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‘The US fails to understand the complexity of the Middle East’

November 24, 2015

‘The US fails to understand the complexity of the Middle East’ Israel National News, Benny Tucker, November 24, 2015

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) this week will only heighten tensions – not calm terrorism, former Israeli ambassador to the US Dr. Yoram Ettinger opined Tuesday. 

“This visit unfortunately will not not mitigate terrorism, but on the contrary, pour oil on the fire of terrorism,” he stated, in a special Arutz Sheva interview. “Why reward and meet Mahmoud Abbas, the chief instigator?”

Washington continues to remain disconnected from reality, he said.

“The former senator met with Assad, both the father and the son, and ate dinner with their wives,” he noted. “(Kerry) refers to the Golan Heights as ‘trivial’ and pressured Israel to give up the Golan. He used to hold [PLO archterrorist Yasser] Arafat in high regard and referred to him as a ‘statesman of peace’; as Secretary of State he still maintains that the Arab Spring is leading Arab countries to democracy.”

Ettinger added that Kerry’s career is characterized by ‘erroneous assessments”; “so surely, again, he will call on Israel to make gestures [toward the Palestinians] and give over the immoral equivalence comparing terrorist to victim.”

“Experience shows that all the attempts and plans the US have made [regarding Israel] have failed one by one, due to lack of understanding of the complexity of the Middle East,” he concluded. “Both the peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan were the result of Israeli initiatives and direct negotiations – not indirect negotiations and not through middlemen.”

Categories: Abbas, Arafat, Foreign policy, Israel, Kerry, Middle East, Obama and Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian heroes, Palestinians
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Satire(?) | Obama declares Islamophobia a felony hate crime

November 23, 2015

Obama declares Islamophobia a felony hate crime, Dan Miller’s Blog, November 23, 2015

(The views expressed in this article are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of Warsclerotic or its other editors. — DM)

Phobia is an abnormal, irrational fear. As now defined, however, Islamophobia is merely “prejudice against, hatred towards, or fear of the religion of Islam or Muslims.” Rational “Prejudice,” “hatred” and “fear” of Islam are, therefore, now Islamophobic.

islamophobe1

Obama often proclaims that there is no reason to fear Islam —  the religion of truth and love — and that He welcomes it in His America. It is permissible, indeed even patriotic, to fear and oppose the Non-Islamic Islamic State, but to fear and to oppose Islam runs counter to American values and is, therefore, worse than merely vile.

By virtue of His constitutional obligation under Article II to do whatever He damn well pleases, He has determined that anyone who criticises Islam is guilty of felony hate speech, which has long been recognized not to be entitled to protections under the First Amendment. To think Islamophobic thoughts leads to hate speech and must also be criminalised as hate thought.

Once again, Obama shows that He is a great leader — not a mere follower — in America’s quest finally to become a great nation of which He can finally be proud. An article by Jonathan Turley is titled Forty Percent of Millennials Favor Censorship of Offensive Speech By Government. Turley, a liberal in the old-fashioned sense of the word and among the few “liberals” to remain strong defenders of free speech, notes that

I have long argued that the West appears to have fallen out of love with free speech, which is more often viewed as a rising scourge rather than a defining value in some countries. A recent poll of the Pew Research Center shows just how many people we have lost to those calling for greater censorship and criminalization of speech. It is not surprisingly more prevalent with younger age groups, though Democrats are almost twice as likely favor censorship than Republicans. The largest (and most alarming) group is the millennials — 40% of whom favor government censorship of speech offensive to minority groups. [Emphasis added.]

Clearly, Obama is — as always — on the right side of history, leading from the front.

obama_muslim3

Here is the text of Obama’s address to the nation, to be delivered on Thanksgiving Day.

My fellow, blessedly multicultural, Americans, Thanksgiving is the day we all now understand was forced upon us to commemorate the vile treatment of Native Americans by settlers — just as Israeli settlers now abuse native Palestinians. To treat Muslims as we treated Native Americans, as Israel treats peaceful Palestinians — and indeed as Christian Crusaders just a short time ago treated peaceful Muslims  — is the worst type of anti-American prejudice I can imagine. Therefore, under the powers vested in Me under the U.S. Constitution, I hereby decree that anyone — no matter who or where and even in the halls of Congress — criticises the Religion of Peace and Love shall be tried and summarily convicted of felony Hate speech.

Some may say — falsely — that this is a drastic and unwarranted measure. It is neither. Islamophobia is intensely harmful to Muslims fleeing persecution by Christians and Jews abroad. It may even deter Muslims from coming to My America to enjoy the benefits of liberty and freedom as ordaned under the Constitution. They all desire to be assimilated into America and to live here with peace and honour killings in accord with our traditions of freedom and justice; traditions which are envied by those fleeing persecution and which they yearn to enjoy in My America. To persecute innocent Muslims here, as they are persecuted abroad is a disgrace; as long as I am your President I shall not permit it.

The spectre of hate thought also now darkens America and leads to hate speech against Muslims everywhere — even those in The Islamic State Republic of Iran, with which I successfully negotiated an historic deal to eliminate the spectre of nuclear weapons in, and to bring peace to, most of the Middle East.

Just as I have decreed that hate speech against Muslims shall be punished, so must hate thought. Accordingly, all candidates for public office in My America will now be required to answer questions seeking to probe their deepest unspoken, but dreadful, anti-Islamic thoughts. The Council on Islamic-American Relations will prepare the questions and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation will ask them. Those found to harbour anti-Islamic  — and therefore un-American — thoughts will be declared unfit for, and disqualified from holding, public office. The First Amendment, of course, provides no protection for freedom of thought; even if it did, it would provide no protection for hate thought.  This is necessary if My America is, once again, to lead the free world.

(Wait for vigorous applause.)

Thank you. Now, for your Thanksgiving pleasure, here is a tribute to Me by my favorite vocal group, the Muslim Brotherhood Chorus.

Categories: Asylum seekers, CAIR, Caliphate, Christians, Freedom of speech, Human rights, Iran scam, Islam and Christianity, Islam and Jews, Islamic invasion, Islamic slaughter, Islamic State, Islamic supremacy, Islamophobia, Israel, Multiculturalism, Obama and Islam, Obama and Israel, Obama's America, Obama's legacy, Palestinians, Satire, U.S. Constitution
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The Islamic State (ISIS) And Palestine – Rhetoric vs. Reality

November 17, 2015

The Islamic State (ISIS) And Palestine – Rhetoric vs. Reality, MEMRI, R. Green, November 17, 2015

(Please see also, ISIS THREAT’S ISRAEL IN HEBREW 22 OCTOBER 2015. — DM)

The Islamic State’s (ISIS) extensive information campaign, titled “Slaughter the Jews,”[1] that it recently launched in the wake of the recent wave of violent events in Israel and the Palestinian territories has had numerous reverberations. The campaign includes all the elements familiar from previous ISIS campaigns, including copious use of social media to encourage terror attacks, and videos featuring armed activists making threats and urging intensification and escalation of attacks. This ISIS campaign and the threats it has included have been covered extensively by media in the West and Israel, with excessive focus on threats to Israel and the Jews and on the campaign’s colorful details, such as the fact that two of the activists in the videos issued their threats in Hebrew. This campaign, and the events of the past few months in general, have again raised the question of ISIS’s view of the Palestinian issue and the war on Israel.

Despite the Slaughter the Jews campaign, which has been aimed primarily at the Palestinians, and its impact, it should be stressed that the Palestinian cause is not a major issue to ISIS. Unlike many Arab and Islamic movements and organizations for whom the liberation of Palestine, Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa mosque, and the fight against Israel head their priorities, or who at least claim this to be the case, ISIS perceives them as long term goals. ISIS’s top priority is fighting what it considers to be Islam’s internal enemies – the Shi’ites and the secular regimes. It sees conquering Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Mecca as taking precedence over liberating Jerusalem.

Additionally, the idea of a Palestinian state goes completely against ISIS’s religious and ideological idea; its vision is based on the establishment of a caliphate that is not subject to the modern geopolitical limitations, and under which there is no place for separate states. It also rejects outright democratic principles and any adherence to the international community’s rules that the Palestinian movements, including the Islamic ones, have accepted.

ISIS is highly capable of quickly launching an information campaign comprising videos produced by its official media wings, videos and informational material created by its unofficial media bodies, and very extensive discourse via social media, and this is what it has done in this case as well.[2] Therefore, despite the scope of this particular campaign, it should not be viewed as indicative of a significant shift in ISIS’s focus or priorities.

To clarify: ISIS is not disregarding the Palestinian cause; it recognizes its importance for the Arab and Islamic world, and exploits it, as do other regimes, organizations, and movements, as an element in its arsenal of informational tools and as a means of recruiting supporters. Furthermore, it is riding the wave of media attention it gained with its threats of attacks against Israel in order to strike at its main rival in the Palestinian arena – that is, Hamas.

ISIS has no real organized presence among the Palestinians in either the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. Most of its manpower is directed to the Sinai, and to the combat arenas in Syria and Iraq, where training and fighting take place. The ISIS activists in the Gaza Strip are tasked with promoting ISIS’s information enterprise and helping spread its ideology among the population there.

ISIS’s Leadership Devotes No Special Attention To Palestine

A look at statements by ISIS’s leadership shows the organization’s relatively low ranking of the Palestinian cause. In their speeches, ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and its spokesman Abu Muhammad Al-‘Adnani, the only top leaders who speak for the organization, barely mention it in their speeches. In his first address as caliph, in July 2014, Al-Baghdadi included Palestine in a long list of locations where Muslims are suffering and oppressed, but made no special reference to it.[3] In his most recent speech, released in May 2015, he mentioned Palestine not as an issue per se but only as a taunt to the Saudis; the speech itself rebuked the Saudi royal family and stated that Saudi Arabia had done nothing for the Palestinians. In that speech, he refers to the “Jews” as allies of the Christian “Crusaders,” that is, the Western forces, and even as the instigators of the Western aggression against the Islamic world – a standard element of jihadi rhetoric, the most well-known example being Osama bin Laden’s 1998 declaration of “jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders.” Referring to his men in the Sinai, he takes care to praise them for threatening the “Jews,” that is, Israel.[4]

ISIS spokesman Al-‘Adnani also has not specifically referred to the Palestinians in his speeches, aside from a mention of Palestine in a long list of countries where Muslims are under attack. Furthermore, in an address released in early October 2015, following the outbreak of the current violence and the headlines about the Palestinians that it garnered, he mentioned the Palestinians not at all.[5] This omission was harshly criticized by ISIS’s Islamist opponents.[6]

25734ISIS activists in Syria: “We will only defeat the Jews by purging the country of its Arab rulers”

ISIS Leader Al-Baghdadi Is Absent From The Videos In “Slaughter The Jews” Campaign

One feature of ISIS videos is the underlining of points and honing of messages by the use of audio segments from past speeches by leaders of ISIS and its precursor groups, as well as from speeches by deceased jihadi leaders, including from Al-Qaeda, who never criticized ISIS. However, the video series of the “Slaughter the Jews” campaign includes barely any audio statements by actual ISIS leaders, and none by Al-Baghdadi himself – though statements by Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda commander Abu Laith Al-Libi are featured. Statements by ISIS spokesman Al-‘Adnani are included, but these are merely are non-specific calls for terror attacks in general, not for war on Israel.

Two videos in the “Slaughter the Jews” series, one produced by ISIS’s Al-Furat province (which covers the cities of Albu Kammal and Al-Qa’im) and one by its Al-Raqqa province, present audio statements from 2008 and 2009 speeches, respectively, by the head of the ISIS precursor group Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi.

Another video in the series includes audio of Abu Mus’ab Al-Zarqawi, founder of the ISIS precursor Tawhid and Jihad, saying: “We fight in Iraq and our eyes are set on Bait Al-Maqdis [Jerusalem], which will be resored only by means of the guiding Koran and the victorious sword.”[7] This particular statement has become a slogan for jihadis everywhere and sums up their view, i.e., while at this time we are not fighting Israel and are not actively working to liberate Jerusalem and its holy sites, we are still focused on that goal, and will liberate it according to our faith and principles – that is, we will act in accordance with the pure Salafi Islam and by means of a jihad war.[8] Many ISIS activists appearing in the videos also reiterated this, passionately promising the Palestinians, while pointing at their eyes to indicate sincerity, that ISIS has not abandoned them.

25735ISIS fighter delivers threatening message in Hebrew and brandishes a knife in a video produced by the Damascus Province as part of the “Slaughter the Jews” campaign

The Main Thrust Of The Videos In The “Slaughter The Jews” Campaign: Anti-Hamas Rhetoric

Along with the calls and the encouragement to continue and step up the attacks, a large number, perhaps even a majority, of the videos in the “Slaughter the Jews” campaign are devoted to ISIS’s ideological dispute with Hamas, and, to a lesser extent, with the PLO; these two movements control the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority, respectively, and vie with each other for support among the Palestinians. In the videos, ISIS repeatedly attacks both movements; this reflects its need to counter accusations about its inaction on the Palestinian issue and in the fight against Israel.

A video produced by the ISIS province of Al-Barakah in Syria (Al-Hasaka) featured one Abu Osama Al-Falistini directly addressing the criticism of ISIS for its noninvolvement in the Palestinian issue. He hinted that the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, which he said is preventing attacks against Israel from being launched from there, was to blame for this: “Why don’t the caliphate soldiers come to liberate Palestine? Why are the mujahideen leaving Palestine, the land of jihad, to begin with? We say to them [i.e. the critics]: We have only left [Palestine] because of the barrier between us and jihad there, and because of the barrier between us and the Jews. Those who are in Palestine know this.”[9]

A video by ISIS’s Al-Raqqa province featured an ISIS member from Gaza, Abu Annas Al-Ghazawi, saying: “This nationalist belief that inspires some fighters in Bait Al-Maqdis [i.e. Jerusalem, that is, all of Palestine] is part of the occupation carried out by the Jews. They have conquered the people’s minds and inserted into them this failed and false belief – the nationalist belief in which loyalty is based on nationalism and on borders set by Sykes and Picot. This belief is part of the Jewish invasion of our people in Bait Al-Maqdis.

“We [declare] before Allah that we are innocent of this failed nationalist belief. We believe that these nationalist organizations, that champion nationalist loyalty, that die for the nation, and that call themselves national liberation movements, are infidel cults, and their belief is unconnected to Islam, because a Muslim’s faith is based on tawhid [the Islamic concept of monotheism]… Our men in Bait Al-Maqdis would do better to fight a jihad war based on this belief [i.e. tawhid].”[10]

ISIS member Abu Al-Bara’ Al-Shami stressed that jihad must be pure, and harshly attacked Hamas for turning to democracy and for failing to implement shari’a law: “The real thing is this religion, which can only be established by means of pure jihad for the sake of Allah, in order to make His word supreme, and to institute His laws rather than the laws of treacherous arrogant parties that have strayed from the path… Do you not see how Hamas, which speaks of nothing but liberation and resistance, ran for election on these slogans to attract your hearts and to fill the ballot boxes with your votes [for it]? Its wish came true, and then the mask came off; it attained its desire and seized power and ruled the Muslims not according to their shari’a; it hobbled them, and it fought anyone who called for implementing the shari’a [i.e. Salafi-jihadis], and called for [restoring] the glory of the caliphate [a reference to ISIS supporters].

“At the same time, [Hamas] shamelessly embraced the Zoroastrians [pejorative for Iranian Shi’ites] who invaded the land. They fought the shari’a, but welcomed the spread of the Shi’a [in the Gaza Strip], and, as is their custom, claim that this is all for the sake of the [Palestinian] cause. Their self-righteousness is like the chastity of a whore with nine bastard sons.”[11]

25736Palestinian ISIS activists in Syria with a sign reading: “Oh our men in Gaza – by Allah, there is an enemy preventing us from coming to your aid.” (Source: Twitter.com/ansar_al_shari, June 7, 2015)

ISIS In Sinai To Palestinians: “We Have Not Forgotten You”

One final note about ISIS’s Sinai Province: Situated at Israel’s border, it is one of ISIS’s most formidable extensions. In ISIS’s view, the Sinai Province is its spearhead in the war against Israel, as conveyed by Al-Baghdadi himself in his May 2015 speech: “We ask Allah the Glorified to allow us to see you in Bait Al-Maqdis [Jerusalem] very soon.”[12]

However, since July 2013, the jihadis in the Sinai are completely dedicated to their jihad against the government of Egypt,[13] to the point that in the Sinai Province’s video for the “Slaughter the Jews” campaign, its spokesman, Abu Osama Al-Masri, felt compelled to promise the Palestinians: “Oh Muslims in Bait Al-Maqdis, we in Sinai have not forgotten you… The banners of the caliphate shall reach you.” He too accused Hamas of preventing ISIS from fighting Israel: “You are standing between us and them [the Israelis]! You have dug trenches between us and them. You are protecting your allies, the Jews.”[14]

Another recent video[15] by ISIS’s Sinai Province specifically threatened the Egyptian military; the ISIS fighter appearing in it also stressed that his organization has not abandoned the fight against Israel and threatened: “As for you Jews, you people of the gharqad tree, know that the time has drawn near. Do not think for a second that our war with your apostate lackeys will keep us away from you for much longer. We shall renew our punishment operations, like the one at Umm Al-Rashrash [Eilat, in August 2011], very soon. You will regret everything that you did to the Muslims.

“We have a meeting with the rocks and the trees. The time has drawn near for them to call to us and say: ‘Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him.’ The [Jews] think that this day is far away, but we know that it will come soon. When the day comes, you will be surprised to see that the nation that you have tried for decades to make disappear has arisen to fight you, in order to eradicate you.”

To be sure, such threats should be taken with all seriousness. Yet the context of the threat is noteworthy: It came at the very end of a video in which ISIS lashed out at the Egyptian military and vowed revenge for its operations against it; it promises vengeance against the Egyptian military in the near future, whereas with regard to “the Jews,” the speaker invokes the hadith about Jews hiding behind trees and stones, which will take place on Judgment Day.

25737Abu Osama Al-Masri, prominent figure in ISIS’s Sinai Province

Endnotes:

[1] See MEMRI JTTM report ISIS Campaign: Encouraging Palestinians To Carry Out Lone Wolf Attacks, October 20, 2015.

[2] Other examples of recent coordinated campaigns by ISIS’s propaganda machine include a campaign against Muslim emigration to Europe in light of the refugee crisis, and a campaign calling on Somali jihadi members of Al-Shaba Al-Mujahideen to join ISIS.

[3] See MEMRI JTTM report In New Message Following Being Declared A ‘Caliph,’ Islamic State Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi Promises Support To Oppressed Muslims Everywhere, Tells His Soldiers: ‘You Will Conquer Rome’, July 1, 2014.

[4] See MEMRI JTTM report In New Audio Speech, Islamic State (ISIS) Leader Al-Baghdadi Issues Call To Arms To All Muslims, May 14, 2015.

[5] See MEMRI JTTM report ISIS Spokesman Reiterates Islamic State’s Steadfastness Against Coalition Campaign, Calls For Jihad Against Russia, Confirms Death Of Top ISIS Figure, October 13, 2015.

[6] See, for example, tweet by Salafi cleric Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi. Twitter.com/imaqdese, October 15, 2015.

[7] The comments were featured in a video posted on jihadi message boards. Al-Jazeera, April 26, 2006.

[8] The expression “the guiding Koran and the victorious sword” that Zarqawi cited is taken from the writings of 14th century Islamic thinker Ibn Taymiyyah. By quoting him in this context, Al-Zarqawi means that Jerusalem will be liberated by a jihadi organization that operates on the basis of a pure Salafi-jihadi ideology, thereby rejecting the attitude of Arab nation states, secular nationalist movements such as the PLO, and the Muslim Brotherhood and particularly its Palestinian branch Hamas.

[9] Shamikh1.info, October 19, 2015.

[10] Shamikh1.info, October 20, 2015.

[11] Shamikh1.info, October 20, 2015.

[12] For an in-depth look at how ISIS views its Sinai Province, see MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 1201, ISIS In Sinai Increases Military, Propaganda Pressure On Egypt, November 8, 2015. For Al-Baghdadi’s speech, see MEMRI JTTM, In New Audio Speech, Islamic State (ISIS) Leader Al-Baghdadi Issues Call To Arms To All Muslims, May 14, 2015.

[13] See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 999, Salafi-Jihadis In Sinai Call For Jihad Against Egyptian Military,  July 24, 2013.

[14] See MEMRI JTTM ISIS Sinai Province Promises To Bring Battle To Palestine, Calls Upon Muslims Everywhere To Kill Jews, November 1, 2015.

[15] See MEMRI JTTMISIS Sinai Threatens To Punish Egyptian Military For Operation Martyr’s Right, November 11, 2015.

Categories: Hamas, Islam's war on Jews, Islamic State, Israel, Palestinians, Shiite, Sunni
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Op-Ed: PM Netanyahu urges France to ‘pursue peace’ and ‘practice restraint’

November 16, 2015

Op-Ed: PM Netanyahu urges France to ‘pursue peace’ and ‘practice restraint,’ Israel National News, David Wega, November 15, 2015

(I almost wish it weren’t satire. — DM)

Note: Except for the first two paragraphs, this is a satire.

Dear Citizens of France.

My heartfelt sympathies to you and the French people for the horrible and barbaric terrorist murder spree that left over a hundred of your compatriots dead and hundreds more wounded. .

That murderous terrorist rampage on Friday night is all too familiar to us. We have a deep understanding of how to deal with terrorism, and are more than ready to help you as we do all over the world when tragedies occur.

However, first we wish to share with you what we usually hear from the world in the aftermath of these “incidents” or “unrest” (I know you called it terrorism, but that is what the world calls it when it happens in Israel). Perhaps these pointers will help you cope and avoid future “incidents” – at least those who give us advice, including your heads of state, must think it will, or why would they give it?

As your government told us recently, the day following an “incident” in Israel, countries must “protect themselves from militants, but show restraint to not further fuel a highly sensitive situation in the region.”

With one’s friends there is no need to make peace. Peace is made between enemies, never mind if they don’t want it. There is no military solution to the problem of terrorism, and this is why you must seek a diplomatic solution.  End that cycle of violence. Show restraint.

You must understand the pain and needs of the angry Muslims shooting and setting off explosives, and not respond inappropriately so that there is no escalation of the cycle of violence.

You must negotiate even while under attack; conditioning negotiations on an end to violence is a no-win situation. It will simply extend the bloodshed.

The key is to build a New Europe, one that deals with reality on the ground.

To close your borders will only lead to further oppression and anger, so don’t do that.

If you strike at the perpetrators of the attack and their supporters, you will simply extend and enlarge the cycle of violence, so don’t do that.

Your bombs will no doubt injure some innocent children and civilians alongside any terrorist activists you strike, and that will simply make the victims seek revenge, so don’t retaliate at all.

Begin by declaring a unilateral ceasefire! Give peace a chance! Do not allow yourself to be drawn into the abyss of violence.  End that cycle of violence. Show restraint.

Best of all would be to divide France into two parts, and Paris into two cities for two peoples. No Frenchman dares go into a Muslim neighborhood in Paris and neither do the police anyway, so the city is already divided de facto. What’s the difference if it is your ancestral homeland?

See how Daniel Pipes has shown you the way to achieve tranquillity (that is, until the Muslims decide they want both states):

resizedimg84571.jpg

 

With sympathy,

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Categories: France, Israel, Moral equivalence, Multiculturalism, Netanyahu, Palestinian heroes, Palestinians, Paris Muslim attack, Satire
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‘Zionists Out of CUNY!’ ‘Long Live the Intifada!’ Chanted at CUNY Student Protest at Hunter, Administration Looks Other Way (VIDEO)

November 14, 2015

‘Zionists Out of CUNY!’ ‘Long Live the Intifada!’ Chanted at CUNY Student Protest at Hunter, Administration Looks Other Way (VIDEO), Algemeiner, Ruthie Blum, November 13, 2015

(No “safe spaces” for the wicked Zionists! Is this just a passing fad or will it grow? — DM)

Hunter-demonstration-300x147The Million Student March protest at Hunter College on Thursday. Photo: StandWithUs/Screenshot.

Vicious implicitly antisemitic slogans were chanted at a protest at Hunter College in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon after organizers on Facebook called for participants to oppose the school’s “Zionist administration.”

But despite footage of the rally circulating online, a spokesperson for Hunter denied the hateful nature of the demonstration.

“Zionists out of CUNY! Zionists out of CUNY,” shouted protesters, who had ostensibly gathered to fight for free tuition and other benefits.

“Intifada! Intifada! Long live the Intifada,” they chanted, as a group of Jewish students waved Israeli flags nearby.

A Hunter College representative, who had not been made aware of the demonstration — or the blatantly antisemitic social media announcements — responded Thursday evening: “The rally just took place. There were less than 50 students and it was totally focused on tuition. There was no claim of antisemitism.”

The video below, shot by the pro-Israel organization StandWithUs, indicates otherwise.

 

 

The protest, part of the nation-wide Million Student March set for November 12, was advertised on Facebook by “NYC Students for Justice in Palestine” and other affiliate groups, using antisemitic slurs to attribute the financial plight of students in the City University of New York system to its “Zionist administration [that] invests in Israeli companies, companies that support the Israeli occupation, hosts birthright programs and study abroad programs in occupied Palestine, and reproduces settler-colonial ideology … through Zionist content of education… [aiming] to produce the next generation of professional Zionists.”

StandWithUs Northeast Region Director Shahar Azani told The Algemeiner on Friday morning that the Hunter event “is another example of the hijacking of various social causes by the anti-Israel movement. It contaminates the atmosphere on campus; poisons relationships between different groups; and keeps people further apart, thus distancing any hope for change. No student should feel marginalized or threatened while attending school. It is up to us to instill those values to the younger generation and to stand up to those who refuse to adhere to them. If we are unable to do so at our schools, one wonders what the point is of school at all.”

Responding to a query by The Algemeiner on Thursday morning, prior to the rally, CUNY vice chancellor for student affairs Frank Sanchez responded:

At the City University of New York, we cherish the freedom of students to express their views, consistent with the protections provided by the First Amendment. Student freedom in this regard is an essential attribute of a great University where the independent search for truth is held in the highest esteem. With such freedom, however, comes an abiding responsibility. This responsibility includes respect for the rights of others inside and out of CUNY and for the University’s obligation to maintain a safe environment for all members of its community. Students should also be cognizant of the efforts of a few to distract attention from important issues in higher education such as learning, access and quality by invoking discriminatory language reeking of thinly veiled bigotry, prejudice, antisemitism or other behavior inconsistent with our educational mission. We can help assure such recognition by the high premium we place on dialogue and discussion at CUNY and by the expression of our own views while respecting the rights of those with whom we may disagree. At the end of the day, CUNY will retain its status as a great institution of higher education where valuable knowledge is both transmitted and created and our sense of community is affirmed and strengthened.

Jewish organizations and CUNY alumni are concerned by the university’s lack of reaction to the use on the part of its students of classical antisemitic messages and modern anti-Zionist libels, both on social media and on the premises on one of its colleges.

Calling the event and the university’s response to it “an outrage,” Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld, a graduate of the CUNY system who served as a trustee for 15 years, forwarded The Algemeiner a copy of an email he sent to CUNY Executive Vice Chancellor Jay Hershenson to complain:

I am cautioning you and strongly urging that you have [CUNY Chancellor James B.] Milliken make a statement of condemnation of this virulent anti-Semitism. The blanket, meaningless omnibus statement about “free speech” is itself abhorrent, as we would not tolerate these activities against any other ethnic or minority group.

Failure to do so will have economic consequences for several of our schools’ foundations. I have received many angry e-mails, which I would be pleased to share with you. If these “pareve” responses from CUNY central continue, we must all remember that by far and away – that Zionists pay the bills in the donor category – and they’ll take a hike.

The Anti-Defamation League issued a statement condemning “Students for Justice in Palestine’s anti-Semitic exploitation of the Million Student March in the strongest terms.”

ADL New York Regional Director Evan R. Bernstein said, “By implicitly linking to the very real financial challenges that students face, SJP has invoked a classic anti-Semitic stereotype which blames Jews for the financial woes of others. Rhetoric like this is thinly veiled anti-Semitism and fosters an environment of hostility.”

ADL noted that other anti-Israel student groups around the country have been using the march to condemn Israel and call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), citing similar messages at Temple University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of leading Jewish human rights organization the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Algemeiner that he considers it “a good thing that CUNY has a stated policy that includes antisemitism as being inconsistent with its educational mission.”

However, he added, “Such inflammatory rhetoric that demeans and demonizes Zionism and Zionists and that attempts to link a vile extremist anti-Israel agenda to real-time economic and social issues relating to CUNY and the city of New York demands a more explicit condemnation from CUNY and from the political leadership of the city. Our community should join with fair-minded union leaders and other people of faith to see to it that this new lexicon of anti-Israel/Jewish hate is rejected by all New Yorkers.”

Professor Gerald Steinberg, president of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor research institute, released a statement slamming the “continued abuse of US academic platforms and student activity by anti-Israel groups and NGOs should trouble all those interested in liberal values and quality education.”

“This is yet another example of antisemitic speech aimed at American Jewish students, delivered under the guise of criticizing Israel and its supporters,” Steinberg said.

Categories: Academia, Antisemitism, Israel, Palestinian heroes, Palestinians, Palestinians and Jews, Peace process
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Selective Outrage on Campus

November 13, 2015

Selective Outrage on Campus, The Gatestone Institute, Alan M. Dershowitz, November 12, 2015

(“Safe spaces,” in which infantile narcissists are shielded from ideas inconsistent with their own perceptions and which they therefore deem offensive are becoming an unfortunate part of the college experience. Freedom from ideas they find offensive trumps freedom of speech. Here’s a link to an article I posted at my blog yesterday titled Infants in University Land. It deals with the recent mess at my alma mater, Yale College. — DM)

Following the forced resignations of the President and Provost of the University of Missouri, demonstrations against campus administrators has spread across the country. Students — many of whom are Black, gay, transgender and Muslim — claim that they feel “unsafe” as the result of what they call “white privilege” or sometimes simply privilege. “Check your privilege” has become the put-down du jour. Students insist on being protected by campus administrators from “micro-aggressions,” meaning unintended statements inside and outside the classroom that demonstrate subtle insensitivities towards minority students. They insist on being safe from hostile or politically incorrect ideas. They demand “trigger warnings” before sensitive issues are discussed or assigned. They want to own the narrative and keep other points of view from upsetting them or making them feel unsafe.

These current manifestations of a widespread culture of victimization and grievance are only the most recent iterations of a dangerous long-term trend on campuses both in the United States and in Europe. The ultimate victims are freedom of expression, academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. Many faculty members, administrators and students are fearful of the consequences if they express politically incorrect or dissident views that may upset some students. So they engage in self-censorship. They have seen what had happened to those who have expressed unpopular views, and it is not a pretty picture.

I know, because I repeatedly experienced this backlash when I speak on campuses. Most recently, I was invited to deliver the Milton Eisenhower lecture at Johns Hopkins University. As soon as the lecture was announced, several student groups demanded that the invitation must be rescinded. The petition objected to my mere “presence” on campus, stating that my views on certain issues “are not matters of opinion, and cannot be debated” and that they are “not issues that are open to debate of any kind.” These non-debatable issues include some of the most controversial concerns that are roiling campus today: sexual assault, academic integrity and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The protesting students simply didn’t want my view on these and other issues expressed on their campus, because my lecture would make them feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

The groups demanding censorship of my lecture included Hopkins Feminists, Black Student Union, Diverse Sexuality and General Alliance, Sexual Assault Resource Unit and Voice for Choice. I have been told that two faculty members urged these students, who had never heard of me, to organize the protests, but the cowardly faculty members would not themselves sign the petition. The petition contained blatant lies about me and my views, but that is beside the point. I responded to the lies in my lecture and invited the protesting students to engage me during the Q and A. But instead, they walked out in the middle of my presentation, while I was discussing the prospects for peace in the Middle East.

According to the Johns Hopkins News-Letter, another petition claimed that “by denying Israel’s alleged war crimes against Palestinians,” I violated the university’s “anti-harassment policy” and its “statement of ethical standards.” In other words, by expressing my reasonable views on a controversial subject, I harassed students.

Some of the posters advertising my lecture were defaced with Hitler mustaches drawn on my face. Imagine the outcry if comparably insensitive images had been drawn on the faces of invited minority lecturers.

I must add that the Johns Hopkins administration and the student group that invited me responded admirably to the protests, fully defending my right to express my views and the right of the student group to invite me. The lecture went off without any hitches and I answered all the questions — some quite critical, but all polite — for the large audience that came to hear the presentation.

The same cannot be said of several other lectures I have given on other campuses, which were disrupted by efforts to shout me down, especially by anti-Israel groups that are committed to preventing pro-Israel speakers from expressing their views.

The point is not only that some students care less about freedom of expression in general than about protecting all students from “micro-aggressions.” It is that many of these same students are perfectly willing to make other students with whom they disagree with feel unsafe and offended by their own micro- and macro-aggressions. Consider, for example, a recent protest at the City University of New York by Students for Justice in Palestine that blamed high tuition on “the Zionist Administration [of the University that] invests in Israeli companies, companies that support the Israeli occupation, hosts birthright programs and study abroad programs in occupied Palestine [meaning Israel proper] and reproduces settler-colonial ideology throughout CUNY though Zionist content of education.”

Let’s be clear what they mean by “Zionist”: they mean “Jew”. There are many Jewish administrators at City University. Some are probably Zionists. Others are probably not. Blaming Zionists for high tuition is out and out anti-Semitism. It is not micro-aggression. It is in-your-face macro-aggression against City University Jews.

Yet those who protest micro-aggressions against other minorities are silent when it comes to Jews. This is not to engage in comparative victimization, but rather to expose the double standard, the selective outrage and the overt hypocrisy of many of those who would sacrifice free speech on the altar of political correctness, whose content they seek to dictate.

Categories: Academia, Antisemitism, Diversity, Israel, Jews, Palestinian heroes, Palestinians, Palestinians and Jews
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Palestinians: A World of Lies, Deception and Fabrications

November 7, 2015

Palestinians: A World of Lies, Deception and Fabrications, The Gatestone Institute, Bassam Tawil, November 7, 2015

  • The only astonishing thing is that Abbas and the Palestinian leaders continue to refer to their wave of terrorism and bloodbath as a “peaceful, popular uprising.”
  • The terrorists were doubtless inspired by their president’s words. It is this kind of officially-sanctioned rhetoric that encourages young Palestinians to stab the first Jew they see.
  • This is not only a mountainous lie; it is an attempt on the part of the Palestinian Authority leadership to deceive the world into believing that Israeli security forces killed these poor innocent terrorists who were merely part of a peaceful protest. These “innocent” Palestinian men and women were “merely” in the process of trying to stab people to death.
  • The world in which Abbas and the Palestinian leadership live is a world of lies, fabrications and deception aimed at demonizing Israel and murdering Jews. The goal is not only to murder as many Jews as possible, but also to force Israel to its knees so that it will vanish as soon as possible.
  • Welcome to the world of the Palestinians, where we lie and then believe our own lies. And then want the rest of the world to believe them, too.

Sadly, the Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders are continuing to bury their heads in the sand and lying to everyone — from their people to the international community.

The current wave of Palestinian terrorism has entered its fourth week, but our leaders, above all the PA President Mahmoud Abbas, are continuing to talk about a “peaceful, popular uprising” against Israel. This wave of Palestinian stabbings, shootings and vehicular ramming has been anything but either “popular” or “peaceful.”

President Abbas and his top PLO and Fatah leaders have yet to explain to us what is peaceful and popular about stabbing an 80-year-old lady named Ruti Malka in Rishon Lezion, and a 70-year-old Jewish woman Jerusalem.

Instead of denouncing the terror attacks perpetrated by his people, Abbas continues to attack Israel for shooting the knife-wielding assailants to stop them. He has not missed one opportunity in the past four weeks to make false and libelous accusations against Israel. These include claims that Israelis are carrying out “summary executions” of “innocent” Palestinian men and women. In reality, these “innocent” Palestinian men and women were “merely” in the process of trying to stab people to death.

At two separate meetings of the PLO and Fatah leaderships in Ramallah this week, Abbas repeated his bogus charge that Israel is “committing war crimes” and working to “alter” the status quo on the Haram al-Sharif, or Temple Mount. He has also made these charges during meetingswith Western leaders and government officials in Ramallah and abroad.

Instead of appealing to his people to refrain from carrying out terrorist attacks, Abbas and the PLO and Fatah leaders “voiced appreciation for the heroic steadfastness” of the Palestinians who, he said, are “defending their holy sites and the national project.” The Palestinian leaders consider the terrorists who murdered and wounded scores of Israelis as “defenders” of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

It was Abbas who said just a few days before the eruption of current wave of terrorism, that Palestinians “won’t allow Jews to contaminate, with their filthy feet, our holy sites.” He also stated that “every drop of blood that is spilled in Jerusalem is pure blood” and that the terrorists would go to Paradise.

The terrorists who took to the streets to commit murder were doubtless inspired by their president’s words. It is this kind of rhetoric, officially-sanctioned, that encourages young men and women to carry a knife and stab the first Jew they see. Abbas went so far as to tell the terrorists that it is their duty to “defend” the Islamic holy sites. He assured them that if they are killed by Israeli security forces, they will end up in Paradise.

Abbas’s firing up his people to murder is happening at a time as his Palestinian Authority-controlled media continues its massive campaign of firing up the same people to murder, while hailing terrorists as “martyrs” and “heroes.” At the same time, this media is promoting fraudulent conspiracy theories, such as the lie that Israeli soldiers and policemen have been “planting” knives next to the bodies of the terrorists.

1280 (2)Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right) ignited competition among radical groups as to which faction could incite the most violence. Left: official PA media incite Palestinians, from a young age, to murder Jews.

This week, Abbas’s envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, repeated the old-new blood lie that Israel is harvesting the organs of dead Palestinians.

Such libels, lies and vilifications are intended to radicalize Palestinians still further and drive them towards pursuing their terrorist attacks against Israelis. Such defamation is also aimed at spreading hated against Jews around the world, thus endangering lives in the U.S., France, Britain and elsewhere.

Abbas and his PA and Fatah leaders and officials are working hard not only to demonize and delegitimize Israelis, but also, through lies and blood-libels, Jews everywhere.

The only astonishing thing is that Abbas and the Palestinian leaders continue to refer to their wave of terrorism and bloodbath as a “peaceful, popular uprising.” Not only is this a mountainous lie; it is an attempt on the part of the Palestinian Authority leadership to deceive the world into believing that Israel’s mighty security forces killed these poor innocent terrorists who were merely part of a peaceful protest against those awful Israeli “occupiers.”

Abbas knows very well that the terrorists were not participating in any “peaceful” demonstration in the West Bank or Jerusalem. He knows very well that the terrorists are “lone wolves” whom he himself has whipped up to murder Jews for no other reason than that they are Jews. Yet this knowledge has not stopped Abbas and the rest of the Palestinian leadership from continuing to lie to the world and their own people about the nature of these terrorist attacks.

In this regard, Abbas and the Palestinian leadership are following with the famous Arab Proverb, “He hit me and cried, and then came to complain.” The Palestinians involved in the current wave of terrorism against Israelis are the same ones complaining to the world about Israel. It is no surprise that many in the international community are rushing to endorse the false narrative of the Palestinian leadership.

In the twisted world of Abbas, there is no wave of stabbings and vehicular attacks against Jews. In the twisted world of Abbas, there are no terrorists. Stabbing elderly Jewish women and a 13-year-old Jewish boy, according to Abbas, is part of a “peaceful, popular” protest. In the eyes of Palestinian leaders, most of the terrorists who have been encouraged by Palestinian leaders to murder Jews are “innocent victims” who have had knives placed next to them by Israeli policemen and soldiers in order to frame them.

This is the world in which Abbas and the Palestinian leadership live. It is a world of lies, fabrications and deception aimed at demonizing Israel and murdering Jews. The ultimate goal is not only to murder as many Jews as possible, but also to force Israel to its knees in the hope that it will vanish as soon as possible.

Welcome to the world of the Palestinians, where we lie and believe our own lies. And then want the rest of the world to believe them, too.

Categories: Abbas, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's war on Jews, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian heroes, Palestinians, Palestinians and Jews, Peace process, Peaceful Palestinians, Temple Mount
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Keeping up warm relations

November 6, 2015

Keeping up warm relations, Israel Hayom, Shlomo Cesanam, November 6, 2015

(Please see also, Obama rules out Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before leaving office. — DM)

Two state is deadScience and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis, seen with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon in the Knesset, says the two-state solution is “dead.” | Photo credit: Noam Revkin-Fenton

The imminent meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama won’t repair their soured ties, but it’s clear that their face-offs are on hold as Israel and the U.S. prepare to deal with Middle East instability.

*********************

Two weeks ago, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon met with his American counterpart Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. The defense secretary accompanied Ya’alon everywhere: to a memorial service at the Israeli Embassy marking 20 years since the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, on a visit to the American Cyber Command at Fort Meade, in a dialogue with students and to a laid-back meal at the Pentagon, at which a military choir performed “Jerusalem of Gold” accompanied by a violinist. The Americans promise that the warm welcome Ya’alon received will continue — even if not with the same intensity — for another two days, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to land in Washington, ahead of a Monday meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House.

The meeting will not obliterate the soured relations between the two leaders. They “did not have a chance to meet” this year, but they did manage to publicly face off on important issues and policies. The main bone of contention is of course the understandings reached between six world powers on Iran’s nuclear program. Nevertheless, it is clear to everyone that the confrontations are over as is the discussion of whether the tension between the two leaders harmed the relations between their respective nations. Both sides agree that the threats, challenges and mutual interests supersede the various disagreements, and that new arrangements must be made for the future.

The agenda of the meeting will address coordination on a strategic outlook for the region. Two specific issues are up for discussion: Preserving Israel’s qualitative advantage over the rest of the countries in the region, and American aid to strengthen Israel during the next 10 years. The aforementioned edge was created as a result of the nuclear deal with Iran and the “compensation packages” the U.S. handed out to its allies in the Persian Gulf — first and foremost Saudi Arabia, but also countries like Jordan and Egypt. The aid comes in the form of information, technology, financial aid, weapons and ammunition.

The American aid will be provided under a 10-year plan. Former President George W. Bush signed the last aid deal, which expires at the end of 2017. Israel expects to fill up a “shopping cart” with items that already appear on a long list of requests, including a bump in the amount of defense assistance from $3.1 billion to $4 billion.

Since the deal will only take effect two years from now, diplomatic officials are discussing two separate lists: one for the long term, and a second that will give Israel the help it needs to preserve its advantage. The goals of the meeting between Netanyahu and Obama are based on the assumption that the Middle East is unstable, and will remain so for the next decade. That assumption is backed up by reports from teams of professionals in both the U.S. and Israel.

The bottom line, a member of Israel’s Diplomatic-Security Cabinet said this week, is that “the U.S. and Israel are in sync. They see eye to eye on the existing situation and have identical assessments of the changing situation in the region.”

Both Israel and the U.S., for example, agree that even after the Iran nuclear deal, the Tehran regime is no less dangerous. They both know that the Iranian money that was unfrozen when the sanctions were lifted, is already going to fund terrorism.

Netanyahu and Obama are going to talk about strategy, as the proposals for aid to bolster Israel are already known. But because in our region it is hard to know what the day will bring, both sides have built a model according to which “a variety of measures to provide a variety of solutions to a variety of threats” must be offered. The discussion in the White House will deal with all of the security ties between the two countries: Long-term financial aid; cooperation on cybersecurity; air, land, sea, and satellite power; intelligence; technological and defense development, including more Iron Dome batteries and similar defense systems, and the promotion of solutions that are still being developed. On everything relating to the immediate and broad-scale answer, Israel is asking for a way of defending itself against long-range and precision-guided missiles.

Netanyahu and Obama will also have to decide whether the time has come to strike a reciprocity deal — a defense pact between the two nations — that does not include a requirement to inform each other of certain covert actions, such as an attack on Iran. A deal like that would provide an answer for any scenario in which Iran breaks through to a nuclear bomb before the deal on its nuclear program is up.

“We left Gaza — and what did we get?”

But the headaches do not end there. When Netanyahu returns from the U.S., he will be facing two other important events: passing the state budget, which will among other things determine the defense budget, and the scheduled release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard from a U.S. prison, which will mark the end of a long dispute with the Americans on the Pollard matter.

In Jerusalem, Netanyahu’s meeting with Obama is seen with utmost importance. Many officials at the diplomatic echelon argue that the meeting explains Netanyahu’s conduct these past few weeks: his measured responses to events in the field, the ban on MKs visiting the Temple Mount, the delay on committee discussions about construction in Jerusalem, and his remark that comparatively speaking, he is the prime minister who has allowed the least amount of building in Judea and Samaria.

On the other hand, Netanyahu is not hiding his official policy that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is not a partner with whom a peace deal can be made and that for now, Israel’s security and defense prowess in Judea and Samaria must be solidified without any visible changes.

The opposition and some media outlets have voiced criticism of Ya’alon, who is being accused of wanting to “manage” the conflict with the Palestinians and of directing “a policy of carrots” rather than finding a solution to it. Netanyahu, on the other hand, is accused of marking time and cultivating a vision in which we will “always live by the sword.”

The criticism is local, but it echoes throughout the world. That is why it was important to Netanyahu to issue a reply this week: “I’m not deceiving the public. We are living in the heart of radical Islam, and no policy we adopt will turn our neighbors into Norwegians or Swedes. We withdrew from every last [inch] of the Gaza Strip and didn’t get peace, [we got] rockets and terrorism. Therefore — with an arrangement or without one — we will always need the IDF to protect ourselves.”

Netanyahu is arriving in Washington as the head of a narrow right-wing government, most of whose members oppose a two-state solution. A member of his own Likud party, Science, Technology and Space Minister Ofir Akunis, said twice this week — at a weekend cultural event in Beersheba and at a Likud conference in Kfar Saba — that “the two-state solution is dead.”

According to Akunis, “the idea is irrelevant and is no longer at all possible.”

The understandings and agreements between Israel and the U.S. are also tied into the American and European demand to “end the occupation” at any price and “prevent apartheid.” While the security and defense factor is in place, Israel has no solution when it comes to the world’s demands on the Palestinian issue.

Categories: Israel, Middle East, Netanyahu, Obama and Israel, Palestinians, Peace process
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Palestinian ‘recognition’ is a bloody lie

November 6, 2015

Palestinian ‘recognition’ is a bloody lie, Israel Hayom, Ruthie Blum, November 6, 2015

It is not nice to be amused while Israelis are being stabbed, stoned and run over by frenzied young terrorists. But how can one keep a straight face when hearing the Palestinian Authority’s spin the situation?

With a little charisma-coaching, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas could be a stand-up comic; he’s already got an international audience applauding his primitive discourse. Imagine the gigs he would get if he polished his act.

One routine the terrorist-in-a-tie needs to hone is his song-and-dance about canceling the Oslo Accords — the 1993 agreement between his predecessor, PLO chief Yasser Arafat, and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, for which the two received the Nobel Peace Prize.

This was funny enough by itself, since peace was the one element of the treaty establishing the PA that eluded the whole process. Furthermore, only the Palestinian side benefited from it. Arafat received accolades, along with lots of land. Formerly a terrorist pariah, he was suddenly granted full-fledged legitimacy as a player on the world stage. Even the Second Intifada — the suicide-bombing war he launched after blowing up negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2000 at Camp David — did not rob him of his ill-deserved peace prize.

Abbas, on the other hand, was given the benefit of the doubt from the get-go. Though an Arafat loyalist and a Holocaust denier, he came to power after the PA was a recognized entity — he wears a suit rather than military garb and an Islamic keffiyeh. Therefore, he was automatically seen as a more Western kind of guy.

But he, too, was out for Israel’s destruction “in stages.” And he also perpetrated terror against innocent Israelis while pretending to negotiate peace. Nor do any gestures on Israel’s part to appease him suffice, because his aim is not actually statehood in the true sense of the word. It is, rather, the mantra and mantle for keeping himself relevant at home and abroad.

So when, on September 30, he told the U.N. General Assembly that Israel “leaves us no choice but to insist that we will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation” of the Oslo Accords, it is a miracle that he did not elicit howls of laughter from the peanut gallery in New York.

This week, PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat, who was among the chief negotiators of the Oslo Accords and subsequent phony “peace talks,” took the comedy act a step further. He told the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Thursday that the Palestinians may have to rescind their recognition of Israel.

One would be hard-pressed to find a bigger hoot than that.

In the first place, though the only concrete action required of the Palestinians at Oslo was to amend the PLO charter calling for Israel’s annihilation — and even this was only promised in a series of letters exchanged between Rabin and Arafat — its newer version was never ratified.

Second, Israel is the only party that has upheld its commitments — only using military force in self-defense.

The Palestinian terrorism war that is currently being waged against innocent civilians and soldiers erupted, according to Abbas and his henchmen, as a result of a change in the status quo on the Temple Mount. That there was no such change makes no difference. Spreading lies is how the Palestinian leadership operates. Its success at the dissemination of propaganda only serves to strengthen its resolve.

And this time around, Abbas is letting the kids do his dirty work, with knives and rocks, without having to lift a finger — other than for emphasis when denouncing Israel at the U.N.

There are disagreements among Israeli politicians, pundits and the public about how to handle the current crisis. Debates on the viability or wisdom of the two-state solution are rehashed ad nauseam, to the point where it is not clear whether to cry or yawn. But a crucial little factoid keeps getting drowned out in the cacophony and camouflaged by blood: No official Palestinian body has ever recognized the Jewish state. This is worthy of at least a partial smile, because something that never existed cannot be canceled.

Categories: Abbas, Arafat, Jewish state, Oslo Accords, Palestinians, Palestinians and Jews, Temple Mount
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Op-Ed: Europe reacts to its impotence by taking it out on the Jews

November 5, 2015

Op-Ed: Europe reacts to its impotence by taking it out on the Jews, Israel National News, Giulio Meotti, November 5, 2015

Germany’s Muslim population will quadruple to an astonishing 20 million within the next five years (2020), according to a demographic forecast by Bavarian lawmakers. The German government will receive 1.5 million asylum seekers in 2015, and possibly even more in 2016.

France’s Muslim Population will be more than 10 percent by 2030. And according to the study British Muslims in Numbers based on the 2011 census and undertaken by the Muslim Council of Britain, the British Muslim population already witnessed a 75 percent increase over the past ten years, an “unprecedented” population growth according to Prof David Voas of Essex University.

It is the same scenario everywhere in Europe. The “old continent” is experiencing a devastating phenomenon of demographic self-liquidation and spiritual immolation which has no precedent in the Western civilization’s history.

Europe is finding it impossible to control its borders against Muslim migrants. And how is Europe reacting to this existential and physical impotence? By taking it out on the Jews, or, by displacement, the Jewish State. This makes the Europeans feel good because they are making themselves look good to their Muslim populations by doing something they, the Muslim population, will approve of. They are thus appeasing their growing Muslim minorities of whom they are afraid by betraying, again, the Jewish people.

This is how to explain the fact that for the first time since Germany did so 70 years ago, the European Union has just imposed a special label on Jewish products.

This is how you explain the fact that Europe’s mainstream is condemning Israel’s security forces for defending herself in this new terror wave.

This is how you explain the fact that Europe is opening her trade to Iran’s anti-Semitic regime while imposing sanctions on the Jewish State.

This is how you explain the fact that, from Oxford to Bordeaux, hundreds of European academicians are undertaking a boycott of Israeli universities.

This is how you explain the fact that anti-Semitism has become the common currency on most of Europe’s streets.

Europe doesn’t want to live under the psychological burden of Auschwitz forever. All the Jews are living reminders of the moral failure of Europe and this leads to the projection of guilt and shame on Israel as “the occupier” and “the aggressor” and on the remaining European Jews.

Indeed, it’s a tragic but unavoidable process: an Islamicized and moribund Europe will be a Jew-free continent and it will lead the battle of delegitimation against the State of Israel.

Categories: Europe, European Union, Hijrah, Islam's war on Jews, Islamic culture, Islamic immigration, Islamic invasion, Islamic supremacy, Islamism, Islamophobia, Israel, Multiculturalism, Palestinians, Palestinians and Jews
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