Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, September 08, 2019

09/08 Links: Daniel Gordis: What American Jews just don’t get about Israel; Zionists need to embrace the real story of Hevron; PA raises salary of suicide belt makers who murdered 16 in Café Hillel and Tzrifin attacks

From Ian:

Daniel Gordis: What American Jews just don’t get about Israel

The United States and Israel are very different projects. America’s Declaration of Independence begins “When in the course of human events,” while Israel’s begins “The land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people.” America was created to be a haven to “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” as Emma Lazarus’ poem at the foot of the Statue of Liberty declares, while Israel was intended to be, as the British Balfour Declaration of 1917 notes, “a national home for the Jewish people.”

When we expect Israel to behave as America should, Israel often seems to fall short. And that, more than any of Israel’s actual policies, has long been the root cause of the fraught relationship between American Jews and the Jewish State.

“End the occupation,” American Jews chant. But Israelis are also exhausted by the occupation — they just have no idea how to end it without the West Bank becoming a breeding ground for terrorists, as happened with Gaza once Israel pulled out in 2005. That’s a risk Israelis are not willing to take.

To Israeli ears, when American Jews say, “End the occupation,” it sounds like “Abolish taxes.” It’s a great idea but entirely unrealistic.

American Jews look at Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians as a civil-rights issue. Israelis see it as a survival issue.

A country’s foremost obligation is the protection of its citizens, and any government Israelis elect will understand that. Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians is unlikely to change until the Palestinians declare that they have ended their drive to destroy Israel. That will not happen anytime soon, however, and that is why, should Netanyahu lose, progressive American Jews are in for a grave disappointment.

To be sure, there is much that Israel must do differently in its relationship with American Jews. A healthy relationship between American Jews and Israel is critical for both sides, and both need to alter their rhetoric to rebuild their partnership.

Most important, though, is for American Jews, and Americans at large, to understand that despite all their similarities, America and Israel are radically different endeavors. One was meant to embrace all of humanity, while the other was intended to save the Jewish people. All of the candidates vying to become prime minister understand that. Protecting the state that has revived the Jewish people will always remain, by far, their topmost priority.

This is btw a good example of why the politicization of antisemitism is so dangerous: it’s not merely partisan point scoring—it’s that ppl today completely fail to even understand what antisemitism is. America’s ignorance will be its undoing.
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) September 8, 2019

Zionists need to embrace the real story of Hevron

The story of Hevron also reminds us why a strong military and independent State of Israel are needed for Jews to survive. Ninety years ago, 67 Jews were murdered in a single day. The rioters killed and looted families without making distinctions between long-established residents, including the doctor who treated them compassionately for years, and newcomers, or Zionists and their religious opponents.

The 1929 riots were exceptional in their barbarity and a turning point in modern Jewish-Arab relations. But throughout the Islamic rule over the city, Jews suffered from various forms of discrimination, and most famously were forbidden from entering the building of the Cave of the Patriarchs or even going further than the seventh step leading to it.

Hatred has only grown since the riots. Incitement is alive and well throughout the Palestinian Authority, and it is now coupled with denial of the Jewish history and connection in the area altogether.

Today, Hevron and villages around it are a Hamas stronghold, spreading violence against Jews throughout the 'West Bank'. In the four decades since the reinstallment of the small Jewish community in and around the city, allowed because of the city's significance to Judaism, the violence has continued.

The current mayor, Tayseer Abu Sneineh, himself is among the murderers of six Jews (including two Americans and one Canadian) in a 1980 mass shooting on a Friday night as they returned from prayers — a biographic detail, including the fact that they were shot from the back, he brushed off during his 2017 election campaign. In 2001, 10-month old Shalhevet Pass was intentionally shot in her stroller by a sniper lurking in the hills above the Old City.

Jewish presence in Hevron is more justified than in almost any other place in the world. But under present circumstances, this presence can be ensured only by the Israeli military — the army is all that stands between 1,000 Jews and utter chaos. It is a heavy price to pay in terms of freedom of movement for everybody in the Israeli-held area. But this is a consequence, not the cause, of the Arab refusal to admit the tiny Jewish minority back in the city.

Over eighty percent of Hevron is entirely under Palestinian control and empty of any sort of Jewish presence.

The uneasiness that liberal Zionists feel about the situation in Hevron is legitimate. But the shame is not: Hevron tells us a story that is complex and far from perfect, but it is a vital part of Jewish history from which we should not shy away.

PMW: PA raises salary of suicide belt makers who murdered 16 in Café Hillel and Tzrifin attacks in 2003

The Palestinian Authority has paid 3,248,900 shekels in financial rewards to the Hamas terrorists who carried out two consecutive suicide attacks on Sept. 9, 2003 (16 years ago tomorrow). The first attack at a bus stop near the Assaf Harofeh Hospital and the Tzrifin military base resulted in the murder of 9 people and the injury of 18. The second attack in Jerusalem's Café Hillel resulted in the murder of 7 people and the injury of 57.

Among the victims of the Café Hillel attack were Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava, who was to be married the day after the attack. American-born Dr. Applebaum was chief of the emergency room and trauma services of Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center and a specialist in emergency medicine. Before the attack he had just participated in a symposium where he taught terror-trauma procedures to medical professionals.

Alon Mizrachi, the security guard of the café who was killed when he identified the suicide bomber and shoved him out as he exploded, thereby saving many other lives, was the uncle of Ziv Mizrachi, an IDF soldier who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in November 2015.

According to the calculations of Palestinian Media Watch following the PA's own pay scale, the PA has, to date, paid the six terrorists who were arrested and imprisoned for their roles in the attacks, a total of 2,892,500 shekels. The PA has also paid the families of the two suicide bombers - so-called "Martyrs" - a total of 356,400 shekels since the attacks.

While the PA will continue to pay monthly salaries to all of the terrorists, it is noteworthy that the PA just raised the salaries of the two terrorists who prepared the suicide belts to 7,000 shekels/month. Similar to an employee of any company that receives a raise after a certain period of employment, the PA - following PA law - just raised the salaries of these two terrorists as they completed 15 years in prison (they were arrested in July and August 2004). For the last five years the PA paid them 6,000 shekels/month.

Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades announced the death of Mu'een Suleiman Salama al-Attar, 41, a member of their Military Industrialization Unit.

Al-Attar was killed in an "accidental explosion" in a "resistance site."

The Islamic Jihad statement said,

We in the Al-Quds Brigades, as we mourn our mujahid martyr, emphasize that the blood of the martyrs will not be wasted, Allah willing, and we pledge to Allah Almighty and then pledge our people and our nation to maintain the path of jihad and martyrdom, and to move forward in the approach of resistance until the liberation of the entire beloved Palestine.

Allah willing, may there be many more such martyrs of mujahadeen.

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Do you ever wonder why there are so few joint initiatives between far-Left Israelis and Palestinians who equally yearn for peace?

Here's a good indication why.

Al Ghad, a Jordanian news site, asks if there are any good Jews.

The answer is, the Neturei Karta - and that's it. Only Neturei Karta accept that Palestinians have a better claim to Israel than Israelis do, and are willing to live as dhimmis under Arab rule. Every other Jew, no matter how leftist he or she is, is not as willing to be subservient to Arabs who rightfully own the entire land from the river to the sea - and therefore they are not worth working with.

There are Jews - declaring belonging to the state of the occupying entity and bearing the status of "Israeli" - but who express sympathy for the Palestinians and oppose the policies of their governments, and demand the rights of the Palestinians. These are really puzzling. Some of them are demanding a Palestinian state in the "occupied territories," which they believe are only territories captured in 1967. Others are demanding one bi-national state, in which Palestinians are granted equal rights. Some do not object to the return of Palestinian refugees, often believing that the numbers of returnees will not be so large that they cannot be absorbed.

Those belonging to the “peace camp” or “left” in the entity touch an emotional nerve in us. They address a need in us to see people from the other camp recognize and criticize the many shortcomings there and “do justice to us”. What they say and write certainly affects world opinion more than our own. These activists are sometimes so enthusiastic that Palestinians share their protests and boycotts, and spend time, effort, and sometimes passion for what they do.

But there is a question that confuses our initial impressions: these peace activists in the state of the Zionist entity are all living on Palestinian land, living in homes either built by Palestinians and forcibly displaced, or built on the ruins of Palestinian homes demolished - certainly on Palestinian land. What if the Palestinian owner of the land and the house went and asked them to return his property to him? Will they pack their bags and give him the keys, or will they stay and tell him to leave?

Those who demand a Palestinian state in the territories of '67 (less than a quarter of historic Palestine) want to give the landowners a small room with no furniture at the edge of the garden, and they will be relieved. Those who demand equal Palestinian citizenship want to make their homes in Palestinian homes and confiscated lands “legitimate” and also get rid of reprimand. They ignore - with full and premeditated consciousness - the history of their presence here and its modalities, whose outputs cannot be fair.

Being a citizen of an occupying entity founded on the existential abolition of an entire people can make you nothing but a living member of the body of this entity with its requirements and what it is, which is pulsing with its heart. Returning the rights to the owners will mean giving up the stolen house and the stolen land. Otherwise, your “morality” will be fundamentally false. Perhaps the maximum that these “Israelis” reach is something like: “As long as I have found myself here, no matter how, I may consider myself a partner with the landowner by more than half, and consider giving him half - or even less than a quarter. - Adequate, fair and comfortable compensation for their conscience, from the position of the boss?

I wonder if any of these peaceful people will accept to give the Palestinian owner of the house the roof of the house he occupies to build a floor, or share it half of the house and the garden. I imagine most of them won't. They do not find any contradiction when it is written: “The Israeli activist (so and so) spoke to us from the garden of his house in Haifa”, who certainly has a Palestinian owner, or the land on which he resided. They accept the colonization of historic Palestine as a “fait accompli” that needs only a simple beautification.

Jews who want peace want to share the land, and they think that this will bring peace. Give them the "territories" and they will be happy, they think. Or give them the "right of return." Or make a single "binational state" and end the Jewish state altogether. Then there would be peace for sure, right?

No. The more Israel gives, the more the Palestinians are convinced that it is proof that the Jews have no business to be in the land to begin with. The Western concept of win-win is foreign to people who think in terms of honor and shame.

This article is not anomalous thinking by any means. But nearly all pollsters are too afraid to ask Palestinians if they agree with this thinking, because it would burst the bubble of a people willing to live in peace with Israel.

UPDATE: The same article is now published in Al Quds, a Palestinian Authority newspaper, more proof that this is mainstream thinking. (The other proof is that there is no visible protest against this article.)

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Al Hadath reports that three forensic specialists submitted their resignations to the Palestinian Authority on Sunday morning.

All three were involved in writing the forensics report on the horrific death of Israa Gharib, the Bethlehem woman who was apparently killed by her family for making a selfie video of herself with her boyfriend in a public place before they were officially engaged.

The doctors who submitted their resignations were: Dr. Moayad Bader, forensic specialist in Ramallah, Dr. Muhannad Shweiki, forensic specialist in Jerusalem, and Dr. Muhannad Jaber, forensic specialist in Hebron. All three areas are involved in the Abu Dis forensic institute.

Al Hadath's sources say that the doctors resigned over interference with their jobs by the Palestinian government. They are supervised by political appointees who have no expertise in the field, some of whom have no education beyond a bachelor's degree in Islamic education. Yet they control people whose jobs require high sensitivity and secrecy.

These supervisors were placed there by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice, Mohammed Abu Sondos.

Abu Sondos denied that the doctors were involved in Gharib's autopsy, but not that they were involved in the writing of the autopsy report.

The doctors charge that some of the abuses in the department directly affected their work and contributed to delay some of the reports, including that of Israa Gharib.

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Netflix' "The Spy," based on the life of famed Israeli spy Eli Cohen, is a very good miniseries.

Sacha Baron Cohen is excellent in the lead role of an Israeli born in Egypt (to Syrian parents)who joins the Mossad to spy on Syria. He is convincing as his cover persona, a charismatic Syrian businessman born in Argentina, Kamel Amin Thaabet. Cohen gathers incredible information before being caught in 1965.

The direction is excellent. Nearly all of the scenes ring true. Bat Yam, where Cohen's family is, looks exactly right. This brief scene of Syria showing photos of Nasser as a bathing beauty in 1962 after Syria split from the United Arab Republic in Egypt is a small example of the attention to detail in the production.

I admit that I don't understand the decision to film all the Israeli sections in washed out colors. Perhaps it was to emphasize a forgettable theme of Cohen not being able to distinguish between his real life and the glamorous life of Thaabet.

The Israeli psyche and that of the Mossad members in the film ring true. There is no tendency to retell the story through the lens of 2019 wokeness. (Discrimination against Mizrahi Jews in Israel is touched upon but that was very real in the 1960s.)

Osama Bin Laden's father is there in subplot about Syrian plans to dry up the Kinneret that is largely true but that Bin Laden had nothing to do with (with a cameo of Osama himself as a boy). Saddam Hussein and Yasir Arafat are mentioned.

There are some inconsistencies that hurt the series. In the first episode, when Cohen is trained to be a spy, he is shown to be excellent at noticing if he is being followed; but in episode 2 when he is in Buenos Aires he doesn't notice he is being followed by a startlingly incompetent security officer. As Thaabet, he is a teetotaler in episode 2 but drinks in episode 6. (The real Cohen threw large parties where he would pretend to be drunk to listen to high ranking Syrians reveal secrets.) Episode 6 itself, where he gets caught and is executed, is a little muddled as it jumps between three timelines.

Of course, some parts are clearly fictional and meant to add tension. Eli Cohen does some extremely risky things that don't make sense. This is Hollywood and they need to play up the spy part. The real Cohen also took on many lovers in Syria from powerful families as part of his ruse; in the series he is chaste as Thaabet.

Even though we know the ending from the beginning, this is a really excellent drama about a true Israeli hero who saved countless lives.

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09/07 Links: Israeli teen badly hurt in West Bank stabbing attack; Tlaib Meets With Members of Terrorism-Supporting, Anti-Israel Organization; Juan Cole: Michigan's Pontificator-in-Chief

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: A changed paradigm

Greenblatt helped change the conversation from one that was just about placing blame on Israel to one that recognized that the Palestinians were just as much to blame for the lack of progress in the peace process, if not more.

The economic summit held in Bahrain in June which was attended by Israelis – including our own Herb Keinon – showed how Greenblatt could skillfully break down barriers and help realign the Middle East with an understanding that Israel is a partner to countries in the Gulf, not an adversary.

On the other hand, Greenblatt’s role and outspoken support of Israel led Palestinians to believe that the US was no longer an “honest” broker in the region. That alone may have buried the so-called “Deal of the Century”.

What will happen with that plan now remains to be seen. Greenblatt might have been the key convener and author of the plan, but it has other architects, including Jared Kushner and Friedman. Will it really come out as the administration says it will after Israel’s election? Will it succeed in bringing the sides together? Or will it automatically be rejected by Abbas’s intransigent government in Ramallah?

Ultimately, no matter how detailed and comprehensive a deal it is, it will face two major problems from the outset. The first is that any peace plan needs to have presidential involvement, without which it will be difficult, if not impossible, to bring the two sides to the table. Trump, who is already deep into his re-election campaign, does not appear to be the type willing to invest the time, effort and personal resources.

The second problem is in Jerusalem and Ramallah, where the leaders – Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas – do not seem interested in negotiating or working on a resolution to the conflict. Netanyahu is never in a rush to get involved in a peace process and Abbas seems to prefer to wait for November 2020 and see who wins the presidential elections. Why rush into something if Trump might be out of the Oval Office in a year?

Greenblatt has played a positive role in this process. As much as he has done though, no one can want peace more than the sides themselves.

PA: Greenblatt resignation is Trump's "opportunity to rethink" peace plan

Jason Greenblatt, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Middle East peace, has announced he’ll be leaving his post.

According to administration officials, Greenblatt’s departure will wait until the US rolls out the political part of its long-awaited peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians sometime after the Israeli national election on September 17. It unveiled the plan’s financial segment last June during a conference in Bahrain.

Greenblatt has been a main pillar of President Trump’s Mideast team. He has worked alongside Trump’s powerful son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

His resignation could throw the future of the troubled peace initiative – it has already been rejected by the Palestinian Authority – into a swirl of ambiguity. The team itself has come to be viewed by the Palestinians as an extension of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s policies.

The PA has yet to officially respond to the news, but a high-ranking official in Ramallah told The Media Line he hoped that Greenblatt’s departure would create an “opportunity” for the White House to “rethink” its policy toward the Palestinians.

“His resignation,” the official said, asking to remain unnamed, “is a result of the growing conviction by the US administration that implementing the plan as originally conceived is not going to be easy. This does not mean that America will abandon attempts to pressure the Palestinian side, but Greenblatt's flight means he does not trust all the promises he and his team have made.”

Juan Cole: Michigan's Pontificator-in-Chief

Becoming a recognized authority in any field is an admirable achievement. Yet when professors pontificate on matters far beyond their expertise, the results can be risible. That's particularly true of academics whose track record in their own field leaves much to be desired.

Which brings us to Juan Cole, Exhibit A for professorial puffery and purple prose.

Breitbart has taken note of the University of Michigan Middle Eastern history professor's latest foray into a subject well beyond his competence: climate science. Never one for wise counsel when hysteria will do, Cole called on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to resign in the wake of Hurricane Dorian because "his inaction on fossil fuels will literally sink Florida."

Moreover, Cole believes studying the Middle East qualifies him for informed comment on the underground liquid gold that made the region rich: oil and, now, natural gas. To boot, being above ground and partaking of the climate on a daily basis, he fancies himself a meteorologist extraordinaire, able to leap logic in a single blog post – a skill at which we'll concede he excels. And if that's not enough, since Florida will "literally sink," we must add geology to his conquests.

As for Breitbart, Cole wasted no time responding to its article by labeling the conservative publication "far, far rightwing reused toilet paper," a "brown shirt rag," and a "racist piece of excrement" that makes "fascist sh** up, riffing on Mein Kampf." One might suspect Cole is a bit fixated on the scatological (calling Freud), but at least the implements at hand are recyclable.

09/06 Links Pt2: What ‘Our Boys’ doesn’t want us to know; How to combat the looming perfect storm for antisemitism in America; The Arab Muslim in the Israel Defense Forces

From Ian:

David Collier: Amnesty’s human rights activist. Sorry, I meant terrorist supporter

The Amnesty report is not yet out and already Amnesty International have lost the input of a terrorist sympathiser. Yesterday, I released a teaser. The report is entering the final stage and is almost ready for final editing. With the information gathering stage behind me, I felt confident enough to release one item – about the true face of an Amnesty consultant in Gaza.
The Amnesty Consultant

Hind Khoudary worked as an Amnesty Research Consultant in Gaza:

Since the regular violence erupted on the Gaza border again, Hind has been a popular ‘journalist’, used by different media outlets worldwide. Amnesty pushed their ‘consultant’ too, using iconic images of her to turn her into some type of hero:

Like most propagandists her English output was always moderated, to show a ‘peaceful’ face to the west. She was also photogenic. Hind came across as a presentable, articulate, friendly, young, peace-seeking, progressive and is the type of ‘reporter’ western media outlets love. She spoke long and hard about the awful situation and how she just wants her ‘freedom’.

As is fitting of her role, she embellished her articles with endless tragic human-interest items which may or may not have been invented. When it came to the ‘Great March of Return’ Hind never saw a gun on the Hamas side. She spoke of the ‘tolerant’ Gazans who accept people who are different, reminding people that Palestinians are always so accommodating and peaceful. This balderdash has been swallowed whole by western media and Amnesty International are so embedded inside this false narrative, they regurgitated her poppycock verbatim.

Hind’s Arabic content was somewhat different. For example, she retweeted this which followed a thwarted terrorist attack. It talks about the Gazan casualties, but calls them ‘martyrs’. Notice the glorification of the violence. There is apparently nothing better than entering ‘paradise’ with machine guns:

There was this one too, as she retweeted the video of the Hezbollah leader Nasrallah’s when he made a recent threat against Israel.

Jonathan Tobin: What ‘Our Boys’ doesn’t want us to know

The brutal murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir by three extremist Jews is a story that deserves to be told. The same can be said for the account of the swift and efficient manner in which his murderers were tracked down by Israel's security services, and ultimately convicted and given harsh sentences. Yet the kidnapping and murder of the Palestinian Arab resident of Jerusalem in June 2014 is the exclusive focus of the HBO series "Our Boys."

Documenting the transgressions of a few Jews, as well as the diligent efforts of their compatriots to catch and punish them, is no insult to the Jewish people. But many who usually take special pride in seeing Israeli TV shows get such wide exposure aren't cheering "Our Boys."

In June 2014, a Hamas terror cell operating in the West Bank kidnapped three Israeli teenage boys and murdered them in cold blood. The discovery of their bodies after an 18-day search was a shocking reminder of the brutality of Israel's enemies. In response, three Jews violated not merely the laws of Israel, but of their faith. They kidnapped a random Arab boy and killed him in a manner that provoked outrage and shame.

Hamas then escalated the conflict with 50 days of war that forced much of Israel's population to spend their days dashing in and out of air-raid shelters, including in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. So Israelis can be forgiven for thinking that there is something wrong with the fact that the sole focus of the only international television show that seeks to depict these events rests on the murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir.

The point of each episode is to depict the two sides of the conflict as morally equivalent. "Our Boys" doesn't mention that while Khdeir's killers are reviled by almost all Israelis and locked away (two received life terms), Palestinians treat those who murder Jews as heroes. They even get generous pensions from the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority as a reward for their evil deeds. That is truly outrageous.

Honest Reporting: Not a Moment of Peace: Israel’s 1956 Sinai Campaign

Nasser believed he could count on the United States for assistance with wrestling control of the canal from the British and with the finances of the project. But when the US turned him down, Nasser turned to the Soviets for help. The Soviet Union not only helped finance the project but also gave Egypt weapons for its army alongside military advisers to train the Egyptian military. Backed by the Soviet Union, Nasser evicted Britain from the Suez Canal with ease, declared it a possession of Egypt, and quickly gained fame and supremacy as a leader in the Arab world.

Armed with his alliance with the Soviet Union which was already anti-Israel, and with the sights of the Arab world upon him, Nasser quickly turned to confront Israel.

Instead of attacking Israel with his full army, Nasser came up with a tactic which is still being used against Israel today. In the early 1950s, not long after Israel thought it could enjoy a respite from the War of Independence, he organized, armed and supported terrorists, called “Fedayeen,” to cross the border and terrorize Israelis – blowing up farms, planting land mines, and even entering schools to shoot Jewish children. The philosophy was to attack, hurt and demoralize Israel without starting an actual war. Israel would have no choice but to retaliate and that retaliation would be the justification for the next terror attack as retribution for Israel’s actions. This created a “cycle of violence” which cost Israel in lives, money, and focus, and served Nasser’s plan of partnering with the Soviet Union and showing the Arab world his strength.

Egypt was not Israel’s only problem following the War of Independence. The Syrians continuously shelled northern Israeli towns from the Golan Heights, forcing Israelis to sleep in bunkers and leaving Israel with no choice but to respond – continuing the cycle of violence. Jordanian snipers would regularly shoot at Jewish civilians from the Old City of Jerusalem which they controlled. Israel even had to construct its residential buildings with no windows facing the Jordanian controlled areas.

Thus, the new Jewish state was under a continuous state of attack and to make things even worse, when Israel would respond – against Egypt, Syria, or Jordan – the United Nations would condemn Israel for instigating violence and inflaming the region.

This photo is being spread around social media by the anti-Israel crowd with different, fake backstories.

What really happened is that in January 2017 the two youths both had knives and were trying to enter the Karnei Shomron settlement. The security guard was suspicious and saw the knives, drew his gun and demanded that they drop the knives, asking "Do you want to die?" Eventually the pair did give up without being hurt at all.

Watch:

Here they are being apprehended:

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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09/06 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: Strengthening the US-Israel alliance; Netanyahu 'Shellshocked' by Obama's Radical Pro-Palestinian Stance in First Meeting; US nixes UNSC statement that fails to condemn Hezbollah

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Strengthening the US-Israel alliance

Should Israel and the US sign a mutual defense treaty? Every few years, this perennial question is raised. And every few years, it is set aside.

In 2000 then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak made signing a mutual defense treaty with the US a central component of his national security strategy. That year, as Barak sought to sell the public his plan to give the Temple Mount to Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat and Judea and Samaria to Arafat’s terror armies, he presented the option of signing a mutual defense pact with the US as a reasonable payoff for Israel’s sacrifice for peace.

Barak’s thinking was clear.

True, if the PLO boss had accepted Barak’s peace offer Israel would have been left without its capital and without defensible borders. But there was no reason to worry. The Marines would protect us. At the heart of Barak’s vision of a mutual defense treaty stood his unwillingness to bear the burdens of freedom, power and sovereignty.

The present round of chatter about the prospect of achieving a US-Israel defense treaty was initiated by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). In opposition to the view of the majority of Israelis and of the 2016 Republican Party platform, Graham insists on maintaining allegiance to the so-called “two-state solution,” despite its hundred-year record of continuous failure.

Still, Graham is no foe of Israeli sovereignty and military might. To the contrary. Graham played a decisive role in convincing President Donald Trump to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. So it is inconceivable that Graham shares Barak’s post-Zionist vision of a defenseless Israel protected by Uncle Sam.

Moreover, according to media reports, ahead of the September 17 election Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making an effort to convince President Trump to make a statement in favor of a new US-Israel defense treaty. Since Netanyahu’s diplomatic policies and his strategic vision of Israel are diametrically opposed to those Barak advanced, it is impossible to imagine that Netanyahu shares Barak’s vision of the purpose of a defense treaty.

What then could be the purpose of a defense treaty? What sort of rearrangement of Israel’s defense ties with the US would advance those ties to both countries’ mutual advantage?

Make Egyptian-Israeli Cooperation Overt

Marrying Israel’s know-how, experience, and innovation with Egypt’s abundant cheap manpower (Egypt’s per capita gross domestic product is about 6% of Israel's) and its hunger to excel after generations of decline and a looming water crisis, promises to bear fruit for both countries.

Of course, cooperation to enhance security and stability will remain paramount. However, imagine the dividends in the not-distant future in tourism and trade if you combine Egypt's and Israel's abundant antiquities, beautiful beaches, delicious cuisines, and rich histories as cradles of civilization and of the world's main monotheistic religions.

Cooperation with Israel's first-rate universities and advanced hospitals could give Egypt's educational and medical facilities a significant boost. Egypt's youth are thirsty for the knowledge, training, and skills that would maximize their productivity. Moreover, because the rapidly increasing populations of Ethiopia and Sudan need more Nile water for their own agriculture and development, Egypt – which is downstream – must learn to use the river wisely. Water conservation, reclamation, purification, distribution, and irrigation techniques, as well as desalination plants on the Mediterranean, are needed to ensure that Egyptians have access to abundant, clean drinking water. Israel is the most experienced country on earth in water technology.

Unfortunately, an enduring Israeli-Palestinian peace seems far off. But ultimately, the time will come when a new Palestinian leadership realizes that Israel is a mature, respected country and a potential ally to them. Egypt could then play a pivotal role in bringing the sides together in mutual acceptance and productive coexistence.

In a world accustomed to thinking in zero-sum terms – where one side's gain is another side's loss – the time has come for a win-win proposition. But the successful implementation of cooperative Israeli-Egyptian ventures requires working diligently on the building of mutual trust. Such ventures would directly benefit both countries and, as a secondary dividend, reduce anti-Semitism and other forms of extremism and contribute to regional peace.

Bret Stephens NYTs: What Was Iran Hiding in Turquz Abad?

Buried in a recent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency is: "Iran's implementation of its Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol require[s] full and timely cooperation by Iran. The Agency continues to pursue this objective with Iran." That's an exquisite way of saying that Iran is stonewalling the agency.

Last September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly that Iran had a "secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program" on the outskirts of Tehran in a village called Turquz Abad. He urged IAEA chief Yukiya Amano to "inspect this atomic warehouse immediately."

The IAEA only got around to inspecting the site earlier this year, long after the suspicious materials had vanished. But nuclear inspectors were nonetheless able to detect radioactive particles, corroborating Israeli claims about the purpose of the warehouse.

The agency's unwillingness to follow up promptly and effectively on Israel's allegations, along with its reluctance to disclose what it found, inspire little confidence in the quality of its inspections and even less in its willingness to call out cheating.

Moreover, Iran's hiding of nuclear materials is further evidence that Tehran was in violation of the nuclear deal from the moment it was signed. "If Iranians aren't cooperating, it tells you that potentially they are hiding more," notes David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security.

If those who fear an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites are serious about averting it, they could play a helpful part by demanding more credible inspections and honest reporting from the IAEA, starting with a thorough accounting for what went mysteriously missing from Turquz Abad.

European court takes Hamas off of list of terrorist entities (UPDATE)

From Xinhua:

The Hamas movement hailed on Friday the decision of a European court to cancel the listing of Hamas and its armed wing al-Qassam Brigades from the world's list of terrorism.

Hazem Qassem, Hamas spokesman in Gaza told Xinhua that the decision to remove Hamas and its armed wing from the world's terrorist list "is positive and a right step in the right direction."
...

According to local websites close to Hamas on Friday, the movement's attorney in Europe, Khaled al-Showly, said that the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg decided on Thursday to remove Hamas movement and its armed wing al-Qassam Brigades from the world's list of terrorism.

He also said that the decision of the court is not final, but the previous decisions on the reinsertion of Hamas and its military wing on terrorist lists "are null and void."

What the hell? The Qassam Brigades, whose homepage looks like this, is not a terrorist group?

The European Court of First Instance is apparently now called the General Court, and it seems that Hamas initiated an action there to take itself off the list of terrorist entities.

Assuming Hamas is telling the truth, the actual ruling will need to be seen to be believed. I cannot imagine any logic that would allow Hamas' terror wing to not be called terrorist.

UPDATE: Shasha adds a crucial detail:

Although the new ruling overturned the decisions in some form, it does not include the decisions made in 2019, which have not been appealed, and the new provision has nothing to do with the basic case in which the first judgment of the Court of First Instance was issued on 17 December 2014, which It remains subject to appeal to the European Court of Justice.

In March 2019, Hamas was confirmed to stay on the terror list, so apparently that ruling stands. Why there are so many different rulings on the same topic that each have to be looked at separately is fuzzy.

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A small detail on a fact-sheet about the Palestinian Ministry of Education 2018 budget:

They are deliberately building schools in areas without permits, knowing that they are likely to be torn down.

This article from DCI-Palestine elaborates:

The [Ibziq Mixed Primary] school is the tenth in a string of “Al-Tahadi” or “challenge” schools established by the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-controlled Area C of the occupied West Bank, staff told Defense for Children International - Palestine. The central goal of these schools is to ensure access to education and “support the steadfastness” of Area C residents. Al-Tahadi schools are usually small in size and placed in marginalized, rural communities or those facing large vulnerability factors from Israeli forces or settlements.

These schools are all new, within the past couple of years. Up until now, somehow the students managed to get educated at other schools. But the major reason to build these illegal schools is to make a stink when Israel tears them down, and then go to the media and whine, "Israel is confiscating the right of dozens of students from the area to receive public education."

As documented by the Regavim NGO, many times these communities themselves are built up from scratch as well, also illegally. I saw dozens of them in Area C, where they steal water from Israeli villages and build willy-nilly on hills chosen specifically to place Arabs between Jewish settlements. I once made an animation of satellite imagery showing several such Arab villages being created over only a few years.

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I reported yesterday that Palestinians in Lebanon were protesting to have the right to become citizens in Canada and the EU, since Lebanon and other Arab countries do not allow them to become citizens there.

A cornerstone of Palestinian Arab strategy since the 1950s has been to keep Palestinian "refugees" stateless and miserable until Israel is destroyed, using them as political cannon fodder and not giving a damn about their actual lives. There are lots of examples of so-called Palestinian leaders actively opposing any chance for Palestinians to become citizens of any state, anywhere.

Sure enough, after yesterday's protest, a Palestinian group has criticized not Lebanon or UNRWA for keeping these protesters in miserable conditions with no way out, but the protesters themselves!

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) called for an urgent response to the "accelerated resettlement and displacement projects targeting Palestinian camps in Lebanon," which "threaten a new Nakba and liquidation of the refugee issue."

The group called to prepare an urgent field action plan "to address all suspicious schemes that are trying to push the Palestinian refugee to call for mass migration."

The group said that the desire to become citizens of EU countries or Canada "are to serve American attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause through the final cancellation of the issue of refugees and the right of return in line with the Zionist vision."

For over 70 years, self-proclaimed Palestinian leaders have done everything possible to keep their people in misery. Nothing has changed.

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