Israel Matzav

Monday, January 19, 2015

Would the Obama administration ever issue postage stamps like these?

The postage stamp pictured above is newly issued by Canada. That's not a big deal until you ask yourself whether any other country - including the United States under Obama - would ever consider issuing such a stamp (Hat Tip: Jerry G via The American Thinker).

Let's hear for Stephen Harper and his government!

Labels: Canada

Monday, July 28, 2014

'Why Gaza saddens me'

Someone on the Left who seems to get it - Paul Estrin, the Chairman of Canada's Green party - says that Gaza makes him sad. Here's why.

It has nearly been ten years. Since August 2005, Gazans have been in control of their own destiny. Some might say otherwise, yet Gazans have their own government and they are their own people: If their neighbours, Egypt and Israel, close their borders to Gaza, one must look to a Gaza run by a terrorist organization cum government that teaches and propagates hate, death and destruction to understand why.

Since then, stories of resources being used, such as concrete supposed to be used for infrastructure for civil use instead used for purposes of terrors, or stories of repression of the people there by its own government, or stories of how under Hamas rule people no income or ways to support themselves … I’m reminded of Bill Clinton’s remark “It’s the economy, stupid” … but instead of showing openness to the world, or managing, or caring ... Gaza has instead shown that it is not interested in peace, in building a stable economy, in a secure future.

The Gazan government has had ample opportunity over these past years, nearly a decade, to alter its ways, change its mantra of death to the Jews, and become respectable caretakers of the people in their charge.

They have not.

Surely they could have done more. Should have done more.

We can forgive them for at first being overjoyed with the departure of the Israeli forces, and them as a terrorist organization unable to initially take up the challenge of good governance.

We can forgive them for not immediately changing their charter. In Canada and elsewhere, national charters protect the people. In Gaza, the first article calls for the death of Israel and the Jew. (Let me quote just a bit: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." I would like to believe all of us in our organization can see how atrocious such a statement is, and that we would believe in things like the right of people to not be obliterated …)

They said, they being the Hamas government newly in power, they needed time. They have had nearly a decade. What is the holdup … oh, wait, the hate and desire to obliterate.

So, let us fast forward past a decade’s worth of battles, wars, incursions, etc.

How much aide has Israel given Gaza? How much has the world given Gaza?

Giving aid is worthwhile, a noble cause. But, has it gone to the people that need it? Ten years …

So, now, this month, what do we see:

Israel is more threatened than even because its neighbour, instead of caring about the welfare and well-being of its citizens, cares about the cause of killing, of carrying the banner of martyrdom, and of watching its fellow people die.

And yet, these are the same people who are embraced and loved by the international community, with marches on Parliament Hill in Canada’s capital, and in cities throughout the world, holding banners and chanting about the destruction of the state of Israel and of death to the Jews.

Meanwhile, Gaza uses UN locations to launch or house weapons … yet the international community cries out, a day after the UN itself admitted this and said that this practise puts at risk those in these facilities given that these places then are not safe havens but rather places of war to be targeted ..

Meanwhile, Gaza is giving children grenades … and asking their citizens to be sheep to the slaughter.

Gazan officials tell their people to be killed while they hide in bomb shelters.

Cowards? No, this is worse than cowardice. It is vile and ugly and they should be put to shame.

Read the whole thing. No, it's never been about a 'Palestinian state.' It's always been about destroying Israel. It was started by the Arab countries immediately after Israel's War of Independence. Many of the Arab countries have given up on destroying Israel, even if they won't say so. But they're still not willing to face the consequences of their actions. They're not willing to help resolve the monster they created. And the monster still wants to destroy us all.

Labels: anti-Semitism, Canada, Gaza, Gaza expulsion, Hamas, Islam, Palestinian people

Sunday, February 02, 2014

Video: Canadian Employment Minister Jason Kenney thanks the nutters at Oxfam, he's buying a SodaStream!

Canadian Employment Minister Jason Kenney says he's going to buy a SodaStream machine. And he has lots more to say about his trip to Israel.

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Jack W).

Labels: Canada, Jason Kenney, Scarlet Johansson, SodaStream, Stephen Harper

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Stephen Harper speaks to Israel

Maybe he should replace Netanyahu.

Labels: Canada, Stephen Harper

Thursday, January 23, 2014

An oxymoron comes alive

And you thought that the idea that a political party could have honest, moral positions was an oxymoron. An honest political party? A moral political party? A political party that does the right thing, even if it costs them politically? Meet the Conservative party of Canada. I cannot tell you how impressed I am with this interview with senior member Jason Kenney.

The Times of Israel: In light of Harper’s very supportive speech, many Israelis think he was spot on, broadly speaking, and that the rest of the world doesn’t get it. Why is there a gulf between Canada and very few other countries on the one side, and the rest of the world on the other, where Israel is concerned?

Jason Kenney: Partly because as our prime minister said, “it’s always easier to go along to get along” — that is to say, [to follow] the path of least resistance. That certainly characterized Canada’s status quo-ante policy.

It’s no secret that the foreign ministries of most Western countries have an institutional bias against Israel that is probably informed by the fact that there is one Jewish state and dozens of other Islamic and Arabic states. That frankly informs the professional public service in most Western foreign ministries.

You mean there are 20 times as many diplomats who have served in Arab countries?

And 40 times more in Muslim countries. That’s right. The prime minister more or less intimated that in his speech. That means you’ve got dozens more diplomats and foreign policy wonks who absorb a particular perspective which is frankly and obviously hostile to Israel.

So that becomes the default position. It takes a profound act, it takes great intentionality on the part of political actors, to overcome that kind of institutional bias to begin with.

Secondly, the political incentives are not in favor of this. In the United State of course, with a large constituency of Christian Zionists, and the not insignificant influence of the Jewish community, there’s always been a strong political constituency generally to support Israel, but that doesn’t exist in Western Europe and it doesn’t exist in Canada.

The Jewish community constitutes 1% of our population at most, and there’s no Christian Zionist constituency to speak of. For most people, if they’re not familiar with the complicated politics and history of the region, they don’t understand why a government would want to take clear positions on this.

So you’ve got an institutional bias built into most Western foreign ministries, you’ve got a lack of political incentives to take these positions. I think that helps to explain it.

Those are the only two factors, or would you bring other factors into the mix? Is anti-Semitism in there somewhere, if not the dominant feature? Demographics — the fact that, for instance, there are 10 times as many Muslims as Jews in France? That hardly encourages a French MP, say, to take a fair-minded position on Israel and the region.

The positions that we have taken have been demonstrably against our electoral advantage. Some of the superannuated foreign policy establishment in Canada have grasped for an explanation as to why our government has taken these arguably contentious positions. And the simplest explanation they can come up with, which is really the dumbest, is that the Conservative Party has taken this position to advance our electoral interests. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is this: With the Jewish community representing less than 1% of our population, it tends to be concentrated in urban core electoral districts which have typically been inaccessible to the Conservative Party.

During the Lebanon conflict in 2006, our prime minister was flying to his first G8 summit, in Saint Petersburg, the day after the IDF began its operation in Lebanon, and he was asked by our media to respond. He was advised by officials to take a pass: Get to Saint Petersburg, hear what the consensus is, and follow it. That’s the Canadian modus operandi. He said no, I think under the circumstances we need to assert Israel’s right to defend itself. So he went to the back of his plane and said in a press scrum, he said, Under the circumstances I think that Israel’s reaction is restrained. Well, this quote was considered verboten by many, and it was played along with images of the devastation in Lebanon for the next several weeks and our party lost over the course of the six weeks of that conflict I think about eight percent in the public opinion polls.

So right from the very beginning we’ve been willing to spend political capital to do what’s right on this issue.

On anti-Semitism, one thing that’s not recognized here perhaps is that in addition to the positions we’ve taken on Israel and the politics of the Middle East, we’ve also become a global leader in combating anti-Semitism and promoting Holocaust commemoration, education and research. This year Canada’s chairing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. We hosted the last meeting of the inter-parliamentary coalition for combating anti-Semitism. That led to the Ottawa protocol, that essentially said that not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, but those who tend to single out Israel for opprobrium or condemnation or question the legitimacy of the Jewish state are arguably giving expression to hateful views.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: anti-Semitism, Canada, Conservatives, Durban II Conference, Jason Kenney, Second Lebanon War, Stephen Harper

Monday, January 20, 2014

Canadian Muslim group demands rabbi's removal from Harper delegation

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, one of Israel's best friends, is here visiting for a few days. One of the people how is part of his delegation is a rabbi named Daniel Korobkin. The National Council of Canadian Muslims - the Canadian branch of Hamas-affiliate CAIR - has demanded that Harper remove Rabbi Korbokin from his delegation. Pamela Geller explains why.

[T]he Rabbi attended and spoke briefly at my September talk in Canada.

Their letter charged that both Robert Spencer, who also spoke at that September event, and I “have a lengthy and clear record of promoting anti-Muslim sentiments and demonization.” In support of this, they listed a number of statements (wrenched from explanatory context, of course) that are demonstrably true and abundantly established by every day’s headlines. Do they think Harper, a strong defender of Israel, is so stupid as to be blind to the reality of Islamic jihad?

Whatever the nature of the things that I say, Rabbi Korobkin didn’t utter them and is not by any conceivable stretch of the imagination responsible for them. It is bitterly ironic that Islamic supremacist groups would label my efforts to defend the freedom of speech and equality of rights for all people before the law as “anti-Muslim.” That speaks volumes. However, whatever my work may be about, it is not Rabbi Korobkin’s work or his responsibility.

There is another strategy at play here: the message is being sent to every rabbi and clergyman, and everyone in the public square, that if you have anything to do in the public square with those fighting jihad and Sharia, they will come after you.

You don't think Canada's Muslims are trying to shut their opponents up, do you?

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Canada, freedom of speech, Islam, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Stephen Harper

Monday, December 02, 2013

Encouraging investment in 'Palestine'

68-year-old Palestinian-Canadian investor detained in Ramallah after calling for toppling Mahmoud Abbas.
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) December 2, 2013

They sure know how to create an attractive investment climate, don't they?

UPDATE 6:06 PM

Here's video (Arabic only) of the investor calling for toppling Abu Mazen and the police coming to arrest him.

Let's go to the videotape.

Labels: Abu Mazen, Canada, freedom of speech, Palestine

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Turkish passenger charged with threatening to blow up plane

A 25-year old Turkish ethnic is facing several charges as a result of threatening to blow up a plane on a flight from Montreal to Istanbul.

Let's go to the videotape.

MFS - The Other News has more details.

The pilot of the Airbus A330 with 316 passengers on board turned back 90 minutes out of Montreal's Trudeau Airport on Sunday.

Dogan Akkaya, 25, of Toronto, was arrested and charged with committing a hoax regarding terrorist activity as well as assault, threats and criminal harassment. The terror-related charge could land him a 10-year-prison term.

Sources tell QMI that the disturbance began shortly after the flight departed Montreal at 6:35 p.m. on Sunday. A man tried to go to the toilet during takeoff, but was stopped by a flight attendant, provoking an altercation.

Akkaya's bail hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed after his lawyer requested a psychiatric evaluation.

It's one thing for a flight attendant to stop someone from using the toilet while the plane is taxiing to the runway. I've seen that many times. But if there was already an 'altercation,' why did the plane ever take off with this guy on board?

Labels: Canada, Islamic terrorism, Turkey

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Quebec to ban government workers from wearing kipot (skullcaps)

The government of Quebec may be about to ban provincial workers from wearing kipot (skullcaps) on the job).

The bill would seek to ban public employees from wearing large Christian crosses or religious headwear such as that worn by Sikhs, Muslims and Jews while at work.

Richard Marceau, a former politician who now advises the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, wrote a column for Huffington Post criticizing the proposal.

“How could one believe that a kippah-wearing Jewish librarian is… trying to impose his religion on society?” Marceau wrote.

The details of the proposed law were leaked to Journal de Montrèal last week, but the Parti Quebecois, which heads the provincial government, has refused to confirm them or answer questions related to the issue.

Ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.

Labels: Canada, Jews

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Canadian 'Palestinian' leader: Tell the Jews to leave Jerusalem and 'Palestine' or we will kill them

At an al-Quds day rally in Toronto, the former president of 'Palestine House' urged giving the Jews of ~~'Palestine'~~ Israel an ultimatum.

Addressing the annual al-Quds Day rally on Saturday, Elias Hazineh, the former president of Palestine House in suburban Toronto, called for “an ultimatum” to Israelis: “You have to leave Jerusalem. You have to leave Palestine.

“We say get out or you’re dead! We give them two minutes and then we start shooting. And that’s the only way that they will understand,” Hazineh said to cheers from a crowd of approximately 400.

The annual rally took place at a park near the grounds of the Ontario capital building. Last week, the sergeant-at-arms of the Legislature denied a permit to hold the rally on the grounds surrounding the building for reasons of “public safety.”

'Palestine House' receives (or at least it used to) Canadian government funding, but that funding was cut last year because of their extremism.

Toronto has a large Jewish community.

Labels: al-Quds day demonstrations, Canada, Palestinian terrorism, Toronto

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Iranians tried to use fake Israeli passports to emigrate to Canada

This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. Seven Iranians have been arrested in Canada for trying to use faked Israeli passports to enter the country.

The family – either a couple or siblings, and five children – were arrested at the Vancouver International Airport. The Iranian family used the name "Solomons", while pretending to be an Israeli family supposedly residing in Rehovot.

The family includes the mother, Mona Solomons, 48, the father or sibling Tomer, 40, and the children Nadine, 15, Narin, 11, Binyamin, 9, Marin, 6, and Nermin, 5.

All seven suspects came to Canada through a third country and not through Tehran. Once the immigration authority in Vancouver began suspecting the family, they sent their passports and information to the Israeli Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA).

A quick review revealed that the passports in the family's possession were either stolen or lost in the past to real Israeli citizens, and fabricated in accordance to the clients' details.

In the past, criminal agents in Iran made use of Israeli passport and were caught as individuals in different places in the world. This is the first time an extensive fraud of Israeli passports is made for an entire family. According to estimates, the Iranian citizens wished to immigrate to Canada using their Israeli passports, since Israelis are not required to have permits for entry, while Iranians cannot enter Canadian borders without visas.

The article goes on to describe how easy Israeli passports are to forge, and concludes that the seven Iranians will likely seek and may be granted political asylum. Read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, if you are a dual citizen, the Israeli authorities seem more concerned with getting your foreign passport on the record than they are about improving the counterfeitability of Israeli passports.

When I came back to Israel in May, the Israeli airport authorities asked for my US passport for the second time in recent years.

There are two possible explanations for this - neither of which is particularly reassuring. One is that they want to use it the next time they need passports for the Mossad. The other is that they want to get your foreign passport on file so that you cannot use it to leave the country in the event that the authorities issue an order barring you from leaving the country. In Israel, you don't have to be a criminal to be barred from leaving the country. Owing money to someone is often more than enough.

Labels: Canada, forged passports, Iran, political asylum, US passports

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Unbelievable: CBC (Canada) airs unsubstantiated allegation of Israeli use of chem weapons

Two weeks ago, Canada's national broadcaster aired an unsubstantiated allegation that Israel used chemical weapons on 'Palestinian' children in Operation Cast Lead four and a half years ago.

[O]n April 26, CBC Radio’s “Information Morning Fredericton” program elected to air an unsubstantiated allegation claiming Israel intentionally used chemical weapons on Palestinian children in Gaza in the 2008-09 war with Hamas.

This inflammatory charge was made by Tracy Glynn of the Fredericton Peace Coalition who stated the following in an interview on an exhibit curated in Fredericton depicting fake Gaza art: “The exhibit depicts one of the most brutal events that happened in the history of Gaza with the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead which killed over a thousand people in Gaza including 320 children, so this exhibit, done by children who survived that air raid, use of chemical weapons, it depicts what they see happening in their lives, the events that happened as well as the aftermath of that…”

You can listen to the broadcast here. Unbelivable.... Israel has never used chemical weapons on 'Palestinian' children or anyone else.

Labels: anti-Semitism, Canada, chemical weapons, Gaza, lies, media bias, Operation Cast Lead, Palestinian children

Friday, May 03, 2013

The continued obsession with silencing Pamela Geller

Here's a Sun News Canada report on the latest effort to silence Pamela Geller. This one involved her speaking at a synagogue in York, a suburb of Toronto. The rabbi was forced to cancel Geller's appearance after he was told that he would be removed as a chaplain of the local police department if Geller was allowed to speak in his synagogue.

Let's go to the videotape.

More from Pamela here. Why do these people all think that silence will make it go away?

Labels: Canada, Islamic terrorism, Islamophobia, Pamela Geller, York University

Arabs trying to take revenge from Canada for supporting Israel

The Arab countries are trying to take revenge from Canada for its support of Israel, mainly by causing the UN to move the ICAO headquarters to Qatar.

The International Civil Aviation Organization, which sets international rules for airplane transportation, has been headquartered in Montreal since 1947, but Qatar is now bidding to relocate it to the Middle East in 2016, trying to muster votes from 115 countries to approve the move at a meeting this fall.

Some Arab nations are now considering backing the bid as a potential focus for combined efforts to strike back at Canada for its stand on Palestinian issues. It would mark a new avenue for Arab countries that have criticized Ottawa before: a campaign that threatens concrete consequences.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s staunch support for Israel and close relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his vocal campaign last fall against the Palestinian bid for observer-state status at the UN, has long been viewed with dismay by some Arab nations.

The backlash has been fuelled by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s April foray into east Jerusalem to meet an Israeli minister – a move many Arab countries viewed as a symbolic acceptance of Israeli control over land it occupied in 1967 in the Six-Day War, an area Palestinians want as the capital of a future state. Mr. Baird’s response to the furor appears to have stoked the reaction.

At an April 23 meeting in New York on Palestinian issues, Arab ambassadors to the United Nations devoted a section of their agenda to countering Canada, including mustering allies from other countries to vote against Ottawa in international organizations, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

Since that meeting, Qatar has made its new bid to take ICAO’s headquarters away from Montreal, and some Arab countries are eyeing moves to back it by campaigning to win the votes of other states, sources say.

...

ICAO has 534 employees and 37 full-time foreign delegations in the city, and a 2012 analysis by consulting firm SECOR reported it brings $119-million a year to Montreal’s economy. Its offices are designated as emergency UN headquarters in the event of attack or disaster. If it is moved, Quebec’s Parti Québécois government, critical of the Conservatives’ foreign policy, would be expected to blame Ottawa for failing Quebec.

The bid to move it still faces daunting odds – requiring the votes of 60 per cent of ICAO’s 191 member nations.

Read the whole thing. It would be great to see the Arabs and the third world finally lose one at the United Nations. Let's hope this is the one. In the meantime, Canada's House is backing Foreign Minister Baird's bid to keep the ICAO in Montreal.

Labels: Canada, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, Qatar, United Nations

Friday, April 26, 2013

Canadian terrorist a son of 'Palestinian' refugee

One of the two men who has been arrested in connection with a plot to blow up a Canadian passenger train is the son of a 'Palestinian' who was granted asylum in Canada (Hat Tip: MFS - The Other News via Scaramouche). (Note - the link to the original article in the Toronto Sun does not work).

Mohamed Jaser [the alleged terrorist's dad], who was born in Jaffa City, in Palestine, on Feb. 1, 1947, stated in his refugee claim in Canada that his "family was forced to leave their homeland" and moved to the Gaza Strip when Israel was established in '48.

"Being non-Jewish residents of Palestine, we were not subject to the Law of Return (favouring Jewish settlement in Palestine) and had to leave during the time of Jewish migration into the area," Jaser wrote.

"The Israeli army seized our land," and the state "established a policy of 'religious cleansing,' which promoted and forced the transfer of non-Jewish citizens and residents from the state of Israel," wrote Jaser, who lived in Gaza until '66.

What a load of crap. There are still Arabs living in Jaffa today. In fact, it's just about all Arab.

The article then goes on to say that the family moved to the United Arab Emirates where they lived until they were kicked out in January 1991 because the 'Palestinian' leadership backed Saddam in the Gulf War. Then they moved to Canada as refugees. I guess this is how they are showing their appreciation. That doesn't bode well for others who might want to move to Canada in the future.

Labels: Canada, Gaza, Islamic terrorism, Jaffa, Palestinian refugees, Palestinian terrorism, United Arab Emirates

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler

Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Wednesday, April 24.

1) Friedman resurrects "Fayyadism"

Some time ago, Thomas Friedman coined the term "Fayyadism," a concept that, according to Nathan Brown, never had a chance.

Why Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad never had a chance to meet the high expectations placed on him atfp.co/10hH6rY
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) April 18, 2013
(No I don't agree with everything Brown argues, but the fourth and fifth paragraphs are good observations.)
In his most recent column, Goodbye to Fayyad Thomas Friedman boasts about his neologism:

Who is Salam Fayyad? A former economist at the International Monetary Fund, he first came to prominence when he was named finance minister of the Palestinian Authority in 2002, after donors got fed up seeing their contributions diverted for corruption. Shortly after he became prime minister in 2007, I coined the term “Fayyadism” — the all-too-rare notion that an Arab leader’s legitimacy should be based not on slogans or resistance to Israel and the West or on personality cults or security services, but on delivering decent, transparent, accountable governance.
Whether he used the term "Fayyadism" in other fora, I don't know, but the earliest mention of it in a column was in a 2009 column, Greet Shoots in Palestine.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to the wider Middle East what off-Broadway is to Broadway. It is where all good and bad ideas get tested out first. Well, the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, a former I.M.F. economist, is testing out the most exciting new idea in Arab governance ever. I call it “Fayyadism.”
Fayyadism is based on the simple but all-too-rare notion that an Arab leader’s legitimacy should be based not on slogans or rejectionism or personality cults or security services, but on delivering transparent, accountable administration and services.
... Things are truly getting better in the West Bank, thanks to a combination of Fayyadism, improved Palestinian security and a lifting of checkpoints by Israel. In all of 2008, about 1,200 new companies registered for licenses here. In the first six months of this year, almost 900 have registered. According to the I.M.F., the West Bank economy should grow by 7 percent this year.
While it's possible that Friedman came up with "Fayyadism" in 2007, the context of the 2009 mention suggests that the term was based on the results of Fayyad's governance, so I believe that Friedman is mistaken about his own record.

But what's worse than this possible lapse is that Friedman demonstrated his absolute ignorance of Palestinian politics. Over the time that he sporadically advertised "Fayyadism" as the path to peace, Freidman wrote in a 2011 column, Bibi and Barack:

And it is equally silly for the Palestinians to be going to the United Nations for a state when they need to be persuading Israelis why a Hamas-Fatah rapprochement is in their security interest.
Hamas made it absolutely clear that it wanted Fayyad sidelined and yet Friedman told us that a Fatah-Hamas agreement would be to Israel's benefit. This suggests that "Fayyadism" is one more empty Friedman phrase. "Fayyadism" was a handy rhetorical stick with which to beat Israel. Sure Fayyad is more honest and transparent that any other Palestinian leader, but he is also a leader without an internal constituency.

If Friedman could tout a peace killing alliance between Fatah and Hamas the same time he promoted "Fayyadism" as the only way to peace, it demonstrates that he is disingenuous, if not illogical and ignorant.

In today's column, Friedman also asserts:

Fayyad also played the leading role in rebuilding the Palestinian security services in the West Bank, which even the Israeli military grew to respect, and in trying to build Palestinian institutions, on the argument that the more Palestinians built their institutions — finance, police, social services — the more Israel’s denial of them of a state will be unsustainable.
Lately there's been a rise in attempts to kidnap Israeli soldiers and rock attacks against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, suggesting that the Palestinian security forces are helpful, when they want to be, but can hardly be relied upon. Furthermore, even with the built up institutions, the PA is still way too dependent on foreign aid. (This is something that Friedman implicitly acknowledges later in the column, but he, of course, blames the shortfall on Israel for holding back tax monies, ignoring the ineffectiveness of Palestinian governance.)

Hamas hated Fayyad, and many Palestinian Authority officials were jealous of him, but success protected him until 2011. President Mahmoud Abbas, frustrated by the right-wing Israeli government’s refusal to strike a land-for-peace deal, decided to seek recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations. The United States retaliated by cutting off aid, and Israel did so by withholding Palestinian tax receipts. I thought it foolish for Abbas to go to the U.N., but I thought it irresponsible for America’s Congress to cut off aid to the Palestinians for doing so — when we’ve never retaliated for the even more obstructionist building of settlements by Israel.
"Hamas hated Fayyad," and yet Friedman wanted Fatah to join with Hamas for Israel's "security!" Going to the UN wasn't foolish, it was a violation of the premises of the peace process Friedman claims to support. Friedman and the PA may not like settlements but they were allowed by the Oslo Accords, even if Israel has largely restricted any building in them to existing communities. (Though Israel gets precious little credit for this.)
At the end of his column, Friedman presents 4 "takeways." The second and third are ludicrous, but the first one makes a lot of sense:

For Palestinians, particularly Abbas and Fatah, who so easily turned their most effective executive into a scapegoat, if there is no place for a Salam Fayyad-type in your leadership, an independent state will forever elude you.
Fayyad's failure isn't a failure of Israel or of Israel's settlers. It is a failure of Palestinian culture. (Though he'd be loath to admit it, Friedman's making a similar argument to the one Mitt Romney made last year!)

The problem is that most of the rest of the column is at odds with this observation as Friedman blamed everyone else but the Palesitnians for Fayyad's failure!
Friedman's fourth "takeaway" is:

“There is nothing inevitable about a liberal order emerging from any of these Arab awakenings,” argues the pollster Craig Charney. Indeed, to produce that outcome takes someone like a Fayyad with the consistent help of external parties as well as a loyal base at home ready to see it through. In the end, Fayyad had neither. Add another nail in the coffin of the two-state solution.
Note that first Friedman suggested that the Palestinians bear the blame for their failure to achieve statehood, then he writes that he despairs of a two state solution. The evidence is before him but he is blind to what it means. The occupation (his obsession) is mostly over. What is left is for the Palestinians to achieve independence. That's not something that is dependent on Israel, but on the Palestinians changing their political culture. Had Fayyad managed to win political support - either in the Palestinian leadership or in the street - maybe he'd be more than a footnote right now.

Jonathan Schanzer laments some in Congress are seeking to pressure Abbas to draft a new succession law.

Hamas’ anticipated rise to power in the PA could lead to a cut off in critical U.S. aid dollars and foster an even more fraught relationship with Israel and America, according to the Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.), the House’s chief deputy whip.
“It’s one of the things Congress will have to monitor closely,” Roskam said in an interview.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, he said, are poised to “encourage the PA to deal with their succession plan. The notion of a default position of a Hamas official being the head of the PA is complete unacceptable and if the PA were to make that decision to have that leadership, the consequences are quite significant.”
The failure of Friedman's fabled "Fayyadism" is unconnected to Israel. Until the Palestinian culture is about openness and opportunity rather than despotism and grievance, reform and self-governance will elude the Palestinians. As long as Thomas Friedman continues blaming his ill-informed and mendacious arguments he is covering for, not fighting Palestinian malfeasance and misrule.

2) Getting around with Hezbollah

Last month the National Post reported Hezbollah deliberately seeks Canadians because of internationally accepted passports: senior CSIS official:

The terrorist group Hezbollah has been seeking operatives with Canadian passports, a senior intelligence official told MPs reviewing a bill Thursday that could strip terrorists of their citizenship.
Appearing before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service official said Canadian passport holders were being actively sought by terrorist groups.
...
The RCMP is also investigating allegations a Lebanese-Canadian Hezbollah member was behind last July’s bombing of a bus full of Israeli tourists at Sarafovo airport on the Black Sea coast. The suspect, who now lives in Lebanon, had used his Canadian passport to travel to Bulgaria.
Now it's been reported that Iran agent monitoring Chabad arrested in Bulgaria:

Bulgarian police officers last summer arrested a Canadian citizen linked to the Iranian government who engaged in surveillance of the local Chabad center in the capital of Sofia, a well-placed and reliable local source told The Jerusalem Post last week, on condition of anonymity due to security reasons.
An Iranian-sponsored female agent in her 50s, holding a Canadian passport, traveled from Istanbul to Sofia several weeks after the bombing of the Israeli tour bus in the Black Sea resort town of Burgas in July 2012. She was arrested on her first day in Sofia after the Bulgarian police, on high alert, noticed she was monitoring the Chabad center.
While it isn't certain that this agent was working for Hezbollah, the possibility certainly can't be ruled out since Hezbollah is a proxy of Iran and Syria.
And how is Hezbollah funding its international operations? The Jerusalem Post reports:

Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, says exchange houses have been used more frequently in recent years by the Islamic Republic in Iran to fund its nuclear program, as sanctions have increasingly restricted its access to resources.
“It’s not insignificant that Europe is identified as a place where Hezbollah is apparently selling drugs,” Schanzer said.
...
Experts say that Hezbollah’s asymmetric fund-raising campaign has kicked in to high gear as the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria has lost ground in its war against his fellow countrymen. The Assad regime, and the Ayatollah regime in Iran, are Hezbollah’s primary patrons.
With Iran and Syria limited in the resources it can provide Hezbollah, the terrorist organization is turning to drugs and money laundering to finance its operations.

Labels: Bulgaria, Canada, Hezbullah, Iran, Middle East Media Sampler, Salam Fayyad, Soccer Dad, Tom Friedman

Monday, April 22, 2013

Major terror attack thwarted in Canada

A major terror attack against a passenger train in Toronto, Canada has been thwarted by Canadian police (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

The two accused are Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, from Toronto. They have been charged with conspiracy to carry out a terrorist attack and "conspiring to murder persons unknownn for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group."

The two men arrested are not Canadian citizens, police said Monday, but would not provide any details about their nationality.

The RCMP accuses the two men of conspiring to commit an "al-Qaeda-supported" attack.

Police said the two accused were getting "direction and guidance" from al-Qaeda elements in Iran. There was no information to suggest the attacks were state sponsored, police said.

Gee, I wonder what religion they are....

Read the whole thing.

Video report here (Hat Tip: Will).

Labels: Canada, Islamic terrorism

Did anyone ask the 'Palestinians'?

Hamas has turned down an offer from Canada to absorb 120,000 'Palestinians' and give them Canadian citizenship.

Hamas movement renewed its affirmation that the right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homeland from where they were forcibly evicted is a sacred right.

It said in a press release on Friday that no power on Earth could revoke that right, adding that the Palestinians were forced to live in other countries on temporary basis and would never relinquish the right of return.

Hamas was responding to statements attributed to Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird that his country was ready to absorb 120,000 Palestinian refugees where they would be granted Canadian citizenship and live there forever.

Hamas said that it absolutely rejects all solutions tabled by Israel and other international parties to dissolve the Palestinian refugees’ rights and asks all international parties to stop such “suspicious attempts” that only serve Israel and its schemes and deepen the Palestinian people’s suffering.

I wonder if anyone bothered to ask 120,000 'Palestinians' whether they'd like to move to Canada. I'd bet an awful lot of them would like to move. But most of the 'international community' will continue to back Hamas' quest to destroy Israel through the 'right of return' instead.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Canada, Palestinian refugees, right of return

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird breaks taboos

Can we make it official yet? With the United States under Obama no longer as officially friendly to Israel as was once the case, I think we ought to declare Canada to be Israel's best friend. Case in point: Canadian foreign minister John Baird.

Canada’s foreign minister did something this week that most of his Western colleagues adamantly refuse to do: he met with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni in her office at the Justice Ministry, which is located in East Jerusalem.

Most Western countries refuse to let their officials attend meetings at Israeli government offices in East Jerusalem, lest this be viewed as recognizing Israel’s annexation of that part of the city.

Nor was that all John Baird did: He also visited an Israeli army outpost in the Golan Heights to view the situation on the Syrian border firsthand and receive an intelligence briefing on Syria’s civil war. The Golan is another area many Western countries bar their officials from visiting, lest it be viewed as recognizing Israel’s annexation of the heights.

A senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that Baird made both visits despite opposition from diplomats at Canada’s embassy in Tel Aviv.

A nongovernmental Israeli source involved in Israeli-Canadian relations noted that Baird also violated the East Jerusalem taboo last time he was here, by visiting Jerusalem’s Old City with an official Israeli escort. “Baird recognizes the sensitivity, but he wants to set a precedent,” this source said.

Ironically, Baird met with Livni to hear her views on 'negotiations' with the 'Palestinians' since Livni is now nominally in charge of those 'negotiations.'

Perhaps more ironically, I would rate Baird as being more pro-Israel than Livni.

I haven't been to Canada since 1999, although I've had (and have) clients in Toronto and Vancouver. If you can find me a reason to take a business trip there, I would love to come visit Israel's best friend.

Thanks Canada! Thanks John Baird!

Labels: Canada, East Jerusalem, Golan Heights, John Baird, Tzipi Livni

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Hezbullah presence in Toronto threatens Upstate New York

Legislation signed into law in December calls on the US State Department to assess the dangers to the United States - and particularly to Upstate New York - from the presence of Hezbullah in North America. Hezbullah has a large presence in Toronto. It has also become a major player in drug running in Mexico.

Though the law is formally titled the Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act, the counterterrorism legislation correctly views Hezbollah and Iran’s anti-American clerical regime as a merged terror apparatus.Iran’s rulers generously fund Hezbollah’s global terrorism activities. And there is no shortage of compelling evidence to explain why Hezbollah remains a lethal threat to Americans and U.S. interests in both North and South America. Hezbollah — a Lebanese-based Shiite group founded in 1982 — launched a terror campaign against the United States shortly after its 1982 inception. David Cohen, under-secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in August, “Before Al Qaeda’s attack on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, Hezbollah was responsible for killing more Americans in terrorist attacks than any other terrorist group.”

...

The United States designated Hezbollah a terrorist entity in 1995. The growing involvement of Hezbollah in the Mexican narcotics trade coupled with its clandestine operatives across the U.S. and Canada present a significant security threat. “Does Hezbollah use Buffalo as a pathway to its other operations in the U.S.?” Higgins asked, according to the Buffalo News.

“Or do they use Buffalo as a pathway to Canada?”The new legislation will require the U.S. State Department to address the types of questions posed by Higgins in a study and examine other gaps in U.S. national security in connection with Iran and Hezbollah. The terrorism reach of Iran and Hezbollah has inflicted damage on our allies in Europe and in the Middle East. U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials attributed the suicide bombing in July, which blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists in the Bulgarian village of Burgas, to a joint Iran-Hezbollah operation. The terror attack resulted in the murders of five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver.

Doing a study is very nice but the real question is what the US will do with the results. And why Canada is allowing a situation like this to continue.

Labels: Canada, Hezbullah, Mexico, United States