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Sunday, October 09, 2022

10/09 Links: Amb. Dore Gold: Why a Two-State Solution Won’t Work; IDF soldier dies of wounds following Jerusalem attack; Annexation and International Law

From Ian:

Amb. Dore Gold: Why a Two-State Solution Won’t Work
There is a school of thought among historians that each of the Arab states, back then, had its own particularistic aims for attacking Israel: Damascus was looking to establish a Greater Syria in the Levant, Amman hoped to reinforce its hold on the holy sites of Jerusalem after the Hashemites lost the holy sites of Islam that they once held in the Hijaz, and Cairo was looking to connect itself with the Mashreq – that portion of the Middle East that was located in West Asia – and by doing so avert becoming isolated in North Africa.

If the considerations of the Palestinian Arabs were paramount for the Arab world, then why wasn’t a Palestinian state established in Judea and Samaria during those years, when the Arab world had the chance because it already held those areas?

True, the Palestinian Arabs tried briefly to set up a mini-state in the Gaza Strip, known as the All-Palestine Government, but it never acquired wider backing through international recognition.

Its association with the Jerusalem mufti, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Palestinian leader most visibly connected with Nazi Germany during the war, undermined the chances of the All-Palestine Government succeeding. Gaza remained an area under Egyptian military occupation until the Six-Day War.

Today, Israel needs to design an approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that keeps in mind the true dimensions of the wider conflict. The Arab-Israel conflict has resembled an accordion that can expand or contract according to international circumstances. In 1967, there was an Iraqi expeditionary force that sought to cross into Israel by cutting through Jordan. The conflict had grown.

By 2022, Iraq was no longer the same strategic factor. And it was Iran that was recruiting Shi’ite militias from all over the Middle East and sending them mostly to Syria.

Today there is a risk that if the two-state solution becomes popularized again, without justification, then Israel will come under rising international pressures to adhere to its terms, even if they do not apply. It risks stripping Israel of its right to secure boundaries which is an integral part of Resolution 242.

What recent events have demonstrated is that a very different Middle East has arisen. Diplomacy remains vital in this new period, but it will only yield results if it addresses the vital interests of the parties which engage in it. That is the lesson of the Abraham Accords, which produced four normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states.

But right now, the two-state solution is just a nice-sounding mantra that will lead diplomats off course. This should be the message of the State of Israel the next time an Israeli prime minister addresses the UN General Assembly.
The silence that screams
Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022 is the 40th anniversary of the 1982 Palestinian terror attack on the Great Synagogue of Rome, in which a two-year-old child, Stefano Tache, was killed and 37 others wounded. Stefano’s brother Gadiel, also wounded in the attack, has just published his memoir, The Shouting Silence, in which he deals with the Italian government’s complicity with the terrorists.

The whole of Italy must thank Gadiel for his strength and determination, and for telling the story of his suffering and that of his whole family, especially his courageous mother Daniela and his father Joseph. His story is a personal one of universal value. It teaches us that victims of terrorism face an emotional tsunami from which they can never completely recover. Their psychological and physical pain is unacknowledged and still far from being fully understood, defined and addressed.

In recent months, Israel has faced a wave of terror attacks and attempted attacks. Only the victims know the trauma they must endure, the family heartache, the legacy of physical wounds. During the second intifada, I saw the streets of Jerusalem literally covered in the blood of over 1,000 dead. Yet the aggressors were absolved and even exalted as princes of the world’s oppressed. The victims, however, were erased, and Israel and Jews libeled as oppressors.

Gadiel Tache’s account of his personal experience and the horrific political scandal that allowed the attack sheds light on the true nature of anti-Semitic terrorism and the suffering it causes. In his book, Gadiel makes it clear that anti-Semitic terrorism is simply the latest historical iteration of genocidal anti-Semitic violence, which culminated in the Holocaust. Anti-Semitic terror today uses political viciousness, media defamation, campus and social media hate and outright physical attacks on Jews around the world.

This terror is at its worst in Israel, where anyone, anywhere can fall prey to shooting, knife and car-ramming attacks. There is no family that does not have a relative or friend who has been a victim of terror. But there is also no place in the world that has not known anti-Semitic terrorism, from the 1972 Munich Olympics to Paris, Madrid, London, Toulouse, the Netherlands, New York and many American cities, as well as Mumbai, Kenya and, of course, Rome.
Melanie Phillips: Welcome, Sir Tom. It's been too long My 2020 review of "Leopoldstadt"
The analogy with today could hardly be more obvious. Diaspora Jews will always view their position and prestige in society as proof not only that they have assimilated into the host culture but that the host culture has assimilated them. And on that latter point, they will always be wrong.

Those who think that, with Jeremy Corbyn on his way out, Britain’s antisemitism crisis has passed, have their heads stuck firmly in the sand— even if the “moderate” Keir Starmer becomes Labour leader.

The crisis is far broader and deeper. For some of us, Jew-hatred made Britain unbearable years before Corbyn became party leader. We concluded we’d been living in a fools’ paradise, that after Auschwitz there had been merely a 50-year moratorium on antisemitism which had now ended.

Under the fig-leaf of anti-Zionism and Israel-bashing, it was clear that Jews would only be accepted as fully British on condition that they didn’t identify as a people, and certainly not with Israel’s fate.

For some British Jews, therefore, anything that dwells upon the myopia of that doomed pre-war Jewish community may exacerbate the disquiet they already feel.

It’s important, though, for British people to be made more aware not just of the liquidation of the Jews of Europe but also the nature of the culture that was thus destroyed. Many in the wider society have no idea about the significance to Jews of brit milah, for example, or the Passover seder.

Maybe Stoppard himself now wonders how different his life would have been had he been brought up inside Jewish family life.

Except that the specific culture to which he is drawn here is one that no longer exists.

Among Jews who feel the pull of their Jewish identity after years of having ignored or suppressed it, it’s not uncommon for them to identify not with Jewish religious rites and practices, nor with the State of Israel, but with a Jewish culture that is no more.

Sometimes this is a disreputable impulse, identifying with those murdered in the Shoah in order to cloak themselves falsely in reflected victimhood and moral impunity.

For others, though, it’s a Jewish epiphany no less genuine for being so tenuous.

Often, such stirrings of identity occur through discovering the fate of family members who were murdered. Recreating their culture in literary form creates a line of continuity with a people to which no other link is desired.

Indeed, what other link can there be? Often implacably agnostic or atheist, viewing the world through the Christian or secular prism of the society in which they were raised and educated, and indifferent or even hostile to Zionism and Israel, the only way such people can realistically connect to their Jewishness is through the ghosts of their family’s past.

With Leopldstatdt, Stoppard is saying “hineini” — here I am, Jewish people, I am one of you and I am declaring it to the world. Welcome, Sir Tom; it’s been too long.


Annexation and International Law
Journalists and politicians often talk about Israel’s desire to annex Judea and Samaria. They are wrong in so doing because what Israel talks about doing is extending Israeli law to these lands the same as it did in the Golan Heights law.

This distinction is very important because Judea and Samaria are not the land of another country. All that is necessary is to extend Israeli law to the territory which in effect extends Israeli sovereignty to such lands.

The Fourth Geneva Convention (FGC) (1949) purports to protect civilians in times of war.

Article 49. Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.

-The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

Pursuant to this article, the international community considers the Israeli settlements as illegal because Israel is transferring parts of its population to these territories. But this disregards the fact it covers “forcible transfers.” Israel is not transferring anyone forcibly or otherwise. The settlement movement is entirely voluntary.

Equally germane is the fact that the FGC does not apply to these lands.

ART. 2. — In addition to the provisions which shall be implemented in peacetime, the present Convention shall apply to all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them.

Since Jordan’s annexation of these lands was recognized by only 3 countries, these lands are not lands of a High Contracting Party. For this reason Israel did not ratify the treaty and therefore is not bound by it.

Nevertheless Israel has agreed to abide by the humanitarian provisions.

Israel has another option. It could hold a referendum among the residents of Area C and decide to secede. Then Israel would be free to extend Israeli law to Area C, thereby making it Israeli sovereign territory.

The Principle of Self-Determination in International Law
The Charter of the United Nations came into force in 1945, in which Article 1 includes reference to self-determination.[9] This meant, for the first time, self-determination was recognised in an official international legal document, affirming that it was an existing right. However, the lack of definition and detail as to what self-determination entails provided in the Charter left little ability for the right to be applied, particularly in relation to secession. But, the 1966 International Covenants transformed that, by providing a substantive definition about what is encompassed in the right to self-determination; ‘All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development’.[10]
"Rate of Illegal Arab Construction in Area C Increased by 80% in 2022"
A report released by the Regavim Movement reveals that in 2022, illegal Palestinian Authority Arab construction in Area C, the portion of Judea and Samaria under full Israeli jurisdiction, increased by 80%. The report documents 5535 new illegal structures built in 2022, compared to 3076 structures in the same period in 2021. Regavim: “The Israeli government is creating a de facto Palestinian state.” Illegal Arab construction in Area C of Judea & Samaria.

In 2022, illegal Arab construction in Area C of Judea and Samaria boomed, outpacing the already-alarming rate seen in 2021 by 80%. Regavim’s most recent report, based on data collected through meticulous fieldwork, aerial photography and GIS mapping, compared the situation on the ground in 2021 to that of 2022. The study covered the period of April 2021 through April 2022, analyzing the number of structures, the legal status of the land on which they were built and the jurisdictional lines dictated by international law.

Regavim’s exhaustive study indicates that in comparison to previous years, the data for the most recent period are unprecedented, both in quality and quantity. The structures in built in recent months are not temporary shacks or makeshift shelters that characterized much of the illegal activity in earlier years; in 2022, new Palestinian construction is characterized by “palatial residences, sprawling holiday resorts, amusement and entertainment compounds and event halls, swimming pools and vacation villages, and high-rise residential and commercial towers.” In addition to the mass-scale construction, in many areas development and infrastructure work was carried out to lay the groundwork for future full-scale neighborhoods, such as at Khirbet Khattha near Tarkumiyeh and Lakef near Karnei Shomron.

Regavim studied construction patterns exclusively in Area C, the portion of Judea and Samaria placed under full Israeli jurisdiction in the Oslo Accords framework. At present, according to Regavim’s research, there are 81,317 illegal Arab-built structures in this area, covering an area of approximately 150,000 dunams – twice the total area of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria all told, legal and illegal.
PFLP Claims Palestinian Terrorist… On Same Day Guardian Sympathetically Describes Him as ‘Human Rights Lawyer’
Billed as a “prominent Palestinian-French human rights lawyer,” Salah Hamouri was recently featured in a report by The Guardian following the announcement that he would go on hunger strike in protest at his detention in Israeli prison.

Hamouri, who works as a field researcher for the Israeli-blacklisted Palestinian NGO Addameer, was sentenced in March to administrative detention over his membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, which is behind scores of deadly attacks targeting innocent Israelis.

Describing the alleged conditions that sparked Hamouri’s protest in a piece titled, ‘Human rights lawyer in Israeli prison goes on hunger strike,’ The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Beth McKernan writes:
Along with 29 other people held in administrative detention in prisons around Israel, Hamouri on Sunday began an open-ended hunger strike to protest against the Israeli practice, which is routinely used against Palestinians who are subject to Israel’s military, rather than civil, justice system.

Negotiations with Israeli officials on Wednesday did not yield results, a member of the #JusticeforSalah campaign said. The human rights lawyer has been moved to a 2 x 2 sq metre isolation cell in Hadarim, a maximum security prison.”

It is only in the eighth paragraph that the reader is given any more details about Hamouri’s chilling background, which includes several spells in prison and a 2005 arrest and subsequent conviction for his role in a terror cell that had plotted to assassinate Israel’s former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

Like other news reports about Hamouri (see here and here), The Guardian treats his participation in PFLP activities as mere Israeli claims — an impliedly sneaky way to bypass due process and detain Hamouri alongside others “without charge or access to the evidence against them.”

It is, therefore, an awkward coincidence that on the very same day that The Guardian’s piece was published, the PFLP itself unintentionally confirmed Hamouri’s position within its ranks.


IDF soldier dies of wounds following Jerusalem attack
A female Israeli soldier died of her wounds following a shooting attack on Saturday night at the Shuafat checkpoint in eastern Jerusalem.

The Israel Defense Forces idenitified her on Sunday morning as 18-year old Sgt. Noa Lazar, a member of the Military Police’s Erez battalion who was raised in Bat Hefer.

Lazar, a corporal, was posthumously promoted to the rank of sergeant.

A security guard, 30, was shot in the head and seriously injured in the incident. He was taken to Hadassah Medical Center and underwent surgery overnight, the hospital said. On Sunday morning, he remained in serious condition in the intensive care unit, sedated and ventilated.

A third Israeli was lightly wounded.

The Israel Police said in a statement that an assailant began shooting as he approached the crossing, while another opened fire from a passing vehicle.

Israeli forces launched a manhunt to apprehend the perpetrators and on Sunday morning conducted a raid on the Shuafat home of the suspected lead terrorist, the Kan public broadcaster reported.


IDF soldier killed by Palestinian gunman at Jerusalem checkpoint
An IDF soldier has been killed and a guard has been wounded by a Palestinian gunman at a Jerusalem area checkpoint overnight

i24NEWS correspondent Pia Steckelbach reports from the scene as authorities begin a manhunt for the suspected terrorist




Spotlight on Jenin: Part Four: The 10 Most Notorious Jenin Terrorists
Jenin, dubbed the Palestinian “terror capital” by observers, has been in the news for the past few months as Israel continues to carry out counter-terrorism operations in a bid to save Israeli lives and prevent the actions of those who seek to harm the Jewish state.

But while Jenin is constantly being mentioned in the media, how much do we really know about Jenin?

In this series, we will take a look at different Jenin-related topics and hopefully provide a multi-faceted understanding of the city at the center of the current rise in violence and terrorism.

This is ‘Spotlight on Jenin.’

As the Palestinian terror capital, Jenin has been the home of numerous terrorists who have targeted Israeli civilians and soldiers. In this piece, we will take a look at the 10 most notorious terrorists who emerged from the Jenin region in the 21st century (in chronological order):

1. Shadi Tubasi
Age: 18
Terrorist Group Affiliation: Hamas
Known For: Carrying out the suicide bombing of the Matza restaurant in Haifa on March 31, 2002. 16 people were killed and over 40 were wounded.

2. Mahmoud Tawalbe
Age: 22
Terrorist Group Affiliation: Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Known For: Leader of Islamic Jihad’s armed forces in Jenin. Responsible for a number of attacks on Israeli civilians, Tawalbe was killed during the Battle of Jenin in 2002.

3. Hamza Samoudi
Age: 18
Terrorist Group Affiliation: Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Known For: Carrying out the suicide bombing of Bus 830 (from Tel Aviv to Tiberias) as it approached the Megiddo Junction in northern Israel. Samoudi drove his explosive-laden car next to the bus and blew it up. 17 people were killed and 43 others were injured.
PreOccupiedTerritory: IDF Demolitions Of Terrorists’ Homes: Islamophobic Suppression Of Palestinian Throwing-Gays-Off-Roofs Ritual (satire)
Human rights groups and Palestinian officials lashed out today at a longstanding Israeli policy of destroying the houses of Palestinians convicted of deadly terrorist attacks against Israelis, this time emphasizing the cultural genocide inherent in reducing the number of structures at which to perform the cherished local rite of casting suspected homosexuals to their deaths.

Amnesty International, Btselem, Human Rights Watch, and several other organizations issued a joint statement Thursday decrying the demolition policy, which they have criticized hundreds of times over the last several decades. This time, however, the groups adopted a different angle, making brief obligatory references to the “Apartheid” and “collective punishment” tropes that has become the organizations’ bread and butter, and focusing instead on the deplorable Israeli suppression of indigenous Palestinian culture that the demolition policy represents.

“This outrageous practice drips with racist Islamophobia,” the statement read. “Muslims across the Middle East and beyond have for many centuries preserved their custom of casting deviants from the tops of buildings. Israel, however, in its zeal to cleanse the Occupied Palestinian Territories of those who stand in the way of Jewish supremacist expansionism, deprives traditional Palestinians of the venues where this sacred ritual would take place.”


After genocide at hands of ISIS, Yazidis seek help in Cyprus
Yazidi refugees who come from the communities that suffered genocide under ISIS have found their way to Cyprus.

According to an activist who works with the Yazidi minority and genocide survivors, a total of eight families arrived in Cyprus several weeks ago.

Genocide and persecution of Yazidis
Yazidis are a religious minority that mostly resides in Iraq, but some have historically lived in areas that became Syria and Turkey as well. In recent years they have suffered brutal persecution by terrorists and extremist groups. ISIS committed genocide against Yazidis in Sinjar in northern Iraq, killing and kidnapping thousands.

Since the genocide in 2014 many hundreds of thousands of Yazidis have been forced into displaced persons camps. This caused many to seek better lives elsewhere, traveling through Turkey to Europe.

As members of a minority group that has been persecuted by Islamist extremists, they often face persecution along the journey, sometimes at the hands of other people who claim to be refugees. According to the source, dozens of Yazidis continue to migrate through Greece to the rest of Europe. It is not usual that they end up in Cyprus because the journey is more complex and dangerous.
Seth Frantzman: Iran’s regime trying to manage protests it can’t contain
The danger of protests for the regime
Ali Saeedi warned that protests can be hijacked and turn violent.

“For example, people have come to the street for water and say they want water, but suddenly some people jump on these protests and riot.”

He encouraged officials to protect the right to protest and the right to gather.

“Institutions and officials should also be receptive to protests and take responsibility for ensuring the security of protesters. Even if a gathering has taken place without prior coordination, they should be guided so that their words and lives are not threatened…Maybe this will take time, but by amending the laws and creating a culture among the officials and the people, we can witness gatherings and protests in the future where the people will convey their words to the officials directly and clearly and in complete security, demand and follow up. Of course, it should not be overlooked that the presence of officials among the people is very important in this regard. Provincial trips of Ayatollah Raisi, the country's highest executive official, and direct meetings with the people are somewhat effective and useful in fulfilling this demand.”

In this unprecedented interview, the media and the interviewee are suggesting a real reform in Iran in terms of approaching protests. This is a major shift in how most authoritarian regimes deal with demands from the people.

In other regimes such as Turkey, Russia and China no articles appear like this in which officials argue for listening to protests.

Iran’s regime is trying to be flexible because it understands that it faces a crossroads today. If it crushes the protests with mass killings, as it did in 2019 and other instances, it will lose a generation. If it listens it might get to survive another decade or so. The regime knows that it is facing a real test.

It also knows that the Iran deal which it was able to get in 2015 may not be on the table and that its allies in Moscow and Beijing may not be able to come to its aid because they face hurdles of their own at home. Iran’s regime understands today that it doesn’t have the wind in its sails it had back in 2009-2015 when a new US administration was working to secure the deal and Iran was on the winning side; today it faces real hurdles at home.


Wellesley College condemns anti-Israel Mapping Project after student paper claims it is ‘providing a vital service’
In response to its student paper’s editorial board endorsing the controversial Boston “Mapping Project” of Jewish sites around Massachusetts, Wellesely College condemned the project for promoting anti-Semitism.

“While it is not my practice to comment on the newspaper’s editorials, I do feel the need to make it clear that Wellesley College rejects the Mapping Project for promoting anti-Semitism,” Wellesley College President Paula A. Johnson wrote in a letter to the community.

Johnson said she is concerned that the project “poses a significant threat to the physical security of the Jewish community of Greater Boston, including neighbors and partners of the College.”

The project, published this past summer by BDS supporters, shows the locations of a range of Massachusetts-based Jewish groups, synagogues, schools, police departments, media and other institutions that the anti-Israel activists claim should be “dismantled.” The project’s website hosts a map with the locations of their targets and information about them, including the names of some of their staff.

“We believe that the Mapping Project is providing a vital service,” the Wellesley News editorial board wrote. “Collecting data about these institutions, tracing their financial and political activity and publicizing this information is incredibly important.”

According to the Mapping Project’s website, the purported aim of the project is the development of “a deeper understanding of local institutional support for the colonization of Palestine and harms that we see as linked, such as policing, U.S. imperialism and displacement/ethnic cleansing.” Following its launch, the project was widely condemned by the Jewish community as steeped in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and tropes.


Kanye West says he’ll go to ‘death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE’ after Instagram ban
Acclaimed rapper Kanye West appeared to threaten Jewish people in a tweet posted Sunday, shortly after his Instagram account was restricted for content viewed by some users as antisemitic.

“I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda,” he wrote, in one of his first tweets in two years.

The post was later removed by Twitter for violating its rules.

“Death con 3” appears to be a mistaken use of the US military heightened alert status DEFCON 3.

He also posted against Meta’s Jewish founder Mark Zuckerberg for the Instagram restriction.

“Look at this Mark,” West wrote, sharing a photo of the two of them together. “How you gone kick me off instagram.”


Pastor Larry Huch is No. 1 on the 2022 ‘Top 50 Christian Allies’ list
The Israel Allies Foundation (IAF) has named Pastor Larry Huch of Dallas, Texas, as the No. 1 Christian ally of the Jewish state in its annual Top 50 list.

The list of “Top 50 Christian Allies,” published by IAF on the eve of Sukkot, known by Christians as the Feast of Tabernacles, celebrates men and women from around the world and of different Christian denominations who tirelessly support and defend Israel.

Besides pastors, the list includes Hollywood stars and politicians, from Pat Boone and Chuck Norris to former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

“Recognizing the invaluable work of our Christian supporters is an important display of our gratitude towards them,” said IAF Director Josh Reinstein. “Each and every one of them serves as an example of the far-reaching impact faith-based diplomacy for Israel has, from a local to international level.

“It is Christians, not countries, that we can count on to always stand with Israel,” he said.

Huch is the founding pastor of New Beginnings Church in Dallas. Larry Huch Ministries is a major supporter of aliyah, Holocaust survivors, hospitals and a host of other charities in Israel.

Huch said he fell in love with the “Jewishness of the Bible” and Israel nearly 30 years ago. He then began to teach the Jewish roots of Christianity and the importance of “standing with the nation of Israel” and fighting anti-Semitism to his community. Since then, his relationship with Reinstein and the IAF has blossomed, and he has been to Israel dozens of times.

“There is no country in the world like Israel,” he told JNS. “And no city in any country like Jerusalem. It is the home of God. It is the people, the land and the spirit of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that dwells in this land.”




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