Israeli soldier killed by Lebanese sniper - Haaretz blames it on Israel

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that a 'lone' Lebanese gunman has fired at Israeli soldiers on the border and killed one soldier. This is clearly a very serious incident. But look at how Haaretz is reporting the story on its front page - relying on the Lebanese army's version of events to spin the story.

16 Dec 2013 Update. There was, of course, no 'border crossing' by Israeli soldiers. The soldier killed - Shlomi Cohen- was murdered on Israeli soil in yet another unprovoked attack by a Lebanese Jihadist 'soldier' who will not be prosecuted, and will now become a national hero for his actions. And of course no apology from Haaretz for its disgraceful reporting. Honest Reporting has details on other disgraceful reporting of this in the UK.

Shlomi Cohen of Afula - murdered for being a Jew

Jerusalem snow: UN Security Council to convene emergency session

The UN Security Council is to convene an emergency session to discuss the heavy snow storm  enveloping Jerusalem. The 58 states who make up the Organization of Islamic Countries demanded the special session because of the untold suffering this is causing to the 200,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem. In welcoming the move, Baroness Ashton of the EU confirmed that only Palestinian Arabs have been affected by the snow due to the racist 'security' wall that separates them from the 650,000 Jewish (illegal) settlers living in Jerusalem.

Speaking from Ramallah the Palestinian Authority's leading cleric Sheikh Mohammed Luni Jihad asserted that the Israelis created the snowstorm specifically to punish the Palestinians and in particular to destroy the Al Asqa Mosque. While some climate scientists have disputed certain aspects of the Sheikh's claim, there is universal agreement that this kind of freak snowstorm is due to man-made global warming which is caused mainly by the Zionist control of all the world's natural resources. Al Gore and David Cameron both confirmed that the 'science was settled' for this.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was quick to agree to the special security council session, stating that there was no greater tragedy in the world today than the sufferings of the Palestinians, and that the snowstorm was a 'disproportionate response' by the Israelis to recent 'minor' provocations. The latter reference was to the totally harmless past time of Arab youths in Jerusalem to stone Jewish women and children (which in some cases does not even lead to death or serious injury). US Secretary of State John Kerry warned the Israelis that if the snow storm was allowed to continue - and hence deprive the Palestinian youths of the opportunity to stone Jews - then he would personally support a third intifada. Fortunately the Arab youths have already found inventive ways to express their frustrations in the snow.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was especially scathing in his criticism of the Israelis. He believes the snow storm has been created not just to persecute Palestinians but also to give the Israelis an excuse to delay the release of the next bunch of convicted terrorists earning Masters degrees in Israeli prisons.

Meanwhile on campuses through the western world students mobilized to show their support for the suffering Palestinians. A common theme expressed in protests was that the snow storm was an attempt by the Israelis to 'whitewash their crimes against humanity'.

The Disasters and Emergencies Committee (DEC) has also launched an emergency appeal to ensure that additional money can be given to the Palestinians to buy tobogans and ski equipment for the terrorists released from prison who are all struggling to survive on an EU-funded salary of just $50,000 per year.

Blatant anti-semitism on stage in London ("From Here to Eternity")

Long-term readers of this blog will know that I was motivated to start the blog by the incessant and obsessive anti-Israel bias I kept coming across at cultural events in London. Over the years I have reported on many of these. Notwithstanding the fact that much of this anti-Israel activity is intrinsically anti-Semitic, I actually do not recall witnessing any blatant (non-Israel related) antisemitism. That was until Monday night when I went to see Tim Rice's musical "From Here to Eternity" (about American soldiers in Hawaii just prior to the Pearl Harbour attack), at the Shaftsbury Theatre .... and discovered that Tim Rice has also created a 1940s Shylock - without the redeeming features and without any justification from the perspective of the storyline. I am actually not normally bothered by this type of thing, but it was so blatant and so totally unnecessary that I have actually fired off a complaint to the theatre.

Most people have seen or heard of the Oscar-winning 1953 film of the same name, but few will know that the 1951 book by James Jones on which it was based, was banned because of its explicit sex. While the film retained the heterosexual scenes it removed all references to the homosexual activity, The play reintroduces these as it does a minor character - a soldier by the name of Isaac Bloom. As in the book Bloom is a Jew - and disliked for it,  being called a  "Jew boy", "Kike" etc. I don't have a problem with that because, in a similar vein, the play portrays the anti-Pole and anti-Italian mindset of the typical soldier. As in the book Bloom is also a homosexual. But for reasons that only Tim Rice can explain he has decided he also wanted to introduce a really evil soldier into the play. And that was also Bloom. And not just evil, but also a coward, a liar, and a snitch. In the play Bloom turns out to be the soldier who, having been caught by the Military Police in a gay bar, earns his personal freedom by revealing the names of all the other soldiers who were present. When confronted with this by the hero Pru, Bloom says something like "yeah that's typical, always accusing the Jew of being the snitch" which in other contexts might be seen to be exposing antisemitism. Except, because here it was true, it actually is an example of gratuitous antisemitism. For the audience Bloom is indeed a stereotypical evil queer Jew. And in case the audience 'still did not get it' Bloom then pulls out a knife and attacks the hero Pru with it. When the ensuing fight is broken up by the sergeant, Pru gets Bloom 'off the hook' by saying that no knife was used. Shortly afterwards the evil Bloom kills himself by firing a gun into his mouth. Now compare this portrayal of Bloom with what James Jones' daughter Kaylie Jones says about the character, and his suicide, in a recent interview

One soldier, Bloom, realizes he enjoys sex with men, and is so terrified and ashamed of being gay and of being called on it, that he commits suicide. The sin and the shame, it seems, are not associated with the act itself or even in getting paid for it, but in whether or not a soldier enjoys it. My father saw the total hypocrisy and ridiculousness of this and Bloom’s death is portrayed as a tragedy, absurd and unnecessary.  

In stark contrast the only thing portrayed in Bloom's death in the play was that the evil Jew bastard deserved it. At least Shakespeare endowed a modicum of sympathy in Shylock, but there was nothing to redeem Bloom.

The question I would like to ask Tim Rice is not why he decided to introduced a new evil character and make that character not just a Jew but the only Jew in the play (plenty of writers have done that for generations). I would not even bother asking him why he would introduce such a character when such a character was irrelevant to the main plot (again plenty of writers have introduced the token evil Jew just for the heck of it). The question I would ask is: would he even have thought about introducing a similar character from some other ethnic minority, such as, for example a Muslim, or a Black. He would not of course. But Jews, it seems, are safe and therefore fair game. And that is why Tim Rice has got away with as blatant a piece of 'cultural' antisemitic stereotyping as you will see anywhere outside the Muslim world.

Obama: a corrupt jerk who just cannot stop telling lies

From the post's heading you would be forgiven for thinking I was going to talk about the continuing revelations of Obama's brown-nosing to Iran and other Islamists around the world, his broken promises (and now threats) to Israel, or even his lies about ObamaCare (see my note to any American readers about this below).

In fact it is none of those, but it is a story (that I first found here with the source report here) that neatly sums up everything about Obama's lies and corruption. It is about his illegal immigrant uncle being granted a green card in the USA. While the story does not seem to have been totally ignored by the US main stream media, most of the reports I could find are spinning the line that, although he had lived in the country illegally for many years, Uncle Onyango Obama was a "model, tax-paying citizen" and that is why Judge Leonard Shapiro was more than happy to allow him to stay in the US. But on further reading the following facts are revealed:

• Onyango (who is the brother of President Obama's father) testified on Tuesday that the president had stayed with him at his Cambridge apartment for three weeks when he came to attend Harvard Law School in the 1980s. This means that President Obama lied last year when he said he had never met Uncle Onyango. Since Onyango's statement under oath, President Obama has refused to comment.
• Far from being a 'model citizen' he was arrested in 2011 for drunken driving. After his arrest, he allegedly told an officer, “I think I will call the White House”  - which may explain why he only served a year's probation.
• He lied to an immigration agent in 1984 saying he had a green card, when he did not.
• He defied  three deportation orders (1986, 1989, 2002) (see this earlier report).
• As for him being a model tax-paying citizen it turns out he has three still unpaid tax liens for the years 1987, 1988 and 1990.  
• The person who offered to vouch for Onyango's character in court, was none other than his sister - who also happens to be President Obama's beloved Auntie Zeituni. And she just also happens to have previously been an illegal immigrant who has apparently sponged off the state since arriving in the USA. The judge was so keen to grant Onyango his green card he said Zeituni's  testimony was unnecessary.
• It was the same judge - Leonard  Shapiro - who also granted green card status to Auntie Zeituni. And while President Obama tried to deny he had ever meet his Uncle there are pictures of him with his Auntie when he was younger.

Of course, as usual, the American main stream media is ignoring the full facts of this story to cover for Obama. I'd like to know why at the very least they are not asking about why he said last year he had never met his uncle. They no doubt consider me to be a racist for even talking about it.

p.s. on the issue of ObamaCare, Americans may like to know that one of the ramifications of the 'relaunch' of the www.healthcare.gov website is that it is actually blocked from the UK (and presumably other places) which it wasn't when it was first launched. Here is the message you get when you try to enter the website from the UK:

Update 5 Dec 2013: Obama now admits that the White House lied when it said he had never met his uncle. However, the attempt to claim that President Obama was not involved in the lie is so ludicrous you have to laugh about it.

Geller and Spencer were banned from the UK because of their 'pro-Israel views'

In June I reported on the disgraceful decision by the British Government to ban the American anti-Jihadist human-rights campaigners Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer from entering the UK. Documents now reveal that they were banned because of their pro-Israel views. I suppose this is entirely consistent with the sentiments of the Foreign Secretary William Hague who last week issued stark threats to Israel not to compromise the deal that allows Iran to get nuclear weapons, and who last year actually threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Israel if they dared to build homes in their capital city Jerusalem.

Remember this the next time Hague (or Cameron) declare to a Jewish audience that they "believe in Israel's right to exist".  For the western diplomatic elite the biggest danger to the world is not Iran carrying out its threat to annihilate Israel with a nuclear weapon, but rather Israel's attempts to stop that happening. Just as it is far more concerned at Israel protecting itself from terrorists than the terrorists carrying out atrocities against Israel.

On "Israel's right to exist"

Following on from my gripe about the expression "I believe in Israel's right to exist" used by my  local MP in our recent correspondence (I think it is a ludicrously minimal from of 'support' that would never be used in connection to any other country in the world), the MP has responded as follows

I take your point. I should have probably said that I believe in Israel's right to defend itself rather than its right to exist. The reason behind using the phrase I did was that sometimes I get the impression some criticism which is supposedly directed at the Israeli government - any government should be subject to criticism - is actually a cover for deep-rooted anti-semitism which of course is completely unacceptable, or should be. 

Breaking News:The Iran Deal in Full

• The P5+1 (the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and China, facilitated by the European Union) are convinced that only non-military solutions can stop Iran building nuclear weapons, just as only non-military solutions finally stopped the Nazis.
• The P5+1 are convinced that tough sanctions cannot stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and that in any case these sanctions are costing European companies billions in lost business opportunities with the Iranian regime.
• Hence the P5+1 believe an alternative strategy of positive incentives to Iran is the best way forward.
• The P5+1 therefore agrees to immediately drop all sanctions against Iran, but with the strict condition that this will be reviewed - and could even be reversed - as early as May 2040
• The P5+1 will provide $100billion in aid to the beleaguered Iranian Revolutionary Guards fighting heroically to preserve democracy in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, and a further $200 billion to help Iran develop nuclear reactors for peaceful energy use only. The latter is clearly needed since Iran's natural energy reserves are minimal (they only have the second largest oil reserves in the world and only the third largest gas reserves in the world). Indeed, without the alternative of nuclear energy Iran - in less than 1,563,290 years - will be unable to meet the energy demands of its own population.

In response Iran commits to the following tough conditions for a minimum period of 3 months

• Iran promises to develop no nuclear weapons capable of hitting any country, providing that country is recognised by the Islamic Republic of Iran. 
• To ensure compliance Iran promises to allow IAEA inspectors to stay in the best hotels in Iran. All requests to visit nuclear sites will be carefully considered by the Ayatollah Khameni and the Al Quds forces. 
• Iran will telephone Catherine Ashton every week to assure her of Iran's compliance with its commitments
• Iran promises that once its embassies are reopened they will be used to educate the local population about the world Zionist threat and will also help eliminate local Zionists.

The P5+1 have also assured Iran that any attempt by any country with a Jewish majority to compromise this glorious deal, will be considered a crime against humanity and will result in comprehensive sanctions against that country.

Islamic respect for women

British Muslim Adil Rashid's defence against illegal grooming and sexual intercourse with a 13-year old girl in Nottingham was that, as a devout madrassa-school educated Muslim, he had been taught a woman was “no more worthy than a lollipop dropped on the ground”.

And it appears that Judge Stokes was sympathetic to his defence.

MP's response to my letter about funding convicted Palestinian terrorists

I have had a very fast response from my MP to the letter I wrote earlier in the week (in fact the MP responded within two days). It is very rare for an MP to respond so quickly (if at all) and this MP has actually taken the time to read the extensive supporting material I sent in addition to my letter. Note my response thanking the MP below.  While I strongly disagree with some of the MP's statements, I think the response was better than I could have expected -  especially as the MP is in the Labour Party in a constituency with a large number of Muslims. However, as you can see I did feel that I had to respond to the comment about "supporting Israel's right to exist".

MP's response (click to enlarge)

 My response:

I would like to thank you very much for your very speedy and detailed response to my letter concerning tax funds going to convicted Palestinian terrorists. I really appreciate the fact that you have taken this very seriously, have clearly spent a lot of time reading the material, and that you are going to raise the issue with William Hague. I believe this marks you out as an outstanding MP.

p.s. I note you said you were "a supporter of Israel's right to exist". This is a statement used by many MPs, which has always struck me as rather curious and I know many Israelis are offended by it.  To have ones' very existence even considered as open to debate is something that is applied to no other country in the world (many of which were created AFTER the modern day state of Israel,  and many of which were the result of either war, arbitrary colonial land demarcations or a mixture of both).  If a foreign diplomat asserted that they "support the UK's right to exist" I do not believe that this would be considered as expression of either great support or sympathy. 

Anyway, let's see what response I get from William Hague now. I think this issue is going to be harder for the Palestinians and their supporters to shake off as the usual 'response to Israeli aggression', especially as the same Palestinian Authority that is making such generous and long-term payments to terrorists are claiming they are unable to pay even small electricity bills to keep the people's power flowing.

2 Dec 2013 Update: The MP has sent a further response about the 'right to exist' comment.

The UK is paying Palestinians to murder Jews

The following letter sent to my constituency MP is self-explantory (triggered by today's news):

As one of your constituents I would like to know if you are aware of the following (full details provided in links at the end) and will raise these concerns with the Foreign Secretary:

a) That UK tax payer money (through its funding of the corrupt - and otherwise bankrupt - Palestinian Authority) is now being used to give every freed Palestinian terrorist murderer $50,000 plus a guaranteed 'government' job for life.

b) That every one of the latest batch of terrorists that Israel was forced to release (for nothing in return) was a convicted murderer. This includes, for example Issa Abd Rabbo, who also received a $60,000 bonus, with the PA reportedly also offering to foot the bill for a wedding should he choose to marry. He was convicted of murdering two Israeli hikers, after tying them up at gunpoint and placing bags over their heads.

c) That every Palestinian terrorist captured by Israel now receives a salary from the Palestinian Authority for life  - starting from the minute they are captured (the salary is typically 15 times that of the average Palestinian worker). This includes, for example, Hussein Ghawadra who just last week was captured after killing an 18-year old Israeli Eden Atias while he slept on a bus from Afula to Tel Aviv (by slashing his neck 25 times with a knife in an attempt to decapitate him).   Ghawadra said he committed the terrorist act because he was aggrieved that two of his relatives (convicted of murder) were still in Israeli prisons. Since Ghawadra is himself just 16 he is guaranteed to become a wealthy man courtesy of UK taxpayers. He is also unlikely to serve more than a small number of years in jail since experience proves that Israel will be forced by the EU and the USA to release him as a 'painful concession for peace' .

The policy of the Palestinian Authority clearly encourages the terrorist murder of Jews, since the murderers are guaranteed not just wealth beyond the dreams of ordinary Palestinians, but also great adulation (it is standard for the PA to name roads, squares, and even soccer tournaments after convicted murderers).   Since the Palestinian Authority is funded solely by the EU and USA perhaps you can assure me that you will ask the Foreign Secretary to:

a)  immediately stop all payments to the Palestinian Authority, hence putting a stop to this incitement and direct support for terrorism; and

b) avoid pressuring Israel to release terrorist murderers (perhaps noting that this is the equivalent of expecting the UK to release people like the murderers of soldier Lee Rigby as a 'peace gesture').

Yours

Edgar Davidson

LINKS:

http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-authority-gives-freed-prisoners-50000-each/
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-best-way-to-get-job-in-pa-just.html#.UoqOtOLX840
http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/jihadist-murder-of-soldier-spot.html
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=10101
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=1005
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Palestinians-shower-freed-prisoners-with-handsome-cash-payments-perks-332078
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=13407 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174166#.UoqeLuLX840

Update 22 November 2013 There MPs letter of response is here.

Obama dispenses with Israel

Before Obama was elected in 2008 some Jewish American friends assured me that Obama would be 'good for Israel'. Of course, Obama could not possibly have known - or aproved of - Jew haters such as his 'pastor' and close friend Reverend Wright whose anti-semitic sermons he listened to for 20 years and who conducted his marriage to Michelle. Nor could he have been aware of the views of - or approved of - radical Palestinians such as Rashid Khalidi who support the destruction of Israel,  even though he was such a close friend that, when he attended a party for Khalidi in 2003 it is reported that Obama said “Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine” plus there’s been “genocide against the Palestinian people by Israelis.” Obviously Obama just got carried away with the spirit of the celebration.

When Obama was reelected in 2012 and put together a foreign policy team made up entirely of politicians with a record of anti-Israel rhetoric (Kerry, Hagel, Rice, Powers) that was also just purely coincidental and in no way did it suggest that he was now about to 'throw Israel under the bus'. His love of Israel was demonstrated by his insistence that Israel release 1000 convicted Palestinian terrorists (including child murderers) in return for a lecture by John Kerry on why every Israeli settlement beyond the 1967 borders is 'illegal'.  Obviously he has no plan to weaken and marginalise Israel despite his decision last week to offer a 'deal' to drop sanctions against Iran while still allowing them to pursue a nuclear weapon, and then by making clear he was going to punish Israel for not submitting to every Palestinian demand in the current 'peace talks'. OK, so Kerry threatened Israel with a third intifada if Israel does not surrender all its settlements, while all trade links with Europe would be severed. But, hey, since Obama is insisting on dropping all sanctions against Iran it surely makes sense for him to manoeuvre for a sanctions campaign against Israel? Obviously this is all in Israel's best interests. And just in case there was any doubt about where Obama stands he has just provided yet another massive cash injection to the Palestinians, which is obviously punishing them for their latest round of terrorism and incitement and is in no way encouraging them to continue such behaviour.

Thankfully, all those American Jews still believe that Obama is a 'friend of Israel'.

p.s. Caroline Gluck sums up Obama's disastrous impact not just on Israel but on the standing of the USA:

America’s appalling betrayal of Jerusalem under Obama ... is the straw that has broken the back of American strategic credibility from Taipei to Santiago.

And a highly relevant and punchy article here by by Allan West

Jewish Press also ignores cold blooded terrorist murder of Israeli boy

Jewish News: 48 pages but no room for the story

Following on from the story yesterday of the media silence on the Lee-Rigby-like terrorist murder of Eden Atias I was at least expecting major coverage in the two UK weekly Jewish newspapers - the Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish News (notwithstanding their dismal record of failing to either stand up for, or even report accurately on, Israel).

 Both of these  papers go to print on Thursday. For them the 'best' possible time for a news story to happen is Wednesday morning as it gives them time to cover the story properly while also presenting it as fresh news. The murder of Eden Atias was announced on Wednesday morning and so should have been their lead. Despite this the Jewish News does not find any room at all for the story in any of its 48 pages - not even in the 'Israel news' section or the 'world news' section. Its front page story shown here is obviously of far greater significance.

Jewish Chronicle: Finally a mention ... on Page 28

In 68 pages of the Jewish Chronicle ('the world's oldest and leading newspaper dedicated to Jewish affairs') the story does get a mention as shown....buried on page 28 with the mysterious headline "Soldier dies in stabbing" as if it was some natural self-induced event. The JC's headline writers have clearly been learning from the BBC and Guardian. And they cannot find the room to even mention the dead boy's name in the brief report.  The JC apparently does not want to humanise the story by giving the victim a name.

Like the rest of the media there is also a continued news blackout of the ongoing appalling violence against Jews in the Mount Scopus area of Jerusalem. Presumably under pressure from Obama, the Government of Israel seems to have abdicated its repsonisibility to defend its citizens (as brilliantly expressed in this article). And it seems that news of Jewish Israelis under attack is now the sole responsibility of a handful of bloggers.

Jihadist murder of soldier: spot the difference

Most people in the world have heard the story of the young off-duty soldier murdered in cold blood in his home country by a Jihadist fanatic slashing a knife across the soldier's neck in an attempt to decapitate him. .....Except this story is not about the British soldier Lee Rigby whose murder in Woolwich earlier this year grabbed the whole world's attention for days on end.  This is the story of Israeli Eden Atias, murdered on an Egged bus from Afula to Tel Aviv yesterday by a young Palestinian Jihadist terrorist. And, despite the obvious similarities in the nature of the crime, the world's reaction to it - and the almost certain outcomes for the terrorists - could not be more different.

In many respects the murder of Eden Atias is even more tragic and despicable than that of Lee Rigby. At just 19 Eden was 5 years younger than Lee. Moreover, unlike Lee (who was a professional soldier) Eden was (like the vast majority of young Israelis) a conscript - just two weeks into his basic training.  A child more than an adult. And while Lee at least had the small possibility to resist his attacker, Eden was brutally murdered while he slept on the bus.

While there was universal outrage and condemnation of Lee's murder, Eden's has gone completely unreported in the West. Even the Jerusalem Post (determined to tow the Israeli Government line of downplaying Palestinian terrorism while the facade of the 'peace talks' continues) only managed to put it as their 4th news item yesterday with the bizarre headline "Palestinian murders IDF soldier in suspected terror attack to avenge relatives jailed in Israel." Today - the day of his funeral - the Jerusalem Post has no reference at all to Eden on its home page despite there being no less than 15 stories there. Well, actually there is one story with an oblique reference to Eden: it is this one:

Suspected far-right activists set fire to Palestinian home in 'revenge' for slain IDF soldier: 5 Palestinians suffer smoke inhalation in Ramallah area attack.

..which gives you an indication of how bizarre notions of moral equivalence are just as bad in the Israeli press as on the BBC and in the pages of the Guardian.

There was one important non-Israeli reaction to the story. The Palestinian Press celebrated the murder and the Hamas spokesman Fawzy Barhoom announced on his Facebook page “Congratulations to the Palestinian West Bank hero who killed an Israeli soldier in Afula this morning”. Can you imagine what the reaction would have been in the UK - and the rest of the world -  if the Muslim Council of Britain had congratulated Lee Rigby's murderer for his heroism?

And what will happen to Eden's murderer - who himself is apparently just 16 years old (and according to IsraellyCool is called Hussein Ghawadra)? We know that his jailed relatives are two cousins. One of them, Muhammed Juwadra, is serving three life sentences for the murder of Cartiso Radikov and Amos Mantiu, a Bezeq employee shot dead in the village of Baka al- Gharbiya in 2003. The other cousin is serving a 12-year-sentence for attempted murder.  Ghawadra, along with both his murderous cousins, will soon be released like all other Palestinian terrorists as a 'gesture of peace' forced on Israel by the Americans for nothing in return. And, unlike murderers anywhere else in the world, they will be received as heroes, with the Palestinian Authority naming streets and football teams in their honour. They will all receive a salary for life that is 15 times higher than that of the average Palestinian employee- all paid for by EU and US taxpayers. This salary is paid to them from the moment they are imprisoned, since these terrorist murderers are considered political prisoners not just by the Palestinians but by whole swathes of the Western liberal elite. Indeed, the 16-year-old Ghawadra is already classified as a child political prisoner (remember that when you hear leftists screaming about Israel imprisoning Palestinian children). He will be free before he reaches the age of 21 because the West will demand it of Israel. Nobody will dare make any such demands of Lee Rigby's killer.

Finally, remember that Eden is just the latest of a steady stream of Israelis murdered without a murmur or even the notice of the rest of the world in the last few months as a result of a low level intifada encouraged by the Palestinian Authority and now - disgracefully - by the American Secretary of State John Kerry.

p.s. I see Elder of Ziyon,  Raheem Kassam and others have also picked up on the Rigby analogy.

Update 15 November : See how the UK Jewish Press has covered the story

Apartheid Israel?

Totally unremarkable: Israeli Arabs dining in Kosher restaurant in Jewish neighbourhood of Jerusalem

Here is a typical scene you will see everywhere in mixed Jewish-Arab areas of Israel. Because of the poisonous anti-Israel propaganda that permeates the Western narrative, visitors to Israel are often surprised by such scenes. Remember this when some leftist idiot starts talking about Israeli 'apartheid'. Also remember where the real apartheid lies in the Middle East.  Israeli Jews cannot step foot in Palestinian controlled areas without risking their lives - indeed it is becoming increasingly dangerous for Jews to enter many Arab neighbourhoods and villages even inside Israel. The Palestinian leadership has made it clear that not a single Jew will be allowed to live in any future Palestinian state. But at least that will make any future Palestinian state entirely consistent with the apartheid policies of every other Arab state.

Tel Aviv blocks anti-Jihad websites

Tel Aviv beach 31 October 2013

Anyone who spends a lot of time in Israel or with Israelis living in Europe or the USA will know that a very sizable number (especially those under 40) have been indoctrinated with left-wing (and at times extremely anti-Zionist) views that would put most Guardian readers to shame. It can also be surprising to discover, given that they are effectively 'living in the eye of the storm', how little those same Israelis know of the extent to which Islamists hate them and want them destroyed. This is especially true of many in Tel Aviv. The main stream Israeli newspapers and TV channels are not much different to those in the UK both in their left-wing bias and in covering up Jihadist activities around the world (e.g. still no main stream comment anywhere on the Jihadist suicide bombing in Beijing which the BBC -when it mentioned it -  tried to convince viewers was down to 'democracy dissidents').

Religion of Peace website:blocked as "Discrimination"

I discovered today an example of the above, which confirms that those in power in the Jewish State are determined to show that they are the biggest 'dhimmis' of all.  On LaLa beach in Tel Aviv today I noticed that the Municipality was now providing a free wifi service (FREE_TLV). I'm not sure how new this is because I normally go to Bograshov beach and I have never noticed this service before. After checking my emails I decided to catch up on some real  news only to discover that websites like Robert Spencer's excellent jihadwatch and thereligionofpeace (which simply documents jihadist attacks and news stories) were blocked as either "Discrimination" or (strangely) "Advocacy Organisation" (curiously one of the only anti-Jihad sites not blocked was Pamela Geller's). I did a quick check of some well known antisemitic and anti-Israel websites and not one of those was blocked.

Jihad Watch website blocked

Isn't is great to imagine that you can avoid a problem simply by trying to make sure nobody knows about it?  And is it any wonder therefore that the Israeli Government can actually get away with releasing convicted terrorist murderers (like the latest bunch freed yesterday to appease Obama and the PLO) without there being mass demonstrations?

June 2014 Update

The new 'moderate' Iran: 16 Baluchi political prisoners hanged in act of vengeance - West ignores it

Obama, the EU - and of course the entire main stream Western media - are so desperate to maintain the nonsensical narrative of a new 'moderate' Iran that there has been barely a mention of this story that can be found at the bottom of  page 32 of today's Telegraph.

The story reveals more than just the fact that 16 political prisoners from the Baluchi minority community were hanged in revenge for an attack by Baluchi rebels on an Iranian border post. We also discover that the Iranians use the threat of killing prisoners to deter any rebel actions, and that it in 2010 the Iranians committed an act of international air piracy to force a civilian aircraft flying from Dubai to Kysyzstan to land in Iran so that they could arrest the leader or the Baluchi rebel group. The leader was subsequently forced to make a TV confession saying:

“They [the Americans] promised to help us and they said that they would co-operate with us, free our prisoners and would give us military equipment - bombs, machine guns - and they would give us a base.” 

They hanged him anyway three months later. Did this story make the news in the West? Not that I recall. Can you imagine how the West would have reacted if Israel had done anything like that even to a mass murderer? You don't need to, because you only have to compare the West's silence on Iran to their hysterical reaction when Israel killed mass-murdering Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in pinpoint targeted assassinations that involved no civilian loss of life.

Note also that the Sistan-Baluchistan province is occupied by Iran against the wishes of the Baluchis. While every Western political 'activist' is obsessed about 'Palestinian independence' did you ever hear a single one of these anti-Israel goons highlight the plight of the Baluchis? On the contrary, 99% of Western activists insist that Iran is peaceful nation against whom sanctions should be dropped. And that is the same narrative now being pushed by Obama and Western governments - which is why there will be no official reaction to this kind of story and why only Israel can stop Iran getting their nuclear bomb.

Israel's Save a Child's Heart Charity: combatting UN, EU and UK anti-Israel bias

Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) is an incredible Israeli-based international humanitarian project, whose mission is to improve the quality of paediatric cardiac care for children from developing countries who suffer from heart disease and to create centers of competence in these countries. SACH is a team of  surgeons and support staff at Wolfson Hospital near Tel Aviv (including Jews, Muslims and Christians) who are world leaders in paediatric cardiology. SACH has saved the lives of thousands of children from all over the world by performing complex and dangerous cardiac operations. In most cases the charity brings the children to Israel for the operations but members of the team also travel abroad to perform the operations, and increasingly the team is training doctors from the developing countries to perform the surgery themselves.

Many of the children saved by SACH are from countries that are hostile to Israel including Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria. But far and away the most children whose lives are saved (over 50%) are from the Palestinian Authority (both Gaza and the West Bank) - more on that below.

Walter Felman
(Chairman, SACH UK)

Hannah Shabathai
(President, SACH Switzerland)

This evening  Hannah Shabathai and Walter Felman from SACH (pictured here) spoke at Woodford Liberal Synagogue in East London. Both Hannah and Walter are among the key volunteers who help make SACH  function as it does. In addition to speaking about what SACH does, Hannah focused on the story of how SACH became one of the very few non-political Israeli organisations to gain recognition as an NGO (non-government organisation) at the UN.  SACH's eventual recognition only came about as a result of an extraordinary level of planning and lobbying. Eventually, despite their impeccable application they, unlike other applicants were called back for further questioning. During this latter session the Syrians - who were not even on the committee but were there as an observer - tried to spike the application (despite the fact that SACH is saving Syrian children).

SACH is an incredible and heart-warming example of how Israeli skill and selfless humanitarianism benefits the world. But it is also an incredible example of how much more Israel could do for the world if it was not singled out for such hostility by the very nations who would benefit most from an Israel unburdened by the threats and torments it faces in every aspect of its existence. And it is not just the UN, of course, that creates such problems. While the EU provides some financial support for SACH, this is conditioned on it being spent only on children from the Palestinian Authority. This partly explains the disproportionate numbers mentioned above. But the irony of this is that the EU's stance is inconsistent with SACH's mission statement (that "every child deserves the best medical treatment available, regardless of the child's nationality, religion, color, gender or financial situation"). It also exposes the political racism at the heart of the EU agenda - the notion that Palestinian children are somehow inherently more deserving of life than children from far more deprived countries in Africa for example. But this is something I have reported on many times before (see, e.g., here and here for how the Palestinians receive many more times per capita foreign aid support than any other people in the world despite many countries being far poorer).

The final important point made was that there is a portable exhibition about SACH that is suitable for display in public places. However, unlike many similar exhibitions provided by other oganisations (including anti-Israel groups) which have no trouble finding public places to exhibit, such is the hostility to anything associated with Israel that nowhere in London has agreed to allow SACH to exhibit. So any old Israel demonization will be welcomed in many places in London (as I have blogged about many times) but London is a no go area for anything showing Israel in a positive light.  

Update 24/10/2103: More about SACH at Elder of Ziyon

What the UK media will and will not tell you

Following on from my post about the Muslim victimhood narrative, it is interesting to note that in the last 48 hours alone (see here for more details) the following major events have happened, but have been almost totally ignored by the British media:

• A Muslim woman in Volgograd, Russia detonated an explosives-laden suicide vest on a bus, killing six strangers. 
• A group of Muslim terrorists opened fire at Church wedding in Cairo, Egypt murdering the pastor, two woman and an 8-year-old girl.
• Sixty civilians were murdered at a packed cafe in Baghdad, Iraq when first one Muslim suicide bomber detonated and then another detonated when people rushed to help.
• Over forty motorists were obliterated by a Muslim suicide truck bomber at an agricultural exchange in Hama, Syria. 
• A Palestinian Muslim - whose brother had previously used a bulldozer to attack civilians and motorists in the centre of Jerusalem, used a bulldozer to attack soldiers on an army base near Jerusalem
• Muslim terrorists in Nigeria shot, burned and hacked to death 19 civilians in Nigeria.

Despite 24-hour news channels like BBC News, Sky News and CNN, none of those channels found the time to report on any of the above events in any of their prime time spots. Yet last night and this morning BBC News and Sky News led with the story of  a Ukrainian in the UK who pleaded guilty of murdering a Muslim man and of attacking mosques. This was, of course, a terrible crime. But the wall-to-wall coverage this story has received - with the major focus being on this man's hatred of Muslims and hence pushing the 'Islamaphobia' narrative - should be contrasted not just to the refusal of the main stream media to report on much more serious atrocities by Muslims, but also to their under-reporting of Muslim terrorism and gang crimes in the UK. Thus, the multiple cases of Muslim terrorist cells and Muslim sex-slave gangs are covered up in the sense that the ethnicity of the gangs (if reported at all) is said to be "Asian".

None of the above is coincidental. As reported here today CNN are actually paid by supremacist Islamic regimes to not to report what they consider are 'damaging' stories. The BBC's leftist editors need no external payment to dictate their news agenda since any story of Muslim terrorism simply does not fit well with their "Muslims as victim narrative" and so needs to be obfuscated or not reported at all. As for Sky, ever since Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bought 10% of News Corporation (which owns Sky news) their news coverage has had a biased agenda easily on a par with the BBC (just search "Sky" on this blog for an indication of the extent of this bias in the last 3 years). For the same reason, Britain's most popular newspaper - the Sun (owned by News Corp) - has gone the same way (again just search "Sun" on this blog). That's why NONE of the stories at the start of this article were reported at all in the Sun, but the Ukrainian murderer was given a full page of coverage today.

The incredible irony of what is happening in the UK (and the rest of the Western world) is that if you still rely on the main stream media for your news, then the only way you will get to hear of the regular Muslim terrorist atrocities taking place every day in every part of the world is if you tune in to Al Jazeera.

The ultimate in Muslim victimhood mythology: 'they were victims of the Nazis, just like Jews were'

Another day, another cultural event in London, and (as is standard) another opportunity to demonize Israel. But, for me, the most astonishing exhibit at the "Other Art Fair" in London's Brick Lane was this print by "anonymous guerrilla artist and painter" who goes under the pseudonym Ego Leonard.

Jews, gays, and .... Muslims in concentration camp uniforms - equal victims of the Nazis

There can be no ambiguity in what the artist is claiming here: Jews, gays, and ... Muslims (dressed in concentration camp outfits) were equal victims of the Nazi holocaust. The myth of Muslim victimhood and 'Islamaphobia' is one that is now constantly pushed not just by the Muslim Brotherhood, but even more so by their useful idiot leftist allies, like the 'guerilla artist' here. To cast Muslims as equal victims, when they were actually among the most enthusiastic participants in the Nazi persecution of Jews, takes the myth of Muslim victimhood to a whole new level; and  as with most Muslim propaganda it is a perfect inversion of reality.

Hitler was actually inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood's antisemitism and the Palestinian Arab leader Haj Amin al Husseini was a key ally of Hitler who helped set up Hitler's Muslim SS division, who were active in murdering Jews in Eastern Europe.  Hitler promised al Husseini that he would be allowed to carry out the murder of every Jew in Palestine once the Nazis advanced there, and al Husseini had drawn up detailed plans of the execution programme. And, of course, Arab countries such as Iraq were formally allies of Nazi Germany.

Anyway, just to makes sure that nobody can be in any doubt where the 'guerilla artist' Ego Leonard's true sympathies lie he was also exhibiting a print showing that the Arabs - with the ubiquitous large key - have been the true owners of the land of Palestine 'since the time of Jesus' (a good quality image of this print can be seen on the artist's website here).

Arab with ubiquitous key to Palestine

For an alternative view of this story see here. 

p.s. Unlike Muslims, many gays were persecuted by the Nazis (it is estimated that up to 100,000 were arrested between 1933 and 1945 and that up to 10,000 of these died in concentration camps) . But suggesting that this persecution was equal to that of the Jews could also be considered offensive when you consider that over 33,000 Jews were killed in just 36 hours at Babi Yar, while at Auschwitz 20,000 were killed per day for prolonged periods.

p.p.s (20 October 2013 update). A highly relevant story here today that the Egyptian family of the only Arab to have been honored by Yad Vashem for saving Jews during the holocaust has rejected the honour. And today the Palestinians are proudly flying a Nazi flag over an Israeli throughfare.

Demonization of Israel by left-wing Israelis

I have blogged many times about how extreme leftist Israelis play a major role in the international demonization of Israel (see, e.g. here and here as examples). Often, (as in this example) they do so with the unwitting support of local diaspora communities who assume that "an Israeli speaker" is somebody who will be putting forward a positive, objective view of Israel. Often it is cultural forums (plays, films and even music events) where leftist Israelis are given a platform - again often by unwitting Jewish organisations - to promote their anti-Zionist propaganda.  So, for example, the annual UK Jewish Film Festival is currently taking place with, as in previous years, films by Israeli directors dominated by those with an anti-Zionist narrative.

Particularly depressing is when friends who are pro-Israel, but not particularly well-informed, go to one of these events not even realising that they have been subjected to two hours of anti-Israel propaganda. For example, friends were chuffed to tell us recently they had been to see an Israeli production "Ballard for the Burning Star" at the Edinburgh Festival in August. It turns out that this play is based on the writer's work with the extreme leftist NGO "Breaking the Silence", which was set up to exploit the 'experiences' of anti-Zionist Israelis who had been in the IDF and use it for propaganda to accuse Israel of war crimes. Most of the 'personal stories' have turned out to be either completely made up or grossly exaggerated (see here, here and here).

Sometimes, when confronted with the extremes of anti-Israel bigotry in the West even extreme leftist Israelis finally take a reality check. A very important example of this is the story being told by Hen Mazzig. Daniel Greenfield has a brilliant overview of his story here. This is a must read, not only for its exposure of the depths of anti-Semitism among the supposed Western intelligentsia, but also for Greenfield's exposure of the extent to which some anti-Zionist Israelis (in this case the unhinged Tal Nitzan) have contributed to this anti-Semitism.

18 Oct update: Caroline Glick has posted an especially relevant story about an anti-Israel play by an Israeli here.