Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, July 09, 2018

07/09 Links Pt2: Imagine if the London bombers had been Palestinian bombers; Progressive Democrats increasingly criticize Israel, and could reap political rewards; When FDR wanted to silence the Jews

From Ian:

PMW: Imagine if the London bombers had been Palestinian bombers

Yesterday was the 13th anniversary of the London bombings on July 7, 2005. On that day, Muslim terrorists detonated three bombs on London's Underground and a fourth on a double-decker bus. In the explosions, 52 people were murdered and over 700 were injured.

Since its creation in 1994, the Palestinian Authority has spent billions of shekels rewarding and incentivizing Palestinian terrorism against Israelis, paying monthly salaries to imprisoned terrorists as well as monthly allowances to the families of the so-called "Martyrs," including suicide bombers.
If the London terrorists had been Palestinians who had carried out equivalent attacks in Jerusalem targeting Israelis, the PA would have already paid the families of the four terrorists a combined total of £142,680 pounds (687,200 shekels).
PA Minister of Education and Higher Education Sabri Saidam announced in November 2017 that the UK government had agreed to pay its annual contribution of 20 million pounds, which is "allocated to support the [PA] general budget of Palestine." [WAFA, official PA news agency, Nov. 25, 2017]

This allocation is only a fraction of the financial support the UK government provides to the PA annually.

In its 2018 budget, the PA allocated 680 million shekels from its general budget, predominantly to pay allowances to the families of thousands of dead Palestinian terrorist "Martyrs," including those who have carried out suicide attacks.

One of the Palestinian families who receives such payments is the family of suicide bomber Wafa Idris who carried out a suicide attack in the heart of Jerusalem in January 2002, murdering one and injuring over 100.

Progressive Democrats increasingly criticize Israel, and could reap political rewards

It was during the Obama administration that Democrats’ once-united position on Israel began to fragment. The tepid relationship between Netanyahu and Obama led to voters increasingly splitting along party lines on the issue, with Democrats growing unhappy with the connection between Republicans and the Israeli government.

Over the last few decades, a handful of left-leaning Democrats have previously shown open support for Palestinian causes and regularly criticized Israel’s political and military actions. Former Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia was arrested by Israeli authorities for her participation in an effort to send a flotilla to provide aid to Palestinians in circumvention of Israel’s 2009 Gaza blockade.

Shibley Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland and a fellow at the Brookings Institution, has polled on American attitudes toward the conflict for over a quarter century. He believes that as public opinion has shifted on the issue, Democratic candidates have responded to their voters and have become less afraid of the repercussions of criticizing the Israeli government.

“Congressional candidates and politicians who embrace Israel or fail to criticize Israel will not be punished by and large by their constituents,” Telhami said. “Those candidates who take on the Israeli government’s specific policies could be rewarded.”

Public opinion polling shows that sentiments have indeed shifted, especially among Democrats. According to a Pew Research poll conducted earlier this year, Democratic voters sympathize about equally with the Israelis as the Palestinians, with sympathy for Israel dropping 16 percentage points in the last two years.

Telhami said Democrats have increasingly seen the conservative Israeli government as one that has an opposing set of values.

“Democrats, even separate from the partisan issue, have basically seen [the Palestinian] issue as part of their value system,” Telhami said. “They increasingly see their values as not a part of the values of Israel.”

Even as Democratic voters drifted away from their previous steadfast support for Israel, Democrats in elected office have been slower to follow their base. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has continued to take ardently pro-Israel stances, as he was one of just four Senate Democrats to vote against the Iran Deal in 2015.

Earlier this year, Schumer sponsored legislation that would criminalize boycotts against Israel that he has derided as “an anti-Semitic movement.”

Nevertheless, several Democratic candidates with ties to the party’s progressive wing have still faced some controversy for associations with causes critics deem “anti-Israel.” They have not, however, lost support from prominent Democratic officials and organizations. (h/t Jewess)

UN Watch today released "The UN & Antisemitism: 2008-2017 Report Card," at a terrific event hosted in the Israeli Knesset by MK @YairLapid. Speakers included Israel's Minister of Justice @Ayelet__Shaked, Opposition Leader @HerzogMK, Professor @IrwinCotler. https://t.co/ozb5dd855r
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 9, 2018

Roger Waters concert backdrop: "Resist Israeli anti-semitism"

Here are two photos of images being shown behind Roger Waters during his current tour:

Waters is saying that he is not antisemitic - because Arabs are semites, and therefore it is Israel that is antisemitic, not him.

This is one of the oldest and dumbest arguments in the book. The definition of anti-semitism is in every dictionary, and it is Waters' Palestinian pets who are antisemitic, as is Waters himself based on plenty of evidence.

But no one accused Roger Waters of having a towering intellect.

As usual with this sort of news, Israellycool is all over it.

(h/t Jonathan Hoffman)

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Well it’s another even-numbered year, which means the Presbyterian Church in the USA (or PCUSA) got together for their bi-annual conclave (called a General Assembly) to (1) condemn Israel while ignoring virtually all other suffering in the Middle East; and (2) put a brave face their latest membership decline as their denomination continues towards oblivion.

Throughout the 2000s and early 2010s, I was somewhat obsessed with the ups and downs of the Presbyterians, documenting preparations for each national conference as divestment came onto the agenda even-numbered year after even-numbered year.

The saga began in 2004 when the organization first passed a divestment measure, which was rescinded in 2006 after the church came under attack by both Jewish groups and their own members who were appalled over what was being said and done in their name.

But, as BDS-watchers know all too well, once an organization makes any move towards boycott or divestment, the boycotters have already decided the group belongs to them and exists for one purpose and one purpose only: to pass resolutions encapsulating their propaganda directed at the Jewish state.

And so, despite being rejected by the membership, BDS came back onto the organizations agenda in 2008, 2010 and 2012, being voted down each time, despite efforts by church leadership to box members into having only one choice (their preferred one) of returning the church to its 2004 divestment position.

Now a normal political movement might have gotten the message by then, or might have seen all of the damage their endless campaigning was doing to the church in terms of wrecking internal harmony and destroying the church’s reputation within the wider American society. But, as we all know, BDS is not in the normal business. And so the campaign continued as more and members left PCUSA (either as individuals or as whole congregations which defected to other Presbyterian branches not so obsessed with politics), and as the reputation of the church for fairness and faithful witness also headed into a tailspin.

When divestment was passed in 2004, it was possible for PCUSA leaders to convince the public that this was the democratic vote that represented the will of the membership. But after watching the corrupt leadership of the organization ally with BDS advocates to stack committees considering Middle East issues only with divestment supporters, remove anyone who could make trouble from positions of leadership, refuse members access to information and voices that contradict the BDS narrative, and insist that any “No” vote was just a postponement of an inevitable “Yes,” it became clear well before divestment was restored in 2014 that these votes demonstrated nothing but the lengths to which a degenerate organization would go to hand its reputation over to someone else.

When divestment was voted back in that year, the Jewish community decided enough was enough, refusing bad-faith calls to enter into interfaith dialog with a church dedicated to slapping Jews in the face every two years (all while claiming such slaps were given out of love and concern for their Jewish brethren).

In the meantime, the steady decline of the church continued as PCUSA coupled passage of new anti-Israel calumnies at their bi-annual events with tracking losses of another 5% of its membership. Issues of anti-Israel animus and collapse of the organization are actually linked. For as members died or left the church in disgust, those that remained represented a higher concentration of Israel haters. This was represented by a tendency we see in all organizations where the BDSers think they have the upper hand: overreach. And so, with divestment in their back pocket, the church moved on to condemning Zionism and those that support the Jewish national movement, adding slurs like “Apartheid” to the mix once they realized there were no longer enough fair-minded members ready to stand in their way.

But as the Israel haters wallowed in their “victory” within PCUSA, no one seemed to notice that their pronouncements no longer made news, or even a ripple in the pubic consciousness. Two decades ago, one could claim that a major religious organization making proclamations and condemnations represented moral statements informed by faith that should be taken seriously. But seeing how sausage (in the form of the aforementioned corrupt votes) gets made at General Assemblies for more than 15 years, who could possibly see their statements as expressions of sincere love and faith, rather than the output of venal politics?

Given that the number of Presbyterians nationwide is about to fall below the number of Jews just in New York, it’s also not clear why we need to take what they say any more seriously than they listen to us.

When I was more directly involved with helping those fighting anti-Israel bigotry in the church, I was frequently accused of being an outsider with no real concern for PCUSA and its members, beyond what they were saying about Israel. As I responded then (and continue to respond now): while it’s true I never would have come into PCUSA’s orbit had they not chosen to get into my face in such an aggressive manner, I’m perfectly comfortable that Israel will survive the slings and arrows of a hypocritical and dying organization.

But as someone who appreciates the important role Mainline Protestantism has played in American history, my fear is not for my own tribe but for what it means when this important pillar of national identity gets shattered with the pieces being dragged into the swamp, just so a bunch of anti-Israel bigots can claim to speak in someone else’s name.

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07/09 Links Pt1: Abbas: PA to continue paying salaries to families of prisoners, 'martyrs'; Abbas’ Foreign Affairs advisor: Spit on Australia; What you aren't hearing about Khan al-Ahmar

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas: PA to continue paying salaries to families of prisoners, 'martyrs'

The Palestinians will not allow US President Donald Trump's yet-to-be-announced plan for peace in the Middle East to pass, and will continue paying salaries to families of Palestinian prisoners and "martyrs," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday.

Speaking at a meeting of the Fatah Central Committee in Ramallah, Abbas said that the Arab countries have told the Palestinians that they too were opposed to Trump's plan, also known as the "deal of the century."

At the beginning of his speech, Abbas sent greetings to Palestinians who were taking part in the Hamas-sponsored protests along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel and demonstrations against the Trump plan and the plans to evict the Bedouin hamlet of Khan al-Ahmar, near Ma'aleh Adomim.

"We are proud of these marches and protests," Abbas said.

He reiterated his strong opposition to the Trump plan, saying the Palestinians will not accept it and will not allow it to pass. "We want to affirm that our Arab brothers have told us that they too are against the deal of the century," Abbas said. "In addition, there are countries in Europe, Asia and Africa that have begun realizing this deal can't pass."

Abbas lashed out at Israel for its decision to deduct payments made by the PA to families of "martyrs" and security prisoners (from tax revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinians), saying the Palestinians will take measures in accordance with their interest. He did not provide details about the nature of the measures the Palestinians were planning.

"We won't allow anyone to interfere with the money [that is paid to the prisoners and families of "martyrs]," Abbas stressed. "They are our martyrs and prisoners and the injured and we will continue to pay them. We started the payments in 1965."

PMW: Spit on Australia, says Abbas’ advisor on Foreign Affairs

Following Australia's decision to suspend direct funding to the Palestinian Authority because the PA pays salaries to terrorists and their families, senior PA official Nabil Shaath, who is also PA Chairman Abbas' advisor, launched a verbal attack on Australia:

Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Foreign Affairs and International Relations Nabil Shaath: "This filthy talk of ''the criminals'' in connection with our Martyrs and prisoners - while they are our heroes, the heroes of self-sacrifice and the candles of freedom. They cannot be compared to the Israeli criminals in Israel's prisons... Australia's decision [to stop] transferring $10 million angered me greatly... It transferred [the aid to the UN]... so that it would not serve for payment of the salaries of the [prisoners and Martyrs'] families. In other words, the truth is they are worthy of being spat on. You [Australians] are the servants of the US... I don't want your 10 million, I don't want to chase after them." [Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, July 3, 2018]

Shaath's definition of Palestinian terrorist prisoners as "heroes" and "candles of freedom" exemplifies the PA's policy of honoring terrorists and murderers, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch. Shaath's comments are also a result of Israel's passing of the law to deduct terror salaries from PA tax money.

The law was passed by the Israeli Parliament on July 2, 2018 and deducts the amount of money the PA pays imprisoned terrorists and families of "Martyrs" from the tax money Israel collects for the PA. The law freezes the deducted money and has Israel hold it indefinitely. Should the PA not pay terrorists' salaries or allowances to families of "Martyrs" for a full year, the Israeli government would have the option of giving all or part of the frozen money to the PA.

The Oslo process is dead, it is time to win

Eve Harrow was at the Knesset, invited to a special meeting of the Victory Caucus on the subject of ’25 Years since Oslo, Time for New Thinking’.

She recorded Stuart Force, father of Taylor z”l, whose murder by Arab terrorists galvanized the “stop pay to slay” legislation in both Israel and the US.

MidEast Forum director Daniel Pipes also spoke, as well as Arab Hevron community leader Ashraf Jabari and others.

Eve then sat down with Gregg Roman of the MidEast Forum to hear details of the joint US-Israel program, years in the making, to end incentives for terror and perhaps finally, bring some real peace to the area between the Jordan River and the Sea.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the decision in Israel to allow members of Knesset and all other Jews to visit the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest spot.

It issued a statement condemning visits from"Israeli officials including ministers, members of Knesset, military, security, ultra-Orthodox and extremist settlers" - pretty much anyone with a yarmulka.

This direct call to violate international law on freedom of practicing religion was accompanied by a call for the international community to enforce discrimination against Jews.

"The ministry warns of acceptance of daily intrusions of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its courtyards as a matter that has become familiar and normal and does not necessitate a halt to its serious repercussions. This requires the international community and the relevant UN organizations, especially UNESCO, to implement and implement its resolutions on Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque," the statement said.

Because allowing Jews to peacefully stroll through the Temple Mount is utterly unacceptable, and banning them is "human rights."

One would normally expect real human right organizations to issue statements denouncing the fact that a government recognized by so many nations is explicitly calling to ban people from visiting and worshiping at their holy place simply because they are Jewish. But today's "human rights' NGOs would instead agree with this twisted, perverted idea that the mere presence of a Jew is an infraction on Muslim human rights.

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Last year, China proposed a very general and ambiguous peace framework between Israel and the Palestinians. As AP reported it then:

China's U.N. ambassador urged the international community on Monday to support President Xi Jinping's new four-point proposal to end the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and establish an independent Palestinian state.

The four points are:

— Advancing the two-state solution based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of a new Palestinian state.

—Upholding "the concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security," immediately ending Israeli settlement building, taking immediate measures to prevent violence against civilians, and calling for an early resumption of peace talks.

—Coordinating international efforts to put forward "peace-promoting measures that entail joint participation at an early date."

—Promoting peace through development and cooperation between the Palestinians and Israel.

This proposal went nowhere, although it was floated shortly after a state visit to China by Mahmoud Abbas.

It is a vague proposal, hardly a plan, that doesn't even mention "refugees" or whether the Palestinian state. It is far less specific than a similar Chinese proposal from 2013 that also went nowhere.

Suddenly, the Palestinians are showing interest in this Chinese proposal that says very little. The reason is that they are growing more and more nervous over the US "deal of the century" gaining traction and they want to find any alternative so that they don't appear to be against peace.

Nabil Shaath, Mahmoud Abbas'advisor on foreign affairs and international relations, welcomed the Chinese initiative in an interview with Voice of Palestine Radio on Monday. He said that it would be an alternative to the so-called "deal of the century," which he claims has collapsed "because of Palestinian, Arab and international rejection."

If it collapsed, no one would be talking about an obscure Chinese proposal.

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Last Thursday, the Moroccan government denied rumors in the Arab world that there were any official ties between them and the State of Israel.

But they pretty much admitted that there were unofficial ties.

Government spokesman Mustapha al-Khaliji told a news conference that Morocco had no formal ties with Israel, but he did not rule out "networks operating through other countries to circumvent this," - meaning that there almost certainly are informal and unofficial relations between the two countries.

There have been reports that there is $25 million in trade between the two countries over the past five years. In 2016, Morocco denied any imports from Israel when Israeli dates were found to be sold during Ramadan.

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14 more "innocent civilians" just discovered to be Islamic Jihad terrorists

In September 2014, Islamic Jihad admitted that 121 of its members were killed in Operation Protective Edge.

Hamas and other terrorist groups never announced total casualties of their members, as far as I can tell.

Now, Islamic Jihad says 135 of its members were killed during that war.

Maybe a few of them succumbed to injuries afterwards, but 14 seems a bit high for that.

Which means that here are an additional dozen or so more people who were reported as "innocent civilians" by NGOs like Amnesty and the UN who were, in fact, terrorists.

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07/08 Links: David Singer: Hamas and PLO Entrench Apartheid in Gaza and West Bank; Glick: Democrats Reject Israel Because They Reject American Nationalism; The Real Modern Anti-Semitism

From Ian:

David Singer: Hamas and PLO Entrench Apartheid in Gaza and West Bank

The British Foreign Office showed appalling judgement when scheduling a visit by Prince William to a refugee camp in the West Bank which should have been closed down long ago. The Prince – obviously moved by what he saw – remarked:
“I saw at Jalazon (refugee camp) the tremendous hardships faced by the refugees, and I can only imagine the difficulties of life lived under these conditions, the ed (sic) resources and the lack of opportunity”

Regrettably Prince William failed to question why:
1. Jalazon had not been dismantled during the past 25 years after it came under Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) control.

2. Jalazon’s inhabitants should still be classified as “refugees” when they are living in part of former Palestine now under PLO occupation.

Prince William’s visit was closely followed by a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and United Nations (UN) Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process – Nickolay Mladenov.

During their meeting Abbas stressed the UN's important role in providing protection for
the “Palestinian people” and the necessity of continuing to provide services to the “Palestinian refugees” through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Undiscussed between them was why the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza have failed to close down the 27 refugee camps still remaining within their respective fiefdoms.

Caroline Glick: Democrats Reject Israel Because They Reject American Nationalism

The problem is that over the past twenty years or so, the American left has undergone a profound shift in values, from liberal nationalism to radical post-nationalism. This process, facilitated and accelerated during Barack Obama’s presidency, and expressed most emblematically in Democratic support for open borders, has made post-nationalism the sine qua non of the Democrats since Trump’s electoral triumph in 2016.

Israel’s relations with the American left, then, are a collateral victim of a wider shift in American society. Jewish nationalism, with its inherent affinity to American nationalism, was once the basis of Israel’s relationship with the American people as a whole. But now nationalism is the main cause of the Democrats’ increasingly fraught and antagonistic relationship with the Jewish state, while remaining the foundation of ever increasing levels of Republican affinity and support for Israel.

Perhaps Israel will be able to heed Ross’s advice, at least in terms of the Democrats. Perhaps it will be able to develop a common language with the U.S. based on shared interests. There are certainly a number of steps Israel can take to advance that goal.

But the fact is that the Democrats’ shift in values from nationalist to post-nationalist, rather than any action Israel has taken in its domestic or foreign policy, is what has caused the rupture in Israel’s ties to the American left.

So long as Meretz remains a marginal force in Israeli society on the one hand, and post-nationalist forces continue to rise in the Democratic party on the other, bipartisan support for Israel, like bipartisan support for American nationalism, will remain a thing of the past.

David P. Goldman: The Real Modern Anti-Semitism

A Brezhnev-era joke asked whether it was a crime to say that the party chairman was an idiot. The answer was yes, because it’s a state secret. For those who miss Soviet-era humor, French President Emmanuel Macron has provided some consolation, by firing the French ambassador to Budapest for observing in a private memorandum that the president of Hungary is not an anti-Semite. Evidently that is a state secret in France.

In a June 18 dispatch, Eric Fournier, the French ambassador to Hungary, reported that the alleged anti-Semitism of Hungarian President Viktor Orban was “a fantasy of the foreign press.” He added that the allegation diverted attention from the “real modern anti-Semitism,” whose source is “Muslims in France and Germany.” The private memorandum was leaked by the left-wing website Mediapart and reported widely in the French press. Hungary’s “management of illegal immigration” might be a model for France, Fournier added.

The French president denounced the memo as “contrary to the French official position,” saying that if it were shown that Fournier’s views had been made in public, he would be removed. The memo was private, but Macron fired him anyway. Fournier’s memo had struck a raw nerve. On April 18, 250 French notables, including former president Nicolas Sarkozy, had denounced the “new anti-Semitism” arising from “Islamic radicalization,” declaring: “We demand that the fight against this democratic failure that is anti-Semitism becomes a national cause before it’s too late. Before France is no longer France.” Nearly a tenth of France’s half-million Jews have emigrated in the past decade in response to Muslim violence against Jews.

Ambassador Fournier was entirely correct: Polling data provide massive evidence of Muslim anti-Semitism in France. Fifty-six percent of believing and practicing Muslims in France believe that there is “a Zionist conspiracy on a global scale,” according to a 2014 Fondapol study. French soldiers guard synagogues and Jewish schools. French Jews are advised by their community leaders not to show themselves on the street with visible signs of Jewish identity, such as a kippah.

By contrast, Hungary’s 100,000 Jews—a larger presence relative to the country’s population of 8 million—walk unmolested to synagogue in traditional Jewish costume and hold street fairs with minimal security presence. During a visit to Budapest in May, I walked from my hotel to synagogue on Friday night and Saturday wearing a kippah, crossing the city four times. No one looked at me twice. I wouldn’t attempt that in France or Germany.

In the same meeting that I mentioned previously where the Palestinian ambassador to Iran claimed that "international Zionism" controls Donald Trump, the Iranian official he was meeting with said some pretty outlandish things himself.

"The Zionist regime tries to gain dominance over Syria after Daesh, but resistance forces and military advisers from the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue their presence alongside Syria to counter terrorism," Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Iranian parliament speaker's special adviser on international affairs, said.

Up until now Iran insisted that ISIS was a Zionist group. Now they are saying that Israel is trying to take over the vacuum left by the defeat of ISIS.

This is a neat example of psychological projection, as Iran is seeking to control Syria. It is now trying to justify its continued presence there in order to fight imaginary Zionist terrorists, just as its proxy Hezbollah justifies its stranglehold on Lebanon in order to defend against imaginary Israeli designs on that country.

Iran's goal is to establish a contiguous Iranian and Shiite presence from Iran to the Mediterranean, and it continues to use Israel as the excuse for its attempt to take over the Arab Muslim world. It is even moving Shiite "settlers" into formerly Sunni towns in Syria, taking over houses of Sunni Arabs who had fled during the war.

For some reason, I'm not seeing any protests on college campuses against Iranian imperialism, colonialism and illegal settlements.

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A Palestinian diplomat, echoing antisemitic theories from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, stated that "Zionists" are controlling the US president.

Palestinian Ambassador to Iran Salah al-Zawawi, while meeting with senior adviser to the Iranian parliament speaker for international affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said US President Donald Trump is "an instrument in the hands of international Zionism," according to Iran's Tasnim News.

Zawawi also said that Israel's Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is seeking to control the Muslim world.

Zawawi has a history of saying outlandish things. Last year he said that he prayed that Iran would produce 1000 nuclear bombs, presumably to destroy Israel.

In 2014 he said that all Jews whose families emigrated to Israel since he beginning of Zionism must move back to the countries they came from.

And more recently he said that Palestine must be liberated "from the river to the sea" using terrorism like car ramming attacks and stabbings and rockets which he praised.

While all of these statements are ostensibly against official Palestinian positions, he remains in his position - perhaps the only diplomat who can brazenly contradict the official diplomatic position of the entity he represents without so much as a reprimand.

Perhaps this is because while he is spouting words that go against the carefully measured statements of Abbas and Erekat to the West, he is quite accurately describing the unofficial Palestinian position on what they would like to see in the Middle East.

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07/07 Links: Are Palestinians ready to tell ‘supporters’: ‘WE’RE NOT YOUR TOY’?; Can the Islamic State be defeated?; Reinventing the Israeli discussion on campus

From Ian:

Are Palestinians ready to tell ‘supporters’: ‘WE’RE NOT YOUR TOY’?

YET SOME observers are optimistic. Towler noted a change in how the British media treated the Gaza situation in the following days.

“Initially, the deaths of ‘innocent protesters’ were seen as marks on Trump – the human cost of his arrogance. For 24 hours the media joined in the clamor against Trump, and against the State of Israel.

But then, when Hamas admitted that over 50 of those who died that day at the border fence were in fact Hamas members, they realized they had been played by Hamas.”

With media outlets apologizing, Towler notes a significant departure: “In the past they would never have accepted fault. The press would have ignored the evidence and continued the campaign against Israel.”

Towler believes this is indicative of a broader change in attitude.

But it is not just in Europe where people are beginning to realize that intervention in Palestinian affairs is wrong. The same is happening in Iran, which has also “drafted” the Palestinians for its own cause. But last week, Iranians protesting the funding of external wars were chanting “Death to Palestine!” In both the European boycott and the Iranian military cases, Palestinians are victims of policies that are meant to help them, but in reality hurt them.

Nevertheless, Kontorovich does not think that recognition of this would lead to a change: “Palestinians will certainly suffer economically from any boycott of settlements, but that fact is unlikely to deter European boycotters, who are not truly trying to help the Palestinians but rather to hurt Israel.”

“Palestinians feel abandoned,” a Westerner working with them in the West Bank observed. They feel abandoned by the Arabs, who are cozying up to Israel; by the US, which moved its embassy to Jerusalem; and by Europe, whose actions promote conflict and perpetuate their narrative of victimhood.

Could this be an opportunity for Palestinians to get closer to Israel? After all, unlike in Europe where the conflict with Islam is viewed by many as a clash of civilizations, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a dispute. Bitter as the conflict might be, Israelis and Palestinians often actually like each other and get along well. That is clear in places where they interact (such as workplaces, malls and entertainment events) and evident in the decades that preceded the outbreak of violence.

Palestinians telling Europeans and others who hijacked their cause “We are not your toy” could help unleash the massive untapped potential in Palestinian society – and indeed lead to peace.

At the UNHRC this week, the world's worst dictators scapegoated the Jewish state. When UN Watch's @HillelNeuer took the floor to call out their hypocrisy, the outraged Syrian delegate tried to interrupt.

Watch the full video: https://t.co/lkYr6eCGka
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) July 6, 2018

Seth Frantzman: Can the Islamic State be defeated?

This week a delegation of US senators, including Lindsey Graham and Elizabeth Warren, toured the Iraqi city of Mosul. After seeing some alleyways festooned with rubble from last year’s battle with Islamic State, they saw the historic al-Nuri Mosque that ISIS destroyed last June. Even though bodies are still be found in the rubble of Mosul and bombs left behind by ISIS are still a threat, the senators walked without body armor alongside Iraqi officers, including Nineveh plains commander Gen. Najim al-Jabouri.

The tour was optimistic and illustrated the continued US commitment to the battle against ISIS. Across the border in Syria warplanes from the anti-ISIS coalition and fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces are bearing down on the last pockets of ISIS in an operation called Roundup. According to the coalition ISIS has lost 300 square kilometers of ground over the last months, as the operation enters “phase two.”

However, ISIS is still active in a swath of territory that stretches from the Sahel in Africa all the way to the Philippines. It exploits ungoverned spaces, weak governments and ill-defended borders to percolate among existing extremist groups that have sworn allegiance to it. These include Boko Haram in Nigeria, an ISIS affiliate in Niger that killed four US soldiers last year, “Sinai Province” in Sinai, the Khalid bin al-Walid faction in Syria next to the Golan, increasingly deadly fighters in Afghanistan and other affiliates throughout the world.

The 70-member anti-ISIS coalition that the US helped put together starting in August 2014 has an impressive list of members. But its mission is less clear today. The coalition recently met in Morocco, where 52 delegations, including 24 from Africa, attended. Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition against Daesh, helped preside over the event. He was appointed under Obama and is one of the few high-level holdovers who has stayed on in the Trump administration. He provides consistency to the anti-ISIS campaign, but the campaign itself is not entirely clear on where it is headed.