Anne Bayefsky: Iranians Employ Thuggish Tactics at U.N. Human Rights Council

For Immediate Release: March 19, 2012

Contact:  Anne Bayefsky anne@hudsonny.org

Iranians Employ Thuggish Tactics at U.N. Human Rights Council  This article by Anne Bayefsky appears today on NationalReview.com. The credibility of President Obama’s “speak softly and carry a wet U.N. noodle” foreign policy took a major hit on Friday when it was discovered that Iranian thugs have been given carte blanche to participate in and wander around the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva intimidating Iranian dissidents. The president’s decision to join the U.N.’s top human-rights body in 2009, and more recently to seek a second three-year term on the Council, is one of the centerpieces of his “engagement” strategy. Neither the membership of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, and Cuba on this human-rights agency, nor three years of incessant Israel-bashing, has deterred the administration from attempting to legitimize the Council. It is not surprising, therefore, that Iran is evidently not feeling the heat.

Who’s fundraising for ‘Global March to Jerusalem’ in Canada?

Who’s Fundraising for
‘Global March to Jerusalem’ in Canada?

CiF Watch

On March 17^th a fundraising event for the Global March to Jerusalem was held in Hamilton, Ontario, featuring Eva Bartlett and Khawla Ibrahim.


Eva Bartlett is an International Solidarity Movement activist who was deported from Israel and disqualified from re-entry for ten years in early 2008 due to her not being in possession of a valid visa.


Bartlett has worked for Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza and written for Electronic Intifada. She is married to Emad Badwan, a film-maker and journalist from Dir el Balah in Gaza.


According to her blog (where, in her latest post, she perpetuates the myth that Israel was responsible for the death of Nayif Qarmout and writes of “25 martyrs” – most of whom were members of terrorist groups), Bartlett apparently intends to join the Global March to Jerusalem in Lebanon.

Global March to Jerusalem: Mixed Message On Violence

Mixed messages about violence from the Global March to Jerusalem

On the one hand, the Global March to Jerusalem says they are peaceful:

In an interview with the Palestinian news agency Ma’an on March 19^th, GMJ spokesman Zaher Birawi stated that the organisers are “not interested in confrontation with the Israeli army, after similar demonstrations a year earlier ended in bloodshed”.


Whilst it is difficult to imagine exactly what sort of effective controls the GMJ organisers have been able to put in place in order to prevent their aspired one million man march from descending into violence, it should also be taken into account that a considerable number of the GMJ organisers are veterans of the flotilla project who still describe the Turkish activists aboard the IHH-sponsored Mavi Marmara in 2010 as ‘humanitarian aid workers’.

Yet despite a Global March To Jerusalem brochure invoking the names of Gandhi and Martin Luther King as role models, in Kuala Lumpur on March 18^th a flashmob of students gathered in order to “create awareness on the Global March to Jerusalem”--replete with dead Israeli soldiers:

Barry Rubin: In 2011 U.S. Primacy in the Middle East Died; In 2012 The Funeral Will Be Held

The following by Barry Rubin is reposted with permission

In 2011 U.S. Primacy in the Middle East Died;
In 2012 The Funeral Will Be Held

“This is the end…
Of our elaborate plans, the end,
Of everything that stands….
No safety or surprise….
There’s danger on the edge of town….
And all the children are insane….
The West is the best….
But you will never follow me.”
--“This is the End,” The Doors

By Barry Rubin

Here’s your basic problem for 2012-2013: In the Middle East, the vultures are coming home to roost. Of course, the main cause of developments in the region is the long, failed legacy of radical Arab nationalism which is now being replaced by what we’ll be calling in 20 or 30 years the long failed legacy of revolutionary Islamism.

But the secondary cause is the mistaken policy of President Barack Obama. Let’s make a list:

CiF Watch: Factsheet On Global March To Jerusalem (GMJ)

FACTSHEET:
GLOBAL MARCH TO JERUSALEM
MARCH 30, 2012

What is the Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ)?


GMJ, scheduled for March 30, 2012, is an anti-Israel publicity stunt that aims to have a million people marching on Israel’s borders from all the surrounding countries – Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt – with the aim of reaching Jerusalem. Concurrently, demonstrations are planned in the Palestinian-administrated territories and against Israel’s diplomatic missions in major cities throughout the world.


Who is organizing GMJ?

Yedidya Atlas: Haredi Jews in the IDF is a Blessing for Israel

Haredi Jews in the IDF is a Blessing for Israel

By: Yedidya Atlas

The other day I received an email from a friend in Canada to which he attached an article written last week by a Nathan Hersh in the Jewish World blogger section of Haaretz. The article, entitled: “Ultra-Orthodox Jews in the IDF would be a disaster for Israel” and a sub-headline: “When Haredis put the commands of their religious leaders ahead of those of their officers, the Israel Defense Forces will be incapable of fulfilling its ultimate purpose: to protect the Jewish state.”

My friend suggested I should respond to what he felt was a confused and biased article about Haredi military service. I read Mr. Hersh’s article and my friend was right. Mr. Hersh, whom I’ve never met, and whom I assume is a generally considerate and intelligent fellow, wore his personal politics and abject ignorance of Judaism and religious people on his sleeve as he penned his rather confused blog.

He writes that during his army service he was stationed somewhere in Judea and Samaria and one of “the settlers” – one of those who brought hot tea to the soldiers guarding on cold nights – approached one of Mr. Hersh’s fellow soldiers, a religious person himself (unlike Mr. Hersh), engaged him in conversation, discovered they were distantly related (how Jewish), and “eventually the settler asked my friend (the religious soldier) if he would be ready when the time comes,” Mr. Hersh relates, “to refuse orders.” According to Mr. Hersh, “He was referring to orders to dismantle and relocate settlements deemed illegal under Israeli law.”

Apparently Mr. Hersh, who clearly identifies with the left side of the political spectrum (to which he is entitled to do, of course), appears overly concerned with the IDF’s capability to carry out orders to dismantle settlements – instead of the police which is the official State organization to implement court orders against civilians – , and less so with the actual and officially designated task of the army – to defend the citizens and land of Israel from attack by Arab armies and terrorists who comprise our actual enemies.

The Middle East Sampler 3/20/2012: Peter Beinart Smackdown On Twitter And Media

From DG:

1) Beinart smackdown

Challah Hu Akbar has a list of various critiques of yesterday's ahistorical and counter-factual op-ed by Peter Beinart.

Challah Hu Akbar links to the New York Times letters page (the Abe Foxman comment) but there was a different one that was also worthy of mention. The final letter, by Donald Isler reads (in part):

Mitchell Bard: Iran, Israel and the United States -- What History Tells Us

Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Carter--and now Obama...

Iran, Israel and the United States -- What History Tells Us

by Mitchell Bard

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that Israel cannot afford to wait too long before acting to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program. Meanwhile, President Obama warns that acting "prematurely" would affect U.S. interests.

This is not the first time that an American president and Israeli prime minister have disagreed and, if history is any guide, the alliance between the two countries is likely to grow stronger rather than more distant regardless of how the Iranian threat is handled.

In 1956, Israel joined Britain and France in an attack on Egypt after years of Egyptian provocations. President Eisenhower was furious because the attack took place a week before the presidential election, he wasn't consulted, and he feared the war could lead to a wider conflict that would involve the Soviets and undermine the future of theUnited Nations.

Arlene Kushner On The Murder Of Jewish Schoolchildren in Toulouse, France

From Arlene Kushner:

March 19, 2012

"Really, really ugly"

Wasn't going to post today, but must simply to get out the word.  I suspect many in the States will not have read about this:

Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, was a teacher at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, in the south of France.  This morning at about 8:00 AM he was on his way to bringing his two sons, Gavriel, 6, and Aryeh, 3, to the Gan Rachi (kindergarten) when all three were gunned down.  With him was Miriam Monstango, the eight year old daughter of the head of Ozar Hatorah, who died of her wounds shortly thereafter.

Gunned down, please understand, because they were Jews. 

They will be buried in Israel.

Anne Bayefsky: Hamas Welcomed at UN Headquarters in Geneva

For Immediate Release: March 19, 2012

Contact:  Anne Bayefsky anne@hudsonny.org (917) 488-1558

Hamas Welcomed at UN Headquarters in Geneva Today the UN Human Rights Council and its UN staff in Geneva advertised and facilitated an event that handed a UN pass, and a UN microphone, in a UN room, to a representative of the terrorist organization Hamas.