More Moral Relativism & The T Word

Some Israeli victims of terrorism

"Some of the prisoners have carried out militant attacks that claimed Israeli lives and were jailed for up to 30 years."  Thus reports the BBC in relation to Israel's current commitment to release 104 Palestinians in its gaols to facilitate the resumption of "peace" talks.

The BBC is evidently not alone in using the euphemism "militant" for depraved killers (killers of Israelis, that is) who merit the description "terrorists".

For example, in The American Thinker, Leon Rennert, a former White House correspondent, notes: "Israel and Israel alone it seems is immune from terrorism in the pages of the Washington Post."

That newspaper, he writes, "stoutly refuses to describe blood-soaked Palestinian murderers of Israeli children as terrorists. Instead, it substitutes a totally inaccurate euphemism, calling such depraved killers "militants."'

It's an inaccurate term, he continues, since

'"militant" is a non-judgmental, neutral noun. It carries no pejorative connotations. Whereas use of "terrorist" makes it crystal-clear that the writer and/or publication deems such depraved acts as beyond the pale. Which of course they are if they involve deliberate murders of innocent civilians in pursuit of a political agenda -- the basic definition of terrorism....

Never mind that children were firebombed on a bus or that Palestinian killers singled out women and the elderly as targets, these killers [the paper's Jerusalem correspondent William] Booth insists, are NOT "terrorists"; they are instead "militants." In so writing, Booth washes his hands of any trace of moral turpitude attached to such acts.

As he makes clear in the next paragraph: "The Israeli public views these prisoners as terrorists who have blood on their hands. Palestinians see them as freedom fighters struggling to reclaim their homeland and oust the occupiers."

So there you have it: Moral relativism carries the day at the Washington Post. Israel may call them terrorists -- but not Booth or the Washington Post. Message to readers who retain a modicum of absolute morality: Be grateful that we don't extol them as freedom fighters. Just take your pick. Call them freedom fighters or terrorists. But we won't. The Post sees nothing repulsive, nothing subhuman, nothing immoral in Palestinians murdering Israeli kids."

... and some more

Yet, again like the BBC, the Washington Post does not resile from employing the description "terrorist" in certain situations:

'Compounding this deliberate rejection of the T-for-terrorism word is the fact that the Post does not hesitate to use it in reporting on terrorist attacks elsewhere, including when such attacks occur in Europe or the United States....'

Read more here
Hat tip: Love of the Land blog

Iranian Islamic Thinker: "What Did You Do With Regards To Israel?" (video)

 This footage was uploaded with Al Quds Day 2013, soon to be upon us, in mind.  To quote the uploader:

'Excerpts from a speech by Shaheed Ayatullah Mutahari [sic]on Palestine, with a message to promote Al Quds Day 2013.

Ayatullah Murtaza Mutaheri [sic, and passim] is one of the principal architects of the new Islamic consciousness in Iran. Shaheed Mutaheri was born on February 2, 1920, near Mashhad.

He studied Fiqh, Usool, Tafsir and Islamic philosophy. He studied in Qum from 1944 until his departure for Tehran in 1952.

In Qum he was among the prime desciples of Allama Tabatabai and Imam Khomeini. The particular school of philosophy to which Shaheed Mutaheri adhered was that of Mulla Sadra whichis a theosophy called "sublime philosophy".

In 1952, Shaheed Mutaheri left Qum for Tehran and started teaching philosophy and Islamic Ideology in Seminaries and ,later, at Tehran University. In Tehran, Shaheed Mutaheri found a broader field of religious education and political activity.

Ayatullah Mutaheri is one of two or three great contemporary Islamic thinkers of Iran. He was acquainted with modern ideologies and presented the Islamic perspectives in different spheres.

His thought is internally consistent. His books may be considered as most lasting and important contribution to the rebirth of Islamic Iran. When the Islamic Revolution of Iran triumphed in 1978, Shaheed Murtaza Mutahhari was made Chairman of the Revolutionary Council. But he was assassinated on May 1, 1979 by a group known as Furqan.

When the sad news was conveyed to Imam Khomeini he could not control his tears. In his condolence message he said, "In him I have lost a dear son. I am mourning the death of one who was the fruition of my life."'

Today, his martyrdom anniversary is commemorated as Teacher's Day in Iran.'

The Prisoner Release That Reflects Shame On The Obama Administration

Writes Jonathan S Tobin in Commentary magazine:

"Most Americans aren’t paying that much attention to Secretary of State John Kerry’s effort to re-start Middle East peace talks. To the extent that they are, they understand there’s almost no chance the effort will succeed and that the country would be far better off if Kerry were devoting his efforts to more urgent and dangerous issues such as Egypt, Syria, or the nuclear threat from Iran. But even given that, there is a sense that an all-out push for more negotiations will do no harm and is an intrinsic good no matter what must be done to get them going. But there is one condition to achieve this goal that has been pushed by the secretary that should prick the conscience of the American people: the U.S. demand that Israel release more than one hundred Palestinian terrorists, including many with blood on their hands.

In an effort to avoid getting blamed for spoiling Kerry’s party, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has agreed to this painful concession. Despite the furious opposition of many in his Cabinet and government as well as the families of the victims of terrorist attacks, he has reluctantly mustered a majority for the measure.... [I]t should be remembered that as much as Israel could have said no to Kerry, this is an outrageous Palestinian demand that was championed by the United States. That means Americans should pause and wonder whether they would ever give a moment’s consideration to doing what their government is twisting Israel’s arm to do. Would we ever think of releasing any of those convicted and currently serving long jail sentences for involvement in the 9/11 attacks or any other terrorist assault on the United States and its citizens? Not a chance....

This sort of hypocrisy is inexcusable. Netanyahu has done this because Israel remains a besieged country and dependent on American support and it is understood that it is sometimes compelled to do things that are obviously against its own interests in order to avoid a fight with its superpower ally. But instead of applauding Kerry’s success in forcing Netanyahu to take this step, Americans should be ashamed."

Read more here

Not So Easily Tamed! Burdon To Visit Israel After All

Reports the Jewish Telegraphic Agency:

'Eric Burdon, lead singer of the popular ’60s band The Animals, said he will perform in Israel days after canceling a concert due to threatening emails.

On Monday, after saying last week that he had canceled his Aug. 1 concert in Binyamina, the concert appeared on Burdon’s website. It also was posted on the website of the Zappa Shuni Amphitheater, the concert site.

Burdon’s wife and personal manager, Marianna Burdon, had written to Tislam, the Israeli band with whom Burdon was scheduled to perform, about canceling the performance.

“We are under increasing pressure, including many threatening emails that we are receiving on a daily basis,”  Marianna Burdon wrote. “I wouldn’t want to put Eric in any danger.”

Performers have been under increasing pressure from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, or BDS, not to play Israel....'

 More here

Hat tip: reader Ian G of The Almond Rod blog

"Accepting Some Of The European Positions ... May Ultimately Become Suicidal For The State of Israel."

"Accepting some of the European positions on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict may ultimately become suicidal for the State of Israel."

So believes Israeli scholar of antisemitism and keen Europe watcher Dr Manfred Gerstenfeld, recently interviewed by a German publication.  Amplifying his views, he declares in part:

"If one frequently condemns and attacks Israel and largely looks away from the enormous criminality in many parts of the Arab and Muslim world, an atmosphere is created in which these absurd ideas emerge and gain great popularity, as statistics show. People don’t ask the most minimal of rational questions:

How has the Palestinian population grown so much over the past decades? And how does this growth fit the demonic views of Israel that it commits genocide?

 I am not even speaking about the fact that Palestinians are treated in Israeli hospitals and Israeli doctors try their best to save sick Palestinian children.

Many in E.U. politics and civil society have helped to create and maintain these demonic views of Israel....

This [recent EU] directive is another step in a lengthy anti-Israel discriminatory process by the European Union. It has many aspects to it. One is that it signals to Israelis that the Europeans only have demands from them. At the same time Europeans turn away from the huge incitement and demonization of Israel by the Palestinian Authority. Furthermore, the European Union is giving financial support to the Palestinian Authority. This Palestinian body continuously glorifies murderers of Israeli civilians, and also calls for the murder of Israelis....

 The E.U. helps to create a widespread, very negative atmosphere about Israel and in such an environment it can take further discriminatory measures against it, which stimulate these negative views."

Read his entire remarks here

Meanwhile, in this PA televised sermon of 19th July (video and translation by Palestine Media Watch) by the Palestinian Authority's Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash  (in the presence of Mahmoud Abbas) the implication is that any treaty with Israel need not be regarded as permanently binding, but would be an expedient stop-gap.

And for another example of the creeping islamification of Europe see this snippet!

"No Return To The 1967 Borders" Warn Christians United For Israel (includes video of Glenn Beck speech)

An emotionally-choked Glenn Beck, whose props included a whip made at Auschwitz, gave the keynote address to some 4,200 Christian evangelicals at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Washington summit on 23rd July, which was attended by a number of public figures opposed to Obama's Middle East policy.

Reports Nathan Guttmann, inter alia, in the Jewish Daily Forward:

'Christian evangelical supporters of Israel sent a strong message of opposition to President Obama on Iran and the renewal of Mideast peace talks ....

A series of speakers who took the stage at the conference .... stressed Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran by taking military action and spoke out against attempts to force Israel to accept a peace plan based on the 1967 borders.

For the administration, now fully engaged in Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent success in getting Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, the conference of Israel’s Christian supporters served as a sobering reminder that U.S. efforts on this issue are not shared by all.

“Mr. Kerry, restarting the peace process with the Palestinians is fiddling while Rome is burning,” Rev. John Hagee, CUFI’s founder and president cried out to the cheers of an excited audience expressing its support with lengthy applauds and the blowing of the shofar. “How can you make peace with someone who wants you to unilaterally accept defeat by accepting the 67 borders?” Hagee added.

The fiery pastor spoke strongly about the need to allow Israel to take military action if needed. “The next time we should turn the IDF loose and have a total victory in the Middle East for peace that will last,” Hagee said in his address.

“No return to the 1967 borders,” Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg of San Antonio, Texas, said in his the invocation. “No return to the Auschwitz borders.” ....

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor who spoke at the conference’s main event, the Night to Honor Israel, argued that Palestinians have refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and therefore their call for two states is no more than a “euphemism for the destruction of the state of Israel.” Prosor insisted that peace with the Palestinians could only be reached once they recognize Israel as a Jewish state and change their anti-Israel curriculum at schools...."

And to quote from an eyewitness description of the summit here:

'.... In an interesting response that seemed to resonate with Christians who are becoming aware of an infiltration of the Palestinian narrative into American churches, Israeli Tourism Minister Uzi Landau said that “Arab money and the radical Left” have fueled media attacks on Israel. The comment showed a growing awareness of the problem, as CUFI Western Regional Director Randy Neal outlined similar problems to hundreds of college students Sunday afternoon. More than ever, there was sense at this CUFI Summit that the era of unchallenged attacks from the Left is over.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor related a dual story that underscored the difference in the cultures of jihadists and those who oppose them. Cantor said that he had been part of a delegation that heard a detailed briefing on the Iron Dome project, which has saved thousands of Israeli lives during rocket attacks from Gaza....

Many in attendance were brought to tears by the address delivered by Richard Kemp, commander of British forces in Afghanistan. Kemp began by revealing his own Christian faith, and invoked the name of another legend, whom he called “The greatest Christian Zionist in Britain.” He went on to say that he had, that morning, spoken to Orde Wingate. Many in the crowd smiled but were puzzled.

“I spoke to him this morning at Arlington,” Kemp said. Wingate, the British major-general who was a Christian Zionist, helped train what would become the Haganah, the forerunner of the Israel Defense Forces. Wingate was killed in a plane crash in India, in 1944, but remains a beloved figure for Israelis and their American supporters.

Kemp delivered an impassioned defense of Israel that brought many in the room to tears. He mentioned several of Israel’s major battlefield achievements, calling the 1976 Entebbe rescue, “The most breathtaking special forces operation the world has ever seen.”

Kemp also referred to the CUFI Summit as a “remarkable event,” and indeed it was. Jews and Christians alike were moved by such displays as the “Wall of Remembrance,” which profiled the 1,000 Israelis killed by jihadist terrorism since 2000.'

 Update: more here

"We Have Detonated A Bomb Protesting Against Your Killings Of Muslim[s[ Overseas"

The Australian newspaper reports that a bomb discovered behind Campsie Police Station is suspected of being linked to the Islamic riots lat year in Sydney's Hyde Park (video report below):

'A post on the Campsie Police Station Facebook page on Tuesday made a "veiled threat about police not listening to somebody in relation to certain things".

A similar post was also made on the Facebook page of a television station, and an email sent to the Daily Telegraph and titled "bomb threat in Sydney" warned that "we have already stored the detonator with stick somewhere in a police station".

"We have detonated a bomb protesting against your killings of muslim overseas, and your unjust conviction of our brothers and your treatment of us when we protested in Sydney," the email said.'

Declared a senior police officer of the explosive device:

"If it had been constructed properly and it had detonated it would have been very dangerous to somebody standing nearby.

It also could have created a shrapnel effect with objects around it like the fence and the glass windows of the station, which could have caused damage or injury."

Video report here
Read more here
Hat tip: reader Shirlee

Another Prick On The Wall

“I came to the concert because I really like his music, without any connection to his political stance toward Israel.  And I had a lot of fun, until I noticed the Star of David, on the inflatable pig. That was the only religious-national symbol which appeared among other symbols for fascism, dictatorships and oppression of people. Waters crossed the line and gave expression to an anti-Semitic message, beyond all his messages of anti-militancy.”

So said an Israeli living in Belgium of anti-Israel activist Roger Waters's gig in that country, where a shocking instance of antisemitism was on display.

 Read about it here

There's a video here which shows the pig.  (Both of them.)

Good piece by Jonathan Tobin about Waters here

British Water Company Obliges BDS Couple By Replacing Their Israeli-Made Meter!

In what the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) claims will set a precedent, Southern Water has agreed to replace pro-BDS Brighton couple Caroline and Edmond O'Reilly's water meter, manufactured by water company Arad Technologies, with one with no links to the Zionist Entity.

From the Daily Mail report

Crows the PSC:

'Southern Water's offer of changing the meter paves the way for thousands of other people to have their meter changed if they wish.

It costs up to £200 to change a meter. How many people are going to want their Israeli meter out?

We will be flyering thousands of households across Sussex that are due to have an Arad meter installed as part of Southern Water's metering programme to let them know they don't have to have the Israeli-made device.'

But Southern Water says that each such request will be decided individually.

Read more here and  here
Hat tip: The Almond Rod blog

"I'm Neither A Jew Nor A Christian But A Staunch Supporter of Israel": Iraq-born Ahmed Riles British BDSers (videos)

The articulate and personable young British man in these videos is not a Jew, though owing to his ardent support of Israel many of his targets appear to assume he is.   He's part-Iraqi, part-Iranian, and abhors terrorism just as he abhors the double standards of Israel-bashers who demonstrate against Israel while ignoring true human rights abuses in the Middle East.

 For his other relevant videos see here

Burdon Bows To BDS Bullies

Unlike Alicia Keyes, who famously performed in Israel recently despite BDSers' bullying, Eric Burdon, lead singer of the sixties group The Animals (known for such hits as "The House of the Rising Sun" and "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place"), has bowed to pressure and cancelled his planned gig on 1 August in Tel Aviv.

Explains his manager:

“We are under increasing pressure, including many threatening emails that we are receiving on a daily basis. I wouldn’t want to put Eric in any danger.”

Who would have thought that an Animal could be so easily tamed?

Read more here

Meanwhile, European supermarket chain Aldi, which has outlets in Australia, denies it's boycotting Israeli goods

Douglas Murray Nails The European Union's Double Standards

To quote a current report by the Guardian's Middle East editor (who needless to say is no friend to Israel):

"EU governments have agreed to list the armed wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist group because of concerns over its activities in Europe. But the EU ignored pressure from the US and Israel to ban the Lebanese organisation outright, allowing contacts with its political representatives.

Monday's decision by EU foreign ministers came after months of wrangling between member states, who needed to agree the ban unanimously. William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, said the move would not harm European or UK relations with the Lebanese government....

The British ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Fletcher, said on Twitter that the EU's blacklisting of Hezbollah would not affect dealings with its political wing."

This European Union snub to Israel (for an in-depth analysis of what lies behind it see here) follows closely, of course, upon the EU's decision regarding settlements.

The latter has inspired that young British prophet for our time, the admirably courageous and prescient Douglas Murray, to note that the EU, which has acted so punitively towards Israel, has "has full, if not fawning, diplomatic and trade relations" with a number of countries involved in border disputes.

He points out that "what makes the EU's latest double-standard even more delicious is that the occupied island of Cyprus is actually a member of the EU," which might therefore be expected to take a close interest in the fact of its occupation, but does not.

Writes Murray:

"The northern part of Cyprus has been illegally annexed for the last four decades by Turkey. It is not as though Turkey shares a border with the island. Nor does it have -- as Israel has with the West Bank -- any legitimate historical, political or other territorial claims on the northern part of the island. There is no security reason for Turkey to sustain its occupation, as there is an obvious need for Israel to have defensible borders that do not permit terrorists from the West Bank to fire rockets into Israel, as do its friends in post-disengagement Gaza or southern Lebanon.

But unlike Israel and the West Bank, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus is not even a disputed matter. It was certainly not some understandable territorial gain made after aggressive war waged by Greece. It was outright theft -- an annexation: state terrorism. The entire international community recognizes it as such. Yet in 2013 not only is Turkey not an enemy of the EU, and not only is it a country which enjoys complete diplomatic and trade relations with the EU, it is a country which many leading members and officials of the EU actually want to promote into a full member-state of the EU.

Into the fifth decade of Turkish occupation of Cyprus, there is still no serious dictating by the EU to Turkey over what it must do about northern Cyprus. Turkey does not find itself under even the most remote international pressure finally to disengage from its illegal occupation of the northern part of Cyprus. And that is because for some inexplicable reason the EU does not consider it imperative that Turkey should disengage from the illegal occupation of an EU member state. It does not consider that the future of any region depends on this action. Yet it does persist, even now, with its view that it can dictate to Israel about its borders. And that it can have a constructive role in doing so. Of all the fallacies of the EU, that is surely the topmost."

Read all of Douglas Murray's article here

BDSers' Foolish Moves In Boston (video)

"I laughed so hard I awoke my neighbors. Thank you for sharing your stupidity to the world."
That's an understandable comment below the YouTube video of this Bostonian flashmob making some dodgy moves while singing a silly ditty against Israel (yes, the word "apartheid" is in there somewhere, folks).  The mob consists of useful idiots from the so-called Jewish Voices for Palestine, an obnoxious Israel-demonising outfit, supported by the blinkered pacifists of the American Friends Service Committee.

Galloway Down Under (video)

Gorgeous George thrills his fans in Sydney earlier this month:

See his anti-Israel rant to a Muslim audience here

"Listen, Obama, The Caliphate Will Return": On The Temple Mount, An Imam's Ramadan Rant (video)

With the crowd repeating, mantra-like, his fierce invocations, an Hizb-ut-Tahrir-supporting imam vows the destruction of America, France, Britain, and Rome.  The umma is "a strong nation, a great nation," he bellows, a nation stretching from the farthest East to the farthest West, and will, Allah-willing, teach the United States a punitive lesson "in politics and in war" ...

 
Hat tip: JL

The Nazis & The Palestinian Movement (video)

Hat tip: reader Shirlee:

In Britain, More Anti-Israel Radical Ratbaggery

That the Liberal Democrats in Britain, like the Methodist Church there, have attracted some real radical ratbags into their ranks, has been all too evident for some time.

The latest anti-Israel LibDem parliamentarian to make a crass statement offensive to truth and decency, Sir Bob Russell, asked in the Commons earlier this week a question regarding the national curriculum from the relevant minister:

"On the assumption that the 20th century will include the Holocaust, will he give me an assurance that the life of Palestinians since 1948 will be given equal attention?”

As LibDem candidate Matthew Harris, who's Jewish, blogged:

“There has been no genocide, no systematic attempt to wipe out every single person with ancestry from a particular ethnic group, so why suggest that there has?

It is entirely inaccurate to compare the injustices suffered by Palestinians to the genocide suffered by Jews; to make such a comparison is to misunderstand the former and to trivialise the latter.”

Despite expressions of outrage, Russell is unashamedly sticking to his absurd line, declaring inter alia:

"The stark facts are that Israel, by its actions, is a racist state which practices apartheid and ethnic cleansing."

Read more here and (yes, the Iranian propaganda station has been quick to pick this story up) here

As for the Methodist Church, which has been largely hijacked by political leftists with an agenda that includes demonisation of Israel, it voted last week to prepare a briefing document regarding whether to support the BDS movement.

Says a spokesman:

“All care and consideration will be taken by the Joint Public Issues Team to ensure that the briefing paper they have been asked to prepare is scrupulously fair to arguments for and against the BDS movement.

A consultation will ask for views from interested persons, groups and organisations. The briefing document is due to be presented to the council which will decide on a report to go the conference in 2014.”

 But, as Jonathan Arkush, vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, observes:

“We are deeply concerned that the UK Methodist Church is seeking to involve itself yet again in the politics of boycotts against Israel,” said Board of Deputies Vice-President Jonathon Arkush. ”The resolution is ill-considered and adopted after a debate lasting less than five minutes.

The last time that the Methodist Conference sought an internal briefing on the complex issue of peace for Israel and Palestine was in 2010, and what emerged was a report so inaccurate and one sided that it caused a crisis between the Jewish and Methodist communities.

 Having recently decided to terminate its productive interfaith office, it appears odd that the Church would be asked once again to embrace divisive religious politics.”

Read more here and here

"An Urgent Clarification Of The Concept Of Islamophobia"

"Islamophobia is a contemporary form of racism and xenophobia motivated by unfounded fear, mistrust, and hatred of Muslims and Islam. 

Islamophobia is also manifested through intolerance, discrimination, unequal treatment, prejudice, stereotyping, hostility, and adverse public discourse.

Differentiating from classical racism and xenophobia, Islamophobia is mainly based on stigmatization of a religion and its followers, and as such, Islamophobia is an affront to the human rights and dignity of Muslims."

That, for the benefit of conference delegates at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, is the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's definition of "Islamophobia".  The definition was supplied to the Conference, meeting in Vienna, by the Turkish delegate at the request of a representative of an Austrian organisation.

Read and see more here

Bibi & Bolton On The Iranian Bomb (video)

The Obama regime evidently lacks a sense of urgency regarding the Iranian nuclear threat, but Bibi Netanyahu warns that Israel's clock is ticking differently, while, as usual John Bolton, the USA's former ambassador to the UN, sounds the alarm:

"Axis Of Evil": The Blarney & The Bitterness (video)

Here's a nasty little newly uploaded video showing snippets of sheer hatred by Irish extremists for both Britain and for Israel.

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign has the reputation of being the most extreme in (if I may use the term) the British Isles.  Need we be surprised, when we see the hateful sentiments here?

As for a true Axis of Evil, that's been identified by this Lebanese politician, who condemns Hezbollah as an occupying force in his country, and akin to Nazism and Fascism (hat tip: reader Rita).

Of course, many Israel-haters in the West proudly declare of themselves: "We are all Hezbollah now".  Figures.

Islam's Misogyny: Vainly Socking It To The Oxford Union (video)

Here's another speaker against the motion "This House believes Islam is a religion of peace" which took place at the Oxford Union not long ago.

Anne-Marie Waters, an avowed secularist, concentrates much of her argument on the inferiority and oppression of women in Islamic theory and practice.

She's the sole female speaker, and is challenged for the floor by a couple of intimidatory males, but ably stands her ground.

Islam's misogyny was also mentioned by other speakers against the motion.

The motion was carried by 286 votes to 168.  I think this outcome, and the evident trivialisation of her arguments by some in the audience (to judge by the ripples of mirth that can be heard greeting her words about sanctioned violence to wives) speaks volumes about the willingness of appeasers in the West today to suborn the interests of women to "the pernicious notion of Islamophobia" as another speaker against the motion, the splendid Daniel Johnson, put it.

What an insult to women.  What a worry for our daughters and granddaughters.

"Hezbollah's Ideology Is Iran's Ideology" (video)

"... A war of Jihad, in order to eradicate Israel":

This IDF video conveys the truth about the odious terror organisation.

British Intellectual Slams Islamic Antisemitism (video) & Palestinian Child Indulges In Some

Catholic intellectual Daniel Johnson, editor of Standpoint magazine and son of the journalist and historian Paul Johnson, who wrote a grand history of the Jews, pulls no punches in this speech at the Oxford Union, (coincidentally the day after the butchering of fusilier Lee Rigby) disputing the motion that "This House believes Islam is a religion of peace".  In the course of his speech he praises the Jewish scholar Geza Vermes, who forsook Judaism for Christianity and later reverted to his Jewish roots, and observes that had Vermes changed his religion in Islamic countries he would be at threat of death for apostasy.

Johnson cites, inter alia, cruelty to non-Muslims, women, and slaves in Islamic tradition, and the latter's inherent antisemitism.

Nevertheless, the motion was carried by 286 votes to 168.

Perhaps many of those voting in favour were inhibited by what Johnson, during his speech, called "the pernicious notion of Islamophobia".

Talking of Islamic antisemitism, here's a new PMW video showing a small Palestinian girl on PA TV indulging in some:

"Oh, you who were brought up on spilling blood
You have been condemned to humiliation and hardship
Oh Sons of Zion, oh most evil among creations
 Oh barbaric monkeys, wretched pigs.
Jerusalem vomits from within it your impurity
Because Jerusalem, you impure ones, is pious, immaculate
And Jerusalem, you who are filth, is clean and pure."

Falk & Singer On A Jordanian Solution

As regular readers of this blog will be aware, frequent guest blogger David Singer, a Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst, has in the past been deeply critical of Professor Richard Falk, but this new article, entitled "Palestine:  Jordan/West Bank Bi-National State Under Discussion," indicates that the two might now be in agreement.

Writes David Singer:

'Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been discussing the creation of a bi- national State in the West Bank and Jordan according to Professor Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967.

Professor Falk is revered by the Palestinians whilst simultaneously being targeted by many others – including United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay – for his controversial views on a range of matters including his suggestion that the Boston marathon bombing was a justifiable response to America's interventionist US foreign policy and his posting of an antisemitic cartoon on his web site.

Writing in his blog "Citizen Pilgrimage," Professor Falk disclosed discussions were taking place on a bi-national State during an exchange he and I were having – after he had written:

'I do agree with you about the "two state" solution being a dead letter, and rather bad faith on all sides to pretend otherwise.

The question seems to me to be “What Next?” I think the Jordanian option is one answer, but not one I endorse. There is a need for this discussion, I agree to this extent.'

I then sent Professor Falk a recent article written by me arguing for the creation of a bi-national state in Jordan and the West Bank to embrace the aspirations of the Arab populations of both territories.

Professor Falk's response on 8 July was unexpected and very encouraging:

"I have read your article with care, and it does provide a clear alternative to the two-state solution. It is also an approach that I know from my diplomatic contacts is being encouraged by Israeli negotiators in private meetings with the Palestinian Authority, and toward which the PA has not expressed outright rejection, but apparently a willingness to consider."

Whilst expressing the fact that he had several problems with this solution – which he enumerated – Professor Falk continued:

"Given the paucity of decent alternatives, if the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people genuinely accepted such a solution without it being imposed, it might be better than nothing, and the best among bad options."

I addressed Professor Falk's concerns, to which he made the following response:

"Without attempting to respond point by point because there are some underlying gaps separating our positions that cannot be bridged by reasoning or compromise, I will merely express my reservations about advocating a resumption of negotiations"

Two of Professor Falk's reservations were:

"I do not discern any support among Palestinians for the Jordan bi-national option that you are proposing"

This was a surprising statement in view of the fact that he had earlier indicated that Palestinian negotiators had expressed a willingness to consider such a proposal and were in fact negotiating with Israeli negotiators on such a proposal.

"I find no interest in this approach among Jordanians, either those in government or those in leadership roles among the various ethnicities living in the country."

Professor Falk was apparently unaware that the following statement had been recently made by Jordan's Minister of Culture, Barakat Awajan:

"Jordan and Palestine are joined by one culture and connected by blood, geography and sacred ties"

My attempt to respond to Professor Falk has been met by an impenetrable fire wall. Three efforts to contact him using three different computers have not been successful. That is unfortunate.

Professor Falk is obviously well placed to know what is going on among the Palestinians.

I would regard his comments on discussions for a bi-national State being conducted between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators as well-sourced and authentic.

Jordanian knowledge and acquiescence in those negotiations can be gleaned from the above statement by Jordan's Minister of Culture – which incidentally was made face to face to his Palestinian counterpart Anwar Abu Aisha in Amman.

US Secretary of State Kerry has not been travelling backwards and forwards between America and the Middle East merely to have his prestige and reputation trashed in a repeat of what has occurred to previous Secretaries of State over the past 20 years.

Creating a bi-national State in Jordan has always been the solution most likely to succeed in resolving the conflict between Jews and Arabs.

It is a solution which accords with the historic, geographic and demographic realities of the region and will result in the Jews ending up with sovereignty in about 20 per cent of Mandate Palestine and the Arabs with sovereignty in about the remaining 80 per cent.

There will be many Jews and Arabs not happy with an outcome that does not yield them 100 per cent and the other nothing.

That however is not what a settlement is about. A good settlement is one which leaves both sides bemoaning what they have gained.

Professor Falk's opinion that the bi-national state is the best of many bad options will surely resonate with the Palestinians. He has their confidence and their ear. I hope he is instrumental in helping them understand the wisdom of accepting such a resolution – if further conflict and suffering is to be avoided.

Maybe indeed we might at last just be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel after travelling for more than 95 years in the darkness – witnessing conflict after conflict with intolerable suffering for both Jews and Arabs.

After all, the right to breathe is the most fundamental human right we all have.'

British Labour Leader Lauds Charity With Links To Hamas

On-again off-again "Zionist" Ed Miliband, Britain's Opposition leader, born to non-practising Jewish parents of leftist sympathies, is, like David Cameron and Nick Clegg (both of whom have paid extravagant tribute to Islam in Ramadan addresses seen respectively here and here), keen to woo the votes of Britain's large and growing Muslim community.

Accordingly, along with former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams (who once made an ass of himself by supporting the formal integration of aspects of sharia law in Britain), "Red Ed" was on hand the other evening to pay tribute to the charity Islamic Relief.

Said Ed inter alia:

“I want to congratulate Islamic Relief on its campaign on the War on Hunger. It’s an important campaign because it looks beyond conflict – whether it’s in Syria or in Afghanistan or elsewhere – and it asks the question that all right-minded people would ask, which is: ‘What can we do to make a difference to the most vulnerable people in this country?’ ...."

All very well and noble, no doubt.

But, as Samuel Westrop, Associate Director at the Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy, wrote recently:

'Islamic Relief Worldwide [IRW] is the poster-child of an exemplary Islamic charity. Headquartered in the UK, and given tens of millions of dollars by Western governments, the United Nations and the European Union, IRW consists of a "family of fifteen aid agencies" which "aim to alleviate the suffering of the world's poorest people".

New information, however, indicates that IRW -- which counts Islamic Relief UK and Islamic Relief USA as its most important branches -- is an extremist organization with a pro-terror agenda. IRW has worked with a significant number of organizations linked to terrorism.

IRW's accounts show that it has partnered with a number of organizations linked to terrorism and that some of charity's trustees are personally affiliated with extreme Islamist groups that have connections to terror.

In 2006, the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs designated IRW itself a terrorist front, and claimed that:

"The IRW provides support and assistance to Hamas's infrastructure. The IRW's activities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip are carried out by social welfare organizations controlled and staffed by Hamas operatives. The intensive activities of these associations are designed to further Hamas's ideology among the Palestinian population."

In May of 2006, Israeli police arrested IRW's Gaza coordinator, Ayaz Ali. The Israeli government stated Ali had assisted Hamas-related institutions and groups such as Al Wafa and Al Tzalah, both of which are designated terror organizations in Israel. According to the Israeli government, Ali also said that he had cooperated with local Hamas operatives in Jordan:

"Incriminating files were found on Ali's computer, including documents that attested to the organization's ties with illegal Hamas funds abroad (in the UK and in Saudi Arabia) and in Nablus. Also found were photographs of swastikas superimposed on IDF symbols, of senior Nazi German officials, of Osama Bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as well as many photographs of Hamas military activities … Ali admitted that he was aware that several of the organizations supported by the IRW in Judea, Samaria and Gaza were indeed identified with Hamas." [Author's emphasis]

For several years, IRW has supported the Islamic University of Gaza, where, during 2008, rockets and explosives were produced for use by Hamas. One of the most senior Hamas leaders, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founded the university in 1978, and sixteen of the university's lecturers and teachers are elected Hamas members of the Palestinian legislature.

In 2002, the Russian Federal Security Service also accused Islamic Relief of being part of a radical Islamist network, providing support to terrorists in Chechnya.

Islamic Relief has denied the charges against them. These denials would be more convincing, however, were it not that IRW appears to be a hub for donations from charities accused of links to Al Qaeda and other terror groups.

In 2004, 2007 and 2009, IRW accounts revealed donations of tens of thousands of pounds from the Charitable Society for Social Welfare [CSSW], a charity founded by Al Qaeda terrorist and "Bin Laden loyalist" Abdul Majeed Al-Zindani. In 1998, the Al Qaeda terrorist Anwar Al-Awlaki, eventually killed by a U.S. drone strike, served as vice-president of CSSW's San Diego branch.

During a terrorism trial in 2004 in the U.S., Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Brian Murphy testified that CSSW was a "front organization to funnel money to terrorists."

In 1999, Human Concern International, a charity that Osama bin Laden told an Egyptian interviewer in 1995 was funding an al-Qaeda charitable front called Blessed Relief, gave IRW a $50,000 donation. IRW continues to refer to Human Concern as a partner. In 2008, Human Concern granted IRW a further £25,000.

Human Concern has also funded the Global Relief Foundation, an organization shut down by the American government on the grounds that it had been laundering money for al-Qaeda and was linked to the Taliban. Similarly, in 2009 another funder of the Global Relief Foundation, the International Development and Relief Foundation, gave IRW just under £200,000.

Further, in 2008, IRW's accounts revealed a donation of £13,437 from the Yemeni Al-Eslah organization -- a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood whose leaders include Sheikh al-Zindani, whom the US Government has designated a "Global Terrorist."

The same year, the UK-based charity Human Appeal International gave IRW £34,081. A 1996 CIA report claimed Human Appeal International was one of a number of Islamic charities used as conduits for funds to terrorist organizations, and tied it to the Saudi-based Muwafaq, an Al-Qaeda front group. The FBI, in 2003, claimed there was a "close relationship between Human Appeal International and Hamas." In February 2005, Hamas's website had already openly announced the receipt of funds from HAI.

One of Human Appeal's trustees is Dr. Nooh al Kaddo, who also serves as executive director of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland. In 2009, this organization gave £2,707 to IRW.

The Islamic Cultural Centre is part of the Muslim Brotherhood's European network and hosts the European Council for Fatwa and Research, of which former IRW director Issam Al-Bashir is a leading member. The head of the council is Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who believes Hitler was "divine punishment" for the Jews and is a supporter of suicide bombings.

In 2010 and 2011, the Kuwait-based International Islamic Charitable Organisation provided IRW with hundreds of thousands of pounds. According to counter-terrorism expert Matthew Levitt, a leaked CIA report identified this Kuwaiti charity as a key supporter of terrorism.

It is not just the charity, however, that has partnered with extremist groups. A number of IRW trustees and officials are also personally affiliated with state sponsors of terror, extremist groups and pro-terror organizations ....'

Read all of Westrop's article here

"Know Nothing Bigotry": The Hypocrisy Of Leftwing Student Activists (video)

Here's that man yet again.  He's not easy on the eye or the ear, but he makes good points...

Talking of hypocrisy and double standards, in which, as Condell observes, the good guys are portrayed as the bad, here's a great article by Daniel Greenfield.

Manning The Anti-Israel Barricades In Sydney

"The bounds of reasonableness ... rarely trouble the BDS movement, where actions range between the crass and the repugnant. When BDS supporters punish Israel by picketing Australian chocolate shops owned by a Jewish businessman, their absurdity invites us to laugh. Yet when they call for the severing of ties between Australian and Israeli academics and the banning of Israeli books, the ugly, illiberal and frightening face of BDS is revealed for all to see. Understandably, some conclude that Israel is only collateral damage for the BDS movement. Its real target is the Jews."

Thus editorialised that staunch friend Down Under of Israel, The Australian newspaper, last month.

Bigotry dies hard, and in Sydney, where not so long ago the Greens-led Marrickville council brought well-deserved opprobrium upon itself for resolving to boycott Israeli products, the group Friends of Bethlehem has resolved to do likewise.

It appears that former ABC current affairs presenter Peter Manning, a veteran critic of Israel, played a leading part in this initiative against the world's only Jewish state.

We read on the group's website:

'Friends of Bethlehem held a Special General Meeting of its membership last Tuesday, July 2, in the Tom Foster Hall in Newtown and voted overwhelmingly to join the BDS movement.

“We still want to support the sister city relationship between Marrickville Council and Bethlehem Council (signed in 2006)” said Mr Manning, “but the way the Israelis are going there won’t be the ancient city of Bethlehem anymore soon. It will be swallowed up by Jewish-only settlements.”

Mr Manning said the Palestinian people decided in 2005 to ask the people of the world to use the non-violent method of BDS to get Israel to acknowledge Palestinian rights to self-determination and to abide by international law. Many churches, trade unions and artists, university academics and film-makers have joined the movement in response. They have banned Israeli goods, services and companies and other companies which profit from Israel’s illegal 45-year occupation of Palestine.

“It’s time for bodies like Marrickville Council to look at its goods and services and see if their practices help breach human rights. So should local businesses, churches, and civil society groups generally” said Mr Manning. “Only then will change begin.” .'

Hat tip: reader Shirlee

I wonder whether Manning and his cohorts are at all bothered by the plight of Christian Arabs in Bethlehem, who have been leaving in droves, not owing to the actions of Israelis, but to persecution from their fellow Palestinian Arabs.

As a report revealed last year:

'It could be described as a modern day exodus: Christians are leaving Palestinian Arab-controlled areas like Bethlehem in great numbers.

"It's my prediction that if the remaining Christians in the West Bank and Gaza -- Gaza only has maybe a thousand, two thousand Christians," human rights lawyer Justus Weiner told CBN News. "If their needs are not addressed in 10 or 15 or at most 20 years, there won't be any Christians in the cradle of Christianity. This will be a kind of memorial, a museum."

Weiner said the threat of persecution, including beatings and forced marriages between Christian women and Muslim men, are some of the reasons Christians have left.

Although tourism and the economy picked up last year, uncertainty still prevails....'

"I know if you just look deep within their hearts, I know many people have fear and doubt in the unknown and unseen," Pastor Steve Khoury told CBN News.Pastor Khoury leads churches in Bethlehem and in Jerusalem.... 

Pastor Khoury has seen church members attacked and discriminated against because of their faith. Several believers under his ministry have been martyred, including his own uncle. The church in Bethlehem has been firebombed 14 times, and Dr. Naim Khoury has been shot at several times in the last 10 years.'

"O Muslims Of Australia ... Be Relentlessly Working To Establish The Islamic State": A sheikh's message from Jerusalem

Banned (largely in vain) across much of the Middle East, but tolerated,indeed, vigorous, in Australia as in the dear old deluded Motherland, the Islamic organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir disdains modern secular democracy and is committed to bringing the whole of humanity under the sway of sharia law by establishing a Caliphate worldwide.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been seen as kindling antisemitism.  To quote Wikipedia, which provides footnotes to back its statements:

'In a 2000 article entitled "The Muslim Ummah will never submit to the Jews", Hizb ut-Tahrir lamented what it saw as the innate behavior of Jews:

  ... In origin, no one likes the Jews except the Jews. Even they themselves rarely like each other.... The American people do not like the Jews nor do the Europeans, because the Jews by their very nature do not like anyone else. Rather they look at other people as wild animals that have to be tamed to serve them. So, how can we imagine it being possible for any Arab or Muslim to like the Jews whose character is such?... Know that the Jews and their usurping state in Palestine will, by the Help and Mercy of Allah, be destroyed "until the stones and trees will say: O Muslim, O Slave of Allah. Here is a Jew behind me, so come and kill him."

In October 2002, a court in Denmark handed down a 60-day suspended sentence to Fadi Abdelatif, Hizb ut-Tahrir's spokesman in Denmark, after he was found guilty of distributing racist propaganda. The leaflet he distributed contained a quote from the Quran: "And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out," followed by a passage stating: "the Jews are a people of slander... a treacherous people."

In January 2003, Hizb ut-Tahrir was barred from public activity in Germany, German Interior Minister Otto Schily stating that the group was spreading violence and hate and had called for the killing of Jews. Membership in the party is still permitted. The charges originate from a conference at the Technical University of Berlin, organized by a student society allegedly affiliated with Hizb ut-Tahrir. The furor was caused because the conference was attended by members of the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), which allegedly sparked fears of an alliance between neo-Nazi groups and Islamists. Schily banned Hizb ut-Tahrir three months later, for going "against the concept of international understanding" contained in the German constitution, a charge that has been used in the past against neo-Nazi groups. The group's representative in Germany Assem Shaker responded that the group was not anti-Semitic. He added, "We do not call to kill Jews. Our call is addressed to the Muslim people to defend themselves against the Zionist aggression in Palestine. And they have the right to do so."

In July 2005 Dilpazier Aslam, a 27-year-old British Muslim and trainee journalist with The Guardian, lost his position with the newspaper when it was exposed he was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Citing the antisemitic statement discovered on the party's website, Guardian executives decided that membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir was not compatible with membership of the newspaper's trainee scheme. Aslam refused to leave the group, saying he was not an antisemite and did not consider Hizb ut-Tahrir's website to be antisemitic. Dilpazier later sued for unfair dismissal and there was an out-of-court settlement.

After allegations that party members had spread antisemitic propaganda, in 2004 the British National Union of Students imposed a No Platform order.The party then resumed recruiting at British universities under the name "Stop Islamophobia."'

Recently, Hizb-ut-Tahrir adherents in Sydney held one of their regular conferences, which featured a video message from Sheikh Issam Ameerah, an adherent of the movement in Jerusalem, where he's a khateeb at Al-Aqsa Mosque.  Having described the significance of the month of Rajab with several historical examples, Sheikh Issam Ameerah delivered a heartfelt plea from "the blessed lands of Palestine" to "Muslims of Australia" and elsewhere.

To view the video click here

And here's footage of the exultant crowd at the conclusion of last month's Caliphate Conference in Australia's nearest neighbour.

"Israel Is The Home Of The Jewish People": Israeli Christian Arab Party Leader

"Delighted to see Christ at the Checkpoint is ruffling feathers among Zionists. Just wait for the Kairos Britain statement to be launched at Greenbelt. The article below is inflammatory but then they don't know any other way other than to prostitute language"

That, I'm told by reader P, is how anti-Christian Zionism crusader Stephen Sizer greeted in a Facebook message an article (in which he's mentioned) by American lawyer Joel Griffith which, far from being how the vicar describes, is in fact a model of straightforwardness and restraint.

"....Christ at the Checkpoint hosts a myriad of religious leaders at a biannual conference in the West Bank under the guise of promoting peace and spreading the gospel. Yet the conference keynote speakers, public pronouncements, and agenda betray the true agenda of these activists," points out Griffith.

"In 2010, the conference invited Naim Ateek, founder and head of Sabeel Center, to give a keynote presentation. Ateek was heavily involved in the first Christ at the Checkpoint conference. And the present director of Christ at the Checkpoint, Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, is a speaker at Sabeel’s upcoming 9th International Conference.

Beginning in 2005, the Sabeel Center took a leading role in encouraging churches to divest from Israel. In addition, Ateek engages in incendiary rhetoric against Israel. Consider his 2001 Easter message remarks:

"The suffering of Jesus Christ at the hands of evil political and religious powers two thousand years ago, is lived out again in Palestine…it seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him. It only takes people of insight to see the hundreds of thousands of crosses throughout the land, Palestinian men, women, and children being crucified. The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily."

In a 2011 speech, Ateek stated, “The establishment of Israel was a relapse to the most primitive concepts of an exclusive, tribal God.” Even more jarring is an article written by Ateek which suggests that the Sampson of the Bible was a “suicide bomber.” The close relationship between Christ at the Checkpoint and Naim Ateek indicates an organization bereft of a fully functional moral compass.

Not to be outdone, in 2002, board member and conference organizer, Dr. Bishara Awad, notably defended Dr. Hanan Ashrawi as “very moderate” in an open letter published in Christianity Today. Dr. Ashwari served on the committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and as political director of the First Intifada. She also founded an organization, MIFTAH, which refers to Israel’s founding as Al Nakba (the Catastrophe). Her rhetoric and political alliances are hardly those befitting a moderate. 

Not only does the organization’s leadership maintain ties with radical political leaders, but the organization also aligns with theological sentiments far outside the evangelical mainstream. Stunningly, Christ at the Checkpoint apparently endorses a doctrine long since rejected by most evangelicals known as “replacement theology.” The manifesto states, “Racial ethnicity alone does not guarantee the benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant.” ....

Replacement theology taught that a “New Covenant” granted only to those who believe in Jesus replaces the former Abrahamic Covenant between the Jewish people and God. Mainstream Christianity has rejected the “replacement theology.” Yet Christ at the Checkpoint rushes to embrace it....

An organization truly intent on fostering peace would draw attention to the fact that Arab nations force Palestinian refugees to suffer through lifetimes of isolation by refusing to grant citizenship or economic opportunities. Or such an organization could work to counter the overt racism taught in Palestinian schools.

Instead, Christ at the Checkpoint erodes support for Israel and hinders lasting peace through its distortion of evangelical theology and by lending credibility to extremists...."

It's easy to forget, and pleasingly startling to be reminded, that despite the demonisation of Israel from such organisations as Christ at the Checkpoint and individuals like Sizer, there are Israeli Christians stolidly unaffected by their propaganda.

"Israel appears to be the only country in the region whose Christian community does not have a negative emigration ratio as its members flee West in pursuit of a more promising life. 

Recent newspaper headlines involve Christian Israelis who are setting themselves apart from their Muslim counterparts, disproving the traditional perception of Israel's Arab population as homogenous. They want to join the Israel Defense Forces.

Against the backdrop of hysteria expressed by Arab MKs who object to national service of any kind, but particularly in the army, the comments emanating from Israel's Christian Arab community sound like a cultural and social declaration of independence."

So states Israel Hayom, which continues:

"Now comes the next phase in the independence process: forming a political party. As of today, the Arab Christian party will be named Habrit Hahadashah ... 

This is a historic turning point with profound and far-reaching consequences for Israeli society. If the party is successful, it will provide an alternative for that sector of Israel's Arab population that seeks full partnership in Israeli society, and which sees a Jewish democratic Israel as its home."

The party's leader, Bashara Shlayan from Nazareth, explains inter alia:

"The entire thing started from the fact that I wanted to get my nephew into the army and there were difficulties, they really didn't want him to integrate. Today he is a major in a combat unit.

When I wanted my son to join the army we decided to create a forum for Christian enlistment.... 

We saw that we needed to create a political party. There were articles about us published in the Arab newspapers and it sparked interest throughout the region that there is an Arab Christian in Israel who recognizes the land of Israel as belonging to the Jews....

Firstly we are completely Israeli, and then comes religion....

People see what is happening now in Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. They understand where we are living. I tell them, 'For 65 years we have given to the Arab communist parties; 65 years and they have done nothing!' Give me three years, I will manage and solve their problems....

Look at what the Arab parties have done. Just talking nonsense about nothing but communism; [MK Dov] Khenin and [MK Mohammad] Barakeh (Hadash), what have they done for us? They want us to disappear and are not acting according to the integrity of their country's citizens....

At least in Israel, those who stayed here have been given the right to be a citizen and to integrate. But Israel's first demand, which I support -- and which needs to be understood -- is that Israel is the home of the Jewish people....

They [the Arab parties in Israel] think being against Israel is Arab nationalism, that it is the manly thing. But if you oppose this way of thinking, you are a traitor. This is what needs to be changed. It's stupidity. So I demand that we, the Christians, be recognized as loyal citizens of the state."

Read more here
Hat tip: TheAlmondRod blog

A Wee Dram O' A Bluid Libel? A BDS Beastie's Tale Of Zionist Razor Blades

In a recent welcome article deploring "the bonds of convenience growing between elements of the Left and anti-Semitism," an Australian columnist noted:

'A basic grasp of history shows us the boycotting of businesses is a longstanding tactic in the campaign of hate against the Jewish people.

Boycotts of Jewish merchants were practised in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire and later across eastern Europe, especially in Romania, Poland and Russia where anti-Jewish activism was serious enough to bequeath us the word pogrom. In 1922, the Fifth Palestine Arab Congress called for a boycott of all Jewish businesses. In 1943, the Arab League banned the purchase of "products of Jewish industry".

The BDS presents itself as a reaction to the power of the state of Israel. In reality it is the most recent name for a centuries-old economic persecution of Jews for having the temerity to become educated and entrepreneurial despite their exclusion from many occupations, geographies and institutions."

She concluded:

"Stand with those who educate women, stand with those who let gays serve openly in the military, stand with those who allow free speech and political activism.

Stand, in short, with the Jewish people and their state of Israel."

Back at the time of Operation Cast Lead, the left-dominated council of Scotland's West Dunbartonshire (population 90, 600) decided to put the wind up the Zionist Entity for having the gall to defend itself, resolving to boycott "all Israeli goods":

".... Officers should immediately cease the purchase of any goods we currently source which were made or grown in Israel. Officers should also ensure we procure no new goods or produce from Israel until this boycott is formally lifted by the council."

Recently, as seen here, at the launch of this pro-BDS anthology by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire councillor and BDS heavy Jim Bollan (who's on record as describing Hamas as "freedom fighters"), indulged in claptrap about "apartheid" and "racist" Israel and the need to overthrow "the Israeli regime," spicing up the narrative with a tale of dark and dire deeds allegedly threatened in revenge for the boycott resolution (which was followed in 2010 by one calling upon other Scottish councils to follow suit):

"We also got a lot of vitriolic response from the Zionists across the world, particularly in America. We were getting threats for our lives, threats for our families' lives, "we know where you live", all this kind of stuff.... [W]e weren't going to be bullied, we weren't going to be threatened by these people who were phoning you at 2 o'clock in the morning and telling you that your granddaughter was in danger....  [The police] were explaining to us we need to check our mail, the mail would need to be sifted through the council before we got it because they had reports that the Zionists were posting these letters where, when you opened them up they had razor blades in them and they would have ripped your fingers ... That's how vicious they are."

  A wee dram of a blood libel there, it might seem.