Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

01/26 Links Pt1: Stop the incitement, stop the killing; PA TV: Knife attacks are not terror

From Ian:

David Horovitz: Stop the incitement, stop the killing

Op-ed: Relentless Palestinian extremism has now even managed to persuade the center-left opposition that Israeli readiness for compromise is insufficient. What’s needed is a unified effort to stop the Palestinians filling their people’s heads with murderous hostility
Meanwhile, the Fatah hierarchy he heads has been openly encouraging attacks on Israelis, and the Hamas terror group with which he seeks to partner in government is again plotting suicide bombings, developing more sophisticated rockets, and digging tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border ahead of its next planned war.
Abbas may well be deploying his forces to keep a lid on clashes in the West Bank, but he’s presiding over an ongoing, strategic demonizing of Israel and Israelis — via his education system, political and spiritual leadership and mainstream and social media — that positively guarantees Palestinian violence and terrorism. So effective is this process that, nowadays, when a young Palestinian has a row at home, feels depressed, or wants to make a name for him or herself, the default response is to grab a knife and go kill the nearest vulnerable Jew.
And so, last week, we buried Dafna Meir.
And today, we buried Shlomit Krigman.
Israel paid for Abbas’s last ostensible readiness for peace talks, in 2013-14, with the release of dozens of killers and other Palestinian terrorists from our jails. Prior to that, in 2008, Abbas spurned Ehud Olmert’s extraordinary readiness to give him everything he purportedly sought: We were gone from Gaza, and Olmert offered to leave the West Bank — with one-for-one land swaps — and to divide Jerusalem, including relinquishing sovereignty in the Old City. If that wasn’t good enough for Abbas, then obviously nothing we can offer will be.
While the United States and much of the international community refuse to internalize this, the simple, bleak fact is that everything Arafat, Abbas and Hamas have done since the collapse of the Bill Clinton-hosted Camp David 2000 attempt at forging a deal has persuaded Israelis that they dare not relinquish territory to the Palestinians, despite the imperative to separate in order to maintain a Jewish, democratic Israel.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Is Abbas Losing Control?

If Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas loses control of his Fatah faction, who gets to comfort him? Could it be his erstwhile rivals in Hamas?
Abbas seems firm in his refusal to pave the way for the emergence of a new leadership in the West Bank. A split within Fatah in the West Bank seems the inevitable result. Gaza's Fatah leaders are furious with Abbas. The deepening divisions among Fatah could drive Fatah cadres in the Gaza Strip into the open arms of Hamas.
"The talk about Fatah-Hamas reconciliation is nothing but a smokescreen to conceal the growing discontent with President Abbas's autocratic rule." — Palestinian official.
Fatah is Israel's purported "peace partner" -- the faction spearheading efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state. Decision-makers in the U.S. and Europe might wish to keep abreast of the solvency of Abbas's Fatah faction when they consider the wisdom of the two-state solution.

Israeli woman murdered in Beit Horon terrorist attack

A 24-year-old Israeli woman was stabbed to death by two Palestinian terrorists on Monday evening outside a minimarket in the community of Beit Horon, located on Route 443 in Samaria between Modiin and Jerusalem.
Shlomit Krigman died on Tuesday morning at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. She had been brought there in critical condition following the attack.
Krigman was laid to rest on Tuesday afternoon at the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem.
A statement released by the Beit Horon community said, "Shlomit was loved and well-known. She did her national service with Bnei Akiva in Beit Horon and during the past year she lived with her grandfather and grandmother in the community."
A second Israeli woman, age 58, was also wounded in the attack and was transported to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem in moderate but stable condition.
The two terrorists, both male, were shot dead outside the minimarket by a security guard who sprinted to the scene after being alerted to the attack.

‘Gentle’ and ‘kind’ stabbing victim Shlomit Krigman laid to rest

Hundreds of people on Tuesday attended the funeral of 23-year-old Shlomit Krigman, who sustained serious injuries during a stabbing attack in the West Bank settlement of Beit Horon Monday and died of her wounds Tuesday morning.
Krigman was buried at Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul cemetery, in a plot near that of Dafna Meir, an Israeli mother of six stabbed to death in her home in Otniel last week.
Speaking at the ceremony, which was closed to the press, Krigman’s teacher remembered her for her “great curiosity” and gentle demeanor.
“She was open to the world and had great curiosity,” said Eitan Bnaya, one of Krigman’s teachers at the Ariel University, according to the Ynet news website. “She was interested in many areas. Everything got cut off in a single moment, a young woman whose life was ended.”
Bnaya said that Krigman, an industrial design student, was an “amazing, quiet and kind person” and “very interesting.”

Times of Israel and JSpacenews reports:

An Israeli Holocaust survivor may be the world’s oldest man at 112, Guinness World Records confirmed Thursday, providing he can find the documents to prove it.

Yisrael Kristal’s family say he was born in Poland on September 15, 1903, three months before the Wright brothers took the first airplane flight.

He lived in the country until the Nazi occupation during World War II, when he was eventually sent to the Auschwitz death camp.

Robert Young, senior consultant for gerontology at Guinness World Records, confirmed that if proven, he would become the oldest man currently on record.

To do so, however, Kristal would have to produce documents from the early years of his life. Currently, the family have said the oldest document they have is from his wedding aged 25.

“We have standard rules and it would be unfair on other people if we bent the rules,” Young told AFP, while expressing sympathy for Kristal’s circumstances.

Born on Sept. 15, 1903, in the town of Zarnow, Kristal moved to Lodz in 1920 to work in his family’s candy business. He continued operating the business after the Nazis forced the city’s Jews into a ghetto, where Kristal’s two children died. In 1944, he was deported to Auschwitz, where his wife, whom he had married at age 25, was killed.

In 1950, he moved to Haifa with his second wife and their son, working again as a confectioner.

Kristal’s daughter Shula Kuperstoch told The Jerusalem Post that he has been religiously observant his whole life and continues to lay tefillin each morning.

“The Holocaust did not affect his beliefs,” Kuperstoch said. “He believes he was saved because that’s what God wanted. He is not an angry person, he is not someone who seeks to an accounting, he believes everything has a reason in the world.”

TOI concludes:

The previous oldest man, Yasutaro Koide of Japan, died on Tuesday at the age of 112.

The oldest living woman, at 116 years old, is Susannah Mushatt Jones, who was born on July 6, 1899.

Jeanne Louise Calment, who died in 1997, was the oldest verified person ever — passing away in France aged 122 years and 164 days.

Not according to the Palestinians.

Last week Arab media reported that the oldest person in the world had just died - and he was 127 years old.

Haj Recep Toum was supposedly born in 1885 in Jabalya, Gaza and his grandchildren claim to have his birth certificate.

He also claims to have married one of his relatives who died only ten years ago, which may mean that he had the longest marriage in history as well.

Somehow that information hasn't made it to the folks at Guinness.

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.

From the Arab Organization of Human Rights (UK):

Arab Organisation for Human Rights In the UK (AOHR UK) on Monday 25/01/2016 submitted two communications to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) inviting the Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute both the deliberate infiltration of seawater into the territory of Gaza by Egyptian forces, and the closure of the Rafah crossing during Operation Protective Edge and the months that followed the hostilities.

The AOHR is of the opinion that both acts are constitutive of war crimes and crimes against humanity and are therefore acts under the subject-matter jurisdiction of the ICC.

The ICC also enjoys temporal and territorial jurisdiction over the crimes exposed in both communications because the State of Palestine acceded the Rome Statute in January 2015 and issued a declaration under article 12(3) of the Statute accepting the Court’s jurisdiction since 13th June 2014.

With these filings, the AOHR seeks to put an end to the oppressive and criminal policy of the Egyptian authorities at the border and hold those responsible accountable before an international court.

The subtext of these filings is that Egypt is legally at war with Gaza:

Toby Cadman, International Criminal Law expert and head of legal team advising AOHR, notes, the Egyptian policy in the border constitutes “a clear violation of the laws of war and shows evident criminal features”. He added that the International Criminal Court should analyse the situations presented in both communications and demonstrate that there are criminal methods to cause great suffering and serious injuries in entire populations that, nevertheless, do not require the use of guns and tanks. Mr. Cadman argues that “the conditions of life derived from the Egyptian policy in the Rafah border constitutes per se a violent action that affects the entire Strip in a widespread manner. It demonstrates that the heinousness of a crime does not depend on the size of an Army, or on the length of hostilities, but on the cruelty of the policy behind the actions and the party’s desire to capitalize on its position of superiority and the vulnerability of a defenceless region”.

The point of the communications isn't so much to win - I don't see how that is possible - but to pressure Egypt to change its policies both towards Gaza and towards its own people:

A future ICC investigation on these two topics would have extraordinarily positive consequences.

First, it could serve to loosen what are effectively siege conditions in Gaza, and consequently, change the lives of the 1.8 million citizens of Gaza, who have been suffering a years-long humanitarian crisis. As a matter of fact, the UN has predicted that Gaza won’t be a habitable place by 2020, and the closure and flooding of the border only exacerbates this tragic situation and accelerates the process of destruction.

Second, an investigation from the ICC would bring the long-awaited accountability to Egyptian authorities, which have proven to be immune from prosecution in their own jurisdiction despite the serious and widespread nature of the human rights violations committed in Egyptian territory.

The irony is that the entire point of the PA accepting the Rome Statute was to be able to prosecute Israel, but the AOHR is using it to attack a fellow Arab country.

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.

Fatah says Mahmoud Abbas inspired Palestinians to start their murder spree

The official Fatah Facebook page published "an important announcement" heaping praise on the current wave of attacks on Jews.

It is couched in religious terms, starting off with "In the name of Allah the Merciful: The Almighty said: 'And We desired to show favor unto those who were oppressed in the earth, and to make them examples and to make them the inheritors.'"

The article then went on to praise Mahmoud Abbas for his speech on September 30 at the UN General Assembly, which was, in their words, "the launch of a new phase is in the development of the decisions of the [Fatah] Central Council into action, activating the popular resistance on the ground, in conjunction with the diplomatic offensive and political fights in all arenas of the United Nations and international organizations."

The historic speech of the President in the UN constituted a turning point and a new dawn which manifested itself in the popular uprising, “The Rage of Jerusalem”, that started in the capital Jerusalem and expanded to Hebron and (to the other) the provinces of the homeland, in a heroic and spectacular implementation which restored to the national cause its radiance and status, as all the crimes of the occupation failed to hurt it and deter it, and the popular uprising even succeeded in spreading terror and bringing about a lack of personal security for the colonists, and the streets of Jerusalem and the Palestinian (West) Bank became places of constant friction and clashes…

The Fatah announcement ends off with "It's a revolution until victory ... until victory ... until victory."

And it then shows this photo of a young woman wearing a headband for a youth organization in Fatah called "The Sisters of Dalal," referring to terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who was responsible for murdering 38 Israelis including 13 children.

The choice of Abbas' September 30 speech as the launching point of the murder spree is significant. The very next day was the day that Eitam and Na'ama Henkin were murdered.

Palestinian newspapers are quoting this statement.

At the same time that the media is claiming that Abbas is condemning violence, the organization that he leads is bragging that he is inspiring the murders of Jews.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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.

Vote for Hasby Award - Best Speech

The nominees for Best Speech Hasby award are:

The shocking words of this pro-Israel pastor

Bibi's UN speech - with 45 seconds of "deafening silence"

Matti Friedman's speech to BICOM dinner

Mayor Giuliani's speech at Iranian American Community of Arizona event

Ron Dermer at Israel Bonds event

Marco Rubio Speech on Obama's Assault on Israel
The Reason I'm an Israeli-Arab Diplomat Not a Palestinian Refugee - George Deek
Col. (ret.) Richard Kemp "The Amoral Revolution in Western Values, and its impact on Israel" (text)

Vote by Saturday night, January 30.

polls

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.

01/25 Links Pt2: How to Spot a Fake Siege; The Disgrace of Associating Toni Morrison With Primo Levi

From Ian:

How to Spot a Fake Siege

I can’t help noticing that the “siege of Gaza” has largely disappeared from the headlines. I’d like to think it’s because, having finally seen what a real siege looks like in Syria, many well-meaning folks who used to decry the “siege” of Gaza have realized that Gaza was never actually besieged at all. But for anyone who’s still confused about the difference between a real siege and a fictitious one, here are two simple tests: First, in real sieges, people die of starvation, because the besieger stops food from entering; in fake ones, the “besieger” sends in 2,500 tons of food and medicine per day even during the worst of the fighting. Second, real sieges get swept under the carpet by the UN; only the fake ones merit massive UN publicity. And if you think I’m joking, just compare the actual cases of Madaya and Gaza.
In the Syrian town of Madaya, which is besieged by the Assad regime’s forces, people were reduced to living on grass because no other food was available. Rice, a staple that costs $1.25 per kilogram in other war-ravaged Syrian towns, was so scarce in Madaya that it sold for 200 times that price – an astounding $256 per kilogram, according to a report by Roy Gutman in Foreign Policy. Women were so hungry their breast milk dried up, leaving them unable to feed their babies. At least 32 people have starved to death so far, and hundreds more are at risk of starvation. One man told Gutman everyone in his family had lost 45 pounds – and they are the lucky ones; they’re still alive.
In Gaza, in contrast, even when the “siege” was regularly making headlines, there were never any reports of people dying of hunger, living off grass or unable to feed their babies. That’s because in contrast to Syrian forces, which prevented food and other humanitarian goods from entering Madaya, Israel allowed thousands of tons of such goods into Gaza every day. Even during the 50-day war with Hamas in summer 2014, while Hamas was regularly firing rockets at the only border crossing between Israel and Gaza, Israel managed to get 122,757 tons of food, medicine and fuel into Gaza through that crossing; in normal times, the volume is much higher. Indeed, Gaza’s life expectancy exceeds the global median, surpassing that in 114 countries worldwide. In places that are really besieged, life expectancy tends to be low.

David Singer: European Union Becomes Irrelevant In Resolving The Jewish-Arab Conflict

This fundamental disconnect between the EU and Israel over the Arab Peace Initiative continues to detrimentally impact on their relationship.
Full Israeli withdrawal from these territories – or even equivalent land swaps as suggested by the EU in its July 2014 manifesto – is a pipe dream – given that the creation of Islamic State since then has seen it:
1. conquer an area of Syria and Iraq larger than Great Britain – resulting in millions of Arabs being brutally slayed, injured, traumatised and physically displaced into Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and even the EU.
2. become a distinct security threat to Israel and its Arab neighbours
The Arab Peace Initiative has been effectively consigned to the dustbin of history as a result.
Stubbornly continuing to support these key elements of the Arab Peace Initiative has led a clearly frustrated EU to take action to unilaterally end Israel’s total lawful control of Area “C” in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) by instigating the following intemperate actions:
1. Requiring Israel to specifically identify goods, products and services originating from Jewish settlements in Judea,Samaria,the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem
2. Funding and actively supporting illegal Arab housing construction in Area “C”
Israel reportedly considers that such actions by the EU give the Palestinian Arabs false hope that if they just hold out long enough – the EU will somehow be able to “deliver” Israel.
EU policy and its conduct since July 2014 has exacerbated the Jewish-Arab conflict rather than playing a constructive role in its resolution.
In reaffirming that policy in 2016 – despite total chaos occurring among Arab States in the region – the EU has clearly become irrelevant and can no longer have any meaningful role in resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict.

The Disgrace of Associating Toni Morrison With Primo Levi

A side benefit of reviewing books is that I often get books I otherwise might not splurge on. A week ago, I received the handsome three-volume set of the collected writings of Primo Levi, Italian survivor of Auschwitz. The set is edited by arguably his best translator, Ann Goldstein, and published by Liveright. I will write a thorough and conscientious book review in due course.
But I am writing this blog post in protest at the inexplicable and offensive fact that the publishers asked the American novelist Toni Morrison to write an introduction. Of all people, they had to choose such an outspoken and biased critic of Israel. Why invite a person who shows such animus towards the homeland of the Jewish people to write an introduction to the work of a man who suffered under a real genocidal regime determined to destroy him simply for being Jewish, given that, for all his criticisms and alienation, Levi remained an avowed Jew?
It’s not just the banality of her introduction, her cold words, her use of “throngs” to describe — impersonally — those who died. She cannot bring herself to mention Jews. She stands for poisonous revisionism. She, together with her partners in prejudice, have accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide. Inevitably this leads to comparisons with Nazis. Which is precisely what the primitive, mentally challenged bullies who use such an abusive slogan in protests love to do. If any of that were true, how come after 65 years of Israel’s existence the Arab population of Israel continues to grow and thrive? Why haven’t they all been gassed? And why are denizens of the Occupied Territories and Gaza still expanding in number?
Why have they not all been killed or expelled? Are the Israelis so incompetent?  It seems that Morrison was contacted and asked to consider the invitation because Primo Levi was a left-wing secular Jew who criticized the State of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and disliked the, albeit democratically elected, right-wing governments (criticisms I too would agree with, incidentally). The presumably liberal, left-wing publishers thought her stamp of approval on this edition would attract like-minded readers and librarians. But that does not put Primo Levi and Toni Morrison on the same moral page. (h/t Jewess)

From Ha'aretz:

Israel Approves New West Bank Homes, Marking End of Informal Building Freeze

Israeli planning authorities approved the construction of 153 new apartments in West Bank settlements last week, effectively putting an end to an informal construction freeze that has lasted about 18 months.

For almost two years now, the government has largely refused to advance new building plans in the territories, due to fear that the U.S. administration would retaliate by refusing to veto anti-Israel resolutions in the UN Security Council. The only plans that did move forward involved either legalization of existing outposts or master plans for areas where petitions to the High Court of Justice spurred the government to act.

There was an 18 month settlement freeze? That must have been big news. No doubt John Kerry celebrated the fact, right?

Well, except in October, when he said, "there’s been a massive increase in settlements over the course of the last years" and linked settlements to violence against Israelis.

And except for when Kerry said in December, "The continued settlement growth raises honest questions about Israel’s long-term intentions and will only make separating from the Palestinians much more difficult."

Israel had a settlement freeze, yet the Obama administration and J-Street and Haaretz and Peace Now all the others who insist that Israel stop settlement construction were all but silent. Israel gained nothing politically from making that decision - on the contrary, it was treated as if settlement construction was accelerating. Netanyahu couldn't argue because of coalition politics, but certainly all of the players who follow the issue knew this very well - and chose to excoriate Israel anyway for implementing a policy that it didn't have.

So what incentive does Israel have to continue the freeze when it is treated like a criminal when it does?

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.

2016 Hasby Award Winners - Best Video

The winner of the Hasby Award for Best Video of 2015 is....

01/25 Links Pt1: Paris terrorists: 'With Allah's help we will liberate Palestine'; Twin Bombers Arrested

From Ian:

Palestinian twin sisters accused of making bombs for attacks

Israeli security forces arrested 18-year-old bomb-making twin sisters from Shwaika, outside the Palestinian city of Tulkarem in the West Bank last month, the Shin Bet security service announced Monday.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Shin Bet officers discovered pipe bombs and other explosive materials in the home of Diana and Nadia Hawila in late December 2015, officials said.
In addition, they found knives, Hamas headbands and “equipment for riots,” the Shin Bet said in a statement, though it did not claim that the twins were, in fact, Hamas members.
“This investigation again shows the motivation to carry out terror attacks, especially among those who are not a part of terrorist organizations, including women,” the Shin Bet said.
In interrogation, Diana Hawila admitted that she had purchased the fertilizer and other chemicals necessary to create the explosives.
She learned how to create bombs by watching instructional videos online, according to the Shin Bet. Diana also watched Islamic extremist videos that encouraged women to take part in terror attacks against Israelis and Jews, which “strengthened her decision to act,” the Shin Bet said.

Teen stabber had ‘urge’ to act, says relative

A relative of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, who was shot and killed on Saturday when trying to knife a security guard at a West Bank settlement, said she had an “urge” to act and was influenced by other terrorists.
At the same time, other family members of Roqaya Abu-Eid questioned why she had been killed rather than subdued. Her father said there had been no need to kill her.
Abu-Eid was shot by a civilian security guard at the entrance to Anatot, near Jerusalem, when she rushed at him with a knife, police said. She lived in the nearby Palestinian village of the same name.
Israel Police said after an initial investigation that the girl had fought with her parents and stormed out the family home with the knife, declaring that she wanted to die, a claim rejected by her family.
A teenage relative told Channel 2 on Sunday that she had been inspired to carry out the attack by seeing other incidents.

Israel strikes Hamas terror target in Gaza in response to rocket fire

The Israel Air Force struck a Hamas military compound in the center of the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Monday in retaliation for a Gazan rockets fired on the Southern region of Israel.
The rocket was fired from the Gaza strip at southern Israel on Sunday evening setting off the color red sirens in the Sha'ar Hanegev region, sending local residents fleeing for cover.
The rocket exploded in an open area, failing to cause injuries and there was no damage, the army said.
In the response a few hours later, IAF aircraft struck a Hamas military installation, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.
On Saturday night, Gazan terrorists fired a rocket towards Israel. The rocket landed inside Gaza in open territory. The color red siren was not sounded.

Tzipi Hotovely in WSJ exposes the truth on foreign funding of the PA

A must read by Israel's deputy foreign minister in the WSJ:

One often-cited key to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is economic development. To that end, there seems to be broad agreement about the importance of extending development aid to help the Palestinians build the physical and social infrastructure that will enable the emergence of a sustainable, prosperous society. But few have seriously questioned how much money is sent and how it is used.

Such assistance will only promote peace if it is spent to foster tolerance and coexistence. If it is used to strengthen intransigence it does more harm than good—and the more aid that comes in, the worse the outcome. This is exactly what has been transpiring over the past few decades. Large amounts of foreign aid to the Palestinians are spent to support terrorists and deepen hostility.

For years the most senior figures in the Palestinian Authority have supported, condoned and glorified terror. “Every drop of blood that has been spilled in Jerusalem,” President Mahmoud Abbas said last September on Palestinian television, “is holy blood as long as it was for Allah.” Countless Palestinian officials and state-run television have repeatedly hailed the murder of Jews.

This support for terrorism doesn’t end with hate speech. The Palestinian regime in Ramallah pays monthly stipends of between $400 and $3,500 to terrorists and their families, the latter of which is more than five times the average monthly salary of a Palestinian worker.

According to data from its budgetary reports, compiled in June 2014 by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the PA’s annual budget for supporting Palestinian terrorists was then roughly $75 million. That amounted to some 16% of the foreign donations the PA received annually. Overall in 2012 foreign aid made up about a quarter of the PA’s $3.1 billion budget. More recent figures are inaccessible since the Palestinian Authority is no longer transparent about the stipend transfers.

Embarrassed by public revelations of the misuse of the foreign aid, in August 2014 the Palestinian Authority passed the task of paying stipends to terrorists and their families to a fund managed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, also led by Mr. Abbas. Lest there be any doubt as to the purely cosmetic nature of the change, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah made assurances as recently as September 2015 that the PA will provide the “necessary assistance” to ensure these terror stipends.

This procedural ruse apparently calmed the consciences of donor governments that continue to transfer aid. It is difficult to think of another case in which such a forgiving attitude would be taken regarding foreign aid to an entity that sponsors terror.

This situation is particularly disturbing given the disproportionate share of development assistance the Palestinians receive, which comes at the expense of needy populations elsewhere. According to a report last year by Global Humanitarian Assistance, in 2013 the Palestinians received $793 million in international aid, second only to Syria. This amounts to $176 for each Palestinian, by far the highest per capita assistance in the world. Syria, where more than 250,000 people have been killed and 6.5 million refugees displaced since 2011, received only $106 per capita.

A closer look at the remaining eight countries in the top 10—Sudan, South Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo—is even more alarming. CIA Factbook data show that these countries have a combined population of 284 million and an average per capita GDP of $2,376. Yet they received an average of $15.30 per capita in development assistance in 2013. The Palestinians, by comparison, with a population of 4.5 million, have a per capita GDP of $4,900.

In other words, though the Palestinians are more than twice as wealthy on average than these eight countries, they receive more than 11 times as much foreign aid per person. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a case in point: Its 79 million people have a per capita GDP of $700, yet they receive only $5.70 in aid per person.

Between 1993 (when the Oslo Process began) and 2013, the Palestinians received $21.7 billion in development assistance, according to the World Bank. The Palestinian leadership has had ample opportunity to use these funds for economic and social development. Tragically, as seen in Hamas-run Gaza, it prefers to use the funds on its terrorist infrastructure and weaponry, such as cross-border attack tunnels and the thousands of missiles that have rained down in recent years on Israel.

In Judea and Samaria, the “West Bank,” the situation is equally disturbing. Aside from funding terrorists and investing in hate speech, the PA stubbornly refuses to remove hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from “refugee” rosters, deliberately keeping them in a state of dependence and underdevelopment for no purpose other than to stoke animosity toward Israel.

It is difficult to come away from these facts without realizing the deep connection between the huge amounts of foreign aid being spent, the bizarre international tolerance for patently unacceptable conduct by the Palestinians and the lack of progress toward peace on the ground.

Donors to the Palestinians who support peace would do well to rethink the way they extend assistance. Money should go to economic and civic empowerment, not to perpetuate a false sense of victimhood and unconditional entitlement. It should foster values of tolerance and nonviolence, not the glorification and financing of terrorism.

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.

Does the "Status Quo" forbid Jews to quietly pray on the Temple Mount?

Last year, the PLO published a document meant to provide proof that Israel is violating the sanctity of the Temple Mount.

It is filled with lies; for example it blames Israel for the fire at the Al Aqsa Mosque set in 1969 by an Australian. For now, we will concentrate on one specific claim, about the status quo.

When it defines the history of the status quo, it says:

The Treaty of Berlin of 1878 has this to say about holy places under Ottoman rule:

Article LXII. The Sublime Porte having expressed the intention to maintain the principle of religious liberty, and give it the widest scope, the Contracting Parties take note of this spontaneous declaration. In no part of the Ottoman Empire shall difference of religion be alleged against any person as a ground for exclusion or incapacity in matters relating to the enjoyment of civil or political rights, admission to public employments, functions, and honors, or the exercise of the various professions and industries, in any locality whatsoever. The freedom and outward exercise of all forms of worship shall be assured to all, and no hindrance shall be offered either to the hierarchical organization of the different communions, or to their relations with their spiritual chiefs.

Ecclesiastics, pilgrims, and monks of all nationalities traveling in Turkey in Europe, or in Turkey in Asia, shall enjoy the same rights, advantages, and privileges.

The right of official protection by the Diplomatic and Consular Agents of the Powers in Turkey is recognized both as regards the above-mentioned persons and their religious, charitable, and other establishments in the Holy Places and elsewhere. The rights possessed by France are expressly reserved, and it is well understood that no alterations can be made in the status quo in the Holy Places. The monks of Mount Athos, of whatever country they may be natives, shall be maintained in their former possessions and advantages, and shall enjoy, without any exception, complete equality of rights and prerogatives.

Tha section on the status quo is not even an entire sentence of the Article, and the Article itself makes clear that religious liberty is the highest goal and the maintenance of the status quo is not meant to limit that freedom to worship.

Analysis of this article throughout the decades that discuss the status quo all concentrate on who is allowed to make physical changes to designated Holy Places and who can act as administrators.

The major conflicts over the status quo of holy places were by various Christian denominations who were perpetually fighting (often literally) over rights to Christian holy places. This is described by L. G. A. Cust in 1929:

The present position therefore is that the arrangements existing in 1852 which corresponded to the Status Quo of 1757 as to the rights and privileges of the Christian communities officiating in the Holy Places have to be most meticulously observed, and what each rite practised at that time in the way of public worship, decorations of altars and shrines, use of lamps, candelabra, tapestry and pictures, and in the exercise of the most minute acts of ownership and usage has to remain unaltered. Moreover, the Status Quo applies also to the nature of the officiants. Thus, the Franciscans alone of the Roman Catholic Orders are allowed to celebrate Mass independently in the Holy Places, although the clergy of any Roman Catholic Order can attend. The Patriarch himself, of course, has the right to pontificate. Similarly, of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches none other than the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has any standing in the Holy Places. The Russian Church during the last quarter of the 19th century made strenuous efforts to obtain independent privileges and to maintain altars of their own, for the saying of the Liturgy in the Russian language, but this was successfully opposed by the Hellenic elements. \ Russian clergy are, however, able to take part in the services.

Freedom for all to visit and even to pray individually at holy places is not considered as a violation of the status quo, as the examples given here show.

Clearly the status quo on the Temple Mount itself allowed visitors throughout the 20th century, as the Waqf itself published a guidebook for visitors. (This is the guidebook that said that it is "beyond dispute" that this is the site of Solomon's Temple.)

Did the Waqf forbid any non-Muslims to silently pray? Not based on this booklet, which gave specific examples of what visitors should not do - smoke or bring in dogs.

To say, as the PLO claims, that religious Jews visiting the Temple Mount and even silently praying there violates the status quo is just another lie.

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.

Haaretz columnist compares Hatikva to Arab threats to kill Jews (update)

Rogel Alpher, one of the Ha'aretz columnists whose columns are often so extreme as to appear to be a parody, has done it again:

His thesis is that to Arabs, the lyrics of Israel's national anthem are just as offensive and extreme and frightening as Jews hearing the Arab chant, “in spirit, in blood, we shall redeem Al Aqsa."

What are the equally offensive lyrics of Hatikva, according to Alpher? “To be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem.”

Let's see. Hatikva expresses a millennia-old hope for Jews to return to their ancestral homeland. it doesn't say that this return should be violent, or even that it should dispossess other people.

The chant of “in spirit, in blood, we shall redeem Al Aqsa" appears to be much more recent - from 2002, coined by extremist Islamist Raed Salah, head of the northern branch of the Islamic movement. It is meant to be nothing less than violent and antisemitic. (Another source traces it to the same person but in 2000.)

The phrase reached the public consciousness in a 2011 rally sponsored by the Islamic Movement in Umm al-Fahem. Some 30,000 Arabs chanted the phrase. The rally also reatured a play showing ultra-Orthodox Jews destroying the Al Aqsa Mosque.

I can certainly understand why Israeli Arabs might not want to sing Hatikva. However, Alpher self-righteously claims to speak on behalf of Arabs in his assertion that Arabs feel physically threatened by the words of Hatikva - he says that "when Jews sing 'our hope has not been lost, the two-thousand-year-old-hope,' it scares [Israeli Arabs.]"

The only hate that I see from any Israeli Jew in his columns is that of Rogel Alpher himself, who despises his own nation so much that he has called the Israeli flag a "fascistic symbol" and who had pledged to leave the country because of how immoral it is.

Amazingly, he still hasn't left, since Ha'aretz apparently still thinks that he has useful things to say.

(Not surprisingly, this column is being translated into Arabic for Palestinian newspapers.)

UPDATE: As is often the case, PreOccupied Territory takes my story and runs with it.

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.