PA: "The Western Wall... no person besides Muslims ever used it as a place of worship, throughout all of history"

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik


The Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, said recently that all of Jerusalem and the Western Wall are "the sole right of Palestinians." To back this up, he falsely claimed that "no person besides Muslims ever used it [the Western Wall] as a place of worship, throughout all of history, until the ominous Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917." This denial of the Jewish nation's history by the PA minister came in response to a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israel's 3,000 year history in Jerusalem, as he lit the eighth candle of the Chanukah holiday last month at the Western Wall. The PA minister said Netanyahu's statements were "nothing but nonsense and an attempt to manipulate both history and geography, and are worthless from a religious, historical, or legal point of view." His statements were reported by WAFA, the official PA news agency.

Al-Habbash's statement that Jews did not pray at the Western Wall in the past is historically unfounded. Both Jewish and non-Jewish sources document that the Western Wall was used for Jewish worship and prayer. For example, US President Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State William H. Seward visited Jerusalem in 1871 and described his experience in his book Travels Around the World. He wrote in detail about the intense devotion of Jews in prayer at the Western Wall, which he called the "Jews' Wailing-Place." (See below a long quote from his book describing Jews' devotion at the Western Wall.) The above illustration of Jews in prayer at the Western Wall is from Seward's book.

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that this ongoing PA denial of Jewish history in Israel and especially Jerusalem is a fundamental component of the PA's political program to deny Israel's right to exist. (See below.)

The following is the PA minister's statement denying a Jewish connection to the Western Wall:

"Minister for Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash said that Jerusalem and all its features, its geography, and its Islamic and Christian holy sites, and this includes the Western Wall, are the sole right of Palestinians. (The Arabic throughout the text for the Western Wall is Al-Buraq Wall - Ed.) In a press release he stressed that [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu's recent statements concerning the occupation's (i.e., Israel's) ownership of the Western Wall are nothing but nonsense and an attempt to manipulate both history and geography, and are worthless from a religious, historical, or legal point of view. (See Netanyahu's exact quote below - Ed.) Al-Habbash made clear that Netanyahu's statements about Jerusalem and the Western Wall lack the elementary scientific basis for approaching history which has always proven Islamic ownership of the Western Wall... that no person besides Muslims ever used it as a place of worship, throughout all of history, until the ominous Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917."

[WAFA, official PA news agency, Dec. 17, 2012,

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 18, 2012]

The following is the statement by PM Netanyahu at the Western Wall, as he lit the eighth candle of Chanukah, which prompted the PA minister's statement:

"In recent days, I have heard that the Palestinians are saying that the Western Wall is occupied territory. I want to tell them from the closest possible place to the miracle of the jar of oil: The Western Wall has been ours for 3,000 years, and it and the State of Israel will be ours forever."

[Israeli Prime Minister's website, pmo.gov.il , accessed Dec. 27, 2012]

http://www.pmo.gov.il/English/MediaCenter/Events/Pages/eventwall151212.aspx

Below are excerpts from Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State William H. Seward's book Travels Around the World describing Jewish worship at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. (Cited at http://lennybendavid.com/2012/08/president-lincolns-secretary-of-state.html)

"June 13, 1871... Jerusalem is now divided according to its different classes of population. The Mohammedans are four thousand, and occupy the northeast quarter, including the whole area of the Mosque of Omar. The Jews are eight thousand, and have the southeast quarter... The Armenians number eighteen hundred, and have the southwest quarter; and the other Christians, amounting to twenty-two hundred, have the northwest quarter...
The Jewish Sabbath being on Saturday, and beginning at sunset on Friday, the weekly wail of the Jews under the wall takes place on Friday, and is a preparation for the rest and worship of the day which they are commanded to "keep holy." The small rectangular oblong area, without roof or canopy, (i.e., the Western Wall) serves for the gathering of the whole remnant of the Jewish nation in Jerusalem. Here, whether it rains or shines, they come together at an early hour, old and young, men, women, and little children--the poor and the rich, in their best costumes, discordant as the diverse nations from which they come. They are attended by their rabbis, each bringing the carefully-preserved and elaborately-bound text of the book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, either in their respective languages, or in the original Hebrew. For many hours they pour forth their complaints, reading and reciting the poetic language of the prophet, beating their hands against the wall, and bathing the stones with their kisses and tears. It is no mere formal ceremony. During the several hours while we were spectators of it, there was not one act of irreverence or indifference. Only those who have seen the solemn prayer-meeting of a religious revival, held by some evangelical denomination at home, can have a true idea of the solemnity and depth of the profound grief and pious feeling exhibited by this strange assembly on so strange an occasion, although no ritual in the Catholic, Greek, or Episcopal Church is conducted with more solemnity and propriety."

[Travels Around the World, William H. Seward, quoted at
http://lennybendavid.com/2012/08/president-lincolns-secretary-of-state.html
Also read Seward's description of his visit to the Hurva Synagogue]

The PA's denial of Jewish history in Israel is an integral part of the PA's political program. This denial is used as the basis for the PA's denial of Israel's right to exist. This was expressed explicitly in a recent article by a PA daily columnist who argued that Zionists have no connection to the Biblical Hebrews and therefore Israel has "no historical or legal basis" to exist:

"The Zionist movement's leaders and their broad group of followers have no relation even to the [Biblical] twelve tribes of Israel, as the great Hungarian historian [Arthur] Koestler proved, and as Jewish and Israeli researchers clarified later. This means that the superfluous [nation] in this region, and the one harming its security and stability, is the occupation (i.e., Israel) in all its shapes and stages, whether in the past or in the present, and whether in the form of military occupation, settlement, or fabricating Judaization that have no historical or legal basis."

[Op-ed official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 15, 2012]

The Western Wall is a small section of the Temple Mount that has remained standing since Rome's destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. The PA teaches that there never was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem nor was there a Jewish presence. This distortion of history is the basis for the PA stance that Jews/Israel have no right to Jerusalem and no right to pray at the Western Wall.

In keeping with this policy, PA TV broadcast a documentary in 2010 and 2011 that described Jews praying at the Western Wall as " sin and filth."

Click to see more examples of PA denial of Jewish history in Jerusalem.


Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Source: http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=8258

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Report: Bashar al-Assad Living on a Warship in Mediterranean

by Zach Pontz


Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family have been living on a warship located in the Mediterranean, with security provided by Russia,  Saudi newspaper Al Watan has reported.
According to intelligence officials, the family and Assad’s aides live on the ship and Assad travels to Syria by helicopter to attend official meetings and receptions.

Assad has lost confidence in his own security detail and lands at secret locations inside Syria from where he is transported to the presidential palace under heavy guard, the sources said.
Assad’s presence on the warship suggests he has been granted political asylum by Russia but there has been no official comment from Moscow, Al Watan added.

Zach Pontz

Source: http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/01/14/report-bashar-al-assad-living-on-a-warship-in-mediterranean-being-provided-security-by-russia/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

CAIR’s New Disinformation Campaign on “Jihad”

by Christopher Holton

The internet has literally been littered with news reports about a new propaganda campaign being waged by the head of the Council on American Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Chicago director.
The man’s name is Ahmed Rehab and his methodology has been to run advertising on buses to change the public perception of the word “Jihad.”
Rehab has chosen two of the most liberal cities in America in which to conduct his campaign so far: Chicago and San Francisco.
The name of the campaign is “MyJihad” and it aims to convince Americans that Jihad only means “to struggle” or, more specifically, an internal, personal struggle. Rehab claims that this is the “true” meaning of Jihad.
Unfortunately for Rehab, he is only partially correct and any campaign that claims that the term Jihad only means an internal, personal struggle amounts to disinformation. The dualistic nature of Islam, in this case as it applies to the meaning of “Jihad,” is well documented both in historical Islamic doctrine and in contemporary use of the term.
And Jihad definitely does not only mean an internal, personal struggle. In fact, the most widespread meaning of the term that is of particular interest to Westerners who are threatened by Jihad does in fact entail violence.
A false and misleading statement has been attributed to the San Francisco chapter head of CAIR, Zahra Billoo:
“A common misconception of the word jihad is that it means armed struggle or holy war, and that is something that has been perpetrated by many who’ve made careers out of pushing anti-Muslim sentiment.”
Such a meaning for Jihad has nothing to do with anyone with an “anti-Muslim sentiment.” It has everything to do with Islam itself.
Let us examine definitions of Jihad from two authoritative sources.
 Jihad According to the Quran
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The first is the Quran itself. In this case, specifically The Noble Qu’ran, translated into English by two scholars: Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali, PhD, professor of Islamic Faith and Teachings at the Islamic University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia and Dr. Muhammad Mushin Khan of the same institution. The Noble Qu’ran was published by Darussalam Publishers and Distributors, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It has been catalogued by King Fahad National Library. On page 818, in a glossary accompanying the text of the Quran, The Noble Qu’ran provides the following definition of Jihad:

“Jihad: Holy fighting in the Cause of Allah or any other kind of effort to make Allah’s Word superior. Jihad is regarded as one of the fundamentals of Islam.”

Can the Quran itself be promoting “anti-Muslim sentiment” as CAIR’s Zahra Billoo asserts?
Jihad According to Shariah
Our second source is Reliance of the Traveler: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law.

Reliance of the Traveler is one of the world’s most widely read manuals of Shariah law. It has been endorsed by a variety of Islamic authorities, including Al Azhar University in Cairo, IIIT (International Institute of Islamic Thought) in Herndon, Virginia, the Fiqh Council of North America, the Islamic Fiqh Academy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Mufti of the Jordanian Armed Forces andthe Imam of the Mosque of Darwish Pasha in Damascus, Syria.
These can hardly be termed as those pushing “anti-Muslim sentiment” as Billoo claims.
On page 599 of Reliance of the Traveler, readers can find the following passage:

o9.0 JIHAD
(O: Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada, signifying warfare to establish the religion…
The scriptural basis for jihad, prior to scholarly consensus is such Koranic verses as:
(1) “Fighting is prescribed for you” (Koran 2:216);
(2) “Slay them wherever you find them” (Koran 4:89);
(3) “Fight the idolators utterly” (Koran 9:36);
and such hadiths as the one related by Bukhari and Muslim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:
“I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and perform the prayer, and pay zakat. If they say it, they have saved their blood and possessions from me, except for the rights of Islam over them. And their final reckoning is with Allah”;
and the hadith reported by Muslim,
“To go forth in the morning or evening to fight in the path of Allah is better than the whole world and everything in it.”

Jihad According to Terrorists
If Jihad truly means to “struggle” and not warfare to establish the religion, how does CAIR explain the names of all these terrorist organizations?

Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (Pakistan, Bangladesh, India)
Islamic Front for Armed Jihad (Algeria)
Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine (Lebanon)
Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (Israel)
Islamic Jihad Organization (Lebanon)
Islamic Jihad Union (Uzbekistan)
Jama’at al-Jihad al-Islami (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia)
Laskar Jihad (Indonesia)
United Jihad Council (India)

Contemporary Video Evidence of Widespread Use of the Term “Jihad”
Finally, there is a mountain of video evidence which illustrates vividly the widespread contemporary use of the term Jihad:
First, we have a 10 minute video from a Palestinian Authority TV children’s show using the term Jihad:
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Next we have a 1-minute video of female terrorists from the group Islamic Jihad:
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Here is a 2-minute news report on Taliban fighters vowing to continue to wage jihad after the death of Osama Bin Laden:
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Then there’s this 6-minute tribute to the “Lion of Jihad,” Osama Bin Laden:
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A 24-second sound byte from British-based Imam Amjen Choudary on Jihad in Islam:
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More from Choudary; in this case a 2-minute warning that Jihad is on its way.
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A 2-minute segment from Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of Al Qaeda, on Jihad:
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A 40-second call by Zawahiri to Pakistanis to rise up in Jihad:
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A 3-minute news report on Somali Al Qaeda affiliate Al Shabaab using Social Media to call Muslims to Jihad:
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A 4-minute posthumous call to Jihad by American-born Anwar al Awlaki. Keep in mind that, before he became head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Awlaki had been an Imam at mosques in San Diego, Denver and northern Virginia and was regarded as a great “moderate” who was a favorite show pony for “outreach” programs. He was invited to the Pentagon. He delivered sermons to the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association on Capitol Hill. Prominent CAIR officers, employees and members attended these sermons. At least one former CAIR employee who attended Awlaki’s sermons on Capitol Hill in Washington DC is now in jail on terrorism charges:
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A call to Jihad by Yasir Arafat–three years after signing the Oslo Accords…
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A 5-minute call to Jihad by the Chairman of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Syria:
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A 4-minute call to Jihad from the Sudanese Minister of International Cooperation:
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Christopher Holton

Source: http://terrortrendsbulletin.com/2013/01/13/cairs-new-disinformation-campaign-on-jihad/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Al-Maliki: Besieging Kurdistan and al-Anbar

by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed



“The government [of Iraq] has received high-level intelligence regarding plans to carry out terrorist attacks against the protesters.”

Anybody who believes the story about this “high-level intelligence” is truly ignorant about the nature of geopolitics. This story was made public by an anonymous government source to justify the closure of Iraq’s border crossing with Jordan and the subsequent impact this has had on the residents of al-Anbar.

Had the al-Maliki government enjoyed any credibility, we would not have doubted its reasons for closing this vital crossing into Jordan, particularly as terrorism remains a painful reality that threatens Iraq as a whole. However the al-Maliki government has taken the decision to punish the people of al-Anbar, the province that is boiling with anger against him and leading the popular opposition movement in Iraq. Since the livelihood of a large number of al-Anbar residents is based on trade to and from Jordan, and because this border crossing connects this region with the outside world, its sudden closure – coinciding with the al-Anbar uprising – is nothing more than a personal political decision to besiege the province and collectively punish its inhabitants in order to crush the opposition through exclusion and economic blockade.

In the past, al-Maliki’s government would send aid to Bashar al-Assad, in addition to turning a blind eye to the tremendous support being provided by others, whilst vigilantly guarding the border region against any smuggling operations that favoured the Syrian rebels. However after the Abu Kamal border crossing between Iraq and Syria was seized by the rebels last June, the government of Baghdad changed its policy and completely blocked any movement across the border with Syria. Al-Anbar is the largest Iraqi province and it shares a 500 km border with Syria; this clarifies the problem represented by al-Anbar, as well as its importance.

Al-Maliki has blocked the way, building a high wall between Syria and Iraq, whilst his forces also relentlessly pursue anybody who even thinks of crossing. By closing this strategic passage, al-Maliki has harmed the interests of this province and impoverished the Iraqi people living there, not to mention the Syrian on the other side. To draw a contrast, Turkey has been allowing international aid to reach the Syrians through its borders, as well as allowing refugees and others to cross and leave Syria, without changing its position depending on which party – al-Assad or the rebels – is in control of the border crossings. The al-Maliki government closed the border crossings and marginalized this region, with the exception of forces that are indeed pursuing the Syrian refugees seeking to escape the crimes of the al-Assad regime.

Al-Maliki pursued precisely the same approach with Kurdistan, sending troops to Nasiriyah and Mosul last summer under the pretext of guarding the borders with Syria, when in reality he was seeking to open a passageway to send aid to the al-Assad regime. The Kurds refused to comply with this and he is now trying to punish them just as he is the residents of al-Anbar. Al-Maliki wants to prevent the Kurds from producing their own oil, even announcing a security and military state of alert and threatening to besiege the Kurdish region. The relationship between al-Maliki and the Kurdistan government has reached its lowest ebb despite the fact that the Kurds were once among his strongest supporters and it was only thanks to the votes of Kurdish MPs that he was able to secure the post of prime minister.

The tactic of exclusion and besiegement being practiced by the Baghdad government is part of a broader policy that aims to increase al-Maliki’s powers and eliminate his opponents, even though this opposition is legitimate. This opposition is made up of members of rival parties, as well as former al-Maliki allies who have turned against the Iraqi prime minister following disputes over interests and powers.

Al-Maliki is attempting to play a game that is beyond his capabilities, kicking out the state’s most senior figures in order to take control of all three branches of power. He wants to banish or imprison his rivals, including senior politicians, and is today imposing an economic blockade on the people of al-Anbar by closing the border with Jordan as well as blocking movement across the Syrian border crossing, which is no longer under the al-Assad regime’s control. He has completed his grand war by declaring that Kurdistan is in rebellion and threatening to sue the oil companies operating in the region. He has placed his troops on a state of high alert along the region’s borders, whilst the last time that Iraqi troops were stationed here was at the command of Saddam Hussein in the late 1980s!



Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed

Source: http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=32558

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Schumer Rolls Over, Supports Hagel

by Alana Goodman


Contrary to the Walt-and-Mearsheimer fantasy that there’s some all-powerful “Israeli lobby” pulling puppet strings behind the scenes, Senator Chuck Schumer always had much more of a political incentive to support the administration’s nominee. The only surprise here is how early Schumer caved on Hagel–why not wait until the confirmation hearings started? It sounds like the administration must have made him a pretty persuasive offer: 

After a 90-minute meeting in the West Wing of the White House on Monday, Mr. Schumer appeared to be mollified on a number of concerns he has with some votes Mr. Hagel made while serving in the Senate and myriad comments he has subsequently made regarding the nuclear threat of Iran and other matters.
“Based on several key assurances provided by Senator Hagel,” Mr. Schumer said in a prepared statement, “I am currently prepared to vote for his confirmation. I encourage my Senate colleagues who have shared my previous concerns to also support him.” Mr. Schumer is likely to have influence over many of his Senate colleagues, particularly Democrats, who have been fretting over the nomination. He called Mr. Hagel Tuesday morning to let him know he was prepared to support him.

Can’t beat the timing, either. The Emergency Committee for Israel put out a full-page ad in the New York Times this morning, asking readers to call Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s offices to voice their concerns about Hagel. I’m sure the White House wanted to lock down Schumer before there was any real backlash from his constituents. It would have been too much of a gamble otherwise.

Now what happens? The best prediction is that Gillibrand and other “pro-Israel” Democrats follow Schumer, which means a filibuster and unified GOP opposition is the only path left for blocking Hagel. Whether that’s effective largely depends on how much political capital the Republicans want to spend opposing him. With the debt ceiling, immigration, and gun control debates heating up, it’s hard to say.

This fight hasn’t been a total loss so far. The one victory here for the pro-Israel community–if you can call it that–is that Hagel was forced to renounce all of his lunatic policy positions–the same positions that attracted his most fervent supporters in the first place. In a mea culpa letter this morning, he endorsed sanctions against Iran, condemned Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, apologized for his “Jewish lobby” comment, and acknowledged that it came off as anti-Israel. In other words, he renounced almost everything that attracted the anti-Israel lobby that’s been defending his nomination for the past month.

Does he really believe any of it? Probably not. But at least it’s an acknowledgement, by the administration and by Hagel himself, that the “old Chuck Hagel” positions were far outside the mainstream and unacceptable in a defense secretary.


Alana Goodman

Source: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/01/15/schumer-rolls-over-supports-hagel/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

The Plot to Attack Hagel's Critics

by Thomas Lifson

A window on the soul of the left has opened with the release of excerpts from an email chain revealing a coordinated effort to discredit critics of the Hagel nomination. The Daily Caller obtained a copy of the email chain containing comments by prominent leftists on how to advance the confirmation chances, not by advocating Hagel himself, but by attacking and discrediting his opponents.

The people involved in this covert joint effort are some heavyweights. At the center is David Fenton, the veteran left wing media-manipulating mastermind, and one of the most important figures on the American Left. (Discover the Network's political biography of Fenton is required reading for any conservative who wants to understand how we lost the culture.) As Linton Weeks of the Washington Post put it, "He's not the poster child of liberal causes; he's the designer, producer and distributor of the posters."

Adam Kredo of the DC:

Fenton appears to have circulated the emails on a listserv maintained by the Committee for the Republic, a group of Washington insiders, including [Charles] Freeman, who criticize neoconservative foreign policy views.

They people involved included:

Fenton communications chief executive officer David Fenton, the Atlantic's national correspondent James Fallows, former diplomat Charles 'Chas' Freeman, Just Foreign Policy director Robert Naiman, and American Conservative founding editor Scott McConnell participated in a recent email exchange dedicated to silencing Hagel's critics, the emails reveal.

They went after Elliott Abrams:

The emailers targeted recent comments made by Elliott Abrams, a former Bush administration National Security Council adviser who said Hagel "seems to have some kind of problem with Jews," a sentiment that has been echoed by several lawmakers and Jewish leaders.

"Elliot [sic] Abrams is an ardent armchair Zionist who thinks that a commitment to Israel is an essential qualification for public service in the United States," wrote Freeman, a vociferous Israel critic who has dubbed Israel's supporters in America a "fifth column."

"Abrams doubts that Hagel has such a commitment. Abrams thus 'has a problem' with Hagel," Freeman wrote, according to the Jan. 10 email chain obtained by the Free Beacon. "Abrams is a Jew. Ergo, he asserts, Jews have a problem with Hagel. Logically, therefore, Hagel has a problem with Jews. What slimy nonsense!"

"I am going to write something about this on the Atlantic's site," the Atlantic's Fallows later replied.

They raise the topic of how inconvenient it is that Abrams is affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations, in effect muttering to themselves that it would be a shame if something happened to that affiliation.

"I cannot at the moment think of a comparable case in which: someone with a comparably 'reputable' institutional pedigree (I am talking about CFR [Council on Foreign Relations], not Abrams personally, given his own varied background), making a comparably bald 'bigotry' charge in a comparably high-stake confirmation debate-and getting away with it," Fallows wrote.

Robert Naiman, a frequent Huffington Post contributor with a long history of criticizing Israel who has recently authored articles defending Hagel, asked if CFR has "some culpability by giving Abrams a credential and institutional affiliation that helps him gain access to mainstream media to do what he is doing."

"I think CFR should have some standards for its fellows about promoting civil, fact-based democratic public discourse on U.S. foreign policy," Naiman added.

Make no mistake, this is an effort to delegitimize an opponent, deflecting attention away from the nominee, and making the point that it is very dangerous to speak out like this. The correspondents are men of influence, the kind of people who can signal well placed leftists elsewhere on which buttons to push as the Hagel nomination narrative is being written by the MSM. Thought leaders of the Left have been captured doing what they do all the time, as they manipulate media coverage and political strategy to advance an anti-Israel agenda, largely a project of the Left, but also including, as in this case, segments of the Right. 

Hat tip: Clarice Feldman

Thomas Lifson

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/01/the_plot_to_attack_hagels_critics.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

‘No Blank Check for Israel’ March Coming to DC on January 19

by Ryan Mauro

 

The Jewish Voice for Peace, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace has put together a “No Blank Check for Israel” march in the nation’s capital on January 19. The promotional video boasts of the event’s Christian support, with the description emphasizing that 15 church letters wrote a letter in October supporting congressional investigations into U.S. aid to Israel. The adversaries of Israel recognize that the stance of the church will decide the future of the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

The Facebook page for the group has a picture of a man standing in front of a destroyed building with the caption, “Our Tax Dollars in Action. No Blank Check for Israel.” The video compares the cause to the civil rights struggle and the page says “We must condition U.S. aid to Israel on compliance with U.S. and international law!” Jewish Voice for Peace, the group that set up the Facebook page and is one of the event’s organizers, wants U.S. aid suspended until the “Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem” ends.

The Christian groups endorsing the march include the Episcopal Peace Fellowship Palestine Israel Network; the Presbyterian Church USA Israel/Palestine Mission Network and the United Methodists’ Holy Land Task Force. The inclusion of the latter two is predictable.

The Presbyterian Church USA Office of Public Witness signed a letter in July 2012 attacking Rep. Bachmann and the other four members of Congress that requested investigations into Muslim Brotherhood influence in the U.S. government.  The letter defended Huma Abedin, the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and Muslim Advocates.

The Presbyterian Church nearly approved divestment from Israel last summer, with the measure falling only two votes short with 331 for it and 333 against it. The divestment supporters were praised by the director of the Islamic Society of North America’s Office of Interfaith Relations, Sayyid Syeed. A new documentary includes footage of Syeed saying “our job is to change the constitution of America” in 2006.

The United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society also signed the letter. The general secretary of the body, Jim Winkler, also signed a letter in March 2012 blasting the NYPD for using the film, The Third Jihad, calling it “bigoted propaganda.” The letter was written by Shoulder-to-Shoulder, which Winkler is a Steering Committee member of. The president of the Islamic Society of North America, Imam Mohamed Magid, is an Executive Committee member. United Methodist Women also put up ads in response to the American Freedom Defense Initiative’s controversial ads that said, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”

Now, these anti-Israel Christians are teaming up with the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace and Jewish Voice for Peace to pressure President Obama.

ADC worked with the Council on American-Islamic Relations to register voters during the last election. ADC often depicts the prosecution of Islamist individuals as acts of political persecution, sometimes deceiving its audience by leaving out key facts and names. It honored columnist Helen Thomas with an award after she told Jews to “get the hell out of Palestine” and saying “Congress, the White House and Hollywood, Wall Street are owned by the Zionists.”

ADC was founded in 1980 by James Abourezk, the first Arab-American Senator. He touts conspiracy theories that the U.S. government has been “bought off by the Israel lobby.” He has called Hamas and Hezbollah “resistance fighters,” a sentiment he reiterated in an interview with Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station in August 2007. In the same interview, he stated that Zionists were behind the 9/11 attacks and that he “marveled” at the “courage and bravery” of Hezbollah during its war with Israel in 2006.

In 1994, then-President of ADC, Hamzi Moghrabi, said he didn’t consider Hamas to be a terrorist group because “I know many people in Hamas. They are very respectable…I don’t believe Hamas, as an organization, is a violent organization.” His successor, Hala Maksoud, said he was “shocked” that the U.S. considers Hezbollah a terrorist group. In 2000, Hussein Ibish, then ADC spokesman, described Hezbollah as a “disciplined and responsible liberation force.”

The Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace has Mark Braverman on its advisory council, according to his biography. The forward to Braverman’s 2010 book, written by Walter Brueggemann, says Israeli exceptionalism “gives warrant to brutalizing policies carried out by the Israeli government” and that exceptionalism is the cause of “religious-ideological support for American expansionist imperialism.”

Jewish Voice for Peace’s advisory board includes Noam Chomsky. The group mourned the deaths of Yasser Arafat and Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. It says “the Occupation is the root cause of the violence, and that the Occupation itself, with its checkpoints, harassment, and dispossession of Palestinians is itself an act of violence. We believe that all attacks on civilians, whether by the Israeli army or Palestinian militias, are war crimes.”

The organization makes Israel sound like a heartless, genocidal entity whose sins far outweigh anything ever done by Hamas. It even claims that Israel uses its “U.S.-financed arsenal against unarmed Palestinian civilians, including children.”

“Our tax dollars have been used to destroy homes; uproot trees and crops; seize land from its lawful owners; close all access to food, medicine, and the outside world for small towns in the West Bank and Gaza; staff checkpoints that cut off ambulances and other civilian traffic; and carry out assassinations that kill children in addition to summarily executing political leaders,” Jewish Voice for Peace says.

Jewish Voice for Peace also has a campaign called “Standing Against Islamophobia.” It says “We are witnessing an insidious new wave of demonization of Arabs and Muslims in this country” because of “right-wing Christian and Jewish groups dedicated to denying the fundamental rights of Palestinians.” The page showcases how the organization condemned the “NYPD’s use of anti-Muslim propaganda,” stood against the pro-Israel/anti-jihad subway advertisements and defended the “Irvine 11.”

January 19 was picked by these groups because of its proximity to Inauguration Day. They want to be noticed by President Obama and his administration and officials whose hostility to Israel is muted by fear of political backlash. It’s a day to show the strength of the anti-Israel bloc. And it’s a day to chip away at Christian and Jewish support for Israel, little by little.

This article was sponsored by the Institute on Religion and Democracy.


Ryan Mauro

Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/no-blank-check-for-israel-march-coming-to-dc-on-january-19/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Vindicated Bachmann Under Attack

by Robert Spencer

 

The Leftist advocacy group People for the American Way (PFAW) has launched an all-out war against Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN). On Monday it plans to present House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) with a petition bearing 178,000 signatures, demanding that Bachmann not be reappointed to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Michael Keegan, president of PFAW, explained Bachmann’s crime: “Michele Bachmann has used her position on the Intelligence Committee to spread baseless conspiracy theories and smear the reputations of honorable public servants. Speaker Boehner himself called her actions ‘dangerous.’ It’s mysterious, then, why he has chosen to reward her reckless extremism with continued access to sensitive national security information and a powerful platform for her agenda.”

Since Boehner has indeed previously thrown Bachmann under the bus, he may be susceptible to this appeal; if he is at all fair-minded, however, he will recognize not only that Bachmann deserves her place on the Intelligence committee, but that she may be more deserving than any of her colleagues of such a place.

For while Bachmann was widely criticized and ridiculed for daring to suggest that Muslim Brotherhood elements had infiltrated the U.S. government, corroboration of her allegations has recently come from an unlikely quarter: Egypt’s Rose El-Youssef magazine, which asserted in a December article that six highly-placed Muslim Brotherhood infiltrators within the Obama Administration had transformed the United States “from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.” (A translation of the article is available from the Investigative Project here.)

According to the Investigative Project, “the six named people include: Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for policy development; Mohammed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council; Rashad Hussain, the U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference; Salam al-Marayati, co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); and Eboo Patel, a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.”

These represent many of the individuals and groups about whom Bachmann had raised concerns. For example, Bachmann’s letter last summer to the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security stated that Elibiary had “extensive ties to the Muslim Brotherhood” and “sympathy for Islamist causes,” and accused him of “gain(ing) access to classified documents.”

And indeed, in 2011 investigative journalist Patrick Poole reported that “Elibiary may have been given access to a sensitive database of state and local intelligence reports, and then allegedly shopped some of those materials to a media outlet.” According to Poole, Elibiary approached “a left-leaning media outlet” with reports marked For Official Use Only that he said demonstrated rampant “Islamophobia” in the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).  The media outlet declined to do a story, but what was Elibiary doing shopping the Official Use Only documents in the first place?

Poole checked with Steve McCraw, director of the Texas DPS, who “confirmed that Elibiary has access to the Homeland Security State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest (HS SLIC) database, which contains hundreds of thousands of intelligence reports and products that are intended for intelligence sharing between law enforcement agencies.”  Said McCraw of Elibiary:  “We know that he has accessed DPS documents and downloaded them.”

There have been questions about Elibiary’s true allegiances for years. He was one of the speakers at a December 2004 conference in Dallas titled “A Tribute to the Great Islamic Visionary.” The visionary in question was none other than the founding father of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini.

When I questioned him about his appearance at such a conference, Elibiary claimed that he hadn’t known what kind of conference it was going to be, although he didn’t explain why he went ahead and appeared there anyway once he found out.  Among those who found this explanation wanting was journalist Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News, whose skepticism angered Elibiary. The great moderate subsequently threatened Dreher, telling him:  “Expect someone to put a banana in your exhaust pipe.”

Yet despite all this, Elibiary still got his appointment to the DHS Advisory Council. Mohamed Elibiary has risen as far as he has without ever being properly vetted because government and law enforcement officials, and the media, are so avid to find a moderate Muslim who will stand against Islamic jihad terrorism that they will accept virtually anyone’s claim to be just that, no questions asked.

Bachmann had also raised concerns about the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly the Organization of the Islamic Conference), to which Hussain is the ambassador, and about Magid’s Islamic Society of North America. And so the Egyptian article stands as vindication of her concerns, and shows that she her request that an investigation of Muslim Brotherhood infiltration be opened was entirely reasonable, and not a manifestation of “bigotry,” “racism,” or “McCarthyism” at all – contrary to the hysterical (and formulaic) claims of her Leftist detractors.

Of course, the Egyptian article has to be taken with a grain of salt. It could be the product of a Muslim Brotherhood advocate in Egypt, anxious to bolster perceptions of his movement’s clout and credibility. While that is possible, however, it cannot responsibly be assumed to be the case without closer examination; it is equally possible that the article represents a genuine indication that Bachmann’s concerns were entirely justified, and that the Muslim Brotherhood has indeed penetrated to the highest levels of the U.S. Government.

We’ll never know for sure without a careful, unbiased, non-partisan investigation – which is exactly what Michele Bachmann had called for. If they really had any genuine concern for the American way, instead of calling for her removal from the Intelligence committee, the People for the American Way would be calling for Bachmann to be appointed to chair that committee, and to open the investigation into Muslim Brotherhood infiltration that is so desperately needed.

But of course PFAW doesn’t really have any such concern. And the fact that they have been able to get 178,000 signatures calling for the head of a dedicated American patriot in order to punish her for asking for an investigation that obviously needs to be carried out is a sign of just how much the public discourse has degenerated in this dreary age of Obama.


Robert Spencer

Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2013/robert-spencer/michele-bachmann-attacked-and-vindicated/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Palestinians: Fatah's Armed Gangs Are Back

by Khaled Abu Toameh

The US and the EU, which have been funding and training the the Palestinian security forces, need to bang on the table -- now -- for Abbas to rein in the Fatah militiamen, before scenes of anarchy, violence and lawlessness return to the West Bank.

After keeping a low profile for the past few years, Fatah's armed gangs have resurfaced in the West Bank.

The reappearance of the masked gunmen could only mean one of two things: either the Palestinian Authority is really losing control, or that it is using the gunmen as a means of intimidating donor countries, especially the US and EU, into resuming financial aid to the Palestinian government in the West Bank.

Either way, the sudden reappearance of the masked gunmen, who are believed to be members of Fatah's armed wing, Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, could pave the way for a new round of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

The gunmen first took to the streets of the Balata refugee camp, near Nablus, carrying assault rifles and firing into the air.

The gunmen then held a "press conference" in which they denounced the Palestinian Authority security forces for arresting some of their friends and confiscating their weapons.

Yet at the same time the gunmen heaped praise on Palestinian Authority President, and Fatah head, Mahmoud Abbas, saying they "fully supported" his policies.

A few days later, another group of Fatah gunmen made a public appearance in Jenin, where they too criticized the Palestinian Authority security forces for arresting their friends and seizing their weapons.

The statements made by the gunmen in both cases left Palestinians in a state of confusion.
How can the gunmen condemn the Palestinian security forces for their actions and, in the same breath, praise Mahmoud Abbas, the commander-in-chief of these forces?

Do the gunmen assume that the Palestinian Authority security forces act independently from the leadership in Ramallah? Or, as some gunmen have suggested, perhaps they believe that these security forces receive instructions from Israel or the US?

Or is it possible that the Palestinian Authority wants the world to see the gunmen on the streets in order to send a message that it may completely lose control unless it gets more funding?

In any event, to have Fatah gunmen once again roaming the streets of West Bank villages and refugee camps proves that the Palestinian Authority's claims that the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades had been disbanded and disarmed are untrue.

Unless the Palestinian Authority leadership takes immediate action to stop the Fatah gunmen, scenes of anarchy, lawlessness and violence could soon return to the West Bank. The Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was responsible for hundreds of armed attacks against Israelis during the second intifada.

The US and EU, which have been funding and training the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, need to bang on the table -- now -- and demand that Abbas rein Fatah militiamen, most of whom receive their salaries from the Palestinian Authority government.


Khaled Abu Toameh

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3542/fatah-armed-gangs

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Syria's Chemical Weapons

by Yaakov Lappin

If the U.S. will not send ground troops into Syria to destroy the chemical weapons there, any of Syria's neighbors, threatened by unconventional weapons, could choose to send in ground troops. Not intervening is not an option: the implications of such weapons in the hands of al Qaeda or Hezbollah speak for themselves.

In recent days, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ended speculation over whether thousands of American troops might be sent to Syria to prevent deadly chemical weapons from falling into the wrong hands, and he publicly rejected contingency plans drawn up by the Pentagon for a ground operation involving up to 75,000 troops.

Panetta's statement has major implications for the immediate post-Assad future, and for how the international community will respond after the Assad regime loses control of its chemical weapons sites -- a development that could occur at any time.

With at least 60,000 dead, and Syria hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of refugees to its neighbors Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, the Syrian civil war is drawing in the world's most dangerous elements to a land that hosts the world's largest stockpile of VX nerve agents, Sarin, and mustard gas.

In Assad's corner are Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who are keeping the regime alive in its fight against the rebels, and who may well decide that the chemical weapons should be given to Hezbollah.

In the rebels' corner are growing numbers of global jihadi elements, such as the Al Nusra Front, a sister organization of al Qaeda in Iraq. The implications of chemical weapons in the hands of al Qaeda speak for themselves.

As any one of these dangerous entities could try to take control of Syria's chemical weapons, the failure of the international community to try to neutralize this threat should not even be an option. The question is not if, but how.

There are dozens of chemical weapons storage and production sites spread out across Syria, as well as several hundred tons of chemical agents. Hence, any operation would require extensive planning, intelligence, and resources.

Having taken ground troops out of the responses being considered, Panetta is signaling that air-power and precision missile strikes will form the crux of the response. There is no guarantee, of course, that air power alone can fully eliminate the chemical sites.

If the US will not send ground troops, it becomes more likely that any one of Syria's neighbors threatened by the unconventional weapons will choose to do so instead, to avoid the risk of weapons of mass destruction being used in or near their territory.

As President Barack Obama has stated, the US is working closely with Turkey, Jordan, and Israel to formulate responses to the developing threat.

In Israel, less than half of the population is equipped with gas masks to protect against chemical attacks. Although Israel has advanced missile defenses, there is no telling how a chemical payload might be delivered. One possibility is mortar shells.

Hence, Israel will not rely on defensive techniques when it comes to dealing with the threat, and is prepared to take action should it identify an attempt by a hostile entity to seize chemical weapons.

Against this background, the Israel Defense Force's Home Front Command has spent recent years preparing all of Israel's 27 hospitals for the threat of chemical attacks.

Although the drills are not directly related to recent developments in Syria, and were planned three years ago, they enable hospitals to prepare a tangible response for such incidents.

As one senior Home Front Command official said earlier this month, "We train a lot for chemical weapons. This is our business. There is no room for error."

All of the hospitals have faced unannounced exercises, in which mock patients are wheeled in from a chemical incident.

The IDF has been impressed with the hospitals' responses, describing them as highly satisfactory.

Some major hospitals in Tel Aviv and Haifa have also created underground back-up intensive care and pregnancy wards, to allow these critical wards to function even under heavy missile attack.

In comparison, Turkey and Jordan have no known defenses in place against chemical weapons, with the exception of NATO Patriot missiles installed on Turkey's border with Syria, and which could shoot down incoming Syrian missiles carrying unconventional warheads.

In light of what is at stake, all of the countries in Syria's vicinity will be hoping that the US's elimination of ground troops will at least be replaced with an air campaign that is decisive.


Yaakov Lappin

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3543/syria-chemical-weapons

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.