Sunday, December 25, 2022

12/25 Links: Melanie Phillips: Happy inclusive holidays!; Israel should terminate the Oslo Accords; Israeli mayor attends funeral of terrorist who wounded 3 policemen

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Happy inclusive holidays!
What a minefield this whole identity thing is. Thank goodness Chanukah doesn’t present this problem, eh?

For many diaspora Jews, Chanukah is regarded as Christmas-lite with gifts, diet-destroying delicacies and a lighted menorah in place of a glittering tree.

And there can hardly be much danger of offending anyone with a card displaying a chanukiah, dreidel or doughnut, or standard anodyne message such as “Festival of lights”, “Love, light, latkes” or “Peace, love and miracles”.

Hold on a minute. Chanukah is not actually a festival of peace and love. It celebrates instead the victory of the Maccabees who went to war against both the Seleucid Greeks and the Hellenists, Jews who were themselves drawn to the pagan ways of their Greek overlords.

The Maccabees were not apostles of peace. They were more like resistance commandos, fierce and uncompromising warriors who fought their Greek oppressors.

Moreover, they also committed violent atrocities against the Hellenised Jews who had absorbed Greek universalism and as a result had taken aim at circumcision, Shabbat observance and Torah study.

The Maccabees regarded those overly-assimilated Jews as traitors to Judaism and dealt with them accordingly.

In the saccharine world of much Chanukah observance, the Maccabees are commonly presented as heroes fighting and defeating the tyrannical Greeks. This was undoubtedly true.

But other commentators equally plausibly describe them as zealots, violent religious extremists who forced Jews to conform to a strict interpretation of Judaism and expelled non-Jews from the land. To the Hellenised Jews, they were religious nuts.

Ring any bells? Today, many diaspora Jews (and liberal Israelis) are hyper-ventilating over the likely inclusion in the new Israeli government of three men whose agenda has distinct echoes of the Maccabees.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the putative security minister, called in his younger days for the expulsion of the Arabs from Israel (although he says he has changed his views). Bezalel Smotrich, tipped as a finance minister, has said his ultimate aim is an Israeli theocracy.

And Avi Maoz, who is set to run an office of “Jewish identity”, has taken explicit aim at the “Hellenising Jews” of the Israeli left and progressive denominations whom he terms “the real darkness”.

Celebrating the Maccabees might therefore be seen as celebrating Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and Maoz.

Well that’s the end of Chanukah cards, then.
PMW: Jesus the Palestinian terrorist and his 72 dark-eyed virgins
One of the many ways in which the Palestinian Authority distorts history in order to invent a centuries-old Palestinian identity, is to turn Jesus the Judean (Jew), who promoted peace on earth, into a Palestinian terrorist who was murdered by the Israelis, thus becoming the first Palestinian “Martyr,” who is now reveling in heaven with Allah, in the arms of 72 dark-eyed virgins.

While the language the PA uses to describe Jesus as a terrorist and as someone enjoying his virgins is less direct, the meaning is the same.

When referring to Palestinian terrorists, the PA calls them “self-sacrificing fighters,” or “fidai”. So, when the PA and its officials use the same terms to describe Jesus, they are in fact saying he is a terrorist.

As Palestinian Media Watch has shown, here, here, here, here, and here, among other places, the definition of Jesus as a terrorist enjoying his virgins is not a fringe idea, but rather one expressed by the highest order in the PA.

Jesus the “Palestinian” terrorist murdered by the Jews

When PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh sought to declare Jesus a terrorist, and link him to Palestinian terror, he referred to him as a “Palestinian self-sacrificing fighter” who, similar to the PA descriptions of suicide bombers, “paid for his mission with his life” and whose birth takes place “at the same time as the anniversary of the outbreak of the Palestinian revolution” – i.e the anniversary of the first Fatah terror attack:
“The birthday of our lord Jesus, peace be upon him - the first Palestinian self-sacrificing fighter from whom we learned Martyrdom-death, and who paid for his mission with his life - takes place at the same time as the anniversary of the outbreak of the Palestinian revolution (i.e., the anniversary of “the Launch” of Fatah, counted from its first terror attack against Israel), for which thousands of Martyrs have paid with their lives so that we will live and remain, and so that our children will dream of a better future.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 28, 2020]

Muwaffaq Matar, a member of the Revolutionary Council of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and regular columnist for the official PA daily similarly adopted Jesus as a Palestinian and compared him to terrorists calling him a “self-sacrificing fighter”:


Israel should terminate the Oslo Accords
On May 19/20, President Mahmoud Abbas declared (Ramallah Declaration) an end to the agreements and understandings.

"The Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the obligations based on these understandings and agreements, including the security ones,"

He did so because the Israeli government coalition agreement at the time, stated that "the Prime Minister will be able to bring the agreement that was reached with the United States on applying sovereignty starting on 1 July 2020 to the Cabinet and the Knesset,‘". This was during the Trump administration. The fact that Israel didn't follow up with applying sovereignty is neither here nor there, It only announced an intention to do so.. That was breach enough.

Once terminated, it can not unilaterally be restored by the PA.

The soon to be installed Israeli government is sure to extend sovereignty over some of Area C. An uproar is sure to follow.

Israel, on the other hand, could terminate the Accords - if they still exist - for any of the following fundamental breaches:
-The Ramallah Declaration
-The PA has continually defaulted in its obligation to prevent hostile acts: “Both sides shall take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism, crime and hostilities directed against each other, against individuals falling under the other’s authority and against their property, and shall take legal measures against offenders”. (Article XV)
-A condition precedent to Israel's signing of the Oslo Accords was the commitment set out in a 1993 letter from Chairman Arafat to Prime Minister Rabin: "The signing of the Declaration of Principles marks a new era...I would like to confirm the following PLO commitments:
The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security.
The PLO accepts United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
The PLO commits itself...to a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the two sides and declares that all outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through negotiations.
The PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance, prevent violations and discipline violators...
The PLO affirms that those articles of the Palestinian Covenant which deny Israel's right to exist, and the provisions of the Covenant which are inconsistent with the commitments of this letter are now inoperative and no longer valid. Consequently, the PLO undertakes to submit to the Palestinian National Council for formal approval the necessary changes in regard to the Palestinian Covenant."
Virtually everything in this letter has been violated.

The US and the USSR both signed the agreement signifying their support but the US has done its utmost to force the Two State Solution on Israel which flies in the face of the fundamental principle of the Accords, namely, that the parties themselves are to freely negotiate a final settlement in accordance with Res 242 and Res 338.

The Brookings Institute once contemplated the costs of termination:
"Cancelling the Oslo Accords would effectively remove the legal justification for the PA. Quite simply, it would mean dismantling the PA, laying off its employees, ending international funding, and nullifying the economic agreements between the PA and Israel as well as between the PA and many other countries around the world. It would also mean an end to security coordination between Israel and the PA, which would facilitate the return of the Israeli military to parts of the West Bank designated as Area “A.” This would certainly lead to another intifada. Such an uprising would, in all likelihood, turn violent, given the enormous amount of weapons currently held by PA police and security personnel; and there would be no guarantee that these weapons would be kept out of the hands of the militant groups in the West Bank."

Yes it could but wouldn’t necessarily result in all the things enumerated. The Palestinian Arabs and Israel could re-negotiate an arrangement that suited them both. This is what the Jordan Option envisages.

It is high time for Israel to abrogate the Accords and deal with the violence which ensues.
Netanyahu offers to suspend annexation plans in exchange for peace with Riyadh: report
Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu would suspend plans to annex parts of Judea and Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank in exchange for the normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia, according to a report over the weekend.

Talks are underway between Israel, the United States and Saudi Arabia to this end, Yediot Aharonot reported.

Netanyahu said he hopes to welcome Saudi Arabia into the circle of countries that have joined the Abraham Accords.

“I hope to bring about a full, formal peace as we’ve done with the other Gulf states like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates,” he said during an interview with Jewish Insider on Dec. 23.

“This is a very important goal, because if we have peace with Saudi Arabia, we are effectively going to bring an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict,” he added.

Netanyahu noted that the Saudis have already taken steps showing that they are amenable to full normalization.

“The Saudi government’s decision to open up Saudi airspace to Israel occurred before the Abraham Accords, that gives you a pretty good clue that they didn’t look askance at the Abraham Accords. This was done in 2018, the Abraham Accords were done in 2020,” he said.

The Accords put paid to the idea that peace with the Palestinians must come first before a wider regional peace with Arab states would be possible, Netanyahu continued.


President Herzog Rallying Lapid, Netanyahu to Cooperate Against UN’s ICC Recommendation
President Isaac Herzog is working to harness Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid to join together in a move against the United Nations’ initiative asking the International Criminal Court in The Hague to rule whether Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria is considered a permanent annexation, Reshet Bet Radio reported Sunday morning.

The November 11 UN move came one year after Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s speech at the UN General Assembly, in which he said that if Israel would not leave the “West Bank,” he would take the matter to The Hague and ask the ICC to issue a legal opinion on the legality of the occupation.

The ICC will determine whether Israel’s stay in Judea and Samaria can be defined as “continuous occupation,” meaning a de facto annexation, which many countries would consider to be a violation of international law as well as a string of UN Security Council resolutions. Only 17 countries opposed the proposal, including Canada, Germany, Australia, Austria, and the United States, which exerted heavy pressure to try and reject the request. The proposal was approved by 98 countries, including supposed friends of Israel from Ukraine to the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.

President Herzog asked Netanyahu to cooperate with the outgoing Prime Minister after their public phone call in which Netanyahu informed him that he was able to form a government. In the same conversation, the President asked Netanyahu to launch a joint appeal with Lapid to UN countries aimed at preventing the approval of the initiative. President Herzog is also expected to discuss the issue with Lapid, who has already been working on the issue as Prime Minister.

The President’s goal is to produce an integrated move that doubles the power of the fight against the dangerous PA initiative.
Ahead of UN vote, Israel hopes to send ICJ clear message on 'occupation'
When the UN General Assembly reconvenes after Christmas, it is expected to take up a new draft resolution that would ask the International Court of Justice in The Hague to issue an advisory opinion on whether Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem amounts to a permanent occupation that runs against international law.

The resolution was introduced by the Palestinians, who defied the express wishes of the US to avoid such a move. Since the Palestinians enjoy an automatic majority for practically every measure against Israel in the General Assembly, the resolution is likely to pass without any difficulty. But that has not stopped Israeli diplomats from waging a behind-the-scenes effort to increase the number of member states who vote against the resolution or at least abstain. The focus has been on courting member states that define themselves as democratic, which the Foreign Ministry sees their vote as having a greater symbolic weight.

The language of the resolution already passed the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee), with 17 member states voting against it, including the US, Germany, and Australia. Another 57 abstained or did not have representatives present.

Israeli officials say that the way the major powers vote in the general assembly will carry major significance as it could send a signal to the ICJ as to the prevailing sentiment in the international community. Moreover, if key members such as the US vote against the resolution, this could serve Israel down the road if and when the ICJ issues an opinion that is problematic for Israel.

Based on past such resolutions, it could take as much as 18 months until the ICJ issues an opinion after the resolution is passed. Israel has yet to decide whether it would engage the court in an effort to make its case or to adopt the boycott policy it has used against the International Criminal Court.

"A problematic advisory opinion against Israel by the ICJ, if it is issued, should not be disregarded, but neither should it be considered the end of the world," an Israeli official said. The official added that "Israel has enjoyed the status of an asset county in the eyes of the international community, and the Abraham Accords attest to that, so in the grand scheme of things, even a bad outcome at the ICJ, Israel won't be left in the lurch."
Nothing can justify discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount
Claims that basic human rights do not apply to Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount are simply wrong. They confuse political ideologies, which are individual and often change, with inalienable rights guaranteed by the basic nature of the state. In the case of Jewish rights on the Mount, this basis is Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which stipulates explicitly that all citizens enjoy religious freedom and freedom of speech.

However, it is worth exploring some of the arguments used against Jewish prayer on the Mount and why they are deeply flawed.

1. It is claimed that, while Jews feel discriminated against on the Temple Mount, Palestinians are discriminated against throughout Israel.

This imposes a Palestinian identity upon the Arab citizens of Israel and further asserts that all Jews should be punished because of alleged discrimination against others. This is a classic case of asserting that “two wrongs make a right.”

Connected to this is the claim that the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Mount is the “last thing” the Palestinians have left, and they fear that the third holiest site in Islam will be “stolen” from them. But the mere fact of Jews praying on the Mount takes nothing away from Muslims—whether they are Palestinians or Israeli Arabs—and certainly not Al-Aqsa itself.

2. Some say that a nation that conquered a piece of land isn’t allowed to harm the conquered nation’s holy sites. Yet no harm is being done to any holy site, unless one considers the very presence of Jews on the Mount to be harmful. Nor can the liberation of what has been Jewish land for thousands of years be considered a “conquest.”

3. It is asserted that if Jews argue “we were here first” regarding the Mount, we will open the door to all manner of claims by various nations who once practiced their religion in the Land of Israel. This is not the case because the Jewish nation draws its sources from the Bible and believes, to this day, in the quote from the book of Isaiah, “My house will be a house of prayer for all nations.” Unlike Jordanians and Palestinians, we will welcome prayer by other nations on the Temple Mount, something that this impossible today because of Israel’s surrender to the demands of the anti-Jewish Jordanian Waqf.
Pilgrimage to Joseph’s Tomb an increasingly perilous journey
Since the current wave of Arab terrorism began in March, worshippers and the IDF soldiers guarding them have come under gunfire during the monthly organized pilgrimages to the Jewish holy site of Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Shechem, aka Nablus, in Samaria.

The attacks have taken during every visit to the site, indicating they are likely organized in advance. The most recent violence took place on Thursday night.

A statement released by the military on Friday morning read: “IDF soldiers operated to secure the coordinated entrance of Israeli civilians to Joseph’s Tomb in the city of Nablus. During the activity, armed Palestinians hurled explosive devices and fired towards the soldiers, endangering their lives. The soldiers responded with live fire. Hits were identified. No IDF injuries were reported.”

Joseph’s Tomb is in Area A of Judea and Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank, and under full Palestinian Authority control under the Oslo Accords. But it is one of two Jewish holy sites specified in the agreements between Israel and the PLO to which the PLO promised to provide secure access for Jewish worship. The other is the Shalom Al Israel Synagogue in Jericho.

Nevertheless, these days Jewish groups have extremely limited opportunities to visit the site and must travel on bulletproof buses with a full IDF escort and in the middle of the night.

An IDF official who has overseen numerous visits to Joseph’s Tomb explained to JNS: “As part of an international agreement [Oslo], the P.A. is responsible for keeping visits by Jewish worshippers safe, which it fails to do. I don’t remember another time when there was this much shooting. There are clashes with terrorists each and every time.”


Exclusive: IDF intelligence estimate for 2023 sees worrying trends amid global turbulence
Israel Hayom can exclusively reveal that global trends, Iran, and the Palestinian arena present the triangle lying at the heart of the annual intelligence estimate of the IDF Intelligence Directorate that has recently been prepared.

The intelligence assessment that has been compiled in recent weeks will soon be presented to Israel's civilian decision-makers. It offers a wide-ranging analysis of the various challenges Israel faces in 2023, along with the opportunities that could be seized.

Unlike past estimates, Iran is not the main focus: It may be the most important and complex challenge, but the directorate views it as just one of the pieces in a much larger puzzle that have interconnected parts that wield influence on one another. The estimate puts global trends that impact Israel and its security as one of the points of the triangle, noting that the instability outside Israel has mainly emanated from the US-China clash, which is expected to continue and even intensify.

The directorate points to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine as one of the forces that exacerbated this trend, especially when it comes to its impact on Europe by shaking its core security, without cheap gas from Russia and with cutt-off supply chains from China (due to contracts that had been abrogated).

Failed states around us
The estimate also points to the ongoing changes within the US as one of the issues that Israeli policymakers should address in order to preserve the special relationship. Although those changes - mainly demographically oriented, with clear political impact - have yet to have an effect on the relations between the two sides (especially not on intelligence-security aspects, which has been reached new heights), they must be tended to regularly so that Israel won't find itself undermined on a strategic level. The global trends also have an effect on the Middle East. Egypt and Jordan, for example, have been going through unprecedented food and economic crises due to the rising prices of grains and the war in Ukraine.
Israeli mayor attends funeral of terrorist who wounded 3 policemen
The mayor of the Arab Israeli city of Kafr Qassem attended the funeral on Saturday of a terrorist who was slain while attempting to shoot and run over several police officers.

Despite the police having already settled on a motive, Mayor Abdel Badir offered several possible motives for Friday’s pre-dawn attack in interviews with Hebrew media, including criminal intent and mental illness.

He also blamed illegal guns in the Arab sector, saying they are “directed at all of us.”

Israel Police spokesman Cmdr. Eli Levi said, “The district commander was present at the scene and determined that it was a terrorist attack. There is no other version.”

CCTV footage backed up the police, showing Naim Badir attempting to shoot an officer.

When his gun fails to fire, he throws firebombs at a police car. Then he enters his car and speeds into reverse in an effort to run over a group of policemen. Three officers suffered light wounds and were evacuated to Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva.

The terrorist had lured the officers to his home by calling in a false report of domestic violence. Police later found several firebombs on the roof of the building from where Badir had called the police.
How Hamas is working to create multiple fronts of attack against Israel
Thirty-five years after its formation, the Hamas terror organization rules the Gaza Strip without challenge, juggles its roles of a regime and a terror army, and looks to create multiple fronts of attack against Israel in a future war, Israeli observers tell JNS.

On Dec. 14, tens of thousands of Hamas supporters and operatives gathered at Gaza City’s Katiba Gardens to mark the movement’s 35th anniversary.

Yahya al-Sinwar, the Islamist group’s leader in Gaza, reiterated the organization’s well-known slogans but emphasized their urgency due to the imminent swearing-in of a right-wing Israeli government.

Palestinians are in “open confrontation” with Israel, he said, the Al-Aqsa mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount is in danger from the “Talmudic, fascist, Zionist, rightist government,” he claimed, and Hamas would respond forcefully to any threat, he warned.

“We will come to you with an endless number of rockets; we will come to you with an endless number of soldiers,” said al-Sinwar, while adding that Israel’s soon-to-be government was seeking a “religious war.”

Between 2014, when Hamas and Israel fought a two-month conflict (“Operation Defensive Edge”), and May 2021, when they clashed again during “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” Hamas is believed to have amassed some 15,000 rockets.

Of the 4,300 rockets fired at Israel during the 11-day conflict in 2021, most were Hamas’s, and since then, Hamas has been busy replenishing its arsenal using Iranian know-how. Many of its rocket production sites were funded by foreign sources including Iran, which provides Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second-largest terror faction in Gaza, with a combined annual budget of $150 million.


Seth Frantzman: Iran brags about its missile export to Palestinians, Hezbollah
Iranian pro-government media published an article on Sunday bragging about its “integrated missile network” and how it has armed the “resistance” in the Middle East. By “resistance,” the report was referring to a network of pro-Iranian groups and proxy groups it supports, particularly Hezbollah, the Palestinians and Yemen.

The article begins as a tribute to Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, an Iranian IRGC general who was killed in an explosion at a missile facility near Tehran on November 12, 2011.

The report notes that “several IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] officers were also martyred in the Moddares arsenal explosion along with Tehrani Moghaddam. At the time of his martyrdom, Tehrani Moghaddam was preparing a missile test.” The article notes that he was a key figure in the missile program for years, often considered the “father” of Iran’s missile program.

Iranian IRGC rulers inherited an impressive arsenal in 1979 from the Shah’s regime, including modern aircraft and other weapons. However, as they suffered attrition in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, they had to replace the modern Western systems the Shah’s army had used with new weapons – so they began developing missiles and drones. The missiles were based on Soviet models, or Soviet-origin models that came from China, or eventually, from North Korea, as well as from other sources.

The Tehran Times article notes, “Moghaddam also established the Lebanese Hezbollah’s missile units during a visit to Lebanon in the 1980s. Analysts believe that Tehrani Moghaddam has based Iran’s defense strategy on missile capabilities and missile deterrence, a move that effectively removed the military option of the enemies of Iran from the table.”
US sanctions against Iran violate Iranian people's rights - UN experts
United States sanctions against Iran are contributing to air pollution and other environmental damage and preventing people in the country, including refugees from Afghanistan and migrants, from “fully enjoying their rights to health and life,” United Nations experts said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Like many countries, Iran has environmental issues. The sanctions not only prevent the Iranian government from addressing them effectively, but they also contribute to making the challenges worse,” they added.

Air pollution in Iran
Air pollution is severe in parts of Iran, leading to higher rates of respiratory and other illnesses that cause 4,000 premature deaths in the capital Tehran alone and 40,000 across the country each year.

The Jerusalem Post in September cited researchers in Germany, Cyprus and Saudi Arabia as saying in a peer-reviewed study in Nature Communications that unusually high air pollution levels in the Middle East are mainly due to human activities, rather than dust storms, which are common in the region

Located in the "dust belt," the Middle East sees about 20 major dust storms annually, according to the report.

The UN statement said that US sanctions drive up pollution in Iran by forcing people who can't afford new cars to continue using old, inefficient ones and making it impossible for the country to acquire emission-reducing technology.

“It is no surprise that Tehran is one of the world’s most polluted cities," the statement added. "US sanctions force people to prolong the use of older vehicles that burn fuel less efficiently while making it impossible for Iran to obtain equipment and technology to reduce vehicle emissions.”

“US efforts to enforce its sanctions by threatening to penalize foreign companies doing business in Iran have led foreign car manufacturers to leave the country. So Iran must rely on locally made motors and other equipment that cannot use the latest technologies.”


Whoopi Goldberg renews incendiary assertion that Holocaust wasn't about race
US actress and producer Whoopi Goldberg once again claimed on Saturday that the Holocaust was not connected to race, less than a year after similar comments led to her two-week suspension as host of “The View.”

In an interview with The Sunday Times of London, Goldberg said that the Nazi-orchestrated genocide was “white on white” violence, and not about race.

“Remember who they were killing first. They were not killing racial; they were killing physical. They were killing people they considered to be mentally defective. And then they made this decision,” she said.

When the interviewer noted that the Nazis viewed their victims as lesser races, Goldberg replied: “Yes, but that’s the killer, isn’t it?”

“The oppressor is telling you what you are,” she continued.” Why are you believing them? They’re Nazis. Why believe what they’re saying?”

Explaining that Jews are not identifiable as a race, she said: “It doesn’t change the fact that you could not tell a Jew on a street. You could find me. You couldn’t find them. That was the point I was making. But you would have thought that I’d taken a big old stinky dump on the table, butt naked.”

Goldberg was promoting her new film, “Till,” in which she plays the mother of civil rights activist Mamie Till-Mobley. The movie tells the true story of Till-Mobley’s quest for justice after her son, 14-year-old Emmett Till, was lynched by white supremacists in Mississippi in 1955.

Goldberg was criticized when she claimed that “the Holocaust isn’t about race,” but rather about “man’s inhumanity to man,” during a discussion with co-hosts on “The View” in January.

“If you’re going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it,” Goldberg said, before elaborating that “these [Jews and Nazis] are two white groups of people.”


Concordia Press Release Boasts University’s Welcoming Palestinian Artist For Fellowship; Ignores That Artist Has Been Accused of Glorifying Palestinian Terrorism
In 2014, a multimedia art exhibit was held at Ottawa’s city call, entitled Target.

The exhibit, created by Rehab Nazzal, a Palestinian-Canadian photographer, became a source of controversy after the exhibit was accused of glorifying Palestinian terrorism.

Target featured photographic portraits of what it described as “assassinated Palestinian figures… lost artists, writers and leaders,” but according to a Macleans Magazine article at the time, also featured several profiles of “members of armed Palestinian groups implicated in deadly atrocities against civilians.”

One of the individuals whose face was profiled in the exhibit was Dalal Mughrabi, who at the age of only 19-years-old, participated in the infamous 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel, where a group of Palestinian terrorists hijacked a bus in central Israel before murdering 38 passengers, including 10 children.

Mughrabi was later killed during a shootout with Israeli solders.

As a result of the ensuing controversy, the City of Ottawa made a point to distance itself from the exhibit, placing signs outside the event space reiterating that its contents did not represent the municipality’s views.

The artist who organized the 2014 exhibit, Rehab Nazzal, is back in the news again.

As shared in a recent press release from Concordia University, Nazzal will be serving as the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology’s Horizon postdoctoral fellow from 2022 to 2024.

Concordia University’s press release, which was also republished on educationnewscanada.com, gave background on Nazzal’s artistic focus, and described her as a witness of alleged Israeli crimes.

“Returning home in 2005 after a 25-year exile imposed by Israeli occupation authorities was an important moment in her career. Witnessing the destruction of her homeland and people pushed her to shift from painting and drawing to multimedia work with experimental, conceptual and documentary strategies,” according to the press release.
Failure to Disclose: UK Media Take One-Sided Tour to Bash Israel
Clicking through leads to a website “Protecting Holy Land Christians,” which states: “This campaign has been convened by the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III, along with the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, with the aim to halting the decline of Christian communities in the Holy Land.”

Yet this campaign is not mentioned anywhere in either The Times or MailOnline stories.

Only when a third similar story appeared, this time in The Spectator, did the background become clearer as journalist Mary McDonagh wrote: “I was in Jerusalem with a press group at the invitation of Christian leaders.”

Indeed, Times journalist Julia Llewellyn Smith did not appear to have ever previously focused on Israel, while MailOnline’s Harry Howard is that outlet’s history correspondent. The Spectator’s McDonagh also had no history of Israel reports.

What they all have in common is that they appear to have been on an organized trip at the invitation of Christian leaders involved in the “Protecting Holy Land Christians” campaign. No alternative viewpoints from Israeli officials appear in the stories, which would suggest, unsurprisingly, that journalists with little to no background in covering Israel or the region, were fed a one-sided narrative that impacted their stories.

And worse, both The Times and MailOnline failed to mention that their stories were the result of an organized tour (of which we do not know if financial sponsorship was included). Instead, a campaign site is promoted online while that same campaign by Church leaders has succeeded in getting their narrative into three major UK media outlets with little to no transparency on those outlets’ parts.

Lack of Transparency
Lack of transparency is the failure to be open and accountable to readers.

The issue of media transparency goes right to the heart of the deepest questions about journalism.

Is media objectivity possible? Is there even such a thing as true objectivity? Can’t reporters have opinions too? Shouldn’t correspondents’ experiences and worldviews enhance their work?

And if journalists are working with an attitude or agenda, how can we judge the credibility of our news?

Even if it were possible for reporters to check their biases at the door or have editors constantly whispering ethical guidelines in their ears, we’d still be placing blind trust in journalists.

The response to these questions is transparency.


BBC’s Bateman again promotes claims from political NGOs
The intended take-away message of all these latest reports from Tom Bateman is presented as follows in the introduction to the ‘The World Tonight’ broadcast:
“Since last month’s election in Israel there’s been a spike in violence by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron”.

In the introduction to the filmed report viewers were similarly told that:
“Since the election settler violence has increased in the West Bank city of Hebron.”

In the written version readers find the following:
“Palestinians in Hebron say they feel increasingly vulnerable to attack after Israel’s recent election.”

While the BBC does not provide any documented statistics to support that allegation of a “spike in violence” or evidence of linkage to the outcome of the November 1st election, any acts of violence by whatever party are obviously to be condemned.

However, the BBC’s promotion of nine one-sided and inadequately transparent multi-platform reports in 24 hours, all of which fail to provide the full background to the story and are based on claims made by professional political activists and representatives of inadequately presented NGOs (which often then use them to generate foreign funding) clearly does not meet the standards required by the BBC’s public purposes obligations.


Britain’s Pret A Manger coffee chain set for foray into Israel
British coffee and sandwich chain Pret A Manger is set to launch in Israel, opening at least 40 cafes in the country over the next decade.

The London-based chain has entered into a non-binding agreement with the Israeli fashion store chain Fox-Wizel Ltd. and restaurant group operator Yarzin Sella to establish and operate the coffeeshops in Israel. As part of the agreement, a jointly owned company for the purpose of the franchise will be set up in which Fox will hold 75% and Sella 25%.

The 10-year franchise is conditional on Fox and Sella opening at least 40 Pret A Manger branches over the next decade. According to the initial agreement, the franchise partners have an option to extend the arrangement for another 10 years subject to meeting certain conditions and milestones.

As part of the franchise deal, Fox and Sella will pay Pret A Manger a monthly rate of the total net sales. The parties said they expect to sign binding agreements during the first quarter of 2023.

Pret A Manger, which serves organic coffee and fresh food prepared on the spot to grab and go has over 600 branches in countries across Europe, North America and Asia and employs over 13,000 people worldwide. In the UK, the chain sells a range of sandwiches filled with ingredients such as falafel and squash, hummus and roasted pepper, or ham and cheese, as well as wraps and flatbreads.

Owned by investment group JAB, the coffee chain has recently entered new geographical markets, including Ireland, in a move to double the size of its business within five years. Founded in 1986, Pret A Manger has operations in the United Kingdom, the US, Hong Kong, France, Dubai, Switzerland, Brussels, Singapore and Germany.
ToI culture critic’s top 10 moments of Jewish entertainment for 2022
Was 2022 good for the Jews? This is a difficult question. Elements of 2022 certainly fit that bill, especially in the world of entertainment.

This was a banner year for great films, shows, and theatrical productions by and/or about the Jewish experience.

In addition to what is listed below, there are a few things that I can’t personally vouch for, but I hear are terrific.

The series “The Patient” with Steve Carell as a Jewish therapist, “Turn Every Page,” a documentary about the author-historian Robert Caro and his editor Robert Gottlieb, and Alex Edelman’s one man show “Just For Us,” are just three titles I’m kicking myself for not seeing yet. (And it looks like I screwed up with Edelman unless I want to take the train down to Washington, DC.)

Also, despite sleuthing through his Instagram and sending an email to his publicist, I have yet to confirm whether or not musician Peter Anspach of the jam-rock band Goose identifies as Jewish. I think he does, but even if he doesn’t, he and his innovative group deserve huzzahs for achieving escape velocity this year with two triumphant gigs at Radio City Music Hall and a mini-tour with the Trey Anastasio Band.

(But, I don’t like lying to you, dear reader, so I’ll let you know that of the many books I read this year, only four were from 2022, and while three were by Jews, I don’t know that I’d list them as great; “The Candy House” by Jennifer Egan, however, is great, and she has Jewish children, but this parenthetical has gone long enough!)

With all that out of the way, let’s look back and list the top 10 in Jewish entertainment for 2022.
‘I AM PROUD TO BE AN ARAB, PROUD TO BE AN ISRAELI’
“I am proud to be an Arab, proud to be an Israeli, and proud to spread the Israeli truth across the world,” says Yoseph Haddad, one of three winners of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center’s 2022 Begin Prize recognizing people or organizations making an extraordinary contribution to Israeli society.

Such a statement, unfortunately, often leads to ugly threats.

Yet threats do not deter Haddad and fellow volunteers in Together Vouch for Each Other from making that statement wherever they can – on social media, on hostile college campuses, even at Auschwitz.

Haddad, now 37, founded Together Vouch for Each Other (in Hebrew, B’Yachad Arevim Zeh L’Zeh) in 2018 with other young Israeli Arab changemakers.

These Christian, Muslim, Bedouin and Druze citizens felt that the negative perception of their home country in Arab society did not reflect their feelings and experiences.

“I’m proud to say we have a lot of Jewish volunteers. But we are, by definition, an Arab Israeli organization, not an Arab-Jewish organization or a Jewish organization that has Arabs in it,” Haddad tells ISRAEL21c on the phone from Taiwan, where he was on assignment for i24 News, his day job.

“The whole idea of this organization is to bring Arab society closer to Israeli society and to bridge gaps between Jews and Arabs in Israel.” Silent minority no more

With only grassroots funding, Together Vouch for Each Other fosters personal connections, mutual respect, trust and solidarity between young people from both sectors through discussion groups, meetings, sports and volunteer initiatives.
Raymond Ibrahim: The Death of Christianity in Bethlehem
"The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community, human rights activists, the media and NGOs." — Justus Reid Weiner, International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem, Israel, August 20, 2013.

"There are incidents happening constantly... Most times, it is a case of the Muslim community overpowering the minority, which is the Christian community." — Christian Arab, quoted on condition of anonymity, Israel365News, November 21, 2022.

"[T]he leaders of the Christian community in the West Bank are reluctant to hold the Palestinian Authority and their Muslim neighbors responsible for the attacks. They are afraid of retribution and prefer to toe the official line of holding Israel solely responsible for the misery of the Christian minority." — Khaled Abu Toameh, October 31, 2022.

"The only thing that interests the PA is that events of this kind not be leaked to the media. Fatah regularly exerts heavy pressure on Christians not to report the acts of violence and vandalism from which they frequently suffer, as such publicity could damage the PA's image as an actor capable of protecting the lives and property of the Christian minority under its rule. Even less does the PA want to be depicted as a radical entity that persecutes religious minorities. That image could have negative repercussions for the massive international, and particularly European, aid the PA receives." — Dr Edy Cohen, "The Persecution of Christians in the Palestinian Authority," BESA Center, May 27, 2019.

"The fact that the Palestinian Authority continues to make sure that there is a Christian mayor in Bethlehem is only window dressing... It's a show used to convince the world that Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christianity is still a Christian town. It is not Christian. It is Muslim in every regard." — Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation, November 21, 2022.

This Christmas, it is important to remember that, due to ongoing but silenced persecution, Christianity is on the verge of disappearing in the place of its birth -- Bethlehem, the scene of the Nativity. It is a silence that gives the Christmas song "Silent Night," an ominous meaning.
Why Christians are leaving : the truth at last in ‘The Times’
The city’s Christian population has dropped from 84 per cent of the total a century ago to about 20 per cent today, and is falling further in the face of discrimination and threats from elements of the Muslim majority.

“There is a campaign to buy Christian homes and businesses and on Friday you will hear the sheikh on the loudspeakers from the mosques speaking against Jews and Christians … it’s hatred you hear in their prayers,” one Christian leader told The Times on condition of anonymity.

“They are pushing us out. You live among a people who doesn’t want you,” he added. “Christians are afraid and if they have the chance to leave, they do.”

Bethlehem, unlike other West Bank cities such as Hebron, Jenin and Ramallah, has no industry other than tourism, which was hit hard by the pandemic and so far has not recovered.

This year is the first for three years that the Church of the Nativity, a Unesco world heritage site, and other attractions have been open to visitors. But a fall in Russian and Ukrainian visitors due to the war, and fears about growing Islamist militancy from groups such as Hamas, have depressed numbers.

Majed Ishaq, from the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism , said pandemic closures had cost the local economy $1.6 billion, and about 70 per cent of its tourism workers, equivalent to 14,000 jobs. “In Christmas season 2019 we had 300,000 visitors in Bethlehem and this year we expect 150,000,” he said.

Average monthly salaries in Bethlehem are now less than $300, well below the costs of renting a family home, forcing many to seek work in Israel or elsewhere. Among those leaving are many of the city’s olive wood carvers, famous for making intricate nativity scenes, who have moved into the Israeli construction industry where they can double their daily wages.

A recent poll of 1,000 Palestinian Christians by the Philos Project, a Christian advocacy group, found that their No 1 motive for emigration was economic. But Khalil Sayegh, a senior research fellow at the Philos Project, said the survey “also reveals a very high degree of concerns over sectarian discrimination targeting Christians by their Palestinian Muslim neighbours”.

The study found 75 per cent are worried about Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and 77 per cent worried about the influence of Salafist extremist groups in the region.




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