Twitter is down. How will If Not Now obsessively self-promote?

According to reports, Twitter has crashed for millions of  users world-wide.

A major impact was felt in the camps of  IfNotNow, who endlessly use the social media platform to self-promote.

Widespread anxiety and existential angst was reported, and grief counselors were being brought in.

A spokesperson for "IfNotNow"  addressed the crisis as he sipped his soy latte. 

"As a Young Jew ™, I demand our leaders be held accountable for hurting my feelings.   Without Twitter, how will the 31  members of our group watch our movement rise up and take on the Jewish Establishment, day after day, in city after city, in our characteristically  humorless and self righteous fashion?

Can you donate now to support our movement in this critical time?"

UPDATE

The crisis in  the IfNotNow basement offices of  Mom's house has been narrowly averted, as Twitter functionality has been restored

Stunningly beautiful photographs of Israel

From Bored Panda

Photographer Noam Chen writes:

My country is arguably one of the smallest in the world. With little over 8000 sq. miles (20,000 sq. km) in size, it can fit 19 times inside California. Even more so, 60% of it is desert.

Nonetheless, it is one of the most successful and thriving countries on earth.

See if you can guess which country it is, by these interesting clues:

1. Here you can find the lowest point on earth, the world’s oldest continuously inhabited town and the oldest continuously used cemetery.

2. It is only 70 years old as an independent state, even though its history dates back more than 3000 years.

3. It has a major influence on the world’s advancements in science, technology and medicine, and has produced 12 Nobel Prize winners so far.

4. It is the only liberal democracy in a region of ongoing political turmoil.

5. The nation’s official language had not been spoken for centuries and was revived when the country was established.

6. All major religions consider this country to be the birthplace of the world.

These clues may have helped you understand that the country I’m referring to is of course, Israel, also known as the Holy Land.

I was born and raised in Israel, and that’s where I lunched my career as a professional photographer. I’ve been shooting my country’s incredible landscapes for over 10 years now.

For more spectacular photos of the land of Israel, check out Bored Panda  or noamchen.com

Wikipedia Entry: Palestinian Ingenuity.

Enjoy this Wikipedia entry while it lasts.

Category:Palestinian inventions

Category:Palestinian inventions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Palestine portal

This category is about inventions that were patented though not necessarily invented in the State of Palestine.

Pages in category "Palestinian inventions"

This category contains only the following page. This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).

Q

• Qassam rocket

Categories: 

• Inventions by country
• Science and technology in the State of Palestine

"Journalist" Yasser Murtaja killed near Gaza border was Hamas operative

Yasser Murtaja, a Gaza journalist who was reportedly killed by Israeli gunfire during the "Great March of Return" was a member of Hamas.  Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has told reporters that Murtaja had been on the Hamas payroll since 21011, and had achieved the rank of "Captain" .

Although the importation of drones into Gaza was illegal, Murtaja is reported to have used a camera drone to collect intelligence on Israeli forces along the border.

His Facebook page shows him posing with a drone.

Yasser Murtaja, a Gaza journalist and Hamas operative

Liberman declared “I don’t know who is or isn’t a photographer. Anyone who operates drones above IDF soldiers needs to understand he’s putting himself in danger,”  adding “We’ve seen dozens of cases where Hamas terrorists used ambulances, dressed up as Red Crescent personnel and disguised themselves as journalists. We won’t take any chances."

Although Murtaja's colleagues denied the allegations, it seems unlikely that Yasser Murtaja would have been permitted to take such intimate portrayals of Gaza without approval of Hamas

Child soldiers in Gaza.  From the Facebook page of Yasser Murtaja

Pallywood. The happy victims edition

Gaza Pallywood "actors"  get a good laugh as they imagine the Western media falling for their performance at the  Great March of Return.

Smile for the camera

Showing their true colors in Gaza

Its week two of six weeks of Hamas terror.  Thousands are amassed at the border with Israel. And the Palestinians show their true colors, again and again.

Great March of Return, Gaza

A swastika flag flies along with Palestinian flags in Gaza.  The descendants of the Grand Mufti al Amin al-Husseini have spoken, and their intentions are clear.

This photo is illustrative of the entire march.  A father brings a young child to a war zone,  showing complete disregard for his safety.  Perhaps he is using him as a human shield, knowing Israel would not willingly hurt a child.

Great March of Return, Gaza

The father wears a mask for protection against the acrid smoke of the tire fires set throughout Gaza.  The child does not.  The heartrending and cavalier disregard for this childs well meaning is a microcosm of life in Gaza under Hamas.   Life is cheap.  Children are expendable.  And those you should trust to ensure your physical and emotional well being have baser intentions.

Pallywood. Made up keys for a made up a "right of return".

You've seen the photos of grizzled, elderly Palestinians holding the keys to their ancestral homes?

Its Pallywood.

الشاب علي بنات، صاحب ورشة للحدادة، يقوم بصناعة مفاتيح #العودة ، لتوزيعها على المتظاهرين المشاركين في #مسيرة_العودة_الكبرى pic.twitter.com/hg302UdMTR

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) April 5, 2018

  Fake. 

Made up keys, for a made up  "right to return"

Some of those innocent civilians killed in Gaza

Via the Elder of Ziyon, photos of some of the innocent civilians killed in Gaza 

Jihad Zuhair Abu Jamous Najjar  (Al Aqsa Brigades)

Mohammed Abu Naeem Amr (Hamas)

Jihad Ahmed Farina, Hamas field commander

 Ahmed Ibrahim Abu Odeh (Hamas)

Sari  Abu Walid  Oudeh (Hamas)

Musab al-Saloul (Hamas)

Incidentally, these "innocent civilians" were buried with full military honors.

Commentary on Gaza's Great March of Return

Some excellent commentary on Gaza's Great March of Return:

From the Forward, written by Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll
What Israelis Hear When You Say There Was A 'Massacre' In Gaza ...

Hamas is the entity people should blame when they lament the fate of Gaza. Gaza could — and should — be a Middle Eastern Riviera. Its beaches should be a favored vacation spot, Gaza City a cosmopolitan tourist destination. International aid abounds, yet Hamas leaves its people unemployed, cities and facilities undeveloped — and no one asks why. No one holds Hamas accountable.

It is not Israel that prevents this, but Hamas’s insistence that Gaza be the bloodied sacrifice on the altar of greater Palestine. According to Israel, Hamas spent $15M to organize this riot, bussing thousands of people to the border.

The people of Gaza deserve better. They deserve to live their lives free of Hamas. They deserve a leadership that cares for their welfare, not one that uses them as human shields.

The people of Israel deserve better. We deserve secure borders and an international community that uses reason, fact, and rational discourse when judging the situation.


From the Toronto Sun, written by Tarek Fatah
Who Weeps for Palestine?

Palestinians today must recognize two bitter realities: Israel will never commit suicide by permitting a ‘Right of Return’ to millions of descendants of the 1948 Palestinian refugees. 

 Israel will never hand over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to Palestinians. Would Muslims hand over Mecca’s Kaaba to the Pagans?

Stop killing each other, and then offer more for martyrdom. The best of the Arabs deserve better.

From Tablet magazine, written by Liel Leibovitz
Hamas fails to breach Israeli border

Having withdrawn from the strip in 2005, Israel no longer has any territorial claims on Gaza; but Gaza, as this weekend makes painfully clear, still has territorial claims on Israel. In its continuous attacks on their neighbors to the north, and in its most recent efforts to cross into Israel, Hamas has again proven what the organization’s charter so clearly states, namely that its singular goal is the utter and absolute destruction of the Jewish state. It wants all of the land, not peace or coexistence or any other sensible and reasonable goal, which is why any territorial compromise on Israel’s behalf is nothing more than an invitation to the next, even bloodier conflict

There is good information out there- you just need to know where to look

Shameless Pallywood. Palestinian Information Center claims Actress Katherine Heigl is a French Doctor volunteering in Gaza

Last night, the Palestinian Information Center Facebook page,  followed by over a half million people claimed   A "French doctor arrives in the Gaza Strip to offer medical help to the wounded Palestinian protesters". This photo, of course, is Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl.

Heigl is neither French, nor a doctor.

Read about it here and here.

After blogger Aussie Dave exposed this latest bit of Pallywood, Twitter exploded.

UPDATE
Just had to add this one.

The post has since been deleted. 

Lt. Governor of California candidate Gayle McLaughlin and the mainstreaming of anti-semitic rhetoric

Gayle McLaughlin is running for Lt. Governor of California. Her Facebook page, her blog and her Twitter account are filled with unwarranted accusations, defamation, lies and anti-Semitic imagery regarding the riots in Gaza. 

In her blog, Gayle writes

Another Gaza massacre took place Friday as tens of thousands of Palestinians protested peacefully at the Israeli wall against their collective incarceration in Gaza, which can only be called the largest concentration camp in the world.

Of the 30,000 attending the event, there were 17 fatalities- .06 % of those participating.  Of those killed, at least 10 were identified as Hamas terrorists.  

The protest was hardly peaceful, characterized instead by firebombs, burning tires,  thrown rocks, and this:

And Gayle, Gaza as "open air concentration camp" is so last decade. Social media is filled with photos of the resorts, restaurants and gourmet shops of Gaza.

Again, from Gayle's  blog:

My heart is broken by the violent meanness of spirit of Israel. As an American I feel shame for the cover and support our country gives to such crimes. As an activist and a dreamer for a better nation I send my sorrow and my solidarity to the People of Gaza, and I add my voice for a transparent and independent investigation of this massacre.

Your misplaced sympathies for a group vowed to the genocide not only of Israel, but of the Jewish people worldwide reminds me again why so many of my friends left the Green party.

Please contact Gayle McLaughlin and let her know that this is not ok .

Her Twitter account @GayleforCA
Her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/GayleforCA/

From Honest Reporting: Myths and Facts Gaza's Deadly "Protests"

Honest Reporting: Myths and Facts Gaza's Deadly "Protests"  is an excellent resource for those trying to cut through the rhetoric regarding this weekend's riots on the Gaza/Israel border. Read it, refer to it, bookmark it.

Here's a sampler:

Myth: This is a non-violent “protest” or a “march.”

Fact: It is none of the above.

Despite its official name, which has been widely repeated by the media, this is not a “protest” nor a “march” by any commonsense or dictionary understanding of the words.
Picturing something like a picket parade on Capitol Hill? Think again. From the beginning we saw significant violence which would not be tolerated by any country.
According to the IDF and multiple videos, the violence began with burning tires, slinging rocks, throwing molotov cocktails and other varieties of firebombs. The correct word for this type of activity is a “riot.”

Myth: Israel is shooting innocent civilians.

Fact: Of the estimated 30,000 people present, as of this time of writing, 17 have been confirmed dead. Of those, at least 10 are confirmed as active fighters of Hamas, Global Jihad, or the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, all designated as terror organizations by the United States, the European Union, and others. (All 17 have been confirmed as young men of military age).

Myth: Israel is shooting people in the back or while they are running away.

Fact: The information on deaths and injuries out of Gaza comes ultimately from the Gaza Ministry of Health. The Gaza Ministry of Health is, in turn, fully controlled by Hamas.

Repeating unsubstantiated claims by Hamas would be like repeating claims by Islamic State: no journalist should do so without clarifying the dubious reliability of the source.

Other sources of information include highly edited snippets from camera-phones on the scene. In most cases, the viewer has no way of knowing any relevant context, for example: what the subjects of the videos may have been doing before the video began, or what activities are occurring around them.

At least one video showed a Palestinian apparently being shot from the opposite direction of where the IDF was located, indicating that the event was most likely staged

Read it all here

JVP: "We can think of no better way to celebrate Passover than to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people"

When Israel is under attack, what does "Jewish" Voice for Peace do?

They call a rally in solidarity with the Palestinians.

JVP's call to action contains this egregious lie  "The massive protests in cities across Gaza..."  The protests were not held in cities across Gaza. Rather, Hamas, the terror organization that governs Gaza bused 30,000 locals to the border with Israel. A tent city was created, with Hamas committing to feeding the protesters for 6 weeks. The first day was marked with violent rioting, and multiple attempts to infiltrate cross the border into Israel.

JVP reports, with more than a hint of disappointment that Israel suffered "zero casualties".  The Palestinian dead?  JVP neglects some important information.

At least 10 of those killed were active members of the Hamas terror group.

The Emergency Protest was cosponsored by the  "Protest first -ask questions later" team at the Palestine Action Network, and in the time-honored tradition of Israel-haters, was scheduled for a day when Jews throughout the area would be preparing for their Pesach seder.  

American Friends Service Committee

Al-Awda SF

American Muslims for Palestine

ANSWER Bay Area [Act Now to Stop War and End Racism]

AROC: Arab Resource & Organizing Center

Art Forces

NorCal Friends of Sabeel

General Union of Palestine Students -GUPS SFSU

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area

Middle East Children's Alliance - MECA

Palestinian Youth Movement - حركة الشباب الفلسطيني

Queers Undermining Israeli Terror

Students For Justice In Palestine at UC Berkeley (Cal SJP)

The event was live-streamed here.

Just cleared for release: Israel took out Syrian nuclear facility in 2007

Destroyed Reactor

According to a special announcement from the Israeli Defense Forces, Operation "Outside the Box" destroyed a nuclear reactor in Deir ez-Zur, Syria in September 2007.

The IDF can clear for publication that in September 2007 IAF fighter jets destroyed a nuclear reactor that was being built in Syria. The destruction of the nuclear reactor, known as Operation "Outside the Box", was carried out by IAF fighter jets following lengthy and complex intelligence and operational efforts and eliminated a nuclear threat against the State of Israel and the entire region. Today it has been cleared for publication that during the night between September 5 and 6 2007, IAF fighter jets targeted and destroyed a nuclear reactor in advanced stages of construction in the Deir ez-Zor region, 450 kilometers north of Damascus. Beginning late 2004, a vast intelligence effort including cooperation with security forces, provided a great deal of valuable information that ultimately led to the precise aerial attack. The IDF prepared for the destruction of the nuclear reactor with utmost precision whilst preparing for various scenarios and potential escalation. The Chief of the General Staff at the time, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said with regards to destruction of the nuclear reactor: "As soon as the Prime Minister gave the IDF, under my command, the responsibility to destroy the nuclear reactor in Syria, it was clear to me that we must be prepared on the intelligence, operational and technological fronts in order to eliminate the nuclear threat against the State of Israel and the region while simultaneously taking the necessary steps to prevent an escalation to war; that if forced upon us – we will win a decisive victory!" The Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, who serves as the Commanding Officer of the Northern Command at the time of Operation "Outside the Box" recently said: "The message from the attack on the nuclear reactor in 2007 is that the State of Israel will not allow the establishment of capabilities that threaten Israel's existence. This was our message in 2007, this remains our message today and will continue to be our message in the near and distant future." From Politico The Syrian facility was almost identical to the Yongbyon nuclear complex in North Korea that produced plutonium for nuclear bombs, according to Israeli intelligence officials, and it was only weeks away from beginning to produce highly radioactive materials. Deir ez-Zur was captured in 2014 by ISIS forces.  Israel's decisive intervention may  ultimately have prevented a nuclear- armed ISIS. Read about it here Before and after

SJP Santa Cruz advocates gun violence and armed resistance

While young people across the country are  mobilizing to condemn gun violence, Students for Justice in Palestine Santa Cruz are taking a different route.  This deeply disturbing post advocating for "armed resistance" recently appeared on the  Santa Cruz SJP chapter Facebook page.

Students for Justice in Palestine is not now, nor have they ever been, a peace group.

UPDATE
The UC Santa Barbara chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine has an identical posting on their Facebook page, indicating at the very least collusion between the campus chapters of the extremist group

American Support for Israel at all time high

Sorry, Alison Weir.   Americans do know, and a new Gallup poll shows record support for Israel.  74% of Americans view Israel mostly or very favorable.

After a decades long campaign of delegitimization and propaganda directed towards Israel, these results are reassuring.  Only 21% of American regard the Palestinian Authority favorable.

From Gallup: Americans remain staunchly in Israel's corner
...Americans' stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is as strongly pro-Israel as at any time in Gallup's three-decade trend. Sixty-four percent say their sympathies in the dispute lie more with the Israelis, tying the high previously recorded in 2013 and 1991.

Also reassuring is the decline the percentage in Americans who are undecided or neutral to 16%, the lowest to date. This implies that Americans are learning more about the conflict, and are solidifing their support for Israel.

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted in February 2018, with a random sample of 1,044 adults across America, aged 18 and older

Open Promotion of Terrorist Organization at San Francisco State University

The PFLP is an internationally recognized terror group, responsible for terror attacks across the globe.
From the Global Security website:

• July 22, 1968. PFLP hijacked its first plane, an El Al flight from Rome to Tel Aviv.

• September 1970. PFLP hijacked three passenger planes and took them to airfields in Jordan, where the PLO was then based; after the planes were emptied, the hijackers blew them up. In response, King Hussein of Jordan decided that Palestinian radicals had gone too far and drove the PLO out of his kingdom.

• 1972. PFLP and Japanese Red Army gunmen murdered two dozen passengers at Israel's international airport in Lod. Okudaira and two other Japanese radicals were trained and sent by the PFLP into Israel to perpetrate what is now called the Lod Airport massacre in May 1972. It is likely that the three men were not members of any well~established organization in Japan, but rather individuals who were motivated by the goals of the PFLP in combating Israel. PFLP spokesman in June 1972 readily admitted that the PFLP had trained and dispatched the Japanese terrorists on the Lod mission.

• 1973. On 20 July 1973 a combined JRA-PFLP group hijacked a Japan Airlines (JAL) Boeing 747 as it departed Amsterdam's international airport. The aircraft was hijacked by five terrorists, who included both Palestinians and members of the leftist Japanese Red Army. 87 hours after the hijack began, the aircraft landed at Banghazi and was set on fire and ultimately destroyed. One of the hijackers was killed by her own grenade.

• 1976. breaking a PLO agreement to end terrorism outside Israeli-held territory, PFLP members joined with West German radical leftists from the Baader-Meinhof Gang to hijack an Air France flight bound for Tel Aviv and landed the plane in Entebbe, Uganda. In a now famous raid, Israeli commandos stormed the plane on the Entebbe tarmac and freed the hostages.

• October 2001. PFLP gunmen shot dead Iraeli Tourism minister Rechavam Ze'evi, in a Jerusalem hotel-the first assassination of an Israeli minister

• April 2002, Israeli officials foiled a PFLP attempt to blow up a Tel Aviv skyscraper with a car bomb-which could have caused massive casualties and would have marked a dramatic escalation in Palestinian terrorism.

• February 16, 2002 - Suicide bombing at Karnei Shomron pizzeria, in which three people were killed and 30 wounded.

• May 19, 2002 - Suicide bombing at Netanya outdoor market, in which three people were killed and about 60 wounded.

• June 20, 2002 - Terrorist infiltration of Itamar, in which five were killed - including a mother and her three sons - and eight wounded.

• December 25, 2003 - Suicide bombing at the Geha junction, in which four people were killed and over 20 wounded.

Recently,  Palestinian associated with the PLFP terror group murdered 5 Rabbis with meat cleavers and axes as they prayed in Jerusalem on November 18 2014. A sixth victim, a Druze Israeli policeman was also killed.

The logo of the PFLP leaves no doubt of their goal-  the eventual takeover of all of Israel, from the "river to the sea"

Why is GUPS , the General Union of Palestinian Students at taxpayer supported San Francisco State University openly promoting this terrorist organization on their Facebook page?

Tikvah, the Zionist Group at UC Berkeley Fundraising for Victims of Syrian War.

According to the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria, as of this week:

• The total number of victims documented by the Action Group is 3665, including 465 women
• 1672 Palestinians are locked up behind Syrian government’s bars, 106 of which are women
• Yarmouk refugee camp is under the Syrian regime army and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s siege for 1,691 days in a row
• 205 refugees, mainly in Yarmouk Camp, have died due to lack of medical care and malnutrition
• Water supplies have been cut off Deraa Camp for 1427 days, and 167 days in Yarmouk Camp
• The Regime army has been in control of Handarat camp for more than 522 days. More than 80% of its buildings have been completely or partially destroyed.
• Approximately 85 thousand Palestinian-Syrian refugees fled to Europe by the end of 2016
• 31 thousand refugees are located in Lebanon
• 17 thousand refugees are sheltered in Jordan
• 6 thousand refugees are in Egypt
• 8 thousand refugees are staying in Turkey
• One thousand refugees are present in Gaza

Yet the "human rights groups" that claim to care about the Palestinian people are strangely and uncharateristically silent when they can't hold Israel responsible for their suffering.

Real, tangible help instead comes from the last place you'd expect it- from Israel, a nation officially in a state of war with Syria.  

For over four years, the Israeli Defence Forces has been helping injured Syrians who cross Israel’s northern border, and has been supplying Syrian civilians with food, fuel and household necessities.

From The IDF Operation Good Neighbor website: 

The IDF primarily provides 3 types of assistance as part of Operation Good Neighbor:

1. Medical –  Over 4,000 people have been brought to Israel to receive treatment, including hundreds of children. The IDF also transfers medicine, supplies, and equipment to Syrians across the border. An internationally managed field hospital has also been established at an Israeli outpost near the border.

2. Infrastructure – 450,000 liters of fuel have been transferred for heating, operating water wells, and ovens in bakeries. The IDF also transferred seven generators, water pipes to rebuild Syrian infrastructure, and equipment for a temporary school in the region.

3. Civilian aid – The IDF transferred 40 tons of flour to bakeries, 225 tons of food, 12,000 packages of baby formula, 1,800 packages of diapers, 12 tons of shoes, and 55 tons of cold weather clothing.

UC Berkeley's Tikvah Students for Israel is doing their part as well. On Monday, the Zionist  group will be fundraising  to help support Operation Good Neighbor.  Stop by and help them out.  Their table will be at Sproul Plaza from 11-2.

UPDATE:  Rain Date will be Friday, March 16.  See you there!