Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, November 18, 2016

11/18 Links Pt2: Palestinian kleptocracy: West accepts corruption, people suffer the consequences

From Ian:

Palestinian kleptocracy: West accepts corruption, people suffer the consequences

The Abbas family’s corruption is a hot topic in the territories, but not here in the U.S. Tareq Abbas, son of the Palestinian Authority president, is a multi-millionaire owning villas in Amman, a Beirut rooftop pad and a luxury London flat. His older brother, Yasser, has made a fortune from, among other things, his monopoly sale of U.S.-made cigarettes in the Judea and Samaria a.k.a. the West Bank.
Leaked records from a Panamanian law firm show that PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his two sons used power and influence to control the two major Palestinian economic boards (Arab Palestinian Investment Company, Palestinian Investment Fund) and built a West Bank economic empire worth more than $300 million. Abbas’ authoritarian rule has allowed his family’s Falcon consortium to dominate the West Bank’s commerce and labor markets including owning shopping centers, media and insurance companies and distributing food, cigarettes, cosmetics and other consumer items. Falcon touches every aspect of Palestinian commercial life.
These documents, reports from senior Fatah officials and Palestinian social media reveal extensive corruption at the highest levels — the Abbas family and a Palestinian elite manipulating the political and financial systems to benefit themselves at the expense of the people.
The 1993 Oslo Accords established Palestinian self-rule over 98 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza. Since then, the PA received an estimated $25 billion in financial aid from the U.S. and other Western countries, the highest per capita assistance in the world.
Instead of creating the independent and robust civil institutions necessary for good governance, promoting peace with Israel and improving the lives of its people, the billions of dollars of international aid were used to create a corrupt dictatorship focusing on enriching its elites, inciting its people against Israel, advocating terrorism and waging a massive international campaign to demonize, delegitimize and destroy the Jewish State. And the U.S. doesn’t seem to care, donating $442 million of taxpayer money in 2016.
Abbas is currently in the eleventh year of a four-year term. He rules by decree, and parliamentary and presidential elections are not on the horizon.

Dershowitz: BDS Activists ‘Miseducating Generation of Future Leaders’ About Israeli-Palestinian Conflict to Delegitimize Jewish Nation-State

While BDS activists have failed to get American educational institutions to boycott the Jewish state, they are succeeding in “miseducating a generation of future leaders” about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, internationally renowned legal expert Alan Dershowitz warned on Wednesday.
“Lawsuits and legislation are not enough,” Dershowitz said, during an anti-BDS conference hosted by Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon at the global intergovernmental organization’s New York City headquarters. “We have to increase our advocacy in the court of public opinion. We have to make sure that on every college campus, every claim made by BDS is refuted — on social media and by professors…We are losing the campaign for the minds and hearts of the college students today, while winning the campaign against the actual BDS program.”
Dershowitz made the comments during a discussion moderated by Dovid Efune — editor-in-chief of The Algemeiner — at the “Legal Scholars Against BDS” event.
“It will not be enough to win our war against BDS in the courts of law; we must also win it in the courts of public opinion,” Dershowitz emphasized.

11/18 Links Pt1: Glick: The Ellison Challenge; US Congressmen Met with Senior PFLP Terrorist

From Ian:

Alan Dershowitz: How to Assess the Bannon Appointment

President Elect Trump's appointment of Steve Bannon as his chief strategist has been criticized on the ground that Bannon is an anti-Semite. There are many reasons for opposing the appointment of Bannon, but anti-Semitism is not one of them. I do not support the Bannon appointment. But neither do I support accusing Bannon of being an anti-Semite, based on the evidence I have seen.
With regard to anti-Semitism, there are three distinct but overlapping issues: (1) Is Bannon personally an anti-Semite? (2) Does his publication, Breitbart, promote anti-Semitic views? (3) Do Breitbart and Bannon have followers who are anti-Semitic?
From what I can tell, the evidence cited in support of the accusation that personally Bannon is an anti-Semite falls into two categories: first, that his wife testified at a hotly contested divorce proceeding that he did not want his children to go to school with "whiney Jews"; and second, that he ran an article describing Bill Kristol as a "renegade Jew."
Let us consider these items of evidence in order. Senator Harry Reid tried to strengthen the first accusation against Bannon by saying that it appeared in a court document, thus suggesting that it had the imprimatur of a judge. But that is not the case. The claim was simply made by his former wife in a judicial proceeding, thus giving it no special weight. Bannon has rigorously denied making the statement and said that he and his wife were fighting over whether his children should attend Catholic school, rather than a secular school.
On the other side of the ledger is the testimony of Jewish individuals who have worked closely with him for years. These include my former research assistant, Joel Pollak, an orthodox Jew who wears a kippah and takes off all the Jewish holidays. He is married to a black woman from South Africa who converted to Judaism. Joel assures me that he never heard a single anti-Semitic utterance or saw an anti-Semitic action in the four years they worked together. The same is true of numerous other Jewish individuals who work with him, some of whom thoroughly disapprove of Bannon's politics and the way he ran Breitbart, but none of whom have reported any events of anti-Semitism.

Evelyn Gordon: Peace Now! Israeli Rightist Style

Donald Trump’s election as president has already had one negative effect: It seems to have turned most Israeli cabinet ministers into radical leftists. By that I obviously don’t mean they have started adopting leftist policy prescriptions. But they do seem to have embraced radical leftists’ childish demand for immediate implementation of their own preferred solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, regardless of how much real-world damage it causes.
Most Israeli ministers–albeit not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu–appear to support a one-state solution, and ever since Trump won, they have been demanding major steps toward its implementation: unrestricted building in the settlements, legalizing illegal settlement outposts and annexing roughly 60 percent of the West Bank (Area C). As a first step, the governing coalition decided earlier this week to support a controversial bill that would legalize many (though not all) outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land; the bill passed its preliminary Knesset reading on Wednesday. Netanyahu himself opposed it, but facing a revolt in both his cabinet and his party, he refrained from using his prerogatives to stall the bill
To be clear, nobody, even in the coalition, expects the bill to become law; its passage in preliminary reading was primarily a way of making a statement. But even if you genuinely support the bill, advancing it at this particular moment would be asinine. And that’s true even if you could somehow discount the two most obvious objections to the timing.
The first of those, of course, is that Barack Obama remains president for another two months and could use that time for various anti-Israel moves. Thus, the last thing Israel’s government needs is to give him additional impetus for such moves by appearing to abandon his cherished two-state solution.

Israel looks forward to working with Trump team, Dermer says– 'including Steve Bannon'

Israel's ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer said his government has "no doubt" that President-elect Donald Trump is a "true friend to Israel," visiting his team at Trump Tower in New York on Thursday afternoon.
"Israel has no doubt that President-elect Trump is a true friend of Israel. We have no doubt that Vice-President-elect Mike Pence is a true friend of Israel– he was one of Israel’s greatest friends in the Congress, one of the most pro-Israel governors in the country."
Briefly addressing press stationed at the bottom of the president-elect's namesake tower on Fifth Avenue, the Israeli envoy then touched on a controversy without prompting: Trump's appointment of Stephen Bannon, head of the right-wing website Breitbart.com, as chief White House strategist.
"We look forward to working with the Trump administration, with all of the members of the Trump administration, including Steve Bannon, and making the US-Israel alliance stronger than ever."
Bannon has been the subject of criticism from Jewish groups for his ties to the alt-right movement, considered a modern-day home for white nationalist, ultra-nationalist and antisemitic individuals and organizations.

Caroline Glick: The Ellison Challenge

The Democratic Party stands at a crossroads today. And so do the Jewish Democrats.
Out of power in the White House and both houses of Congress, the Democrats must decide what sort of party they will be in the post-Obama world.
They have two basic options.
They can move to the Center and try to rebuild their blue collar voter base that President-elect Donald Trump captivated with his populist message. To do so they will need to loosen the reins of political correctness and weaken their racialism, their radical environmentalism and their support for open borders.
This is the sort of moderate posture that Bill Clinton led with. It is the sort of posture that Clinton tried but failed to convince his wife to adopt in this year’s campaign.
The second option is to go still further along the leftist trajectory that President Barack Obama set the party off on eight years ago. This is the favored option of the Bernie Sanders wing of the party. Sanders’s supporters refer to this option as the populist course.
It is being played out today on the ground by the anti- Trump protesters who refuse to come to terms with the Trump victory and insistently defame Trump as a Nazi or Hitler and his advisers as Goebbels.
For the Democrats, such a populist course will require them to become more racialist, more authoritarian in their political correctness, angrier and more doctrinaire.
It will also require them to become an antisemitic party.
Antisemitism, like hatred of police and Christians, is a necessary component of Democratic populism.

Hamas is importing cement through Egypt this week

This week, the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been open, and not only for people who have been stranded on either side.

Some 5000 tons of cement are being imported into Gaza from Egypt this week.

According to an article in Palestine Press Agency, in an interview with one of the main importers, Hamas controls who gets to purchase the cement. And many of the recipients are people who are not allowed to get any building materials according to the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, and the only reason that happens is because they have ties to terrorism.

In other words, Hamas is controlling who gets the cement from Egypt, and ensuring that terrorists get what they need, although it is ostensibly for them to rebuild their homes.

Even though Hamas has been giving actual homes to their patrons, especially in the Qatar-backed building projects.

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 EoZ Muezzin Poster

Today, Muslims throughout Israel are demonstrating against the proposed law to stop earsplitting loudspeakers outside mosques (mostly) that bother everyone who lives nearby.

They say that this Muslim call to prayer is an integral part of Islam and by banning the loudspeakers, Israel is acting against Islam itself.

Of course.

Ma'an even shows a photo of the real loudspeakers used:

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.

Dr. Mahmoud Abdel-Moneim, a professor of interpretation of Quranic sciences at Al-Azhar University, said that allowing Iranian tourists to enter Egypt is a threat to Egyptian national security, pointing out what Iran has been doing to the Sunnis in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Abdel Moneim said in a statement that Shiites are plotting day and night, stressing that Iran is working with the support of America to become the next police officer in the region, to tamper with Sunnis' security and stability.

Implying that Shiites aren't Muslim to begin with, he stressed that Shiites are more dangerous to Muslims than Jews and Christians are.

He is hardly a philosemite. He has asked why the Shiites in Yemen aren't shooting rockets towards Jews in Tel Aviv, because the Jews "want to destroy Al Aqsa."

He was also in the headlines recently for slamming another Al Azhar professor who said that the Islamic veil is not necessary, saying that the professor seeks to destroy Islam totally.

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.

Middle East Studies Association about to endanger its very existence because of hate for Israel

The Middle East Studies Association has long been anti-Israel. It has passed resolutions supporting the rights of its members to boycott Israeli academic institutions and to consider boycotting Israel itself.

There are very few pro-Israel members, because Israel studies are not part of it. There is a separate association for Israel studies, so (for example) there are very few Israeli members.

But so far, there is a major problem with MESA calling to directly boycott Israel. This is because it describes itself as "non-political." And even some critics of Israel warned what could happen to MESA if it becomes explicitly political, as a direct call to BDS would make it hard to argue that it is non-political.

Martin Kramer quoted the arguments made by prominent members - and critics of Israel - against the 2015 resolution calling to study boycotting Israel:

Zachary Lockman, who himself supports divestment, argued against MESA supporting it as an institution:

MESA has its own history, culture and vulnerabilities. What might be right for other associations will not necessarily serve MESA well. So we need to weigh the concrete difference MESA’s endorsement of a boycott resolution might make against such action’s potential downsides for the association, including the likely loss of some of its membership as well as of some affiliated organizations and institutions, but also possibly legal action, stepped-up attacks on MESA and Title VI by hostile organizations, legislative bodies and media, and conceivably even the loss of MESA’s home base at the University of Arizona.

Fred Donner, a past president who also personally boycotts Israel, was more explicit:

For MESA to take a political stand will lead to a loss of membership, as those who do not support what becomes MESA’s official position will no longer feel welcome within it.

A stand on BDS will open the door to MESA being asked take a stand on the dozens of other political issues related to the Middle East, further fracturing its membership.

For MESA to take a stand on BDS will endanger its tax-exempt status and therefore its long-term viability as an organization, since MESA’s 501(c)3 tax exemption depends on it remaining non-political.

MESA’s endorsement of BDS will hand MESA’s enemies, who have persistently (but, until now, wrongly) claimed that MESA has been politicized, exactly the evidence they need to make their case against us—which they will not hesitate to do, to our representatives in Congress, to the I.R.S., and to the University of Arizona, whose support of the MESA Secretariat is vital to the organization’s well-being.

So what is the resolution being sought this year?

To eliminate MESA's defining itself as non-political!

It wants to change its existing bylaws in Article 1, Section 2 from:

Nature and Objectives. THE MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ASSOCIATION is a non-profit, non-political association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encourages public understanding of the region and its peoples through programs, publications and services that enhance education, further intellectual exchange, recognize professional distinction, and defend academic freedom.

to this (from an email received by MESA members):

MESA is a non-profit association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encourages public understanding of the region and its peoples through programs, publications, and services that enhance education, further intellectual exchange, recognize professional distinction, and defend academic freedom, in accordance with its status as a 501(c)(3) scientific, educational, literary, and charitable organization.”

In other words, members of MESA hate Israel so much that they want to change their very bylaws in order to be able to more freely express that hate on an institutional level. This despite the potential problems that could come up, such as losing their tax-exempt status, losing their free office space at the University of Arizona, losing the portion of their funding that comes from Congress, or losing what prestige remains for their own academic journals whose articles can no longer even pretend to be objective. Moreover, there is a competing Middle East studies association that is quite willing to welcome those who become disgusted with MESA.

The best part is that the further MESA goes in its hate, the less it will affect Israel - and the more it will discredit itself. It is the inverse of the joke where a genie asks a lucky man what he wishes for as long as his worst enemy gets twice as much, and he answers "beat me half to death." In this case, MESA is asking to be beaten fully to death, while its enemy will barely feel a mosquito bite. (Come to think of it, this is pretty much the logic of the recent wave of stabbers in Israel, many of whom were killed without successfully hurting anyone.) It will make no difference to Israel which doesn't benefit at all from MESA members already.

It will be very interesting to see how far MESA's hate will go.

(h/t Leonard)

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.

11/17 Links Pt2: Israel’s Population Bomb is Disappearing; Kristallnacht memorial sought to ban Israeli flag

From Ian:

DePaul: Fundraiser for Terrorist Welcome, Ben Shapiro Not Welcome

The Young Americans for Freedom chapter at DePaul University invited Christina Hoff Sommers and Ben Shapiro to speak on campus. At some point, the administration decided not to allow Ben Shapiro on campus over supposed security concerns, even threatening him with arrest if he set foot on campus.
In an ultimate twist of irony, the subject of Shapiro’s speech was free speech on campus.
The YAF blog has the details:
DePaul Obstructs YAF Lecture, Shapiro, Sommers
Despite having no apparent problem hosting prominent leftists in the past, DePaul University is working to obstruct DePaul Young Americans for Freedom’s scheduled lecture with Christina Hoff Sommers, after the chapter announced Ben Shapiro was slated to make a guest appearance.
To great media criticism DePaul banned YAF from hosting Ben Shapiro in August. In response DePaul YAF, Young America’s Foundation, and Shapiro decided the campus needed his message and planned to host him alongside Sommers in order to make a powerful statement about the importance of ideological diversity.
As of Tuesday morning, DePaul administrators were actively working to prevent students from hearing Shapiro’s message on campus that evening.

IsraellyCool: The Stranglers Slam Roger Waters And BDS As “Ignorant”

Legendary Punk rock pioneers The Stranglers are here in Israel to perform tonight. And at their press conference yesterday, they let know where they stand on BDS and Roger Waters.
This is in addition to this interview, where they used even saltier language.
You first played in Israel in 2008 on a double bill with Blondie. What were your impressions then, and have you been pressured at all by any pro-Palestinian activists to reconsider coming?
First of all, we had a great time back then.
Tel Aviv is such a rocking city and the Israeli people are so open and fun to be with. I don’t think the outside world realizes how cool it really is there.
But as you know, people are generally ignorant of the situation in Israel and they just read the headlines. They don’t realize that Israel is a democracy in a sea of f***ed up countries. A true democracy with the Left and Right able to express themselves.

The Stranglers Slam Roger Waters And BDS As "Ignorant"

Elliott Abrams: Israel’s Population Bomb is Disappearing

The explanation is a sharp drop in Arab Israeli birth rates while Jewish birth rates have been rising: “In 2000, the fertility among the country’s Arab population stood at 4.3 children per woman, while the fertility rate of Jewish women was 2.6. Since then the gap has narrowed as the Arab rate dropped off and the Jewish fertility rates steadily increased.”
This high fertility rate is not simply an artifact of Israel’s growing ultra-Orthodox or Haredi population; the non-Haredi fertility rate is 2.6. (This is, by the way, a far higher fertility rate than that of American Jews, which is 1.9; the replacement rate is 2.3.) The overall Israeli Jewish fertility rate of 3.13 also suggests that the population balance between Israel and the West Bank will not change: “Palestinian fertility on the West Bank has already fallen to the Israeli fertility rate of three children per woman, if we believe the Palestine Ministry of Health numbers rather than the highly suspect Central Bureau of Statistics data. In 1963, Israeli Arab women had eight or nine children; today they have three, about the same as Israeli Jews.”
What are the political implications? Whatever they are, the debate must begin with facts rather than assumptions–including facts about population growth.

Britain’s Parliament Debates the Balfour Declaration, Revealing Divides Over Israel in Contemporary Politics

The British Government will neither celebrate the Balfour Declaration nor apologize for it. So responded the UK’s Minister for the Middle East, Tobias Ellwood, at the close of a special debate on the Balfour Declaration at the British Parliament this morning, criticizing the Balfour Declaration for failing to include a parallel commitment to Palestinian Arab statehood in 1917. “It is fifty years since the Occupation began,” noted the British minister with frustration, arguing that “it is for historians to assess the Declaration” and for “ministers to deal with the today.” “The Occupation of the Palestinian Territories,” he stressed, “is unacceptable and unsustainable.”
The debate was heavily dominated by concern for the “unfinished business” of the two-state solution and punctuated by repeated criticism of Israel’s settlement policies, but nevertheless included numerous supportive interjections by MPs friendly to Israel.
Labour MP Ivan Lewis stressed the importance of the debate in the context of resurgent anti-Semitism—within his own party and across Europe—which “more often than not is linked to hostility to the State of Israel.” He further blasted the “delegitimization of Israel through the rewriting of history, which seeks to deny the legal and moral basis” of Jewish self-determination. His colleague Luciana Berger spoke up for the Labour Party’s historical support for the creation of a Jewish state. A Northern Irish MP recalled following the Six Day War on the radio, admiring Israel as the underdog. And Conservative MP Jonathan Djanogly paid tribute to Theodor Herzl for persuading the international community to put an end to “Jewish homelessness.”
Numerous pro-Israel MPs made friendly interruptions to Conservative MP Caroline Ansell’s opening speech. The key to sustainable peace is that all parties should recognize Israel, said one. There would have been a two-state solution seventy years ago if “the armies of five Arab states had not invaded Israel in 1948,” added another. One MP criticized the destruction of the greenhouses in the Gaza Strip after the 2005 Disengagement. Another stressed the difficulty of conducting negotiations when “one side” refuses to come to the table, and yet another expressed disappointment at how the Palestinians have been “let down by their own leadership.”

More fake evidence that Israel smuggles wild boar to the Palestinians

Palestine Today has an article on the scourge of wild boars decimating the farms of Arabs, and of course they blame Israel as they've done many times before.

It quotes an agricultural expert in the Agricultural Development Association as saying that before 1967 wild boar were almost non-existent in the West Bank, so no one saw any of them. Only at the end of the last century, he says, did "the occupation forces" bring in large numbers of wild boars - and snakes - by trucks, and unloaded them in the West Bank - according to Palestinian witnesses - in a forest near the Israeli settlements.

I had never heard that Israel imports snakes before. I also never heard that wild boars were unheard of before 1967, so I did a little research.

From the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, 1883 (snippet from Google Books):

From another edition that same year:

Near the most eastern part of the oasis, where the ground is unusually soft, we saw the footprints of wild boar, ibex, gazelle, jackal, and many partridges.

A snake is also mentioned in that report.

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.

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

I spent almost all of Tuesday in Jerusalem. It was a lovely day, the bus and light rail connections were quick and convenient, and – thanks to getting off the light rail at the wrong stop – we walked through the Arab market in the Old City for the first time in years. My wife and I went to the Kotel (the Western Wall), and walking back to the city center we happened to pass the American Consulate at 18 Agron St. It made me think.

Although the Consulate provides services to Americans who live in Jerusalem and Judea/Samaria (and Gaza, if there are any Americans there!), its main mission seems to be to serve as the contact point for the US and the Palestinians. Its website touts cultural and educational opportunities for Palestinians only. Indeed, it has been called the “American Embassy to Palestine.” Its mission statement makes this clear:

The U.S. diplomatic presence in Jerusalem, first established in 1844, was designated a Consulate General in 1928. It now represents the United States in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip as an independent mission, with the Consul General serving as chief of mission. We also provide services to American citizens in this district. [my emphasis]

18 Agron St. is on the western side of the Green Line, in the part of Jerusalem that has been under Israeli control since 1948. One would think that a better location for an “Embassy to Palestine” would be in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority. But there it is, in western Jerusalem.

The US State Department does not think any part of Jerusalem, eastern or western, belongs to Israel. As explained in the link, this dates to General Assembly resolutions passed in 1947 (181) and 1949 (303), which called for UN administration of Jerusalem as a corpus separatum. Such resolutions are non-binding, and so far from reality as to be meaningless today. It would at least make sense for the State Department to insist that ownership of eastern Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations between Israel and the PA under the Oslo accords; but the stubborn refusal to admit that Israel is sovereign in western Jerusalem is ludicrous. And the Obama Administration has more than once gone to great lengths to avoid saying that any part of Jerusalem is in Israel.

But it is even worse than that. ‘Palestine’, which is not a state and does not have any claim to western Jerusalem (and only an aspiration to eastern Jerusalem), has a de facto US Embassy there; the real state of Israel, whose seat of government is in Jerusalem, is not permitted to have one. No other country has had its capital denied like this. Only Israel. Only the Jewish state.

The US Congress tried to remedy the situation by passing the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 which states that the embassy should be moved to Jerusalem “no later than May 31, 1999.” Every six months hence the President can ask for a waiver if it is “necessary to protect the national security interests of the United States.” As everyone knows, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama all regularly availed themselves of this provision. It isn’t clear why making the Palestinians mad would damage US national security, but three presidents at least pretended to think so.

Interestingly, the law also says that it US policy that,

(1) Jerusalem should remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected;
(2) Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel;

But the administrations – especially Obama’s – have not abided by these provisions either. The waiver provision specifically applies only to moving the embassy, so it appears that the administration is in violation of the law by maintaining the corpus separatum policy. Unfortunately, no penalty was legislated, and nobody will arrest them.

Donald Trump, who promised during his campaign that he would move the embassy like all the other presidents since Clinton, has a historic opportunity to end this charade. As in other similar situations – for example, the Temple Mount – the Palestinians establish a precedent by blackmail and actual violence, and then transform the subsequent capitulation into a status quo. From them on, a violation of the status quo becomes unthinkable.

But if anyone can think the unthinkable, it’s Trump. Today support for the Palestinians in the Middle East is at a low ebb, and repercussions would be minimal. All he would have to do is not request a waiver and instruct the State Department to go ahead with the move. It would be interesting indeed to listen as those opposed try to explain or justify their opposition. They certainly can’t do it with appeals to law or logic.

Those who argue that it is a practical necessity to keep the embassy where it is to appease the Palestinians don’t understand them. Nothing short of unconditional surrender can appease the Palestinians. Concessions don’t bring peace, but rather terrorism and demands for more concessions. The best way to reduce violence is to resist blackmail and insist that the world recognize the true narrative, rather than Palestinian fictions.

The truth is that Jerusalem is our capital and has been the capital of Israel since her founding, and has been in a sense the capital city of the Jewish people for thousands of years, whether we controlled it or not.

Trump has a chance to rise to this occasion, end the hypocrisy of three administrations and become a hero to the Jewish people. He can and should affirm his administration’s support of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, and fulfill all of its provisions, both in policy and by his actions.

Don’t miss this opportunity, Mr. Trump. Be a mentsch.

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.

11/17 Links Pt1: Trump, Israel and the Media's Epic Fail; Palestinians Claiming Jews Falsified Their Religion

From Ian:

Kosovo arrests 19 in Islamic State plot to attack Israel soccer match

Kosovo police on Wednesday said they had arrested 19 people they suspected of being involved in an Islamic State plot to carry out terror attacks in Kosovo and neighboring Albania, including an assault during a football match between Albania and Israel this past weekend.
Police said the arrests were made over the past 10 days and that the suspects had planned “synchronized terror attacks,” without going into further detail.
“They were planning to commit terrorist attacks in Kosovo and also [an attack] against [the] Israeli football team and their fans during the Albania-Israel match,” Kosovo police said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that weapons, explosives, ammunition and a drone were seized during the sweep.
The police said the suspects were communicating and receiving orders from an Islamic State member, Lavdrim Muhaxheri, the self-declared “commander of Albanians in Syria and Iraq.”
Last week, a Kosovo court ordered seven of the suspects detained for a month while the investigation continued. The seven belonged to one network that notably planned to attack a stadium in the northern Albanian town of Shkodra during the country’s 2018 World Cup qualifier against Israel last Saturday, according to media reports.

Some Jewish Leaders Question Schumer’s Backing Of Israel Critic Rep. Keith Ellison For DNC Chair

There were questions Tuesday evening about the decision by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to throw his support behind Keith Ellison – a fiery critic of Israel – to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported, Schumer got a taste on Monday of what it could be like to lead the out-of-power Senate Democrats in the age of Donald Trump. Some two dozen protesters came to Schumer’s Washington office and occupied it.
“The Democratic establishment cannot lead the opposition right now,” a protester said.
Another protester asked Schumer to step aside and give his Senate minority leadership to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
The protests were one reason for Schumer’s hard-for-some-to-swallow decision to back Ellison (D-Minn.) to chair the Democratic Party. Otherwise, there were concerns that someone else, like Sanders, could become Senate Minority Leader. Ellison was a Sanders supporter.
Prominent Jewish leaders told CBS2’s Kramer they are upset with Schumer for backing Ellison, who has been highly critical of Israel.

Why is Senator Schumer Supporting Keith Ellison, Who Accused Israel of "Apartheid"

Intense pressure from his base forced Senator Schumer to briefly come out against the Iran nuke sellout. But now he's at it again, backing Keith X. Ellison, who had a history of defending anti-Semitism in his Nation of Islam days, for DNC boss.
While Ellison's defenders claim that his defenses of anti-Semitism and Nation of Islam past are ancient history, there's plenty of more recent history.
Why is Senator Schumer in favor of putting an extremist with a history of defending anti-Semitic bigotry who believes that Israel is an Apartheid State in the key position at the DNC?

A Fatah leader, Azzam al-Ahmad, was reported to have accused Jordan of revoking the permanent passports of Palestinian leaders who plan to attend the Fatah conference later this month, replacing them with temporary passports.

Jordanian officials responded with a heated denial, and al-Ahmad himself says that he never made such an accusation and it was an unfounded rumor meant to make him look bad.

So, while Jordan took away citizenship from millions of Palestinians - most in 1988, but many afterwards - Fatah leaders in the West Bank still enjoy being full citizens of Jordan.

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.

Who destroys ancient religious heritage sites? ISIL - and Palestinians

The world has been horrified by the Islamic State's purposeful destruction of ancient heritage sites. UNESCO has had a number of sessions on the topic and the UN passed a resolution 69/281 to save Iraq's cultural heritage.

They invoke the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict as a primary means to save these cultural heritage sites.

But there is another group that is actively attempting to destroy ancient heritage sites, and the world has little to say about them.

On Friday, for example:

Fires severely damaged two ancient tombs, one of them an iconic landmark, outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday, in what police suspect may have been arson.

An initial investigation by firefighters points to unknown persons setting fire to Absalom’s Tomb in the Kidron Valley, opposite the Temple Mount, and the adjacent Tomb of Jehoshephat, Ynet reported.

The tombs are among a cluster of ancient graves at the base of the Mount of Olives dating to the Second Temple period.

Absalom’s Tomb is traditionally identified as a monument to the biblical figure of the same name, but archaeologists have dated the edifice to the 1st century CE.

The fires broke out around 4:15 p.m. on Friday and caused extensive damage to the 2,000-year-old structures.

Both of these structures are centuries older than anything that ISIS targeted.

But the world is silent when Palestinians attack Jewish heritage sites.

This is hardly the only example.

Palestinians have been firebombing Joseph's Tomb in Shechem for years.

Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem has been attacked by Palestinian mobs a number of times, forcing Israel to build huge fortifications to protect the holy site.

The ancient Shalom Al Yisrael synagogue in Jericho was torched by Palestinian mobs in 2000.

Gravestones at the Mount of Olives, some hundreds of years old, are routinely attacked.

Of course, the biggest crime against Jewish heritage occurred when the Waqf methodically destroyed unknown treasures from the First and Second Temple periods on the Temple Mount.

There are other lesser known crimes. As David M. Weinberg notes:

Under PA rule, Tulul Abu el Alayiq, near Wadi Qelt and Jericho, has been left to decay. This is an important archaeological site where Hasmonian kings and Herod built their winter palaces, and it contains what may be the remains of the earliest synagogue in Israel. The nearby Naaran synagogue is threatened by Palestinian real estate developers who are building practically atop the site. Israeli archaeologists who have managed to visit there say that the PA has let the place rot.
The PA has also allowed villagers to encroach upon the important synagogue remains in Eshtemoa in the southern Mt. Hebron area. Neither Israeli archaeologists nor Israeli worshippers and tourists have access to the site (which is located in Area B), despite the fact that the Oslo Accords supposedly guaranteed this.
It is important to note that these three sites are specified by name in the appendices to the Oslo Accords, and defined as historical and religious sites which the PA is supposed to preserve, and to which they are supposed to provide access for Israelis.

The PA is a signatory to the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property but allows much of this destruction to go on in areas under its control.

UNESCO has attempted to protect Jewish heritage sites in danger in Iraq, along with Kurdish, Christian and Islamic sites. But it does not say a word about Palestinian destruction of Jewish sites. On the contrary - it praises the Waqf for "preservation" on the Temple Mount and condemns Israel for its careful archaeological digs that often discover and preserve Islamic cultural sites!

Palestinian destruction of Jewish antiquities may not be quite as methodical ISIS' attacks on heritage sites, but it is no less important. Yet the world ignores anything the Palestinians do, because anything that is against Israel is justified.

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.