Monday, February 24, 2014
The Truth about the UN
Ambassador Danny Ayalon spreads the truth about the UN. Hypocrisy and cynicism have taken over the United Nations, the delegitimization perpetrators and Israel boycotters take advantage of the UN's image as an advocate of human rights in order to pass anti-Israeli resolutions which attempt to isolate Israel. It is important to spread the truth that the UN has been transformed into a political arena by undemocratic states who trample on human rights, and UN resolutions must be treated accordingly".
Oxfam Accused of Ties to Terror Group Israel Law Center Demands Oxfam Drop Ties to Affiliates of Palestinian Terror Org
The aid group Oxfam International is said to be partnering with two Palestinian organizations tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), according to an Israeli advocacy group that defends victims of terrorism.
Several of Oxfam’s global affiliates are said to be providing financial aid and “additional forms of material support” to two Palestinian workers groups that are deeply tied to the PFLP, a U.S. designated terror organization, according to the Israel Law Center.
The Israel Law Center demanded in a letter sent Thursday that Oxfam end its relationships with these two groups—the Union of Health Workers Committees (UHWC) and the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees (UAWC)—or face possible legal action.
Oxfam, a group known for its harsh criticism of Israel, has been in the news in recent weeks for encouraging boycotts of Jewish state and criticizing actress Scarlett Johansson for her support of Israeli company SodaStream.
“Please be advised that providing services to the terrorist instrumentalities UHWC and/or the UAWC is illegal and may have already exposed Oxfam, its global affiliates and its officers to criminal prosecution and civil liability to Israeli, European, American, Australian citizens, and others victimized by terrorism sponsored by the PFLP, the parent organization of the UHWC and the UAWC,” the letter states, according to a copy obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Israel Law Center requests that Oxfam “immediately provide us written confirmation that Oxfam has discontinued the provision of aid and material support to the UHWC and the UAWC,” according to the letter. “Absent such confirmation, we will seek all available relief and remedies against Oxfam and its officers in all relevant jurisdictions.”
Oxfam, which says it has refuted the Center’s claims, has not been shy about publicizing its work with the UHWC and the UAWC. It provides the groups with financial backing and has described them as “partners” in various press statements, according the Israel Law Center.
However, both groups “were created by the PFLP, and they operate under the direct patronage and in close cooperation with the PFLP,” according to the Israel Law Center, which outlined extensive ties between the organizations.
“The UHWC and the UAWC are the PFLP’s health and agricultural organizations, respectively,” according to the Israel Law Center. “These organizations were created by the PFLP and they operate under the direct patronage and in close cooperation with the PFLP.”
The UHWC has been listed online as a subsidiary to the PFLP and has provided various medical services under the direction of the PFLP, which has also held events at official UHWC facilities, according to the Israel Law Center.
Top UHWC leaders have also held “senior positions” in the PFLP, which has claimed responsibility for the assassination of an Israeli minister and the murder of three Jewish children, according to the letter to Oxfam.
The UAWC also has been listed online as a PFLP affiliate, and the two outfits have been known to jointly hold events together, the Israel Law Center found.
Both groups have also dabbled in “anti-Israel political activities such as land day protests, publicly opposing Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, supporting boycotts and divestments of Israeli academia and companies, and the like,” according to the letter to Oxfam.
Israel Law Center director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said that Oxfam is providing support to the PFLP through its work with these two groups.
“While Oxfam accuses Israel of war crimes, they themselves have partnered with and financially supported a designated Palestinian terrorist organization,” Darshan-Leitner told the Washington Free Beacon. “The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is responsible for some of the most heinous terrorist attacks against civilians over the past decades. Its criminal operations and murders continue against Jewish civilians today.”
“Oxfam claims to care about human rights in Gaza but then partners with the terrorist group which was responsible for massacring the Fogel children in the Itamar community,” she said. “There is no difference between providing aid and support to an instrumentality of the PFLP and giving funds to an instrumentality of al Qaeda. Any money given to a terrorist organization advances its ability to carry out murderous attacks.”
Financial support for the PFLP and its satellite groups could violate several European and U.S. laws, according to Darshan-Leitner.
Oxfam’s head of media Matt Grainger said his organization’s officials have not formally seen the Israel Law Center’s letter yet, but pointed to 2012 rebuttals of similar claims.
The Israel Law Center noted the UAWC’s connection to the PFLP in a 2012 suit and named Oxfam, among other organizations, in the claim, Grainger said. Oxfam and these other groups refuted the accusations at the time.
“Without seeing the new [Israel Law Center] letter, I don’t know if they’re the exact same allegations, against UAWC, or different,” Grainger said.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Official PA daily crossword: Haifa is "a port in occupied Palestine"
Although PA Chairman Abbas proclaims the Palestinian Authority's desire to live side by side with an Israeli state, his official newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidapromotes a different position when it calls the Israeli coastal city Haifa "a port in occupied Palestine."
That was how Haifa was termed in a recent crossword puzzle in the paper, in a clear denial of Israel's legitimacy and sovereignty.
Clue: "A port in occupied Palestine"
Solution: "Haifa"
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 4, 2014]
Palestinian Media Watch has documented numerous examples of the official PA daily's use of crossword puzzles to deny Israel's existence. Cities such as Acre, Safed, Lod and even Tel Aviv have been presented as "Palestinian" or "occupied."
The PA uses the many infrastructures of communication at its disposal to promote the message that there is no Israel, but only "occupied Palestine," and that it is only a matter of time and planning before Israel disappears and "Palestine" returns.
Recently, a PA leader explained that a stages plan to eliminate Israel is the basis of PA policy. Furthermore, the Minister of Religious Affairs alluded that the PA's agreements with Israel are modeled after a peace agreement that Islam's Prophet Muhammad signed but broke as soon as he was strong enough to conquer the enemy. "This is the example and this is the model," proclaimed PA Minister Al-Habbash.
The host of a children's program on official PA TV passed on the same message to children: "We have land that was occupied in 1948, which will return to us one day." Furthermore, the station regularly broadcasts Arab Idol song contest winner Muhammad Assaf singing "Oh Flying Bird," a song which describes "My beautiful country Palestine" as encompassing Jaffa, Tiberias, Acre, Haifa, Beit Shean, Safed, Nazareth, Ramle, the Galilee, the Negev and other cities and regions in Israel.
Click to see more examples of the PA and Fatah's policy of denying Israel's right to exist and replacing Israel with "Palestine."
Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Two honor killings in Gaza
Arabic media are reporting that a man in northern Gaza beat his 16-year old daughter to death.
The family had buried her on Wednesday claiming she died of natural causes but police exhumed her body a day later and saw that she was beaten.
The reason given was "family problems." The father is divorced.
Also on Thursday, a man stabbed his 19-year old sister to death while she was praying. The reason given was "family honor."
Some 27 women were murdered, apparently for "honor" reasons, in the West Bank and Gaza in 2013, double the number killed in 2012.
The family had buried her on Wednesday claiming she died of natural causes but police exhumed her body a day later and saw that she was beaten.
The reason given was "family problems." The father is divorced.
Also on Thursday, a man stabbed his 19-year old sister to death while she was praying. The reason given was "family honor."
Some 27 women were murdered, apparently for "honor" reasons, in the West Bank and Gaza in 2013, double the number killed in 2012.
Israel Matzav: Rajoub supports kidnapping Israeli soldiers, but Israel is the inciter
"If Hamas wants to kidnap Israeli soldiers, they should go ahead and kidnap Israeli soldiers," Rajoub stated earlier this month in a live PA television broadcast. "They should kidnap them if [the Israelis] refuse to release more prisoners, if they want to keep them imprisoned forever - only releasing them as ghosts or skeletons."
"The Israelis need to understand," Rajoub declared. "It is obvious that kidnapping is a language they understand."
"If anything, we encourage Hamas to kidnap Israeli soldiers," he continued. "When they kidnapped [Gilad] Shalit, we welcomed it. When they performed the Shalit [prisoner exchange] deal, we had some reservations about it, but we welcomed it too."But that kind of statement doesn't stop the insufferable Hanan Ashrawi from claiming that Israel is 'inciting' against the 'Palestinians.'
The Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported that Ashrawi’s accusations were made during a meeting in Ramallah with a delegation from the American J Street organization.
Ashrawi briefed the delegation on "the latest political developments, the ongoing negotiations, and Israel's violations of international law and their impact on prospects for peace and on the region," according to a statement quoted by Ma’an.
"Israel is willfully sabotaging U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts and using the negotiations as a cover to continue with its illegal settlement activities, particularly in and around Jerusalem, and the theft of Palestinian lands and resources, among other violations," she charged.
"The Jewish American community, particularly as represented by J Street, faces the dual challenge of influencing both the U.S. administration and the hardline and extremist Israeli government; for there to be peace and stability, we must move rapidly," she added.
Ashrawi also reiterated the PA’s demands that any successful peace agreement must include the establishment of a Palestinian state along the indefensible pre-1967 borders with its capital in eastern Jerusalem, a "just solution" to the Palestinian refugee question and the "beginning of the dismantlement of settlements and outposts and the implementation of the Palestinian people's inalienable rights to freedom and sovereignty."And the 'international community,' including much of world Jewry, continues its willful blindness to the 'Palestinians' duplicity....
Israel Matzav: 'Hollywood was a Jewish invention to take over the United States'
If you thought that the sort of boorish anti-Semitism that's in the title of this post went out of style in the 1940's, you were wrong. Hezbullah's al-Manar television (Lebanon) made the claim in the title of this post this week. Let's go to the videotape.
Jewish WhatsApp’s Founder Goes From Food Stamps to Billionaire
The $19 billion deal to sell WhatsApp Inc. to Facebook Inc. (FB) started at Yahoo! Inc. more than five years ago, when Jan Koum became disillusioned at the way Internet companies were fixated on advertising.
He left Yahoo in 2007 with one of the company’s other engineers, Brian Acton, and started a company by 2009 that shuns advertising altogether. The strategy allowed them to concentrate on creating an easy-to-use messaging product instead of developing new ways to glean customer information for their marketing pitches, Koum said in a 2012 blog post.
“No one wakes up excited to see more advertising, no one goes to sleep thinking about the ads they’ll see tomorrow,” Koum said in the post. A hand-written note on the his desk reads: “No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!”
Their approach paid off. WhatsApp amassed 450 million monthly users — twice as many as Twitter Inc. — who send billions of messages a day. Yesterday, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg bought their five-year-old company in the largest Internet deal since Time Warner’s $124 billion merger with AOL in 2001, a deal that will almost certainly make Koum and Acton billionaires several times over.
For Koum, 38, the windfall would stand in stark contrast to his years as a teenager, when his family relied on food stamps after emigrating from Ukraine. The experience of living in a country where phone lines were often tapped, instilled the importance of privacy in him, said Jim Goetz, a partner with Sequoia Capital Ltd., WhatsApp’s lone venture capital investor.
’Contrarian Approach’
WhatsApp doesn’t collect information like name, gender, address or age. Instead, users are approved after their phone numbers are authenticated.
“It’s a decidedly contrarian approach shaped by Jan’s experience growing up in a communist country with a secret police,” said Goetz in a blog post yesterday on Sequoia’s website. “Jan’s childhood made him appreciate communication that was not bugged or taped.”
Koum will join Facebook’s board of directors once the deal goes through. Facebook declined to make him or Acton available for an interview.
The partners are old enough to remember the first dot-com bust. Acton, 42, grew up in Michigan and was employee No. 44 at Yahoo, working on advertising, shopping and travel services, according to Wired. He invested during the boom and lost millions of dollars when the market imploded, according to Forbes.
Facebook Reject
He later hired Koum at Yahoo and served as his mentor, inviting him over to his house and taking him skiing, Forbes said. After exiting Yahoo, Acton said on Twitter that he was turned down for a job at Facebook in 2009.
The two founded WhatsApp later that year with the idea that smartphone users should be able to easily message each other without incurring fees from phone carriers. The service is free for a year, then costs 99 cents per year after that.
They eschewed marketing and didn’t employ a public relations person, relying on the word-of-mouth recommendations of its users instead. The service became popular with friends and family communicating in different countries, especially in Europe, because it circumvents the fees charged by phone carriers.
“While others sought attention, Jan and Brian shunned the spotlight, refusing even to hang a sign outside the WhatsApp offices in Mountain View,” Goetz said in his blog post. “As competitors promoted games and rushed to build platforms, Jan and Brian remained devoted to a clean, lightning fast communications service that works flawlessly.”
Koum’s aversion to advertising contrasts with Facebook’s efforts to make more money from people using its service on mobile devices. He said in a statement on the company’s website that WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently.
“There would have been no partnership between our two companies if we had to compromise on the core principles that will always define our company, our vision and our product,” he said.
L'maancha- Eitan Katz Live in Jerusalem
Be inspired... this clip of L'maancha, sung by hundreds of guys together with Eitan Katz, give you a taste of what it was like at the live album recording earlier this year.
Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Saudi Arabia confiscates dangerous soccer balls (with Israeli flag)
Arabic media are reporting that a soccer ball has been confiscated by Saudi authorities from a shop in Dammam.
The reason? Well, it's obvious:
The Saudi Ministry of Trade and Industry responded quickly on Sunday to a citizen complaint via Twitter about the sale of balls bearing the six-pointed star that symbolizes the flag of Israel.
Teams of of the Inspection and Control division at the Ministry confiscated the balls from the store located in Dammam.
"Activists' thanked the ministry for responding so quickly to what must apparently have been considered a threat to public mental health.
They are continuing their investigation of how such a horrendous thing could have happened.
A few years back, Muslims complained about a flag on soccer balls as well - but not the Israeli flag:
So kicking the Saudi flag is offensive, but kicking the Israeli flag - a flag that is routinely stepped on in Arab countries - is offensive too.
Then again, the entire sport of soccer is a Zionist plot anyway.
The reason? Well, it's obvious:
The Saudi Ministry of Trade and Industry responded quickly on Sunday to a citizen complaint via Twitter about the sale of balls bearing the six-pointed star that symbolizes the flag of Israel.
Teams of of the Inspection and Control division at the Ministry confiscated the balls from the store located in Dammam.
"Activists' thanked the ministry for responding so quickly to what must apparently have been considered a threat to public mental health.
They are continuing their investigation of how such a horrendous thing could have happened.
A few years back, Muslims complained about a flag on soccer balls as well - but not the Israeli flag:
A demonstration has been held in south- east Afghanistan accusing US troops of insulting Islam after they distributed footballs bearing the name of Allah.
The balls showed the Saudi Arabian flag which features the Koranic declaration of faith.
The US military said the idea had been to give something for Afghan children to enjoy and they did not realise it would cause offence.
So kicking the Saudi flag is offensive, but kicking the Israeli flag - a flag that is routinely stepped on in Arab countries - is offensive too.
Then again, the entire sport of soccer is a Zionist plot anyway.
Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Q: What's the difference between BDS and terrorism? A: Nothing. (update)
While there is no single accepted definition of terrorism, the dictionary definition of terrorism is:
When Palestinian Arab terrorist groups shoot rockets or send suicide bombers, the number of casualties is relatively small. But if you look at their media afterwards they exult on the larger effects that such actions cause even more than the direct damage. Every time the schools in Ashkelon are closed because of rocket threats, it is reported in the terrorist-leaning Arabic media as a victory. They love making videos showing Israelis running to shelter during Code Red alerts.
To terrorists, fear is the goal - causing panic among a large population by attacking a small number of people.
This story, which may or may not be true given its source*, gives a perfect example of how the goals of BDS are identical to the goals of terrorist groups:
The story says that they dropped out because of fear that the boycott movement might attack them.
In other words - they were intimidated. They were coerced.
They were terrorized.
The same thing happens with the vast majority of the small number of popular music stars that have decided to cancel concerts in Israel. Except for a couple of hardcore haters like Roger Waters, the stars calculated that any controversy is toxic to their careers and therefore the effort is not worth it.
They, too, were terrorized.
The tactics of Palestinian terrorists are meant to create an environment of fear where Israelis must worry about possibly being attacked by a tiny number of people whose importance gets magnified by their methods. Ultimately, they want to create an environment where Jews would flee Israel because the fear outweighs the benefits of living there.
The tactics of the BDS supporters are also meant to create an environment of fear, where companies and public individuals will be afraid of a backlash from a similarly tiny number of noisy people who can create an impression of being much larger by targeted, noisy use of social media and protests. Ultimately, they want to create an environment where companies and entertainers and governments would abandon Israel because the fear of controversy outweighs the benefits of working with the most liberal and successful country in the region.
Neither side spends too much time trying to actually convince a larger audience of the righteousness of their cause, although they both try to pretend that they have the moral high ground. Both sides are obviously hypocritical. In both cases, the bulk of their time is spent trying to figure out how to cause the most fear in the people they are threatening. In both cases, they celebrate when the targets cave to their threats and change their behavior. Likewise, in both cases, they will make up fake "victories" and celebrate them, because when the goal is to terrorize innocents, perception is more important than truth.
BDSers and terrorists are identical in strategy, in their intent, and in their definitions of victory. The only difference are specific tactics (and the BDSers generally have no problem with terrorism as well, as their leaders have admitted.)
BDS is a terror movement. Its economic impact is negligible but that isn't what they are after - they want to terrorize companies and individuals by creating an atmosphere of coercion and fear. Their victims need to understand that they are being intimidated and coerced by people whose morality and goals are virtually indistinguishable from that of jihadists.
UPDATE: *Israel's Presspectiva proved my skepticism about Haaretz' reliability on stories like these. It is really a shame that their lying about stories they want to be true is so utterly predictable. (h/t Yenta)
The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.Terrorism's main purpose is to terrorize, to instill fear in a large population by attacking a relatively small number of people. That's why the threat of a "dirty bomb" is a perfect example of terror - in general, it wouldn't hurt very many people but it would cause panic, which would affect people's behavior.
When Palestinian Arab terrorist groups shoot rockets or send suicide bombers, the number of casualties is relatively small. But if you look at their media afterwards they exult on the larger effects that such actions cause even more than the direct damage. Every time the schools in Ashkelon are closed because of rocket threats, it is reported in the terrorist-leaning Arabic media as a victory. They love making videos showing Israelis running to shelter during Code Red alerts.
To terrorists, fear is the goal - causing panic among a large population by attacking a small number of people.
This story, which may or may not be true given its source*, gives a perfect example of how the goals of BDS are identical to the goals of terrorist groups:
Leading international companies bidding to build private seaports dropped out of the Israeli government’s tender due to concerns over the political repercussions, a report said on Tuesday.Notice the reasons given for this alleged dropping of bids. The companies didn't do it because of Israel's policies; they didn't do it for "moral" reasons, they didn't announce that they would never want to work with a country such as Israel because of its supposed mistreatment of Palestinian Arabs..
The Israeli daily Haaretz said that Royal Boskalis Westminster, a Dutch operator of ports that had submitted a proposal under the name Holland Terminal in the prequalification stage last December, dropped out shortly thereafter. More recently, Italy’s Condote
Haaretz said that the companies that had initially expressed their interest in the PQ stage last April made their decisions to drop out in recent months as boycott pressure on Israel has grown. The deadline for submitting bids was Monday, the report said.
The story says that they dropped out because of fear that the boycott movement might attack them.
In other words - they were intimidated. They were coerced.
They were terrorized.
The same thing happens with the vast majority of the small number of popular music stars that have decided to cancel concerts in Israel. Except for a couple of hardcore haters like Roger Waters, the stars calculated that any controversy is toxic to their careers and therefore the effort is not worth it.
They, too, were terrorized.
The tactics of Palestinian terrorists are meant to create an environment of fear where Israelis must worry about possibly being attacked by a tiny number of people whose importance gets magnified by their methods. Ultimately, they want to create an environment where Jews would flee Israel because the fear outweighs the benefits of living there.
The tactics of the BDS supporters are also meant to create an environment of fear, where companies and public individuals will be afraid of a backlash from a similarly tiny number of noisy people who can create an impression of being much larger by targeted, noisy use of social media and protests. Ultimately, they want to create an environment where companies and entertainers and governments would abandon Israel because the fear of controversy outweighs the benefits of working with the most liberal and successful country in the region.
Neither side spends too much time trying to actually convince a larger audience of the righteousness of their cause, although they both try to pretend that they have the moral high ground. Both sides are obviously hypocritical. In both cases, the bulk of their time is spent trying to figure out how to cause the most fear in the people they are threatening. In both cases, they celebrate when the targets cave to their threats and change their behavior. Likewise, in both cases, they will make up fake "victories" and celebrate them, because when the goal is to terrorize innocents, perception is more important than truth.
BDSers and terrorists are identical in strategy, in their intent, and in their definitions of victory. The only difference are specific tactics (and the BDSers generally have no problem with terrorism as well, as their leaders have admitted.)
BDS is a terror movement. Its economic impact is negligible but that isn't what they are after - they want to terrorize companies and individuals by creating an atmosphere of coercion and fear. Their victims need to understand that they are being intimidated and coerced by people whose morality and goals are virtually indistinguishable from that of jihadists.
UPDATE: *Israel's Presspectiva proved my skepticism about Haaretz' reliability on stories like these. It is really a shame that their lying about stories they want to be true is so utterly predictable. (h/t Yenta)
Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Now Jews accused of "storming" and "usurping" Rachel's Tomb
Jew-hating Arabs have managed to make a big deal over Jews peacefully visiting and praying in their holiest sites on the Temple Mount, the Kotel, the Tomb of Joseph and the Maarat HaMachpela. In each case the Muslims claim that these holy sites are really Islamic, and that the Jews are "usurping" them.
No human rights NGO has ever pushed back and said that Jews have the right to worship in their holy spots.
So this article in Egyptian daily Mesryoon - and at least five other Arabic newspapers - was inevitable.
Dozens of Israeli settlers on Thursday morning stormed the Bilal bin Rabah mosque north of the city of Bethlehem, claiming it is the site of "Rachel's Tomb", and they performed Talmudic rituals inside.There is no record of Rachel's Tomb being called the Bilal bin Rabah mosque before the 1990s. It iscomplete fiction. Muslims freely acknowledged that this was Rachel's Tomb, and called it Khirbet Rahil and other names with the word "Rachel" in Arabic.
Local sources said that the settlers broke into the area near the Aida refugee camp, and performed provocative religious rituals inside, and that the settlers arrived by bus and were accompanied by patrols of the Israeli occupation.
They were there for several hours during which voices were heard screaming inside the mosque, while performing Talmudic rituals.
Sources reported that the mosque is located inside the wall of apartheid.
The settlers, under the pretext of performing Talmudic rituals, repeatedly desecrate the mosque.
The simultaneous publication of this news item - when Jews have been visiting Rachel's Tomb virtually every day for centuries except between 1948-1967 - indicates that Arab Muslims are preparing to expand their campaign of lies and slander against Jews and Judaism.
And yet, you will be hard pressed to find any "human rights" organization, or mainstream media fact checker, bothering to point out the obvious lies and antisemitism. Because Muslims are expected to lie, to make up history, to get their fiction to be labeled simply "their narrative" as if the truth and lies are interchangeable, and to usurp Jewish holy places.
Since Muslims are expected to act in reprehensible ways, why should anyone outside Jewish "fanatics" be bothered when they live up to expectations? In the twisted world we live in, only Jews are expected to act like human beings and to care about small matters like being honest with history.
Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Amazing blog post from a Syrian refugee in Istanbul
Yesterday, Israel's prime minister visited the field hospital where Syrian patients are being treated. Here's what he said:
The Syrian opposition condemned Netanyahu!
Khalid Saleh, head of the Media Office, said that “the visit paid by Prime Minister of the Israeli occupation to one of the hospitals where injured Syrians are being hospitalized is nothing more than a publicity gimmick and a deliberate move to hint that there is a certain relationship between the Syrian revolution and the Zionist entity. Israel’s Prime Minister aims at whitewashing his tarnished image in the minds of the Arab and Islamic peoples.” Saleh denounces “Israel’s investment in the plight of the Syrian people and using them as tools to spruce up his besmirched image. Saleh stresses that “the Israeli entity stood against the Syrian uprising from the start when they repeatedly warned of the danger of the weapons falling in the hands of what they described as terrorists. These “terrorists” - wounded civilians who were forcedly taken to Israeli hospitals and are being employed today for marketing their political agenda.” Saleh points out that “forcing some of the wounded civilians to receive treatment in the hospitals of the Israeli occupation as a result of the crippling siege imposed by the Assad regime lays bare Assad’s claims about resisting the Israeli occupation.”This bizarre response did not go unnoticed by real Syrian refugees.
Aboud Dandachi, a Syrian from Homs, has a blog describing his experiences. Here's what he has to say about this episode:
This one press release by the SNC may very well prove to be one of the most self-damaging statements ever released by a political organization. Not only did the SNC fall into a trap by reacting hastily to goading from its opponents, but by denouncing an act of charity that has saved so many Syrian lives, even from a country that has historically been an adversary to Syria, the SNC has very much called into question the Syrian political opposition’s ability to engage in any post-conflict reconciliation with those communities that stood with the regime during the war. If you can’t even bring yourself to say thank you to medical aid from Israel, how on earth are you ever going to bring yourself to meet the greater challenge of living and let live with those Syrians who fought for the regime over the years. To say nothing of the vindication of those parties very much against any sort of help to the Syrian opposition, whom those parties see as potential adversaries in the future.
Alas, the SNC’s position is by no means an isolated one among the Syrian opposition. Indeed, the coalition probably felt compelled to make a denunciation along these lines to maintain its credibility among the rank and file activists. This one statement is going to have some very far reaching repercussions, especially with respect to any further aid the opposition can expect to receive. Who in their right mind is going to provide MANPADs and advanced anti-tank missiles to an opposition that can’t even reconcile itself to medical aid from a perceived adversary. Frankly, this regrettable episode has demonstrated that the Syrian political opposition still has alot of growing up to do.
The idea that any Syrian should feel apologetic for seeking medical aid from an Israeli hospital is yet one more morally bankrupt notion in a conflict that has already laid bare the moral shortcomings of many formerly esteemed parties and movements. ...This is a regime that has targeted Red Crescent volunteers and murdered a British surgeon for giving the exact same aid the Israelis are providing wounded Syrians. Dr Abbas Khan was rightly hailed as a hero, and Israel’s contribution to treating hundreds of needy Syrians deserves no less praise and appreciation. The pro-regimists have no moral standing or high ground on this issue whatsoever. Far from condemning Benjamin Netanyahu for visiting wounded Syrians, the Assad supporters’ time would be better spent asking where their beloved leader has been hiding out these past months. It is shameful that Angelina Jolie has made more visits to Syrian camps and refugee hospitals than Assad and Asma have combined.
...
Maybe Barack Obama and the naysayers were right after all, maybe they knew us better than we knew ourselves. There are some Israelis and in the West who want nothing whatsoever to do with Syria and its problems, and statements like the SNC’s have validated their worse suspicions, that any Syrian opposition group the West helps are only going to be adversaries after the war. It is an unfortunate fact, that Israeli medical teams have done more for Syrians in the south of the country than all the opposition groups put together, to say nothing of the murderous regime that caused them to seek help in the first place.
...
Of course, nothing happens in the Middle East in a vacuum, and alot of other issues intrude to make any conflict that much more complicated. Some Syrians, and indeed Arabs, are of the opinion that one cannot reconcile even to the slightest degree with Israel and hope to remain loyal to our Palestinian brethren and their aspirations. Frankly, it would not be unfair to say that this sort of hardline stance is most popular among those who have in reality done crap-all in a practical sense for our Palestinian brethren. By all means, go and jump on the BDS bandwagon if it assuages your guilt, and I’m sure the fact that the BDSers have a very flexible and self-serving idea of who is worthy of a boycott makes it that much easier.
...When the war in Syria is over, one of the things that I as a (hopefully) former refugee would want to see addressed, is the disgraceful treatment of our Palestinian brothers and sisters in the Arab world. If it is solidarity with Palestinians that certain Arabs seek, then nothing can improve the Palestinians’ situation more quickly than by granting them the right to work, study, travel and private property ownership in the Arab countries they currently reside in. Because frankly, I doubt there is a single Palestinian in the Levant or North Africa who wouldn’t swap places with an Arab-Israeli in a heart beat.
....Personally, Israel’s kindness to Syrian refugees has demonstrated to me that Syrians and Israelis need not be adversaries in the future, that there is space and possibility for an accommodation on even the most seemingly intractable of issues. There is goodwill and humanity on the Israeli side, despite everything I have been taught to believe during my life.
I hope that in the future, those of the Syrian opposition who currently regard anything Israel does with hostility and suspicion, ask themselves what is to be gained by pandering to morally bankrupt pro-Assadists, whose beloved leader’s family could not, in forty years, regain the Golan Heights either through war or through negotiations. The whole point of an opposition is to give the country a different way of thinking. Knowing who our true friends are would be a good place to start.
Israel Matzav: Priorities...
For those who don't get it, as the policeman investigates a 'price tag' attack (the graffiti says Kahane was right about transferring the Arabs out of Israel), he ignores the city burning around him.
Israel Matzav: Jordanian Sheikh: 'There's no such thing as Palestine'
One of the Koranic verses provided states that Allah gave the Holy Land to the sons of Israel until the Day of Judgment (Surah Al-Ma’ida, verse 21), and the other (Surah Al-Shara’a, verse 59) says that the land was bequeathed to the Jews.
The sheikh turned to those who “distort the words of the Koran,” whom he labeled as liars, and questioned where they had even come up with the name “Palestine.” He insisted their claims to the Land of Israel were forfeit because “Allah is the protector of the Children of Israel.”
And if that wasn’t enough, the sheikh went on to turn the tables on the anti-Israel propaganda machine by accusing the Palestinians of killing children, the elderly and women, of using human shields, and of having not an ounce of mercy for even their own children.
The sheikh’s words caused a storm in the Arab media, and were picked up by the Israeli Embassy in Amman.
The Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi further explained the sheikh’s position, noting that he supports the notion that Jordan is Palestine, and insists that Arabs living both in Jordan and the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories would almost all love to be Israeli citizens.
The Adwan tribe issued a statement distancing itself from Sheikh Aladoan’s remarks. But the sheikh was not intimidated, and insisted he would continue to make his voice heard on these matters.
Last year, Sheikh Aladoan visited Israel and spent time with the chief rabbi of Tsfat (Safed), Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu. The sheikh informed Rabbi Eliyahu and his students that in the Koran, “there is no name ‘Palestine’ for this land, and therefore, the Arabs should not be fighting the Jews over control of this land.”
Read the whole thing. Now, if only he could get that message through to Obama and Kerry.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
How Israel Can Prevail
Steve Goldberg pledges to implement the following 7 point action plan if he is elected President of the ZOA.
1. To be effective, the ZOA must get involved in American politics. Right now we are nowhere on the scene, especially compared to AIPAC and J Street. To have any impact, we must aggressively lobby Congress and help elect pro-Israel candidates and defeat anti-Israel candidates. To do so, the ZOA must be more than a 501c3 "educational" organization. It must create a 501c4 for the purpose of lobbying, and a PAC to help support the candidates who are most pro-Israel. I pledge to create such entities so that the ZOA can become relevant and actually affect policy towards Israel in the United States.
2. The ZOA needs to do more than just issue press releases. I pledge to create an army of pro-Israel activists across the country who will speak out, march, demonstrate, and write in support of our platform. We will greatly expand what is now just a token college program to attract young people. We will appear at college campuses where the Muslim Students Union is bashing Israel to demonstrate that Jewish students will not be intimidated. We will hold rallies in cities across the U.S. in support of Israel.
3. The ZOA must initiate a massive public relations campaign across the U.S. to discredit the Palestinian narrative and to explain why the so-called "two state solution" is an abysmal failure which must be declared dead and buried--permanently. There should be a strategic campaign that includes billboards, use of the internet and social media, television, editorials and public speakers who unapologetically make this argument.
4. Likewise, the ZOA must engage in a massive public relations campaign in anticipation of a preemptive military attack by Israel on Iran. Waiting until it happens will be too late. It is time to take the lead in shaping public opinion now.
5. The ZOA must strengthen its presence in Israel. We should partner with strong Zionist organizations, institutions and opinion-makers in Israel such as Women In Green, Im Tirtzu, Regavim, Ariel University, the Shomron Regional Council, the cities of Hebron, Ariel, Kedumim, Gush Etzion and other such areas in Judea and Samaria, Martin Sherman and Caroline Glick. The ZOA should be working openly with strong Zionist political leaders.
6. ZOA can no longer be the lone voice of truth. ZOA should engage in creative, attractive outreach to professionals, especially young professionals, and ordinary American citizens of all kinds so that they understand the values at stake and are proud to align themselves with the Zionist cause. We must also actively work with centrist organizations and political leaders so that they have the courage to stand up for the values they often suppress due to political correctness.
7. The ZOA is a Zionist organization. We must vigorously encourage Jews around the world, including and especially our leaders and members, to make aliyah.
Megillas Lester Official Trailer
Megillas Lester is a full length animated feature film depicting the fictional story of Doniel Lesterovitch ("Lester"); a boy whose imagination turns the Purim story upside down. Suddenly finding himself at the feast of King Achashverosh, Lester is ordered to summon queen Vashti to the party...and he inadvertently convinces her to go! With Vashti alive and well, Esther never needs to come to the palace - and that leaves nobody to save the Jews from evil Haman! Follow Lester's hilarious and thrilling adventure as he tries to set his version of the Purim story back on track...
Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Iranian video threatens to nuke Israel
From Algemeiner:
A short animated film being aired across Iran, shows the nuclear destruction of Israel and opens with the word ‘Holocaust’ appearing on the screen, underneath which a Star of David is shown, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Tuesday.
The film, which started to appear Monday on Iranian websites depicts how the Islamic Republic might respond to an American or Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities.
In the movie, Western nations realize that the Islamic Republic has no intention to cease its nuclear development. To prevent Iran from building a bomb, the United States and its allies decide to take military action to destroy Tehran’s nuclear sites.
In the simulated war that follows, hundreds of Israeli and American fighter planes are seen jetting towards Iran. Ultimately, the jets are beaten back by Iran’s military.
With Iran having successfully defended itself, the simulation then shows Iranian forces going on the offensive. The video cuts to a scene showing Iranian Revolutionary Guard fighter planes flying over Israel, passing through Jerusalem and over the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The final frame of the film leaves little room for doubt as to how this military campaign ends: a nuclear explosion is seen spreading across the screen.
Keep in mind that Iranian websites are controlled by the government; if this video is being placed on websites it is with the approval of Iranian leaders.
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