Egyptian security forces announced the discovery of a smuggling tunnel from Gaza to the heart of Egyptian Rafah.
The tunnel was about 3 kilometers long.
Egyptian security sources said, "The tunnel is intended for infiltration of terrorist elements from the Gaza Strip to plant improvised explosive devices on the Egyptian side and to support terrorist elements supporting the ISIS organization in Sinai and transport weapons and explosives."
Egypt says it seized ammunition and explosives inside the tunnel.
Egypt has claimed that Gaza elements, almost certainly with Hamas' knowledge, are supporting ISIS attacks in the Sinai. Hamas strenuously denies any involvement, and it would be a fairly stupid thing for Hamas to do. So it is hard to know how much to believe the Egyptians, although if they recovered weapons in the tunnel, it it better to destroy it no matter whether they were being smuggled into Gaza or out of Gaza.
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One of the stranger aspects of the Peace to Prosperity plan was where it floated the suggestion that the Israeli Arab communities in the so-called "Triangle" section of central Israel could be transferred to Palestinian control.
But the response from Mahmoud Abbas is worth examining. He rejected it as well, saying "We know the purpose of this proposal and we will not accept it."
If Abbas wants a viable Palestinian state, why would he reject the lands and "Palestinians" that would come with it, taking away land from Israel?
The reason is the same reason he insists that the "Right of Return" is part of any agreement. He wants Israel to become more than 50% Arab so the Jewish state can die and be replaced with another Palestinian state.
The welfare and strength of his own state is not a concern for him. Abbas is not a leader of a state in waiting - a leader would do what was best for his people. To Abbas, and virtually all of the leaders of the Palestinian Arabs in history, every single decision must conform with one rule: that it can eventually lead to the end of Israel as a Jewish state.
There is no other justification for Abbas to reject an offer of highly educated and trained Arabs, along with their land.
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On the Israel front, Trump nullified the 1967 lines, the cornerstone of the Arab rejectionist position that Obama had attempted to enshrine in UNSCR 2334. He did this by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, and then by recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The latter move eliminated the 1967 framework altogether with regard to Syria and Lebanon. As far as the United States is concerned, there are no more disputed territories: The land is Israel’s.
The current plan extends that same approach to the Jordan Valley, in addition to existing settlements. “If the State of Israel withdrew from the Jordan Valley, it would have significant implications for regional security in the Middle East,” the president’s vision states, expressing a positive desire for Israel to remain there. An extension of Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley would therefore serve U.S. regional security interests. Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ acceptance of the Trump plan as the basis for any future talks between Israel and the Palestinians indicates that the United States’ regional allies have accepted the president’s nullification of the 1967 lines framework. The significance of this is that the Saudis and the Emiratis have accepted that the starting point for any movement going forward is not the so-called Arab Peace Initiative, which the Saudis originally sponsored almost 20 years ago, and which has subsequently been loaded with additional rigid language, especially regarding the so-called right of return for Palestinian refugees, by rejectionists led by the Assad regime. The Trump peace plan is the new starting point.
The truth is, none of these frameworks matter anymore. Trump has made it clear that he is not bound by the fantasies of previous American peace processors—who today show contempt for the president’s plan even as they admit their own decades-long failure. Trump’s deal is designed to underscore Israel’s special relationship with the United States—and it slams shut the rusty gates of the peace processing factory for good. It doesn’t much matter how the Palestinians respond. The American position is not dependent on the outcome of future negotiations.
Israel’s political class now has a clear window in which to determine its own fate. Israel can then live with the consequences of its own choices.
Let us imagine that Jordan changes its mind and agrees to become the Palestinian state in place of the one that fails to materialize pursuant to the Deal of the Century. This change of mind can come about either through the King's agreement or by his giving over the reins of leadersihp to someone who will.
Were this to happen, all Palestinian Arabs in both sides of the Jordan R. would become full Jordanian citizens. without restrictions. The two roads connecting the proposed “state” to Jordan would be completed facilitating transportation between the Palestinian Arabs on both sides of the Jordan R.
Jordan would take over the administration of Areas A and B and Gaza in place of the PA and Hamas. Jordan would also fulfill the role of UNRWA in providing education, welfare and health care to all the current day refugees.
Rather than build the tunnel connecting Gaza to the rest of the “state”, pursuant to the vision, at a cost exceeding $15 Billion, Jordan can invite all residents of Gaza and Judea and Samaria (aka West Bank) to relocate to Jordan to receive these benefits. Also immigrants could be offered free housing in Jordan with international aid to sweeten the deal. It is not too far-fetched to believe that 2 million Arabs living in these areas could be incentivized to relocate to Jordan which is only 100 miles away or to any other country prepared to accept them.
It would not be necessary for Israel to give up any parts of its territory.
Israel would extend its law to all the lands west of the Jordan R including Gaza and the Arabs would become foreign residents in Israel with Jordanian citizenship.
The $50 Billion pledge in support of this vision could be provided to Jordan to enable it to become the home for all Palestinian Arabs and to provide them with jobs, education and healthcare.
Instead of investing in industrial parks in Area C in Israel to benefit the Arabs as proposed by Min Bennett and PM Netanyahu, these zones will rightly be created in Jordan thereby incentivizing Arabs to emigrate to Jordan.
This is a two step solution.
The first step is to change the vision as above set out.
When President Donald Trump’s peace plan was released, assuring Israel of sovereignty along the Jordan River, the security of settlements in Biblical Judea and Samaria, and the entirety of Jerusalem including the Old City under Israeli jurisdiction, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (and Israelis in general) had every reason to exult.
But The New York Times had every reason to lament. Reporter Megan Specia, a story editor based in New York with little evident familiarity with the Middle East, Israel, or Palestinians, reported on the plan and its deficiencies (January 29). Her conclusion, that the proposal “strongly favors Israeli priorities,” is indisputable, as is her perception that it is “a sharp departure from decades of American policy.”
Worst of all, as the Times has repeatedly complained, “is American recognition of Israel’s claim over the Jordan Valley and all Jewish settlements in the West Bank.” After all, she writes in an endlessly reiterated Times cliché, “Most of the world regards the settlements as illegal.” They have “steadily encroached” on land, by implication, that is Palestinian — unidentified by Specia as the Biblical homeland of the Jewish people.
In their familiar duet of complaints about Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu and settlements, Jerusalem Bureau Chief David Halbfinger and his colleague Isabel Kershner sadly concluded that a viable Palestinian state is now “quickly slipping away.” Rather than focus on the decades of Palestinian intransigence that have obstructed that possibility, they predictably (for the Times) blamed President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu for imposing their will on beleaguered Palestinians. President Mahmoud Abbas, they suggested, should “try to weather the storm” in the hope that Trump and Netanyahu will be defeated in forthcoming elections. That is also the Times’ endlessly reiterated hope.
The Times drumbeat continued. On the Opinion page, Nathan Thrall, widely praised for his plea (in The Only Language They Understand) to force compromise on Israel and the Palestinians, offered his own laceration of the Trump plan. It “gives Israel cover to perpetuate the status quo of occupation and sovereignty,” he complained, thereby “depriving millions of stateless people of basic civil rights and dispossessing them of their land.”
Thrall, clearly not enthralled by Zionism or Israel, refers to an “indigenous Palestinian population” whose rights to the Biblical Land of Israel have been ignored. He does not acknowledge that this “indigenous Palestinian population” did not assertively define itself in national terms until after the Six Day War in 1967, when the Jordanian land on the West Bank where they lived was returned to the Jewish people. He is convinced, without offering a shred of evidence or confronting evidence to the contrary, that Israel “illegally established settlements” in Biblical Judea and Samaria.
When the NYT says that Abu Mazen's life work has been to forge a peaceful 2 state solution with Israel do you think they're including his graduate school work blaming Jews for the Holocaust, his fundraising for the Munich massacre, & his decades working for terrorist PLO? pic.twitter.com/qnsQ0JevuE
The "Peace to Prosperity" plan was doomed from the start. But it has, and will continue to, achieve a great deal.
It puts Palestinian political positions, which have been mostly aligned with the UN and Europe, on the defensive. They kept saying that they have international law on their side, but international law that is only enforced against Israel is not international law. Now there is a serious plan and pathway to peace and the Israel haters are forced to respond.
For the most part, the responses have been boilerplate. Absurd charges of it being an "apartheid plan" or "a one-state solution" are obviously not true to anyone who reads it, but these are the knee-jerk reactions because the usual suspects are waiting for some anti-Israel academic to come up with smarter counterarguments. (Both Human Rights Watch's Ken Roth and former HRW member Sarah Leah Whitson linked to Arab League description of the plan as "apartheid" as if that charge had validity.)
Many of the objections have been to the plan being seen as pro-Israel. Yet Palestinians were invited to participate, and moreover they are being invited to participate now to push back on whatever they want. They are refusing and this indicates not only that they do not have an answer to the plan, but they didn't even have a plan to respond to it with two years' notice. Without a counter-proposal (beyond the mantra of "1967 lines, capital in Jerusalem, right of return") they they prove they are not serious about peace.
Moreover, Jared Kushner's direct rebuke to the Palestinians for not accepting any previous plan is prompting an interesting response from many: they are saying that the previous plans were equally unsatisfactory, even though they were much more direct paths to an independent Palestinian state. It is easy in an era of Trump Derangement Syndrome to push back on the Trump aspect of the plan - many people would reflexively oppose anything with his name anyway. But when they say that the Clinton and and Olmert plans (as well as the Obama/Kerry framework), all rejected by Palestinians as vehemently as this one, are equally bad, they expose the truth that they were never interested in peace with Israel but in Israel's surrender. If Palestinians spurred peace ideas from the great liberal hero Obama, they will never accept peace.
Trump has changed the debate from the old, tired "Israel must do more for peace" to "Palestinians must do something for peace." When the response is dismissive, even though some parts of the plan are clearly advantageous to them, it shows the world that they aren't serious players.
The most salient point is that the plan is aimed at helping the Palestinian people more than any previous plan has. When their leaders reject it out of hand, they are saying that the status quo- which they cry to the world is unlivable - is suddenly much better than a plan that gives them more than double the land they have, the ability to live without a single Israeli checkpoint, the ability to freely go to Gaza, and Gaza would have triple the land it currently has, as well as many other economic incentives. Palestinian leaders could try to grab their gains and negotiate for more - if they cared about their people. Palestinians already don't like their leaders and those that read the plan will have more reason to distrust them. (Incidentally, the Hamas-oriented Al Resalah actually translated the entire plan to Arabic and published it.)
So even if the plan fails as a roadmap to peace, the effects are wholly positive. It shifts the focus and the onus on the Palestinians, whose main response is "rage" and "less cooperation with Israel" even if that hurts their people. It exposes the truth about Palestinians to the world, including many of their Arab brethren. The Arabs pay lip service to the Palestinian cause but for the most part they have not gone beyond that for many years.
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Jamal Rayyan, a Palestinian anchor for Qatar-based Al Jazeera, tweeted a poll essentially asking whether Palestinians should create "special teams" to target Arab leaders who seem to support the American "Peace to Prosperity" plan.
The tweet translated to, "After the century deal revealed Arab faces, do you support the formation of Palestinian factions with special teams highly trained to deal with the symbols of Arab countries that are working to undermine the Palestinian national liberation movement in order to deter these countries? Your opinions are important # Palestine # Saudi Arabia # Emirates # Egypt # Bahrain # Gulf # Maghreb Arab" Rayyan has 1.6 million Twitter followers.
His tweet angered social media users and he took it down after receiving over 900 responses in less than an hour for fear of being sued. People demanded Twitter delete his account for calling to assassinate Arab leaders.
Some people responded by saying that it was Qatar who was pro-Israel:
من الحاج ايدي كوهين الى اخيه حمد بن جاسم حاكم قطر الفعلي شكراً لمعالي رئيس حكومة دولة قطر 🇶🇦 السابق الشيخ حمد بن جاسم بن جبر آل ثاني على كلماته الطيبة عبر شاشة التلفزيون الفرنسي 🇪🇺🇫🇷 ومشاعره النبيلة تجاه الإسرائيليون 🇮🇱 تحية له .
@hamadjjalthanipic.twitter.com/sZMHWuuiVb
Al Jazeera is often accused of being a mouthpiece for Qatar, whose foreign policy has been more pro-Iran and pro-Muslim Brotherhood than the rest of the Arab world. Qatar also cooperates with Israel in bringing in far more aid to Gaza than all the other Arab countries combined - entire apartment complexes housing thousands have been built under Qatar's sponsorship.
(h/t Yoel)
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Iranians must have the "right to choose" between different political movements, President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday, as controversy grows over the disqualification of thousands of candidates in upcoming polls.
Speaking at the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during annual celebrations of the 1979 revolution, Rouhani, a moderate conservative, praised the political heritage of the Islamic republic's founder.
"The imam (Khomeini) insisted on the fact that people must participate in all elections and have the right to choose", Rouhani said during the address, broadcast on state television.
Controversy has been raging for the past fortnight, pitting the coalition that supports Rouhani's government against the Guardian Council, which oversees Iran's elections and is dominated by ultra-conservatives.
The council says it has barred some 9,500 potential candidates from standing in the February 21 legislative polls -- almost two thirds of the 14,500 hopefuls -- including 92 sitting MPs from of all political stripes.
Rouhani, paying homage the "father of republicanism in Iran", said Khomeini had refused to establish a "caliphate" and instead "chose the Islamic republic" after the victory of the revolution against the shah's rule.
Only approved people and parties can run in Iranian elections, meaning that the mullahs approve the candidates who will do what they want.
No, that's not democracy.
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I already knew that Yoram Hazony was brilliant from his "The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture" and I have always wanted to read his book about Esther. I was not disappointed.
Megillat Esther is perhaps one of the best-known stories in the Hebrew Scriptures, but Hazony's analysis in God and Politics in Estherreveals themes and depths that I never imagined.
Hazony's main thesis is that Esther is a book about politics. More specifically, it is a blueprint on how Jews must act politically in the Diaspora, since Esther is one of the few Biblical stories that takes place primarily when Jews are under foreign rule. He presents Mordechai as being a master politician, becoming well known among King Ahashverosh's advisors and able to see things from multiple perspectives (his interpretation of the rabbinic assertion that Mordechai knew 70 languages.)
Esther, his cousin and adopted daughter, was his protege in understanding how to gain favor from those who know her. For example, when Esther was to be presented to the King to spend the night, she only wants to adorn herself according to the advice of Hegai, the king's chamberlain, and nothing more. Hegai has a vested interest in finding the perfect mate for the king, and he knows the king well, so Esther in this case trusts him implicitly, which makes him prefer her over the other girls, and helps contribute to the king finding favor in Esther as well.
Mordechai and Esther both want to use politics to their advantage, and Mordechai doesn't want either of them to make a big deal about their Jewishness. But things change when Haman becomes the king's vizier. Hazony explores the question of why Mordechai didn't bow down to Haman - why he suddenly was willing to make waves, and endanger the Jewish people, which is not a very political thing to do. After all, Jews are allowed to bow to royalty and to those close to royalty, as the story of Joseph shows.
Before Haman, the king had a series of advisors that would help the king make the best decisions. After the episode of the attempted coup against the king that Mordechai foiled, Ahashverosh became more paranoid about his advisors, and he essentially hired Haman to be the only confidant. This changed the entire texture of the kingdom as Haman arrogated himself to be close to a deity himself, making all decisions as an all powerful being - an idol. This crossed the line from a politician that a Jew can work with to one who is a mortal enemy, as idol worship is abhorrent. Mordechai, essentially alone, started a one-man protest against the new order of Persia which only accelerated when Haman convinced Ahashverosh to destroy all the Jews.
Hazony brings numerous parallels between the events in Esther and those of other Jews who were in high political positions in foreign lands - mostly Joseph and Daniel. Interestingly, he is harsh on Joseph, who had to walk the line between pleasing Pharaoh and doing what is best for his people - if he crosses the line, his ability to help his family would plummet to zero, so he spends more time protecting his position than using it to full advantage.
Esther, once she understood the gravity of the situation, realized that she must risk her position to save the Jewish people, something Joseph never really did. Joseph's brilliance in saving Egypt was a contributor to the Jews ultimately becoming slaves; he saved them from immediate starvation but was too paralyzed to go beyond that. Esther risks it all.
Her plan is brilliant. She gives her husband reason to become jealous of Haman by inviting both of them to what should have been a romantic banquet for two, starting a chain of events where the king is unable to sleep that night, worrying about whether Haman is becoming too close to the Queen which prompts the events allowing him to be reminded of Mordechai's saving his life. When he asks Haman how to honor someone, his answer reveals to the king that Haman has unlimited ambition including to the throne itself. This all primes the king for the second banquet, which brought Haman's downfall.
But the story is not done. The king shows no interest in saving the Jews, and for two agonizing months Mordechai and Esther wait while Haman's followers prepare for all out war on Jews. Esther must once again put her life on the line to ask for a solution, one which he delegates to Mordechai to find a way not to contradict his existing edict.
God and Politics in Esther weaves through its pages an entire philosophy of politics itself. Beyond that, Hazony includes essays on antisemitism, the morality of the Jews' war on its enemies, and an extended treatise on how God is - and isn't - a part of the Esther story which famously doesn't mention God once. Hazony convincingly argues that there is no distinction between what we call "miracles" - unexplainable phenomena that help save Jews - and things that seem natural or prompted by man's actions. The Tanach says that "God was with" many men who did actions that seem to be quite natural. God may be hidden since the times of the Prophets, but He is there.
The ideas that Hazony brings applies to all eras. Rabbis famously studied the story of Jacob preparing to meet Esau before they would meet with despotic rulers to plead their case for the Jews; this book makes one think that Diaspora Jews who enter politics should closely study Esther.
Moreover, Jews who avoid politics even at the grassroots level should reconsider that decision. Change happens when you are willing to make waves and act independently.
Especially in these weeks before Purim, this is a book that will make you look at Esther in ways you never imagined.
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Abbas’ Fatah has responded vocally to US President Trump’s peace plan – “the deal of the century” – adamantly rejecting it and even implying Palestinians should engage in violence and “defend Palestine with their blood and souls.” The image above of the Dome of the Rock appeared in a post with the following text:
Posted text: “Not for sale
#The_deal_of_the_century_will_not_pass”
Text on image: “#Down_with_the_deal_of_the_century
Palestine
Is not a homeland that is sold and purchased
But rather a piece of the Quran
that we will defend with [our] blood and souls”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 30, 2020]
Fatah also emphasized its ideology that it won’t give up any part of “Palestine” – a “Palestine” in which all of Israel is included. Abbas, as chairman of both the Palestinian Authority and Fatah, may assert that the Palestinians are only interested in a “Palestine” on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, but the messages from his own Fatah contradict this.
The image below shows that Fatah intends for “Palestine” to include all of Israel, and the accompanying text stresses this further. A man with a keffiyeh (Arab headdress) is lying on the PA map of “Palestine” that presents all of Israel as “Palestine” together with the PA areas. The man is covering the entire map with his body - from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea – which rejects the existence of Israel in any borders. One of the man’s legs is crossed over the other, showing the sole of his sandal on which is written: “The deal of the century” – referring to US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan, which he revealed together with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Jan. 28, 2020. In Arab culture showing someone the sole of your shoe is considered an insult and scorn.
Text at top of cartoon: “From the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 30, 2020]
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that PA and Fatah leaders often use the expression “From the Sea to the River” to describe “Palestine” and deny Israel's right to exist.
Fatah also posted a cartoon reiterating Abbas’ statement after Trump’s announcement of the deal, calling for Fatah and Hamas to unite. The cartoon shows from left to right Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh, Abbas, Islamic Jihad Movement leader Khaled Al-Batsh, and other Arab figures with their arms interlocked standing in a protective circle around the PA map of “Palestine.” On the map is written “Palestine” in English above the Dome of the Rock with a Palestinian flag flying over it.
Posted text: “#Down_with_the_deal_of_the_century”
Text at bottom of cartoon: “No to [Israeli] annexation of the Jordan Valley; Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine; down with the deal of the century”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Jan. 30, 2020]
Fatah threatens anyone supporting the deal of the century
The PA about Jews visiting the Temple Mount: “Jerusalem will not be defiled”
Text on screen: "The occupation's forces and its settlers invade the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Jerusalem will not be defiled."
[Official PA TV, Jan. 26, 2020]
The PA and its leaders claim all of the Temple Mount is an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Therefore, they view any presence of Jews on the mount as an "invasion." It should be noted that Jews who visit the Temple Mount only enter some sections of the open areas, and do not enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock. Israeli police ban Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount because of threats of violence by Palestinians.
While appealing for $1.4 billion in funding for 2020, the cash-strapped U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned that the U.S. Middle East plan is likely to lead to greater instability and uncertainty for the 5.6 million refugees it assists in the Israeli occupied territories and in other regional countries.
UNWRA reports it is facing the worst financial crisis in its history at a time of growing needs of the Palestinian refugees and great political uncertainty in the Middle East. Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, the United States, which had been UNRWA’s biggest donor, cut off $360 million in funding to the agency in 2018. The amount was nearly one-third of UNRWA’s budget.
Acting Commissioner General of UNRWA Christian Saunders said the agency received phenomenal support from other countries in 2018. But that support waned last year, causing a funding shortfall of $55 million.
He said Trump’s recently unveiled Middle East plan is causing another body blow to the humanitarian and protection needs of Palestinian refugees. He said that clashes that have erupted in the occupied territories and around Jerusalem after the plan was presented could be a harbinger of worse things to come.
“There are a lot of people that still are in a state of shock over the proposal. What will happen after that shock wears off, I do not know. We certainly have serious concerns that it will result in an escalation in clashes and in violence” he says.
The reason is to remind young Arabs of how important Jerusalem is supposed to be to them.
Somehow, Jews don't need such an initiative to know how central Jerusalem is to the Jewish people.
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There has been an interesting clash in the media between Jared Kushner and Saeb Erekat that, when analyzed, shows that Kushner is right.
Kushner went on Arab MBCTV to defend the plan. As usual, no one can argue with what he says so they are upset over his tone which they claim is condescending. This interview does not sound condescending to me:
During the interview Kushner also slammed Erekat for being part of the problem:
"He says a lot of things that have turned out not to be true," Kushner told Egyptian journalist Amr Adib on MBC Masr's Al Hikaya political program. "The guy has a perfect track record at failing at making peace deals."
Kushner riled up Erekat and anti-Israel activists last week when he said, accurately, that Palestinians like Erekat have screwed up every previous opportunity for peace:
Jared Kushner, senior adviser to the President, says the White House's Middle East plan is "a great deal" and if Palestinians reject it, “they’re going to screw up another opportunity, like they’ve screwed up every other opportunity that they’ve ever had in their existence.” pic.twitter.com/ABAI3gKjig
It is because of people like you who want to dictate rather than negotiate and who they thought could impose an apartheid Netanyahu plan on the Palestinian people forever. Ending the occupation, two states on the 1967 borders, otherwise is failure.
“I heard Olmert say that he offered 100% of the West Bank territory. This is true. I’ll testify to this. He [Olmert] presented a map [to Abbas], and said: ‘I want [Israel] to take 6.5% of the West Bank and I’ll give [the PA] 6.5% of the 1948 territory (i.e., land in Israel) in return.’ [Olmert] said to Abbas: ‘The area of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on the eve of June 4, 1967, was 6,235 sq. km. [I said to Abbas]: ‘There are 50 sq. km. of no man’s land in Jerusalem and Latrun.’ We’ll split them between us, so the territory will be 6,260 sq. km.” [I said to Abbas:] Olmert wants to give you 20 sq. km. more, so that you could say [to Palestinians]: ‘I got more than the 1967 territories.’ Regarding Jerusalem, [Olmert said]: ‘What’s Arab is Arab, and what’s Jewish is Jewish, and we’ll keep it an open city.’ Regarding the refugees, [Olmert] offered him [Abbas] 150,000 refugees … [Olmert] said: “The refugees’ right to return to the State of Palestine is your law. But regarding Israel, we will accept 150,000 refugees over 10 years. 15,000 [per year] over 10 years.”
So by denouncing all previous plans - which is in fact what many "pro-Palestinian" activists are doing in response to Kushner's CNN interview - Erekat is saying that his opposition isn't to Trump's plan but to every single previous plan as well for not going far enough.
The only possible interpretation is that Abbas' demands in 2008 were a lie, and he wanted to paint Olmert into a corner, not thinking he would (stupidly) agree to every demand for land and Israel taking responsibility for 1948 refugees and splitting Jerusalem. Abbas didn't want to end his claims on all of Israel down the line; he didn't want to stop at 150,000 Arabs "returning" - he didn't want to agree to anything that would leave Israel strong and viable.
Kushner is accurately pointing out that if Palestinians want a state, they can have one. In this plan, he notes, all the checkpoints will be gone - a Palestinian can travel through the entire state without seeing a single Israeli. Any Arab that wants to pray at Al Aqsa can do so. Details that were never dreamed of in previous plans are considered with the welfare of average Palestinians in the forefront of its philosophy.
Erekat's fuming response is, essentially, that nothing less than full Israeli surrender to the demands of those who claim they have nothing is acceptable - and that includes "return" to destroy the Jewish state. He is showing that his problem is not with Trump but with all previous plans, which fulfilled every ostensible Palestinian demand.
Erekat's words show that Palestinian leaders were never serious about peace or an independent state.And the Palestinian people are the ones who lose out because of the egos of Erekat and Abbas and all the rest.
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During the Arab League meeting, Mahmoud Abbas showed off The Map That Lies:
This is the map that Israel haters love to show off that completely misrepresents history, as I have explained in detail elsewhere.
It is not surprising that a known serial liar will push the Map That Lies.
What is funny, though, is that no one who pushes that map will ever add another frame to it, comparing areas controlled by the Palestinians today with what they would control under the Trump plan. Because the Trump Plan roughly triples the amount of land under Palestinian control!
If the point of the Map That Lies is to show how much land Palestinians supposedly lost over time (of course, this is a lie, since under Oslo is the first time they ever controlled any land), then the Trump Plan shows how they can do much, much better - if they wanted to negotiate instead of just say no to everything.
(h/t Adam L)
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The truth is that #NeverAgain has become a virtue signal for many on the modern left, who are more than willing to greenlight the genocidal anti-Semitism of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, and the Iranian regime, among others. Islamic anti-Semitism, in their view, is not true anti-Semitism; it’s just religious conflict, or territorial disagreement, or anti-Zionism.
When such ideological disagreements result in open calls for the murder of Jews … well, that’s going a bit too far, but it’s understandable. After all, modern Jews—particularly Zionists, who insist on a Jewish state to ensure the survival of their people—are rather bothersome in real life, unlike those dead Jews from World War II, who aren’t any more real than their old black-and-white photos, and whose survival is no longer at issue.
It’s easy for radical leftists and their Islamic allies to spout #NeverAgain while proclaiming that today’s Jews aren’t like yesterday’s Jews. All of which is why Israel’s continued existence provides both a thorn in the side of modern anti-Semites and why Israel’s continued existence is so necessary.
Vague expressions of upset over an event that took place 75 years ago are no substitute for the hard-nosed defense of Jewish survival that Israel represents. And Jews should remember that when they decide to blind themselves to the real and present anti-Semitism of the Omars, Tlaibs, and Corbyns.
What were totally forgotten or ignored by all the speakers were two topics that can best be described as the “unfinished business of the Holocaust.” I am referring specifically to the issues of justice and restitution, which are neither identical nor equivalent, but have two important similarities. In both cases, there have been highly significant partial successes, but much more could and should have been done, which has not yet been done. Both are still continuing but the chances of any additional major successes are almost non-existent as far as justice is concerned, and only slightly better in terms of restitution.
I mention these two issues because they have a direct impact on future efforts to defeat antisemitism, and are part of the problems we continue to face in this regard. Justice is a genuine deterrent to crime and had more of the perpetrators of Holocaust crimes been punished, it’s likely that antisemitic crimes would not be as prevalent as they are today. The same can be said as regards restitution. The more property returned to Jews, the stronger the warning against harming Jews – since in both cases the root of these crimes is antisemitism.
I am certain that many of the leaders who ignored these issues would dismiss this argument by pointing to the passage of so many years since the crimes were committed, but the passage of time in no way diminishes the crimes of yesteryear, and the guilt of those who murdered and robbed. The problem is that it is always easier to stick to virtually meaningless platitudes about memory and remembrance rather than pledge to tackle unpopular problems which obligate difficult practical solutions. So of course remembering the Shoah and Holocaust education are important and beneficial, but they have to be accompanied by legal measures against antisemitic crimes and the determination that the perpetrators of such crimes will never benefit from them.
"Anti-Semitism is just like racism -- it's hate. And hate anywhere should never be tolerated... We have to be loud every time we see something that is anti-Semitic." -@NikkiHaleypic.twitter.com/OhWqFGp0OR
However, while these Arab countries feel pressure to line up with Israel to defend their strategic positions, as leaders of Arab nationalism and authentic Islam, they still need to publicly save face.
That is why the Trump plan smartly kept the “two-state solution” on the table so that Arab states could pay lip service to the creation of a Palestine. This allowed Arab representatives to sit at the White House in their traditional robes as the deal was being unveiled. Yet the real effect of Arab states accepting the tenets of the deal was not the creation of an independent Palestine at all. Rather, it was the recognition of Israel as a legitimate Jewish entity in the Middle East — with its capital in Jerusalem and with rights in Judea and Samaria.
Shocking! And with regard to Palestine, the Arab states heard and acquiesced to the call on Palestinians to disarm, to stop paying for terror, to stop incitement — to basically give up the war with Israel. This was truly revolutionary. By agreeing to an Israel in the “West Bank” and also a defanged Palestine, the Arab states, quietly and without public pronouncement, essentially agreed to an end of hostilities with the Jewish state.
The Palestinian leadership, naturally, is up in arms. But it is not only their former Sunni Arab state allies who have turned their backs on them — it is also the proverbial Arab street. Many “West Bank” Arabs are tired of the pointless war with Israel and are tired of the corrupt Palestinian Authority. It is for this reason that there have barely been any protests against the “Deal of the Century” — just as there was a muted reaction to the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital by the Trump administration.
Yet, while many Arabs want to end hostilities, it is a mistake to pine for public Arab buy-in. Israel is anathema to both their Arab nationalism and a core tenet of Islam — and if they must swallow the existence of Israel, they prefer it play out as coercion, or at least a gradual and quiet acceptance rather than voluntary proclamations of “peace in our time.” In the end, helping the Arab world transition from war to cooperation is a delicate task and it will surely benefit Israel. But the Muslim world, which is hungry for prosperity, modernity, and reform, stands to gain even more.
As anyone who followed the case of Naam Issachar knows, she was caught with 9.5 grams of marijuana in her suitcase during a stopover in Russia coming from India to Israel. She had no access to her luggage in Russia, she couldn't have sold her small amount of pot if she wanted to.
Issachar is not a politician. She is just a naive, perhaps stupid, girl for taking the marihuana on the plane. But Ashrawi, by smearing her as a "drug smuggler," shows that she does not want to merely insult a girl - but an Israeli and a Jew. She wants to tell the world that Issachar is guilty because she is Jewish - there is no other evidence of her being a smuggler.
Ashrawi, whose Miftah has pushed the blood libel and supported terrorists who kill Jews, has proven her hate for Jews yet again.
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.
Setting policies toward territories involved in protracted conflicts poses an ongoing challenge for governments, companies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Since there are multiple zones of disputed territories and occupation around the globe, setting policy toward one conflict raises the question of whether similar policies will be enacted toward others. Where different policies are implemented, the question arises: On what principle or toward what goal are the differences based?
Recently, for example, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided goods entering the European Union that are produced in Jewish settlements in the West Bank must be clearly designated as such.1 At the same time, however, neither the ECJ nor the European Union have enacted similar policies on goods from other zones of occupation, such as Nagorno-Karabakh or Abkhazia. The U.S. administration swiftly criticized the ECJ decision as discriminatory since it only applies to Israel.2 Yet, at the same time, U.S. customs policy on goods imports from other territories is also inconsistent: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has explicit guidelines that goods imported from the West Bank must be labelled as such, while goods that enter the United States from other occupied zones, such as Nagorno-Karabakh, encounter no customs interference.
Territorial conflicts have existed throughout history. But the establishment of the United Nations, whose core principles include the inviolability of borders and the inadmissibility of the use of force to change them, led to the proliferation of protracted conflicts. Previously, sustained control over territory led to eventual acceptance of the prevailing power’s claims to sovereignty. Today, the United Nations prevents recognition of such claims but remains largely incapable of influencing the status quo, leaving territories in an enduring twilight zone. Such territories include, but are not limited to: Crimea, Donbas, Northern Cyprus, the West Bank, Kashmir, The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transnistria, and Western Sahara.3
The problem is not simply that the United Nations, United States, European Union, private corporations, and NGOs act in a highly inconsistent manner. It is that their policies are selective and often reveal biases that underscore deeper problems in the international system. For example, Russia occupies territories the United States and European Union recognize as parts of Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova, yet Crimea is the only Russian-occupied territory subject to Western sanctions. By contrast, products from Russian-controlled Transnistria enter the United States as products of Moldova, and the European Union allows Transnistria to enjoy the benefits of a trade agreement with Moldova. The United States and European Union demand specific labeling of goods produced in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and prohibit them from being labeled Israeli products. Yet products from Nagorno-Karabakh – which the United States and European Union recognize as part of Azerbaijan – freely enter Western markets labeled as products of Armenia.
Today, several occupying powers try to mask their control by setting up proxy regimes, such as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) or similar entities in Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh. While these proxies do not secure international recognition, the fiction of their autonomy benefits the occupier. By contrast, countries that acknowledge their direct role in a territorial dispute tend to face greater external pressure than those that exercise control by proxy.
On Wednesday, over on the heavily-trafficked Fox News website , there's an informative long-form piece that in large measure deals with our efforts to see Ahlam Tamimi, the Jordanian Islamist who masterminded the massacre at Jerusalem's Sbarro pizzeria in 2001, finally brought before US justice.
Written by Hollie McKay, the article is entitled "Most wanted female terrorist lives in freedom in Jordan despite extradition request for bombing that killed Americans".
Tamimi faces serious Federal charges in the United States for the central role she had in the mass-casualty attack. The FBI and the US Department of Justice have made serious efforts to take her into custody and reached what we think is the limit of their capabilities, absent the involvement of the political echelon of both the United States (by far the more important side) and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The mainstream media pay almost no attention to Tamimi, to Jordan's egregious (and frankly disgraceful) refusal to comply with its own 1995 treaty with the US, to our efforts, to the effect the Jordan/Tamimi scandal is having on the unchecked spread of Islamist and extremist pro-Palestinian Arab violence, and to how US politicians (with some important exceptions) treat the affair as untouchable and us as lepers.
Our thanks to Fox News and to Hollie McKay, whom we've never met, for focusing on what we are sure is an important story that exemplifies how justice in the plainest sense can be denied for shabby and unspoken political motives.
The January 23, 2020 visit to the Nazi Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp in Oświęcim, Poland by a delegation from the Mecca-based Muslim World League (MWL), comprising 25 senior Muslim clerics and headed by its secretary-general, Mohammad Al-'Issa, was unprecedented. Taking place in advance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, it was the first visit by a senior Muslim delegation to the camp, and was in conjunction with delegations and representatives from the American Jewish Committee (AJC). The visit, along with Al-'Issa's statements condemning the Holocaust during the visit, prompted a range of reactions in the Arab and Islamic world.
Saudi intellectuals and media figures expressed support for the visit on social media, emphasizing that the Holocaust was a mark of shame for humanity as well as history's most loathsome crime, that it should be acknowledged and condemned as such, and that it should be taught in schools. They added that the visit itself was an expression of tolerance and a positive move that would advance peace in the region. The Saudi press also published articles in support of the visit and of Al-'Issa, clarifying that it expressed condemnation of the crime against the Jews but was not an expression of support for Israel since Jews and Zionists are not the same.
Aside from the delegation's Auschwitz visit, this year International Holocaust Remembrance Day received special mention in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. The Bahraini and UAE foreign ministers expressed solidarity with Holocaust victims and condemned racism on Twitter, with the Bahraini minister tweeting: "Together, we will remember those who were annihilated, [to ensure] that these crimes against humanity will not recur."[1]This was retweeted and expanded by his Emirati counterpart. Likewise, Saudi media published articles on International Holocaust Remembrance Day recognizing its importance.[2]
On the other hand, pro-Qatar elements leveraged the visit to protest against the MWL and its home base, Saudi Arabia. Condemnation of the visit appeared in the Qatari media, and the Qatar-backed International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) also condemned it, calling it an expression of unacceptable normalization with Israel. The position taken by the IUMS was in line with the antisemitic statements made over the years by its senior officials. IUMS founder Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi has for years promoted an extremist antisemitic and anti-Christian discourse, even saying in a sermon that Hitler was Allah's punishment for the Jews and calling for another Holocaust but this time at the hands of the Muslims.[3] This year, the organization's current leader, Dr. Ahmad Al-Raissouni wrote that it is a right and an obligation to question the Holocaust, and that details about it could not be confirmed because the narrative consists of claims that are "politically biased and questionable."[4]
A tweet I saw was funny but ultimately horrifying:
Since it’s Year of the Rat, I just wanted to pay my respects to rat girl, the girl who every Muslim kid growing up was told had turned into a rat because she threw out the Quran. My scripture teacher told us about it and literally no adult questioned this. Thanks rat girl pic.twitter.com/BmEnPbkVi2
The thread showed that this was, and maybe still is, a widespread assertion used by Muslim teachers and parents:
This story is actually all over the place, and treated seriously in many Muslim websites. The main variant:
A girl was listening to music loudly, her mother happened to be reading the Quran, she asked her to turn the music down so she can carry on reading the Quran. The girl got pisst off and went to kick the Quran, her mother threw herself between her foot and the Quran, she ended up kicking her mother. She then stormed up to her room, where she put her music on and locked the door.
Later that day her mother realised that she had been up there for quite along a time, and the music was still blasting, she decided to call her down to eat. So, the mother went up to call her daughter but there was no answer. The mother got worried, she got her husband to break open the door, and they found the daughter in a state where she could be described as half monkey, half snake, lizard and very ugly like a ghost. She appeared to b a mixture of monkey, lizard and human, she couldn’t speak either.
It is sort of horrifying that this story is told as truth (with mosques even handing out flyers with the grotesque picture, as one tweeter noted.) Kids were truly traumatized.
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Elder of Ziyon
