Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, August 02, 2018

Fighting fire, under fire (Forest Rain)

“The arson terror kites and balloons come in the afternoon and the evening, sometimes in the middle of the night.”

That’s when the winds pick up, blowing from the sea, inland, carrying Hamas’s flying firebombs to the people of Israel.

Israeli firefighter Tal Goldstein stood in the sweltering heat, telling us about a more terrible heat (I had gone a special tour to see the impact of Hamas attacks on southern Israel): “It is our nightmare that a firebomb kite or balloon will land on the roof of a home in the middle of the night, when everyone is asleep. A family could be burned alive.”

Many who follow the news about Israel take note of missile bombardments that send Israelis racing to bomb shelters. How many truly understand the battle against arson terrorism?

Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization, openly states that their goal is the destruction of Israel.

They tried to attack Israel by land and failed.

They tried to attack Israel underground, spending millions meant to assist the people of Gaza, to build attack tunnels that would allow Hamas commandos to burst from the ground and surprise Israelis (some tunnels targeted civilians, others military installations). They failed at that too.

Plying their ingenuity to destruction, Hamas came up with an ingenious and diabolical solution – firebombs delivered by kites and balloons. Children’s toys perverted into weapons of war, to attack through the air. These weapons don’t need to be imported from Iran. They are cheap, easy to come by and to the international media, look innocent, even romantic.

Many media sources have published highly stylized photos of masked Gazans preparing kites. Who is taking note of the Israelis suffering from daily arson attacks?

https://www.facebook.com/tom.oren.denenberg/videos/10156790070427859/

There is no mention of Israeli farmers who have lost a year’s work, a year’s income in one fire.

There is no notice of the ecological disaster of torched nature reserves. The small animals, too slow or too young to run from the flames, burnt alive.

The larger animals, deer, jackals, wild pigs and even hyenas could escape the flames but have nowhere to return to – their food sources are gone, their hiding places are gone. Land rejuvenates after fires but that is when the fires are natural and singular. These are repeated fires and their damage has reached deep into the earth, burning the seed banks eliminating them as a possible source for regrowth.

Environmentalism is a popular interest but not, it seems, when it is the environment Israelis are forced to live in. Standard carbon emissions are nothing in comparison to being forced to breathe poisoned air day after day after day…

I experienced a single day of arson terrorism. The sky was full of smoke, the air in our home, although we had sealed all the doors and windows, was thick and difficult to breathe. The smoke permeated our clothes, the stench seemed embedded in our skin.

And that was just one day.

Can you imagine living in this reality day after, for months on end?! When you imagine that you will have the opportunity to begin to breathe freely again, you discover that while there is no fire in your community, there are fires raging in neighboring communities.

An air pollution expert spoke to us about the long-term effects of the fires. Unlike breathing in smoke from a bonfire or bbq where the effects are temporary, here people are breathing in microscopic particles that are so small they get embedded in the lungs and the body does not excrete them. These can have a carcinogenic effect, similar to breathing in asbestos particles. As we are still in the midst of the fires, with no end in sight, it is impossible to accurately foresee the impact this type of warfare will have on the health of the Israeli population.

What I do know now is that my friend who lives in Be’eri, near the Gaza border has reported that she is having difficulty breathing and has to use her asthma pump all the time – which she has not had to do in years. Needless to say, this kind of air quality can have immediate and possibly even deadly impact on asthmatics, the very young or the elderly.

Kite firebombs don’t sound like a real threat. Balloons sound even sillier (especially when the balloons are made from inflated condoms) but this is no game.

Kites have been found up to 40 kilometers from Gaza (24.8 miles!). Just a few days ago a balloon firebomb was found in Be’ersheba (approximately 40 kilometers from Gaza).

Brush fires occur in Israel but they are not prevalent as they are in places like Australia or California. Our homes are not made with wood, fires that do occur inside tend to be from problems in the electric wiring or with heaters in the winter. Now Israel’s firefighters are battling flames around the clock.

We laughed when, a few years ago, Israel’s firefighting service changed their name from the original Hebrew utilitarian descriptive name: “Fire Extinguishers” to the more evocative: “Fire Warriors”. Now there is no name that could be more appropriate.

Tal told us about his experiences battling flames. He belongs to the Ashkelon fire department, the biggest in the area. Most of the fires they have managed to extinguish within 15 minutes but a few they battled for three days. Thanks to the volunteers who have arrived from all over the country to assist, the firefighters have succeeded in containing most of the fires.

All firefighters risk themselves to protect others but Israel’s fire warriors have had to fight fire, under fire – with snipers shooting at them and sometimes mortar bombs falling. They have no choice but to hit the ground and cover their heads hoping the mortar bombs won’t kill them and then get up and continue to battle the flames.

Heroism doesn’t label itself heroic. There is nothing self-serving or glory-chasing in the true hero. Men (and some women), like Tal are quietly getting the job done, protecting the people, the land, our animals, trying to keep the air as clean as possible - doing the hard work because, if they don’t, who will?

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Abbas appoints his spokesman to be deputy prime minister and minister of propaganda

Mahmoud Abbas issued a presidential decree appointing Dr. Nabil Abu Rudeina as deputy prime minister and minister of information.

Rudeina has been the long time spokesman for the Palestinian presidency and a Fatah media and culture commissioner.

This sounds like a very sudden ascension of Abu Rudeina to be the heir apparent for the aging Abbas.

I don't think Saeb Erekat looks happy:

Abu Rudeina has regularly issued mafia-style threats against the world, saying that if Abbas doesn't get his way then there will be terror attacks worldwide. Recently he called any US moves to limit free aid to the PA as long as they give salaries to terrorists a "declaration of war."

This hyperbole will now be more official. Abbas knows that the propaganda war is more important nowadays than any military war and he has chosen to elevate the lies and myths of the Palestinians by promoting the master of lies and threats.

In a normal world, the obvious lies and exaggerations by Abu Rudeina would long ago have prompted the media to accurately portray Abu Rudeina as "Baghdad Bob." But there are rules, you see. Palestinians must be treated seriously no matter what they say and how many times they are proven to have lied.

For Palestinians, the bigger the liar, the bigger the reward.

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Real refugees

Ma'an reported earlier this week:

A new bill was introduced in the United States Congress this past week which several US senators are attempting to pass into law that recognizes only 40,000 Palestinian refugees instead of 5.3 million refugees.
The newly introduced bill would ensure that the contributed to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) would go towards the resettlement of Palestinians displaced by the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, and not their descendants – who are a total number of 5.3 million people.
The bill was initiated by Republican Congressman, Doug Lamborn, who entitled it as "The UNRWA Reform and Refugee Support Act."
Lamborn said in a statement that the "refugee status is not something that can be handed down from generation to generation," referring to the descendants of Palestinian refugees who were born and are living in other countries.

Responses from Palestinian leaders and Arab media have been predictable - and these reactions themselves show how untenable their position is that Palestinians remain refugees forever.

Middle East Monitor dismisses the proposal this way:

The secret American proposal says the US can continue to support the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) if it reduces the number of refugees it acknowledges from 5.3 million to only 40,000. This would mean the decedents [sic] of those violently evicted from their homeland in 1948 would not be eligible for aid in spite of continuing to live as refugees in a foreign country.

If that is the criterion for being a "refugee," then there are no refugees living in Gaza or the West Bank - since it is not a "foreign country" - nor are there too many in Jordan, since most of them are citizens.

Magically, this Arab definition just eliminated 4 million "refugees."

Saeb Erekat tries another argument:

Efforts by the US Congress to pass a new law that recognizes only 40,000 Palestinian refugees instead of 5.2 million will not change anything on the ground because the rights of refugees are guaranteed by United Nations General Assembly resolutions, particularly 194 and 302, experts and officials said on Monday.

Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said US efforts to draft a new law that recognizes only 40,000 Palestinian refugees instead of 5.2 million is unacceptable and illegal and will not affect the status quo.

Erekat stressed that the rights of refugees are protected by UN Resolution 194, which cannot be bypassed. He said neither the US Senate nor Congress has the right to override international law and impose their laws on other countries.

UN General Assembly Resolutions are not international law. And 194 does not guarantee descendants of Palestinians who fled in 1948 to be refugees anyway. There is no international law that gives Palestinians refugee rights denied to all other peoples. In fact, 194 refers to "refugees" on both sides - it does not single out Arabs - so therefore does Erekat consider the descendants of Jewish refugees who were expelled from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to have the right to return there are well, under international law?

Beyond that, 194 also calls for Bethlehem to be part of the "corpus separatum" of Jerusalem under international rule. Is that international law, too?

The PA Ministry of Information also says that treating Palestinians as refugees forever is international law, saying "attempts to manipulate the number of refugees from our people are a dangerous precedent in international relations, requiring the action of the General Assembly and organizations defending international law."

International law is clear on the definition of refugees. The 1951 Refugee Convention didn't give Palestinians a pass where their refugee status can be considered different from all others; it said that Palestinians who were getting support from UNRWA were excluded from being protected under the Convention as long as UNRWA exists.

Which is why UNRWA exists 67 years later.

But there is only one definition for refugee.

And indeed, the UNHCR lists five countries that are the source of the highest number of refugees - Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia - of which only Syria has created more refugees that UNRWA has. Yet it doesn't include "Palestine" on that list.

One gets the impression that UNHCR is almost embarrassed to be sometimes forced to include Palestinians in its count of refugees because it is dealing with people who are in real crisis, not people who live as citizens in their own lands or who have been excluded by law from becoming citizens in the countries in which they have been born, which other international conventions call for.

In short, there is no international law that singles out Palestinians to be treated differently from other people; that idea is anathema to international law. The claims that Palestinian "refugees" are refugees under international law are ludicrous.

But Palestinian leaders have no other arguments, so they have to lie.

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08/01 Links Pt2: Corbyn chaired antisemitic event comparing Israel to Nazi Germany in Parliament on Holocaust Memorial Day; Senior Muslim Brotherhood Official Touts Linda Sarsour’s Gaza Video

From Ian:

Jeremy Corbyn chaired antisemitic event comparing Israel to Nazi Germany in Parliament on Holocaust Memorial Day

An historian reviewing old reports has unearthed a 2010 account of Jeremy Corbyn using Holocaust Memorial Day to host an event promoting the narrative that Israel is engaged in acts comparable to Nazi war crimes. The event featured a slideshow decrying what it called the “Holocaust religion”.

The reports found by Dr James Vaughan, record that on 27th January 2010, on Holocaust Memorial Day, Jeremy Corbyn chaired and hosted an event in Parliament comparing Israeli actions in Gaza to the slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust. The event’s title, “Never again – for anyone”, appropriates the slogan “Never again”, which became the rallying cry of post-Holocaust Jewry.

Dr Vaughan, the Director or Undergraduate Studies at the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University, rediscovered a reference to the event whilst reading through an old CST report on antisemitic discourse following the 2009 Gaza War.

Investigating further he found a contemporaneous article from The JC and an account of the same presentation being given a day earlier, in which it was reported that one of the speakers said: “Judaism in Israel has been substituted by the Holocaust Religion whose high priest is Elie Wiesel, Elie Wiesel having literally said that ‘Auschwitz is comparable only to the Sinai experience’ [when Moses received the ten commandments]. Its content [Holocaust Religion] is that we Jews have the monopoly on suffering, nobody has suffered or ever will suffer like the Jews have, therefore whatever we do to the Palestinians is less than what we suffered, and can be done without feeling guilty.” The speaker also claimed that Zionists were dehumanising Palestinians in the same way as the Nazis dehumanised Jews, for example through the infamous Nuremberg laws. The talk was given by Hajo Meyer, an Auschwitz survivor who, in his latter years, turned to abusing the memory of the Holocaust in the way most offensive to Jews, by claiming that “Zionists” were the successors of the Nazis.

The International Definition of Antisemitism, which the Labour Party has refused to adopt, states that “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic. It is little wonder that under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, the Labour Party has tried to adopt its own version of the definition which does not prohibit comparing Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

CAA refers Labour Party to Equality Commission and issues new complaint against Jeremy Corbyn over “Holocaust religion” event and “hand of Israel” comments

Campaign Against Antisemitism has today written to the Labour Party issuing a disciplinary complaint against Jeremy Corbyn. We have also referred the Party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission over discrimination and victimisation in the Party.

Our complaint against Mr Corbyn relates to an event he chaired on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2010 which deliberately compared Israelis to Nazis, and in which a speaker decried what he called the “Holocaust religion”. We have also complained about Mr Corbyn’s paid interview on Iranian-controlled Press TV (months after Ofcom had revoked its licence) in which he blamed “the hand of Israel” for an Islamist terrorist attack in Egypt, and called a Hamas terrorist a “brother” live on air.

We have also referred the Labour Party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission over the Party’s refusal to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism, failure to investigate previous complaints against Mr Corbyn, unreasonable delay and secrecy in disciplinary investigations, bias in disciplinary matters and victimisation of Labour MPs who stand up to antisemitism, including Dame Margaret Hodge and Ian Austin who have today become Honorary Patrons of Campaign Against Antisemitism in an act of solidarity.

The moves come after Labour ignored a fresh protest by British Jews in Parliament Square, with Mr Corbyn’s office sarcastically wishing Campaign Against Antisemitism “good luck” ahead of the demonstration, and revelations that NEC member Peter Willsman will not face disciplinary action despite a shouted tirade against “Trump fanatic” Jews and “falsified” antisemitism allegations.

Corbyn sorry for ‘anxiety’ over event he hosted when Israel was likened to Nazis

Amid the ongoing UK Labour Party anti-Semitism controversy, party leader Jeremy Corbyn apologized Wednesday for “concerns and anxiety” caused by an event he hosted at the House of Commons in 2010 in which a Holocaust survivor compared Israel to the Nazis over its actions in the Gaza Strip.

“In the past, in pursuit of justice for the Palestinian people and peace in Israel/Palestine, I have on occasion appeared on platforms with people whose views I completely reject,” Corbyn said in a statement quoted by British media.

“The main speaker at this Holocaust Memorial Day meeting was a Jewish Auschwitz survivor,” he added. “Views were expressed at the meeting which I do not accept or condone.

“I apologize for the concerns and anxiety that this has caused.”

Corbyn was a relatively unknown Labour MP at the time of the talk, in which anti-Zionist Hajo Meyer also took aim at fellow Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel.

Corbyn’s hosting of the event was first reported by The Times, which said it was part of a UK speaking tour called “Never Again for Anyone — Auschwitz to Gaza.”

Meyer’s speech was reportedly titled “The Misuse of the Holocaust for Political Purposes.”

The language of occupation is an oft-wielded weapon against Israel. Those who use it have interests at odds with the existence of the Jewish State. They may refer to Israel as an “illegal occupier,” and the Jewish State’s presence in the Middle East as an “illegal occupation.” The IDF, Israel’s military, is variously known by the anti-Israel media as “occupying forces," the “military occupation,” and even Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Judea and Samaria, and sometimes all of Jerusalem, are referred to as “occupied territories.” We also see “OPT," shorthand for “Occupied Palestinian Territories,” in lists of countries we must choose from when filling out online forms or making purchases.

The purpose of this language is to negate the right of the Jewish State to exist on land that Arabs assert belongs to them. And since Arabs assert that all of Israel is on land that belongs to them, all of Israel is, according to this narrative, illegally occupied by the Jewish people, or put more simply, Israel is illegal, and therefore, has no right to exist. To date, there is no part of the current State of Israel in which Arabs would accept a Jewish state. Everywhere that Israel is, it is an occupier.

But the word “occupier” is more than just a vehicle for negation. There’s an unsavory quality to the word, suggesting that the entity in question is a usurper. Meaning: hey, that land belongs to someone else!

And of course, if Israel is an “occupier” and the land belongs to someone else, that makes Israel a thief. And the someone else must be Arabs.

The new media editor of the Times of Israel says that Ahed Tamimi's family lives under occupation. But the Tamimi Family lives in Nabi Saleh, which is governed by the Palestinian Authority.

Having painted Israel in this hideous light, the image of the Jewish State evolves into something shady and repellent. Using the language of occupation, in other words, serves not only to state your politics on the subject of Israel, it tells others that you have an actual dislike of Israel: that Israel disgusts you and is seen by you as morally corrupt, a thief that stole land that belongs to others—others with brown skin!

The language of occupation suggests, in fact, that you’ve made a moral choice regarding the State of Israel. That you believe Jews have no right to their ancient and indigenous territories, since some Arabs were born there in the 19^th or 20^th centuries. You believe this latter day history cancels out Jewish rights. And certainly it cancels out the bible, which is describing really old stuff, if any of it happened at all. Which you doubt.

Some people who use occupation language use it in an “ethical” sense. They aren’t talking about mandates and borders. They are talking about one people ruling over another people by force. They are saying that Arabs don’t wish to be ruled by Jews, therefore Arabs who live under Jewish rule are “occupied” and live under “occupation.” And here’s where it really gets nutty. Because the protests on the Gaza border are supposedly against Israeli “occupation.”

Except that Israel doesn’t rule Gaza. Hamas rules Gaza. Israel left Gaza, lock, stock and barrel, in 2005. The IDF is not in Gaza, therefore there are no “occupation forces” in Gaza. Hence, Gaza is not “occupied.” Not even a little bit.

What then are the people of Gaza, protesting? That our soldiers are on their border to prevent them from killing us? Is this the meaning of occupation? The United States has soldiers along its border with Canada. Does that mean that the United States is occupying Canada?

Is everything occupation? Or is it only occupation when it concerns the “thieving” Jews?

From a legal standpoint, of course, the entire subject of occupation remains murky. At the very least, clarification is in order. We know that when Jordan acquired Judea and Samaria and parts of Jerusalem in 1948, this was not considered a legal occupation by the nations of the world. Only the UK and Pakistan deemed Jordan’s occupation of these territories a legal one, representing a minority opinion. You’d think that if Jordan was the illegal occupier of Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem—a thief, and a usurper of another’s land—that would make the Jews the ones they stole from. Unless we’re missing something, here.

Which we’re not. Because the truth is that the Mandate for Palestine remains legally binding until today. And the Mandate for Palestine sets forth the right of the Jewish people to settle anywhere west of the Jordan River. Which is why Jordan was labeled an illegal occupier by the nations of the world.

And get this straight: it was never about 1967. Take it from Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the pack:

"Israel, since 1948, has persisted with its contempt for international legitimacy by violating United Nations General Assembly resolution 181 (II), the partition resolution, which called for the establishment of two states on the historic land of Palestine according to a specific partition plan. Israeli forces seized more land than that allotted to Israel, constituting a grave breach of Articles 39, 41 and 42 of the United Nations Charter.”

Do you see anything about 1967 borders, there? Nope. He’s talking about Partition. Which was just a recommendation. Which his people rejected.

Let’s face it: the Arabs made out big time after WWI when they divvied out the bits and pieces that make up the Middle East. There are 22 states where Arabic is the national language and Islam the national religion. Their culture holds sway all over the Middle East.

Not to mention the fact that the Arabs could have stayed right where they were in Israel as a privileged minority. Israel is a democracy. It would have been fine. But since they up and left, the 22 states comprising their brethren should have absorbed them and poof! No more refugee problem. It’s what we did with the Jews THEY threw out of their countries. It’s called: “population exchange.”

Look, they made a gambit for the Mandate. They lost. We won. Finished. Time to man up and be a graceful loser.

Implying that Jews are thieves, having taken land that belongs to others, or telling Jews that they cannot build homes within the territory that comprises the Mandate for Palestine, is ugly and antisemitic, as it flies in the face of unanimously accepted international law. Professor Eugene V. Rostow, an expert in international law who helped draft resolution 242, explained that having affirmed the Mandate with the right to Jewish settlement anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the world essentially negated any future Arab claims to the territory.

“Under international law, neither Jordan nor the Palestinian Arab ‘people’ of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have a substantial claim to the sovereign possession of the occupied territories. Jordan cannot base a claim to the territory on its military occupation and administration of the West Bank between 1948 and 1967, after the Arab war of aggression in 1948. Neither can it base a claim on its attempt to annex the territory in 1950. The annexation was not widely recognized and has been withdrawn. By protecting Arab "civil and religious rights," the mandate implicitly denies Arab claims to national political rights in the area in favor of the Jews; the mandated territory was in effect reserved to the Jewish people for their self-determination and political development, in acknowledgment of the historic connection of the Jewish people to the land. . . (emphasis added)

“There remains,” said Rostow, “simply the theory that the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have an inherent ‘natural law’ claim to the area. Neither customary international law nor the United Nations Charter acknowledges that every group of people claiming to be a nation has the right to a state of its own. International law rests on the altogether different principle of the sovereign equality of states. And nearly every state inherited from history contains more than one ethnic, religious, or cultural group: the French in Quebec, for example; the Basques in France and Spain; the Flemish in Belgium; the Kurds in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq; and so on.

“Therefore, it is a rule essential to international peace that claims of national self-determination be asserted only through peaceful means. The international use of force to vindicate such claims is and must be strictly forbidden by the United Nations Charter,” insisted Rostow, making the violent Gaza protests an obscene mockery, considering the people of Gaza were granted the right to self-determination, unilaterally, by Israel, in 2005.

The Lodge-Fish Resolution affirming the Jewish right to settlement in the Mandate for Palestine was passed unanimously and ratified many times over by bodies in the U.S. and U.K.

The late Howard Grief, an advisor to Israel on international law, suggested that Article 80 of the UN Charter, once known unofficially as the Jewish People’s clause, stipulates that the UN may not transfer any part of Palestine to any non-Jewish entity. That would include the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, for instance. Article 80, in fact, gives Jews the right to build settlements anywhere they wish from west of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Which makes one wonder about the legality of Israeli Jews being barred from “Area A,” which, after all, is west of the Jordan River. Who or what is an occupier? And who is right at home?

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Party With Undemocratic Leadership Really Concerned Nation-State Law Harms Democracy (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Tel Aviv, August 1 – A kingmaking faction in the Knesset whose parliamentary representation gets selected by it’s chairman’s fiat warned this week that last week’s passage of legislation affirming Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish People represents a threat to democracy.

Members of Yesh Atid, with its leader MK Yair Lapid, joined other Opposition figures in railing against the Nation-State Law, which among other provisions enshrines Hebrew as Israel’s official language and establishes the national anthem as the first stanza of a poem that invokes the millennia-old Jewish dream of returning to Zion and Jerusalem. The bill makes no change to voting rights or the political process and contains no discernible language abridging or compromising the rights of non-Jewish minorities in Israel, but Yesh Atid has joined Meretz, the Zionist Union, and Joint List of mostly Arab parties in condemning the law for rendering non-Jews “second-class citizens.” Yesh Atid, meanwhile, continues to conduct itself by the diktats of Mr. Lapid, a former television presenter and Minister of Finance under the previous Netanyahu government.

“We fear for Israeli democracy,” stated Lapid, who personally selected the eleven MKs now serving in the Knesset for Yesh Atid. “Only when all constituents enjoy an equal share in defining their way of life, their political aspirations, and their future can an entity call itself democratic. Israel has long prided itself on carrying the banner of democratic norms amid a sea of autocratic regimes in the region, but this new law tars us with the same brush as those who would disregard the constituency and impose the elite’s will instead.”

Lapid numbers among the few political figures who polling shows stands a chance to replace Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in elections. Such elections will take place no earlier than next year, but the various parties already have their eyes on the prize, with Lapid and other party chiefs attempting to portray themselves as worthy of leading the government. The celebrity-turned-politician aims to convince a larger percentage of the electorate to select him as the next democratically-elected prime minister, given his experience leading his own undemocratic party.

“The people want confident leadership, not wishy-washy fear-mongering,” asserted Lapid. “This Nation-State Law shows exactly what’s wrong with the current government. If you’re going to write off a fifth of the country’s citizens, better it be done by a leader who writes off large segments of the population all the time and never has to taint that with even feigned concern for what constituents think in real time.”

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08/01 Links Pt1: Was the peace process doomed to failure from the start?; Kontorovich: Not $1 of US funding for UN organizations which accept PA membership

From Ian:

Comment: Was the peace process doomed to failure from the start?

Finally, in terms of forging a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace, it can only be viewed as a pipe-dream considering the above-mentioned, less complicated issues—which, for that matter, are integral components of a potential wider deal—remain unsettled.

Notably, that the PA continues to boycott the US administration has conveniently been swept under the rug.

The present reality is a direct consequence of the mental stasis that has permeated Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking since the 2000 Camp David Summit blew up in the faces of then-US president Bill Clinton and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak—and then in Tel Aviv cafes and Jerusalem buses following Yassir Arafat's launch of the Second Intifada.

Ever since, no tangible progress has been made towards achieving anything resembling lasting peace; this, because the same failed ideas have been recycled time after time, as evidenced by present goings-on.

The faith-like devotion to repeating the same thing over and over again stems from a misguided confidence that the sides in 2000 were close to completing a deal, a fabrication that was categorically disproven eight years later when Abbas rejected then-Israeli leader Ehud Olmert's more generous offer.

Nevertheless, the near-sacrosanct mantra that "everyone knows what a solution to the conflict looks like" has become the de facto starting point for every fruitless negotiating process.

It should, by contrast, be clear that the basic assumptions that have driven the peace process backwards were never correct to begin with. Accordingly, there are two ways to proceed.

Either the current reality must be accepted and allowed to unfold, until such time that Israel, the PA or Hamas, or all three, takes decisive action to fundamentally alter the playing field. Or, a dramatically reconfigured diplomatic formula can be introduced into the mix, one in which existing variables are swapped out for new ones so that the Israeli-Palestinian equation may finally spit out a different result.

'Law: Not $1 of US funding for UN organizations which accept PA'

Professor Eugene Kontorovich spoke on Monday night at a conference hosted by Arutz Sheva and organized by Dr. Joseph Frager.

Dr. Kontorovich addressed the controversy surrounding the recently-passed Nationality Law and the balance of power between the Supreme Court and the other branches of government in Israel.

He called on the American government to enforce laws banning US government funding to international organizations which admit the 'State of Palestine' as a member.

"In 1994, Congress passed a law that says any UN-affiliated agency that accepts the PLO as a member is not eligible for US funding. This law - unlike many such laws - is non-waivable, is not optional, it is completely mandatory.

"In the last years of the Obama Administration, the Palestinians went ahead and they did join such a UN organization. And the Obama State Department came up with a fairly convoluted excuse to not cut off funding.

"Of course, that sets a very bad precedent. And since then, especially in the wake of the moving of the US embassy, the Palestinians have retaliated by joining three more US agencies, and the United States continues to fund [those agencies]. The law says not one dollar of taxpayer funding."

JCPA: Ahed Tamimi: What’s in a Name

Every person has a name given by his/her parents, and the very name that Ahed Tamimi’s parents gave her expresses the commitment to destroy Israel.

What is the meaning of this strange name, “Ahed”?

Ahed means “obligation, commitment.” It is part of the fundamental oath of terror organizations, and primarily Fatah. Anyone who joins the organization swears and pledges himself to the liberation of the whole of Palestine from the Israeli sword. This is called: al-Qassam and al-Ahed: the oath and the obligation. It is recited at a secret ceremony for each participant. After the signing of the Oslo accords, the leader of the PLO Yasser Arafat went to the grave of his deputy in Tunis, Abu Iyad (Salah Khalaf), and said that despite all of the agreements, he would remain obliged to al-Qasam and al-Ahed.

The release of Ahed Tamimi on July 30, 2018, created a wave of speculation over a renewed intifada. The spokesman for the Palestinian Authority hurried to crown her as an “icon” for the Palestinians’ “popular struggle.”

But Ahed Tamimi did not actually say a word about “popular struggle.” The opposite was the case – she praised the terrorists sitting in Israeli jails – those who chose the “armed struggle” – and used the term “muqawama.”

These are not the only problems facing Ahed Tamimi in her glory days: her image is in contradiction to the image of the traditional woman that the relatively conservative society in the West Bank expects. This young woman with wild blonde hair challenges the image of the modest woman covered in a hijab. In one West Bank village, I saw this graffiti on a wall: “Your beauty is in your hijab. (Jamalek behijabek)”. Ahed’s images painted on walls could be seen as a provocation against the traditional values that Palestinian society follows.

If you need more proof that the entire purpose of a Palestinian state is to attack Israel and not to actually build a state, here are all the statements that came out of this week's Palestinian Cabinet meeting.

Not too much about anything internal - practically everything about Israel (and getting more money.)

During its weekly meeting held in Ramallah, today [Tuesday], the Palestinian Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Dr. Rami Al- Hamdallah, condemned the latest Israeli escalation against Al-Aqsa Mosque, and considered it part of the plans of the occupying power to Judaize Jerusalem, alter its historical features, and obliterate its Arab and Palestinian identity. This escalation coincides with the latest settlement and forced displacement plans against Khan al-Ahmar and other areas of the West Bank, the repeated threats of aggression against the Gaza Strip, and the adoption of the racist Jewish Nation-State Law.

In this regard, the Cabinet called upon the international community, Arab and Islamic states to intervene to stop the Israeli escalation against the Palestinian citizens, to provide international protection for the Palestinian people and their holy sites, and to end the Israeli occupation and its measures that violate all international laws, treaties, and conventions.

The Cabinet also denounced the recent Israeli announcement by the Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman, which approves establishing new 400 settlement units, aiming at expanding “Geva Binyamin, Adam” settlement, southeast Ramallah, in a step backed up by the American Trump Administration. In addition to that, the Cabinet criticized the decision of the Israeli government to approve the construction of 270 settlement units in the so-called “Neve Daniel” settlement, near Bethlehem.

The Cabinet considered such plans a blatant challenge to the international community, and a clear attack against the Palestinian land and rights, in a manner which prevents the possibility of establishing an independent, sovereign State of Palestine based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. This requires a firm stance, by the international community, to compel Israel to cease its illegal settlement activities in the Palestinian territory, foremost of which is the occupied city of Jerusalem.

Moreover, the Cabinet deplored the recent Israeli incitement campaign, led by Israeli right-wing and settler organizations, against Palestinian civil society institutions, which affected the image of Palestinian NGOs before the international community through linking such national institutions with terrorism.

The Cabinet stressed the importance of the role played by such institutions and its integration with the efforts of different ministries and government bodies. Of this, the Cabinet noted that civil society institutions work in accordance with the Palestinian Basic Law and all relevant international laws, and are a major advantage and form of support for the Government in meeting the needs of its citizens, especially in the so-called “Area C”.

The Cabinet called upon world countries to stand with Palestinian civil institutions against Israeli right wing and settler organizations that call for seizing more Palestinian land, destroying homes and facilities and attacking citizens’ capabilities, which violate all international and humanitarian laws.

In another context, the Cabinet hailed the United Nations Economic and Social Council for adopting a law regarding “the social and economic consequences of the Israeli occupation” in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. This law condemns the devastating effects that the Israeli occupation leaves on both the Palestinian economy and society, and the arbitrary policies aimed at destroying the Palestinian economy.

Thus, PNN reports, the Cabinet expressed its gratitude to the Group of 77, and China, for meeting their legal and moral obligations through voting in favor of the resolution.

Furthermore, the Cabinet commended the UN Human Rights Council for appointing three experts to the Commission of Inquiry into Israeli violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, upon the Council’s decision, at its special session held last May, to establish an independent international commission investigating Israeli violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Above all, the Cabinet expressed its deep concerns over the financial crisis and severe budget deficit facing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The cut-offs in the $100 million US contributions to the UN emergency program, may lead to catastrophic consequences on more than one million Palestinian refugees receiving food, education and health assistance from the UNRWA.

Therefore, the Cabinet is appealing to the international community and donor countries to provide financial support to the UNRWA, to ensure that it continues to provide services to Palestinian refugees until achieving a just solution for their cause.

Furthermore, the Cabinet showed its gratitude to the World Bank for providing a $90 million grant to the Palestinian people, aimed at empowering the private sector, as well as financing infrastructure projects. Similarly, the Cabinet highly praised the Canadian financial support of $37 million to increase economic opportunities and prosperity for Palestinians, especially women and young people, through supporting economic empowerment programs, entrepreneurship and employment opportunities.

Also, the Cabinet congratulated Ahed Tamimi and her mother, on their release from Israeli prisons and held the Israeli Government fully responsible for the safety and life of Palestinian prisoners and for the racist violations, it commits against them. Consequently, the Cabinet renewed its calls upon the international community to shoulder its responsibilities to protect Palestinian prisoners in defense of international resolutions and UN conventions, to save their lives, maintain their basic rights, and meet their demands.

The Cabinet, thereupon, stressed the importance of the efforts exerted by the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, along with the Palestinian Government to stop the inhumane measures practiced against Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli prisons. These efforts also attempt to compel Israel to respect all international and humanitarian laws in treating Palestinian prisoners, until they are released unconditionally from Israeli prisons and detention centers.

Finally, the Cabinet approved the recommendations of the Minister of Local Government to hold elections for nineteen local communities that lost their legal status as a result of the resignation of the majority of their members on Saturday, 22/09/2018.

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Mondoweiss takes money from and promotes writings of someone who says "Jews pray to Satan"

Ron Unz is a former businessman, failed politician and now publisher of an anti-Israel website, The Unz review.

His latest article shows that he is also an unabashed antisemite.

This 7800 word article includes the most absurd lies about Jews and Judaism, mostly taken from the writings of antisemite Israel Shahak.

Unz claims that "The enslavement or extermination of all non-Jews seems an ultimate implied goal of the religion."

He writes that under Jewish law, "Jewish lives have infinite value, and non-Jewish ones none at all."

Unz goes on: "religious Jews apparently pray to Satan almost as readily as they pray to God, and depending upon the various rabbinical schools, the particular rituals and sacrifices they practice may be aimed at enlisting the support of the one or the other."

And: "Indeed, many deeply religious Jews utter a prayer each and every day for the immediate extermination of all Christians."

And for good measure: "It appears that a considerable number of Ashkenazi Jews traditionally regarded Christian blood as having powerful magical properties and considered it a very valuable component of certain important ritual observances at particular religious holidays. "

Of course the Jews hide all of this from Gentiles: "If the Gentile population became aware of these Jewish religious beliefs and the behaviors they promote, major problems for Jews might develop, so an elaborate methodology of subterfuge, concealment, and dissimulation has come into being over the many centuries to minimize this possibility, especially including the mistranslation of sacred texts or the complete exclusion of crucial sections."

Even more: "Naziism could best be described as 'Judaism for Wimps' or perhaps Judaism as practiced by Mother Teresa of Calcutta."

Every one of these is a blatant antisemitic lie.

Unz, unsurprisingly, also is quoted approvingly by and donates to a number of anti-Israel personalities and organizations. Here are the recipients of his money in 2012, including Mondoweiss and Norman Finkelstein:

Unz has paid anti-Israel site Mondoweiss at least $80,000 over the years.

Mondoweiss has returned the favor by linking to Unz' writings on a number of occasions.

The ADL in 2014 said that "Though Unz does not appear to be an anti-Semite, he provides support to extreme anti-Israel ideologues and his writings resonate with and are regularly cited by anti-Semites."

This evaluation must be changed, and Unz' crazed hate for Jews and Judaism must be exposed.

(h/t Petra)

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Amman University has offered a full scholarship to Ahed Tamimi, recently released from Israeli prison for attacking a soldier.

The invitation was offered by the head of the university's directors, Dr. Maher Hourani, on Tuesday, to attend their law school.

Tamimi had said that she wanted to study the law so that she could prosecute the Israeli occupation before international courts.

According to Jordanian media, Hourani said that the university also decided to offer free housing to "Shirley Temper."

Jordan already hosts and protects Ahed's cousin, the terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, who was responsible for the Sbarro pizza massacre and who the rest of the Tamimi family openly admires and supports while they tell gullible Western media that they support only non-violence.

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07/31 Links Pt2: Carter Blocked Begin’s Citizenship Offer to Palestinians; Indy promotes Noam Chomsky’s charge on “Israeli intervention in US elections”; WikiLeaks made antisemitic remarks in private chats

From Ian:

Carter Administration Blocked Begin’s Citizenship Offer to Palestinians

Commemorating nearly 40 years since United States President Jimmy Carter initiated the negotiations that led to Israel’s surrender of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, the Center for Israel Education is incrementally releasing sensitive memoranda from the Carter administration archives detailing conversations during those negotiations.

The fourth memo in a 10-part series highlighting the Carter administration’s involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict unveiled a March 1978 meeting in Washington between Carter’s team and an Israeli delegation led by Prime Minister Menaḥem Begin.

The conversation from that meeting shows an American administration intent on forcing Israel to relinquish not only Sinai, but also most of the West Bank, Gaza region and the Golan Heights.

In response to the American pressure, Begin expressed his willingness to offer Palestinians the option of full Israeli citizenship with equal rights but would leave the choice in the hands of individual Palestinians themselves.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s national security adviser, rejected Begin’s offer of citizenship for Palestinians on the grounds that Israel would then retain control over the West Bank, revealing that from the perspective of American interests, an Israeli withdrawal was more important than addressing the actual needs of Palestinians.

Indy promotes Noam Chomsky’s charge on “Israeli intervention in US elections”

The Independent legitimised the warped political views of linguist Noam Chomsky today, in a column by their US editor, Andrew Buncombe. The article, titled “Israeli intervention in US elections ‘vastly overwhelms’ anything Russia has done, claims Noam Chomsky”, highlighted a charge made by the American academic in an interview with the fringe radical left show ‘Democracy Now’.

Here’s the Chomsky quote highlighted by the Indy journalist:

“Israeli intervention in US elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done, I mean, even to the point where the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, goes directly to Congress, without even informing the president, and speaks to Congress, with overwhelming applause, to try to undermine the president’s policies – what happened with Obama and Netanyahu in 2015.”

Buncombe then contextualises Chomsky’s views by uncritically citing the (widely discredited) views of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt:

The power of the pro-Israel lobby has long been one of the contentious, and disputed, issues in Washington. In 2007, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, published The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, which described the lobby as “loose coalition of individuals and organisations who actively work to steer US foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction”.

A self-declared leftist wages war on the Palestinian ‘right of return’

Former Labor MK Einat Wilf believes the Palestinians are not ready for peace. They are, in fact, miles away from accepting the idea of dividing the land and are still hoping Israel will soon disappear, she asserts in a new book.

And yet, she insists she’s a leftist.

But the peace camp must sober up, she says, and start realizing that peace will not come as long as the Palestinians cling to their demand to “return” to areas now belonging to Israel.

“If you truly want peace, rather than just feel good about wanting peace — and there are a lot of those — and if you actually understand that at the end of the day they [the Palestinians] are the ones with whom we have to live and share the country, you need to be realistic about where they’re coming from,” she told The Times of Israel during a recent interview in a Jerusalem cafe.

“The War of Return,” which she co-authored with former Haaretz journalist Adi Schwartz, provides an in-depth analysis of the Palestinian refugee problem. It notes that immediately after the 1948 War of Independence, Arab leaders were opposed to the return of those who had left their homes in what had become the State of Israel, as this was considered a tacit recognition of Israeli sovereignty.

But a short while later, Arab leaders changed their strategy and demanded that the “refugees” return to their old homes, Wilf and Schwartz write, citing countless historical documents to prove their point.

Yesterday I visited a young widow grieving the death of her husband, murdered last week by a Palestinian terrorist. I was heartbroken by her tears and those of her in-laws who had lost their only son. Today, the PA Foreign Ministry condemned my visit. Nothing more to say.
— David M. Friedman (@USAmbIsrael) July 31, 2018

The latest "massacre" in Gaza is done by - UNRWA?

From Al Jazeera:

Currently, the blockaded strip suffers from a 44 percent unemployment rate. Last Wednesday, the agency fired a further 113 employees, all because of the United States' 80 percent budget cut.

Furthermore, UNRWA announced the contracts of 1,000 of its employees in the Gaza Strip - Abu Hashim among them - will not have their contracts renewed. This includes the termination of the mental health programme, which employs 430 people.

"This is a massacre against the employees," Amal al-Batsh, deputy chairman of the UNRWA'S staff union, told Al Jazeera. "The solution to the crisis should not be at the expense of the staff providing services to the tens of thousands of refugees in the Gaza Strip."

Palestinian are very accustomed to using hyperbole in order to whip people up into a frenzy as well as to cow Westerners into doing their will (because normal people wouldn't talk that way unless there was really a huge catastrophe looming.)

A thousand people losing their jobs is something that happens every day all over the world. UNRWA's model of an ever-increasing budget for an ever-increasing population was known for decades not to be sustainable, yet no one wanted to change it as long as the money was flowing. This sort of thing was going to happen, inevitably.

It is not a tragedy. It is not a "massacre." It is the result of a deliberate policy of perpetuating a problem.

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Netflix giving racist, antisemitic Farrakhan a platform

From Twitter:

On August 1st, watch the premiere of my music documentary “My Life’s Journey Through Music” on @netflix.https://t.co/gxZwHNPhkI #LetsChangeTheWorld pic.twitter.com/t7UHZvDsQE
— MINISTER FARRAKHAN (@LouisFarrakhan) July 31, 2018

This is pretty outrageous. I cannot imagine Netflix giving a platform to Richard Spencer - why do they give one to Farrakhan?

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07/31 Links Pt1: Syrian activists: 'Ahed Tamimi lucky not to be imprisoned by Assad'; IDF Message to Gaza: Hamas Sends You Every Week to Die on the Fence

From Ian:

More horror than heroism: Ahed Tamimi

My sweet-natured daughter Malki, brimming with empathy and generosity toward others, always with a smile on her face, was 15 when she was murdered in the Sbarro pizzeria massacre 17 years ago this week.

The experience of losing her, of trying to re-balance my life and my family’s and of trying to make sense of the reactions of other people, has shaped much of what I believe about terrorism.

We know who plotted the Sbarro barbarism. It was not Ahed Tamimi. But when her clan, the Tamimis of Nabi Saleh, get together to celebrate it, as we know they do, she is an enthusiastic participant.

In a village where almost everyone is related by blood and (yes, and) marriage, Ahed is a cousin of one of the attack’s perpetrators, Ahlam Tamimi, in multiple ways. Ahlam now lives free in Jordan. She boasts that she chose the site for the explosion, seeking to kill as many Jewish children as possible, and that she planted the human bomb. Via social media, public speeches and (for five years) her own TV program, she urges others to follow her lead.

When Ahlam married Nizar Tamimi – also a murderer from the village – a few months after both walked free in the Gilad Shalit prisoner-exchange deal, Ahed was there to dance and gaze adoringly at the bride.

But neither her gaze nor her ideas are the problem – it’s what others do with them.

Ahed’s parents make a living from propagandizing against Israel. They fashioned and groomed Ahed, leveraging her blondness, pushing her into staged conflicts with Israeli soldiers from when she was 10, deliberately putting her at real risk on a weekly basis for years – long before she had the ability to discern what was being done to her.

Syrian activists: 'Ahed Tamimi lucky not to be imprisoned by Assad'

“Israel released Ahed Tamimi full of health and without a scratch,” wrote Syrian activist and photographer Yasser Wardh, contrasting her leaving prison “while thousands of Palestinians are killed in prisons of the Assad regime.”

Nedal al-Amari, a journalist from Deraa, also contrasted the brutality of the Syrian regime with Tamimi’s treatment. “The difference between Israel and Bashar al-Assad. Ahed Tamimi lucky girl because it was in Israel’s prisons, not Assad’s prisons.”

Dozens of similar tweets in Arabic mentioned her alleged “9 kilos” weight gain. “She was not tortured. She was not raped. Her weight increased by nearly 9 kilos. Her hair and face are more beautiful,” wrote Mahdi Majeed.

Iman Kais, who has 100,000 followers on Twitter, also contrasted Tamimi’s experience with Arab prisons. “She says she learned to love life, whereas those imprisoned in our Arab countries can reach a stage where they wish their mother didn’t give birth to them.”

Many tweeted photos of Tamimi next to a dead Syrian woman, trying to draw attention to the difference. “If people in Deraa and the south were detained by the Zionist occupation and they come out 9 kilos more, instead of arrested by the Assad occupation every day a list of the souls of the martyrs, more than 3,000 now,” one wrote. This was a reference to the thousands of names of those murdered in Assad’s prisons. The regime has recently released lists of those who have disappeared or been killed in the last seven years, many of whom died in prison.

Ahed Tamimi to be honored by Nelson Mandela’s grandson

Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela will invite Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi to South Africa to receive a special reward “for bravery, resistance and being a symbol of hope for millions.”

Tamimi, who was jailed for eight months after being videoed provoking and slapping an IDF soldier last year, was released on Sunday.

According to several South African media outlets and the Afro-Palestine Newswire Service, Mandla made the comments during a celebration to commemorate his late grandfather’s 100th birthday. He reportedly promised Tamimi that he will “continue to support and rally others to join in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] campaign to isolate Apartheid Israel until Palestine is free.”

Mandla then saluted Tamimi as “a symbol of Palestinian resistance.”

Many of South Africa’s leaders, including the country’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, have been vocal about the incarceration of Tamimi.

Earlier this year, Ramaphosa, during a response to questions following his state of the nation address, called for the speedy release of Tamimi.

“At this moment, we wish to express our deepest concern about the continued imprisonment of Palestinian children in Israeli jails,” he said in reference to Tamimi. The comment received thunderous applause in the country’s parliament.

Netanyahu vs Trump on Social Media - No Contest (Daled Amos)

There was a time when Social Media was considered a boon to organizing mass protests. This culminated in the Arab Spring in general and in Egypt in particular with the protests in Tahrir Square in 2011.

Protests in Tahrir Square in 2011. Credit: Mona Sosh

Wael Ghonim, a Google employee at the time, was one of the administrators of the Facebook page, "We are all Khaled Saeed", which was credited with helping to spark the revolution in Egypt that eventually led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak. Back then, Time magazine included him in its "Time 100" list of 100 most influential people of 2011, and the World Economic Forum selected him as one of the Young Global Leaders in 2012.

In the end, though, it turned out that the Muslim Brotherhood was equally adept at using social media to organize its followers -- Facebook and Twitter were not necessarily the powerful tools of revolution people thought they were.

But maybe it depends on how those tools are used and for what purpose.

President Trump, for instance, has been very successful with Twitter -- if his goal is to get a lot of attention, stir things up and annoy his enemies.

His use of Twitter actually became a legal issue when he tried to do what everyone else does on Twitter: block people from his account. A judge ruled that Trump could not block users from his account just because he did not agree with them because the president's account qualified as a public forum and blocking them infringed on their First Amendment rights.

Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei also enjoys using Twitter, and uses it to poke his enemies as well:

After negotiations, in Zionist regime they said they had no more concern about Iran for next 25 years; I�d say: pic.twitter.com/dBA7oAbFPX
� Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 9, 2015

Khamenei's tweets also garner media attention but don't make the same kind of splash. He can make veiled, and some not so veiled, threats against Israel without eliciting much of a response from the Twittersphere. In an article in The Hill about Khamenei's tweets, Trolling becomes new trend in international diplomacy the article considered this to be nothing more than "Iran's supreme leader tweeted criticism of Israel."

Twitter is actually very popular in the Middle East:

Twitter is an increasingly favored form of official communication in the Middle East. A 2018 study conducted by the public relations company Burson Cohn & Wolfe ranked King Salman of Saudi Arabia as the most influential global political figure on Twitter�although he uses the service infrequently, each of his posts over the past year was retweeted more than 150,000 times on average. King Abdullah of Jordan has also made Twitter a key communication method, ranking fourteenth among global leaders in the same metric. And the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are the second and third most-followed foreign ministers in the world.

Though the article makes no mention of either Israel nor Netanyahu, the Prime Minister does appear in a chart embedded in the article:

Netanyahu is nowhere near being the leader in the number of followers among leaders in the Middle East, but he may be one of the most creative. Recently, he has been active in trying to reach out to the Iranian people.

And some of the Iranian people have reached back.

As an iranian citizen I never saw a palestinian express friendship to iranian people but israelian citizens have sent messages several times about love
Israelian people believe that the true people of iran have no hostility to you??#WeStandWithIsrael pic.twitter.com/h0YEWUikTo
� ???? ??? (@dadaj_kayko) June 8, 2018

Netanyahu has not limited himself to Twitter and so far has 24 "Direct Addresses" on YouTube, a number of which address the Iranian people directly.

Some of the videos are merely friendly while pointing out the problems suffered by the Iranian people under the regime.

Others offer help and advice on dealing with the current problems and scarcities in Iran.

Journalist Eli Lake is not impressed with this "YouTube Diplomacy". He sees Netanyahu's approach not so much as an attempt to bypass the Iran regime in an attempt to address the Iranian people directly, but rather as "geopolitical trolling."

All this gets to the contradiction underlying Netanyahu�s public diplomacy, and for that matter U.S. policy as well. On the one hand, the message is correct. Israel, America and Iran�s people share a common foe: the mullahs. On the other hand, the U.S.�s current strategy is to cut off Iran�s chief export, oil. This strategy will no doubt hinder Iran�s efforts to spread terror in the Middle East, but in the process millions of Iranians will also suffer.

Instead, Lake advocates targeting individuals and institution, though it's not completely clear how targeting Iranian institutions would not still adversely affect the Iranian people.

However you want to see Netanyahu's Iran campaign on social media, it does fit in with his general policy -- and success -- addressing other countries and reinforcing, as well as creating, allies. That is no small feat for a country isolated within the UN. Obviously, all of this helps Netanyahu at home as well and helps him to continue his political future. And Netanyahu does this with a level of subtlety and with a degree of professionalism lacking in Trump's rants on Twitter.

The Israel Prime Minister is not the only one using social media.

In response to another of Khamenei's tweets threatening Israel, the Israeli Embassy responded with a tweet of their own.

pic.twitter.com/1dRRE7Nv1s
� Embassy of Israel (@IsraelinUSA) June 4, 2018

The Embassy's tweet went viral:

If the Israeli-Iran war will be fought via Twitter likes, Jerusalem is the clear winner � the embassy�s tweet had close to 18,000 likes by Tuesday compared to just under 4,000 for Khamenei.

In addition to the tweet itself, screenshots of the interaction between the two accounts also garnered thousands of likes. Yashar Ali, a writer for New York Magazine and The Huffington Post website with more than 270,000 followers, tweeted a screenshot with just the word �OMG� � and received 10,000 likes.

The article concludes with a comment from a representative of the Foreign Ministry, saying that the tweet was a "nice idea" but as the article put it, would not say whether it represented 'a new Israeli approach to digital diplomacy'.

It certainly is in line with Netanyahu's use of social media - and represents a use of it beyond what was imagined during the Arab Spring.

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