Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: heroic operations

Showing posts with label heroic operations. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

75 years ago: Jewish heroes saving lives - and getting killed for it

Heroes Haim Graf and Mordechai Komornik

There were two interesting and related articles in the Palestine Post of March 22, 1948, on events that happened 75 years ago today, that were both about Jewish heroes.

The first real heroes were two guards, Haim Graf and Mordechai Komornik, who saw smoke coming out of the abandoned vehicle outside the Solel Boneh building in Haifa. They warned scores of people about a truck bomb - and who were killed by that very bomb as they were pushing the truck away from the crowded building.

Unfortunately, four were killed besides the guards, including a father and his five year old son.

The other heroic story was of a different type:

The Jews rushed to save the lives of their armed enemies - and Zichron Mizrahi paid with his life.

Why did the Arab Legionnaires assume that the Jews who were trying to rescue them were attacking them?

Because that is how Arabs would act!

Palestinian Arabs have a different idea of what being a "hero" means. They have used the word "heroic" consistently with every single murder of a Jew this year (and every other year) by an Arab.

If you want to know a people, know who they consider their heroes.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Abbas didn't condemn Jerusalem attacks; Palestinian newspaper upset at UAE and Turkey for condemning them

It used to be that Mahmoud Abbas, like Yasir Arafat before him, would issue a pro forma condemnation of deadly terror attacks against Israel.

As of this writing, he hasn't said a word against the twin Jerusalem attacks, nor the Ariel terrorist attacks.

He doesn't even pretend anymore to be against terror. Earlier this year he only reluctantly condemned some attacks when under pressure from Israeli and US officials.

Meanwhile, this article in Al Quds News is upset that the UAE and Turkey did condemn the Jerusalem blasts, calling it "normalization:"

The UAE and Turkey were not content with drowning in normalization with the "Israeli" enemy, in all fields, at the expense of the cause and the Palestinian people. Rather, they were quick and brazen to condemn the two heroic Jerusalem operations, which were carried out by the revolutionary Palestinian youth, in response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy against the Palestinian people and its desecration of the holy places.
...
Observers believe that these irresponsible positions come in the context of the state of submission in the positions of the current Palestinian leadership and some Arab and regional leaders, which come within the framework of the destructive settlement and normalization approach, describing the role of Turkey, which condemned the heroic operation, as "hypocritical."

They considered that the resolutions of international legitimacy affirmed the right of peoples suffering from occupation and aggression to resist it in all forms, especially armed resistance. Therefore, the response of our people and its rebellious youth to the occupation is a natural and legitimate response to the crimes of the occupation and its continuation.

As for the statements of condemnation by the normalizers with the entity of the Zionist enemy, (the UAE, Turkey and others), they are a sign and evidence of the level of weakness, humiliation, submission and shame of these countries in front of the Zionist enemy, and the total alienation from the issues of the nation and its center is the Palestinian cause, including the sanctities, especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is exposed by the daily desecration by settlers who do not hide their project to build the alleged Temple on the ruins of Al-Aqsa Mosque, which enemy governments are working to demolish, God forbid.

This is a mainstream Palestinian position.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Look how proud Palestinian groups are at randomly shooting at a yeshiva

Times of Israel reports:

The head of a yeshiva in the southern West Bank settlement of Carmel said Friday that he was leading a study session when one of his students was struck in a suspected terror shooting.

The 18-year-old was moderately wounded in the attack Thursday night and taken to the hospital for treatment. Israeli security forces launched a manhunt in the area after the assailant fled.

Speaking with Kan public radio, Rabbi Natan Ofner of Yeshiva Reuta said his pupil was now listed as lightly hurt and was due to undergo surgery to remove shrapnel.

Palestinian terror groups are falling over themselves to praise the heroism of someone shooting through a yeshiva window, hoping to kill Jews.

The People's Republic affirmed that this heroic operation comes in fulfillment of the blood of the martyrs of our people and a victory for the suffering of the prisoners,...The People's Republic stressed that this process confirms the extension of the resistance act, and proves the ability of the resistance in the West Bank to penetrate the complex Zionist security measures, in light of the continuation of security coordination and the pursuit of the resistance. To continue the option of struggle until the last Zionist usurper leaves our land, and you should expect more of these honorable operations in the coming days.

Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman, said, "From the north of the West Bank in Jenin al-Qassam, to its south in Khalil al-Rahman, the rebellious youth in the West Bank continue their fight against the occupation army and its settlers."

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine praised the heroic operation: "It proves once again the efficacy of revolutionary armed violence in responding to the crimes of the occupation. "

The Popular Resistance Movement in Palestine blessed the heroic Hebron operation, saying: "Once again, the Palestinian resistance proves that it is capable of striking the Zionist security system, and its criminal plans against our Palestinian people fail." It added that "the Hebron operation represents a painful blow to the security coordination and to all calls for settlement and defeatism of the Zionist enemy, and the escalation of heroic operations carried out by our brave men in the Palestinian West Bank, will continue as long as the occupation is perched on our occupied land."

It seems that they are trying to convince themselves that this was a monumental victory, hoping that these tales of heroism will help them to recruit more members. I don''t know if Palestinians are buying any of this.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

08/16 Links Pt1: Palestinian response to terror on Israelis shows why peace is impossible; EU funds NGO agendas seeking to undermine Israeli counter-terror policies

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Palestinian response to terror on Israelis shows why peace is impossible

A nation, said John F. Kennedy in October 1963, just a month before he was assassinated, “reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”

How true, not only of nations, but also different societies, and segments within those societies. Whom do they honor? Whom do they lionize? So much can be learned about people by understanding who their heroes are. Are their heroes celebrities or scientists? Athletes or teachers? Multibillionaires or social workers?

It is in this vein that The Jerusalem Post’s lead headline on Monday was so terribly troubling and so dismally depressing: “Palestinian terror groups applaud Jerusalem attack, call for more ‘heroic operations.’”

A Palestinian terrorist goes on a shooting spree in the middle of the night in Jerusalem, wounding eight innocent people – including critically wounding an American Jewish woman in her 26th week of pregnancy who is shot in the stomach – and the reaction of a segment of Palestinian society is to term the operation “heroic,” thereby coronating its perpetrator a hero. Why can't the conflict be solved?

Those well-meaning people around the world who can’t understand why the Israelis and Palestinians can’t just find a way to solve their problems and move on already, need to look no further than that headline to understand.

How is peace possible with those who view as heroic the shooting in the stomach of a woman in her 26th week of pregnancy? How is peace possible with people who put in their pantheon of heroes the person who carried out such an attack? What kind of accommodation can possibly be made with those who view an act so despicable as one that is heroic?

Abbas cheers shooting of Americans (but gets a big check from U.S. anyway)

As five Americans and three Israelis lie wounded in a Jerusalem hospital, some of them fighting for their lives, the official web site of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas is praising the terrorist who shot them.

Yes, the same Abbas who will be receiving more than $500 million in aid from the Biden administration this year. Most of the money will be channeled through third parties, but it’s all fungible—it covers bills that Abbas and the PA would have to pay if the U.S. wasn’t paying them.

Abbas is chairman of both the PA and Fatah, which is the largest faction of the PA. Abbas was a leader of Fatah for many years under Yasir Arafat, before succeeding him as chairman.

Here is what Abbas’s official Fatah website had to say about the shooting attack on the Americans and Israelis in Jerusalem:

“Praise to the one whose rifle only speaks against his enemy. Long live our people’s unity and long live the free hero. Praise to the rifle muzzles, our people will fight the occupation with all kinds of resistance.” (Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch)

According to my data base, at least 146 American citizens have been murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists since the 1968. The international community has largely forgotten them.

Even more forgotten—if that’s possible—are the wounded. At least 203 American citizens have been injured in Palestinian Arab attacks. Very often, their names are not even mentioned in the media coverage until days after.

The Biden administration hosts a web site which offers monetary rewards for information leading to the arrest of terrorists who have harmed Americans overseas. Yet as far as I can tell, it has never paid a reward in connection with Palestinian Arab terrorists who have harmed Americans; there are none listed in the “Success Stories” section of the site (rewardsforjustice.net) .

The Biden administration has an Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism. It has never brought about the arrest of a single Palestinian Arab terrorist involved in attacks on Americans—even though the names of many of the terrorists are publicly known, because they serve in the Palestinian security forces or other Palestinian Authority government positions.

The Biden administration recently invited the family of the late Al Jazeera correspondent, Shireen Abu Akleh, to Washington to meet with American officials. Yet Arnold Roth, the father of Malki Roth—murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists in the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem in 2001—reports that the administration has ignored his repeated requests to meet with U.S. officials in Washington.

NGO Monitor: EU funds NGO agendas seeking to undermine European and Israeli counter-terror policies

On February 1, 2022, the highly politicized and terror-linked Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) – an umbrella organization of over 135 Palestinian organizations – hosted an EU-funded conference, titled ”Shrinking Civic Space for Palestinian Civil Society Organizations: Local and International Policies.” The gathering included a workshop “focused on the strategies and mechanisms needed to combat counter-terrorism policies, regulations, and policies (sic)” (emphasis added).

The conference was attended by Head of the EU Delegation to the West Bank and Gaza Strip Sven Kühn Von Burgsdoff (see below). The event marked the launch of a €588,299 EU-funded project (2021-2024), “Shoraka: Enabling the Environment of CSOs [civil society organizations] in Palestine and Participation of Grassroots Organisations in Decisions Making Process and Constituency Building,” with the primary official objective of seeking “to mitigate and reverse the shrinking space trends, to amplify the Palestinian narrative and the effectiveness of Palestinian advocacy efforts in the EU/EUMS [EU member states]”.

During the conference, Von Burgsdoff referred to Israel’s October 2021 designation of six Palestinian NGOs – including PNGO member organizations – as terrorist entities. He declared, “with concern we have followed alarming incidents recently where human rights defenders, activists, and civil society organizations were subject to unprecedented violations whether in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Gaza. In this context, our position remains principled and unchanged: civil society is and will remain our partner as we promote together the human values and principles that we share.”

As such, Von Burgsdoff appears to be promoting noncompliance with the EU’s own anti-terror policies, which require grantees to ensure that no aid reaches terror groups or entities.

Israel’s October 2021 decision, as well as the other “incidents” (security-related actions) referred to by Von Burgsdoff, are wholly consistent with EU policy and broader efforts to address the problem of terror-linked NGOs.

The multiple links between a number of Palestinian NGOs funded primarily by the EU and other European government frameworks have been documented in detail in NGO research publications.

04/12 Links Pt1: Obama Made the World a More Dangerous Place; Court: Families of terror victims can sue Pal Auth; Employee at USAID Contractor Celebrated Terrorist Attack Against Israeli Civilians

From Ian:

Noah Rothman: Barack Obama Made the World a More Dangerous Place

And that was fine with the Obama White House. From 2009 to 2013, the White House seemed intent only on extricating itself from European affairs. The administration repeatedly canceled plans to provide radar and interceptor missiles to Central European states, withdrew the last American armored units from European soil, and mused publicly about America’s “pivot to Asia” while ending America’s doctrinal commitment to fighting a great-power war on two distinct fronts.

While the Obama administration did pursue sanctions against Moscow in the wake of its attack on Ukraine, they were narrowly targeted. All that “kicking and screaming” must have happened behind closed doors since there’s little evidence for the pressure Obama describes putting on Europe. The Obama White House even lobbied against the passage of sweeping sanctions laws such as the 2012 Magnitsky Act, and the administration never applied them. It was left to the Trump administration to make use of those tools. And when it came time to provide Ukraine with the means to resist Russian aggression, the Obama administration balked. Kyiv asked for anti-tank weapons from the U.S., but the U.S. provided only small boats, body armor, and binoculars.

As for Obama’s hazy recollection of Putin—a man who supposedly bears little resemblance to the rational figure he once knew—we can only conclude that the former president is a terrible judge of character. The Putin he knew was the very same Putin who is implicated in the murder of critical journalists, who tore Grozny to the ground, invaded Georgia, and slaughtered innocents in Syria. Obama knew Putin was “ruthless,” but he did not know he was reckless. How does the president imagine Putin became so risk-prone if not through the many signals he received over the years licensing his audacity? What similarities are there between 2013-2014 and 2021-2022 except for the presence of a Democrat in the Oval Office and the prospect of a renewed nuclear deal with Iran in which Russia plays an instrumental role?

Obama’s self-serving historical revisionism isn’t new. The 44th president is often cast as both master of his domain and a prisoner of circumstances outside his control. It’s a self-serving narrative that should have received a more hostile reception at a “disinformation” conference. American presidents wield a lot of power, and Barack Obama used his to lay the foundations for the more dangerous world we all now inhabit.

Israel’s Supreme Court: Families of terror victims can sue Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority 'expresses consent to their actions, in a way that takes responsibility'

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Sunday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) can be held responsible by the families of those killed in terror attacks.

The court found that the PA’s controversial policy of paying stipends to Palestinian security prisoners and to families of those killed while committing terror attacks constitutes “confirmation” of terrorist activities.

Some believe that the PA’s payments are necessary social assistance for families who lost a breadwinner, while others criticize the payment system as encouraging terrorism.

The decision means that families of those killed and victims of terror attacks can demand financial compensation from the West Bank’s governing authority, Walla! News reported.

This ruling regarded four lawsuits against the PA in Jerusalem’s District Court by the families of those killed in attacks that took place between 2001 and 2002, the early days of the Second Intifada

In 2019, the lawsuits were rejected by the Jerusalem court, which ruled that the payments made by the PA did not confirm that the attacks were carried out on behalf of the authority.

Meir Sachivshorder, one of the partitioners to the Supreme Court - who lost his parents, sister, and brother in a 2001 attack - responded to the decision: “This is a war I have been waging for 21 years… paying salaries to terrorists,” according to Walla! News.

Employee at USAID Contractor Celebrated Terrorist Attack Against Israeli Civilians

Just hours after news broke that a Palestinian terrorist gunned down several Israeli civilians last week, an employee for one of the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) top contractors took to Twitter to celebrate the attack.

"The news is sweeter than a tray of knafeh [dessert] after iftar," tweeted Rawan Abu-Salhieh, who was working at the time as a Jordan-based employee for Proximity International—a prime contractor for USAID that is engaged in several projects that receive U.S. aid dollars. The April 7 terror attack in Tel Aviv killed three Israelis and left six wounded.

Abu-Salhieh routinely celebrates terror attacks on Israel and promotes accounts that encourage violence against Jews, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of her Twitter account. In one Twitter post from two weeks ago, Abu-Salhieh retweeted a graphic that praised a March 29 terror attack in Israel, stating, "shoot and don't have mercy" and describing the assailant as a "heroic martyr." At least a dozen other tweets and retweets contain similar rhetoric in support of terrorism against Israel. Abu-Salhieh deleted her account last week after her comments came under scrutiny from regional observers. Abu-Salhieh's public LinkedIn profile also disappeared shortly after Free Beacon inquiries about her posts; and a Proximity official said she no longer works for the organization, though she was employed when some of her most controversial tweets were published.

Abu-Salhieh's role at an organization that receives U.S. government funding is renewing concerns about USAID's vetting process, which was cited by a government watchdog group in 2021 for its failure to ensure that grantees are not tied to terrorism. Former USAID officials told the Free Beacon that the agency turns a blind eye to contractors that have ties to terrorism and employees who support it. They say this failure to perform oversight work on grant recipients endangers the foreign aid system and allows taxpayer funds to enrich Israel's detractors.

"When someone like the woman who has been flagged is working on a variety of different USAID contracts, the onus is on USAID to actively vet," Bonnie Glick, former deputy administrator at USAID during the Trump administration, told the Free Beacon. "The vetting of key staff should disqualify the contract or grant recipient if they have key personnel who are acting in ways that are anathema to USAID's values."

Proximity International's CEO, Courtney Brown, condemned Abu-Salhieh's rhetoric when reached for comment by the Free Beacon and disclosed that she is no longer an employee of the organization, though she was at the time several of her most controversial tweets were posted. Brown said her departure from the organization was in motion prior to the Free Beacon‘s inquiries, but due to the company's human resources policies, would not disclose the reasons she parted ways with Proximity.

Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood warns against Jew cooties

The term "Jew cooties" was created by Meryl Yourish in 2005 to describe how Arabs and Muslims would treat anything remotely associated with Jews or Israel as dangerous and infectious. (Ironically, her first example - of Dubai rejecting Israeli medical equipment - no longer applies.)

The Observer General of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, Abdul Hamid Al-Thneibat, just issued a statement saying that "the Islamic movement will carry out its duty and play its role in confronting normalization with the Zionist entity and containing its repercussions, and immunizing our Jordanian people and the peoples of the nation from being penetrated by its thought, awareness and culture."

Thneibat bitterly complained, "During the past months, we have rushed into projects of normalization with the occupation through the water and electricity exchange agreement, and a number of leaders of the occupying entity have desecrated the pure land of Jordan."

The Muslim Brotherhood of Jordan is really afraid of infection by Jewish thoughts, Jewish culture and anyone treating Israeli Jews as human beings.

It is reminiscent of Nazi antisemitic propaganda that compared Jews to lice that spread typhus. Which is, after all, the same thinking behind BDS to begin with - to treat everything "Israeli" as contaminated and not to be touched.

Not surprisingly, the group - which insists that it is non-violent - applauds Palestinians murdering Jews.

"The recent heroic operations that the occupied Palestinian territories witnessed in the 1948 lands and in the West Bank during the past days, express the unity of the Palestinian people in the various locations of their presence on the resistance program," he said.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

03/30 Links Pt1: Five killed in Bnei Brak shooting as Israel enters 'new wave of terror'; Palestinian social media celebrates murder of Ukrainians in terror attack

From Ian:

Five killed in Bnei Brak shooting as Israel enters 'new wave of terror'

Five people were killed by a Palestinian terrorist in a shooting attack in the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) city of Bnei Brak on Tuesday night.

The shooting was first reported around 8:00 p.m. on HaShnaim Street. One person was found lifeless in a car and two other people were shot dead on a nearby sidewalk. A video later circulating on social media showed the attacker yelling in Arabic, shooting bystanders with an assault rifle on a residential street.

Another Israeli was found dead on Herzl street, perpendicular to HaShnaim Street. Yaakov Shalom, a Bnei Brak resident and father of five, and rabbi Avishai Yehezkeli, a yeshiva teacher and father of two, were identified as two of the five people killed in the attack. Victor Sorokopot, 38, and Dimitri Mitrik, 23, two workers from Ukraine, were also identified as victims of the attack.

The shooter was later shot dead by a police officer who arrived at the scene on a motorcycle. The officer, 32-year-old Arab Christian Amir Khouri, was evacuated to Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in critical condition and died from his wounds soon after, making him the fifth victim.

The shooter was identified as Dia Hamarsha, 27, from the village of Ya'bad in the northern West Bank near Jenin. He was jailed for six months in 2015 for dealing in illegal firearms and affiliation with a terrorist group, and had worked illegally at a Bnei Brak construction site.

Another person was arrested at the scene and investigated on suspicion of assisting the shooter, and a third person was arrested later on Tuesday night further east on Jabotinsky Street.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi, Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar to discuss the attack and rule on Israel's response.

In the meantime, Israel Police was put on its highest alert level for the first time since Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021. Shabtai decided that the police will focus on visible public security and will put more officers on the streets and in crowded areas. The IDF also announced that it was also sending reinforcements to the West Bank.

Victims of Bnei Brak terror attack: 2 local fathers, Christian Arab cop, 2 Ukranians

Authorities early Wednesday identified three of the five victims of a deadly terror shooting spree in Bnei Brak the previous night, including two young fathers and a police officer who helped kill the gunman.

The victims were named as officer Amir Khoury, 32, a Christian Arab; and local residents Yaakov Shalom, 36, and Avishai Yehezkel, 29.

The two other victims were foreign workers from Ukraine who had not been identified by Wednesday afternoon.

Khoury, an Arab Israeli from the northern town of Nof Hagalil, served on the Bnei Brak police station’s motorcyclist responders team.

Khoury was part of a team of two motorcycle officers who caught up with the gunman and killed him, ending the deadly shooting spree.

Khoury was hit in the exchange of fire and later died after being rushed to the Beilinson Medical Center, officials said.

Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai spoke later with Khoury’s father, Jarris. The father told Shabtai that they are a police family and that he was a veteran of the Tel Aviv police department.

Shabtai said his son’s death, confronting the attacker, was “a great tragedy for the police.”

“Alongside the tragedy, it is important for me to tell you that your son saved the lives of many civilians,” Shabtai says. “His actions will become a legacy and memory of heroism for the whole country.”

Khoury leaves behind his parents and two sisters.

'Israel is dealing with a new wave of terrorism' - Bennett

In a video statement released after the Bnei Brack attack, Bennett said that Israel is "currently facing a new wave of terrorism.”

"After a period of quiet, there is a violent eruption by those who want to destroy us, those who want to hurt us at any price, whose hatred of Jews, of the State of Israel, drives them crazy," Bennett said in a short video address Wednesday morning.

"They are prepared to die – so that we will not live in peace," he added.

Israel has already pushed to thwart what it feared would be outbreaks of Palestinian violence, similar to what sparked a Gaza war last May and a wave of ethnic Jewish-Arab riots within sovereign Israel.

"What we witnessed less than a year ago in Operation Guardians of the Walls, the terrorism and the violence, from within Israel and inside Israel, was the first sign," Bennett said.

"This is a great and complex challenge for the IDF, the ISA and the Israel Police that requires the security establishment to be creative and for us to adapt ourselves to the new threat and read the tell-tale signs of lone individuals, sometimes without organizational affiliation, and to be in control on the ground in order to thwart terrorism even before it happens," he explained.

"The security forces of the State of Israel are the best in the world. They are up to the task and, as in the previous waves, we will prevail this time as well," he added.

He sent his condolences to the families of the victims, wished a speedy recovery to the wounded and thanked the civilians and police officers who helped end the attacks for their heroism.

"I stand by the civilians and police officers who shot the terrorists in the various locations. I have spoken with some of them and thanked them on behalf of all of us. These are heroes of Israel who, thanks to their courage, have saved lives," he said.

"We face a challenging period. We have experience in dealing with terrorism, from the very beginning of Zionism. They did not break us then and they will not break us now," Bennett said.

"The secret of our existence is the mutual responsibility among us and our determination to maintain the home that we have built – at any price," he explained, adding that "citizens of Israel, we will prevail this time as well."

No, it's not the Third Intifada - analysis

A generation of both Israelis and Palestinians who grew up in the midst of suicide bombings do not want to see a repeat of such a scenario. Both sides understand the catastrophe that they lived through during those violent years.

Because of that, Israel’s defense establishment only last week increased the number of work permits for Gazans to 20,000, in an attempt to reduce the tensions that have been bubbling under the surface.

Officials from Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar are also working to reduce the flames-holding an unprecedented number of meetings in public. Those meetings came as Israel tried to differentiate between terrorism from the West Bank and Gaza and terrorism carried out by Arab-Israelis.

Nonetheless, despite the rush of diplomatic meetings and doubling of troops in flashpoint areas, 27-year-old Dia Hamarsheh was still able to illegally cross into Israel through a hole in the security fence and open fire on unarmed civilians with a military-grade assault rifle, just mere minutes from Tel Aviv.

In order to prevent future attacks, including copycat attacks, security forces and Bennett’s government have a lot of work to do.

One issue that should top their list is to fix the holes in the security fence through which thousands of Palestinians cross to Israel daily – including the mornings after each deadly attack this past week.

Security forces must also ramp up their operations in combating the trend of illegal weapons that have flooded into Arab communities and continue to be smuggled in from Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.

Combating the ideologies of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a struggle that will continue for years, and will be harder to deal with as long as Palestinians and Arab-Israelis feel they have nothing to lose.

Israel’s military does not want Defensive Shield 2.0 2022. But in order to prevent that, the IDF, Shin Bet and Israel Police must get the situation under control.

They can no longer afford to play catch-up.

03/23 Links Pt1: Two mothers of 3, a Chabad rabbi, a brother of 4: The terror victims named; Ukraine can happen in Israel too; Why Israel's Iron Dome Won't Help Ukraine Against Russia

From Ian:

Two mothers of 3, a Chabad rabbi, a brother of 4: The terror victims named

The four people killed by an Arab Israeli knifeman in a Beersheba terror attack on Tuesday were named as Doris Yahbas, 49, a mother of three, Laura Yitzhak, 43, also a mother of three, Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, a father of four, and Menahem Yehezkel, 67, a brother to four.

Yahbas was from Moshav Gilat, west of Beersheba, the Merhavim Regional Council said in a statement. She is survived by her husband and children.

Her funeral was planned for Wednesday at Gilat’s cemetery.

Yahbas’s nephew, Yisrael Ozen, a paramedic for the Magen David Adom first responder service, had rushed to the scene of the stabbing where he discovered that one of the victims was his aunt.

“While giving treatment I noticed that it was my aunt, my mother’s sister,” he said.

Yahbas, who was stabbed in the entrance to a clothes shop, was already showing no vital signs and medics were forced to declare her dead, he said.

“I was shocked,” Ozen admitted, but said he could not linger and needed to attend to his uncle, Yahbas’s husband, who had arrived at the location.

Another victim was identified as Menahem Yehezkel, a 67-year-old resident of Beersheba. He had no children and leaves behind four siblings, Ynet reported.

“He never bothered anyone. He just went out for a walk,” his nephew told Ynet. “It’s a heavy blow, a terrible tragedy.”

Funerals begin for Beersheba terror victims as bereaved families mourn ‘heavy loss’

Funerals were held Wednesday afternoon for two of the four victims of a terror attack in Beersheba the day before, with a third planned for later in the evening.

Menahem Yehezkel, 67, was laid to rest in a cemetery in the southern city while the burial ceremony for Doris Yahbas, 49, was held in Moshav Gilat, a small community close to Beersheba. Hundreds attended both funerals.

At 7 p.m. Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, 50, was to be buried in the same cemetery as Yehezkel. The funeral for Laura Yitzhak, 43, has yet to be scheduled.

“Doris, my dear wife, mother of my children, who raised them with me, we ask you for forgiveness, we will never forget you all of our lives,” Yahbas’s husband Yossi said at her funeral.

“You were the mainstay and the central link of the whole family,” he said. The terrorist “cut you away from us. You will always be with us, in our heart and soul. I promise to look after the children as you looked after them.”

Public Security Minister Omer Barlev attended Yahbas’s funeral, where he said that “a murderous terrorist incident took place, carried out by a vile killer who murdered women only because of the hatred that burned in him, and committed this heinous crime.”

The minister raised some eyebrows when he vowed to put the terrorist, who was killed in the attack, in jail. Barlev later said he had been asked to talk at the last moment and misspoke, having intended to say any accomplices would be brought to justice.

At Laura Yitzhak’s funeral, husband Tal said: “I fell in love with you at first sight when we served together in the army.” The attacker, he said, “decided to kill in cold blood for no reason, because she was Jewish.”

“What will I do now?” Tal said. “You are the one who takes care of me, the girls, our home.”

One of Yitzhak’s three daughters, Efrat, eulogized her, saying: “Mom, I can’t take it in that you’re not here. I thank you for how you taught me. I will not forget you, I promise to look after the children. You are a hero.”

03/09 Links Pt2: State Department Hire Oversaw UN’s Terrorist Textbook Program; The PLO has renounced all agreements with Israel, and why it doesn’t matter

From Ian:

The case for a Palestinian state is based on flawed moral logic

Consequently, the moral argument for Palestinian self-determination and statehood compete with moral arguments for Israel’s existence. If the moralists are correct, Israel’s crime was not in winning the war against Arab aggression in 1967, but its survival and victory in 1949.

As long as Palestinians are unwilling to renounce their intent to destroy Israel and reject reciprocity, why should Israel continue to make concessions?

Opponents of settlements have led us into the trap of believing that creating another Arab Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza will satisfy Arab demands for Israel’s elimination. Moreover, using moral arguments masks an even more confused belief that Israel and Jews are guilty for alleged crimes against the Palestinian people when the State of Israel was established, ensuing war and dislocation, Arab refugees and the failures of Palestinianism.

The UN and the media transformed the image of the PLO from a terrorist organization into a national liberation movement and a moral imperative. “One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter” and “justice for Palestinians” became incantations of moral sophistry.

Arguments for a Palestinian state should be made on its merits, not on guilt-feelings, apologies for Israel’s existence and scorning Jews who live over the Green Line.

Fear-mongering by some Diaspora-minded Jews about what the goyim will say is shameful, not only because it denies the truth of Jewish claims, but it causes suffering to others.

Jewish and Israeli uber-moralists who oppose the Levy Report, which detailed Israel’s rights in the area by offering moral flicks instead of serious legal arguments ignore reality and undermine the purpose, ethos and sovereignty of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.

In fact, “the two state solution,” rather than promoting peace, ensures that the conflict will continue by promoting the Palestinian narrative, the Nakba, the attempt to destroy Israel in 1948. “Ending the occupation,” as supporters of Palestinians claim, means the entire area “from the river to the sea.”

That is the moral issue.

State Department Hire Oversaw UN’s Terrorist Textbook Program

The Biden administration has hired the former director of a United Nations agency accused of promoting anti-Semitism and terrorism in Palestinian schools to help oversee refugee issues and U.N. reform at the State Department.

Elizabeth Campbell was hired as deputy assistant secretary of state at the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration last month, according to reports. From 2017 to 2022, Campbell served as Washington, D.C., director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a U.N. agency that runs schools for Palestinian children and has used textbooks that teach anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist views.

Campbell's appointment puts her in the position of working for the same State Department bureau that provides funding and oversight for the U.N. agency she previously helped run.

Rich Goldberg, a senior adviser with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the Biden administration's decision to hire Campbell shows it has no intention of demanding accountability from UNRWA.

"That is the height of outrage," said Goldberg, who worked on UNRWA reform issues as deputy chief of staff for former senator Mark Kirk. "It shows the Biden administration has zero agenda to achieve any semblance of reform at that agency."

Under Campbell's tenure, UNRWA was accused of disseminating anti-Semitic and anti-Israel literature. The Trump administration cut the agency's funding, and the European Parliament passed a resolution last April condemning UNRWA for textbooks that teach "hate speech and violence" in Palestinian schools run by the agency.

US pressure on UNRWA to stop incitement in education is US “forcing the Zionist narrative”

Israel Despised

Diatribes against Israel by Jews are hardly new. But French journalist Sylvain Cypel, who emigrated to Israel in time to become an IDF paratrooper before studying at the Hebrew University, has set a new low standard. His “The State of Israel vs. the Jews” recounts how twelve years of living in the Jewish State and confronting its “colonial attitudes” transformed him into a stanch anti-Zionist who takes evident delight in lacerating Israel.

For Cypel the Six-Day War was transformative. Not because it returned Jews to their Biblical homeland in Judea and Samaria (names nowhere mentioned by him) after two decades of Jordanian rule. Rather because it unleashed Israeli “colonization and occupation” that reflect the apartheid values of the Jewish state — which, as it happens, has a more diverse population (Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze) than all Arab states combined.

So Israel became “a racist, bullying little superpower.” In Cypel’s warped vision it is “occupying another people’s land,” imposing ”a policy of dispossession and repression” upon cruelly conquered Palestinians. Its “colonial mentality of domination” protects settlers who nurture “an exalted, messianic view of the Land of Israel.” Cypel labels it a ”system of madness.”

His indictment does not stop there. Cypel imagines that “the effects of colonization and occupation have become deeply ingrained within the psyche of the colonizing society:” Israel. To support his spurious claim, he lacerates Ateret Cohanim as a “messianic” Jewish organization that has focused on the “Judaization” of Jerusalem’s Old City by “expelling as many of its Palestinian residents as possible.” In fact, Ateret Cohanim seeks to reclaim Jewish-owned property seized by Arabs during Israel’s independence war, when Jews were expelled from their Old City homes and prevented from returning until Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War nineteen years later.

Heading south, Cypel absurdly identifies Hebron, burial site of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people and the first capital of ancient Israel, as “a place where [Israeli] racist oppression is at its worst.” (He ignores the horrific slaughter of dozens of Hebron Jews in 1929 by rioting Arabs.) He is oblivious to Hebron’s reality: seven hundred and fifty Jews are confined to a decrepit neighborhood in the old city, where they are outnumbered by thirty thousand Arabs. The prospering Arab sector of Hebron, inhabited by 200,000 Muslims (and no Jews), features shopping malls, a university, hotels and apartment complexes.

12/08 Links Pt1: 34 years after First Intifada, terror attacks still a daily threat in Israel; 58% of Israeli Jews back striking Iran’s nuke program without US consent

From Ian:

New GOP Taylor Force Bill Targets Palestinian ‘Martyr Payments’ Routed Through US Financial System

A group of Republican senators led by Tom Cotton on Monday introduced a bill that would allow the US government to sanction foreign banks using the American financial system to facilitate so-called “martyr payments” to families of Palestinian terrorists.

“Radical Islamic terrorists shouldn’t be rewarded for killing innocent people, and banks should be held responsible for processing any sort of ‘martyr payments,’ Cotton stated at a press conference Monday introducing the new bill.

The bill, named the “Taylor Force Martyr Payment Prevention Act of 2021,” seeks to ensure “Palestinian terrorists don’t benefit financially for committing these senseless murders,” Cotton added.

The legislation builds on the Taylor Force Act, which was passed with bipartisan support in 2018 to restrict non-humanitarian US aid to the Palestinian Authority if it continues to make payments to security prisoners and their families.

The Act was named in memory of a former American army officer stabbed to death in 2016 by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv.

“The legislation has made a difference, but our work is not yet finished. Reporting has revealed that foreign banks in the Middle East in the Mediterranean, continue to process the so-called martyr payments, sometimes in US dollar-denominated transactions,” Cotton said. “They have escaped sanctions by avoiding an official US presence, while maintaining correspondent accounts in the United States.”

34 years after First Intifada, terror attacks still a daily threat in Israel - analysis

There is no set date or event for when the Second Intifada ended, with some saying the unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip was the ‘end date’ while others say that the death of Yasser Arafat led Palestinians to stop the violence.

Ten years later, the 2015 “stabbing intifada” began with Palestinians – mainly youth – stabbing, running over and shooting Israeli soldiers, civilians and even tourists in a wave of violence in the West Bank and Israel. There were almost daily attacks in the winter of 2015-16 before the violence decreased.

There have been sporadic waves of violence since and all, if not most of them, were carried out by lone-wolf Palestinian youths.

Unlike during the first two intifadas, the challenges that the army faces during the current wave of violence in the West Bank and Israel are completely different.

The Palestinians who were involved in the violence during the first and second intifadas were much older than the average attacker that the army currently faces. The IDF’s intelligence-gathering capabilities have also increased dramatically since the prior two intifadas.

Another change that’s less apparent but just as important is the increased communications between the two sides which did not exist before. But while the IDF does not consider the recent attacks as a significant rise in violence, or another “wave” of attacks, the military must admit that the lone-wolf attacker is a threat that they have yet to control.

Jonathan Schanzer: US Media Coverage on Israel is 'insane'

Author and Middle East analyst Jonathan Schanzer joins JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin to discuss his new book "Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War."

The two discuss how the myths about the conflict spread by Palestinian terror groups and picked up by the media have impacted opinion about Israel and how the conflict between Fatah and Hamas and their opposition to peace with the Jewish state is ignored by the Jewish state’s critics.

11/25 Links Pt1: The UN Must Reject Palestinian Rejectionism; US to unilaterally reopen PA Consulate in Jerusalem; UK Hamas Ban Doesn't Go Far Enough

From Ian:

The UN Must Reject Palestinian Rejectionism

The United Nations reserves November 29, its International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, for robust anti-Israel activity. The day’s events inappropriately put the UN’s thumb on the scale in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, encouraging Palestinian obstinacy by normalizing Palestinian viewpoints.

November 29 marks the anniversary of the 1947 partition plan, which would have created an Arab state and a Jewish state in British Mandatory Palestine.

While the Jewish leadership accepted partition, Arab leaders rejected it, setting in motion more than seven decades of bloodshed. Now, many pro-Palestinian activists have embraced Solidarity Day as a repudiation of Israel’s existence.

In previous years, speakers at Solidarity Day events have falsely charged one of Israel’s founding fathers — David Ben-Gurion — with advocating ethnic cleansing; mendaciously accused Israel of perpetrating apartheid and ethnic cleansing; called for boycotts of Israel; and advocated a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” which is a call to ethnically cleanse the land of Jews.

According to the UN, Solidarity Day provides an opportunity to focus on how the Palestinians have yet to “attain their inalienable rights,” including “the right to return” to Israel, as a UN advertisement put it. Yet the Palestinian “right to return” is fictitious, according to many international law experts, since it rests on non-legally binding documents, including a General Assembly resolution. Forcing Israel to accept an influx of potentially hostile individuals would infringe on the Jewish state’s right to security — a recipe for promoting violence and strife.

The UN event’s advertisement also highlights the participation of “Palestinian activist” Mohammed El-Kurd. El-Kurd has previously praised the violence of the Second Intifada, which occurred between 2000 and 2005, for terrorizing Israelis; he has described all Israelis as terrorists; and he also called for ethnically cleansing the land of Jews. Just this month, El-Kurd justified the murder of an Israeli civilian in Jerusalem by posting an old photo of the victim in an army uniform and falsely calling him a settler — which, in any case, is not an open license for murder.

Solidarity Day is also sandwiched between the General Assembly’s 16 annual end-of-year resolutions promoting the Palestinian agenda and castigating Israel. One resolution, titled “Occupied Syrian Golan,” even deplores Israel’s presence in the Golan — without mentioning the Syrian regime’s butchering of over half a million of its own people

Report: US to unilaterally reopen PA Consulate in Jerusalem

A high-ranking Israeli official has told i24news that the United States will be opening a consulate to deal with Palestinian affairs “soon,” Asharq Al-Awsat reports.

According to the report, the Biden administration has already informed Israel of its intentions and plans to move ahead unilaterally if it does not obtain a response from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government, which is no longer seen as under immediate threat of dissolving due to internal strife, now that the budget has passed.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump closed the consulate in 2019 after recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the U.S. embassy to the city, merging its services with the consulate.

The report added that the official Israeli source also stated that the government would soon be announcing a new settlement plan in “East Jerusalem,” an area which includes parts of the city’s northern and eastern neighborhoods that were brought under Israeli control during the Six-Day War. The area referred to is actually in the northern suburb of Atarot near to where an industrial zone already exists.

Tom Gross: “A stronger Israel in a less stable world,” Tom Gross, 24 Nov 2021

Tom Gross argues that despite the various threats and challenges it still faces, Israel has never been in a stronger position: diplomatically, economically, militarily, culturally, and in terms of personal safety for its citizens. Meanwhile, several Arab states are in a state of full or partial disintegration (Syria, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq) -- and the wider world is in many ways less stable than at any time since the end of WW2.

Tom Gross is interviewed by Paul Gross (no relation) of the Jerusalem think tank, the Begin Center. (Nov 24, 2021).

06/21 Link Pt1: Is Bennett set to shake-up global consensus on a two-state solution?; UK to boycott ‘festival of Jew-hate’ Durban IV; PA to renegotiate COVID-19 vaccine deal with Israel

From Ian:

David Singer: Is Bennett set to shake-up global consensus on a two-state solution?

Bennett – anointed as “Prime Minister and Minister for Settlement Affairs” – is now uniquely placed to promote his “Israel Stability Initiative – February 2012” (Stability Plan) – summarised by him in 2017:

“The main idea of The Stability Plan is to provide full civilian self-governance to the Palestinians so they can elect themselves, pay their taxes, and control those areas that are theirs. We should apply sovereignty in Israeli-controlled areas – known as Area C – and Palestinians living there will become part and parcel of the State of Israel. And since within the State of Israel you cannot have two levels of people, those Palestinians living in Area C – approximately 80,000 people – will be offered full Israeli citizenship, including voting rights. I think most will opt for residency rather than citizenship (like in East Jerusalem) but it’s up to them. They can be Israeli citizens, Israeli residents or Palestinian citizens.

"Those living in the Palestinian-controlled areas (Areas A and B) will govern themselves in all aspects barring two elements: overall security responsibility and not being able to allow the return of decedents [sic] of Palestinians refugees. We can’t have an inflow of millions of great grandchildren of 1948 refugees coming across the Jordan River because in one swoop that would distort the demography of the area, and within a few weeks of their arrival, the local Palestinians in Judea and Samaria would tell them to ‘go back to Jaffa’ which would subsequently create pressure on Israel that could lead to a third intifada inside ‘Smaller Israel’.

"My option is that Palestinians have an ‘autonomy on steroids,’ and I’m open to ideas about how this materialises; it could be a confederation with Jordan, or local municipalities, or a central government. It would encompass full freedom of movement, massive infrastructure investment, the creation of a tourism zone so Christians can enter Haifa, Nazareth, Nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem and Hebron without going through road blocks. We would have joint industrial centres, and we’d be able to create a land port governed by the Palestinians in Jenin that would be connected to Haifa.”

Bennett continued:
“I understand there is global consensus around the two-state solution, but what the world thinks is no proof for the correctness of a plan. The world gets it wrong a lot.

"I’d say to those in the international community who are so entrenched in the idea of a Palestinian state that (a) the Palestinians have a state in Gaza and they blew it, and (b) after 50 years, at what time do we need to rethink? In the high tech world where I come from, if my employees tried the same solution and failed again and again I’d fire them as I’d expect them to have tried to tackle the challenge from a different angle by now! There is an industry around this topic – think-tanks, journals, professionals and academics who keep on chewing on the same old failed solution. We’re not in Europe, we live in a region with very few democracies, and when we tried this idea out it blew up in our faces and no one showed us any sympathy.”

Is Bennett going to stand behind his earlier plan? Global consensus needs to positively respond to Bennett’s challenge.

UK to boycott ‘festival of Jew-hate’ Durban IV

The British government has confirmed it will boycott Durban IV, an international conference that has been dubbed “the festival of Jew-hate.”

The UK will join Australia, Canada, Israel and the US in not attending the United Nations conference, which purports to focus on tackling racism across the globe.

When the event first took place in 2001 the US, Israel and Canada walked out, citing a series of antisemitic remarks that had been made at the gathering.

Several of those present also tried to claim that Zionism equated to racism.

The Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council and Conservative Friends of Israel all wrote to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab this year, insisting the UK did not attend.

Last night a government spokesperson confirmed: "Following historic concerns regarding antisemitism, the UK has decided not to attend the UN’s Durban Conference anniversary event later this year."

CFI Parliamentary Chairmen, Stephen Crabb MP and Lord Eric Pickles, said: “Confirmation that the UK will not attend Durban IV is extremely welcome. It is absolutely right that the UK is joining our close allies Australia, Canada and the US in condemning the infamous gathering.

“We applaud this latest decisive action from the UK government in opposing antisemitism in all its forms and wherever it occurs.”

Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, Vice President of the JLC and an attendee at the 2001 conference, said: “This is welcome news. Tainted with Jew hatred, poisonous rhetoric about Israel and Holocaust denial and minimisation, the Durban process is no place to tackle racism. It is time for the Durban conferences to be consigned to history.

"The British Government has done the right thing once again by taking a principled stance and refusing to attend.”

?? #BREAKING: The #UK just confirmed they will withdraw from #DurbanIV anti-Israel anti-Jewish hatefest at the UN, legitimately citing concerns over #antisemitism.https://t.co/8V8PHIA35r

Might have to update my presentation though now ... https://t.co/4LBllY4zpg
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) June 21, 2021

UN Watch commends the UK for pulling out of the UN's anti-Israel Durban IV event to be held in September. We urge other nations to follow.

?? Pulled out of Durban IV so far: ????????????????????
?? Pulled out of Durban III in 2011: ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????https://t.co/faq7UQVtb4
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) June 21, 2021

Outcry over UK funding for Palestinian school books that ‘incite terrorism’

Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) called on the UK to “act decisively to end its facilitation” of the PA’s “extreme curriculum”.

The UK and the EU directly pay the salaries of teachers who are involved in the production and implementation of the educational materials.

CFI’s Parliamentary chairmen Stephen Crabb MP and Lord Pickles, and CFI Honorary President Lord Polak, said British taxpayers would be “understandably appalled” to discover they had been funding the use of “hate-filled material” and criticised a “decade of prevarication and denial” by the UK government.

The review, undertaken by the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, was completed in February 2021 but has just been published following growing pressure for its public release.

It details extensive examples of radical material from 156 textbooks and 16 teachers’ guides used between 2017 and 2019.

The report includes dozens of examples of encouragement of violence and demonisation of Israel and of Jews, including the repeated glorification of “heroine” Dalal al-Mughrabi, who killed 38 Israelis, including 13 children, in a terror attack. The report found glorification and praise of terrorists who killed Israeli civilians in history, social studies, science and maths books.

An exercise in one religious studies textbook asks students to discuss the “repeated attempts by the Jews to kill the prophet” Muhammad and asks who are “other enemies of Islam".

Islamic Jihad praises "heroic operations" of triple terror attack

Here's what the autotranslated Islamic Jihad news site Palestine Today described this morning's terror attacks:

Nothing thrills these animals more than dead Jews.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

07/27 Links Pt1: Palestinian Authority TV Lauds President Abbas' Holocaust Denial PhD Thesis; UNRWA Complains About Funding While Training Children to Wage War

From Ian:

MEMRI: Palestinian Authority TV Lauds President Abbas' Holocaust Denial PhD Thesis, Terror Attacks Launched From Lebanon

The official Palestinian Authority TV channel broadcast a bio-documentary on President Mahmoud Abbas. The show presented his Ph.D. dissertation from the Russian Institute of Oriental Studies, claiming that he had "exposed the relations between the global Zionist organization and the Nazi regime." In a book, published on the basis of the dissertation, Abbas claimed that the number of victims in the Holocaust was less than one million. The PA TV program included an interview with Dr. Khadr Al-Zufairi, a personal friend of Abbas, who praised his oratory skills and said that Abbas had presented 93 documents to prove his claims. Later in the show, the channel lauded Dalal Al-Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road terrorist attack in Israel, and other terrorists who launched "heroic operations" from Lebanon, saying that they "embodied the epitome of martyrdom in occupied Palestine." The program aired on July 20, 2018.

"When [Mahmoud Abbas] Headed The Palestinian-Soviet Friendship Foundation, He Was Working On A Ph.D. Dissertation, Which He Later Published As An Important Book, Titled: The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism And Zionism"

Narrator: "When [Mahmoud Abbas] headed the Palestinian-Soviet Friendship Foundation, he was working on a Ph.D. dissertation, which he later published as an important book, titled: The Other Side: The Secret Relationship between Nazism and Zionism. In the book, Abbas presented documents exposing the relations between the global Zionist organization and the Nazi regime, and the agreements between the Zionists and the Nazis, especially the Haavara Agreement. The Hebrew word ['Haavara'] means 'transfer.'"

Khadr Al-Zufairi: "The dissertation committee consisted of 27 professors. There was an unexpectedly large attendance. People were asking one another: How come so many people have come? That dissertation was unusual – even its title was unusual for the Russians. Anyway, the custom is that when a student defends his dissertation, he is allowed to write three or four pages of notes to read from. Abbas had only one page, with the main points, and he started speaking. The translator was from the Institute of Oriental Studies. He was fluent in both Arabic and Russian. He lectured, defending his dissertation, improvising as he spoke... Abbas is a very eloquent and capable speaker. He defended his dissertation.

"Then the head of the committee of the Institute of Oriental Studies asked him: 'Do you have any documents that prove what you are saying?' [Abbas] picked up the documents next to him and said: 'I have 93 documents to prove what I'm saying.' He read out an abstract of the first document, then the next, and so on. He even had documents that he had managed to get from Israel. Anyway, he finished with distinction, and the Institute of Oriental Studies asked to print the dissertation as a book in Russian."

UNRWA Complains About Funding While Training Children to Wage War

Over the past month, reports have circulated that members of the US House of Representatives’ Middle East Subcommittee have raised concerns that humanitarian aid is not reaching the Palestinian population, especially in Gaza.

In response, the Center for Near East Policy Research (CFNEPR) contacted 44 donor nations that contribute humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population in Gaza through UNRWA in order to determine if any had cut back on their donations. With the exception of the US, which has cut back on 20% of its donations, every single donor nation responded emphatically that they are not cutting one penny in aid to UNRWA.

Therefore, UNRWA currently has $1.2 billion to spend on the people supposed to benefit from its health, education, and welfare programs in Gaza, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

Despite this, UNRWA proclaims to the media that it is bereft of resources to provide basic services. The organization’s media adviser Adnan Abu Hasna declared that UNRWA lacks basic food products and the people of Gaza “have nothing to lose,” adding “we don’t know yet whether school will open in the coming year. … We’re talking about 300,000 students who need to go to school.”

So why does UNRWA claim that it does not have funds for humanitarian needs?

The answer may lie with Hamas, the terror group that has controlled the UNRWA workers and teachers associations in Gaza since 1999.

It was our turn in Adam

When the gunshots rang out we didn't panic, but for the wrong reasons. Every evening the sounds of gunfire bursts and firecracker explosions from the nearby Arab villages pierce the air. These villages are trapped between Jerusalem's municipal territory and the separation fence, and no one enforces the law in them. Thus, on Thursday evening when a few friends and I were mingling in the plaza outside the local synagogue, we didn't imagine that a tragedy had befallen the community of Adam.

The person I was talking to in that moment had lost his daughter just three weeks ago due to a rare amniotic fluid embolism. The daughter died, the baby granddaughter was saved, and the entire community, thousands of people, came to mourn and grieve with him. No one was thinking of terror or anything related. Around five minutes later, when a security vehicle sped past us, we understood something had happened. Even then, and perhaps it will sound strange, I assumed it was a criminal incident.

I ran home to the kids. One wasn't home but we soon learned he was with neighbors. We locked the doors and waited for things to unfold. My phone soon began vibrating with rapidly incoming reports and updates. A long hour later, we still couldn't get any information about who had been hurt.

The minutes passed and slowly the mind shifted to the realization that we too, in Adam, had come under a terrorist infiltration attack. For years we had been very worried about it. The community guard group had run hundreds of drills to defend against such an attack; they were rushed to the fence dozens of times due to infiltrations, which later emerged as criminal incidents or just a stray animal. This time it was real.

03/09 Links Pt1: Jaffa terror victim was US Army vet, MBA student; Fatah celebrates murder of American

From Ian:

Avni: Terror shouldn’t be rewarded

Making sense of death is a near-impossible task. But with more than four months having passed since the brutal murder of my father, Richard Lakin, a dual citizen of both Israel and the United States, some things have become clear to me.
Firstly, the evil of terrorism does not discriminate, striking down the very best of people.
Secondly, terror does not occur in a vacuum. More than 30 Israelis have been killed during the latest wave of violence, almost half murdered by Palestinians aged 20 or under — children who have been indoctrinated to kill through poisonous incitement.
Thirdly, and perhaps most unequivocally, my father’s treasured values of coexistence, equality and peace must not be allowed to perish with him.
You would be hard-pressed to find a greater advocate for peace and coexistence than my father. As a young man in Connecticut, he pioneered the integration of the school at which he served as principal, and marched alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights struggle.
Our family has been following the terrible events of the past few months closely. With every attack we relive the nightmare and ask ourselves the same question: What causes a teenager to grab a knife and butcher an innocent civilian? As my father well understood, people are not born with hate, it is inculcated.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas must shoulder much of the blame. He has shamelessly endorsed the actions of countless terrorists, praising their “martyrdom.” He even made a condolence call to the family of Bahaa Allyan, one of the two young terrorists who murdered my father.
Last month I wrote to President Obama, urging him to condemn Abbas’ visit to the parents of the terrorist who murdered my father, and to call upon Abbas to curtail the wanton incitement that is fueling this wave of terror. I know that Vice President Joe Biden, who will be visiting Israel soon, shares the same values as my father. I am sure that he too will take the simple message of my father’s book, “Teaching As an Act of Love,” and convey it to President Abbas: “Every child is a miracle,” a miracle that should be nurtured with love, not hatred.

Jaffa terror victim was US Army vet, Vanderbilt student

The American tourist killed in Tuesday’s terror attack in Tel Aviv was identified as 29-year-old Taylor Force, a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, the school said in a statement.
Force, a Lubbock, Texas native, was killed and at least 10 people were injured Tuesday evening when a Palestinian man carried out a stabbing spree in Jaffa. Five of the injured were described as being in critical condition.
The attack was the third of the day; two policemen were badly hurt in a Jerusalem shooting earlier, and a 40-year-old father-of-five was stabbed repeatedly and moderately injured in an attack in Petah Tikva before managing to stab his assailant with his own knife.
Force was a US army veteran, according to his LinkedIn profile and an article published on a business school review website. He graduated from West Point Military Academy in 2009 and served as a field artillery officer from 2009-2014 at Fort Hood. A veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, he was in Israel on a school program.
Force’s wife was severely injured in the attack, according to Zaki Heller, spokesperson for the Magen David Adom ambulance service.
“It is with extreme sadness that I write to inform you that Taylor Force, a student at our Owen Graduate School of Management, was fatally wounded March 8 in a stabbing attack while on an Owen school trip to Tel Aviv, Israel,” the Nashville, Tennessee university said in a statement. “All other Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff on the trip are safe.”
“This horrific act of violence has robbed our Vanderbilt family of a young hopeful life and all of the bright promise that he held for bettering our greater world,” school Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos wrote. “Taylor’s family and his friends and colleagues have our deepest sympathy and utmost support.”

Fatah celebrates murder of American tourist

Fatah and the Palestinian Authority celebrated yesterday’s murder of Taylor Force, an American tourist who was visiting Israel with Vanderbilt University. Fatah’s official Facebook page posted a drawing of a knife held over the PA map of “Palestine” that includes all of Israel and the PA areas.
Text on arm: “The heroic Martyr (Shahid)”
Text on map is name of Taylor Force’s murderer: “Bashar Masalha”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, March 9, 2016]
Palestinian terrorist Masalha ran through the streets of Tel Aviv-Jaffa yesterday stabbing every civilian he passed, killing Force and injuring 11.
Official PA TV coined the American and other victims “settlers.” The PA often calls all Israeli cities - "occupied" - and all Israelis - “settlers” - a category of people they have claimed that international law gives them the right to murder. By calling the American a “settler” - even though he is not Israeli and was in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, official PA TV news is putting the blame on the victim.
PA TV likewise honored the killer calling him a “Shahid” - an Islamic Martyr:

PA TV News: American terror victim is “settler,” his Palestinian killer is holy “Martyr”

As Abbas claims not to want escalation, his media says otherwise

Yesterday I quoted The Guardian on how Mahmoud Abbas' government was talking out of both sides of its mouth when it said it didn't want an escalation of violence:

“We don’t want a military and security escalation with Israel,” Abbas said at a meeting of Palestinian officials, according to the official news agency Wafa. “We are telling our security forces, our political movements, that we do not want an escalation, but that we want to protect ourselves.”

Although Abbas’s comments were initially interpreted as an indication he was moving to calm the situation, a Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) statement issued later seemed to undermine those hopes.

“Saluting the masses of Palestinians who are confronting the occupation,” the statement said, before calling on Palestinians to “unite for an act of national defence”.

Of course, Abbas' media knows which one is the real message.

Here is a cartoon from the official PA daily Al Ayyam telling everyone to prepare their stones to hurl at Jews:

"Total Preparedness"

"A signal from you, and all the stones of Palestine (will be) at your service..."

And the official Fatah EU website Fatehmedia.eu refers to the many recent stabbing and shooting attacks as "heroic operations."

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Jordanian paper encourages more Arabs to stab Jews

An article in Jordan's Ad-Dustour on Tuesday praised terror attacks against Israeli Jews and encourages Palestinian Arabs to do more of it.

The article, by Yaser Azaatreh, calls these "heroic operations." The author is especially enamored that the terrorists are incited to hate in schools and universities and mosques to act alone, so that the PA security forces aren't aware of them and might frustrate their desire to kill more Jews. He calls the people behind these attacks "the future Palestinian leadership."

Azaatreh encourages "all factions to make greater efforts in promoting a culture of resistance and uprising in the West Bank."

The Israel Embassy in Amman issued a condemnation, which was spurned by the newspaper and other Jordanian media:

Jordanian journalists angrily rebuked Israel’s enemy embassy in Amman on Thursday after the Israeli mission in the Hashemite kingdom protested the media’s praise of Palestinian attacks.

The row was triggered by a June 24 article in the daily newspaper Al-Dustur glorifying the Palestinian attacks which left one Israeli dead in the West Bank and another Border Police officer wounded by stabbing in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The Israeli embassy protested the article, deeming it “ugly and shameful...incitement to kill Israelis.”

Al-Dustur rejected the embassy’s protestations, calling the Palestinian actions “martyrdom operations in heroic defense of their land and rights.”

This is what peace between Israel and Arab nations looks like, in case you were wondering.

11/12 Links Pt1: Why Abbas Will Not Condemn Terror Attacks; Hamas 2nd Richest Terror Org

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Why Abbas Will Not Condemn Terror Attacks

Secretary of State Kerry's "peace process" actually put Israelis and Palestinians on a new collision course.
Not a single Palestinian Authority official has denounced the wave of terror attacks on Israel. They, too, are afraid of being condemned by their people for denouncing "heroic operations" such as ramming a car into a three-month old infant.
Kerry and other Western leaders do not want to understand that Abbas is not authorized to make any concessions for peace with Israel. For Abbas, it is more convenient to be criticized by the U.S. and Israel than to be denounced by his own people. Ignoring these facts, Kerry tried to pressure Abbas into making concessions that would have turned the Palestinian Authority president into a "traitor" in the eyes of his people. Abbas knows that the people he has radicalized would turn against him if he dared to speak out against the killing of Jews.

As Israelis Are Murdered in Palestinian Terror Attacks, Psaki Urges ‘All Sides’ to Show ‘Restraint’ (VIDEO)

Matt Lee: All right, I’m just going to assume that, correct me if I’m wrong but when you say all parties must show restraint, you’re talking about the, who are you talking about?
Jen Psaki: Well, we’re talking about the Israelis, the Palestinians, any who are uh, involved in these uh, eh, tension-raising, rhetoric-raising incidents.
Matt Lee: Okay, but I mean, if you’re standing at a bus stop or something and someone runs a car into you or comes up and stabs you, I don’t know how to, I mean, those people aren’t, don’t need to exercise restraint, do they?
Jen Psaki: Well, Matt, I think I’m referring to the fact that we know that there have been, there’s been rising tensions in the region that has led to some of these incidents, I think we are all aware of that (laughs).
Matt Lee: In terms of the restraint and the rhetoric.
Jen Psaki: Um hmm?
Matt Lee: Are you seeing any, I mean, uh, last week you were pretty down on both sides or you were up, you were pleased with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s calls, uh, and uh the stuff that he did with the Jordanians about getting the tensions around the Temple Mount down, but you weren’t particularly happy with President Abbas, is that, is that changed?
Jen Psaki: Well, I think they also said last week, I was speaking to one incident of Prime Minister Netanyahu, obviously there have been a range of issues and events that have led to the rising tensions in the region, that both sides need to do more to [unintelligible].

Daily Press Briefing: November 10, 2014 (starts 29:16)

Israel's faulty calculus

In response to Palestinian unilateralism, Israel must also assert full sovereignty over any areas in Judea and Samaria deemed necessary to maintain its security. Palestinians living in any annexed lands should likewise be given a path to citizenship and the option to relocate.
If a further entrenchment of the IDF is temporarily necessary, then forces should be deployed in requisite numbers.
Finally, Israel must consider cutting ties entirely with the PA, allowing it to collapse like the house of cards it is. The country can, and will, deal with whatever comes afterwards as long as its borders are secure and a military presence exists in close proximity to any cities under continued Palestinian control.
The alternative to asserting Jewish rights is worse – and in plain view: an endless cycle of violence waged by sworn enemies under the guise of a phony peace process. There is no white dove fluttering its wings at the end of the peace tunnel, which is nothing less than another underground conduit for more terrorism from the likes of Fatah and Hamas.
Pandering to murderers is not why Jews fought and died for the establishment of Israel. The goal was never the creation of a banana republic devoid of direction or intestinal fortitude; one which, unless it gets its act together – and soon – might no longer be worth fighting for at all.