A Quick Trip Across The Ditch

In other words, across the Tasman Sea, to New Zealand.

I've just stumbled across a Kiwi blog which, although Israel is not central to its content, is staunchly supportive of Israel and alive to the hypocrisy and foibles of Israel's leftist enemies.

I found this photo (which leaves us in no doubt regarding the aims of the Socialist Aotearoa gang) on that blog.  The post in question, dating to August last year and entitled "We're Not Anti-Semitic.  We have a Jew with us" is very much worth a look.

Meanwhile, in Auckland, where there seems to be quite a hub of anti-Israel leftist activism (remember past videos from the Global Peace and Justice [sic] gang?), Nadia Abu Shanab from the Palestine Solidarity Network shares some sentiments:

Two States: Beware Shimon Peres's Disingenuous Claim, declares David Singer

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.  It's entitled
"Peres Trashes Rabin’s Oslo Accords Vision".
 
Writes David Singer:

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres has pre-empted the memorial rally this Saturday evening to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the assassination on 4 November 1995 of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, by writing – quite misleadingly  – of Rabin’s vision in the Jerusalem Post this week.

Former US president Bill Clinton, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin and Yitzchak Rabin’s daughter  – former deputy defence minister Dalia Rabin – are scheduled to participate in the rally – and hopefully will set the record straight.

Peres claimed that Rabin’s Government – in which Peres was Foreign Minister:

“sought peace at the price of a historic compromise: two states for two peoples. For, if there shall not be two countries, there shall be one continues [sic] tragedy for both peoples.”

Rabin never offered any such a two-state compromise.

Peres repeated this disingenuous message again in the same article:

“We laid down the foundations for a two-state solution and began building our peace with Jordan.” 

Rabin made his vision very clear in his last speech to the Knesset on 5 October 1995 when presenting the 300-page “Israeli -Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” (Oslo Accords) for approval: 

“Members of Knesset,

We are striving for a permanent solution to the unending bloody conflict between us and the Palestinians and the Arab states.

In the framework of the permanent solution, we aspire to reach, first and foremost, the State of Israel as a Jewish state, at least 80 per cent of whose citizens will be, and are, Jews.

At the same time, we also promise that the non-Jewish citizens of Israel  – Muslim, Christian, Druze and others – will enjoy full personal, religious and civil rights, like those of any Israeli citizen. Judaism and racism are diametrically opposed.

We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.

And these are the main changes, not all of them, which we envision and want in the permanent solution:

A. First and foremost, united Jerusalem, which will include both Ma'ale Adumim and Givat Ze'ev – as the capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty, while preserving the rights of the members of the other faiths, Christianity and Islam, to freedom of access and freedom of worship in their holy places, according to the customs of their faiths.

B. The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.

C. Changes which will include the addition of Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities, most of which are in the area east of what was the "Green Line," prior to the Six Day War.

D. The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.”

The two-state solution was never entertained by Rabin.

Two separate countries  – favoured by Peres – is irretrievably dead and buried. Rabin’s legacy should not be coupled with that failed diplomatic initiative.

Rabin’s vision should be faithfully preserved – not trashed.

In Britain, A Scholarly Roll of Shame

343 UK scholars have declared support for an academic boycott of Israel, taking out a full page ad in that rag of iniquity The Guardian today.

Here's the roll of shame:

No need to rush to Specsavers or search for a magnifying glass: read more on this here

Declares Joy Wolfe, the redoubtable chairperson of StandWithUs UK:

' StandWithUs UK strongly condemns the call from British academics to boycott Israel. This move does nothing to help the Palestiians and potentially damages the long standing mutually beneficial links that are so important to both the UK and Israel. We welcome the strong statement from British Ambassador David Quarrey condemning the boycott call and reaffirming the UK's anti boycott commitment. Ambassador Quarrey reiterated the importance of the significant and fruitful relationship shared by Israel and the United Kingdom.

 "The British Government firmly opposes calls to boycott Israel. We are deeply committed to promoting the UK’s academic and scientific ties with Israel, as part the flourishing partnership between the two countries," he said in a statement.

 "The reality is one of rapidly strengthening trade and tech links between Britain and Israel. As David Cameron has said, the UK Government will never allow those who want to boycott Israel to shut down 60 years worth of vibrant exchange and partnership that does so much to make both our countries stronger," he added.

 Israeli academics should look closely at the names of those signing the boycott letter and ensure they do not further the double standards of the boycotters wishing to continue personal links'.

The well-known left-leaning Zionist academic David Hirsh of Goldsmith's College, London University, who runs the Engage website, had this to say when a Guardian journalist contacted him for comment:

"The campaign to single out Israelis for exclusion from the global academic community is highly menacing.

It seeks to punish Israeli scholars for the crimes, both real and imagined, of their government in a way that is quite inconsistent with our usual attitude to fellow scholars and with our own relationships to our own governments.

We have learnt that the drive to punish Israelis brings in its wake antisemitic exclusions and antisemitic ways of thinking here on UK campuses. We have seen Jews who don't support the boycott denounced as Nazis and racists.

The boycott campaign sets up a presumption that Jewish academics are in some sense collaborators, a presumption which pressurises Jewish colleagues to keep quiet, to put on displays of political cleanliness or to stand in the dock for Israel.

The boycott campaign rejects the politics of peace, a politics in which Israeli academics have always been central. Instead it embraces the politics of silencing, the politics of war by other means, the politics of waving one national flag against the other. We ought to build links between UK universities and Palestinian and Israeli ones, not try to smash them; we ought to communicate more, not less; we ought to be for peace not for war.

We ought to support Israelis and Palestinians who stand up against racism and antisemitism, not throw them to the wolves of Hamas and the Israeli settler right.

My fear for what will happen on campus is heightened by the fact that the current Labour leader supports this kind of exclusionary politics. This will heighten the sense that many Jewish academics have, that the culture on our campuses is still deteriorating."

 Maybe it's worth revisiting Edgar Davidson's spoof on academic Israel-haters here

One ardent British Zionist comments on social media,

"An openly pro-Israel British Jewish student would surely not want any contact with these teachers."

 It's hard to disagree.

Aussie Leftist Media Bias Against Israel: Michael Danby talks to Andrew Bolt (video) (updated)

In this interview, the splendid Aussie columnist Andrew Bolt and the staunchly pro-Israel Labor MP Michael Danby discuss leftist bias in Australia against Israel, beginning with the warped views of Melissa Parke, Labor MP for Fremantle, and proceeding to the disgraceful bias of the ABC (Australia's answer to the BBC).

Hat tip: Ian

Incidentally, here's what Mr Danby has recently written about the Iranian threat:

'Russian Deputy Chief of Staff General Nikolay Bogdanovsky was in Israel last week pursuing Israeli/Russian plans to avoid military confrontation particularly in the air over Syria.  To his credit, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had flown to Moscow with four Israeli air chiefs, as soon as the extent of the Russian military intervention in Syria was realised. You won’t read of this fundamental power shift from blockheaded, anti-Israel fanatics like Robert Fisk, or the Pollard–McNeill axis of their brand of Australian reporting. But the Russians have installed total air defence with sophisticated SA-22s covering much of Syria’s airspace. As Daesh (IS) doesn’t even have a crop duster, this makes even more farcical US President Obama and our Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s initial enthusiasm for Russian President Putin as there to join the fight against Daesh. Jerusalem is wise to make arrangements with Moscow as best it can in a world with a US administration so feckless and strategically confused.

[Australian Foreign Minister] Julie Bishop’s announcements of support for Syria’s dictator Assad, who has murdered 200,000 of his own people, as the only alternative to Daesh taking over Syria is untrue and unethical. But the massive Russian intervention, on the side of Iran and Hezbollah, cements in place Iran’s Shiite crescent from Lebanon, through Syria and Iraq, to Iran. Worse, the Iranian-controlled Iraqi government, where Australia has 300 of its finest soldiers trying to retrain its cowardly army, has announced its gratitude by openly joining a pact with Iran, Syria and Lebanon under Russian auspices

That is why I have moved a resolution in Parliament, for Australian soldiers to be withdrawn from the Taji military camp where we are at least implicitly cooperating with the Iranians (if we were serious about destroying Daesh, our guys would in Erbil training and arming the 25,000 Kurdish fighters who could occupy Raqqa, the centre of IS evil, in two weeks. From a direct national security point of view, of course, this would be much more useful, in preventing attacks like the ones in Parramatta, or Dandenong, by deranged Jihadist teenagers, who are getting their orders from Raqqa from Daesh, rapists and murderers like Al-Cambodi (Neil Prakash).)

But back to the main strategic shift, the Russian invasion of Syria and what is portends; it is another victory for Iran, after duping and cajoling the Americans and Europeans into the nuclear deal, which, in the medium-term, will refinance, re-arm, and renew Iran’s bid for the atom bomb.

At the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon war, an Israeli naval ship was hit by a Russian missile shore-to-sea missile, supplied to the Iranian stooges Hezbollah. In all of the years since 2006, the Israeli air force has been free to intercept, bomb and destroy further shipments from Iran to Hezbollah of the even more sophisticated 300km-range Yakhont missiles.

Julie Bishop should be reminded that these Iranian mercenaries Hezbollah are still classified as a terrorist organisation by the Australian Parliament. Our foreign minister thinks the nuclear deal with Iran is good, that Assad should be kept in office, and that Russia is fighting Daesh. Putin’s massive intervention, particularly his control of the Syrian skies, mean that, unlike every time in the past nine years, Israel will have to beg Putin to be allowed to destroy covert shipments of these deadly missiles to Hezbollah. Hezbollah’s long-range missiles target Israel’s people, her ports, her navy, and its gas installations.

Another negative outcome of Russia’s involvement in Syria is the reprieve it will give Hezbollah fighters. They have been stretched thin and thousands have been killed or injured. However, with close Russian air support, volunteer Russian troops, plus the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that have arrived as part of the Russian–Iranian ground offensive against non-Daesh rebels in the north and south. How strange it is for our foreign minister to say “If we use [the Iran nuclear deal] as an example of Russia’s preparedness to be part of a solution rather than part of the problem, then we can have some optimism that Russia’s involvement [in Syria] is positive.

Russia’s armed guarantee of the Hezbollah-Assad-Iraq-Iran alliance also brings Iranian power to the borders of Israel on the Golan. Well done, President Obama – your weakness in Ukraine and now Syria endangers the peaceful lives of people everywhere. Iran is a much more serious and existential threat to Israel than the hoodlums, crucifiers and rapists of Daesh.

At least I’ve been able to stop the Australian Opposition from giving its support to this existential power-shift. Selling a few more tonnes of Australian beef is not worth our soft-peddling on Iran and Syria.  Selling a few more tons of Australian beef is not worth our soft-peddling on Iran and Syria.  In a world turned upside down, the outcome of the nuclear deal with Iran gets worse and worse.'

 Update:
Two relevant articles on J-Wire today.
Regarding Danby, Julia Bishop, and Iran
Regarding Melissa Parke

In Gaza, Olde Tyme Preacher Spreads The Love (video)

Don't these guys ever modulate their voices?

To quote the uploader, Memri TV:
'In an October 23 Friday sermon in Gaza, Abu Hamza 'Ashur raised an explosives belt in the mosque, saying: "The next martyrdom-seeking operations will be carried out with explosives belts... By Allah, we will annihilate you with it. We will turn you into lifeless corpses and into scattered body parts." The sermon was posted on the Internet.'

A Czech Voice Quotes Kedar

Dr Mordecai Kedar, of course, is a scholar of Islam, and from historical experience the Czechs know a thing or two about invasion.

(Hat tip: Vlad Tepes Blog)

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign Mugs For The BBC

That mendacious set of four maps (you know the one!) has made an appearance on mugs sent to various members of the BBC's staff by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign!

Clicking on the relevant link we read, inter alia among the predictable Israel-demonising nonsense:

'The BBC’s head of news and current affairs, and some of the organisation’s most senior presenters, have received innovative reminders this week that the Palestinians are an occupied people whose land is still being stolen from them.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign has sent its mugs, printed with maps showing just how much of their land Palestinians have lost to Israel since 1948, to BBC Broadcasting House in London.

James Harding, the BBC’s Director of News and Current Affairs, Evan Davis, presenter of Newsnight, Today presenters, John Humphrys, Mishal Husain, Sarah Montague and James Naughtie, and News at Ten anchors, Fiona Bruce and Huw Edwards, were sent the mugs this week, along with letters reminding them who is the occupier and who is the occupied....'

How anyone could possibly consider the BBC, with that coterie of reporters that includes Bowen, Donnison, Guerin and Knell, to be biased in favour of Israel strikes me, and countless others, as truly baffling and bizarre.

Evidently, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have never examined the compelling evidence against the Bowenites compiled by BBC Watch.

(Well, they wouldn't, would they?)

Essentially, the difference between those of us who despair at and deplore the BBC's bias against Israel and the PSC is that we merely want the BBC to report from the region in neutral, objective fashion as the BBC's Charter and Producers' Guidelines warrant, whereas the PSC and other Israel-haters evidently want the BBC to shill for the anti-Israel cause all of the time.

After all, the logo of the PSC is a map that completely obliterates Israel.

Enough said.

On that topic.

For the moment.

But while I have your attention, please note that an old chum of ours is back on Facebook.  He's been there for about a week, I learn from reader P.

So far, our old chum appears to be not only an older but a wiser man:

Thanks, Your Reverence.  Very worthy stuff.  Pray keep it up!

David Singer: 1922 Two-State Solution Key To Resolving Arab-Jewish Conflict

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.  It's entitled "Palestine: 1922 Two-State Solution Key To Resolving Arab-Jewish Conflict".

Write David Singer:

United Nations Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon has jetted into Jerusalem on a fool’s errand – with tensions continuing to escalate between Arabs and Jews as their conflict spanning almost 100 years remains unresolved.

The Secretary-General observed:

“Beyond the immediate tensions, what is missing is the resolve to restore a political horizon for talks, and a political process that delivers real results and hope … We must, for the future of our children, turn back from this dangerous abyss, safeguard the two-state solution and lead people back onto the road towards peace” 

Safeguarding this “two-state solution” – code words for creating a second Arab State in Mandatory Palestine in addition to Jordan – is a lost cause. Restoring talks on this failed political process after twenty years of fruitless negotiations is meaningless United Nations babble speak.

The Secretary-General needs to focus on the “two-state solution” actually existing in 2015 – Israel and Jordan – the two successor States to the 1922 Mandate for Palestine – which eventually emerged after:

1. the 1920 Arab riots and

2. the political machinations of France and Great Britain between 1920 and 1922.

The riots were intended to pressure decisions affecting the fate of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Mesopotamia (Iraq) at the San Remo Conference starting on 19 April 1920  following the liberation of those territories from 400 years of Ottoman Empire rule in World War One.

The Arabs opposed a Jewish homeland in Palestine – and went on a murderous rampage to express their rage. Five Jews and four Arabs were killed and hundreds wounded between 4 April and 7 April 1920.

However the riots had little impact on the decisions taken at San Remo and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Sevres.

The resulting Mandate for Palestine – adopted unanimously by all 51 member States of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922:

1. Gave recognition to the historical connection of the Jewish People with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country

2. Empowered Great Britain as the Mandatory Power to be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as would secure the establishment of the Jewish national home whilst safeguarding the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine and the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

The Mandate however contained Article 25 – a provision used to deny the Jews the right to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in Transjordan – 78 per cent of the territory of Mandatory Palestine.

The inclusion of Article 25 followed French pressure on the British to stop Abdullah – the second son of the Sharif and Emir of Mecca Hussein bin Ali – leaving Transjordan whilst en route to Damascus with an armed force of 400 Arabs to help his brother Feisal resist French attempts to remove him from power in Syria.

Britain obliged by appointing Abdullah Emir of Transjordan on 11 April 1921. This Emirate became the independent Jew-free Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan in 1946 – today’s Jordan.

Achieving these British and French objectives closed the door firmly on any right to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in Transjordan – confining that right within the remaining 22 per cent of Mandatory Palestine – today’s Israel, the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza.

Redrawing the current boundaries of that fateful 1922 decision -– taking into consideration today’s changed circumstances on the ground -– remains the key to ending the Arab-Jewish conflict.

Pencils and rubbers wielded by Israeli and Jordanian negotiators can end the indiscriminate murder and maiming of Jews by Arab gun-toters, knife-stabbers, stone-throwers and car-rammers -– and the inevitable Jewish response.

Putting The Knife In (video)

O, what a cutie!

Can we be surprised?

The Left puts the knife in (Hat tip: Ian on Elder of Ziyon)

Incidentally,  my latest Tuesday blog on Elder of Ziyon may be of interest: see here

In Montreal, A Comedian With A Megaphone (video)

In Montreal, with a little help from a friend from New York (and on Shabbos, tut tut) the boys from Neturei Karta come out to play:

I guess the comedian with the megaphone has never heard of historic Islamic antisemitism, the Battle of Khaybar, the deliberate humiliations of dhimmitude and jizya for the sake of Muslim supremacism.

More fun and games to be seen here

Speaking of Muslim supremacism, here's a new article by Raymond Ibrahim, describing disturbing manifestations outside the Muslim world.

Meanwhile, the president of the World Jewish Congress has condemned the outrageous proposal before UNESCO to have the Western Wall declared part of Al-Aqsa Mosque:

“For thousands of years, Jews have lived and prayed in Jerusalem. Since 1967, the State of Israel has safeguarded the right of worship of all three monotheistic religions present in Jerusalem, including the right of Muslims to pray on the Mount.

However, declaring the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest place, a Muslim site would be a travesty. Instead of fostering peace, it would only encourage extremists to step up their campaign against Jews, both in Israel and beyond.

Everybody should see that this is not about protecting holy sites; it’s about bashing Israel, it’s about sowing the seeds of strife, and it’s about legitimizing violence. It must be stopped.”

More on that here

That notorious set of four maps rears its ugly head again (hat tip: Ian):

"The World Has Stood On The Sidelines, Allowed The Palestinians To Glorify Terrorists & Murderers" (videos)

Wise words from the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer:

The USA's former ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, on the current violence:

Screeching, shrieking anti-Israel hatred in Sydney this past weekend (they seem shy of sharing their video, so go here).

Another video (by Alex Seymour) of the hysterical London demo (in which, inter alia, Galloway approvingly compares the Palestinian Arab terrorists to the French Resistance and makes it crystal clear that he wants Israel abolished "From the river to the sea"):

I wonder what they think of this kid:

Absolutely fabulous! (Hat tip: Ian)

Meanwhile, from the ghastly Ms Guerin:

 

I don't think the enquirer will get an answer, do you?

In London, The Man Who Would Be Mayor Joins The Anti-Israel Throng (videos); includes updates

The despicable one-sided reportage about current events in Israel (I'm looking at you, among others, Orla Guerin) is continuing to work its evil, despite such capable refutations as this, from Mark Regev:

But of course, nothing Regev or other truth-tellers can say can alter the minds of those who have long since wanted to bring the little Jewish State to its knees.  Hence many demos round the world this weekend; the images below depict Sydney (the cleric in the keffiyeh is Australia's answer to Stephen Sizer), Edinburgh, Dundee, Paris (two pictures) respectively, and London (ditto).

 

Here's footage of the nauseating  raucous anti-Israel demo yesterday in Britain's capital, with mayoral candidate Gorgeous George (that's him above) in characteristic loquacious mood (update: see my next post for another video):

Demonising UK propaganda surrounding the rally here 

More nasties here

In Charlie Hebdo Land:

Below, typical behaviour of totalitarian leftist rabble and rabble rousers (at least one Australian city has witnessed comparable conduct on recent Friday afternoons at rush hour, causing traffic chaos and disruption): demonstrators at London's busy St Pancras station in favour of admitting vast numbers of Islamic invaders "refugees" to Britain and deliberately preventing the travelling public from going about their lawful business unhindered.

Israeli Arab Lashes The Hotheads: "You Are Destroying The Future With Your Own Hands" (video)

Here's Israeli Arab reporter Lucy Aharish mincing no words as she condemns the current incitement against Israeli Jews by Arab and Muslim hotheads:

Hat tip: David Singer

Hamas "re-enactment video":

Bibi browns off the BBC:

Meanwhile, in London ...

Pundits On The Iran Deal (video)

I haven't looked/listened to this 84-minute (!) video, dating from last month, regarding the Iran Deal, but I thought I'd draw attention to it for anybody who might wish to do so. The pundits are taking part in an event at London's Frontline Club, which is often egregiously leftist and which often features Jeremy Bowen (and other Beeboid types).

Oh, and talking of Jeremy ("Out of his depth") Bowen, here's his rotten little "in-depth" piece on the current violence in Jerusalem.

Palestinian Nihilism & Israel's Response (video) plus That Old Golden Rule

Two days ago, Mark Regev sets the BBC's Evan Davis straight:

A must-read article on the current situation in Israel by Isi Leibler here

Incidentally, in  his syndicated column today, the admirable Australian commentator Andrew Bolt, in deploring prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's sleight-of-hand, head-in-the-sand insistence that Islam, no less than Christianity, recognises the "Golden Rule" to do unto others as you would be done by, appears, though certainly not from any malicious motive, to believe that the Golden Rule exists only in Christianity.

Not quite true, Andrew.  Look here, for example:

'The Talmud tells a story of Rabbi Hillel, who lived around the time of Jesus. A pagan came to him saying that he would convert to Judaism if Hillel could teach him the whole of the Torah in the time he could stand on one foot. Rabbi Hillel replied, "What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow man. That is the whole Torah; the rest is just commentary. Go and study it." (Talmud Shabbat 31a). Sounds a lot like Jesus' "Golden Rule"? But this idea was a fundamental part of Judaism long before Hillel or Jesus. It is a common-sense application of the Torah commandment to love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18), which Rabbi Akiba described as the essence of the Torah (according to Rashi's commentary on the verse).'

David Singer on What Muslims Must Do To Combat Extremist Violence in Australia

Opposing feelings run high ...

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.  It's entitled "Islamic Lifelines Can Prevent Islamic State Dead Lines".

Writes David Singer:

Australia was introduced to a high school chaplain and Muslim community leader Sheikh Wesam Charkawi on one of Australia’s most widely viewed TV shows – Q and A – last Monday evening. [Videos here if that page won't load: D.A.]

Australians were still trying to come to terms with the shooting murder of a 58-years-old police department accountant by a 15-year-old Muslim youth dressed in black robes shouting “Allahu Akbar” outside New South Wales Police Headquarters in Parramatta some 10 days earlier.

... in Parramatta

Indeed the Parramatta murder was the third such instance involving Muslims in Australia in the last year – culminating in the loss of three innocent lives and the deaths of the three perpetrators.

Yet Sheikh Charkawi told his audience:

"Our faith teaches to withhold our hands from the breaking the branch of a tree, let alone taking the life of a human being, which equates to taking the life of humanity and saving the life of one amounts to saving the life of all. These are bedrock principles."

The Sheikh’s viewpoint was a revelation – considering the widely held belief that Islam with its Koranic concepts of jihad, martyrdom and forced conversion of non-Muslims was anything but the sanctity-of-life faith portrayed by him.

Sheikh Charkawi in seeking to explain the circumstances of the Parramatta murderer opined: 

"I'm seeing a lot of identity issues with the young men and women and I keep hearing from many on the streets and in the schools that I visit that they tell us that we don't belong. They say that we’re not part of the Australian society, we’re not part of the Australian community, that we’re terrorists, that we’re extremists, that our religion is one that is of destruction and loss of life and so on and so forth. Now, you’ve got to remember that these people were born into the age of terror and they’re being told that they don't belong. What that leads to is to marginalisation and isolation, and if you add that to the mix of the propaganda that is being put forward by the groups like ISIS, it's a very dangerous mix and so you see that it requires a whole of society effort and that's the reality of it."

Left unanswered by the Sheikh was why such marginalisation, isolation and propaganda could lead a 15-year-old Muslim boy to take the life of another human being had he been properly instructed in the bedrock principles of Islam as enunciated by the Sheikh.

Instead the Sheikh tried to pass the buck – stating:

"If we take this issue and we restrict it to the Muslim narrative and we say that this is a Muslim problem, what happens is you can't then step back and look for other empirical evidence as to any underpinning or driving forces that may be at hand here."

With the greatest respect to the Sheikh, it is indeed a Muslim problem – resulting from failing to properly educate its adherents from an early age that:

1. the taking of life is contrary to the principles of Islam

2. negative attitudes or grievances held by a Muslim cannot be resolved by taking the lives of other Muslims or non-Muslims

If the religious instruction afforded Muslims is faith-based on the bedrock principles espoused by the Sheikh – then attempts by Islamic State or other groups to recruit Muslims to their murderous ranks will surely fail.

Let the Australian Muslim community condemn those who seek to violate the sanctity of life in mosques and madrassas as this video recently taken in a mosque in Gaza so chillingly demonstrates.

The silence so far has been deafening.

Wrongful Wright: Obama's former pastor claims Jesus was a Palestinian (video)

This "man of God," addressing a rally in Washington on Saturday organised by the antisemitic Rev. Louis Farrakhan, is a reverse racist, a Jew-hater, and a revisionist of historical truth, helping to spread one of the most odious canards in the anti-Israel arsenal.

Report here

Another kooky Jew-hating preacher here

Meanwhile, here's Christian scholar Raymond Ibrahim lecturing on the conquest of infidels by Islam.

'Twas Da Joos What Did It, Suggests Gorgeous George

Well, well, well! Here's Gorgeous George, speaking on Iran's satellite propaganda channel Press TV a few days ago (8 October), proving that behind those icy baby blues is a sense of humour and a vivid imagination!

I mean, he'd hardly be likely to advance a blood libel, would he?

(Incidentally, George, it's "Western Wall" not "Wailing Wall," the latter being considered an offensive term.)

 Don't overlook the two videos I posted earlier today, btw!

Pardon My French (video)

Thanks to Ian for telling me about this one:

Bonus: more misogyny from the Dark Ages. How the women in Paradise differ from earthly women, few of whom make it to Paradise anyway, apparently.  Much ado about "tearing hymens".  Hymens that conveniently repair themselves after every act of penetration, for the greater gratification of the almighty male! 

As blogger Vlad Tepes comments ironically, the formula seems to be that it ain't porn so long as it's sung.

"They Aren't Human Shields, They Are Human Sacrifices ... There Is No Moral Equivalence Between Hamas & The IDF" (video)

This video was posted to the internet well over a year ago, in August 2014.  But I've only just got around to viewing it.  It really is outstanding.  And in view of such nastyness as trotted out last week by a not-so-Nice guy at London's Gresham College (and this lecture coming up there soon) it's as relevant as ever it was.

The brief description by the uploaders, which I've copied and pasted below, simply cannot adequately convey how fine a speaker Britain's Colonel Richard Kemp is, how firm his grasp of military history, how compelling his expertise, and how absolutely justified his contention that the IDF's behaviour is exemplary among armed forces anywhere in the world.

The talk, which includes a pertinent description of bombing raids on a German armaments facility undertaken on Churchill's orders by the RAF to protect the lives of British civilians during the Second World War,  and an explanation of what the military concept of "proportionality" actually entails, proves clearly, as he says, that Israel has not committed "war crimes".

Stressing that, from personal experience of the force and its members, he knows that the IDF's actions are rooted in Judaic values and a citizen-army's abhorrence at harming innocent civilians, he laments the international media's acceptance of casualty figures known to be falsified by Hamas and given out by the UN.

He also laments the cynical effrontery of Obama, Cameron and Ban-Ki Moon in observing that Israel should do more to minimise casualties when they know full well that Israel is already doing everything possible that can be done in that regard.

As for "human shields" they should in fact be termed "human sacrifices" since that is what they are, all part of that war for public opinion, for that propaganda victory, which is Hamas's aim.

Address hosted by StandWithUs and Shivtei Yisrael synagogue in Ra'anana, Israel. Former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp has a distinguished military career and is an expert in counter-terrorism. Col. Kemp spent significant time in Israel during the IDF's defensive campaign against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, "Protective Edge".

Aussie Ex-Envoy To Israel Rodgers Rubbished On Pro-Palestinian Propaganda

What a silly bit of bile former Aussie ambassador (1994-97)  to Israel Peter Rodgers (now a member of the lobby group Australia Palestinian Advocacy Network) has written in today's The Australian (the reference to Gideon Levy is a laugh in itself!), calling on the Turnbull government to teach Israel some home truths!

It's not behind a paywall, as are many articles in that newspaper, so see it here

His ex-Excellency concludes:

'Late last month, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly that the Palestinians would no longer abide by the 1993 Oslo Accords. These provided the flimsy scaffold for negotiation of Palestinian statehood. What was remarkable about Abbas’s speech was that it took so many years for him to make it. Oslo’s corpse had long lain in the morgue. All Abbas did was to invite a public viewing.

With depressingly familiar hype, Netanyahu slammed Abbas’s UN speech for its alleged deceit and incitement. He urged Abbas to accept the offer “to hold direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions”. That was a good one coming from a prime minister whose own preconditions include no Palestinian state ever, who plays godfather to the settlement movement, and who has now deemed it reasonable to use live ammunition against rock-throwing Palestinians.

Australia has long been susceptible to the line that the Palestinians are not ready for statehood. The Turnbull government, with seven others (including tiny island states such as the Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu), opposed the raising of the Palestinian flag at the UN. The opposition is not much better. The ALP conference last July decided at last to discuss possible recognition of a Palestinian state if there were “no progress in the next round of the peace process”. As if there were a peace process or the faintest prospect of one.

Australian governments have often spoken proudly of their friendship with Israel.

It’s high time that friendship was put in the service of peace by telling Israel a few home truths about the Gordian knot that is ­occupation and violence.'

Among the commenters,  "Elise" gives His Excellency a well-deserved (verbal) spanking:

'It is strange that at a time when Palestinian terrorists in Israel have been murdering, maiming or trying to murder and maim as many Israelis as possible, Peter Rodgers wants to give Israelis some home truths.

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/abbas-says-jews-have-filthy-feet.html

.... Mr Rodgers should stop encouraging and enabling the victim culture of Palestinians and the Palestinian cause to wipe Israel off the face of the map. If he really cared about the welfare of Palestinians he would start by giving Abbas and Hamas some home truths. Instead of blaming Israelis for everything and building up a culture of victimisation and self-harm - how about trying to build a nation state for Palestinians. How about Abbas not referring to 'dirty Jews' visiting Jerusalem sites or paying Palestinian murderers of innocent Israelis of all religions salaries. Instead how about preaching a message of peace and tolerance and using international funds to help under privileged Palestinians.  How about Abbas offering a home to just a few Palestinians from Syria into Ramallah, the capital of his Palestinian State but not that of the Palestinian State of Hamas. There is space there. How about Hamas stops murdering Fatah supporters in Gaza and stops using child labour to build terror tunnels. How about Mr Rodgers asking Abbas to account for the millions of dollars of international aid that he and Fatah members have put into their own bank accounts.

No Mr Rodgers you as a patronising racist don't get to instruct Israelis about your 'home truths' when you refuse to listen to the impassioned pleas of Bassem Eid, a Palestinian human rights campaigner who is begging the world to stop only caring about Palestinians when they can blame Israel for everything. While you and your ilk continue your blame game Palestinians will continue being persecuted by their leaders and by the Arab world as a whole. While you wag your finger self-righteously aid funds meant to better the lives of Palestinians will continue to line the pockets of their billionaire and mult-millionaire leaders and you my dear sir can pat yourself on the back and feel good that you are part of those who will keep Palestinians at the mercy of these haters for years to come.

And Elise in response to a detractor:

'I disagree completely with Peter Rodgers in relation to his manufactured patronising 'home truths' or that there is actually an occupation on the basis of International law. I could go into this on the basis that Gaza was controlled by Egypt and West Bank by Jordan before the Six Day War and that prior to that this was the territory of Britain and before then the Ottoman Empire. Even if you were to believe the nonsense that there was a supposed occupation - Gaza is Judenfrei and Abbas is in charge of most of the West Bank but actually needs Israeli security to ensure that he is not murdered by Hamas operatives in that area.

 The fact that some Jews are living in the West Bank is not the cause of violence or that some Israelis behave badly is not the cause of Palestinian violence. Arab violence towards Jews and the wish to murder Jews was taking place well before the existence of the State of Israel. I remind you that Abbas' favourite mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini was a Nazi supporter who during the 1920s inciting his supporters to murder Jews causing the Hebron massacre on the Jewish Sabbath. Those massacred were not new arrivals but were descendants of the Jews who lived in Israel from before the occupation by the Roman Empire.

 Fast forward today and proof positive that Jews are not the cause of Palestinian violence - look no further than areas where there are no Jews like Gaza. In Gaza Palestinians are more violent than they have ever been before not only towards Israelis in their genocidal aim to wipe all Jews off the face of the map but towards Palestinians as well and of course Egyptians who have now blocked the border between Egypt and Gaza completely.  I could write a well documented thesis about this. Of course ...  if you had read what I have said carefully you would know my views because I have referred to Palestinian victim culture, I have referred to Palestinian leadership's persecution of Palestinians, intolerance and anti-Semitism towards Jews, stealing of aid money due to Palestinian welfare and goodness gracious me I have even referred to a Palestinian human rights campaigner who says that people must stop blaming Israel and start caring about Palestinians. Of course, those supporting Rodgers would disagree because they are indeed the type of people that Bassam Eid blames for allowing the culture to continue.'

And as J-Wire reports here, the Zionist Federation's president, Dr Danny Lamm, has also put Rodgers firmly in his place, saying:

“For a self-proclaimed advocate of “home truths”, Peter Rodgers plays fast and loose with the facts  Per usual, the situation is far more complex than the simple ‘black-and-black’ narrative of Israeli immorality peddled by a semi-professional pro-Palestinian propagandist like Rodgers.

Rodgers recycles unsubstantiated third-hand media reports from anonymous sources to claim that Israel callously refused to prosecute the perpetrators of a horrific firebombing that killed a Palestinian family of four. Of course, he conveniently neglects to mention that Israel has imprisoned three suspected Jewish terrorists under administrative detention since that terrible crime.

 And I use the term ‘suspected’ deliberately because there’s a vast difference between what security agencies might think they ‘know’ and what can be proved in court under the democratic safeguards that protect us all. Would Peter Rodgers prefer for Israel to dispense with the legal niceties of presumed innocence and valid evidence that are essential features of any fair judicial system?"

Meanwhile, here's a nasty piece of antisemitism, posted by a bloke called Sam, apparently from Ramallah, who on his Facebook page describes himself as a journalist at the Palestinian American Council.   The antisemitic post has been shared by a woman called Anita Bruckner who not infrequently posts offensive items to the Facebook group Christian Friends of Palestine.

For Ms Jones-Owens see here

Another example of Sam Ghanayem's mindset:

According to reader P, who has in the past reported one or two posts of Ms Bruckner's, Facebook, having reviewed them, deems them worthy to remain.

Obama’s Failure to Test Putin’s Sincerity Could Seriously Compromise America’s ME Policy, warns David Singer

Photo credt: Reuters/E.Munoz

Earlier this week I posted Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer's spotlight on Abu Mazen's UN-bedazzling economy with the truth (it's proving a popular read, so please have a look if you've missed it).

And now, here's David's latest article, entitled  "Iraq Exacerbates America-Russia Standoff on Destroying Islamic State".

He writes:

America and its 62 nation coalition is becoming increasingly isolated and irrelevant as Russia maintains its airstrikes in Syria and has now commenced firing cruise missiles from warships in the Caspian Sea 1500 kilometres away.

Russia is presently contemplating entering Iraq if requested by Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi [pictured above, addressing the UN on 30 September]  – who had reportedly indicated last week that he would welcome a Russian bombing campaign to destroy Islamic State’s presence in Iraq.

Abadi then said Russian strikes were a “possibility” but had not been discussed.

Russia’s Foreign Minister – Sergei Lavrov – made Russia’s position clear on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly:

“We are polite people. We don’t come if not invited.”

Lavrov’s comment was clearly critical of the American coalition’s air strikes in Syria having being undertaken without any invitation from President Assad – dubiously being justified by America as legal to defend Iraq’s territorial sovereignty against further incursions by Islamic State from Syria.

Now just one week later Abadi has upped the ante - reportedly saying he would welcome Russian airstrikes in Iraq if they were coordinated with the American-led coalition and that he sought to maintain cordial relations with both America and Russia.

He called the American-led coalition “a small help”– adding:

“This doesn’t mean that I reject the small help. Even the one single bomb would be helpful to me”

President Obama would not have been very impressed with Abadi’s mean-spirited disparaging comment.

The American-led coalition has been bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq for more than a year – but Iraqi officials have repeatedly complained that their efforts are insufficient to decisively turn back Islamic State. The United States has spent more than $25 billion training and equipping Iraq’s military.

Valentina Matviyenko – head of Russia’s Federation Council – the upper house of parliament – said this week:

“In case of an official address from Iraq to the Russian Federation, the leaders of our country would study the political and military expediency of our Air Force’s participation in an air operation. Presently we have not received such an address”

Iraq’s concern at destroying Islamic State has been heightened following Islamic State claiming responsibility for a series of bombings that killed more than 50 people throughout Iraq on 5 October.
Abadi’s wish for Russian intervention to be co-ordinated with the American-led coalition has offered Obama probably the last opportunity to come to an agreement with Russia on forming a legally
constituted armed military force authorized pursuant to a Security Council Resolution under Article 42 of the UN Charter.

Obama’s past insistence that any America-Russia co-operation be conditioned upon President Assad’s removal has stymied any possible earlier attempt.

Abadi’s timely lifeline should be grabbed by Obama before Syria and Iraq slide into an escalating conflict of indescribable carnage. Abadi could invite Russia to come to its assistance without American co-ordination if Obama continues to delay seeking Russia’s co-sponsoring of such a Resolution. Obama should heed President Putin’s advice expressed in his New York Times op-ed on 11 September 2013:

“We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression."

Obama’s failure to test Putin’s sincerity could risk America’s Middle East policy being seriously compromised.

Into The Ears of Babes (video)

In Sydney, the distaff side of Hizb ut-Tahrir finds a voice:

A heavy at the main function

More here

More girl power during police swoops on terror suspects' homes in Sydney today in the wake of Friday's murder of a police accountant by a fifteen-year-old Iran-born Iraqi Kurd believed to have been no "lone wolf":

Read and see more here

Fatal Frightful Friday: Chunder Down Under

If anything more than another brings home to us the utter moral bankruptcy of the Left when faced with the terror threat from "radicalised [next, salient adjective conspicuous by its absence] youth" it must be this observation, at left, by the Aussie conservative columnist Tim Blair.

And as always fellow conservative columnist Andrew Bolt has wet left-liberal mealy-mouthedness and pandering to unjustified narratives of victimhood in his sights.

See the video below (a real corker) from his Sunday TV show, in which he contrasts Malcolm Turnbull's "new sensitive language" with the tougher language employed by Tony Abbott.

According to Channel Seven, the 15-year-old Islamic boy who shot police accountant Mr Curtis Cheng to death attended a meeting of the extremist organisation Hizb-ut Tahrir shortly before the fatal deed.

But the head of that organisation refuses to answer reporters' questions relating to that allegation.

Below, brief footage of a Hizb ut-Tahrir rally in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba yesterday.  I believe that there were banners demonising Israel, but don't see them in this footage.  Keep an eye out for Channel Nine footage, which may show more.

Meanwhile, as we learn here, another Islamic extremist group has been out and about on the weekend:

'An extremist Muslim group held a conference at a Melbourne university over the weekend as the country reels from the shooting of a NSW police worker by a radicalised teenager.
Just a day after Friday’s fatal shooting, a controversial conference organised by fundamentalist Islamic group, the Islamic Research and Educational Academy, was held at Deakin University, The Australian reports.
The IREA’s two-day workshops were based on the teachings of Islamic scholars who have recommended the death penalty for homosexuals and apostates, promoted terrorism and preached hatred of Jews and Christians and violence against women.
Media gathered at Deakin’s Burwood campus on Sunday, but the IREA says on its Facebook page they were not allowed inside the venue as “the event was pre-registered”.

The event, dubbed ‘The Art of Da’wah’, was hosted by the ultraconservative Salafist organisation’s president Waseem Razvi....' [Emphasis added]

 

David Singer Exposes Abu Mazen's Porkies

A few hours ago I posted an item regarding mendacious Palestinian propaganda and later added a video which perfectly illustrates one of the key contentions made: please take a look.  Meanwhile, in this new article, entitled "United Nations Bedazzled By Abbas Word Wizardry," Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer continues the theme of propagandistic Palestinian falsehoods, focusing on the United Nations' willing beguilement by Mahmoud Abbas.

Writes David Singer:

PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s speech to the UN General Assembly last week contained a concoction of half-truths and outright lies that everyone listening to him should question.

Here are some prize porkies:

1. “The question of Palestine was one of the first just issues brought before the United Nations from the time of its inception, and yet it remains unresolved until this moment”

17 May 1948; Photo: Detroit Jewish News

Abbas failed to mention that it has remained unresolved since then because:

(i) The Arabs did not accept the 1947 UN Partition Plan to partition western Palestine into a Jewish State and an Arab State – whilst the Jews did.

(ii) The Arabs – instead - unsuccessfully sent six Arab armies to invade Palestine in May 1948 to rout the newly declared Jewish State – Israel – and drive its Jewish population into the sea

(iii) Jordan and Egypt successfully drove out and permanently expelled the Jewish population living in the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria (later termed “the West Bank”) – keeping those areas Jew-free from 1948 until 1967

(iv) No attempt was made between 1948 and 1967 to create the Palestinian state Abbas says he will now accept. That opportunity has been well and truly missed.

2. Abbas described the Palestinian Arabs as “a people that had lived peacefully in their land and made genuine intellectual, cultural and humanitarian contributions to mankind”.

Abbas was gilding the lily.

(i) The Arab riots in Jerusalem in 1920, the Hebron massacre of the Jewish community in 1929 and the Arab riots between 1936 and 1939 give the lie to his claims.

(ii) No genuine intellectual, cultural and humanitarian contributions have been made to mankind by the Palestinian Arabs – unless airline hijackings, suicide vests, and indiscriminate targeting of Jews is what Abbas had in mind

3. “While Palestine was partitioned into two states – according to which Israel was established 67 years ago – the second part of that resolution still awaits implementation.”

Abbas suffers from a selective memory.

(i) Palestine was effectively divided 92 years ago in 1923 – when 78 per cent – originally designated for the Jewish National Home by the 1920 San Remo conference and the Treaty of Sevres – was denied to Jewish settlement by Article 25 of the Palestine Mandate.

(ii) This area subsequently became the Jew-free independent Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan in 1946 – renamed Jordan in 1950 after being unified with Judea and Samaria.

 4. 'We recall here the words of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1976, when he stated that Israel will become an apartheid state if it continues its occupation of the Palestinian territory and described the Israeli settlements on Palestinian land as “cancer”.'

Abbas misleadingly failed to tell the General Assembly that Rabin’s view had changed markedly just before his assassination in 1995 – after experiencing 19 years of unremitting terrorism and rejectionism by the PLO – telling the Knesset:

(i) The borders of the State of Israel would be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. Israel would not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.

(ii) Jerusalem would be united and would include both Maale Adumim and Givat Zeev as the capital of Israel under Israeli sovereignty

(iii) The security border of Israel would be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term

(iv) Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities in the area east of what was the "Green Line" prior to the Six Day War would be included in the State of Israel;

(v) Blocs of settlements would be established in Judea and Samaria like the one in Gush Katif

(vi) No single settlement would be uprooted in the framework of the Interim Agreement, nor building hindered for natural growth

5. “Palestine is a country of holiness and peace. It is the birthplace of Christ, the messenger of love and peace, and the Isra’ and Mi’raj [ascension to heaven and night journey] of Mohammed”

Abbas omitted any mention of the Jews – the forebears of the Christians.

6. “It is no longer useful to waste time in negotiations for the sake of negotiations; what is required is to mobilize international efforts to oversee an end to the occupation in line with the resolutions of international legitimacy.”

Abbas supposedly supports “resolutions of international legitimacy” – yet the PLO he heads has declared that the Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void.

The League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and Article 80 of the United Nations Charter are resolutions of international legitimacy that cannot be swept away because Abbas does not like them.

7. "The state of Palestine, based on the 4th of June 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, is a state under occupation, as was the case for many countries during World War II.”

(i) “The state of Palestine” does not meet the legal requirements of customary international law as encapsulated in the 1933 Montevideo Convention.

(ii) There were no borders – only armistice lines.

(iii) How can “Palestine” be a state under occupation since there was no such State in existence prior to 1967?

The applause accorded Abbas in the UN General Assembly indicates how his deceptively misleading word wizardry continues to confound attempts to end the 100 years old Jewish-Arab conflict.
Exposing its false peddlers must never cease.

Time the United Nations woke up and restored its own credibility.