Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, September 21, 2018

It isn't the "occupation," stupid - it's the terror

Every day, articles are written about the horrors of the "occupation." Not only popular articles, but scientific and scholarly papers as well.

And in nearly all of them, they fundamentally misunderstand the basics of history.

A case in point: In 2016 a research article called "Attitudes of Palestinian medical students on the geopolitical barriers to accessing hospitals for clinical training: a qualitative study" was published. The abstract says "Our findings suggest that medical students living and studying in the occupied Palestinian territories receive sub-optimal training due to ambiguous permit rules, barriers at checkpoints, and the psychological burden of the process. These results highlight the impact that military occupation has on the education and quality of life of Palestinian medical students in a setting in which there is regular violence and many health indicators are already poor."

There was a flurry of articles earlier this year about Israel's permit system that restricts where Palestinians are allowed to go in Israel. "Security bans are the hidden centerpiece of a permit system that Palestinians consider the ultimate tool of control in Israel’s half-century-old military occupation."

What practically no one mentions is that there were virtually no controls on where Palestinian Arabs could travel in Israel before 1991, when the permit system was instituted - as a result of the first intifada and the deaths of hundreds.

None of Israel's critics would suggest that there was no "occupation" between 1967 and 1991.

The fact is that the permit system is a response to Palestinian terror, not a consequence of "occupation." Israel gave Palestinian Arabs the freedom of movement that they claim as a right - and that freedom resulted in brutality and murders.

Similarly, the security barrier and other restrictions were enacted in response to even more Palestinian terror in the 2000s.

Why do these scholarly papers as well as popular articles ignore the context of the current restrictions, and instead blame "occupation?" Israel has shown that if there wasn't violence, the borders could be virtually open.

I've spoken to long-time Jewish residents of the West Bank who told me they could buy challahs for Shabbat in Ramallah, where they were brought in from Angel Bakery in Israel, before the first intifada. Jews and Arabs could have had freedom of movement in both directions if it wasn't for Palestinian terror.

It isn't "occupation" that causes Israel to stop Palestinians from freely coming to Israel and Jews from freely visiting Arab cities. It is terror.

Period.

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From Egypt Today last month:

A world peace forum will be held in Saint Catherine city in South Sinai in September, said Awqaf Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa on Sunday.

Gomaa made the announcement following a meeting with South Sinai Governor Khaled Fouda.

They agreed to organize the gathering to promote tourism in general and religious tourism in particular, said Gomaa.

The annual forum is a religious message of peace to the whole world, he added.

The minister reiterated that terrorism has no relation with all religions.

This sounds great.

But the organizers want to also invite Jews, and that is not so easy.

Ahmed Mustafa, representative of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, met with the Committee on Religious Affairs and Endowments in the House of Representatives to discuss the preparations for the forum Forum, where he suggested inviting Jews to participate.

He may have been referring only to the few remaining Egyptian Jews, but that is not clear - the point of the peace forum is to encourage tourism.

In response, Major General Khaled Fouda, Governor of South Sinai, responded that before any Jews would be allowed to visit he would have to coordinate matters with the security authorities to ensure the safety of all the participants.

Members of other religions do not cause security concerns to the authorities - but Jews do. Not because the Jews are going to disrupt the conference, but because Muslims might cause problems if Jews are allowed there.

Jew-hatred in Egypt is so prevalent that the idea of inviting Jews to an interfaith conference is not a simple matter.

And unless Jews feel as safe in Egypt as non-Jews, there can never be real peace, no matter how many "peace forums" are held.

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09/20 Links Pt2: Pal Journo: Arafat Told Me He Went Along With Oslo Accords Because It Would Make 'The Jews.. Leave Palestine Like Rats Abandoning A Sinking Ship'; Book reveals depth of French collaboration with Nazis

From Ian:

MEMRI: Senior Palestinian Journalist: Arafat Told Me He Went Along With Oslo Accords Because It Would Make 'The Jews... Leave Palestine Like Rats Abandoning A Sinking Ship'

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords, Palestinian journalist Abd Al-Bari Atwan, editor of the online newspaper Rai Al-Yawm, revealed in an article that the late Palestinian Authority (PA) president and PLO leader Yasser Arafat had told him in confidence that he did not believe in the Oslo Accords path but that he was going along with it because it was an opportunity "to bring the PLO and the resistance back to Palestine" and to drive out the Jews "like rats abandoning a sinking ship." Atwan also noted in his article that Arafat had cooperated with, funded, and armed members of Hamas, and had coordinated with Hizbullah to dispatch ships bringing weapons to the Gaza coast. Arafat, he added, paid for this with his life, because he had "caused the outbreak of the armed Second Intifada and brought weapons from everywhere possible."

The following are excerpts from Atwan's article, which was published on September 13, 2018:
"A quarter of a century ago today, the PLO leadership and the Palestinian people walked into the biggest trap in modern Arab history, set for them by the Israelis and their Western allies and some Arabs [as well]. They walked into it with their eyes open, believing the lie of peace and of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state – a lie exposed later by the facts on the ground.

"We were three friends of a minority that doubted the credibility of this celebration of mendacity and self-deception, and publicly opposed it. The first was the great poet and author Mahmoud Darwish; the second was [PLO Executive Committee member] Abdallah Hourani, and the third was this writer. Darwish quit the PLO Executive Committee, and Hourani followed him. I found no way to express my opposition to this mistake except for penning an editorial for the paper I edited at the time [the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi] on the subject of the situation in Somalia, for publication on the morning of the day of the signing [of the Oslo Accords], when there would be handshakes and smiles on the White House lawn...

"President Arafat was isolated from most of the Arabs, particularly in the Gulf countries, because he had supported Iraq during its invasion of Kuwait... The Gulf countries, Egypt, and Syria were hostile to him, and he was being pressured by several lobbies, some of them Palestinian financiers and some of them Arabs, as well as some Europeans. He maintained that the Oslo track, whose architect was [current PA President] Mahmoud Abbas, could protect the PLO, extricate it from its isolation, bring it back into the international arena and plant in it the first seeds of the Palestinian state.

PMW: Belgium cuts PA funding based on PMW report

In response to PMW's report that the Palestinian Authority had named two schools after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, Belgium reacted promptly by severing all financial support to the PA Ministry of Education. PMW exposed that Belgium had forced the PA to rename a school funded by the Belgian government due to it being named after a terrorist, but on the very same day the PA had named two other schools in the same neighborhood after the same terrorist.

In response to the PA's mockery of Belgium, the Belgium Ministry of Development Cooperation has cancelled all funding of PA schools until no schools are named after terrorists, not only those funded by Belgium.

The Belgian Ministry of Development Cooperation announced that:
"Belgium regrets the naming of the two other schools, which were not built with Belgian funds. The glorification of terrorism or perpetrators of terrorist acts is not acceptable under any circumstances. Our country has repeatedly conveyed the Belgian position to the Palestinian Ministry of Education.
As long as terrorism is glorified through school names, Belgium cannot continue to cooperate with the Palestinian Ministry of Education and budgets for school building will be suspended." [Joods Actueel, Sept. 4, 2018]

In September 2017, Palestinian Media Watch published a special report exposing that the PA Ministry of Education systematically name schools after terrorists and has named at least 32 schools after terrorists and 3 after Nazi collaborators. 41 school names glorify "Martyrs" and "Martyrdom".

PMW also reported that one of the schools named after Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist who led the murder of 37 civilians, was built using money from the Belgium government. Initially the school was named "The Beit Awaa School," and subsequently was renamed the "Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School" without the Belgium donors being notified.

The government of Belgium immediately condemned the use of its funding for the purpose of glorifying terrorists, and demanded that the name of the school it had funded be changed.

Al Jazeera says Zionists have tried to erase the fact that Islam is based on Judaism. Really?

From Al Jazeera:

On the Gregorian calendar (so named after Pope Gregory XIII) this September, two of the holiest Jewish and Islamic high holidays coincide. On September 10, Jews around the world began their high holidays by commemorating Rosh Hashana which continues for 10 days until September 19, Yom Kippur. It is on that day that Muslims in general, and Shia in particular, commemorate the sacred day of Tasu'a and then a day later - Ashoura - the 9th and 10th of the Islamic month of Muharram respectively.

Both the Jewish and Islamic calendars are lunar while the Gregorian calendar on which they are being cast is solar. The lunar calendar is 11 days shorter than the solar and for that reason, though stable on their own respective calendars, Jewish and Islamic holidays appear to "roam" aimlessly on the Christian calendar.

With the major difference that the Jewish calendar adds "leap months" to keep holidays in the proper seasons and Islam doesn't.

Both Jewish and Muslim observers have noticed this proximity between Yom Kippur and Ashoura. On the occasion of the two holidays coinciding in 2016, Rabbi Allen S Maller noted how "both holy days occur on the 10th day of the month, Muharram for Muslims and Tishri for Jews."

The similarities, correspondences and affinities of such aspects of Islam and Judaism are only strange or bizarre to those who have fallen into the trap of falsely projecting the Zionist colonial adventurism in Palestine backwards onto history and positing an entrenched hostility between Jews and Muslims.

Like Christianity, Islam is deeply influenced by Judaism and has an even stronger proximity to its theological monotheism. This is not a matter of opinion or ideological position. It is a matter of historical fact.

Um, yes, as one of those Zionists I have mentioned the way that Islam has co-opted Jewish traditions, laws and holy places many, many times.

The infamous statement of former US president Barack Obama that "The Middle East is going through a transformation that will play out for a generation, rooted in conflicts that date back millennia," is typical of the ahistorical gibberish that manufactures hostility between Islam and Judaism, and perforce between Jews and Muslims. By making such declarations, Obama projects his own criminal role in prolonging the Palestinian suffering under Zionist occupation to some distant past that never was.

Islamic antipathy to Jews and Judaism indeed goes back since the dawn of Islam, as the cries of "Khaybar" that happen today show quite well.

Zionism is the condition of Jewish alienation from Judaism, precisely in the way militant Islamism is the condition of self-alienation for Muslims.

I love how Al Jazeera finds Muslims to explain the truth about Judaism to its readers.

Muslim antisemitism predates Zionism, both on the personal and theological levels. This article is what is revisionist.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

I’ve been spending a great deal of time lately reflecting on the meaning and importance of Zionism. One reason is that I’m writing a book on the subject, but there is also the news. And this past week, the news included the atrocious murder of a dedicated Zionist, Ari Fuld.

People like to say that he was murdered because he was a Jew. That is only part of the story: he was murdered specifically because he was a Jew living in Eretz Israel. I’m sure his murderer hated Jews in general, but what really infuriates them is Jews living in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people.

I am not saying that Jew-haters wouldn’t murder Jews if there were no Jewish state. Obviously, they did so throughout the long period of exile. But the existence and flourishing of the state represents the victory of the Jews over their enemies, and the frustration of the desire to rid the world of our people drives Amalek and his friends wild, to the point that they will die themselves to achieve their aims.

Recently I read a dumb article by a smart guy, Anshel Pfeffer, who said that Zionism had ended 70 years ago with the founding of the state. “Despite the –ism in its name, Zionism was not an ideology, it was a program,” a program that was completed in 1948. You can’t be a Zionist any more, he said, although you can argue interminably about the shape and nature of the state.

He is obviously, trivially, wrong. Zionism is both an ideology and a program, and while the program has changed over the years from establishing the state to protecting and preserving it, the ideology is still around, and is still hotly disputed both by Jews and others.

The minimal propositions of Zionist ideology are 1) that the preservation of the Jewish people is desirable, 2) that this requires the existence of a sovereign Jewish state, and 3) that the Jewish people have a historical, legal, and moral right to said state in Eretz Israel. You can add to these, but you can’t take anything away.

“Zionist” has become an ugly epithet in some quarters. Look it up in the Internet’s “Urban dictionary” and you’ll find that it refers to a “race supremacist, colonialist, extremist.” Ask Al Jazeera’s “Palestine Remix” propaganda generator and you find that Zionism is “A colonial movement supporting the establishment by any means necessary of a national state for Jews in historic Palestine.” UK Labour Party star Jeremy Corbyn famously saidthat “Zionists… don’t understand English irony.” And “Palestinian feminist” Linda Sarsour believes that it is impossible for someone to be both a Zionist and a feminist.

Zionism has nothing to do with race (or gender!), and the Jewish state came into being as an act of anti-colonialism, not the opposite. Needless to say – I wish it were truly needless – Zionism does not assert that Jews are superior to non-Jews, that Jews ought to dominate or exploit non-Jews, or that the religious concept of “chosen people” refers to anything other than the Jewish burden of observing the mitzvot of Torah. And believe me, Jews understand irony better than most folks.

The recently-created Palestinian people have an ideology and a program too. Their ideology derives from that of the 7^th century Arab conquerors/bandits, and it states that Eretz Israel (and a whole lot of other places) belong to them in perpetuity, and that they have a right to occupy our land, take our property, kill our men, rape our women, and enslave our children. The program varies in detail depending on which Palestinian faction you ask, but it clearly conflicts with the Zionist program.

But the Palestinians are not the only ones opposed to the ideology of Zionism, although they are among the most honest about it. Some of the less honest anti-Zionists are to be found among American Reform Jews, who claim to be Zionists and to care about the preservation of the Jewish people and their state, but actually hold an ideology that denies fundamental aspects of Zionism.

The Reform ideology has matured since 1885, when the movement in America was founded. At that time, its platform was sharply anti-Zionist, stating “We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state.” Today’s platform pays lip service to their love and support for the State of Israel, but they have not significantly changed their ethical system based on “tikkun olam,” a Kabbalistic concept which they have redefined as a universalist, liberal, humanistic vision. Insofar as this system often places the welfare of other groups, including Palestinian Arabs, ahead of that of the Jewish people – and often even aligns the movement with the anti-Zionist Left – it contradicts the Zionist idea of protecting the Jewish people and their state.

In particular, Reform movement officials and rabbis often call for a “two-state solution” despite their lack of understanding the security concerns involved. Reform ideology and closeness to the political Left led directly to the creation of J Street, a supposedly Zionist lobbying group which has nevertheless systematically lobbied against the interests of the State of Israel, and the even more extreme “If Not Now” organization which puts on propaganda performances such as saying Kaddish for Palestinians killed in conflicts with Israel.

Ari Fuld was a traditional kind of hero, who saved at least one person’s life by chasing down and shooting the terrorist with his last ounce of strength. He was also a less dramatic sort of hero by devoting his life to activism on behalf of the Jewish state, and on behalf of its right to possess all of its historic homeland in Judea and Samaria. Ari, the son of a rabbi from Queens NY, came to Israel 27 years ago and served as a combat soldier in the IDF. In addition to tireless efforts as an advocate for Israel on social media and as a speaker, he worked for an organization that brought donated supplies to IDF soldiers wherever they were. He was liked and respected even by his political opponents.

Liberal American Jews were probably no less horrified by the brutal murder of Ari Fuld than Israelis (at least, insofar as they knew about it – coverage of Palestinian terrorism in foreign media is sparse and biased). But they should know that by legitimizing the terrorists in any way – by taking the position that the conflict is about Palestinian “rights,” by maintaining that the presence of Jewish communities across the Green line is illegitimate, by repeating the atrocity propaganda about Israel’s actions in self-defense, or by supporting organizations like the New Israel Fund that finance anti-Zionist causes – they are helping drive the terrorists’ knives into the backs of Jews like Ari Fuld.

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09/20 Links Pt1: If Palestinian Leaders Want Peace, They Should Stop Making War; UNHRC Challenged Over Killing of Israeli-American: ‘Why Is The UN Silent?’

From Ian:

Kevin Williamson: If Palestinian Leaders Want Peace, They Should Stop Making War

Citing a routine by the comedian Bob Newhart in which a psychiatrist responds to a patient’s description of her self-destructive behaviors with the advice “Stop it!,” Kevin Williamson suggests that the Israel-Palestinian conflict will come to an end only when and if Palestinian leaders decide to stop engaging in, supporting, and funding terrorism:

A peace plan isn’t peace. Peace negotiations aren’t peace. Nobel Peace Prizes aren’t peace, either, though they were handed out after the Oslo Accords. Peace is peace.

And war is war: there were 169 Palestinian suicide attacks between 1993 [when the Oslo Accords were signed] and 2016, targeting shopping malls, bus depots, [and] the streets of downtown Jerusalem. In 2014 alone, there were 4,500 rocket and mortar attacks on Israelis. The Palestinians still proudly celebrate their stunning military victory over a pregnant woman, seven children, and five other civilians eating pizza at the Battle of Sbarro. There is constant violence on the Gaza border, and balloons and kites now are used to deliver incendiary devices into Israeli cities. There are practically no diplomatic relationships between the Israeli government and the Palestinian government, partly because the Palestinians have two competing governments run by two competing terrorist organizations: Fatah in the West bank and Hamas in Gaza. . . .

The conflict in Israel might be settled in a million different ways, but Palestinian powers reject 999,999 of those possibilities in favor of the one outcome that the Israelis cannot accept: the elimination of the Jewish state as such. To the extent that the Palestinian powers have the consent of the people they purport to rule, this is what is being consented to: war and more war, misery and more misery, with the Palestinians themselves suffering some of the worst of it. But the Israelis cannot make peace with people who will not make peace with them. They can only do what they have tried to do: protect themselves and look for harm-reduction opportunities.

[For the time being], the Israeli state exists, and the Palestinian state, thank goodness, does not, being as it is barely more than a dangerous hypothesis. A state is a weapon as fearsome as a nuclear missile, and one can guess what the Palestinians would try to do with one, if they had one that worked.

Human Rights Council Challenged Over Killing of Israeli-American: ‘Why Is The UN Silent?’

U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman described Fuld as “a passionate defender of Israel and an American patriot. He represented the best of both countries and will be deeply missed.”

Palestinian terrorist groups lauded the killing of what they called a “settler” – a reference to the fact Fuld lived in Efrat, a community located in territory disputed between Israel and the Palestinians.

During a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, U.N. Watch executive director Hillel Neuer drew attention to the killing.

“I want to ask the United Nations and this council: Why has no official of this body condemned the murder?” he asked.

“Why is the U.N. silent when Hamas and Islamic Jihad – supported by Iran which just spoke here in this room – praised the murder?”

“Why were they silent when the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military wing of Fatah which belongs to the P.A. – which sits here – welcomed the attack, stressing the necessity of ‘resistance’?”

The P.A. “prisoner affairs commission” has confirmed that the family of Fuld’s killer, Yusef Jabarin, will receive a monthly stipend of around $390, with the sum increasing if he remains in prison for a number of years.

Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, called news of the payment “outrageous.”

“Some people are complaining about U.S. cutting funds to the Palestinian Authority,” he tweeted. “But the P.A. continues to pay terrorists – in this case the terrorist who on Sunday murdered in cold-blood Ari Fuld, an Israeli-American father of four.”

Hillel Neuer at UNHRC: "Why are you silent on murder of Ari Fuld by Palestinian terrorist?

UN Watch's Hillel Neuer took the floor at the UN Human Rights Council, and asked: “Why are you silent after a Palestinian terrorist stabbed to death American-Israeli citizen Ari Fuld? Why won't you condemn the PA for incentivizing the murder of Jews by paying rewards to the families of terrorists?"

Ma'an and other Palestinian media outlets published what appeared to be a press release from the Palestinian Ministry of Education:

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE) condemned the attack on the Ramallah Secondary School for Boys by a group of young people who are outlawed, stressing its categorical rejection of any attack on any educational institution and the entire educational process, especially the Palestinian teacher.
The Ministry considered in a press statement today that any attack on education is an attack on Palestine, and will constitute a major issue for the ministry. The ministry will enforce the maximum punishment, follow up on the aggressors and take protective measures to ensure that this situation is not repeated.
The ministry said in a statement that the Minister of Education and Higher Education d. Sabri Sidem and Undersecretary of the Ministry d. Ozer Saleh and Governor of Ramallah and Al-Bireh d. Laila Ghannam, the police and the Directorate of Education visited the school, where they met the teaching staff and followed up the details of the event, and then went to the hospital to check on the safety of teachers and students who were injured in the attack.

So some group of people attacked a school and injured teachers and students.

But there are practically no news stories of the actual attack!

Ma'an doesn't bother to give any background. We have no idea that the motivation was for the attack, how many were injured, how many were involved, how many were arrested, what day this happened - nothing.

What kind of reporting is this? The type that the Palestinian Authority allows. because making its own people look irrational and violent is something that is simply not halal.

Obviously a story like this cannot be hidden as Palestinians are aware when people are injured and hospitalized. But before this press release from the Education Ministry, there was a near total news blackout on this incident.

(I did find a local Ramallah news outlet that mentioned that 7 were arrested and that the incident happened on Wednesday, when the police used pepper spray and "electric sticks" at the scene, after the General Union of Palestinian Teachers issued a press release. Still nothing about motivation.)

At first glance the Palestinian media seems to be free - Hamas media attacks Fatah, Fatah media attacks Hamas, Ma'an pretends to be independent. But in reality nothing gets reported unless the authorities allow it to be reported, and even "independent" Ma'an often publishes articles from the official Wafa news agency verbatim, without any reporting whatsoever.

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There are a couple of major differences between the annual US State Department report on terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza this year compared to other years.

Here is that section:

The West Bank and Gaza

Overview: The Palestinian Authority (PA) continued its counterterrorism and law enforcement efforts in the West Bank, where Hamas, PIJ, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine remained present. The PA Security Forces (PASF) constrained the ability of those organizations to conduct attacks, including through arrests of Hamas members planning attacks against Israelis. Per Oslo-era agreements, the PA exercised varying degrees of authority over the West Bank. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet arrested members of terrorist organizations operating in the West Bank.

The United States assisted the PA’s counterterrorism efforts by providing training, equipment, and infrastructure support to the PASF. U.S. training and support assisted in the PA’s continued development of professional, self-sufficient, and capable security forces. The United States also assisted the PA with criminal justice investigations and prosecutions of terrorist financing and terrorist-related activity.

Palestinians committed acts of violence and terrorism in the West Bank in 2017. The heightened period of violence from October 2015 to April 2016 decreased in 2017. However, Palestinians continued to commit stabbings, shootings, and vehicular attacks against Israelis.

Israelis, including settlers, committed acts of violence, including “price tag” attacks (property crimes and violent acts by extremist Jewish individuals and groups against Palestinians) in the West Bank in 2017.

Hamas maintained security control of Gaza. Several militant groups launched rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza. The primary limitation on PA counterterrorism efforts in Gaza remained Hamas’ control of the area and the resulting inability of the PASF to operate there.

The PA and PLO continued to provide “martyr payments” to the families of Palestinian individuals killed carrying out a terrorist act. The PA and PLO also provided payments to Palestinians in Israeli prisons, including those convicted of acts of terrorism against Israelis. Israeli government officials criticized this practice as incentivizing acts of terror. These payments and separate canteen stipends that the Israeli government allows for prisoners were first initiated by the PLO in 1965 and have continued under the PA since the Oslo Accords with Israel.

2017 Terrorist Incidents:

In January, four Israeli soldiers were killed and approximately 13 others wounded when a Palestinian man used a heavy truck for a vehicular attack in Jerusalem. Soldiers and a civilian who were at the scene shot and killed the attacker.
In July, a Palestinian resident of a nearby village stabbed and killed three Israeli civilians in their family home in the West Bank Israeli settlement of Halamish. Another member of the family sustained injuries. Police and IDF arrested the attacker after an off-duty soldier shot and wounded him.
In September, a Palestinian man from the West Bank village of Beit Surik shot and killed an Israeli Border Police officer and two Israeli security guards outside the West Bank settlement of Har Adar, northwest of Jerusalem. Israeli security officials shot and killed the attacker at the scene.

"Martyr payments" have never been mentioned before in these reports as a factor influencing Palestinian terrorism. This is a significant addition and one that is long overdue.

Under the Obama administration, Israeli "price tag" attacks were given more attention than Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis that resulted in far more fatalities. In 2015, 81 words were used in a paragraph mentioning the deaths of 16 Israelis, and 180 words in the paragraph about Israeli "price tag" attacks that killed 2 Palestinians. Last year's report, covering 2016 when Obama was still president but issued under the Trump administration, also gave more space for "price tag" attacks - resulting in zero fatalities - than for the attacks by Palestinians who attacked Israelis, killing 5.

In another notable change from last year, "Jerusalem" is no longer lumped in under the "West Bank and Gaza" section header as it had been in the past.

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Another @UNRWA fundraising lie: it is not "secular." UNRWA schools teach the Quran (and martyrdom.)

I received another fundraising email from UNRWA USA which is lying about the agency. It said "UNRWA is a public good, providing quality, secular education and contributing to security and stability across the Middle East. "

UNRWA schools in Gaza might teach secular subjects, but they are not secular.

I've documented in the past UNRWA's internal job posts for Islamic studies teachers, and their curriculum. Their Quran lessons used to be online.

I documented lots of examples of Quranic and antisemitic education in UNRWA schools in 2012. The websites would be taken down immediately as I exposed them, but there is no indication that the curriculum has changed.

UNRWA's educational standards claim to be " tolerant and open minded, upholding human values and religious tolerance." They are not in the least. There is no tolerance of Jews taught there and I would be most surprised if Hinduism or other religions deemed to be blasphemy are taught in any sort of objective way.

In related news, Jordan is upset over the UNRWA cuts, because it doesn't have the money to make up for lost (free) UNRWA services to two million of its citizens. The sob stories aren't exactly sob stories, though:

Caught in the budget battle are people like Saadi Shalaan. The 57-year-old electrical engineer, a Jordanian citizen whose parents were born near Jerusalem, sends his children to free Unrwa schools in the Wihdat refugee camp where they live. Private schools are too expensive, he said. Public schools are overcrowded and unable to accommodate more students, officials say.

Why exactly does he deserve free education for his kids again?

The Trump administration said it would make up for the UNRWA shortfall by directly paying governments to build the proper schools it should have built for its own people 70 years ago. The entire reason Jordan didn't do it is because the world was paying the bill for millions of its own citizens. Why should that continue?

UNRWA can fix its budget problems in a minute by admitting there are no "refugees" in the West Bank, Gaza or Jordan, since they are living in "Palestine" or are citizens (with a small number of exceptions of Gazans who went to Jordan in 1967.) The governments in charge should pay for their people's education, not the world. That's 80% of UNRWA's budget right there that should be slashed instantly, with the funds being transferred to the PA and Jordan earmarked to mainstream fake refugees into the mainstream, where they belong.

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09/19 Links: Millions of Jews Worldwide Pause to Observe Yom Kippur; Ari Fuld Was Not A ‘Settler’ — He Was An Innocent Victim Of Terror; Denial of Anti-Semitism is Normalised on Labour Fringe

From Ian:

Millions of Jews Worldwide Pause to Observe Yom Kippur

The holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, was set to commence at sunset on Tuesday. It’s a time when Israel come to a near-complete pause.

Many Israelis observe a 25-hour fast and attend prayer services on this day. Children take to the streets by foot and bicycle to enjoy the near complete absence of cars on streets and highways. The atmosphere is calm, nearly silent.

Thousands of Jewish worshippers visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday night for the culmination of Selichot penitential prayers. The services were led by Israel’s two chief rabbis — Sephardi Chief Rabbi is Yitzhak Yosef and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau — and other prominent figures, and included the ritual of hatarat nedarim (“the annulment of vows”), in which people can walk back pledges they made during the past year.

Some 3,000 worshipers arrived at the tomb of Mishnaic sage Rabbi Meir in Tiberias on Monday.

Meanwhile, in view of the volatile security situation, the Israel Defense Forces announced that the crossing points into Israel from the Gaza Strip, and Judea and Samaria, would be closed starting midnight on Tuesday. Despite this measure, passage will be permitted on humanitarian grounds and for medical situations.

Israelis will also mark the 45th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War on Monday with various memorial services at military cemeteries.

Paramedics treat over 1,700 people on Yom Kippur

Paramedics from the Magen David Adom ambulance service treated over 1,700 Israelis over Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, which began Tuesday at sundown and ended Wednesday evening.

Like every year, secular Israelis took advantage of the deserted roads and highways, filling the streets in droves over the holiday, which is marked by a 25-hour fast and intense prayer by religious Jews. But, like every year, injuries were not far behind, with MDA treating a total of 1,728 people, including 268 people who fainted, dehydrated, or felt ill due to the fast.

According to a spokesperson from MDA, 228 people were injured and needed first aid due to injuries from cycling, rollerblading, scooters, and skateboards, including two children aged 9 and 7 who were moderately injured.

There were 35 people injured in road accidents, including one seriously and one moderately.

MDA said paramedics were called to treat 174 women in labor and helped seven women deliver babies.

Palestinian attempts Yom Kippur stabbing in Jerusalem, is killed — police

A Palestinian attempted to carry out a stabbing attack outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Tuesday evening, and was shot dead by Israeli police, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

An Israeli police statement reported “an attempted stabbing attack” near Damascus Gate, saying “a police unit at the spot neutralized the suspect,” with the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry saying it was informed of the death of a civilian by gunshots.

According to police, the attacker ran at a Jewish man and knocked him over onto the ground; he then “continued running toward the police officers while waving a sharp object and trying to harm them.”

The assailant was a 26-year-old from the Qalandiya refugee camp outside Jerusalem, who was in Israel illegally, according to the Haaretz website.

Police did not say if anyone else was harmed in the incident. It occurred just after sunset on Tuesday, as Jews began observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

“The widespread deployment of police in Jerusalem and their alertness prevented an attack that could have ended with harsh results,” police said.

G'mar Chatima Tova 5779 -- גמר חתימה טובה

This is an update my Yom Kippur message of previous years.

I unconditionally forgive anyone who may have wronged me during this year, and I ask forgiveness for anyone I may have wronged as well.

Specifically (as enumerated in previous years, based on the list from The Muqata a few years back):

-If you sent me email and I didn't reply, or didn't get back to you in a timely fashion -- I apologize.
-If you sent me a story and I decided not to publish it or worse, didn't give you a hat tip for the story -- I'm sorry. I'm also sorry if I didn't acknowledge the tip. I sometimes get multiple tips for the same story and I usually credit the first one I saw, which is not always the earliest. And I cannot publish all the stories I am sent, although I try to place appropriate ones in the linkdumps, or tweet them.
-If you requested help from me and I wasn't able to provide it -- I'm sorry.
-I apologize if I posted without the proper attribution, with the wrong attribution, or without attribution at all.
-I'm sorry that I don't give hat tips on things I tweet.
-If I didn't thank you for a donation, I'm very, very sorry.
-I'm sorry if I didn't give the proper respect to my co-bloggers Ian, Mike, PoT, Vic, Varda and Forest Rain. Also, Zissel R., Petra, Noah Phillips and any others whose articles I posted.
-I'm sorry if any of my posts offended you personally.
-If I forgot to send you the perks for donating at Patreon - I'm sorry. If you really care, bug me!
- For all the initiatives I started and didn't complete - I'm sorry. I hope to do better next year.
- Please forgive me if I wrote disparaging things about you.
- I'm sorry for not always scrubbing spam from the comments as quickly as I would like.
- I'm sorry if things got published in the comments that violated my comments policy but that I missed.

May this be a year of life, peace, prosperity, happiness and security.

I wish all of my readers who observe Yom Kippur an easy and meaningful fast.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

09/18 Links Pt2: Shapiro: Funding for Terror Supporters Supplements Terrorism; Jerusalem police kill terrorist attempting Yom Kippur stabbing attack; Kippur: The forgotten victory

From Ian:

Ben Shapiro: Funding for Terror Supporters Supplements Terrorism

Jabarin’s family has received $3,350 from the Palestinian Authority; if he receives a life sentence, that number will increase to $1.7 million.

No wonder Republicans and the Trump administration have cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority. They should. Cash in the hands of terror supporters merely supplements terrorism rather than undermining it.

That simple truth, though, eludes the international Left.

We’ve been told for decades that American taxpayers ought to sign checks to Palestinian governmental groups in order to minimize violence. Underlying this argument is a simple theory: Terrorism is driven by poverty and despair. Alleviate that poverty and despair, and terrorism ought to disappear quietly. That’s been the prevailing view among left-wing Jewish thinkers for a century; that view has been adopted by the left-wing intelligentsia of the West as well. Simply hand over the cash, and violence will cease. Barack Obama put the idea well in his book Dreams From My Father: “I know, I have seen, the desperation and disorder of the powerless: how it twists the lives of children on the streets of Jakarta or Nairobi . . . how easily they slip into violence and despair.”

But that’s not what drives terrorism. As Jeff Victoroff of the department of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Southern California School of Medicine explained in a comprehensive 2005 Journal of Conflict Resolution study, “Middle Eastern terrorists in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century come from a wider demographic range, including university students, professionals, married men in their late forties, and young women.” A 2001 poll showed that among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, support for political violence was higher among professionals than laborers and more common among those with high-school educations than among the illiterate.

Terrorism is driven by ideology. And ideology determines how money is spent. That means that throwing money at the problem of terrorism doesn’t solve the problem — it actually exacerbates it. As former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin explained regarding the left-wing Jewish Zionist position on regional peace: “Their flight of fancy led them to the delusion that the Arabs would eventually come to terms with us for the sake of their economic progress. What utter nonsense! Ze’ev Jabotinsky [founder of the revisionist Zionist movement] had too much respect for the Arabs to believe they would come to the peace table for the sake of a mess of pottage.”

Signing checks to terrorist regimes simply means funneling cash to terrorists. That’s true of the government of Iran, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Hezbollah, or any other terrorist group masquerading as a pseudo-government. No amount of wishing can change the simple fact that terrorism is driven by ideas, not by the pocketbook. But that wishing can turn Westerners into the pocketbook for terrorists.

Jerusalem police kill Palestinian attempting Yom Kippur stabbing attack

A Palestinian attempted to carry out a stabbing attack outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Tuesday evening, and was shot dead by Israeli police, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

An Israeli police statement reported “an attempted stabbing attack” near Damascus Gate, saying “a police unit at the spot neutralized the suspect,” with the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry saying it was informed of the death of a civilian by gunshots.

According to police the attacker ran at Jewish man and knocked him over onto the ground, he then “continued running toward the police officers while waving a sharp object and trying to harm them.”

The Haaretz website said the man was a 26-year-old from the Qalandiya refugee camp outside Jerusalem, who had been in Israel illegally.

Police did not say if anyone else was harmed in the incident. It occurred just after sunset on Tuesday, as Jews began observing Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

“The widespread deployment of police in Jerusalem and their alertness prevented an attack that could have ended with harsh results.,” police said.