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)

Wednesday 31 October 2018

David Singer: Trump’s Thinking Hints at One-State Solution to the Jewish-Arab Conflict

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

He writes:

United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis remarkably failed to mention “the two-state solution”, or even the “Palestinian-Israeli conflict” in his keynote address,“US Policy in a Changing Middle East”–  delivered at the International Institute for Strategic Affairs 14thRegional Security Summit in Manama, Bahrein held between 26-28 October.

Mattis’ pointed omissions can only fuel speculation that a “one-state solution”– possibly involving the creation of a Jordan enclave in the West Bank – could now be uppermost in President Trump’s thinking.

Billed as “The Middle East’s premier security summit” – the attendees included some of the most powerful policymakers from the Middle East and beyond to address the region’s most pressing governance challenges.

Jordan’s King Abdullah in the opening address at the Summit – delivered by his Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi – had warned:
“There have been many attempts to delay and subvert the hope the two-state solution offers. Today, these negative efforts include the fallacy of a single, bi-national state. Any such solution, based on unilateral acts and unequal rights, would be a moral disaster and a recipe for continued conflict.”
Safadi reinforced Abdullah’s message in his own speech the following day:
“As His Majesty said yesterday, the fallacy of one-state solution is something that we all need to keep our eyes wide open as it is being put on the table. If there is no two-state solution then a one-state solution, then Israel is going to have to do determine whether it is going to be apartheid South Africa or a democratic Israel where Palestinians within Israel are going to have to exercise their political rights. So, this is the kind of situation that we are looking at.”
The King and his Foreign Minister’s gloomy prognostications would disappear in their entirety if that “one-state solution” did not comprise Israel and the entire West Bank – but comprised Jordan united with a Jordan enclave in part of the West Bank.
A Jordan enclave would:
  • Contain possibly 95% of the existing West Bank Arab population – once again being reunified in a single territorial entity with Jordan as existed between 1950 and 1967
  • Enable Jordanian citizenship to be restored to the enclave’s population – as previously existed between 1950 and 1988.
  • Remove apartheid fears – since the Jordan/enclave  population would be entirely Arab with family ties extending over the two banks of the Jordan River
  • Be as democratic or undemocratic as the re-united populations wished – as occurred between 1950 and 1988
  • Complete the original two-state solution first contemplated by the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine:
  • an Arab State – Jordan – sovereign in about 80% of the territory of the Mandate -and
  • a Jewish State – Israel – sovereign in about the remaining 20% of the Mandate
Interestingly, Safadi – in answering a question on resolving the seven-year-old Syrian conflict – remarked:
“I think if we all look in the mirror and ask ourselves the question, have we been following the right approach to solving the problem, I think facts on the ground will tell us no. We need not double down on positions that have gotten us where we are now. We need to be more realistic. We need to follow new approaches that will bring about a political solution to that crisis.”
The single bi-national state is neither a fallacy nor a disaster – if both national entities are Arab.

A Jordan enclave in the West Bank – negotiated between Israel and Jordan under President Trump’s auspices – could indeed prove to be the new approach and realistic political solution to ending the 100-year-old Arab-Jewish conflict.

(Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators –  whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)

Tuesday 30 October 2018

Israel-Haters March in Sydney (video)

Shouting familiar chants, the Left-Islamist alliance demonstrating on Sunday against any attempt by the Australian government to move the country's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to, er, 'Al Quds'.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0D4jDTKaxM

(Video by Peter Boyle for Green Left TV)

Monday 29 October 2018

"Truly Shameful": Stench from the pits

For the victims see here

The loathsome Jenny Tonge has since attempted to tone down her remarks, made in reaction to the Pittsburgh synagogue tragedy, but her stench remains:



Meanwhile:


And





If you haven't yet read the article, by Colin Appleby, recommended by J.K. Rowling, please do so! 

'I’ve fallen out of love with Labour.

I’ve been called a Zionazi.

I’ve been asked if I was a Zionist.

I’ve been called a Tory Jew.

I’ve been told I’m good with money.

I’ve been told that I’m “obviously” rich.

I’ve been accused of being more loyal to Israel than the U.K.

I’ve been called a child killer.

I’ve been barred from attending a JVL [Jewish Voice for Labour] meeting.

I’ve been told “to shut the fuck up Jew”.

I’ve been screamed at in the street because I wanted JLM [Jewish Labour Movement] to address a local party meeting.

I’ve been told I only ever care about Jewish stuff.

I’ve been called Zio scum.

I’ve been told I’m worthless.

I’ve been told I’m a disgrace.

I’ve been told Hitler was right.

I’ve been told “it’s a pity all of your lot weren’t gassed”.

I’ve been spat at.

I’ve been threatened with physical violence.

I’ve reported every single incident.

I’ve been told it’s all lies.

I’ve been told I’m part of a conspiracy to get Corbyn.

I’ve been told I don’t belong in Labour.

They’re right about that, I’m a Jew and I don’t belong in Labour. I’m done. I resign my membership.
'

Saturday 27 October 2018

Shaming The "Apartheid" Smear

Outside the Curzon Cinema in London's Soho on Friday night, a little squad of Israel-haters from the Islamic group Inminds protests the cinema's hosting of an Israeli film show held under the auspices of  the Israeli Embassy.  

There's no Sandra Watfa this time to lead the demonisation of the little Jewish State; instead, there's some chap with a suspicion of a Scottish accent.

Nor are there any flag-waving Zionist activists on hand, although things suddenly get noisy when raucous chants of "Free Palestine!" are met by booming cries of "Shame on you!" from a pro-Israel couple who proceed (with what aim in view is unclear) to summon a waiting Mr Plod.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igKdsKH3O2Y

(A MrAlexSeymour video)

Allegations that Israel is an apartheid state, like those comparisons to South Africa under white minority rule recently made by former Foreign Office diplomat  Craig Murray, have been ably dissected by Israeli journalist and commentatorYisrael Medad, who writes in a brand-new article that can be read in its entirety here:
'Quite plainly, language in the discourse is being corrupted and definitions are being eviscerated. Moreover, the object of this exercise is to demonize Israel and Zionism, poison minds and attempt to disenable any defender of Israel and Jewish nationalism from responding by literally dictating the conversation to the total disadvantage of a pro-Israel stance. And tax-exempt donations to the New Israel Fund monetize this language.
In essence, we need acknowledge that nothing has really changed from the beginning of the attacks on Zionism in the mass media led by Lords Northcliffe, Rothermere and Beaverbrook in the early 1920s and the targeting of Jews as Jews, which allows anti-Semitism a free ride. As [British historian]David Cesarani put it in 1989, is anti-Zionism motivated by principled objections to Zionism and sympathy for the Palestinian Arabs, or more due to hostility to the Jews or that their antipathy to Zionism is based on prejudices regarding Jewish behavior?
Zionism’s opponents elasticize language. They stretch terms that properly belong in one sphere of activity or thought and seek to apply it, unfairly and incorrectly, to what is happening in Israel. There’s even the trick called “Holocaust inversion,” for example. When I first became involved in hasbara efforts in 1964, one of the favorite ploys was “we can’t be anti-Semitic for we are Arabs and Arabs are Semitic.”
Today, from Carter on down, “apartheid,” which indicates a complete separation based on race is now applied to Israel, as if there are two sets of toilets and water fountains. Or that T’rua handout I quoted from above reads “Green Line: Israel’s internationally recognized border” when the actual ceasefire agreement states
Article VI 9. The Armistice Demarcation Lines defined in articles V and VI of this Agreement are agreed upon by the Parties without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines or to claims of either Party relating thereto.
Or in other words, the Green Line was quite definitely not Israel’s internationally recognized border. In fact, the word “border” appears but once and as a future issue Israel could raise, an issue of “border rectification.” The exact term used in the agreement is “Armistice Demarcation Lines.” Language is artificially stretched, elasticized and the intent of the newly defined term becomes a weaponized semantic.
As for “colonialism,” what is it that Arabs did in the seventh century if not conquer a country not theirs, occupy it and then colonize it? Who “occupied Palestine,” or rather, the area the international community set aside for the establishment of an Arab Palestine state, if not Jordan, an act the international community basically ignored because Jews were not involved? Where is the actual apartheid practiced, if not within the confines of the Haram A-Sharif on the Temple Mount, where Jews cannot even drink water from the fountains there—not to mention pray or even just read from the Bible?
For all these examples and many more, there are no words to describe the deviousness in subverting historical truth and current events. Opponents of Israel and Zionism abscond with the rhetoric, and not only fashion a made-up narrative but create a new language in which to argue the Arab conflict with Israel. Their elasticizing of semantics is stretching the truth.'  [Emphasis added]
Meanwhile, in America the Sojourners organisation's magazine staff gets a dose of anti-Israel propaganda from "apartheid state" demoniser Stephen Sizer during his recent visit stateside:



Wednesday 24 October 2018

David Singer: Jordan and Israel – Trump’s only viable two-state solution

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

He writes:

Four major developments in the past week have heightened expectations that President Trump will have no option but to call on Jordan and Israel to negotiate the allocation of sovereignty between their two respective States in the West Bank and Gaza – 5% of the territory comprised in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (Mandate) .

Jordan and Israel are the two successor States to the Mandate currently exercising sovereignty in the other 95% of the Mandate territory – Jordan 78%, Israel 17%.

Jordan-Israel negotiations – if successfully concluded – would complete the two-state solution first contemplated under article 25 of the Mandate. Arab and Jewish claims to the Mandate territory would be finally resolved.

These four developments were:
1. The G77 and China – comprising 135 of the 193 United Nations member states – appointed the non-existing “State of Palestine” as Chairman of the G77 for 2019 and procured the passage of a United Nations General Assembly Resolution giving this phantom “State of Palestine” the right to:
(a) Make statements on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, including among representatives of major groups;
(b) Submit proposals and amendments and introduce them on behalf of the Group of 77 and China;
(c) Co-sponsor proposals and amendments;
(d) Make explanations of vote on behalf of the States Members of the United Nations that are members of the Group of 77 and China;
(e) Reply regarding positions of the Group of 77 and China;
(f) Raise procedural motions, including points of order and requests to put proposals to the vote, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.
US Ambassador to the UN – Nikki Haley – re-iterated America’s long-standing position:
“The United States does not recognize a Palestinian state, notes that no such state has been admitted as a UN Member State, and does not believe that the Palestinians are eligible to be admitted as a UN Member State.”

The PLO has chosen the United Nations fantasyland to push its agenda in preference to negotiating with Israel under Trump’s proposed plan – simultaneously rejecting the Montevideo Convention requirements necessary for statehood in international law.
11 other UN member states embraced this nonsensical resolution, whilst the remaining 47 voted: Against (3), Abstained (15), or Did Not Vote (29). 
2. US Secretary of State – Mike Pompeo – announced that the U.S. Embassy Jerusalem and U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem would be merged into a single diplomatic mission.

 This was Trump’s response to the UN’s embrace of the “State of Palestine”.

3. President Trump sent World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder as his personal envoy to Jordan.
Lauder's visit reportedly occurred without the knowledge of Israel or Trump’s Special Middle East Negotiators – Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt.
Jordan received $690 million in US aid in 2018 – to be boosted by a 27% increase for each of the next five years. Lauder would have reminded Jordan’s King Abdullah that Trump’s policy could see this aid reduced if Jordan refuses to negotiate with Israel.

4. King Abdullah gave Israel twelve months’ notice of Jordan’s intention to not renew twenty-five year leases of two areas denoted as “Special Regimes” in the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty.
Israel is entitled to request that consultations be entered into – as Israel undoubtedly will – since Israeli private land ownership rights and property interests are affected in one area and Israeli private land use rights in the other.

 These Special Regimes would become important bargaining chips in Jordan – Israel negotiations on the West Bank and Gaza over the next 12 months.

 Any Trump peace proposal not requiring direct Jordan –Israel negotiations will be dead in the water from the get-go.


(Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones” –  one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)

Tuesday 23 October 2018

A French-Algerian Talking Shiite

Here's Yahia Gouasmi from Algeria, described by Memri TV as "the founder of the Shiite Zahra Center and head of the Anti-Zionist Party of France" warning all those dastardly Zionists in a message posted to his YouTube channel in June that in less than five years "your smell will no longer be on this Earth".

He takes a more charitable line towards the likes of Neturei Karta, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=HBAcl3na9vo

(Here, by the way, are vile Islamic anti-Jewish sentiments.)

"The Police Don't Help Us. The Police Want an Easy Life" (Jewish Londoner)

With, at times, an unfortunate background of noise that almost obscures her remarks, a Jewish lady shares with a Daily Express journalist her views regarding the antisemitism stirred by Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=VEyDtdnUIv8

Sunday 21 October 2018

On the Dark Side of the Moon: Sizer in Oklahoma

This year, the Christ at the Checkpoint (CATC) Conference, a bi-annual Israel-bashing event dedicated to undermining Christian Zionism and founded by Palestinian activists in Bethlehem eight years ago, is being held in the United States for the very first time.

As reported inter alia here, Luke Moon, deputy director of the Philos Project, believes that while CATC will in all likelihood not "turn a significant number of evangelicals against Israel, he believes their attack on Christian Zionism is anti-Semitism in disguise" and has expressed surprise at finding that Stephen Sizer, CEO of the so-called Peacemaker Trust (which appears to be more obsessively concerned with attacking Israel than ever before) is a speaker: 
A naive ally -er- alibi (geddit?)  Yep, there's always one ...
"I kept asking myself, are the organizers so foolish to cast such a negative shadow over the conference. It became clear that Sizer's work in fighting Christian Zionism was more important than his anti-Semitism.
This shows me two things about CATC. First, it shows that they are not as concerned about anti-Semitism as they claim. Second, they fail to recognize how inviting Sizer undermines their efforts to attract Christians to their cause. 
Anti-Zionism seeks to delegitimize the claims of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. It is the connection to that land, the shared memory and hope that one day they would be restored to their land, Zion, that preserved the Jews as a particular people among the nations they lived. Anti-Zionism seeks to strip that away.
I believe there is sufficient evidence to show that attacking Christian Zionism not only harms Jewish-Christian relations, it leads to an environment where it's not just the relations that are harmed, it's the Jews themselves."

Friends on ...
Meanwhile, Sizer (who is apparently hoping to visit Atlanta and Seattle next year) is miffed that the first  review of the Kindle edition of his (Sizer's) notorious book Zion's Christian Soldiers is a critical one, albeit measured, by James Mendelsohn, and is requesting his social media faithful to post their own to neutralise it.

Opines Mendelsohn:
'[T]he book is seriously marred by the author's very obvious anti-Israel agenda.
Facebook react ...
A clear example of this is his statement on pp. 69-70: "The 'dividing wall of hostility', typified by the barrier that separated Jews and Gentiles in the temple, has been broken down by Jesus Christ. It is ironic, if tragic, that despite his willingness to comply with all the petty temple regulations concerning ritual purity, Paul would eventually be arrested for allegedly bringing Greeks into the temple and defiling God's house (Acts 21:28-29).
Today, their successors in the government of Israel are seeking to erect a much higher and longer 'separation barrier' to preserve their racial identity and exclusive claim to the land of Palestine." The phrase, "Today, their successors..." seems to imply that Jews, or at least Jewish leaders, are incorrigibly racist. Since there are both Jews and Arabs both to the East and to the West of Israel's security barrier, Sizer's claim is demonstrably false. Rather, the security fence was built to stop Israelis being killed, and has been demonstrably successful: 431 Israelis were killed in 137 suicide bombings between September 2000 and the completion of the northern and most of the Jerusalem sections of the wall, 100 in March 2000 alone.
and react ...
 After the completion of the wall in the north, there was not a single terrorist attack across that section. By December 2004, the number of suicide attacks launched from the West Bank had fallen by 84% in less than two years. (Figures from Sir Martin Gilbert's updated Israel, A History, p. 631.) Since Sizer neither mourns these Israeli dead nor condemns (or even acknowledges) their killers, and instead denounces the structure designed to protect Israelis as a symbol of racist imperialism, it is hard not to conclude that he has no objection to Israelis being killed. (This is not to deny that the wall undoubtedly causes serious hardship and suffering to the Palestinians; nor that the wall cuts into land beyond the Green Line, which could otherwise have been allocated to a future Palestinian state.)
... ever more ...
Sadly, this is not an isolated instance in Sizer's book. At page 8, the Union of Jewish Students (i.e. your friendly local J-Soc) is cast as an opponent of intellectual freedom. On page 10, Sizer asks, "Why is Israel allowed to retain nuclear weapons, while Iran is threatened with a pre-emptive attack for aspiring to obtain nuclear technology?", yet inexcusably fails to mention that Iran's president has denied the first Holocaust and has threatened to perpetrate a second. At footnote 12 on page 6, Sizer draws on the conspiracy theories of Mearsheimer and Walt. In a footnote on page 15, he refers approvingly to the flawed and highly partisan works of Jimmy Carter and Ilan Pappe, and also to Uri Davis, a PLO observer member who helped to promote the antisemitic play "Perdition" in the 1980s, which alleged that Zionist leaders collaborated with the Nazis in perpetrating the Holocaust.
despicably (click here for the antisemitic article*)
Sadly, this in keeping with an author who demonises supporters of Israel as "people in the shadows" and for whom Uri Davis, neo-Nazi favourite Israel Shahak and Holocaust-denier-defender and intellectual crook Noam Chomsky are "leading Jewish academics". For all that Sizer says that "Anti-Semitism must be repudiated unequivocally" (p. 15), some of his terminology and sources seem to point in the other direction. It is surely not a coincidence that, in 2015, Stephen Sizer was censured by Andrew Watson, the Bishop of Guil[d]ford, for posting "clearly anti-Semitic material" on social media.
Saddest of all, though, is the fact that, Zion's Christian Soldiers? has, like Sizer's previous book, been published by Inter-Varsity Press, a reputable Christian publishing house, and has been endorsed by various prominent Christian leaders, including Dick Lucas and Rico Tice. One might not expect reviewers to check every source and factual assertion (though we might hope that a responsible publisher would), but frankly this is of little comfort to those of us who are Jewish, who recognise antisemitism when we see it, and who are all too aware of what antisemitism has led to through the centuries....'
*When will Sizer clear out that Augean stable?!

Thursday 18 October 2018

David Singer: Jordan Jumps on Trump Bandwagon Leaving PLO Way Behind

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

He writes:

Any lingering thought that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) would have any role to play in President Trump’s soon-to-be-released peace plan has vanished – after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that $165 million had been deducted from funding to the PLO because of its continuing “pay for slay” policy in breach of the Taylor Force Act.

Jordan has now signalled its preparedness to replace the PLO by publically supporting Trump in an article written in the Jordan Times by Walid Sadi – a retired Jordanian diplomat with over 35 years’ experience and himself a former editor of the Jordan Times. 

Sadi’s CV is impressive – having headed the Jordanian Delegation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Conference in Rome and been the Chairperson of the ICC’s Working Group on Crimes against Humanity. He also represented the Jordanian government in Washington, Moscow, Ankara and London. 

The Jordan Times is published by the Jordan Press Foundation – in which the government-owned Social Security Investment Fund has a majority stake.  Sadi’s endorsement of Trump could only have been published with the knowledge and approval of Jordan’s King Abdullah.

Sadi makes no bones in airing his reasons for Trump’s success on the world stage:
“World leaders fear him because they know he is capable of anything and his finger is so close to nuclear weapons capable of blowing hostile capitals to smithereens with no qualms or hesitations. And above all, he seems to get away with anything as if he is immune to any mischief from within or outside his country.”
Sadi frankly acknowledges: 
“No matter what Trump’s opponents or enemies throw at him, populist support for him remains solid and unwavering. It was the populist wave that brought Trump to power and this wave remains as strong as ever. It is almost a love or hate narrative when it comes to Trump and he is riding high on the love tsunami that won him the election in the first place.”
Given these fundamentals in the Trump persona – Jordan would be foolhardy indeed to reject Trump’s invitation to enter into direct negotiations with Israel to resolve the allocation of sovereignty in the West Bank – which the Trump-hating PLO has unequivocally rejected with devastating consequences.

Jordan currently exercises:  
  • Sovereignty in 78 per cent of the territory comprised in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine 
  • Custodianship over the Muslim Holy Shrines in Jerusalem under the 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty.
Jordan also:
Renamed “Judea and Samaria” the “West Bank” – after Transjordan and Judea and Samaria had been unified into one territorial entity in 1950 and named “Jordan”  
- Granted Jordanian citizenship to the West Bank Arab population from 1950 until it ceded legal and administrative control to the PLO in 1988.
-   Conferred citizenship on 70 per cent of Jordan’s population hailing from the remaining 22 per cent of former Palestine
 Sadi argued for Jordan’s inclusion in Trump’s plan in an earlier Jordan Times article dated 12 August: 
“… the unity of the West Bank with the East Bank was officially and constitutionally adopted on 24 of April 1950. No one disputes this fact. The Constitution of the country at the time was the 1952 Constitution, which stipulated in no uncertain terms that no part of the Kingdom shall be ceded, period. This provision makes the 1988 decision to cut off all legal and administrative relations between the two banks stopping short of ceding the West Bank to any side whatsoever. Any other interpretation of the 1988 political decision is absolutely untenable constitutionally.”
The Trump bandwagon is swinging into top gear – with Jordan in the box seat and the PLO left flailing way behind.

(Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators –  whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)

Olde Tyme Preacher: "The Jews Are Involved in All of It"

Here's Iraqi Shiite cleric Sheikh Muhammad Al-Lami ranting that "the Jews", to quote the synopsis provided by Memri.TV:
'are involved in “everything that is happening in the world, especially in the Middle East,” including car bombs, “religious and ideological deviations,” economic ruin, destruction of infrastructure, and Sunni-Shiite hostilities.“As long as Tel Aviv, New York, and Washington live in peace, we will have ruin and destruction,” he said, adding: “We are being destroyed and these countries are safe, which means that they are our destroyers. The Jews!”
Mentioning the antisemitic hadith about the Prophecy of the Rock and the Tree, Sheikh Al-Lami said that the Jews would “suffer merciless humiliation” at the hand of the Muslim believers. He declared: “Our Lord does not need to strike the arrogant nations with TNT or nuclear bombs, in order to destroy them. All the tyrants met their end by simple means.”
The address was posted on Sheikh Al-Lami’s Youtube channel on October 1, 2018.'
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hylsjh4f4dM

Meanwhile, regarding Anjem Choudary, the notorious Islamic extremist in the UK who's shortly to be let out of gaol, here's an BBC assessment of his influence, on video.

Wednesday 17 October 2018

Multiplication, It's the Name of the Game (video)

In Australia:

                                 https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=wSloT-NMnoI

In Australia's nearest neighbour.

Tuesday 16 October 2018

A Hate Crime in Brooklyn (video)

A stroll to shul on Sunday morning took an unexpected turn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThJ-8ora6Io

See more footage here

Monday 15 October 2018

On French TV, Hate & Hypocrisy: A French oleh tells

This is a guest blog by French oleh Abraham Chicheportiche, entitled Al Dura Season 2 by French TV France 2

He writes:

A report broadcast on the program Envoyé spécial is angering Israel and French Jews.

Elise Lucet, a journalist at France 2, presented Gaza, a Crippled Youth, a documentary by Yvan Martinet.

Yvan Martinet is a great admirer of the propagandist Charles Enderlin, fount of the Al Durrah (or Dura) trickery, and Paul Moreira -- Paul Moreira with his anti-Israeli activist friends of the NGO Reporters Without Borders has seized the International Criminal Court (ICC) concerning "war crimes committed by the Israeli army against Palestinian journalists", (Seen on RSF website ).

Yvan Martinet tweeted "Thanks" to Charles Enderlin, who congratulated him.

On Wednesday, the eve of the broadcast, the ambassador of Israel in France, Aliza Bin Noun, asked the presidency of France Television to "reconsider the dissemination of the report" expressing concern "about the harmful and dangerous repercussions that it could engender on the Jewish community of France ".

Denouncing an "unbalanced point of view" on the situation in Gaza and the "very negative" vision of Israel, the diplomat asserts that "such content is likely to incite hatred against Israel" and by extension to the Jews of France, "because of a frequent and distressing amalgam between Jews and Israel".

The Central Jewish Consistory of France (CCIF), an institution representative of French Jews, had also lobbied France 2 to prevent the broadcast of the documentary, via a letter signed by its president Joel Mergui: denouncing a subject "very committed, to the limited bias, with no other possible reading pattern than the outright condemnation of Israel".
"You are obviously not without knowing the close link between the resurgence of antisemitism in France and the detestation of Israel, fueled by such programs."
In his letter, Joel Mergui also hopes that the report makes "mention of crippled Israel to maintain a certain objectivity", and concludes: 
"I leave to your proper appreciation the responsibility to measure the relevance of such a broadcast."
On Thursday afternoon, the president of the Crif (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France) Francis Kalifat announced on Twitter that he had "alerted Delphine Ernotte on the lively emotion" caused by the trailer of the report, adding:
"The service the public must not participate in spreading the hatred of Israel whose dramatic consequences are known to the Jewish French."
On Tuesday, the UDI deputy of French nationals abroad, Meyer Habib, elected in the constituency comprising the French of Israel, had already accused France 2 of "propaganda", "visceral anti-Israeli obsession", and "to prepare the ground for future antisemitic violence, if not an attack against the Jews of France ".  He declares: 
"This has been proven and acknowledged, including by Hamas dignitaries: almost all the young people killed or wounded were Hamas activists, sent to death by the jihadist organization".
A demonstration attended by dozens of people also took place on Wednesday evening at the headquarters of France Télévisions in Paris, to protest against the broadcast of the report.

Former France2 TV correspondent Charles Enderlin (a Jew and the source of the Al Dura Affair), now retired, on his side hailed on Twitter a "balanced subject from the point of view of journalistic ethics":
"We see tragedy, hatred, consequences of blockade, confinement, poverty, unemployment, the lack of a future".
The Union of France 2 journalists' society also lent its support to the authors of the report: "Target of criticism even before its diffusion, the journalistic work carried out is irreproachable".

To sum up, #Special Envoy #eliselucet #yvanmartinet have the support of Charles Enderlin and Paul Moreira (two notorious anti-semites), SDJ FRANCE2, L'Express, Le Monde, L'Obs, Telerama ... and imported antisemites.

What trash! France 2 persists in inciting hatred of Jews.

 Hamas commits war crimes according to the Geneva Convention. The French state claims to fight antisemitism and at the same time gives a green light to public TV channels to broadcast Hamas propaganda to excite the antisemites.

How hypocritical!

Sunday 14 October 2018

Knowingly Presiding Over the Death of Civilised Europe (video)

Sheer brilliance from Pat Condell, regarding the anti-Brexiteers  and the European-civilisation destroying unelected bureaucrats for whose anti-democratic anti-national sovereignty edicts they hanker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh11RYjheUY

Thursday 11 October 2018

David Singer: Trump Rejects UN and UNESCO’s Fictitious Palestinian State

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

He writes:

President Trump’s National Security Adviser – John Bolton – has exposed the fiction that there is a legally-constituted “State of Palestine” – shredding United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations (UN) resolutions misleadingly recognising such a state when none – in fact – exists.

Bolton was unequivocal in his statement:
“Palestine” is not a state… It’s not a state now. It does not meet the customary international law test of statehood. It doesn’t control defined boundaries. It doesn’t fulfill the normal functions of government. There are a whole host of reasons why it’s not a state.”
Article 1 of the 1934 Montevideo Conventioncompletely substantiates Bolton’s claim.
Holding out the carrot after administering the stick – Bolton continued:
“It could become a state, as the president said, but that requires diplomatic negotiations with Israel and others… We have consistently, across Democratic and Republican administrations, opposed the admission of ‘Palestine’ to the UN as a state, because it’s not a state.”
Bolton’s tempting offer may have been made to try and get the PLO to negotiate with Israel on Trump’s soon to–be-released peace plan. It seems certain to fall on deaf ears as the PLO wants nothing to do with Trump’s plan.

The PLO will only be more infuriated at this latest Trump effort to engender some reality into the Arab-Jewish conflict – as happened when Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

UNESCO’s decision to admit “Palestine” as a member in 2011 in clear breach of UNESCO’s own Constitution has come back  to bite UNESCO with a vengeance –  with America and Israel quitting

UNESCO on 31 December 2018.

UNESCO anti-Israel decisions made since “Palestine” was admitted to UNESCO membership have included:
  • January 2014 – cancelling an exhibition at its Paris headquarters on the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel
  • October 2016 – disregarding Jewish ties to the Temple Mount – only referring to it by its Muslim names – then several weeks later – passing a softer version of the resolution that referred to the Western Wall by its Jewish name – though still ignoring Judaism’s ties to the site.
  • July 2017 – designating Hebron and the two adjoined shrines at its heart — the Jewish Tomb of the Patriarchs and the Muslim Ibrahimi Mosque — as a “Palestinian World Heritage Site in Danger”.
On 29 November 2012, the UN General Assembly granted Palestine“non-member observer state” status.

Pure fiction.

The PLO hopped on the UN bandwagon – PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas decreeingon 3 January 2013:
 “Official documents, seals, signs and letterheads of the Palestinian National Authority official and national institutions shall be amended by replacing the name ‘Palestinian National Authority’ whenever it appears by the name ‘State of Palestine’ and by adopting the emblem of the State of Palestine.”
Pure fiction.

In November 2014 – Sweden became the 135th member of the UN to officially recognize Palestine as an independent state.

Pure fiction – 135 times over.

More truth-telling involving Jordan-Israel negotiations are on the Trump agenda – Bolton having signalled on 18 January:
“In fact, [Jordan’s] King Abdullah II should be preparing himself for a larger role in the West Bank. Before the 1967 war, Jordan had no hesitation asserting sovereignty over West Bank territory from Britain’s former Palestinian mandate, territory conquered by Jordan’s Arab Legion during the 1948 to 1949 war with Israel.
Once it becomes clear the two-state solution is finally dead, Jordan should again be asked to exercise control over suitably delineated portions of the West Bank and have the monarchy’s religious role for holy sites like the Temple Mount reaffirmed.”
 Fact – not fiction – will resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict.

(Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article—is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators –  whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)

Monday 8 October 2018

The BBC's Adams's Apple's Not Far from Parental Tree

Courtesy of the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams, a video report on those uniquely hereditary refugees, the Palestinian Arabs Palestinians, now into the fourth generation of refugee status.



Of course, their fellow-Arabs could have absorbed the "first generation" that left Eretz Israel in 1948-49, but preferred to use these unfortunate people as pawns in their rejectionist struggle against the Zionist Entity.

Paul Adams skims over such essentials, in a report that is essentially context-free.

More polished than Bowen and Donnison, and I dare say more intelligent, he nevertheless descends into propaganda, in contravention of the Corporation's Charter.
 



Lack of context is rather a hallmark of Mr Adams's reportage on Israel and the Palestinian Arabs Palestinians, as Hadar Sela of BBCWatch so ably pointed out here and here

So please bear in mind the following, as I noted in a comment on the first of those BBC Watch posts cited above (emphasis added):
'Paul’s father was Michael Adams, foundation director of CAABU. Below is an extract from what I wrote about him in one of my blog posts re the BBC-pro-Arab nexus, in which I identified Keith Kyle as the first openly anti-Israel BBC journalist:
Shortly after Israel’s stunning victory [1967], the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) was set up in London in order to coordinate Arab and pro-Arab opinion in the UK…. Funded by Arab governments, CAABU could afford a secretariat, and its director was Michael Adams, who had worked for the BBC early in his career but had later joined the Guardian. It was owing to his articles in that paper that a columnist in the Jewish Chronicle (30 June 1967) observed: “It is with a sinking feeling and eventually turning stomach that one examines the Guardian each morning.” (That writer would certainly vomit daily if he read the Guardian nowadays!)
One of CAABU’s first actions had been to send Adams, while he was still employed by the Guardian, on a funded trip to the Middle East, from whence he sent a series of articles biased against Israel. The Guardian had printed them without explaining that they had been subsidised by Arab money. There was also a despatch from Cairo which talked of the “forcible expulsion across the burning desert of Palestinian Arabs to Gaza”. In fact, those deportees were members of the Palestine Liberation Army and a threat to Israel’s security, as the Guardian grudgingly acknowledged the next day. Adams also used the offensive term “final solution” to describe Israeli policy.
It was shortly after this that Adams became CAABU’s director…
The BBC’s Keith Kyle was not slow to identify openly with CAABU. He was a keynote speaker at one of its first major rallies….
[In 1969] on the BBC’s Panorama, Michael Adams spewed out vitriol about “nation-wide and even world-wide Jewish pressure” – in other words, a certain lobby.
In one of his platform appearances Adams – foreshadowing the avoidance by Al Beeb and the Guardian of the T-word – rhetorically enquired why the British press referred to “Arab terrorists”: ‘I can’t remember calling members of the resistance in Nazi-occupied France “terrorists”‘, he continued. (In 1999 his son, the BBC’s Middle East correspondent Paul Adams, used the prescribed Al Beeb term “Islamic militants” of suicide bombers. It was Paul Adams, when diplomatic correspondent, who in 2007 appeared to admit to BBC bias when he described Alan Johnston’s job as “to bring us day after day reports of the Palestinian predicament in the Gaza Strip”.)

Sunday 7 October 2018

Conflict on Carnaby Street: "Terrorist supporters off our streets!" (video)

Puma, the leading international sponsor of the Israel Football Association, is the latest brand targetted by the BDS movement, and yesterday, 6 October, Inminds staged a demo outside the Puma store on Carnaby Street, which didn't go quite according to plan.

For there to wave the Israeli flag and denounce the "monstrous lies" emanating from the hate-mongers, was a small contingent of Zionist activists, including the stalwart Jonathan Hoffman.

At one point Mr Plod approaches one of the pro-Israel counter-protesters, and seems to remonstrate with him. 

But then, just as Sandra Watfa (David Collier's take on her below) launches into her customary Israel-denouncing rant, she is suddenly surrounded by the Zionists, who virtually drown her out with repetitive cries of "Terrorist supporters off our streets!"



Fangs as sharp as any puma's are bared on both sides, Ms Watfa's script flies from her hand, Mr Hoffman is manhandled, a burly security guy speaks to him sharply and is told "She hit me first!" and later "She's an anti-Jewish racist!"

A far cry from the groovy image of Carnaby Street back in the flower power "Make Love Not War" era of the 1960s.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lFGIroxHQc

Kudos to the Zionists for deciding not to let the Israel-demonisers have the pavement all to themselves!

A MrAlexSeymour video.

Thursday 4 October 2018

David Singer: Jordan Enclave in West Bank could be Trump’s “Two-State” Solution

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

He writes:

Creating another Palestinian Arab state – in addition to Jordan – has been seemingly consigned to the garbage bin of history following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s CNN interview on 28 September.

President Trump had just told Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly:
“I like two-state solution. I like two-state solution. That’s what I think works best. I don’t even have to speak to anybody, that’s my feeling.”
When asked if he was prepared to commit to a two-state solution – Netanyahu told his CNN interviewer:
“I’ve discovered that if you use labels you are not going to get very far because different people mean different things when they say “states”. So rather than talk about labels, I like to talk about substance”
Questioned on what he would like to see – Netanyahu replied:
 “What I would like to see is that the Palestinians will have all the powers to govern themselves and not all the powers that will threaten us. What that means is that in the tiny area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea – it’s all about 50 kilometres wide – that’s where the Palestinians live and the Israelis live – in that area under any peace agreement or without a peace agreement – Israel has to have the dominant power, the military power, overriding security power …”
Netanyahu then stressed:
“Israel has to have the overriding security, not the UN, not Canadian Mounties, not — I don’t know    Austrian or Australian forces Israeli forces have to have the security control, otherwise, that place will be taken over by Islamist terrorists, either Daesh, ISIS or Hamas or Iran, all of the above, and that’s my condition.”
Trump’s upcoming peace plan slated for release in 2-4 months needs to deal with Netanyahu’s concerns if it is to win Israel’s backing.

Israel’s security demands would best be satisfied by part of the West Bank being reunified with Jordan to create a Jordanian enclave in the West Bank – with the remainder of the West Bank being annexed by Israel.

This solution would enable Israel to:
  • Control access and egress between the West Bank and Jordan
  • Maintain security control for the entire area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea
  • Ensure the enclave be demilitarized and remain demilitarized
The enclave’s residents would acquire Jordanian citizenship. Jordanian law would apply in the enclave – which could be divided into any number of electoral divisions whose residents would choose their representatives to sit in the Jordanian Parliament.

The PLO has already rejected Trump’s peace plan – sight unseen – opening the door for Jordan – at peace with Israel since signing their 1994 Peace Treaty – to fill the negotiating void necessary to create this Jordanian enclave.

Israel’s former Foreign Minister Moshe Arens presciently stated on 11 January1989:
 “Jordan is a Palestinian state. And it is with Jordan that we must decide where the border will run…. Should the border follow the Jordan River, as it does today, or should it be west of the Jordan, as the Jordanians would like?”
I would suggest therefore that, when it comes to talking about territory there is only one negotiating party acceptable to the government of Israel. That party is the existing Palestinian state of Jordan.”
Creating a Jordanian enclave in the West Bank with Israel annexing the remainder could be – in Trump’s own words:
“the ultimate deal…as a deal maker, I’d like to do…the deal that can’t be made. And do it for humanity’s sake.”
Don’t underestimate Trump’s deal-making ability to end what he himself has called “the war that never ends”.  

(Author’s note: The cartoon – commissioned exclusively for this article – is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog)

Tuesday 2 October 2018

Corbyn Apologists Write a Letter

A bunch of lefties, mainly media studies academics, have signed this delightful letter to the Grauniad, defending Corbyn against charges of, yeah, you know what. 

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?

And how superbly they prove Jonathan Freedland's point! (See box below)
'We believe that significant parts of the UK media have failed their audiences by producing flawed reports that have contributed to an undeserved witch-hunt against the Labour leader [Jeremy Corbyn] and misdirected public attention away from antisemitism elsewhere.’ Photograph: Thierry
We have long had serious concerns about the lack of due impartiality and accuracy in the reporting of allegations of antisemitism against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party. The recent report by the Media Reform Coalition examining coverage of Labour’s revised code of conduct on antisemitism shows that we are right to be concerned.
The research examined over 250 articles and broadcast news segments and found over 90 examples of misleading or inaccurate reporting. In relation to the IHRA definition of antisemitism that was at the heart of the dispute, the research found evidence of “overwhelming source imbalance” in which critics of Labour’s code of conduct dominated coverage, with nearly 50% of Guardian reports, for example, failing to include any quotes from those defending the code or critiquing the IHRA definition. Moreover, key contextual facts about the IHRA definition – for example that it has only been formally adopted by eight countries (and only six of the IHRA member states) – were consistently excluded.
The researchers conclude these were not occasional lapses in judgment but “systematic reporting failures” that served to weaken the Labour leadership and to bolster its opponents within and outside of the party.
It is of course entirely appropriate and necessary for our major news outlets to report on the horrors of antisemitism, but wrong to present it as an issue specific to the Labour party.
In covering the allegations that Labour is now “institutionally antisemitic”, there have been inaccuracies, clear distortions and revealing omissions across our most popular media platforms. We believe that significant parts of the UK media have failed their audiences by producing flawed reports that have contributed to an undeserved witch-hunt against the Labour leader and misdirected public attention away from antisemitism elsewhere, including on the far right, which is ascendant in much of Europe.
Prof Noam Chomsky
Needs no introduction from me!


Brian Eno
A musician well-established as a persistent foe of Israel.


Francesca Martinez
A comedian.
Figures.

Yanis Varoufakis
Ex-Greek finance minister, leftist economics professor, pro-mass migration "progressive". 60-minutes of torture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLLoSzNn6xg

Ken Loach
As is generally known, a loathsome darling of the anti-Israel movement.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/27/labour-denial-antisemitism-party-dark-place
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ken-loach-antisemitism-protest-labour-mps-kicked-out-party-jeremy-corbyn-a8299651.html99651.html 

Raoul Martinez
A radical who thinks alot.
Brian Eno's a fan.

Justin Schlosberg Birkbeck, University of London
An Israel-basher.
Referring to this interview:


Prof Des Freedman Goldsmiths, University of London
Steadily spruiks the general leftist package.

Prof Imogen Tyler Lancaster University
Radical chic
And again
Far out!

Prof Aeron Davis Goldsmiths, University of London
Another in the general leftist mould

Prof Annabelle Sreberny Soas, University of London
See how she blows?  Here's the prof on video, at a Jewish Voice for Labour demo in London, blaming "a manipulative Israeli propaganda outfit" for instigating perceptions of antisemitism in Corbyn's party:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxjpK2ZC3FU

Prof Greg Philo University of Glasgow
An inveterate knocker of Israel.  With fellow-signatories to the present letter Loach, Fenton, Miller, Petley and Berry, as well as a gaggle of other Israel-demonisers,was one of the original signatories to this mind-boggling petition beginning:
'We are concerned at the very partial nature of BBC reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While some reporters have shown great bravery in war zones, much home-based journalism lacks context and is unable to report the Palestinian perspective. The attacks on Gaza are presented by Israel and the BBC as being directed at militants, while for Palestinians they are an extension of military rule and collective punishment by a brutal apartheid state....'
 Prof Natalie Fenton Goldsmiths, University of London
https://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/n-fenton/
She signed this telling declaration, on which the names of this present letter's signatories Hickel and Cushman also appear.

Prof David Miller Bristol University
His Facebook buddies include such Israel-haters as Tony Greenstein, Mick Napier, Stephen Sizer and Ben White. (That's fellow-signatory Tom Mills in the first pic below)



Prof David Hesmondhalgh University of Leeds
Another unmistakable leftist

Prof James Curran Goldsmiths, University of London
 https://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/curran/

Prof Julian Petley Brunel University
Petley, like a few of the other signatories (Hickel, Cushman, possibly Berry) were among the numerous signatories to this letter, which alleged, in February last year:
'The spike in far-right antisemitic incidents on UK campuses that you report (UK universities urged to act over spate of antisemitic stickers and graffiti, 18 February) seems to reflect the increase in xenophobia since the Brexit vote. Yet the government has “adopted” the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which can be and is being read as extending to criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights, an entirely separate issue, as prima facie evidence of antisemitism.
 This definition seeks to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.Now Jo Johnson, the government minister whose brief includes universities, has written to Universities UK asking for this definition to be disseminated throughout the system. His letter specifically mentions Israeli Apartheid Week (a worldwide activity at this time of year since 2005) as a cause for concern. The response has been swift. Late last week, in haste and clearly without legal advice, the University of Central Lancashire banned a meeting that was to be addressed by journalist Ben White as well as by academics. The university statement asserted that the meeting on “Debunking misconceptions on Palestine” contravened the definition of antisemitism recently adopted by the government, and would therefore not be lawful.
Meanwhile, the Campaign Against Antisemitism, a body set up during the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2014, cites this definition in asking its supporters to “record, film, photograph and get witness evidence” about Israeli Apartheid Week events; and “we will help you to take it up with the university, students’ union or even the police”. These are outrageous interferences with free expression, and are direct attacks on academic freedom.
 As academics with positions at UK universities, we wish to express our dismay at this attempt to silence campus discussion about Israel, including its violation of the rights of Palestinians for more than 50 years. It is with disbelief that we witness explicit political interference in university affairs in the interests of Israel under the thin disguise of concern about antisemitism.'
Stephen Cushion Cardiff University
Unlike many, not overtly or obsessively anti-Israel,  it would seem.

Jason Hickel Goldsmiths, University of London


Einar Thorsen Bournemouth University
Among his tweets:


Mike Berry Cardiff University
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/45243579_Israel_and_Palestine_Competing_Histories

Tom Mills Aston University
Reckons Tom on his Twitter page:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/tom-mills-hilary-aked-tom-griffin-david-miller/uk%E2%80%99s-pro-israel-lobby-in-context

Jenny Manson Jewish Voice for Labour
Watch her at the launch of Jewish Voice for Labour, and note (also at the beginning) the adulation greeting Ken Loach's arrival:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhwkfEcGdEI

Leah Levane Jewish Voice for Labour
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/labour-candidate-leah-levane-in-new-antisemitism-row-3r6vbtqkb
https://twitter.com/telegraph/status/912659741133983744

Lindsey German Stop the War Coalition
She's a favourite with the PSC crowd.

Mike Cushman Free Speech on Israel
Comrade Cushman needs no introduction either.


Glyn Secker Jewish Voice for Labour
Watch flotilla alumni Secker rabble-rousing here:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlS5NeDG1BQ

Enough said!