Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, July 04, 2016

"Don't blame us for honoring terrorists. It's our culture!"

Israel barred the Palestinian governor of Hebron from entering Israel, after he paid his condolences to the family of a man killed by settlement security after stabbing an Israeli girl to death in her home.

Mohammed Nasser Tra'ayra, 19, from the Palestinian village of Bani Na'im, jumped the Kiryat Arba settlement's perimeter fence and then broke into an isolated home, stabbing 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her sleep. He was then shot dead by the settlement's security force.

The governor said that the visit to Tra'ayra's home was of a social and religious nature, and had no political statement. Ahmed further stated that he had no special benefits from Israel. Sources close to the governor accused COGAT of incitement against him, saying that such condolence calls were a norm in Palestinian society and don't constitute a statement of support for the terrorist's acts.

This is not the first time we have heard this excuse. Saeb Erekat paid a condolence call to a "martyr" who shot two Israelis and Mahmoud Abbas has sent condolence letters to the family of a man who tried to ram his car into soldiers.

Previously, Abbas had sent not so much a condolence but a letter calling for revenge to the family of the person who almost assassiated Yehuda Glick, saying "With anger and condemnation we received the message about the heinous crime committed by the murderous, terrorist gangs in the Israeli occupation army against Muataz Ibrahim Hijazi, who rose to heaven as a casualty in the fight for the Palestinian people's rights and for the holy sites."

Is this explicit support for and praise of terrorists simply "social and religious?" Is visiting the family of murderers and terrorists simply a "cultural" issue?

It is easy to answer that question. If it is merely a social obligation to visit the families of the dead, as it is in other cultures, then the question is whether Hebron's governor visits the families of every car accident victim, everyone who succumbs to cancer, everyone who dies from a heart attack in his district.

If so, then he might have an argument. Of course, it would mean he has no time to actually do his job since he would be spending 12 hours a day visiting the bereaved.

Let's be honest. The reason that the families are being visited is because their terrorist sons are heroes to Palestinians. There is no other reason - and there is no excuse.

Israel is doing the right thing in not allowing Hebron's governor to enter Israel. Terror supporters should not be allowed into the state that they want to destroy.

But for Israel to be consistent, it should bar Abbas and Erekat from entering Israel as well from their overseas junkets, along with every member of the PA government that expresses support for terror. Then the message might get through that it is unacceptable to treat murderers like heroes.

Those who do must learn that their decisions have consequences.

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EoZ #HasbyAwards show in Jerusalem on Sunday night a smash success

On Sunday night, I presented the Hasby Awards to a wonderful crowd of the world's best pro-Israel advocates.

The event was at the Honest Reporting offices, where they have a rooftop deck overlooking much of Jerusalem. About 40 people came, and they were a who's who of famous Zionist bloggers, tweeters and writers.

Here is a partial list of attendees, to give you a taste:

Avi Mayer
Evelyn Gordon
Yishai Fleisher
PreOccupied Territory
Varda Meyers Epstein
Vic Rosenthal
Brian of London
Eugene Kontorovich
Not AntiSemitic (antiSuperDushIsraeli)
Hen Mazzig
Arsen Ostrovsky
Alexandra Markus (Lex)
Leora Eisenberg
Arnold Roth
Yisrael Medad
Father Gabriel Naddaf
Emanuel (Elan) Miller
Kay Wilson
Forest Rain
William Daroff
Yahya Mahamed
Peter Lerner
Jewlicious
Mrs. Elder

That's a pretty impressive list.

I'll be posting videos of the event during the week. Everyone that presented or received an award - 20 people altogether - gave a short speech and they were really all excellent.

During the ceremony the hashtag #HasbyAwards became the top trending topic on Twitter! The attendees tweeted a lot so the world could keep track of all winners and speeches.

Here are some of the tweets:

With @LTCPeterLerner at the #HasbyAwards pic.twitter.com/iRr9h8nIj6
— Yishai Fleisher (@YishaiFleisher) July 3, 2016

With @FrGabNaddaf & some of my fellow winners at the @elderofziyon #HasbyAwards held at @HonestReporting Office. pic.twitter.com/yDwM8eLwLb
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 3, 2016

Much as I'm enjoying the #HasbyAwards, I'm distracted by this vista, with the mountains of Jordan in the distance. pic.twitter.com/GWHxEabcdQ
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) July 3, 2016

Best Young Defender of Israel at the #HasbyAwards @AM_Markus - and she just made Aliyah! pic.twitter.com/abpE73VGYW
— Yishai Fleisher (@YishaiFleisher) July 3, 2016

With @jewlicious David at the #HasbyAwards pic.twitter.com/EbjAqcQRvc
— Yishai Fleisher (@YishaiFleisher) July 3, 2016

The #HasbyAwards Selfie pic.twitter.com/C53M1AWUpA
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) July 3, 2016

Mission Accomplished ... #HasbyAwards are officially trending No.1! cc. @elderofziyon @HonestReporting pic.twitter.com/ad1kNm2BzM
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 3, 2016

.@Mytruth_eng began to combat lies about IDF & show its reality #HasbyAwards @emanumiller @elderofziyon pic.twitter.com/acL2ucVcCX
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 3, 2016

Who's this superstar, presenting 'Best Activist Organization' award at #HasbyAwards? Do you know @HenMazzig? pic.twitter.com/xNdBa3QM4L
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 3, 2016

The inspirational @kishkushkay survived Palestinian terror attack in which her friend was murdered #HasbyAwards pic.twitter.com/FMY9ilsfyx
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 3, 2016

We've got to do this again!

Stay tuned for the videos.

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National Post not quite sure if murdering a teen in her bed is terror

Headline from The National Post (Canada):

"What Israel calls a terrorist attack"? What else could it possibly be classified as by any sane person?

It isn't as if the National Post is reluctant to use the word terrorist without qualification. Only two days earlier it published this headline:

Apparently, every single one of the ten Canadians referred to in that article are victims of terror, full stop. But the murderers of Israeli children are only considered terrorists by those touchy Israelis.

(h/t Martin Dunn)

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07/03 Links: The Palestinian Incentive Program for Killing Jews; Dear Barack: Why Ahmed, But Not Hallel

From Ian:

Eli Lake: The Palestinian Incentive Program for Killing Jews

Whoever said crime doesn't pay hasn't talked to the family of a Palestinian terrorist. For the Palestine Liberation Organization and the related Palestinian Authority, the killers of Jewish Israelis are considered "martyrs." And as such, their families are paid for the service these murderers have done for the Palestinian cause.
This has come to light this week after a Palestinian, Mohammed Tarayra, stabbed Hallel Yaffa Ariel, a 13-year-old Israeli girl, as she was sleeping in her bed. The stabbing was part of a wave of attacks by Palestinians who have for nearly eight months been shooting, stabbing and running down Jews with the encouragement of social media and popular songs.
According to the latest report of the Russian, European, U.S. and U.N. group known as the Quartet, there have been 250 of these kinds of attacks since October. It says, "These terrorist attacks, which have been carried out mostly by young, unaffiliated individuals, contribute to the sense among Israelis of living under constant threat."
But this misses important context. The Quartet's report, which is even handed to a fault, makes no mention of the "martyr's fund," through which the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization pay the families of all Palestinian prisoners and the families of martyrs. So while there is no evidence that the Palestinian government plans these killing sprees, it encourages them as a legitimate act of resistance.
As Commentary's Evelyn Gordon wrote this week, the prisoners and the families of the prisoners themselves are actually paid a higher wage than what most Palestinians earn for nonviolent work.
The origins of these payments goes back a long way. Before the Palestinian Authority was established in the 1990s through the Oslo peace process, the Palestine Liberation Organization paid the families of "martyrs" and prisoners detained by Israel. That practice became standardized during the Second Intifadah of 2000 to 2005. The Israelis even found documents in the late Yasser Arafat's compound that showed payments to families of suicide bombers. (h/t Jewess)

Dear Barack: Why Ahmed, But Not Hallel

On June 30, 2016, 13-year-old Hallel Ariel was stabbed to death in her bed by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist. Her only crime was sleeping. The murder, which shocked Israelis and which Palestinians celebrated, was barely a blip on worldwide social media. In an increasingly anti-Semitic and Jew-hating world, a savage murder of a sleeping teenage girl barely moves the needle.
Remember that President Obama tweeted to Ahmed at 12:58 PM, two days after his incident.
I am writing this article at 12:58 PM, two days after Hallel was slaughtered. There has been no tweet from @POTUS. I didn’t expect one, and knew I would be writing this article. It is still gross to see what subjects the President uses his bully pulpit to draw attention to, in attempts to shame America.
Not even the fact that Ariel had dual American and Israeli citizenship causes our President to use a single keystroke to condemn her murder. A murder by a Palestinian. I have long contended that Obama is always on the wrong side of issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is Exhibit A. He hates Israel, despises Benjamin Netanyahu, and has little to no use for Jews. A condemnation of Hallel’s murder might anger the Palestinians, and Obama can’t have any part of that.
Sadly, President Obama can’t invite Hallel Ariel to the White House, and he certainly won’t invite her parents. That coveted invitation is saved for parents unworthy of the invite…

Palestinian terrorism and Muslim hypocrisy: An open letter from a Muslim woman

While millions of children got out of bed on the morning of June 30, 2016, excited for summer vacation, one child did not. A young Israeli girl, 13-year-old Hallel Yaffe Ariel, was brutally murdered in her own bed by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist. He broke into her house and stabbed her to death. Another life lost to senseless violence. Another poor soul taken too early from this world. But few Muslims in this world will be mourning her death, because Hallel was an Israeli Jew.
I am a Muslim, and I know that when it comes to Palestinian terrorism, too many Muslims are hypocrites. I have seen firsthand the casual, destructive anti-Semitism that plagues the Muslim community. I have heard it from the mouths of our religious leaders, from our politicians, and even from our otherwise peaceful, liberal Muslim activists. I have witnessed in horror the desperate attempts to justify Palestinian terrorism from people who I once respected. Why? Why do we decry all other types of terrorism, but bend over backwards to legitimize violence against Israeli Jews?
We blame it on “Zionism.” We blame it on “occupation.” We blame it on “apartheid.” We lap up the tired, anti-Semitic lies fed to us by Al-Jazeera: “Israelis cut off the water supply!” “Israelis are going to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque!” We’re not even willing to admit that Israel is a country. We call it “Palestine.” We refuse to call violence against Israelis “terrorism,” and we hypocritically scream, “Resistance is not a crime!”
Let me tell you something. Stabbing pregnant women in the stomach is not “resistance.” Shooting people at a cafe is not “resistance.” Driving your car into pedestrians is not “resistance.” Bombing a bus is not “resistance.” Breaking into a woman’s home and murdering her in front of her children is not “resistance.” And stabbing a little girl to death in the one place where she was supposed to be safe is certainly not “resistance.” Terrorism is not resistance. Terrorism is an unjustifiable crime.

Ben Ehrenreich’s obscene empathy with the terror-supporting Tamimis

You might think it’s an uphill battle to promote a book glorifying Palestinian terror-supporters at a time when Palestinian terrorists stab Israelis on the streets, gun down people at a café in Tel Aviv and even murder a sleeping Jewish teenager in her bed. But you would be very wrong: the American writer Ben Ehrenreich is doing just fine promoting his new book that prominently features the Tamimis of Nabi Saleh, who don’t even try to hide their admiration for their own murderous relatives and openly cheer every terror act committed against Israelis.
I have documented the Tamimis’ support for terrorism as well as their seething Jew-hatred and their ambition to instigate a “third intifada” with the eventual goal to “delete Israel” in considerable detail, notably in an article published last November at The Tower, but also in several additional blog posts. Given the rather high percentage of recent terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinian teenagers (including yesterday’s murderous attack by a 17-year-old Palestinian), it is particularly important to understand that the Tamimis have long advocated and cheered the participation of children and teenagers in what they like to call “resistance.”
So here is Nariman Tamimi – a prominent figure in Ehrenreich’s new book – sharing a Facebook post from a family member honoring the teenaged terrorist who just killed the 13-year-old sleeping Hallel Yaffa Ariel after breaking into her home. As far as the Tamimis are concerned, the murder of Hallel Yaffa helped “to return to the homeland its awe/reverence.” (h/t Elder of Lobby)

July 4th weekend.

We've got a bunch of people coming over today for a party and I've been wracking my brains concerning my usual Sunday EOZ piece.

I thought maybe that I would mine Israel Thrives for some older material and then acknowledged the obvious.

The Elder is featured on this Tuesday's Nothing Left radio show with Michael Burd and Alan Freedman.

I am friendly with those guys and I am friendly with this guy and so it makes obvious sense to plug the Elder's interview.

Naturally it tends to help that I am also on the broadcast.

What I really want, however, is to talk to you guys about fairly obvious criticisms of diaspora Left Jewry.

Besides they bring in Isi Liebler on a weekly basis and one thing is certain, that guy is a tough old Jew.

Smart fellah, too, I get the sense.

In any case, my brief pieces over the coming weeks are not partisan.

It is not about Right versus Left or Republican versus Democrat.

This about what I call, on Israel Thrives, the "Failures of Progressive-Left Zionism." And you can find links to those brief pieces if you scroll-down toward the right-hand of the page.

These are:

1) Refusing to Discuss Islamist Threat

My first piece in this series, which you can hear on Tuesday, is concerned with precisely that.

The progressive-left, and the Democratic Party under Barack Obama, can barely breathe the words "Islamic terrorism." I honestly do not know if they are trying to fool us or are sincerely fooling themselves. I suspect the former, though.

2) Whipping Up Hatred Toward Other Jews

The progressive-left imagination tends to harbor "Good Jews" and "Bad Jews."

The "Good Jews" are those who tend to dislike the "Bad Jews" and the "Bad Jews" are any who live where neither Barack Obama nor his friend, Mahmoud Abbas, want them to live in Judea and Samaria. The "Bad Jews" also include people such as myself - and perhaps yourself - who insist that Jewish people have at least as much right to live anywhere within the Land of Israel as Rastafarians have to live in the Czech Republic.

Obama does not get to tell Jewish people that they may not live in Hebron or anyplace else in the land of Jewish patrimony.

So sorry.

3) Forever Playing Defense

Diaspora Jews are not a very aggressive bunch.

British Jews, in particular, like to keep their heads down and hope for the best... because, y'know, that strategy has worked out so well in the past.

4) The Moral Equivalency Canard

Everything tends to be a little-bit-of-this and a little-bit-of-that in Jewish Left thinking.

Sure, Palestinian terrorism is bad, but what about Kahane?

What about the Occupation? (With the Big O?)

I will dig into it when I get around to recording this one.

5) Ignoring Jewish History

Would anyone ever consider discussing the circumstances of Black people in the United States without at least some reference to the history of slavery and Jim Crow?

The truth, of course, is that any discussion of the circumstances of Black people in the United States would be entirely incomprehensible without placing those circumstances within historical context.

One must at least give reference to both slavery and Jim Crow.

And, yet, somehow, thirteen long centuries of dhimmi status living under the boot of Arab-Muslim imperialism seems to count for nothing in discussions of the conflict among left-leaning diaspora Jewry.

In fact, I am not certain that even they are aware of it!

6) Frenemies

Many progressive-left Jews have the same inclination as Barack Obama.

They spit on their friends while courting their enemies.

I don't think that I have seen so much contempt for any group of people on the planet than the contempt that Jewish progressives show for Evangelical Christians. Holy Christ! You would think that those people chopped the heads off of Muslims in the streets of Wichita, Kansas, or hung Gay people from cranes in Columbus, Ohio, in the way that the Jewish left spits contemptuously at their Evangelical neighbors.

Those people are allies and we can disagree with them in the spirit of allies.

To do otherwise is, frankly, stupid.

In any case, this is the kind of material that I will be discussing, at the discretion of Michael and Alan, for the next few weeks on Nothing Left.

And the Elder is on schedule for an interview this Tuesday.

Check it out.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

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.@UNRWA official, citing Elie Wiesel, seems to say Israel is performing genocide (updated)

Here is a tweet from Matthias Schmale, UNRWA director in Lebanon, where quotes and adds onto a tweet by someone else - which is pretty much an endorsement of what they wrote:

To cite a Holocaust survivor in order to accuse Israel of being just like the Nazis - which is what taygogo did - is textbook antisemitism. And a top UNRWA official agrees with it so much that he amplifies it.

In the hours since Wiesel died we have seen lots of filth come out of the woodwork to excoriate him for his support of the only Jewish state in the world, and to call him a hypocrite for not applying the lessons of the Holocaust to Israel. In fact, Wiesel did exactly that. He had a clear moral vision where he could see the direct line between Jew-hatred in Nazi Germany and Jew-hatred today from the Arab world, a hatred that so-called humanitarians are silent about. He could see how today's antisemites are using Israel as a proxy for Jews - and using humanitarian language to hide their hate.

Put it this way: No one is saying today that Wiesel's lessons should apply to Syria or Sudan or Somalia.

Somehow, Israel is always the one state in the world that must compared to the Nazis, and the death of a Holocaust survivor is a wonderful opportunity for these sick people to publicly express this modern, acceptable form of Jew-hatred.

It's always nice to be around when the mask comes off and we see how UNRWA's leaders really think.

Make no mistake - to use Elie Wiesel's memory as a bludgeon to attack Israel, a nation that he supported, is sickening. And for people who work for a supposedly humanitarian agency to publicly espouse such an opinion shows the moral bankruptcy that is at the heart of UNRWA.

UPDATE: Schmale denies any such intent:

But even if he had no such intent, the fact is that Schmale did not find the accusation of Israel engaging in genocide to be out of bounds speaks volumes. It is in fact part and parcel of the language and thinking that permeates the UN and UNRWA and untold number of NGOs, and calling Israel an apartheid state or genocidal or whatever is simply acceptable discourse in the circles that Schmale frequents.

The same people that are ultra-sensitive not to offend women or people of color or gays or any other minorities have no such sensitivities towards Jews when they wantonly throw around Nazi comparisons to Israel. On the contrary, they condone such language - until they are called out on it.

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Times of Israel reported last week:

At an axis point between Jewish and Arab Jerusalem, and just a two-minute drive from the West Bank crossing that leads to Ramallah, Israeli developer and business guru Rami Levy is building the first Israeli-Palestinian mall. He is hoping the power of the free market can be harnessed into a force for coexistence.

The idea for the mall, Levy said, comes from his existing shopping centers and supermarkets in the West Bank, which have become unexpected points of friendly interaction between Jews and Arabs looking for jobs and the cheapest prices.

Half realist, half dreamer, Levy confronts the fact that Arab and Jews are destined to live together and concludes that they must do what they can to make the best of the situation “and serve each other as best as possible.”

If his mall succeeds, Levy said, “it can lead to an understanding that we can do everything together.”

The mall, due to be finished in about a year, sits at the tip of northeastern Jerusalem in the Atarot neighborhood, located in eyeshot of Ramallah and separated from the West Bank security barrier only by a thin road. In total, Levy says, the mall will serve 120,000 Arab and 90,000 Jewish Jerusalemites, plus the tens of thousands of Palestinians streaming daily into the capital from the West Bank for work and pleasure.

Unlike other shopping centers and malls in Israel where Jews and Arabs shop side by side, the Atarot mall will be the first truly joint Israeli-Palestinian venture.

Levy’s company has been working hard to make sure the stores will reflect the local population, including finding Palestinian retailers and private shops to rent storefronts.

Currently, most of the Palestinian stores that have reserved space are food suppliers, including the well-known Palestinian bakery Sinokrot. Another possible store will be the famous Zalatimo candy store.

At one point, Levy had reeled one of the biggest Palestinian wholesalers of electronics, but after the deal was made, the potential client got cold feet.

“There are many who are not afraid. I have rented to many Palestinians. I don’t know exactly happened, but he became scared for political reasons.”

Levy continued: “He needs to understand that most of the customers here will be Palestinians and he would be serving them. He didn’t want to do business with Jews. But we aren’t afraid to do business with Palestinians. I am not afraid. I believe, once I open up here and he sees everything is okay, he will regret it.”

‘He didn’t want to do business with Jews. But we aren’t afraid to do business with Palestinians.’

The 200,000-plus population Levy’s mall will serve has no nearby shopping center and the 60-70 stores will be a great boon in terms of saving money, 1,500 new jobs and access to goods and services.

How are Palestinian officials responding to a chance at hundreds of jobs and the prospect of co-existence, while at the same time serving tens of thousands of Arabs with services that they have not had easy access to?

The head of the Palestinian Consumer Protection Association, Salah Haniyeh, said his group will create a blacklist of any Palestinian shop that agrees to open at that mall, and consumers will be urged to boycott them. He said that the principle of boycotting "settlement" businesses is more important than the "few shekels" of economic benefit such a mall would bring to the region.

There you go.

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07/02 Links: Elie Wiesel dies at 87; Facebook: A tool for murdering Jews; A Moral Equivalence Epidemic

From Ian:

Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace prize winner, Holocaust survivor, dies aged 87

Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Holocaust survivor and human rights activist Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel died on Saturday at the age of 87 after a prolonged illness.
A survivor of the Auschwitz and Buchenwald Nazi death camps, Wiesel dedicated much of his life to Holocaust education and promoting tolerance around the world.
The Romanian-born Wiesel authored 57 books, including “Night,” a memoir published in 1955 in which he recounted the deaths of his father, mother and sister in Nazi camps.
When he was a teenager, Wiesel was sent with his father, Shlomo, to the Buna Werke labor camp, a sub-camp of Auschwitz III-Monowitz. They were forced to work for eight months before being transferred to a series of other concentration camps near the war’s end. Elie Wiesel survived whereas his father was beaten to death in 1945 by a German soldier.
The recipient of over 100 honorary doctorates, Wiesel received France’s distinguished Prix Medicis for his 1968 book “A Beggar in Jerusalem,” describing the Jewish response to the reunification of Jerusalem following the Six-Day War.
He also received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and the rank of Grand-Croix in France’s Legion of Honor, and he was knighted as Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his role in speaking out against violence, repression and racism.
In 2013, he received the Israeli presidential medal awarded to him by then president Shimon Peres

Israel: Facebook’s Zuckerberg has blood of slain Israeli teen on his hands

A top Israeli minister on Saturday lambasted Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for allowing Palestinian incitement and hate speech to run rampant on his social media site. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) charged that Facebook hinders Israeli police efforts to catch terrorists, and declared that Zuckerberg has “some of the blood” of slain Israel teenager Hallel Yaffa Ariel on his hands.
Ariel, 13, was stabbed to death on Thursday by a Palestinian terrorist as she lay asleep in her bedroom in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. In another terror attack Thursday, two people were stabbed in Netanya. On Friday, a yeshiva head was killed and his wife and children were injured when their family car came under gunfire from a passing vehicle and overturned, south of the West Bank city of Hebron.
Israel has repeatedly blamed incitement in the Palestinian Authority for the attacks which have claimed the lives of 34 Israelis since October 1, 2015. Four people with foreign nationalities have also been killed in the attacks which have included stabbings, shootings, car-rammings and a suicide bombing.
Speaking to Channel 2 TV, Erdan called on Israelis to flood Zuckerberg with demands to clamp on down on the abuse of Facebook by terrorists and their supporters.
“Facebook, which has brought a positive revolution to the world, has become a monster,” charged Erdan. “The dialogue, the incitement, the lies of the young Palestinian generation are happening on the Facebook platform.”
The minister said that “to my great sorrow, some of the blood of those who have been murdered, including in the latest attacks, of Hallel,” was on Zuckerberg’s hands because of Facebook’s failure to report a series of statuses that her killer posted to the site. The terrorist, Muhammad Tarayrah, publicized his desire to die and his love of martyrdom for the Palestinian cause in a number of Facebook posts in recent months.

Facebook: A tool for murdering Jews

Since the Arab Spring began, and Israel’s neighborhood here in the Middle East has virtually imploded, I have been haunted with one thought: A nice Jewish boy had an idea for a social network, and when his dream became a reality, chaos resulted. The very creation of a mechanism for mass social communication resulted in an out-of-control vehicle for murder and mayhem.
You and I don’t see the other side of Facebook and Twitter. This is because we are unable to view the Arabic sites which are not delivered to those of us who speak only English or Hebrew.
While you and I are posting pictures of our new grandchild for friends and family to see, the Arab world is posting pages for Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.
They are posting videos of how to best murder a Jew. Which knives are best? How to sharpen them to perfection? How to build a homemade bomb? You and I live in a dream world oblivious to how home-grown terrorists around the globe are being nurtured from the comfort of their own living rooms.
The panel on “Has incitement on Facebook become a weapon” at the Shurat HaDin conference in Jerusalem titled “Towards a New Law of War” was extremely disturbing. This powerful conference with its presentation of more than 40 of the highest quality experts on legal issues, current warfare, Israeli accomplishments and international realities will fuel my pen for months to come.
While most of us know the Internet is used to incite the Arab world to hatred, we rarely see it ourselves. Living in a bubble makes life more pleasant, but leaves us naïve at best.

A Moral Equivalence Epidemic

The moral equivalence being drawn in the Quartet report is in some ways no different from Corbyn’s comments. The mere presence of Jews living in some places from which the Palestinians wish to evict them is treated as an offense on the same plane as stabbings, shootings and bombings in which terrorists seek to indiscriminately kill as many Jews as possible.
Which brings us to this week’s incidents in which a new surge of Palestinian terror has taken more Jewish lives. In one, a Palestinian entered a home in the settlement of Kiryat Arba and slaughtered a sleeping 13-year-old Jewish girl, who also happened to be a U.S. citizen. Not long after Palestinians opened fire on a car nearby and killed one Jew and wounded three others. The same day in Netanya, which exists inside pre-1967 Israel, another Palestinian stabbed two Israelis.
According to the Quartet, Palestinians are “frustrated” with settlement building and the lack of progress toward peace. But the motivation for the stabbings is not a dispute about where the borders of Israel and a putative state of Palestine should be. Rather, it is anger about the very existence of Israel and the presence of Jews in any part of the country, including Tel Aviv. What else could explain the widespread support within Palestinian society for actions such as the murder of 13-year-old Hallel Ariel, an atrocity that not only was not condemned by Abbas and other so-called “moderates” but which has been lauded by his Fatah Party? Crimes like this are not motivated by diplomatic arguments but by hate that is shared by mainstream Palestinian opinion, not merely an extremist minority.
So long as international opinion, as expressed by the Quartet, treats the presence of Jews in their ancient homeland, even little girls sleeping in their beds, as comparable to terror, the costs of this epidemic of moral equivalence will continue to be paid in Jewish blood.

The Middle East Quartet report came out with three major issues being raised:

While the majority of people on both sides and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas express their support for the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security, the Quartet remains seriously concerned that continuing on the current course will make this prospect increasingly remote. In particular, each of the following trends is severely undermining hopes for peace:

 Continuing violence, terrorist attacks against civilians, and incitement to violence are greatly exacerbating mistrust and are fundamentally incompatible with a peaceful resolution;

 The continuing policy of settlement construction and expansion, designation of land for exclusive Israeli use, and denial of Palestinian development is steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution; and

 The illicit arms build-up and militant activity, continuing absence of Palestinian unity, and dire humanitarian situation in Gaza feed instability and ultimately impede efforts to achieve a negotiated solution.

The Quartet stresses the urgent need for affirmative steps to reverse each of these trends in order to prevent entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict that is incompatible with realizing the national aspirations of both peoples.

So, how did this report, which took several months to research and compile, substantiate its claim that "the continuing policy of settlement construction and expansion" and "designation of land for exclusive Israeli use" is" steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution"?

The process of designating additional “state land” in Area C, which potentially impacts any land that cannot clearly be established as Palestinian private property, is ongoing. In March of 2016, over 2,000 dunams south of Jericho were declared state land, and in August 2014, nearly 4,000 dunams west of Bethlehem were declared state land.

These are the only examples that the report gives of Israel taking land. It mentions a larger population of Jews living in the area, and it says that some expansions of existing settlements have been retroactively legalized, but it gives no more information in the actual number of dunams or hectares or square kilometers that Israel has taken in recent years that were not already under Israeli ownership.

In any peace plan the major settlement blocs will remain in Israel, so the number of people who live in settlements are nearly irrelevant - they can cram two million more and it does not affect the prospects of peace in the least. The only relevant number is the amount of land that Israel is supposedly taking, and whether that is irrevocable.

The only concrete numbers given by the Quartet is nearly 6000 dunams declared state land over the past three years. Compared to the size of the West Bank areas not under Israeli control, at that rate it would take well over 2000 years for Israel to take over the entire West Bank.

To put it another way, B'Tselem said in 2013:

In Area C, which is under full Israeli control, there are currently 120,000 hectares of state land, comprising about 36.5% of Area C (21% of the West Bank). About 20,000 more hectares of state land are located in Areas A and B, where the PA control building and planning.

A hectare is ten dunams, so in the three years since then Israel has increased the number of hectares of state land from 140,000 to 140,600, an increase 0.4% compared to how much land Israel controlled beforehand.

There is virtually no difference between the amount of land Israel controls today and the amount it controlled during the negotiations with the PLO in 2000. If a two-state solution was possible then, there is little that makes it any more difficult today.

In short, Israeli actions in recent decades, despite the huge amount of media attention, are not a realistic threat in any way to the two-state solution. The Quartet, parroting Palestinian claims, tries hard to find numbers to back up the claim of irrevocable annexation that has become conventional wisdom, but they can't. That's why they resort to population claims, where things sound dire, but it is simply anti-Israel propaganda.

The fact is that if Israel had a realistic peace partner, one that was willing to accept compromise and that doesn't incite its population to violence and celebrate terror attacks on TV and in schools, there would be no issue and we would have peace.

Israel has made it clear, multiple times, that it is willing to make concessions for peace. The Palestinian side has said the opposite, instead bragging about sticking to its principles of "return" and the release of terrorists from prison and Jerusalem, a city that has never been under control of local Arabs, ever.

The solution is in pressuring the Palestinians to make real concessions. If they would do that, Israelis would happily meet them more than halfway.

The reason that there is no peace is that the Palestinian side has made very clear that they have no interest in peace with a Jewish state, and the international community needs to wake up and start to place the pressure where it belongs.

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07/01 Links: Netanyahu: ‘You don’t murder a sleeping child for peace’; How the BDS 'Victory' over G4S was it's Worst Defeat

From Ian:

Yeshiva head killed, 3 family members injured in drive-by shooting near Hebron

A rabbi who heads a West Bank yeshiva was killed Friday afternoon and his wife and children were injured when their family car came under gunfire from a passing vehicle and overturned, south of the West Bank city of Hebron.
The victim of the terror attack was named as 48-year-old Miki Mark, director of the yeshiva in nearby Otniel. Mark, a father of nine and the cousin of Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, had lived in the settlement with his family for years.
Mark’s wife was seriously injured in the attack near Beit Hagai on Route 60. Their 14-year-old daughter was in moderate-to-serious condition and their 15-year-old son was lightly injured. Earlier reports of an infant in the vehicle were apparently mistaken.
An initial investigation indicated the terrorists passed the family’s car with their vehicle, then opened fire at them. Officials said over 20 bullet holes were found in the victims’ car.
The victims were taken Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem for treatment. The wounded woman sustained serious head injuries from the gunfire. She was unconscious and respirated as she was hospitalized, Magen David Adom said.
It was not immediately clear how many were injured from the initial gunfire and how many were hurt in the ensuing accident.
Hamas praised the attack, with an announcer on its TV channel saying it was a response to “crimes against the Palestinian people,” according to Army Radio. The group did not claim responsibility for the shooting.

Netanyahu: ‘You don’t murder a sleeping child for peace’

Full text of a video message by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of the killing of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, by a Palestinian terrorist on June 30, 2016:
“This morning a terrorist sneaked into the bedroom of a 13-year-old girl, Hallel-Yaffa Ariel. He murdered young Hallel in cold blood. A picture of her blood stained room is almost too hard to see. There’s a teddy bear still on her bed, a red beanbag chair, some pictures on the wall, shoes tightly packed in a bin next to her bunk bed.
“Why would any person do this?
“You don’t murder a sleeping child for peace. You don’t slit a little girl’s throat to protest a policy you don’t like.
“You do this because you’ve been brainwashed. You’ve been brainwashed by a warped ideology that teaches you that this child isn’t human.
“We will not let barbarism defeat humanity.
“There’s no middle ground between beautiful Hallel and her unspeakably evil murderer.

PMW: Terrorist who butchered female hikers is PA TV’s “heroic prisoner”

Last week, official Palestinian Authority TV decided to honor Palestinian terrorist murderer Kifah Ghneimat. On Dec. 18, 2010, Ghneimat and his accomplice Iyad Fataftah attacked and stabbed two women, Kristine Luken - an American citizen and member of the Church's Ministry among Jewish People (CMJ), and British Israeli Kay Wilson, as they were hiking in a forest near Beit Shemesh. Luken was brutally stabbed to death and Wilson was critically injured and left for dead. After the terrorists fled the scene, Wilson forced herself to get up and walk for help. Wilson has described the attack, the cruelty of the terrorists and her will to survive:
“He stabs me in the back so hard that I fall to the ground...
and he is repeatedly plunging his machete into me.
He's doing it with such force that I can hear my bones crunch
and as he tugs out that serrated blade I hear my flesh rip”

Shehab News Agency shows this photo and writes:

About 280,000 perform the last Friday prayers of the month of #Ramadan at the Al Aqsa Mosque despite the roadblocks of the occupation forces.

Wow - if 280,000 managed to evade Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks and guards to come to the site, imagine how many would have come if Israel hadn't put up any obstacles!

Last Friday, only 250,000 worshippers managed to evade Israeli security to reach the landmark "despite Israeli tight restrictions."

Israel is really bad at restricting freedom of worship.

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EoZTV in Israel: Interview with Nobel-prize winner Yisrael Aumann part 2

This has little to do with Israel but it was a very nice anecdote from Nobel laureate Yisrael (Robert) Aumann about the "uselessness" of pure mathematics. From his office at Hebrew University.

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UNRWA issued a press release against a planned demolition of a home where a terrorist lived.

Look at the wording they use:

The demolition orders were given for stabbing attacks perpetrated by individual members of the families outside Jaffa gate, Jerusalem Old City on 23 December 2015. Two Israeli civilians died during the attack while a third civilian was seriously wounded. The perpetrators were shot dead by Israeli Security Forces.

Israelis just happen to die by coincidence when they are involved, somehow, in stabbing attacks. But Palestinians who are involved in those same attacks are "shot dead."

The United Nations has repeatedly condemned all attacks against Israeli or Palestinian civilians, including in statements by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

This seems to imply that the stabbers were civilians who were "shot dead" by Israel. The only other interpretation is that UNRWA is trying to minimize the targeting and stabbing of Israeli civilians by saying, hey, both sides have people dying. The UN simply cannot condemn an attack on Jews without watering it down.

On 16 November 2015, during a punitive demolition in the same refugee camp, 19 Palestine refugees were displaced and 46 persons were affected. Two Palestine refugees were also killed during the clashes that erupted during the operation.

Again, Palestinians who are in the act of throwing rocks are "killed" but Israelis who are stabbed simply "die" during attacks. The passive voice is used to minimize Jewish deaths and Palestinian responsibility while the active voice is used to emphasize Palestinian deaths as well as Israeli culpability.

This is not an isolated incident, either. From an UNRWA report in 2002:

Following the killing by Israeli forces of a leading Palestinian militant on 14 January in Tulkarm, another wave of violence began. Six Israelis died in a suicide attack in Hadera on 17 January, and Israel responded the next day with air attacks against Tulkarm. One Palestinian was killed and 60 were reported injured in the raids.

The writers of UNRWA press releases don't do this with malicious intent. They try very hard to ensure that they are seen to be even-handed. But the wording betrays their subconscious bias that Israeli terror victims are somehow culpable for their own deaths while Palestinians are wantonly killed for no reason.

Deep down, they are against the very existence of Israel and they regard the Jewish residents of the land as invaders who do not belong. UNRWA teaches this to generations of students. They try to stifle their true feelings when writing press releases and speaking to the media, but they cannot stop their subconscious feelings.

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Iran has distanced itself from Hamas in recent years as Hamas did not support the Assad regime in Syria. Iran has concentrated more efforts on funding Islamic Jihad and other Gaza groups, and Hamas has been scrambling to make up for the lost cash by raising Gaza taxes and other means.

In what appears to be an attempt to repair the rift, top Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar has lavished praise on the late Ayatollah Khomeini for creating "Quds Day" on the last Friday of Ramadan, which is today,

Zahar told Iran's FARS news agency that a day dedicated to liberating Jerusalem from the Jews should not only be a single day every year, but it should happen every day, and Muslims must never forget Jerusalem for even a minute.

He then added, "Those with the proper priorities have driven out the Jews from Gaza in 2005, and inshallah they will remove them from Palestine and Jerusalem, God willing."

Zahar did not say "Israelis" or "Zionists," but "Jews."

It is notable that this interview was published in FARS, which is semi-official Iranian news agency. It indicates both that Iran is open to rapprochement with Hamas - and that antisemitism is part of Iran's policy, despite their denials.

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Abbas claims he doesn't want a religious conflict. His people disagree. (video)

Mahmoud Abbas has said on multiple occasions - to the UN, to the media, even to his people at times - that he doesn't want a religious war and that Israeli actions in Jerusalem threaten to turn the conflict into one.

Most recently he said to the EU Parliament, "I assure you that we are not in favor turning the political conflict into a religious conflict, but peace is the interest of all."

Now watch this video of a Fatah fighter from the Al Aqsa Brigades whose mother lovingly prepares his Ramadan iftar meal as he puts on his uniform, mask and weapons.

The religious themes are direct and deliberate. The spiritual components of Ramadan are directly associated with war. (Incidentally, so is the keffiyeh.)

Even more direct is this poster that the Al Aqsa Brigades has on their site of their fighters praying.

Abbas and Abbas' own people are the ones who want to inflame passions based on religion.

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