Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 31, 2022

03/31 Links Pt1: Noah Rothman: In Israel, the Grimly Familiar and the Utterly Shocking; New synagogue guidelines call for weapons, cellphones on Shabbat following deadly attacks

From Ian:

Noah Rothman: In Israel, the Grimly Familiar and the Utterly Shocking

An ominously familiar scene unfolded on Tuesday night in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak—one that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said was indicative of “a new wave of terrorism” washing over the country.

Gruesome video of that event showed an attacker, dressed all in black, firing an M16 assault rifle indiscriminately at passersby. The attacker shot and killed four, including a police officer, before he was neutralized. The gunman was later identified as a 27-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank. While no terrorist organization has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, several militant groups—including Hamas—welcomed this act of barbarism.

Another grimly familiar spectacle occurred shortly thereafter in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. As news of the bloodshed spread inside Gaza, images of militants handing out celebratory sweets to locals flooded social media. It was all evocative of the painful and persistent violence that has colored so much of the region’s history, and it may presage even more terrible events yet to come. This mass shooting was the fifth in a recent series of terrorist acts that have so far taken 11 lives inside Israel. That’s more violent death than Israel has experienced outside wartime in years.

“After a period of quiet, there is a violent eruption by those who want to destroy us, those who want to hurt us at any price,” Bennett said in a recorded address. “They are prepared to die so that we will not live in peace.” It’s enough to leave observers with a terrible sense of déjà vu. Yet, a sense that the bad old days might be back is belied by the truly unfamiliar—indeed, seminal—circumstances that likely contributed to this spate of violence.

The backdrop against which these attacks were set is the full flowering of Israel’s emergence on its regional stage as a key power—not just militarily but diplomatically, too. This week, the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, traveled to a resort in the Negev desert in Israel for a formal diplomatic summit. There, the representatives of these Arab nations coordinated with the Jewish state’s head of diplomatic affairs on issues ranging from the extraordinary to the mundane.

What's Behind the Spate of Terror Attacks in Israel?

On the face of it, the attacks are unconnected: a Bedouin from the Negev with nationalist leanings; two extreme Islamist Israeli Arabs connected to ISIS; and a Palestinian terrorist from the West Bank. In fact, there is a close and direct connection of atmosphere, encouragement and unceasing incitement on the part of terrorist organizations and political leaders, while several conditions for such an outbreak of terror have emerged.

The security forces are wont to describe the territories as a "bubbling cauldron", for economic, political, and other reasons, on which the lid is kept tight shut by various means, partly military, but mostly economic. The moderating effect of an economy that is in a reasonable state and is developing is huge, and prevents a popular uprising like the two intifadas. Effective security measures help to thwart most terrorist attacks, which are almost all stopped at the planning stage in the terrorists' homes.

The relative quiet has, however, perhaps led to a degree of lassitude and an exaggerated sense of security. We live in a hostile environment in which the desire to annihilate Israel is alive and kicking, and the bubbling cauldron spills over now and then. The consequences of successful attacks are far-reaching. Israel looks more and more vulnerable, the Israel Security Agency and the security forces are seen to have failed, and the video clips and security camera footage showing terrorists opening fire in the heart of Israeli cities are a highly effective catalyst. Israel looks vulnerable and weak. As one assessment from a security source described it in a closed discussion: "They smell blood. Suddenly, strong Israel is taking blows, and the attacks manage to inflict pain, and even more, to have a victory effect through clips of the attacks on social networks that go viral very fast." The influence of the video clips and the praise expressed in them for the "heroes" represent extremely strong encouragement.

Jonathan Tobin: Don’t reward Palestinians for a new wave of terror

After a week of terror attacks that took the lives of 11 people, Israelis are wondering whether they are on the brink of a third intifada. The Jewish state’s security forces are redoubling their efforts to try to anticipate or prevent further such atrocities. But the Israeli government needs to worry about more than just whether these seemingly random accounts will lead to more violence from Hamas or elements linked to the Palestinian Authority. It also has to be concerned about whether its sole superpower ally and other Western countries will use these tragedies as an excuse to revive failed policies of the past, whose goal is to pressure Israel into making concessions to the Palestinians.

Throughout much of the last 30 years, that was the pattern of events. But instead of taking an honest look at Palestinian political culture, which not only lauds terrorism but views violence as a legitimate and necessary expression of national identity, the West consistently treated acts of murder as a cry for help from the disadvantaged.

Such thinking was the product of a fundamental mistake about the nature of the conflict. Rather than Palestinian violence being caused by alleged Israeli oppression or the lack of progress towards peace, it was instead an expression of a long-held belief in the illegitimacy of a Jewish state and the need for action to eliminate it.

Given repeated Palestinian Arab refusals of offers of compromise on even the most advantageous terms dating back to the pre-state era, that much should have been obvious. The support for terror even on the part of so-called Palestinian moderates, who have continued to subsidize and applaud acts of terror against Jews, had to be ignored. The foolishness of a policy that responded to terror waves with diplomatic pressure on Israel essentially rewarded Palestinians for violence.

So if the events of the last week are the harbinger of more attacks inside Israel, the question is whether President Joe Biden’s foreign-policy team will respond to them by doing the same thing every past administration—with the sole exception being the government led by former President Donald Trump—did whenever terror attacks surged and announce a renewed emphasis on reviving peace negotiations. If they do, they should not expect the results to be any different from what happened in the past. Instead of, as they claim, undermining the rationale for terror against Israel, it will send a message to the Palestinians that violence is the way to garner more support for their futile century-old war on Zionism and the Jewish presence in the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.

Moroccan anti-Israel group warns that normalization endangers national security, somehow.

Anti-Israel arguments are sometimes quite amusing.

The National Working Group for Palestine/Morocco has been trying to get Moroccans to oppose normalization with Israel, with not much success.

Ahead of yesterday's Palestinian Land Day, they called for a massive rally in front of Morocco's Parliament to show their anger and displeasure at normalization.

Abdelaziz Aftati, an MP for the Islamist Justice and Development Party, wrote on his Facebook page normalization "puts Morocco's strategic security at risk" isolating it from its Arab neighbors - which means Algeria. (Algerian media are the only ones that covered this story.)

How, exactly, does this affect Morocco's strategic security? Perhaps because Israel intends to "expand" into Morocco, somehow. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights warned of the "danger posed by the Zionist expansion." Perhaps Israel will invade Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria on its way to take over Morocco.

Finally, yesterday was Land Day, and a protest was indeed held outside Parliament.

A couple dozen Moroccans showed up.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

EU condemns Jews legally buying a disgusting, dilapidated hotel property in Jerusalem

EU and Palestinians tweeted, "EUREP, MS & like-minded states attended a meeting with the heads of churches to discuss the ongoing settler occupation of the Little Petra hotel at the entrance of the Christian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, owned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. Urge Israeli authorities to immediately deescalate the situation and take measures to fully protect the presence and heritage of the Palestinians and Christian community in East Jerusalem."

Haaretz reported earlier this week:

Following an 18-year legal battle, members of a settler organization have moved into the Petra Hotel in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Currently, Ateret Cohanim occupies only part of the Petra Hotel. Located near Jaffa Gate, the hotel is one of two large buildings the organization bought from the previous Greek Orthodox patriarch, Irenaios, in a controversial deal. The other is the nearby Imperial Hotel.
When the deal came to light in 2005, it sparked a major crisis within the local branch of the Greek Orthodox church that culminated in Irenaios’ unprecedented dismissal. His replacement, Theophilos III, then tried to repudiate the deal and get it overturned.
But the Jerusalem District Court, and later the Supreme Court, ratified it, despite concluding that there were “shadows and black holes in the moves that led to the agreement’s signing.” Among other things, it was proven that Ateret Cohanim had paid a church official.
Sunday morning, Ateret Cohanim members entered the building’s first floor under police escort. Under the terms of the lease, this floor is separate from the rest of the hotel, which is why the organization was able to take possession.

While the article notes some accusations of questionable conduct by Ateret Cohanim in regard to other property purchases, the purchase itself was 100% legal and they have every right to take possession.

But the EU, so concerned about the law when it can be interpreted against Israel, wants it to be ignored when it supports the position of Jews. Buying a building and moving in is "settler occupation," and of course all "settler occupation" is illegal.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate is trying to incite violence over this, by "warning" that Jews buying property is likely to cause violence:

This act is extremely dangerous as it regards community relations on the ground. Acting in this illegally aggressive manner against a known Christian property and an Arab business –particularly ahead of Easter and Ramadan – could likely ignite local hostilities similar to what was witnessed last year in Sheikh Jarrah. Not to mention the timing that Mati Dan and his organisation, Ateret Cohanim, are choosing on the eve of Secretary Blinken’s arrival in the region.
In response to this illegal activity, local residents, business owners, and priests are demanding definitive action. Patriarch Theophilos III has been consulting heavily with the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem and receiving counsel from all sides. The Church is doing all that it can to stop these actions, protect the tenants, and come to a lawful and peaceful resolution. However, there is tremendous pressure to address these actions in a powerful way. The Church fears certain actions could quickly escalate and ignite a very turbulent scenario in the Old City.

This is a typical Palestinian response - not to call on Palestinians to be calm but to "warn" that what Jews do can cause Palestinians to turn violent. The racist subtext is that Jews want to avoid violence and Palestinians naturally engage in it.

The hotel itself looks like a dump. TripAdvisor reviews tell horror stories and show photos that are stomach-turning.

Ateret Cohanim probably paid millions for this fleabag motel whose previous owners wouldn't invest a dime in it.

In any other city, the property would be condemned and the owners fined.

As usual, no one shows interest in these properties until Jews do. Then they suddenly become holy places of utmost importance to the future of the free world.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Egypt's Youm7 (Seventh Day) had an article on Wednesday about the great Jewish philosopher and rabbi Moses Maimonides (Rambam), who was born on March 30, 1135.

It quotes Egyptian philosopher Sheikh Mustafa 'Abd al-Raziq, Professor of Islamic Philosophy at Al Azhar University who died in 1947 and who was considered an expert on the Rambam:

I am one of those who place Maimonides and his brothers among the philosophers of Islam, and I said in a speech I gave at the Maimonides celebration at the Opera House on the first of April 1935 AD, “Abu Imran Musa bin Maimonides is a philosopher from among the philosophers of Islam. Muslims and non-Muslims have been called philosophers of Islam, and their philosophy is called Islamic philosophy, meaning that it grew in the countries of Islam and in the shadow of its state, and was characterized by some characteristics without regard to the religion of its owners, their gender, or their language."

Al-Raziq said that Jews like Maimonides translated Arabic philosophy to Hebrew, where the Christian West could read it and understand it, spreading their ideas throughout the world.

In general, this was a complimentary article. But this 2018 article in the same newspaper gives the Rambam credit for - Zionism!

The Rambam was famously the personal physician to Sultan Saladin, the article says:

What did Maimonides offer to the Jews, and how did that sultan's doctor open the way for Jewish immigration to Palestine, and did the Cordovan philosopher have a hand in paving the way for the establishment of a Hebrew state for the Jews in Palestine, which was officially announced in 1948?

According to the book “The Dictionary of the Philosophers” by the great thinker George Tarabishi, Moses Ibn Maimon, who was seeking to raise the spiritual and moral level of the Jews, used his influence in the country to provide more protection for his religion, and after Salah al-Din conquered Jerusalem, he obtained for his people the right to settle there [they had been expelled by the Crusaders - EoZ] and in Palestine in general, and to build synagogues and schools for them there, and he used that period to write to the poor Yemeni Jews to revive their hearts by believing in God and the Torah.

Dr. Muhammad Ziyad Hamdan, analyzed the last incident in his book “The Necessity of Civil Islam and the Nation State: Man’s Failure in Developing Countries,” that the decree, which Musa Maimonides approved of Salah al-Din, opened the way since that day for the establishment of the State of Israel, and to what it has reached in our present time of tyranny and corruption in the land."

Something else to admire about the Rambam!

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

03/30 Links Pt2: NYTs Uses Israel-Arab Summit to Claim Ben-Gurion ‘Never Believed in Real Peace’; UN to name investigator on Israel who compares it to Nazi Germany

From Ian:

New York Times Uses Israel-Arab Summit to Claim Ben-Gurion ‘Never Believed in Real Peace’

The summit was held at Sde Boker, the site in the Negev that was Ben-Gurion’s final home. The Times reports:
[I]f he were alive today, “no one would be more stunned than Ben-Gurion himself” to see the summit, said Tom Segev, an Israeli historian and biographer of the Israeli leader.

“He never believed in real peace with the Arabs,” Mr. Segev said of Ben-Gurion.

That’s nonsense. Here is Prime Minister Ben-Gurion’s statement to the Knesset on May 6, 1963, from the website of Israel’s foreign ministry:
When we proclaimed our renewed independence at four o’clock in the afternoon of Friday, May 14, 1948, we declared:

“We extend the hand of peace and good-neighborliness to all the States around us and to their peoples, and we call upon them to cooperate in mutual helpfulness with the independent Jewish nation in its Land. The State of Israel is prepared to make its contribution in a concerted effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.”

Israel realizes that her fate is interwoven with the fate of all mankind, and her peace depends on the peace of the world….I believe with implicit faith that the day will come when true peace will reign between Israel and her neighbors, but until that day we must ward off the danger of the war that the Arab rulers are planning against Israel.

How can the historian Tom Segev possibly know for sure that Ben Gurion was lying when he said he believed in peace? And why would the Times pass along that accusation to its readers without any evidence, or without providing the ample evidence to the contrary?

Segev’s biography of Ben-Gurion was rightfully panned by Ephraim Karsh in the Wall Street Journal (“Segev, like his fellow revisionists, is not bothered with mere facts in his endeavor to rewrite Ben-Gurion and, by extension, Israel’s history in an image of his own making.”)

It’s all a useful reminder that for Israel’s real enemies at the New York Times, the issue isn’t really the post-1967 “occupation” of the West Bank, or Israel’s supposed lurch toward the authoritarian right under Benjamin Netanyahu. The real issue is 1948-style Zionism itself: the mere existence of a Jewish state of the sort brought into reality by Ben-Gurion.

Leave it to the Times to take a positive story about Israel’s blossoming relations with its Arab neighbors and somehow find a way to turn it into a nasty, posthumous attack on Ben-Gurion.

'Arafat was a coward and the PA is paying a heavy price for it'

The arduous attempts to prevent terrorist attacks, the decision to drive the Palestinian Authority from Jerusalem, and the missed opportunity to eliminate top Hamas leaders: former Shin Bet chief MK Avi Dichter recalls the days of the iconic Operation Defensive Shield.

Passover night, March 27, 2002: The Dichter family home in Ashkelon was full of family and friends. All of a sudden, the Israel Security Agency director's phone rings out. Avi Dichter, by then a veteran of the service, was used to being away from home on holidays. Sometimes it was a security incident. Sometimes it was a source asking for an urgent meeting. This time, it was difficult for him to just get up and leave. After all, he was the host.

"I answered the phone, and the voice on the other end of the line said 'there's been an explosion at the Park Hotel in Netanya. We're checking to see if it was cooking gas,' recalls Dichter. "I was familiar with the routine of reporting a gas explosion. People found it difficult to report that there had been a suicide bombing, so when they didn't yet have proof, they would usually say, 'there may have been a gas explosion.'

"I told the guests that I had to leave and on the way to the office, I spoke with Arik Sharon, who was prime minister at the time. By now it was obvious that it was a terrorist attack and that we would be launching Operation Defensive Shield which was something that had already been discussed. Sharon decided that the main target would be Ramallah so as to send the Palestinian leadership a clear message.

Dichter, 69, has many stories from those dark days. The Likud MK and former public security and deputy defense minister was appointed to head the Shin Bet in May 2000. The Second Intifada erupted in October of that year, and terrorist attacks claimed hundreds of Israeli lives. Israel's response, 2002's Operation Defensive Shield, dealt a lethal blow to the terror infrastructure in Judea and Samaria.

Dichter says that to comprehend how Operation Defensive Shield came about, you have to go back to August 1993, when the Oslo Accords were signed. "You have to go from there, through the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, the Western Wall tunnel riot, and then Defensive Shield. Those are more or less, the main waystations," he says. "The Oslo Accords were finalized without the knowledge of the defense establishment which had no idea that the government was about to sign the agreements.

"At the time I was head of the Southern District at the Shin Bet and 90% of the burden fell on me. We had great expectations for cooperation from the other side because we knew everyone, from the head of the preventive security apparatus Mohammed Dahlan through to Moussa Arafat, who was chief of military intelligence. They were people that I had sat down with just like we are sitting together now. PLO leader Yasser Arafat in 1994 (Moshe Shai/Archives)

"It's like when you marry a woman, and the next day you find out that she isn't who you thought she was. When the terrorist attacks began, we supplied them [the PA] with intelligence so they could take care of things. But instead of taking care of things, they were looking for where we got our intelligence from. After [PM Yitzhak] Rabin's murder [in November 1995], when Shimon Peres was prime minister, we had a meeting with [PLO Chairman] Yasser Arafat, Peres asked me for a breakdown of the situation. I said that the man behind the suicide bombings was Mohammed Deif," he said, naming the head of Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas military wing.

"Arafat looked at [PA security chief] Mohammed Dahlan who was sitting next to him and said 'Mohammed who?' Dahlan said, 'The guy I told you about.' Arafat replied, 'You never told me anything.' We all knew he was lying. The most frustrating thing was that the Palestinian Authority was doing absolutely nothing to stop the violence."

UN Watch: Report: UN to name investigator on Israel who compares it to Nazi Germany

The U.N. Human Rights Council is planning to violate its own impartiality rules by appointing a new investigator on Palestinian human rights who exults in calling Israel an “apartheid” state and repeatedly compares the Palestinian situation to the Nazi Holocaust, according to a new report by the independent non-governmental monitoring group UN Watch.

Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer who worked in Jordan for UNRWA, is slated to be the next “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories,” whose mandate is actually to investigate solely “Israel’s violations.”

While UN experts are obliged to be objective and impartial, UN Watch’s 25-page report reveals that Albanese has repeatedly equated the Palestinian Nakba with the Nazi Holocaust, accused Israel of apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes.

On her application, Albanese was asked whether she holds “any views or opinions that could prejudice the manner in which the candidate discharges the mandate.” She replied “No.”

Yet just last year, Albanese acknowledged the opposite, saying her “deeply held personal views” on the Palestinian issue “could compromise my objectivity.”

Indeed, Albanese has said Israel is “keeping captive millions of civilians,” organized a panel on “Israel Apartheid,” and campaigns for an arms embargo against Israel.

On her application, Albanese also certified no personal conflicts of interest, failing to disclose that her husband, who compares Palestinians to Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto resisting the Nazis, formerly worked for the Palestinian Authority, where he authored a report on Israel’s “exploitative” policies.

“According to its own rules,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, “the UNHRC must give paramount importance to impartiality when selecting its experts, and Francesca Albanese is the very opposite of impartial.”

Albanese Expected to Follow Anti-Israel Agenda of Outgoing Michael Lynk

UN Watch: Axis of Iran and Amnesty International Accuse Israel of "Apartheid"

UN Watch's Hillel Neuer took the floor at the United Nations Human Rights Council to call out the Moscow-inspired disinformation campaign of "Zionism is Racism." March 25, 2022.

A Zionist, Not a Zionist (Judean Rose)

Zionism, for me, is a complicated subject. Growing up, I thought I was a Zionist. My family was Zionist. My parents were always going to ZOA bond dinners. Morris A. Paul, my dad’s uncle, was president of the local ZOA chapter, and also served this organization at the national level. I devoured books about Israel, ate, slept and dreamed Israel, and ultimately made Aliyah at the tender age of 18.

For me, however, Zionism was not the Zionism of Ben Gurion or Jabotinsky. My Zionism was unconnected to any political ideology, but rather a Zionism of the heart. Israel was where I wanted to be, come hell or high water.

My very Zionist uncle, Morris A. Paul

As my religious sensibilities evolved and solidified, I came to see my Zionism as a religious imperative. Aside from the commandment of settling the Land of Israel, there’s the fact that many commandments cannot be performed outside of Israel. Nachmanides, in fact, was of the opinion that the commandments were given specifically to be performed only in the Land of Israel. Phrased another way, all of the commandments are invalid, performed outside of Israel.

The word “Zionism” in and of itself, is a political ideology. You don’t find it in the bible. What you do find in the bible is 152 mentions of Tzion or “Zion.”

As a woman with a strong streak of rebellion who had embraced orthodoxy after growing up in the Conservative Movement, I took pride in telling people, “I am not a Zionist.” Looking back, I am embarrassed to admit what I now know: I enjoyed the shock value of this declaration, for everyone knew from my blogs and social media activism that I fought for Israel with both words and deeds. It made no sense to anyone I knew. “Of course you’re a Zionist!” they insisted.

“Nope,” said I, pigheaded and proud.

The State of Israel was to me, only a convenience that allowed Jewish people to live in the land and to properly carry out the commandments without kowtowing to a foreign entity. I thought, and still think that the Israeli system of government is stupid. Despite my patronizing view of Israeli politics, I voted in Israeli elections, choosing the candidates most likely to support the study of Torah. Until today, I find much Israeli legislation to be antithetical to the spirit of Judaism and Torah law (one recent example, the caving in of Ayelet Shakked regarding the entrance of non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees, which might lead to intermarriage and other dangerous phenomena). Then too, the Jewish State is not synonymous with the Land of Israel, which comprises a much larger landmass, and should, in my opinion, be governed by God-fearing, commandment-following rulers.

Map of the Holy Land (1795)

With the passage of time, accumulation of years, and hopefully a bit of acquired wisdom, my views on Zionism began to change. I came to see that in fact, I am a Zionist, if not in the political sense. I believe that Jews have the right to self-determination in all of their indigenous territory, what Jabotinsky and the Likud call “Greater Israel.” This understanding of Zionism is not inconsonant with Orthodox Judaism. At the same time, you will never see a Jew in a black suit and hat declaring themselves to be Zionists.

My children span the spectrum of Jewish religious belief, yet all of them have strong, right-wing views on the right of every Jew to live in all parts of the land. This too, tells me that in truth, I am a Zionist, perhaps more than I should be. Politics are what we talk about at our Sabbath table and also from day to day.

Over Sukkot, my eldest invited us to her Sukkah to share a meal and have some family time. As we were leaving, my grandson, the first of my grandchildren, walked us out to the car. He noticed my gold necklace, a silhouette of the State of Israel, and asked about it. I said, “Oops. I better hide that. I wouldn’t want to give you a bad reputation by being seen with Zionists.”

“Why?” asked my grandson. “What’s wrong with being a Zionist?”

“Well,” said I, “Zionists think the Jews need a state that belongs just to them. They believe we have the right to our own government. For me, it also means that every Jew can live in Eretz Yisroel, wherever they want.”

“If that’s what it means to be a Zionist,” declared my black-hatted grandson, “Then I too am a Zionist!”

‘Nuff said.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

How to Survive in the Middle East (Vic Rosenthal)

Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal

Last week, after a terrorist attack in Beer Sheva that took four lives, I (rhetorically) asked our leadership if they had a plan to deal with Arab terrorism, something more long-range than beefing up the police presence over Ramadan. Since then, there have been two more attacks, one in Hadera and one in Bnei Brak, bringing the total number of murder victims to eleven in one week.

The Beer Sheva terrorist was a Bedouin Arab, a citizen of Israel. The Hadera murderers were also Israeli citizens, from Umm al Fahm in the “Arab triangle” east of that city, who identified with the Islamic State. The terrorist who murdered five on Tuesday in Bnai Brak was from the Jenin area in the Palestinian Authority. He was in Israel illegally, working on a construction project. Some reports say that he was associated with Fatah, the party of PLO/PA leader Mahmoud Abbas. Diversity in terrorism.

Three of the murdered and one of the seriously injured victims were policemen. And of those, one was a Druze and another was a Christian Arab.

These terror attacks are the tip of an iceberg. Part of the rest of it showed itself last May, when during a war that was provoked by Hamas rocket attacks, we experienced a murderous uprising by Arab citizens:

In little more than a week, Arab rioters set 10 synagogues and 112 Jewish residences on fire, looted 386 Jewish homes and damaged another 673, and set 849 Jewish cars on fire. There were also 5,018 recorded instances of Jews being stoned. Three Jews were murdered and more than 600 were hurt. Over 300 police officers were injured in disturbances in over 90 locations across the country.

That wasn’t a peaceful demonstration. It wasn’t even a riot. It was a rebellion, an attempt to open a second front during a war. And it wasn’t “clashes between Arabs and Jews”:

By contrast, although some commentators have push [sic] the ‘both sides’ line, no mosques were damaged, one Arab home was firebombed (by Arabs that mistook it for a Jewish home), 13 Arab homes and cars were damaged, and 41 Arab bystanders were hurt by hurled stones. There were also two attacks by Jewish extremists against Arab bystanders, in Bat Yam and Herzliya. Bat Yam saw a large and violent demonstration by far-right Jews.

More of the iceberg, which has been growing for years while Israelis and their leaders have kept their eyes shut, has recently become visible. That is the astonishing fact that a great deal of the Negev and the Galilee have become no-go zones, controlled by Bedouin crime gangs:

Residents of the Negev (and parts of the Galilee) have felt, for years, that the government has abandoned them to the violence and crime of the Bedouin community. According to some estimates, some 100,000 acres of Israeli land have been ceded to the Bedouin—security forces will not or cannot exercise control in those areas, and the Bedouin have, some say, created a state within a state. … today the amount of weapons that the Bedouins in the Negev have right now … they have more weapons than two divisions of the IDF right now in the middle of the Negev. They smuggle weapons and drugs of more than 4 billion shekels a year between the Negev and Egypt …

Israel has very strict firearms laws. An Israeli citizen generally cannot possess a rifle, and must demonstrate a need (living in a dangerous area, a job as a security guard, etc.) to obtain a permit for a pistol. The amount of ammunition one can have is also limited. Yet the Bedouins and the criminal gangs in Israeli Arab towns are armed to the teeth with weapons stolen from the IDF, smuggled from Egypt or Lebanon, or even homemade. The murder rate among Israeli Arabs reflects this, being 12 times greater than that of Israeli Jews. Possibly the next time there is an uprising like the one last May, these guns will be turned against the Jews.

The trends are not encouraging. Our Muslim Arab citizens increasingly believe that the State of Israel is illegitimate, built on land “stolen” from them, and is a temporary edifice that will soon be liberated and replaced by an Arab state. Although it is true that only a small minority would engage in terrorism,

According to statistics published by Professor Sammy Smooha of Haifa University, 77.1 per cent of Israeli Arabs view Zionism as a colonial and racist movement, and demand that Israel be replaced with a binational state. 70.5 per cent of Israeli Arabs demand the right of return of Palestinian refugees, a move that would turn Israeli Jews into a minority. According to a 2017 study carried out by Smooha, Arab-Jewish relations have deteriorated since the previous survey done in 2015. In 2017, only 58.7 per cent of Israeli Arabs recognized Israel’s right to exist, as opposed to 65.8 per cent in 2015. In 2017, 44.6 per cent accepted Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state as opposed to 60.3 per cent in 2015. The acceptance of Israel retaining a Jewish majority declined from 42.7 per cent in 2015 to 36.2 per cent in 2017. …

The perpetrators of … violence operate in a society that is to a large extent sympathetic or supportive of their goals, if not always their methods.

The above is true not only of the “Arab in the street,” but especially so of their representatives in the Knesset and their academic intellectuals.

This situation has arisen because of a basic misperception of who we are – or rather, who we must be – in order to survive as a Jewish nation in the Middle East. The same misperception also weakens us in our relations with other nations, both our “friends” in Europe and North America, and our enemies. Israel cannot continue to survive as a “villa in the jungle,” in the words of Ehud Barak. We cannot establish a Scandinavian country here. Israel is part of the Middle East. We must put limits on who can live here and who can have political power.

In the Middle East, religion and ethnicity, tribal characteristics, are of great – no, overwhelming – importance. The idea that these can be ignored and a democratic and egalitarian state maintained here, given the demographic reality of today’s Israel, is delusional.

As everyone knows, in a non-totalitarian state, most people don’t obey laws because of fear of the police. They do so because they accept the principle that laws exist for the common good, and the legitimacy of the state that enforces them. If this were not the case, there would need to be almost as many police as citizens (as was close to the truth in communist East Germany). But most members of the Muslim Arab minority in Israel do not accept these propositions. Although we need to act with greater harshness against terrorism – a good start would be a death penalty for terrorist murder – we would need to become a police state like East Germany before we could suppress what is a genuine popular movement among one-fifth of the population. And keep in mind that this popular movement also has a great deal of external support (as well as help from the masochistic, autoantisemitic Left within the country).

We will not convince the acolytes of the Palestinian Movement to turn around and support the Jewish state. No amount of money or benefits to this segment of the population, or the participation of their representatives in the government will help (indeed, they have had the opposite effect). The only way to defeat this movement is to remove its supporters from the country. It would be good if this could be a gradual, nonviolent process effected by incentives, as suggested by Martin Sherman. But if that is impossible, then we must force them to leave.

Either we will face these facts and deal with them head-on, or we will not survive in the region.

03/30 Links Pt1: Five killed in Bnei Brak shooting as Israel enters 'new wave of terror'; Palestinian social media celebrates murder of Ukrainians in terror attack

From Ian:

Five killed in Bnei Brak shooting as Israel enters 'new wave of terror'

Five people were killed by a Palestinian terrorist in a shooting attack in the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) city of Bnei Brak on Tuesday night.

The shooting was first reported around 8:00 p.m. on HaShnaim Street. One person was found lifeless in a car and two other people were shot dead on a nearby sidewalk. A video later circulating on social media showed the attacker yelling in Arabic, shooting bystanders with an assault rifle on a residential street.

Another Israeli was found dead on Herzl street, perpendicular to HaShnaim Street. Yaakov Shalom, a Bnei Brak resident and father of five, and rabbi Avishai Yehezkeli, a yeshiva teacher and father of two, were identified as two of the five people killed in the attack. Victor Sorokopot, 38, and Dimitri Mitrik, 23, two workers from Ukraine, were also identified as victims of the attack.

The shooter was later shot dead by a police officer who arrived at the scene on a motorcycle. The officer, 32-year-old Arab Christian Amir Khouri, was evacuated to Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in critical condition and died from his wounds soon after, making him the fifth victim.

The shooter was identified as Dia Hamarsha, 27, from the village of Ya'bad in the northern West Bank near Jenin. He was jailed for six months in 2015 for dealing in illegal firearms and affiliation with a terrorist group, and had worked illegally at a Bnei Brak construction site.

Another person was arrested at the scene and investigated on suspicion of assisting the shooter, and a third person was arrested later on Tuesday night further east on Jabotinsky Street.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi, Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar to discuss the attack and rule on Israel's response.

In the meantime, Israel Police was put on its highest alert level for the first time since Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021. Shabtai decided that the police will focus on visible public security and will put more officers on the streets and in crowded areas. The IDF also announced that it was also sending reinforcements to the West Bank.

Victims of Bnei Brak terror attack: 2 local fathers, Christian Arab cop, 2 Ukranians

Authorities early Wednesday identified three of the five victims of a deadly terror shooting spree in Bnei Brak the previous night, including two young fathers and a police officer who helped kill the gunman.

The victims were named as officer Amir Khoury, 32, a Christian Arab; and local residents Yaakov Shalom, 36, and Avishai Yehezkel, 29.

The two other victims were foreign workers from Ukraine who had not been identified by Wednesday afternoon.

Khoury, an Arab Israeli from the northern town of Nof Hagalil, served on the Bnei Brak police station’s motorcyclist responders team.

Khoury was part of a team of two motorcycle officers who caught up with the gunman and killed him, ending the deadly shooting spree.

Khoury was hit in the exchange of fire and later died after being rushed to the Beilinson Medical Center, officials said.

Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai spoke later with Khoury’s father, Jarris. The father told Shabtai that they are a police family and that he was a veteran of the Tel Aviv police department.

Shabtai said his son’s death, confronting the attacker, was “a great tragedy for the police.”

“Alongside the tragedy, it is important for me to tell you that your son saved the lives of many civilians,” Shabtai says. “His actions will become a legacy and memory of heroism for the whole country.”

Khoury leaves behind his parents and two sisters.

'Israel is dealing with a new wave of terrorism' - Bennett

In a video statement released after the Bnei Brack attack, Bennett said that Israel is "currently facing a new wave of terrorism.”

"After a period of quiet, there is a violent eruption by those who want to destroy us, those who want to hurt us at any price, whose hatred of Jews, of the State of Israel, drives them crazy," Bennett said in a short video address Wednesday morning.

"They are prepared to die – so that we will not live in peace," he added.

Israel has already pushed to thwart what it feared would be outbreaks of Palestinian violence, similar to what sparked a Gaza war last May and a wave of ethnic Jewish-Arab riots within sovereign Israel.

"What we witnessed less than a year ago in Operation Guardians of the Walls, the terrorism and the violence, from within Israel and inside Israel, was the first sign," Bennett said.

"This is a great and complex challenge for the IDF, the ISA and the Israel Police that requires the security establishment to be creative and for us to adapt ourselves to the new threat and read the tell-tale signs of lone individuals, sometimes without organizational affiliation, and to be in control on the ground in order to thwart terrorism even before it happens," he explained.

"The security forces of the State of Israel are the best in the world. They are up to the task and, as in the previous waves, we will prevail this time as well," he added.

He sent his condolences to the families of the victims, wished a speedy recovery to the wounded and thanked the civilians and police officers who helped end the attacks for their heroism.

"I stand by the civilians and police officers who shot the terrorists in the various locations. I have spoken with some of them and thanked them on behalf of all of us. These are heroes of Israel who, thanks to their courage, have saved lives," he said.

"We face a challenging period. We have experience in dealing with terrorism, from the very beginning of Zionism. They did not break us then and they will not break us now," Bennett said.

"The secret of our existence is the mutual responsibility among us and our determination to maintain the home that we have built – at any price," he explained, adding that "citizens of Israel, we will prevail this time as well."

No, it's not the Third Intifada - analysis

A generation of both Israelis and Palestinians who grew up in the midst of suicide bombings do not want to see a repeat of such a scenario. Both sides understand the catastrophe that they lived through during those violent years.

Because of that, Israel’s defense establishment only last week increased the number of work permits for Gazans to 20,000, in an attempt to reduce the tensions that have been bubbling under the surface.

Officials from Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar are also working to reduce the flames-holding an unprecedented number of meetings in public. Those meetings came as Israel tried to differentiate between terrorism from the West Bank and Gaza and terrorism carried out by Arab-Israelis.

Nonetheless, despite the rush of diplomatic meetings and doubling of troops in flashpoint areas, 27-year-old Dia Hamarsheh was still able to illegally cross into Israel through a hole in the security fence and open fire on unarmed civilians with a military-grade assault rifle, just mere minutes from Tel Aviv.

In order to prevent future attacks, including copycat attacks, security forces and Bennett’s government have a lot of work to do.

One issue that should top their list is to fix the holes in the security fence through which thousands of Palestinians cross to Israel daily – including the mornings after each deadly attack this past week.

Security forces must also ramp up their operations in combating the trend of illegal weapons that have flooded into Arab communities and continue to be smuggled in from Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.

Combating the ideologies of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a struggle that will continue for years, and will be harder to deal with as long as Palestinians and Arab-Israelis feel they have nothing to lose.

Israel’s military does not want Defensive Shield 2.0 2022. But in order to prevent that, the IDF, Shin Bet and Israel Police must get the situation under control.

They can no longer afford to play catch-up.

In 1950, "Palestinian" was a successful racehorse - owned by a Jew

Isidor Bieber was a successful owner and breeder of racehorses during much of the 20th century. He worked closely with trainer Hirsch Jacobs who had an uncanny ability to pick talented horses and work with them.

Bieber, who was born in the Warsaw suburb of Vasloveck, liked to name horses after causes he was passionate about. He was anti-smoking and named horses Puffaway Sister, Kansirette, Shedontsmoke and Burnt Lips. Other horses were named Hail to Reason, Hate War, Reason Is One.

He was also a passionate Zionist who named horses Promised Land, Forgotten Ally. and Humane Leader in honor of David Ben-Gurion.

And Palestinian, born in 1946.

Palestinian won this exciting race in San Francisco in 1951:

Unfortunately, Palestinian had to be put out to pasture when he was injured the following year.

Palestinian was only successful as long as he relied on Jews for his welfare.

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As documented by Joe Truzman, here is a list of Palestinian groups that praised the terror attack in Bnei Brak yesterday:

Hamas

Palestinian Islamic Jihad

PFLP

DFLP

PFLP-GC

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (Fatah)

Mujahideen Brigades

Popular Resistance Committees

Popular Resistance Movement

This is besides Hezbollah.

Mahmoud Abbas' half-hearted condemnation of the attack reportedly came after Israel sent a strong message to him to do so. As far as I can tell, this is obvious to the Palestinian media, none of which have condemned the attack, even the media that slavishly echoes the official Palestinian position.

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Celebration in Beirut of Bnei Brak attack

Al-Araby, which is based in London, and Egyptian Al Masry al-Youm, both briefly mention that "Following the attack, mosques in the West Bank and Gaza Strip raised the takbir, to celebrate the operation in Tel Aviv."

"Raising the takbir" means publicly praising Allah, usually in the form of "Allah hu-Akbar."

Imagine the outcry if a synagogue of any denomination would blast out of loudspeakers (or publish in its weekly newsletter) joy and praise at the murder of civilians. It would be a major news item. The foremost critics would be Jews themselves.

And rightly so.

Yet, today, it isn't only Palestinian youths celebrating the murders of five people. It is their mosques - mosques that are run by older, respected men.

Where is the outrage from Muslims worldwide? Where is the horror at sacred mosques being used as places to celebrate terror? Where are the hand-wringing articles, in any language, saying that the Muslims who use Islam to celebrate death aren't "real Muslims?" Where are the social media posts that show disgust from religious Muslims at their faith being hijacked by immoral worshipers of death?

This is not to say that there are no Muslims horrified at these attacks - there certainly are. But the fact that no one expects any denunciations of the use of Islam to celebrate the most heinous crimes shows that the bar of expected behavior from Muslims, even Western Muslims, is very, very low.

Think about it: Can you even imagine that the Council on American-Islamic Relations would ever criticize fellow Muslims for supporting terror and using Islam to justify it? It is pure fantasy. But everyone would expect major Jewish organizations to forthrightly condemn any Jews doing anything remotely resembling this.

Part of the reason for Islamic terror is because it is so thoroughly justified and celebrated among so many Muslims without any pushback from their leaders - or from Western media and politicians who are cowed into worrying that any criticism will be labeled Islamophobic or result in death threats.

Arab and Muslim media today are romanticizing the attacks, or at best ignoring them - but they are emphatically not condemning them. This creates an environment where such heinous attacks are all but inevitable.

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Massive Palestinian celebrations in terrorist's home town (photos, video)

Here is how Al Quds described the celebrations in the hometown of the terrorist who murdered 5 Israelis on Tuesday:

Jenin, its camp and the town of Yabad witnessed, this evening, Tuesday, massive rallies to express pride in the perpetrator of the Bnei Brak operation near Tel Aviv, the martyr Diaa Hamrasha.

Our correspondent in Jenin stated that the celebrations included the distribution of sweets in celebration of the operation, and that as soon as the occupation announced that the martyr Hamrasha a was from the town of Ya'bad, hundreds of the town's residents went to his house.

They staged a sit-in in front of the martyr's family's house and congratulated them, while calls and statements of Hamrasha's death were broadcast via loudspeakers and praised his operation, and confirmed the continuation of the resistance approach.

In the city and camp of Jenin, hundreds celebrated the operation, with massive rallies during which sweets were distributed. According to Palestinian sources, the Hamrasha family did not receive any official notification about the death of their son, which was published by the Hebrew media.

It is reported that Diaa is a freed prisoner and was arrested on charges of belonging to the Fatah movement and currently owns a shop that sells cellular devices in his town of Ya'bad, where mourning was declared.

Note that in this mainstream Palestinian newspaper, the murderer is referred to as a "martyr."

I'm not going to say that 100% of Palestinians support these terror attacks. But zero percent of Palestinian media says anything negative about them, or about the celebrations. Never is there an op-ed denouncing the culture that celebrates death.

Even the reports that mention Mahmoud Abbas' half-hearted condemnation - probably strongly suggested by Western leaders - do not give any indication that they agree with the condemnation.

Western media shies away from describing this aspect of Palestinian society, as if it is vaguely Islamophobic to point out that an entire people largely supports or condones murdering Jewish people.

A major lesson from the Abraham Accords is that it doesn't have to be this way. This hate isn't an inherently Arab thing. It is a Palestinian thing. Only Palestinians reward terrorists with jobs and cash rewards. Only Palestinians regard the worst mass murderers as heroes. Only Palestinians hold wild celebrations when one of them successfully murders Jews.

It is an immoral society.

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03/29 Links Pt2: Five killed in Bnei Brak terrorist shooting; Edinburgh-Gaza twinning proposal withdrawn; Women fighters of the Jewish Holocaust resistance

From Ian:

Five killed in Bnei Brak terrorist shooting

Five people were killed in a shooting spree in Bnei Brak on Tuesday evening.

The shooting was first reported around 8:00 p.m. on HaShnaim Street. One person was found killed in a car and two other people were killed on a sidewalk nearby.

Another person was found dead on Herzl Street, perpendicular to HaShnaim Street. A fifth victim, a police officer, was evacuated to the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in critical condition and died from his wounds soon after.

The shooter's body was found on Jabotinsky Street after he was shot by a police officer who arrived at the scene on a motorcycle.

Another person was arrested at the scene and investigated on the scene on suspicion of assisting the shooter, and a third person was arrested later on further east on Jabotinsky Street.

The terrorist was a 27-years-old man affiliated with Fatah, from the village of Ya'bad in the northern West Bank. He was jailed for half a year in 2015 for illegal arms dealing and belonging to a terrorist group, and had worked illegally at a building site in Bnei Brak.

Roman Abramovich, Ukrainian negotiators poisoned in Kyiv talks - WSJ report

Russian-Israeli oligarch Roman Abramovich and three Ukrainian negotiators in the ceasefire talks were allegedly poisoned during a meeting in Kyiv in early March, Netherlands-based open-source intelligence group Bellingcat confirmed a Wall Street Journal report on Monday.

Abramovich and the three members of the Ukrainian delegation, led by chief negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak, reportedly suffered from symptoms of poisoning after the Kyiv meeting held some time in February, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, WSJ reporter Max Colchester reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Sources claimed they were poisoned by Russian hardliners who want to sabotage ceasefire negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv, the report stated. A source close to Abramovich, however, said that it was not clear who targeted the oligarch and the Ukrainian delegation.

The condition of the Russian-Israeli oligarch and the Ukrainian negotiating team has since improved and their lives are not in danger, though it was reported Abramovich lost his vision for several hours.

Experts who have looked into the poisoning incident claimed it was hard to determine whether a chemical or biological agent or some sort of electromagnetic radiation, was used, WSJ noted in its report.

In late February, The Jerusalem Post broke the news that Abramovich is attempting to assist in the talks between Russia and Ukraine at the request of Kyiv.

Tom Gross: The oligarchs can't overthrow Putin, the only real threat to his power may be from FSB hardliners

Tom Gross: The first part of this interview is here: Zelensky is no Havel or Mandela, but he is media savvy, whereas Putin is old school & doesn’t care

Ukraine’s most famous director ostracized for unflinching film on Babyn Yar pogrom

If you live in New York City and are attuned to the programming schedules of local arts cinemas, there is a man who is noticeably having a moment: 57-year-old Sergei Loznitsa.

The fact that Ukraine’s most celebrated film director has so many projects coming to theaters right now is only partially due to the circumstances in his home country. (The IFC Center near New York University, for example, is offering a mini-retrospective.) The other reason is that Loznitsa, who works in both documentary and narrative film, is incredibly prolific, and the ebb and flow of international distribution sometimes makes for a logjam.

The prestigious Museum of the Moving Image just hosted the New York debut of “Mr. Landsbergis,” a four-hour documentary about post-Soviet Lithuania, and his surrealist tragic-comedy about war and disinformation, “Donbass,” which won a directing award at Cannes in 2018, will finally make its way to New York theaters on April 8.

On April 1, however, Film Forum in Manhattan will present “Babi Yar. Context,” a documentary crafted from seldom-seen archival reels concerning a terrible chapter in Ukrainian history wherein close to 34,000 Jews were killed during the Holocaust in just a few days. (In early March, it was believed that Russian bombs damaged the contemporary memorial there, but this turned out not to be the case.)

No recordings were made of the actual killings at the Babyn Yar ravine (though still photos — in color — of the aftermath were taken), but Loznitsa’s film has that second word, “Context,” in its title. What he has sculpted, without voice-over and just a few title cards, is a fly-on-the-wall look at the social changes in Ukraine during the Nazi occupation.

From the first tanks rolling in through Lviv to Soviet infrastructure literally covering up the spot where so many Jews were executed, Loznitsa, adding sound to mostly silent footage, shows what happened — and some of it (e.g. a lot of Ukrainians seemingly eager to welcome the Nazi regime) isn’t exactly going over so well at home.

Which brings us to the next topical point. Last week Loznitsa, a six-time winner at the Ukrainian Academy Awards, was summarily dismissed from the Ukrainian Film Academy. Reasons cited include the accusation of being “too cosmopolitan.” Loznitsa, whose previous work includes “Maidan,” a celebration of Ukrainian independence in the face of corruption and Russian interference, commented in an open letter that the choice of words had an antisemitic aspect to it. (As far as I know, Loznitsa is not Jewish. I asked him directly, but he and his interpreter didn’t really respond, as you’ll read below.)

The flaws of the professional peace-processors (Guest post by @mike_bomb)

By Twitter user @mike_bomb

On Twitter Monday, in response to the Negev Summit, veteran peace-processor Aaron David Miller re-upped his September 23, 2020 Washington Post op-ed in which he purported to review old assumptions about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Re-reading the piece illustrated for me how much he—along with the rest of the peace-processors—still gets wrong.

He mentions a few of the old assumptions, the first of which is that “The status quo is unsustainable.” He correctly notes that it very possibly is sustainable, but his reasoning that “The parties themselves have been willing to manage the status quo, however grim it may be, because changing it required more political risk than either side was willing to accept…” is flawed. Israel has time and again demonstrated that it is willing to take the political risk to change the status quo, offering peace plans to the Palestinians who never accept and never come back with a counter-offer. In the absence of a Palestinian leadership willing to take political risk, Israel has no choice but to manage the status quo, regardless of their own political risk tolerance.

It has to be reiterated: the Palestinian side has never made a serious peace proposal or a counter-offer to an Israeli proposal. Most often, they simply refuse to negotiate. At one point, they claimed that they would not negotiate unless there was a settlement freeze. Israel responded by freezing settlement construction, and they still refused to negotiate.

Another thing that Miller gets wrong about the status quo and American efforts to change it is that he claims “America’s special relationship with Israel prevented bringing serious pressure to bear on Israel.” That’s wrong in three ways:

1. America has often brought serious pressure to bear on Israel, regardless of the “special relationship.”

2. America doesn’t need to bring that much pressure to bear on Israel to make peace. Israel has been trying to make peace with its neighbors for its entire existence. It has concluded peace agreements with every Arab polity that has been serious about peace with it, even when doing so was at great cost in terms of land, as with Egypt.

3. The focus of the peace-processors is always bringing pressure to bear on Israel to make concessions for the sake of peace. No peace-processor ever speaks about bringing pressure to bear on the Palestinians to make peace. No peace-processor ever actually brings any pressure to bear on the Palestinians to make peace, to make any concessions toward peace—to do anything, really, toward making peace with Israel.

Miller also mentions “…resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict on terms any Palestinian leader could accept.” This is another of the peace-processors’ major flaws in understanding. Why is Israel expected to accept any peace terms, while the Palestinians are only expected to accept terms that preserve their maximalist ambitions? The Palestinians turn down every peace offer, looking for more. A good negotiator would say, “This is the best offer you are getting. Take it now, because tomorrow’s offer will be significantly less.” Instead, the peace-processors say to the Palestinians, “You didn’t like that offer? We’ll press Israel to offer you more.”

It seems to me that the peace-processors understanding of the Israel-Palestinian conflict is fundamentally flawed. The only real thing at issue between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors is this: the Palestinians have to be willing to make peace with Israel, to accept that Israel is there to stay, in some defined borders, whatever their final configuration. That is the actual roadblock in the peace process, and it is completely mystifying to me how all the peace-processors overlook it.

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The latest poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) shows that while Hamas' popularity is decreasing, that isn't indicating any less support for violence.

Fatah's popularity reached the levels it had before the May war, which was very popular among Palestinians. Surprisingly, part of that may be because the people are approving of the "confidence building measures" that Israel has agreed to with the Palestinian Authority, like increasing family unification and allowing the PA to access more cash. 63% approved of those measures.

Even so, 67% support the suspension of the PLO recognition of Israel and 61% support the decision to end the implementation of agreements with Israel including security coordination.

When asked what strategy they support going forward, 52% supported return to armed confrontations and a violent intifada. When asked specifically what the most effective means of ending the "occupation" and building an independent state, a plurality of 44% chose "armed struggle, "far ahead of 25% for negotiations and 24% for "popular resistance." This is a small increase supporting violence compared to the last poll three months ago.

As far as which side they are on in the Ukraine invasion, things are fairly split. 43% blame Russia for starting the war with Ukraine while 40% blame Ukraine.

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