Posted tagged ‘Palestinians and Jews’

Rivlin’s cringe-worthy White House visit

December 11, 2015

Rivlin’s cringe-worthy White House visit, Israel Hayom, Ruthie Blum, December 12, 2015

(Please see also, “INS’ALLAH!”: Obama Chanukah party attacks Islamophobia, calls for “justice” for Palestinians. — DM)

Ahead of his visit to the White House on Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin published an op-ed in The Washington Post titled, “What Israel should do to lay the groundwork for peace.”

As its title suggests, the piece is a blueprint for measures Rivlin thinks the Jewish state should take to make life better for all the people involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even in the absence of a “current viable solution.”

Referring to this as the “tragedy that envelops us all” — rather than a perpetual war waged by the Palestinian Authority against the Jewish state — Rivlin writes that though “there is no diplomatic process underway, and no indication of imminent negotiations,” Israel is “duty-bound to recognize where and how we can take effective action to improve the prospect that we will be able to live together.”

He fails to point out that every time we Israelis do this, we have to spend our days and nights trying to “take effective action” to stay alive, with all the missiles, bombs, guns, knives, Molotov cocktails and rocks being flung our way.

But this doesn’t matter, of course, because Rivlin’s real aim was to “lay the groundwork for peace” with U.S. President Barack Obama. Indeed, our state’s figurehead was determined to get a pat on the head by the dangerous lame duck in Washington with enough remaining power to continue to wreak havoc on the world through the very same attitude expressed in Rivlin’s article.

And it worked, as praise from the Hebrew press indicates.

Yes, the anti-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu media in Israel stressed that Rivlin was greeted with more warmth from Obama than Netanyahu ever received. The two presidents even lit Hanukkah candles together.

Well, that particular bonding moment gave Rivlin the perfect opportunity to engage in cringeworthy behavior. He actually likened Obama to the “shamash” in the menorah, the “leader with which you light the other candles. You have been lighting the candles for seven years to show your people and the world the right way — we’re sure that the eighth candle you will light next year will show the world how to walk in light.”

If Rivlin was hinting at the light from Islamist rocket-launches and nuclear fission, he might have been on to something. But, of course, he was not. Their nauseating display was designed to reiterate that Muslims are peace-loving victims of a few rotten apples and to perpetuate the myth that financial strain is behind terrorism.

Rivlin actually says this in his piece: “It is worth understanding that the Israeli right has long ignored the eastern part of [Jerusalem] for reasons of internal political differences, while the left has equally neglected investing in the need for infrastructure to serve the 300,000 Palestinians of the city as part of an ideology of political separation from the Palestinians. … Does anyone think that dealing with the sewage, roads, schools and medical centers of eastern Jerusalem can or should wait until the end of the conflict? Is there anyone who thinks the consequences of these economic disparities in the city will stop at genuine or fictitious political borders?”

Obama couldn’t have agreed more.

The official White House “readout” about Rivlin’s visit said, “The leaders discussed their mutual concern about the ongoing violence in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel, and the importance of Israeli and Palestinian leaders taking steps to reduce violence and restore calm through both action and rhetoric.”

It is bad enough that the president of the United States holds Israel responsible for the daily attempted slaughter of — and genocidal pronouncements against — Jews by Palestinian perpetrators. But for the Israeli president to accept and spread this vile fallacy is appalling beyond belief. It is certainly a far cry from the Hanukkah miracle we were supposed to be celebrating.

More Palestinian and Western Mistakes

November 21, 2015

More Palestinian and Western Mistakes, The Gatestone InstituteBassam Tawil, November 21, 2015

(Did Mohamed forbid all murder? Or is it OK to murder Jews? — DM)

  • The Palestinian “victims” — victims of their own credulousness — are known asshuhadaa, martyrs for the sake of Allah, victims of the misconception that Allah wants us to die for him. But Allah forbids us to murder. Muhammad forbids us to murder. The Qur’an forbids us to murder.
  • Europeans, in general, obviously want the Jews dead — so long as the murder cannot be traced back to them. They seem to be hoping that their boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, combined with Arab and Iranian “hit men,” will do the job for them.
  • Also tragically, it has taken Mahmoud Abbas too long to realize that the ultimate objective of Hamas, the local representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood, after killing Israelis, is to have this violence cost the Palestinian Authority its existence in the West Bank. There, they openly plan to set up another Islamic emirate, like the one in the Gaza Strip.
  • The knife-wielding Palestinian children — and the other young people who commit murder — are also not a spontaneous occurrence. They do not simply “spring” full-blown from “imperialism,” “Syrian bombings” or an “endangered Al-Aqsa.” They are the product of a careful, methodical, ongoing tactic of brainwashing about how glorious it is to become a shaheed [martyr] by murdering.
  • We do need to liberated, but not from the people you think. We do not need help being liberated from Israel, which, even if it is harsh, has always been fair to us, but from the self-satisfied diplomats even now — in our name — swanning down the glossy halls of Europe.

The Palestinians have taken it upon themselves to sacrifice our younger generation — on the altar of pointlessness — again.

The Palestinians have been sending their children — still in their teens, and intoxicated by hatred and lies as the assassins of old were intoxicated by hashish — to the streets of Israel and the roads of the West Bank to murder Israelis again. And for what? Is Al-Aqsa mosque in danger? It is not. But the cynical, calculating Fatah, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hamas — and the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement which has just been banned — are desperate to bring the Palestinian issue back to the headlines. They hope it would displace the true catastrophe of the chaos in Syria and Iraq, which has led to the flood of refugees to Europe.

The Palestinian “victims” — victims of their own credulousness — are known as shuhadaa, martyrs for the sake of Allah, victims of the misconception that Allah wants us to die for him. But Allah forbids us to murder. Muhammad forbids us to murder. The Qur’an forbids us to murder.

The Palestinian terrorists that murder Israelis usually die in the process; the question is, does murder keep the Al-Aqsa mosque out of “danger” — which it is not even in?

Do the senseless deaths on both sides advance the cause of a political solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state? No, only, apparently, to many Europeans — anti-Semitic racists who love Muslims as much as they hate Jews. These Europeans probably love Muslimsbecause they hate Jews.

Europeans, in general, obviously want the Jews dead — so long as the murder cannot be traced back to them. They seem to be hoping that their boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, combined with Arab and Iranian “hit men,” will do the job for them. Sadly, the Palestinians, instead of looking like people who want peace, look like the Muslim extremists to whom the European racists offer ever more help. It seems inconceivable to these Europeans that we may not want to live with these savages any more than they do.

We do need to liberated, but not from the people you think. We do not need help being liberated from Israel, which, even if it is harsh, has always been fair to us, but from the self-satisfied diplomats even now — in our name — swanning down the glossy halls of Europe.

The Palestinians are, not surprisingly, trying to avoid negotiating for peace. As any Palestinian leader will be killed, and go down in Palestinian history as a traitor unless he is able to come back with 100% of Palestinian demands, Mahmoud Abbas would only end up having to turn down any realistic offer — in full view of the international community. The Palestinian leaders are clearly hoping, as anyone would, that these Jew-hating Europeans — and others who breezily turn Jewish heritage sites into Muslim heritage sites — will hand them the whole 100% on a plate, free of charge.

The knife-wielding Palestinian children — and the other young people who commit murder — are also not a spontaneous occurrence. They do not simply “spring” full-blown from “imperialism,” “Syrian bombings” or an “endangered Al-Aqsa.” They are the product of a careful, methodical, ongoing tactic of brainwashing about how glorious it is to become a shaheed [martyr] by murdering.

Do the dispatchers send their own children out to become suicide bombers? Do the dispatchers go themselves? No, the Palestinians and other terrorists prey on swayable, possibly depressed children — looking for love or a “cause” in their lives to counteract the internal emptiness — to commit murder.

These murders by our young — and of our young — are, tragically, the direct result of the inflammatory lies of Muslim extremists, both secular and religious. Here, these include the Palestinian Authority (PA), Fatah, Hamas, the Islamic Movement In Israel (banned last week), and ISIS.

Also tragically, it has taken Mahmoud Abbas too long to realize that the ultimate objective of Hamas, the local representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood, after killing Israelis, is to have this violence cost the Palestinian Authority its existence in the West Bank. There, they openly plan to set up another Islamic emirate, like the one in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas seems to have woken up, but only after the genie was out of the bottle. He then had no choice but to appeal to his only lifeline, Israel, for support — while at the same time threatening to end security coordination with it. His hate-propaganda nevertheless machine continues to promote the murder Israelis while carefully ignoring Israeli deaths. Abbas instead still focuses on the “martyrdom” of the terrorists and their supposedly “cold-blood executions” at the hands of Israelis whose “crime” is stop them as they are in the act of trying to slit Jewish throats.

1329Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking on PA television, September 16, 2015.

During the past six weeks, more than 70 Palestinians have been killed while trying to murder Israelis, and 12 Israelis have been murdered. Israel’s population, contrary to Palestinian expectations, has not collapsed and is, as usual, successfully moving to protect itself.

The real damage has been done to the Palestinian Authority’s credibility and to the belief, now held by fewer and fewer Israelis, that a political solution is possible.

The main questions still need to be directed to those who invented the slogan, “Al-Aqsa mosque is in danger”:

  • Is al-Aqsa mosque now less in danger? Given that, throughout the Middle East, mosques are being blown up one after another, Al-Aqsa mosque is not only in no danger, it is, on the contrary, eminently secure.
  • Has the recent Palestinian violence and terrorism moved the Israelis one inch toward surrendering?
  • Are the Islamists, including the Israeli-Arab members of Knesset, really working to benefit the lives and careers of the Palestinian people? Or, to benefit their own careers, are these politicians keeping their public whipped up like manipulated fighting dogs, and forever poor, to make sure that we will be forever dependent on them? This is a way you treat infants or animals, not people.

Fortunately, the attempt made by Hamas and its subcontractor for collective suicide, Ra’ed Salah’s Islamic Movement, to incite a religious war around the totally false slogan “Al-Aqsa mosque is in danger,” in order to oust Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies from the West Bank, the way they did in the Gaza Strip, has not succeeded. To begin with, their timing was off. The Arab and Muslim world is too busy engaging in mutual slaughter to bother itself with the lies of a gang of Palestinians. The Arab and Muslim world cannot be bothered with Israel, and it certainly cannot be bothered with preventing the overthrow of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority.

Even if the Israelis would like nothing better than to see Al-Aqsa mosque destroyed, a notion for which there is no evidence, they still protect it with the best of their police force, out of respect for others, as we all wish others would respect us. Protecting Al-Aqsa mosque guarantees Israel’s security by respectfully honoring the religion of people different from them. It is also a reminder that all of us might actually benefit from respectfully honoring the religions of others different from us.

It is absurd and offensive that after the Palestinians initiated — and then tried to justify the current wave of terrorism as “a legitimate non-violent peaceful protest against the occupation” — that they now cry crocodile tears about the supposed “Israeli executions” of Palestinian youths who take their knives and go Jew-hunting, but who then get killed in the process. Dimitri Diliani, of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, even had the effrontery to claim, falsely, to Russia Today TV, that Israelis, to justify their crimes, tried to plant knives near the bodies of the purportedly innocent Palestinians to frame them.

Mahmoud Abbas denied the Jews any access to the Temple Mount on the fabricated pretext that the Jews were defiling Al-Aqsa mosque. The Temple Mount, however is as sacred to Jews and Christians as to Muslims. To Jews, the Temple Mount is the location of their two Temples (the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E.); to Christians, it was at the Second Temple where Jesus expelled money-changers and those who sold doves (Matthew 21:12).

Ultimately, the American secretary of state, meeting with the King of Jordan and the Israeli prime minister, concluded that it was Israel that guarded Al-Aqsa and would continue to maintain the status quo. Thus the status quo was confirmed in Israeli’s favor.

The Palestinian Authority, Hamas and the Islamic Movement were left with nothing to say.

The upshot was that Mahmoud Abbas’s claim of defilement was rejected, and that Jews would still be allowed to visit. The Palestinians no longer serve as active participants; the Jordanians will continue to serve as religious administrators of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Israelis will continue as sovereign, and manage the security of the Temple Mount and Jerusalem.

Secretary Kerry’s repeated reference to the “Temple Mount, that is Al-Aqsa mosque” (Alharam Alshareef) to define the holy site struck a blow to both Mahmoud Abbas and the Islamists trying to deny the rights of the Jews. The Palestinian Authority has also — embarrassingly to many — been claiming that Jesus was a “Palestinian,” and trying to use the Temple Mount as an Islamic religious fulcrum for its baseless nationalist demands.

Secretary Kerry also put a stop to France’s pathetic attempts to curry favor with the Muslims living in its ghettoes when it proposed an international commission of inquiry to examine events in Al-Aqsa mosque. As Israel preserves full freedom of access throughout Jerusalem, the French can enter Al-Aqsa mosque and argue among themselves, but their attempts to enter Jerusalem through the back door was rejected by the Palestinians as an attempt to internationalize Jerusalem into a “Crusader city.”

When the Palestinians torched the Tomb of Joseph, it became clear that under Palestinian Authority control, Jewish and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem would be reduced to ashes, and that the Palestinians in the West Bank were no better than ISIS or the Taliban, which destroyed Palmyra and the ancient statues of the Buddha in Bamiyan.

The Jews, who dealt with two previous intifadas, are not particularly terrified by the thought of a third one. We have repeatedly seen that every violent Palestinian attempt has backfired and caused far more damage to us than to the Jews. The Palestinian Authority’s approval of Hamas’s incitement not only threatened its own downfall, but also looked as if it would precipitate the installation of an Islamic emirate in the West Bank — an event that would effectively have killed any dream of a Palestinian state.

Yes, the recent wave of stabbings and shootings has, to a small and transitory extent, diverted the world’s attention from the real tragedies of the Middle East. However, the millions of refugees in the Middle East (many knocking at the gates of Europe), will keep pushing to the sidelines the Palestinian cause; the slaughter; the mosques blown up; the churches burned down, and the genuine persecution of minorities, as opposed to the fairy tales invented by Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas and the seditious Israeli Arab members of Israel’s Knesset.

The other real loser is the trust between Arabs and Jews. Trust — with special thanks to Palestinian groups working fiercely against “normalization” rather than toward peace — has been totally eroded. Again, the only people we have hurt are ourselves: the demand of Israeli Arabs for equality is rapidly slipping down the list of public priorities. As the old Arab proverb says, “Ask someone with experience, not the doctor.”

At the end of the current violence that we began, will be left, as usual, with nothing to show for it, while the Israelis, who always rebound, will continue to thrive, prosper and move forward.

Clearly the time will soon come again for direct negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis — but the use of force, instead of than wresting concessions from the Israelis, will, as always, do just the opposite.

Palestinian terror claims 5 murders in a day as Hebron swings out of Shin Bet control

November 20, 2015

Palestinian terror claims 5 murders in a day as Hebron swings out of Shin Bet control, DEBKAfile, November 19, 2015

Blood inside a minibus at the scene of a drive-by shooting near the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut, in the Etzion Bloc, on November 19, 2015. Three people were killed in the terrorist attack, and several more wounded. Photo by Gershon Elinson/FLASH90 *** Local Caption *** ????? ???? ??? ??? ????? ???? ?????? Blood inside a minibus at the scene of a drive-by shooting near the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut, in the Etzion Bloc, on November 19, 2015. Three people were killed in the terrorist attack, and several more wounded. Photo by Gershon Elinson/FLASH90

All five murders perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists Thursday, Nov. 19, led back to the Hebron district of the southern West Bank. The writing on the wall was there in June 2014, when three Israeli teenage boys, Gil-Ad Sheer, Yakov Frankel and Eyal Yifrah were kidnapped at the Gush Etzion intersection near Hebron, and eventually found murdered.

Since the current wave of Palestinian terror erupted on Oct. 1, it has been obvious that the breeding ground was the town of Hebron and the district of Mount Hebron. This wave hit a deadly peak on Thursday. A Palestinian father of five from the village of Duma in the Hebron district, who a few days earlier received a permit to work in Tel Aviv, slashed to death two Israelis at a makeshift synagogue in southern Tel Aviv. Another terrorist from the village of Deir Samath near Hebron, slammed his car into Israeli vehicles and sprayed a traffic jam with gunfire on the highway to Hebron, killing an Israeli man, a tourist teenager and a Palestinian motorist. Seven others were injured.

The mother of one of the terrorists praised her son for bringing “pride and honor to the Palestinians and to Hebron.”

The controversy in Israeli military circles about whether the Palestinian terrorists have escalated the violence from rocks and knives to guns is hardly relevant, when the first attack of the current wave on Oct. 1 was a well-planned deadly shooting attack on an Israeli couple in a car. The 2015 violence would be more aptly dubbed “the Hebron Intifada.”

Hebron, 30 km south of Jerusalem, is the second largest West Bank city after Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority administration. Around 400,000 Palestinians, roughly a quarter of the West Bank Palestinian population, lives there and in the Mount Hebron towns of Dahariya, Halhoul, Yata, Dura. Samoa, Beit Umar, Bani Naim and Hirbat al-Aroub, as well as a far smaller Jewish population mainly in Hebron, Kiryat Arba and Gush Etzion. Just south of Mt.Hebron are the lands of small Bedouin tribes.

Periodic outbreaks of Arab pogroms against Jewish dwellers have been endemic to this region since 1929, but it was internal strife that ignited the current wave of violence which derives from four causes:

1.  The Palestinian Authority and the ruling Fatah party in Ramallah are at daggers drawn with the Hamas leadership in Gaza. The Palestinian centers of government have been too preoccupied with their quarrel to keep touch with what was going on in Hebron.

2. This void of authority opened the door for the local families and clans, which ruled the district before central authority was established in Ramallah 21 years ago, to reinstate themselves in power, with the result that Israeli and Palestinian intelligence agencies alike have found the restored authority shut tight against their penetration.

Not only are external intrusions excluded, but the clans themselves are careful to keep their business private from rival clans and families.

3. To avoid admitting to its incapacity in this new situation, Israel’s security agency, the Shin Bet, continues to harp on the “lone wolf” theory to explain why the latest round of terror is unpredictable.

But the attacks in Sharm el-Sheikh on a Russian airliner and the multiple terrorist attacks in Paris show Islamist terror to have assumed a new, impenetrable guise, to fight which anti-terror agencies will have to adapt and come up with new methods.

The Shin Beit is finding it harder than before to procure intelligence not just in Hebron but also from the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This difficulty is shared by Jordanian intelligence, which until not long ago maintained a broad net of highly professional agents and informers in the Palestinian community.

4.  In the current situation, Hebron is swinging out of control as athe spearhead of the current wave of Palestinian terror, and appears poised to evolve into a new Palestinian bloc to contest Ramallah for the national leadership.

5.  Israel’s failure to stem their campaign of terror has given Hebron’s clan chiefs enhanced standing in the Palestinian community at large and even in broader circles of the Arab world.

Abbas’s Fatah: All Israelis are Nazis

November 19, 2015

Abbas’s Fatah: All Israelis are Nazis, Israel National News, Ari Yashar, November 19, 2015

(Please see also, Kerry said to plan Israel visit in bid to ease tensions. Will Kerry ask Fatah for some “confidence building measures?” — DM)

img636521Fatah: Nazis, Israelis, ‘they’re all the same’Palestinian Media Watch

Fatah takes to cartoons in demonizing Jews, after same official who stated ‘right’ to murder Jews compares Netanyahu to Hitler.

Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction has been caught once again demonizing Jews and inciting terror, in an offensive cartoon depicting all Israelis as Nazis – the genocidal German regime that sought to murder all Jews.

The cartoon, published last week on the website of Fatah’s Information and Culture Commission and revealed by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) Thursday, shows the upper bodies of six Nazi officials arguing but joined together in one body with two legs, wearing a belt with a large Star of David on it.

The cartoon is headlined with the words “they are all the same,” meaning all Israelis are Nazis, and additional text reads “the disputes inside ‘Israel.'”

Fatah has long sought to demonize Jews with Nazi imagery. Earlier this year, Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen said there is “no difference” between Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in an interview with the Fatah run Awdah TV.

“Basically, he (Netanyahu) is the patron of those settlers and patron of the extreme mentality, the Nazi mentality. Therefore I say there is no difference between Hitler and Netanyahu. Netanyahu is a man who murders, advocates expansion, destroys homes, Judaizes territories, arrests thousands, and destroys the peace process,” claimed Muhaisen.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3eem87_fatah-official-there-is-no-difference-between-netanyahu-and-hitler_news

Ironically given his comparison with the Nazis, Muhaisen just recently said Palestinian Arabs have the “right” to murder Jews and “cause Israeli women to cry.”

Abbas Zaki, another Fatah Central Committee member, told the semi official Iranian Fars News Agency last week that “as long as barbaric, Nazi, fascist Israeli steps are being taken, our people will not surrender or wave a white flag, and in the end (we) will defeat the occupier.”

The statements are made ironic due to the current wave of Arab terror attacks that began in early October, and which on Thursday saw at least three Jewish victims murdered.

But Zaki praised “the heroic acts being carried out by the young Palestinians against the Israeli enemy,” in open support for terrorism.

 

Kerry said to plan Israel visit in bid to ease tensions

November 19, 2015

Kerry said to plan Israel visit in bid to ease tensions, Times of IsraelTamar Pileggi, November 19, 2015

(!@#$!@#$$&(&&!!! How about a modicum of “solidarity” with Israel? — DM)

Kerry again on peaceBenjamin Netanyahu, left, meeting with John Kerry in Jerusalem on Monday, March 31, 2014. (photo credit: Amos Ben Gershom/ GPO/Flash90)

In a bid to calm mounting Israeli-Palestinian tensions, US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Israel and the West Bank next week to discuss the implementation of confidence building measures, Hebrew-language media reported Wednesday.

The secretary of state will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, Channel 2 reported.

US special envoy on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations Frank Lowenstein will arrive in Israel on Thursday ahead of the talks, according to the report.

There was no official confirmation.

Kerry’s visit to Israel would come on the heels of Netanyahu’s trip to Washington last week, where the prime minister discussed with US leaders a series of goodwill gestures Jerusalem intends to take to stabilize relations with the Palestinians.

Kerry at the time stressed that the Obama administration would keep pushing for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement in its remaining 16 months in office. US-backed talks collapsed in April 2014 after a nine-month effort and negotiations have been in a deep freeze ever since.

Addressing an audience at Harvard University last week, Kerry said the expansion of Israeli settlements has increased Palestinian frustration, leading to the recent upswing in violence that saw almost daily attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces.

“Unless we get going, the two-state solution will be conceivably stolen from everybody,” Kerry warned.

Kerry, who is currently in Paris to show solidarity with France in the wake of last week’s attacks, has not visited Israel or the Palestinian territories in over a year.

He was in Amman last month to discuss installing surveillance cameras at the Temple Mount. Israel has welcomed the camera plan, saying the surveillance would prove it is doing nothing wrong and expose violent activities by Palestinian protesters. The Palestinians, however, have given the plan a cool reception, saying Israel would use the cameras to identify and arrest demonstrators.

Israel has seen a recent uptick in violence that began two months ago amid tensions surrounding the Temple Mount. In mid-September, Palestinian protesters clashed frequently with Israeli forces at the site. By October, Palestinian terrorists were perpetrating near-daily stabbings and shootings, mainly in Jerusalem and the West Bank, but central Israel had also seen some assaults.

Palestinians claim Israel is planning to change the status quo on the Mount, where Jews can visit but not pray. Israel has vehemently denied the claim.

The uptick in violence also saw clashes between Palestinian protesters and IDF and Border Police forces in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Palestinian Authority Compares Israel to ISIS, Publishes Article Blaming Mossad for Paris Attacks

November 16, 2015

Palestinian Authority Compares Israel to ISIS, Publishes Article Blaming Mossad for Paris Attacks, AlgemeinerShiryn Ghermezian, November 15, 2015

(Some of the Joos were cleverly disguised as Mormons. Those with long beards were disguised as Amish farmers. Now can we get moving on the peace process and the two state solution?– DM)

Le-Petit-300x200The Le Petit Cambodge restaurant—site of one of six coordinated Islamist terror attacks in Paris on Friday—with a makeshift memorial of flowers and blood staining the ground on the day after the attacks. Photo: Maya-Anaïs Yataghène via Wikimedia Commons.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Fatah movement of PA president Mahmoud Abbas responded to Friday’s terror attacks in Paris by drawing a false comparison between Israel and ISIS, and publishing an article blaming the Jewish state for the mass slaughter, watchdog Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported on Sunday.

Fatah on Saturday posted an image on Twitter showing the Palestinian flag alongside the flags of Russia, Lebanon and France, with the caption: “Terror is terror.” The flags alluded to the recent ISIS terror attacks that took place in and against those countries, including last month’s explosion on a Russian plane flying over Egypt’s Sinai that killed 224 people.

Fatah went on to directly equate Israeli policy toward Palestinians and the mass premeditated murder committed by ISIS in Paris and in Egypt. The group wrote on Twitter, “Terror is terror and we condemn all terror. Be it destroying houses in Nablus and killing our children by Israel or hitting a Russian plane over Egypt. The Paris attacks are criminal acts done by coward terrorists.”

Fatah also posted a statement from its spokesperson in Europe, who indicated that Israel is really to blame for the Paris attacks because it “breeds violence in the entire world,” PMW reported.

On Sunday, the official PA daily al-Hayat al-Jadida published an op-ed blaming Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, and its “octopus arms,” for the six coordinated attacks in Paris that killed at least 132 people and injured over 350. The article alleged that it’s no coincidence that “human blood was exploded in Paris” at the same time that “certain European sanctions” are being implemented.” The author was referring to the European Union’s recent decision to approve guidelines that require member states to stop carrying the “Made in Israel” label for products made in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

The piece also claimed that Israel will benefit from the Paris attacks, which serve the “goals” of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who “hides in his soul enough evil to burn the world,” PMW reported.

The PA daily reiterated Fatah’s libel comparing Israel to ISIS by publishing a cartoon showing an Israeli decapitating the Al-Aqsa Mosque alongside an ISIS terrorist beheading a hostage.

WAFA, the official PA news agency, reported that Abbas condemned the terror attacks, but then reiterated Fatah’s position by implicating Israel in the violence.

Palestinian National Council member Bassam Abu Sharif also blamed Israel for the attacks in Paris, according to PMW. He criticized US and Western leaders for not taking a stand against Israel and the “Zionists,” and implied that the West had a hand in the attacks, because it has “used terror organizations before” to carry out Israel’s and their own “schemes” in the Middle East.

What France and Europe Might Learn

November 15, 2015

What France and Europe Might Learn, The Gatestone Institute, Bassam Tawil, November 15, 2015

  • By constantly endorsing pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli policies, France has obviously been seeking to appease Islamic countries. France seems convinced that such policies will keep Muslim terrorists from targeting French nationals and interests. The French are now in grave danger of mistakenly believing that the November 13 attacks occurred because France did not appease the Muslim terrorists enough.
  • When the terrorists see that pressure works — increasing the pressure should work even more!
  • The French and Europeans would do well to understand that there is no difference between a young Palestinian who takes a knife and sets out to murder Jews, and an Islamic State terrorist who murders dozens of innocent people in Paris.
  • The reason Muslim extremists want to destroy Israel is not because of the settlements or checkpoints it is because they believe that Jews have no right to be in the Middle East whatsoever. And they want to destroy Europe because they believe that Christians — and everyone — have no right to be anything other than Muslim.
  • The terrorists attacking Jews also seek to destroy France, Germany, Britain and, of course, the United States. These countries need to be reminded that the Islamist terrorists’ ultimate goal is to force all non-Muslims to submit to Islam or face death.

Earlier this year, France was one of eight countries that supported a Palestinian resolution at the United Nations Security Council, calling for a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines by the end of 2017.

This vote means that France supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, likely to be ruled by the same type of people who on Friday carried out the most grisly terror attacks in France since World War II.

1347Scenes from Friday’s grisly terror attacks in Paris.

Today, every Palestinian child knows that in the best case, a future Palestinian state will be run by Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and in the worst case by the Islamic State and its affiliates. Has it occurred to anyone in Europe that the Palestinian people might not want to live under the rule of any of the groups, any more than Europeans would?

France and the rest of the EU countries have long been working against their own interests in the Middle East. By constantly endorsing pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli policies, France has obviously been seeking to appease the Arab and Islamic countries. France seems convinced that such policies will keep Muslim terrorists from targeting French nationals and interests. That is probably why the French have made the catastrophic mistake of believing that the policy of appeasement toward Arabs and Muslims would persuade the Islamist terrorists to stay away from France. The French are now in grave danger of mistakenly believing that the November 13 attacks occurred because France did not appease the Muslim terrorists enough.

Sadly, the two earlier terrorist attacks that took place in Paris this year — against the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper and the HyperCacher Jewish supermarket — failed to convince the French that the policy of appeasement towards Arabs and Muslims is not only worthless, but also dangerous.

Instead of learning from these previous mistakes and embarking on a new policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general and extremist Islam in particular, the French continued with their strategy of appeasement even after the Charlie Hebdo and the HyperCacher supermarket attacks.

Most recently, France voiced its backing for EU plans to label products from Israeli settlements, doubtless thinking that such a move would make the Muslim terrorists happy with the French. But, as last Friday’s terrorist attacks showed, the Islamic State and its supporters are not particularly impressed by anti-Israel moves.

Muslim terrorists do not care about the settlements. For them, that is a trivial issue compared to their chief goal and dream: truthfully, to kill all infidels and establish an Islamic empire. The Muslim terrorists who have been murdering Jews in Israel and other parts of the world also seek to kill anyone they perceive as being friends of Western values in general. These include, above all, Christians — either those unfortunate enough still to be living in the Middle East, but also those living in France and other Western countries.

The reason Muslim extremists want to destroy Israel is not because of the settlements or checkpoints. They want to destroy Israel because they believe that Jews have no right to be in the Middle East whatsoever. And they want to destroy Europe because they believe that Christians — and everyone — have no right to be anything other than Muslim. That is also why Muslims seem not particularly interested in the EU’s decision to label products from Israeli settlements. It is worth noting that the decision to label Israeli goods was not even an Arab or Islamic initiative.

The EU’s decision to boycott products from Israeli settlements has sent entirely the wrong message to the enemies of Israel and the enemies of Western values. These enemies of the West see the decision to label products as just the first step toward labeling all of Israel as an “illegal settlement.” It is no surprise that the first to celebrate the decision were Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

What France and other Western countries do not understand is that concessions and gestures are being misinterpreted by the terrorists as signs of weakness, which just invite more violence. When the terrorists see that pressure works, increasing the pressure should work even more!

The European boycotts are seen by the people here as nothing but cynical and heartless — attempts to court a thieving leadership at the expense of the people. The boycotts are seen here as nothing but keeping the Palestinian people in the grip of its corrupt leadership and prompting us to take another look at the extremists — the only choice offered up.

What the Europeans might have learned is that the assaults in Paris are what all of us here — Muslims, Christians and Jews — have been living with for decades.

During the past 22 years, all Israel’s territorial concessions and goodwill gestures have resulted only in increased terrorism against Israel, including us Arabs. Many Palestinians incorrectly saw the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 only as a retreat and a sign of weakness. If shooting at Jews made them leave Gaza — as it appeared — keep shooting at Jews. The result was that Hamas took credit for driving the Jews out of the Gaza Strip with rockets and suicide bombings, and quickly rose to power.

In the same manner, each time Israel has released Palestinian prisoners (including dozens with blood on their hands) as a gesture to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas or U.S Secretary of State John Kerry, the Palestinians regarded the gesture as having their demands met. So the next step is to increase the violence and demand more. The Palestinians saw Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners, not as a sign that Israel was interested in peace and calm, but as a reward for terrorism.

Two months ago, France took another step in appeasing the Arabs and Muslims. This time, the French voted in favor of raising a Palestinian flag at the UN headquarters. “This flag is a powerful symbol, a glimmer of hope for the Palestinians,” UN French Ambassador Francois Delattre said. Again, the French apparently thought that the vote would satisfy the Arabs and Muslims and persuade the terrorists that France was on their side in the fight against Israel.

France’s — and Europe’s — flawed policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict did not start in the past year or two. Four years ago, France voted in favor of granting the Palestinians full membership of the UN’s Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Last month, the Palestinian Authority leadership unsuccessfully tried to use UNESCO to pass a resolution declaring the Western Wall a holy site for Muslims only. The resolution was changed at the last minute into one just condemning Israel, but instead of opposing the resolution, an embarrassed France chose to abstain. UNESCO, however, did vote that two ancient Jewish heritage sites symbolic of the Biblical era, Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, would henceforth be known as Muslim heritage sites. The same week, another Biblical site, Joseph’s Tomb, was set on fire (for the second time; the first was in 2000) by people whose government, the Palestinian Authority, had agreed to protect it.

For the past few weeks, Palestinians have been waging a new wave of terrorism against Israelis. This time, the Palestinians are using rifles, knives, stones and cars to murder as many Jews as possible. But we still have not heard any real condemnation — from France, Europe or anyone — of the Palestinian terrorism.

We have also not heard France or other EU countries demand that President Mahmoud Abbas condemn the terrorist attacks against Israelis. Most French media outlets and journalists have even refused to refer to the Palestinian assailants as terrorists — despite many of the terrorists being affiliated two Palestinian groups that share the same ideology as Islamic State: Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

By failing to condemn the terrorist attacks against Israelis and name the perpetrators for what they are — ruthless murderers and terrorists — France and Western countries are once again sending the wrong message to the Islamists: that killing Jews is not an act of terrorism.

What these countries do not realize is that the terrorists who are attacking Jews also seek to destroy France, Germany, Britain and, of course, the “Big Satan” (the United States). These countries need to be reminded every day that the Islamist terrorists’ ultimate goal is to force all non-Muslims to submit to Islam or face death. Sometimes, the terrorists do not even have the patience to offer this choice to the “infidels,” and just kill them while they are watching a concert or a soccer match.

It now remains to be seen whether the French will wake up and realize that radical Islam is at war with the “unbelievers” and all those who refuse to accept the dictates of Islamic State and other Muslim extremists. This is a war that Israel has been fighting now for more than two decades, but, sadly, with little support — and most often with venomous obstruction — from countries in Europe, including France.

The French and Europeans would do well to understand that there is no difference between a young Palestinian who takes a knife and sets out to murder Jews, and an Islamic State terrorist who murders dozens of innocent people in Paris. Once the French and other Europeans understand this reality, it will be far easier for them to engage in the battle against Islamic terrorism.

‘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.

Terrorist Kills Two Israelis as Palestinian Incitement Continues to Spread

November 13, 2015

Terrorist Kills Two Israelis as Palestinian Incitement Continues to Spread, Investigative Project on Terrorism, November 13, 2015

A Palestinian terrorist shot and killed a father and son, wounding another youth in the south Mount Hebron region on Friday after firing at their vehicle, the Jerusalem Post reports.

The Israeli military is searching for the gunmen.

Hamas glorified the “heroic” murders without claiming responsibility. Moreover, Palestinian sources told the Jerusalem Post that people are handing out candy in the streets in Gaza to celebrate the terrorist attack.

In the past few months, Fatah-run TV has regularly broadcast a famous Palestinian song that encourages violence against Jews, reports Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Other popular incitement songs are being played in Ramallah’s streets, specifically calling for Palestinians to riot, throw rocks, and attack innocent Israelis with “cleavers and knives.”

“The owner of the stall selling discs on Al-Irsal Street [in Ramallah] said that the discs of national songs make up 90% of his sales at the moment because the prevailing national sentiment causes people to buy them… From another stall near the El-Bireh cultural center the song ‘I come out to you, my enemy, from every home, neighborhood and street’ is heard,” according to a Nov. 2 article in the Palestine National Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and translated by PMW.

That song was posted on Fatah’s official Facebook page last November, shortly after terrorists killed five Israelis in a Jerusalem synagogue, using butchers’ knives and firearms. Last month, Rabbi Yehiel Rothman succumbed to wounds inflicted almost a year after the attack.

These latest examples demonstrate that Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and official Palestinian Authority institutions continue to fuel violent incitement against Jews and Israelis, which in turn is promoted broadly by Palestinian society.

Since the beginning of October, Palestinians have waged a violent uprising targeting innocent Israelis and security personnel in a wave of stabbing, vehicular, rock throwing, and Molotov cocktail attacks. The violence has killed 11 Israelis and injured numerous others. Nearly 80 Palestinians also have been killed as a result – many of whom were alleged attackers killed at the scene, while others died during confrontations with Israeli soldiers.

An American Fascism

November 13, 2015

An American Fascism, Front Page MagazineDavid Horowitz, November 12, 2015

(Many of those who oppose freedom of speech also oppose Israel and maintain that “Palestinians” must be helped to eliminate her. Please see also, Selective Outrage on Campus. Their momentum appears to be increasing and the ability of those who oppose them appears to be diminishing. When will it be too late to oppose them effectively?– DM)

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The racist, McCarthyite, totalitarian movement rearing its ugly head on college campuses as diverse as Missouri, Yale and Vanderbilt is being treated by conservatives as a case of kids too fragile to handle views with which they disagree. This may work as a debating tactic but it misunderstands both the malignancy of the politics behind the campaign and the ferocity of its radical leaders. Now they are calling for the heads of liberals (and getting them). But quaint American prejudices like the First Amendment still stand in their way. But for how long? If this movement, which includes large contingents of the Democratic Party – including the president, achieves critical mass and succeeds in its agendas and acquires the necessary power, who can doubt that they will be putting dissenters in prison and worse? These are people intoxicated with their own virtue, and determined to purge non-believers in their path. They are a perfect analogue to the Islamic fanatics who want to purify the planet. While the Islamic fanatics behead, the American fanatics suppress and burn. At bottom, they see the world in parallel terms: Slay the infidels wherever you find them.

The current eruptions on college campuses, which will be escalating through this year, are the product of four decades of capitulations to leftwing racism and political correctness, which is a totalitarian party line whose inventor Mao Zedong murdered 70 million Chinese in its name. America still has strong traditions of intellectual pluralism and individual rights, which are obstacles in the way of the progressive storm troopers, but for how long? How many capitulations by so-called liberals, how many unconstitutional executive orders, how many coercions by Democrat-controlled government agencies before there are no obstacles left?

We saw these lynch mobs first hand in Ferguson, but only an inaudible few were willing to name them for what they were. In Ferguson, the president of the United States supported the lynchers, along with the Democratic Party and the leftwing chorus. And so it spread to New York and Baltimore and now Missouri and Yale. The time has come to call this for what it is, an American fascism.  But the time is also getting late to reverse the tide.