Moadim l'Simcha, a happy holiday to all of you. I know that it's been a while since I posted on this blog - finding the time to sit down and write more than 140 characters has been difficult recently because of work. But it's been quiet today and I thought I would post something.
When does no one care if 'Palestinians' die? When they are killed by other 'Palestinians.' I've been saying that for years, but now, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said the same thing - to Russian Middle East envoy Nikolay Mladenov.
According to the statement, Liberman protested that the UN is ignoring a
number of killings and executions that have happened in recent days
among the Palestinians in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon, as
well as in Gaza.
“The international community’s ignoring dozens
of dead and wounded shows again the hypocrisy and the double standard
that the world employs by ignoring these grave incidents, while on the
other hand condemning Israel’s justified actions against terrorism,” he
said.
Liberman, according to the statement, expects that the
issue of intra-Palestinian killings will be raised at the next meeting
of the UN Security Council.
Who does he think will raise it? Does anyone really care?
Mladenov’s office issued a “no comment” when asked about the phone call.
...
On Saturday, Mladenov issued a statement saying that he was “deeply concerned” by growing tensions in Gaza.
He
said that over the past decade the Palestinians in Gaza “have lived
through four conflicts, with no freedom, unprecedented Israeli
restrictions, a dire humanitarian crisis, high unemployment, an ongoing
electricity crisis and the lack of political perspective.”
Mladenov
called on all Palestinian factions to allow the Palestinian Government
to assume its responsibility in Gaza. “Gaza is an integral part of the
future Palestinian state and no efforts should be spared to bring about
real national reconciliation that ends the division. Leaders have a
responsibility to avoid escalation and bridge the growing divide between
Gaza and the West Bank that further fragments the Palestinian people.”
'Unprecedented Israeli restrictions'? Really? That would be news to East Germans, Hungarians, Czechoslovaks and ordinary Russians.
And which 'Palestinian Government' does Mladenov expect to function in Russia? The one that is in the 12th year of its four-year term? Or the Hamas 'government' which throws its opponents off building roofs?
No, the world doesn't care when 'Palestinians' or other Arabs die - so long as Israel is not involved. That double standard is anti-Semitism - pure and simple.
Shavua tov, and a good week to everyone from Boston.
If you think friends don't spy on friends, you're wrong. Of course, when the friends are doing the spying on behalf of Israel, they end up in jail for 30 years and then cannot leave the United States once they are released. But it's perfectly okay for the United States and Britain to spy on Israel.
The
United States and Britain have monitored secret sorties and
communications by Israel's air force in a hacking operation dating back
to 1998, according to documents attributed to leaks by former U.S. spy
agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Israel voiced
disappointment at the disclosures, published on Friday in at least two
media outlets and which might further strains ties with Washington after
years of feuding over strategies on Iran and the Palestinians.
Israel's
best-selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, said the U.S. National
Security Agency, which specialises in electronic surveillance, and its
British counterpart GCHQ spied on Israeli air force missions against
Gaza, Syria and Iran.
The spy operation, codenamed "Anarchist", was run out of a Cyprus base and targeted other Middle East states too, Yedioth said.
Online
publication The Intercept, which lists Snowden confidant Glenn Greenwald
among its associates, ran a similar report, with what it said were
hacked pictures of armed Israeli drones taken from cameras aboard the
aircraft.
Yedioth said German news-magazine Der
Spiegel, whose publication day is Saturday, also planned to run an
article based on Snowden's leak.
...
[Energy Minister Yuval] Steinitz said Israel was "not surprised" by the hacking described in the latest Snowden leak.
"We
know that the Americans spy on the whole world, and also on us, also on
their friends," he said. "But still, it is disappointing, inter alia
because, going back decades already, we have not spied nor collected
intelligence nor hacked encryptions in the United States."
Hey Yuval - are you sure they're our friends? After all, they've been telling us for 30 years that friends don't spy on friends.
MUST SEE: @APDiplowriter schools the State Department on hypocrisy
Shana Tova, a good year to all of you. While the holiday has not yet ended in much of the world, here in Israel it is over.
And now, for your entertainment pleasure, the AP's Matt Lee schools the State Department spokesperson on the hypocrisy of last summer's criticism of Israeli operations in Gaza v. the excuses for the US bombing a civilian hospital in Afghanistan last week.
To be sure major French companies, like Total,
are quite active in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, with the apparent
approval of the French government. But it turns out that Orange itself directly
and openly operates in occupied territory. Orange provides cell phone
service in Nagorno-Karabakh, an area of Azerbaijan that has been
occupied by Armenia since seizing it in a bloody 1992-94 war. The U.N.,
along with the E.U. and U.S., considers the area occupied territory.
Nonetheless, Armenian settlers have moved into the occupied territory in in significant numbers, amid constant complaints from Baku and others.
Nor
is this Karabakh some long-forgotten frozen conflict. Fighting broke
out this year across the line of control, killing dozens, and a full
scale war over the occupied territory is looming.
In other words,
Orange, and the French government, is committing what a senior French
official just described as a war crime. Indeed, by the theoretical
international law standards applied to Israel, Orange’s behavior in
Armenia is particularly egregious. Having cell phone towers in the West
Bank (the purported crime of Orange’s Israeli licensee) does not involve
any recognition of Israeli sovereignty or any judgement about the
status of the territory.
On the other hand, Orange’s website
touting its Karabakh service refers to the territory as “NKR”, or the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. This refers to the self-proclaimed, entirely
unrecognized state (akin to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus)
which is entirely controlled by Armenia. U.N. Resolutions have
specifically called for the “nonrecognition” of the NKR. Orange’s
Armenian website also calls the area “Artsakh,”
the ancient name for the region favored by Armenia nationalists. It
would be as if Orange, instead of complaining about, boasted of its
“service in Judea and Samaria.” Indeed, Orange cravenly calls NKR a
“country,” despite the clear admonition of its own government and UN
against recognition of what is universally regarded as Azerbaijani
territory. It would be as if Orange boasted of its service in the “Golan
Heights of Israel.”
Orange proudly advertises its Nagorno-Karabakh service on the homepage of its Armenia site. A press release announcing the
service said its goal is make things more “convenient” for Armenians
traveling into the occupied territory. And the service is done in
cooperation with a local telecom firm based entirely in, and dedicated
to primarily serving, the occupied territory.
Unlike
its Israel service, which is operated by a local company that merely
licenses the trademark, Orange Armenia is directly run by the
French-based company, and headed by a French executive, Francis Gelibter.
Orange itself is quarter-owned by the French government. So France has,
just this year, begun participating in what its own senior foreign
ministry officials call a war crime when Israel does it.
President Hussein Obama and his State Department have made a big deal out of Prime Minister Netanyahu's election campaign statement - since walked back - that there would be no 'Palestinian state' on his watch. The Obami have claimed that 'words matter' (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
"We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn't happen during his
prime ministership, and so that's why we've got to evaluate what other
options are available to make sure that we don't see a chaotic situation
in the region," the president said in an interview with The Huffington
Post on Friday.
Citing a similar statement by White House spokesman Josh Earnest, Rabbi Shmuely Boteach points out that the Obama administration doesn't treat all words equally.
So let’s get this straight. When foreign
leaders speak, it matters. What they say is consequential. Bibi’s going
to have to pay for his remarks.
But I have one question. Why doesn’t any of this apply to Iran? Why, on Saturday Ayatollah Ali Khameini uttered the words “Death to America” even as John Kerry was expressing optimism the very same day that the United States would come to a nuclear accord with Iran!
Suddenly, Iran’s words don’t matter?
Boteach goes on to speculate why Netanyahu's words matter while Khameni's words can be swept aside.
My own belief is this. President Obama is
desperate for some foreign policy victories. There’s a year-and-a-half
left to his Presidency and the world is on fire. From Iran to Boko Haram
to ISIS to Putin to Hezbollah to Al Qaida and Hamas, bad guys are
running amok under this president. American Foreign policy is a
shambles.
The only ally President Obama can truly expert
pressure on for a deal that would give him the lasting foreign policy
legacy he needs and craves is Israel. And in the past Israeli Prime
Ministers have proven so utterly malleable. American Presidents have
squeezed them like lemons.
But Bibi refuses to be squeezed. He won’t play
ball. He won’t withdraw from Judea and Samaria and allow “Hamastan” on
his eastern border the way it is in Gaza. He won’t shut up about
America’s capitulation to the Iranian mullahs that would leave them with
a military-grade nuclear program. He won’t go quietly into the nuclear
night while America appeases one of the most violent and vile regimes on
earth.
This darned Bibi guy just won’t bend.
And our President finds the intransigence so utterly frustrating.
I don't believe things would be any better if (God Forbid) the Left had won the election. At the end of the day, even Herzog and Livni could not have concluded a deal that gave the 'Palestinians' everything they want, both because the 'Palestinians' would never agree to any deal and because the Left would never succeed in getting such a deal through the Knesset. Look what happened to Ehud Olmert in 2008.
And the Clinton's hatred for Netanyahu also might have something to do with Obama's attitude. After all, Hillary was Secretary of State.
But in the meantime, the hypocrisy is flaming. Will anyone in the media call Obama on it? Calling @APDiplowriter....
Aaron Klein reports that there are also some wealthy American Jews who are behind the campaign to unseat Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Uri Wollman, V15′s spokesman, told WND his organization’s ballooning
infrastructure is funded primarily by three private philanthropists:
S. Daniel Abraham, the billionaire founder of the Slim Fast food
line. Abraham is a major donor to the Democratic Party and the Clinton
Foundation.
Daniel Lubetzky, a social entrepreneur whose OneVoice Movement is partnered with V15.
Alon Kastiel, a Tel Aviv-based businessman and owner of multiple local venues, including bars, clubs and hotels.
The admission confirms charges by Netanyahu’s Likud Party, which earlier called on Israel’s Central Elections Committee to outlaw V15′s activities to “ensure the integrity of the election.”
...
Lubetzky is the CEO and Founder of KIND Healthy Snacks and the KIND
Movement. He is also founder of PeaceWorks Inc. and the PeaceWorks
Foundation’s OneVoice Movement.
Lubetzky was born in Mexico City, the son of a Holocaust survivor and
a Mexican Jew. As a teenager, he moved with his family to the U.S.,
where he attended college and earned a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1993.
Lubetzky’s involvement in financing V15 is unsurprising since his
OneVoice movement is openly partnered with V15, while V15 is utilizing
OneVoice’s Tel Aviv office space as its headquarters, as WND reported.
Abraham’s financing of V15 was until now unconfirmed. The Palm Beach
billionaire is a known contributor to leftist political parties in
Israel. He is also a backer of the so-called Two State solution through
the Washington-based Center for Middle East Peace and Economic
Cooperation, which he co-founded.
During a press conference Sunday, the Likud Party officially accused
V15 and other related nonprofits of being supported “through millions of
dollars funneled from Europe, the U.S. and the New Israel Fund and
international factors interested in bringing down Prime Minister
Netanyahu” who think “that all means are appropriate.”
Reacting to the developments, Wollman, V15′s spokesman, told WND his
organization will not stop its campaign to ensure a center-left
coalition forms the next government in Israel.
Wollman accused Netanyahu and the Likud of “fabricating” a relationship between V15 and the Obama administration.
...
V15′s headquarters is actually the offices of Lubetzky’s “OneVoice.”
OneVoice bills itself as an “international grassroots movement that
amplifies the voice of mainstream Israelis and Palestinians.” It has a
clearly leftist tone.
OneVoice is reportedly sponsored by scores of nonprofits and received
two grants in the past year from the U.S. State Department.
The State Department is also listed as a partner of OneVoice on the group’s website.
OneVoice development and grants officer Christina Taler told the
Washington Free Beacon that “no government funding” has gone toward the
V15 voter mobilization effort.
The entire senior staff of V-15 consists of people who ran the Obama campaign. And Obama claims he doesn't want to interfere in Israel's campaign (and that these people each decided independently to go on their own to Israel out of Zionist motivations?). What a hypocrite!
Pot calls kettle black: Hamas accuses PA of 'misusing' Gaza reconstruction funds
Hamas is accusing the 'Palestinian Authority' of 'misusing' Gaza reconstruction funds.
In a statement, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said some ministers of
the Palestinian national consensus government "admitted that the money
allocated for Gaza reconstruction was being added to the PA budget."
This
confession, he said, "proves that the real reason behind the delay in
reconstruction of Gaza is that the PA has been messing with the
reconstruction money and exploiting the suffering of Gaza's people."
Because, after all, the funds were only used for their intended purpose when Hamas was in charge....
Here's what gets 'human rights watch's Sarah Leah Whitson all riled up:
despicable, medieval home demolitions by #Israel punish entire family for crime of suspected killers - war crimes http://t.co/JZYzhl2nM5
— Sarah Leah Whitson (@sarahleah1) November 22, 2014
Funny. In the United States, if someone sells drugs in a house, the house is subject to forfeiture, even if the owner knew nothing about it. Does Whitson consider that 'medieval'?
U.S.-led air strikes hit grain silos and other targets in Islamic State-controlled territory in northern and eastern Syria overnight, killing civilians and wounding militants, a group monitoring the war said on Monday.
The
aircraft may have mistaken the mills and grain storage areas in the
northern Syrian town of Manbij for an Islamic State base, said the
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. There was no
immediate comment from Washington.
...
The strikes in Manbij appeared to have killed only civilians, not
fighters, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory which gathers
information from sources in Syria.
"These
were the workers at the silos. They provide food for the people," he
said. He could not give a number of casualties and it was not
immediately possible to verify the information.
...
In eastern Syria, U.S.-led forces bombed a gas plant controlled by
the Islamic State outside Deir al-Zor city, wounding several of the
militant group's fighters, the Observatory said.
The
United States has said it wants strikes to target oil facilities held
by Islamic State to try to stem a source of revenues for the group.
The
raid hit Kuniko gas plant, which feeds a power station in Homs that
provides several provinces with electricity and powers oil fields
generators, the Observatory said.
I want to make it clear that I have no problem with classifying grain silos or gas plants as military targets. Depending on how they're being used, that classification could well be accurate. In fact, there's something to be said for targeting an opposing army's sources of fuel and food.
But it's hypocritical for Obama to condemn Israel for doing the exact same thing in Gaza. And it's not the first time Obama has done it.
Let's go to the videotape. Make sure to check out Scott Shane around the five-minute mark. Obama was very unhappy when Israel claimed that all of the male casualties between the ages of 18 and 40 in Gaza were probably terrorists.
BDSers spawn investigation of British security company for installing cameras at checkpoints
The Financial Times of London reports that BDS groups have spawned an investigation of a British multinational for 'human rights violations' as a result of the group's work with the IDF on setting up checkpoints.
G4S supplies and services screening and security equipment to military
checkpoints, prisons and detention centres in the West Bank and Israel.
In
a statement the National Contact Point, a government body, said that it
had “accepted issues for further examination”, though it stressed that
no conclusions had yet been reached.
The National Contact Point sits within the Department for Business
and is responsible for ensuring the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development’s standards for the behaviour of
multinationals are fulfilled.
It is expected to examine whether the supplying and servicing of
equipment in the checkpoints infringes on the human rights of
Palestinians. It will also examine the use of screening equipment in
prisons and detention centres in Israel and the West Bank.
The investigation shines a spotlight on the murky area of what
constitutes ethical practice for multinationals. G4S has been under
pressure from pro-Palestinian protesters over its work for the Israeli
authorities for several years and is expected to face protests outside
its annual general meeting on Thursday.
...
G4S,
which employs 6,000 people in Israel, said it “takes very seriously our
obligations to ensure that our activities do not contribute to human
rights abuses. We have provided evidence which clearly demonstrates that
the company is acting appropriately in the context of international
laws and voluntary human rights guidelines including those set out by
the OECD”.
G4S said it would support the NCP’s process but cited the watchdog’s
“clear acknowledgment that the company carries out extensive due
diligence and ongoing review of the potential human rights risks of its
business”.
The group has already said it will not seek to renew
the West Bank contracts when they end in 2015. It argues that its staff
simply fix and install security equipment such as CCTV and are not
directly involved in the management of the prisons or checkpoints.
But the arguments have failed to satisfy the pro-Palestinian campaign
groups, which want the company to exit all its contracts for the
Israeli government.
Still waiting for investigations of who is supplying Syria or Sudan or Egypt or Iran... and word that their governments are cooperating. Hypocrites!
Will they soon be roommates in Ramle prison? Probably not. Olmert gave up the pretension of keeping Kosher when he finished his term as Mayor of Jerusalem.
The 'settlers' council' has filed a police complaint for incitement against Leftist icon Amos Oz after Oz referred to 'hilltop youth' as neo-Nazis. They expect Oz to be arrested 'within hours' as happened earlier this week to a Yitzhar woman who advocated throwing stones at Arabs and IDF soldiers. Somehow, I don't think Oz will be arrested....
Representatives of the Binyamin and Samaria Residents Council filed a
complaint with the Israel Police against Amos Oz on Sunday, following
the author's comments that "hilltop youth" were "neo-Nazis", Channel 2
reported.
"The writer's words are serious incitement to racial hatred, and for
that he deserves the Nobel Prize in racism," said the Council.
Executive Director Sagi Keisler said that he expects that police will arrest Oz in the coming hours.
"Following the precedent of Eliraz Fein from Yitzhar,
who wrote similarly unsavory things in the settlement's internal forum
and was arrested immediately afterwards, the police can't ignore the
writer's grave incitement," he said.
Fein was arrested last week after she published a statement
online reading “I am in favor of throwing rocks (at Jews, in terms of
Arabs there of course isn’t any question), even in a situation where
the rock kills a soldier!!!”
Foxman: State Department 'hypocritical, almost irrational'
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, ADL National Director Abe Foxman decried the State Department's denial of visas to Israelis, and US intelligence agencies' refusal to allow Israel to join the visa waiver program, as 'hypocritical, almost irrational.'
The Anti-Defamation League has reacted harshly to reports that several
members of US Congress and representatives of the country’s
intelligence community have cautioned against admitting Israel into the
State Department’s visa waiver program due to concerns over espionage.
During an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, ADL National
Director Abraham Foxman said he could not square such worries with the
“special relationship” and high level of intelligence cooperation
between the two nations.
“Is there a certain amount of hypocrisy? Sure,” Foxman told the Post,
referring to recent revelations of widespread American spying on close
allies. “Every couple of years something publicly surfaces, focusing
the light on Israelis or Israel spying…. It is inordinate and
inappropriate and inaccurate. This is the most recent example of it.”
...
Foxman said he continued to be “disturbed at the level of
preoccupation, primarily in the American government, not just now but
going back for years” in relation to alleged Israeli spying.
“I have a file of people who applied for [a security] clearance,
American Jews who had difficulty getting it and didn’t get it because
of questions which were inappropriate,” the ADL head stated.
“But none of these people wanted to take the case public because they
were afraid it was going to destroy their employment opportunities.”
Foxman alluded to what he believes is an inbuilt institutional bias
connected to a widespread belief that American Jews hold dual
loyalties.
“One out of three Americans believe that they [US Jews] are not loyal,”
and the current allegation of Israeli spying “enhances the stereotype
and it fuels it,” he said. “This is endemic in our political system out
of Washington.”
A 2013 poll by the ADL found that 30% of Americans believe Jews are
“more loyal to Israel” than to the United States, a number that remains
unchanged from a previous poll taken in 1964.
Such attitudes predate the arrest of Jonathan Pollard, a
Jewish-American intelligence analyst convicted of passing information
to Israel. The Pollard case, Foxman averred, gave those concerned with
Israeli spying “legitimacy” but did not create such worries.
“The exchange of information and data and specific research on
technology is very high, and so at the same time to say we have to be
careful of Israelis who come here on tourist visas because they can spy
on us is almost irrational,” he said. “But if we are talking about
being motivated in part by stereotypes, stereotypes are not rational.
It’s a prejudice.”
That should make all you American Jews feel warm and cozy as you head back to work on the morning after the Passover holiday, no?
Hypocrisy: US asks Israel not to release murderers of Americans, only murderers of Israelis
MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) told a Knesset Interior committee hearing considering terrorist releases on Wednesday that the United States asked that Israel not release any terrorists who have the blood of American citizens on their hands. But releasing terrorists with Israeli blood on their hands is not only okay with Obama-Kerry - it's encouraged and even forced.
"A crazy situation is taking place in which terrorists enter prison with
the understanding that it is only a matter of time until American
pressure will lead to their release," MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud Beytenu)
said.
According to Feiglin, the US asked that Israel not release anyone who
killed American citizens. The Likud Beytenu MK called for the government
to reject the request.
As a potential 'beneficiary' of such a policy, I must ask: Is American Jewish blood redder than Israeli Jewish blood?
Substantively, the three members of the committee who remained in the room after an argument between committee chair Miri Regev (Likud) and MK Bassel Ghattas (Balad) voted to call on Prime Minister Netanyahu not to go through with the release of 'Israeli Arabs' - or at least to release 'Jewish terrorists' if the 'Israeli Arabs' are released.
The three MKs that remained in the room – Regev, Feiglin and MK David
Tsur (Hatnua) – voted that they call on Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu not to release Jewish or Arab security prisoners, but if
Israeli Arabs are freed, then Jews should be, as well.
"We freed
terrorists three times and didn't move forward in negotiations. There is
still terror from Gaza and Abbas does not recognize the State of Israel
as the Jewish State. We need to stop negotiations," the committee
chairwoman said.
Regev also said Netanyahu should not connect the
release of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard to the release of Palestinian
terrorists.
"We should teach the Americans what national honor
means. They don't release one spy and we don't need to release
murderers," Regev posited. "The comparison between freeing Pollard and
freeing terrorists is not constructive. Pollard should have been
released long ago."
The committee meeting was originally called to
discuss criteria for choosing which prisoners are released, but the
Prime Minister's Office refused to give information on the process and
Prison Services had yet to receive a list of who is set to be freed this
weekend, but said it would include Israeli Arabs.
Regev criticized the PMO for "disrespecting the committee and the
Knesset" and said she plans to propose a bill that will not allow the
government to release security prisoners without authorization from the
Knesset.
I believe that there is supposed to be a separate authorization required for the release of 'Israeli Arabs' anyway. If yes, then the Knesset will have a chance to say its piece.
Leftists hold 'occupation conference' on ruins of Arab village
Nationalist Baruch Marzel crashed a conference about the 'occupation' at Tel Aviv on Thursday, and decried the hypocrisy of holding the conference on the ruins of the Arab village of Sheikh Munis.
Nationalist activist Baruch Marzel succeeded in entering a Tel Aviv
University conference on "influences of the occupation" on Israeli
society this Thursday. As Professor Daniel Bar-Tal waxed on about "war
crimes" of moving populations from "occupied territory," Marzel spoke
out about the "real occupation."
"You're on an Arab mosque, here is the occupation. You're in the
occupation, you profit off of the occupation," leveled Marzel at the
professors, pointing to the hypocrisy of the university which was
founded on what was previously the Arab village of Sheikh Mounis.
"You live the occupation, there's a mosque under this building that
they destroyed, and expelled the people to Hevron where I live,"
continued Marzel.
After members of the conference tried to silence Marzel by accusing
him of not being used to academic guidelines of debate, Marzel fired
back "I'm used to the truth."
I'd be happy to trade Sheikh Munis for the rest of the country. Let the 'Palestinians' have Sheikh Munis and we'll keep Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, etc.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
