David Singer: Jordan Jew-hatred Risks Trump, Israel and United Nations Ire

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

He writes:

Jordan’s decision to ban Jews visiting or praying at a Jewish religious site – Aaron’s tomb situated on Jordan’s Mount Hor  –  has seriously threatened the Israel-Jordan peace treaty and possibly postponed even further the long-awaited release of President Trump’s plans aimed at ending the 100 years old Arab-Jewish conflict.

The United Nations Security Council could also be faced with choosing to censure Jordan or avert its gaze from this distinctly disturbing incident of Jew-hatred.

The Jewish claim to visit and pray on Mount Hor is rooted in the Old Testament Numbers 20: 23-29:

 ²³ And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in mount Hor, by the coast of the land of Edom, saying,

²⁴ Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah.

²⁵ Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor:

²⁶ And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there.

²⁷ And Moses did as the Lord commanded: and they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.

²⁸ And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.

²⁹ And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.

This is not some political claim arising from an undocumented verbal narrative conjured up from centuries-past to suit a particular partisan objective. The Bible is venerated by all three monotheistic faiths and existed long before the Arab-Jewish conflict emerged in modern history.

Article 9 of the 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty unequivocally states:

1. Each Party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance.

2. In this regard, in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.

3. The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

Jordanian Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Minister Abdul Nasser Abu al-Basl – who oversees holy sites in Jordan and Jerusalem – reportedly accused Israelis of illegally entering Aaron’s Tomb and decided that Jordan would close it to all tourists with the exception of those who receive prior government approval.

Abu Basl also told Al Mamlaka TV, a state-funded channel, that he decided to close the tomb following “Israeli violations” at the site and “the performance of rituals without the knowledge of the ministry.”

Jews and Arabs – Moslem and Christian – need to respect each other’s religious places of pilgrimage and not claim exclusivity of any site they may each have a religious connection with.
Jordan’s reprehensible action threatens the release of Trump’s deal of the century and Jordan’s possible participation in negotiations with Israel to successfully bring it to fruition. Trump’s displeasure could see financial and security consequences for Jordan. Possible retaliatory action by Israel on Jordan’s Islamic-sites custodianship in Jerusalem could also follow.

Cooling the situation by allowing Jews to freely access Mount Hor is urgently required.
Jordan should hang its head in shame.

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

Islam & Jerusalem: Fact & Fable

It's not brand new, this talk by the eminent Israeli scholar of Islam Dr. Mordechai Kedar: "Jerusalem as a Muslim holy city is the oldest Fake News in history"

But the video's one for all seasons, and for those who haven't seen it, it's well worth watching. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hah5067AwF4

The eminent British scholar of Islam Professor Denis MacEoin observed of it:

"Kedar is spot on. One thing he does not mention is that by the time Muhammad and his followers went to Medina (in 622, the start of the Islamic calendar), Muslims were instructed to pray towards Jerusalem. But about 18 months later, a revelation came down from God, ordering them to turn about 180 degrees to pray towards Mecca, which they have done since then. In other words, Jerusalem lost its significance as the qibla (direction of prayer) and also as a site for pilgrimage. The Qur'an does not even mention Jerusalem or al-Quds, not even in the verses about the night journey to the 'furthest mosque' (masjid al-aqsa). As for the flying horse etc., that is mainly later legend. It's time these facts were presented in international fora (e.g. UNESCO) and that this and other Muslim claims (e.g. calling the Maarat Ha-Mechpela in Hebron 'Abraham's mosque', as if a mosque existed anywhere in the time of the patriarchs." [Emphasis added]

Hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog

Antisemitism: Does Stephen Sizer Really Need a History Lesson?

The British Anglican Church Times newspaper of 19 July carried an article by Canon Angela Tilby (read it here), in which she observed, inter alia;

'There are several reasons why the Labour Party has become vulnerable to accusations of anti-Semitism (News, 12 July). The first is that, having swung so far to the left, it has forgotten the distinguished Jewish politicians who have contributed to its history. Second, sympathy for the Palestinians has led to a worrying tolerance of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories from the Nazi era, which are widespread in some pro-Palestine groups.

But there is also a hidden, perhaps more disturbing, factor behind the party’s problem with anti-Semitism, and that is the illusion that a programme of universal progress confers automatic moral superiority on those who promote it....

Anti-Semitism has Christian roots. It was vigorously promoted by the second-century heretic Marcion, who rejected the God of the Old Testament as the enemy of the kindly God and Father of Jesus. Marcion reduced scripture to an edited version of St Luke’s Gospel and a few of St Paul’s letters. Christians of a Marcionite tendency continue to contrast law and gospel, to the detriment of the former. Luther was unashamedly anti-Semitic....

....When I hear Christians contrast the simple gospel of Jesus with the “angry God of the Old Testament”, I shudder. Anti-Semitism begins in an uncritical belief in our own innocence.'

Angela Tilby's article provoked a response by a chap called Christopher John Ryecart, who I notice has taken issue with Canon Tilby before.

Our old mate the Reverend Dr Stephen Sizer, former vicar of Virginia Water, now head of the so-called Peacemakers outfit, which seems to spend a lot of its time bashing one country above all others (no prizes for guessing which), in the tradition of the vicar himself, has treated his Facebook faithful to a copy of Ryecart's response, as follows:

Now, I have no idea who Ryecart is.  But how unsavoury is his response, with its gratuitous references to the "race" of the Jews, and to what I've previously referred to as "the Khazar crap".

How strange is his seeming ignorance of the fact that the term "Anti-Semitismus" was invented in the late nineteenth century by German Jew-hater Wilhelm Marr to refer specifically to Jews, and that is why the term antisemitism (which, following the example of the Vidal Sassoon Center for the Study of Antisemitism, most Jews today prefer to spell without the hyphen, since there is no ideology of "semitism" and therefore no corresponding counter-ideology, only the old Judenhass under a different name) is used to refer to Jews and not to other peoples considered descendants of the Biblical Shem.

How even more unsavoury for a man of the cloth such as Sizer to echo Ryecart's  dwelling on the racial origins of a persecuted people, and how implausible that he should be unaware of the origins of the reason term "antisemitism" refers to Jews, and to Jews alone.

You don't really need a history lesson on all this ... do you, Vicar?

Nuts! Oh, and Guts! (video)

Nuts!  Just plain unadulterated nuts!

Not what Sharia Watch UK's Anne-Marie Waters is saying here but the situation she's describing.

The lady is persona non grata with many political figures over her straight-talking politically incorrect views.

No doubt about it, as this video shows, although she doesn't have, er, well, nuts, she has plenty of guts!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=250&v=GkmS7kd92hE

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