Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 10, 2018

08/10 Links Pt2: Caroline Glick: Corbyn’s portents for Israel; Sorry Liberals Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitic; Sweden's Government Funds Anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Corbyn’s portents for Israel

Hatred of Jews, based in a rejection of Israel’s right to exist and expressed first and foremost through the demonization of Israel’s supporters as racists, has become more widespread. Its expressions have become more extreme and more violent.

Consider the situation in Britain. Last month, US President Donald Trump paid a visit to the US’s closest ally. The Red-Green alliance of the Left and the Muslims was beside itself. Its queer, feminist, jihadist and animal rights members banded together to organize a major demonstration against Trump in London.

As British Jewish writer and activist David Collier documented on his website, two aspects of the demonstrations stood out. First the marchers weren’t against Trump. They were anti-American.

As far as they were concerned, Trump is just a manifestation of America’s inherent evilness. His predecessor Barack Obama was also terrible.

The second notable aspect of the supposedly anti-Trump, Red-Green rally in London was the prevalence of anti-Israel messages. Collier posted videos of crowds at every corner happily shouting out chants calling for Israel to be destroyed, (“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free,”) and supporting Hamas, (“From Palestine to Mexico, racist walls have got to go!”).

It’s worth asking how the protesters at an antiTrump rally naturally gravitated towards anti-American and antisemitic messages.

Why did the people who supposedly hate Trump snap up “Free Gaza” stickers like hotcakes? What possesses British feminists to support a jihadist regime that routinely attacks Israel for no reason and treats women like property? The answer is simple enough. They aren’t thinking. They are following.

Episcopal Bishop Gayle Harris Said “I Was There” When She Wasn’t

In mid-July 2018, Bishop Suffragen Gayle Harris, the second-in-command at the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, testified in favor of the passage of a resolution that condemned Israel for alleged human rights abuses against Palestinian children, but said nothing about the Palestinian Authority and Hamas teaching children to hate Israel and inciting young people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to attack Jews.

In her testimony, Harris described two terrible acts of Israeli villainy, and said “I was there” when they both happened. (These stories are debunked below.)

Harris’ irresponsible use of unverifiable and unsubstantiated atrocity stories prompted the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting to express their outrage to the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts where Gayle Harris serves as Suffragan Bishop. (For information about these actions, please read these articles here, here and here.)

In response to these complaints, the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts issued a statement on Aug. 9, 2018. In this statement, Rt. Reverend Harris admitted that she did not personally witness the events she described to her fellow bishops on July 13, 2018 but was passing on what she had heard from others during her trips to Israel.

She does not say who these sources are, nor does she provide any other confirmatory details.

Sweden's Government Funds Anti-Semitism

The municipality of Malmö uses taxpayers' money to support "Group 194," an organization that posts anti-Semitic images on its Facebook page -- such as a defamatory cartoon portraying a Jew drinking blood and eating a child.

In Sweden, imported Middle Eastern anti-Semitism is funded by taxpayer money, so when scandals occur, they are often addressed by the same people who have participated in spreading its message.

No effective actions are currently being taken against the spread of anti-Semitism in Sweden.

Just as European anti-Semitism was defeated by rejecting and condemning the ideology after World War II and isolating its proponents, so must Sweden's "new" anti-Semitism be defeated by isolating its advocates and marginalizing all organizations spreading its ideas. This means that all direct and indirect government funding of these organizations has to end. As long as this does not happen, Jews in Sweden will continue living in fear and insecurity.

08/10 Links Pt1: Jason Greenblatt: Israelis and Palestinians must unite against shared threat; Musings from a bomb shelter; Hamas interprets Israeli restraint as weakness; Turkey Dumps 2019 Eurovision in Israel over Trans Performers

From Ian:

Jason Greenblatt: Israelis and Palestinians must unite against shared threat

With the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, it is hard to imagine that deadly fires brought the two groups together -- not once, but twice -- in a display of shared humanity. Yet, in 2010 and again in 2016, Palestinians fought fires in northern Israel alongside their Israeli neighbors, saving lives and property.

During Hanukah 2010, a fire raged for 77 hours in northern Israel, consuming thousands of acres, endangering hundreds of lives and ultimately killing 44 people. Local Israeli firefighters in the region struggled to slow the spread of this historic fire. Israel's Palestinian neighbors -- from Bethlehem, Jenin and Ramallah -- saw the emergency in northern Israel and offered their help.

Four fully equipped firetrucks with 19 trained Palestinian firefighters joined to face the deadly fire. These Palestinians, alongside their Israeli neighbors, held the line against the raging flames. Together (and with the help of 17 countries) they brought the fire under control and prevented further devastation.

Six years later, in November 2016, the Palestinians again came to their neighbor's aid, when fires threatened central Israel.

These two examples offer a glimpse of what could one day be -- and, frankly, what should be. And, today, Israelis and Palestinians have a chance to work together once more to address another deadly threat: Hamas.

Musings from a bomb shelter

Most Americans have never had the experience of being wakened in the middle of the night by a Code Red siren, rushing to the closest bomb shelter, and hiding in the shelter while listening for the explosion of a Palestinian missile. I recently had this experience and am writing to share it.

Together with nine other Sar-el volunteers, for three weeks this summer I was stationed on an IDF base in fairly close proximity to Gaza. On our second day on the base, the soldier (Danielle) in charge of our team of volunteers showed us the closest bomb shelter. That evening the sirens jolted us awake. Danielle ran down our corridor, banging on our doors: "Code Red Alert! Missile attack! Get to the bomb shelter fast!" We could tell by the urgency of her tone that this was not a drill. And so we all jumped out of our beds and ran to the bomb shelter.

What did I think about in the bomb shelter while we waited to hear whether a missile would explode nearby? My first thought was a feeling of anger, directed at the Palestinians who were firing missiles at us. I knew that, if we were in a bomb shelter, so were tens of thousands of Israeli civilians who lived between our base and Gaza. I was angry that mothers and fathers had to scoop up their terrified children and hide in bomb shelters because the Palestinians seek to terrorize the Israeli population.

As I stood in the shelter feeling helpless, my anger morphed into a second thought. None of this proportionate response stuff! For every missile fired into Israel, I wanted Israel to retaliate with 100 missiles. I knew that Israel's response, unlike the Palestinians who target Israeli civilians, would be directed towards military targets and would strive to minimize civilian casualties. Certainly, if North Korea fired missiles at the U.S., the U.S. response would be massive, not proportionate. And no one would expect less. There are no pacifists in a bomb shelter. The urge to strike back at your attacker is instinctive.

No one should have to live like that. And so peace can only be possible once the Palestinians cease their violence towards Israel. No one should expect more of a people forced to live in bomb shelters.

Haaretz columnist: Accurately defining refugees is meant to "humiliate Palestinians"

The absurd Haaretz attempts to defend the indefensible UNRWA definition of "Palestine refugee" to be different from every other refugee worldwide continues.

Carolina Landsmann at least admits this:

More than anything, this recognition of their right (to "return") is for the purpose of negotiations, for use as a bargaining chip. But Kushner seeks to humiliate the Palestinians – or as the right likes to say, to destroy their hope – in order to seal a deal cheaply.

She cannot find any actual justification for a Palestinian "right to retun" - only that they need to pretend that such a right exists in order to have a negotiating chip.

Apparently, to negotiate, you can choose to take a position that has no basis in law, reality or morality.

I didn't realize it was that easy. Because according to this logic, Israel should claim all the land from the Atlantic to the Gulf, and use that as a starting point in negotiations, and then they can settle for only the Nile to the Euphrates.

That's what Landsmann claims the Palestinians are doing, so why not?

Of course, she says, the Palestinians really don't claim a right to return:

Still, something here doesn’t add up. After all, the Palestinian Authority effectively conceded the right of return – even if it hasn’t said so publicly – and sufficed with Israel’s acceptance of a symbolic number (10,000, according to the “Palestine Papers” published by Al Jazeera). So what are they cooking up here?

UNRWA doesn't say that there should only be a symbolic right to return. Not a single Palestinian student is being taught that. Not a single Palestinian says this in any op-eds or speech. Three generations have been brought up on the fiction of "return." But a failed negotiation leak is fr more important to those who want to be blind than thousands of pieces of counter-evidence.

Here's where she goes off into absurd fiction:

This maneuver by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, via Kushner, can’t be understood except as an attempt to prevent millions of Palestinians from moving to the future Palestinian political entity. Or in other words, to prevent them from realizing their right of return even to the Palestinian state.

This makes absolutely no sense. If there is an independent Palestinian independent entity, as she phrases is, how can Israel stop immigration?

But also - If this was true, then why are there "refugee" camps in the West Bank and Gaza, if that is where Palestinian refugees want to live?

Once again, wishful thinking trumps actual facts at Haaretz, in order to fit pseudo-facts into a preconceived and completely false narrative.

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Firas Press, which a dissident Fatah-oriented news site that supports Mohammad Dahlan against Mahmoud Abbas, reports on a contentious meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council that reveals some infighting in the Fatah party which never gets reported.

According to the report, Abbas loyalist Jibril Rajoub broke into the meeting uninvited as 40 members of the Revolutionary Council was discussing Mahmoud Abbas' decision to dismiss the minister of prisoners affairs Issa Qaraqa. Rajoub insisted on the right to speak and defended Abbas, and the attacked a number of other Fatah leaders including Marwan Barghouti, the popular terrorist now serving a life sentence in Israeli prison.

Jajoub accused Barghouti of starting a prisoner hunger strike in 2017 to hurt Abbas' popularity, saying that the hunger strike was a "coup" against Abbas.

That is sort of unhinged.

Rajoub then attacked some other popular younger Fatah leaders who Abbas considers a threat, like Issa Qaraqa and Qaddura Fares, saying that they were corrupt.

The other members of the Revolutionary Council forced Rajoub to stop his diatribe.

Barghouti's wife Fadwa, a lawyer and also a member of the Council, responded to Rajoub's attacks and said that her husband's hunger strike was always only against Israel, and that Rajoub was collaborating with the Israeli Prison Service to break the will of their heroic prisoners. She said that his attacks on Qaraqa and Fares were because they defended the prisoners' hunger strike.

She said if anyone should be investigated for corruption, it is Jibril Rajoub, especially his "shameful relations with women."

All of this is juicy political theater, and in a free society it would be all over the headlines of the newspapers rather than in the tabloid-style and little-read Firas Press. It is simply not reported in the West how Abbas holds a near-stranglehold on Palestinian media in the West Bank.

This episode also shines a light on how even Fatah can't get it's own act together, let alone make peace with other factions. The idea that such a dysfunctional party could or would make real peace with Israel is laughable.

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From the EU, August 2:

The European Union, the United Kingdom and France provided around € 5.5 million for the implementation of nineteen social infrastructure projects in Area C of the West Bank. The contribution is part of the European Union Area C Development Programme in the West Bank that amounts to €9.5 million.

The signing ceremony for the grant implementation agreements was held yesterday in Ramallah between the Municipal Development and Lending Fund (MDLF) and the representatives of sixteen local communities across the West Bank. The event was attended by the representatives of the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government, the European Union, the United Kingdom Department for International Development, and the French Development Agency.

This is the third and fourth package of the European Union Area C Development Programme. It will fund nineteen social infrastructures in sixteen localities serving more than 28,000 beneficiaries. The funded projects include schools, roads, multipurpose buildings, football playground and an electrical transformer.

The European Union Area C Development Programme in the West Bank is funded by the European Union, Denmark, France, and the United Kingdom.

The EU and EU Member States provide humanitarian assistance to communities in need in Area C in accordance with the humanitarian imperative. At the same time, the EU works with the Palestinian Authority to develop Area C and support Palestinian presence there. This includes projects promoting economic development and improving the quality of life of Palestinian communities in the areas of private sector development, environment and agriculture.

Area C is crucial for the two-state solution. Without Area C there is no contiguity of land and no space for Palestinian social and economic development.

Under existing signed agreements, Israel is the sole administrator of Area C. Even if you consider it "occupied," Israel is the only country that has the right to determine zoning and similar decisions.

The EU knows this and keeps sending millions into the relatively few Palestinians in Area C - knowing that any buildings ti constructs will likely be demolished by Israel.

Then the EU will complain that Israel is demolishing the buildings which it knows is Israel's legal right.

So the entire point isn't to help Palestinians in Area C (some 95-98% of them live in Areas A and B). The entire point is to pressure Israel.

What a great way to waste European taxpayer euros.

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08/09 Links Pt2: A homicidal Jew-hatred is going viral, again; Son of Imam Linked to WTC Bombing and Linda Sarsour, Ran Jihad Camp, Allegedly Trained Children to Shoot Up Schools

From Ian:

A homicidal Jew-hatred is going viral, again

The culture of suspicion against Jews circulates now in a country that had not participated in the Holocaust, , which did not have ghettos, but where today for a mixture of Thirdworldism, consistent Islamic electoral interests, anti-colonial madness out of maximum time and anti-Zionism practiced by the progressive elites, the English citizens of Jewish origin today no longer feel at ease.

The previous day there was the indictment of an imam of Copenhagen who in a sermon invited the faithful to kill the Jews. The day before there was the reconstruction of the history of the Imam of the Great Mosque in Toulouse, also guilty of having invited the faithful to get rid of the Jews.

Previously, there was a pan-European flotilla of solidarity to Hamas and Gaza which stopped in many Italian ports. Also a law in the Senate of Ireland which sanctions with prison those who import post-1967 Israeli goods.

And then the launch of hundreds of missiles on the Israeli houses in the south. And then the threats of elimination of the Jewish people coming from the spiritual father of Iran, Ali Khamenei.

And we do not stop here, since the last few weeks have seen nothing short of attacks on Jews in the cities of Germany and France.

Watchdog Group Sues US Government to Obtain Records of BDS Groups Under Obama Administration

A conservative watchdog group has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense over Obama-era records pertaining to anti-Israel BDS groups.

Judicial Watch filed the FOIA lawsuit in order to obtain records from 2015 of groups affiliated with BDS movement, which lobbied “the Obama administration to adopt policies to harm companies doing business with Israel,” the group said in a statement.

The lawsuit occurred “after all three agencies failed to respond to nearly identical April 23, 2018, FOIA requests,” the organization explained.

“Americans deserve to know if the Obama-era agenda of supporting anti-Israel radicals in subverting US law is ongoing,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These entrenched bureaucrats of the Deep State clearly require lawsuits to compel observance of FOIA law.”

The lawsuit states, despite Obama signing the 2015 Trade Enforcement Act, “the Customs and Border Protection Bureau restated the West Bank Country of Origin Marking Requirement rules requiring labeling of goods as being from the ‘West Bank,’ despite the fact that it is not a sovereign country,” reported Judicial Watch.

The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) applauded the move by Judicial Watch.

Israeli Air Force Gets First-Ever Female Squadron Commander

The Israeli Air Force has appointed the first female squadron commander in its 70-year history.

According to Israel’s Channel Two, the commander, who for security reasons is referred to only as “G.,” will be promoted to lieutenant colonel and put charge of the 122nd Squadron, known as “Nachshon.” The squadron is composed of planes specifically geared toward intelligence gathering.

The 34-year-old G. has been active in the Air Force since 2003, and has served in several command positions, including deputy commander of the “Nachshon” Squadron itself.

G. — currently a major — said that she was “happy with the appointment,” which she called “a great privilege alongside a great responsibility.”

“The real work is ahead of me,” she added. “I’m proud to serve in the Air Force.”

The Secretary General of the Islamic-Christian Committee to Support Occupied Jerusalem and Holy Sites, Hanna Issa, wrote an article where he denies that the Western Wall has any historic significance to Jews while claiming that it is of pure Islamic heritage and has been venerated by Muslims as the Al Buraq Wall since the time of Mohammed.

Starting in the first half of the 19th century, the Jews began to claim that the Wall of Buraq, with its great stones at its bottom, was the remaining building of their superstitious temple, which they called the Wailing Wall (now called the Western Wall). Muslims have allowed them to visit the wall as part of religious tolerance, but they have brought their instruments and trumpets and tried to turn the place into a synagogue.

Issa later says that Jews began to venerate the Kotel in the 16th century, which is indeed the time that Jews started to concentrate on that section of the retaining wall of the Temple. Before that they would gather to pray at other areas on the western and southern sections of the Temple Mount. Encyclopedia Judaica says:

The Midrashim already refer to the general sanctity of the Western Wall of the Temple in the fourth century C.E., perhaps referring to the time of Julian the Apostate. They speak of “the Western Wall of the Temple” or of “the Western Gate,” from which the Divine Presence never moves, which was not destroyed and never will be destroyed (Ex. R. 2:2; Num. R. 11:2, etc.). It seems probable, however, that the rabbis were referring to the Western Wall of the Holy of Holies and that its indestructibility is symbolic rather than actual, since that wall was in fact destroyed.

The notion of the ever-present *Shekhinah therefore became associated with the Western Wall (of the Temple Mount). An 11th-century source – referred to as the “prayer at the gates” document – is known from the Cairo *Genizah, and according to it Jews conducted prayers next to the Western Wall not in the present location but farther north immediately opposite the Holy of Holies of the Jewish Temple, i.e., in the area in front of “Warren’s Gate.” In the 12th century *Benjamin of Tudela mentions Jews coming to the Western Wall for prayers and to the “Mercy Gate,” but it is possible that the other walls to the south and east also served a similar purpose. Later visiting rabbis (12th–15th centuries) also refer to the walls of the Temple Mount, but they, too, are not site specific in terms of a gathering spot for Jewish worship along the Western Wall.

The idea that the specific site of the current Kotel is the site of where Mohammed tethered his flying steed is completely new, only in the past hundred years. No Muslim source before the 20th century identifies even the western wall as the site - only after the Muslims wanted to assert control over the Kotel did they claim that the site was also the site of Al Buraq.

This was not the only article denying the sanctity of the Western Wall to the Jews in Arabic media today. Palestinian site Elaph has an article about the history of Moroccans in Jerusalem that says "the Wailing Wall has no basis in the Jewish theological heritage."

It is not difficult to see that the Palestinians and Muslims in general are interested in denying any connection of Judaism to Israel. The consistent claiming of literally every Jewish holy site, al of which predate Islam, as being Islamic and not Jewish is not a coincidence. It is the basis of their view of Jews in the Middle East.

Those who pretend that this is not a religious conflict, or that this is merely a fight about real estate, is not looking at history - nor are they looking at these articles being written today.

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Young people are naïve. They pop out of their mothers’ wombs as little fresh-faced tabulae rasae with a huge amount of energy. By the time they approach draft age, Israeli culture treats them as adults. They look like adults, and they are given adult responsibilities; but because they have until then lived in a bubble of people that care about them, some of them have not learned about the reality outside it. They are unable to internalize that there are people out there who do not care about them, indeed who would rip their throats out to steal their bicycles. Or for nothing at all except their Jewish identity.

The bubbles that protected the young Luhar Altman and Hillel Garmi, who feature in this Ha’aretz story by Jewish Palestinian Amira Hass, must have been warm and soft beyond compare, because the degree of naïveté that they still display at age 19 is mind-boggling. Luhar and Hillel have decided that they would prefer not to serve in the IDF. Instead of taking the usual paths to avoid service that are available to a young Israeli – what to say to an army psychologist to mark you as undesirable is common knowledge – these two have chosen to refuse to serve on political grounds and will go to prison, to the great admiration of Jewish Palestinian Hass.

They are doing this to inspire other young Israelis to also avoid service. This is their way of fighting “the regime’s immorality.” I can’t imagine what they think the success of their campaign would look like, although we don’t have to look very far to see examples of how the folks that the IDF defends us against treat the people under their control.

So far they have merely shown that they are part of the anti-Zionist Left. But what is remarkable is the utter counterfactual idiocy of their reasons, the degree of blindness to reality they display. I wish they had said simply that they hated the Jewish state and wanted it replaced with an Arab state, the way Jewish Palestinian Hass does. At least then their position would make sense. But no. Let me quote Hass quoting them:

[Garmi’s] declaration opens: “This year, during the wave of unarmed demonstrations which took place near the Gaza Strip fence, I read what Ahmed Abu Artema, who organized the demonstrations, wrote, and I was impressed to discover people who take on the situation between the sea and the Jordan without using a gun. Like them, I too believe in civil disobedience – a tactic aimed at using unarmed force to underscore the regime’s immorality.”

Like them? I mean, seriously, Hillel Garmi, do you think that the riots and attempted incursions at the fence are about nonviolence and civil disobedience? Suppose the IDF left their posts at the fence and went to the beach in Tel Aviv. What do you think would happen? You do know that when Hamas operatives are not “using a gun” they are using a knife, or a car, as a weapon? You do know that they want to kill you, personally, because you are a Jew and the Quran tells them to?

Altman, in her declaration, spoke of the fear that Israelis grow up on, which she knows very well. As a child, she was unable to fall asleep because of “the terrorist under the bed.” The army gives Israelis a feeling of security, she wrote.

“We embrace and celebrate military service as part of our personal and social identity, and rely on the army like a drug addict who longs for another hit so he’ll finally feel sane,” she wrote. “As a society, we don’t know anything else; all our lives, we’ve relied on the army. This is a normal situation for us. It’s absurd, isn’t it? In my view, a reality in which we familiarize our children with war before peace is crazy.”

A “feeling of security?” How about actual security? You live in Katzir, in northern Israel. There are 130,000 rockets aimed at you, Luhar Altman, and your family and friends. No wonder you had a hard time sleeping, and no wonder you found yourself addicted to the army. Take away the army, and you and your family are dead! That’s one hell of a withdrawal symptom. I’m so sorry you find the current reality to be “crazy,” but it would be much crazier without the IDF to defend you.

Hass continues,

Despite the differences between them (he writes “Palestinians,” while she writes “the other”; he speaks of the value of equality, which is being destroyed, and of the occupation, while she fears the cycle of violence that has persisted for 70 years), they decided to refuse to serve on the same day, and to hold a festive refusal event together at the induction center, along with their supporters and their families.

A “festive refusal event!” You two are so cute, living on Mars and in Israel at the same time. I hope you enjoy the festivities. Afterwards you’ll have a few months in prison, not a picnic (it’s not a party prison like Ahed Tamimi’s), but not a Midnight Express kind of experience either. When you get out, the army that you hate will continue to protect you, so you can go to university and be rewarded as artists, lawyers, or media personalities. Believe me, it will look good on your résumé.

Just a word about the Jewish Palestinian, Amira Hass. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, she has chosen to throw in her lot with the enemies of the Jewish people. She is a latter-day Tokyo Rose, broadcasting anti-Israel propaganda from Ramallah. But unlike Tokyo Rose, she is paid well, and the Jewish state and people that she betrays daily will do nothing to her.

Everything in this story is surreal. Imagine: Hillel Garmi believes that Hamas is nonviolent, and Luhar Altman thinks that Israel should not have an army. And a Jewish Palestinian wishes for “many more like them.”

Worse, all agree that spitting in the face of the young Israelis who give several years of their lives to military service to defend the state that they live in, is an event worthy of celebration.

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08/09 Links Pt1: Over 150 rockets launched into Israel, woman seriously injured; PA has paid $294,332 to the Sbarro bombers; Leading US Jewish Groups: Kushner’s Push to Reform UNRWA ‘Long Overdue’

From Ian:

IDF Blog: Israel Under Attack

Hamas began shooting projectiles at Israeli civilians starting at 7:37PM on Wednesday evening and launched them consistently until early Thursday morning.

In response, IDF fighter jets struck 12 terror targets in Gaza, including a factory used to manufacture parts for terror tunnels and concrete, a maritime terror tunnel shaft along the coast, and several terror sites in military compounds, among them rocket manufacturing facilities and a central logistical military complex.

The factory used to manufacture parts for terror tunnels was intended to be used as a hotel, but was overtaken by the Hamas terror organization in 2012. The factory manufactures parts for terror tunnels under the guise of civilian infrastructure.

In 2012, during Operation Pillar of Defense, senior Hamas members used the building as shelter, believing the IDF would not target a civilian hotel construction site. In this building, Hamas terrorists continued to plan fighting and command rocket launching units. Months later, in 2013, Hamas took over the site entirely, blocked the entrance, and began establishing a concrete factory under the guise of a civilian construction site. The factory manufactured concrete parts designed exclusively for terror tunnels, including reinforcements, flooring, and concrete arches, which have no civilian use.

Over 150 rockets launched into Israel, woman seriously injured

A woman was seriously injured in Israel early Thursday morning when a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip hit a home in the Eshkol regional council near the Palestinian enclave.

The woman was a 30-year-old foreign worker from Thailand. She suffered injuries to her abdomen and limbs. Another person was lightly injured, and several were treated for shock.

Thursday morning’s injuries brought the total of wounded on the Israeli side to five in the current cycle of violence.

Rocket barrages by the Hamas terror group continued throughout the night. The military said over 150 rockets and mortar shells were launched at Israeli communities since Wednesday evening.

Most of the rockets hit open areas. The Iron Dome defense system — which targets only missiles projected to strike communities — destroyed 25 of the rockets.

PA has paid $294,332 to the Sbarro bombers

17 years ago today a suicide bomber entered the Sbarro pizza shop in downtown Jerusalem, detonated his suicide vest and murdered 15 people. The murdered in the August 9, 2001 bombing included 7 children as well as a couple and three of their children, an American citizen and a Brazilian citizen. (See their names and pictures below.) 130 people were injured.

The suicide bomber was Izz al-Din Al-Masri. His family has received $50,124 as a reward for his suicide bombing.

The terrorist who planned the attack and brought the bomber to Sbarro was Ahlam Tamimi. Tamimi was arrested in September 2001 and received 16 life sentences. In 2011, Tamimi was released as part of the deal to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from his Hamas captors. For her time in prison she has been rewarded by the PA with salary payments of at least $52,681.

The suicide belt was built by Hamas bomb- builder Abdallah Barghouti. Barghouti was arrested in May 2003, and received 67 life sentences - 15 of them for building the bomb used to murder the people in Sbarro. He has received salary payments from the PA of at least $191,526.

By September 2018, the PA will have cumulatively rewarded Barghouti, Tamimi, and the family of Al-Masri with at least $294,332.

I've been looking for any arguments to maintain UNRWA the way it is - where Palestinians alone are automatically considered "refugees" even if they are the great-grandchildren of people who fled a war, even if they are citizens of another state, even if they live in the land they are supposedly refugees from - none of which apply to any other group of people.

Amira Hass in Haaretz attempts to answer why Palestinians are different:

Other refugees had and have states that, in principle, they can or will be able to return to once the crisis that created their problem ends (like Rwandan and Syrian refugees), or alternatively, can move to (like ethnic Germans expelled from Eastern Europe or ethnic Greeks expelled from Turkey). But the Palestinian refugees lost their homeland. They aren’t allowed to return to the state – Israel – established on its ruins and have no state of their own.

So ethnic Greeks and ethnic Germans have a place to move to, but ethnic Arabs - since most Palestinians are not native but came from other Arab lands - do not have a place to move to?

In fact, many of the Arabs of Palestine voluntarily fled from their homes to the places they came from - Lebanon, Syria and Egypt - and to other areas like Jordan specifically because they felt that they were Arabs first and would be taken care of by their Arab brethren. No one, including themselves, called them "Palestinian."

Beyond that, Hass is saying that even the Palestinians who live in the territories must be allowed to move to Israel, even though they are within the borders of Palestine. And the "State of Palestine," recognize by the UN, cannot be a place for Palestinians to move - only Israel.

Moreover, most worldwide refugees get settled elsewhere. The idea that Palestinians must be different because they insist on only moving into Israel is absurd - real refugees don't get to choose to return if circumstances preclude that.

Furthermore, Hass doesn't address the question of why Jordanian Palestinians, most of whom have citizenship, should have any claim on "return."

Finally, Hass is pretending that her bogus reasons for treating Palestinians differently from real refugees are the reasons UNRWA was set up to begin with. But UNRWA pre-dates the UNHCR by about a year, before the word "refugee" was officially defined. Their being treated as special is a result of that accident of history and the political insistence of Arab countries not to naturalize Palestinians (in the name of "human rights") that UNRWA exists today, not because of some high-minded decision by the international community that Palestinians are uniquely oppressed, as Hass implies.

Indeed, the only reason that descendants of Palestinian Arabs (not Palestinian Jews, also covered under the mandate that created UNRWA) who fled in 1948 are considered refugees is because UNRWA decided on a "working definition" of refugee for the purposes of its services and to perpetuate itself; it was not a decision ever ratified by the UN.

Keep the lies defending UNRWA coming. The debate itself is what will finally force the world to realize that it has been spending billions that could and should be better spent elsewhere.

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Hamas returns to being proud of attacking Israeli civilians

For about ten years, Hamas has pretended that its rockets are only targeting Israeli military sites and not civilians.

This happened after Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri scolded Hamas in 2008 for shooting at Israel "with the blessed Qassam rockets which don’t differentiate between a child and an adult, and moreover, perhaps [don’t differentiate] between the Jews and the Arabs and Muslims working in those colonies or in the streets and markets of Occupied Palestine, even though the Shari’ah forbids their killing."

Since then, Hamas official communications celebrating rocket fire has been careful to say that they were targeting Israeli military bases, not civilian communities - even though they openly bragged about damage done to civilians.

Hamas has lifted the pretense.

The Al Qassam Brigades' press release on last night's bombardment of Israel by Hamas rockets has dropped nearly all references to Israeli military bases being the target. They have returned to openly saying that they are targeting civilian communities.

During the night: the bombing of the site of Ra'im and the usurperss of Sderot, Yad Mordekhai and Or Henir with a number of rocket bursts.
06: 00-04: 00: Netivot bombarded with a number of rocket bursts.
05:25: Shelled bombardment of keys(?) with a barrage of rockets.
05: 15-04: 30:The sites of Kissufim and Miftahim were shelled by rockets.
01:00: Zionist usurped Netivot bombarded with a rocket launcher.
00:30 - 01:00: The Erez military site was bombed and usurper Sderot was hit by a number of rocket bursts.

At the same time, the terror group gathered all the photos and videos it could find of Israelis panicking and damage to civilian areas.

NGOs have tried to take Hamas at its word that it only targets military sites, but now they will have to find some other reason to excuse Hamas rocket terror.

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Why haven't there been any presidential or parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories since 2006?

Apparently, because the Central Elections Commission needed a new headquarters!

That seems to be the logic behind a ceremony held today in Ramallah where the cornerstone for a new 7,500-square-meter, seven-story building meant to house the Palestinian Authority Central Elections Commission.

The EU is funding the construction to the tune of €5 million.

European Union Representative Ralf Tarraf said in his speech at the ceremony that the EU was a proud partner of the Central Elections Commission. "We support the Central Elections Commission in its efforts to promote democracy in Palestine. The EU believes that enhancing Palestinian participation in the electoral process is important to ensure respect for fundamental rights."

How a new building will encourage Mahmoud Abbas, the current dictator for life of the Palestinian Authority, to hold new elections is a mystery.

Even Abbas' election in 2005 had nothing to do with democracy. The Palestinian Authority is not the supreme political body for the Palestinians - it reports to the PLO, which Abbas heads as well. Palestinians do not elect the leaders of the PLO.

Rami Hamdallah, who also spoke at this ceremony, has very little power compared to most other prime ministers. Mahmoud Abbas controls the PLO, the Fatah movement and also the Palestinian Authority via his presidency which has been illegal for years.

The EU chooses to ignore this history and these facts, and wastes millions of Euros on symbols of democracy where there is no democracy, and no hope for democracy.

Here is an infographic I made in 2013, still pretty accurate, describing how Abbas controls the entire political process and how little the PA has to do with anything.

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