Love of the Land: Fairies in the White House

Fairies in the White House

Ira Sharkansky
Shark Blog
18 December 09

An American friend, who some time ago showed his disappointment with Israel, has sent another note that includes:

"I scan three Israeli newspapers every day (well, actually, their web sites, in English). It's less like visiting a foreign country than like visiting a foreign planet. The obsession with Iran's supposed nuclear weapons development is incessant - as if the Iranians were going to drop the big one on Tel Aviv any day now."

Should one also wonder that Americans are concerned with health care?

Must Israelis justify their concern with Iran? Not only is the Persian president continuing his denial of the Holocaust and asserting that Israel has no right to exist. He is arming the Hezbollah of Lebanon and getting some weapons to Gaza despite Israeli and Egyptian blockades. And the trendy lefties of the world are singing in the chorus that he leads.

Barack Obama is a nice man who is not singing in Ahmadinejad's chorus, but he has expressed his belief in fairies. Or the functional equivalent of them, which he believes can be brought forth by what he calls engagement.

So what should Israel do, in the presence of an Iranian leader who gives evidence of severe animosity, and leads even the Egyptian outgoing head of the International Atomic Energy Agency to conclude that Iran may be intent on producing nuclear weapons? There are also Iranian tests of its missiles, which international headlines link with the nuclear program and say could reach anywhere in Israel.

Whenever the Obama led international coalition has sought to offer the Iranians a face saving alternative to amassing materials for nuclear weapons, the Iranians have responded by saying "Maybe, but not quite good enough," and the deadline for deciding on sanctions is pushed further ahead. Although the Russians and Chinese have given signs that they will support sanctions, no one should expect the sanctions agreed upon to the kinds that really bite.

Those fairies conceived in the White House are not doing their job. The world is in danger, and the Iranian finger is pointed at Israel.

So what should Israelis do, when few of us believe in fairies?

(Read full post)

Love of the Land: Fairies in the White House

Israel Matzav: The Goldstone Commission staff: The keepers of the gate

The Goldstone Commission staff: The keepers of the gate

Some of you may have noticed that I've been offline for a couple of hours (it's actually for longer, but with the wonders of scheduling posts, you'd never known how long). This evening, a group of bloggers, professors and interested government media people gathered in someone's living room in Jerusalem to talk about how we can more effectively make Israel's case in the media. One of the ideas I had was based on a remark that Dore Gold made on Sunday at the JCPA bloggers seminar.

I had asked Dore Gold how much Goldstone had seen before of the material that he put in his slide show at Brandeis. The answer was almost none. But Dore hastened to add that he believed that was the staff's doing - that Goldstone's staff had not let any of the exculpatory material provided by Israel come through to Goldstone. I suggested this evening that looking into the Goldstone Commission staff might be a fruitful area of inquiry.

I came home and did a little research online and discovered that it's going to take a bit more than running a list of names through Google. In fact, getting the names is going to be quite a challenge. We do know that much of the staff came from the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, the organization that acts as the 'Human Rights' Council's bureaucracy. But we don't know much more than that. The Goldstone Commission refused to provide a full listing of its staff.

In fact, only two staff members appear to have their names in the public domain - both as a result of their names being on invitations to testify. One is Francesca Marotta, Head of the Secretariat of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. You can see an invitation to testify that was signed by her here. The other is Sareta Ashraph, researcher in the Fact Finding Mission Secretariat. Her name appears in the same letter.

Who are Francesca Marotta and Sareta Ashraph? According to NGO Monitor,

• Goldstone mission staff researcher, Sareta Ashraph, is a UK lawyer and a member of Amnesty International who has a history of anti-Israel political activity. For instance, in 2003, she was an organizer for a Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights “lawfare” lecture given by Raji Sourani, head of PCHR, and chaired by Daniel Machover, the attorney responsible for filing PCHR’s 2005 case against Doron Almog and a leading proponent of lawfare. Ashraph also worked in the West Bank on “investigations of allegations of violations of international humanitarian law following ‘Operation Defensive Shield’ in 2002.”
• Francesca Marotta, Head of the Secretariat UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, is a long-time employee of the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights as Coordinator of the Methodology, Education and Training Unit, Research and Right to Development Branch and the “UNHCHR officer responsible for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” In 1997 and 1999, she held meetings with PCHR.

PCHR is the 'Palestinian Centre for Human Rights,' which is one of the NGO's on which Goldstone relied heavily. The name Daniel Machover should ring a bell for you as well.

But for the most part, the Goldstone Commission has succeeded in keeping its staff top secret. Why? Maybe it's time to break the silence.

More here. No smoking guns against individual staff members yet, but definitely the smell of bias.

Israel Matzav: The Goldstone Commission staff: The keepers of the gate

Israel Matzav: Petraeus: UAE could take out Iran's entire air force

Petraeus: UAE could take out Iran's entire air force

General David Petraeus says that the United Arab Emirates' air force could take out the entire Iranian air force.

Let's go to the videotape.



Hmmm.

More about this story here. I wonder if the UAE is afraid enough of an Iranian nuke to play ball with us.

Israel Matzav: Petraeus: UAE could take out Iran's entire air force

Israel Matzav: French arms sale to Russia has Congress up in arms

French arms sale to Russia has Congress up in arms

France wants to sell an amphibious assault ship called the Mistral to Russia, which Russia says that it will use against its neighbors if it feels the need to do so. That has the US Congress up in arms over the fear that the Europeans will start a race to sell arms to Russia.

Russian Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotskiy said in September that "In the conflict in August last year [against Georgia], a ship like that would have allowed [Russia's] Black Sea Fleet to accomplish its mission in 40 minutes, not 26 hours which is how long it took us [to land the troops ashore]."

This is just one of the concerns that prompted Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-FL, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to introduce a bill late Thursday that would express the sense of Congress that "France and other member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union should decline to sell major weapons systems or offensive military equipment to the Russian Federation."

The resolution alleges that Russia remains in violation of the French-brokered ceasefire that followed the Georgia invasion. Also, Russia is expanding its military presence in a way that threatens Georgia, and has made a number of aggressive moves toward several countries in the region, according to the text. The sale of the Mistral to Russia "would enhance that country's ability to potentially wage aggression against its neighbors," the resolution states.

Ros-Lehtinen is calling on President Obama, as well as Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to urge France not to sell major offensive weapons systems to Russia until Russia completely withdraws from Georgian territory and makes broad reforms in areas ranging from rule of law to human rights.

Good luck with that. The Obama administration has already shown that it could care less about human rights, promoting democracy or the Republic of Georgia.

And here's a thought for fellow Israelis: Could you see Russia allowing Iran to use this ship or using it in support of Iran? What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: French arms sale to Russia has Congress up in arms

Israel Matzav: While Mullen worries that Iran is running out the clock, Axelrod plays Alfred E. Neuman

While Mullen worries that Iran is running out the clock, Axelrod plays Alfred E. Neuman

On the Sunday news magazines in the US, Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed concern that Iran is running out the clock to becoming a nuclear-armed power. Meanwhile, Obama adviser David Axelrod did his best Alfred E. Newman imitation, fudging when asked if President Obumbler really plans to stick to the December 31 deadline that replaced the September 30 deadline for Iran to change its behavior.

Here's Mullen first.

Adm. Mike Mullen also said he's worried about "the clock now running" on the Obama administration's efforts at trying to keep the lines of communication open with Iran. The administration had given a rough deadline of the end of 2009 for Iran to respond to an offer of engagement and show that it would allay world concerns about its nuclear program.

Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, supports that offer, and has said any military strike on Iran, whether by Israel or the United States, should be a last resort.

"I think signals are very clearly in the air that another set of sanctions, another resolution, that that's coming," he said.

"I grow increasingly concerned that the Iranians have been non-responsive. I've said for a long time we don't need another conflict in that part of the world," he said. "I'm not predicting that would happen, but I think they've got to get to a position where they are a constructive force and not a destabilizing force."

But is Obama really pushing for another round of sanctions? Let's call that questionable.

Here's Alfred E. Axelrod.

Obama has long proclaimed a Dec. 31 deadline for cooperation or retaliation of some unspecified kind. But Iran and, before it, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, has confidently counted on years of international dithering on enforcing printed sanctions.

So naturally on ABC's "This Week" this week, George Stephanopoulos asked Obama adviser and ex-newspaper reporter David Axelrod about the approaching Obama deadline.

Axelrod started to say something about talking but checked himself and spoke instead of "consequences."

But, as often occurs in diplomatic-speak -- and politics-speak too, come to think of it -- it's what you don't say that's often more important than what you do utter.

Axelrod declined to reiterate the Dec. 31 date. Here's the exchange. Draw your own conclusions:

The conclusion is clear. Unless Axelord no longer speaks for Obama (which seems unlikely), December 31 is no more of a deadline than September 30 was. Iran continues to forge ahead toward a nuclear weapon, while Obama fiddles on his violin, the rest of the West waits for Obama to act, and the storm gathers on the horizon. Now, even Michael Mullen is concerned.

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: While Mullen worries that Iran is running out the clock, Axelrod plays Alfred E. Neuman

Israel Matzav: North Korean weapons shipment bound for Iran

North Korean weapons shipment bound for Iran

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the North Korean weapons shipment that was intercepted in Thailand ten days ago was bound for Iran. An earlier report claimed that the shipment's destination was Sudan.

A flight plan for the IL-76, obtained by researchers in the U.S. and Belgium, shows that after Bangkok the plane was due to make refueling stops in Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine before unloading its cargo in Tehran. Iranian officials didn't respond to requests for comment.

The flight plan indicates that en route to Pyongyang the plane stopped at an air force base in Azerbaijan; the nature of that stop is unclear. Azerbaijani officials couldn't be reached for comment.

The apparent links among the military cargo, North Korea and Iran raise fresh questions about how nations try to evade international sanctions. The United Nations Security Council has banned the sale of small and heavy weapons from North Korea and all weapons sales from Iran.

The new information is presented in a joint draft report by analysts at TransArms, based in Chicago, and the International Peace Information Service, or IPIS, of Antwerp, Belgium. Both organizations conduct research on conflicts around the world, including how they are financed and supplied with weapons. A draft copy of the report was provided to The Wall Street Journal. The report hasn't been independently confirmed.

U.S. State Department spokesman Darby Holladay declined to comment on the seizure of the weapons and referred questions to the Thai government.

It remains unclear whether Iran intended to use the weapons itself. Western governments have accused Iran of supporting militants in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and Iraq.

The article describes the great lengths to which the plane's operators went to conceal its ownership and cargo. The ultimate owner is a woman with a Russian-sounding name in the United Arab Emirates. She declined to comment.

What is clear here is that the whole idea of maintaining sanctions is a cat and mouse game in which you cannot maintain sanctions without everyone's cooperation. That's so unlikely to happen in Iran's case that the prospect of sanctions convincing Iran to change its behavior within the period of time that likely remains to a nuclear breakout is simply laughable.

What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: North Korean weapons shipment bound for Iran

Israel Matzav: The real meaning of arbeit macht frei

The real meaning of arbeit macht frei

Barry Rubin uses the recovery of the missing sign from Auschwitz's entrance, on which the words arbet macht frei (work makes one free) are emblazoned, to reflect on what that slogan meant during World War II and what it means today.

And so, work makes free. It was not just a sarcastic act of derision but an actual control measure. If the Jews believed they were in Auschwitz to work hard in exchange for their lives, they would be more docile and far easier to manage. The sentiment was meant to be taken seriously, and almost always, at least until late in the war, it was.

To understand all of this is of vital importance for historical reasons. The Jews who became victims were not just cowards or fools or sheep but people who often believed they were using their wits to survive once again a terrible but ultimately passing pogrom. No matter how much they were starved or mistreated, they could take the hunger and put up with the beatings with the confidence that one day this, too, would end. Of course, they often had no choice and they wanted to believe this, yet it was quite rational for them to do so, certainly before the middle of 1942.

At this point, I hesitate to continue. The analogy of the Holocaust has been too often used, and misused. Moreover, many will think that I gratuitously or lightly exaggerate what I’m about to say. But consider this explanation seriously and you will better understand our own era.

The key here is the Western obsession with pragmatism, the dismissal of ideology, and the wishful thinking that believes conflict can be negotiated away or at least whittled down to the tolerable level by patience and concession. These were also the fundamental ideas that motivated both most European Jews and the expectations of most Western leaders and observers regarding the treatment of the Jews during the war (and in many cases, German intentions before the war as well). This mode of thinking is still very much with us.

Thus, it is disbelieved that radical Islamists, and in many cases militant Arab nationalists or various others, really mean what they say. Instead, it is expected that they will act according to narrow and individual personal interests. They would rather be rich than right, or revolutionary. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, architect of Iran’s Islamist revolution, derided this concept as thinking the revolution was made for the sake of lowering the price of watermelons.

Read the whole thing. It applies equally to Iran's quest for nuclear weapons and to Fatah's and Hamas' quest to destroy the State of Israel.

Israel Matzav: The real meaning of arbeit macht frei

Israel Matzav: Jews who won't fight for themselves

Jews who won't fight for themselves

Pamela Geller is upset about Jews who refused to participate in a demonstration against the Islamization of Europe.

Why don't Jews support those who support them? Last week, on December 13, Stop the Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) held a protest rally in what can be described only as an Islamic fortress in the heart of Harrow, England. I strongly urged Jews to attend. Islamic anti-Semitism is more poisonous and more dangerous than even Nazism was to the Jews. The promise of Jewish genocide is made "sacred" by Islamic texts such as the one in which Muhammad says that the end times will not come until the Muslims kill the Jews -- and the Jews hide behind trees, which then cry out, "O Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him."

The SIOE demonstration was against the building of a mosque there, as well as the larger issues of the advance of Sharia and Islamization in the United Kingdom. SIOE pointed out the words of the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan: "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and Muslims our soldiers ..."

Political parties, racist chanting, banners and placards, and totalitarian symbols such as Nazi swastikas, communist hammer and sickles, and the Islamic star and crescent were banned. The initial announcement of the demonstration asked those attending to bring one thousand Israeli flags, and said: "SIOE supports Israel's right to defend itself against Islamist attempts to annihilate Jews." SIOE called on Jews living in London or within traveling distance of London to attend the demonstration, saying that "vile anti-Semitism is being preached in mosques across the world and almost certainly the one in your neighbourhood. ... Non-Jews are demonstrating on 13th December against thhttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=20498788e anti-Semitism being taught in mosques which goes unchallenged by politicians, the media and so-called 'moderate' Muslims. Jews cannot, in all conscience, leave it to non-Jews to protest on the behalf of Jews who are once again the world's whipping boy."

But they did.

I have two words: Peter Bergson (pictured at the top). Jewish history is replete with personalities in leadership positions who were unwilling to admit that Jews were in danger.

Bergson fought the methods of those who who said they were working quietly (and mostly ineffectively) to save Jews during World War II. He fought openly and sometimes bombastically to bring the issue of trapped European Jews to the forefront. Unfortunately, most of the Jewish world wouldn't listen to him either.

I know little of the SIOE - the group whom Pamela is defending. In fact, I never heard of them until I saw them on Pamela's blog last week. I know enough about the BNP to know that I staunchly oppose them. But the agenda of building a mosque in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood is very clear to me. And the SIOE and the BNP are apparently not one and the same.

Read the whole thing.

I especially invite my readers in England to comment.

Israel Matzav: Jews who won't fight for themselves

Israel Matzav: Israelis oppose foreign funding of Leftist NGO's

Israelis oppose foreign funding of Leftist NGO's

A poll has found that an overwhelming majority of Israelis opposes foreign funding of Leftist NGO's. Curiously, the poll comes from an institution that is generally identified with Israel's Left.

A new poll has found that a majority of Israelis oppose European government funding of non-governmental “human rights” organizations, such as the leftwing groups Peace Now and Betzelem, in order to increase domestic pressure on the Israeli government. The poll’s findings show that 59% oppose foreign contributions while only 28% support them. The rest did not know.

The poll was sponsored by the War and Peace Index of Tel Aviv University.

I would guess that the only other propositions on which you could get that strong an Israeli consensus are a united Jerusalem and secure borders. That's quite impressive.

Israel Matzav: Israelis oppose foreign funding of Leftist NGO's

Israel Matzav: The Shalit agenda

The Shalit agenda

In case you had any doubts why Israel's Leftist Hebrew media is leading the charge to release thousands of terrorists in exchange for kidnapped IDF corporal Gilad Shalit and to endanger the lives of hundreds - if not thousands - of Israelis....

Israel Radio's noontime newscast reported that Gilad's father Noam said that it is 'also time' to bring the 'suffering' of the 'Palestinians' in Gaza to an end.

It's no coincidence that Israel Radio is also reporting that at the moment, Ehud Barak (Labor), Dan Meridor (Likud) and Eli Yishai (Shas) are in favor of the exchange, while Benny Begin (Likud) Moshe "Boogie" Yaalon (Likud) and Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) are opposed. Binyamin Netanyahu is said to be undecided.

Call it the Shalit agenda. And once this 'exchange' is carried out, you can expect more of it.

Israel Matzav: The Shalit agenda

Israel Matzav: 'Miss Palestine' contest canceled

'Miss Palestine' contest canceled

I'm sure you will all be as disappointed as Hillary Clinton was to hear that the 'Miss Palestine' contest has been canceled. Clinton was a leading candidate for the title.

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday cancelled the first Miss Palestine beauty contest that was supposed to take place in Ramallah later this week under the pretext that it coincides with the first anniversary of Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip.

The PA warned the organizers that they would be punished if they violated the ban.

...

Last week Hamas strongly condemned the planned Miss Palestine contest as a violation of Islamic teachings and called for its cancellation.

Hamas also accused the PA, which had initially given its blessing to the event, of "spreading moral corruption."

For those of you who think that now that they have the Dayton troops, Fatah no longer fears Hamas, think again.

Israel Matzav: 'Miss Palestine' contest canceled

Israel Matzav: Israelis to boycott British goods?

Israelis to boycott British goods?

A petition prepared by MK Ronit Tirosh (Kadima) that calls on Israelis to boycott British goods has garnered 41 signatures thus far in the 120-member Knesset. The petition is in response to British action in labeling goods from Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights as coming from those areas and not from Israel. According to Tirosh, labeling goods in that manner vitiates the need for negotiations by pre-determining their outcome.

Tirosh revealed last Wednesday that she was preparing a petition calling on the public to reconsider its use of British companies' goods and services. Forty-one MKs from both coalition and opposition parties signed on to the petition, which is not the first - but is certainly the most widely supported - call to boycott British goods launched from within the Knesset. Tirosh's petition was designed to protest the recent guidelines issued by the British government permitting retailers to mark differently goods produced by West Bank Jewish residents and West Bank Arab residents so that shoppers could more effectively avoid settler-produced goods.

Tirosh described the meeting with [British ambassador to Israel Tom] Phillips as "very pleasant" but added that "the country that he represents believes that everything over the Green Line is illegitimate, and thus they have no problem in responding to what he described as a 'grassroots' call for transparency."

Phillips, Tirosh said, told her that the British government was acting according to guidelines issued by the European Union, and that "we have to be sure that we don't mislead the customers."

Tirosh said that she asked whether the West Bank labeling would also appear on products produced in east Jerusalem, but Phillips told her that he did not have an immediate answer.

"My impression was that the next step is east Jerusalem," Tirosh told The Jerusalem Post following the meeting.

Phillips, she said, repeatedly emphasized that the labeling guidelines were not because of a boycott, but merely to "increase transparency."

Yeah, right. And Hitler built the concentration camp ovens to bake bread.

Israel Matzav: Israelis to boycott British goods?

Israel Matzav: Hamas was behind Livni's UK arrest

Hamas was behind Livni's UK arrest

The Times of London is reporting that - shocka - Hamas was behind the aborted attempt to have opposition leader Tzipi Livni arrested in England last week, and they're not just operating in England (Hat Tip: Power Line).

Diya al-Din Madhoun, who heads the Hamas committee set up to coordinate the campaign, said that it had “all the political and military leaders of the occupation in our sights”, although he did not specify its future targets. He told The Times: “This has absolutely become our policy.”

The committee of legal specialists was established after the Gaza offensive to investigate allegations of war crimes carried out by Israeli forces. It compiled 1,500 cases over several months and started to encourage alleged victims to file charges against Israeli leaders in countries such as Britain, Spain, Belgium and Norway, according to Mr Madhoun. The committee intended to put the victims of alleged crimes in touch with lawyers and legal institutions in Europe, he said. “We do this as a government trying to protect our people and prevent these massacres from recurring.”

Hamas had not been involved directly in filing legal cases or contracting lawyers, he said, but its governing administration had acted as a facilitator. “We have provided a group of independent lawyers in Britain with documents, information and evidence concerning war crimes committed by Israeli political and military leaders, including Ms Livni.”

John Hinderaker at Power Line attributes Europe's openness to these types of shenanigans to the fact that Europe is teeming with Muslims, while it drove out most of its Jews two generations ago. There's something to that, but Europe was a hotbed of anti-Semitism long before it was overrun by Muslims.

Israel Matzav: Hamas was behind Livni's UK arrest

Israel Matzav: Chicago Pakistani scouted Indian nuclear plant

Chicago Pakistani scouted Indian nuclear plant

Pakistani-born David Headley, who scouted the Chabad center in Mumbai for the Pakistani terrorists who murdered six people there last year, also scouted an Indian nuclear weapons plant with a view to attacking the plant (Hat Tip: Jihad Watch).

The Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Tromboy is capable of producing 66 pounds of plutonium a year for four the country's nuclear weapons, according to David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security.

"You would have had one helluva international crisis if they had taken control of the facility and caused some kind of accident with a serious release of radioactive material," said Albright.

"There have always been questions about India's nuclear security and because it's located on the water and not far from Mumbai, it would be a logical target," added Albright.

...

The impact of such an attack would depend on the quality of the attacking force and their objective, said Lt. Steve Margolis of the Los Angeles Police Department, the former head of the department's anti-terror unit.

"It depends on what they were trying to achieve. Were they intending immediate panic, were they intending creating a loss of confidence in India's nuclear program? Were they looking for potential release / exposure?," said Margolis.

Can you imagine if they had released nuclear energy and killed a few hundred thousand people? I know that India is technically a proliferator as far as much of the world is concerned, but on humanitarian grounds they should be helped to do a better job of protecting that plant. If Israel has one, at least it's located in a desert.

Let's continue to pretend that the jihad isn't our collective enemy, eh Barack? What could go wrong?

Israel Matzav: Chicago Pakistani scouted Indian nuclear plant

Israel Matzav: Auschwitz sign found

Auschwitz sign found

The sign that hung at the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp was found on Sunday night in northern Poland cut into three pieces. Five men have been arrested in connection with the theft.

Padlo said police detained five men between the ages of 25 and 39 and took them for questioning to Krakow, which is the regional command of the area that includes the Auschwitz museum.

Another police spokesman, Dariusz Nowak, said the 16-foot (5-meter) sign, made of hollow steel, was found cut into three pieces, each containing one of the words. The cruelly ironic phrase means ''Work Sets You Free'' and ran completely counter to the purpose of Auschwitz, which began as a concentration camp for political prisoners during the Nazi occupation of Poland and evolved into an extermination camp where Jews were gassed to death in factory-like fashion.

The police refused to divulge any details of the circumstances in which the sign was found or to speculate on the motive of the perpetrators. They were expected to disclose more at a news conference in Krakow planned for 0800 GMT (3 a.m. EST) Monday.

I will update this post when I know more.

UPDATE 11:33 AM

Israel Radio reports that Polish police have said that the thieves stole the sign for pecuniary rewards and do not belong to any neo-Nazi groups.

But what about the people who paid them to steal it?

Israel Matzav: Auschwitz sign found

Israel Matzav: New book: Why Jews make common cause with their enemies

New book: Why Jews make common cause with their enemies

Canadian David Solway has written a new book called Hear, O Israel, which explores why Jews turn on themselves and make common cause with their enemies.

Hear, O Israel!’s chapter titles give a good sense of what preoccupies him: “We Are All Israeli,” “The Darkness of Anti-Semitism,” “A House Divided,” and “The Question” (in a nutshell: why are Jews — not all, but a disconcerting number — so prone to turn on themselves and make common cause with those who would delight in their extermination?).

Solway is an omnivorous researcher, rooting out polemical truffles from ancient religious texts, eminent historians, presidential speeches, imams’ sermons, academic treatises, today’s newspapers, and yesterday’s blog posts with uniform curiosity and a knack for artful synthesis, every debating point issuing from a tidy braid of thematic skeins drawn from a gamut of sources.

He is fiercely critical of intellectuals who permit ideology to trump scholarly integrity, coming down particularly hard on corrupted Jewish and Israeli academics. To illustrate the insanely convoluted lengths to which post-Zionist Israeli ideologues will go to vilify their country, for example, he contemptuously cites a thesis (accepted, even lauded) by Israeli sociologue Tal Nitzan, claiming that “the absence of military rape of Palestinian women is no different from military rape itself, since it ‘strengthens the ethnic boundaries … just as military rape would have done’ — Palestinian women are obviously humiliated and relegated to inferior status in being so loftily shunned by Israeli soldiers.” That this self-loathing perversion of reason — “non”-rape by Israelis equals racism! — today passes for scholarship is a damning indicator of leftist academic culture.

Solway’s high-octane writing snaps, crackles, and pops with savage but disciplined indignation. He’s been criticized for his habit (far more prevalent in The Big Lie than here) of using $50 words where $10 ones would do, but I usually find his more recondite vocabulary has been chosen for precision, not pretension: I found “proprioceptive hatred” a deliciously original and evocative description of an English Jewish academic’s revulsion for Israel.

Solway brings a staggering litany of supportive data and citations to his argumentation, at once a strength and a weakness. It can be argued that because the anti-Zionist juggernaut — academic unions, Israel Apartheid Week apparatchiks — depends so heavily on a seductive cocktail of lies, distortions, and emotive “narrative,” the world needs the strong antidote. On the other hand, his mountains of evidence swathed in fulminatory prose will intimidate sensitive peaceniks, political fence-sitters, and cultural relativists — which is to say, the kind of people who think Obama is The One. Which explains why Solway’s most respectful readers are hawkish Americans who cluster for comfort and motivation around U.S. conservative websites such as Pajamas Media and FrontPage Magazine, where Solway has found a congenial niche.

Sounds like a book I want to read. Read the whole thing.

Israel Matzav: New book: Why Jews make common cause with their enemies

Israel Matzav: The moment of truth?

The moment of truth?

This time it seems to be for real.

The security cabinet met three times on Sunday, and is meeting again on Monday morning. There is apparently a deal on the table. Israel Radio just reported that Netanyahu is opposed to sending terrorists who murdered Jews with their own hands to their former homes in Judea and Samaria. He is apparently willing to send them to Gaza. Not good.

While every Israeli sympathizes with the Shalit family's plight, it's obtuse to put hundreds of civilians at risk to free one soldier.

More later today.

Israel Matzav: The moment of truth?

Love of the Land: National Geographic’s Distorted View of Israel Persists

National Geographic’s Distorted View of Israel Persists

MK
CAMERA/Snapshots
21 December 09

The film's serious flaws remain unchanged in the December 15, 2009 prime-time re-broadcast just as in the previous 2009 re-broadcasts in April. The basic problem is that the perspective of Judaism’s holiest site presented by this film is a problematic Muslim view and the political view favored is a skewed Arab one.

“We stand by our film and do not intend to make any changes.”

With these words (in an August 16, 2007 letter), National Geographic Television’s President, Michael Rosenfeld, dismissed CAMERA’s recommendations for changes to the network’s “Secrets of Jerusalem’s Holiest Sites.” The recommendations were related to inaccuracies and distortions pointed out in a July 2007 CAMERA letter to Mr. Rosenfeld. The letter was discussed in an October 3, 2007 CAMERA article.

However, revisions of this flawed film are not likely as long as NGT, like its parent, the enormously prosperous “non-profit” National Geographic Society, continues to view itself as impervious to criticism. Such changes would also require overcoming National Geographic’s traditional anti-Israel bias.

(Continue article)

Love of the Land: National Geographic’s Distorted View of Israel Persists

Love of the Land: British judges being dangled like marionettes by Hamas: Group admits it was accomplice to UK court warrant against Tzipi Livni

British judges being dangled like marionettes by Hamas: Group admits it was accomplice to UK court warrant against Tzipi Livni

Robin Shepherd
Robin Shepherd Online
21 December 09

If I have said it once, I have said it a hundred times on this website: there is a price to be paid for indulging anti-Zionist bigotry and it is a price which may be paid by some of the most treasured institutions of one’s own society.

British newspapers are reporting today that the anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying terror group Hamas (no they don’t describe Hamas that way on the BBC, but it happens to be accurate) played a key role in building the case which led to an arrest warrant being issued against former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni by a court in London 10 days ago.

The Times, in a report whose substance was repeated by the Daily Telegraph, quoted Hamas operative Diya al-Din Madhoun, who runs the terror group’s coordinating committee on such matters, as saying:

“We have provided a group of independent lawyers in Britain with documents, information and evidence concerning war crimes committed by Israeli political and military leaders, including Ms Livni.”

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Love of the Land: British judges being dangled like marionettes by Hamas: Group admits it was accomplice to UK court warrant against Tzipi Livni

Love of the Land: LA Times Whitewashes Opposition to Gaza Wall

LA Times Whitewashes Opposition to Gaza Wall

TS
CAMERA/Snapshots
21 December 09

A new underground wall is going up along one of Gaza's borders, and Jimmy Carter's confusion notwithstanding, it's not the border with Israel. In fact, it is Egypt that is building a 10-kilometer long underground steel wall to prevent tunneling, and Gazans are none too happy, as the Los Angeles Times reports:

"Whether it is a wall, sensors or tapping devices ... what matters is that Egyptian territory must be protected. Whoever says Egypt is imposing its control on the border, we tell them this is Egypt's full right," Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying by Al Ahram Al Arabi weekly magazine.

The foreign minister's statements prompted Arab nationalist politicians and writers to accuse the government of President Hosni Mubarak of serving Israel's and the United States' interests at the expense of fellow Arab Palestinians. The matter highlights Egypt's close geographical and emotional ties to the Palestinians but also the complex political dilemma it faces in attempting to undercut Hamas.

LA Times writers Amro Hassan and Jeffrey Fleishman go on to detail statements by Arab officials and observers opposed to the wall and disputing Egypt's stated security concerns. But Arab opposition to the Gaza-Egypt wall is not limited to mere words -- so far, there have been four incidents of Gazans shooting on Egyptian construction workers --violent acts ignored by Hassan and Fleishman.

(Full article)

Love of the Land: LA Times Whitewashes Opposition to Gaza Wall

Love of the Land: High Court Petition: Captured Hamas Terrorists Must Be Tried as War Criminals

High Court Petition: Captured Hamas Terrorists Must Be Tried as War Criminals

Shurat HaDin
Israel Law Center
21 December 09

The human rights organization Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center has filed a petition today to the High Court of Justice (BAGATZ) in Jerusalem demanding that Hamas terrorists arrested by Israel be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity, not just murder as is the current practice.

According to the petition, the Attorney General violated Israeli law by refusing to indict the terrorists who fire rockets into Israel for war crimes and crimes against humanity—crimes that carry a life sentence without the possibility of pardon or early release.

Israel is bound by the humanitarian provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as well as the Hague Convention and other international treaties, which stipulate that the deliberate targeting of civilians in the context of an armed conflict is a war crime; while the deliberate and systemic assault against a particular civilian population constitutes a crime against humanity.

By engaging in terror activity and deliberately launching Kassam and Grad rockets into Israeli civilian centers during Operation Cast Lead, Hamas activists repeatedly and systematically targeted civilians, and specifically Israeli civilians, for murder—placing them squarely in the definition of both war crimes and crimes against humanity. Citing previous Supreme Court rulings, the petition notes that such international law has been accepted as binding on Israeli courts and law enforcement authorities.

(Continue article)

Love of the Land: High Court Petition: Captured Hamas Terrorists Must Be Tried as War Criminals

Love of the Land: Israel's settlements are legal

Israel's settlements are legal

Geoffrey Alderman
The Jewish Chronicle
17 December 09

What role, if any, does the present UK government see for itself as a peacemaker in the Middle East? Does it see itself as an honest broker, or has it already taken sides? Some developments over the past fortnight — which build on the lesson we must learn from the UK government’s refusal to condemn or even criticise the Goldstone report — do I think enable us to answer these important questions.

At the beginning of the month, feverish diplomatic to-ing and fro-ing in Brussels centred on a Swedish attempt to have EU member states endorse a resolution demanding the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. This proposal was defeated –- thanks to some impressive manoeuvring by Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman. Instead, on December 8, EU Foreign Ministers announced their agreement that Jerusalem must become a “shared” capital.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was clearly annoyed that the Swedish draft had been killed off. But the British government was among the backers of the Swedish proposal and, within 48 hours of its defeat, presented Mr Abbas with a consolation prize. On December 10, the department for the environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA) published new guidance to shops and supermarkets on the labelling of produce sold in the UK that originated from Judea and Samaria. Hitherto, such goods have been labelled as “Produce of the West Bank.” Henceforth, warned DEFRA, they should be branded either as “Palestinian Produce” or “Israeli Settlement Produce.”

A spokesman for UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband wasted no time in explaining that “this is emphatically not about calling for a boycott of Israel. We believe that would do nothing to advance the peace process. We oppose any such boycott of Israel. We believe consumers should be able to choose for themselves what produce they buy.” But, he added ominously: “we have been very clear, both in public and in private, that settlements are illegal and an obstacle to peace.” And in an announcement (hilariously labelled “technical advice”) quite separate from its new guidance on labelling, DEFRA’s head, Hilary Benn, warned that UK food outlets would be committing a criminal offence if they labelled produce that originated in Judea and Samaria as “produce of Israel”.

(Read full article)

Love of the Land: Israel's settlements are legal

Love of the Land: Tell it to the Vatican: Christianity is not land or shrine bound

Tell it to the Vatican: Christianity is not land or shrine bound

Jewish Israel
15 December 09

When it comes to Vatican negotiations and property issues, Jewish Israel sort of feels like we’ve been there and done that here, here, here, here... wait, simply go to the search facility in the upper right -hand corner of this screen and search for “Vatican”. This writer has been addressing the issue of the Vatican’s designs on Mt. Zion since October 2005 when I penned “Vatican’t “, and it just won’t go away.

Mention Vatican property and tax issues in Israel and the subject of the Cenacle Shrine (Last Supper Room or Coenaculum) on Mt. Zion inevitably comes up, as evidenced by recent local and international headlines here, here,here, here and here.

So it was a little disconcerting to know that Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, that great champion of interfaith cooperation and Christian rights in the Holy Land, was handling negotiations for Israel. Although, he clearly declared his intentions to “assert Israel's right to all parts of the King David's Tomb compound if the issue is raised during upcoming meetings at the Vatican.”

Well, according to YNET, it seems Daniel kept to his word, as their headlines on December 10th announced “Israel's talks with Vatican fail” . The report cited that “the failure mostly stems from disagreement in respect to the Vatican's demand for sovereignty at the Last Supper Room on Jerusalem's Mount Zion.” (hat tip to JI member Toby).

Meanwhile a December 11th joint Israel-Holy See statement described the most recent round of talks between the two sides as being held in “an atmosphere of cordiality and mutual understanding”, with talks resuming on January 7th. (hat tip to JI member Yisrael).

How important is the Upper Room shrine to Christianity?

(Read full article)

Love of the Land: Tell it to the Vatican: Christianity is not land or shrine bound

Love of the Land: What We Mean When We Talk About Reforming Islam

What We Mean When We Talk About Reforming Islam

Daniel Greenfield
Sultan Knish
20 December 09

There is of course a great deal of talk about reforming Islam these days, and just about anyone from Tariq Ramadan to the Saudi King, to people who actually see what is wrong with Islam and want to reform it, can legitimately claim the title of the reformer of Islam. But that is because the question of what exactly "Reforming Islam" means remains open.


To begin with "Reforming Islam" means one thing to Western audiences and another thing entirely to Muslims. To Westerners "Reforming Islam" means bringing it into compliance with civilized norms of conduct. To Muslims it means stripping away the corruption of later eras and returning it to the pure Islam of Mohammed.

The most successful reformers of Islam within the Muslim world are not Wafa Sultan, Ali Sina or Irshad Manji... but Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab who created Wahhabism, Hassan al Banna who founded the Muslim Brotherhood and Osama bin Laden. And while that may seem insane or absurd from a Western perspective, after all three men inspired orgies of mass murder and horrifying brutality-- they did indubitably try to bring Islam closer to its roots. The problem is that Islam's roots are more rotten and darker than its branches.

From the Islamic perspective, reforming Islam requires a purer Islam. From the Western perspective, reforming Islam actually requires a less pure Islam that is capable of implementing such foreign to it ideas as tolerance and co-existence. By contrast Muslims believe that whatever problems there are in Islam are the result of human corruption and innovations added to Islam over the centuries. A pure Islam is their final solution for ending the constant corruption in Muslim countries and creating a Caliphate run under Islamic law.

The question then comes down to just what is it about Islam that needs reforming. From the Western point of view, Islam's expansiveness, aggression, violence and intolerance are what need reforming. From the Islamist point of view, they are the hallmarks of what a pure Islam should be, intolerant of any intellectual miscegenation and unwilling to accept anything less than absolute dominance in the name of Allah.

(Read full article)

Love of the Land: What We Mean When We Talk About Reforming Islam

Love of the Land: "Palestinians spend $500m on settlement goods"

"Palestinians spend $500m on settlement goods"

Elder of Ziyon
20 December 09

From Ma'an:

Palestinians spend about a half billion US dollars every year buying products made in Israeli settlements, Palestinian Minister of Economy Hassan Abu Libdeh on Sunday.

Abu Libdeh, speaking during a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce in Nablus in the northern West Bank, was explaining the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) decision to crack down on the sale of settlement products.

He told investors, business figures, and local officials that his ministry decided that 2010 would be the last year settlement products would be allowed the Palestinian market.

But, despite some reservations, the PA will continue to abide by the Paris Protocol, the 1994 agreement that dictates that there are no economic barriers between it and Israel.

This number seems very high. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2007 the PA imported some $2.3 billion of goods from Israel altogether. It seems unlikely that over 20% of their goods imported from Israel originate in the territories.

(Continue reading)

Love of the Land: "Palestinians spend $500m on settlement goods"

Love of the Land: Eurabia vs. Israel on Jerusalem

Eurabia vs. Israel on Jerusalem

P. David Hornik
FrontPagemag.com
21 December 09

The recent Swiss vote to ban minarets was seen by many as a further indication that European populations are waking up to the threat of Europe’s Islamization and the need to stop the trend. If so, the European Union—the centralized bureaucracy that, as documented in Bat Ye’or’s important book Eurabia, went “over the heads” of European publics to meld the European and Arab/Muslim civilizations in the first place—still hasn’t caught up and remains locked in a pro-Arab/Muslim disposition.

At least, the EU’s stance on Jerusalem would suggest so. Last week the new EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, “came down hard on the Israeli government” in her maiden speech to the European Parliament and said:

“East Jerusalem is occupied territory together with the West Bank. The EU is opposed to the destruction of homes, the eviction of Arab residents and the construction of the separation barrier.”

Her words prompted Israel’s deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon to reply:

“Just as the Romans did not succeed in cutting off Jerusalem from Israel, so too will diplomats from the UN and the EU be unsuccessful as well.”

Ashton, previously the EU’s trade commissioner and expected to be given considerable authority as a new sort of EU foreign minister, also called Israel’s recently launched ten-month moratorium on settlement construction a “first step”—representing, as the EUobserver comments, “a cooler tone than EU foreign ministers who last week took ‘positive note’ of the move.”

The EUobserver also pointed out that the speech was

“significant for what it left out: Ms Ashton did not say that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, that it faces a security threat from Palestinian ‘terrorists’ or that Palestinians should immediately return to formal peace talks—the classic tenets of Israeli supporters.”

Ashton’s statements also come hard on the heels of an EU-Israel spat over Jerusalem in which the EU explicitly called for East Jerusalem to become the capital of a Palestinian state. That demand was later only partially toned-down under intense Israeli objections.

(Full article)

Love of the Land: Eurabia vs. Israel on Jerusalem