Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, June 05, 2019

The "New Left" of the 1960s/70s sounds a lot like the "progressives" of today

With Israel's dramatic victory in the 1967 Six Day War, Jewish progressives faced their greatest challenge. The New Left, splintering along racial and ideological lines, grew critical of the Jewish State, equating its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the evil imperialist impulses of the United States in the Cold War. Many in the New Left rejected Zionism, labeling it a chauvinistic, even racist, manifestation of nationalism.

At the 1967 Conference for a New Politics held in Chicago, for example, African American delegates pressed for passage of a resolution that characterized the June 1967 conflict as an "imperialist Zionist war." As Black Power leader Stokely Carmichael said at a 1968 convention of the Organization of American Students, "We have begun to see the evil of Zionism and we will fight to wipe it out wherever it exists, be it in the Ghetto of the United States or in the Middle East."

Jewish New Leftists in Berkeley responded by creating the Committee for a Progressive Middle East in March, 1969. The Committee intended to strike a balance between the strident anti-Zionist influences growing with the New Left and the much less critical Zionist voices of Hillel and other Jewish groups. Radical Jewish Zionists, despite their attempts to locate progressive Zionism within the boundaries of the New Left, failed to re-unite Jewish leftists with an ever more radical, and anti-Zionist, movement.

The rise of Black Power also alienated Jews from the New Left, which had, by the mid-1960s, come to locate black militancy in its movement's vanguard. The rise of ethnic nationalism ended the inter-racial civil rights movement of the Martin Luther King, Jr., years. Jews, once valued as liberal America's most committed social reform advocates, faced a Black Power-inspired critique that labeled them white oppressors.

When Jewish New Leftists sought a strategic alliance with Oakland's Black Panther Party, for example, they were rebuffed. As one Jewish New Leftist explained, "Even if I were a superaltruistic liberal and campaigned among the Jews to support the Panthers' program, I would justifiably be tarred and feathered for giving aid and comfort to enemies of the Jews. I would rather it were not this way, but it was you who disowned us, not we who betrayed you." The end of the civil rights movement at home combined with Jewish concerns over the New Left's critique of Israel when, in 1969, Eldridge Cleaver told a New York Times reporter that "the Black Panther Party in the United States fully supports Arab Guerillas in the Middle East."

By the early 1970s, the New Left lost most of its earlier Jewish influence. Jews, weary of anti-Zionism, occasional antisemitism, and the rise of ethnic and racial consciousness, turned inward, applying many of the New Left's political strategies to Jewish communal concerns [such as freeing Soviet Jews].

Doesn't the radical wing of the New Left sound like the "progressives" and socialists of today? And J-Street sounds like the group of people who tried and failed to bridge the gap between the insane hateful Leftists and accepting the state of Israel.

Just as in the UK now with the Labour Party, the obvious antisemitism of the Left finally pushed the Jewish liberals too far as they realized that there was no place for them. American Jews who support the Left have not yet reached that point. And some of them are too far gone, as they have subsumed their Jewish identity to their new religion of progressivism.

Here's an interesting JTA article from 1972 showing a debate about the New Left at the time, and again the arguments sound familiar:

Participants in the American Jewish Congress’ tenth annual American-Israel Dialogue debated vigorously today whether the New Left was good for the Jews, Zionism and Israel. The debate was launched Monday night by Foreign Minister Abba Eban, who assailed the New Left, and continued yesterday by Histadrut Secretary General Yitzhak Ben-Aharon, who disagreed with Eban, but with reservations.

“We assume that anti-Semitism on the left can be rectified,” said Marie Syrkin of New York, Zionist editor of the Herzl Press. “It’s a myth to say the New Left is anti-Jewish,” countered Paul Jacobs of San Francisco, who once ran for the Senate on Black militant Eldridge Cleaver’s Peace and Freedom ticket. Leftist anti-Semitism can be purged more easily than rightist anti-Semitism, Miss Syrkin claimed. “There’s a wide spectrum of belief among the New Left.” retorted Jacobs, citing Noam Chomsky and I.F. Stone as non anti-Zionist New Leftists.

Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg. AJ Congress president, said the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel had led Jews to desert the political right. Prof. Theodore Draper of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University suggested that Jews would be better off if they did not “mortgage” their future to either side.

Some speakers took pains to deny any anti-Semitism in the New Left. Others sought to discredit the notion that anti-Semitism was the brainchild of either modern socialism or the American Jewish New Left. Prof. Abraham Udovitch of Princeton pointed out that anti-Semitic tendencies had cropped up in “all redemptive movements” of Christian Europe, a full 600 years before the advent of socialism. (Yesterday, Ben-Aharon claimed that anti-Semites were omnipresent in the Old Left.) Prof. Henry Feingold of City College, New York, insisted that anti-Semitism had been “tacked on” after the New Left adopted its political views.

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If Palestinian leaders have never acted rationally, why do the "experts" keep pretending they will do so if they get a state?

J-Street sent out an email which said:

If this plan never sees the light of day, we won’t shed any tears. At J Street, we’ve been 100 percent clear that the effort led by Jared Kushner and David Friedman is not a good-faith attempt to bring about a peaceful, lasting and viable resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

How do they know? They just do!

Instead, it’s designed to punish and alienate the Palestinians while embracing the hardline positions of the settlement movement -- helping the Israeli right to entrench the occupation and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

How do they know? They just do!

Whether or not the world ever sees the details of their proposal, we know that everything this White House has already said and done has exacerbated the conflict and imperiled the long-term future of both peoples.

How has the conflict been exacerbated? Were the Palestinians negotiating with Israel during the Obama years?

How has the long term future of both peoples been imperiled? They just know!

From slashing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and unilaterally recognizing Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, to refusing to support the two-state solution or even recognize the existence of the occupation, the Trump administration has empowered creeping annexation in the West Bank and undercut the prospects for peace.

How do they know that Israeli building in areas that everyone knows would remain Israeli undercuts the prospects for peace? They just do!

The number of assumptions made by so many people who regard themselves as pro-Israel centrists is astounding. They just know that two states would end the conflict. They just know that Palestinians will abandon support for terror. They just know that calling Israel a Jewish state makes peace less likely. They just know that Palestinians aren't serious about the "right of return" for millions of the descendants of those who left in 1948.

The underlying assumption behind all of these assumptions is that they just know that the Palestinian decision makers are rational actors.

Are the Palestinian leaders rational?

They have rejected peace plans (and an Obama peace framework) numerous times. These would have led to a state and they said no. Doesn't that prove that they don't really want a state?

They have said that their top economic priority is to pay the people who have killed or tried to kill Jews as well as the families of the terrorists. Doesn't that prove that they really don't care about peace?

They have rejected US aid and Israeli tax dollars that are absolutely needed for their people. Doesn't that prove that the Palestinian leaders don't care about their own people?

But every time the Palestinians do something outrageous like these and many other examples, these "pro-Israel" liberals fall over themselves to justify the indefensible. The peace plans were an insult to their dignity, even though they went to (and beyond) 100% of the land area of the territories. The payments to terrorists are just like social security. They cannot accept aid with strings attached because they have pride.

Even if these excuses were true, it shows that Palestinians are not rational actors. They do not prioritize real peace and a state side by side with Israel. They do not teach peace to their children. They lionize terrorists. The list goes on and on.

If the Palestinian leaders are not rational now, isn't it the height of stupidity to assume that they will suddenly become rational and act the way Westerners do if they are rewarded with a state? What evidence is there that any of the assumptions about how they would act after an agreement will pan out?

A two state solution, which the entire world agrees is desirable, is the biggest case of wishful thinking in history. Assumptions with no basis in fact are tossed around as if they are proven true. Anyone who doubts it is vilified as being against peace or being Islamophobic or racist or whatever.

From everything we are hearing from Jared Kushner, he went into this by not making any of the assumptions that have not panned out. He looked at it with eyes that were not blinded by decades of conventional wisdom. And he is trying to find a solution that will make both sides as happy as both sides could be given the nature of the conflict.

It probably will fail, but not one diplomat in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been as clear-eyed and objective as Kushner has been. (The main reason the "pro-Israel" liberals don't believe this is because he is a religious Jew. Yes, that is stereotyping, and it is yet another false assumption from the "experts."

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Background from the Jewish News of Northern California:

The Resolutions Committee of the California Democratic Party has substantially rewritten six resolutions, deleting or softening language harshly critical of Israel.

On Friday, at the party’s state convention in San Francisco, the committee passed five of the resolutions as rewritten, prompting the original authors to withdraw their names and co-sponsors. One other resolution was withdrawn.

The resolutions dealt with a variety of issues related to anti-Semitism, Israel, Palestine and American involvement in the region. One included original language that required the Democratic Party to oppose “all efforts to stigmatize and suppress support for Palestinian human rights by falsely conflating it with anti-Semitism.” Another suggested Israel has a legacy of “settler colonialism,” while still another would have required elected party officials to include equal-time visits to Palestinian territories whenever visiting Israel, and should contact the state party’s Progressive Caucus or Arab-American Caucus to plan those trips. Another demanded a Palestinian “right of return,” which mandates descendants of Palestinians who fled what is now Israel during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence be allowed to return to Israel and to their original homes. Two resolutions supported returning the Golan Heights to Syria.

All such language was removed from the resolutions.

Supporters of Israel considered it a total victory.

While the revised resolutions are much better than those originally proposed, their texts show that there are still significant problems - problems that the mainstream Democratic party do not consider to be problems at all.

Possibly the worst one is 18-11.39L, "Fight Antisemitism, and Identify it Correctly." The "Identify It correctly" is an addition to the original resolution.

Let's look at it a paragraph at a time:

WHEREAS the recent murders of 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue bear witness to an 2 alarming re-emergence of virulent antisemitism that is a core element of historical and currently resurgent white supremacy in the United States and around the world, whose adherents aim their toxic verbal and violent hate also at a wide variety of other scapegoats – Muslims, refugees, Latinos, indigenous people, immigrants, Blacks, Arabs, LGBTQ-identified people and women, among others, and at the left in general – all in an effort to install and bolster regimes that promote nationalism, racism and sexism to suppress democracy, worker rights and movements to save our planet; and

Much like how Congress watered down its antisemitism resolution aimed at Ilhan Omar's offensive statements to make it a meaningless resolution against all bigotry, the CDP did the same here - in a resolution whose title says it is about antisemitism.

Not only that, it conflates vicious attacks in Jews as in Pittsburgh with anyone on the right criticizing anyone on the Left!

This is not a victory. It is an insult.

WHEREAS the current U.S. regime and its growing coterie of look-alikes worldwide are fast establishing a pattern of tolerating and giving succor to antisemites, racists and promoters of other forms of white supremacist ideology; while Israel’s government, along with some of its U.S. backers, have welcomed support for Netanyahu from ultra-right groups in the United States and abroad, dangerously ignoring their deeply rooted antisemitism while aligning with their virulent Islamophobia; and

This paragraph is saying (among other things) that Netanyahu is accepting support from white supremacists in the US. This is an absolute lie, unless you define ALL Zionist groups as Islamophobic white supremacists - something that we see socialist supporters of Democrats do often.

WHEREAS in the wake of the Pittsburgh murders there has been an increase in the volume of Trumpian, Charlottesville-style “both sides-ism,” citing “antisemitism of the right and the left” -- the latter raising a false conflation of support for Palestine with anti-Jewish hatred, which has fueled ongoing legislative and other initiatives to redefine antisemitism as including criticism of Israeli policies and unconstitutional attempts to suppress and even criminalize boycotts aimed at promoting Palestinian rights.

This paragraph denies left-wing antisemitism altogether. This is ironic since even Human Rights Watch issued a report that talked about antisemitism on the left and the right, including Corbyn-style antisemitism that is increasingly prevalent among Democrats in the US.

Also, no one ever claimed that all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. The IHRA definition of antisemitism is clear on when criticism of Israel crosses the line into antisemitism: "Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic."

The California Democrats are effectively denying the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

Moreover, it mischaracterizes legislation against targeting Israel for boycotts as unconstitutional and a free speech issue - which they are not. They are discrimination based on national origin. They are not "aimed at promoting Palestinian rights" but at denying Jewish national rights.

THEREFORE be it resolved that the California Democratic Party rededicates itself, along with all decent people, to exposing, confronting and defeating antisemitism along with all forms of racism, each with its unique sordid history; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that CDP recognizes these phenomena today as overwhelmingly a function of dangerous fascist and white supremacist movements, plus their enabling by too many figures in the Trump administration and in Congress.

Its earlier denial of any antisemitism on the Left shows this resolution to be hollow - instead of being against antisemitism it is against right-wing antisemitism, turning the issue into a political and partisan issue instead of a universal human rights issue.

Even though news coverage of the story claimed that the original drafters of the resolutions took their names off the revised ones, it isn't true. This one still lists as authors and sponsors David Mandel - of the JVP - and Iyad Afalqa, who recently said that fellow Democrat Chuck Schumer was a “shmuck,” a “traitor” and a member of a “fascist Israel lobby.”

Yeah, that's a real expert on antisemitism.

(UPDATE: Apparently they did remove their names but the names are still listed in the documentation.)

The other resolutions have significant problems as well.

If the California Democrats who are supporters of Israel consider this a total victory, then they have become the useful idiots of the ascendant, radical, anti-Israel Democrats.

This isn't victory. This is surrender to the most extreme anti-Israel forces in the party.

(h/t Daled Amos)

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Highland Park NJ Library caves, will allow reading of "Palestine" children's book that glorifies intifada

The Highland Park, NJ library was scheduled to have a public reading of the book "P is for Palestine" last month. The reading was sponsored by the anti-Zionist "Jewish Voice for Peace."

The book includes support for "Intifada," which is being falsely framed to gullible officials as an innocent word.

Book author Goldbarg Bashi said her book does not promote violence or anti-Semitism, but simply celebrates Palestinian culture. The word “intifada” has been unfairly linked to violence, she said.

It really means “resistance,” which has mostly been peaceful, she added. Intifada can include wearing embroidered Palestinian-style dresses or cooking a Palestinian dish; or for Americans, marching in the Women’s March, she argued.

In fact, its main meaning in today's vernacular - both English and Arabic - is almost exclusively the deadly terror sprees that Palestinians unleashed on Israeli Jews in the late 1980s and early 2000s.

This is easy to prove. An image search on the Arabic word "Intifada," "الانتفاضة" shows lots of photos of masked Palestinians rioting, hurling rocks and setting off firebombs.

No pictures of people wearing embroidered dresses or cooking food.

An English search for "intifada" shows a very similar set of photos of violence.

Anyone who believes that the literal meaning of intifada, "shaking off," is the actual meaning of how it is used nowadays is a fool. (It is a similar argument to those who claim that Arabs cannot be antisemitic because they are supposedly Semites, too. It is like saying that "terrible" and "terrific" have identical meanings due to the same etymology.)

There are other significant problems with the book, like "M is for Miftah," the ubiquitous keys that symbolize the Palestinian desire to destroy Israel by "return" of millions of Arabs who never lived there.

The heavily Jewish community of Highland Park protested to the library about the offensive book, and the library postponed the scheduled public reading and agreed to have a hearing about the topic Wednesday night.

Israel-haters have been lying, as usual, and saying that postponing the reading is "censorship." It is not censorship to not have a public reading of a book that is offensive to the members of the community. No one is saying that the library cannot keep copies of the book to be lent out, or that the publisher cannot sell the book.

Groups who despise Israel like CAIR have been circulating a petition to allow the reading, falsely calling the postponement of the reading a "ban."

It was announced on Tuesday night (according to emails sent out by area synagogues) that the hearing was canceled because of fear of violence. I don't think they were worried about Jewish residents of Highland Park starting a riot in their own hometown.

But hundreds of people who support the idea of intifada were going to be coming from other communities to pressure the library. That is what alarmed the library.

The outrageous thing is that the library announced a compromise that is no compromise. They said that they would schedule a reading for "P is for Palestine" and then schedule a separate reading of a pro-Israel children's book.

This is not a solution.

A public library will have a reading of a book that glorifies terror, even if that glorification is implicit. Every Arabic speaker knows that someone means when they use the word "intifada" - and it ain't cooking. It is violence, and Arabic websites routinely glorify the suicide bombers of the Second Intifada, when over a thousand Jews were killed and many more injured.

The Highland Park Library - and the mayor - should be told that a public reading of a book that is hurtful and offensive to so many people is never acceptable and no amount of counter-programming can remove that insult.

You can email the Board of Trustees (trustees@hpplnj.org) and the Library Director (director@hpplnj.org), as well as the mayor Gayle Brill Mittler (brillmittlerhp@gmail.com).

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06/04 Links Pt2: Boteach: Rashida Tlaib’s ‘calming feeling’ about the Holocaust; The Anti-Israel Movement: Coming to A High School Near You?; Corbyn met Arafat in 2002 at Intifada's height

From Ian:

The Trump-Loving Israeli Doctor Offering Aid to Palestinians

Glick puts high hopes in Trump’s ability to reduce the area’s tensions. A peace plan drafted by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was due out this month — until Israel’s politics were scrambled by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inability to form a government, requiring a new election. Even though details of the U.S. plan are yet to be released, Glick praises Trump for offering “another model” that provides financial incentives as well as “human rights, human dignity and civil rights” for Palestinians. Glick personally suggests something along the lines of a confederacy or a demilitarized Palestinian state one day — once Palestinian terrorism is reined in.

Palestinians, however, have largely rebuffed Trump’s plan as little more than a bribe. “You are literally asking a nation to forget about their right to be a nation,” says A’wad, who believes “building trust and understanding” must come first.

In the micro sense, Glick does that every day he goes on his village visits. But thinking bigger, Glick champions more “integration” in Judea and Samaria as the way to peace. “I honestly believe if there were 100,000 more Jews in Hebron, they would get along with the Palestinians, just as they get along in Tel Aviv and Haifa right now,” he says.

In the Old City of Hebron, some 800 ideologically driven Jewish settlers live within the Palestinian city of 100,000 under heavy — and, according to Palestinian locals, brutal — military protection. “It can be hard to convince other Palestinians not to commit violence because the settler project is based on violence. The occupation is a form of violence,” says A’wad, who advocates for nonviolence.

Talks of “integration” by Glick will continue to face criticism from activist Palestinians and the international left, not to mention the Israeli far-right, some of whom want to simply expel the Arab population. But in Glick’s daily interactions with Palestinian patients and friends, there is a shared feeling about the basic nature of his actions — good. During those heartwarming moments with patients, the prospect of Israelis and Palestinians living together doesn’t seem simply possible to Glick. It’s already reality.

As Glick leaves her home, the Palestinian grandmother with diabetes showers him with praise. “Bless you, Doctor!” she exclaims. “You are a good man. Please come back with your wife for tea sometime!” (h/t Zvi)

Shmuley Boteach: Rashida Tlaib’s ‘calming feeling’ about the Holocaust

TO SAY that “there’s a kind of calming feeling” you get when you “think of the Holocaust” is worse than antisemitic; it’s positively sick. Just imagine if someone had said the same of slavery. The offensiveness of these words should be clear to anyone, certainly someone who has been accused by Jews of bigotry. It should be yet more apparent to someone, like Tlaib, who decries that assessment as wrong.

Generally, I wouldn’t have made a fuss over her near miss on saying that Americans “celebrated” the Holocaust on Yom Hashoah. In light of her other verbal “slip” – her “calming feelings” on the Holocaust – I’m inclined to believe that there’s meaning in both. Accidental indecency doesn’t strike the same sentence twice.

Worse than her sick choice of words were her historical distortions. Tlaib claimed that her ancestors provided Jews with a “safe haven” around the time of the Holocaust. The truth is that both before, during and after the Holocaust, many Palestinian Arabs worked to make the land of Israel into a death trap.

Before the Holocaust, as tens of thousands of Jews sought refuge in Israel from the persecutions and pogroms of Eastern Europe, Palestinian Arabs didn’t provide much in the way of safety. Many, on the contrary, made a habit of massacring their Jewish neighbors. In April 1920, five innocent Jews were murdered by rioting Arabs in Jerusalem. Eleven months later, 47 more innocent Jews would be slaughtered by rioting Arabs, this time in Jaffa. Worst of all was the pogrom of August 1929, wherein an astounding 133 innocent Jews would be killed by Arab rioters in Safed, Jaffa and most famously, Hebron.

PM rebukes Omar, Tlaib after they request help for BDS activist

In a letter sent to U.S. lawmakers on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a strong rebuke of Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), saying the two were “the antithesis to the strong support for Israel” on Capitol Hill.

The letter was in response to a letter signed by a group of U.S. Congress members who had asked him to intervene in the case of Omar Shakir, the regional director of Human Rights Watch and an activist in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Shakir was denied an extension of his visa because he was actively engaged in anti-Israel propaganda during his stay in Israel. The Supreme Court recently issued a temporary injunction to prevent Shakir’s deportation and will make a final ruling in the coming days.

Netanyahu said that he was not going to heed the lawmakers’ request because Shakir had shown “active support for anti-Israel boycotts.”

Netanyahu further stressed that Shakir had failed to demonstrate that he was not using his stay in Israel for propaganda purposes as part of the BDS movement against Israel.

He added that he was “surprised” that two of the lawmakers who joined the request, referring to Tlaib and Omar, were “two BDS supporters.” Omar and Tlaib have come under fire in recent months after making controversial remarks against Israel’s actions and even calling for punishing the Jewish state. Omar has recently become embroiled in controversy after some of her tweets were deemed anti-Semitic.

Netanyahu did not mention the two by name but made it obvious that he was referring to them.

Mohamed Salah is on top of the soccer world right now. The Liverpool starlet hailing from Nagrig, a small Egyptian village, scored the winning goal of the UEFA Champions League--the premier club soccer competition--in just the second minute of the match. Doing so, he by and large paved the path to victory for his side against rivals Tottenham Hotspurs. The 26-year-old Salah’s premier form throughout the Champions League campaign was capped off by his stellar performance in the final, warranting adulation from the nearly 200 million-person television audience. But behind his famed scraggly-haired, smiling disposition and unparalleled soccer talent is a history of bigotry and anti-Semitic behavior slipping under the radar as celebrations unfold.

Salah’s public record of discriminatory action began in a 2014 two-legged match against Maccabi Tel Aviv. Salah, at the time a part of FC Basel, refused to shake the hands of the Israeli players prior to the match. The first meeting between the Israeli side and Basel saw Salah attempt to play off not shaking hands by feigning tying his shoe; however when the snub happened once more, this time in Tel Aviv, fans recognized the hostile act and proceeded to boo Salah harshly. Initially, Salah had plans to boycott the match altogether, though was later persuaded by team officials to put politics and bigotry aside for the sake of the game.

Salah’s efforts at undermining the validity of Israel’s existence were furthered when he bashed the Jewish state in a pre-game interview ahead of a match in Netanya:

“In my thoughts I am going to play in Palestine and not Israel, and I am also going to score and win there. The Zionist flag won’t be shown in the Champions League.”

If his ‘tying my shoes’ facade in 2014 wasn’t unsportsmanlike enough, his firebrand anti-Zionist comments and refusal to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist display Salah’s grotesque views on the conflict--a stark difference from his golden boy public perception in the wake of the Champions League final.

In a final triumphant act at the expense of Israeli soccer fans and all standards of fair play, Salah used his powerful position and newfound stardom at Liverpool to issue an ultimatum to Liverpool management that he would refuse to play alongside Moanes Dabour, a 27-year-old Israeli striker now at Spanish club Sevilla whom Liverpool took interest in. Dabour was never signed by the Reds, with widespread speculation that Salah’s threats caused management to avoid moving forward with Dabour.

As Salah is feted for his impressive feat in the UEFA Champions League game, his politicization and aggressive anti-Zionist stance ought to have no place in the international sports arena. Both the UEFA and FIFA--the largest soccer governing bodies globally--espouse publicly their commitment to rejecting discrimination, racism, and other bigoted behavior from the sport altogether, especially after a long and checkered past of such actions. Salah’s clout and physical adroitness shouldn’t exempt him from accountability for his clearly bigoted and discriminatory actions.

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Eid al Fitr, the holiday following Ramadan, is declared when the crescent moon is seen, much like how Jews used to declare the new month in Temple times.

Unlike the Jews of ancient Israel and Judah, there is no centralized Muslim system for who determines the date that the new moon is seen.

So this year the holiday of Eid al Fitr will be today in some countries and tomorrow elsewhere.

In Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen the completion of the month of Ramadan for the Muslim year 1440 has been declared over and today is the first day of Eid al-Fitr, since they saw the crescent moon.

However, for Egypt and Jordan (and the Palestinian territories), they did not see the crescent, so Tuesday is the end of Ramadan, and Wednesday, June 5, is the first day of Eid.

Hamas seems to follow the Mufti of Jerusalem on this topic.

Jews created a fixed calendar in order to avoid these types of issues during the first millennium of the common era.

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06/04 Links Pt1: Nechama Rivlin, wife of President Reuven Rivlin, dies at 73; The “War of Many Rounds” in Gaza: Hamas-Islamic Jihad vs. Israel; Qatar bans homosexuality as Al Jazeera marks LGBT Pride Month

From Ian:

Nechama Rivlin, wife of President Reuven Rivlin, dies at 73

Nechama Rivlin, the wife of President Reuven Rivlin, died Tuesday morning at the age of 73, the President’s Residence said in a statement.

The statement said Rivlin died on the eve of her 74th birthday at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where she was being treated after relapsing following a lung transplant in March.

“Three months after a lung transplant, Nechama Rivlin died this morning,” Beilinson Hospital said in a statement. “To our regret, the medical efforts to stabilize her over time during the complicated rehabilitation period after the transplant did not succeed.”

The president posted a picture of his wife on Facebook along with the words “My Nechama.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences to the Rivlin family.
President Reuven Rivlin and his wife Nechama at a cruise in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam on March 22, 2017.(Kobi Gideon / GPO)

“Along with all the citizens of Israel, my wife Sara and I feel deep sorrow at the death of the president’s wife, Nechama Rivlin,” Netanyahu said in a brief statement.

“We all prayed for her recovery during the recent period during which she fought bravely and intensely for her life. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the president and to all his family,” he said.

Rivlin, 73, suffered from pulmonary fibrosis, a condition in which scar tissue accumulates in the lungs and makes it difficult to breathe. In the years before the transplant, she had usually been seen in public with a portable oxygen tank, including at official ceremonies.

The lung transplant was declared successful when it was completed on March 12, but doctors cautioned that her condition remained tenuous and that she faced a long road to recovery.

JCPA: The “War of Many Rounds” in Gaza: Hamas-Islamic Jihad vs. Israel

Since the end of the 2014 Gaza war, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Gaza have launched rockets against Israeli civilian targets and provoked Israeli air strikes in retaliation in eight rounds of escalation that are part of one long war. Both sides realize that this kind of war cannot lead to a significant change in the reality concerning Gaza.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad believe that the rounds of escalation serve their interests and are important in their own merit as they help demonstrate their commitment to the struggle against Israel. The escalations enable them to boast of their military capabilities, mobilize the population to the cause of fighting Zionism, distract the Gaza population from their daily miseries, and gain economic assistance from Qatar, while blaming Mahmoud Abbas for the difficulties in Gaza and pressuring the PA, Egypt, Qatar and Israel to improve living conditions in Gaza.

Israel remains committed to a policy of trying to maintain a balance in which Hamas serves as the Gaza entity strong enough to maintain a monopoly over the use of force from the territory it governs, and at the same time remains weak and deterred enough to be restrained from firing on Israel.

The continuing rounds of conflict raise doubts regarding the ability of Hamas to fulfill this role. It appears that PIJ and militant elements within Hamas are emboldened enough to challenge the Hamas leadership from time to time. Yet Hamas is always able to restore discipline and restraint, which means that the Israeli policy has not lost its relevance. The alternative to this policy is regarded as very costly both in the short and long term, and this is why Israel prefers to stick to its current path.

In the latest round, Israel raised the price for the Palestinians, while also showing greater readiness to improve their living conditions. If this strategy convinces the Palestinians in Gaza to reach an agreement that will guarantee an extended period of calm, then the policy will have been successful. But if it fails and there is another round of the war, and if the harassment of the Israeli population along the Gaza border continues, Israel may be forced to consider other options.

The fundamental problem is that the population of Gaza is comprised primarily of descendants of Palestinian refugees who have been indoctrinated by their leadership to believe that they are duty-bound to fight against Zionism until they can return to their ancestral homes in Israel. This narrative perpetuates the conflict and makes a political solution nearly impossible.

This means that the slogans that call for Israel to reach a political solution to the conflict are, unfortunately, detached from reality. Palestinians in Gaza truly desire and deserve to live better lives. Regrettably, they and their leadership do not see this goal as more vital than the struggle against the State of Israel.

Was The Outcome At The Democratic Convention in California A Win Or Loss For Jews and Israel? (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

The far left radicals have gone beyond harassing and intimidating Jews on college campuses.
Now, they have taken the next step - camps, schools and even the Democratic Party.

Last year, Jonathan Tobin wrote about The battle for Camp Ramah, a battle that started

after several of its counselors took part in a seminar organized by the anti-Zionist IfNotNow group. IfNotNow’s purpose was to leverage the willingness of some of the young people involved to educate campers about the evils of Israel’s “occupation” of lands into a game-changing shift that would potentially transform one of America’s most cherished Zionist education venues into a hotbed of anti-Israel agitation.

Just last month, a high school district Illinois withdrew a course for educators, “Teaching Palestine” due to opposition from teachers and community members. Developed by Teachers for Social Justice,

Goals also included discussing “concrete strategies for how to respond to Zionist professional developments and curricula or when parents/staff/others object to anti-Zionist curriculum,” developing grade appropriate scope and sequence for teaching Palestine” and making “curriculum connections between Palestine and issues affecting our students, such as: state/police violence, the struggle for racial justice in the U.S., settler colonialism in Palestine and the U.S., access to education for historically marginalized youth.”

And now, Jewish Voice for Peace has tried to hijack the California Democratic Convention over the weekend, attempting to have 6 one-sided anti-Israel resolutions inserted into the agenda.

Fox News originally broke the story when it reported California Dems propose resolution linking Israeli government to massacre at Pittsburgh synagogue:

A draft resolution set to be debated this weekend at the California Democratic Party State Convention, obtained by Fox News, accuses the Israeli government of willfully "aligning with the virulent Islamophobia" of white supremacist groups in the U.S. -- and links Israel indirectly to the Oct. 2018 massacre of 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

...The document was one of a slew of secretive, unpublished proposals obtained by Fox News that are slated for debate beginning Friday morning. A total of 14 Democrat presidential contenders are set to descend on the San Francisco gathering at the Moscone Convention Center, including Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Bernie Sanders.

Here is a quick look at the topics of the 6 resolutions, based on a flyer distributed by Progressive Zionists of California, which opposed them:

The 6 resolutions break down as follows. The full text of the original resolutions follows at the end of this post.

1. Stop Trump from Destroying all Possibility for Peace in the Middle East
2. Affirming CDP's Commitment to Human Dignity and Basic Human Rights in the Israeli-Occupied Territories and Ending the Gaza Blockade
3. Officials Should Learn about All Sides when they Travel to Israel-Palestine
4. All Members of the US House of Representatives from California Should Join Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib's Congressional Delegation to Palestine
5. Affirming CDP's Commitment to Supporting Human Rights, Equality and Justice in Israel/Palestine; and
6. Commending the House for Resolving to Fight all Racism and Bigotry and for resisting the False Conflation of Support for Palestinian Rights with Antisemitism

The 1st resolution includes:

o blaming "the extremist, right-wing Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, which has relentlessly undermined any chance of agreement"
o accusing Trump of hindering any chance of returning to peace talks by "moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, closing the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians seek as their future capital; halting funding of the United Nation Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which provides healthcare, nutrition and education for Palestinians..."
o proposing the Democratic Party confront Trump's policies and annul them

The 2nd resolution includes:

o decrying not only rockets fired into Israel from Gaza (Hamas is never mentioned by in any of the resolutions) but also "regular" air and artillery strikes into Gaza neighborhoods
o accusing Israel of sniper shootings of unarmed civilians at the fence, with hundreds killed and thousands wounded since March 2018 - ignoring admissions by Hamas of their members being among those killed and incidents when rioters broke through the fence.
o recommending removal of the blockade of Gaza

The 3rd resolution includes:

o meeting with Israeli anti-occupation advocates and with Palestinian officials (including Hamas terrorists?) and non-governmental organization leaders

The full text of the 4th resolution to join Tlaib's delegation was not available

The 5th resolution includes:

o acceptance that Israeli settlements are "illegal under international law"
o claims there over 60 laws (dealing with immigration, religion, education, land ownership, residency rights and much more) in Israel discriminate against non-Jewish citizens. Though no source is given, this is a claim made by Adalah that is debunked by The Institute for Zionist Strategies here (English summary) and here (in depth in Hebrew), as well as by NGO Monitor and by CAMERA.
o the claim that all Arabs who left then-Palestine "along with their descendants are prevented from returning to their homes and homeland...and supports Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homeland"

The 6th resolution includes:

o tying the attack on the Pittsburgh synagogue to white supremacism, with the extension that "the Israeli government, along with its U.S. backers, have welcomed support from ultra-right groups in the United States and abroad"
o the claim that "leading advocates for Palestinian rights in Congress and elsewhere have been falsely accused of antisemitism"
o condemnation of "unfounded attacks and even death threats against members of Congress like Ilhan Omar"

Bias Much?

In addressing the proposed resolutions, the ADL did not waste time trying to refute each and every claim made in the resolutions. Instead, the ADL simply pointed out how deliberately one-sided the resolutions are:

By laying blame on one party – Israel – and employing demonizing language, the resolutions reduce a complicated dispute to a facile narrative divorced from reality. In fact, these resolutions are just part and parcel of a coordinated effort to demonize and delegitimize Israel and its right to exist as a Jewish homeland.

For example, the resolution dedicated to “Stopping Trump from destroying all possibility for peace in the Middle East” places no blame on the Palestinian Arabs for stalled peace talks, ignoring repeated peace offers Israel has made.

Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center described the resolutions as an attempt to “de-couple anti-Semitism from the hatred and attack on the state of Israel and on people who support the state of Israel” which amounted to “a clever but overt shift where you suddenly are getting statements all over the globe identifying Israel with white supremacy.”

Siamak Kordestani the Los Angeles Assistant Regional Director of the American Jewish Committee in Los Angeles also not how one-sided the resolutions are:

“They absolve terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, which have for decades targeted and murdered Israeli civilians,” Kordestani said.

Old Habits Die Hard

One of those involved in the resolutions is Jewish Voice for Peace, which has been noted for its bullying and harassing on campus. Apparently, those tactics go beyond college campuses.

While the anti-Israel resolutions submitted to the Resolutions Committee do not show any authors, according to a letter obtained by JNS, activists associated with the pro-BDS group Jewish Voice for Peace and the Sacramento Palestine Coalition are tied to them.

Additionally, Iyad Afalqa, chair of the Arab-American Caucus, is listed in the letter as one of the authors of the resolutions. Earlier this year, Afalqa called Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) a “shmuck,” a “traitor” and a member of a “fascist Israel lobby” on Facebook.

“This group is loud and aggressive, and some pro-Israel Democrats have felt bullied and intimidated,” said Kujawsky. “I myself have been called a white supremacist and supporter of genocide merely for being a Zionist.” [emphasis added]

Kujawsky does not come right out and say that the intimidation tactics extended to the Democratic convention itself, but pro-Israel Democrats are being harassed and intimidated in general.

Results

In the end, the pro-Israel groups claimed victory, with the Resolutions Committee rewriting all 6 resolutions and passing 5 of them in their rewritten form. The original authors were angered to the extent that they withdrew both their names and their sponsorships. The other resolution was withdrawn.

One of those groups claiming victory was Democratic Majority for Israel, whose president said

And we are very pleased that, after careful deliberation, the party accepted our view. Sadly though, this is not the last time we’ll see efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel. [emphasis added]

Win, Lose or Draw?

Which raises the question as to how much of a victory was achieved.

After all, despite the numerous victories over BDS initiatives, the fact remains that they continue and that continued exposure of those anti-Israel views and attacks, especially on college campuses, do constitute a victory.

What about here?

I reached out to someone who attended the convention and suggested to them that the victory was being exaggerated.

They agreed -- but only in part, and made the following points:

o While the radical left did get their exposure, they also earned the wrath of moderate Democrats who preferred to address issues like health care, housing and predatory lending.
o The committees addressed one of the main leaders behind the resolution "as though he were a small child."
o The elections for delegates were held on Shabbos this year, which prevented traditional Jews from participating. What is needed is to get more people involved in the whole process so as to vote the more radical members out

That optimism is shared by Abraham Cooper, though he is cautiously aware of the alternative:

The moment there will be a definitive pushback on this kind of language, this kind of behavior, it’ll disappear. Every time there’s an incremental step [that’s] met by silence, acquiescence… it’s just going to continue to grow.

So, is the Democratic Party leadership ready to do what is necessary to prevent this from happening again?

When news first broke about the original 6 resolutions, The Jewish Democratic Council of America responded

“We urge the California Democratic Party not to fall into the trap of letting Republicans divide us on Israel and the fight against anti-Semitism. Nearly all extremist violence in the United States, including attacks on Jews and Muslims, have come from right-wing extremists. There is no doubt that the rhetoric of President Trump and other Republican leaders have contributed to a climate of increased hatred and bigotry in our country, and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms.

“While Republicans continue to attempt to turn Israel into a partisan wedge issue, the Democratic Party remains staunchly pro-Israel.

But those were not Republicans sponsoring those resolutions.

The leadership of both parties needs to take responsibility if this threat is going to be nipped in the bud.

NOTE:
Someone else at the convention told me that the discussion of the resolutions was limited to the committee rooms alone, and did not make it out to the convention itself -- and that those behind the resolutions "did not make any friends" by arguing with the Resolutions Committee members.

So far, so good.

But the issue may not be completely closed.

It seems that though none of the anti-Israel resolutions were actually passed on the floor, those resolutions that were not passed will now be held over to the Executive Board meeting in August.
-----

Here is the text of the original resolutions, not including the resolution about attending Tlaib's tour. The text of the revised resolutions is not yet available at this time.

Dear Progressive Colleagues:

We seek your help to obtain the largest number of endorsers possible for five resolutions related to Israel-Palestine that we plan to submit to the CDP Resolutions Committee for consideration at the state convention. The resolutions run a gamut of issues ranging from protecting our First Amendment right to criticize Israel, calling for an end to the Gaza siege, upholding the core rights of the three main sectors of the Palestinian population (end the occupation; equal rights in Israel; right of return for refugees) and condemning Trump's horrendously lopsided policies.

All five resolutions are shown in the text of this email. Once you've read the resolutions, please link to the Israel-Palestine form:

The form is where you tell us which resolutions you want to endorse. You can check the box saying you want to endorse all five, or you can select some and not others. Please return the form to us as soon as possible. We need to submit the resolutions by late April (30 days before the convention), but in the past it as been possible to submit additional names a week or two after that. A return email would be effective in letting us know if you don’t want to endorse any. Please know that the resolution authors may agree to amend the wording, at their discretion, in response to requests by Resolutions Committee members leading up to or at the committee meeting. Endorsers are encouraged to attend the meeting to participate in any such process and to speak in favor of one or more of the resolutions.

We are sending this to hundreds of delegates we hope will be supportive. While only 25 endorsers are needed to submit a resolution, including many more endorsers has been shown to enhance dramatically our bargaining power in negotiating any compromises and in preparing to obtain the 300 wet-ink delegate signatures needed to bring a resolution to the convention floor if we choose to go that route. To the extent we can, we’ll be following up with phone calls to those who don’t respond quickly. Please do respond to save us the trouble.

Please do forward this to other delegates you know who would also likely sign. They may or may not have received it from us, and reinforcement can’t hurt. Endorsements by clubs, county parties and regional meetings are also welcome. Please call David Mandel with any questions at 916-769-1641.

Sincerely,

Chris Yatooma, David Mandel, Kari Khoury, Yassar Dahbour, Iyad Afalqa

RESOLUTION 1: TRUMP POLICIES
STOP TRUMP FROM DESTROYING ALL POSSIBILITY FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

WHEREAS the fragile peace process in Israel-Palestine has stalled due to the policies of the extremist, right-wing Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, which has relentlessly undermined any chance of agreement through its expansion and establishment of new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, and has now come out for outright annexation of the West Bank, all in flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that an “occupier may not forcibly deport protected persons, or deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into occupied territory,” and UN Security Council Resolution 242, which affirms the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war”; and has refused to honor agreements that previous Israeli governments had reached with the Palestinian Authority;

AND WHEREAS President Trump has wasted no chance to hinder any return to peace talks by taking biased, unilateral steps on final status issues that were up for negotiation between the Israelis and the Palestinians, such as moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, closing the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians seek as their future capital; halting funding of the United Nation Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides healthcare, nutrition and education for Palestinians who became refugees as a result of Israel’s establishment and subsequent wars; and ending U.S. support for health and social institutions of the Palestinian Authority. These actions explicitly demonstrate U.S. unfitness as a mediator, are condemned by the international community and further anti-American sentiment worldwide;

AND WHEREAS the United States has its own legacy of settler colonialism that left a devastating impact upon the indigenous Native Americans, obliging us to support freedom and justice for oppressed people everywhere.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the California Democratic Party reaffirms its opposition to Israel’s occupation and support for peace in Israel-Palestine based on equality and human rights for all, and directs Democratic Party officials to confront Trump’s policy by combating all measures that aim to further dispossess the Palestinian people, and to promote those that will nullify the destructive policies Trump has enacted.

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that CDP declares its unequivocal support for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that will lead to the achievement of self-determination for the Palestinian people in a framework to be negotiated that ensures equal rights, democracy, justice and peace for Israeli Jews and Palestinians alike.

_______________________

RESOLUTION 2: ANTISEMITISM
COMMENDING THE HOUSE FOR RESOLVING TO FIGHT ALL RACISM AND BIGOTRY AND FOR RESISTING THE FALSE CONFLATION OF SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS WITH ANTISEMITISM

WHEREAS the October 2018 murders of 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue were the culmination of an alarming re-emergence of virulent antisemitism that is a core element of historical and currently resurgent white supremacism in the United States and around the world, whose toxic verbal and violent hate targets also Muslims, refugees, Latinos, indigenous people, immigrants, Blacks, Arabs, LGBTQ-identified people and women, among others, and the left in general – all in an effort to promote, here and abroad, nationalism, racism and sexism to suppress democracy, worker rights and movements to save our planet;

AND WHEREAS the Israeli government, along with its U.S. backers, have welcomed support from ultra-right groups in the United States and abroad, dangerously ignoring their deeply rooted antisemitism while aligning with their virulent Islamophobia;

AND WHEREAS leading advocates for Palestinian rights in Congress and elsewhere have been falsely accused of antisemitism, with such false accusations weaponized to fuel legislative and other initiatives to redefine antisemitism as including criticism of Israeli policies and unconstitutional attempts to suppress and even criminalize boycotts aimed at promoting Palestinian rights.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the California Democratic Party commends the Democratic majority in Congress for resisting these efforts and passing a resolution calling on “all public officials to confront the reality of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry, as well as historical struggles against them, to ensure that the United States will live up to the transcendent principles of tolerance, religious freedom, and equal protection as embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the first and 14th amendments to the Constitution.”

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the California Democratic Party opposes all efforts to stigmatize and suppress support for Palestinian human rights by falsely conflating it with antisemitism, whether in the unfounded attacks and even death threats against members of Congress like Ilhan Omar or in the widespread efforts to shut down discussion and intimidate students on campuses around the country.

_______________________

RESOLUTION 3: ISRAEL/PALESTINE VISITS
OFFICIALS SHOULD LEARN ABOUT ALL SIDES WHEN THEY TRAVEL TO ISRAEL-PALESTINE

WHEREAS the government of Israel and/or U.S. organizations that support it frequently invite members of Congress, state legislators and other public officials to tour Israel on subsidized trips that are clearly – and often admittedly -- meant to cultivate sympathy for its policies, imparting only a partial view of the situation in Israel/Palestine;

AND WHEREAS a full, balanced understanding of the situation is crucial for officials responsible for shaping U.S. policy in the region or who might have such responsibilities in the future;

AND WHEREAS the CDP has already committed to supporting Palestinian rights and opposing Israel’s ongoing occupation, and to human rights, equality and free speech for all;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the California Democratic Party directs any officials considering such an invitation from the Israeli government or other group to accept it only if they undertake to devote an equal amount of time to visiting Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories, and to meeting with Israeli anti-occupation advocates and with Palestinian officials and non-governmental organization leaders. Moreover, officials and other party members are encouraged to initiate their own visits to Israel-Palestine that would include the listed activities.

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that officials considering such visits should contact the communications directors of the CDP Progressive and/or Arab-American caucuses, who will be available to make appropriate connections.

_______________________

RESOLUTION 4: GAZA
AFFIRMING CDP’S COMMITMENT TO HUMAN DIGNITY AND BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE ISRAELI-OCCUPIED TERRITORIES AND ENDING THE GAZA BLOCKADE

WHEREAS, historically the United States has joined other nations in funding health care systems, educational and civic infrastructure in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza, in fall 2018 that Trump administration decided to cut $25 million it had planned to give to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, a group of six hospitals, some church-run, providing care primarily to Palestinians; eliminated its $300 million contribution to the UN agency running schools and health clinics for Palestinian refugees; and slashed more than $200 million for humanitarian and development aid in the West Bank and Gaza;

AND WHEREAS, the more than decade-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip has caused severe damage to infrastructure, with wastewater treatment plants lacking capacity, causing severe water pollution; with Palestinians having access to only a few hours of electricity a day; with poverty at 53 percent, food insecurity at 68 percent and a palpable loss of hope and rising desperation among the population, it is imperative that the United States resume life sustaining humanitarian support;

AND WHEREAS, the untenable status quo – rocket firings into Israel from Gaza; regular air and artillery bombardment of Gaza neighborhoods; and sniper shootings of unarmed civilians at the fence, with hundreds killed and thousands wounded since March 2018 – threatens to deteriorate into even more devastating warfare;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the California Democrat Party urges Congress and the administration to reinstate the funding for UNWRA, hospitals and civilian infrastructure that can help sustain human rights and dignity for Palestinians as they endure life under occupation, blockade and political upheaval.

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the California Democratic Party urges Congress and the administration to demand that Israel and Egypt end their blockade of the Gaza Strip in favor of immediate international involvement to restore a semblance of normal life for the area’s 2 million Palestinians while ensuring the security of all parties and advancing toward a political settlement in the region.

_______________________

RESOLUTION 5: SETTLEMENTS and HUMAN RIGHTS
Affirming CDP’s commitment to supporting human rights, equality and justice in Israel/Palestine.

WHEREAS, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights are illegal under international law, as affirmed in numerous UN Security Council resolutions, including the most recent, 2234, which passed 14-0 in December 2016, was not opposed by the Obama Administration, and declares the settlements’ establishment as having "no legal validity” and constituting “a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace”;

AND WHEREAS, over 60 laws (dealing with immigration, religion, education, land ownership, residency rights and much more) in Israel discriminate against non-Jewish citizens, including the recently enacted Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, a constitutional level statute that among other things defines Israel as the nation-state of only the Jewish people, declares Jewish settlement as a national value and relegates Arabic language to inferior status, thus formalizing second-class citizenship status for the 25 percent of Israelis who are not Jewish;

AND WHEREAS, Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 and their descendants, now numbering in the millions, are prevented from returning to their homes and homeland in what became Israel, in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Section 13, which is unequivocal in guaranteeing civilians a right to return to their homes; and numerous UN resolutions, first and foremost General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948 (supported by the United States), which specifically endorses the rights of Palestinian refugees.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party supports ending Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, opposes Israeli settlements in them; demands equal rights for Palestinians and other non-Jewish residents in Israel; and supports Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homeland;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that CDP rejects, in accordance with international law, any acquisition of territory by use of force, and therefore in addition to opposing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and of Gaza, also calls for withdrawal from Syria’s Golan Heights, and condemns the Trump administration’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty in that territory.

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

No, Trump didn't stop aid to Palestinians. Palestinians did. (update)

Joyce Karam, an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University, tweeted:

Does Jared Kushner not know that cutting aid to UNRWA affects 1.3 million Palestinian? Cutting aid to Jerusalem hospitals affects Palestinian patients? This is not punishing PA leadership...

Sharp interview by @jonathanvswan pic.twitter.com/leHdJesg4K
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) June 3, 2019

While the US did cut all aid to UNRWA, which should not exist, did it also cut aid to "Jerusalem hospitals?"

Karam is apparently referring to USAID, which stopped all its services to the West Bank and Gaza at the end of January. USAID wouldn't have given money to fund hospital; it would give funds to projects including medical, infrastructure, governance and education.

Headlines blamed the US for stopping all aid:

Apparently, Karam is the kind of academic who doesn't bother reading the actual article. Because unlike the headline, the article says:

The Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA), passed by Congress and then signed into law by President Donald Trump last year, has just come into force.

This allows Americans to sue those receiving foreign aid from their country in US courts over alleged complicity in "acts of war".

At a news conference on Thursday, senior official Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian Authority (PA) had sent a letter to the US state department asking them to end funding because of a fear of lawsuits.

"We do not want to receive any money if it will cause us to appear before the courts," he said.

The US didn't end the USAID program - the Palestinians did.

Just like Israel didn't stop sending tax revenues to the PA - the Palestinians did.

Palestinians want lots of money, but they don't want any responsibility or strings attached. They want to be able to spend the money on salaries for terrorists without interference. They want to be able to receive billions from the US but not to be sued for the Americans killed by the terrorists they support.

The BBC headline, and others, were completely the opposite of the truth. The Trump administration has reduced aid to Palestinians in line with the philosophy that money given should provide some benefits to the US - something every other country does as well, implicitly or explicitly. But the decision to end all cooperation with the US came from the Palestinian leadership, not the US.

It is just one more example of how Palestinian leaders do not give a damn about their own people.

And this is another example of how an academic shows her ignorance - or her willingness to lie.

UPDATE: In fact, the US did cut aid to Arab hospitals last year, before USAID was refused by the PA.

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

Of course the Palestinians can't govern themselves. Because they really don't want to build a state - but to destroy one.

So many people are insulted by Jared Kushner's statement about whether Palestinians can govern themselves:

Swan: Do you believe that the Palestinians are capable of governing themselves without Israeli interference?

Kushner: I think that’s a very good question. I think that that’s one that we’ll have to see. The hope is is that they, over time, can become capable of governing …

Swan: They being the Palestinians.

Kushner: The Palestinians. I think there are some things that the current Palestinian government has done well, and there are some things that are lacking. And I do think that in order for the area to be investable, for investors to come in and want to invest in different industries and infrastructure and create jobs, you do need to have a fair judicial system, freedom of press, freedom of expression, tolerance for all religions, and so …

Swan: Can they have freedom from any Israeli government or military interference?

Kushner: I think that it’s a high bar.

Mondoweiss wrote, "For many watching the interview, the entire portion on Palestine and the peace process featured what seemed like one insult after the other."

RT summarized the outrage:

His remarks elicited scorn from Twitter users, especially from Palestinian figures. “One of the painful things to listen to is Jared Kushner pretending that he knows – or cares – what the ‘Palestinian people’ want,” wrote Palestinian-American professor Shibley Telhami.

“The Palestinian people don’t need half a man to decide if they are capable of governing themselves,” wrote US-based Palestinian analyst Mohammad Oweis, in a tweet dripping with rage. “We have seen enough sh*t like him since 1948,” he said, a reference to the year the State of Israel was founded.

Matt Duss, a foreign policy adviser for US Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, argued that Kushner’s comments unwittingly revealed that he views Palestinians through a prejudicial lens. “This is the racist subtext of so much conservative pro-Israel advocacy, but Jared is too inexperienced to know it’s supposed to stay subtext,” tweeted Duss.

Some progressive Jewish pundits likewise slammed Kushner for his remarks, also attributing to him anti-Palestinian prejudice. “Democrats and Jewish leaders should be calling out Kushner's egregious racism. Can you imagine the outrage if someone suggested Jews couldn't govern themselves?” tweeted Max Berger, co-founder of the liberal US Jewish activist group If Not Now. “Why is it okay to say that about Palestinians? Because Islamophobia is extremely powerful in the US,” Berger opined.

This is what happens when you don't have the ability to think and when your life is built around looking for reasons to be outraged.

Of course it would be outrageous to suggest that Jews couldn't govern themselves - but they have proven that they can. And Palestinians have proven that they cannot.

Jews built an entire parallel government, on their own, under the British Mandate. They built the institutions not only of a military, legal system, legislative branch but also cultural institutions, newspapers that competed with each other and that criticized the government freely. They did all this in a relatively short time, without international aid or Western consultants or hundreds of NGOs. They created tens of thousands of jobs (for Arabs and Jews) and didn't whine that it was too hard.

Compare that to what the Palestinians have built in 25 years since Oslo.

They live under a dictatorship. Mahmoud Abbas controls everything. The function of the weekly cabinet meetings, according to its own website, is apparently to declare the days that the government will take off.

Palestinian newspapers hardly ever talk about trials - because their court system is a joke. They build beautiful courthouses but there are few court cases since 2000. Most legal cases are dealt with by informal "tribal" judges or tribunals rather than trusting the state courts, even for murder cases.

Here's the award winning and utterly useless Tulkarem courthouse, built with Canadian money.

Palestinian can't even agree who their leader is. They remain split between Hamas and Fatah for ten years and cannot agree to hold elections.

Their top priority, in their own words, is paying terrorists and their families. Just last week the "prime minister" said that while employees will get 60% of their salaries, terrorists and their families will receive 100%.

The Palestinians have not shown the ability to govern themselves effectively. Period.

This is hardly a controversial position.

The real question is, why? The World Bank and dozens of NGOs and the UN and the EU and, up until this year, the US have been pouring in money and resources and consultants to help build a state that whose leaders seem to be not at all interested in governing.

The reason for this is not stated out loud too much for fear of insulting Palestinians, but the truth is:

Their real strategy is not the creation of a strong, independent state, but the destruction of one.

Arafat's phased plan of 1974 - to grab whatever land they can and use it as a base to get more land and political power until Israel is destroyed - is still the unspoken but clear goal.

Nothing that Arafat did after Oslo, or that Abbas does now, is inconsistent with the 1974 plan.

This is what they teach their kids. In 2014, a poll of Palestinians showed that 60% felt that the five year national goal was not to be an independent state but to destroy Israel. In fact, the very purpose of a state is to be a stage towards "liberating all of Palestine." (That's why everyone misreads the polls where Palestinians say they want a two state solution. They mean that as a stage towards destroying Israel, not a permanent solution.)

This is why they didn't accept any peace plan that would end the conflict and have rejected peace over and over again.

This is why they keep the refugee issue alive.

This is why they insist on Jerusalem as a huge part of their history and heritage when in fact it was a slum under Muslim rule and they only want it to take it away from Jews.

And this is why they want to keep their own people stateless and miserable - to keep the anger aimed at Israel rather than do anything constructive.

This is why there are "refugee camps" under PA and Hamas rule, whose residents are not even considered citizens of the PA!

The primary job of a government is to protect the citizens. Real leaders care about their people. Palestinian leaders don't - unless the people are terrorists or related to terrorists, or friends of people in high places.

This is the truth that everyone is too frightened to say out loud because no one wants to piss them off.

But the only way to move forward is with the truth.

And to stop treating them like spoiled children, which is exactly how the world relates to Palestinians today.

When they are expected to act like adults, then maybe things can change. That is not how the EU and the UN treat them. They allow the Palestinian leaders to act like entitled brats, who deserve money and land simply because they say so. Abbas is proud of his refusal to negotiate or compromise and the world, frightened of another terror spree like the 1970s, goes along with the delusion that he is a leader.

Coddling Palestinians and turning a blind eye to their behavior is the worst thing to do. Yet that is how the world treats them.

Never in history has the entire international community spent so much money and time and resources to create a state. That state is not even close to being functional. It is past time to pretend that pointing this out is an insult and to start treating Palestinians like they are responsible adults who need to do the work themselves.

So far, they have shown no ability nor interest in doing that.

(based on a Twitter thread I created yesterday)

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