The Population and Immigration Authority published the list of Arab countries that have experienced the most immigration of Jews to Israel in the last 8 years. During this period, 432 Jews emigrated from Morocco to Israel. Here are the full data.
In 2012, Morocco had around 2,250 Jews. If 432 emigrated since then to Israel, that is over 19% of the entire Jewish population - and that is only to Israel.
That's pretty astonishing. Morocco is the best Arab country for Jews and the Jews are fleeing even from there.
Yemen's 119 emigrants is the bulk of the community, there are reportedly 50 Jews left who refuse to leave.
The other nations mentioned are Algeria, which has practically no Jews, seeing 2 emigrants to Israel. One person each from Libya, Lebanon, Qatar and Bahrain, all of which have token or no appreciable Jewish populations.
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Iron Dome Intercepting Rockets Silences Legitimate Criticism Of Israel
by Every Single Antisemite Masquerading as Just an Anti-Zionist as if There's a Meaningful Distinction
London, New York, Washington, wherever, November 7 - We see it everywhere: people who raise genuine, sincere criticisms of Israeli policy by calling for the total ostracism and dissolution of the world's only Jewish state, branded as antisemitic for sharing their views. The world must not tolerate such an overreaction to criticism, which is why, among many other measures, the international community must work to deprive Israel of its missile defense and other defensive systems that specifically target the legitimate criticisms of Israeli policy.
An activist cannot raise even a single suggestion that perhaps the Jews should remain non-sovereign, stateless, and at the mercy of peoples and ideologies responsible for millennia of persecution, without some stooge of the Jewish-controlled media labeling him antisemitic. It has reached the point that even prominent figures in American government, the so-called land of the free and home of the brave, cannot indulge in semi-plausible Jew-baiting and get a free pass - not even by playing the Islamophobia card. The only way to restore the freedom to call or work for the annihilation of Jewish sovereignty in the ancestral Jewish homeland without suffering the indignity of being called a bigot or worse is to dismantle the mechanisms by which such potent criticism is neutralized. Iron Dome must go.
The same applies to the various other organs of Israel's missile defense, such as the Arrow and David's Sling programs, as well as Trophy and Patriot systems, but let us not restrict our efforts to ensure legitimate criticism of Israel to only those elements of the dynamic. We must dismantle the entire security and defense apparatus of the State of Israel, an apparatus that has done nothing over the last seven-plus decades but frustrate the attempts of critics to criticize: bombings, shootings, stabbings, vehicular assaults, missile attacks, hijackings, gassing attempts, and numerous other cogent statements of criticism. Remove the IDF and its related organs, and we remove the suppression of legitimate criticism of Israel.
But we cannot accomplish all that at once; the gradual restoration of total freedom to criticize Israel must start somewhere, as the formulation among anti-Zionists always goes, and the initial focal point must be the most noticeable barrier between the criticism and Israel - its missile and rocket interception systems. Once we meet success in that endeavor, we can move on to the dismantling of other restrictions on legitimate criticism of Israel, until we reach that glorious day when everyone will be free to criticize Israel in any manner whatsoever from the River to the Sea.
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When I heard that United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East Commissioner Pierre Krahenbuhl resigned, I was shocked. After all, the UN does not have the best track record when it comes to investigating corruption allegations against its own agencies, let alone when it comes to the UNRWA, which until recently had airtight immunity from criticism.
For 70 years, UNRWA has been something of a separate entity in the UN, one dedicated solely to the issue of Palestinian "refugees," alongside the agency that handles all other refugees – the UNHCR. But unlike the former UNRWA never even tried to solve the refugee problem and seemed dedicated to perpetuating it.
Case in point: When UNRWA was founded in 1949, there were around 700,000 Palestinian refugees in the world. Today, their number stands at 5.7 million.
But UNRWA's data must always be taken with a grain of salt, as they tend to artificially inflate. A census that took place in Lebanon in 2017 found that 300,000 people included in the agency's data simply do not exist and that the true number of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon was 66% smaller than stated on its reports.
At the same time, the budgets appropriated to UNRWA put the UN's actual refugee agency to shame.
Not only is UNRWA's budget per-refugee four times greater than that of any other refugee, it employs 30,000 people. The UNRCR, which deals with 70 million refugees, employs only 10,000 people.
But it seems that UNRWA's party is coming to an end.
Head of Shin Bet Nadav Argaman claimed on Thursday that the Shin Bet thwarted over 450 terror attacks in the past year. Argaman spoke at the Unmanned Systems Conference, UVID 2019, initiated by Israel Defense.
"We are an agency with excellent people, the best technology and synergy within the agency and with Israeli security authorities, which allows us to have an edge on very challenging enemies," Argaman said. "All that allowed us to thwart over 450 terror attacks in the past year and try to provide the citizens of Israel with safe and peaceful daily life without knowing what happens behind the scene."
Meanwhile, the IDF mapped on Thursday the house of Kassem Shabli, one of the terrorists who carried out an attack near the West Bank town of Dolev in August, in which 17-year-old Rina Shnerb was murdered.
The mapping was done in order to prepare for the demolition of the house in Kfar Kobar on Wednesday night.
Kassem a-Karim Ragah Shabli, 25, a member of the PFLP, has been arrested in the past for involvement in terrorist activities. Kassem provided the explosives that were used in the IED as well as assisted in assembling it, and took part in the killing of Shnerb.
Two other terrorists were arrested for involvement in the attack.
Death as a "Martyr" for Allah and for "Palestine" - during terror attacks and other violent confrontations with Israel - has been promoted as an ideal by the Palestinian Authority for years, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch.
The elevated status "Martyrs" enjoy in the PA was recently stressed by a host on official PA TV, who bragged that "Martyrdom in Palestine is unique," because a Martyr's funeral is considered "a wedding." A mother of a "Martyr" present in the TV studio expressed her opinion that death as a Martyr is "an honor": Official PA TV host: "Praise Allah, I want to say that this Martyrdom always is-"
Mother of a "Martyr": "An honor."
Official PA TV host: "Exactly! Martyrdom in Palestine is unique. We are the only ones who celebrate the news of a Martyr's wedding." [Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Aug. 27, 2019]
A Martyr's funeral is considered a wedding to the 72 Virgins in Paradise in Islam.
These expressions of support for dying as a "Martyr" come as no surprise. PMW has documented numerous mothers and fathers who have expressed joy when their terrorist children died as "Martyrs." This is what the PA has taught them and what is expected of them. The following are examples of mothers praising their dead children's Martyrdom, collected in one video (additional texts below):
"I hold my head high. The honor is mine. I have a son who is a Martyr." [Official PA TV, Sept. 24, 2002]
"[My son] told me: 'In this entire world, I can't think of anyone to marry... I want to marry the Dark-Eyed (i.e., Virgins of Paradise).' I said: 'If these are his thoughts, I wish him Martyrdom.'" [Official PA TV, Jan. 21, 2003]
"I ask Allah to give him the reward of a Martyr... I greet all the people who came today to accompany my son at his wedding (i.e., to the Virgins of Paradise). My son is a sacrifice for the homeland, for Palestine, for Islam, and a sacrifice for all of Palestine." [Official PA TV, Feb. 17, 2018]
Why is Martyrdom-death “unique in Palestine”? According to a host on official Palestinian Authority TV, it's because "we are the only ones who celebrate the news of a Martyr's wedding."
PMW has documented numerous Palestinian parents who have expressed joy when their terrorist children died as "Martyrs." This is what the PA has taught them and what is expected of them. Here are examples of mothers praising their dead children's Martyrdom: pic.twitter.com/HzPMQmJ2bf
The crime that these Muslims committed? They showed an interest in learning about the Zionist point of view and attended a workshop in Israel called the Muslim Leadership Initiative.
In reality, what panicked BDSers about the MLI is that it showed that intelligent, caring Muslims could speak to Israelis and learn their perspective as a way to help bring peace. BDS is against any sort of "normalization" because it wants Israeli Jews to be demonized, not treated with respect.
These Muslims who want peace rejected BDS, so BDS called on all Muslims to boycott them - not to let them speak in schools and mosques.
We pledge to not give a platform to any MLI participant to speak about their experiences at our community centers, places of worship, and campuses and call on a complete boycott of MLI.
Everyone who signed this petition is against peace. They are against dialogue. They are against treating Israeli Jews or Zionists as human beings.
HRW claims that Shakir is an objective researcher. Yet they hired him knowing that he was not only a supporter of BDS but he hates Muslims who don't share his opinion about it.
HRW knowingly hires people with a rabid hate for Israel - and deliberately chooses to use these same haters to "research" Israel.
This isn't human rights. This is pure hate. And HRW is part of it.
(h/t Petra)
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What do you call it when someone insults a group of people when the only thing known about them is they are religious Jews?
Next week, a group of religious Jews - we only know the name of the organizer, Lazer Scheiner of Monsey - is holding a luncheon in honor of President Trump. The official reason given is to thank him for what he has done for the Jewish community. Even though it is not officially a fundraiser, it is rumored to raise millions of dollars for his re-election campaign - the cost to attend is reportedly $25,000 a seat.
The reason given for the event when it was floated in July was the strengthen the connection between the president and the religious Jewish community in America.
This sort of thing happens all the time.
But when Orthodox Jews are the people bhind it, antisemitism cannot be far behind - the antisemitism of the Left.
Literally the only thing Zonszein knows about this group is that they are Orthodox Jews. Based on that one fact, she accuses them collectively of a "hardcore JudeoChristian fundamentalist racist ideology."
Calling someone a "racist" in Leftist circles is as insulting as the "N" word. It is the worst insult possible. And it is one that requires no evidence. This is simply an insult to Orthodox Jews as a group. It is nothing less than pure antisemitism.
I highly doubt that the Jews who support Trump believe that he is a poster child for morality, or that he is a religious man. They don't think that his values are congruent with Torah values. As with any other group, they simply want to have influence on US politics. This lunch is nothing more than politics, and this sort of event happens hundreds of times a year from other groups, whether they are Hispanics or pharmaceutical companies.
But Orthodox Jews who act in their own political interest are singled out by the Left as being hardcore fundamentalist racists. They are all lumped together as "whites" who hate people of color. There is not an iota of evidence for this. Their yarmulkas are all the evidence leftists like Zonszein need.
Since a group of visible Orthodox Jews supporting Trump hurts the Leftist talking point of Trump being an antisemite, Zonszein makes the nonsensical addendum that the "racism" of the group "transcends antisemitism." Somehow, the racism of Orthodox Jews is worse than antisemitism, because...well, Jews.
Zonszein has written for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation and other outlets. This antisemitic bigot is respected by mainstream media.
It is significant that the very people who claim to be most sensitive to bigotry and racism can engage in bigotry like this and not get called out in it from their fellow leftists. This kind of antisemitism is perfectly OK, because it masks itself as anti-racism. That doesn't make it stink any less.
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As the Palestinians continue to go through the motions of planning for an election that will never happen - because Fatah and Hamas will never agree to how it should be done - the PLO is showing that the elections are really an excuse to wrest sovereignty away from Israel, specifically in Jerusalem.
I wrote about this last week, and events are showing it to be true. The PLO is in a full diplomatic offensive demanding that the nations of the world pressure Israel to allow Arabs to vote in Jerusalem.
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi on Wednesday met with the Slovenian representative to the PA as well as the British consul in Ramallah and she emphasized the importance of holding elections in Jerusalem. Ashrawi "called on Britain to support the elections and to intervene to make them successful and create the right conditions for them, especially in occupied Jerusalem," reports said.
She had a similar meeting on Monday with the Swiss envoy to Ramallah, making the same demands. She frames it as how important elections would be for unity and peace, but tells these diplomats that Israel is the obstacle to the elections because it won't allow them in Jerusalem.
Ashrawi has set the stage for demanding the international community pressure Israel on elections for at least a month.
She has reason to be optimistic. In 2006, after pressure from US President Bush, Israel agreed to allow Jerusalem Arabs to vote at post offices under Israeli police supervision. However, from Israel's perspective, the post offices were areas where Arabs could submit "absentee ballots" and not official polling stations.
Obviously, if the elections were the important thing, the Jerusalem issue could be worked around - absentee ballots, allowing Arabs to travel to Areas A and B, or other technical solutions that could ensure any Arab who desires could vote. But the elections aren't what the PLO cares about - taking away any amount of Israeli sovereignty is its overarching goal.
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The United States could have responded to Arab antagonism by following the European playbook and squeezed Israel for concessions. But American strategists realized the best way to stop the wars wasn't to make Israel feel less secure, but rather to make Israel less defeatable.
The U.S. military aid that started in earnest in the form of an emergency arms resupply during the 1973 war has been perhaps the single-most effective U.S. policy toward the Middle East in the past half-century. With America now in Israel's corner, the Arab states were compelled to abandon the fantasy of wiping the Jewish State off the map. That led to what had previously been unthinkable: Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, and Jordan followed in 1994.
Other benefits to the United States flowed from military aid to Israel: With the Jewish state now fielding advanced U.S. weaponry against Arab states, which were armed with inferior Soviet weapons, regional skirmishes were turned into devastating morale-killers for Moscow. In one air campaign in June 1982, Israeli-piloted F-15s and F-16s shot down 88 Syrian-piloted Soviet MiGs. Israel lost a single F-16. Battles like this clarified for the world which side was likely to prevail in the Cold War.
Today, Gulf Arab states are drawing closer to an increasingly powerful Israel, seeking protection from Iran—another way in which U.S. military aid, which maintains Israel's "qualitative military edge" in the region, is promoting American interests and decreasing the likelihood that the United States will be called upon to directly protect regional allies.
Warren, Sanders, and Buttigieg did not acknowledge this history, or these strategic benefits. Since the progressive activists of the Democratic Party view Israel largely through the lens of the Palestinians, it was only a matter of time before they began to demand that all aspects of the U.S.-Israel relationship be subordinated to the politics of that issue.
An umbrella group of more than 50 Jewish organizations from across the ideological spectrum condemned calls by Democratic presidential candidates to condition military aid to Israel on its approach to making peace with the Palestinians.
“We are deeply troubled by recent statements that would place conditions, limitations, or restrictions on the US security assistance provided to Israel, so vital for the defense and security of the country, the protection of essential US interests, and stability in the region,” Arthur Stark, chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman/CEO, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said in a statement issued Friday.
“This approach would harm American objectives in the Middle East and would undermine the ability of our key ally to defend itself against the threats it faces on all its borders.”
Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, along with Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, recently have indicated a willingness to use American aid to force policy changes by Israel regarding the Palestinian conflict, including halting settlement construction.
Not a single American serviceperson needs to be stationed in Israel. Aside from training missions, there have been American soldiers stationed in Israel since 2009, only working with the American/Israeli co-designed X-band radar system — a deployment that helps the U.S. and Israel monitor threats from the east.
Israel’s missile defense capabilities — developed and produced in conjunction with American industry — not only protect Israel from Hamas and Hezbollah missiles, but protect the United States from emerging threats from North Korea and Iran. Various branches of the U.S. military have purchased a variety of Israeli-developed systems and participated in joint development of anti-tunnel defenses, the Arrow Missile Program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Plane, THEL Laser Program, the Advanced Urban Combat Training Facility, as well as Iron Dome.
Israel has been a partner in U.S. and multi-lateral military exercises for years; interestingly, Israel and the United Arab Emirates flew together in one. Combined exercises have taken place on NATO territory, in the U.S., in Israel (where the Luftwaffe flew above Israeli territory, making a few people blink), and the Pacific Ocean. Not a single country has opted out due to Israel having opted in.
The two countries are drawn together by common values and common threats. The bipartisan support of our ally Israel has been a testament to those values, as well as to the practical recognition that the threats require cooperation in intelligence, technology, and security policy.
The volatility of the Middle East is unlikely to be constrained. The United States, desirous of removing its soldiers from the region even as it understands the risk attendant to a resurgent Russia and increasingly desperate Iran, is as much in need of capable allies now as it ever was. It would be a shame if rampant J Street politicization of the relationship were allowed to do damage.
If Ilhan Omar has her way, all
tragedies will be equalized, with none being more supreme than any other. That is
the thrust of her influence and voting power on recent resolutions in Congress.
There was the October 29th resolution
recognizing the Armenian genocide by Ottoman Turks during WWI. On this occasion,
Omar offered a rare abstention, in a vote that ran an overwhelming 405-11 in
favor of the resolution.
Then there was the March 7thresolution
that was meant to condemn antisemitism, and in specific, remarks
by Omar perceived by most to be antisemitic. The vote was supposed to give
expression to a more mainstream Democratic Party belief that antisemitism and
Omar’s remarks are wrong. Instead, Omar’s name was left out of the final text
of the resolution, which many called “watered-down” and which condemned all
forms of hatred, including Muslim discrimination.
What happened with the
resolution is that instead of being censured, Omar got off, scot-free. And the
Democrats showed they’re weaklings made of tissue paper. Omar planned things to
come out this way, all the way back to when she said Israel “hypnotized the
world,” and “It’s all about the Benjamins.”
Do you know how Omar
characterized the “antisemitism” resolution in her statement to the media? She
said she was “tremendously proud” of the resolution condemning “Anti-Muslim
bigotry.”
“Today is historic on many
fronts. It’s the first time we have voted on a resolution condemning
Anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation’s history. Anti-Muslim crimes have increased
99% from 2014-2016 and are still on the rise,” said Omar in a joint
statement with Rashida Tlaib and Andre Carson.
So there you have it: the
resolution to condemn antisemitism turned into a resolution to condemn all
hatred. But it didn’t stop there. Today it is a resolution that condemns
anti-Muslim bigotry!
In the final draft, moreover,
Omar is neither named nor censured.
The effect of this “antisemitism
resolution” is to make mainstream the idea that Jews are not special and
deserve no category or resolution of their own. If you buy into the “antisemitism
resolution,” the suffering of the Jews in the Holocaust is not a bigger deal or
somehow more significant than that of Muslim suffering in the world today. Or
in fact anyone’s suffering at all, at any time in history.
Jews. Are. Not. Special.
Now let’s look at the vote on
the Armenian genocide. This was long overdue. But it’s tricky, because Turkey
doesn’t like us to talk about its expulsion and murder of some 1.5 million
people. They just play the denial game. And the US relationship with Turkey is
complicated, delicate.
But everyone knows genocide is
bad, (except for Omar, apparently) and so the resolution finally passed in a
big way. Explaining
her abstention, Omar tweeted:
“A true acknowledgement [sic] of historical crimes against
humanity must include both the heinous genocides of the 20th century, along
with earlier mass slaughters like the transatlantic slave trade and Native
American genocide, which took the lives of hundreds of millions of indigenous
people in this country.”
In other words, we can’t talk
about a single genocide, without talking about all the other genocides, giving
them equal time. Because no one’s tragedy is worse than any other. They are all
the same. So if you are wary of Muslims in a world beset by Islamist terror, it’s
exactly like the hatred of the Jews that caused the Holocaust. So all hatred? Equally
bad. Jews not special. Armenians not special.
Muslims, on the other hand, are
maybe a bit more special. Because some animals are more equal than others. We know this because of the September $1,500
donation to Omar’s campaign by top Erdogan ally (and cousin) Halil Mutlu, co-chairman
of the Turkish American Steering Committee (TSAC), just one month before the
vote on the resolution. Hey, “it’s all about the Benjamins,” so why shouldn’t
Omar take money from the Turks to vote against recognition of the Ottoman
persecution of the Armenian people?
“Omar and the activist, Halil Mutlu, were also photographed
together at an event for the Turkish American Steering Committee (TASC), a
U.S.-based nonprofit that has for years waged public relations campaigns in
support of Turkish government policies and Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan.
“Mutlu, who Turkish media outlets have reported is Erdogan’s
cousin, is co-chairman of TASC, according to the group’s website.
“Founded in 2015, TASC has orchestrated a public relations
push to cast doubt on whether the Ottoman empire committed genocide against
Armenians more than a century ago.”
There is no doubt that this
donation was a kind of bribery. $1,500 is, of course, a modest
amount for an abstention on a vote that is important to a Turkey that wants to
revise history to save face. But it is still wrong. And no less than we'd expect from someone like Omar. A woman who commits adultery
while wearing a hijab.
In addition to seeing the questionable nature of her behavior, we need to realize that nothing Omar does is by accident. Her actions regarding the two resolutions is a concerted plan to minimize the power of seminal events like the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide, by saying they are similar to other instances of bigotry and hatred. In this way, lesser events like the Arab Nakba, rise in importance, while the significance of monumental evils like genocide are diminished.
Omar's careful campaign to neutralize and defuse the power of genocide helps discrimination against Muslims gain traction as a talking point. Once that concept takes hold as valid and justifiable in the eyes of the public, it can serve to move forward progressive political aims such as the elimination of the State of Israel. The tautology works like this: In a Jewish state, Jews are sovereign over the land. This means they are preeminent above Muslims, which makes Israel a discriminatory endeavor that must cease to exist.
As society adopts the fallacy that discrimination against Muslims is bigger than it really is, there's a bonus in it for the cunning Omar and her cadre, too. Omar and her ilk will be watching on with satisfied smiles, as voters race to elect yet more Muslims to positions of power. It's the only thing society can do to correct what they now perceive as a huge societal wrong: anti-Muslim discrimination.
Something Omar would have you know, has been too long shunted aside.
Thanks to Jews and their Holocaust.
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Israel is a democracy. We keep hearing this. It is “the only democracy in the Middle East,” as many of us are fond of saying. Lately, it is beginning to seem as though we would be better off with a little less “democracy.”
One election wasn’t democratic enough, so we had another. Now we are headed for the disaster of a third one. But we are very democratic, so apparently we will keep having elections until the "democrats" (small 'd') who want to have a government without Benjamin Netanyahu finally get their way.
I am absolutely certain that if it weren’t for the endless investigations against the PM and the associated leaks to the media, we would have a normal government, with Bibi at its head. A government that would not be perfect, but what coalition is?
But we are democratic. Everyone gets to have their say. The police, who – it has just been disclosed – threatened to ruin the life of one of the key witnesses against Netanyahu if he didn’t agree to turn state’s witness and say what they told him to. The Attorney General, who when asked to investigate the continuous leaks to the media over a period of years concerning the allegations against Netanyahu, as well as the content of confidential police interviews, responded that there was no place (ain makom) to investigate the leakage and punish the leakers. And of course, 90% of the media, which express their opinion that Netanyahu is the illegitimate son of the devil every day – they too, have their democratic rights.
There is plenty to criticize about Netanyahu, especially the fact that he crushes anyone who might be competition for him in his party. His wife is volatile and possibly (although this could just be more slander) has too much influence over his political decisions. His son should keep his mouth shut, both in the presence of disloyal drivers and on Twitter. His security policy, in which Hamas is allowed unlimited liberty to destroy property in the south of the country, has been criticized by many. And Bibi’s been PM long enough.
But what has been done to him by his enemies (mostly his unelected ones) is outrageous. The police and prosecution went on fishing expedition after fishing expedition, and the media gleefully reported every one. “This time he’s going down,” they implied. But he didn’t – and he may not yet, if it turns out that the investigations are poisoned by police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Polls consistently show that more Israelis believe that Bibi should be Prime Minister than his main opponent, Benny Gantz (the most recent one, right before the election, came out 46% vs. 31% for Bibi), and even 25% of Arab citizens prefer him. His right-wing bloc has one more seat in the Knesset than the opposition, and if you don’t count the declaredly anti-Zionist Arab parties, 14 more. But this is a democracy, and most of the TV stations and newspapers don’t like him, nor does the Bar Association (which provides the PM with a list of acceptable candidates for Attorney General, and has a controlling influence on the selection of Supreme Court justices), nor does a majority of academics, artists, and media personalities. They all seem to have votes in addition to the ones they put in the ballot box.
They don’t like him, and this is a democracy, so we need to democratically pick someone else. And we’ll keep democratically trying until they we succeed.
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.
The prospect of a third election in Israel within twelve months looms large – should Blue and White leader Benny Gantz be unable to form a Government of National Unity within the next two weeks.
To break the current deadlock Gantz needs at least nine members to defect from the voting bloc of 55 seats led by Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Gantz’s cause could be considerably advanced were he to publicly endorse the policies pursued by the late Prime Minister – Yitzchak Rabin – who was assassinated on 4 November 1995.
Rabin made his intentions very clear in his last speech to the Knesset on 5 October 1995 when presenting the 300 page “Israeli - Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” (Oslo Accords) for approval:
“Members of Knesset,
“We are striving for a permanent solution to the unending bloody conflict between us and the Palestinians and the Arab states." In the framework of the permanent solution, we aspire to reach, first and foremost, the State of Israel as a Jewish state, at least 80% of whose citizens will be, and are, Jews.
"At the same time, we also promise that the non-Jewish citizens of Israel – Muslim, Christian, Druze and others – will enjoy full personal, religious and civil rights, like those of any Israeli citizen. Judaism and racism are diametrically opposed.
"We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
"We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.
...
Rabin – then Defence Minister – had stated on May 27, 1985:
“The Palestinians should have a sovereign State which includes most of the Palestinians. It should be Jordan with a considerable part of the West Bank and Gaza. East of the Jordan River there is enough room to settle the Palestinian refugees. One tiny State between Israel and Jordan will solve nothing. It will be a time bomb.”
Supporting Rabin’s policies would stand Gantz in good stead as he seeks to form a Government of National Unity and – failing that – in any upcoming election that would hopefully end Israel’s current precarious political situation.
While most of western society saw the death of ISIS leader and arch-terrorist Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi as a positive development in the war on terrorism, the Palestinian Authority chose to outrageously claim that Al-Baghdadi was a US "pawn" and ISIS a US creation - a terror organization only paralleled by Israel.
Muwaffaq Matar, a Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily, presented a venomous PA manifest against the US: "They [the US] killed their pawn, who they planted in the open borderless territories of Iraq and Syria after they created an organization-state of barbarity, terror, and racism, for which they chose the name 'the Islamic State.'" [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 29, 2019]
But dealing with ISIS is not enough as it only amounts to "cutting off the tail of the monster," Matar stated, arguing that the monster's head - Israel - is yet to be fought: "[The elimination of Al-Baghdadi] was tantamount to a strong blow that has cut off the tail of the monster of terror. However, this monster has a head, and in it is a brain that is capable of growing a different tail and wings... The occupation, settlement, terror, racism, crimes against humanity, and rebellion against UN laws and conventions have a state. They named it 'Israel' and established it on the land of Palestine, which is the Palestinian people's historical and natural right."
Comparing Israel to ISIS, Matar stated that in practice ISIS and Israel are identical: "This [ISIS] is an organization that, in regard to its crimes, there is nothing similar to it in the modern history of the region except for a defective, colonialist, settling, occupying, and racist state for which they chose the name 'the State of Israel.' The heads of large states in the world have said that the elimination of Al-Baghdadi is not the end of ISIS' terror - and this is correct! - but not one of them referred to their responsibility and their state's responsibility to drain the greatest, deepest, and most dangerous swamp of terror for the region and the world: the defective and racist State of Israel. We know... that the Muslim Brotherhood organization... is essentially a twin of the Zionist movement."
Chicago Islamic Scholar Omar Baloch said in a video he uploaded to his YouTube channel on September 11, 2019 that Islamic State (ISIS) is now fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan because "you will always find ISIS in places that are running a Zionist agenda [for] Greater Israel." He said that Israel created ISIS in order to weaken Muslims by alienating them from ideas like an Islamic state, Jihad, and Muslim unity, without which he said Islam would not be the same. Showing pictures of ISIS fighters, Baloch said that the weaponry, uniforms, and training that ISIS has are evidence that it is trained and armed by Israel, and he predicted that Israel will use ISIS to destabilize Pakistan and Kashmir. He added that Israel is "working on Kashmir" by means of India's actions in the region and that Israel intends to do to the Kashmiris what it did do to the Palestinians.
According to the Facebook page of the Furqaan Institute of Quranic Education (FIQE), Sheikh Omar Baloch was born in Chicago and is the scholar in residence at the Al-Furqaan Foundation, of which FIQE is a division. The Facebook page also says that Baloch studied at Georgetown University, at Al-Azhar University in Egypt, at Jamia Thul Ahlul Hadith in Pakistan. For more about Sheikh Omar Baloch, see MEMRI TV Clip No. 7053 Illinois-Based Sheikh Omar Baloch: Islamic Relief Organizations Should Promote the Caliphate as the Long-Term Solution to Humanitarian Problems.
"You Will Always Find ISIS In Places That Are Running A Zionist Agenda, The Agenda For Greater Israel"
Sheikh Omar Baloch: "All of a sudden, guess what? ISIS is in Afghanistan and ISIS is killing Taliban.
[...]
"You will always find ISIS in places that are running a Zionist agenda, the agenda for Greater Israel."
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.
On Tuesday, Israel's High Court of Justice ruled that Omar Shakir, director of Israel-Palestine at Human Rights Watch, can be deported under Israeli law because he has encouraged boycotts of Israel while in his current position.
The most hypocritical critics of the decision are the Palestinians themselves.
Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Executive Committee of the PLO, said that this ruling "is just further evidence of the Israeli judiciary's involvement in silencing Israel's critics and covering up the escalating human rights violations against the Palestinian citizens."
She also said "our people and their leadership stand with Shakir and Human Rights Watch, and support human rights defenders and institutions working to end the culture of impunity and hold human rights violators accountable."
Isn't that something? Under PLO control, Christians are oppressed, gays are threatened, women are subject to honor killings, there is no freedom of assembly or freedom of the press, bloggers can be jailed - but the PLO supports human rights groups! Because they only rarely issue a token report about Palestinian violations of human rights and they spend nearly all of their time condemning Israel, something that the PLO can fully support!
Yet Ashrawi's pretense of support for human rights defenders is not the most hypocritical one from the PLO.
The PLO's Department of Human Rights and Civil Society issued a statement saying "a political decision with distinction that reflects the occupation government's settlement based on racism and defying international laws and norms as a government. It is an outlaw entity that practices crimes and violations against humanity."
Yes, the PLO has a Department of Human Rights and Civil Society. Based on its webpage, it has almost never looked at a single violation of human rights in Palestinian territory. The entire purpose of the department is to find ways of attacking Israel under the guise of "human rights." Members meet with counterparts from other countries and attend international meetings on topics like "Islamophobia" but do little else.
A real governmental human rights organization would look at internal civil rights issues and investigate any violations, The PLO's "human rights" department never does.
This is obvious when you look at who runs the department. The head, Ahmed Al-Tamimi - who is probably related to the Tamimi clan that includes terrorists like Ahlam Tamimi - is a member of the PLO's Executive Committee. The PLO is not known to be very self-critical.
Tamimi has made statements that clearly violate human rights norms, such as declaring that "the Tomb of the Patriarchs is a purely Islamic mosque, which is a Waqf property for Muslims alone" - meaning Jews should be banned from their second-holiest site.
The undersecretary of the department is Hossam Arafat, Arafat was (as of at least 2014) a member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) and the representative of PFLP-GC inside the territories.
Interestingly, his CV at the department's site erases all mention of his involvement with the PFLP-GC.
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It seems that, after the Tree of Life shootings, the FBI has beefed up its searching for white supremacists who are looking to do something similar.
The FBI affadavit for neo-Nazi Richard Holzer and the one for jihadist Damon Joseph, who wanted to bomb a synagogue in Toledo, shows some striking similarities.
Holzer claimed that he hired a Mexican, someone he would normally hate, to poison the water supply of the same synagogue a year ago:
HOLZER explained that the man he paid was nicknamed “Mexican Hitler,” and that he agreed to poison the synagogue “for cheap” because he and HOLZER both do not like Jews. HOLZER stated to the OCE that he had gotten backlash from the “white movement” because he hired a Mexican to do the job, but said “What do they expect? You guys really want the Jews gone then sometimes you gotta improvise.”
Joseph said that he was inspired by the Tree of Life shooting, even though it was done by a "kufr":
On October 30, 2018, UC-1 and JOSEPH had communications online regardingbthe mass shooting of a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. JOSEPH told UC-1,“The kufr doing our work for us haha.”
Both of them looked forward to dying while performing a terror attack. Holzer:
“. . . I’m just going to get dead by suicide by cop, so literally if I’m going to cause a shootout just die in it.”
Joseph:
“For srarters [sic], we would pick a synagogue or place jews gather, scope it out, find all exits and entrances, times people will be there, police presence of the area, i have a police scanner so i would be able to hear when they would be responding, we would coordinate it by splitting up to ensure the most casualties possible. Then escape in a vehicle before police arrive. And if they got there fast, then fight it out and whatever happens may Allah swt grant us victory and Jannah if it comes to that. I am no coward. I wouldnt want to die any other way except a martyr inshallah. Alhamdulilah. Thats just my thoughts as of now.”
They both, obviously, hate Jews and want them all dead.
Holzer:
On September 3, 2019, HOLZER told another Facebook user, “I wish the Holocaust really did happen...they need to die."
Joseph:
" My opinion is the Jews are evil and they get what's coming to them. I don't feel bad at all considering what they're doing in Palestine. They're the same as the shia in my eyes. All dogs.”
Interestingly, usually the white supremacists prefer shootings and the jihadists prefer bombings. There seems to have been enough cross-pollination so that in these two cases, the jihadist wanted to massacre Jews with guns and Holzer wanted to bomb the synagogue.
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.
It is a horrifying reality that in 2019, Jewish communities across the world live in fear of violent terror attacks. The traumatic scenes outside of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, or the recent attack on the Halle synagogue in Germany, are ones we fear being repeated in the UK. When a kosher shop became a target in France’s wave of terror attacks in 2015, it struck a raw chord with many in Britain’s Jewish community. I recall the Friday night sabbath dinner conversation — what if I had been one of those hostages? How worrying that it is only the small English Channel separating us from the wave of terror against Jewish communities in Europe? This fear only increased with the stabbings of Jews outside a synagogue in Marseille later that year and the subsequent murders in Paris of Sarah Halimi and Mireille Knoll in further antisemitic incidents.
I recently enrolled my daughter at a nursery school based at a synagogue. Upon visiting the nursery — as much as I wanted to meet the staff, see the space and learn about the daily schedule — the thing I spent the most time checking-out was the security set-up for the building. From the age of one, my daughter will be attending daycare with a guard at the front door and constant security presence. That is not the desires of an over-protective parent — it is a necessary precaution of 21st century Jewish life. In this environment, the Jewish community relies on a supportive government who understand and sympathise with these very real security threats — a government that will help overcome any administrative or regulatory hurdles to protecting Jewish community centres, schools and places of worship.
I can recall hearing this support loud and clear from successive political party leaders over the past decades, whether Labour, Conservative or Lib Dems. I have never once heard Jeremy Corbyn utter his commitment. In fact, when I searched out looking to find and consolation that Jeremy Corbyn might understand the nature of anti-Jewish terrorism, I only found the opposite. Down the road from my home is a Jewish community building named Balfour House. I recall visiting it as a teenager when taking part in a youth volunteering programme. In 1994, the building was bombed in an antisemitic incident, and one backbench MP spent the subsequent years campaigning for the release of two of the terrorist attackers. His name was Jeremy Corbyn.
An antisemitism crisis has engulfed the Labour Party in the UK, and party leader Jeremy Corbyn is at its center. Corbyn and his supporters insist he is entirely innocent. “He does not have an antisemitic bone in his body,” one of his Labour allies has said.
Others aren’t so convinced. “What is racist bone and how do you know whether another person has one?” asked renowned British author Howard Jacobson at an Intelligence Squared debate on the Labour leader’s fitness to be prime minister. To left-wing author James Bloodworth, meanwhile, the problem isn’t in the bones. “While I genuinely believe that Corbyn does not have an antisemitic bone in his body,” Bloodworth wrote, “he does have a proclivity for sharing platforms with individuals who do; and his excuses for doing so do not stand up.”
A poll in the summer of 2018 found that an overwhelming majority of British Jews, and a plurality of the general British public, believe Corbyn is antisemitic. Even Labour members who feel there is a deliberate campaign to exaggerate antisemitism charges against Corbyn and his party acknowledge that the party has a “genuine problem” with antisemitism.
While there has been some coverage in the U.S. press of the antisemitism scandal across the Atlantic, it has rarely been detailed and comprehensive — perhaps owing to the frequency of revelations about Corbyn’s past associations and statements. This timeline seeks to fill in the gaps left by coverage of Corbyn’s antisemitism scandal (it does not focus on antisemitic comments by other Labour members and activists, although those play a significant role in the Labour crisis).
A UK Labour party candidate in the upcoming December parliamentary elections has been found to have said she would celebrate the deaths of former British Brime Minister Tony Blair, ex-US President George W. Bush and current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and also to have slandered pro-Israel student activists.
The Jewish Chronicle reported that Zarah Sultana, who was nominated last week to contest the parliamentary seat for Coventry South, had once posted on social media that she did not agree it was wrong to “celebrate the death of any person regardless of what they did.”
“Try and stop me when the likes of Blair, Netanyahu and Bush die,” she wrote.
“The sooner they meet their creator the better,” she added. “The concepts of justice and accountability don’t truly exist in this life. Only in the next.”
She also appeared to endorse terrorism, saying, “I wrote ‘right to non violent resistance.’ Best believe that was an error and I meant to write ‘violent resistance.’”
Furthermore, Sultana libeled supporters of Israel, posting, “There will come a time in the near future where those (who) lobby for Israel feel the same shame and regret as South African apartheid supporters.”
“It is not progressive to champion a state created through ethnic cleansing, sustained through occupation, apartheid and war crimes,” she added.
While she was at university, Sultana attacked pro-Israel students, writing, “Those within the student movement who go to Zionist conferences and trips should be ashamed of themselves. You’re advocating racist ideology.”
Last time, I pointed out the various excuses the boycott-Israel crowd uses
when forced to confront their clear double-standard on human rights stances
(i.e., Israel deserves to be boycotted for building a fence to keep suicide
bombers from its cities, but Syria and China should not be boycotted since they
merely killed 3-500,000 or 70,000,000 of their own people).
As noted, most of these
excuses have the distinction of being both transparently self-serving and
unbelievably lame. But one “reason,” the one claiming that the call to boycott
Israel wells up from Palestinian civil society and is thus unique, begs for a
more careful review.
The claim that BDS is a
response to boycott calls originating from people in the region is based on the
2004 Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of
Israel (or PACBI). Whenever Naomi Klein or some
other boycott advocate talk about a boycott call endorsed by over 200
Palestinian civic organizations, the groups on the list of original PACBI
signatories is what they’re talking about.
Within that original list
of participating organizations (which I can no longer find now that PACBI has
been folded under a general BDS Web umbrella), 10-15% of the signatories were
identified as originating outside Israel, the West Bank or Gaza, including over
20 organizations from surrounding countries (13 from Syria, 6 from Lebanon and
2 from Jordan) and another 9 from Europe or North America. Now it may be that
some of these (as well as some of the organizations not identified by location)
are refugee or Diaspora groups. But
given the large Syrian contingent on PACBI’s original roster, the notion that
we’re talking entirely about un-coerced volunteers becomes shaky.
Second, as the name
implies PACBI stands for an academic and cultural boycott (the least popular
form of BDS, by the way), meaning those who signed up in 2004 were not
necessarily joining a movement for wholesale economic isolation of the Jewish
state. So those claiming that PACBI is the origin for broad-based BDS
activities may be putting words into the mouths of Palestinian agricultural,
medical and industrial unions/organizations, many of whom may not be that
excited about economic boycotts that punish them as well as Israel.
On more meatier matters,
the first group that topped the list of “Unions, Associations, Campaigns”
supporting the PACBI boycott call is the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine, a coalition that includes Hamas,
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and some of the more violent
sub-sets of Fatah. Call me crazy, but I suspect that it’s much easier for this
Council to get the Palestinian Dentist’s Association (also a PACBI signatory) to
agree to its requests that vice versa.
The potential that the
PACBI boycott call arises from coercion within Palestinian society (vs. being a
consensus welling up from the grass roots) also points out an interesting
paradox. The claim that Israel uniquely deserves the BDS treatment is, to a
certain extent, based on Israel supposedly being exceptional with regard to its
level of human rights abuses (vs. Iran, China, North Korea, etc.). And yet the
members making up PACBI can only be seen as legitimately representing
Palestinian civic society if Israel’s “repression” does not extend to
eliminating such civic space in both Israel and the West Bank.
Like the claim that Israel
is inflicting a “Holocaust” on a Palestinian population that is simultaneously
experiencing a population explosion, the very existence of PACBI demonstrates
that the level of repression found in countries ignored by BDS activists
(Sudan, Saudi Arabia, etc.) does not exist in Israel. And thus we are led back
to the conclusion that the best way to avoid being a target of alleged “human
rights” activists pushing boycott, divestment and sanction is to actually be a
repressive dictatorship that crushes civic society rather than letting it exist
to sign boycott petitions.
Finally, a note on dates.
PACBI, as stated on their own Web site, made its “plea” for academic BDS in
2004, years after divestment programs originating at the 2001 Durban conference
were well underway in North American and European universities, unions,
churches and municipalities. In other words, the PACBI call was the result of
the success BDS was seeing between 2001-2004, and being the result it could not
have simultaneously been the cause.
Time travel underlies much
of the BDS project, as is underlies much of what passes for analysis of the
Middle East. My favorite example of this is the projection of today’s US
support for Israel (which didn’t really kick into high gear until the 1970s)
back to 1948 and beyond in hope of finding a US-Zionist conspiracy going back
to before the founding of the Jewish state.
If ignorance is bliss,
then the folks behind the PACBI excuse for BDS are either the happiest people
on earth, or at least the most manipulative.
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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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Thursday, November 07, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
