06/27 Links Pt1: Abbas' advisor: “Every place you find an Israeli - cut off his head”; Israel, Turkey officially reconcile

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From Ian:
PMW: Abbas' advisor: “Every place you find an Israeli - cut off his head”
Abbas' advisor and Fatah Central Committee member Sultan Abu Al-Einein is one of the many Fatah leaders who regularly refute the myth that Fatah is moderate and peace promoting. During an interview with a Palestinian news agency about building peaceful and normal relations with Israel, Abu Al-Einein explained that he rejects “negotiations, meetings, and normalization” activities and believes when a Palestinian meets an Israeli he should kill him:
Mahmoud Abbas' advisor, Sultan Abu Al-Einein:“Regarding the matter of normalization [with Israel] and the participation of members of the Fatah leadership and members of the PLO Executive Committee in Israeli conferences, Abu Al-Einein said: ‘If you would ask me about my personal position, I would tell you - every place you find an Israeli cut off his head. Likewise, I am against talks, negotiations, meetings, and normalization in all its forms with the Israeli occupation.’”
[Donia Al-Watan (independent Palestinian news agency), June 27, 2016]
Based on his previous statements and Facebook posts it is clear that his statement promoting murder should be taken literally. Abu Al-Einein has stated in the past that killing Jews/Israelis is not merely a Palestinian national goal but is what Allah demands of Palestinians as an Islamic necessity. After a bloody terror attack in November 2014 in which 4 rabbis were murdered during prayer in a synagogue in Jerusalem, Abbas’ advisor posted pictures of the dead rabbis and a picture of their blood on his Facebook page to celebrate the murder. He wrote that the butchering of the rabbis with axes and kitchen knives was "the heroic operation at the religious Zionist institute.”

Palestinian Leader: “Brexit is the Work of Israeli Rabbis” (satire)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has asserted that the British vote to leave the European Union is the result of determined efforts by several rabbis in Israel to undermine Continental unity.
“Only a week ago, I ran into some Zionists as they were torching olive groves in colonized Palestine. Over several cups of sweet tea, they confessed to me that booting Britain out of Europe was the first step in a phased plan to dominate the world. As we all know, not a single British citizen actually voted to leave the EU. How else then can you explain the result of last week’s referendum?” Abbas said in an address to the European Parliament.
In response to these allegations, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that “I love a good conspiracy theory as much as any paranoid. But we all know that Brexit happened when millions of buff white farmers with ‘roid rage got fed up with their wives and girlfriends leaving them for skinny Indian techies driving fancy new cars. Send ’em back on boats to Bombay: that’s how you’ll make Britain great again!”
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton noted that following the Brexit vote, “We bid a fond farewell to the United Kingdom. But, who will fill the void left by our longtime ally? I’m sure I wrote an email outlining a very sensible plan of action, but I seem to have mislaid it. Just give me a minute and I will get back to you.”
Egypt wants to know more about its people in Israel
Egyptian Minister of Immigration Nabilah Makram created quite a stir recently when she said she has no information concerning the size of the Egyptian community in Israel.
Immediately following Makram's June 13 remarks to the parliamentary Human Rights Committee, parliamentarians declared that the growth of the Egyptian community in Israel constitutes a danger to Egyptian national security — although it wasn’t clear how, exactly, since no information on the size of the community was presented.
Speaking to Al-Monitor on this issue, Makram stressed that the Egyptian community in Israel is a unique diaspora as a result of security and political reasons. She said she has been working with others in the government and labor unions to develop a database of expatriate Egyptians that will include all relevant details.
Meanwhile, Nancy Nasir, a parliament member and representative for Egyptian expatriates, told Al-Monitor, “The concerns of Egypt’s expatriates overall have been dealt with extremely ineffectively, and not only the Egyptian community in Israel.” This is despite parliament’s numerous committees relating to expatriates, including the Arab Affairs, African Affairs and Foreign Relations committees, she said. (h/t Zvi)



Israel, Turkey officially reconcile: Netanyahu says Gaza blockade to remain
The rapprochement agreement between Israel and Turkey will strengthen Israel's position in the region, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Rome on Monday announcing the reaching of the accord more than six years after the Mavi Marmara incident.
Netanyahu said that with both the world and the region going through enormous changes, it is important to create islands of stability, and this accord does that with Turkey. He said that his strategy is to create these points of stability in ties with some Arab states in the region, with Greece and Cyprus, and with Russia.
Netanyahu said he kept Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Russia -- all countries who have a fraught relationship with Turkey -- in the loop regarding the negotiations leading up to the accord. Every move was also coordinated with the US, he said. At the same time that Netanyahu was announcing the accord in Rome, stressing the elements favorable to Israel, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım was doing the same in Ankara, stressing other elements in the agreement more to Turkey’s liking.
Yildirim stressed that the first shipment of 10,000 tons of Turkish humanitarian aid will set sail next Friday. Yildirim presented this as a lifting of the blockade on Gaza, something Netanyahu denied during his comments.
Israel and Turkey find magical land where (almost) everyone’s a winner
The Israeli-Turkish reconciliation deal that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday in Rome is being criticized by politicians and pundits from across the political spectrum. That’s probably a good sign.
Unsurprisingly, opposition leader Isaac Herzog slammed the deal, hammering Netanyahu for agreeing to pay $20 million in compensation for the families of the Turkish victims of the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident. Such a deal is “unfathomable,” Herzog wrote on his Facebook page.
“Let all Jewish mothers know that the right wing will pay compensation to those who attack their sons,” he added.
Gideon Sa’ar — who was a government minister at the time when Netanyahu apologized to Turkey for “operational errors” during the Marmara raid — came out swinging against the deal. He called it “a national humiliation,” a case of “paying the aggressor,” and said it “opens the door to the next capitulation to terrorism” because Hamas would now make new demands for the release of its terrorists from Israeli jails.
But anyone with even the faintest familiarity with Israeli politics knows that these two men would likely have supported the deal had they had been in the government today.
Likewise, Netanyahu would doubtless have opposed it had he been sitting in the opposition.
Ending years of rancor, Israel and Turkey reboot relationship
Once tight, already frayed relations between Israel and Turkey were significantly downgraded in 2010 after Israeli commandos staged a raid on a six-ship Turkish flotilla which was trying to breach Israel’s naval blockade of the Strip.
The commandos were violently attacked by those on board the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, and nine Turkish citizens, including one with American citizenship, were killed in the ensuing melee. A tenth died of his wounds years later. A number of Israeli soldiers were injured in the raid.
Under the deal Israel will pay $20 million (18.14 million euros) in compensation for the deaths caused in the commando raid, Yildirim confirmed. In return for the compensation, Turkey agreed not to take legal action against IDF soldiers involved in the incident.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, dismissed criticism by political opponents who denounced the paying of compensation to attackers of IDF soldiers as a national humiliation.
“Our vital interests are advanced by this deal,” he said. “I’m not entering a honeymoon. And I’m not presenting this agreement through rose-colored spectacles. But this agreement strengthens Israel.”
He said the deal could not have been done sooner, because “it took time” to achieve “the terms we needed.”
Top cabinet members oppose Turkey reconciliation agreement
A reconciliation agreement reached between Turkey and Israel on Monday that includes a $20 million Israeli compensation package for pro-Hamas Turkish citizens killed in 2010 is expected to face opposition in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cabinet later this week.
The agreement, which is set to be signed on Tuesday, will likely be brought to the cabinet for ratification on Wednesday.
But some senior cabinet members have already signaled their intention to vote against the deal, with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) telling supporters during a faction meeting that he would maintain his opposition to reconciliation with Turkey.
“I don’t see any reason to go back on my opposition to the agreement,” Channel 2 reported the Yisrael Beytenu chief as having told party members. “The compensation [package] has serious implications.”
Liberman pledged, however, not to politicize the vote.
“I won’t make a campaign [issue] out of this, just as I did not do with the Shalit deal, despite my well-known position on that.”
Speaking on Monday with the families of the fallen soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, whose bodies have been held by Hamas since 2014, Liberman again emphasized that his position on the agreement with Turkey had not changed.
'Why didn't Israel demand compensation from Turkey?'
A former senior member of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud party has blasted Israel's upcoming reconciliation deal with Turkey, and questioned why the Israeli government didn't attempt to extract concessions of its own.
Former Education Minister Gideon Saar said Israel should have demanded compensation for the Mavi Marmara incident, in which a Turkish Islamist flotilla attempted to violently break Israel's blockade of Gaza.
In an interview with Israel's Channel 2, Saar expressed his shock at the $20 million compensation package Israel will be granting to the families of the Al Qaeda-linked IHH terrorists killed aboard the ship - without demanding any compensation in return either for the injuries inflicted on IDF soldiers or the harm to Israel's security.
According to Saar, Netanyahu had in the past vowed not to offer compensation to the Turks over the incident - yet now the generous compensation package comprises a central aspect of the reconciliation deal.
"This is a bad deal," Saar stated, while noting that the conflicting national interests of Turkey - a key Hamas supporter - and Israel would continue regardless of the agreement.
The rapprochement deal will be formally announced today (Monday) at two separate press conferences.
Hamas prisoner’s family protests Turkey detente deal
As Israeli and Turkish negotiators were set to meet Sunday in Rome to finalize an agreement on normalizing ties, said to include an easing of the sanctions on the Gaza Strip, the family of an Israeli man presumed held in the Palestinian territory staged a protest outside the prime minister’s Jerusalem office demanding he be released as part of the deal.
Avraham Abera Mengistu, 29, a Jew of Ethiopian descent, has been held by the Hamas terror group in Gaza for nearly two years. According to his family, he suffers from mental illness and stumbled across the border into the coastal territory by accident in 2014.
Mengistu’s relatives, who want Israel to demand Turkey obtain proof of life as a condition for signing any rapprochement deal, said they felt misled by officials during the months-long talks between Jerusalem and Ankara.
“We’ve been deceived. It’s inconceivable that Israel will sign this agreement while my brother is still being held prisoner,” said Ilan Mengistu, the prisoner’s brother, according to Channel 2.
“We put our trust in the Israeli government and Knesset to do their job faithfully,” he said. “Given the upcoming deal with Turkey, we feel as though we’ve been fooled.”
MK Zoabi: Reparations to Turks an Israeli Admission of Murder
MK Zoabi, for whom this is her last term in the Knesset, having been kicked off her realistic spot on her Balad party’s list by party primary voters, insists that this is not the time to celebrate the diplomatic achievement of the Netanyahu government, instead, she says, the deal constitutes an Israeli admission of “committing nine murders, injuring dozens, kidnapping and piracy in international waters.”
Zoabi is also irate that the Turkish-Israeli deal does not deposit in Israel’s hands the responsibility for the woes of the Gaza Strip, which it abandoned ten years ago this summer. Zoabi wants the Israeli blockade to come down completely, but has nothing to say about the Hamas openly declared intentions of continuing their plans to attack Israeli civilians.
MK Tibi for his part suggested PA-based jurists should take note of the reparations index of the Turkish deal, for future discussions, when the new Palestinian state would be handing Israel the bill for all the Arabs that died over the years, presumably including those who were killed while trying to stuff their suicide belts with explosives.
Israeli politicians on both sides of the aisle were unhappy with the deal. Former minister Gidon Sa’ar (Likud) tweeted: “Israel will pay Turkey reparations for the Marmara? I hope the news is wrong. If it’s true — this is a national humiliation and an invitation for more flotillas and more libels from Israel haters.”
Zoabi urges more flotillas following Israel-Turkey agreement
MK Hanin Zoabi (Joint List), who participated in the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla which ultimately resulted in the cutting of ties between Israel and Turkey, on Sunday night said the reconciliation agreement between the two countries was a clear “admission of murder” by Israel.
"Israel's agreement to transfer 21 million shekels to the Turks constitutes a clear admission of guilt. Even if Israel does not acknowledge it, it is a confession to the murder of nine people, wounding of dozens, kidnapping and piracy in international waters and false persecution,” she charged.
Zoabi called for more flotillas like the Marmara one in order to remove the “criminal siege”, as she put it, over Gaza.
Zoabi is notorious for her anti-Israel statements and actions, despite being an elected member of Israel’s parliament.
Among other things, she has said that Israel has “no right to a normal life,” and that “the Israeli occupation” was behind the murder of Israelis in Bulgaria. She has also declared that Israel should "thank her" for allowing Jews to live in the Jewish state.
JCPA: After the Israel-Turkey Agreement, Turkey and Hamas Will Still Collaborate
A high-ranking Hamas delegation visited Ankara on June 24, 2016. At its helm was Khaled Mashal, chairman of the movement’s Political Bureau.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave Mashal the latest updates on the concluding stages of Turkey’s negotiations with Israel on a normalization agreement between the two states.
On issues regarding the Gaza Strip, Hamas and Turkey have been closely collaborating since the Mavi Marmara flotilla affair. The tie between them stems from the common ideology of Hamas and the ruling Justice and Development Party in Turkey as affiliates of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood movement. In addition, Erdogan and Mashal have close, friendly relations.
Throughout the talks with Israel on normalizing relations, Turkey constantly updated Hamas and consulted with it. Erdogan made the demand for lifting the blockade of Gaza a condition for an agreement with Israel.
On January 25, 2016, senior Hamas official Ahmed Yusuf told the Palestinian Maan News Agency that Hamas and senior Turkish officials were maintaining a direct line of communication on the terms reached between Israel and Turkey on the Gaza issue.
Analysis: The winner from the Israel-Turkey détente - Hamas
Hamas and Turkey come out as the winners in the upcoming deal if reports in the Israeli media are correct.
Israel apparently has agreed to the presence of Hamas in Turkey as long as it does not involve itself directly in terrorist attacks against Israel, but limits itself to political and other supposedly nonviolent activity.
However, the sanction of the presence and “political” activity of Hamas in a country with diplomatic ties with Israel undermines years of Israeli public relations against the terrorist group, which sought to identify Hamas with other Sunni groups such as al-Qaida and Islamic State.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu equated Islamic State to Hamas in a speech to the UN in September 2014, saying some countries “evidently don’t understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree.”
“ISIS and Hamas share a fanatical creed, which they both seek to impose well beyond the territory under their control,” he said, going on to note that both groups call for the creation of a caliphate with global ambitions.
But, if Hamas is Islamic State, why is Israel sanctioning its activity, even though not directly terrorism related, in a country with which it wants to normalize relations? Turkish media reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Istanbul on Friday to discuss the negotiations with Israel.
'Those who think Israel-Turkey deal will have a significant impact on Hamas are mistaken'
Those who think the Israel-Turkey reconciliation will have a significant impact on Hamas are sorely mistaken about Turkey’s influence on the terror organization, former National Security Advisor Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror said Monday.
“I’m very sorry, but Turkey doesn’t have the influence people think they have on Hamas. By the end of the day, the conflict in Gaza will be influenced by Hamas in Gaza,” Amidror said Monday, in a conference call with reporters.
Amidror said the reconciliation will have no immediate influence on the chances of a conflict in the near future between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and that “this would be decided by Hamas in Gaza. I don’t see the Turks having a lot of influence on the military wing of Hamas.”
He added that even the major civilian infrastructure projects Turkey is planning in Gaza won’t be enough to sway Hamas decision-making, which at the end of the day is influenced by their attitudes towards Israel and the military capabilities they have.
Nonetheless, Amidror said he believes the deal has “huge potential” in terms of security gains for Israel, but that this is only in the long-term, after both sides work on building trust with one another.
Did Israel promise not to assassinate Hamas's leader as part of Turkey deal?
The Prime Minister's Office on Saturday denied that Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh would be given immunity from Israeli attempts on his life as part of the reconciliation deal with Turkey which the cabinet is expected to ratify next week.
The claim was seemingly made by coalition chairman David Bitan, who later said that his comments made at a cultural event in Beersheba on Saturday were misunderstood and taken out of context.
Discussing the pending deal with Turkey and what it means for Haniyeh, Biton stated: "What's certain is that we can't do anything to him anymore, he is secured. Not even the prime minister can give the order anymore."
Biton's comments prompted an angry denial from the Prime Minister's Office: "MK David Bitan is not privy to the details of the agreement with Turkey. His comments are incorrect and detached from reality. The issue [of Haniyeh] was not discussed during the talks."
The statement added that "Israel reserves the right to ensure its security in accordance with the circumstances."
Six things that happened while Israel-Turkey were feuding
Business boomed
Despite the breakdown of diplomatic ties, business between the two countries soared.
If in 2009, the year before the Mavi Marmara, the two countries did some $2.6 billion in bilateral trade. By 2014 that number jumped to $5.4 billion, though it dropped to some $4.2 billion last year. The ties between the governments may have soured, but the relationship between the two business communities only got stronger.
Israel's relations with Cyprus and Greece took off
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Nicosia earlier this year and, in a high profile meeting, shook hands with the leaders of Cyprus and Greece and announced the emergence of a mini-regional alliance. Turkey was this alliance’s indirect midwife.
US Jewish groups begin to acknowledge Armenian Genocide
Over the last six years Jewish groups in the US, which in the past did not support recognizing the Armenian genocide, started to do so.
The issue burst into the headlines in 2007, when then ADL head Abe Foxman fired the organization's regional director in Boston for telling a newspaper he opposed the ADL’s long-standing refusal to recognize the massacres of the Armenians as genocide.
Arab assailants attack police, visitors for second day on Temple Mount
Tensions flared for a second day on the Temple Mount Monday morning, after a group of masked Arab assailants threw rocks and other objects at Border Police and Jewish visitors who entered the contested compound during the final 10 days of Ramadan. Six Arabs were arrested.
Following Sunday morning’s attack on 11 Jewish visitors, resulting in four Arab men being arrested for hurling rocks, chairs and shoes at them, police brought in reinforcements to heighten security.
None of the visitors or officers were wounded during that melee, which lasted approximately 45 minutes, before the tour resumed.
“The police collected intelligence about Arab youths, some of them masked, who were involved in the attack who barricaded themselves during the night in al-Aksa Mosque in order to confront police and harm visitors to the area during Ramadan,” said Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
“Jerusalem police forces were present this morning and ready for any scenario.”
Arab vandals desecrate Tomb of Patriarchs mezuzah in Hevron
Arab vandals removed a mezuzah from the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron on Friday, while the holy site was used by local Muslims for Ramadan prayers.
The mezuzah, which adorned the main door of the Tomb, is believed to have been desecrated by the vandals.
A storage shed used by the Tomb’s maintenance staff was also broken into, with thousands of shekels worth of equipment stolen.
A spokesman for the Hevron Jewish community, Noam Arnon, responded to the theft and likely desecration of the mezuzah, calling on police to offer a substantive response to the incident.
“The Committee of Hevron demands that the [special access given to] Muslims for the [Ramadan] holiday be cancelled in the Tomb of the Patriarchs until the mezuzah is returned, and that severe measures be taken against the thieving terrorists. We cannot have Arab vandals taking advantage of a holiday during which the State of Israel gives them exclusive access to the first Jewish holy site in order to commit crimes against Jewish holy objects.”
Reporter at US State Dep’t briefing repeats lie that Israel cut off water to Palestinians
We just came across a gem from the blog Conflicts and Resolutions highlighting an exchange between State Department Spokesperson John Kirby and Said Arikat, a reporter for the Palestinian Al Quds news network, during a press briefing on June 16th.
Here’s text of the exchange from the official transcript:
QUESTION: Okay. I also have a couple questions on the water supply – the Israelis cut off water supplies to the inhabitants —
MR KIRBY: Yeah.
QUESTION: — of the West Bank. Now, the Israelis, including settlers, they get about 300 liters per day, Palestinians get 70 liters per day, and this is basically Palestinian water. They siphon it from Palestinian areas. I wonder if you have any comment on that.
First, as we clearly demonstrated when this libel appeared in the British media, the claim (citing Palestinian government officials) that “Israelis cut off water supplies” to West Bank Palestinians is completely untrue.
Israel blames Palestinians for West Bank water shortage
On top of that, broken water pipes and Palestinian water theft have made the situation worse, a spokesman for the Water Authority said.
He told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that about 5 cubic meters of water were recently stolen in the West Bank by Palestinians.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories’ Office – a branch of the Defense Ministry – is responsible for catching water thieves. In the northern Samaria region alone, he added, about 1.2 cu. m. have been stolen.
Adding to this was a 20 to 40 percent increase in demand compared to last year, with most of it being used for agricultural purposes.
In order to deal with this, the Authority and Interior Ministry created a national water emergency plan, to “pool water together” during peak hours.
This has not prevented shortages, however, because the Palestinian Authority has not given its approval for the Water Authority to update infrastructure. The shortage has been particularly acute in the Palestinian village of Sulfite.
Israel moves to strip citizenship, residency of would-be IS fighters
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri on Sunday moved to strip two residents of East Jerusalem of their Israeli citizenship and residency status for their involvement with the Islamic State terror group.
Deri asked Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to revoke the citizenship of Luqman Atun, 24, who is a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Tsur Baher. Atun flew to Turkey in October 2014, but didn’t have enough money to be taken to the Syrian border.
The interior minister also requested that the permanent residency status of East Jerusalemite Khalil Adel Khalil, 26, be revoked. Khalil was convicted in December 2015 of attempting to join the Islamic State and seeking to fight for the group in Syria.
Permanent residency is the status of most of East Jerusalem’s approximately 300,000 Arabs, who are not Israeli citizens, although they can apply for citizenship if they so choose.
The Israeli news site Ynet reported that Deri’s request was the most advanced move taken so far to strip Arabs in Israel of citizenship or residency for connection with the Islamic State.
French court: no murder trial into Arafat's death
A French court has refused to reopen an investigation into the death of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat amid suspicions that he was poisoned, saying there is no legal ground for an eventual murder trial.
The general prosecutor's office in Versailles said Friday an appeals court there upheld a decision by investigating judges who dismissed the case last year, saying there is no evidence that Arafat was murdered.
Arafat died in a military hospital in a Paris suburb in 2004 after his health suddenly deteriorated. The cause of death has never been clarified.
The ex-leader's widow, Suha Arafat, filed a complaint in 2012 after traces of polonium, a highly toxic radioactive substance, were found on her husband's belongings.
Her lawyers may still appeal the ruling to the French highest court.
Race to succeed Abbas stalled by politics, Fatah infighting
As Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas held diplomatic visits abroad this week, high-ranking officials in his Fatah party continued to jostle over his succession. Everyone is hoping for the job of president, as evidenced by the Ma’an news agency’s hit reality show, in which young people compete to see who can be the next Palestinian leader.
The mechanism for selecting a successor to Abbas — who is 81 years old and has indicated many times he could step down — is complicated to the point of impenetrability. He currently holds three titles: Fatah chairman, PLO chairman, and PA president. Under Palestinian law, if the PA president is unable to continue in the position, the parliament speaker must appoint an acting president to serve for 60 days. But the Palestinian parliament has not convened since 2007, and its speaker, Sheikh Aziz Duwaik, is a member of Fatah’s rival in the Gaza Strip, Hamas.
There is no possibility the upper echelons of the PA, PLO, and Fatah will allow Dweik to assume the powers of PA chairman (or the president) even for a short time. Fatah officials have claimed the parliament must ratify the position of parliament speaker every several months, and because it has not met since 2007, Dweik is no longer considered the speaker.
Hamas blames PA for closure of Rafah crossing
Hamas is blaming the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA), led by chairman Mahmoud Abbas, for the closure of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
Speaking to Hamas’s Palestine newspaper on Sunday, Gaza's Deputy Minister of Interior Kamel Abu Madi called on those responsible for the closure of the Rafah crossing to open it on a regular basis.
He then claimed that the PA’s leadership is responsible for the closure of the Rafah crossing, saying that he had no information on the intention of the authorities in Egypt to open the crossing during the next few days.
Abu Madi said that the number of Gazans wishing to leave the enclave through the Rafah crossing is now about 25-30 thousand, and that priority is given to the sick, students and married women who have been cut off from their husbands.
The Hamas newspaper reported that Gaza expects that Egypt will open the Rafah crossing ahead of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan.
Erdogan apologizes to Putin over downed jet
Russian president Vladimir Putin has received a letter from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which Erdogan apologized for the death of the Russian pilot who was shot down over the Syrian-Turkish border last November, the Kremlin said Monday.
Erdogan expressed readiness to restore relations with Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to RT.
“The head of the Turkish state expressed his deep sympathy and condolences to the relatives of the deceased Russian pilot and said ‘sorry,’” Peskov said.
The incident involving the downing of the Russian Su-24 bomber led to the worst deterioration of Turkish-Russian relations in recent history, with Russia describing it as a “stab in the back.”
PreOccupiedTerritory: Ecologists Laud Assad For Helping Stem Human Overpopulation (satire)
Environmental researchers praised Syrian President Basher Assad this week, saying he and his regime have done more than anyone else over the last few years to help reduce the threat of human overpopulation.
A spokesman for the Malthus Foundation, an environmental think tank focused on issues of food supply, told reporters the organization intends to present Assad with an award for his efforts, which have resulted in the population of Syria shrinking from 22 million in 2011 to 16 million today, a drop that portends a reduced global demand for food.
“Going from 22 million to 16 million in just a few short years represents more than a twenty-five percent reduction,” noted Malthus Foundation Pop-Redux Project director Jen O’Seid. “The original figure might not be 100% accurate, but we do know that hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been permanently removed from the population, and about three million have left the country and are unlikely to return anytime soon.”
“That accomplishment is the result of a determined policy on the part of Mr. Assad and his government to reduce the number of people, a group that drains worldwide food resources,” she continued. “In the short term, the upheaval of war has hurt Syria’s domestic food production, but the main effect of that phenomenon is felt only in Syria itself, as the country’s food exports are not significant from a global perspective.”
ISIS Video Threatens San Francisco, Shows Golden Gate and Skyscraper
A new video released by ISIS today that heavily praised Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen also made specific threats against San Francisco and Las Vegas.
The video, released by ISIS in Mosul, rolls images of Mateen and news footage of the Pulse attack on June 12.
Also shown is the footage shot by Larossi Abballa during his June 13 attack on a French police commander and his family.
Abballa livestreamed on Facebook his statement from inside the home of his victims Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, 42, and Jessica Schneider, 36, a police station secretary, during the attack in Magnanville, about 30 miles outside of Paris. Born in France of Moroccan heritage, Abballa said he was following the directive of al-Baghdadi for jihadists in their home countries to kill the infidels in their homes.
Footage is shown of President Obama making statements in the Oval Office and in the White House briefing room, with spreading spatters of blood superimposed on the screen.
EXCLUSIVE - Islamic State Supporters: American Infidels Lying About Omar Mateen Being Gay
Breitbart Jerusalem has gained insider access to an encrypted forum for Islamic State fighters and supporters, finding intense denial of the reports that Orlando terrorist shooter Omar Mateen was gay.
Also, in an exclusive interview, a top Gazan jihadist allied with IS said he is convinced the man who says he was Mateen’s gay lover for two months is actually a CIA agent intent on tarnishing the shooter’s reputation.
During his terrorist shooting rampage, Mateen declared allegiance to IS, while a news agency affiliated with IS reported that Mateen was one of the global terrorist group’s fighters.
Users of the private forum on the Telegraph encrypted message service consist of known IS leaders, lower and mid-level IS fighters, IS supporters, and propagandists. Some members utilize their own names, while others use screen names. The forum serves as a Twitter of sorts for IS and its supporters.
The activists in the network uniformly agreed that Mateen was not gay and that the reports were planted by the U.S. government to cover for its fear of IS.
Breitbart’s Milo To Lead Gay Pride March Through Swedish Muslim Ghetto
Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos has announced that he will be leading a gay pride march through one of Sweden’s Muslim ghettos in Stockholm in a few weeks’ time.
Yiannopoulos made the announcement in live conversation with The Rubin Report’s Dave Rubin, after discussing Islam with Rubin and the risks it poses to homosexuals.
“When you start to enforce your political or social opinions through violence, that’s when there’s a problem. That is the moment when the whole world should be saying ‘you are the problem and we’re going to do what it takes to protect ourselves from you’, but the left doesn’t do that” said Yiannopoulos on the live stream.
“The left instead starts making excuses for them, saying ‘oh, well the West created this problem’. Look, this infantilizes Muslims to the status of children who lack free will. It infantilizes them into being mindless automaton products of American foreign policy. That’s f**king insane.”

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Iran celebrates terror ahead of Quds Day rallies

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The last Friday of Ramadan - which is this week - was declared by the late Ayatollah Khomeini to be "Quds Day" where the Jewish presence in Jerusalem is decried.

The festivities are starting early.

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The head of the Intifada (Uprising) and Quds Center at Iran’s Islamic Propagation Coordination Council said the international Quds day has a major influence on the issue of Palestine and prevents it from sliding into oblivion.

“The international Quds day has a very significant impact on the Palestinian issue,” the official noted, expressing the hope that rallies marking the event would be held with the massive participation of Muslims.

He further praised the Palestinian nation’s third Intifada, saying that the anti-Israeli campaign is very meaningful because Palestinian fighters are trying to make a path forward by themselves without expecting support from others.
I love the names of these anti-Israel organizations.

Meanwhile, a Shiite leader in Iraq is using the occasion to declare war on Israel:

Seyyed Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of Iraqi Sadr Movements, has issued a statement on Saturday for upcoming international Quds Day announcing his readiness to confront Israel and stressed had Saudi Arabia focused the coalition of 40 Islamic and Arab countries on liberation of Palestine all Muslim nations would have benefited the move.

In the statement, read in Friday prayer sermons across Iraq, Palestine is dubbed as the wound of Arab and Islam.

He stressed,” I am ready for confrontation with our Zionist enemy and as we have stood against American occupying forces, we are maintaining our resistance with the new cover of terrorism in our country.”
If you needed any more evidence that the honor/share dynamic is the motivating factor behind Muslim and Arab hate for Israel, the phrase "the wound of Arab and Islam" should put that to rest.



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Academic antisemite of the day: Frank Leon Roberts

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Frank Leon Roberts teaches courses such as "Black Lives Matter" and "The Life and Times of James Baldwin & Malcolm X." at NYU and Yale.

He was glancingly mentioned in a nice Tablet article criticizing the current "intersectionality" by John Paul Pagano. Pagano makes some very astute points about antisemitism and why the current Black Lives Matter movement is opposed to acknowledging that it exists:

White privilege is real. Yet when discussing racism I often challenge people who blithely saddle Jews with privilege, because it’s clear to me that they don’t understand anti-Semitism. For one, color bias is an insignificant factor in the history of Jewish persecution, so foisting “white privilege” on Jews is parochial—it shoehorns centuries of Jewish suffering into the particular American experience of racism, which centers on anti-black bias. But more important, anti-Semitism doesn’t work like most forms of racism, which denigrate their victims as inferior. Anti-Semitism is special in that it often perceives its target—Jews—as having too much privilege and assails them for it.

Unlike racism, whose modern versions stem from 19th-century pseudo-science, anti-Semitism is a conspiracy theory and at root all conspiracy theories envision a demonic elite oppressing and exploiting the common people. They may alight on eclectic topics—war, UFOs, weather and climate, food, medicine, the authorship of Shakespeare’s works, to name just a few—but if you delve deeper, you will find that every conspiracy theory is a narrative in which a secret society of the rich and powerful controls the banks, the media, schools, and governments in order to enslave and exploit the rest of humanity. Anti-Semitism is a name for the conspiracy theory which holds that “the Jews” are this evil elite. To the anti-Semite, Jews are the ultimate bearers of privilege.

It is clear from the first three words quoted above that Pagano is not a racist by any means. But he attacked an antisemitic statement by Frank Leon Roberts:
With much rhetorical pomp and little practical relevance to issues faced by African-Americans, last year a group of over 1,100 black activists, including BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors and Talib Kweli, launched Black Solidarity with Palestine, releasing a statement in which they decried Israeli “slaughter” of Palestinians, repeated lies about Israel sterilizing Ethiopians, endorsed the unmaking of Israel as a Jewish state, and demanded “unified action” against the related evils of “anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and Zionism.” The BLM activist Frank Leon Roberts, who took to Twitter after the Gaza Flotilla raid to complain about “Jewish elites” and their “monopoly” of influence, now teaches the nation’s first “Black Lives Matter” course at his alma mater, NYU.
Here are Roberts' tweets from 2010:



Um, yes it is, since there is no "Jewish elites monopoly of the American free press." And the Jews who happen to head major media companies are hardly monolithic in their political opinions. So, yes, accusing Jews of monopolizing the media is antisemitic, because it implies a sinister Jewish cabal that means to do nefarious things to others.

Roberts is now defending his antisemitic tweets:



There was a whole thread between the two where Roberts came out quite the loser:



The very idea of someone attacking the utterly insane concept of "intersectionality" makes one ipso facto a racist shows these academic frauds are quite aware of how poorly their theories do when faced with facts, and when the emperor is shown to have no clothes, their only defense is name calling.


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06/26 Links: Inside the PA's anti-Semitic propaganda machine; Huge blow to BDS – International UAW rules against BDS

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From Ian:
Filmmaker Calls for UNRWA ‘Self-Introspection’ Over Palestinian Classroom Incitement
A newly released 10-minute online video produced by the Jerusalem-based Center for Near East Policy Research says that many of the Palestinians who have murdered Israelis during the so-called “stabbing intifada,” which began in September 2015, were educated in schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Titled “The UNRWA road to terror: Palestinian classroom incitement,” the video claims that the current wave of violence was not spontaneous, but rather has roots deriving “from an educational curriculum taught to Palestinians beginning in first grade.”
Thirty-eight Israelis and tourists have been murdered in the nine-month-long Palestinian terror wave, most recently the shooting at Tel Aviv’s Sarona market that killed four Israelis.
UNRWA’s curriculum, the video says, is focused on “jihad,” while UNRWA teachers glorify the so-called “right of return” of Palestinian refugees through war. The video reveals a military-themed school play held in April 2016 at the UNRWA Nuseirat School in Gaza, in which students hold an Israeli hostage at gunpoint and emerge from a tunnel in order to carry out an attack against Israelis — the latter scene mirroring the Hamas terror group’s efforts to attack the Jewish state through cross-border tunnels running underground from Gaza to Israel.
The footage begins by zooming in on classrooms of Palestinian children repeating phrases chanted by their teachers such as “Palestine is an Arab land from the river to the sea” and “We want Haifa, we want Acre,” with no recognition of a state called Israel.
The UNRWA Road to Terror: Palestinian Classroom Incitement


JPost Editorial: Blood libel
What was Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas thinking as he addressed the European Parliament last week? Was it about jump-starting the long-suspended peace process? Perhaps declining an EU offer to meet with President Reuven Rivlin, coincidentally in Brussels?
Or perhaps it was about his Soviet doctoral thesis denying the Holocaust and explaining how Hitler was really a Zionist (“The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement”). It must have been along these lines, since Abbas chose to share with the parliamentarians of Europe – the cradle of anti-Semitism – a blood libel straight from the Middle Ages.
Israeli rabbis are ordering their disciples to murder Palestinians, Abbas shamelessly asserted. “Certain rabbis in Israel have said very clearly to their government that our water should be poisoned in order to have Palestinians killed. That is provocation and we are against this sort of call for violence,” he said.
“Our hands are extended with a desire for peace,” Abbas declared, although he went on to contend that Israel has started three wars in the Gaza Strip and killed thousands of his people. Moreover, he claimed, since 1967 Israel has imprisoned more than 1 million Palestinians. Israel has “turned our country into an open-air prison,” Abbas told the EU lawmakers.
Such appalling views are not uncommon in Palestinian society. A Hamas leader in Gaza, Salah al-Bardawil, said in an interview with Hamas TV last November that Jews have “ancient biblical beliefs, which instructed them to kill children and collect their blood, in order to knead it into the bread that is eaten on Passover. Today, they are trying to say that these things never happened, and that it was a joke or a lie, but these are the facts of history. Anyone reading about their history will find this there.”

PM: Water poisoning claims prove Abbas no peace partner
Ahead of his trip to Rome for talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s recent address at the European Parliament again proved he was an unsuitable partner for pursuing peace.
Abbas last week told European lawmakers in Brussels that an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem would end global terrorism, and repeated a debunked hoax story claiming that local rabbis had called for poisoning Palestinians’ water supply. Admitting the claim was “baseless,” Abbas on Saturday apologized and walked back the water poisoning allegation.
“Abbas again last week proved to the entire world that he is not interested in direct negotiations with Israel,” the prime minister said at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting.
“Worse, he also spread abhorrent lies about the State of Israel and Judaism. True, he quickly apologized, a halfhearted half-apology, but the things he said there were in keeping with what he has said about us on other occasions, including at the UN General Assembly,” Netanyahu said. “Therefore, I think that people can conclude from this who wants to advance peace and a peace process – and who does not.”



Inside the PA's anti-Semitic propaganda machine
The Palestinian Authority has revived the medieval blood libel that Jews are poisoning the wells of non-Jews. The PA even named a nonexistent rabbi and rabbinical council as being responsible for this call to poison all Palestinian water sources.
While Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas publicized this canard during his recent speech at the European Union parliament last week, the notion that Jews are poisoning Arab water supplies has become a prominent feature in local PA media outlets.
For example, last Monday a reporter on PA state television claimed that a non-existent religious council had been outed for promoting the poisoning of Arab water supplies.
"An Israeli human rights organization has exposed a religious ruling issued by Rabbi Shlomo Melamed (sic), Chairman of the Council of Settlement Rabbis (sic), that gave the settlers permission to poison the drinking water and the natural wells in the [Palestinian] villages and towns throughout the West Bank."
The report, which cites a fictitious rabbi and non-existent council, is only one of the more recent cases of the well poisoning libel receiving official government sanction.
Abbas Water libel EU debunked by Aussie Dave at Israellycool


BBC ignores Abbas’ antisemitic libel in EU parliament speech
Abbas’ libel was based on a story invented by the PLO (which he of course also heads) that prompted false accusations days earlier from one of his government’s offices and was promoted on official PA TV.
“The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry revived the well-worn blood libel of Jews poisoning wells this week.
The PA’s Foreign Ministry released a statement on Sunday citing a supposed ruling by a “Rabbi Mlmad” authorizing Israelis to poison Palestinian wells.
The official PA website called the supposed ruling a crime against humanity, and said Israel is fully responsible for it and should arrest the rabbi for incitement.”
Two days after the Brussels speech, Abbas walked back his preposterous libel.
To date there has been no stand-alone BBC reporting on Abbas’ public promotion of that antisemitic blood libel or of his refusal to meet the Israeli president who was also in Brussels at the same time. The BBC News website’s ‘Parliaments‘ page includes an item headlined “Rivlin and Abbas address MEPs” but the page to which it links includes no mention of Abbas’ racist canard.
British media ignore Mahmoud Abbas’s antisemitic ‘poisoning the wells’ libel
The omission represents a larger pattern within the British media whereby even the most extreme manifestations of Palestinian Judeophobia fail to pique the interest of putatively anti-racist news editors. Their tendency to bury news painting an unflattering picture of Palestinians was illustrated by the dearth of stories on the results of a 2014 survey commissioned by ADL which showed that Palestinians are the most antisemitic group in the world.
Here are some highlights from ADL’s survey:
  • 88% of Palestinians believe Jews have too much control over global affairs.
  • 89% believe Jews have too much power over international financial markets
  • 88% of Palestinians believe that Jews have too much control over the global media
  • 78% of Palestinians believe that Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars.
  • 87% of Palestinians believe that people hate Jews because of the way Jews behave.
And, herein lies the point: Abbas’s comments (which he later retracted, presumably to quell criticism) can only be properly understood as a reflection of the prevalence and acceptance of such irrational, racist views within Palestinian society.
Walter Russell Mead has argued persuasively that such a malign obsession with Jews does grave harm to Palestinians. “Attributing global events to the machinations of an all-conquering Jewish conspiracy”, explained Mead, “is the sign of profound mental and social failure – and a harbinger of more failures and errors to come.” Societies, he added, that are “in thrall to this kind of darkness…and whose intellectual leaders cannot understand how power works in the modern world…are unlikely to develop the vigorous, forward-looking and competent civil societies that can promote true democracy.”
Kerry-Netanyahu Meeting in Rome Not Expected to Bring Breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
In what is being described as a last ditch effort to salvage the fraught Israel-Palestine peace process, the US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Rome Sunday. However, as is evident from remarks made by U.S. officials ahead of the meeting, hopes of a breakthrough are slim at best.
“The Secretary plans to discuss a range of regional issues with the prime minister at their meeting in Rome, which includes the fight against Daesh [Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group], recent developments in Syria. He will not be trying to restart peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians or offering any new initiatives,” US State Department spokesman John Kirby said during a press briefing Friday. “Obviously, as a part of this broader discussion that the Secretary will be having with the prime minister, they’ll talk about where things stand with respect to movement to or away from a two-state solution. But … he’s not going to restart talks.”
IsraellyCool: UK Increasing Budget For EUBAM Monitors Who Left Gaza Border In 2007
From the website for the EUBAM EU Border Assistance Mission in Rafah:
The operational phase of the mission began on 30 November 2005. The Rafah Crossing Point was last opened with the presence of EUBAM monitors on 9 June 2007. A total of nearly 450 000 passengers used the crossing before that date, with an average of about 1 500 people a day. Since then, the mission has remained on standby, awaiting a political solution and ready to re-engage at very short notice.
After 9 years on the edge of their seats, they’ve just had their budget for sitting around “ready to re-engage at very short notice” increased.
Just to reinforce the wisdom of the UK voting out of the EU, it appears the UK is giving money to the EU to pay for “EU Monitors” on the Gaza-Egypt border who haven’t been there since 2007. They sit in an office in Tel Aviv. Not only are they paying for a non-existent “sleeping beauty”, the budget is actually growing!
Herzog implies Israel should hold vote on two-state solution
In the same spirit of the 'Brexit' vote, opposition leader Isaac Herzog implied Sunday that the Israeli public vote on the prospect of a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In an interview with Army Radio Sunday morning, Herzog, speaking from London, stated that the people of Israel "need to be asked whether they want an Israeli-Palestinian state or [just] an Israeli state."
Herzog's comments come in wake of the historic 'Brexit' vote that took place this past Thursday which has sent shock-waves across the globe and has been seen as democratic inspiration for numerous groups and countries.
Sparking initiatives for additional EU exits, a second Scottish independence referendum and even a Texas secession which has been dubbed 'Texit.'
"There is an issue that has been accompanying our lives for generations and it is the Palestinian issue," Herzog told the radio station. "I do not think that the elections necessarily reflect our attitudes in relation to this issue. We need to ask the citizens of this country whether they want an Israeli-Palestinian state or an Israeli state."
"The public majority wants an agreement with the Palestinians, knows there are dangers, and knows that there are essential security needs," Herzog added, "but lets take action. The people should determine and know what they are leaving for future generations."
Clinton would avoid Obama-like spats with Israel -- ex-diplomat
A possible Hillary Clinton administration would likely see any tensions between Jerusalem and Israel kept out of the limelight, Dennis Ross, a former US diplomat and top Middle East adviser to several US presidents, said Sunday in Jerusalem.
Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee for the November elections, can be expected to act more like her husband Bill — who avoided public tension with Jerusalem during his time in the White House — than like the incumbent Barack Obama, who intentionally created gaps between the US and Israel, Ross said.
“Hillary Clinton would more closely follow the model of her husband, as opposed to President Obama, for whom creating differences with Israel in public was a fairly natural part of his administration,” said Ross, who served as a senior Middle East adviser to both the Clinton and Bush administrations. “It was not a natural part of the Clinton administration.”
Bill Clinton, who was president from 1993 to 2001, was unique in that he felt the US was Israel’s only true friend in the world, said Ross, who served as his special adviser on the Middle East. And while there were differences with the Israeli government, Clinton believed fundamentally that any arguments “should be managed in private and shouldn’t be magnified in public,” Ross said.
Sanders signals fight over Israel in DNC platform not finished
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont did not push back against the characterization that he "lost" his battle to alter language on Israel and the Palestinians in the Democratic Party Platform on Sunday.
After a partial meeting of the party's platform committee held in Saturday, CNN's Jake Tapper told Sanders that his appointees had failed to include fresh, sharp language on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, which the presidential candidate had previously advocated for.
According to an Associated Press report, the initial meeting ended with a compromise to include reference to Palestinian rights, but without any use of the terms "settlement activity" or "occupation."
Tapper "captured exactly what happened in St. Louis," Sanders said in response. "We lost some very important fights. We're going to take that fight to Orlando, where the entire committee meets in two weeks." Sanders then listed his priorities– specifically on climate change, raising the minimum wage and other domestic issues– without reiterating his policies on Middle East peace.
J Street lauds Democrats for putting Palestinian rights in platform
Drafting of the document lasted into the early hours of Saturday, with the committee eventually voting down an amendment led by James Zogby that would have called for providing Palestinians with “an end to occupation and illegal settlements” and urged an international effort to rebuild Gaza.”
Instead, the draft dropped that language and advocated working toward a “two-state solution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict” that guarantees Israel’s security with recognized borders “and provides the Palestinians with independence, sovereignty, and dignity.”
J Street head Jeremy Ben-Ami said in a statement that the language nonetheless represented a “more balanced approach” from previous Democratic party platforms.
“The new language breaks with the party’s practice of framing its aim of establishing a Palestinian state solely in terms of Israel’s interests,” he said. “By including parallel acknowledgement of Israeli and Palestinian rights, the party underscores its belief that the only viable resolution to the conflict–a two-state solution–requires recognizing the fates of the two-peoples are intertwined.”
The 2012 platform made no mention of Palestinian rights, but instead framed a two-state solution as necessary for making Israel safer.
PreOccupiedTerritory: Bible Codes Spell Out ‘Trump Has Tiny Hands’ (satire)
Scholars exploring the Biblical text for clues to current events have discovered an important message embedded in a passage about crushed testicles, to the effect that presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has below-average-size hands for a person of his height.
So-called Bible Code researchers report that a verse in Deuteronomy that bars a man with severed or crushed genitals from marrying serves as the starting point for a string of letters, spaced at regular intervals, that spell out the Hebrew words for “Trump has tiny hands.” The researchers say the likelihood of such a phenomenon occurring by chance is so small as to be statistically impossible.
“We’re confident this demonstrates the validity of the statistical approach to proving the text’s divine origin,” asserted Kleiner Händen, Professor of Biblical Literature at the Hebrew University. “The uncanny ability of the text to anticipate so many of the key elements of this presidential campaign is a never-ending source of wonder.”
Händen claimed that no similar string could be found elsewhere in the text of the Pentateuch, the portion of the Hebrew Bible traditionally attributed to Moses. He did note, however, that a similar string was observed centered on the verse immediately following the one cited above, using “Drumpf,” the original spelling and pronunciation of the real estate mogul’s family name. The verse in question prohibits people of illegitimate birth from marrying those of legitimate birth, using the word “mamzer,” a term often mistranslated in English as “bastard.”
Israeli who charged Sarona gunmen with chair released from hospital
An Israeli man who tried to fight off the terrorists at the Sarona Market complex in Tel Aviv two weeks ago was released from hospital this week, with a bullet fragment still lodged in his body.
Hagai Klein was shot twice during the shooting attack at the Max Brenner cafe at the plaza on June 8, once in the chest — a near-fatal wound, and once in the thigh.
Four Israelis were killed in the terror attack, perpetrated by two Palestinian cousins from the West Bank village of Yatta.
Klein was seen in surveillance footage running at one of the shooters with a chair in hand before being shot and fleeing the other way. He can be seen in a blue shirt in the footage from the attack below.
Shin Bet: East Jerusalem dentists arrested for bombing attack that wounded IDF officer
An East Jerusalem dentist and several members of his family have been arrested for carrying out a bombing that left an IDF officer seriously wounded in May, the Shin Bet said in a statement on Sunday.
According to the Shin Bet, the dentist, 36-year-old Dr. Samer Mahmoud Dawoud Alhabiya, stashed 56 small pipe bombs in his dentist office in Abu Dis, as well as two Molotov cocktails and one large pipe bomb.
The Shin Bet said that Alhabiya told investigators that he began planning his attacks back in February due to what he said were “desecrations of the Al-Aqsa mosque and Israel’s harming of Palestinian children”.
In the attack on May 10th, several bombs were remote detonated by cellphone near the Palestinian village of Hizme, leaving an IDF officer seriously wounded. Second Lieutenant Shahar Roditi suffered shrapnel wounds and broken facial bones, but was released from hospital two weeks later.
Bravery & perseverance: woman wounded by terrorist gives birth
Five months ago, a knife-wielding terrorist entered a clothing store in the town of Tekoa in Gush Etzion, and stabbed the pregnant Michal Froman in her upper body. She was evacuated to Jerusalem's Sha'arei Tzedek hospital in moderate condition. Yesterday (Saturday), she gave birth to a healthy baby daughter.
Froman is the daughter-in-law of the late R' Menachem Froman, the Rabbi of Tekoa, who was famous for the unique combination of being both a settler and a champion of negotiations and interfaith dialogue with the Palestinians.
In an interview with 'Galei Tzahal' Froman said that every crisis brings with it the opportunity to find the positive and embark on a new journey. "I often think about what God was trying to tell me with this attack", she said.
Froman's husband wrote a facebook post detailing his thoughts and feelings about the birth of his daughter. "For 4 months already since the stabbing I've been wondering if we'll have a 'hilltop youth' girl or an extreme Leftist. Turns out she's just a bundle of sweetness. Of sweetness and serenity.
Gay pride stabber sentenced to life in prison
The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday sentenced to life behind bars Yishai Schlissel, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man convicted of stabbing to death 16-year-old Shira Banki at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade last year.
Schlissel was given another 30 years in prison for attempted murders of the six other people he injured in the attack, and another year for breaking the terms of his release from prison for a similar stabbing attack he carried out in 2005.
He was also ordered to pay NIS 2.6 million ($670,000) in compensation to the families of his victims.
Schlissel was led into the courtroom with his hands and feet shackled.
In their ruling, the panel of three judges declared, “We have before us a man who doesn’t see people in front of him. A cruel man. A man who sees himself as ‘giving and taking life’ in the name of the principles that he set for himself to enforce.”
“This dangerous man can no longer walk the streets of Jerusalem or any other place,” they said.
Incomplete BBC portrayal of sentence for gay pride murderer
No mention is made of the judges’ remarks during sentencing.
“In their ruling, the panel of three judges declared, “We have before us a man who doesn’t see people in front of him. A cruel man. A man who sees himself as ‘giving and taking life’ in the name of the principles that he set for himself to enforce.”
“This dangerous man can no longer walk the streets of Jerusalem or any other place,” they said.”
The BBC report states:
“A police investigation last year called for the removal of six senior Israeli officers over the attack.”
Readers are left to guess whether or not the recommendation was implemented.
Arab convert to Judaism flees home after threats
With a black velvet kippah, tzitzit, and Hebrew name, Avihai Shanti looks like any other Orthodox Israeli Jewish man. But Shanti’s outward appearance belies his unique story and his journey as an Arab convert from Islam to Judaism.
Raised in the southern city of Beer Sheva, has been forced to flee his parent’s home, after members of his extended family responded with outrage to his decision to join the Jewish people.
Speaking with BeHadrei Haredim on Sunday, Shanti discussed his decision to convert and his family’s reaction.
“I was born to a Muslim family, and we lived in Beer Sheva. Since I was little I always saw Jews as being compassionate and forgiving people, and I always sensed a connection to the Jewish people.”
“We lived in a predominately Jewish area and I had a lot of Jewish friends in Beer Sheva, and we would hang out a lot. On Yom Kippur I respected [their practices] and wouldn’t smoke or eat [around them]. I always saw a connection with this people.”
Most French Jewish students want to leave, JAFI emissary says
The majority of young Jews studying at French universities want to leave France, according to one of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s shlichim (emissaries) in Paris, Eliav Geissmann.
“The situation of Jewish students in France is complicated,” Geissmann told The Jerusalem Post in an interview coinciding with JAFI’s Board of Governors gathering in Paris. “It is hard for those who have already started to study to leave their studies in the middle. But there is an overwhelming sense that the majority of students want to leave. Many talk about going to the US, Canada and of course, Israel.”
Asked how many French students were actually planning aliya, Geissmann said: “I can’t really say how many want to come to Israel, but I believe it is more than half.”
He urged the Israeli government to “do more to encourage them,” including the introduction of a student exchange program with French universities.
“If we introduced a student exchange, many might go to Israel and stay after their studies,” he said. “We are losing many students, many of whom are quality people.”
Student from York University offered compensation for antisemitism
Here’s an interesting story which, for obvious reasons, isn’t getting as much traction as one might expect. Zach Confino, a law student, has been offered £1000 compensation by York’s Student Union and an apology will be published online. This step has been welcomed by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.
Among the abusive messages Confino received on social media app Yik Yak were “Hitler was onto something,” “Jewish prick” and “Israeli twat.” When attempting to oppose a student union motion to boycott Israeli produce, Confino was told he was responsible for the anti-Semitic abuse he was getting because of his support for Israel, The Times says.
Confino was also, he says, accosted by several members of the university’s Palestine Solidarity Society, including Jeremy Corbyn’s son Tom.
“The number of anti-Semitic incidents I was subject to went from zero in my first year to about 20 in my second and third years,” Confino said, quoted in The Times.
“The university did not do much about it. It has taken me two years to fight a complaint and I am relieved I have finally got this apology. The stuff I was subjected to came from far-left students,” he continued.
Huge blow to BDS – International UAW rules no subordinate body can endorse BDS
The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is very adaptive. As its tactics fail, BDS adjusts.
The latest adjustment is moving its focus to graduate student unions, where the student population is a subset of the entire student population. In such unions (similar to some faculty associations), BDS supporters take over governing councils and turn the union into a BDS-controlled anti-Israel propaganda activist organization.
We saw this in the U. Cal. system, and again at NYU. In each of those instances, the grad student union was an affiliate of the United Auto Workers.
In the U. Cal. case, the UAW overruled the BDS resolution as contrary to the UAW’s governing rules.
I have no doubt that some grad student sub-units of the UAW will continue BDS activism, and maybe adopt more BDS resolutions.
BDS, particularly on campus, is not about outcomes, it’s about process. That process is to demonize and dehumanize Israel and Israelis. So long at the debate is over how bad Israel supposedly is, BDS considers it’s winning.
It’s madness, but there’s a method.
Egypt: 'Fanatic' Mob of 1,000-Plus Islamists Set 80 Christian Homes Ablaze
An angry mob of more than a thousand Islamic extremists, described as “fanatic Muslims” by a terrorized witness, reportedly torched at least 80 Christian homes in an Egyptian village and injured Christians who tried to stop them, all over rumors that a Coptic resident was converting his home into a church.
The incident took place last week in Egypt’s Qaryat al-Bayda village, near Alexandria, reports The Foreign Desk, adding that the attack resulted in two Coptic Christians who were trying to reason with the Islamists being seriously wounded and caused thousands of dollars worth of property damage.
“On Friday afternoon, following Friday noon prayer, a great deal of fanatic Muslims gathered in the front of the new house of my cousin, Naim Aziz, during its construction because of a rumor spread in the village that this building would be turned into a church,” revealed Mousa Zarif, a Christian who witnessed the events, told the International Christian Concern (ICC), an advocacy group that reports on persecution against Christians.
“They were chanting slogans against us. Among these slogans were: ‘By no means shall there be a church here,’” added Zarif.
The mob, described as Islamic extremist by The Foreign Desk, destroyed the construction materials they believed were being used to turn the Christian-owned home into a church.
MEMRI: Saudi Writer: 'Mullah Obama' Provides Iran A Safe Haven To Realize Its Interests; U.S. Administration Now In Service Of Iranian Policy
On June 2, 2016, Muhammad Al-Sa'id, a columnist for the official Saudi daily 'Okaz, published an article titled "Ayatollah Obama – A Tehran Love Story," in which he attacked President Obama for supporting revolutionary Iran and striving to focus U.S. foreign policy on the far east, while abandoning the Middle East. According to him, this view by Obama is disconnected from reality and runs contrary to traditional U.S. policy, which considered Iran a country violating international law and supporting global terrorism. Al-Sa'id argued that Iran is exploiting Obama's support to realize its own interests, and harnessing U.S. administration circles to operate in its service and against its enemies.
"The ties between Tehran and Obama run contrary to the history of the relations between the U.S. and Iran, which experienced periods of great difficulty and suspicion over four decades. Moreover, the U.S. has always viewed Iran as a rogue country that violates international law and sponsors terrorism – [terrorism] that has targeted the U.S. in many places around the globe. These inexplicable ties [with Iran] that run counter [to America's past policy] sum up Obama's personality, which was shaped by his legal and academic background, and by the resistance of the [black] racial minority to the [white] race that surrounds it...
"The people at the Iranian foreign ministry, who are Islamic Revolution [loyalists], obviously understood this equation and they exploit it by painting themselves as victims and as having adopted values of democracy and [human] rights. However, like all revolutionaries, they will [eventually] fail and carry out the same acts of slaughter against those who collaborated with them and helped them to realize their dream of being accepted back into the global fold by means of the [nuclear] agreement... All the world's liberals, like Obama... support liberal ideology, yet they turn a blind eye to the hypocrites who use it as a means to seize power...
Isil are a gang of cowardly 'repressed Nazis,' says France's leading philosopher as he urges Britain to back Peshmerga forces
The Islamic State rose to power so quickly because the Arab world falsely believed it had escaped the influence of the Nazis, France’s leading philosopher has claimed.
Bernard-Henri Levy, whose documentary about Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers battling Isil will soon be screened in Britain, said he believed the jihadist threat was “the last pearl to be released from the Nazi oyster.”
“We are facing a world wave that started early in the early twentieth century, arriving at its peak now,” said the so-called “warrior-philosopher,” who visited the frontlines of northern Iraq during filming.
He described the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) as “a wave of radical Islam, which is a sort of fascism that is an Arab version of the Nazi revolution."
In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Levy also called for Kurdistan to be recognised as an independent state given the full support of British, French and American forces.
And he urged coalition forces to break what he called the “prestige” of Isil – as he insisted that the group is a “paper tiger” which is skilled at spreading fear and hatred, but utterly inadequate at warfare.
The Peshmerga – who played a key role in the fight against Saddam Hussein in the First Gulf War – are currently locked in a battle to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.
Vicar of Baghdad: 'When I invited Isil to dinner they said, "Yes, we’ll come, but we’ll chop off your head." Rather kind of them to warn me'
For more than 10 years, Canon Andrew White presided over the only Anglican Church in Iraq, a role that led him to be known universally as the Vicar of Baghdad.
But his old parish of St George’s has become too dangerous, and today he leads a peripatetic life, spending time with his displaced congregation in Israel and Amman, Jordan.
He is, in effect, a vicar without a parish. Recently he was to be found in Britain conducting a private service for ‘Christians in Government’ at St Margaret’s church, Westminster. For the past 17 years White, 52, has suffered from multiple sclerosis, so he would normally sit to conduct a service.
But today he is standing. There are two places, he says, where he will always stand: Cambridge, where he was educated, and Westminster. ‘It’s a matter of pride.’
At least 14 killed in Somalia hotel attack by jihadists
At least 14 people were killed when gunmen stormed a hotel in Somalia’s capital and took an unknown number of hotel guests hostage, police and medical workers said Saturday, before security forces hunted down the attackers and ended an hours-long assault that began with an explosives-laden vehicle blowing up at the hotel gate.
Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the latest in a series of hotel attacks in Mogadishu.
“We have finally ended the siege. The last remaining militants were killed on the top floor,” police Capt. Mohamed Hussein said after security forces pursued the gunmen who had retreated to upper floors of the Nasa-Hablod hotel, setting up sniper posts on the roof and throwing grenades. Police said at least four gunmen were involved in the attack.
“We have so far confirmed the deaths of 14 people. Some of them died in the hospitals,” Hussein said. The deaths included women who were selling khat, a stimulant leaf popular with Somali men, outside the hotel, he said.
Hussein said security forces killed two of the attackers. Police and medical workers said another nine people were wounded in the assault.
IsraellyCool: Carlos Santana “Excited To Come Back To Tel Aviv”
As I posted back in March, Carlos Santana is set to play in Israel July 30th.
Since the announcement was made, BDS-holes – who previously claimed Santana as one of their own – have been pressuring him not to come.
I hate to break it to them, but their bullying does not seem to be working.
In addition to this video, Santana’s staff have posted the following on his Facebook page, reinforcing his determination to bring a message of “peace, love and an end to conflict.”
A musical tribute to ‘the fiddler of the world’
Dame Helen Mirren was the celebrity master of ceremonies of Thursday night’s Genesis Prize ceremony at the Jerusalem Theater, but award recipient Itzhak Perlman was the star of the evening.
“You’ll be applauding him a lot tonight,” said Mirren at the start of the music-filled evening in honor of the renowned violinist. “He’s a man who hasn’t just survived, but thrived and flourished and inspired.”
Perlman, 70, is the third recipient of the Genesis Prize, the $1-million award created by a trio of Russian Jewish philanthropists. The previous two “Jewish Nobel” recipients were Michael Bloomberg and Michael Douglas.
Prizewinners are expected to donate the funds to projects and organizations they support. Perlman said he intends to invest a large portion in further developing talented Israeli classical musicians and in creating better access to museums, concert halls and centers for people with disabilities.
The evening, as such, was a tribute to the music and instruments that Perlman loves, with pieces performed by the Ra’anana Symphony Orchestra, as well as different ensembles of violinists.
Perlman and his wife, Toby, accompanied by three of their five children and seated in the middle of the auditorium, were visible to many members of the audience, with Perlman’s gray, curly head often bobbing along to the music.

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Rosenthal's Ten Propositions Part Two (Michael Lumish)

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Vic Rosenthal of the Abu Yehuda blog, the Elder of Ziyon, and other venues, has a recent piece entitled simply, Ten Propositions. 

I discussed the first five at Israel Thrives the other day.

These are the next five:
6 - Everyone should be able to follow their own religion or lack thereof without coercion. But the official religion of the state of Israel should be Judaism.

7 - Israel and the Jewish people have an absolute right to defend themselves.

8 - Collective guilt justifies collective punishment.

9 - Nobody has the right to try to kill Jews or Israelis, even if their means are ineffective.

10 - There should be a death penalty for murderous terrorism.
Let's take these individually.

Number Six:

Everyone should be able to follow their own religion or lack thereof without coercion. But the official religion of the state of Israel should be Judaism.

Many secular Jews have a problem with this.

I do not.

We have to keep in mind that the Jewish people are a tiny minority throughout the world and almost half of us live in Israel. The forces against the Jews of Israel are many and their defenders are few.

Were it not for the Long Arab-Muslim War against the Jews in the Middle East I would not care whether or not Israel declared Judaism as the official state religion. In fact, as a creature of the European Enlightenment and the Constitution of the United States, I generally oppose declarations of state religions.

However, given this political moment in the history of the Jewish people declaring Judaism as the official religion of the state serves to promote the idea of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people.

And it is this idea that must finally be driven home to both Christian and Arab, alike.


Number Seven:

Israel and the Jewish people have an absolute right to defend themselves.

Yes, we do, but the rest of the world does not see it that way.

On the contrary, Jewish self-defense has been viewed as a form of aggression for millennia. Whether in Europe or the Middle East - whether in terms of Romans or Christians or Arab-Muslims - Jews have historically been denied self-defense on the grounds that we are guilty of whatever accusations are flinged at us. Thus Jewish self-defense is a means of avoiding righteous justice and should not be allowed.

This is an ancient anti-Semitic sensibility, prominent in both Europe and the Arab / Muslim world, that has evolved and attached itself to present-day political sensibilities. This is why so many westerners, largely on the Left, but not entirely, believe that Arabs have every right to try to kill Jews as a matter of "resistance" or "social justice."

However, it must be made explicitly clear to both westerners and the Arabs of Israel - in word and action - that the Israeli government, on behalf of the Jewish people, will simply no longer put up with the racist, Koranically-based violence toward ourselves or our children.


Number Eight:

Collective guilt justifies collective punishment.

It is only those of us who live in cozy and secure places, like northern California, who think otherwise.

It is very easy for people who, for example, live in the United States to oppose "collective punishment" because Americans are not in an ongoing war for survival.

The Jews of Israel are.

Whenever Hamas starts tossing Qassams and Katyushas into southern Israel, on or around the towns of S'derot and Ashkelon, the world community sleeps. However, whenever Israel stands up and says, "Enough of this!" the western-left leaps to its feet and starts screaming from the hillsides about "genocide" and "collective punishment" despite the fact that, yes, the IDF does more than any other army in human history to avoid civilian casualties.

The truth is that the Arabs of the Middle East have inflicted a long war of attrition upon the Jews and in war there is always "collective punishment." The Jews of the Middle East did not start this war and they do not want it, but if they are to survive and thrive - if they are to protect their own children - they absolutely must fight it.

And, of course, in war innocent people are hurt and killed.

There is always "collective punishment" in war.

If the Arabs would like to see such "collective punishment" end then they should very much consider relinquishing their never-ending murderous, theocratically-based hysteria concerning the Jewish people.


Number Nine:

Nobody has the right to try to kill Jews or Israelis, even if their means are ineffective.

This is an exceedingly strange statement.

Would anyone ever suggest that nobody has the right to kill, say, Rosicrucians... even if their means are ineffective?

It flat-out amazes me that Rosenthal even needs to say this... and, yet, I agree that he does.

How many comments have we heard from the anti-Israel / anti-Jewish Left in the last decade that the rocket-fire coming from Hamas is really nothing but "bottle-rockets"... and similar statements?

The western progressive-left has a tendency to downplay anti-Semitic violence against Jews because either they simply could care less or honestly believe that the Jewish people have it coming for allegedly oppressing the bunny-like, native, indigenous, olive-tending, "Palestinians."


Number Ten:

There should be a death penalty for murderous terrorism.

Jewish religious tradition opposes the death penalty.

Nonetheless, Jewish religious tradition also stresses the necessity for self-defense. Although I am not a theologian, I feel reasonably certain that such a proposition would find advocates among religious Jews, as well.

We cannot have hostile and powerful political actors, such as Barack Obama, demanding that Israel release the murderers of Jews from Israeli prisons as a "confidence building gesture" to terrorists like Mahmoud Abbas.

I am, therefore, in agreement.

Anyone who seeks to murder Jews in Israel for either Islamic religious reasons or due to Palestinian-Arab nationalism needs to be made to understand that Israel will not put up with it.

The penalties for those who seek to murder Jews within Israel must be harsh enough to seriously discourage the idea that it is perpetually Jew Killing Season among Arabs.

I just feel badly that I failed to find more points of disagreement between myself and Vic.

Maybe next time.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

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Abbas walks back "poisoning wells" claim. Now let's see what he DIDN'T retract.

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From NYT:
A little more than a day after President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority accused rabbis in Israel of calling for their government to poison the water used by Palestinians, he retracted the allegation in a statement on Saturday, saying it had become “evident” that it was “baseless.”

Mr. Abbas made the unsubstantiated allegation during an address to the European Parliament on Thursday. The remarks echoed anti-Semitic claims that led to the mass killings of European Jews in medieval times.

The Palestine Liberation Organization had initially published the allegation on a website run by one of its offices, and it spread through some regional news media outlets.

Mr. Abbas’s retraction was sent to reporters early Saturday morning, issued by the P.L.O., of which Mr. Abbas is the chairman. It said that Mr. Abbas “rejected all claims that accuse him and the Palestinian people of offending the Jewish religion.” It added that he “also condemned all accusations of anti-Semitism.”

“After it has become evident that the alleged statements by a rabbi on poisoning Palestinian wells, which were reported by various media outlets, are baseless, President Mahmoud Abbas has affirmed that he didn’t intend to do harm to Judaism or to offend Jewish people around the world,” the statement continued.

It's very nice that Abbas has admitted this, after he felt the pressure from the news media.

But what about the other lies Abbas made in this speech alone?


  • -He said that Israel has arrested a million Palestinians since 1967, a clear lie that gets bigger every year.
  • -He said that Israeli settlers were making Palestinian lives miserable, when in fact far more settlers have been killed by Palestinians than vice versa in the past year.
  • -He implied that Israeli settlements were ever-expanding, when in fact they have added practically no areas in over two decades.
  • -He said that his people have been in the area for thousands of years, when in fact every major clan can be traced back to other areas of the Middle East.
  • -He called all of the areas under his control "a big prison" while he himself had no problem going to Brussels, and over 100,000 Palestinians cross the Green Line every day.
  • -He claimed that women were equal to men under Palestinian law when in fact the penalty for "honor killings" of women is still lighter than for murdering a man.
  • -He said he doesn't want a religious war when he in fact incited the knife attacks last year by saying that Al Aqsa must be protected from Jews visiting by all means.
  • -He claimed to want peace and to be against terror while the political party he heads praises terrorism explicitly and credits him for inspiring the terror spree. Abbas himself also praises terrorists, even today.


And these were only some of the lies Abbas said to the EU Parliament. We are not even mentioning the litany of lies he has said in the past.

This incident shows an important fact: Abbas can be shamed. Yet reporters wouldn't have asked him for comment if Israel hadn't slammed that one specific egregious lie.

The most important part of the political reporter's toolbox is to point out contradictions and lies by major world figures. Yet this is the exception that proves the rule - reporters are reluctant to ask Abbas about all of the other inconsistencies and outright lies that he has said over the years.

The refusal to ask hard questions shows the bias that journalists have. Deep down, they want to see a peace deal, and they believe that exposing Abbas' lies will make that deal more difficult. Only Israel must be pressured, in their minds. So Abbas can lie with impunity until Israel makes the lies into a story that cannot be ignored.

And that is why Abbas feels he can get away with it.






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NYTimes implies that Jewish self-determination is a bad thing

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In an article about Brexit, Max Fisher of the NYT writes:
[T]he world has spent much of the last few centuries organizing itself under the principle of national self-determination, in which people with a common identity acquire their own state. Think of Italy for the Italians in the 1870s, Algeria for the Algerians in 1962, Tajikistan for the Tajiks in 1991 and so on.

While this idea has brought liberation to much of the world, it has also contributed to countless wars, including Nazi Germany’s invasions to “unify” with the German people of Austria and Czechoslovakia, the violent breakup of Yugoslavia along ethno-linguistic lines and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
So while many examples of national self-determination are good, Jewish self-determination is in the same league as Nazi invasions of neighboring countries.

Also, when exactly did the "Israel-Palestine" conflict begin? It certainly wasn't in 1948, that was the Israel-Arab conflict. The only wars between Israel and Palestinians came after Palestinians fired thousands of rockets were fired on Israel, but this happened after Israel was already six decades old.

So Fisher is saying that if a group starts wars and terror sprees against the world's only Jewish state, those wars makes the victim state retroactively something that should never have been created in the first place.

This is hardly a one-off for Fisher, who was hired by the Times after other similarly offensive statements such as when he justified (while pretending not to) the kidnap and murder of three Jewish teens.

(h/t Noam)
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