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Israel Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 01, 2015 20 Comments
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the U.N. General Assembly today. It was a powerful speech -- one of, if not his best. The full speech is at the bottom of the post. The full text is here. Here are some highlights. Too bad neither John Kerry nor Amb. Samantha Power were present to hear it, and as a show of solidarity. Netanyahu had a powerful 45 seconds of silence shaming the U.N. for its silence on Iran's threats to destroy Israel. In the face of repeated Iranian threats and U.N. anti-Israel resolutions, Netanyahu declared "Israel will do whatever it must do to defend our state and to defend our people."

Posted by Miriam Elman on September 27, 2015 38 Comments
This Thursday Israel’s 10-member security cabinet unanimously voted to approve a series of tougher measures against Palestinian rock and firebomb throwers. The new measures are being adopted following a heated debate this past week over what the government and police can and can’t legally do (shoot them with live fire? lock them in jail for longer periods? penalize the parents?) to crack down on Palestinian youth who hurl stone and petrol bombs onto highways and city streets with increasing impunity. There are no easy answers here, or simple solutions. According to experts familiar with these cases, rock-throwing is mostly being perpetrated by unorganized and leaderless young men, making it hard for Israel’s security and intelligence forces to prevent impending attacks. These angry Palestinian kids probably aren’t usually receiving direct orders to terrorize Jews. But they’re acting within an ideological environment that encourages and condones these attacks. In addition to incitement by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, Israeli Arab leaders incite violence by spreading falsehoods about the Al Aqsa Mosque:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 18, 2015 6 Comments
Last spring I visited Sderot, the Israeli town on the Gaza border. Sderot is best known internationally as the town most frequently under rocket attack with almost no warning because of the short distance. Sderot has developed extensive shelter systems, as I discussed in Israelis shelter in place near Gaza. The system includes playground shelters like this one: Sderot Israel Children's Playground Bomb Shelter and an underground municipal bunker for city officials to use when under attack:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on September 15, 2015 11 Comments
Recently, refusing to take any Syrian refugees, Fahad Alshalami, a senior official of Kuwait explained to the media that “it is not right for us [Kuwait and other Gulf States] to accept a people that are different from us. We don’t want people that suffer from internal stress and trauma in our country.” Alshalami glossed over the fact that 800,000 migrant Indian workers living in his country too might be suffering from the same “internal stress and trauma.” About 40 percent of Kuwait’s 4 million population comprises of Asian workers. In total about 7 million Indians work in the 6 oil-rich nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain). They are often at the mercy of their employers and work under dangerous conditions. According to an investigative report published by IndiaSpend, at an average an Indian living in Saudi Arabia, Qatar or Kuwait is “at ten times the risk of death, compared to an Indian living in the US”:
On an average, there are 53.6 deaths per 100,000 [expat Indians] annually. However, this number conceals a sharp discrepancy. The average for the six GCC nations is 69.2 deaths, while the figure for rest of the world is 26.5 deaths, almost 60% lower. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman and Kuwait report between 65 and 78 deaths per 100,000 Indian workers.
Indian government that heavily benefits from remittances, worth billions of dollar from Gulf States annually, is reluctant to raise concerns about the safety and wellbeing of its citizens.

Posted by Miriam Elman on September 13, 2015 6 Comments
Yesterday we posted on Israel’s decision to outlaw as “unlawful organizations” two Islamic Movement-funded groups which for years have been harassing and intimidating non-Muslim visitors to Jerusalem’s revered Temple Mount, Israel Finally Outlaws “Temple Mount Screamers”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpNROFwrzAI As we noted, while the new policy comes as a welcome move for many devout Jews and Christians, merely banning some abusive hecklers from the sacred site does nothing to change the more pernicious problem: the flagrant disregard for religious pluralism and tolerance exhibited in the rhetoric and policies of the site’s Muslim authorities. Our post went live on Saturday evening (EST). Since it wasn’t yet being reported in the MSM, we were unaware that at that very moment Israel’s police and security forces were executing an operation in east Jerusalem in an attempt to avert a planned attack on Jewish worshippers ahead of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year, which begins tonight). According to media reports released this morning (EST) and throughout the day, Israel’s security forces were searching for explosive devices that were believed to be hidden in east Jerusalem on Saturday night.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 12, 2015 4 Comments
Anyone who knows anything about internet polls and surveys knows that they are not scientific. And they can be the most democratic (small "d") of votes -- he who gets out the vote wins. Kind of like the Iowa Caucuses. B'Tselem is a left-wing Israeli "human rights" Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that receives foreign funding to expose Israeli problems. It is typical of dozens of such NGOs, but to an extreme, as documented in depth by NGO Monitor and it's principal Prof. Gerald Steinberg. We have cited NGO Monitor's studies many times here, because the research is so in depth. Check out NGO Monitor's page on B'Tselem and the many reports linked there. So, needless to say, B'Tselem and NGO Monitor have issues with each other. B'Tselem recently entered to collect the 100,000 Euro prize in the Human Rights Tulip contest funded by the Dutch government. It's public voting, but the rules seem murky and open to allowing the contest "jury" to decide contrary to the public vote.

Posted by Miriam Elman on September 12, 2015 16 Comments
This week Israel’s Defense Minister, Moshe Ya’alon, signed an order banning male Murabitun and female Murabatat Islamist groups from Jerusalem’s sacred Temple Mount (Har HaBayit). In an earlier LI post we highlighted how these groups have been maintaining a permanent presence on the site, and intimidating and harassing non-Muslim visitors on a daily basis. The Murabitun/Murabatat are self-identified “guardians of Al-Aqsa” who consider it a duty to protect the integrity of the Muslim Noble Sanctuary from devout Jews and Christians who just want to pray there. In fact, they’re a bunch of hecklers who’ve been allowed to act with impunity for far too long. Now they’re being shut down. It’s a move that comes as welcome news to the many devout Jews and Christians who’ve been trying for years to raise public awareness about the situation. But the fight for religious freedom and interfaith respect on the Temple Mount isn’t over yet.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on September 10, 2015 5 Comments
With many European campuses and lecture halls serving as training grounds for anti-Israel activism and boycott campaigns, Universities and research institutions in India are queuing up to cooperate with Israel. This week, Tel Aviv University signed cooperation agreements with three leading academic institutions in India. University of Mumbai, Wellingkar Institute of Management and Amity University agreed on series of joint programmes including short-term faculty exchange, holding joint research workshops and exchanging doctoral candidates. This move would strengthen Tel Aviv University's existing extensive cooperation with Indian educational institutions. Engineering students from India already attend summer courses in cyber security and entrepreneurship at Tel Aviv University -- both areas of vital importance to India. India too brings its own set of strengths on the table. Indian educational and research institutions offer a talent pool that is comparable to any major developed country in the world. Recently, Israel's IDC Herzliya also signed wide-ranging agreements with several leading Indian universities and academic institutions. India, once dubbed as the “23rd Arab State” for its unwavering support for the “Palestinian Cause”, has moved closer to Israel in recent years.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 09, 2015 11 Comments
The death of Eric Garner made famous the phrase "I can't breathe." The whole world has heard of Eric Garner. You probably never heard of Shelly Dadon. Or that she was Israeli. Or that her last words were "I can't breathe." Or that she was murdered May 1, 2014, stabbed dozens of times by an Israeli Arab cab driver on her way to a job interview. Because she was Jewish. We featured Shelly several times in June and July 2014, at a time Israel was gripped by the kidnapping and presumed murder of three Israeli teens (Gil-ad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel) and the retaliatory murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir. On July 6, 2014, we wrote about her murder, Arab Violence Against Israel and Jews Continues:
This case of an Israeli teenager, Shelly Dadon, on way to job interview who was stabbed to death has received almost no international media attention:
Only July 7, 2014, we followed up, Israeli reaction to murder of teen a sign of Israel’s moral strength:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 04, 2015 11 Comments
For those of us of a certain age, The Munich Massacre is etched in our memories as much as almost any other historical event. At approximately 4:30 a.m. in the morning on September 5, 1972 in West Germany [still September 4 in the U.S.], Palestinian "Black September" terrorists took Israeli Olympians hostage at the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany. Two of the athletes were killed there, and another 9 died at the airport in a failed rescue mission as the terrorists thought they were boarding a plane to take them and the hostages away. A German policeman also was killed. The Independent in Britain recounted the events in a 2006 look back which provides great detail:
Carrying assault rifles and grenades, the Palestinians ran towards No 31 Connollystrasse, the building housing the Israeli delegation to the Munich Olympic Games. Bursting into the first apartment, they took a group of Israeli officials and trainers hostage: Yossef Gutfreund, Amitzur Shapira, Kehat Shorr, Andrei Spitzer, Jacov Springer and Moshe Weinberg. In another apartment, they captured the Israeli wrestlers and weightlifters Eliezer Halfin, Yossef Romano, Mark Slavin, David Berger (an Israeli-American law graduate) and Zeev Friedman. When the tough Israelis fought back, the Palestinians opened fire, shooting Romano and Weinberg dead. The other nine were subdued and taken hostage. The Palestinians then demanded the release of 234 prisoners held in Israeli jails.
[caption id="attachment_141124" align="alignnone" width="481"][Israeli Athletes killed Munich Massacre] [Israeli Athletes killed Munich Massacre][/caption] The images of a hooded terrorist on the balcony where the hostages were being held are among the most iconic:

Posted by Petra Marquardt-Bigman on September 03, 2015 5 Comments
Just a week before the prominent Palestinian activist leader Bassem al-Tamimi embarks on a month-long speaking tour in the U.S., he and his family attracted massive media attention when a clip of one of the clashes they provoked with the IDF went viral. Daily Mail Ahed Tamimi bites Israeli Soldier2 The Tamimis are used to sympathetic media coverage, including a fawning New York Times Magazine cover story in March 2013 on the family's ambition to start a "Third Intifada". Bassem Tamimi is usually presented as  an admirable organizer of “nonviolent resistance” who can count on the support of Amnesty International and who has been praised as a “human rights defender” by the European Union. By contrast, Bassem Tamimi’s views on the “right to resist” that he often invokes and the use of his children in his activism – including regular efforts to challenge the IDF into responding to provocations like rock-throwing – have so far largely escaped scrutiny. Yet, just a few hours of research reveal many easily discoverable cracks in the carefully cultivated image of the Tamimis as peaceful activists and “non-violent” protesters.

Use of Children to Confront Soldiers as Cameras Roll

The Tamimis are best known for the 2012 video of daughter Ahed confronting Israeli soldiers for the cameras:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 02, 2015 45 Comments
The Iran nuclear deal, which is so bad in so many ways explained here so many times, is a done deal. Democrats now have enough votes in the Senate to prevent an override of an Obama veto of a resolution of disapproval, if it even gets to a vote given Democrats are close to the votes needed to filibuster. Partial blame belongs to Republicans in the Senate for agreeing to a procedure that required passage of a resolution of disapproval by a supermajority, rather than approval by a supermajority, or even a majority. But at least Republicans opposed the deal, which means that majorities in each house of Congress are against it. Whatever procedural mistakes Republicans made are dwarfed by the substantive embrace of the deal by most Democrats in Congress. That despite the fact that the deal is hugely unpopular overall, and is at best a split decision even among Democrats not in Congress. It is not an exaggeration to say that loyalty to Obama was the overriding factor. Democrats in Congress were the main targets of Obama's demagoguery -- be with Obama or be for war; be with Obama or be for the monied lobbyists. The message was clear: Be with Obama or be a traitor. So the deal will not fail. To say that it "passes" is inaccurate. There will be calls once the votes are taken to heal. To make Israel, once again, a matter of bipartisan consensus.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 30, 2015 10 Comments
The title of this post is from a Facebook comment I saw about an article by Stephen Daisley at STV News (Scotland), Analysis: Jeremy Corbyn is not an anti-Semite. It’s so much worse than that. Jeremy Corbyn is the likely new leader of the British Labour Party, someone I addressed in Likely British Labour leader’s creepy associations. The Daisley article title addresses Corbyn, but the issue of how Israel hatred has become a polite-society way of expressing anti-Semitism is of much broader implication. It's why ostensibly "pro-Palestinian" rallies so often express blatant anti-Jewish verbiage, why Jews are harassed on the streets of Europe in the name of anti-Zionism, and why the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement was birthed at the anti-Semitic 2001 Durban conference as Nazi-like caricatures of Jews were passed around. It's also why American Jewish musician Matisyahu was, alone among dozens of musicians, singled out by the BDS movement for a special political litmus test. Here is an excerpt from the Daisley article, which explains much better than I can how centuries of Jew hatred now finds its expression and acceptance through the anti-Israel movement:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 29, 2015 5 Comments
A video of an Israeli soldier near the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh being confronted by women and children is making the rounds. It has over a million views on Facebook alone. (Embedded towards end of this post.) As you view the history below, don't blame the children. They are victims of their family's abuse which puts them in harms way for photo-ops. Were these children treated such a way in the U.S., there is no doubt that local family services agencies would be involved in preventing their dangerous exploitation by their parents. In the current incident, the soldier, according to Israeli authorities, was in the process of detaining a member of the Tamimi clan of Nabi Saleh for stone throwing. Haaretz reports:
An Israeli soldier tried to detain a minor during clashes in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on Friday, but a number of Palestinian women and children managed to stop him. According to the army, the youth was throwing stones at the troops, who did not realize he was a minor. Photographs taken by Reuters and AFP show the soldier surrounded by women and children. In one of the images, a young girl is seen biting his hand. The soldier was lightly wounded as a result of the altercation. The commander in the area decided to release the minor. The army said that one other Palestinian was detained in Friday's clashes, along with one foreign activist.
Haaretz quotes left-wing Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, who denies Israel even has a right to exist, as denying that there was stone throwing. The fact Pollak was present makes the whole incident suspect, in addition to the background of the Tamimi family. Now, questions are being raised by The Daily Mail of Britain and others as to whether the current incident was deliberately provoked because Tamimi members were involved. The most famous photo shows a girl biting the hand of the Israeli soldier. That girl is Ahed Tamimi.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on August 18, 2015 6 Comments
While Europe has been busy targeting Israeli researchers, artists and filmmakers in recent days, Asian countries like India, China and Japan are taking tangible steps strengthening its ties with Israel. Last week Norwegian Film festival rejected an Israeli film dealing with disability on the grounds that it “did not deal with occupation” or “discrimination of Palestinians.” In Spain, a music festival barred the Jewish-American reggae star Matisyahu for refusing to comply with the demands of the organizers to publically denounce Israel and endorse the “Palestinian cause” -- in keeping with the best traditions of Spanish Inquisition. In Paris "peace activists" threatened and harangued visitors attending a day-long festival celebrating Tel-Aviv’s culture with music and gourmet. Meanwhile in India, thousands gathered to see the opening on yet another Israeli Agriculture Technology Centre in Gujarat State. Israel runs 30 such centres across India, training farmers in latest agriculture technology and farming techniques. https://twitter.com/danielocarmon/status/632903906389966849

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 17, 2015 5 Comments
Israel's discovery of massive natural gas fields off its coast has the potential to turn Israel into an energy superpower, supplying not only its own needs, but those of surrounding countries and potentially Europe. Israel already has signed a $15 billion deal to supply natural gas to Jordan. We covered the story of Israel's emergence as an energy supplier in March 2013, when Israel started pumping natural gas from the Tamar field, which is not even the largest find, Yesterday the Middle East changed forever, and you didn’t know it. This 2013 PBS reports explains:

Posted by David Gerstman on August 12, 2015 12 Comments
Following the nuclear negotiations with Iran, I am constantly amazed at the revelations that get reported (though often not widely enough) that document the administration's systematic capitulation to every single Iranian demand. Though it's probably not the most shocking news I've heard, the news broken by MEMRI, that already in 2011 President Barack Obama had conceded that Iran had the right to enrich uranium, is probably near the top. Before any serious negotiations were underway the administration gave away its most significant bargaining chip. The Free Beacon summarized MEMRI's report:
President Barack Obama approved of Iran’s right to operate a nuclear program in 2011 during secret meetings with Iranian officials, according to new disclosures by Iran’s Supreme Leader. ... Secretary of State John Kerry sent a letter to Iran stating that the United States “recognizes Iran’s rights regarding” nuclear enrichment, according to another senior Iranian official, Hossein Sheikh Al-Islam. “We came to the [secret] negotiations [with the United States] after Kerry wrote a letter and sent it to us via [mediator Omani Sultan Qaboos], stating that America officially recognizes Iran’s rights regarding the [nuclear fuel] enrichment cycle,” Al-Islam said in a recent interview with Iran’s Tasnim news agency, according to MEMRI.
Keep in mind that Kerry, at this point was a senator, not the Secretary of State and that it was the vitriolic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was president of Iran, before the "moderate" Hassan Rouhani was anything more than a gleam in the eyes of our top Iran experts.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 09, 2015 46 Comments
Ever since the White House leaked Thursday night that Sen. Chuck Schumer would be coming out against the Iran deal, the progressive movement has foamed at the mouth with vitriol directed Schumer's way. Much of it is just the plain old progressive vitriol of the MoveOn.org, Daily Kos and netroots types. Schumer is a warmonger, wants war, loves war, and so on. https://twitter.com/tparsi/status/630051055687090176 Obama set up that argument when he claimed that Republicans were making common cause with hardline Iranians -- even though Obama clinched the deal with hardline Iranians who are laughing all the way to the bank and an internationally-authorized nuclear enrichment program. Obama set up the disloyalty argument, and it's no surprise that it's being used against Democrats who don't support the deal, particularly Jewish Democrats like Schumer. That dual loyalty charge -- often expressed in terms of being an "Israel firster" -- is an old anti-Semitic line of attack, as we explored in detail in a prior post, GreenStar boycott group trainer hurls “Israel-firster” slur at Schumer. The dual loyalty charge is almost exclusively made against Jewish supporters of Israel. You rarely hear it used against American Christians who support Israel. As The Tablet magazine reports, given the various dog whistles put out by the Obama administration, it's no wonder these type of accusations are resurfacing.
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