Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, November 08, 2019

11/08 Links Pt1: IAEA Confirms that Iran Lied about Its Nuclear Program; The Palestinian Authority's missing billions; White House was right about UNRWA corruption

From Ian:

US rejects Jordan's opposition to deport wanted terrorist

The United States has rejected a claim by Jordan over its refusal to deport wanted Palestinian-Jordanian Hamas terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, as a Jordanian court ruled in 2017 that Amman’s extradition treaty with Washington is invalid, despite the U.S. State Department saying the opposite in a report published this week.

The report could lead to increased pressure by the White House on Jordan to extradite Tamimi to the United States, who helped organize the well-known suicide-bombing at a Sbarro pizzeria on Aug. 9, 2001, which killed 15 people, including two Americans, and injured about 130 others.

Tamimi, who planned the attack, has shown no remorse, saying she has “no regrets.”

She had been awarded $51,836 until she was released from prison, as part of a 2011 prisoner exchange that included Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit’s release from Hamas captivity, when she then escaped to Jordan.

Tamimi is on America’s “Most Wanted Terrorist” list, but the United States has been unable to secure her extradition as a 1995 extradition agreement was not ratified by Jordan’s government.

The UN’s Michael Lynk listed Manal Tamimi, Ahed’s mom, as a “human rights defender” but he was forced to delete her name after folks reminded him she supports murder of Jews she calls “vampire Zionists.” pic.twitter.com/Hkg0oRWGKx
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) November 7, 2019

Israel's Daily Reality: The Story of Aluma

When Aluma Mekaitan Guertzenstein tells me she’s married and pregnant, I burst into tears of joy.

I’ve been asked to update the stories of terrorism survivors, those I met in the years 2000 and 2005 when the horror of bus bombings, restaurant bombings and disco bombings aimed at young people was our daily reality in Israel. Thousands of Israelis were killed and maimed. Jerusalem, our real and symbolic capital, was the target of much of the terrorism. I’ve run into Aluma a few times over the years. Once she’d just gotten her driver’s license and was going to see which cars she could drive. I was glad she’d gone on with her life.

Who can forget November 21, 2002? Aluma got up early, her mind full of numbers. A 17-year-old schoolgirl, she was determined to score high on the morning’s math test, as she boarded Egged bus No. 20 in Kiryat Menahem, a working-class neighborhood of Jerusalem where her family lived. Aluma hugged close her heavy school backpack packed with books and notebooks. Others were waiting at her stop on Mexico Street.

Among them was Na’el Abu Hilail, 23. He’d been driven into Jerusalem from El-Khader, south of Bethlehem, to this bus, deliberately chosen because by 7:15 a.m. it was always crowded with children going to school and office workers going to their jobs downtown. In his backpack were no books, but 5 kilograms of explosives packed with shrapnel. Standing near the driver where passengers lined up to pay, he pulled the switch. The windows were blown out of the bus. The roof was ripped off. The blast wave rolled through the enclosed space, tearing the junctures where air and tissue meet: ear, lung and the gut. Metal fragments flew through the bus. Passengers were thrown from their seats. Fifty passengers were seriously and critically injured. Eleven persons, four of them kids on their way to school, were murdered.

At first the count of dead was 12. But then a paramedic named Raphael, like the angel of healing, made a last check through the bus and saw a schoolgirl’s eyelids flicker.

Friday Night Dinner with Palestinian Rockets

Each week, my cousins Dina and Yair host students in their home from Sapir College in the Israeli city of Sderot. This week, the guests included students and my wife, myself, and our baby son. My wife and I had finally put our 1-year-old to sleep and were sipping soup when, suddenly, a sharp, oddly calm, almost robotic announcement came over loudspeakers. "Tzeva Adom - Code Red." We know we have 15 seconds to run to a bomb shelter as a rocket speeds towards us. This is not a test.

I run into our bedroom and scoop the sleeping baby out of his crib. Like a football player running downfield, I hold him under one arm and guide people down the hallway to the shelter with my other. We dive into the shelter and slam shut the heavy vault door just as the first blasts shake the walls and rattle the roof. Our sleepy 1-year-old claps his hands and screams, "Boom, boom."

Ten minutes later, we leave the shelter to sit around the table once again and pretend that things are normal. After a second barrage of rockets half an hour later, we decide to leave our son in the bomb shelter overnight with the other kids. At least we won't need to wake them up if more rockets are fired at us - as indeed they were at 2 a.m.

Today 3/11 A traveller bordering the Gaza Strip saw his children playing with a book, suspecting it was a booby trap called the police. The sappers found half a kilogram of TNT explosives and spray balls to increase the injuryhttps://t.co/4qku4GGntq pic.twitter.com/sfKd36QmN4
— (((Donny)))🇮🇱🇺🇸 (@mlirh) November 3, 2019

Arutz-7 reports:

One of heavy metal’s biggest bands will be returning to Israel next year, for its first show in the Jewish state in 25 years.

On Thursday, the band Iron Maiden confirmed that it will be appearing in Tel Aviv next year for its first show in Israel in a quarter of a century.

Iron Maiden is slated to perform at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium on May 30th, with Israeli heavy metal band Orphaned Land opening the show.

While many Israeli fans rejoiced, some Orthodox Jewish fans in Israel urged the band to reconsider the timing of the concert, which begins Saturday evening before the end of the Sabbath and a day after the Shavuot holiday.

A petition launched by Orthodox fans has called on the show’s promoters to push off the date of the concert.

“For the greater good of G-d and the Jewish people, please choose a day to play here that doesn't fall out on one of the forbidden times.”

Other fans took to the ‘Bring Iron Maiden to Israel’ group to organize a group Shabbat at a hotel in Tel Aviv near the venue, allowing religious fans to make it to the show after the end of the Sabbath (8:23 p.m.).

Aviva Fort, who previously covered the Israeli metal scene with ‘Metal Israel’, told Arutz Sheva concert promoters fail to realize that a growing number of rock and metal fans in Israel are religiously observant, assuming that the fan base is exclusively secular.

“The foreign-born religious population is only growing. Concert promoters and the rest of Israeli society need to deal with reality: Shabbat-observant people that move to Israel or study here don’t necessarily fall into the strict boxes delineated by Israeli society. Shutting out an entire sales market by not taking our needs into account is just not a smart financial move.”

The problem is compounded by the fact that the Friday before the concert is Shavuot, so any religious fan would have to be in a hotel for two days - and most religious Jews would want to be with their families on the holiday rather than in a Tel Aviv hotel.

Some people might think it is strange that religious Jews would be fans of heavy metal, but there are plenty of Jews who take Jewish law seriously and who also fully participate in secular society, including listening to the same music everyone else listens to.

The petition has little chance of making an impact; the band's full tour dates are published. However, there is a five day gap between the May 30 show in Tel Aviv and their next concert in Finland. If enough "frum" metalheads convince the promoters and band that there is money to be made by adding a second show, then, just maybe, they can pull it off. They just need to convince 30,000 Israelis to come to a second Sunday night show!

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Ahlam al-Tamimi is the proud Hamas terrorist who was integral to the 2001 bombing of the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem, killing 15 including 7 children and a pregnant woman.

Tamimi was one of the 1,207 prisoners released in the deal to free Gilad Shalit and she has lived freely in Jordan since then, publicly proud about her role in murdering Jewish children.

Malki Roth, 15, was one of the two American victims of the Sbarro massacre, and since then her parents Arnold and Frimet have been working tirelessly to see justice done to her murderer.

In 2013, the US Justice Department brought charges against Tamimi under US laws, but the charges were not unsealed until 2017.

“Al-Tamimi is an unrepentant terrorist who admitted to her role in a deadly terrorist bombing that injured and killed numerous innocent victims,” Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Mary McCord said at the time. “The charges unsealed today serve as a reminder that when terrorists target Americans anywhere in the world, we will never forget – and we will continue to seek to ensure that they are held accountable.”

Last year, for the first time, the US State Department annual Country Report on Terrorism mentioned al-Tamimi:

A U.S. criminal complaint was unsealed in March charging Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, a Jordanian national in her mid-30s, with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against U.S. nationals outside the United States resulting in death. The charge is related to her participation in an August 9, 2001, suicide bomb attack at a restaurant in Jerusalem that killed 15 people, including two U.S. nationals. Four other U.S. nationals were among the approximately 122 others injured in the attack. Also unsealed was a warrant for Al-Tamimi’s arrest and an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint and arrest warrant. Jordan’s courts have ruled that their constitution forbids the extradition of Jordanian nationals.

The newly released Country Report on Terrorism 2018 includes a significant addition to the virtually identical text:

In 2018, Jordan continued to cite a court ruling that its constitution forbids the extradition of Jordanian nationals. The United States regards the extradition treaty as valid.

Those nine words hint that the current administration, unlike previous ones, might actually pressure Jordan publicly to extradite Tamimi to the US.

The Jordanian ruling that Jordanian nationals cannot be extradited is contradicted by Jordan's own actions in extraditing a Jordanian national for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in 1995.

Here is the text of the extradition treaty between the US and Jordan.

Jordan's position that Tamimi cannot be extradited under their constitution is an extreme insult. Here is what the Jordanian constitution says:

Article 21
(i) Political refugees shall not be extradited on account of their political beliefs or for their defence of liberty.
(ii) Extradition of ordinary criminals shall be regulated by international agreements and laws.

Meaning that Jordanian justice system does not view a murderer of children as a criminal or terrorist, but rather as an innocent person being persecuted for her political beliefs.

Far more information is available at the This Ongoing War website maintained by the parents of Malki Roth.

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.

Dahir Zidani, the owner of the Al Reda restaurant that has been in the news for not allowing patrons to speak Hebrew to his staff, is probably a bigot - but he is definitely a jerk.

He was interviewed by QudsN where he said that part of the reason that he bans Hebrew from being spoken is to push Arabic as a language of choice for Arabs like his workers, but the major reason is that Israelis are "barbaric:"

There is another issue, one that Israelis may understand better than others, because they know themselves, that they are insolent and messy, they are loud and boastful, they enter the restaurant arrogantly and in a condescending way, and we found that this way we could restrain them. The moment we speak to them in English, they become different people, they lower their voices, they speak politely, they behave nicer and they are more civilized, not as much as we would like them to be, but less barbaric than they were beforehand.

He also makes it cler that he doesn't consider himself an Israeli:

Can an Israeli impose his conditions and mood on a restaurant in France or in Africa or ask them to bill the account in Hebrew ?! of course not. So I submit the invoice in Arabic, and if someone wants to explain the details of the invoice, I am of course ready, but I provide it in Arabic.

The striking thing about the interview though is that Zidani has a vision for the relationship between a restaurant owner and the customers that is not exactly how most businesses are run:

This place is open to all people, but it is my place. Another point of view is who should determine the conditions of hospitality, is it the guest or the host ?! Or is this guest expecting that he can impose his conditions elsewhere as he tries to do with us ?! Or is this a reflection of the balance of power ?!

"The customer is always right" is not this guy's slogan. This is very clear when he or his manager respond to criticism on TripAdvisor:

The place seems to be strict about rules. We left with uncomfortable feeling that they had something against us and we got no reasonable explanation why we couldn't get our order. Try sodfeh or tashreen in the neighborhood. Time was midnight, place half empty , 4 of us, sat further away from smokers. Apparently our table was only for 3 people. Ordered drinks only. Waiter retuned explained take only for 3. We said we want to be close to window and further from smokers. 10 minutes another waiter came that the table can't hold food for 4, we explained we ordered only drinks. 10 minutes later same waiter came back and explained no way you stay on this take , we left wasting half an hour and perplexed about the true reason why we couldn't get our order.

Dear Mr Zipzib
you don't like smoke and smokers , you entered a smoker's place , !!!
you decided and insisted to take a table we did not give you !!! without respecting our rules and consideration !!!!
you can insist also not to understand why we did not and could not serve you under your conditions !
still I hope you can understand this : A table should not look comfortable only for client , it should be comfortable also for the next tables , it should be comfortable for the waiter to serve and it should be safe , safe , safe for clients !!!!
we would have explain that to you if you did move to the available alternative tables !
you exempted your self from thinking or worrying about these considerations , we cannot and we don't want to take this exemption to ourselves !!! we simply still have some respect to ourselves and to our place !!
hope you will reconsider you review !!!!??

The manager of this establishment was the rudest, most offensive and angry person I have come across in any so called restaurant.
If it had been my choice I would have immediately left.
The group I was part of were made to feel unwelcome, unruly (!) and unwanted.
The manager, or whoever was representing this business , was contemptuous and positively abusive in my honest opinion and showed our group not even the most basic respect never mind any remote shred of 'hospitality' whatsoever.
To list :initially a refusal to acknowledge the booking denying it existed
Negative attitude towards size of our group
Refusal to take orders instead offering 'shared plates' that did not take much account of vegetarian or vegan needs
Slamming down menus in front of us
Telling us to split into smaller tables because we were too loud..!!
Refusing to turn music down
Keeping people waiting interminally for drinks and food
Just plain nasty
There was obviously some deep seated resentment towards us that I could only guess at.
This person looked unclean,disheveled;
The place itself was dark, extremely dusty and practically empty apart from single men and one very young inappropriately dressed girl.
How I deeply deeply resented giving even one shekel of hard earned money to this company.
NO STARS
AVOID AVOID AVOID

DAZEI, General Manager at Alreda, responded to this review
This review ( second of the same grope ) does not deserve any kind of respond !!
I am so sorry I agreed to feed them , and I am most happy they and their friends promise to avoid my place !!!

The restaurant has no problem putting a Hebrew sign on its front. It is a warning that it is protected by a security system.

Apparently he considers thieves to be Hebrew speakers.

(ht Ibn Boutros)

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11/07 Links Pt2: Israel can't allow those who call for its destruction to remain; Jewish Chronicle urges Brits not to vote Corbyn; Stanford Activists Compare Ben Shapiro To An Insect

From Ian:

The Problem with Anti-Zionism

Anti-Zionism is a flourishing politics today on many university campuses and on parts of the left, and the standard response from many Jewish organisations and from most of the Jews I know is to call it the newest version of antisemitism. But anti-Zionism is a subject in itself. I take “Zionism” to mean a belief in the rightful existence of a Jewish state, nothing more. Anti-Zionism denies the rightfulness.

Most versions of anti-Zionism first appeared among the Jews. The first, and probably the oldest, takes Zionism to be a Jewish heresy. According to Orthodox doctrine, the return of the Jews to Zion and the establishment of a state will be the work of the Messiah in the days to come. Until then, Jews are required to accept their exile, defer to gentile rulers, and wait for divine deliverance. Political action is a usurpation of God’s prerogative.

“Waiting for the Messiah” has a left-wing version, which might be called “waiting for the revolution.” Jews (and other minorities) were often told that all their problems would be solved, and could only be solved, by the triumph of the proletariat. Many Jews took this to be an expression of hostility, a refusal to recognise the urgencies of their situation. But I don’t see antisemitism here, only ideological rigidity and moral insensitivity.

The second Jewish version of anti-Zionism was first proclaimed by the founders of Reform Judaism in nineteenth-century Germany. There is no Jewish people, they insisted, only a community of faith – men and women of the Mosaic persuasion. Jews could be good Germans (or good citizens of any state) since they were not a nation like the other nations and did not aspire to a state of their own. Zionism was perceived as a threat to these good Germans, since it suggested that they had an allegiance elsewhere.

Many leftists have adopted this denial of Jewish peoplehood, and then they go on to claim that a Jewish state must be a religious state, something like a Catholic or Lutheran or Muslim state – political formations that no leftist could support. But Reform Jews adopted this position knowing that most of their fellow Jews didn’t share it. They weren’t all looking for a homeland in the land of Israel, but even the Bundists, who hoped for autonomy in the Tsarist empire, were Jewish nationalists.

The early Reform Jews wanted to change the course and character of Jewish history; they weren’t ignorant of that history. Leftists who argue against Jewish peoplehood are, mostly, ignorant.

Ben-Dror Yemini: Israel can't allow those who call for its destruction to remain

From the moment Omar Shakir stepped on Israeli soil, he had the same modus operandi he always did and even traveled to Bahrain to promote a FIFA ban on Israel. Bahrain denied him entrance to the country.

Last year, following the decision to cancel Shakir's visa, 15 human rights organizations, Including Israeli NGOs B'tselem and Breaking the Silence, called for the decision to be reversed.

"This decision only serves to partner Israel with a list of shady countries whose governments want to control the opinions, thoughts and actions of human beings, instead of protecting their right to free speech," the groups said.

Well, let's see: Canada banned former British MP and vehement Israel-hater George Galloway; France banned Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, considered by Sunni Muslims to be a prominent intellectual; Britain banned American anti-gay protester Fred Phelps and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper from entering the country, as well as Michael Savage, a far-right conservative radio host; the U.S. denied entry to Filipina human rights activist Liza Maza who intended to attend a conference on American activity in her country; and recently, both the U.S. and Britain banned the entrance of Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and Omar Shakir's ideological twin.

It's safe to assume that anti-Israeli elements will resume their usual drivel about damage to free speech, which is curious given that Shakir himself is an advocate of harming free speech.

In 2015, Shakir signed a petition calling for a ban on Muslims who dared accept the invitation of the Hartman Institute (on Jerusalem-based center for pluralistic Jewish thought and education) for an educational tour of Israel.

Every country has the right to deny entry to agitators, and there's no country in the world that would allow a person who denies its right to exist enter its borders. This is true of Israel as well.

In front-page editorial, Jewish Chronicle urges Brits not to vote Corbyn

In a front-page editorial, the British Jewish Chronicle implored UK citizens not to vote for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the upcoming December 12 election, citing his long record of comments against Israel and failure to stamp out anti-Semitism within his opposition party.

“To all our fellow British citizens. This front page is addressed not to our usual readers — but to those who would not normally read the Jewish Chronicle. In other words, to non-Jews,” it read.

In its call for British nationals to take Jewish concerns into account on election day, the editorial cited a March poll showing that 87 percent of British Jews believe Corbyn to be anti-Semitic.

“There is racism on all sides of politics and it must be called out wherever it is found. History has forced our community to be able to spot extremism as it emerges — and Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader in 2015 is one such example,” it said, citing Corbyn’s past affiliation with members of Hamas and Hezbollah, his presence at a ceremony that honored the Palestinian terrorists behind the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre, his reaction to anti-Semitic statements by members of his party, and his 2018 comment that “Zionists” do not grasp “English irony.”

Boston University wants to hire a lying, hateful "academic" because she is married to a faculty member! (update)

A letter by Karen Hurvitz, an attorney who taught law at Boston University Law School, to BU president Richard Brown about BU's imminent hiring of a fake academic who literally makes things up and publishes them, is a bombshell.

In these times of rising anti-Semitism, I have just learned that Boston University is considering appointing Sarah Ihmoud, a terrible anti-Semite to a tenure track position in its sociology department. I understand that letters of concern and alarm submitted to the president, provost, and others have been met with a “none of your business” type of response, together with assurances that the process is being handled “based on peer evaluation of a candidate’s scholarly and professional achievements within the appropriate discipline and according to established disciplinary criteria… consistent with our established criteria and processes.”  The quote is from a form letter being sent out by President Brown.

In point of fact, I have learned from colleagues on the law school faculty, where I taught in the BU Defenders Program, that nothing about this potential hire is being handled in accordance with established criteria and processes. The hire is being considered as an accommodation to a recent law faculty hire — Ihmoud is his wife. The position was not advertised, and there was no applicant pool, as required by BU’s established — and written — practices and processes.

What is worse is that her “scholarly” achievements are works based on viciously defamatory and easily refuted assertions about Israel. For instance, she writes in In the Absence of Justice, a report she co-authored with Shaloub-Kevorkian, another rabid anti-Semite who claims that Israelis sell Palestinian body parts, do medical experiments and test weapons on Palestinian children — see http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/23511, that

Existing studies on gendered aspects of military occupation in East Jerusalem reveal that even in times of death, women are stripped of dignity and security, and their safe burial is jeopardized by the militarized regime (Shalhoub-Kevorkian 2013). Women are prevented from safely reaching health professionals and finding a safe place to give birth, and face humiliation in Israeli hospitals during treatment, operations, giving birth, miscarriages and more (ibid.). Gendered violence was also apparent when examining the effects of surveillance over women, mainly in relation to the immense security devices and cameras in and around homes, schools and streets (Shalhoub-Kevorkian, 2015). Sexual and psychological abuse and harassment of women at checkpoints, by Israeli soldiers was also another factor affecting women. harassment by Israeli soldiers, including being made to undress when crossing checkpoints, was found to have increased women’s sense of loss of their bodily integrity and added to their humiliation and oppression (ibid., p. 63).

In the Absence of Justice, Embodiment and the Politics of Militarized Dismemberment in Occupied East Jerusalem, Ihmoud and Shaloub Kevorkian, 2016

What should be apparent to anyone — not just a sociology professor — is that she and her co-author are citing themselves! Not only is this echo-chamber readily apparent, the “research” on which it relies is unverifiable because it is based  on interviews with Palestinian women whom the researchers refuse to name, citing vague security concerns (and adding to the idea that no one is safe from Israelis).  In fact, as the article at the website I provide above points out, these assertions are false. Her other articles  contain similar outrageous propaganda.

Boston University has strict policies on academic integrity. Boston University is actually holding a workshop on Academic Honesty today! Take a look:

This interactive workshop explores the importance of academic integrity in higher education, and addresses the following important questions: What is academic integrity? Why is academic integrity important? What are some of the values associated with academic integrity? Why is integrity important in the realm of higher education? How does the concept of academic integrity transition into environments outside of higher education?

1:00pm on Thursday, November 7th, 2019
2:00pm
100 Bay State Road, Room 545A
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/academic-integrity-workshop-tickets-72084706297

Boston University is also a member of the International Center for Academic Integrity
https://academicintegrity.org/about/our-member-institutions-2/

But all these standards and workshops mean nothing if Boston University is considering hiring Sarah Ihmoud. If Boston University expects its students to have academic integrity, it must demand the  same of its faculty. If Boston University wants to have good standing in the  community of  scholars, it must enforce rules of scholarly integrity. Please don’t make this shameful hire.

Sincerely,
Karen Hurvitz

This is now a major scandal. The email that the BU president is sending out to people complaining about Ihmoud now looks even more like a cover-up for shoddy hiring standards and nepotism. Here it is:

I have received your email expressing your concern about Dr. Sarah Ihmoud, who is being considered for a faculty position in Boston University’s Department of Sociology.

I am disappointed that what should be (for a long list of sound reasons) a judicious and confidential process has been turned into a public controversy that produces a variety of harmful side effects. In this case, as in all cases involving review and assessment of candidates for faculty positions, our evaluation and hiring process is based on peer evaluation of a candidate’s scholarly and professional achievements within the appropriate discipline and according to established disciplinary criteria.

I acknowledge your disapproval of some of Dr. Ihmoud’s rhetoric and positions she has advocated. But it is the University’s obligation to both recognize the authority of the faculty, relevant deans, and academic leaders to make an informed decision, and to respect any decision that is made consistent with our established criteria and processes.

UPDATE: The sociology department rejected Ihmoud, the women's studies department is still considering her.

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Jews are still fleeing Arab countries - 20% of Moroccan Jews moved to Israel in 8 years

The official Israel in Arabic Twitter site had this information and chart (text translated):

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.

Tunisia had an estimated 1500 Jews in 2013, to lose 160 is over 10%.

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 (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

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.

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.

11/07 Links Pt1: Ron Prosor: For UNRWA, the party is over; Shin Bet: We thwarted over 450 terror attacks in the past year; Apartheid on Temple Mount: Police Block Jews from Using Drinking Fountains

From Ian:

Ron Prosor: For UNRWA, the party is over

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: We thwarted over 450 terror attacks in the past year

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.

PMW: Why is Martyrdom-death “unique in Palestine”?

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."

More here: https://t.co/BKV5uBJ79l pic.twitter.com/4odxeHKhx7
— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) November 7, 2019

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
— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) November 7, 2019

Omar Shakir even boycotted MUSLIMS who don't support BDS

Omar Shakir worked for Human Rights Watch in 2014, then left and joined again in 2016.

In between, he signed a petition supporting the boycott of Muslims - Muslims who care about Palestinians and who care about their own communities.

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.

Omar Shakir signed the petition.

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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Leftist antisemitism that pretends to be anti-racism is still antisemitism, @MairavZ

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.

A similar group of Jews, including Scheiner, visited the Pope in 2017. Was that racist as well? He danced with Arab Muslims in Bahrain. Was that racist?

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.

Interestingly, most Jerusalem Arabs in 2006 traveled to Palestinian controlled areas to vote, only 6000 voted at Israeli post offices. The 2006 elections shows that voting can happen effectively without Jerusalem.

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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11/06 Links Pt2: US Jewish umbrella group slams Democratic hopefuls’ calls to leverage Israel aid; Jews lobby non-Jews to browbeat Jews – what do you call that?

From Ian:

Noah Pollak: Leading Democrats Call for Conditioning Military Aid to Israel

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.

US Jewish umbrella group slams Democratic hopefuls’ calls to leverage Israel aid

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.

U.S.-Israel Security Cooperation Is A Win-Win

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.

Halil Mutlu with Omar in September

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 7^th resolution 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.

Omar's office has sent this statement to CNN explaining her present vote: pic.twitter.com/Gpj198jx0p
— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) October 29, 2019

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?

From the Daily Caller:

“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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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

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.

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