David Singer: Israel Elections Should Send Clear Message to Trump, PLO, EU and UN

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

He writes:

Israeli voters at the forthcoming elections on 9 April should be given the opportunity to send President Trump, the PLO, EU and UN a clear message on what they want to see happening in Judea Samaria and East Jerusalem (West Bank) and Gaza – the last 5 per cent of the territory comprised in the Mandate for Palestine where sovereignty remains unresolved between Jews and Arabs (“disputed territories”).

For this to happen - all political parties need to state in clear and unambiguous terms what their policies in relation to the disputed territories will be if they form part of the next Government.

The options and the choices are many – and include:

* Continuing to press for a negotiated “two-state solution” – the creation of an Arab State – in addition to Jordan – in all or part of the disputed territories

* Annexing all or part of the disputed territories

* Creating Jordanian enclaves in all or part of the disputed territories

* Maintaining the status quo without any further negotiations

* Redrawing the international borders between Israel, Jordan and Egypt

Co-head of the frontrunner Blue and White Party – Benny Gantz – needs to do better than stating:

“The main question is that of security. It [the Government] needs to ensure the State of Israel's security. Now, there's a question of interest here. We — and Netanyahu said this in his Bar-Ilan speech (a 2009 address in which the prime minister backed Palestinian statehood) — are not looking to control anyone else. We need to find a way in which we're not controlling other people.”

Is Gantz talking about the Arab populations in the disputed territories? 95 per cent of the Arab population in Judea and Samaria is under PLO control. 100 per cent of Gaza’s Arabs-only population is under Hamas control. East Jerusalem Arabs are under Israel’s control.

Gantz must articulate his plan for ending what he sees as Israel’s control of other people.

Gantz’s partner Yair Lapid expressed the following view in 2008:

“The greatest tragedy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that everyone knows how it will end. We will divide up the region. Israel will return most of the West Bank, and the Palestinian flag will fly on public buildings in East Jerusalem. The only unanswered question is how many more people will have to die along the way. And so we will fight against the extremists on both sides, including our extremists, the settlers. When you look at the history of wars, they ultimately revolve around one claim: "My god is better than yours."

Is this still Lapid’s view in 2019? He  – like Gantz – owes it to the electorate to spell out his party’s position should it be in the next Government.

Netanyahu needs to state what the Likud Party’s policy is right now – not what it might have been in 2009 or at any time since. All political parties seeking election must do likewise.

Views held in 2008 or 2009 are irrelevant – raking over old coals is counter-productive.

Gantz is right in recognising that security is the main question at this election – as it always has been.
All the promises and allure of a better and more prosperous society, equality and justice for all  – even going to the moon and back – count for nought if those voting are murdered, injured or traumatised to not enjoy the benefits.

President Trump needs to know what outcomes the Israelis want for the disputed territories before issuing his long-anticipated “deal of the century” very soon after the elections. The PLO, EU and UN need to also listen digest and respond.

The time for straight-talking on the disputed territories is right now.

"Antisemitism is not a Jewish Problem. It is a Problem for Jews"

Two letters: ratbags versus realists regarding Corbynista antisemitism.

But first, a not irrelevant archival find by University of Aberystwyth international politics academic Dr James Vaughan, regarding Labour Party policy in not-so-far-off days of yore:

Okay, then, this letter by as-a-Jew leftists to the Guardian, 21 February:

"You report (19 February) that a number of implacably anti-Corbyn MPs have left the Labour party alleging a failed “approach to dealing with antisemitism”, with Luciana Berger criticising Labour for becoming “sickeningly institutionally racist”.

We are Jewish members and supporters of the Labour party concerned about the current rise of reactionary ideologies, including antisemitism, in Britain and elsewhere across Europe.

We note the worrying growth of populist rightwing parties, encouraging racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism. In Britain the far right is whipping up these prejudices, a threat that requires a resolute and energetic response. But instead we have seen a disproportionate focus on antisemitism on the left, which is abhorrent but relatively rare.

We believe that the Labour party under the progressive leadership of Jeremy Corbyn is a crucial ally in the fight against bigotry and reaction. His lifetime record of campaigning for equality and human rights, including consistent support for initiatives against antisemitism, is formidable. His involvement strengthens this struggle.

Labour governments introduced both the anti-racist and human rights legislation of the 20th century and the 2010 Equalities Act. A Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn will be a powerful force to fight against racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism.

It is in this context that we welcome the Labour party’s endorsement of freedom of expression on Israel and on the rights of Palestinians. Labour is correct to recognise that while prejudice against Jewish people is deplorable, criticism of Israel’s government and policies can and must be made.
We urge all who wish to see an end to bigotry and racism, and who seek a more just society, to give their support to the Labour party."

For signatories see here

A riposte in the Guardian, 25 February:

'We write in response to the letter you published on 21 February, asserting that Jeremy Corbyn was a crucial ally in the fight against bigotry and reaction and that a Labour government would be a powerful force against antisemitism.

The signatories to that letter plainly feel the need to rely on their Judaism to bolster its content. This may be because they consider it to be some protection from the view that many of your readers would otherwise take when reading their assertions, but it is essentially irrelevant. The vast majority of the UK Jewish community has made its view of Mr Corbyn clear. So too has the public in various opinion polls. He is not trusted on antisemitism, first because he has not acted against it and because his own actions are, at least, concerning. Second, because those claiming to speak about antisemitism in his name do so without reproach or disassociation.

The Labour party has, previously, been a force for good in promoting anti-racism, as the authors acknowledge. Sadly, that is no longer the case. It has never been the case, anywhere, that a party which could not root out antisemitism from its midst, tolerated those accusing Jews of manufacturing it, and lost the trust of the Jewish community, ever governed fairly, decently or competently. Antisemitism is corruption, and corruption spreads.

We also disagree with the authors’ apparent belief that the ability to criticise Israel is critical to the debate on antisemitism. The Labour party’s adoption of the IHRA definition marks its acceptance of the fact that criticism of Israel must not involve antisemitism, and that there is a wide range of acceptable criticism that does not. The discredited argument that antisemitism is invented by Jews to protect Israel is antisemitic. So is criticism of Israel outside the IHRA guidelines and definition. Both of these things should be outwith the scope of mainstream, tolerant debate.

Suggesting a permissible link between the Labour leadership’s attitude to British Jews and Israel is both wrong and shameful. There is no basis to refuse to reproach or reject the antisemites we refer to above. The leadership’s failure to do so makes Jews part of the “few”, who the Labour party expressly reject.

That Labour is so mistrusted on the issue is uncomfortable and sad. But it must be said. And in saying it, we do not speak as Jews, but as citizens of this country. Antisemitism is not a Jewish problem. It is a problem for Jews.'

For signatories see here

Danger Man Dissected

Unsurprisingly, the defection of principled men and women from the cesspool that is the Corbyn-led Labour Party continues.

Three years ago, during the furore surrounding despicable comments regarding Hitler and Zionism made by former London mayor Ken Livingstone, who quit the Labour Party in 2018,  Labour MP Ian Austin, whose Jewish adoptive father arrived in England from Czechoslovakia as a ten-year-old in 1939, made (top left) what many Twitter users consider his finest tweet.

A few days ago, disgusted by the antisemitism that lurks in Labour's ranks, resigned from the party, telling the BBC's Kirsty Wark in an interview that if he remained he would no longer be able to look his father (whose immediate family was murdered in Treblinka) and his Jewish friends in the eye.

"I was one of the first to raise concerns about antisemitism following events at the 2017 Conference in Brighton", wrote a Brighton and Hove Councillor Warren Morgan a couple of days ago, explaining his resignation from the Labour Party, which he joined in 1993.

"It was my duty as council leader, as a Labour councillor, to call out racism wherever and whenever it appeared, without fear or favour, in defence of the city's Jewish community. For that I was vilified by members locally and supporters of Jeremy Corbyn nationally.

Friends in the Jewish Labour Movement urged me not to resign my membership, as others have done, in response to the unchecked and rampant antisemitism amongst Party members, in order to fight back and clear the Party of those with racist antisemitic views. I have done so until now. The resignation of Luciana Berger from the Party is a clear sign that members of the Jewish community and those who support them have no place in Labour."

Investigative journalist Tom Bower's searing exposé of Jeremy Corbyn's problem with da Joos published last week in the Jewish Chronicle must be actingas a final straw for some Labour members, and it is only to be regretted that the revelations it contains, uncovered during Mr Bower's researches for his just-published biography of Corbyn, Dangerous Hero,were not known and publicised before Corbyn was elected party leader.

Here, by the way, is anti-Israel hard leftist John McDonnell's insolent tweet regarding the biography.

McDonnell, a handpicked member of Corbyn's team and Shadow Chancellor, no less, showed his vile hostility Jews and Israel again last week when he called for Britons who fought in the IDF to be deprived of their British citizenship.

Writes Mr Bower, the son of child refugees from Prague and Vienna respectively, iner alia:

'I am among the few living people who interviewed for TV serious Nazi war criminals....

Like those antisemitic Nazis, Mr Corbyn blames the malign power of Jews for orchestrating a global conspiracy to oppress the workers. “The power of the Israel lobby is truly phenomenal,” Mr Corbyn said in 2003 to Hamas supporters, referring to his conviction that rich Jewish bankers, especially in New York, are orchestrating Zionist influence.

Ever since Mr Corbyn was elected Labour’s leader in 2015, he has faced accusations about his antisemitism, which he has denied. However, while researching the book I came across an interview he gave in September 2015 which confirms Mr Corbyn’s antisemitism.

Unsuspecting, Mr Corbyn had settled down in front of a microphone to help a local historian compile eyewitness accounts for The Holloway Project. Mr Corbyn was asked to describe his attachment to the Holloway Road, an ugly highway running through Islington, his north London constituency. But before identifying his favourite places along that dust bowl, he described his early life and, most noteworthy, his first job in London in 1973 as an assistant researcher at the National Union of Tailor and Garment Workers.

In Mr Corbyn’s version, as the most junior employee he personally challenged the Jewish employers of his members — “scumbags” and “crooks”, as he would describe the tailors — to recover the members’ unpaid wages. Their bosses, explained Mr Corbyn, “had mysteriously gone bankrupt just before Christmas, owing their workers a lot of wages and not paying National Insurance and all this kind of thing. Scumbags actually. Crooks. My job was to try and chase these people through Companies House and so on.”

Mr Corbyn’s account is contradicted by Alec Smith, the union’s former leader and Mr Corbyn’s direct superior, now in his eighties, who I tracked down in Essex, and by the trade union’s well-catalogued records.

Pertinently, the union’s archives stored at universities in London and Manchester do not reveal any issues about “unscrupulous employers” and do not show that any member complained about being unpaid, especially before Christmas.

Mr Smith told me with certainty that Mr Corbyn “never had any contact with our members. He just sat in at meetings passing me information”. Mr Smith recalled: “The clothing industry is a tough business. If an employer went broke it was because of trading conditions — not to fiddle their employees.”

Not for the first time, Mr Corbyn had reshaped the truth to improve his self-image. He conjured the tale of a brave personal fight against exploitative Jewish employers of sweatshop labour and exposed his disdain towards those Jews seeking self-improvement to fulfil the dream of moving from the East End slums to North London’s suburbs.'

Bower, whose first wife is a source for some of his discoveries, goes on to state:

'Uneducated and uninterested in culture and anything spiritual, Mr Corbyn, as a committed communist, was unsympathetic towards a race complicated by its history of survival over 2,000 years of persecution....

[He} defined Zionism as racism and accused white Jews of acting as supremacists, oppressing coloured Arabs in what he called “Israel’s apartheid occupation” of Palestine. He condemned the Balfour Declaration... and dismissed the effect of the Holocaust to explain the Jewish people’s longing for a return to their own country after 1945 to avoid future persecution.

[He] preferred to ignore that Israel was created by the United Nations and fulfilled all the legal requirements for international recognition. Pertinently, he never complained about the simultaneous creation of Pakistan in 1948, where partition of the sub-continent had caused millions of deaths and led to the persecution of Hindus by the new Muslim state.

In Mr Corbyn’s hierarchy of oppression, the descendants of slaves were the most victimised, while Holocaust survivors were at the bottom of the list. He did not distinguish between Jews in London and Zionists in Tel Aviv. To him, they were all guilty.

An original source of Mr Corbyn’s antisemitism in the 1960s ... was Malcolm X ...

Mr Corbyn’s antisemitism simmered unseen, even after he was elected as an MP in 1983, until the Islamist attack on New York on September 11 2001. In the aftermath, he organised with fellow communists the Stop the War Coalition (SWC), ostensibly to protest against the American invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Mr Corbyn’s partner in SWC was the Muslim Association of Great Britain. This group was attached to the Muslim Brotherhood. Some on the left questioned the coalition of Marxists with political Islamists but Mr Corbyn successfully argued that the alliance was forged by a mutual opposition to Zionism.

Thereafter, during protest marches through London, banners against the war would be given equal billing to the Muslim Association’s placards urging the destruction of Israel. The two, said the Muslim organisers, were linked: Zionists were planning the imminent invasion of Iraq. Mr Corbyn agreed.

Thereafter, Mr Corbyn frequently associated with Muslim extremists who advocated in antisemitic language Israel’s destruction. Speaking on the same platforms with the extremists, he appeared to share his hosts’ refusal to distinguish between anti-Zionism and antisemitism...' 

Be sure to read the entire article dissecting Danger Man's antisemitism.  It pulls no punches.

The fact that in his biography of Corbyn Bower by an unfortunate slip refers to "Cat Stevens" when he means "Cat Smith" the female Labour MP, does not validate the disdainful dismissive review of the book undertaken by reviewer Stephen Bush (political editor of the New Statesman) in the Guardian, where the issue of antisemitism is not mentioned by Mr Bush.

More (out of numerous other) examples of Corbynista slime:

MP Chris Williamson:

As others have asked, recalling this, has Williamson no mirror?

There seems to be a great deal of "rich man antisemitism" at the base of Corbynista Jew-hatred, the perception of Jews as plutocrats, the manifestly unfounded belief that all Jews are wealthy.  Still, Corbyn continues to have his as-a-Jew toadies,  They surface every so aften in the correspondence colums of the Guardian ... as well as of the Islington Tribune.

David Singer: Israel jettisons PLO as Negotiating Partner on Trump Peace Plan

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

He writes:

Israel’s decision to withhold US$138 million dollars in tax revenues collected for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) – equalling the estimated annual payments made to Palestinian Arabs (or their families) carrying out random and indiscriminate attacks against Israeli civilians – marks a watershed in Israel-PLO relations.

Israel’s action will see the PLO being finally jettisoned as a possible negotiating partner on President Trump’s long-delayed peace plan – deferred yet again until after the Israeli elections in April.

The release of the Trump plan could now be further postponed as the president continues his so far unsuccessful search to find other Arab negotiators willing to replace the PLO – which had already rejected having anything to do with Trump’s plan well before Israel’s latest decision.

The law authorising the freezing of these PLO funds was passed by the Israeli parliament in July 2018 – three months after similar legislation – the Taylor Force Act – passed by the US Congress – was signed into law by President Trump.

Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked stressed the funds withheld would be used to pay “fat salaries to murderers who are in prison”.

They would also be used to pay Palestinian Arabs imprisoned in Israeli jails for lesser crimes.
Israel’s action follows the discovery of the body of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher in the Jerusalem Forest on 7 February.

Channel 12 news reported that investigators from the Shin Bet security service and Israel Police hoped to indict Arafat Irfaiya, a 29-year-old Hebron resident, for murder in the context of a terrorist act in addition to a charge of rape.

Israel is clearly not prepared to allow this continuing wave of terror to be condoned and rewarded financially by the PLO.

Al Jazeera reported that the PLO took a very different view of Israel’s freeze:

"The Palestinians have accused the Israeli government of piracy, of coordinating this with the United States to add pressure ahead of the publication of the Trump peace plan"

The PLO had,however, been unceremoniously consigned to the diplomatic scrap heap by Trump well before Israel’s tax-revenue freeze. Trump had been given the thumbs down by the PLO after Trump had:

• Recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

 • Stopped America’s annual payment of US$350 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency

• Shut down the PLO offices in Washington

 • Cancelled more than $200m in aid for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank

Chairman Mahmoud Abbas had already dismissed any further involvement with Trump on 5 January 2019:

“We are dealing with three issues that we can not accept: the situation with the US, the situation with Israel and the situation with Hamas. The doors are closed to the US. As long as it does not retract its decisions against the Palestinian people, no Palestinian should meet with the American leadership, no matter what their role is.”

 Paying murderers and felons who kill and maim Jews has finally become the PLO’s political downfall.

Ori Ansbacher’s murder was the final tipping point for Israel to dump the PLO as a future negotiating partner after thousands of well documented random terror attacks on Israel’s civilian population over the last four years – perpetrated by individuals, many very young, inspired by vicious incitement in Palestinian social and traditional media and rewarded financially by the Palestinian leadership.

The days of “pay for slay”and fruitless negotiations with the PLO that have gone nowhere over the last 25 years are over.

Israel has well and truly closed the door on the PLO and it should remain locked and bolted.

Antisemitism, the "Splitters", & a Commons Debate

Following news that seven Labour MPs (and now an eighth, Joan Ryan, who in a devastating indictment of Corbyn has made his failure to deal with antisemitism in the party central to herdefection) have left the party and formed their own Independent Group, "the oldest hatred" rears its ugly Medusa's head.

No surprise to Labour Against Antisemitism, aware as it is of the loathsome sentiments engendered in the party under Corbyn:

See, for instance, the comments that greet this report. (Bonus: a chance to see Gorgeous George!)

Gorgeous George again:

 Young Labour shows its true colours:

Conservative candidate Robert Largan deploring vile comments encouraged by this MP's malice:

And then there's this (hat tip: Jonathan Hoffman in a  Facebook post).  Tim Llewellyn, of course, used to be a BBC correspondent.

And on Twitter via an extreme anti-Israel activist, this:

Interesting tweets regarding the latest developments in Labour ranks from international relations academic Dr James Vaughan:

The Times of London (19 February):

And (hat tip: Jonathan Hoffman) at the instigation of Mrs May's government, in order to embarrass Corbyn, the House of Commons (20 February) will debate [update: has debated] the topic "Antisemitism in modern Society"!

Meanwhile, it's perhaps no surprise to learn that notorious antisemite Alison Chabloz is a keen Corbynista.

Good news from Oz: notorious antisemite and general fruitcake David Icke has been denied entry into the country.

Anti-Israel Bias: Australia's Channel Nine Needs Watching

Viewers of Australia's National Nine News will be familiar with the network's not infrequent tendency to carry stories, in the second half of its bulletins where international reports tend to appear, that are decidedly unfair to Israel.

Such reports habitually inform the viewer that x number of Palestinians has been killed/ wounded in Gaza/the West Bank yesterday/today without presenting Israel's side of the story, and characteristically with no background at all.

That there's someone in Channel Nine's newsroom who's biased against Israel seems a given, and viewers of yesterday's 4 pm bulletin, at least in Melbourne, were treated to a seemingly sinister dose of anti-Israel propaganda.

The report in question concerned the big news of Monday in Oz,  news still in the headlines, namely that there had been a serious malicious cyber attack on the computer network of federal Parliament in Canberra, and that the culprit must be a foreign power.

No sooner was the involvement of a foreign power being aired in Nine's 4 pm Monday bulletin than an Israeli flag flashed up up on the screen, covering the latter's entire left half.

The shocking implication was clear: Israel did it! Mossad's tentacles have reached out to harm Australia!

Afterwards the report (which I've searched in vain for online) proceeded to tell the viewer that only a handful of countries have the technology to launch such a cyber attack, and it listed them (Russia America, Israel, China, but in what order I'm not sure, though I do know that Israel was not first), showing their flags in turn.

But by then the viewer's mind had been affected by the graphic that had first appeared on the screen, implicitly connecting Israel to the attack.

Perhaps the newsroom was inundated with text and phone protests by indignant "Zionists", or perhaps a fair-minded producer had charge of the 6 pm bulletin, for the corresponding report, seemingly identical and certainly very similar, to the 4 pm one, did not start off with an Israeli flag halfway across the screen.  It did show an Israeli flag, but only at the exact spot when Israel was mentioned in the list of countries with the capability of carrying out such a cyber attack, together with images, when appropriate, of the other flags.  Each flag was in the background to the report, not 50 per cent full frontal.

Since the likeliest culprit for the cyber attack is generally agreed to be China, the channel's simultaneous display of an Israeli flag when the cyber attack was mentioned appears to have had a sinister motivation.

Given the channel's tendency to show scant sympathy for Israel in news reports, Nine's news bulletins need watching.  And strongly protested where necessary.

In London, Usual Suspects, Usual Slurs, & Corbynista Slime

On 15 February outside the Puma Store, in accordance with this particular facet of the anti-Israel movement, devotees of the Islamic-led Inminds organisation (including a "Kick Israel Out of FIFA" campaigner of Jewish origin, who's here exchanged her familiar baseball cap and togs in the Palestinian Arab colours for a woollen beanie and winter gear) spew their usual scripted slurs.  (Don't give up the day jobs, duckies!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEnh-VbERmw

(A MrAlexSeymour video)

Meanwhile, Oh, Jeremy Corbyn!

The baiting of Luciana Berger:

 And the Daily Mail describes a new book's lowdown regarding Corbyn:

Nick Cohen on Corbyn

David Singer: Israel, PLO, Jordan, EU and UN Must Agree on Boundaries of Palestine

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

He writes:

Ending the Arab-Jewish conflict over the territory called “historic Palestine” has little chance of success until its territorial boundaries are first agreed between Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Jordan, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN).

Rima Najjar – a retired professor of English literature at Al-Quds University – claims in a recent article that the territory of “historic Palestine” has been subdivided into Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip but is effectively controlled by the Jewish State.
The following facts contradict her assertions:

• Jordan comprises 78% of the territory of Palestine under the League of Nations 1922 Mandate for Palestine – and Jews were denied the right to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in any part of that area of Palestine under article 25 of the Mandate
• The Old Testament records that two and a half of the twelve tribes of Israel settled in Jordan and cities of refuge were established by the Israelites in Golan, Ramoth, and Bosor – on the eastern side of the Jordan River – and Kedesh, Nablus, and Hebron – on the western side.
• Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza form one indivisible territorial unit under Article 2 of the PLO Charter.
• Many leading PLO, Jordanian, Arab and Israeli leaders have acknowledged that Jordan formed part of Palestine and that Jordanians and Palestinians are one people – not two.
• Under the 1993 Oslo Accords and following Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2006 – the PLO effectively controls 40% of the West Bank and Hamas effectively controls all of Gaza.
• Many leading PLO, Jordanian, Arab and Israeli leaders have acknowledged that Jordan formed part of Palestine and that Jordanians and Palestinians are one people – not two.

Najjar’s intention is clear: to misleadingly and deceptively allege that Israel effectively controls 100 per cent of historic Palestine – when Jordan effectively controls 78 per cent.
In fact:

• Israel currently exercises sovereignty in only 17% of historic Palestine whilst Jordan exercises sovereignty in 78% – leaving competing Arab and Jewish claims to sovereignty in the remaining 5% of historic Palestine– the West Bank and Gaza – to be resolved.
• The Palestinian Arabs already have their own State in 78% of historic Palestine where not one Jew lives.

Najjar has claimed in an earlier article:

“How deep is the historical illiteracy of Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic Party and Donald Trump and his party?
It is so deep, they are even immune to déjà vu, also known as “cryptomnesia”, which is where history is forgotten but nevertheless stored in the brain.”

Najjar, the UN, EU, even Mahmoud Abbas, are the historical illiterates suffering from cryptomnesia when it comes to determining the boundaries of historic Palestine – having written off the biblical history of “Eretz Yisrael” and the modern day history of “Palestine” between 1917 and 1947.

Najjar has form – having falsely stated in 2017:

“Israel now has sovereignty over all of mandate Palestine.”

Najjar also uttered her historic Palestine canard when calling for Israel’s elimination in 2018:

“The Palestinians have never held the bargaining chips in their tragedy and might as well go for broke – ending the Apartheid Zionist colonial regime in all of historic Palestine.”

Najjar lamented in 2017:

“I don’t know what it means to be Palestinian Jordanian, which is how I began my life …” 

Najjar’s identity crisis disappears once she recognises that Jordan is 78% of historic Palestine.
Until Israel, the PLO, Jordan, the UN and EU all agree on the boundaries of historic Palestine– any hope for ending the 100-years conflict between Arabs and Jews remains a mirage.

(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)

An Australian Medico's "Cruel Misrepresentation" of the Shoah

Few remarks regarding the Holocaust can be as frightfully disgusting as those made by a senior Australian doctor, Paul Bauert, comparing the plight of (immigration queue-jumping) "asylum seekers" at present detained offshore, and Jews incarcerated in the Auschwitz death camp.

As reported in The Australian newspaper,

'The paediatric representative from Australia’s peak medical body has suggested asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru are in a worse situation than Jews in Auschwitz because people who knew they were going to be gassed by the Nazis “found some sense of relief in knowing what was happening”.

Paul Bauert of the Australian Medical Association [pictured]... said the mental health of detainees in Manus and Nauru had deteriorated because there was no certainty about their future.

 “The main reason for the impairment of mental health — as Viktor Frankl the psychiatrist from Auschwitz described very well in his book Man’s Search for Meaning — the main problem that these people have is a lack of meaning, a lack of any end to what is going on, a lack of certainty,” Dr Bauert told Sky News.

 “And this more than anything causes severe mental health damage. Even those who finally knew they were about to be condemned to the gas chamber at least found some sense of relief in knowing what was happening.” ....'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjA7bxH4uRE

He's been shamed into tweeting an apology of sorts for his foul comparison: 

“My comments this morning were intended to reflect the writings of an eminent Jewish psychiatrist who survived Auschwitz. The words I used did not convey the complexity of what he wrote. My deep apologies for causing offence. Auschwitz was a humanitarian disgrace."

In a Sky News interview with Peta Credlin, Peter Wertheim, joint CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), has robustly condemned Bauert's odious remarks, terming them "an offensive dumbing down of history," "extremely cruel to the few Holocaust survivors we have left", and "a cruel misrepresentation of what these people actually went through".

And the ECAJ has not surprisngly and quite justifiably made a formal protest to the Australian Medical Association, terming Bauert's apology on Twitter "inadequate".

As Dr David Adler, president of the non-leftist Australian Jewish Association (AJA), has written:
 :

"I worked for the AMA as Deputy Medical Secretary when it was a quality professional organisation in the past. That’s where I learnt something about policy and advocacy. I put my heart and soul into it and have a sense of gratitude for the experience and contacts gained during my time there. So it is distressing to see the decline of this once prestigious and respected body."

Declares the AJA:

"Trying to conflate an analogy with the Holocaust to support the "Medivac" Bill of Dr Kerryn Phelps is a shameful disgrace.

The Holocaust was a systematic attempt on an industrial scale to exterminate an entire people. Whatever your view of off-shore detention, it is nothing of the sort and to link the two is as ridiculous as it is offensive.

Dr Paul Bauert for the Australian Medical Association (AMA) even suggests that Holocaust victims found some sense of relief in knowing what was happening as they were taken to gas chambers. He is grossly in error - many Holocaust victims were deliberately misled with the gas chambers disguised as shower blocks.. Even the Zyclon B gas was dispersed through shower heads.

AJA President Dr David Adler is formerly AMA Deputy Medical Secretary. He adds "It saddens me to see a once presitigous and highly professional body fracture into an ill informed political activist group. No wonder AMA membership has declined dramatically and only a minority of doctors belong".

We note that Australian security experts have warned that the Medivac Bill would result in people who present risks to others entering Australia.

Would the AMA be comfortable with the restoration of people smuggling and its associated death toll at sea? What of potential victims of those who are a security risk gaining entry? How does it reconcile this with the mission to preserve life?

The AMA stands condemned for using the Holocaust as leverage for a political agenda and meddling in matters of border security."

"Simply Bullets to Be Fired From an Arab Gun"

At an Oxford Union debate on 17 January on the motion  "This House Believes The Arab World Has Failed The Palestinian People", that's how Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of Britain's forces in Iraq and Afghanistan,  aptly characterised the plight of the so-called Palestinians, pawns in their fellow Arabs' rejectionist stance towards Israel.

Watch the colonel's speech here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74pPdr5A4wk

The introduction to the motion noted:

"Arab support for a Palestinian state has long been assumed. However, the denial of citizenship to 4.6 million exiled Palestinians, combined with greater Israeli-Arab collaboration, has led some to question their commitment. Are these incidents isolated, or symptomatic of an Arab world that has failed the people of Palestine?"

 Apart from Colonel Kemp speakers "in proposition" were, in the Union's words:

'Mudar Zahran - Palestinian-Jordanian Secretary General of the Jordanian Opposition Coalition.  He has advocated for Jordan to be the Palestinian state' 

and

'Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad - President and co-founder of the Minaret of Freedom Institute, an Islamic libertarian organisation which counters distortions and misconceptions about Islamic beliefs and practice'

On the opposing side:

'Lowkey - British-Iraqi rapper and activist known for his politically charged music, including Long Live Palestine.  He is a Patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Ghada Karmi - Palestinian doctor, journalist and academic at the University of Exeter, she fled Jerusalem with her family in 1948

Kito de Boer - Former Dutch diplomat, he served as Head of Mission of the Quartet from 2015 to 2017, an international organisation which mediates between Israelis and Palestinians' 

 For the entire proceedings go to the Oxford Union's YouTube channel.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPnf2Az-95w

Not the least interesting aspect of this video, of Mudar Zahran's impassioned speech, comprising a characteristically robust defence of Israel, is the antisemitism expressed in so many of the comments below it on the site.

Meanwhile,on Twitter, no less than three recent tweets by the, the BBC's former Gaza correspondent, the outrageously partisan (we all know on which side) Jon Donnison, suggest Jonno Donno has been hard hit by the comparatively early death of radical comedian Jeremy Hardy.

I mean no disrespect to the late Mr Hardy by suggesting that the fact he starred in a vicious documentary demonising the IDF may have particularly endeared him to the nakedly leftist BBC hack.

David Singer: Hamas and PFLP Embroil USA and EU in Plans to Destroy Israel

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

He writes:

Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs has issued a 79-page report exposing a network of members of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) embedded in Pro-Palestinian non-Government organisations (NGOs) based outside Israel that openly operate in the USA and European Union (EU).

The Report  –  “Terrorists in suits” – is a must-read – detailing:

“How terrorists came to hold key positions in NGOs promoting the Boycott Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign against the State of Israel; and how, through these NGOs, they exploit Western governmental funding, philanthropic foundations, financial platforms and civil society to advance their goal of dismantling the State of Israel.”

The PFLP was designated a terrorist organization by Israel in 1986, the USA (1997) and the European Union (2002) – as was Hamas by Israel (1989), the USA (1997) and the European Union (2014).

Both Hamas and PFLP Charters openly seek the elimination of the State of Israel and use NGO’s to influence public opinion against Israel in furtherance of this heinous objective.

The Report names and shames the following NGO’s, identifies their areas of operation, their ties to Hamas and the PFLP and outs Hamas and PFLP members – many of them convicted terrorists – who are or have been actively involved in these organisations’ campaigns aimed at denigrating and delegitimising Israel:

• The Palestinian BDS National Committee
• Samidoun
• Addameer
• Al-Haq
• Defence For Children International – Palestine
• The European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine
• Palestinian Center For Human Rights
• The Palestinian Return Centre
• The Palestine Solidarity Campaign
• Friends of Al-Aqsa
• American Muslims For Palestine
• Hamas Operatives active in NGO’s in the UK: Muhammad Sawalha and Zaher Birawi

A look at just one organisation – Al-Haq – headquartered in Ramallah and operating in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), the Netherlands, France, and Northern Europe – indicates the modus operandi that similarly exist in the others.

Al-Haq (established in 1979):

• Has Governmental Sponsors: European Union, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland
• Received Grants from Governmental Sources, 2014-2018: Over $3 million
• Published with a group of French NGOs a report in March 2017 entitled “The Dangerous Liaisons of French Banks with the Israeli Colonization”.
• Leads the legal effort to delegitimize Israel at the International Criminal Court in The Hague

Shawan Jabarin, General Director of Al-Haq since 2006, served as a senior PFLP official in the past and at least until recently maintained close ties with PFLP operatives in Judea and Samaria. Jabarin was tried and convicted for his military activity in the PFLP and has served multiple prison sentences.
Jabarin was described in a 2007 Israeli Supreme Court case by the presiding judge as:

 “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Some of his time is spent in conducting a human rights organization, and some as an operative in an organization which has no qualms regarding murder and attempted murder, which have no relation whatsoever to rights. Quite the opposite, they reject the most basic right of all, without which there are no other rights, that is, the right to life.”

Three other PFLP members arrested by Israel are also identified as working or having worked for Al-Haq: Ziyad Hmeidan, Zahi Jaradat and Majed Abbadi.

European and American funding of these organisations should be banned, their offices in the USA and EU closed – and those identified as Hamas and PFLP members deported.

Terrorists in suits denigrating and delegitimising Israel in slick racist and ongoing deceptive public relations campaigns of lies and half-truths – can be just as dangerous as terrorists armed to the teeth.

The EU and America must stop being played for suckers by these Jew-hating organisations.

(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)

British Brogues and Bluster

In London on 25 January, at a demonstration by Inminds supporting the American-Iranian Teheran-based Press TV journalist Marzieh Hashemi (born Melanie Franklin), who was held in a US prison on a visit to her homeland, a Brummie (?)-accented call for Muslims to emulate Da Lobby or "be picked off one by one":

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq_Tkxpw0gw

North of the Border Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign chief Mick Napier inveighs on Facebook against India

and poses a question to which I'm sure 99 "Zionists" (of all creeds and none) out of 100 could give an immediate accurate answer

and is met with Muslim activist Ibrahim (born Brian) Hewitt with enthusiam:

That so-called "Trojan horse" wily old Mick refers to is the Stand Up to Racism organisation, whose conference just held in Glasgow:

leaving the Zionist entity's foes unhappy:

As for the Glasgow Friends of Israel, they're unfazed:

Among their subsequent tweets:

For Jennie Formby's remarks see here

Incidentally, among SUTR events coming soon:

 and (nice poster boy!)

David Singer: Trump Should Reaffirm Core Bush-Congress Commitments to Israel

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

He writes:

President Trump’s decision to reverse his partial US government shutdown – the longest in history – could have important consequences for the release of his long-awaited plan to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict – postponed yet again until after Israel’s elections in April.

Trump’s shut down – aimed at forcing Congress to negotiate on Trump’s election promises to build a wall to stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling through a porous border with Mexico – failed in the face of Congress’s unequivocal demand that Trump first reopen the government.

Trump’s supporters are angry and confused at his cave-in to Congress’s demand whilst his detractors are jubilant – as three weeks of negotiations between Trump and Congress now try to resolve the Trump-Congress stand-off.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) will feel vindicated – after Congress’s resolute stance – in having refused – sight unseen – to negotiate Trump’s peace plan with Israel after Trump had recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocated the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv.

The PLO will be emboldened to continue rejecting Trump’s proposals until Trump reverses his decisions on Jerusalem.

The Wall Street Journal on 11 November 2016 exclusively revealed president-elect Trump’s intentions to make an “ultimate deal” for “humanity’s sake” on “the war that never ends”.

The further delay in releasing his deal comes as the PLO now assumes virtual control of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) proceedings for 2019 – as chairman of the 134 member Group comprising the G77 and China – ensuring a barrage of UNGA resolutions condemning Trump’s deal when published.

Trump’s attempts to woo Jordan, Egypt and possibly other Arab states to replace the PLO in negotiations with Israel remains a work in progress.  Trump’s chances of now succeeding – after his surrender to Congress – appear to have diminished greatly.

The upcoming Israeli elections will give Israelis the chance to vote on the future direction Israel’s new government should take in resolving the future of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza (“disputed territories”) – the last remaining 5 per cent of the territory of the Mandate for Palestine where sovereignty still remains unallocated between Arabs and Jews.

The choices offered to Israeli voters should be explicitly spelt out by the political parties contesting the elections. The newly-elected government’s stated policy should be implemented. This basic premise of democracy has been undermined in America as Trump’s election commitment to build his promised border wall remains unfulfilled because of Congress’s opposition.

Trump should not similarly attempt to thwart the mandate of Israel’s next government.

Trump should shelve his long-overdue ultimate deal indefinitely – due to the changed circumstances that have demonstrably arisen since his well-intentioned thought bubble in November 2016.

Instead – Trump should:

• Pledge his Government’s full support for Israel’s next duly elected Government
• Reaffirm the core commitments made by President Bush to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Bush’s letter dated 14 April 2004 – endorsed overwhelmingly by the Congress by 502 votes to 12 (“Bush/Congress Commitments”).

Those core American commitments – made to procure Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza – included:

1. Opposing any peace plan other than the 2003 Bush Roadmap
2. Being strongly committed to Israel’s security and well-being as a Jewish state.
3. Not supporting any right of return by Palestinian refugees to Israel
4. Regarding as unrealistic a full and complete withdrawal from the disputed territories.

Congress could endorse this Trump initiative – reinforcing continuing bipartisan support for Israel.
Peace will remain elusive – but Trump will have saved himself from drowning in a cesspool that has swallowed previous American presidents who believed they had the answer to ending this unresolved 100 years old 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)