Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, March 25, 2019

03/25 Links Pt2: Douglas Murray: Is the Middle East now calmer than the West?; The Case for Aipac; Trump signs document officially recognizing Israeli control over Golan

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: Is the Middle East now calmer than the West?

People always think that wherever they are is the center of the world, but I always feel that Jerusalem actually is

I transfer in Cyprus to go on to Tel Aviv, wishing there was one country on this trip I could go to from another. Whenever things seem as though they may become straightforward in the Middle East, such as over warming relations with the Gulf states, you get a reminder of how complicated everything always will be. In Jerusalem I make my usual visit to the Western Wall. Just beyond the remaining wall of the Temple is the Dome of the Rock, where Abraham intended to sacrifice Isaac, and from where Muslims believe Mohammed ascended on the night journey. A lot of ascending happened around this spot — in Christianity too. People always think that wherever they are is the center of the world, but I always feel that Jerusalem actually is.

I return to Britain via Berlin to debate Radek Sikorski on the subject of nationalism. The former Polish foreign minister has to try to explain why nationalism is ‘a delusion’. It’s an interesting claim, because ‘nationalism’ is a shape-shifter term, sometimes seen as a liberal project (as in the 19th century), sometimes not (as in the 21st). But it is contingent on place too. Clearly some countries are permitted to be nationalist today and others are not. Yet the reason lots of Europeans are against nationalism isn’t that nobody should have it, but because we’re not sure if we should. And that, as I point out to an audience which finds the comment sweet-sour, is because we’re still not sure whether the Germans can be trusted with it. Inevitably Brexit comes up in the debate, and — despite my best efforts — at dinner afterwards. Radek, like many others, is still spitting about it. But I can’t really engage. I have traveled a great deal in recent years in order to avoid discussing Brexit. Partly because we have to have a country after this, and the way people have been talking I’d be amazed if we do. I watch Westminster through my fingers. One MP, who shall remain nameless, routinely gets up in the House of Commons, decries the British voting public as morons led astray by racists, and then asks why we can’t be more united.

I return to Britain just in time to find some online warriors trying to pin the New Zealand massacre on everyone who has ever spoken out against Islamic extremism or mass immigration, including me. Some Islamists decide that the correct response is to kill Sajid Javid and me, among others. Once again, things were actually cooler in the Middle East.

NYTs: The Case for Aipac

The bill of particulars never changes: Aipac has too much money and power. Aipac bribes Congress into twisting American foreign policy against the national interest. American Jews are more loyal to Israel than they are to the United States. And, most laughably, the Israel lobby silences all criticism of Israel.

Where to start? Maybe with this: Aipac’s success isn’t “about the Benjamins.” It flows from the fact that a majority of Americans, not just Jews, are predisposed to support Israel. Polls and surveys consistently confirm this.

Why is it so surprising, then, that a lobbying organization exists to channel this support into political and legislative action? Labor unions do it, chambers of commerce do it, abortion rights groups do it and Arab-Americans do it. It would be weird if there wasn’t a pro-Israel lobby. “There’s nothing new about lobbying on behalf of causes in foreign places,” Hubert Humphrey said in 1976. “It’s as American as a hot dog or apple pie.”

And Aipac was never the big spender its antagonists claim. Its total lobbying expenditures in 2018 came to $3.5 million, which doesn’t even put it in the top 50. (Realtors spent $72.8 million.) Instead, Aipac depends on grassroots organizing in every state. It is built on people power.

Not that Aipac supporters are afraid to write checks — a nationwide network of affiliated political action committees and donors is a key component of its strategy. Still, the total amount of pro-Israel donations to members of Congress came to $10.6 million in 2018, only the 34th highest among Washington interest groups, behind the entertainment industry ($15.6 million), lawyers ($80.6 million) and retirees ($110 million).

Trump signs document officially recognizing Israeli control over Golan

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing at his side, US President Donald Trump on Monday signed an official presidential proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

“Today I am taking historic action to promote Israel ability to defend itself, and really to have very powerful and very strong national security which they are entitled to have,” Trump said in the White House Diplomatic Reception Room soon after Netanyahu arrived at the White House for a meeting.

The meeting took place in the shadow of Hamas' missile attack on central Israel, and Trump said that attack showed “the significant security challenges Israel faces every single day.”

“Today aggressive action by iran and terrorist groups in southern Syria, including Hezbollah, continue to make the Golan heights a potential launching ground for attacks against Israel, very violent attacks,” Trump said.

Trump said that Any possible future each agreement must take into account for Israel's ability to “defend itself from Syria, Iran and other regional threats.”

Trump said that “under my administration the unbreakable alliance between the United states and Israel has never been stronger.”

Cartoon of the Day: Taking responsibility

Continuing on with my re-captioning of single panel cartoons....

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One of my favorite reads of the last several years, Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, documents why our reasoning faculties – which should be protecting us from making bad choices based on emotion or instinct – contain flaws that make them the source of many human errors.

The book title refers to a model developed by Kahneman and his fellow researcher Amos Tversky (both Israelis, BTW) in the 1960s that posited a human mind driven by two processes: one fast, one slow.

The slow process is effortful and gets turned on when we engage in deep contemplation or perform other activities requiring heavy cognitive work (such as solving a mathematical problem, or writing something – like this blog entry). In contrast, our fast process takes in information from our senses and processes it very rapidly, taking charge of everyday activities like driving a car, or listening to or reading something (again, like this blog entry) spoken or written in a language you already understand.

Because our slow process is rather lazy, it tends to defer to the fast process to do as much work as possible. This makes sense, given the sheer amount of thinking/processing that must take place to get through a single day. But deferring to a fast process to make sense of the world comes at a cost.

For example, the fast process performs its sense-making role by looking for patterns and then fitting those patterns into a storyline, one which takes a lot of deliberate (i.e., slow process) work to unlearn. In many cases, this is not a bad thing. Unlearning that a loud noise signals danger, for example, might not be such a wise idea (which may explain the evolutionary benefit – and thus origin – of this fast-process/slow process duality).

But flaws in our reasoning, notably the many biases to which all human beings are vulnerable, are a side-product of this brain structure with considerable downside. For example, Confirmation Bias which leads us to believe information that confirms existing beliefs and reject information that does not, is just one of many cognitive biases that result from letting our fast process take the first cut at story formation.

You see this theory play out in the context of politics all the time. For what are candidates for office doing when they try to “define” themselves and their opponents if not creating narratives they hope will get taken up by the story-loving fast process of a majority of voters? Even those endless rows of lawn signs bearing only a candidate’s name (no policy positions, no slogans) can be seen as a means to embed that name into the non-deliberative component of a voter’s brain, hoping it will be top of mind when a majority of them walk into voting booths.

The BDS propaganda campaign is doing something similar with its endless repeating of their beloved “Israel = Apartheid” equation, regardless of how many times that and all their other accusations have been debunked. Given that many of the constituencies they address (like college students) were not even born during the era when Apartheid South Africa stood, the BDSer’s hope is that their mantra will result in those who know nothing about either Israel or Apartheid will build a fast-process connection before any slow-process cognition (i.e., thought) can interfere.

The narratives the BDSers spin for themselves offer an even clearer set of examples of cognitive biases at work. That’s because many of the manipulative techniques used by Israel-haters (and hyper-partisans of all stripes) are targeted not at opponents but supporters.

Spending a little time on the #BDS Twitter feed (or do some lurking on BDS sites like Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada, if you can stomach it) to see what I mean.

When the BDSers score a win with a student government vote (like they did at Brown last week), that is portrayed as the latest example of their unstoppable momentum. And when they are rejected (as they were by at Columbia the week before last) that simply shows that their eventual embrace by all is just a matter of time.

When a handful of college professors (from a pool of tens of thousands) sign onto an academic boycott campaign, this news is treated as demonstrating wide acceptance of their position within academia. But when hundreds of college presidents condemn such boycotts, suddenly the BDSers discover the concept of percentages, declaring that these hundreds represent just a fraction of every college president in the country (never mind that they’d be screaming from the rooftops if even one such president embraced their cause).

As with many partisan political projects, the trick is to find an angle to fit any news (good or bad) into the storylines already established in the boycotters own heads (which they would like to insert into everyone else’s). Thus news about financing of anti-BDS efforts is turned into a story about Sheldon Adelson (a Right-leaning macher who gets to play the role of bête noir in their narrative), ignoring the involvement of Left-leaning Israel supporters like Haim Saban in that same effort. Yet when Hilary Clinton publically trashed the BDS “movement,” Saban is suddenly rediscovered but only to the play the role of pro-Israel moneybags pulling Hillary’s strings.

“Look over there!” might be a proper label to slap onto a strategy that involves scouring any news story for an element – no matter how tiny or irrelevant – that might conform to the boycotters' view of the world, and then blowing up that detail and screaming that it must be considered the Alpha and Omega of the tale. If you want to see what I mean, just check out how quickly Mondofada declares “case closed” whenever they can find a members of AIPAC or StandWithUs in the vicinity of a civic organization that has just told them to drop dead.

It’s easy to declare everyone involved in such efforts to be knowingly peddling falsehoods. But that misses the point that the boycotters should be seen as both pushers and junkies for the dopey lies (or, better, fantasies) they are peddling.

The BDS fantasist, after all, must continually build and reinforce their self-image as noble knights and warriors, the vanguard of a new world order, owners of the Left end of the political spectrum, battling dark forces that represent evil incarnate. How can they continue to chant “Free Gaza” as Gaza descends into a murderous hell hole and the rest of the Middle East goes up in flames? Because the slow process that might have once had the power to revise the storyline making up their primary identity has atrophied from long disuse.

All of us, by virtue of being human beings, routinely fall prey to Confirmation Bias and other frailties of reasoning. But under normal circumstances, competing aspects of our identity (represented by competing storylines in our own heads) allow us to occasionally engage Mr. Slow Process to impose some reality onto our view of ourselves and the world.

Failing that, we are also surrounded by other people who are likely to have other narratives floating around in their fast processes, creating a check on any one falsehood or fantasy dominating a group or society. But what happens when large groups of people (perhaps an entire self-declared “movement”) have decided to not just stop using its slow process entirely, but surrounds themselves only with people who have performed a similar self-lobotomy?

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03/25 Links Pt1: 7 injured, including 2 infants, in Gaza rocket attack on central Israel; The Golan Heights Was Once an Arab Rallying Cry. Not Anymore.

From Ian:

7 injured, including 2 infants, in Gaza rocket attack on central Israel

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck a residential building in central Israel early Monday morning, injuring seven people, including two small children, and leveling the structure, officials said.

The attack triggered air raid sirens at approximately 5:20 a.m. throughout the Sharon and Emek Hefer regions north of Tel Aviv, the army said.

According to the military, the rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip, where earlier this month two rockets were also fired at Tel Aviv, in what was described at the time as an apparent “mistake” by the Hamas terror group.

The Iron Dome missile defense system did not appear to have been activated by the rocket attack. The military said it was still investigating the matter.
An infant’s swing outside the home of the Wolf family in the central Israeli village of Mishmeret, which was destroyed in the early morning hours of March 25, 2019 by a rocket fired from Gaza. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Police said the projectile early Monday struck a residential building in the community of Mishmeret, on the Sharon plain, causing it to catch fire. The shrapnel from the rocket attack also caused significant damage to the surrounding area, as fragments hit a gas tank outside the building.

Drone footage of the site showed that the majority of the structure, which contained two housing units, had been flattened by the strike.

Home in Central Israel Hit by Hamas Rocket

'I would be burying my family if we hadn’t gotten to the bomb shelter'

Luck and miracles saved the seven members of the Wolf family from certain death, when a rocket destroyed their home in Moshav Mishmeret just before 6 a.m.

“I nearly lost my family,” said Robert Wolf, as he stood outside the shell of his house, on a tree-lined street with single family homes in the middle of the country, close to Kfar Saba.

“If we had not gotten to the bomb shelter in time, I would now be burying all my family,” said Wolf, who immigrated to Israel from England with his wife Susan. “That is two grandchildren, one 5 months old, one 2 years old. That would be my third child, with his wife, my wife, myself and my youngest daughter. They would all have been dead if we didn't do what we had been supposed to do.”
Owner of home hit by rocket blames 'games of politicians', March 25, 2019 (Tovah Lazaroff)

At Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba where most of the family was treated for light injuries, his son Daniel spoke with reporters about those fatal moments.

By chance, Daniel said, he had slept in the living room and heard the siren. He woke up his parents and younger sister, who were able to find shelter.

🔴🎥 FOOTAGE FROM THE SCENE where a rocket fired from #Gaza this morning hit a residential building in central Israel, north of Tel aviv. Several Israelis were injured.

🎥Dan Asulin pic.twitter.com/OCkXps9jOe
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) March 25, 2019

#BREAKING Latest #Gaza long-range rocket & destruction SUGGESTS the rocket was of M-302 variety with a range of 160 km & 144 kg warhead.
Rocket comes from the #Iran-#Syria-Hizbullah industries.
In 2014 the IDF intercepted a shipload of M-302s on the Klos-C ship heading to Gaza pic.twitter.com/wy6jUrf6b5
— Lenny Ben-David (@lennybendavid) March 25, 2019

No ⁦@cnni⁩, the rocket didn’t just ‘land.’ Planes land, birds land. This rocket took out a house. #HeadlineFail pic.twitter.com/VWZVUtDhEK
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 25, 2019

Every Friday, the media reports on how many Gazans were killed and injured during the "peaceful protests" along the border.

It usually takes weeks for the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center to dig out the details and find out that, more often than not, those killed were associated with terror groups.

But sometimes the terror groups brag about it.

Islamic Jihad issued a "martyr certificate" for Jihad Mounir Khaled Hara, who they admit was a "mujahadeen" killed while engaging in jihadist activities during the Friday "protests."

The statement goes on to say "And bear witness to the steadfastness of our people and their determination to continue Jihad and resistance until the liberation of every inch of the land of Palestine."

Doesn't sound like non-violent protesters to me.

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As I created a recent cartoon, it occurred to me that the people who say "As a Jew, I condemn Israel for X" are, in fact, promoting antisemitism.

The entire point of saying "As a Jew" is to place oneself into a position of moral superiority - compared to other Jews who do not share the same pseudo-morality of the speaker.

This gives their non-Jewish audience the idea that there are good "As a Jews" and the other, vast majority of Jews who do not share their hate of Israel are by definition immoral.

This mirrors the distinction made by John Mearsheimer between what he called "righteous Jews" and "New Afrikaners." His "righteous Jews" were those who can find no redeeming value in Israel:

Righteous Jews have a powerful attachment to core liberal values. They believe that individual rights matter greatly and that they are universal, which means they apply equally to Jews and Palestinians. They could never support an apartheid Israel. They also understand that the Palestinians paid an enormous price to make it possible to create Israel in 1948. Moreover, they recognize the pain and suffering that Israel has inflicted on the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories since 1967. Finally, most righteous Jews believe that the Palestinians deserve a viable state of their own, just as the Jews deserve their own state. In essence, they believe that self-determination applies to Palestinians as well as Jews, and that the two-state solution is the best way to achieve that end. Some righteous Jews, however, favor a democratic bi-national state over the two-state solution.

To give you a better sense of what I mean when I use the term righteous Jews, let me give you some names of people and organizations that I would put in this category. The list would include Noam Chomsky, Roger Cohen, Richard Falk, Norman Finkelstein, Tony Judt, Tony Karon, Naomi Klein, MJ Rosenberg, Sara Roy, and Philip Weiss of Mondoweiss fame, just to name a few. I would also include many of the individuals associated with J Street and everyone associated with Jewish Voice for Peace, as well as distinguished international figures such as Judge Richard Goldstone. Furthermore, I would apply the label to the many American Jews who work for different human rights organizations, such as Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch.

This is a pretty good list of "As a Jews." Notice that none of them seem to actually live in Israel and would have to live with the consequences of their policy prescriptions.

The Jews who actually support Israel and who disagree with calling it an apartheid state - including virtually all Israeli Jews - are the evil "New Afrikaners." (The idea that Zionists would be against an Israel that truly practiced apartheid is not even considered by Mearsheimer, who is of course the archetypical "As a Jew"/"Righteous Jew.")

The people who style themselves as the "righteous Jews" are sending a clear message - the other Jews, Jews who actually believe that Jews have a right to self determination, are immoral.

It is only a small step beyond that to be telling the world that only one kind of Jew deserves to be treated with respect and as a human being. The other type supports apartheid, oppression, murdering innocent children and all manner of war crimes - and when they get blown up and stabbed by the good oppressed Palestinians, they somehow deserve it.

When a Jew says "As a Jew," he is signaling to the world that the "other" Jews deserve to be hated. That is pure antisemitism.

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The best summary I've seen of possible reasons for last night's attack comes from Hamodia:

For the second time in under two weeks, Hamas is claiming that the rocket fire to central Israel early Monday was a “mistake.” Hamas made the same claim ten days ago, when two rockets were fired at the Tel Aviv area. The IDF rejected that explanation, saying that it held Hamas responsible for the rocket fire. Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad warned Israel not to retaliate for the attack.

Yediot Acharonot said Monday that after the rocket fired from Gaza hit a house in the town of Mishmeret in the Sharon region, north of Tel Aviv, Hamas contacted Egypt, telling officials that the rocket had been fired in error. Seven people, including an infant, were injured in the attack, with the family’s home sustaining heavy damage. Several other neighboring houses were damaged as well.

Egypt transferred the message to Israel, but in a statement, the IDF said it was not accepting the terror group’s excuse, and that it held Hamas responsible for the attack. The IDF is sending two divisions to the Gaza border area, its spokesperson said, and was conducting a limited call-up of reserves.

A report on Kan News said that top terrorists in Hamas and Islamic Jihad had gone into hiding, anticipating a heavy Israeli response. Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad warned Israel not to retaliate at all, because any retaliation would be met by rocket attacks “deep in the territory of Israel. The leadership of Israel knows we will strike back with power to such attacks,” the terror group said.

Groups allied with Islamic Jihad said that the attack was due to retaliation by the Prisons Service against terrorists who had attacked and injured Israeli guards in Ketziot Prison Sunday night.

The thought that this was a second "mistake" is way too far fetched to be believed. Much more likely is that it was done by Islamic Jihad and Hamas is covering up for it to try to minimize the Israeli response.

Islamic Jihad did not admit or deny firing the rocket.

It is worrisome that the warning sirens were not activated by this rocket.

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Brooklyn College rally against New Zealand murders turns into calls to murder Jews (updated)

On Tuesday , at Brooklyn College, the Brooklyn College Socialists held a vigil was held in solidarity with the Muslim victims of the massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand.

A small group showed up to show solidarity.

Then, as the Brooklyn College Student Union Instagram shows, people started chanting for an Intifada - effectively calling for people to kill Jews in Israel, as the two previous intifadas had done. The leader of the chants is holding the sign shown above that says "Standing with Muslims against Islamophobia and Racism" so it was certainly at the same gathering.

Yes, a rally to support Muslims against violence ended up becoming a public call to kill Jews.

In Brooklyn.

The chanters don't exactly sound like white supremacists.

(I believe, but I'm not sure, that the chanter was "chrismjia" based on the sign, the bag and the jeans which match the chanter.)

(h/t Melissa)

UPDATE: I originally posted that this was a rally from the YPA Brooklyn College on Thursday instead of the socialists' rally on Tuesday. I regret the error.

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At Yale Insights, Ian Shapiro, Sterling Professor of Political Science, professor of management, and Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, talks about the potential of economic conditions laying the groundwork for peace between Israel and Palestinians.

This mirrors a lot of what Israeli leaders have said, and I have no problem with helping Palestinians gain economic advantages that may lead to them having something to lose if they decide on another intifada. But his even-handedness strays into fantasy in this section of the interview:

SodaStream is very interesting because the original idea was to create employment for Palestinians in the West Bank. It immediately got attacked. The BDS [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions] movement aims to use activism to get Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. It was really aimed at pressuring business tied to the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, not at ventures like this, but SodaStream was attacked.

At the same time, the Jewish settlers don’t like SodaStream either, any more than they like Rawabi. So with pressure from both sides, SodaStream moved back into Israel.

It’s one of very few ventures in which you have Palestinian managers supervising Israeli line workers. There are even now Bedouin managers in supervisory roles. It’s a kind of microcosm of cooperative production in the Middle East, and of course extremely successful. It’s just been bought out for billions. It’s sort of a demonstration project of the possibilities that can actually occur.

I have never heard about any Jewish settlers being against Sodastream, or being against economic benefits to Paletinians. Perhaps a fringe element were but they have no political clout at all - later on Shapiro makes this claim as well:

The far right-wing Israeli settlers would really like the Palestinians to go to Jordan, so they don’t want a thriving Palestinian economy. They’re worried that far from Palestinians going to Jordan, Jordanians might start coming into the West Bank.

The "Jewish settlers" I know want to be friendly with their Palestinian neighbors, they have no problem when (properly vetted) Palestinians come into their communities to work, and they fondly remember the days before the first intifada when they could freely go into Ramallah or other Arab cities in the West Bank without fear to go shopping or get services done by Arabs.

Shapiro is not terrible - he shows that BDS is meaningless to Israel economically - but his desire to say that settlers are as bad as BDS in wanting to hurt ordinary people on the other side is simply not true.

The author of the piece also tries to be even-handed when the facts do not back it up, from the first sentences of the article:

Israel has controlled Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and Gaza, since the Six-Day War in 1967. The roots of the conflict date even further back, to the founding of Israel and to the emergence of the Zionist and Arab nationalist movements in the 19th century.

Funny how in 1967 no one - and I mean no one - ever referred to the territories as "Palestinian." And there was no Palestinian nationalist movement to speak of until after the Six Day War.

This is the sort of subtle bias that one can see even in articles that aren't bad. But Yale should strive for accuracy, not political correctness.

(h/t Shmuel Yosef)

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03/24 Links: Anti-Semitism: Campus Divestment Resolutions in the USA (2005-2019); AIPAC Conference: Romania, Honduras, Cape Verde announce embassies will move to Jerusalem

From Ian:

Anti-Semitism: Campus Divestment Resolutions in the USA (2005-2019)

The first BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) resolutions were proposed in student governments in 2005-6, of the four introduced, two passed and two were defeated. Only five other resolutions were proposed in the following five academic years combined and three of those were defeated. The campaign began to take off in 2012-13 with 10 resolutions (six were defeated), followed by 19 in 2013-14 (12 were defeated) and 27 in 2014-15 (20 were defeated). Since that upsurge, the movement has shown signs of petering out.

In the last 14 years (2005-2019):

A total of 127 BDS measures have been considered – 83 were defeated (65%).

Those votes were limited to a total of 68 schools, less than 3% of America’s four-year colleges. (The California Community College Association is counted as one college and the UC Student Association, which has no power and represents no individual schools is excluded as were four graduate student programs).

A total of 38 schools have approved a BDS resolution in the last 14 years, which represents about 1% of universities.*

A total of 54 schools have rejected BDS (there is some overlap as some of these have adopted BDS in other years) .

A total of 28 schools had two or more votes; 9 schools had three or more (Ohio State, Berkeley, Davis, Riverside, UCSB, UCSD, UCSC, Michigan, Dearborn), and 5 schools had four (Michigan, Michigan Dearborn, UC Riverside, UCSD, Ohio State)

Only 5 schools (Michigan Dearborn, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, and UC Davis) have passed BDS more than once.

Of the 68 schools that voted on BDS, 11 were ranked in the top 20 and 11 of 15 (73%) resolutions were defeated.

A total of 22 schools in the top 50 entertained BDS initiatives and 30 of 46 were defeated (65%). In 2019, Brown became the first Ivy League school to pass a divestment resolution.

Even the handful of divestment resolutions that were adopted by students have no authority and administrators have repeatedly made clear they have no intention of divesting from Israel. In fact, many of the same schools (e.g., UCI) dramatically increased cooperation with Israel after the votes. Overall, about 97% percent of American campuses have had no divestment votes and have little or no BDS activity.

At AIPAC Conference, Romania, Honduras, Cape Verde announce embassies to locate in Jerusalem

A number of Democrat politicians are boycotting the 2019 annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

But there are 18,000 pro-Israel Americans attending, many U.S politicians, and foreign leaders as well.

Three of those leaders just announced their respective countries would follow the U.S. lead and relocate their embassies to Jerusalem. They join not only the U.S., but also Guatamala. Other countries, such as Brazil, have indicated an intention to relocate their embassies, but not on any definite timeline.

Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández delivered the announcement, Israel National News reports:
Honduras announced plans to move its diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, opening a new embassy in the Israeli capital city.

President Juan Orlando Hernandez made the announcement Sunday, during the 2019 American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington DC.

Speaking at the opening meeting of the conference, Hernandez said his country would “immediately” open an “official diplomatic mission” in the Israeli capital city.

Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă made her announcement during her speech, as The Jerusalem Post reports:
“I, as prime minister of Romania, and the government I lead, will move our embassy to Jerusalem,” Dăncilă said. “Our support of the State of Israel and the Jewish community is constant. I am determined to contribute to closer relations between Israel and the entire European Union, particularly now, when Romania is holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union.”

She promised that Romania would “remain the same loyal friend and the strongest European voice in support of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” concluding with the words, “shalom chaveirim (Peace friends), see you in Jerusalem.”

Important to note also, #Romania is currently President of the European Union. In moving forward Embassy to #Jerusalem, will also become first #EU nation to break from formal EU position. #AIPAC2019 #Israel https://t.co/CBqQkXnRNs
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) March 24, 2019

Prime Minister of #CaboVerde José Ulisses Correia E Silva at #AIPAC2019: We are looking to open an embassy in Jerusalem "as soon as possible."
— Jackson Richman (@jacksonrichman) March 24, 2019

Netanyahu touts peerless ties with Trump as he leaves on pre-election trip to DC

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the exceptionalism of US-Israel relations as he headed early Sunday morning to Washington, where he will meet with US President Donald Trump and deliver an address at AIPAC’s annual Policy Conference two weeks before Israeli elections.

Addressing reporters as he boarded his Boeing 777 en route to Washington, Netanyahu said his relationship with Trump surpassed his ties with any world leaders and with any bond between Israel and the US before.

“Never — never — has there been a relationship like this between an Israeli prime minister and an American president. It’s a very, very important asset for the State of Israel, and it is important that [this relationship] continues to serve us.”

Netanyahu traveled to Washington two weeks before Israeli voters will head to the polls on April 9, after a campaign that has seen Netanyahu tout his diplomatic successes and his close bond with Trump.

New "Apartheid?" poster: Mona Khoury-Kassabri

The series continues...

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Last week, the indefatigable David Collier released a book-length report on "Americans in Palestine Live," a closed Facebook group that is a major gathering place for big-named Israel haters.

I see the daily news in the US and it reminds me of the UK a few years ago. There are signs they are on a similar divisive path. Antisemitism rises and Jewish anti-Zionists leap into action, claiming it is about ‘criticism of Israel’. Creating an industry of antisemitism denial that legitmises antisemites. They write articles, they sign petitions, they appear on TV. In the States they have vocal anti-Zionist Jewish activists running organisations such as JVP and Codepink. Did you see the way they ran to protect Ilhan Omar? They create an environment within which antisemitism is given protection. Just like the anti-Zionists of Jewish Voice for Labour did in the UK. Only in the US, both anti-Zionist Jews and antisemites are more numerous.

News outlets such as Mondoweiss push their propaganda at an alarming rate. This air of legitimacy is attracting people. Yet I know the truth.

I know that these people ally themselves with hard-core antisemites. I have watched as they have organised petitions, events and demos with people who share neo-Nazi and white supremacist material.

Ariel Gold, Rebecca Vilkomerson, Medea Benjamin, David Mivasair are just some of the key American activists who have played inside the antisemitic swamp that is Palestine Live. A group that contains other members such as Greta Berlin, Cynthia Mckinney, Miko Peled and Alison Weir. Daniella Ravitzki, Larry Derfner, Ofer Neiman, Pam Bailey, Jonathan Ofir, Jennifer Loewenstein, Mark Levine, Seth Morrison and many more.

I’ve watched people like Codepink’s Ariel Gold deploy her Jewish identity, time after time, just as she aligns with people who push the ideology of the Renegade Tribune in a fight against Israel. Several key JVP figures are inside the group, people from the Rabbinical council, academic council and the JVP Board. Almost the entire front line of Codepink are inside too. Why are Amnesty personnel inside a secret antisemitic Facebook group?

In public they put pretty profile pictures up suggesting they stand ‘together against antisemitism’. They adamantly suggest they fight against it. In private the bitter truth is revealed. Time after time, these actvists are found alongside people who share rabid white supremacist or neo-Nazi material. Not once, not twice, but EVERY time. These people have created an industry of antisemitism denial to protect their precious cause, no matter who they need to align with.

David Mivasair, from the JVP Rabbinical council was in one thread with FIVE people who share material from neo-Nazi or white supremacist websites. FIVE. He conspires with them to weaken Israel, jokes about antisemitism with them and then in public he sings a different tune. Almost NONE of the activists were EVER seen confronting any antisemitism, inside a group that is overburdened with hard-core antisemites. All they did is engage in joint initiatives to attack the Jewish state. The antisemites and the anti-Zionist Jews. Attacking Israel together.

To say that the report is damning is a huge understatement. Major figures in the anti-Israel movement, from CodePink and Mondoweiss and Jewish Voice for Peace to Amnesty International, consistently post in this group and yet are silent when the most vicious antisemitic material gets shared, or when antisemitic material is used in responding to their posts. (Amnesty's Edith Garwood, among others, is an active member of the group, and never says a negative word towards any of the Jew-hatred shared.)

Moreover, the people who post in Palestine Live often directly posts the most vile Jew-hatred in their own timelines. In Facebook, they are "friends" with the Jews and supposed "progressives" who are in the group, their opinions are known and they remain friends.

Even Richard Falk, formerly of the UN, has commented on posts in the group and remained silent when antisemitic material was shared. As was virtually everyone else.

What this research shows is that when these these anti-Israel groups claim to be against antisemitism, they are lying. The antisemitic materials shared by members of Palestine Live come from right wing websites, often with direct links. Yet the only opposition comes from people who think that this is not the right venue for, say, Holocaust denial, or a Jew who helpfully suggests that the words "Jew-Nazi" be replaced with "Zio-Nazi" so the message can go further.

The private anti-Israel groups as a cesspool of anti-Jewish hate, but the people who claim that they are so brave for speaking out against Israel in public are not brave at all in fighting antisemitism - more often than not, they are enabling and spreading it, as Collier shows masterfully.

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Al Arabiya, the Saudi-owned pan-Arab news site, tries to embarrass Qatar in this article about an Israeli athlete winning gold in a competition in Doha.

The World Gymnastics World Cup held in Doha has been largely ignored by Qatari media while the Israeli national anthem was played and the country’s flag raised following the gold medal win by Israeli athlete Alexander Shatilov.

Shatilov won a gold medal on the first day of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) ART Individual Apparatus World Cup finals in Doha.

A video of Shatilov receiving his gold medal while the “Hatikvah” was being played was shared by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Twitter account in Arabic.

“Watch: the Israeli national anthem in Qatar… This is a great achievement for Israeli sports,” the tweet read.

شاهدوا: النشيد الوطني الإسرائيلي في قطر

رياضي الجمباز الإسرائيلي أليكس شاتيلوف فاز اليوم بميدالية ذهبية في كأس العالم في الدوحة، قطر 🇶🇦

إنجاز كبير للرياضة الاسرائيليةpic.twitter.com/IoWFbAEcC6
— إسرائيل بالعربية (@IsraelArabic) March 22, 2019

Last year, Qatar permitted the display of Israel’s national symbols during the 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Cup.

The news that the Israeli national anthem would be played in an Arab country drew criticism on social media at the time, with many calling it a “declared normalization.”

Qatari news outlets have accused Saudi Arabia of normalizing ties with Israel. However, no official Israeli delegation has ever visited the Kingdom and there are no diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In August, UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said that “Doha spreads and promotes normalization rumors about its neighbors while its contacts are documented and ongoing (with Israel).”

Israeli sources said Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman met secretly with Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani last June.

Old habits die hard, but the idea that one can shame a fellow Arab country by exposing that they have relations with Israel is becoming rapidly extinct, as every moderate Arab country is trying to get closer to Israel one way or another.

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03/23 Links: Trump Has Liberated Israel; Golan Promise (1981); David French: The Real Reasons American Evangelicals Support Israel; Rashida Tlaib Lies About Her Grandmother So She Can Blame Israel

From Ian:

Shmuel Rosner (NYTs): Trump Has Liberated Israel

Israel had no choice but to give up on the idea of withdrawing from the Golan Heights. But this reality involves a complete overhaul of the way the international community thinks not just about the Golan Heights but also about all the lands Israel occupied in 1967. The “land for peace” formulation for the past five decades has been a basis of all peace processes between Israel and Egypt, Syria and the Palestinians. Mr. Trump seems to have accepted the position of Israel’s government and given up on the idea that Israel has to withdraw to a decades-old line to get peace.

Withdrawal worked for Israel once, in 1979, when it signed a peace agreement with Egypt and left the Sinai Peninsula, which was also occupied in 1967. But that set a problematic precedent. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt insisted that Israel hand back the entire peninsula to the last inch. Israel decided that the reward was worth the price, as a major Arab country agreed to break with other Arab states and accept Israel’s legitimacy. But there was a hidden, unanticipated cost: Israel’s adversaries, in future negotiations, would demand the same kind of compensation. The 1967 line — what Israel controlled before the war — became the starting point for all Arab countries, including Syria. It became a sacred formula, worshiped by the international community.

What Mr. Trump is doing extends far beyond the ability of Israel to control the Golan Heights, to settle it and invest in it. The American president is setting the clock back to before the peace deal with Egypt, to a time when Israel could argue that the reward for peace is peace — not land.

Syria, of course, is unlikely to accept this. At least not in the short term. But maybe someday, a Syrian leader will come along who doesn’t entertain the thought that Israel might agree to return to the pre-1967 line and who will accept a different formula for achieving peace.

In the meantime, the Golan Heights news is another clarifying moment in Israel’s election. Yes, there is a fierce fight between Mr. Netanyahu and his opponents. Yes, the stakes seem at times high. But Israelis agree on much more than many outside observers imagine. And one of the things they largely agree on is that the 1967 line is no longer relevant.

Mr. Hauser started fighting for recognition of Israel’s sovereignty in the territory when he was an ally of Mr. Netanyahu. Now he is fighting for the same thing as the prime minister’s opponent. There is nothing unnatural or strange about this. On days like these, he told me, “politics is dwarfed amid the call of history.” (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Golan Promise (1981)

In the ensuing "search for peace", America put heavy pressure on Israel to withdraw from the Egyptian Oil fields in Sinai.

What I (in 2008), and apparently President Ronald Reagan (in 1981) forgot was that Israel had received something tangible from the Americans in return for the unilateral withdrawal from the oil fields:
"the tangible benefit for Israel from its agreement to a unilateral withdrawal from the Egyptian oil fields was a presidential letter from President Ford concerning the vital importance of Israel holding on to the Golan Heights, which Israel had taken from Syria in 1967 following 19 years of Syrian shelling on Israel’s northern communities from the towering Golan Heights, and Syria’s incessant attacks from the Golan on the Sea of the Galilee – Israel’s only fresh water resource, from where Israel’s National Water Carrier pumps water to the whole country."

In the letter, Gerald Ford, 38th President of the U.S. gave an assurance that
"The U.S. will support the position that an overall settlement with Syria in the framework of a peace agreement must assure Israel's security from attack from the Golan Heights. The U.S. further supports the position that a just and lasting peace, which remains our objective, must be acceptable to both sides. The U.S. has not developed a final position on the borders. Should it do so it will give great weight to Israel's position that any peace agreement with Syria must be predicated on Israel remaining on the Golan Heights."

.@SecPompeo: “Tonight President Trump made the decision to recognize...[the Golan Heights] is proper to be a sovereign part of the State of Israel. The people of Israel should know the battles they fought, the lives that they lost on that very ground, were worthy and meaningful.” pic.twitter.com/o7K3il7mKk
— Department of State (@StateDept) March 22, 2019

David French: The Real Reasons American Evangelicals Support Israel

Faith in ancient promises, wonder at modern miracles, and a deep conviction that evil forces must not prevail against the Middle East’s most vibrant democracy

It never fails. Whenever a Republican president makes a controversial or contentious move to support Israel — such as moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, or yesterday’s decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights — you’ll see various “explainers” and other stories that purport to inform progressives why the American Evangelical community is so devoted to the nation of Israel.

The explanation goes something like this — Evangelicals believe that the rebirth of Israel is hastening not just the second coming of Christ, but a particular kind of second coming, one that includes fire, fury, and war that will consume the Jewish people. The pithy, tweet-length version of this analysis comes from progressive Young Turks host Cenk Uygur:

You know what's REAL anti-semitism? Right-wing Evangelical Christians supporting Israel because they think it will bring about the End Times where all of the Jews die. Worst anti-Semitism in the world!
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) March 7, 2019

Thus, the political marriage between American Evangelicals and Israelis represents a cynical form of mutual exploitation. Evangelicals support Israel to hasten the apocalypse, while Israelis (who obviously don’t believe Christian eschatology) are happy to humor the Evangelical community and milk that support for tourist dollars and political power.

But the true narrative of American Christian support for Israel is substantially different. The intellectual and theological roots of Christian Zionism do not rest in end-times prophesies but rather in Old Testament promises. Last month Samuel Goldman at Tablet wrote an outstanding piece explaining the centuries-old history and legacy of Christian support for Jewish claims to the Holy Land. After tracing Christian support for a Jewish Israel to the Reformation, he writes this:

These arguments were products of the emphases on the plain meaning of Scripture and the theological significance of covenants that characterized Calvinism. Before the Reformation, most Christians read prophecies like Ezekiel’s as allegories for the transformation of the “carnal” Israel descended from the patriarchs into the “spiritual Israel” represented by the Church. Calvin and his followers, by contrast, insisted that allegorical interpretations were permitted only when literal ones made no sense. But why was it nonsensical to believe that the Jews might be reconstituted as a nation and return to their own land?

Jerusalem Dateline: CBN Exclusive with Secretary Pompeo in Jerusalem 3/22/19

Israel celebrates Trump's decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights; plus CBN News exclusive interview with US Secretary of State Pompeo - from geo-politics to faith; and Purim, the Jewish people celebrate deliverance then and now. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

The Myth that “Israel Created HAMAS” (Tomer Ilan)

From Tomer Ilan:

Lately, HAMAS has been facing allegations of brutal oppression, arbitrary arrest and torture against their own people even from anti-Israel NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

When faced with these allegations, Israel-haters’ turn to one of their favorite conspiracy theories - “Israel created HAMAS” – and try to use it blame Israel for HAMAS wrongdoings.

This theory is pushed by the PLO, blaming Israel for the divide in Palestinian society between PLO and HAMAS. PLO leader Arafat said "Hamas is a creature of Israel".

In fact, before Hamas came into existence, an non-violent Islamic charity operated in Gaza. Israel did not object to it nor did it have legal justification to ban it.

Once the charity morphed into the terrorist organization Hamas, Israel banned it and arrested and deported its leaders.

Here’s a timeline of events:

1973 - the Islamic charity Mujama al-Islamiya was established in Gaza by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

1979 - the organization was recognized by Israel

1984 – Ahmed Yassin and others were jailed by Israel

1985 - Yassin was released as part of the Jibril Agreement

1987 - Yassin co-founded the "paramilitary wing" of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, becoming its spiritual leader

Aug 1988 – Paramilitary wing is renamed Hamas and Hamas Covenant is published

May 1989 - Yassin was arrested by Israel and sentenced to life in prison

Oct 1989 - Israel declared Hamas an illegal terrorist organization

Dec 1992 – After a murder of an Israeli policeman by HAMAS, Israel arrests 1200 HAMAS activists and deports 415 of them to Lebanon.

The Islamic charity Mujama al-Islamiya was established in Gaza by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1973, and started to offer clinics, blood banks, day care, medical treatment, meals and youth clubs, playing an important role for providing social care, particularly those living in refugee camps. It also extended financial aid and scholarships to young people who wanted to study in Saudi Arabia and the West. Mujama al-Islamiya was quiescent and non-confrontational towards Israel. In 1979 it was recognized by Israel and allowed the organization to build mosques, clubs, schools, and a library in Gaza.

At this point in time, Israel had no evidence of terrorist activities that would justify banning the charity organization.

Even those testimonies brought as support for the theory, e.g. Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev (Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s) and Avner Cohen (former religious affairs official in Gaza) say that Israel tolerated or even encouraged the Islamic charity in the 1970’s and early 1980’s before it became HAMAS. Those same officials who implemented that tolerant policy, think it was a mistake. Most of them admit they realize that only in retrospect and all agree that even if Israel didn’t fight the Islamists at that early stage, it was due to negligence, not an attempt to strengthen them.

- David Hacham, an Arab affairs expert who worked for the Israeli military in Gaza in the late 1980s and early ’90s, said: “When I look back at the chain of events I think we made a mistake…But at the time nobody thought about the possible results.”

- Brig. Gen. Shalom Harari, a military intelligence officer, says that warnings were ignored due to neglect, not a desire to fortify the Islamists: "Israel never financed Hamas. Israel never armed Hamas."

- Roni Shaked, a former Shin Bet officer and author of a book on Hamas, says Sheikh Yassin and his followers had a long-term perspective whose dangers were not understood at the time.

In other words, at worst, Israel may be guilty of negligence, by failing to predict that the innocent-looking Islamic charity would, several years later, turn into an Islamist jihadist terrorist organization. At that stage Israel didn't try to ban it which may or may not have been successful even if Israel tried to.

That’s a far cry from the false claim that “Israel created HAMAS”.

History of Hamas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mujama_al-Islamiya

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Yassin

Reports about Hamas brutality:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/03/gaza-hamas-must-end-brutal-crackdown-against-protesters-and-rights-defenders/

https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/20/another-brutal-crackdown-hamas-gaza

https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/10/23/two-authorities-one-way-zero-dissent/arbitrary-arrest-and-torture-under

Claims that "Israel created Hamas":

https://theintercept.com/2018/02/19/hamas-israel-palestine-conflict/

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/hamas-israels-own-creation/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/07/30/how-israel-helped-create-hamas/

https://www.wrmea.org/002-november/israel-created-two-of-its-own-worst-enemies-hamas-and-hezbollah.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123275572295011847

https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/1/ART1/599/421.html

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