Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 25, 2019

Apartheid oil (Divest This!)

As Israel gets closer to not just energy independence but to becoming an actual energy exporter, I’m reminded of a move the BDSers took once Israel entered the energy game to try to generate interest in a new phrase: “Apartheid Oil.”

Might this refer to the Apartheid policies towards women, gays and religious minorities in the Arab petro-states? Or the cover those wealthy oil states provided countries like Sudan as they murdered millions of black Africans? Or the robust oil-for-gold trade between the real Apartheid South Africa and the Gulf states?

Heavens no! For the champions of human rights and justice have suddenly got religion on oil politics once Israel was on the verge of having some.

Discoveries of shale and natural gas in Israel (coupled with recently developed extraction techniques) are what has led the nation to reach beyond energy independence over the last few years. And while such finds present environmental concerns (not to mention the risk of the oil curse), these are not the issues critics of “Apartheid Oil” are really troubled about (although they occasionally hide behind them).

No, their problem is not that oil and gas is being extracted from the earth (with all the upside and downside that brings) but who gets to benefit from it. When it was simply Qatar or Iran using oil money to fund police forces dedicated to beating women for exposing their foreheads or exporting Islamist ideology around the world (or Saudi Arabia, before they become a less dependable BDS ally), they could live with that. But now that it is Israel that may finally get a piece of the action, suddenly the link between oil wealth and human rights rockets up their priority list.

The use of the term “Apartheid Oil” is particularly rich, given that the BDS movement itself is the inheritor of investments made in the 1970s and ‘80s by the very petroleum tyrannies who maintained massive trade with Apartheid South Africa during all the years they were falsely claiming to partake in an energy embargo of the country.

After all, one of the few mineral resources South Africa lacked was oil. Yet somehow they managed to maintain a modern, oil-driven economy during the Apartheid years. And as far as I know, Saudi Arabia is distinctly lacking in gold mines. And yet they had (and have) shopping malls dedicated solely to the sale of gold (including South African gold) during the Apartheid era.

And while this oil-for-gold alchemy was going on, these same Middle East states used their wealth and power to condemn Israel for its (far more minimal) trade ties with South Africa, going so far as to get the United Nations to condemn Zionism as a form of racism during debates over Apartheid.

The African nations that were asked to line up behind the Arab states on these condemnatory UN votes were none too pleased that their own concerns about banning trade with South Africa were being ignored, with the Kenyan Daily news summing things up nicely when it pointed out: “Arabs are buying South African gold like hotcakes, thus helping to sustain that country’s abominable practice of Apartheid.”

Even now when South Africa’s Apartheid system is just a memory, with truth and reconciliation hearings come and gone, the fact that Apartheid stayed afloat on a sea of Middle East oil remains a topic beyond discussion within the BDS community. And yet, this same BDS community exists as the inheritor of the propaganda campaigns, the UN condemnations, and the corruption of the human rights community and vocabulary bought with blood gold traded for with genuine (not imagined) “Apartheid Oil.”

Confront a BDSer with these facts and (just as they do when confronted with any genuine human rights issue) they will simply ignore you and move onto their next accusation against Israel. But the next time you see them marching in the streets comparing Israel to South Africa, keep in mind that it is BDS, not the Jewish state, that exists because of the legacy of Apartheid economics.

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Lebanese singer with 4.8M followers tweets that Elders of Zion myth is true

In 2016, Lebanese singer and UN goodwill ambassador Majida El Roumi gave an interview where she said, in part:

.If you ask yourself what is going, and why we are subjected to all this worldwide, especially in the Arab world... What's going on? Personally – and I take full responsibility for what I am saying – I always believe that it is connected with something I read at my parents' home when I was little. My late father brought home The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and said to us: 'Read this book, and to the day you die, never forget what you've read.' So I read that global Zionism has a plan to fragment the Arab world in its entirety. They have in their heads a plan for a united government for the entire world, and they believe that we all exist on this planet to serve them.

Yesterday, another popular Lebanese singer Carole Samaha, who has over 4.8 million Twitter followers, tweeted part of the El Roumi interview and commented, "Very true Words !!! And I wish everyone is able to see the picture from afar, and the greatest danger that is coming, yes, the ship needs a captain !!"

🔴 كلام كتير صحيح !!!
و يا ريت الكل قادر يشوف الصورة من بعيد، والخطر الأكبر اللي جايي!
وإيه..نعم..السفينة بحاجة لقبطان!! @majidaelroumi pic.twitter.com/C1Z1CzdoET
— CAROLE SAMAHA🔴 (@CAROLE_SAMAHA) November 24, 2019

Samaha's is the sixth most popular Twitter account in Lebanon.

Antisemitism is a part and parcel of everyday life in Lebanon.

(h/t WC)

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11/25 Links Pt1: Israeli Settlements Are a Political, Not a Legal Issue; PMW: PA policy is to routinely deny the entire Jewish history in the Land of Israel.

From Ian:

Douglas J. Feith: Israeli Settlements Are a Political, Not a Legal Issue

In his statement about the legality of Israel's West Bank settlements, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made four main points.
- First, the settlements are not "inherently illegal."
- Second, the West Bank's fate should be determined through negotiations.
- Third, international law "does not compel a particular outcome" in favor of Israel or the Palestinians.
- Fourth, the issue is political in nature, not legal, and attacking the settlements' legality "hasn't advanced the cause of peace."

For 35 years U.S. administrations refrained from repeating President Carter's criticism of Israeli settlements as illegal, Pompeo recounted, but President Obama broke with this policy by taking the Carter position at the UN. President Reagan, who followed Carter, had rejected Carter's view.

President Carter had a strained relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and condemnation of Israeli settlements as illegal was supported by a five-page letter dated April 21, 1978, by State Department legal adviser Herbert Hansell.

That letter ignored entirely the rights of Jews under the 1922 Palestine Mandate, which called for "close settlement by Jews on the land." From ancient times until 1949, Jews could lawfully live in the West Bank. Hansell didn't explain when that right was terminated.

As a Middle East specialist on the National Security Council staff, I was asked for a short note on the subject for President Reagan. I said, "The issue is properly a political question, not a legal question." The sovereignty issue "is open and will not be closed until the actual parties to the conflict formally consent to a peace agreement." In the meantime, "there is no law that bars Jews from settling on the West Bank" and no one should be excluded from living there "simply on account of his nationality or religion."

What fuels the conflict is the notion that Israel is a vulnerable, alien presence that lacks roots, legitimacy, and moral confidence. Israel's enemies know that asserting that the Jews have no right to live in the West Bank - an important part of the Jewish homeland - calls into question the Jews' right to have created Israel in the first place.

PMW: The Jews came as "invaders 70 years ago," no evidence of Jews before then

Palestinian Authority policy is to routinely deny the entire Jewish history in the Land of Israel. Jews were never here, the PA says, until they came and “occupied” Palestine in 1948. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA habitually refutes the authenticity of the numerous archeological artifacts and non-Biblical sources that testify to the Jewish presence and nationhood thousands of years ago. The following are three recent examples of this Palestinian denial of Jewish presence and history, showing that the PA’s political message passed on by Palestinian leaders for decades has been successfully adopted and is being repeated even by Palestinian academics.

Riyad Al-Aileh, a Palestinian political science lecturer from Al-Azhar University, stated that Jews only came as ”invaders 70 years ago”:
"The Jews claim that they were in Palestine 2,000 years ago. If we look at the history we will see that they were not in Palestine in the past, but rather only as invaders less than 70 years ago. For these 70 years they have been invaders, like the Hyksos, the Byzantines, the Persians, and [British] colonialism. The Canaanite Palestinian people has since succeeded in defeating those invaders and continue [to live] in this land." [Official PA TV, The Supreme Authority, Nov. 6, 2019]

Echoing this claim, Abir Zayyad, an archaeologist and member of Fatah’s Jerusalem branch, wrongly asserted that “no archaeological evidence” of Jews in Palestine has been found:
“We have no archaeological evidence of the presence of the children of Israel in Palestine in this historical period 3,000 years ago, neither in Jerusalem, nor in all of Palestine.” [Official PA TV, Jerusalem: The Scent of History, Nov. 7, 2019]

PA policy is to routinely deny the entire Jewish history in the Land of Israel.

Palestinian university lecturer: The Jews were never in Palestine, but came as “invaders 70 years ago.”

Read more about this here: https://t.co/52crDAETKF pic.twitter.com/N0SjEu7kE2
— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) November 25, 2019

Palestinian archeologist: No archaeological evidence of the presence of the children of Israel in Palestine 3,000 years ago. pic.twitter.com/cnBIhIt2UG
— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) November 25, 2019

The PLO has declared tomorrow to be a "Day of Rage" against US policies, especially Secretary of State Pompeo's declaration that Israeli settlements are not illegal per se.

"All governorates of the homeland will witness on Tuesday a public outcry in rejecting the unjust American resolutions against our cause and our people, " says the official PA Wafa news agency.

Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the PLO's Central Committee, told Voice of Palestine radio that "the forces and factions met in all governorates and took the necessary preparations for the day of rage on Tuesday to come out with one voice to tell the whole world that our rights cannot be stolen by the occupation and to confirm that we are sticking to the PLO national program and its rejection of the US administration allied with Government of occupation."

Jamal Muheisen, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, said that the day of anger tomorrow wll lead to "a comprehensive uprising in the face of occupation crimes."

Member of the Executive Committee of the PLO Saleh Raafat, said, "The factions are now working to form night-guard committees in all areas adjacent to the settlements in anticipation of the implementation of the settlers of any aggression in the coming days" - which makes it sound like they plan on attacking settlements under the guise of defending themselves.

The protests will center in Nablus, Ramallah and Hebron, where they will march towards the Jewish section of the city.

The Ministry of Education announced it would close schools for the Day of Rage from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, to increase the size of the demonstration and to incidentally teach their children that education is not a high priority. Some labor unions are calling on workers to take off in the afternoon as well.

The factions are expecting violence and are putting ambulances on standby.

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I have news for @ewarren and @berniesanders: Palestinians will hate you no matter what you do

Fatah members set fire to US and Israeli flags and photos of President Trump in Nablus on Sunday.

When presidential candidates say that they will tilt US policy more towards Palestinians, part of the reason this resonates with some voters is that they are sick and tired of being hated. They tell themselves that this hate is a result of American policies under Trump, not because Palestinians are anti-American.

People's memories are short.

Here are Palestinians burning President Obama in effigy in 2013:

Palestinians have rioted against UNRWA, the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross. They have burned effigies of President Clinton in solidarity with Saddam Hussein.

The desire to be loved by people who really hate you is a strange one indeed. I can't pretend to explain the psyche that keeps trying to gain approval from people who think that the world owes them a state, free health care, free schooling and free housing, forever - no to mention a people who have consistently shown support for the world's worst dictators and human rights violators.

Coddling Palestinians keep them in a state of eternal childishness. They should be treated like adults who are responsible for their own situation - with leaders who consistently reject peace plan after peace plan, who teach their people that they will "return" to Israel to destroy it, who blame literally every problem in their control including domestic abuse on Israel alone.

They'll hate you anyway, but when they are held responsible for their actions, they will start acting responsibly.

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Should Netanyahu resign? (Part 2 - Forest Rain) (updated)

Forest Rain's answer to my question went way beyond the two paragraphs I asked for, so here it is in full, updated:

Theoretically the answer is yes.

An indictment, not to mention three, should be a clear sign that it is time to step aside and focus on clearing your name. Afterwards one can consider how to proceed. A healthy society should have no tolerance for even a hint of corruption.

The problem is that in the Middle East there is no room for theory. Here everything is more harsh, fast and absolute. Life and death. Black and white. Explode or not.

These are the 3 reasons I not only hope to God Netanyahu doesn’t resign but that he also continues to serve as Israel’s Prime Minister.

1. #MeToo: a good idea gone wrong

The #MeToo movement began with a very correct idea – those victimized by sexual abuse should be empowered to speak up, without shame for what happened (knowing they are not the only ones) and society should listen, taking their complaints very seriously. #MeToo embodied a powerful, positive concept which was supposed to be the basis of building a healthier society.

Unfortunately the #MeToo movement very quickly morphed into a way of punishing men, with no regard to how deserving (or perhaps undeserving) they are. An accusation of sexual misconduct became enough to destroy careers or, at best, leave a man’s reputation forever tarnished.

When the accusation is accurate and proportionate to the punishment, this is a good thing. But what happens when the accusation is false? Or when there was some mild wrongdoing but nothing so terrible as to merit becoming a social outcast?

The same is true with accusing the Prime Minister of corruption. The judiciary system must not be weaponized and used as a tool to remove undesirables from office.

In this case Israeli law specifically differentiates between a Minister and the Prime Minster. A Minister must resign immediately – with the understanding that after being cleared, he or she can run for reelection. The Prime Minister is given different status due to the difference in responsibilities and difficulty in attaining office. He or she can’t just “come back” like an average employee returning to work after a sick day. Forcing the Prime Minister to step down is a de facto end to their political career. As with #MeToo, in the case of guilt, this type of punishment is probably a good thing but what if the accused is innocent?

The accusation, even an indictment (or even three) cannot become a tool for removing a lawfully elected Prime Minister. Forcing him to step down in the name of morality is in fact an utterly immoral abandonment of the concept of innocence until guilt is proven.

No one, not even Prime Minister Netanyahu, should be forced to prove that he is innocent. It is up to the judiciary system to prove guilt.

In Hebrew there is a concept called “Eenewy deen” which literally means torture of the law. This phrase is a figurative way of describing drawing out a court case deliberately (or through extreme negligence) to unbearable lengths which, as a result, keeps the accused on hold, unable to proceed in normal life, keeping them captive to the whims of the judiciary system.

Israel’s court system is known to be overburdened and slow when dealing with anonymous citizens. Cases involving high profile people are often even more drawn out, particularly for those who don’t adhere to the establishment agenda. Avigdor Lieberman himself was held in legal limbo for a decade. There is no promise that Netanyahu will receive swift legal resolution thus the idea that Netanyahu could step down, swiftly resolve the legal issues and step back into any leadership role is disingenuous or, at best, disconnected from reality.

2. Deep State undermining the State

In her recent book Nikki Haley revealed some of the mechanisms of the Deep State at work in American politics. The Deep State is not a tinfoil hat wearer’s conspiracy theory, it’s the sad result of the divide between elected officials and career officials who think they know what’s best for the public.

Israel too has its own version of the Deep State. Netanyahu’s rivals have attempted to paint him as paranoid in order to weaken his image however this is not a matter of some vast conspiracy that “everyone is in on” but rather a confluence of desires, ambitions and basic human psychology that create a very powerful force that, for different reasons, is working to achieve the same goal – removing Netanyahu from office:

Israeli elites – Having been out of power politically for decades, Israel’s elites remain the driving force culturally, making up the majority of Israel’s academia, media, judges, artists and bourgeoise.
In the early years of the country Ashkenazi Jews, members of the Haganah, supporters of the political left became the “ruling class.” For many years it was impossible to get a job if you didn’t “belong to the party.”
When Menachem Begin brought the Likud to power in 1977 Israel’s elites were in shock. They felt that “the country was stolen from them” by people less sophisticated, less knowledgeable and incapable of understanding what is the “right way” to do things.
Although decades have passed and the status of Israel’s Mizrachi Jews has changed, the influence of Israel’s historical societal elites remains and their feeling that they need to “take back the country” from those they see as “lesser than” still pervades.

Group think – this is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Israel is a tiny country. It is only natural that people who join any of the elite groups in society (judicial system, media, high rank in Israel’s security forces etc.) will begin to conform to the general atmosphere of the system, leading individuals to conform to the ideas they see in the majority of their compatriots, although they may personally have opposite opinions. This isn’t a conspiracy, its basic human nature.
Money – enormous amounts of money are invested by multiple sources (the New Israel Fund, George Soros and even governments of other countries) in order to undermine Israel as the Jewish Nation State. For example, the Wexner Foundation is dedicated to pinpointing societal influencers before they attain high ranking positions and insuring that these key figures are educated according to the ideals held by the Foundation.

Separate organizations put pressure on different aspects and influencers to move Israeli society away from Nationalism, traditionalism, connection to our land and preservation of borders and expand social ethno-economic divides.

For each of these groups, with their different motivations, Netanyahu is key.

In other words, it is difficult to see the indictments against Netanyahu as anything different than the attacks he’s been withstanding for years – which have nothing to do with Netanyahu the man and everything to do with what he symbolizes:
Benjamin Netanyahu is the symbol of a strong, proud Jewish Nation State.
HE is the reason the Likud remains in power.
Like the little Dutch boy with the finger in the dyke, Netanyahu is what stood between us and the flood of Jew-hate hate, power and money directed at our destruction.
HE withstood Obama, Soros and Iran, singlehandedly turning the tide of the “Palestinian” agenda to become one of partnerships with Arab nations.

For Israel’s Deep State and foreign enemies Netanyahu is the obstacle to achieving their goals.

3. Upcoming War

All people live repressing the fact that eventually we will all die. This allows us to go on about our daily business and make plans for the future although no one can ever know if they will actually live to see the next day.
In Israel, due to our reality, the precariousness of life is a more prominent part of our conscious decision making. Even so there are some who refuse to watch the news and many who enjoy the escapism of reality tv.
None of us want a war. We all know it’s coming.
The media, politicians and our security forces have gently released all kinds of information to prepare the public mentally. Netanyahu has been warning of the upcoming war and the threat of Iran for decades. Others have released reports and analysis of what is to come. General Brick’s terrifying conclusion is that the next war will make the Yom Kippur war look like a walk in the park.

In the Yom Kippur war 1 out of every 10 soldiers was killed. A tenth of an entire generation was lost. What’s coming will be worse.

It is Israel’s Prime Minister who will decide when I have to huddle in the bomb shelter while my son has to run through bullets to battle the enemy.

THAT is what choosing Israel’s Prime Minister is all about. That is why, when Israelis have voted for the left they vote for generals not bleeding heart liberal hippie types (although we have those too).

The accusations against Prime Minister Netanyahu basically consist of cronyism and receiving gifts that he probably shouldn’t have. While “not nice” those actions pale in comparison to the choice of who navigates the storm of dangers thrown against us.

Netanyahu has proven his extraordinary brilliance. We’ve walked in his footsteps across political and economic minefields. While other nations experienced disasters, we who are in constant existential threat, thrived. Over and over he has succeeded in doing the impossible for our country. There are other politicians who would like to take over leadership of the country but there is no other man like him.

Like there was only one Winston Churchill. One Steve Jobs. Netanyahu is in that same category. Should he be forced to set down it might be a relief for him and certainly his family but it will be a travesty for our nation.

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EoZ columnist symposium: Should Netanyahu resign? (part 1 - Daled Amos, Varda Epstein, Vic Rosenthal

I have asked some of my columnists and others to write a paragraph or two on whether Benjamin Netanyahu should resign. Here are some of their answers:

Daled Amos:

The famous Chinese curse, "you should live in interesting times" does not begin to cover what we are going through now. We have one US politician who claims ancestry from American Indians who is partial to a Palestinian Arab dictator who claims to be descended from the ancient Plishtim. Another contender for the Democratic presidential nomination is Jewish, and when he is not busy gaining support from antisemites, he is announcing his plan to transfer US funding from Israel to Hamas terrorists.

Meanwhile, in Israel itself, we watch as arguably one of the ablest and most successful Israeli leaders in its short history is being indicted on charges and in a process that have both been brought into question. Waiting in the wings are contenders who, while not as unserious as those looking to run for president of the US, are still untested. The prospect of a third election, with no greater prospects than the first two, awaits. Meanwhile, the PIJ wants to come out from under the shadow of Hamas while Hamas itself gleefully watches the divisiveness and uncertainty Israel is facing. It is not easy, sitting here in Galus, to watch all this. Those in Israel who are eager to bring down Netanyahu no matter what the cost to the country, and by extension to World Jewry, are not about to stop -- at this point they couldn't even if they wanted to. The choice is in the hands of Netanyahu. It is an unenviable one, because the future of Israel is unclear even if he steps out of the way. But that may be what he needs to do.

Varda Epstein (Judean Rose):

Bibi Should Not Resign
I don’t see any reason for Bibi to resign. There is a strong feeling that the judiciary is corrupt, that the charges are not serious, and that the judiciary, being left-leaning, is trying to take down a politician that does not serve its interests. The proof? About half the country voted for Bibi in spite of the allegations against him. That doesn’t mean that Bibi is not corrupt, but he’s probably not the devil incarnate, and the charges are just silly. Bibi can handle his legal issues at the same time he is serving. It’s just another ball for him to juggle.

Vic Rosenthal:

Yes, he should resign. He simply can't do the job under these conditions.
Having said that, the prosecution was unfair. The nightly "revelations" on the TV news based on illegal leaks from the police and prosecutors, were an atrocity. He should receive immunity just for this, and the leakers should be punished.
Bibi has been a great prime minister, maybe the greatest. He has his weaknesses, but so do we all. And it is also not clear that media coverage should be a quid pro quo for bribery. But he has been PM long enough.
The Americans have got one thing right: removing a head of state should be a political process. The justice system should be dragged into it; it is corrupting and dangerous. And maybe term limits is not a bad idea either.

My own feelings are closest to Vic's. I don't see how Bibi can govern effectively with an indictment over his head. I dislike conspiracy theories that implicate the police, attorney general and justice system - which I defend in other contexts - are suddenly corrupt.

As far as who can do Bibi's job - at the moment, no one, but Bibi would be gone one way or another eventually, and I have faith in Israel's democracy that other leaders can arise, or at least not screw up too badly until a real visionary can come along.

One more post-length response coming up next from Forest Rain.

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Watch Adam Levick of @UKMediaWatch explain how you can help in the fight against media bias

Here is a nice video where Adam Levick of UKMediaWatch discusses some of his work and gives advice on how anyone can be effective in combating anti-Israel media bias. He includs some nice success stories.

Using Twitter really helps get past the bureaucracy to get results quickly.

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11/24 Links: Saturday people, Sunday people and the ‘Mohammadian army’; Holocaust Survivor Has A Message For Bernie Sanders; Iranian judoka Mollaei calls Sagi Muki 'my best friend'

From Ian:

Saturday people, Sunday people and the ‘Mohammadian army’

While a veritable cloud-burst of 350+ rockets fell on Israel last week, a violent onslaught of death and destruction also swept across northern Syria. An invasion, under orders of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, features his national army assisted by jihadi shock troops storming Kurdish, Christian and Arab villages in northeast Syria’s so-called “Peace Corridor.”

Voice of America reported, “While announcing the operation on October 9, Erdogan tweeted in English that the operation by the Turkish army and its allied Syrian militants was to neutralize terror threats against Turkey by the Kurds and to establish a safe zone for the return of Syrian refugees.”

“In his tweets in Turkish and Arabic, however, Erdogan described his forces as ‘the heroes of the Mohammadian army’ – a term dating back to the Ottoman Empire,” the report continued.

The VoA article went on to say that during public speeches preceding the invasion of Turkish violence, Erdogan claimed that it was “to protect the dignity of the ummah,” meaning the Muslim world. He went so far as to praise the Turkey-backed rebels as “jihadists who even intimidate and kill death itself.”

Israelis have long been aware of the rancorous nature of Turkey’s president, whose animosity toward the Jewish state knows no bounds. And of course Jews have a very long history of dealing with sudden pogroms against their people in the Middle East. To this day, there are only handfuls of Jews left in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya or Iraq. And Turkey’s regime has become increasingly worrisome to its shrinking Jewish population.

Israel in the West Bank Advances US Interests

The US position on the future of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) should be based on US interests in the context of a violent, volcanic, uncontrollable, and unpredictable Middle East.

On September 18, 1970, the pro-USSR Syrian military invaded Jordan in an attempt to topple the pro-US Hashemite regime, which would destabilize the regional balance. The invasion was rolled back, largely, due to Israel’s deployment of its military, and Israel’s deterring posture on the Golan Heights and the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria. Thus, Israel’s posture of deterrence spared the US the need to deploy its own troops (while it was bogged down in the Vietnam quagmire), in order to secure its Jordanian ally, and prevent a devastating ripple effect into Saudi Arabia and all other pro-US Arab Gulf States at a time when the US was heavily dependent upon Persian Gulf oil.

Israel’s control of the mountains of Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley — as well as the Golan Heights — dramatically catapulted its regional position from violence-inducing weakness to violence-deterring strength, reducing regional violence and threats to all pro-US Arab regimes.

Israel’s control of the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria — the cradle of Jewish history — has transformed the Jewish State from a supplicant and national security consumer to a strategic ally of the US and national security producer. In the words of the late General Alexander Haig (former Supreme Commander of NATO and US Secretary of State), Israel has become the largest US aircraft carrier with no US boots on board, yielding the US a few hundred percent rate of return on its annual investment in Israel.

Honest Reporting: The Charges Against Benjamin Netanyahu, Explained

Until November 2019, no Israeli prime minister has ever been indicted while in office. The charges against Benjamin Netanyahu are serious: bribery, fraud and breach of trust. The legal drama’s collision with the Knesset’s political deadlock and looming election raises the stakes even higher.

Netanyahu insists he has committed no wrongdoing, and Israel — like other Western democracies — officially regards him as innocent until proven guilty. The unofficial court of public opinion is a different story though.

If the charges against Netanyahu are proven and he is found guilty, he stands to face as much as 10 years in prison on the bribery charges alone.

Here’s a reader’s guide to the three separate investigations that led to the charges facing Netanyahu.

Known as cases 1000, 2000 and 4000, the case numbers are how the Israeli Police’s Lahav 443 unit referred to the separate investigations as the allegations surfaced.

Eugene Kontorovich - Fox and Friends Sunday 7AM 11/24/19, Bibi and Settlement policy.

Amazing video of Syrian anti-missile defense confused by Israeli electronic warfare

Here is video of Syrian anti-missile systems being launched against Israeli missiles on targets in Damascus.

You can see that the Syrian missiles often crash into the ground seconds after launch. It appears that Israeli countermeasures include ruining the Syrian missile guidance systems.

(h/t Michael Doran)

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"Be Strong and of Good Courage," released in September, is a bit of a bait and switch.

It's subtitle, "How Israel's Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny," makes it appear that the book is a biography of David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon centered on the key decisions they made that made them into leaders. Four of the five chapters are indeed focused on those leaders, edited in such a way that the same stories aren't repeated.

But the book is really about its fifth chapter, called "Israel's Fateful Choice." All the stories beforehand were curated to lead to this fifth chapter, where authors Dennis Ross and David Makovsky argue that Israel must do something bold - in their minds, in line with the fateful choices made by Israel's previous leaders - to avoid Israel becoming a binational state.

The major leadership choices that the authors concentrate on are Ben Gurion's decision to declare the State of Israel immediately upon the British leaving Palestine (it was not as obvious a decision as it appears in hindsight,) Begin's making peace with Egypt and ultimately giving up the entire Sinai for peace, Rabin's peace agreement with the PLO and Sharon's decision to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza. The Begin chapter includes fifty pages on the negotiations over the Sinai and less than one sentence on the bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq, which gives an idea of their definition of leadership.

The biography chapters are not bad, even if they are slanted towards the last chapter. For example, Ben Gurion is quoted by Sharon as saying that Israel could have taken the land to the Jordan (presumably in 1948) but decided not to because then the Jews would be a minority. But Ross/Makovsky would never quote Ben Gurion's words as an introduction to a book about Hebron written in 1970:

Don't forget: the beginnings of Israel's greatest king were in Hebron, the city to which came the first Hebrew about eight hundred years before King David, and we will make a great and awful mistake if we fail to settle Hebron, neighbor and predecessor of Jerusalem, with a large Jewish settlement, constantly growing and expanding, very soon. This will also be a blessing to the Arab neighbors. Hebron is worthy to be Jerusalem's sister.

It is difficult to imagine a more pro-settlement statement.

There are also some new insights, both from newly uncovered archives and from Ross' own direct experience. My favorite new piece of information is in a footnote:

This anecdote hints at so much: Arafat's pre-planning the intifada and having little interest in compromise at Camp David, the dangers of Israeli unilateral withdrawals and how they are perceived in the Arab world, how Arafat would think that he can gain more from violence than from negotiations, the fundamental importance of pride and honor in Arab politics. A book based on these insights would be a valuable one indeed.

The stories are all shaded towards Chapter Five, implying that real leaders would decide today to effectively withdraw to the route of the security barrier unilaterally in order to preserve Israel's Jewish majority. (For example, they quote Sharon as saying he had to withdraw from Gaza because he felt that any successor prime ministers would be politicians, not visionaries.)

Ross and Makovsky are not starry eyed J-Streeters. They know quite well what Israel's challenges are, and do not expect a Palestinian peace partner to emerge any time soon. They know that Israel must keep the Jordan Valley one way or another with the Jordan River as the only truly effective secure border for Israel. But they have blind spots as well, such as thinking that the US could pressure Europe to accept that Israel would keep the settlement blocs to the east of the security barrier, when Europe would do no such thing because it has spent twenty years saying that the "1967 lines" are the basis for any peace agreement - they have spent so much political capital on that "solution" that they cannot change course, especially when Palestinians would scream about a "land grab" and not look at it as Ross/Makovsky intend, that they have a path to a nation of their own.

Chapter 5 is clearly directed at one person, Benjamin Netanyahu. The authors do give him grudging respect for his skill in relations with Russia, his improvement in relations with Gulf states and in deterring Iran in Syria. But his allowing settlements to continue to grow (even if he has slowed that down significantly for most of his time in office) is his major sin, allowing Israel to drift towards an unsaid but implied apartheid. (To their credit, they do not count Gaza as being occupied by Israel in their demographic arguments.)

What is the real solution to the demographic problem? It is a difficult question to be sure, but their solution is just as flawed as the ones they attack from Israel's right. Most people agree - right and left- that Palestinians deserve to be treated well; that Israel can do things that can improve their lives and make a fresh view of what is needed for security and what is kept in place because of inertia. (Would allowing Palestinians to have 4G networking really hurt Israel's security? Such a move could jump start a Palestinian Internet economy where the location of the workers is not important.) My own modest addition to the ideas thrown around would be to take advantage of the better relationships with the Gulf countries and come up with incentives from the US or Israel or both to have them give true citizenship to Palestinians - the most educated and most industrious Arab population, who would improve the futures of those countries. This cold crack the Arab consensus that it is in the best interests of Palestinians to keep them stateless, forever.

I wish that Be Strong and of Good Courage was not quite as polemical as it is. A good biography of these four Israeli leaders would be worth reading on its own.

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Ammon News reports that opponents of the imminent deal where Israeli companies will sell natural gas to Jordan are engaging in a last-ditch effort to scuttle the deal.

The deal is worth $10 billion over 15 years.

The "Jordanian national campaign to drop the gas agreement with the Zionist entity" called for a vigil to be held at 6 PM on Thursday.

It issued a statement that there is only five weeks left before fuel starts to reach Jordan, saying that Israel can then threaten Jordan's energy supply any time it wants over the next 15 years.

Israel is not involved in the deal. Electronic Intifada tried to paper that little fact over by saying that the Israeli companies pay taxes to Israel and therefore the Jordanian money will indirectly go towards killing Palestinians or something like that.

The real lesson is that when Israel is an economic power, especially an energy power, it is difficult for its Arab neighbors to boycott it. In the end, every country acts in its own self-interest, and partnering with Israel is often in every country's self interest.

Israel's strong economy is a large contributor to Israel's security. This is something that Netanyahu grasped when he began his terms as prime minister and it will be a lasting legacy to him.

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