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As the Palestinian Authority prepares for municipal elections in October, the rift between Fatah and the official PA security forces is growing in Samaria towns. Nablus and Tulkarem have seen real battles in which both official PA security operatives and Fatah members have been killed.
In Nablus the tension has risen to even higher levels after the Al-Aghbar family of the Nablus casbah issued condemnations of the Palestinian security forces for, they claim, having “executed” their son, Khaled Abd al-Nasser, while he was a detainee in their hands after his release from an Israeli prison,.
According to the Nablus Facebook pages, the city’s main thoroughfares are strewn with fires.
Fatah Opposition to the PA
The question that arises, of course, is if the elections do take place, who in Nablus will vote for the pro-Ramallah candidates – if there are any? Who can stop the lists of candidates from Hamas and the pro-Iranian organizations, such as the Popular Front?
In Hebron, the clans are considering whether to draw up lists that are loyal to the city and the district, and not to Ramallah.
Fatah elements have expressed bewilderment as to why, given these gloomy prospects, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is also the supposed head of Fatah, is insisting on holding the elections.
I’ve been reading Ha’aretz lately and listening to some of our left-of-center politicians, and it seems like they are living in an entirely different world than I am.The (Supposed) Right-Wing Israeli Fanatic Who’s Making Life Easier for the Palestinians
The usual piece starts off with an attack on Binyamin Netanyahu, each one trying to find a new angle. Ari Shavit tells us that he’s dishonest, he’s obsessed with his father, he hates Arabs, he will destroy the country, he is little by little crushing democracy, and on and on. Avraham Burg claims that Israel is becoming a dictatorship and refers to Iran and the Hamas terror tunnels as “some … Netanyahu phobia.” Phobia!
Former PM Ehud Barak claims that Netanyahu has made serious errors recently that have made Israel vulnerable to a “central security threat.” But he won’t say what, exactly, so we are waiting for it to leak. This from the guy that opened the door to the Second Intifada, and who allowed Druze IDF soldier Madhat Yusuf to bleed to death because he didn’t want to anger the Palestinians.
Most of these writers and politicians admit that Israel is doing well economically and that Bibi has made some serious diplomatic gains, with Turkey, the Sunni Arab states, several African nations, India, even China to some extent. They have to admit that there have been few wars during his years as PM, and they’ve been limited in extent. He has kept us from getting entangled in Syria, seems to have reached a modus vivendi with the Russians, and avoided the big one with Iran/Hezbollah.
They blame him for our bad relationship with the US. They might as well blame him for climate change too, but anyone with eyes can see that the Obama Administration – correctly viewing our PM as the main obstacle to realizing their goal of reversing the outcome of the 1967 war – has it in for him and for us as a result. That’s why they blame him for the PLO/PA’s refusal to even sit down to negotiate and why they tried to intervene in our last election.
Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s recently appointed defense minister, has a reputation as a hawkish right-wing nationalist. To those who know him solely by this reputation, it might be surprising to learn that his first major initiative regarding the West Bank has been to expand the access of Palestinians living in Areas A and B (under, respectively, complete and partial Palestinian Authority control) to economic opportunities in Area C, which remains under direct Israeli control. David Makovsky writes:
The eleven projects [the defense ministry announced last week], ranging from a medical facility to residences, will be carried out in locations adjacent to Areas A and B. While the projects may only occur in a limited geographic space in Area C, they certainly create an interesting precedent. . . .
This week’s move suggests that Lieberman, obviously with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s support, will back an emphasis by the Israel Defense Forces on taking stabilizing economic steps during a period of diplomatic stasis. In particular, the IDF has resisted pressure from the most right-wing forces within the Israeli government to reduce sharply [the number of] work permits granted to Palestinians in response to the wave of stabbings that began last October. IDF officials generally believe that any such overreaction will only worsen the situation, and they feel vindicated by the dissipation of the stabbings. . . .
Slim majority of Israelis, Palestinians still favor peace deal
A new poll of Israelis and Palestinians released on Monday found that a slim majority on both sides still favor a peace settlement establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, despite years of conflict and deadlock in negotiations.But the reality is shown to be different once you look at the actual questions.
The results of the joint poll may provide some small signs of encouragement when peace prospects appear bleak. The last round of negotiations broke down two years ago, and a resumption of talks, much less progress between the sides, at this point seems unlikely.
The poll found that 51 percent of Palestinians and 59 percent of Israelis still support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Mutual recognition of Palestine and Israel as the homelands of their respective peoples. The agreement will mark the end of conflict, Israel will fight terror against Palestinians, and no further claims will be made by either side. Support or oppose?
Most of the bombs, however, hit completely empty areas. Big bombs, targeting - desert.The IDF hit 50 separate locations in Gaza after 1 rocket was fired into #Israel. https://t.co/OaeP32pys5— Amnesty Israel (@AmnestyIsrael) August 22, 2016
Holocaust-denying articles have been popping up on El Badil, an Egyptian news site. But, as Elder of Ziyon notes:Sure enough, Wattan is listed in the Open Society Foundation DCLeaks document as "an independent, non-profit Palestinian TV station that was established in 1996 by Palestinian civil society organizations. It is owned and operated by a consortium of NGOs- Medical Relief Society, Palestinian Hydrology Group, and Palestinian Relief Committee-and is governed by a board of directors in a transparent manner. " Its purpose is described as "to provide quality, public interest news and programming to Palestinian communities in the West Bank, Gaza, and in the Diaspora through TV and online platforms."
Part one denies that Jews are a people altogether, claims that Ashkenazic Jews are Khazars,That last sentence is a real shocker. Wattan News, for those who don’t know, was just revealed to be one of the sites George Soros’s Arab Regional Office funds. In a March 2014 portfolio review, it was revealed that $405,000 was given to Wattan TV between 2012-2014 by Soros. That was over 15 percent of Wattan TV’s budget.
Part two says that the Jews use the myth of being called “the chosen people” to manipulate the world to do their bidding.
Part three denies that Israel is the Promised Land, and says Jews have no particular historic attachment to the land.
Part four, published yesterday, denies the Holocaust, quoting famous Holocaust deniers like Fred Leuchter, David Irving and Ernst Zundel. It claims that “experts” like Leuchter proved that there couldn’t have been any gas chambers and that there were only 3 million Jews in Europe before World War II.
Wattan News, a Palestinian TV network, has been republishing these articles.
We can’t know for sure if Soros is still funding Wattan TV, as he did from 2012-2014, because that is when the last document regarding funding ends. But it is possible that Soros is funding a Holocaust-denying Palestinian news website, which would only further prove that he cares more about demonizing Israel than spreading facts.
Fifteen years ago Palestinian terrorists blew up a pizza place in the heart of Jerusalem. One month later, other Islamist terrorists blew up the World Trade Centers in NY, the Pentagon Building in Washington DC, and were foiled in their attempt to destroy the Capital building by the brave passengers of Flight 93.
It is important to remember these acts, not simply to memorialize the innocent victims whose only crime was to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, but as a reminder that even today, fifteen years later terrorism still suckles at the teat of political correctness and Western World appeasement.
From ” A Personal Account of the Bombing” by Rabbi Binny Freedman:
Her eyes, I think, will stay with me forever. Imploring, beseeching, full of so much sadness. I think the shock of where and how she was, was sinking in. I can’t begin to describe all that was in those eyes.
The misperceptions, misrepresentations and ignorance over the legal status of Jewish settlements in the disputed area of Judea and Samaria reflect the general attitude toward the unique phenomenon of the reconstruction of the Jewish national home in Israel.
"Fidelity to law is the essence of peace," opined Professor Eugene Rostow, a former dean of the Yale University Law School, undersecretary of state and a co-author of the Nov. 22, 1967, U.N. Security Council Resolution 242. Rostow resolved that under international law, "Jews have the same right to settle in the West Bank as they have in Haifa."
Rostow determined that according to Resolution 242, "Israel is required to withdraw 'from territories,' not 'the' territories, nor from 'all' the territories, but 'some' of the territories, which included the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Desert and the Golan Heights."
Moreover, "resolutions calling for withdrawal from 'all' the territories were defeated in the Security Council and the General Assembly. ... Israel was not to be forced back to the 'fragile and vulnerable' [9- to 15-mile wide] lines ... but to 'secure and recognized' boundaries, agreed to by the parties. ... In making peace with Egypt in 1979, Israel withdrew from the entire Sinai ... [which amounts to] more than 90% of the territories occupied in 1967."
Former International Court of Justice President Judge Stephen M. Schwebel stated: "[The 1967] Israeli conquest of territory was defensive rather than aggressive ... [as] indicated by Egypt's prior closure of the Straits of Tiran, blockade of the Israeli port of Eilat, and the amassing of [Egyptian] troops in Sinai, coupled with its ejection of the U.N. Emergency Force ... [and] Jordan's initiated hostilities against Israel. ... The 1948 Arab invasion of the nascent State of Israel further demonstrated that Egypt's seizure of the Gaza Strip, and Jordan's seizure and subsequent annexation of the West Bank and the Old city of Jerusalem, were unlawful. ... Between Israel, acting defensively in 1948 and 1967 ]according to Article 52 of the U.N. Charter[, on the one hand, and her Arab neighbors, acting aggressively in 1948 and 1967, on the other, Israel has better title in the territory of what was [British Mandate] Palestine, including the whole of Jerusalem. ... It follows that modifications of the 1949 armistice lines among those states within former Palestinian territory are lawful."
A crossword puzzle clue in yesterday’s official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reiterated the Palestinian Authority ideology that teaches Palestinians to see all of Israel as “occupied territory.”PA TV teaches kids to hope that "all Palestine will return to us"
Clue (9 down): “A port in occupied Palestine”
Solution: “Haifa,” (i.e., Israeli port city in Northern Israel).
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 20, 2016]
The PA avoids expressing legitimacy for Israel in any borders by using euphemisms to replace “Israel.” The official PA daily regularly presents all of Israel as “occupied Palestine,” “occupied Palestinian Interior” or “1948 territories,” and defines Israeli cities as “occupied” cities.
Recently, the official PA daily reported on an invention by Israeli Arabs who were studying in a university in Haifa. The PA daily defined the Arabs of Israel as “Palestinian students from the Interior that was occupied in 1948.” Haifa, where they were studying, was defined as “the occupied city of Haifa”:
"Three Palestinian students from the Interior that was occupied in 1948 (i.e., Israel), who are studying software engineering at the College of Applied Sciences at Technion University in the occupied city of Haifa, have succeeded in inventing a small device that reveals the quality of the watermelon before the purchase."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 28, 2016]
What is the significance of the Big O?
It is the Big Daddy of all Occupations.
It is the means by which some Jews, particularly in diaspora, make themselves feel superior to Arabs and Muslims.
After all, if 6 million Jews in the Middle East can defeat the Palestinian-Arabs, via the Big O, despite the serious objections of 400 million Arabs and 1.5 billion Muslims, what does that say about Jewish strength?
It says that, # 1, Jews kick ass and, # 2, we're humble enough to regret it.
It's a means by which goodhearted and intellectually-inclined Jewish boys and girls get, on the one hand, to feel powerful even while, on the other hand, they burnish moral credentials. There is a kind-of arrogance to the use of the Big O by Jews when discussing those few of us who choose to live in the lands of our heritage.
It raises us and diminishes us, both, at the same time."
Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.
Israeli police Sunday intensified what it called, security measures in the Old City of Jerusalem as this day marks the 47th anniversary of Al-Aqsa Mosque arson at the hands ofan Australian man who studied Torah and wanted to build a new temple....Presented in front of the court, Rohan stated that he was acting as “the Lord’s emissary” following the divine instructions and also stated that his reason for trying to destruct Al-Aqsa Mosque was in order to give a chance to rebuild it as the Jewish Temple.Taken together, it is obvious that the PA is trying yet again to incite violence to "defend Al Aqsa" - the same kind of incitement that led to last year's knifing and car ramming spree against Jews throughout Israel.
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
If you want real peace, don't insist on a divided Jerusalem, @USAmbIsrael
The Apartheid charge, the Abraham Accords and the "right side of history"
With Palestinians, there is no need to exaggerate: they really support murdering random Jews
Great news for Yom HaShoah! There are no antisemites!