Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Aliyah, IDF Style- Part 2 (Ziesel R)

A few months ago I asked a friend of mine whose daughter had just made Aliyah right out of high school if she would be interested in writing about her experiences. This is part 2. Part 1 is here.

5 May 2017

It started Wednesday morning April 19th. I get to Beer Sheva with all my stuff ready to begin my new journey. Only now do have a moment to write this down.

I get assigned a bus and we leave for the bakum in Tel Aviv. The bakum is where you officially become a soldier. You get there and are told to take off all your jewelry and put your bags and everything you have away. The only thing I had on me was my ID and bank information. You go through a process of getting your fingers printed, picture taken, finger pricked, cheek swabbed, arm stabbed with shots and so on. Eventually you are given your choger (army ID) and diskeet (dog tags). When all this is done you get the uniform that you will need to wear for the next 2+ years. The first time you put on those crisp green shirts and shiny new boots you feel proud. Proud that you are here and have done everything you can to get to this moment.

That feeling of finally being a soldier is great and overwhelming but after a few days you start to miss being a civilian. It's hard to always be on someone else's schedule. It's frustrating not be able to do whatever you want, whenever you want. However you need to accept your new reality of being property of the army. That might sound like a horrible way of putting it but that is what you are. You can no longer think or do whatever you want. Everything is on your mefakedet's (commanders) command.

Something that was really hard for me was getting a gun. I've always seen soldiers in the streets and thought they were "so cool". However I no longer see it that way. Now when I see them I feel bad for them. I have an long M16 which is about 3 kg. It hangs on me awkwardly and bangs into my knees whenever we have to run. The first week I was covered in bruises. Slowly you learn how to hold it without it banging into you. But the weight and awkwardness of the gun wasn't my problem. I was having trouble focusing and understanding the lessons.

See, everything for me is a double lesson. For someone who grew up in Israel all they need to know is the basic information. But for me it's a double challenge. I need to first learn and understand all the vocabulary and after that I can learn the actual lesson itself. After practicing several times I now feel more confident. However I needed to first teach myself that asking for help is okay and isn't a bad thing.

Next week we are heading to the shetach (field) to shoot our guns. I know I am ready.

This past week was Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut. My Yom Hazikaron started on Sunday night when I attended atekes (ceremony) in Sderot about 10 minutes from where I live. Standing there in my uniform I began to think about the bigger picture. This was reinforced even stronger the next day when I went to Har Herzl cemetery for the first time in my uniform. Standing next to the section for lone soldiers I wondered what their stories are. Each and every one of those soldiers in Har Herzl has one. It's scary to think one day I may know someone buried there. But that is why each and every lone soldier I know is in Israel. They are all willing to risk their lives for our home.

Yom Haatzmaut was really lively and fun. I attended the BBQ at the Michael Levin Center for Lone Solders in Jerusalem with many of my friends. All the volunteers are nice and friendly. They each want to do whatever they can to help us. It was extremely surreal to be in Israel for Independence Day. I knew that I finally made it home.

Settling into army life is not easy. After my first full week I didn't want to have to come back. I felt unmotivated and was focusing on all the negatives. A friend helped me realize that I would never be able to do it until I changed my mindset. So this week I did. I realized that the army is just a game and I just need to win the game. Every time we are told to run, I run as fast as I can to be first. Whenever we are told to say or do anything I give it 100%. Doing this has really helped me handle the army better. I'm just a piece on the game board trying to get to the finish before all the other players. Now, this doesn't always end up working out. Many times I think I'm moving ahead when all of a sudden I get thrown back a few spots.

For example the other day we needed to take our straps off our gun to put it away for the weekend. One of my friends had arrived late holding two guns because she was asked to take another girl's gun back. Seeing her struggle I asked permission to help her. I asked in the proper way with the proper Hebrew grammar.

I was then told to do push-ups.

Even when you try your hardest to be a team player it sometimes just doesn't work out. At the end of the day this is the army game, the rules are made up as they go along. All I can do is try my hardest to win.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

In April of this year, the UN released the 2017 World Happiness Report. Using polling data collected by the Gallup organization, it ranked 156 countries in the world in order of how happy with their lives respondents said they were, on a scale of 1 to 10. For each country, they also measured 6 relatively objective factors: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make choices, generosity, and trust in business and government. By comparing the scores in these categories with a hypothetical “Dystopia,” to which they assigned the scores from lowest-scoring country in each category, they attempted to explain how much the objective factors contributed to the subjective perception of happiness.

Could this ranking possibly be meaningful? I have no idea, honestly, but Israel came in 12^th out of the 156, beating the US which was in 15^th place, the UK in 20^th, and France which was a miserable 32^nd. Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, The Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia were ahead of Israel. But not by much: Israelis give themselves 7.213 while the smug, top-ranked Norwegians claim 7.537. The most unhappy place in the world, the Central African Republic, rated themselves a 2.693. Trust in business and government contributed very little to Israel’s high score. Shocking! (not)

Although not the subject of this post, the score of US has dropped very significantly since 2007. The report suggests that this is primarily due to social factors rather than economic ones.

The report’s writers do say that high perceived happiness is strongly correlated with the reelection of governments. Clearly, Israel has been a happy place lately.

But possibly more significantly, Israel leads the 36 OECD nations with a fertility rate of 3.1 children per woman (Mexico is a distant second with 2.2). And Israel’s rate is the only one of the 36 that is increasing. I can provide anecdotal evidence: one of the first things I noticed when I came here from the US was the number of pregnant women, people pushing baby strollers and walking with children. This despite the continuous terrorism, Iranian threat, periodic wars, compulsory conscription and reserve duty, ridiculous cost of housing, economic inequality and other quite serious problems.

Fertility rates in 36 OECD countries

If you read Ha’aretz or listen to liberal American Jews like Peter Beinart, you will probably get the idea that the Jewish state is tearing itself apart. But it isn’t, and both Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel are relatively happy and thriving. The Left is prophesying doom, but meanwhile the number of Israelis that identify or vote with them – especially young ones – is dropping. Israelis think that they are happy, and they are optimistically bringing children into the world.

I am going to propose a radical explanation for this. I think Israel’s economic and social success is due to the existence of a collective purpose. If you ask them they will probably deny it, but – at least to a greater extent than in America or Europe – Israelis do identify with their state, and even those that dislike the state identify with the land and the people. Israeli culture today developed directly from the Zionist struggle to build a Jewish state, and the feeling of ownership this created isn’t all gone. Even the most secular Jews feel a tug in their heart when they consider that their ancestors walked here in biblical times. Israelis tend to help one another when they are in trouble because they see themselves as a people. They feel as though they are all in it together.

Even Arab citizens who oppose Zionism partake of and benefit from this culture, although they are more likely to identify with a family or clan than the state. But yes, Jews and Arabs sometimes help one another and some Arabs will even say they are proud to be Israeli!

Certainly the concept of a Jewish state, not just a democratic one, amplifies the collective purpose of Israel’s Jewish citizens. This is one reason I favor the Jewish nation-state bill that has just been re-introduced in the Knesset.

Such a law has been proposed several times in the past – the last time in 2014, when it was abandoned as the Knesset dissolved itself in preparation for elections. Now it has raised its head again. On Sunday the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved it, and it will be submitted on Wednesday for a preliminary reading in the Knesset as a government-backed bill.

The various versions of the law have all been quite controversial, even in watered-down compromise form. Apparently, the idea of a new Basic Law – in essence, a piece of Israel’s “constitution” – that articulates the meaning of “Jewish” in the accepted formulation “a Jewish and democratic state” is considered both unnecessary and provocative by many.

Some opponents of a nation-state law, Arabs and the Left, believe that Israel ought not be, in any structural sense, a Jewish state. They would prefer a “state of its citizens,” a democratic state like the US or Australia. Such an Israel would be Jewish only by virtue of having a Jewish majority. Of course this position negates the Zionist principles on which the state was founded – both the practical idea that only the existence of a Jewish state can protect the Jewish people from antisemitism, and the spiritual one that ties the Jewish people to their historic homeland.

“So what?” many would say. But such a change would be very dangerous and might endanger the identification that Israel’s Jewish population feels for its country. It might damage the collective purpose that historically led Jewish Israelis to make so many sacrifices for the sake of the state, and which is in part responsible for its surprising success today. If Israel is just a small Australia, why not go live in the real Australia where you won’t have to do reserve duty? How long would there continue to be a Jewish majority?

Paradoxically, the coherence and national purpose of Israel’s Jewish citizens benefits Arab Israelis as well. If there can be coexistence between Jewish and Arab Israelis (I am not talking about the Arabs of the territories now, who present a much more complicated problem), then it will require a recognition by the Arabs that being Israeli means living as a national minority in a Jewish state.

The Jewish nation-state bill should therefore recognize the existence of such minorities and guarantee their rights, while at the same time assert the identity of the state as the state of the Jewish people.

We are walking a tightrope. One fifth of our population is Arab. After 69 years they are not going away and we can’t pretend not to see them. We must see them as equals in every respect, except that of national rights. But by the same token, they must understand that Israel is a Jewish, Zionist state with a national purpose defined by the Jewish people.

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05/11 Links Pt1: 'Barghouti's sweets' handed out at Nakba Day ceremony; Mr. Trump, on Jerusalem just do nothing

From Ian:

PMW: Abbas' and PA's female role model: Mother of 4 terrorists serving life sentences

Abbas invited the mother of 4 terrorists to event in his office
Fatah leadership delegation visited her in her home
PA official, Governor of Ramallah, visited her in her home
Mother of terrorists nicknamed "The Oak Tree of Palestine" and "Khansa of Palestine" - reference to a woman in the earliest period of Islam who rejoiced when all four of her sons were killed in battles, as Martyrs for Islam
The current hunger strike held by imprisoned Palestinian terrorists gave the Palestinian Authority another opportunity to promote one of its female role models: Um Nasser Abu Hmeid.
Latifa Abu Hmeid (her proper name) is famous in the PA for being the mother of 4 imprisoned terrorists, all of whom are serving life sentences (their crimes appear below). She has joined the hunger strike in solidarity with her sons and the other imprisoned terrorists. A fifth son, a member of Hamas, was killed and is considered "a Martyr."
In the eyes of the PA, her fostering of 5 terrorists makes her uniquely worthy of honor. Abbas himself received her and other relatives of terrorist prisoners at his office last month (photo above), and a Fatah leadership delegation visited her at home.

PMW: Palestinian university names class after terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi
"The Class of the Bride of the Coast - Martyr Dalal Mughrabi"

Palestinian university names class of economics and political science students after terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi "The Class of the Bride of the Coast - Martyr Dalal Mughrabi"
Shabiba logo at graduation ceremony reads: "From the sea of blood of the Martyrs we will create a state"
Meanwhile, Fatah youth movement music video honors 4 terrorists:
Abu Iyad - Planner of Olympic Massacre - 11 murdered
Abu Jihad - planned terror attacks - 125 murdered
Marwan Barghouti - planned terror attacks - 5 murdered
Dalal Mughrabi - led murder of 37, 12 of them children
When Fatah's student movement Shabiba held its annual graduation ceremony at the An-Najah National University together with the student council last month, it included a class named after terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi. Mughrabi led the most lethal terror attack in Israel's history, a bus hijacking in which 37 civilians, among them 12 children, were murdered.
Fatah's Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen spoke at the graduation and Fatah posted photos from it on Facebook. One photo shows a large banner at the event naming the economics and political science class after murderer Mughrabi:
Text on poster: "[Fatah's] Shabiba student movement The Martyrs' cell Annual graduation ceremony Class of the Bride of the Coast Martyr Dalal Mughrabi" [Official Fatah Facebook page, April 12, 2017]

'Barghouti's sweets' handed out at Nakba Day ceremony

Dozens of Im Tirtzu activists and other Zionist activists held the annual Nakba Day event which took place today at Entin Square at Tel Aviv University.
The event is meant to remind leftist and Arab students how good it is to live in Israel rather than elsewhere in the Middle East.
The Im Tirtzu activists waved Israeli flags and handed out booklets which were meant to debunk the lies of the anti-Israel narrative.
This year, a huge sign was raised which called the Arab Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe) a lie. The activists also distributed dozens of 'torteet' chocolate sweets, the same sweet convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the hunger strike among security prisoners in Israeli prisons. was caught eating. The film of Barghouti eating the sweets showed that he was cheating on the hunger strike.
Matan Peleg, director general of the Im Tirtzu movement, said at the event: "It is absurd to see what higher education institutions, which are funded by the Israeli taxpayer, do with that public funding they receive. The university must be kept from becoming a harsh hotbed of anti-Zionism."

Pizza Hut fires Israeli PR firm over prison hunger strike ad

Pizza Hut has apologized and fired an advertising firm responsible for an Israeli Facebook ad that mocked Fatah official Marwan Barghouti, the leader of a hunger strike staged by Palestinian security prisoners jailed in Israel. The ad on Pizza Hut Israel's Facebook page was deleted, and the parent company said in a statement that the post was "completely inappropriate."
Barghouti, 58, who is serving five life terms, called the hunger strike to pressure Israel to improve security prisoners' conditions. The strikers' demands include cell phones and family visits, among other things. While some 1,300 prisoners initially heeded his call, hundreds of them have quit the strike. According to the Israel Prison Service, some 880 prisoners are still maintaining the hunger strike, going on its 24th day.
On Sunday, the IPS released a video showing Barghouti secretly snacking on a candy bar.
Pizza Hut then published a Facebook post with a pizza box superimposed on Barghouti's prison cell with a caption asking if he would rather have broken his hunger strike with a pizza.

Yaakov Katz, editor of the Jerusalem Post, and Amir Bohbot of Walla, have published a fascinating history of Israel's modern military, entitled The Weapon Wizards.

The book is divided up into chapters that could each stand alone as excellent magazine articles. It starts off with an overview of how necessity was the mother of invention, specifically a secret bullet manufacturing facility under the noses of the British becoming Israel Military Industries and a brief description of the beginnings of Israel's air force.

The following chapters each concentrate on the history of specific technologies that Israel is now a leader in: drones, adaptive armor (as well as the Merkava tank), spy satellites, anti-missile systems like Iron Dome, intelligence capabilities, and cyber-warfare. These are followed with a chapter about how Israel's arms exports have helped Israel diplomatically.

The Weapon Wizards sticks to one major theme throughout: Israel's innovation is the result of decisions taken early in the state's history to concentrate on qualitative advantages on the battlefield, meaning creativity and decentralized decision-making at war as well as the desire not to be dependent on anyone else for Israel's security. Entire sections of the army are dedicated to nurturing the brightest people to come up with brilliant solutions to problems that most nations haven't had to deal with - yet. And the army itself allows and encourages independent thinking and challenging ones superiors.

In may ways, this book is a mirror-image of the now classic Start-Up Nation, just concentrating on how the army produces people that help the IDF innovate, beyond those who use their knowledge to become successful entrepreneurs. But the IDF isn't an island, and in cyberwarfare it is partnering with Israel's cutting edge cybersecurity private sector as well.

I would have loved if the book had spent more time on future innovations, a topic barely touched on in its concluding chapter. It mentions unmanned warplanes and patrol vehicles, and a couple of other things that most students of Israeli weapons technologies already know about.

As a whole, The Weapon Wizards is a fascinating and ultimately exhilarating celebration of Israeli innovation, creativity, smarts and chutzpah in defending herself.

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Now, Fatah is FORCING prisoners to join hunger strike! (CORRECTION - WRONG)

Back in the 1940s, Arabs in British Mandate Palestine started a boycott of Jewish businesses.

It failed. The Jews opened up new trade markets in Europe and Arab shopkeepers lost lots of money.

Many Arab shopkeepers ignored the boycott in order to keep their livelihoods.

So Arab leaders, zealous to enforce their boycott, started bombing their own people who didn't participate.

The only people hurt by this action were the Arabs themselves, and their wounded pride at the ineffectiveness of their grand plan to hurt Jews caused them to double-down and hurt their own people even more.

That self-defeating mentality of Palestinian Arabs is still here.

~~The Fatah is demanding that all Fatah prisoners in Israel join the hunger strike this Saturday - or else they will be punished.~~

The Office of Mobilization and Organization of the Central Committee of the Fatah movement issued instructions to all its members in Israeli jails to join the open hunger strike immediately or else face consequences, with the exception of sick prisoners and those under 18.

It is not clear what the consequences would be for not joining the hunger strike. The only leverage they have are the salaries that the PLO pays prisoners. It would be richly ironic that prisoners who decide not to join the boycott would be the only ones that the PLO stops rewarding for terror.

Forcing prisoners to act in a certain way doesn't add to the legitimacy of the hunger strike, it makes it into even more of a joke than it already is. It also shows that there is a level of desperation from Palestinian leaders who thought that this stunt would be more effective than their many other stunts. The hunger strike has not generated any real interest from the world media.

We know what will happen. The prisoners will pretend to join, they will sneak candy bars like Marwan Barghouti, the PLO will claim that they now have 5000 hunger strikers while the real number will hover at 10% of that figure, and nothing will change.

CORRECTION: It doesn't happen often but I completely misunderstood the story. Fatah is denying rumors that it will force prisoners to go on hunger strike, I apologize. (h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Today is World Keffiyeh Day to show support for terrorists who cover their faces!

Today is, according to some Facebook event, World Keffiyeh Day:

While people pretend that keffiyehs are simply symbols of solidarity with Palestinian Arabs, their "activists" admit that the keffiyeh is a symbol of violent "resistance" and terror.

Rasmea Odeh, terrorist

Interestingly, the Israel haters like to mainstream the keffiyeh by pretending that "resistance" includes lots of things outside of blowing up Jews, but they clearly include the blowing up Jews part as being "heroic."

.

Palestinians themselves aren't as confused, happily teaching their kids that the entire point of keffiyehs is to cover their faces when they grow up to murder Jews.

And when others use a similar pattern in clothing, Palestinians freak out about "cultural appropriation" - watering down a symbol of Palestinian terrorism is a worse crime than the terrorism itself, from their crazed reactions.

The people who bitterly complain about the keffiyeh being "appropriated" never, and I mean never, complain about it being "appropriated" by terrorists for terror attacks. To them, terror attacks are the essence of Palestinian existence. Which is all the proof you need to know that the keffiyeh is in fact a terrorist symbol, not just an innocuous garment symbolizing peoplehood.

However, there is an appropriate use for keffiyehs: to be worn by dogs. No one seems to mind; dogs with keffiyehs have been seen at anti-Israel rallies. I certainly don't mind dogs with keffiyehs. Dog keffiyehs are highly appropriate, especially for people who regard "dog" as an insult.

Feel free to tweet these images for World Keffiyeh Day under the hashtag #OnlyDogsWearKeffiyehs (and keep the #KeffiyehDay hashtag as well.)

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Democracy, Palestinian-style

Since there is no such thing as democracy for the Arabs in the territories, student elections take up a lot of media attention as a bellwether to how each party would do if there ever was another real election.

Last month Fatah won the student council election at An Najah University in Nablus.

But Wednesday, Hamas won the elections at Bir Zeit University, winning 25 seats to Fatah's 22.

Political observers across the country closely watch the Birzeit student elections. The university is a hub of political activism, and the student vote is considered a reflection of the Palestinian political climate. Many Palestinian political and community leaders have graduated from Birzeit.

Bir Zeit is in Ramallah, the center of the Fatah-dominated government.

Even though most polls show Fatah with a lead in theoretical elections, it is not so clear that Hamas wouldn't win the way they did in 2006.

The third place party with 4 seats was the student arm of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

For some reason, no Western media outlet bothers to note that every single party to gain seats in these elections also happens to be a terrorist group that openly advocates "armed resistance."

Every single one.

Palestinian democracy, such as it is, is giving the people the choice of one terror group over another.

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05/10 Links Pt2: FIFA Postpones anti-Israel move; Trevor Noah to host Islamic Relief fundraiser

From Ian:

FIFA delays decision on Israeli settlement soccer clubs

FIFA said on Tuesday it was “premature” to take any final decision on the controversial issue of Israeli clubs in the West Bank, according to a statement.
The communique came after a five-hour long FIFA Council meeting in Bahrain, ahead of the issue being scheduled for discussion by its annual Congress, which takes place in Manama on May 11.
“Following the report by chairman of the Monitoring Committee Israel-Palestine, Tokyo Sexwale, the FIFA Council considered that at this stage it is premature for the FIFA Congress to take any decision,” read the statement.
It is not clear after the statement whether the issue will remain on the Congress’ agenda.
The Palestine Football Association argues that the presence of six Israeli soccer clubs playing inside settlements in the West Bank are in breach of FIFA statutes.
These statutes forbid another member association playing on another territory without permission.
Israel argues that FIFA rules are unenforceable as there is no permanent border. (h/t Yenta Press)

President of Daniel Pearl Foundation Calls on BDS Advocate Linda Sarsour to ‘Disinvite Herself’ From CUNY Ceremony

The father of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan in 2002, has added his voice to the condemnation of the City University of New York (CUNY) over its decision to honor Linda Sarsour, a prominent advocate of the BDS campaign targeting Israel.
In an interview with The Algemeiner on Tuesday, Judea Pearl – a Chancellor’s Professor at UCLA and the president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which promotes cross-cultural understanding – expressed dismay that Sarsour would be giving the commencement speech at the graduation ceremony for CUNY’s Graduate School of Public Health on June 1.
Pearl described Sarsour as a “Zionophobe,” a form of prejudice he argued shares common features with Islamophobia.
“A Zionophobe is someone who has an irrational fear of Zionism and coexistence in the Middle East,” Pearl said. “Like Islamophobes, Zionophobes have no respect for other communities’ symbols of identity.”

Sarsour's Anti-Semitism Campaign Minimizes Anti-Semitism

Sarsour also tries to shut down those who cite her record of celebrating terrorists and advocating radical positions by calling the critics Islamophobes. "Linda Sarsour is a Palestinian Muslim American woman in a hijab and she has the audacity to be prominent in this country, the audacity to resonate with communities outside her community," she said, speaking in the third person in the SiriusXM interview. "How dare I do that? How dare I defy every stereotype that Islamophobes have of me."
Yet, she's nakedly intolerant of beliefs other than her own.
Sarsour famously tweeted, "Nothing is creepier than Zionism." That's not a statement critical of the Israeli government or of settlement building in the West Bank. Instead, Sarsour believes the entire concept of a homeland for the Jewish people is flawed, is "creepy."
And Sarsour wants nothing to do with you if you believe in and support the state of Israel. That goes for Jews who might try to stand in solidarity against anti-Muslim bigotry. In her worldview, Zionism and feminism are mutually exclusive. "You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none," Sarsour told The Nation. "There's just no way around it."
"But insisting that Jews need not apply if they subscribe to the belief in a Jewish homeland in Israel is an anti-Semitic double standard," StandWithUs researcher Lauren Post wrote in the Forward. "Too many leftists already ignore anti-Semitism unless it's rhetorically convenient, so perhaps it's unsurprising that Sarsour's brand of feminism demands that we give up our liberation movement for some nebulous greater good."

This one was just too much fun. Especially after a day in which we were told that Trump is definitely not moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv and that it's because Israel asked him not to--only to be told an hour or so later that it's not true and Bibi knows nothing about it.

Same old, same old. *yawn*

But then the Daily Freier came out with this awesome Build your own Sarah Tuttle-Singer article! generator. You click "start survey" and there are five entries, the first four of which you have to fill in the blanks with multiple choice phrases supplied by the author. It's kind of like Mad Libs (remember those?).

The fifth entry is where you can get creative and make up your own stuff--that's the part where she'd normally trash Donald, because no STS article would be worth its salt without some solid Trump-trashing.

And, ha ha, STS herself was forced to be a good sport about it.

The best part? On Friday they say they're going to publish the best stories using the most popular answers. YESH!

My only complaint is that the choices offered are a little too tame. There's no f word, no s word. But you can understand it. They don't really want to emulate the writer's saltier side. Why be like her?

It's enough to suggest she's formulaic and silly. It kind of makes you despair of the human race when you see one of her pieces go viral only because she's used "rabbi" and well, something that shouldn't be in the same title with "rabbi" in it.

Otherwise, no complaints whatsoever.

Sheer pleasure.

Check it out HERE.

UPDATE: The Daily Freier has the winning articles (1st, 2nd, runner-up) HERE. They say almost 800 people played. Awesomeness.

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IDF Bulldozer Demolishes 'Breaking The Silence' Claims Of War Crimes (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Tel Aviv, May 10 - The Israeli military deployed a D-9 armored bulldozer this afternoon to destroy spurious charges leveled by self-proclaimed whistleblower group Breaking the Silence that the Israel Defense Forces have systematically mistreated Palestinians under military rule.

The Caterpillar-produced machine dispatched the flimsy structure within minutes, following a brief confrontation during which a Breaking the Silence activist spouted distortions and falsehoods regarding his behavior toward Palestinians when he served in the IDF.

Armored bulldozers have seen frequent use by the Israeli military, most notably during operations against Palestinian militants, but also when standard heavy equipment proves inadequate or unsafe to deploy during the destruction of convicted terrorists' homes. The use of a D-9 to demolish fabricated claims of Israeli misconduct against Palestinians is less frequent, as under most circumstances the willful distortions collapse under their own weight after a short period.

Engineering unit commander Col. Dahpor Meshurian told reporters that in this case, an armored D-9 was selected for the task even though the claims made against the IDF were no more robust than the usual Breaking the Silence and B'tselem accusations. "Other equipment was busy performing other tasks such as helping to construct an underground barrier to Hamas tunnels from Gaza," he explained. "We had both D-9s and D-10s available, but chose the smaller model because it was overkill already."

Human Rights groups were quick to condemn Israel for the move. "That was a disproportionate response," asserted Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch. "Breaking the Silence have a basic right to their narrative, which is that Israel is an unmitigated evil whose presence in the Middle East must be eliminated because it makes Arabs and Muslims feel inadequate, which is a cardinal sin in human rights. Crushing that narrative with blunt wielding of facts and corroborated eyewitness testimony runs roughshod over the feelings of the patriots who want to compromise their fellow citizens' safety and security in order to make a moral or political point, and of course to feel virtuous and persecuted."

Palestinian diplomats urged their allies in the United Nations to call an emergency session of the Security Council to discuss the latest Israeli violation of international norms with the demolition. The prospects of any resolution condemning Israel appear murky at this stage, given declared US support for Israel and American veto power on the Council. According to aides, US Ambassador Nikki Haley is exploring the possibility of bringing a similar bulldozer to the UN for purposes of demolishing hypocritical anti-Israel measures put forth by UNSC member states

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05/10 Links Pt1: While Abbas met with Trump, Fatah honored 12 terrorists; Zionism: Yielding Territory Since 1919

From Ian:

PMW: While Abbas met with Trump, Fatah honored 12 terrorists responsible for murdering 95 people

As Palestinian Authority and Fatah Chairman Abbas met with President Trump last week, the two institutions he heads were busy glorifying murderers and planners of suicide bombings and shooting attacks in which 95 people were murdered.
Fatah posted the photo above of 12 imprisoned terrorist murderers on Facebook and sent "blessings" to the "heroic prisoners":
Posted text: "All blessings to our heroic prisoners carrying out the [hunger] strike of dignity: Karim Younes, Marwan Barghouti, Nael Barghouti, Ahmad Sa'adat, Abbas Al-Sayid, Hassan Salameh, Zaid Bassisi, Bassem Al-Khandaqji, Wajdi Joudeh, Maher Younes, Fuad Al-Shubaki, Wael Al-Jaghoub."
[Official Fatah Facebook page, May 3, 2017]
These are the crimes of Fatah's "heroes":
Hassan Salameh - Serving 46 life sentences for planning suicide bombings that murdered 46.
Abbas Al-Sayid - Serving 35 life sentences for planning suicide bombings that murdered 35.
Marwan Barghouti - Serving 5 life sentences for planning 3 shooting attacks that murdered murdering 5.
Bassem Al-Khandaqji - Serving 3 life sentences for involvement in a suicide bombing that murdered 3.
Zaid Bassisi - Serving a life sentence plus an additional 55 years for planning a car bombing that wounded 8.
Karim and Maher Younes - Each is serving a 40-year sentence for kidnapping and murdering 1.
Nael and Fakhri Barghouti - Each was serving a life sentence for murdering 1. Both were released in the Shalit prisoner exchange deal. Nael Barghouti was rearrested for violating the terms of his release and is serving a life sentence plus an additional 18 years.
Wael Al-Jaghoub - Serving a life sentence for establishing PFLP terror cells and carrying out terror attacks. PMW was unable to verify the details of his crimes.
Ahmad Sa'adat - Serving a 30 year sentence for heading the PFLP terror organization.
Wajdi Joudeh - Serving a 25 year sentence for involvement in a suicide bombing that murdered 4 and wounded 24.
Fuad Al-Shubaki - Serving a 20 year sentence for planning attempt to smuggle 50 tons of illegal weapons to the Palestinian Authority

MEMRI: The Positions And Statements Of Hamas's New Political Bureau Head Isma'il Haniya

On May 6, 2017, Hamas announced that its senior official Isma'il Haniya had been elected as head of its political bureau, in place of Khaled Mash'al, who had held this position since 1996. Haniya, who had been Khaled's deputy, was elected in a movement-internal procedure that took place simultaneously in Gaza and the West Bank via video conference. Haniya previously served as Hamas's leader and prime minister in Gaza.
Over the years, MEMRI has presented Haniya's views and positions on various issues. In his statements Haniya reiterated his movement's commitment to the values of jihad and martyrdom, stressing that jihad is a religious duty that must never be subject to negotiations and that Palestinians are "a people who love death as much as [their] enemies love life." He emphasized that armed resistance is a Palestinian right and a "strategic option" which Hamas will pursue and intensify until the final liberation of Palestine "from the river to the sea." He also emphasized that Hamas regards it as its mission to develop increasingly sophisticated means of warfare, from rockets to attack tunnels, and to train the next generation of fighters in their effective use. Accordingly, he praised terrorists who had carried out attacks on Israelis, including on civilians, calling them heroes. He also emphasized that Hamas would never recognize Israel, under any circumstances.
Haniya's rhetoric has been consistently anti-American, for instance when he condemned the U.S. for killing "the mujahid" bin Laden, calling this an expression of America's "policy of oppression," and when he hoped that Allah would "declare war" on the U.S.

David Singer: United Nations Web of Deceit snares International Court of Justice

The United Nations publication The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem 1917-1988 (“Study”) has falsely misrepresented that the Mandate for Palestine was a class A Mandate – deceiving the International Court of Justice and many other reputable sources.
The Study has been published by the Division for Palestinian Rights of the United Nations Secretariat for, and under the guidance of, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
The Study falsely asserts without substantiation:
“All the mandates over Arab countries, including Palestine, were treated as class 'A' Mandates, applicable to territories whose independence had been provisionally recognized in the Covenant of the League of Nations”.
The Study then erroneously concludes:
“Only in the case of Palestine did the Mandate, with its inherent contradictions, lead not to the independence provisionally recognized in the Covenant, but towards conflict that was to continue six decades later.”
However the 1937 Peel Commission Report comprehensively debunks the Study’s concocted claims:

Major Egyptian news site says the Rothschilds are Khazars who control the world to help Israel

Here are the most popular Internet sites in Egypt:

Google (Egyptian and worldwide)
YouTube
Facebook
Youm7 newspaper
Al Bawabh News

Al Bawabh News just published a long article that is a regurgitation of the standard antisemitic slanders, centered around the supposed influence of the Rothschild family who somehow never manage to make it to the top of the list of Forbes richest people.

The first paragraph says it all:

The Rothschild family is the oldest and largest Jewish family of the Jewish Khazars of German origin, owning 80% of the world's wealth. The family is responsible for the creation of all economic crises, as well as political revolutions across the world in collaboration with Rockefeller and Morgan families as it is almost dominated all the central banks of each countries of the world with the exception of a few.

Each paragraph gets more absurd:

These three families have killed a number of American presidents, including President Abraham Lincoln and President William McKinney and President James Garfield and President John F. Kennedy and many members of Congress and the owners of the banks, to the degree that enabled them to provide the largest bribe in history in return for obtaining a sinister promise later named the Balfour Declaration! And all those who stand against these families are killed without pity or mercy.

The video that accompanies the story is narrated in Arabic but it is filled with graphics made by Internet antisemites making up bizarre stories like Adolf Hitler was the grandson of a Rothschild and quotes like this one:

This is what Egyptians are reading every day in their mainstream media.

And there is essentially nothing in their media that ever says otherwise.

But let's talk some more about Islamophobia, because that is more "systemic."

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