At least six people are wounded in the rocket strike that hit a community center in the northern border community of Arab al-Aramshe, first responders say.
One is listed in serious condition, and the other five are in moderate and good condition, according to initial reports cited by medics.
Arab al-Aramshe is a Bedouin village that is right next to the border with Lebanon. It was officially evacuated in November, but apparently some residents didn't leave. Perhaps they felt that Hezbollah wouldn't attack them, even though the terror group did kill a mother and two daughters there with a rocket in 2006.
There is no way this was a mistaken attack. Hezbollah's weapons are accurate at short range. The community center is exactly one kilometer from the Blue Line.
The community center that was targeted is a beautiful building, especially considering that the entire town has less than 2,000 residents. It shows that the popular narrative that Israel doesn't spend any money in its Arab communities is a lie.
It looks like a charming and welcoming community. Israeli Jews and tourists enjoy eating at a local restaurant, "The End of the World to the Left - Bedouin Hospitality" and report that the owner is a wonderful person explaining the village's history.
Here's a photo of the damage.
Hezbollah seems to be claiming it was a "military barracks."
UPDATE: It was a drone attack.
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Residents of Efrat Concerned for their security say yes to only
Jewish and foreign workers
Interview with Stephanie Treger
Stephanie Treger is determined to keep her family safe by
keeping Arabs without Israeli citizenship out of Efrat where she lives. Here
in Efrat, in the heart of Judea, we know what happened on October 7th.
Regular Gazans stampeded that fence, alongside Hamas, and joined right in with
the slaughter.
From Treger’s point of view then, there is no choice. We
have to stop letting them in to clean our schools; build our homes; and fill
our prescriptions at the pharmacy. To be clear, “them” means non-Israeli Arabs.
As such, Stephanie Treger has sparked a modest grassroots effort
to explore the exclusive use of Jewish and foreign labor in her town. She began
by gathering the opinions and ideas of lots and lots of women. A petition was carefully
composed in language hopefully inoffensive to all, and circulated in both
Hebrew and English.
Will Treger succeed in her mission? Where are things going,
and how will it all play out? Will the residents of Efrat be forced to allow
the entry and use of non-Israeli Arab labor?
Stephanie Treger
A busy mother of eight, Stephanie gave graciously of her time
to answer my many questions about this initiative. As I always do with
interview subjects, I asked her for a few lines of biographical data from which
I would cobble together my intro. What she wrote was so cool, I’m quoting it
here verbatim:
My name is Stephanie Treger, I am 36 years old. I live in
Efrat, Gush Etzion, Israel, with my husband Brandon and our eight children. We
made aliyah seven years ago from South Africa, Cape Town. We own Power Coffeeworks, a
coffee roastery in Shuk Machane Yehuda in Jerusalem. We made aliyah based on
our Zionism and belief in the Jewish people, our past, present, and future.
Varda Epstein: You’re
one of the women at the forefront of the effort to bar non-Israeli workers from
Efrat. The petition has been up since December 7th, a full two
months after the October attacks. Why now? Were the attacks the impetus for
this effort or had you already been working on this?
Stephanie Treger: Correct, I am. It did take some time to
get the ball rolling to start this initiative. I believe the women who have
started this organisation together with me were in survival mode for some time after
7/10. Most of our husbands and partners are serving, which left us alone, and
once the true magnitude of the devastation became apparent, we got right on it.
It also took time to go public; even with a simple petition
it had to be done slowly, the wording of our letter needed to be politically
correct. We took opinions from many women at the start. This is a very large
issue, politically and emotionally. There are over 3 million Arabs living in Judea
and Samaria who need jobs, and who also fulfill jobs that keep our cities
running. Before the attacks on 7/10, this was a background issue for us all,
but we just carried on as normal, it was just too big to deal with.
Varda Epstein: Efrat
is a very modern town with many professionals among the residents. Are you
meeting any resistance to your campaign? Can you talk about that? What
percentage of Efrat residents would you say support allowing in only Jewish and
foreign workers?
Stephanie Treger: In all honesty, I am shocked at the lack
of support to date. At the same time, though we have not yet opened the tables
for discussion, we are at least not in argument with or meeting resistance from
non-supporters. Still, nearly two weeks after launching a simple petition, we
have only retrieved 650 odd signatures in a city of over 14,000 residents.
After the 7/10 massacre by thousands of non-Israeli Arabs, I
am surprised that this community, made up of extremely intelligent
professionals, would want to resume “the norm” and continue bringing in
non-Israeli Arab workers. At two months after 7/10, our eyes have been truly
opened, watching the videos and testimonies of the survivors as they are
released. We know how horrific this infiltration was and how it was planned. The
intelligence collected to launch such an attack took a certain kind of evil
genius. This was planned meticulously and we have proof of that from a variety
of sources.
How can we possibly stand by and say “Never again”? More
like “again” every few years, if we continue on in this way.
Varda Epstein: Some
would say the idea of barring entry to your town of a specific ethnic
demographic is racism. What would you say to them?
Stephanie Treger: I am a non-racist South African. I was
raised in a racist country, and this is not racism. This is not an issue of
color or ethnicity. This is an issue of protecting our families from a cult of
terrorists whose sole intention is to murder us. If that were not the case, we
would be living in peace. Simple.
We Jews cherish life. We want peace, we do not want war and
we do not want poverty, but sadly, until Hamas and the other terrorist cells
seize to exist, we have to protect our people.
Varda Epstein: Arab
workers can only enter and work in Efrat accompanied by a security guard. Why
is this measure not enough to keep the residents of Efrat safe?
Stephanie Treger: Since this rumor was brought to the fore,
I have documented many occasions where Israeli Arabs were not accompanied by
armed guards. So no, the measure is not enough to keep us safe.
The problem here is manpower and I don't personally blame
the municipality or the mayor as some do. We have a huge problem on our hands.
Our resources are low, we have zero manpower and I have no doubt that our local
government is trying to find solutions. But we also need to take responsibility
as a community.
We have to mobilize and work within the system to find
solutions. There are many residents in this community who do not work. These
residents could pull together and assist in cleaning the schools or work at
local cafes. There are ways to create solutions but we need all hands on deck.
Varda Epstein: What
types of work have Arab workers performed in Efrat, up until now?
Stephanie Treger: This exact question is what prompts my
concerns for our safety. The Arab workers who have previously worked in Efrat
have been able to cover every corner of our city possible. From cleaners in
homes, to cleaners in schools and emergency departments; from workers in our
cafes and restaurants to garbage disposal to street cleaners; and from handymen
to construction
workers.
There is an endless untold amount of intelligence that might
have been and probably was collected by Arab workers, endless over the passing
years. The workers are often unaccompanied by security, and safety checks are
lax, in my opinion.
Varda Epstein: Why would
a mostly right-wing populace hire Arabs to begin with? Why not Jews—their own
people?
Stephanie Treger: This seems to be the crux of our struggle.
We are not hiring Jews because Jews are more expensive. Jews need to shell out
for taxes, arnona, and pensions. At
the same time, the incomes of prospective Jewish employees are low because they
must pay the same taxes as their prospective (Jewish) employees.
Arabs, conversely, can charge below half-price; be paid in cash;
they have no amenity payments; and do not contribute to our society. This is
something that needs to be dealt with at government level. Government now has
this issue on its table. Cabinets are approving “no entry”. Now they need to
find the solutions to manage it.
Varda Epstein: The
petition appears to distinguish between Israeli and non-Israeli Arabs. Why? Are
only non-Israeli Arabs dangerous? You don’t want to keep out the others?
Stephanie Treger: Personally, I see no difference at
present. Even if Israeli Arab X doesn't want to be a terrorist, Hamas is
holding guns to the heads of X’s children. Should he refuse to comply with the
cult of Hamas, his entire family will be annihilated. I too, would surrender if
my children's lives were at risk.
I may want to keep them out, but it’s illegal to keep them
out. Israeli Arabs with ID cards cannot legally be held back from entering any part
of Israel.
Varda Epstein: This
campaign was started by women. Why do you think that is? Are men less concerned
with this issue?
Stephanie Treger: Men are at the forefront on the borders;
we women are at the forefront of our homes. It's pointless having the men
protect our borders if we are not doing the same in our communities. I live in a
35-year-old home. My doors are not secure, and my window frames are old. I do
not have a safe room. I am home alone, with 8 children under 13.
Gd forbid there was an infiltration of Efrat. I, as a woman,
armed or not, would not be able to protect my family. We women want to serve
and protect and it begins every time we wake up alive.
Varda Epstein: Is
there some kind of precedent that led to this effort? Are non-Israeli workers
known to attack their Jewish employers?
Stephanie Treger: My sister sat in her safe room for 23
hours with her baby and husband in Kibbutz Kfar Azza on 7/10, while her
sister-in-law, cousins, and friends were raped, beheaded, burnt alive, and brutally
murdered next door. Some taken hostage. My passion for this initiative is
personal. I also have a love for my people. Never again is NOW.
Varda Epstein: There are Arab
businesses that have cropped up right on Efrat’s doorstep, just outside the
northern gate, and many Efrat residents appear happy to frequent them. But recently,
a video was released showing one of these new business owners calling for
settlers to die. How do feel about that?
Stephanie Treger: When you see videos of neighboring Arabs
promote the death of "settlers" we naturally get concerned. Videos
such as those directed by Corey Gil-Shuster are eye-openers to us all. The
specific video I have in mind is of a man who lives adjacent to Efrat. His
property borders that of our beautiful coffee shop that we and our children
love to enjoy during the day and in the evenings.
In this man's driveway is a car wash and a laundromat which
until 7/10 were used by the Jews of Efrat. He was earning his living
from the Jews of Efrat. Since 7/10 he has closed his gate and is not earning a
salary to support his family. So to what extent do we believe that at some
point the consequences of poverty will kick in?
When will he get angry enough with the Jews of Efrat that
eventually he will fall in with a terrorist organisation to have revenge on the
people he hated before we even shut him down.
This new reality is sad but true. We Jews who live in Judea
are at risk for terror and we must not take risks in protecting our families
and our people.
Varda Epstein: Do you
think that there is a reluctance among the residents of Efrat, even after the
events of October 7, to adopt a general attitude of distrust toward non-Israeli
Arabs, especially those with whom they’ve formed casual relationships? Is there
a feeling of, “Oh, he’d never do something like that. He’s always polite and
friendly, and gives me good service.”
How would you
illustrate the dangers of this outlook, from your perspective?
Stephanie Treger: I would point them to the words of Professor
Arye Eldad, who headed the plastic surgery and burns unit at Hadassah Medical
Center, and is also a former member of Knesset:
I was instrumental in establishing the Israeli National Skin
Bank, which is the largest in the world. The National Skin Bank stores skin for
every day needs as well as for war time or mass casualty situations. This skin
bank is hosted at the Hadassah Ein Kerem University hospital in Jerusalem where
I was the chairman of plastic surgery. This is how I was asked to supply skin
for an Arab woman from Gaza, who was hospitalized in Soroka Hospital in
Beersheba after her family burned her. Usually, such atrocities happen among
Arab families when the women are suspected of having an affair. We supplied all
the needed Homografts for her treatment. She was successfully treated by my
friend and colleague Prof. Lior Rosenberg, and discharged to return to Gaza.
She was invited for regular follow up visits to the outpatient clinic in Beersheba.
One day she was caught at a border crossing wearing a suicide belt. She meant
to explode herself in the outpatient clinic of the hospital where they saved
her life. It seems that her family promised her that if she did that, they
would forgive her.
This is only one example of the war between Jews and Muslims
in the Land of Israel. It is not a territorial conflict. This is a
civilizational conflict.
Varda Epstein: Is
this campaign going to continue to be a local, Efrat phenomenon, or do you have
bigger plans for this—perhaps to take this national?
Stephanie Treger: We will see; we can't manage alone. We all
need to hold hands. We were lucky to see that it went to government last week.
We will take it day by day and do our best to succeed. It's all we can do
really.
In the last five years, the demand of Palestinians from the occupied interior to buy land and real estate in the occupied West Bank has increased.
The western towns of Ramallah, some villages of Salfit, the city of Rawabi, and Jericho witnessed a great demand by internal Palestinians to buy lands, own homes and apartments, and reside in them.
Palestinian citizens of the interior told Safa Agency that they resorted to buying land in the West Bank, due to the insane increase in land prices inside, as the price of one dunum jumped to one million dollars, which is equivalent to buying 30 dunams in some areas of the West Bank.
We have discussed that Israeli Arabs are buying homes in Palestinian Authority - administered areas before, and the hypocrisy of the "human rights" community to only condemn Jewish Israelis from buying property in the West Bank, but not Arab Israelis.
But this article adds another wrinkle to the story - some of these Israeli Arabs are building houses in Area C!
[One resident] says that he needs 20 years to be able to buy a house inside Israel, so he bought a small plot of land in Area C in the West Bank and built a modest house on it....
Ahmad Melhem, head of the Land and Housing Defense Committee in Aara, says: “The phenomenon of Arabs from inside [Israel] tending to live in the West Bank has been present for several years and is expanding and increasing.”
Melhem explains to Safa some of the reasons and motives that lead the people of the interior to move to the areas of the West Bank, specifically Area C, which are due to the housing shortage and that 60% of the people of the interior do not own land, even one square meter, for building, and if they do exist, they are very expensive.
Melhem added, "The widespread crime, the lack of personal security, and the escalating cases of murder created a psychological factor that forced a number of citizens to seek refuge in the West Bank."
The biggest argument of the "apartheid Israel" crowd is that Israel applies a different set of laws to Jews and Arabs in the territories. Jews can vote in Israeli elections, Arabs can't. Jews are tried in civil courts, Arabs in military courts. And so on.
But the Israeli Arabs in Area C are treated exactly the sameas the Israeli Jews!
It has nothing to do with religion or "Jewish supremacy" and everything to do with citizenship. Like all countries, Israel discriminates against non-citizens. Period.
This article in a pro-terror Palestinian news site proves better than anyone that the "apartheid" slander is a lie.
Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!
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There has been a horrific wave of murders in Israel's Arab sector this year, about 150 Arab citizens killed. Israel has been trying different things to fight the phenomenon and nothing has worked so far - in fact, the murder rate is accelerating.
No one disputes that this is a major problem that must be prioritized. But according to Palestinian media, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor is accusing Israel of being complicit in these murders. (This is not on their webpage as of this writing.)
They don't even pretend to have any proof of this slander. They just say "the recurrence of murders and the analysis of their facts and their unprecedented rise indicate the existence of an Israeli policy that perpetuates impunity and encourages the commission of these crimes."
Their main evidence of this is that Israel manages to determine who is behind terror attacks, so why can't it do the same for Arabs internally? The answer is obvious: it took decades to build an excellent intelligence infrastructure that can now be leveraged. It would take time to do the same for Israeli Arabs, but there are additional obstacles - citizens cannot be treated as presumed enemies. Imagine the backlash if Israeli police put spies in Israeli mosques. It requires a completely different skill set to attack this problem, and Euro-Med almost certainly knows this.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor doesn't seem to care about human rights of Israeli Arabs nearly as much as they want to use them as yet another excuse to bash Israel.
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Jewish Voice for Peace writes in their email newsletter:
On Sunday, the Israeli Knesset passed a shockingly racist law — even by the standards of Israel’s apartheid government.
Under the new "sexual terrorism" law, Palestinian citizens of Israel convicted of rape, sexual assault, or sexual harassment can receive double the sentence of Israelis found guilty of the same crimes. The law passed in a bipartisan vote of 39-7, and received immediate condemnation from journalists, Israeli feminist groups, and Palestinian lawmakers.
This law manufactures an image of Palestinians as more violent and more dangerous than Israelis. According to the law, a crime is inherently worse simply because a Palestinian committed it. This puts a target on the back of Palestinian men and boys, intensifying the constant threat of violence that Palestinians already live under.
Really? A law that says that Israeli Arabs would get double the sentence of Israeli Jews?
The Knesset on Monday passed a right-wing-backed law that makes terrorist, nationalist or racist motivations an aggravating factor in crimes of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Aggravating factors come into play during criminal sentencing and are a consideration that can push judges toward issuing a sentence closer to the legal maximum.
The law would double compensation fines for sexual harassment motivated by racism or hostility toward certain groups.
The entire intent of the law is to ensure that in cases like the rape and murder of Ori Ansbacher, where the smiling terrorist admitted that his attack was for nationalist reasons, that the sentence would be stricter.
There hasn't been a huge amount of Palestinian rape of Jewish women specifically as terrorism, but they have occured. In 2012, a Palestinian kidnapped a Jewish couple and raped the woman. The court at the time did not consider this a terror attack, but the Israeli Defense Ministry did determine it was a "nationalistic" crime because of previous terror attacks by the rapist.
An Israeli woman gang-raped by four Palestinians in 2006 was likewise determined by the Defense Ministry to have been the victim of a nationalist crime.
In these crimes, the rapist specifically seeks out a Jewish woman for attack. As heinous as any rape is, when it is done as a terror act, it is worse: the rapist does not attack Arab women but specifically Jews.
There have also been reports of Palestinian youths sexually assaulting Jewish women on buses and other public places. Again, when they single out Jewish women for assault, that is a terror attack, not an ordinary rape.
There is nothing wrong, and certainly not racist, with saying that a terror rape attack should have a stricter punishment than a similar attack that had no nationalistic motive.
The law does not say anything about Arabs. If a British-born BDS activist would rape an Israeli Jewish woman he would get the same consideration for a sentence.
As we've seen, Israeli courts have not automatically determined that every rape by a Palestinian is a terror attack, just as they do not automatically determine that every shooting by Arabs against Jews is a terror attack - some crimes have only criminal motivation.
The only bigots here are the members of JVP. Notice their wording, defining Israeli Arabs as "Palestinians" and saying that "Israelis" are all Jews. Even though very few Israeli Arabs define themselves as "Palestinian," JVP is telling them that they are not really Israeli, dismissing their own self-definition. And then JVP calls Jews racists for passing a law against terrorism and racism.
Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!
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The [UK Anti-Boycott] bill gives special status to Israel, making it the only country in the world which cannot be excluded from its provisions, and treats Israel and territories it occupies in the same way, contrary to the UK’s long-established policy and international law.
The bill is intended to stifle principled opposition to Israel’s illegal settlements and the Israeli authorities' racist system of apartheid against Palestinians.
Boycotts, divestment & sanctions are forms of peaceful protest that have been used to press for human rights change.
Think:
✊The Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa
🚌The Montgomery Bus Boycott
🛢️The BP oil spill
In the 1890s, merchants in Butte, Montana boycotted Chinese and other Asian businesses, tried to stop customers from entering them, and threatened anyone who hired Chinese people.
No doubt they felt that they were upholding human rights - of non-Asian people. Even this flyer talks about "morals."
What, exactly, is the difference?
More the to point, Jews have been boycotted many, many times in our history. I once gave a brief list of Arab boycotts:
1891: Arabs request the Ottoman Empire not sell land to Jews.
February 1909: "In Hebron, where out of a total population of 18,000 about 2000 are Jews, the Arabs decide to boycott Jewish merchants."
April 2, 1920, AJC: "Rosh Pinah: Thirty Arabs attack Arab workmen in fields belonging to Jewish inhabitants in endeavor to bring about boycott by Arabs against Jews."
June 4, 1921: "Haifa: Arabs issue proclamation urging the populace to boycott the Jews and drive them out of their villages."
1922: Arab Congress calls on Arabs to boycott Jewish businesses in Palestine.
1924: MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION voted to authorize the Executive Committee to promulgate an economic boycott against the Jews. The economic boycott, however, was later abandoned.
1929: Arab Congress vows to compel Arabs to boycott Jewish merchandise. Syria prohibits import of merchandise produced by Jewish businesses in Palestine.
1931: World Islamic Congress passes resolution requesting Muslim countries to boycott trade with Jewish businesses in Palestine. Arab Labor Federation pickets Jewish businesses in Palestine.
1945: Arab League Council adopts Resolution 70, recommending that all Arab states establish national boycott offices.
There was also a major boycott in Poland of Jewish businesses (accompanied by pogroms) in the 1910s.
And of course the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses (accompanied by pogroms) in the 1930s.
But the boycotts of Jews didn't end there. In the 1950s, Saudi Arabia refused to do business with any company owned by Jews or with Jews in important positions. In 1960, it weas revealed that tourist companies would not allow Jews to visit Gulf countries because they adhered to the Arab boycott, and Aramco refused to hire Jews in its New York office. In 1975, the Arab world still refused to work with Jewish bankers.
This was all at the time of the "Zionism is Racism" UN resolution, proving that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are the same thing.
The BDS boycott is a direct continuation of the Arab League boycotts of Jews. Don't take my word for it: this document on the BDS Movement website gives a history of BDS, and it prominently features the Arab boycott of Jews (pretending that they were only boycotting "Zionists:") It praises the explicitly antisemitic Arab League boycott successes and mourns when it weakened in the 1980s and 90s. It even looks at the Arab League boycott of Jewish businesses to learn lessons for BDS today. The document, written in 2007, is saddened that at that point in time, only Syria and Lebanon were still adhering to the Arab League boycott - you know, those two human rights powerhouses.
This antisemitism is what Amnesty-UK is supporting. And it has exactly as much to do with "human rights" as the Arab League boycott - or the Butte boycott of Chinese people - did.
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Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.
Fozi Mozi and Tutti is a hugely popular children's show on YouTube and on digital platforms, with billions of views.
Most of their videos are in Arabic, although they have branched out into English, Turkish, Hindi, Spanish and other languages.
It was founded by Fawzi Saeid, who calls himself a Palestinian on his LinkedIn page.
The characters have played to large audiences worldwide - and even went to Gaza recently to perform for children there.
Fozi Mozi is a true Arab success story.
But the Ultrapal news site has uncovered some shocking news - Fozi Mozi is partially owned by Mememe Studios which is owned by Dori Media which was founded by Nadav Palti - an Israeli Jew!
Horrors!
Naturally Ultrapal discovered that Palti was in the IDF decades ago.
The partnership between Saied and Israeli distributors is not surprising and it is probably the reason for Fozi Mozi's success. Fawzi Saeid is almost certainly an Israeli citizen; he is an Arab Christian who lives in Haifa and attended schools in Israel from his youth.
The Ultrapal expose doesn't talk much of that. They are far more upset over Palti's involvement than Saied's being a citizen of Israel.
And this is the way things work. Ultrapal's problem with Fozi Mozi isn't that Saeid is Israeli himself; it is that he partners with Jews.
This is the same as BDS as a whole, one doesn't boycott Israeli Arabs, only Israeli Jews.
The antisemitism is as obvious as it is denied by the BDSers.
Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!
Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.
A candle is a brief flare of light. A wick dipped in oil burns and goes out again. The Hanukkah light appears no different, but it is.
Two thousand years after the Jews had come to believe that wars were for other people and miracles meant escaping alive, Jewish armies stood and held the line against an empire and the would be empires of the region.
And now the flame still burns, though it is flickering. Seventy-four years is a long time for oil to burn, especially when the black oil next door seems so much more useful to the empires and republics across the sea. And the children of many of those who first lit the flame no longer see the point in that hoary old light.
But that old light is still the light of possibilities. It burns to remind us of the extraordinary things that our ancestors did and of the extraordinary assistance that they received. We cannot always expect oil to burn for eight days, just as we cannot always expect the bullet to miss or the rocket to fall short. And yet even in those moments of darkness the reminder of the flame is with us for no darkness lasts forever and no exile, whether of the body of the spirit, endures. Sooner or later the spark flares to life again and the oil burns again. Sooner or later the light returns.
It is the miracle that we commemorate because it is a reminder of possibilities. Each time we light a candle or dip a wick in oil, we release a flare of light from the darkness comes to remind us of what was, is and can still be.
While so-called “progressives” and biased media in the United States level a relentless stream of accusations against Israel, these “critics” uniformly ignore the fact that Israel is one of the most liberal, progressive nations in the world. If Israel’s “progressive” critics really cared about social justice, they would be the country’s most fervent supporters.
Enemies of Israel falsely accuse Israel of white colonialism, apartheid, ultra-nationalism, unfair treatment of its Arab citizens, LGBT “pinkwashing,” theocracy and violations of international law.
In fact, Israel is a mature democracy with high-functioning government and judicial institutions, plus a long track record of moral behavior and the rule of law. It guarantees expansive civil liberties, equal rights and economic opportunities to its citizens.
This includes, of course, Israel’s two million Arab citizens—20% of the population—who share all the benefits of Israeli society.
Israeli Arabs are currently represented in the Knesset by two political parties, one of which is an Islamist party that was part of the outgoing government. An Arab Muslim judge serves on Israel’s Supreme Court. An Arab Christian also served as a Supreme Court justice and was chair of Israel’s Central Elections Committee.
An Arab Muslim is the head of Bank Leumi, Israel’s largest bank. Arabs also make up 30% of the country’s doctors and 50% of the country’s pharmacists.
Thousands of Israeli Arabs volunteer for service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), even though military service is not required of Arab Muslims or Christians.
There is a particularly American Hanukah story that occurred when Washington and his troops were at Valley Forge during Christmas of 1777. Dan Adler’s article “Hanukkah at the White House” recounts this tale of George Washington’s encounter with a Jewish soldier: “In December, 1778, General George Washington had supper at the home of Michael Hart, a Jewish merchant in Easton, Pennsylvania. It was during the Hanukkah celebration, and Hart began to explain the customs of the holiday to his guest. Washington replied that he already knew about Hanukkah. He told Hart and his family of meeting the Jewish soldier at Valley Forge the previous year. (According to Washington, the soldier was a Polish immigrant who said he had fled his homeland because he could not practice his faith under the Prussian government there.) Hart’s daughter Louisa wrote the story down in her diary.” Rabbi Susan Grossman has written that, “[l]ike generations of Jews before him, that soldier served as a ‘light unto the nations’ (Isaiah 42:6), bringing inspiration and courage to a nation in its birth pangs. And he did so in a perfectly American way, a way in which a miracle did result, the miracle by which the light from one religion helps give comfort and courage to another.”
Washington “was welcomed at the home of Corporal Michael Hart,” which is described as “a two-story stone building on the southeast corner of the public square, directly opposite the courthouse. His general store was on the first floor, his residence on the second. Michael Hart’s wife, Leah, prepared a kosher meal... in honor of the Hanukah festival, it being the sixth day of the holiday.” (To offer a mild correction, December 21, 1778, was the eighth and final day of Hanukah that year, since Hanukah ran from sundown, Sunday, December 13, 1778, until sundown, Monday, December 21st.)
Further, Louisa Hart would “proudly record” in her diary: “Let it be remembered that Michael Hart was a Jew, pious; a Jew reverencing and strictly observant of the Sabbath and festivals, dietary laws were also adhered to although he was compelled to be his own Schochet [ritual slaughterer]. Mark well that he, Washington, was then honored as first in peace, first in war and first in the hearts of his countrymen. Even during a short sojourn he became, for the hour, the guest of the worthy Jew.”
We have seen that surveys over the past few years have found that between 3%-6% of American Jews identify themselves as "generally not pro-Israel," a much more general term than "anti-Zionist" which has not been asked as a question of American Jews.
This means that the percentage of American Jews who actively identify as anti-Zionist (a much higher bar than "generally not pro-Israel") is diminishingly small - certainly less than than 6% but probably far less than that number, perhaps as low as 1-2%.
Yet anti-Israel Jews like to present themselves as a large minority with huge influence in the Jewish community. The strenuously argue that they are not fringe, but mainstream - even though they have little evidence of it.
What I'm about to say is definitely comparing apples and oranges, but the comparison is still worthwhile.
In the last election, 5.2% of the Arab vote went to Likud, and 3.2% to Yisrael Beiteinu. The rest were divided up between Meretz (3.8%) and a remaining 8% divided among other Jewish parties.
In the North, about 25% of Arab voters voted for Jewish parties; in the Jerusalem areas, it was more than one third.
If Arabs have it so bad in Israel, why are so many voting for Jewish Zionist parties?
The Arab vote for Jewish Zionist parties is definitely not fringe. However, it is a phenomenon that is simply not reported in stories about Israel. You would be forgiven for assuming that they are a tiny, anomalous minority.
Other polls show that more than half of Israeli Arabs consider themselves "proud citizens" of the state. (I have not seen a poll on how many identify as Zionist.)
Meanwhile, the Jewish anti-Zionists - who really are fringe compared to American Jewry as a whole - gain a great deal of media attention, as if they have far more adherents than they really do.
As is often the case, media coverage does not reflect the truth, but wishful thinking to make reality closer to what they want it to be.
Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!
Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.
During the twelve-day conflict between the IDF and Hamas in the spring of last year, Arabs in usually peaceful Israeli cities with multiethnic populations rioted, deeply shaking the country’s general sense of safety. Yagil Henkin considers the possibility that, in the event of a larger war between Israel and, for instance, Hizballah, the latter could work with Palestinian groups to foment similar riots within Israel’s borders:
It is incorrect to regard the May 2021 events as civic disturbances or a series of individual episodes. As in any war, the enemy learns and searches for weaknesses to exploit. As a result, Israel should brace itself for a worst-case scenario in which ethnic and religious tensions are used to incite unrest and riots, disrupt army movements and reserve mobilization, cut off supply routes and access to military bases, inflict damage on military convoys, and use threats, propaganda, and possibly assassinations to force Arab and Muslim soldiers and policemen to leave the military and law enforcement. Following [the 2021 conflict], Hizballah escalated its efforts to transfer weaponry and ammunition to Israeli Arabs for use in a future conflict.
Notably, from the perspective of Iran and Hizballah, Israeli Arabs assaulting Jews and the reverse would be welcomed outcomes. Such attacks would force the police to disperse their forces and assign some of them to suppress Jewish riots rather than supporting Israeli offensive moves, limiting Israel’s freedom of action. The suspicion and tensions would undermine citizens’ sense of security and trust in government agencies, leading to further escalation and inter-communal strife. Therefore, Israel’s opponents may view any outcome as advantageous and work hard to bring about such outcomes through financial backing, disinformation, arming radicals, radicalizing youth, etc.
The Shin Bet has provided the CIA with new intelligence regarding Palestinian civil society NGOs that Israel has accused of involvement in terror.
The agency provided the new information to the CIA last week, though it is not discussing the issue publicly and was first reported by Walla.
Israel is hoping to finally flip the US in its favor on the issue after Washington has been highly critical, along with the EU and UN, of Jerusalem's moves regarding the civil society groups.
It appeared that the latest try to convince the Biden administration that the groups have ties to terror came after Israel upped the ante last month when it closed down several organizations which it had previously declared to be illegal in October 2021.
The organizations have said that Israel merely wants to silence them and their activities which often involve political criticism and activism, including protests, against Israeli control of the Palestinians in the West Bank.
Israel has said that the organizations wear two hats, one actually helping with human rights issues, and the other aiding the Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
An IDF officer was killed in an exchange of fire with two armed Palestinian gunmen near the village of Jalma, north of the West Bank city of Jenin.
He was identified as 30-year-old Maj. Bar Falach, deputy commander of the Nahal Brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion, from the coastal city of Netanya. He was buried in the city’s military cemetery on Wednesday evening.
The incident began around 11:30 p.m. when IDF observation soldiers identified two suspects approaching the fence along the seam line near a military post. The suspects, who were not identified as being armed, reached within 15 meters of the fence and lay down.
Forces, including Falah and the commander of the IDF’s Menashe Brigade, Col. Arik Moyal, were deployed to the area where the suspects had been identified. A Zik drone was scrambled to the area but was not used.
The forces split into two, one led by Falah and the other by Moyal, in an attempt to surprise the gunmen, who then opened fire on the troops who had approached within several meters.
According to Judea and Samaria Division Commander Brig.-Gen. Avi Bluth, the troops did not know that the suspects were armed until they opened fire on the force around 2:30 a.m., hitting Falah and fatally injuring him.
The two gunmen were identified by Palestinian media as Ahmed Abed, an intelligence officer in the Palestinian Authority Security Forces, and Abdul Rahman Abed, from the village of Kafr Dan near Jenin. One of them was an intelligence officer of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades took responsibility for the attack, saying both the shooters were members of the terrorist organization.
"Unfortunately, last night we lost an officer who fought Palestinian terrorists in the field," said IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, "This is yet another expression of the challenges the IDF faces in all arenas and the security it provides for Israel's citizens, sometimes at a heavy price. I convey my deepest condolences to the family, and to his partner."
Ahmed Ayman Abed, one of the Palestinians killed in an armed clash with Israeli troops in Jenin, worked for the Palestinian Authority's Military Intelligence force. pic.twitter.com/Ar8S8jr1CY
“Youths”. They were Palestinian terrorists, who beached the West Bank security barrier and opened fire on Israeli soldiers, after refusing to first heed warnings. In the shootout, sadly, an IDF officer was killed. https://t.co/Itg74snUDd
Muhammed SabaanehTel Aviv, September 12 – Israeli military and Defense Ministry officials voiced concern today over a device that various terrorist factions appear to have in their possession, one that takes any corpse of a gun-wielding, bomb-planting, firebomb-throwing, or knife-brandishing Arab and transforms it into a “youth” or “child,” as reflected in mainstream news coverage of recent conflict episodes.
Officials pointed to articles and video reports surrounding the violence over the last several months in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian-governed city of Jenin, cases in which the IDF documented its actions against armed Palestinian men, often killing them – only to discover that such reliable, objective sources as CNN, the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, and the British Broadcasting Corporation quoted Palestinian media and officials in calling the militant a child. Israeli military intelligence concluded that the Palestinians possess something that somehow changes an adult fighter into a child whose death Israel caused.
“As a placeholder name, we’re calling it a Before-Interment Alteration System,” disclosed one official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We know of at least twenty cases in the last year in which BIAS has been deployed to create a propaganda effect, with varying degrees of success. But other evidence points to the use of BIAS for the same purpose going back decades, to the first Intifada in 1987. Its deployment helps explain hundreds of instances in which the IDF neutralized an armed terrorist, only to find that some unexplained technology has altered the corpse so that it now resembles that of a playful youth whose innocent photographs now grace the pages and social media accounts of Western journalists and government institutions. BIAS is clearly a weapon to be reckoned with.”
A reader asked me to comment on an October report apparently being distributed to EU politicians by some 20 NGOs to pressure them into banning imports of goods from Jews - and only Jews - who work in Judea and Samaria.
These slick-looking reports are churned out with regularity by the anti-Israel crowd, complete with lots of footnotes that no one will ever check out for veracity. Beyond that, they engage in deception by framing issues in the most biased way possible.
Ban on dual-use items: Israel bans Palestinians from importing a range of “dual-use” items, including chemicals and fertilisers used in factories and agriculture. While Israeli settlers have full access to these materials, Palestinians are forced to turn to more expensive or less effective alternatives that further increase the cost of production and often have greater negative long-term impact on the environment. It is estimated that the fertilizer restrictions lead to losses of between 20% and 33% in agricultural productivity.
It is simply unbelievable that such a paragraph could be written without even acknowledging the history of terror attacks - using home-made explosives - that have come from the West Bank. The demand that Israel ignore its own security imperatives is untenable an shows an alarming lack of concern about the lives of Israelis.
Any report such as this that doesn't even acknowledge Israel's very real security concerns - even if only to dismiss them - can be assumed ab initio to be biased against Israel no matter how many footnotes it has.
But here's the next paragraph:
Obstacles to movement of goods: While settlers enjoy easy and direct access to Israeli and international markets, all Palestinian goods destined for Israel or further export must pass through Israeli checkpoints where they are unloaded from Palestinian vehicles and extensively checked before they can be re-loaded onto an Israeli vehicle on the other side (the so-called ‘back-to-back’ system). This is extremely time-consuming and often damages the products. Palestinian goods destined for international markets then pass through Israeli port and airport terminals where they face further disadvantages, obstacles and excessive time delays. All these obstacles significantly reduce the competitiveness of Palestinian products and increase the unpredictability of their delivery times and quality.
This is a bit silly; if there were an independent Palestinian Arab state declared on the 1949 armistice lines today, access to the European markets of Arab goods would have the exact same restrictions. In fact, goods exported to Jordan from the PA have more onerous restrictions than those going through Israel! (This recent post of mine addresses the issue.)
In other words, they are objecting to Israel behaving like a sovereign nation.
More deception follows:
Gaza closure: Compared to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip has been subject to even more stringent restrictions, especially since the takeover by Hamas in 2007. Exports from Gaza, a territory inhabited by 1.6 million Palestinians, have been banned almost entirely, contributing to the low volume of overall Palestinian exports. Despite the easing of some restrictions by Israel since 2010, the volume of exports from Gaza is still less than 2% of the pre-2007 levels. EU imports from Gaza over the five years of blockade have been limited to a few shipments of agricultural produce to the Netherlands and two trucks of garments to the UK.
The source for this, Gisha, does not note what percentage of goods exported from Gaza before 2007 went to Israel. My understanding is that a significant majority of all goods exported from Gaza before the blockade did go to Israel. Surely Israel has the right to limit its imports from Gaza if it chooses. So the 2% figure, while probably accurate, does not give any indication of how many goods were exported from Gaza to the EU before 2007, which I would venture to say was negligible. But if, say, 85% of Gaza's goods used to go to Israel then Gisha should note that before putting out the 2% number.
It might just be that Israel doesn't want to buy goods from a sector that is still shooting rockets at it. Just a wild guess. Do these NGOs think that Israel should be allowed to say where it imports its tomatoes from?
Besides, Israel is indeed working to increase the number of exports from Gaza to the West Bank, as I've reported. One question to ask is what demand there is for Gaza goods in the West Bank today and if that is not being met. Another question is whether any of these NGOs are complaining that Egypt is not importing goods from Gaza, which Israel could not limit if it tried. These are questions that this report does not ask - because the truth is not the goal of reports like these.
This is an indication of the bias that pervades this - and similar - reports. People who are not well-versed in the issues, those who do not have the time or inclination to research it themselves, those who don't have the necessary skepticism and those who are already sympathetic to the anti-Israel cause will swallow this garbage without thinking.
Which is exactly what the Israel-haters want.
The organizations behind this exercise in demonization are:
1. Aprodev
2. Broederlijk delen (Belgium)
3. Caabu (UK)
4. CCFd - Terre Solidaire (France)
5. Christian Aid (UK and Ireland)
6. Church of Sweden
7. Cordaid (Netherlands)
8. danChurchAid (denmark)
9. diakonia (Sweden)
10. FinnChurchAid (Finland)
11. ICCo (Netherlands)
12. IKv pax Christi (Netherlands)
13. International Federation for Human rights (FIdH)
14. Medical Aid for palestinians (UK)
15. medico international (Germany)
16. medico international switzerland
17. The Methodist Church in Britain
18. Norwegian people’s Aid
19. Norwegian Church Aid
20. Quaker Council for european Affairs
21. Quaker peace and Social Witness (UK)
22. Trocaire (Ireland)
Truth and fairness are obviously not part of these organizations' agenda.
By the way, if you object to my characterization in the first paragraph of these organizations' goals as banning imports of goods from only Jews who work in Judea and Samaria, I am being entirely accurate.
There are a number of industrial zones across the Green Line - Barkan, Atarot and Adumim - whose companies get targeted regularly by the anti-Israel crowd. Richard Falk relies heavily on the "Who Profits" website when he insists that certain American and Israeli companies be universally boycotted, and this "Trading Away peace" report quotes "Who Profits" some 26 times.
I looked through the Who Profits site, and I was unable to identify a single Israel-Arab-owned company that they propose boycotting.
Yet, according to this Globes article that discussed the success of these industrial parks, the Atarot park was quoted as having "a nice combination between Arabs and Jews, both in terms of employment and business ownership."
So there are definitely Arab-owned companies in these industrial zones - but not one of them are targeted for boycott!
One probable example is Al Mada'ain Food Products, formerly Slava Food Company, in Atarot, owned by Abu Ghazala Haitham. Assuming that Mr. Haitham is an Israeli citizen, then why isn't his company being tracked for being boycotted by Who Profits or other similar "pro-Palestinian" initiatives? Is he not Palestinian? [If he isn't an Israeli citizen, then presumably the PA will arrest him any hour now.)
When you go beyond the rhetoric and fine print in the volumes of invective released by these NGOs, you uncover the fact that they really are discriminating against Jews, and only Jews.
I think there is a name for that, but these "humanitarian" organizations get very upset when you say it.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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