Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: economic peace

Showing posts with label economic peace. Show all posts

Thursday, August 10, 2023

The new wave of terror may be hurting the Palestinian economy

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics published its labor report for the second quarter, and it shows that the number of Palestinians working in Israel and the settlements increased to 164,000 from 153,000 in the first quarter.

However, this is not the highest number for Palestinians working for Israelis. It reversed a year-long trend of fewer Palestinians working for Israelis.

In the second quarter last year, some 211,000 Palestinians worked for Israelis - 182,000 in the Green Line and 29,000 in the settlements. That number decreased by 13,000 between the second and third quarters.

A drop from 211,000 to 153,000 in less than a year is a dramatic change, before the modest rebound this quarter.

The Israeli GDP has continued to steadily increase during this time period so this drop doesn't seem to be a reflection of more general economic trends.

It seems likely that as terror attacks increased over the past 18 months that Israeli employers are getting more skittish about hiring Palestinians, worried that some workers might go on a murder spree.

Obviously, only a tiny percentage of Palestinian workers are potential terrorists. But there have been enough incidents of Palestinian workers in Israel who either instigated or facilitated terror attacks in Israel to make Israeli employers think twice before hiring.

Given that Israeli employers pay far higher salaries than Palestinian employers - this quarter the average daily wage increased to NIS 289, far more than double the Palestinian average - the "heroic Palestinian youth" of Jenin and Nablus appear to be making the lives of ordinary Palestinians worse.

But there are no true brave Palestinian who are willing to say that out loud.

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Palestinian PM tells businesspeople: "Invest in us, because our economy will be great when we kick Israel out!"

Palestinian prime minister Mohamed Shtayyeh spoke at an investment conference he set up, with about 45 Jordanian potential investors in attendance. It was at the Fourth Economic Empowerment Conference in Hebron.

His pitch was a little unconventional.

Usually, when speaking to foreign audiences, he emphasizes how difficult things are and how all of the Palestinian Authority problems are coming from Israel. He says how helpless they are and how they need more foreign aid because all of their money is being stolen by Israel. In other words, his usual message is one of pure victimhood and helplessness.

But to this audience, suddenly the Palestinian territories are a fertile ground for investment and a sure thing to make money.

"Despite the occupation and the challenges it poses, Palestine is full of promising investment opportunities in various commercial and industrial sectors, and it deserves a visit, solidarity and strengthening the steadfastness of its people, and it is an appropriate and feasible place for investment because it achieves a meaningful return for investors."

See? Things are great economically! It just depends on the audience!

The "moderate" PM then spoke about the supreme importance of "resistance." He continued, "For us, the government's strategy is based on several components, on top of which is strengthening the steadfastness of the resistance. This occupation cannot disappear unless it becomes costly, and when we succeed in the economy and promote it, the occupation becomes costly, and when the Arab countries embrace Palestine, the occupation becomes costly."

Just yesterday, the PA government rejected Israel's offer to help them out economically, if they would just reject funding terrorist families and stop inciting violence against Jews. That was not a good enough deal for the PA.

I wonder what the investors think about investing in a government that prefers antisemitism and terror to helping its own people.

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Arab media painting "land bridge" idea between the Gulf and Haifa in antisemitic terms

Last week, YNet reported:

Jerusalem and Washington are advancing a secret plan to establish a continuous land bridge connecting the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel, leading from the Persian Gulf straight to Israel's seaports. This is intended for the export of goods from the East to Europe through Israel, and later for tourist movement as well.

The land bridge will enable trucks to transport goods while significantly reducing transportation costs and time compared to the current situation.

According to a study conducted by the Foreign Ministry and the U.S. government, the time reduction is estimated to be from two to three days to several weeks, and saving up to 20% in shipping costs.

Currently, trucks leaving the United Arab Emirates reach the port of Haifa via the Allenby Bridge but face bureaucratic procedures, including driver changes, paperwork and lengthy waiting times. Another expensive option for shipping goods is via ships through the Suez Canal and then to European ports, which is also costly.

The idea is to enable the arrival of a single truck and driver from Dubai to the port of Haifa, for example, without changing drivers and trucks at border crossings between countries. The Israeli Foreign Ministry presented the plan to the U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein.

According to senior Israeli officials, the Americans were enthusiastic about the plan and began promoting it with the involved countries: the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Sounds like a win-win-win. As long as proper security measures are in place, the idea of cutting shipping times from weeks to days between the Gulf and Europe will benefit everyone, and help solidify peace in the region.

So the usual haters are starting their campaign against it. And their major reason to oppose it is....classic antisemitism.

Rai al-Youm, a site run by known antisemite and terror supporter Abdel Bari Atwan, describes this plan as a nefarious plan for Jews to take over the economy of the Gulf. It headlines the story, "Israel's plan to control the wealth of the East."

Their illustration:

The article concludes that "It goes without saying that if the aforementioned plan succeeds, the entity will enjoy Arab money for free." The comments go on from there with various Jewish plots to take over the UAE and Bahrain.

It will be most enlightening to follow this plan. The economics and US enthusiasm may convince the Saudis to go along with it even without an official agreement between them and Israel. Assuming that they are on board, there is no reasonable objection to this plan except pure hate of Jews.

But if history is a guide, the "progressives" who are the bulk of modern antisemites in the West will work overtime to come up with reasons to oppose this plan that will sound reasonable to those who share their latent antisemitism. We will see objections based on "human rights" even though there is no human rights issue here. They will craft convoluted essays opposing it that will first be published in Al Jazeera, then sharpened and focused to be acceptable to The Nation, and then crafted further to be in the New York Times op-ed page.

But as the first knee-jerk reaction in Rai al-Youm shows, the real reason is hate of Jews, and the other excuses that follow will have only one purpose: to hide the nakedly antisemitic intent of that opposition.

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Percentage of Israeli Arab women with academic degrees doubles, number with jobs jumps too

More indication of how absurd the "apartheid" libel is. From Globes:

According to the Labor Market Report for 2022 released today by the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services, over a decade, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of Arab women acquiring higher education, which has translated into greater participation in the labor market.

In 2020, the report states, a quarter of Arab women aged 30-34 held academic degrees, double the proportion in 2010, when just 13% of Arab women in this age group held degrees. In the 29-31 age group, the proportion of those with degrees reached 27% in 2020.

The figures are in line with those of the Council for Higher Education in Israel, which also show a substantial rise in the number of female Arab students. The proportion of women among Arabs studying for a first degree has remained steady in recent years at about 69%, but the proportion of Arabs in the undergraduate student body as a whole has risen from 16% in 2014 to 20% today, almost the same as their proportion in Israel’s population.

There is a correlation between higher education, participation in the workforce, and level of pay for those in work. People with academic degrees are found to earn more than those without, even after control for variables such as occupation, industry, gender, ethnic group, and location. ...

The general level of participation in the workforce by Arab women, which historically has been very low in comparison with women in other sections of the population, has also risen significantly. According to the Labor Market Report, in 2014, the rate of participation in the workforce by Arab women was just 33%....By 2022, the rate of participation among Arab women jumped to 42%.

This is a direct result from increased investment by the government into the Arab sector, a story that hardly gets any coverage in world media.

Needless to say, this is the diametric opposite of what one would expect to see in an apartheid regime. So you will never read about this in Amnesty or HRW reports, because when their lies are contradicted by facts, they try to bury the facts.

(h/t Yoel)

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Palestinians complain that Israel halted furniture exports from Gaza. They won't mention the reason.

On May 5, Middle East Monitor reported:

Israeli authorities yesterday banned the export of furniture products from the occupied Gaza Strip.

The economic ministry said in a statement that the Israeli move aimed at "inflicting more losses on the enclave's industries that have been suffering due to the blockade."

The ministry called on the international community "to pressure Israel to allow freedom of import and export without restrictions so that the different industries in Gaza can prosper and overcome challenges resulted from the blockade."

So according to Gaza authorities, Israel just decided to stop furniture exports to punish them for no reason. And Arabic media also complains about the ban, which continued into June, asking the international community to pressure Israel to resume the exports and stop its arbitrary punishment of a specific industry.

But there was a reason.

On May 3, Israeli authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle guns, silencers and cartridges of bullets from Gaza to terrorists in the West Bank - inside furniture.

So now, Israeli authorities must update their procedures to ensure that future attempts to smuggle weapons in furniture are not successful.

Notice that the weapons appear to have been deliberately hidden in metal components, not only wood, so standard X-ray scanning might not catch them.

It will take time to come up with a solution that would catch any attempts to export weapons inside items like furniture.

Yet there is no anger for the would-be weapons smugglers, whose decision hurts all furniture manufacturers in Gaza. On the contrary, "human rights" NGOs are saying that Israeli attempts to stop weapons exports from Gaza is "collective punishment" - after all, it isn't a big deal when Jews get shot by West Bank terrorists, right?

Murdering Jews is not a violation of human rights - but a temporary ban on furniture exports is. And Israel is expected to tolerate its citizens being murdered under the pretext of "human rights."

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Is it wise for Israel to allow development of the Gaza gas field?

On Sunday, the Israeli Prime Minister's office issued a brief statement:

In the framework of the existing efforts between the State of Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority (PA), with emphasis on Palestinian economic development and maintaining security stability in the region, it has been decided to develop the Gaza Marine gas field off the coast of Gaza.

Implementing the project is subject to coordination between the security services and direct dialogue with Egypt, in coordination with the PA, and the completion of inter-ministerial staff work led by the National Security Council, in order to maintain the security and diplomatic interests of the State of Israel on the matter.

This is very vague.

In the past, Israel has tied the development of the field off the Gaza coast to returning the Israeli hostages and recovering the bodies of Israeli soldiers still held by Hamas.

But it looks like Netanyahu is dropping that condition and playing some word games:

An unnamed Israeli official at the prime minister’s office told Ynet on Sunday that all of the security agencies recommended the government approve the project. The same agencies had also approved the resolution of the maritime border dispute with Lebanon in November 2022, but Netanyahu rejected the recommendation, and the agreement with Lebanon was reached under the previous Bennett-Lapid government.
“The issue of the [Israeli] prisoners and missing people was and still is a condition for the development of infrastructure in Gaza. In this case [of the Marine field], we are not talking about Gaza infrastructure, but rather about an agreement with the PA and with Egypt," said the official.

Hamas has been pretty much maintaining calm in Gaza since Israel has allowed thousands of Gazans to work in Israel. It seems like Netanyahu (and Israel's security agencies) are looking at Gaza Marine as a means to make life easier for Gazans but Israel could theoretically turn the spigot off in case Hamas decides to resume hostilities.

If that is the logic, there are a couple of flaws. One is that if there is a direct line of natural gas from the field to Gaza, Israel could not turn it off, because that would look clearly like collective punishment.

The real fear is that the revenues would help fund more Hamas weapons and attacks. This will undoubtedly happen. Is that certainty worth the possibility/probability that Hamas will keep Gaza quiet?

Which brings up the other problem. While Hamas might be quieter in Gaza, they are active in the West Bank and taking credit for terror attacks. When Abbas is gone, while there is infighting within Fatah to replace him, Hamas is planning to take advantage of the chaos to make its own bid for controlling the West Bank. And the Gaza money will be critical to that plan succeeding.

Beyond that, what's wrong with leveraging Gaza Marine to get the hostages back? Why give up a concession and get nothing in return? Why not publicly tell the world, "We are happy to allow Gaza gas to be exported as soon as our boys come home?" Europe needs to replace Russian gas, which is why this has become a hot issue over the past year again. Why not give them a reason to pressure Hamas?

I hope Bibi knows what he is doing, and that there will be appropriate guardrails on this effort.

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Imagine if Israel boycotted Palestinian products

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics announced that in March 2023, the Palestinians exported goods worth nearly $150 million.

87% of those goods went to Israel.

In contrast, "only" 54% of Palestinian imports come from Israel; that used to be much higher.

Now, let's imagine if Israel did what the BDS movement wants to see - and shut off all imports and exports to the territories.

The impact on Israelis would be minimal, since Palestinian trade accounts for less than 1% of all Israeli imports and exports.

The impact on the Palestinians would be immediate and drastic.

Which proves yet again that the BDSers don't care about Palestinian welfare. They are willing to fight Israel down to the last Palestinian, and that includes forcing them into poverty - while they themselves use Israeli products and technologies every hour of every day.

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By their own success criteria, BDS has been a massive failure

The website for the BDS Movement has a FAQ section that asks, "What has the BDS movement achieved so far?"

The very top achievement is listed as:

BDS was a major factor behind the 46% drop in foreign direct investment in Israel in 2014, according to a UN report.

How have direct investments in Israel done since then?

If BDS is taking credit for the 46% drop in direct investment in 2014 then the 255% increase since then must be viewed as a huge BDS failure.

Also, the UN report did not say what BDS claims. It quoted a Newsweek article which in turn quoted a YNet article where one of the authors of the report said:

"We believe that what led to the drop in investment in Israel are Operation Protective Edge and the boycotts Israel is facing," Dr. Roni Manos of the College of Management and one of the authors of the report's summary told Ynet. According to her, these are only conjectures that can explain the sharp decline, but there is another reason. "In the past there were large transactions such as Waze and ISCAR Metalworking which boosted investment, but over the past year there were not enough such deals.

So BDS is not only trying to hide the statistics since 2014 that disprove its "victory," it even lied about the reason for the 2014 anomalous decline itself.

The BDS Movement FAQ goes on:

A Rand Corporation study predicts BDS could reduce Israel’s GDP “by 1 to 2 percent” annually over the next 10 years.

That Rand study says, "Historical evidence from other countries suggests that financial and trade sanctions associated with boycott, divestment, and sanctions could reduce GDP by 1 to 2 percent. "

In other words, it was a wild guess for the purposes of making economic forecasts based on various scenarios, not a prediction for Israel.

Rand wrote that in 2015. How has Israel's GDP done since then?

Israel's GDP increased from $314 billion in 2014 to $488 billion in 2021, an increase of 55% and an average increase of nearly 8% a year.

It doesn't appear that BDS has hurt the Israeli economy at all. On the contrary, Israel has thrived and BDS has not affected it in the least.

By the Israel-haters' own standards, on their own FAQ today, BDS has failed.

Now, I have said that economic damage is not really BDS' aim - demonization of Israel is. By that criterion, they have been successful. But part of that success is because they have been lying about Israel to the world and too many people are believing them.

Here we see that they lie repeatedly to make themselves look successful, when by any economic criteria they have been an abject failure.

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Israel considering increasing number of work permits from Gaza. News media silent.

Palestinian site Amad reports:

Hebrew sources announced, on Sunday evening, that Israel is considering increasing the number of work permits from the Gaza Strip, and the number of regular work permits may reach about fifty thousand in the coming months.

An informed Israeli security source indicated that the number could be increased as well, and this contributes to improving the economic situation of the residents of the Gaza Strip.

I didn't see this in Hebrew media, but there is little reason to think this isn't true.

And it is representative of the type of story that the news media isn't interested in.

Israel spends a great deal of time and money trying to ensure that Palestinians' lives can be as good as possible while not compromising the security of Israelis.

It is a very difficult job.

Another recent example of Israel taking great efforts to help ordinary Palestinians is that Israel is starting to operate the crossing into Jordan for 24 hours a day to make things easier for Palestinian travelers.

A nation's first priority is the safety of its own citizens. There have been countless cases of Palestinians taking advantage of Israeli efforts at being humane - suicide bombs smuggled in by hospital patients, for example.

In this case I cannot blame the media completely for avoiding stories where Israel acts humanely towards Palestinians. Bad news is news and drives ratings; good news doesn't.

But when coverage of Israel is so unrelentingly negative, no one even considers that the truth is not what is being reported. People who do not follow news in Hebrew and Arabic are left completely in the dark.

Gaza is a mess, and giving Gazans jobs is the single most important thing that can be done to help them out. Gaza is also run by a terrorist organization.

The line between helping people who haven't done anything wrong and not helping their leaders who openly preach genocide against the Jewish people is one that is a real news story. And it is one that the media is not interested in covering.

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Saudi, Tunisia, Sudanese and Somali delegates meet in Israel for security conference

From i24 News:

More than 20 guests from different Arab Gulf and African countries arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a historic visit to Jerusalem, where they will discuss a range of issues that pertain to regional links with the Jewish state.

Among these guests, some of whom were from countries with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations, were representatives of think tanks, institutes of applied diplomacy, and journalists, Ynetnews reported. They participated in a three-day conference, initiated by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, focused on Israel's relations with the countries of Africa and the Gulf region.

Representatives of Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Djibouti, Tunisia, Mauritania, and Sudan - states that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel - were among those at the forum, as well as envoys from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Somaliland, South Africa, South Sudan, and Uganda.

To have delegates from Tunisia and Saudi Arabia is not a small thing.

Arab media and social media are filled with these photos of the delegates:

Topics discussed included the war on terrorism and radicalization, water desalination, food safety and the war on hunger.

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Gaza's economy improves when they don't try to kill Jews

A Hamas media spokesperson said today that Gaza's economy is rebounding now that there is relative calm in the sector.

Governmental data in the Gaza Strip released today "showed a remarkable improvement in the economic situation," especially in the manufacturing and export sectors, according to a report in Sama News.

The article says that the current state of calm, combined with Israel allowing an increasing number of vetted Gaza workers to commute to jobs in Israel, has helped the Gaza economy a great deal.

The head of the Hamas government media office, Salama Marouf, said that since last August, work has resumed in more than 220 textile factories, which led to the recovery of that sector after many years.

Speaking to Hamas' Al-Aqsa Radio, Marouf pointed out that during the past week, the products of some textile factories were exported and marketed abroad for the first time in years.

Last week, the Gaza government announced that there will be no problems of food shortages through Ramadan.

While there has been sporadic rocket fire over the past year, it has been very limited.

Who would have thought that there could be economic benefits for not being obsessed with killing Jews?

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US gives millions to Palestinians without reporting where, exactly, the money goes

The United States has a very nice web page that shows how much foreign aid is given and the specific recipients every year.

Here's a detail of what the West Bank/Gaza page looked like in 2020:

The highlighted text says, "USAID redacted this field in accordance with the exceptions outlined in the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2016."

I count about $90 million given to these anonymous Palestinian recipients since 2016.

Looking at the text of that Act, it appears that there are only two reasons to redact the names of the recipients:

(3) REPORT IN LIEU OF INCLUSION.—
(A) HEALTH OR SECURITY OF IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS.—
If the head of a Federal department or agency, in consultation with the Secretary of State, makes a determination that the inclusion of a required item of information online would jeopardize the health or security of an implementing partner or program beneficiary or would require the release of proprietary information of an implementing partner or program beneficiary, the head of the Federal department or agency shall provide such determination in writing to the appropriate congressional committees, including the basis for such determination.
(B) NATIONAL INTERESTS OF THE UNITED STATES.—If the Secretary of State makes a determination that the inclusion of a required item of information online would be detrimental to the national interests of the United States, the Secretary of State shall provide such determination, including the basis for such determination, in writing to the appropriate congressional committees.

Could it be that the reason that some of the recipient names are redacted is because they would be threatened if it was known they were accepting aid from the US? Or perhaps some of the programs are "under the radar" grassroots peace initiatives, that the Palestinian Authority tries to quash as "normalization"?

Either way, it seems like there is a bit of money sloshing around without any transparency.

One other interesting note. In 2019, the Trump administration announced that it ceased all aid through USAID to the Palestinians. Yet somehow USAID still managed to send millions to the Palestinians in 2019 and 2020 - much less than during the Obama and Biden administrations, but not close to zero.

It seems that the "Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2016" leaves a lot of wiggle room for non-transparency.

(h/t Irene)

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Why don't the Palestinians join the Negev Forum? Because it contradicts their entire purpose of destroying Israel

The third Negev Forum met this week in Abu Dhabi.

The forum has participants from the United States, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco as well as Egypt.

The goal of the forum is to advance multilateral projects in the fields of health, regional security, education, water and food security, tourism and energy. It is not a peace summit - it is very focused on specific mutual interests to countries in the Middle East, to benefit all.

The US tried to get Palestinians to join the meeting. They refused. And Jordan said that they won't attend unless the Palestinians do.

Now, why won't the Palestinians attend? Certainly they could benefit from talks about health, water and energy. According to Arab News, the reason they refuse is "Palestinians view the forum as an attempt to sideline its key demands of independence and an end to the Israeli occupation."

But that is not what the forum is about.

The only way the Palestinian refusal makes sense is if you understand the Palestinian mindset.

They have joined lots of international forums - but, invariably, they use those platforms to attack Israel. Whether it is about the world's oceans, or climate, or women, or the disabled, the Palestinians enthusiastically join - and then the entire session grinds to a halt as a Palestinian representative uses his allotted time to bash Israel.

To them, these conferences not a means to join the world community as an equal member. They aren't for information exchange. They aren't to work together to solve problems. To Palestinians, international foraare arenas of war, nothing more.

But the Negev Forum accepts Israel as a permanent part of the Middle East. It isn't marginalized - it is a key player. And the Palestinians cannot stomach the idea that Israel itself is considered legitimate.

Palestinians cannot hijack this conference. So boycotting, and shaming Jordan to do the same, it meant to somehow injure the conference altogether.

This has nothing to do with settlements, or human rights, or international law. The Palestinians refuse to attend a regional forum where they would benefit because it accepts Israel's existence - and Palestinian leaders still hope Israel will disappear.

Their childish behavior here is further proof that they have no interest in peace or becoming a responsible state. The entire purpose of the Palestinian national movement has always been the destruction of Israel. And they think that boycotting this event helps that goal in a tiny, tiny way.

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What you can learn from Fatah's anniversary slogan

Fatah's pro-violence logo

On January 1, Fatah will celebrate its 58th anniversary.

Well, not really. It is the 58th anniversary "of the launch of the contemporary Palestinian revolution," meaning the anniversary of their first terror attack, That attack was meant to disrupt Israeli's access to water. It was a direct attack on civilian infrastructure, and those terror roots are an inherent part of Fatah, today.

It came up with a typically unwieldy slogan for the occasion: "Just as we dropped the deal of the century and the annexation project...we will defeat the neo-fascists."

Fatah is taking credit for Donald Trump's "Deal of the Century" not being successful.

How did they accomplish this Herculean task?

By saying "no."

The same way they "defeated" every other chance for peace and an end to conflict with Israel.

Their desire to keep the conflict going is something they are very proud of!

What happened after their latest rejection of any peace plan without a counter-offer? Bahrain and the UAE said, we've had enough of the Palestinians acting like spoiled babies, so we will normalize our own relations with Israel, ignoring their long standing demand that they hold veto power over our foreign policy.

But we want something in return - so they demanded that Israel rescind a partial annexation plan. The far-right extremist Netanyahu, wanting peace, agreed.

So I guess, in a convoluted way, the Palestinians were responsible for the shelving of that plan! I somehow doubt this is what they intended, though.

And how will they defeat the "neo fascists" of Israel's new government? Well, in a few years there will be new elections again, with different ministers, so then the Palestinians will claim that they "defeated" them.

The Palestinian leadership is incompetent and impotent, supporting terror to the last penny and unable to do anything remotely constructive. But they want to pretend that they are in the center of everything.

For a long time, much of the West believed it. Now, even the most hardened Israel hater realizes that the Palestinian leaders have become irrelevant, which is the worst thing that can happen to you in an honor/shame society.

Fatah still holds on to that pretense.

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You can learn a lot from a single photo of a school in Gaza

On Sunday, the Acre Secondary Girls School in Khan Younis, Gaza, along with many other schools, hosted a Palestinian official over video link who spoke about the evils of normalization and the necessity of boycotting the "Zionist entity."

Afterwards the girls held up signs against normalization for their Facebook page.

Here's one of the photos.

Let's look at this in more detail.

Most of the signs say "No to normalization" and "don't pay for Israeli bullets."

Gaza stores are filled with products from Israel. Hamas controls Gaza. They could ban all Israeli goods - but they don't, because this is what Gazans want.

And since Gazans started working in Israel again, everyone is trying to get work permits.

Hamas itself isn't boycotting Israel, and every Gazan knows this. So what is this about? Why a school day wasted on having the girls make posters and pose?

Because the point isn't boycott. It is to instill hate for Israel. That hate has to be reinforced day in and day out, and "normalization" is another vector, along with whipping up anger at Israel in other ways.

Let's look closer at the people in the picture.

Front and center, we have a girl holding a sign that says, "Normalization is treachery."

With a dagger on her sign.

No one has a problem with a violent image.

Now let's look at the principals of the school in the background:

They look like they are in Afghanistan.

The heads of the school are teaching the girls that a burqa is the preferable way to cover up, not just a hijab. Students can barely read their expressions.

Finally, the name of the school itself - Acre, named after a city in Israel. The school's very name is meant to teach the girls that they will "return" to Acre and other Israeli towns, and they will get rid of the Jews there.

This is an ordinary photo from Gaza - but it teaches a lot, if you are willing to learn it.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

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