September 2010 Archives
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
A bit of good news from Divest This!
And so it begins (or, should I say, continues).
Adding to the long list of food co-ops that have rejected a boycott of Israeli goods (Davis, Seattle, etc.), the Port Townsend Food Co-op last night rejected a boycott proposal with the board voting 4-2 to give BDS the heave ho.
It wasn't supposed to be this way, thought the BDSniks who had managed to achieve a boycott win at Olympia Washington just a few months ago. Yes, boycotts had faced defeat after defeat at co-ops up until the point where they finally scored a win at Olympia. But according to BDS logic, one victory is all that is needed to create a wave of comparable activity at similar organizations across the nation and around the globe.
So why did the boycott stall just two hours up the road from Olympia at Port Townsend?
Could it be that co-op communities such as Davis, Seattle, Port Townsend (not to mention other co-ops that look likely to kick BDS down the stairs such as Sacramento) are full of reactionary Tea Partiers while only Olympia represents true enlightenment? The argument that the Olympia co-op community is unique with regard to the mix of political opinion was difficult sell in the best of circumstances. And claims of uniqueness also make it more difficult to sell yourself as a model for other communities.
I've noted before that BDS's few successes this millennium seem to be concentrated within a ten mile radius of Rachel Corrie's house, but I think there is a more obvious answer to the question of why a boycott passed in Olympia and is failing everywhere else.
Quite simply, at Davis and Seattle and Port Townsend and all of the other communities where BDS has been rejected, the public was allowed into the conversation and the decision-making process. Boycott and divestment activities never do well when exposed to sunlight, and the fact remains that the only thing unique about Olympia (the one co-op where a boycott was initiated) is that they managed to get the boycott passed behind the backs of the membership. And no matter how much the Olympia board tries to keep its head down and hope the whole controversy blows over them, the fact remains that with every rejection of boycott by Port Townsend and others, they are exposed as being in conflict not just with their own members but with the members and very principles of the entire co-op movement.
I'm going to make one more prediction (other than the one that says BDS will continue to fail as co-ops turn to Davis and Port Townsend for inspiration, rather than Olympia). One of the ironic consequences of BDS is that when a wave of divestment or boycott activity sweeps through a community, it leaves behind a newly minted group of pro-Israel activists and informs an institution of aspects of the Jewish state they may not have been familiar with previously.
When divestment hit Somerville, MA six years ago it failed spectacularly, but not before introducing the city's mayor to a part of the world he'd not thought much about previously. Soon after the divestment debate was over, that Mayor traveled to Israel to take part in a program for municipal leaders that he would never have heard of had BDS not come to town. And since then, he's used lessons he learned from rubbing elbows with his Israeli counterparts to improve municipal services in his corner of Massachusetts.
The punchline at the end of my wacky tale of Sydney and Omar riffed on how BDS activists actually introduce uninformed people of the variety of Israeli products, innovations, opportunities and experiences that might have remained unknown if a divestment or boycott project had not come to town. And so I predict a boom in opportunities for Israeli products in a new market where they have recently gotten high levels of attention: food cooperatives.
Anyway, we generally don't get our good news out as quickly as do our opponents, but here's hoping: spread the word! BDS loses again!
Monday, September 20, 2010
For those of you waiting to find out what's become of Syd and Om as they attempt to convince TIAA-CREF to divest in Israel, all three parts of the tale can be found here:
Now it's off to my therapist!
Jon
Friday, September 17, 2010
It's still summer right?
Blogging will be light for the next few days as I prepare, then pretty well non-existent until I return around the 26th. I'm also messing around and trying to learn how to make the best use of the iPhone I just got.
Thank you for your continued readership and please return with your clicks then. Subscriptions are available by email or RSS reader in any case, so you never need miss a post.
Email will also be only spottily returned.
[Just bumping this one to note that I have turned off comments so as to avoid having to be worried that spammers have taken over the blog while I'm not watching. The usual contact methods will continue to work.]
Thursday, September 16, 2010
With Sol on vacation, I thought I'd use this occasion to introduce you to some of my poetry.
No wait! Come back!
OK, just kidding. Actually, I wanted to alert you to a little BDS something I just got published in The Monitor:
Mazel Tov Y'all!
Jon
Wow. From Americans for Peace and Tolerance: School Trip to "Moderate" Mosque: Inside Video Captures Kids Bowing to Allah (Note that here in Boston, like New York, the mosque is also referred to as a "cultural center.")
Today, Americans for Peace and Tolerance released a video showing 6th graders from Wellesley, MA as they rise from prostrating themselves alongside Muslim men in a prayer to Allah while on a public school field trip to the largest mosque in the Northeast. Teachers did not intervene. Parents have not been told.
The video was taken inside the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center - Boston's controversial Saudi-funded mega-mosque - during a Wellesley Middle School social studies trip to the mosque, ostensibly taken to learn about the history of Islam first-hand. Yet the video reveals that the students are being blatantly mis-educated about Islam. A mosque spokesperson is seen teaching the children that in Mohammed's 7th century Arabia women were allowed to vote, while in America women only gained that right a hundred years ago. This seems to be an increasingly recurring theme in American schools - the denigration of western civilization and the glorification of Islamic history and values. In fact, just recently, the American Textbook Council revealed that the New York State high school regents exam whitewashes the atrocities that occurred during the imperialistic Islamic conquest of Christian Byzantium, Persia, the African continent, and the Indian subcontinent, even as it demonizes European colonialism in South America.
The mosque spokesperson also taught the students that the only meaning of Jihad in Islam is a personal spiritual struggle, and that Jihad has historically had no relationship with holy war. As far as we know, the school has not corrected these false lessons.
For the past three years we've been sounding the alarm about the radical leadership and Saudi funding of the Boston mega-mosque and the organization that runs it, the Muslim American Society, which has been labeled by Federal prosecutors as "the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America."...
More here.
Charles Jacobs dedicates his Jewish Advocate column this week to the issue, presented in full here:
Continue reading "Video: Mosque Prayer on Public School Fieldtrip. Where is the ACLU?"Wednesday, September 15, 2010
For those of you with even more time on your hands than the rest of us, I present Part 2 of Sydney and Omar's BDS Journey over at Divest This!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
[The following, by Ben Cohen, is crossposted from Z Word.]
Anyone who still believes that a single state between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River can be brought about without exterminating and expelling the vast majority of Jews living in the territory should watch this sordid little fantasy about the "liberation" of Tel Aviv, courtesy of the genocidaires of Hamas.
[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]
Antisemitism reached a new low in Arab countries when Algeria announced it was banning sales of the Koran bearing a Star of David on the cover:
Ynet News reports:
"Algeria ordered thousands of Koran books whose covers bear a Jewish symbol to be removed from shelves, on a day in which an American pastor relinquished his plan to burn the holy Muslim testament.
"Algerians who had already purchased the books decorated with a Star of David were urged to return them to stores in exchange for another Koran or their money back.
"According to the Algerian government, the symbol on the cover "is not in keeping with the general ethics of the state".
The United Arab Emirates-based Al-Bayan quoted an official from the Algerian Ministry of Religious Affairs as saying that a private businessman had imported the books from Egypt, and that censoring authorities were accusing him of "disrupting public order".
Why stop at copies of the Koran? Perhaps Tunisia should pull down the Great Synagogue in Tunis for its provocative 'Seal of Solomon':
Continue reading "Star-of-David Koran violates Algerian 'state ethics'"
Saudi Arabia: $60 Billion for U.S. Arms; $30 Million for Palestinians; Nothing for U.S. Policy Goals[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]
The United States is building up the defenses of Gulf Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia, for the day that Iran has nuclear weapons. This program has two purposes: to make the local states feel more confident about resisting Tehran and relying on the United States. It also brings a lot of revenue into the faltering U.S. economy. The companies involved say this will provide more than 70,000 jobs.
This particular deal sets a record at $60 billion just for starters. Saudi Arabia will be buying 84 F-15 fighter jets; upgrades for 70 F-15s; and more than 150 helicopters including Black Hawks and Apaches sent over a number of years. Ships and anti-missile defenses may be added later.
Israel's concern about such a massive strengthening of the Saudi air force is mitigated by getting its own new planes, the F-35, and knowing that short of an Islamist revolution in Saudi Arabia, the American-supplied aircraft won't be a threat to itself.
The U.S. sale seems reasonable both in military and strategic terms. One should add, however, that the Saudis are never going to be able to defend themselves against Iran, just as they weren't able to do so against Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime.
Everything depends on how scared Riyadh is by Iran and how confident it is in the willingness of President Barack Obama to act decisively in its defense. Here is one weak spot in the U.S. strategy. The other is the failure to understand--or at least to respond effectively--to Iran's campaign of ideological, terrorist, and financial subversion toward other countries in the region.
Continue reading "Saudi Arabia: $60 Billion for U.S. Arms; $30 Million for Palestinians; Nothing for U.S. Policy Goals"[The following, by Israelinurse, is crossposted from CiF Watch.]
The ever watchful Robin Shepherd informed us last week of a new flotilla being organised by 'European Jews for a Just Peace' so, as Robin suggests, it is time to take a look at who and what lies behind these latest ships of fools.
In common with the previous attempts to break Israel's partial blockade of Gaza the organisers of this flotilla claim the moral and legal right to do so on the basis of their interpretation of the situation on the ground - an interpretation sadly lacking anchorage in facts. They claim that the blockade is 'illegal', 'morally wrong' and 'indefensible'. They also claim that their actions are necessary due to the 'humanitarian crisis ' in Gaza. There is, of course, no truth in either of these oft-repeated claims and never has been - they are merely a smoke screen for political activism.
Israel continues to transport thousands of tons of humanitarian aid of all kinds into the Gaza Strip every day and details of the amounts and nature of the aid entering Gaza are openly publicized on the internet for all to see. Three months ago restrictions on the types of goods entering Gaza were eased even further and there is no truth whatsoever in the claims made by various flotilla organizers of shortages or even starvation. Not only is Israel's economic blockade on Gaza entirely in line with international law, the fact that flotilla organisers have consistently reserved their indignation for Israeli actions whilst conveniently ignoring very similar ones on the part of Egypt indicates clearly that their motives are political rather than humanitarian.
Israel's maritime blockade of Gaza is also entirely legal under international law, as Professor of international law Ruth Lapidoth points out:
Continue reading "Behind the scenes of the next "freedom" flotilla"Sunday, September 12, 2010
The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) launches a RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile during a live-fire exercise in the Atlantic Ocean Sept. 7, 2010. The ship is conducting work-ups and flight operations in preparation for an upcoming deployment. (DoD photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Tiger Martinez, U.S. Navy/Released)
As always with the Cool Military Pic of the Day, click through for a larger version. Please leave a comment if you have trouble opening the defense imagery site. Thanks.
Via The Flea and Blazing Cat Fur:
[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]
The media's coverage of the 9th anniversary of the Muslim murder of 3,000 people was overshadowed by their panicked coverage of the possibility that Terry Jones, the pastor of a tiny Florida church, might actually burn the Koran. Last week Newsweek ran Fareed Zakaria's piece insisting that Americans overreacted to 9/11. So instead the media showed us where their priorities lie, by shortchanging the dead, ignoring their killers and instead turning the pastor of a small Florida church into a villain for even talking about the possibility of torching a book, whose contents helped inspire 9/11. It's as if on Holocaust Memorial Day, the key topic of discussion was not the murder of 6,000,000 Jews, but a protester who wanted to get his Bic lighter close to Mein Kampf.
In the weeks leading up to the anniversary, the media had been sanctimoniously lecturing Americans that their sensitivities regarding Ground Zero were irrelevant in the face of a Muslim desire to put up a massive and completely unnecessary Islamic complex in the area. Constitutional freedoms, real or imagined, trumped any sensitivities. But when a Gainesville pastor proposed returning a couple of copies of the Koran back to the environment by way of lighter fluid, suddenly freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and all that other stuff created by dead white men before the age of Walter Kronkite and CNN, were irrelevant in face of Muslim sensitivities.
Time Magazine and USA Today both ran polls asking whether burning the Koran should be criminalized as a hate crime. CNN gave a forum to a Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri to argue that burning a Koran would have been worse than 9/11 and warned that such actions "should be stopped by the U.S. government at any cost". Now Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri shows in his article that while he may not know the difference between "principal" and "principle", or "ensure" and "insure", he understands exactly how to push for the imposition of the horrifying barbarity of Islamic Sharia law in America.
Continue reading "Burn the Koran or the Constitution"[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]
Visiting the Maadi synagogue, one of the only two functioning synagogues in Cairo, Jennifer Conlin describes in the New York Times what it was like to be the only practising Jewish family in Egypt over the New Year holiday:
I looked around at the police guards, none of whom were smiling back at us, but decided that it was not their job. They were here to protect us, not greet us.
A strict line of questioning ensued, the young officer flipping through the pages of our passports, looking deep into my husband's eyes each time he responded.
"Who told you to come here?" "Why are you in Egypt?" "Where are you from in America?" he fired off in quick succession, affecting a more personal demeanor as he noted our recent entry visas, "So your family just moved here?" I thought I saw him give the children a brief look of sympathy before clearing the way for us to enter the closed-off street.
To our left was an iron gate, behind it a building surrounded by overgrown trees and bushes. Soon, another Israeli embassy official approached us, a tall man in his 30s, dressed like Daniel in business attire.
As Daniel spoke with him, introducing our family and the circumstances that had brought us to Cairo (our work here as journalists), the children and I pushed open the gate, eager to explore the grounds surrounding the small synagogue and meet the other members.
Instead, we found only more security guards. They were circling the small jewel box of a building with German shepherds, the guard's eyes darting upward to inspect the windows and roofs of every bordering apartment complex, the dogs inhaling every scent on the ground.
Few matters demonstrate the Palestinian Authority's unreadiness to be their own sovereign than their inability to figure out what country they are to run -- hint: It ain't Israel. PM demands Palestinians recognize Israel as Jewish state
Netanyahu: "I don't hear the other side saying 'two states for two nations.' I hear two states, but I don't hear two nations"; ministers speak up on settlement freeze.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that a peace agreement is based, first of all, on the recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish People...
...The prime minister stated that "we say that the solution is two states for two peoples, meaning two national states, a Jewish national state and a Palestinian national state. To my regret, I have yet to hear from the Palestinians the phrase 'two states for two peoples'. I hear them saying 'two states' but I do not hear them recognizing two states for two peoples."...
Well, if Abbas and the Palestinian Arabs were serious, this would be basic. Any peace treaty must end the conflict. Elementary. And that means that Abbas must be willing to admit that he's to be President of the hoped for State of Palestine on borders that don't contain what is now recognized as Israel and be satisfied with making a future from that.
Instead, what we have is a flashback to the seventeenth century, before the advent of the Peace of Westphalia, at which time the modern system of nation states with sovereign borders is generally thought to have been codified and rulers were expected to essentially keep their rulership within their own borders and lay hands off what went on in others.
Abbas wants to be granted his own kingdom, and still be a prince of Israel. This is retrograde. It's a ticket to continued conflict, and it's not viable. Until they recognize the reality of what Israel is, and move with the rest of us into the 21st century, they aren't ready for day 1 of a peace conference.
[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]
The following article appears in PajamasMedia. For your convenience I have included the text here with some additions and improvements.
Over and over, the Obama Administration shows its capacity for misunderstanding Israel and increases its own unpopularity there. Even while bilateral relations are good, it reminds Israelis of why they don't fundamentally trust this government and how Washington doesn't understand them at all.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), which is supposed to help countries raise their living standards, gave a $250,000 grant to the H.L. Peace Education Program of the Geneva Initiative. I wonder if the U.S. Congress considers this to be within AID's mandate!
The money isn't paying for potable water, health clinics, or small factories but billboards featuring the faces of some Palestinian and Israeli officials asking: "We are partners--what about you?" Typical, isn't it? The implication of the signs and film clips to Israelis who see them is that the Palestinians are ready for peace but the question is whether Israel wants peace. Oh, that will be very effective with Israelis, right?
If you have any doubts on that point, read the article about what went on behind the scenes from Israel's leading newspaper, Yediot Aharnot. Even the Israeli film crew members were making sarcastic cracks about what the "partners" were saying off camera. It is rather funny to watch the left-wing Israeli politico prodding the "moderate" Palestinians to say dovish things according to his script when they are clearly unwilling to do so.
By the way, on one occasion, during the 1990s' peace process era, dovish American Jews wrote the speech for Yasir Arafat to make to an American Jewish audience so he would say the "right" things even though he didn't mean them. This kind of thing is totally unproductive, isn't it, since it portrays a moderation that really isn't there. A colleague of mine still has a copy of the speech marked up by Arafat's hosts to clean up his image.We all saw how well that worked out in the end!
Continue reading "U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Pays for Ludicrous (and Counterproductive) PA Propaganda Campaign"Saturday, September 11, 2010
Still the best cartoon for the day:
[By Cox and Forkum]
As always, Michelle Malkin has a good post for the day.
Friday, September 10, 2010
[The following, by Matt, is crossposted from Huffington Post Monitor.]
Last week, the HP published an interview of Anna Baltzer, the notoriously anti-Israel Jewish woman, by a guy named Christian Avard. While I knew who Baltzer was, I had never heard of this Avard guy, and his HP description states he is a staff reporter for the Deerfield Valley News, of Dover, Vermont. He seems to have written quite a bit about a variety of subjects, including US-Muslim relations, but this looked to be his first on Israel. However, according to his bio, his writings have appeared in Electronic Intifada, so that immediately got my attention.
So, here's the interview. Before we even get to Baltzer's series of misleading answers and downright lies, let's take a look at what kind of questions Avard, the "staff reporter", asked her.
"What made that episode a reality and did your appearance on The Daily Show indicate that the mainstream media is beginning to explore the realities of the Israeli occupation of Palestine?"
"How much of an impact did the atrocities of Operation Cast Lead and the Mavi Marmara flotilla have an effect in opening people's eyes to the Israeli occupation of Palestine?"
The rest of his questions are reasonable enough, but these two are shocking in how leading they are. Besides the obviousness of Avard's description of "Palestine" as a place that clearly exists and Israel's clearly occupying it, his second question in particular is an excellent example of begging the question. What if the Mavi Marmara raid wasn't in fact an atrocity, but is what the US and Israel considers it to be: a raid on a group of violent jihadist terror supporters? That is up for debate between us, but the fact is an objective reporter would not ask a question like that. But, of course, a truly objective reporter, who challenged Baltzer's assumptions, would not get published on the HP.
For Baltzer's responses, follow past the break.
Continue reading "Baltzer and Avard: Propaganda Mouthpieces for the Palestinians"[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]
The synagogue in Karachi, Pakistan
The amazing story of a Jewish woman who smuggled Jews of out Pakistan in the 1970s has just began to emerge, this blog can reveal (Point of No Return exclusive!):
The Jewish wife of the Australian Consul-General posted to Pakistan helped smuggle out members of the tiny Jewish community in the 1970s.
Leaving a comment on Point of No Return a Pakistani Jewish man recalled that his widowed sister and niece were smuggled out in the trunk of a car belonging to the Australian diplomat's wife following the Indo-Pakistani war. The border was then closed to all except diplomats.
"My sister told me how she had the centre rear armrest taken out and had a vacuum cleaner hose fitted from the air-conditioning unit to the trunk. We don't think that her husband knew what she did. We believe she may have smuggled other Jews in the same way," the Pakistani Jew writes. The sister and niece now live in New York.
The Jew says that he left Pakistan this year. "For decades we masqueraded as Muslims," he writes.
According to her son, the Australian diplomat's wife provided the small Karachi community - numbering perhaps 1 - 200 Jews - with their needs, including Kosher wine and grape juice. When her husband was not with her she would travel to the synagogue in the diplomatic Mercedes-Benz with the licence plates covered and no Australian flag flying on the bonnet.
She got in touch with the Jews of Karachi via the Chief of Police, a Christian. "Within a week, he came back with addresses," her son remembers. None of the Urdu-speaking community were well-off.
Although other Jews were rarely present, her son recalls attending formal diplomatic dinners on Friday nights wearing a kippa. "Nobody took any notice of it," he told Point of No Return.
Forty years on his mother, now an elderly widow, still insists on anonymity and secrecy about her activities.
" She asked us never to contact her or speak of how we got out in case her husband lost his employment. But this is now 40 years ago and he will have long retired," the Pakistani Jew writes.
The diplomat's wife brought home to Australia for safekeeping the Teba and Ark from the synagogue in Karachi. She also rescued a Torah and candlesticks from a synagogue on the borders of Afghanistan, and bought a beautiful lapis lazuli inlaid Menorah in the bazaar of a village in the tribal area at the base of the Khyber Pass road.
It is not known how many Jews still live in Pakistan, but it is thought that several high-profile business people claiming to be Parsees or Muslims are in fact Jews. One contacted Point of No Return, saying his (or her) family living in the UAE masqueraded as Parsee. "We are terrified here and in Pakistan to say we are Jewish," he (or she) wrote.
In the days of the British empire, the Jewish community in what is now Pakistan numbered several thousand. All but a few have fled for Israel and the West.
While some shmendrick pastor down in Florida is getting his day in the sun (the burning has been canceled -- phew, that was a close one), some criticism of what he was planning has been coming from what may be called unexpected sources, all of whom agree we should be learning the Koran, not burning it.
Like Michelle Malkin: The Koran: Don't burn it. Read it.
...Instead of burning the Koran, Americans need to be reading it, understanding it, and educating themselves about the Koran passages, Islamic history, and jihadi context that brought us to this 9th anniversary year of the 9/11 attacks...
and Brigitte Gabriel's American Congress for Truth (ACT) which has been circulating the following:
We at ACT! for America denounce and condemn, in the strongest terms, the upcoming Koran burning event organized by Pastor Terry Jones and members of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida. Their proposed event is ill-conceived, counter-productive and unwelcome in a world where ideas and philosophies are best debated in the context of the issues and the facts. We find this an archaic act that serves no useful purpose, and as such is a regrettable instance of an inability or unwillingness to discuss the issues facing us in a reasonable and constructive manner.
ACT! for America is, and has always been, committed to exposing the threat of the political ideology of radical Islam and its sharia law through constructive debate, illumination of the facts, and a reasoned analysis of the implications of the threat.
Pastor Jones and his congregation are stooping to the tactics of and joining the inarticulate who express their anger and opposition through destructive and spiteful acts of denigration. What is the difference between his actions and the actions of Islamists destroying synagogues in Gaza or churches and Bibles in Lebanon, Bosnia and Egypt? We are better than that as Americans.
And Americans for Peace and Tolerance, the group that's taken the lead in shining a spotlight on the Boston mega-Mosque:
We at APT condemn in the strongest terms the planed 9/11 Quran burning event organized by Pastor Terry Jones and his Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida.
The Quran needs to be studied; its objectionable passages need to be honestly examined; and reformist Muslims should be given a safe and accommodating forum for its reinterpretation.
We in the West have adopted the values of the Enlightenment and have been enriched by the intellectual and reason-driven world we have created, a world where ideas are explored and debated - adopted or rejected -- on the basis of reason, facts, logic and humanity.
Book burning is an act that prevents the sort of discussion of Islamic ideas and programs that is most needed in the current circumstances.
APT exists to expose the program of Islamists to radicalize America's historic Muslim community. We do so through research, discussion and open debate. We don't need to burn books. We need to help the people who want to reform them.
We find this analysis of the issue by Frank Gaffney particularly prescient.
Imagine that. You can simultaneously stand up for Western values and not jump around like a fool.
[The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from FresnoZionism.]
The controversy about the Ground Zero whatever-it-is (supporters say it is not a mosque and not at Ground Zero, but it includes a mosque and is two blocks away) has left the realm of rational discourse. Once you have The Opposition -- Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich -- weighing in on one side, you could have expected that the administration and its friends would take the opposing view with both feet. The latest broadside comes from the liberal Jewish establishment:
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- Jewish groups have stepped up efforts to combat anti-Muslim bigotry, with several national initiatives announced this week and supporting statements coming in from a range of Jewish voices.
In Washington, officials from several Jewish organizations took part Tuesday in an emergency summit of Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders that denounced anti-Muslim bigotry and called for a united effort by believers of all faiths to reach out to Muslim Americans.
Also Tuesday, the Anti-Defamation League announced the creation of an Interfaith Coalition on Mosques, which will monitor and respond to instances of anti-Muslim bias surrounding attempts to build new mosques in the United States.
Meanwhile, six rabbis and scholars representing the Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox streams have launched an online campaign urging rabbis to devote part of their sermons this Shabbat to educating their congregations about Islam.
The efforts come in response to what organizers describe as a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment resulting from the impending ninth anniversary of 9/11 and the controversy surrounding efforts to build a Muslim community center and mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan. Jewish bloggers and pundits, mostly on the right, have become more vocal in opposing the center and calling for greater scrutiny of American mosques. [my emphasis]
There are still plenty of good reasons to want the mosque to be built somewhere else, and they don't include "anti-Muslim bigotry". There are questions about the Imam's support of radical Islamism, the funding of the project, and the understanding of its significance in the Muslim world. This is not changed by some drunk and mentally disturbed student stabbing a cabbie or a nutcase burning copies of the Quran in Florida.
Continue reading "Mosques, Qurans, nutcases and useful idiots"[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]
"Islam did not attack the World Trade Center -- Al Qaeda did," Mayor Bloomberg
From a technical standpoint, Mayor Bloomberg is correct. In the sense that all of Islam did not get together in four airplanes and fly them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In that same sense, Japan did not attack Pearl Harbor, only a few hundred Japanese people did, under the command of the Japanese Air Force. So too, in that particular instance 19 Muslims, under the command of an international Muslim group hijacked the planes and killed over 3,000 people. But in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, the United States didn't declare war on a few hundred Japanese pilots, or the Japanese air force. We declared war on Japan.
On 9/11, Al Qaeda did not act in the name of 19 people, or ten thousand or so followers. It acted in the name of Islam. And while anyone can claim to do anything in the name of Islam, Al Qaeda was not some random fringe group. Al Qaeda drew its ideological support from the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest Muslim political group in the world. It and its allies drew on financial support from the governments of some of the world's largest and most influential Muslim countries in the world, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. These are countries which compromise some 200 million Muslims.
Meanwhile the vast majority of Muslims in poll after poll agree with Al Qaeda's goals, they only disagree with its methods. Since Al Qaeda's methods are illegal, and support for them is a potentially prosecutable offense, it's not surprising that this disjunction exists. But the fact that most Muslims support Al Qaeda's goals, makes it impossible to argue that it is not representative of Muslims. Most Muslims see themselves as sharing Al Qaeda's goals, they are just not prepared to openly say that they support its methods.
Those who dismiss Al Qaeda as unrepresentative of Islam, rarely like to talk about the support for its goals, only its methods. But the strong show of support for Al Qaeda's goals, demonstrates why it is a popular organization in the Muslim world. And Al Qaeda's goals are not non-violent, they involve the forcible application of Islamic law in Muslim countries that reduces non-Muslims and women to second class status. The vast majority of Muslims agree with Al Qaeda that America is the enemy and that the US should be forced out of Muslim countries. The majority agreed with pushing the US not to support Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan... the endgame of which would be to allow Islamic groups to take them over. And finally the majority had positive or mixed feelings toward Bin Laden.
Continue reading "Islam Did Attack Us on September 11"[The following, by Eamonn McDonagh, is crossposted from Z Word.]
Emilio Menéndez del Valle represents Spain's ruling PSOE party in the European Parliament and was formerly his country's ambassador to Jordan and Italy. He has an op-ed in today's El Páis about the Israel-Palestine negotiations in which he doesn't hold back on the power of the Jewish lobby in US politics and goes so far as to say that America's foreign policy in the Middle East has been kidnapped by Jewish power. Another brave socialist speaks out about Jewish power. Well done, Emilio.
One particular part of his article deserves special attention. He says that Israel's claim to be recognized as a Jewish state is a
... contradictio in natura given that 20% of the population of Israel is Arab, not Jewish.
So without a uniform national identity among its inhabitants states can't claim to represent a single national identity. Irony can't be Menéndez del Valle's strong point because judged on this basis his own country, the Kingdom of Spain, doesn't come out very well as it obliges a large minority of its citizens (Catalans, Basques, Muslim inhabitants of the colonial enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and, at least to some degree, Galicians as well) to accept Spanish national identity in spite of the fact that they don't feel themselves to be Spanish in any way and that they see the Spanish state as robbing them of their right to self-determination.
My advice to Mr. Netanyahu would be that Israel should drop its demand to be a recognized as a Jewish state when the Kingdom of Spain dissolves itself and is replaced by a confederation of independent Iberian nations.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
To all my Jewish readers (I know there are a few), Happy 5771!
Thank you for visiting this site. Thank you for your comments, your links, your clicks, your eyes, your emailing. Thank you for your interest. Thank you for keeping up the fight.
Much health and happiness.
A little New Year's laugh before we all head off for New Year's celebrations:
Sydney and Omar's BDS Journey - Part 1
The rest will be finished when I can find my corkscrew.
Shana Tovah!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
[The following is a guest post by Anna Geifman.]
Today is the last day of Shiva for Yitzchak and Tali Imas, an Israeli couple gunned down by terrorists on August 31st while driving home to Beit Haggai, a small town near Hebron. If you did not know them personally, you should know about these beautiful people, of blessed memory indeed. For their killers, they were nameless symbols of the hated "Zionist entity". For their many friends, Tali and Yitzchak were inspired souls.
How often do you see faces that glow with peaceful light and quiet, almost shy happiness? This couple, parents of six children, possessed nothing yet behaved as if the world was theirs to share. And they did share -- their universe of faith and deeply-felt meaning. How many people do you know whose lives are filled to the brim, with no room left for superficiality, no space for cynicism, nor excuses for emptiness, weariness, or disenchantment? Aspiration to be Jewish to the core -- by fate and by choice -- permeated their virtuous lives.
I was in Europe the next day: not a word about this terrorist act against the Israeli civilians in the newspapers. Typically, the New York Times blamed the victims. Its insidious implication was: "Well, obviously... when Zionist extremists populate the settlements, Arabs respond with violence."
This is patently false. The Hamas, which rushed to take responsibility for this murder, has for years been killing innocents across the country, not just in the "disputed territories". Echoed by its myriad supporters, Hamas has repeatedly asserted that no part of Israel belongs to Jews. We are being killed not because we "occupy" the settlements but because we are living in this country.
To wonder what triggers Hamas violence is about as relevant as pondering Hitler's motivations. Yet, tragically, the settlers are scapegoated even in Israel. In "enlightened circles it has become commonplace to blame the "religious fanaticism" for the unrelenting bloodshed--and thus provide the terrorists with justification for murder.
"Religious fanatics" Yitzhak and Tali believed that, like Muslims, Jews should be free to pray at the Temple Mount and that the Holy Land must not be dealt with frivolously. Educated intellectuals, with degrees in history and philosophy, they knew that whenever land was sacrificed for peace, the peace was not lasting. In the land of Israel they were home in a sense that extended mere physical presence.
I don't have a memory of these two people apart from one another. Maybe it was because together they felt so strongly that Eretz Yisrael was our common consciousness, a bond that unified Jewish souls.
I think this is an important piece by Jeffrey Goldberg who was invited to visit Cuba. He spoke with Fidel Castro who excoriated Ahmadinejad for his antisemitism, Holocaust denial and slanders and threats against the Jewish people.
Castro reiterated the need for Iran to understand the special horror of antisemitism.
The long history of abuse suffered by Jews underlies Israel's fear of annihilation and obviously increases the chance of a catastrophic war.
In re theological antisemitism, he told Goldberg,
"This went on for maybe two thousand years," he said. "I don't think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything." The Iranian government should understand that the Jews "were expelled from their land, persecuted and mistreated all over the world, as the ones who killed God. In my judgment here's what happened to them: Reverse selection. What's reverse selection? Over 2,000 years they were subjected to terrible persecution and then to the pogroms. One might have assumed that they would have disappeared; I think their culture and religion kept them together as a nation." He continued: "The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust." I asked him if he would tell Ahmadinejad what he was telling me. "I am saying this so you can communicate it," he answered.
snip
Monday, September 6, 2010
[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]
Everything the Obama Administration has done, was for the purpose of creating a dependent electorate. A people that would have no choice but let them wield as much power as they want, without a word of protest.
The dependent electorate represents the hijacking of America. It aims for a major power shift that takes power from the people and gives it to the government. Traditionally the people were dependent on the government. The American Experiment reversed the locus of control by making the government dependent on the people instead. This served as a natural hedge against tyranny by devaluing government as a means of controlling the population. And that has been the basic grievance of the progressives against America, that our system makes it possible to monopolize commercial power, but not political power. Yet for all the left's revisionist histories of America... of the two, a monopoly on political power is far more dangerous than commercial monopolies are.
The potential power of government is limited only by its dependencies. The less dependent government is, the more unlimited its power becomes. And the advocates of revising the American system to allow government to wield virtually unlimited power, have always known that their chief obstacle is the Constitutional limitations on the amount of power they can wield and their need to garner support from the electorate in order to be able to overturn them.
Continue reading "The Making of a Dependent Electorate"The living humanitarian horror that is Gaza is now defined by the idea that only the "elites" can join the riding club...The Marxists in our own elites -- in the media, the NGOs, and the bureaucracies -- have redefined humanitarian crisis" down to class privilege: Gaza's elite enjoy riding at Faisal
Oh the humanity.
A group of young women wearing brightly-patterned headscarves and high heels beneath their jilbabs order ice cream and fruit cocktails; elsewhere men are puffing on water pipes.
But the main attraction is not the company, the menu, nor the refreshing evening breeze that blows off the nearby Mediterranean coast. People come to watch the horses.
Faisal is Gaza's only riding club, open for the past five years and, despite the Israeli blockade and its grim economic consequences, doing rather well. It started with a nucleus of Arabian horses bred in Gaza, but this has been recently supplemented with horses from Egypt and Syria imported through the tunnels dug beneath the border at the southern end of the Strip.
"We choose the horses over the internet, looking at video clips," said chief trainer Ahmed Abd Ali. "We also take advice from our trading partners in Egypt."...
...The riding club is part of a circuit frequented by affluent Gazans. Next door is Crazy Water Park, a swimming centre with chutes and slides. There is a burgeoning number of seafront cafes, and a new shopping mall opened in July...
"Grim," indeed.
[The following, by Adam Levick, is crossposted from CiF Watch.]
The debate in Israel over European government grants to NGOs (in Israel and the Palestinian territories) who supposedly engage in "humanitarian" work often centers around the failure to adequately monitor such groups to see if they're abiding by the terms of their funding agreements.
However, more than simply a question of accountability over the particulars of specific grants, often times such governments fund NGOs who are openly committed to aims that not only aren't peaceful, but often promote outright demonization and openly question Israel's very right to exist - goals with run counter to at least the stated aims of the European governments in questions, as well as the EU.
(Other bodies who fund such NGO's are large and well-funded foundations, such as New Israel fund (NIF). Indeed, NIF has its own accountability issues - and still continues to fund NGOs who openly promote BDS, engage in delegitimization, and question Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state within any borders. Such problems have been thoroughly documented. See here and here.)
The BADIL Resource Center has been funded in part by the governments of Denmark, Switzerland, Holland, and Sweden - as well as Oxfam.
Continue reading "What the Guardian won't report (Anti-Semitic incitement by Palestinian "humanitarian" NGOs)"Sunday, September 5, 2010
The following, by Vic Rosenthal, is crossposted from Fresno Zionism.]
|
Dr. Fred Gottheil |
Sometimes it's not hard to show that 'non-political' human rights groups, for example, actually have a financial interest in bashing Israel. For example, there is the case of Human Rights Watch fund-raising in Saudi Arabia, or the huge sums donated to extremist non-governmental organizations in Israel by the European Union.
But what about the legions of anti-Israel academics who are always prepared to bash Israel in the vilest terms? They claim to be motivated by concern for human rights -- but are they?
Now Fred Gottheil, a professor of Economics at the University of Illinois, has devised an empirical test to find out. Dr. Gottheil took the case of a petition addressed to President Obama after the Gaza war in December-January 2008-9:
[Dr. David C.] Lloyd's petition was notable not only for its criticism of Israeli policy -- that is standard fare among the set of academics who subscribe to a post-colonial view of the world -- but rather for its demonizing of the Jewish state.
His technique was anything but novel. It associated Israel with pre-Mandela South Africa. Lloyd's South African-linking brushstrokes were many and crude, citing "collective punishment," "apartheid regime," "racist regime," "besieged Bantustans," "crimes against humanity," and "ethnocidal atrocities." These were layered on his fact-distorting canvas like icing on a poisoned cake.
The petition was signed by nine hundred academics, mostly in the US. Gottheil decided to test their commitment to human rights:
Continue reading "An Empirical Test for Academic Hypocrisy"Via Tigerhawk, a debate with verdict, on immigration:
Our soldiers are good looking and tough:
U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Mary Walls, right, an ammo technician, and Sahar, a linguist, speak with Afghan women during a patrol with Marines from 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment in Musa Qa'leh, Afghanistan, Aug. 2, 2010. The women are with a female engagement team and have been establishing friendly relations with locals by providing health assistance and hygiene supplies. (DoD photo by Cpl. Lindsay L. Sayres, U.S. Marine Corps/Released)
From the Islamic Society of Boston moderated email list:
Assalaam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu,
We just want to remind you about this great youth event happening at the Worcester Islamic Center! Please note that you do not have to have any writing/poetry experience. Just come hang out and support!
Please encourage your friends and any youth you know to come!
POETRY AND MORE FOR TAREK MEHANNA!
(special call to students of all ages)
Sunday Sept 5th, 1 PM
Worcester Islamic Center
(Iftar will be served in the evening)
Come Out and Support Tarek!
**Updates on Tarek's case and other Muslim struggles
**Readings of Tarek's poetry
**Performances by Abu Nurah, Yasmeen, and Spiritchild
**Poetry Workshop: get tips on writing/performing your own work
**Send Eid cards to Tarek
**Open Mic: Read your own poetry, writing, statement, or letter
No experience needed! Come and participate in the discussion, workshop, open mic, letter writing, or just to hang out, show your support and learn!
You know, for the young people. Tarek Mehanna is otherwise known as the Sudbury terrorist. (Previous posts.) He's currently in the can facing charges that he tried to get terrorist training overseas and planned to shoot up a Massachusetts shopping mall. A reminder:
The knee-jerk support for Mehanna on the part of many in the Muslim community is not comforting.
[h/t: Miss Kelly]
Interesting stuff at Nizo's:
Here's a translation of an Egyptian girl's posting on a Arabic cultural forum that would have never been thinkable some 20 years ago:
"Who amongst you isn't impressed with Israel?
Praise be to Allah and peace be upon his prophet and his companions.
Brothers, who amongst you isn't impressed by Israel?
I shall answer my own question. I'm very impressed with the state of Israel for the following reasons:
1- They have successfully revived Hebrew, a dead language, which is now spoken by a people of diverse backgrounds.
2-They have gathered people from the four corners of the world to create their state, while we have shattered our great nation into numerous statelets and emirates.
3-They have created a country in the midst of their enemies. While we lost Palestine which was surrounded by Arab countries on all sides...
And from Nizo in the comments:
I recently blogged about going to all the major Arabic language online newspapers to see how they referred to Israel, and to my surprise they all called Israel by name rather than "The Zionist Entity", which was the term I was used to while growing up. That said, I'm convinced that most Arabs, while still disliking Israel, increasingly view it as a fait accompli. While the general attitude regarding israel remains hostile, I have personally met people with that girl's opinion. I have a friend from the UAE at Harvard, and once when visiting Boston, I had dinner with a group of Gulf Arabs who spoke perfect Hebrew and who were being groomed to become the next ambassadors to Israel when peace and recognition were to ever come. This is certainly not the same Arab world of 20 years ago..Then there's Palestine fatigue.. scratch deep enough and you'll encounter it...
[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]
In August, Thilo Sarrazin a member of the board of the German Central Bank, and a critic of Islamic immigration, mentioned that Jews and Basque and some other ethnic groups have a common gene. What followed was a storm of protests and accusations that Sarrazin was anti-Semitic. Sarrazin was dismissed from his position on the board, and newspaper articles explained that it was for remarks that he had made about Muslims and Jews.
|
Thilo Sarrazin |
Last week, Karel De Gucht, the European Commissioner for Trade, gave a radio show his considered opinion of Jews. Naturally De Gucht put on his best jackboots, and explained that there will be no peace because the Jews run America, that Jews believe they are always right, and that it's impossible to have a conversation with even a "moderate Jew". While a few Jewish groups have protested, the European Commission has shrugged, and the media has shrugged too. The odds that De Gucht will be forced out of his job, the way that Sarrazin was are minimal.
But the difference between Sarrazin and De Gucht, was that Sarrazin said something truly unacceptable about an untouchable group. Muslims. While De Gucht mainly expressed a popular view among European elites about the Jews. The ferocious charges of Anti-Semitism against Sarrazin hinged only on him stating a casual fact that Jews are genetically related to one another. It isn't Anti-Semitism, it's Science. Sarrazin was not charged with Anti-Semitism because of what he had said about Jews, but because of what he had said about Muslims.
Continue reading "A Tale of Two European Remarks: De Gucht and Sarrazin"[The following, by Zach, is crossposted from Huffington Post Monitor.]
Huffington Post blogger Andrew Levine, who usually doesn't write about Israel and related manners, jumped headlong into the topic with a long diatribe titled "The 'Existential Threat.'" On the surface it looks like he criticizes the way that Israel and its allies are approaching the issue of Iran's nuclear program.
The truth is much uglier. It becomes clear by the end that Mr. Levine simply hates Israel, its existence and its nature as a home for the Jewish people. Which of course calls his whole standpoint toward the Iranian nuclear program into question, when someone who holds similar views to Ahmadinejad is out there speaking, how are we supposed to think of him as objective? So I thought I would fisk his article.
Let's take a look at the topic of the "existential threat:"
"In reality, of course, there is nothing in the offing emanating from Iran or occupied Palestine that rises to the level of an existential threat in either sense, notwithstanding some remarks of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. According to conventional wisdom, the Iranian threat is the more serious one; in reality, it is the more fanciful. Even were Iran to succeed in building a nuclear device -- an unlikely prospect in the short term, since, according to all available evidence, they are trying only to build the capacity, not the weapon itself -- they would have to be suicidal to use it against Israel for any purpose other than deterrence."
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Last week I posted from excerpts of the 1966 Hollywood drama about Israel's War of Independence, Cast a Giant Shadow. The star-studded cast lead by Kirk Douglas also features John Wayne, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra, Topol, Angie Dickinson, Senta Berger and others. Since then I've been informed that the entire movie is available on Hulu, at least for now. And here it is:
Enjoy.
An email update from Americans for Peace and Tolerance:
Our allies in Florida have just released a video showing the Executive Director of the Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation Mahdi Bray and British MP George Galloway raising money for Hamas at the Islamic Society of Central Florida in February 2009. The event raised $55,000 and contributed to a total haul of over $1 million, which, as the video documents, was given by Galloway directly to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
A part of that $1 million came from Boston - Galloway was here as well for an event at the MAS-affiliated Palestinian Center for Peace, which sold tickets for a private reception with Galloway for $1000 per person. You can see his Boston speech here. www.peaceops.net
Galloway has been banned from Canada for his Hamas-supporting activities. And this June, the Supreme Court upheld a law making it a crime to provide any material support to designated terrorist groups like Hamas. I urge you to contact your representatives and ask them to investigate whether Mahdi Bray, the MAS, and Boston's Palestinian Center for Peace had broken Federal law by raising funds for George Galloway's Hamas aid mission.
[The following, by Eamonn McDonagh, is crossposted from Z Word.]
Long live Ireland! Tony Blair pelted with eggs and shoes at book signing in Dublin http://bbc.in/cdIZgU
Guess who tweeted that a few minutes ago?
It's Ali Abunimah, a man who recently wrote approvingly and at length in the New York Times about the Northern Ireland peace process and its applicability to the Israel-Palestine conflict. So why is he cheering the idiots protesting against Tony Blair, the principal architect of that process? There are a number of possibilities:
1.
It's a genuine mistake caused by the fact that he doesn't fully understand the Northern Ireland peace process and the role Blair played in it. If someone explained Blair's role in it to him he'd be happy to correct himself.
2.
He does understand the Northern Ireland peace process and the role Blair played in it but disapproves of Blair for other reasons. If that's the case it's odd that the tweet has no caveat about this, especially as the protest took place in, you know, Ireland.
3.
Ali Abunimah is a buffoon who doesn't understand and doesn't care about the Northern Ireland peace process and the role Blair played in it. In fact he despises Blair and only used his half-cocked view of the Northern Ireland peace process as a stick to beat Israel.
Take your pick.
[Video of the violent leftist protest Abunimah is applauding, here. -MS]
Bill Hudak is running against John Tierney for US Congress in Massachusetts.
For real change, vote Hudak.
Hudak, BTW, is excellent and outspoken on Israel-related issues, far better than Tierney, hands down.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Explanation: Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar apparition has a surprisingly familiar shape. Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply as The Bubble Nebula. Although it looks delicate, the 10 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Above and right of the Bubble's center is a hot, O-type star, several hundred thousand times more luminous and approximately 45 times more massive than the Sun. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from that star has blasted out the structure of glowing gas against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. The intriguing Bubble Nebula lies a mere 11,000 light-years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia. A false-color Hubble palette was used to create this sharp image and shows emission from sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in red, green, and blue hues. The image data was recorded using a small telescope under clear, steady skies, from Mount Wilson Observatory.
The Love That Dare Not Speak its Name.
Just what is it about hatred of Israel that the Boston CJP and Barry Shrage refuse to understand? Is it the fact that some of their affiliated groups have never held a pro-Israel event? Is it that those self-same groups who receive money from the CJP have conducted nothing but blatantly anti-Israel events for the last ten years? Is it the fact that one of those groups - The Workmen's Circle - is currently engaged in promoting BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) against Israel? Is the money machine of the CJP so insecure that it will not ostracize one of the most dangerous pro-Palestinian Jewish support groups fearing controversy? Or does the CJP agree with the destructive goals of that group? Solomonia recently published a terrific piece by Dov Shazeer on the group's orientation.
According to Director Shrage, the Workmen's Circle consists of:
"teaching secular Judaism and Yiddish to children and adults and their politics (when they're engaged in it) has been center left."
Unbelievable! Here is a group whose political compass went askew when the Soviet Union sank beneath the waves. I wouldn't be surprised if the only holidays they celebrated were Uncle Joe's birthday and May Day. "Center Left?" Such a characterization reveals the political orientation of the CJP whose mission statement might as well read: "If You're Hard Left, We Welcome You". Aside from functioning as an unofficial agency for the Democratic Party, CJP must start to question its rules for admission.
Since when does "center left" include advocating BDS against Israel at a time of unprecedented existential threats against it? Let the facts speak for themselves.
Continue reading "Despise Israel? The Boston CJP Has a Place for You. [Hillel]"Jennifer Rubin: Sestak Throws J Street Under the Bus
Ben Smith reports that after weeks and weeks of defending his signature on the Gaza 54 letter, Joe Sestak has now confessed he was wrong to sign on to the J Street letter bashing Israel for its supposed "collective punishment" of the Palestinians. Smith observes:
Now the highest-profile signatory, Senate candidate Rep. Joe Sestak, says he regrets signing the letter -- a win for the hawks and a blow to J Street's attempt to create political space on a pro-Israel left of the Middle East conflict.
Sestak says he should have sent his own letter. Goodness knows what would have been in that.
Sestak has now alienated just about everyone on this issue. Just as he reversed course on his $350,000 earmark, here too he tried out one excuse, saw it wasn't working, and then declared he was so very sorry to have done something he denied was a problem to begin with. Both J Street and truly pro-Israel voters understand that Sestak's word is meaningless.
Moreover, recall that not only did he protest the ECI ad on this issue; Sestak also tried to have it taken down. His attorney at the time wrote that it was false to assert that Sestak had accused Israel of "collective punishment." I guess the ad was accurate after all. Maybe he should apologize to ECI as well.
Another thing: Sestak says this was the one action he regretted. So he still thinks keynoting for CAIR and lauding its work was the right thing to do? Or is that apology coming next week?
It's hard to decide who is in worse shape -- Sestak or J Street...[More.]
Oh, I'd say Sestak is like a drowning man stepping on the head of a friend as he tries to keep his head above water. Neither is in good shape. And the Chuck Hagel endorsement could hardly have helped matters, either with the left, or with his "I'm not anti-Israel" protestations. It's good news all around.
Never mind that Abbas has no power to compromise on anything, including violent struggle, or that his constituency, such as it is, doesn't want him to, or that his leadership, even if he were to personally want to end the conflict, is so fragile that any false move means the end, and the plethora of other issues on the Arab side (inside and outside the Palestinian Authority) that make this impossible, as well as the demonstrated fact over the past year that pressure on the Israelis simply pushes peace farther away...no, forget all that, it's the Jewish Cabal's fault.
At Philosemitism Blog: EU Commissioner warns of 'Jewish lobby' grip on US politics
Karel De Gucht, the European Commissioner for Trade, one of the highest ranking officials at the EU, warned this morning on Belgian (Flemish) radio that the Jewish lobby (not pro-Israel lobby) had a grip on US politics. Belgium holds at the present the presidency of the EU. The belief that the US is controlled by Jews is widespread in Europe ...
Source: Luc Van Braekel (Karel De Gucht over de Joden)
One should not underestimate, for instance, the [power] of the Jewish lobby, at Capitol Hill, the American parliament. It is the best organised pressure group there. In other words, one should not underestimate the grip the Jewish lobby has on US politics. Be it with the Democrats or the Republicans, there is little difference.
One should not underestimate the opinion - outside the lobby - of the average Jew who does not live in Israel. There is indeed among most Jews a faith [geloof] - I cannot think of a better way to put it - that they are right. And faith is something difficult to disprove with rational argumentation. It doesn't depend on them being religious or not. Even secular Jews [vrijzinnige] share the same faith of being right. It is therefore not easy, even for a moderate Jew, to talk about what's happening in the Middle East. It's a very emotional issue [for them]."
"Moderate Jews"! That's a new one. More at TheJC: Outcry over EU man's 'antisemitic' remarks
This is typical anti-Jewish conspiracy thinking. It is the Jews that stand between us and a better world, nevermind the mountain of evidence to the contrary.
He is, of course, quite sorry:
"I regret that the comments that I made have been interpreted in a sense that I did not intend.
"I did not mean in any possible way to cause offence or stigmatise the Jewish community."
He added: "Antisemitism has no place in today's world."
Think more. Speak less.
Yes, yes, yes! An excellent reminder in this letter from a Power Line reader in response to the Obama Iraq speech:
... I will never forget or forgive the way the left behaved during this episode. For those who voted against the war (the majority of Democratic representatives and a minority of Democratic senators), I can at least credit them with consistency. But for those whose opposition came only after public opinion had shifted, I have nothing but contempt.
The antiwar wave did not arise spontaneously, but was the conscious effort of the left, including the Democrats, and for most, was opportunistic. They sacrificed the national interest in order to gain political advantage. Nothing is easier than building opposition to a war. Wars are appalling, whether necessary or morally justifiable. They create death and mayhem, last longer than most people anticipate, and are usually plagued by unanticipated difficulties and setbacks.
The left/liberal/Democrats took full advantage of all of these inherent difficulties in prosecuting a war. They cynically, opportunistically, and dishonestly carried out a campaign to undermine support for the war, attacking President Bush's honesty and motives in pursuing the war, and vilifying anyone, in fact, who continued to support the war.
The full page ad taken out by MoveOn.org during General Petraeus' appearance before Congress captures the spirit of this campaign perfectly. It is a miracle that President Bush, General Petraeus, and the US military perservered in the face of this vicious campaign of vilification and brought us to the point at which we now find ourselves. How can the left behave this way? Well, it helps to remember that many Democrats are internationalists anyway, and don't really care much about US national interests. For a "citizen of the world," patriotism is an anachronism, something we need to overcome.
More.
[The following, by Eamonn McDonagh, is crossposted from Z Word.]
I regret having to return soon to the wretched Northern Ireland analogy but the persistence with which people appeal to it is really amazing. They seem to be unable to accept Hamas on its own terms and driven by a desire to wish it into being something that it is not.
In this column in the Huffington Post Daniel Levy says,
While the Northern Ireland analogy of an eventual IRA/Sinn Fein acceptance of ceasefire and democratic rules of the game is true, they were certainly never asked to recognize the legitimacy of Northern Ireland's union with the British mainland as a precondition for entering talks.
This is true but it misses the point, or rather a number of points:
1.
In order to enter talks IRA - Sinn Féin had to accept the Mitchell Principles. This meant affirming their commitment to the following principles,
* To democratic and exclusively peaceful means of resolving political issues;
* To the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations;
* To agree that such disarmament must be verifiable to the satisfaction of an independent commission;
* To renounce for themselves, and to oppose any effort by others, to use force, or threaten to use force, to influence the course or the outcome of all-party negotiations;
* To agree to abide by the terms of any agreement reached in all-party negotiations and to resort to democratic and exclusively peaceful methods in trying to alter any aspect of that outcome with which they may disagree; and,
* To urge that "punishment" killings and beatings stop and to take effective steps to prevent such actions.
Given the existence of a very large Protestant majority in Northern Ireland accepting those principles meant a de facto acceptance of the legitimacy of British rule in Northern Ireland.
2.
In any case there's a rather significant difference between accepting or rejecting the legitimacy of British rule over part of its national territory and accepting or rejecting the legitimacy of the existence of the entire state of Israel. Especially if you are Israeli.
3.
If Daniel Levy thinks Hamas is ready to sign up to the Mitchell Principles then he should tell them to go right ahead and do so. I'd then be very happy to advocate its inclusion in talks.
[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]
Hawar Bazian, publisher of the Israel-Kurd magazine
Publishing a magazine with Israel on its front cover is a risky business, but it's a risk a band of brave Kurds are willing to take in order to encourage a rapprochement with Israel and the Jews. The two peoples share many common enemies, but have long-standing ties, Israel-Kurd magazine publisher Hawar Bazian tells Ksenia Svetlova of The Jerusalem Post (with thanks: Lily):
It's early morning in Irbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. A few men gather around a small kiosk where dozens of newspapers and magazines in Arabic and Kurdish are carefully arranged on a piece of cloth on the ground.
The camera zooms in and concentrates on one of the men, who holds a glossy magazine with a large Magen David on the cover. This is not another illustration to an article about Israeli policies in Gaza and West Bank. The title is "Israel-Kurd" and the whole edition is dedicated to relations between the Kurdish nation and the State of Israel.
The anchor of American-funded Al- Hurra TV, who reads the introduction to the Israel-Kurd item, seems just as astonished as the customers at the newspaper stand in Irbil - it's not every day that you see Israel's name mentioned in a context other than the Arab-Israeli conflict.
[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]
View of ancient ruins in Sidon
In honour of Jerusalem Day today, the traditional Jewish quarter of the Lebanese town of Sidon, Haret al-Yahud, has been renamed after Gaza, according to the Beirut Daily Star - thus erasing 2,000 years of Jewish history in the town.
SIDON: A Sidon neighborhood referencing the Jewish people was renamed by locals in honor of the besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Residents of the southern city of Sidon raised a metal sign that read "Haret Gaza," Arabic for Gaza neighborhood, in an area known as "Haret al-Yahoud," Arabic for neighborhood of the Jews.
"The move to rename the neighborhood is concurrent with the launching of negotiations between the Zionist entity and Palestinian authorities ... It also expresses our refusal of the unjust siege that has been imposed on Gaza for more than four years," said Sheikh Khoder al-Qabsh. Qabsh called on Sidon authorities and all officials to fully adopt the new name.
The original name of the neighborhood dates back to when most of its residents were Lebanese of Jewish religion. They started leaving the country in the 1950s and were absent by the time the Civil War erupted.
"The Jewish religion had a strong presence in Sidon and most Jews living in the city were rich merchants who gave out loans to fishermen," recalled Hajjeh Nahla al-Jardali.
The new name given to the neighborhood stirred the interest of young people and many children carried plastic weapons and acted out battle scenes between the Resistance and Israel. "The Resistance won of course," said the child leader of the make-believe Resistance Mahmoud al-Rifaii.
Video at Real Clear Politics: TIME Editor Stengel: "Sad" That Israeli Wall Is "Functioning"
"They [Israel] haven't had a car bombing in two and a half years and the sad truth, really, is that the wall with the West Bank has actually worked. I mean, most Israelis in the course of their lives don't come into contact with any Palestinians at all, the wall is functioning," said Time magazine editor Richard Stengel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Via Gateway: TIME Mag Editor: It's Too Bad That Israeli Wall Worked
It's not that Stengel is saying it's sad that Palestinian terrorists haven't been able to murder more Israelis, it's just that the security fence is a point of ideological litmus. Only rightwingers (in the Stengelian view) could support its existence, so he has trouble getting it out of his mouth, and to assuage his cognitive dissonance over what he must know and what he wishes to believe, he blathers. Note that he can't admit out loud that the fence has saved lives. What comes out of him is lefty-speak. Instead he says it's had the "desired effect" of separating the people.
Think about that for a moment. Was that the reason for the fence? To separate people? Well...kinda. It was to separate blood thirsty murderers from their victims. In that matter, it has been successful. Singularly successful. That's what its proponents always said they wanted, not a sociology experiment on a mass scale. But Stengel can't admit it. He begins noting the obvious good it has wrought, and has to, needs to, twist it into something it's not.
Fence proponents have always said that the fence would help in peacemaking because it would stop the, at times daily, terrorist murders against Israelis, allowing Israelis to go about their lives, and saving Arabs from the inevitable and disruptive Israeli follow-ups and invasive security measures, also allowing them to go about their business.
It's working. Stengel needs to get over it.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Best before it gets too entrenched. Via Legal Insurrection, with video from Republican Congressional candidate Mike Stopa, who's running for the seat currently held by uber-lefty Jim McGovern. (Our friend Marty Lamb is the other Republican in the race.)
More, including Stopa's position paper, at Legal Insurrection.
[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]
[Tuesday] night Obama delivered a speech about a war that he exploited for political advantage during the election, and ignored the rest of the time. A war that he tried to sabotage as a Senator, and neglected once in the White House. Where Bush conducted constant conferences with commanders in the field, Obama has let the clashing egos of former Clinton Administration staffers, and a few imported radicals, determine how the war will be conducted. Of all the charges leveled at Bush over the war, he could never be accused of just not giving a damn. Yet that is exactly the case with Obama. He just doesn't give a damn.
While US soldiers are still dying in Iraq, Obama did his best to take credit for ending combat operations. And used his speech as a opportunity to show off his new Oval Office decor. The level of tone deafness involved in using a wartime speech to show off your new office furnishings, while most Americans are cutting back is completely incomprehensible. It shows a profound contempt for both topic and audience, and a self-involvement that borders on the pathological. It's as if Obama only managed to interrupt his countless rounds of golf and his vacations, just to put on his best sad face and show off his new rug.
Obama has never had much patience for doing the hard work of governing the country. Instead he shuttled from country to country, golf course to golf course, and resort to resort-- while shifting the real work onto congress and his aides, who shifted it onto their aides. What America got was the unlimited power fantasies of immature radicals with no responsibility given flesh in legislation that hardly anyone in the majority party seemed to even bother to read. Meanwhile, having confused his job with that of a King or a Pope, Barry dispensed his wisdom on every random topic from police procedures in Massachusetts to sports picks in the NBA and the NFL. It was as if Obama did not understand that he had won the right to do a very difficult and unpopular job. Instead like the contestant who is picked out of the audience at a game show, he only seemed to understand that he was suddenly very rich and famous.
Continue reading "The Bankruptcy of Barack"Is this the kickoff to a peace conference, or an effing funeral? Look at the sourpusses. Oh yeah, this is going to end well.
In the mail today, a nice shiny, personally autographed copy of Michael Graham's That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom: Team Obama's Assault on Tea-Party, Talk-Radio Americans
Responsible. Independent. Hard-working. These are qualities which used to define Americans. But now we're a nation of whiners, blamers, and excuse-makers. So says Michael Graham--radio talk show host, former GOP campaign consultant, and journalist--in his new book, That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom. That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom taps into the frustration and anxiety felt by hundreds of thousands of taxpayers at Tea Parties nationwide. Frustration that the government is taking over our lives; punishing success while rewarding failure; and fostering a society of Americans who don't take responsibility for their actions and then expect the government--and their fellow citizens--to pick up the bill. Graham, known for his searing wit and controversial comments, also explains who the tea party "activists" really are: ordinary, everyday citizens pushed into action by the threat of higher taxes and increased government intrusion. Tackling everything from the economy and education to health care and the housing market, Graham argues that it's up to us to take control back from the government bureaucrats and to restore the home-spun values of hard work, fair play, and individual responsibility. That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom shows us how.
Michael, do you know they called you a "journalist" in that blurb? You gonna take that sitting down? Anyway, Michael's a stand up guy. Buy your copy today!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Peace partners: Mother of 4 terrorists serving 18 life sentences for murder honored by Palestinian Authority
It is she who gave birth to the fighters, and she deserves
that we bow to her in salute and in honor."
Those were the words of the Palestinian Authority's Minister for Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, when he honored a Palestinian woman by awarding her "the Shield of Resoluteness and Giving."
She received this honor because she is the mother of four sons who are serving a total of 18 life sentences in Israeli prisons. They all killed Israeli civilians in terror attacks.
The Minister also "praised the Abu Hamid family as a model of willpower and of the struggle for the independence of Palestine" when he visited the family with a ministry delegation, human rights organizations and released prisoners, the official PA daily newspaper reported.
The four sons are serving life sentences for the following crimes:
Minister Karake also chose this week to visit the home of the suicide terrorist Ayyat Al-Akhras who in 2002 entered a Jerusalem supermarket and detonated a bomb murdering two Israelis and killing herself. The minister's visit took place on the occasion of the Palestinian "National Day for Returning the Bodies of Palestinian and Arab Shahids and MIA's."...Nasser Abu Hamid - 7 life sentences + 50 years - commander in Fatah's military wing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Ramallah. Convicted of killing seven Israeli civilians and 12 attempted murders.
Nasr Abu Hamid - 5 life sentences - Member of terror faction of Fatah, Tanzim, and convicted of involvement in two terror attacks and arms dealing.
Sharif Abu Hamid- 4 life sentences - a member in one of the brothers' units carrying out terror attacks against civilians and soldiers. Accompanied a suicide bomber to his attack in March 2002.
Muhammad Abu Hamid - 2 life sentences + 30 years - involvement in terror attacks.
More here. Try not to laugh at all the "Peace Process" talk we're all going to have to sit through.
Here's an excellent, must-read piece by Claire Berlinski concerning the scene in Turkey. This is one of the clearest and most concise explanations I've read: Istanbul: Press Freedom Alla Turca
In May, a ship full of civilians -- but not full of humanitarian aid -- sailed from Turkey to join the Free Gaza flotilla. Having warned the Mavi Marmara that it would not be allowed to breach the blockade, Israeli commandos raided the ship. In the clash, nine Turks were killed. I've lived in Istanbul for five years and I've spoken to hundreds of Turks about these events. A Turkish documentary filmmaker and I have filmed some of these conversations. Something will immediately strike the viewer: the Turkish people have no idea what happened. This is because the most basic facts about and surrounding these events have not been reported in Turkey.
In billing the flotilla as a humanitarian mission, the IHH -- the expedition's Islamist sponsor -- exploited the Turks' Achilles heel: their generosity. Turks think of themselves as charitable and compassionate, as indeed they are. They genuinely believe, because this is what has been reported here, that the Palestinians are starving. They know almost nothing about the reasons for the blockade. They believe that the ship was on a humanitarian mission and nothing but a humanitarian mission. They are bewildered that anyone would have interfered with such a noble-minded endeavour. They do not know that there were no humanitarian supplies on the Mavi Marmara. They do not know the most rudimentary facts about Hamas. As one man said: "These are elected people. It's not like they took over by force, via a coup."
Almost no one in Turkey understands any language but Turkish. If this obviously thoughtful man was unaware that indeed, Hamas took over precisely by force, via a coup, it is because he had no way to know. The men and women to whom we spoke were astonished when we told them that Israeli officials had invited the ship to disembark at Ashdod and deliver the aid overland. But they were not disbelieving -- and importantly, when we told them this, it changed their view. Many spontaneously said that they knew they could not trust what they heard in the news, that the situation confused them and that something about the story just didn't sound right...
That's just the taste to get you started. Here's the rest. Turkish democracy is on the ropes. Find out how and why.
2 injured in West Bank terror attack near Rimonim Junction
Shots were reportedly fired at a vehicle traveling in the area between the settlement Kochav Yaakov and Rimonim Junction in the West Bank on Wednesday night.
Judea and Samaria Police officers who arrived on the scene found an Israeli vehicle with bullet marks. "The vehicle descended down a nearby slope," police said. The officers who arrived in the area found one person seriously injured and another person slightly injured.
Magen David Adom rushed the two Israelis to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem; a man aged around 30 in moderate to serious condition suffering from a gunshot wound to the knee, and a woman aged around 30 who was injured in the resulting accident. Both are conscious and stable, paramedics said...
Carl has been live blogging.
No surprise. Even the PA is pursuing the Arafat strategy by attending talks and denouncing them at home. Per this report from MEMRI: Fatah Official: We'll Support Escalation In Popular Resistance During Negotiations
A Fatah official told the London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi that movement officials, including Nabil Sha'th and Mahmoud Al-'Alul, recently discussed, with the Popular Resistance Committees and with international activists, escalating the popular resistance during the negotiations, with public activities against the fence and against the settlements, and with mass protest marches.
Al-'Alul said that Fatah's support for the popular resistance is part of its strategy, and does not depend on the negotiations portfolio.
That is the reason for his lawyerly response to the murder yesterday of four Jews from Beit Haggai near Kiryat Arba.
Aside from being "saddened" by the murders, he offers this assessment:
"It is unfortunately not a surprise that extremists would try to undermine the launch of direct talks. We urge all sides to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control and harming the prospects for peace."
Sounds more like a State Department response than one from a Jew who touts himself as "Pro Israel." Note that he is not outraged or even indignant. Not a surprise, given his group's demonization of anyone living beyond the Green Line. The October, 2009 J Street conference featured speaker after speaker exhibiting their hatred of settlers, chief among whom was Haaretz's Gideon Levy, who compared them to a "cancer." How does one mourn or express anger at the elimination of a "cancer?" Ben Ami's sadness is limited to the prospect that the cherished fantasy of a "two state solution" might be in jeopardy.
The Holy Grail of the "Two State Solution" is, of course, viewed by most of the Arab world as the "23rd" State Solution (or the 24th State Solution if you take into account Hamasistan) and the beginning of the end for the Jewish State. Ben Ami knows, or should know this fact. In its interrogatories (again, the lawyer, Ben Ami) to ECI, J Street may have gotten more than it bargained for. Michael Goldfarb's trenchant response contained a number of crucial counter-questions. J Street has yet to respond. But then, when you've got the President's back, you don't really need to answer any questions.
At the end of the day, the "Two State Solution" is really the "Seven Per Cent Solution", to borrow Nicolas Meyer's title of his intriguing novel about Sherlock Holmes. The plot chronicled Holmes' recovery from his addiction to cocaine. Isn't it about time that Ben Ami & Co. check into rehab and rid themselves of their dangerous addiction to "The Two State Solution?"
[Crossposted from JStreetJive.]
[The following, by Barry Rubin, is crossposted from The Rubin Report.]
I constantly receive mail and contacts of various kinds from Arabs, Iranians, Pakistanis, and Turks--among others--about how much they like my writing. In fact, many of my ideas and inspiration comes from conversations with these people. You'd be surprised to hear some of the names, countries, and positions of those involved in these dialogues.
It's a complex issue but to put it simply: those in the West may romanticize or refuse to criticize radical Islamists and Middle East dictatorships but that doesn't exactly thrill those who live under these regimes or who fear seeing their countries being taken over by extremists who repress and maybe will kill them.
I wrote an entire book about this situation and these people, The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East
During my last speaking trip, which usually focused on the battle between Islamists and nationalists, there were Arabs or Iranians present at each event who enthusiastically endorsed what I said. In one case, a Palestinian wearing a very large kafiyah sat in the front row nodding at my main points. Afterward, he explained that he was a Palestinian Authority supporter who hated Hamas and thought that group was ruining his people's chance for ever getting their own independent state.
Continue reading "Muslims Who Don't Want to Live Under Islamist Dictatorships Urge: Help Us By Telling The Truth"In the Boston Globe, here's Dan Wasserman's take, a day after Hamas brutally murdered four people and hundreds of Palestinian Arabs came out to dance in the streets:
Yes, that's right, once again the story line is that Bibi is the obstacle to peace, and that the potential end of a construction moratorium in places where Jews already live is the only problem that needs to be overcome. I mean, just have a look at this picture. Innocent Abbas. Abbas cannot control Hamas, cannot keep them from murdering Jews in Judea and Samaria, won't stop the incitement in his own media, refuses to compromise on any issue, had to crack down on his own people and defy other Arab leaders just to sit in the same room with the Israelis under pressure from the US...but it's Bibi that's the problem. Forget the mindlessness of the thing, a day after a roadside murder that ought to have a clarifying effect on the matter, Tinkertoys on the table is what's in your brain to draw cartoons about? This isn't just rotten analysis, it's an obsession.
We could be charitable to Wasserman and assume he submitted this one before yesterday's events became known, but then that should have engendered a desperate call to the editors to hold the presses. It might have allowed him to appear simply a block head rather than something worse.
No excuse, however, for Isabel Kershner and Mark Landler of The New York Times. Here's a beauty: Killing of Israeli Settlers Rattles Leaders. We can expend the bulk of our outrage (though by no means all) in the first paragraph:
The killing of four Israeli settlers, including a pregnant woman, in the West Bank on Tuesday evening rattled Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the eve of peace talks in Washington and underscored the disruptive role that the issue of Jewish settlements could play in the already fragile negotiations...
Again with the settlements! Seriously? This brutal, planned murder underscores the role of Jewish settlements? Are you serious? It doesn't underscore the militant death culture, refusal to seriously negotiate, and basic lawlessness that permeates Palestinian society? I hope Obamacare includes free Prozac for "news" people, since I detect a serious untreated OCD epidemic that's crying out for relief.
A bit later:
...The Palestinian Authority also condemned the attacks, which occurred just before its president, Mahmoud Abbas, met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A Palestinian spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the attack by Hamas, the authority's rival, underlined "the need to proceed quickly toward a just and lasting peace agreement," which he said would "put an end to these acts."...
As though the PA can negotiate peace on behalf of Hamas!
More:
...Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, said in a statement, "We condemn this operation, which contradicts Palestinian interests and the efforts of the Palestinian leadership to garner international support for the national rights of our people."...
Tactics, but no morality. A negotiating stance, but no real condemnation. This is the best the much loved (in the West, and in the West only) and much vaunted Salam Fayyad can produce.
These press fools need to stop doing politics on behalf of the Administration and start reporting the news that's right in front of their faces.
More on this from Soccerdad: The "cbm" imbalance, Elder of Ziyon: Fayyad's fake condemnation, and Phyllis Chesler, who notes in a piece entitled Seeing Red: Jewish Blood on the West Bank, Its Portrayal in the Western Media:
Four young civilians: human beings, fathers, mothers, one of whom was also pregnant, collectively the parents of seven children, were brutally gunned down by armed, masked terrorists. Their murders were openly celebrated in the streets by their attackers and by thousands of their supporters.
You would think that the world would recoil in horror--or that those who report the news, world-wide, would do so. Think again. These four precious souls were Israeli "settlers" and, as such, have already been so demonized that they are now seen as having provoked their bloody, pitiless deaths.
First, they came for the settlers. Then, they came for the secular Israeli pro-peace demonstrators in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv. And then they came for....you and me...
Indeed. I have often said that the demonization of Israelis throughout the Arab and Muslim Worlds has gone to such a height that they are geared up to do something awful and on a mass scale, while the demonization within the European media has gone to such lengths that they are gearing themselves up to accept it. I'm sorry to say that it's clear that The New York Times and The Boston Globe have joined that chorus.
Update: More along these lines, and about the murders:
CiF Watch: Rabbis for whose human rights?
Eight words. That's all the compassion, for the 4 murdered Israelis and their families, that Israeli NGO, Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), felt they could muster, in a 92 word press release, before pivoting to their major concern - the possibility that Israelis may take reprisals. RHR also warns darkly of the possibility that such sinister settlers may even uproot Palestinian trees (Oh, the horror!)...
Fresno Zionism: What Hillary Clinton does not understand
And Seraphic Secret with a must-read: The Murder Process. From whom, these important images:
More from Barry Rubin: Terror Attack Near Hebron: Not An Incident But a Revelation About What's Happening
And Daniel Greenfield gets right to the point: There Will Be No Peace
...Terrorism does not exist because there is no peace process. Terrorism exists because there IS a peace process, or a possibility of one. Hamas murdered five Jews because it wanted to make a point to all the parties that it could not be ignored. At other times it is Fatah that has done the same thing. Israel's willingness to negotiate stimulates terrorism like nothing else, because it creates a tangible reward. Without the peace process, terrorism would fade away on its own. As it had become a fading problem, before Clinton and Rabin plucked Arafat out of obscurity and gave him a country to play with. Paradoxically as long as the peace process holds out the possibility of victory for the terrorists, there can be and will be no peace.
