Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind.(Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)
We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948) With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last.(Friends of Israel Initiative)
LibertyGB head Paul Weston (who incidentally contrasts the clampdown on "Islamophobia" by Britain's law enforcers with the lack of action regarding antisemitism) predicts a civil war in Europe, and tells Americans "Keep talking out against political correctness!":
(Hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog)
More from Mr Weston (in 2014) regarding British dhimmitude:
Meanwhile, reader Mr Cohen continues his series:
*** KORAN VS. TANACH [JEWISH BIBLE] ***
QUOTE 1:
“The Koran, unlike the Bible, calls for a political movement for which all Muslims must fight, kill, and subjugate those of other faiths until Islam rules the world.”
SOURCE: They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It (chapter 1, page 24) by Brigitte Gabriel, year 2010, St. Martin’s Press, 288 pages, ISBN 0312571283, ISBN 9780312571283.
QUOTE 2:
“Many Islamic practices, such as fasting, tithing, daily prayers, and profession of faith, have much in common with Christianity and Judaism. However, what makes Islam different from other religions is its call to kill and subjugate all other members of other faiths. The terrorist of today as well as imams in mosques throughout the world are calling for the deaths of millions of people around the world in the name of Islam. They are calling for jihad against the infidels, citing suras and verses from the Koran and Hadith to support their call to action.”
SOURCE: They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It (chapter 1, page 20) by Brigitte Gabriel, year 2010, St. Martin’s Press, 288 pages, ISBN 0312571283, ISBN 9780312571283.
QUOTE 3:
"Westerners come from a Judeo-Christian background, where the teaching of faith centers on love, tolerance, and forgiveness. They do not understand that the sword of Islam represents hatred, intolerance, murder, and the subjugation of anyone not Muslim."
SOURCE: They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It (chapter 1, page 13) by Brigitte Gabriel, year 2010, St. Martin’s Press, 288 pages, ISBN 0312571283, ISBN 9780312571283.
______________________________________________________
Ayaan Hirsi (ex-Muslim, now atheist) 2015 March 20 said:
“…the call to violence and the justification for it are explicitly stated in the sacred texts of Islam”
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal, quoted by Bernard Goldberg 2016/1/19 in the article: When Is a Crime Committed in the Name of Allah Not About Islam? in Jewish World Review:
www.jewishworldreview.com/0116/bernie_g011916.php3
______________________________________________________
Dennis Prager said:
“According to Pew Research, approximately 10 percent of world Muslims have a favorable opinion of the Islamic State and terror against civilians. That's more than 100 million people.”
SOURCE: The World Is Getting Worse But This Time America Won't Save It by Dennis Prager, 2016 March 8, seen in Jewish World Review
______________________________________________________ Verses of Violence in The Koran:
This is a guest blog by Professor William D. Rubinstein.
He writes:
Mondoweiss has been the subject of three previous guest blogs by me on the Daphne Anson site, here and here and here
For those who don't look at "Mondoweiss," it is a virulently anti-Israel website run by two American Jews.
Well-produced and obviously well-funded, it is updated daily, and consists of giving a platform to every conceivable critic of Israel, most of whom are marginal figures totally unknown outside of extremist circles, and of highlighting every act by the Israeli government and the Israeli military.
Needless to say, there is absolutely no balance of any kind on Mondoweiss, which consistently whitewashes Islamic and Palestinian terrorism by ignoring it.
Many followers of Mondoweiss have asked whether it is antisemitic. Few readers of Mondoweiss probably have the patience or the stomach to go beyond the articles it publishes to read the comments that it posts below each article. They are usually sent to the site a day or two later, by a rather predictable group of regular commentators.
Needless to say, too, no blog is responsible for the ratbags, bigots, and trolls who are attracted to it and post comments, but every blog is responsible for monitoring them and removing offensive postings. Mondoweiss allegedly has a "Comments Policy" that includes "no racist or sexist comments" and "no trolling," which is more honoured in the breach than in the observance, probably because if they were removed, there would be nothing left.
Below is a highly typical selection of comments received about its postings in the last week or ten days. They are not taken out of context, and I could easily have substituted another twenty very similar or identical set of comments of the same ilk.
Readers will have to judge for themselves whether they are antisemitic, and also what kind of blog it is which attracts sewer-level commentators on a daily basis.
"Eljay" believes that:
"It's time for the Zio-supremacists of England to abandon Zio-supremacism, to stop defending the colonialist, (war) criminal and religion supremacist state of Israel and to embrace their English homeland..."
"Emory Riddle" asks:
"Which nations in the ME is Israel destroying? It has destroyed Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, and via the installation of violent repressive leaders, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon." (In other words, Israel ordered the Egyptian army to remove President Morsi from power and install al-Sisi, and then got 96 per cent of the Egyptian electorate to approve of al-Sisi's installation. If the Israelis can do that, they should also be able to get Egypt to move the Pyramids and the Sphinx to Tel Aviv as tourist attractions.)"
"An American Critic" believes that
"Strong support' of Israel at AIPAC constitutes direct support of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and/or religion, violence, ethnic cleansing, and a host of other policies that constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity."
Another commentator who believes that Israel possesses supernatural powers is "Ossinev":
"Any road up the Yahoo [sic] has made it clear what his [Obama's] American minions must do so nothing much has changed in the Zionist scheme of things- the so-called greatest power on earth being controlled and directed by a tiny little Fascist cult colony in the Middle East. Americans should feel proud that Zionists have chosen them as their favored Untermensch."
Hillary Clinton is often singled out for special excoriation, for instance by "Pauline":
"Hillary Clinton, who has openly endorsed Israeli occupation, apartheid, and genocide as she positions herself as the candidate of the Zionist killing machine"
This message was endorsed by "Kalithea," who claims that
"The Queen [Hillary Clinton], benefactress, and soon-to-be priestess of Zionism is about to be crowned by the Lobby and just wanted to ensure Zionist purity. Let's not forget how deeply plagued with insecurity their fanaticism is. Only fascists need to dot every I and cross every T. Their control must be absolute, as with all supremacist ideologies everyone else is inferior and suspect..."
"Amigo" is certainly no friend of Israel, and nor, it seems, of Jewish holidays:
"Palestinians Under Repressive Israeli Monsters
I am sure your so called most moral army will keep the Undermenschen suitably imprisoned while your Zionist Ubermenschen enjoy your holiday [Purim] without a care in the world for those you oppress and ethnically cleanse. Jews celebrating their saving as they murder, oppress, imprison, starve, and generally treat the Palestinians as subhumans. Disgusting."
"Xanadou" is pessimistic about the future:
"For now and in the absence of anyone else who is not an outright uncritical panderer, I need to believe that the Palestinian nightmare may end before the savage hordes that comprise the israeli army and settler gangs, will escalate the deadly rampages into hekatombs [sic]...Perhaps I'm delusional, but the stories and images of unconscionable savagery perpetrated daily in fascist Israel will haunt well into the distant future..."
And so on. Every day sees commentary just like this on Mondoweiss, often even more extreme than that quoted here and regularly even more incoherent.
The usual suspects demonstrating here on 25 March are unhappy about the Globe Theatre company's upcoming performance of Hamlet on 30 March in Tel Aviv at the Cameri Theatre.
To quote the uploader, Inminds.com, chaired by Abbas Ali:
'A letter to the Globe's artistic director Dominic Dromgoole, written on the day of the protest, by senior British theatre figures, and Palestinian theatre and cultural groups, asking Shakespeare’s Globe theatre not to perform at the Cameri Theatre was read out at the protest along with speeches and street theatre'.
In the Australian Murdoch-owned newspaper the Herald-Sun on Sunday, a good article by conservative columnist Miranda Devine, who absolutely nailed it when she wrote that the agenda of the ABC (the BBC's counterpart Down Under)
"is to deny the threat of Islamist terrorism, to engender complacency, and avoid confronting the fact that Islamists are bringing their war to the West.
It is cultural relativists telling us we have no right to feel aggrieved by the attacks on Brussels or Paris or Sydney or Melbourne, because there are more terrorist atrocities in the Middle East and Africa."
With those familiar mendacious maps
As she so rightly says,
"there's a reason our civilised Judaeo-Christian societies are peaceful, compared with broken Islamic states that are spawning a murderous ideology that threatens the world. Our culture is superior and we want to keep it that way.
But the Left are still clutching at straws to deny the undeniable. As the blood of innocents fills the streets of Europe ... the very people who weakened our defences are now pretending there isn't a problem."
Ms Devine quotes from Belgian Senator Alain Destexhe's "chilling article" in La Libre Belgique last week, in which he describes how the long-serving former Mayor of Molenbeek, Philippe Moureaux,
"ushered in a generation of Muslim radicals, mainly from Morocco or Turkey, who kept him in power and who silenced critics by calling them Islamophobic....
Fundamentalist Salafist imams and teachers funded by Saudi Arabia were imported to spread ideological poison. Molenbeek, now more than 40 per cent Muslim, became Belgium's fastest growing place....Molenbeek gradually became an area of lawlessness, where agents of the water or electricity services must be accompanied by police, where almost all restaurants are closed during Ramadan, when 'dirty Jew' has become a common insult... and where blondes and those who wear short skirts are treated as whores or sluts."
No-go areas. Islamic antisemitism. Contempt for and attacks on women. That has a familiar ring, of course.
Five years ago an Israeli television crew exposed what is going on in Belgium and other provinces of Eurabia, and what the Islamists' ultimate goal is, in this compelling 44-minute video, from which my header is just one of many telling and troubling quotations (hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog):
The media made much today of the "football hooligans" who invaded a peaceful demonstration in central Brussels.
But I doubt many have shown this Islamic troublemaker, yelling "Palestine!" over and over (hat tip: Vlad Tepes again):
Concludes Ms Devine:
"Weak, socially progressive Belgium has become Europe's most
hospitable host of the Islamic cancer. But its failures provide us with
a salutary lesson of what not to do."
Sheer hypocrisy from the wretch who opened Britain's gates to all and sundry, irrespective of their compatibility with Western values:
And those who would aid and abet the demise of a once-great nation. I wonder how many of these leftists and anti-nationalists also march against Israel. A rather high proportion, I'd wager.
But as Europe again experiences Islamic Terror, will Europeans now be more sympathetic towards Israel?
Sadly, if the aftermath of 9/11 is anything to go by, I doubt it.
Meanwhile, some ready references from reader Mr Cohen:
*** QUOTES FROM THE KORAN ABOUT INFIDELS ***
Koran, chapter 4, paragraph 95:
Not
equal are those believers who sit at home and receive no injurious
hurt, and those who strive hard fighting jihad in Allah’s cause with
their wealth and lives. Allah has granted a higher rank to those who
strive hard fighting jihad with their wealth and bodies, above those who
sit [at home]. Unto each Allah has promised good, but He prefers the
jihadists who strive hard and fight above those who sit home. He has
distinguished His fighters with a huge reward.
Koran, chapter 8, paragraph 12:
Your Lord inspired the angels with the message:
I
will terrorize the unbelievers. Therefore smite them on their necks
and every joint and incapacitate them. Strike off their heads and cut
off each of their fingers and toes.
Koran, chapter 8, paragraph 39:
So fight them until there is no more fitnah [disbelief of non-Muslims] and all [people in the world] submit to the religion of Allah alone.
Koran, chapter 8, paragraph 59:
The
infidels should not think that they can get away from us. Prepare
against them whatever weapons you can muster, so that you may terrorize
them. They are your enemy and Allah’s enemy.
Koran, chapter 8, paragraph 65:
O
Prophet, urge the faithful to fight. If there are 20 among you with
determination they will vanquish 200. If there are 100 then they will
slaughter 1,000 unbelievers, because the infidels are a people devoid of
understanding.
Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 5:
Fight
and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive,
harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.
Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 14:
Fight them and Allah will punish them by your hands, lay them low, and cover them with shame. He will help you over them.
Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 29:
Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax [jizya] in submission.
Koran, chapter 9, paragraph 123 :
Fight the unbelievers around you, and let them find harshness in you.
Koran, chapter 47, paragraph 4:
When
you clash with the unbelieving infidels in battle, smite their necks
until you overpower them, killing and wounding many of them. At length,
when you have thoroughly subdued them, bind them firmly, making [them]
captives. Thereafter either generosity or ransom (whichever benefits
Islam) until the war lays down its burdens. Thus you are commanded by
Allah to continue carrying out Jihad against the unbelieving infidels
until they submit to Islam.
********************************** FAMOUS LAST WORDS **********************************
Mohammed’s last words before he died:
“O Lord, kill the Jews and Christians.”
SOURCE:Hadith Malik, 511:1588
EXPLANATION: Islam teaches that Mohammed’s
later teachings take priority over his older teachings.
Therefore, the later the teaching, the greater it is.
Therefore, Muslims must believe that Mohammed’s
last words were his most important words. Hadith is a major Islamic holy book, like the Koran.
*** KORAN VS. TANACH [JEWISH BIBLE] *** QUOTE 1: “The Koran, unlike the Bible, calls for a political movement for which all Muslims must fight, kill, and subjugate those of other faiths until Islam rules the world.”
SOURCE: They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It (chapter 1, page 24) by Brigitte Gabriel, year 2010, St. Martin’s Press, 288 pages, ISBN 0312571283, ISBN 9780312571283.
QUOTE 2:
“Many Islamic practices, such as fasting, tithing, daily prayers, and profession of faith, have much in common with Christianity and Judaism. However, what makes Islam different from other religions is its call to kill and subjugate all other members of other faiths. The terrorist of today as well as imams in mosques throughout the world are calling for the deaths of millions of people around the world in the name of Islam. They are calling for jihad against the infidels, citing suras and verses from the Koran and Hadith to support their call to action.”
SOURCE: They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It (chapter 1, page 20) by Brigitte Gabriel, year 2010, St. Martin’s Press, 288 pages, ISBN 0312571283, ISBN 9780312571283.
QUOTE 3: Westerners come from a Judeo-Christian background, where the teaching of faith centers on love, tolerance, and forgiveness. They do not understand that the sword of Islam represents hatred, intolerance, murder, and the subjugation of anyone not Muslim.
SOURCE: They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It (chapter 1, page 13) by Brigitte Gabriel, year 2010, St. Martin’s Press, 288 pages, ISBN 0312571283, ISBN 9780312571283. ______________________________________________________ Ayaan Hirsi (ex-Muslim, now atheist) 2015 March 20 said:
“…the call to violence and the justification for it are explicitly stated in the sacred texts of Islam.”
SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal, quoted by Bernard Goldberg 2016/1/19 in the article: When Is a Crime Committed in the Name of Allah Not About Islam? in Jewish World Review: www.jewishworldreview.com/0116/bernie_g011916.php3 ______________________________________________________ Dennis Prager said:
“According to Pew Research, approximately 10 percent of world Muslims have a favorable opinion of the Islamic State and terror against civilians. That's more than 100 million people.”
SOURCE: The World Is Getting Worse But This Time America Won't Save It by Dennis Prager, 2016 March 8, seen in Jewish World Review ______________________________________________________
Here, entitled "Internet Intifada Denies Free Speech," is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.
He writes:
Many Palestinian websites are stifling free speech by refusing to publish comments answering anti-Israel articles published on their sites.
The latest example is an article written by Rania Khalek on Electronic Intifada
Responding to the decision by McGraw Hill Education to destroy all copies of its text book Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World – containing the accompanying maps – Khalek claimed:
"The maps, which appear in chronological succession on page 123, show Palestinian land loss from 1946, one year before Zionist militias initiated the displacement of more than 750,000 indigenous Palestinians from historic Palestine, to the year 2000, by which point Palestinian land had been reduced to a handful of tiny non-contiguous enclaves in the occupied West Bank and a sliver of Gaza."
I endeavoured to post the following comment in response on 21 March pointing out the misleading nature of these maps:
"Map 1:
The heading “Palestinian and Jewish Land 1946“ is misleading for the following reasons:
(i) The map excludes Transjordan which in 1946 still comprised 78% of the territory of the Mandate for Palestine until granted independence by Great Britain in May 1946.
(ii) The land described as “Palestinian land” misleadingly implies legal ownership by the Palestinian Arabs of that land when in fact about 90% of it was State land under British Mandatory control and legal power of disposition.
Map 2:
The legend “Palestinian land” is misleading.
The legend should have said “proposed Jewish State” and “proposed Arab State” - the terms used in the UN Partition Plan.
Map 3:
The heading "1949-1967" is misleading.
The map should have shown the unification of the West Bank with Transjordan between 1949 and 1967 and the change of name of Transjordan to Jordan in 1950.
It should also have designated the Gaza Strip as being under Egyptian military administration between 1948-1967.
Map 4:
One can only wonder why the year 2000 was chosen. Why not 2015 after Israel had already withdrawn from Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank in 2005 and dismantled many illegal outposts?
In any event the legend “Palestinian land” and “Israeli land” is again wrong and misleading in so far as it relates to the West Bank. The land there should have been shown as Areas “A”, “B” and “C”
As maps designed to be taught to students they are totally lacking in accuracy and ignore basic facts in their compilation.
Designating land as “Palestinian land” in any event implies that such land belongs to the “Palestinians”. Since there were no persons designated as “Palestinians” until the 1964 PLO Charter defined that term – the use of the term in maps before then smacks of an attempt to re-write history.
McGraw Hill had no option but to discard these maps"
My comments have not yet been published – and comes at a particularly sensitive time as Electronic Intifada Editor Ali Abunimah, a US citizen, has recently received a visa from the Australian Government – after waiting two months – to speak at a four day Marxism Conference and at other venues in Australia.
Abunimah posted the following tweet thanking the thousands who had petitioned the Australian Government supporting the grant of his visa:
"I'm so grateful to every person who stood up for free speech. Delighted
that I just received my visa for Australia. See you Down Under!" 4:44 AM - 16 Mar 2016
Perhaps my comment inadvertently slipped through the cracks as Mr Abunimah was busy packing his bags for his visit to Australia.
Free speech means free speech for all Mr Abunimah. Stand up, be counted, publish my comment.
A certain Mr Cohen left the following as a comment in my previous post. Although some of these are on my blogroll, and many are well-known, I thought it worth repeating it here, as a post (thanks, Mr Cohen, for the neatly formatted categories!):
Israel is being buried-alive under an avalanche of media bias and false accusations.
These web sites can help refute those biases and false accusations:
************************************************
HELP DEFEND ISRAEL FROM UNFAIR MEDIA:
************************************************
************************************************
HELP SUE THE TERRORISTS IN COURT:
************************************************ www.IsraelLawCenter.org
************************************************
HELP FIGHT ISRAEL-BASHING ON-CAMPUS:
************************************************
************************************************
Tehillim / Psalms, chapter 129, verse 5:
“Let them be ashamed and turned backward,
all haters of Zion.”
************************************************
Yes, more unashamed antisemitism from Tony Gratrex, the incorrigible organiser of the
Reading Palestine Solidarity Campaign branch, a Facebook friend of
Stephen Sizer (who as I've said many times really should have the
decency to de-friend him):
How about it, Your Reverence?
BDSer Associate Professor Jake Lynch has been talking to the Aussie Green Left Weekly about his reportedly troubled Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University.
And look who was spotted in the audience for this talk at Sydney Uni by John Pilger yesterday:
Photo credit: Peter Boyle
Meanwhile (in contrast to the good sense expressed by conservative columnist Andrew Bolt here and here), in an article entitled "Blame Hate, Not Islam: Europe's Left responds to terror attacks," the Aussie Green Left has been quick to defend the Religion of Peace following the Islamic terror attacks in Brussels, and to take a little swipe at the Zionist Entity in the process.
Inter alia, it tells readers:
'Grassroots groups across Europe are warning against succumbing to misguided and bigoted speech in the wake of the latest terrorist atrocity in Belgium.
Reacting to the terror attacks in Brussels on March 22, an Israeli state official echoed the typical narrative conflating Islam and terrorism, and the idea of a clash of a civilisation.
"This is a Third World War against our common values," Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said, according to the Jerusalem Post. "Terrorism must unite Western countries to unite for a determined, creative, and uncompromising fight against its origins, funders, and operators." Western culture is under attack from extremist Islamic terrorism, which is relentless and indiscriminate, Ya'alon added.
In Europe, calls for increasing security and tightening borders pushed anti-racist groups to issue both condolences and warnings against Islamophia amid the sorrow...
Brushing away heated polemic, some groups instead opted for a sober anti-imperialist analysis...
Islamophobic comments flooded social media following the attacks, with #StopIslam trending on Twitter in major European countries including Belgium, France, Turkey, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands..."
More on the same theme from CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations), in an article entitled "While Brussels aches, Muslims brace for another round of Islamophobia":
Israel-haters, including those special clowns, the Neturei Karta nuts, have been out in force on the streets of Washington screaming their bile against AIPAC and against Israel (raucous cries of "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," "Gaza, Gaza, don't you cry, the fight for you will never dies," plus Israel-demonising screeching and shouting).
The demonstration was organised by Al-Awda, the Palestine Right To Return Coalition and ANSWER Coalition.
Some of the hate-filled ratbags flaunting their bile:
Maintaining the theme of American presidential hopefuls and Israel, here's the latest post by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.
He writes:
Marco Rubio’s withdrawal from the presidential race this week will not relieve Hillary Clinton from affirming or disavowing the following pledge made by Rubio during his failed campaign:
“I will revive the common-sense understandings reached in the 2004 Bush-Sharon letter and build on them to help ensure Israel has defensible borders”
The terms of Bush’s letter – dated 14 April 2004 – were overwhelmingly endorsed by the House of Representatives 407:9 on 23 June 2004 and the Senate 95:3 on 24 June 2004.
The letter backed Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza and promised to support Israel’s following positions in negotiations with the Palestinian Authority over the previous 11 years:
1. Israel would not cede its claims to all of the territory captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War
2. Millions of Palestinian Arabs would not be resettled in Israel and
3. Israel must be recognised as the state of the Jewish people.
Israel’s insistence on these conditions had been major stumbling blocks in the PLO rejecting Israel’s offer to withdraw from more than 90 per cent of the West Bank during negotiations brokered by President Bill Clinton in 2000/2001.
The Bush Congress-endorsed letter had put America squarely in Israel’s corner.
Elliott Abrams – Middle East Affairs point-man at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2009 – had no qualms about the significance of the Bush letter, when stating in July 2009:
“Not only were there agreements, but the prime minister of Israel relied on them in undertaking a wrenching political reorientation -- the dissolution of his government, the removal of every single Israeli citizen, settlement and military position in Gaza, and the removal of four small settlements in the West Bank. This was the first time Israel had ever removed settlements outside the context of a peace treaty, and it was a major step”.
http://www.defensibleborders.org/images/map2.jpg
President Obama however sought to change the goal posts laid down in the Bush letter with this statement on 19 May 2011:
“The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.”
"Indeed, Israelis and Palestinians have held several intensive negotiations that involved swapping lands along the Arab-Israeli dividing line that existed before the 1967 war — technically known as the Green Line, or the boundaries established by the 1949 Armistice agreements. (Click here for a visual description of the swaps discussed between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2008.)
So, in many ways, it is not news that the eventual borders of a Palestinian state would be based on land swaps from the 1967 dividing line. But it makes a difference when the president of the United States says it, particularly in a carefully staged speech at the State Department. This then is not an off-the-cuff remark, but a carefully considered statement of U.S. policy.”
Given the chaos in Syria since Obama’s statement, the birth of Islamic State in 2014 and the continuing unstable political and security situations in Gaza and the West Bank – mutually agreed land swaps as a concept have become just another missed opportunity whose time has expired.
Michael Oren – Israel’s Ambassador to Washington between 2009 and 2013 – was moved to make the following call in January 2015:
"... it’s time to revive the Bush-Sharon letter and act according to it.”
Will Clinton so act – if elected America’s 17th Democratic President – to honour a former Republican President’s commitments to one of America’s longstanding allies that go far beyond personal partisan politics?
In this robust speech Hungary's Viktor Orban, defying the politically correct tyranny that would muzzle us all, spells out the terrible threat facing Europe, its civilisation, and its people by the invasion whose name is miscalled "migration".
As Vlad Tepes notes, this video deserves to be widely shared.
Yes, I'm talking about the BBC's Chris Rogers, who's on record as making light of the antisemitism he was supposed to be reporting about by clowning around.
To quote the Daily Mail a couple of years ago:
'A BBC journalist was filmed giving a Nazi salute and goose stepping
while filming a documentary about anti-Semitic football fans in Poland
and Ukraine.
Chris Rogers was caught marching with one finger under his nose, as crew reportedly looked on.
The
BBC Panorama documentary Euro 2012: Stadiums of Hate, was filmed two
years ago ahead of the tournament in Poland and Ukraine - but details of
the gaffe have only just come to light.
Mr Rogers ... admitted that he displayed a 'lack of judgment'.
He
said: 'I fully accept that some of my behaviour, which was intended as a
joke, was deeply inappropriate particularly given the seriousness of
what we were filming.
"I apologised and was strongly reprimanded
by the BBC. I might have displayed a lack of judgement but none of this
detracts from the serious football racism exposed in the programme."'
And now Mr Rogers has demonstrated questionable behaviour again.
To quote London's giveaway rival to the Jewish Chronicle, the Jewish News:
'The BBC has apologised after one of its radio presenters said on-air that Israel “hasn't really worked out” as a country.
BBC Radio London host Chris Rogers was hosting a phone-in on Tuesday about the refugee crisis when a caller asked: “Why can’t they put a load of them (refugees) in Africa?”
The presenter replied: “Is just dumping families from all over the world, with lots of different cultures and reasons for fleeing - is just dumping them in a new state, if we do Israel all over again, is that really the answer?
“I mean, Israel arguably hasn't really worked out, has it?”
A Board of Deputies spokesman called on Mr Rogers to clarify or apologise for remarks which he said were “off-hand, politically-loaded” and “most unfortunate”.
In response, a spokeswoman for the BBC explained that “Chris Rogers was trying to challenge the caller's point by finding a historical comparison and in the heat of a live programme discussion he picked the example of Israel.
“He accepts that his words might have implied criticism of the creation of the state of Israel which was not his intention. BBC Radio London apologises if any listener was offended.”...'
Funny how he just happened to pull Israel out of thin air though, innit.
Look who's coming to Oz– the Electronic Intifada founder
A report by journalist John Lyons in The Australian newspaper claimed this week that Mary Easson, one of five members of the New South Wales branch of the Australia Israel Labor Dialogue group (AILD) (which since its formation in 2010 has sent over 30 Aussie trades union and Labor Party (ALP) officials on fact-finding trips to to Israel), "is also a lobbyist for the Australian subsidiary of one of Israel’s largest arms manufacturers [Elbit]" and "has also played an active role in the emotive debate within the Labor Party over its policy towards Israel".
Lyons wrote:
"The fact that Ms Easson’s company, Probity International Pty Ltd, is lobbying for Elbit is almostcertain to lead to anger within the ALP from those who have taken trips organised by the AILD.
Ms Easson has been locked in a brutal fight inside the Labor Party with former foreign minister Bob Carr over policy towards Israel. Ms Easson wants the ALP to retain its bipartisan support for Israel while Mr Carr wants a deadline for Israel to cease its expansion of settlements in the West Bank and to return to negotiations with the Palestinians.
Elbit is one of Israel’s largest manufacturers of bombs, mortars, cyber warfare systems and drones and much of its ordnance was used in the 2014 war with Gaza. On its website, Elbit says one of its products — the Soltam Spear — has “unprecedented lethality."
Sure enough, again according to Lyons in a follow-up report, former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr is on the trail, fuming that'
"It would be common
sense for party leaders to say the dialogue must present an
independently audited account of its fundraising. The party’s
credibility with literally hundreds of thousands of voters with Arabic
backgrounds is at stake."
Lyons further reported:
'Ms
Easson denies Elbit has ever made a donation to AILD. But Mr Carr said
any connection to Elbit was “a shameful look — arms dealers, civilian
deaths, the electronic fence”.'
And Israel bashing ALP member of the federal Parliament is reported as saying:
“Given the significant numbers of ALP members who are apparently
being taken on these trips to Israel, it is a concern not to know who is
providing the funds, particularly where there is a person associated
with an Israeli weapons manufacturer on the AILD committee."
But former Queensland premier Peter Beattie, patron of the New South Wales branch of AILD is quoted thus:
“I am not interested in a petty side argument between the warring factions in the ALP over Israel and Palestine”
(These reports are behind a paywall.)
Meanwhile, AILD, in response to what Lyons reports, states:
"The AILD is not now, or has ever sought to be funded by Elbit or any other defence company, whether Israeli or Australian.
The Mission of the AILD is to build bridges between the Australian and Israeli Labor Parties across the spectrum of shared values such as workers rights, women’s status, gay rights, multiculturalism and shared understanding of a two state solution to the Israel Palestine conflict.
As part of our activities we arrange tours to Israel and Palestine and provide subsidies to those who cannot afford to travel to the region. Our funding comes from private donations sought from the Australian Jewish and pro-Israel Non-Jewish community.
To insinuate that because 1 of our supporters and activists is a consultant to a company that has a contract with Elbit, so AILD must be involved is both absurd and extremely poor journalism. It smacks of an opinion in search of a story in order to smear AILD and it’s democratic right to actively and openly champion a peaceful resolution of two nations for two peoples within the ALP.
There are those who seek to impose their own one-sided view on Israel Palestine within the ALP, and ban subsidised trips to Israel and Palestine. The AILD will never subscribe to impose totalitarian controls on what any individual wishes to see or do in their quest for understanding in this and any place in the world."
.And Dr Colin Rubenstein, executive director of The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), which sends journalists on fact-finding trips to Israel, declares:
“As noted by AILD, their program of sending union officials to the Middle East is not and has never been funded by Elbit or any other arms manufacturer, regardless of the indirect connection of one AILD director, Mary Easson, to that company, and no matter what John Lyons chose to imply ...
The only real news story here is that there is an organised campaign, as we have seen in the NSW ALP recently, to try and stop Australian political and opinion leaders going to the Middle East, meeting leaders and experts from both sides and learning the truth about the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. This campaign is determined to seize on anything, however tenuous, to try and discredit such trips, despite how much they have enriched the debate in this country. Unfortunately, Australian journalist John Lyons seems all too willing to lend his pen to this campaign.”
