Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, April 02, 2018

04/02 Links Pt2: Col. Kemp: The bravest and the best; Collier: The Jewish community and Jeremy Corbyn are incompatible; How Terrorists Are Using Twitter to Incite Violence Against Israelis;

From Ian:

Col. Richard Kemp: The bravest and the best

Are we no longer allowed heroes? The 2017 film "Churchill" is nothing less than a character assassination of the man who led Britain to victory in World War II. The movie "7 Days in Entebbe," released last week in Israel, gives similar treatment to the hero of the dramatic rescue, Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu. The film is based on a book about the raid by the distinguished British historian Professor Saul David.

Incredibly, in an interview last week, David seemed to suggest that the German terrorists at Entebbe played a greater role than Netanyahu in saving the hostages' lives. He claims they had second thoughts, deliberately sparing the hostages when they could have killed them.

Why? Because they had developed empathy for their captives and "it wouldn't have looked good for Germans to kill Jews again, after the Holocaust." Look good to whom? It doesn't add up. They had seized Jewish hostages at gunpoint, conducted a "selection" chillingly reminiscent of Auschwitz and were members of a rabidly anti-Semitic terror group, the Revolutionary Cells.

Meanwhile, David dismisses Netanyahu, claiming his research shows he "was not a central figure in the planning of the operation." Yet Netanyahu's Sayeret Matkal comrades who were there describe him as "the father of the operation," confirming that he did in fact plan the rescue in meticulous detail after being given orders by Brig. Gen. Dan Shomron,
the overall commander, to take over the airport terminal and release the hostages.

The Rome of Josephus

In the midst of the Judean Revolt of 66-70 CE, the Jewish rebel officer Josephus, his unit defeated, defected to the Roman forces; eventually the emperor Vespasian and his son and successor Titus became Josephus’ patrons, and he went on to have an illustrious career writing about Jewish history and defending Jews and Judaism against their slanderers. He came to the city of Rome in 71 CE, and most likely lived there until his death around the year 100. David Laskin reports on traveling through Rome with the works of Josephus as his guide. Here he imagines the imperial parade—memorialized in the Arch of Titus—during which the emperor celebrated the Jews’ defeat and the destruction of their Temple:

I tried to erase from my mind [today’s] T-shirts and selfie sticks and resurrect the fallen columns. Vespasian and Titus, riding chariots, would have been two dabs of purple surging up the ramparts of the Capitoline [hill] through a sea of white togas. In their train, thousands of Jewish slaves shuffled with bowed heads while the heaps of plundered gold and silver bobbed above them, winking in the sun. “Last of all the spoils,” writes Josephus, “was carried a copy of the Jewish Law”—the Torah.

Josephus reveals exactly where these spoils ended up. Vespasian had a new temple—the Templum Pacis (Temple of Peace)—built adjacent to the Forum where “he laid up the vessels of gold from the temple of the Jews, on which he prided himself; but their Law and the purple hangings of the sanctuary he ordered to be deposited and kept in the palace.” The palace, in ancient Rome, meant the Palatine (the word palace derives from the hill’s name). . . .

Josephus notes that the Templum Pacis, built “very speedily in a style surpassing all human conception,” housed not only the spoils of Jerusalem but also “ancient masterpieces of painting and sculpture, . . . objects for the sight of which men had once wandered over the whole world.” . . .

IsraellyCool: How Terrorists Are Using Twitter to Incite Violence Against Israelis

So how does Hamas incite violence? Increasingly they’re using social media. In fact, the call for a “day of rage” prior to the two recent attacks came via the official Hamas Twitter accounts.

Most are shocked to learn that Hamas is allowed to use Twitter to advance their deadly agenda. After all, Hamas is a recognized terrorist entity in many jurisdictions, including Canada, the United States, the European Union, and Israel. And, quite rightly, other terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda and ISIS, have been booted off the fourth-largest social media platform in the world.

But, when it comes to Hamas, Twitter has refused to act. This is somewhat confusing, considering the company’s own rules were updated in December to explicitly reference promotion of terrorism as unwelcome on the platform.

If Hamas’ status as a terrorist entity isn’t enough to be banned, surely their use of the platform to incite violence should be. But, despite more than two million impressions of the #GetHamasOffTwitter hashtag, Twitter has remained silent.

So, what’s to be done about this deadly problem? Well, experience has taught us that Twitter responds to public pressure. They’re quick to shut down hate speech when it goes viral – because they know it reflects poorly on them: following intervention from concerned citizens, the company stepped up to purge more than 300,000 accounts that supported the Islamic State.

We must keep up the pressure. You can join thousands of concerned members of the Jewish and pro-Israel community and do two things right now:
1. Add your name to a letter to Twitter at cija.ca/HamasTwitter
2. Tweet using the #GetHamasOffTwitter hashtag.

It’s only natural that we humans make sense of the world by placing things into categories. Action movies vs. comedies. The “Fruits and Vegetables food group vs. “Breads and Cereals.” Conservative vs. liberal.

Mental shortcuts that help us streamline our thinking are called “heuristics,” and while they can be an asset when trying to figure out the new and unexpected, they can also be a source of vulnerability, creating openings for those who understand heuristics to manipulate us.

Often such manipulation is innocent. For example, the “Four Food Groups” of my youth referenced in the first paragraph has been replaced by different structures over time, such as the “Food Pyramid” or “My Plate.” All of these were designed to accomplish a public good (getting Americans to eat a healthy, balanced diet) by tapping into the general human desire to make complex information simple through easy-to-grasp categorization.

More sinister manipulation takes place when communication, particularly political communication, takes advantage of heuristics-driven vulnerabilities in our mental makeup.

For example, the common practice of defining your opponent in a political campaign (by endlessly repeating he or she is a plutocrat or elitist – regardless of the subject allegedly being discussed) is an effort to get the public to make the quick and permanent association between the opposing candidate and the adjective chosen to define them (plutocrat, elitist, etc.). For once such an association is in place, appeals to understand the defined candidate as a complex human being become nearly impossible.

Similarly, an accusation that aligns with intuition (ideally delivered via a catchy slogan) is an easy way to get people to believe a crisis or problem exists, without having to do any research (or thinking) on their own. What is the scope and nature of America’s current problems vis-à-vis immigration, race relations and sexual harassment, for example? No need to think about the details if we simply embrace the #MAGA, #BlackLivesMatter or #MeToo hashtags thoughtfully provided to us by people we have never met.

In the realm of BDS, the most well-known example of manipulative, heuristics-based politics is the “Apartheid” slur which anti-Israel activists pepper spray at audiences, regardless of what topic is being debated. Some have even gone so far as to replace “Israel” (already in scare quotes) with “Apartheid Israel” in written communication. The point of such efforts is clear: to cement the idea that Israel is the successor to Apartheid South Africa in people’s minds to the point where no amount of factual information can shake that notion loose.

While there is always a certain contempt for the audience built into political activism based on simplification and manipulation, the communication accompanying last weekend’s clashes at the Gaza border raises this contempt to the level of a dare.

There has always been a certain amount of objective reality Israel-haters insist their allies reject, from the Jenin “massacre” that never was, to the notion that Israel deliberately targets civilians whenever Hamas or Hezbollah decide to heat up a border. But the storyline that poured forth from Hamas’ news sources, amplified by that organization’s Amen Corner in the West (that the clash was a peaceful protest fired upon indiscriminately by brutal Israeli soldiers), is so divorced from the information and images before our eyes that it can only be seen as testimony to the contempt Hamas has for not just the public, but for their own supporters.

For example, what would make an organization scream that everyone killed at the border was an innocent civilian, while also proudly announcing the death of martyrs associated with terrorist groups (along with photos of those martyrs clad in camo)?

To a certain extent, such behavior assumes propaganda storylines developed during previous clashes (ones featuring Israeli brutality visited exclusively upon Palestinian innocents) will take hold immediately once new violence breaks out. But it also assumes the public to be made up of unbelievably ignorant suckers, as well as assuming full ownership over the minds of friends and allies who are being asked to scream at the top of their lungs that 2 + 2 = 5.

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From The Toronto Sun:

All Munk School of global affairs graduate student Ari Blaff wanted to do last December was to meet a few professors over coffee to discuss pursuing a PhD with a focus on Middle Eastern studies.

The 24-year-old says he e-mailed a variety of University of Toronto (U of T) professors that specialize in that area and got receptive responses — except for the one from Jens Hanssen.

Hanssen, an associate professor of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, replied almost immediately with a scathing e-mail accusing Blaff of being an agent of the Israeli government.

He claimed that Blaff, a former Hasbara fellow, was sent to the U of T campus by the new Israeli ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy to indoctrinate students, professors and administrators into thinking anti-Israel activities are a bad thing.

“It was a little out there,” Blaff said of Hanssen’s response. “I never had accusations on paper like that.”

I wish I could say this was all a bad joke.

Jens Hanssen

However in Hanssen’s e-mail response to Blaff, he contends that Hasbara fellows are “Israeli advocacy activists” working on behalf of the ministry on a “new offensive against Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists” on campus.

BDS is a worldwide movement — which has found a home on many university campuses — that tries to delegitimize the Jewish state by pressuring artists not to perform in Israel and forcing boycotts of Israeli products, such as has been done with Ahava and SodaStream products here in Toronto.

As Robert Walker, Canadian Director of Hasbara Fellowships (a pro-Israel campus advocacy organization) notes, the “real danger” of the BDS movement is its attempt to demonize Israel and “anyone connected with Israel” — while having no interest in improving the lives of Palestinians.

“Our mandate is to empower pro-Israel students so they may tell the truth about Israel on campus and combat the senseless misinformation peddled by BDS activists,” Walker added.

The UofT professor, who has had a long history with the BDS and Israel apartheid movements on campus and off, even contended that a special “Hasbara handbook” has directed Blaff and other fellows on how to approach people on campus and “convince them that legitimate, non-violent criticism of the state of Israel amounts to discrimination against Jews everywhere.”

“You (sic) instructed to conflate Judaism and Zionism and are encouraged to give the impression that such criticism constitutes anti-Semitism,” he wrote.

Hanssen closed off his e-mail by adamantly refusing to meet the young man on “ethical and academic grounds.”

“I was shocked,” Blaff said. “If you were a first-year (pro-Israel or Jewish) university student speaking in his class or writing an essay I don’t think you’d get fair treatment … so this has broader implications.”

After being encouraged by friends, he filed a formal complaint with the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

I tried over several days to reach Hanssen for comment by e-mail and by phone. He did not respond to my numerous requests.

Hanssen teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on settler colonialism in Palestine; International Relations, counter-insurgency and decolonization in the Middle East; and urban colonialism in the modern Mediterranean.

I'm more troubled that "settler colonialism in Palestine" is considered a topic for college courses. The entire title is anti-Israel propaganda, not scholarship.

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04/02 Links Pt1: Myths and Facts: Gaza’s Deadly “Protests”; Fatah: "My rifle's fire is the death of the enemies and music to my ears"; US SC throws out $655m. terrorism ruling against PA

From Ian:

Honest Reporting: Myths and Facts: Gaza’s Deadly “Protests”

During the Passover weekend, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached the border with Israel and carried out a variety of violent activities in what they call the “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.”

We’ve seen quite a bit of mishandled coverage, so here are the main myths and facts so you can better understand the situation and also speak up when you see inaccurate or biased media.

Myth: This is a non-violent “protest” or a “march.”
Fact: It is none of the above.

Despite its official name, which has been widely repeated by the media, this is not a “protest” nor a “march” by any commonsense or dictionary understanding of the words.

Picturing something like a picket parade on Capitol Hill? Think again. From the beginning we saw significant violence which would not be tolerated by any country.

According to the IDF and multiple videos, the violence began with burning tires, slinging rocks, throwing molotov cocktails and other varieties of firebombs. The correct word for this type of activity is a “riot.”

The violence quickly escalated to live gunfire on the IDF. Firing on a country’s army is typically called an “act of war.”

Under the cover of live fire and the smokescreen from burning tires, armed terror organizations were attempting to breach the border and cross into Israel with weapons. That is called an “attempted infiltration.”

For proper context, it is tremendously important to imagine how the United States or any European state might respond to such violence on its borders, or direct gunfire on its army.

Terminology matters, and journalists should call these events what they are. The all too common headline, “Israeli forces kill 16 Palestinians in border protests,” communicates a very different understanding than the more accurate, “…killed in attempted infiltration of Israel,” or “…in confrontation with Israeli army.”

Myth: Israel is shooting innocent civilians.

Fact: Of the estimated 30,000 people present, as of this time of writing, 17 have been confirmed dead. Of those, at least 10 are confirmed as active fighters of Hamas, Global Jihad, or the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, all designated as terror organizations by the United States, the European Union, and others. (All 17 have been confirmed as young men of military age).

PMW: Fatah: "My rifle's fire is the death of the enemies and music to my ears"

Abbas to the UN: "We have been committed to fostering a culture of peace, rejection of violence"

Contradicting PA Chairman Abbas' assurances to international audiences that Palestinians want peace, his Fatah Movement continues to promote violence and terror as Palestinian ideals.

Fatah's Bethlehem branch posted the image above of two men wearing Arab headdresses shooting a machine gun as two Israeli aircraft explode in mid-air, with accompanying text rejoicing over "the death of the enemies":

Posted text: "Fatah was here"
Text on image: "O Fatah, this is my rifle in my hand hugging my ribs, and its fire is the death of the enemies and music to my ears"
[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Bethlehem Branch, March 22, 2018]

The violent essence of this post, like others Palestinian Media Watch has exposed, contradicts Abbas' recent assurances to the UN:
"Our conviction is deep and our position is clear regarding the use of arms of any kind. We... are also opposed to conventional weapons, which have caused such vast destruction of States in our region and around the world. We have thus been committed to fostering a culture of peace, rejection of violence..."
[PA Chairman Abbas' speech at the UN Security Council, Feb. 20, 2018, Times of Israel, Feb. 21. 2018]

Commenting on Abbas' speech, Palestinian political analyst Hani Abu Zaid recently stated on official PA TV that he believes Abbas' Fatah Movement will return to "armed struggle" - the PA's euphemism for violence and terror - unless the international peace conference Abbas called for is held:

Trump and the Fading Ghost of an Illusion

They believe they have three trump cards to play.

The first is that Iran has a demographic reserve of some 20 million people of "fighting age" and is thus capable of sustaining levels of casualties unthinkable for Americans. The second is that Iran is already the missile superpower of the Middle East and could target all of Washington's allies in the region.

Iran's third trump card is its nuclear program. Without it, the other two cards will not have the desired effect, especially if the US unleashes its new generation of low-grade nuclear weapons designed for battlefield use.

The real issue, as far as US and its allies are concerned, is that the regime in Iran has been, is and most likely will remain, a threat with or without nuclear weapons.

Iran did not seize the US diplomats as hostages with nuclear weapons; nor did it massacre 241 US Marines in Beirut with an atomic bomb. The mischief that Iran is making in Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain is not backed by nuclear power either.

So the real question is: How to deal with a maverick power that has built its strategy on fomenting discord and instability not only in the Middle East but anywhere else it gets a chance?

Washington hawks, among them Bolton perhaps, believe that the only realistic policy towards Iran is one of regime change before the Khomeinists build their nuclear arsenal. They believe that could be achieved with a mixture of military and diplomatic pressure, combined with moral and material support for a pro-democracy movement in Iran.

The Europeans, however, fear that any attempt even at soft regime-change may push the Khomeinists on the offensive in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, the Caucasus, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories.

Could a realistic policy be developed through a sober assessment of both positions? If yes, that would requires far more sophistication than the "to waiver or not to waiver" debate over what is; in fact; the fading ghost of an accord wrought from dangerous illusions.

From Times of Israel:

A new British organization has created an incredible tool that should fascinate anyone remotely interested in European Jewish culture: an interactive map of all of the Continent’s 3,318 remaining synagogues.

The map catalogs the European synagogue buildings that are still standing — but less than a quarter of those are actually used as synagogues today.

For instance, one synagogue on the map in Poznan, Poland, today houses a swimming pool. Another in Krakow, Poland, is a bar.

But the map includes filters that allow readers to see which are still used as synagogues and which have been converted into a range of other things. A “present usage” drop down menu contains nearly three dozen different categories, ranging from “Bakery” to “Mosque” to “Sikh Gurdwara.”

Readers can also filter the synagogues by country. For example, they can isolate all of the historical synagogue buildings in Germany, then hit a filter and see which of those are actually being used as synagogues by German Jews.

That gap between then and now is particularly revealing in a country like Spain, which expelled all of its Jews during the Inquisition in the 15th century.

Readers can click on each individual synagogue and learn about the characteristics of each building, from the year it was built to its construction material.

The map was created by the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, which was registered in the United Kingdom in 2015 and aims to help preserve and restore endangered European synagogues. The organization commissioned the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to carry out the project ahead of the foundation’s launch. It took a year and a half to complete.

Beyond providing researchers a first-time continental overview, it also aims to serve as a reference point for philanthropists, said the foundation’s chief executive, Michael Mail. The foundation identified some 160 synagogues in imminent risk of being ruined beyond the point of restoration.

“It allows for restoration efforts to become strategic,” Mail told JTA. “Donors can see where they are most needed.”

On the eve of World War II, Europe had some 17,000 synagogues. According to the foundation’s database, fewer than 850 remain throughout the continent and in Russia, which is included in the map.

“We are quite simply losing our history,” said Mail, who is also a novelist.

You can spend hours browsing the site and searching by criteria like which traditions the synagogues used for prayer. There is a decrepit abandoned synagogue in Azerbaijan that was built for converts to Judaism!

(h/t Yerushalimey)

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Photos of some of the "innocent civilians" in Gaza

Here are photos of some of the "civilians" killed in Gaza on Friday, as their deaths were condemned by the EU and France.

Musab al-Saloul (Hamas)

Jihad Ahmed Farina, Hamas field commander

Ahmed Ibrahim Abu Odeh (Hamas)

Sari Abu Walid Oudeh (Hamas)

Mohammed Abu Naeem Amr (Hamas)

Jihad Zuhair Abu Jamous Najjar (Al Aqsa Brigades)

Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades Fares al Raqab

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Who is the human shield for whom? Pallywood strikes again

From the Palestine Info Center:

Forming a human shield, young Palestinian protesters protect young girl against Israeli snipers targeting peaceful protesters in besieged Gaza.

#GreatReturnMarch

Here's an example where the caption is Pallywood.

Given that every fatality during the violent riots at the Gaza border was a military-age male, the idea that these men are protecting the woman is quite far fetched. On the contrary - if anything, they are using the woman to shield themselves!

The other photos in the series show that there is no danger anyway, as the group passes by other people having what appears to be a picnic who have no fear of Israeli snipers whatsoever.

(h/t Andrew Pessin)

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04/01 Links: At least 10 of the 15 killed at Gaza border were terrorists; Netanyahu Fires Back: 'Who is Turkey calling an occupier?'

From Ian:

As IDF Thwarts Gun Attack on Gaza Border, Israel Warns That Palestinian ‘Return’ Protests Are ‘Cover for Terror’

The IDF warned on Friday that the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas was attempting to manipulate violent protests by Palestinians along Gaza’s border with Israel as a cover for terrorist attacks.

A spokesperson for the IDF said that earlier on Friday — as Israelis prepared for the Passover holiday — Israeli troops thwarted a gun attack by a terrorist cell in the northern Gaza Strip.

“During the attack, two terrorists approached the security fence and fired towards IDF troops,” the spokesperson said.

“In response, IDF troops immediately fired according to the rules of engagement, targeting the terrorists as well as three nearby terror sites belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization with tank fire and IAF fighter jets. No injuries were reported and no damage was caused,” the IDF spokesperson continued.

The attempted terrorist attack came at the close of a day of violent clashes between Palestinians — many of whom were carrying improvised weapons — and the IDF. Twelve Palestinians were killed in the exchanges.

Friday’s “March of Return” protest was held to coincide with “Land Day” — an annual protest advocating the “right of return” for the descendants of the Arab refugees of the 1948 War of Independence. Approximately 750,000 Arabs were displaced in that war, following the Arab League’s rejection of a UN proposal to divide British Mandatory Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.

According to Gaza officials, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered at five locations along the 65-kilometer (40-mile) border with Israel on Friday. The Israeli military estimate was 30,000.

IDF: At least 10 of the 15 killed at Gaza border were members of terror groups

The Israeli military on Saturday night identified 10 of the 15 people reported killed during violent protests along the Gaza security fence as members of Palestinian terrorist groups, and published a list of their names and positions in the organizations.

On Friday, some 30,000 Palestinians took part in demonstrations along the Gaza border, during which rioters threw rocks and firebombs at Israeli troops on the other side of the fence, burned tires and scrap wood, sought to breach and damage the security fence, and in one case opened fire at Israeli soldiers.

The army said that its sharpshooters targeted only those taking explicit violent action against Israeli troops or trying to break through or damage the security fence. Video footage showed that in one case a rioter, whom the army included in its list of Hamas members, appeared to be shot while running away from the border. The army in response accused Hamas of editing and/or fabricating its videos.

According to the Israel Defense Forces (Arabic link), eight of the men killed were members of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. One served in the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and another was affiliated with “global jihad,” it said, apparently referring to one of the Salafist groups in Gaza.

Earlier on Saturday, Hamas publicly acknowledged that five members of its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, were among the fatalities.

03/30 Links: 12 Gazans said killed, in clashes at massive border protest; Glick: Western Media Are Hamas's Partners in the War Against Israel; Phillips: Corbyn isn’t the cause of Labour’s antisemitism – he’s its product

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Western Media Are Hamas's Partners in the War Against Israel

On Friday, the Palestinian terror group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is inaugurating what it is calling “The March of Return.”

According to Hamas’s leadership, the “March of Return” is scheduled to run from March 30 – the eve of Passover — through May 15, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s establishment. According to Israeli media reports, Hamas has budgeted $10 million for the operation.

Throughout the “March of Return,” Hamas intends to send thousands of civilians to the Israeli border. Hamas is planning to set up tent camps along the border fence and then, presumably, order participants to overrun it on May 15. The Palestinians refer to May 15 as “Nakba,” or Catastrophe Day.

The first question that observers of this spectacle need to ask themselves is whether Hamas believes that it will be able to overrun Israel.

The obvious answer is, of course it doesn’t.

So this brings us to the second question.

If Hamas doesn’t expect its civilians to overrun Israel, what is it trying to accomplish by sending them into harm’s way? Why it the terror group telling Gaza residents to place themselves in front of the border fence and challenge Israeli security forces charged with defending Israel?

The answer here is also obvious. Hamas intends to provoke Israel to shoot at the Palestinian civilians it is sending to the border. It is setting its people up to die because it expects their deaths to be captured live by the cameras of the Western media, which will be on hand to watch the spectacle.

In other words, Hamas’s strategy of harming Israel by forcing its soldiers to kill Palestinians is predicated on its certainty that the Western media will act as its partner and ensure the success of its lethal propaganda stunt.

Given widespread assessments that Iran is keen to start a new round of war between Israel and its terror proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, it is possible that Hamas intends for this lethal propaganda stunt to be the initial stage of a larger war. By this assessment, Hamas is using the border operation to cultivate and escalate Western hostility against Israel ahead of a larger shooting war.

Evelyn Gordon: Use UNRWA’s financial crisis to end its shameful apartheid system

The status quo is also bad for Israel—and not just because of the anti-Israel incitement taught in UNRWA schools and Palestinians’ use of UNRWA facilities as weapons depots. By denying Palestinians the ability to assimilate into Jordan and the P.A., UNRWA effectively tells them that “returning” to Israel is their only hope of escaping refugee status. Nurturing such fantasies of mass relocation merely perpetuates the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; peace is obviously impossible if Palestinians condition it on turning Israel into a Palestinian-majority state.

Yet the status quo is even worse for millions of Palestinian “refugees,” who are forced into dead-end lives with no hope of ever integrating into the places they should be able to call home.

Admittedly, there’s no guarantee that UNRWA will implement constructive reforms; it might instead slash essential services to blackmail the world into coughing up more money. But even in this worst-case scenario, at least America will no longer be propping up UNRWA’s shameful apartheid system and its perpetuation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. If European or Arab countries want this abomination to continue, let their taxpayers fund it.

There’s also a risk that even constructive reforms could produce enough short-term pain to provoke violence. But Israelis understand that sometimes, you have to do what’s right, even if it comes with a price. That’s why, in a poll published just last week, 69 percent of Jewish Israelis said the U.S. Embassy should move to Jerusalem in May as planned, despite the fact that most believed the move would spark violence.

UNRWA reform is no less critical. And after 70 years of stasis, it’s clear nothing short of a financial crisis has any chance of bringing it about.

Melanie Phillips: Corbyn isn’t the cause of Labour’s antisemitism – he’s its product

This lie embodies the deeper calumny that the Jews falsify history to serve their own interests by oppressing and dominating another people. The “dispossession” lie thus leads directly to the deranged and paranoid conspiracy theories about the Jews with which the left is now riddled.

For this view of Israel is their default position and championing the Palestinian cause is their signature motif. And that means these British “progressives” all support Palestinians who pump out Nazi-style antisemitism, incite the mass murder of Jews and are led by a Holocaust denier, Mahmoud Abbas, who venerates the Arab Nazi ally Haj Amin al-Husseini.

Why then are these Labour “moderates” shocked when Corbyn’s friends spew out identical bigotry against the Jews? The Left thinks it embodies virtue itself and so it is impossible for it to be viciously bigoted toward Jews. But it is.

Corbyn may be an extreme ultra-leftist with the most extreme anti-Israel baggage, but he is not the cause of Labour’s antisemitism.

He is its product.

The Left embraced antisemitism when it embraced Palestinianism. And that’s without factoring in the Muslim voting bloc which is becoming ever more significant for British politics and for the Labour Party in particular, and which is infused with hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.

The antisemitism in Labour’s ranks is an existential crisis not just for the party but for the Left as a whole.

It is a delusion to imagine that purging the most demented antisemites will make the Labour Party safe again for Britain’s Jewish community. It’s not just Jeremy Corbyn who poses such a threat. It’s the party itself and the left wing culture it embodies.

The Conservative Party may be in power in Britain, but the Left controls the universities, the BBC and the artistic and cultural world. It is Britain itself that’s no longer safe for Jews.

Melanie Phillips: OPEN AND SHUT CASE

An open letter backed by more than 2,000 supporters of Jeremy Corbyn has claimed that the Jewish community’s protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party was the work of a “very powerful special interest group”, the Independent reports.

Some 2000 people turned up at Monday’s demonstration. There are around 65 million people in the UK. The Jewish community numbers about 270,000. There are an estimated 2.8 million British Muslims.

The letter says the organisers of the demonstration had mobilised its “immense strength” to “employ the full might of the BBC” in order to launch an “onslaught” against the Labour leader. It also says the organisers sought to use their “history” and ”influence” to “dictate who the rest of us can vote for or how we vote”.

So 2000 people said that those falsely accusing Jeremy Corbyn of facilitating deranged claims that the Jews were an all-powerful and malign conspiracy manipulating events to serve their own interests were an all-powerful and malign Jewish conspiracy manipulating events to serve their own interests.

I think that is what is called an own goal.

Chag sameach!

Wishing all my Jewish readers a chag kosher v'sameach, a wonderful Passover.

I will resume blogging iy"h on Sunday night or Monday morning.

And wishing my Christian readers a happy Easter.

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.

Jordan-Israel diplomatic crisis seems resolved

From Arab News:

Jordan has accepted Israel’s choice of a new ambassador for the kingdom, another sign of improving ties after a months-long crisis.
Government spokesman Mohammed Momani said on Thursday that the envoy, Amir Weissbrod, “can start his mission any time now.”
The posting of a new Israeli ambassador would end one of the tensest episodes since the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1994.
It began last summer when a security guard at the Israeli embassy in Jordan shot and killed two Jordanians, alleging one attacked him with a screw driver. The Israeli guard and Israel’s then-ambassador were given a hero’s welcome by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, infuriating Jordan.
Earlier this year, the two sides said they found a way to overcome the crisis, including appointing a new Israeli ambassador.

There's populist anger and there's reality.

The anger gets the media attention, but the reality - where cooler heads usually prevail - is downplayed.

The Arab nations aren't implacably opposed to Israel any more. On the contrary, they are looking for ways to work together. This is a remarkable achievement for Israel on the eve of its 70th anniversary.

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PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat stated yesterday that paying terrorists were an obligation under international law.

And it isn't the PLO that should pay them - but Israel!

However, if Israel refuses to pay the terrorists, then the Palestinians must pick up the slack.

Yes, he really said this.

“Palestine pays a financial price for the occupation because Israel refuses to uphold its international obligations regarding prisoners. We will not abandon our prisoners. We consider this a moral and legal obligation enshrined by Article 81 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. While Israel will not make these payments, as required by international humanitarian law, Palestine will provide for the families through the Palestinian social welfare system – as any other nation worldwide provides for the maintenance of their citizens.”

OK, let's look at Article 81 of the Fourth Geneva Convention:

Art. 81. Parties to the conflict who intern protected persons shall be bound to provide free of charge for their maintenance, and to grant them also the medical attention required by their state of health.

No deduction from the allowances, salaries or credits due to the internees shall be made for the repayment of these costs.

The Detaining Power shall provide for the support of those dependent on the internees, if such dependents are without adequate means of support or are unable to earn a living.

This is not about prisoners. It is about people who are internment camps for whatever (security) reason the occupying power decides to place them there. The Conventions make this clear, as it talks about entire families should be kept together in internment. it distinguishes between internment and imprisonment, which is what happens after conviction for crimes.

Beyond that, the Palestinians are obviously not paying the prisoners and their families a normal social security expense, but an additional salary based purely on their status as terrorists, on a sliding scale based on how heinous their acts were.

As usual, Erekat is a liar. But he knows that paying terrorists looks very bad for the PLO, and he wants to throw as much dust on the concept as he can.

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