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)

Monday, 10 August 2015

Once Upon A Time (Yet Another Fairy Story) + Norwegian BDS (video) + Corbyn & Sizer

Coins (Mandate authority issue), a "sixteenth century" (actually, pre-war 20th century) map with Palestine printed on it, a post card from Golda Meir during the Mandate period addressed  to someone in Tel Aviv, Palestine, a Palestinian orchestra (the Yishuv's), a Palestinian football team (the Yishuv's) ...

Is there no end to the ignorance of the Israel-haters and the depths to which they will stoop to "prove" that an autonomous state named Palestine really did exist once upon a time?

Are they really so historically challenged?

Below, in the same ludicrous Israel-delegitimising genre, is a piece of nonsense a dedicated London BDSer posted to her Facebook page a few days ago.

It 's one of the most desperate contributions to the genre yet.


Meanwhile, from increasingly noxious Norway, a newly uploaded video spruiking BDS.  Towards the end, two appearances from an Israeli introducing herself as Tali Shapiro, recommending the haters' campaign.


How especially odious are such "enemies within".

Meanwhile, too, perpetual Israel-basher Ben White is distinctly unhappy with the Israeli Leftists who denounce BDS: see here 

Tunisian BDS (with help from Ronnie Barkan) here

An old friend of ours defended by the man who's expected to be next leader of the UK Labour Party!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3191393/Jeremy-Corbyn-defended-controversial-vicar-banned-social-media-promoting-clearly-anti-Semitic-material.html

Friday, 7 August 2015

David Singer: Chickens Coming Home To Roost For Turkey

Below is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.  I've added a map, courtesy of this site:

Writes David Singer:

Turkey’s championing of the Palestinian Arabs in their quest for an independent State has come back to bite Turkey with a vengeance – as Kurdish Statehood is once again firmly placed on the political agenda.

Turkey became the first country in the world with an ambassador to “Palestine” – after its envoy in Ramallah, Şakir Özkan Torunlar, presented his Letter of Credence to “State of Palestine” President Mahmoud Abbas on 14 April 2013.

Incredibly this self-declared “State of Palestine”  – admitted as a member State of UNESCO on 31 October 2011 and as a non-State observer to the United Nations on 29 November 2012 with Turkey’s active support – lacks the four following criteria required by the 1933 Montevideo Convention to qualify as a State:

1. a permanent population;
2. a defined territory;
3. a government; and
4. capacity to enter into relations with the other states.
Turkey’s swift recognition of this illegally constituted state for the “Palestinians” – a people only created for the first time in 1964 by the PLO Charter – starkly contrasts with Turkey’s consistent refusal to grant its 15 million ancient Kurdish community – part of the largest stateless minority group in the world -– the identical right to their own State in Northern Turkey for the last 90 years.

Tim Arango sums up the current situation:
"The Kurds  – a population of roughly 30 million spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria  – have historically been treated as second-class citizens by autocratic governments and have long dreamed of their own state. Their aspirations were thwarted by Western powers after World War One, when new borders were drawn that carved up the Kurdish communities. But slowly, during the upheaval of the Middle East, the Kurds are now reaching for self-determination.
The battle for Kobani last year in Syria, which ended in victory for the Kurds after a month long American-led air campaign, drew Kurdish fighters from around the world and fanned the flames of pan-Kurdish nationalism.
In Iraq, after the Islamic State swept across the north of the country last year and captured Mosul, Kurdish forces took charge of Kirkuk, a city long contested between Kurds and Arabs that sits on a sea of oil and is considered something of a spiritual homeland for the Kurds."
Gains by the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) in the last Turkish elections at the expense of Turkey’s President Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party (A.K.P) have put added pressure on Kurdish demands for their own State. Barham Salih – former prime minister of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region – has stated:
“I think this is a milestone for Kurdish people and for Turkish politics. Not long ago, Kurds were officially non-existent, at best identified as mountain Turks. After decades of denial and persecution, the time for the Kurds has arrived.”
Elif Safak – one of Turkey’s most famous novelists – wrote in Time magazine:
“It is one of the biggest ironies of Turkish political history that the Kurds – once belittled by the elites as a ‘backward culture’ – have become the major progressive force in the country.” 
Turkey and the Kurds now appear to be hurtling toward renewing the all-out conflict that plagued Kurdish Statehood demands for decades – following a suicide attack that killed 32 people in the town of Suruc along the Syrian border.

Erdogan – robbed of his parliamentary majority by the Kurds – is in no mood to support Kurdish Statehood – a position he so enthusiastically embraced for the Palestinians.

Turkey seems set to pay a huge price for Erdogan’s hypocritical double standards.

The chickens are indeed coming home to roost.

Thursday, 6 August 2015

Dershowitz's New Book: "We Must Find Ways To Repair The Damage This Deal Threatens To Do"

Harvard Law School's Professor Alan Dershowitz had written a new book, entitled The Case Against The Iran Deal.

To quote this site:
 'The greatest danger the world faces in the twenty-first century is an Iranian nuclear arsenal. That is why decisions regarding Iran’s nuclear program may be the most important of our time. The negotiations that led to this bad deal were deeply flawed. But it doesn’t follow that the deal should be rejected by Congress. If the President is right that rejecting this deal will be worse than accepting, then he has put us in the terrible position of choosing between bad and worse.
In The Case Against the Iran Deal: How Can We Stop Iran From Getting Nukes?, Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz evaluates the pros and cons of the Iran nuclear agreement. He asks the fundamental questions about what the deal means, how it will be implemented, and whether we now have the capacity to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
As a lawyer with decades of negotiation experience, and a regular commentator on Middle Eastern politics, Dershowitz explains how we could have gotten a better deal, and offers a unique analysis of the Obama administration's negotiations with Iran and the implications of a deal for Israel, the Middle East, and the global community. It is a call for both intelligent reflection and for determined action to stop Iran from getting the bomb.
The clock is ticking. We must find ways to repair the damage this deal threatens to do. This book proposes solutions along with constructive criticism.'
And of course it's not only the Israeli Right that opposes the Deal.

Nor only Israelis, as Iran's proxy in Lebanon knows all too well.

Here's Dore Gold's take, and here

 But Obama, dismissing Israel's objections, is digging his heels in.

Meanwhile, an Iran bigwig has accused the West of fostering conditions that will lead to a Third World War ...


"A Penis That Never Bends" (video)

The answer to a question many women must have wondered: if men get 72 virgins in the hereafter, what do women get?

Palestinian-Jordanian cleric Sheikh Mashhoor bin Hasan Al-Salman tells.


(No, the header does not necessarily refer to this bloke, the man who's expected soon to be the UK LabourParty  leader, left-winger Jeremy Corbyn, who of course is no friend to Israel, speaking here to Middle East Eye on his vision of the future.)

Wednesday, 5 August 2015

"Everything Everywhere" Except When It's Pro-Israel?

Courtesy: Edgar Davidson blog
'EE is the UK's largest 4G operator, with a network that offers the most extensive coverage and the fastest speeds....
EE, which stands for Everything Everywhere, was formed when T-Mobile and Orange merged in 2010.... It was the first UK operator to launch a 4G service in late 2012, with a super-fast service that was available in the UK's cities. Since then it has expanded to 215 locations, as of June 2014....'

That's the boast here

But "Everything Everywhere" might fall under the "false advertising" label, since EE appears to be blocking access to certain pro-Israel sites, including this one.

Anti-Israel sites are apparently not affected.

Edgar Davidson, who has described this strange state of affairs, and its anomalies, has contacted the company requesting an explanation ...

If he gets no satisfaction from them, I suggest that this is a matter for the Board of Deputies.

(Update: A UK commenter on Edgar's site advises that in his experience "Israelly cool is blocked during the day 09.00 - 21.00   Accessing the Daphne Anson website is ok until you try to comment and then it comes back with a Sky message content blocked so not able to leave a message ")

Bibi Pleads For American Non-Partisanship: "Oppose This Dangerous Deal" (video)

Extremely sobering stuff here, as Bibi Netanyahu spells out to Americans how and why "this dangerous deal" will enable Iran to get the Bomb and how a terrible nuclear conflagration in the Middle East is made more likely by the Deal, which is opposed by Israelis on a non-partisan basis.  Americans, too, should put party politics aside and oppose the Deal, he says.


Read more here

Tuesday, 4 August 2015

"The Most Beautiful Thing About BDS" (video)

BDSers in Adelaide, with variations on their usual theme:


By the way, my previous post, on the contrasting attitude between most Israelis and Palestinians in response to the slaughter of innocents, by a French oleh, is garnering a lot of attention. 

In similar vein is an article by Palestinian scholar Bassam Tawil, which is summarised thus:
 'We Palestinians have failed to educate our people on the principles of tolerance and peace. Instead, we condone and applaud terrorism, especially when it is directed against Jews. We want the world to condemn terrorism only when it claims the lives of Palestinians.
Abbas's ambiguous, half-hearted condemnations of attacks by Palestinians against Israelis are only intended for public consumption and are primarily aimed at appeasing Western donors so that they will continue channeling funds to the Palestinian Authority. In addition, his condemnations seek to blame Israel for Palestinian terror attacks.
Netanyahu's strong and clear condemnation left me and other Palestinians wondering when was the last time we heard similar statements from our leaders. I cannot remember Abbas or any other Palestinian leader ever expressing shock and outrage over the killing of a Jew in a Palestinian terror attack, nor the last time a Palestinian official visited the Israeli victims of a Palestinian terror attack.
Each time Abbas reluctantly condemns a Palestinian terror attack, he faces a wave of criticism from many Palestinians. Unlike the Israeli public, many Palestinians often rush to justify, and even welcome, terror attacks against Jews. Has there ever been a Palestinian activist who dared to hold a rally in a Palestinian city to condemn suicide bombings or the murder of an entire Jewish family? The Israeli president has good reason to feel ashamed for the murder of the baby. But when will we Palestinians ever have a sense of shame over the way we react to the murder of Jews?' 
 Read all of Bassam Tawil's article here