Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, April 13, 2018

Someone in Gaza is making lots of money manufacturing Israeli flags

Today's Gaza riots have the theme of burning the Israeli flag and raising the Palestinian flag.

Photos show that the Israeli flags they are burning are not close to what the real Israeli flag looks like - the blue stripes reach the border of the flag and the Star of David, perhaps symbolically and perhaps antisemitically, is broken up.

They couldn't have imported these flags from Israel, which means that somewhere in Gaza, someone is manufacturing hundreds of Israeli flags to burn.

Which brings to mind this German satirical video I once added subtitles to:

Meanwhile, women in Gaza are joining the festivities by painting their shoes as Israeli flags.

I don't know, it looks sort of fashionable to me.

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The dangers to Israeli citizens from the Gaza riots (that the media doesn't bother to explain)

Peter Lerner tweeted:

What the @NYT misses about the #GazaReturnMarch at the border fence.
The 5 protest camps are staging grounds for the violent riots.
Every camp is approx. 3000 Meters from the closest Israeli community.
The fence is the last line of defense! https://t.co/ueRdVXXby2 pic.twitter.com/oLE3mmTSjf
— LTC (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) April 13, 2018

But the problem is arguably worse, because the entire border is susceptible to infiltration during the weekly riots, not just the areas where Gazans are gathering. Here are some satellite images showing how close Israeli communities are from Gaza - a short walk away in many cases.

Nahal Oz is about 800 meters from the border.

These four communities - from the top, Kisufim, Ein Hashlosha, Nirim and Nir Oz - are between 1-2 miles from the border.

The Kerem Shalom kibbutz is exactly on the border with Gaza.

Here's the thing. Only three weeks ago, a mere days before the first "Great Return March," Hamas held military exercises that were centered on kidnapping Israelis. Their exercises were centered on kidnapping Israeli soldiers, but their tunnel placement and the fact that they are holding Israeli citizens, today, as hostages show that they want to kidnap civilians as well.

Who is running these riots? Hamas!

The media that is blaming Israel for defending its borders is still completely missing the story.

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04/12 Links Pt2: Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018; Ben Shapiro: Why Israel?; Survey exposes American ignorance about Holocaust; Abusing Anne Frank's memory

From Ian:

Ben Shapiro: Why Israel?

Last week, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad used chemical weapons on his own people. The government of Israel responded to that atrocity, as well as Iran’s use of Syria as a thoroughfare for weapons transfers to terrorist groups like Hamas, by bombing Syria’s T4 airbase. The media responded by castigating Israel: for example, the Associated Press headlined, “Tensions ratchet up as Israel blamed for Syria missile strike,” and accompanied that story with a photo of suffering Syrian children targeted by Assad, making it seem that Israel had targeted the children.

That media treatment was no surprise — the week before, the terrorist group Hamas used large-scale protests against Israel on the Gaza border as a cover for terrorist attacks on Israeli troops. When Israeli troops responded with force, the media falsely suggested that Israel had indiscriminately fired into the crowd. Meanwhile, reporters touted the story of a supposed photographer killed by Israeli forces; it turns out that the photographer was a known Hamas officer.

A few weeks earlier and some 2,000 miles away in France, 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll was stabbed 11 times and her body set on fire by a Muslim neighbor who knew her well, and had convictions for rape and sexual assault. In 2017, there were 92 violent anti-Semitic incidents in France, a 28 percent year-on-year increase.

Moving across the English Channel, Israel’s Labor Party finally was forced to cut ties completely with the leader of the U.K.’s Labor Party, Jeremy Corbyn, a longtime anti-Semite who has routinely made nice with terrorists and defended open Jew-hatred in public. And, of course, in the United States, the alt-right’s anti-Semitism continues to make public discourse more crude and the Women’s March continues to make nice with anti-Semites such as Louis Farrakhan.

In other words, there is a reason for Israel to exist.

JPost Editorial: The Holocaust and Assad

If Syria, Russia and Iran are right and Israel did in fact carry out an attack on a Syrian air base a day and a half after Bashar Assad’s regime used chlorine gas against civilians in a Damascus suburb, the Jewish state should be proud.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, as Israel commemorates the destruction of European Jewry at the hands of Nazi Germany and its allies in Vichy France, Austria, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine and elsewhere, it is essential for the world – and the Assad regime – to know that indiscriminate acts of barbarism will not be tolerated.

US President Donald Trump was exercising a healthy moral sense when he responded strongly on his Twitter account to the atrocity committed by Assad’s regime against Syrians in Douma, including women and children.

“President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay.”

Trump’s Tweet should be followed up by military action and it should be backed by all civilized countries, particularly the nations of the European continent on which the Holocaust was carried out. (Russia, which prides itself so much on having destroyed Nazism during World War II, is now protecting the Assad regime and spreading lies that poison gas was not used in Douma.) The point of the military action is not to change the course of the civil war in Syria. Rather, the point of a combined US, European military strike that causes significant damage to the Assad regime’s military capabilities is to make a moral statement and, one hopes, to deter Syria from using poison gas against anyone in the future.

What makes the Syrian use of chlorine gas all the more despicable is that it was motivated not by desperation but by depravity. Assad, with the backing of Russia and Iran, has all but won the civil war. Forces loyal to him have surrounded Douma.

In any event, the ruthless murder of civilians is rarely if ever a deciding factor in war. In World War II the Axis powers were responsible for the vast majority of deaths – as well as for a disproportionately high rate of civilian killings, in part due to the Holocaust – yet their defeat was total and relatively speedy once the US entered the war.

Assad, apparently emboldened by Trump’s declaration that the US plans to pull its troops out of Syria, believed that the world would stand by in indifference, as it has in the past when he used barrel bombs containing chlorine against civilians.

Perhaps Assad also thought that the Trump administration’s decision a year ago this month to fire Tomahawk missiles at Syrian army bases in response to his use of Sarin gas was a blip and that the US under a fickle Trump, who was now in the mood for retreat, would not act again alone among the nations.

Perhaps he also thought that the US and other nations would make a distinction between the chlorine gas used this week and sarin, the nerve gas developed by the Nazis during World War II.

Aliyah, IDF-style - part 4 (Ziesel R. and her dad)

After another too-long absence on these pages, Ziesel R. - the young woman originally from the US who joined the IDF as a lone soldier earlier this year - has resumed telling us her story.

____________________________________________________

I would like to begin by apologizing for not posting a blog in six months. I’m sure you all understand that was due to the rigorous training that I went through.

Let’s take a look at my combat training that began 6 months ago. It was an extremely intense time with many days spent in the shetach (field). Almost every soldier is given something that they specialize in during training. I was given the Negev. The Negev is a machine gun weighing in at about 17 pounds. We did a week course on how to use it properly. It was a difficult week but I completed it nonetheless. One night they woke us up at 3 a.m. with a hakpatza (emergency drill) and had us all crawl about 250 meters with the Negev on difficult terrain. This was probably the most challenging thing that I’ve had to do in my service but I was very proud of myself for completing that difficult task.

After a couple more months of intense training we finished and received our kumta (beret). My father flew in for the ceremony which was sadly canceled while he was on the plane. (My father wrote an amazing article about his time with me in Israel that I suggest everyone read (posted below*). Having him in Israel was exciting and I finally got a taste of what it’s like to not be a lone soldier. A lot was going on at the same time he was in Israel. Unfortunately the Negev caused a lot of strain on my back. After combat training I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer to switch my specialty and take the combat medics course which began a couple days prior to my dad’s arrival. I was delighted to have been accepted to the course but faced a lot of difficulties. My commanders in the course were unaccommodating and made the course difficult for me. Fortunately I had four friends that did the course before me and spent a lot of time both on the phone and in person helping me. I also had a mashakit aliyah (someone whose job in the army is to help immigrants with understanding material). This ended up not being enough with commanders that were not interested in helping me. Ultimately I ended up switching to another medics course with different commanders. The way the medics course works is that almost every week a new course begins making switching to another course easy for someone like me. Switching courses ended up being the best decision. I loved my commanders and the head commander. I also really enjoyed the people I was with. It really reminded me how even when things look down it almost always ends up being for the better.

Toward the end of the three month medics course my mother and younger sister came for a visit. Fortunately my commanders were amazing and gave me ample time to spend with my family. Also while they were here I got my Israeli driving license which was very exciting. Again I got the taste of what it’s like to not be a lone soldier. Although they left, the memories we made together were incredible and now was time to focus on finishing my course.

I finished the course with great grades and went back to the life of a combat soldier. During this time, I also moved to Kibbutz Beerot Yitzchak. I haven’t been there long but am very happy there. My unit is based next to the Jordanian border. I rejoined them but returned with a better attitude. I was only there for a few weeks before finally receiving permission to take leave. I booked plane tickets about 14 hours before getting on a plane to visit my family and friends in America. I’ve been in America for about a week and half now and will be here for a month. It is great being back and seeing everyone but at the same time I miss Israel. America will always be where I grew up but Israel is home.

____________________________________________________

Here is the post written by Ziesel's father in December:

Is it possible to celebrate Chanukah and not think of our modern day Maccabees who protect and defend Israel and the Jewish people the world over? Probably few with children serving in the IDF especially Lone Soldier parents who may not see their Maccabee children but for brief visits with sometimes more than a year in between. Particularly difficult are the various graduation ceremonies (tekes) recognizing milestones in the military that families are invited to. To be sure other relatives, friends, host families and their Lone Soldier pals are there for them. As we used to say ‘lone but not lonely’. But it isn’t the same.

A huge amount of thanks and gratitude to Nefesh B’Nefesh and EL AL the airlines of Israel for organizing and subsidizing a parent trip to Israel to attend a tekes for their Lone Soldier child. Nefesh B’Nefesh and EL AL recognize the importance of a parent attending a highlight tekes for the morale of the whole family and can sustain a soldier for a long way between parent visits.

The army, not so much.Neither I nor my Lone Soldier, Ziesel, attended a tekes during my trip (through no fault of Nefesh B’Nefesh and EL AL who worked overtime to make it happen).

To ‘make it happen’ was no mean feat. Anyone who knows the IDF only from ‘Operation Thunderbolt-the raid on Entebbe’, may be surprised to learn that the army doesn’t always have its- I will avoid the military term and say- ducks in a row. We reckoned ‘around Thanksgiving’. An official invitation was issued on 8 November for the tekes 23 November allowing a week for organizing work, family and scheduling flights (thanks again NBN and EL AL). No sooner had I landed that I discovered the tekes was canceled. Before I could be disappointed about that I learned my solider volunteered for and was accepted to the combat medic course. She was now on a completely different base and under new command (a lot can happen midflight). As proud as I was of her initiative, as an IDF Lone Solider veteran I was a little disconcerted because I knew that the permission she received for leave to spend time with me from her previous command was nullified. It was now up to the new command. A new lobbying effort began. I knew how it would seem, “Hi, I’m your new soldier. You don’t know me very well but can I have the first week of the course off?”

So, rather than meeting my daughter on a parade ground with bands and speeches accompanying receiving her new beret identifying her as a combat solder in the Arayot HaYarden Brigade with advanced training, we reunited at the Beer Sheva bus station.

Any disappointments that may have been,were melted away with hugs and kisses. Had she changed? She was the same beautiful, intelligent, articulate, poised, confident young woman we said farewell to a year ago- only more so. And way Israeli with mad Hebrew skills and an M-16. She introduced me to a couple of her friends from the course. “Is she a good solider?” I asked them in Hebrew. “Yes. Of course. The best.” I told her she was the ‘real deal’. “What does that mean?”, she asked. “It means if your plan was to come to Israel, make Aliyah and be a soldier in the IDF, you have done it, 100%” (100% is army slang for “100%”).

We had a wonderful Jerusalem Shabbat together with my older daughter and son-in-law at their Har Nof apartment. Motzai Shabbat she and I headed to Ibim, the immigrant absorption village she now calls home. Ziesel wanted to be closer to base if she didn’t get any additional leave. I was given the 5 shekel tour of Ibim- about 4 minutes. I was more focused on the placement of bomb shelters than the laundry and dining hall. Ibim is spitting distance to Sderot. As a parent you may tell your child “don’t play in the street” or “avoid walking alone at night (even if you have an M16)”. Add “be aware of the nearest bomb shelter and keep your ‘go bag’ squared away”. It’s not a kvetch but advice from experience. Both her mom and I were living in Israel during the Persian Gulf War.

I met some of the other Lone Solders. In my mind, exceptional young people. The culture of the IDF places enormous responsibility on extraordinarily young people. They are poised, professional and more than a little nonchalant. The social atmosphere was NCSYish- kosher fraternity/sorority but with fewer bad decisions. Ziesel made it clear from the start, “don’t touch the M16” but one of my young brothers let me check out the Tavor. Very cool would be an understatement. One of her friends dropped of her new kumta. New style for the mixed combat units: khaki background, dark brown tendrils over medium brown splotches. Looks cooler than it sounds. She acted less than enthusiastic but wasted little time changing out her generic O.D. one.

In some ways the best part of the visit was doing normal things that might belie we hadn’t seen each other in a year. Laundry, grocery shopping and picking up custom boot liners designed to relieve the tendonitis caused by carrying heavy loads quickly over long distance i.e. what combat soldiers do the most (by normal I meant normal Israeli things).

Good news! Leave permitted til Thursday (would just one more Shabbat cause the army to collapse?). So, back to Jerusalem and my turn to be the tour guide. First the Gush Katif Museum. I had some artifacts to deliver: some pictures of when I volunteered with some friends at Kibbutz Netzarim just before Operation Desert Storm. Within eyesight of her current residence beautiful and growing communities were exchanged for terror, destruction and rockets toward her and her neighbors.

Walking through Jerusalem I spied a sign for Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center. While my daughter begged off, (even though she is a trained killer it’s somehow gratifying to know she fears the possibility of being embarrassed by her dad) I was excited to see that which I heard so much about but did not exist in my time. I found a warm and homey space that was a cross between a dormitory common area and the living room of that house where everyone hangs out, with a very enthusiastic staff. I would have found it very inviting back in the day. On the way out we were offered a delicious cake to take for Shabbat. It was comforting to know that such a resource existed for my soldier.

We arranged to meet my older daughter at the Ammunition Hill Museum. As the year comes to a close most of us have forgotten that we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Six-Day War in June. Ammunition Hill is significant to me because many years ago on a day trip while volunteering with Sar-el this is where I decided to begin my journey to becoming a soldier. I gave my daughters a complete historical reenactment of the battle and its context to the access of the old city and Temple Mount. Plus a tutorial on trench warfare (no extra charge and thanks, girls, for being polite while dad geeked out).

Some things can mean more than a tekes. Even before we got to Jerusalem the poor girl couldn’t stand still for one second without being complimented on her new kumta. Our day for visiting the Kotel was no exception. On the way she needed to stop for a few things (soldiers always need a few things). We happened upon a tiny cobbler’s booth along Yaffo Street. He was an older guy with an apron stained with dyes, polish and glue. There were belts, shoelaces and some other accessories but covered with dust. It made me wonder how long it had been since his last sale. With his help we found the cordovan colored polish that matched my daughter’s boots and the small applicator brushes that would pack into her already overstuffed industrial sized backpack. “How much?” I asked in Hebrew taking out my wallet (visiting parents always pay). “No” he said refusing payment “not for a soldier”. His gesture of appreciation was one of the highlights of my trip. I hugged him. Somehow his sacrifice comforted me knowing that, tekes or no, my daughter’s contribution was appreciated by the people who really counted. After stopping for a bite to eat we picked up a couple sufganyot and brought them to him as a token of appreciation. He of course refused but this was my turn to insist.

On to the Kotel. It is just time for the afternoon prayers and the wide Plaza is filled with worshipers and tourists. But first we have to go through security which my daughter bypasses because she’s in uniform and armed. There is a small formation of newer army recruits getting instructions from their young commanders before they are released for lunch. The tourists are enthralled as if they were the very soldiers that liberated Jerusalem in 1967. I do not take praying at the Kotel for granted. That even a single Jewish person could be here is an open miracle.

It’s time to leave but we’re making little progress. The tourists don’t allow my daughter any rest. Who wouldn’t want to take their picture with the pretty girl soldier with the fancy beret and an M-16? She’s happy to oblige. I make a (bad) joke that after the Army she can work in Times Square dressed as Wonder Woman taking pictures with tourists.

It would be satisfying and triumphant to leave on that pleasant scene but disingenuous. Leaving Israel is mostly bitter and never sweet. Efforts to extend leave until after Shabbat have failed. Tonight we go to Ibim so that tomorrow I can accompany Ziesel to her base. She tells me I don’t have to but of course I wouldn’t have it otherwise. In the morning she suggests we part at Beer Sheva station reminding me half joking that I won’t be permitted on base. I, (only) half joke that there should be no reason why not, reminding her I was a soldier while holding up a Ziploc sandwich bag with my old and faded IDF document (ID, discharge and fortunately never needed POW record). If she was impressed she didn’t let on.

The trip to the base was somber. In Beer Sheva we had the breakfast of an Israeli soldier on the move: bourekas and coffee. From Beer Sheva to the base there may have been tears (trained killer indeed). We parted as we met -- with hugs and kisses. One last in-person Shabbat bracha. I watched my little girl lug her heavy soldier’s pack until my view is obscured by trees, fencing and buildings. My trip back to Jerusalem was less sad. At least we were still in the same country for a little while longer and I reflected on our time together and how much I appreciated those who made the trip possible.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

What can or should be done in response to the continuing Syrian bloodbath? And who, if anyone, should do it?

In a NY Times column, Max Fisher has described “America’s Three Bad Options in Syria” (he leaves out the fourth bad one, which is doing nothing).

His argument is simple: 1) Limited, punitive strikes are ineffectual; 2) escalating aid to Assad’s enemies can easily be matched and exceeded by Iran and Russia; and 3) an intervention that actually collapsed Assad’s government would throw the region into chaos, costing even millions more lives, and risk a military confrontation with Russia.

He doesn’t discuss the consequences of doing nothing. I suspect this might actually shorten the active conflict, since it would result in Assad reasserting control over much of the country, and Iran and Russia becoming the de facto ruling powers in the region. But this is also a bad option, because while it might reduce the bloodletting in the very short term, it would set the stage for future very severe conflicts, which could include Europe and the US (and definitely would include Israel).

There is another option that needs to be considered. It’s based on the understanding that today there is one source of most of the conflict in the Middle East (and it is not the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, which has always been only a proxy for the ambitions of Israel’s larger neighbors or the struggle between the US and Russia).

That source is the Iranian ambition to export its revolutionary Shiite Islamism to the world, and to establish a caliphate in the Middle East. Iran is well on her way to doing so. She has effective control of Lebanon through her Hezbollah subsidiary, she controls the central government and much of the territory of Iraq, and she is able to do almost whatever she wants in Syria (the ‘almost’ is thanks to Israel). Iran also threatens the vital Bab al-Mandeb strait, through her influence on the Houthi regime in Yemen (almost all trade between the EU and Asia passes through Bab al-Mandeb, as does as much as 30% of the oil produced in the Gulf).

The Iranian regime has done all this relatively cheaply and with conventional means. When it obtains a nuclear umbrella, we can expect it to be an order of magnitude more dangerous. It is presently developing missiles that will place Europe under threat of nuclear attack. ICBMs that can reach the US will be the next step.

ISIS, al-Qaeda and similar groups are far less dangerous. They are at most terrorist militias which could easily be crushed by the West (which instead has allowed Iran to use them as an excuse to gain control of parts of Iraq and Syria).

The option that I am proposing is what former King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia advised the US to do back in 2008: to “cut off the head the snake.”

Abdullah may have meant only to destroy the Iranian nuclear program, but I am suggesting that in addition, the present regime should be overthrown and opposition elements helped to take over.

With Iran out of the equation, the Syrian problem is not solved, but at least simplified. The best solution at this point would be a partition that would keep the various religious and ethnic groups away from each other’s throats. Clearly the present situation in Syria in which a Sunni majority is ruled by a small Alawi minority has shown itself to be unworkable.

While Russia can project power there with its air force, it cannot afford to send a large number of ground troops – until now, the cannon fodder has been provided by Iran’s Hezbollah ally and its Iraqi Shiite militias, which will lose their support when the snake is dead. Both Russia and Assad would find themselves much more prepared to compromise when the Iranian muscle has been taken away.

Other conflicts would also lose impetus. Hezbollah, Israel’s most dangerous enemy in the short term, would waste away. Hamas would lose its major source of financial support. Although the Palestinian desire to destroy Israel won’t disappear, the loss of Iranian support will mean fewer hot wars, which may pave the way for eventual reconciliation. The conflict in Yemen also will become amenable to solution without Iranian support for the Houthis.

Iran’s fingerprints have been found on terrorist attacks all over the world, including Latin America and Europe. Hezbollah is heavily involved in illegal drug and weapons trafficking. No other single country is responsible for as much mischief and violence around the world as Iran, and it is on the verge of becoming a nuclear power.

The example of Iraq is often used to argue that attempts at regime change can have unexpected and sometimes unpleasant consequences. There is no doubt that this is true, and that such an enterprise is very risky. But there were clear mistakes made in Iraq: the “de-Baathification” purge of the armed forces, government and civil service, which left no one competent to run essential services; the lack of planning for a temporary occupation regime and police force; the belief that if a tyranny was removed and elections held, democracy would automatically take hold; and of course the biggie – the failure to understand that Iran would walk into the vacuum created by overthrowing Saddam.

The Iranian people are relatively well-educated and cultured. Iran does have home-grown opposition factions that could replace the mullahs that rule the country. The difficult problem would be dealing with the Revolutionary Guard and its paramilitary Basij, who are loyal to the present regime and would resist its overthrow.

Any successful regime change would have to be accomplished by empowering the opposition and supporting its takeover from the present regime. It would need to be accomplished with as little damage to non-military infrastructure as possible. Nevertheless, there would certainly be some military confrontations with the Revolutionary Guard. But the approach taken in Iraq – smashing the country to smithereens and then trying to rebuild it from the ground up – failed there and would fail here as well.

The Western powers that would need to do this would have to push over the old regime, and stand aside – even if what replaces it is not entirely to their liking.

Yes, it would be a risky endeavor. The mullahs could be replaced by something worse (but at least it wouldn’t have an advanced nuclear weapons program). I think, though, that the potential benefits – for the region, for the Iranian people, and for the civilized world – make it a risk worth taking.

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04/12 Links Pt1: PMW: The PA’s Nazi sympathies; Abbas: Palestinians and Jordanians are One People in Two States; Congress Demands State Dept. Release ‘Game Changer’ Report on Myth of Palestinian Refugees

From Ian:

PMW: The PA’s Nazi sympathies

Over the years, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has documented numerous expressions of Nazi sympathies by PA and Fatah leaders. Admiration of Hitler is one part of the Palestinian Holocaust denial and distortion.

Some expressions of sympathy are blatant, while others are more subliminal. The following are some examples:
Senior Fatah official: "Hitler was not ‎morally corrupt. He was daring"‎
Senior Fatah official Fatah Central Committee Member Tawfik Tirawi argued that Hitler was not morally corrupt, but rather “daring,” in a TV interview. Tirawi’s approach even offended the Palestinian interviewer who chose to quickly change the topic:

Tirawi: "Let us talk logically. Hitler was not ‎morally corrupt. He was daring." (Emphasis added -Ed.‎)
Ma'an host: "Is that the way to talk? I say: Let's drink some tea and take a break. It ‎would be a pity to be put in jail because of this interview. We will drink tea and take a ‎break. Let's leave Hitler."‎
[Ma’an (independent Palestinian news agency), Jan. 19, 2016]

PA schools named after Nazi collaborators

Alongside the 31 PA schools PMW has documented that are named after terrorists including murderers such as Dalal Mughrabi, the PA also named three schools after Nazi collaborators. One school was a result named after Nazi collaborator and war criminal Amin Al-Husseini and two others named after Nazi collaborator Hassan Salameh.

Obviously, schools are named after people who the PA Ministry of Education sees as role models and aspires for the students to emulate.

Abbas: Palestinians and Jordanians are One People in Two States – Jordan and Palestine.

Addressing the ninth annual Islamic Beit al-Maqdes (the term is borrowed directly from the Hebrew Beit HaMikdash – the Temple) International Conference, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday that his people have been the victims of a conspiracy that started 100 years ago, “since the infamous Balfour Declaration,” and suggested the latest episode in this conspiracy is President Donald Trump’s “sinful declaration in which he alleged that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, defying with this the feelings and beliefs of hundreds of millions of Muslims and Christians and violating international law and resolutions on this matter.”

But it was journalist Khaled Abu Toameh that caught the most important line of Abbas’s speech when he admitted, “Palestinians and Jordanians are one people in two states – Jordan and Palestine. We won’t accept the idea of the transformation of Jordan into a Palestinian homeland.”

Self-identified “Palestinians” make up 85% of Jordan’s population, which makes one wonder, how many more states do the “Palestinians” need?

Palestinians: License to Kill Americans

The ruthless rhetoric the Palestinians are using against the US suggests that they have decided to put the Americans on an equal footing with Israel. They miss the days when the State Department sometimes seemed to be more pro-Palestinian than the Palestinians themselves.

We are talking about the same Palestinian Authority (PA) that continues to receive millions of dollars in US aid annually. The same PA whose security forces are trained and equipped by Americans and Europeans. The same PA that has a "diplomatic mission" in Washington that is actively taking part in the campaign of incitement against the US and its leader.

The anti-US campaign paves the way for terrorists to kill Americans. It feeds into the ideology of the Islamic State terror group, Al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood and Iran, which considers the US the "Great Satan."

Nation that destroyed scores of synagogues lectures Israel on religious sensitivity

Some everyday hypocrisy from Jordan:

Jewish holidays have become occasions for stepped-up tensions at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque complex with extremist Jewish settlers entering the flashpoint site in ever-increasing numbers, a Jordanian official warned Friday.

In a statement carried by Jordan’s official Petra news agency, government spokesman Mohamed al-Momani condemned “provocative and irresponsible” acts by Israel, which, he said, “violate the sanctity of this holy place and provoke the feelings of Muslims”.

“Such acts violate Israel’s obligations under international law as the occupying power in East Jerusalem,” he said.

“International conventions call for respect to be paid to the places of worship of all religions,” al-Momani added.

He urged Israel to immediately halt such provocations and show respect for Al-Aqsa’s historical and religious importance, with reference to Jordan’s supervisory role over East Jerusalem’s Muslim and Christian holy sites.

We are so used to seeing these sorts of statements that we too often forget how outrageous and sickening they are.

Today, Jews show far more respect for the Temple Mount than Muslims do. To Jews, it is their holiest site to be treated with the utmost respect. To Muslims, it is also a park where kids play soccer and volleyball, summer camps are run also s spot from which hate for Jews is broadcast.

But the hypocrisy goes far beyond that.

Here is the depth of Jordan's supposed respect for religious sites, from JTA, November 2, 1967:

A shocking record of destruction and desecration of Jewish holy places in and around Old Jerusalem during 19 years of Jordanian rule was documented today in the report of an inter-ministerial committee that was appointed after the Six-Day War to determine the state of Jewish shrines in Jordan held territory.
The findings of the committee were summarized by Zerach Warhaftig, Minister of Religious Affairs, at a press conference here. As examples of the wanton disregard of the religious rights of others, Mr. Warhaftig noted the destruction of all but two of the 58 synagogues in the Jewish quarter of the Old City and the almost total destruction of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives which has been in continuous use for more than 2,000 years.
The cemetery was one of the Jewish holy places to which access was promised by the Jordanians in the 1949 armistice agreements although the promise was never observed. Tombstones were carried away for purposes ranging from fortifying mortar positions to building lavatories and the report says, documentary evidence and eye witnesses “make it clear beyond doubt that the desecration of the cemetery was carried out by Jordanian authorities for official purposes.”

The Jordanian Government, according to the report, had placed a special guard at the cemetery, but only to prevent tombstones from being pilfered by private persons. Their use was authorized for building military camps, fortifications, pathways and other installations and the walls of the building that housed the army commanders. Part of the road to the Intercontinental Hotel was paved with tombstones, the report said. And the Jordanians never bothered to remove the remains of the dead.

Israel needs to respond to each and every such statement from Jordan with a demand for an apology and financial compensation for the damage done to synagogues and graves over 19 years of when Jerusalem was Judenrein. It is way past time that Israel remains silent when absurd allegations of desecration are hurled at Jews who politely and respectfully walk on their holiest spot - a place where the entire idea of Islamic sanctity is derived from the Jewish veneration for that area.

Only when every dollar is repaid and a heartfelt apology given will Israel be willing to engage in a discussion of respect for holy places - a discussion where Jordan will still come out poorly, today.

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In Fathom Journal, Cary Nelson and Russell Berman write a detailed and comprehensive refutation of an anti-Israel paper published in Critical Inquiry, a formerly respected academic journal, by Saree Makdisi. But their paper is in fact a strong indictment of liberal arts anti-Israel "scholarship" altogether. The summary:

This lengthy essay by two leading US professors challenges the world of academic publishing. They identify the symptoms of a ‘widespread institutional corruption that extends far beyond the debates over the Middle East’: the move of disciplines and journals from textual interpretation and scholarship to politics and polemic; the fundamental breakdown in the peer review process in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, as publishers with a strong anti-Zionist bias submit manuscripts to highly sympathetic anti-Zionist readers who laud the manuscript’s ‘courage’ and recommend publication, creating an anti-Zionist echo chamber increasingly free from some traditional scholarly controls, including fact-checking; and, not least, the spread of the terminology of a body of theory ‘marshalled in the service of preexisting political convictions’ and taking on ‘the character of sacred incantation’, the mere ‘deployment of its vocabulary’ taken as ‘sufficiently proving the case being made’. Their particular focus is the work of Saree Makdisi, but their target is contemporary academic culture itself.

The authors bring many, many examples of how Makdisi is simply lying (and he knows it.) For example, Makdisi claims that Israel has no laws to protect equal rights; Berman and Nelson show otherwise, introducing their rebuttal this way:

Makdisi underwrites his critique of Israel proper with the claim that Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which commits the state to equality of all citizens without regard to religion, is merely ‘aspirational’ (323) rather than legally binding. Yet prominent Israeli jurists, among them former Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak, believe the Declaration has constitutional status. In any case, calling the Declaration merely aspirational erases its considerable impact on Israeli law and culture. The Declaration’s commitment to equality has frequently been referred to in court decisions.[10] Makdisi imagines that ‘nowhere in Israel law is the right to equality protected’ (309), but an objective reading of Israel’s Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992) proves otherwise, as many rights are thereby guaranteed to all.

This pattern is repeated over and over, where Makdisi's assertions are proven to be utterly false, and any decent academic journal should have noticed this. On the contrary, the editor of Critical Inquiry, when inviting a response to Makdisi's essay (but limiting it to only 5000 words,) wrote to one of the authors that Makdisi's essay was

'a serious, well documented scholarly essay,’ by which one can only conclude he meant ‘It has lots of footnotes.’ "But whether either those footnotes or the essay itself, which is rife with undocumented assertion, actually proves anything is another matter. It is also clear that CI, like most humanities journals, apparently has no tradition of fact checking, since a substantial number of Makdisi’s claims cannot survive such a review.

Space doesn't allow me to go into detail on all that Nelson and Berman write, but a single (edited) example with which I was not familiar is enough to show how dishonest anti-Israel academics are:

For Makdisi the real crime begins not with the 1967 war and the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank or even with the Nakba itself. The fundamental violence done was with the establishment of the Jewish state. His essay therefore begins with a symptomatic narrative, the 1986 creation of a new town, Eshchar, in northern Israel, which Makdisi disingenuously identifies as a ‘settlement,’ a term ordinarily reserved for Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Presumably he considers all Israel towns and cities to be settlements in occupied territory. Makdisi contrasts the recognition of Eshchar with four nearby towns that Israel purportedly refused to recognise, but — of the towns he names, Kamane was recognised in 1995, Hussiniyya was recognised in 1996, and Arab al-Nai’m was recognised in 2000, at which point they were eligible for and received the municipal services Makdisi seems to believe they still lack.[23]All three, along with three other Bedouin villages (Ras al-Ein, D’meide, and Wadi Salameh) are members of the Misgav Regional Council, which has a Bedouin Deputy Chair. These are all, as it happens, Bedouin villages, though Makdisi identifies them as Palestinian.[24] It is thus odd that Makdisi insists that the Israeli government ‘adamantly refuses to permit Palestinians to develop a single new town of their own’ (306), although seven recognised new Bedouin towns have been established in the Negev since 1968. They are: Rahat, Hura, Tel as-Sabi, Ara’ra, Lakiya, K’seife, and Shuqib Al-Salam.

The attitude Jewish area residents have displayed toward nearby Bedouin villages for a generation completely discredits the claim of ingrained and persistent racism that Makdisi promotes.

As it happens, we have a mutual friend, a faculty member on this side of the ocean, who lived very near Eshchar (in Eshbal) for a time. She put us in touch with Eshchar’s former local council chairman, and he put us in touch with long-term Bedouin leader Nimer Na’im. They confirmed what we learned: Eshchar had supplied Arab al-Nai’im with access to water in 1993 and helped with other projects such as construction of a kindergarten, but the intensive work for recognition began five years later. Eshchar’s Jewish chairman Yisrael Ne’eman and Bedouin leader Nimer Nai’im walked together across the rocky hilltop their villages share — suitable for grazing but not agriculture — and in June 1998 agreed on a border. The terms were then discussed and approved by Eshchar as a whole. The Eshchar general assembly voted 40-2 to endorse the agreement, with the two dissenters feeling Arab al-Nai’m should have gotten more land than it asked for. The following month Ne’eman, another Eshchar resident, and religious politician Hanan Porat, whose daughter lived in Eshchar, went together to the Ministry of Interior and met with its director general to petition for Arab al-Nai’m to become a permanent village.

Nimer, we should note, was quite angry, calling Makdisi’s account ‘deceitful’ and replete with ‘lies’; he could not understand why someone halfway across the world would be involved in misrepresenting the character of two villages engaged in helping each other. He couldn’t understand why Makdisi did not even bother to contact anyone in the villages to consult with any of the parties involved. Why would someone in the US make up claims about Eshchar and Arab al-Nai’m? It was not easy to explain. Precisely this disregard for facts and for fact-checking starkly displays the methodological insufficiency of such politicised humanities scholarship today.

The two villages have instituted cross-community cooperation, planning, and future development. Since the Bedouin village has less land, their building permits allow construction to up to three stories to compensate vertically, whereas Eshchar is limited to two-story buildings. The two villages see themselves as having carried out a grassroots peace process, and as devoted to ‘good neighbor relations.’ They refuse to define their relationship as one of ‘co-existence’ because coexistence can too easily mean that ‘one party is the rider and the other the donkey.’ Each village keeps its own cultural identity; they agree to disagree when necessary. For Makdisi the story of the villages is one of long-running hatred and discrimination, while for us, it is one of rebirth and reconciliation, of empathy and social responsibility across ethnic lines, a story of hope.

Eshchar prides itself on its heterogeneous community of religious and non-religious Jews of multiple national origin. But Makdisi finds ‘this claim to extraordinary heterogeneity might seem suspiciously homogeneous’ (306).[27]After all, they are all Jews. In other words, they are not really different after all; Jews are all the same, as far as Makdisi is concerned.[28] That would be news to Israelis themselves, who have confronted the challenge of integrating the radically different cultural identities of immigrants from scores of different countries and cultures: Ethiopia, Germany, Iraq, the Soviet Union, and elsewhere.

Because the 800 residents of Eshchar are all Jews, Eshchar in Makdisi’s eyes is ‘an attempt to maintain insular homogeneity against surrounding otherness’ (309). Makdisi is of course employing synecdoche. Eshchar, as he immediately makes clear, stands for Israel as a whole, ‘a colonial settlement implanted on land usurped from its ethnically cleansed indigenous owners’ (309). That the Jews began by purchasing land is irrelevant. That Israel was established with an international mandate from the League of Nations, recognising the historic Jewish connection with the land, and subsequently affirmed in the UN’s founding charter, is irrelevant. Moreover, like South Africa, Makdisi insists, this is a racist enterprise set in what Israelis, so Makdisi insinuates, allegedly take to be an Arab ‘desert of backward, violent, fundamentalist tyranny."

It is a shame that one can't even imagine that the humanities departments of any university will take this essay to heart and start doing basic fact checking against anti-Israel "scholarship." It is simply too ingrained.

(h/t Gerald)

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One week after Passover is Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day, Yom Hashoah. Once a year the nation takes a day to remember, to listen to the stories, to cry and contemplate.

In other countries (those that bother), people talk about commemorating the Holocaust. In Israel the day is officially named “The day of remembering the Holocaust and remembering heroism.”

Memory is a tricky thing. Can you remember something that didn’t actually happen to you but rather to your grandparents? Or your great-grandparents?

Part of the ritual of the Pesach holiday speaks of remembering being slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. The Passover Seder is a tradition deliberately designed for children, to pass on the memory of being personally rescued from slavery in Egypt.

The Jewish people have not designed a tradition or ritual to help us pass on the lessons of the Holocaust as we have the story of the exodus. Memory of the Holocaust is tattooed on some of our bodies. The survivors that are still alive can teach us. First generation children of survivors and for the second and third generation have, to some extent or another, the horrors of the Holocaust seared into our souls. The effects reverberate through the generations.

It is for the third generation and those who come after to define how to pass on what we have learned. Remembering does not only mean focusing on the horror, it is also about acknowledging the extraordinary heroism of those who rose from the ashes.

Like a painful letter shoved in an attic corner, the memory of the Holocaust is something that Jews rarely look at. It is terrible and gut-wrenching but when we move to a new home, like all other memories, our possession, this too is packed up and brought to the new home. Memorial Day is the day we force ourselves to go up into the attic, shine light on the letter and read it. The pain is raw but this is the fire that forged us. We are who we are because we rose from those ashes.

Actually, to be more accurate, and it is crucial to understand this – we were able to rise from the ashes because of who we are. The fires of the Holocaust did not forge us, it is those fires that brought out the greatest qualities of the Jewish people: heroism, hope even in the darkest places, love and sacrifice. Like metal heated to the point of glowing, the example of the Jewish people, shines for the world to see.

I heard a Holocaust survivor say that the one thing he wants his granddaughters to remember is the experience of their now deceased grandmother. When the concentration camp was liberated their grandmother, then a young girl, did not want to come out of her hiding place. She was alive and there was no one to tell. No mother, no father, no brother, no sister… This survivor didn’t continue speaking because he couldn’t; he was too choked up to be able to express himself.

That is one tiny example of why this day is called “The day of remembering the Holocaust and remembering heroism.” I’m sure most people think of people like Oscar Schindler when they hear the words Holocaust and hero together in the same sentence but that overlooks so much heroism and nobility of the human spirit.

Heroism is in the fact that the girl who had no one in left in the world to care that she survived DID leave the concentration camp. How much strength and dignity does it take to walk out of the horrors of such a place? After humiliation, starvation, torture and psyche twisting experiences we can’t even imagine? How is it possible to create a life for yourself after your world was so cruelly shattered, smashed to smithereens?

That girl did it. So did millions of others.

THAT is heroism.

That girl not only left the concentration camp – she moved to Israel, grew up, married, and had children and grandchildren. She rose from the ashes of her parents’ corpses to create new life.

Israel was built on heroism and survives because of it. This is the legacy of that grandmother and others like her.

Living, surrounded by enemies threatening the very existence of Israel is very difficult. Living well, full of hope, happiness and always striving to improve the world while under existential threat is a breathtaking accomplishment.

And that is what the people of Israel do, every day.

We remember and we LIVE in their honor.

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04/11 Links Pt2: Linda Sarsour’s “Palestinian blood”; Anti-Semitism Is Alive and Well in Berlin; Guatemala to move its embassy to Jerusalem on May 16

From Ian:

Linda Sarsour’s “Palestinian blood”

Let’s take a quick look at the history of El-Bireh, the town from which Sarsour’s parents came, and see if we can figure out what kind ofblood they passed on to their daughter.

Located nine miles north of Jerusalem, El-Bireh is in a region that was part of the two Jewish kingdoms that existed for many centuries in biblical times. The town first starts showing up in medieval historical records during the Crusader conquests of the area in the 11th century CE. In fact, it was the Crusaders who named it “Birrah.” Does that mean the Sarsours have “Crusader blood” in their veins?

In 1187, the Crusaders were driven out of El-Bireh (and its environs) by the Abuyyids, a Muslim dynasty based in Egypt. So maybe that gives Sarsour “Egyptian blood.” Oh, wait—the Abuyyids were led by Saladin, who was born in what is today
known as Iraq. So make that “Iraqi blood.”

In the 1500s, the Ottoman Turks conquered El-Bireh. So if that’s when the Sarsours first moved in, Linda would have “Turkish blood.” The British, of course, followed the Turks. Then later came the Jordanians—they occupied El-Bireh from 1948 to 1967. That occupation was a blatant violation of international law, but neither the United Nations nor anybody else ever protested. After all, if it’s not Israel, an “occupier” isn’t worth denouncing.

So, what have we learned about Linda Sarsour’s blood? Well, she might be the descendant of Crusaders, Egyptians, Iraqis, Turks, or Jordanians. But her blood sure isn’t “Palestinian.” Not just because those peoples do not have unique blood types, but because the very concept of a separate “Palestinian” people has no historical basis.

Until recently, the Arab residents of El-Bireh never called themselves “Palestinians.” The very name of their town comes from European Christian invaders, not from any indigenous “Palestinian” source. The Arabs in El-Bireh have the same language, religion, culture, and history as the Arabs in Syria and Jordan.

Anti-Semitism Is Alive and Well in Berlin

Anti-Semitism is haunting this city once again. Human rights defenders, entrepreneurs, journalists, and victims of anti-Semitism tell The Daily Beast they feel lost and shocked and under attack from many different directions—from Muslim migrants who despise Israel, and from far-right and far-left figures in German politics. Last year, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior reported more than 600 incidents of attacks on Jews and Jewish public spaces across the country.

The Israeli-born ballet dancer Yorai Feinberg moved to Berlin six years ago and opened a stylish Jewish restaurant in Schoneberg, a beautiful area in western Berlin that is home to three synagogues and a vibrant Jewish community.

A few months ago, police arrested an otherwise seemingly normal middle-class German who threatened to incinerate the Jews working in the restaurant. But the attacks did not stop. Somebody recently threw firecrackers at the restaurant’s windows. Almost every day, Feinberg says he receives threatening phone calls and text messages. “We live under a constant bombardment of promises to kill us or burn us in gas chambers,” Feinberg told The Daily Beast as we met in his restaurant, which is decorated with modern art featuring the Star of David, the word “Israel” and Israeli flags.

“Berlin seemed much friendlier a few years ago,” said Feinberg. The low-key restaurateur looked out of the window at a police car passing by for the second time during an hour-long interview. “Thankfully, authorities are keeping an eye on our place, and they investigate and prosecute our abusers,” said Feinberg. “But there is too much hate, I have no doubt that one day I will experience violence again, get beaten or worse.”

Feinberg said threats to burn them alive are especially terrifying for the restaurant’s staff, after an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, was partially burned and stabbed to death in her Paris apartment last month.

There is a spike of anti-Semitism all across Europe. According to social surveys by the Pew Research Center, one-in-five or more adults in Eastern and Central Europe say they would not accept Jews as fellow citizens. But Germany’s case, of course, is special.

Hillel Neuer Speech to SIHMUN at UN European Headquarters

Rep. Keith Ellison (D), the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee says it is offensive that anyone would ask him to denounce antisemitism, "I got to tell you it is frustrating to be pulled out and be in... and it’s like it’s your daily moment to denounce anti-Semitism. We denounce it. We absolutely denounce it. We think it is reprehensible, murderous, and genocidal. And it offends me that anyone would insist that I do it one more time."

Oh yeah. Completely offensive. After all, why should the man be repeatedly asked to denounce antisemitism, just because he was in the room with Louis Farrakhan ~~a long time ago~~ er, not so long ago. For instance at the private dinner held by Farrakhan that Ellison attended back in 2013 (along with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani). Not to mention that time Ellison met with Farrakhan in the Nation of Islam leader’s hotel room for a long chat, WAY back in 2016.

Of course, if you ask Ellison, he’ll lie and say he hasn’t met with Farrakhan since 2006, when he first ran for Congress.

Yes. Ellison has lied and been caught at it, scrambling after the fact and calling his intimate talk with Farrakhan in his hotel room, in 2016, a “chance meeting.”

Just a "chance meeting" with Farrakhan, the guy who said things like, "Jews were responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out, turning men into women and women into men,” and “Let me tell you something, when you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door.”

But what difference does it make what Farrakhan says? Words? They aren't a danger to anyone. Says Ellison:

"In Charlottesville last year they was marching through town yelling, ‘Jews will not replace us.’ Wasn’t no black people in that crowd.

"I gotta just say this to you. Any form of bigotry at all including antisemitism is going beyond the pale. But let’s keep in mind what is gonna kill somebody. Like what happened to Heather Heyer. Like the threats to synagogues."

Because expressions of antisemitism? Nope. That's not the start of anyone actually killing Jews. Right?

But we're not speaking of Hitler. We're speaking of the guy Ellison termed a “role model” in columns he wrote in the 80’s and 90’s, before he ever ran for public office (in 2006, around the time he denounced the Nation of Islam, lather, rinse, repeat). Which tells you something about the sincerity of Ellison’s denunciation of antisemitism. Because he's still hanging with the guy, with Farrakhan. As late as in 2016.

Now what would you think of me if I hung out with Hitler in his hotel room, just by chance? Arafat? Bashar Assad? Stalin? Wouldn’t you question the nature of that meeting, that association? My character??

Of course you would. But if you question the association between Ellison and Farrakhan, it’s a smear. And Ellison? He is frustrated.

"It is frustrating to be pulled out and, it’s like your daily moment to denounce antisemitism.”

The nerve of us. Asking the man to denounce antisemitism, again and again. Well, what does it actually matter that Ellison had an intimate chat with the man in his hotel room, because Farrakhan is irrelevant. Says Ellison.

“Look, I gotta be honest with you and tell you, this thing about Farrakhan being absolutely radioactive and then trying to connect anyone possible to him and then make them radioactive, is. . . Look, Farrakhan’s organization is tiny, they don’t have any influence, nobody listens to them, they don’t have any answers for anyone. Nobody’s paying any attention to them. I’m telling you, they’re not. I mean, give me credit for leading my life.

“Farrakhan is irrelevant. To any politics. Nobody ca- - is he working on health care, is he working on anything? Is anyone thinking oh yeah, I’m gonna be an antisemite like him. No one is saying that. What I’m telling you is, the only way Farrakhan gets in the news is if someone tries to say, oh this black person whose whole life is dedicated to human rights met him or saw him or was in a room with him. It’s a smear, Man. I’m sorry, it is a smear.”

Irrelevant. Just as Hitler was an irrelevant house painter.

Until he wasn't.

Now not only are we smearing Ellison and offending him by drawing attention to his association with Farrakhan, but Farrakhan should moreover, according to Ellison, be given a pass for his antisemitism.

Because slavery.

“Let me tell you, here’s the truth of the matter, if we’re more interested in that: Farrakhan is known best for things like the Million Man March, and fiery rhetoric condemning American racism. He’s also well known for his antisemitic scapegoating of the Jewish community. Because you’re talking about people who spent 250 years in slavery, another 100 hundred years in Jim Crow government sponsored segregation and it’s only been around 16 years since anything else has been going on and we still have disparities in every aspect of American life, the black community is susceptible to a person who is going to stand up and say what’s happening to us is wrong.”

Now THAT is interesting. Because Ellison is essentially saying black people get a pass for anti-Jewish bigotry because blacks were enslaved for 250 years followed by 100 years of Jim Crow.

Which is funny.

Because the Jews spent 410 years in slavery, followed by close to 3000 years of persecution which includes the systematic murder of over 6 million of the Jewish people.

And yet in the 1960’s, the Jews were empathetic to the plight of black Americans, helped to form the NAACP, and marched alongside black people in Selma.

No. It’s not slavery or the years of Jim Crow that give black people like Farrakhan a pass for his antisemitism.

Actually, nothing does that.

And frankly, Ellison taking offense at being accused of antisemitism, instead of owning up to it—to the association with the antisemitic Nation of Islam, and its antisemitic leader Farrakhan—is offensive.

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