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1. Abbas Speaks of Non-Violence - in English
by Hillel Fendel
PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas met with representatives of Israel’s “cede
land” camp, telling them to pressure Netanyahu – in the shadow of
warnings by a top PA expert that any land given to Abbas will be grabbed
up by Hamas.
Abbas met on Sunday with dozens of ex-generals, Kadima and
other MKs, and other pro-PA-state activists, urging them to tell the
Israeli public that he opposes violence. This, just hours before PA
leaders charged Israel with “attacking our people” when it targeted Islamic Jihad and other terrorists preparing to fire missiles at Israel.
Abbas’ message was that he is committed to non-violence, that he is
sincere about reaching a peace agreement, and that Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu should be pressured to make further concessions so
that direct talks can resume.
It is Abbas, however, who has refused to resume direct talks with
Israel until Israel agrees to re-freeze Jewish construction in Judea and
Samaria – as it did for ten months recently; even then, the PA refused
to talk with Israel until the tenth month.
Lipkin: I Said No Such Thing
AFP quoted Binyamin Lipkin, editor of the hareidi-religious newspaper
BaKehilah, as saying at the meeting that he would relay the message of
the PA chief - whom AFP said he termed "sincere" - to his readers.
Contacted by Israel National News, Lipkin said he had said nothing of
the sort. “What I said was that this was a pathetic meeting,” Lipkin
related, “of all those who are frustrated and still somehow believe in
some kind of peace despite all that has happened. It was sad, actually…”
Lipkin also said that he asked Abbas two questions: “Where were you for
nine months when Israel froze the construction? And, when will we hear
you say these nice things against violence and the like – in Arabic, to
your own people, and not just in English to foreigners?”
Mitzna: Israel Has Accepted
Amram Mitzna, a former leader of Israel's Labor Party, was also
present. AFP quoted him as saying he believes Israeli public opinion has
become more accepting of the idea of Palestinian statehood. “The
historic debate over what should be the agreement between us and the
Palestinians is behind us," he said. "Therefore, this meeting is
important. It gives hope, despite a difficult reality.”
Mitzna did not specify his sources for this information. Just two
months ago, however, a poll conducted by the Dahaf Institute for The
Peace Index found that 74.1% of adult Israeli Jews agree with this
statement: "Even if a peace agreement is signed, the Palestinians will
never accept Israel’s existence and would destroy it if they could.”
Asked in May of this year whether they would agree to evacuate
communities or settlements in Judea and Samaria, not including
Jerusalem, in return for ending the conflict with the Palestinians and
full peace, only 26% of Israeli Jews living within the Green Line said
they would be prepared to evacuate more than a few. (Poll by Maagar
Mohot Survey Institute)
Lerner: Jerusalem is the Key
“Beware of polls that show Israeli support for a Palestinian state,” Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA (Independent Media Review and Analysis)
told Israel National News. “They often do not take into account all the
details that such a state would demand - such as the division of
Jerusalem, which the public overwhelmingly
opposes.”
Toameh: Land to Fatah Will Go to Hamas
Veteran Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh spoke last month to a
Jerusalem audience and said the Israeli-Arab conflict is not about
settlements, but rather “about Israel’s very existence in this part of
the world.”
Regarding Abbas, Toameh said he is “corrupt, discredited, weak and does
not have much power. He is reliant on Israel, whose presence in the
West Bank is ironically the only reason he has managed to stay in power.
[If Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders as demanded by Abbas and the
PLO,] Abbas will collapse and Hamas will take over the West Bank in less
than a day. If I were Israel, I would not give Abbas one inch of land
in the West Bank – not for ideological reasons, but to avoid a situation
where Hamas and others would take over the area.”
2. Eve of UN Durban Vote: View 1st Jewish Broadcast on Nazi Soil
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
On the eve of a United Nations General Assembly vote on whether to mark
the 10th anniversary of the anti-Semitic Durban racism conference in
New York, Israel National News presents the first Jewish prayer service
to be broadcast on Nazi soil, courtesy of the American Jewish Committee.
The broadcast, aired in October 1944 by NBC, shows soldiers singing
Jewish prayers, with an embedded caption stating, “The spirit of man
cannot be conquered.”
INN has posted the broadcast as Jewish organizations call on the U.N.
General Assembly not to "celebrate" the first Durban "anti-racism”
conference, which was supposed to deal with racism but instead was an
anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist hate fest. The UN recently approved a Durban III conference for next September.
At the first Durban conference, one flier that was distributed showed a
picture of Hitler and stated, “What would have happened if I had won?
The good things.”
"Celebrating Durban I will further undermine the standing of the
United Nations and compromises its principles," said the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. B'nai B'rith
International stated. “The Durban legacy is one of hate and
discrimination, and should be remembered as such.”
The Durban II conference also attacked on Israel while ignoring
genocide at Darfur as well as human rights violations in Muslim
countries.
3. Public Pressure Works: YouTube Allows PA Watchdog
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Massive public pressure via ‘Tweets” and e-mails have convinced YouTube
to reinstate the Palestinian Authority watchdog site Palestinian Media
Watch (PMW), which had been accused by YouTube of spreading incitement.
The pressure convinced YouTube that PMW was actually exposing PA hatred.
YouTube banned PMW
on Sunday, apparently after an anti-Israel movement bombarded Google
with complaints. The tactic backfired because the closure prompted
thousands of e-mails and Tweets that convinced YouTube it had mad a
mistake, PMW director Dr. Itamar Marcus told Israel NationalNews.
“YouTube decided that because we expose Palestinian Authority
incitement calling for genocide, that is hate speech, and they closed
down the entire account,” he said. “There was tremendous pressure Sunday
night, and people were tweeting every minute and calling Google
offices.”
The reason given by YouTube for shutting down PMW’s main video account,
PALWATCH, was that it had “violated YouTube terms of use” by
propagating hate speech. The account was terminated “due to repeated or
severe violations of our Terms of Use,” with specific examples of videos
listed -- all of which were simply re-broadcasted from official
Palestinian Authority government sources:
Dr. Marcus explained that Google, which operates YouTube, is
“impossible” to reach, but has a special address for the media. People
used that address, even though they were unable to provide Google with
their credentials. Google got the message that there was massive
opposition to the closure, Marcus said.
“Some people told Google that you cannot stop hate speech if you do not
expose it. On the other hand, YouTube does not close down Hamas and
Al-Qaeda videos" calling for the murder of Jews," Dr. Marcus commented.
One source said that YouTube automatically closes down a site if it
receives enough complaints, which apparently is what happened following
an anti-Israel campaign. YouTube then investigated and realized the true
aims of PMW, which has be come increasingly influential on Congressmen
and other legislators in the Western world.
Dr. Marcus explained that anti-Israel movements are constantly trying
to interfere with PMW’s success in exposing Palestinian Authority
incitement. He said that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
once sent a letter to the Yale University president against his speaking
on campus. A similar condemnation was sent to Congress after Dr. Marcus
spoke at the Capitol.
4. Anti-Israel Ads to Appear on Seattle Buses
by Elad Benari
Anti-Israel messages are once again about to hit the streets in the U.S., this time on buses in Seattle.
According to a report on Seattle’s KING5 TV which aired on Friday, a
group calling itself the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign has paid
Seattle’s King County $1,794 so that twelve buses will carry an ad
reading “Israeli War Crimes: Your tax dollars at work” with an image of a
group of children next to it, showing one little boy staring out at the
viewer while the others gawk at a demolished building.
The ad is expected to hit Seattle’s buses on December 27, a date not
chosen by accident as it is the second anniversary of the beginning of
Operation Cast Lead, the IDF’s operation in Gaza which was aimed at
stopping the daily rocket attacks by Gaza-based terrorists towards
southern Israel.
Ed Mast, a spokesperson for the group, explained that the ad is not
meant to be an anti-Israel message, but rather a message designed to
generate discussion and awareness. “I wouldn't say it's an anti-Israel
message any more than any complaint about a country is anti-that
country,” he told KING5 TV. “We would like Israel to stop violating
human rights. We would like Israel to give equal rights to its
Palestinian citizens and its Palestinian subjects who live under
occupation.”
The Anti-Defamation League’s Pacific Northwest office, however, did not
buy Mast's explanation and expressed its dismay over the ad campaign,
calling it “grotesquely one-sided.”
“We're dismayed,” Community Director Hilary Bernstein told KING5.
“Citizens young and old will be seeing this sort of propaganda, this
very one-sided distortion. It's unfortunate.”
According to the report, the campaign is legal since it does not
violate any of King County’s specific guidelines. These guidelines
include regulations about pornography, alcohol, tobacco, and ensuring
that the images and material used do not interfere with public safety or
insult specific groups to the point that a riot could be incited,
vandalism could occur or public safety could be threatened.
As King County Metro Transit spokesperson Linda Thielke said, some
people will indeed be offended by the campaign, but that is not enough
to prevent the billboards from hitting the streets.
“As a government, we are mindful of the provisions in state and federal
constitutions to protect freedom of speech,” Thielke was quoted by
KING5 as saying. “So, we can't object these campaigns simply because
they offend some people.”
The anti-Israel groups seem to be gaining momentum in the U.S. as
another anti-Israel and pro-Arab incident took place several weeks ago
in a suburb of St. Louis.
According to a report in the Riverfront Times, on December 4 the St.
Louis Palestinian Solidarity Committee organized two flash mobs of
people in protest of Motorola. Shoppers who were in the Best Buy and
AT&T stores in Brentwood witnessed a group of individuals who broke
into a song-and- dance routine condemning Motorola and calling for
“justice now in Palestine!”
Colleen Kelly, outreach coordinator for the Instead of War Coalition
(with which the St. Louis Palestinian Solidarity Committee is
affiliated), said that the purpose of the protest was to raise awareness
about Motorola’s involvement with Israel. Motorola provides
surveillance equipment to the Israeli government and is facing pressure
from pro-Arab groups to stop doing so.
Kelly explained that the true purpose of the song-and-dance was to
produce a video and place it online in order to catch Motorola’s
attention as well as the attention of its customers. The video was
posted to YouTube and Kelly said that after only being online for two
days it had more than 9,000 hits, with responses coming from as far away
as Italy.
“Internationally, this is a major issue,” she told the Riverfront
Times. “It's only in this country that we don't pay attention.”
One of the group’s activists was arrested at the AT&T outlet for
trespassing, disturbing the peace and assaulting the store's manager,
but Kelly said that “We're confident that the assault charges will get
dropped,” nothing that there were plenty of witnesses that could prove
that no assault took place.
These incidents are only two iof several anti-Semitic incidents which have taken place across the United States recently. Click here for a recent op-ed on this subject.
5. Prominent Jews Leave Amsterdam over Anti-Semitism
by Maayana Miskin
A son of a prominent rabbi in the Netherlands has announced plans to
move to Israel due to anti-Semitism. Benzion Evers, son of well-known
Dutch rabbi Raphael Evers, told De Telegraaf that he feels “suffocated
and caged” in his home country due to anti-Jewish sentiment.
“I'm fed up with the verbal abuse and the streetfighting,” he told Het Parool, another Dutch paper.
“It's not that you can't leave the house, but you need to constantly
hide, to be careful,” he explained. He related his own cautionary
measures, which include avoiding certain neighborhoods, and hiding his
kippah (yalmulke) when walking through areas with a high number of
Muslim immigrants.
While anti-Semitism is not uncommon among Muslim immigrants,
particularly those from Morocco and Turkey, there is a second kind of
anti-Semitism that is common in the Netherlands as well, Evers said, an
educated anti-Semitism that is disguised as anti-Zionism.
Five of the Evers' family children have already left the Netherlands,
he added, and his father plans to move as well after retirement. More
than half of orthodox Jews end up leaving the country, he stated.
Just days earlier, Dutch politician Frits Bolkestein stated that
religious Jews have no future in the Netherlands due to anti-Semitism.
They should “emigrate to the U.S. or Israel,” he said. His comments were
published in the book “The Decay: Jews in a Rudderless Netherlands” by
Manfred Gerstenfeld.
The main cause of increasing hostility to Jews is “anti-Semitism among
Dutchmen of Moroccan descent, whose numbers keep growing,” Bolkestein
stated. He expressed doubt that the government is capable of fighting
anti-Semitism and protecting its Jewish citizens.
His controversial remarks were met with an uproar. The Dutch Parliament held a special session to discuss the issue.
Earlier in the year Dutch Chief Rabbi Benjamin Jacobs spoke to Arutz Sheva and expressed concern over Dutch anti-Semitism,
which he said is becoming prevalent. He said that many Dutch citizens
are upset by anti-Semitism, but concluded, “As the situation is today,
the future for Dutch Jewry is moving to Israel.”
6. Breaking News: Major British Anti-terror Raid
by Amiel Ungar
The British police arrested 12 suspects Monday morning in what is
purported to be a plot to stage Mumbai-like attacks across Britain in
the holiday season. The names have not been published, but the suspects
are described as males, aged between 17 and 28. They were arrested in
London, Stoke, and Cardiff in Wales.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates, national head of
counter-terrorism policing, termed the raid a large scale, pre-planned
and intelligence-led operation involving "several forces".
The British Press claims that the arrests are related to an intelligence intercept in Pakistan. The BBC claimed
that the suspects were part of an Al-Qaeda copycat plot to bomb
unspecified British targets . Some of the suspects were said to have
Bangladeshi origins (Muslim Bangladesh is the former East Pakistan).
INN's new World News service managed by writer Dr. Amiel Ungar, will
keep you updated. (Look for World News heading in red on our main page
for more world news articles).
7. Industrialist Supports Boycott of Himself?
by Gil Ronen
Leading Israeli industrialist Dov Lautman supports the New Israel Fund,
which supports a movement that boycotts three factories that Lautman
himself founded. The embarrassing situation was exposed by journalist
Ben-Dror Yemini of Ma'ariv, who sees it as symptomatic of leftist
"blindness."
As the holiday season drew near, Yemini reported in his Hebrew-language blog, haters of Israel published a list of
"Top Ten Brands to Boycott this Christmas." Lautman's "Delta Galilee," a
manufacturer of undergarments, is in second place on the blacklist,
which is part of the so-called "BDS" ("boycott, divestment and
sanctions") campaign against Israel. Lautman is also responsible for the
creation of two other firms on the list, Yemini wrote.
Absurdly, however, Lautman also identifies with the controversial New
Israel Fund, which supports the global boycott, the
journalist explained. Lautman was listed among the signatories of an
advertisement in support of the NIF in February, when the Fund came under attack
for its support of groups that libeled the IDF following the Cast Lead
counter-terror campaign. His son, Noam Lautman, who sits on the board of
the Lautman Fund along with his father, is a board member of the Fund,
and of Shatil, its "operational arm."
The NIF claims that it does not support organizations that support the
BDS movement. However, Yemini said, this claim is a lie: "A group of
bodies that enjoy the Fund's support are signatories on a petition
calling on the government of Norway to suspend investments in Israel.
This is an action that is at the heart of the BDS campaign. Women's
Coalition for Peace, which is supported by the Fund, supports BDS
activities. We are not talking about one activity, but a set of
activities, including active support of the Palestinian version of the
boycott."
The Coalition of Women for Peace, added the reporter, collects
donations for its own boycott project against Israeli firms through NIF
branches worldwide. The Coalition does not enjoy tax-free status, he
wrote, but the Fund does.
Delta has no connection to Judea and Samaria or the "occupation" of
these Biblical provinces, Yemini noted. The same is true of all but one
of the ten blacklisted companies.
Lautman responded to Yemini's expose by saying that he finds the BDS
movement "revolting." And yet, he said, "I am proud of my support for
the New Israel Fund, and of my son's involvement in the Fund as a board
member."
Lautman insisted that the Fund is "Zionist" and that it does not
support any activity that calls for the boycott of the State of Israel
or companies that operate within the state's borders."
Analyzing Lautman's response, Yemini wrote that Lautman was choosing to
ignore the clear facts he was presented with. "This is not [just] his
blindness," he wrote. "It is the blindness of part of the Israeli Left."
8. Gaza Attack was Work of Al-Qaeda Cell
by Maayana Miskin
A rocket attack planned by Gaza terrorists and thwarted by the IDF
on Saturday night was the work of Al-Qaeda inspired Salafi-Muslim
terrorists, and not mainstream Sunni-Muslim terrorist groups as
initially reported.
Five terrorists were killed in an airstrike as they tried to fire on
southern Israel. All five were identified as former members of Hamas,
Islamic Jihad or the PRC who had become followers of Salafi ideology.
The attempted attack appears to show an increased readiness on behalf
of Salafi groups to openly challenge Hamas, which claims the right to
coordinate terrorist attacks on Israel, and decide when rockets are or
are not fired.
Salafi groups in Gaza seek to impose sharia (Islamic law) on all
residents, and ultimately, on the entire world – by force if necessary.
Salafi leaders have derided Hamas as “traitors” and “Islamism-lite” for
its willingness to hold elections, and its acceptance of some secular
laws alongside sharia.
The philosophy is increasingly popular in Gaza. In 2008, Salafi groups
claimed just 5,000 members, but by early 2010 their ranks had swelled to an estimated 11,000.
The groups count only adult men when reporting membership, meaning
their true numbers, if women and children are included, could easily
have passed 50,000.
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