Dan Margalit vs. Jamal Zahalka

Sheikh Munis?

31 December 09
Erev Hadash 17:30

(IsraelNN.com) A rancorous TV interview last week with an Arab Knesset Member that revealed his apparent desires to conquer Tel Aviv continues to make waves. Arutz Sheva's Hebrew site entitled its article on the topic, "The Israeli interviewer who did not forget that he is Jewish."

The broadcast occurred on Thursday night, on the Erev Chadash (New Evening) program hosted by veteran broadcaster Dan Margalit and his younger co-host Ronen Bergman, and broadcast on Channel 1 and 23. Arab MK Jamal Zehalka (Balad) was their guest, and the discussion centered around that morning’s Arab protest against Israel. One Arab MK at the protest, Taleb A-Sana, used his cell phone to broadcast a live address to the rally by Hamas terrorist chief executive Ismail Haniye. Zehalka, for his part, said that Defense Minister Ehud Barak likes to listen to classical music and kill children, comparing him to a Nazi.

Zehalka told his interviewers that there is a “lack of knowledge among Israelis about the terrible situation in Gaza, and there is nothing wrong with Haniye expressing his opinion to the Israeli public.”

Bergman said, “He is the head of a terrorist organization that is at war with Israel, and you give him a platform to speak. You don’t see how this is perceived here?” Zehalka responded that it was good for Haniye’s voice to be heard. At this point, Margalit said, “I don’t think there is such a humanitarian crisis in Gaza as you think there is, though that’s not the point--”

Zehalka: “I can bring you examples from the UN report.”

Margalit: “Come on, who believes the UN? The UN is an arm of - look at the Goldstone report.”

Zehalka: “OK, so you believe the Israeli generals?”

Margalit: “I don’t have to believe anyone. I was in Sderot myself for three years and I saw the Kassam rockets that came flying over there, courtesy of Haniye and his friends, well before Israel carried out any military campaign. So come on. But that’s not the point; the point is that Hamas is an enemy, and you, as Knesset Members, apparently couldn’t care less…

Bergman: “Why don’t you protest against Egypt? If they would open their blockade of Gaza in Rafiach, there would be no humanitarian crisis there!”

Subtitled video begins here ....

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Letter to PM from 29 MKs to expedite paperwork for building permit process in Judea and Samaria

Dr.Aaron Lerner
IMRA
02 January '10

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: The 10 month freeze on new housing construction in Judea and Samaria is specifically on construction activity and puts absolutely no restrictions on the handling of paperwork required to issue building permits. By the same token, there is absolutely no Israeli commitment - formal or otherwise - to halt the paperwork during this period.]

Letter to PM from 29 MKs re urgency of construction in Judea and Samaria --
Translation:(Provided by Susie Dym)

28 December, 2009

Mr. Prime Minister,

Re: Bolstering the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria

We beg to approach you on the above matter as follows:

1. Our position supporting strengthening the Jewish community of Judea and Samaria is familiar to you

2. As you stated, the Government's intention is to renew building in Judea and Samaria as part of its commitment to the settlement enterprise. In light of this, and to enable construction to be renewed, design and local planning processes need to be completed, to allow building permits to be granted in accordance with your policy.

3. Under these circumstances, we ask that you instruct the relevant authorities to complete authorization of the local plans in the Judea and Samaria communities, to allow construction to be renewed there without planning delays. We would point out that many plans are stuck on the desks of the relevant authorities, and are not being signed for reasons unrelated to any planning consideration.

4. Attached please find a partial list of local plans of great important and urgency, which can be processed immediately.

5.We thank you in advance for your kind acquiescence to this request

Letter was signed by 29 MKs a couple of days ago and is now released for publication:

LIKUD: Haim Katz , Zion Pinian, Yariv Levin, Ofir Akunis, Miri Regev, Zeev
Elkin, Dany Danon, Ayoub Kara, Zipi Hotovely

YISRAEL BEYTENU - LIBERMAN'S PARTY: Motz, Anastasia, Lia ShemTov, Dudu
Rotem, Hamed Amar, Orly Levi-Abekasis, Faina Kirshenbaum, Alex Miller,

SHAS: David Azulay, Avraham Michaeli, Yizhak Vaknin, Haim Amsalem, Nissim Zeev,

NU: Ketzaleh, Aryeh Eldad, Uri Ariel, Michael Ben-Ary,

NATL HOME: Uri Orbach, Zevulun Orlev

UTJ: Uri Maklev

Signatories -- are from all 6 parties (Likud, Yisrael Beytenu, Shas and UTJ, Natl Home and Natl Union) -- other than Kadima, Labor, Meretz, and Arabs. 29
MKs means almost ALL coalition Knesset Members who do not hold ministerial
positions.
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10 Significant Articles From the 'Noughties' Decade

Honest Reporting/Backspin

03 January '10

(This is a "Honest Reporting" treasure trove and well worth time to go through.Y.)

Certain articles, blog posts, cartoons and videos from the past decade continue to stick out in mind. I haven't forgotten them, because they say a lot about the media and the kinds of issues HonestReporting dealt with during the "noughties."

Ranking their importance is useless; each had its own kind significance for better or for worse, so I'm listing the content in chronological order. This is totally subjective, so post the items that stand out in your mind in the comments section. I'd like to see everyone's take.

1) Retraction Required
After 9/11, Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz obtained a copy of a now-famous Reuters memo. News chief Stephen Jukes told his staff not to use the word "terror."

We all know," he wrote, "that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter and that Reuters upholds the principle that we do not use the word terrorist . . ."

The moral ambiguity Jukes expressed was endemic of a wider problem in the mainstream media, so I'm glad Kurtz put Jukes and his his views on the record. As Kurtz's original article is in the Post's paid archives, I'm linking instead to John O'Sullivan's acerbic reaction at the National Review.

(Read full list)

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NGOs claimed Nizar Rayan was a civilian

NGO Monitor
01 January '10

Nizar Rayan, a senior Hamas military commander, and members of his family were killed in an IDF airstrike on January 1, 2009. Rayan was involved in the planning of many deadly suicide attacks on Israel and was an architect of the Hamas take-over of Gaza in 2007. He sent his own son out on a suicide bombing mission in 2001 that killed two and wounded many. Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg called Rayan, “one of the more bellicose Hamas leaders I have known”. Rayan told him in a 2007 interview that the “only reason to have a hudna is to prepare yourself for the final battle . . . Israel is an impossibility. It is an offense against God."

Rayan’s home was part of a complex that served as a weapons storage site and command center for Hamas. Prior to the attack, the IDF issued several alerts that the buildings would be targeted including specific telephone calls and warning shots “13 minutes and 9 minutes before the strike.” Other residents heeded the warnings, but Rayan and his family decided to stay. After the strike, secondary explosions were observed, confirming the presence of a weapons cache in Rayan’s home. It is not known whether the initial IDF attack or the secondary explosions caused the resulting casualties.

Despite Rayan’s status as a leader in Hamas’ Qassam brigades and the weapons stockpile in his building, the European-government funded Palestinian Center for Human Rights(PCHR) called Rayan’s death a “heinous crime” and that its “perpetrators and their military and political leaders must be prosecuted.”

As the logistical organizer for the Arab League’s Gaza “Fact Finding” mission, PCHR also facilitated an interview with two of Rayan’s sons, one of whom dubiously claimed, “My father couldn’t imagine he would be targeted like this.” Even the Guardian noted, however, that “Rayan appeared to believe himself invincible. He refused to leave or allow his enormous family to leave their home in the Jabalia camp.”

PCHR continues to list Rayan as a “civilian” and “university professor” in its casualty statistics from the war – calling further into question the organization’s credibility.

(Read full article)

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Top surgeon tells Limmud of campaign to have him struck off

Professor Michael Baum

Leon Symons
The Jewish Chronicle
30 December 09

One of Britain’s leading cancer surgeons has told a conference how his support for the Israel Medical Association sparked a campaign to have him struck off by the General Medical Council (GMC).

Professor Michael Baum told a packed session at the annual Limmud conference at Warwick University that colleagues — including Jews — in the medical profession had turned on him after he challenged the accusation made by some that the Israel Medical Association (IMA) was complicit in the torture of Palestinian prisoners.

His session was called “The academic boycott of Israel: are the Jews among the worst antisemites?”

Professor Baum said he had first become involved “as an innocent” in June 2007 when the British Medical Journal invited him to write an article for an online poll arguing against an academic boycott of Israel. “You’re lucky if 2,000 get to vote on any issue. They had 23,000 votes online,” said Prof Baum, 72, who is emeritus professor of surgery and visiting professor of medical humanities at University College London.

“There were also rapid online responses. The views I got were extremely hurtful and extremely abusive, not to mention the hate mail I got both electronically and by post. It was also the first time I had experienced antisemitism in my life.”

Then Professor Baum encountered Dr Derek Summerfield, who led a lengthy campaign to unseat former IMA chair Dr Yoram Blachar after he was elected president of the World Medical Association in 2008.

(Read full article)
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Europe's Trade with Iran's Butchers

The European Union could be the key to unlocking democracy in Tehran by cutting its significant economic ties with the Islamic Republic.

Goli Ameri
Wall Street Journal
30 December 09

(The EU could be the key, but they are not. The member nations of the EU are the economic enablers whose investments assisted and assist Iran to this day, to reach nuclear weapon capability, to threaten Israel,their neighbors, as well as their own population. In the meantime the EU devotes a significant amount of it's energy, to lecture Israel on housing in Jerusalem. Y.)

The Obama Administration and its European allies are currently looking at a menu of "focused sanctions" on Iran and its leadership. A month ago they were obsessing over China and Russia's cooperation on indubitably innocuous U.N. Security Council sanctions. In both cases, they have the wrong target in mind. Security Council resolutions and focused sanctions serve as public relations window-dressing. Europe is the key to any meaningful behavior-modifying sanctions on Iran. The continued focus on Russia and China's intransigence is allowing Europe to stay under the radar.

Iran has been under three Security Council sanctions in the past decade, while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has prospered and the plight of the average Iranian has deteriorated. The IRGC, which in 2007 was designated by the U.S. Congress as a terrorist organization, planned and instigated a coup during the recent Iranian elections and bear responsibility for the murder, rape, and oppression of the Iranian people.

According to Mohsen Sazegara, one of the co-founders of the IRGC and current researcher and democracy activist residing in the U.S., the IRGC controls the fundamentals of Iran's economy, with over 800 companies involved in shipping and ship-building, banking, energy, chemicals, heavy construction and machinery, electricity, transport equipment, and import of tear gas for oppressing mass demonstrations. The IRCG's most recent foray into Iran's business activities was the purchase of a 51% share in the Iranian Telecommunications Company for $8 billion, effectively gaining control of all Iranian communications with the outside world.

Who is Iran's main business partner? In 2008 the EU was—in its own words—the "first trade partner of Iran," with imports and exports totalling €25.4 billion ($36.4 billion) followed by China, Japan, and South Korea. The €14.1 billion in European exports to Iran last year, up 1.5% from 2007, included mainly machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, chemicals and even dual-use telecommunications equipment responsible for tracking and imprisoning protesters. Of the €11.3 billion in European imports from Iran, 90% is energy-related. Germany, France and Italy top the list, the former two also members of the team involved in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

(Read full article)
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Why Israel Must Now Move from Concessions-Based Diplomacy to Rights-Based Diplomacy

Dan Diker
JCPA
(Published July 2007)

(While written more than 3 years ago, this article remains highly relevant today.)

Israel faces a painful paradox. Its generous territorial concessions climaxing in the 2005 Gaza withdrawal have not resulted in greater international support or sympathy, but rather a further deterioration in its international standing. Indeed, the very legitimacy of the Jewish state continues to be questioned in international circles including the West.

Israel unilaterally withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip expecting both peace and broad international understanding in the event that these areas would be used to attack Israel in the future. However, the condemnations of Israel only seem to be worsening. On May 15, 2007, Amnesty International condemned Israel for "war crimes" in its previous summer's defensive war against Hizbullah. Britain's University and College Union (UCU), the largest academic organization in the United Kingdom, accused Israel of crimes against humanity and apartheid.

Ironically, mounting criticism of Israel has occurred as Israeli civilians have come under repeated attack from Kassam rockets launched from the post-withdrawal Gaza Strip. The concern in Israel over ever-sharpening anti-Israel sentiment even brought the liberal daily Ha'aretz to conclude in its lead editorial of May 27, 2007, that "Britain has become the battlefield in Israel's fight for existence as a Jewish state, and . . . the anti-Zionist winds blowing in Europe strengthen the position [there] that the birth of the Jewish state was a mistake."

For most of the period from 1993 to 2000, Israel's overall diplomatic strategy focused on helping the Palestinians achieve their demands for what Arafat and Palestinian spokesmen had always termed their "legitimate rights," hoping this would result in peace and security for Israelis. Once Israel dropped its past reliance on a diplomacy based on its own rights and adopted a new concessions-based diplomacy instead, its spokesmen essentially acquiesced to the Palestinian historical narrative. The Israelis offered no alternative perspective.


The violent takeover of the Gaza Strip by Iranian-backed Hamas and the group's ongoing Kassam-rocket assaults against southern Israel present a painful paradox for the Jewish state. Israel's generous territorial concessions climaxing in the 2005 Gaza withdrawal have not resulted in either greater security for Israelis or international sympathy for Israel. In fact, the opposite appears to be true. While Israel continues to absorb attacks from Hamas in Gaza and braces for another possible confrontation with Hizbullah in southern Lebanon and possibly with Syria, the very legitimacy of the Jewish state continues to be questioned in international circles including the West.

(Read full article)

Related Article: Israel's Right to the 'Disputed' Territories
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Analysis: Hedy Epstein's European media sex appeal: Anti-Zionism and survivor of the Holocaust

Benjamin Weinthal
Berlin/JPost
03 January '10

There is a tried-and-true Jewish method in Europe to garner instant media coverage and awards of recognition: Scream the trendy anti-Israeli slogans equating the Jewish state with Nazi Germany and the former apartheid regime in South Africa, while highlighting one's background as a Holocaust survivor.

According to seasoned media observers in Germany, the formula of Shoah survivor coupled with anti-Israeli activism helps to explain the public relations coup of Hedy Epstein, an anti-Zionist 85-year-old German Jew who fled the Nazis in 1939, and is now promoting her hunger strike in Egypt to advance the so-called "Free Gaza Movement."

Epstein declared her hunger strike on Monday, as part of a campaign involving 1,400 activists from 42 countries in Egypt hoping to enter Gaza, in a bid to compel Israel to end its restrictions on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. She has attracted widespread press coverage in Europe.

Prompting the activists, many of whom are from organizations affiliated with Hamas, to march into Gaza, is the one-year anniversary of the start of Operation Cast Lead to stop Hamas rocket attacks on Israel's southern periphery.

The European laws of supply and demand (similar ones apply on many American college campuses) show an endless demand for Jewish senior citizens willing to invoke anti-Israeli language that meets the definitions of contemporary anti-Semitism. According to a Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs report, Epstein had "compared Israel to a Nazi state and Israeli soldiers to Nazis" during a lecture at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Writing this past week from Beirut, the liberal Huffington Post site reported that Epstein said, "The issue for Israeli Jews and the American Jewish community is the Holocaust, and everything is due to the Holocaust. But Israel is not being persecuted now. Israel is the persecutor."

(Read full article)

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Gaza's $2 billion a year budget

Elder of Ziyon
02 January '10

From AP:

Gaza's Hamas parliament approved a government budget of $540 million for 2010, legislators said Saturday, suggesting that a tight border blockade isn't stopping the cash flow to the Islamic militants.

Up to $60 million stems from local taxes and the rest from "gifts and outside assistance," said legislator Jamal Nassar. Iran is believed to be one of Hamas' main financial backers, with cash assistance hauled through smuggling tunnels under Gaza's border with Egypt.

...The Abbas government's budget for 2009 was $2.78 billion, funded in large part by foreign aid. Abbas' Palestinian Authority continues to pay the salaries for tens of thousands of Gaza civil servants and security officers who were sent home after the Hamas takeover. It also pays for fuel to run Gaza's power plant and supports hospitals and schools.

The Hamas government is also relieved of much responsibility because the United Nations runs dozens of schools, health clinics and gives food aid to around 1 million Gazans.

(Read full post)
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A man on a mission

Former Israeli diplomat Yoram Ettinger out to debunk Israel’s ‘demographic myth’


Yigal Walt
Israel News/Ynet
01 January '10

When Yoram Ettinger speaks his voice booms with conviction and his eyes are alight – however, one is bound to be persuaded, not to mention stunned, mostly by the figures and conclusions he presents.

The former diplomat is part of an American-Israeli research team devoted to debunking prevalent demographic views regarding Israel’s future; the group’s ground-breaking research paints a much rosier picture, predicting a solid Jewish majority in the region for years to come.

The figures painstakingly collected and analyzed by Ettinger and his colleagues are startling, particularly for Israelis who for years have been warned of the demographic sword hanging over the Jewish State’s future. The data point to grossly exaggerated Palestinian growth predictions, statistical flaws resulting in inaccurate figures, steadily growing Jewish birthrates, and a dramatically declining Arab-Israeli birthrate.

Ettinger has been tirelessly presenting the research to leading Israeli policymakers and other influential figures nationwide. In an interview with Ynetnews he recounts some of the astonished responses he has encountered during his quest; this includes a taken aback Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who was presented with the data during the previous government’s term in office.

“Barak told me: ‘Until I saw this presentation I didn’t know the facts…it would be good to present it soon to (then-Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert and to (then-Foreign Minister) Tzipi Livni, who still don’t know the facts,’” Ettinger says.

(Read full story)

Related: In defiance of demographic fatalism
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The decade of defeatism

Sarah Honig
Another Tack/JPost
31 December 09

Strictly in the Israeli context, the first decade of the 21st century deserves to be remembered as the decade of defeatism. The country ushered in the new millennium with an air of resignation. The no-can-do premise and loser mentality still persist, perniciously.

It's essentially a psychological state in which defeat is the foregone conclusion, anticipated as inevitable and accepted without significant resistance. Thus Kadima MK Nahman Shai pontificated in a radio interview that "Israel has no choice but to pay the price Hamas demanded for Gilad Schalit" and if more abductions are thereby engendered, "we'll have to pay then too. That is our lot."

To be sure, Israeli defeatists aren't all cut from the same cloth. Some, especially on the ideological Left's fringes, promote anything that weakens the state. Their espousal of capitulation to Hamas over Schalit's kidnapping wasn't inspired by concern for his welfare but by desire to further dent Israel's armor. Hence they portray settlements as, heaven forefend, compromising the country's Jewish majority. Yet they simultaneously clamor against new citizenship legislation geared to prevent the wholesale importation of hostile Arabs under the guise of family reunions, as occurred in Oslo's wake when some 150,000 Arabs were willy-nilly added to the population. That transpired without arousing any outcry from the Left, which, at opportune occasions, wrings its hands in despair over the purportedly perilous Jewish demographics.

Since the more hypocritical ideological defeatists hold inordinate sway in the media, they also perforce mold opinions, forge zeitgeist and orchestrate political crusades. They inspire widespread defeatism compounded by the citizenry's intellectual indolence. Their demoralizing spin is that there's no sense to struggle and sacrifice because the fight will anyhow be lost. The inescapable by-products are erosion of faith in the cause and the pervasive perception of all headliners as corrupt and unworthy. "They're all the same" is the oft-heard catchphrase.

IRONICALLY, THIS cynicism failed to foil the most cunning abuse against our most fundamental existential interests. The public let Ariel Sharon - striving to extricate himself from whopping legal entanglements - cheat his voters with an abrupt volte-face, renege on the referendum he initiated, crush his opponents with political steamrollers and propagate patently false prophesies about the bounties of disengagement.

The Ehud Olmert-Tzipi Livni duo had ample opportunity to change course but seemed fettered to the folly and indeed plotted more of the same.

(Read full article)

On the Lookout for Bias at NPR

Steven Stotsky
CAMERA Media Analysis
31 December 09

National Public Radio's (NPR) news coverage of the Middle East often leaves the impression that Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Jerusalem is the main obstacle to an accord between Israel and the Palestinians. Meanwhile the unrelenting villification of Jews by Arab media, religious leaders and government institutions remains a largely taboo subject at the public network. During the Second Intifada, NPR's coverage had become so unbalanced that it prompted a flood of complaints from members of the Jewish community, who traditionally were staunch supporters of the public network. CAMERA produced numerous studies documenting the tilted coverage and ran full-page ads calling attention to the issue. The blatantly one-sided reporting diminished in the face of sustained public protest and NPR began to provide more balanced coverage, including more segments highlighting facets of Israeli life separate from the grinding conflict with the Palestinians. But recent examples make clear, the temptation to revert to old habits is ever-present and the need for constant vigilance in holding NPR accountable remains.

Again, NPR (falsely) blames Israel for housing discrimination

An All Things Considered segment by NPR's Jerusalem bureau chief, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, on Nov. 26, 2009, describes the eviction of Palestinian families from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. In a familiar scenario, a Palestinian spokesman's allegations are amplified by a human rights organization and an oft-quoted Israeli activist. Token balance is supplied by including a brief statement by an Israeli official that fails to address the specific charges leveled. Genuine balance could be provided by Israeli experts who have studied the problem, but they are not called upon. The story promotes the charge that Israel uses discriminatory practices to uproot Arabs from their neighborhoods in East Jerusalem in order to establish a stronger Jewish presence. Garcia-Navarro generalizes a specific dispute over the demolition of illegally built homes into the accusation of a broad pattern of Israeli discrimination.

Abbas and other Palestinian “moderate” leaders glorify Dalal Mughrabi, perpetrator of worst terrorist attack ever against Israeli civilians

Robin Shepherd
RobinShepherdOnline.com
01 January '10

So, the new year starts where the old one left off. The politically correct agendas which run riot in the BBC and much of the rest of the mainstream media in Europe continue to ensure the censorship of vital information about the Israel-Palestine conflict, snuffing out the truth and leaving much of the population in a state of unawareness.

Fortunately, though, anyone who actually wants to know what is going on can take advantage of the services of groups such as Palestinian Media Watch (link below) which is currently reporting on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s appalling glorification this week of Dalal Mughrabi, perpetrator of the 1978 bus hijacking in Israel in which she oversaw the slaughter of 37 civilians including more than 10 children.

Abbas and company ordered and presided over proceedings to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Mughrabi’s birth. According to Palestinian Media Watch:

(Read full post)
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Jordan calls on Canada to seize Dead Sea scrolls

Bataween
Point of No Return
02 January 10

With thanks: Victor; Lily

Countries will think twice about hosting an exhibition of Dead Sea Scrolls following a call by Jordan on Canada to seize the ancient manuscript fragments until their disputed ownership is resolved.

The exhibition of Dead Sea Scrolls, in conjunction with the Israel Antiquities Authority, runs until tomorrow at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Two weeks ago, however, Jordan invoked the Hague Convention, which is concerned with the safeguarding of property in wartime, to urge Canada to take custody of the Dead Sea Scrolls, arguing that Israel had seized the scrolls illegally from Jordan when it re-conquered east Jerusalem in 1967.

Under the Hague Convention the country to which the artefacts are 'exported' becomes the custodian, responsible for their safe keeping.

When the exhibition first opened in the summer, the Palestinian Authority voiced similar objections. Then, a National Post article by Ed Morgan, a university of Ontario law professor, stated:

"In the first place, prior to 1967, the part of the West Bank in which the scrolls were discovered was illegally occupied by the Kingdom of Jordan -- an occupation condemned by virtually every existing international organization, including the Arab League and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. If one doesn't like Israel's current possession of the scrolls because of Israel's occupation of the territory from which they come, one cannot possibly like the Jordanian claim any better.

More to the point, the Palestinians have expressly recognized Israel as custodian of all artefacts found in the West Bank and Gaza pending a final resolution of the conflict.

(Read full article)
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The "Why Can't Everyone Just Be Friends" Narrative of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict, Evenhandedness Gone Mad

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
2 January '10

It’s a heartening story just made for this season and the Western media : two seriously injured children, one Israeli and one Palestinian, becoming friends together in a hospital, with an innocence that transcends the hatred of their peoples. The New York Times article is written precisely balanced, two families, two causes, absolutely identical. Oh how foolish is this unnecessary conflict. What folly drives humanity!

On one level, who can object to such a story, so fair, balanced, so humane and touching? Nowadays, to treat Israel on an equal footing with the Palestinians is rare enough and thus should be sufficient.

Yet something bothers me about this story, everything it leaves out and misleads about.

First, the basic tale. Orel was injured by a rocket fired from Gaza at Beersheva. Marya was injured in an Israeli missile which killed a terrorist leader. Both are eight.

The Times picks up the story:

“In a way, a friendship between two wounded children from opposing backgrounds is not that surprising. Neither understands the prolonged fight over land and identity that so divides people here. They are kids. They play.

“But for those who have spent time in their presence at Alyn Hospital in Jerusalem, it is almost more powerful to observe their parents, who do understand. They have developed a kinship that defies national struggle.”

Yet what does this leave out, at least in part? First, how they were injured isn’t precisely the same. Orel was hit in an unprovoked Hamas attack deliberately intended to kill Israeli civilians; Marya was hit as a regrettable accident by an Israeli attack against a terrorist who had murdered other Israeli civilians and who could only be stopped in that manner.

By the standards of the United Nations, the Hamas attack had no practical implication while the Israeli assassination of a terrorist sponsored by his local government (and hence immune from any arrest) was a war crime.

(Read full article)
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A low and dishonest decade

Caroline Glick
carolineglick.com
01 January '10

Upon returning from Cairo on Tuesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu proclaimed, "It's time to move the peace process forward."

The most sympathetic interpretation of Netanyahu's proclamation is that he was engaging in political theater. It was a low and dishonest statement uttered at the end of what has been, in the immortal words of W.H. Auden, "a low and dishonest decade."

Everyone with eyes in their heads knows that there is no chance of making peace with the Palestinians. First of all, the most Israel is willing to give is less than what the Palestinians are willing to accept.

But beyond that, Gaza is controlled by Hamas, and Hamas is controlled by Iran.

For its part, Fatah is not in a position to make peace even if its leaders wished to. Mahmoud Abbas and his deputies know that just as Hamas won the 2006 elections in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, Hamas would win elections today. To maintain even a smudge of domestic legitimacy, Fatah's leaders have no choice but to adopt Hamas's rejection of peaceful coexistence with the Jewish state.

Clearly, now is not the time "to move the peace process forward."

No less than what it tells us about Netanyahu, his statement is notable for what it tells us about Israel. Our continued willingness to ensnare ourselves in the rhetoric of peace processes demonstrates how little we have progressed in the past decade.

In 1999, Netanyahu was ejected from office by an electorate convinced that he was squandering an historic opportunity for peace between Israel and its neighbors. A majority of Israelis believed that Netanyahu's signature policies of demanding that the Palestinians abide by their commitments to Israel, and maintaining the IDF's security zone in south Lebanon were dooming all hope for peace.

(Read full article)
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Iran's soccer team wishes Israel a happy New Year

Elder of Ziyon
1 January '10

Posted before Shabbat

From Al Arabiya: The Iranian Football Federation accidentally sent a New Year’s greeting to its Israeli counterpart, which responded wishing “all of the good people in Iran a happy new year,” Israeli media reported late on Thursday. Mohammad Ali Ardebili, head of Iranian football union’s foreign relations, told Israel’s Army Radio he sent the letter to all football unions around the world but he did not intend to send it to the Israel Football Association. Ardebili sent the greeting letter by email and the Army Radio managed to reach him for comment by phone. "This is a greeting sent to the entire world," he said, then he inquired quickly, "Are you speaking from Israel? I can't speak to you. This is a mistake, this is a mistake."

(Read full post)

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After Detroit Terror Attack Fails, Diane Sawyer Profiles Israel

Dr. Alex Safian
CAMERA Media Analysis
31 December 09

posted before Shabbat

Covering the failed attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to destroy a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Michigan, ABC's new anchor, Diane Sawyer, brought up the perennial question of Israeli airport security (World News with Diane Sawyer, December 28, 2009). While the veteran journalist allowed that Israeli security measures were "legendary," she also emphatically and falsely charged that Israel "openly, openly tried to profile the passengers. One critic called it flying while Muslim."

ABC's Justice correspondent, Peirre Thomas, then weighed in, adding to the misinformation with his claim, citing unnamed experts, that Israelis "routinely profile Muslims and Arabs and they're unapologetic."

(Transcript)

DIANE SAWYER (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) A quick question to you, Pierre, about Israel. As we know its legendary security there for boarding airplanes and they openly, openly tried to profile the passengers. One critic called it flying while Muslim. What about that?

PIERRE THOMAS (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) Well, we spoke to some Israeli security officials today and they were blunt. They do routinely profile Muslims and Arabs and they're unapologetic. One private security official told me today not all Muslims all terrorists but nearly all terrorists are Muslim. The official acknowledged that this approach might make many Americans uncomfortable but said the Israelis have not had a successful attack on an airplane for more than 30 years.

DIANE SAWYER (ABC NEWS)

(Off-camera) Okay, Pierre, thanks to you. And as we know, of course, Israel has far fewer flights per day than in the US.

(Read full article plus video clip)

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The Deadly Price of Pursuing Peace

Evelyn Gordon
Commentary Magazine
January '10

When the Oslo process began in 1993, one benefit its adherents promised was a significant improvement in Israel’s international standing. And initially, it seemed as if that promise would be kept: 37 countries soon established or renewed diplomatic relations with Israel; a peace treaty was signed with Jordan; five other Arab states opened lower-level relations.

But 16 years later, it is clear that this initial boost was illusory. Not only is Israel’s standing no better than it was prior to the famous handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat on the White House Lawn in September 1993, it has fallen to an unprecedented low. Efforts to boycott and divest from Israel are gaining strength throughout the West, among groups as diverse as British academics, Canadian labor unions, the Norwegian government’s investment fund, and American churches. Israeli military operations routinely spark huge protests worldwide, often featuring anti-Semitic slogans.

References to Israel as an apartheid state have become so commonplace that even a former president of Israel’s closest ally, the United States, had no qualms about using the term in the title of his 2007 book on Israel. European polls repeatedly deem Israel the greatest threat to world peace, greater even than such beacons of tranquility and democracy as Iran and North Korea. Courts in several European countries, including Belgium, Britain, and Spain, have seriously considered indicting Israeli officials for war crimes (though none has actually yet done so). And in October, when the United Nations Human Rights Council overwhelmingly endorsed a report that advocated hauling Israel before the International Criminal Court on war-crimes charges, even many of Jerusalem’s supposed allies refused to vote against the measure. In academic and media circles, it has even become acceptable to question Israel’s very right to exist—something never asked about any other state in the world. None of these developments was imaginable back in the days when Israel refused to talk to the Palestine Liberation Organization, had yet to withdraw from an inch of “Palestinian” land, and had not evacuated a single settlement.

Yet even today, conventional wisdom, including in Israel, continues to assert that Israel’s international standing depends on its willingness to advance the “peace process.” That invites an obvious question: if so, why has Israel’s reputation fallen so low despite its numerous concessions for peace since 1993?

(Read full article)
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High Court of Justice Highway Decision And Intellectual Dishonesty

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
Weekly Commentary
31 December 09

“We told the IDF to come up with effective security arrangements”.

That’s the excuse that the High Court of Justice justices will tell themselves when Palestinian terrorists exploit their ruling to restore access to Highway 443.

But it will just be that.

An excuse.

The narrative of the Israeli Leftists celebrating the reopening of Highway 443 to common Palestinian use is that Israel cynically justified their exercise of the right of eminent domain to build the road by noting that Palestinians would benefit from using it and then barring them from the highway.

But Israel had no intention to bar Palestinian access.

Palestinians did, in fact, use the road alongside Israelis.

And this situation could have continued to this very day.

If the Palestinians didn’t start exploiting access to 443 in order to murder Israelis.

But they did.

Let’s make this clear.

Palestinian access to 443 wasn’t limited as some form of “collective punishment”.

It was done because Israeli security services couldn’t come up with a workable, reliable, alternative that would keep Israel’s second most heavily traveled route between the Coastal Plain and Jerusalem safe for Israeli drivers.

Back to the court ruling.

Now these judges may genuinely think that Palestinian use of Highway 443 is more important than the Israeli lives that could very well be sacrificed if their ruling is implemented.

But that’s not what they said.

Instead they covered their backsides by instructing the IDF to come up with effective security arrangements.

Now the onus is on the IDF and the other security agencies to bring the problem back to the court, explaining honestly and vividly the security risks their “solutions” carry with them.
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Justice in Sheikh Jarrah

Right has learned to use legal system wisely to restore Jewish property

Yair Gabai
Opinion/Ynet
31 December 09

Fortunately, I have never heard of a case in which the State of Israel prevented an Arab in possession of land or a house in west Jerusalem from living in his home or legally building on his land for purely racist reasons. Recently, left-wing organizations have been seeking to impose an apartheid rule in Jerusalem. In other words, in the west each person has the right to fulfill the ownership right, while in the east – this right is only given to Arabs. In order to prevent Jews with assets in the eastern part of the city from fulfilling their ownership, they recruit foreign countries and market fabrications about "poor Arabs who have been expelled from their homes by settler thugs."

The houses in Simeon the Just neighborhood, which Jews entered with a court order, are located on a piece of land measuring 4.5 acres, which was purchased by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Ashkenazi Committee (Knesset Israel) in 1876. In 1936 the neighborhood included houses, synagogues and charity institutions. This land is soaked with the blood of Jews, and nearby is a monument commemorating the 78 doctors and staff members massacred on their way to Mount Scopus. From the moment the neighborhood was established, Jerusalem's Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini began leading acts of harassment against the neighborhood's residents. Some of us may have forgotten that the mufti was the first person to issue a fatwa (death sentence) against an Arab selling land to a Jew.

Related Background Article: The Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik Neighborhood

Unfortunately, upon the declaration of the State's establishment in 1948, following riots, bombardments and unstoppable attacks, the Jews were forced to abandon their houses in this neighborhood, and had the Arab rioters not lost in the War of Independence they would have also cleansed Rehavia and Talbiyeh of Jews. After the War of Independence, these houses were turned over to the possession of the Jordanian in charge of the enemy's assets who rented them out to the Arab families which have been living in them up to now. The private ownership of these assets has never been expropriated, and the proceedings to return the Jewish property to its rightful owner began after the Six Day War, when the neighborhood was re-liberated by IDF forces.

(Read full article)

Attorney Yair Gabai is a Jerusalem council member
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Mohammad Bakri: ‘art’ is his shield

FresnoZionism
fresnozionism.org
31 December 09

Filmmaker and actor Mohammad Bakri, a ‘Palestinian resident of Israel’, may be prosecuted for criminal libel for his 2002 film “Jenin, Jenin”.

You may recall that in 2002, after a horrendous wave of bombings and shootings in which hundreds of Israelis were murdered and thousands injured, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank to root out the terrorists responsible for it. One of their strongholds was the city of Jenin, in Northern Samaria. According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the period of 2001-2002, 57 Israelis were killed and hundreds injured by terrorists based in or directed from Jenin alone. During April 3-11, 2002, IDF soldiers fought a fierce battle in Jenin with members of Fatah’s al-Aqsa brigades, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

After the first day, the fighting moved to the adjacent ‘refugee camp’, which had been heavily fortified and booby-trapped by the Palestinians. Nevertheless, in order to reduce civilian casualties as much as possible, IDF soldiers fought house-to-house instead of employing artillery and air strikes. As a result — as ultimately attested to by the UN — only 52 Palestinians were killed, almost all combatants; but 23 Israeli soldiers were lost, 13 of them in one ambush on April 9.

After the battle, Palestinian spokesmen such as Nabil Sha’ath, Hassan Abdel Rahman, Yasser Abed Rabbo and Saeb Erakat, claimed that Israel had massacred hundreds of Palestinians, burying them in mass graves or leaving their bodies to decompose under the rubble. But unlike the situation in Gaza, the Palestinians did not control access to the area, and the truth ultimately came out (although, as CAMERA notes in the link above, the fact that they had lied through their teeth didn’t seem to hurt the credibility of the Palestinian spokesmen with the international press).

(Read full article)

Related: The Road to Jenin by French director Pierre Rehov

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A Sense of Purpose

Emmanuel Navon
For the Sake of Zion
31 December 09

To end the Year 2009 on an upbeat note, I would recommend the reading of two recently published books: One State, Two States by Benny Morris, and Start-Up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer –provided you read them in that order.

Morris has gone a long way since his self-appointment as a "new historian" poised to question Israel's historical narrative and "myths." In January 2004, he surprised –and shocked- many by declaring to Ari Shavit that "when the choice is between destroying or being destroyed, it's better to destroy;" that "there are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing;" that it was necessary to uproot the Palestinians in 1948; that Ben-Gurion "had carried out a full expulsion –rather than a partial one- he would have stabilized the State of Israel for generations;" that "the non-completion of the transfer was a mistake;" that in circumstances which "are liable to be realized in five or ten years … acts of expulsion will be entirely reasonable. They may even be essential;" that "there is not going to be peace in the present generation;" that "we are doomed to live by the sword;" that "something like a cage has to be built" for the Palestinians; that all Israelis can do at this point is "to be vigilant, to defend the country;" and that "the Arab world as it is today is barbarian" ("Survival of the Fittest," Haaretz, 9 January 2004).

In One State, Two States, Morris shows that the Zionist movement accepted the principle of partition out of political realism from the time it was first proposed by the Peel Commission in 1937. The Palestinians, on the other hand, have systematically rejected the idea, and Arafat only deceived Israel with the Oslo Agreements to implement the "phased strategy." With the steady radicalization and islamization of Palestinian society today, Morris argues, chances of implementing the two-state solution are null.

Morris also shows, no less convincingly, that the alternatives to the two-state solution (including an Arab-dominated bi-national state) are unrealistic and undesirable (as far as Israel is concerned, at least). So there is no alternative to a solution that doesn't work. Great.

Morris is a realist. He realizes that Israel is in a catch-22 type of situation. Probably because he didn't want to end his book on a bleak note, he does suggest a way out by proposing the revival of the "Jordanian option." Nice try, but it doesn't wash. Jordan doesn't want it and, as Morris himself explains at length, the Palestinians will never sign a deal that leaves a sovereign Jewish state in the equation.

Despite his unconvincing attempt to sound optimistic in the last two pages of his book, Morris makes a compelling case: There is no solution.

(Continue reading article)
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Dexia Israel Denying Economic Rights to Jewish Applicants

Manhigut Yehudit Blog
31 December 09

In the Dec. 30th, 2009 Jerusalem Post, the following headline appeared, "Belgian bank won't lend to settlements". The Belgian bank, Dexia, has a special branch in Israel that works with municipalities. Dexia has recently decided to refuse loan requests coming into the bank from local councils in Judea and Samaria. They are arguing that the loans are too risky because if Israel agrees to abandon the Jewish heartland, they will not be able to collect on their loans. Hmmm. Does anyone else smell something not so nice here? Click here for the full story. I decided to do a wee bit of research on this and it took only one google search to find out who is behind this actuarial attack on the Jewish people -- take a guess -- you got it! Omar Barghouti: founder of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

Now this fellow, Omar, calls himself a "Palestinian". He was actually born in Qatar and grew up in Egypt but nevermind ... he says he is a "Palestinian". From his perspective "Palestinian" is probably a "state of mind" and he really feels it in his bones. After all he is a graduate of Columbia University which Caroline Glick (also a grad) calls "Bir Zeit University on the Hudson". Omar is one of the most successful activists working to demonize and delegitimize Israel - so it is a good idea for us to get to know the enemy a bit. He is a key force behind the Belgian bank loan refusal policy.

In addition to Mr. Barghouti's efforts to generate economic attacks on Israel - more about this shortly - one of his most clever tactics was to enter Tel Aviv University as a student hoping that they would expel him. Well no such luck! Despite the seeming contradiction his study there presents to his organization's stated purpose "Academic Boycott..etc" ; and contrary to the hopes of tens of thousands who signed a petition to have him expelled (65,000 people) - he will remain. Tel Aviv University has no plans to expel him. Of course he is disappointed by this. As he explained to his fellow activists,

(Read full post)
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Abbas sponsors birthday celebrations honoring terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, killer of 37

The text on the giant banner carrying Mughrabi's portrait at the birthday ceremony read:
"Under the auspices of President Mahmoud Abbas
The Political and National Education Authority
Ceremony on the anniversary of the birth of the bride of the cosmos
The Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi."

Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Palestinian Media Watch(PMW)
31 December 09

This week Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas once again honored the memory of the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi - this time by sponsoring a ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of her birth. Mughrabi led the worst terror attack in Israel's history in 1978, when she and other terrorists hijacked a bus and killed 37 civilians. Present at the ceremony were Palestinian dignitaries and a children's marching band. Earlier this year, Abbas sponsored a computer center named after Mughrabi.

The PA further glorified Mughrabi on the date of her birth when the Governor of Ramallah announced the naming of the "Dalal Mughrabi Square".

An article by Fatah spokesman Jamal Nazal in the official PA daily defined the terrorist Mughrabi as "the heroine of Palestine's heroines."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 30, 2009]

(Read full report)
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Human Rights NGOs Need a Monitor

Gerald M. Steinberg
The Forward
30 December 09

Most people prefer giving, rather than receiving, criticism. Leaders of powerful non-governmental organizations are no exception.

Human rights NGOs have long benefited from a “halo effect” that has protected them from scrutiny; reporters quote their research widely, assuming it is accurate. But in recent years, the protective coating has worn thin, and the heads of these organizations are finding themselves squirming uncomfortably in the spotlight.

Events of the past year have highlighted the vital need for accountability, transparency and informed debate on the activities of NGOs like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and B’Tselem. These NGOs have played a central role in charging Israel with “war crimes” and “collective punishment.” To the degree that these groups’ agendas and claims prove to be biased, unfounded or simply invented, their accusations against Israel also lose credibility.

Understandably, NGO Monitor’s research reports airing NGOs’ dirty linen often trigger intense counterattacks. There have been angry insults from HRW officials and crude accusations of “McCarthyism” from apologists for some of the groups that NGO Monitor has researched. (One such online attack was linked to prominently on the home page of the New Israel Fund.)

Then there are criticisms from more serious individuals, such as Forward columnist Yossi Alpher, author of the December 25 article “NGO Monitor Needs a Monitor.” To his credit, Alpher acknowledges the work that NGO Monitor has done exposing “the funding by European governments and reputable American philanthropies of NGOs that smear Israel with lies and classic antisemitic rhetoric.” He also affirms the validity of NGO Monitor’s complaints about Human Rights Watch. (Alpher doesn’t elaborate, but NGO Monitor has documented deep biases among the heads of HRW’s Middle East division, the dispatching of an obsessive Nazi-memorabilia collector to assess Israeli military actions and the group’s use of anti-Israel themes to raise funds in Saudi Arabia.)

(Read full article)
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