And the French (once you add the "The") live up to their reputation.
(Google does not change the suggestions based on the target language.)
(h/t Ira G)
Why do the United States and the European Union continue to underwrite such a ruthless regime? Every revival of the "peace process" comes with billions in grants for the Palestinian Authority, without any steps taken to promote decent governance or end decades of corruption. Most recently, in May 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the PA would be rewarded for reaching a peace agreement with an additional $4 billion in aid.
In a recent article titled "What to Expect from an Independent Palestinian State," Fred Maroun, an Arab living in Canada, summed it up: "If a Palestinian state is created without correcting [its] destructive practices, it is highly likely that the new Palestinian regime will follow the same pattern already established, and be a hatemongering, corrupt, undemocratic, oppressive, belligerent, and ineffective regime."
Peace can evolve between Israelis and Palestinians, but only once the Palestinians have been freed from the rule of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. It will require time and patience, but it is achievable. It will come when people realize that peace improves their lives, that peace brings prosperity. Alas, the Oslo Accords put an end to what was an informal economic peace process that could have evolved into a political settlement, perhaps in the form, as in Switzerland, of a loose Arab-Israeli federation of independent cantons. The corrupt government begun by Arafat—imposed on the Palestinians by a clueless Israeli leadership—put an end to this promising evolution.
Peace can still be resuscitated, but not while the Palestinian Authority continues to be supported by billions from U.S. and European taxpayers. Only then will decent Palestinians, now terrorized into silence, be able to build a civil society, the basis for a better life and a healthy polity. Such a civil society would negotiate a real and lasting peace with Israel.
A two-state solution, by contrast, would merely take the repressive Palestinian Authority and invest it with the standing of a nation-state. That wouldn't bring peace, but only delay it by another generation.
The 2016 Olympics remembered the 11 Israeli athletes massacred by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich games, but the Palestinian Authority (PA) is praising the atrocity. The International Olympic Committee erected a memorial in Rio to the slain Israeli sportsmen and honored them at the closing ceremony. Yet on September 5, the anniversary of that horrific event, the official website of Fatah, the organization headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, hailed the outrage as an "heroic operation" and “one of the most important actions in modern history.”Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas to Arab Leaders: Go to Hell!
The Munich Massacre took place on September 5, 1972, when members of Black September, a Palestinian terrorist group closely allied with al-Fatah, infiltrated the Olympic village with explosives and automatic weapons. They took 11 Israeli athletes hostage, brutally beat and tortured them,while shooting two of them to death. The rest they killed with gunfire and grenades when German forces attempted a rescue. A German policeman was also murdered.
And the PA takes pride in that as indeed it does in all acts of terror against Israelis. Recently, after the stabbing and shooting of three Israeli civilians—among them Richard Lakin, an American citizen and devoted peace activist—the PA lauded the Palestinian killers as ”heroic martyrs" who promptly "ascended to heaven.”
Abbas and Fatah leaders in Ramallah claim that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (the "Arab Quartet") are using and promoting Abbas's rival, Mohamed Dahlan, in order to facilitate their mission of rapprochement with Israel.
Many Palestinians were surprised to see veteran Palestinian official Ahmed Qurei, a former Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister and one of the architects of the Oslo Accord, come out in favor of the Arab plan, which basically envisions ousting Abbas from power.
This, and not Israeli policy, is Abbas's true nightmare. After all, he knows that without Israel's presence in the West Bank, his regime would have long fallen into the hands of Hamas or even his political rivals in Fatah.
The "Arab Quartet" plan shows that some Arab countries are indeed fed up with Abbas's failure to lead his people towards a better life. These states, which have long been politically and financially supportive of the Palestinians, have had enough of Abbas's efforts to secure unending power -- at the direct cost of the well-being of his people.
Syria is confronting mercenary terrorists on its territory today, but it has long confronted a different kind of terrorism; the terrorism of Israel that has occupied a precious part of our land in the Syrian Golan since 4 June 1967. Our Syrian Arab people in the Occupied Golan continue to suffer as a result of Israel's oppressive and aggressive practices. These practices are no longer confined to the Occupied Golan, and are currently affecting the security and life of Syrians in the southern part of the country. Israel is intervening militarily to assist in every way the terrorist organizations operating in that area.Isn't it great when a country that is murdering tens of thousands of its own people tries to insult others?
Syria calls on the international community to put an effective end to all these practices and to compel Israel to implement relevant United Nations resolutions, particularly resolution 497 on the Occupied Syrian Golan.
[The UN] should also compel Israel to allow the Palestinian people to enjoy their inalienable rights, including the establishment of their independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital, and the return of Palestine refugees to their land, in accordance with internationally-recognized resolutions.These are all of the countries mentioned favorably by Syria.
...We congratulate Cuba and Iran on reaching agreements to lift the embargo imposed on them and we look forward to their implementation. We renew our call for removing the illegal economic measures imposed on the Syrian people and on other independent peoples in the world, notably the peoples of the DPRK, Venezuela and Belarus.
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition, and expansion of colonies in one territory, imposed by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole, or parent state, claims sovereignty over the colony, and the social structure, government, and economy of the colony are changed by colonizers from the metropole. Colonialism is a set of unequal relationships between the metropole and the colony, and between the colonists and the indigenous, or native, population .
Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong.Ironically, even the Quran refers to the Children of Israel as a nation (in many translations) in 2:47:
O Children of Israel! Remember My favor which I bestowed upon you, and that I favored you over all nations.This explains why the Khazar theory is so popular among Palestinian Arabs. It only gained widespread currency after the PLO Charter was written but it becomes a perfect way for Muslims to reconcile their denial of Jewish nationality with the obvious assignment of such nationhood to Jews in the Quran.
“By holding games on stolen land, FIFA is tarnishing the beautiful game of football,” said Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine country director at Human Rights Watch.HRW is now making a claim of land being "stolen" and implying that the rulings of the Israeli Supreme Court which has ruled on many aspects of Israeli activities in Area C is illegitimate. If the land was indeed privately owned by Palestinian individuals, then calling it "stolen" may be accurate, but since most of the land Israel controls was state land under Jordanian and Ottoman law, calling it "stolen" is not a legal term, but an inflammatory lie. The Israeli Supreme Court routinely rules on issues of land ownership in the territories with detailed descriptions of its legal reasonings. HRW, on the other hand, simply declares it "stolen" without any serious scholarship behind that slander.
Military law in the West Bank limits entry to settlements to Israeli citizens and residents, holders of Israeli visas, or individuals of Jewish ancestry. The West Bank’s 2.5 million Palestinian residents, excluding East Jerusalem residents, are not allowed to enter settlements, except for approximately 26,000 laborers bearing special permits. Arab citizens and residents of Israel, like their Jewish counterparts, may enter the settlements.That's funny, because I've driven into "settlements" without any Israeli soldier checking to see if I was circumcised. So can anyone else visiting Israel from most countries in the world - even without an Israeli visa.
Caption: Facebook makes an agreement with Israel in confronting “incitement” on its pages |
The problem is not Peled, but that BDS is a Settler Colonial ideology that thrives on negative stereotypes of Jews.Jewish Voice for Peace "thick as thieves" with Miko Peled
We have not written before about Miko Peled, an Israeli who is an anti-Israel pro-BDS activist based on the West Coast.
His main claim to fame is that his father was famous Israeli General Matti Peled. Miko’s book, The General’s Son, is his talking point when he makes his frequently visits to campuses. Being Israeli and from such a prominent Zionist family gives Peled a seeming credibility on the stump that few other pro-BDS speakers have. But his rhetoric is every bit as vicious, nasty and inflammatory as just about anything we see.
JVP just disavowed Peled.
The story is one that is reminiscent of the Weir disavowal. At some point, the rhetoric becomes just too toxic, too much playing on centuries old negative stereotypes of Jews as a means of making anti-Israel arguments.
This is the tweet that started the ball rolling down hill, saying that in light of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) recently signed for future military aid to Israel, Israelis should not be “surprised Jews have reputation 4being sleazy thieves….”
That tweet, and Peled’s defense of it, led to cancellation of a campus appearance at Princeton organized by the Princeton Committee for Palestine, which expressed its disgust on Facebook:
Peled, of course, blamed Zionists:
The cancellation received surprising support from JVP, which tweeted “antisemitic language is not acceptable in our movements for justice.” [If only that were true.]
Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director of JVP, tweeted that “Princeton group did right thing cancelling @mikopeled talk b/c of his tweets-no place 4 antisemitism in our movement.”
Peled rejected the accusation, as did Alison Weir when she was disavowed by JVP, in a series of Facebook posts and tweets which doubled-down on the rhetoric, including blaming Israel for “playing into the hands of racist antisemitism” — in other words, blaming Jews for anti-Semitism.
Jewish Voice for Peace has been "thick as thieves" with Miko Peled for years. He tabled with the extremist group, representing them at a conference on Reform Judaism
In January he gave a talk at UCLA sponsored by JVP and SJP, along with fellow "AsaJew" Max Blumenthal.
He spoke at a JVP Rally in Washington DC on March 3, 2015
JVP even featured Peled's book, "The Generals Son" in its book club
With such intimate contact with Miko Peled, you'd think that JVP might have noticed before now that he harbors anti-Semitic beliefs.
Veteran Lebanese journalist Samir Atallah penned a scathing article on the Arab people’s inability to conduct negotiations without resorting to threats, as well as the hypocrisy of the Arab world’s outrage towards external threats like Israel, which may have demolished “a house or two” while Arabs destroy entire cities.
Writing in English in the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Atallah slams the Arab nations’ proclivity to speak of one another in terms of endearment including “brother” and “comrade” – even though they refuse to talk directly to each other.
“From the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf, ‘the great Arab homeland’ is in the hands of international mediators,” Atallah writes, noting that many Arab conflicts have been mediated by third parties such as the UN.
But even in those cases, he adds, the parties cannot come to an agreement because Arabs do not know how to hold a dialogue and always “demand, impose and threaten rather than discuss.”
Atallah points to the failed reconciliation talks between rival Palestinian political factions Fatah and Hamas, though he applauds the two for meeting in the past in an effort to rise above their own differences so they can work together against the “brutal Zionist enemy.”
But Arabs are not capable of following through, Atallah says. They prefer to express fury and indignation when “the brutal enemy destroys a house or two from time to time while the gracious brother destroys cities, re-destroys them and then sees a wall that is still standing and vies for it.”
Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment,
There could be no building of new synagogues or churches. Dhimmis could not ride horses, but only donkeys; they could not use saddles, but only ride sidesaddle. Further, they could not employ a Muslim. Jews and Christians alike had to wear special hats, cloaks and shoes to mark them out from Muslims. They were even obliged to carry signs on their clothing or to wear types and colors of clothing that would indicate they were not Muslims, while at the same time avoid clothing that had any association with Mohammed and Islam. Most notably, green clothing was forbidden...Other aspects of dhimmi existence were that Jews - and also Christians - were not to be given Muslim names, were not to prevent anyone from converting to Islam, and were not to be allowed tombs that were higher than those of Muslims. Men could enter public bathhouses only when they wore a special sign around their neck distinguishing them from Muslims, while women could not bathe with Muslim women and had to use separate bathhouses instead. Sexual relations with a Muslim woman were forbidden, as was cursing the Prophet in public - an offense punishable by death.Under dhimmi rules as they evolved, neither Jews nor Christians could carry guns, build new places of worship or repair old ones without permission,or build any place of worship that was higher than a mosque. A non-Muslim could not inherit anything from a Muslim. A non-Muslim man could not marry a Muslim woman, although a Muslim man could marry a Christian or a Jewish woman.Martin Gilbert, In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2010) 32 - 33.
Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.
It remains our hope that such a conference will lead to the establishment of a mechanism and defined timeframe for an end to the occupation in accordance with the relevant resolutions of international! legitimacy, the principle of land for peace and the _Arab Peace initiative which calls, inter alia, for a just and agreed solution for the Palestine refugees in accordance with resolution 194.But a few days earlier, addressing Palestinian students in Venezuela, he emphasized it during the same speech where he justified Arab kids taking knives to stab Jews:
There are six million [Palestinian] refugees, and I am one of them. I am a refugee. It is true that I live in Ramallah, but Ramallah is not my city. I have not returned [to my native city] and I am entitled to demand my right [of return], for I am a refugee who lost his land and his homeland.
الرئيس #محمود_عباس : هناك أكثر من ستة ملايين لاجئ فلسطيني ينتظرون إنصافهم وتمكينهم من العودة لديارهم... وفقا للقرار الأممي 194 >— Pres. Mahmoud Abbas (@president_abbas) September 18, 2016
There are six million Palestinian refugees who are waiting to receive what they are entitled to, [waiting] to be allowed to return to their homes in accordance with UN Resolution 194
A gunman has shot dead prominent Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar outside a court where he was facing charges for sharing a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam, state news agency Petra reported.Here's the cartoon, which is not being shown in media coverage of the murder.
Hattar was struck by three bullets before the assailant was arrested on Sunday, Petra said. Witnesses said that a man had opened fire in front of the court in Amman's Abdali district.
The 56-year-old Christian was arrested on August 13 after posting a caricature on his Facebook account that depicted a beared man in heaven smoking in bed with women, asking God to bring him wine and cashews.
It is not known who produced the cartoon.
He removed the cartoon shortly thereafter, saying "it mocks terrorists and their concept of God and heaven. It does not infringe God's divinity in any way".
However, many Jordanian Muslims considered it offensive and against their religion. The authorities said Hatter violated the law by widely sharing the caricature.
He was charged with inciting sectarian strife and insulting Islam before being released on bail in early September.
'Did not mean to offend'
The backlash against Hattar was immediate with Jordanian social media users lambasting the writer for purposely causing offence to Muslims.
Social media users also called on the government to question and arrest Hattar, and some attacked him for being Christian and a secularist.
Attempting to explain his motive for sharing the cartoon, Hattar said that he did not intend to cause offence to Muslims and wanted the cartoon to "expose" the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and the Muslim Brotherhood.
In another explanation, Hattar said that "as a non-believer" he respected "the believers who did not understand the satire behind the cartoon".
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
If you want real peace, don't insist on a divided Jerusalem, @USAmbIsrael
The Apartheid charge, the Abraham Accords and the "right side of history"
With Palestinians, there is no need to exaggerate: they really support murdering random Jews
Great news for Yom HaShoah! There are no antisemites!