Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, May 19, 2017

05/19 Links Pt1: Glick: Trump and Israel: Enemies of the system; Jerusalem - The Eternal United Capital of Israel

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Trump and Israel: Enemies of the system

The main thing that is not in dispute is that during his meeting with Lavrov, Trump discussed Islamic State’s plan to blow up passenger flights with bombs hidden in laptop computers.
It’s hard to find fault with Trump’s actions. First of all, the ISIS plot has been public knowledge for several weeks.
Second, the Russians are enemies of ISIS. Moreover, Russia has a specific interest in diminishing ISIS’s capacity to harm civilian air traffic. In October 2015, ISIS terrorists in Egypt downed a Moscow-bound jetliner, killing all 254 people on board with a bomb smuggled on board in a soda can.
And now on to the issues that are in dispute.
Hours after the Trump-Lavrov meeting, The Washington Post reported that in sharing information about ISIS’s plans, Trump exposed intelligence sources and methods to Russia and in so doing, he imperiled ongoing intelligence operations carried out by a foreign government.
The next day, The New York Times reported that the sources and methods involved were Israeli. In sharing information about the ISIS plot with Lavrov, the media reported, Trump endangered Israel.
There are two problems with this narrative.
First, Trump’s National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster insisted that there was no way that Trump could have exposed sources and methods, because he didn’t know where the information on the ISIS plot that he discussed with Lavrov originated.
Second, if McMaster’s version is true – and it’s hard to imagine that McMaster would effectively say that his boss is an ignoramus if it weren’t true – then the people who harmed Israel’s security were the leakers, not Trump.

Mordechai Kedar: The sun shone, the trees blossomed, and the butchers slaughtered

Bashar al-Assad is accused of burning bodies in a crematorium. The only new thing in this report is the disclosure that there is a crematorium operating in the Arab world. Up to now, we always thought that crematoria were peculiar to Europe, to be found in Auschwitz, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor and the other death factories built by the efficient, refined and oh-so professional Nazis. Here in the Middle East, we thought, they murder in ordinary ways,shooting, slaughtering, beheading, hanging, strangling, drowning or throwing off roofs. But a crematorium? That's a new one.
In actual fact, a crematorium is not an instrument of murder. The unfortunates burned in a crematorium have already been murdered, probably by hanging,at least according to the reports leaked from Saydnaya Prison, known in today's Syria as "The Slaughterhouse." Burning the bodies is not meant to murder the victims, but to destroy the evidence of their murder. Turning bodies into ashes is an attempt to cover up the crime, wipe off the fingerprints, erase the marks of torture, and close the investigative file - because there are no bodies.
A crematorium is meant to eliminate the possibility of a grave for the dead person, to ensure that his name will not be engraved on a tombstone, to strangle the required questions about who killed him, where, how and most importantly - why he was killed. A crematorium is meant to allow its operator to be accepted internationally as a legitimate leader, a politician who survived and an equal among those who are "more equal than others," because there are no proofs extant of the Satanic evils for which he is responsible. They have gone up in smoke.
A crematorium can only be operated in a system that silences opinions, where only a select group makes the decisions and a small group of engineers executes them, while the day-to-day running of the system is in the hands of the victims themselves up until the day it is their turn to be eliminated and enter the evidence-destroying assembly line. This ensures that they will not leak information on what they have done and on what has been done to them by others who will themselves be eliminated the same way. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

JPost Editorial: Trump’s Kotel politics

The battles over the Western Wall reflect the traditional clash between the policy of the State Department and other parts of the US government which are more sympathetic to Israeli policy in Jerusalem. Since the UN Partition plan of 1947 called on Jerusalem to be part of a “special international regime administered by the United Nations,” the US has never recognized Israeli sovereignty in any part of the city. The first US ambassador to Israel, James McDonald, was instructed not to attend the opening session of the Knesset in Jerusalem in 1949. “If I were to go to Jerusalem to attend the function, that might be regarded as US tacit approval of the Israel claim to Jerusalem,” he recalled in his memoirs, My Mission in Israel 1948-1951. US policy has changed since then, but not in its overall rejection of Israeli rights to the Kotel. Since the Oslo period, the US has indicated it would be willing to move its embassy and recognize Israeli rights in Jerusalem if Israel signed a peace agreement with the Palestinians and the Palestinians agree to the changes in US policy. That gives Palestinians veto power over Israel’s rights to Judaism’s holiest accessible site in the world.
Trump’s visit should include a visit to the Western Wall even if he is not accompanied by President Reuven Rivlin or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump is visiting Saudi Arabia and the Vatican, where he will make symbolic statements about Islam and Christianity, so it is fitting that he should also go to Judaism’s holy site.
When it comes to gaining official recognition for Israel’s rights to the Kotel from the US and the international community, Israel faces an uphill battle. The Palestinians and Jordan, which is a steward of the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, deeply oppose Israel’s claims and there is little prospect that any peace agreement will affirm them. Since the 1930s, Islamic activists have sought to reduce Jewish rights to the Western Wall, calling it an Islamic site. The hostile resolutions at UNESCO have also sought to reduce the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.
Against this onslaught Israel has very few allies in the international community that will affirm Jerusalem’s rights over the Old City or east Jerusalem, or even the Western Wall itself. That isn’t likely to change. But Israel can try to make inroads with allies such as Ambassador Haley and the administration to chip away at the iron wall the Palestinians have erected against Israel’s right to the Kotel.

Jerusalem - The Eternal United Capital of Israel

A Jordanian writer, Assad Aezzona, writes a bizarre rant in Alsaa.net about how Zionists are relentlessly attacking Jordan.

I seem to have missed the story, but he is referring to the Jews who are insulted that Jordan led the UNESCO resolution that denies any Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

What is funnier is that while he considers Zionists defending their capital to be a scurrilous attack on Jordan, he nonchalantly begins his article with an antisemitic stream of consciousness - but substituting "Jews" with "sons of Zion."

We say it again and again with evidence as solid as the mountains, it's not safe to coexist with the sons of Zion throughout history, and they proved it at all stages of their lives with their betrayals, [while we] gave them security and safety, they showed their hostility towards humanity through the lies of being God's chosen people, and that God the merciful created everyone just to serve them, and the fact that such heresies are found only in the Babylonian Talmud written by insane rabbis ...

Aezzona goes on to lots of unrelated topics, including claiming that it was Jordanian intelligence that was compromised by Trump in his meeting with Lavrov, not Israeli intelligence. Also that Jordan's king should have won the Nobel Peace Prize instead of Begin and Peres.

But he is very, very upset over "Zionists" attacking Jordan.

Previously, Aezzona has written that ISIS head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a rabbi and that he looks forward to the final battle between Muslims and Jews.

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J-Street is very upset at UN Ambassador Nikki Haley for breaking with longstanding US policy and saying unequivocally that the Western Wall is part of Israel.

On their blog, they explain why - and this supposedly pro-Israel group supports the inexcusable position that all of Jerusalem is up for negotiation, not just the parts Israel liberated 50 years ago.

Despite repeated promises on the campaign trail, the Trump administration has, for the most part, taken a cautious approach towards the question of relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Yesterday, reports circulated that the Trump administration planned to hold off on the move for the time being. That’s wise and in-line with precedent. Presidential candidates often promise to relocate the embassy if elected, but to date, nobody has.

There’s a good reason for that.

The US has long maintained that Jerusalem is a final-status issue that must be resolved by the parties in the context of negotiations. It has refrained from any decision – like moving the embassy – that could signal that the United States has, in any way, prejudged the outcome.

US policy is clear. The United States – like nearly every other country – does not recognize the sovereignty of any party in any part of Jerusalem (East or West). It has never recognized the Western Wall as part of the state of Israel....Until a peace agreement is reached, Jerusalem’s status will remain in flux.

Polls of Americans a few years ago - not only American Jews, but Americans - show a strong preference for Jerusalem remaining the unified capital of Israel under Israeli control.

Should Jerusalem remain the undivided capital of Israel or should the United States force Israel to give parts of Jerusalem, including Christian and Jewish holy sites, to the Palestinian Authority? (Independent Media Review Analysis, September 2011)

	September 2011
Remain undivided	70.9%
Force/give parts	9.4%
Don't know/refused	19.7%

Do you believe that Jerusalem should stay entirely under Israel's control or that Jerusalem should be divided between Israel and the Palestinians? (The Israel Project)

		June 2011
Under Israel's control		50%
Divided		34%

Should Jerusalem remain as Israel's undivided capital in any peace agreement with the Palestinians? (McLaughlin & Associates, October 2010)

Yes	50.9%
No	20.4%

J-Street isn't only opposing what a majority of Jews want. They aren't only opposing what a majority of Israelis want. They aren't opposing what the majority of Congress wants.

They are opposing even what Americans want.

Because, by any measure, J-Street's positions are nearly indistinguishable from those of the Palestinian Authority and diametrically opposed to those of any conceivable Israeli government.

J-Street claims to be pro-Israel - but it wants Israel to negotiate Jerusalem, as if one's heart is negotiable.

The only thing remotely Jewish about J-Street is the sheer chutzpah they have to call themselves "pro-Israel."

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Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, tweeted yesterday:

I condemn the reported killing of a #WestBank #Palestinian by an #Israeli settler. Those responsible must be investigated and prosecuted
— Nickolay E. MLADENOV (@nmladenov) May 18, 2017

He condemns the act before he calls for an investigation into what happened.

Luckily, we have video.

The crowd allows the cars to move slowly through - until the Israeli's car enters the area (around 0:50.) . They surround him and he is forces to stop.

For about 20 terrifying seconds he is surrounded by screaming people kicking and hitting his car with sticks and stones.

Then, seemingly deliberately, an ambulance crosses over the median from the other side and blocks the Israeli car, leaving him a sitting duck. (His much smaller car would not easily be able to cross the concrete median himself, and of course there were more people there too.)

Desperate to get out of this situation, he moves his car forward through the crowd, hitting several, right up to the ambulance but cannot get around the new roadblock. The ambulance driver, instead of letting him pass to give them room to deal with the injured, leaves the vehicle only a second after the Israeli car is right next to it. The Arabs, even angrier, surround his car again, hitting his windows with sticks and throwing stones, before he apparently shoots his weapon, causing them to disperse. (It is possible that he shot the gun from his initial position and IDF tear gas dispersed the crowd, I'm not sure of the timing, but clearly he was in a desperate, life threatening situation before he fired his weapon.)

There is no way that the Israeli could have acted any differently. (He says he shot into the air. Presumably he shot after opening his window a crack, leaving him with little angle to shoot directly in the air, and that is how the stone-thrower was killed.)

Instead of calling for an investigation first, Mladenov emphasizes that the person who was about to be lynched was a "settler," implying that his life is worth less than anyone else's, a curious position for a UN official.

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05/18 Links Pt2: PA schools named after terrorists and Nazi collaborators; All 50 governors sign anti-BDS statement

From Ian:

50 Jerusalem Facts for the 50th Anniversary of Its Reunification

Israelis will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification on May 23-24 of this year. Leading up to the holy city’s semi-centennial milestone, here are 50 facts highlighting the rich tapestry of Israel’s capital:
Reunification
1. Jerusalem Day is an Israeli national holiday that commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.
2. During the Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem, Jews were not allowed to access their holy sites, including the Western Wall.
History
3. Jerusalem has been attacked 52 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, besieged 23 times and destroyed twice during the past 3,000 years.
4. Israel is the only country to enter the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees; you can enjoy some of them during a picnic or barbecue in the Jerusalem Forest.
5. The name “Jerusalem” most likely comes from “Urusalim,” a word of Semitic origin meaning “Foundation of Shalem (wholeness)” — or “Foundation of God.”

Rabbi Sacks on Jerusalem: The 50th Anniversary of Reunification (h/t Elder of Lobby)

As we approach Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) on the 23rd / 24th May, and the 50th anniversary of the reunification of our beloved city, here are a few thoughts about what Jerusalem means to me. (This video includes captions in Hebrew. If you wish to receive an MP4 version of this video for use in your community, school or organisation on Yom Yerushalayim, please email info@rabbisacks.org and put 'Jerusalem 50 video' in the subject line.)

Thousands of Six Day War documents declassified

Israel on Thursday released thousands of previously classified official documents charting political decisions during the 1967 Six-Day War when it reclaimed Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem..
Made public by the Israel State Archives ahead of the 50th anniversary of the June 5-10 conflict, the 150,000 pages contain minutes of the wartime security cabinet and transcripts of other ministerial meetings, a government statement said.
At the end of the fighting with Egypt, Jordan and Syria the Jewish state was left in control of Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip, eastern Jerusalem, part of the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula.
The publication gives access to unpublished information on the war, long the object of research and historical writing.
"For the first time in 50 years it will be possible to closely follow the dynamic within the government regarding the Six-Day War," chief archivist Yaakov Lazovik said in the statement.

In just the past month, at least two women were murdered in Rafah, Gaza alone. A man shot his daughter and a husband stabbed his wife to death in her sleep.

Times of Israel discusses the little-known loophole that allows Palestinian murderers of women to get off easy:

Despite a series of reforms to the Palestinian legal code since 2011 aimed at preventing so-called “honor killings,” the law has continued to allow men who murder, assault and rape women in the Palestinian territories to receive significantly reduced sentences.

Over the past half year, a petition initiated by Palestinian women’s rights groups has received over 12,000 signatures asking Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to do away with the measure, which allows judges to use their discretion in cases that have “extenuating circumstances.”

Yet while the law’s effect on women is well-known and well-documented, neither canceling, freezing nor amending it is in the cards.

According to a legal adviser for the Palestinian Authority’s Women’s Affairs Ministry, the law is necessary to ensure justice in some cases.

...[I]n the majority of other such cases in Jordan and the Palestinian territories, the “extenuating circumstances” the judges cited to lighten the sentences were that the family dropped charges against the defendants — who are part of the family — saying it was an honor killing.

Once the charges are dropped — in Palestinian legal parlance this is called “dropping the personal right [of the victim]” — the judge can use Article 99 to lighten the sentence.

Palestinian women’s rights advocates have argued the law is a two-pronged dagger: it incentivizes murder by minimizing punishment and also incentivizes murderers of women to claim they killed for their family’s honor.

“We have documented cases where someone was killed over inheritance or financial issues but it was documented as an honor killing,” Victoria Shukri, director of the Women’s Courts Project in TAM, a women’s rights organization, told The Times of Israel in a recent telephone interview.

A 2014 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights report found that the dropping of personal rights is most often the “extenuating circumstance” judges cite before granting clemency to abusers or murderers of women.

The UN report notes that Mahmoud Abbas supposedly modified the penal code to eliminate the exemption for "honor killings" - but Palestinian judges ignore the new language!

Moreover, the conflict of interest involved in the "waiving of right" exemption is simply ignored:

It is noted that Palestinian courts will in general
allow one of the heirs to the victim to waive their
personal right to punishment of the perpetrator
in cases of murder of women under the pretext of
honour, as a cause for extenuating punishment. This
is what a majority of the judgments of the courts of
first instance (Criminal) are based on, a matter that
is explicitly expressed by the Court of Appeal held
in Ramallah, in its judgment No. 54/2005, when it
concluded “jurisprudence shows that when one of
the heirs waives a personal right, this is a reason for
extenuation”. Therefore, one of the heirs can waive
their right and courts can extenuate the penalty for
the offender. This is the result in the vast majority
of the cases reviewed. Waiving the right was in most
cases done by a single person, be it the father of the
victim or her brother or mother.
In other words, the family that waives its right may be
taking advantage of the fact that the criminal offense
has been committed in defense of its own honour, as
claimed by the defense in most of these cases. The
courts have demonstrated no interest in looking into
conflict of interests or deliberate complicity in cases
where perpetrators had committed murder after
incitement by the family, as in felony No. 18/97 at
the Nablus first instance court, where the accused
had killed his sister following the urging of his family

Abbas' supposed declaring "honor killings" to be murder in 2011 has done literally nothing to help Palestinian women.

(h/t/ Josh K)

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

European history is full of wars, culminating in the massive eruptions of violence that characterized the first half of the 20^th century, which overflowed the boundaries of Europe to the point that they were called “World Wars.” These wars were responsible for an unimaginable amount of suffering. Whole generations of young European men were wiped out by WWI. About 61 million people, more than half of them civilians, lost their lives in WWII. Genocides were committed, entire cities erased from the earth.

After WWII, Europe and her allies responded to the trauma. They blamed nationalism, jingoism, militarism and racism. They came to distrust expressions of patriotism, and to dislike borders and barriers to free passage of people and goods. They decided to create a new world, one in which the forces that had led to the horrors of the 20^th century were suppressed, and in which reasoning and negotiation would replace war. They created the UN and its countless agencies; and they tried to unify Europe, first economically and then culturally, by means of the EU.

They tried to improve individual lives as well, to eradicate hunger and poverty, to provide free education to all, to reduce social and economic inequality, to ensure that everyone that could work could get a job and that those that couldn’t work would still have the necessities of life. The Dickensian conditions of the 19^th century would not return; a new humanistic, universalist, caring ethic would replace the social Darwinism of old.

Western society, it was thought, had to change. War was an unaffordable luxury in a world of machine guns, strategic bombing and now nuclear weapons and ICBMs. It was often said that a WWIII would bring about the end of civilized life (if not all human life) on the planet. The changes were seen as an evolutionary development in order to adapt to a new environment. Things had to change, or humankind would destroy itself.

But evolutionary changes brought about by environmental pressure can have unintended consequences. A genetic trait that offers protection against malaria and which became common in Africa for that reason, also renders people that have it susceptible to Sickle-cell Disease. And the evolutionary social and political change in Europe and to a lesser extent in America may have helped reduce some of the dangers that threatened civilization, but it also made Western society more susceptible to others.

One of those dangers is the Islamic jihad.

One definition of jihad is a struggle – which can be violent or non-violent – to establish Islamic rule and law (shari’a). Douglas E. Streusand explains:

For the jurists, jihad fits a context of the world divided into Muslim and non-Muslim zones, Dar al-Islam (Abode of Islam) and Dar al-Harb (Abode of War) respectively. This model implies perpetual warfare between Muslims and non-Muslims until the territory under Muslim control absorbs what is not, an attitude that perhaps reflects the optimism that resulted from the quick and far-reaching Arab conquests. Extending Dar al-Islam does not mean the annihilation of all non-Muslims, however, nor even their necessary conversion. Indeed, jihad cannot imply conversion by force, for the Qur'an (2:256) specifically states "there is no compulsion in religion." Jihad has an explicitly political aim: the establishment of Muslim rule, which in turn has two benefits: it articulates Islam's supersession of other faiths and creates the opportunity for Muslims to create a just political and social order.

The “quick and far-reaching … conquests” in the West were stalled in 1683 at the Battle of Vienna, when the troops of the Ottoman Sultan were stopped by the combined forces of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire. By then Islam had a firm foothold in parts of Asia, Africa and Europe, but as time passed the Islamic world began to lag behind the West militarily, economically and culturally. The long jihad had made Islam the second-most common of the world’s religions, and placed a large portion of the inhabited earth in Dar al-Islam (the abode of Islam, i.e., under Islamic rule), but its advance had ended – at least until recently.

Jihad need not be conventional warfare. It is possible to expand Dar al-Islam by war, but also by subversion, by demographic means – migration and reproduction – and by da’wa(proselytizing), which can be totally non-violent or include terrorism as a persuasive component.

The weakness of the West today has allowed the still smoldering Islamic jihad to rekindle itself. Every form of jihad can be found in action today: kinetic warfare in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan (jihad can target “heretical” Muslims as well as non-Muslims); infiltration, subversion and da’wa, including terrorism, in the US; and of course demographic jihad in Europe.

In the US, the Muslim Brotherhood has had an elaborate plan for subversion and da’wa in place for several decades. It has infiltrated government agencies including those related to national security. Conversions to Islam spiked after 9/11, and the number of prison conversions has also increased (this phenomenon is also seen in other Western countries). There has been an increase in Muslim immigration to the US in recent decades, but of course it does not compare to the mass migration into Europe.

Dutch politician Geert Wilders called the flow of Muslims into Europe “a Tsunami” and the expression fits. In addition to the large number of immigrants, they tend to be younger and to have more children than the native Europeans. In Germany, the fertility of native Germans was 1.5 children per women in 2016, far below the replacement rate of 2.1, while foreign women living there had 1.95 children. Since the amount of immigration has very recently shot up (900,000 applied in 2015) we can expect that as these immigrants settle in they will have even more children.

Islamic terrorism in Europe has also made headlines recently, including high-profile mass killings in France, the UK, Germany, Sweden and Belgium. There has also been an increase in “misdemeanor terrorism” like harassment of Jews, much of it perpetrated by Muslims.

In the UK, outrageous behavior by Muslims (e.g., the Rotherham rape scandal) was allowed to continue for years because police and other officials feared being called “racist.” In another shocking case, thousands of women were sexually assaulted on New Year’s eve of 2016 in several German cities. Few of the perpetrators were prosecuted.

The massive migration into Europe was facilitated by the EU’s Schengen Agreement, which allows free passage between EU countries. Combined with liberal rules for asylum and lax enforcement, almost anyone could get to any country (rules have been tightened and enforcement improved to some extent). Europe’s walls were not breached; she voluntarily opened her gates. Germany, especially, welcomed migrants, many of whom passed themselves off as Syrian refugees with fake passports.

Unfortunately, the evolutionary changes in European (and, to a lesser extent, American) society after WWII have placed it at a disadvantage relative to the Islamic jihad. Jihadists are strongly dedicated to their cause, even in some cases prepared to sacrifice their lives in suicide attacks. Native Europeans, on the other hand, are less committed to their faith and to their nations. While some 72% of Europeans identify as Christian, this number is falling, with the influx of non-Christians and an increase in those who are becoming “unaffiliated.” Church attendance is low, and liberal religious leaders sermonize against “Islamophobia” rather than Islam.

Nationalism is associated with fascism, and criticism of Islamic ideology with hate speech, which is illegal in some countries and can be punished with fines or imprisonment. Thus European law is aligned with Islamic blasphemy laws! This is a particularly dangerous trend, which Richard Landes has named “Proleptic Dhimmitude,” defined as “taking on the requirements of dhimmitude in anticipation of Muslim rule.”

So what will be the outcome? Will unassimilated Muslim populations increase, along with terrorism, conversions to Islam, disrespect for liberal traditions, harassment of Jews and women? Will taboos against insulting Islam and Muslims continue to stymie the prosecution of Muslim criminals? Will European society find itself adapting to Islamic standards rather than the other way around? And ultimately will countries like the UK, France and Germany become shari’a compliant?

I believe that if current trends continue, the answer will be “yes.” But there is an alternative. It will require a serious shift in attitudes on the part of native Europeans. They were right to regret their 20^th century behavior, and right to try to ensure that it did not happen again. But they went too far when they denied their own national identities.

If they are to prevail over the jihadists, who know who they are and what they are fighting for, they will need to care about their own countries, their history, traditions and religions. They will have to be French or German first, and only then European (the British have already made this decision). They will have to re-embrace nationalism and patriotism, which are not the same as fascism. They will have to care more for their own people than for others, while still treating the others like human beings. They will have to control their own borders.

They will have to make the all-important distinction between the ideology of Islam and Muslim people, and emphatically reject the former while protecting the rights of the latter (and by “rights” I mean things like the right to live where one wants and not the “right” to not be offended). They will have to enforce the laws of their nations fairly.

They will have to learn that there are some things that aren’t open to negotiation, and some disagreements that can’t be settled by talking. They will have to maintain military forces just in case someone tries to take what is theirs by force.

Do the contributions of European civilization, Shakespeare, Mozart, Michelangelo, balance its mistakes, moral lapses and even heinous crimes, and justify its continued existence? Or ought it to join the Roman and Byzantine Empires, the Aztecs and all the rest in the dumpster of history?

The choice is in European hands.

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05/18 Links Pt1: WH: No Plans to Announce Embassy Move During Israel Visit; Cruz: Western Wall 'part of Israel' & Jerusalem Israel's capital

From Ian:

White House: No Plans to Announce Embassy Move During Israel Visit

The White House does not expect to announce plans to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, despite President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to do so.
“There’s no planned announcement for the embassy on the trip,” a White House official told Breitbart News. The official however cautioned that the plan could change, pointing out that Trump “has his own mind and will make his own decisions.”
Trump’s U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley indicated on Tuesday that the capital should be in Jerusalem and that she saw the Western Wall as part of Jerusalem.
A White House source speaking to Reuters said that moving the embassy to Jerusalem remains a goal of the Trump administration, but that they do not want to complicate their goal of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
The official signaled optimism about an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, although the administration was “well aware” that many presidents had tried and failed to reach a deal.

Cruz: Western Wall 'part of Israel' & Jerusalem Israel's capital

Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, reiterated his position on the Western Wall and Jerusalem Tuesday, telling Conservative Review that the former is part of Israel and the latter remains its “undivided” capital.
The Texas senator’s statement follows statements from three separate Trump administration officials refusing to say whether the Western Wall in (Israel’s capital city of) Jerusalem is part of Israel. The wall is one of the holiest sites in Judaism, and it’s visited by thousands of Jews from all over the world each day.
“The Western Wall is part of Israel,” Cruz tells Conservative Review, “and Jerusalem is the eternal and undivided capital of Israel.”
Cruz has long pushed for the president and the past administration to make good on promises to move the American embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In January, he introduced (along with Sens. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.) the Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act, which called for the relocation of the embassy.
“Jerusalem is the eternal and undivided capital of Israel,” Sen. Cruz said in January. “It is finally time to cut through the double-speak and broken promises and do what Congress said we should do in 1995: formally move our embassy to the capital of our great ally Israel.”

Unfazed by Western Wall row, Jerusalem mayor still expects Trump to move US embassy

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat insisted Wednesday he is unfazed by US officials disputing or refusing to affirm Israeli sovereignty over the Western Wall, and said he still expects the Trump administration to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Four days before President Donald Trump is due in Israel for his first-ever visit, Barkat praised Russia’s recent recognition of Western Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and said he expected more from the Americans. While it was legitimate for Trump to consult with all regional stakeholders before relocating the embassy, the mayor said that the president’s appointment of several top officials seen as staunchly pro-Israel indicates that he will ultimately order the relocation.
“I wouldn’t give too much value to a statement by a person anywhere in the world,” the mayor said, referring to reports that a US consular official stationed in Jerusalem told his Israeli counterparts during preparations for the Trump visit that the Western Wall is not Israeli territory but “part of the West Bank.”
“Everywhere you put a shovel in the ground there are Jewish roots. So we don’t need anybody to explain to us how the city was and will always be — Jewish, on one hand, but respectful of other religions on the other. I do think that the Trump administration understands that very well,” Barkat told journalists during a briefing on the sixth floor of City Hall.

For the 12th straight year, Algerian authorities have banned Jews from visiting the grave of Rabbi Ephraim Alnaqua, a 14th century Jewish leader, philosopher and physician.

I found the background in this recent article in Raseef22, a liberal Arab publication.

Darb al-Yahoud, or the Jews’ Path, is one of the most prominent neighborhoods in the Algerian city of Tlemcen that lies on the border with Morocco. The name of the neighborhood is no coincidence; it reflects a history that was once the reality of the area, though one that is today ignored by most Algerians, who have collectively forgotten that one of the most renowned Jewish rabbis in the world is buried there.

Not far from Darb al-Yahoud, on the eastern front of Tlemcen, lies a Jewish synagogue, surrounded by a high wall that can only be crossed through a large metal gate. Inside the wall is a garden with trees bearing various fruit, peering over the height of the wall.

A family lives in the garden, tending to the property. “This is an Arab Muslim family, and the father guards the tomb and the mausoleum,” Shawi Boudaghn, the tour guide, tells Raseef22.

Near the synagogue, behind yet another metal gate bearing the Star of David, lies a graveyard. The graves are emblazoned in Hebrew lettering, with the names of the dead. There is a nearby well, holding what many Jews consider to be holy water.

However, the most important relic is the mausoleum of the Rabbi Ephraim Alnaqua, considered one of the most prominent rabbis in Jewish history. Entry to the mausoleum is forbidden without prior permission granted by the governor (wali) of Tlemcen.

After the independence of Algeria, Jews were forbidden from pilgrimage to most of the holy sites in North Africa. In 2003, under the rule of current President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a plan was set, in collaboration between France and Algeria, to reopen the Jewish synagogues and burial sites in Algeria.

In 2006, the Algerian parliament passed a law guaranteeing freedom of religion, which led to the authorization of an official Jewish association in Algeria.

Moreover, in 2005, in response to a request from France, the Algerian authorities permitted the relaunching of the pilgrimage season for Jewish delegations from Europe. Jewish delegations began pouring in to visit the various historical and religious sites, and to perform the pilgrimage to the mausoleum of Ephraim Alnaqua.

Those would mark the last of the publicized pilgrimages, as Algeria once again suspended them during the Israeli war on Gaza in 2006 [sic]. In the meantime, the locals in Tlemcen had not taken well to the initial decision to allow Jewish visitors in. Instead, they organized large marches in protest, and threatened to burn the remaining Jewish properties in the city.

The veto of Jew-hating Islamists continues:

In 2014, Minister of Religious Affairs Mohamed Eissa declared his intent to reopen the closed Jewish synagogues. Against the outcry by Salafis, who considered this an act of provocation, he affirmed that the Algerian constitution guarantees the freedom of belief, and that the authorities would provide security protection to these areas. He later backtracked, stating that there was no clear timeline for reopening the synagogues, and claiming that the Jewish representatives themselves were not enthusiastic about the reopening, as they feared potential tensions.

Israel has nothing to do with this. It is naked, explicit anti-semitism. And the lack of pushback from the Arab community shows (as if we need more proof) that Arab antisemitism is endemic and condoned.

Whenever Arabs claim they have nothing against Jews, ask them what they are doing about Algeria.

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Miri Regev wore a dress featuring the Old City of Jerusalem skyline at Cannes, to celebrate 50 years since its liberation.

Arabs are freaking out.

Alahed News reports:

The most recent form of transgression on Palestinian heritage is a dress!
The “Israeli” entity’s so-called “Culture Minister” Miri Regev attended an event at the Cannes film festival in a designer dress dong the skyline of the Old City of al-Quds [Jerusalem], Western Wall and al-Aqsa mosque included.

The Palestinian "Islamic and Christian Association for Jerusalem" condemned the dress saying that it shows the "Judaization" of Jerusalem.

The "Secretary General of the Palestinian National Committee for Education, Culture and Science: condemned the dress.

Twitter is going crazy with Israel-haters Photoshopping the dress to make it look like the security fence or other places.

As we've noted before. Palestinians spend more time on symbolism than substance. The honor/shame culture values appearances over facts. So when an Israeli does something symbolic on turf that they consider their own, they go crazy.

Because deep down they know that Jerusalem is Jewish and always will be. And when Israel emphasizes that fact even in innocuous ways, they simply cannot deal with it.

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Remember a couple of weeks ago when Mahmoud Abbas said at the White House "I affirm to you that we are raising our youth, our children, our grandchildren on a culture of peace"?

Here it is:

A poem which encourages Palestinians to go to "war" and "destroy the Zionist's soul" has again been recited by a child on official PA TV, this time on the children's program The Best Home. When the boy finished the poem, the studio audience stood and cheered while the host congratulated him:

Boy: "I am a Palestinian, my name is Palestinian
I've etched my name on all the town squares...
Saladin (i.e., Muslim conqueror of Jerusalem), calls to me from the depths of my heart
All my Arabness calls me to vengeance and liberation...
Thousands of prisoners and thousands who are jailed
call to this great nation and call to the millions
They say: To Jerusalem, the [first] direction of prayer in the faith [Islam]
To war that will smash the oppression and destroy the Zionist's soul
and raise the banner in the world's sky.
Palestinian, Palestinian, Palestinian. "
Official PA TV host: "Bravo."
[Official PA TV, The Best Home, March 17, 2017]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented four other children reciting this poem on PA TV in recent years.

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The Wall Street Journal reports:

The Trump administration on Wednesday announced new sanctions against Iran aimed at its ballistic missile program.
At the same time, the administration is taking a step to adhere to the 2015 deal to restrain Iran’s nuclear program by signing a sanctions waiver for Tehran, as stipulated in the pact, a senior administration official said.
Also on Wednesday, the State Department released its report on Iran’s human-rights record, emphasizing abuses in the country’s prison system and its detention of foreign nationals, including American citizens, the official said.
The moves come just days ahead of Iran’s elections and before President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel to the Middle East to meet with America’s Gulf allies and Israeli officials to discuss new measures to counter Tehran’s influence in the region.
“The actions that the administration is taking today are intended to highlight that the U.S. moving forward intends to address all the various aspects of Iran’s destabilizing and hostile behavior,” the official said. “So the message today is that we continue to take action against these and other aspects of Iran’s negative behavior that affect the U.S.’ security and that of our allies.”
The sanctions target seven individuals and entities, including two senior Iranian defense officials and a China-based network the U.S. says has supported Iran’s ballistic missile program, the official said.
The official said the U.S. had notified China of the pending sanctions.
One Iranian defense official who is sanctioned facilitated the sale of explosives and provided other support to Syria, the official said. Another is the director of an Iranian organization that is responsible for the Iranian regime’s ballistic missile program.

One would think that J-Street would be thrilled that, at least for now, the Trump administration is keeping the Iran deal, and instead is working on other Iranian outrages against human rights and peace.

But, no.

J-Street has officially outed itself as an explicit supporter of the Iranian regime, no matter what it does.

The organization claims otherwise, but read this letter they sent supporters:

There's a lot going on in the news, and this may not be on your radar this week, but Congress is considering legislation that risks killing the Iran deal.

The Countering Iran's Destabilizing Activities Act (S.722) has the worthy goal of putting pressure on Iran to combat some of the truly despicable activities of its authoritarian regime. Unfortunately, the bill -- as currently written -- is so broad in its language that many experts see it as undermining or even violating the nuclear deal President Obama achieved to block Iran's pathways to nuclear weapons.[1]

The footnote points to an article in Foreign Policy from March by Antony J. Blinken, Avril Haines, Colin Kahl, Jeff Prescott, Jon Finer, Philip Gordon and Robert Malley.

It talks about the Corker-Menendez bill, which does some things similar to the sanctions announced by the White House.

Here's what the FP article says:

[T]he bill adds new conditions that must be met before Washington can lift sanctions on certain Iranian parties in the future, including sanctions we are already committed to remove if Tehran continues to comply with the nuclear deal. According to the draft legislation, lifting sanctions on such Iranian entities would require a certification that they had not supported or facilitated ballistic missile or terrorist activity. This provision is unnecessary and could give Iran an excuse to undermine the deal. It is unnecessary because once nuclear-related sanctions are removed years from now, as required by the JCPOA, nothing in the deal prevents the administration in power from immediately using legal authorities already on the books to re-designate any individuals or entities that support terrorism or Iran’s ballistic missile program. And it is problematic because gratuitously adding new conditions could be read by Iran as unilaterally altering the terms of the deal, casting doubt on our future compliance. This could provide Iran a pretext to take reciprocal action — such as adding conditions to the performance of its own commitments. If our Chinese, European, or Russian negotiating partners agree that we are altering the deal, the international consensus necessary to keep pressure on Iran to abide by the deal could erode.

[Also], by mandating sanctions on any person or entity that “poses a risk of materially contributing” to Iran’s ballistic missile program, the bill introduces a standard that is overly broad and vague. Such a loose definition could potentially be used to impose sanctions in violation of the JCPOA — particularly when in the hands of an administration that is overtly hostile to the deal.

J-Street's "experts" are arguing that any sanctions being lifted against Iran must be lifted no matter what unsavory non-nuclear activities the sanctionees are doing, like supporting terror, or building ballistic missiles, or anything else. Protecting the holy JCPOA is a "get out of jail free card."

To J-Street and the JCPOA's supporters, seemingly anything that might upset Iran is off the table. And Iran should have the veto power over any US legislation that might hurt its feelings, because it can retaliate by claiming the US is altering the JCPOA.

Anti-semites claim that Jews control America. Here, the supposedly Jewish J-Street group is saying that Iran should have an implicit veto over any legislation that might upset it and give it a hissy fit.

All while J-Street claims that the US should be tough on Iran.

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