Canada and Australia exert moral leadership and influence

From Caroline Glick, Friday, January 24th, 2014:

...under Stephen Harper...Canada has emerged as an outspoken supporter and defender of the Jewish state.

...Harper acknowledged ...that yes, Canada has lost contracts in some Arab countries due to its support for Israel. But by and large, it hasn’t taken a serious hit.

...Canada, and other countries that support Israel now, when such support is more notable than it was in the past, do gain significantly from their actions. This is true on two levels.

First, economically, Israel is in a far different position than it was 20 years ago. During Harper’s visit, Canada and Israel updated their free trade agreement and signed a number of other agreements enhancing cooperation in multiple fields.

As Netanyahu said, “I think that cooperation makes us both stronger and more prosperous and more secure countries.”

...Today, the economies of the Arab world are collapsing. Fracking technologies are lowering demand for Middle Eastern oil. Political instability is drying up foreign investment and tourism. And local universities are incapable of producing graduates able to function in the global economy.

As a consequence, the Arabs’ capacity to intimidate governments into rejecting the economic benefits Israel has to offer is steadily decreasing.

Israel’s ability to compensate for potential loss of Arab business is not the main reason why supporting Israel helps Canada. Far more importantly for Canada, support for Israel gives Ottawa a say in global affairs. Canada today has the power to shape the global agenda to a degree it never had before.

...Under Harper’s leadership, Canada has become a player in the global arena for the first time. And this achievement owes in large part to his decision to support Israel.

Since the US became the leader of the free world at the end of World War II, several of its loyal allies built up their international position by exerting moral leadership and so convincing Washington – through inspiration or shame – to follow their example.

...By standing with Israel, Canada is filling a part of the leadership vacuum that the Obama administration has created by stepping away from the US’s responsibilities as the leader of the free world. From the G8 to the UN and beyond, Canada’s support for Israel has enabled Ottawa to influence US and European policy to a degree it never has before.

Canada’s enhanced moral stature was demonstrated this week with UNESCO’s abrupt decision to cancel the opening of an exhibition on the Jewish people’s 3,500-year history in the Land of Israel that was scheduled to open at UNESCO’s Paris Headquarters on Sunday.

Canada, Israel and Montenegro co-sponsored the exhibition which was organized jointly by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and UNESCO.

On January 9, the US rejected the Wiesenthal Center’s request for US co-sponsorship.

Kelly Siekman, director of the Office of UNESCO Affairs at the State Department wrote,

“At this sensitive juncture in the ongoing Middle East peace process, and after thoughtful consideration with review at the highest levels, we have made the decision that the United States will not be able to co-sponsor the current exhibit during its display at UNESCO headquarters.”

In other words, the Obama administration opted to reject the historical fact that the Jews are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel in order to promote a peace process with the PLO, which, like the Arab world in general, rejects historical fact in its bid to delegitimize with the aim of destroying the Jewish state.

Five days after Siekman rejected the Wiesenthal Center’s request, the Arab members of UNESCO wrote a letter to UNESCO President Irina Bokova demanding that the exhibition be canceled, in the interest of the peace process. Bokova quickly bowed to their will, in the interest of the peace process.

While the administration was quick to condemn UNESCO’s decision, it was left stuttering when the media discovered that UNESCO’s actions were of a piece with the administration’s own policy decision.
The administration’s embarrassment at this revelation was exponentially amplified by the fact that its duplicity, hypocrisy and preference for political expedience over historical facts came to light while Harper was in Israel, since unlike the Obama administration, the Harper government did co-sponsor the canceled exhibition.
Harper emerged from the UNESCO affront to the historical record as an unrivaled force of conscience and as a moral leader on a world stage populated by opportunists, at best. His position served as a warning to the US that its sacrifice of truth on the altar of the peace process will not go unnoticed.

Canada, it should be noted, is not the only country whose support for Israel is distinguishing it as a moral leader and facilitating its rise to a position of global influence.
Australia’s new center-right Liberal government is also making a name for itself by rejecting anti-Israel nostrums that have become accepted wisdom despite the fact that they are based on lies.

For instance, for years, the false Arab claim that Israeli communities beyond the 1949 armistice lines are illegal under international law has gone unchallenged. But last week, Australian Foreign Minister Julia Bishop dropped a bombshell when, in an interview with The Times of Israel, she broke from the consensus of mendacity saying, “I would like to see which international law has declared them illegal.”

Statements by Australian foreign ministers seldom receive global coverage. But Bishop’s did.

And the more outspoken Australia is in its support for Israel and rejection of the discourse of lies that characterizes the discussion of Israel, the more attention Australia will get and the more influential it will become on the world stage.

Like Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Harper’s decision to support Israel is rooted in his most deeply held convictions about right and wrong. There is nothing opportunistic about his policy.

It is therefore wonderful and empowering that by staying true to his beliefs, Harper is also transforming Canada into a force to be reckoned with on the global stage. Moreover, he is setting an example that will likely be followed by more and more countries, as the benefits of his embrace of Israel become widely recognized.

Obama/Power seek waiver to UNESCO funding prohibition

From South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 15 Jan 2013, by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen*:

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

October 31st is known to Americans as Halloween but to an agency at the United Nations, it is also a day it chose to trick the U.S. taxpayers by admitting a non-existent state of "Palestine." That act triggered current U.S. laws that precludes us from funding UNESCO or any other body at the U.N. that recognizes a Palestinian state.

After initially upholding the law, although reluctantly, now the Obama administration is lobbying Congress to undermine these laws by restoring full or partial funding by asking for a waiver to this legal prohibition.

But President Obama is not alone: UNESCO has been trying to coax members of Congress who have sites in their state or district that may be considered for designation as a World Heritage Site with the promise of bestowing upon their local treasures such a designation. The most common argument made to fund UNESCO is that a World Heritage Site designation will add to the allure of a site and bring in additional tourists, and therefore add to the local economies. However, UNESCO itself has said that owing dues will not affect the application of sites for consideration as a World Heritage site.

That's over one-third of a billion dollars total in U.S. taxpayer money to a corrupt U.N. entity that continually seeks to undermine the United States, and works against our interests at every turn.Last November, when I met with the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, she expressed to me that the administration was going to make it a priority to seek waiver authority in order to restore funding to UNESCO. The administration is seeking to not only restore almost $80 million in taxpayer funds for this fiscal year, but it is also seeking to pay nearly $250 million more in arrears to an agency that has an anti-U.S., anti-Israel agenda, because it opted to remain a part of UNESCO rather than withdrawing membership.

Aside from its anti-Israel biased agenda, UNESCO continues to mock the ideals of the body by allowing gross human rights abusers like Syria, Cuba, China, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to serve on its executive board and on its committee that examines the exercise of human rights – the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations of the Executive Board.

Just so we are clear: UNESCO opted to revoke the United States' and Israel's voting privileges for not paying dues, but allowed the brutal dictator Assad and the Syrian regime to remain on its human rights committee – even as the death toll in Syria surpasses 130,000.

Abbas and the Palestinian Authority continue to refuse to recognize Israel as the Jewish State of Israel and is deafeningly silent when it comes time to denounce acts of terror. I am concerned that if we even partially fund UNESCO, we are tacitly agreeing with the UN scheme to undermine the peace process by granting de facto recognition to a Palestinian state without it first coming to an agreement with Israel to resolve the conflict.

A vote to circumvent the existing laws that prohibit U.S. funding to UNESCO not only would set us on a slippery slope and embolden an already intransigent Abu Mazen and Palestinian Authority, but it would also be the impetus for other entities at the U.N. to recognize Palestine and undermine the entire peace process.

UNESCO and other U.N. organizations are free to carry out their own agendas as they see fit, but the U.S. does not need to be complicit in that. If these entities wish to make dangerous choices – choices they knew carried consequences – then the U.S. taxpayers should not subsidize them.

The U.N. is in a tragic state of disrepair. The only way we can deter other U.N. entities from following in UNESCO's footsteps and bring about any reform is to leverage our funding (some $7 billion a year in taxpayer money!) and change our mechanisms for funding the U.N.

The administration should not only abandon its quest for a waiver or partial funding, but it should do the sensible thing for the taxpayers and immediately withdraw from UNESCO so it does not irresponsibly accrue hundreds of millions of dollars of arrears payments.

*Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is a Republican who represents Florida's 27th congressional district. She is chairman emeritus of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and current chairman of its Middle East and North Africa subcommittee.

Pope Francis to open Holocaust archives

From JPost, 19 Jan 2014, by SAM SOKOL:

Catholic leader to review actions of predecessor, wartime pontiff prior to canonization of Pius XII.

Jewish organizations praised Pope Francis on Sunday following a report that the Catholic leader will open the Vatican archives to investigate the actions of his predecessor Pius XII during the Holocaust. Pius, who is currently being considered for canonization, has been criticized by Jewish groups for failing to speak up against the persecution of Jews during the Second World War.

Pius' beatification has been a sore subject in Jewish-Catholic relations. Thus far, Pius has passed two of the four stages necessary to reach sainthood.

The Sunday Times quoted Argentinean Rabbi Abraham Skorka, a close friend of Francis, as saying that the pope will follow through on a prior promise to examine Pius' wartime role. Prior to ascending to the papacy, Francis, who was known as Cardinal Bergoglio expressed his position on the issue in his book, On Heaven and Earth, which he co-wrote with Skorka in 2010.

"Opening the archives of the Shoah [Holocaust] seems reasonable," the future pope wrote. "Let them be opened up and let everything be cleared up. Let it be seen if they could have done something [to help] and until what point they could have helped." “If they made a mistake in any aspect of this we would have to say: ‘We have erred.’ We don’t have to be scared of this — the truth has to be the goal.”

Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial institute, praised Francis’ intention to open the archives, stating that it “would allow researchers to gain a clearer picture of the Vatican and the Pope's behavior during the Holocaust.”

Holocaust survivors also welcomed the news.

“This is something that we have been asking for and hoping for for decades,” Menachem Rosensaft, the senior vice president of the American gathering of Jewish holocaust survivors and their descendants, told The Jerusalem Post. “It is yet another proof that pope Francis is an exceptional individual who repeatedly demonstrates great sensitivity and integrity.”

"If the story is correct, it is very encouraging news," WJC President Ronald S. Lauder told the Post. "It is important to open the archives once and for all to clarify the historical record. It would be yet another sign of Pope Francis's tremendous personal integrity. He is a great friend of the Jewish people.”

The opening of the archives would be "a great step forward," Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt told the Post. "The facts would emerge and lay to rest the concerns of Jews who feel he was guilty of turning a blind eye to the Final Solution, of Catholics who feel he has been unfairly maligned, and, above all, of the historians who are anxious to know the facts so that the full story can emerge."

JPost.com staff contributed to this report.

Ariel Sharon

Issued by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 11 January 2014:

Ariel Sharon

Foreign Minister of Israel 1998-1999

Prime Minister of Israel 2001-2006

Ariel ('Arik') Sharon was born in 1928 in Kfar Malal. He served in the IDF for more than 25 years, retiring with the rank of Major-General. He holds an LL.B in Law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1962).

Sharon joined the Haganah at the age of 14. During the 1948 War of Independence, he commanded an infantry company in the Alexandroni Brigade. In 1953, he founded and led the "101" special commando unit which carried out retaliatory operations. Sharon was appointed commander of a paratroop brigade in 1956 and fought in the Sinai Campaign. In 1957 he attended the Camberley Staff College in Great Britain.

During 1958-62, Sharon served as an infantry brigade commander and then as Infantry School Commander. He was appointed Head of the IDF Northern Command in 1964 and Head of the Army Training Branch in 1966. He participated in the 1967 Six Day War as commander of an armored division. In 1969 he was appointed Head of the IDF Southern Command.

Sharon resigned from the army in 1973, but was recalled to active military service in the October 1973 Yom Kippur War to command an armored division. He led the crossing of the Suez Canal which brought about victory in the war and eventual peace with Egypt.

Ariel Sharon was elected to the Knesset in December 1973, but resigned a year later, serving as security adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1975-76).

He was again elected to the Knesset in 1977 on the Shlomzion ticket. Appointed Minister of Agriculture in Menachem Begin's first government (1977-81), he pursued agricultural cooperation with Egypt.

In 1981 Ariel Sharon was appointed Defense Minister, serving in this post during the Lebanon War, which brought about the destruction of the PLO terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon. In the realm of international relations, he was instrumental in renewing diplomatic relations with the African nations which had broken off ties with Israel during the Yom Kippur War. In November 1981, he brought about the first strategic cooperation agreement with the U.S. and widened defense ties between Israel and many nations. He also helped bring thousands of Jews from Ethiopia through Sudan.

From 1983-84, Sharon served as Minister without Portfolio, and from 1984-1990 as Minister of Trade and Industry. In this capacity, he concluded the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. in 1985.

From 1990-1992, he served as Minister of Construction and Housing and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee on Immigration and Absorption. Following the fall of the Soviet Union and the waves of immigration from Russia, he initiated and carried out a program to absorb the immigrants throughout the country, including the construction of 144,000 apartments.

From 1992-1996, he served as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

In 1996, Ariel Sharon was appointed Minister of National Infrastructure and was involved in fostering joint ventures with Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinians. He also served as Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Bedouin advancement.

In 1998 Ariel Sharon was appointed Foreign Minister and headed the permanent status negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

While serving as Foreign Minister, Sharon met with U.S., European, Palestinian and Arab leaders to advance the peace process. He worked mostly to create and advance projects such as the Flagship Water Project funded by the international community to find a long-term solution to the region's water crisis and a basis to peaceful relations between Israel, Jordan, the Palestinians and other Middle Eastern countries.

Following the election of Ehud Barak as Prime Minister in May 1999, Ariel Sharon was called upon to become interim Likud party leader, and in September 1999 was elected Chairman of the Likud. He served as a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

On February 6, 2001, Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister. He presented his government to the Knesset on March 7, 2001. After calling early elections to the 16th Knesset, which were held on January 28, 2003, Ariel Sharon was charged by the president with the task of forming a government and presented his new government to the Knesset on February 27, 2003.

A policy statement issued by the Israeli government following the election of Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister in February 2001 reaffirmed the Israeli government's determination to achieve peace with its Palestinian neighbors. In May 2003 his government accepted the US road map for a solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. In June 2004, the government approved the Disengagement Plan from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, which was implemented the following year, in order to create the opportunity for peace.

On January 4, 2006, after forming a new party, Kadima, in anticipation of elections to the 17th Knesset, Prime Minister Sharon suffered a brain hemorrhage and Ehud Olmert was designated Acting Prime Minister in accordance with the Basic Law: Government.

Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon never regained consciousness and passed away eight years later, on January 11^th, 2014.

He was widowed and is survived by two sons, Omri and Gilad. 

How to fight academic bigotry

From Washington Post, January 10, 2014, by Charles Krauthammer:

For decades, the American Studies Association labored in well-deserved obscurity. No longer. It has now made a name for itself by voting to boycott Israeli universities, accusing them of denying academic and human rights to Palestinians.

Given that Israel has a profoundly democratic political system, the freest press in the Middle East, a fiercely independent judiciary and astonishing religious and racial diversity within its universities, including affirmative action for Arab students, the charge is rather strange.

Made more so when you consider the state of human rights in Israel’s neighborhood. As we speak, Syria’s government is dropping “barrel bombs” filled with nails, shrapnel and other instruments of terror on its own cities. Where is the ASA boycott of Syria?

And of Iran, which hangs political, religious and even sexual dissidents and has no academic freedom at all? Or Egypt, where Christians are being openly persecuted? Or Turkey, Saudi Arabia or, for that matter, massively repressive China and Russia?

Which makes obvious that the ASA boycott has nothing to do with human rights. It’s an exercise in radical chic, giving marginalized academics a frisson of pretend anti-colonialism, seasoned with a dose of edgy anti-Semitism.

And don’t tell me this is merely about Zionism. The ruse is transparent. Israel is the world’s only Jewish state. To apply to the state of the Jews a double standard that you apply to none other, to judge one people in a way you judge no other, to single out that one people for condemnation and isolation — is to engage in a gross act of discrimination.

And discrimination against Jews has a name. It’s called anti-Semitism.

Former Harvard president Larry Summers called the ASA actions “anti-Semitic in their effect if not necessarily in their intent.” 

I choose to be less polite. The intent is clear: to incite hatred for the largest — and only sovereign — Jewish community on Earth.

What to do? Facing a similar (British) academic boycott of Israelis seven years ago, Alan Dershowitz and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg wrote an open letter declaring that, for the purposes of any anti-Israel boycott, they are to be considered Israelis.

Meaning: You discriminate against Israelis? Fine. Include us out. We will have nothing to do with you.

Thousands of other academics added their signatures to the Dershowitz/Weinberg letter. It was the perfect in-kind response. Boycott the boycotters, with contempt.

But academia isn’t the only home for such prejudice. Throughout the cultural world, the Israel boycott movement is growing. It’s become fashionable for musicians, actors, writers and performers of all kinds to ostentatiously cleanse themselves of Israel and Israelis.

The example of the tuxedoed set has spread to the more coarse and unkempt anti-Semites, such as the thugs who a few years ago disrupted London performances of the Jerusalem Quartet and the Israeli Philharmonic.

Five years ago in Sweden, Israel’s Davis Cup team had to play its matches in an empty tennis stadium because the authorities could not guarantee the Israelis’ safety from the mob. The most brazen display of rising anti-Semitism today is the spread of the “quenelle,” a reverse Nazi salute, popularized by the openly anti-Semitic French entertainer, Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala.

In this sea of easy and open bigotry, an unusual man has made an unusual statement. Russian by birth, European by residence, Evgeny Kissin is arguably the world’s greatest piano virtuoso. He is also a Jew of conviction. Deeply distressed by Israel’s treatment in the cultural world around him, Kissin went beyond the Dershowitz/Weinberg stance of asking to be considered an Israeli. On Dec. 7, he became one, defiantly.

Upon taking the oath of citizenship in Jerusalem, he declared:

“I am a Jew, Israel is a Jewish state. . . . Israel’s case is my case, Israel’s enemies are my enemies, and I do not want to be spared the troubles which Israeli musicians encounter when they represent the Jewish state beyond its borders.”

Full disclosure: I have a personal connection with Kissin. For the past two years I’ve worked to bring him to Washington to perform for Pro Musica Hebraica, a nonprofit organization (founded by my wife and me) dedicated to reviving lost and forgotten Jewish classical music. We succeeded. On Feb. 24, Kissin will perform at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall masterpieces of Eastern European Jewish music, his first U.S. appearance as an Israeli.

The persistence of anti-Semitism, that most ancient of poisons, is one of history’s great mysteries. Even the shame of the Holocaust proved no antidote. It provided but a temporary respite. Anti-Semitism is back. Alas, a new generation must learn to confront it.

How? How to answer the thugs, physical and intellectual, who single out Jews for attack? The best way, the most dignified way, is to do like Dershowitz, Weinberg or Kissin.

Express your solidarity. Sign the open letter or write your own. Don the yellow star and wear it proudly.

A Poet Goes to War

Hat tip to Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, who posted this photo of Leonard Cohen, standing with Arik Sharon, during the Yom Kippur War, on his Facebook page yesterday, after Arik died:

[This is the context of Cohen's song "Who by fire..." modelled on the Yom Kippur prayer]

From Israel Hayom, 13 September 2013, by Neta Bar-Yosef:

When war broke out on Yom Kippur in 1973, Leonard Cohen was touring on the Greek island of Hydra • He dropped everything, left his wife and son, and headed to Israel • "I will go and stop Egypt's bullet," he said.

Leonard Cohen sings to a group of IDF soldiers in 1973 |  Photo credit: Uri Dan / Courtesy of Farkash Gallery

There is a war between the rich and poor,
a war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the ones who say there is a war
and the ones who say there isn't.
Why don't you come on back to the war, that's right, get in it,
why don't you come on back to the war, it's just beginning.

-- from "There Is a War" by Leonard Cohen...

Follow the link for the full story.

See the video below for more

The End of Erdogan’s Cave of Wonders

From Spengler, 27 Dec 2013:

Turkey is coming apart. The Islamist coalition that crushed the secular military and political establishment–between Tayip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party and the Islamist movement around Fethullah Gulen–has cracked. The Gulenists, who predominate in the security forces, have arrested the sons of top government ministers for helping Iran to launder money and circumvent sanctions, and ten members of Erdogan’s cabinet have resigned. Turkey’s currency is in free fall, and that’s just the beginning of the country’s troubles: about two-fifths of corporate debt is in foreign currencies, so the cost of servicing it jumps whenever the Turkish lira declines. Turkish stocks have crashed (and were down another 5% in dollar terms in early trading Friday). As the charts below illustrate, so much for Turkey’s miracle economy.

...Erdogan’s much-vaunted economic miracle stemmed mainly from vast credit expansion to fuel an import boom, leaving the country with a current account deficit of 7 % of GDP (about the same as Greece before it went bankrupt) and a mushrooming pile of short-term foreign debt. The Gulf states kept financing Erdogan’s import bill, evidently because they wanted to keep a Sunni power in business as a counterweight to Iran; perhaps they have tired of Turkey’s double-dealing with the Persians. And credulous investors kept piling into Turkish stocks.

No more. Turkey is a mediocre economy at best with a poorly educated workforce, no high-tech capacity, and shrinking markets in depressed Europe and the unstable Arab world. Its future might well be as an economic tributary of China, as the “New Silk Road” extends high-speed rail lines to the Bosporus...

For the past ten years we have heard ad nauseum about the “Turkish model” of “Muslim democracy.” The George W. Bush administration courted Erdogan even before he became prime minister, and Obama went out of his way to make Erdogan his principal pal in foreign policy...

The whole notion was flawed from top to bottom. Turkey was not in line to become an economic power of any kind: it lacked the people and skills to do anything better than medium-tech manufacturing. Its Islamists never were democrats. Worst of all, its demographics are as bad as Europe’s. Ethnic Turks have a fertility rate close to 1.5 children per family, while the Kurdish minority is having 4 children per family. Within a generation half of Turkey’s young men will come from families where Kurdish is the first language.

Our foreign policy establishment, Democratic and Republican, was so enamored of the notion of Muslim democracy that it mistook Erdogan’s incipient dictatorship and bubble economy for the object of its desire.

...Now the hashish smoke has cleared, Erdogan’s Cave of Wonders has turned back into a sandpit, and the foreign policy establishment has nothing to show for years of propitiation of this Anatolian wannabe except a headache.

Now that Turkey is coming unstuck, along with Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, we should conclude that the entire project of bringing stability to the Muslim world was a hookah-dream to begin with. 

Except for the state of Israel and a couple of Sunni monarchies that survive by dint of their oil wealth, we are witnessing the unraveling of the Middle East. The best we can do is to insulate ourselves from the spillover effect.

‘Kerry Is Just Not in Touch with Reality’

From National Review Online, 9 Jan 2014, by Daniel Pipes:

Despite all that’s going on in the Middle East — the Iranian nuclear buildup, the violence in Iraq, the shaking of Erdogan’s rule in Turkey, civil war in Syria, Egypt and Yemen in melt-down mode, Libya unraveling, Tunisia in political crisis — U.S. secretary of state John Kerry has one main thing on his mind, and that’s a Palestinian-Israeli accord. Unbelievably, he is paying a twelfth visit to the region on January 13 to pursue this goal.
As he returns and returns again, senior Israeli diplomatic officials are showing impatience with him. Here are quotes from some, speaking off the record and very candidly to Israel Hayom. First, about process:

“We believe that in return for Israel’s request to extend negotiations by a year, Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas] will ask more of Israel, such as a [settlement construction] freeze or another prisoner release, and these demands will be backed by Kerry and turned into an American demand, accompanied by a threat. This, while the Arabs have never given anything in return, from the Oslo negotiations until today.”

“The negotiations are currently being carried out without papers or documents passing between the sides. This is because the Arabs are refusing to present written documents. The Americans are coming with prepared proposals, they read them and do not leave documents with either side. It is all done verbally. The Netanyahu government is cooperating with Kerry’s initiative with the clear knowledge that the Arab side will not accept the agreement and ultimately [Israel] will not be required to make concessions or evacuate settlements.”

“Israel is forced to cooperate with the American plan, mainly out of concern that if we reject it, the U.S. will blame Israel for the failure of the negotiations.” 

Then, more revealingly, about Kerry himself and his team:
“The conduct of the U.S. secretary of state is obsessive. There are those who say that more than wanting to advance peace, he wants to take advantage of the conflict for his political needs. According to this line of thought, Kerry seems to think his path to the White House is via the signing of a Middle East peace agreement.”

“Kerry, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and U.S. Special Envoy Martin Indyk are wandering around the country, meeting ministers, briefing journalists and creating a feeling that a peace agreement is about to be signed.”Kerry’s security plan for the Jordan Valley is “ridiculous and unable to withstand the test of reality.”

“Kerry visits here a lot, but he does not display any understanding of what is happening here. The U.S. plans are superficial and not serious. There is no connection between what is said in public about the progress of the negotiations and what is actually happening. It seems that Kerry is just not in touch with reality. He is not an expert, to say the least, on the roots of the conflict, he does not know how to create real solutions and does not even demonstrate proficiency in reading maps that are presented to him.”

Comments: (1) Kerry has long had a reputation for trying to bend reality to fit his own thinking. This diplomatic effort would seem to be his most ambitious — and harmful – such indulgence to date. (2) The American administration obsesses over the Palestinians because it, bizarrely, sees this as the key to the region’s other problems. 

PA policy: eliminate Israel in stages

From PMW, 6 Jan 2013, by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik:

Abbas Zaki, close associate of Mahmoud Abbas, says a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders is only first stage in the PA's program because "the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages"

Senior Palestinian official Abbas Zaki posted on his Facebook page an interview he gave to Syrian TV in which he said the PA will only agree to a treaty with Israel if the Palestinian state is established on the 1967 lines. However, he stressed that '67 lines would only be the beginning. After that, the Palestinians will continue with the stages plan:

"Even the most extreme among us, Hamas, or the fighting forces, want a state within the '67 borders. Afterward, we [will] have something to say, because the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages."

Click to view

In an interview on Al-Jazeera TV in 2011, Zaki also mentioned this PA stages plan and referred to "the inspiring idea," explaining that it means the end of Israel. He said that Mahmoud Abbas shares the goal of eliminating Israel in stages, but that the PA says it only wants a state along the 1967 borders because it is unacceptable politically to say you want to destroy Israel:

"You can't say it to the world. You can say it to yourself."

Zaki stressed that the goal is clear-cut because if Israel were to return to the 1967 lines, it certainly could not survive:

 "Israel will come to an end."

This is Zaki's full statement from 2011:

"The agreement is based on the borders of June 4 [1967]. While the agreement is on the borders of June 4, the President [Mahmoud Abbas] understands, we understand, and everyone knows that it is impossible to realize the inspiring idea, or the great goal in one stroke. If Israel withdraws from Jerusalem, if Israel uproots the settlements, 650,000 settlers, if Israel removes the (security) fence - what will be with Israel? Israel will come to an end. If I say that I want to remove it from existence, this will be great, great, [but] it is hard. This is not a [stated] policy. You can't say it to the world. You can say it to yourself."

[Official PA TV, Sept. 23, 2011]

Expressing his refusal to recognize Israel earlier this year during a public lecture, Abbas Zaki started to refer to Israel's Ben Gurion Airport as "Israel's Airport," but then stopped himself and corrected himself:

"When Mr. Obama came to the region during his visit, as soon as he arrived at the airport of Isra... [corrects himself], I mean, the airport where the Israelis are. I don't want... [corrects himself] this whole country is ours, and Allah willing, the airport will also return to us."

[Official PA TV, April 8, 2013]

Click to view

Zaki sitting in place of honor one seat from M. Abbas at Fatah event in 2011.

These statements coming from Abbas Zaki are significant because he is a senior Palestinian official and a very close associate of Mahmoud Abbas. He was sent to Syria as Mahmoud Abbas' personal representative a few months ago and has spoken at public events representing Fatah.



Another important statement reiterating that the PA is employing a stages plan to defeat Israel was expressed recently by PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash in a Friday sermon in the presence of Mahmoud Abbas. Al-Habbash, speaking after the current round of peace talks was announced, said that the PA's negotiations with Israel are modeled after the Hudaybiyyah agreement between Islam's Prophet Muhammad and the tribes of Mecca. Recounting that Muhammad signed a 10-year truce, and yet two years later conquered Mecca, the minister stated: "This is the example and this is the model."

Official PA children's TV also teaches children to aspire to Israel's destruction. Earlier this year the PA TV host told children:

PA TV host: "And of course we will never forget that we have land that was occupied in 1948, which will return to us one day. Remember well, children. Also [remember] to safeguard our folklore, our national games, the folklore in all its forms, our dress and our food and our games and anything that forms the Palestinian folklore - we have to safeguard it. If we don't safeguard it, then the occupation might steal it as well, as it stole our land. Right? Do you agree with me? Bravo!"

[Official PA TV, Feb. 23, 2013]

Bringing up children to see all of Israel as "occupied" territory and as "stolen Palestinian land" that will "return" at some future time are significant components of Palestinian Authority ideology that are never expressed to Western leaders or Israelis, and are denied during peace discussions. Zaki's description of the peace process as intended to lead to Israel's destruction is consistent with these messages to PA children and many other internal messages the PA leadership sends to its population.

See more documentation here.
To read a detailed analysis of the PA's continuing and ongoing deception and violations of its international commitments see PMW's book, Deception which documents that the PA policy of saying it wants peace in English is contradicted by its internal political, social and cultural activities, its leaders' statements and its education of youth in Arabic. Click to see reviews or to purchase Deception.

The following is an excerpt from Abbas Zaki's recent interview:

Syrian TV host: "When they talk about [the US] imposing a solution, we know that it will be deficient." 

Member of Fatah Central Committee Abbas Zaki: "You can relax. We find ourselves united for the first time. Even the most extreme among us, Hamas, or the fighting forces, want a state within the '67 borders. Afterward, we [will] have something to say, because the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages."

[Official Syrian Satellite TV Channel, Dec. 23, 2013]

The following is a longer excerpt of the sermon delivered by PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash comparing negotiations with Israel to Muhammad's Treaty of Hudaybiyyah:

"We hate war. We don't want war. We don't want bloodshed, not for ourselves, nor for others. We want peace. We say this because our culture is founded on this, and because our religion is based on this. Yes, we want peace, but not any peace. We want a peace based on justice, therefore the Palestinian leadership and the PLO have not missed any opportunity for peace...

The Palestinian leadership's sense of responsibility towards its nation made it take political steps about 20 years ago (i.e., signing the Oslo Accords). Despite the controversy, despite much criticism and much opposition by some, it brought us to where we are today: We have a [Palestinian] Authority and the world recognizes the [Palestinian] state.

All this never would have happened through Hamas' impulsive adventure, but only through the wisdom of the leadership, conscious action, consideration, and walking the right path, which leads to achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Muhammad] did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, even though some opposed it...

The hearts of the Prophet's companions burned with anger and fury. The Prophet said: 'I'm the Messenger of Allah and I will not disobey Him.' This is not disobedience, it is politics. This is crisis management, situation management, conflict management...

Allah called this treaty a clear victory...

Omar ibn Al-Khattab said: 'Messenger of Allah, is this a victory? Is this logical? Is this victory? We are giving up and going back, and not entering Mecca. Is that a victory?' The Prophet said: 'Yes, it is a victory.'

In less than two years, the Prophet returned and based on this treaty, he conquered Mecca. This is the example, this is the model."

[Official Palestinian Authority TV, July 19, 2013

Security is a key issue in Israel-PA Negotiations

From Times of Israel, by Kenneth Levin:

Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, like the authors of UN Security Council Resolution 242 - still the foundation stone of Israeli-Arab peace negotiations - recognized that Israel's pre-1967 armistice lines left the nation too vulnerable to future aggression. He insisted Israel must hold onto a significant portion of the West Bank to block traditional invasion routes and to protect both Jerusalem and the low-lying coastal plain, home to some 70% of the nation's population.

     In his last speech in the Knesset before his assassination, Rabin declared: 

"The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six-Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines. And these are the main changes, not all of them, which we envision and want in the permanent solution: A. First and foremost, united Jerusalem, which will include both Ma'ale Adumim and Givat Ze'ev - as the capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty, while preserving the rights of the members of the other faiths, Christianity and Islam, to freedom of access and freedom of worship in their holy places, according to the customs of their faiths

B. The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.

C. Changes which will include the addition of Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities, most of which are in the area east of what was the "Green Line," prior to the Six-Day War.

D. The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]."

Nothing has changed in the last 18 years that would diminish Israel's need to retain the areas referred to by Rabin. The topography of the region has not changed, and the nations around Israel have not become more peaceful or more reconciled to Israel's existence. Prime Minister Netanyahu's vision of defensible borders for Israel essentially conforms to the parameters laid out by Rabin.

From Times of Israel, by Avi Issacharoff:
The fate of the Jordan Valley, and the wider issue of security arrangements, are emerging as a major obstacle in the path of the indefatigable Secretary of State John Kerry's peace efforts. Gen. John Allen's painstakingly drafted security proposals have not produced a breakthrough. Both sides are insisting on keeping the Jordan Valley.
    In 2007, the IDF's Planning Directorate drew up Israel's security overview ahead of a peace treaty with the Palestinians that specified the need for an ongoing IDF presence in the Jordan Valley for a lengthy but undefined period. On the basis of that overview, then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak drew up a document, which became known as the "Eight Points," which he discussed with President Bush when he visited in January 2008. Barak stressed to Bush the imperative for IDF troops to remain in the Jordan Valley for the long term - a generation, according to some Israeli sources - to ensure no influx of terrorists or weaponry.
    In taking this position, Barak was merely reiterating the stance that had prevailed since the Yitzhak Rabin era in the early 1990s. And it holds today: 

A senior Israeli official said this week that if there is no Israeli presence in the Jordan Valley, "there will be rivers of blood."  

The PA is not interested in peace

From YNet, 3 Jan 2014, by Guy Bechor:

Israeli-Arab conflict can't be solved with the PA, but with Jordan

Famous British diplomat and author Harold Nicolson (1886-1968) believed there were two types of negotiators: Warriors and shopkeepers. Warriors use negotiations to improve their position ahead of the next stage of the conflict, while shopkeepers try to reach an agreement which will satisfy everyone. Warriors are here to take, shopkeepers – to give. Warriors see an agreement as a temporary stage, shopkeepers hope to end the conflict through it.

The Palestinian Authority ... is [only] interested in going back in time.. expelling 700,000 Jews from Judea and Samaria and replacing them with one or two million Palestinians from Syria, Lebanon and the Arab world. These will be the most dangerous Salafis in the region. 

Israel wants to end the conflict, but the PA wants to strengthen itself in order to intensify the conflict. Its goal is to go on with the plan to destroy Israel in stages. 

...Those who understand that these are two forces with opposite intentions and a different language, understand that there is nothing to talk about with what is called "the Palestinian Authority."

This means that in a while we will see the failure of what has been called "negotiations" with that PA, which are entirely based on American naivety in the best-case scenario. A mediator who fails to understand that he is facing warriors against shopkeepers will find it difficult to understand the conflic...

It's time, therefore, to prepare and come up with a Plan B, after realizing Plan A is impossible...

Just like Egypt was forced to return to the Gaza Strip and to its affairs, the same is expected to happen with Jordan...

...It was Churchill who disconnected it from the western Land of Israel as "the Arab state" ... 

After all, the West Bank was part of the Jordanian kingdom in 1967 in the full sense of the word. Jordan completely annexed it, and granted its residents full citizenship. On July 31, 1988, Jordanian King Hussein revoked the full Jordanian citizenship given to the Arab residents of Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem as part of what he referred to as a "withdrawal." But who revokes his residents' citizenship just like that...?

• The Arab residents of Judea and Samaria will get their Jordanian citizenship back 
• Jordan will oversee the civil life in Area A
• The IDF will remain militarily in charge of all Judea and Samaria territories, in coordination with the Jordanians, with whom we have a peace agreement 
• all the settlements will naturally stay put
• The Arabs in Judea and Samaria will vote for the Jordanian parliament, and their passports will be Jordanian
• The Jerusalem issue will also be solved quickly, as Israel is committed in the peace treaty with Jordan to giving the kingdom a "special status" in Jerusalem's holy sites
• Israel will be interested in this arrangement
• The Palestinians will be happy, as they are being given a desired citizenship, second in its prestige to the Israeli one, and 
• Jordan will be satisfied too. A Palestinian state, which within a short while will be filled with Salafis and al-Qaeda operatives, is a strategic threat to its security. 
• The only one which won't be satisfied is the Palestinian Authority, which was invented out of nothing in Oslo...

Jordanian spokespeople ... know that a Palestinian solution is bad news for everyone, even for the Arabs living in Judea and Samaria...

PLO demands Israel's suicide

From JPost, 3 Jan 2014, by Khaled Abu Toameh:

PLO dismisses idea of land swap, calls for full Israel withdrawal to pre-1967 lines.

PLO Exec Committee Secretary Geneneral, Abed Rabbo 

Photo: Mohamad Torokman/Reuters

...PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo said that the Palestinians have already spent the past few months negotiating with Israel, and there’s no need to start new talks about the implementation of a new framework agreement.
Abed Rabbo said that Kerry was now asking the Palestinians to agree to negotiations with Israel over a new accord, which, he claimed, gives the Israelis control over the Jordan Valley and restricts Palestinian sovereignty over Palestinian territories.
Abed Rabbo said that the only way to achieve a breakthrough is by drawing full borders between a Palestinian state and Israel, on the basis of the pre-1967 lines – including east Jerusalem.
He also called for a timetable for a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines.
The PLO official dismissed the idea of a land swap that would place Israeli Arabs in the Triangle area under the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state in return for annexing settlements to Israel.
“The settlers are the ones who should get out of the Palestinian territories, because they are violating international law,” he said.

“No Palestinian state will be created without Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley.”

Palestinian sources revealed Thursday that Kerry would present the Israelis and Palestinians with a “blueprint” for a declaration of principles.
The sources said that the “blueprint” calls for an extension of the peace talks beyond the nine-month deadline set by Kerry and that expires in April 2014.
The sources told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds that the “most dangerous” part of the “blueprint” is Israel’s demand that the Palestinians recognize it as a Jewish state.
According to the sources, Kerry is expected to return to the region once again next week to pursue his efforts to convince the Palestinians and Israelis to move forward with the talks.

It's the incitement, stupid....

From The PM's Office, 02/01/2014:

Photo by GPO

Photo by GPO 

Prime Minister Netanyahu:Welcome back to Jerusalem, John.

...I know that you are committed to peace; 
I know that I am committed to peace; 
but, unfortunately, given the actions and words of Palestinian leaders, there’s growing doubt in Israel that the Palestinians are committed to peace.

A few days ago in Ramallah, President Abbas embraced terrorists as heroes. To glorify the murders of innocent women and men as heroes is an outrage. How can President Abbas say that he stands against terrorism when he embraces the perpetrators of terrorism and glorifies them as heroes? He can’t stand against terrorists and stand with the terrorists. And I’m wondering what a young Palestinian would think when he sees the leader of the Palestinian people embrace people who axed innocent men and women, axed their heads or blew them up or riddled them with bullets. What’s a young Palestinian supposed to think about the future? What’s he supposed to think about what he should do vis-à-vis Israelis and vis-à-vis the State of Israel?

So it’s not surprising that in recent weeks Israel has been subjected to a growing wave of terrorist attacks. President Abbas didn’t see fit to condemn these attacks even after we learned that at least in one case, I stress at least in one case, those who served and are serving in the Palestinian security forces took part in them.

In the six months since the start of peace negotiations, the Palestinian Authority continues its unabated incitement against the State of Israel. This Palestinian government incitement is rampant. You see it in the state-controlled media, the Government-controlled media, in the schools, in text books, in kindergartens. You see it in every part of Palestinian society. So instead of preparing Palestinians for peace, Palestinian leaders are teaching them to hate Israel.

This is not the way to achieve peace. President Abbas must lead his people away from terror and incitement towards reconciliation and peace.

John, the people of Israel and I are prepared to make such an historic peace. But we must have a Palestinian partner whose equally prepared to make this peace.

• Peace means ending incitement; 
• it means fighting terrorism and condemning terrorism; 
• it means recognizing Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people; 
• it means meeting Israel’s security needs; and 
• it means being prepared to truly end the conflict once and for all.

If we are to succeed in our joint effort, President Abbas must reject terror and embrace peace. I hope he doesn’t miss, again, the opportunity to give Israelis and Palestinians a better future.

Mr. Secretary, John, I look forward to continuing our discussions. I hope that together we can forge a way to a genuine and lasting peace, a secure peace. Because the only peace that will endure in the Middle East as it really is, is a peace that Israel can defend.

I am determined, above all else, to defend my people and my state, and I will never compromise on the security of Israel and its citizens and on the vital interests that protect our future....