Saudi but stateless: born on the margins of society

Assad Abboud

AFP

• 

Stateless women stand at a makeshift home in a poor neighbourhood, east of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, on July 10, 2013. Born of tribal origin in Saudi Arabia, stateless people known as bidoons live on society's margins, unable even to register marriages or open a bank account because they lack identification cards. (AFP/File)

• 

A stateless woman shows a medical report of her sick son at their makeshift shelter in an impoverished neighborhood east of the Saudi capital Riyadh on July 10, 2013. The bidoons have long been marginalised and are not entitled to state-provided services and benefits. (AFP/File)

• 

The child of a stateless family plays outside his makeshift home in an impoverished neighbourhood, east of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, on July 10, 2013. The stateless nomads, known as bidoons, were originally traveling between Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan. (AFP/File)

• 

A stateless man speaks during an interview with AFP at an office east of Saudi capital of Riyadh on July 9, 2013. Born of tribal origin in Saudi Arabia, stateless people known as bidoons live on society's margins, unable even to register marriages or open a bank account because they lack identification cards. (AFP/File)

Next Slide Previous Slide

RIYADH (AFP) –  Born of tribal origin in Saudi Arabia, stateless people known as bidoons live on society's margins, unable even to register marriages or open a bank account because they lack identification cards.

"Our life is frozen, suspended. We don't have access to services or medical care," complained Abu Ibrahim, 50, as he sat on a floor covered with a modest carpet, an old air conditioner humming in the background.

"From One Thing to the Next"

Very often mid-summer is a quiet time. But that's sure not the case this year.  I find myself prioritizing news events in order to decide what to write about in the time I have...

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu is very busy these days "preparing" for "peace negotiations," which, given the dubious status of the situation, leaves me scratching my head in confusion. 

 

But that's just figuratively -- a way of saying that it seems strange.  Because I think I have it (i.e., him) figured out.

Optimism and Pessimism On The New Round Of Peace Talks

 Ottomans and Zionists
July 25, 2013


Now that reports are surfacing that negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians are scheduled to begin in Washington on Tuesday – although there are also conflicting reports that Saeb Erekat is going to stay home until the Israelis agree to use the 1967 lines as the basis for negotiations over the final border – it seems like a good time to lay out some reasons for optimism and reasons for pessimism about whether these talks are fated to go anywhere. Since I am generally pretty cynical about such things, let’s start with the reasons why I think the talks may fail. One of the biggest obstacles is the domestic politics involved. Brent Sasley has written a thorough piece arguing that the politics right now on the Israeli side are actually favorable for meaningful negotiations and concessions, but I tend to see things differently.

Want Israeli-Palestinian Peace?

Fiamma Nirenstein
July 25, 2013 

How can any public support a peace agreement with the "sons of monkeys and pigs"?

In Israel, even those who are afraid that the Israelis and the Palestinians may leave the negotiating table are hopeful. Talks may begin. The Palestinians waived their preconditions, which included the 1967 borders and halting construction in the territories, but will obtain the release of dangerous prisoners. Israel's Prime Minster, Binyamin Netanyahu, however, was categorical: before the start of true talks, as we've seen time and time again, the strategy has too often been "take the money (or the prisoners) and run." So long as there are no terrorist attacks, the hint of optimism in the air will continue. Negotiations, however, make sense only under one condition: Stop the Hate.

West Bank Palestinians Enter Israel through Gaps in Security Barrier

(Maan News-PA)   http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=615453

    Thousands of Palestinian workers regularly cross through a valley in al-Walaja and climb up a mountain to reach Jerusalem in about an hour, without encountering a single sign that marked a border.
    Having no legal work permit, they cross from the West Bank into Israel through one of many large gaps in the security barrier.
    According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the separation wall has reduced Palestinian attacks in Israel by 90%, yet after ten years of construction, only 62% of the barrier has been completed.

The Danger of Human Rights Proliferation

When Defending Liberty, Less Is More

Jacob Mchangama and Guglielmo Verdirame

 

Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez addresses the UN General Assembly in 2009 (Lucas Jackson / Courtesy Reuters)

If human rights were a currency, its value would be in free fall, thanks to a gross inflation in the number of human rights treaties and nonbinding international instruments adopted by international organizations over the last several decades. These days, this currency is sometimes more likely to buy cover for dictatorships than protection for citizens. Human rights once enshrined the most basic principles of human freedom and dignity; today, they can include anything from the right to international solidarity to the right to peace.

Consider just how enormous the body of binding human rights law has become. The Freedom Rights Project, a research group that we co-founded, counts a full 64 human-rights-related agreements under the auspices of the United Nations and the Council of Europe. A member state of both of these organizations that has ratified all these agreements would have to comply with 1,377 human rights provisions (although some of these may be technical rather than substantive). Add to this the hundreds of non-treaty instruments, such as the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council (HRC). The aggregate body of human rights law now has all the accessibility of a tax code.

Fatah honors arch-terrorist by proudly listing 61 of his murders

Fatah glorifies terrorist Abdallah Barghouti as "brave prisoner" because he prepared the bombs for suicide terror attacks that:

- "killed 15 Zionists" at Sbarro restaurant

- "killed 11 Zionists" at Moment Café

- "killed 15 Zionists" at Sheffield Night Club

- "killed 9 Zionists" at Hebrew University

- "killed 11 Zionists" at the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9425

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Fatah continues to follow Palestinian Authority policy documented by Palestinian Media Watch of honoring terrorists, among them Abdallah Barghouti.

A picture glorifying 5 of the suicide bombings that Barghouti prepared explosives for and which killed 61 "Zionists" was posted by the administrator of the official Facebook page of the Enlistment and Organization Commission of Fatah. Terrorist Barghouti was honored as the "brave prisoner" and his attacks as "self-sacrificing activity" and "Martyrdom-seeking operations." "Martyrdom-seeking operations" is the Palestinian euphemism for suicide bombings.

The N Word, Are we nuts?

The punishment for oral sex in the Oval Office with an intern????
You become a respected elder Statesman ...

The punishment for stomping on an American Flag ( Lil Wayne} while spewing hate filled lyrics during a Hip Hop performance...
Aw.. he really didn't mean it...

The punishment for sitting in a Church where your Pastor shouts out from the pulpit, "God Damn America??" 
You become President of the United States!!!!!

‘Islamic Rights in Jerusalem’ Why No ‘Jerusalem, Israel’ Decision (VIDEO)

The D.C. applellate court declared unconstitutional the legislative effort by congress to force the US to recognize that Jerusalem is part of Israel. That they did so is not surprising, but why the Executive branch is so afraid of having Jerusalem appear next to Israel even just on a piece of paper should be shocking.

By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus

The Jewish Press
Published: July 24th, 2013

9-year-old Menachem Zivotofsky sued the U.S. government for refusing to include "Israel" alongside "Jerusalem" as his place of birth on his passport.

A federal court released its decision regarding whether it is permissible for the United States to refuse to enter “Jerusalem, Israel” on the passport of an American born in Jerusalem on Tuesday, July 23.  The result was not unexpected.  The court decided that a portion of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which congress enacted in order to allow Israel to appear alongside Jerusalem on such a passport, was an unconstitutional law.  The basis for that decision was that in enacting that law, congress had impermissibly intruded upon the exclusive power of the Executive branch to conduct diplomatic relations with foreign entities.

EU Reveals its True Colors

Peter Martino

The EU guidelines are clearly anti-Semitic: they are a unique set of guidelines crafted for the occasion of targeting Jews. The EU does not ask similar guarantees of China for Tibet, Turkey for Cyprus, or Indonesia for Western Papua.

Last week, the European Union issued guidelines regarding the use of EU funds in Israel. From now on, Israeli institutions cooperating with the EU or benefitting from EU funding must demonstrate that they have no direct or indirect links to Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights. The guidelines, drawn up by the EU bureaucracy in Brussels, bind the EU, a supranational organization of 28 European nations, and one of the world's largest donors of development aid. The guidelines also forbid any funding, cooperation, awarding of scholarships, research funds or prizes to anyone residing in Jewish settlements in Israeli territories outside Israel's 1967 borders.

Nakba II: 50% as Many Palestinians Forced to Leave Syria as Israel

Daniel Greenfield

The majority of Arabs who left Israel during the War of Independence did so because they were trying to avoid being in the middle of a conflict. Since then they received a fake national identity as Palestinians and their own UN administered welfare state that keeps them as permanent refugees in order to perpetuate a political conflict with Israel.
The so-called Nakba that was supposedly a formative event for them just got rewound in Syria.

UNRWA’s statistics show that in Syria there are some 235,000 “Palestinian refugees” who have become displaced in that country.
Over 71,000 of the “refugees” became real refugees in Lebanon, and 8000 more in Jordan. Thousands more have fled to Egypt, Gaza, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
44,000 homes of Palestinian Arabs in Syria have been damaged or destroyed.
In total, more than half of Syria’s Palestinians have been displaced.
Palestinian Arabs in Syria are still being killed daily. A UNRWA employee was killed last week, becoming the 7th UNRWA employee killed in Syria. The total number killed is above 1500.

Father of Burgas victim speaks out in praise of EU ban on Hezbollah

By YONAH JEREMY BOB

 

Maxim Fahima, father of a survivor, recounts ordeal after attack, says he hopes ‘something will change.’

ZAKA man examines damage in Burgas Photo: Avigdor Shatran

While many politicians responded on Monday to the news of the EU declaring Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist organization, few can relate like Maxim Fahima, whose son Daniel was left permanently scarred after a bomb ripped through a tourist bus in Burgas, Bulgaria on July 18, 2012. The attack killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver.
Daniel’s story is at once a “miracle from heaven, God wanted him to return and recover,” she said, though he is not the person he once was.

"What Netanyahu Said"

Before I pick up on my theme for today, I want to share this from a Reuters piece:

 

"Israelis and Palestinians played down on Monday the prospects of their envoys meeting in Washington any time soon, and the White House said getting the two sides to agree to a peace deal remained an 'enormous challenge.'"

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/22/us-palestinians-israel-idUSBRE96L0R920130722

 

Can we breathe easy yet?  I was discussing with a colleague today the fact that Obama -- seeing this as a political liability -- has distanced himself from Kerry's push for negotiations.  We would know something serious was happening if he were to step in and to take credit.  As it is, John Kerry alone has egg on his face.

 

Where are the UN sanctions on Hezbollah?

 Benjamin Weinthal, Claudia Rosett

FoxNews.com

Berlin and Washington –  A year ago Hezbollah operatives destroyed the lives of innocent Israelis and Bulgarians when they blew up a tour bus in Burgas. “The wound in my heart will never heal,” said one of the survivors, the survivor Gilat Kolengi, who lost her husband Itzik during the bombing. She was speaking earlier this month to an Israeli news outlet about the trauma of the terror attack, along with another survivor, Natalie Menashe, who lost her husband, Amir.

The tragedy of these Israeli widows cannot be separated from that of a Bulgarian widow, Emine Kyosev, whose husband Mustafa was also killed in the attack. The Hezbollah terrorists murdered five Israelis, their Bulgarian bus driver and wounded more than 30 Israeli tourists on that horrific day in July.

Poll: Egyptians Opposed to Muslim Brotherhood Protests

John Rossomando 

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4093/poll-egyptians-opposed-to-muslim-brotherhood

A new poll shows that most Egyptians have no desire to see former President Mohamed Morsi return to power despite daily Muslim Brotherhood-organized protests that have filled the streets since his July 3 ouster.
The Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research-Baseera survey found that 71 percent of Egyptians opposed the Brotherhood's protests. A year of Morsi and the Brotherhood's rigid policies and inflexibility that failed to address Egypt's economic crisis has left many Egyptians frustrated.

Israel's fast evolving demography

Demographic developments in Israel in recent years have been unfolding with unusual speed, and seem to be accelerating.

By Paul Morland

Compared with the rapidly developing political and military situation in the Middle East, demographics change at a glacial pace. Yet demographic developments in Israel in recent years have been unfolding with unusual speed, and seem to be accelerating.

In the first 12 years of the current century the number of Arab births in Israel has almost completely flatlined at around 40,000 per annum. This despite the growing size of the Arab population, which means that the Arab birth rate – births relative to population size – has fallen. Over the same period, Jewish births have risen from 95,000 to 130,000. In the first four months of 2013, the most recent period for which data is available, Jewish births were up 38 percent during the same period for 2001, and Arab births down 6%.

Inclusion of the "Military Arm" of Hezbollah in the European Union's List of Terrorist Organizations

Bullet points put out by the Israeli Consulate in light of the EU's declaration today regarding Hezbollah's  so-called military wing.

A.   Main points:

1.    Hezbollah, by its leaders' own admission, is a single organization without any separation between the different "arms": The Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said in an interview on the Lebanese al-Mayadeen television network (May 24): "We (Hezbollah) have no military arm without a political arm."

2.    The U.S. as well does not make a distinction between the different parts of the organization: State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell recently said (May 21, AGF) that "the United States does not distinguish between the political arm and the military and terrorist arm of Hezbollah. All the organization's arms and branches have a single leadership and joint financing."

How Netanyahu averted coalition crisis at start of talks

GIL HOFFMAN

07/22/2013 

By keeping negotiations discreet, the prime minister enables Bayit Yehudi to stay in the coalition for an extended period of time, even as Israel's chief negotiator Livni makes serious concessions on Netanyahu's behalf.

Prime Minister Netanyahu at the President's Conference in Jerusalem, June 20, 2013. Photo: GPO

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu succeeded in preventing his governing coalition from unraveling over the weekend following the announcement of forthcoming negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu kept Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett satisfied by receiving a commitment from the Americans that they would not say the talks would be based on pre-1967 borders.

That enabled Bennett to claim victory, despite Netanyahu agreeing to release dozens of terrorists from prison.

Analysis: Syrian civil war eroding Hezbollah’s forces

YAAKOV LAPPIN

Hezbollah suffers loss of personnel, but exact losses unknown.

Hezbollah members at funeral of a Hezbollah fighter, May 26, 2013 Photo: REUTERS/Mostafa Assaf

Hezbollah’s large-scale involvement in Syria is eroding its military resources, though the extent of the damage it is incurring remains a closely guarded secret.
The Lebanese terrorist organization’s Shi’ite fighters, who were deployed to Syria to fight on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad at Iran’s orders, tipped the balance in favor of Assad at the battle of Qusair in recent weeks. But Israeli security analysts said on Sunday the victory came at a heavy price for Hezbollah that is set to rise the longer the organization remains engaged in Syria.

Related:

• EU move to arm Syria rebels shows war will escalate
• 'US arming Syrian rebels forces Iran to bleed resources'

Additionally, as Sunni- Shi’ite sectarian tensions spread to neighboring Lebanon, Hezbollah could find itself dealing with unrest on its home turf too.
Any benefits Hezbollah is gaining from its Syrian intervention, in the form of battlefield experience gained by its fighters, is being outweighed by the high price of the involvement, according to Yoram Schweitzer, the director of the Terrorism and Low Intensity Warfare Project at the Institute for National Security in Tel Aviv.
“For Nasrallah, there is some good news from his involvement in Syria. Hezbollah is gaining battle experience. But this is smaller in significance than the price Nasrallah is paying, politically and operationally,” Schweitzer said.

"A Vile Mess"

 

I would like to offer my readers clarity, but there is none right now with regard to projected "peace negotiations."

 

Even without clarity, it is unquestionably a vile situation -- wrought with innuendo, misrepresentations, unfortunate statements and arm-twisting.   And these same factors render it a mess.

 

My discussion of the situation will be brief, and I will follow with more when the fog lifts a bit and a more accurate understanding of what's going on is possible.  As it is, I held off writing over the last couple of days because the situation was changing by the hour and it was impossible to offer anything even remotely definitive.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Thursday was a nerve-racking day.  The Palestinian Arabs were announcing that Netanyahu had agreed to their key pre-condition for negotiations -- that those talks would be based on the '67 lines.  This would have been shocking and beyond totally unacceptable. But it wasn't until late in the day that Netanyahu said definitively he hadn't agreed to anything of the sort.  At least one solid source I was in touch with felt confident that there was no crisis. 

Christian Century editor blogs with virulent anti-Semites

theoptimisticconservative 

I’ve been watching this one from the sidelines for the last couple of weeks, hoping the leadership at Christian Century would take it seriously when the organization CAMERA notified the venerable Christian publisher than one of its editors, James M. Wall, blogs at a site where anti-Semitism is rampant.
Veterans News Now, which purports to have the interests of American military veterans at heart, is a hotbed of conspiracy theories, 9/11 Truther-ism, and anti-Semitism.  CAMERA highlights one particularly ugly post by someone named Mike Stathis, “Zionist Washington Ensuring End of America,” from June 2011.  See the link for CAMERA’s samples from the post; it is stuffed from beginning to end with the full complement of memes and themes in anti-Semitic demagoguery.  The passage I quote here might have been lifted directly from Nazi propaganda ca. 1935:

Israeli prime minister Netanyahu gets flak for yielding to China

John Reed Benjamin Netanyahu faces a domestic political scandal with possible international repercussions after news emerged that his government withdrew a witness in a US lawsuit brought on behalf of terrorism victims after facing pressure from China. On Monday an Israeli government official and a lawyer representing the victims confirmed a newspaper report this weekend that the Chinese government threatened to cancel a visit by the Israeli prime minister to China in May if he allowed a former intelligence official to testify against Bank of China in a New York court. Mr Netanyahu called Michael Oren, his ambassador, back to Jerusalem for a meeting on Sunday after Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper, broke the story, which will be embarrassing for a politician who has made the fight against Islamist terror groups a hallmark of his three terms in office. The Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment on the affair.

3100 Year Old City Could Date Back to David and Solomon

One of the world's most famous battles took place in this area, between David and Goliath.

By: Yori Yanover

The southern city gate, a typical four-chamber Iron Age gate, with the Valley of Elah in front.
Photo Credit: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University

During the past 30 years, the biblical narrative relating to the establishment of a kingdom in Biblical Judea has been the subject of many debates among hostorians and archaeologists. Were David and Solomon historical figures, rulers of an urbanized state-level society in the early 10th century BCE, or did the dwellers of Eretz Israel reach this level of social development only at the end of the 8th century BCE, a whole 300 years later?

Israeli Lacrosse team may forfeit world cup game on Sabbath‏

Toronto, July 18 2013 -- B'nai Brith Canada looks forward to the excitement 
about to play out on the Oshawa field tonight as Canada meets Israel in the 
women's Lacrosse World Cup competitions. Both teams have shown amazing 
athletic ability and team spirit in reaching this point in the competition. 
Now that it is certain that the Israeli squad will qualify for the 
championship rounds, the team has stated that it will stand by its vow to 
respect the Jewish Sabbath despite the fact that they will likely be forced 
to forfeit the game in light of the refusal of the governing Federation of 
International Lacrosse to accommodate.

The IDF’s Night’s Watch: Israel’s Eyes in the North

Israel Defense Forceshttp://www.idfblog.com/2013/07/18/the-idfs-nights-watch-israels-eyes-in-the-north/
 

When terrorists from Lebanon raided the Israeli northern coastal city of Nahariya, Cpl. Rotem Saidon’s relatives were among the victims. This dark chapter in her family’s history has given Saidon, a soldier in the Israeli Navy, an incomparable perspective of what it means to defend Israel from attack by sea.

It is often said that every Israeli citizen knows someone who was killed or injured in battle or a terror attack. That is why for many Israelis, defending their homeland is not just a national imperative – it is a personal obligation. So it is for Cpl. Rotem Saidon, a Command and Control Center operator in the Israeli Navy.

With 70 percent of the state’s eight million citizens settled in the country’s narrow coastal plain, the Israeli Navy bears an immense responsibility for national security. Especially on Israel’s sensitive northern border with Lebanon – which extends many kilometers into the sea – the work of the naval soldiers who monitor the waters from the IDF’s command and control center is truly vital to the nation’s defense.

FGM Debate Continues in Muslim Lands

Irfan Al-Alawi
July 18, 2013 at 3:00 am

Print

Comment

RSS

The Al-Azhar authorities stated in 1997 that cutting female sexual organs -- even partially -- has no foundation in Islam, is medically harmful, and should not be carried out. "Everyone pretends like it never happened."

While overshadowed apparently by the general civil conflict over the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) regime in Egypt, the spreading problem of female genital mutilation (FGM) has recently shaken the land of the Nile.
Yet the mass upsurge against the tyrannical fundamentalism of the MB is related, however obscurely, to the protests against FGM.

"Will the EU Reverse?"

Let's wait and see...

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered a satisfactorily firm response to the EU announcement of new "guidelines" on areas past the Green Line (emphasis added):

"I would expect those who truly want peace and stability in the region would discuss this issue after solving more
urgent regional problems such as the civil war in Syria or Iran's race to achieve nuclear weapons. As the Prime Minister of Israel, I will not allow the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria, on the Golan Heights and in Jerusalem, our united capital, to be harmed. We will not accept any outside diktat about our borders. This issue will be decided only in direct negotiations between the sides."
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=61529

White House Hosts Array of Muslims With Terrorist Links

The White House has welcomed the Muslim Brotherhood, Gama’at al-Islamiyya and a Saudi clan whose sons fight for al-Qaeda. 

 

By Clare Lopez 

 

Related Stories

• Report: Muslim Brotherhood to Form Rebel Egyptian Army
• U.S. Tells Egypt to Stop Arrests of Muslim Brotherhood Members
• Egyptian Revolution Triggers Unexpected Regional Realignment
• Morsi Supporters Vow Jihad and to Burn Christians

Headlines

• White House Hosts Array of Muslims With Terrorist Links
• Report: Muslim Brotherhood to Form Rebel Egyptian Army
• U.S. Tells Egypt to Stop Arrests of Muslim Brotherhood Members
• Imam on Jerusalem's Temple Mount Incites Hundreds

The world watched a stunning demonstration of Saudi financial muscle following the Egyptian coup d’état in early July 2013, as it pumped some $5 billion into bare Egyptian coffers in a single day. The timing and the display left little doubt that Saudi royals, who’d been deeply alarmed at the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt, have been very busy indeed behind the scenes with the Egyptian military.
Saudi alarm likely had as much to do with the chaos in Egyptian streets as it did with the Morsi Brotherhood regime’s burgeoning relationship with Iran, the Saudi nemesis in the Persian Gulf, Syria, and perhaps above all, in the nuclear weapons business.

With Egypt now deeply dependent on the Saudis and its other Gulf benefactors, like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait, the muddled U.S. position that remains stuck on Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) becomes less tenable by the day.

'Startup Tel Aviv' revealed

What is it about the White City on the Mediterranean that has turned it into the Silicon Valley of the Middle East?

By ISRAEL21c Staff

Tackling the tough challenges in Startup Tel Aviv. Photo by Flash90.

With more than 600 tech startups in its 20 square miles, Tel Aviv is second only to California’s Silicon Valley, attracting investment and guidance from giants including Google and eBay.

Claims Conference: Has it No Shame?

by Isi Leibler
July 17, 2013
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4731

For more than a decade, there have been passionate pleas for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the organization responsible since its inception for the distribution of over $70 billion of restitution payments, to review its management, governance and oversight procedures and prioritize the distribution of discretionary funds so that aged Holocaust survivors desperately in need of assistance could live out their remaining years with a modicum of dignity.

ZOA Urges State Dept: Stop Referring to Eastern J'lem As "Palestinian Territories"

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has written to the State Department urging them to stop referring to eastern Jerusalem as “Palestinian Territories.” Eastern Jerusalem is actually the eastern half of the city of Jerusalem, including the ancient Jewish section populated by over 200,000 Jews, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest sites. The ZOA has described this usage as factually and legally inaccurate, politically biased and prejudicial to the prospect of genuine peace negotiations.

New EU directive about Israeli settlements raises serious questions

Missing Peace

On Tuesday Israeli media reported that the European Union is about to issue a new directive which conditions all future cooperation agreements with Israel on the directive that they not include Israeli settlements on the Golan Heights and the West Bank.
The directive to all member countries forbids the financing, giving of scholarships, cooperation, research stipends and prizes to anyone residing in Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem, Haaretz reported on Tuesday.
According to the directive, any future agreement signed with Israel must include a clause stipulating that the settlements are not part of the sovereign state and are not included in the agreement.

"Tisha B'Av"

Today is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar.  A day of mourning and fasting.  It is the day on which the Temples were destroyed, and, traditionally, is seen as the time at which a number of other calamities have fallen the Jewish people.

 

We are taught that the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE because of sinat hinam -- causeless hatred between Jews. 

 

Credit: bleon

 

And it is this that I want to address here before going on to other matters.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

It is difficult for me to write this, but I must. For healing cannot proceed without acknowledgement of what is happening.

Individual Rights vs. the Barrel of a Gun

Ali Salim

When, as Arabs, we see how Western society agonizes over everything concerning the legal system and the rights of the individual, we can only conclude that democracy is a recipe for self-destruction, and that the last thing we should do is adopt it. It seems obvious that we should use the West's lack of commitment to its own existence to finalize Islam's global mission.

How Dare Israel Put Its Interests Ahead of US Foreign Policy!

Kevin Jon Heller Ah, hypocrisy — thy name is the United States. First up, US anger at Israel for not supporting a lawsuit concerning allegations that the Bank of China laundered money for Hamas and Islamic Jihad: Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren was called back to Israel to take part in an emergency meeting convened this weekend by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so that Oren could pass on  messages sent by the US administration and Congress in the wake of tensions between the two countries. The tensions and lightening visit stem from the US’s outrage at Israel’s decision to back out of their commitment to a terror prosecution involving the allegedly laundering monies for Hamas so that Netanyahu and his family could embark on their State visit to the country last May. This weekend Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer from Yedioth Ahronoth broke the story and revealed that the Chinese government threatened to cancel Netanyahu’s visit if Israel refused to promise that senior Israeli defense officials would refrain from testifying against the Bank of China in a federal court trial currently underway in New York.

Pakistan: Violations against Christians Soar

by Mohshin Habib

She is on death row for a comment that Jesus Christ is not dead but that the Prophet Mohammed is dead. Pakistan is now one of the most dangerous places for Christians to live.

Rimsha Masih, a young Pakistani Christian girl, who was arrested in August 2012 by Pakistan's police for alleged blasphemy, has escaped the country with the direct help of Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and AVAAZ, a civic organization. Local media and her parents said she was as young as 11 at the time of her arrest; medical reports classified her as an "uneducated" 14-year-old with a mental age younger than her years. Accused of burning pages of the holy book for Muslims, the Quran, Masih, under Pakistan's "blasphemy laws," faced the death penalty.

Terror Group Gaza rocket fired at Israel Photo: AP Gaza rocket fired at Israel Photo: AP Get Breaking News Alerts to Your Desktop Red email - send us news tips Hamas manufacturing rockets that can reach Tel Aviv

Terror group testing medium to long range M75 rockets that can reach Tel Aviv metropolitan area
Yoav Zitun

 Hamas is testing medium to long range missiles that are designed to reach Tel Aviv, Ynet has learned. The group manufactures its own 8-inch M75 rockets and stores them in special caches in the Gaza Strip.

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said Monday that while there is calm in Gaza, Hamas continues to enhance its capabilities "less through tunnels and more through self-production."

The American Deep State

Sultan Knish

-->

Few myths are as beloved among liberals as the idea that wars could be put down to a conspiracy of defense contractors. Throw together Haliburton, Northrop Grumman and GE along with some retired generals and you have the makings of your next war.

The fabled military-industrial complex was a dimwitted descendant of the WW1 era Socialist notion

that wars were the product of industrialists and without them, the working peoples of every country would naturally get along.  Then came WW2, which was fought between a Communist empire, a National Socialist oligarchy, a Socialist American government and a Britain that would kick out Churchill as soon as the war was over and swap him out for Labour and the Socialist dream.

None of these Socialist or aspiring Socialist systems could get along. The Nazis and Commies had started out by looting their own citizens, the Nazis based on religion and ethnicity, and the Commies, based on these things and a thousand others, and the mere existence of wealth, and when all that money was gone, and the paintings were sold and the only hope lay in sending tanks across the border, went to war.

PA Arab Women Infiltrators Disguised as Observant Jews

Two PA Arab women disguised as observant Jews caught attempting to bypass security checks

By Chana Ya'ar 

Arab women

Two Palestinian Authority Arab women disguised as observant Jews tried to infiltrate pre-1967 Israel through the Hizme checkpoint in Samaria (Shomron) recently – but an alert security officer caught them.

The IDF and Border Police invest massive efforts into protecting the barriers that separate the Palestinian Authority from areas of pre-1967 Israel, and PA officials are intent on transforming those lines into permanent borders – if not pushing them back even farther.

Nevertheless, PA Arabs work hard to infiltrate into the other side of the barrier, where much of Israel’s Jewish population resides.

In this instance, an officer of the Gal Battalion waved the #143 public bus over to the side of the road for a routine security check before allowing it through the Hizme checkpoint in Samaria.

While heading towards the back of the bus, he notice two women wearing the hair covering that is common to observant Jewish women. At least one was holding a siddur, a Jewish prayer book.

Irresponsible Narratives and the Lives they Impact

-->

GS Don Morris, Ph.D.

I find it interesting how people determine narratives around issues, people, situations and circumstances. Everyone does it; many create their positions driven by highly motivated agendas. Others create their narratives based upon minimal information and still others assume the publicly shared position shared by a psychologically important person in their lives. Many people simply adopt the most convenient and non-threatening narrative available-you see even this allows one to believe he/she is being socially responsible.

Ah, but there are flaws with each of these approaches and what goes wanting is the truth, authentic justice and courage of one’s own convictions. Multiply this by a population and one can better understand why a society and/or a culture collapse over time.

Let us examine the concept of narrative development. Common to all of the preceding descriptions are that words alone are used to create narratives. Furthermore, the selected words are derived from a person’s personal choice of the words available to each one of us-it is a conscious and deliberate choice, well at least for those who are “paying attention” and not simply “going along with the crowd”.

Cabinet approves Negev civilian development plan

By HERB KEINON

Plan includes move of 10,000 soldiers from Tzrifin training bases to mega-base being built south of Beersheba.

Entrance to IDF base Photo: REUTERS/Eliana Aponte

 

The cabinet on Sunday approved a half billion shekel, five-year civilian development plan for the Negev, which will complement the multi-billion shekel plan to move much of the country’s military infrastructure from the center of the country to the south.

Under the plan, industrial zones will be subsidized, three new industrial parks will be developed, and subsidies for hi-tech workers will be used as incentives for companies to move to the Negev.

Some 10,000 soldiers are scheduled to move from instruction bases in Tzrifin to a huge mega-base being built 20 kilometers south of Beersheba.

ADL Blasts ‘Vehemently Anti-Semitic’ TV Show ‘Khaybar’ Currently Airing in Middle East

  http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/07/12/adl-blasts-vehemently-anti-semitic-tv-show-khaybar-currently-airing-in-middle-east/

Scene during filming of upcoming Khaybar series.

The Anti Defamation League (ADL) Thursday condemned as “vehemently anti-Semitic” the TV miniseries “Khaybar” currently being aired in the Middle East and across the Arab World.

“With Syria, Egypt and other countries in the Middle East going through historical upheavals, it is absurd and outrageous that the entertainment of the Ramadan season promotes the Muslim subjugation of caricatured Jews,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.

Peaceful, Huh?

Aussie Dave

Kafr Qaddum is a palestinian village in the “West Bank” and the site of weekly protests, which pro-palestinian websites characterize as “peaceful”, but at which the IDF regularly finds itself taking action.
According to Israeli website 0404, the following video was taken there last week.
Click here to view video

Translation: This is what they are taught in schools in the West Bank: to harm IDF soldiers. Yesterday was “Festival” in Kafr Qaddum. Many of the villagers came to listen to lectures inciting against Israel, the people of Israel and of course IDF soldiers. Highlight of the evening came in the form of a show with the participation of children. They demonstrated how to attack IDF soldiers using stones and slingshots. Harm the soldiers until the soldiers fall to the ground, take their weapons, and the rest is obvious.

I think we can understand better from this how truly “peaceful” their protests – and intentions – are.

"Give Me a Break!"

Yesterday I wrote about the fact that Netanyahu is making one last effort to secure a toughening of the US stance on Iran, thus: 

 

"Israel desperately wants to see the Obama Administration harden its position on Iran immediately — to convey to Iran that if it does not halt its nuclear program, its regime will not survive....'increased pressure on Iran,' led by the US, notably including the revival of 'a real military threat'"

 

Today we see a response from US officials, ostensibly designed to reassure our government:  Don't worry, they are saying, we're not going to ease the sanctions on Iran, even if we do want to "test" Rohani with direct talks that will take his measure.

 

“'We are open to direct talks, and we want to reinforce this in any way [we can],' a senior US official said, adding that the administration sees 'words that indicate Iran might be going in a different direction.'"

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-to-step-up-pressure-on-iran-seek-direct-talks/

 

Educating Daniel Pipes On Islamic Antisemitism

by Andrew Bostom

It is common knowledge to every schoolboy and even every Bachelor of Arts,
That all sin is divided into two parts.One kind of sin is called a sin of commission, and that is very important,
And it is what you are doing when you are doing something you ortant,
And the other kind of sin is just the opposite and is called a sin of omission
and is equally bad in the eyes of all right-thinking people, from
Billy Sunday to Buddha,
And it consists of not having done something you shuddha
—Ogden Nash

Writing in the Toronto Sun (published 5/16/13) Farzana Hassan claimed Daniel Pipes’ most recent pronouncement on the subject, ostensibly, of “Islamic Antisemitism,” was as follows:
He said the religion of Islam itself is not inherently hostile to Jews, and Muslim Antisemitism scarcely existed before the establishment of the state of Israel.
Pipes, however, subsequently claimed Hassan’s account of his talk to the “Muslim Committee Against Antisemitism,” was “sympathetic, but inaccurate.”

Daniel Pipes doth protest Ms. Hassan’scharacterization far too much.

Never denying that he spoke the actual words Hassan claimed, Pipes instead provided this purely casuistic response that avoids the logical implication of his alleged words—and in fact reinforces Hassan’s interpretation of their meaning!

Israel Vindicated: 1948 as told by those who lived it

 by Phillipe Assouline

Robert F. Kennedy, martyred liberal icon, was a reporter for the Boston Post in 1948. He was sent in the spring of that year to Mandatory Palestine to cover the lead up to the British withdrawal. His dispatches are a fascinating glimpse back in time and invaluable historical records.  And yet they are also a testament to the ideological stagnation of the Arab world vis a vis Israel.

Then, as now, Israelis saw themselves as fighting for survival against irrational enmity. Then as now, the Arab world abounded in hostility to the very idea of a Jewish presence in its midst which it justified by casting itself as the victim of Western conspiracies.  R.F.K.’s accounts and other primary sources would appear to vindicate Israel’s version of events.

At the heart of Arab grievances against Zionism lay the claim that an indigenous people (the Palestinian Arabs) were ethnically cleansed by Zionist colonialists aided by the West. Zionists have long held that, though the Holy Land was not empty at the dawn of political Zionism, the Turkish backwater was in no way inhabited by a distinct people, nor did the Zionists ever adopt a policy of ethnic cleansing.

Kennedy in his first dispatch, puts the Arab claim (which was perhaps more controversial then) to rest almost as an afterthought:

Egypt crisis brings Fatah, Hamas tensions to new high

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
  
PA official: Hamas meddling in Cairo’s internal affairs; Egypt crisis dashes hopes of reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas; on Temple Mount in Jerusalem, hundreds of Muslims demonstrate against ousted Morsi during prayers.

Palestinian Fatah members carry their weapons as they take part in a parade. Photo: REUTERS

The crisis in Egypt has aggravated tensions between Fatah and Hamas, dashing hopes of reconciliation between the rival Palestinian parties.
While Fatah supports the military coup that toppled the Muslim Brotherhood regime, Hamas has come out in favor of deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

Related:

• Fatah calls on Palestinians to overthrow Hamas in wake of Morsi's fall
• Palestinian official: Egypt turmoil leaves Hamas high and dry

During Friday’s prayers at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, hundreds of Muslims staged a demonstration in support of Morsi.