For the Record: Sizer 101

Eagle-eyed readers will note that I've added to my sidebar a link to an article from the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) regarding Dr Stephen Sizer.  I've headed it "Try this for Sizer" and have subtitled it "Sizer 101".

Intended primarily for Australians, who before the anti-Zionist campaigner's recent controversial visit to these shores were not as au fait with the ex-vicar of Virginia Water and his views as they might have been, it provides anyone anywhere with a useful refresher course regarding Dr Sizer's anti-Israel activities.

Meanwhile, Sizer-watchers may find the following intriguing (the article referred to is this one):

Oops-a-daisy! Two screenshots taken in 2014:

As part of a refresher course, see also here

Here too.

David Singer: Jordan Considers Replacing PLO as Israel’s Negotiating Partner

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

He writes:

Two recent events confirm that Jordan is seriously considering replacing the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as Israel’s negotiating partner to resolve the allocation of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) between Israel and Jordan:

1. The ending of a 9 months diplomatic impasse between Jordan and Israel following Jordan’s acceptance of Amir Weissbrod as Israel’s new ambassador to Jordan.

 Jordan’s approval came after the two countries agreed to end their standoff following the shooting deaths of two Jordanians in the Israeli Embassy compound by an Israeli security guard who Israel alleged opened fire in self-defence after one of the men tried to stab him.

 Weissbrod will replace former ambassador Einat Schlein, who had hurriedly left Amman last July following this incident.

 Restoration of full diplomatic ties will facilitate Israel and Jordan’s ability to amicably resolve the division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) between their two respective states within the framework of their existing 1994 Peace Treaty – ending a long-running border dispute dating back to 1922.

2. The publication by the Jordan Times on 31 March of an article by Jordanian journalist Nermeen Murad headlined “Should Jordan claim the West Bank on our behalf? An old yet new question”

The Jordan Times is published by the Jordan Press Foundation – in which the government-owned Social Security Investment Fund has a majority stake.

The provocative headline suggests the Government could be flying a trial balloon to gauge public opinion should Jordan decide to negotiate with Israel.

Murad opines:

'Did the Arab world and the Palestinian leadership make a strategic mistake when they kick started a political process that drove Jordan to the 1988 decision to sever legal and administrative ties with the West Bank? That step has long been seen to have, perhaps irreversibly, removed Jordan from the table of any serious negotiations for a final resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based in a “land for peace” formula.'

Murad argues: 

“I believe that it can be credibly argued that it was a strategic mistake to focus Arab and Palestinian effort solely on creating an alternate and less legally legitimate claimant to the West Bank, regardless of how nationalistic and symbolic it was to have a Palestinian body representing Palestinian rights, instead of focusing on claiming the land itself as the most pressing priority – even if only for purely tactical considerations."

Murad then concludes: 

“.. it appears that the decision to squeeze Jordan out and undermine the legal opportunity that Jordan had to reclaim the West Bank back in the 1970s, is a relevant and important starting point in our review of our past strategies and a critical ingredient in our discussions of a way forward towards a solution.”

Jordan’s long-abandoned West Bank claims could be resurrected following the PLO committing political suicide by refusing to have anything further to do with President Trump’s soon-to-be-released “ultimate deal”.

Trump’s deal will be still-born if no Arab negotiating partner is prepared to sit down with Israel.

In 1988 the PLO could justifiably claim to be the sole spokesman for the Gazan and West Bank Arab populations. Hamas – founded only in 1987 – never represented any challenge to the PLO then. However in 2018 the PLO sole-spokesman claim has been completely undermined by Hamas – which itself has governed Gaza with disastrous results since 2007.

Both organisations continue to fail to reconcile their differences, engage in on-going internecine conflict and refuse to give their long-suffering populations any say in their own future.

Jordan appears to be readying itself to jump on the Trump bandwagon – leaving the PLO and Hamas behind battering themselves into political irrelevance.
 
(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.)

An Israeli's Message to Mark Zuckerberg

Raped. Tortured. Murdered.  For being a Jew.

Jean Vercors made aliya from France some years ago.  He will be familiar to regular readers of this blog, since he has had guest posts here before.  This latest post of his is entitled
"An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook".

It's prompted me to add this link to a brand-new article by a non-Jewish Sorbonne scholar, the courageous and prescient Guy Millière, regarding the plight of French Jewry at the hands of hate-filled antisemites.

Writes Jean Vercors:

I have used Facebook for years as a platform to share my thoughts, comments and articles. I value that platform because of its global reach.  It connected me to some of my friends in France, the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and many other countries. It is a window to the world to differing opinions by allowing me to see what my friends think and share on their walls.It gives me an outlet to speak my mind and to share my thoughts on topics ranging from domestic politics to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

However, I have observed that your social media has reached a point of violent antisemitism, at least for me, and I guess many other people too. I am appalled by Facebook’s insistence to allow this on social media.  I cannot believe that a group that calls for the death of the Jews, your own people for that matter, does not violate Facebook’s “Community Standards.” Do you realize how dangerous your media has become allowing the antisemites of the world to vomit their hate on Israel with lies?

I am disgusted that Facebook not only calls this group socially acceptable, but it endangers the lives of our brothers, our families, our children, and more importantly, our people as a whole.

Free Speech should not be Hate Speech.

We all know too well that allowing such a negative behavior only encourages the killing of Jews as we have seen it lately when Facebook users that were anti-Zionists and posting anti-Jewish posts assassinated innocent people in France, Israel or elsewhere.

As a Jew, I was taught to stand up for Justice and truth against anyone not matter his faith or ethnicity.  We Jews have been standing in front line for thousands of years, defending, protecting and teaching human rights.

As we celebrate Pesach, we all retell the story of our journey from bondage to freedom when we were slaves in Egypt reading the Haggada. Not only to ourselves but to our children and the future generations. It has been this way for 3000 years.

You were quoted coming to the defence of Muslims after the November 2015 Paris attacks “As a Jew, my parents taught me that we must stand up against attacks on all communities. Even if an attack isn’t against you today, in time attacks on freedom for anyone will hurt everyone.  So I wonder Mr.Zuckerberg have you forgotten or ignored your statement that all of us should “stand up against attacks on all communities?” Maybe you do not even know about the double standards applied to Jews and Palestinians on Facebook?

The latest violence in Gaza sponsored by Hamas has launched a virulent anti-Israel campaign on Facebook against Israel and therefore the Jews in general.  I remember you said last year on your Facebook page: 

”For me, the most important tradition is to remember that we will not be truly free until every person is free”.

I am asking you a simple question, are you really free?  If you do not support your people. I believe you are still in Egypt and you have not yet escaped it morally.

You also said that you believe in free speech but at the same this free speech turns out to be a highway for free hate.

Why I am saying this is because my account has been suspended 3 times (30 days each time). Every comment I posted in favor of Israel, your automated response said i was violating Facebook community standards.

In fact, I believe my account was reported to Facebook by anti-Israel trolls and your moderators in Morocco or Pakistan did not hesitate a second to suspend my account.

In France, rumors abound that Facebook's moderators are located in French-speaking Muslim countries such as Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco which explains why most critics of hamas, Islam and political Islam are censored by Muslim moderators who support Hamas.

Notably, Muslim hate-speakers continue to proliferate on Facebook, while anti-Islamists face harassment and the loss of their accounts.

My comments were not offensive but true but based on facts. Some examples:

·        Hamas is using children as Human shields,

·        14 of the 16 killed in Gaza were Hamas terrorists,

·        Israel has the right to defend itself…and so on

And every time, I get the same answer” your behavior is not allowed on Facebook by violating Facebook Community Standards”

Facebook  is dealing with some serious contradictions of promoting free speech while running the world’s biggest social network, after being called out on the gap between his words and Facebook policy.

Since the violent Palestinian protest in Gaza last week, antisemitism has reached peaks that it was not touching since World War II.

I reported hundreds of times the violent and antisemitic hate speech posted on Facebook that should be considered against your Community Standards.

Every time I get the same answer: It does not violate our standards. 

It does violate a standard. My moral standard.

It is my duty to write a comment that expose facts about Israel.

For this reason, I am writing this letter to you in hope that you read it well and understand why I cannot accept the existence of Facebook pages that incites hatred against the Jews or any other religious/ethnic minority.

The antisemites who abound on Facebook post the same hatred that led the Jewish people to the gas chambers.

This group spews the same hateful propaganda that targeted a minority population to carry out a systematic genocide against the Jews in Europe. Are you conscious of that?

No Hate Speech on Facebook, unless it’s against the Jews, of course!

This is not the first time that Facebook chooses to take sides. I have reported several pages over the last five years only to get the same answer from Facebook staff.

This group produces the same vile hatred that has persecuted your people for millennia under the false premises that the Jewish people are the cause of all of the world’s problems.

I think Facebook has a moral obligation to stop giving antisemites a voice and an outlet to call for murdering Jews and comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. It is unacceptable for a social media as important as yours to allow such blatant Jew-hatred, or any hatred for that matter.

I reported pages inciting against Jews and received a message from Facebook staff saying that “ it was not in violation of Facebook rules.” Wait a minute! I thought that violence and hatred against anybody was to be reprimanded.

I speak for the millions of Jews who are scared to death to stand up for their people, to stand up for Israel, and to stand up for their right to self-determination on Facebook, in part because of antisemitic Facebook users like these that fester such undeniably antisemitic opinions and claim that the man responsible for killing six million Jews was “right” all along.

As a Jew, you can’t ignore the hateful rhetoric against Jews that has always been rampant on Facebook for decades.  Or perhaps it just doesn't matter to you?

The majority of what I see is dishonest criticism of Israel
•        Critics who habitually single out Israel for condemnation while ignoring far worse actions by other countries (especially other Middle Eastern countries) are antisemitic.•        Likening Israel to Nazi Germany or to traditional anti-Jewish stereotypical behavior is another sure sign of Jew-baiting.•        Attacks on the merits of Israel's existence rather than individual government policies are antisemitic.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr put it this way when he was approached by a student who attacked Zionism, When people criticize Zionists, King said, they mean Jews. You're talking antisemitism.

If you read this letter, I hope that you take my words to heart and do the courageous thing. Do the humane thing. Do the right thing.

·        Remove all Facebook pages that call for the death of Jews, Israelis(or Zionists).

·        Remove all articles from media like Al-Jazeera, TeleSUR, RT, MintPress News, Middle East Eye, Sydney Morning Herald, BBC, The Guardian, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Courrier international, Le Nouvelobs, Le Parisien and others that promotes hatred against Israel and the Jews.

·        Remove this comment posted (april 2016) on your page with 475 likes

We all know too well that Antizionism is Antisemitism.  

The time has come where our people need to be united as one. Our people need to come together and support one another.

I urge you, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook to respond the call and stand as a proud Jew against the blatant Jew-hatred that has plagued us for millennia and has only gotten stronger in the last few weeks.

You can file complaints on Facebook’s Help Center and you don’t have to be Jewish, Muslim, Christian or anything else for that matter. You just have to be a proponent of truth, justice, fairness and accountability for all mankind. If we don’t say anything, we have no right to complain when Israelis are getting stabbed to death on the streets of Israel or French Jews machine gunned in a Kosher supermarket or Mireille Knoll, the 85-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor who was murdered in her apartment.

Mark Zuckerberg, Give yourself a chance to leave Egypt and be closer to your people, if you claim to be Jewish.

Shalom from Jerusalem

Sugary Verse: a satire on Corbyn

I suppose, with all his dough, Britain's Lord Sugar doesn't fear possible defamation lawsuits!

More here

And on his Twitter page, of course!

In Suburban London, Israel-Haters Act Out Their Fantasies (video)

Plenty of Corbynistas here, I'd guess.

In the leafy London suburb of Richmond (not to be confused with Richmond, Yorkshire, of which the "Sweet Lass" was a denizen), a nutty piece of Israel-demonising "street theatre" featuring old codgers in camouflage gear, elderly ladies swathed in what resemble the cast off medieval-style garments of that great English eccentric Dame Edith Sitwell, and bewildered-looking kids doing their best to follow the choreography.

Most busy shoppers give this bizarre Israel-demonising performance, the brainchild of the Kingston & Richmond Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) branch, a wide berth, cursorily glancing with puzzled looks, and then moving swiftly on, leaving the players and their keffiyeh-wearing cheerleaders to waste their sourness on the suburban air.

Vile as this sicko little drama is, I reckon the spectacular ham acting of the lady with the "heart attack" deserves a British Comedy Award!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr_cOdAZUG4

(A MrAlexSeymour video; his spiel about the performance can be found beneath the video on YouTube)

Stephen Sizer: Statement by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry

This statement has been issued today by Mr Peter Wertheim, CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, regarding the ABC's interview with Stephen Sizer, aired on Friday, and mentioned in my Sunday post:

For centuries, Easter Holy Week was an occasion for incendiary sermons and outbreaks of mob violence against Jewish communities throughout Europe.   In recent years we have seen a more subtle version of that tradition take shape. Commentaries about Israel, especially in the lead-up to Easter, often go beyond mere criticisms that are similar to those levelled against any other country or government, and are couched in terms that evoke ancient calumnies against Jews as a group.  Some of Steven Sizer’s public statements have been in this category.

Although David Rutledge’s interview of Sizer on the ABC RN Breakfast program on Good Friday explored some of these statements, it was a soft interview that allowed Sizer’s self-serving answers to pass unchallenged.

Rutledge allowed Sizer to get away with claiming that none of the speakers at one of the conferences he addressed in Tehran in 2014 were criticised as antisemitic. In fact, as was reported at the time, the Iranian-run Press TV described the conference as intending to “unveil the secrets behind the dominance of the Zionist lobby over the US and EU politics”, with one session devoted to examining “Mossad’s role in the 9/11 Coup d’Etat”, and another discussing “9/11 and the Holocaust as pro-Zionist ‘Public myths’ ”.

Rutledge gave only partial information about, and under-played the full extent of, Sizer’s own statements legitimising outlandish conspiracy theories blaming Israel for the September 11 terror attacks in the US.  There was no mention of the fact that Sizer’s own Church in the UK was so embarrassed by his public statements that it extracted an undertaking from Sizer to stop commenting on the subject while he remained a vicar, an undertaking which Sizer subsequently broke.

Nor was there any mention of the fact that in November 2016, Inter-Varsity Press (IVP), one of Britain’s largest Christian publishers, withdrew Sizer’s books from sale and ceased to list them on its website.

Rutledge took it upon himself to tell Sizer “I accept you are not an antisemite”, instead of adhering to proper interviewing standards and allowing the audience to make up its own mind.   Under the working definition of antisemitism adopted by the 31 democratic countries of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, including the UK, the US and EU, certain kinds of criticisms of Israel are internationally recognised as antisemitic.  It is strongly arguable that some of Sizer’s statements about Israel fall within that definition, but Rutledge did not put this question to Sizer.

Finally, Rutledge should have taken to task Sizer’s egregious comments about Israel ceasing to be a democracy if it retains the settlements in the West Bank.  At official permanent-status negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaders at Camp David in 2000, in Taba in 2001, in Jerusalem in 2008 and in Washington DC in 2010, both parties accepted the principle of “land swaps”.  This would involve incorporating into Israel’s territory a small part of the West Bank where the major settlement blocs are located in exchange for Israel ceding to the Palestinians an equivalent area of land from within Israel’s pre-1967 territory.

Overall, Rutledge’s interview was far beneath the standards of probing, well-researched, quality journalism that regular listeners expect from an ABC RN current affairs program.  For this he should apologise not only to the Jewish community but to the ABC’s entire audience.

Instead of pre-judging Christian Zionism by only featuring one of its critics, the ABC should for once set aside its customary hostility towards Israel and its Jewish and Christian supporters, and interview one of Christian Zionism’s more able exponents, such as Dr. Jürgen Bühler, the President of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem.

David Singer: Mattis-Bolton Accord Can Sway Trump to Dump PLO for Jordan

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

He writes:

President Trump’s possible call for Jordan to replace the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as Israel’s negotiating partner under Trump’s soon-to-be-releasde "ultimate deal" will be considerably strengthened if Trump’s newly-appointed National Security Adviser – John Bolton – and Secretary of Defense – James “Mad Dog” Mattis – concurs on such a move.

Bolton has supported this strategy since 2009 – telling Eric Shawn on 21 January 2018: 

“I hope at some point the Administration recognizes and perhaps it is already quietly – that the two-state solution isn’t going anywhere. If anything I would say to King Abdullah of Jordan – “Be prepared to reassert Jordanian sovereignty over part of the West Bank – negotiate with Israel”. I think that’s a far better outcome than the continued pursuit of a mythical – I believe unattainable – viable Palestinian state” 

Mattis has favoured the Obama-Kerry strategy – pointing out to the Aspen Security Forum in July 2013: 

“We have got to find a way to make the two-state solution that Democrat and Republican administrations have supported, we’ve got to get there. And the chances for it, as the king of Jordan has pointed out, are starting to ebb because of the settlements and where they’re at, are going to make it impossible to maintain the two-state option.”

Mattis further reasoned: 

“I paid a military security price every day as the commander of CentCom because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel and that moderates all the moderate Arabs who want to be with us, because they can’t come out publicly in support of people who don’t show respect for the Arab Palestinians. So he [Secretary of State John Kerry] is right on target with what he’s doing. And I just hope the protagonists want peace and a two-state solution as much as he does.”

Kerry however failed miserably – being unable to get the PLO back to the negotiating table after a PLO walk-out in April 2014 following nine months of unsuccessful negotiations on proposals specifically formulated by Kerry to resolve the long-running conflict.

Today: 

· Moderate Arabs – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman – have come out publicly – joining Jordan and Egypt in meeting with Israel in the White House – without PLO participation - to discuss Gaza’s deteriorating situation. 

· The PLO refuses to resume negotiations with Israel on the two-state solution: creating a second Arab State – in addition to Jordan – in the territory covered by the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.

· The PLO will no longer accept America as sole mediator and is demanding an international conference be convened by mid-2018

The media have castigated Trump for appointing Bolton – typified by highly-credentialled columnist George Will – claiming:

“Bolton will soon be the second-most dangerous American.”

Yet Will himself had written in the Washington Post on 17 April 1987: 

“May 14 will be the 30th Anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, June 6 will be the 20th anniversary of the Six Day War. The West Bank has been held by Israel longer than it had been held by Jordan, the 1967 aggressor, which ever since has presented itself as the aggrieved party. Today, as every day since 1948, the key to peace is direct negotiations between Jordan and Israel, not a committee” 

Mattis’s jocular remarks on meeting Bolton at the Pentagon – caught in an off-microphone exchange – signals Mattis could have already changed his thinking: 

"I heard you're actually the devil incarnate and I wanted to meet you"

A Mattis-Bolton accord on Jordan replacing the PLO in future negotiations with Israel will undoubtedly reinforce Trump’s preparedness to make this long-overdue call.

[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]