Report: Leaked Peace Talks Guidelines Call for International Status for Jerusalem

Ted Koppel says Terrorism is the weapon of the weak. If terrorism is the weapon of the weak, why are society’s weakest its most common victims? (TLV)A Palestinian newspaper published a document Tuesday it claimed to be Palestinian Authority guidelines for the upcoming peace talks with Israel. Published by Palestine Today, an organ of the Islamic Jihad terror group, the list was flagged by anonymous blogger Elder of Ziyon who translated the 10 touchstone points of the talks. The list includes the following key items: Land swaps of roughly 8-10% of the territory of the West Bank; residents in “frozen” settlements will be given the choice of citizenship at the conclusion of the process; Jerusalem will be placed under joint international, Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian rule for ten years with Israelis being given the choice as to their nationality. While it is unclear how the document was leaked, Elder of Ziyon claimed that it could have possibly been from Russian sources. The Palestine Today report also points to Hamas, which is not party to Wednesday’s talks, as being the source of the information.  (EOZ) Were the guidelines for the "peace" talks leaked? (update) Palestine Today, an organ of Islamic Jihad, has been a surprisingly good source for accurate news (that doesn't involve Islamic Jihad.) They published a set of supposed guidelines for the "peace" talks starting this week, and they don't sound like someone's idea of misinformation.  It is expected that negotiations will take 6-9 months and will be based on the following guidelines:

1) Bilateral talks without any preconditions but following the guidelines listed here.
2) Jordan will participate in meetings relating to refugees, Jerusalem and borders where necessary.
3) "The security barrier will establish a security border for the Jewish state and a permanent border for the Palestinian state, subject to change by mutual agreement" (h/t Ali) Not sure what this means unless they are saying that Israel's borders will not go beyond the Green Line, which is strange if there is a land swap.
4) Land swaps of roughly 8-10% of the territory of the West Bank
5) Israel freezes construction on some outposts, but not on existing settlement blocs including Maaleh Adumim, Har Homa, Gilo, Neve Yaakov, Ramat Shlomo, Kiryat Arba, and some others with large populations
6) Residents in the "frozen" settlements will be given the choice of citizenship at the conclusion of the process
7) At the end of the negotiations it will be announced that the conflict is over and there will be full normalization of relations between Israel and all Arab countries announced at an Arab League meeting; Israel recognizing Palestine within the borders mentioned above and Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people
8) At the end of negotiations some Palestinian families will be allowed to re-unite in the WB and Gaza; others will get he right of compensation or immigration to Arab countries, especially Gulf countries, with them being naturalized in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar; not sure about the source of the compensation
9) Jerusalem will be placed under joint international/Palestinian/Israel/Jordanian rule for ten years with Israelis having the choice as to their nationality
10) I think that outstanding issues on specific land issues as well as citizenship issues both within the area and in Gulf countries will be pushed off to committees to speak about in coming years.

Also some details on prisoner releases, Palestinian elections, when the details of the agreement would be made public. It sounds like this document might have been sent to Moscow by Abbas for consultations, and it might have been leaked that way.

Meanwhile.... Hate gives Arabs a collective identity that is far more important than peace is. This story illustrates it in this question posed to an Arab before 1967 by Martha Gellhorn.
"If the position were reversed, if the Jews had started the war and lost it, if you had won the war, would you now accept Partition? Would you give up part of the country and allow the 650,000 Jewish residents of Palestine -who had fled from the war--to come back?" "Certainly not," he said, without an instant's hesitation. "But there would have been no Jewish refugees. They had no place to go. They would all be dead or in the sea."

...as illustrated...

Some went out to kill any Jew that would pass by; others targeted specific civilians. One killed a Holocaust survivor. Another killed an 84 year old man with an axe. Yet another targeted a 51 year old woman in the car where she would give rides to Arab workers. To Israel's "peace partner" Mahmoud Abbas, and to his people, they are heroes.

Agreement Between Jordan, Palestinian Authority Officially Recognizes Jordan's Custodianship Over Jerusalem's Holy Places

(HT: Memri / Other)

Introduction: On March 31, 2013, an agreement that came as a surprise was signed between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Jordan, which solidified Jordan's custodianship of the Islamic holy places in Jerusalem. The daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported that the agreement had been signed in total secrecy in the presence of Jordan's King 'Abdallah II, PA President Mahmoud Abbas, and the PA and Jordanian ministers of religious endowments.

The agreement states that "His Majesty King 'Abdallah II, as the custodian of the Jerusalem holy sites, will exert all possible efforts to preserve [these] sites, especially Al-Haram Al-Sharif [The Al-Aqsa Mosque]… and to represent their interests." The agreement states further that King 'Abdallah is responsible for ensuring respect for the holy places, guaranteeing the Muslims' freedom of movement to and from the sites, ensuring their maintenance and representing their interests in the international arena.

In practice, the Hashemite dynasty in Jordan has had stewardship over the holy places in Jerusalem since 1924. Even after the Six-Day War and Israel's conquest of East Jerusalem, Jordan continued to play a religious role in Jerusalem's holy places via the East Jerusalem Waqf, which it manages.

In 1988 Jordan did disengage itself from the West Bank by "severing its legal and administrative ties" with it, but this disengagement never applied to the holy places in Jerusalem. In 1994 this custodianship was reinforced via a Jordanian declaration that emphasized the kingdom's historic role in Jerusalem's holy places, as well as by the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan where Israel recognizes Jordan's special status in Jerusalem.

In June 2013, Hamas Prime Minister Isma'il Haniya disclosed that Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi plans to hold an international conference in Cairo on the issue of Jerusalem. He added that the issue of Jerusalem was prominent in talks that took place this month in Cairo between Mursi and Hamas representatives, and also in talks between the heads of Hamas and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan.

The liberal website elaph.com assessed that Mursi has decided to convene the conference in response to the PA-Jordan agreement and with the aim of circumventing it, and that this move could negatively affect Egypt-Jordan relations.

The agreement, then, does not alter the decades-long status quo, under which the Jordanian Waqf manages the affairs of Jerusalem's Islamic holy places in coordination with Israel. Nevertheless, the agreement reinforces Jordan's status in the holy places in a manner that may restrict Israel's freedom of action in Jerusalem.

As the agreement does not constitute a tangible change to the status quo, what then were the motivations for its signing? This report will review these motivations as presented by Palestinian and Jordanian senior officials, commentators and journalists, and they include the desire to step up Jordanian-Palestinian coordination in order to "save" Jerusalem from "The city's Judaization and settlement construction within it"; bypass various parties such as Qatar, Hamas and the Islamic Movement in Israel, who are attempting to usurp Jordan and the PA's role vis-à-vis the holy sites; prepare the ground for a PA-Jordan confederation, and the US intention to reinforce Jordan's role in future negotiations between Israel and the PA.Read the full report here.

'Moderate' Abu Mazen accuses Israel of 'judaizing' Jerusalem

(Carl)In a speech to an Arab League meeting in Qatar on Tuesday, 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen accused Israel of 'Judaizing' Jerusalem.

“The Israeli occupation is systematically and continuously working toward Judaizing east Jerusalem,” Abbas told the Arab heads of state.

He said that Israel was also seeking to change the character of the city and expel it Palestinian residents and assault Islamic and Christian holy sites.

Abbas urged the Arabs and Muslims to go to the United Nations and other international organizations to stop Israel from pursuing its “destructive scheme.”

Abbas also sought the help of the Arab and Islamic countries in putting pressure on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners, whom he described as “brave.”

He claimed that the prisoners were being subjected to “grave violations.”

Abbas hailed Qatar’s announcement that it would establish a special fund for Jerusalem with a $1 billion budget to support the Arab residents of the city and foil Israel’s attempts to “Judaize” east Jerusalem.

(WELL THIS IS BULLSHIT)

#Obama unblocks frozen funds so #PalestinianAuthority can receive another HALF BILLION from the US taxpayer #UPDATED

the President has his priorities straight? The 'sequester' is cutting control towers at 149 airports, but priorities man, priorities. The 'Palestinian Authority' really needs their aid money for those terrorist salaries.

(h/t OTHER) HUSSEIN Obama 'admin' unblocks frozen funds so Palestinian Authority can receive $500mn in aid.(RT).The US has unblocked almost $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority as it faces its worst economic crisis in years. The move comes months after Congress froze Palestinian aid in response to its bid for non-member observer status at the UN.
“To date, we have moved $295.7 million in fiscal year 2012 money…and $200 million in fiscal year 2013 assistance,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
The first sum comprises around $195.7 million, allocated under the 2012 fiscal year budget for US Agency for International Development (USAID) economic, development and humanitarian assistance, as well as a further $100 million allocated to narcotics control.
The second sum of $200 million will come under the 2013 budget and be spent for direct budget support.
The news was announced after US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a visit to Israel and the West Bank earlier this week. It was Obama’s first trip to the region since taking office in 2009.
During a meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Thursday, Obama reportedly asked the leader to refrain from turning to the International Criminal Court.“for any reason,” including settlement expansion, the Times of Israel reported.
Abbas previously stated that he would turn to the court if Israel began to build in the controversial E1 corridor that connects East Jerusalem with the West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim, but would wait two months before doing so, London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported.
Israel announced its plans to build in the area after Abbas’ move for a UN status upgrade.

reward for bad behavior: your money

President Obama's State Department announced on Friday that the President has quietly released some $500 million in aid money to the 'Palestinian Authority' over the last couple of weeks (Hat Tip: Sooper Mexican via Bad Blue / Carl).

QUESTION: Can I ask on Palestinian aid? There’s reporting out of the region that the funds have actually been unblocked kind of a bit quietly over the last couple of weeks, the 200 million that was held up in Congress, and that’s now been received by the Palestinian Authority.

MS. NULAND: Jo, I don’t – I’m just finding it here. I did go through this about a week ago in some detail. I can do it again for you. To date, we have moved $295.7 million in Fiscal Year 2012 money, 200 million of that – see, this – numbers don’t – oh, and 200 million in Fiscal Year 2013 assistance. So breaking that down again, 200 million in FY2013 ESF money was direct budget support for the Palestinian Authority; 195.7 million in FY12 Economic Support money went for development and humanitarian assistance implemented by USAID; 100 million in FY2012 for International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement; and then in February – at the end of February we notified Congress about another 200 million that we’d like to move.

QUESTION: So you’ve moved the 295 --

MS. NULAND: Total of 295.7 in FY12 and 200 in FY13. Why don’t we go through it again afterwards if you need to?

QUESTION: That’s been moved, okay.

MS. NULAND: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: And then 200 is still – you want another further 200?

MS. NULAND: Correct. We’ve notified.

Palestinian Authority Welcomed Obama With Communist Song

(frontpagemag.com)Obama’s arrival in Ramallah began with a really horrible musical rendition of the National Anthem, then it continued with a bad rendition of the terrorist national anthem pledging eternal war against the Jews whose music was composed by a Greek leftist who claimed that Jews run everything.
And then just to make matters worse, as noted by Maria Meylikhova, the Palestinian band launches into Polyushko Pole aka Meadowlands, a song about the Russian Civil War between the Reds and Whites.
The lyrics for Polyushko Pole come from Viktor Gusev’s “A Poem about a Komsomol Soldier”. The Komsomol was the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League. The music for Polyushko Pole was composed by Lev Kniper, an NKVD agent, a predecessor of the KGB.
The lyrics include such lines as “The heroes ride over the field/Hey, the heroes of the Red Army” and “Hey, while on the collective farms/The work is efficiently progressing.”
The music has gone around and been used in a number of other places since then, but it’s still a startling choice to greet the head of the American government.
But then again it might be one of the few things that Obama and Abbas have in common. Abbas was a graduate of the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow aka the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. And Obama has his own Red background. An old Communist song playing while Obama shakes hands with the leaders of terrorist groups started up with KGB input and guidance is just one of those subtle bonding references.

Double standards define Obama's Demand on Israel

Daled Amos: Obama Demands Netanyahu Form Coalition, While Abbas In 9th Year of 4 Year Term
The Times of Israel reports ‘Obama will cancel visit if no new Israeli coalition by March 16′:
President Barack Obama will call off his imminent visit to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not managed to form a new governing coalition by March 16, an Israeli television report claimed on Thursday night.

Obama is due to arrive in Israel on March 20 for a working visit, his first as president. March 16 is the legal deadline for Netanyahu to successfully complete coalition negotiations, or inform Israel’s state president, Shimon Peres, that he has failed to do so.
While one can certainty understand that Obama would want to meet and do business with the newly established official government of the country he is going to visit -- such concerns do not seem arise when Obama meets with "Palestinian" President Abbas

'Palestinian Authority' increasing violence ahead of Obama visit

Khaled Abu Toameh reports that the 'Palestinian Authority' is orchestrating an increase in violence ahead of President Obama's visit in the hope that it will cause Obama to extract concessions from Israel (as if he needs any incentive to do that).

Although the Palestinian Authority probably does not want an all-out confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis at this stage, some Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah believe that a "mini-intifada" would serve the Palestinians' interests, especially on the eve of Obama's visit.

The officials hope that scenes of daily clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the West Bank will prompt Obama to exert pressure on the Israeli government to make far-reaching concessions to the Palestinian Authority.

This is why the Palestinian Authority leadership has been encouraging its constituents lately to wage a "popular intifada" against Israel, each time finding another excuse to initiate confrontations between Palestinians and Israel.

Now the Palestinian Authority is using the issue of Palestinian prisoners who are on hunger strike in Israeli prisons as an excuse to call for street protests and clashes with the Israel Defense Forces.

In recent days, dozens of Palestinian protesters have been injured in clashes with IDF soldiers in various parts of the West Bank. The protests are being held in solidarity with four hunger-strikers.

Before that, the Palestinian Authority used the issue of settlements as an accuse to call for widespread protests in the West Bank.

Before that, the Palestinian Authority leadership encouraged Palestinians to protest against Israeli "plans" to destroy the Aqsa Mosque and replace it with the Third Temple.

By encouraging a "popular intifada," the Palestinian Authority leadership is hoping to bring the Palestinian issue back to the top of the agenda of the US Administration and Israel.

The 'Palestinians' are also considering encouraging demonstrations against Obama while he is here in order to increase the pressure. In the meantime, with Obama arriving just a few days before Passover, Jews are likely to be too preoccupied to demonstrate en masse against Obama (Passover is one of two Jewish holidays nearly every Israeli Jew celebrates, even if they are totally secular the rest of the year).
Read the whole thing. 

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Think of Obama as the Pharaoh this year... Remember what the prophet Jeremiah said about getting in league with Egypt

In case you've ever wondered, the Palestinians have their own passports

scrapping the old "Palestinian Authority" logo is as far as Abbas is willing to go in provoking Israel. He is not rushing to change passports and ID cards Palestinians need to pass through Israeli crossings.

Bennett Reminds Peres: Oslo Killed 1,600 Israelis

Naftali Bennett, who heads the Bayit Yehudi (merged Jewish Home-National Union) slate of Knesset candidates, reminded President Shimon Peres Monday that the Oslo Accords “brought us more than 1,600 murdered Israelis.”

(Medics remove bodies of 'Oslo War' victims)

Responding to the President’s controversial remarks on political issues in the middle of the election campaign, Bennett stated, “Enough, already. The President of the country is supposed to represent all of the country, not just a part of it.”
Peres said on Sunday that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas wants peace and is the only man with whom Israel can sign an agreement.
“Mr. President, it is clear that your intentions were good, but that does not make any difference. The time has come for some soul searching. Perhaps giving land to our enemies does not work?
“Perhaps you are mistaken? It is reasonable to have a Palestinian Authority country that will rain thousands of missiles on Tel Aviv?”
Bennett recalled that the Arab public in Judea, Samaria and Gaza went to the polls eight years ago and “elected a legislature with a decisive majority for Hamas – 57 percent of the legislature. Hamas – which calls for the destruction of Israel. With them, you want to make peace?”
Abbas’ Fatah party is in the midst of reconciliation with the rival Hamas terrorist organization, and Hamas has allowed Fatah to hold on Friday its first public rally in Gaza in six years, to mark the founding of the terrorist party founded by Yasser Arafat.
Bennett said Peres should stop saying that “there is no alternative” other than to accept to Abbas’ demands for a Palestinian Authority state.
"There is an alternative – sovereignty over Area 'C' with citizenship for Arabs,” Bennett said, referring to the areas of Judea and Samaria that include all of the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria of approximately 300,000 and only 4% of PA Arabs..
Bennett reminded Peres, “The bottom line is that public elected the government of Israel, and you have no right to advance policies that are surrounded by deep differences of opinion."

via israelnationalnews.com

"I Go to Sleep Fatah and Wake Up Hamas"

(
Palestinian Hamas lawmaker Nayef Rajoub, right, holds hands with Fateh leader Jibril Rajoub, upon his release in Dura near Hebron, June 20, 2010. (AP/Nasser Shiyoukhi))

Anat Berko

"In our hearts, we are all Hamas..." — Veteran member of Fatah

Contrary to what many people think, there is no profound division between Fatah and Hamas. Palestinians often shuttle from one to the other; members of the same family belong to different groups. Jibril Rajoub, for example, is often interviewed by the Israeli media as representing Fatah (Palestinian Authority), while his brother, Naif, was a minister in the de-facto Hamas administration.
Before 2007, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and suppressed the Fatah presence there, there was a considerable amount of back-and-forth between the organizations. On one occasion a Fatah operative in jail smiled and said he found it hard to say which organization he belonged to. "There are days," he said, "when I go to sleep Fatah and wake up Hamas..."

Last week, masses of people marched through the streets of the West Bank holding green signs with Hamas slogans, all with Fatah's blessing, and chanting, "death to the Jews," and "death to Israel." As one veteran Fatah member said, "In our hearts we are all Hamas."
Mahmoud Abbas's so-called "pragmatism" is music to Western ears, but not to the Arabs'.
Thus, when he came back from the UN with the title of "president of Palestine" in his pocket, he allowed Hamas and others to hold parades and rallies, released Hamas prisoners, and has given instructions that those planning terrorist attacks against Israel are to be left to do as they please.
Today the Palestinian Authority can barely stay afloat, and every mass march organized to palliate Hamas can slide into factional Palestinian violence and anti-Israeli terrorism.
Hamas, with the help recently and willingly given it by Mahmoud Abbas, will take over, just as it took over the Gaza Strip. Israel can never accept a radical Islamist emirate in the West Bank of the sort Hamas has created in the Gaza Strip, any more than Paris, London or Washington could accept al-Qaeda or the Taliban in Monaco, Wales or Virginia.
This time, no one can promise that Israeli soldiers will continue to act as bodyguards for Palestinian leaders when their lives are threatened. That movie, which we have all seen, is no longer playing.

Dr. Anat Berko, a visiting professor at George Washington University and a research fellow at the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, is the author of The Smarter Bomb: Women and Children as Suicide Bombers.

via docstalk.blogspot.com

Abbas to UN: Let Palestinians in Syria enter W. Bank, Gaza

PA president appeals to UN to intervene, allow thousands of Palestinians from Syria to enter W. Bank, Gaza to escape fighting.

(....wait... why not let them into Jordan...oh right! because the Palestinians are nothing but tools)

Photo: REUTERS/Jamal Saidi

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday called on the UN to intervene to allow thousands of Palestinians from Syria to enter the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Abbas’s appeal came after thousands of Palestinians from the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus fled in recent days to Lebanon because of the fighting between the Syrian army and rebel forces.

via jpost.com

Earlier this week, dozens of Palestinians were killed when Syrian jets fired rockets at the camp.
The Syrian authorities said they attacked the camp after hundreds of “terrorists” entered it in the past few days.
Abbas said that the Palestinians do not intervene in the internal affairs of Syria or any other Arab country.
However, a radical PLO member group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, has been fighting alongside the Syrian army against the rebels, according to Palestinian sources.
The sources said that more than 700 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the crisis in Syria, home to nearly 500,000 Palestinians.
Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf said that his faction was prepared to receive the Palestinian refugees if Israel allows them to enter the West Bank.
“This is a sacred right and an urgent humanitarian case,” Assaf said. He was speaking during a sit-in strike in Ramallah in solidarity with the Palestinians of Syria.
He said that 90 percent of the camp’s residents have fled their homes in the past few days because of the fighting.
PLO leaders in the West Bank have accused the Syrian authorities of perpetrating massacres against the Palestinians.
Click for full JPost coverage
The leaders accused the PFLP-GC, which is headed by Ahmed Jibril, of “selling itself to the devil” by directing its weapons against fellow Palestinians.
Jibril denied that he and his family had fled to Lebanon or Iran.
He told reporters that some 400 militiamen belonging to the Syrian opposition were now in control of the Yarmouk camp. He said that he instructed his followers to withdraw from the camp to avoid further bloodshed.
Jibril reiterated his support for the Syrian government, which, he added, is facing a “conspiracy to topple the regime.”
On Wednesday, another 60 Palestinian families from the Yarmouk camp crossed the border into Lebanon to escape the fighting.
More than 2,000 Palestinians have fled from Syria to Lebanon since the beginning of the week.

Tens of Thousands of Judea and Samaria Hamas Loyalists Have Launched the Third Intifada

Abbas and Hamas have decided for now to lay their differences aside and work towards escalating tensions on the ground, particularly in Judea and Samaria.

By: Khaled Abu Toameh

In fact, in the past few days, the third intifada has already begun, as violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers have increased in various parts of Judea and Samaria.
Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters have taken to the streets of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron and Tulkarem to celebrate the event, the first of its kind since the Islamist movement expelled the Palestinian Authority from the Gaza Strip in 2007.
Since then, in Judea and Samaria, the Palestinian Authority had been cracking down on Hamas, arresting hundreds of its supporters and members and closing down dozens of institutions belonging to the movement.
In recent weeks, however, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has apparently decided to endorse a new strategy towards Hamas. He now considers Hamas a political ally rather than an enemy.
The change came immediately after the Israeli military offensive against Hamas in mid-November.
The rapprochement between Abbas and Hamas reached its peak before and after the UN General Assembly vote in favor of upgrading the Palestinians’ status to non-member observer state in late November.
Both Abbas and Hamas see the two events — the war in the Gaza Strip and the UN vote — as “historic achievements” and military and political victories over Israel.
Emboldened by the “victories,” Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal recently reached a secret agreement on the need to launch a “popular intifada” against Israel in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources in Ramallah revealed.
The two men believe that such an intifada at this stage would further isolate Israel and earn the Palestinians even more sympathy in the international arena, the sources said.
Abbas and Mashaal are aware, the sources noted, that the Palestinians are now not ready for another military confrontation with Israel — neither in the West Bank nor in the Gaza Strip.
That is why the two men agreed that the best and only option facing the Palestinians these days is a “popular intifada” that would see Palestinian youths engage in daily confrontations with Israeli soldiers and settlers, especially in Judea and Samaria.
Abbas and Mashaal want an uprising similar to the first intifada, which erupted in 1987, when Palestinians mainly used stones and firebombs against soldiers and settlers, and refrained from launching terror attacks inside Israel.
Yet Abbas and Mashaal seem to disagree on the ultimate goal of the “popular intifada.”
While Abbas is hoping that daily clashes between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli soldiers will force Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines, including east Jerusalem, Mashaal and his Hamas movement are hoping that the uprising would lead to the “liberation of all Palestine, from the Jordan river to the sea.”
Abbas and Hamas have decided for now to lay their differences aside and work towards escalating tensions on the ground, particularly in Judea and Samaria. Representatives of the two parties have been holding “reconciliation” talks in Cairo during the past few weeks in a bid to agree on a new strategy against Israel.
Their goal is to drag Israel into a confrontation with Palestinian civilians — one that would embarrass the Israelis among the international community and force them to capitulate.
This article was slightly edited and originally published at the Gatestone Institute. 

via jewishpress.com

88 percent of Palestinians believe armed struggle is the best way to achieve independence

(timesofisrael.com)For first time since 2006, more West Bank Palestinians favor Hamas’s political strategy over Fatah’s, poll finds
For the first time since 2006, more West Bank Palestinians support the political approach of Hamas as opposed to that of Fatah and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, a new poll shows. And an overwhelming majority of Palestinians believe the results of the latest Hamas-Israel escalation that included Operation Pillar of Defense — Israel’s eight-day operation against terror targets in Gaza last month — prove that the armed struggle represents the best path to Palestinian independence.
The poll, conducted earlier this month by the Arab World Research and Development (AWRAD), a Ramallah-based research center, sampled 1,200 Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank. It set out to examine political opinions among Palestinians following Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza and Mahmoud Abbas’s successful UN nonmember statehood bid.
While both events are overwhelmingly viewed as positive by Palestinians, adding popularity to both Palestinian factions, 42% of West Bank respondents said they preferred the approach of Hamas to that of Fatah, as opposed to only 28% who preferred Fatah’s approach.
Interestingly, more Gazans, 40%, said they preferred Fatah’s approach to that of Hamas, which rules over them. Thirty-seven percent of Gazans said Hamas’s approach was better.
While Abbas tends to favor a two-state solution reached by negotiations, Hamas — recognized internationally as a terrorist group — refuses to recognize Israel and vows eternal Jihad against the Jewish “infidels” who reside here.
An overwhelming 88% of the entire sample believed that the result of Operation Pillar of Defense proved that armed struggle is the best means of achieving Palestinian independence.
Another trend revealed by the poll is a sharp decline in support for negotiations with Israel among West Bank residents.
In May 2011, 59% of West Bank residents supported an immediate return to negotiations with Israel. That number dropped to 52% in May 2012, but declined sharply to 43% in the most recent poll. Meanwhile, support for negotiations remained largely stable in the Gaza Strip at around 50%.
Hillel Frisch, an expert on Palestinian politics at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University, said he was not surprised with the results of the poll, given Hamas’s perceived victory in Operation Pillar of Defense and Israel’s recent decision to withhold tax money collected on behalf of the PA.
“Palestinians are becoming more frustrated and losing hope in negotiations,” Frisch told The Times of Israel. “They may turn to Hamas not because it’s Hamas, but because it’s the movement that opposes negotiations with Israel.”
For the first time since 2006, the Palestinian Authority allowed pro-Hamas demonstrations to take place last week across the West Bank in celebration of the movement’s 25th anniversary.

Hypocritical condolences from Abbas to Obama on school shooting

From Ma'an:

President Mahmoud Abbas wrote to US President Barack Obama on Saturday to offer his condolences after a shooting in an American elementary school killed 26 people.

Interesting.
In 1974, the Palestinian Arabs innovated the idea of attacking a school and killing students. From Wikipedia:

The Ma'alot massacre[1] was a terrorist attack in 1974 which included a two-day hostage-taking of 115 people which ended in the deaths of over 25 hostages. It began when three armed Palestinian terrorists of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine[2] entered Israel from Lebanon. Soon afterwards they attacked a van, killing two Israeli Arab women while injuring a third and entered an apartment building in the town of Ma'alot, where they killed a couple and their four-year-old son.[3] From there, they headed for the Netiv Meir elementary school, where they took more than 115 people (including 105 children) hostage on 15 May 1974, in Ma'alot. Most of the hostages were teenagers from a high school in Safad on a Gadna field trip spending the night in Maalot. The hostage-takers soon issued demands for the release of 23 Palestinian militants from Israeli prisons, or else they would kill the students. On the second day of the standoff, a unit of the Golani Brigade stormed the building. During the takeover, the hostage-takers killed the children with grenades and automatic weapons. Ultimately, 25 hostages, including 22 children, were killed and 68 more were injured.

Yes, Abbas' brave Palestinian fighters murdered more children in a school than Adam Lanza did on Friday.
(A month earlier another group of Palestinian Arab terrorists stormed a school but it was a holiday. They still managed to kill 8 children, though.)
On January 1, Fatah - which Abbas heads - will celebrate an anniversary. But it is not the anniversary of Fatah's founding - no one celebrates that - but the anniversary of the first terror attack by Fatah, in 1964.
The official PA TV still celebrates massacres against Israeli civilians and the terrorists who were behind them. Today.
Abbas claims to the West that he is against terror, but the actions of his own party and his own government show that praising terror attacks is part of the Palestinian Arab culture. Abbas himself has praised terrorists, including child-killers.
The fact is that you will be hard pressed to find a Palestinian Arab leader that would condemn the Ma'alot attack in 1974, or is the slightest bit embarrassed by it.
Abbas' "condolences" ring very, very hollow.

via elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il

Abbas' lie of the day: "Hamas recognizes Israel"

From YNet:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blasted Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal for asserting that his group will never recognize Israel, hinting that the statement hinders the chances of the two-state solution, according to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet.

“I don’t agree with Khaled Mashaal’s statement on the non-recognition of Israel because we, in fact, recognized it in 1993,” Abbas told reporters in Ankara at the conclusion of a two-day visit. “A four-article agreement between (Fatah and Hamas) stipulates a two-state vision. And Mashaal approved of this agreement."

So what is this four-article agreement that Hamas signed that accepted a two-state solution?

Apparently, it is not the 2011 Cairo agreement, which has five articles, but it is the 2007 Mecca national-unity agreement between the two.

Here is the full text:

Based on the generous initiative announced by Saudi King Abdullah Ben Abdul Aziz and under the sponsorship of his majesty, Fatah and Hamas Movements held in the period February 6–8, 2007 in Holy Mecca the dialogues of Palestinian conciliation and agreement and these dialogues, thanks to God, ended with success and an agreement was reached on the following:

First: to stress on banning the shedding of the Palestinian blood and to take all measures and arrangements to prevent the shedding of the Palestinian blood and to stress on the importance of national unity as basis for national steadfastness and confronting the occupation and to achieve the legitimate national goals of the Palestinian people and adopt the language of dialogue as the sole basis for solving the political disagreements on the Palestinian arena.
Within this context, we offer gratitude to the brothers in Egypt and the Egyptian security delegation in Gaza who exerted tremendous efforts to calm the conditions in Gaza Strip in the past period.

Second: Final agreement to form a Palestinian national unity government according to a detailed agreement ratified by both sides and to start on an urgent basis to take the constitutional measures to form this government.

Third: to move ahead in measures to activate and reform the PLO and accelerate the work of the preparatory committee based on the Cairo and Damascus Understandings.
It has been agreed also on detailed steps between both sides on this issue.

Fourth: to stress on the principle of political partnership on the basis of the effective laws in the PNA and on the basis of political pluralism according to an agreement ratified between both parties.

We gladly announce this agreement to our Palestinian masses and to the Arab and Islamic nation and to all our friends in the world. We stress on our commitment to this agreement in text and spirit so that we can devote our time to achieve our national goals and get rid of the occupation and regain our rights and devote work to the main files, mainly Jerusalem, the refugees, the Aqsa Mosque, the prisoners and detainees and to confront the wall and settlements.

Apparently, Abbas is claiming that the fourth paragraph binds Hamas to existing PNA laws which implicitly accept Israel (it is the PLO that accepted Israel, that is out of the scope of what the PA can do.)

This agreement has been abrogated numerous times since it was signed, and in fact the Hamas uprising that cut Gaza off from the West Bank - with scores killed - occurred only a few months after this agreement.

Obviously, Hamas never interpreted this agreement, nor the Cairo agreement, the way Abbas pretends they do. Hamas has explicitly and repeatedly stressed that it will never accept Israel's existence.

So which do you believe - a strained interpretation of intentionally vague language that doesn't even mention anything about a two-state solution or Israel itself, of Hamas' explicit daily threats to destroy Israel?

The entire purpose of Abbas' lies is to try to convince the West that the split between the two parties is nothing, really, and that they are really unified.

In fact, if they agree on anything, it is that Israel must be destroyed - they just disagree on the timing and tactics. (And sometimes, Fatah leaders seem to agree more with Hamas on even those.)

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

if we believe that Fatah accepts a Jewish Israel then we have to accept that Hamas does... because the reality is neither do. don't let the truth stop all of us being completely oblivious. actually... being oblivious isn't enough in the long run. Being dead is more politically correct then a two state delusion.

Obama Promises Terrorists That He Will Stop Israeli House Construction

Daniel Greenfield


There’s still no promise from Obama to Egyptians that his good buddy Morsi will call off his rape and torture squads. No promise to Israelis that the Palestinian Authority will end its terrorism. But Obama has promised its kingpin that he will stop the Jewish State from building any more of those lethally lethal Jewish houses.
Jordanian King Abdullah II conveyed U.S. assurances to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Washington will not allow a new Israeli settlement plan to pass, a Palestinian official said Thursday.
The United States will put pressure on Israel to cancel a recent building plan, in exchange for not starting the Palestinian efforts to join UN agencies, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

King Abdullah II, the first head of state to visit the Palestinian territories after the UN vote, told Abbas that U.S. President Barak Obama’s administration will not impose sanctions on the Palestinian National Authority.

So Obama will blackmail Israel with a Palestinian state in the name of a Palestinian state. That’s a plan so stupid that it’s bound to work.
The Palestinian Authority’s terror squads fired 516 rockets into Israel. It is participating in Hamas’ 25th Anniversary celebrations. It made a major unilateral move at the United Nations. And not only won’t Obama stop giving money to terrorists, but he intends to help these terrorists pressure Israel not to build homes for Jews. No similar pressure is of course being imposed on the Palestinian Authority.
So tell me how Obama is pro-Israel again. And skip the Iron Dome funding. The Iron Dome is the main reason why Israel didn’t go into Gaza and dismantle Hamas. It’s pain management technology that helps make increased levels of terrorism viable without an increased Israeli response.

via docstalk.blogspot.com

PA bid: Israel threatens to topple Abbas

(ynetnews.com)A Foreign Ministry draft position paper states that should the Palestinian Authority receive the status of a non-member state at the United Nations, the only viable option would be "to overthrow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas." The paper, drafted ahead of the Palestinians' November 29 UN bid, said that "a soft response would be tantamount to an Israeli admission that it cannot handle the challenge."

Related Stories:

• FM: Abbas doesn't represent anyone anymore
• PA to present UN bid on Nov. 29
• US, EU urge Abbas to postpone UN bid

The document further reveals that Abbas has serious concerns that he will meet the same fate as Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and ousted Tunisian leader Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali.

"In addition, the Saudis are accusing him of lack of efficiency and corruption," the paper said.

"Several Gulf states are also angry with Abbas for his removal of Mohammed Dahlan who is trying to convince Arab leaders that Abu Mazen is no longer relevant. As a result he has lost the support of important patrons in the Arab world." 

FM: Abbas doesn't represent anyone anymore
US, EU urge Abbas to postpone UN bid

The document further reveals that Abbas has serious concerns that he will meet the same fate as Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, former Mohammed Dahlan who is trying to convince Arab leaders that Abu Mazen is no longer relevant. As a result he has lost the support of important patrons in the Arab world."

However, the Foreign Ministry also recommended offering the PA some rewards.

Sex scandal, 'Palestinian' style

'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen has put the kaboshes on an investigation into a sex scandal involving one of his ministers until he returns from the United Nations General Assembly in New York (where he is due to speak on Thursday). The 'Palestinians' are already accusing 'people opposed to our statehood bid' of being behind the scandal, even though Abu Mazen has supposedly promised President Obama that he would not bring up the statehood bid until after the US elections on November 6.

Mahmoud al-Aloul, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, said the scandal was part of a scheme designed to foil Abbas’s renewed statehood bid.

Ghazali quoted Abbas as telling two senior PA officials who presented him with details of the sex scandal as saying: “Close the case until I return from the US because this is a sensitive time and we are facing elections. If the public learns about it, we will lose the presidential and municipal election. We already have enough scandals and don’t need more.”

The scandal erupted after a Palestinian woman complained that Hussein Sheikh, a top Fatah official who serves as PA Civilian Affairs Minister, harassed her sexually and tried to bribe her and her husband.

The woman, who works in Sheikh’s ministry, said the minister summoned her to his office on the pretext that he wanted her to help fix a computer.

Ghazali said that the woman, who is married and has two children, spat in the minister’s face after he tried to force himself on her while the two were alone in his office.

According to Ghazali, the minister later sent her a number of SMS messages to her mobile phone in which he continued to harass her sexually.

The woman’s husband, Ahmed Abu Alam, 30, also works in the ministry and is a former commander of Fatah’s armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

Upon hearing from his wife about Sheikh’s behavior, the furious husband stormed the minister’s office carrying a pistol, but did not find him, Ghazali said.

According to the investigative journalist, Sheikh later offered the husband $10,000 and a promise of promotion for him and his wife in return for their silence.

Abu Alam said he and his wife filed a complaint against Sheikh with various PA security forces in Ramallah and members of the Fatah Central Committee, but to no avail.

He added that he also provided the security forces and Fatah leaders with evidence implicating the minister, including the text messages and the cash.

The husband said that he and his wife have since been facing a campaign of threats and intimidation to force them to withdraw their complaint.

Last week, Abu Alam and his two brothers, Nasser and Muhammad, were detained for four hours by the PA’s Military Intelligence Force in Ramallah.

Upon his release, Abu Alam went to Abbas’s office and demanded to talk to the PA president. “I was told that he had traveled to the US,” the husband said.

 The Abu Alam's have fled to Jordan. A curse on their house and Sheikh's. Heh.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Abu Mazen: Cancel the bluff?

Over the holiday, it was announced that 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen proposed canceling the bluff known as the Oslo Accords (Hat Tip: Memorandum).

Palestinian Authority head, Mahmoud Abbas, proposed cancelling the Oslo Accords with Israel at a weekend meeting of the PA leadership, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) told AFP on Tuesday.

PLO Executive Committee member Wassel Abu Yusef said Abbas raised the idea of "cancelling the Oslo agreement as well as the associated economic and security arrangements," at the meeting on Saturday and Sunday.

Abu Yusef said that "members of the Palestinian leadership had mixed opinions on the issue, and it was decided to postpone any decision until their next meeting," due to be held after Abbas's return from the UN General Assembly later this month. "It was the first time the Palestinian leadership put the issue of the Oslo agreement on the table since it was signed in 1993," Abu Yusef added.

Well, so much for having a 'permanent' agreement with the 'Palestinians.' Does this mean that they expect us to reassume control over all of Judea and Samaria? I'm game. Send the IDF back in to control them.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

How media condition people to be anti-Israel

Steve Apfel..
Times of Israel..
11 June '12..
Consider this lofty statement on media conduct from Jovial Rantao, the editor of The Sunday Independent in Johannesburg:

Credibility is the lifeblood of our profession. Without it we are nothing. Without it, not one person will believe a single word that we write. One of the basic tenets of our profession is to ensure that the credibility of the information we gather…is unquestionable.” (Editor of a newspaper group)

If you follow a clutch of anti-Israel titles, including Guardian, the Times of London, The New York Times, and the BBC, you will know that the statement is wrong. Their Middle East reporters and correspondents care not a jot for credibility of information. Yet they are believed. What accounts for this anomaly?
The answer lies in something the statement failed to consider. Journalists not only report news, they also make news, or at the very lease participate in making news.

Before illustrating how they do that, we have to understand that a journalist can function in two different ways:

- 1. He can faithfully report what he observed and heard.
- 2. Alternatively, he can insert “attitude” in the report, allowing it to color, embellish or even create a story.

The first journalist is the one Rantao’s statement had in mind – the guy without attitude. There are no personal judgements in his report, no inclination to share feelings, and no desire to influence readers to share his feelings. The second journalist would do all of those things.
To illustrate both types, here are two reports on war. They are different wars in different periods, one in Afghanistan, the other in Libya. But we are interested in contrasting reporting styles, not their contexts. The first report was filed by Christian Lowe of Reuters.

The pattern of Nato airstrikes on Tripoli indicates that the alliance is trying to reduce Gaddafi’s ability to defend himself at the moment when his opponents, who for the time being are underground, decide to rise up.”

The credibility of the information is unquestionable, and the report meets the lofty statement of conduct.
Here’s the second report, again from a war zone, filed by Robert Fisk of Independent.

Sure it was a bad place for a car to break down. But what happened to us was symbolic of the hatred and fury and hypocrisy of this filthy war.

We at once know that we’re reading no observational report. Whatever purpose the writer may have, it’s not to report news. He conveys a personal attitude while not admitting to his attitude. He could equally have written, “I hate this war,” which would be stating a bald fact, not about events, but concerning his attitude toward events. We would know that he personally disapproved of the war, while not finding ourselves drawn into sharing his disapproval.
That’s clearly not the case here. The reporter, in the grip of strong emotion, gives us the benefit of his judgment and forces us to share that judgement. He hates war and so must we. The purpose of journalism of this type is quite different from journalism intended to relay a story.
The cases to follow might not be so obviously and nakedly emotional, yet all belong to the second type of journalism. They want us to share the writer’s feelings. More than reporting news, they make the news.
The case of grammar
Two Reuters reports, on the same day, deal quite differently with an act by Islamic pirates on the one hand and a US military operation on the other. We may call the first the passive case and the other the active case.
Under the headline “Achille Lauro mastermind in custody,” we read:

[Abu] Abbas is the leader of the Palestine Liberation Front, which highjacked the Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean, resulting in the death of a disabled elderly American man, Leon Klinghoffer.

Observe the passive case: “resulting in the death” – as if by some regrettable accident. In the film “The Pianist,” there’s a scene where Nazi troops storm into a Jewish apartment and order the family to its feet. The wheelchair-bound grandfather is unable to rise, so the Nazis carry him in the chair out to the balcony and dump both into the street far below. Change the apartment into a ship and the street into the sea and you have what took place on board the Achille Lauro. Abu Abbas (not to be confused with PA President Mahmoud Abbas) and his band carried the elderly man in his wheelchair to the ship’s side and dumped both overboard
Reuters not only omits these facts but alludes to a regrettable and unintended accident. And there is a further attempt to influence our opinions. The victim was “an elderly American man.” In fact he was an elderly Jew, which the very reason that Abbas and his band selected him to be murdered. They identified him as a Jew. Reuters did not want us to know this.
In the same wire service we read:

A senior US military officer said…he would launch an investigation into the killing by US soldiers of an Iraqi boy…

We may observe here the active case, “killing by American soldiers…” While the Islamic act leads (softly) to the death of a man, the act of Americans is a violent one, to kill.
The case of cauliflower man
What would it take for news of someone killed by a bulldozer to make the front page, not of a tabloid, but of a broadsheet for the serious-minded? And what would be the chance of this event making the front page if it happened in a distant country? To lengthen the odds, what if the story had no corpse to show for it? To make the odds even longer, what if the victim was no celebrity or VIP, but an ordinary citizen?
Yet it all came together, in Independent. Justin Huggler’s story was about how citizen Salem met his end.
Why was Mr. Salem front-page news? For one thing, he was a Palestinian. For another, he was a victim of Israel. Who was it who told Justin Huggler the story? The dead man’s son and daughter.
“Old” – that was the first adjective to stir emotions for the dead man. He was old. While on this tack, what more to wring out of the tragedy? What deeper emotion to plumb? On top of being old, the victim was deaf. Who said so? The son, Maher Salem, and the daughter said so.
“What more can you tell me about your old and deaf father?” we can almost hear the reporter ask, stirred to the full, and Salem jr., in full stride by now, discloses a poetic turn of mind. He relates how his father’s head had been flattened to the dimensions of a chocolate bar. On this, he was exact. His father’s head was no more than two centimeters thick, after Israeli bulldozers had flattened him in the house.
Here’s a story for mass outrage, told by the victim’s children, testified by no mortuary or grave containing the remains of the vegetative father; without so much as a document that there had been a father, in vegetable form or human.
The great hoax massacre
To advance from a sham murder to a hoax massacre. The great Jenin hoax is infamous enough to be familiar. It will illustrate the journalist who does not wait for news to happen, but makes it himself. The results were spectacular and went full circle: a scoop story, fame for the reporter, embarrassment, the most indelicate of retractions, and oblivion.
On April 16, 2002, Independent covered the front page with a story headlined “Silence of the Dead.” In font size, the headline equalled headlines for 9/11, reserved for news that changes the course of history.
“A monstrous war crime that Israel has tried to cover up ..has finally been exposed,” wrote Phil Reeves. He was on the spot, treading the ‘nuclear wasteland’ which had been the Jenin refugee camp, assailed by the ‘sweet and ghastly reek of rotting bodies.’ Killing fields; systematic and deliberate savagery: detestation of Zionists oozed from every word. The harangues of a pogrom-bent street mob set the reporter’s tone. And how Reeves forces us to share his hatred!
“It was impossible not to remember the lies and propaganda,” he wrote, ironically anticipating his own exposure as a liar and propagandist. But Hollywood could not have bettered the production, ‘Massacre in Jenin.’ The ghastly reek effects were obtained with animal carcasses, the phantasmal credits shared among complicit UN officials and Palestinian leaders.
But the finale was quite unlike Hollywood. It was muted, underplayed, and self-deprecating. The anti-Israel movement, in a hurry to move on to the next Zionist crime, scanned the vague, almost wistful apology tucked away on some inside page. Phil Reeves owned up. His scoop story was ‘highly personalized.’ (‘Personalized’ = driven by my personal feelings towards Israeli Jews.) He went on:
“It was clear that the debate over the awful events in Jenin four months ago is still dominated by whether there was a massacre, even though it has long been obvious that one did not occur.” (Meaning, ‘Israelis would not oblige so I produced their crime, which is no more than my job entailed.
Strange Murder Cases
Fabricating Israeli crimes is not the only way journalists can make news. In the first case we look at how Reuters and the BBC made news by inserting their own interpretations in the report.

Murder of a telephone booth

In April 2011, a bomb in a telephone booth went off by Jerusalem’s bus station. Reporting it, Reuters found it necessary to explain terminology. Although Israelis might see it as a ‘Terrorist Attack,’ explained Reuters, others might not see it the same way.
“Police described the explosion as a “terrorist attack” — Israel’s term for a Palestinian strike.”
A unique and grotesque way, you might think, of reporting a bomb that killed a woman and injured many pedestrians.
What exactly did Reuters have in mind? Think if it had reported the London bus bombings with the same formula: ‘Police described the explosions as a ‘terrorist attack’-Britain’s term for an Al Qaeda strike.’
What did Reuters hope to gain? First, it’s protecting a patent right. Israelis must on no account usurp the role of victim; the victim patent is held by the Palestinians, a most valuable and jealously-guarded right. A terror attack claims innocent victims, a strike does not. The whole narrative would be turned on its head should Israelis start being the victims of terror attacks. ‘Palestinians are the oppressed people – remember!’
Secondly, the euphemism, ‘strike,’ in place of, ‘terror attack,’ is carefully chosen. This too supports the narrative which Reuters wants to instill. ‘Strike’ is softer than ‘attack,’ and infinitely more so than ‘terror attack.’ It is not so hostile or so deadly. Palestinians do not attack –Israel does that. Palestinians, remember, are the oppressed people!
Another thing. ‘Strike’ conveys a normal military operation. Just like Israel, as a nation with a right to defend itself, so the Palestinians are a nation with the same right. Reuters conveys that one nation may strike another. A bomb to kill pedestrians at a bus station is one method of striking; hitting Hamas combatants as they fire rockets into Israeli towns is another way to strike. Both methods are part of the conflict – the ‘cycle of violence.’ Reuters, we see, is not merely reporting, it is conditioning news – packaging it in appropriate shape and form to keep the plot tidy.
To learn something different from the same case, look to the BBC: ‘Deadly bombing targets Jerusalem bus stop.’
This too is a formula, though different from Reuters.’ We are to understand that the bomb was not targeted at people. No – its target was a bus stop, an object fixed on the side of the road. Clearly the BBC has the same object in mind as Reuters: Israelis must on no account usurp the role of victim. Better the victim be a bus stop.

Knife murders family

Another real story now allows one to watch the reporter as he goes through the process of making the news. He starts off blaming a knife for the murder of three siblings and their parents (the Fogel family).
The murder of three siblings and their parents is blamed on a knife. Who blamed the knife? Time magazine’s Karl Vick blamed the knife for slitting throats and almost decapitating a toddler. “The murder by knife of three children,” writes Vick. The knife did it. Palestinians don’t kill children in their beds, knives do that. And the Fogels were not a family, they were ‘settlers.’ By using the impersonal and passive voice, Time Magazine takes Palestinians safely away from the horror.
“The slaughter did not eradicate the family,” Vick goes on. Now he decides that a knife is too inanimate an object for a credible murderer; he is prepared to own that something, or someone, called ‘The Slaughter’ did the deed. The murderer went by the name of ‘The Slaughter’. But he is still not sure whether The Slaughter is to be given human shape and form. “The means of entry into the settlement,” he writes, reverting to the impersonal voice.
We can understand Vick’s problem: ‘The Slaughter’s means of entry’ – not right at all! Only near the end of his report will he concede that humans might have perpetrated the horror. Still, he steadfastly keeps Palestinians away from it. The murders were done by ‘attackers.’ As to that he says, “the identity of the attackers remains unknown.”
Like Reuters and the BBC, the agenda of Time Magazine is not to muddy the plot; Palestinians may not be cast as murderers. They are the oppressed people – remember!
The melting pot
A popular and effective media device is to throw Israeli deeds into the pot with Palestinian deeds. What comes out of the pot is a tasty porridge given the name, ‘cycle of violence.’
It offers two benefits. One, acts of Palestinian barbarism can be softened or hidden altogether; and two, Israelis can be paired with this barbarism to impart the idea of both sides in the slime pit together.
There are many cases to draw on for the melting pot trick. I choose three, for their clarity or horrendous details. The first case deals with the execution of an Israeli child in her bed.
We know the reporter, Phil Reeves, producer of the Great Hoax Massacre. The headline Reeves chooses foreshadows what he will do with the story. The headline refers to aggression by Israel. We have to read through four columns on Israeli ‘offensives’ before coming, near the end, to a casual reference to a five year-old shot in front of her mother. “And so,” Reeves concludes, “the cycle of violence goes around.”
Into the slime pit he throws both: the Palestinian ‘militants’ who were killed in armed conflict, and a child executed in bed, in front of the mother. I say no more about the porridge Reeves has dished out.
Here Associated Press (AP) is caught playing another version of the ‘melting pot trick.’
In January 2002 there were two incidents on the same day:

1. A militant sprayed a machine-gun on Jews shopping for the Sabbath in downtown Jerusalem
2. The IDF found a bomb factory in the West Bank, and in a shoot-out killed the Hamas bomb-makers operating it.

Throwing the two incidents into one pot AP produces the headline: “Israel kills 4, Palestinian wounds 8.”
Observe: Jews are first to be thrown into the common pot, their act being worse – they killed. The Palestinian goes into the pot next – he does no more than wound people. Let us again simulate. If AP reported a WW II story it would headline it: British forces kill 4 SS men, SS men wound 8 camp inmates. Then the British would weigh in heavier than the SS on the scale of evil. Hail AP and its mess of porridge!
For a third case take the act of slitting the throats of a three-month old baby, two toddlers and their parents. The LA Times throws the atrocity into the pot and out comes the cycle of violence.

We’re currently witnessing the cycle in real time. On Saturday, five members of an Israeli family living in the West Bank settlement of Itamar were killed, including an 11-year-old boy, a 4-year-old boy and an infant girl, presumably by Palestinian militants. In response to this brutal tragedy, the Israeli government announced that it would build 500 more houses in existing settlements in the West Bank… Which is worse – stabbing children to death or building new houses in West Bank settlements? The answer is obvious. But that’s not the point. The point is that no matter how abhorrent the murders are, it serves no purpose to aggravate the provocation that led to them in the first place.

In other words the murder of a family is a predictable response to the provocation of building houses. Here’s a typical resort to excusing the murder of Israeli Jews. Anti-Zionists brought it into play for 9/11, claiming that it was brought on by America’s provocation in supporting Israel. Provoke Al Qaeda by supporting a country it hates and that’s what you get – 3 000 innocents consigned to a fiery death. America, claimed anti-Zionists, brought 9/11 on itself.
So with the LA Times; build houses where Palestinians hate houses to be built and that’s what comes of it – a family slaughtered like sheep. Israel brought this on itself. Observe, into the melting pot go the deeds of both sides: slitting throats and building of houses. They’re ‘tit-for-tat’ action and reaction. In the slime pot where evil cooks there is no difference between the two: houses = slaughter.
Karl Vick of ‘Time Magazine’ is another adherent of the formula: houses = slaughter. But he brings more categories into the formula. “Events,” he writes “lurched forward with something very like vengeance.” And he itemises Israel’s acts of vengeance:
1) Israel’s condemnation of the murder; 2) Israel’s approval of more home construction; 3) Israel’s complaint to the UN; 4) Israel’s fundraising for the surviving children; 5) Israel’s call on Palestinian leaders to stop promoting violence.
Therefore: slaughter of parents + children = fundraising = complaint = house construction = …
Media events
The media was not happy when Israel considered banning reporters who hitched a ride on the flotilla to Gaza. Journalists took to the high seas with activists and celebrities to ‘break Israel’s blockade’ of Gaza.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) reacted.

This sends a chilling message to the international media and raises serious questions about Israel’s commitment to freedom of the press. Journalists covering a legitimate news event should be allowed to do their jobs without threats and intimidation.

Note, the flotilla was newsworthy only because the media covered it. If the media did not cover it, the flotilla would not have sailed. The media creates the news event through its coverage, and then demands the right to cover the story it created.
And that’s how the media, whether they report news or make it, condition us.
Link: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/how-media-condition-people-to-be-anti-israel/

via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com