Iberia denies pilot said 'welcome to Palestine'
Passengers on an Iberia flight from Madrid to Tel Aviv on Wednesday reported that the pilot welcomed them to '
Palestine' on landing.
During the flight from Madrid by Spain’s
national carrier, the pilot announced in Spanish that he was preparing
to land “in Tel Aviv, in Palestine.” In English, he subsequently said he
was preparing to land “in Tel Aviv,” and did not repeat the “Palestine”
comment; neither did he say “Israel.”
Lior, a passenger on the flight, told Channel 2 news that he was “a little bit shocked.”
“I don’t understand why he said this,” said
Lior. “We live in the State of Israel and he should have said ‘Israel.’
There was a reason he didn’t say it in English. It was deliberate.”
Another passenger said “everyone noticed” that the pilot didn’t mention Israel by name.
One of the passengers sent a letter to the
company complaining about the pilot’s conduct, saying he and his family
“were very offended,” and adding, “It is inappropriate and does serve
your company well,” Channel 2 reported.
The Spanish news website 20 Minutos reported
on Thursday morning that the Israeli ambassador in Madrid penned a
“tough letter” to the president of Iberia in which he asked him to take
disciplinary measures against the pilot.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported that an Iberia
spokeswoman in Israel apologized on behalf of the airline and said the
pilot who made the announcement would not be flying the route to Israel
until the matter was fully investigated by the airline.
Iberia is now
denying that the pilot said 'Palestine.'
After speaking with “members of both cockpit and cabin crews and with
other passengers on board” to clarify the situation, Iberia has
determined “the word ‘Palestine’ was not used in the announcement,”
according to a statement posted on the airline’s website.
“The captain adhered to the standard format, in which only the
airports of origin and destination are named, and not countries,
regions, or territories,” Iberia said.
The announcement was first made in Spanish and then in English. The
airline claims the captain said, “Dear passengers, we’re now descending
to land at our destination, Tel Aviv.”
However, passengers may have been confused, according to Iberia.
“Both the airline and the crew regret the misunderstanding, which
could have been caused by the similar sound of the Spanish word
‘destino,’ meaning ‘destination’, with ‘Palestina.’ No such confusion
was caused by the message in English, passengers said.”
If he had said 'Israel' or 'Palestine,' it would have been a breach of protocol. I fly a lot, and I don't recall ever hearing an airline pilot announce the name of the country in whose airport we were landing.
Labels: Ben Gurion Airport, Israel, Palestine, Spain, Tel Aviv
ICC launches 'war crimes' probe against Israel
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
The fact that this was probably inevitable does not make it any less of a farce. The International Criminal Court has opened an '
investigation' into Israel's actions this past summer in Gaza.
"A preliminary examination is not an investigation but a process of
examining the information available in order to reach a fully informed
determination on whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with a
(full) investigation," Bensouda was quoted as having said.
Depending on her findings, Bensouda will decide at a later stage
whether to launch or quash the investigation, based on the initial
probe, the report added.
Israel condemned the decision as "scandalous", as Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu said in a statement that since “Palestine” is not a
state, the ICC had no jurisdiction over it, according to the court's own
rules.
The probe is "absurd" since "the Palestinian Authority cooperates
with Hamas, a terror group that commits war crimes, in contrast to
Israel that fights terror while maintaining international law, and has
an independent justice system," Netanyahu pointed out.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman added that the sole purpose of the
preliminary examination was to "try to harm Israel's right to defend
itself from terror."
In a statement he said the decision was "solely motivated by
political anti-Israel considerations," adding that he would recommend
against cooperating with the probe.
The United States has slammed the probe as '
harmful to peace.'
"It is a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighborhoods, is now being scrutinized by the ICC," US State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said in a statement.
In 2009, the ICC opened an investigation into Israel's actions in Operation Cast Lead. That probe was closed in 2012 because 'Palestine' was not a state. Since then, with Western complicity, the 'Palestinians' status at the United Nations has been upgraded from 'observer' to 'non-member state.' That allowed 'Palestine' to join the ICC.
It's long past time for the West to make a choice: Are you with the Arab-Islamist terrorists or are you against them? So far, the West has either been incapable of choosing or has chosen to side with the terrorists - perhaps out of
fear. Israel is just the canary in the coal mine. The inability to choose does not bode well for Western civilization.
This is perhaps the oddest reaction:
Rights group Amnesty International welcomed the ICC's announcement saying it "could pave the way for thousands of victims of crimes under international law to gain access to justice."
But the initial probe could lead to an investigation into crimes "committed by
all sides", Amnesty stressed in a statement, with many noting that
every missile fired on Israel by the PA's unity partner Hamas, and
indeed by PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah, constitutes a war crime.
'Many.' But don't spend too much time looking for Amnesty to call every rocket a 'war crime.' If they did, they would have to admit that Israel has a right of
self-defense. If anything, the ICC is investigating the wrong side.
Labels: Amnesty International, Avigdor Lieberman, Binyamin Netanyahu, International Criminal Court, Palestine, war crimes
Sarkozy comes out against French recognition of 'Palestine'
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has
come out against a measure that is to be voted on in the French parliament next week calling for the unilateral recognition of 'Palestine.'
Sarkozy condemned the unilateral measure,
which is set to be presented for a parliamentary vote on December 2, in
the wake of the “heinous and bloody” Har Nof terror attack last week in
which five Israelis were killed.
“I will fight for the Palestinians to have
their state. But unilateral recognition a few days after a deadly attack
and when there is no peace process? No!” he said at a political rally.
Sarkozy said he would never accept a resolution that would “call into question the security of Israel.”
“This is the fight of my life,” he said.
...
France’s plans for a non-binding but highly
symbolic vote follows similar resolutions passed by the British and
Spanish parliaments, and an official decision to recognize Palestine by
the Swedish government.
Sweden’s move infuriated Israel which responded by recalling its ambassador to Stockholm.
Don't these European countries have anything better to do?
Labels: France, Nicolas Sarkozy, Palestine, Palestinian terrorism
Pat Condell: 'Boo Hoo Palestine'
Pat Condell is back with another hard-hitting video about the 'Palestinians.'
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip:
Steven D).
Labels: Arabs, Palestine, Palestinians, Pat Condell, two-state solution
Swedish legislator: Prime Minister's recognition of 'Palestine' illegal
Benny Weinthal reports that a Swedish legislator claims that his Prime Minister's recognition of the imaginary state of 'Palestine' is
illegal.
In a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post on Monday, Swedish
deputy Annicka Engblom, from the center-right Moderaterna (Moderate)
party, said she filed a complaint with the parliament’s Committee on the
Constitution because the prime minister “violated the law.”
There
is a way to handle “issues which have a great impact Swedish foreign
policy,” she said. There are procedural steps that must be “taken to
recognize a state, especially in a conflict of this magnitude.”
According
to Engblom, [Swedish Prime Minister Stefan] Löfven should have sent the proposal to recognize a
Palestinian state to the Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs, which
functions under the parliament and is chaired by the king.
Löfven bypassed the council on Friday, prompting outrage in the parliament.
Some
of the deputies “jumped in our seats as we heard the prime minister,
because his decision was stated as already made,” Engblom said.
The
Committee on the Constitution will convene a hearing in the spring on
the prime minister’s recognition of a Palestinians state. If he is found
to have violated Swedish law, the committee could reprimand him, and
“politically, this is very severe in politics,” Engblom said.
Now that he's been called on it, Löfven and his representatives are claiming that they did not recognize 'Palestine.'
Legislator Marie Granlund, from the prime minister’s Social Democratic
Party and deputy chairwoman of the parliament’s Committee on European
Union Affairs, did not immediately respond to Post telephone and email
queries. She told the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper that Löfven’s
recognition of “Palestine” was not a decision but a declaration of
intent. When the time comes, the decision will “of course” be brought to
the Advisory Committee for Foreign Affairs for discussions, she said.
Unfortunately, that has all the effect of a New York Times 'correction' where the original headline is on page 1 and the 'correction' is on page 29.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Palestine, Sweden, Swedish anti-Semitism, Swedish hypocrisy
Priorities man, priorities: Qaradawi says 'forget Palestine for now - focus on jihad against Bashar'
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and a supporter of 'Palestinian' suicide bombings, has called for Muslims to abandon jihad for 'Palestine' for now, and to
focus on jihad against Bashar al-Assad (link in Arabic) (Hat Tip:
MFS - The Other News).
Here's a
Google translation:
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa, president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, that he does not need nor religious duty to open the door of jihad in Palestine, now, stressing that God tested the patience stationed in the holy land.
He called al-Qaradawi, in remarks to the national media, young Muslims to focus their efforts on jihad in Syria to liberate it from oppression and tyranny Bashar al-Assad, he said.
Wow. Just wow.
Labels: Bashar al-Assad, jihad, Palestine, Syria, Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Your Sunday entertainment: The actual real truth about Palestine (and West Bank)
Palestine - To was or not to was? That is the question, which 2 Palestinian chicks tried to answer in an attempt to debunk, pwn and otherwise refute claims made in another video titled "Israel Palestinian Conflict: The Truth About the West Bank" - from the crafty hands of Danny Ayalon who seems to be enjoying making videos ever since he left the Israeli parliament. Well, now the poor girls got a Joniversity response.
Language warning.... But it's entertaining....
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip:
Shy Guy via
Elder).
Labels: Danny Ayalon, Israel is a Jewish state, Judea and Samaria, Palestine, Palestinians, settlements are legal
Encouraging investment in 'Palestine'
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
'Palestinians' removed monument that eliminated Israel for Obama visit
Before President Obama went to Bethlehem, the 'Palestinians' removed from the route his party took a monument consisting of a map of 'Palestine' that
replaced the State of Israel.
After the UN vote in November 2012, the PA built a monument in a central
square in Bethlehem called "The State Monument," which shows the "State
of Palestine." However, the model of "Palestine" also includes all of
Israel, thereby erasing it completely. The monument celebrates the UN
vote on statehood as well as the first PLO/Fatah terror attack against
Israel in 1965, which is seen as the beginning of the Palestinian
"revolution" and Fatah's anniversary date. The words on the map-shaped
monument are:
"Birth certificate of the State of Palestine - Nov. 29, 2012,
The outbreak of the glorious revolution - Jan. 1, 1965"
The monument it turned out was on President Obama's route in Bethlehem,
so in order to prevent him from seeing it, the PA had the monument
removed before he arrived, the official PA daily reported. This,
however, outraged the local Palestinians who witnessed its removal:
"In the city, there are those who not only welcome the visit of the
American President, but are willing to go even further... Residents were
surprised to find that a model of the map of Palestine engraved with
details about the Nakba ("Catastrophe" i.e., Israel's creation) and an
olive tree were removed from the Al-Karkafa Square, to be replaced by a
model of what was described as a peace dove. This enraged many people
who gathered there."
...
In response to the popular anger that the PA daily had reported, the PA
then tried to deceive its own people as to the reason for the removal of
the monument. Two days after the first story appeared, the paper
reported on a press conference held by the Bethlehem District Governor
with the Mayor of Bethlehem, at which they claimed that the monument was
removed in order to be "redone" and expanded. The fact that it was
immediately before Obama's visit was coincidental, according to the PA.
In the words of the District Governor: "Everyone knows that Americans do
not dictate any Palestinian decisions."
Read it all. Two questions: Does Obama know about this? Does he care?
Labels: Israel's right to exist, Palestine, Palestinian lies
'Palestinians' registering title to land in Judea and Samaria
'Palestinians' are able to
buy land in Judea and Samaria on line and to get tabu (title) for it, according to a report in al-Guardian.
Khaled Sabawi, the Canadian-born son of Palestinian refugees, launched
Tabo three years ago. Appropriating the Ottoman term for "title deed",
the business was built upon a dream of his father's to help Palestinians
buy Palestinian land. It is a dream that most of the estimated 5
million scattered Palestinian refugees would consider impossible.
...
Sabawi and other critics of the Palestinian Authority would add that
Israel's ongoing success in the struggle for territory is aided by the
Palestinian leadership's failure to protect Palestinian land. Legal
proof of ownership is almost impossible to come by in the West Bank,
where 70% of land is unregistered and ancestral property is inherited by
dozens of heirs.
Israeli settlements have thrived on this legal
ambiguity. "The best way to protect Palestinian land is to create title
deeds and we have created hundreds of parcels of title deed land that
are now owned by Palestinians. But it was a laborious, arduous,
exhausting process throughout which the bureaucracy of the Palestinian
Authority – not Israel – has been the greatest obstacle," Sabawi said.
It
took Tabo's team of lawyers and engineers four years to register 100
hectares (250 acres) of Palestinian land. In each case, the process
started from scratch. It involved negotiating with multiple heirs
claiming ownership of a plot of land, agreeing on the borders of that
plot, getting an official map of the land approved by the council and
then applying for a title deed to legalise ownership.
The Tabo website
invites prospective buyers in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the
far-flung diaspora on a virtual tour of every plot of registered land
with a 180-degree view from the site, its height from sea level and
slope gradient. Plots are sold for $13,000 (£8,600) to $80,000 and can
be paid off over three years.
...
In Farkha, where 90 plots of land have been sold through Tabo, the
council is cautiously supportive of the initiative. Tabo has paved roads
and extended water and electricity networks to reach their plots of
land. "The newcomers will probably help our economy and it's better that
the land is not in the hands of settlers. But Sabawi is not buying our
land because he likes our blue eyes. He's got a good business going,"
said Hassan Abdullah Hajaj, a council leader for 16 years. Most
villagers, he said, sold land to Tabo for $5,000 per 1,000 sq metres or
less out of economic necessity.
Unlike Hajaj or Sabawi, the
Dabbaghs still cherish an optimistic ideal of Palestine. Ali is an eye
surgeon specialising in diabetes and plans to open a clinic in Farkha.
The couple have hired an architect to design their home, even though
they have yet to receive permission from the Israeli authorities to live
in the West Bank. When Ali last flew to Tel Aviv, he was refused entry,
despite a British passport.
"At least 10 of our friends and
relatives have bought land through Tabo after we told them about it.
Some don't even plan to live there – they feel they are protecting the
land just by owning it," Sana explained. Ali added: "For me it was just
something I took for granted. I knew I was going to end up in Palestine.
If, God forbid, I don't get to, at least now I know my children can."
In other words, a 'Palestinian businessman' living abroad is taking advantage of local 'Palestinians' by buying their land on the cheap and selling it to wealthy 'Palestinians' who also live abroad. Imagine the outcry if the 'settlers' did something like that. But as long as all they're doing is recycling land on which 'Palestinians' already live, I'm not sure it matters.
I went to the tabo site (linked above) and started to fill out the form until I saw that I would have to fill in a credit card number, and give two references in 'Palestine.' I guess that's how they keep the Jooz out.
Anyone have a credit card number you don't mind giving 'Palestinians'?
Labels: Arab land grabs, Judea and Samaria, Palestine
Did you get this result on your Google search?
Heh (Hat Tip:
Will).
Labels: Israel, Palestine
Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler
Sorry for the very light posting today. I had a meeting an hour and a half (each way) from home and another half an hour each way from home.
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Tuesday, January 29.
1) Third Intifada?
In Israel and Palestine prepare for a third intifada, Jonathan Schanzer wrote earlier this month:
There has been a steady drumbeat of bad news coming out of the
Palestinian West Bank in recent weeks. Attacks against Israelis from the
West Bank are undeniably on the rise. The spike came in November,
around the same time Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Mahmoud
Abbas went to the United Nations seeking an upgrade in the status of his
mission, despite objections by Israel and the United States. His
message was simple: The Palestinians will not cooperate with Israel
while it controls territory that Palestinians claim as their own.
Coincidence or not, there were 70 recorded attacks in October, according
to Israeli security services, followed by a spike to 171 in November.
In December, a Palestinian motorist rammed an Israeli army jeep carrying
officers and then attacked them with an axe. In another incident, two
Palestinians breached an Israeli military base, assaulted a soldier, and
absconded with his weapon. Earlier this month, after residents
discovered undercover Israeli agents in Jenin, at least thirty people
were injured in a clash. There have been other cases, reminiscent of the
1987 intifada, where Israeli personnel have been pummeled with a hail
of stones.
Despite the increase in attacks, Schanzer writes that it isn't entirely clear that another intifada is going on or imminent:
Despite the daunting data, a new uprising is far from certain. For
one, activists don't appear to have galvanized the online community. The
twitter handle @ThirdIntifada has a modest 15,835 followers by last
count and the "Third Intifada" Facebook site has a little more than
8,000 "likes." Judging from social media, the threat of a mass uprising
isn't exactly acute.
It's also worth noting that "intifada" means different things to
different Palestinians. Some believe it means a full-fledged war, as it
did from 2000 to 2005, when suicide bombings dominated the headlines.
Others believe it means rock-throwing and civil disobedience, as was the
case (with violent exceptions) in the 1987 to 1990 disturbances.
Now, Ynet reports Kfir Brigade chief: Situation on the ground changing:
As part of its exercises, the brigade drilled more than urban warfare
and joint operation with the IAF; extending its training to include
filming proof that the terror groups operating in its sectors are using
kindergartens and mosques as their bases of operations, as well as using
the local population as human shields.
Kfir Brigade officers explained that the troops will be required to make obtaining such proof part of their operational goals.
"The trends on the ground are changing," Kfir Brigade Commander Colonel Udi Ben Muha told Ynet.
Count on some media outlets to miss the picture. The Washington Post reports, Fatal shootings of unarmed Palestinians raise concerns about Israeli use of force:
In a report issued Monday on the military’s crowd-control techniques
in the West Bank, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said that
security forces were “extensively and systematically” violating their
own rules of engagement when using both non-lethal weapons and live
ammunition against protesters, with fatal results.
The report said 48 Palestinians had been killed since 2005 by live
ammunition fired by soldiers at stone-throwers, six more were killed by
rubber-coated bullets fired at less than the permitted range, and two
died when they were hit by tear-gas canisters fired directly at
protesters in violation of regulations.
While the army called the report a “biased narrative” and said the
incidents were exceptions, it has signaled its own concern over the
recent killings, which are being investigated by military police. The
commander of Israeli forces in the West Bank, Brig. Gen. Hagai
Mordechai, last week ordered commanding officers to review the recent
incidents and the rules of engagement, in order to “draw operational
conclusions,” an army spokesman said.
Why 2005? Is it to increase to pad the numbers? 48 deaths over seven
years hardly suggests an out of control military. Furthermore, the
situations over the past seven years change, so a report like this is
inflammatory, not informative. (In one of the cases of the stone thrower
who was hit by a tear gas canister, a photograph of the incident shows a
large rock headed towards the soldiers.) The reporter acknowledges at
the beginning of the article that there has been an increase in low
level violence. But by highlighting the B'tselem report, he distracts
from the main problem.
2) Only you
In Palestine as a source of international dysfunction, Malcolm Lowe starts with:
The phenomenon of "Palestine" is becoming a misfortune for any
international institution in which it crops up. This is because those
institutions are governed by councils whose members are states. Whenever
"Palestine" is on the agenda, these states vote according to the
policies of their respective governments, regardless of any principles
that are supposed to guide the institution in question.
He shows how in a number of areas, "Palestine" is treated uniquely much
to the detriment of any country or organization with which it is
involved.
The other side, as Elder of Ziyon shows in a couple of recent posts,
is that Israel, too, is treated uniquely, much to its detriment.
Not surprisingly those cheerleaders for Palestine are those who also
hold Israel to standards that no other country is expected to observe.
Labels: human shields, Middle East Media Sampler, Palestine, Soccer Dad, Third intifada
UN hosts art exhibit picturing 'Palestine' as all of Israel
I'd call it the final betrayal, but it's happened so many times before that who knows when the final betrayal will really be. The United Nations is currently holding an exhibit in its own headquarters that
depicts 'Palestine' as including the entire State of Israel.
On November 29th the General Assembly granted “Palestine”
the status of “non-member observer state” under the pretense that the
move brought the world closer to a two-state solution. But that same
evening Palestinian UN representative Riyadh Mansour opened an exhibit
entitled “Palestine – Memories Dreams Perseverance.” The political
message is not subtle, with the works bearing titles such as “homeless,”
“delirious in exile,” and “to Jerusalem we travel.”
The emblems of a long list of Palestinian terrorist organizations
include the familiar shape in which Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West
Bank are all combined into the only and only Palestine.
...
Here is a close-up of the logo on the cover page of Abbas’s speech:
It’s a perfect fit with the message now embedded in the UN public exhibit.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: one-state solution, Palestine, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, United Nations
The lie called 'Palestine'
I hope Jeff Dunetz will forgive me for lifting his
great photoshop from Google images.
The original title of this article is
The Lie that Broke Israel's Back (Hat Tip:
Ricky G). I didn't use that title - partly because I try to make up my own titles, and partly because I don't see Israel's back as broken. In fact, I see the shift toward the Right among the Israeli electorate as a sign that the majority's collective back is not broken.
Nevertheless, author Steve Apfel does a great job of summarizing the lie called 'Palestine,' and for that alone this piece bears reading.
"Occupied
Palestinian Territory" (OPT) is a thing of smoke and mirrors.
Historically, it never happened; legally, there never was Palestinian
territory for Israel to occupy. Israel took the territories from Egypt
and Jordan in 1967, and there's no getting away from that. So today
Israel has more right than Jordan to be occupying the West Bank, and
more right than Egypt to be occupying Gaza (if Israel's blockade may be
called occupation). "Palestine" never enters the equation. Turn Middle
East wars and laws upside-down and any way you like, but if the
territories belong to any U.N. member, or quasi-member, they belong to
Israel.
Not
even the famous U.N. Resolution 242 can help. It told Israel to
withdraw from territories once held by Jordan, illegally, and Egypt, and
it envisaged those territories' return to those two countries.
"Palestine" never got a mention in Resolution 242 -- for a couple of
good reasons.
Palestinians
were not among the belligerents involved in the Six-Day War. Anyway,
the people who were going to stake claim to a nation they would call
Palestine were a year away from being born.
More
than anyone, King Hussein of Jordan understood perfectly that a cart
before the horse never gets off the blocks. So he told the 1988 Arab
League summit in Amman: "The appearance of a distinct Palestinian
national personality comes as an answer to Israel's claim that Palestine
is Jewish."
The
Hashemite monarch was explaining to fellow potentates why a Palestinian
nation had to be conceived in 1968. If it were not, then the West Bank
and Gaza would be Israel's by dint of war and law. Arab armies had
been vanquished in six days, the territories lost to Israel. That made
it imperative for the PLO to revise its covenant, which it did on July
17, 1968. The PLO meddled with Article 24, erasing the old declaration
that the West Bank and Gaza were not occupied and now insisting
that they were. With that sleight-of-hand, a newborn nation came into
the world -- with a newborn bastard illegal occupier.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Palestine, Palestinian lies, UN Security Council Resolution 242
State of 'Palestine' quiz
Although the cartoon above was obviously done by Yaakov Kirschen of Dry Bones, the link I was sent to it was
here. Let me know how you all do on the quiz.
Labels: Palestine
Wall Street Journal labels Judea and Samaria 'Palestine'
And you thought the Wall Street Journal was on our side....
The graphic above is a screen-cap from
this Wall Street Journal online report at the 2:33 mark. The graphic labels Judea and Samaria as 'Palestine.' Funny, I never heard of that country.
Labels: Judea and Samaria, Palestine, Wall Street Journal
CIA: Without outside assistance Jews in Palestine won't survive more than two years
Here's a fascinating little document. It's a report issued by the CIA on November 28, 1947, one day before the vote on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, and it argued against the partition.
Among other things, the report claimed that without significant outside assistance, the Zionists (Jews) would not last more than two years (so much for that argument) and that the United States had destroyed its prestige in the Middle East by supporting the partition plan.
I am embedding the report below (Hat Tip:
Will). It's only 19 pages.
CIA Report on Partition of PalestineLabels: 1947 partition plan, CIA, Palestine
UNESCO isn't very funny
Comedy Central did a two-part report on the deprivation of the people of Gabon as a result of the United States cutting off funding to UNESCO. I want to show you the report, and then we'll talk about it a bit.
Here's Part 1. Let's go to the videotape.
Here's Part 2. Let's go to the videotape.
Now
here's why you shouldn't get your news from Comedy Central. Claudia Rosett explains:
The Atlantic hailed the piece as a paragon of do-good satire, and indeed it is funny—if you know nothing about UNESCO, or Gabon.
UNESCO lost U.S. financial support through its own actions. Last fall, when the Palestinian Authority made its unsuccessful bid for statehood at the U.N. Security Council, it also applied to the U.N.’s Paris-based cultural organization. Over U.S. objections, UNESCO’s member states voted 107 to 14, with 52 abstentions, to grant the PA full membership. This decision set in motion a U.S. law that forbids the government from funding any part of the U.N. that tries to confer statehood on the Palestinians before they honor their promises to negotiate peace with Israel. The Obama administration had no choice but to stop the funding, which represented 22 percent of UNESCO’s budget.
UNESCO’s director general, Irina Bokova, wants America’s money back. But rather than try to persuade UNESCO’s members to undo their admission of “Palestine,” Bokova has been pouring extravagant effort into persuading America to undo its law. Twice in the past six months, Bokova has traveled to the United States, most recently last month, with four UNESCO staffers in tow, for a 12-day road show with stops in Washington, Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Self-promotion seems to be the name of the game at UNESCO these days, and winning airtime on Comedy Central represents a major PR coup. And there are other initiatives underway as well.
...
Far from helping the world’s neediest, UNESCO’s top priority is helping itself. The Heritage Foundation’s Brett Schaefer calculates that 87 percent of UNESCO’s $326 million budget last year was allocated for its own staff, travel, and operating costs. More than half of UNESCO’s staffers are based in Paris, many pulling in tax-exempt six-figure salaries, with plush benefits and 30 days of vacation per year. UNESCO’s auditors reported that on travel costs alone, the organization was squandering more than $3 million annually via bad management and a taste for business-class airline tickets. A program of financial disclosure by senior UNESCO officials has been mysteriously delayed.
...
Then there’s the case of UNESCO’s model donor as featured on Comedy Central, poor little Gabon. The UNESCO official shown on camera touting Gabon’s largesse is Bokova’s new Washington flack, Papagiannis. Apparently he neglected to mention to Comedy Central’s intrepid reporter that little Gabon is the ninth-largest oil producer in Africa. Gabon’s 1.5 million citizens are poor not because the United States has been snatching their books or defunding UNESCO, but because Gabon has been plundered for more than 40 years by the family of President Ali Bongo Ondimba—the same fellow who showed his support for UNESCO after its Palestinian vote by pledging $2 million from Gabon. At that UNESCO gathering last fall, Bongo shared the Gabon model of development at a UNESCO Leaders’ Forum and won a four-year seat for his government on UNESCO’s 58-member executive board.
A 2010 report from the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, “Keeping Foreign Corruption Out of the United States,” offers useful background on Gabon’s ruling dynasty. The report cites Freedom House’s accounts of torture in Gabonese jails, restrictions on free speech, and “decades of autocratic and corrupt rule.” Gabon’s current President Bongo is the son of Omar Bongo, who was president of Gabon for more than 40 years, until his death in 2009. Senator Carl Levin, presiding over the release of the Senate report, said that both Bongos were “notorious for accumulating massive wealth while in office in a country known for poverty.” One Gabonese civic group wrote UNESCO’s Bokova, asking her to refuse the $2 million pledge, because the pauperized people of Gabon need the money more.
...
Unfortunately, the Gabon account is characteristic of UNESCO mismanagement. But rather than get her house in order, Bokova sweeps the organization’s pathetic track record under the rug and warns what kind of programs and projects might suffer if the United States doesn’t start paying again.
One she’s particularly vocal about is the Holocaust education program, which she suggests might vanish without American money. In fact, the lone full-time staff member on this project is paid out of a donation from Israel, which also kicked in a large chunk of the $536,000 collected in recent years for projects related to this program. UNESCO’s annual contribution comes to a niggardly $215,000, which Bokova could scrape together simply by abandoning her plans for a Washington liaison.
Unfortunately, it is likely that a lot more people will see the Comedy Central skit than will read Claudia's article. Don't be one of them.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: humor, Palestine, UNESCO
The delusion of 'Palestine'
Just how delusional are the 'Palestinians'? Have a look at this (Hat Tip:
Israel Activism via Twitter).
Good question. Obviously drugs that enable them to completely ignore reality. Oh wait, they're
trying to destroy reality too, aren't they?
Labels: Palestine, Palestinian lies
