06/07 Links Pt1: Fatah leader praises terrorist stabbers; Why Iran’s Post-Deal Terror Matters

From Ian:

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PMW: Fatah leader praises terrorist stabbers

Although the number of Palestinian terror attacks has lessened, Fatah leaders continue to praise the attacks of the terror wave. Recently, Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki glorified the individual terrorists who chose to attack and murder Israelis with knives, saying they had “performed a miracle” causing Israelis to live under “curfew”:
“This people is greater than its leadership. The determination, willpower, and willingness to die for a dignified life are present among the youth who carried a knife after the disappearance of the Arab leadership, including the Palestinian. They performed a miracle by imposing a curfew within Israel with knives and rocks. Blessings to the mothers and fathers who gave birth to those who are marching on the path of light, without anyone having demanded it of them.”
[Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki’s Facebook page, May 16, 2016]
Zaki also condemned peace promotion, saying that anyone who “talks about renewing the relations with Israel is not a Palestinian and not a member of Fatah!” Zaki gave this speech at the UNRWA Ramallah Women’s Training Center and Educational Science Faculty’s graduation ceremony held at the Palestinian Red Crescent headquarters in Ramallah. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that UNRWA and the Palestinian Red Crescent have hosted or made their facilities available for terror promoting events.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: The Fatah Mess

After many years of being gagged, Fatah's young guard is finding its voice. But while members of this faction wish to see a "changing of the guards at the Palestinian palace," this does not mean that they have changed their attitude towards Israel.
Fatah's young guard is neither interested in, nor authorized to, give up the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees -- or even take the basic step of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. In short, the actors might change, but the same show will go on.
The international community, meanwhile, is busy burying its head in the sand of Abbas's very messy backyard. The participants at the Middle East peace conference held in Paris last week may have missed the latest revolt against the PA president. Had they been paying attention, instead of calling for a two-state solution, they might have demanded that Abbas and his Fatah faction get their acts together, and include Israel in the show. Perhaps they also would have mentioned that this ought to happen before Hamas takes over the West Bank and creates another Islamist regime there, too.

JPost Editorial: Peace education

Surveys carried out over the past few decades by respected Palestinian research institutes, as well as by international bodies such as the Pew Research Center and the Arab Barometer initiative, have consistently found Palestinians to hold bigoted and highly negative opinions of Israel and Israelis.
In nearly every single opinion poll that has been conducted among Palestinians, well over half surveyed have consistently expressed the opinion that Israel’s aspiration is to extend its borders to cover all the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and to expel its Arab citizens.
Palestinians also think Jews have no historical roots in what they refer to as Palestine.
In 2011, the American political consultant Stanley Greenberg commissioned a survey of Palestinian opinions on behalf of the Israel Project. Seventy-two percent declared it morally right to deny that “Jews have a long history in Jerusalem going back thousands of years,” while 90% said denying that Palestinians have “a long history in Jerusalem going back thousands of years” is morally wrong.
Similarly, in a 2015 survey commissioned for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy by David Pollock, fieldworkers from the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion asked residents of the West Bank and Gaza about Jewish rights to the land. Only 12 percent agreed that “Both Jews and Palestinians have rights to the land,” while more than 80 percent asserted that, “This is Palestinian land and Jews have no rights to it.”
These findings and others were compiled in a comprehensive essay by Daniel Polisar entitled “What do Palestinians Want?” that appeared in the November 2015 edition of the online magazine Mosaic.
Why is it that Palestinians hold such slanted opinions about Israel and Israelis? At least part of the answer lies in the educational messages taught to Palestinian children from a very young age, even at institutions belonging to the more “moderate” Palestinian leadership.

Shmuley Boteach: Obama’s November surprise for Israel?

Word is going around in diplomatic circles that the Obama administration is planning a November surprise for Israel. Here’s what is said to be going on.
The Paris peace conference last week, to which Israel and the Palestinians were not even invited, will end up exerting enormous pressure on Israel to create a Palestinian state. This renewed pressure will come despite evidence that a Palestinian state in the West Bank will quickly be dominated by genocidal Hamas, which is a threat to Israel and a disaster for the Palestinians. This will lead, in all likelihood, to a United Nations Security Council Resolution either condemning Israel for not creating that state or for not withdrawing from Judea and Samaria in the West Bank, despite the fact that doing so would irreversibly compromise Israel’s security.
Now, here is where it gets interesting. Israeli officials and Jewish communal leaders have told me that they expect that the Obama administration will not veto the resolution at the UNSC. Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, will not exercise the American veto.
This would mean that the resolution/condemnation goes through. President Barack Obama will not worry about how this might affect Hillary Clinton’s election prospects because the UN resolution will come after the November election.
And that’s how the Obama administration will wrap up – with a UN vote against Israel and the United States, for almost the first time, not vetoing a harmful resolution against Israel. Israel will be powerless to stop it.

Arab League chief claims Kerry thwarted strong French initiative

US Secretary of State John Kerry prevented France from successfully launching a strong new peace initiative last week that could have impacted the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi said on Monday.
Kerry was "definitely not enthusiastic" about the June 3 Paris summit, he said and added that the American administration did not play a proactive role in the summit.
The summit, which brought together representatives from 29 countries and international entities such as the UN, was expected to issue a strong statement about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
When the summit convened it had hoped to have in its hand a much touted Quartet report about about the conflict. But disagreement over the language in the report, including US objectives, delayed its publication and it has yet to be issued.

Rice, Mogherini give French initiative short shrift in speeches on Mideast

US National Security Advisor Susan Rice and the European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini gave lengthy addresses on Israel and the Mideast on Monday but barely mentioned the French initiative, a sign the initiative failed to gain significant traction since being launched Friday at an international meeting in Paris.
Speaking for some 30 minutes at the AJC Global Forum, Rice mentioned it only once, saying that US Secretary of State John Kerry attended the Paris parley to underscore that a negotiated two-state solution is the only pathway to peace. In the very next breath, however, she stressed that “a solution cannot be imposed on the parties,” something that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said on numerable occasions.
She said that the US “strongly” opposes Israeli settlement activity, “just as we oppose counterproductive Palestinian actions and strongly condemn incitement and violence.”
Mogherini, in her address, did not mention the French initiative even once. She said that while “it would be great” for new and meaningful negotiations to start immediately, “we should all recognize that the conditions for this to happen are simply not there.“

Top White House official slams settlements, vows military aid

While lashing out at settlement activity, National Security Adviser Susan Rice promised Monday evening that the upcoming defense agreement between the US and Israel will constitute a “significant increase in support” for Israel’s security, despite reports that the negotiations have stumbled.
Rice, who addressed the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum, is one of the central figures involved in negotiating the latest in a series of 10-year military aid deals that have served as the underpinning of US-Israel military assistance for decades. While negotiations on a new Memorandum of Understanding started months ago, talks have slowed amid reported disagreements over the total funding level.
Rice, however, cited the agreement as evidence of the administration’s support for Israel. “Even in these days of belt-tightening, we are prepared to sign the single largest military assistance package with any country in history,” Rice proclaimed, noting that Israel already “receives more than half of the US’s entire foreign military assistance budget.”
The new memorandum, she said, will “constitute a significant increase in support.” The memorandum is expected to grant between $37 and $40 billion in aid over the course of a decade from 2019 to 2029.

In Russian media blitz, PM warns Israel won’t let Iran open Golan front

Israel will not let Iran use the Hezbollah terror group to turn the Syrian side of the Golan Heights border into a new front, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian media outlets in comments published Tuesday.
Netanyahu, who is on a two-day visit to Moscow, told the state-run Interfax news service and TASS news agency ahead of the talks that he would do everything in his power to prevent Iran from gaining a foothold in Syria, and intended to ask Russia for help in curbing the threat from Hezbollah.
“We have a red line, a boundary that we will not allow to be broken. Iran will not be allowed, using Hezbollah, to use Syrian territory to attack us and open up another terrorist front against us in the Golan,” Netanyahu told TASS ahead of a meeting with Putin on Tuesday afternoon — their fourth round of talks in recent months.
The two leaders were expected to continue their ongoing discussion over security coordination between the Russian and the Israeli armies, especially their so-called deconflicting mechanism, installed to assure the Israel Defense Forces does not strike Russian jets operating in Syrian airspace.

MEMRI: On 100th Anniversary Of Sykes-Picot Agreement, Some Arab Writers Fear New Sykes-Picot Imposed By U.S., Russia; Others Argue That Internal Arab Strife Is The Real Danger

Marking the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot agreement, which divided the Ottoman Empire into several territories and thus largely shaped the map of the Middle East as we know it today, the Arab press published many articles discussing this agreement and its outcomes. Some writers focused on the agreements' adversary effects, and warned that the U.S. and Russia are currently formulating a new Sykes-Picot agreement that will subdivide the region's states into even smaller states on a sectarian and ethnic basis. This, in order to further weaken the Arab world and subordinate it to their control. There were also articles that accused the Arab regimes of cooperating with this plan, consciously or unconsciously, and some accused Israel of being party to it.
Conversely, other writers claimed that the disintegration of the Arab world along ethnic and sectarian lines stems not from external plots but from the division and hatred that currently prevail among the Arabs.
Yet another approach was taken by Lebanese journalist Khairallah Khairallah. He wrote that the Sykes-Picot agreement was actually a "gift from heaven," but the Arabs failed to take advantage of it. Instead of using it to develop states that benefit their people, they used it as an excuse to oppress their people and as to justify all their failures.

Iran: Saudis gave Israel ‘strategic’ intel in 2006 Lebanon war

Saudi Arabia gave “strategic” intelligence information to Israel during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the speaker of Iran’s parliament claimed on Monday.
During an interview with the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese satellite TV channel Al Mayadeen, Ali Larijani said that Iran had “definite information” about the kingdom’s security cooperation with Israel, the Walla website reported.
Israel went to war with Iranian ally Hezbollah in Lebanon in July 2006 following its deadly attack on Israeli troops and abduction of two IDF soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. The 34-day war saw Israel demolish large swathes of the Lebanese terror group’s Beirut stronghold, while Hezbollah fired hundreds of missiles at the north of Israel. The conflict, which ended on August 14, 2006 with a UN resolution, claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Lebanese and 165 Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Larijani also said that during Israel’s first round of fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, between December 2008 and January 2009, known in Israel as Operation Cast Lead, the Saudis had “found excuses” to avoid taking any responsibility for Gaza, while Tehran had stood by Hamas and supported its military wing.

PA official decries Rivlin’s ‘apartheid’ West Bank visit

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat took President Reuven Rivlin to task Tuesday over his visit a day earlier visit to West Bank settlements he said are an expression of Israel’s system of “apartheid.”
Rivlin on Monday toured settlements in the Binyamin Regional Council, north of Jerusalem — the first time he has done so since taking office.
Erekat told the PA’s official Wafa news agency that the visit reflects Israel’s “insistence on an apartheid model, and its refusal to abide by international agreements.”
“The Israeli president recognizes that the settlements are illegal and tantamount to a war crime,” Erekat said.
He called on the world to denounce Israeli “terrorism” and to stop treating Israel “as if it were a country above the law.”

The “Palestinian narrative”. Comedy or just inspired fiction?

“Palestinian” history is ancient.
Very ancient.
But its exact age varies depending on whichever one of the 100 or so “Palestinian” leaders you choose to believe (at last count there were at least three separate “Palestines” – centred around Gaza City, Ramallah and Amman respectively and each ruled by a different despot).
These various “Palestines” are using at least 1 billion US dollars a year of YOUR tax revenues to hijack a fourth “Palestine” aka the Jewish state of Israel, which is centred around Jerusalem.
Now, depending on whether you choose to believe such people of renowned integrity as Holcaust denier and anti-Semite Mahmud Abbas, or terrorist and anti-Semite Ismail Haniyeh, or “feminist” and anti-Semite Hanan Ashrawi, or whomever, “Palestinian” history in the land of Israel dates back at least 6000 years.
Or 5000 years.
But at least certainly 3500 years.
Whichever way you look at it, the “Palestinians” were certainly around before Abraham. And he spoke Arabic with a distinct “Palestinain” accent. No, really…

 PreOccupiedTerritory: We’re So Indigenous, The Land Came From Us By Mahmoud Abbas (satire)

I’m getting tired of having to reiterate our ancient claim to the land of Palestine and how it far precedes that of the Jews, so let me settle this once and for all by establishing that we have been here so long, the very Earth emerged from us, and not the other way around.
That’s right: by the time the tectonic plates formed and created the Syria-Africa Rift Valley where Palestine sits, my people already had an ancient history in the land. Our ancestors frolicked and worshiped in harmony with Nature and the divine will eons before what is now called “the Middle East” came into coherent form. They saw the mountains rise, the Salt Sea form, and the very land masses congeal from the primordial magma. You can’t say that about the interloper, invader Jews.
You can take your archaeology, geology, and paleontology and shove it up your defiled backside with your defiled feet. All those so-called sciences are products of a Jewish conspiracy to deprive the Palestinians of their legitimate indigenous rights. You can show me Jewish artifacts, inscriptions, and texts until your arms fall off; it won’t help. I have decided we were here long before the pig-ape Jews, whose simian and porcine ancestors hadn’t even evolved into being when the Palestinians were already celebrating their five billionth year of peaceful, nonviolent prosperity.

Liberman on northern border: I would advise against testing us

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman held his first visit to the IDF Northern Command on Tuesday.
The freshly appointed minister heard briefings from IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot.
He was also briefed by OC Northern Command, Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the head of the Northern Formation and Commander of the IDF Staff and Command College, Maj.-Gen. Yossi Bachar, and regional commanders in northern Israel.
Defense officials declined to say whether Liberman toured the Syrian or Lebanese borders.
"I heard briefings today on this area, which is always sensitive, and I can say that the northern border is in good and secure hands," Liberman said.

Terrorist shoots up IDF vehicles in Samaria

An Arab terrorist opened fire on two military vehicles early Tuesday morning as they rode on Highway 465 adjacent to Halamish, located in the Binyamin region of Samaria to the northeast of Ramallah.
None of the soldiers were wounding by the shooting attack, although one of the vehicles was damaged by the gunfire.
In response a Jewish civilian who was at the scene returned fire and shot at the terrorist, who managed to flee the scene.
IDF forces are hunting after the Arab terrorist, but there is no word yet of his capture.

This Muslim Mother Took Her Teenage Daughter To Palestine And Married Her Off As A Child Bride

Imagine being offered up on a platter as a child bride to an absolute stranger several years your senior. Now imagine the person holding the platter was your own mother.
Yasmine Koenig doesn’t have to imagine this horror. She lived through it.
In a first-hand testimonial published in Seventeen Magazine, Yasmine tells her harrowing story to reporter Liz Welch, detailing a mother’s betrayal justified by the barbarism of traditional Islamic honor culture.
At just 15 years old, Yasmine was forced to travel to the theocratic territory of Palestine where she should would be married off to man chosen by her own mother.
Confounded by a lie her mother had told her about returning to her hometown of Chicago, Yasmine packed her belongings and left her friends to relocate halfway across the world. Despite her mother’s reassurances about the trip, Yasmine remained suspicious of her mother’s intentions.

Haniyeh: One day we'll pray at the liberated Al-Aqsa Mosque

Deputy Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday night expressed hope that Palestinian Arabs will soon be able to pray in the “liberated Al-Aqsa Mosque”.
“The first day of Ramadan will be the day that Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque will return, the Israeli occupation will end and all of us will pray at the courtyard of the mosque,” he said in a sermon marking the start of the month of Ramadan.
In a second speech he gave on Monday, Haniyeh declared that Hamas could thwart any diplomatic initiatives by supporting the “Al-Quds Intifada”, the name Palestinian Arab factions have given to the recent terror wave against Israel.
“It is important to maintain the Al-Quds Intifada, which is the way to liberate Jerusalem and bring back the Palestinian people to their land,” he said, in comments quoted by Hamas’s Palestine newspaper.

Analysis: Despite concern, Israel sees Jordan surviving ISIS threat

Despite the terrorist attack that killed five people in Jordan Monday, the fact is that in the face of the many problems and threats embroiling the Hashemite Kingdom, it is nevertheless a relatively stable state in the chaotic Middle East.
The attack took place at the Baqaa camp, 20 km. north of Amman, which was one of several camps erected to shelter Palestinian refugees after the Six Day War in June 1967.
Killed when gunmen opened fire were three Jordanian intelligence officers, one guard and one telephone operator. As of press time, no one had yet claimed responsibility for the incident, which occurred on the first day of Ramadan, but it is most likely that the perpetrators, be they locals or foreigners, acted on behalf of either Islamic State (ISIS) or another jihadist group.
Three months ago, Jordanian security services foiled a plot by ISIS terrorists in the northern city of Irbid, killing seven would-be perpetrators. Jordan is the most important base for the Western coalition fighting ISIS and supporting rebel groups opposed to the regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria.
CIA advisers, US military trainers and special American forces are operating very closely with the Jordanians.

Suspect held over Jordan attack in which 5 intelligence agents killed

Jordanian authorities have arrested a suspect accused of gunning down five intelligence agents on Monday in their office at a Palestinian refugee camp.
“Investigations are under way but early indications are that this was an isolated and individual act,” said government spokesman Mohamed Momani, announcing the arrest without identifying the suspect.
The gunman struck at Baqaa camp north of the capital early Monday — the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan — in what Momani called a “terrorist attack.”
The suspect fled the scene after the killings.
A security source told AFP he was arrested later at a mosque in the Salt region north of Amman.
The suspect was armed and resisted arrest, the source said, adding that a police officer had been injured in the swoop.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

ISIS slams rivals as 'Jews of Jihad'

Supporters of the Islamic State have continued to refer to arch rival terrorist organization Al-Qaida as the "Jews of Jihad" on Twitter, The Middle East Media Research Institute reported Monday, using the hashtag as a derogatory term based on the claim that the two share the same negative qualities.
The hashtag first made its appearance on the Internet in January 2016 in an article titled "The Jews of Jihad: Al-Zawahiri's Al-Qaida" by prominent pro-ISIS supporter Abu Maysara Al-Shami. The article was written as a condemnation for an alleged conspiracy concocted by al-Qaida to join the ranks of ISIS in order to destroy the Islamist group from within.
Al-Shami's description of Al-Qaida as Jews is based on his comparison between this suggested plan and a widely-held Sunni belief that Shia Islam was initially founded by the Jews to divert Muslims away from their religion, according to MEMRI.

Why Iran’s Post-Deal Terror Matters

The IRGC is significant because it is not merely a terror group; it’s a terrorism conglomerate. It has a hand in the funding of terrorism around the world and is a major player in the Iranian economy, which owns many state-run businesses. As the New York Times reported earlier this year, very little of the foreign investment that is pouring into Iran since the sanctions collapsed are going to the private sector in that country. Almost the entire vast windfall in cash is going to state-run companies, many of which are controlled by the IRGC.
That means the only immediate effect of the deal is to help make it easy to continue and intensify the same activities that the State Department correctly points out make it so dangerous.
All of this illustrates again how self-contradictory the administration’s Iran policy has become. As our Max Boot noted last week, the tacit alliance against ISIS is not only of questionable utility, at best, it means exchanging the rule of one terrorist regime for another as Iran’s terror proxies in Iraq that are mentioned in the State Department report will dominate the country, not the Baghdad government backed by the U.S.
All this also shows how hard it will be for Obama’s successor to undo the damage that has been done by the nuclear pact and a policy of appeasement of Iran. Iran is using its terrorist proxies to advance its goal of regional hegemony in the Middle East. That threat that has forced Saudi Arabia to look to Israel rather than to a United States that no longer seems willing to stand up against Tehran. Add to that the fact that Iran is now immeasurably richer and that the new economic ties with Europe make it impossible to re-impose international sanctions, and it’s easy to see how much more dangerous the world has become as a result of Obama’s nuclear diplomacy. The fact that the confirmation of this dismal prospect comes from his own State Department rather than critics seems to be lost on the administration and its cheerleaders who helped sell the country on this unfolding disaster.

Lawmakers Ask State Dept Watchdog to Probe Deletion of Iran Deal Footage

Leading lawmakers have asked the State Department inspector general to open an inquiry into the agency’s deliberate deletion of press briefing footage about the Iran nuclear deal.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), who heads the National Security Subcommittee, asked State Department Inspector General Steve Linick to launch an inquiry into the department’s Bureau of Public Affairs in a letter Monday afternoon.
“We are puzzled by the apparent degradation of the Bureau’s commitment to transparency and openness,” the lawmakers wrote.
The State Department first acknowledged last week that someone in the department intentionally deleted several minutes of video from a press briefing in December 2013. The deleted video showed Jen Psaki, then a spokesperson for the department, admitting the government misled the press about the United States’ secret negotiations with Iran.
Specifically, Psaki, now Obama’s top press adviser, was asked by Fox News reporter James Rosen whether the department’s policy was to “lie” about secret negotiations with Iran in order to preserve their secrecy. He was referring to a 2012 statement by the department that secret negotiations with Iran were not underway, when in reality they were.

Iran's Anti-Semitism Is More Than Just Hate, It's A Strategy To Make Friends In The Middle East

Iran has found it particularly difficult to find friends in the Middle East as of late. With an inflammatory sectarian divide between Shia and Sunni Muslims in the Middle East growing ever wider, predominantly Shia Iran has become a pariah among Sunni terrorist groups. That said, if there is one thing that Sunni and Shia extremists hate more than each other, its Israel and the Jewish people. By leveraging that hatred, Iran hopes to make some new partners in the Middle East.
The Islamic Republic has drastically increased its anti-Semitic rhetoric in recent months. Having recently concluded its infamous Holocaust denial cartoon contest in May, Iran has decided to hold another competition at the end of June, with this event’s theme being the “Zionist Caliphate.” Organizers say the contest will focus on “Zionism, terrorism and racism” as well as “[ISIS] terrorism and genocide in the name of religion and to the benefit of the Zionists.”
Outlandish as the theme may sound, it makes some sense from the Islamic Republic’s perspective. Shia Iran is a mortal enemy of the Sunni Islamic State, the conflict between the two has been a major catalyst for the growing sectarian divide. Alleging that ISIS is a front for the “Zionists” could help draw support for the organization away from the Sunni population.
“Iran’s anti-Semitic assault is one of the few rhetorical weapons the clerics can deploy that has broad popular appeal among Sunni Muslims,” wrote Reuel Marc Gerecht of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

“Labour Camps” House Nearly 60% of Qatar’s Population

Nearly 60% of Qatar’s residents live in what the government calls “labour camps,” according to an April 2015 census report released by Doha on Sunday.
Qatar’s Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) found that 1.4 million people reside in what the department described as “labour camps,” Agence France-Presse reported. At the time of the survey, the Gulf monarchy had a population of about 2.4 million. Nearly all of those living in the camps were men.
Qatar has come under international criticism in recent years over the harsh living and working conditions endured by its large migrant workforce, which is building the country’s infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup competition. Qatar utilizes a system of labor known as kafala, under which migrant workers must have a sponsor in order to enter and leave the country, effectively rendering them fully dependent on their host companies. Documented abuses in the system include workers not being paid or having their wages significantly lowered, abysmal working and living conditions, and even death.
Last week, 11 people were killed and another 12 injured after a fire broke out in one of the camps that host the workers.
Qatar’s treatment of its migrant workforce came increased scrutiny when it arrested a BBC crew investigating the conditions that laborers were forced to endure last year, as well as when it refused to allow Nepalese workers to return home last April following a devastating earthquake in that country. Qatar created an agency to polish its image following those scandals, but has not necessarily improved conditions for the workers.
Nepalese migrants building World Cup infrastructure died at a rate of one every two days in 2014, The Guardian reported.

Bomb attack on police bus in Istanbul kills 11

A bomb ripped through a Turkish police vehicle near Istanbul’s historic centre Tuesday, killing seven officers and four civilians and adding to security concerns after a string of attacks in Turkey’s biggest city.
The bomb targeted a service shuttle bus carrying officers from Istanbul’s anti-riot police as it was passing through the central Beyazit district close to many of the city’s top tourist sites, Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin said in a live statement on Turkish television.
Thirty six people were wounded, three of them seriously, he added.
Reports said the explosion took place close to the Vezneciler metro station, which is within walking distance of some of the city’s main tourist sites including the famed Suleymaniye Mosque.
The metro station was closed as a security precaution.
Pictures showed the bomb had turned the police vehicle into mangled wreckage and that nearby shops had their front windows smashed out by the force of the blast.

PreOccupiedTerritory: After Istanbul Bombing, Palestinians Scramble To Make It About Them (satire)

The key is finding the right detail of the bombing, explained Fatah official Saeb Erekat. “Right now we only know that there was a bombing attack, not who perpetrated it,” he said. “If we knew right away that it was, say, the Kurdish insurgency, we could draw parallels between the brutality of the PKK and the brutality of the IDF, and say we face that kind of brutality every day at the hands of the IDF, altering the story to be about us instead of Turkey.”
“Alternatively,” he continued, “if it turns out it was the Islamic State that perpetrated the bombing, we would point out how Daesh has suspiciously not attacked Israel, and it is common knowledge in the Muslim world that Israel is behind Daesh, and the solution to their problem – which is really just a symptom of our problem – is the defeat of Israel.”
“Another possibility is that it’s any number of groups allied with the Syrian regime,” he added. “Depending on which one – some local Shiite militia, Hezbollah, whoever – our hook for making it about us will have to be developed accordingly. It’s a little bit frustrating to have to wait until more details are known, because there’s only so much rhetorical hay you can make with general pronouncements of solidarity.”
Palestinian activists and advocates for their cause have for years attempted to hijack others’ struggles for political or diplomatic leverage against Israel, asserting that their cause and the cause of other oppressed victims are inherently linked. They have been encouraged in these efforts by governments across Europe and the Americas that, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, pursue a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the linchpin for regional stability, enabling the Palestinians to believe everything really is about them.

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Major Egyptian newspaper says Jews deserved to be murdered by Hitler

Al Masry al Youm is a well-respected, independent newspaper in Egypt. It is considered liberal and it appeals to Arab intellectuals. Part of the reason it was founded in 2002 was as a reaction to the tabloid-type sensationalist stories in other Egyptian media. It is the 20th most popular website in Egypt. It also has an English edition called Egypt Independent.

On Monday, it published an op-ed by Salah Montasser, himself a well-known and respected writer, that minimizes, and then justifies, the Holocaust.

The Jews promote and drive the discussion by accusing German leader Adolf Hitler, who took over the leadership of Germany in 1933, killed a large number of Jews. They claim some proof that he killed six million Jews, a figure that seems impossible in its size, but Jewish propaganda was able to publish and implant that figure. But the question that no one asks, and perhaps they do not allow, is: why did Hitler do what he did to the Jews?

A friend of mine sent me a recording from a German expert speaking in English to address the question: What did the Jews do to cause Hitler's revenge on them?

Under the Third Reich between 100,000 and 600,000 Jews were directly or indirectly killed by the Nationalist Party, a figure that despite its size is much lower when compared to the victims of the Algerian war of independence with France, and the victims of the Palestinians at the hands of the Jews, and what Americans, British and the Russians have done in killing people by the millions.

So what did the Jews do in Germany? Indeed, since 1850, Jews dominated the top posts in the German Reich at that time, they made three dramatic changes to Germany.

First, understand they were a minority that did not exceed 2% of the German population. When Hitler came to power in 1933 there were about 500 thousand Jews among the 60 million Germans. But this small minority succeeded in controlling 50% of the media and consituted 70% of judges and imposed their presence in the press, film and theater, as well as literature. During their control there were economic meltdowns that occurred to the banks in the period between 1870 and 1920.

At that time, caused in several economic collapses. This is not a Nazi propaganda speech but the words of the Jews themselves. In this period millions of Germans lost their savings and investment opportunities because of the Jewish gangs banks.

The other point was their influence on the psychology of the Germans, which is the most dangerous factor at all. They planted in the press and media, theater, and literature, a culture of moral degradation. The first theaters of homosexuality were in Berlin in the twenties, the first pornographic performances were in 1880 and 1890 at the hands of Jewish authors .. .. adultery, homosexuality .. all kinds of sexual obsession .. art is decadent morality. This absurd art that is today called Modern Art. All of this has been paid and planted by the Jews.

This created a state of anger and revolution within the German society as they wrote graffiti mocking of Christianity and make fun of Jesus, just as Salman Rushdie did with the Muslims.

The Nazis, of course, benefited from this anger and revolution. When Adolf Hitler came to power the population of unemployed has reached six million Germans. Hitler was able to in two years (from 1933 to 1935) to employ them all. Six million jobs in two years, a stunning achievement. That is why the Jews wanted to tarnish the success of the Hitler, and said that if Hitler had created six million jobs, it is because he burned six million Jews. And Jewish propaganda triumphed and even become prevalent in all the media that six million Jews were victims of Hitler, while all the number of Jews in Germany was less than a quarter of that number who they say that Hitler burned!

This is the kind of thing that the mainstream Arab press publishes every damn week. But it is kryptonite to speak about institutional antisemitism among Arabs - you will have far more Western articles about how they are only anti-Zionist and how much they love Jews than you will have about this lying, sickening filth that literate, supposedly liberal Egyptians are spoon fed all the time.

Where is the New York Times or AP or Reuters? Why aren't stories like this considered news?

The only way to change Arab attitudes is by exposing it and shaming them. And that is exactly what the major media refuse to do.

They have nothing against shaming Christians or Jews, Europeans or Americans. Any Westerner who would write such a piece of garbage would be blacklisted instantly and forever. But Arabs and Muslims are expected to be bigots, and therefore their bigotry isn't news, and Arabs who insist to Western media that they distinguish between Zionists and Jews are never challenged.

By treating Arabs as if they are inherently bigoted, the news media proves that it is not only the Arabs that are bigoted.

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Report: Israel to lead UN legal committee, Turkey supports it, Arabs freak

I could not find this in English as of this writing, but Arab media is reporting a "scandal" where Israel has been nominated to become the head of the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations on combating terrorism and issues of international law.

According to the report, which is the top story at Ma'an Arabic as of this writing, Israel was nominated by Western European nations to head this legal committee. The leadership rotates among the different geographic groups and this year the Western European group, which also includes Israel, Australia and New Zealand, gets to choose the leader.

They unanimously chose Israel.

The Arab and Muslim bloc bitterly opposed the nomination they couldn't do anything about it.

The Arabs tried to get Turkey to run against Israel, but a Turkish diplomat in New York stingingly responded, "What unites Israel and Turkey in the fight against terrorism is far greater than what brings together Turkey with other Islamic and Arab countries."

The Arab/Muslim block claimed that Israel wasn't qualified to head a legal committee "because of its shameful record of crimes and violations."

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American Anthropological Association votes against BDS resolution

This was supposed to be a landslide victory for the Israel haters, and although the vote was very close, the defeat is resounding.

From JPost:

In a massive blow to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) movement, the American Anthropological Association voted to reject a resolution for the academic boycott of Israel, it was announced Tuesday.

The resolution, which sought to officially adopt a boycott to refrain from formal collaborations with Israeli academic institutions, though not of individual academics, was narrowly defeated by 2,423 votes against and 2,384 votes in favor.

88% of AAA members in a meeting in Denver last year voted to have this referendum, which seemed to indicate that a majority of actual members supported boycotting Israel. As usual, the haters lobbied the smaller group to make it appear like they had massive support within the organization at large.

The BDSers are trying to put a positive spin on their devastating loss:

Despite this setback, the decision to hold this vote in the first place marks a historic step forward in opening spaces for critical discussion of the U.S. role in enabling Israel’s widespread and systematic abuses against the Palestinian people. The past three years of debate about the boycott have brought exponentially more discussion of Palestinian rights in the AAA than ever before in the Association’s history. This includes a ground-breaking report by a AAA Task Force recognizing the settler-colonial practices of the Israeli government. These represent important first steps towards opposing Israeli human rights violations. Separately, over 1,300 anthropologists have signed a petition pledging to uphold the boycott through their own personal practice.

The BDSers, who routinely make death threats against musicians who want to play in Israel, are also accusing the pro-Israel side of intimidation tactics. Examples include that the pro-Israel side "lobbied university presidents across the country to intervene in the vote; paid AAA membership dues for boycott opponents; called for the firing of Israeli scholars accused of supporting the boycott; and, just as the AAA began voting, filed a frivolous lawsuit against the American Studies Association for its own endorsement of the boycott in 2013."

The AAA will do some symbolic anti-Israel moves anyway, including writing letters of censure to Israeli ministries. It also says

Considering the ways in which Israeli government policies and practices make it difficult for Palestinian academics, including anthropologists to travel to international conferences, and considering the ways in which Israeli policy emplace obstructions on Palestinian and dissenting Israeli academics, AAA will establish fellowships to enable the travel of Palestinian and/or Israeli academics to AAA conferences, and of academics and/or visiting scholars in anthropology to act as teachers, mentors or research collaborators with colleagues in the West Bank and Gaza, assuming financial feasibility and/or successful fundraising efforts.

I'm willing to bet that this never happens, because the haters aren't interested in raising money for actually helping their Palestinian colleagues but in attacking Israel.

I'm also not so sure that any Palestinian anthropologists have problems traveling anyway. I found a single lecturer in anthropology at the English-language Al Quds University website, who received his PhD from Hebrew University.

(h/t David A, Leonard K)

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06/06 Links Pt2: UK professors refuse “Israeli money” but merrily take Arab funds; The Roots of American Support for Israel

From Ian:

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NGO Monitor: The Dangers of Subcontracting EU Foreign Policy to Fringe NGOs

In 1995, the European Union’s Barcelona Conference launched the grand-sounding Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, a massive effort encompassing the countries of North Africa, Israel, Syria and Jordan. The main objective was to establish economic and political frameworks to stabilize the Arab regimes; the second goal was to compete with the US in Arab-Israeli peace making after Oslo.
Both missions failed. But in the process and through a very large budget, the EU built alliances with a number of highly politicized NGOs. Through frameworks such as Partnership for Peace and the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, and via delegation offices in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Amman, the EU began bankrolling dozens of NGOs, including the Israeli B’Tselem, Breaking the Silence and Adalah and the hard-core Palestinian political NGO, Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), a hard-core Palestinian political NGO receiving close to €1 million annually. This NGO funding was and still is decided in great secrecy and without external oversight.
Within post-Cold War Europe, NGOs, known collectively as civil society, are seen as important contributors to the democratic process, providing alternative voices which are, in theory, untainted by party politics and narrow interests. To this end, select NGOs active in EU member states receive an estimated two billion euros annually from government budgets – a huge amount by any standard.
But not all this funding goes towards strengthening European democracy; the Barcelona framework extended the relationship between EU governments and NGOs to the very different realm of foreign policy –especially with regard to the complex Israeli-Palestinian issues.
Engagement with a narrow group of political NGOs became a substitute for direct EU interaction with Middle Eastern governments and the wider political spectrum. Thus, the EU-NGO relationship took the form of policy outsourcing or subcontracting, particularly as EU experts and resources in this realm are very limited compared to major countries like the US, UK, France and Germany.

UK professors refuse “Israeli money” but merrily take Arab funds

The Israeli Dan David Foundation annually awards a prize of one million dollars to scientists, writers, musicians, thinkers, politicians. The British historian Catherine Hall, a feminist chosen for her research on the British empire, shared the prestigious Israeli Prize this year with two other scholars, the French Arlette Farge and Australian Inga Clendinnen.
The prize is named after philanthropist Dan David, it is administered by Tel Aviv University and has been awarded to former US Vice President Al Gore, former British prime minister Tony Blair, the city of Istanbul, the Warburg Library of London, theatrical talents such as Tom Stoppard and Peter Brook, novelists such as Margaret Atwood and Amitav Ghosh, Muslims such as Goenawan Mohamad. Professor of History at University College London.
Catherine Hall, however, refused the prize, along with $300,000, because it is Israeli money and she had joined the boycott movement against the Jewish State.
In Great Britain, “Islamic studies centers” have been set up in the major universities. A report by Anthony Glees, director of Brunel University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, estimates that the Saudi rulers have spent 233 million pounds in these English universities. Including that University College London of Catherine Hall, which also has a campus in Qatar and has recently accepted a loan from Abu Dhabi.
This is the reason these English barons, who are shamefully boycotting the Israeli Jews, never raise the veil on abuses in the Islamic crescent.

June 1967: anti-Jewish riots in Tunisia

Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Tunisia on 5 June 1967. Although no deaths resulted, the Jews took the hint - and 13, 000 Tunisian Jews left within the year. David B Green writes in Haaretz (with thanks: Lily):
Unlike other Arab and Muslim states, which effectively expelled their Jews in the period surrounding Israel’s establishment, Tunisia went to some lengths to keep its Jews from leaving. There were several waves of departures, but they had more to do with the overall policies of the revolutionary government of Habib Bourguiba than with explicitly anti-Jewish actions.
Bourguiba (1903-2000), who became president when Tunisia was granted independence from France, in 1956, was a benign dictator who was determined to modernize the economy and society. Among other moves he eliminated the Ottoman-era system that gave significant powers of self-rule to protected religious communities and dissolved the rabbinical courts. He also ordered the unification of the country’s network of Jewish organizations into a single “Jewish Religious Council,” whose members he appointed. And, under the pretext of slum clearance, the Jewish Quarter in Tunis was bulldozed under.

Vic Rosenthal: America crosses the line

A 25-year old woman who is running for Congress in California has been the target of a remarkably ugly campaign of anti-Jewish abuse.
After Erin Schrode’s personal information was posted on a neo-Nazi website, she received hundreds of messages of anti-Jewish abuse, including death and rape threats.
It’s beyond horrible. Unfortunately, her response misses the point. She wrote on her Facebook page,
This unspeakable vitriol goes far beyond anti-Semitism. It is not merely an attack on me or on one people, but rather an attack on any individual or group who is targeted because of faith, race, nationality, gender, ability, orientation or other arbitrary classification.
No, it is precisely an attack on you and your people. Saying that it is in some way a generalized expression of hatred deemphasizes the sharply focused nature of the attack. It blurs the fact that in recent times there has been an explosion of public expressions of Jew-hatred to a degree that has rarely been seen in the US since WWII.
Ethnic and racial hatreds are not all alike. They have their special flavors. There is nothing in the world quite like American anti-black racism. And there is nothing like the Jew-hatred that today is sweeping the world, even the supposedly immune USA.

What Begin and Jabotinsky Would Have Said About the New Israel Fund

As I watch the work of the New Israel Fund and its grantees, such as Breaking the Silence, I recall the words of the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who once wrote to American Jews critical of him, saying:
Jews have the right to criticize the government of Israel in which I serve as prime minister — at any given moment, any second, any hour, day or night. But I, too, have the right to ask of them to understand one thing at least: on matters which relate to the national security of this little nation in Eretz Yisrael, please refrain from preferring advice, at least in public, within earshot of our enemies who conspire to do us evil. Remember, please, the simple fact that we care for our children and grandchildren — and they, these little children, live here.
He continued:
I permit myself to express astonishment why a man like you has to organize American Jews in order to publish a statement which lends–not, God forbid, intentionally — comfort to those who gleefully declared: look, the Jews of American are turning their backs on Israel. Do you, with your intelligence, not perceive that the whole purpose is to squeeze us into a thin strip of territory? What else has to be rendered in writing or orally to make you and your colleagues understand that we are fighting for our lives?
Across the Israeli political spectrum — from Labor to Likud, Shas to Yair Lapid’s Kulanu Party — all sides condemn all forms of boycotts against Israel. Yet the New Israel Fund raises $30 million annually from American Jews to fund extremists like Breaking the Silence, an organization that is even more insidious.

The Roots of American Support for Israel

America’s persistent support for the Jewish state has baffled many observers—particularly so-called foreign-policy “realists”—leading some to deluded if not anti-Semitic invocations of the mythical power of the “Jewish lobby.” Revisiting his 2008 essay, “The New Israel and the Old,” Walter Russell Mead argues that American’s affinity for Zionism goes back to the 19th century, is connected to the ideals of the American founding, and reflects conviction deeply held by the American people. (Interview by Michael Doran; video, one hour.)

BDS Fight Is Shifting From Campuses and Churches to Statehouses

Northwestern University Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich has advised many lawmakers on anti-BDS bills they are drafting.
He distinguished between biased speech and activity. The new legislation “is not about the viewpoints a company holds. This is about discriminatory activity. A company can hang a banner saying ‘long live Palestine, out with Israel,’ and if it’s not actually engaging in discriminatory conduct” by boycotting Israel, then it’s fine, he said. “None of these statutes prohibit any speech by anyone,” said Kontorovich. “But when a state deems certain conduct discriminatory, even if it’s not illegal, they can say they don’t want to contract with it.”
Northwestern University Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich.Northwestern University
Kontorovich added that the impetus for these laws is coming from elected officials rather than being pushed by Jewish groups.
“It’s really a bottom-up thing. Since the first bill passed, state legislators have been reaching out to whoever they can find to do this,” he told Haaretz. “The state legislators are demanding it faster than the pro-Israel groups can respond.”
A Jewish community relations expert who asked not to be named said there wouldn’t be widespread interest in anti-BDS legislation without advocacy by StandWithUs and similar groups. “The notion that there are state legislators initiating action on a foreign policy issue without some approach by us in the community is implausible,” he said.

IsraellyCool: New York Governor Cuomo Takes Fight Up To BDS, BDS-Holes Seethe

Being someone who believes in playing offense and not just defense, I may have been one of the first people to encourage the boycott of BDS-holes.
The idea has certainly caught on over the years, and now we have a very high-profile exponent of this: New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who just signed an unprecedented executive order for agencies under his control to divest from companies and organizations aligned with BDS.
...
Notice the complaints of McCarthyism by the very people who have been punishing Jewish businesses – whether in pre-1967 Israel or beyond the Green Line – for years now. The hypocrisy is astounding.
Update: This may catch on.
Senator Chuck Schumer, speaking to reporters at an unrelated press conference on Sunday, said he would seek to introduce the same idea to fight BDS on a federal level. “I think what the governor has done is an excellent idea,” Schumer told reporters. “I think that the state (of New York) should not do any business with any company that participates in BDS, and I am looking at introducing a federal law to do the same thing. BDS is a movement that is just totally unfair to Israel. They hold Israel to one standard and hold the other countries, including those who are sworn enemies to Israel, to another standard.”

Wiesenthal Center: Officials in German city complicit in Israel boycot

The Simon Wiesenthal accused city officials and politicians in Bremen on Friday of complicity in boycotts against Israel.
In a blistering letter to Carsten Sieling, the Social Democratic mayor of the northern Germany city, obtained by The Jerusalem Post, Dr. Shimon Samuels, director for International Relations for the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, wrote: ”Our members are most concerned by the inaction of your municipality against a reportedly, increasingly violent anti-Semitic campaign, otherwise known as BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), reminiscent of the 1930s ‘Kauf nicht bei Juden’ (“Do Not Buy From Jews”) assaults in Nazi Germany.”
Bremen city-funded and owned facilities have provided space for years to anti-Semites and BDS advocates to attack the Jewish state, according to critics.
Samuels wrote, “Apparently, the German BDS movement operates from Villa Ichon, owned by the City of Bremen and seat of the ‘Bremen Peace Forum,’ ostensibly leased as a place to meet for associations, especially for cultural and social life.”
The Bremen Peace Forum calls for a boycott of Israeli goods, and has staged protests in front of supermarkets urging customers not to buy Israeli fruit.
Samuels added: “We urge you to invoke your municipal integrity to publicly condemn BDS and take measures for the rapid eviction of these hooligans from Villa Ichon.”

Ontario Premier promoting 'less divisive' anti-BDS bill

After a bill against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) was rejected by the Ontario parliament, Premier Kathleen Wynne plans to work with members of the opposition to draft a new motion on the issue, The Canadian Jewish News reports.
Wynne made the pledge in response to the controversy surrounding “The Standing Up Against Anti-Semitism in Ontario Act,” a private member’s bill that was introduced last month at Queen’s Park by Conservative MPP Tim Hudak and Liberal MPP Mike Colle, with the backing of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies president and CEO Avi Benlolo. The motion was defeated by a vote of 39-18.
The bill identified the BDS movement as “one of the main vehicles for spreading anti-Semitism and the delegitimization of Israel globally and is increasingly promoted on university campuses in Ontario… leading to intimidation and violence on campuses.”
It called on the province, as well as on colleges and universities, to abstain from doing business with companies that support the BDS movement.
When the anti-BDS bill was defeated on May 19, Wynne was in the middle of a trade mission to Israel, during which she spoke out against the BDS movement and anti-Semitism in any form, but also stressed Ontario must protect free speech in the province.
“Freedom of speech is something that all Canadians value and we must vigorously defend,” she said at the time, adding, “But, it’s unacceptable for students, or parents, or children to feel unsafe or discriminated against.”

Italian Education Minister to ‘Post’: Italy stands firmly against BDS

Italy stands firmly against boycott, divestment and sanctions, Italian Minister of Education, University and Research Stefania Giannini told The Jerusalem Post.
The minister was in Israel to celebrate Italian National Day, held annually on June 2, at a reception at the residence of Italian Ambassador Francesco M. Talo.
“We are marking 70 years of the Italian Republic, a turning point of Italian history and Italian democracy,” she said.
“Our fathers and our mothers decided to leave behind the period of Fascism and the dark time of racial law, and so to be here is to give a clear sign of friendship on this occasion for both Israel and Italy.”
Giannini was also in Israel, along with a delegation of over 50 Italian academics, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Italian-Israeli Government to Government Agreement on Scientific, Technological and Industrial Collaboration, signed in Bologna in 2000 and entered into force in 2001.

McGill University and How Western Civilization May Have Just Saved Itself — From Itself

Something quite remarkable happened a few days ago. It happened quietly, in a remote corner of some administrative building probably, but it ought to be loudly disseminated across the Western world. Not to be overly dramatic, but Western civilization just might have saved itself — from itself.
For universities are the heart of that civilization, and last week, a university’s student government suddenly remembered what the overall purpose of student governments is — which itself ought to remind universities of what their overall purpose is.
The Judicial Board at Montreal’s McGill University ruled last Tuesday that resolutions affirming the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel violate the Constitution and Equity Policy of its student government, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU). That means that McGill, whose campus has in the past 18 months endured three consecutive BDS campaigns and votes, all of which ultimately failed, will finally be able to return full-time to its proper business.
The reasoning in the decision is so clear that it’s downright refreshing.

Israel, Black Lives Matter and the Ideology of Victimhood

Ironically, victimhood does not apply when it comes to Jews or Israel. The victimhood crowd sees American Jews as the ruling class, and the Jews of Israel are considered colonizers. That Jews started to return in large numbers to their ancient homeland in the late 19th century to escape persecution apparently doesn’t count. Some BDS-ers deny that Jews ever lived in Israel in ancient times.
Not that Jews revel in being victims. Like most people who truly are victims of discrimination, rather than those who claim victimhood by virtue of belonging to an “oppressed” ethnic or racial group, Jews only want to be treated as others are treated. Nevertheless, the ideology of victimhood judges Jews by separate criteria. Some of the haters say Jews cannot be considered victims because they never were. Some even deny the Holocaust took place, or if it did, that Jews died in reported numbers; some even wish more had died.
The ideology of victimhood needs to be confronted head on. College administrators need to make sure those who would challenge the victimhood ideology are allowed to speak. On too many campuses the right of pro-Israel speakers to present their views has been denied –– in some cases violently. Conferences, classrooms and the like must be open to conflicting viewpoints, and security should be provided to make sure protesters don’t interfere with sanctioned events. Further, there should be consequences when victimizers fail to adhere to academic standards. First year Oberlin Professor Joy Karega’s reliance on Nation of Islam’s Elijah Mohammad [Louis Farrakhan?] as a source that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks should be grounds to question her appointment.

Terrorism by other means

While it may not always seem that way, in the cognitive wars being fought against Israel, most notably the hysterically high-pitched calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions by the BDS movement, Israel's opponents are losing.
Naturally, the BDS movement claims it is winning. Omar Barghouti, its founder, asserts that his crusade "is working far better and spreading into the mainstream much faster than we had anticipated." Obviously, a movement whose primary weapons involve all the mendaciousness it can possibly muster from its members will not be truthful about its results any more than it will be honest about its true goals.
While the BDS movement claims that it is about "peace and justice" and "encouraging international economic and political pressure against Israel," the movement's real and indisputable aim is to destroy Israel and replace it with "Palestine." The founder of the BDS has said so himself: In Barghouti's own words, "a Jewish state in Palestine in any shape or form cannot but contravene the basic rights of the indigenous Palestinian population and perpetuate a system of racial discrimination that ought to be opposed categorically. ... Most definitely we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine."
The chairman of the U.S. Congress House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, Ted Poe, has described the BDS movement as "a threat, which seeks [Israel's] ultimate destruction."

Thank you J Street

[A reply to J Street helped make Israel safer]
Failure
In reality, Obama failed to negotiate an acceptable deal. Israel’s former intelligence official, admiral Ami Ayalon who strongly believes that a deal is better than no deal, has criticised Obama’s strategy by saying: “He (Obama) doesn’t have the right combination of the language of peace and the language of war. This made Iranians believe that the US will not use force in case of no deal.” Obama failed to use America’s leverage over Iran by making 3 important concessions: first, he took the military option off the table. Secondly, he took the tough sanctions off the table by acknowledging that many of US’ allies will start to reduce sanctions on Iran regardless of any deal. And last and most importantly, he took off the option of rejecting the deal which leaves Iran to believe the Americans need the deal more than they do.
Alternative
J Street’s vice president concludes that the opponents of the deal have no alternative. If anything, Obama has put the US in a position with no alternatives. After hearing the views of Netanyahu and also of many US lawmakers (also democrats!) that opposed the deal, I can only conclude that Obama has ruined the possibility for a better deal.
J Street
Instead of unifying forces and keeping the free world’s leverage over Iran’s tyranny, J street’s supporters decided to use this opportunity to undermine Netanyahu and picked their battle at a wrong time. Instead of fighting Iran with a clear voice, J street divided us and together with Obama ruined every opportunity for a better deal. Today, Iran develops a nuclear bomb with J street’s blessing. On top of that, its supporters are expecting Netanyahu’s ‘thank you’ letter for making Israel safer. Who knows, maybe it got lost on its way to their mailbox.

At UCLA, kippa-wearing regent fights anti-Israel bigotry

Blatant and subtle forms of anti-Semitism are heating up on American college campuses for over a decade. But for the past two years, a Jewish-Israeli voice for tolerance has begun a counter-effort at the meetings of the UC Regents, the governing body of the University of California.
“When I first stepped onto UCLA’s campus, I came from a community where I didn’t meet a lot of critics of Israel,” says Student Regent Abraham “Avi” Oved.
Oved describes himself as a “Jewish Israeli American” from the heavily Jewish San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County.
“I was interacting with political ideologies who wanted to politicize my identity and make a controversy about it,” he says.
Now, at age 23, the student regent completes his tenure at the end of this month and graduates June 9 from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in economics and global studies.
His two-year appointment to the UC’s governing leadership, which he landed amid stiff statewide competition, has not been without controversy.
In some ways, that tension has helped publicly underscore a platform to improve and protect students from what some consider growing intolerance within this system of leading public universities, which includes UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Irvine and six other campuses throughout the Golden State.

Students Supporting Israel: Submission: Jews not to blame for Palestinian displacement

It is said that most lies are “lies of omission.” This is when someone simply fails to mention critical facts about a particular situation, purposely misleading the reader to the wrong conclusion. The opinion submission “Palestinian ethnic cleansing from Israel is ongoing, must be stopped” that appeared in the Daily Bruin on May 16 certainly has more than its fair share of omissions. However, the piece is unique in the audacity with which it misrepresents the truth, venturing into the more blatant form of lying in which boldfaced fabrications about complex historical events are presented as undisputed fact.
The authors of the article tell us that the Palestinians were forcibly “driven from their homes during Israel’s 1947-1949 campaign of ethnic cleansing.” The serious charge of ethnic cleansing against Israel – a term used to characterize genocides in Rwanda and Armenia, mass atrocities in Congo and the Holocaust – is not just baseless. It is hateful and discriminatory, leveled in our university’s primary public forum, the Daily Bruin, to demonize Israel – and create a hostile environment for pro-Israel and Jewish students. It takes all meaning out of the term “ethnic cleansing,” disrespecting those communities who bear this awful legacy.
Shame on the authors for introducing this divisiveness, ignorance and hate to our campus. The editors of the Daily Bruin should have known better than to print offensive and ultimately false accusations without doing their due diligence beforehand.
The whole truth is that an estimated 726,000 Arabs fled their homes during Israel’s War of Independence. That war was instigated not by the Jews but by the Arabs, who rejected the United Nations’ plan partitioning the British Mandate of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. Israel accepted that plan, but the Arabs chose war.

BBC uses coverage of attack in Jordan to promote politicised messaging

Although the relevance, if any, of the location of that still unfolding story is unclear, from the second version of its report onwards, the BBC elected to promote UNRWA messaging, including a link to the organisation’s profile of Baqaa camp – but not to its webpage which clarifies that “[m]ost Palestine refugees in Jordan, but not all, have full citizenship”.
“The Baqaa camp was one of six set up in 1968 for Palestinian refugees fleeing the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. […]
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says Baqaa is the largest camp in Jordan.
It is believed to house more than 100,000 refugees.
UNRWA says the camp continues to face major challenges, including unemployment, poverty and the need for structural repair.”
Furthermore, one of the two links to related reading posted under the article itself on the BBC News website’s Middle East page is a link to a photo essay from 2013 which promoted an exhibition staged within the framework of UNRWA’s public relations campaign.

One can but wonder what was going through the mind of the editor who found it appropriate to exploit a report about a terror attack in Jordan for the opportunistic promotion of politicized messaging on an unrelated topic.

BBC News produces eight versions of report on three-hour Paris meeting

Incredibly, over some sixteen hours BBC News devoted publicly funded resources to producing eight different versions of this report about an at best symbolic ‘conference’ (described even by the New York Times as an “extended photo opportunity”) that lasted the grand total of three hours.
Whilst it did seize the opportunity to communicate one-sided politicised framing of the topic to audiences, bizarrely the BBC had nothing to tell them about the prime factor behind the message in the article’s headline and opening paragraph.
“Hopes of a “two-state solution” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are in “serious danger”, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has warned.”
Apparently the BBC’s Middle East ‘experts’ did not think it necessary to “enhance audiences’ awareness and understanding of international issues” by informing them of the decidedly relevant fact that various Palestinian factions – including Hamas – completely reject the concept of the two-state solution.

How BBC Radio 4 squeezed Israel into programme on Irish history

Listeners may have been somewhat surprised when – at 33:54 – presenter Tom Sutcliffe elected to introduce the Holocaust into a programme about Irish history.
TS: “OK: what about the classic instance of the duty of remembering the Holocaust? Err…would it be better if we forgot that?”
DR: “Well first of all, with respect, eventually we’re going to do. And second – I’m sorry again to bring in geologic time but it is surely at least worth taking to some extent into account. And the second thing is it seems to me…ah…that memory is different as long as there are people alive, or at least people alive who knew people who were alive. So that yes; as long as there are survivors of the camps – of which there are a few – as long as there are the children of those people – of which there are many – and grandchildren, fine. But in a hundred years? In two hundred years? Yeah, I think it might be time to let it go. And, even in terms of the memory of the Holocaust, it seems to me the memory of the Holocaust as it is deployed in Israel has been nothing but negative.”
Given that Rieff had previously laid out his views on Israel’s ‘deformed’ society in that Guardian article (of which the producers of this programme must surely have been aware), the appearance of that latter throwaway politicized comment cannot have been too difficult to predict – especially following the presenter’s introduction of the Holocaust cue. Nevertheless, Sutcliffe refrained from challenging it –and not least the very interesting choice of the word “deployed” with its military connotations – before moving the conversation along.
And so – entirely predictably – uninformed listeners who had presumably tuned in because they wanted to hear a programme about Irish history therefore went away with the added ‘expert’ impression that Israel exploits the memory of the Holocaust for “negative” ends.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Haaretz To Charge Users To Submit Non-Left-Wing Comments (satire)

To maintain the ideological consistency of its online platform and to boost its struggling bottom line, the Haaretz newspaper’s web site will begin charging people who comment on articles in ways that do not match the hard-left, anti-Zionist, and anti-religious sensibilities the company desires to foster.
A notice on the site posted this morning (Monday) alerted users to the change in policy, which until now allowed all users to submit comments on most articles. According to the notice, as of July 1 Haaretz will require all users to register with a credit card number before being permitted access to the comments section below the articles. Users will not be charged if the content of their comments remains in keeping with the company’s editorial line and that of its writers Gideon Levi, Rogel Alpher, Amira Haas, and contributors such as Peter Beinart.
“Moderators already monitor comment submissions for abuse, inappropriate content, and other violations of the site’s policy,” explained the notice. “They will continue to serve in the same capacity, but the definition of policy violations has now expanded, and with it, their role in the process. The decisions of the moderating team are final, and there is no appeal.”
By instituting the new policy, publisher Amos Schocken said he aims to help the company back toward profitability. “Providing quality journalism every day is not cheap,” he explained. “And what Haaretz does costs money, too. Until now we have ignored a potential source of income. Essentially, anyone who is already willing to pay the subscription fees to gain access to our articles, and is not already hard-left liberal, displays a dedication to engaging with our content enough to pay for the privilege. Such people are much more likely to feel compelled to react with disagreement to the opinions and slant in our articles.”

Bangladesh blames Israel for Islamist murder spree

Bangladesh has seen a bloody string of murders targeting secular bloggers and religious minorities, with most of the killings claimed by Islamist groups - but according to Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Israel is to blame.
In accusing Israel of inexplicable involvement in the local murders, Khan noted that opposition MP Aslam Chowdhury, a joint secretary of the Bangladesh National Party, was arrested last week after local media reported he had met former Israeli government adviser Mendi Safadi in India in March.
Chowdhury, a tycoon from the southern city of Chittagong, was charged with sedition. He has insisted his visit was a business trip and that he did not meet an "Israeli intelligence agent" as was charged.
But according to Khan, whose Home Ministry gave the green light for charging Chowdhury with sedition, the MP's meeting with the Israeli was proof of an "international conspiracy" against Bangladesh, reports BBC on Monday.
Khan's conspiracy theory against Israel is far from the first in the Muslim-majority nation of Bangladesh - back in 2014 a Bangladesh court jailed a newspaper editor for seven years for trying to travel to Israel more than a decade earlier to speak about a rise in Islamic terrorism.
Khan's assertions come despite the fact that Islamists have gone as far as to publicly claim most of the murders. (h/t messy57)

Israeli Drama Criticized for Casting Iranian Muslim as Jewish Father Opens Film Festival in NYC (VIDEO)

The Israel Film Center Festival opened Thursday night in New York City with a movie that generated criticism for its casting of an Iranian-Muslim in the role of a Jewish father, The Algemeiner has learned.
Baba Joon is about tensions between three generations of an Iranian-Israeli immigrant family. Iranian-Muslim actor Navid Negahban, who also started in season 1 of HBO’s Homeland, plays Yitzhak, a Jewish father proud to maintain the turkey farm his father built when he moved to Israel from Iran. Yitzhak hopes his son, Moti, will take over the family business, but Moti is more interested in reconstructing old cars. This rejection is an insult to Yitzhak and all the Iranian traditional values that he believes in.
The Farsi-language film screened on opening night of the festival at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) Manhattan. Afterwards, Baba Joon‘s director, Yuval Delshad, took to the stage and told the audience about the backlash, but explained, “I never thought about it as a political issue. I just saw Navid as a human being, a good actor, the best actor for me. I didn’t ask if he’s Jewish or not. It just worked.”
Delshad, who said the film is semi-autobiographical, explained that he wrote the script for Baba Joon over the course of six years and originally had Israeli actors in mind, but in the end could not find “actors that know the Iranian culture precisely.”

In remote Madagascar, a new community chooses to be Jewish

A nascent Jewish community was officially born in Madagascar last month when 121 men, women and children underwent Orthodox conversions on the remote Indian Ocean island nation better known for lemurs, chameleons, dense rain forests and vanilla.
The conversions, which took place over a 10-day period, were the climax of a process that arose organically five to six years ago when followers of various messianic Christian sects became disillusioned with their churches and began to study Torah.
Through self-study and with guidance from Jewish internet sources and correspondence with rabbis in Israel, they now pray in Sephardic-accented Hebrew and strictly observe the Sabbath and holidays.
The conversions were facilitated by Kulanu, a New York-based nonprofit that specializes in supporting isolated and emerging Jewish communities, but were initiated by the residents.
“Now that we’ve re-established the State of Israel, it is time to re-establish the Jewish people, especially in the Diaspora,” said Bonita Nathan Sussman, vice president of Kulanu.

An end to annoying phone tag

How many times have you tried to call someone but the line was busy? And when the person calls you back, you’re busy?
MyState, an Israeli app for iOS and Android that raised $6.5 million from private US investors, lets you see if your contacts are available before you try calling.
MyState icons (automatic or custom-set by the user) indicate if your friend is currently on a call, offline, driving, in a different time zone, charging the phone or low on battery. It also lets you know if your contact prefers to be reached via text message, WhatsApp or phone call, and whether the phone is on vibrate or silent.
Users can type out their own status message, if they choose.
MyState allows users to maintain their privacy by not showing their status to all or specific contacts, or sharing certain statuses with certain groups such as family, friends or colleagues. The app preserves privacy by, for example, showing if a user is in a different time zone without sharing the exact location.
A key feature of MyState is the “Crunch” button, which is used when a contact is speaking on the phone. By pressing the Crunch button, your smartphone will notify you when the contact is off the phone, and notify the contact that you are trying to get in touch.

Herzliya to issue tender for two islands

Japanese delegations that visited Israel last month said that the islands for housing and an airport were feasible.
The Herzliya municipality will soon issue an international tender to examine the feasibility of building artificial islands along Israel's coastline. The tender will include consideration of two islands: one for housing and the other for an airport for internal flights. Japanese delegations that visited Israel last month said that the islands were feasible. At the same time, the Tel Aviv municipality is preparing another plan for an artificial island on which an international airport and other infrastructure will be built.
An airport on an artificial island is common in wealthy and densely populated areas in the Far East. Almost all the airports built in recent years in Hong Kong, Macau, and Japan are on artificial islands. Discussion of such an artificial island in Israel began 20 years ago, when Israel and the Netherlands signed a memorandum of intent for cooperation in the construction of artificial islands in the Mediterranean Sea.
Nothing has happened since then other than talk. In 2002, the government approved the construction of two artificial islands off the Mediterranean coast: one for an airport off the Tel Aviv shore and one residential island opposite Bat Yam. In 2006, then-Minister of Transport Shaul Mofaz declared that his ministry would promote the construction of an artificial island, and that the feasibility check would take place in the first quarter of 2007. In 2012, the government approved the forming of an inter-ministerial steering committee for considering the technological feasibility of an island.

Alibaba invests in Israeli e-commerce search co Twiggle

Twiggle uses advanced techniques in data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing to power digital commerce.
Israeli startup Twiggle, which is developing next generation e-commerce search technologies, announced today that it secured additional funding from the Alibaba Group as the second tranche of its Series A financing. This follows the announcement in April of a $12.5 million round led by Naspers with participation from YJ Capital, State of Mind Ventures and Sir Ronald Cohen. The funding will be utilized to grow the company’s R&D team in Israel and drive the company’s global expansion plans. No details were disclosed about the amount Alibaba is investing but "Bloomberg" reported that it is $5-10 million.
Twiggle uses advanced techniques in data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing to power the next generation of digital commerce. The company was founded in 2013 by CEO Dr. Amir Konigsberg and CTO Dr. Adi Avidor.
Konigsberg said, “We’re redefining the way users engage with e-commerce, and we take it as the utmost validation of Twiggle’s vision and potential that a global company like Alibaba would join us on this journey. We are wholly focused on bringing the most advanced search experience and technologies to digital commerce to help this industry take a massive leap forward. Alibaba is an incredible company and we’re delighted to partner with them.”

30,000 parade through New York in support of Israel

Despite a persistent downpour of rain some 30,000 people marched through New York on Sunday in the annual Celebrate Israel Parade.
Hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the parade, which featured floats with dancers, bands, and performers, made its way through Manhattan from 52nd Street to 74th Street.
Among those who took part were New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, a delegation of Israeli MKs and city mayors, Israeli Consul General to New York Ido Aharoni, and Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon.
“The residents of New York believe in Israel and we have a deep love for the people of Israel,” said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who also marched in the event. “As long as I am mayor, we will always stand by Israel.”
Some of the cast from the Broadway show “Fiddler on the Roof” joined the marchers and sang songs from the hit musical about Jewish life in Eastern Europe.
The night before the parade, the city’s iconic Empire State Building was lit up in blue and white to mark the occasion.

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George Whyte-Melville, the author of "Market Harborough"

Despite the presence of the ruined St John a little way out of the village, Boughton has a medieval church. St John the Baptist probably began life as a chapel for Boughton Hall.

Next to it is the village pub, The Whyte Melville.

It is named for the 19th-century Scottish novelist and poet George Whyte-Melville, whom I have run into a couple of times before.

He wrote many novels of the hunting field. One of them, published in 1861, was titled Market Harborough.

And around 1990 I occasionally played chess for Northampton Working Men's Club. They took part in the national club knock out championship, which was something the Market Harborough team did not aspire to.

The building where we played in Northampton was often referred to as "Whyte-Melville" because George had founded it.

Like so many such clubs, it has now closed. The premises are occupied by a pub called The Fox and Quill (which was previously the Goose on Two Streets).

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Israel creating the "digital soldier"

Some fascinating glimpses on the future of the IDF. From Israel Defense:

Maj. Gen. (res.) Avi Mizrachi, former commander of the IDF Ground Arm and GOC Central Command and now executive VP of Elbit Systems, opened earlier today (Wednesday) the special session held by Israel Defense and Bynet Company regarding the digital revolution in the defense establishment. According to Mizrahi, Elbit Systems is an active partner with the defense establishment and IDF in the Tzayad (Digital Land Army) program, aimed to expand the digitization levels of the individual soldier in the IDF and to improve his integration with other military functions. Elbit Systems also shares this knowledge with other countries around the world. It is involved in two major projects (designated "The Future Soldier") in Australia and in the Benelux Union.

As for the IDF "future soldier", he already carries only three kilograms of military equipment on his back, compared to dozens of kilograms in the past. The radio gear carried by the soldier enables him to connect to his squad, platoon, company, and even higher echelons. The IDF's operational requirements, says Avi Mizrahi, are for the "digital soldier" to have high survivability, mobility, lethality (in the sense of the "first round on target" concept), and command and control (C2) capabilities. Elbit systems are developing solutions to meet these requirements, with an emphasis on urban warfare and the underground arena – namely tunnels.

Another important element of the "digital soldier" is the operation of precision-guided munition. In the future, soldiers will be equipped with a weapon system that would allow them to identify a target, and then simply to aim and shoot. They will receive relevant data, and will be equipped with night vision equipment.

Another key element is the ability to identify the soldier. Soldiers will be equipped with a system that would allow their commanders to identify them when they operate inside a building. The system will transmit data on the physiological condition of a soldier to his commanders, to let them know if he has been injured. Additional equipment will allow the soldier to identify fellow troopers so to prevent incidents of 'friendly fire'. All this is part of the great network that will encompass the entire fighting force: ground, air and naval.

Chen Azoulay, CEO of Bynet, opened the conference and said that his company is cooperating with the defense establishment in the development of digital solutions for control rooms, contact centers and smart cities. Some of these solutions have already been implemented in the defense establishment.

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Six of the Best 603

RIA Novosti archive

"If Brexit wins, it will be because a majority of British voters have simply lost confidence in the way they are governed and the people they are governed by. That loss of confidence is part bloody-mindedness, part frivolity, part panic, part bad temper, part prejudice. But it is occurring – if it is – in a nation that has always prided itself, perhaps too complacently, on having very different qualities: good sense, practicality, balanced judgment, and a sure instinct for not lurching to the right or left." Martin Kettle analyses why we have been brought to the verge of Brexit.

Bernard Aris says the Leave campaign has not thought about the implications for Ireland - north and south.

Mikhail Gorbachev still has lots to say finds Neil MacFarquhar.

The good news is that expensive libel cases are in decline, says David Hencke. The bad news is that the rich are using the 'right to be forgotten' to effectively silence their critics instead.

Daniel Ralston tells the story of the fake Zombies - the strangest con in rock history.

York Stories visits the threatened buildings of Ordnance Lane.

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Viktor Korchnoi was a beacon to Soviet dissidents

Embed from Getty Images

In April I wrote that:

Like all sports, chess has a way of mirroring the conflicts in wider society. 

The Fischer vs Spassky match of 1972 was a wonderful metaphor for the Cold War, even if the gentlemanly, quietly dissident Boris Spassky was never a cypher for the Soviet Union. 

In the 1980s the volatile Garry Kasparov was a perfect symbol of glasnost and perestroika against the model Soviet citizen Anatoly Karpov.

In between those two rivalries came the one between Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi, which was a battle between the model Soviet citizen and a dissident.

Korchnoi died today at the age of 85. Leonard Barden's obituary of him in the Guardian explains his significance in and beyond the game:

Viktor Korchnoi ... was a chess grandmaster who defected from the Soviet Union, then twice challenged the USSR’s Anatoly Karpov for the world title. Their first contest, in 1978 in the Philippines, was the most bizarre in championship history, bitterly fought on and off the board. 

Soviet media referred to Korchnoi as “the opponent” or “the challenger” rather than by name. Karpov refused the traditional pre-game handshake, Korchnoi wore mirror glasses. Karpov’s team included a hypnotist seated in the front rows staring at Korchnoi, who enlisted two members of a meditative sect on bail for murder. Needing six games to win, Karpov led 5-2 before Korchnoi fought back to 5-5, only to lose the decisive game. 

Korchnoi was already 45 years old when he defected, an age when most chess players are well past their best. For him it was a liberating experience, and when his results equalled or surpassed what he had achieved as a Soviet citizen, it stimulated an exodus not just of grandmasters but also of other intellectuals.

Korchnoi's agreed  epitaph already seems to be that he was the strongest player never to win the world title.

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Book Review: Religion, Politics and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief

Religion, Politics and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief
Asaf Romirowsky & Alexander H. Joffe

This is a meticulously researched book that concentrates on a very small bit of history: the time period from 1948-50 when the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group, was organizing refugee relief in Gaza.

Before UNRWA, the UN created the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees (UNRPR). It outsourced refugee relief to three other groups: the International Committee of the Red Cross, the League of Red Cross Societies, and the AFSC, which had won accolades for its non-political relief activities during the 1930s and 1940s.

The AFSC was in charge of relief for some 200,000 refugees in Gaza. Even though it was not fully successful in keeping itself above the fray of Middle East politics, it did an admirable job with very few resources in providing food, medical care and even education to this huge population that fled Israel. In fact, the 25,000 native Gazans were in worse financial shape than their 200,000 forced guests.

The AFSC initially wanted the refugees to be repatriated to Israel, but eventually it accepted that the majority would have to be resettled in Arab countries. Of course, the Arab countries did not want to settle them.

The AFSC is interesting in a number of ways. The Quakers, alone among the UNRPR NGOs, actually tried and to a large extent succeeded in performing a census of the refugee population, foiling the elaborate schemes that the Arabs used to inflate the numbers of members of their families (sending kids from one home to another to be counted multiple times, not registering deaths, and so forth) in order to maintain a fair and equitable distribution system. Even so, they allowed some additional food parcels to be distributed, as the food rations created a mini-industry of trade in the camps.

An AFSC member realized early on that some 200,000 of the then-assumed 670,000-700,000 refugees were not refugees at all, having lived on the other side of the Green Line the entire time, but they applied for refugee relief to take advantage of the free food.

The group also emphatically did not want to be stuck in the Middle East forever. They set a deadline by which they would leave, and UNRWA exists partially because of that ultimatum. The AFSC was keenly aware of the facts that the refugees themselves did not want to resettle at that time, and their desire to "return" was predicated on Israel being destroyed first. The refugees also felt that the aid that they were receiving was their right, and they blamed the UN as being responsible for their homelessness and therefore responsible to house and feed them until they return victoriously to their homes.

The AFSC quickly realized that this was a quagmire that they did not want any part of. The AFSC noted, prophetically, that withdrawing aid is actually the best thing that could happen to the refugees as the alternative of perpetual aid "contributes to the moral degeneration of the refugees and may also, by its palliative effects, militate against a swift political settlement of the problem."

As they left and handed over the reins of Gaza relief to UNRWA, the FSC members naively thought that now a professional organization would be able to do things that they could not - but they quickly realized that UNRWA officials were completely incompetent and often political hires who thought that the assignment was to drink scotch all day with Egyptian officials.

For a short time the AFSC was an UNRWA contractor to help the transition. One mentioned in a letter that the Egyptians had taken over the education of the Palestinian children under UNRWA in 1950, where "the kids are learning reading, writing and bombing tactics."

The AFSC is also, as the authors point out, a precursor to today's powerful and very political NGOs. The Committee itself became very political in the decades since, taking on US involvement in Vietnam and the Cold War, and in recent decades they became implacably anti-Israel, which some but not all of their volunteers were in 1948.

The book is dense with facts and footnotes, and it is often difficult to keep track of all the players. It places the AFSC in context of the many American, mostly Protestant groups with ties to the Middle East, whose members were often antisemitic (and many of whom ended up working for the State Department.) But it tells a story that simply had not been previously told about the history of the refugee problem and how it turned from something that might have been solvable into today's intractable problem of descendants of the original refugees still stateless, still pawns and still believing that they are entitled to free food, medicine and education forever.

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