Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, January 10, 2019

01/10 Links Pt1: Send the Hebron observer force home; Why the UN Is Awful: Part Eleventy Billion; Is the key to Middle East peace Ted Cruz's beard?

From Ian:

Prof. Eugene Kontorovich: Send the Hebron observer force home

The Temporary International Presence in Hebron is Israel's perpetual own-goal. The special task force oversees Jewish areas of Hebron and – beyond its members' diplomatic passports – is similar in its activities to left-wing rights groups such as the B'Tselem and Breaking the Silence. At the end of the month, Israel will have an opportunity to send TIPH home.

Israel has more observers than any other country, from the U.N. presence in Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood to the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force on the Golan Heights. But the TIPH is an entirely different animal. It isn't operated by the U.N. yet it is still an international force in Hebron. And unlike other such forces, which only the U.N. can abolish, it maintains an ongoing presence in Hebron because Israel says it can.

Israel was pressured to accept TIPH's presence after Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians at the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994. The organization received its current mandate as part of a 1997 agreement stipulating that its validity must be renewed every three months – hence its "temporary" status. For 20 years now Israel has renewed the hostile organization's mandate to operate in Hebron. Otherwise, its presence would have ended long ago. It is now one of the oldest observer forces in the world, and it contributes to Israel's image as an outlaw state that demands special observation.

The anti-Israel bias of TIPH is built into its mandate, which tasked organization members with the one-sided mission of "promoting by their presence a feeling of security" for Palestinians in Hebron. Protecting Jews from constant terrorist attacks is not part of their job description. Members of the organization even "succeeded" in veering from this narrow definition by attacking Jews in Hebron in the last year. The attackers were later pulled out of the country by the TIPH leadership without ever having to stand trial. TIPH has cooperated with radical groups like Breaking the Silence and leaked confidential reports to the press. The organization's reports are full of anti-Israel claims that have no connection to its stated task. According to media reports, TIPH asserts that Jews have no right to any presence anywhere in Hebron.

Jonah Goldberg: Why the UN Is Awful: Part Eleventy Billion

Via the inestimable Hillel Neuer, I learned that the UN elected Yemen to the vice-presidency of the organization that promotes gender equity.

No joke: @UN_Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, just elected 🇾🇪 #Yemen — ranked as the worst country in the world on gender inequality (149th out of 149) — to be Vice-President of its Executive Board. pic.twitter.com/sW3x9KofSt
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) January 9, 2019

You should read his whole tweet-storm. Yemen is not a woman-friendly place.

But this is yet another example of how the worst actors flock to the organizations charged with “fixing” various problems. Human-rights abusers race like moths to a flame to sit on human-rights bodies, precisely because that is the best way to protect themselves from international condemnation and, all too often, focus international fury on Israel. Also via Hillel:

Why dictators actually LOVE the UN Human Rights Council.

UNHRC Condemnations, 2006-2016:
🇮🇱 Israel - 68
🇩🇿 Algeria - 0
🇨🇳 China - 0
🇮🇶 Iraq - 0
🇵🇰 Pakistan - 0
🇶🇦 Qatar - 0
🇷🇺 Russia - 0
🇸🇴 Somalia - 0
🇹🇷 Turkey - 0
🇻🇪 Venezuela - 0
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe - 0
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 12, 2018

NGO Monitor: Palestinian NGO Inadvertently Exonerates IDF

A Palestinian non-governmental organization (NGO), Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), has, in two documents, compiled information demonstrating Palestinian violence along the Gaza border during the “Great March of Return.” Despite DCI-P’s claims that the march is a series of “protests” led by “civilians,” the actual evidence provided in their documentation proves otherwise.

For example, in its December 31, 2018 “Year in Review” report, DCI-P states that “protestors’ activities have involved…burning tires, efforts to pass through the perimeter fence on foot or the Israeli-enforced ‘no go zones’ at sea on fishing boats, launching incendiary balloons across the perimeter fence, and throwing stones, molotov cocktails, firebombs or other objects toward the perimeter fence” (emphasis added). Individuals committing these acts of violence are combatants, or civilians directly participating in hostilities.

DCI-P labels other undoubtedly military acts as civilian, claiming that “some civilians have developed other protest strategies such as the ‘night confusion unit’ whose goal is to create distractions for Israeli forces late at night with loud sounds and fireworks. Another group has self-organized to construct large kites with flaming tales to be flown across the perimeter fence in order to start fires in Israeli agricultural fields and forests” (emphasis added).

In the second publication, “Two children died from Palestinian armed group activities,” DCI-P simultaneously claims that children participating in the violence along the Gaza border were both “recruited and used” as child soldiers and killed as civilians. For instance, DCI-P states that “a 15-year-old boy killed by Israeli forces on May 14, was a member of Islamic Jihad’s youth ‘Scouts’ program, known as Al-Faris” adding that “According to eyewitness testimony, Ahmad was throwing two tires toward the remnants of burning tires…he was unarmed and dressed in civilian clothing” (emphasis added).

DCI-P also explains that a 16-year old was “shot him while he was attempting to set fire to a tire near the perimeter fence…while wearing civilian clothing and unarmed”.

"Jewish Voice for Peace" admits it supports terrorism

A fun day on Twitter on Wednesday with the "Jewish Voice for Peace," which tweeted this:

When people started asking them why they were highlighting a poster showing a Palestinian woman with a rifle and ammunition, and how that jives with "peace," they gave a consistent answer:

And when one of their fans noted that this is not a good look for them ans they should edit out the guns and bullets, they doubled down, saying it is crucial that people understand that Palestinians are allowed to kill Jews, they claim, under international law.

Then, as more and more people piled on about their hypocrisy, they silently deleted every tweet that said that terror is allowed under international law.

Not that they deny it. But they saw that it made them look very bad.

In 1978, when the poster was made, no one even made a pretense that Palestinian violence was "defense." But even now, what defense do they do - digging tunnels to kidnap Israelis, shooting rockets at civilians, floating explosive balloons and kites to start wildfires in Israel, car ramming and stabbing attacks - how are any of those the least bit "defensive?"

Palestinian militarism has been synonymous with terror, and JVP proved in this thread that they support Palestinian terror.

"Jewish Voice for Peace?" Ha!

(h/t kweansmom)

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A children's geography book published for over 10 years in Morocco has caused an uproar over social media recently, because it shows Israel and not "Palestine" - and it shows the Dome of the Rock as being in Israel's capital, Jerusalem.

According to the story, the book "L'atlas du monde" or "Atlas of the World" was printed by a Casablanca-based publishing house.

"Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, a holy city to the Jews,"it says in French. "Israel is a state founded by the Jews in 1948" and that "it is inhabited by Arab Palestinians and Israeli Jews."

According to Moroccan websites, the current edition of the book in the Moroccan markets was issued in 2016, and earlier editions have been published there since 2007.

I found versions of this book being published in Serbia and Poland as well as France, so it is clearly very popular.

It is surprising that it took Moroccans so long to notice this!

(h/t Ibn Boutros and Yoel)

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01/09 Links Pt2: Yes, Anti-Zionism Is The Same As Anti-Semitism; BDS Bill Debate Is about Anti-Semitism, Not Speech; For Jews, 'Never Again' is right now

From Ian:

Yes, Anti-Zionism Is The Same As Anti-Semitism

In a recent New York Times op-ed titled “Anti-Zionism isn’t the same as Anti-Semitism,” columnist Michelle Goldberg defended Ilhan Omar, a newly elected House representative who has claimed that Jews have hypnotized the world for their evil works. A person can oppose “Jewish ethno-nationalism without being a bigot,” Goldberg explained. “Indeed,” she went on, “it’s increasingly absurd to treat the Israeli state as a stand-in for Jews writ large, given the way the current Israeli government has aligned itself with far-right European movements that have anti-Semitic roots.”

It’s true, of course, that anti-Zionism isn’t “the same” as common anti-Semitism. Anti-Zionism is the most significant and consequential form of anti-Semitism that exists in the world today. Anti-Zionism has done more to undermine Jewish safety than all the ugly tweets, dog whistles, and white nationalist marches combined. It is the predominant justification for violence, murder, and hatred against Jews in Europe and the Middle East. And it’s now infiltrating American politics.

What was once festering on the progressive fringes has found its way into elected offices and the heart of the liberal activist movement. As Democrats increasingly turn on Israel, Jewish liberals, many of whom have already purposely muddled Jewish values with progressive ones, are attempting to untether Israel from its central role in Jewish culture and faith for political expediency.

Now, of course, merely being critical of the Israeli government isn’t anti-Semitic. No serious person has ever argued otherwise. I’ve never heard any Israeli official or AIPAC spokesman ever claim that Israel is a “stand-in for Jews writ large,” nor have I ever heard an Israeli prime minister profess to speak for all Jews. (We have the ADL for that.) Israel has featured both left-wing and right-wing governments, and like governments in any liberal democracy, its leaders can be corrupt, misguided, or incompetent. Israelis criticize their governments every day.

However, opposing “Zionism” itself — the movement for a Jewish homeland — is to deny the validity of a Jewish claim to a nation altogether. It puts you in league with Hamas and Hezbollah and the mullahs of Iran. The Palestinian Liberation Organization’s 1968 charter states that “Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong.” This, it seems, is now also the position of a number of Democrats.

Daniel Gordis: The American ‘Zionist’ assault on Israel

“American Jews and Israeli Jews Are Headed for a Messy Breakup,” a column by Jonathan Weisman announced in the New York Times earlier this week. He’s probably right. But only “probably.” The relationship does not have to crash, if both sides can acknowledge the profound ways in which the world’s two largest Jewish communities are profoundly different, and cease imposing their own worldview on the other.

To heal this rift, both sides are going to need to accept that we are invariably going to continue disappointing each other, because American Judaism and Israeli Judaism are, by this point, very different animals. As I describe in my forthcoming book, We Stand Divided: Competing Visions of Jewishness and the Rift Between American Jews and Israel, they now rest on almost entirely different foundations. One is universal and one particular, one focuses on Judaism as religion while the other sees Judaism as nationality, one largely exempt from the messiness of history, while the other is the product of a movement that expressly sought to restore the Jews as players into the complexities (and ugliness) of history.

Ultimately, both Israel and American Jews will have to change much about their views of and discourse about the other. At this moment, though, I want to focus on the ways in which American Jews need to rethink their discourse about Israel, since this side of the equation was much in evidence both in Weisman’s column and in another piece week, by Peter Beinart, in the Forward.

As part of the IfNotNow-instigated brouhaha about Birthright, Beinart issued a characteristic warning this week: “Birthright Will Fail If It Doesn’t Evolve With Young Jews,” arguing that Birthright trips do not offer a balanced picture of the conflict, which in turn will lead many young American Jews to ignore the program.

Now, to be clear, I have never worked for Birthright, have never been on a Birthright trip, and am not in any way privy to their curricular conversations. But here is what I do know. Many children of friends of ours, sophisticated and thoughtful young people, have been on Birthright trips, and have had life-transforming experiences. They did not feel that they’d been brainwashed or worked over – they just fell in love not only with the State of Israel, but with Judaism writ large. Also, for the record, I like Peter Beinart. He’s intelligent and I believe he’s being honest when he says he cares about Israel. For a while, Peter and I did a podcast together in which we modeled how two people who disagree deeply can engage in respectful dialogue. (We’ve also debated each other a few times, and are doing it again on February 7 at Harvard Hillel.)

But in many ways, Beinart’s column reflects a fundamental decision American Jews are going to have to make when it comes to Israel. They will have to decide what matters to them more, Israel’s welfare or their own good standing in their progressive American circles. Though he would of course say that he disagrees, I believe that Beinart is more committed to the latter. That is why he takes a complex issue, oversimplifies it and assumes that the only reasonable read of the situation is that held by American progressives; and then, since he knows that Birthright cannot accommodate his demand (and because he sees Birthright as part of the American Jewish establishment of which he is relentlessly critical), he essentially threatens to join the crowd seeking to destroy it.

In NY Times, Jonathan Weisman Misrepresents Quotes and Polls to Push Jewish “Breakup” Narrative _ CAMERA

Jonathan Weisman insists that the tribulations of 2018 brought American Jews and their Israeli counterparts “ever closer to a breaking point.” That, at least, is how he put it in the opening sentence of his Jan. 4, 2019 news analysis piece in the New York Times.

So convincing did the author seemingly find his own arguments that, at some point between his first and last sentences, the breaking point went from near to already here: “The Great Schism is upon us,” Weisman concluded in his dramatic final sentence.

It’s a sweeping hypothesis. And yet the analysis, published in the newspaper’s Opinion section, doesn’t offer a single statistic to directly substantiate his claim. Do any surveys confirm the existence of a Great Schism? Or the idea that “neither side sees the other as caring for its basic well-being,” a view Weisman approvingly attributes to a Chicago rabbi? Or that Israeli citizens “are increasingly dismissive of the views of American Jews”? Or that younger American Jews see in Israel “a bully, armed and indifferent”? If so, Weisman doesn’t share them.

The author does cite some polling numbers from the Pew Research Center meant to give credence to his case. But those numbers aren’t just wrested from their context in a way likely to mislead. They are flatly misreported.

For Jews, 'Never Again' is right now

Australia: The St Kilda rally, which was part of a move by far-right adherents to move their activism from the virtual to the real world, violated and betrayed the values and convictions that we hold dear.

My friend Rabbi Marvin Hier reminds us that on April 29, 1945, a day before he committed suicide, Hitler predicted that it would take centuries for anti-Semitism to return.

But he was wrong. It has taken less than seven decades.

The climate for Australian Jews remains hostile, with 2018 seeing a number of alarming incidents across the country.

Last year, a Jewish woman driving in Elsternwick was abused by a couple who screamed, "Hitler was right and should have killed you all" and "move your f---ing car or else I will come out and hit you".

A teacher in a car park in Bentleigh was subject to frightening tirade with a man and woman yelling at her, "Hitler had the right idea". A woman sitting in a cafe in Waverley was called "a bloody Jew", and a mother, her daughter and granddaughter on Australia Day were called "f---ing Jews".

And what about the 13-year-old Jewish girl at a public school who was sent a Snapchat video with a classmate rapping about her, "going to the shower, the gas shower", or the 15-year-old Jewish teen at a private school whose friend posted an image on Instagram, dressed as a Nazi, with the tagline, "We’re going to a place called Auschwitz, it is shower time little Jews", or the 16-year-old Jewish girl who was told she would be raped in the gas chambers.

Neo-Nazi groups such as Antipodean Resistance are invading our streets with vandalism, last week defiling a residential aged care facility that houses many Holocaust survivors with a swastika, while other right-wing extremists distributed flyers last year in Footscray describing Jews as "The whole world’s enemy ... pure evil", or plastering universities with Holocaust denial material.

Imagine having to teach your child that brightly colored balloons can kill. Imagine that hate that impels a people to try to murder and maim small children. https://t.co/tIF74KxW7C
— (((Varda Epstein))) (@epavard) January 8, 2019

Etti always awoke at dawn, as her parents and sister slumbered on for that one more delicious hour. Soon the house would fill with the smell of coffee as the family began the hectic battle of getting everyone showered, dressed, and out the door for the day to jobs and daycare and school. Even Shaked, Etti’s sister, already a big girl in first grade, slept on. It was warm under the covers. Why not?

Etti spied something moving on balcony, something colorful, floating in and out of sight. “What could it be?” she wondered. She pushed the sliding door ever so carefully, so as not to wake the others. She knew she’d catch it if she risked even one precious moment of their sleep.

It was a balloon! A red one. Tied to a string, the bobbing orb had become entangled with the arms of a chair. Etti clapped her hands, but without a sound, just the two hands meeting, still reluctant to incur the wrath of her sleeping family.

The girl crept closer, reached out for the balloon, and “Boom!” a big explosion.

Now it was like all the sound had been sucked out of the air.

Etti was on the ground when her parents ran to the source of the explosion and found her. And then there were sirens, so many sirens. Too many sirens. Too many people running around. Some of them in uniforms of various types, doctors, fire fighters, policemen, soldiers. Residents in pajamas, too.

It was not even 7 AM.

***

This scenario might go in a number of directions. In the worst case, Etti is dead by balloon, a gift from the lovely people of Gaza, who want Jews dead, even children. That’s how much they hate us. That’s the extent to which they dehumanize the Jews. If the Jews are vermin, it’s a good deed to kill them, and certainly no reason to let a small cockroach grow up to become a large one.

Fear would spread throughout the neighborhood. Parents would warn their children not to touch balloons unless a parent authorizes the contact. Etti’s little kindergarten friends would ask for her, and wonder why their teachers looked away—couldn’t seem to look the children in the eyes as they explained that Etti would not be coming to kindergarten again.

When they asked their parents, “Aifo Etti?” (where is Etti), their mommas hugged them and cried, while daddy went to check that the new lock on the balcony door was secure.

Or maybe Etti lived, but the explosion robbed her, at age 4, of her eyesight. There were many weeks in the hospital, her face bandaged. Tests, pain. Tension. And worst of all, Etti simply didn’t understand what had happened. She remembers the balloon, tantalizing, red, weaving in and out of her sight, and being so careful not to wake anyone, and then something big, a big noise, then no noise and now hospitals, pain, and bandages over her eyes.

On the other hand, maybe it was only a digit lost, or an appendage. A hand, her right one, of course, or a foot or “just” her thumb. It wasn’t there anymore after the balloon, the red balloon that beckoned to her on the balcony on that clear winter morning, so warm in the South of Israel you could go out in your pajamas barefoot and not be the least bit cold. Etti could still feel her foot/hand/thumb. And sometimes it hurt bad. But when she looked, it wasn’t there. It never was anymore.

Etti had to learn everything all over again. And she’d just learned to draw a house, with a sun in the sky, and grass on the ground, and a happy family standing nearby. Two parents, and two little girls. But now no one was happy.

Her mother would sit and rock with Etti on her lap, neither of them making a sound. With her good hand, Etti would sometimes reach up and touch the fat tears as they fell from her mother’s eyes and then put her fingers to her mouth wondering at the salty sadness, so different from the rain. Her father too, never smiled anymore in the way he used to do when he looked at her, so his eyes would crinkle up with delight. Now his mouth was a tight, straight line. He was angry. Maybe it was her fault for touching the balloon! But it had been so red. She was sorry!

Perhaps, on the other hand, Etti was the luckiest little girl in the world, and all that happened was a loud noise, people running, and a stinging feeling where she’d received a small powder burn on her hand. Lucky means never trusting ever again that a toy could be just a toy. Being fearful and afraid to do anything without an adult confirming that it’s okay, nothing will happen to her, she’s safe. Even though never again does she really feel safe.

She wakes up in the night with heart pounding from the bad dream, the scary one of red balloons with monster faces exploding and hurting her, more and more of them each night, and again she feels that the bed is wet. She imagines that dangerous things are all around her and she is scared of the people she knows, too.

One fine morning, Etti woke up a happy girl. But the next day she was not. Everything had changed. Her face, once cute and pudgy became pinched and sullen. She acted out and had no friends. Etti didn’t want friends. She couldn’t trust them.

They were stupid. They didn’t know about the bad people who think up ways to hurt little girls with toys from far away.

She’d learned to hate the color red.

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Arab Officers Meeting With Israeli Counterparts Vehemently Deny Contacts With IDF (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Tel Aviv, January 9 - Senior officers from Iraq, Egypt. Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia who gathered for a conference at Israel's Ministry of Defense this week issued fierce rebuttals of reports by media in their home countries that they are engaged in "normalization" with the Zionist enemy.

Attendees at a gathering of generals and colonels from several Persian Gulf states and other players in the global fight against Islamic terrorism who convened to discuss the latest developments and strategies with Israeli defense officials berated journalists for suggesting that any contacts with the hated Jews were taking place. An aide to General Ghass Layt of the Royal Bahrain Armed Forces interrupted a session with IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eizenkot and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen to admonish reporters not to engage in what he termed outrageous, libelous, and irresponsible rumor-mongering.

"This dangerous slander must stop," declared Major Huday Utrust. "Our political. military, and diplomatic leadership has been trying for decades to address the threat of extremism, at times in consultation and cooperation with experts from every relevant country, and these false reports have the potential to inflame emotions and lead to disaster. General Layt was just stressing to Mr. Cohen how important it is that they continue not to maintain contacts to collaborate in opposing the Islamic State and Iran. My colleagues from the other Arab nations represented here will all agree."

Egyptian General Yuwar Aful seconded the major's remarks. "Journalists have a responsibility to exercise judgment, not just to spread reports they hear," he warned. "Freedom of the press, if it were practiced in Arab countries, would not include the freedom to endanger the public safety. General Eizenkot just gave us a presentation on the importance of managing the media in that regard, and I must emphasize my agreement with his assessment that these stories of us conferring with and thus normalizing contacts with Israeli officials are harmful, hurtful, and incorrect."

The officers indicated that regular, routine meetings of this nature will occur until the threat of such malicious reports is stamped out. "The spread of misinformation can be as damaging as the spread of disease," observed IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Yair Golan. "We need the cooperation of all the region's major players to contain the threat and eliminate it. Israel stands ready to assist its neighbors where necessary in the fight against open normalization with Israel."

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01/09 Links Pt1: Abbas Celebrates 14th Anniversary of His Four-Year Term; Fatah burn “coffin” with photos of Pres. Trump and Netanyahu; PA orders Palestinian landlords to seek approval for Israeli-Arab tenants

From Ian:

Elliott Abrams: Abbas Celebrates 14th Anniversary of His Four-Year Term

On January 9, 2005—exactly 14 years ago today—Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority. For a four-year term.

Today Abbas begins serving the fifteenth year of his four-year term.

That 2005 election was actually a milestone for Palestinians. Yasser Arafat had died the previous November, and this election was to choose his successor as head of the PA. It was a good election—free and fair in the sense that the votes were counted accurately and people could campaign against Abbas. There were loads of international observers, including a U.S. team led by former President Jimmy Carter and then-Senators Joseph Biden and John E. Sununu. According to The New York Times, Javier Solana, who was then the European Union's foreign minister, said "It has been a very good day. The moment is historic."

Abbas won only about 62 percent of the vote (compare Egyptian president Sisi’s ludicrous claim to have won 97 percent of the vote in the 2018 election there) and one challenger won 20 percent. Hamas boycotted the election, but was not forced to do so—as we saw when it competed in the elections for the Palestine Legislative Council (PLC) in 2006.

That 2006 parliamentary election was the last parliamentary election held in the Palestinian territories, and there has similarly been no presidential election since 2005. Abbas just holds on and on and governs by decree. He has now undertaken machinations that will in fact eliminate the PLC entirely, replacing it with an unelected PLO organ. The PLC has been dissolved by the Palestinian constitutional court--whose own term of office expired over a decade ago.

Dissolved Palestinian Legislative Council removes PA president Abbas from power

In the latest development in the rift between Palestinian factions, the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza voted to remove Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas from power on Wednesday.

In a text submitted by prominent Hamas political committee member and spokesperson Salah al-Bardawil, the assembly called the president an "enemy of the state" for committing "a number of constitutional, legal, security and humanitarian violations, which seriously and seriously affected the Palestinian national project."

The resolution then asked the politician to immediately step down, or face constitutional proceedings aimed at his destitution. It also appealed to national, regional and international institutions to "stop dealing" with the president or any of his delegations.

The PLC, which has largely had a symbolic function since the last elections in 2007 due mainly to the impossibility of assembling in one location. It was dissolved by Abbas at the end of 2018.

The Fatah leader dissolved the institution, in which Hamas has a majority, in order to put pressure on the Gaza-based movement as reconciliation talks between the two factions degenerate into an open conflict.

Last week, Hamas called dozens of Fatah members in the coastal enclave for questioning, and de facto prevented a rally that was meant to commemorate the movement's 54th anniversary.

The silence from faux “human rights” orgs like @amnesty @jvplive and @ifnotnoworg on this issue is deafening. Real humanitarians are keeping the pressure up until the American citizen Issam Akel is freed! #PalestinianLivesMatter #TheRealApartheid pic.twitter.com/YJSBXzSn4K
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) January 8, 2019

PMW: Abbas’ deputy participates in burning “coffin” with photos of US Pres. Trump and PM Netanyahu

Celebrating the 54th anniversary of the Fatah Movement, which is commemorated on the day of its first attempted terror attack against Israel, Abbas' deputy chairman of Fatah, Mahmoud Al-Aloul, participated in a ceremony at which a black "coffin" decorated with photos of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and US President Trump was burned in front of a large crowd.

A red "X" is painted over the faces of Netanyahu and Trump. [Official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 3, 2019]

Text on coffin: "The deal of the century (i.e., Trump's as yet unpublished Middle East peace plan) will not pass, to hell with it and good riddance"

At the event, Al-Aloul praised the terror attacks and the Palestinian waves of violence and terror against Israel (the intifadas) as "accomplishments" of Fatah's "self-sacrificing fighters," and "battles of honor," which have "brought glory to the nation":
"The Palestinian revolution... depended on our people's will and was characterized by suffering, sacrifice, and pain. However, it was also full of victories and achievements that Fatah's self-sacrificing fighters (Fedayeen) accomplished on the ground; and they returned the spirit to the nation. Starting from Eilabun (i.e., attempted bombing of Israel's National Water Carrier) ... the intifadas (i.e., Palestinian wave of violence and terror against Israel killing approximately 200 Israelis from 1987-1993, and PA terror campaign killing approximately 1200 from 2000-2005), and the rest of the battles of honor and heroism with which the Fatah Movement has brought glory to the nation."

He pointed out that Fatah "is loyal to the team of Martyrs (Shahids)" and that the movement's identity is one of a "national liberation movement that is fighting for our people's freedom and independence":
"We in Fatah are not being lured away by anything - neither power nor government - and we again emphasize our identity as a national liberation movement that is fighting for our people's freedom and independence. We will complete the path, without any shadow of a doubt, and we still see that our most important priority is to fight our primary enemy - the occupation - and those who assist it."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 4, 2019]

Know How to Answer, part 11B "Settlements are illegal"

Nearly six years ago I gave a lecture at Yeshiva University on how to answer anti-Israel arguments. Since the lecture was over an hour and twenty minutes, I decided to break it up into 20 sections, one each to answer one popular anti-Israel argument.

Here is the second half of part 11, probably the longest clip.

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Forward editor says opposing Angela Davis' slanders against Israel is "tearing down black people"

Batya Ungar Sargon, the editor of the Forward, tweeted a statement at Mondoweiss by Angela Davis about how the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Board of Directors reversed their decision to award her the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award.

Her comment was "R Avraham Yehoshua Heschel is turning over in his grave. We Jews need to stop being the face of tearing down black people, or anyone person of color who supports Palestinians. This was NOT DONE IN MY NAME."

The photo accompanying the Mondoweiss article, and posted by Ungar-Sargon, shows Angela Davis smiling next to convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh.

Apparently, according to the current "woke" thinking, it is racist for a Jew to be outraged at a black person who fights tooth and nail to destroy the Jewish state and who embraces a murderer of Jews. It is not so bad if the person is white, though.

The original pushback for giving Davis the award came from an article in Southern Jewish Life which described in detail Davis' antipathy towards Israel - including many positions that she takes that are categorically false:

Something not included in the Institute's publicity for the event is that Davis has also been an outspoken voice in the boycott-Israel movement, and advocates extensively on college campuses for the isolation of the Jewish state, saying Israel engages in ethnic cleansing and is connected to police violence against African-Americans in the United States.

In her talks, the “building communities united” specifically excludes supporters of Israel as intersectional coalitions adopt the Palestinian struggle as their own.

Her 2015 book was entitled “Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement,” and she frequently compares Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to police shootings of African-Americans. She has also said Israel gets its tear gas to use against Palestinians from the same company that supplies the police force in Ferguson.

There is a national effort among advocates for the Palestinians to get police departments to refuse joint training with Israeli police on best practices for fighting terrorism and enhancing emergency response.

She also connects Israel with one of her primary causes, the abolition of the prison system in the U.S., which she calls the “prison-industrial complex.” Palestine under Israeli occupation is “the worst possible example of a carceral society” as the world’s “largest open air prison,” she has stated.

Davis compares Israel to apartheid South Africa, but has stated that Israel is worse in its treatment of Palestinians. She refers to the security barrier Israel erected following a long series of deadly suicide bombings by Palestinians in Israel in the early 2000s as an “apartheid wall.”

Davis has called for “political prisoner” Marwan Barghouti to be released from jail. A leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Barghouti is serving five life terms for participation in murders of Israelis. A leader of the First and Second Intifadas, in 2014 he called for an end to Palestinian security cooperation with Israel and advocated a Third Intifada.

Davis also was a supporter of Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted of a 1969 bombing in a Jerusalem grocery store, killing two students. A member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Odeh was deported from the U.S. for immigration fraud, lying about her terror ties and not disclosing her terrorism conviction.

At a sendoff party for Odeh in Chicago on Aug. 12, 2017, Davis praised her for decades of “her principled challenges to the policies and practices of the state of Israel,” saying Odeh was being deported to cover up governmental efforts to “blunt support for BDS.” She also said the deportation was the result of misogyny, an assault on immigrants, and xenophobia.

In her speech, Davis also said “we see the state of Israel as perpetrator of sexual violence and trauma, and we see the U.S. government reaping the benefits of that sexual attack as it has designated Rasmea a terrorist even as she has suffered under sexual terrorism.”

She referred to terrorism charges leveled against Odeh as “fabricated,” and done “in an attempt to dampen a growing movement for justice — justice for Palestinians, justice for people of African descent, for indigenous people, for Latino people.”

In a 2017 talk at George Washington University, Davis asserted “In standing up against the racism of the state of Israel, we are passionately saying no to anti-Semitism as well,” and opposing Israel benefits the Jewish people.

Ignoring Jewish indigenous ties to the land of Israel, she also reminded the audience that like Israel, the United States “is also a settler colonial nation” occupying someone else’s land.

She is a passionate supporter of the boycott-Israel movement, routinely joining Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and author Alice Walker in pressuring entertainers who have scheduled events in Israel to cancel.

Davis co-signed a letter stating that restricting BDS to the settlements lets Israel “off the hook” for approving the settlements, Israeli banks for financing them, and other “serious violations of international law” by Israel.

She also endorses an academic boycott of Israeli institutions and professors.

Davis criticizes Israel for what is called “pinkwashing,” defined as Israel’s touting its acceptance of the LGBTQ community as a way to “distract” from other “crimes,” and falsely charging that Palestinians who are LGBTQ aren’t allowed into Israel.

In a January 2018 speech at Washington University, Davis stated that pro-Israel advocates can not stand for intersectional social justice, and all feminists should be pro-Palestine.

Batya sees through all of this and knows that the real reason Jews don't support honoring someone who consistently slanders the Jewish state with provable lies and supports convicted terrorists like Odeh and Marwan Barghouti is because we are a bunch of racists.

There is nothing consistent between supporting human rights and being against human rights of the Jewish people to live peacefully in a Jewish state.

And by the way, AJ Heschel was a supporter of Israel defending itself, saying "We have a right to demand, ‘Love they neighbor as thyself.’ We have no right to demand, ‘Love they neighbor and kill thyself.’ No moral teacher has ever asserted, ‘If one stands with a knife threatening to kill you, bare your heart for him to murder you.’ There is no moral justification for self-destruction.”

He also said this: “The land was taken from the Jewish people by violence, and we have never abandoned hope of regaining it. Throughout the ages we said No to all the conquerors of Palestine. We said No before God and man emphatically, daily. We objected to their occupations, we rejected their claims, we deepened our attachment, knowing that the occupation by the conquerors was a passing adventure, while our attachment to the land was an eternal link. The Jewish people has never ceased to assert its right, its title, to the land of Israel. This continuous, uninterrupted insistence, an intimate ingredient of Jewish consciousness, is at the core of Jewish history, a vital element of Jewish faith.”

Yes, Heschel knew that the Arabs are the occupiers and the Jews are the indigenous people of the Land. He opposed everything Angela Davis believes about Israel.

I guess if he would have said those words today to Angela Davis he would be considered a racist by Batya Ungar-Sargon as well.

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From TOI:

The parking lot is open, but the escalators aren’t working yet at Atarot Mall, a new, two-floor, NIS 200 million ($54 million) mall built by supermarket king Rami Levy on the seam between Arab and Jewish Jerusalem.

About one-third of the 50 planned stores were open for business on Tuesday morning, and Levi was sitting with a cappuccino at Cafe Neeman, a bakery chain that was doing a brisk business in the new mall.

“I’ve waited for this for many years,” said Levy, whose supermarket chain, Rami Levy Shivuk Hashikma Ltd., is behind this project. “I remember going to Ramallah with my father when I was 12, when we used to go there easily. And as the years went on and things got worse, I had a dream that we’d be able to do this, here.”

“Here” is Atarot, the location of one of the largest industrial parks in the Jerusalem area. It’s at the northern end of Jerusalem, where Palestinian and Jewish neighborhoods brush up against one another.

Officially, the mall will open for business on January 29, Levy said. For now, about one-third of the stores were open, while others were still stocking inventory. Some 35 percent of the store owners in the mall are Palestinian and some of the branches of chain stores are owned by Palestinian franchisees.

Customers, a mix of Palestinians and Israelis, were drinking coffee and eating pastries at Cafe Neeman, and wandering in and out of the stores that were open.

Betty Mansour, the Palestinian manager at the Golf & Co., has worked for 14 years at Golf, and was the manager at the Talpiot branch. She jumped at the opportunity to work at the new mall after 14 years at Golf and after having served as manager of a branch in the Talpiot neighborhood, despite a longer commute from her home in Gilo at the southern end of Jerusalem.

“I liked the idea of coexistence at the mall,” she said. “People will need to get used to it, of course. But why not?”

It’s the first time that a store like Golf has come to Beit Hanina, said Mansour.

“A lot of Arab customers come to us because they love Golf, and they’ve been waiting for this,” she said. “Our products are very well-liked by Arab customers.”

Fahmi Jbouh, owner of women’s clothing boutique Neeva, lives in Beit Hanina, and was stocking his new store with their inventory of women’s wear imported from Turkey.

“It’s really my wife’s store,” he said. “We decided to open because there will be more business here. It’s a better location in a mall. We wanted to grow our business.”

The Cafe Neeman chain opened its 56th outlet in the mall, said Yaniv Neeman, scion of the family, who was working the sandwich counter on Tuesday morning. The manager is Amjad Awadalla, who franchised this branch.

“That’s how we always do things,” said Neeman. “Jews and Arabs always work together at every Cafe Neeman.”

Peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs. Isn't that what everyone wants?

Not Fatah.

Fatah called on the Palestinian people to boycott the "colonial markets and shops of Rami Levy," saying that "buying, renting or shopping is a betrayal of the homeland."

In 2010, Fatah called on Palestinians to boycott Rami Levy supermarkets. It threatened anyone who shopped there and took photos of shoppers and license plates. Palestinians all ignored the threats and shop there all the time, side by side with Jews, and there are very few problems (sometimes terrorists will target the stores.)

Al Monitor reported in 2013:

Each month, hundreds of Palestinians visit the shopping centers owned by Israeli businessman Rami Levy in the settlements of Kfar Etzion in Hebron and Ma’alie Mikhmas near Ramallah, in search of the cheapest prices and offers.
Mother of five, Dalal al-Kuwaiti, told Al-Monitor in Ramallah, “The first time I went to shop from Rami Levy four years ago, it felt strange for me to be in an Israeli settlement mingling with settlers, but I got used to it.”
Kuwaiti shops at Rami Levy twice a month, spending 1,000 shekels [$280], or one-third of her husband’s salary, who is a PA employee. “I would need at least twice that amount if I were to shop at the local Palestinian market. There are always offers and sales on food items, which is unheard of in local markets.”
Despite the National Dignity Fund publishing censored photographs of car license plates and Palestinian shopper’s faces to deter them from shopping at Rami Levy, they continued to do so.

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Arabs engaging in "Jewish ethnic cleansing denial"

The news that Israel would seek $250 billion in compensation from Arab countries for the property that Jews lost when they were expelled in the 1940s and 1950s is angering many Arabs.

The usual line is that every single one of the 900,000 Jews who suddenly left Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco , Yemen and other countries left completely voluntarily, or were coerced to leave by Israeli campaigns of terror against them. Not one was forced to leave by their Arab governments.

Al Khaleej writes, "It is a state that seeks to obliterate the historical rights of the Palestinian people and to falsify history through the fabrication of an alternative version of the displacement of Jews from the Arab countries, although they were not expelled from the Arab countries. The Jews of the Arab countries were taken out by the Zionist movement before the establishment of this state and after its establishment, and the Jews of the Arab countries accounted for 42% of the total of its settlers. In this sense they were the raw material that formed the state of the occupation. They replaced the original inhabitants of Palestine and occupied their cities and land and stole their goods."

I've seen many such articles astonished at the chutzpah that the usurping Jews have to demand compensation from innocent Arabs.

It is no surprise that the Arabs, who routinely deny the Holocaust, who deny their historic antisemitism and who deny any Jewish connection to the land of Israel, would also deny that they ever did anything to force the Jews to leave their countries.

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01/08 Links Pt2: Twitter hashtag #firstantisemiticexperience reveals harrowing stories; Civil rights institute voids award for Angela Davis over BDS support

From Ian:

Twitter hashtag #firstantisemiticexperience reveals harrowing stories

Swastikas. Hate speech. Bullying. Threats.

As the year 2019 kicks off, Twitter users around the globe are showing that antisemitic behavior is not something relegated to history books. Using the hashtag #firstantisemiticexperience, people have been sharing stories of their first exposure to antisemitic taunting and abuse.

The hashtag appears to have been started by Rabbi Zvi Solomons, the spiritual leader of the Jewish Community of the Berkshire synagogue in Reading, England.

On Monday morning, Solomons posted the hashtag, asking his followers to use it – allowing it to become a link on Twitter showing tweets from all those who include it – and share their own experiences.

And the stories began to pour in.

Carly Pildis, a Tablet Magazine writer and nonprofit professional, said that her first antisemitic experience “was when I was 13 and someone drew a swastika on my synagogue.”

Annika Rothstein, a political adviser and activist from Sweden, said hers “was in 7th grade; 6 neo-nazis at school stood next to my locker saying I should be turned into soap like ‘the others.’ For three years they tormented me to the point where I ended up shaving off my big, curly hair, hoping to hide my ‘Jewishness.’”

The New York Times Whitewashes Voltaire and ‘The Dark Enlightenment’

Historians of antisemitism have yet to fully explain why great satirists from the Roman Juvenal to Voltaire to Gore Vidal hated Jews and the Jewish religion.

Gore Vidal’s 2012 obituaries, including a front-page New York Times tribute to the “prolific, elegant, acerbic writer,” generally ignored his hatred of Judaism and Jews, often dismissing it as “anti-Zionism.” After all, his life-long companion was Jewish — Howard Austen, an advertising executive.

Vidal’s solution to the antisemitism that his partner faced in the advertising industry was for him to change his name from “Auster” to “Austen.” He apparently believed that if others took his advice, and abandoned particularism for assimilation by changing names, that would go a long way toward solving the embarrassment of Jew hatred.

But Vidal’s disdain went much deeper than the embarrassing last names, accents, and mannerisms. Vidal loathed The New York Times as not only “homophobic,” but for being unwilling to sell advertising space to Nasser’s Egypt, while Commentary was “the Pravda of our Israeli Fifth Column.” Other literary celebrities like Capote and Mailer were contemptible, but worse were Bellow, Malamud, and Roth — Jewish-American writers unable “to put themselves into gentile skins — much less foreskins.”

Israel’s American supporters like Midge Decter and Norman Podhoretz should be forced to register with the Justice Department as agents of a foreign power, Vidal claimed. And America — “a nation that worships psychopaths” — was “a corrupt society” made up of “ongoing hustlers.” About the country of which Vidal the historical novelist claimed to be “the biographer,” he warned: “We must never underestimate the essential bigotry of the white majority in the United States.”

What is clear is that Hertzberg was correct that Voltaire “opened the door” to the horrors of the 20th century. It is also true that Vidal — who as a young man backed the isolationist “America First” Movement that sought to appease Hitler — did not really try to close the door to intolerance. The Times has forgotten Hertzberg’s 1990 warning in its own columns about Voltaire, just as it ignores the antisemitism of so many bigots masquerading as “anti-Zionists” today.

Voltaire’s motto was “Écrasez l’infâme” — by which he meant that all organized religion, not just infamous prejudices, should be eradicated. Be careful whom you glorify as you seek to slay dragons.

12 CAMERA Accomplishments in 2018

CAMERA broke last year’s record of 185 media corrections. We prompted 206 corrections in US, UK, Spanish-language, Hebrew and Arabic publications.

CAMERA Arabic launched its Arabic website, the first media-monitoring body to monitor Arabic-language reports from Western media outlets, ensuring accurate coverage of Israel and the Middle East and promoting adherence to professional journalistic standards.

CAMERA’s UK Media Watch set a record number of media corrections this year, prompting 51 corrections from publications such as The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, Times of London, The Financial Times, The Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Irish News and Irish Examiner.

CAMERA ran hundreds of student workshops and events at 86 colleges and universities, including Ivy League schools, as well as Oxford University, Cambridge University, and the University of London.

CAMERA’s Spanish department launched a new college campus program – “CAMERA on Campus Latinos for Israel” – bringing a pro-Israel message to Spanish-speaking students across the world.

Know How to Answer, part 11A: "Israel is illegally occupying territories"

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What do Mahmoud Abbas and drug dealers have in common? (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

In the book Freakonomics, on chapter deals with the question "Why do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms?" In providing an answer, the book touches on the sensitive relationship between drug gangs and the communities they live in. One particularly sensitive area is the murder of gang members and how it affects the expenses of drug gangs:

The miscellaneous expenses also include the costs associated with a gang member's murder. The gang not only paid for the funeral but often gave a stipend of up to three years' wages to the victim's family. Venkatesh had once asked why the gang was so generous in this regard. "That's a f****** stupid question," he was told, "'cause as long as you been with us, you still don't understand that their families is our families. We can't just leave 'em out. We been knowing these folks our whole lives, man so we grieve when they grieve. You got to respect the family." There was another reason for the death benefits: the gang reared community backlash (its enterprise was plainly a destructive one) and figured it could buy some goodwill for a few hundred dollars here and there. [pp 101-2]

We can argue about just how much respect drug gangs actually have for the communities they live in considering the destruction they caused.

But there is no denying that paying stipends to the surviving families is good politics.

Just ask Mahmoud Abbas.

If there is one thing - and perhaps there is only one thing - that Abbas does for the Arabs who live in the West Bank, it is to pay stipends to the surviving families of Palestinian terrorists who are killed as well as to the terrorists who survive. It is a good public relations move that shows that he and the PA is good for something.

But it also gives an incentive to Arabs to stay loyal to Fatah and not join Hamas. Is it any wonder that Abbas won't give in to the pressure to stop the payments to terrorists? Does anyone honestly believe Abbas insists on these payments out of altruism? That money helps to keep Fatah intact.

This second motivation for the stipends goes back to when they were first started, in 1964, under Arafat. According to the book, Humanitarian Rackets and their Moral Hazards: The Case of the Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon,

Fatah had originally established what was known as the Palestine Mujahidin and Martyrs Fund in September 1964 to financially recompense families of martyred, disabled or captured Fatah guerrillas. It was later transferred to the PLO, where it became know as SAMED. The fund was providing pensions and social assistance to more than 20,000 families by 1980. But this was a reflection of Arafat's extension of his patronage network to incorporate families allied to PLO guerrilla groups The Martyrs Fund provided financial assistance only to those dying either of combat or natural causes, so long as it was during their active member hip in the PLO groups. This forced family members of non-PLO combatants to reclassify their dead in order to receive the stipend Today in the camps of Lebanon a significant portion of families who have sons or fathers who were guerrillas are still in receipt of such PLO payments

Gangs, whether of drug dealers or terrorists, know how to keep their people loyal.

Maybe that explains the Israeli tactic of destroying the homes of the families of terrorists. It provides a contrary motivation to those families, that maybe the money is not worth it. It is debatable whether the strategy has been successful enough to justify it, especially considering the bad optics it generates.

But terrorists have a major advantage over drug gangs.

According to the quote above from Freakonomics, the pensions received by the families of the murdered gangsters was for only 3 years, and the amount paid was equal to their salary at the time of their deaths. While the leader of a drug gang could make in the area of $8,500 each month, for a total of about $100,000 a year, the 3 officers working just under the boss (in this case) made about $7.00 per hour [$14,560.00 per year] -- and the rank and file made around $3.30 per hour [$6,864.00 per year]. Also, the money for these stipends came from within the organization (see here)

Compare that with the largesse of Palestinian terrorist organizations.

According to a Washington Post article in 2017, a man serving a 17-year sentence for shooting at Israeli forces during the second Palestinian intifada is receiving a Palestinian stipend of about $800 a month - $9,600 per year. But Palestinian terrorists who are sentenced to 30 years in Israeli jails get $3,000 a month - $36,000 per year. In the case comparable to ours, the families of Palestinians who are killed by Israeli forces get about $800 - $1,000 a month - $9,600 - $12,000 per year.

The drug gangs are paying their stipend out-of-pocket and - for a maximum of 3 years.
Abbas is paying the Fatah stipend out of funding provided by the EU - for life.

And according to the excerpt from the article "Humanitarian Rackets and their Moral Hazards" quoted above, a significant number of families in Lebanon who have sons or fathers who were terrorists are still receiving PLO payments.

Compared to the drug lords, Abbas is clearly running the better racket.

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01/08 Links Pt1: Terrorism is terrorism; ACLU Falsely Claims That Anti-Boycott Legislation Limits Free Speech; Israel nabs Givat Assaf terrorist after month-long manhunt

From Ian:

Jpost Editorial: Terrorism is terrorism

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Sunday revealed details of a serious case of suspected terrorism. Three Jewish minors are being investigated as suspects in the death of Aysha Rabi, a Palestinian woman and mother of nine, who was hit in the head by rocks when the car she was driving was pelted near the Tapuah Junction in the West Bank.

The agency’s statement said that the minors studied at Pri Haaretz Yeshiva in Rehalim, near where the incident occurred, adding that on the day after the Friday incident, a group of Yitzhar residents drove to Rehalim – despite being Shabbat observant – to instruct the youths on how to handle the Shin Bet questioning.

Further details revealed a video of the burning of an Israeli flag, a placard bearing the inscription “death to Zionists” and a swastika on an Israeli flag which, according to the Shin Bet, were connected to some of the suspects. These were obviously presented to indicate that the youths oppose the state out of extremist religious ideology.

The families of the detainees have complained that the rights of their children are being brutally infringed upon and that the youths are being held and interrogated in harsh conditions. Itamar Ben-Gvir, a lawyer for one of the suspects and well known for his support of far-right causes, complained that the youths had not had initial access to legal representation and had been traumatized by their treatment at the hands of the Shin Bet.

The Shin Bet statement said the interrogations have been carried out in accordance with proper procedure, supervised by the state prosecution and with court oversight.

“Since the arrests, the Shin Bet has identified a continuous and active effort from interested parties to slander the organization and its agents and to delegitimize its activities,” the agency said.

“This attempt should be condemned and should not be assisted, and nothing should be done to weaken the Shin Bet from continuing its efforts to thwart terror in any form – Jewish or Palestinian. All of this is based on the values of the state and for the sake of national security.”

Here lies the rub. Terrorism is terrorism. The state cannot treat cases of suspected Jewish terrorism any less seriously than similar incidents of Palestinian terrorism. Every effort must be made to find those responsible for the death of Rabi, no matter what age or religion they are.

David Singer: United States and Israel Quit over UNESCO’s Love Affair with “Palestine”

UNESCO’s admission of “Palestine” to membership breached Article II (2) of UNESCO’s Constitution which only allows States to be admitted to UNESCO. “Palestine” was not a state under the criteria laid down under international law by the 1933 Montevideo Convention.

107 states voted to admit “Palestine” whilst the remaining 86 voted “No”, “abstained” or “did not vote”.

UNESCO’s legally questionable decision was never referred by UNESCO to the International Court of Justice or an arbitral tribunal for confirmation under Article XIV (2)of UNESCO’s Constitution.
Given what has transpired – such failure was a monumental misjudgement.

President Trump’s National Security Adviser – John Bolton – recently exposed the fiction that there is a legally-constituted entity called “Palestine”:
'[Palestine] is not a state… It does not meet the customary international law test of statehood. It doesn’t control defined boundaries. It doesn’t fulfil the normal functions of government…calling it the so-called "State of Palestine" defines exactly what it has been — a position that the United States government has pursued uniformly since 1988 when the ‘Palestinian’ Authority declared itself to be the state of "Palestine". We don’t recognize it as the state of "Palestine". We have consistently across Democratic and Republican administrations opposed the admission of ‘Palestine’ to the United Nations as a state, because it’s not a state.'

Australia’s Head of Mission – Ms Gita Kamath – gave Australia’s reasons for its negative vote on admitting “Palestine” at the time of the 2011 UNESCO vote:
“Our decision to vote against reflects Australia’s strong concern that consideration of Palestinian membership in UNESCO is premature. The matter of Palestinian membership of the UN has recently been placed before the UN Security Council for its consideration. We should allow the United Nations Security Council process to run its course rather than seek first to address this question in different UN fora. Our decision also reflects our concerns with the possible implications of a successful vote on UNESCO funding.”

The Security Council course is still being run in 2019 with the finishing line nowhere in sight and UNESCO’s funding in tatters.

UNESCO’s credibility, integrity and self-created fantasy dream world has imploded.

UNESCO’s seven-year love affair with a non-existent “Palestine” has produced an international humanitarian crisis.