Moshe Feiglin's Zehut party, when it is mentioned in the media at all, is usually described as a quirky "ultranationalist" party that supports annexing the West Bank although it also supports legalization of marijuana.
However, polls show that it may get as many as 5-8 Knesset seats. (8 is the highest I've seen and that poll was released yesterday.) People are realizing that Feiglin very well may emerge as the kingmaker as long as the top two parties remain close in the polls.
As is often the case, the Israeli electorate is looking beyond the newspaper sound bites about Zehut and finding a very interesting libertarian platform, written by a combination of religious and secular Israelis, that includes concepts that some far-Left voters would find appealing compared to the mainstream parties.
Here are some of the parts of the Zehut platform that, agree with them or not, are much more liberal than the Israeli mainstream has been for years and which Meretz voters would be happy with:
Ending the rabbinic monopoly on marriages and allowing same sex marriages:
Zehut believes that the state should not determine what marriage is, who is married and who is not. These decisions belong to the society and community to which the person belongs. Zehut will cancel the marriage registration presently employed. Each couple will be able to marry as they wish, in the type of ceremony they choose and in a manner that suits them.
Termination of administrative detentions for Arabs:
Zehut opposes police use of administrative detention, which is a corrupting force that enables the state to circumvent legal mechanisms and deny the citizen’s freedom, and to hold him in prison for long periods of time without evidence or trial. This is a serious violation of the detainees’ rights.
Allowing non-violent Arab demonstrations:
In the rest of the world’s democratic states, nonviolent civil disobedience is seen as a legitimate and important tool for preserving democracy. Israel, however, has developed a policy of aggressive resistance by the regime to any form of protest, without distinguishing between violent protest and nonviolent protest. Zehut demands a policy that distinguishes between the two kinds of protests and instructs the police not to resort to violence when it comes to nonviolent resistance.
Ending American aid to Israel:
Zehut does not see American aid to the State of Israel as a cardinal guarantee of its security, never to be relinquished. The price of this “gift” is too high. In terms of security, receiving aid creates Israeli dependence on America, which then receives legitimacy to intervene in Israeli security matters. A foreign element that regularly interferes in Israel’s decisions and prevents the freedom of military action is a serious blow to Israel’s security.
Offering all Arabs in the territories a choice of whether they want to become citizens or permanent residents, ending "apartheid" as bizarrely defined by the Israel haters:
Non-Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria will be offered three options: 1. Assistance in immigration: The state will enable interested residents to sell their property, and will help them emigrate to the destination of their choice. 2. Residency: Those who wish to remain and declare their allegiance openly will receive the status of permanent residents in the Jewish state. All their human and property rights shall be preserved in the same manner as permanent residents of other Western countries (as the United States does with the inhabitants of Samoa, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and Britain with the Cypriots remaining under its control). 3. Citizenship: Those who wish to be loyal citizens and serve in the army (such as the Druze, for example) will be able to receive full citizenship after a long and thorough examination track.
No selling arms to regimes that violate human rights:
The State of Israel must be a moral role model for the rest of the nations. According
to this view, Israel will continue to develop many ties with foreign countries but will
not compromise on moral principles. For example, the State of Israel will stop selling
arms and military knowledge to regimes that commit crimes against humanity and
violate human rights.
I don't want to leave you with the impression that Zehut is only liberal. It is very nationalist, very libertarian and very interested in improving the Jewish character of the state. But many Israelis are sick and tired of the status quo and Zehut offers a fairly consistent vision that can allow Israelis to feel pride in their state and in their heritage without compromising on security or morality.
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One of the biggest lies currently being sold to populations in the west is that anti-Israel activity is related to a movement of peace or justice. Relying on a strategy of intersectionality, this deception has permitted violent, racist ideologies to take a firm foothold within other well-known ’causes’. Infecting them and leading them astray. These people may call themselves members of ‘solidarity movements’ or ‘pro-Palestinian’ but they are nothing to do with ‘peace-makers’ in the traditional sense. I’ve been inside these movements, pretending to be an activist, infiltrating their social media groups and I’ve been researching them for years. Anti-Israel activity is full of little but fake news, hate and demonisation. In their twisted world, Palestinians are sacrificial, and these movements act as a bloodsucker, leeching onto the conflict, yearning for blood and only satiated when it flows.
Gaza
The situation between Israel and Gaza is a complex one. Anyone who thinks this is about ‘strong’ Israel battering weak ‘Palestinians’, has no understanding of the conflict at all. Many of the shortages in Gaza are the result of Fatah-Hamas power-struggles. Egypt’s own issues with the Muslim Brotherhood play a major role. In addition, Hamas rule is brutal and Gazans face a violent crackdown when they protest.
An interesting note can be made here. I recently wrote about ‘independent reporters’ operating from Gaza. I suggested they were not independent at all and that their massive online social media accounts allowed for Hamas propaganda to be delivered directly into the veins of anti-Israel activism. It raises a question – how many of those accounts I monitor, which spill out ‘news’ 24-7, even mentioned the public protest and Hamas crackdown? The answer is – just one. All the other ‘independent reporters’ – telling ‘the truth’ from Gaza – didn’t see anything at all. As Gazans were arrested, beaten and tortured, all those people ‘reporting’ on life in Gaza, like Muhammad Smiry and Walid Mahmoud, didn’t see a thing.
Anti-Israel activists swallow *anything* whole and without question. Look at this post. Walid Mahmoud, (who did not see Hamas thugs beating up and torturing Gazan demonstrators) blames a broken lens cap on the Israelis, turning it into a ‘near-death’ incident. The post received 787 likes and 680 shares. I’ve no idea how this happened but I do know he is a propaganda agent. Every trip, every broken I-phone screen, every accident, is used to turn Israelis into blood-thirsty monsters – and it is all devoured ravenously by a truly insane crowd.
Numerous Jewish students at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia woke up yesterday to find fictitious “eviction notices” produced by pro-Palestinian activists posted on the doors or their dorm rooms or private apartments.
The notices were produced and distributed by the Emory chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine organization and Emory University’s Office of Residence and Housing Approval gave permission for the notices to be distributed.
Sophia Weinstein, the manager of the Emory-Israel Public Affairs Committee (EIPAC) organization, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday that at least 30 students had informed her about the stunt, and that Jewish students with mezuzahs on their doors had noticed that the “eviction notices” had been posted on their doors, but not those of neighbors without mezuzahs.
The notices declared that the student’s residence was scheduled for demolition in three days, and that all the contents of their apartment could be destroyed if it was not vacated on time.
It went on to make various allegations about the use of eviction notices against Palestinians by Israeli authorities, saying the practice was part of “the state of Israel’s ongoing attempts to ethnically cleanse the region of its Arab inhabitants and maintain an exclusively ‘Jewish’ character of the state.”
It noted at the bottom that it was not a real eviction notice and designed to draw attention to “the reality that Palestinians confront on a regular basis.”
Weinstein said that the notices had made her feel that the secure environment of university was being stripped away.
“It is one thing to criticize Israel. Dialogue is encouraged. It is another to target students and mislead with false information,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
Jewish students with Mezuzahs on their doors @EmoryUniversity woke up this morning to these “eviction notices”.
Continuing my series of re-captioning other cartoons to be more relevant to EoZ readers....
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Often I read “pro-Israel” articles, usually by American Jews, which include a statement like this: “Of course I disagree with many of Israel’s policies, but…” Or, “Of course, Israel treats the Palestinians badly, but…” Or, “Of course the occupation is immoral, but…”
I appreciate the “but,” and usually the article goes on to explain that the state really does have a right to exist, that Israel really isn’t guilty of genocide, or that people should be nicer to Jewish college students, who aren’t responsible for Israel’s policies.
But the apologetic prelude, an attempt to establish bona fides among an audience already marinated in anti-Israel propaganda, is cowardly and wrong.
Israel is doing the best she can, and much better than most Western democracies in the moral behavior department (I won’t even dream of comparing her to the various murderous dictatorships in the region).
Yes, a few Arabs have gotten shot to death while trying to do a World War Z number (video, 4:27) on our southern border fence. We should have invited them into our homes? If someone were climbing your back fence with a knife in his teeth, what would you do?
We tried, over and over, to give them a state. It was stupid, and we’re lucky they wouldn’t take it. Now they are refusing to talk. Good. They’ve demonstrated, in Gaza what happens when we give up control of territory. So, what, exactly, are we doing wrong when we don’t unilaterally leave the high ground near our center of population?
Yes, there are checkpoints that Arabs from the territories have to pass through to get into Israel. Several times a week, someone is stopped with a knife or worse. Often, terrorists sneak into Israel around the unfinished (why is that?) security barrier, and murder people. The checkpoints are a real pain in the ass for Arabs that work in Israel. How racist we must be to have them!
Yes, we arrest “children” (some as old as 17) for throwing rocks and firebombs at cars containing Jews. Sometimes the Jews in the cars are killed or maimed. How cruel we are, to children! And before you say it, it’s true that sometimes (much more rarely) Jewish kids throw rocks at Arabs. We arrest them too.
The Gazans are setting fire to the southern part of our country with their balloons and kites, like last year, as soon as the weather has started to dry out. They threaten to tear down the border and “rip out the hearts” (video, 0:51) of the Jews who live nearby. A rocket from the Gaza Strip destroyed a house in central Israel the other day, and injured several people – only the fact that we require a reinforced concrete “safe room” in all new construction prevented a worse tragedy. We shoot down their rockets in the area around Gaza with the Iron Dome system, whose every launch costs us tens of thousands of dollars. Sometimes we don’t succeed, and the residents have 15 seconds or less to scramble into their safe rooms.
But there is so much to criticize in our “treatment of the Palestinians!” For example, we block the import of metal pipes (used to make rockets) and cement (to line tunnels under the border) to Gaza. After the most recent outbreak of rockets, incendiary devices, riots next to the border fence, and explosives thrown at our soldiers, we have promised to make life easier for Gazans by increasing the number of trucks carrying food, medicines and other goods into the Strip, increasing the amount of electricity we give it (what other country supplies her enemies?), and more. In return, they just have to stop trying to kill us.
This is apparently not good enough for our critics, who think there should be no blockade at all. Let the Gazans have all the pipes and cement they want. The critics should try living in Sderot or one of the smaller communities near Gaza.
Even historically, Israel looks pretty good. Yes, there was the nakba, in which between 500-700 thousand Arabs fled the 1948 War of Independence. A small number, particularly in villages that were hostile and fought alongside the troops from the Arab countries that had invaded our country, were actually kicked out. And after the war, we didn’t let them come back (had we done so, we would not have had a state). We still ended up with some 150,000 Arabs in our country, who ultimately got the right to vote. The Arabs who left for whatever reason were kept in camps by the Arab states, and they and their descendants made into perpetual refugees living under conditions of apartheid, by the Arab states and the cowardly UN. But as expiation for our guilt, we are expected – by the Palestinians and BDS supporters worldwide – to invite all 5 million of them to live in our country, thus ending it.
Should I mention that the Jordanians kicked out or killed every single Jew in the area that they conquered in 1948? That they broke the cease-fire agreement that called for all religious groups to be allowed to visit their holy sites? That some 800,000 Jews were forced to leave Arab countries, and most were absorbed by Israel? Now that’s ethnic cleansing. Let’s also not forget the genocidal threats made by Arab leaders in 1967.
I could go on, and on, and on. Israel has never committed genocide like the US or Germany, or mass murder like Russia. It has never nuked anyone, like the US. The number of Arabs living between the river and the sea has tripled since 1970. We have never had slavery. Our ratio of civilian to military deaths in urban warfare is the lowest in recent history. We use the “knock on the roof” technique and cellphone calls to warn civilians that a building will be bombed. We send soldiers in when artillery or air strikes would be safer for us. We do not engage in wars of conquest; indeed, we tend to (stupidly) give territory back to our defeated enemies.
Israel is a democracy, it is increasingly tolerant of alternative lifestyles, and increasingly intolerant of mistreatment of women. It does not persecute religious minorities. It has a relatively free press and permits free speech.
And yet, even our defenders find it necessary to insert a disclaimer.
Why? The Jewish people should be proud of its homeland, which has survived – and is surviving – repeated assaults from her neighbors, as well as viciously bigoted treatment from many other nations and institutions – while still doing a good job of maintaining freedom and protecting her citizens.
No, she isn’t perfect. No nation is. But don’t apologize; it’s not necessary, and anyway nothing short of national suicide will satisfy her critics.
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Yesterday, the news broke that the remains of the IDF soldier Zachary Baumel—declared missing-in-action in 1982 during the First Lebanon War—have been returned to Israel. While Baumel has long been presumed dead, his name is well known to Israelis, who do not easily forget those who have been captured or gone missing while defending their country. The IDF even employs a special unit, known as EITAN, to find them, and it investigates cases going all the way back to the Jewish state’s first war. Matti Friedman, writing before the return of Baumel’s corpse, describes the unit’s operations:
In the offices [of] EITAN, there are 95 files still open from the 1948 war. A team of about 50 active researchers is tasked with closing them—a hybrid outfit of detective-historians, not regular soldiers but rather reservists called up for a few weeks a year. In their real lives, some of the researchers are academic historians. Others are policemen or computer programmers. The necessary personality type ranges from patient to pedantic. They might spend years on one case. The rule is that they can never give up. . . .
In the Jewish tradition, families must have a grave where they can mourn, explained [Nir Israeli, the unit’s commander]. And they need closure. “This is a commitment we make to our soldiers: we sent this person, and we have to bring him home.” Sometimes [Israeli] tries to demonstrate this value by bringing young soldiers along in his search parties. In a recent sweep to find the remains of four Givati Brigade soldiers who went missing in a skirmish with the Egyptians in 1948, for example, he used soldiers from the modern-day incarnation of the same military unit. (They found traces of the battle, such as old bullets, but no bodies.) . . .
Each file is periodically opened and reviewed for clues—something that might be apparent to a fresh pair of eyes, a hint that that might have evaded researchers in the past. . . . EITAN researchers manage to close a few files a year. In May, for example, after years of searching, they found the body of a thirty-four-year-old fighter, Libka Shefer, who was killed in an Egyptian assault against a kibbutz in southern Israel in 1948. Seventy years after her death, she was finally buried under her own name.
Sergeant 1st Class Zachary Baumel’s last words to his parents were “Don’t worry, everything is okay, but it looks like I won’t be home for a while.” After 37 years, Sergeant 1st Class Zachary Baumel has finally returned home.
In 1982, during the First Lebanon War, Sergeant First Class Zachary Baumel, an IDF tank commander, went missing in action (MIA). Today, we finally brought this fallen soldier home to Israel for a proper burial.
For decades the Israeli intelligence community and the MIA Allocation Team have undertaken various intelligence, research, and operational efforts in order to locate and recover the remains of those who are MIA.
The IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate initiated Operation Bittersweet Song, and following a month’s long process which was just completed in the past few days, the body of Sergeant First Class Zachary Baumel was located, identified, and recovered.
Battle of Sultan Yacoub
On the night of June 10, 1982, the IDF’s 362nd Armored Battalion entered the Beqaa Valley in the eastern region of the Sultan Yaaqoub sector in Lebanon. The Israeli battalion found itself facing the Syrian 1st Armored Division alongside forces from Palestinian terrorist organizations.
Over the course of nearly 37 years, Israeli intelligence officers searched for the remains of fallen tank commander Zachary Baumel, who went missing in the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yacoub against the Syrian army in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
This week, nearly four decades later, Sgt. First-Class Baumel’s body was returned to Israel and will be brought to a Jewish burial at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery on Thursday evening.
In Israel, the bittersweet news was greeted with a sense of awe and pride at the lengths the military was prepared to go for its fallen soldiers. Baumel’s father, Yona, died in 2009 without learning of Zachary’s fate, but the rest of his family, including his 90-year-old mother Miriam, now have some form of closure.
“We want all IDF soldiers to know that when they enlist, the State of Israel will do everything it takes, if they — heaven forbid — fall captive or go missing, in order to bring them home,” Lt. Col. Nir Israeli, the head of the Israel Defense Forces’ missing soldiers unit, told The Times of Israel Wednesday.
In total, there are 176 IDF soldiers who are designated as killed-in-action but whose exact burial places are not known, the majority of them — 95 — from the 1948 War of Independence, Israeli said.
In the world of intelligence, the saying goes, reality often exceeds the imagination, and yet – the operation to return Zachary Baumel’s remains to Israel, in a mission that spanned the globe, can easily be considered one of the most impressive in the country’s history.
Israeli officials have long known where Baumel was buried. The matter of our missing soldiers was also raised on many occasions with foreign governments, primarily in the midst of peace talks with Syria and the Palestinians. After the Oslo Accords were signed, Yasser Arafat even transferred one of Baumel’s dog tags to Israel, but nothing more ever materialized. Syria has always said it would agree to resolve the mystery, but only parallel to receiving the Golan Heights in return, as part of a peace agreement between the countries.
A little over a year ago, the issue was again raised by then-Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. If the reports are true that Russia was involved in the operation, we can assume that Lieberman spoke with his counterpart in the Russian defense ministry, Sergei Shoigu. It appears that this time the response was different, and the Russians agreed to lend a hand. Either way, Israeli officials began working vigorously. In a series of intelligence operations, the Military Intelligence Directorate and Mossad pinpointed Baumel’s exact resting place. All the information was gathered into a classified file under the codename “Bittersweet Song.”
Russia, Syria and the Return of a Fallen IDF Soldier
37 years after Israel's first war with Lebanon in 1982, the Israeli Defense Forces said on Wednesday that the body of fallen soldier Zachary Baumel had been transferred to Israel. Baumel's funeral will be held at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery on Thursday night at 7:00pm local time. The IDF spokesperson said Baumel's body was returned aboard an El Al flight through an anonymous third country intermediary in operation undertaken by Israel's intelligence agencies. Five more Israeli soldiers went missing in Lebanon on June 11, 1982 during the Sultan Yaaqub battle including Zvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, whose whereabouts remain unknown. 20 Israeli soldiers were killed during the exchange of attacks with Syrian forces at the start of the First Lebanon War. Baumel's burial is set to take place this week.
EU High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini spoke at the Arab Summit in Tunis over the weekend, and she started off by saying something very troubling:
She said, "nous sommes si proches d’un point de vue géographique et culturel," meaning that Europeans and Arabs "are so close from the geographic and cultural point of view."
Really? European and Arab culture are that close?
No, they are not. The single biggest difference between the two cultures, which cannot be overemphasized, is that Arabs have an honor/shame culture and Europeans have a guilt culture.
When a Westerner does something wrong, he or she generally feels guilty and wants to set things right, whether other people notice it or not. Western guilt isn't ameliorated by people thinking the wrong thing about someone - it is made worse.
When an Arab does something wrong, it is only shameful when others find out about it. Shame must be eradicated by any and all means, including to the point of murder in the most extreme cases of "honor killings."
These are fundamentally different cultures and they lead to fundamentally different ways of normal daily interaction. Westerners, including journalists and diplomats, are reluctant to say the truth about Arab human rights abuses and other outrages because it causes the Arabs to react strongly - because it offends their honor, and if Arabs can manipulate the West to ignore their crimes, then their honor is intact since honor depends on what other think of you, not on what you actually do.
The honor/shame culture implies hiding the truth. Western guilt culture rewards uncovering the truth and doing the right thing.
To say that Western and Middle East cultures are "close" is not only flatly wrong, but it rewards Arabs for hiding their own significant social problems. It encourages Arabs to push off responsibility for their own shortcomings and avoid shame.
In recent years "honor killings" of women in the Arab world seem to have been reduced. What changed? Are there fewer Arab women having affairs or choosing their own husbands that families disapprove of?
No. The reason seems to be that the Western world became aware of "honor killings" and publicized how bad they were. Which means that the "honor killings" themselves have become a source of shame - and therefore there are fewer of them!
This is the key for how the West needs to deal with the Arab world and its honor/shame culture. Rather than recoiling at Arab anger when human rights issues are uncovered, the West must redouble publicizing them - because that shames the Arabs into acting with responsibility! Muslims especially are taught that Islam is the most humane and fair religion, and when their actions are exposed as less moral than Western mores, they are deeply embarrassed - and they have incentive to improve.
I don't think there is a question that guilt culture is superior to shame culture. One encourages personal responsibility and truth telling and the other encourages hiding the truth when it is a source of shame. The main way to improve Arab and Muslim culture is to shine a bright light on their shortcomings - to expect them to act as moral creatures who must take responsibility for their actions - and the Arab world can change for the better.
Saying that we are the same is wrong and destructive. Knowing our differences is the key to improving the world.
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I sometimes see endless Twitter discussions on whether Palestinians are a people, or whether pre-Israel Palestinian Arabs were a people.
Some note that it is hard to deny that Palestinians are a people today, regardless of history, so therefore the history of whether they were a separate people beforehand doesn't matter too much.
However, history matters. Knowing the history of how they became "Palestinian" is key to understanding today's Middle East.
Up until 1947, Arabs in Palestine were simply Arabs, for the most part. The word "Palestinian" referred almost exclusively to Jewish residents of Palestine.
Even the 1964 PLO Charter used the phrase "Palestinian Arab" repeatedly to distinguish from Palestinian Jew, which is what people still thought of when they heard the word "Palestinian" in 1964.
So how did they become "Palestinians?" How did they become a people?
A group becomes a people when they have something in common with each other. The arbitrary boundaries of the British Mandate, which lasted less than three decades, was not enough to make Arabs of Palestine feel "Palestinian."
They identified with their clans, with their villages, with their religion and with their Arab identity, but being "Palestinian" was not an important part of their identity at all (with rare exceptions.) For the most part, Arabs moved freely throughout the Arab world as droughts or wars or economic incentives impelled them to. Arab clans tenaciously held onto their origins, usually in Arabia or Yemen, and their tribes often stayed together as they moved from one Arab land to another.
Even today, if you pick a popular Palestinian surname and look up their family history in Arabic, you will see where they originally came from. You will not find very many who say they originated in Palestine. Usually they trace their history back to Arabia or Yemen, although there are plenty whose names originate in North Africa.
Only in 1948 did Palestinian Arabs start to have something in common with each other - and that was because of how they were treated by their fellow Arabs, not Jews.
As mentioned, Arabs often came to Palestine for economic reasons. Tens of thousands of Syrians moved in during the 1920s because of a drought in the Hauran region. Demographic studies show that the biggest increase in Arab populations during the years before 1948 were invariably in Jewish areas, where the industry and jobs were. But many would travel back to Lebanon or Syria as needed.
During the 1936-9 riots, many wealthier Arabs moved to Lebanon to escape the troubles with their extended families.
In short, since Arabs in Palestine felt that they were simply Arabs and not Palestinian, it was relatively easy for most to make the decision to leave during the 1948 war to be with their fellow Arabs they assumed would take them in the way they have throughout history as they migrated across the Arab world. The ones who stayed and fought for their homes were not unified as Palestinian Arabs but simply because they had ties to their villages, and there was no central command to speak of because Arabs in villages in Palestine didn't feel much affinity with Arabs of other villages.
But this time, for the first time as far as I can tell, the Arab migration was not welcomed by their fellow Arabs.
The reason is simple. Arabs were deeply shamed by losing the war to the hated, lowly Jews who had been second class citizens in Arab societies forever. Palestinian Arabs reminded the rest of the Arab world of their shame. Instead of integrating the refugees, they kept them separate. They blamed the West for allowing Israel to be born and they insisted that the West - i. e., the UN - pay for the Palestinian Arabs to be housed and educated.
Most importantly, the Arab League recognized that the refugees could be a huge weapon against Israel, because if they would return there would be no more Jewish state.
Every Arab from Palestine became a pawn.
There was another important reason why the Arab nations wanted to use Palestinians as cannon fodder against Israel. They knew that they had a restless, homeless and stateless population in their midst and they didn't want them to blame their hosts for their problems. They created a myth of a Palestinian people displaced by Jews in order to direct their hate towards Jews and Israel - and away from the Arab leaders who refused to naturalize them (except for Jordan.)
Thus began the Palestinian people. Their leaders and Arab leaders agreed that they needed an identity, and they insisted that by being kept separate, they would keep the Palestinian Arab identity intact. Becoming citizens of Arab countries would mean that this nascent Palestinian identity would disappear and a major weapon against Israel would disappear along with it. As PLO leader Ahmed Shukairy said in 1966, when Palestinian identity was still in a nascent stage:
“The Arab states will not integrate the Palestine refugees because integration would be a slow process of liquidating the Palestine problem." Ahmed Shukairy. chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. declared in an interview today.
“Consequently. the refugees don’t want to be integrated.” he continued. “If there are no Palestinian people. there is no Palestinian cause. We can't conceive of a Babylonian cause today because there are no Babylonians. But we start from the premise that we will achieve the liberation of Palestine soon."
The Arab record towards Palestinians is pretty bad. Palestinian Arabs have been slaughtered, deported, and given few rights. But they have been taught that they are loyal Arabs and the only people they must blame for their predicament is Jews.
UNRWA is a big part of this. In the beginning, UNRWA tried to relocate Palestinian Arabs in countries like Iraq and it worked to have them become productive citizens of their host countries. Arab nations resisted and soon UNRWA used its own money to hire thousands of Palestinian Arabs themselves - who then imposed their own agenda on UNRWA, its mission and its textbooks. This is why Palestinians, and only Palestinians, are still considered "refugees" decades after all other of the millions of WWII-era refugees have been resettled elsewhere.
Even if you want to blame Israel for the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Arabs, the only people to blame for their continued misery for seventy years are the Arab nations themselves. The world refuses to recognize this or even demand that Arab nations take care of their "guests" the way every other nation is expected to.
Palestinians themselves want to become citizens of their host countries. When Egypt and Lebanon briefly changed the rules of citizenship allowing many Palestinians to become naturalized, tens of thousands of Palestinians jumped at the opportunity. Even Hamas leaders became Egyptian citizens!
There can never be peace without the Arabs taking responsibility for the Palestinians in their midst. The myth of an ancient Palestinian people is one roadblock in the way of treating them like every other refugee population. This is why the truth matters - the truth is essential to getting everyone closer to a real peace.
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Israel's Foreign Affairs Ministry Arabic Twitter account sent out this message about a huge $5 million mosque built in Abu Ghosh, Israel that can accommodate 3000 worshipers. It was completed in 2014.
تتجلى حرية العبادة في إسرائيل بمنح الأقليات حرية ممارسة أديانها وشعائرها وطقوسها. تم بناء هذا المسجد الفخم الذي يسع 3000 مُصلِ وبكلفة 5 ملايين دولار في قرية أبو غوش العربية
medialine pic.twitter.com/lc2elSljbF
Someone tweeted this to the PLO's Saeb Erekat, sarcastically asking if there were any synagogues in Palestinian Arab ruled areas. Erekat responded back:
Shalom synagogue in my home town jericho . Stop this attitude . Judaism to Palestinians is not a threat will never be a threat , Judaism is one of God’s great religions. The real threT on both of us is the continuation of the Israeli occupation. https://t.co/2duN1Ne916
— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) April 2, 2019
It is funny that Erekat called it the "Shalom synagogue" because the Palestinians call it the "Shahwan synagogue" after the Arab family whose land it was discovered in. the actual name, "Shalom al Yisrael," literally "Peace unto Israel," is apparently too controversial.
More importantly, the Jericho synagogue is a 6th century CE ruin. If Jews want to worship there, they have to go on special protected tours so they won't be attacked by Palestinians - just as they have to do when they visit Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus) or a number of other important Jewish historic and religious sites under Palestinian Arab control.
A Jew, or a quorum of Jews, who want to worship in any Jewish holy place under Palestinian Authority control can't simply go without endangering their life. Non-Jewish tourists can and do visit, but Jews praying need IDF protection.
Erekat's example doesn't show that Palestinians respect Judaism. Quite the opposite. He proves the point - that they hate Jews practicing their religion and do not protect those tourists from harm the way they protect non-Jewish tourists.
The contrast between Israel giving land to Muslims to allow them to worship, today, and the Palestinian Authority not protecting Jews who want to pray in ancient holy sites, is as stark as can be.
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In progressive America, an official elected in a predominantly Jewish district in the country’s largest city can be punished for asserting an indisputable historical fact if it happens to offend the sensibilities of hard-left activists. In this case, Kalman Yeger, a councilman from Brooklyn, in a back-and-forth about Rep. Ilhan Omar, tweeted that, “Palestine does not exist. There, I said it again. Also, Congresswoman Omar is an antisemite. Said that too.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio quickly issued an ultimatum to Yeger demanding he apologize, or else. After he refused, NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson booted Yeger from—what I assume is a wholly useless—city immigration committee. “I found Council Member Yeger’s comments completely unacceptable…” Johnson explained. “They were dehumanizing to Palestinians and divisive, and have no place in New York City.”
Yeger’s statements might be debatable—perhaps some of you don’t find Omar’s numerous attacks on American Jews anti-Semitic—but the other contention is a historical and present-day reality. Despite this, nearly every media story covering the kerfuffle frames the councilman’s contention about the status of the West Bank and Gaza as some kind of appalling attack on decency. What other Howard Zinn-like historical fantasies must we adopt to participate in debate?
“Now, if he comes out and he apologizes, and says, ‘Look, I was wrong and I realize what I did was hurtful and I’ve got to change,’ different discussion,” de Blasio said. Pointing out that there’s no nation called Palestine might be provocative and argumentative, but the contention is no less accurate because of the emotional reaction it provokes. The American left’s censorship mission creep already deems numerous words and ideas off limits if enough people act insulted. Now, they’re trying to impose limits on speaking out about incontestable geopolitical truths.
He did not play by the rules, as dictated by the Democrats, so New York City Councilman Kalman Yeger has been bounced off the council’s immigration committee.
That’s his punishment for saying “there is no Palestine,” and then refusing to apologize, and if they could send him to a Soviet-Mao style “re-education camp,” they would.
We don’t have reorientation gulags here yet, but it’s coming, and already exists on campus. Free speech for me, but not for thee.
One man speaks up and it’s like he disturbed a wasps-nest.
Mayor de Blasio and other Democrats felt that Yeger’s tweet was an insult to Palestinians everywhere – though in real life there are Palestinians nowhere.
We touched on this a while back in the column, “Even the Beatles preceded the Palestinians,” and here is part of what we wrote:
“Say this for Arafat, he knew how to put one over. He knighted himself and the rest of his gang ‘Palestinian’ and the world said, sure, why not?
“Anything that antagonizes the Jews is a sale.
“Since then…since 1964…the ‘Palestinians’ have been the world’s number one concern, even though they have been nothing but a headache and exist in no history books. Nothing to be found about them before June 2, 1964. That’s when the Arab League certified them as the PLO.
All we know about Abbas Hamideh is what we learned from his Twitter bio, which states that he doesn’t compromise on one inch of Palestinian land, and also apparently lives in Cleveland.
If that’s true, we’re guessing someone else took this picture proving that Palestine’s sewage system predates the illegal Israeli occupation of the land.
The Jerusalem Post’s Lahav Harkov looked into the history on display here and found some inconvenient truths.
Is the point you’re trying to make that the British are the true natives of Haifa? https://t.co/ghmMKIkC0R
Israeli elections are less than
a week away. For those of us on the right, the choice is between four parties. There's the Likud, HaYamin HaChadash (New Right), Ichud Mifleget HaYamin (United Right), and Zehut.
Some of my friends have decided long ago who will be getting their
votes. They are the ones with dogma. Start a conversation and you will not only
get to hear how they’ll vote, but why, with finely honed and memorized talking
points. (It’s better not to do more than nod in response, lest you extend the
lecture and risk things getting heated, too.)
Other friends seem to be no
closer to making a decision. Here and there, people will ask me, “Who are you
voting for,” hoping that I’ll say something inspired that will sway them toward
one candidate or another. But I’m as clueless as they are.
Choosing Between Drawbacks
One friend put it well, “Unfortunately,
I am not choosing between who has the BEST platform. Instead, I find that each
party has a significant drawback, and I just have to consider, in a ‘chess-master’
fashion, which will result in the least damage to the country I love.”
That is my conundrum, too. I
run down the list of parties in my head thinking, “I can’t vote for this one
because ____,” and “I can’t vote for that one because ____,” and it’s endless.
With each party, there is something in the platform, or something about someone
on the list that is so fundamentally opposed to my own ideological beliefs that
I can’t even stomach the idea of voting for any of them.
Not voting is something I have
thought about, too. But if I don’t vote for the right, it’s a vote for Blue and
White. The thought of Gantz/Lapid at the helm, scares the living daylights out
of me.
Blue And White Means Concessions
We know the left’s playbook by
heart. They will make concessions. Concessions that get lots of people killed
for years on end. They will pander to the West and to the enemy. They will set
precedents that are not only contrary to Israel’s interests but will prove
difficult to roll back, long after their leaders are gone from office.
Also, these people have a bad
track record in terms of letting soldiers do their job. I have two sons in
uniform. I have to think which side is more likely to let them do what they
have to do, the right or the left, which includes Moshe Yaalon, A/K/A Bogie,
and Gabi Ashkenazi. I have to consider that it could be my child who becomes
the next Elor Azaria, or another kind of human sacrifice, the kind that God
forbid requires a military burial. I don’t want a child of mine to hesitate, to
be too afraid to shoot his gun for fear of what will happen next. The last
thing I want is for these people: Gantz, Lapid, Bogie, and Ashkenazi to win the
election.
Stepping back a bit, to me,
Gantz and Lapid are nobodies. They are pretty faces, not politicians. Their
candidacy is a way to test the waters, and perhaps a way for them to amass
power. It would be very dangerous to hand them a win. A friend referred to the
Blue and White camp as “fragile and inexperienced.” I concur.
The Likud: Is It Really Right Wing?
That leaves me with the right,
beginning with the Likud, the political home of Benjamin Netanyahu. There’s a
problem here, and I don’t mean those frivolous lawsuits the left drummed up to
try and oust him. That’s just silly stuff. Here’s the real problem: a vote for
the Likud is supposed to be a vote for the right, but it doesn’t really feel
that way.
Now there is probably no one in
Israel who has as commanding a political presence as Netanyahu. No one as
smart, either. But while he heads the party associated with Jabotinsky and the
Greater Israel philosophy, I see him as not doing enough to further those
ideals. I don’t really see Netanyahu as right wing at all, actually.
There are others in the Likud
party whom I admire. But King Bibi rules over all, making policy almost by
fiat. It is his will that carries the day, every time. If I had to choose
between Blue and White and Likud, however, Likud it definitely would be.
Strengthen A Smaller Right-Wing Party?
What about voting for a smaller
right wing party, to strengthen Likud’s hand in effecting right wing policy? That
works, to a point. We see how much good Ayelet Shaked did as a Bayit Yehudi MK within
the coalition, working hard to fix the judiciary.
But the things I care about
most won’t happen with Bibi at the helm, no matter who sits in the Knesset. I
want to see a stronger response to terror instead of this bombing empty
buildings in Gaza crap. I want to see the implementation of the Edmond Levy
report. I want to see the state of martial law in Judea and Samaria ended, our
sovereignty effectively declared. I want to see us leave the UN with its blatant
antisemitism, a continuous slap in the face. I want to see lots of homes being
built all over Israel and especially in disputed territory. I don’t see that happening
while Bibi yet reigns, no matter which faction I strengthen.
Zehut: The Problem With Feiglin
Zehut’s Feiglin has good strong
words, and the right sort of politics, but he is kind of a beige personality. I
can’t see him ever becoming a commanding presence fit to take the world stage
alongside important international leaders (though I can see him possibly alienating
them). In short, he’s no Bibi, and has no potential to be a Bibi.
It is not only Feiglin’s
personality that is beige, but his willingness to join either side, right or
left. He says this is about remaining relevant if the worst happens and Blue
and White wins. He says it is about having a remaining voice from the right
inside the government. From the outside looking in, however, it seems more
about his inability to take a firm stand, despite his strongly expressed
political convictions. It makes him sound like a whore, willing to go to the
highest bidder.
Then there are his libertarian
views. When extended to non-interference with regard to vaccination, Feiglin is
equivalent to an anti-vaxxer. That can’t be countenanced. It’s just evil. Plus,
there’s a guy on his list who is anti-circumcision. Some claim the guy has
reversed his stance on the issue, but I’m too much of a cynic to believe that
this is anything more than campaign lies.
Everything else aside, Feiglin’s platform is endless. I
couldn’t get through the whole thing. I was thinking, “Terrible SEO. TLDR.”
United Right: A Fractured Party
What about Ichud Mifleget
HaYamin? I am hearing both good and bad things about head of the party, Rafi
Peretz. They say he lives in the Gaza Envelope and “won’t shut up” until
something is done about Gaza. They say he’s a doer.
But this is the same guy who danced with the
soldiers who expelled him from his home in Atzmona, in Gush Katif. Ew. I
hate it when Jews suck up to those bent on their destruction.
I like Bezalel Smotrich, second
to Peretz, a lot. He speaks up for building in Judea and Samaria. He comes to
protests. (I’ve seen him, there.) But like Feiglin, he is bound to alienate
Western leaders. He is unapologetic with his Torah values. He is so not PC (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezalel_Smotrich).
Beyond looking at the
individuals in the party, Ichud Mifleget HaYamin feels way splintered. Peretz
said he agreed to join with other parties in the camp only out of necessity
and the way he said this was demeaning and grated on the ears. "It should
be clear: Otzma Yehudit do not share my beliefs. They are not from my school
[of thought]. We have different, sometimes opposing, worldviews. So I have
refused, and still refuse, to unite with them, but I accept them as guests.
This is a technical, short-term agreement and after the election, we will go
our separate ways."
Peretz held his nose. His party
entered into an agreement with Ichud HaLeumi, Otzma Yehudit, and Netanyahu as
the only chance that any of the three might have influence and remain relevant.
The New Right: The Problem With Bennett's Peace Plan
As for HaYamin HaChadash, I
really like Ayelet Shaked. Truth be told, I haven’t a single friend who isn’t
crazy about her. Her work as justice minister stands speaks for itself. But it
is Naftali Bennett who heads the party and I don’t like Naftali Bennett’s plan
to annex Area C. I think the plan, in effect, cedes areas A & B. I also
think it’s wrong to speak of annexing territory that can legitimately be seen,
according to many jurists, as already belonging to Israel under international
law.
I worry that Ayelet Shaked has
made a mistake in hitching her wagon to Bennett’s star. I think a lot of people
don’t like Naftali Bennett for a lot of reasons. I think Yamin HaChadash
brought in everyone’s favorite right wing columnist Caroline Glick to sweeten
the pot and bring more voters on board, but I think Bennett will be like Bibi,
and everyone will have to jump when he says “jump.” I don’t think Glick will
have any real power or even much of a voice. As it is, Bennett’s peace plan would
seem to run counter to her own, though she has tried to explain away the
seeming contradiction. From the Jerusalem
Post:
Glick’s 2014 book, “The Israeli Solution,” advocates for the
annexation of the entire West Bank, whereas New Right leader Bennett has called
for annexing Area C – under total Israeli military and civilian control – with
solutions for the rest of the West Bank to be determined later.
She said that there is no contradiction between the two
plans, and supports efforts backed by Bennett and Shaked – as well as by their
old party Bayit Yehudi and many Likud MKs – to start making moves toward
applying Israeli law in the West Bank and freeing Area C from military
government.
“It’s imperative that [this] be done immediately – and in the
Knesset, you have a wide scope of operations” in that area, Glick explained.
Here is Bennett’s video explaining
his peace plan. It seems clear to me that he is not talking about dealing with
A & B at a later date: he’s giving them up for good:
It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over
So here I come to a crossroad: I can’t vote for Likud because they aren’t really right. I can’t
vote for Feiglin because he’s beige and an anti-vaxxer, to boot. I can’t vote for Ichud Mifleget
HaYamin because it’s a fractured party that’s hanging on by the skin of its
teeth. I sure can’t vote for HaYamin HaChadash because of Bennett’s peace plan.
Where does that leave me?
I have no clue. I may not know the
answer until I’m standing in a booth behind a curtain. And even then, my hand
may hesitate.
But for now, I’ll be listening
and watching, hoping that something will happen that will persuade me one way
or the other, to vote for someone, anyone, on the right.
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Cairo, April 3 - An academic at Cairo University has sparked a tumult in national media and political circles this week following a televised interview in which he made the brazen argument that not all negative phenomena have origins in Zionist conspiracy.
Public and governmental figures from across Egyptian society called for the firing of Dr. Ziabad Bakri, whose appearance on a prime-time talk show on state-run media Monday featured his repeated claims that some unfortunate events and developments come from sources other than Jews. His incredulous host challenged Dr. Bakri to substantiate his contentions, but the producers felt compelled to cut the program short before the doctor could answer, fearing public and official backlash for airing such controversial assertions.
"Not all of society's ills, even Islamic society's ills, come from the Jews," stated Dr. Bakri, to gasps and shouts from studio personnel. "What if I told you there are some problems that predate the Jews?" The bemused host sat in stunned silence for a moment before asking his guest to repeat the statement.
"War has been with us since long before the Jews were even an idea," elaborated Dr. Bakri. "So has famine. Disease. Even greed, that most Jewish of traits, is attested to in sources that date from hundreds, even thousands, of years before anyone heard of a Jew. Argue all you want about the extent to which Jews exacerbate or exploit these and other phenomena to sow discord, but we must not fool ourselves into thinking that without the Jew we wouldn't have problems."
Calls to sack the professor came from figures in and out of the government. "Such irresponsible rhetoric has no place in Egyptian society," fumed a Ministry of Cultural Affairs official. "No one who espouses such radical views, which have the potential to spark no violence toward minorities, can be permitted to spew his unacceptable filth on our airwaves. At the very least the network must ban this so-called scholar from ever appearing on its shows again, and I understand the Minister of Education will demand that the university revoke his academic degrees."
"I've never heard anything that ridiculous," stated commentator Subhi Nasser. "Only a fool would accept that Jews aren't behind every evil. to believe otherwise would undermine one of the political, not to mention theological, axioms of our society. You can't just disregard the danger that undermining those axioms poses for Egyptian society, and for the Middle East at large. Which should already tell you who must behind any attempt to undermine them."
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Close to 40 years after he was went missing in action following the Battle of Sultan Yacoub, the body of Sgt. Zachary Baumel has been returned to Israel for burial.
Baumel’s body was repatriated to Israel via a third country several days ago aboard an El Al flight following an operation by Israeli intelligence agencies. He was identified by his DNA at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, as well as by the Chief Military Rabbi Brig.-Gen. Eyal Karim, IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis said on Wednesday.Manpower directorate head Maj.-Gen.Moti Almoz personally informed the Baumel family that he had been identified.
The battle of Sultan Yacoub, a skirmish between the IDF and the Syrian army, took place on the sixth day of the First Lebanon War in June 1982 in the Bekaa Valley.
At the end of the battle, the battalion and additional forces had suffered 20 dead and more than 30 wounded. Eight IDF tanks also remained in Syrian hands, two of which had three missing IDF soldiers who had been involved in two separate incidents about three kilometers apart: Sgt. Yehuda Katz, a gunner in one tank crew, and Baumel and Sgt. Zvi Feldman in another tank.
“This was a long-term effort by the intelligence community and the Missing Persons Division during which various operational activities were carried out to locate the missing soldiers, "the military said, adding that the military is “committed to continuing the efforts to locate Sergeant Yehuda Katz, Sergeant Tzvika Feldman and all the missing soldiers and captives, and all fallen IDF soldiers whose burial places are unknown.”
Manelis wouldn’t say where Baumel had been buried for all these years, but in September, Russia claimed that its military worked with Israel on an operation to locate the remains of the fallen IDF soldiers that were in Syrian territory, which had been under the control of Islamic State.
A Palestinian tried to stab Israelis with a knife in the West Bank on Wednesday and was shot dead by one of them, the Israeli military and a witness said.
A Palestinian official, however, questioned the Israeli account of the incident at Hawara junction, near Nablus.
The West Bank, among territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has seen surges of street attacks on Israeli residents and soldiers since US-backed peace talks stalled in 2014. Palestinians claim Israel’s armed response has been excessive.
Yehoshua Sherman, a West Bank resident, told Israel Radio that he was driving slowly through the intersection with his daughter when a Palestinian charged at their car.
“He jumped at me with a knife, trying to open the doors,” Sherman said. “I drew my handgun…wound down the window and shot at him from inside the car.”
A second motorist also fired at the Palestinian, hitting him, Sherman added.
The Israeli military said in a statement: “A terrorist was shot by a civilian and neutralized after he tried to carry out a stabbing attack.”
You forgot to mention he’s a Hamas terrorist, he entered a family’s car (father & children) and started to fire his gun hurting the father, before he was shot dead!
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Fatwa: No, Pepsi Is NOT OK
-
A new bottle design features blue and white, identified with Zionism.
The post Fatwa: No, Pepsi Is NOT OK first appeared on PreOccupied Territory.
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Friday, April 05, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
