A campaign to get the United Kingdom to apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration is “very revealing about the true source” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Jewish state’s prime minister said on Tuesday.
“The Balfour Declaration recognized this land as a home for the Jewish people, which obviously had consequences later on down the line,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the 2016 Jewish Media Summit in Jerusalem. “But if the Palestinians, 100 years later, are challenging even the idea that the Jewish people have a home here, you know that they are not really gung-ho on…a nation-state for the Jewish people.” “It’s not about territories, even though that’s an issue,” he continued. “It’s not about settlements, even though that’s an issue. But it’s not ‘the’ issue. It’s not even about a Palestinian state…it was offered again and again and again. It was never and is still not about a Palestinian state. It’s always been about the Jewish state and the fact that there’s a challenge to the Balfour Declaration 100 years later tells you that we haven’t come very far.” In his UN General Assembly address in September, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said, “We ask Great Britain, as we approach 100 years since this infamous declaration, to draw the necessary lessons and to bear its historic, legal, political, material and moral responsibility for the consequences of this declaration, including an apology to the Palestinian people for the catastrophes, misery and injustice this declaration created and to act to rectify these disasters and remedy its consequences, including by the recognition of the state of Palestine. This is the least Great Britain can do.”
US Senator Lindsey Graham (Chairman Senate's Foreign Operations Subcommittee), has introduced legislation to cut all funding to the Palestinian Authority, according to yesterday's Jerusalem Post. This action follows other international outrage in response to PMW's report The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud, released earlier this year. PMW exposed that the PA tried to deceive international donors by making public statements that it had stopped paying salaries to terrorist prisoners, whereas in fact the PA continues to do so through the PLO.
Jerusalem Post: "The United States Senate will aggressively promote legislation next month aimed at cutting funding... [Sen. Lindsey] Graham told the Jerusalem Post that as chairman of the Senate's Foreign Operations Subcommittee, he will work to cut US aid to the PA for continuing to pay stipends to imprisoned Palestinian terrorists." (Click to view PMW Report exposing this) "Under PA law, if you get convicted in Israeli court of being a terrorist, they give you a military rank based on how long you've been in jail," Graham said. "The longer you're in jail, the higher rank you get."
Though some Americans may not want to hear it, the election of Donald Trump has changed Israel's strategic situation dramatically for the better. The Israelis have been relatively quiet about their enthusiasm for the Trump administration - partly because the American public is still so dramatically split on the election. One senior Israeli official likened Trump's security picks to a "dream team" of pro-Israel U.S. policymakers.
Most important to Israel, according to the same official, is Iran. "We haven't changed our view of the nuclear deal with Iran or Iran's malevolent role in the region. But the incoming administration sees both the nuclear deal and the danger posed by Iran very differently than the outgoing administration. They believe that this deal and Iran's aggression and support for terror is not only bad for Israel and the region. They think it is bad for America." Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of the research division of IDF Military Intelligence, told me in Jerusalem, "The Iranian nuclear program is the biggest threat Israel has ever faced....The deal guarantees that the Iranians will have the capability to have an arsenal of nuclear weapons in 15 years." Most important, he said, "Trump says he wants to make America great again. And a strong America is good for Israel."
Last month I pointed out that Palestinians and ISIS have another thing in common - the desire to destroy ancient heritage sites that they consider to be in conflict with their beliefs. I gave many examples of how important Jewish historic sites have been attacked, damaged and destroyed over the years by Arabs including under Palestinian Authority control.
Here's another example of a direct attack on Jewish heritage from last week:
A marble pillar belonging to the 2,000-years-old Herodium palace was smashed in the Sebastia National Park in the capital of ancient Samaria.
This is not the first time that biblical treasures have been vandalized. Indeed, graffiti was sprayed at the site denouncing Judaism and Christianity, while Christian monuments were defiled, antiquities were robbed, and seats in a Roman amphitheater were damaged.
The giant archeological site, which was located in the ancient capital of Israel, was founded, according to the book King of Kings, by King Omri in 880 BCE.
The incident is the second time vandalism has occurred within three months at the archeological site against antiquities directly connected with Israeli heritage.
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Hamas says that they were "martyred" while inside a "resistance tunnel." (Actually, the supposedly impartial Ma'an also calls it a "resistance tunnel.") The tunnel was in Gaza City, meaning that it wasn't a smuggling tunnel that many pretend are necessary for Gazans to live, but a military bunker.
Ma'an says that others are missing in the tunnel as well, and Palestine Today says that a third body was found but not yet identified.
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As people continue to react to the NYT magazine piece on Shuafat - written, as it turns out, by Rachel Kushner, an author sponsored by Breaking the Silence to write anti-Israel articles for a book to come out next year for the 50th anniversary of "occupation" - there is another angle besides the one I wrote abut earlier this week about the violent beginnings of the camp.
Part of the reason that Shuafat is so crowded is because thousands of Arabs who aren't even considered refugees by UNRWA are squatting there.
Today, approximately 12,500 Palestine refugees are registered as living in Shu'fat camp. However, UNRWA estimates that the actual number of residents in the camp is around 24,000.
Shu'fat camp was illegally annexed by Israel after the 1967 hostilities when Israel unilaterally established new municipal boundaries for Jerusalem. Camp residents still hold Jerusalem IDs and, unlike West Bank ID holders, are allowed to reside in Jerusalem. Because the Israeli Ministry of the Interior has a policy of revoking Jerusalem IDs from Palestinians who do not have their ‘centre of life’ in Jerusalem, the camp has become a popular place of residence for Palestinians (non-refugees) with Jerusalem IDs who might not otherwise afford the high living costs of Jerusalem.
As usual, UNRWA is not telling the entire story even here.
Israel has tried, for decades, to solve the problem in a way that the camp residents could continue to hold on to their Jerusalem IDs!
According to this article at the official Shuafat website, since the mid 1970s, Israeli authorities have tried to get camp residents to move to other, less crowded areas of Jerusalem, especially the Arab neighborhood of Wadi el-Joz., "but the residents of the camp have categorically refused the Israeli offer," claiming that it would somehow impact their "right of return."
In fact, it would mean that they would have to pay rent instead of getting free housing from UNRWA. That's the real reason.
The same article says that more than half the residents of the camp are not "refugees." They are squatters taking advantage of the lawlessness of the area.
UNRWA should take responsibility for expelling the residents who are not registered with them, but of course UNRWA hasn't done that for sixty years - Arabs have been moving into UNRWA camps since the 1950s to take advantage of free services and UNRWA has never done anything about it after some half-hearted attempts in the 1950s.'
The bottom line is that Israel has tried to fix the problems of Shuafat for a long time, and UNRWA has let them fester, to follow the Palestinian master plan of keeping "refugee camps" forever as a propaganda weapon against Israel.
And Rachel Kushner and the New York Times happily follow that lead.
(h/t Irene)
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It’s almost too outrageous to believe: An umbrella group that claims to represent the American Jewish community plans to host its 2016 Hanukkah Party at Trump Hotel.
Trump's campaign rhetoric and policy positions are an affront to some of the most core values of American Jews. To hold a Hanukkah party under the Trump banner is shocking in its wrong-headedness.
Yes, this is the same J-Street who hosts BDS supporters like Mustafa Barghouti at its conference. The same J-Street where a member of its advisory council openly advocates Israel's destruction - to applause! - at a J-Street conference. The same J-Street that twists itself up into pretzels to downplay the very real history of support for antisemitism from a member of Congress, saying merely that his statements are "inartful." The same J-Street that eagerly gives forums to those who want to ethnically cleanse Jews.
All of that is perfectly fine.
But visiting a hotel that happens to have the name "Trump" on it is "too outrageous to believe."
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Throughout the 2,000 years of Jews living in the Diaspora, there has been no precedent for the behavior of major liberal mainstream sectors of the American Jewish community. They are undermining themselves and provoking massive waves of resentment from Americans, many of whom were favorably disposed toward them.
The United States has been the home of the largest Jewish community in the Diaspora over the past half-century and was regarded by many Jews as the “goldene medina.” Traditional antisemitism is at an all-time low with the exception of the current anti-Israeli agitation initiated at campuses by Muslims and far-left radicals. Many Jews have become affluent and powerful, and Jews in general are highly respected by most Americans.
Until recently, all mainstream Jewish organizations sought to maintain bipartisanship with regard to Israel and major issues of Jewish concern. This, despite the fact that for complex historical reasons the vast majority of American Jews were inclined toward liberalism and voted Democrat.
Even after eight years of President Barack Obama’s efforts to create daylight between Israel and the United States to appease the Iranians and other Arab countries, and despite the extraordinary support for Israel expressed by all sections of the Republican Party, Jews still tended to vote Democrat. This contrasted sharply with Anglo Jewry, whose members defected in droves from the British Labor Party when it became anti-Israeli/antisemitic under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
Nearly half of Jewish Israelis believe the political left is not loyal to Israel, and a majority of citizens maintain it is illegitimate to criticize the state during times of security instability, according to a poll published on Tuesday. The Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University Peace Index also found some 44 percent of Jewish Israelis favor annexation of the West Bank, compared to 38% of opponents. But Israelis are split on an outpost legalization bill that would recognize unauthorized construction on private Palestinian land — and which some politicians, from both sides of the aisle, have described as a first step in annexing the area — with 46% siding with the government position in support of the legislation, and 43% backing the attorney general’s stance opposing the bill.
The poll of 600 respondents — 500 Jewish and 100 Arab — also revealed that most Israelis believe the Donald Trump administration will be supportive of Israel and downplay fears of an uptick in anti-Semitism in US as a result of the election.
Most (56%) back contentious legislation that would bar mosques from using loudspeakers to broadcast the call to prayer — though a majority also believe other solutions could be reached in lieu of legal action. According to the survey results, among Jewish Israelis, 55% say “criticizing policy in times of security tension is illegitimate.”
With the capture of Be’er Sheva by British-led forces on October 31, 1917, the way was open to Jerusalem. But the path to the Holy City was no cakewalk.
The British forces, led by Gen. Edmund Allenby, climbed and fought through the hills leading to Jerusalem, culminating in the battle of Nebi Samwil (Samuel) November 14-21, 1917. Both sides deployed three divisions; the British took 2,000 casualties, and the unknown Turkish casualty count was undoubtedly higher. Between the battles of Be’er Sheva and the capture of Jerusalem, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917.
From Nebi Samuel the route to Jerusalem was relatively open. The German commander of the Turkish and German troops in Palestine, General Erich Von Falkenhayn, ordered the withdrawal of his troops from Jerusalem.
According to the Turkish account, Turkey in the First World War by Dr. Altay Atli: The British attack on Jerusalem began on 8 December. The city was defended by the XX Corps, commanded by Ali Fuad Pasha. Falkenhayn did not send reinforcements to Jerusalem because he did not want the relics and the holy places damaged because of severe fighting…. His refusal to send reinforcements had resulted in the loss of Jerusalem…. Enver Pasha was losing patience too. On 24 February 1918, he replaced Falkenhayn. On December 9, 1917, two British sergeants on patrol met a delegation of Jerusalem dignitaries carrying a white flag (a bedsheet from the American Colony) who came to surrender the city. The moment was preserved by a photographer from the American Colony.
Fake news is a trending news story. Fakesters create mockups
of popular websites where they post news stories created entirely out of thin
air. People believe these fake stories and share them because they appear on
websites that look just like CNN or
the Washington Post. The fake stories
have even led to a shooting incident known as Pizzagate.
Jim Geraghty, writing for the National Reviewsays
that no one knows what to do about the phenomenon of fake news. Which is completely ridiculous. Because it's
clear that putting the fakesters out of business begins with looking at root
causes. And the root cause of fake news is media
bias.
Media bias is dishonest news which is just another kind of
fake news. It is media bias that led to
the popular perception that Hillary Clinton was going to cream Trump in the
recent presidential election. We believed it because the media led us to
believe it. It was a fake news story that sucked us in all the more so because
it didn't appear on mockups of the CNN
or Washington Post websites but on
the real deal.
The media hoped to convince us that Clinton would win so
that no one would want to waste a vote on Trump. In fact, it's quite possible
that many people voted for Clinton thinking that a vote for Trump would be a
throwaway vote. After all, Americans are taught from grade school on up to
maximize their votes. Trump might indeed have won the popular vote as well as
the electoral vote had the media not persuaded us beyond all doubt that he
didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the election.
It was a concerted, conscious effort to divert votes to
Clinton through one mammoth and ongoing lie to the public.
And as long as the media can lie through its teeth and we
just drink it in, fake news will continue to explode on our screens and dupe us
into believing all kinds of stupid stuff. And it doesn't help when government
officials feed these news sites their lying lines.
Take, for instance, the first line of this Wall Street Journalstory that appeared in my Google
newsfeed on Sunday:
"Secretary of State John Kerry sharply criticized
Israel’s continued construction on contested Palestinian territory and didn’t
rule out administration support for action at the United Nations on the
Arab-Israeli conflict before President-elect Donald Trump takes power."
If the author had spoken of "contested territory,"
that would have been a fairly neutral statement in line with good journalistic
standards. The use of the phrase "contested territory" would have suggested
that both Arabs and Jews claim the territory as their own, which is true. With
the phrase "contested Palestinian territory," however, the author plants the seeds of bias
in the very first line of her piece so as to poison her readership against
Israel in favor of the Arab narrative. With this phrase, the author suggests
that while Jews claim the land, it actually belongs to the Arabs. This is media
bias by description: "Palestinian territory."
The author posits no proof of her assertion that the
territory is "Palestinian," merely states this as if it were a fact.
Because the article appears on a distinguished website, the Wall Street Journal, many readers will indeed
absorb the idea as a fact: that there is such a thing as "Palestinian
territory" and that Jews are wrong to build homes therein.
The author would have you believe that Jews have no rightful
claim to the territory, only an unreasonable demand. She wants you to think
that Jews are stealing the homeland of another people by building homes there.
This idea is certain to generate righteous fury in readers with a bent for
social justice. Which is why the author uses inflammatory language that
prejudices readers against Israel and for the Arabs.
It's a fake news story as much as the fake news story that
brought on Pizzagate, because the territory in question is Judea and Samaria. Judea
and Samaria are not only indigenous
Jewish territory, but land that rightfully belongs to Israel according to international
law. The word "Jew" is English for "Yehuda" which is
what "Judea" means. There are biblical,
historical,
and archaeological
proofs of this fact. Jews are to Judea as Arabs are to Arabia.
What is "Palestinian territory," on the other hand?
According to David
Bukay:
"Palestinian Arabs, as opposed to
Arabic-speaking residents, have not been in the area west of the Jordan River
from the Islamic occupation, from the Ottoman Empire, or even from British rule
since 1917. No Palestinian state has ever existed, and so, no Palestinian
people has ever been robbed of its land. There is no language or dialect known
as Palestinian; there is no Palestinian culture distinct from that of
surrounding Arab ones; and there has never been a land known as Palestine
governed by Palestinians at any time in history. For these reasons,
Palestinians have been driven to fabricate a past by denying and expropriating
that of Jews and Israel."
If
there never was an Arab-ruled state known as Palestine with a distinct language
and culture, then how is it possible for there to be something that is "Palestinian
territory?" And if there is no such thing as "Palestinian
territory," then how can one consider the territory to be legitimately "contested?"
An honest news piece would need to account for all of these ideas for the sake
of balance.
And of course, the author is lucky enough to have no less
than Secretary of State John Kerry lending credibility to her slanted viewpoint
with his, as she puts it, sharp criticism of Israeli construction. This is media
bias by selection of sources (Kerry). There's Kerry's bold threat: if Jews don't stop building
homes on land Arabs want, President Obama may help the UN unilaterally declare
a Palestinian state in his few remaining lame duck days in office. Because with
Trump coming in, implies the author, we lose our last chance to help these poor
Arab people get a state (aside from Jordan, Gaza, and the sections of Judea and
Samaria that are under the PA).
All that in the first sentence of her piece. And much more
as the article goes on to outline key points from Kerry's speech at the Saban
Forum.
Kerry, the author says, speaks of the Obama administration
losing patience, because the situation is "getting worse." In other
words, Jews are building yet more homes!
Kerry "cannot accept the notion that [building Jewish homes is] not a
barrier to peace."
Kerry phoned Netanyahu over 375 times but said Bibi ignores U.S.
criticism regarding Jews building homes. “We issue a warning today when we see
a settlement’s going up. Nothing happens.”
The article continues with false assurances that the Iran
deal somehow helps Israel with this followed by the reminder that the U.S. finalized
a new military aid deal with Israel, which, the author tells us
"significantly boosted" American support for Israel. Which is yet
another lie. The new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) shows no serious
improvement over past agreements and serves more as a freeze
of the status quo. Also, under the terms of the new agreement Israel cannot
request additional funds and in the event that Congress would approve more
funds for defending Israel against missiles or tunnels, for instance, these
funds would be deducted from the total sum of U.S. military aid to Israel.
Netanyahu thought long and hard about whether to agree to these terms, not
knowing whether things would be worse under, for instance, a Clinton
administration, or better under a Trump administration.
The author implies that the U.S. is good to Israel but
Israel is bad to the U.S. The U.S. made a deal with Iran that helps Israel,
according to the author, who begrudgingly quotes Netanyahu's dissent. She fails
to outline why everyday Israelis do not see the Iran deal as a good thing but
as a major existential threat. She tell us that relations between America and
the U.S. hit a new low when Bibi "went around" the White House to
speak against the deal to Congress (media bias by spin).
The author also implies that Obama made an unprecedented military
aid package to Israel, without giving readers the context that the aid package
is a freeze and that it comes with the condition that Israel may not request
additional assistance should war break out, God forbid.
The author leaves these details out because they do not
further the poisoned perspective she wishes her readers to adopt. She further
leaves out any mention of constant Arab terror, which is, after all, what
constitutes the absence of peace. Israel had to evacuate 75,000 people from
their homes due to Arab arson in recent weeks. There have been constant stonings
of Jewish cars by Arab terrorists on the roads of Judea and Samaria.
Kerry does not cite Arab terror as an impediment to peace.
Only the building of Jewish homes. And the author parrots this crazy narrative,
leaving out any mention of homes burnt down, or lives lost to terror. This is
media bias by omission.
It's sickening, frankly. What's more sickening is that
thousands of people will read and believe this crazy, unbalanced fake news
piece. Worse yet, no news outlet with a significant readership will call out
Kerry or the Obama administration for disseminating its antisemitic propaganda:
namely that building Jewish homes serves as an obstacle to peace.
Count the lies in this piece that appears in a distinguished
news outlet:
1.Jews are building homes on
Arab land
2.Building Jewish homes is an
obstacle to peace
3.Judea and Samaria are Arab
territory
4.The Iran deal helps Israel
5.The new MoU regarding U.S.
military aid to Israel is unprecedented in its scope
The omissions? The lack of context? No mention of Arab
terror. No mention of the fact that the MoU was widely regarded in Israel as a
bad deal for Israel. No mention of the fact that the Iran deal facilitates
nuclear breakout time.
If we want to stop the trend of fake news cold in its
tracks, we're going to have to demand an end to this sort of egregious media
bias. We need to call out authors who fail to lend balance to their pieces. We
need to call them out for pushing opinion as news.
And we're going to have to be loud.
It's time to take back the media and get real.
Starting right now.
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Malmo, December 7 - A spike in reported rapes that coincides with the influx of refugees and migrants from African and Middle Eastern countries into Europe has driven the European Parliament to take decisive steps to combat the sexual violence, leading to a new Continent-wide cap this week on the number of rapes allowed per migrant.
The body voted overwhelmingly this afternoon to limit the number of permissible rapes per Muslim migrant to two, a figure beyond which the perpetrator will face the local justice system, if the local justice system can penetrate the no-go zones where many migrant communities cluster. Supporters of the measure hope the limits provide a better sense of safety and security for citizens as well as a welcoming model for the newcomers, who may face a steep learning curve entering a culture where rape is a less-accepted form of communication.
"It's crucial that we strike a balance," stressed Asken Foryt, a Norwegian delegate to the parliament. "Violence, especially sexual violence, has seen an unacceptable rise in the last several years, especially among our newer residents, so we have to find a way to wean them from that behavior. But a sudden ban on rape would likely prove untenable, considering the assumptions that governed life in their previous environment. It is our hope that eventually, within a generation or two, we might no longer see a difference between the sexual assault rate among immigrants and the general population. The law leaves room for a lowering of the limit to one per migrant after seven years."
Among the details of the limit is that the per-migrant figure will not be taken individually, but in the aggregate: only as rapes accumulate beyond two for every migrant in Europe annually will the limit be considered breached. Thus, explained Dutch parliamentarian Majden Groper, a single migrant might conceivably commit hundreds of reported rapes without legal consequences, because many other migrants are not accumulating rapes at nearly the same rate, and some avoid them entirely, bringing down the per capita figure.
Critics of the measure expressed concern at its strictness. "Migrants and refugees already face prejudice, and this does not help," lamented German delegate Muhammad Schtupp. "I could have voted for this law if the limit were above six or seven, but I fear that we are sending the wrong message at a time when openness to people seeking a better life is more important then ever. If Europe doesn't want these rapes to happen it really should stop behaving in ways that invite them."
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One man, one vote, one time: In 2005, Mahmoud Abbas was elected to a four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority. He has not bothered to run for re-election since.
He is also the chairman of Fatah, a political movement with past ties to terrorism that is the dominant faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO was founded in 1964 -- three years before Israelis were in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. Abbas is chairman of the PLO, too. What all this means is that despite Abbas' declining popularity -- two-thirds of Palestinians would like him to resign, according to a recent poll -- no one has been able to successfully challenge his power.
And last week, at the Seventh Fatah Congress, held at the Muqataa, his fortified headquarters in Ramallah, Abbas further solidified his position. With members of rival factions barred from attending, and no other candidates on the ballot, Abbas was handily re-elected as Fatah's leader. "Everybody voted yes," Fatah spokesman Mahmoud Abu al-Hija assured reporters who had not been permitted to witness the event.
Mon 19 December 2016
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has come under considerable scrutiny in the past few months. Three African countries (Burundi, South Africa, and Gambia) have begun the process of exiting the court, claiming the ICC has an anti-African bias and that the laws of the court conflict with their understanding of sovereign immunity. Kenya and Uganda have also threatened to leave citing procedural and other irregularities. In addition to the issues relating to Africa, the ICC began a “Preliminary Examination into the Situation in Palestine” under highly controversial circumstances. Other critics have highlighted the small number of successful prosecutions and slow pace of the work. The expert panel will discuss these issues and what they mean for Israel. Panelists include, Gerald Steinberg, Bar Ilan University and NGO Monitor; Anne Herzberg, Legal Advisor, NGO Monitor; Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, Northwestern University; Adv. Pnina Sharvit Baruch, Senior Research Fellow, head of the Program on Law and National Security, and former head of the IDF International Law Department.
Bar Ilan University, Beck Hall 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
At a café in Beit Jala, where Gideon (fictitious name due to security concerns) met with me for an exclusive Israellycool interview, the 22-year-old described what was supposed to be happy time in his childhood –a field trip to “liberated Gaza.”
“We were in this big bus, and we entered this street, and when we went in the ‘settlement’ street, it was smooth and nice,” he recalled of this 10 shekel trip to the ruins of Gush Katif. The guide proudly pointed out where “martyrs” killed Israeli soldiers, bravely causing the Jews to retreat. Once inside, he and his schoolmates were more than eager to mock Jewish settlers and to loot whatever was left.
“I remember I saw the kippah on the street with the Star of David – so the children put it on and made fun of it and spit on it,” he said. “When we got to this place on the second level [of the regional community center], there was this basketball court, and we were shocked that it was nice. We didn’t have anything like this in Gaza.”
He visited the hothouses that were this farming community’s specialty. “I remember how brilliant they were in how they made it. And I thought: ‘Why don’t we have these plants in Gaza? Trees like they have?’ It was organized. Homes were nice.”
He had watched the 2005 pullout on television, ironically cheering the IDF as they tore thousands Jews from their homes and farms.
“I saw the image of the Jews screaming and soldiers hitting them,” he said. “I was very excited about that because they were going out. And then I started hearing the sound of blowing stuff up. I asked my family about it, and they said now that they’re kicking them out, they’re blowing up their houses so they don’t leave anything for us.”
Gideon grew up in a middle class Christian home in Gaza City not far from the Jewish settlement of Netzarim, where the sounds of those expulsions came. He attended UNRWA schools (even though he did not consider himself a “refugee”) where he was taught that Israel is to blame for Palestinian hardship. But his family’s finances deteriorated once Hamas took over. As he matured into adolescence, he realized how Hamas leadership – and not the settlers – are the true Palestinian oppressors.
"If they cut off the olive-tree branch, oh my homeland, than we will turn it into a sub machine gun and use it to take revenge"
Just a reminder: Mahmoud Abbas is the head of Fatah.
(h/t Ibn Boutros)
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Israeli authorities Tuesday cancelled weekly permits allowing elderly Gazans to travel to occupied East Jerusalem on Fridays to attend prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
An official at the Palestinian liaison office told Ma’an that Israeli authorities decided to cancel the weekly visits of Palestinians in Gaza to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque due to Palestinian worshipers not returning directly back to the Gaza Strip after prayers, in violation of the permit conditions.
However, the official added that Israel would continue to permit 100 Palestinians who are UNRWA employees, the UN agency responsible for providing services to some five million Palestinian refugees, to travel to Al-Aqsa for prayers.
Since several months ago, Israeli authorities have allowed 250 Palestinians to leave Gaza for prayers at Al-Aqsa, including UNRWA employees and 150 additional worshipers whose permits are arranged by Gaza’s Civil Affairs Committee.
As Yisrael Medad shows, the "not returning directly" means "not returning at all." Gazans were taking advantage of the ability to pray in Jerusalem to illegally immigrate to Israel.
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From MWC News, an "alternative news" source, by Elias Akleh:
Notice how they illustrate "Zionism:" a Jew praying and a Torah.
Refreshingly, and despite the headline, the author is quite explicit that he sees no difference between evil Zionists and Jews altogether:
Zionist ideology was born out of Judaism; a supremacist, racist, manipulative, genocidal religion with a racist discriminative warmongering blood thirsty god (Satan), who demands bloodshed, child sacrifice, total destruction and enslavement of all goyims (non-Jews), and the hording of all gold and silver. Those, who apologetically attempt to separate the two, have not read or understood the Judaic teachings and historical events narrated in the Old Testament and in other Judaic texts.
And Jewish anti-Zionists are just as evil as Jewish Zionists, because, well, they are Jews:
It is also noticeable that some anti-Israeli government sentiment is on the rise among American Jews themselves. Jewish organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Tikkun Olam, Satmar (Jews Not Zionists), Jews Against Racist Zionism, and Neturei Karta International (NKI) are raising their protesting voices against the inhumane policies of the Israeli government.
Yet, one must not be disillusioned by these Jewish organizations. Although they seem to be liberal and humanist, yet supremacist Judaic theology, or at least elements of it, is still ingrained in their Jewish psyche and identity. The fact that they are still calling for the implementation of the already dead and impractical two-state-solution asserting their support for an Israeli state for Jews, whose existence in itself and in any form negates a Palestinian state over the whole Palestine and deny Palestinians’ right of return to their own homes and land.
Abolishing Zionism and returning Palestine to its original owners would not guarantee global peace because the real threat resides in the core of the Judaic teachings that call for the supremacy of the Jews as god’s chosen people and its hatred and enmity to all goyim.
MWC News claims that in order to publish at the site, "Articles must be well-written, balanced, articulate, factual, and succinct."
Here's a good litmus test for "progressives" who pretend to be aghast at resurgent antisemitism from the right to see whether they will do anything about this article on one of their own alternative news sites.
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Weekend long read
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1) At the Fathom Journal, Calev Ben-Dor discusses some assessments of the
Iranian regime’s attack on Israel. “Two key parameters can help us
understand.....
Weekend long read
-
1) At the Fathom Journal, Calev Ben-Dor discusses some assessments of the
Iranian regime’s attack on Israel. “Two key parameters can help us
understand.....
The Unreal Politics of Unreal Men
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“Social media isn’t real life.” It’s a phrase we hear a lot. But is that
really true?
When Congress threatened to block China from controlling TikTok, ...
On Jabotinsky's Views on Arabs
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From here, Shlomo Avineri:
"In connection with the central position of national existence in
Jabotinsky’s theoretical concept, his approach to the positi...
Confrontation with Iran: Who Won?
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The West likes its Jews passive, dependent, and weak. When American
officials say “Israel has a right to defend [herself]” they mean that they
will allow h...
The Palestinian “Two-State” Plan: Duping the West
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One of the great unsolved mysteries of the 21st century is why, given what
a catastrophe it proved to be, anyone, much less a whole phalanx of
politicians,...
06-Feb-24: Obituary: Naftali Gordon
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The obituary that follows was published yesterday by *Times of Israel* under
the headline "*Master Sgt. (res.) Naftali Gordon, 32: A man of ‘honesty and
...
Closing Jews Down Under Website
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With a heavyish heart I am closing down the website after ten years.
It is and it isn’t an easy decision after 10 years of constant work. The
past...
‘Test & Trace’ is a mirage
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Lockdown II thoughts: Day 1 Opposition politicians have been banging on
about the need for a ‘working’ Test & Trace system even more loudly than
the govern...
Thursday, December 08, 2016
