Friday, August 31, 2012

UC Condemns Condemning Antisemitism

JayinPhiladelphia

I'm sure this has something to do with their hard-right, conservative leanings...

Yes, the sarcasm is thick above.


The University of California says it won't support a resolution condemning anti-Semitism on campus - approved unanimously by the state Assembly on Tuesday - because the resolution says "no public resources will be allowed to be used for any anti-Semitic or any intolerant agitation."

"We think it's problematic because of First Amendment concerns," said Steve Montiel, a UC spokesman.

I tend to think antisemitism is 'problematic,' but hey maybe that's just me....


The nonbinding resolution, says, in effect, that UC and other public universities should ban activity that could be interpreted as intolerant or anti-Semitic, including certain demonstrations, from taking place anywhere on its property.

The move is the latest chapter in a debate that arose this summer over whether students create an intolerable, anti-Semitic environment by staging annual, anti-Israel protests mimicking Israeli guards questioning Palestinians.

Ah, of course we should continue to allow "peace activists" to harass Jews on campus.  Because g-d forbid we should infringe on the 'rights' of those groups with agendas which we'd never allow to engage in war against any other ethnic group in the world, aside from Jews of course.

Stuff like that is totally not antisemitic, right?

Meanwhile, I'll be waiting for these very same "activists" to launch Iranian Apartheid Week, or Syrian Murder Week, or Saudi Racist Week, etc etc...

But I won't be holding my breath.

A simple exercise in math...

JayinPhiladelphia

Doodad points out Jimmy Carter's latest hateful nonsense.

After which, volleyboy1, thinking he's brilliant, compares Ron Paul to same.

Okay volleyboy, let's compare Ron Paul and Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter votes for president:

1976 Primary - 6,971,770

1976 Presidential Election - 40,831,881

1980 Presidential Election -35,480,115

Ron Paul votes for president:

1988 - 431,750

2008 - 47,000-plus votes

2012 - Didn't even qualify for a speaking spot at the RNC, after falling short of delegates in Nebraska.


.....
.....

Now, I count something like 83 million votes for Carter, to way less than 1 million for Paul here. Now, math very well may not be my friend's strong suit, but there it is.

His 10% doesn't sound too impressive when faced with facts, does it?

Or are those facts too "right wing" for him?

.....
.....

Of course, one could also make the case that this comparison is ridiculous, and I'd generally agree.

But still, the fact is that this should end their Ron Paul obsession, in that despite the fevered fantasies of some, Ron Paul is not a viable threat to the Jewish people, and he will never be able to write an op-ed in newspapers all across America, let alone start a foundation, blaming "the Jews" for whatever it is that's bothering him on any given day.

Unlike Jimmy Carter, who again, if I were to play games like volleyboy1, I could claim (truthfully, too!) that he receives, on average, 150 votes for his antisemitic 'anti-Zionism,' for every 1 vote that the rest of us cast.

Al Quds



geoffff

For many years, I have been notifying the Muslims of the danger posed by the usurper Israel which today has intensified its savage attacks against the Palestinian brothers and sisters, and which, in the south of Lebanon in particular, is continually bombing Palestinian homes in the hope of crushing the Palestinian struggle. I ask all the Muslims of the world and the Muslim governments to join together to sever the hand of this usurper and its supporters. I call on all the Muslims of the world to select as Quds Day the last Friday in the holy month of Ramadan - which is itself a determining period and can also be the determiner of the Palestinian people’s fate - and through a ceremony demonstrating the solidarity of Muslims world-wide, announce their support for the legitimate rights of the Muslim people.


Khomeini 7 August 1979

Al Quds Day 2012
...

 Israel, the enemy of mankind, the enemy of humanity, which is creating disturbances every day and is attacking our brothers in south Lebanon, must realise that its masters are no longer accepted in the world and must retreat. They must give up their ambitious designs on Iran, their hands must be severed from all the Islamic countries and their agents in these countries must step down. Quds Day is the day for announcing such things, for announcing such things to the satans who want to push the Islamic nations aside and bring the superpowers into the arena. Quds Day is the day to dash their hopes and warn them that those days are gone

 Khomeini  16 August 1979



Al Quds Day  London 2012
On Quds Day, the nations should caution those governments which are traitors. Quds Day is the day when we shall discover which individuals and which regimes approve of the conspiracies of international groups and oppose Islam. Those who do not participate they oppose Islam and are in agreement with Israel, and those who participate they are committed, and in agreement with Islam  opposing the enemies of Islam at the head    America and Israel. It is a day when truth will be distinguished from falsehood, the day when truth and falsehood will be distinct. 

Khomeini  6 August 1980

...
I beseech God the Blessed and Exalted to grant victory to Islam over all sections of the population in the world and to the oppressed over all the oppressors. And I beseech God the Blessed and Exalted to deliver our brothers in Palestine, in Lebanon and in southern Lebanon, indeed anywhere in the world they may be, from the hands of the oppressors and plunderers.

Khomeini    9 August 1980


...

How much longer must your Quds be trampled under the boots of the usurping Israelis, these worthless people whom America has put there (to see to their interests)?

Khomeini  1 August 1981

 Al Quds Day Toronto  2012
...

May God help us succeed in one day going to Quds and praying there. I hope that the Muslims will consider Quds Day an important day and that in all the Islamic countries on Quds Day, the last Friday of the holy month (of Ramadan), they will stage demonstrations, hold meetings, have gatherings and attend the mosques where they will shout out. When a population of one billion shouts out, Israel cannot do anything, it will be afraid of their shouts alone. If all the Muslims who are in the world today, and there are about one billion of them, come out of their homes on Quds Day and shout ‘Death to America, Death to Israel and Death to Russia,’ the very words will bring about the demise of these countries.

Khomeini  1 August 1981


Al Quds  Sydney 2012
...

A free Canadian from Iran at a Toronto counter rally 2012
In order to liberate Quds, machine-guns relying on faith and the power of Islam must be used, and political games redolent of compromise and keeping the superpowers happy laid aside.

The Muslim nations, particularly the Palestinian and Lebanese nations, must punish those who waste time with political manoeuvres and not tolerate political games which end in nothing but loss and disadvantage for the oppressed nations. How long will these myths about the East and West continue to fascinate the powerful Muslims and the hollow propaganda they trumpet over their loudspeakers frighten them?

Khomeini  1 August 1981
...

The nation, government, parliament, army and other armed forces of Iran, which today stand in unified rank demonstrating Islamic unity and divine order, are determined to stand against any satanic power and violator of human rights, to defend the oppressed and support beloved Lebanon and Quds until Quds and Palestine are returned to the Muslim fold. The Muslims of the world should view Quds Day not only as a day for all the Muslims of the world, but one for all the deprived, and from that sensitive point, they should stand against the oppressors and the world-plunderers and should not rest until the oppressed have been set free from the oppression of the power-wielders.

Khomeini  1 August 1981


...

It is the duty of the nations, with the arrival of Quds Day and the anniversary of the martyrdom of that great man in the history of mankind (Imam `Ali [pbuh]), in their gatherings and marches to earnestly demand that their governments rise up against America and Israel using their military might and their oil weapon. And if they (the governments) pay no heed to this demand and instead support the criminal Israel which threatens the whole region, even the noble cities, and the depth of whose aspirations are now apparent, they must force them into action through pressure, strikes and threats. In a situation when Islam and its holy sites are under threat of aggression, no Muslim can remain indifferent. what the governments of the region are doing at this time, when Israel is encroaching extensively on Muslim lands and is killing innocent, defenceless Muslims, is nothing other than uttering empty, conciliatory words. And more disastrous than this is that they turn to America, the criminal kingpin, for protection against Israel, in effect like turning to a dragon out of fear of a snake, and even though they have the means with which to fight them, they are not prepared even to utter a hostile word against them or threaten them. In such a situation, everyone should prepare himself for obliteration and throughout his life consent to any form of humiliation.


Khomeini   16 July 1982






...........

Of course Khomenei’s (sic) speech needed to be taken in the context of 1979, and I knew the organisers of this rally well enough to know that they are not anti-Semitic people by any stretch of the imagination, and were solely concerned to see justice done for Palestine. Even so, it still wasn’t clear to me whether or not Al Quds day was itself essentially anti-Israel, and I knew that I couldn’t speak of my concern for the suffering of my Palestinian sisters and brothers if that compromised my love for my Jewish sisters and brothers.

David Smith 20 August 2012
Al Quds    Melbourne
cross posted Geoffff's Joint

Brief Notes: It's About the Jews in the Middle East



Mike L.

By "it" of course I mean the purpose of this blog and my major area of concern.

The Jews are between 13 and 14 million people. We represent a tiny proportion of the world population and our numbers have been kept, throughout the centuries, artificially low due to incessant, chronic persecution.

Almost half of our number live in Israel and almost half live in the United States, along with an important smattering throughout Europe, Australia, and elsewhere in the Americas. We have been driven out of the Arab world almost entirely.

Those of us fortunate enough to live in North America or Australia are doing just fine, thank you very much. Those of us who live in Europe are slowly being driven away and those of us who live in Israel, live under a constant state of siege.

This is what so many of our "progressive" friends fail to understand. They believe that the conflict should be characterized as a vicious military force (the Jews) oppressing the peaceful native population (the Palestinians).

This is a lie and it seems to me that as pro-Israel / pro-Jewish bloggers it is our job to make them understand that it is a lie.

It is, in fact, essentially the same lie that is told about the Jewish people generation upon generation, century upon century. In one way or another, depending upon time, place, and circumstance, they tell one another that we are wicked.

Today is no different.

Only the form has changed.

{Just a thought.}



Thursday, August 30, 2012

Liberal Jews Owe Evangelicals an Apology

Mike L.

Israel has no better friend on the entire planet than the Christian Evangelical community in the United States and, yet, "progressive Zionists," i.e., liberal, pro-Israel Jews, treat those people like dirt.

It's a disgrace.

The tendency on the progressive-left, very much including the Jewish left, is to assume the very worst about these people. In a recent piece in the Jerusalem Post the daughter of an Evangelical pastor tries to clear a few things up:

Skeptics of the Jewish- Christian alliance question this seemingly tenuous relationship.

They assume the worst motives from both parties to explain away the alliance. Christian Zionists support Israel to speed Armageddon and the return of Christ. Jews use Christian Zionists to further their pro- Israel aims.

For so many years I listened to progressives and Democrats tell me that Evangelicals actually despise us and that the only reason they favor Israel is because they are looking forward to the Second Coming, when Jesus will teach both Hitler and the Catholic Church how dealing with the Jews should properly be done.

Here are the real motives of Christian Zionism: Repentance, thankfulness and obedience.

Repentance for Christianity’s long history of persecuting Jews.

Thankfulness to the Jewish people for Christianity’s spiritual inheritance.

Obedience to the biblical commands to bless Israel.

These three tenets best expose what I call the “Jewish heart” of Christian Zionists.

I intend to expand on this later, and perhaps elsewhere, but this just pisses me off.

One of my themes has been that progressive-left Jews do not know who their friends are and this is a case in point.

We do not have to agree with Christian Zionists about gay marriage, but we can disagree with them as friends, not enemies.

A Response to Jon Haber

Mike L.

(Cross-Posted at Geoffff's Joint, Bar and Grill and Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers.)

Those of you who follow Israel Thrives will recall that I recently had something of a dispute with pro-Israel "progressives" on Jon Haber's DivestThis! blog.

There are some Jews on the progressive-left who simply refuse to acknowledge that which is before their very eyes, i.e., that BDS / anti-Zionism is a toxic political sub-movement coming out of the left. It is not coming out of the right, nor does it somehow float above normal politics.

No.

It is primarily a left-wing phenomenon and we need to acknowledge that because it could not be more obvious. We must stop playing ostrich.

In any case, I have responded to Jon Haber's piece, "Israel Left and Right" at my new Times of Israel blog, here:

"Anti-Zionism and the Left: A Response to Jon Haber"

Feel free to drop in and tell me why I am wrong.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Rabbi and six-year-old daughter attacked in Berlin

Mike L.

29 August 2012

A 53-year-old Jewish man and his six-year-old daughter have become victims of an anti-Semitic attack in downtown Berlin which was reportedly committed by four youth of Arab origin. The man had to be brought to hospital with wounds at his head. Reportedly, one of the youth asked the man, who wore a kippah: "Are you a Jew?" He then hit him on the head several times and insulted his religion and his mother. He also threatened to kill the six-year-old girl. According to the Jewish weekly 'Jüdische Allgemeine', the victim is a Berlin rabbi.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Nagaura Has Some Words

Mike L.

In a recent comment here at Israel Thrives, Nagaura tells us the following:

Nagaura

August 28, 2012 7:00 AM

You. That being the collective you of this blog are so obtuse it's just amazing. My disagreements have nothing to do with Israel it's existence, citizens, or religion.

They have everything to do with this blog and its supporters who see anyone who aren't in complete compliance your beliefs as enemies of Israel. While I or others may not always agree with Israeli government policy it does not make us enemies of Israel or its people. We are simply on the other side of a particular issue.

Yet, because you are so myopic the ability to see simple disagreement have escaped you.

Finally you will only see what you want to concerning what I've written that is on you.

I want to address two aspects of Nagaura's statement.

The first is this:

They have everything to do with this blog and its supporters who see anyone who aren't in complete compliance your beliefs as enemies of Israel.

This statement is a little unusual in that I have no idea what beliefs that we allegedly, collectively hold that we demand compliance with, lest we conclude that the non-compliant individual is an enemy of Israel. In short, I have no idea what Nagaura is referring to, specifically. We are certainly opposed to anti-Zionism, but no anti-Zionist can credibly claim to be anything but an enemy of Israel.

Having said that, however, I see nothing to indicate that Nagaura is anti-Zionist and therefore, as far as I am concerned, she is more than welcome to participate here and challenge anything that s/he wishes.

While I or others may not always agree with Israeli government policy it does not make us enemies of Israel or its people.

Absolutely. I would never suggest that anyone who disagrees with Israeli government policy is, ipso facto, an enemy of that country. But, again, what policy is Nagaura talking about?

I have been consistent from the beginning in welcoming diversity of opinion in Israel Thrives which is why the regulars here do not even agree among themselves as who to vote for come November and the presidential election.

That being the case, I would invite Naguara to voice his or her concerns so that they can be addressed.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Hamas/Hezbollah Are Progressive; On The Left

Doodad


Yes. You heard it right. The learned Professor who made the statement is Judith Butler, a professor in the rhetoric and comparative literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley.

I think, yes, understanding Hamas/Hezbollah as social movements that are progressive that are on the left; that are part of a global Left is extremely important.... Again, a critical and important engagement, I mean I certainly think it should be entered into the conversation on the Left.

She will be receiving the Theodor Adorno Prize from the city of Frankfurt, Germany. Oh, she also supports BDS. Go figure.

Read more at Elder of Ziyon

The Death of Feminism



Mike L.

A Tip 'O the Kippa to the Elder.

A Tribute to Rachel Corrie (Updated)


Mike L.

(Cross-Posted at Geoffff's Joint, Bar and Grill and Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers.)

As you guys are probably aware hard-line, right-wing conservative Republican Rachel Corrie is back in the news.

Corrie family hopeful ahead of court ruling

Rachel Corrie's parents and sister say they hope the court will find the IDF responsible for her 2003 death in Gaza.

This being the case, I thought it was a good moment to reprint this response written by Ruhama Shattan one year after the accident that took Corrie's life:

A Tribute to Rachel Corrie

Today is the first anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death. I want to thank Corrie for the explosives that flow freely from Egypt to Gaza, via the smuggling tunnels under the Gaza homes that she died defending.

Perhaps it was these explosives that in the year since her martyrdom--oops, death--have been strapped around suicide bombers to blow up city buses and restaurants in Israeli cities, particularly in Jerusalem, killing men, women and schoolchildren (two of them classmates of my daughter and her friend in the February 22, 2004 bombing) and leaving hundreds more widows, orphans and bereaved parents.

On the first anniversary of her death, I want to thank Rachel Corrie for showing Palestinian children how to despise America as she snarled, burned an American flag, and led them in chanting slogans, and as she gave "evidence" at a Young Palestinian Parliament mock trial finding President Bush guilty of crimes against humanity.

Perhaps her help in fanning the flames of violent anti-American sentiment led to the October 2003 bombing of the Fulbright delegation to Gaza to interview scholarship candidates, killing three. There will be no new crop of Palestinian Fulbright scholars this fall.

On the first anniversary of her death, I wanted to thank Rachel Corrie for providing her organization, the Palestinian-sponsored International Solidarity Movement, with the opportunity to release a manipulated photo sequence "showing" an Israeli military bulldozer deliberately crushing her. (I would also like to thank the Associated Press and the Christian Science Monitor for taking up the baton and immortalizing this cynical ISM stunt.)

On the first anniversary of her death, I want to thank Rachel Corrie for showing the way to all those who seek peace in the Middle East. Unfortunately, Corrie's peace, as anyone familiar with the Palestine Liberation Organization, Fatah, Hamas and Hezbollah organizations that she defended with her life knows--or as anyone familiar with the weekly rants of the Friday preachers in the Palestinian mosques is aware--means not peaceful coexistence but the elimination of the state of Israel, and death to those they call "the usurping Jews, the sons of apes and pigs."

Thank you, Rachel Corrie, of Evergreen State University, where the profs wear khakis and kaffiyehs at graduation ceremonies, for showing us what peace really means.

Ms. Shattan is a translator, editor and writer who has lived in Israel since 1976. This article appeared in the Jerusalem Post.

Update:

I changed the line, "As you guys are probably aware Rachel Corrie is back in the news."

To:

"As you guys are probably aware hard-line, right-wing conservative Republican Rachel Corrie is back in the news."

Apparently there are still any number of Jewish progressives who refuse to acknowledge the obvious fact that BDS / anti-Zionism in the west, today, is predominately a left-wing movement.

2 + 2 = 7,325.0954... clearly.

{I guess it takes a physicist to figure that one out... Dr. Sheldon Cooper, perhaps... Bazinga!}

Sunday, August 26, 2012


geoffff


This is a comment I just put on the blog of this Anglican cleric; well known to the gutsy veterans of the Marrickville Council outrage. Read what he has to say about Al Quds,  Palestinians and Israel. I will not quote him because I doubt it can be believed unless seen.

Could it be possible that this man seriously does not know that Iran continues to threaten the obliteration of Israel and the genocide of the Jews and that this is the express and shouted position of Hamas, Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood and every Jihadist jerk off across the planet ?  Does he really have no knowledge of the genocidal antisemitic propaganda, unmatched since the Nazi era, that pours out of  Iran, Syria, Egypt and Islamic countries and across the world?  Does he honestly not know that the Palestinians have formally rejected the two state solution and that Oslo was a fraud all along?

That the only "Israel" that even the "moderates" have said they would accept is some kind of rump "state" that does not even have sovereignty over its own population and borders?

Is he deaf? Where has he been for the last 45 years? In a cave on Mars with his fingers in his ears and a blindfold on?

Here is my response.

It defies belief that a savagely anti-Israel activist with a pedigree as long as yours seriously has no idea what
Al Quds Day is about. I am tempted to say I don't believe you. But then I read this:

"I readily accepted the offer as I feel that there is no group of people in the world today who have suffered so brutally as have the Palestinians people in this generation. Indeed, I take every opportunity I can to express my concern for their suffering and my prayers for an end to the 45-year-long Occupation of their land."


I see


Not


Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975-79) 1,700,000

Kim Il Sung (North Korea, 1948-94) 1.6 million (purges and concentration camps)
Menghistu (Ethiopia, 1975-78) 1,500,000
Yakubu Gowon (Biafra, 1967-1970) 1,000,000
Leonid Brezhnev (Afghanistan, 1979-1982) 900,000
Jean Kambanda (Rwanda, 1994) 800,000
Saddam Hussein (Iran 1980-1990 and Kurdistan 1987-88) 600,000
Tito (Yugoslavia, 1945-1987) 570,000
Sukarno (Communists 1965-66) 500,000
Jonas Savimbi (Angola, 1975-2002) 400,000
Mullah Omar - Taliban (Afghanistan, 1986-2001) 400,000
Idi Amin (Uganda, 1969-1979) 300,000
Yahya Khan (Pakistan, 1970-71)  300,000 (Bangladesh)
Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire, 1965-97) 300,000?
Charles Taylor (Liberia, 1989-1996) 220,000
Foday Sankoh (Sierra Leone, 1991-2000) 200,000
Suharto (Aceh, East Timor, New Guinea, 1975-98) 200,000
Ho Chi Min (Vietnam, 1953-56) 200,000
Michel Micombero (Burundi, 1972) 150,000
Slobodan Milosevic (Yugoslavia, 1992-99) 100,000
Hassan Turabi (Sudan, 1989-1999) 100,000
Jean-Bedel Bokassa (Centrafrica, 1966-79) 200 000 ?
Efrain Rios Montt (Guatemala, 1982-83) 70,000
Papa Doc Duvalier (Haiti, 1957-71) 60,000
Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic, 1930-61) 50,000
Hissene Habre (Chad, 1982-1990) 40,000
Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975-79) 1,700,000
Kim Il Sung (North Korea, 1948-94) 1.6 million (purges and concentration camps)
Menghistu (Ethiopia, 1975-78) 1,500,000
Yakubu Gowon (Biafra, 1967-1970) 1,000,000
Leonid Brezhnev (Afghanistan, 1979-1982) 900,000
Jean Kambanda (Rwanda, 1994) 800,000
Saddam Hussein (Iran 1980-1990 and Kurdistan 1987-88) 600,000
Tito (Yugoslavia, 1945-1987) 570,000
Sukarno (Communists 1965-66) 500,000
Jonas Savimbi (Angola, 1975-2002) 400,000
Mullah Omar - Taliban (Afghanistan, 1986-2001) 400,000
Idi Amin (Uganda, 1969-1979) 300,000
Yahya Khan (Pakistan, 1970-71)  300,000 (Bangladesh)
Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire, 1965-97) 200,000?
Charles Taylor (Liberia, 1989-1996) 220,000
Foday Sankoh (Sierra Leone, 1991-2000) 200,000
Suharto (Aceh, East Timor, New Guinea, 1975-98) 200,000
Ho Chi Min (Vietnam, 1953-56) 200,000
Michel Micombero (Burundi, 1972) 150,000
Slobodan Milosevic (Yugoslavia, 1992-99) 100,000
Hassan Turabi (Sudan, 1989-1999) 100,000
Jean-Bedel Bokassa (Centrafrica, 1966-79) 250 000?
Efrain Rios Montt (Guatemala, 1982-83) 70,000
Papa Doc Duvalier (Haiti, 1957-71) 60,000
Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic, 1930-61) 50,000
Hissene Habre (Chad, 1982-1990) 40,000

Syria (again)  30 000 and rising




Not them


No,  the  "Palestinian people" ruled by Hamas, Fatah, IJ and the other murder gangs get the "victim hood" prize as far as you are concerned.


Anybody who is capable of saying that is capable of saying anything.


"I also read the Ayatollah’s Al Quds speech, and it was indeed an angry response to the crimes of violence that he saw Israel perpetrating at the time."


You really should try reading a book.


Clerical antizionism, (especially the disgraceful Christian versions) with its obsessive focus on Israel and the Jews and its haste to swallow whole even the foulest and most cynically dishonest slanders and blood libels without any self reflection whatsoever, is the most sinister political development of our time.


I am an Australian of seven generations and I have no hesitation in denouncing your views as unAustralian. In any event its time to stop being polite to people like you. We have seen enough Christians like you before.


How sad to see you back


Perhaps you might benefit from some reflection of the type you so incessantly urge on others.


I run a political blog. I suggest you visit it and its links. It's possible you might learn something.


In the meantime I will be taking issue with you and your colleagues there. Christians are too important and this matter has become too critical for us all for this to be left to the likes of Sizer and you.


So here is my question for this man of faith and the cloth.

Why do you not use your good offices with your Palestinian and Islamic brothers and sisters to persuade them with all the might you have to accept the Jewish state, accept Palestine, accept peace and to raise their children in security and love?

hat tip Shirlee




hat tip Shirlee

cross posted  Geoffff's Joint




Brief Notes: The Eternal Refugee



Mike L.

In a recent comment Dan Bielak quoted a piece from 1968 by Eric Hoffer, author of, among other works, The True Believer, entitled "Israel’s Peculiar Position."

Hoffer wrote:
The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab
The Palestinians are the Eternal Refugees.

They are the only people on the entire planet to remain refugees since World War II. This, of course, is the fault of Arab countries surrounding the Jewish state. Israel integrated between 600 and 700 thousand Jewish refugees into itself following the '48 war, but the Palestinians were held in camps by their own.

One of the things that progressive-left haters of Israel refuse to acknowledge is that it is the Arab states that are holding the Palestinians in refugee camps. Even the Palestinian Authority has claimed that Palestinian refugees will remain refugees in any future state of Palestine.

And yet progressive-left anti-Zionists and Israel Haters tell us that it is the Jews of Israel who are guilty for the plight of Palestinian Arab refugees.

It is a lie and it is a lie that is promoted, wittingly or not, by Jewish progressives who hold conservative Jews guilty for the ongoing conflict, who spread hatred toward Jews who do not believe as they do, who sometimes declare a moral equivalency between Likud and Hamas, and who justify malice toward Jews who choose to live in Judea.

It's a disgrace.

Jihadis Kill Christians in Egypt and Nigeria

Mike L.

According to the Coptic Solidarity website:

Christians in Egypt and Nigeria continue to suffer at the hands of Islamists. In Egypt, Muslim mobs are rampaging through Coptic villages, while, in Nigeria, the radical Islamist terror group, Boko Haram, continues to blow up churches and slaughter Christians in their homes.

While the looting, bombing, burning, and killing continues to terrify millions of Christians in Egypt and Nigeria, the bloodshed has attracted little attention around the world. In Washington, D.C., both the Obama Administration and the State Department continue to blame the violence on poverty and social inequality rather than condemn Islamic supremacy for persecuting Christian minorities...

While 75 million Christians are being terrorized in Nigeria, Egypt’s 10 million Coptic Christians are not faring any better. Recent reports indicate that over 100,000 Copts have already fled the country since the election of Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammad Morsi, as President of Egypt. It is sad day day for the nation when a noble peopl, with a history in Egypt that began hundreds of years before the existence of Islam are forced to flee their homeland in fear for their lives.

Meanwhile Raymond Ibrahim writes:


According to today's issue of El Fegr, "Elements of terrorist, jihadi organizations distributed leaflets today inciting for the killing of Copts in Suez, Ismailia, and Upper Egypt, promising them [Copts] a tragic end if they do not return to the truth."

An image of a copy of the letter appears on El Fegr's website. Titled "An Urgent and Important Notice," it begins by calling on "all brothers and sisters" to "kill or physically attack the enemies of the religion of Allah—the Christians in all of Egypt's provinces, the slaves of the Cross, Allah's curse upon them…" It proceeds to promise a monetary reward for whoever helps "achieve Allah's rights against his enemies."

Very few people seem to care about the persecution and murder of non-Muslims in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim worlds. If some Jewish teenagers beat up a Palestinian kid in Jerusalem it makes headlines the world over, but if the Copts are routinely brutalized and murdered in Egypt all it elicits is a yawn.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Thanks to Randall Kohn


And a Tip 'O the Kippa to Andy Lewis of ProSemiteUndercover.

Now that video is the kind of thing that we need plenty more of, for sure.

Added to the blogroll, by the way. I should have done that a long time ago, actually.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Egyptian Editor Charged with Insulting President

Mike L.

Prosecution says chief editor of privately-owned el-Dustour daily 'spreading rumors that could disturb public safety; human rights group 'shocked

A Cairo court on Thursday ordered the chief editor of an Egyptian newspaper detained pending trial on charges of insulting the country's president and potentially harming the public interest.

The case against Islam Afifi of the privately-owned el-Dustour daily is one of several lawsuits brought mainly by Egypt's Islamists against journalists, accusing them of inflammatory coverage and inciting the public against the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest political group.

Excuse me, but I have a question.

Am I to understand that so-called "progressives" continue, even at this late date, to believe that the "Arab Spring" was about democracy and not the rise of radical Jihad?

Do I understand that correctly?

Leading pro-democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei condemned the imprisonment of the editor and the issuance of the fatwas, saying such developments betrayed the values of last year's revolt against Egypt's longtime strongman, former President Hosni Mubarak.

Gee, what a shock.

Whoever could have seen this coming?

"Instigating to kill in the name of religion, and accusing revolutionaries of betrayal are not crimes, but insulting the president in the press leads to imprisonment," he said. "It's as if no revolution has taken place."

As if no revolution has taken place?

Of course a revolution has taken place. Egypt has gone from a military dictatorship interested in stability and, at least, non-hostile relations with the United States and Israel to a theocratic dictatorship that is entirely hostile to Jews, as Jews, and to the west, in general.

Thank you, Barack Obama.

Barack Obama is the best president ever and the best friend that the Jewish people ever had.

I am soooo happy that I voted for this guy.

I very much hope that he enjoys his tea and cookies with newly elected Egyptian Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi.

I wonder if Obama will allow him to come in through the front door?

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Israel Thrives in Political Diversity



Mike L.

In a recent comment JayinPhiladelphia noted the following:

And as for diversity, you've nailed it 'school. We have not only an Obama voter on the front page, but also an international roster here.

We very much encourage diversity of opinion on Israel Thrives. We also want diversity of subject matter within the obvious limits of Jewish concerns and we want opinions from people in other parts of the world. While I find myself in opposition to the Obama administration, I certainly do not expect everyone who participates here to agree with me and, in fact, would consider this experiment a terrible failure if group-think prevailed.

One of the things that I am beginning to find more and more compelling, after reading our friends from Britain and Australia, in these recent months, is how much our concerns align and, yet, are distinct. I find that Geoffff and Shirl and Daphne are focused on some things while me and School and Doodad are focused on others. This, of course, is as it should be. We're all tending our home fires while keeping an eye on our mutual horizon. This has also made me very aware of how much responsibility American Jews have for criticizing the Obama administration. Those guys cannot do it as effectively as we can for the obvious reason that he's our guy, not theirs.

Those of us who regularly participate here, however, understand that our disagreements are not meant to be blood-sports in which we seek to ruin the reputations of those who may disagree on this issue or that. We welcome diversity of opinion so long as that diversity is expressed in a generally collegial manner.

As someone whose politics has evolved beyond political parties I find it liberating to be able to consider left, right, and center without the typical animus or pathos that defines partisanship. It is one of the great things about being free of political partisanship that we can look at the views of political heretics with an open mind. For example, is Pamela Geller someone to be entirely dismissed or should she be fairly considered? Should Daniel Pipes be fairly considered or are we under some partisan obligation to spit poison and hatred toward political opponents?

As someone who comes out of the progressive-left it took an awful lot of soul-searching before I could begin to consider widely alternative points of view. The training in partisan hatred (which is a pretty good definition of the role of places like Daily Kos) was strong in me. I had an automatic, knee-jerk dislike and disinterest in the views of people defamed by the left. It is the constant drawing of these lines concerning who is "in" and who is "out" that came to fascinate me, even as I rejected the premises behind those assumptions.

What are the boundaries of acceptable hatred within whatever political movement that you may think of yourself as belonging to? Are Evangelical Christians, for example, really so evil that they must be spat upon and demeaned and dismissed? I do not think so.

The conclusion that I have drawn is that one political perspective that is entirely unwelcome on Israel Thrives is anti-Zionism. There are plenty of venues on the progressive-left wherein anti-Semitic anti-Zionism is perfectly acceptable. One of the questions that this blog asks, to the discomfort of some, is just why it is that we find the rise of western anti-Semitic anti-Zionism to be primarily on the progressive-left?

I have been demonized and demeaned for asking that question persistently and in public. And, I am sorry, but asking that question does not automatically docket someone onto the political right. On the contrary. Liberalism is a political tradition that goes to John Locke and the Enlightenment and that is concerned with the rights of man, but it is also an orientation in how we relate to others. Liberalism is theory, but it is also personal practice. The authoritarian tendency is not liberal from either perspective.

An interesting question came up the other day when I claimed that defining someone else's political identity for them against their will is distinctly illiberal because it is, in fact, authoritarian. It was pointed out to me by several individuals that if this is so how could I call another person a "racist"? Wouldn't doing so be equally illiberal?

I think that is a terrific question and one that we might give some thought to, but it's precisely because I am a liberal that I can say that I do not have a pat answer to that good question. I am open-minded to the consideration of it. And it is precisely open-mindedness that is the hallmark of liberalism as we understand it as a personal orientation in the world.

There is theory and there is practice. There is the shifting historical political tradition of liberalism and then there are people who engage the world in a liberal manner. And while no one is perfect, it is unclear to me how one can revere the former while acting upon others, against their well-being, in a way entirely contradictory to the latter.

For example, not to put too fine a point on it, but accusing another person of threatening oneself and one's children in an effort to ruin that person's reputation for political reasons is simply not liberal.

It is vile, in fact.

And it is not welcome here, nor quickly forgotten.

Shock Horror Picture From Apartheid Israel

geoffff

A scene from a Tel Aviv beach yesterday, from Israeli blogger Aussie Dave

This would never be allowed in the Tweed and Byron Shires* (Elections imminent --- Pro-BDS Green Party candidates standing.)

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - AUGUST 21:  A Palestinian woman and her son look at an Israeli woman as Palestinians enjoy a day at a beach during Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan on August 21, 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel. According to the Israel's coordinator for government activities in the territories, Israel has allowed the entry of over 1 million Palestinians from the occupied West Bank since the beginning of Ramadan due to improved security.

From Ha'aretz

Israel and the PA share an interest in preserving the unprecedented level of security that continues today on the West Bank, and this interest is presumably the cause of such close cooperation between the second-rank Israeli and PA officials. This story of cooperation between Israeli and PA figures is well captured by end-of-Ramadan images in Tel Aviv: yesterday, thousands of Palestinians from all parts of the West Bank, from Jenin in the north to Hebron and Bethlehem in the south, enjoyed the final hours of Id al-Fitr on the Tel Aviv beaches. Just a few years ago such an image would have seemed unimaginable in view of continuing strife in the West Bank and violent tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.

However, the quiet that has since taken hold, reinforced by close cooperation between officials from the two sides, allowed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians this month to make their first visit to Israel in years. PA figures indicate that during the Ramadan month, some 300,000 Palestinians entered Israel in coordinated visits. Israeli officials cite a lower yet nonetheless staggering figure of 200,000. Ironically, this trend caused significant economic damage to Palestinian vendors who lost untold customers – local Palestinians who took their business to Israel.

That's what Palestinian people think of BDS.

* Dogs are banned from all but a few designated unpatrolled  beaches where tourists do not bathe. There's a $1500 fine.

Hat tip Isreallycool

cross posted Geoffff's Joint

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Is Barack Obama a Fool or a Liar?

Mike L.

{Cross-Posted at Geoffff's Joint, Bar and Grill and Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers.}

I am going with fool and let me tell you why.

In a recent piece entitled "Israelis Prefer Romney" I claimed that Obama "praised the rise of the radical Jihad as something akin to the Spirit of '76 or the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and the 1960s."

Stuart took exception to this saying:

You know Michael, a lot of your rhetoric sounds exactly like the lies that Mitt Romney tells.

Obama never "praised the rise of the radical Jihad as something akin to the Spirit of '76 or the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and the 1960s." and you damn well know it.

Because Barack Obama did, in fact, praise the rise of radical Jihad as something akin to the Spirit of '76 or the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and the 1960s, I referred Stuart to the direct quote.

Upon the revolution in Tunisia, which was just one of the various Islamist revolutions taking place across the Muslim Middle East Barack Obama said this:

There are times in the course of history when the actions of ordinary citizens spark movements for change because they speak to a longing for freedom that has been building up for years. In America, think of the defiance of those patriots in Boston who refused to pay taxes to a King, or the dignity of Rosa Parks as she sat courageously in her seat.

To which Stuart claimed, "He was referring to the overthrow of the non-democratic government. Not the rise of islamic jihad."

The truth, of course, is that while it is probably true that Obama thought that he was praising the overthrow of a non-democratic government, he was also praising, wittingly or not, the rise of the radical Jihad throughout the Muslim Middle East.

The question then becomes, is Barack Obama a fool or a liar?

When all the riots and rapes and bloodshed rocked the Arab world last year, many on the progressive-left, including Barack Obama, praised the chaos and murder and mayhem as actually the rise of Arab-Muslim democracy. At the time, unlike president Obama, I was willing to take a wait-and-see approach. My suspicion was that we were going to see the rise of radical Islam and that is precisely what happened, which is why the Muslim Brotherhood has taken over the government of Egypt.

Thus when Obama told the world how wonderful this all was and how it was something akin to the American Revolution and the Civil Rights Movement, I knew immediately how irresponsible and foolish such claims were and are. He was, whatever his intention, praising the rise of Islamic fascism as the wondrous up-welling of democracy.

I do not believe that Barack Obama lied. What is obviously true is that he interpreted the Arab Spring within the ideological parameters set forth by the mainstream media. Throughout that period we were generally told that the "Arab Spring" was the glorious rise of democracy and the yearning of the Arab peoples for the blessings of liberty. In this way the west, in general, and Barack Obama, in particular, projected our hopes and aspirations onto people who do not necessarily share those hopes and aspirations.

The "Arab Spring" was not about democracy, nor about overthrowing tyrants or ridding the Middle East of non-democratic governments. It was (and is) about the rise of radical Islam, a movement that subjugates women, slaughters gay people, despises non-Muslims, holds a genocidal intention toward the tiny Jewish minority in the Middle East, and that has a historical provenance that goes in part to Nazi Germany. Thus when Obama said "think of the defiance of those patriots in Boston who refused to pay taxes to a King, or the dignity of Rosa Parks as she sat courageously in her seat" he was, despite his best intentions, praising "the rise of the radical Jihad as something akin to the Spirit of '76 or the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and the 1960s."

If that was not his intention then he is a fool, otherwise he is a liar.

I will go with fool.

This Isn't Real



Mike L.

In order to maintain our credentials as good "liberals" or good "progressives" we must learn to understand that reality is only meaningful to the extent that it reflects our political inclinations. In the clip above we have a Hamas official, Ahmad Bahr, screaming for Jewish blood.

He says this:

If the enemy sets foot on a single square inch of Islamic land, Jihad becomes an individual duty, incumbent on every Muslim, male or female. A woman may set out [on Jihad] without her husband's permission, and a servant without his master's permission. Why? In order to annihilate those Jews.
[...]
Oh Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, destroy the Americans and their supporters. Oh Allah, count them one by one, and kill them all, without leaving a single one.

The truth, of course, is that he said no such thing. Bahr was merely giving some instruction on the importance of goat's milk to the nutritional needs of children and anyone who claims otherwise is a liar and, even worse, a conservative.

It is important to recognize that when leaders throughout the Muslim Middle East call for the genocide of the Jews that we should either ignore it entirely or interpret it in the correct fashion. For example, when he says "kill them all" what he really means is "give them a cookie and pat them on the head."

Just ask Juan Cole.

If you disagree with this assessment you are clearly a "racist" and an "Islamophobe."

Latest Media Tapper Piece

Mike L.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

My latest piece for MT Weekly is published under the title "Why Not To Support Obama And Progressive Left Anti-Zionism."

Monday, August 20, 2012

Israelis Prefer Romney


Mike L.

{Cross-posted at Geoffff's Joint, Bar and Grill and Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers.}

When it comes to the well-being of the Jewish people of the Middle East I, unlike "progressive Zionists" or faux "pro-Israel" organizations like J-Street, tend to defer to the Israelis. It should seem fairly obvious that the Jews of the Middle East know what is in their best interest more than American Jewish dhimmis, like Jeremy Ben Ami. A recent poll of Israelis demonstrates clearly that they have much more faith in a potential Romney presidency than they do in the hostile Obama administration.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Poll: Romney cares more than Obama about Israel

Peace Index poll shows Israeli Jews – by 2:1 ratio – believe Romney assigns high importance to defending Israel's interests.

I find it difficult to understand how progressive-left diaspora Jews can support an American president that praised the rise of the radical Jihad as something akin to the Spirit of '76 or the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and the 1960s. The Israelis, however, are under no such delusions concerning Barack Obama. They, better than anyone, know what they are dealing with in their hostile neighbors and in an American president that promotes the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The United States, of course, is in a much worse geo-political situation since Barack Obama promoted the rise of the Jihad throughout the Middle East and sought to prevent Israel from dealing with an impending nuclear-armed Iran. As Turkey turned away from the west and looks toward Iran and as radical Islam took over country after country under the falsely named "Arab Spring," the Obama administration lied to the American people by suggesting that such developments were a good thing.

It should be obvious to any but the most ideologically blinkered that the rise of radical Islam is not in anyone's best interest other than the Jihadis themselves. It is certainly not in the best interest of moderate Arabs who have no particular interest in conquering Jerusalem and it is obviously not in the best interest of women, gay people, Jews, or non Muslims in that part of the world.

It is one of my contentions that the western left, including the Obama administration, has abandoned women, gay people, and Jews throughout the Middle East. Leftists claim to stand for universal human rights, but it could hardly be more obvious that they stand for no such thing. The Israelis know this better than anyone which is why the Israeli left got decimated after the second terror war (intifada) directly after the failure of Oslo.

On the question of Jewish well-being in that part of the world, perhaps American Jews should listen to their fellows in Israel, rather than to an American president who has proven himself hostile to the Jewish state. And for those of you who deny that Obama is hostile to Israel, how can anyone who supports the Muslim Brotherhood not be considered hostile to the Jewish nation or the Jewish state?

The Brotherhood called for the conquest of Jerusalem during a Morsi campaign rally.

Much of the Jewish left is simply in denial.

My hope is with progressive-left Jews like JayinPhiladelphia who are willing to acknowledge the obvious, and confront it, without demonizing those of us who point it out.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Walking Through Jewish History in Philadelphia

JayinPhiladelphia

Two cups of coffee were just what I needed to get me going this morning, right before I hopped the El downtown to join a walking tour put on by the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.  Though Jewish history in Philadelphia goes back to colonial times (a topic I'll cover in depth in the future), today's focus was on the late 19th century immigrant experience.

JEWISH IMMIGRANT PHILADELPHIA

Relive the Philadelphia experience of Eastern European Jews who settled along South Street in the late 19th century. Explore their humble synagogues and homes and learn about their thriving marketplaces that became prominent businesses.
This community's boundaries generally corresponded to a good chunk of the southeastern portion of the original borders of the City of Philadelphia (the district which is today known as Center City) prior to the 1854 consolidation of all boroughs, townships, districts and unincorporated communities within Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania which formed today's city; along with most of what is today's Bella Vista neighborhood.  From 2nd Street in the east over to 6th Street on the west; from Spruce Street on the north on down to Christian Street to the south.

Now as expected, my hearing impairment prevented me from hearing much of what was being said by our guide, but that's okay.  I ended up with more pictures than one would ever even think of shaking a stick at (don't even think about doing that, I am quite serious!), and also with a determination to learn much more on my own.  This, I will do in the coming years.  And decades.  :)



The full, long-winded and very photo-heavy (heh) version of this photo diary will be posted on my own blog in the coming days, once I finally get around to setting it up.   I'll notify youze when.  For now, some brief words, and a few pics of Old Jewish Philadelphia.  Continued below the jump...


Saturday, August 18, 2012

To a valley in Wales


geoffff




The Joint occasionally comments at connexions the blog of Richard Hall, a Methodist minister in Wales, to do my bit to help lift the tone of the place a little and to knock off some of the rough edges especially when the language gets a bit choice. 

You will be surprised how foul mouthed these British Methodists can get when the subject turns to Israel, Jews, Palestine and the poor suffering permanently oppressed Palestinians ...

Then the air can get pretty blue in the green valleys of Wales and on that subject the Joint knows what it's talking about. The Joint has had to throw out people for language not much worse and that was years before the internet was even invented.

This has been going on for years and has now reached a crisis point for European Protestantism . Curse and hate words and phrases thrown about with gay abandon  like supersessionism, one state solution, Jewish exceptionalism, thrice promised land, colonial enterprise, Antony Loewenstein  .... it gets even dirtier.    

The feeling is mutual. Richard has a pal, Kim, also a Methodist minister, who  mistook me for an orc and wanted me banned on sight from the start. I'm not sure he's still unconvinced. Maybe he's right.

Richard nearly complied but so far has allowed me to stay on as a commenter on account of my outstanding singing voice and world class double dummy switch and swivel to fifteen.

This conversation was in play when it abruptly stopped.


Richard 08.03.12 at 7:31 am





 ...   It’s not like I support violence or holocaust denial. But, to my mind at least, the wrongs done by Hamas don’t justify the wrongs which are done by Israel. There’s an old cliche which continues to be true: two wrongs don’t make a right. Someone needs to break the cycle, and since Israel is the more powerful actor in the Holy Land, it should be Israel which takes the initiative.
Daphne - in response to your specific question - Don’t assume that because I link something it necessarily reflects my view. It does mean that it represents a view I think should be heard. In an ideal world, if we were starting from scratch, I would argue for a one state solution with equal rights for all. Israel’s claim to be the only democracy in the region is fatally undermined by what is happening in the West Bank. Unfortunately, we’re not in an ideal world and I don’t believe such a solution would be acceptable to either side. So, reluctantly, I’m left with some version of a two state solution, but in order for that to work Israel is going to have to give up the West Bank and find some way in which sharing Jerusalem can be shared. It’s a long way from ideal, but it’s probably the best that can be hoped for.
I don’t believe that the current situation is beyond hope, with the only long term solution being one side grinding the other into grovelling surrender. Reconciliation is possible, but it takes time, patience and determination. South Africa and Northern Ireland may not be there yet, but they’re on the road. What has been possible there must be possible for Israel too.

To which I budded in


I cannot believe there is still a tiny remote corner of the world in some foreign land where Antony Loewenstein is taken seriously. How quaint.

Let me ask you a question, Richard. Would you take Antony Loewenstein so seriously if he was just another British Methodist?

“Don’t assume that because I link something it necessarily reflects my view. It does mean that it represents a view I think should be heard.”

OK Richard. I’ll match your Jew and up you one. In fact I’ll do better than that. I’ll match your Australian as well.

I feel exactly the same about Pamela Geller.







and also




Your comment is awaiting moderation.

I realise now that I could have worded that more gracefully but I guess that shows how much I know about card games.

The thing is Richard, your idea of an ideal world and starting from scratch is entirely different from mine. In my ideal world, starting from scratch, there is also a one state solution. That is because the British would have kept their promise of 1917 made at a time of terrible war and pledged again in peace before the whole world under the only lawful authority the British had any right to be in occupation at all.

A war ... that included substantial Australian operations that took from the Ottoman Empire big chunks of the region including the Sinai, Palestine/Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and includes even the spectacular charge of the Light Horse at Beersheba in October 1917 which is just as much a part of Australian mythology as the charge of the Light Brigade is for the British except for diametrically opposing reasons.




In this ideal world the British have kept their promise on the blood of all those brave men and allowed a part of a part of a part of what they called Palestine to become the Jewish homeland. In this world there would have been an independent sovereign and strong Jewish state by 1925. Why the wait?

At the very least the British would not have slammed the door shut on the homeland they promised on the very eve of another war and every Jewish person who was able to get there would have been safe at least for the time being. But the British did that as well.

Even after the war in my now far from ideal world the British would have realised that this was still a golden opportunity to finally honour the promise the need for which had just been shown in a way that should have chilled them to their souls.

They would not have kept the door still shut tight on the people we now call the survivors and they would not have forced the Jews in Palestine to fight a civil war for their homeland and their lives. But the British did that too.

That’s the problem with starting points and ideal worlds. Everyone has their own starting point.

Here is a starting point for the twenty first century. The promise of 1917 is  honoured not just in truth and the law as it finally and irrevocably is but in heart and spirit as well. Israel is the Jewish homeland and Israel is thriving and strong. Western liberals and especially the British accept this as not only good and proper but to be celebrated. Palestinians can have another state if they want it and they can call it what they like but they must accept the Jewish state.

I call this the one state solution. The one that is already there and flourishing. Is recognition by the British too much to ask in an ideal world? Say by 2017?

If the enemies of Israel do not accept that then there is nothing to discuss. If they choose violence and grievance instead then while I can understand your sympathy for the Palestinian people I can not understand your hostility to Israel for doing what it must do to protect herself.

What would you have Israel do Richard? Unilaterally withdraw to borders drawn up by the British? Sorry been there. Done that. Border drawing will never be remembered as part of the British genius.


The Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916

This is pre emptive but please do not lay that land promised too many times stuff on me that Brits sometimes do. No sale. There was nothing in any “promises” to the various Arab chieftains, kings and princes that clashed with the legally binding commitment of a Jewish homeland in part or even all of Palestine. Besides ending up with enough wealth in the ground to splash on every luxury imaginable while influencing the geo politics of the world in a real and very malign way must have met any promise by now.

...

My comment is still awaiting moderation.


That's cool. Richard hasn't up dated his blog for a while. I hope all is well with him and his.



The League of Nations Mandates, 1920


cross posted Geoffff's Joint