Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, January 26, 2019

01/26 Links: Former Israeli War Colleges Commander: ‘Without Judea and Samaria, Israel Cannot Defend Tel Aviv’; Democrats Ducking Vote on Rejecting Anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: EXCLUSIVE - Former Israeli War Colleges Commander: ‘Without Judea and Samaria, Israel Cannot Defend Tel Aviv’

President Donald Trump’s negotiating team may unveil its “deal of the century” peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians soon after Israel’s April 9 elections.

Gershon Hacohen, a recently retired Israeli major general and former commander of Israel’s war colleges, now serves as a senior researcher at Bar Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Affairs, where he writes prolifically on the military significance of Israel’s relations with the Palestinians.

Hacohen is considered one of Israel’s most brilliant strategists. He is also something of a voice in the wilderness among his fellow generals, who almost unanimously identify with the left side of the political and ideological spectrum.

In light of the various media reports that have surfaced over the past year about the contours of the Trump plan, Hacohen has deep reservations about the plausibility of the American efforts.

This week, Hacohen published a major study in Hebrew, which received frontpage coverage in the Hebrew media in Israel. In it, Hacohen analyzed the military implications for Israel of a possible Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria – otherwise known as the West Bank – in any deal with the Palestinians.

In his report, titled, “A Withdrawal from Area C of Judea and Samaria is an Existential Threat,” Hacohen argued that Israel cannot afford to withdraw from any territory in Judea and Samaria.

Breitbart News spoke with Hacohen to discuss his paper and what its implications are for the Trump administration as it prepares to unveil its peace plan.

Cotton Praises Judge in Israel Boycott Case: He ‘Acknowledged the Obvious’

Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) praised a federal district judge's ruling Friday, after the judge upheld an anti-discrimination law as consistent with the First Amendment.

The Arkansas Times, a weekly paper based in Little Rock, argued that it could sell advertising space to public entities without certifying the Times was not boycotting Israel. It claimed mandating a certification abrogated its First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Arkansas' general assembly passed Act 710 in 2017, which allows the state government to contract only with companies that do not boycott Israel. It prohibits the government to work with companies "engaging in refusals to deal, terminating business activities, or other actions that are intended to limit commercial relations with Israel, or persons or entities doing business in Israel or in Israeli-controlled territories, in a discriminatory manner."

The bill follows several years of increasing pressure from anti-Israel activists for companies to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Political efforts, including BDS, target Israeli organizations and companies doing business in Israel in an effort to erode support for the state of Israel and pressure the Israeli government to change its policies.

Cotton described Act 710 as a bulwark against efforts by "Israel's foes." He explained that, pursuant to the law, "Government contractors in Arkansas are required to certify they will not participate in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement designed by Israel’s foes, or else face consequences." More than half of American states have passed laws opposing anti-Israel boycotts.

Democrats Ducking Vote on Rejecting Anti-Semitism

Democratic leaders are remaining quiet about a new congressional measure that rejects anti-Semitism and chides a new class of Democratic congressional members for the open embrace of notorious anti-Semites and anti-Israel causes, according to the leading Republican author of that new measure.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R., N.Y.), one of just two Jewish Republicans in Congress, has introduced a new congressional resolution in the House that categorically rejects anti-Semitism in all its forms and calls out some newly elected Democratic members who have ridden a popular wave into Congress on the backs of anti-Semitic leaders and causes, Zeldin told the Washington Free Beacon in a wide-ranging interview.

While a similar House resolution condemning white supremacy sailed to a nearly unanimous vote several weeks ago, Zeldin's amendment, focused directly on anti-Semitism, has put Democratic leaders in a precarious position as they are forced to reject the views of popular new freshman colleagues.

"It's up to the Democrats to decide whether or not they are actually going to confront this head on," Zeldin told the Free Beacon. "I'm wiling to work with any Democratic colleague on any idea he or she has to crush anti-Semitism in any form. But I can't do that for them."

To that end, Zeldin's measure—which is expected to be brought for a vote in the coming weeks—is shaping up to be a sort of litmus test for the Democratic leadership as it figures out how to deal with a class of freshmen who are open about their distaste for Israel and support causes like the Boycott, Sanction, and Divestment movement, or BDS, which wages economic warfare on the Jewish state.

I noticed that someone named Michael Byrne attacked Kamala Harris, the Democratic senator who recently announced her interest in running for President, as being too pro-Israel.

The title of the article at Antiwar is "Kamala Harris Has an Israel Problem. That Is a Deal-Breaker for Me." It is obvious that the only person with an Israel problem is Michael Byrne himself.

His main issue is Harris' speech at AIPAC in 2017. So here it is:

Good morning, AIPAC. Good morning. What an honor....

So having grown up in the Bay Area, I fondly remember those Jewish national fund boxes that we would use to collect donations to plant trees for Israel. Years later when I visited Israel for the first time, I saw the fruits of that effort and the Israeli ingenuity that has truly made a desert bloom. I soaked in the sights and sounds and smells of Jerusalem. I stood in Yad Vashem, devastated by the silent testimonies of the six million Jews that were murdered in the Holocaust, and we must always remember that solemn promise, never again.

And I did what I often do when visiting a new country. I visited the highest court in the land, and as I toured Israel's Supreme Court, I was struck by the iconic architecture which embodies Israel's founding principles of democracy and rule of law. The design of that building left a lasting impression on me. Its straight lines which represent the immutable nature of truth while the curved walls and glass represent the fluid nature of tzedek, of justice.

And this is a concept that is personal for me because it's that same commitment to justice for the voiceless and the vulnerable that led my parents as students to march for civil rights in the 1960s while pushing me in a stroller. And it's why I became a prosecutor and personally prosecuted everything from low-level offenses to homicides.

It's why I became San Francisco District Attorney and was later elected Attorney General of California where I took on transnational gangs, cyber criminals, and mortgage fraud. And that commitment to justice is why I ran to become a United States senator from the great state of California, the point being to continue that fight. And a critical piece of my agenda is the fight to defend and strengthen our national security.

As a member of the both the Senate Intelligence Committee and Homeland Security Committee, I have a front row seat to these issues, and I am proud to stand strongly with America's allies, including Israel.

So let me be clear about what I believe. I stand with Israel because of our shared values which are so fundamental to the founding of both our nations. I believe the bonds between the United States and Israel are unbreakable, and we can never let anyone drive a wedge between us.

Our bonds are rooted in our shared history and are strengthened by the ties between our peoples. And in the words of Shimon Peres whose loss we mourn so deeply, for Israel's existence we need the friendship of the United States of America. And of course he knew that feeling goes both ways, and there's no question that friendship and our partnership must be unwavering.

And I believe Israel should never be a partisan issue, and as long as I'm a United States senator I will do everything in my power to ensure broad and bipartisan support for Israel's security and right to self-defense.

I believe that the only viable resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is two states for two people living side by side in peace and security. I believe that a resolution to this conflict cannot be imposed. It must be agreed upon by the parties themselves. Peace can only come through a reconciliation of differences, and that can only happen at the negotiating table.

I believe that when any organization delegitimizes Israel, we must stand up and speak out for Israel to be treated equally. And that is why the first resolution I co-sponsored as a United States senator was to combat anti-Israel bias at the United Nations and reaffirm that the United States seeks a just, secure, and sustainable two-state solution.

And as someone who's personally prosecuted hate crime, I also believe that we cannot stand by while anti-Semitism, hate crime, and bigotry are on the rise, whether that's a swastika on a Jewish family and children's services bus in San Francisco or the burning of a mosque in Tampa. That's why I am pleased to announce for the first time here at AIPAC that I'm introducing a senate resolution that condemns targeting of Jews as well as any form of religious bias, racism, misogyny, or other hateful acts targeting minorities across the United States.

And let's be candid. Many, including those in this hall, have been directly impacted by the outrageous incidents targeting the Jewish community. This violence and hate is alarming and simply unacceptable. No one should have to worry about their children's safety when they drop them off at the JCC.

No one should have to be afraid to put a menorah in their front window or on their front lawn. And no one should ever have to fear that the grave of a loved one might be desecrated because of their faith. So my resolution calls on law enforcement to expedite investigations of hate crime and hold perpetrators accountable.

My resolution calls on law enforcement to fully report hate crime statistics, and my resolution calls on the administration to support victims and fund security at places of worship and other institutions that have been targeted, of any faith. And as I fight to promote human rights and security, Israel and the Jewish community will always be a priority for me.

And that is why as senator I am particularly focused on three areas where I believe the United States and Israel can expand our cooperation and where California plays an important and central role. And the three are defense, cybersecurity, and water security.

So let's think about it. First, defense. In the midst of uncertainty and turmoil, America's support for Israel's security must be rock solid. And as Iran continues to launch ballistic missiles while it arms and funds its terrorist proxy Hezbollah, we must stand with Israel. As Hamas maintains its control of Gaza and fires rockets across Israel's southern border, we must stand with Israel. And as ISIS and civil war in Syria destabilize the region, displacing millions and threatening shared security interest, we must support all those affected by ongoing violence and terror, and we must stand with Israel.

Our defense relationship is critical to both nations, which is why I support the United States' commitment to provide Israel with $38 billion in military assistance over the next decade. It is why I support full funding for Israel, including for the Arrow, David's Sling, and the Iron Dome missile defense systems which save lives. And that's why I am fully committing to maintaining Israel's qualitative military edge.

At the same time the United States must never permit Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. The Iran nuclear deal must be vigorously enforced through robust monitoring, inspection, and verification. And if Iran cheats, there's no question. Iran must be held accountable. And so as Iran inserts itself in Syria, including through the deployment of advanced military equipment and missiles that threaten Israel, we must not tolerate Iran fanning the flames of instability and violence in the region.

In addition, Russia's explicit support for these actions is a direct threat to American interest, and it makes Israel less secure. So I say the Trump administration must be crystal-clear with Putin. Russia must stop its support of Iran. This is a threat to the United States, and it is a threat to Israel.

A second area where I believe we can expand our cooperation is cybersecurity and technology. As cyberattacks expose the vulnerabilities of our most essential systems and infrastructure, the United States and Israel must strengthen our innovation and technological capacities and our defenses together. Israel has more scientists and startups per capita than any other country in the world, and I'm proud that California, building on the 2014 commitments made by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Governor Brown, has facilitated many of these technological partnerships and investments.

Today Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley are inextricably linked, ensuring that our two countries remain on the cutting edge. And when I met with Prime Minister Netanyahu last month, I was proud to discuss California's cyber advancements and the way we can expand those joint efforts.

And the third area of growing cooperation is water security. So as any Californian in this hall can tell you, water is the lifeblood of our economies and our communities, and because of California's history of droughts, we know we cannot take water for granted. In this regard we could not have a better example than Israel. Yes, Israel is a nation that is 60 percent desert, yet so water-secure that it exports water to its neighbors. And Israel has been a great partner to California in this area.

Take, for example, Carlsbad, California where an Israeli company built a desalination plant which provides 50 million gallons of water to 400,000 Californians every day. So while the United States and Israel are geographically separated by water, we can also be bound by water. And I'm eager to champion these three partnerships in the senate now and in the future and to ensure that California plays a key role in the relationship between the United States and Israel.

So in conclusion, AIPAC, we all know these are difficult times. I stand here clear eyed about the dangers of division in our country and in our world, understanding why a state for the Jewish people is so essential. And I also stand here as someone with a lifelong commitment to justice, a lifelong faith in the power of democratic values and the innate oneness and goodness of human beings. And I believe that it's the common ground that unites so many of us, values like faith, family, respect, and empathy that will see us through.

Just look, for example, at the response when Jewish cemeteries in St. Louis and Philadelphia were so horribly, horribly vandalized. Muslim activists quickly raised money to restore the headstones with one organizer posting on social media, "I want to ask all Muslims to reach out to your Jewish brothers and sisters and stand together against this bigotry."

Common ground. Look at the words of Elie Wiesel, who I knew personally and loved, when he said, "The opposite of love is not hate. It's indifference."

Common ground. Look at Israel's Supreme Court, that beautiful place I visited, upon which sits a Tunisian judge alongside an Israel-Arab Christian and a Brooklyn-born Israeli, all presided over by a female chief justice—common ground.

Or look at my own life where a daughter of a South Asian mother and a Jamaican father concluded her own interfaith wedding with her husband breaking a glass and everyone yelling mazel tov.

So that's who we are, and if we embrace those values that have always made the United States and Israel great, then I believe our two nations will continue to move forward together for years and years to come. I thank you, AIPAC.

Thank you.

Harris is very much a liberal. She supports a two state solution. But apparently, a Democrat can be attacked nowadays for simply supporting Israel's right to exist. (And her being a person of color is no defense, as it is for those who support Arab genocidal intentions towards Jews in Israel.)

(Then again,

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01/25 Links Pt2: Lipstadt: Yes, Jeremy Corbyn IS Fuelling Anti-Semitism; Phillips: The dirty little secret of the 'diversity' agenda; Imam Tawhidi: Is Jerusalem a Sacred Islamic City?

From Ian:

Prof. Deborah Lipstadt: Yes, Jeremy Corbyn IS Fuelling Anti-Semitism

In her new book, Anti-Semitism Here And Now, Professor Deborah Lipstadt devotes several pages to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn: "Jeremy Corbyn's record in politics is deeply rooted in firmly held ideological beliefs. Fundamental to his political philosophy is an automatic - critics might call it knee-jerk - sympathy for anyone who is or appears to be oppressed or an underdog."

"It is doubtful that Corbyn deliberately seeks out anti-Semites to associate with and to support. But it seems that when he encounters them, their Jew-hatred is irrelevant as long as their other positions - on class, race, capitalism, the role of the state, and Israel/Palestine - are to his liking. Alan Johnson, the former moderate Labour MP, aptly described Corbyn as someone who does not 'indulge in anti-Semitism himself. It is that he indulges the anti-Semitism of others.'"

"Even though the EU and the U.S. have classified Hamas and Hizbullah as terrorist organizations, Corbyn has described them as 'friends,' attacked the notion they were 'terrorists' and invited them to meet him at Parliament....In 2010...on Holocaust Remembrance Day, he hosted an 'Auschwitz to Gaza' event in Parliament at which repeated comparisons were made between Jews, Israelis and Nazis."

"So, in answer to the question: Is Jeremy Corbyn an anti-Semite? My response would be that that's the wrong question. The right questions to ask are: Has he facilitated and amplified expressions of anti-Semitism? Has he been consistently reluctant to acknowledge expressions of anti-Semitism unless they come from white supremacists and neo-Nazis? Will his actions facilitate the institutionalization of anti-Semitism among other progressives? Sadly, my answer to all of these is an unequivocal yes."

Melanie Phillips: The dirty little secret of the 'diversity' agenda

The reason for this moral collapse is the shift in political gravity that has taken place on the left in which positions previously shunned as marginal and unacceptable have now become mainstream.

Support for “Palestine” has transformed what has never ceased to be a genocidal agenda into a presumed liberation movement and the signature progressive cause.

Black power, once seen rightly as a hateful, anti-white, violent revolutionary movement is now an accepted narrative in America’s black community. This would undoubtedly have horrified its great and visionary leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Contrary to the poisonous travesty published a few days ago by The New York Times that vilified Israel and wickedly suggested that King would today be its foe, he actually said: “When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews. You are talking antisemitism.”

Tragically, the mainstreaming of black power has now also mainstreamed black antisemitism, just as the championing of “Palestine” has mainstreamed hatred of Jews.

This shift that has taken place to an anti-white, anti-West, anti-Jew agenda is denied largely because it is so closely associated with “diversity” – that is, black people and Muslims.

The sheer terror of being tarred as racist or Islamophobic causes such circles not only to deny this is happening, but to hurl accusations of racism or Islamophobia at any who point it out.

Black power demagogues like Farrakhan whip up black-on-white race hate wherever they can. Preying on America’s guilt over its terrible history of slavery and anti-black bigotry, this anti-white racism threatens to unstitch America’s social fabric.

In 2014, the Investor’s Business Daily described how the “radical Muslim Brotherhood has built the framework for a political party in America that seeks to turn Muslims into an Islamist voting bloc.”

Social inclusion has meant embracing not just the unconscionable but a dagger at the throat of Jews, America and the West.

Marc Lamont Hill: Prominent Progressives Secretly Share Views Endorsing Palestinian Violence

A former CNN pundit fired for comments endorsing Palestinian violence against Israel doubled down in a podcast released Thursday, claiming his views were mainstream among progressives.

Marc Lamont Hill was fired by CNN after he called for "a free Palestine from the river to the sea" in a November speech at the United Nations. Hill spoke with Mehdi Hasan on his Intercept podcast "Deconstructed" in a segment called "What You Can't Say About Israel."

During the segment, Hill made clear he stood by his comments. "I think I was right," he said.

"If I had a dollar for every progressive member of Congress, for every progressive faculty member, for every progressive cable news or otherwise TV commentator who sent me a private message saying, ‘I agree with you,'" Hill said, "I'd have so much money."

Hill claimed other progressives are afraid of backlash for publicly embracing the slogan.

"You can almost hear the whispers in the message, ‘I agree with you, but, you know, stay strong, but this is why I don't say anything,'" he told Hasan.

The slogan "from the river to the sea" refers to the space between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It suggests the formation of a Palestinian state spanning the two waters, erasing Israel entirely. Defenders of Palestinian terror organizations and those seeking a one-state solution that ends Israel's existence often repeat the slogan.

01/25 Links Pt1: Is Israel’s Inevitable War With Iran Already Underway?; Israel’s Foes Finally Admit That Rocks Can Kill; BDS blacklist under review by UN body will harm Palestinians

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: Is Israel’s Inevitable War With Iran Already Underway?

Meanwhile, the Iranian regime — weakened by restored US sanctions and the massive unrest of its subjugated populace — is boasting about its military prowess. This is par for the course in Tehran, particularly as the ruling mullahs are marking the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, which ousted Shah Reza Pahlavi and ushered in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s reign of terror.

In an interview with Iranian state TV on Tuesday, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, went as far as to flaunt the regime’s nuclear achievements, thanks in large measure to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the nuclear deal signed with world powers in 2015 — which, he said, “marinated” Iran’s right to enrich uranium.

The only drawback he mentioned was the fact that “for Europeans, a centrifuge takes eight years from designing to become operational, while the process takes us 10 years.”

Salehi then announced that he would be traveling at the end of the month to Ardakan “to oversee the transport of 30 tons of yellowcake produced … there to [the Uranium Conversion Facility at] Isfahan, [which] means that the Ardakan site has become operational.”

It would be a grave mistake to dismiss Salehi’s words as mere saber-rattling, given the Iranian regime’s stated intention and increasingly overt attempts to annihilate Israel, even at its own potential peril. Rather than looking the other way, at best — or, worse, condemning Israel at international forums — the world should be thanking the Jewish state for doing its dirty work. The inevitable war against Iran should have been fought by America decades ago. Today, it is up to the IDF.

When the snow melts on Mount Hermon, we Israelis will be back in shorts and sandals, heading for the polls this spring to elect the next Knesset. The only question at this point is whether we will be doing so in bomb shelters.

House Majority Leader Calls for US Recognition of Israeli Sovereignty Over Golan

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has called for the United States to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the congressman’s office told Jewish Insider.

The Golan spans about 700 square miles and directly abuts what is now a civil-war-torn Syria.

This development comes as members of Congress have called for the Trump administration to formally acknowledge Israeli control of the Golan Heights, a geographical security barrier for Israel in the fight against terrorism from Hezbollah, with its growing arsenal of missiles and rockets, and other Iranian-backed groups.

Earlier this week, Iranian fighter jets fired a surface-to-surface missile at the Golan Heights, prompting Israel to launch a massive attack on numerous Iranian targets in Syria.

Last week, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) sent a letter to US President Donald Trump calling for the official recognition.

Gottheimer followed Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who introduced a resolution last month that stated, “Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights is critical to Israel’s national security,” and that “Israel’s security from attack from Syria and Lebanon cannot be assured without Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.”

Jonathan S. Tobin: Israel’s Foes Finally Admit That Rocks Can Kill

As far as the mainstream media is usually concerned, when rocks are thrown in the Middle East, it’s nothing to get too worked up about. When Palestinian mobs throw rocks at Israeli soldiers at the Gaza border fence as part of their effort to cross into the Jewish state and commit mayhem, such actions are generally depicted as a non-lethal form of protest.

Ever since the Palestinians launched an intifada — a “national uprising” — in December of 1987, rock-throwing has been treated as a popular form of protest against Israel. Indeed, the act of throwing rocks at Jews has long since become an iconic symbol of the “resistance” to Israel, glorified in Palestinian culture, poems, and songs. Throwing rocks at soldiers and settlers — or their cars and buses — has become something like a national sport, as well as a rite of passage for Arab youth.

Incidents of stone-throwing at Jewish targets are a daily occurrence, and so numerous that Israel barely bothers to keep statistics on them. But we do know that at least 14 Israelis have been killed as a result of car crashes caused by rock-throwing or direct blows. When Palestinians are arrested in connection with such crimes, they are either depicted sympathetically as legitimate combatants using the only weapons available to them, or as children who are unjustly harassed or even tortured by the Israeli army and police for what is, at worst, nothing more than so-called teenage mischief-making.

But after more than 30 years of such stories in the media, the international press has finally decided to treat this “harmless” activity in the West Bank as a crime.

A Palestinian women was killed in October when she was struck in the head by a stone thrown by what police believe was a group of Israeli teenagers. Aisha Rabi, a mother of nine, was with her husband and two of their children driving in a car when the crime occurred. The suspects are students at a West Bank yeshiva high school — one of whom remains in custody since being arrested in December due to the fact that, according to Israeli authorities, traces of his DNA was found on the stone that killed Rabi.

The case raises a lot of uncomfortable questions for both Arabs and Jews.

Fatah issued a statement yesterday, calling on Palestinian Arabs to defend the Al Aqsa Mosque and surrounding area against "attacks and the successive incursions, the latest of which was this morning with the Israeli police chief, accompanied by a number of settlers who wreak havoc in the holy sites."

Member of the Revolutionary Council of Fatah Osama al-Qawasmi asked, "Where the Arab and Islamic nations concerning these crimes against the first Qibla and the third holiest mosques, and against the Prophet of Islam, peace be upon him? ...These crimes and violations are a prelude to Netanyahu's visit to al-Aqsa which will explode the situation completely."

The specific incident that upset them so was an apparent visit to the Dome of the Rock by IDF veterans who had captured the Temple Mount in 1967. Here's video of them walking through the site very quickly, upsetting a single shouting woman for twenty seconds asking why they have to be there.

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Ireland closer to a bizarre law that could penalize Google or Facebook for having Jerusalem employees

From JTA:

The lower house of Ireland’s Parliament approved a bill on Thursday that would ban the import or sale of goods originating in all “occupied territories,” with lawmakers’ discussions centered on eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank.

The Dail passed the measure by a vote of 78-45 with three abstentions. It is the second of a five-phase process, according to reports.

The measure introduced by the conservative Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party would make illegal “the import and sales of goods, services and natural resources originating in illegal settlements in occupied territories.” Sinn Fein, a left-wing party, supported the bill.

Fianna Fáil foreign affairs spokesman Niall Collins told the Irish Independent ahead of the vote that his party has become “increasingly concerned about the actions of Israel and its continued and blatant disregard for international law.” He said the bill would not harm trade in Israeli goods, just goods produced in the settlements.

Actually, the bill can and would affect lots more than "goods produced in the settlements."

The text of the proposed law says, in part,

Provision of a settlement service
8. (1) It shall be an offence for a person to provide or attempt to provide a settlement service.
(2) It shall be an offence for a person to assist another person to provide or attempt to provide a settlement service.

“settlement service” means a service provided in whole or in part within a relevant occupied territory by an illegal settler.

10. (1) A person who is guilty of an offence under section 6, 7, 8 or 9 is liable—
(a) on summary conviction to a class A fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both, and
(b) on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €250,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to both.

If Apple or Google or Microsoft have employees who are allowed to telecommute from one of the many Jewish areas of Jerusalem that Ireland considers "occupied," then the high tech companies are assisting that person in providing a settlement service and could be fined and jailed.

As Eli Lake writes in Bloomberg, this would not only force the companies to choose between doing business in Ireland or Israel, but also could run foul of US laws:

This would place U.S. companies in a bind. If they follow Irish law, they would have to either fire the telecommuting employee or not allow the employee to work from home. If they did that, however, the companies would be participating in a boycott not sanctioned by the U.S. government. And that, as Kittrie observed last year, would in turn risk violating the anti-boycott sections of U.S. export regulations.

Beyond that, if an Irish citizen visits Israel and decides to visit this kosher coffee shop in the Old City, she could be fined up to €250,000 and go to prison for five years.

And don't be fooled by the language of the law that says it is against any occupation. As Trocaire - an NGO that supports this legislation - writes:

2. DOES THIS BILL ONLY AFFECT ISRAEL?
If enacted, the legislation would apply to territories where there is a clear international legal consensus on the status of the occupation. As it stands, only the occupied Palestinian territories have been confirmed as occupied by the International Court of Justice. However, this Bill allows for other territories to be included so long as there is consensus between the Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade and both houses of the Oireachtas.

It just so happens that Irish oil firms Island Oil & Gas, Longreach and San Leon are stealing oil from Western Sahara territory occupied by Morocco, and the native Sahwaris aren't happy about it. But this bill doesn't cover that.

When an "anti-occupation" bill is written in such a way that it only targets the Jewish state while allowing corporations to profit from other occupied territories, you can safely say that it is antisemitic.

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The biggest BDSFail that you never heard about

In 2015, the BDS Movement was ecstatic over some economic news:

"BDS was a major factor behind the 46% drop in foreign direct investment in Israel in 2014, according to a UN report," the BDS webpage still says.

YNet reported, "The report contains one very glum statistic; in 2014 $6.4 billion were invested in Israel, whereas in 2013 $11.8 billion were invested - a decline of about 46%."

It turns out the UN report didn't blame BDS for the drop, but one of the Israeli economists who wrote the UN report said it might be because of a combination of BDS and the 2014 Gaza war -and admitted that her theory was only conjecture. But that guess was enough to excite the Israel-haters.

Mondoweiss was over the moon, quoting Bisan Mitri, Palestinian BDS National Committee secretariat member, who said, "Ten years after its launch, the BDS movement is being recognised by one of the authors of a UN report as starting to have major impacts on the Israeli economy. Israel’s shift to the far-right, its intentional crimes against Palestinians and the BDS movement and rapid changes in public opinion following Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza last summer mean that Israel is increasingly becoming a less attractive investment destination."

BDS was claiming this victory across the board, with no caveats. They knew that they were having a major effect on Israel's economy. They raised money based on this victory.

So how has direct foreign investment in Israel done since then?

It has more than tripled!

The 2018 report shows that Israel's FDI inflows has soared from $6 billion to nearly $19 billion in only three years!

Yes, the statistic that was giving Israel-haters virtual orgasms in 2015 as proof that Israel's fortunes are finally on a downturn is now seen, three years later, to have been an anomaly - and Israel has not only tripled its FDI inflows, but it was ranked #18 in the world in 2017 (up from #27 in 2016), far higher than even the UK!

Israel's 2017 increase of 59% is even more astonishing considering that the total FDI inflows to developed countries decreased by one third in 2017, from $1.1 trillion to $720 million.

In the end, the very nature of foreign investment is based on some very large deals, and it is going to vary a lot from year to year.

If BDS is going to take credit for Israel's dip in FDI in 2014, then it must take responsibility for Israel's huge FDI increase in 2017. Which means that if BDS was a corporation, its CEO should resign in disgrace for how poor it meets its stated goals.

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01/24 Links Pt2: Don’t Believe Ilhan Omar; Rachel Riley: Why I spoke out about Labour’s anti-Semitism shame; How Al Jazeera Dresses Up Its Anti-Semitism for an English-Speaking Audience

From Ian:

Don’t Believe Ilhan Omar

She “unknowingly” offended Jews by saying that Israel hypnotized the world not to see its evil? Nonsense. In the Greater Middle East, from which Omar’s family hails, conspiracy theory is the coin of the realm, and much self-inflicted grief is blamed on dark Jewish magic. It’s ludicrous to think that she didn’t know what she was saying. Omar composed her offending tweet during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza and was, in all probability, speaking foremost to an audience that truly believes in the evils of Jewish sorcery.

We’re talking here about people who embrace a strain of superstitious anti-Semitism that sees Jews as non-human agents of the Devil. In January 2015, for example, after Islamist terror attacks rocked Paris, a Daily Beast writer interviewed some French Algerians who blamed the attacks on “magical shape-shifting Jews that were master manipulators that could be everywhere at the same time.” We’re talking about the Iranian cleric and Tehran University professor who went on television and claimed: “The Jew is very practiced in sorcery. Indeed most sorcerers are Jews.”

This is the crowd that Ilhan Omar—an American congresswoman who now serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee—was speaking to. In their language.

The history of mystical anti-Semitism is long indeed. It predates Christendom and thrived, at times, long afterward. Martin Luther wrote that “a Jew is as full of idolatry and sorcery as nine cows have hair on their backs, that is: without number and without end.” Such notions were popular throughout Medieval Europe and survived in various forms into the modern age. The Third Reich was, in part, an occult operation. Official Nazi publications discussed phenomena such as the “Jewish evil eye.”

Omar’s talent for untruth is evident in the way she went about pretending not to be a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which advocates actions aimed at delegitimizing the existence of the world’s only Jewish state. After she was safely elected, Omar freely confessed her support for the BDS movement—a tacit acknowledgment of its controversial nature.

Rachel Riley: Why I spoke out about Labour’s anti-Semitism shame

You need to know next to nothing to propagate Nazi or Soviet Jew-hating propaganda, reframed to fit today’s narrative, which spreads like wildfire and is dangerous. But you need to know nearly everything in order to combat it. The odds are stacked in the anti-Semite’s favour. Every Labour official who labels this a smear, every disciplinary decision that gives the perpetrator a free pass while its victims are abused or even disciplined themselves, is a disgrace. My level of engagement in this issue is directly proportional to the amount of anti-Semitism and hostility to Jews and their allies I’m witness to, which is why it’s currently consuming my life.

Since speaking out, I’ve attracted the attention of a Who’s Who of anti-Semites and apologists, who’ve publicly criticised me. Neo-Nazis, naturally, have also shown their interest. A local Labour Party secretary repeatedly libelled me to Channel 4, ignoring my requests for her to check her facts and stop. Labour supporters have taken it upon themselves to contact my employers, calling for me to be sacked, suggesting we should rename our show ‘8 out of 10 Cats does Paedophilia’ in my honour. I’ve seen thousands of untrue slights against my character, with those making them knowing they can do so to praise from their echo-chambers, in all likelihood with impunity – yet one misplaced word from me could be ruinous.

We need to re-stack those odds. No-one should have to risk their safety and jeopardise their career speaking out against anti-Semitism in Britain in 2019. This has been happening to others for the last three years. Campaigners – the large majority ex-Labour people, deeply hurt by what they are seeing – have been called every name under the sun. They’ve postponed careers, degrees, lost businesses through harassment and, in recent weeks, I’ve even seen three people baselessly libelled as paedophiles in a desperate attempt to discredit and silence them, and it’s all been allowed to happen in quiet.

It’s lonely speaking out about this. And we can’t win this fight alone, nor should we have to try. We’ve seen where anti-Semitism can lead from centuries of persecution. It never ends well. We need to remember our history and I am so grateful to groups like the Holocaust Educational Trust and speakers like Eva Clarke, who, by sharing their stories, help in the only way we know how to safeguard future generations from this ever being allowed to happen again.

This needs a bigger spotlight. This should be a national scandal. We need action rather than words. I call on all people, the media and politicians from every side to stand with us and Be Louder against anti-Semitism. Enough is enough.

Joe Rogan: NY Times Writer Details Anti-Semitism by Progressives

Know How to Answer, part 19: "Palestine is not viable without contiguity or Jerusalem"

Latest in the series...

Six years ago I gave a lecture at Yeshiva University on how to answer anti-Israel arguments. Since the lecture was over an hour and twenty minutes, I decided to break it up into 20 sections, one each to answer one popular anti-Israel argument.

Here is part 19.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

Matti Friedman explains what should be obvious when he says that there is no Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

There isn’t an Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the way that many outsiders seem to think, and this perception gap is worth spelling out. It has nothing to do with being right-wing or left-wing in the American sense. To borrow a term from the world of photography, the problem is one of zoom. Simply put, outsiders are zoomed in, and people here in Israel are zoomed out. Understanding this will make events here easier to grasp.

Zoom out and you will see, Friedman explains, that only a minority of Israel’s enemies, historically and currently, are Palestinian Arabs. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and even Yemen joined with the Palestinians in an attempt to snuff out the newly-declared State of Israel in 1948. Today Iran and her Shiite proxies – Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Iraqi militias entrenching themselves in Syria are Israel’s most formidable enemies, with Hamas, the Qatari-financed offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, playing a secondary role.

Compared to the Palestinians, Israel looks strong, Goliath to their David. But in the context of the overall Muslim Middle East, Israel, with its relatively small population and lack of strategic depth, is threatened.

And this, says Friedman, is why the peace processors don’t get it. Clinton, Bush, and Obama were all “Zoomed in” on Israel and the Palestinians, while not understanding the broader context. Although we haven’t heard Trump’s proposal yet, it will likely have the same defect.

Friedman is right, as far as he goes. He doesn’t mention the reason that five Arab armies invaded the new state of Israel in 1948, or the reason the “peace” agreements with Egypt and Jordan are cold, pragmatic deals that greatly benefit the autocratic regimes of those countries, while not moving a centimeter in the direction of the normalization of everyday relations between the nations that was supposed to follow. It certainly isn’t because these countries care about the welfare of Palestinians. The invaders of 1948 did not turn over the areas that they controlled to Palestinian Arabs, and indeed treated them quite cruelly. It was Israel, not Jordan, that created the autonomous Palestinian Authority, and it was Israel, not Egypt, that turned over control of Gaza to the Palestinians.

Of course there are the usual geopolitical explanations for the broader conflict, but they are not sufficient to explain its persistence or its virulence. While it’s clear that Iran is hostile toward Israel for geopolitical reasons – Israel is seen as an outpost of American power in the region that Iran wishes to dominate – there is also a special degree of hatred that is reserved for Israel above other Iranian opponents. Iran does not threaten to destroy Saudi Arabia, a closer and more immediate rival. Iranian demonstrators rarely if ever chant “death to Saudia.”

I believe that the ultimate source of this enmity is the principle – literally an “article of faith” in the Muslim Middle East – that a sovereign Jewish state in the region is an abomination to Allah, and it is their religious duty to destroy it. This religious/racial principle is sometimes expressed verbally by saying “Israel is a cancer” that must be excised from the Middle East, a sentiment expressed both by the Iranian regime and in Palestinian Authority media. This is Muslim rejectionism.

But I think even this analysis doesn’t go far enough. Resentment and hatred of Jews, deeply ensconced in Christian tradition, is found throughout post-Christian Europe. While in most of Europe the moral principles of Christianity have been transmuted into a kind of universalist humanism (much like Reform Judaism), the visceral hatred of the Jew that “killed their God” hasn’t disappeared; it’s just been turned toward the Jewish state, today the bearer of the guilt of Judas, with the suffering Palestinians taking on the role of the crucified Savior. Of course the irony in this is that the Muslims that are besieging Europe today are as almost as hostile to non-Muslim sovereignty there as they are against the Jewish variety in the Middle East (ordinary Europeans are beginning to understand this, although many of their leaders don’t seem to get it yet).

I suggest that to really understand the conflicts surrounding Israel since its coming into being, one needs to zoom out even further than Friedman does. One needs to take into account that not only Arabs and Muslims are viscerally opposed to the concept of Jewish sovereignty, many Europeans and even some circles in America are too. Although they might not go as far as to compare Israel to a malignant tumor, they are quite comfortable saying that the creation of Israel was a mistake. Friedman’s lens must be widened to include not just the greater Middle East, but much of the Western world.

And this enables us to understand why the “peace” proposals based on Israeli concessions to the Palestinians keep coming, despite the fact that they have repeatedly been shown incapable of ameliorating the real problem, Muslim rejectionism of Jewish sovereignty. Even those in the West who do not completely reject the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in a sovereign state, adhere to a milder form of rejectionism: they may accept the idea of a Jewish state, but they firmly believe that the conflict surrounding it is a result of its being an alien element that doesn’t belong in its neighborhood. Therefore the solutions they choose always involve Israel adapting herself to the region and not the opposite. And this always means Israel meeting the demands of her neighbors. Of course, those demands will never end until there is no more Israel.

I can’t leave Friedman’s article without noting one jarring paragraph, possibly written as it was at the request of his NY Times editor:

When I look at the West Bank as an Israeli, I see 2.5 million Palestinian civilians living under military rule, with all the misery that entails. I’m seeing the many grave errors our governments have made in handling the territory and its residents, the construction of civilian settlements chief among them.

Suddenly we are back to “settlements” and “military rule” (actually, this is incorrect, since around 95% of the Palestinians in Judea/Samaria live in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority). Friedman, who has shown himself capable of understanding the strategic imperatives of Israel’s military control of the land, is nevertheless still stuck in the Sisyphean mud of the “2-state solution” (just like my fictitious Uncle Max two Passovers ago). Is Friedman himself guilty of the mild rejectionism that demands that Israel should pay the price for her neighbors’ violent racism?

Despite this – the obligatory mea culpa of every Jewish liberal or centrist writer on the subject – we should take Friedman’s advice and zoom out to see the conflict in its true, worldwide and historicalcontext. And stay out of the mud.

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01/24 Links Pt1: PA spent at least 502 million shekels in payments to terrorists in 2018; Dershowitz: Time to tell the truth about the Palestinian issue; Can Zionists Advocate for Palestinian Rights?

From Ian:

PMW exclusive: PA spent at least 502 million shekels in payments to terrorist prisoners in 2018

As Israel is preparing to implement a new law that imposes financial sanctions on the PA for its "Pay for Slay" policy, PMW has looked at the PA's financial reports for 2018 which includes its payments to terrorist prisoners and released terrorist prisoners

While the PA does not provide details of how this money was allocated between the terrorist prisoners and the released terrorist prisoners, PMW calculations, based solely on open sources, show that:

At least 230 million shekels were paid in salaries to terrorist prisoners

At least 176 million shekels were paid in salaries to released terrorist prisoners

The remaining 96 million shekels covers additional salary payments and other benefits to the terrorist prisoners and released terrorist prisoners that PMW is unable to precisely quantify

According to its own budgetary update, in 2018 the Palestinian Authority spent no less than 502 million shekels on salaries and other payments to terrorist prisoners and released terrorist prisoners.

While the PA does not provide information how the 502 million shekels was allocated between the terrorist prisoners and the released terrorist prisoners, using open sources only, Palestinian Media Watch has calculated, subject to a number of limitations, these figures.

Using information obtained from the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), PMW has calculated that the Palestinian Authority paid at least 230 million shekels in salary payments to terrorist prisoners in 2018.

For example, based on the information provided by the IPS that appears in the 2 left hand columns in the chart below ("time served" and "number of prisoners") and the PA's own terrorist prisoner pay scale ("salary" column), PMW has calculated that in the month of January 2018 alone the PA paid almost 20 million shekels in salaries to the terrorist prisoners.

Can Zionists Advocate for Palestinian Rights?

A lieutenant colonel in the Israeli Navy Seals, Hendel grew up in the settlement of Elakana. “My father would give rides to Arabs who lived nearby and he made sure to tell me that while we may be in a conflict, individual Arabs are not our enemies.”

Hendel says he started Blue and White to work for human rights from a Zionist perspective. Today, there are nearly 40 volunteers in their programs.

Some of these are ex-combat soldiers who speak to 12th graders in the year before their enlistment. These soldiers speak of their experiences in the army with Palestinians and human rights groups. They talk about the importance of the IDF ethical code, of the need to be moral at all costs.

“We need to take back these values,” Hendel says. “This is why we take groups to the checkpoints. To see reality. It’s not Auschwitz—it’s a border where soldiers need to be patient with people crossing while making sure that they don’t let in terrorists.”

Lipaz Ella was one of those who visited the crossings with Blue and White. While working at UCLA as a Jewish Agency Israel fellow, students initiated a program called Fact Finders to learn about the conflict from both sides on the ground. “Checkpoints were one of the places they wanted to see. In UCLA during Apartheid Week, groups build checkpoints on campus. The students see these things on campus and want to see them for themselves in reality.” In planning the trip, the group arranged to visit the Rachel checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

“We were surprised to see Israeli volunteers helping Palestinians arrange permits for medical treatment and work. The students were told [in UCLA] that Israel erected checkpoints to prevent Palestinians from the right of movement. Even Jewish students who are better informed than others were surprised to see reality, the lines moving, the technology used for efficiency (biometric permits), etc. We spoke to Israeli officers and heard from Palestinians as they came through. The students saw with their own eyes the reality of the situation. They saw that it isn’t black and white.”

Caroline Glick: The Iranian Revolution and Establishment Prejudice

In 2007, the Bush administration accepted the National Intelligence Estimate that falsely claimed Iran had abandoned its nuclear program in 2003. And in 2014, the Obama administration based its nuclear diplomacy with Iran – diplomacy that paved Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal – on the false assertion that President Hassan Rouhani is a moderate.

Just as the Carter administration ignored Khomeini’s own writings and his ties to the PLO, and viewed concerns about both as Israeli propaganda, so in these subsequent encounters with the Iranian regime, U.S. officials dismissed or held suspect evidence that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons or otherwise undermining regional and global security as Israeli propaganda.

Facing this wall of cynical disbelief, last year Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu felt compelled to risk the lives of dozens of top Mossad operatives and send them to Tehran to take physical possession of Iran’s nuclear archive, and spirit it out of the country.

And even after Israel produced the Iranian documents which proved that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon, European officials and former Obama administration officials accused Israel of lying.

There are plenty of lessons to learn from the Iranian revolution that brought Iran and the world the now 40-year-old nightmare of the Islamic regime.

But as far as the West is concerned, the first lesson must be that you cannot understand the Middle East – or anything for that matter – if you judge events and people through the filter of irrational prejudice.

Bibi's elastic library

This week Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu released another of his excellent videos, this one describing how Israel is very supportive of the people of Iran, but not their regime.

I noticed that in this and similar videos Bibi has volumes of the Talmud and other Jewish texts behind him. (Usually there is an Israeli flag as well, but not when the primary audience is Iranian!)

I discovered that when Bibi is speaking in Hebrew to his Israeli audience, in videos that are not meant for the rest of the world, his library is quite a bit different - secular Hebrew texts and an encyclopedia (I believe Encyclopedia Hebraica) but not Jewish texts.

Does he think that religious Jewish texts would turn off his Israeli audience? Very possibly.

And he seems to believe that the subtle message to give to the world is that Israel is where the Jewish people have been centered for millennia. (Also, he probably realizes that his Jewish support in the Diaspora is disproportionately religious and he wants to maintain that support.)

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