“Spray the suckers. Carpet bomb
the whole damn place,” someone is bound to say in every conversation regarding
the relentless terror emanating from Gaza toward Israel. After all, we’ve already
been
accused of carpet bombing Gaza. So why not actually do so?
I’ll tell you why. It’s too
brutal. It’s not like us. The thought of bombing innocent civilians is too
horrible to contemplate.
But it’s difficult to say that
out loud. It makes you look suspicious, or like you’re rooting for the wrong
side. So I stay quiet, or refrain from clicking “like” on Facebook comments
suggesting Israel carpet bomb Gaza. I let my non “like” express my lack of
approval for these sentiments.
Sometimes, I’ll ask the other party
to imagine what would happen to Israel were it to contemplate such a move. The
world outcry would be enormous. The response, of course, is that the outcry is
already enormous. Furthermore, say the wannabe carpet bombers, public sentiment
would blow over in no time, in accordance with the fast-changing news cycle.
My gut says otherwise. I think
the negative reaction would be huge: beyond anything we’ve seen thus far. Right
now, the photos of civilians who suffer at the hands of Israeli “aggression”
are faked or don’t show the truth. Imagine if the photos were true!
The negative public opinion
would be deafening. The remaining American Jews loyal to Israel would rent
their clothes, recant, and admit the JINOs had been right all along. The UN and
the EU would demand that justice be done at The Hague. Israelis would fear to
travel, branded as international criminals. And Israeli businesses? We’re
talking BDS on steroids.
And forget opinion. Carpet
bombing would ignite a conflagration, a World War III, God forbid, in which the
entire region gangs up on Israel in earnest. (Now if you’re a God-fearing Jew, this
is not necessarily a bad thing. The war to end all wars could bring Mashiach, the Messiah. Not that we can
go ahead and carpet bomb Gaza on the basis of the assumption that this is how
things will play out. That’s not how it works. But if things were to become bad
enough, some might take comfort in that idea.)
But when challenged on the idea
of carpet bombing Gaza, the inevitable question always follows, “Do you have a
better solution?”
Alternatively, folks will get
passionate and raise their voices, “How many soldiers and civilians have to die
before we get serious?” they will say. “How many crops must be burnt? How many animals
killed? And what of our ecosystem?”
These are questions for which
no one has answers, least of all this writer, who has a soldier son and
children and grandchildren in Netivot, in the South. This is the predicament in
which we find ourselves after the Expulsion, Ariel Sharon’s “Disengagement” plan.
Sharon threw the Jews out of their homes to take attention away from his sons’
legal issues. He made the 10,000
Jews he expelled from Gaza and Samaria the sacrificial lamb for his
personal woes. This is in spite of campaign promises in which he swore he would
never give Gaza away—despite citizens’ referendums in which the people
overwhelmingly voted against the move.
My belief is that Sharon is
roasting on a spit in Hell like a rotisserie chicken for the Expulsion and the
resulting situation in which we now find ourselves. It’s like a modern day Noah’s
Ark story, where the world that was created in Gaza in the wake of the Jews’
expulsion is just too ugly, too rotten with terror and evil to exist, and so it
must be destroyed in toto. Except that God promised He would never do that again:
would never destroy a world.
And so it is up to Israel, if
it is to be done at all.
But we simply can’t.
So we’re caught between a rock
and the hard place of innocent civilian pawns and public opinion. A purgatory,
if you will, to Sharon’s Hell.
The only thing we can do, for now, is come down much harder on those who threaten the embattled Jewish State. Let's hope that the IDF plans to do exactly that. Israel must stop playing chicken with Hamas. We need to throw some fear into the terrorists, in spite of the cost to civilians. We have to end the situation whereby Israel issues warnings as weak threats: "Stop starting fires and
shooting rockets or we'll wage war."
The warnings only signal Hamas to
slow down its terror activity just enough to make Israel stand down.
For a while.
Until it begins again.
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Oh Felesteen, We Love You So, We Will Burn You Up So The Jews Can't Have You
By Hamas
If you love something, set it on fire.
Beloved Land, we would give our lives for you. And we do, all the time. The depth of our attachment to you runs so deep, so strong, that we will start numerous fires to prevent us from ever being able to develop and cultivate you when we eventually vanquish the Zionist usurper and repossess you.
Thus is love. No amount of water can extinguish our passion for you, Felesteen, land of our ancestors, at least our immediate ancestors and not the ones before them who came from Egypt, the Balkans, Arabia, and wherever, as our family surnames attest. The Zionists warned that if our flaming kites and balloons continue, farming those areas will soon be impossible - and that is a sacrifice we are willing to make for you, our beloved Motherland, for that is how powerful our love for you has always been.
Even when we Muslims and Arabs had control over you, whether the parts we think we lost in 1967 but never actually controlled in the first place, or the rest we controlled in the mythic past before the Zionists and their Western allies dispossessed us in the nonexistent time when Felesteen was free and ruled by its indigenous Arab inhabitants, we demonstrated our love in similar fashion. So devoted were we to you, love, that we denuded the land of its forests, knowing that one day, the evil rapist scum Zionists would attempt to take you over and make you theirs, and we could not allow you that fate, our Sweetness. Better you should remain desolate, or, failing that, burning. Because we love you so.
When the villainous usurper Zionist dogs began cultivating you and bringing forth from you crops in quantities and qualities we could never duplicate, we knew how much you must be suffering. We shall free you from the prison of their wicked acts of farming, through blood and fire! Mostly fire, though. We have to save the blood for other purposes.
Do you feel our love, Felesteen? Do you feel the hot passion that burns in our hearts and veins, as well as in your brush, orchards, nature reserves, forests, fields, and arable land? That is the affection, the attachment, the devotion to you, to us, that will never go out. Unless the Zionists keep putting out those fires, the infidels. They know nothing of what love for the land is, can you not see?
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Last week, President Donald Trump’s Middle East team signaled a shift in the administration’s policy for contending with Hamas-controlled Gaza — one no prior administration had the courage to make.
On July 19, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, his special representative for international negotiations Jason Greenblatt, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman published a joint op-ed in the Washington Post in which they made clear that they are walking away from their earlier efforts to rebuild Gaza’s economy as a means of advancing the prospects for a broader peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
(This columnist had argued for exactly that policy just two days before.)
Noting that the blame for Gaza’s humanitarian crisis rests squarely on the shoulders of the Hamas regime, the three wrote: International donors are conflicted: Should they try to help the people directly, at the certain risk of enriching terrorists, or withhold funding to Hamas and watch the people it is supposed to govern suffer? In the past, investments in badly needed infrastructure have been diverted for weapons and other malign uses, and even the projects that are built are often destroyed as a consequence of Hamas’ aggression. Until governance changes or Hamas recognizes the state of Israel, abides by previous diplomatic agreements and renounces violence, there is no good option.
Kushner, Greenblatt and Friedman acknowledged as well that “the international community also bears some blame.”
“More countries want to simply talk and condemn than are willing to confront reality, propose realistic solutions and write meaningful checks,” they wrote.
The President’s Middle East policy team concluded by noting that the time has come for the international community to base its policy towards Gaza on reality rather than platitudes. In their words, Hamas is the root cause of the endless rounds of war with Israel and the suffering of the people in Gaza.
“Hamas leadership is holding the Palestinians of Gaza captive,” they explained.
“This problem must be recognized and resolved or we will witness yet another disastrous cycle [of war].”
Israel
Trump's election has proved to be a gift to Israel.
Trump was the first American president to formally refer to Israel as an ally. He ended Obama's policy of moral equivocation between Israeli self-defense and Palestinian terrorism and refused to maintain the façade that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was a peaceful moderate. He also drastically cut U.S. aid to the Palestinians.
He has made it clear that the U.S. would not tolerate the Palestinian diversion of aid money to reward terrorists and their families.
The administration placed full blame on Hamas for the Gaza escalation of terror.
Envoy Nikki Haley aggressively defends Israel at the U.N. The U.S. also withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council, an organization dominated by anti-Israel tyrants and rogue states.
Despite howls of protest, Trump has fulfilled his electoral promise to move the U.S Embassy to Jerusalem.
Trump and Putin issued an unprecedented joint press statement following their recent meeting in which they explicitly proclaimed their commitment to "work together to ensure the security of Israel." Trump said, "I think that working with Israel is a great thing, and creating safety for Israel is something that both President Putin and I would like to see very much."
To sum up, Trump is clearly calling the shots and rearranging the existing global order.
For Israel, Trump has been like manna from heaven. That does not mean that we endorse all his actions, and we continue to squirm at his cruder outbursts.
Abbas' advisor on religious affairs said that the presence of Jewish Israeli MPs in Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount, "defiles" the Islamic holy sites and in particular the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rescinded his previous ban on Israeli Parliament members visiting the Temple Mount - which had been in place for nearly three years as a precaution against violence - and allowed them to visit once every three months.
According to PA Supreme Shari'ah Judge and Mahmoud Abbas' advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Netanyahu's decision is no less than a "war crime" and the presence of Jewish Israeli MPs at Islamic holy sites constitutes "defilement":
"The prime minister of the extremist right in the occupation state [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] has committed a complete war crime against the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, and particularly at the Al-Aqsa Mosque...
The prime minister of the occupation state is engaging in bullying, arrogance, and Zionist "ISIS-ism" against the members of our people and its holy sites, both in Jerusalem and Hebron, by giving relief, support, and protection to the break-in campaigns of the extremist Jews into the holy sanctuaries in Jerusalem and Hebron, to [the sanctuaries'] defilement, and to the attack on the Muslim worshippers, who have the right to manage their holy sites with complete freedom and without the interference of the tyrannical occupation authorities." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 5, 2018]
Al-Habbash further threatened that "a continuation of the crime mentality led by the occupation government will drag the entire region and the world into a religious war whose results will be disaster for everyone."
In a later statement, Al-Habbash repeated his antisemitic accusation, claiming that "the series of Israeli crimes against the holy sites has severely escalated due to occupation [Israeli] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to allow the Israeli Parliament members to invade the Al-Aqsa Mosque plazas and defile them." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 11, 2018]
He is quoting conductor Daniel Barenboim, who makes the same laughable claim. Here's what he says:
I gave a speech at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in 2004 in which I spoke about the declaration of independence of the state of Israel. I called it “a source of inspiration to believe in ideals that transformed us from Jews to Israelis”.
I went on to say that this remarkable document had expressed the commitment that: “The state of Israel will devote itself to the development of this country for the benefit of all its people; it will be founded on the principles of freedom, justice and peace, guided by the visions of the prophets of Israel; it will grant full equal, social and political rights to all its citizens regardless of differences of religious faith, race or sex; it will ensure freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.”
The founding fathers of the state of Israel who signed the declaration in 1948 considered the principle of equality to be the bedrock of the society they were building. They also committed themselves “to pursue peace and good relations with all neighbouring states and people”.
Seventy years on, the Israeli government has just passed a law that replaces the principle of equality and universal values with nationalism and racism. This law states that only the Jewish people have a right to national self-determination in Israel.
The Declaration also refers to Israel as the Jewish State. It also only gives Jews the rights of self determination in Israel:
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
The examples given by Barenboim where the Basic Law is supposedly racist are all in the declaration of independence that he praises.
Of course, Israel's other laws enshrine equality of all citizens. None of them are rescinded as a result of the Basic Law.
Barenboim is lying. Ken Roth is lying. The entire world cannot be bothered to actually read the texts before jumping on the bandwagon of calling the Jewish State racist.
I replied to Roth asking, "Ken, please name one specific thing the Basic Law denies Arab citizens of Israel that is allows Jewish citizens of Israel. Just one. Because I have yet to see anything. Please, enlighten us."
Of course he didn't answer. Because he can't. And neither can anyone else.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
The spokesman for international media for Fatah, Ziyad Khalil Abu Ziyad, issued a statement denouncing US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.
He tried to insult her by saying she "proved very well in her recent statements that she is [really the] ambassador for the Israeli occupation state."
Abu Ziyad said that the US was trying to split the Arab world but that the Arabs haven't accepted the "deal of the century." He warned against listening to the Israeli analysis and its false and misleading statements, which act as a fifth column to strike unity in the Arab-Palestinian political situation.
The most telling part of Abu Ziyad's message, though, was his praise for Arab states - for refusing to give full rights to Palestinians!
He stressed that no Arab leader has agreed to settle the refugees, for 70 years.
This was a compliment!
The Arab League insisted back in the 1950s that every Arab be eligible for citizenship in every Arab state - except for Palestinians. A 1959 resolution, number 1547, confirmed earlier resolutions that Palestinians in Arab lands must retain their "nationality" as a principle. (Of course, they are denied becoming citizens of "Palestine" today.)
The so-called Palestinian National Liberation Movement headed by Mahmoud Abbas is praising Arab nations practicing apartheid against Palestinians.
Human Rights Watch is silent. Amnesty International is silent. Even though ordinary Palestinians have attempted to become full citizens of their host countries many times, in Lebanon, Egypt and elsewhere, their purported "leaders" have been dead-set against it, because they are afraid that happy Palestinians will no longer be Palestinian.
A Palestinian leader publicly praises Arab nations for discriminating against Palestinians - and no one thinks it is strange. Because the only reason for supporting this institutionalized discrimination is to use them as pawns to pressure Israel to accept them as "returnees" one day.
70 years of this apartheid is not only tacitly accepted by the world - it is actively supported. Because, after all, this is what UNRWA is all about: to maintain the fiction that Palestinians are refugees forever no matter how many generations they live with their loving Arab brethren.
The US even bringing up the topic is what is considered to be outrageous by the Palestinian leaders themselves.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
It's great to be with you. It is my true honor to have been asked to speak with you today. Before I say anything about what I do, I want to say a few words about what all of you do.
It's always a great thing when Americans use the power of their voice.
What's amazing about Christians United for Israel is not just the power of your voice. It's also the importance of the cause you have dedicated your voice to.
Israel needs friends.
We live in a world in which anti-Semitism is on the rise. In some parts of the world, Jewish communities are enduring hate speech, harassment, vandalism, and physical violence.
We live in a world in which terrorist groups and even some countries openly call for Israel's destruction.
Many other countries encourage or turn a blind eye to blatant discrimination against Israel.
Even here at home, there are some troubling signs. On many college campuses, the anti-Semitic BDS movement has become a trendy cause for students and professors who should know better.
Standing up against this global pressure campaign on Israel and the Jewish people goes to the heart of our friendship and the heart of America. And the tip of the spear is Christians United for Israel. What you are doing is so important. And may God bless you for it.
The United Nations is an interesting place. There are times when it can be a force for good.
We saw that last year, when the international community united against the North Korean nuclear weapons program, by passing massive sanctions that strangled their economy bringing them to the negotiating table.
The UN can also be an enormously frustrating and bizarre place. Nowhere is that more pronounced than in the truly awful way the UN has treated Israel for decades.
Last September, when Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke at the UN, he said that for too long, the "epicenter of global anti-Semitism was the UN itself." That's an amazing statement. But unfortunately, it's true.
The Prime Minister also said something else. After describing the revolution that is taking place in Israel's ties with individual nations around the world, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "There are signs of positive change, even at the United Nations." He said, "That positive change is gathering force."
That is also true.
I'd like to describe some of those positive changes, and why they are happening.
Plain and simple, change comes with leadership and clarity from the United States.
That leadership and clarity was on full display when President Trump made the bold and right decision to move the United States Embassy to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem has historically been - is now - and will always be the capital of Israel.
That is not something that was created by the location of an embassy. That is not something that was created by an American decision.
America did not make Jerusalem Israel's capital. What President Trump did - to his great credit - was recognize a reality that American presidents had denied for too long.
Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. That's a fact. And President Trump had the courage to recognize that fact when others would not.
Now, I have to say, our embassy decision caused a bit of a stir at the United Nations.
In the United Nations Security Council, countries wasted no time in condemning the United States. They showed no mercy, but that gave me the great honor of casting my first American veto.
The next week, the Jerusalem issue was brought before the United Nations General Assembly - all 193 countries - in a direct attack condemning the United States.
We lost that vote. But to many people's surprise, 65 countries refused to go against us. In the long history of the UN's mistreatment of Israel, that was a record.
And we will never forget that vote. Like I said at the time, we were taking names.
President Trump and I are pushing to draw a closer connection between U.S. foreign aid and whether countries support U.S. interests at the UN - not just on the embassy, but on all U.S. interests. UN votes should not be the only factor in our foreign aid decisions. We have many interests that go beyond the UN. But they should be one factor, and we are determined to make that connection.
My second Security Council veto came just last month. But this time things turned out differently.
You have all seen the recent violence at the Gaza border. The people of Gaza live in miserable conditions. They deserve a much better life than what is imposed on them by Hamas.
We respect everyone's right to peacefully protest. But no one should be fooled about the role of Hamas. Many of the protesters in Gaza are anything but peaceful. If they were peaceful, there would be no burning tires, there would be no Molotov cocktails, there would be no flaming swastika kites flying into Israel burning thousands of acres of land.
And of course, if this was a peaceful movement, there would not be hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel.
Like any country would do, Israel has responded to the violence at its border. What is so stunning is the international reaction to all of this.
Think about it. If there were tens of thousands of people looking to attack your border fence, and you had a terrorist group providing guidance on how best to kill innocent civilians inside your country once the border fence was broken, what would you do? What would the United States do? What would any country do?
When I heard country after country in the UN Security Council hypocritically standing in judgment of Israel, I spoke out. What I said shocked the people at the UN; but I'll say it again, because it's the truth.
Israel has acted with more restraint than just about any other country would under those same conditions.
It's true. And yet, Israel is still condemned at the UN.
In the Security Council, a shamefully one-sided resolution was put forth condemning Israel's actions in Gaza and making absolutely no mention of Hamas. Not one mention of the terrorist group that uses the people of Gaza as human shields, and fires rockets into Israeli schools.
That was my second veto.
But when this nonsense was brought to the General Assembly, this time we had a different strategy. We went on the offensive and offered our own amendment that called out Hamas's terrorism.
Now that might not sound revolutionary, but consider that in the history of the UN General Assembly there has been over 600 resolutions on the Israel-Palestinian issue alone - and not one of them has ever mentioned Hamas. Not one in 600.
It's very important to me that we represent truths and reality at the UN, even if it makes other countries uncomfortable.
For the first time, we made each country say whether they thought Hamas had any responsibility for the violence.
For the first time, we named names and identified the real source of the conflict in Gaza. And to everyone's surprise, more countries voted with us than against us.
That sent shock waves through the General Assembly. Everyone was shocked. Let me tell you, it's a new day at the UN.
From now on, every country knows that the United States will not just block anti-Israel measures, we will shine a light on those who are responsible. There won't be any more free passes for those who bully Israel at the UN.
As this example shows, sometimes we are winning at the UN through persuasion.
But there are other times when we just have to say enough is enough.
That happened last year with the UN agency known as UNESCO. Among many other ridiculous things, UNESCO has the outrageous distinction of attempting to change ancient history.
UNESCO declared one of Judaism's holiest sites, The Tomb of the Patriarchs, as a Palestinian Heritage Site, in need of protection from Israel. That was enough. Ten months into this administration, the United States withdrew from UNESCO.
And then there's even more of an outrageous example of the so-called Human Rights Council.
This UN agency is supposed to be the world's foremost advocate of human rights. What it's actually become is a protector of dictators and a cesspool of political bias.
The corruption of the Human Rights Council goes way beyond Israel. Its membership includes the murderous dictatorships of Cuba, Congo, and China.
Human Rights Council reports have described the brutal regimes in Syria, Sudan, and Russia as - get this - "victims of Western sanctions."
Not only did the UN elect the regime of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro to the membership of the Human Rights Council, but the Council rolled out the red carpet for Maduro to address them in a special assembly. His propaganda speech was met with a standing ovation.
So we don't even need to talk about Israel to conclude that the Human Rights Council is a sham.
But we should talk about Israel, because Israel is a special case that proves the moral bankruptcy of the organization.
There is only one country in the world that has its own permanent Agenda Item at the Human Rights Council. It's not North Korea, Iran, or Syria - countries that enslave and torture their own people. It's the free country of Israel.
But it's even worse than that. Agenda Item Seven doesn't just single out Israel for consideration. Agenda Item Seven prejudges Israel's guilt.
It is a political weapon used against Israel regardless of the actions it takes. It is meant to condemn Israel's very existence as a human rights abuser. It is a moral abomination.
A little more than a year ago, I went to Geneva and told the Human Rights Council that we expected changes in order to justify America's continued participation.
We said we needed to change the makeup of the Council membership to keep the worst human rights abusers off, and we needed to not just reform, but fully eliminate Agenda Item Seven.
Dozens of countries told us they agreed with us. But they only told us that behind closed doors. They did not have the courage to call it out for what it was.
Well, we do have that courage. After more than a year of efforts to change the Human Rights Council, we saw the writing on the wall, and the United States withdrew.
Many friendly countries told us we should stay in the Human Rights Council because American participation was "the last shred of credibility the Council had."
But that's exactly why we should not be there. America will always be the world's leader in advocating human rights. But we will not do that in a place that makes a mockery of the very human rights ideals it is supposed to uphold.
That brings me to a larger point.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner and leading documenter of the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel, said and wrote many profound things in his lifetime. One of those is the idea that "neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim." And that "silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
I keep that in mind as I battle away at the United Nations.
At the UN, some well-meaning countries are constantly in search of consensus.
They frequently invoke the principle of neutrality. At times, there is virtue in working together with other countries to form consensus. But that principle can be taken too far, and it often is.
The United States has no moral duty to be neutral between right and wrong. On the contrary, we have a moral duty to take sides, even when that means standing alone.
Being silent has never been something I was good at.
You might have seen, and it was mentioned earlier, that the top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat - bless his heart - recently had some advice for me. He told me I just needed to "shut up."
I responded by saying, Mr. Erekat, I will always be respectful, but I will not shut up.
I often get asked how I came to this place and to this worldview. I just believe what I believe. I have always been a person of deep faith.
No, I am not Jewish - even though that surprises some people. I was not raised as a Christian either. Twenty years ago, my faith journey brought me to Christianity, where I have found strength in my faith and trust in my heart.
But I'm also a person who is humble in her faith. I don't claim to have the wisdom to know what God has in store for me or for other people.
What I do know is that God has blessed America with greatness and with goodness.
And I know that in the dangerous world we live in, it is absolutely critical for America to stand up and have the backs of our friends, and to stand strong against those who would do us harm.
If the United Nations spent its time relentlessly and unfairly attacking Japan, or Australia, or the United Kingdom, I would stand up for them too. I would do that because they are America's friends and it's the right thing to do.
But that's not what happened. Eighteen months ago, I was given the assignment to represent America in a place that relentlessly attacks Israel. And I was sent there at a time when America had turned its back on Israel.
So it was my duty to defend Israel in what is often a dark place for one of America's best friends. I take that duty incredibly seriously and with great pride.
In one of my first meetings at the UN, I called on the Israeli Ambassador, Danny Danon. You can clap for Danny, he's a good one.
Just about one month before I arrived, the previous American Administration allowed a terrible resolution to pass. That resolution condemned Israel in the most outrageous way. It was a shameful day for America.
So when I arrived, I assured the Israeli Ambassador that on my watch that would never happen again. And I'm proud to say the opposite has happened.
In all that we're doing - whether it's the embassy decision, or UNESCO, or the Human Rights Council, or pushing for votes against Hamas, our approach on Israel is tied together by one major idea. The idea that runs through all of it is the simple concept that Israel must be treated like any other normal country.
We demand that Israel not be treated like some sort of temporary provisional entity or pariah.
It cannot be the case that only one country in the world doesn't get to choose its capital city.
It cannot be the case that the Human Rights Council has a standing agenda item for only one country.
It cannot be the case that only one set of refugees throughout the world is counted in a way that causes the number to grow literally forever.
It cannot be the case that in an organization with 193 countries, the United Nations spends half of its time attacking only one country.
We will not turn a blind eye to it.
Our demand for fairness for Israel is actually a demand for peace. The UN's bias against Israel has long undermined peace, by encouraging an illusion that Israel will go away.
Israel is not going to go away. When the world recognizes that, then peace becomes possible. It becomes possible because all sides will be dealing with realities, not fantasies.
Fantasies encourage absolutist demands. When realities are accepted, then compromise becomes possible.
When the reality of Israel's existence is accepted, both sides will become freed to achieve a durable peace.
With your help - and believe me, your help is critical - America will continue to stand with Israel. We will stand with Israel because Israel's cause is our cause. Israel's values are our values. Israel's fight is our fight.
We stand with Israel because we believe in right over wrong. We believe in freedom over tyranny.
Thank you so much for taking the time, thank you for caring. There is nothing better than when Americans use the power of their voices on behalf of good causes.
That's what Christians United for Israel is all about. I am so thankful for your fight. May God bless each and every one of you. Thank you.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Considering the enormous fuss it created, you'd have thought the law passed last week by Israel's Knesset fundamentally changed the nature of the state. But the law changes virtually nothing. The new law is an enunciation of the basic principles on which Israel was founded. When David Ben-Gurion, the country's first prime minister, read the Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948, he said that those assembled "hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, to be known as the State of Israel."
70 years after its founding, Israel continues to pass "Basic Laws" as part of the ongoing construction of its constitution. The Jewish state law is therefore merely a statement of national purpose rather than legislation that purports to alter the existing legal structure of Israel's government.
Unlike every other nation in the region, Israel remains a democracy, in which all of its citizens have equal rights under the law, including voting rights and representation in the Knesset. Many Arabs and minorities serve in government, particularly in judicial and diplomatic posts.
While the country's founding document and other basic laws guarantee equal rights for all, the purpose for which Israel was created was to give expression to the right of the Jews to self-determination in their ancient homeland.
The constitutions of many other countries make clear that they exist as vehicles for a national idea. The only thing that is really unique about Israel's insistence that it is a Jewish state is that it is the only one on a planet with dozens of states that are avowedly Muslim, Christian, or associated with another faith.
The reason why so many Israelis believed that such a law was necessary has more to do with the refusal of the Palestinians and their foreign enablers to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders were drawn. The desire of so many to deny Israel the right to express its Jewish identity is exactly why a majority of the Knesset felt it necessary to remind the world that their country is the nation-state of the Jewish people.
This law has been in the works at least since the early 2000s, a time when two major forces arose that threatened the Zionist project as it was historically understood. The first was the rise of “post-Zionism,” a small but passionate intellectual-political movement that explicitly repudiated the idea of a “Jewish state” and sought to transform the country into a “state of all its citizens” by stripping it of any connection to Jewish history, peoplehood, or symbolism.
The second, more important factor was the “constitutional revolution” led by then-Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, which recognized earlier Basic Laws as having constitutional status, and which culminated in the passing of two new Basic Laws (Basic Law Human Dignity and Liberty, and Basic Law: Freedom of Employment) that established the core rights of Israeli citizens, Jewish or not.
These basic laws were not at all a bad thing. The fact is, Israel is both a Jewish state and a liberal democracy, and basic freedoms must be protected for all.
But defenders of Zionism correctly noted that such laws would have to be balanced with similar protections of Israel’s flag and anthem and the original vision of the country as not just a refuge for oppressed Jews but also as the embodiment of the aspirations of the Jewish people.
Much of what we see in the law is the direct result of the big debates that happened back then—debates I was directly involved in.
The bottom line is that Israel is the Jewish State, and this law tells us what that means, just as other Basic Laws tell us what goes into its democratic foundations.
You can freely dislike the idea of an ethnically or historically based democracy for a specific people. But know that it’s not fascism, it’s not the rise of ethno-national-populist-alt-right-MAGA-Bannonism. That’s just a category error—one that a lot of people really want you to make right now.
Israel’s Nation state bill reflects rather, the constitutional reality of nearly every European democracy, and European democracy has always been a little different from American democracy.
If you have any interest in understanding what’s really a fascinating and historic development in a country far away, the one I actually live in, tune out the noise.
Communications Minister Ayoub Kara has been warned by state security services of death threats made against him by members of the Druze community following his vote in favor of the controversial Jewish nation-state law last week.
Following the threats, the unit of the Shin Ben security agency responsible for the safety of government ministers is considering increasing Kara’s security detail, Hadashot news reported Sunday night.
Kara, Israel’s second ever Druze minister, confirmed that he had received both online and physical harassment from Druze activists including against his wife and son.
He said that he planned to file a police complaint Monday.
On Sunday, Israeli Druze leaders, including three Knesset members, petitioned the High Court of Justice against the Jewish nation-state legislation, saying it was an “extreme” act that discriminated against the country’s minorities.
The lawmakers came from across the political spectrum — from the coalition, MK Hamed Amar of the right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party and MK Akram Hasson of the centrist Kulanu party, and from the opposition, MK Salah Sa’ad of the Labor party, currently represented in the Knesset by the center-left Zionist Union.
All three served in Israel’s security forces and have been active in Zionist organizations.
Moscow on Tuesday said a newly passed Israeli law defining the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people “greatly complicates” efforts to restart peace talks with Palestinians, joining a chorus of international condemnation for the controversial legislation.
Russian Foreign Ministry official Artyom Kozhin told reporters the newly passed law “does not serve the cause of peace and promotes a degree of tension ‘on the ground, [and] greatly complicates efforts aimed at accelerating a meaningful peace process between Palestinians and Israelis.”
Kozhin reiterated Moscow’s support for the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in “accordance with international law and relevant UN resolutions.”
The law, passed by the Knesset in a 62-55 vote early Thursday, enshrines Israel as “the national home of the Jewish people” in its quasi-constitutional Basic Laws, defines the establishment of Jewish communities as being in the national interest, and defines Arabic as a language bearing a “special” status in the state, effectively a downgrade from its de facto status as a second official language in state bodies.
Critics in Israel and abroad have fiercely derided the legislation as unnecessary and discriminatory against the country’s non-Jewish populations. Arab citizens account for some 17.5 percent of Israel’s more than 8 million population and have long complained of discrimination.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday branded Israel the “most fascist, racist state” in the world after Israel’s Knesset passed a new law defining the country as the nation state of the Jewish people.
“This measure has shown without leaving the slightest room for doubt that Israel is the world’s most Zionist, fascist and racist state,” Erdogan said in a speech to his ruling party.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promptly responded to Erdogan’s comments, saying Turkey is now living under a “dark dictatorship.”
In one of his toughest recent verbal onslaughts against Israel, Erdogan claimed there was “no difference between Hitler’s obsession with the Aryan race and Israel’s understanding that these ancient lands are meant only for Jews.”
“The spirit of Hitler, which led the world to a great catastrophe, has found its resurgence among some of Israel’s leaders,” he added, referring to Germany’s Nazi leader in the lead-up to and during World War II and the Holocaust.
Around six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
The Turkish leader warned the bill would lead the region and the world to “blood, fire and pain” and promised to stand with Palestinians. He also called on the international community to stand against Israel.
Iran's official FARS news agency has an article that calls the new Jewish Nation-State Basic Law "racist" and proof of Israel being an "apartheid" state. Interestingly, it also claims that the law kills any chance for a two-state solution, which Iran never supported to begin with.
The article says, "The adoption of the law legitimizes the racism of the Zionist entity against the Palestinians" and that "Another consequence of the enactment of the 'Jewish State' law is the perpetuation of apartheid in the occupied territories." The subsequent sentence on the population of non-Jewish citizens of Israel shows that to Iran, "occupied territories" refers exclusively to Israel within the Green Line.
So if calling Israel the Jewish state (as the UN referred to it in the 1947 partition resolution) is racist and proof of apartheid, let's look at some choice sections of Iran's constitution:
Preamble:
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran advances the cultural, social, political, and economic institutions of Iranian society based on Islamic principles and norms, which represent an honest aspiration of the Islamic Ummah.
Article 1 [Form of Government]
The form of government of Iran is that of an Islamic Republic.
Article 2 [Foundational Principles]
The Islamic Republic is a system based on belief in:
1) the One God (as stated in the phrase "There is no god except Allah"), His exclusive sovereignty and right to legislate, and the necessity of submission to His commands;
2) Divine revelation and its fundamental role in setting forth the laws;
3) the return to God in the Hereafter, and the constructive role of this belief in the course of man's ascent towards God;
4) the justice of God in creation and legislation;
5) continuous leadership and perpetual guidance, and its fundamental role in ensuring the uninterrupted process of the revolution of Islam;
6) the exalted dignity and value of man, and his freedom coupled with responsibility before God; in which equity, justice, political, economic, social, and cultural independence, and national solidarity are secured by recourse to:
a) continuous leadership of the holy persons, possessing necessary qualifications, exercised on the basis of the Koran and the Sunnah, upon all of whom be peace;
b) sciences and arts and the most advanced results of human experience, together with the effort to advance them further;
c) negation of all forms of oppression, both the infliction of and the submission to it, and of dominance, both its imposition and its acceptance.
Article 4 [Islamic Principle]
All civil, penal financial, economic, administrative, cultural, military, political, and other laws and regulations must be based on Islamic criteria. This principle applies absolutely and generallyto all articles of the Constitution as well as to all other laws and regulations, and the wise persons of the Guardian Council are judges in this matter.
And in Iran, Arabic is accorded an official status only due to it being the language of the Koran, but only Persian is an official language.
Article 15 [Official Language]
The Official Language and script of Iran, the lingua franca of its people, is Persian. Official documents, correspondence, and texts, as well as text-books, must be in this language and script. However, the use of regional and tribal languages in the press and mass media, as well as for teaching of their literature in schools, is allowed in addition to Persian.
Article 16 [Arabic Language]
Since the language of the Koran and Islamic texts and teachings is Arabic, and since Persian literature is thoroughly permeated by this language, it must be taught after elementary level, in all classes of secondary school and in all areas of study.
Even in the parts of the constitution that talks about equal rights, it is clear that the definition is only within Islamic parameters - meaning there are no equal rights for non-Muslims.
Article 20 [Equality Before Law]
All citizens of the country, both men and women, equally enjoy the protection of the law and enjoy all human, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, in conformity with Islamic criteria.
In reality, Israel's law does not allow discrimination against non-Jews. Iran's law puts Islamic law above anything in the constitution.
(The constitution is also against women's equal rights, saying that women's role in society is primarily to be mothers.)
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
A new video glorifying balloon terrorism accidentally tells Israelis that if they stay put, the Palestinians will leave.
In a message attached to the balloons, the terrorists write in both English and Hebrew, "Get out of our land before we leave you."
Bon voyage!
Obviously they intended "before we force you."
Polls have shown that many Palestinians, especially youth in Gaza, would love to leave if they could, and many took advantage of Egypt's relative loosening of its border in the past month to do exactly that.
Here the full video encouraging arson terrorism. Notice the military style music - while Palestinians say that these are mere “toys” when it is convenient, they regard them as weapons to each other.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Israel has summoned Brigadier General Einar Johnsen, who heads the Temporary International Presence in Hebron. to the Foreign Ministry over the publication of a video allegedly showing one of his staff members slashing the tire of a Jewish owned vehicle in the city.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Foreign Ministry to act after the incident, which occurred a year ago, was published on Channel 2.
It follows the release earlier this month of a video of TIPH’s legal counsel slapping a 10-year Jewish child in Hebron.
TIPH could not be reached for comment. It’s 64 member observer force has operated in Hebron since 1997, when the Hebron agreement split the city. It placed 80% of the city of over 200,000 residents under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority, and the remaining 20% under IDF rule. Hebron’s Jewish community of some 1,000 people, lives solely in the part of the city under IDF control.
On Tuesday, the Jewish community called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end TIPH’s mandate, which is renewed twice a year by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and to oust the observers from the city.
Israel's former deputy foreign minister has said the Hamas movement is solely to blame for the recent bloodshed in the besieged Gaza Strip, claiming that Palestinians represent a "culture of terror" while absolving Israeli forces for the killings of more than 130 protesters, journalists and medics at the border.
Danny Ayalon told Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan that the killings by Israeli snipers of unarmed Palestinians, including paramedic Razan al-Najjar and journalist Yasser Murtaja, were unfortunate but justified because "they came with harm intention".
"They [Hamas] are sending them to die. It's a culture of death," he said in an interview with Head to Head television programme to be aired on Al Jazeera at 20:00 GMT on Friday.
Since March, protesters in Gaza have been gathering near the fence with Israel, calling for their right to return to the homes from which they or their families were expelled from in 1948. More than 13,000 have also been reported wounded by Israeli fire.
According to the World Health Organization, hundreds of health personnel and dozens of ambulances have been targeted by Israeli forces since the start of the Great March of Return movement.
Last week was the 24th anniversary of the bombing of the building housing the AMIA, the Jewish Mutual Association of Argentina located in Buenos Aires, which serves as the headquarters of the Federation of Jewish Argentine Communities.
At 9:53 a.m. the day after Tisha Be’av in 1994, 21-year-old Ibrahim Hussein Berro, a Hezbollah operative, drove his Renault Trafic van loaded with some 275 kilograms (606 lb.) of explosives into the building of the AMIA (short for Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina), killing 85 people, the highest number killed in any single attack against Jews since the Holocaust.
The AMIA bombing occurred two years after the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires on March 17, 1992, which killed 29. The same type of explosive was used for both blasts.
To date, authorities have been unable to locate those responsible for either of the two bombings, and the charged suspects who are still alive remain as fugitives.
On Monday, July 22, 1946, the Irgun set off an explosion that destroyed part of the King David Hotel used by the British military, killing 91 people and injuring 46.
King David Hotel after the explosion. Public Domain
An article in The New York Times in 1981 reported on a reunion of some of those involved in the attack. It gives background on what led to the attack, noting that the Haganah, the Irgun and Lehi all endorsed the plan:
They were provoked by a British Army action against Jewish leaders and settlements on June 29, 1946. On that ''Black Saturday'' about 25,000 troops smashed into homes and kibbutzim, arresting 2,500 Jews and confiscating weapons.
''One search party marched into the dining hall at Givat Brenner shouting 'Heil Hitler!' Mr. Clarke wrote. ''Another party scrawled red swastikas on the walls of the settlement's classrooms. While searching the Bank Hapoalim in Tel Aviv, a British officer shouted at one of the clerks, 'What you need is the gas chamber!'''
This 4-minute excerpt from the documentary "Pillar of Fire" gives more background, both on what led to the bombing of The King David Hotel and the conflicting stories on whether there was any warning given:
The attack and its severity have come to be accepted as proof that Menachem Begin and his followers were terrorists, no better than Palestinian terrorists. In 2006, historian Tom Segev went so far as to write:
The terror attack on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was in its day the equivalent of the Twin Towers.
In his rebuttal of Segev, Yisrael Medad - an unofficial spokesperson for the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria - notices a couple of significant differences:
No civilian casualties were intended.
No suicide mission was planned.
Specifically:
There was a telephoned warning. It was received. Flash grenades and a petard were set off. Phone calls from within the hotel from a signals officer who witnessed the shooting of a British Major were made to three separate security stations. The British troops on the roof opened fire for a few minutes on the escaping Irgun soldiers. Nothing set off alarm bells but we do have testimonies that the Brits all thought it was a bluff. [emphasis added]
One of those testimonies comes from Adina Hay-Nissan, who at the time was a teenage girl with the job of calling in the warning. At the reunion, she recalled that she called up the British command that was stationed in the hotel and warned them, ''This is the Hebrew resistance uprising. We planted bombs in the hotel. Please vacate it immediately. See, we warned you.''
As your Lordships know, I am against terrorism of any kind and for any purpose. But I think we must be fair. I was informed that on a radio interview Mr. Begin a few days ago explained the line that his friends took when he said that under no circumstances did they plan attacks on women, children or civilians.
I think the House is entitled to know some facts that I came across in the course of some professional inquiries I have been making in respect of what happened at the time of the King David Hotel incident. I came across them not very long ago; I am saying this with the consent both of the people who have been in touch with me and also of the doctor concerned. I want to wipe away the suggestion that no warning was given. I propose to read a letter from a Dr. Crawford in Bournemouth. I quote:
"It was very kind of you to phone me today and I sat down at once to write to you".
I met Dr. Crawford at another venture of Israel which is well known to many people—the Magem [sic] David, which is the Shield of David Ambulance and Health Services. I happened to meet him at a conference held in Bournemouth. Casually he told me that he knew something about this.
He says in his letter:
Further to our recent conversation in Bournemouth, I am writing to confirm that the officer"— he spoke about an officer whose name, I am sure, is known to those who were in Palestine— who wrote to me in 1946 concerning the King David Hotel 'incident' was Major-General Dudley Sheridan Skelton, CB, DSO, FRCS, formerly DGMS in India, Hon Physician to HM The King and to HE the Viceroy of India. He retired from the forces about 1937"— I think that it is of great importance that this attack should be properly and effectively met— when he was given the rank of Brigadier and was ADMS in the SE Command. It was in this area that I met him in the course of my duties as Assistant Medical Director of the Emergency Medical Services Hospital at Preston Hall Sanatorium, Maidstone, and I worked with him until my transfer to Bournemouth as Medical Superintendent of Douglas House Sanatorium in 1943, but we remained in contact with each other for some years. In 1946, he was head of a hospital in Palestine near Jerusalem and was a frequent visitor to the King David Hotel; apparently he was there on the very day of the explosion and he wrote me that 'a warning' was passed on to the officers in the bar in rather jocular terms, implying it was 'Jewish terrorist bluff'. But despite advice to 'ignore the bluff' he decided to leave and thus was out of the hotel when the explosion took place. I kept his letter for many years, but unfortunately, after the death of my wife in 1970 and my own severe illness in 1971, I sold my house and went into a flat and because of limited space I unwisely threw away a lot of my accumulated papers and correspondence, so the letter is no longer available; and Brigadier Skelton has long since died. I hope these facts will be of some help to you. Many of my friends knew this story at the time but few have survived; my sister-in-law will remember it clearly as she was friendly with the Brigadier and lived with us at the time. If you think it worth-while, I could contact her" [emphasis added]
— I did ask him to contact her and she wrote a letter confirming what Dr. Crawford said.
As your Lordships are well aware, I do not approve of terrorists of any kind. The Prime Minister of Israel explained a few days ago what happened and I hope that the letter I have read out now will, in all fairness, answer the accusation that has been made about this incident. I am very grateful for the attention the House has given me...
In his book, Harouvi reveals some interesting facts: First, the CID had intelligence showing the Hotel as a possible target for attack by the Irgun in December 1945 – 6 months prior to the attack. The CID asked to raise security in the hotel, including putting armed soldiers at the 'Regence' restaurant at the entrance of the hotel. The Chief Secretary refused to consider these suggestions, with the justification that there were not many places for recreation and fun in Palestine, and he did not want to foreclose another. He continued to refuse to take action (or even to pass on the information to the High Commissioner of Palestine) when the CID approached him again with newer information on the attack plan (the CID had the plan of attack, but did not know exactly when it would be carried out).
Second, another fact that is not common knowledge is that the Irgun carried out a diversion bombing minutes after the bombs were planted in the King David Hotel, in which a wagon with explosives was blown outside shops next to the hotel. The CID's assessment was that this second bombing (which broke windows, but did not hurt anyone) was intended to cause panic and encourage evacuation of the building. One of the CID officers Harouvi interviewed for his book flatly blames Shaw for the death of so many, since he could have evacuated the building on time (pages 293-297).
This photo, described by Wikimedia Commons as "the explosion of a second bomb at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem," could be a photo of the first bomb that served as the diversion.
There were claims that Shaw not only knew about the warning but deliberately refused to act on it. Nothing was ever proved. In 1948 both a newspaper and a book repeated the accusation -- and in both cases were forced to retract and apologized because of lack of proof. Begin repeated the accusation in his book "The Revolt," but Shaw did not sue him on the advice of lawyers that since Begin did not refer to him by name but instead to a "high official" there was not enough basis for a claim of personal defamation.
Here is a letter to The Jerusalem Post, indicating that warning was given, while also supporting Shaw's claim that there was never any warning. [Hat tip: Yisrael Medad]
Yet years later, neither the letter that Lord Janner read, back in 1979, nor the other facts about the advance warning and possible negligence by the British themselves have made a dent in the efforts of those who want to tar Menachem Begin as a terrorist on a par with the Palestinian terrorists who target unarmed men, women and children.
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I showed recently how, according to a New Yorker article, President Obama was "shocked" by maps shown to him by the State Department that were essentially identical to the Oslo maps of 1995 ans interpreted them as if Israel was taking more and more land.
The State Department employee credited with what can now be seen to be a deception was Frank Lowenstein, and Times of Israel interviewed him. What he says about that map proves that he knew he was being deceptive.
Lowenstein told The Times of Israel that he’d long been aware of the reality in the West Bank, but had been unable to fully explain it to his superiors until the sixth year of Obama’s presidency when he came across a series of maps that showed how 60 percent of the land beyond the Green Line had become off-limits to Palestinian development.
“We knew this all along. I just couldn’t figure out how to explain it to people until I saw those maps,” he recalled, saying that they were essential in illustrating to then-secretary of state John Kerry and president Obama the reality of Israeli entrenchment in the West Bank.
Lowenstein acknowledged that the 60% he had highlighted was equivalent to Area C, which was placed under full Israeli control under the Oslo Accords. However, he pointed out that the goal of the agreement had been to gradually transfer parts of Area C to the Palestinian Authority.
“That’s how this narrative emerged in my head that this was Oslo reversed. Instead of transitioning power to the Palestinians they were effectively transitioning power over to the settlers,” Lowenstein said.
The goal of the agreement was to create a Palestinian entity, which Israel agreed to do in 2000 and 2001. Much of it would have been from Area C. But as far as I know there was no agreement to slowly transfer Area C to Palestinian hands without a peace agreement.
Beyond that, there are some small matters here and there that Lowenstein is pretending didn't happen.
Like an intifada that killed thousands. Like incitement directly from the Palestinian Authority.
Yet somehow Lowenstein is upset at Israel for not unilaterally giving land to a Palestinian government that consistently rejected peace and chose to encourage citizens to blow themselves up in the first decade of this century, and to stab and run over Jews in the second decade.
What Lowenstein is saying is that no matter what, Israel must be blamed, and he found a convenient way to do that by lying about history and maps to the President.
The only "peace plan" the Palestinians have publicly offered is one where they get everything east of the Green Line, where "refugees" can flood Israel and where they still would refuse to accept a Jewish state. And the Obama White House supported them - even after they spit in Obama's face by rejecting his own plan.
There is a sick, Israel hating pathology behind this.
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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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