David Singer: Palestine – Changed Narratives Needed To Nurture New Negotiations

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

France is not expected to present its anticipated draft proposal for the declaration of a Palestinian State to the U.N. Security Council in September – having reportedly been criticized both by Israel - which does not want any external solution imposed on it – and by the PLO – which fears the Security Council will not meet its demands.

The Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap are dead and buried – even if the headstone is yet to be ceremoniously unveiled marking the actual date when the collective records, transcripts and secret minutes detailing fruitless negotiations conducted during the last 20 years between Israel and the now-disbanded Palestinian Authority were finally consigned to the graveyard of history.

It is now also becoming increasingly apparent that creating a 22nd independent Arab State between Israel, Jordan and Egypt can:

1. ever peacefully eventuate without Israel, Jordan and Egypt’s express consent

2. be unilaterally imposed on Israel as a result of any resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council contrary to the express terms of its own Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973).

Filling this potentially explosive void will require the groundwork to first be meticulously prepared before any new negotiations can actually be undertaken to try and resolve competing Arab and Jewish claims to sovereignty in the remaining 6% of the territory of the former Mandate for Palestine – Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), East Jerusalem and Gaza – where sovereignty still remains undetermined (”the disputed territories”).

Such groundwork will require the following factual narratives to have been commonly agreed on and adopted by the negotiating parties prior to commencing negotiations to resolve the conflict:

1. Two of Israel’s immediately adjoining neighbours – Jordan and Egypt – have recognised the existence of Israel as a sovereign State in peace treaties signed by them with Israel in 1979 and 1994 respectively. These peace treaties have been honoured and respected during difficult periods when they might have been abrogated. They stand as a tribute to the determination of all three sovereign States to maintain a state of peace and avoid a position of confrontation as differences were resolved. Jordan and Egypt are accordingly indispensable parties to any new negotiations with Israel – if Arab sovereignty is to be established in any parts of the disputed territories.

2. Two of Israel’s other immediately adjoining neighbours – the PLO and Hamas – have since 1964 and 1988 respectively maintained in their respective Charters that the Jews have no claims to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in any part of the territory of the Mandate for Palestine vested in the Jews by the unanimous vote of all 51 members of the League of Nations in 1922. Including either the PLO or Hamas in any new negotiations is pointless and meaningless whilst those Charters remain unrevoked.

3. The on-going conflict needs to be re-branded “the Jewish-Arab conflict” replacing “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. The current conflict had its origins in the events that took place during World War One – well before the State of Israel was declared in 1948. Marginalising the ongoing conflict by avoiding any consideration of the events that occurred between 1915 and 1948 has operated to paper over any proper discussion of the many opportunities presented to and rejected by the Arabs in relation to gaining territorial sovereignty in the disputed territories during that time - and indeed after 1948. This could impact on the current Arab claims to sovereignty over any of the disputed territories which may have been jeopardised or prejudiced as a result.

4. Recognition that the territory of the Mandate for Palestine is currently under Jewish sovereignty in 17% (Israel), Arab sovereignty in 78% (Jordan) with the remaining 6% comprising the disputed territories.

5. Claims that the building of Jewish settlements in the disputed territory are illegal in international law – based on the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention - need to be reconsidered having regard to the following prior territory-specific piece of legislation – Article 6 of the 1922 Mandate for Palestine – legalising such Jewish settlement: 

“The Administration of Palestine, while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.”

Pursuant to this provision – preserved in 1945 by Article 80 of the UN Charter – Jews have legally settled in the disputed territories between 1922 and 1947 – and since 1967.

6. The continued use of language referring to the disputed territories as being “occupied territory” or “Occupied Palestinian Territories” and the need for Israel to “end the occupation” fails to recognise that it was the Jews whose occupation in the disputed territories was first abruptly ended in 1948 – after every single Jew then living there was forcibly driven out by six invading Arab armies and not allowed to return until after the Six Day War in 1967.

Unless these narratives are changed, nurtured and mutually accepted by the parties before formal negotiations actually begin - one can confidently predict that any fanfare trumpeting yet another round of negotiations will be destined to see those negotiations inevitably end up in their own designated graveyard plot alongside the tomb housing the Oslo-Roadmap failed negotiations.

Negotiations based on shaky foundations without real substance can only guarantee their eventual death throes.

"I'm Making A Collection That [Will] Reduce Pro-Israel Deceivers To Silence" Says Mick

I've just moved house, and my internet provider isn't up and running in the new place yet, so my blogposts will be intermittent for the time being.  And that will explain tardiness in posting any comments on exiting posts, for which I apologise.

Anyway, as I sit here on the floor of the previous place, where I can still access the internet, I see that following his latest historically challeneged blooper, about which I blogged last week, our old friend, the Scottish PSC chief, has girded his loins, clutched his claymore, and called the clansmen to action:

 To that end, some of his followers have been obligingly leaving pictures for his gallery.  Here's a selection of what lines the walls.

 Same old ignorance.  Same old double standards (everyone seems to be erecting security barriers these days).  Same old inaccuracies.  Same old libels (the Al Dura incident).

 I think the gallery curator needs to sack the staff, don't you?

Off The Menu: An Aussie brings BDS to Eguisheim

His Facebook page tells us that a certain Australian cafe owner in Eguisheim, Alsace, eastern France, studied at the University of Sydney, the institution that, thanks to certain of its academic staff, has become something of a byword for BDS.

Off the menu at his cafe are these products:

Here are the proprietor's latest posts on Facebook:

As you can see from the above, there's nothing, absolutely nothing, to link this doughty adherent of the BDS movement to antisemitism.

Linking BDS to antisemitism is all a Zionist slur, innit.

(Hat tip: Jean Vercors)

Moodey News: "Such are the wages of Christian triumphalism and anti-Judaism"

Having an interest in Jewish-Christian relations, I note for the benefit of like-minded readers a current article by the Christian scholar Dexter Van Zile regarding the views of the CEO of the British NGO Embrace the Middle East, Mr Jeremy Moodey, who's been mentioned by me from time to time; for instance here

Dexter Van Zile's analytical piece pays due tribute to the NGO's laudable aims, but pulls no punches in questioning Mr Moodey's stance towards Israel. 

It concludes:

"Moodey's summary judgment of Israel fails to take into account a number of factors such as Israel's efforts to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the past few decades, the failure of Palestinians to negotiate in good faith, and the disastrous consequences of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. It also fails to take into account ongoing anti-Semitic incitement in Palestinian society. 

Israel is not perfect. But by way of comparison, Israel treats its enemies, minorities and dissidents with greater humanity than any other country or political movement in the Middle East. Israel has a vibrant civil society and human rights community (whose activists show more concern for Palestinian welfare than Palestinian leaders do). Israel maintains these institutions despite having been under attack almost continuously since its founding in 1948. This is due largely to Israel's commitment to Jewish principles that Moodey incessantly uses to indict Israel. 

Moodey's merciless failure to acknowledge Israel's efforts to achieve peace, coupled with his unwillingness to confront the misdeeds of his adversaries is indicative of more than a troubling double-standard. His polemics suggest that he views Israel's enemies, who are intent on destroying Israel, as an instrument of God's wrath against the Christ-denying Jews of Israel and therefore unworthy of condemnation.

Alleged obduracy on the part of Jews has been used to justify violence and hostility toward the Jewish people for centuries and sadly such arguments survive even today when we have the leader of a Christian charity in enlightened Britain no less, making similar arguments that give theological aid and comfort to enemies of the Jewish state in the Middle East.

Such are the wages of Christian triumphalism and anti-Judaism."

Read all of Dexter Van Zile's article here

Meanwhile:

See here and here

Incidentally, Mr Moodey is one of the 118 Facebook friends (they include such luminaries of the anti-Israel movement as Jenny Tonge and Ben White, and the now vanished Stephen Sizer) of the funny fella who calls himself Harriet and spends his time writing strange stuff about Zionists (and belittling Dexter Van Zile) in obscure corners of the internet. 

Mr Moodey  may wish to reconsider his Facebook friendship with "Harriet"; look at the company "Harriet" keeps:

And there's plenty more where that came from.

What did British celebrity David Baddiel write only last month about men who indulge in conspiracy theories?

Ah, yes!:

"Conspiracy theory ... is how idiots get to feel like intellectuals.... And ... it creates a way into something else that’s becoming increasingly popular these days: antisemitism....

Why do so many conspiracy theories boil down to: it’s the Jews wot done it? ...

Those who have always felt that Jews were powerful, controlling and out to destroy the world can now point in the direction of the Middle East and say: there you are.

But for the conspiracy theorists, even the most appalling political and military machinations of Binyamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defence Forces – of Israel itself – are far less important than the creation of what David Aaronovitch, in Voodoo Histories, describes as a new kind of super-Jew: the Zionist. This is not, for the conspiracy theorist, the straightforward hate figure of the left. Rather, it is a character, or more importantly a group, to which all western governments are secretly in hock: unbelievably rich and powerful, and dedicated unswervingly to its own project, which is nothing less than the complete control of the world..."

 Better take up another hobby at your Place, Harriet!

From A Corbyn Supporter, A Vile Message Beyond The Fringe

As reported in the Jewish Chronicle, Alison Chabloz, a performer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, will incur no penalty for making the "quenelle" salute, widely regarded as antisemitic.

Ms Chabloz, who posted this photo of herself in action (Edinburgh Castle forms the backdrop) on Twitter, has reportedly made  a number of tweets in the past widely interpreted as antisemitic.
See also here

On her blog, Ms Chabloz has stated her reasons for making the gesture, meant as a taunt to "hardline Zionists" whom she claims harass her online.

Declaring her support for Jeremy Corbyn, whom most anti-Israel Leftists fervently wish to see voted in as Britain's Labour Party leader, she has also written in that blogpost:

 'Nobody denies that the Jews and other groups suffered horrendous atrocities at the hands of the Nazis nor that millions died in camps. It is the method of murder which is under question and if people dug a little deeper into the issue they may discover some interesting facts regards the presumed existence of homicidal Nazi gas chambers.

Indeed, the French Gayssot-Fabius law only came into existence when Professor Robert Faurisson (whose mother, by the way, was a Scot) published his findings on the lack of any physical proof regards homicidal Nazi gas chambers. Faurisson has suffered no less than ten physical assaults by thugs associated with the LDJ (League des Juifs – French equivalent of the JDL, Jewish Defence League) and, like Dieudonné and others, has been punished financially in the French courts for expressing views based on in-depth intellectual and scientific research.

“Did six million really die?” Ernst Zündel published a pamphlet posing the question in 1974 and after two high-profile trials in 1985 and 1988 was eventually sent to solitary confinement for two years in a Canadian jail. Zündel was then extradited to Germany where in 2007 he was finally convicted and jailed for another five years. Like Faurisson, Zündel suffered physical attacks as well as having his home destroyed by a pipe-bomb.

I don’t know the answer to Zündel’s question. With an establishment corrupt to the core and police obfuscation regarding high-profile child abusers ( the Labour peer and former chairman of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Lord Janner, springs to mind ) – is it surprising that so many people are now starting to question official versions of history?'

Corbyn is certainly attracting some charmers, eh?

Muslim Intellectual: "I see Islamism as much more dangerous than Nazism" (video)

Here's part of Glenn Beck's radio interview with British-born, American-based pro-Israel physician Dr Qanta Ahmed, in which she compares Islamist antisemitism to Nazism's but asserts that the former ideology is even more dangerous than the latter.

More here

They're Having A Laugh, Aren't They?

Er, no, actually.

Facebook group "Christian Friends of Palestine," rather like "Christians United for Peace," are inveterate foes of the Jewish State, and posting over the top canards about Israel (and da Joos) is not unusual for them.

A couple of recent tasters:

But this latest example of their malice must surely take the cake!

Meanwhile, these militaristic Iranians seem deadly serious ("Israel must disappear from the world map")

Read more here

Bonus: this photo, reportedly of a 1991 Iranian postage stamp, has begun doing the rounds of social media ...

Jeremy Corbyn Breaks His Silence (video) (updated)

In an interview with Channel 4's Cathy Newman, British Labour Party leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn, darling of the anti-Israel Left, and clearly irritated, answers (after a fashion) some of those troubling questions.

Update: Harry's Place had a good analysis of this interview (hat tip: Ian)

My piece re the Corbyn candidacy at Elder of Ziyon

Conditional Acceptance: The Left's Good Jews

Leftwing Israel-basher Jeremy Corbyn's candidature for Britain's Labour Party leadership has been causing a great deal of anxiety among British Jews, but I won't dwell on that issue here and now because it's the subject of my Tuesday blog for the Elder of Ziyon website.

Front-runner Corbyn

 However,  Yasmin Alibhai-Brown's article regarding Jewish misgivings regarding Corbyn, an article which appeared here yesterday, warrants commentary.  Headed "Fling mud if you must, but don’t call Jeremy Corbyn an anti-Semite," it is subheaded "Some of the people the left-wing hopeful has been closest to are conscientious and ethical British Jews".


To her credit, Ms Alibhai-Brown concedes what very many if not most on the Left deny:

"Veiled anti-Semitism is around us, and most of all on university campuses, where Palestine is a burning issue and convenient alibi."

But integral to her broader argument is what, in her view, a "conscientious and ethical" British Jew is (and is not):

 'The right, Blairites and hard Zionists have formed the most unholy of alliances to slay the reputation of the next likely leader of the Labour Party....

Some of the people Corbyn has been closest to are conscientious and ethical British Jews. The late Mike Marqusee, a Marxist, New York secular Jew who migrated to the UK, was his friend. So, too, is Ken Loach, a liberal British Jew [Is Loach in fact a Jew? If so, that's news to me, and, I suspect, to him - D.A.] and fierce defender of Palestinian rights. There are others, dismissed by Zionists as “self-haters” because they reject blind loyalty to Israel....

Most depressing of all is the collusion between the powerful right and Zionists. They seem determined to crush all alternatives to neoliberal economics and Western hegemony. Jewish lawyers, activists, entrepreneurs and thinkers in South Africa, the UK, Europe and US have fought so long for justice, equality and progressive politics. It gets harder and harder for them to carry on that noble tradition. Ed Miliband was one of them and look what sections of the media did to him.'

In other words, there are good Jews (who are worthy) and there are bad Jews (who are unworthy); a good Jew is not a Zionist and a bad Jew is.
Such an attitude has become pervasive on the Left, culminating in the conditional acceptance of Jews that has been witnessed with the odious banning from the Rototom Sunsplash Reggae Festival of a Jewish American rapper, Matistayu, after he refused to issue a message supporting Palestinian statehood:

'Festival organizers were driven by intense pressure from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the reports said. Artists scheduled to perform at the event threatened to cancel their appearances if Matisyahu were to perform because he was “seen to represent Israel.”....

Although not Israeli, Matisyahu has visited and performed in the Jewish state multiple times.

In a statement on Facebook, Rototom organizers said that the move was linked to “the festival’s sensitivity to Palestine, its people and the occupation of its territory by Israel.”

The front page of the Valencia-based festival’s website features a two-and-a-half hour video on pro-Palestinian activists holding Palestinian flags and decrying Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip.Local BDS activists welcomed the move after accusing the Jewish rapper of being a “Zionist” and “defending a state that practices apartheid and ethnic cleansing” on a link posted on his Facebook page.'

Rototom Sunsplash seems to have form ...

Little wonder that World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder has called the incident “a clear instance of anti-Semitism, and nothing else” and that the WJC's Spanish affiliate  has condemned the festival's action as "cowardly, unjust and discriminatory".   Lauder justifiably observes:

“Matisyahu is an American Jew. More importantly, like everybody else in a free and democratic society, he not only has a right to express his views – whether you agree with them or not — but he also has every right not to have the repugnant views of the festival organizers imposed on him. He is a musician who has been denied the opportunity to play his planned gig at a European reggae festival purely because he is Jewish and because he refuses to side with the vicious and bigoted BDS movement.

And to the people of Spain, I say this: Being a ‘Zionist’ and supporting Israel has nothing to do with supporting apartheid. Rather, it is about supporting democracy, the rule of law, freedom, openness and diversity.

The Rototom Sunsplash festival benefits from financial support from public authorities. I very much hope that they will convey a clear message to the organizers that either they re-invite Matisyahu and apologize for their outrageous behavior, or they pay back that financial aid, because anti-Semitism and racism must not be rewarded by public support – not in Spain, and not anywhere else.”

Scottish PSC Chief Napier's Nae Sae Canny Claim

The photo:

The Scottish PSC chief's triumphant claim on Facebook, delighting Irish anti-Israel activist and musical composer Raymond Deane among others (the number of "Likes" has escalated since I took this screenshot), and attracting a large number of "shares" as well as commendatory comments:

The actual context:

The moral of the story:

A lesson Mick, who has sometimes evinced what we might characterise as an "eccentric" attitude to Jews and Israel (how's this, for example?), might have learned following this earlier blooper, of course!

And although Australian leftist Sol Salbe, an ex-pat Israeli, is (and this is surely an under-statement) very far from being a pro-Israel voice, he's done yeoman service on Napier's follow-up post with this remark to one of Napier's historically-challenged followers:

Two-State Solution? The West Must Practise More Straight Talking, Less Doublespeak, argues David Singer

"Palestine: More Straight Talking – Less Doublespeak" is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

The well-publicised “secret meeting” recently held in Jordan between Israel’s newest negotiations Minister Silvan Shalom and perennial PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat is but the latest in a 20 years old meaningless talkfest that has seen little tangible signs of ending the 100 years old Jewish-Arab conflict – despite two offers made by Israel in 2000/2001 and 2008 and rejected by the Palestinian Authority.

Talks have been conducted on Israel’s side within a framework comprising the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2003 Bush Roadmap (with 14 documented Israeli reservations.)

Mahmoud Abbas’s approach to those Israeli reservations should have sounded alarm bells from the start:

"They don't interest me …

We do not accept each side picking and choosing only those specific elements that are convenient for them in the road map.

The map was prepared last December and we accepted it, despite our own comments and reservations. We wanted to give this initiative a chance, but it's impossible to continue inventing comments and reservations after it was submitted."

One of Israel’s reservations stated:

“In connection to both the introductory statements and the final settlement, declared references must be made to Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and to the waiver of any right of return for Palestinian refugees to the State of Israel."

Abbas’s consistent refusal to accept these terms from the outset has seen the negotiations reduced to a farce.

Those proponents of the two-state solution who continue to allow Abbas to maintain this rejectionist stance are actively contributing to its demise.

The Roadmap further states unequivocally: 

“A two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be achieved through an end to violence and terrorism, when the Palestinian people have a leadership acting decisively against terror and willing and able to build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty, and through Israel's readiness to do what is necessary for a democratic Palestinian state to be established….”

Those do-gooders, particularly in the European Union and the United States, still supporting the “two-state solution” seem to have lost sight of this clearly agreed democratic destination.

Democracy in any projected Palestinian State has been shoved under the carpet and out of sight – without a whimper from the world’s democracies.

Any signs of democracy are noticeably absent in both the West Bank and Gaza – where elections for the President have not been held since 2005, parliamentary elections were last held in 2006 and no single government exercises authority in both areas.

Tongue-tied Western democracies make no objection to this farcical state of affairs – guaranteeing continuing negotiations remain a diplomatic joke.

Another Israeli reservation consigned to the garbage bin by Abbas was allowed to pass without comment or objection by the Western democracies:

“The character of the provisional Palestinian state will be determined through negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel."

The Palestinian Authority no longer exists – having been disbanded on 3 January 2013.

By Decree number 1 for 2013 Abbas unilaterally tore up the Oslo Accords:

"Official documents, seals, signs and letterheads of the Palestinian National Authority official and national institutions shall be amended by replacing the name 'Palestinian National Authority' whenever it appears by the name 'State of Palestine' and by adopting the emblem of the State of Palestine."

Negotiating parameters established between identified parties pursuant to Security Council Resolution 242, the Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap have been replaced by a set of fictitious propositions lacking negotiating partners.

Western democracies supporting this disingenuous state of affairs should hang their heads in shame. Unless they engage in more straight talking and less doublespeak – any negotiated two-state solution will remain pure fantasy.

Numb Bums & Numbskulls: The spinning wheels go round & round

Pedalling that mendacious map set

The Big Ride for Palestine (Edinburgh to London) ended on Sunday.

A fundraising event on behalf of the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), it was, as the images on its website suggest, also a well-calculated propaganda campaign against the Jewish State.

Look, for instance, at this map set, the inaccuracy of which has been exposed (to no avail) time and time again, and at this pictorial plea for the "Right of Return".

Indeed, the "Right of Return" appears to be an integral plank in the policy of the Middle East Children's Alliance itself.

Declared Dr. Mona El-Farra, Vice President of the Red Crescent Society for the Gaza Strip
Gaza Director of MECA in an online message to participants:

“With every mile you ride, you are protesting against 67 years of Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

You are sending a message to the Palestinian people in general and to the people of the Gaza strip in particular that they are not abandoned. You are bringing hope to millions of Palestine children for whom life has been scarred by trauma and fear. You are siding with millions of displaced 1948 Palestinian refugees who still have the keys to their homes from which they were uprooted by force. You are breaking barriers that separate human beings who should be equal regardless of race, colour or religion. 

We dream of a day when we can welcome you to cycle in free Palestine to enjoy the beauty of our country that has been devastated by long decades of Israeli occupation, dispossession, and annihilation. We appreciate your solidarity; we salute you all for your humanity.”

 NGO Monitor provides the following facts about MECA (links at site):

'Founded in 1988, based in Berkeley, California

Goal: “We educate North Americans about children in the region and the brutal impact of US foreign policy on their lives.”

“MECA relies on the support of individuals dedicated to peace and justice in the Middle East.” Further details were not found.

According to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) website, “[t]he Middle East Children’s Alliance is the fiscal sponsor for ISM-USA.” Donations for ISM’s campaign to “interfere with the construction of the annexation barrier” can be made to “MECA (ISM-USA Fund).”

MECA organizes delegations to “Palestine/Israel” where participants can “witness the impact of the Israeli occupation and…learn about refugees, land confiscation, political prisoners…” Trip highlights include learning “about the origins of the Palestinian refugees and the Right of Return, and how it can be implemented” (emphasis added).

MECA founder and Executive Director Barbara Lubin wrote “I think that the Jewish State is racist to the core.”  Lupin refers to the 1948 “ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population” and wrote that “[t]he concept of ‘Jewish morality’ is truly dead. We can be fascists, terrorists, and Nazis just like everybody else.”  [Emphasis added]

In an interview, MECA Director of Gaza Projects, Dr. Mona El-Farra, explained that MECA refused USAID funding because it came with the condition that they promise “not [to] give any help or any aid whatsoever for the families of the militiamen, or their relatives, or anyone related to ‘terrorist attacks’” because “we consider it resistance” (emphasis added).

MECA raised funds for British MP George Galloway’s “Viva Palestine” convoy “following the massacre in Gaza.”

Partners include pro-Palestinian groups such as Addameer, Badil, the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, Bat Shalom, and Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP). Also partners with the Lajee Center, which refers to the “Israeli regime of Apartheid, colonization, and belligerent occupation.'"   [Emphasis added]

The Big Ride was endorsed by a great many of the usual suspects ranging from a prominent "As-a-Jew" through show biz B-listers to London mayoral hopeful George Galloway ("The idea of 1,000 cyclists barrelling down from Edinburgh to London, parliament to parliament, carrying the message that we must come to the aid of the beleaguered men, woman and children in what is an open air prison is immensely powerful") and film director Ken Loach ("More and more people are becoming aware that justice for the Palestinians is the great cause of our time") and a number of MPs, including front-running Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn, whose message of encouragement read:

“The Palestinians have suffered and continue to do so, from Israeli bombardment in Gaza, and the Occupation of the West Bank.  This ride is in solidarity of cyclists in Britain to raise money for aid to Palestine, but also to politically draw attention to the desperate need for the British government to act and respect the parliamentary decision to recognise Palestine, which clearly has not yet been incorporated into government policy. This ride has my total support and I trust that much more support will pour in from our community and notably from those who are so well aware of the injustices metered out to the Palestinians.”

 The wheels of the Big Ride cyclists are not, of course, the only examples of spin we've seen in recent days.

Here are more examples:

And of course there's this forthcoming conference, at which, sad to relate, two Australians will be prominent, one of whom, Arentinian/Israeli Marcel Svirsky, will be familiar to regular readers of my blog as the bloke who walked from Sydney to Canberra to present a pro-BDS petition to Federal Parliament (see here and here).  (Judging from his Facebook page, Dr Svirsky is a far leftist.)

Conference on Settler Colonialism in Palestine & Workshop on the Naqab Bedouin

Call for papers

An Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies conference

Date    2 - 4 October 2015
Time    Event spans several days
Place    Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies

The study of settler colonialism as an historical, geographical and political formation is attracting the attention of more and more scholars around the globe. Our effort will be oriented towards the examination of the settler colonial paradigm’s validity in the context of Palestine. The organisers encourage interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to the study of settler colonialism in Palestine, so as to build bridges between settler colonial studies and other disciplines, as well as to challenge Israel’s alleged exceptionality.

Confirmed Speakers:

    Prof. Nur Masalha, St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London, UK.
    Prof. Ilan Pappe, University of Exeter, UK.
    Dr. Marcelo Svirsky, University of Wollogong, Australia.
    Prof. Lorenzo Veracini, Swinburne University

 The organisers encourage interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to the study of settler colonialism in Palestine, so as to build bridges between settler colonial studies and other disciplines, as well as to challenge Israel’s alleged exceptionality.

We encourage prospective contributors to engage with the following questions:

What is the nature of Israel’s colonisation of Palestine? How does it manifest itself in different political, economic, social, as well as material and ideational arenas?
    How do settler colonial structures affect different forms of resistance?
    How are settler colonial narratives articulated (and disarticulated)?
    How has Israel’s settler colonial project impacted upon Palestine’s social, demographic, political and economic landscapes?
    How does settler colonialism intersect with global processes such as neo-liberalism, imperialism and war?
    How does Israeli settler-colonialism relate to the Israeli nation-state building project?
    How does resistance against the settler colonial regime by the indigenous Palestinian population relate to and articulate itself within/vis-à-vis the Palestinian national struggle?

 See more here and a letter of concern from the Board of Deputies here

A French Oleh's Lament: "French journalists practice a disgusting double standard against Israel"

This illustration is taken from the updated edition of Edgar Davidson's superb "Rules and Guidelines for Westerners reporting on Israel".

Here, as an example, is Rule 2:

'Rule 2 (Arab casualties)

If there is any incident either in Israel or near its borders in which there are claims of Arab casualties you must write a report with the following headline:

“Israelis kill X Arab civilians including Y children”

For the numbers X and Y simply choose the highest figures from the following sources:

    Hamas
    Hezbollah
    The Palestinian Authority
    Islamic Jihad
    Syrian State Television
    Islamic State
    Al Jazeera or Press TV
    Any person within 20 miles of the incident who is wearing a kaffiya or a Burka.

You do not need to state the source of your claim. In the unlikely event that an Israeli spokesman claims either a different figure, that the 'victims' were armed terrorists, or that the incident simply did not happen you may end your report with the following:

“An Israeli spokesman claimed, without evidence, that they ‘acted in self-defence’.

Note that there are certain circumstances where Arab deaths from violence should not be reported at all. This is when Arabs themselves openly claim to be the killers. This applies, for example, in the following cases:

Mass slaughter in fighting between different rival groups (Shia v Sunni, Hamas vs PA, Hamas vs Al Qaeda, PA vs Islamic Jihad etc)

 Where the victims are accused of being Israeli collaborators

If news of these killings does leak out into the Western media then simply write a brief statement including the words:

“The underlying cause of the violence was the oppressive Israeli occupation”

Any claims of deaths of Israelis during such incidents can be assumed to be false and hence ignored.

Read all of the Rules and Guidelines here

Of course, it's not only in the English-language press that the media gets the message of such "Rules and Guidelines".

See, for instance, this new article by French oleh Jean Vercors, no stranger to my blog; he's provocatively entitled it "French media: the thought Einsatzgruppen".

Writes Jean Vercors:

Since ancient times, many people have hated the Jews and this is not going to change.

The French journalists practice a disgusting double standard against Israel that constantly stirs anti-Jewish hatred.

Is this because they are affiliated with trade unions close to the Communist Party?  Are they automatically anti-Israel because Israel is supported by the United States or because of or banal hatred of Jews?

My observations of media bias against Israel are a constant source of aggravation.

No matter what happens in the world, Israel is always making the headlines. A morbid obsession. The daily massacre of Copts, Yazidis, Chaldeans, Christians, Assyrians, Kurds, and Africans in Muslim lands are barely mentioned.

In Israel, the press is free. Journalists can cover the news as they wish; they know it and do not hesitate. I can write things here, to express my thoughts in a way that would send me to court if I was in France.

In Israel, journalists are not harassed, assaulted, raped, followed by the police, tortured, intimidated or even beheaded as in Syria or Iraq.

In an article of July 2014, I called the French media scavengers and my opinion has not changed since.

When three young Israelis were kidnapped and killed by local Arab terrorists, rather than blaming the criminals, French media preferred to report how dangerous it is to hitchhike the Gush Etzion area.

Today, with the story of the dead Arab baby in Duma, the mainstream media, with L’Agence France-Presse (AFP) leading the pack, brought out the heavy artillery. No excuse can justify this act proclaims the same media that naturally found excuses for the killing of three Jewish students in July 2014 .  Apologists for the Arabs, not the Jews: double standard.

Then the media accuses "religious extremist settlers" of being the perpetrators even before the police investigation has begun.

The countless assaults by Palestinian Arabs against Jews goes unreported and without condemnation.
Similarly, the UN and EU have a big problem only with the one single attack by a few persons against the Arabs, even though there is no clear proof yet that it was indeed perpetrated by Jews. The entire Jewish nation has already been condemned.

As with the notorious invention that was the al-Dura case, it represents a continuation of the age-old libel of ritual murder of children by Jews.  It is the antisemitic blood libel that Jews murder non-Jewish children for ritual purposes. French journalists did not need evidence to charge the Jews, they lit the pyre and prepared media killings.

In ten years, the Arabs in Palestine killed nearly 180 Israelis, dozens of babies. Where is the outrage of the media?

Are journalists dishonest and hypocrites to that point? Yes definitely.

This hypocrisy was also revealed in October 2014 by an Arab site,Actionpal.org , which identified the number of Palestinian Arabs killed in Syria: 2 512. Not a single line in the media.

The French media practising intellectual terrorism.

Censorship of any idea contrary, any debate, arguments and intimidation methods for preventing the development of harmful ideas, nothing can stop the media, speak with one voice as if it was only one opinion and they had been brainwashed.
This ideological censorship, the font of the word, forbidden to speak of what is beyond the gates of the ruling doctrine.

The thought police uses the techniques of fascism and Nazism to implode Arab propaganda.

Some examples: Alexandra Schwarzbrod Liberation, Mediapart, BFM, ITV, Le Parisien, Le Monde, Courrier International, France 24, La Croix, MetroNews, France 2, Marianne, 20 Minutes, Slate, Nouvel Obs, Le Figaro, The AFP: all decided Jews are the criminals, without leaving their confortable offices and without any confirmatory police report, found Jews to be culpable .

The left rejoices – finally some "proof" for their slanderous accusations of Israel.

The immediate and vociferous world reaction, including that of the Israeli media, was overwhelming. Many claimed that Jewish terrorism happens all the time and is ever present. Time will also tell if it was indeed an attack by Jews. But we do not need to wait to find out who has perpetrated dozens and dozens of attacks against Jews in the last year or two: Palestinian Arabs, driven by their fanatical, antisemitic, Islam-inspired hatred of Jews.

Arabs attacking, maiming and murdering Jews is an almost-daily event.

In France, when reporting police arrests of criminals, journalists always use the conditional, speak of "suspect" until law courts have given their verdicts. In this reportage, however, there are no suspects, there is no use of the conditional: the putative miscreants are guilty for sure, taken for granted to be so because they are Jews.

The kings of the amalgam, finally, it is they, the journalists.

For a well-oiled disinformation process, the disclosure of wrongdoing attributed to some Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria allows for a huge amalgam to stigmatize an entire population
 – that of Israel – and then develop the amalgam to the top of the state, and accuse the Israeli government of ultimate responsibility.

Disseminating slanders against the Jewish state, it is trendy.

Denounce any amalgam against the Muslim community as well.

Intellectual terrorism is not an end in itself, it is a means to steer public debate against the Jews and Israel. Thus, the media, when they talk of Israel became "Einsatzgruppen" of thought.

The media who lie about Israeli assault me. My story, my identity, their refusal to allow me to define myself, is the expression of intellectual terror.

The offspring of right-wing extremists, Nazis, fascists, it's them.

Yes they attack me. We Jews have a hard shell, very solid. Nevertheless, they attack us.

Our real enemies, the Europeans, the Arab worst enemies in the region, attacking us for years not for what we would do or would not do, but for what we are and what we represent.

It does not succumb to the temptations of the oppressors and persecutors worldly, so we give up our history, our values, the faith of our fathers, and worst of all: our identity, the word they hate the most.

We do not accept the deletion they are inflicting to the European people by dilution in Islam, his drowning in immigration. On the contrary!

Recalling Leo Tolstoy's perception of the Jewish People:

“The Jew is that sacred being who has brought down from heaven the everlasting fire, and has illumined with it the entire world. He is the religious source, spring, and fountain out of which all the rest of the peoples have drawn their beliefs and their religious. The Jew is the pioneer of liberty. The Jew is the pioneer of civilization. The Jew is the emblem of eternity.”