Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 06, 2018

08/06 Links P1: Stabilizing Israel-Hamas Relations in Gaza: Can It Be Achieved?; UNIFIL has another chance to do its job; Poll Shows Israelis Support Negotiations, but Pals Don’t

From Ian:

JCPA: Stabilizing Israel-Hamas Relations in Gaza: Can It Be Achieved?

Israel and Hamas are seriously engaged in “regularizing” the situation in Gaza that will end the arson kites and the assaults on the border fence, and, in return, Israel will permit the rehabilitation of Gaza to alleviate the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Under discussion is a long-term ceasefire and the reconstruction of Gaza.

Both Israel and Hamas are interested in the positive conclusion of the efforts. That is why this time the chances of an agreement are fair. However, there are too many spoilers ready and willing to prevent its fulfillment.
Who Are the Spoilers and What Motivates Them?

First among the deal opponents is the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Sources in Ramallah insist that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas strongly objects to any engagement with Hamas. He wants Hamas to accept Ramallah’s rule in Gaza under Ramallah’s terms. There will be no return to “reconciliation talks” after today.

Also, when it comes to the governing structures that were central to the talks in the past – elections for president and the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) – Abbas is not interested in their revival. He is now basing his legitimacy on the established institutes of the Palestine Liberation Organization that are not democratic.

The reluctance to return to futile reconciliation talks goes together with Abbas’ concern over the separate contacts between Israel and Hamas. According to sources in Ramallah, the chances of an agreement between Israel and Hamas are much better than the reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. If negotiations with Gaza leads to Gaza’s detachment from the West Bank, some Palestinians believe it will be the first step of the Trump deal and remove the refugee issue and Jerusalem off the negotiating table.

As far as Ramallah is concerned, there will be no blessing for the deal. It will also present a regional and international dilemma whether to grant the terror organization, Hamas, legitimacy.

Ron Prosor: UNIFIL has another chance to do its job

Good riddance. These words are the proper sendoff for Maj. Gen. Michael Beary, the commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, who is about to complete his four-year term.

Beary had one job: to prevent Hezbollah from spreading south of the Litani River. He consistently refused to enforce this prohibition, insisting that the terrorists moving south of the river were actually shepherds and hunters. Even during his farewell interviews, he could not utter the word Hezbollah.

U.S. envoy to the U.N. Nikki Haley has lambasted Beary for shirking his duty, calling him a disgrace to the organization and "blind." His conduct is also the reason why for the past year I led an international campaign to have him replaced. The U.N. has appointed Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col in his stead. He is to enter the job on Tuesday.

I hope that when the outgoing and incoming commanders sat down to discuss the transition, the word Hezbollah came up. But since there is no way to trust Beary to do this most basic task, I would like to suggest several ways in which he could effectively do his job.

Maj. Gen. Del Col, I am not so naive as to think UNIFIL can single-handedly remove Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, and no one expects you to actively take on the organization. But here is what you can and should do:

Haaretz: Why Younger Saudis Won't Fund, Facilitate or Fight for a Palestinian State

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are experiencing tremendous socio-political change that has accelerated a generation gap. The younger generations are characterized and led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and his close ally Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ), the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and primary driver of the UAE's foreign policy.

The younger Gulf generations are now unconvinced that moderation would follow the establishment of a Palestinian state. They believe it is more likely that a fully independent Palestinian state would itself be hostage to radical forces, and would in fact become an extreme source of instability in the region. MBS and MBZ believe that establishing a Palestinian state would mean handing Iran and Sunni political Islamists another Arab capital to control and influence.

Many Western policymakers still fantasize about the idea that the Gulf countries could provide money to birth and develop a Palestinian state - indeed, this is reportedly one of the founding principles of the Trump-Kushner peace plan. That is never going to happen, despite what they may promise publicly. Those who actively dictate policy in the Gulf are convinced that every dollar the Saudis give to the Palestinians means handing it to Iran.

In my last article I wrote about endemic and sickening Palestinian abuse of animals.

If a caring animal right activist wants to donate money to help animals under PA control, there is exactly one Palestinian organization that is dedicated to helping animal welfare - the Palestinian Animal League.

Yet the Palestinian Animal League seems to care more about "occupation" than about the kinds of animal abuse that I've documented.

In May, the PAL held a conference called "Defending Palestine: Liberating the People, the Land, and Animals." It's description:

What is the “Defending Palestine” Conference ?
Defending Palestine: Liberating the People, the Land, and Animals is a groundbreaking three-day international conference hosted by Palestinian Animal League (PAL) in occupied Palestinian territory, from May 3 through May 6, 2018. This will not be a traditional conference; it will focus on the shared struggle for land and liberation for all species in Palestine.

Among the many international attendees will be passionate animal rights activists, environmentalists, human rights advocates, those interested in the intersection of all these causes within the context of occupied Palestine.

Instead of actually helping the animals being abused by Palestinians, the only Palestinian animal rights organization is trying to use "intersectionality" to conflate animal rights with hating Israel!

The video promoting the conference doesn't show a single animal!

The only way they could attract people to their conference was to call for "freedom" of Palestinian animals - meaning, a Palestinian donkey that is dragged behind a truck is OK as long as it is "free" from "occupation."

I don't think the PAL will be issuing any statement thanking Israeli police for caring more about Palestinian animals than Palestinian animal rights activists themselves do.

As it stands, I could not find any photos of the participants in the three day conference, so I think there might have been more speakers than attendees.

But PAL used the conference to send their speakers on a European tour to show "intersectionality" to cynically use animal rights to push their main goal, demonizing Israel - the only country in the region that actually gives a damn about animal rights.

This shows the priorities of Palestinian animal lovers. Donating to the Palestinian Animal League is not going to help the abused donkeys and horse shown previously, the money just goes to another anti-Israel NGO that clothes its anti-Israel stance in a cynical pretense to care about animals.

This is doubly cynical, because even PAL knows that no one would donate to them unless they push their anti-Israel agenda. The pro-animal agenda was obviously not lucrative enough on its own.

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Horrific animal abuse in the territories

Ma'an publishes this horrific picture of a donkey that had been dragged behind the car of a Palestinian who lives in Hebron:

Israeli police noticed the Arab dragging the donkey on Route 60 near Hebron and arrested him. The injured donkey was transferred for further veterinary treatment.

At the end of his interrogation, the suspect was imprisoned and he is being brought to the military court in Ofer for the purpose of extending his detention.

The police issued a statement that "the Israel Police views with great severity the offenses of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of animals committed by criminals. And will continue to act determinedly to stop them and to strictly prosecute the suspects. "

A month ago, in the same area, Israeli police arrested another Palestinian for beating his horse, also in a horrific way, badly wounding it.

This is a pattern. In March, another Palestinian was arrested by Israeli police for pulling/dragging his donkey behind his car.

It doesn't appear that Palestinian police arrest anyone for animal cruelty. In the third story mentioned here the Arab didn't believe he was doing anything wrong.

I'm not even going to go into the sickening public slaughter of animals during Eid in the territories, where Arabs stab frightened, tied up animals to death.

My question for the animal lovers who hate Israel: Should Israeli police be involved in saving the lives of animals being routinely abused in the territories - or would it be better if the animals remain abused in the "State of Palestine"?

And if you choose option B - what are you doing to stop Palestinian animal abuse?

Stay tuned for a followup post.

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Tunisian BDS claims they stopped Turkish ship working for Israeli company from docking

Arab media report that Tunisian naval forces prevented a cargo ship belonging to Arkas, a Turkish company, from entering Tunisian waters - because it was working with Israeli shipping company Zim.

The Tunisian campaign of the cultural and academic boycott of Israel claims, a bit improbably, that a vessel under the Turkish flag regularly transported containers from the port of Haifa to Tunisia through the Spanish city of Valencia, working the the huge Israeli shipping company Zim.

Electronic Intifada last week said that the Zim website mentioned the planned itinerary of the Cornelius A ship to land in the port of Radès. The Zim webpage does not say anything about that now; the current news articles say that they erased the itinerary.

But it seems unlikely that the Tunisian navy stopped the ship. According to the Marine Traffic website, the Cornelius A was last in Algericas on Sunday and is now in the middle of the Mediterranean, nowhere near Tunisia.

The real story is probably that Tunisian BDS pressured the government to not allow the ship to dock, the Turkish company came up with an alternative plan and nothing dramatic happened at sea.

The story says that the ship was originally scheduled to land in Tunisia on Sunday.

The Tunisian boycott initiative expressed its deep satisfaction at what it described as aborting a "serious normalization process with an institution of the Israeli regime."

Tunisian BDS group TACBI issued a bizarre statement that "Since its establishment in 1945, ZIM has transferred Israeli settlers from around the world to occupied Palestine." Their problem with ZIM isn't "occupation" but the fact that originally it saved hundred of Jews and helped transport them to the Land of Israel.

TACBI also claims that ZIM "plays an important role in transferring weapons and equipment to the occupation army to use in its wars and massacres against the Palestinian people."

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Russian Foreign Ministry officially invites Islamic Jihad terror group for a meeting

Palestine Today reports that Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine received an official invitation to visit Moscow from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

According to the Information Office of the Islamic Jihad a delegation headed by Deputy Secretary-General Ziad Al-Nakhla and members of the Political Bureau, Dr. Mohammad Hindi and Dr. Anwar Abu Taha are expect to travel to Moscow to meet the Russian diplomats.

I don't know if this is the first time this has happened, but any country to give official recognition to an Islamist jihadist terror group is most definitely a bad idea.

Even though Russia was fighting ISIS, it appears that the Russians consider some jihadists to be OK.

Israel should formally ask for an explanation.

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The Guardian whitewashes Bin Laden's family - while they still consider him a hero

From The Guardian:

Hamza bin Laden, the son of the late al-Qaida leader, has married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker in the 9/11 terror attacks, according to his family.

Bin Laden’s wives and surviving children have returned to Saudi Arabia, where they were given refuge by the former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef. The women and children remain in close contact with Bin Laden’s mother, Alia Ghanem, who told the Guardian in an interview that she remained in regular touch with surviving family members.

“When we thought everyone was over this, next thing I knew was Hamza saying I am going to avenge my father,” said Hassan al-Attas. “I don’t want to go through that again."

“If Hamza was in front of me now, I would tell him: God guide you. Think twice about what you are doing. Don’t retake the steps of your father. You are entering really negative and horrible parts of your soul.”

See how they want to distance themselves from Osama bin Laden when talking to the Guardian?

But the family members also choose to pose next to pictures of Osama Bin Laden. Not Osama as a college student, but Osama as the jihadi who killed thousands of people. His photos are prominently displayed.

They aren't ashamed of Osama and his actions. They are proud.

(h/t Ghilmeini)

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08/05 Links: The True Extent of Palestinian Hatred for Israel; Head of Syrian chemical arms research center assassinated; The EU's pathological relationship with Hezbollah

From Ian:

The True Extent of Palestinian Hatred for Israel

It is clear to anyone who closely observes the reality in Israel that the No. 1 goal of Hamas is the destruction of Israel, not pursuing a viable Palestinian state, which is what Hamas wants you to think.

While Israel tries to minimize casualties, Hamas does the complete opposite. Let us not forget that Hamas is an internationally recognized terrorist organization, infamous for using the Palestinian people as human shields and for using financial incentives to encourage people to become suicide bombers.

During recent protests, Hamas encouraged Gazans to try to storm the border with Israel. Having gotten wind of this plan of action, Israel responded by dropping leaflets beforehand warning everyone to avoid harm by not approaching or attempting to breach the barrier.

Hamas knew full well that it was sending its own people to death since no country would allow a mass infiltration by a mob incited to rampage and kill innocents. But dead Palestinians provide great PR pressure points for Hamas against Israel. After whipping its own people into a frenzy all while knowing that it was a death sentence, Hamas proceeded.

In the aftermath, Hamas painted a very different story of innocent Palestinian victims in a peaceful mob, gunned down by Israel. It and a chorus of international actors then denounced and lambasted Israel.

The Palestinians should immediately halt these cynical games. Until then, Israel has no choice but to do what it must to defend its people.

EU report details international web of Hezbollah terror funding

A newly released European Union report on terrorism states that Lebanese nationals worked with organized crime organizations to finance Hezbollah’s terrorist activities.

The European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2018 wrote, “In 2017, member states carried out several investigations into financing of terrorism. One major investigation focused on a large network of Lebanese nationals offering money laundering services to organized crime groups in the EU and using a share of the profits to finance terrorism-related activities of the Lebanese Hezbollah’s military wing.”

The report added, “The cooperation of these money-launderers and Hezbollah’s military wing was a clear example of a nexus between organized crime and terrorism.”

The Jerusalem Post reviewed the 70-page EU report and found it did not provide any more specifics on Hezbollah’s activities in Europe. Hezbollah has played a key role in aiding Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in the Syrian civil war that has resulted in the deaths of more than 500,000 people.

The EU only designated Hezbollah’s so-called military wing a terrorist entity in 2013. US President Donald Trump, former US president Barack Obama and ex-secretary of state Hillary Clinton have urged the EU to proscribe all of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

The Iranian regime is the chief financial sponsor of Hezbollah, with an annual $700 million supplied by Tehran to the Lebanese Shi’ite group, according to the US government.

The Post reported in June that Al-Mustafa Community Center in the northern German city-state of Bremen is a major hub for raising funds for Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to a German intelligence report published by the Bremen intelligence agency.

What to do about EU's pathological relationship with Hezbollah

Europeans have criticized US President Donald Trump for distancing America from her traditional allies in NATO, while favoring his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. After relying on America for protection for over 70 years since the end of World War II, Europe is “now more worried about an America withdrawing from the transatlantic relationship than an overbearing superpower”, according to Richard Wike writing in the Atlantic.

Yet when European financial interests were threatened last year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized bipartisan congressional legislation that proposed increasing sanctions against Russia because it targeted the European- Russia Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in which German companies are invested.

The legislation toughened sanctions on Russia over its Ukrainian invasion. Mrs. Merkel’s doesn’t seem to realize that she lives in a glass house.

American critics of Europe have focused on European underfunding of their NATO obligation, spending under 2% of their GDP, below their promised commitment.

However equally as troubling to both Congress and the administration is Europe’s associations and protection of the American-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah that operates freely in Europe, raising funds while threatening American and allied interests. The Europeans stick their collective heads in the sand as multiple Hezbollah planned attacks on European soil have been foiled within the last few years.

European appeasement of Hezbollah begins and ends with their failure to designate its political wing as a terrorist organization, despite Hezbollah itself having no distinction between its terrorist and political entities.

From Israel Hayom:

Four Palestinian high school friends are heading to California this week to pitch their mobile app about fire prevention to Silicon Valley's tech leaders, after winning a slot in the finals of a worldwide competition among more than 19,000 teenage girls.

The teens first heard about the competition a few months ago from an IT teacher at their school in a middle-class neighborhood in Nablus, where IT classes are a modest affair, held twice a week, with two students to a computer.

The girls, friends since 10th grade, each had a laptop at home though, and worked with Yamama Shakaa, a local mentor provided by the competition organizers. The teens "did everything by themselves, with very few resources," said Shakaa.

The team produced a virtual reality game, "Be a firefighter," to teach fire prevention skills.

The teens now hope to expand their app to include wildfire prevention. They will also present a business and marketing plan at the California pitching session.

I am all for Palestinians learning computers and programming. I wish these girls luck. The only way the Palestinian economy can grow is by moving away from agriculture and towards high tcch fields, especially in jobs which can be done for clients around the world.

But this story leaves out an important fact.

Literally every day, Palestinian media proudly reports about the number of wildfires set by Gaza incendiary balloons and kites, which have destroyed thousands of acres of Israeli forest, farmland and wildlife preserves.

The idea that these girls are going to California for a fire prevention app - that they hope will be expanded to prevent the types of wildfires that their people celebrate - feels more than a bit cynical.

(h/t Andrew)

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UNRWA Souf camp in Jordan

There was buzz over the weekend over a Foreign Policy article revealing a secret Jared Kushner memo about UNRWA.

Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, has quietly been trying to do away with the U.N. relief agency that has provided food and essential services to millions of Palestinian refugees for decades, according to internal emails obtained by Foreign Policy.

[Kushner's] position on the refugee issue and his animus toward the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is evident in internal emails written by Kushner and others earlier this year.

“It is important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA,” Kushner wrote about the agency in one of those emails, dated Jan. 11 and addressed to several other senior officials, including Trump’s Middle East peace envoy, Jason Greenblatt.

“This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace,” he wrote.

In the same January email, Kushner wrote: “Our goal can’t be to keep things stable and as they are. … Sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there.”

Kushner raised the refugee issue with officials in Jordan during a visit to the region in June, along with Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt. According to Palestinian officials, he pressed the Jordan to strip its more than 2 million registered Palestinians of their refugee status so that UNRWA would no longer need to operate there.

“[Kushner said] the resettlement has to take place in the host countries and these governments can do the job that UNRWA was doing,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

She said the Trump administration wanted rich Arab Gulf states to cover the costs Jordan might incur in the process.

“They want to take a really irresponsible, dangerous decision and the whole region will suffer,” Ashrawi said.

My only problem with this is that the email and Kushner's talks with Jordanian leaders were not made public earlier. Because now that it is public, there can finally be a reasonable debate on UNRWA.

The vast majority of Palestinians in Jordan whom UNRWA considers refugees are citizens of the state. They should have equal access to public education and health services that every Jordanian citizen has.

By calling nearly 2 million Jordanian citizens "refugees," Jordan is discriminating against some 20% of its population - telling them that they are not really citizens, that they are only temporary residents who would be expected to one day "return" to overrun Israel.

By telling these citizens that they are not really full citizens, Jordan is practicing apartheid. Anyone who is up in arms over Israel's Nation State bill because of its supposed disenfranchisement of 20% of Israel's citizens who are not equally upset over long-standing Jordanian policy to treat so-called Palestinian refugees as anything other that full citizens is a hypocrite.

Beyond that is the more basic issue: Those who are citizens of a state, by definition, are not refugees. When Palestinian leaders and NGOs insist that they are it means that they support Jordanian apartheid against Palestinians as well, and they want the world to keep footing the bill for something that common sense and human rights says should be the responsibility of the Kingdom of Jordan.

If Jordan provides services to only some of its citizens, it is discriminating against the others.

Jordan's Foreign Minister decried the idea of defunding UNRWA and giving the money straight to Jordan instead. Meaning that Jordan officially condones apartheid against a significant minority of its citizens. (Interestingly, the statement came from the foreign minister, underscoring that Palestinians are foreigners to the Kingdom.)

Even the Palestinians who are not Jordanian citizens aren't refugees by any definition - because they voluntarily fled in 1967 when they didn't want to live under Israeli rule. A refugee is someone who is forced out of their home, not someone who decides they don't like the new government where they live. Jordan should be providing services to them as well, not a "refugee" agency.

Under the legal UN definition of refugees, there is not a single Palestinian refugee who lives in Jordan.

So bring the debate on. Hanan Ashrawi and Saeb Erekat will try to pretend that eliminating UNRWA from Jordan is a violation of human rights, but it takes very little to show that UNRWA's existence is the violation of human rights for the Jordanian citizens of Palestinian ancestry who are forced to rely on UNRWA for basic services that Jordan should be providing.

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Palestinians rewriting history of Yemenite Jews in Silwan in a most disgusting way

Israel opened up a new cultural center in Jerusalem last week:

Two cabinet ministers, two candidates for Jerusalem mayor, the Sephardi chief rabbi of the city and a right-wing US former governor on Wednesday celebrated at a cornerstone ceremony for a heritage center in a former Yemenite synagogue, in overwhelmingly Palestinian Silwan, near the Temple Mount.
Also on hand was a representative of the Moskowitz family, which supports Jewish settlement in Palestinian neighborhoods of the capital.

The building — once the synagogue of Kfar Hashiloah, a village built for poor Yemenite immigrants in the early 1880s and evacuated during Arab riots in the early 20th century — was acquired in 2015 by the right-wing Ateret Cohanim organization, which settles Jews in East Jerusalem.

We have shown in the past that the neighborhood, called Kfar HaShiloah before the Arabs named it Silwan, was exclusively Jewish at the beginning. Here's a photo I helped uncover back in 2010 of the neighborhood in 1891:

But when Palestinians are reporting on the story of this new "settlement," they have a completely different history.

PA spokesman Yousuf Al-Mahmoud said that the inauguration of the center "is one of the attempts of this extremist government to ignite the fires of religious war alien to us and our country and our culture, and is a blatant challenge to the Arab and Islamic nations, the international community and the resolutions of international legitimacy."

He went on to say "the fabrication of establishing this settler's center under the name 'Center for the Heritage of Yemenite Jews' is meant to disguise the racism of Israeli officials that has crossed every limit." The Yemenite Jews, he claims, "escaped the oppression of those Westerners who embraced Judaism (evoking the Khazar myth) and settled in Silwan, where the (local Arab) people helped them and provided them with a safe place among them for years. Today racism is raging and it turns that event, which is overflowing with humanity and shows moral values, and it (the racism) brings upon the original inhabitants of the country wickedness and brutality that is manifest in settling, and stealing and robbing the property of the (Palestinian) civilians and their holy places."

As you can see from the photo, there were no Arabs in that neighborhood. The Yemenite Jews weren't driven out of Jerusalem, they just couldn't afford housing inside the Old City, and they moved to caves. The Jews of Jerusalem raised money to build these buildings for them.

And later on, the Yemenites were forced out of their homes - they were attacked by Arabs in the 1921 riots and the 1929 massacres, and the British forced them to leave in order to save their lives. The idea that al-Mahmous claims that the Yemenites were welcomed by their Arab neighbors is exactly opposite of the truth - the Arabs who moved in afterwards attacked them, ethnically cleansed them and stole their houses.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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08/04 Links: Kushner said pushing to close UNRWA, end Pal refugee status; Cory Booker Pictured With Anti-Israel Radicals; 91.6% Of Orthodox Jews Find Trump Satisfactory or Very Satisfactory

From Ian:

Kushner said pushing to close UNRWA, end refugee status for Palestinian millions

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, has been pushing to remove the refugee status of millions of Palestinians as part of an apparent effort to shutter the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, a report on Friday said.

Under Trump, the US has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, with the US president linking the decision to the Palestinians’ refusal to speak with his administration after he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

According to emails published Friday by Foreign Policy magazine, Kushner has been highly critical of UNRWA, with he and other White House officials weighing its closure as part of their peace efforts.

“It is important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA,” Kushner wrote in an email dated January 11, just days before the US froze $65 million in funding for UNRWA. “This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace.”

“Our goal can’t be to keep things stable and as they are… Sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there,” he added in the email, according to Foreign Policy.

Uniquely, UNRWA grants refugee status to all descendants of Palestinians who left or fled Israel with the establishment of the state in 1948, swelling the number to an estimated five million at present, when the number of actual refugees from that conflict is estimated to be in the low tens of thousands. In peace talks, the Palestinian leadership has always demanded a “right of return” to Israel for these millions — an influx that, if accepted by Israel, would spell the end of the Israel as a majority Jewish state.

POLL: 91.6% Of Orthodox Jews Find Trump Satisfactory or Very Satisfactory

According to a new poll released by Ami Magazine, an international magazine catering to the Jewish community, 91.6% of Orthodox Jews from the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut approve of President Trump as “satisfactory” or “very satisfactory.”

The 263 respondents of the poll varied in political affiliation, with 34.6% registered as Republican, 29.3% as not registered, 28.9% as Democrat, and 7.2% independent.

“There are many possible reasons why,” Jake Turx, Ami Magazine’s Senior White House Correspondent told The Daily Wire. “Though, one thing I see that Orthodox Jews have in common with Trump himself— personality wise— is a very strong sense of loyalty, in the sense that ‘if you have my back, I have yours.’”

Turx also says that there were many critics of Trump in the Orthodox Jewish community at the beginning of Trump’s term but many are now quieter.

“After the Jerusalem declaration and the pardoning of Rubashkin, they just disappeared,” Turx explained, referring to Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and Trump pardoning Sholom Rubashkin, the former owner of the largest U.S. kosher meat processing plant who was sentenced to prison for 27 years for financial crimes. “Some became fans, and some just stopped criticizing him, not because of pressure, but because at the end of the day they feel that if he has their back, they have his.”

Cory Booker Pictured With Anti-Israel Radicals, Holds Sign Calling for Elimination of Security Borders in Israel

New Jersey senator Cory Booker (D.) was pictured on Friday afternoon at the liberal Netroots Nation conference holding a sign calling for the removal of security borders in Israel, a policy proposal from a radical anti-Israel group with financial ties to terrorist groups.

Booker, standing next to radical activists from the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, is holding a sign that says, "From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go," a slogan used by the group in its call for the removal of Israeli security barriers used to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks.

The picture of Booker was posted by the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a radical activist group that supports anti-Israel campaigns such as the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement and was recently found to be financially tied to designated terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

"Excited to be here at Netroots Nation talking with progressives like Sen. Cory Booker about our shared commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for all people," the group wrote.

Booker's senate office did not initially respond to an inquiry on the picture and whether he believes security barriers that prevent terrorists based in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering Israel should be removed, but after publication sent a statement claiming the New Jersey senator didn't know what was written on the sign he was holding.

08/03 Links Pt2: Dershowitz: Chomsky Calls Russian Interference a Joke - Blames Guess Who?; Murray: Owen Jones is lying about Israel. Plain and simple

From Ian:

Alan M. Dershowitz: Chomsky Calls Russian Interference a Joke - Blames Guess Who?

Noam Chomsky has gone off the deep end once again. This time he claims that in "most of the world" the issue of Russian interference in U.S. elections is "almost a joke." The real villain, according to him, is, of course, Israel -- as it almost always is with Chomsky. According to the world's "top public intellectual," Israeli intervention in U.S. elections, "vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done." His proof of this absurd and false charge is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech in front of Congress "with overwhelming applause." Only on Planet Chomsky would it be worse for the Prime Minister of an American ally openly to accept an invitation from the Speaker of the House to address Congress about an issue of mutual concern, than for Russian agents surreptitiously to try to manipulate voters by false social media campaigns, hacking emails, and other illegal actions.

Chomsky simply fails to understand how democracy is supposed to work. Transparency and public accountability are the cornerstones of democracy. Prime Minister Netanyahu's very public opposition to Obama's Iran Deal -- a deal opposed by most members of Congress and most Americans -- was just as consistent with democracy as Winston Churchill's public demands for the United States to help Great Britain fight the Nazis.

American presidents, as well as Israeli prime ministers, seek to influence the policies and electoral choices made by their allies. That, too, is part of democracy. The United States has pressured Israel to stop building settlements, Israel has pressured the United States to be more aggressive in preventing Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal. This, too, is part of democracy.

Waiting to Hear That USA Won't Interfere in Foreign Elections

Yesterday I heard part of the press briefing by Sarah Sanders. In it she discussed the allegations of foreign interference in American elections, most notably the 2016 presidential elections. Of course she condemned any interference very firmly.

But I was waiting for her to say that she also condemns American interference in foreign elections. Especially during Obama's reign and even before, American officials backed Israel's Left wing parties in an attempt to get the Likud out of office.

That's how Labor led by Ehud Barak won in 1999. They unseated Likud and Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu with the help of American campaign experts. The wording of Barak's slogan about leaving Southern Lebanon was very familiar... And the damage the fleeing from Lebanon did was horrendous.

It took ten years for Netanyahu to return to power, and those ten years were among the most notorious in the History of the State of Israel. Arik Sharon's inexplicable turn Left to Disengagement, which placed Gaza in the firmly in the hands of Hamas terrorists who are at present burning Souther Israel with their incendiary balloons/kites etc, then Ehud Olmert who was tried and convicted for corruption. Since then, the Israeli public has made it clear that although Netanyahu may not be perfect, they prefer him, head of Likud, as Prime Minister. But that didn't stop Barack Hussein Obama, during his presidency from supporting Bibi's opponents.

Cory Booker smiling with BDS activists and terrorism advocates. The transformation is complete. @mattklapper https://t.co/7VzzXjUen3
— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) August 3, 2018

Glenn Greenwald Keeps the Ugly ‘Dual Loyalty’ Accusation Alive

Rather, Greenwald engages in an ad hominem attack on the Jewish congressman who, he notes, issued his remarks in favor of tough sanctions in front of “an Israeli and American flag.”

Greenwald coolly notes that it is “simply impossible to deny that this highly influential American Congressman, devoted to pushing the US to war with Iran, is driven, at least in substantial part, by his fervent devotion to Israel.”

That Greenwald, a former Constitutional lawyer and civil rights litigator, could simply be ignorant of the lethal history of this facile narrative about Jewish power he so frequently engages in is certainly possible. But one thing is certain: 65 years after the Holocaust, with Jews representing roughly 2% of the American population, it is horribly dispiriting that the charge that organized Jewry is too powerful and pushing the United States to war is once again becoming fashionable.

Wieseltier, in his New Republic essay, describes Sullivan as belonging “to the party of Mearsheimer and the clique of Walt … to the herd of fearless dissidents who proclaim in all seriousness, without in any way being haunted by the history of such an idea, that Jews control Washington.” It is clear that this clique increasingly includes those who take cover behind a progressive veneer.