Saturday, December 07, 2013

Op-Ed: Mandela Was an Enemy of Israel

Mandela was an enabler of anti-Semitic terrorism.



In 1990, Mandela likened Israel to a “terrorist state” and declared that “we do not regard the PLO as a terrorist organization.
Nelson Mandela has already been mourned by many Jews around the world. And for good reasons. When Mandela was released from prison by de Klerk, he showed statesmanship and reconciliation rather than revenge.
But his biography reveals that he was an enemy of the Israeli people.
A post-apartheid Pretoria that joins in boycotting Jerusalem is one of the more powerful victories for the boycott and divestment campaign. And it’s Nelson Mandela’s legacy.

Historically, black leaders in South Africa such as Desmond Tutu viewed the Jews as a part of the “capitalist camp”, and therefore exploitative of the blacks. Neo Mnumzama, chief representative of the ANC (Mandela’s party) at the United Nations, called Zionism an “ally of apartheid” and “an accomplice in the perpetuation of the crimes of Pretoria against the South African people”.
In Mandela’s twisted version, Israel and South Africa - both, in his view, under apartheid rule - were small bastions of Western interests surrounded by a larger and non-Western people; both governed hostile majorities, using force and denying rights to subjugate them; both were run by nationalistic, racist governments unwilling to grant rights to these people but anxious to exploit labor.
Mandela always made it clear that those who are the enemies of the Jews are not necessarily his enemies.

Hamas Interior Minister: "We shall be coming with a third Intifada" and will establish "Islamic Caliphate"

Jihad Watch



"As far as I am concerned, there is no difference between our policies and those of Hamas." -- Mahmoud Abbas, March 15, 2013
"Of course, Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with anyone who is dedicated to its destruction. But while I know you have had differences with the Palestinian Authority, I believe that you do have a true partner in President Abbas..." -- Barack Obama, March 21, 2013
"Hamas Interior Minister Calls for Third Intifada and Declares: We Will Establish Islamic Caliphate," from MEMRI, n.d.:
In a public address in Gaza on November 13, Hamas Minister of the Interior Fathi Hammad proclaimed: "We shall liberate our Al-Aqsa Mosque, and our cities and villages, as a prelude to the establishment of the future Islamic Caliphate." In the address, which was broadcast by the Hamas Al-Aqsa TV channel, Hammad called on Fatah to cease negotiations with Israel and declared: "We shall be coming with a third Intifada, an armed revolution, a Jihadi revolution," in which "Gaza and the West Bank will fuse together, along with our brothers within the 1948 borders... in order to uproot the Jews."

Civilization and the Knockout Game

Sultan Knish

The Jewish part of Crown Heights is a narrow island a handful of blocks in length and width.

The names; Empire Boulevard, President Street, Eastern Parkway, Montgomery Street; reflect an old vanished grandeur. Like Constantinople after the sack, there are still traces of the old empire, but the faint images of men in top hats and tails walking up the brownstone steps, slightly tipsy after a party, have given way to car alarms and broken glass. There is no longer any romance to the darkness.

Walk one block out of the way and you're suddenly in a dangerous neighborhood. Kingston Avenue is its major commercial street full of bakeries, restaurants, butcher stores, a fish store and children's clothing shops. Intersecting it is President Street; full of lush dilapidated mansions from its past history when it was known as Millionaire's Row.

Thursday, December 05, 2013

"Human rights organizations" ignoring Rafah crossing

Elder of Ziyon

Maher Abu Sabha, Hamas' director of the Rafah crossing into Egypt, said that Egypt promised to open the crossing next week, although it was unclear exactly when or for how many days.

The crossing, the only direct connection between Gazans and the Arab world, has been closed for seven days in a row and has been open only sporadically for months. Even when it is open, only a fraction of the daily passenger traffic allowed under the previous Egyptian regime has been allowed to trickle through in both directions. The average number of travelers allowed to cross in June averaged over 1800 people daily, but in November during the days Rafah was open the number of people allowed across averaged closer to 100 a day - in either direction. This includes patients who need to go to Egypt for medical reasons. This is far less than the number allowed to cross the Erez crossing into Israel.

This is roughly a 95% reduction in the ability of Gazans to travel to Egypt.

Austrian mayor: Journalists should be hanged like Jews

BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
12/05/2013

Mayor of the city of Gföhl is furious about asylum seekers, blames journalists for reporting on them.

Gfoehl city mayor Karl Simlinger.
Gfoehl city mayor Karl Simlinger. Photo: Gfoehl.at
BERLIN - The mayor of the Austrian town of Gföhl said on Tuesday in city council meeting that journalists who reported on asylum seekers should be hanged like the Jews.

Surprise, Surprise! Iran takes no time spitting into the faces of Obama/Kerry/World while negating Nuclear Agreement

SOURCE: Saudi Gazette

Iran Foreign Minister Zarif states unequivocally, “Iran has final say on Nuclear enrichment”

Agence France Presse

His (F.M.Zarif) remarks appeared to conflict with the landmark nuclear deal struck with world powers in Geneva last weekend.
TEHRAN “Iran will decide the level of uranium enrichment in its nuclear program based on its energy and other civilian needs,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in remarks reported Saturday[20 Nov.].

His remarks appeared to conflict with the landmark nuclear deal struck with world powers in Geneva last weekend, which states that the enrichment level must be mutually defined and agreed upon by both sides in further negotiations.

“Iran will decide the level of enrichment according to its needs for different purposes,” Zarif said late Friday night, according to the official IRNA news agency.

International Efforts to Delegitimize Israel: Comoros versus Israel at the ICC

INSS Insight No. 492
Israel and the EU recently reached a last minute compromise enabling Israel to join the EU’s research and development program, Horizon 2020. Nonetheless, the EU guidelines adopted earlier this year relating to the settlements in the West Bank will likely continue to jeopardize Israel’s international economic interests. In another development regarding Israel’s international legitimacy, nearly three years after the Israeli takeover of the ship Mavi Marmara, the Comoros Islands, where the ship was registered, filed a complaint against Israel with the International Criminal Court. There is temporary relief in the last minute understanding reached between the EU and Israel regarding Horizon 2020, and in negligible prospects for the Comoros ICC claim against Israel. However, Israel operates in an increasingly complicated and delicate environment, which demands constant sensitivity and accommodation to the numerous facets of the international arena

The Daily TIP: Reports: White House efforts to block Iran pressure generating broad, bipartisan House and Senate skepticism‏


  • Reports: White House efforts to block Iran pressure generating broad, bipartisan House and Senate skepticism
  • As Kerry prepares to present Israel with security plan, speculation swirls over credibility of U.S. security assurances
  • As reports mount Hezbollah preparing for war against Israel, leaders blame Jerusalem for overnight assassination claimed by Sunni group
  • Buzzfeed: debunked Arafat poisoning story divided Al Jazeera, generated broad international coverage anyway What we’re watching today: 
  • Wednesday, December 04, 2013

    Defense Minister Ya’alon Says Israel is Providing Humanitarian Aid to Syrian Villages


    Benjamin Netanyahu and Moshe Ya'alon observe a war drill in the Golan Heights, June 26, 2013. Photo: Israel GPO.

    Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Tuesday that Israel is providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population of Syria, sending food and water to the villages, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

    “We can not sit by in the face of humanitarian difficulties – not while they need preparations for winter and for other needs we can work to help them with,” Ya’alon said during a tour of Israel’s northern border on Tuesday. “In light of the fact that the villages here are besieged and have no access to other places, we are assisting them for humanitarian reasons, so we give water, food, baby food and humanitarian assistance.”

    Gaza Need Not Be a Sewer

    ALON TAL and YOUSEF ABU MAYLA
     
    For two decades, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists set aside their differences to call for urgent measures to address the impending water crisis in the Gaza Strip. These calls went unheeded. The price of inaction, protracted conflict and unsustainable policies is being paid today by the 1.7 million residents of Gaza, who face catastrophic conditions thanks to the collapse of Gaza’s sewage system. 

    Since the Israeli and Egyptian blockade, Gaza has not had sufficient fuel to sustain its electricity supply and keep its 290 water and sewage facilities running. The Hamas government refuses to buy alternative fuels, because taxes on these would go to the rival Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority. As a result, pumping stations ceased operation in November, and many streets in southern Gaza City are now inundated with human excrement. 

    Residents must sandbag their homes so they won’t be flooded by raw sewage. The stench is intolerable. With the pumping stations out of action, fresh water will soon cease to reach taps at all. 

    Saudis Bristle at Obama's Outreach to Iran



    The "Joint Plan of Action" signed with Iran by the so-called P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S.) on Nov. 24 in Geneva caused Shiite Arabs to celebrate, Sunni Arabs to worry, and Saudis to panic. The Saudi response will have far-reaching and unpredictable consequences.
    Jubilant crowds welcomed the Iranian negotiator home from Geneva.
    As Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Javad Zarif, brought home a deal worth about US$23 billion to Iran, Arab Shiites fell into step with Tehran. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq expressed his "full support for this step." President Bashar al-Assad of Syria welcomed the agreement as "the best path for securing peace and stability." Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri of Lebanon called it the "deal of the century." And Hezbollah considered the agreement a "great victory for Iran."
    Syria's Assad, here scratched out, praised the Geneva deal.
    Among Sunni Arabic-speakers, in contrast, responses ranged from politely supportive to displeased to alarmed. Perhaps most enthusiastic was the Egyptian governmental newspaper Al-Ahram, which called the deal "historic."

    The Two-State Delusion

     Mordechai Nisan
    Middle East Quarterly
    Winter 2014


    Two decades after the signing of the declaration of principles (DOP) by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on the White House lawn, there is something unreasonable in the world's continued adherence to the Oslo paradigm, tattered and battered as it is by years of a bloody fiasco. The Palestinian Arab leadership has consistently and adamantly rejected the two-state solution since its first articulation in 1937 by the British Peel commission[1] and has, as consistently, advocated the destruction of the Jewish state. Still, it undertook a successful public relations campaign in the 1980s promoting the notion of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip—"the occupied territories."
    Twenty years of Oslo, filled with optimism and enthusiasm and adorned with Nobel prizes, like the ones held here by Arafat, Peres and Rabin (l-r) have delivered no peace for either side of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Firmly entrenched in its place, however, is a textbook example of cognitive dissonance written on a grand political scale, as the failed Oslo paradigm is revived again and again.
    Over the years and especially in the wake of the DOP, the Palestinian demand for statehood has gained rapid political momentum and international acceptance. A succession of Israeli prime ministers—from Shimon Peres, to Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, and Binyamin Netanyahu—embraced the idea, as did U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. The paradigm for a final peace includes among its primary components Israeli territorial withdrawal and Palestinian sovereignty, political separation with reconciliation, compromise, and coexistence.

    Tuesday, December 03, 2013

    Erdogan's Latest "Morals Enforcement"

    Veli Sirin

    "We will not allow boys and girls to live together in state-owed student residences. The values I hold do not allow such a thing. Anything can happen when it is mixed....All kinds of messy things are happening." — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, AKP Party.
    "They have revoked women's rights step by step. Women should liberate themselves from a mentality that aims to lock them in the house." — Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader, CHP Party.
    "In a democracy, the state cannot play the voyeur. Stick to your own business." — Haluk Koc, CHP Party Spokesman.
    On October 31, as reported by Agence France-Presse, under the headline "Turkey women MPs break taboo to wear headscarves in parliament," Turkish Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrated the entry of four female deputies in a session of the Turkish Parliament (officially titled the Grand National Assembly) wearing Muslim headscarves. The four women represent Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, known as AKP.

    IDF Admits Terror is on the Rise in Judea, Samaria


    Gil Ronen

    Brigadier-General Tamir Yadai, Commander of the IDF's Judea and Samaria Division admitted this week that terrorism in Judea and Samaria is on the rise, and becoming more lethal.

    "In Judea and Samaria there is a new operational reality, which can be described as a threat to our forces' freedom of operation,” the commander told Central Command officers in a study day on counter-terror activity. “This has been gaining steam recently, along with a change in the characteristics of the threat and the pattern of enemy operations.”

    "The threats that are currently trending upward include more resistance during arrests, including live fire at times, and better developed terror infrastructures,” he explained.

    The Democratic Party vs. Barack Obama

    Sultan Knish

    When Obama decided to turn his campaign into a permanent Super PAC; he was stabbing the Democratic Party in the back. But he was doing it to them, before they did it to him.

    Organizing for America gave him an independent source of power and influence at the expense of the Democratic Party. Obama was carelessly draining money and energy out of his own party because whatever common interests he had with a political party, that for all its leftward swing was still too conservative for his taste, were about to be fractured during his second term.

    The Democratic Party might have been satisfied if he had retained his 2008 halo in 2015. But that was never going to happen. No matter how much the media slobbers over a politician, the voting public, at least those parts of it that don't have Hope posters and Obama holograms hanging on their walls, eventually needs a break and someone to blame.

    Geneva: A Historic and Dangerous Agreement

    Rafael L. Bardají

    In terms of nuclear infrastructure Iran will be as close to getting the bomb in six months as it is today. Geneva leaves Iran with something it was never granted before: the right to enrich uranium. It decouples technologies from the activities of a regime that has sponsored terrorism, deceived IAEA inspectors, and systematically refused to meet the requirements imposed by the United Nations. And we all know how selective sanctions work: Nobody complies. Far from concessions, Westerners can expect more intransigence.
    The idea, according to the U.S. administration, is to stimulate the Iranian leaders' appetite to lead them into more concessions in exchange for improving Iran's economy.
    The agreement reached by the group of countries known as P-5+1½ (that is, the five permanent U.N. Security Council powers plus Germany and the European Union representative) with Iran regarding its nuclear program has been rated by its proponents—President Obama's followers—as a "historic agreement," while opponents—primarily Israel and the Gulf monarchies—have criticized the deal since they consider it to be a "historic mistake." It's actually both, a historic mistaken agreement.

    Outrageous: Former Canadian ambassador says Jews, not Arabs, stoned leftist

    Michael Bell has been Canada's ambassador to Israel, Jordan and Egypt. He is an adjunct professor of political science at University of Windsor and also teaches at Carleton University.

    He is also a complete and total moron.

    I don't say things like this lightly. I really don't like to engage in ad hominem attacks. But this is the most charitable way to explain the first paragraph of this article he wrote today for the Globe and Mail,to which he is an occasional contributor.

    It is behind a paywall,  but here is what it says:
    Two weeks ago, a friend of mine, Danny Seideman, a Jerusalem lawyer who works pro bono on settlement Issues respecting Palestinians threatened by displacement, had his car stoned in East Jerusalem. He himself suffered a concussion. No suspects have been identified.

    Monday, December 02, 2013

    A Month of Horror for Christians under Islam: September 2013

    Raymond Ibrahim

    We shall come for you...you are polluting our religion." — Note apparently from al-Shabaab, Somalia
    "It seems great crackdowns on churches and extraordinary waves of arrest of Iranian pastors and Christian converts have not been effective." — Mohabat News, Iran
    The same month that Obama tried to wage war on behalf of the jihadi rebels in Syria (citing "human rights" concerns), some of the war's worst atrocities were committed against that nation's Christian minority, most notably in Ma'loula, an ancient Christian region where the inhabitants spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
    There, al-Qaeda-linked jihadis fired mortars and missiles into at least two ancient churches before looting them; some 80 Christians trying to defend their homes were killed. Others who could not flee were forced, on pain of death, to convert to Islam.
    One man's last words before being slaughtered by the rebels were: "I am a Christian, and if you want to kill me for that, I do not object to it." A nun involved with humanitarian relief said the man "is a Martyr in Christ in the full sense of this word, since he was murdered solely because of religious hatred!"
    The Christian Post reports:

    UN Resolution 181 – The Partition Plan


    In 1947, the British put the future of western Palestine into the hands of the United Nations, the successor organization to the League of Nations which had established the Mandate for Palestine. A UN Commission recommended partitioning what was left of the original Mandate – western Palestine – into two new states, one Jewish and one Arab. Jerusalem and its surrounding villages were to be temporarily classified as an international zone belonging to neither polity.

    The Israeli Left and the Myth of ‘Palestinian’ Susiya

    Maayana Miskin alt="The Left and the Myth of ‘Palestinian’ Susiya" v:shapes="_x0000_s1026">

    A legal battle over a historic site in the Hevron Hills continues, with Israeli far-left groups joining the Palestinian Authority in accusing Israel of “forced displacement” of Arab villagers in Susiya. They have won support from several international left-wing groups and media outlets as well.

    The problem:
    the “Palestinian village” that Israel is supposedly uprooting never existed.

    Tzviki Bar-Hai, the head of the Har Hevron regional council, explained the issue in an interview with Arutz Sheva. Bar-Hai has seen the development of the archaeological site at Susiya – which is home to the remains of an ancient Jewish village - from day one.

    Not only did “Palestinian Susiya” not exist in the 1800s, as has been claimed by the far-left group B’Tselem, but it did not even exist in the 1980s, he reported.

    What happened to the Jews who lived in Muslim lands?


    jewishrefugees.jpg

    The establishment of the State of Israel was considered to have made the Jews kaffir harbi, Infidels at war with Islam, whose contract of protection (dhimma) was thus revoked. These expulsions and killings followed. "November Is the Cruelest Month," by Lyn Julius in (of all places) the Huffington Post, November 25:
    To paraphrase TS Eliot, November was always a cruel month for Jewish citizens of Arab states - and never more so than in the 1940s.
    Three popular myths surround the 870,000 Jews who left Arab countries after Israel was born. The first is that they departed of their own free will. Second, if they did flee as refugees, it was because Arab states lashed out spontaneously against their Jewish citizens like a bull to a red rag (and who could blame them?). Third, the Arab states took revenge on their Jews for the plight of Arabs driven out of Palestine.

    A Man Discovers He’s Sitting With ‘Kids’ He Saved From Nazis (VIDEO)

     
    Nicholas Winton Czech Kindertransport
    In December 1938 — on the eve of World War II — a British stockbroker named Nicholas Winton was readying himself to leave for a skiing vacation when he was summoned unexpectedly by his friend.
    I’m in Prague. I have a most interesting assignment and I need your help. Don’t bother bringing your skis.
    Upon arrival in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Nicholas Winton found that he had traded his skiing vacation for working at a refugee camp for people who had been vacated from Western Czechoslovakia by Nazis after it was annexed by Germany.

    Israeli leftist hit in head by Palestinian rock blames … (Spoiler Alert: Israel)

     
    Can Israel survive its own leftists?
    Palestinian Children throw rocks Jerusalem
    Daniel Seidemann is an Israeli who runs a non-governmental organization, Terrestrial Jersusalem, that describes itself as ” an Israeli non-governmental organization that works to identify and track the full spectrum of developments in Jerusalem that could impact either the political process or permanent status options, destabilize the city or spark violence, or create humanitarian crises.”
    According to NGO Monitor, Terrestrial Jerusalem receives its funding mostly from Europeans and one U.S. foundation and actively seeks to undermine Israeli policies which seek to maintain, among other things, a unified Jerusalem under full Israeli control.

    Seideman has written that he sees some measure of re-division of Jerusalem as inevitable and considers Israeli actions as contrary to the peace process:

    If you questioned we have been thrown under the bus-well...

    US Calls Netanyahu 'Desperate and Weak'

    Israeli TV quotes senior officials in the White House, State Department, dismissing PM's objection to Iran deal.

    Obama and Netanyahu
    Obama and Netanyahu

    Senior officials in the White House have said that Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “is desperate and weak,” in reaction to Netanyahu's remonstrations against the deal struck with Iran over its nuclear weapons program.

    Israeli television Channel 10 quoted the officials as saying “His pronouncements show a lack of self-confidence,” in an unusually harsh personal attack on Netanyahu. “We are not perturbed by his vocal opposition.”

    Netanyahu was also raked over the coals Sunday by he man he replaced in the prime minister's bureau, Ehud Olmert, who accused him of bringing relations with the US to an “unprecedented” low point. However Netanyahu is showing no sign of flagging in his campaign against the policies of the US and the other P5+1 powers.

    PM Netanyahu in Rome says will not be silent‏

    PM Netanyahu's Remarks at the Candle-Lighting Ceremony for the Fifth Night of Chanukah at the Great Synagogue in Rome
    (Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
     
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Sunday, 1 December 2013), at the Great Synagogue in Rome, made the following remarks at the candle-lighting ceremony for the fifth night of Chanukah:
     
    "In contrast to others, when I see that interests vital to the security of
    Israel's citizens are in danger, I will not be silent.

    Sunday, December 01, 2013

    Who Runs Israel?

    Elise Cooper

    Now in the midst of Hanukkah, and having just seen the relationship between the U.S. and Israel fall to an all-time low, there is a need to understand how the American president and the Israeli prime minister can impact the survival of the Jewish state.  This is powerfully emphasized with the newly released film, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers.


    The first of two parts, this film focuses on the years former Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Avner spent working with Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir, as well as U.S. Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin.  Avner's recollections bring to light new details about the Six-Day War, the development of Israel's close strategic relationship with the United States, the fight against terrorism, and the Yom Kippur War and its aftermath.  American Thinker interviewed the film's director and producer, Richard Trank, as well as Andrew Kaplan, the author of the Homeland and Scorpion series who also was a former military aide to Moshe Dayan, the fourth chief of staff of the IDF, during those years.

    Israel Can't Count on America - Can It Count on Itself?

    A list of historical facts that justify the title of the article.


    America today is the same America that:
    1.Stopped Jewish immigration in the twenties.
    2. Turned anti-Semitic in the depression
    3. Allowed its citizens to finance the Nazi war machine.
    4. Banned Jewish refugees from entering the US during the Holocaust.
    5. Refused to bomb the railways transporting Jews to extermination centers.
    6. Refused to bomb the extermination camps.
    7. Was against the creation of Israel. Fortunately counter-manded by Pres Truman.

    Ministers Approve IMI Privatization Plan

    Plan Competitive Bid on New, Debt-Free Firm

      By BARBARA OPALL-ROME 
    A Merkava tank, a large portion of which are produced by Israel Military Industries, rolls in a training field in the Golan Heights.
    A Merkava tank, a large portion of which are produced by Israel Military Industries, rolls in a training field in the Golan Heights. (Agence France-Presse)

    TEL AVIV — The Israel government is planning a competitive, international bid for the sale of Israel Military Industries (IMI) following a unanimous Nov. 27 ministerial committee decision to privatize the nation’s oldest defense firm.

    Ministerial approval, at a milestone meeting at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, appears to end a 20-year dispute among MoD, the Treasury and Israel’s powerful labor unions over terms and conditions for privatizing the debt-ridden, yet strategically significant and potentially profitable defense firm.

    With a company-reported backlog of US $1.41 billion extending through 2016 and 2012 annual sales of $560 million, government and industry sources assess IMI’s purchase price at about $650 million.

    Iran envoy: Tehran, Ankara have 'close' intel ties

    Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Alireza Bikdeli tells reporters that intelligence services are working in "close collaboration".

    Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
    Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer 
     
    Iranian and Turkish intelligence services maintain close cooperation and will continue efforts to boost relations, Turkish daily Hurriyet cited Iran's Ambassador to Ankara Alireza Bikdeli as saying Friday.