Anniversary of U.N.'s authorization of a Jewish state and an Arab state

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to fulfill part of the promise made by the League of Nations: to authorize the creation of a Jewish homeland in the ancestral home of the Jewish people.

As U.N. Resolution 181, the U.N. accepted the majority plan to partition the land. AS part of the Partition Plan, the U.N. also authorized an Arab state in Palestine, in addition to a Jewish state in Palestine, both states within the boundaries of the truncated territory, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea.  ( The territory now known as Jordan was severed off unilaterally by Britain from what was originally the entirety of Mandatory Palestine.  No Jewish settlement was permitted in Jordan. But Jewish settlement anywhere within the truncated Palestine -- including the West Bank -- was authorized by the League of Nations.)

U.N. Resolution 181, which used the term "Jewish state" about 30 times in the text,  was passed.   The Jews accepted the Partition Plan.  The Arabs rejected the Partition Plan and immediately set out to prevent the Jewish state from coming into existence.  Had the Arabs of Palestine accepted the plan, or had accepted plans offered them since, there would already be a State of Palestine next to the State of Israel.  Had the Arabs of Palestine accepted U.N. Resolution 181, there would have been either no Palestinian refugee problem or a far less severe refugee problem, for all concerned.  But the Palestinian Arabs, because they were unable to accept anything less than total sovereignty over all of  Mandatory Palestine, because they refused -- and still refuse -- to accept the reality of a Jewish state in Palestine,  have perpetuated the suffering of their own people. // Mark Finkelstein jcrc@dmjfed.org

Here, now, is a brief video that provides insight into the U.N. vote on November 29, 1947... the vote that paved the way for the proclamation of Israel's independence on May 14, 1948.



Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrIjzUK0FKg&feature=player_embedded#!

Red Crescent ran weapons

@davidhazony: WikiLeaks: Red Crescent ambulances smuggled weapons for Iran. http://bit.ly/g5Vn0v


Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Arab leaders pushed U.S. to attack Iran

@frontporchlight: Iran 'must be stopped': Arab leaders pushed U.S. to attack, WikiLeaks disclosures show http://ow.ly/1acAIG

Link to LA Times article
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Open message to Rev. Chet Guinn about Iranian hatred of U.S.

An open message to Rev. Chet Guinn. 

Just what about "Death to America" don't you understand?

 ( In reply to his DMR letter in which Rev. Guinn belittles US concern about the Iranian government's hegemonic, abusive intentions.) (http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20101128/OPINION04/11280312/1038/A-lesson-in-D.M.-executives-adventure)

Nov. 4, 2010. Anti-US students chanted 'death to America' and predicted the fall of the 'great Satan' to mark the seizure 31 years ago of the US Embassy. Iran and Western powers are slated to resume nuclear talks later this month.

• 

A head-to-toe veiled Iranian woman walks past a satirized drawing of the Statue of Liberty, painted on the wall of the former US Embassy in Tehran, on Nov. 4, in an annual state-backed rally, marking the anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Vahid Salemi/AP

PA endorses study denying Jewish claims to the Western Wall. Israel is stunned at falsification of history

Israel to PA: Reject ‘findings’ on claims to Kotel
By BY HERB KEINON,  GIL HOFFMAN AND KHALED ABU TOAM
11/24/2010 03:29

Israeli peace activist [Gershon Baskin] calls Palestinian Authority’s denial of Jewish ties to site a "stain" and a "serious mistake."


Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev called on the Palestinian leadership Tuesday to publicly disassociate itself from the Palestinian Authority “study” denying Jewish claims to the Western Wall, saying “this is not the sort of statement to be expected from a partner in peace.”

“Denying the Jewish connection to the Western Wall is to deny reality. If you deny the Jewish connection to the Western Wall you are in fact denying the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the land of Israel itself,” Regev said. “When they deny the Jewish connection, they are unfortunately raising very serious questions as to their true commitment to reconciliation.”

Regev said this type of statement was to be expected from “Ahmadinejad’s Iran, Hizbullah or Hamas, but to deny the Jewish connection to the Western Wall is something that we wouldn’t expect from a partner in peace, and I call upon the Palestinian leadership – President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad – to publicly disassociate themselves from it.”

Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely said the government must fight to prevent the world from adopting the libels spread by the PA against the Jewish people. She warned that the “study” could be endorsed by UNESCO, which recently declared that Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem was a Muslim holy site and not a Jewish one.

“We must declare war on the culture of lies circulated by the Palestinians before the world starts believing them,” she said. “One can only hope that the more the Palestinians talk about the lack of a connection between the Jewish people to their land, the less people will take seriously whatever claims they make.”

Meanwhile, the PA officially endorsed the “study.”

The PA’s Ministry of Information posted the results on its official website, and these findings were first published in The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

The project was prepared by al-Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the PA Ministry of Information. He is also a prominent Palestinian poet and writer.

Taha’s “study” concluded that the Western Wall was never a Jewish site, but had always belonged to Muslims. He wrote that the Western Wall, known to Muslims as Al-Buraq Wall, is actually the western wall of the Al-Aksa Mosque.

Gershon Baskin, the joint CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, sent a letter to the Palestinian leadership in the wake of the Post article, calling the findings “a serious mistake” and “a stain on the Palestinian Authority.”

“If the content of the article is correct, you should take immediate action against the author of the report in question (if he is in fact employed by the PA or by the PLO) because his baseless claims are a serious blow to the legitimacy of Palestinian claims and make a mockery of the idea of peace between the Palestinians and the Jews,” Baskin wrote. “This is a most serious mistake, similar to the one of the late President Arafat when he denied any Jewish connection to the Holy Temple Mount (Haram Al-Sharif) in Jerusalem.

“Any observer, even a non-professional archeologist, can discern that the stones used to construct the Western Wall (the Kotel) are from the era of Solomon’s Temple and the Temple rebuilt by King Herod which was hundreds of years before Islam appeared on the world stage.

“The falsification of history, as done in the report by the Palestinian poet Al- Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the Ministry of Information, is a serious stain on the Palestinian Authority.”

Condolences on the passing of Harold Goldman

The Jewish Federation conveys with sadness and with its condolences the news as reported by Rabbi David Kaufman of Temple B'nai Jeshurun

Harold Goldman, beloved father and grandfather, passed away this morning. May his name be forever remembered for a blessing. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time. May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.

In fulfillment of Harold's often repeated requests, there will be no funeral or memorial service.

DMARC: Need for food at record levels

@KCCINews: Need For Food Hits Record Level For DSM Food Pantries
http://bit.ly/gxI9ta

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Des Moines' emergency food pantry network is seeing
demand up 20 percent over last year. Need for food is at record levels.

New numbers specifically from October show a 15 percent spike in
individuals served compared to numbers from last October, which were
also high. In October 2010, the Des Moines Area Religious Council
provided food for 3,602 families.

"At this rate, we are on pace to provide over 1.62 million meals during
2010," said the Rev. Sarai Schnucker Rice, DMARC executive director.

KCCI visited one of DMARC's 12 busy pantries Tuesday. Constance Jones,
who has received food from the pantry for more than a year, said she has
seen the pantry get busier.

"Times are really hard and people really need the help," Jones said.

"People with limited income are making difficult choices, such as
selecting medicine over food or food instead of clean diapers," said
Rice. "DMARC is able to serve families in need thanks to generous
in-kind donations of food items and thanks to cash gifts. Cash is
especially important because we can use it to purchase food from the
Food Bank or wholesale, allowing us to buy about 2/3 more food for every
dollar that a food donor might spend."

Lynnette Thornton made her first stop at the pantry Tuesday. She told
the workers how grateful she was for the food.

"If it weren't for places like this, I don't know what people would do.
They would probably starve. There is a lot of starving out in the world
now so I think it's really nice. I really do," Thornton said.

How To Help

DMARC is asking for additional cash and donations:

# Cash donations may be donated online at the DMARC website:
www.dmreligious.org
# Cash donations may also be mailed or dropped off at the DMARC central
office: 3816 36th Street, Suite 202, Des Moines, Iowa 50310.
# Food donations may be dropped off at the DMARC central warehouse: 3816
36th Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50310. For a complete listing of the most
needed items, please click here.

Federal Judge agrees: CAIR tied to Hamas

Federal Judge Agrees: CAIR Tied to Hamas

November 22, 2010

http://www.investigativeproject.org/2340/federal-judge-agrees-cair-tied-to-hamas

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been connected to the terrorist organization Hamas, a federal judge said in a July 2009 ruling unsealed last week.

"The government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA, NAIT, with NAIT, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and with Hamas," U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis said in the July 1, 2009, ruling.

CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) had protested to Solis that they were incorrectly named as unindicted co-conspirators in the 2008 trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. Among the allegations, HLF was accused of having provided more than $12 million to Hamas. After a 2007 mistrial, five former HLF officials convicted on 108 counts, ranging from money laundering to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

Following the trial, CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT have argued that their inclusion on the list injured their standing in the community, and their image. They wanted their ties to Hamas removed from the trial records and the list sealed.

Solis agreed the list should not have been made public, saying that doing so violated the Fifth Amendment rights of the listed individuals and organizations. Criticizing the decision to publish the list, the judge explained that CAIR has been subjected to "annoyance, ridicule, scorn, and a loss of reputation in the community." (see the IPTs earlier coverage of the decision to publish the list here).

However, Solis refused to remove references to CAIR and the other groups from the trial record. That's because the government introduced extensive evidence tying CAIR to Hamas. "The public," he wrote, "may make its own judgment from evidence presented at trial."

 

http://www.investigativeproject.org/2340/federal-judge-agrees-cair-tied-to-hamas

Poll: Most Palestinians reject idea of a Jewish state, seek eventual single-state

"According to the poll[conducted in October by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and sponsored by The Israel Project], most Palestinians refuse to reconcile with the idea of Israel as a Jewish state. While 23% accept the statement that “Israel has a permanent right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people,” two-thirds prefer the alternative statement that “over time Palestinians must work to get back all the land for a Palestinian state.”


Moreover, the Palestinians perceive the two-state solution as a precursor to this entirely Palestinian state. When presented with the statement that “the best goal is for a two-state solution that keeps two states living side by side,” 30% agreed, while 60% opted for the alternative statement that “the real goal should be to start with two states but then move it to all being one Palestinian state."

Source:  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3987277,00.html

TIP: 11 Rockets Launched from Gaza Hit Israel in 24 Hours

11 Rockets Launched from Gaza Hit Israel in 24 Hours     

• Israel Strikes Back at Terror Bases, including Iran-backed Islamic Jihad training base
• 4 Mortars Contained White Phosphorous
• Grad Rocket among others fired; first since July

Israel, Nov. 19 – Southern Israel was hit by 11 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza from Thursday to Friday, including four white phosphorous-filled mortars shot by an Iran-backed terror group. That brings to almost 200 the number of rockets, missiles and mortars fired from Gaza at Israel since the beginning of 2010.

 

Excerpted from www.theisraelproject.org

 

PM Harper: Expose the new anti-Semitism for what it is.

Prime Minister of Canada: Expose the new anti-Semitism for what it is!

 “Harnessing disparate anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Western ideologies, hate targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so.” – Stephen Harper


On November 8, 2010, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the following remarks at the Ottawa Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism:

“Members of the Steering Committee, fellow parliamentarians, ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by saying how delighted I am to see so many of you from around the world, gathered here in Ottawa for the second annual conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism.

“It is a sign, not only of your commitment to our common cause, but also of the momentum established at the London Conference last year.  It is, therefore, a great sign of hope.

“History teaches us that anti-Semitism is a tenacious and particularly dangerous form of hatred.  And recent events are demonstrating that this hatred is now in resurgence throughout the world.  That is why the work of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism has never been so important or timely as it is now.

“On behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, I commend you and support you in the great and important work that you are doing.


“Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, two weeks ago I visited Ukraine for the first time.

“In Kiev I laid a wreath at Babi Yar, the site of one of the numerous atrocities of the Holocaust. I was left there with much the same impression as I had in Auschwitz in 2008 — that such horrors defy all comprehension.

“At the killing grounds of Babyn Yar, I knew I was standing in a place where evil — evil at its most cruel, obscene, and grotesque — had been unleashed.  But while evil of this magnitude may be unfathomable, it is nonetheless a fact.

“It is a fact of history.  And it is a fact of our nature — that humans can choose to be inhuman.  This is the paradox of freedom.  That awesome power, that grave responsibility — to choose between good and evil.

“Let us not forget that even in the darkest hours of the Holocaust, men were free to choose good.  And some did.  That is the eternal witness of the Righteous Among the Nations.  And let us not forget that even now, there are those who would choose evil and would launch another Holocaust, if left unchecked.  That is the challenge before us today.

“The horror of the Holocaust is unique, but it is just one chapter in the long and unbroken history of anti-Semitism.  Yet, in contemporary debates that influence the fate of the Jewish homeland, unfortunately, there are those who reject the language of good and evil.  They say that the situation is not black and white, that we mustn’t choose sides.

“In response to this resurgence of moral ambivalence on these issues, we must speak clearly.  Remembering the Holocaust is not merely an act of historical recognition.

“It must also be an understanding and an undertaking.  An understanding that the same threats exist today.  And an undertaking of a solemn responsibility to fight those threats.

“Jews today in many parts of the world and many different settings are increasingly subjected to vandalism, threats, slurs, and just plain, old-fashioned lies.

“Let me draw your attention to some particularly disturbing trends.  Anti-Semitism has gained a place at our universities, where at times it is not the mob who are removed, but the Jewish students under attack.  And, under the shadow of a hateful ideology with global ambitions, one which targets the Jewish homeland as a scapegoat, Jews are savagely attacked around the world, such as, most appallingly, in Mumbai in 2008.

“One ruthless champion of that ideology brazenly threatens to ‘wipe Israel off the map,’ and time and again flouts the obligations that his country has taken under international treaties.  I could go on, but I know that you will agree on one point: that this is all too familiar.

“We have seen all this before.  And we have no excuse to be complacent.  In fact we have a duty to take action.  And for all of us, that starts at home.

“In Canada, we have taken a number of steps to assess and combat anti-Semitism in our own country.  You will no doubt hear from my Canadian colleagues about the measures we have taken to date.

“I will mention for the time being that, for the first time, we are dealing with Canada’s own record of officially sanctioned anti-Semitism.  We have created a fund for education about our country’s deliberate rejection of Jewish refugees before and during the Second World War.

“But of course we must also combat anti-Semitism beyond our borders, an evolving, global phenomenon.  And we must recognize, that while its substance is as crude as ever, its method is now more sophisticated.

“Harnessing disparate anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Western ideologies, it targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, Israel, as the source of injustice and conflict in the world, and uses, perversely, the language of human rights to do so.

“We must be relentless in exposing this new anti-Semitism for what it is.  Of course, like any country, Israel may be subjected to fair criticism.  And like any free country, Israel subjects itself to such criticism — healthy, necessary, democratic debate.  But when Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack — is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand.  Demonization, double standards, delegitimization, the three D’s, it is the responsibility of us all to stand up to them.

“And I know, by the way, because I have the bruises to show for it, that whether it is at the United Nations, or any other international forum, the easy thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israeli rhetoric, to pretend it is just being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of ‘honest broker.’  There are, after all, a lot more votes, a lot more, in being anti-Israeli than in taking a stand.  But, as long as I am Prime Minister, whether it is at the UN or the Francophonie or anywhere else, Canada will take that stand, whatever the cost.    And friends, I say this not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israeli mob tells us all too well if we listen to it, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are a threat to all of us.

“Earlier I noted the paradox of freedom.  It is freedom that makes us human.  Whether it leads to heroism or depravity depends on how we use it.

“As the spectre of anti-Semitism spreads, our responsibility becomes increasingly clear.  We are citizens of free countries.  We have the right, and therefore the obligation, to speak out and to act.  We are free citizens, but also the elected representatives of free peoples.  We have a solemn duty to defend the vulnerable, to challenge the aggressor, to protect and promote human rights, human dignity, at home and abroad.  None of us really knows whether we would choose to do good, in the extreme circumstances of the Righteous.  But we do know there are those today who would choose to do evil, if they are so permitted.  Thus, we must use our freedom now, and confront them and their anti-Semitism at every turn.

“That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the purpose of our intervention today: our shared determination to confront this terrible hatred.  The work we have undertaken, in our own countries and in cooperation with one another, is a sign of hope.

“Our work together is a sign of hope, just as the existence and persistence of the Jewish homeland is a sign of hope.  And it is here that history serves not to warn but to inspire.

“As I said on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, Israel appeared as a light, in a world emerging from deep darkness.  Against all odds, that light has not been extinguished. It burns bright, upheld by the universal principles of all civilized nations — freedom, democracy and justice.

“By working together more closely in the family of civilized nations, we affirm and strengthen those principles.  And we declare our faith in humanity’s future in the power of good over evil.

Source:  http://pm.gc.ca/

Levy: What about recognition?

Recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people can't simply be left to the end of negotiations, unless the participants know it will be the deal-breaker. But since it will unlikely be the deal-breaker, it has to be dealt with up front. And the president of the United States should know this -- and advocate for unequivocal Palestinian recognition of Israel.

As put by the author of the op ed, below,  recognition is not a precondition for negotiations but a 'required element' for attaining a win-win end of the conflict.

 -- Mark Finkelstein

 

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985354,00.html

What about recognition?

Op-ed: Without Palestinian recognition of Jewish state, what’s the point of negotiations?

Benny Levy   11/16/2010  [ excerpt]

The commotion around the extended settlement freeze diverts attention away from the additional price Israel is apparently required to pay for the benefit package promised to Netanyahu: Renouncing the demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state before entering talks. The prime minister, who presented this demand a few weeks ago, has gone silent as of late; yet without such initial recognition, it’s unclear what will be discussed in the talks.

 

Starting with discussion on borders and security arrangements, as the Palestinians and Americans demand, is akin to conducting negotiations where the sides are discussing the price, number of installments, their date etc., without first agreeing whether they are selling or leasing the asset. If it’s a sale, the seller will no longer have any rights for the asset. In a lease, the lessee is expected to, and entitled to, demand the asset again in the future.

 

This is the point of introductory clauses in contracts. There, the sides present their joint interests, which come before the negotiations. For example, as side A is interested in offering an apartment for rent, and side B is interested in renting an apartment, the sides agree to…(and here come the contract clauses to be decided on during negotiations.)

 

The introduction to the “dream agreement” with the Palestinians should say that as the sides are interested in ending the conflict, and as they view the State of Israel as the Jewish people’s state, and the future state to be established as the Palestinian people’s state, they agree to the following (borders, security, Jerusalem, refugees, etc.) Yet the Palestinians say they will refuse to such introduction. Abbas and Erekat truly disparage such possibility, and Yasser Abed Rabbo, who seemingly presented a different position, has no authority anyway.

 

U.S., Israel may make a deal for a 90-day building moratorium

US asks Israel for 90-day settlement building moratorium By T. LAZAROFF, K. ABU TOAMEH, H.L. KRIEGER   14/11/2010  Jerusalem Post PM discusses possibility of halting building with septet; in exchange, US would support Israel in the UN and give 20 fighter jets.

The US asked Israel to freeze all new settlement construction begun after September 26th for a 90-day period in exchange for support in the United Nations and 20 additional advanced fighter planes worth $3 billion, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The principles of this agreement designed to restart peace talks with the Palestinians, were relayed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to his inner cabinet, a forum of seven ministers, on Saturday night and will be explained to the full cabinet on Sunday. The US said that if the deal was accepted it would not request an additional settlement freeze. The request does not include east Jerusalem. The date for the new freeze has not been set, but it would be retroactive to the September 26th date, when the previous 10-month moratorium on such activity expired. The details of the deal were worked out Thursday during a seven-hour meeting in New York between Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and members of their staff. Should Israel accept the offer, the US in turn has pledged in the next year to veto any efforts by the UN Security Council to impose on Israel a non-negotiated solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict, as the Palestinians have requested. It would further veto any resolutions that deny Israel the right to self-defense or seek to de-legitimize Israel. The US would also oppose such efforts in other UN bodies and forums. The US administration would ask Congress to approve the supply of 20 additional advanced fighter planes to Israel worth $3 billion so that Israel can keep its qualitative edge. This defense assistance will be added into Israel's security agreement with the US, so that Israel's safety can be assured. Talks about these defense understanding will begin in the coming weeks. Netanyahu learned of the details of this deal during his trip to the US.

Rennert: A willful disregard for Jewish ownership of land in Jerusalem

Har Homa was built on Jewish-owned land                                                            

 

[Comments by Israel Matzav on an article by Leo Rennert]

 

Lost in the argument over building in Jerusalem, writes Leo Rennert, is the fact that Har Homa, where most of the new apartments are being built, is built entirely on land that has been owned by Jews for nearly a century.

What is utterly ludicrous about this concocted tempest in a Jerusalem teacup is that the bulk of the new apartment units are to go up in Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood of some 12,000 residents in southeast Jerusalem. Two thirds of Har Homa is on land purchased by Jews after the First World War. The other third is owned by Arabs. The entire existing Harm Homa neighborhood was built on Jewish-owned land and plans for additional housing units also are confined to this part of Har Homa. None of this appeared in media reports or in the criticism leveled by Obama, the State Department and the European Union.

Nor did they bother to point out that, under any realistic scenario for a two-state solution, even with a division of Jerusalem, Har Homa will remain on the Israeli side.

With typical historical amnesia, these Israel-bashers also failed to point out that, during Israel's War of Independence, Jordanian forces attempting to eliminate the Jewish state used Har Homa as a vantage point from which to fire on the Old City of Jerusalem and other neighborhoods of the city.

In their cramped and selective sense of history, none of this matters. Their historical perspective begins with the last day of the Six-Day War in 1967 when Israel prevailed over Jordanian and other Arab armies intent on destroying it, and in the process reunified Jerusalem.

Thus, Washington Post correspondent Joel Greenberg describes Har Homas as an "area of the West Bank annexed to Jerusalem." New York Times correspondent Isabel Kershner, in similar vein, calls it a "Jewish residential development in southern Jerusalem in territory that Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war, and then annexed."

So never mind that Har Homa has been on Jewish owned land from well before Jordan illegally occupied it in 1948, in clear violation of the 1947 UN two-state partition plan.

All that history is brushed aside. ...

 

Source: http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/    11/11/10

Rubin: Demonization of Israel charading as 'ordinary criticism.'

The Hour of the Hanging Judges: Demonizing Israel and Pretending It Is Ordinary Criticism

By Barry Rubin  http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2010/11/hour-of-hanging-judges-demonizing.htm  11/10/10

This is getting to be a pretty common kind of story. The mayor of Frankfurt invites a Jewish intellectual whose family left Germany in 1932 to speak on the anniversary of Kristallnacht. The problem is that this man, Alfred Grosser, is a ferocious critic of Israel.

Grosser claims the Gaza Strip is a concentration camp (possibly true, but if so it is a concentration camp owned and run by Hamas); calls for ending Israel as a Jewish state; urges Germany to be more critical of Israel; and blames Israeli policies (rather than the deliberate lies about them) are responsible for increasing antisemitism (isn't that what George Soros said?)

All of this is interpreted by the Christian Science Monitor, and many others, as merely rejecting:

"…the notion that criticism of Israel is synonymous with anti-Semitism. If Germans want to criticize the blockade of Gaza or treatment of Palestinians, they should be able to without guilt, many say."

This is the usual absurd response.

But one can criticize Israel's "blockade" of Gaza (I won't explain here why it is needed and, no doubt, the people who criticize it have never read these reasons) without calling it a "concentration camp," which implies deliberate mass murder.

But it is possible to criticize Israel without calling for its extinction—since that is, in fact, what abolishing the existence of a Jewish state means.

But one can say that Israeli policy is an element in growing antisemitism while also listing other elements, including the lying demonization of Israel so prevalent today. Of course, one would then have to talk about all the concessions and risks Israel has taken on behalf of peace in the last twenty years.

And when someone systematically uses such exaggeration, obsessively promotes such hatred, seeks such extreme solutions, sympathizes with those using violence to murder Jews, and leaves out so many facts…it is possible to speak of antisemitism as an element in that overall approach, isn't it?

At times, I reflect, one hears echoes in such rhetoric and activity of a brave, new slogan: Kill the Jews! They really deserve it this time!

Often, however, this kind of talk is actually a result of naiveté and ignorance. This is equally true for Jews who say such things. Being Jewish doesn't make them experts on Israel. But there is also a strong element of opportunism in taking such highly rewarded positions. No Jew need ever starve since he can always make a career bashing Israel.

Yet there is also a remarkable detachment from the facts on the ground.

In an interview, Grosser explains:

"The Palestinians are despised, are occupied and I think that the majority of Israel's citizens despise Palestinians….The central theme of my book [is] that any human being should be respected….As a Jewish boy in a Frankfurt school, I was despised, and even beaten. I can't understand how Jews can scorn others."

But does this have anything much to do with the way Israelis think and behave? Israelis don't "despise" Palestinians in the way Grosser means. Nor are Palestinian (Israeli Arab) students set on and beaten in school or insulted in the streets. On the contrary, such an idea wouldn't even occur to any Israeli but the tiniest minority of most extreme people, who are themselves pretty despised by other Israelis.

What is happening here is that Grosser (and many others) imagine how Israelis behave, then attribute that behavior to them. Often, this means imagining that Israelis behave like Nazis, even though there is no evidence that this is true.

Obviously, there is a decades-long war between them and most Israelis don't love Palestinians (though a remarkable percentage goes out of their way to seek peace and conciliation). Yet compared to other countries at war with each other, Israelis sentiments are definitely at the lowest part of the spectrum concerning hatred or despising.

Anyone can easily ascertain that there is no despising or hating being taught in Israeli media—TV, radio, newspapers, films—or in schools, or in government statements or in the armed forces. Such statements can be found from individuals or at the political extremes, sometimes by radical rabbis, yet it is far less common than the level of despising in a country like Germany against immigrants there or racism in America, or many other such cases. And when incidents of hatred do appear they are widely and officially denounced.

Of course, people like Grosser never consider the behavior of the other side, the relentless, official hatred and despising of Israel (and often Jews) which appears in almost all the media, all the statements of politicians, all the sermons.

Speaking of Gaza as a "concentration camp" this is an appropriate place to mention how the relentlessly anti-Israel Sydney Morning Herald in Australia pubished an article about how wonderful the Hamas regime is in Gaza and extolling its new luxury prison. But buried in it is the following passage about a prison there that the author just let slide by:

"[Prison director Naser] Suleiman is quick to absolve his own institution of such practices. `'We do not practice any torture here,'' he says. `That takes place at the interrogation centre, before people are convicted.'''

Moreover, the one-sided focus on Israel worsens real oppression, hatred, and bloodshed by giving the terrorists and extremists an excuse. The above-mentioned article's author actually blames any mistreatment in Hamas prisons on Israel:

"Just as Hamas struggles to keep order in this restive strip of land of 1.5 million people, Mr Suleiman is trying to do the same inside Gaza's prisons. And just as Israel's blockade of Gaza stunts economic growth and curtails the ambitions of everyday Gazans, it also impairs Mr Suleiman's ability to operate prisons."

Talking about how the terrible nature of the opposition (in Hamas's case, openly antisemitic and preaching genocide against Jews; practicing terrorism; deliberately targeting civilians, etc.) isn't intended to excuse any shortcomings in Israel, but one has to have some way to measure the potential level of hatred and despising going on.

If your enemy is intent on using civilians as human shields and massacring all of yours, this sometimes requires different measures for self-defense. And if the other side is projecting 90 percent hate and Israel 5 percent—the numbers are somewhat arbitrary but also reasonable—that conveys something important. It's funny that Israel is accused of "excessive force" but not credited for its proportionately low level of hatred.

When, for example, two Israeli reservists lose their way on the West Bank and are torn apart (literally) by a Palestinian mob and there is not a single case of retaliation or incitement to violence among Israelis that tells something. Now multiply that by ten thousand incidents.

Western media, academics, and activists often act as if even a single incident by a single Israelis (even if denounced by other Israelis and punished) somehow "proves" that Israel is demonic and worthy of execution. Even the deity only demanded that ten good people out of many hundreds need be found to spare wicked Sodom and Gomorrah. Israel's critics reverse the equation and think finding ten bad ones condemns seven million others.

Of course this doesn't mean Israel is perfect but that's precisely the point: it is unreasonable to expect perfection and once that standard is jettisoned Israel's record can be seen to be remarkably good given the conditions it has faced or even how other democracies have responded to far lower levels of threat.

Come to think of it, when it comes to being "despised" and "scorned," Israel and Israelis aren't the perpetrators, they are on the receiving end.

Foxman: Obama should end unilateral statehood threat [dated: Oct 20]

Foxman: Obama should end unilateral statehood threat

October 20, 2010

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- After meeting with Israeli leaders, ADL National Director Abraham Foxman called on the Obama administration to “close all doors” to a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood.

The Anti-Defamation League leader, speaking to JTA from Jerusalem after meeting [October 19th] with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among others, said it was his impression that the Palestinians are accelerating plans to have the U.N. Security Council recognize a unilaterally declared state.

“The Palestinians are engaged in an effort to see if they can pre-emptively establish a state,” Foxman said. “They seem to be engaged in this fantasy that the world will deliver them a state with very little. What it takes is for the U.S. to close every exit door and say ‘Get off this kick, you will not have our support.' ”

 

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/10/20/2741369/foxman-obama-should-shut-down-talk-of-unilateral-statehood

TIP: Strong U.S.- Israel Relationship will be sustained

From: The Israel Project   www.theisraelproject.org   Nov. 2, 2010

 

U.S. Senate Likely to Stay Democratic, Republicans to Take U.S. House: Strong U.S.-Israel Relationship Will be Sustained

While Democrats are likely to keep control of the U.S. Senate, Republicans will take over the U.S. House of Representatives following Tuesday’s (Nov. 2) elections. This is likely to have implications for Israel-related issues such as Israel’s relationship with the United States and the push for sanctions against Iran.

“The takeover of the House by Republicans is great news for Israel and her supporters,” Ari Fleischer, who was White House spokesman under former President George W. Bush, told The Israel Project. “The House leadership and almost every single GOP member is rock-solid behind Israel. At times like this, Israel needs friends everywhere.”

David A. Harris, president and CEO of the National Jewish Democratic Council, praised the House’s leadership on Israel-centric matters. “The House Democratic leadership has been powerfully supportive of Israel, and Speaker Pelosi has been nothing short of passionate in her successful pursuit of biting sanctions against Iran – a key interest of the pro-Israel community,” Harris said to The Israel Project.

“Congress has long been broadly bipartisan when it comes to support for the U.S.-Israel relationship, and that's a success story of the American Jewish community.” In terms of sustaining the Senate, Harris said, “The entire Senate Democratic leadership team has been powerfully supportive of Israel, and Senate Majority Leader Reid has led the charge on an array of issues, including biting sanctions against Iran. But while individual candidates may win or lose, Congress has long been broadly bipartisan when it comes to Israel, and that’s a success story of the American Jewish community. We fully expect this tradition of bipartisan support will continue as the newly elected Senators begin to serve their terms.”

Said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, founder and president of The Israel Project, “American voters on both sides of the aisle support Israel.” The Israel Project is expected to release new poll numbers from voters in the days ahead. TIP is a nonprofit, non-partisan educational organization that does not take a political stand on any person or issue. TIP is not related to any government or government entity.

In a Republican House, Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks told The Israel Project, “Its leaders will not hesitate to speak out firmly on Israel's behalf when Israel's bitter enemies press to delegitimize the Jewish State. We know that affinity for Israel and dedication to Israel's security are broad and deep in the ranks of the Republican caucus - very much including the newly elected members, most of whom have already built bonds of trust with pro-Israel constituents.”

Key House leadership changes

*House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif. is expected to hand over the gavel to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla. Ros-Lehtinen has focused on ending the Palestinian culture of hate and has proposed tying appropriations to the issue. She has  repeatedly proposed legislation against Iran, including increasing sanctions and raising the profile of Iran’s human rights abuses.

*Under Republican leadership, current Minority House Ranking Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio – considered staunchly pro-Israel – will become speaker of the House, replacing Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

*House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., will become majority leader, the highest-ranking post a Jew has ever held in Congress. Cantor, the point-person for Republicans on Israel, has been very active in supporting Israel-related issues, such as pressuring President Barack Obama to oppose repeated U.N. resolutions condemning Israel.

Cantor also has co-sponsored legislation that would end U.S. taxpayer aid to the Palestinian Authority until it puts an end to the culture of hate and stops unauthorized excavations of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. He also has co-authored Iran sanctions legislation.

*On the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-proliferation, and Trade, a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif. will lose his chairmanship to Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., who, like Sherman, is a longtime supporter of Israel. (Disclosure: Sherman is on TIP’s board of advisors)

*Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., will lose his chairmanship of the Financial Services Committee, a key avenue for sanctions against Iran. The top three contenders for chairman are Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., Pete King, R-N.Y., and Royce.

UNESCO 'recognizes' Rachel's tomb... as a mosque

http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2010/10/outrageous-unesco-recognizes-rachels.html

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