Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Deconstructing IfNotNow (Noah Phillips)

As the millennial cohort swings left, a group of young Jewish activists, IfNotNow (INN), is appealing to a wide swath of Jewry with proclamations of social justice and progressive ideals. But the seemingly-open and inclusive stance is a soft veneer for Israel bashing rhetoric. Worse, INN’s public agitations at times fuel anti-Semitic sentiments.

The group seeks to influence public institutional change in Jewish organizations that support the State of Israel, yet doing so fractures the relatively small American Jewish community. The most recent target of the group’s efforts was the National Ramah Commission, responsible for providing over 11,000 kids--including myself some years ago--with a fun, Jewish summer experience and instilling a love for Israeli culture and Jewish traditions. During my days at the camp, I recall the ‘promotion’ of Zionism manifested through eating Israeli food, singing Israeli songs, and immersing in Israeli cultural life. INN must take umbrage at these aspects of camp life for young American Jews since they recently attempted unsuccessfully to politicize the camp experience by imploring Ramah leadership to instruct about Israel’s “occupation” policies and practices. Wouldn’t an inclusive stance encourage a measured analysis of complex Israeli politics and a love for the Jewish homeland instead of absolute condemnation?

A good window into the motives of an organization involves looking at its leadership. Founder of INN Simone Zimmerman served a brief stint as coordinator of Jewish outreach for the Bernie Sanders presidential bid, but was let go after her vitriolic and unwaveringly anti-Israel Facebook posts were exposed. Zimmerman was too left wing and anti-Zionist for Bernie Sanders’ liking, something extremely telling about the founding principles and doctrines of the INN movement. Moreover, the co-founder of INN, Max Berger, regularly makes egregious assertions via Twitter. “The GOP is a white nationalist party,” Berger tweeted on June 12, later stating that Trump’s cabinet is “full of the dumbest Nazis” on June 15. On June 9 Berger retweeted Sarah Silverman, who compared ICE immigration officers to Nazis, and on June 7 retweeted Linda Sarsour, the controversial figure who maintains that feminists cannot be Zionists. These Tweets took place in the span of a week and are prime examples of the biased beliefs of an INN co-founder, and by extension, the partisan organization.

As INN gains an increasing base of followers, it undermines the loyalty of American Jews towards Israel with skewed information and damaging rhetoric. Ramah’s interactions, along with countless other reputable Conservative-Jewish and Reform-Jewish organizations, proves how INN has permeated into the mainstream for American Jews, and along with them, a lopsided anti-Israel agenda. Per their website, INN’s indoctrination has reached members of key Jewish youth organizations in America: Union for Reform Judaism, United Synagogue Youth, Solomon Schechter (my alma mater), Ramah, BBYO, North American Federation of Temple Youth, and more.

INN has created a “Liberation Syllabus” (#LiberationSyllabus), a compilation of learning materials, much of which unjustly slanders Israel. The syllabus features Michael Chabon, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, and many other people and organizations that maintain a harsh and aggressive stance towards Israel. Chabon, a known anti-Israel activist gained notoriety--or apparent clout among IfNotNow followers--during his commencement address at the Hebrew Union College in California when he condemned Jewish in-marriage and professed his distaste for religion. Also prominent on the list was B’Tselem (The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories), the organization which offers a pro-Palestinian advocacy without acknowledgement of Israeli concerns and perspectives. Like INN, B’Tselem is an ardently partisan organization pushing an inherently flawed agenda.

INN does “not take a unified stance on… Zionism or the question of statehood,” yet purportedly supports a two-state solution. What this intentionally ambiguous verbiage accomplishes is reserving the right for the institution to allege support for the State of Israel, while accommodating the sizable sect of their supporters who denounce Israel’s existence altogether.

It’s very troubling that IfNotNow (INN) has gained traction and credibility among American Jews, especially millennials. INN is virtually silent on the ills surrounding Israel--including civil war and chemical warfare in Syria--but focuses exclusively on Israel’s continued control of pre-1967 border land with no acknowledgement of why or how. No democracy is immune from criticism, certainly including Israel, but INN does nothing to advance or deepen understanding of multiple perspectives in this complex region of the world. #YouNeverToldMe

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How can I explain the inner workings of my Jewish soul?

There is something different about the Jewish experience that deeply impacts who we are as individuals and as a Nation but it is very hard to explain to people who do not share the same feeling. Some things need to be felt to be truly understood. This is my attempt to explain…

The day after Shavuot I found myself on the way to Jerusalem with a nice Swedish woman about my age. A guest of my mother and a tourist in Israel, she had very little knowledge about our country but had a friendly attitude, open mind and was interested in learning more.

As we drove up the hills towards Jerusalem I found myself at a loss for words. I can talk about Jerusalem but how can anyone really understand her significance if they don’t know what Jerusalem throbbing in your bones means?

Does it make any sense to explain that time isn’t linear, that in this land, the experiences of thousands of years coexist in the same space?

Every time I drive to Jerusalem I see flashes of my ancestors making pilgrimage to the holy city. While I am comfortable in the car, simultaneously they are there too - trudging up the hills, men, women and children, with their sheep and their cattle, tents, merchandise to sell and sacrifices to present at the Temple. I know the phantom ache in my legs is theirs, not mine and I am grateful to have the luxury of travelling to Jerusalem by car instead of walking, as they did.

Our first stop was Yad Vashem.

Our guest knew about the Holocaust but this was the first time she was faced with the enormity of the horror. There is something about listening to witness testimonies inside the museum and then stepping outside, with the hills of Jerusalem spread out below and seeing Jews walking free in a land they built with their hands and determination, that inspires awe in a way nothing else can…

Maybe the only way to explain a miracle is to actually see it.

Inside the museum I explained to our guest about the Jews of Europe, their lifestyle, the shock and disbelief at their own neighbors who could turn them into non-humans and steal everything they had, including their lives.

Then I found myself utterly robbed of speech. Standing in front of a case of Nazi defiled Torah scrolls, ripped and burnt, I felt a rage welling up inside that can only be expressed with tears.

I am not a religious Jew. It is not religion that evokes this overwhelming reaction, it is identity.

It is not a reaction evoked by seeing an affront to my faith, it is a reaction evoked by seeing an affront to my soul.

Jewish tradition says that God created the universe with words, thus the words have a certain power to them. Each individual letter has its own power and must be formed correctly. Every Torah scroll is lovingly written out by a specially trained scribe. Each letter must be written by hand, perfectly with absolutely no mistakes. Torah scrolls that are in use are dressed in their own special coverings with silver breastplates and crowns on the top of their handles. Scrolls that are damaged cannot be thrown away, they are buried with reverence, like a person, with their own special funeral.

Who preserved these relics of Jewish life in Nazi Europe, so wantonly destroyed? Who took the effort to keep and preserve them while so much else was being lost?

The collective memory of my Jewish soul cries out in indignation at the cruel glee of enemies deliberately destroying what is sacred as a precursor to their attempt to destroy entirely our existence.

Before attacking our bodies, they attacked our souls. It is not Jewish bodies that clung to Zion, it was, it is Jewish souls. Pogroms, concentration camps, wars and terror attacks can kill the body but the soul does not forget.

The Jewish soul is the place where religion, heritage and nationhood collide. It is difficult to comprehend. In Israel and particularly in Jerusalem, layers of the past blend with the present and even the future.

There I was, walking to the Kotel with a tourist and explaining about the Temple Mount, the Kotel and Al Aqsa. We watched men praying in the men’s section. The holiday had brought many people to Jerusalem and as time went by, more and more people came flowing in to the holy site.

Did she feel the reverence in the air? I don’t know.

I took her to see “Ezrat Yisrael”, the egalitarian section that is open for men and women to pray together however they choose. It was the first time I had ever seen anyone praying there (I’m pretty sure the group I saw singing together was a group of Christians, not Jews). By that time, it was already dark.

Standing in the golden glow of the Wall, I was looking up towards where we should have been, on top of the Temple Mount. Suddenly a sound I had never before heard in that place cut through the air.

A shofar was blowing and it sounded like it was coming from atop the Temple Mount.

My heart leapt with joy before my brain managed to explain to my heart that what I had heard was an illusion of sound. The shofar was blown from the roof of Aish Hatorah building on the other side of the Kotel plaza, where a wedding was taking place (a special enough event in itself!). The sound did not come from the Temple Mount.

I didn’t even try to explain.

After the Six Day war and the reunification of Jerusalem Naomi Shemer added to her song “Jerusalem of Gold” words that describe the city returning to Jewish life:

“We have returned to the cisterns
To the market and to the market-place
A shofar [ram's horn] calls out on the Temple Mount
In the Old City.”

A shofar calling out on the Temple Mount is the ultimate sign of Jewish sovereignty.

A shofar on the Temple Mount is a sound I have never heard. That sound will be the sign that our journey from slavery in Egypt to being a free nation in Zion and Jerusalem, will finally be complete.

Will I ever hear that sound? Was it a sound from the future, one that as yet only exists in a dream?

What I know for sure is that it had nothing to do with current reality. That truth hit me hard when we were preparing to go towards the hotel.

My mother (bless her heart) had booked a place in the Old City. When we heard that, we were concerned. Where exactly in the Old City?

Looking on the map, we saw that it was in the Muslim Quarter. Not a place I would choose to stay in good times and one week after the American Embassy was relocated to Jerusalem was not what anyone would call a “good time.” Of course, the people who run a hotel want our money but the people who live in that area and own businesses there are the same ones who laughed at Adel Bennet when she begged them to help her after she and her husband were stabbed. Critically injured, bleeding she fell at their feet and pleaded for assistance. They looked down at her, laughed and told her to die. That happened less than a year ago and now, they had an “excuse” to let out their hatred.

It was too late to cancel and rebook so Lenny and I figured we could go take a look at the place, get a feel for the atmosphere and then decide. Lenny consulted with the policemen, guarding at the Kotel. That night there were more policemen than usual, more with higher ranks and one step away from full riot gear (they were sans shields and helmets).

The officer Lenny spoke with displayed extreme concern when he heard where we were supposed to go. At first he gave the answer that the system demands: “We are in the streets to protect everyone. You can walk the streets.” His eyes told a different story. That led Lenny to press him: “Would you let your sister go there?”

Something burst in the officer and he blurted out: “I wouldn’t let my sister come to Jerusalem at all now. Try to find a different hotel.”

His eyes were full of deep concern. That, even more than his words, frightened me.

I made a few phone calls but to no avail. Not knowing what else to do, we went in the direction of the hotel but at the exist from the Kotel, leading to that direction, came across a police blockade. The police there took one look at us and said: “You can’t go through this way.” Shocked, we stood frozen for a moment. Two teenage boys ran up, the police moved the blockade and let them by. Lenny asked, how come they could go by saying our hotel is that way. The policeman said: “They are Arabs. You are not. You can’t go there. There are violent riots there now.”

Sovereignty?

This is our current reality. Chilled to the bone, we turned away and eventually ended up leaving Jerusalem altogether rather than staying the night as originally planned.

In our national anthem we sing about the yearning of the Jewish soul, the 2000-year-old hope to be free in the land of Zion and Jerusalem. We are not yet there.

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06/26 Links Pt1: Gaza Baby Libel: Equal Narratives; Unequal Treatment; Glick: Europe Seeks to Pin Down President Trump – and America; Two Israeli missiles strike near Damascus Airport

From Ian:

Gaza Baby Libel: Equal Narratives; Unequal Treatment

How is it that Hamas’ credibility is treated as equal to that of the IDF and Israeli authorities? Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard journalists complain about the way in which Israel has dealt with their needs in relation to the weeks of violence at the Gaza border. I’ve also heard the argument from at least one journalist that both Hamas and Israel have equal and competing narratives that should be reported equally.

One major difference between the two sides is that one actively lies.

The death of Palestinian eight-month old Leila al-Ghandour on May 14, reportedly as a result of Israeli tear gas, made global headlines. Doubts were raised at the time over the cause of death and Hamas eventually took the baby off its list of casualties of the Gaza border violence. Still, headlines such as the Daily Express’ “Mother’s agony as baby dies in Gaza gas horror” and “Drones drop deadly cannisters” contributed to the libel of Israel as a brutal baby killer.

Despite this framing of the incident, the media cannot be blamed for covering the story. They can, however, be held responsible for taking Hamas claims at face value, not only in this case but more widely.

Reports now suggest that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar paid baby Leila’s parents NIS 8,000 ($2,200) to tell the media that the infant had died due to tear gas inhalation at the Gaza protests. This information comes from a relative of the family arrested and questioned over terror activities at the Gaza border who told Israeli authorities that the baby had died of a fatal blood condition that runs in the family.

Perhaps the media might be skeptical of any information of this nature given that it was apparently obtained from a Palestinian held in Israeli custody. Nonetheless, surely those same media outlets that reported the baby’s death in such a damning manner even while questions remained, have a duty to report this latest development? After all, how can the media not give equal coverage to what they would claim to be equal and competing narratives?

But, aside from a few reports, this new revelation simply didn’t register on most of the international media’s radars. A blood libel, like most of the blood libels leveled at Israel over the years, has essentially become part of the accepted narrative even if it is subsequently proven to be fake news.

Hamas knows it can get away with it.

Caroline Glick: Europe Seeks to Pin Down President Trump – and America

In light of Europe’s institutional hostility towards Israel, and given the collective Arab rejection of Israel’s right to exist, it is obvious that Johnson doesn’t want this meeting because he is keen to advance the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

He is working to set up a meeting where the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan gang up on the U.S. and tell the President’s son-in-law that they will not accept any plan that doesn’t reflect their animus towards Israel.

Kushner, for his part, reportedly responded to Johnson’s attempt to railroad the White House into giving the EU veto power over U.S. Middle East policy by saying that while he is open to outside input in the U.S. peace plan, the President will decide its contents.

Kushner’s response hit the proper note. But it bears pointing out that Johnson’s speech at the UNHRC, like his attempt to build a coalition to ensnare the White House in a Middle East policy predicated on hostility towards Israel, show that Europe’s refusal to back the U.S.’s positions at the UNHRC was not a simple disagreement about the best way to achieve common ends.

Rather, Johnson’s efforts reveal a much more basic and unbridgeable conflict between the U.S. and Europe about the proper ends of foreign policy, and the sovereign right of the U.S. to advance its goals in the international arena.

Sohrab Amari: The Iran-Turkey Switcheroo

Bernard Lewis issued a startling prediction in 2010: Iran—the land of scowling ayatollahs and flag burnings—would abandon Islamism by the end of the decade, while Turkey—Washington’s stalwart Cold War ally—would turn away from the West and burrow deeper into its Muslim identity. Lewis is no longer with us, and there are still a few years left in his wager, but events in both countries are proving him remarkably prescient.

On Turkey, Lewis has already been vindicated. Witness the ballot-box triumph of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party, or AKP. In the presidential contest over the weekend, Erdogan thumped his opponent, Muharrem Ince of the Republican People’s Party, 53% to 31%. A smattering of pro-Kurdish and secular candidates divided the remaining ballots. Erdogan’s AKP and its allies also locked a majority of seats in Parliament.

The elections were not exactly fair. As the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe observed, the state of emergency imposed following a 2016 coup attempt constricted “freedom of expression and assembly” for the opposition. Erdogan has used the emergency laws to dismiss more than 100,000 soldiers, teachers, police officers, and journalists. And some 50,000 people have been jailed and are awaiting trial, according to rights groups.

With numerous opposition reporters languishing in prison, it came as no surprise that the ruling party dominated the media landscape, which led European Union officials to conclude that “conditions for campaigning were not equal.”

"The United Nations is the accepted forum for the expression of international hatred."
"Yes, Prime Minister" British TV show

The bias of the United Nations against Israel is well known.

All you have to do is compare its condemnations of democratic Israel as opposed to the worst human rights violators around the world.

Here is a chart from UN Watch that illustrates the point:

The bias of the UN Human Rights Council against Israel is even worse. It has Agenda Item 7, which makes Israel the only member state that is a permanent agenda item to be regularly discussed.

But the UN is not alone in its one-sided criticisms of Israel.

In 2009, Robert Bernstein wrote about Human Rights Watch, an organization that he founded. He criticized the organization for its bias:

Nowhere is this more evident than in its work in the Middle East. The region is populated by authoritarian regimes with appalling human rights records. Yet in recent years Human Rights Watch has written far more condemnations of Israel for violations of international law than of any other country in the region. [emphasis added]

How much more?

According to NGO Monitor President Gerald Steinberg at the time, "the obsessive condemnations in reports, press conferences, and op-eds reinforces founder Robert Bernstein’s conclusion that HRW has lost its claim to be a moral force"

Here is the chart NGO Monitor put together for that year:

Apparently, the criticism got HRW's attention.

By 2011, there was a lot more balance in terms of the distribution of the reports they were putting out:

But that did not stop HRW op-eds on the Arab-Israeli from focusing on the allegations made against Israel.

Currently, 2015 is the latest year for which NGO Monitor has information.

The number of reports on Israel, in comparison with other countries in the Middle East, appears to be on the rise again.

During all those years, Human Rights Watch has continued to focus criticism of Israel -- in much the same way as the UN Human Rights Council.

So when US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley tried to spearhead reform of the UNHRC, it was not unexpected that HRW (along with other NGOs, including Amnesty International) would try to block the attempt.

Keep in mind that the proposal for reform was not limited to addressing the disproportionate focus on Israel, but also on a proper vetting of states that would join the council.

Here is the letter Haley sent to each of the NGO's that blocked the US attempt to reform the UNHRC:

Note that Haley's letter indicates that the US did not blindly charge in with an appeal to reform the UN Human Rights Council. She writes that there were meetings with over 125 member states of the UN and that there was "near universal agreement on the need for dramatic and systemic Council reforms."

Yet when the time came for the US to circulate a draft of a resolution for achieving those reforms, not one of those states responded, not even with their own counter-proposal.

Haley refers to a letter that was circulated by Human Rights Watch and other NGO's to undermine attempts to improve the UNHRC and to "block negotiations and thwart reform." According to Haley that letter contributed to the US decision to withdraw from the council.

While they have denied Haley's charge, Human Rights Watch has not published a copy of that letter.

Sarah Margon, the Washington director for Human Rights Watch accuses the Trump administration of "going after independent human rights groups that try to generate more effective policies."

Like the letter these groups sent out to block reform, what these "more effective policies" are remains a mystery.

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Arabic media are reporting a description of the role that Egypt would play in the Trump "deal of the century" for Middle East peace.

According to the reports, which Egypt approves of, under the plan a free trade zone between Gaza and Egypt would be established in the Sinai near the Rafah border. Also in that area a $500 million power plant would be built to provide electricity to Gaza.

Also, a joint Egyptian-Gaza seaport would be built, fully under Egyptian supervision but operated by Palestinians.

In addition, an airport in the Sinai would be built specifically for Gazans and the Gulf would fund a large industrial area on the border.

Previous plans suggested a land exchange with Egypt, and Egyptians always were against those. This plan, according to the Arab sources, is welcomed by Egypt.

Supposedly, Egypt is already allocating land to the projects and getting ready to move people out of the area for these to be built.

This all sounds very credible, and if true, it shows that Jared Kushner - who was widely derided as an inexperienced kid who was in way over his head in working on the most intractable problem on the world stage - has come up with more innovative ideas for peace than 50 years of professional diplomats have.

The reason is because the Trump administration is looking at this as a regional issue, not a "Palestinian/Israeli" issue. And the Arab world is needed to make any peace plan work.

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On Sunday, David M. Halbfinger and Rami Nazzal of The New York Times wrote an anti-Israel piece about the potential of Israel destroying illegal Bedouin communities in Judea and Samaria.

This paragraph shows not only the bias of the reporters but how poor their reporting is:

With the Trump administration providing diplomatic cover, right-wing ministers in Israel pressing to exploit that while it lasts and international support for the Palestinians focused for the moment on Gaza, a new ruling by a settler-majority panel of Israel’s Supreme Court appears to have freed the government to proceed with the removal of entire Bedouin communities on the West Bank. Advocates of the Bedouins say this would be a war crime: the forced transfer of a population under the protection of the military occupation.

In one paragraph, the NYT is claiming that Israel's Supreme Court probably allows war crimes, and that its bias is because its panel members are mostly settlers.

First of all, what evidence does the NYT have that the panel members are "settlers?" My source tells me "I'm not sure where Anat Baron lives, but I think it's Tel Aviv. As far as I know, Yael Vilner lives in Haifa, and Noam Solberg lives in Alon Shvut." While one of them is indeed a "settler" in land that would be part of Israel in any deal, two of them are religious, which may have been what caused the reporters to assume that they were "settlers."

But is the legal reasoning sound? That is the only issue that matters, and the NYT - instead of actually looking at the legal ruling and finding holes in it - instead takes unverified claims of "war crimes" and publishes them as if they have the same level of importance as a multi-page and detailed legal ruling. The reporters are impugning the integrity of Israel's Supreme Court, which has issued many anti-settlement rulings over the decades, by claiming bias - with zero evidence.

This isn't reporting. This is a smear.

(h/t Avi)

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06/25 Links Pt2: Charles Krauthammer: 'How dreams of peace led to Israel's biggest mistake'; 'BDS racism: 1492 in its 2018 version'

From Ian:

Charles Krauthammer: 'How dreams of peace led to Israel's biggest mistake'

On June 10, 2002, Charles Krauthammer delivered the Distinguished Rennert Lecture upon receiving the Guardian of Zion Award from Bar-Ilan University's Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies. Below is an excerpt from the lecture titled "He Tarries: Jewish Messianism and the Oslo Peace."

In the 1990s, America slept and Israel dreamed.

The United States awoke on Sept. 11, 2001. Israel awoke in September 2000.

Like the left and like the reverie that we had in the United States, secular messianism was intoxicated with the idea that history had changed from a history based on military and political conflict to one in which the ground rules were set by markets and technology. This was the infatuation with globalization as the great leveler and the abolisher of things like politics, war and international conflict. This kind of geo-economics was widely accepted in the early post-Cold War era.

It was Sept. 11th that abolished that illusion. It taught us in America there are enemies, they are ideological, they care nothing for economics and they will use whatever military power they have as a means to achieve their ideological ends. This is the old history, perhaps the oldest history of all, the war of one God against another. No new history, no break in history, no redemption from history.

The other source of this secular messianism in the Israeli context was the success of the European Union, which was seen as a model for peace in the Middle East. There was talk of Israel, Palestinian and Jordan becoming a new Benelux, with common markets, open borders, friendship and harmony.

Indeed, if you look at the Oslo Accords, of course there is page upon page of all of these ideas of cooperation on economics, on technology, on environment, all which in retrospect appear absurd. And indeed, this entire idea of the Benelux on the Jordan looks insane in retrospect, but I believe that it was insane from the very beginning, when it was first proposed 10 years ago.

Charles Krauthammer’s Reflections on Israel, Zionism, Judaism, and God

Last week, Charles Krauthammer, one of America’s most incisive and influential political analysts and a profound thinker on issues pertaining to Judaism and the Jewish people, passed away at the age of sixty-eight. In 2016, Krauthammer engaged in an extended conversation with Roger Hertog based on his 1998 essay “At Last, Zion,” on the future of the Jewish people in American and Israel. At the conversation’s end, Krauthammer elaborates on a remark he once made that “I don’t believe in God, but I fear Him greatly.”

Long ago, when I was very young, I went from being a fervent believer to being not so much a non-believer as a skeptic. My theology can be summed up [thus]: the only theology I know is not true . . . is atheism. Everything else I’m unsure about. . . . The idea [espoused by] Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins that . . . there is nothing except what we see, and that’s it, is to me the most implausible, arrogant. It just can’t be, because things don’t create themselves. . . .

I have a deep belief in a transcendent “out there.” I don’t particularly believe in the mythologies that are told by any of the religions. I have an enormous attachment to the Jewish tradition and to the depth and the subtlety of its understanding of life, morality, and of metaphysics. I’ve always been interested in it, and to me . . . it is important for Jews to try to continue that tradition, to make sure it lives, and to make sure that culture is nourished. . . .

As to my own idea [that even if there is no God], “I fear Him greatly,” it’s because I believe in transcendence, some transcendence. [Since] I will never—we will never, as a species—be able to grasp what it is, there is a certain trepidation. In Judaism it’s called the fear of heaven. . . . I’m not really afraid, but in some ways you tremble when you look at the universe and you think, “I think I understand things.” . . . Human beings need to tremble when looking at the universe. If not, they don’t understand what’s going on. That’s sort of the key: to understand how little we can understand. . . .

Prince William lands in Israel for first-ever official visit by a UK royal

Britain’s Prince William landed in Israel early on Monday evening, kicking off the first-ever official visit by a member of the royal family since the British Mandate ended and the State of Israel was founded in 1948.

William, the second in line to the British throne, was welcomed at Ben Gurion Airport by Tourism Minister Yariv Levin and MK Amir Ohana, both members of the ruling Likud party.

The Duke of Cambridge’s three-day stay, ending the royal family’s seven-decade unofficial boycott of Israel, is likely to be full of historical symbolism, though it was initially billed as a celebration of the unprecedentedly good bilateral ties between London and Jerusalem.

However, the trip is taking place under a minor cloud of controversy, as Kensington Palace’s official itinerary states that the prince’s visit to Jerusalem’s Old City — where he is likely to stop at the Western Wall and Muslim and Christian holy sites — will take place in the “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

“We will receive today the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, for the historic first visit in Israel of a representative of the British royal family,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier Monday at the start of the Likud faction meeting.

“I must say this is not exactly true because there is a representative, his great-grandmother Princess Alice, one of the Righteous of the Nations who saved Jews in Greece during the Second World War and requested to be buried in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu added.

Addressing Likud lawmakers, he joked that he would have invited all of the party’s MKs to meet the prince, but “it is a little cramped at the Prime Minister’s Residence, so we will welcome him on your behalf and on behalf of all the citizens of Israel — welcome!”

From TASS:

MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. Issues of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement were in focus of a meeting Russian president’s special envoy for the Middle East and African countries and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov had with a delegation of Hamas leaders led by Hamas Political Bureau member Mousa Abu Marzook, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday.

"Key attention was focused on the problems of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement on the basis of the generally recognized international legal documents, including UN resolutions, and on efforts towards restoration of Palestinian national unity on the basis of the agreement signed between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo in October 2017," the ministry said.

From official PA news agency Wafa:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will attend the final of the 2018 World Cup in Russia with a number of world leaders and heads of state, FIFA's foot Gianni Infantino.
Al-Rajoub said in a statement to WAFA that his Excellency will meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin while in Russia, and will discuss bilateral relations and the latest developments.

Something is brewing. Maybe Russia wants to break the Hamas/Fatah deadlock.

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Too funny, from BDS South Africa:

Keeping up with the spirit of the #FifaWorldCup2018

Here is a soccer match of Palestine and Australia back in 1939. Hopefully sometime soon the Palestinian soccer team will participate in the tournament and Israel expelled from @FIFAcom just like Apartheid South Africa pic.twitter.com/CYyP49NaNo
— BDS South Africa (@BDSsouthafrica) June 25, 2018

Of course, the team they are showing is the Zionist Palestine team, complete with Stars of David in their logos. (Notice the announcer talks about their "brainy play.")

(h/t/ Jean Vercors)

UPDATE: Israellycool was all over this and there were other BDS groups that did the same thing, because they have no idea how to think for themselves.

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06/25 Links Pt1: Assad troops take over Golan UN post in demilitarized area on Israeli border; Absurd irony: The PA at “No Money for Terrorism” conference

From Ian:

Pro-Assad troops take over Golan UN post in demilitarized area on Israeli border

Forces loyal to the regime of Syrian strongman Bashar Assad took control of an abandoned UN post in the no-man’s land between the Israeli and Syrian areas of the Golan Heights, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported on Sunday.

The post, abandoned by United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) troops on the Golan, is meant to be free of both Israeli and Syrian troops, according to the cessation of hostilities agreement between the two countries that followed the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

According to the report, UNDOF has identified ongoing infrastructure work at the site.

The IDF said in a statement that it was “aware of what is taking place, and views [the takeover of the site and] the infrastructure work at the post as a serious and flagrant violation of the separation-of-forces agreement.”

The IDF statement suggested Israel might act to remove the forces from the post by force. Officials told Kan that Israel “sees UNDOF as responsible for tracking and acting against military forces in the separation zone, and is determined to prevent military entrenchment in that area.”

PMW: Absurd irony: The PA at “No Money for Terrorism” conference

It would almost be funny if it wasn't so absurd. The Palestinian Authority, whose leaders pay salaries to imprisoned terrorist murderers and to families of killed terrorists - including suicide bombers - participated in a conference in Paris called "No Money for Terrorism"!

"The State of Palestine participated... in a ministerial conference against terror funding, which was held in the French capital Paris under the headline No Money for Terrorism. Palestine was represented at the conference by [PA] Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al-Malki and Head of the [Palestinian] Central Bank Azzam Al-Shawa, accompanied by a Palestinian delegation." [WAFA, official PA news agency, April 26, 2018]

The PA was invited and included in the conference while the PA actively and openly uses its money and also donor countries' money to pay terrorists, while PA leaders ignore the condemnation by the international community.

The PA pays monthly salaries to around 6,500 imprisoned terrorists, as well monthly allowances to the families of tens of thousands of killed terrorists - who the PA calls "Martyrs" - to which the PA allocated over $350 million in its published 2018 budget. Despite international criticism, PA leaders vow to continue to pay these salaries rewarding terror.

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA spends money on establishing monuments to terrorist murderers and the PA Ministry of Education has named 31 schools after terrorists, just to name a few of the many ways the PA spends money on terrorists and on immortalizing them.

Terror victims protest Pay-to-Slay bill's delay

Twenty family members of victims of terrorism from the Almagor organization demonstrated outside the Likud faction meeting at the Knesset on Monday after they were not permitted to address Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Likud MKs about the need to pass a bill meant to discourage the Palestinian Authority from continuing to pay terrorists.

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee authorized legislation two weeks ago that requires the government to deduct the amount the PA pays terrorists from the taxes and tariffs Israel collects for the authority.

A final vote which would have passed it into law on Monday was postponed at the request of coalition chairman David Amsalem, who acts as the parliamentary arm of the prime minister. The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will meet either this Wednesday or next week to consider revisions of the bill that would water it down.

“I am worried the bill will be buried,” Almagor head Meir Indor said. “I try to respect the prime minister, but we have our limits. A similar bill already passed in both houses of Congress in the US, and we have been legislating it for a year. We would rather have the bill not pass at all than pass with half its power taken away.”

Netanyahu himself requested a delay in the voting from the heads of the parties in his coalition. Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon have created obstacles that have made it harder to pass the bill due to battles over credit, but the bill’s sponsor, Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern, said on Monday that he blames only one man for the legislation not yet being law.

The Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy just published research that describes the links between various BDS-promoting entities and terrorist organizations such as the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Hamas. The report confirms (as if more confirmation was necessary) that – far from being the grassroots human rights movement it poses as – BDS is in fact an operational asset in the ongoing war against the Jewish state.

The infographic that accompanied the report, which has been making the rounds over the last week, reminded me of other illustrations of how propaganda and “direct action” (i.e., terrorism) fit together into an integrated militant strategy.

This work represents two strands of public diplomacy being carried out by the Israeli government that demonstrate their seriousness with the propaganda as well as kinetic battlefield: high-profile exposing of war organizations posing as peace groups, and keen use of communication methods (in this case infographics) that cut through the word clutter often characterizing pro-Israel commentary.

Given how well organizations much less resourced than government agencies have made use of such tools (I’m thinking especially about NGO Monitor and its BDS Sewer System animated graphic that eloquently communicates the way politicized NGOs launder accusations against Israel to fuel BDS and other propaganda campaigns), it’s nice to see Israeli political leaders leveraging modern communication techniques to spread the truth as well as our opponents use them to spread lies.

While specifics are always vital when planning strategy and tactics, it is equally important to keep in mind the big picture into which these specifics fit.

For instance, the prime movers in the war against the Jewish nation state are the other nations who declared war on that state at its birth, a war that continues to this day. As I noted when describing the odds Israel faces in her military situation:

A majority of countries that make up the Arab League are in a formal declared state of war against Israel and, taken together, these states have a combined population of close to 350 million and combined armies of over a hundred million soldiers. This number does not include irregular forces like the terrorist armies of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. If we also want to take economics into consideration, Israel’s economy (with a GDP of approximately $300 billion) is one twentieth the size of the economies of her combined enemies.

The years 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973 (and possibly 1982) are often invoked to mark times when this long-term war erupted into actual shooting between national armies, but every year in between these dates can also be characterized as periods when formal military clashes were replaced by irregular action (referred to as guerilla warfare and terrorism, depending on who you talk to and when). This supports the notion that 1948, 1967 et al should not be considered distinct wars, but rather seen as battles in a long-war that stretches back almost a century.

Alongside kinetic actions involving people actually shooting at one another, there has also been a parallel propaganda effort that again begin with Israel’s nation-state enemies (i.e., the countries making up the Arab League). Coupled with allies, including another 20+ non-Arab Muslim states and states who once described themselves as “non-aligned”) this “automatic majority” exercises power inherent in numbers to corrupt organizations like the United Nations, turning them into a propaganda arm for a war against a member state.

The purpose of the propaganda branch of the war against Israel is to (1) make Israel’s destruction seem virtuous vs. horrifying; and (2) provide support to military actors by limiting Israel’s options with regard to allowable military responses. Again quoting previous analysis of this situation, current activity by BDS and similar anti-Israel propaganda campaigns can be characterized as follows:

· When there is not a shooting war going on, BDS advocates run Israel Apartheid Week events and other similar programs designed to paint Israel as so hideous that any action taken against it should be considered moral.

· During “quiet” periods when groups like Hamas and Hezbollah are readying for the next war (by collecting weapons, building rockets or digging terror tunnels) these “peace advocates” say and do nothing to limit that war preparation.

· Once a shooting war breaks out, they take to the streets condemning Israel’s counterattack and demanding a ceasefire as soon as the aggression of Israel’s enemies start bearing a price.

Taken together, these actions demonstrate not just a political movement playing a military role (by justifying attacks against Israel and then trying to limit the Jewish state’s military options once those attacks begin) but a foe with clear-cut and militant goals: to see Israel destroyed or weakened to the point where someone else can handles the trigger pulling.

If we keep these fundamentals in mind, details regarding the actual makeup of the network providing this propaganda support to the ongoing war against the Jewish state put vital flesh on the skeleton outlined above. And such knowledge can help us better understand what we’re dealing with when we deal with BDS and make sensible decisions regarding what to do about it.

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

Here is one point I made in my speech yesterday, that I hadn't thought of before preparing for it.

In 1974, after several years of airplane hijackings and other terror attacks, Yasir Arafat went to the UN and gave a speech. The architect of terror suddenly became an honored diplomat.

The most famous phrase from his speech was, "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom-fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. I repeat: do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."

Think about what he is saying. He is saying that the world must do what Palestinians want it to do, or else there will be more terror.

It was a threat!

A normal man can hold an olive branch, or a gun, or both. A normal man makes the decision whether he wants to be peaceful or violent, whether he embraces peace or war.

Arafat is saying that the decision as to whether he will drop the olive branch is up to the world pressuring Israel to give in to terrorist demands. He refuses to drop the "freedom fighter's gun" and his choice to pretend to also hold an olive branch depends entirely on other people doing his desire.

It is a mafia-style "offer you can't refuse" - and the nations of the world gave him a standing ovation.

It is part of a larger pattern of using threats to get the world to pressure Israel, and it has worked brilliantly, to the present day.

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Here is the official White House translation of an interview Jared Kushner had with Palestinian newspaper Al Quds, along with my comments.

Altogether the US seems to be placing proper pressure on the Palestinian leadership which is a breath of fresh air after eight years of Obama only pressuring Israel.

REPORTER: What have you learned from Arab leaders on your recent trip through the Middle East?

KUSHNER: That the prospects for peace are very much alive. The leaders we met with all care a lot about the Palestinian people, and know that the lives of the Palestinian people can only be made better when there is a peace deal that is agreed to by both sides. They know that it is a tough deal to make, which is why it has eluded both sides for decades, but they all acknowledge the good that will come to the region if an understanding of peace is achieved.

REPORTER: What are the points that are most important to the Arab leaders to see in a peace plan?

KUSHNER: They conveyed they want to see a Palestinian State with a capital in East Jerusalem. They want a deal where the Palestinian people can live in peace and be afforded the same economic opportunities as the citizens of their own countries. They want to see a deal that respects the dignity of the Palestinians and brings about a realistic solution to the issues that have been debated for decades. They all insist that Al Aqsa Mosque remain open to all Muslims who wish to worship.

Notice that he doesn't say that Al Aqsa would be under Palestinian control.

And this also implies the end of UNRWA and replacing it with Palestinians becoming citizens of their host countries - a conclusion that Palestinian leaders are already panicking about because a cornerstone of their desire for "peace" has been the "right of return" to destroy Israel demographically. Apparently, Arab leaders are understanding that they can get a financial windfall if UNRWA funds, and additional funds from the West, could replace money being wasted by UNRWA. Gulf states especially like Palestinian workers because, frankly, they are much better than the lazy Gulf workers. It would boost their economies to integrate the Palestinians into their own society.

REPORTER: Does the deal you are working on accommodate these points?

KUSHNER: I don’t want to speak about specifics of the deal we are working on, but like I said in my speech in Jerusalem — I believe that for a deal to be made, both parties will gain more than they give and feel confident that the lives of their people will be better off in decades from now because of the compromises they make. It will be up to the leadership and the people of both sides to determine what is an acceptable compromise in exchange for significant gains.

The deal apparently is heavy on economic incentives, which is much more appealing to the Palestinian Arabs themselves than the symbolic "red lines" that their leaders have fruitlessly demanded for decades.

REPORTER: You mention “up to the people.” Are you saying that you could see a world in which you put out a plan and let the people vote on it?

KUSHNER: I didn’t say that, but that’s something that the leadership of both sides should consider doing. Perhaps that’s a way for them to take less political risk on endorsing a solution, but that is still a few steps ahead of where we are now.

REPORTER: This conflict has been going on for so long and so many people have tried to bring a resolution on what seems like intractable problems — how is your approach different?

KUSHNER: We have done a lot of listening and have spent our time focusing on the people and trying to determine what they actually want. At the end of the day, I believe that Palestinian people are less invested in the politicians’ talking points than they are in seeing how a deal will give them and their future generations new opportunities, more and better paying jobs and prospects for a better life.

Each of the political issues are very controversial and there are people on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides who will object to any compromise. We think that the deal should be looked at by both sides as a package and both sides should ask themselves — are we better-off with what we are getting in exchange for what we are giving?

Not everyone will agree that it’s the right package, but reaching for peace takes courage and the need to take the right calculated risks. Without the people pushing the politicians to focus on their needs and giving them the courage to take a chance, this will never be solved.

REPORTER: What do you make of the recent statements by Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for President Abbas, that your trip is a “waste of time and is bound to fail”?

KUSHNER: I think the Palestinian leadership is saying those things because they are scared we will release our peace plan and the Palestinian people will actually like it because it will lead to new opportunities for them to have a much better life.

Meaning, jobs. Israel can help, the Saudis and other Gulf states can help.

REPORTER: Have you reached out to President Abbas to see if he would meet you on this trip?

KUSHNER: Not directly. President Abbas knows we are in the region and we have many mutual contacts who convey messages — he knows that we are open to meeting him and continuing the discussion when he is ready. He has said publicly he will not meet us and we have opted not to chase him.

We have continued our work on the plan and on building consensus on what is realistically achievable today and what will endure for the future. If President Abbas is willing to come back to the table, we are ready to engage; if he is not, we will likely air the plan publicly.

That would be tricky, because the people will then be inundated with propaganda about how terrible the deal is in their own media. The PA would orchestrate massive anti-deal rallies. The Internet is not yet the great equalizer it should be in Palestinian areas; despite the growing discontent with Abbas he still has a great deal of dictatorial control.

REPORTER: When will you be ready?

KUSHNER: Soon. We are almost done.

REPORTER: Will the breakdown in the relationship with President Abbas impact your ultimate ability to get a deal done?

KUSHNER: President Abbas says that he is committed to peace and I have no reason not to believe him. More importantly, President Trump committed to him early on that he would work to make a fair deal for the Palestinian people. However, I do question how much President Abbas has the ability to, or is willing to, lean into finishing a deal. He has his talking points which have not changed in the last 25 years. There has been no peace deal achieved in that time. To make a deal both sides will have to take a leap and meet somewhere between their stated positions. I am not sure President Abbas has the ability to do that.

Entirely accurate.

REPORTER: What makes you think he doesn’t have that ability?

KUSHNER: I didn’t say that he doesn’t have the ability, I said I am not sure. I greatly respect that there are many things he has done well for establishing the foundations of peace, but I don’t think the Palestinian people feel like their lives are getting better and there is only so long you can blame that on everyone other than Palestinian leadership. The global community is getting frustrated with Palestinian leadership and not seeing many actions that are constructive towards achieving peace.

Again, entirely accurate, and Kushner is referring to the Egyptians and Gulf states when he says "global community" here.

There are a lot of sharp statements and condemnations, but no ideas or efforts with prospects of success. Those who are more skeptical say President Abbas is only focused on his political survival and cementing a legacy of not having compromised than on bettering the lives of the Palestinian people.

REPORTER: Do you think that is the case?

KUSHNER: I hope not. My job is to work with the parties in charge, so I am ready to work with President Abbas if he is willing. There is a good deal to be done here from what I assess.

REPORTER: What does “economic prosperity” look like for the Palestinian people in your view?

KUSHNER: Think about the prospects for the Palestinian people over a 5-20 year horizon if they get massive investments in modern infrastructure, job training and economic stimulus. The world is going through a technological industrial revolution and the Palestinian people can be beneficiaries by leapfrogging to be leaders in the next industrial age. The Palestinian people are industrious, well educated and adjacent to the Silicon Valley of the Middle East — Israel. Israel’s prosperity would spill over very quickly to the Palestinians if there is peace.

Many countries from around the world are ready to invest if there is a peace agreement. I feel strongly that while in order to make a peace deal you need to define and have secure borders, economically you want to eliminate boundaries and allow the economies to become more integrated to increase the opportunity and prosperity for all of the people — including the Jordanians and Egyptians and beyond.

The critics of the plan are correct when they say that this sounds like what Israel has wanted for years. They are worried because it might actually work, and the Arab world can benefit as a whole from working with rather than against Israel. Palestinians would indeed benefit greatly as well.

REPORTER: So what you are working on is more regional in nature?

KUSHNER: The actual deal points are between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but the economic plan we are working on can show what comes as part of a deal when it is achieved with some massive investments that will extend to the Jordanian and Egyptian people as well. This conflict has held the whole region back and there is so much untapped potential that can be released if peace is achieved.

REPORTER: Can you give some details about the economic plan you are working on?

KUSHNER: Yes. We believe we can attract very significant investments in infrastructure from the public and private sectors to make the whole region more connected and to stimulate the economies of the future. This will lead to increases in GDP and we also hope that a blanket of peaceful coexistence can allow the governments to divert some of their funds from heavy investments in military and defense into better education, services and infrastructure for their people.

REPORTER: I know you recently hosted a conference on Gaza in the White House. Has anything come from that? What are you doing to make that situation better while we are all watching it deteriorate before our eyes?

KUSHNER: Well, what’s happening in Gaza is very sad. The humanitarian situation started long before President Trump came into office, but nonetheless we must try and make improvements. The level of desperation and despair shows the worst-case scenario of what happens when these problems are left unresolved and allowed to linger. The people of Gaza are hostages to bad leadership. Their economy has spiraled downward because of the inability to have connectivity with the world.

As long as there are rockets being fired and tunnels being dug, there will be a chokehold on resources allowed to enter. It’s a vicious cycle. I think the only path for the people of Gaza is to encourage the leadership to aim for a true cease-fire that gives Israel and Egypt the confidence to start allowing more commerce and goods to flow to Gaza. This is the only way to solve the problem from what I have seen. Many countries would be willing to invest in Gaza if there was a true prospect for a different path. It will take some leadership in Gaza though to get on that path.

Kushner is correctly blaming Hamas and Fatah - and the Arab countries have known this for years.

REPORTER: Saeb Erekat recently criticized your efforts to help Gaza saying it’s a political situation that you are trying to make a humanitarian issue in order to divide the Palestinians. Is this your intent?

KUSHNER: The last I checked they are divided, they are not connected by government or land and it’s needlessly become a dire humanitarian situation because the Palestinian leadership has made it a political situation. While it’s been on a downward spiral for a decade, long before this administration got involved, with multiple wars and a terrorist government, the political dysfunction, greatly exacerbated by the PA’s salary cuts, has made Gaza ungovernable.

It’s time for the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to stop using the people of Gaza as pawns. The narrative of victimhood may feel good for the moment and help you grab headlines but it doesn’t do anything to improve lives. President Trump cares a lot about the Palestinian people and so yes we are looking very closely at Gaza and have spent a lot of time with our partners and hope to put forth ideas to relieve some of the pressure and try to change the trajectory of the situation for the people. Finally we have said from the beginning that there is no path to peace without finding a solution for Gaza.

REPORTER: Do you see a world where the Israelis and Palestinians can coexist peacefully?

KUSHNER: I really hope so. A lot of people tell me that this can never happen because there is a lot of distrust and hatred that comes from years of conflict and people using politics to blame the hardships of life on others. There have been wars, conflicts, demonstrations, acts of terrorism and more. This is not exactly a solid foundation on which you can build coexistence and peace.

However, I am an optimist and I have met so many people and also have seen so many examples of Israelis and Palestinians reaching out to each other and trying to forge bonds to try and circumvent a failed political process. These people know their lives will only be improved by working out the issues and moving on. So yes, there is a lot of hatred and a lot of scar tissue, but I do not underestimate humankind’s ability to love. To be successful, we must be willing to forgive in the present, not forget the past, but work hard towards a brighter future.

REPORTER: You clearly are very focused on improving the economic circumstances of the Palestinian people — what about the traditional core issues?

KUSHNER: The traditional core issues are essential and we focus on them extensively with a strong appreciation of the historic differences between the two sides. We are committed to finding a package of solutions that both sides can live with. Simply resolving core issues without creating a pathway to a better life will not lead to a durable solution.

This is short on details, and this is the crux of the issue.

REPORTER: Finally, if you could deliver a message directly to the Palestinian people, what would it be?

KUSHNER: You deserve to have a bright future. Now is a time where both the Israelis and Palestinians must bolster and refocus their leadership, to encourage them to be open towards a solution and to not be afraid of trying. There have been countless mistakes and missed opportunities over the years, and you, the Palestinian people, have paid the price.

Show your leadership that you support efforts to achieve peace. Let them know your priorities and give them the courage to keep an open mind towards achieving them. Don’t let your leadership reject a plan they haven’t even seen. A lot has happened in the world since this conflict began decades ago. The world has moved forward while you have been left behind.

Don’t allow your grandfather’s conflict to determine your children’s future. My dream is for the Israeli and Palestinian people to be the closest of allies in combating terror, economic achievement, advancements in science and technology, and in sharing a lifestyle of brotherhood, peace and prosperity.

The backlash for this interview has already begun. It is difficult to know whether it means anything to the average Palestinian Arab. But there is a lot to like in this, and if the Arab nations - crucially, Jordan - are on board with this, the pressure on the Palestinian leadership could be immense.

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