Thursday, November 27, 2014

United Nations: Gaza flooding catastrophe caused deliberately by Israel's Iron Dome system


Photographic proof used by UNWRA that Israel's Iron Dome caused Gaza flooding today
The United Nations has declared Gaza a disaster zone today after torrential rain and flooding forced at least 5 people to flee their homes without umbrellas. The UNWRA spokesman in Gaza, Mr Jihad Hamas Islami, declared that the disaster was deliberately caused by Israel's iron dome system. In front of the world's press he declared:
"The iron dome system was switched on to divert heavy rain targeted at the Zionist entity directly into Gaza."
Hamas spokesman, Mr Islam Jihad Islam, said
"This despicable act of war will open up the gates of hell for the Zionist oppressors" 
However, the PA President Mr Mahmood Abbas did not fully agree with the Hamas prognosis regarding the Gates of Hell, cautioning:
"President Obama has disclosed to me that the Zionists now have an advanced version of the Iron Dome system which will shoot down the Gates of Hell before they are able to swallow up all the Jews.
He even warned that
"..the system may be able to divert the Gates of Hell back into Gaza."
An emergency session of the United Nations was held immediately following the disaster, resulting in a new resolution UNSCR 666 condemning Israel's actions. The resolution stated:
The flooding of at least 2 properties in Gaza is, with the exception of previous wars started by Israel,  the worst humanitarian disaster in the history of the world. Since Israel is held directly responsible for this action the UN deems that Israel can no longer be considered a legitimate state and so must dismantle itself. 
The resolution was passed by 218 votes to 1 (Micronesia being the only country to vote against the resolution). There was also one abstention, namely Israel.  When one extreme right-wing Israeli MK asked why Israel abstained, rather than vote against the resolution, an Israel government spokesman said that this was due to pressure from both Israeli Cabinet Minister Zippi Livni and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Livni was sympathetic to aspects of the resolution; before rejecting it, she wanted to see the results of an independent enquiry into the role of the Iron Dome system in the disaster, and felt that the point about Israel's legitimacy was something open for discussion.  She also made it clear that voting against the resolution would alienate Israel's many friends at the UN, who are already furious at Israel's recent plans to add a conservatory to Moshe Golderberg's ground-floor apartment in Jerusalem. John Kerry warned that if the Israelis voted against the resolution he would no longer be able to personally ensure the safety of Israelis anywhere in the world.

See also: Jerusalem snow: UN Security Council convenes emergency session

p.s. Yes UNWRA really did declare Gaza a humanitarian disaster zone because of a bit of rain, even though not a single person was injured.  And in this story from last year Israel really was accused of flooding Gaza by opening non-existant dams.
See also: Abbas accuses Israel of intimidating Palestinians with wild pigs.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Palestine Solidarity Campaign: now their website makes their objectives clearer*


As my friend Fiona Warburton reports:
It's great to see the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has updated its website to make our objectives much clearer and really tells it as it should be!!!!!! No need to pay lip service to all that "we work for peace & justice for Palestinians, in support of human rights & against all racism" nonsense - which we only put there to placate the Zionist controlled media.
*Satire. This is not their actual website which does a half-hearted job of covering up their true nature, which is exactly as stated above.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Jewish and Arab oganisations lobbying for a peaceful 2-state solution


The Jewish organisations listed here are those who claim to believe in the State of Israel but which focus exclusively on 'ending the Israeli occupation' and whose default position is that peace will come if only the Israelis reliquish this land. I believe there are many more (incidentally many of these are funded by the New Israel Fund).

I have not included the dozens of organisations (like 'Jews for Justice for Palestinians') who openly seek the destruction of the State of Israel. Nor have I included the hundreds of mainstream Zionist organisations (such as the UJIA) who are all committed to the 2-state solution (many of whom provide direct support to Palestinian causes) but who do not solely focus on 'ending the occupation'.

If anybody can provide the name of a single Arab/Muslim organisation who I can put in the empty box then I'd be glad to hear from them.

Who needs anti-Israel activists when you have Israeli 'leaders' like Nir Barkat doing their job?

One of the most ludicrous and offensive tactics used by anti-Israel bigots around the world is to equate Israel with Nazi Germany. It has become a core tactic for deligitimizing and ultimately destroying the Jewish state.

Yet Jerusalem's Mayor Nir Barkat has now done exactly the same thing.  In response to a plan by Ashkelon's Mayor to limit the employment of Palestinian Arab construction workers in the city, Barkat launched a ferocious criticism of his fellow Mayor saying:
You can’t outlaw an entire public, as was done in Nazi Germany 70 years ago.”
The plan by the Ashkelon Mayor was very clearly not to 'outlaw an entire public' and, unlike Israeli Arab citizens of Israel, Palestinian Arabs  have no legal 'right' to work in Israel. In any case the Ashkelon plan has already come in for a lot of criticism from Israeli politicans of all parties, so there was no need for Barkat of all people to get involved.  By using the very language of Israel's bitterest enemies Barkat has stooped to a new low for main stream Israeli politicians. Apart from the factual error at the start of Barkat's statement, he is also implying that the Jews of Germany were, like the Palestinian Arabs today, carrying out multiple unprovoked terrorist attacks against German civilians.

As Mayor of Jerusalem, Barkat of all people, knows better than most the enormous scale of the threat currently posed by Palestinian Arabs against Jews in Israel. All sections of Palestinian society have made it very clear that they support the current intifada taking place - not only do they glorify the murderers but they are being implored by their entire media to carry out a 'tsunami' of individual attacks inside Israel wherever they can, using knives, cars and axes as their weapons. Many of these attacks - like last week's synagogue massacre - were carried out by Palestinian Arabs (as opposed to Israeli Arabs) working in Israel. One of the terrorists in the synagogue attack actually worked as a cleaner at the synagogue and knew the Rabbis he slaughtered.

Of even greater relevance is that there have been several cases of attacks by Palestinian workers on their Jewish colleagues at construction sites - most notably the recent murder of Netanel Ararni in Petah Tikvah, which the Israeli authorities initially tried to cover up

Ashkelon is a city which has suffered appallingly from rocket attacks and terrorism. It is prudent for any elected official to take whatever measures are needed to protect their citizens, and that is what the Ashkelon Mayor was trying to do. It is a great shame that the Jerusalem Mayor does not likewise focus on protecting the citizens of his city - a job he is failing at miserably - instead of doing the job of the world's anti-Semitic bigots.

It is ironic that I just reported on the inspirational Centre for Jewish Learning event with Israeli hero Noam Gershony. As I reported there, Gershony had stepped in as a late replacement for Nir Barkat. The organisers promised that Barkat would speak at another of their events. They should rescind the invitation - or maybe just invite George Galloway instead if they want to push the Israel=Nazis narrative.

Update: Barkat's Jerusalem police are now blaming Jews for being attacked by Arabs

From the depressing OneVoice to the inspirational Centre for Jewish Life and Noam Gershony

Noam Gershony speaking this evening in London's Montcalm Hotel
Following my report on the appalling and depressing OneVoice meeting at Birmingham University on Thursday evening it was a pleasure to attend the inspirational Centre for Jewish Life Friday night solidarity dinner with guest Noam Gershony at the Montcalm Hotel in London.

Centre for Jewish Life's stated mission is "to provide great content, great atmospheres and great venues to attract and connect Jews who might otherwise not have access to authentic, joyful, challenging and meaningful Jewish experiences". Judging by tonight's superb event, which attracted 200 mainly young professionals,  they are meeting their objectives better than any other Jewish organisation I have come across. The guest speaker at this dinner (where the food and wine was excellent) was scheduled to be Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat****, but he had to cancel due to the current situation in Jerusalem. Noam Gershony stepped in as a late, but exceptionally worthy, replacement.

Noam, who is 31, was a top Apache helicopter pilot in the Israeli Defence Force. He told us about the kind of missions he flew prior to the 2006 Lebanon War. Sadly, during that war his helicopter crashed killing his co-pilot and good friend Ran Kochva and leaving Noam so badly injured that he was assumed to be dead by the attending medics. Almost every bone in his body was broken and he was held together with multiple wires. Apparently nobody suffering such extensive injuries in such a crash has ever before survived. Noam told us about his long recovery, including how his will to carry on was strengthened when Ran's parents came to visit him in hospital. Although Noam has been unable to walk since, within a year of his devastating injuries he was already taking part in a range of paraplegic sports events and was especially effective at wheelchair tennis. He had a dream to compete in the Paralympic Games in London 2012. Not only did he make the Olympic team but Noam won the gold medal. He spoke of his emotion and pride when hearing the Hatikvah sung. Noam spoke of his commitment to Zionism and the special bond he feels with the Jewish community worldwide when he travels outside Israel. He said simply that what he did in the IDF was his duty like thousands of other Israelis who willingly give their bodies and souls in the defence of their country;  he said he would do it all again without hesitation even knowing what his fate would be.  Noam continues to be an inspiration to so many in Israel and the wider Jewish community.  Nowadays, among his many activities, he volunteers at "Makom Acher", a hostel for at-risk youth in Tel Aviv, and teaches mathematics to teenagers.

Noam Gershony is an authentic Israeli hero. It is he who should be speaking to students about Israel on campuses in the diaspora. Instead, all they seem to get are the frauds of OneVoice, Yachad, Breaking the Silence and all the other anti-Zionists claiming they know what is best for Israel.

***Update: Now seems like Barkat's cancellation was truly a blessing.

See also:

Thursday, November 20, 2014

OneVoice at Birmingham University: Pity Britain's Jewish students if this is the best 'pro-Israel' advocacy they hear on campus


 Update (27 Jan 2015): The report below is especially significant now as it was written 2 months before the story broke of  OneVoice coordinating the anti-Netanyahu campaign in the forthcoming Israeli elections.
 
JStreet and Yachad are not the only Jewish anti-Zionist activist organisations that lie to the public by calling themselves  'pro-Israel, pro-peace'. The organisation OneVoice is another such organisation which, for reasons I cannot understand, has not been as widely exposed as Yachad and JStreet for its hypocrisy and anti-Zionism. Following the synagogue massacre earlier this week, the loathsome Baroness Warsi came in for justifiable criticism when she claimed a moral equivalence between those terrorists killers and Jews seeking to pray on Temple Mount. Yet the following statement issued the same day on the OneVoice website is no different from what Warsi said since they too equate the murderous attacks on Jews with peaceful attempts by Jews to visit their holiest site (Temple Mount):
The OneVoice Movement is united in its condemnation of recent despicable attacks and the dangerous cycle of violence that risks enveloping the region. Attacks and provocations at synagogues or at the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif are by their very nature designed to play on peoples’ worst fears and aggravate religious and communal tensions in a city that Christians, Jews, and Muslims are fated to share.
(Read the full text - it does not get any better).
Publicly, OneVoice claims to support a 2-state solution and demands that Israel must unilaterally give up all but its pre-1967 territory under the assumption that there will then be 'peace'. But the evidence suggests that, in practise, OneVoice is indistinguishable from the official position of Fatah. Its mission statement (as stated on the website) is:
"to mobilize Palestinians to end the occupation and the conflict through non-violent activism"
One great irony about OneVoice is that it claims to represent both Israelis and Palestinians seeking peace but it has never been able to actually find any Palestinians to really support it. With very few exceptions the OneVoice leadership consists of left-wing Jews. It does, of course, have Palestinian activists 'on the ground' who take part in 'non-violent resistance' but it is mere wishful thinking of OneVoice to believe that these activists support the 2-state solution objective. To them the OneVoice leadership are just another bunch of useful idiots to help them achieve their one-state Palestine solution. However, as Birmingham University students discovered this evening at a UN Society event hosted by OneVoice, it is not just their Palestinian 'activists' who do not really believe in Israel's right to exist. The OneVoice UK representative (a woman with first name Sharon - did not catch her surname) stated that she did not believe in Zionism as she did not think Jews had a right to a homeland. And just to confirm what I said above about the shortage of actual Palestinian leaders of OneVoice the OneVoice Palestine representative who spoke at the meeting was actually  ... from Libya! 

The biggest irony of all, however, about the event today is that the Birmingham Friends of Palestine society have a long standing policy of not taking part in events with OneVoice since they consider that OneVoice is not sufficiently anti-Zionist for their liking. They claim OneVoice 'legitimizes Israel' (i.e. believes Israel had a right to exist).

I have written before about the appallingly timid 'pro-Israel' leadership on UK campuses (see, e.g. here and here).The future for pro-Israel advocacy in the UK is depressingly bleak given that the best they get are presentations by organisations whose 'pro-Israel' stance is a complete scam.

Update: One day on I was lucky enough to attend an event with a very different view on Israel.

Update (27 Jan 2015): OneVoice (led by Obama's chief election aide, coordinating the anti-Netanyahu campaign in the forthcoming Israeli elections.

Fox News: Israel "construction on holy sites" to blame for terrorism

Fox News 20 Nov 2014. I did not manage to photograph the scrolling text but the exact text stated below was shown at 12.25pm UK time

Fox News is supposed to be the one TV media outlet that is not systematically biased against Israel. Yet today (at 12.25pm UK time) the following exact text appeared on the scrolling tickertape on Fox News after a statement about terrorist attacks in Jerusalem:
"The violence has been fuelled by Israel's illegal construction on holy sites"
I wonder what construction they are referring to? Is every part of Jerusalem now too holy for Jews to build on? If Fox News has now bought into such lies for its narrative then Israel's war in the media is even harder than anybody thought.

In the light of this I will shortly be updating my dedication to the useful idiots of TV News.

Honouring terrorists


People who are not totally dependent on the main stream media for their news know that all Palestinian organisations - including the 'moderate' Palestine Authority and not just the terrorist groups like Hamas - honour terrorists who kill Jews above any other members of their society.  The two terrorists, Ghassan Abu Jamal and Uday Abu Jamal, who committed the synagogue massacre on Monday have already been hailed as heroic martyrs by every segment of Palestinian society; it is  certain that schools and soccer tournaments will be named after them by the Palestine Authority in the years to come.

But even those informed about the situation may be surprised to know that the same respect for terrorists who kill Jews is mainstream across much of the Muslim world. A very good example of this was the special prayer session held to honour the two terrorists at yesterday's opening session of Parliament in Jordan. Given the close relationship Britain has with Jordan and the fact we are continually told by the media how friendly and moderate Jordan is I have written the following self-explanatory letter to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (fcocorrespondence@fco.gov.uk).

Dear Sir/Madam

The UK has especially close ties with Jordan and we are continually told by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that Jordan is one of our closest allies in the Middle East and a 'moderate nation fighting extremism'.

Can you therefore tell me what the FCO plans to do about the Jordanian Government honouring (in their opening Parliament session on 19 November 2014) the Palestinian terrorists who carried out the synagogue massacre in Jerusalem on 17 November?

Not only was this essentially a declaration of war against Israel (with whom Jordan has an increasingly worthless 'peace treaty') but it was also an affront to the British government's anti-terrorist policy.

I have previously written to you about the British Government's foreign aid budget going directly to fund Palestinian terrorists and received the less than acceptable response that 'to withdraw funding would only encourage more terrorism'. I would hope on this occasion that the actions of the Jordanian Government at least triggers a formal condemnation from the British Government.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Another dedication to the useful idiots at CNN and the BBC


Following the image above satirising the media coverage of today's massacre of Jews in Jerusalem I was prompted to do some of my own on how the media might have covered other events if they covered them as they do attacks on Israelis....:


I will be adding to these .....

And there is always the Rules and Guidelines for reporting on the Middle East

Update: Supposedly Israel-friendly Fox News puts up one of the worse headlines seen yet

Update on Alan Henning and the Hamas-supporting Islamic 'charity' who conned him into going to Syria


I posted the article below (about the terrorist links of the "charity" which Henning was 'delivering aid' for several weeks ago). Now Andrew Gilligan reports in the Telegraph that Majid Freeman, a "charity worker" from Leicester, who was  speaker at the memorial service for Alan Henning, is an open supporter of violent Jihadists (including Al Qaeda) and even sympathises with the ISIS animals who beheaded his 'friend'.
Freeman...has posted on social media apparently justifying Isil, promoting al-Qaeda and expressing sympathy for Syrian jihadist “martyrs”. Freeman was with Mr Henning when he was abducted in Syria last year.  
Majid Freeman's support for violence and jihad are far-reaching and include the following call for violence against Jews in Israel:
On Facebook last week, he said that the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, which was briefly closed by the Israelis at the time, “will be conquered by jihad, not by peace… none will enter it except those who believe in removing the door, not those who search for its key”. 
What is becoming very clear is that - contrary to the lie that the British media is determined to spin - the views of Freeman are not unusual among British Muslims but are in fact completely mainstream. The tweet by Baroness Warsi this morning in response to the massacre of Jews in a synagogue in Jerusalem provide further evidence of this.


*****************************************************
Alan Henning and the Hamas-supporting Islamic 'charity' who conned him into going to Syria

Everybody knows that Alan Henning was a decent person who wanted to help suffering people but was brutally slaughtered doing a good deed. What nobody seems to want to know, however, is how he was unaware of the danger he was likely to face and how he ended up as part of a convey for an Islamic charity Al Fatiha Global under investigation for its links to Islamist gunmen in Syria (more here).

A report here on the charity is disturbing as it was actually written just before the convey left with Henning last December. The charity is open about its support for Hamas (see here about its funding of Hamas projects) and its admiration for Al Qaeda terrorists such as Aafia Siddiqui, after whom it named a vehicle. If the BBC and the rest of the British media were not so determined to cover up Islamic terrorism and its supporters in the UK Alan Henning might have decided to spend Christmas with his family instead of travelling with a bunch of terrorist supporters to one of the most dangerous places on earth.

It is also interesting to note how the media is not investigating how it came to be that every one of the Muslims accompanying Alan was released by ISIS - I find it hard to understand how at least the leader of the convoy (Kasim Jameel who, incidentally according to the report below, was arrested in July on child pornography and sexual assault charges) did not insist on staying with Alan until the end, since it was he who talked him into going.

Anyway, much more on this story by Marc Goldberg at Harry's Place whose report includes the following:
According to the Independent Henning travelled to Syria as part of a convoy organised by the group al Fatiha Global. The group denies responsibility for him in a statement on their Facebook page:

 “Whilst Alan was not under the direct responsibility of the charity Al Fatiha Global – as has been suggested widely in the media – he was a valued fellow convoy member, volunteer and friend to us for the duration of the journey until we reached the Turkey-Syria border, where he continued his journey into Syria with his group. He was amongst the first to enter Syria. He was detained shortly after.”

 The Telegraph reported in September that; “Mr Henning was driving an ambulance on behalf of Rochdale Aid 4 Syria, which raised money on behalf of Al-Fatiha Global, a registered charity currently under investigation by the Charity Commission after one of its leaders was photographed with his arms around two hooded fighters carrying machine guns.”

 It seems pretty disingenuous to me for al-Fatiha Global to be disassociating itself from Henning when he was a part of their convoy volunteering for a group raising money for them. On the ground it is quite clear that the al-Fatiha Global people were responsible for this convoy and therefore should bear responsibility for all who travelled with it.

Henning was one of only 8 who continued on into Syria. He was arrested by ISIS half an hour after crossing the Turkish border. The Telegraph article paints a damning picture of Al-Fatiha Global and Aid 4 Syria saying;

“Aid 4 Syria has also used its Facebook page to promote an event called O’Ummah Wake Up And Rise! at which the guest speakers were Zahir Mahmood and Moazzam Begg. Mr Mahmood describes the proscribed terrorist group Hamas as “freedom fighters” while Mr Begg, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, has admitted to fighting in Bosnia.

The team leader of the convoy was Kasim Jameel, who was arrested in July on child pornography and sexual assault charges before being released on police bail. The investigation remains active.”

How to spin a massacre of Jews into a narrative of Muslim victimhood

Following the massacre of Jews as they prayed in a Jerusalem synagogue, the mainstream media (as these screenshots show) has exceeded even my expectations for how far it can go to obfuscate the murder of Jews by Palestinian terrorists.



And the BBC - which was falling over itself to publish (usually false) pictures of dead Palestinians during the summer Gaza conflict - refused to show this (or any other) picture of today's victims when Naftali Bennett was being interviewed and he held it up -  after all, they could not possibly allow a narrative of Jewish victims:



Meanwhile British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, speaking alongside US Secretary of State John Kerry made this appalling statement:
 "Both sides in this conflict need to do everything possible to de-escalate the situation and reduce the tension we've seen in Jerusalem over the past few weeks, which is extremely dangerous for both Palestinian and Jewish communities in that area." 
There have now been over two hundred acts of terrorism committed against Jewish civilians in the Jerusalem area in the last 4 weeks resulting in 12 deaths and many dozens injured. Can anybody explain exactly how Palestinians - other than those committing actual terrorist acts - have been endangered in any way at all?

See also:

Monday, November 17, 2014

Palestinians' disproportionate appreciation of ISIS

On the day after ISIS released their most horrific video yet (showing the beheading of American Peter Kassig along with the ritual beheading of 16 Syrian pilots) a survey from the Doha-based Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies shows that citizens of Arab countries have a poor opinion of ISIS .... with one key exception...'Palestine' (i.e. the Palestinian Authority/Gaza area). Elder of Ziyon reports on this, giving the headline figure that 1 in 4 Palestinians (i.e.25%) support ISIS (compared to an overall average of 11%).

But there is a more damning statistic staring out from the data. Only 36% of Palestinians have a 'negative' view of ISIS compared to the overall Arab average of 72%.

What is it about Palestinian society which creates this mentality? Why, for example, is the response so much different from Jordan most of whose population is actually Palestinian?

Update 18 Nov 2014: Muslims celebrate Jerusalem synagogue massacre

Thursday, November 06, 2014

Why Libyans running wild and committing rape in the UK is no surprise at all to me personally

The media coverage of the incredible story of an entire battalion of 300 Libyan soldiers running wild in leafy Cambridge UK has been fairly muted - presumably for the same reason that the entire political and media class has tried so hard to cover up the fact that the multiple cases of rape gangs throughout the UK consist almost entirely of Muslims

One especially pertinent aspect of the story picked up by Robert Spencer was the claim by a senior member of the Libyan battalion that the British were to blame for the soldiers' behaviour as the British 'did not tell us about British law and the difference between right and wrong here'. This attitude is something I have come across personally. In one of my former places of work we appointed a Pakistani man (aged 40 with a PhD and a family) on the basis of a telephone interview and extremely good references. He flew from Pakistan on a Sunday - the first time he had ever left Pakistan. Within thirty minutes of joining us on the Monday morning he sexually assaulted a female member of staff. When this was reported to me I confronted him about it. His response was that, since the member of staff was 'wearing a skimpy top' he assumed this meant it was OK to fondle her breasts. He further went on to claim that he had assumed that all young women in the UK were 'wanting to have sex'.


Anyway back to the Libyans. There are a number of aspects of this case which deserve very wide publicity. Here is what is known:
  • Many of the Libyans were involved in cases of sexual assault, including the rape of both men and women
  • Many were involved in theft and generally rowdy and abuse behaviour 
  • Although all 300 have been told to leave the UK, a number have gone 'missing' and are intending to claim asylum.
  • The UK is paying the full costs for the training of these soldiers
  • These 300 represented, apparently, the 'cream' of what Libya had to offer. The Foreign Office was planning to bring a further 7,000 Libyans to train here.
What I have asked the Foreign Office is the following:
  • Who thought it was a good idea to invite Libyan soldiers to the UK for training at our expense?
  • Is the Foreign Office not aware that there is no recognised Libyan Government (since the disastrous overthrow of Gadaffi) - instead a number of different Al Qaeda affiliated organisations run different major cities in Libya?
  • Do the Foreign Office not realise that 99% of returning soldiers to Libya will eventually become part of an Al Qaeda affiliated Islamist fighting group?
  • Was the Foreign Office not prepared for the likely behaviour of a group of foreign Muslim soldiers allowed to run free in Cambridge?
  • Why has the Foreign Office made no official statement about this incident, while it finds plenty of time to issue statements on matters of no business to the UK, such as condeming Israel for allowing Jews to build homes in Israel's capital city?
More on the story here:

http://news.sky.com/story/1366495/libyan-soldiers-sent-home-after-uk-sex-attacks

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/11/05/Rape-and-mayhem-how-the-people-of-Cambridge-are-paying-a-bitter-price-for-Cameron-s-hopeless-intervention-in-Libya