The BBC’s Haneen Zoabi promotion show - by Hadar Sela

...The vast majority of this programme’s viewers around the world will of course not be aware of the ideology of Zoabi and her political party and will not be familiar with the phenomenon of publicly funded MPs who advocate the destruction of the state they ostensibly serve. The failure to adequately explain the political motivations behind Zoabi’s propaganda means that not only does this film become a platform for its unchallenged amplification, but that viewers are misled with false and distorted information which overshadows and detracts from a long-overdue presentation of the seriously under-reported topic of co-existence between different ethnic communities in Israel.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
10 November '16..

In mid-October the BBC World News channel aired a documentary by Jane Corbin titled “Israel’s Arab Warriors” and on November 8th, 9th and 10th the same programme was shown on BBC Arabic TV. A written article by Corbin on the same topic (which includes the video) was promoted on the BBC News website’s Middle East page on November 8th under the title “Israel’s Arab soldiers who fight for the Jewish state“. The same article was translated into Arabic and promoted on the same day on the BBC Arabic website.israels-arab-warriors-orig

It is of course good to see the BBC finally getting round to reporting on a topic which has long been off its radar and Jane Corbin is to be commended for enabling BBC audiences to see beyond the standard BBC narrative in her unusually nuanced presentation of Israeli society.

A distinctly less laudable aspect of Corbin’s filmed and written reports is their generous amplification of unqualified and unchallenged propaganda from the inadequately presented Haneen Zoabi.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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NY Times covers for supporter of Jewish peace activist’s killer - by Stephen M. Flatow

...There are so many troubling elements to this episode. There is the disturbing specter of an Arab Knesset member exploiting her parliamentary immunity to endorse terrorists. There is the grotesquely misleading coverage by the New York Times. And then there is the perplexing indifference of many American Jews. U.S. Jewish organizations—especially Richard Lakin’s old friends in J Street and Americans for Peace Now—should be speaking out loudly against those who praise Richard’s killer. Why are they silent?

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
21 July '16..

Israel’s parliament this week took action in response to an Arab Knesset member’s public support of a terrorist who murdered an American-Jewish peace activist.

But if you read the account by New York Times correspondent Isabel Kershner, you wouldn’t know anything about the terrorist or his victim—all you would learn is that Israel’s rulers are suppressing dissent and might be infected by “budding fascism.”

It’s as if Kershner and her editors are living in some kind of alternative universe, in which Israel is always guilty, Arab extremists are always innocent, and the 141 Americans who have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists simply don’t exist.

The current controversy began in February, when Haneen Zoabi and two other Arab Knesset Members (all from the Balad Party) paid a solidarity visit to ten families of Palestinian terrorists who were involved in recent attacks. One was the father of Baha Alyan.

For those who don’t recognize Alyan’s name, let me refresh your memory.

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Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in New Jersey, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Bahloul only represents his party. Why the excitement? - by Vic Rosenthal

...I hope Bahloul will not be punished for his impudence in saying what Arabs think. Rather, this incident should serve as the starting point for a discussion about what Jews – particularly in a major ‘Zionist’ political party – think.

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
10 April '16..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2016/04/why-the-excitement-bahloul-only-represents-his-party/

Zouheir Bahloul is an Arab citizen of Israel, a member of the Knesset for the ‘Zionist Union’ (once called the Labor Party) and a former radio sportscaster.

A few days ago he ignited a furor by saying that the Palestinian Arab who stabbed a soldier and then was shot dead while lying wounded on the ground was “not a terrorist:”

I agree the stabber is a murderer, but he is not a terrorist. My problem is when this word becomes too inclusive and turns every Palestinian into a terrorist.

Well, of course every Palestinian isn’t a terrorist, but why wasn’t this one? Later Bahloul clarified his meaning, digging himself an even deeper hole:

Bahloul said Israeli soldiers were “a symbol of the occupation” for Palestinians and asked why Jewish groups fighting British soldiers during the Mandate area could be considered as fighting for their freedom while Palestinians could not.

“What can a Palestinian, suffocating under the yoke of occupation for 49 years, do in order regain his freedom? The soldiers are, for him, a symbol of the occupation. Before 1948 there was the British Mandate here. Etzel, Lehi and the other Jewish organizations went out to the street to fight British soldiers and build your state, which is an amazing state. Why are the Palestinians not allowed to do so?”

Bahloul was attacked for his remarks by the Right, the moderate Left and the Center, all of whom understand well that there is no way a Jewish Israel in which the soldiers are everyone’s sons and daughters will accept them being legitimate targets. PM Netanyahu said,

MK Bahloul’s comments are shameful. IDF soldiers protect us with their bodies from bloodthirsty murderers. I expect all Israeli citizens, and members of Knesset in particular, to give them their full support.

Bahloul’s own party criticized him aggressively as well. “His statement established that he is not part of the Zionist Union,” said MK Eitan Cabel.

I beg to differ, MK Cabel! Bahloul is just expressing the logical consequences of the position held by his party. As the psychotic extremist of Ha’aretz, Gideon Levy wrote, Bahloul is indeed an “honest Arab.” The real problem is not Bahloul’s logic and honesty, but rather the wholesale acceptance of the ‘occupation’ narrative, according to which Israeli Jews are ‘occupying’ a land which is not theirs, ruling over ‘another people’.

Zoabi and her fellow Arab citizens of Israel will not be heading for Ramallah anytime soon - by Khaled Abu Toameh

...Najat Abu Bakr and many Palestinians dream of the day they too will have a Knesset, a true parliament, where leaders are held accountable. For now – and for the foreseeable future – that day is just a pipedream. Zoabi and her fellow Arab citizens of Israel will not be packing their bags and heading for Ramallah anytime soon, however. It seems that another Arab dictatorship is not their idea of prime real estate.

Haneen Zoabi (left) and Najat Abu Bakr (right)
are outspoken members of parliament -- Zoabi
in Israel and Abu Bakr in the Palestinian territories.
 That is pretty much where the similarities end.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
01 March '16..

What do Haneen Zoabi and Najat Abu Bakr have in common?

Both women are outspoken members of parliament -- Zoabi in Israel and Abu Bakr in the Palestinian territories.

Zoabi, who hails from Nazareth, is a citizen of Israel. Abu Bakr, from the West Bank city of Nablus, is an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the parliament that has been effectively paralyzed since 2007, when Hamas expelled the Palestinian Authority (PA) from the Gaza Strip.

But outspoken participation in parliaments is pretty much where the similarities end.

Zoabi, who resides inside Israel, lives a rather different life from her colleague, Abu Bakr, who is a Palestinian citizen.

Zoabi, the Israeli member of parliament, is a provocateur of long standing who regularly enrages the Jewish-Israeli public. She joined a flotilla "aid" convoy to the Gaza Strip -- a move that left many Israelis furious.

On other occasions, her statements have also been interpreted as a show of solidarity with Israel's enemies. More recently, she received a light sentence after signing a plea-bargain admitting she had insulted an Arab working for the Israel Police.

Zoabi was back in the headlines again last month -- along with two other Arab members of Israel's Knesset, Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas -- for meeting with families of Palestinians who had carried out terror attacks against Israelis.

By all accounts, for that performance she and the other two Knesset members received a mere "slap on the wrist:" they were suspended from attending parliamentary committee meetings for a few months.

Even though Zoabi's behavior and rhetoric are thoroughly abhorrent to many Israelis, including some of Israel's Arab citizens, Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, along with other Israelis, came out against expelling her and some other Joint Arab List colleagues from the Knesset.

"We cannot allow the Knesset, whose representatives are chosen by the public, to independently overturn the public's choice," Rivlin said, referring to proposed legislation that would allow Knesset members to vote out their colleagues who express support for terrorism.

But let us return to the question: how are Haneen Zoabi and Najat Abu Bakr, our two female parliamentarians, each doing?

While Zoabi, an Arab Muslim citizen of Israel, carries out her duties -- and lives her life -- freely, Abu Bakr has been forced to seek refuge within the Palestinian Legislative Council building in Ramallah.

In short, the two women are living in different worlds.

Since last week, when President Mahmoud Abbas ordered her arrest, Abu Bakr has been holed up inside the Palestinian Authority parliament building. Her crime: blowing the whistle on the financial corruption of a cabinet minister who is closely associated with President Abbas.

Her claim is that the minister has been privately selling water to Palestinians and has illegally taken more than $200,000 from the Palestinian budget.

Is There an Arab Right to Back Terrorism? - by Jonathan Tobin

...Peace with the Palestinians will never happen until they put aside their dreams of Israel’s destruction and end the conflict for all time by recognizing the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders might be drawn. If the members of the Joint List can’t do that either then peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs is just as much of a futile dream. If that is so, then it is the Arab MKs that have trespassed on the good will of other Israelis that deserve the blame for this lamentable situation.

Image by © JIM HOLLANDER/epa/Corbis

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
12 February '16..

In recent months, the news has been filled with stories alleging that Israeli democracy is in decline. The coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of subverting the rights of political opponents and dissenters as well as those of the country’s Arab minority. While these charges are untrue, they do point to the unfortunate and unique position that Israel is placed in as a thriving and lively democracy that simultaneously seeks to defend itself while also guaranteeing equality before the law to a minority group that has, at best, equivocal feelings about the Jewish state’s survival.

Last month, Netanyahu was accused of incitement because, in the aftermath of a terror attack in Tel Aviv by an Israeli Arab, he challenged that community to oppose terrorism and to be loyal to the laws of the state. The prime minister was damned for a speech that was interpreted as blaming an entire community for the crimes of one man, but he was right to worry that the identification of most Israeli Arabs with Palestinian terrorists posed a threat to both the country’s security and any hope for coexistence.

But the context for that controversy went all the way back to last March when, on the eve of his re-election in the closing hours of a hard-fought campaign, Netanyahu spoke about the Arab vote. He was roundly bashed last year for telling Israeli voters that they needed to worry about the Joint List — the coalition of Arab political parties — winning so many seats that they might get a seat in a government led by the opposition or have the power to block the formation of a coalition. This was also considered incitement and has been repeatedly thrown in his face and considered proof of his ill will if not racism.

Of course, most Israelis understood what Netanyahu was saying. He was not trying to deny Israeli Arabs their right to vote or to representation in the Knesset. But he was pointing out that the empowerment of a coalition of communists, radical Islamists, and secular Arab nationalists dedicated to eradicating Zionism was not a healthy thing for Israel or its democracy.

Israel's Arabs: A Tale of Betrayal - by Khaled Abu Toameh

...Thus far, only a handful of Arab Israeli voices have had the courage to criticize their representatives in the Knesset. Yet it is precisely these citizens who need to punish their failed Knesset members, not the Israeli government or any parliamentary committee or court. The power is certainly in their hands. If the Israeli Arab majority continues to waffle, allowing its leaders free reign, Arab Knesset members will lead their people only to nothing.

Israeli Arab Members of Knesset Jamal Zahalka, Haneen Zoabi
and Basel Ghattas (at the head of the table, facing the camera)
recently met with families of terrorists who attacked and murdered
Israelis. The meeting opened with a moment of silence for the
dead attackers. (Image source: Palestinian Media Watch)

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
11 February '16..

The uproar surrounding a recent meeting held by three Israeli Arab Members of Knesset (parliament) with families of Palestinians who carried out attacks against Israelis is not only about the betrayal of their country, Israel. It is also about the betrayal of their own constituents: the 1.5 million Arab citizens of Israel.

Knesset members Haneen Zoabi, Basel Ghattas and Jamal Zahalka managed to accomplish several things at once with this controversial meeting. They certainly seem to have provoked the ire of many Jewish Israelis. Perhaps they violated the oath they made when they were sworn into parliament: "I pledge to bear allegiance to the State of Israel and faithfully to discharge my mandate in the Knesset."

One thing, however, they have accomplished without question is acting against the interests of Israeli Arabs.

Zoabi, Ghattas and Zahalka met with Palestinian families who are not Israeli citizens and do not vote for the Knesset. As such, none of these families voted for the three Knesset members or the Arab List party to which they belong. Of course, as part of a democratic government, any member of the Knesset is free to meet with any Palestinian from the West Bank, Gaza Strip or Jerusalem.

It is worth noting that not all Arab Knesset members are involved in fiery rhetoric and provocative actions against Israel. However, there is good reason to believe that some Arab Knesset members deliberately engage in actions and rhetoric with the sole purpose of enraging not only the Israeli establishment, but also the Jewish public.

This meeting was the latest in a series of actions by Arab Knesset members that have severely damaged relations between Jews and Arabs inside Israel. Such actions have one clear result: colossal injury to Arab citizens' efforts for full equality.

When an Israeli MK sets out to join a flotilla of illusions

...Rather than improve Gazans' quality of life, Hamas constructed a grid of murderous terror tunnels meant to kill Israelis, including children in Tel Aviv. It never occurred to Ghattas, not for one minute, to condemn that situation. For that matter, in never occurred to Joint Arab List MK Hanin Zoabi either, as she found Hamas' defeat in Operation Protective Edge very disappointing.

Dr. Reuven Berko..
Israel Hayom..
23 June '15..

Joint Arab List MK Basel Ghattas, who plans to join the next Gaza Strip-bound flotilla, made a big to-do Monday about not disclosing exactly where he was, telling Israel Radio's Arabic station he was "somewhere in Greece."

Asked about the nature of the sail Ghattas declined to answer, sounding as if he were taking part in a top-secret mission whose details must be kept from the hostile agents of Israel's intelligence community -- the very country in whose parliament he serves.

"So you are taking part in a flotilla whose details you know nothing about?" the interviewer insisted, alluding to the ill-fated journey by the Mavi Marmara in 2010. At this point, Ghattas reverted to savvy politician mode, saying the current flotilla was on a mission of peace, and that he had personally informed authorities in Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of his intention to join the sail.

The interview attempted to focus on recent security events and the phenomenon of Israeli Arab individuals who join the Islamic State group, but Ghattas was mostly interested in expressing his disappointment over the fact he was the only Arab MK to join the flotilla.

Already trying to capitalize on the move, which will surely affect his future ranking within the Joint Arab List, Ghattas reiterated how we should all be grateful for his determined initiative, as all he seeks to do is "breach the Israeli siege on Gaza."

Ghattas' hearing out as sea must have been impaired somehow, as the "peaceful sailor"-turned-naval commando apparently found it impossible to hear the harsh questions leveled at him by Israeli media outlets, which asserted that Hamas is a hostile entity seeking to destroy Israel, and that given that the land crossings to the Gaza Strip are open and allow the steady delivery of supplies -- including cement, which Hamas is using to build terror tunnels -- Gaza is not under siege.

An Arab-Israeli political leadership that persistently fails its constituency.

...While all this challenges Israel’s sovereignty, it more than anything does a colossal disservice to the country’s Arab population. Israeli Arabs’ inherent interests hinge on integration and not segregation – even if it is voluntary and belligerent segregation, as Balad in effect proposes.

JPost Editorial..
15 June '13..

Balad’s three MKs – Jamal Zahalka, Haneen Zoabi (who participated in the 2010 Mavi Marmara provocation) and Basel Ghattas – have sponsored a bill that seeks to define Israel’s Arab minority as an autonomous national unit, an “indigenous nation” as distinct from “immigrant groupings who are slated for integration.”

Balad aims to include its bill in Israel’s set of Basic Laws, which in effect comprises a quasi-constitution.

In practical terms Balad calls for a collective social and cultural autonomy within the pre-1967 lines. Indisputably, down the road, this is a separatist formulation geared to lay the ground for secession from Israel proper.

Balad’s argumentation is blatantly confrontational. Its bill states that Israeli Arabs “had well preceded the establishment of Israel in their national cohesion and identity” and that they therefore consider themselves “as this country’s native population.”

Today, the law guarantees civil rights on an individual basis but not in the framework of a collective national autonomy.

That Arab national autonomy, Balad’s bill further stipulates, will be granted the right to set up its own national institutions as well as the right to national representation in all state institutions. Israel is required to acknowledge “the special link between the Arab national minority in Israel to the Palestinian nation and all other Arab nationalities.”

All this is fully in keeping with Balad’s platform since Azmi Bishara established the party in 1995. Bishara fled Israel in 2007 following accusations of espionage for Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War.

The parliamentarian who wants to destroy her own state

Elder of Ziyon
17 November '10

The Islamo-Nazism blog notices an amazing interview translated by MEMRI (video here):

Following are excerpts from an interview with Israeli Knesset Member Hanin Zoabi, which aired on Al-Hiwar TV on October 9, 2010:

Hanin Zoabi: The national plan of our party, the National Democratic Assembly, consists of a fully sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, and a non-Zionist “state of all its citizens” within the 1948 borders. Note this. In Israel they say to us: “Your solution is more dangerous than the one-state solution, because you want a state and a half.” In Israel they say that we want another Palestinian state. This is the plan of the Assembly Party: a fully sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, and a non-Zionist, non-Jewish state within the 1948 borders...

Interviewer: To which the refugees will return. That is an important condition.

Hanin Zoabi: This is a basic condition. Of course it includes the return of the refugees.

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Radical Arab MKs: What would Abraham Lincoln do?

David Gleicher
Opinion/JPost
17 January '10

Both Liat Collins and Danny Ayalon, in their recent Jerusalem Post columns "The democratic dilemma" and "Civic responsibility should not be optional" respectively, raise the issue of how the government should respond to the anti-Israel actions of our radical Arab Knesset members. As a student of history, whenever I read about this problem, I think of Abraham Lincoln, the greatest American president, and his response to the activities of Representative Clement Vallandigham (pronounced veLANdigam).

When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Vallandigham was a Democratic congressman, representing Dayton, Ohio. Some background for non-American readers: The Civil War involved the attempt of the southern slave-holding states to secede from the Union and form their own country, the Confederate States of America. Vallandigham, though personally opposed to slavery, believed that the federal government had no constitutional right to prevent the secession of the southern states. Naturally, he was even more adamantly opposed to the use of military force to pull the South back into the Union. Vallandigham was the leader of the "Copperheads," the anti-war, pro-Confederacy Democrats of the North.

In 1863, Gen. Ambrose Burnside, in charge of the military district of Ohio, issued an order declaring that public declarations of sympathy for the enemy would not be tolerated. Vallandigham was not deterred, and increased the provocative language of his speeches, charging that the war was being fought to free slaves, not to save the Union, and that the president was "King Lincoln" who should be removed from the presidency. He also declared that he "did not want to belong to the United States."

(Read full article)
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