Palestinian Parody About ISIS (video)

An interesting skit, on the Islamic State in Iraq and Al-Sham, on Al-Filistiniya TV (Palestinian Authority/Egypt) on 29 June 2014.  Translations and video by Memri.org.

For a more worrying video see here

David Singer: The PLO & Hamas Threaten Split Over Islamic State

Daphne notes: In common with numerous pro-Israel bloggers, I have had no hesitation in signing the open condemnation of the ghastly murder and evil killers of young Mohammed Abu Khdeir, which appears on the Elder of Ziyon website.  As Elder writes: "I invite any blogger, columnist or pundit to sign on to this letter in the comments section (please include the URL of your blog/column) so I can add to the signature list. Bloggers are also encouraged to reproduce this letter on their own blogs."

 ***

And now, titled "Palestine – PLO And Hamas Threaten Split Over Islamic State", here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

Writes David Singer:

The declaration of the Islamic State on the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan threatens once again to embroil the recently reconciled PLO and Hamas in renewed and violent confrontation after just ending their seven-year internecine feud – destroying any hope of ever achieving a Palestinian Arab State between Jordan and Israel.

The Islamic State is a self styled Caliphate – a system of rule that ended in 1924 after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

The statement declaring its establishment reads:

“Here the flag of the Islamic State … rises and flutters. Its shade covers land from Aleppo [Syria] and Diyala [Iraq]. The infidels are disgraced. The Sunnis are masters and are esteemed. The people of heresy are humiliated. The Sharia penalties are implemented, all of them. The front lines are defended, crosses and graves demolished. Governors and judges have been appointed, a tax has been enforced and courts will resolve disputes and complaints.”

The Islamic State already controls large swathes of northern Iraq after a sustained assault which began with the overthrow of Iraqi control of the country’s second largest city of Mosul, near the Syrian border, on June 9.

Over the last two years it has established a strong presence in parts of Syria, controlling key oil fields in eastern Syria in the area bordering Iraq, levying taxes and other penalties and implementing strict Sharia law on besieged communities.

At its head as Caliph – the self-proclaimed successor to the Prophet Mohammed – is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose spokesman has made his intentions clear:

“The time has come for those generations that were drowning in oceans of disgrace, being nursed on the milk of humiliation, and being ruled by the vilest of all people, after their long slumber in the darkness of neglect — the time has come for them to rise”

Will Hamas rise and throw its weight behind this new Caliph – given the following provisions of Article 11 of the Hamas Charter:

"... Palestine is an Islamic Waqf throughout all generations and to the Day of Resurrection. Who can presume to speak for all Islamic Generations to the Day of Resurrection? This is the status [of the land] in Islamic Shari’a, and it is similar to all lands conquered by Islam by force, and made thereby Waqf lands upon their conquest, for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. This [norm] has prevailed since the commanders of the Muslim armies completed the conquest of Syria and Iraq, and they asked the Caliph of Muslims, ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab, for his view of the conquered land, whether it should be partitioned between the troops or left in the possession of its population, or otherwise. Following discussions and consultations between the Caliph of Islam, ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab, and the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, be peace and prayer upon him, they decided that the land should remain in the hands of its owners to benefit from it and from its wealth; but the control of the land and the land itself ought to be endowed as a Waqf [in perpetuity] for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. The ownership of the land by its owners is only one of usufruct, and this Waqf will endure as long as Heaven and earth last. Any demarche in violation of this law of Islam, with regard to Palestine, is baseless and reflects on its perpetrators."

Hamas has reserved the right to resist the temptation to blindly pledge its allegiance to this newly declared Caliph and the Islamic State under article 23 of the Hamas Charter: 

"The Hamas views the other Islamic movements with respect and appreciation. Even when it differs from them in one aspect or another or on one concept or another, it agrees with them in other aspects and concepts. It reads those movements as included in the framework of striving [for the sake of Allah], as long as they hold sound intentions and abide by their devotion to Allah, and as along as their conduct remains within the perimeter of the Islamic circle."

The PLO also needs to reassess its recently established symbiotic relationship with Hamas given that there appears to be far more common ground in the stated aims and objectives of Hamas and the Islamic State than exists between Hamas and the PLO.

This view is reinforced by Article 27 of the Hamas Charter: 

"Under the influence of the circumstances which surrounded the founding of the PLO, and the ideological invasion which has swept the Arab world since the rout of the Crusades, and which has been reinforced by Orientalism and the Christian Mission, the PLO has adopted the idea of a Secular State, and so we think of it. Secular thought is diametrically opposed to religious thought. Thought is the basis for positions, for modes of conduct and for resolutions. Therefore, in spite of our appreciation for the PLO and its possible transformation in the future, and despite the fact that we do not denigrate its role in the Arab-Israeli conflict, we cannot substitute it for the Islamic nature of Palestine by adopting secular thought."

Hamas and the PLO have always been perfectly up front and transparent in their declared aims and objectives. The problem has always been the inability of the West to believe them.

Maybe they now will.

God help them if they don't.

In Old London Town, The Ferals Come Out (video)

PSC photo

Needless to say, all decent people view the fate of young Mohammed Abu Khdeir (reportedly burnt alive) as a monstrous act of wickedness, and believe that those responsible should suffer condign punishment, applied with the full force of the law.

But the fact remains that  the perpetrators of this vile act still remain unknown.

Indeed, there are suggestions that since burning people alive is a hallmark of ISIS, that brutal organisation may have killed the unfortunate Palestinian boy in order to foment all-out conflict with Israel.

The assumption that "Jewish settlers" abducted and killed the youngster in retaliation for the murders of the three murdered Israel teenagers has been widespread, beginning from the minute he was reported to have been kidnapped.

Complicit in this have been elements of the mainstream media (including, of course, the Quislingesque rag Ha'aretz) as well as the usual suspects in the West, such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which has all along taken Jewish settler culpability as a given.

(There is a good post about the widespread attitude to the killing, and the fact that that killing might not be what the Israel-bashers assume, here.  For some British parliamentary reactions to the entire kidnapping crisis, click here)

Yesterday, in London, members of the PSC were joined by a number of other Israel-delegitimising groups (Friends of Al-Aqsa, the London Palestine Action, the British Muslim Initiative and the Palestinian Forum in Britain, Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and inevitably Israel-hating Jews) in demonstrating outside the Israeli Embassy.

A still from Alex Seymour's video

As described in a London evening  newspaper:

'Pro-Palestine campaigners held a 'die in' protest in west London today to highlight what they see as the "horrific escalation of racism and violence" in the country by the Israeli authorities.

Protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy close to Kensington High Street to call on Israel to stop attacks on Palestinian citizens and to end its occupation of Gaza.

At one point they brought traffic to a standstill and had to be moved along by police....

The event was sparked by the recent killing of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdair....'

The event was captured on video by Alex Seymour (aka Seymour Alexander), himself a rabid critic of the Zionist Entity:

""Break The Crosses & Destroy The Lin­eage Of The Grand­sons Of Mon­keys"

 From that master demagogue, George Galloway:

Meanwhile, reports blogger John Rossomando:

'A Twitter post Thursday by supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), now calling itself the Islamic State (IS), has promised a Holocaust against the Jews.

"The Real Zionist Holocaust is Predicted in the Hadiths! The Hour [resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them, and the tree will say: "Oh, Muslim, servant of God, there is a Jew behind me, kill him! THE PROMISED Holocaust," the terrorist group's Islamic State Media a graphic posted on its @ISIS_Conquests's Twitter account said.

This hadith has proven popular with Islamic extremists of all stripes, ranging from IS to Hamas – and even on television in the Middle East.

Daniel Pipes, an expert on jihadism, said the hadith likely was a recruitment tool.

"​Yes, ​calling for a holocaust against Jews refers to a violently anti-Semitic strain among jihadis and will surely appeal to some of them," Pipes said in an email to the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Anti-Semitic propaganda has played an important role in the terrorist group's recruitment effort. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, placed Jews on the side of evil in a speech posted Tuesday on the Internet in which he called on Muslims to join him.

"O ummah of Islam, the world today has been divided into two camps and two trenches … The camp of Islam and faith, and the camp of kufr (disbelief) and hypocrisy … all being led by America and Russia, and being mobilized by the Jews," al-Baghdadi said.

In another such video released on Twitter, IS told jihadists to "Break the crosses and destroy the lin­eage of the grand­sons of mon­keys."

Some jihadist supporters are calling on the group to open a new front against Israel....'

Read all of Rossomando's post here

"The Israeli Army Killed Palestinian Children For Sport": Vivid imaginations run rampant

It's instructive to note how elements within the Western BDS movement reacted to the kidnapping crisis that began on 12 June and had its tragic denouement this week.

From the start, conspiracy theories abounded.  The earliest consisted of allegations that Israel had faked the kidnapping of the three tragic teenagers as a pretext to mount an offensive against the Palestinian Arabs, and an article in Ha'aretz (see below), the despicable rag that's the Israeli newspaper of choice for foes of Israel everywhere, played its inevitable part in the dissemination of the theory.

There were suggestions that Israel had made sure to include among the abductees a youngster with American as well as Israeli nationality in order to whip up outrage on the part of American Jews and ensure their support for Operation Brother's Keeper.

There was indignation on the part of some Israel-haters that the media had given publicity to the three boys' disappearance and subsequent fate, alleging that the media values Jewish lives above Palestinian ones: amazingly (as the above photo indicates), there was a demonstration outside the BBC's headquarters over this point.  But look at BBC Watch's posts (latest one here) to be persuaded of the unsubstantiated nature of the allegation! (Presumably the Israel-haters want the BBC to be biased at all times against Israel, whereas what the BBC should at all times be is impartial and objective, favouring neither side over the other. But as I've observed before, such demonstrations enable the smug, self-satisfied BBC to claim that, since Israel's supporters also perceive it as biased against their side, the Corporation's reportage is balanced: "just about right".)

There was a desperate recourse to the "Israel has killed 1518 Palestinian children since 2000" mantra,  citing "official figures from Ramallah".  Needless to say, these "official figures" are highly suspect, manipulated and politicised, and the definition of "children" is deeply flawed. "Children" implies non-combatants, and persons below, say, 16 years of age.

Elder of Ziyon, in a post of 1 July titled "How NGO's make up lies about Israel", happens to discuss highlights one of the very graphic summaries that the Israel-haters have been citing. (Hat tip: reader Yosef)

Some of the reaction to the kidnapping and the ensuing Operation Brother's Keeper in representative images:

Is that the gospel truth, vicar?

This report seized many an anti-Zionist imagination

By an American heavy-duty antisemite whose posts infest Facebook

Widely shared on Facebook by the usual suspects

A well-peddled poster with the anti-Israel set

Numerous Israel-haters took up this theme, with various images

No "Christian charity" here for the mourning Israeli families

From the Scottish PSC chief

From a pin-up of the Israel-haters in Britain and abroad

Veteran anti-Israel MP Jeremy Corbyn in the Morning Star

Moral relativism and conspiracy

See here for Tony Gratrex

Australia's Israel-demonising Left gets into the act

A link to a conspiracy-theory video

Another conspiracy theory; Note that the boys are termed "soldiers" here!

Protesting Al Beeb's "pro-Israel" bias! (Should have gone to SpecSavers!)

Steve Bell's cartoon in today's Guardian

A vile crime, but the perpetrators aren't yet known for sure

Al Beeb's Jon Donnison tweets his ten cents' worth here and below

 

Now that he's been told as much by another Twitter member, Eugene Kontorovich, Donnison will in future perhaps bear in mind that the policy of home demolitions was adopted as a punitive necessity against families rewarded by the Palestinian Authority with both money and adulation for producing terrorist shahids; unlike the PA, Israel is not disposed to reward those of its people who are found to have carried out heinous acts. 

 For their part, the Palestinian media shamelessly manipulated the facts.  As reported inter alia here,

'the Palestinian media routinely referred to the three murdered boys as “settlers” and in some cases, also as “soldiers.”   The Palestinian news agency Wafa condemned Israel for collectively punishing Palestinians, but did not denounce the murder of the three Jewish youngsters.   They merely referred to them as “the three settlers” that disappeared.

Fatah’s official Facebook page, however, referred to them as “the three killed soldiers, whose bodies according to Israeli claims, were found in Hebron.” Two weeks ago, Fatah had celebrated the kidnapping of the three boys with a caricature posted to their Facebook page showing three mice with Stars of David attached to a fishing hook. According to an article [Dr Mudar] Zahran [the exiled leader of the Palestinians in Jordan, who is of course a friend of Israel; see for example his recent video here] wrote in the Gatestone Institute, the official PA daily had written that “Israel was behind the kidnapping,” alleging that the three were soldiers. He noted that the kidnappings were celebrated by average Palestinians with glorifications of the kidnappers and the passing out of sweets.... 

[R]eferences to the three boys as soldiers tend to be retweeted more than any other mention of them within the Palestinian Authority [as in Adnan Abdulal's post reproduced above]....

As Zahran wrote in the Gatestone Institute, “Keep in mind that the PA exerts extreme monitoring and control over social media used by Palestinians in the West Bank. A Palestinian man was jailed for six months for liking an anti-PA post on Facebook. The PA, therefore, is fully responsible for encouraging the celebrations of the kidnappings over Palestinian social media.”

.... Zahran stressed, “My comment as the leader of the Palestinians in Jordan, which numbers 6.2 million people is it is with our sincere sense of sadness and disgust that we extend our condolences to the families of the killed children and to Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as to the Israeli people. We are forced to remind everyone that the death of these young men is yet another result of the Oslo Agreement and its time to consider different options.”

Zahran called on the Israeli leadership to hold the Palestinian leadership within the Palestinian Authority responsible for what happened: “As much as it is a tragedy, it’s a chance for all of us, Israelis and Palestinians, to have Oslo ended forever. Everyone in Judea and Samaria is better off under Israeli sovereignty and now in Jordan, while we have the Israeli Army protecting us from ISIS, we have another reason to see that Israel’s power is the only guarantee of safety and security for Palestinians in Jordan and inside Israel.”'

"This Evening We Buried Our Boys .... Hamas is responsible. Hamas will pay and Hamas will continue to pay"

Declared Binyamin Netanyahu a few hours ago, before the start of a Security Cabinet meeting at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, following the funeral for the three murdered teens:

"This evening we buried our boys – Naftali, Gilad and Eyal, may God avenge their blood.

The entire nation supports the families and the entire nation is united in our struggle against murderous terrorism. We are fighting it decisively and with determination.

We have three tasks:

First, to reach the murderers and all those who participated in the kidnapping. Whoever was involved in the kidnapping and the murder will bear the consequences. We will neither rest nor slacken until we reach the last of them and it does not matter where they will try to hide. We will reach them all even if it takes time. This is our first goal and it will be carried out.

Second, we must vigorously strike at Hamas members and infrastructures in Judea and Samaria. We have already arrested hundreds of Hamas activists. We have closed dozens of institutions. We have demolished homes. We are still active.

Third, is that we must act against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is continuing to encourage the abduction of our citizens and it is directly responsible for firing rockets and mortars at our territory, including in the past few hours. The IDF has been active in recent days against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip and here as well we are still active. If need be, we will expand the campaign.

Anyone who thinks that they can achieve anything by using terrorism against us will continue to be mistaken and will achieve the opposite results.

Hamas is responsible. Hamas will pay and Hamas will continue to pay. We are acting with determination, sagacity and responsibility with the top consideration – of myself, the Defense Minister and the Chief-of-Staff – being to ensure the security of Israel's citizens."

By Jonathan S. Tobin in Commentary magazine (read his entire article here):

'Now that the bodies of the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers have been found, we can expect the usual chorus of pro forma condemnations of terrorism and sympathy for the victims to be voiced by many world leaders. But the willingness of so many of the same people to treat deliberate attempts to target civilians by the Palestinians as morally equivalent to the fate of those Arabs killed while conducting violence against Israelis gives the lie to their pose of objectivity.

.... The Hamas terror group that is believed to be behind the crime will feel the consequences of what appears to be the cold-blooded murders of these three boys shortly after their abduction. Hamas’s partners in the Palestinian Authority will also be put to the test as the Israelis will now see whether PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’s helpful rhetoric condemning the kidnapping will be matched by actions that disassociate his government from terrorists.

But once condolences have been given and the boys buried, the atrocity will probably be shoved down the global memory hole as Palestinians and their cheerleaders contend that the terror attack on the teens must be seen as either an understandable reaction to the “occupation” or morally equivalent to the fate of those Palestinians who die while attacking Israeli forces. The New York Times provided a prime example of such thinking this morning in an article published only hours before the bodies were found.....

.... Israel will be justified in taking drastic actions against Hamas in the coming days, especially in light of the news that, for the first time in years, the Islamist group is firing missiles into southern Israel from Gaza rather than farming out that duty to other Palestinian groups. But the point here isn’t so much the necessity to mete out retaliation for the kidnapping/murders as it is the necessity of the Palestinians to reassess their actions and belief system that set this chain of events in motion.

The tragic ending to the search should also cause those—like the New York Times—who routinely treat the victims of terror as somehow morally equivalent to those who aid and support terror to think again about what it truly means to be evenhanded in one’s thinking about the conflict. By treating these events as an excuse for superficial moralizing rather than an honest evaluation of a toxic Palestinian political culture that glorifies terror, the Western media plays a not insignificant role in perpetuating a conflict that they deplore.'

"We Will Eradicate Hamas" (includes videos)

In the immediate aftermath of the finding of the bodies of the three Israeli teenagers who went missing on 12 June, Israel's deputy Defence Minister Danny Danon has stated:

“I was filled with deep sadness upon hearing of the murders of Naftali Frankel, Gil-Ad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrach by Hamas terrorists.  All of Israel mourns with these brave families who will forever hold a special place in the collective hearts of our nation.

In their memories, we must ensure that this tragic end be turned into an opportunity to create a better and safer Israel.  Israelis have the willingness and the fortitude necessary to endure the hardships of a long-lasting operation aimed at eradicating Hamas.

We will not stop until Hamas is completely defeated.  The homes of the terrorists must be demolished and their arms caches destroyed.  Our mission will not be complete until all the terror organizations are deterred from attacking Israelis and understand once and for all that the people of Israel will not be threatened

I call on the international community to end all aid to the Palestinian Authority and its Hamas-backed government.  President Abbas cannot continue to claim to want peace with Israel, while at the same time partnering with Hamas as they kidnap and brutally murder teenagers.”

 Below are two CNN reports ensuing on the finding of the bodies: