The hypocrisy (read 'lies') of Mahmoud Abbas in the face of facts on the ground.

The Palestinian Authority allows the desecration of mosques on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. 
They incite Muslims to slaughter Jews at prayer in Jerusalem synagogues.
Now they are silent over the Palestinian destruction of a Bethlehem church.
And Abbas has the chutzpah to blame Israel.

Gabriel Naddaf, spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, wrote on his Facebook: “I call to strongly condemn the burning of the holy Church ‘St. Charbel’ burned tonight in Bethlehem by Palestinian extremists. I condemn in the strongest terms the powerlessness of the Palestinian Authority in maintaining the holy places of Christians in Palestinian territories. I call PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas to handle the hazardous events seriously and with severity instead of preaching morality to Israel.”

According to Christian community leaders in Bethlehem, the fire was started by extremist Islamists who for months have been threatening community members with harm. As a result of the fire, several rooms on the church’s second floor were completely destroyed. No one was killed or injured.

Sources quoted by Naddaf said that the fire was just another in a long series of attacks by Muslims against Christians in Bethlehem. “The PA tries to sweep these incidents under the rug but it never condemns these acts, which interfere with freedom of religion,” the sources said. 
Before PA chief Mahmoud Abbas “lectures Israel on its morality, he should look at his own responsibilities and deal with them appropriately,” Naddaf wrote.

Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on Facebook;
“I am proud that the Christian community in Israel has grown each year. Unfortunately, across the Middle East, that trend happens only in Israel. In many other parts of our region, the Christian community is persecuted and attacked. Even in the territories of the Palestinian Authority, including Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, the Christian community is shrinking every year"

Strangely silent also are anti-Israel, BDS-supporting, church leaders who attack the Jewish state at every opportunity but remain dumb when their churches under Palestinian control are destroyed and their co-religionists intimidated and attacked.

Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israeli Institute of Strategic Studies.

Rekjavik - the cold capital of hypocrisy.

The Rekjavik mayor, when faced with global criticism and protests, backed down on his council's blanket boycott resolution against Israel and watered it down to a mealy-mouthed boycott on Jewish products from Judea & Samaria.

I wonder why this city exclusively targets the Jewish state above all others.

He replaced a city vote of anti-Semitism (that’s how it looks from Israel when your capital applies double standards) to a more localized version of Rekjavikian anti-Semitism.

Yes, anti-Semitism. That's what it is when you target the Jewish state exclusively, and against the logic that it refuses to apply to worse offenders, and without applying reason to Israel's claims for understanding or justice. 

Let me put it bluntly. Rekjavik’s decision was a hostile one. It was also hypocritical.

As an Israeli, I may surprise many readers by demanding that this town carry out its boycott resolution in full.

I do so in the certain knowledge that Rekjavik needs us far far more than we need them.

It must begin by throwing out all of the city's computer network that operates by virtue of its Israeli technology. All council members must be deprived of their smart phones. They should also check which other Israeli technology is keeping their city in the modern age. The hypocrites!

Rekjavik must be punished for its hypocrisy. Any city with a mayor that visited China yet boycotts Israel is truly the capital city of hypocrisy.

Rekjavik has no problem with China occupying Tibet, or its appalling human rights record. No reason for Rekjavik to boycott China, or Turkey for occupying northern Cyprus and for bombing Kurds, imprisoning journalists and opponents of the Erdogan government, or Morocco for occupying Western Sahara, or Egypt for blockading Gaza.

This hypocrisy came full circle when it was revealed that the left-wing councilwoman who proposed the boycott motion was leaving Iceland to serve Hamas in Gaza! Not Abbas in Ramallah. No. Its Hamas controlled Gaza that she supports. This is the Gaza that fired thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians last year, and not for the first time.

This leads to my final question.

Does Iceland and Rekjavik designate Hamas as an Islamic terror organization?

If so, they should boycott this council member when he returns to cold and hypocritical Rekjavik.

Barry Shaw is the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism.’  

https://www.createspace.com/5333306

Bassam Eid. The Palestinian human rights activist that opposes BDS and boycotts.

Bassam Eid is a Palestinian human rights activist. He created Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group that focuses on human rights abuses by and corruption in the Palestinian Authority. No other ‘human rights’ organizations focus on citizen abuses at the hands of Palestinian leadership both in Ramallah and Gaza. He was jailed by the Palestinian Authority for his work.

Eid's organization focused only on human rights violations perpetrated by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.

"There are many human rights organizations in Israel, whereas there are and were hardly any organizations in the Palestinian Authority that monitored its actions in this regard," Eid says.

Eid's organization received significant funding from European states and managed to employ researchers who operated in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Five years ago, however, things changed, and the funding from Europe came to an end.

Why should a person who bravely exposes the corruption and human rights abuses of the Palestinian leadership against their own people be suddenly deprived of his funding by European countries?

"I think it happened because European policy in recent years has been to come down hard on Israel and not the Palestinian Authority," Eid says. "They view Israel as the main obstacle to the peace process and want to support the PA. One of the ways to show this support is to stop funding organizations that are critical of the PA."

In an interview with YNetNews, Eid said, "I'm opposed to the boycott because it only ends up harming the Palestinians themselves. Take, for example, the SodaStream plant in Mishor Adumim that is now moving some of its operations to Be'er Sheva. I've met with Palestinians who worked at the factory and were fired because of the move. They told me they were earning an average of NIS 5,000 a month there, and that today they are being offered salaries of just NIS 1,400 in the PA.

"People there are deep in debt because they have taken on long-term commitments based on the understanding that their work at the plant would continue; but reality has slapped them in the face because of the pressure created by BDS movement. Today, they are running between the courts and the bailiff offices and is anyone taking any notice of them? Do you think the boycott movement cares about them at all?"

For his outspoken truth Eid was intimidated and prevented from speaking by BDS protesters at the University of Johannesburg in March 2105.

About the Palestinian Authority Eid told Rebel Media;

“The Palestinian Authority is living in one valley and the Palestinian people are living in another valley. There is no communication between the two.”

“Almost not one Palestinian benefited from the money coming from abroad to the Palestinian Authority.”

“As a society we are talking a lot about the corruption of the Palestinian Authority. Unfortunately, the international community still has blind eyes on this corruption.“

“Nobody is talking about the foundation of a Palestinian state.”

Palestinian society is split into two main factions – Fatah and Hamas.  Both openly call for the destruction of Israel.  Can these organizations co-exist?

“Forget any kind of reconciliation or unity between Fatah and Hamas. Although the international community is demanding two states for two people, the Palestinians are calling for three states for two people.  Hamas is fighting for its own interest in Gaza while Fatah is fighting for its own interest in Ramallah, and Israel.”

“I am not sure that there is even one Arab state that is in favor of a Palestinian state. If you take the Palestinian case from 1948 until 1967 the West Bank and east Jerusalem was under the control of the Jordanians and Gaza Strip was under the Egyptian control. Did Jordan or Egypt between 1948 and 1967 try to create a Palestinian state?  If you are asking me between 1948 and 1967 I am not quite sure that the Arabs are interested in the foundation of a Palestinian state and most of the Arab countries are stuck in their own mud.”

The evidence that Arab states really don’t care about improving the lot of the Palestinian Arabs can be seen in the factual statistic that not one Arab country is listed in the top twenty nations that donate to Palestinian humanitarian causes.

To Israel, he says, “You must remember that your country is still feeding 1,800,000 Palestinian in the Gaza Strip. The State of Israel is supplying food, medicine and fuel while 22 Arab do nothing and watch Israeli trucks bring supplies into Gaza.

You are still feeding us Palestinians and, thanks to you, we are surviving.”

(Acknowledgements to YNetNews and Rebel Media)

Barry Shaw is the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism.’  https://www.createspace.com/5333306

Mahmoud Abbas’s UN speech - Pigs might fly.

Mahmoud Abbas, the man who was elected to a 4 year term as president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005 liked it so much he decided to stay on unelected for another six years, thereby displaying Palestinian-style democracy.

Recently, this ancient occupier of the presidential seat in Ramallah announced he was going to the United Nations on September 29 to “deliver a bombshell” at the end of his speech.

As the co-founder of the Netanya Terror Victims Organization, I can tell you that when a Palestinian tells you he’s going to deliver a bombshell you are strongly recommended to get out of the building as fast as possible. Don’t say you haven’t been warned, UN delegates and workers.

Assuming he’s not going on a suicide mission - most terrorist leaders tend to send somebody else to do the messy stuff - what can he be possibly want to explode?

We know he’s desperate to grab the headlines. He and his failed cause is not even getting a yawn from a media obsessed with a massive crisis in which migrants want to turn Europe into the new Middle East, or an Obama feverishly trying to provide the messianic ayatollahs in Tehran with the ultimate weapon to drop onto the United Nations building sometime down the road, as part of his ‘best deal’ legacy.

So who’s got time to listen to Abbas who claims that Palestinians are really Canaanites?

Assuming he wants to surprise us with some headlight-grabbing shock and awe, what could possibly get us to sit up and take notice?  Well let’s consider his options;.

He could offer to resign from the Palestinian Authority, as he does every other week. But we know he’ll have forgotten about it by the time he gets home and find the chair’s still warm.

He could declare that the Oslo Accords are null and void, but he’s treated them that way for decades, so what’s new?

Or he could declare that he recognizes Israel’s right to exist in peace and security as the Jewish state alongside the State of Palestine. 

Pause.

No. I’m joking.  He knows he’ll be dead before he leaves the building.  

Sorry about the aberration. It was just me thinking out loud what might be with Abbas.

As we say in the kosher Jewish state, and with due respect to my Muslim friends – pigs might fly!

Barry Shaw is the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS & Anti-Semitism.’  

Who will live, and who will die.

We are between the high holy days of Rosh HaShana, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. They are the most important dates in the Jewish calendar. 

It is the period where Jews search their souls, a period of introspection. It is the time when G-d reminds us how to lead our lives, and the time when G-d seals our fate for the coming year.  It is the time when G-d gets to decide who will live and who will die. Who will prosper and who will perish.

Nobody can deny that it was the Jews who gave the world the Ten Commandments and the Torah, the rich guidebook of Jewish values and morality.

Despite everything, you will hear little, even perhaps in your own country, that we Jews of Israel know how to guide our country by high moral Jewish values. Too many people question this with false narratives. We do not need to be lectured on morality by those who have lost the light of truth, or who have strayed so far from their own origins.

We are a nation with the spirit of biblical heroes. Heroes like Moses who led the Jewish people out of oppression and to the land that G-d had promised us. Heroes like Abraham to whom G-d made a Covenant that the land would be the birthright to a mighty nation, the Jewish nation.

He satisfied us with His Commandment which we cherish and adhere to. But He not only insisted we live moral lives and be a shining light unto nations. He demanded that we protect and safeguard the land He gave us. As He tells us, it is not sufficient to pray. He insists we become a nation of doers. This has meant that we must maintain our guard against those who wish to destroy us, and that we must fight to defend ourselves.

Too many people wish to deny us that right. Look at our history and see that this is true. Today we are threatened by people who subscribe to a hateful doctrine. Some that come to mind are Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the BDS Movement, ISIS, even the Palestinian Authority.

This hatred goes back into the dark ages of history, yet the hate festers until today. The first people that Mohammed’s hordes beheaded were the Jews of Khaybar and Medina. Today, they are beheading still. The Jews are always the first. They are never the last. First they come for the Saturday people. Then they come for the Sunday people.

If you have any doubt about aura that surrounds the Jewish nation think on this holy decree.

“I will bless those that bless you. And I will curse those that curse you.”

At this significant time we, the people of Israel, ask you to join with us and pray for peace and wisdom to descend on our neighbors so that they can reap the benefits of our bounty. But let them be warned that we are decreed to defend ourselves. This is our G-d given right and duty.

Barry Shaw is the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS & Anti-Semitism’ www.createspace.com/533306 

9/7, 9/11, 9/17. Three significantly important dates.

Today is 9/11 and we recall the horrors of that day when mass terror struck America.

In less than a week, the US Congress will vote on the important Iran nuclear deal.

A few days ago, I recalled another significant date – September 7.  Not many people remembered what happened on that date. It was the date, in 2007, when Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor in Syria. Israel was criticized for that air strike and punished by the US Administration who withdrew aerial intelligence from the Jewish state. Israel was also widely condemned when it took out the Osirik nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981 with another air strike.

It is little known today, on 9/11, that the site of that Syrian nuclear reactor is in the hands of ISIS.

Can you imagine our world had Israel not destroyed this complex leaving Syria with the eight year advantage to progress its nuclear development program to completion, a nuclear facility that has now fallen under control of the most brutal and inhuman terror regime in the world?

Those truly commemorating the victims of 9/11, victims of an earlier warning shot, killed by radical Islamic terror, should acknowledge the service that Israel gave to mankind by its unappreciated actions in Syria and in Iraq.

As we bow in memory of 9/11 and look at recent history, when it comes to the link between nuclear arms and radical Islamic terror regimes, it is obvious that Israel gets it right and America gets it wrong.

As we head to the next significant date of September 17, may the decision-makers on Capitol Hill do some last minute soul searching and realize that Israel got it right on two previous occasions, and that they are pin-point accurate in their assessment of Iran and this deadly deal with yet another Messianic Islamic terror regime.

Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israeli Institute for Strategic Studies.

The Practical Template for Solving the European Migrant Problem.

The problem facing Europe is not only the vast number of migrants that are flooding that continent. It is that, from past experience, these people do not escape the Middle East. They bring the Middle East with them with all the baggage that contains.  The social fabric breaks down. It becomes increasingly difficult to discern the traditional and indigenous society as governments try to accommodate the overwhelming weight of strangers that do not know their customs and do not speak their language. 

Multiculturalism was a dream. It failed. It became a magnet for millions of unwanted migrants. In its place is a nightmare of unmanageable proportions.

The migrant problem has become a huge destabilizing headache for Europe. It shouldn’t be. The solution should be closer the hand for the migrants that originate in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Had these migrants been Jewish you can be sure that Israel would have taken emergency measures to accept and absorb them into the Jewish State. By these migrants are not Jewish. The vast majority are Muslim and they all speak Arabic. Therein lays the solution.

The host countries must be the rich Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states. They have vast stretches of land, far greater than in Israel, for example, in which these people can be accommodated and given productive lives.

To the west of the Libyan ports, from where thousands of migrants set out of a perilous Mediterranean journey, lies Algeria and Morocco. Europe would be advised to pump large sums of money into these countries to absorb fellow Arabic-speaking Muslims.

It must be asked why these Arab nations have remained cynically silent. There can only be one reason. They are as equally reticent in accepting these migrants as Europe is, but this is the point, surely? Most of the world is reluctant to be swamped by scenes we have witnessed. It does, therefore, lead to the need to distribute the responsibility and the Arab world, which is responsible for the mayhem and destruction that has wrought the migrant whirlwind, must be forced to open their gates to people of the same faith and of the same tongue.

While Europe agonizes over their moral conscience as they cope with the humanitarian crisis, the Arab leaders have not expressed any remorse or compassion over the fate of their fellow Arabs and co-religionists. This cannot stand!

European nations individually, or via the European Union, must call the Arab League to demand that they accept the bulk of the migrants. 

Let the Christians be accepted into Europe. Let the Muslim Arabs go to Muslim Arab countries, and let Israel accept the Jews, the Druze and Kurds for permanent or temporary shelter.

This division of labor is the simple and most practical way of solving the current migrant problem. It will also be the template for similar problems in the future.

Barry Shaw is Senior Adviser on Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.