Barring Zoabi
The “Zionist camp” unity party of Labor and Hatnua retraced its steps regarding support for the barring of openly pro-Hamas Arab MK Hanin Zoabi, after the Arab parties threatened they would not join a coalition formed by Labor.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) had harsh words for the Labor party on Tuesday, writing on Facebook “it’s not enough to call yourself ‘the Zionist camp’ – a true Zionist doesn’t submit to the threats of the Arabs.”
“The submission to threats from the Arab sector, which caused the heads of the ‘Zionist camp’ to retract their support for outlawing Hanin Zoabi from running for the Knesset, is a continuation of the dangerous deterioration by which public sources and institutions submit to Arab terror,” charged Liberman.
IDF court lifts gag order on black-eye case of Palestinian girl
The conviction was for throwing rocks, possession of a knife and attempted throwing rocks.
The IDF prosecution viewed the case as serious in that al-Khatib confessed to trying to throw rocks at moving vehicles on Route 60 near her village of Bitin and had expressed a desire to use the knife to stab a soldier.
But al-Khatib was not convicted of attempting to stab anyone, only of illegal knife possession, and the campaign supporting her has presented her as having been a benign rock thrower incapable in size and physique of being dangerous.
While al-Khatib confessed to the charges in open court in the presence of her parents and her legal team as part of a plea bargain, supporters have still presented her sentence as an example of an overbearing military justice system which unfairly turns young children, now a young girl, into criminals.
The Post has learned that the key departure point for the IDF prosecution was that al-Khatib was not convicted merely for generic stone-throwing or blocking a road, but that her attempted stone-throwing regarding moving vehicles presented a real danger, despite her age.
Khaled Abu Toameh: ‘Palestinian commission of inquiry identifies suspect who poisoned Arafat’
A Palestinian commission of inquiry has succeeded in identifying the suspect who poisoned Yasser Arafat, a senior Fatah official said on Tuesday.
Tawfik Tirawi, head of the commission who previously served as commander of the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Service in the West Bank, told the Ma’an news agency that Israel was responsible for the death of Arafat in November 2004.
Tirawi did not reveal the identity of the suspect in the alleged poisoning of Arafat. The commission needs to conduct further investigations to verify its findings, he said.
“Israel is responsible for the death of Arafat, but we are searching for the person who was directly involved,” Tirawi said.
Khaled Abu Toameh: Majority of Palestinians favor halting security coordination with Israel, poll finds
The poll, which was conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, covered 1,000 Palestinian respondents and has a margin of error of three percent.
The president of the center, Nabil Kukali, said that around 61% of respondents expressed support for ending security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. “It seems that this stance came as a response to the repeated Israeli procedures, practices and transgressions, such as retaining the Palestinian customs revenues and the refusal to transfer these funds to the Palestinian Authority,” he said. “This, in addition to the continuation of settlement construction, halt of the peace process, tightening the siege on the Gaza Strip, boosting the checkpoints and the continuation of intrusions and arrests.”
The poll also found that 60% of respondents oppose the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority. Palestinians fear that dissolving the authority would leave a national vacuum and result in chaos and lawlessness, Kukali explained.
IDF seizes Hamas weapons, terrorist finance in West Bank raids
The IDF and Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency launched an operation in Judea and Samaria overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday to seize illegal weapons and terrorist finances in the possession of Hamas.
The army said the assets seized in the raids enabled Hamas to “strengthen its grip on the territory” in the Palestinian territories.
During the operation, terrorist finances worth 45 thousand shekels were seized.
Kfir infantry soldiers from the Menashe territorial Brigade launched raids southwest of Jenin and uncovered large numbers of firearms, ammunition, and knives, the army added.
The army arrested six Palestinian suspects found to be in possession of weapons.
Amb. Alan Baker: Is the Palestinian ICC gambit compatible with the EU call for a return to negotiations?
As reported by the EU: “The Quartet underlined the importance of the parties resuming negotiations as soon as possible, with a view to reaching a just, lasting and comprehensive peace on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, the Madrid Principles including land for peace and the agreements previously reached between the parties.”
Surprisingly, the EU Quartet added: “A sustainable peace requires the Palestinians’ aspirations for statehood and sovereignty and those of Israelis for security to be fulfilled through negotiations based on the two-state solution. The Quartet will remain actively engaged in preparing for a resumption of the peace process in the coming period, including regular and direct outreach to Arab states. Pending the resumption of negotiations, the Quartet called on both parties to refrain from actions that undermine trust or prejudge final status issues.”
Clearly the question here, taking into consideration these two news items, is how can the Palestinians push for bringing Israeli leaders before the ICC on the one hand while on the other intimating to the world their desire to resume negotiations with those same leaders? That the person heading their ICC preparation committee is the chief Palestinian negotiator to both the US and the EU would alone seem to render this whole picture rather absurd. It begs the question: which Israelis does Erekat intend to negotiate with, if his aim is to have them all arrested for war crimes? It is perhaps high time that the international community faced the reality that the Palestinian leadership, in attempting to stem the rise of popular support for Hamas among its population, is resorting to this ICC gambit as a public relations exercise, blatantly deceiving themselves, their constituency and the international community.
Having issued their Quartet statement calling for the resumption of negotiations, and in light of their express intention to “remain engaged” in preparing for a resumption of such negotiations, one would expect that if they had an iota of genuine concern for the future of the peace process the senior Quartet representatives issuing the statement – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry, EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson (representing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon) – would have made it very clear to the Palestinian leaders that “they can’t have their cake and eat it, too.”
Alan Parsons Busts Out The Israeli Crew In Tel Aviv
The show was TERRIFIC. They played pretty much all of their best known songs – Games People Play, You Don’t believe, Time, PsychoBabble, I Wouldn’t Want to be Like You (unfortunately not dedicated to Roger) and of course their most famous song – Eye In The Sky with guest vocals by Marina Maximimilian who was a popular runner up in the 5th season of the Israeli version of American Idol (Kochav Nolad).
Another guest appearance was Avi Singolda who plays guitar in Shlomo Artzi’s band (think Israeli Springsteen). And a big surprise was guest appearance by Israeli mega pop star Aviv Gefen who joined them on stage for Old and wise.
In fact one of the members of the band was Israeli bassist Guy Erez who has been playing with Alan Parsons on and off for a few years now. Here’s some video I took myself of the song “Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You” featuring a great bass solo by Guy Erez.
At the end of the concert Alan said something diplomatic about how he realizes that there is opposition to playing in Israel, but he greatly enjoyed playing in Tel Aviv. Not quite the “Screw You Roger Waters” while flipping him the bird that I was hoping for, but I guess Alan just thinks actions speak louder than words. All in all the concert was a hugely entertaining night out and a colossal fail for BDS
Hezbollah, Syrian forces and Iranian officers approach Israeli border in fight against rebels
Hezbollah, Syrian army forces and Iranian officers have drawn close to the border with Israel in the Golan Heights in their fight against Syrian rebels, AFP reported on Wednesday, citing state media reports and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Regime troops and their Hezbollah-led allies are advancing in the area linking Daraa, Quneitra and Damascus provinces,” the Observatory stated.
“The operation launched by the Syrian army is being fought in cooperation with… Hezbollah and Iran,” a Syrian army officer told state television, in what AFP reported was the first time that Syrian television had acknowledged such cooperation.
The Syrian forces were attempting to gain control of the area from rebels such as the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, who have made advances in southern Syrian in recent months.
Six Hezbollah operatives and six Iranians, including a general were killed last month in an air strike in the Golan Heights in Syria that was widely attributed to Israel.
New Al Qaeda Video Shows Steady
Advance along Israeli Border
The Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, has released a new propaganda video documenting its steady gains in southern Syria, along the border with Israel.
The 48-minute video is a clear attempt to reassert the Al Qaeda franchise in the jihadi propaganda sphere, where it has been eclipsed by the slick productions of rival jihadi outfit ISIS.
It comes as Al Nusra is experiencing a resurgence on the ground in Syria as well, where until a few months ago it appeared to be losing its momentum, in stark contrast to ISIS’s lightening offensives in Iraq and Syria. Recently, Al Nusra has made significant gains against both regime and rival rebel forces, including the capture of large swathes of territory in the Syrian Golan Heights, which borders Israel.
Unlike many previous Nusra Front productions, production-wise this one is on-par with those made by Islamic State/ISIS.
Greece plans military exercises with Israel, Egypt
Greece plans joint military exercises with Israel, Cyprus and Egypt, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said Wednesday, amid continuing tensions between Cyprus and Turkey over oil exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.
Kammenos, visiting close ally Cyprus, said the two countries, along with Israel and “possibly” Egypt would begin joint exercises within the coming months aimed at improving regional security.
Cyprus has suspended UN-led peace talks with Turkey, which invaded the island in 1974 and still occupies its northern third, saying Ankara persists in trying to hamper the country’s energy search.
Nicosia has licensed exploratory drilling in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and is unhappy that Ankara is determined to search for oil and gas in the same area.
Kammenos criticized as a “clear provocation” Turkey’s sending of a survey ship to the waters where the drilling is taking place.
Israel Seen
Central Elections C’tee bars Zoabi, Marzel from running in election
MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) and Yachad candidate Baruch Marzel will not be able to run for seats in the next Knesset, the Central Elections Committee voted Thursday.
However, such disqualifications are automatically brought to the High Court of Justice, which ruled overwhelmingly against similar cases – including those of both Zoabi and Marzel – in past elections.
According to Basic Law: Knesset, candidates or lists may not run for seats in the Knesset if they reject Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, incite to racism or incite to armed conflict against the country.
Zoabi’s ban passed with 27 Central Elections Committee members in favor from Shas, UTJ, Likud, Bayit Yehudi, Yisrael Beytenu, Yesh Atid, Labor and Hatnua (Zionist Union) and six opposed from UAL, Ta’al, Balad, Hadash and Meretz. Committee chairman Justice Salim Joubran abstained.
JPost Editorial: The PA’s boycott
In its latest move, it will likely harm itself as well. The six boycotted firms are resilient and much of what they offer cannot be replaced in the Palestinian marketplace.
This is hardly an effective means of fighting the Jewish state, but there should be no mistake – this new boycott too is conceived and implemented as an unequivocally antagonistic act against Israel. The double standards and demonization unleashed from Ramallah surely attest to something that runs deeper than smug holier-than-thou criteria for commercial vendettas.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas ought to remember that the latest boycott, like its futile predecessors, directly flouts the economic annex of the original Oslo Accords. Known as the Paris Agreement, the April 29, 1994, Annex IV of the Gaza-Jericho Agreement (or Protocol on Economic Relations) specifically forbids what Abbas now launches.
That protocol forbids restrictions on agricultural and industrial products. Each side, the annex stipulates, “will do its best to avoid damage to the industry of the other side and will take into consideration the concerns of the other side in its industrial policy.”
This is yet another Palestinian breach of the Oslo Accords, which hardly augurs well for the much-vaunted causes of compromise and coexistence.
Israel Seen
Khaled Abu Toameh: Fatah blames armed gangsters for Nablus-area violence
Fatah’s Office of Information and Culture on Wednesday accused armed gangsters of imposing a reign of terror and intimidation on residents of the Balata refugee camp and the nearby city of Nablus.
The accusation came after several days of armed clashes between Palestinian Authority policemen and gunmen from Balata, the largest refugee camp in the West Bank and a traditional stronghold of Fatah-affiliated armed groups.
“The camp has been hijacked by an armed group that is terrorizing and threatening to kill residents who dare to speak out,” the Fatah Office of Information and Culture said. It accused the gunmen of extorting money from wealthy businessmen from Nablus and running a big market for drugs and weapons.
The “outlaws” have been operating for some time, committing various types of crimes against residents of the camp and Nablus, it said.
Hamas Commander Killed by Egyptian Forces in Sinai
A commander of the Hamas terrorist group’s Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades was reportedly killed by an Egyptian army airstrike in the Sinai Peninsula.
Abdallah Saeed Kashta, 25, from the southern Gaza town of Rafah, was killed as part of a raid by Egyptian forces against the Islamic State-affiliated Wilayat Sinai jihadist group (formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis) last Friday, Sky News Arabia reported.
Israel’s Channel 2 reported that Kashta was cooperating with the Sinai jihadist group.
Israel Seen
