Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 05, 2018

06/05 Links Pt1: Plot to assassinate PM, Jerusalem mayor thwarted; Hamas Is Trading In Palestinian Blood To Serve Iran's Interests; IDF: Gazan medic shot dead last week was not deliberately targeted

From Ian:

Shin Bet says it thwarted plot to assassinate prime minister, Jerusalem mayor

Israeli forces arrested an East Jerusalem man suspected of planning to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat earlier this year, on orders from a Syria-based terrorist group, the Shin Bet security service revealed on Tuesday.

The main suspect, 30-year-old Arab Israeli Muhammad Jamal Rashdeh, was arrested on April 24. Two more suspects were arrested in the following weeks, the Shin Bet said. The security service refused to identify the two suspected accomplices.

Indictments were filed against the three on May 27, but the case was kept under a court-issued gag order until Tuesday.

Later on Tuesday, the Israel Police released footage (above) of Rashdeh’s arrest from the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem where he lived.

“Working on orders from terrorist operatives abroad, Muhammad planned to carry out a number of significant terror attacks against a variety of targets,” the security service said.

The targets included Netanyahu and Barkat, as well as buildings belonging to the US consulate in Jerusalem (which has since been converted into an embassy) and a delegation of Canadian security officials who were in Jerusalem to train Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank, the Shin Bet said.

Watch: Arrest of terrorist who planned to assassinate Netanyahu

The police released a video documenting the arrest of the terrorist cell which planned to assassinate Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat Tuesday.

The arrest was carried out by the Border Police.

According to an indictment filed on Sunday against three terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the terror cell had targeted Israel’s Prime Minister and the mayor of Israel's capital.

The terrorists suspected in the plot included Muhammed Jamal Rashda, a 30-year-old resident of Shuafat in eastern Jerusalem who previously served jail time for other terror-related activities.

According to the indictment, Rashda was the mastermind behind the assassination plots which were revealed Tuesday. Rashda also reportedly coordinated his plans with terrorists operating abroad, including a terrorist in Syria.

MEMRI: Arab Writers: Hamas Is Responsible For Return March Fatalities, Is Trading In Palestinian Blood To Serve Iran's Interests; It Must Relinquish Power In Gaza

The death of over 100 Palestinians in the Hamas-organized Return March protests, in which thousands of Gazans marched on the Israeli border with the aim of crossing it,[1] evoked many expressions of support for the Palestinians and condemnation of Israel – but at the same time also triggered a wave of criticism against Hamas. The criticism reached its height following the events of May 14, 2018, the day of the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, which saw mass protests on the Gaza border in which over 60 Palestinians were killed.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) finds itself in a difficult position vis-à-vis the Return March events. On the one hand, in light of the deep crisis in its relations with Hamas, it does not wish to legitimize this movement's actions. But at the same time it does not wish to oppose the Return March, which expresses the Palestinian consensus regarding the legitimacy of the right of return. As a result, its position on the events has been ambiguous and inconsistent, as was manifest in the PA press, which published articles supporting the march alongside articles sharply critical of Hamas.

For example, an editorial in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida condemned Hamas for backing the Return March protests that resulted in numerous victims. Similarly, an advisor to the PA president claimed that Hamas is trading on the blood of Gazans and sending children to their deaths.

Criticism of Hamas was also voiced by Arab writers and intellectuals known for their opposition of the pro-Iranian camp, to which Hamas belongs. These writers claimed that Hamas was capitulating to Iranian dictates instead of improving the standard of living in Gaza, and that it was using the fatalities to gain political advantage. They also accused Hamas of using terror against the Gazans and sending children to their deaths while its own leaders were living in luxury. Another claim was that Hamas strives to perpetuate the siege and misses every opportunity to turn Gaza into the nucleus of a Palestinian state, and that advancing the peace process therefore requires removing Hamas from power.

J Street seems to have a habit of hurting Israel in the pursuit of its own agenda.

J Street Support for BDS

An article came out Monday in The Washington Free Beacon detailing how J Street Chapters Aiding BDS Campaigns on Campuses. While it is true that the deputy director of J Street U, Catie Stewart, claims that the organization does not support neither "Apartheid Week" nor BDS campaigns on college campuses, there are indications that J Street hedges on their position and do not necessarily oppose BDS per se:

o In response to a BDS referendum at the University of Minnesota in March, a pro-Israel coalition launched a campaign in opposition. J Street U released a statement opposing the referendum not because it was anti-Israel, but because "this resolution and others like it only serve to empower the Israeli far-right" and that you cannot "effectively oppose BDS without also actively opposing the occupation that fuels it." The BDS referendum passed at UMN in March.

o When a BDS resolution was proposed at Columbia University/Barnard, J Street U posted a statement, since revised, stating that it "opposes the International BDS Movement." But then it went on to decry "the conflation of anti-occupation with anti-Israel," accusing anti-BDS campaigns as being "government funded attacks" targeting "anti-occupation groups, like the New Israel Fund, B'tselem, and Breaking the Silence" while pretending to deal with "the handful of hardline anti-Israel activists." The Barnard BDS resolution passed.

o When a BDS resolution was brought up at George Washington University in April, the J Street U there did not oppose BDS per se, instead again used the familiar theme that "BDS legislation provides Israel's far-right government with the talking points they use to justify their fear-mongering tactics" and insisted that "one can be pro-BDS and not anti-Semitic." The BDS resolution at GW passed.

This disregard for Israeli seems to be part of a pattern.

J Street Support for The Iran Deal

o In 2009, long before there ever was an Iran Deal, Jeremy Ben-Ami, president and founder of J Street, co-wrote an article, How Diplomacy with Iran Can Succeed with Trita Parsi, president of National Iranian American Council (NIAC)
o  A US District Court found that the work of NIAC president and founder Tritra Parsi was "not inconsistent with the idea that he was first and foremost an advocate for the [Iran] regime."
o  J Street was paid $576 million by Soros' Ploughshares Fund to advocate on behalf of the Iran Deal
o In the months leading up to the Iran Deal, Ben-Ami was a frequent visitor to the White House, where he met with Ben Rhodes and with Morton Halperin, the Senior Advisor for the George Soros' Open Society Institute.
o  J Street put up a website defending the Iran Deal without any hesitation about possible consequences or dangers for Israel

Jeremy Ben-Ami. Credit: Joe Mabel

J Street Support for Democrats Only

Last month, I wrote about Judging J-Street By The Candidates They Support, that J Street consistently supports Democratic candidates over Republican ones -- as if they were the only ones who supported Israel. This was true in 2010 through 2016.
I just found a list from 2008 in a J Street report

There actually are Republican candidates listed here: 2 out of 41.
One of them, Representative Charles Boustany, voted against a Congressional resolution to neither endorse nor consider the Goldstone Report. But on the other hand, in 2009 Boustany distanced himself from J Street, writing:

Unfortunately, within a few years of J Street’s establishment, I came to the realization that I had been deliberately misled and in a one instance lied to by the senior leadership of the organization. I refuse to work with any group that conducts itself in this manner.

According to his spokesman Paul Coussan, Boustany was put off by J Street lying about the money it received from George Soros.

Geoff Davis, the other Republican backed by J Street, was supposed to appear on a panel at a J Street Conference but did not show up.

At the same time, it was reported that a number of other Congressmen also distanced themselves from J Street:

The names of Reps. John Salazar (CO-03) and Ed Towns (NY-10) have been scrubbed from the list of congressmen serving on the host committee for J Street's inaugural conference. That brings to ten the number of congressmen, Republicans and Democrats, senators and representatives, who have bailed on J Street after learning that, contrary to their promotional materials, they are not a pro-Israel group...

o Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
o Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
o Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
o Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)
o Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE)
o Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR)
o Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX)
o Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
o Rep. John Salazar (D-CO)
o Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY)

Since then, J Street has had the last laugh, gaining in legitimacy. But the fact remains that it has done so by openly declaring itself the "blocking back" for Obama and aligning itself with policies and groups that do not act in Israel's best interest, and by limiting itself to supporting only Democrats.

J Street Support for The Goldstone Report

o I've noted in earlier posts that Jeremy Ben-Ami claimed that J Street was "refusing to embrace" the Goldstone Report.
o In fact, Mort Halperin on the J Street advisory council also wrote the letter that Goldstone circulated as his own on Capitol Hill last year, defending his anti-Israel report against a House resolution condemning it. This is the same Halperin, mentioned above, who was the Senior Advisor for the George Soros' Open Society Institute.
o J Street went so far as to facilitate visits for Goldstone to the Hill. Ben Ami said Goldstone met only 2 or 3 Congressmen; Goldstone said it was 10 or 12.

As a side note, in the same October 2009 interview with Jeffrey Goldberg for Atlantic Magazine where Ben-Ami claimed not to support the Goldstone Report, he also referred to "Jewish Voice for Peace and other groups that are consistently upset with us for backing Howard Berman's [Iran] sanctions plan." [emphasis added]

Earlier, in May of that year, J Street came out with a press release, praising Berman for supporting Obama's plan to pursue a diplomatic solution with Iran: "As Chairman Berman stated, the Administration should be given reasonable time to pursue serious and tough diplomacy with Iran." Seeing that J Street was already aligning themselves with NIAC, one has to wonder just how tough J Street thought that diplomacy should be.

Where Is All This Leading?

In a recent article, Caroline Glick notes the growing influence of identity politics in the Democratic Party, and what it means for Israel:

Obama advanced policies and positions that empowered the radicals at the expense of the moderates.
Obama’s hostility towards Israel, his repeated intimations that Israel is a colonialist outpost while the Palestinians are the indigenous people of the land of Israel were part and parcel of his across-the-board effort to enable the radical Left to take over the party. Obama’s efforts laid the groundwork for socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’ surprisingly strong challenge to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the party’s presidential primaries. It also set the stage for the rise of radical leaders like Congressman Keith Ellison and Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the post-Obama Democratic party.

The left wing of the Democratic Party is clearly gaining influence, and J Street is part of that.
But to the degree that it has backed Obama, and continues to support how he framed the Middle East, J Street undermines Israel.

J Street's refusal to condemn BDS, except as a tool in the hands of the "right-wing"; its association with the likes of Soros and NIAC in supporting the Iran Deal; J Street's backing only for Democrats; its support for the clearly one-sided Goldstone Report and most recently J Street's support of the narrative of the "Great March of Return -- these positions do nothing to support Israel.

There are many ways to support Israel, and no one says you cannot criticize it -- but the actions J Street takes demonize Israel and affect Israeli security.

In 2009, William Daroff, the Washington director of the Jewish Federations of North America told JTA that J Street was developing "better PR tactics", such as condemning Iran's Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust -- but:

these were easy calls. J Street, he said, has not yet defended Israel when it is unpopular to do so.

Don't hold your breath.

At the time, Daroff wondered aloud, "when and if the Obama administration shifts direction, would J Street still be relevant?”

J Street has proven that it is capable of staying relevant.

Just not relevant to the survival of Israel

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.

Is Razan Al-Najar the new Ibrahim Abu Thuraya?

it wasn't that long ago that Israel was falsely accused of killing double-amputee Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh, after months of hateful lies.

The evidence indicates that someone on the Gaza side killed him, with his knowledge, presumably because his becoming a "martyr" would help his family financially, as well as the fact that is would be a huge PR victory for Hamas against Israel.

The case of medic Razan al Najar sure sounds similar to me.

* Israel has no interest in killing a medic.

* Hamas has been chomping at the bit for Israel to kill a poster child civilian; they thought that the 8 month old baby they accused of dying from tear gas would fit the bill but reporters messed that story up by asking questions about what happened.

* The Gaza riots are primarily a PR exercise meant to focus the world on hating Israel. But the weekly riots have been bringing diminishing returns.

* Razan al Najar posted in Facebook her last message: “I am returning and not retreating. Hit me with your bullets. I am not afraid.”

* Najar did not attend the riots to provide medical aid to the injured. Her main purpose of attending was to join the protest.

* There are some serious discrepancies in the stories of how Najar died, even among "eyewitnesses" - discrepancies that simply could not exist from actual witnesses (like where she was shot.)

I don't know if she was killed by an errant IDF bullet or by a Hamas bullet that was meant to create a new symbol of martyrdom to energize the riots. But to me, both those scenarios are worth investigating. There is only one side with incentive to see Najar dead, and it certainly isn't Israel's.

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.

Samsung says Israel is in Europe, "Palestine" in the Middle East

Samsung has a webpage where you can choose what country you are in, divided up by region.

If you are in Israel and look for a Hebrew page by looking in the Middle East, you are out of luck. You'd have to search a little further down - into Europe.

Remarkably, Israel and "Palestine" are in completely different regions. Hebrew speakers of Israel apparently live in Europe while their Palestinian Arab neighbors are in the Middle East.

By itself, this isn't a big deal. But in the aggregate, the message being given by these sorts of things - UN regional memberships, sports leagues, and so forth - is that Israel doesn't belong in the Middle East.

It reinforces the Arab lie that Israel is a European colonialist outposts, not a nation in the Middle East that has more historical reason to exist there than any Arab nation in the Levant.

It reinforces the idea that Jews do not belong in the region, as every nation in the Middle East section is a Muslim-majority country.

It tells the world that "Palestine" exists and is where it is supposed to be, while Israel is somehow taking up space in Palestinian land.

A website isn't a big deal - but it is a big deal. It legitimizes the idea that Israel really should not exist in the historic home of the Jewish people.

(h/t AlexandreM)

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.

06/04 Links Pt2: When Democrats embrace an anti-Semite; J Street Chapters Aiding BDS Campaigns on Campuses; Swedish FM to PA Arabs: We will fight with you and for you

From Ian:

When Democrats embrace an anti-Semite

In both cases, Democrats have made a meal of this embarrassing situation, despite the fact that the GOP in both California and Illinois has condemned and disowned these candidates, who have no more chance of being elected to Congress than they have of flying to the moon.

But what’s going on in the Virginia district that just so happens to include Charlottesville is something very different.

The Democratic candidate for Congress in Virginia’s Fifth District is Leslie Cockburn, an author and film producer who is presenting herself to the voters as nothing more than an ardent liberal critic of Trump. But far from a garden-variety Democrat, Cockburn is a veteran left-wing propagandist with a troubling history of anti-Israel extremism.

Along with her husband, Andrew, Cockburn was the author of 1991 book Dangerous Liaisons: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship. The book was a compendium of conspiracy theories and smears that sought to depict Israel as manipulating U.S. foreign policy. The Cockburns weren’t content to feed the notion that Jews were the tail wagging the American dog to the detriment of American interests. Instead, they sought to blame Israel for a host of international problems, including South American drug cartels, Central American massacres and apartheid in South Africa.

As no less a critic of Israel than The New York Times noted in its review of the book at the time, it was dedicated to “Israel bashing for its own sake,” and that its message was that Israelis “are a menace” who are responsible for “everything that ails us.”

Women’s March Co-Founder Condemns Founding of Israel as ‘Human Rights Crime’

Women's March co-founder Tamika Mallory said during an event Friday that Israel committed a human rights crime in doing "whatever" it took to take land from Palestinians.

"This is not about stopping one side. This is about ensuring that the native people are able to enjoy the land. They shouldn’t have to ask anybody for their land. This is their land," Mallory said in remarks made via video at an event hosted by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Justice Delegation, and flagged by The Forward.

Mallory, who joined the group of lawyers and civil rights activists on a trip to the Holy Land last month, accused Israel of obtaining the land by force.

"When you go to someone’s home and you need a place to stay, you ask ‘Can I come into your home and can I stay here, and can we peacefully coexist?’ You don’t walk into someone else’s home, needing a place. It’s clear you needed a place to go – cool, we got that! I hear that!" Mallory began.

"But you don’t show up to somebody’s home, needing a place to stay, and decide that you’re going to throw them out and hurt the people who are on that land. And to kill, steal, and do whatever it is you’re gonna do to take that land! That to me is unfair. It’s a human rights crime," she added.

Memo to @TamikaMallory, Jews didn’t just need “a place to go” after the Holocaust, we had a right to our ancestral home & created a democracy w/full rights for all citizens. Your malevolence toward Jews is rivaled only by your complete ignorance of history https://t.co/uouEZ9ipsc
— AJC (@AJCGlobal) June 3, 2018

J Street Chapters Aiding BDS Campaigns on Campuses

Campus branches of the liberal group J Street have been helping anti-Israel activists gain support for student government resolutions calling for boycotts of Israel, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of BDS campaigns on college campuses during the recently concluded 2017-2018 school year.

At many schools where boycott and divestment campaigns have taken place, J Street chapters provided key assistance to BDS activists through statements, lobbying, and activism that fueled the anti-Israel climate on campus and reinforced accusations against Israel made by BDS groups. Despite J Street claims that the group is an important progressive opponent of BDS, at many schools J Street chapters did not oppose BDS campaigns and sat on the sidelines during contentious fights over student government divestment resolutions.

The revelations, compiled from Free Beacon interviews with campus activists and pro-Israel professionals who fought BDS resolutions this year, call into question the group's publicly claimed opposition to the BDS movement. Catie Stewart, deputy director of J Street U, recently boasted that her organization "does not support Israel Apartheid Week or BDS campaigns and joins anti-BDS coalitions." This year's campus fights suggest a different record.

At the University of Minnesota, where a BDS referendum succeeded in March, a pro-Israel coalition launched a campaign to oppose the vote. J Street U refused to participate in the effort, instead releasing a statement condemning the campus Hillel for being insufficiently anti-Israel. The president of J Street U at UMN, Imogen Page, is a donor to Jewish Voice for Peace, a BDS group that endorses terrorism and calls for Israel's destruction. Page was seen handing out anti-Israel flyers during the voting period of the referendum. Weeks later, she was arrested for disorderly conduct during an anti-Israel protest staged by a different BDS group.

Fatah tells Argentina soccer team that all of Israel is occupied

As I mentioned last week, Palestinians are very upset over an upcoming friendly soccer match between Israel's team and Argentina in Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem.

Fatah published a poster to shame the team into not coming:

As far as I know, the team was not planning any trips over the Green Line. Teddy Stadium is within the part of Jerusalem that Israel controlled before 1967 that Palestinians usually pretend in English to have no claim over.

This poster betrays the real opinions of the Palestinian ruling party - the "moderates" who supposedly are willing to compromise. To them, there is no Israel, and everything is

"occupied."

They are even willing to say this in English.

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.

06/04 Links Pt1: Why History Still Matters: The 1967 Six Day War; Amb. Friedman: If reporters can’t get Gaza story right, keep mouths shut; The Danger to Jordan of a Palestinian State

From Ian:

Why History Still Matters: The 1967 Six Day War

Today, there are those who wish to rewrite history.

They want the world to believe that there was once a Palestinian state. There was not.

They want the world to believe that there were fixed borders between that state and Israel. But there was only an armistice line between Israel and the Jordanian-controlled West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.

They want the world to believe that the 1967 war was a bellicose act by Israel. It was an act of self-defense in the face of blood-curdling threats to vanquish the Jewish state, not to mention the maritime blockade of the Straits of Tiran, the abrupt withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces, and the redeployment of Egyptian and Syrian troops.

All wars have consequences. This one was no exception. But the aggressors have failed to take responsibility for the actions they instigated. They want the world to believe that post-1967 Israeli settlement-building is the key obstacle to peacemaking.

But the Six Day War is proof positive that the core issue is and always has been whether the Palestinians and larger Arab world accept the Jewish people’s right to a state of their own. If so, all other contentious issues, however difficult, have possible solutions. But, alas, if not, then all bets are off.

These people want the world to believe that the Arab world had nothing against Jews per se, only Israel. Yet they trampled with abandon on sites of sacred meaning to the Jewish people. In other words, when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, dismissing the past simply won’t work.

Can history move forward? Absolutely. Israel’s peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994 prove this. At the same time, however, the lessons of the Six-Day War illustrate just how tough and tortuous the path can be, and are sobering reminders that, yes, history does matter.

‘Nakba,’ ‘Naksa’ … Nowhere

When it comes to the Palestinian “original sin” theory of Israel’s creation, there are two key milestones: the flight of approximately 750,000 Arab refugees during the 1948 War of Independence and the 1967 conquest of eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip during the Six Day War. The events of 1948 are known in Arabic as the nakba (“catastrophe”) and the events of 1967 are called the naksa (“setback”).

This week, with the 51st anniversary of the Six Day War upon us, Palestinians will mark “Naksa Day” on June 5 with protests and demonstrations — and it will be interesting to see whether any new wave of protests fizzles out in much the same way as those on the Israel-Gaza border in recent weeks, which were presented as a commemoration of the events of 1948. It will also be interesting to see whether Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and allied Islamist groups will use the occasion to fire another barrage of missiles at Israel.

It’s increasingly clear to everyone that neither of these strategies is working for the Palestinians. Compare the international reaction to Gaza in 2018 to that of summer 2014, when Israel took military action to end the daily missile launches from Gaza, and which the Palestinians similarly depicted as a total war designed to deliberately kill and maim civilians. Four years on, especially among European governments, there is much greater recognition that Hamas uses Gazans as human shields and far less lecturing Israeli leaders about the moral perils of a “disproportionate response.” As for the expected convulsion of international protests, there really hasn’t been one so far.

Instead, the Palestinians are confronted with a region that no longer places them front and center, as well as an impatient international community, less willing to indulge Palestinian tales of Israel’s inherent brutality. In her speech to the UN Security Council emergency meeting on the Palestinian missile attacks on Israel — called by the United States — US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley openly declared that the time had come for the Palestinians to consider alternative leadership that can adopt a peace strategy. Haley, significantly to my mind, made no distinction between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas rulers of Gaza, puncturing yet another prevailing myth that the former is dramatically more moderate than the latter.

PMW: Trump is “the copy of Hitler,” says official PA daily op-ed

Following the US veto of a UN resolution, which called for "international protection" for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over Israel's response to the violent March of Return riots, US President Trump was described as "the copy of Hitler" and a "racist" in an op-ed in the official Palestinian Authority daily:

"This racist [Trump], the copy of Hitler, does not want to see us free but rather dead, uprooted, expelled, and captive. He is happy to see us hungry, chasing the American sack of flour and leaving the principle of freedom thousands of miles behind us." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 3, 2018]

This is how writer Muwaffaq Matar, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, interpreted the American motives behind the decision to veto the Kuwaiti resolution that was brought to a UN Security Council vote on June 1, 2018. The resolution did not mention Hamas' rule over the Gaza Strip or the violent demonstrations and attempts to breach the border into Israel, nor the recent escalation of rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.

Erdogan and Other Turkish Politicians: "The State of Israel Emulates Hitler"

Last time, I talked about what it means to live a worthy life and how Israelis’ existential condition – in which each of them is responsible for defending and building a nation – has made them some of the happiest people on the face of the earth.

For those of us who do not live under similar conditions, which includes most of Israel’s friends and supporters, her enemies and detractors, and huge swaths of humanity both friends and foes are trying to reach, might there be something about human nature we all ignore as we settle on strategies to communicate our messages, persuade others, and build alliances?

The list of things mentioned last time which add up to a worthy life (meaningful work, a loving relationship, genuine friends, and a life committed to truth and beauty) was informed by the ancient philosopher Aristotle whose writing on ethics identified happiness as the ultimate goal all our efforts drive towards. Why do we want money? To live in comfort. Why do we want comfort? Because comfort makes us happy. Why do we want happiness? No answer is needed to this question because happiness is the “final cause,” the end point where all other efforts and ambitions lead.

But by “happiness,” Aristotle wasn’t talking about simple giddy joy. Rather, he was using a Greek term better translated as “flourishing.” And if you build into your life the components needed to call it worthy, you can live a happy (in all senses of the word) flourishing life.

Getting back to Israel advocacy, as we argue our cause are we offering listeners anything that might help them achieve the ultimate human desire to be happy and flourish?

Within the pro-Israel community, discussions of strategy and tactics still tend to boil down to a debate over offense vs. defense (or “going on the attack” vs. “positive messaging”).

Advocates for “going on the attack” argue that we cannot perpetually take punches from Israel haters who relentlessly assault and malign the Jewish state and its friends with the most outrageous calumnies, accompanied by outrageous behavior no one should have to tolerate. This strategy can be boiled down to: Let’s tell the truth about Israel’s enemies (including their bigotry, misogyny and violent intolerance) as aggressively as they tell their lies about us.

In contrast, calls for “positive messaging” highlight how little impact shouts and insults have on crucial undecideds who can be swayed by getting to know Israel and its people, culture, food, and marvelous gifts to the world (in the form of cures for illness and high-tech wonders as well as progressive values).

I’ve written a number of times about pragmatic reasons why each of these approaches is flawed. A complete treatment of the subject can be found here, but the key problem with an attack strategy is that we as a Jewish pro-Israel community lack the militant goals needed to sustain what would need to be a decades-long, non-stop smearing of our foes. And if we were really playing by BDS rules, we would have to drag innocent third parties into our fight, without any concern over what harm that might cause others. For better or worse (better, in my opinion) our community lacks the ruthlessness needed to give our opponents a full taste of their own medicine.

Positive campaigning seems to be a way out of this dilemma, but the things that tend to be highlighted in such campaigns (whether it’s High-Tech Nation, Gay Pride parades, hummus recipes or Eurovision Song Contest victories) aren’t much of a shield against an enemy arguing on behalf of freedom, justice and international law (regardless of how much they have drained all three terms of any meaning).

Beyond these practical considerations, the big problem with both the “Offense” and “Positive” positions is that neither offers listeners anything that talks to the human need for meaning and purpose. I’ll admit to a certain glee when I see Israel haters forced to flee when faced with an argument they can’t counter or their latest BDS failure. But such emotional satisfaction on the part of the activist is not the same as providing others the satisfaction derived from striving for a flourishing life (meaningful work, loving relationships, etc.).

Similarly, while I’m in awe of the technological prowess of the Israel people and the openness of their society, a strategy based entirely on telling these stories strikes me as a continuation of the Diaspora tradition of endlessly having to prove to the majority culture our worthiness as a minority.

But there is another story the remarkable achievement of Israel taps into, one that can spill over from giving Israelis a life full of purpose to providing the same satisfaction to all who support or just befriend the Jewish state.

Few would argue that the nadir of the last century (if not all centuries) was the Holocaust which exterminated six million men, women and children for the crime of being Jews. But too few follow this up by seeing the rebirth of the Jewish state just three years after that disaster as one of the most monumental achievements in human history.

Ingathering exiles, making the desert bloom, defeating larger and more powerful enemies again and again and – yes – building a tolerant nation with a growing population and economy are all part of this magnificent story, the story of that much maligned word “Zionism.”

And, with all due respect to those who see us as a “Chosen People,” Israel’s accomplishments have nothing to do with Jews being special in any way. For if a people at death’s door can achieve such wonders, anyone can do it. And many have (think about South Korea that built a flourishing state by investing in their own people after national ruin in war).

This dynamic tale, the Zionist story of what a society can achieve if its citizens have purpose and are ready to live for the future as well as the present, is what stirs many of us to genuine love for (not just appreciation of) the Jewish state – more so than the defeat of enemies or the latest Israeli-built microchip or app.

And why shouldn’t it? For this move turns our pro-Israel advocacy into meaningful work, creates bonds of true friendship between fellow Jews (including happy Israelis) and other Jewish and non-Jewish activists. It dedicates us to fighting for the truth and enjoying the beauty of one of history’s most inspiring tales. In short, it provides us many (although by no means all) of the things necessary to live a worthy, flourishing life.

In contrast, the demented behavior of our foes is a testament to where a life dedicated to destruction and ugliness leads. And for those our opponents demand follow their lead (such as intersectional allies in minority communities, biased journalists and partisan scholars) the price of abandoning reason, ethics and professional standards to join the cause are sources of suffering. For deep down, even the most corrupt journalist writing about “peaceful marchers” on the Gaza border know they are communicating a lie, just as academics committed to spreading ignorance and bigotry understand they have not just abandoned the quest for truth or beauty but are actively fighting against it.

This explains why Israel’s foes spend so much mental effort blocking out and shouting down reality they want to avoid. For their lives are dedicated to things that are the opposite of what brings happiness, which is why they are so damned miserable. In a way, the contrast between flourishing Israel and the basket cases that represent the rest of the Middle East is a macrocosm of what can be achieved at the societal level by embracing the quest for a worthy live vs. battling to live an unworthy one.

So we friends of the Jewish state should offer not slams against our enemies or hummus parties, but steps towards living a meaningful life – a sharp contrast to the slavery and self-loathing on offer from our enemies. Put in such terms, is there really a contest?

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Ma'an reports:

A member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saleh Rafat, reiterated that the Central Council will meet after the Eid al-Fitr holiday and in the forefront of the issues to be discussed is the cessation of all forms of security coordination with Israel.

Rafat told Voice of Palestine radio on Monday morning that the National Assembly had made it clear that Israel had renounced all its obligations under the Oslo Accords, and that it was necessary to stop all forms of security and economic relations with it.

Regarding Israel’s intention of deducting the amount of damage of the (burning) kites from the tax revenues, Rafat stressed that this measure is illegal and illegitimate. He said that this comes in the framework of the piracy that Israel conducts. He demanded that Israel compensate the sons of our people that have been driven out with trillions, and enable them to return to their lands (or houses), in accordance with UN resolution no. 194.”

Trillions? Is that all?

That's pocket change for those people who own the banks, right?

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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The Palestinian Coalition for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights sounds like one of the scores of NGOs set up in the territories just to attract European cash and bash Israel.

It has a number of members, including the Ramallah Center fo Human Rights Studies, the Stars of Hope Foundation, the Kader Foundation for Community Development, Al Haq Foundation and a number of trade unions.

Its most recent press releases all are missing the word "Israel." Amazingly, they are blaming the PA for what every Palestinian (and few Westerners) know - that the government of Mahmoud Abbas has been systematically oppressing Gazans for well over a year now for political ends.

Last week it issued a statement saying "the Palestinian Authority has taken punitive measures against its employees in the Gaza Strip, which accounted for a 30% to 60% reduction of their salaries since April 2017, in the context of pressure on Hamas to resolve the administrative situation of the sector and enable the government to exercise its functions, These measures have affected all aspects of life in the sector, especially after imposing more penalties and wage cuts, and the transfer of a large number of employees to forced retirement, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis to the detriment of the citizens' decent living. "

Moreover, the group started a social media campaign "#ارفعوا_العقوبات" - Lift the Sanctions - directed not at Israel but at the Palestinian Authority. Graphics have been published for a rally that was planned for yesterday in Ramallah to protest the PA's treatment of Gaza. (I have not seen any news articles about such a rally, which was to be held at Manara Square. If it did occur the PA-run media would not have covered it.)

It is difficult to know if this has an impact on the PA, but one thing is for sure: despite over a year of the PA restricting electricity, fuel, medicines, exit permits and more from Gazans, Western media and NGOs will continue to only blame Israel.

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06/03 Links: Iranian blood money, Palestinian blood; The UN’s Sordid Embrace of Antisemitism; Are Medics the latest Human shields in Gaza?

From Ian:

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: Iranian blood money, Palestinian blood

A significant escalation in the situation prevailing at the Israel-Gaza border took place this week. The prattle about demonstrations and attempts by "returning" Gaza residents to infiltrate Israel was replaced by missiles and mortars on a level not seen since Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Up to the time of this writing, on Wednesday morning, there have been several wounded, but no casualties, on the Israeli side. However, it is clear to all that chance alone separates a mortarshell that digs a crater on an empty street from one that hits a home or kindergarten leaving wounded and dead in its wake.

The immediate question is why? Why is this erupting now? Is it a reaction to the direct hit the IDF carried out on an Islamic Jihad observation post of in Gaza, eliminating the three terrorists inside it? Or are there other factors behind this escalation? Another question is: Why are Hamas and Islamic Jihad working together on this after a long period of tension between the two? And why are they operating beyond the area near Gaza from which they tried to kidnap Israeli soldiers?

For years now, Israel has been acting with a large measure of freedom against Iranian presence in Syria, bombing various targets and eliminating soldiers and officers, with Iran doing almost nothing to avenge the blood of the tens of Iranians killed in these bombings or the damage to Iranian military infrastructure in Syria. The reason Iran has not reacted to Israeli strikes is its inferior military intelligence and operational ability. Israel has inflicted serrious damage on Iran's ability to protect itself and using the new anti-aircraft systems it brought into Syria. Israel destroyed them as soon as they arrived, before they were activated and before they became operational.

Israel also proved its exceptional intelligence ability, because its attacks on Iranian forces were exactly aimed and successfully pinpointed. This caused the Iranian command to concentrate on its own defenses for fear that Israel would hit the Iranian commanders in Syria headed by Kassem Sulimani. Israel destroyed Iranian targets all over Syria, not just near the Golan Heights, and showed the Iranians and their Russian supporters just how much strength and resolve Israel has when it comes to attacking distant Iranian targets – hinting obliquely at Israel's ability to hit them within Iran itself.

Anne Bayefsky: The UN’s Sordid Embrace of Antisemitism

The following is a speech delivered by Anne Bayefsky, Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and the President of Human Rights Voices, at the Special Forum on “Evolving Hatred: Antisemitism & BDS Today” convened by the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations, UN, May 30, 2018.

The United Nations is an institution built on the ashes of the Jewish people and the devastation wreaked by antisemitism upon all civilization.

And yet, the UN has never adopted a resolution or commissioned a report singularly devoted to exposing, denouncing, and eradicating antisemitism wherever it occurs. Just this month, the Security Council was asked and refused to issue a “firm and unequivocal rejection of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.”

Why not? The answer is painfully clear: antisemitism itself. Right here in the United Nations.

Antisemitism at the UN does more than stymie opportunities for prevention. It creates occasions for promotion. The marketing strategy has three identifiable steps.

Step one: Deny. As a matter of routine, antisemites say they aren’t antisemites.

Except they are.

Two weeks ago — in this very room — a two-day forum on the “Question of Palestine” was convened. Under UN auspices. With UN-invited speakers and UN-accredited participants.

Speakers deprecated “the idea of a chosen people” and railed against a “Jewish lobby.” The Palestinian UN representative claimed Palestinian land was “exactly like” German-occupied France and Poland.

PMW: “The fetus, a proud Martyr in his mother’s womb” – Songs on official PA radio

When Palestinians tune in to the official PA radio station, The Voice of Palestine, they hear songs encouraging them to seek Martyrdom-death and to sacrifice themselves for Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and “Palestine.” Catchy lyrics pass on the message that Palestinians are “not afraid of death,” and teach them that already in its mother’s womb, the fetus is “a proud Martyr” who has “Palestine etched on the heart”:

“Our Martyrs are convoys and our bones are mountains They don’t surrender to the lowly We aren't deterred by imprisonment Palestine is etched on the heart of the fetus A proud Martyr in his mother’s womb And the Arab state will remain ours - Arab, Arab PalestineWe [hold] the rifles to our chests and our eyes are raised to you Our homes are trenches and our souls are the sacrifice for youO Jerusalem, you will not remain stolen.” [“The First Direction of Prayer” by Syrian singer Assala Nasri, Official PA radio station The Voice of Palestine, Feb. 3, 2018]

From TOI:

Hadashot television news reports that the fires sparked by Gazans in southern Israel today are reaching farther into Israel because the Gazans have changed their tactics.

In recent weeks, Gazans have launched firebomb-carrying kites into Israel, where they fell into dry fields and sparked major brushfires.

Today, authorities are battling helium balloons carrying long-burning materials like charcoal. The balloons are capable of flying several kilometers into Israel and sparking fires farther afield.

Firefighters are battling at least four brushfires today sparked by Gazan arsonists.

Why is Israel allowing helium into Gaza to begin with?

Because helium is needed for many medical applications, including many respiratory diseases. I'm guessing, but it is entirely possible that the helium in Gaza is coming from hospitals.

Now imagine what would happen if and when Israel bans helium imports into Gaza to protect itself from massive forest fires.

Yup, the "human rights" NGOs will castigate Israel for depriving Gazans of the medical benefits of helium. Reuters will have stories about Gazans with COPD who cannot breathe because of Israel's evil.

Just wait.

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