Monday, November 23, 2015
Will the Threat From ISIS End the Double Standard on Israel?
The first post-Paris terror incident in France was the stabbing of an Orthodox Jewish teacher by an ISIS sympathizer. The world reacted with a collective yawn.David Horovitz: Beating the Islamist death cult
In the Jewish state, a year and a day after two Palestinians used meat cleavers to literally butcher Rabbis at prayer in a Jerusalem Synagogue, terrorists murdered Jews at prayer in Tel Aviv and gunned down an American Yeshiva student and two Israelis on a West Bank road. Much of the reportage defaulted to the “cycle of violence” in the Holy Land and listed statistics of how many died on “both sides.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote on Facebook: “Behind these terrorist attacks stands radical Islam, which seeks to destroy us, the same radical Islam that struck in Paris and threatens all of Europe. Whoever condemned the attacks in France needs to condemn the attacks in Israel. It’s the same terror. Whoever does not do this is a hypocrite and blind.”
But while leaders quietly appreciate the real-time intelligence Israel is providing to France and the media dutifully reported that Israeli radar was the first to detect evidence that a bomb brought down the Russian jet over Sinai, sympathy for Israelis cut down by terrorist is rarely expressed and Palestinian terrorism is rarely condemned.
The war on terror is indivisible. After France’s 11/13, the world has another opportunity to launch a global action plan.
A key starting point is to reject the “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” mantra that provides moral cover for those who direct or benefit from terrorism. It has worked especially well for Palestinian leaders. Why stop terror, when millions keep flowing in from donor nations, when human rights NGOs maintain a stoic silence when Jewish blood flows and when diplomatic legitimacy continues to expand?
Hopefully, ISIS will disappear at some point. But if the scourge of our time is to defeated, civilized civilized people must set a single standard in the war to eradicate terrorism. Otherwise, new deadly acronyms of terror will emerge. And we and our children will be no safer.
As we watch all those Palestinian kids’ TV shows urging Jew-killing, read the Fatah and Hamas calls to murder, see the mothers and fathers of the daily murderers hailing their “martyred” children, the last thing we’re saying is, Let’s entrust these people with full sovereignty, so that they can more easily fulfill their stated ambition of pushing us into the sea. As we guard against them, all our differences — the arguments over settlements, over how to maintain a Jewish-democratic Israel, over what more we can do to create an environment more likely to encourage moderation — are simply overwhelmed and rendered irrelevant.Elliott Abrams: Unspeakable Kerry
For now, Israelis are having to adjust their daily lives, to minimize their vulnerability, to guard against the banal norm of relaxing when out and about. More security forces are being deployed. The intelligence hierarchies are working overtime.
None of which constitutes a means of defanging Islamist terrorism at its source. For that — precisely as with the mass terror onslaught in Paris 10 days ago, and the dire ongoing threat of further Islamist terror coming West — what’s needed is concerted action at the grassroots.
When people come at you with a gun or a knife or scissors or bombs or their car, you had better stop them first. Ideally, you’ll identify and thwart them before they set out. The fight needs to be physically taken to the enemy. But it also needs to be waged educationally — in the schools and the mosques and online. The advocates and apologists must be afforded no tolerance.
We’ll not beat the many-headed Islamist terror monster until that ostensible religious imperative is shattered — until radical Islam, that is, is exposed, marginalized and ultimately defeated as the murderous death cult it is.
It seems that to Kerry, when people kill journalists and Jews, that is not an attack on “everything that we do stand for,” whereas attacking a restaurant and stadium and a concert hall is. A bit odd: Do we stand for good food and sports and music more than we stand for freedom of the press and freedom of religion? Kerry seems confused here, but we get the point. He is saying that it’s understandable when people murder innocents because they have a particular reason to be mad at them, but now the terrorists are attacking all of us. He contrasts, perhaps without even knowing what he was saying, last “Friday night when people were going about their normal business” with that other Friday night in January, when some people were instead out preparing for Shabbat.
Few of us are cartoonists and few of us shop in kosher delis, but any of us at all might be a target now. So now to Kerry this is an attack on everything we do stand for, which apparently may not include protecting religious minorities and journalists, who perhaps are to blame in some sense for their own troubles. Somehow it is far worse in his mind to attack “all sense of nationhood and nation-state.” This is bizarre in the extreme. When Jews are attacked we all know why, but when France is attacked, well, that is simply unspeakable.
In October 1980, there was another terrorist attack on Paris. The synagogue on the Rue Copernic was bombed while it was packed with Jewish worshipers. Four people were killed and 46 wounded. Prime Minister Raymond Barre said on television the next day, “This odious bombing wanted to strike Jews who were going to the synagogue and it hit innocent French people who crossed Rue Copernic.”
Kerry is regarded as an enlightened man and without bigotry or prejudice of any kind, which makes his remarks all the more interesting. If his language was incoherent at times, his thoughts were not, and they are remarkably close to those of Barre and to his distinction between Jews and “innocent” Frenchmen. The November 13 attacks, Kerry appears to be thinking, are more terrible than the January attacks because those shootings hit Jews and cartoonists, but these hit, as Barre would have put it, “innocent French people”—people like you and me going to dinner or a concert. This is a statement not of solidarity with targeted victim groups but of distancing from them, and as such it is an immoral and disgusting position. Kerry’s Harvard statement blaming (nonexistent) Israeli settlement expansion for Palestinian stabbing attacks is equally offensive. That this is the thinking of the American secretary of state during a period of rising terrorism, especially against Jews, is almost unbelievable.
Netanyahu: IDF has free rein to fight terror in West Bank
The Israel Defense Forces is stepping up its operations in the West Bank and has been given free rein in the area to preempt terror attacks, a resolute Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, as he visited the site of a deadly terror attack at Etzion Junction the day before.Fighting Palestinian lies
“On the offensive side,” Netanyahu said, “we’re going into every site. We’re entering [Palestinian] villages, we’re entering towns, we’re entering homes, and conducting widespread arrests. There are no restrictions on the activities of the IDF and the security forces. On the contrary – there’s full support, and this is vital.”
The prime minister was accompanied by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, other senior security officials and the heads of local councils.
Netanyahu said that security forces are taking preventative action in the West Bank “day in and day out,” to put an end to the current situation in which “hundreds of Israelis are killed every year by suicide bombers and other attackers.”
Over the years, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has been characterized by both real and artificial disputes over basic facts. Israel views stone throwers and knife-wielding assailants as violent lawbreakers, while the Palestinian Authority presents them to the world as noble freedom fighters. And the world, with its natural inclination to anti-Semitism, prefers the Palestinian version.11 Outrageous Examples of Palestinian Incitement
During the ongoing wave of terrorism, Palestinian lies have reached new lows. The lies now contain not even one iota of truth. It is one thing for a Palestinian parent to express pride in a child who died trying to commit a terrorist attack. It is quite another thing, however, for the Palestinian Authority to dare to call an Israeli man who thwarted this attack by running the terrorist over a war criminal.
Palestinian propaganda has reached the level of Joseph Goebbels. The Palestinians do not justify terrorist attacks -- instead, they claim the attacks are staged by Israel and the attackers are murdered by Israel in a premeditated manner. Also, the Palestinians hope anti-Semites around the globe will buy their lies about Al-Aqsa mosque and Israel's supposed nefarious plans there.
In the face of these Palestinian lies, Israel must adjust its public diplomacy tactics if it hopes to maintain support in Europe and the U.S. In any case, the Israeli government is finding it difficult to defend its policies abroad and this is only made worse by the Palestinian lies.
One of the Palestinian Authority’s core obligations under the terms of the Oslo Accords is ending the popular anti-Israel incitement that permeates official Palestinian institutions and civil society. The PA’s failure to condemn calls to violence against Israelis, magnified by its own frequent contributions to the toxic rhetoric, has led to a dangerous swell in anti-Israel public sentiment that periodically bursts in lethal waves of terror against civilians. This incitement poisons the very foundation of peaceful coexistence, particularly when spread by Palestinian leaders whose cry for a national struggle against Israel spills into public discourse. When PA officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas, routinely lionize murderers and deny Israel’s legitimacy, it’s not surprising that Palestinian social media and popular culture follow suit.PMW: Prayer for extermination of Jews at funeral of 2 Palestinians “Strike the Jews… kill them to the last one” (Nov. 23, 2015)
Multiple surveys of Palestinian public opinion have found widespread, consistent support for terror attacks against Israeli civilians, as well as negative perceptions of Jews. Dan Polisar, the provost of Shalem College, explained in a recent article for Mosaic that these polls reveal the extent to which “Palestinian perpetrators of violence reflect and are acting on the basis of views widely held in their society.”
Below is a collection of some of the most outrageous examples of Palestinian incitement that stoke this extremism, which has erupted in series of stabbings, shootings, and car ramming attacks that claimed more than a dozen lives over the past two months.
A funeral of two Palestinians, which was broadcast live on official Palestinian Authority TV, included the following incitement to genocide of all Jews:
Unidentified speaker at funeral: "[Allah,] do justice to the oppressed against the oppressors, and give them victory over the tyrants, O Master of the Universe. Strike the Jews, count them and kill them to the last one, and don't leave even one." [Official PA TV, Nov. 16, 2015]
This Islamic prayer echoes Antisemitic hate speech by a preacher in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Khaled Al-Mughrabi, who taught that Jews who worship the Devil will be exterminated by Muslims. In a recent class, documented by Palestinian Media Watch, the Sheikh taught the Hadith - a tradition attributed to Islam's prophet Muhammad - stating that "the tree and the rock will speak and say: 'O Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him":
PMW: Girl's hate speech on PA TV: “Our enemy, Zion, is Satan with a tail”
This broadcast in which the young girl referred to Jews as "Satan" was broadcast on PA TV just two weeks after Abbas' advisor on Islam, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, preached in the Friday sermon that Israel is "Satan's project," and that Jews represent "evil."Israeli Analysts Link Spike in Scope of Palestinian Terror to Paris Attacks, Say Confrontation With ISIS Approaching
The full poem recited by the young girl describes what children have been taught by Arab leaders, but criticizes them for not acting according to their own teachings. The poem opens with the line "When I was young I was taught," and includes the words "our enemy, Zion, is Satan with a tail" as one of those teachings:
PA TV host: "What are you going to recite?"
Girl: "The poem 'Visa' [by Hesham El-Gakh]...
When I was young I was taught that Arabness is my honor...
and that our lands extend from one end to the other,
and that our wars were for the Al-Aqsa Mosque,
and that our enemy, Zion, is Satan with a tail
and that our nation's armies are outstanding."
PA TV host: "Thank you very much. I really like this poem."
[Official PA TV, Nov. 6, 2015]
Analysts on Israel’s Channel 10 said that the spike in Palestinian terror attacks over the last few days was linked to the attacks carried out in Paris by ISIS terrorists last week.Vic Rosenthal: You can’t win the war you don’t fight
During a discussion on Thursday evening about the day’s two terrorist attacks that left four Israelis and one Arab dead, host Tali Moreno asked panelists to consider a possible connection between the escalation in scope and methods of the current Palestinian uprising in Israel and the events in Paris.
She noted that ISIS has been carrying out attacks in Israel’s vicinity, pointing to its part in the civil war in Syria, the explosion of the Russian plane over the Sinai and its increasing threats, via YouTube videos, to attack Israeli targets. “Is Israel prepared to confront what [ISIS] are doing in the region?” she asked.
One panelist said that a confrontation between ISIS and Israel was merely a matter of time, adding that Israel’s, “attention is focused more on the Sinai than what is happening in Syria,” since the former is far closer than the latter.
You win a war by hurting the enemy, not helping him. If it’s a war for territory, you occupy and control the territory. Our strategy has to be to occupy and control Judea and Samaria, cooperate with those Arabs that want to live alongside us peacefully, expel the ones who do not, and kill the ones who try to kill us.Following Outcry, Obama Administration Acknowledges Murder of American Jew Killed in Palestinian Terror Attack
That’s it. It’s really simple. The rest is tactics.
But, but, but. No, there aren’t any buts. True, war is brutal and ugly and innocent people are hurt. The fact is we are already in a brutal, ugly war and innocent people are being hurt, every day. The war has been going on, waxing and waning, since 1948, for 100 years, or for 2000 years – depending on how you want to count.
The Muslims have always taken the long view, the historical view. They remember the battles of the 7th century, the ‘setbacks’ of the Crusades, and the ultimate expulsion of the Crusaders from the lands they occupied. We should take the long view as well. What’s happening at Etzion junction is an extension of what has been happening all over the land for tens, hundreds, thousands of years.
The enemies have been various. There have been victories, and as Obama would say, “setbacks.” History tells us that victories will be temporary, and we’ll need to fight again and again.
Unhappily for us, this is one of those times. We are already in the midst of a war with the Palestinian Arabs, and losing it isn’t an option. But we can’t win the war we don’t fight.
On Friday morning, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations included criticism of both the US administration and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in its condemnation of the previous day’s terrorist attacks in Israel and its condolences to the victims’ families. Its statement reads:21-Year-Old Victim of Palestinian Stabbing Attack Remembered Lovingly by Her Teachers
Conference of Presidents leaders Stephen. M. Greenberg, Chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO condemned in the strongest terms the continuing series of outrageous terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians including the murders of five people yesterday and the wounding of many others. Among those killed was Ezra Schwartz, an 18-year-old American studying in Israel. He along with friends was engaged in a service project and was returning when he was killed. These barbaric attacks have taken a heavy toll of innocent Israelis going about their daily lives at work, at prayer, or traveling to family celebrations. Yet, the international community cannot find the words to unequivocally condemn these violent acts and those responsible for inciting them, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
We are deeply disappointed that the United States government has not issued a statement despite the death of an American citizen. The statement by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations deplores the deaths but does not indicate who was responsible. His statement cites the fact that a Palestinian was killed, but not that it was at the hands of another Palestinian. All of those who are so quick to condemn Israel for exercising its obligation to defend its citizens while facing the same terror that we saw in Paris and other parts in Europe recently, to which the whole world responded with appropriate outrage, have remained silent. Can it be that because the victims are Israelis that it is not worthy of comment?
This year marked the 70th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and other concentration camps. As we mark this sad anniversary we recall the pledge taken at the time of “Never Again.” We are again reminded of its significance when we see the world silent in the face of the murder of Jews. We demand that the United States government and others around the world who are truly committed to the war against terrorism speak out and act to hold accountable those who engaged in terrorist attacks, wherever they take place and that those who aid, abet, and incite them be held to account.
We express our deep condolences to all the families of the victims and pray that they were will be comforted amongst the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Shortly thereafter came the State Department press release.
The murder on Sunday of 21-year-old Hadar Buchris by a Palestinian terrorist at the Gush Etzion junction came as a shock to everyone who knew her, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.Two months, 22 victims: The human cost of terror
Hadar, a resident of the northern Israeli city of Safed and a student at the Bat Ayin midrasha near the site of the attack, was stabbed while waiting for a ride at the intersection, near the settlements of Efrat and Alon Shvut. IDF soldiers stationed nearby immediately shot and killed the terrorist, later identified as Wissam Tawabte, 34, from Beit Fajjar, a nearby Palestinian village.
Buchris was administered emergency medical treatment at the scene before being evacuated to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment, but was pronounced dead soon afterwards.
Teachers from her old school in the Golan Heights told Channel 2 about the shock and disbelief at Buchris’ death. “When her name was released on the news, we hoped it was just a similar name and it wasn’t her,” they said. Her former theater teacher told interviewers that Hadar was “always a source of good energy,a wonderful girl, welcoming and very funny.”
In Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the West Bank, and Be'er Sheva, Israelis as young as 18 and as old as 78 have lost their lives in violent terror attacks.Attacked at Jaffa Gate
Hadar Buchris, a 21-year-old from Safed, became the 22nd terror victim in the last two months when she was murdered in an attack at Gush Etzion junction on Sunday afternoon.
Days of relative quiet in Israel have alternated with bloody days featuring multiple attacks in the outburst of Palestinian violence, which has included stabbings, shootings, and vehicular attacks. Among the victims of attacks were a Palestinian killed by a terrorist firing indiscriminately and two Israelis mistaken for terrorists.
Medical teams have so far treated 192 wounded people, while another 82 have been treated for shock.
It was meant to be a very busy, but typical day (November 2, 2015) in my work as a tour guide in Israel. I was scheduled to meet a couple at Jaffa Gate for a 3 hour tour of the Old City starting with the new excavations in the Tower of David Museum, then meet up with another group in the Jewish Quarter, and finish the day with an after school program for elementary school girls who live in the Old City, telling them stories about Jerusalem and doing art projects that are related to the topic.Israeli youth killed, 2 hurt in stabbing at West Bank gas station
I met the couple – Jewish American tourists from NY named Stu and Corky – and we started to talk about the history of the area. While we talking, a young man, 22 year old Arab from Jerusalem snuck up next to me. He said in Hebrew, “slicha,” meaning, “excuse me,” as if he were about to ask a question. I turned to him expecting that he was someone who wanted directions to the Western Wall, as often happens to me while I’m guiding in the Old City. Instead, he took a heavy, glass bottle and struck me several times with it, breaking it over my head. By the second blow, I fainted. I woke up a little later on the ground, realizing what had happened, and that I was bleeding.
A young Israeli man was killed on Monday afternoon in a stabbing attack at a gas station on Route 443 in the West Bank, close to the central town of Modiin.Taking him for Israeli, Palestinian girls stab Arab in Jerusalem
Two others were hurt in the attack. One of the wounded, an Israeli woman, was lightly hurt when her car was hit by gunfire from security forces. The other, an Israeli woman in her 20s, was lightly injured in the stabbing and evacuated to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for treatment.
The Palestinian assailant was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in the area, according to Channel 2. He was named as Ahmad Taha of the West Bank village of Qatanna, near Jerusalem. Taha arrived at the gas station specifically to carry out an attack, according to the TV report.
Magen David Adom paramedics attempted to revive the 18-year-old man who sustained severe abdomenal wounds, but were forced to declare him dead at the scene.
“A young man… was lying on the ground unconscious, with stab wounds to the upper body, on the highway next to the gas station. Nearby, there was a young woman… approximately 20 years old, with stab wounds to her limbs. We gave both medical treatment on the scene,” said MDA medic Yitzchak Aryeh Goldfarb.
Two people were lightly injured during a stabbing attack near Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market on Monday morning, officials said.
Two Arab female teens identified as attackers were shot after slashing at people near the busy outdoor market with scissors, according to police.
One victim was identified as a 70-year-old Palestinian resident of Bethlehem with stab wounds to his upper body.
A second person, a 27-year-old guard, was lightly hurt by shrapnel from gunfire against the attackers, police said.
They were taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Police identified the two attackers as 14 and 16 years old, from northern Jerusalem. The teenage girls were related to one another, police said.
Attempted stabbing in Samaria; no one hurt
An Arab attempted a stabbing attack in the Hatmar Junction (also known as the Territorial Brigade junction - ed.) in Samaria on Monday afternoon, close to 3:00 pm.Man injured in possible West Bank car-ramming attack
The stabber was eliminated by IDF soldiers at the scene before he was able to harm anyone.
The incident is one of a series of attacks Monday. Just minutes after, an Israeli was murdered in a stabbing at a gas station along Highway 443 north of Jerusalem, which also left another person wounded.
They bring the total number of attacks Monday to four, follow two this morning, one in central Jerusalem and another in Samaria.
One man was hit and lightly hurt in a suspected vehicular ramming attack Monday morning between the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron and the Homesh outpost, sparking a manhunt for a suspect who fled the scene.Rocket launched at Israel from Gaza Strip
Security forces set up checkpoints in the Nablus area in an attempt to apprehend the driver of the vehicle, police and IDF officials said.
It was not immediately clear if the incident was a deliberate car-ramming or a hit and run accident.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said an 18-year-old man was lightly injured in the hit-and-run and taken to the Homesh front gate in a private car, where he received medical treatment from MDA and army paramedics.
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip Monday morning exploded in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council.In the Etzion Bloc, no easy answers to terror
There were no reports of casualties or damage. Security forces were scouring the area for the impact site.
Warning sirens were not activated as radar detected that the projectile would hit open territory.
Last week a rocket was fired at Israel from the Palestinian enclave. In response the Israeli air force struck two installations it described as “terror targets” in Gaza.
The Gaza border region has suffered sporadic rocket fire recently, much of it emanating from Salafist groups within the Palestinian enclave challenging Hamas rule.
In response to Sunday’s attacks Perl, the regional council head, called for a complete shut down of the Arab villages in the area.IDF Rejects Dividing Arabs and Jews at Bloody Gush Etzion Intersection
“Look at this,” he said, motioning to the cars with Palestinian license plates passing by the scene of the stabbing. “How can it be that after an attack they drive through here so easily? This area needs to be ‘clean,'” Perl, a lean, bespectacled man, said..
“We need to go after them. We need to attack them — attack them hard,” he said. “We should shut down the Arab villages in the area for a week or two.”
He suggested enacting a closure similar to the buffer created between East Jerusalem and the Jewish parts of the city in recent months in response to the wave of stabbing attacks.
But approximately 120,000 Palestinians have work permits that allow them to enter Israel, and shutting off entire villages would hurt both the Palestinian workers and the Israeli economy.
Additional checkpoints and closures around Arab villages could also serve to further inflame the already bristling Palestinian population, the IDF spokesman said.
Gush Etzion junction has been known as one of the hottest terror focal points in Israel. In recent months it attracted a worrying number of terrorist attacks, including an attack last Thursday and Sunday’s stabbing attack which killed Hadar Buchris, 21. But despite anxious calls from Jewish residents of the area, security forces reject outright the proposal to separate Jews and Palestinians who go through the intersection. Currently, the only realistic possibility being looked into is installing security sleeves on both sides of the road, Channel 10 News reported.PreOccupiedTerritory: What’s The Best Knife For Stab- I Mean To Have Planted On Me? (satire)
These sleeves, the IDF is hoping, will serve as a vital checkpoint, forming a buffer between individuals—i.e. Arabs—reaching in the intersection and the Israeli hitchhikers looking for a ride. The IDF expects the buffer to be a lifesaver in the event that a terrorist would try to harm passers by at point-blank range.
The Gush Etzion intersection is unique in the fact that it sits on Route 60, connecting Hebron and Jerusalem, which also runs outside Bethlehem. Unlike other intersections in Judea and Samaria, there are several pedestrian-accessible features a few yards away: a supermarket employing Arabs, and a restaurant. This mix of pedestrians and motorists is an invitation for deadly outcomes at a time of terrorist attacks on Jewish civilians.
Dad, I want to go perform a heroic martyrdom operation and kill some pig Jews. What’s the best implement to use so I make sure to do the most dam- I mean, so that when the Israelis plant it on me it doesn’t look like I was a pathetic victim?Israel calls to dismantle Palestinian 'refugee camps'
I want to do my part for Palestine. I want to shove a knife, or anything with a blade, into the neck, head, or torso of some Zionist swine so they leave our land. What should I select as my weapon so that it effectively severs the – I mean, so that when I’m executed in cold blood by Occupation forces it doesn’t look like I just lay down and took it?
I don’t want to end up like those girls at the Mahane Yehuda market today. Scissors? Really? You can’t hope to inflict painful, fatal trauma on a human body with something so measly. I mean, aside from the fact that they stabbed a PALESTINIAN man. Girls, as far as I’m concerned, you got the framing you deserved. No self-respecting stabber, I mean innocent victim, would use such inferior equipment to do the job right. I’m not going to make that mistake. So when my knife ends up planted next to me after I stab some filthy Jews, you’ll know I was executed in cold blood with my head held high, not like some poor excuse for a shaheeda. So can I have some help finding the sharpest, most dangerous blade?
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) issued a call Sunday to dismantle the Palestinian "refugee camps."Israeli Settler Leader: Expel West Bank Palestinian Terrorists’ Families to Gaza
Speaking at the JCC Conference, Hotovely said: "Israelis after 2009 understand that the root of the conflict is the Palestinians' demand to recognize the 'right of return,' and therefore, the solution must be the dismantling of the refugee camps and taking the subject of the [Palestinian] 'right of return' off the agenda. The 'right of return' is de facto the end of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."
As for the issue of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, Hotovely said: "More and more people understand that the settlement enterprise is not the problem. After [the Disengagement from Gaza in] 2005, the thought that transferring 400,000 Jews will bring peace is not only an illusion, but also a moral distortion. It is time that the world understand that the settlement enterprise is the front line in the fight against global jihad."
Hotovely noted Israel's diplomatic strides, including the widening of its new markets into China, India and Japan.
Arab irredentists claim that millions of descendants of refugees from villages abandoned in Israel's War of Independence deserve to "return" to Israel. To maintain the power of this claim, they insist on keeping millions of Palestinians in "refugee camps" in Judea and Samaria as well as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Gaza, instead of assimilating them in their new countries.
Amsalem called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to focus efforts on restoring security to Israeli residents of the West Bank, regardless of disputes over the territories there.Can't make the Litman wedding? Buy them a gift!
“Our right to the land [of Israel] and the future of Israel is the development of settlements in Judea and Samaria,” said Amsalem, using the Hebrew names for the West Bank.
The head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council said he was sure there were steps the government was not taking to protect Israelis in the West Bank.
“We must set up check points at the entrances and exists of villages. We must strike Palestinian media leading the incitement. The reality has proved that destroying homes is effective,” said Perl, referring to the Israeli policy of detonating the homes of Palestinian terrorists and their families, “but we could also expel terrorists’ families to Gaza.”
In just a few days' time Sara Tehiya Litman - whose father and brother were murdered in a drive-by shooting near Hevron - will be getting married to her fiance Ariel Beigel.West Bank Supermarket is Oasis of Coexistence on Day of Multiple Attacks
The Litman family were attacked by Arab terrorists close to the town of Otniel in Judea, as they made their way to the pre-wedding Shabbat Chatan celebration for Ariel. The terrorist overtook their car, spraying it with bullets, before one of the killers emerged from the vehicle and shot several more shots at the prone vehicle.
Sara's father, Rabbi Ya'akov Litman, was fatally wounded in the initial barrage of gunfire, while her 18-year-old brother Netanel was gunned down in cold blood as he emerged from the car to call emergency services. Their 16-year-old brother was shot in the leg, and Sara's mother and young sisters were hospitalized with light injuries as well.
Despite the terrible tragedy, Sara and Ariel quickly made an astonishing announcement, which has since gripped the entire State of Israel and the wider Jewish world. Instead of calling off or toning down their wedding, they instead rescheduled it to take place this week at Binyanei Ha'uma in Jerusalem. Not only that; in a remarkable show of defiance to the terrorists, who carried out their attack just days before the wedding was initially scheduled, the soon-to-be-married couple have invited all of Israel to celebrate together with them.
This is the junction from where three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped in June, 2014, setting off the violence that led to the 5-week-long Gaza War last summer.French Ambassador: We stand with Israel against radical Islam
Last Thursday afternoon, a drive-by shooter killed three men at the same location: a 49-year-old Israeli teacher, an 18-year-old student from Massachusetts on a gap year program in Israel and a 24-year-old Palestinian who was waiting at the same stop.
Half an hour before the attack that killed the young woman, the area was surprisingly serene. Jewish and Arab workers loitered, joking and smoking, outside the Rami Levy supermarket, teasing an armed guard, Shalom, for his Peruvian appearance. “Hola,” one said. “I’m Indian,” he retorted, referring to his grandparents’ place of birth.
Suddenly, a dark-skinned man in a tight grey t-shirt barreled through, yelling, in Arabic, “Where’s the meat?!” The group of men dissolved in laughter. It turned out to be the punch-line of an inside joke, and the barrel-chested man in question, Nimrod Cohen, a Jew, is a distributor for Carmel Wines. He pulled one of his Arab buddies aside to tell him a private joke: “The other day in Jerusalem, this Jew said to me, ‘I want us to blow up the mosque.’ So I said, ‘OK, blow it up, and the Western Wall with it!’” He friend laughed lightly.
“See what I mean?” he added to The Media Line “If both are gone, the mosque and the wall — get it? Now go convince [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu.”
Despite the attacks, and the consequent pressure faced by the supermarket chain’s owner, Rami Levy, to dismiss his Arab workers, the supermarket’s deputy manager, Yinon Gutman, says “everything is normal.” Shoppers? Employees? “Everything is the same.”
Arutz Sheva got the chance to speak with French Ambassador to Israel Patrick Maisonnave on Sunday night, during a memorial for the 129 victims of the Islamic State (ISIS) attacks in Paris last week.Germans get cold feet for Israeli swim competition
Speaking at the memorial, which took place during the Annual Conference on Jewish Burial in Israel held by the Religious Services Ministry, Maisonnave said he was moved by the many messages of solidarity he received from Israelis following the brutal attacks that rocked Paris.
The night after the attacks, the envoy recalled how he organized a memorial at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, and expressed his gratitude that roughly 3,000 Israelis spontaneously arrived to show solidarity.
Turning his attention to the security cooperation between Israel and France, Maisonnave said close cooperation has been ongoing for at least two years, far predating the Islamist attacks in January in which 17 people were murdered, including at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket.
A majority of German swimmers are considering skipping the upcoming European Short-Course Swimming Championships in Israel due to security fears, it emerged at their national championships over the weekend.Media’s Confused Headlines: Equating Terrorists With Victims
“Honestly, for me, the risk just seems too great,” said Alexandra Wenk, a world bronze medalist who competes in the women’s 100-meter butterfly.
Wenk is among 13 of the 25 swimmers who do not want to go to Netanya for security reasons, according to the spokesman of the German Swimming Federation.
Even head coach Henning Lambertz said he was “not hot to go out there” and that he would make a final decision closer to the event.
In contrast, stars like Paul Biedermann and Marco Koch expressed no fear.
It’s been two months since the current wave of terror began, and the media outlets are still confused about victims and terrorists.Israeli effort to fire biased NBC reporter gains ground
On Sunday, three Palestinian terrorists attempted to stab Israelis in unrelated attacks, killing one woman. The terrorists were killed in self-defense. The New York Times initial headline (since changed): 1 Israeli and 3 Palestinians Killed in Attacks in West Bank.
That headline implies that the violence was of equal moral value, that it was all just “attacks,” – Palestinians attacked Israelis, and Israelis attacked Palestinians. In fact, the headline implies that the Israeli attacks were worse because more Palestinians were killed.
The moral failure, however, does not belong exclusively to the New York Times. Other newspapers also provided obtuse headlines that equated the victims and the terrorists. The Irish Times offered this whopper of a misleading headline:
Three Palestinians, one Israeli die in West Bank incidents
Reading that, one would not even know that terrorist attacks took place. An “incident” could be a car accident or even an avalanche. Interestingly, the coverage was provided by Reuters, which had a different headline – Israeli fatally stabbed, three Palestinian attackers killed in West Bank: police – that would have provided more accurate information. That means the Irish Times actively changed the headline to the one above.
Not to be outdone, the Sydney Morning Herald published this muddle of a headline:
Four dead in new West Bank knife attacks
The Israeli-led campaign to fire NBC News foreign correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin over his alleged anti-Israel bias has been gaining traction, with the reporter conspicuously absent in recent reporting from Israel.JPost Editorial: Mali tragedy
Last week, the campaign, orchestrated by the Israeli organization Hatovim (The Good Ones), managed to win a symbolic victory when supporters displayed a sign reading "Fire the Liar" on live TV as the "Today" show was being broadcast from NBC headquarters in New York. Activists gathered outside the NBC street-side studio at the Rockefeller Center and held the sign up behind host Matt Lauer's head for several seconds. Footage of the incident was posted on the campaign's Facebook page, garnering more than 10,000 "likes" and almost 3,000 "shares" as of Sunday.
The campaign was launched in the wake of Mohyeldin's Oct. 14 live reporting on MSNBC from the scene of an attempted stabbing in Jerusalem. Mohyeldin insisted that Israeli forces had fatally shot an unarmed Palestinian at the Damascus Gate, despite video clearly showing the Palestinian wielding a knife. Mohyeldin said he witnessed the incident firsthand and said, "Both of his hands were open and both of his hands did not have a knife," adding that he had not seen any Israeli being stabbed or treated. But the anchor at the studio interjected and said, "You are covering it live, you see it once, not knowing what you are seeing, but in the video that we have ... we can clearly see the man ... with what appears to be, at least in his right hand, a knife."
Among almost two dozen victims of Friday’s terrorist attack at the Radisson Blu Hotel in the Malian capital of Bamako on Friday was the much-loved and respected Israeli educator, Shmuel (Sammy) Benalal.PreOccupiedTerritory: God Reconsidering Vow Not To Flood World Again (satire)
The Benalal family issued a statement voicing hope that his body would soon be returned to Israel for burial.
“We are shocked and in pain. We hope that all the relevant organizations are working to bring him home to us as soon as possible,” it said.
Even though Israel and Mali do not have diplomatic relations, Benalal served as a senior adviser to the Mali government, helping to stem the growing dropout of students from local schools. Described by friends as “a gentle giant,” he exemplified the good humanitarian work that many Israelis do around the world. His death at the age of 60 is a tragedy for his family, friends, colleagues, students and all those he helped here and abroad.
The Venezuelan-born Benalal came to Israel as a youth and lived in the Judean Hills community of Tzur Hadassah with his wife, Flory, and three sons. He was a faculty member at the Mandel School for Educational Leadership and, in recent years, served as the CEO of the Telos Group Ltd., a consulting company that specializes in the international development of education, mostly in third world countries.
Benalal wrote guidebooks on developing schools, educational planning and curricula, as well as the integration of parent committees into education and the integration of special needs children in schools.
The Almighty is revisiting His commitment not to destroy civilization once again as humanity continues its downward moral spiral, sources close the the Creator reported today.
Several ministering angels shared details of consultations with the LORD over the last several months, the content of which involved the legal and technical feasibility of eliminating most or all of the human race to rid the world of the depravity that has now become commonplace. While God promised not to bring devastation upon all of humankind following the deluge that spared only Noah and his family, the angels said He has been conferring with Heaven’s legal department regarding ways in which that covenant, represented by the rainbow, might be circumvented.
“The ongoing genocides in Africa, Syria, and Iraq are just the beginning,” explained Archangel Uriel. “There’s the oppression and violence all over the place, as well as rampant falsehood, twisted priorities, corrupt leadership, and cultured steeped in selfishness – but that’s nothing new. What put this generation over the top, prompting the LORD to wonder whether the covenant in Noah’s time was a mistake, is the weak reaction of the supposedly enlightened world to massive religious violence,” said the angel, in reference to the halfhearted response of so many in the Western world to the immanent threat of continued Islamist terrorism.
