David Singer: PLO Suicide Note Leaves Jordan to Decide Fate of West Bank

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

He writes:

President Trump has been given the clearest notice that his deal of the century will be stillborn if he designates any role for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in its implementation.

In a remarkable outburst that can best be described as his “suicide note”– PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared on 25 July:

“I reiterate that we will not surrender, we will not coexist with the occupation and we will not deal with the deal of deal of the century, or the slap of the century or the deal of shame - all names for one title. Palestine and Jerusalem are not for sale and bargain. They are not a real estate deal in a real estate company.”

Yet for the last 25 years the PLO – aided and abetted by Jordan – has refused to yield its claim to sovereignty over every square meter of West Bank real estate – when compromise could possibly have resolved the 100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict.

Two days prior to Abbas’ suicide note , the US Congress in a rare show of bipartisanship had offered the PLO a lifeline to enable it to negotiate with Israel on Trump’s yet-to-be-released proposals – overwhelmingly passing House Resolution 246 by a vote of 398-17 with 5 voting ‘present’.
Resolution 246:

• Urged: Israelis and Palestinians to return to direct negotiations as the only way to achieve an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• ...Reaffirmed: its strong support for a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in two states – a democratic Jewish State of Israel, and a viable, democratic Palestinian state – living side-by-side in peace, security, and mutual recognition.

48 hours later Abbas’s suicide note had trashed Congress’s Resolution.

So where to from here?

First some indisputable facts:

• Jews have the legal right to settle in the West Bank under Article 6 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (Mandate) and article 80 of the United Nations Charter.
• Jordan and Israel are the two successor States to the Mandate: Jordan being sovereign in 78% of the Mandate territory and Israel sovereign in 17%....
• 4% of the Mandate’s remaining real estate – Judea and Samaria – was unified with Transjordan between 1950 and 1967 and renamed Jordan – whilst Judea and Samaria were renamed the West Bank….
• The 1964 PLO Charter made no claim to territorial sovereignty “over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan”...
• The revised 1968 PLO Charter declared the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the Mandate and everything based on them null and void....
• West Bank Arabs were Jordanian citizens between 1950 and 1988.
• Abbas and Arafat have acknowledged Jordanians and Palestinians are one people.

Reunifying parts of the West Bank with Jordan in direct negotiations between Jordan and Israel should now be Trump’s objective, recognising the following resolution passed at the 8th meeting of the Palestinian National Council in February-March 1971:

...“Jordan is linked to Palestine by a national relationship and a national unity forged by history and culture from the earliest times. The creation of one political entity in Transjordan and another in Palestine would have no basis either in legality or as to the elements universally accepted as fundamental to a political entity.... In raising the slogan of the liberation of Palestine and presenting the problem of the Palestine revolution, it was not the intention of the Palestine revolution to separate the east of the River from the West, nor did it believe the struggle of the Palestinian people can be separated from the struggle of the masses in Jordan…”

Abbas has written his suicide note .... Trump shouldn’t demean himself begging Abbas to reconsider.

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

"Israel is a Democratic State ... We are Treated Just Like the Jews"

Here's one for the Israel-bashing Bowens, Knells and Donnisons of the BBC, as told to one of their colleagues:

"Israel is a democratic state. I have not seen any injustice there. We are treated just like the Jews".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkgDG8c-u_Y

To quote the translator and uploader, Memri.org:

'Sayyaf Sharif Daoud, a captured Israeli-Arab ISIS fighter who holds Israeli citizenship, said in a July 16, 2019 interview on BBC Arabic (U.K.) that he had joined ISIS instead of the Palestinian resistance because his experience of having lived through the Second Intifada and of having lived in the West Bank and in Israel had taught him that Israel "has not done one percent of what Bashar Al-Assad has done."

He explained that despite the fighting, Israel has never raped women or brutally killed people like the Assad regime has.

 Daoud also said that his father had warned him against joining Hamas and Fatah, and he expressed regret at having joined ISIS. 

He said he hopes that Israel will take him back so that his life can return to normal. Daoud added that Israel is a democracy in which he has not seen injustice and in which Arabs and Jews live together and are treated equally.'

Al Beeb's Agenda (video)

This half-hour video's not brand new, but it's new enough.  I must confess I've been too busy finishing some date-due writing projects to look at the whole of it, but I reckon it's probably pretty insightful as a window on the BBC's left liberal bias.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aucDmK5E4bU

David Singer: PLO Blocks West Bank Arabs Leaving for a Better Life

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

He writes:

Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat has told a political symposium in Jericho that West Bank Arabs would not be allowed to voluntarily leave  ̶  virtually holding them captives against their will.

Erekat stated:

“We will not allow resettlement or formation of refugee committees for that aim, while holding on to the settlement of their cause in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions.”

Michael Lynk  ̶  the United Nations Human Rights Council’s “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967”  ̶  had issued a statement on June 28 endorsing the right to freedom of movement  ̶  enshrined in Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Erekat’s outrageous threat was not responding to Lynk’s comments  ̶  but to leaked reports claiming the United States might be seeking the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in at least five Arab neighbouring countries.

If confirmed, West Bank Arabs could well be prepared to voluntarily leave the West Bank in large numbers  ̶  especially if offered the opportunity to legally enter other Arab countries and receive financial assistance for rehousing and resettlement there.

President Trump has a massive US$28.7 billion possibly available to aid West Bank Arabs who want to emigrate,  being the money he wanted to plough into revitalising the West Bank and Gaza  ̶  which both the PLO and Hamas unbelievably rejected.

Given the state of relationships between Israel, the PLO and Hamas  ̶  spending that money earmarked for projects within the West Bank and Gaza was a highly questionable exercise that could have seen the destruction of such projects in future conflicts between these three long-time enemies.

Helping those desperate to emigrate who have suffered the perverse decisions of the PLO during the last 25 years is a much more targeted use of the money  ̶  guaranteeing a far better outcome for West Bank Arabs and their families.

The 2019 Human Rights Watch Report evidences the toxic nature of the West Bank:

• the PLO arrested activists who criticized their leaders, security forces, or policies, and mistreated and tortured some in their custody.
• The Independent Commission for Human Rights in Palestine (ICHR), a statutory commission charged with monitoring human rights compliance by the Palestinian authorities, received 205 complaints of torture and ill-treatment by West Bank security forces as of October 31, 2018.
• In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israeli security forces fatally shot 27 Palestinians and wounded at least 5,444,
• Attacks by Israeli settlers injured 61 Palestinians and damaged property in 147 incidents.
• Palestinians killed 10 Israelis, including six civilians, and wounded at least 58 in the same period in the West Bank.

Since the 1993 Oslo Accords  ̶  95 per cent of the West Bank Arab population has been under total PLO administrative control.

Real growth declined to around 2 percent in 2018  ̶  lower than its average in previous years. The 2018 unemployment rate was 17.6 percent.  Youth unemployment between ages 15-24 is 29.8 percent. 

The World Bank has concluded that lack of progress towards peace and reconciliation creates an unsustainable economic situation. The PLO has refused to negotiate with Israel since April 2014 and has failed to call elections since 2007.

The only media outlet to report Erekat’s incendiary statement was the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
The remaining media’s failure to report  ̶  and the UN Special Rapporteur’s failure to condemn Erekat’s controversial announcement  ̶  are despicable.

Hopefully President Trump will pressure the PLO to reverse its position and offer a window of opportunity for those to leave who wish to do so.

Offering West Bank Arabs a lifeline to a better future elsewhere is long overdue.

 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

US Antisemitism: What The Caged Bird Warns

There is much more at source, and it needs to be read!  But, briefly to quote Canary Mission:

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) is a Chicago-based anti-Israel organization that describes itself as “a national education and grassroots-based organization, dedicated to educating the American public about Palestine and its rich cultural, historical and religious heritage.”

AMP’s website states that its mission is accomplished through the creation and dissemination of educational materials, “community-based programing [sic] and engaging with regional and national media.”

As of February 2019, AMP’s website called for “an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, an end to Israeli settlement construction and an end to Israel’s siege on Gaza.”

The organization promotes the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and has spearheaded multiple BDS campaigns.

In 2016, AMP was referred to as campus anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)’s “most important sponsor and organizer” and “a leading driver” of BDS in the U.S.

In 2010, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) wrote an article accusing AMP of providing a platform for anti-Semitism. AMP has also hosted many anti-Israel rallies nationwide where speakers have called [00:00:11] for “intifada,” a term that carries the connotation of violence.

AMP leaders have spread anti-Semitism, expressed support for Hamas terrorists and praised the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and its spiritual leader. As of February 2019, one AMP national board member reportedly [p.48] raised money for Hamas, while another two board members have been linked [p.2] to alleged Hamas financiers.

Watch Canary Bird's important video regarding American Muslims for Palestine's foul Jew-hatred here

Anti-Israel Shenanegans in (and out of) Steel City

Sheffield, Yorkshire.  Famous, once upon a time, for manufacturing cutlery.  Not so famous for being the home town of the BBC's appalling little Israel-bashing squirt Jon Donnison. 

Olivia Blake (pictured left, and below holding a Palestinian flag) is Labour councillor for the Walkley, Netherthorpe and Upperthorpe wards in Sheffield.

She's deputy leader of Sheffield Council and Labour's candidate for the parliamentary seat of Sheffield Hallam.

She's on record as saying “I fully support the work of Jeremy Corbyn ... to rid our party of antisemitism...."

(Yes, you read that correctly!)

But along with the rest of the Labour-dominated city council she evidently thinks that the council has a mandate over and beyond its obligation to keep roads free of potholes, to ensure rubbish is collected on time, and to collect rates.

For Sheffield Council has made a foray into the realm of foreign policy.  Not foreign policy in general, but foreign policy aimed at undermining the State of Israel. And aspiring MP Olivia thinks that's a really grand idea.

As outlined here (with a photo, different from the one above, showing Olivia raising the flag) Sheffield Council's recognition of "Palestine" as a sovereign state

came after Sheffield Labor Friends of Palestine gathered nearly 20,000 signatures on a petition calling on the city council to recognize Palestine.

Labor Friends of Palestine, who supported this move, said they will pass on this decision to the British Parliament to discuss it in September.

Palestine's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Hussam Zomlot, welcomed the move and praised the Sheffield Labor Friends of Palestine for their efforts to get their city to recognize Palestine and raise its flag.

He said this support is not only symbolic, but rather is a step toward British recognition of Palestine, which he said is long overdue and a duty for Britain which participated in the tragedy of the Palestinian people with the infamous Balfour Declaration of 1917 that promised a homeland for the Jews in Palestine totally disregarding its indigenous Palestinian population.

Julie Pearn, of the Sheffield Labor Friends of Palestine, played a big role in winning this recognition. “The time for recognition is long overdue. The state of Palestine is already recognized by 138 other nations," she said two weeks ago at a rally outside Sheffield Town Hall.

“We believe public recognition of the Palestine state by the council would be a powerful and influential statement of solidarity which we hope other councils will envy."

Council[l]or Olivia Blake, deputy leader, also said then that “Sheffield is just one city but we can make this symbolic gesture and hope to put pressure on government to do likewise.”

Meanwhile, further mischief is afoot, on the part of the British Trade Union Movement, with which Corbyn and the Corbynistas are of course hand-in-glove.

Inter alia:

A PSC Trade Union Conference: Developing Palestine as a core issue for UK trade union members to grow the international solidarity movement.

Supported by Unite the Union, UNISON, GMB, NEU, ASLEF, UCU, RMT, FBU, TSSA, CWU and TUC.

This conference will feature Palestinian and UK speakers, and provide the space to explore new avenues and provide tools for trade unionists to further our solidarity work for Palestine.

The collective rights of the Palestinian people are under unprecedented assault. The Palestinians need our solidarity now more than ever, and the trade union movement is a crucial part of building lasting solidarity with the Palestinian people. We need to take forward solidarity campaigns, including BDS, to pressure Israel into complying with international law and the universal principles of human rights.

Featured sessions include the situation of Palestinian workers under occupation, how to take BDS action, how we can make a stronger case for Palestinian rights, and the ways we can build on the existing solidarity work by Trade Unions in the UK.

This conference is designed for trade unionists who want to further their solidarity work, to make further progress for Palestine in their unions and beyond.

Join us to skill up, to learn from each other, to hear from inspiring speakers, to attend seminars and to build the power of Palestine solidarity across the UK trade union movement. [Emphasis added]

In Australia, Nuts & Bolts of Bias Against Israel

There are some columnists who, if they did not exist, would have to be invented.

Australia's Andrew Bolt is one such.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPkR9mWGre4

(Hat tip: Ian)

Meanwhile, antisemitism hots up in Melbourne.

And, courtesy of the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER), Victorian Branch, an anti-Israel libel appears on an exam paper:

'A Victorian  year 12 Health and Human Development practice exam included a question asking about religious discrimination and how it can influence mental health giving an example that the demolition of  homes by  Israel persecuted Arabs.

A sample answer stated, “An example of an individual being persecuted for their religion could be the Arab families living in Israel who practice the Islam religion rather the Jewish religion. Including unlawful demolition of homes and forced displacement and detainment of these families.”...'

Read more here

David Singer: Burying the PLO and Resurrecting Jordan in the West Bank

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

He writes:

President Trump’s “deal of the century” – aimed at ending 100 years of conflict between Jews and Arabs over the territory once called “Palestine” – continues to flounder in the face of

· The PLO’s outright rejection of Trump’s deal – even before its details have been published

· Jordan’s continuing refusal to agree to negotiate with Israel when the deal is released

Jordan comprises 78 per cent of former Palestine and is the only sovereign Arab state to have ever occupied (albeit illegally) the West Bank – 4 per cent of former Palestine - between 1948 and 1967. Former Israeli Prime Minister – Ariel Sharon – proposed his own deal in 1992.

Sharon warned against granting autonomy to West Bank Arabs – something that occurred in 1993 after Oslo Accord I was signed and 95 per cent of the West Bank Arabs came under PLO administrative control:

“We must face a simple fact. Autonomy will inevitably lead to Palestinian statehood. The self-governing Authority will enjoy international recognition and command universal attention. Every self-respecting state will open a mission there.

Journalists will coo over keffiyeh-wrapped PLO murderers glowing with a romantic halo. The chairman of the Authority will sit in his office adorned with a wall to wall picture of another chairman, arch-murderer Yasser Arafat. And there will be a PLO flag in the front of the building.”

27 years later, autonomy has not translated into statehood – due to the PLO’s racist policy of refusing to accept the right of Jews to live in the West Bank – the ancient biblical, historic and legally-designated heartland of the Jewish people.

Sharon posited instead:

“… The true solution is to recognize that Jordan is the Palestinian state. Only with Jordan should we discuss the future of the Arab inhabitants of Judea and Samaria, all of whom are Jordanian citizens. And it is with Jordan that we should discuss granting this kind of citizenship to Gaza residents.

We must also talk about how they will vote for and get elected to the Palestinian parliament in Amman, how they will pay taxes, and how they will be able to use Haifa and Ashkelon harbors and reciprocally, how we can use Akaba.

And we should talk of a common market in the Middle East, and about water projects and the mutual development of the Dead Sea resources and of a common front against Arab terrorism. Whether King Hussein or anyone else heads the Palestinian State, Jordan, is their decision."

Sharon continued:

“What I suggested in the past and I suggest again, is that there be autonomic regions without territorial contiguity. Their local police will act strictly within these regions. Non-Jews, after all, have no problem traveling on roads under Jewish control: the problem exists only for Jews under non-Jewish control.

Israeli sovereignty will then begin in all the zones in which Jews are settled. This will affect contiguity of Jewish areas from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River in Judea and Samaria, and from the Sea to the Western Negev in the Gaza district.

Thus all Jewish communities will be under Israeli sovereignty, while most of the Arab population will live in autonomous districts.” 

Trump’s US$28 billion economic plan for the West Bank and Gaza has been rejected by the PLO and received with little enthusiasm by Jordan.

Jewish ethics provides sage advice to Trump to present his political plan without further delay – irrespective of how the PLO and Jordan might receive it:

“It is not your responsibility to finish the work, but you are not free to desist from it either.”

Will Trump’s proposals – like Sharon’s – also bury the PLO and resurrect Jordan in the West Bank?


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

The Roots & Routes of Pakistani Antsemitism

Ever wondered why anti-Israel demonstrations in the West seem to be attended by disproportionately large numbers of people of Pakistani origin and descent?

Earlier this year, in California, Pakistani-born Toronto-based journalist Raheel Raza tells a Jewish audience of the fierce antisemitism that from the late 1970s onwards swept into Pakistan "from the sands of Arabia" and which has so infected Pakistani populations at home and abroad that the "tremendous Hate Fest" that is Al Quds Day sees Pakistani men, women and children bussed in to such events (as in Toronto, and, I may add, London) and which means that even in the remotest villages of rural Pakistan illiterate inhabitants who could not find Israel on a map are filled with hate and loathing.

 

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

A Hunter in Search of a PSC Branch?

For a sliver of a country the size of Israel the principality of Wales has an inordinate amount of  anti-Israel activity: Palestine Solidarity Campaign branches in Abergavenny, Bangor, Cardiff, a branch in the name of the whole of Wales, launched, as we see here, in 2017:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6evoJUHFkg

And comparable groups, including one in Swansea that doesn't resile from sailing close to the wind that carries the stench of antisemitism:

Betty Hunter (pictured below in full battledress) is honorary president of the UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Recently, the Cambrian News, a newspaper circulating in the heartland of Welsh-speaking Wales, announced that on 29 June Betty would be visiting the West Wales seaside and university town of Aberystwyth in the county of Ceredigion, in order to launch a new local branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign:

"The launch event will take place in Arad Goch in Bath Street from 1pm. To initiate the new group, Betty Hunter, honorary president of PSC, will talk about the plight of children who find themselves on the frontline of Israeli military actions in Palestine. The soundtrack to the event will be provided by Côr Gobaith, who will sing songs of hope for peace and justice in the region. The event will conclude with the inaugural AGM of the Ceredigion branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign."

A poster proclaiming the event has appeared on radical Welsh sites and social media posts inimical to Israel's interests, but so far there is no mention of the existence of a Ceredigion branch on the PSC's main website, which purports to list all those in existence.

For years Hungarian-born Elizabeth Morley (of Jewish ancestry on her mother's side) was (is?) the high-profile secretary of the Aberystwyth PSC branch, and, a member of the Labour Party since Corbyn became leader, continues to write letters to the press and public figures and organise petitions denouncing Israel.

The Aberystwyth branch consisted (consists?) largely of a gaggle of old ladies and the occasional bloke buttonholing shoppers outside stores having the temerity to sell Israeli fruit and veggies.  (They, and no doubt others like them Britain-wide) successfully cajoled the Co-op into acceding to their demands that such products not be sold.) And setting up stalls in the town's main shopping strip on occasional Saturday mornings, complete with anti-Israel petitions to be signed, and of course that notorious set of four maps on display, while an energetic choir of female voices warbled anti-Israel "peace" songs.

Mrs Morley still tweets using the AberPSC handle:

Yet to judge by the lack of activity on its Twitter page the Aberystwyth PSC branch seems to have morphed during 2018 into "Aberystwyth Friends of Palestine" with her at the helm.

There has long been a student society of that name in town, the subject of this disturbing report back in 2013. Presumably it remains autonomous, and is not directly under the aegis of Mrs Morley's group.

Could it be that Betty Hunter called off her visit?  Could it be that Mrs Morley's group, whatever its name, has made a new PSC group in town unviable?  Time will tell.

The PSC claims that it is not antisemitic, but David Collier's findings here belie that claim.

I was assured some ten years ago by a (Jewish) leading figure in the PSC that PSC activists are instructed to avoid linking to online rag Redress since it carries overtly antisemitic articles.

Elizabeth Morley, though, has a long-standing penchant for linking to articles in Redress and continues to do so. 

See, for instance, these bits and pieces:

That second recent tweet opens up access to such distasteful rubbish as this, and that the author of the first is Jewish himself does not excuse it, not one little bit:

Furthermore:

No doubt the lady and her cohorts, as well as Betty Hunter and indeed all the PSCers, dedicated BDSers that they are, carry this card in their wallets:

And if not, why not?

David Singer: Trump increases Pressure on Jordan to Negotiate with Israel

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

He writes:

President Trump seems set to increase the pressure on Jordan to negotiate with Israel on the future of the West Bank and Gazan Arabs.

This has become increasingly more likely following Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) rejecting US$6.238 billion in grants and US$12.911 in concessional loans proposed by President Trump to be expended as part of US$27.813 billion in Gaza and the West Bank.

Added to these grants and concessional loans totalling US$19.149 billion is a minimum additional US$1.275 billion per annum until Financial Year 2022 under the non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on 14 February 2018 between the USA and Jordan.

The USA has also provided nearly $1.1 billion in humanitarian assistance to support Syrian refugees in Jordan (in addition to funding provided at the regional level for other refugee populations in the Kingdom). This funding does not fall under the MOU and could also be withdrawn.

This large treasure chest is likely to be offered to Jordan’s King Abdullah if he is prepared to sit down and negotiate with Israel on Trump’s as yet unpublished “deal of the century” for ending the 100 years conflict between the Arabs and Jews in relation to the territory once called “Palestine”.
The West Bank and Gaza comprise the last 5 per cent of the territory of “Palestine” where sovereignty remains unresolved—Israel being sovereign in 17per cent and Jordan being sovereign in 78 per cent.

Expending US$27.813 billion on projects in the West Bank and Gaza—approximately the size of the State of Delaware—seemed an odd Trump approach—as confrontation and conflict with Israel is set to continue and the PLO and Hamas refuse to surrender their power and control over the hapless and suffering populations they have governed since 2007.

 It makes far better sense to use the $19.149 billion in freed up funds to encourage the legal, voluntary and financially assisted migration of West Bank and Gazan Arabs to Jordan and Egypt and the upgrading of services and provision of infrastructure in both countries. This would be additional to the US$7.365 billion and US$9.167 billion for projects in Jordan and Egypt respectively already designated in Trump’s “Peace to Prosperity” Proposal.

The exodus of Gazan Arabs has already begun with 35,000 reported to have left in 2018 seeking a better future for themselves and their families. In the West Bank the Net migration rate estimated in 2018 was -4.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population.

Encouraging voluntary migration using the monies rejected by the PLO and Hamas could be expected to result in a surge of emigration from both the West Bank and Gaza. Emigration would ease the demand for food, services and housing in the West Bank and Gaza for those wishing to stay.
Gazan and West Bank Arabs are no different to the millions of people emigrating from their countries of birth seeking a better life for themselves and their families.

Jordan has a special obligation and connection with West Bank Arabs who were Jordanian citizens and held Jordanian passports between 1950 and 1988.

Extending Jordanian citizenship and passports once again to the West Bank Arab population—whether they remain in the West Bank or not—could be another important outcome from direct negotiations with Israel.

Jordan will not welcome Trump’s attempt to get direct negotiations started between Israel and Jordan. However Hamas’s and the PLO’s total rejection of Trump and any peace proposals he puts forward—even before they are published—makes it imperative that those negotiations take place.

A lot of money and the hopes of hundreds of thousands of potential West Bank and Gazan emigrants are riding on Jordan’s decision.

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.

In London, Jews Whacked by JC Reporter Whack Him Back

Figuratively speaking, naturellement.

That antisemitism is a serious problem in Europe, making many Jews, including young Jews, consider emigrating, is a sad fact of contemporary life. See, for example, the recent report here

That Islamic antisemitism and anti-Zionism is driving a great deal of this horrible antipathy cannot be denied.  And the danger of equating "Islamophobia" with antisemitism should be apparent to all of us, as brilliantly explained by the incomparable Melanie Phillips here

Very recently, in London, a number of concerned persons, mainly Jews, among whom were many women, including women well-known as activists in Israel's cause, attended a showing of Katie Hopkins's disturbing documentary on the subject, Homelands.  The meeting was addressed by the articulate Ms Hopkins herself, and among the attendees was Anne-Marie Waters, director of Sharia Watch.

Ben Weich, a young reporter for the London Jewish Chronicle (aka the JC), who seems to have an immature  penchant for poking fun at strong women, to judge from the photo of ex-Tory minister and Brexit Party star Ann Widdicombe on his Twitter page) went along.

The result was not a report but a childish sneering smear against those present, including several well-known Jewish women by name. He scoffed at concerns for the future of Judeo-Christian civilisation. Virtually everyone he poked fun at happened to be female. And if there is a preponderance of women among those who most fear militant Islam, the reason for that fear is not far to seek.

His conclusion, in the context, was nauseating:

"But Jewish flirtation with the far right and extreme nationalism – less than a century removed from the Holocaust – is sickening and tragically ironic in equal measure."

One only hopes that Ben Weich will not grow up to rue the day he dismissed well-founded concerns about Islamic mass immigration and its concomitant antisemitism so cavalierly and bloody-mindedly ashe did in his JC piece.

It's no wonder that the traduced have answered back, in a masterly rebuttal of Weich's piece.  Inter alia (emphasis added):

'.... We do not recognise much of Ben Weich’s JC piece, a great deal of which amounts to no more than vacuous, unctuous virtue signalling.

Naturally we requested a right of reply. JC editor Stephen Pollard declined.

Clearly Weich was so imbued with emotional enthusiasm having at last caught us ‘at it’, that he failed to speak with the producers of the film, failed to raise his concerns during the free and open discussion and failed to interview the organisers.

After we provided this journalist with all the means to investigate and write a true and honest report, he distorted and selectively reported with the sole objective of suggesting that we are extremists. This is completely untrue.

Weich fails to tell his readers that this event had to be cancelled four times in Israel and twice in London, because of input from members of the Jewish establishment, determined to suppress free speech and dialogue. At great expense in London we provided sufficient trained security personnel – including a guard dog – because we take seriously our responsibility for safety. Weich’s report mendaciously juxtaposes the guard dog with a mention of “the BNP in Barking”. He describes Katie Hopkins as a “right wing agitator” but he made no attempt to pose a question to her at the event. No – in Weich’s universe it seems that truth becomes the victim while antisemites get a free ride. Then in his final paragraph he invokes the Holocaust to attempt to add weight to his absurd and offensive conclusion that our event was “Jewish flirtation with the far right and extreme nationalism”.

You’d have thought that Weich might have commented on the revolting antisemitism which the film exposes. Instead he shoots the messengers....'  

Please read it all.

As-a-Jews Astray

What a sweet-looking old fella.

He doesn't look like a tiger, does he?

But he is.

He's John Tiger Casley, an Aussie who describes himself as a "Christian Jew".  A  "Christian Jew" without much Christian charity towards the great majority of Jews who support the State of Israel.

Read all about it on the website of his very own, um, political party.

The last time Tiger made headlines was during Australia's recent Federal Election, comfortably won, of course, by Scott Morrison and the Coalition:

'Labor has been forced to reprint how-to-vote cards in the Melbourne seat of Goldstein, following revelations it had preferenced a candidate who runs a fan club for an anti-Semitic lecturer.

Independent candidate John Tiger Casley, previously linked to One Nation, is the convener of the “David Icke Club Melbourne”, a fan club for British lecturer David Icke, who claims the world is run by a secret society of shape-shifting Jewish lizards.

Labor yesterday moved Mr Casley from fourth place on the how-to-vote card to last, after incumbent Liberal MP Tim Wilson and United Australia Party candidate Wayne Connolly. The party was also forced to dump Northern Territory Senate candidate Wayne Kurnorth over the weekend, after The Australian revealed he had shared Icke’s bizarre theories online.

Labor successfully campaigned to ban Mr Icke from coming to Australia earlier this year.

Earlier this month, former Labor MP Melissa Parke stood down as candidate for the Perth seat of Curtin following revelations she had likened Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid.

Mr Casley contested the 1998 election as a One Nation candidate in Liberal MP Kevin Andrews’s seat of Menzies.

He has also been engaged in a long-running legal feud with ABC radio host Jon Faine, who is Jewish, over the manner in which his talkback calls were treated between 1997 and 2010, and last year lost his Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal bid to have the public broadcaster sanctioned for allegedly “discriminating” against his political beliefs....'

Tiger's in the news again because this offensive poster has been spotted outside a dwelling in the up-market Melbourne suburb of Brighton, prompting complaints to the local council, which has given the culprit until Monday to remove the sign before further action is taken.

Photo: Australian Jewish News

According to the Jewish press:

'Local Jewish resident Rodney Edelsten reported the sign to The AJN after he passed it while driving to his home over the weekend.

“I found it quite abhorrent,” he said, adding that his wife lost many family members in the Holocaust. "What upset me most was actually seeing a swastika inside a Magen David.”

The Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) also received several complaints.

“Enough is enough. We cannot treat this despicable incident as business as usual. No one in Melbourne of 2019 should be menaced by this sickening symbol of hate and oppression which is aimed squarely at Jews, though deeply offensive to the entire community,” commented ADC chairman Dvir Abramovich.

.... When asked by The AJN how he thought Shoah survivors would feel if they saw the symbol of the swastika within the Star of David, he [John Tiger Casley] retorted, “I don’t think that is logical thinking. Because I think it’s terrible what the Nazis did to the Jews; and I also think it is very nasty what the Zionists are doing to the Palestinians. It’s the same thing.”

He said the sign “espouses love” and its aim was to “educate everybody to understand that Zionism is an evil force”.

“They are the new Nazis and we don’t want them. Zionism is apartheid, racist, terrorism."....'

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have a very cynical attitude towards many "As-a-Jews", those members of the Tribe who wear their Jewishness lightly but suddenly discover it when there's an anti-Israel petition to be signed.  Numbered among them, to my certain knowledge, are people who happen to be married to a Jew or to the descendant of a Jew, have never converted to Judaism, have no intention of doing so, but assume a Jewish "identity"of their  own in the Israel-bashing cause.  As-a-Jews personally known to me include the non-Jewish leftist grandson of a Jewish paternal grandfather, his non-Jewish leftist wife, and their non-Jewish leftist son.

The following Jewish Voice for Labour petition in support of Israel-bashing MP Chris Williamson.

It's got many a non-Jewish Corbynista regretting that they're not eligible to sign.

Here, though, is a very telling Facebook exchange regarding the petition that suggests why, whenever a "Jew" is called upon to sign a statement that isn't in Israel's best interest, there is no shortage of signatories!

Oy!

Old Droners, One Track Minds

Inminds, that is, the Muslim-initiated outfit in dear old London Town that when it's not telling nasty porkies about Israel is, well, telling nasty porkies about Israel and Israel's friends.

At least the erstwhile star of their show, Sandra Watfa (who's been absent from these dreary demos for some time, it seems) had poise and oomph. 

The grizzled geezer stumbling over the script in this Alex Seymour/Seymour Alexander video has no charisma whatsoever. If I had proof that he'd converted a single passer-by to the ignoble cause I'd eat my acubra hat.  If I had one.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvIQQp-Pe-Q

So, keep on trucking, sunshine!

David Singer: Trump Should Champion Legal Migration from West Bank and Gaza

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

He writes:

President Trump should consider championing legal, voluntary and financially-assisted emigration from Gaza and the West Bank by calling on Jordan and Egypt to open their border crossings and grant residency status to Gazan and West Bank Arabs seeking a better future for themselves and their families.

Such action is certainly justified following the rejection of President Trump’s offer to inject US$6.5 billion into the West Bank and Gaza – with both Hamas and the PLO telling Trump they were not prepared to accept any financial assistance coming out of the Manama Conference jointly convened last week by Trump and Bahrain.

Hamas purported to speak for the “Palestinian people” – a body politic invented in 1964  that last had a say in its own future in 2006:

“No one can represent the Palestinian people except the Palestinians themselves, who have never been unqualified to taking decisions related to Palestine. The parties and states meeting in Manama do not have any right or mandate to take decisions on behalf of the Palestinian people. Therefore, any resolution taken or stance adopted at the conference is null and void and does not represent the Palestinian people. Such decisions or positions are only desperate attempts to liquidate the Palestinian issue and do not represent the Palestinian people.”

The PLO was just as quick to reject the massive financial aid being offered by Trump – PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declaring:

“We say that national rights are not pieces of real estate that are purchased and sold and that arriving at a political solution that guarantees freedom, dignity, independence and justice for our people must precede any economic programs or projects because that will create stability and security for everyone,”

Christine Lagarde – managing director of the International Monetary Fund – appeared to agree with both Hamas and the PLO when stressing:

“Improving economic conditions and attracting lasting investment to the region depends ultimately on being able to reach a peace agreement.
Peace, political stability and re-establishment of trust between all the parties involved are essential pre-requisites to the success of any economic plan for the region.”

Lagarde’s comments appeared at odds with the views expressed by White House adviser Jared Kushner when he opened the conference and said an economic plan:

“is a necessary precondition to resolving what has been a previously unsolvable political situation.”

The “unsolvable political situation” in Gaza and the West Bank has been ongoing for the last 100 years.
Gaza and West Bank Arabs – currently forced to endure this political uncertainty – faced the following dire economic circumstances in 2018 according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics:

• Unemployment in Gaza reached 52 percent – an increase of almost eight percent since 2017
• Unemployment among young people in Gaza aged 15-29 was 69%.
• The unemployment rate in the West Bank was 17.6 percent

Gaza’s civilian population has paid a heavy price for the indiscriminate targeting of Israeli population centres with thousands of missiles and incendiary balloons.

Hamas and the PLO – still fighting between themselves for control of the Johnny-come-lately “Palestinian people” – seem extremely unlikely to allow the respective constituencies they have ruled for the last 12 years to have any say in the future political and economic direction of Gaza and the West Bank.

US$16.5 billion proposed for projects in Jordan and Egypt – coupled with Trumps’ US$6.5 billion unexpended in Gaza – constitute a humanitarian lifeline for Gazan and West Bank Arabs to migrate and enjoy far better lives than they currently have.

If Gazan and West Bank Arabs cannot vote in election booths – then Trump should help them vote with their feet.

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