Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, May 08, 2020

The @NYTimes can't resist insulting Israel

On Thursday afternoon, David Halbfinger wrote a remarkably good article for the New York Times about how Israel is innovating and coming up with creative ways to fight COVID-19.

The article goes through how Israeli technology is using novel methods to tackle the diagnostic and logistics challenge of the pandemic. For example, a useful technology to screen people quickly at airports or malls:

NanoScent, a company whose technology uses arrays of sensors to detect and digitize odors, says that the proliferation of virus cells among the microorganisms that inhabit the noses of Covid-19 patients produces what is believed to be a distinct smell. And it is training its artificial intelligence to detect that smell.
“It’s not a definitive test,” said Oren Gavriely, NanoScent’s chief executive and co-founder. “But you’d come, you’d blow into a special bag that we’ve designed, you’d have a 30-second test, you’d expose it to the sensing device, and you’d get a result: Either you’re clear or you’re suspected to have something.”

The first paragraph was the only problematic part:

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s research-and-development arm is best known for pioneering cutting-edge ways to kill people and blow things up, with stealth tanks and sniper drones among its more lethal recent projects.

Anyone who is even slightly familiar with Israel's defense industry knows that most of the money is spent on saving lives, not ending them. The stealth tanks mentioned are meant o allow effective defense in urban warfare instead of using large tanks that destroy houses just going down the street - the exact opposite of blowing things up. The sniper drones are meant to kill a single terrorist without hurting innocent -or not so innocent - people nearby, as a mortar or small missile might.

That is one paragraph out of 26.

When the social media team at the NYT blurbed the otherwise great article, here is how they described it:

They took away even the context Halbfinger put in, and framed the story in an entirely different way: a vicious killing machine is ironically now engaged in saving lives.

No, the Israeli defense industry is always engaged in saving lives - saving lives of the Israelis it is sworn to defend, and of Arabs as well. It could use much cheaper and lower tech methods to keep the world's 4 to 1 ratio of civilians to combatants instead of investing hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of man hours to minimize the chances of killing the innocent.

Anyone who frames the IDF as a bloodthirsty army, as this tweet does, is showing their own ignorance and bias.

And this is unfortunately the default position for most people who work in the media.

I understand the desire to put something unexpected in a social media post, to draw people in. But it could have been done much more effectively and accurately. For example:

"Israel's Defense Ministry's R&D is normally engaged in cutting-edge ways to fight Israel's enemies and protect its citizens. Now it is using that technical and logistical expertise to fight COVID-19."

Accuracy. Is that too much to ask for?

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Arabs and BDS go full crazy over Ramadan TV series: "Not just normalization, but treachery!"

Two weeks after the news of the Ramadan TV series "Umm Haroun" and "Exit 7" came out, Arab media is still obsessed over them, and Palestinians are arguing with Gulf Arabs online.

The BDS Movement issued a press release last week that called to boycott the major Saudi TV network MBC, which produced both dramas.

The campaign calls on the Arab masses, particularly the brotherly Saudi people, to boycott the MBC Group channels during the month of Ramadan, and it also calls on all companies to withdraw their investments and refrain from any partnership (for the purpose of propaganda or others) with the group to force them to retreat from their cultural normalization with Israel and promotion of Zionist lies that are truly misleading the Palestinian cause and the Arab cause. This cultural normalization is a continuation of the political, security, economic, and commercial relations that link some Arab regimes, particularly the Gulf countries, with Israel, which have gone beyond normalization to the point of complete treachery.

Historically the word "normalization" has been considered the worst epithet an Arab could accuse another of, but that word has lost its sting for Arabs who actually don't see anything wrong with treating Israel like a normal state. So BDS needed to up the ante to "treachery."

Because broadcasting a TV series that is sympathetic to Jews is the worst!

Of course, in the case of Umm Haroun, in which Israel is hardly mentioned, BDS cannot look antisemitic. So they found one scene where Israel is mentioned - where the main character hears about the birth of Israel on Arab radio - and pretend that this is really the issue they have a problem with, not the sympathetic portrayal of Jews.

Gaza media is a little more honest. They admit that they hate Umm Haroun not because of this snippet of a radio broadcast, but because the series is "adopting the Zionist-Israeli narrative of the injustice of the Jews in the Arab countries before and after the establishment of the state of "Israel"... which holds Arabs responsible for "Jewish refugees" from the Arab countries, and alleging that their emigration from the Arab countries was due to the Arab persecution of them because they are Jews."

The BDS press release then goes on a rant about how Arab states are accepting Israel - meaning, that BDS has failed spectacularly badly in the very heart of the Arab world where the Palestinian cause was sacred. (Not Palestinians, but their "cause.")

This [Saudi] regime, which betrayed the question of Palestine, is the same one that terrorizes, kills and tortures thousands of human rights activists and freedom activists in Saudi Arabia, and wastes the fortunes of the brotherly Saudi people in favor of American military industries - in compliance with Trump's orders and administration, which are fiercely hostile to Arabism and Islam - and do not fear continuing to commit crimes against humanity against the brotherly Yemeni people.

The greatest danger of these normalized artistic productions lies in their timing and goals, as they can never be separated from the political context of the region and the attempts to pass the American-Israeli "Deal of the Century" and the accompanying normalization of some Arab countries that aim to liquidate the Palestinian issue. This cultural normalization is a continuation of the political, security, economic, and commercial relations that link some Arab regimes, in particular the Gulf, with Israel, which have gone beyond normalization to the point of complete betrayal.

Also, it is no secret to our people that the Qatari satellite channel attempted to perpetuate the recent crisis in its favor, as we realize that the Al-Jazeera satellite channel, as well as MBC ’s satellite channel , have been continuously contributing to the passage of normalization messages for years, by providing a platform for the Israeli enemy and its criminals to address the Arab viewer in his language, and to polish the image of the first enemy of the peoples of our Arab region.

Sites like Electronic Intifada, speaking to an English language audience, is not even embarrassed to embrace the crazy as well.

This Palestinian anger at Gulf states is, of course, making the Arab world even more hateful of Palestinians. This cartoon is a perfect representation of their response ( I added the English translation from MEMRI:)

Notice that this cartoon is hardly philosemitic - but the cartoonist hates Palestinians far more.

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Palestinians more likely to die from COVID-19 in the US than from the IDF in Gaza

According to the Palestinian foreign ministry, there have been 72 Palestinians worldwide who have died from the coronavirus, and 47 of them are in the US.

By contrast, according to the UN the IDF has killed only six Gazans this year and 17 total in the territories.

There are far more Palestinians in Gaza (2 million) than in the US (<100 chances="" covid-19="" dying="" from="" nbsp="" of="" p="" so="" the="">
So if you are a Palestinian, you are over a hundred times safer from Israeli gunshots in Gaza than you are from coronavirus in the US.

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05/07 Links Pt2: Coronavirus: No new deaths, recovered patients double active cases; David Mamet: ‘We Need More People Standing Up for Jews,’; The video Israel's haters tried to hide

From Ian:

‘We Need More People Standing Up for Jews,’ Renowned Playwright David Mamet Says

David Mamet, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish playwright, film director, author and screenwriter, called on Tuesday for more people to publicly defend Jews in the US.

During a Zoom call hosted by Jewish National Fund-USA, Mamet discussed Jews being kicked out of various countries throughout history, and one viewer asked the American Theater Hall of Famer when he thought the US would become “inhospitable” to Jews.

Moderator Daniel Housman further asked Mamet if he believed there was “ill-will” towards Jews in the US. Mamet replied, “Well of course.”

“If you look at the ‘Squad,’ those harpies in Congress making antisemitic remarks — nobody says ‘boo,'” he explained, referring to the informal name of a group comprised of four progressive congresswomen: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Mamet added, “People come to me over the years and they say, ‘We need more movies showing that Jews are good.’ It’s like outreach, which is a bunch of nonsense. We don’t need more movies like that. We need more people standing up in Congress, more people standing up in the Senate and more people standing outside the door with a legally-licensed firearm saying, ‘Guess what, I’m not different.'”

The Navy SEAL turned congressman who has no patience for outrage culture

Rep. Dan Crenshaw is itching to get back to work. The freshman Republican is hunkered down in Texas as the coronavirus pandemic envelops the United States. But where he really wants to be is Washington.

“We want people to get back to their lives and get back to a sense of freedom,” Crenshaw told Jewish Insider in a recent phone interview from Houston. “We’re fine, of course, it’s the rest of the country that better get back on track.”

The legislator has called for Congress to reopen immediately, and he wants to see a change in how it deals with the “economic side” of the coronavirus moving forward.

“I will not support any more large, trillion-dollar stimulus packages because it’s ridiculous,” he told JI. “If the PPP program needs more funding, let’s possibly fund that — but let’s take it one step at a time… there’s a lot of problems with what we already passed, and we need to fix those things first.”

In less than two years in office, the outspoken political newbie has already made a name for himself among Congress’s diverse freshman crowd. He has become somewhat of a rockstar among young conservatives — amassing more than 1.4 million Instagram followers — and a regular on cable news shows. In his new book Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage, Crenshaw lays out his philosophy for his approach to both politics and life.

And there are several lessons from his book that can apply to the country’s current crisis, he says, pointing to chapters about acquiring perspective and living with a sense of duty.

“It’s tough to tell people during hard times that they should have some perspective, but it’s also true,” he said. “I think Israeli people probably know this better than most. Because on any given day, you might have rockets being lobbed onto your neighborhoods.”

Israel Advocacy Movement: The video Israel's haters tried to hide

Waqf Says Israel Jams Al Aqsa Prayers From Reaching Allah (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Jerusalem, May 7 - Islamic officials at the council that administers holy sites on the Temple Mount accused the Jewish State today of setting up electronic devices in the area to prevent the five-times-daily prayers there from getting to Heaven where God will hear them.

Waqf representative Ayama Faqhedd lambasted Israeli security forces in the city and alleged they have installed emitters all around the elevated compound that jam prayer signals from Al Aqsa Mosque. Faqhedd made the accusation while discussing a the theological question of how Allah can allow the continued prosperity and success of the evil Jews even as the pious Muslims submit themselves to Him.

"One of several approaches to this question involves profound Jewish perfidy," he explained. "The devil-spawn Jews would of course attempt to interdict our righteous supplications. How else can we account for our ongoing shameful inability to oust those weak descendants of apes and pigs from Dar al-Islam despite our vastly superior numbers, superior virtue, and superior oil revenue? If we do not ask the omniscient deity to help us, how can He know what we want? And if the Jews can prevent what we ask from reaching the divine ear, how will Allah ever know we have asked? It must be some of the technology the Jews are always boasting they have developed."

Reports circulated online late Wednesday night on Palestinian social media about mysterious devices at various locations within Jerusalem's old city, with at least one use sharing images of a standpipe fire hydrant labeled as a signal-jamming emitter. Responses to the post and its copies on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for the most part took it at face value, with perhaps one in ten voicing skepticism that the picture represented the alleged jamming equipment.

"Let's not jump to conclusions," cautioned one. "I mean, of course the Jews are doing it, I just don't think that's the device they're using. Probably drones or something." Other users dogpiled that one with invective and death threats for casting doubt on any element of the righteous cause.

Israeli security officials denied knowledge of jamming activity. "Maybe it's just our filthy feet defiling the place," suggested one, referring to comments by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2018 about Jews walking in respectful silence on the Temple Mount. "You know, that might disrupt the path of Muslim prayers to Allah. A place where Muhammad's horse landed one night must be really sensitive to disturbances such as the existence of Jews."

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How Israel haters lie with facts, part 2956

Here's a hugely misleading tweet from the always reliably dishonest Ben White:

The implication, of course, is that Israelis wouldn't take care of Palestinian health needs.

As White undoubtedly knows, every nation - and the Palestinian Authority is included in this -is responsible for its own COVID-19 battle. This is necessary for keeping track of the statistics and keeping things consistent within every country. So, yes, while Israel can and does provide tests to Palestinian medical officials to use, they will not and should not test Palestinians for the virus.

However, Israelis - and "settlers" - provide medical services to Palestinians all the time. The clinic in Efrat is famous for this, and Ariel also provides services to the Arabs that want to use them. I'm sure there are others.

This article about a right-wing Orthodox Israeli doctor who treats Arab patients all the time, even traveling to Arab communities to meet patients, is something that White would never mention - because he wants to only push his agenda of half-truths.

This paragraph says it all:

But with Glick and his Palestinian patients, there is a human connection that goes beyond the usual marketplace relationship, if still under specific circumstances. “Mwa! The doctor is a blessing,” says one 72-year-old hijab-wearing woman, who suffers from chronic pain as a result of her diabetes. (To avoid retribution from the Palestinian Authority [PA], Glick’s patients and associates in Palestine spoke only on condition of anonymity.) The grandmother, who worked in a kitchen in Efrat for more than 25 years, expresses no antipathy toward the settlements. “Efrat has been nothing but good to us,” she says.

It isn't that Jewish medical experts refuse to care for Palestinian patients, as White disgustingly implies. It is the Palestinian Authority that doesn't want their people to visit the Jewish doctors! Palestinians are fearful to publicly visit Jewish doctors because the Palestinian Authority might punish them.

That says volumes.

The truth, as always, is the exact opposite of that the haters say.

(h/t iTi)

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05/07 Links Pt1: FM Katz: EU must stop funding terrorists; The ICC just became a tool of Palestinian lawfare; Einat Wilf on the West’s Indulgence of Palestinian Delusions

From Ian:

Foreign Minister Israel Katz: EU most stop funding terrorists

The European Union must stop any form of support for terrorists, Foreign Minister Israel Katz demanded on Thursday, in response to a letter stating that Palestinians affiliated with terrorist groups may participate in EU activities.

"We demand the EU immediately stop all support, monetary or other, for any factor that supports terrorism directly or indirectly," Katz said. "Experience teaches us that terrorism and any aid to terrorism will bring more terrorism."

Katz's comments came after the Foreign Ministry reprimanded EU Ambassador to Israel Emanuele Giaufret over the letter. The summons came late Wednesday night, hours after media reports about the letter. Foreign Ministry Deputy director-general for Europe Anna Azari, told Giaufret that "Israel categorically opposes the EU's policy in relation to funding terrorist organizations, which is an inspiration for incitement, support and involvement in terrorism."

Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, EU representative to the West Bank and Gaza, wrote in an official letter to the Palestinian NGO Network, dated March 30, that all EU-funded projects, including by Palestinian organizations, must follow EU law, such as a ban on funding terrorist groups.

However, the letter points out that there are no Palestinian individuals on the EU’s “restrictive measures list” barring funds to terrorists, such that the NGOs would not be penalized if members of terrorist groups benefit from EU funding.

Charlie Weimers, a conservative member of the European Parliament, challenged European Commissioners: “Will you take action and create legal obstacles to people affiliated with terrorist groups participating in activities that the EU funds? Will you make sure that European taxpayers don’t fund terrorists?”

The Tikvah Podcast: Einat Wilf on the West’s Indulgence of Palestinian Delusions

The so-called “right of return” is one of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, as many as 700,000 Arabs fled or were driven from what had been mandatory Palestine. But unlike every other refugee population in the world, the official number of Palestinian refugees has not declined, but exploded—because, contrary to its policy for all other displaced groups, the United Nations recognizes their refugee status as passing from generation to generation. Moreover, the Arab countries where many of these refugees reside, along with the Palestinian Authority itself, refuse to integrate them into their local populations.

Why did this happen? In The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace, Einat Wilf and Adi Schwartz explain that the persistence of the Palestinian refugee problem is part of the broader Palestinian war—waged not only with rockets, knives, and bullets, but also through international bodies, NGOs, and the media—against the very existence of the Jewish state. They also show how Western indulgence of this manufactured problem has harmed the effort to achieve an end to the conflict.

This week, Jonathan Silver sits down with Einat Wilf, a former Knesset member, to discuss the roots of the refugee problem, the role it plays in the Palestinian war against Israel, and why peace will never be achieved until Palestinians abandon the dream of destroying the Jewish state.

Iran used US servers in cyberattack on Israeli water facilities - report

Iran was responsible for a widespread cyberattack on Israeli water and sewage facilities last month, Fox News reported on Thursday. According to the report, Iran used American servers to hack into the facilities.

Foreign correspondent for Fox News Trey Yingst wrote on Twitter that, "A senior official at the US Department of Energy declined to comment on any specifics related to an 'ongoing investigation.' The official reiterated that the DOE routinely gathers and shares info with private sector partners to protect the US and it’s allies from cyberattacks."

The attack took place at the end of April and attacked several Israeli Water Authority facilities.

The head of the Water Authority's security department, Daniel Lacker, told the head of the cyber department Avi Azar that, "We have received a number of reports regarding a cyberattack on the... systems. No damage was reported during the incident," Ynet reported.

Iran is often accused of attempting cyberattacks against Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the issue at last year's CyberTech conference in Tel Aviv, saying that "Iran is attacking Israel on a daily basis. We monitor it and prevent it every day."

He added: "They are threatening in other ways. What is important is that every country can be attacked and each country needs the combination of defense and attack capabilities and Israel has such ability."

NEW: Iran used American servers when launching a cyber attack that targeted Israeli water infrastructure last month, sources tell Fox News pic.twitter.com/UK9go96dqS
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) May 7, 2020

There is no shortage of articles about how Israel extending sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria would be disastrous - for Israel and for peace.

These articles are one-sided and short-sighted.

They make predictions like how such a move would enrage the Arab world - when similar moves in the Golan and Jerusalem have generated little heat and no fire and the larger Arab world is more interested in allying with Israel than with the Palestinians.

They say that Israel would not give citizenship to any Arabs who end up on the Israeli side, enshrining an apartheid system, even though Israel has offered citizenship to Arabs in the parts of Jerusalem and the Golan that Israel has extended sovereignty over and there is zero evidence that this wouldn't happen again.

They warn about the PA dissolving, or that PA security cooperation with Israel will end. Abbas has threatened that exact scenario dozens of times when Israel did other things he didn't like and it never happened. the fact is that everyone acts in their best interests and it is not in the PLO's best interest to give up the parts of Palestine that it already controls.

They warn that US support of the plan the Arab world will turn against the US - when this simply didn't happen when the US recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and Israel's rule over the Golan. But these "experts" keep on confidently making their predictions that are based not on evidence but on what they want to see.

There are lots of similar false assumptions - you can read a large list from J-Street here.

However, very few are talking about why extending sovereignty is a good move for Israel - and for peace.

All of the criticisms are anchored in an assumption that is thoroughly discredited: that Palestinians want an independent state side by side with Israel. We've now gone through twenty years of the Palestinian leaders turning down every peace offer, every peace framework, every trial balloon that did not give them their maximal requirements of 1949 armistice lines, "right of return," taking Jewish holy spots away from Jews and and freeing thousands of terrorists. If anything, they are even more rejectionist than they were in the first decade of the century when they still talked to Israel. Now they are even against their own people talking to Israeli Jews or going to Israeli stores.

It is way past time to stop giving lip service to a lie.

Palestinians are not a peace partner. They want quiet, but they don't want peace. They have no desire to end the conflict. They don't teach their children that Israel is a permanent neighbor that has the right to exist - but they do teach them that martyrdom in killing Jews is the most desirable way to doe.

Anyone who still claims, after all these years and all the accumulated evidence, that Palestinians are a peace partner is engaging in the worst kind of wishful thinking. It is invariably disastrous to make life or death decisions based on a lie.

This lie has given the Palestinians veto power over any possible peace plan. And this is the reason there is no peace.

Once you realize that Palestinians are not a peace partner, and will never become one without a major change in their mindset, then you see that Israel can only act unilaterally.

And that gives Israel four options.

One is the status quo. That is okay for the short term but this degrades the morale of the IDF and it cannot become permanent. No one wants to rule another people forever, least of all Israel.

Another option is complete sovereignty over all the territories. That would make the problem of Israel ruling over the Palestinians even worse, because it would involve far more IDF forces and it would mean that either Israel gives them all citizenship - which would end Israel as the Jewish state - or keep them as non-citizens, which would end Israel's democracy. Some have tried to argue that these aren't really as major an issue as they seem, by arguing that the demographics are not accurate or that many Arabs will choose not to become citizens if offered, but those are very dangerous assumptions to bet the future of Israel on.

A third option, one that much of the world seems to hope for, is Israel unilaterally withdrawing to the 1949 armistice lines. This would be a disaster for Israeli security without any of the benefits of peace. No one in Israel would accept that.

Finally, there is extending sovereignty over the areas that are critical and proper for Israel to control.

- For the most part, these are all areas that Israel would have kept in any possible peace plan anyway. Israeli military leaders from the right to the left have emphasized the security importance of the Jordan Valley since 1967.
- Evicting Jews from the homes they've lived in for decades is immoral, no matter what the world thinks about them.
- It is likewise unfathomable that Israel should give up the Jewish holy sites that Palestinians would bar Jews from visiting. History shows that only Israel has allowed free access to the holy sites, and Muslims never did.
- The areas that are heavily populated by Palestinians would be excluded so the demographic issue is not only not a problem, but it is permanently solved.

One might quibble over the details of a partial sovereignty plan - like whether it is worth it for Israel to keep the isolated settlements - but it is not only the best plan, it is essentially the only possible plan to move forward, once you truly internalize that the Palestinians are not and are not likely to become a peace partner.

Gaza today is instructive. The disengagement from Gaza was hardly smooth, and there have been three wars and many skirmishes, but look at it today: it is ruled by Islamists who will never accept Israel's existence, but they are keeping things largely calm because they have something to lose. Even for these hardcore antisemites and haters of Israel, they do not want to risk the land they control and the power that they have.

The areas that Israel doesn't claim sovereignty over are areas that the Palestinian Authority leaders do not want to lose. Like Hamas, they will be the ones who try to keep things calm. Most importantly, the option for making peace with Israel is and always will still be open to them. It is even possible that seeing the land they claim becoming permanently unavailable to them will spur them to save the land they can. But no one can make that assumption.

Palestinians do not want peace - but they do want calm. And a partial sovereignty plan is a path to that calm. It is also a path the the "Deal of the Century" which can give the Palestinians lots of economic incentives to move towards a real peace - but Israel can no longer tolerate a situation where Palestinians can freeze everything by just saying "no."

This is why Israel must act unilaterally to protect its interests - its security interests, its cultural interests, its people's interests.

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Palestinians are in an uproar over the revelation that Jordanian-based Cairo-Amman Bank has suddenly closed the accounts of Palestinians who are getting salaries from the PLO for their terror activities.

Former prisoners who are guaranteed a lifetime salary, indexed to the number of Jews they killed, were surprised that their ATM cards were disabled. They then received notices from the bank saying they should transfer their funds to other banks.

This decision by the bank appears to have been a reaction to the IDF saying that it will start to crack down on terror financing starting May 9, which now defines paying terrorists as a prohibited terror financing operation.

Palestinian Media Watch sent a series of letters to presidents of banks that operate in the territories warning them that by facilitating these payments they can open themselves up to personal criminal liability, and they can expose their banks to civil lawsuits from terror victims and seizure of the accounts.

Recently, the Palestinian Authority has tried to hide its budget item to pay prisoners from European auditors, by laundering the payments through a general fund of payments to its parent PLO organization. The same amount that they proudly mentioned in last year's budget going to the PA Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs, which pays the lifetime salaries, has been added to the unauditable "PLO Institutions."

The Gaza Ministry of Prisoners Affairs reacted furiously at the news. Hamas called to boycott the Cairo Amman Bank. The PFLP condemned the news, saying that Palestinian banks must adhere to national principles - which include glorifying and paying terrorists and their families.

Only three affected families were named. Two were former prisoners who now have lifetime "jobs" with the PA, and one was the wife of a current prisoner in Israel.

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My live interview with international law scholar Eugene Kontorovich was plagued by connectivity issues last Sunday, but I've edited the parts I could together to get 12 precious minutes from him.

As always, Eugene has a unique but compelling perspective on Israel in international law.

I didn't get to the questions I had about the ICC and and the BDS laws in the US, but maybe next time!

Enjoy!

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Jews and Evangelicals: it’s Complicated (Vic Rosenthal)

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

I have lived a large part of my life outside the Jewish bubble. I have known many Evangelical Christians, and some of them have been good friends. So I wasn’t surprised to hear about “God TV” and its attempt – which apparently did not succeed, although it came very close – to initiate a Hebrew language TV channel on HOT, Israel’s largest cable provider, that is an unabashed attempt to “broadcast the gospel of Jesus Christ – Yeshua the Messiah – in Israel on cable TV in the Hebrew language” (video here). The channel is called “Shelanu” [ours] to remind us that Jesus was one of us, a Jew – as if this is an argument for Jews to adopt Christianity!

Many Israelis and Jews are outraged by missionary activity aimed at us. From our point of view it is deeply insulting. How dare they try to subvert Judaism, especially considering the history of Christian (Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant) Jew hatred? Arguably, the very wellspring of all antisemitism is the response of non-Jews – leaders of the early Church, Mohammed, Martin Luther, the Inquisition, et al – to the stubborn refusal of Jews to replace their traditional beliefs and rituals with the “better” ones proposed by the various religious innovators. So naturally we vehemently reject modern-day attempts to convert us.

Jews are generally not judgmental toward those who practice other faiths (they specialize in criticizing other Jews). We do not go around telling Christians that they are practicing idolatry, nor do we attack Hindus for their polytheism. In modern times, most strains of Judaism do not engage in proselytizing. And so we have little patience when it is directed at us.

The legal discussion concerning whether the channel should be permitted will be interesting. Israel has freedom of religion, as indicated in the Declaration of Independence. The courts have upheld the right of free expression of religious beliefs, on the basis of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. There are, however, laws forbidding anyone from providing material benefit to someone for changing their religion, and forbidding attempts to persuade a person under 18 to change religion. Tourists can be prevented from entering the country or even deported for missionary activity.

Religious programming on TV is permitted. Even, theoretically, proselytizing programming. But if it is determined that it may influence young people, then it may not be allowed.

In order to understand why Evangelical Christians – who are otherwise supportive of Israel and may be quite friendly with Jews as a people and as individuals – would do something that is guaranteed to anger Jews and damage their relationship with them we need to look at some of their beliefs.

There of course is no one “Evangelical Christianity.” But Evangelicals generally believe that salvation requires an act of “conversion” or acceptance of Jesus as one’s savior and a renunciation of sin. The sometimes sudden life-changing experience is what some call being “born again.” Unlike Judaism, which requires above all observance of mitzvot [commandments], Evangelicals emphasize a radically powerful belief, which completely changes a person’s relationship to this world as well as his future in the world to come.

Along with the personal aspect of belief is the universal aspect, by which Evangelicals believe that one of their most important personal tasks, indeed one of the morally best things that they can do, is to bring others to the realization of the “good news.” If someone is resistant to the message, it can only be that they simply don’t understand what the stakes are; they don’t know what they are missing in this life, nor what will happen to them when they die, if they don’t accept Jesus while they still can.

Evangelicals believe that the Bible, including the Jewish Tanach, is the Word of God, either literally or by divine inspiration; and they study it carefully for guidance in all matters. Many Evangelicals are much more familiar with the Tanach than Jews, even Jews that have had Jewish educations. This naturally leads them to believe in the spiritual importance of the Jewish people. Often they quote biblical passages as the justification for their support and even love of Israel and the Jewish people. And how better to show your love for someone than to try to give them a better life, and save them from a horrible, eternally painful, doom?

It’s often said that Evangelical support for Israel, as well as their desire to convert Jews, is based on a belief in certain prophecies about the “End Times,” and they are acting in ways that will bring it closer. Some may believe this, but most of those who do accept such prophecies believe that the great upheavals and mass conversions that will mark the End Times are predestined, and not affected by human actions.

I think it should be clear that trying to explain to Evangelicals that it is inappropriate to proselytize among Jews will not be successful. Sharing and spreading their faith is a fundamental part of that faith itself; we can no more get them to renounce it then a Christian could get us to accept the Trinitarian nature of God.

At the same time, Jews have a right not to be bombarded with attempts to persuade them to abandon their own faith (I know Christian missionaries say they are just adding something to it, but that is disingenuous). The people behind the Shelanu TV channel are guilty of what popular psychology calls “bad boundaries.” One of the reasons for the existence of a Jewish state is to provide a place in which we can fully realize the Jewish dimension of our personal identity, something that is difficult or impossible in the diaspora. Part of the problem is the continuous pressure, even coercion, by the majority population, to give up our spiritual uniqueness. Missionary activity reintroduces that pressure. And the fact that it happens here in our own country diminishes our sovereignty.

Although it is important to protect the rights to freedom of expression and religion, no rights can be absolute, because of conflicts among them. Here in the Jewish state, unlike in the diaspora, there are special rights, or privileges, or benefits, for Jews and Judaism. We’ve tried to express some of this “specialness” in the controversial Basic Law: Israel – the Nation-State of the Jewish People.

So I think that if it becomes necessary to limit some of the rights exercised by those who love us so much that they find it acceptable to trespass on our boundaries, we might look to this law as a justification for that limitation.

That’s a job for the lawyers and judges. Meanwhile – and I really mean this – with the utmost respect for my Evangelical friends and strong supporters of Israel, I would like to see “God TV” out of the Jewish state.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

05/06 Links Pt2: Col. Kemp: Palestinians, Israel and the Coronavirus; Israel reports no new deaths since Tuesday from COVID-19

From Ian:

Col. Richard Kemp: Palestinians, Israel and the Coronavirus

Israeli and PA health departments meet regularly to coordinate action and share vital information. Troops from the IDF's Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) are organising joint training for medical teams. Israel provides test kits, laboratory supplies, medicines and personal protective equipment for Palestinian health workers.

Some Palestinian Arab leaders today seem to prefer that their own people succumb to disease rather than cooperate with Israel. While Palestinians and Israelis on the ground pull together against Coronavirus.... articles in official Palestinian Authority publications assert that Israel is deliberately spreading the infection and trying to contaminate Palestinian prisoners, using Coronavirus as a biological weapon. Of course, Israel-haters in both mainstream and social media are only too eager to amplify such defamatory and divisive outbursts.

A recent Coronavirus op-ed in the Washington Post demanded that Israel "lift the siege on Gaza". Predictably, the author ignores the fact that Israel's lawful blockade of the Gaza Strip -- also imposed by Egypt -- is in place for one reason only: the regime there remains intent on using Gaza as a base for terrorist attacks against both Israel and Egypt. But even in Gaza, a form of cooperation has been achieved.

Israel-haters don't want to know this, but what the author calls for is of course exactly what has been happening since the Coronavirus outbreak.

🚨STARTING NOW ⁦@COLRICHARDKEMP⁩ @ThePodcastRadio⁩. “KEEP ATTACKING”. Britain’s former commander of forces in Afghanistan discusses where today’s threats come from and what he campaigns for today.
📻LISTEN LIVE https://t.co/bmht956Cv6
🎧EPISODE https://t.co/W6Bl0hWXsR pic.twitter.com/Yt6h2Obhgl
— Jonny Gould’s Jewish State 🎧 podcast (@jonnygouldpod) May 6, 2020

Israel reports no new deaths since Tuesday from COVID-19

There have been no new deaths reported since Tuesday from COVID-19 for the first time since early March.

As of Wednesday morning, there are 16,314 confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel, while 238 patients have succumbed to the virus.

The Health Ministry said there are 5,549 people currently infected with the pathogen, while 10,5 have recovered from the disease.
Out of those currently infected with the virus, 90 are in serious condition, with 70 requiring respiratory assistance.

Another 55 people are in moderate condition and the rest have mild symptoms.

At least 247 people are hospitalized with the virus.

According to the ministry, 7,741 coronavirus tests were reported Tuesday.

The southern Bedouin city of Hura, which the government has put back on lockdown Tuesday, still leads the country in infection rate at 19.2%, with 20 new confirmed cases in the past three days.

How did Israel keep its death toll so low and does it now risk a new spike?

Prof. Yehuda Carmeli, head of the Department of Epidemiology at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and one of the medical professionals leading the Israeli Health Ministry's response to the coronavirus pandemic, was asked how Israel kept its death toll so relatively low.

After more than a month in lockdown, the government has begun dramatically easing coronavirus restrictions, buoyed by a stream of encouraging statistics. Daily new cases were in the low dozens. And there were almost 240 fatalities, figures much less severe than countries of comparable size, including countries that imposed stay-at-home orders relatively early in their outbreaks.

"This virus will probably stay with us for a very long time. Even if we are able to control it fantastically within Israel, at some point we will once again have more ties to the rest of the world. We will have to adapt to a different way of life," Carmeli said.

"The reason for the low mortality rate is that although there was a lot of criticism about how many tests were done, Israel is among the leading countries in the world in testing people. We do a lot of tests so we detect a lot. Also, it's because most of our affected population are young people, and they have a very low mortality rate. If you look at the distribution of sick people in Israel, fewer than 5% are over the age of 80. That's the age where you start to see very high mortality rates. And in Israel, the population over 70 and 80 was quite well protected."