Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

11/29 Links Pt2: Remembering the ethnic cleansing of the Middle East's Jews; Jewish people de-registered – discrimination at the heart of Westminster

From Ian:

Remembering the ethnic cleansing of the Middle East's Jews

This date is not coincidental. The day after November 29 1947, when the United Nations General Assembly decided to establish a Jewish state in British Mandate Palestine, many Jewish communities in Arab countries immediately began feeling the pressure to leave. There was looting, riots and laws enacted against them and the Zionist movement.

The young State of Israel, while fighting for its very existence, absorbed hundreds of thousands of Jews from surrounding countries. Under conditions of extreme poverty, a severe lack of resources, being housed in transit camps, without knowing the language and regardless of their relatives left behind, these refugees started over.

Seventy years after the United Nations established a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran are still living in Israel. Many of them, including my mother, remember the exact moment they became refugees and how hard it was in the beginning to start from scratch. But they decided to build again, to give up their refugee narrative, to understand that the years following World War II created a new reality for not only themselves, but tens of millions of others as well.

The Jewish refugees from the Arab countries and Iran, together with hundreds of thousands of other Jewish refugees from Europe, built, created and persisted in order to establish a family, a state and a future for their people.

On the other hand, the preservation of the seven decade old narrative of Palestinian refugees is still in full force. It continues to serve political goals and is used as a tool to delegitimize Israel and not recognize it as the homeland of the Jewish people. The call for the return of millions of Palestinian refugees to Israel is just another means in the quest to destroy the Jewish state.

On this day, the story of the forgotten refugees needs to be told. Fortunately, these refugees had Israel as a home to take them in. Many of them never survived the deadly pogroms suffered at the hands of Arab regimes. It is for this reason it is so important to learn their story, for any injustice somewhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.

France Submits to Terrorism, Muslim Anti-Semitism

In France, since 2012, more than 250 people were killed by Islamic terrorism, more than in all other European countries combined. In addition, no other country in Europe has experienced so many attacks against Jews. France is a country where Jews are murdered because they are Jews.

Every year, Jews flee France by the thousands. Those who do not emigrate move to cities and neighborhoods where they hope they will be able survive without risking aggression.

Many non-Jews live in fear and remain silent.

The government does almost nothing. A few times a year, its members ritually denounce "anti-Semitism", but never forget to mention that it comes from the "far right". They only denounce "radical Islam" when the facts are so blinding obvious that it is impossible to do otherwise. If they can, they prefer to talk about people who were "radicalized", without giving any details or explanation.

In August 2017, the Ministry of the Interior issued a statement that almost 300 jihadists were back from Syria and represent a risk. All of them could come back to France with French passports. None of them has been arrested.

In March 2015, the French intelligence services created a Report Card for the Prevention of Terrorist Radicalization (FSPRT); there are 15,000 names on it. Monitoring everyone would require nearly 160,000 police officers. Therefore, only a few dozen suspects, are under surveillance.

After France's November 2015 attacks, a state of emergency was declared. It consisted mainly of sending soldiers and police officers to railway stations and airports, and placing guards and sandbags in front of synagogues and Jewish schools.

The ‘Nakba’ and Palestinian War Crimes

Two important Hebrew-language books were published recently: Deir Yassin: The End of the Myth by Eliezer Tauber, and Nakba and Survival: The Story of the Palestinians Who Remained in Haifa and the Galilee, 1948-1956 by Adel Manna. The value of these books emanates from their comprehensive presentation of data and facts hitherto not discussed.

Professor Tauber of Bar-Ilan University gathered all the available testimonies related to the Deir Yassin battle from all involved parties, including both villagers and members of the attacking Etzel and Lehi underground groups. On the basis of these testimonies, he provides a minute-by-minute analysis of the battle in the village’s various areas, including the death of each victim.

According to Tauber, Deir Yassin was the first case of house-to-house fighting in the 1948 war, as the defenders did not run away but fought from their houses until the end. The attackers broke into the houses by blowing up their doors, hurling hand grenades inside and storming in while shooting. This resulted in many casualties, including non-combatants. Yet except for one case in which an attacker shot dead non-combatants who had surrendered and stepped out of their house, all the rest were killed during house-to-house fighting.

This conclusion is based on testimonies gathered from both surviving villagers and attackers. The (false) accusations of civilian massacres appeared after the battle had ended, when forces of the Jewish mainstream Hagana underground organization entered the village, saw the many corpses, including women and children, and concluded that they had been murdered by Etzel and Lehi fighters. Due to the bitter enmity between the Hagana and the two groups, the atrocity charges became widespread and hugely inflated.

Another group interested in inflating these charges was the Palestinian Arab leadership, seeking as it did to stir up public opinion in the neighboring Arab states, so as to pressure their governments to join the war against the Jews after the end of the British Mandate in mid-May.

(photo credit: The Real Jerusalem Streets)

Life is full of bumps along the way. These may take the form of tragedies large and small, day-to-day inconveniences, and disappointments, too. In Israel, somehow these wrinkles that appear in the fabric of everyday living are larger than elsewhere.

And sometimes larger than life.

It may be the heat of the day, or the heat of the food, turned up high with exotic spices and peppers. It may even be the hot political climate that keeps us hopping, as if we are dancing on hot coals as one nation. The heat of the day, the food, the politics, leads to tempers simmering just below the surface, at times exploding.

There's the obstinate clerk who is determined to be unhelpful. The shopkeeper who ousts you from the premises when three consecutive clothing items decide not to fit you. The ministry that decides to close its gates as your number comes up. The person who jumps ahead of you in line at the supermarket—she only went to get a bag of milk—after you're finally next in line, after waiting 45 minutes to check out your items.

Will you let it get to you? How can you not?

And yet, if you lose it, they win.

It definitely seems worse here in Israel. In America, you get your stress served with a smile, with politeness. Here it's just full on rude.

Sometimes.

And sometimes not.

Because there's the other stuff. There's kindness. A bus driver will wait until an elderly person wends his slow way toward the bus stop and then on up the bus steps. Passengers stand for pregnant women and seniors on the bus, so that they might sit. A bus driver may even drive an elderly person all the way to his home instead of leaving him off at the designated bus stop, though technically, he can be fined for this "offense."

If your car breaks down on the road in the middle of nowhere, someone, a complete stranger, will stop to help you change your tire, charge your spent battery, or give you water for your sizzling radiator/overheated car.

The doctor who knows you can't afford the private fee for his services, insists you come in, "No charge."

Your favorite grill restaurant gives you a steak in a pita to go, and as he hands it to you, you might mention it's for your wife who just had a son, and the entire restaurant breaks out into Mazal Tovs and ululations (no charge for the steak). The same thing happens on the bus, when you bump into someone you know and mention you're on the way to the hospital to visit your wife and new baby. The entire bus full of people (who are not supposed to be listening) will congratulate you and clap you on the back.

Like you're one big family.

And with all these extremes, these ups and downs, the kindnesses, frustrations, and anger, there is the heart-stopping terror you feel when you hear or see many ambulances go by and you know that terror has struck someone's loved one: a mother, a grandfather, a beloved teacher, a tourist. Then, you need to know where your family members are in a hurry. The wait can be unbearable.

Terror can hit every other day, every day, or even several times a day. You live with fear, you live in a state of denial of that fear, doing the Stanislavski method, acting "as if", as if everything were okay, even when it is most emphatically not. If you're a performer, you perform. If your child is being bar mitzvahed, the bar mitzvah goes on. If you need to shop for groceries, you go, even if you might not come home with that sale-priced economy bag of laundry soap (or at all).

But sometimes you can get a break and just appreciate the good friends you have made that are like family, because your real family is thousands of miles away in the land you left to live here.

Sometimes you can just appreciate the night sky with stars so close you could reach out and pluck one with your bare hand and hold it there, glowing in your palm, a holy relic from a holy night sky.

Sometimes you go outside and that smell you smell is the good, fertile earth, filled with the promise of growing things, lemons and tomatoes that taste of the sun, cucumbers so crunchy and fresh it's a sin to peel them. The earth is more immediate here. You want to take a bite out of it, take it into you, make it part of you, as you will someday be a part of it, when you are no longer sensible of the fact.

But it is a tough life here in Israel, no matter that we are too stubborn to leave and cling to the land with all our hearts.

Why do we do it then? What is the reason we stay here? It's this: no matter what happens here, you know your life will have had meaning just for having lived here, and if you should die? You died here for a reason.

Sometimes, in spite of everything, you know that all you have ever done here, gone through here, was all about arriving at a single moment: that shining moment when you know that what you did here, the roughness of life, mattered, because it brought you to this.

For every person, that moment is unique to one's personal universe. For this author? For me? It was that moment when my daughter got married under the stars of a Jerusalem night and I knew that my grandchildren would grow up Jewish in Jerusalem, dedicated to the study of God's holy Torah. The realization that somehow a boy with roots in Iraq, Gibraltar, Spain, and Jerusalem, had ended up with a girl with roots in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Ukraine, and yes, Jerusalem, too, to build a Bayit Neeman B'Yisrael, a faithful house in Israel.

It was these two young people following rituals as old as history, as old as Jacob and Leah and Rachel, rituals that varied little from country to country, wherever we wandered. It was the way he checked it was she, lowering the veil over her face with gentle, shaking hands. The way she then slipped off her golden bracelets commemorating that long-ago sin by our people in the desert. How they stood under a prayer shawl, a tallis, side by side; too shy to look at each other, sharing sips of wine from a goblet.

(photo credit: The Real Jerusalem Streets)

There they stood for several minutes, surrounded by four parents holding candles in fluted glass candle holders. Parents with wandering roots, a people come home to roost, come home to Jerusalem, where we belong, where our people belong. The beginning of a new home, a new family, Jewish children here in this holy city.

The way he slipped the ring onto her finger, that first touch. The way he vowed never to forget Jerusalem and stepped on a glass, the sound audible to all, eliciting cheers.

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Men Can't Make Decisions For Women, But Jews Can't Decide What's Antisemitic By Linda Sarsour, women's rights activist (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Men Can't Make Decisions For Women, But Jews Can't Decide What's Antisemitic

By Linda Sarsour, women's rights activist

The stubborn patriarchy that all but rules our society wants to control women's bodies and what women are allowed to wear, and they insist on making these determinations without consulting women, the people who are most affected by those determinations. My allies and I in this fight will not rest until women make the decisions that affect women. On the other hand, it's dishonest for Jews to tell me what's antisemitic because they're just trying to fit public discourse to their agenda, and that's unacceptable.

Threats to ban traditional Islamic dress, the risk of a conservative overturning of legal abortions, and myriad legislative or administrative efforts to curtail access to birth control - all these phenomena persist among groups of men who feel threatened by empowered women. But we will be disempowered no longer - the men who effectively rule our lives must give way to the female leaders of the present and future - no man controls my destiny! At the same time, don't let any Jews - certainly not any Zionist ones - tell you what constitutes antisemitism. Only an outsider can be trusted to bring a sober perspective to such a fraught subject.

Women have come a long way. From the extension of the franchise to women a hundred years ago to the feminist revolution of the 1960's and beyond, it has been a constant, uphill, sometimes disheartening battle. But we persevere despite the setbacks. We came within a few hundred thousand votes of having the first woman president in US history! The fact that we fell short should only spur us to further action, because next time, we can close that gap! A thinking person with a sense of history might be tempted here to invoke the example of the Jews, who fought to reestablish a sovereign state after thousands of years of displacement and persecution, but you can't trust thinking people with a sense of history because they're in league with the Jews. Don't let them deprive you of the willful ignorance that goes with opposing Jewish sovereignty!

The hypocrisy of our opponents never ceases to amaze me. They would smear us all with the charge of antisemitism - which, as we all know, is a smoke screen to prevent reasoned discussion of collective ~~Jewish~~ Israeli perfidy - rather than allow us a say in governing our own lives. They would even distract you by pointing out that I insist they not decide for Muslim women what suits Muslim women best while arrogating for myself the authority to decide what Muslim women want. But I AM a Muslim woman.

But the Jews, no, they're not allowed to decide what suits them. It's too dangerous.

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11/29 Links Pt1: The miracle of Israel lives on 70 years later; Oren: John Kerry has 'acrid & obsessive' place in his heart for Israel

From Ian:

The miracle of Israel lives on 70 years later

While much of the public debate is couched in terms of borders and settlements and sovereignty over Jerusalem, the larger truth is that Palestinians have pursued Israel’s destruction with more zeal than they applied to building their own state.

While you would never know it from most coverage in the American media, a two-state solution was offered to both Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, but neither would say yes. To do so would have meant signing their own death warrants at the hands of fellow Arabs committed to Israel’s destruction.

The result is that many Palestinians remain scattered in “refugee camps” around the region established nearly 70 years ago, unwanted by their hosts while serving as political pawns. In their own self-governed territories, they are bitterly divided and impoverished, with much of the population living on international handouts and a fantasy that a Palestine without Jews is inevitable.

At times, there have been brief interludes of hope that internal change was coming. Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, told an Israeli journalist that he believed the Arabs’ 1947 rejection of the partition was a mistake that he hoped to correct.

That was six years ago. Since then, Abbas, finishing the 13th year of a four-year term, has done little to turn that idea into reality.

As I prepare for an upcoming trip to Israel and the West Bank, my third visit to the region, I expect to find an even more dynamic Jewish state, where even the constant threat of catastrophe does not interfere with a zest for life.

Then again, that’s Israel. A miracle among nations.

To get a state, Palestinians should do what the Zionists did

Seventy years ago, the United Nations created Israel. At least, that’s how Turtle Bay’s boosters and Israel’s critics remember it.

In reality, the UN General Assembly’s vote of Nov. 29, 1947, to partition Palestine merely recognized reality. The Jews had built their state; the UN acknowledged this fact. And getting the history right is essential to any hope of lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Early Zionists started arriving to join their fellow Jews in their ancestral land at the end of the 19th century. Bit by bit (or “a dunam here, a dunam there,” as their slogan went) they built up not only their numbers but their institutions. By the partition vote, there was a state in place.

This week that historic vote is commemorated twice, demonstrating the difference between two national movements.

At the Queens Museum, the site of the 1947 tally, Israelis and Americans (including Vice President Mike Pence) reenacted the drama on Tuesday. They also tried to revive the euphoria among Zionists, as they celebrated around the world, from New York to Tel Aviv.

At Turtle Bay, meanwhile, the General Assembly will solemnly mark the date on Wednesday, as it does every year, by conducting an “international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people” — remembering one of the only consequential decisions the UN ever took by celebrating those who rejected it.

The first Palestinian Arab leader had blue eyes and blond hair. He had Aryan privilege!

I discovered this nearly ten years ago, and it is more relevant today.

Palestinian Arabs, especially those who live in the West, like to define themselves as "people of color" so they can pretend to have solidarity with non-white people. This is of course a cynical ploy - they don't care about the rights of others; they are trying to hijack other movements for their own gain.

But not too long ago, the infamous Mufti of Jerusalem, the first leader of Palestinian Arabs, became good friends with Heinrich Himmler - because he had blond hair and blue eyes.

From the Palestine Post, March 28, 1948:

Other Palestinian Arab leaders in the 1940s who looked more Teutonic than Arab include military leader Fawzi Bey Kawukji, Hussein Khalidi, secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, and Sheikh Hassan Salameh, Arab commander in the Jaffa during the 1948 war.

There is no moral difference between white people mistreating non-white people and Palestinian Arabs pretending to be non-white in order to claim the status of being oppressed. Both of them are taking advantage of people of color for their own selfish aims.

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Al Ahram has a fairly stupid article by Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, where he argues that Zionism has failed.

As with virtually every Palestinian "thinker," Barghouti defines Zionism as a movement to destroy Palestinians rather than a movement to recreate a nation-state for the Jewish people. Early Zionists had no intention of expelling non-Jews, on the contrary they felt that they would bring great economic and social benefits to the non-Jewish population. And they did. (Compare the infant mortality rates and life expectancy of Arabs under Israeli rule to those of neighboring Arab countries.Compare the number of universities built in the territories under "occupation" with zero built under Arab rule.)

But Barghouti instead builds a straw man:

The Zionist movement did not triumph but is living its worst crisis because it was founded on realising two objectives. The first was seizing the land, and this was carried out through criminal violence, waging wars and occupation. The second was displacing the Palestinian people and ethnically cleansing the land of Palestine, in which it failed. Despite the forcible displacement that took place in 1948, the Palestinian people learned from their experiences and stood fast on their land and today their numbers on the historic land of Palestine exceed that of Israeli Jews.

No one even blinks at these lies any more.

Part of the lie is simple psychological projection. Because, indeed, Palestinian nationalism is not built on the desire for an independent nation state for the "Palestinian people." That goal could have been accomplished a half dozen times since 1947. Palestinian nationalism is centered around the destruction of the Jewish state by any and all means possible.

So naturally Palestinians see Zionism as a projection of what they themselves want. A goal that Palestinians freely admit in surveys.

Barghouti unwittingly admits this. Later on in this essay he says "the Zionist project has awakened Palestinian nationalism."

Exactly. There would be no Palestinian nationalism if it wasn't for Zionism. They would be part of a greater Jordan or Greater Syria or Greater Egypt - there never would be any interest in an independent Palestinian state if Israel never existed.

All of the insistence that Palestinians are a historic people is a fiction that was created ex post facto to support the nationalist claims. One could just as easily prove that residents of the Hauran area of Syria or the Northern Sinai are a "people" since they may have customs distinct from others even in the same nation.

Beyond that, of course, Barghouti's main thesis - that Zionism has failed - is a bit absurd as Israel is about to celebrate its 70th birthday, and the Palestinian project to destroy Israel is no longer of interest even to their fellow Arabs.

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Notorious plane hijacker Leila Khaled has not been allowed to leave Leonardo da Vinci International Airport and was forced to return to Amman, Jordsn yesterday

Khaled, a member of the PFLP terror group, spoke at the European Parliament in September, and the backlash was belated but fierce. The Parliament passed a motion not to allow members of known terror organizations to speak there again. In an era of Islamist bombers in European cities, it was realized that perhaps treating one of the earliest modern terrorists as a hero was not a good message to send.

She was scheduled to speak at the Porta Maggiore Hotel on Saturday for a meeting of the UDAP, the Arab-Palestinian Democratic Union, where the "right to resistance" (i.e., terror) is to be celebrated.

UDAP issued a statement saying "The repatriation of comrade Leila Khaled is only a demonstration of the impotence of Italian institutions and their inability to escape Zionist blackmail:"

The plane that she hijacked in 1969 originated in Rome.

When asked to comment on her ban from Italy, Khaled said, "I was expecting it. Not because they are so afraid of me but of that the drama of the Palestinian people coming back to Italy. All the support that the Italian left once gave to our cause vanished as fog in the sun. They have all become conservatives, who have blotted out their ideas of solidarity with the oppressed peoples. But History goes on, it will end up overwhelming these bourgeoisie, who proclaim they are left but represent only their interests, and my wish is that the Italian people will judge them severely at the next elections."

Palestinian terror supporters have been dismayed recently at Italy's turning against them. This is indeed a turnaround; during the heyday of Palestinian airplane hijackings Italy used back channels to cooperate with Palestinian terrorists so they wouldn't hijack any Alitalia flights.

(h/t Andrea)

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60 members of EU parliament call to stop funding Israel boycotters

From Europe-Israel Public Affairs:

A cross party group of 60 Members of the European Parliament have urged the EU’s Foreign Affairs Chief, Federica Mogherini to marginalize, both financially and politically, organizations such as BDS (Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment) that are increasingly becoming a virulent source in the spread of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism under the pretense of exercising freedom of speech and association.

The unprecedented initiative, spearheaded by representatives of the four major political groups, MEP Cristian DAN PREDA, MEP Ioan Mircea Pascu (S&D, Romania) and a Vice-President of the European Parliament, MEP Petras Austrevicius (ALDE, Lithuania), MEP Arne Gericke (ECR, Germany) “calls upon ensuring that no public funds go to organizations calling for a boycott of the State of Israel, and to instruct agencies not to engage with companies, organizations or other entities involved with the BDS movement”.

MEP Cristian DAN PREDA, foreign affairs coordinator for the largest political group, the European People’s Party, and co-initiator of the letter underlined his party’s opposition to calls for the suspension of the bilateral agreements with Israel as some of his extreme left wing colleagues echo directly from the BDS playbook. “It’s in the interest of this House, and of our citizens, to see an upgrade in the partnership agreement with Israel. We should not allow the current stalemate in the peace process to dictate the terms of our relationship with Israel.”

Swedish MEP and President of EIPA’S political Board Lars Adaktusson – a co- signatory – underlined that “the Union, and the Parliament, is in danger of being deemed irrelevant as a peace broker if it fails to address the incitement on its own soil against Israel.”

Vice President of the European Parliament, Ioan Mircea Pascu concluded that “boycotting strategic ties with Israel, a leader in the intelligence and defence international community, may prove counterproductive to the common security interests of both EU and Israel”.

The 60 signatories, among which are Chair of Security and Defence, MEP Anna Fotyga (ECR, Poland), Vice-Preident Pavel Telicka (ALDE, Czech Republic), Dietmar Koster (S&D, Germany), Vice-Chair of Human Rights Beatriz Becerra (ALDE, Spain) urged their Foreign Affairs chief to “address the incitement to hatred and violence and discriminatory practice of calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against the State of Israel.”

There are 751 members of EU's parliament, so this is not exactly a majority, but it definitely puts the Israel-haters on the defensive in a field that they have been pretending to dominate.

(h/t Yoel)

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11/28 Links Pt2: Judea Pearl: Nov 29 – the Jewish Thanksgiving Day; BDS as the Spearhead of a Global Anti-Semitic Movement

From Ian:

Judea Pearl: November 29 – the Jewish Thanksgiving Day

For several years now, I have been campaigning to declare November 29 the Jewish Thanksgiving Day; a day where we give thanks to Lady History and to the many heroic players who stood behind the historic UN vote of November 29, 1947, an event which has changed so dramatically the physical, spiritual and political life of every Jew in our generation.

I have argued that Jewish communities in every major city in the world should invite the consuls general of the 33 countries who voted yes on that fateful day to thank them publicly for listening to their conscience and, defying the pressures of the time, voting to grant the Jewish nation what other nations take for granted – a state of its own.

Imagine 33 flags hanging from every Jewish Federation building, 33 bands representing their respective countries and the word “yes” repeated in 33 different languages in a staged reenactment of that miraculous and fateful vote in 1947.

The idea came to partial fruition in 2012, when a spectacular production of “The Vote” took place at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, featuring clergy, speakers, actors, musicians, singers and dancers, commemorated the day when, 65 years earlier, the United Nations voted 33 to 13 to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.

Efforts to turn this into an annual event worldwide have so far not borne fruit, perhaps because we became overly fragmented, or perhaps we need time to digest our debt to history to appreciate the impact that such a ceremony would have on strengthening the spines of our children and grandchildren.

But I am not one to be deterred by hesitations.

Martin Kramer: Why the 1947 UN Partition Resolution Must Be Celebrated

Earlier this month, the governments of Britain and Israel marked the centenary of the Balfour Declaration with much fanfare. From London to Jerusalem, prime ministers, parliamentarians, and protesters weighed in. The world’s major media outlets ran extended analyses, while historians (myself included) enjoyed their fleeting few minutes of fame.

In comparison, notice of this week’s 70th anniversary of the 1947 UN partition resolution, the first international legitimation of a Jewish state—and the subject of my essay, “Who Saved Israel in 1947?”—will be subdued. Why?

A centenary is certainly a rarer thing, and the Balfour Declaration makes for dramatic telling. But the vote over the partition resolution had plenty of drama, too, and some of us, or our parents or grandparents, still remember the suspense that attended it and the elation that followed.

The Israeli novelist Amos Oz is one of them. In an autobiographical passage, he recalled that night in Jerusalem as his father stroked his head in his darkened bedroom:

“From the moment we have our own state [said Oz’s father], you will never be bullied just because you are a Jew and because Jews are so-and-sos. Not that. Never again. From tonight that’s finished here. Forever.” I reached out sleepily to touch his face, just below his high forehead, and all of a sudden instead of his glasses my fingers met tears. Never in my life, before or after that night, not even when my mother died, did I see my father cry. And in fact I didn’t see him cry that night, either. Only my left hand saw.

For those of us who are too young to remember the tears or the dancing in the streets, something of the excitement of the vote is easily retrievable. The balloting at the United Nations occurred in the presence of cameras, and anyone can see it spring to life on YouTube, along with the joyous celebrations that ensued. By contrast, the ecstasy prompted by the Balfour Declaration seems remote. Some 100,000 reportedly turned out in the streets of Odessa, but not even one photograph attests to it.

So why, one asks again, did the Balfour Declaration centenary resonate, while the partition-vote anniversary doesn’t?

UN celebrates 70 years since vote established the Jewish State

The State of Israel is returning to the hall in Flushing Meadows, New York, where the crucial vote to establish a Jewish state was held on November 29th, 1947.

Israel’s Mission to the United Nations is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the historic United Nations vote on Resolution 181 that called for the establishment of a Jewish state. The event is taking place at the Queens Museum that served as UN headquarters in 1947.

United States Vice President Mike Pence will be the guest of honor and deliver the keynote address on the eve of his planned visit to Israel. Dozens of ambassadors will participate in the event, including representatives of the 33 countries that voted in favor of establishing the new state 70 years ago. The main hall of the Queens Museum has be redesigned to resemble the UN assembly as it was in 1947.

Other guests expected at the gathering include Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and more than 50 UN ambassadors and Jewish community leaders. World Jewish Congress president and US Ambassador to Austria Ronald Lauder will address the gathering and Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb will perform.

We reported last week about a Jewish Israeli blogger, known as Ben-Tzion, who visited Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia (and elsewhere) without hiding his Jewish identity.

He insists that everyone he met treated him with respect.

The fallout continues in the Arab world, though, and this article in Qatar's Al Sharq is delightfully over the top:

Finally the Zionist dream of reaching Yathrib (Medina) has been achieved

I did not imagine that the day would come when I saw and heard that the people of the Arabian Peninsula, from the sea eastward to the sea in the west, would allow themselves to see a Jewish Israeli walking around freely in this part of the world. I did not imagine that a Jew would enter the sanctuary in Madinah "Yathrib" Since the era of prophecy. I did not imagine that the Saudi political leadership, as well as the senior religious scholars, would allow all their religious beliefs to allow any Jew to reach Medina. where lies Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, along with a number of his companions and wives. No Muslim who believes in God and his messengers has ever heard or heard of a Jew publicly entering and wandering around the Mosque of the Messenger of Allah and next to his honorable residence.

The truth is that I did not believe all that was published in the Arab and Israeli press about the entry of a Jew to the city taking pictures next to the tomb of the Prophet, peace be upon him, in the Prophet's Mosque, and I do not know whether he walked in Mecca which is forbidden to them by virtue of the Koran.

I saw a YouTube movie that included pictures of the Prophet's Mosque and the Jewish man in one of the rows among the worshipers. I saw his picture as he walked around the Prophet's Mosque. The Israeli Jew in this corner named Ben Tzion Chadnovsky admits that he is an Israeli Jew and that he entered the Prophet's Mosque with the knowledge of Saudi personalities and that they know his Jewish background and his Israeli nationality. "Our generation must build bridges between Jews and the Arab world once and for all. Saudi Arabia and Israel must stand side by side to achieve the goal of joint peace in the Greater Middle East region in a comprehensive manner," he said.

Of course, Qataris are especially sensitive to this: Saudi Arabia does not allow them to visit because of their perceived pro-Iran tilt. The idea that an Israeli Jew can visit a Muslim holy spot that a Qatari Muslim cannot is (understandably) outrageous to them.

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Anatomy of an interview: Tzipi Hotovely, ideals and fake news

Last Wednesday, Israel’s deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely gave an interview to i24 News. Many responded to the thoughts she expressed in the last few minutes of the relatively long interview with outrage. She has since been widely denounced by American Jewish leaders, Israeli politicians and internet activists.

The media scandal

Ms. Hotovely has been accused of causing a rift between American Jews and Israel, being insensitive, offensive and stupid.

Some Israeli commentators have expressed horror that a “person like her” is in such a delicate position (i.e. liaising with all important Jewish community in America). The media coverage both in Israel and abroad has used highly emotive terminology such as “accuses” and “attacks” to describe what was said. Headlines imply that Ms. Hotovely’s statements could drive the ultimate wedge between American Jews and Israel, causing diaspora Jews to abandon Israel altogether.

Such extreme commentary is rare. I did not see the interview when it aired. It was the backlash that made me wonder, what could she possibly have said that is so awful? Thankfully, in today’s world, everything is recorded and accessible online.

So, what did she actually say?

Ms. Hotvely was interviewed by two people, Calev Ben David and Nurit Ben. I have brought below the parts of the interview that sparked the controversy.

Interviewer Calev Ben David asked Ms. Hotovely: “Is Israel losing the young Jews of America and doesn’t your government have some responsibility for that through some of the policies that you are pursuing?”

Hotovely answered: “I have to ask you, what is happening with Hillel? What is happening with freedom of speech and academic freedom? …. The problem is that those young people, in the top ivy league universities are not willing to open their mind to different opinions and I think that is tragic. It has nothing to do with the way the Israeli government is handling, because you should have asked me this question if I wasn’t doing outreach to Princeton, if I stayed in Israel and said I didn’t care about these people but I DO care about these people! Some of them are my brothers (the Jews of course), some of them are young Americans interested in what I have to talk about…”

Here Tzipi Hotovely emphasized her desire to speak to American Jews, even those whose opinions differ from hers, because she sees them as her “brothers”. She also expressed frustration at a campus atmosphere that is willing to shut down free speech over a difference in opinion. She did not say that she believes everyone should hold the same opinion as hers. She said that she wishes conversation to be possible because she cares about American Jews (and American non-Jews who are interested in Israel). Is that bad?

Ben-David interrupted, using as an example an American Jewish friend who complained about not being able to pray the way he wanted at the Kotel, asking: “Why isn’t the government doing everything possible to make American Jews closer to Israel?”

Hotovely answered: “I think that it’s a very important goal to bring American Jews closer to Israel. I think this is one of my goals but we need to be open about this.”

Again, the desire to have an honest and open conversation.

“The solution that the Israeli government found about the Kotel issue, with having a beautiful place called Ezrat Yisrael, I’ve been there. Most of the time it’s empty and the reason it’s empty, if you ask me, is not because they don’t like the arrangement. The reason it’s empty is because, most of the time those people are not even interested in going to the Kotel. And the Israeli government was doing really a lot to make sure that the people can have an egalitarian prayer. Women can go together with their families. Men can go together with their daughters. Everything is set up. But they are not willing to get that because, if you ask me, this is a political matter. They want to get recognition through the Kotel issue and they are making a religious holy site something for political dispute.”

Ben-David: “So it’s all their fault?”

Hotovely: “I think that the solution that was offered was really quite good.”

Did you know that there is a lovely egalitarian prayer section at the Kotel where anyone can pray, however they want? I personally think it is nicer than the other section but like Tzipi Hotovely said, every time I have been there (and I have gone at all times of the day and night), I have never seen anyone praying there.

Nurit Ben, interjected: “When we’re talking about what is described as an abyss between American Jewry and the Israeli government, for many reasons, whether it is a massive ideological divide, whether it is egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall, conversions, or the lack of Israeli-Palestinian peace, American Jews are believed to be today and very vocally growing much further from Israel. Can you understand those Jews that feel that they no longer have a connection with Israel on any level?”

Did you notice the implication in this question? There is an abyss between American Jewry and the Israeli government because of a lack of Israeli-Palestinian peace? As if it is because the Israeli government has not done enough to reach out for peace?! Is it the fault of Israeli Jews (who overwhelmingly chose this government) that there is no peace?! This is a shocking idea. Interestingly Hotovely was not defensive about this and simply responded with what she sees as the cause of the abyss.

Hotovely: “Well, I can’t understand that. Because maybe they are too young to remember how it feels to be a Jewish person without a Jewish homeland, without a Jewish State. I think the memory is too short. 70 years ago, the Jewish people went through a horrible Holocaust because there was not a nation state for the Jews to go to.

I see the truth of this statement in my own home, in Israel. My own children are unable to comprehend not having the State of Israel. Their grandparents survived the Holocaust. Their parents were raised, hearing what it was like to have no state, to be utterly defenseless in the world and having to fight for Israel’s survival. The children of today, Israeli children who have seen wars and been to the funerals of friends murdered by terrorists cannot conceive of a day when Israel might cease to exist. Memory is short. This is the reality of the generation gap and growing up in (relative) freedom. If Israeli youth have difficulty understanding this, American young people will have an even more difficult time understanding.

This is not an accusation or an attack, this honest realism.

Nurit Ben: “So should all Jews be accepted in that nation state?”

Frankly, this question is more than a little offensive. Since when has there ever been a question about this??

Hotovely: “Of course! I am always saying, this is the home of ALL Jews, from all streams. Everyone is welcome to come here, to influence Israeli politics. Please. Come. As I said, I’m willing not to have a right-wing leadership in order to have all Jews sharing this beautiful, amazing place that is called Israel.”

Listen to that! I am willing to not have a right-wing leadership (Ms. Hotovely’s party) in order to have ALL Jews share Israel. What politician, in the history of the world, has ever proclaimed willingness to lose power in order to have all of their nation enjoy the same benefits they have?? Tzipi Hotovely, idealistic as she is, holds a higher ideal than that of her politics – the Nation of Israel should be united, in Israel -and she is willing to give up her personal power in order to gain this.

This is nothing short of astounding and yet, all the commentary I have seen on this interview has completely overlooked this statement.

Hotovely’s final statements seems to have been the source of most of the controversy:

“But there is another issue and I think that issue is not understanding the complexity of the region.”

The Middle East has dumbfounded statesmen, politicians, religious leaders and philosophers from biblical times. This is not an accusation, it is simply a statement of fact.

“People that [have] never sent their children to fight for their country, most of the Jews don’t have children serving as soldiers going to the Marines and going to Afghanistan or to Iraq, most of them are having quite convenient lives, they don’t feel how it feels to be attacked by rockets and I think part of it is to actually experience what Israel is dealing with on a daily basis.”

This has caused a lot of confusion so let’s break it down:

“People that [have] never sent their children” –
This statement refers to one generation of people that have not sent their offspring.
This obviously does not refer to all time, from the beginning of history.
In the same vein, this does not refer to people who have sent their children.

Honest reading of this statement makes the intention very clear. There is absolutely no reason to be offended because “Jews fought in many wars” or because “my family enlisted”. This statement refers to the people who have not fought. And yes, she did mean to say “have”. She is Israeli and while her English is very good, it is not her first language. English IS my first language and I don’t believe I would have succeeded in speaking with as great an accuracy as she did in this double-pronged interview.

“To fight for their country”
This statement also seems to have confused many people. What did she mean by “their country”? America or Israel?

From the words she used after this, it is obvious that she was referring to US military service. The IDF does not have Marines and we do not fight in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Interestingly a number of people chose to be offended by things she did not say.

“Why was she disrespectful to lone soldiers?!” seemed to me a particularly strange objection considering that she did not mention lone soldiers at all (Well, then why didn’t she?!) because she was speaking about American military service. Lone soldiers obviously do not fall under the category of “those who have never sent their children to fight.”

To clarify, lone soldiers, soldiers that come from the US or other diaspora communities to serve in the IDF are held in high regard by Israelis for two reasons:

1) Few actually make this step – while any support of Israel is appreciated, standing shoulder to shoulder with us, showing up physically, possibly putting your life on the line, is given much higher value than moral or financial support.

2) They don’t have to - Israeli are drafted in defense of our country. We defend our country for our families and friends but also for the Jews who may need (and hopefully will want) to come here. We have to, otherwise we would be annihilated. Lone soldiers give up the comforts of home, family and what is usually a comfortable life abroad to join us. This is a sacrifice by choice rather than necessity and that makes it more meaningful.

Some commenters declared that it is unfeasible or improper to demand that all Jews enlist in the IDF. The only thing is that no one requested this happen, much less demanded this.

“most of the Jews don’t have children serving as soldiers going to the Marines and going to Afghanistan or to Iraq”
This is true of most Americans, not just American Jews. Most don’t have children serving as soldiers. Most Americans do not know anyone who is a soldier and many have never seen a US soldier in real life. There are certain areas of the USA where it is more common to serve but that does not reflect on the majority of the population. As a Jewish child in Detroit I knew no one, Jew or non-Jew currently serving in the military. My grandfather was a Marine in WW2. In his generation everyone served. In mine, very few and no one I knew served.

“most of them are having quite convenient lives”

Could it be that, of all things Ms. Hotovely said, this is what was construed as an attack on American Jewry? If so, could the expressions of offense actually be masking feelings of guilt?
Most American Jews DO have convenient lives. It is easier to live in America than in Israel. The salaries are higher, the cost of living is (usually) lower and terrorism and war are things that usually happen “over there”. Israeli Jews don’t resent Americans for having good and comfortable lives. We don’t want Jews anywhere to suffer and we pray for the day that all Jews have convenient lives.

“they don’t feel how it feels to be attacked by rockets and I think part of it is to actually experience what Israel is dealing with on a daily basis.”

Americans don’t know what it is like to be attacked by rockets. Americans have never had to race to bomb shelters, praying that the rocket will not hit your home, that if it does, the bomb shelter will be strong enough to protect you even if the rest of the house comes crashing down.

Americans have never been trapped outside with no place to go for protection and no way to protect their children besides sheltering them with your own body.

The vast majority of Americans have never witnessed a terror attack and have never or known anyone who had to battle a terrorist with their bare hands. When Americans go to the grocery store they don’t worry about being butchered by a terrorist.

The vast majority of Americans have never had to take their children to the funeral of a classmate murdered by a terrorist. Or to the funeral of a soldier one year older than them, who was killed in a war.

Even Americans who have service members in their families don’t know what it is like, knowing your son is fighting for his life just a few miles away from you and you are powerless to protect him. Hearing the news of soldiers killed, the names not yet released (because the families were not yet notified) and being terrified that the knock will be on your door.

And you know what? We don’t want Americans to know. We want Jews everywhere to be able to enjoy a peaceful life of not knowing.

None of Tzipi Hotovely’s statements were accusations. They were all statements of fact. It is living in this reality, living as we live in Israel, that gives us our perspective. Only those who have walked in our shoes can truly understand. That is a truism relevant to all situations…

Conclusion

Careful consideration of everything Ms. Hotovely said, I am at a loss to find anything offensive, accusatory or inappropriate. She spoke the truth with kindness and grace, repeatedly stressing the desire to have good, open and honest relations with American Jewry.

I am left to wonder, was the real spark of the outrage caused by the idea that, if American Jews want to influence Israeli politics, they need to first become Israeli?

Or was it actually something said earlier in the interview? Tzipi Hotovely laid out the main principles the Israeli government holds in regard to any future peace agreement:

· The settlements are not the issue that is preventing peace

· No Jews or Arabs will be uprooted from their homes for the sake of territorial exchange

· Washington will not impose an unacceptable peace deal that endangers Israeli security

· Jews have 3000 years of connection to Judea and will continue to live in Judea

· IDF will retain security control between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river – for the protection of both Israelis and Palestinian, in order to prevent the creation of another terrorist state like Gaza.

· Jerusalem remains the undivided capital of Israel

These principles are diametrically opposed to the sentiments held by the political left (to which most American Jews subscribe). Obama, Clinton and basically every American administration before the current one, have championed the policies of the left. In Israel, reality has caused the political left to diminish drastically. Land for peace has proved an utter failure, over and over. One sided withdrawal from territory has made it possible for ISIS and Iran to set up camp on our northern border and turned Gaza into a terror state that tortures its own citizens and is a constant threat to ours. In America, it is still possible to hold leftist views – because it is not American lives who are in danger.

Could it be that this is the real reason Tzipi Hotovely was so widely denounced? Either listeners have a comprehension problem (which I do not believe) or the outrage is really a scream of despair that a decades long, failed political platform is no longer acceptable.

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