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08/31/2009

The right to a Jewish state

Filed under: Israel — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 9:00 am

Recently, Prof. Shlomo Avineiri wrote about the failure of the Palestinians to accept the right of Israel to exist. “Shamir” in this case, is Prof. Shimon Shamir, who argued that Palestinian acceptance of Israel’s right to exist is irrelevant.

Benjamin Netanyahu is not the first to broach the idea. It remains uncertain whether he acted wisely in the manner he gave the issue such prominence, but what shocked many Israelis – not just Likud members – was the blunt and vulgar response given by official Palestinian spokespeople.

In their ferociously negative response, Shamir claims that the Palestinians “fell into the trap that those who demanded recognition of a Jewish state had set for them.” Yet apparently there was no fall into any rhetorical trap. Rather, this was an expression of a deep, internal ideological truth that to this day refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination. Because as far as the Palestinians are concerned, the Jews are not a nation, but rather a religious-ethnic group.

Barry Rubin sharpens the point:

Note by the way something extremely important: To accept the existence of a Palestinian Arab state, Israel or Zionist ideology does not have to make any change whatsoever in its world view. It is not exclusionary. Palestinian nationalism is. For it to accept the existence of Israel–in real terms or even by signing a final peace treaty–requires a political and intellectual revolution.

And one of the ways you know peace is not near is that this revolution has barely begun. Examine Palestinian media, education, the statements (in Arabic) of leaders, mosque sermons, and so on, and you find few hints that there is acceptance of Israel’s long-term, much less permanent, existence. Of course, Hamas makes little secret of its view on the subject.

Fatah’s view is more complex. In private, some of its leaders know they cannot defeat Israel but won’t say so publicly and hope that a long-term battle of attrition will do what force of arms cannot.

I think it’s important to note that Professor Robert O. Freedman of Baltimore Hebrew University has also recently written:

Finally, and perhaps most important of all, it is necessary for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state to replace the image of the Jew as dhimmi, or second class citizen, with the image of the Jew as a member of a national group exercising legitimate national rights, just as the Palestinians themselves do. Once this is done, the chances for a long-lasting peace between Israel and a Palestinian state will be greatly enhanced.

Freedman, is also an active member of Americans for Peace Now. During Prime MInister Netanyahu’s first term in office Freedman often portrayed Netanyahu as a right wing extremist. Yet, at that time, one of Netanyahu’s demands was that the Palestinian Authority abrogate the parts of its charter that denied Israel’s right to exist. It wasn’t just a demand but also a recognition that the failure of the Palestinians to do so was a sign that they rejected the premises of a peace treaty. Yet the common approach at the time was to dismiss the language of the Palestinian National Covenant as obsolete. This is what Serge Schmemann of the New York Times commented the first time that the Palestinian supposedly dropped the language denying Israel’s right to exist, in 1996:

Though time and the Israeli-Palestinian agreements had rendered the charter largely obsolete, the formal revocation of the hostile clauses carried a great symbolic importance for Israelis. It was so important that Mr. Peres agreed to let some of the most notorious terrorists return to Palestinian lands to make it possible for Mr. Arafat to convene the entire Palestine National Council.

In an interview with Arutz-7 Prof. Yehoshua Porath found no evidence that the PLO had indeed ended its calls for the destruction of the Jewish States (to use the headline from the Schmemann article.).

Q. Shalom Professor Porat. Yasser Arafat sent a letter today to Prime Minister Peres announcing the changes in the Palestinian covenant. Does this letter convince you that the covenant has been changed?

A. No, he has only repeated the decision of the PNC. They have not defined which clauses will be changed, but have only made a general statement that they will change clauses which contradict the recognition of Israel’s right to exist.

Q. Isn’t this only a matter of semantics? For he is explicitly stating that he will make the changes.

A. When he makes the changes, we will see. We will see what replaces the present clauses. Why are we in such a hurry to give him credit?

Q. We should give him credit because it is said that until now, Arafat has not made such a statement.

A. In an exchange of letters [with Yitzhak Rabin], Arafat said that he will change the covenant. Today he said that anything that contradicts the mutual recognition expressed in that exchange of letters, is now null and void. What has he changed? Does anyone know what clauses are changed? There is nothing new in this development. Clause 19, which says explicitly that the establishment of the State of Israel is null and void, I’m sure they will change first. But what about the clause which denies any connection between the Jewish People and the Land of Israel? What about the many clauses pertaining to the armed struggle? What about the clause that the Palestinians are the only rightful owners of the land? What about the clause in which the PLO claims the right to represent the Arab citizens of Israel? Do we agree with this? Does this constitute a “contradiction”? Does anyone know? No. The questions remain open, yet they have received credit [for the changes] enabling the continuation of the negotiations.

As I’ve written before, Article 20 of the Palestinian National Charter – which, as Prof Porath noted, denies the connection between Jews and the land of Israel – is a fundamental tenet of Palestinian nationalism. Even the “moderate” leader of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas cannot bring himself to acknowledge this. Instead newspapers quote Abbas’s glib response to the issue:

“It is not my job to give a description of the state. Name yourself the Hebrew Socialist Republic — it is none of my business,”

as if to dismiss its significance and instead focus on “settlements” as the major obstacle to peace, not the Palestinian refusal to accept the premise of peace: the acceptance of the Jewish state of Israel. It’s amazing that 16 years after Oslo, this is still not settled.

Crosssposted on Soccer Dad.

Monday SNB

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Hamas, Holocaust, Israel, News Briefs, Pop Culture — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

Hamas getting confident; shelling Israel again: More shells into Israel. But when mortars are fired from Gaza into Israel, the mainstream media doesn’t pick it up until Israel fires back.

Hamas’ pre-emptive strike at the UN See if you can follow this: Hamas is protesting to the UN that it can’t teach about the Holocaust in UN-sponsored classes in Gaza. The UN is saying, “Huh? We’re not teaching it.” Hamas then says, “Well, you’re about to, so don’t.” The UN says, “No comment.” Um—what? Of course, the UN will cave. Watch for it.

Madonna—Bibi. Bibi—Madonna. Madonna’s going to meet with Bibi Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni while she’s touring Israel. Concerts, Kabbala, and Knesset. She’s a busy girl, is Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone.

08/30/2009

The son also op-eds

Filed under: Miscellaneous — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 12:00 pm

Well following in his father’s illustrious path, Saif al-Islam el-Qaddafi has taken the pen to produce an op-ed for the New York Times, so he could, of course, argue that Megrahi is innocent.

Mr. Megrahi was released for the right reasons. The Scottish justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, freed Mr. Megrahi, who is dying of cancer, on compassionate grounds. Mr. MacAskill’s courageous decision demonstrates to the world that both justice and compassion can be achieved by people of good will. Despite the uproar over the release, others agree. A recent survey of Scottish lawyers showed that a majority of those surveyed agreed with the secretary’s decision.

It’s worth pointing out that we Libyans are far from the only ones who believe that Mr. Megrahi is innocent of this terrible crime. In June 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission determined that a “miscarriage of justice” may have occurred and referred the case to the High Court. A retired Scottish police officer who worked on the case has signed a statement saying that evidence was fabricated. The credibility of a key witness, a shopkeeper in Malta, has subsequently been disputed by the Scottish judge who presided in the review. Even the spokesman of a family group of Lockerbie victims has said that the group was not satisfied that the verdict in the Megrahi case was correct.

However, Stratfor lays out the case against Megrahi here (h/t Seraphic Secret):

Investigators were also able to trace the clothing inside the suitcase containing the IED to a specific shop, Mary’s House, in Sliema, Malta. While examining one of the pieces of Maltese clothing in May 1989, investigators found a fragment of a circuit board that did not match anything found in the Toshiba radio. It is important to remember that in a bombing, the pieces of the IED do not entirely disappear. They may be shattered and scattered, but they are not usually completely vaporized. Although some pieces may be damaged beyond recognition, others are not, and this often allows investigators to reconstruct the device

In mid-1990, after an exhaustive effort to identify the circuit-board fragment, the FBI laboratory in Washington was able to determine that the circuit board was very similar to one that came from a timer that a special agent with the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service had recovered from an arms cache while investigating a Libyan-sponsored coup attempt in Lome, Togo, in 1986. Further investigation determined that the company that produced the timers, the Swiss company MEBO, had sold as many as 20 of the devices to the Libyan government, and that the Libyan government was the company’s primary customer. Interestingly, in 1988, MEBO rented one of its offices in Zurich to a firm called ABH, which was run by two Libyan intelligence officers: Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Badri Hassan.

The MEBO timer, model MST-13, is very different from the ice-cube timer in the PFLP-GC device found in Frankfurt in October 1988. Additionally, the ice-cube timer in the PFLP-GC device was used in conjunction with a barometric pressure switch, and the IED used a different main charge, TNT, instead of the Semtex used in the Pan Am 103 device.

Nor was flight 103 the only flight about which that Libya admitted guilt. The younger Qaddafi doesn’t address that in his op-ed. Furthermore it appears that rumors of Megrahi’s impending death may have been exaggerated. (via Israel Matzav via Seraphic Secret)

Both parties now want the doctor identified in order to determine whether the government allowed itself to get hoodwinked by the Libyans. The alternative theory would be that the government wanted to construct a good cover story for Megrahi’s release for other reasons — for instance, oil deals, as Moammar Gaddafi hinted and his son flat-out claimed.

The government thus far has refused to identify the doctor and says speculation on the length of Megrahi’s life is “tasteless.” But that was the basis of Scotland’s decision to release a mass murderer after serving only 11.57 days for every life he took. The Scottish government made the calculation of Megrahi’s life expectancy into public policy, and it’s completely dishonest to now claim modesty and etiquette when challenged on it.

Of course, we’ll know by January if Megrahi really is that sick. If he’s still breathing when the 21st anniversary of the bombing rolls around on December 21, we’ll have a pretty good sense that the deal to get him released was political with “compassion” the cover for an action that was anything but.

Is the younger Qaddafi sincere? Erratic seems like a good description of the younger Qaddafi’s pronouncements.

Esquire last year listed him as one of the most influential people of the 21st century.

The second-oldest son of “Brother Leader” Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi would appear to be out of his mind. Reared by the military dictator who admitted responsibility for the Pan Am flight 103 bombing, Saif al-Islam el-Qaddafi believes democracy can take root in Libya. He once told Al Jazeera, “You have to bring democracy to your countries,” referring to the Arab world, adding, “The Arabs should either change or change will be imposed upon them from the outside.” With him in power, the Western world, and the U. S. in particular, could get what it theoretically wants in Iraq–the conversion of a large, oil-rich extremist Middle Eastern regime to a peaceful democracy–without the in-between step of a war.

But does Saif mean it? When his time comes, will he submit to a vote? Or will he simply inherit the reins of power. I think Esquire’s being too kind here.

The Lede picked this up:

As The Lede noted last week, in 2008 the younger Mr. Qaddafi said in this extraordinary interview with the BBC that Libya had “accepted responsibility” for the actions of Mr. Megrahi and paid compensation for the Lockerbie bombing simply to bring about an end to international sanctions, but “that doesn’t mean we did it.” In the same interview, Mr. Qaddafi called the families of the Lockerbie victims “very greedy” and said, “Instead of wasting their time blackmailing us,” they should now work with the Libyan government “in order to find the real criminal who was behind that attack.”

“[F]ind the real criminal?” Has he been taking lessons from OJ?

Saif Qaddafi seems to want the benefits of dealing with the West, but he still says lots of things that indicate that he’s wedded to the old way of doing business. I think he’s less of voice of change than a voice for preserving his own privileges.

The Lede’s – a blog at the NYT – damaging post about Saif Qaddafi certainly made it seem like the release of Megrahi was part of a deal between Britain and Libya. Now the Times has given Qaddafi the opportunity to respond. Will he ever give his own citizens a similar opportunity?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Sunday Snark News Briefs

Filed under: Hamas, Israel, News Briefs, Politics, The One — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:20 am

I’m shocked, shocked, that Gilad Shalit’s release is not imminent: Yeah, toldja so. I will believe that a deal is within reach when I see photos of Shalit being released to Egypt. Not before.

If only American prosecutors were this fair-minded: Olmert’s been indicted. I’d sure like to see some crooked American politicians get the same treatment (yeah, I’m talking about you, Richardson). Meantime, geez, Israel, can you get your politicians to stop stealing and bribing and doing all those illegal things? I mean, geez. At least we don’t have all that many presidents getting caught.

World’s tiniest violin orchestra, please: Security prisoners in Israel are getting canned food for Ramadan, instead of home-cooked meals. All together now: Awwww. Here’s a thought: Perhaps if you hadn’t taken part in terrorist attacks, you wouldn’t be suffering in jail during the holiday.

Gee, ya think? A commentary on CNN has a keen grasp of the obvious: Obama is losing the centrists. Hm. Take a far-left agenda, try to slam it through in spite of polls stating that Americans do not want nationalized health care, government takeover of the auto industry, or even a massive bank bailout, and what do you think is going to happen? Obama pretended to be a centrist during the election, thus hoodwinking millions of people who refused to look at his voting record. Now the mask is off, the emperor has no clothes, yadda yadda, etc., etc., and the result is Obama’s poll numbers dropping almost as fast as the stock market.

What if Chappaquiddick happened today? Duh. Kennedy’s political career would have died with Mary Jo Kopechne.

08/29/2009

Caturday

Filed under: Cats — Meryl Yourish @ 8:55 pm

I really like this shot of Tig.

Tig looking for something

I assure you, this isn’t what he was looking at.

Gracie looking silly

He was actually searching for his mousie, which he had dropped.

Tig and mousie

Tig loves his mousie. Gracie loves being left alone by Tig. It’s all good.

08/28/2009

Mary Robinson: Building settlements will lead to one-state solution

Filed under: Israel, Juvenile Scorn — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

Mary Robinson, who has just been honored by the U.S. President (whom only four percent of Israelis think is pro-Israel) with America’s highest honor, is in Israel doing a little fear-mongering. She’s warning Israel that if settlement building isn’t frozen, the two-state solution is at risk.

“The balance is tipping and if it tips, there will not be a two-state solution and how would that make Israel safer?” asked Robinson, in an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Oooh. Scary. And what, pray tell, would her logic be on this? Can we have a supporting statement? Some facts that might make us think that settlement building is going to force Israel to yield to a single, binational state?

“A one-state solution has huge implications. So for the sake of being able to have a two-state solution, we need a freeze on settlements,” she said.

Um. Well, perhaps the JPost interview just didn’t include her reasons behind those scary statements. Or perhaps that “balance” she was talking about was the world’s support for Israel. (Actually, that wouldn’t surprise me, but good luck to the world in getting Israel to legislate itself out of existence.)

I searched the article in vain for an actual reason why settlement building will lead to the dreaded one-state solution (which is, let’s be honest, the death of Israel). I am left with believing that the Medal of Freedom honoree is talking out of her ass. It’s a pretty safe assumption when you read quotes like this:

“We are a group that contains a number of those who would be, if you like, perceived to be quite balanced on the Israeli side,” said Robinson.

Hm. Robinson, Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu… yep, quite balanced on the Israeli side, if by “the Israeli side” you mean “people who warn about a one-state solution as the logical result of settlement building.”

I’m sorry, these people are supposed to be our “wise elders”? I stand by my label of “Senile old anti-Israel farts.”

Hevron remembered

Filed under: Israeli Double Standard Time — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 9:00 am

Jerold Auerbach writes today about the Chevron massacre:

The Jewish community of Hebron—some 700 people—recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of their return. This month they commemorate the 80th anniversary of Tarpat. All the other ancient peoples mentioned in the Bible have vanished. But Jews, a community of memory, still live in Hebron.

Hebron Jews are relentlessly vilified as fanatics who illegally occupy someone else’s land. As religious Zionists, they are the militant Jewish settlers whom legions of Jewish and non-Jewish critics love to hate. It is seldom noticed that their most serious transgression—settlement in the biblical land of Israel—is the definition of Zionism: the return of Jews to their historic homeland.

The inadmissibility of acquiring land by force apparently doesn’t apply to Arabs.

Let’s not forget that when a terrorist killed a 10 month old girl in Chevron eight years ago, the PA refused to take responsibility for the crime.

Which is one reason why it elicited not even a note of remorse from the Palestinian Arab leadership. Reuters did manage to find a member of Yasser Arafat’s cabinet in Amman, Jordan, at a meeting of Arab dictators exploring ways to keep financing the attacks on Israel. It quoted the minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo, as saying there is no evidence that the baby was killed by Palestinian fire. “We believe that the atrocities of the occupation are responsible for all crimes that have claimed the lives of Palestinians and Israelis,” he said.

Thus the Jewish presence in Hevron, which was removed by force eighty years ago, is considered illegal, not just by the Palestinians but by much of the world.

More from Sanny Benoit.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Friday SNB

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Holocaust, Jew Cooties, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

Reap what you sow dept.: A Saudi prince was injured by a terrorist who blew himself up on his way to meet with him. Don’t you just love how the AP talks about the prince spearheading the “aggressive” Saudi anti-terrorism campaign? Because it’s not like Saudi money is funding terrorism anywhere in the world or anything.

Am Yisrael Chai: The Jewish people live. That’s what the Benjamin Netanyahu said in Wannsee yesterday. That’s the place where the Nazis planned the destruction of the world’s Jews.

Ew! Jew cooties! Hamas is denying having participated in European workshops with Israelis. Because, you know, Jew cooties.

Note to self: No more putting purse on the back of chairs in restaurants. Ben Bernanke’s wife’s purse was stolen from the back of her chair at a Starbuck’s, begging the question: Didn’t she feel the thief take it? The media’s making this out to be a major ID theft case, but the details being given out make it seem like, uh, the thief stole her checkbook and tried to cash a check. Unless there’s more to the story, it’s typical media overhype.

Um, what’s the point of an Israeli suing a Swedish paper in a New York court? An Israeli lawyer (not one of the brighter ones if you ask me) is suing the Aftonbladet for libel in a New York court. Why not in Sweden? Am I the only one that thinks this is moronic?

08/27/2009

Really. Not funny anymore

Filed under: Meanderings — Meryl Yourish @ 12:56 pm

I’m sure that when the name “Insinkerator” was first brought out, people thought it was just the coolest name ever for a garbage disposal.

Not so funny after seeing it in your sink day after day after day after day.

Just sayin’.

The libel tourist is dead

Filed under: Saudi Arabia — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 9:00 am

Khalid bin Mahfouz is dead.

The New York Times tells us:

Khalid bin Mahfouz, a billionaire Saudi banker who paid $225 million to settle charges of bank fraud in 1993 and later won a string of lawsuits in Britain against writers who had accused him of supporting terrorism, died Sunday at his home in Jidda. He was 60.

Bin Mahfouz’s business dealings came under scrutiny by a number of scholars, and he fought back by suing them in English courts where libel laws are more favorable to plaintiffs. The Times notes:

But Sheik Mahfouz’s criticisms were sometimes irrefutable. He was widely referred to as the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden, which he was not. Many newspapers published corrections.

What’s the point of this observation. There’s no indication that Rachel Ehrenfeld (one of his legal targets, who was mentioned by the Times) made this false charge. Are we to infer that all of his defenses were equally valid? It would appear that the Times is going out of its way to defend Bin Mahfouz.

Though Ehrenfeld and Millard Burr – two of his legal targets – won’t miss him, they list a number of people who will.

Many will miss him. In Riyadh, he will be missed by the ruling members of the royal family who once used his National Commercial Bank as their own piggy bank, and often used him and his family members as fronts for their business and to fund their favorite organizations and terrorist groups. Likewise, those shady characters who run the Saudi-funded Muslim World League, the International Islamic Relief Agency, and the Rabita Trust of Pakistan will miss him.

Georgetown alum (1968) Prince Turki bin Faisal, former Saudi ambassador to the U.K. and the U.S. and director of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Department from 1977 until ten days before 9/11, and overseer of Saudi financial aid to the jihad in Afghanistan, will have lost an old friend.

Bin Mahfouz will certainly be missed by a circle of notorious Saudi plutocrats who make an appearance in the annual Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest citizens, many as defendants in the lawsuits filed by the victims of the 9/11 attacks. There are the Rajis, the Bin Ladens, Al Amoudi, and such other disreputable individuals as designated terrorist Yassin al Qadi, who ran some of Mahfouz’s businesses and charities – the Muwafaq foundation, that funded al-Qaeda, Hamas and Abu-Sayyaf, to name but a few.

Al Qaeda, Hamas and Taliban leaders must be grief stricken and worried; will his sons be as generous as he was?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Thursday SNB

Filed under: Iran, Lebanon, News Briefs, Pop Culture — Tags: , , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

He will fart in your general direction: Nicholas Sarkozy is threatening “severe” new sanctions on Iran if it doesn’t stop enriching uranium and trying to get the bomb. Yeah, like we haven’t heard that before.

No! Not the dreaded letter to the IAEA! Iran has gotten the non-aligned nations to sign onto a letter to the IAEA pushing for a ban on attacks on nuclear plants. Hm. This is a tough one. Israel is not a signatory to the NPT, but it is a member of the IAEA. But then again, the UN General Assembly, under which the IAEA was formed, is a powerless bunch of stuffed shirts with a proven anti-Israel agenda. Israel: Fear the letter! (And by the way, wussy little Iran, after threatening Israel in so many different ways, is running to the UN for protection. Baby.)

The obligatory “Shalit deal is imminent” mention: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We keep hearing that, and yet, Gilad Shalit is still not released. And while some of the things I’m reading do seem to be leading to an actual release, well, I’ll wait until I see some results first.

Hezbullah ascendant: Funny, I thought Hezbullah lost the election, and yet, Sa’ad Hariri, whose father was killed by Syria—which sponsors Hezbullah—says they’re going to be part of the government whether Israel likes it or not. (And a big nyah-nyah to you!) Hokay. Just remember, Israel has let Lebanon know that if Hezbullah attacks again, since they’re now part of the government, it will be considered an act of war by Lebanon. Which is why Lebanese villagers are turning on Hezbullah and throwing them out of their villages.

She was leader of the pack, and now she’s gone: Ellie Greenwich, the songwriter who gave us some of the most memorable pop tunes of the 60s, died yesterday. What would this world be without Da Doo Ron Ron and Do Wah Diddy Diddy? Not to mention Be My Baby and The Look of Love. Let’s all of us take a moment to let our hearts stand still (Da Doo Ron Ron Ron Da Doo Ron Ron).

08/26/2009

Must-read blog post of the week

Filed under: Holocaust — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

Rachel Lucas’ visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

I think this is something people really do forget about the extermination camps. The main image we all have of the camps is of the starving inmates at liberation in 1945, the piles of starved bodies. Always adults. We forget that at least hundreds of thousands of children were brought to camps like Auschwitz and were not ever photographed again, such as at liberation, because they were taken (usually with their mothers) straight from the train to the gas chamber.

But not before the Nazis took their little clothes off them and shipped those clothes back to German civilians to keep Frau Housewife happy while Herr Hubby was gone to war.

Via.

No Jews, No beer

Filed under: Miscellaneous, Saudi Arabia — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 10:00 am

Please see an important note at the end.

A few days ago the Washington Post concluded in Self-Muzzled at Yale:

In effect, Yale University Press is allowing violent extremists to set the terms of free speech. As an academic press that embraces the university’s motto of “Lux et Veritas,” it should be ashamed.

Would it be that the truth were so benign.

Last week in response to Roger Kimball’s column about Yale’s decision not to publish the cartoons, InstaPundit quipped:

I suspect that they were mostly afraid of scaring away Saudi money.

Martin Kramer fleshes out the further:

Imagine, then–and we’re just imagining–that someone in the Yale administration, perhaps in President Levin’s office, gets wind of the fact that Yale University Press is about to publish a book on the Danish cartoons–The Cartoons That Shook the World. The book is going to include the Danish cartoons, plus earlier depictions of the Prophet Muhammad tormented in Dante’s Inferno, and who-knows-what-else. Whooah! Good luck explaining to people like Prince Alwaleed that Yale University and Yale University Press are two different shops. The university can’t interfere in editorial matters, so what’s to be done? Summon some “experts,” who’ll be smart enough to know just what to say. Yale will be accused of surrendering to an imagined threat by extremists. So be it: self-censorship to spare bloodshed in Nigeria or Indonesia still sounds a lot nobler than self-censorship to keep a Saudi prince on the line for $20 million.

Now Prince Alwaleed’s gift was not the first Saudi gift to Yale, back in 2002, the Yale Herald wrote about a gift from (then) Crown Prince Abdullah.

… Abdullah’s comes with several stipulations. Five million dollars will fund a named professorship in the international relations department dedicated to United States-Middle East relations; $2 million will be earmarked for the burgeoning Near Eastern languages and civilizations department, with an emphasis on courses in Arabic language instruction. Smaller, as-yet-unspecifed amounts will be funneled to the Yale University Art Gallery, the Religious Studies department, and a future DeVane Lecture. A large portion of the remaining sum, roughly $350 million, will enable the construction of a 13th residential college–a project previously postponed by the Yale Corporation, which thought it was years away from execution for fiscal reasons.

Now think about it, given these “stipulations,” what would be the orientation of that professor of international relations? Is he likely to harbor any sympathy for Israel? I think we know the answer to that one. And yet the Yale PR machine compares King Abdullah’s stipulations, to those of Paul Mellon.

Perhaps you remember that Yale once returned a $20 million endowment for the teaching of Western civilization. The stated reason was that the donor, Lee Bass, had stipulated that he wished to have veto power over professorial appointments. Perhaps Saudi royalty makes no such explicit demands, but the episode with the book about the Danish cartoons shows that it had no need to. The Yale administration knows its limits.

Perhaps, then, Yale President Levin’s recollection about meeting (then) Crown Prince Abdullah should raise some concern.

THE ENTIRE TRANSACTION WOULD HAVE BEEN ALL BUT IMPOSsible were it not for a whispered conversation held in a United Nations (U.N.) elevator at the end of the summer of 1998. Along with a delegation of Saudi Arabian diplomats, the Crown Prince was attending a conference on the global integration of educational networks and the nation-derived economic determination of such processes, with a focus on the Middle Eastern states. One of the panel’s speakers was none other than Levin himself. After the conference, Levin found himself next to Abdullah in a crowded elevator in the U.N.’s Secretariat office building. “We had talked only formally during the conference,” Levin said, “though I felt we had an unspoken affinity with each other. He showed a pointed interest in the American university system… I don’t know exactly why–perhaps out of habit–but I invited him to campus.” Abdullah accepted, and a week later he became the first member of the royal family to visit an institution of higher education in the United States.

(emphasis mine)
Got that? The (present) King has a strong interest in the American university system. And as Martin Kramer showed, that interest is not altruistic but strategic.

Two years ago, in what read like a press release from the Saudi government the New York Times reported that Saudi King Tries to Grow Modern Ideas in Desert.

On a marshy peninsula 50 miles from this Red Sea port, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is staking $12.5 billion on a gargantuan bid to catch up with the West in science and technology.

Between an oil refinery and the sea, the monarch is building from scratch a graduate research institution that will have one of the 10 largest endowments in the world, worth more than $10 billion.

Its planners say men and women will study side by side in an enclave walled off from the rest of Saudi society, the country’s notorious religious police will be barred and all religious and ethnic groups will be welcome in a push for academic freedom and international collaboration sure to test the kingdom’s cultural and religious limits.

The report goes on to portray this as the enlightened monarch attempting to bring his country into the modern world. But at the end of the article we learn that there limits to that enlightenment.

But the kingdom’s laws will still apply: Israelis, barred by law from visiting Saudi Arabia, will not be able to collaborate with the university. And one staple of campus life worldwide will be missing: alcohol.

So even though some of the top scientists in many disciplines are from Israel, the Saudis won’t bend their rules to enhance science. And I love the juxtaposition: No Jews and no beer, as if these restrictions are of equal import.

This makes a mockery of the claim made by another academic about its partnership with the Saudis.

“We are working with a university that has guaranteed nondiscrimination on the basis of race, religion or gender,” said Peter Glynn, director of the Stanford institute. “We recognize that this university operates in Saudi Arabia. Having said that, this university recognizes that if it wants to be world-class, it has to be able to freely attract the best students and faculty from around the world.”

If the Yale scandal was simply a matter of bowing pre-emptively to fears of extremism, the damage to intellectual inquiry would be discrete. But if, as it appears, the calculation was to avoid offending a benefactor – whose generosity Yale (and other universities) seeks, then its an ongoing problem. It is a corruption of academia.

There seem to be many who feel it is necessary to question their assumptions about Israel, who are diffident about challenging bogus charges of undue Jewish influence in the world. But when it comes to oil money, they are noticeably incurious. That money would seem to buy both influence and silence.

Saudi money speaks louder than ideas.

UPDATE: One reason I like blogging is because it involves linking to my sources. Readers can check out my sources and determine if I read them correctly.

I quoted from a Yale Daily Herald article from 2002. It was a perfect example of the deference academic institutions showed towards the Saudis.

It was in fact, too perfect. It was an April Fool’s satire. I think that my basic contention that the Saudi investment in academia corrupts the institutions that take the money. However one of the bases of my contention was mistaken. I should have been more careful.

In fact the tone of the satire matched the tone of at least one of the New York Times articles I used. Still, I should have been more careful.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Netanyahu on Jerusalem

Filed under: Israel, Media Bias — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

This quote should be engraved in bronze:

“Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is the sovereign capital of the State of Israel. We have been building in Jerusalem for 3,000 years.”

British protesters were out in droves tonight, forcing Bibi to use the back entrance to 10 Downing Street. But I’d have to say that he got the last word.

The AP story didn’t seem to get the same quote as Ynet. In fact, the AP story doesn’t mention Jerusalem at all. I wonder how that happened? Because they’re both quoting the same press conference. The Reuters reporter and editor felt it was worth quoting.

“We accept no limitations on our sovereignty … Jerusalem is not a settlement,” Netanyahu said in response to a question.

Of course, they then called it “Arab east Jerusalem,” the lable which totally ignores the fact that the Jewish Quarter is in the eastern section of the city.

I’m shocked that this got into the AP report:

Netanyahu discussed at length his visit Tuesday to the London museum of the Palestine Exploration Fund, an organization that sent explorers on expeditions to the Holy Land in the 1800s to examine the physical traces of the Bible and Jewish history. He talked about the Arab invasion of the newly declared state of Israel in 1948 and the Arab “stranglehold” on Israel before the 1967 Mideast War, in which Israel captured territories that included the West Bank and Gaza. He touched on the construction of the first Jewish neighborhood outside the Old City of Jerusalem in the 19th century.

Of course, it was buried deep near the end. But Netanyahu is an excellent speaker. He’s getting his message across, in spite of the media barrage against him.

I blame Yahoo! News

Filed under: Site news — Meryl Yourish @ 5:00 am

A heads-up to my regulars: The reason there are suddenly a few dozen new comments is because my last post on the Swedish blood libel got picked up by Yahoo! News.

I’m not quite sure how or why my posts get picked up and put on the “Most blogged about” links, but I am always grateful to the people at Yahoo! when that happens. The commenters that come in, not so much. But then again, I get to add to my Freakmail folder for future mockery.

I’m very glad that opposing viewpoints are supported by Yahoo! I’m switching Firefox to their search engine to show my support. (Not really sure about that Bing thing yet, but maybe it will get better.)

08/25/2009

By request: Kitty pics

Filed under: Cats — Tags: — Meryl Yourish @ 5:30 pm

Several people have been asking, so here they are.

First, Miss Gracie, doing what she loves most: Relaxing in the sun in my office (which I think is now her office).

Gracie in the sun

Since I work from home most days, Gracie spends the bulk of her time with me in the office, or out on the landing within view. I keep my camera in the office now, for just such occasions.

Next, it’s Tig, posing on my newly-made bed.

Tig on the bed

Making the bed with Tig in the room is a challenge. Quite often, I have to kick him out completely, as he tries to get under the fitted sheet, then the flat sheet, then any blankets. He loves getting under things and has since he was a kitten. Then there’s the biting-my-feet-through-the-blanket thing that he has. Every so often, I wake up with Tigger’s jaws clamped around my toes, which evidently I was wiggling in my sleep.

Palestinian family: We never talked to a Swedish reporter

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Israel Derangement Syndrome, World — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

The Jerusalem Post’s crack reporter, Khaled Abu Toameh, interviewed the family of the Palestinian that is the centerpiece of the Aftonbladet story accusing the IDF of harvesting organs from dead Palestinians. And the family says they never said anything about their son missing his organs. In fact, they say, they never even spoke to the reporter.

Jalal said that he and other villagers recall that a Swedish photographer was in the village during the funeral and that he managed to take a number of pictures of the body before the funeral. “That was the only time we saw this photographer,” he recounted.

Ibrahim Ghanem, a relative of Bilal, said that the family never told the Swedish photographer that Israel had stolen organs from the dead man’s body.

So the story is made up from whole cloth. The family admits it. And yet, in true Israel Derangement Syndrome fashion, they’re quite willing to believe the story.

Jalal and other members of the family said that “rumors” about Israel killing Palestinians to steal their organs have been circulating for a long time.

“I can’t tell you if these rumors are true or not,” the brother said. “But in light of the investigative report in the Swedish newspaper, we are demanding an international commission of inquiry into the case.”

Meantime, someone in Sweden invoked their “racial agitation” law and reported the Aftonbladet. Not that they care. Their CYA excuse? They didn’t say “Jews.” They said “Israelis.” And note the quote: Reporting rumors is now “solidarity,” not reporting.

“I think it is a shame that whenever solidarity is shown for the Palestinians and criticism is directed again Israel, someone cries anti-Semitism.”

“One has to have the right to ask questions,” Linderborg replied when asked if she or the newspaper regretted publishing the article.

Nils Funcke, one of Sweden’s leading experts on legislation pertaining to freedom of speech, said he expected the Chancellor of Justice to reject the case.

“The article can hardly be construed as racial agitation. There is no ethnic group targeted; the article focuses on the Israeli army, and Israel is not made up solely of Jews,” Funcke told The Local.

Nothing will come of this. And in spite of Sweden’s Jews insisting that if only Israel hadn’t made such a fuss, this would have passed without notice in much of the world, I’m with Yaacov on this one: The reporter is an antisemite, the paper is antisemitic, and this issue is a modern retelling of the blood libel. Even worse, it’s been proven false, and the paper is publishing more articles with the same lies. But it’s anti-Zionism, not antisemitism. Really.

Two sides to a blood libel

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Media Bias — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 10:00 am

The New York Times seems to feel that there are two sides to the charges in a Swedish newspaper that the IDF kills Palestinians and takes their organs for transplants. Read Accusation of Organ Theft Stokes Ire in Israel. “Stokes Ire?” Is that what’s news?

As the furor in Israel over the article gathered into a diplomatic storm revolving around questions of anti-Semitism and freedom of speech, Mr. Netanyahu told ministers at a cabinet meeting on Sunday that the article, published in the Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet, was “outrageous” and compared it to a “blood libel,” referring to medieval anti-Semitic accusations that Jews ritually killed gentile children and collected their blood.

“We are not asking the government of Sweden for an apology,” Mr. Netanyahu said, according to an official who attended the cabinet meeting and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We are asking for their condemnation. We are not asking from them anything we do not ask of ourselves.”

Why is “blood libel” in scare quotes? Maybe it’s something that is traced to medieval times but it has had a long, continuous and shameful history.

But what bugs me most about the article is how the reporter, Isabel Kershner, goes out of her way to explain why the charge may be credible.

The article, by the Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom, ran on an inside page of the newspaper on Aug. 17. It was based on accusations Mr. Bostrom heard from Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in the 1990s, and which he published in a book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2001. Mr. Seaman said Mr. Bostrom last worked here in 2006.

Mr. Bostrom apparently revived the allegations by linking them to the July arrests of 44 people in New Jersey in a major corruption and international money laundering conspiracy that included several assemblymen, mayors and rabbis. One of its members, Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, faces charges of conspiring to broker the illegal sale of a human kidney for transplant.

Aftonbladet followed up on Sunday with an article about one of the Palestinian families at the center of the original accusations.

So were the charges in the 90’s true? Kershner didn’t report that. (She also didn’t report that the charges echoed an incident in a Turkish movie of a few years ago.)

And of course the article also takes pains to inform us that Israel’s reaction has been counterproductive. Some other details that are missing were noted by Barry Rubin:

And then there is the Swedish governmental complicity in this matter, since the original accusations were made in a book subsidized with its funds. There’s also far more behind the surface. For example, there is now a whispering campaign about alleged Jewish influence in Sweden, including personal attacks on the country’s ambassador to Israel for issuing a very carefully worded semi-apology.

Finally, this affair is only one of a number of such stories appearing simultaneously. In the focus on Sweden, an equally bad blood libel story in the Netherlands’ leading newspaper is being ignored. It accuses Jews of being Satan-worshippers who spread the swine flu. No, that’s not an exaggeration.

So here is how the system works. Palestinians or other Arabs or other Muslims, individuals or groups, tell incredible lies about Israel and then these are uncritically published in Western media. Aren’t reporters supposed to examine stories for accuracy BEFORE they are published? And aren’t editors supposed to critically look at what their publishing to see if it is credible?

So then it turns out that the Swedish government – not just the newspaper – is complicit in spreading the libel and the incident is a sign of a general obliviousness to outrageous claims made against Israel and Jews. It is the sign of a level of tolerance for the antisemitism, even in the enlightened West. The ire over this incident shouldn’t be confined to Israel. It seems to be absent from the New York Times.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

NJ to Gadhafi: Libyan, go home

Filed under: American Scene, United Nations — Meryl Yourish @ 9:00 am

Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi wants to pitch his tent at a Libyan-owned estate in Englewood, NJ. But the residents want nothing to do with the man who gave a hero’s welcome to the Lockerbie bomber.

Plans to set up a tent and allow him to stay at a Libyan-owned estate in the upscale community of Englewood, New Jersey, located 12 miles north of Manhattan, were attacked Monday by neighborhood residents and public officials, particularly after the hero’s welcome Libya extended last week to the lone man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan American Flight 103.

Why is Gadhafi coming to America? To address the UN next month. Last year Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, this year the Gadhafi—who’s next? Idi Amin is dead, but I’m sure that they could find someone equally as evil.

Even Shmuley Boteach doesn’t want him there.

Shmuley Boteach, an orthodox Jewish rabbi, family counselor and star of the mainstream television series “Shalom in the Home,” lives next door to the Libyan estate.

He was initially supportive of the idea of Gadhafi coming to the US, but that changed after the release of al-Megrahi.

“I don’t want him as a neighbor,” said Boteach. “The events of the past few days have changed everything. Gadhafi has shown his true colors.”

The fight has been joined by Senator Frank Lautenberg. But I’m going to make a prediction: The State Department is going to allow the dictator in NJ, even though when the estate was bought, then-mayor (and now Congressman) Steve Rothman fought having the dictator stay there.

Rothman was mayor of Englewood 26 years ago when the city learned the Libyan Mission to the United Nations had purchased the Palisade Avenue estate. He said local officials worked out a deal with the US State Department limiting its use to the recreational activities by the ambassador and his family. Gadhafi was expressly forbidden to live there, he said.

Adding insult to injury, the Libyans pay no property taxes to the town, either. So if the dictator does stay, Englewood will be paying for the extra police that will be needed to protect him.

Soon after the purchase, Libya sought to be exempt from local property taxes, prompting a long court battle with the city. A federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled in favor of Libya in 1985. Englewood officials estimate that the estate would have generated more than $1 million in property taxes by now.

I can’t believe I’ve found yet another reason to loathe the UN. I didn’t know that their ambassadors could purchase property in the U.S. and not pay taxes. It’s just us citizen schlubs who have to do things like that.

I’ve got a simple slogan for the people of Englewood: Libyan, go home.

08/24/2009

Monday morning snark news briefs

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Hamas, News Briefs, Religion, United Nations — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:00 am

The Talibanization of Gaza continues: Hamas is going to expel girls for not wearing head coverings and full-length robes to school. They’ve also begun to segregate the sexes. No icky boys teaching girls; no icky girls teaching boys. Anyone want to start a pool on when the Mutaween squads hit the streets?

A trip down memory lane: Remember this op-ed in the Times after Hamas took over Gaza? It’s titled “What Hamas Wants.”

We want to get children back to school, get basic services functioning again, and provide long-term economic gains for our people.

Our stated aim when we won the election was to effect reform, end corruption and bring economic prosperity to our people. Our sole focus is Palestinian rights and good governance. We now hope to create a climate of peace and tranquillity within our community that will pave the way for an end to internal strife.

The fox in the UN henhouse: I know you’re going to be shocked to discover that one of the “fact-finders” on the Goldstone Commission published a virulently anti-Israel letter insisting that Israel had no right to self-defense from Hamas rockets. And while I have the UN Watch in my blogroll, I have no hope at all that their letter will ruffle so much as a feather at the UN—your international home of anti-semitism masquerading as anti-Israelism.

Swedish paper double-dog-dares Israel to prove that they’re not harvesting organs: Yes, the Aftonbladet published a second article, this time with even more non-evidence: They went back and asked the Palestinians if they’re really, really, really sure that the IDF stole their son’s organs. Now that’s reporting!

08/23/2009

Kindness to the cruel

Filed under: Israel, Israeli Double Standard Time, Terrorism — Tags: , — Soccerdad @ 3:00 pm

FBI Director Robert Mueller:

“Over the years I have been a prosecutor, and recently as the director of the FBI, I have made it a practice not to comment on the actions of other prosecutors, since only the prosecutor handling the case has all the facts and the law before him in reaching the appropriate decision,” Mueller writes in his letter to MacAskill. “Your decision to release Megrahi causes me to abandon that practice in this case.

“I do so because I am familiar with the facts, and the law, having been the assistant attorney general in charge of the investigation and indictment of Megrahi in 1991. And I do so because I am outraged at your decision, blithely defended on the grounds of ‘compassion.’ “

The LA Times later observes:

Some legal experts have said that compassionate leave for dying inmates is common in Scotland. But others have sharply criticized Scotland and Britain as a whole, suggesting that politics — including access to Libya’s vast supplies of oil — may have played a role in Megrahi’s release.

The possibility that there may be a cynical calculation here in addition to the stated enlightened reason of compassion is upsetting. The hero’s welcome accorded Megrahi reinforces the impression that his release was forgiveness for a crime rather than compassion. Still it’s part of a general trend in the West to downplay the seriousness of terror – especially Arab terror – while Israel’s enemies (and erstwhile friends) find new baseless charges to hurl in its direction.

Now Michael Slackman reports that Ahmadinejad is appointing one of the accused masterminds of the bombing of the Jewish cultural center in Argentina in 1994 to be his defense minister.

The man nominated to serve as Iran’s defense minister is wanted by Interpol in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, confronting Iran with yet another challenge to its international reputation after an electoral dispute undermined its legitimacy at home and abroad.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nominated Ahmad Vahidi on Wednesday to serve as defense minister when he submitted his list of 21 nominees to Parliament. Mr. Vahidi was the head of the secret Quds Force, an arm of the Revolutionary Guards that carries out operations overseas.

He was one of five Iranian officials sought by Interpol on Argentine charges of “conceiving, planning, financing and executing” the 1994 attack, which killed 85 people and wounded hundreds, said a statement issued by the Anti-Defamation League condemning the nomination.

“[A]nother challenge to its international reputation?” Come on. Why not just write directly, “further eroding the legitimacy of a regime that apparently stole the most recent election?”

I guess Slackman decided that the Interpol warrant wasn’t sufficient indication of Vahidi’s so he raises doubts.

The hand of Tehran was suspected early in the investigation. However, some criminal justice experts have raised questions recently about Iran’s having had a direct role in the attack, saying it was more likely the work of an Iranian proxy group, Hezbollah, and others in South America.

How does Hezbollah’s proxy status undermine the charge of Iranian involvement in the Argentinian terror? Hezbollah answers directly to Iran, so Hezbollah’s involvement in the attack, in no way diminishes Iran’s involvement.

Fortunately, it wasn’t only Israel and Jewish groups that protested this appointment, so did Argentina.

The Argentine chancellery said in a statement the nomination “constitutes an affront to Argentine justice and to the victims of the brutal terrorist attack.”

It added, “The Argentine government demands once again that the Islamic Republic of Iran cooperate fully with Argentine justice, permitting the people accused of participating in the attack against the AMIA to be judged by competent courts of justice.”

The State Department hasn’t been silent either.

At a news briefing, State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States is troubled by the reported nomination of Vahidi, which like the rest of the new cabinet, awaits approval by the Iranian parliament.

“Clearly if this report is true, and if this man is confirmed as a cabinet minister and he is wanted by Interpol for his involvement in a terrorist act, of course this would be disturbing, but here’s going to be a process in place here. The whole slate has to go before parliament. So before that process plays out we’ll withhold comment on it,” he said.

I would have preferred a more forceful condemnation and it would be appropriate for other members of the administration to speak out. But that’s not going to happen no matter how many times President Obama’s “open hand” is met with a “clenched fist.”

Terror continues to be something that is discouraged but not opposed. Israel, unfortunately has played a role in this.

By making deals for terrorists – whether it was the release of Yassin, the refrigerator bomber, Samir Kuntar – Israel has allowed the rest of the world to be less vigilant. After all, if Israel can forgive those who target it and kill its citizens, how can the rest of the world declare a stance of non-negotiation?

Rather than changing the terrorists and rogue states the forgiveness extended towards them has only served to encourage them. President Ahmadinjad has learned the lesson well.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad chooses for defense minister a man wanted—with good reason—for involvement in the bloody terrorist 1994 attack on Buenos Aires’ Jewish center.

Immediate Result: He will be confirmed unless parliament rejects him for reasons having nothing to do with his involvement in terrorism.

What should happen: Iran declared terrorist state; treated like pariah; total sanctions; consciousness that Tehran’s regime is the biggest threat to world peace and stability since Joe Stalin went to that great Kremlin in the sky.

What does happen?: Business as usual. Growing number of Western intelligentsia describes Israel as terrorist state and treats it like a pariah. I guess the War on Terrorism is really over.

Long-term result: The man who organized the blowing up of hundreds of Jews in Argentina will get the chance to try the same thing to millions of Jews in Israel.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Palis smell blood in the water, circle

Filed under: Israel, palestinian politics — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

Not satisfied with declaring at the Fatah congress that they were going to wait for Obama to pressure Israel into full compliance with their demands (and that was on top of telling the Washington Post that they were going to wait for Obama to pressure Israeli into full compliance with their demands), the Palestinians are now aiming for “natural growth” building and will be using that as an excuse not to hold peace talks with Israel.

The Palestinian Authority is unhappy with the recent developments in the talks between Israel and the United States. Palestinian sources told Ynet on Sunday morning that they were working to change the deal being formed between Washington and Jerusalem, which is slated to allow the completion of some 2,500 housing units in West Bank settlements.

Do I think this will get any traction? Absolutely. The media will spin the refusal to talk to Israel as Israel’s fault for refusing to stop “settlement” growth, even when that “settlement” growth is in Jerusalem.

You need to understand something about the PA, if you don’t already know it: It is an extortion racket. It has always been an extortion racket. The PA extorts billions of dollars out of the guilt-ridden West, uses some of it to buy weapons, some of it to pay salaries to people whose jobs are being members of the PA, and most of it to enrich the elite of the PA (cf: Palestinian elite and supplying cement for the separation barrier). It is in Mahmoud Abbas’ best interests not to deal with Israel, because then he might find himself in the same place that Yasser Arafat found himself in 2000: With a deal from Israel pending that would give the Palestinians just about everything they want. And we all know what happened next: War. Because the Palestinian leadership doesn’t want a Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace with Israel. They want a Palestinian state in place of Israel, or war until they get it.

Zionists preparing to steal more organs

Filed under: Juvenile Scorn, Religion — Meryl Yourish @ 10:36 am

Uh-oh, world, watch out. Religious Jews, some of whom are generally reluctant to donate organs, have defined halacha (religious law) for organ donation.

Now Jews will have a legal religious reason to steal organs from non-Jews. Palestinians, beware of waking up in bathtubs full of ice with your kidney missing!

08/22/2009

Saturday

Filed under: Site news — Meryl Yourish @ 11:31 pm

One of these days, I’ll get back to posting Caturday posts. But not today. Working on the podcast. (Which I need to update, Sabba Hillel, I know, I know. I will.)

08/21/2009

Friday SNB

Filed under: Israel, News Briefs, The One, United Nations, palestinian politics — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:00 am

There’s only time for Snark News Briefs this morning.

Soldiers won’t eat in front of Palestinians: That headline does not mean what you think it means. No, it’s not another damning report from another European-funded, Palestinian-staffed NGO about how IDF soldiers are humiliating Palestinians. It’s the fact that the IDF have been instructed not to eat, drink, or smoke in public while working in Palestinian areas on Ramadan. Once again, brought to you by the Better Than Them report, because many Israeli Arabs have no such compunctions respecting Jewish holidays like Yom Kippur.

David Miliband finds terrorism that he disapproves of: Looks like the Foreign Minister of Britain only condemns terrorism that doesn’t take place on his home turf. I’m shocked, shocked, to discover that he’s appalled by the hero’s welcome the Lockerbie bomber received in Libya. Those terrorists are simply going to have to learn to distinguish the good terrorism from the bad! (Footnote: What the hell did they expect? When has an Arab nation ever showed dismay at one of its own murdering hundreds of infidels?)

Top gun, but without the bad eighties hair and music: The IAF staged a competition over the Negev recently. And while one squadron won the competition, the real winner, of course, is Israel, especially in light of reports that Russia could sell fighter jets to Iran. Hey, I’m all for that. Better jets than missiles, because the IAF will do to the Iranian air force what it did to Syria—shooting down 80 Syrian fighters without a single loss of their own.

Must-read: The UNHRC Goldstone Commission will be presenting its biased report to the UN soon. Irwin Cotler has a must-read, in-depth series of articles at the JPost about how the report was rigged from the get-go. Part one. Part two. How biased was the assignment? So biased that even Mary Robinson said it was anti-Israel. Read in full recommendation.

Brilliant new Obama peace plan: Playground politics. Remember when you were kids, and you dared each other to do something? “You go first.” “No, you.” “I know! Let’s do it together!” That is the essence of Obama’s new peace plan. That’s right. Let’s make simultaneous actions. That will solve everything. So, will it work? Of course not. Not while the Palestinians keep getting support for their insistence that it is Israeli settlements that are preventing peace—not Palestinian intransigence and the unwillingness to recognize the rights to Jews to have a state in their ancestral homeland.

08/20/2009

Jan Helin, editor, victim—liar

Filed under: Anti-Semitism — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 1:00 pm

The editor who approved the despicable story that claims the IDF has been stealing organs from dead Palestinians since the 1990s—based solely, of course, on Palestinian “witnesses” and no substantive evidence—has hit back hard against Israel and Jews’ reactions:

Aftonbladet editor Jan Helin said: “It’s deeply unpleasant and sad to see such a strong propaganda machine using centuries-old anti-Semitic images in an apparent attempt to get an obviously topical issue off the table.

But he is either deeply ignorant, deliberately trying to deflect the subject, or lying. The libel against the IDF—saying that they are killing Palestinians to steal their organs—strongly resemble the centuries-old blood libel that Jews murder Christians to use their blood in religious rituals. But while the blood libel does date back to the middle ages, it is not we who are using centuries-old images, nor are we “propagandizing” the issue. Those who hate Israel and Jews have been utilizing these images since the twelfth century.

Yesterday, I published this copy of a Der Stürmer cover, which was published in 1934.

Photo of anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda rag with blood libel image

Photo of anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda rag Der Stürmer blood libel

But we don’t have to go all the way back to 1934 to find images of Jews drinking Christian (or Palestinian) blood. In 2006, Turkey released a film called “Valley of the Wolves,” which featured a Jewish American doctor harvesting organs from Iraqis during the Iraq war. (Turkey is considered a friend to Israel.)

In April of this year, Hamas aired a show depicting Jews drinking the blood of Muslims. In January, an Egyptian cleric accused Shimon Peres of having a helmet filled with the dried blood of Egyptian soldiers he killed during the Six-Day War. Images of Israelis drinking blood can be found all over the internet.

Anyone even remotely familiar with the history of Israel and Jews knows this. I suspect Jan Helin knows it as well.

When the moderate met the mass killer

Filed under: palestinian politics — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 10:00 am

A few months ago, a Washington Post editorial commented on the embrace of the Sudan’s leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir. In particular the editorial observed:

“We must also take a decisive stance of solidarity alongside fraternal Sudan and President Omar al-Bashir,” said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Abbas is hoping that the Obama administration will pressure Israel to stop building “illegal” settlements in the West Bank; the next time he utters the phrase “double standard” in the presence of a U.S. diplomat, we suggest a query about Mr. Bashir.

To be sure, some human rights groups have alleged crimes by Israeli forces in Gaza. But, according to Palestinian accounts, 1,409 people were killed during the offensive, of whom a substantial number were armed Hamas fighters. In contrast, the United Nations has reported more than 300,000 civilian deaths in Darfur as a result of the genocidal campaign sponsored by Mr. Bashir.

In case you thought that this display was simply opportunistic, that’s not the case. Abbas has made a trip to the Sudan to meet with his genocidal counterpart. Apparently the purpose of the embrace is to get Hamas to cut Fatah some slack. (Though it appears that Hamas has some of its own problems now. But who gets the virgins?)

Even as President Obama looks for moderation in the Arab world, it demonstrates its extremism again and again. When will he stop looking for what’s not there?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Sweden’s double standard on freedom of the press

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Israeli Double Standard Time, Religion, World — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:30 am

There is a decided double standard in the Sweden Foreign Ministry when it comes to freedom of the press, particularly in response to running anti-Semitic tropes in a major Swedish daily. Representatives of the Swedish government are standing up for freedom of the Swedish press, even the freedom to publish a blood libel like the one that says IDF soldiers kidnap Palestinians and harvest their organs.

Aftonbladet editor Jan Helin said: “It’s deeply unpleasant and sad to see such a strong propaganda machine using centuries-old anti-Semitic images in an apparent attempt to get an obviously topical issue off the table.

[...] Helin called it an opinion piece raising questions of Israel in the context of a suspected link to Israel in that US case. He denied any suggestion of anti-Semitism from his paper.

Oh, so now it’s an opinion piece. Good tactic. The author has stated that he doesn’t know if the charges are true, but he decided to go with them anyway. And neither he nor his editor think that charges of anti-Semitism are in order. Why, they wonder, are Israelis so touchy? This is just a criticism of the IDF. Right?

Take a look at this image of Der Stürmer. This is the classic blood libel against the Jews, that we drink the blood of Christians and use it in our rituals. (Larger image in my previous post.)

Photo of anti-Semitic Nazi rag with blood libel image

Photo of anti-Semitic Nazi rag with blood libel image

Now, why on earth would we accuse a Swedish newspaper of using anti-Semitic blood libel tropes in its story about the IDF kidnapping Palestinians and stealing their organs?

The Swedish Foreign Ministry is doubling down on the freedom of speech aspect while ignoring the “lying about the IDF” aspect. Witness:

Sweden’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday said a response by the Swedish Embassy in Israel to a report by the Aftonbladet news saying IDF soldiers killed Palestinians in order to harvest their organs does not represent the government’s stance.

The embassy had stated that the report was “appalling”. But the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman said, “The embassy in Tel Aviv responded in accordance to Israeli public opinion, however the Swedish government is committed to freedom of the press.”

[...] Another Swedish government spokesperson, Anders Jorle said, “The Foreign Ministry would not have acted in the same way” as the ambassador.

Interesting response. Especially when you consider the Swedish Foreign Ministry’s response to another controversy, this one regarding cartoons about Mohammed.

On February 5, Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laila Freivalds stated the following in an interview:[24] We support the freedom of speech, that I think is very clear. But at the same time it is important to say that with this freedom comes a certain responsibility, and it could be objectionable to act in a way that insults people.

There was also the Swedish government’s response to a political party in Sweden holding a Mohammed cartoon contest in response to the Mohammed cartoon controversy. One of the cartoons displayed on the website portrayed Mohammed as a dog.

A Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman told Sweden’s English-language The Local that the diplomat had apologized for any hurt feelings the publication may have caused.

Freivalds shut down the website and later lied about it, which ultimately caused her resignation. But note the difference in tone about the freedom to offend—it’s different when offending Muslims, apparently.

Let us compare and contrast. On the Mohammed-as-dog cartoon:

Swedish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Björkander told The Local it had been a “misunderstanding” on the part of the Pakistanis to conclude that the government fully shared the views of the Muslim community.

Björkander added, however: “The Chargé d’Affaires said he was sorry if the publication had hurt Muslim feelings.”

On the publication of a false story that the IDF kidnaps Palestinians and steals their organs:

But the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman said, “The embassy in Tel Aviv responded in accordance to Israeli public opinion, however the Swedish government is committed to freedom of the press.”

She added that Israel had not issued an official complaint on the report.

Another Swedish government spokesperson, Anders Jorle said, “The Foreign Ministry would not have acted in the same way” as the ambassador.

Barry Rubin wrote a tongue-in-cheek essay that has a solution to all of Israel’s problems: Jews should act like Muslims, and riot and protest violently every offense, real or imagined. The sad thing is: He’s probably right about the results. Just look at the difference between Sweden’s response to this issue. If Sweden were as scared of Jews as they are of Muslims….

08/19/2009

What if they published a blood libel and nobody rioted?

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Religion — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:30 am

Compare and contrast:

A Swedish newspaper publishes a blood libel, accusing Israelis of taking (and selling) organs from Palestinians. Israelis are outraged. They file paperwork.

Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon filed a formal grievance with the Swedish government Wednesday following a Stockholm newspaper’s report accusing Israel of trading in the stolen organs of Palestinians.

They ask the Swedish government to condemn the hateful lies.

“I demand the Swedish government condemn this groundless article,” said Ayalon.

They threaten to summon the Swedish ambassador.

The Foreign Ministry is reportedly considering summoning the Swedish ambassador and reproving him for his government policies, “Which allow such a hateful publication to go without censure.”

Ouch. Plus, there’s a very angry comment in my previous post (although I seriously doubt any prosecution could occur, as I’m unclear as to what Israeli laws were broken by the publication of this article).

Now, let’s think of another instance where a Nordic nation published something in a newspaper that stirred up controversy. Like, the publishing of a dozen Mohammed cartoons.

Danish Muslim organizations, who objected to the depictions, responded by holding public protests attempting to raise awareness of Jyllands-Posten’s publication. Further examples of the cartoons were soon reprinted in newspapers in more than fifty other countries, further deepening the controversy.

This led to protests across the Muslim world, some of which escalated into violence with police firing on the crowds (resulting in more than 100 deaths, altogether),[1] including setting fire to the Danish Embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, storming European buildings, and desecrating the Danish, Dutch, Norwegian and German flags in Gaza City. While a number of Muslim leaders called for protesters to remain peaceful, other Muslim leaders across the globe, including Mahmoud al-Zahar of Hamas, issued death threats.[2][3] Various groups, primarily in the Western world, responded by endorsing the Danish policies, including “Buy Danish” campaigns and other displays of support. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen described the controversy as Denmark’s worst international crisis since World War II.[4]

Funny how the most horrific things get published about Jews, in so many different publications, in so many different nations, so often, and yet, Jews don’t set fire to cars or riot or murder people in protest. And of course, there are the usual suspects who will also say that Jews are “overreacting” when they get upset about lies like this one.

It’s telling that the author was interviewed on Israeli radio, and even said that he had no clue whether the allegations were true. But that didn’t stop him from publishing them.

Interviewed on Israel Radio on Wednesday, Bostrom said he was worried by the allegations he reported but could not vouch for their accuracy.

“It concerns me, to the extent that I want it to be investigated, that’s true. But whether it’s true or not – I have no idea, I have no clue,” he told the station.

That’s how it works these days. Prove you didn’t kidnap Palestinians and steal their organs, Israel. Bostrom is shocked, shocked I say, at being called an anti-Semite. He’s not anti-Semitic. Just ask him.

I mentioned Der Stürmer in my last post. Here’s an image that Bostrom would probably approve (after stating that he’d want it to be investigated whether or not Jews drain Christian children’s blood and drink it):

Photo of anti-Semitic Nazi rag with blood libel image

Photo of anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda rag Der Stürmer blood libel

Then and now. There’s not much difference. This is why people like Bibi Netanyahu warn that it’s 1939 all over again. The constant demonization and dehumanization of Israelis is sounding a drum that we’ve heard before. The difference, of course, is that this time, we Jews are armed and able to protect ourselves.

Oh, and we’ll write really nasty posts about you when you lie about us. Fear us.

Hopeful and defiant

Filed under: Israel, Israeli Double Standard Time, Media Bias — Tags: , — Soccerdad @ 10:30 am

Even as the Washington Post reports that President Obama, meeting with Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, is optimistic about peace in the Middle East, it runs a parallel story Netanyahu’s Defiance of U.S. Resonates at Home:

For five months, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been fending off U.S. pressure to halt the expansion of West Bank settlements. Now he is reaping dividends for his defiance.

Although Israeli leaders have historically been reluctant to publicly break with the United States for fear of paying a price in domestic support, polls show that Netanyahu’s strategy is working. And that means that after months of diplomacy, the quick breakthrough that President Obama had hoped would restart peace talks has instead turned into a familiar stalemate.

Arab states largely have rebuffed Obama’s request for an overture to Israel until the settlement issue is resolved — a stand that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak emphasized in a meeting with Obama on Tuesday — and the Palestinians have said a settlement freeze is a precondition for resuming negotiations. Meanwhile, the Israeli public seems to have rallied around Netanyahu’s refusal to halt all settlement construction, a backlash that intensified when the Obama administration made clear that it wanted Israel to stop building Jewish homes in some parts of Jerusalem as well as in the occupied West Bank.

In Israel, the dynamic seems to have shifted further from any dramatic concessions. Netanyahu “scored points” for standing up to Obama, said Yoel Hasson, a member of parliament from the opposition Kadima party. In contrast to the United States’ public demands for a settlement freeze, signaled early in the relationship between the two new governments, “I think the U.S. understands that it is better for them to do everything with Netanyahu more quietly,” Hasson said.

Note a few things. First of all despite their differences, Netanyahu has been working with the Obama administration. Now you can quibble whether Netanyahu caved or made a strategic retreat, but it doesn’t appear that Netanyahu is “defying” the administration. (via memeorandum)

(This would indicate strategic retreat.)

By coupling an article that highlights Israeli “defiance” with an article about President Obama being hopeful about peace, the Post effectively identifies Israel as the obstacle to peace. Yes, the reporter, Howard Schneider, acknowledges that no Arab country has acceded to President Obama’s request for confidence building measures for Israel, but he presents it as a reaction to Israel’s refusal to freeze “settlements.”

Israel’s political situation is also being misrepresented. Yes, Israelis apparently approve of Netanyahu’s handling of the diplomacy with the United States. But the approval isn’t simply a matter of Netanyahu’s defiance; he represents a large portion of the Israeli electorate. This isn’t 1996 anymore, Israel has conceded a lot and received nothing in return. At some point any country will get tired of giving away concrete assets in return for unfulfilled promises.

Lastly, Howard Schneider, the Post’s reporter, of course, ignored the hardline resolutions passed by the recently concluded Fatah convention. (See here or here.) For him to frame the issue as Israeli “defiance” is misleading, when, no matter moderate the Israeli government were, it would have no one to deal with on the other side.

The New York Times was somewhat more responsible and accurate in the way it presented the situation:

The leaders’ cautiously optimistic comments coincided with a sign that the Israeli government was trying to lower tensions with the United States on the settlement issue. That signal was in the form of an announcement by Israel’s housing minister that his government had not given final approval for any new housing projects in the West Bank since it took office in late March.

While the gesture from Jerusalem does not affect settlement housing units under construction, it at least allowed the American and Egyptian presidents to say they were hopeful about getting peace talks started again.

The Obama administration has demanded a freeze on all settlement construction, saying that such a move would create momentum for a peace agreement in the Middle East. The conservative-leaning Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has balked at the demand, resulting in an unusually public dispute between Israel and the United States.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

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