Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 18, 2017

Chanukah video night 7: Six13: A Nice Jewish Boy Band Chanukah

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BDS clowns say Chabad menorahs are meant to oppress Palestinians

Anna Baltzer writes for the "US Campaign for Palestinian Rights:"

Friends,
Last night, as I lit the menorah with my family for the sixth night of Hanukkah, I remembered how, in Palestine, Jewish holidays translate into escalating oppression of Palestinians. ...I remembered the massive menorah erected by Israeli soldiers at the Zatara checkpoint between Ramallah and Nablus as a reminder to Palestinians of who was in charge and to whom Israel believes the land belongs – a grotesque cooptation of Jewish identity and symbols.

The story is illustrated with a photo of one of these supremely offensive menorahs "erected by Israeli soldiers:"

Anyone who knows anything about menorahs would instantly recognize this as one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of menorahs erected by the Chabad hasidic movement worldwide. Wanting to fulfill the Jewish mitzvah of "publicizing the miracle," they erect huge menorahs all over the place.

Including checkpoints, so soldiers can enjoy them for eight days out of the year.

It is not a political statement. It is not meant to rub anyone's nose in Judaism. It is meant to do a mitzvah, exactly the same as lighting a menorah in one's house.

But when your entire concept of Judaism is so perverted as Anne Baltzer's and that of the pro-BDS Jews, everything any Jew does in Israel is considered an affront to Palestinians.

They are the bigots.

Would they complain about how Muslims co-opt Jewish and Christian holy places? About how Muslims send their calls to prayer out at ear-splitting volume towards communities of non-Muslims?

Of course not. They are antisemites first, and they only pretend to care about people's feelings when it is convenient to them.

And only people who deeply hate their own religion would think of a menorah as primarily a tool of oppression.

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The arguments against the US opening up an embassy in Jerusalem, although all of them are wrong, fall into the following categories:

1) Jerusalem is a final status issue and no unilateral moves are allowed.
2) The UNSC once recommended that all diplomatic missions to Jerusalem be closed.
3) We should maintain the status quo in such a sensitive spot.

Now, Reuters and plenty of other media report, Turkey intends to open an embassy in East Jerusalem, according to a Sunday statement by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

And since then....silence. The Europeans who stumbled over themselves to condemn Trump are silent on Erdogan. The UN and NGOs aren't saying anything.

Even though all the arguments against the Trump declaration apply even more so to the Erdogan declaration.

How can this be? How can the Europeans allow Erdogan to violate the very principles that they so loftily defended in the Security Council two Fridays ago?

A cynical reason could be a latent undercurrent of antisemitism that no one cares to admit. But I don't think you have to play that card here.

Because the main difference between Trump's and Erdogan's words is that no one threatened violence if Erdogan somehow managed to open an embassy, while leaders of hundreds of millions "warned" (meaning, incited) violence against Trump.

So the three reasons that are given above against the US embassy move are justifications after the fact. There is only one rule that matters, which is "Don't piss off the Muslims."

The enlightened world knows, viscerally: Muslims perform terror attacks. Muslims riot. Muslims threaten the world. Therefore, taking the Muslim side in any matter is the only position that the moralistic, ethical world bodies can consider - because they don't want to be on the opposite side of Muslim wrath.

Try this exercise yourself:

Choose any human rights imperative - being anti-apartheid, being against genocide., supporting women's rights, being pro-democracy - literally anything.

Now, look at how Western nations act towards Muslim nations concerning any of those topics. Is there a consistent message being given to Muslim nations about these human rights issues? The answer, of course, is no.

When Western nations deal with Muslim-majority countries, they do not apply any single moral or ethical or political rule consistently. But the one rule that is entirely consistent across Western nations dealing with Muslim nations is the maxim: Don't Piss Off the Muslims.

That is the only rule you need to know to rise in the ranks of the world's diplomatic community.

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12/18 Links Pt1: Obama derailed campaign against Hezbollah to clinch Iran nuke deal; Trump Doctrine: 'Israel is not the cause of problems in the Middle East'

From Ian:

Obama said to have derailed campaign against Hezbollah to clinch Iran nuke deal

In order to help solidify the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, the Obama administration covertly derailed a campaign by the US Drug Enforcement Administration that targeted the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group, according to an investigative report by Politico.

The specific campaign, called Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 to monitor Hezbollah’s weapons and drug trafficking practices, which included funneling cocaine into the United States.

Along with drug-trafficking, the Lebanon-based terrorist group was also engaging in money laundering and other criminal activities — from which it made some $1 billion annually.

When investigators — after amassing substantial evidence — sought approval for prosecution from the US Department of Justice and US Department of Treasury, those two agencies were unresponsive, the Politico report said.

“This was a policy decision, it was a systematic decision,” said David Asher, an analyst for the US Department of Defense specializing in illicit finance who helped set up and run Project Cassandra. “They serially ripped apart this entire effort that was very well supported and resourced, and it was done from the top down.”

Asher added that Obama officials obstructed efforts to apprehend top Hezbollah operatives, including one of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s foremost weapons suppliers.

Daily Freier: Iran Names its Newest Ballistic Missile in Honor of Ben Rhodes (satire)

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was giddy with anticipation today as they waited for Iran’s Supreme Leader to unveil their newest weapon system to the public. As crowds waited at the bi-weekly “Death to America/Death to Israel Military Parade and Children’s Puppet Show”, the Ayatollah Khameini removed a giant tarp to reveal Iran’s newest missile: the “Ben Rhodes”. Named in honor of the most clever former aspiring novelist to ever serve as a National Security Advisor to Barack Obama, the “Ben Rhodes” is an impressive weapon indeed. The Ayatollah Khameini explained the reasoning behind the name to the press.

“In our culture, it is important to show gratitude. So it only seemed fair to name this great missile after the man who helped make it all possible. Of course, he had some help. So honestly, coming up with just one name was a bit tough.” Khameini then shared a fascinating tidbit of inside information. “You know, at first we voted to name the missile after John Kerry, but then we voted against it.”

The Ayatollah then went on to explain the rigorous testing that the missile went through, to include tests in a specially constructed Echo Chamber. “This missile took a lot of work. But it’s funny how everything worked out in the end: the Iran Deal, our unfrozen assets, America “Leading from Behind”. Yes it is all quite funny. But not as funny as Ben Rhodes being named to the Board of the Holocaust Museum in Washington.”

Trump Doctrine: 'Israel is not the cause of problems in the Middle East'

U.S. President Trump poised to unveil "America First" national security strategy Monday • Strategy argues the threats from radical terrorists and Iran are proving that Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the "prime irritant" preventing regional peace.
Prioritizing national sovereignty over alliances, U.S. President Donald Trump is poised to outline a new national security strategy that envisions nations in a perpetual state of competition, reverses Obama-era warnings on climate change, and de-emphasizes multinational agreements that have dominated U.S. foreign policy since the Cold War.

The Republican president, who ran on a platform of "America First," will detail his plan Monday, one that, if fully implemented, could sharply alter the United States' relationships with the rest of the world.

The plan, according to senior administration officials who offered a preview Sunday, is to focus on four main themes: protecting the homeland and way of life; promoting American prosperity; demonstrating peace through strength; and advancing American influence in an ever-competitive world.

Trump's doctrine holds that nation states are in perpetual competition and that the U.S. must fight on all fronts to protect and defend its sovereignty from friend and foe alike. While the administration often says that "America First" does not mean "America Alone," the national security strategy to be presented by Trump will make clear that the United States will stand up for itself even if that means acting unilaterally or alienating others on issues like trade, climate change and immigration, according to people familiar with the strategy.

PreOccupiedTerritory: US Declares Palestinians No Longer Have Role In Mideast Peace (satire)

Trump administration officials voiced their frustration with the continued refusal of Palestinians representatives to play a constructive role in negotiations with Israel over a final status agreement Monday, and announced they no longer see a role Palestinians can play in fostering a peaceful resolution to the century-old conflict.

White House spokesman Hugh Gottabee-Kidding used the daily press briefing to inform reporters that the administration is now considering alternatives to the Palestinians in the role they have performed hitherto, and have assembled a list of what Gottabee-Kidding called seven “strong” candidates.

“Unfortunately, over the last quarter-century since Israelis and Palestinians started negotiations, we’ve been consistently let down by the credibility of the Palestinian role in the process,” he stated. “As such, we no longer see Palestinian participation as a positive element in the dynamic of the talks. We sat down this past week to hammer out possible others who could step in to play the role in a constructive fashion, and we have already conducted preliminary inquiries with each of those parties.”

Gottabee-Kidding stressed that until a firm agreement is reached with the Palestinians’ replacement, he cannot divulge the identities of the candidates. “I will say that, obviously, functioning nations with peace agreements in place with Israel have already demonstrated the capacity to play a constructive role, and it would be remiss of us not to include them in the roster.” Egypt and Jordan concluded peace agreements with Israel in 1978 and 1994, respectively.

Analysts warn that rushing into the replacement process could jeopardize the talks, which have been on hold since 2014. “We wouldn’t want to disturb the status quo,” explained Bob Zyerunkel of Scholars and Humanists Analyzing the Middle East (SHAME), a think tank. There’s been a sort of stability in things for more than three years at this point, and it might be dangerous to upset that. Any replacement candidate would have to commit to a certain way of doing things. There’s an entire industry built around these negotiations, and it wouldn’t do to compromise that.”

When we joined our first temple a decade ago, my wife and I were primarily looking to give our kids the Jewish education we never had. But it was clear during new-member orientation that the community we were entering offered many ways to explore being a Jewish adult, with strongly hinted encouragement that those who get the most out of the place are on some sort of spiritual journey.

Given how, up until then, my Jewish identity was so bound up in pro-Israel politics, it was a gift to be able to explore my relationship with God through study, discussion and argument that still had much to say about the Zionism I still so strongly identify with.

Not that Israel and politics are ignored within the Temple. While they must compete with other events and activities, a steady flow of diverse Israeli and Israel-related speakers make pilgrimages to our halls each year, many invited by the temple’s Israel Action Committee (which I led for a while).

Our Chief Rabbi’s own journey has included yearly participation in summer programming at Israel’s Shalom Hartman Institute (including the summer of ‘14 when he had to dodge Hamas rocket fire to get to class). Lessons from those experiences have made their way into more than one service, and Hartman’s iEngage programming – introduced a few years ago (co-sponsored by our town’s Reform and Conservative temples) – recently made a return with a series of lunchtime discussions regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict.

At a kickoff event, we began by exploring the different arguments regarding what might make Zionism unique among different forms of nationalism. But by the end of the session (which could have gone on for weeks), I sensed one of those potentially fruitful areas of discomfort regarding how much Jewish nationalism might represent a form of particularism that stands in contrast (possibly even in conflict) with more universal values.

Notions of the universal vs. the particular have been of particular interest since reading the works of that gay, conservative, philosopher/iconoclast Lee Harris, especially his second book The Suicide of Reason.

The subtitle of that book “Radical Islam’s Threat to the West” – along with earlier writing that established him as the philosopher king of 9/11 – put Harris squarely one on side of the culture war that has emerged over the last two decades. But Suicide of Reason is much more about our own Western culture vs. contemporary events related to Islam.

At the heart of his argument is a rejection of the dichotomy between universalism and particularism, whether related to Jews or anyone else. To take one example, Christianity could be seen as a “universal” faith since it, unlike “particularist” Judaism, has a mission to create a universal culture. But the nature of the individual who will inhabit that universal culture (i.e., a Christian) is highly particular.

Perhaps this confusion arises from mixing together two different interpretations of the word “universal” that should be kept separate. One of them would include things that are truly universal for all members of the human race such as our mortality or need to interact with others to survive (at least as a species). But “universalism” also implies the desire to see all people live in a particular way, with candidates for that particular culture being both religious (Christianity, Islam) and secular (Communism or plain old modernity).

That last example: the modern identity that arose from Europe’s Enlightenment, is what Harris dwells on in Suicide of Reason. For those of us who live in this age and this world (including everyone participating at our Temple’s iEngage session) are so surrounded by the modern world view that it takes on the air of the universal truth, just as “Christendom” was the world for those who lived in Medieval Europe.

But, as Harris points out, the notion that all people are (or can become) rational actors (the heart of the Enlightenment’s appeal to reason as a ruling virtue) was the product of unique cultural evolution, no different (and no less iconoclastic) than other man-made creations such as the culture of ancient Greeks or Chinese.

One way to deal with this issue is to eliminate terms like “universal” and “universalist” from our vocabularies and say, rather, that all cultures (including modernity) are particularlist through and through, but that some of these particular cultures are more expansive (like Christianity or Enlightenment modernity) than others (like Judaism).

Discussing the role of Jews and Zionism in the context of expansive vs. non-expansive particularist cultures certainly changes the nature of the debate regarding Israel and the world, but might do so in a way that increases insight – even as it increases discomfort among those of us (including me) who would prefer a world made up of rational actors ready to solve our problems via discussion and debate vs. appeals to God and the sword

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From Bloomberg:

The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote on an Egyptian draft resolution Monday that “calls upon all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions” in Jerusalem, after U.S. President Donald Trump recognized the city as Israel’s capital.

The one-page draft resolution reviewed by Bloomberg News “demands that all States comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the Holy City of Jerusalem, and not to recognize any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions.”

The resolution is symbolic since the U.S. has a permanent veto on the 15-member security council and Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, is expected to vote the measure down. By forcing the U.S. to use its veto, though, Egypt and other countries are attempting to isolate Trump on the world stage.

The Security Council condemned Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem as the capital and begin moving the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv by a vote of 14-1 on Dec. 8.

The Egyptian resolution does not mention the U.S. or Trump by name but expresses “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.”

I don't have the text of the resolution beyond what Bloomberg quotes, but it appears to be mostly a restatement of UNSC 478 from 1980 with an important distinction.

UNSC 478 does not call for all states to withdraw embassies from Jerusalem. It calls on "Those States that have established diplomatic missions at Jerusalem to withdraw such missions from the Holy City."

This draft resolution "calls upon all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions" - but it does not call on states that already have such missions to withdraw them, as UNSC 478 did.

Because the majority of diplomatic missions (mostly consulates) in Jerusalem primarily serve Palestinian Arabs.

So the member states of the UNSC are not being even-handed. They want to maintain the Swedish and Belgian and French and British and Italian and even American consulates in Jerusalem, even though those misions violate UNSC 478 explicitly - because they serve Palestinians. The draft resolution today pointedly ignores that part of 478 calling for withdrawal of all missions and restates it to only apply to the US plan to establish a "diplomatic mission" that would serve Israel.

What the practical implementation of 478 and this draft resolution do is specifically to deny the rights of Israeli Jews to Jerusalem while affirming Palestinian rights to the city.

The UN is seeking to do exactly what it claims it is trying to avoid - prejudging the outcome of negotiations,.

The message from the UN is clear: Jerusalem is "Palestinian." All of it. Palestinians have veto power over Israel having any sovereignty over the holy city but Israel has no such similar power in terms of who can establish or maintain diplomatic missions for Palestinians in the holy city.

Language is very important in diplomacy. This resolution, which will gain a huge majority of the UNSC vote before the US vetoes it, shows that you only have to dig a tiny but under the surface to see that the UN happily will use bland, diplomatic language to isolate and demonize only Israeli Jews and those who show support for them.

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After the agreement brokered by Egypt to reconcile the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, PA workers in various government ministries were supposed to return to their jobs after years of enforce (and paid) vacation.

On Sunday morning, 18 PA employees of the Ministry of Culture showed up to work. But the Hamas workers there didn't want to give up their positions of leadership.

So they took out guns and threatened to kill the PA workers if they went to work.

The Ramallah-based Ministry of Culture deplored the actions of the Hamas-run Gaza-based Ministry of Culture for threatening its employees, after two months of negotiations to allow them to return to their jobs. The Ministry noted that bringing guns to the workplace to threaten coworkers is not professional.

This is an indication of how well the much heralded reconciliation has been going.

It is also a shame that Gaza will now have a little less culture. One of the planned "cultural" initiatives that are now in jeopardy is "cultural and literary events to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first Palestinian uprising."

Yes, the ministry that is planning to celebrate violence as part of Palestinian culture is upset that violence is interrupting the work of the ministry.

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Sunday, December 17, 2017

Bethlehem Arabs use Christmas candles to burn photos of Pence and other American officials

What a beautiful picture, Arabs walking near the Bethlehem Christmas tree with candles.

But wait - they are holding signs.

Anti-American signs.

Signs with photos of Vice President Mike Pence, U negotiator Jason Greenblatt and others.

And they are using the candles to burn the pictures of Americans.

Americans, meanwhile, give hundreds of millions of dollars a year to these people so they can be insulted.

But for some reason, no one seems to care about Palestinians insulting Americans and burning American officials in effigy.

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Bonus Chanukah video: Chanuka Medley with Micha Gamerman (animation)

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Chanukah video night 6: The Hanukkah Song | Marvie's Pick (Sesame Studios)

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Speaking to the US-based Arabic network Al Hurra, Abdul Hamid Hakim, Director of the Middle East Research Institute in Jeddah, said:

We as Arabs must understand the other party as it is, and we know what is needed to succeed in peace negotiations.

We have to recognize and realize that Jerusalem is a religious symbol of the Jews, as holy to them as the holiness of Mecca and Medina is for Muslims.

The Arab mind must be liberated from the Nasserite heritage and the legacy of political Islam, both Sunni and Shiite, which instilled a culture of hatred of Jews and denial of their historical right to the region.

Immediately, Hakim was pilloried on social media, with prominent Saudis calling him ignorant and denouncing him for "normalization."

Hakim had previously said such controversial things as "The time has come for a new Middle East based on love, peace, coexistence and rejection of hatred, violence and extremism."

It is encouraging that a few Saudis can actually say things that are relatively normal and honest. But the backlash to Hakim's statement, especially in Palestinian media, illuminate something about the reaction to Donald Trump's Jerusalem speech.

In both cases, someone says something that is obviously true. In both cases, the backlash is not against the truth of the statement - but against the implications. To the Palestinians, the truth must be avoided at all costs.

And the world looks at one side that says the truth, the other side that fights with all its might against the truth, and concludes that the real truth must be closer to the side that makes a bigger noise.

That is the genius of the Palestinian Big Lie.

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12/17 Links: Matti Friedman: The ties that bind Jerusalem; Fatah calls for violence: "Strap on your weapon"; OIC in Legal Fantasyland over Trump, Jerusalem and Israel

From Ian:

Matti Friedman: The ties that bind Jerusalem

Different religions have their own holy sites in Jerusalem, the city where I've spent my entire adult life. The place I believe to be among the most important, however, is a grubby swath of garages, welding shops and furniture stores known as the Talpiot industrial zone. The zone is sacred to no one and unknown to tourists or foreign correspondents. It's a short walk from my street, so I spend a lot of time there – the industrial zone is where you can find the best hardware store, the cheapest supermarkets, my barber and stores selling balloons for birthday parties, model airplanes or anything else you could ever need.

When President Donald Trump announced on Dec. 6 that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move its embassy here, Arab leaders called for "days of rage" and a chorus of Western observers predicted an explosion. The predictions were predictable; Jerusalem is always said to be on the brink of catastrophe, and headlines are always reporting "tensions."

The city is certainly volatile, considering: the proximity of sites holy to Muslims, Christians and Jews, all under Israeli control; the fact that more than one-third of the city's residents are Palestinians, mostly Muslims, who aren't Israeli citizens and tend to see Israeli rule as illegitimate; and the city's existence in a region engulfed in a religious war. But what is truly interesting about Jerusalem is not the proximity of the brink, but the way the city's residents often refuse to play their part in the script by stepping off.

After Mr. Trump's announcement, amid warnings of "explosive" repercussions, I got e-mails from friends abroad, wondering whether I was worried, or whether I was safe. That Friday, a crowd of reporters gathered at the Old City's Damascus Gate to document the violence that was supposed to erupt. But little happened; the protesters were outnumbered by journalists, and everyone went home. There weren't spontaneous mass celebrations on the Jewish side or mass disturbances on the Arab side. The past week has been fairly normal.

PMW: Fatah calls for violence: "Strap on your weapon"

Posts on Fatah's Facebook page call for violence following US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. (Dec. 17, 2017)

The picture above of a hand holding an automatic weapon is part of Abbas' Fatah Movement's answer to US President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The poster calls for Palestinians to use violence:

Posted text: "Strap on your weapon over your wound, and tomorrow you will awaken to a morning of freedom #Rage_for_Jerusalem #Rage_for_Al-Aqsa_Mosque #Jerusalem_our_capital #Jerusalem_the_capital_of_Palestine
#HandsOffAlQuds"
Text on the image repeats the call to "strap on your weapon" [Official Fatah Facebook page, Dec. 14, 2017]

Other Fatah posts that appeared on Facebook called for riots and rock throwing, one example is this:
Posted text: "#Rage_for_Jerusalem #Rage_for_Al-Aqsa_Mosque #HandsOffAlQuds"
Text on image: "#Rage_for_Al-Aqsa_Mosque" [Official Fatah Facebook page, Dec. 14, 2017]

Palestinian Media Watch reported that Abbas' advisor in a televised sermon incited religious war following Trump's declaration:

Fatah called for rage in many similar posts.
US recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel - On Dec. 6, 2017, US President Donald Trump gave a speech formally recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and stating that he had instructed the State Department to begin preparations to transfer the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump concluded by stating that the US is still fully committed to the peace process in the Middle East. Following his speech, Trump signed the waiver to delay the transfer of the embassy, and apparently will continue to do so until preparations for the transfer have been completed.

Seth Frantzman: Could death of disabled activist mean new Palestinian icon?

Video of the disabled activist before his death show him with dozens of Palestinian protesters who set off on Friday toward the Israeli security fence that borders Gaza. He told an interviewer before the clashes that “this land is our land. We are not going to give up. America has to withdraw the declaration it has made.”

The IDF said that hundreds of Palestinians approached the border fence on Friday and threw stones. They were dispersed.

Photos showed Abu Thuraya being pushed on a wheelchair while advancing toward the border with the protesters, some of whom had slingshots and were throwing stones. Tear gas canisters landed around the rioters, and at some point he left his wheelchair behind, crawling through the grass. The footage, after he was shot, shows him being pushed while slumped in his wheelchair and then carried away.

Palestinians said he was shot in the head, and a Health Ministry spokesman in Gaza, Ashraf al-Kidra, claimed he was pronounced dead at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital as a result of his wounds.

On Saturday, photos showed his body carried on a stretcher through the streets after his death.

Comments on social media expressed outrage at his death.

He was “murdered” by the IDF, said social media users. He was unarmed, they pointed out, and did not pose a threat.

This op-ed in Haaretz by Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, former head of the Union for Reform Judaism, should be required reading for every liberal who's knee jerk reaction to Trump's Jerusalem speech was to automatically disparage it.

Yoffie admits that he initially had the same reaction as all other liberal American Jews:

As a peace advocate and a strong supporter of a two-state solution, I responded to Trump’s pronouncement on Israel’s capital the same way that I respond to virtually everything that the President says: negatively and dismissively.

And the reason for this is that the President’s foreign policy statements have been inconsistent and muddled at best and isolationist and xenophobic at worst. Not surprisingly, my default position is to resist every word on foreign affairs that comes out of his mouth.

And this position was strengthened by the arguments of Tom Friedman and a host of other journalists, commentators, academics, and Middle East experts whose opinions I respect and who asserted that Trump had given away the store.

Yoffie initially believed the "if Trump does it it must be wrong" crowd. He, like most American liberal Jews, didn't think for himself, he didn't examine the facts for himself, he outsourced the research to "Middle East experts whose opinions" he respects.

And then he realized that the entire groupthink that animates so much of what passes for intelligent analysis was completely wrong.

For three reasons:

In the first place, I responded viscerally. I am a Jerusalem Jew. In my 75 or so visits to Israel, about 60% of my time has been spent in Jerusalem. I enjoy the hustle and bustle of Tel Aviv, and I love the stark majesty of the Negev. But still, warts and all, Jerusalem remains for me a city of unsurpassed beauty and palpable holiness. And I believe that Judaism and Jewish life will not be sustained without Jerusalem at its core.
Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel, whether the President of the United States says so or not. Nonetheless, it is comforting and gratifying when President Trump finally states what I know to be eternal and true.
And not only that. When Palestinians express their outrage and demand justice for Jerusalem, I can’t help wondering: Where was justice when Yasser Arafat and Mahmud Abbas were claiming at the UN that Jews have no historical connection to the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, and indeed to all of Jerusalem?
Last Thursday in Istanbul, Abbas repeated this ugly and absurd claim at a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Having insisted that Jerusalem’s holy sites belong only to Muslims and Christians, how much sympathy do they have a right to expect now?

Yoffie noticed the double standards of outrage between Jewish and Arab claims to Jerusalem. He knows that while even the most right wing of Israel's governments gives more respect to non-Jewish history in Jerusalem than even the most liberal of Arabs do towards Jewish history.

In the second place, I saw that not only Netanyahu and the right supported President Trump’s statement. So did the leaders of the Israeli center and center-left. Knesset opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog, Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid, Zionist Union chair Avi Gabbay, and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni all applauded the President’s words.
When I am looking for guidance from Israel’s political leaders, these are the people to whom I turn. They are all critics of Benjamin Netanyahu and the rightwing government now in power. They are all advocates of a Jewish and democratic Israel and a two-state solution. They all call for immediate negotiations with the Palestinians.
And the unanimity of their sentiments demonstrates that proclaiming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is not a surrender to Netanyahu and the right. It is a reflection of a broad consensus in Israel that certain historical realities need to be recognized and that Palestinian rejectionists are not entitled to wish these realities away.

Indeed, too many American Jewish liberals who pretend to be Zionist are utterly ignorant of the reality in Israel and Israel's liberal camp. They think Haaretz' Israeli columnists represents Israeli liberals, not realizing that they are fringe, and that Israel's liberal parties hold positions that are far more attuned to the reality on the ground in Israel than all of the "pro-Israel" European and American liberals combined.

In the third place, I read President Trump’s speech a second time and then a third time. And while it is difficult for me to say this, say it I must: It was a pretty good speech. Not wholly adequate to be sure, but nonetheless moderate, reasonable, and generally fair. And far better than I had feared and expected.
Those who saw it as a give-away to settlers and rightwing fanatics should look again. Netanyahu and the Israeli right call for a united Jerusalem; for the city to be the capital of the Jewish state, and the Jewish state alone; and for sovereignty of the city to be solely in Jewish hands. Yet Trump clearly rejected all of these positions, asserting instead that these matters are to be determined by negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.
To be sure, the U.S. president made clear that any peace deal would result in Israel maintaining its capital in at least part of Jerusalem. But he said nothing to preclude negotiations that would result in a Palestinian state that would also have its capital in some part of the city.

It is a Chanukah miracle. One of the leading American Jewish liberals actually read Trump's speech. He had to do it several times to actually allow himself to believe that it was a good speech, but as much as every fiber of his being wanted to hate it because of the person saying the words - he had to admit that the speech did not hurt peace. It simply accepted reality.

It is Yoffie's liberal friends who pretend to be outraged who are the ones hurting peace by attacking the speaker and not bothering themselves to look at what he said.

He has taken a generally responsible approach to Jerusalem, and for this I give him the credit that he is due.

While I disagree with Yoffie about pretty much everything, I also want to give credit where credit is due. For once, he has looked beyond his own echo chamber and thought for himself.

I would love to see Thomas Friedman and the other reflexive critics of Trump's declaration try to answer this column. They won't, because they don't want to admit that they, too, make their opinions first and only look for facts that support their opinions afterwards..

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New York Times justifies 70 years of lies about Jerusalem

The NYT editorial on Friday said:

[O]ut of the blue, President Donald Trump announced on Dec. 6 that he was formally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, tossing aside 70 years of careful American neutrality and infuriating Palestinians, who also want their capital to be in Jerusalem.

"Out of the blue"? Trump announced his position over a year ago.

"Careful American neutrality?" Is that what ignoring the reality of Israel's capital is being called nowadays?

And note that avoiding infuriating Palestinians is considered a valid diplomatic objective while worrying about infuriating Israelis is not even a consideration. The reason is that Arabs tend to get violent when they don't get their way and Jews don't. So the obvious solution is to lean towards the position of the irrational crazies who might kill you for saying words that upset them.

That's diplomatic wisdom, in the opinion of the New York Times, and much of the world. Facts be damned.

Israel’s government has been in West Jerusalem since the state’s founding in 1948. In the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, Israel drove Jordan back from East Jerusalem and occupied the whole city. But the United States, like most of the world, had withheld formal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital pending a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians that would fairly resolve all major disputes. One might refer to such bargaining, to maximize leverage in pursuit of the best outcome, as the art of the deal.

Yes, those 70 years of denying reality has really helped bring peace. Let's try it for 70 more years.

But that’s just not how this White House operates. In fact, it conceded another piece of leverage on Friday and again angered Palestinians for no apparent purpose. White House officials made clear their expectation that Jerusalem’s Western Wall, which lies outside Israel’s pre-1967 borders and abuts some of Islam’s most sacred sites, will eventually be declared part of Israel. This time, they were careful to say that the final borders of Israel and any Palestinian state must be settled in negotiations. But it seemed another case of America taking Israel’s side on an explosive issue.

Because, you know, it is always possible that Israel would give up on its desire to hold onto Jewish holy places because of world pressure.

The idea of keeping Jerusalem united is obviously a non-starter to the New York Times. The idea that Israel, which has been a state for nearly 70 years, has a better claim on how to define its capital than the fictional state of Palestine, is considered crazy. The idea that pressuring "Palestine" to compromise on Jerusalem is crazy - only the Jews must give away their heart and soul for peace, but Arabs are assumed to be the rightful owners of all the holy sites because 19 years of illegal Jordanian occupation is considered more legally important than 50 years of Jerusalem being open to all religions under Israeli rule.

Trump did nothing other than speak the truth and note that peace is impossible without recognizing reality. 70 years of make-believe has not brought peace, and in fact it has impeded it.

But the idea that carefully constructed lies is more important than obvious facts is not at all foreign to those who have been reading the New York Times over the decades.

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Fatah gives lessons for children to attack Israel

The official Fatah Facebook page shows a photo of a child with a sling, with a fire burning behind him, giving instructions for children like him on how best to attack Israelis. This screenshot shows the automatically translated part.

First field lesson:
To hit the target there are three conditions:
1. Stand firmly, and balance well between your feet and your hands and your body ..
2. Keep your eyes on the center of your target, do not turn away,
3. Keep the balance between your body and your weapon, you are the one who controls the weapon, not the other way round.
If you do not understand the lesson, read it again

This is the "non-violence" that the Palestinian Authority teaches its youngsters.

It is child abuse - but you will not find a single children's advocacy group saying a word against it. Not UNICEF, not Defense for Children International, nobody.

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Saturday, December 16, 2017

12/16 Links: WH ‘cannot envision situation’ where Western Wall is not part of Israel; Mahmoud Abbas’s Karine-A Moment?

From Ian:

White House ‘cannot envision situation’ where Western Wall is not part of Israel

A senior administration official told reporters on Friday that the White House “envisions” the Western Wall will remain part of Israel under any accord with the Palestinians.

The comments follow US President Donald Trump’s December 6 declaration that recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. They are certain to delight Israeli leaders — the Western Wall is the holiest place where Jews are allowed to pray — and infuriate the Palestinians, who claim East Jerusalem, including the Old City, as the capital of their intended independent state.

“We cannot envision any situation under which the Western Wall would not be part of Israel,” the official said, speaking ahead of US Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Israel next week.

“But as the president said [in his speech last week on Jerusalem], the specific boundaries of sovereignty of Israel are going to be part of the final status agreement,” the official said.

Furthermore, the official added, “We note that we cannot imagine Israel would sign a peace agreement that didn’t include the Western Wall.”

Furious Palestinians reject White House talk of Western Wall as Israel’s forever

The Palestinian Authority bitterly rejected comments by a senior official in the Trump Administration on Friday that the White House “envisions” the Western Wall will remain part of Israel under any accord with the Palestinians.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a senior adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, declared Saturday that the PA would not accept any changes to what he called the borders of East Jerusalem. Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City with the Temple Mount and Western Wall, from Jordan in the 1967 war.

“We will not accept any changes on the borders of East Jerusalem, which was occupied in 1967,” Abu Rudeineh said. “This statement proves once again that this American administration is outside the peace process,” he added.

“The continuation of this American policy, whether the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, or moving the American embassy, or such statements, by which the United States decides unilaterally on the issues of the final status negotiations, are a violation of international law and strengthen the Israeli occupation,” he said.

“For us, this is unacceptable. We totally reject it. And we totally denounce it.”

Mahmoud Abbas’s Karine-A Moment?

Nearly 16 years ago, in early January 2002, the Israeli navy intercepted the Karine-A, a weapons laden ship, in the Red Sea on its way to the Palestinian Authority from Iran. The capture of the ship and the intelligence gleaned from it by Israel forced the United States to go “from viewing Arafat as an eccentric but necessary peace proponent, to viewing him as the heart of the terror problem.”

At the time, the so-called “Aqsa intifada” – a deadly campaign that claimed hundreds of lives that was planned by the Palestinian leadership after Arafat turned down a peace offer from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in July 2000 – had been going on for about 15 months. There was an international clamor to reduce the violence as Israel attempted to destroy the terror infrastructure that Arafat had overseen in the West Bank.

Yet, when Israel presented the U.S. evidence of Arafat’s involvement in terror, President George W. Bush responded by demanding the Palestinians find a new leader “not compromised by terror.”

After Arafat died in 2004, he was succeeded by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who still serves in that position even though he was elected in 2005 for a four-year term.

Abbas, who objected to the violence of the “Aqsa intifada,” has proven no more ready to make peace with Israel than Arafat, in addition to being corrupt. He rejected a 2008 peace proposal from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and derailed two efforts by the Obama administration to achieve peace with Israel.

This week, in a shocking display of denial, Abbas accused Jews of “faking and counterfeiting history and religion” with their claims to Israel.

Mordehai kedar petite remise en question chez al jazeera (h/t Yenta Press)

Chanukah video night 5: Gershon Veroba- הנרות הללו

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Friday, December 15, 2017

12/15 Links Pt2: It is time to cut off financial support to Abbas; The Uncomfortable Truth About Swedish Anti-Semitism; What if America Won a War and No One Cared?

From Ian:

Kevin Williamson: It is time to cut off financial support to Abbas

Abbas boasts that the Palestinian state and the Palestinian National Authority no longer receive U.S. aid, but that isn’t quite true. The United States is a very large contributor to UNRWA, the relief agency for Palestinian “refugees.” (There aren’t any Palestinian refugees, really, but, unlike the rest of the world’s peoples, Palestinians inherit refugee status.) The United States is also a large contributor to other U.N. programs and international organizations that provide aid to the Palestinians, who, thanks to their incompetent and malevolent leadership, have no real economy to speak of. In 2016, the United States gave more in aid to the Palestinians than any other country did.

It is time to rethink that.

UNRWA is a troubled and troubling organization on its best day, an encourager and enabler of Palestinian radicalism. The prospects for peace probably would improve if it were dissolved. But, short of that, the United States should consider accommodating President Abbas’s demand and stepping away from the situation for a while, taking our aid money with us. If President Abbas must have his obstinacy and his cheap theatrics, then let him pay the full price for them. Let’s see how much loose change Erdogan can scramble up from the cushions of his ottoman. The haul is likely to be disappointing.

The United States has global interests, and one of those is seeing to the interests of our allies, including Israel. President Abbas thinks the United States has no role in future peace negotiations in the Middle East. One could not blame Americans for thinking much the same thing about him. What’s certain is that American power and American interests will be here when President Abbas has joined the footnotes, and the powers that be in the Islamic world would do well to meditate on that fact.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Swedish Anti-Semitism

This past Saturday, a Hanukkah party at a synagogue in Goteborg, Sweden, was abruptly interrupted by Molotov cocktails. They were hurled by a gang of men in masks at the Jews, mostly teenagers, who had gathered to celebrate the holiday.

Two days later, two fire bombs were discovered outside the Jewish burial chapel in the southern Swedish city of Malmo.

Who knows what tomorrow may bring?

For Sweden’s 18,000 Jews, sadly, none of this comes as a surprise. They are by now used to anti-Semitic threats and attacks — especially during periods of unrest in the Middle East, which provide cover to those whose actual goal has little to do with Israel and much to do with harming Jews.

Both of these recent attacks followed days of incitement against Jews. Last Friday, 200 people protested in Malmo against President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The protesters called for an intifada and promised “we will shoot the Jews.” A day later, during a demonstration in Stockholm, a speaker called Jews “apes and pigs.” There were promises of martyrdom.

Malmo’s sole Hasidic rabbi has reported being the victim of more than 100 incidents of hostility ranging from hate speech to physical assault. In response to such attacks, the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a travel warning in 2010 advising “extreme caution when visiting southern Sweden” because of officials’ failure to act against the “serial harassment” of Jews in Malmo.

Today, entering a synagogue anywhere in Sweden usually requires going through security checks, including airport-like questioning. At times of high alert, police officers with machine guns guard Jewish schools. Children at the Jewish kindergarten in Malmo play behind bulletproof glass. Not even funerals are safe from harassment.

Exodus: Jews Flee Paris Suburbs Over Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism

Klein later points out the irony that Paris today is a city “where keffiyeh-wearing men and veiled women speak Arabic on every street corner” but where “soldiers are walking every street that houses a Jewish institution.”

Sammy Ghozlan, the president of the Jewish communal security organization BNCVA, told 20 Minutes that it was vital “not to underestimate the antisemitism we experience on a daily basis.”

“For a long time, Jews were targeted through their symbols — today, people themselves are targeted directly,” Ghozlan said.

As Breitbart Jerusalem has reported, the experience of Jews in Paris is much the same across the rest of the country. More and more are feeling so unsafe that they now feel they have no other choice but to move to Israel for safety.

They are continuing a trend that has seen tens of thousands of Jews quit the country in the past decade.

More than 5,000 departures were recorded in 2016 on top of the record 7,900 who left in 2015 and 7,231 in 2014. In total, 40,000 French Jews have emigrated since 2006, according to figures cited by AFP.

On the evidence, that number will not be falling anytime soon.

David French: What if America Won a War and No One Cared?

The momentous news of ISIS’s defeat was greeted, in large part, with silence. Why?

The announcement came on Saturday. Just three days before the Alabama special election that transfixed the nation, and on the same day that President Trump fact-checked the Washington Post’s Dave Weigel, Iraq’s prime minister declared victory in the war against ISIS. Iraq — with indispensable American help — has regained control of its cities and its border with Syria. ISIS has been reduced to a shadow of its former self.

The victory isn’t confined to Iraq. American-allied forces control ISIS’s former capital in Syria, and the world’s largest jihadist army is gone. Bands of insurgents still prowl the countryside, and ISIS cells exist across the world, but the war against the “caliphate” is over. It’s been won.

So why does no one seem to care?

It was exactly three years ago that the Middle East was in crisis. The ISIS blitzkrieg had brought Iraq to its knees. Jihadists controlled immense sections of Iraq and Syria. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi spoke from Mosul’s Great Mosque, declared himself “Caliph Ibrahim,” and called on Muslims across the world to join him in his jihad.

They answered his call by the thousands. They flocked to Syria and Iraq from North Africa, Europe, and Asia. Britain was rocked by reports that more of its Muslim residents had joined ISIS than joined the British military. ISIS initiated genocide. It threatened the Kurds. It threatened Baghdad. Americans old enough to remember the fall of Saigon began to wonder: Was history repeating itself?

For veterans of the Iraq War like me, these were extraordinarily painful months. Friends died over there. Others lost limbs or suffered terrible wounds. Every man and woman who served in Iraq sacrificed something, even if it was “only” a year of their life. And now our nation looked like a bystander to a calamity. Through withdrawal, we’d squandered the military victory of the Surge. Through withdrawal, we’d empowered our enemies.

Chanukah Video night 4: The Maccabeats - Candles on the Sill

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12/15 Links Pt1: Abbas Defies Oslo Agreements, Demands Full UN membership; Jerusalem, Israel's Capital: Watch the Masks Fall

From Ian:

The Anti-Semitic Invective of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian President Accuses Jews of ‘Counterfeiting History and Religion,’ Claims Qur’an Says They ‘Fabricate Truth’

Abbas, whose doctorate denied the Holocaust and who accused rabbis of poisoning Palestinian water, is no stranger to anti-Semitic remarks

On Wednesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the Organization of Islamic Cooperation at a summit in Turkey. Understandably, Abbas condemned the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and reiterated Palestinian claims to the city. But then the Palestinian leader ventured into far more disturbing territory: instead of simply assailing the political policies of the United States and Israel, he began to assail Jews. Almost as an aside, Abbas declared:

I don’t want to discuss religion or history because they are really excellent in faking and counterfeiting history and religion. But if we read the Torah it says that the Canaanites were there before the time of our prophet Abraham and their existence continued since that time—this is in the Torah itself. But if they would like to fake this history, they are really masters in this and it is mentioned in the holy Qur’an they fabricate truth and they try to do that and they believe in that but we have been there in this location for thousands of years.

Typically, Abbas presents his critiques of Israel as anti-Zionist rather than anti-Jewish. But of course, the Qur’an does not mention Zionists or Zionism—a modern political movement. It mentions Jews. Thus, according to Abbas, it is Jews who are “really excellent in faking and counterfeiting history and religion,” who “fabricate truth,” and who “are really masters in this.” Ironically, in this passage, Abbas was attempting to argue that the modern Palestinian people is actually descended from the biblical Canaanites, a dubious claim with little evidence to support it. Thus, he accused Jews of being fabricators of history while engaging in the same.

This is far from the first time the Palestinian president has dabbled in anti-Semitic invective.

Abbas Defies Oslo Agreements, Demands Full UN membership

Abbas stressed there can be no peace without Jerusalem being the capital of the Palestinian state, and described President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as a violation of international law and signed agreements. With that, Abbas said, the US disqualified itself from playing the role of mediator in the peace process, and his side will now take its case to the international community.

Abbas then called on the OIC member states to support his nation on 13 distinct points:

1. Limit the foreign relations of OIC members with world countries based on their position on the issue of Jerusalem, specifically with regard to the US declaration.

2. In light of the Jerusalem declaration, it is necessary to take political and economic measures to compel Israel to end its “occupation of the land of the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital and to implement international humanitarian law.” In other words, commit suicide, ASAP.

3. Demand that the countries of the world review their recognition of the State of Israel.

Jerusalem, Israel's Capital: Watch the Masks Fall

Many analysts say that US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital is a campaign promise to evangelical Christian and right-wing Jewish voters, but there is another way of looking at it. Trump's recognition might be a golden opportunity for two-faced opportunists to be unmasked -- a shot of reality that might eventually help the peace process and solve this long-lasting conflict.

Since the declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, many Arab observers, intellectuals and academics have started to question the veracity of those jihadists who claim they are sacrificing themselves to defend Jerusalem, because when the actual announcement came -- nothing happened. Those who were exploiting sensitivities related to Jerusalem -- especially political Islamists, such as Hamas and Hezbollah -- come mainly from the axis of resistance, led by Iran.

Other opportunists are the two-faced countries in the region, such as Qatar and Turkey. While publicly hostile towards Israel, behind closed doors they support it. Further opportunists are the Western and Arab media, who for decades have been promoting the idea that the problem is the Israeli occupation, but never mention the Palestinian Authority corruption.

Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital has also revealed the shortcomings of the US Department of State. It has not played any role in clarifying the above-mentioned points and, by this negativity and bureaucracy, only generated further hatred towards the US.

Trump's recognition has exposed the hypocrisy of the armed militia Hezbollah which always claims it will never disarm because of its fight against Israel. Now after the recognition of Jerusalem, many Arabs are questioning Hezbollah's motivations regarding Israel. Lebanese and other Arabs are questioning why Hezbollah has not sent its armed militia to fight in Israel as it did in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Dr. Hadi El Amine, a Lebanese researcher in political science and governmental studies, tweeted, "The axis of resistance's words are aimed against Israel, but their missiles are pointed at the Arabs."