LA Jewish Journal supports fake Gaza children's art exhibit

Last September, there was a controversy over the Oakland Museum of Children's Art canceling an exhibit of artwork supposedly drawn by Gazan children.

At the time, I brought some evidence that the artwork was not conceived, or in some cases even drawn, by children at all. Commenters with art backgrounds generally agreed that these were not the works of children. Additionally, the lack of any names on the artwork itself, and the sponsors not publicizing the names of the artists themselves, is more than a little fishy - where else is art shown without publicizing the name of the artist?

But the organizers pushed on, finding other venues. And now the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles is supporting them, in an article called "Who's afraid of children's art"?

[The controversy] about the situation in Oakland caught the eye of Jordan Elgrably, an Arab Jew and one of the co-founders of the Levantine Center in Los Angeles. “I said, ‘Well, what are people really afraid of?’ ” Elgrably said recently, speaking on the phone from the park, his children at play a few feet away. “This is kids, and it’s from their experience. It’s searing; it’s real. We should host this.”

Around the same time Elgrably was contemplating Walker’s op-ed, an e-mail from MECA, the organizers of the failed Oakland exhibition, popped into the in-box of Amani Jabsheh, a Los Angeles-based peace activist. MECA was looking for places to show the work around the country, and they needed help. Jabsheh knew she had to do something. “When I saw what they painted — that’s their reality. I want people to see how the children suffer there under the occupation.”

According to Jabsheh, it was Rachel Corrie, a young American woman who was killed while protesting in front of an Israeli bulldozer, who inspired her to get involved in promoting peace in the Middle East. She saw what Corrie had done and thought to herself that if someone like Corrie, who shared no background with Palestinians, was getting involved, she couldn’t sit on the sidelines. “She was not Muslim, she couldn’t speak the language, you know, [had] nothing [in common] with us, and since that time, I’ve felt an obligation as a human being to do my part,” Jabsheh said.

Jabsheh wrote back to the organizers and MECA, and they put her in touch with another woman in Los Angeles who had also contacted them, Dara Wells-Hajjar. When Jabsheh and Wells-Hajjar connected, they realized that they’d both worked with the Levantine Cultural Center and that it would be the perfect place to stage the exhibition.

Elgrably agreed. “For a decade now, we’ve been championing a greater understanding of the Middle East and North Africa by presenting arts and educational programs that really attempt tobridge political and religious divides,” he said of the Levantine Center.

To think that an exhibit like this promotes peace is more than a stretch. Many of the drawings promote hate; for example there are multiple drawings showing mosques engulfed in flame with Israeli aircraft and tanks nearby.

That last drawing, as I have shown, is a direct copy of a famous poster by anti-semitic artist Latuff, down to the path of the rocket.

Many others do not reflect any reality that children in Gaza would have witnessed. They seem to more reflect Western Israel-haters' ideas of what the children should be drawing.

No reputable museum would show an exhibit without proving the provenance of the artwork. Fake pathos should not replace the truth. Any venue for this exhibit has the responsibility to determine who drew these pictures and under what circumstances.

Because this is not art - it is propaganda. And chances are pretty good that it is a hoax as well.

Fake photo of soldier stepping on girl goes viral

YNet Hebrew notes that Facebook and other social media is awash with copies of this image, often with a caption claiming that this is an IDF soldier stepping on a Palestinian Arab girl:

YNet traced it back to a Twitter image from June, but that one was captioned as if it happened in Syria.

There are thousands of copies throughout the Internet.

Israeli site Tazpit noted it in June, and did some basic research:

The soldier in the photo appears to be holding a Kalashnikov AK47 which is not used by the Israeli army, but used often by the Palestinian police forces and terror organizations. The IDF is known for using M16 and M4 weapons, and its uniforms are different from the soldier's uniform that appears on the photo.

The Israeli Governmental Advertising Agency told "Tazpit" earlier today: "the photo has been checked by the IDF Spokesperson and after investigating, it seems that the photo is not authentic and that the soldier is not Israeli. Unfortunately, the use of such photos is a known method, trying to harm Israel's image on the internet and is part of the social networks war of information".

I don't think it is from Syria. This looks completely staged. It might even have been some street theater.

Daled Amos discussed this photo last year.

(h/t Dan)

UPDATE: A funny spoof:

Pun/phrase untranslatable without a lot of explanation, sorry.

(h/t Kramerica)

UPDATE 2: Tweeter Michal found the originals - and as I suspected, they were done as street theater, apparently in Bahrain, in December 2009 during celebration of the holiday of the 9th of Muharram:

UPDATE 3: A great collection of spoof Photoshops of this event at an Israeli site (h/t View To Mideast)

Jimmy Carter says a couple of Iranian nuclear bombs is no big deal

How immoral can a Nobel Peace Prize winner be?

From Time Magazine, behind paywall, quoted in Huffington Post:

Well, of course, the religious leaders of Iran have sworn on their word of honor that they're not going to manufacture nuclear weapons. If they are lying, then I don't see that as a major catastrophe because they'll only have one or two military weapons. Israel probably has 300 or so.

Only slightly less outrageous: Noam Sheizaf at +972mag -one of the intended victims of any Iranian bomb - shows this same quote from Carter. His takeaway fact is that - warmongering Israel has 300 nuclear weapons, seemingly confirmed as "probably" by an ex-president who hasn't seen any intelligence reports for over three decades.

Ambassador Daniel Shapiro Paints Haifa Red, White and Blue

Mayor Yahav welcomed Ambassador Shapiro to a full-day's visit to Haifa, briefing him on his city's impressive projects, which are turning Israel's largest northern city into a leader in transportation, culture, and high-tech. Following a visit to American-Israeli high-tech leader G.E. Healthcare, the Ambassador visited MadaTech, Israel's National Museum of Science, Technology & Space, where he met school children enjoying the newly inaugurated Noble Energy Science Park, and even tried some of the rides himself. At the University of Haifa, President Aaron Ben-Ze'ev and the Student's Union organized the first-ever "American Day." The highlight of the university visit was Ambassador Shapiro's Town Hall meeting on "U.S. -- Israel Relations and Regional Issues in a Changing World," where the students questioned him at length. Mayor Yahav closed out the eventful day at Beit Hagefen Arab-Jewish Cultural Center, where the Ambassador met with religious leaders representing the Christian and Muslim Arab, Jewish, Druze, and Baha'i faiths, who credited Haifa municipality's active support for dialogue and cooperation among the different religious groups with Haifa's success as a mixed city.

Disgusting BBC piece sympathizing with a child-killer terrorist

The BBC's idea of a hero:

A two-bed flat not far from the cornice in Qatar's capital, Doha, is now home for 47-year-old Ibrahim Shammasina from Ramallah.

His new living room is twice as large as the cell in the Israeli jail where he spent 19 years.

"A minute of freedom is worth more than all the possessions in the world," says Shammasina. "Prison, it's a grave - as if you're in a grave but still alive."

Shammasina was sentenced to 23 years in jail for his role in the 1990 murder of three Israelis and a further 20 years for planning a kidnapping. Despite spending almost half his life in prison, he does not regret his actions.

"When there is an occupation, you're forced to," he says. "It's your duty, the duty of every Palestinian, to resist the occupation. If I didn't resist, I would just have surrendered."

Out of one of the bedrooms steps Ibrahim's frail 85-year-old mother, Tamam. While he was in prison, Ibrahim's brother, father and wife all died.

His mother, who peppers every sentence by giving thanks to God, could not see her son foryears.

Understandably, she has now decided to come to Qatar to be with him.

Despite the time they spent apart, she supports what he did.
"No, I don't regret it. I don't regret it," she says simply.

Also visiting Shammasina for a few weeks is one of his two sons, 24-year-old Iyad.

His father has been in prison for most of his life, but he says that he does not feel any anger towards him, although they do not have a typical relationship.

"He's more my friend than my dad," says Iyad.

The BBC allows Shammasina to talk about how horrible prison is, how wonderful freedom is, and how important resistance is. It describes how heartbroken his mother is, how he is trying to rebuild his family, and how tragic it is that his brother, father and wife all died while he was imprisoned. The entire is designed to make the reader sympathize with him and with the tribulations he has had to endure.

But it doesn't say a word about his victims.

Who did Shammasina kill?

Lior Tubul and Ronen Karmani, were both seventeen years old (some reports say Ronen was 18.) On a summer day in 1990, they went to visit their girlfriends north of Jerusalem.

Shammasina abducted them, bound their hands behind their backs, gagged them and then stabbed themdozens of times, so that their faces were unrecognizable. They were dumped in a ravine nearby.

This subhuman scum was also involved in murdering a taxi driver, Rafi Doron, as well as abducting and killing a hitchhiking soldier, Yehoshua Friedberg.

This happened during that non-violent first intifada we hear so much about.

This is the monster - and child-killer - that the BBC is asking its readers to sympathize with.

Egyptian MP blames soccer deaths on - well, you know who.

Mustafa Bakri: Our country is entering a state of anarchy. This anarchy is caused by America, Israel and the former regime. Look at the New Middle East scheme. Don't talk about all the minute details. What happened in Port Said is a continuation of what happened in Muhammad Mahmoud Street, in Al-Qasr Al-Ayni Street, across from the government, across from Maspero, and in the soccer match against Tunisia. They are all connected. It is an attempt to bring this country down.

We Must Lead From The Front Speech as Prepared to Be Given by Rick Santorum The Orthodox Union Presidential Forum The Boca Raton Synagogue January 30, 2012

We Must Lead From The Front; Speech as Prepared to Be Given
The Orthodox Union Presidential Forum - The Boca Raton Synagogue

The president says "the threat of war is receding" but he’s wrong. The war is on, and its front lines are advancing towards us and our allies, above all toward Israel. 

We're facing a global alliance that includes Russia, North Korea, China, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and of course Cuba. They are outspoken in their desire to weaken us and drive us out of their regions. Some of them--Iran, and the radical Islamists whose rise to power has been facilitated by this president--speak eagerly of destroying us, and our allies, especially Israel.

We have no strategy to deal with this gathering storm. Indeed, our leaders act as if things are getting better every day.

President Obama seems to believe that sanctions on Iran will compel the fanatical rulers in Tehran to abandon their nuclear weapons program, fearing they will lose power if our sanctions continue and intensify. Has he considered the case of North Korea? Fanatical rulers do not care if their people go hungry. Indeed they do not care about their people at all. If their people complain, they go to prison or to the torturer or the hangman. And then they laugh at us, and organize thousands of people to chant "Death to America!"

What does President Obama think they mean? It certainly doesn't mean "yes, America, you are right, let's reason together."

It means, we're going to keep killing your men and women wherever we can, from Iraq to Afghanistan. And why not? We have yet to make them pay a price for the slaughter. 

Indeed, our political leaders never talk about that. They talk about nukes, and nukes alone, as if that were the only issue. But it isn't. 

The Iranians and their creatures throughout the Middle East and deep into our hemisphere are killing and wounding Americans every day. And even as the president preens himself for sanctions that he reluctantly accepted when Congress demanded them, and which he delays whenever he can, Hezbollah is training and indoctrinating terrorists to our south, Iran and its allies are assembling weapons--including drones and missiles--in Venezuela, and a steady flow of Iranian military and intelligence personnel flows into hostile Latin nations on direct flights from Tehran.

A couple of weeks ago Univision presented an excellent documentary on “The Iranian Threat,” which told one frightening story after another about Iranian-Venezuelan-Cuban plans to attack the United States. The most famous of these was the plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Washington, but another one—a two-step operation for a cyber attack, and then a physical assault, against American targets—precipitated the expulsion of Venezuela's consul general in Miami.

That’s a rare event, and it shows the gravity of the crisis we face. That global network weakens us in many ways, and threatens our security very directly. That network enables Iran and Syria to mitigate many of our sanctions. Money flows east, to Chinese banks, as the Europeans join us in blocking transactions with the Iranian Central Bank. Money gets laundered through Russia and Latin America. Weapons move from Russia to Venezuela, and then to Iran and Syria, enabling the Russians to pretend they are not arming the Middle Eastern fanatics.

And yet the president says the tide of war is receding.

Any concerned American looking at the facts must conclude that the tide of war is swelling. Iran has been at war with us since 1979, and is planning to escalate. That is why the global anti-American alliance was created. Shi'ite mosques in Venezuela are not the reflection of the religious convictions of the Venezuelan people; they are there so that Iranian agents can plan attacks against America.

When President Ahmadinejad recently toured the capitals of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Ecuador, it was not a form of cultural diplomacy; it was primarily to increase the tempo of preparations for the war against America.

It is long past time for us to respond, but instead our president declares imminent victory.

We must respond, and even the Washington Post knows what is at stake: if you want an end to the Iranian nuclear weapons program, the Post's editorialists recently wrote, you have to bring down the regime in Tehran. This regime is not going to give up the dream of becoming a nuclear power. And everyone here knows what the Iranian leaders intend to do with the atomic bombs: they intend to remove Israel from the map, and then bring their jihad to the United States.

Some say that this means we have to launch a military attack against Iran. I don't believe that. I think most Iranian people want to be free of their evil regime, and millions of them have taken to the streets, in the face of security forces all too happy to kill them, to show their contempt for their leaders. It's a revolutionary force, and we should support it.

We defeated the Soviet Union without using military means. We supported the Soviet dissidents and refuseniks, and the Soviet regime collapsed. I believe we can do the same thing in Iran.

Supporting those who fight for freedom in Iran is both strategically smart and morally just, and any president with moral and strategic vision would do it.

But we don't. On the contrary, at the crucial moment a couple of years ago, President Obama reached out to the regime, not to the Iranian people. That was a shameful moment, and the shame continues. Neither the president nor the secretary of state, indeed not a single Administration official, has said "the regime must go." That language was reserved for long-time American friends like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. Even in Syria, an enemy, the president reluctantly called for a new government only after the slaughter had reached such a level that even the Arab League said change seemed necessary.

Paradoxically, President Obama’s constant call for open negotiations with Iran only convinces them that they can do anything they wish—even kill Americans, or take them hostage, or frame them for espionage, as they have just done with a young Marine, and we will do nothing to threaten their rule. So our failure to move against the regime itself actually makes military conflict more likely.

What would a serious president do about Iran? What would I do?

I would do six things right away:

1. First and foremost, publicly embrace the opposition, and call for regime change. We need a president and a secretary of state with the political courage to say, "Khamenei and Ahmadinejad must go. The Iranian people must freely choose their form of government and freely choose their leaders."

2. Publicly condemn the regime's repression, the ghastly human rights violations, the systematic misogyny, the censorship of press, internet, access to international broadcasting (including VOA, Farda, etc.). 

We need a president who will deliver the contemporary equivalent of President Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech, which inspired a generation of Soviet dissidents and freedom fighters. And we need a president with the political courage to take action against the Iranian regime.

For example, we should take action to end the jamming of our (and other free countries') broadcasts. Meanwhile, we should deny Iran the ability to broadcast to the United States. A president who really understood the gravity of the crisis would shut down Press TV on the basis of reciprocity, just as the British Government has.

3. We must publicly support freedom for Iranian workers, and then work with international trade union organizations to build a strike fund, just as we did for the Solidarity trade union in Poland in the last years of the Cold War.

4. We must help members of the opposition to safely communicate with one another. During the Cold War, we provided fax machines to Solidarity and Soviet dissidents; today the equivalent technologies include anti-filtering software built into cell phones and computers. They may also include safe portals for Iranians to enter...these technologies will change constantly; we need to work with the smartest techies to stay ahead of the Iranian/Chinese censors and listeners.

5. We have to talk to the dissident leaders. This is tricky. The Green Movement insists that they have NO spokesmen or representatives outside the country. We need to establish reliable channels into Iran. It is best to do this without public attention, obviously, but it can be done.

6. We need a campaign of public support for Iran’s political prisoners. We must identify them individually, by name. American diplomats attending international meetings and conferences should have a list of political prisoners, and call for their release and humane treatment.

Even the Nazis found it more difficult to kill prisoners who were publicly named. It's easier to kill those who are anonymous, who don't receive mail, who aren't publicly supported. Once again, our strategic and moral imperatives coincide. We only lack a president with the courage to do what is right and necessary.

I want to close with a reiteration of what I said at the debate; not only does our President not have the courage to do what is right and necessary, in his efforts to appease our enemies he actually has sided with them against our allies.

Our policy in Central and South America under this administration has been abysmal. Take Honduras as an example. When the country’s legislature and judiciary exercised their constitutional right to protect the integrity of their democracy, President Obama said that their efforts were “not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras.” This is after Zelaya, an ally of Chavez and outspoken critic of America, tried to abrogate its constitution and change it to seek re-election beyond his four-year term.

Instead of standing behind the parliament we sided with the despots in region who have been aligned with Iran. This administration has had a consistent policy of siding with the leftists and appeasing those who threaten our security. We haven’t stood up for our friends like Colombia, we haven’t undertaken the effort necessary to build the relational capital and trust necessary to develop a regional economic alignment to compete with the European Union. The EU understands in a global economy the only way to compete it to build economic alliances, why has this escaped our leadership?

I am committed to one of my first trips abroad as President to be to Central and South America, and I am committed to visiting it repeatedly. With the threat of radical Islam growing in the region, the parallels with the Cold War are even clearer. And with this radical ideology comes a new virulent strain of anti-Semitism that is taking hold in our hemisphere. We need a President who understand this threat and takes it seriously. 

In closing, instead of leading the forces of democracy, this president lags behind the course of events. "Leading from behind"; waiting for others to make the hard choices and take the hard actions, and then jumping on board. We see this in the Middle East. We see this in Central and South America. 

I reject this. I don't think we should wait until Israel is attacked, or until Israel, out of desperation and despair that the United States will not act, moves against Iran. We can’t with until a missile is placed in Venezuela that can reach our soil and then cry fowl. [I think that should be "can't wait"CiJ]

We can’t wait for our friends to do the hard things, when we are better placed, have greater power, and have better options. 

I will lead from the front, which is America's mission.

How Israel supports US security (from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv)

Kibbutz Sasa saves the lives of countless American troops with its advanced armor technologies. Ambassador Shapiro saw this first hand on January 30 when he visited the Plasan factory in northern Galilee. The Ambassador saw the full range of products, from reactive armor, to purpose built vehicles, to body armor. Plasan has delivered more than 8,000 armor kits to U.S units on active duty.

Israel is a world leader in armor technology and the Ambassador expressed his gratitude for the dedication to quality expressed at Plasan.

Nestled in the forested hills of northern Israel, Kibbutz Sasa does more than just forge armor, they also forge connections. Their unique theater program called Bereshit l'Shalom brings young people together from all sectors of Israeli society. Jews, Arabs, Druze, or Circassian, all use the art of theater and dance to express the importance of working across society's boundaries to interact with others based on similarities, not differences. This successful program has performed throughout Israel and Europe.

'Palestinians' consider their kids 'fertilizer' to saturate the land with blood

Golda Meir is known to have quipped that there will be peace with the Arabs when they love their own kids more than they hate ours. That moment has not yet arrived. In fact, we are far from it, as you will see in the video below.

Mossad training Iranian exiles in Kurdistan

A report in France's Le Figaro indicates that the Mossad is training Iranian exiles in Kurdistan to oppose the Iranian regime.

The article in Le Figaro claims that the Iranian assets are being prepared for conducting operations inside the energy-rich country, as part of Israel’s undercoverintelligence war against Iran’s nuclear energy program. The Baghdad source told the French daily that part of Israel’s sabotage program against sensitive Iranian nuclear facilities, which includes targeted assassinations of Iranian nuclear experts, is directed out of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, “where [Mossad] agents have stepped up their penetration”. For this, “the Israelis are using Kurdish oppositionists to the regime in Iran, who are living are refugees in the Kurdish regions of Iraq”, the source told Le Figaro. Although the article makes no mention of official or unofficial sanction of the Israeli operations by the Iraqi Kurdish authorities, it implies that the alleged Mossad activities are an open secret in Iraqi Kurdistan. This is not the first time that allegations have surfaced in the international press about Israeli intelligence activities in Kurdistan. In 2006, the BBC flagship investigative television program Newsnight obtained strong evidence of Israeli operatives providing military training to Kurdish militia members. The program aired video footage showing Israeli expects drilling members of Kurdish armed groups in shooting techniques and guerrilla tactics. The Israeli government denied having authorized any such training, while Iraqi Kurdish officials refused to comment on the report. But Israeli security experts told the BBC that it would be virtually impossible for Israeli trainers to operate inside Iraqi Kurdistan “without the knowledge of the Kurdish authorities”. More recently, in September of 2010, the government of Lebanon arrested three Kurds in Jounieh, a coastal town 15 kilometers north of Beirut, which it accused of working for Israeli intelligence. All three were members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a secessionist armed group fighting for an independent Kurdish homeland in Turkey’s far-eastern Anatolia region.

Ancient Jewish graves near Awarta desecrated with praise of mass murderers

The graves of Elazar and Ithamar - the two sons of the first High Priest, Aaron - were desecrated near the Arab village of Awarta in Samaria, along with the graves of the 70 Elders who acted as a court/legislature when the Jews entered Israel. The graves were desecrated with slogans praising the mass murderers Hakim and Amjad Awad, who murdered five members of the Fogel family in the nearby Jewish town of Itamar. The Awad's used to live in Awarta. Recently, official 'Palestinian Authority' television - operated by our 'moderate' 'peace partner' - praised the Awads.

Canadian FM: Israel Has ‘No Better Friend In The World Than Canada’

Jerusalem - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird kicked off his first full day in Israel by attending the opening of a new Holocaust education facility in Jerusalem.

Baird says the new seminars wing of the International School for Holocaust Education at Yad Vashem will play a key role in ensuring humanity doesn’t forget the lessons of genocide.

And he says Israel has no better friend in the world than Canada.

Baird and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will spend the next several days visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The campus holds seminars each year for educators from 55 countries around the world and Israel, and develops country-specific and custom-made tools for different age groups in more than 20 languages.

Jewish philanthropist Joseph Gottdenker, himself a Holocaust survivor, says Yad Vashem gives a voice and a name to each person who perished, “and restores to them the dignity of living history.”

“Holocaust education enables us to remember the lessons of the past and provides guidance to a more tolerant, hopeful and brighter future,” Gottdenker said.

In 2011, the school hosted 67 seminars for educators and lay leaders around the world, twice the numbers held in recent years.

Baird, a black skull cap perched on his head, emphasized the importance of Yad Vashem and its new 4,100-square-metre facility in documenting and teaching the lessons of the Holocaust.

“There is no better friend to Israel than Canada,”Baird said. “We shall always be there for you, and in front of you.”

Reb Moshe Feinstein Zt"l with Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky Zt"l in Camp Ohr Shraga 1969

Footage from a visit to Camp Ohr Shraga in 1969 by Reb Moshe Feinstein, Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rav Ruderman and Reb Boruch Sorotzkin, was just made public and uploaded for the very first time

IDF Re-Arrests Shalit Deal Terrorist; Mamun Ismail Salame Stut has become the first terrorist released under the deal to free Gilad Shalit to be re-arrested for terror activity.

Soldiers from the Golani Brigadearrested Mamun Ismail Salame Stut on Tuesday. Stut was one of 1,027 terrorists released in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in October. Over 100 of them were allowed to return to their homes in Judea and Samaria.

His arrest makes him the first released prisoner to be re-arrestedsince the Shalit deal.

According to an IDF spokesperson, Stut was arrested for being a securitythreat in the area of Dura near Hebron.

Stut was first arrested in 2002 and indicted for attempted murder, membership in a terror organization, assembling bombs, and providing asylum to terrorists. An Israeli court sentenced him to 38 years in prison. He was slated to be released in 2040.

Israeli security officials had tried to defend the controversial deal for Shalit's freedom on the grounds that those released had said they would abandon terror and that none of those released "returned to terror activity."

Several of the released terrorists, however, have made credible pledges to return to terror activity – as Stut did.

Sources in the IDF Central Command touted the arrest saying it sent “a clear message that people who return to terrorism will pay.”

PA-Appointed Arab Religious Leader Muhammad Hussein Says It’s a Religious Duty to Murder Jews

Recently, the principal Palestinian Authority (PA) religious leader, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Hussein, spoke at an event celebrating the 47th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah terrorist organization, presenting the killing of Jews by Muslims as a religious Islamic goal. The moderator at this Fatah event stated that “Our war with the descendants of the apes and pigs [i.e., Jews] is a war of religion and faith” before the Mufti proceeded to cite the Hadith (Islamic tradition attributed to Islam’s founder) saying that the Hour of Resurrection will not come until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them:
“47 years ago the [Fatah] revolution started. Which revolution? The modern revolution of the Palestinian people’s history. In fact, Palestine in its entirety is a revolution, since [Caliph] Umar came [to conquer Jerusalem, 637 CE], and continuing today, and until the End of Days. The reliable Hadith (tradition attributed to Islam’s founder), [found] in the two reliable collections, Bukhari and Muslim, says: ‘The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: “Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him’” (’PA’s highest religious authority, the Mufti, at Fatah event: Muslims’ destiny is to kill Jews,’ Palestinian Media Watch bulletin, January 15, 2012).
Other examples of incitement to hatred and murder by PA-salaried clerics:
“Jews are a virus resembling AIDS”: Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris delivered a Friday sermon that was aired on PA TV on May 13, 2005 and which included the following: “… Allah warned His beloved Prophet Muhammad about the Jews, who had killed their prophets, forged their Torah, and sowed corruption throughout their history. With the establishment of the state of Israel, the entire Islamic nation was lost, because Israel is a cancer spreading through the body of the Islamic nation, and because the Jews are a virus resembling AIDS, from which the entire world suffers … It was the Jews who provoked Nazism to wage war against the entire world, when the Jews, using the Zionist movement, got other countries to wage an economic war on Germany and to boycott German merchandise. They provoked Russia, Britain, France, and Italy. This enraged the Germans toward the Jews, leading to the events of those days, which the Jews commemorate today. But they are committing worse deeds than those done to them in the Nazi war. Yes, perhaps some of them were killed and some burned, but they are inflating this in order to win over some of the media and to gain the world’s sympathy. The worst crimes in history were committed against the Jews, yet these crimes are no worse than what the Jews are doing in Palestine… We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day will come when we will rule the entire world again. The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world - except for the Jews. The Jews will not enjoy a life of tranquility under our rule, because they are treacherous by nature, as they have been throughout history. The day will come when everything will be relieved of the Jews - even the stones and trees which were harmed by them. Listen to the Prophet M-, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew.” (Al-Hayat (London), May 19, 2005, ‘Palestinian Friday Sermon by Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris: Muslims Will Rule America and Britain, Jews Are a Virus Resembling AIDS,’ Middle East Media Research Institute, TV Monitor Project, May 13, 2005).
“Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, a Jew hides behind me, come and kill him.” In a Friday sermon delivered by Palestinian Authority Imam Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi at the Sheikh ‘Ijlin Mosque in Gaza City, and broadcast live on April 12, 2002 by Palestinian Authority television, Mahdi said: “The Jews await the false Jewish messiah, while we await, with Allah’s help… the Mahdi and J-, peace be upon him. J-’s pure hands will murder the false Jewish messiah. Where? In the city of Lod, in Palestine. Palestine will be, as it was in the past, a graveyard for the invaders - just as it was a graveyard for the Tatars and to the Crusader invaders, [and for the invaders] of the old and new colonialism…” “A reliable Hadith [tradition] says: ‘The Jews will fight you, but you will be set to rule over them.’ What could be more beautiful than this tradition? ‘The Jews will fight you’ - that is, the Jews have begun to fight us. ‘You will be set to rule over them’ - Who will set the Muslim to rule over the Jew? Allah… Until the Jew hides behind the rock and the tree.” “But the rock and tree will say: ‘Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, a Jew hides behind me, come and kill him.’ Except for the Gharqad tree, which is the tree of the Jews.” “We believe in this Hadith. We are convinced also that this Hadith heralds the spread of Islam and its rule over all the land…” (’Friday Sermon on Palestinian Authority TV,’ Middle East Media Research Institute, TV Monitor Project, May 13, 2002).
“Allah has described them [the Jews] as donkeys”: In a sermon broadcast on PA TV on September 21, 2001, Sheikh Ibrahim Mahdi stated, “”Oh beloved of Allah… One of the Jews’ evil deeds is what has come to be called ‘the Holocaust,’ that is, the slaughter of the Jews by Nazism. However, revisionist [historians] have proven that this crime, carried out against some of the Jews, was planned by the Jews’ leaders, and was part of their policy… These are the Jews against whom we fight, oh beloved of Allah. On the other hand, [what is our belief] about the Jews? Allah has described them as donkeys who must carry the books of the Torah - but they have not carried them. Our belief, which is true, about the Jews is that Allah is angry at them. They are cursed with the curse of Allah in this world and in the hereafter.” (Middle East Media Research Institute, TV Monitor Project, September 25, 2001).

Rabbi Avrohom Ginzberg zt”l

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Rabbi Avrohom Ginzberg zt”l of Queens, NY. Rabbi Ginzberg served for decades as the executive director of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim of Queens and served as a close confidant and assistant to the rosh yeshiva, Rav Henach Leibowitz zt”l, for over 50 years. For decades, the financial burden of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim was carried by Rabbi Ginzberg, who assumed his responsibilities humbly and without fanfare.
Rabbi Ginzberg was a founding member of the Vaad Harabbonim of Queens and served as the mara d’asra of the Kessel Street Shul in Forest Hills, Queens, for 57 years.
The levaya will take place today at 1 p.m. at Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim, located at 76-01 147th Street in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens. To listen to the levaya, call 213.342.3000 and enter code 889001.
Following the levaya, the aron will be flown to Eretz Yisroel. There will be a levaya at noon tomorrow at Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Yerushalayim, followed by kevurah on Har Hazeisim.
Rabbi Ginzberg leaves behind a beautiful mishpacha of children and ainiklach following in his ways. Rabbi Ginzberg is survived by his wife, Mrs. Adele Ginzberg, and his children, Rabbi Aryeh Zev Ginzburg, rov of the Chofetz Chaim Torah Center of the Five Towns; Rabbi Yissocher Ginzberg, menahel at Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim in New York City; Mrs. Toby Teichman and Mrs. Rochel Schlissel.
Yehi zichro boruch.

Palestinian Protesters Throw Shoes at UN Chief

Palestinian protesters, angered by the policies of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, threw shoes, sticks and stones at his convoy as he entered the Gaza Strip for a brief visit on Thursday. Later, Ban urged Palestinian militants in Gaza to stop launching rockets into civilian areas in Israel.

The protesters accused Ban of pro-Israeli bias and criticized him for failing to meet with leaders of the Hamas movement that controls Gaza. They shouted slogans and held signs criticizing him and accusing him of being biased toward Israel.

Hamas security officers beside the protesters allowed Ban's convoy to enter the territory. No one was injured in the incident. 

Later, in a Gaza news conference, Ban thanked the territory's people for their "warm welcome," drawing laughter from journalists. He also said he shares the protesters' concern and frustration with what he called a "very dire economic, social and humanitarian problem" in Gaza.

Ban met with U.N. relief officials running a school and a housing project in the southern town of Khan Younis. He called for an end to violence between Israelis and Palestinians. 

"All this violence must stop. Particularly I would urge that people from Gaza must stop firing rockets into the Israeli side. Indiscriminate killing of people, civilian people is not acceptable," said Ban.

Militants in Gaza launched eight rockets into southern Israel on the eve of Ban's visit. No one was injured.

Ban is on the last day of a two-day trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories

While he did not meet with Hamas officials, he met Wednesday night in theWest Bank with the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, and urged him to continue preliminary talks with Israel.

The talks, sponsored by Jordan and the Middle East Quartet of U.N., European, Russian and U.S. mediators, are aimed at reviving the stalled Middle East peace process.

"I also note with appreciation that the Palestinians have been forthcoming in presenting counter proposals on territory and security as called for by the Quartet. I very much hope that the Israelis now will present their proposals," said Ban.

Abbas said the Palestinians were looking at other possibilities to further their cause as the talks have ended inconclusively.

He said the Palestinians had many options and would follow up on them after consulting with the Arab League. This meeting is due next week in Doha.

Palestinian leaders say the options include reviving their bid for full U.N. membership, currently on hold in the Security Council, or launching a program of civil disobedience, mass protests or a boycott of Israeli goods.

Ban met earlier Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged him to help jump start the stalled peace talks by halting new settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, one of several Palestinian demands.

As he has said before, Netanyahu responded that he believes the issue should be part of the peace negotiations and urged the Palestinians to resume talks without pre-conditions.