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, 15 April 2015

"The Obama Doctrine": Daniel Pipes Explains


Interviewed by Ezra Levant regarding Obama's foreign policy, Daniel Pipes covers Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, Iran, Saudi Arabia and a great deal more.

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog

Tuesday, 14 April 2015

On The Temple Mount, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun


States the uploader onto YouTube, Cockney Doll:
"This short clip was filmed on the Temple Mount.
As has become the daily routine, a small group of Jewish worshippers were followed and hounded by the "Morabiton" – veiled Muslim women who are paid by Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood to report to the Temple Mount each day during the three hours that Jews are allowed onto the Mount, for the sole purpose of making the experience on the Temple Mount as unpleasant as possible for the Jews.
As can be seen in these clips, the police are instructed to act only passively toward the Muslim instigators.
The presence of a screaming young girl has also become a fixture in recent months. Her tender age and sex render her free from any kind of police intervention whatsoever. But her presence begs the question:
Whose child is she?
Is her mother one of the burqa clad women also seen screaming at the Jews?
Why isn't she in school?
Why have Social Services not intervened?
Why is she being educated to hate?
Is she the upcoming generation's face of Islamic tolerance?"
 See also here

David Singer: Islamic State Morphing Into Global Gehenna

http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/pentagon-admits-no-strategy-to-blunt-isis-expansion/
"Islamic State Morphing Into Global Gehenna" is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

Growing support for – and pledges of allegiance to – Islamic State by diverse Islamic terrorist groups world-wide are now creating horrific humanitarian problems for Christian communities in many countries – some far removed from the Middle East.

Thirty such groups have so far been identified:
  • al-I’tisam of the Quran and Sunnah [Sudan] — Aug. 1, 2014 — Support
  • Abu Sayyaf Group [Philippines] — June 25, 2014 — Support
  • Ansar al-Khilafah [Philippines] — Aug. 4, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Ansar al-Tawhid in India [India] — Oct. 4, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) [Phillipines] — Aug. 13, 2014 — Support
  • Bangsmoro Justice Movement (BJM) [Phillipines] — Sept. 11, 2014 — Support
  • al-Huda Battalion in Maghreb of Islam [Algeria] — June 30, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Heroes of Islam Brigade in Khorasan [Afghanistan] — Sept. 30, 2014 — Allegiance
  • The Soldiers of the Caliphate in Algeria [Algeria] — 30 Sep. 2014 — Allegiance
  • Jundullah [Pakistan] — Nov. 17, 2014 — Support
  • Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) [Pakistan] Statement — Sept. 24, dated Sept. 12, 2014 — Support
  • Islamic Youth Shura Council [Libya] — June 22, 2014 — Support
  • Jaish al-Sahabah in the Levant [Syria] — July 1, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Faction of Katibat al-Imam Bukhari [Syria] — Oct. 29, 2014 – Allegiance
  • Jamaat Ansar Bait al-Maqdis [Egypt] — June 30, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Jund al-Khilafah in Egypt [Egypt] — Sept. 23, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Liwa Ahrar al-Sunna in Baalbek [Lebanon] — June 30, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Islamic State Libya (Darnah) [Libya] — Nov. 9, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Shura Council of Shabab al-Islam Darnah [Libya] — Oct. 6, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Mujahedeen Indonesia Timor (MIT) [Indonesia] — July 1, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Mujahedeen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSCJ) [Egypt] — Oct. 1, 2014 — Support
  • Tehreek-e-Khilafat [Pakistan] — July 9, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion [Tunisia] — Sept. 20 2014 — Support
  • Mujahedeen of Yemen [Yemen] — Nov. 10, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Supporters for the Islamic State in Yemen [Yemen] — Sept. 4, 2014 — Allegiance
  • al-Tawheed Brigade in Khorasan [Afghanistan] — Sept. 23, 2014 — Allegiance
  • Supporters of the Islamic State in the Land of the Two Holy Mosques [Saudi Arabia] — Dec. 2, 2014 — Support
  • Ansar al-Islam [Iraq] — Jan. 8, 2015 — Allegiance
  • Leaders of the Mujahed in Khorasan (10 former TTP commanders) [Pakistan] — Jan. 10, 2015 — Allegiance
  • Boko Haram [Nigeria] — March 7, 2015 — Allegiance
Seventy-one Chadian soldiers have reportedly been killed and 416 wounded in less than three months of fighting to crush Boko Haram. Chad has sent about 5,000 troops to fight alongside soldiers from Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon against Boko Haram whose Nigeria-based insurgency has increasingly spilled-over into neighbouring nations.

Some 13,000 Nigerians have been killed and 1.5 million have fled their homes since 2009.

Other Islamic terrorist groups can be expected to join their ranks.

http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/isis-beheads-pope-condemns-obama-golfs/
President Obama’s pledge to degrade and destroy Islamic State heading an international coalition of 62 like-minded nations is looking increasingly ineffectual as Islamic State rapidly morphs into a global Gehenna.

President Obama declared on 23 September 2013:
“The United States will continue to work with the entire continent of Africa and around the world to make sure that we are dismantling these networks of destruction.”
A Chapter VII Security Council Resolution is urgently required authorising the use of a UN military force to eradicate these “networks of destruction” that are now uniting into a ruthless killing machine dedicated to restoring the Islamic Caliphate.

Only an internationally sanctioned force replacing Obama’s coalition can stem the tide.

President Obama needs to get that Security Council Resolution rolling.

Monday, 13 April 2015

UK Greens, Anyone?

He's hostage to his party's (anti-Israel) far left and to the (anti-Israel) unions
It seems that according to the latest British polls in the lead-up to May's general election the Conservatives are slightly ahead, with UKIP set to cost them votes.

However, the possibility looms that Labour will narrowly win, and be reliant in government on the support of Scottish National Party MPs.

Such a scenario is hardly calculated to bring a smile to the faces of Israel's supporters.

As for the Greens, if the well-documented anti-Israel stance of such high-profile Greens politicians as Caroline Lucas and Pippa Bartolotti is not enough to scare Israel's supporters away, then I reckon the presence since last year of Shahrar Ali as deputy leader of the UK Greens should be enough to keep any friend of Israel awake at night.

 Here he is, raging apoplectically in 2009, and even showing off his singing voice:


 Edgar Davidson (hat tip: Ian) ranks the parties in terms of antisemitism here

Ratbags, anyone? O, the irony!
Incidentally, if you imagine that Israel has (for once) escaped the attention of these Stop The War coalition stalwarts and their union mates demonstrating in London against Saudi Arabia a few days ago, think again.

Those anti-Apartheid banners that you see from 5:10 onwards aren't, as may be assumed, purpose-made to protest the segregation/subjugation of women and lack of churches in the Desert Kingdom.

Oh dear, no.

They're banners that anti-Israel fans of certain British football teams carry outside certain football club grounds to express hatred of the world's only Jewish State.  Glimpsed on this video holding one is the plummy-voiced woman with long grey hair who recites anti-Israel "poetry" to hapless passengers on Tube trains, and seems to be a ubiquitous presence at anti-Israel demos in the British capital:

Saturday, 11 April 2015

Why Professor Geoffrey Alderman Is Wrong Regarding The Southampton Conference: A professor writes ...

Below is a guest blog by Professor William Rubinstein, who has held chairs of history at Deakin University in Australia and at the University of Wales, and who like Professor Geoffrey Alderman has written books and articles on Anglo-Jewish history.

This guest blog criticises Professor Alderman's contention in the Jewish Chronicle here that the cancellation of the scheduled conference at Southampton University entitled "International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism" is unjustified and regrettable.

Writes Professor Rubinstein:

Many of Professor Geoffrey Alderman's columns in the Jewish Chronicle are perceptive and cogent.

But many are not, and his most recent column – "An own goal in Southampton" – is not. In fact, it is totally wrong and mischievous, and I would be surprised if many of his normal supporters would agree with him.

The proposed Conference at Southampton University, which was to be held on 17-19 April, is not an academic conference in the normal sense.

By definition, academic discussions entail a variety of opinions, and, by definition, the organisers of academic conferences, while they may have a private opinion about the subject of the conference, even one passionately held, are neutral and scrupulously fair-minded about the presentation of contrary opinions

From its nature, the Southampton conference is the very opposite of a normal academic conference which is value-neutral on the subject under discussion.

This conference is, on the contrary, an academic lynch mob which makes no secret of its predetermined stance.

Its Organisers' Statement available online makes this clear: the conference exists to examine the "ongoing forced displacement of Palestinians and associated injustices" and one of its aims is "to educate a whole new generation [sic] of young Palestinian legal and political scholars about new possible arguments and concepts in order to use International Law better [sic]  in a way that expands legal argument beyond the '1967 occupation' discourse" [sic; – turgid language, poorly expressed and almost incomprehensible, is often part of the rhetoric of the far left, even – indeed, especially – at universities].

The organisers have provided an online list of the speakers and their topics at the conference, which makes for interesting reading and leaves one in no doubt how utterly unfair it is.

Apart from Alderman's paper, every one of the other fifteen or so papers at the gathering are venomously hostile to Israel's existence as a state, invariably from the international  Loony Left.

"On Comparative Settler Colonialism and American Expansionism,""Zionist Colonisation Strategies in Palestine," and "Israel and the Crimes of Apartheid: A Systematic Perspective" are typical examples of the fare to be served up.

It does not appear to have entered Geoffrey Alderman's head that he is obviously and manifestly being used as the token Zionist at an anti-Zionist hate-fest in order to give it some fig leaf of respectability as a bona-fide academic conference, of which it is the very opposite.

One wonders, too, if he, or any other Jewish spokesman would have taken part in a conference organised in Nazi Germany on the topic: "The Jewish Race: A Mortal Danger to Aryan Germany"?

How many would have dignified the topic and its assumptions by criticising this "viewpoint," in an audience composed in all likelihood of Storm Troopers, the SS, and other assorted thugs, every one of whom was an antisemite and a Hitler worshipper?

Not many, and nor should they.

Meanwhile ....
Alderman's point that many of the conference supporters are academics is also without merit: many of the most sedulous supporters of the Nazis in Germany, including at least two Nobel Prize winners, were academics or those with a string of degrees, for instance Dr. Goebbels.

I would personally have no objection to a bona-fide academic conference whose title was "Mandate Palestine in 1948: Contested Histories" or the like, in which a clash of opinions
– a genuine clash – is to be expected and encouraged.

The Southampton conference is the very opposite of this.

And if the organisers of this conference want to relocate to a non-academic venue and hold a tendentious  gathering unconnected with a university, that is their business.

A Hamas training camp in southern Lebanon suggests itself as an appropriate venue.