Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 16, 2023

03/16 Links Pt1: Biden Administration's Delusional Plan to Combat Palestinian Terrorism; Why is the Biden administration funding a UN agency it deems 'unacceptable'?

From Ian:

Europe Slowly Understands the Importance of the Abraham Accords

A symposium organized last week by the European Coalition for Israel in the European Parliament brought together stakeholders both from the European Commission and the European Parliament with some of the key states behind the Abraham Accords to discuss the next steps of the normalization process. After the signing of the Abraham Accords, which normalized Israel's relations with several Arab states in 2020, the EU had remained on the sidelines.

Israel's ambassador to the EU and NATO, Haim Regev, said, "It took time for us to convince them that this was a deep and dramatic development, that they should be part of it. In the last three months, we see a real change." Last month for the first time, Israel participated in a trilateral workshop in Rabat with the EU and Morocco, financed by the EU, that will lead to water projects, the construction of new desalination plants, and wastewater management.

EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy Oliver Varhelyi has allocated 10 million euros to expand those kinds of activities. There is a new steering committee led by the EU embassy in Tel Aviv which together with Israel is looking into additional projects. "Soon we hope to have within the European Parliament an Abraham Accords network. We have also held a joint seminar in NATO that brought experts from Israel, Bahrein, and Morocco to see what we can do together," said Regev. "There is a growing interest and appetite in the EU to be part of the Abraham Accords."

Bassam Tawil: Biden Administration's Delusional Plan to Combat Palestinian Terrorism

[T]he Biden Administration officials recently proposed a plan "to provide 5,000 Palestinians with commando training in Jordan" and then deploy them to areas under the control of the PA. The 5,000 officers will bring with them 5,000 rifles to Palestinian cities and towns -- where almost every Palestinian already has a weapon.

Any time the US has funded, armed and trained Palestinian militias, the target has invariably ended up not terrorist groups but Israelis. Why is there any reason to think that this time will be different?

In addition, the plan would require Israel "to sharply curtail IDF counterterror operations." The Biden administration, in other words, wants Israel to stop defending itself and rely on the Palestinian leadership and the new Palestinian "commandos" to go after the terrorists. Palestinian officials, meanwhile, are busy glorifying terrorism and paying visits to the families of terrorists.

This would leave the Israelis with the rights to neither self-defense nor hot-pursuit. Terrorists will be able strike inside Israel, then run back to the Palestinian areas where they will be "home free;" instead of being arrested, they will be celebrated.

The Biden plan also reportedly "foresees the deployment of foreign forces, including U.S. military forces, on the ground."

Israel, roughly the size of New Jersey, would have on its border a Palestinian terrorist army, well-trained, well-funded, and "protected" by a superpower.

[The Israelis] would find themselves in the impossible position of risking harming the Europeans and Americans forces stationed there. These troops, mingled among the Palestinians, would essentially be "human shields," deliberately placed in harm's way to prevent Israel from taking any action.

What, then, is the Biden Administration really doing?

An international military presence to help the Palestinians in the West Bank would handcuff the Israelis. This appears to be the real plan.

JCPA: The Axis of Resistance Led by Iran Threatens Israel during Ramadan

Hamas Terrorist Chief’s Warning
Saleh al-Arouri, the vice chairman of the Hamas movement and head of its military wing in the West Bank, the man who coordinates in Beirut the activity with Hizbullah, said in an interview to the official website of Hamas on March 14, 2023, that the events to come will be very difficult for the “occupation and its settlers.” The “resistance” in the West Bank is in a state of escalation and it is diversifying its weapons.

Marwan Issa, the shadowy deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing in the Gaza Strip, hinted at the possibility of massive rocket fire from the Gaza Strip towards Israel. He told the Al-Aqsa channel on March 15, 2023, that the “political project in the West Bank has ended; the enemy brought the Oslo Accords to an end; and the coming days will be eventful.”

Issa continued: A political solution in the West Bank “is a thing of the past…. Any escalation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque area will result in a reaction in the Gaza Strip; Hamas in Gaza will not [just] be an observer to events in Jerusalem.”

“The desire to commit suicide among the (Muslim) residents of the West Bank is unprecedented, and the state of resistance in the West Bank is excellent. So is the state of national unity in the face of the Occupation,” the Hamas official claimed.

The Iranian Connection
A spokesman for the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad threatened Israel with a new intifada and a conflict it had never experienced before.

The accumulation of these statements by the heads of the terrorist organizations in the media and intelligence information indicate an impending escalation. The security meeting initiated by the United States in Aqaba on February 26, 2023, has failed, and the fate of the next meeting, scheduled in Sinai, is uncertain. It is very doubtful whether Israel will be able to stop the approaching tsunami of terrorism since this is a strategic decision by the terrorist organizations in coordination with Iran.

The terrorist cells are showing the increasing use of explosive devices in the territories of Judea and Samaria and an attempt to activate them also within the territory of Israel itself. The Shin Bet has recently foiled several attacks using explosive devices by Palestinians from the West Bank who were recruited by Hamas from the Gaza Strip through social networks.

According to officials in the military wing of Hamas, the attack on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv on March 9, 2023, marks the organization’s decision to resume attacks within the Green Line.

I saw this in the Jordan Times:

Since 2000, Israel has “uprooted, poisoned, burnt and bombed” over three million fruit trees in Palestine, according to the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN), which launched an awareness-raising campaign on Monday concerned with safeguarding Palestinian trees.

Under the hashtags #TreesforPalestine and Palestine’s Trees, the six-week campaign will use social media platforms to narrate the Palestinian agricultural struggle using a variety of visual, audio and written material based on extensive research efforts and including testimonies from Palestinian farmers, according to an APN statement sent to The Jordan Times.

That is an astoundingly improbable statistic. But when I went to the website of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature, I saw that the claim was even more ridiculous:

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture, more than 3 million trees, mostly olive and citrus trees, were uprooted by Israeli forces between 2000 and 2012.

That would mean that Israel destroyed nearly 700 trees every single day for 12 years!

I cannot find here the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture made that claim. If they did, one would expect them to have widely publicized it. But a 2013 talk by that ministry in Europe on the "Forests of Palestine" doesn't say a word about this.

I did find a 2006 report by the ministry that said that since 2000, "23.2% of the tree horticulture holdings were subjected to damage due to Israeli measures in the Palestinian Territory; in the West Bank the percentage was 22.5% and in Gaza Strip, 33.7%." No source is given and neither is the definition of "damage," which might mean "within three miles of tear gas." Anyway, if that was the source, the number of damaged trees would be closer to four million!

The usual statistic that Israel haters use is 800,000 trees destroyed - but since 1967, not 2000. See this poster (detail) from Visualizing Palestine:

The source given is "Olive Harvest Fact Sheet October 2011, page 2" which they claim is from Oxfam but it is really from OCHA.

Guess what? Even that source doesn't say anything close to what they claim!

To be sure, Israel has uprooted thousands of trees - mostly while building the security barrier and by creating a buffer zone in Gaza where terrorists couldn't hide. Nobody mentions that when Israel uprooted olive trees for the security barrier, they replanted them!

Farmers who cultivate olive and other fruit trees growing within the Security Fence can designate a new site to which the trees will be relocated which has no free access constraints. Contractors assigned by The Ministry of Defense to build the Security Fence are responsible for carefully uprooting and replanting the trees. So far over 60,000 olive trees have been relocated in accordance with this procedure. It should be noted that olive trees require scarce treatment, only three weeks a year.

The haters pretend to count the trees uprooted - but they don't count the trees replanted!

As usual, this propaganda doesn't stand up to the slightest scrutiny. Sources are made up or wildly misquoted. And no reporter bothers to do even a modicum of fact-checking.

Which means that Palestinians have learned that lying pays.

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!

Today is the 20th anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death, accidentally killed by an Israeli bulldozer as she acted as a human shield against a mine clearing operation.

Her death came directly because of the Leftist myth that Israelis are racist - and that Palestinians aren't.

Corrie was brainwashed by her "progressive" teachers at Evergreen College and her International Solidarity Movement colleagues.

One of her instructors, Simona Sharoni, not only encourages but requires students to engage in activism in her classes. Corrie received college credit for her trip to Gaza, working with her professors to call her activism an independent study program.

A basic tenet of the far-Left, which has now become mainstream, is that Israel is an irredeemably racist entity engaged in "genocide" against non-white Palestinians. This myth is what fueled Corrie and ISM to place activists in harm's way, because of a naïve belief that they were invincible - protected by their "white privilege."

One of Corrie's fellow Evergreen students, Joe Smith, also received independent study credit for his time in Rafah while Corrie was there. "I saw ISM as a way that I could directly use my white, Western, American male privilege to directly serve underprivileged people of color," he said a week after her death.

Corrie's emails to her parents while in Gaza emphasized her unwavering beliefs that white privilege would protect her, and that her anti-Israel activism was penance for her being an American. She emailed that Israel wouldn't arrest her and hold her for a long time because "I am a white US citizen." She wrote about how ISM members could make "serious use of our international white person privilege," and said, "If the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible."

Other ISM activists admitted after Corrie's death that they felt invincible. ISM believed that "the white foreigners were the magic bullet that could neutralize Israel's overwhelming military strength." Smith himself admitted how he and his fellow ISMers felt invincible by their whiteness: "It's definitely easy to get cocky in this war zone when a tank is shooting at people and you walk up to them and shout at them, 'Hey, I'm here!' and they pack up and leave. You get so used to this idea, 'Hey, they won't hurt us.' It has really made me realize how naïve and cocky I was."

Corrie and other ISMers took huge risks with their lives because of this child-like belief that their whiteness is a superpower. In fact, an Irish activist in Rafah at the time named Jenny was nearly run down herself by a D9 that she thought she could stop. “The bulldozer’s coming, the earth is burying my feet, my legs, I’ve got nowhere to run, and I thought, ‘This is out of control.' Another activist pulled me up and out of the way at the last minute.”

Even the Palestinians that these activists befriended considered them crazy. But there were no adults around to counteract the almost religious belief they had that Israeli racism would protect them in a war zone.

Notably, ISM would specifically recruit white kids because of this very assumption. Activists were well aware (and struggled with the idea) that they were promoting the idea of being white saviors of darker Palestinians and complicit in the racism they claim to oppose.

But there was another reason why Corrie took such a risk that day that she was killed. And that was Palestinian racism and misogyny.

Even though these woke, white ISM activists flocked to Rafah to supposedly help Palestinians, there was much mistrust among the oppressed people of color that they deigned to help. ISM members were very concerned over an anonymous letter they had received:

[Corrie] was propelled, in part, by frustration. During the past few days she and the nine other ISM activists had become preoccupied with an anonymous letter circulating through Rafah that cast suspicion on the human shields. “Who are they? Why are they here? Who asked them to come here?” it asked. The letter referred to Corrie and the other expatriate women in Rafah as “nasty foreign bitches” whom “our Palestinian young men are following around.”

That morning [of Corrie's death], the ISM team tried to devise a strategy to counteract the letter’s effects. “We all had a feeling that our role was too passive. We talked about how to engage the Israeli military,” Richard “Fuzz” Purssell told me by phone from Great Britain.

Corrie, while assuming that Israeli racism would protect her, felt that if she would only take more risks, then Palestinian racism and misogyny would magically disappear.

And that is exactly what she did.

We know now that Palestinians have treated these white international women horribly. There are many reports of how they have been raped by the Palestinians they think they are helping - and the stories are hushed up by the very organizations like ISM they volunteer for. Corrie believed that Palestinians are inherently good and Israeli Jews inherently evil, and she only had to try a little harder to prove it.

The narrative of Israeli racism and Palestinian victimhood is fundamental to the existence of these organizations like ISM. And that false narrative is not only what killed Rachel Corrie, but also promoted a culture of Palestinian sexual assaults on her fellow, invincible, white women.

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!

This Friday is the annual Jerusalem Marathon, so naturally the Palestinian are complaining about how the event is Judaizing the city.

The Safa news agency writes:

There are many methods of the Israeli occupation in the Judaization of the occupied city of Jerusalem, and the promotion of artificial Talmudic narratives and terminology, through its attempts to change the Jerusalemite culture and identity, and replace it with a culture alien to Jerusalemites, in an attempt to prove its alleged sovereignty over the city.

The occupation municipality, in cooperation with several Israeli institutions, plans to organize a Judaizing sports marathon in the Holy City next Friday, with the participation of thousands of Jews from all over the world.

The occupation police decided to close many streets and roads, and some central parking lots in the occupied city, from 6:45 am until 1:30 pm on Friday, under the pretext of securing the course of the Judaizing marathon.

The "Jerusalem Marathon" coincides with the influx of thousands of Palestinians and Jerusalemites to Jerusalem, to perform Friday prayers at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which impedes their access to the Old City, as a result of the closure of the streets.

The occupation municipality exploits the name of sports and culture to pass a Talmudic narrative and Biblical terms and names instead of Arabic-Islamic terms, in addition to erasing the Arab identity and diluting the Palestinian culture.

Yes, the "artificial Talmudic narrative" that Jerusalem has always been the center of Jewish life.

I was in Jerusalem five years ago when the marathon was held. I didn't watch it, but forget taking a taxi or driving anywhere - all the major streets were closed, inconveniencing Jews as well as Arabs. I chose to walk to the Old City from my hotel, and had no problems walking - which is how most Arabs go to Al Aqsa anyway.

Palestinian and other anti-Zionist articles all start from the premise that Zionist Jews are terrible people, and everything flows from there.

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!

03/15 Links Pt2: John Podhoretz: The Mess in Israel; Guardian peddles false 'Deir Yassin Massacre' narrative; Morocco’s school curriculum demonstrates remarkable respect for Jews

From Ian:

John Podhoretz: The Mess in Israel

For much of the Israeli right, and especially for the intellectuals of the Israeli right, the Supreme Court issue has been a foremost concern for 25 years. And appropriately so. Thus it stood to reason that “judicial reform” legislation that reasserts Knesset primacy—which, in a counterpoint to the American system, features an “override” clause that would allow parliament to overturn a Supreme Court decision—would be taken up immediately.

But they made the mistake most advocates and activists make when it comes to matters of long standing that have consumed them, which is, they found it hard to see what their efforts would look like from the outside to people who haven’t been anywhere near as focused.

For one thing, the courts in general are a particularly sensitive issue at this moment because the newly returned prime minister is under indictment. As it happens, I think the cases brought against Netanyahu are garbage, but that doesn’t matter. If Knesset primacy is achieved, that would allow the new government to push through legislation postponing the cases against Netanyahu until he is out of office. And so, any efforts by the government to argue against the street protests against judicial reform seem compromised by a severe conflict of interest.

Second, while the Knesset should (in my view) have this primacy—at least until Israel hunkers down and actually writes itself a functional constitution—the legislation now moving through the parliament is strictly majoritarian. By which I mean, it would take only 61 votes to overturn a court ruling.

From the moment the street protests began, everyone I know who is sympathetic to the right’s view was saying the solution to the crisis would be to announce a change in the “override” proposal to require some kind of supermajority that would at least be greater than the 64 seats currently held by the coalition. That would focus the minds and limit the arrogance of the Supreme Court when it came to their taste for overreach. And it would keep the Knesset from acting as though anything it does is legal by default—since pretty much any piece of legislation that passes even by a single vote could be upheld by the same voting pattern if brought up a second time after a Court overturn.

The unanswerable question is whether a redrafting of the law to feature some kind of supermajority in the early days of the protests would have quieted the street action. I can see arguments on both sides. But it’s certainly the case that the judicial reforms as they are (at this writing) constituted have kept the government on the back foot and on the defensive, which just makes the protesters taste the blood of their enemies in the water and only encourages them to continue.

So that’s my explanation for what’s been going on in Israel. I have no idea where this goes now, so don’t ask me. Though you probably will.

Time for candid compromise - opinion

Aharon Barak’s “everything is justiciable” philosophy transformed Israel’s judicial system in the 1990s. Barak created rules of law that have no counterpart in most if not all of the democratic world. For example, judges in Israel cannot be removed by the legislature, only by other judges and any government action declared unreasonable by the Court is considered illegal.

Such unrestrained judicial activism is largely based on the judges’ best judgment and internal moral compass but not necessarily on the laws of the land. That results in almost unlimited judicial authority and ambiguity where clarity is crucial.

The court’s lack of clarity is coupled with a lack of consistency. For example, in May 1999, when the right-wing government in Israel decided to close the Orient House (the PLO’s headquarters in Jerusalem), an urgent petition was filed and Supreme Court justice Dalia Dorner decided that the step was unreasonable because general elections were only months away. And yet, five days before the 2022 general elections, after an urgent petition was filed against an agreement, signed by a left-wing government, yielding areas of what were claimed to be Israel’s territorial waters to Lebanon and the control of Hezbollah, the Supreme Court led by Ester Hayut decided that was reasonable.

An overriding principle of the proposed reform is that laws drafted by the legislators (i.e. the Knesset) can be interpreted by the courts but not drafted by them and that national policy should be determined by the Knesset, as the representatives of the people.

There is little hope for conciliation with reckless politicians and former generals who call for civil war and blood in the streets. There should be no negotiation with those who want to burn down the house. But there is plenty of room for candid compromise with concerned Israeli citizens who have hope and still see “Hatikva” as our national anthem.

Regardless of how the current crisis began, it is important to realize we are, indeed, in a crisis. If managed appropriately, it will enhance the probability for agreeable and effective change.

An agreement is within reach. One amendment to the proposed reform that can relieve concerns is that Supreme Court judges appointed by the new judicial appointment committee will not hear old criminal cases, including the one being heard against the prime minister for the past three years. These cases will be heard by currently sitting Supreme Court judges.

Change is critical and compromise is possible. The people, by means of their elected representatives in the Knesset, can and should work it out now. Let’s agree on how to enhance the proposed legal reform and not how to postpone or cancel it.

Think tank behind Israel's judicial overhaul calls for compromise

Israeli judicial reform bill passes first major hurdle despite massive protests

On Tuesday's "Wake Up America," Israel's controversial judicial reform bill has passed its first major hurdle despite massive protests. Supporters of the bill state that it shifts power back to the democratically elected Knesset. NEWSMAX's Daniel Cohen reports.

Israel’s Tech Resistance Took Their Money, and Put It Where?

One highly effective doomsday weapon deployed by the opposition to the Israeli government’s proposed judicial reforms is the threat of removing large sums of money from Israel. This self-inflicted form of BDS has been orchestrated in large by what came to be known as Mecha’at HaHitechistim, or the High Tech Workers Resistance, who argued that the reforms, if passed, will make Israel’s economy too volatile to merit robust investments in the “startup nation.” The self-fulfilling nature of this prophecy is part of what has made it so effective: As threats to pull money out of Israel destabilize the economy, critics of the reforms can rightly argue that the economy is being destabilized and get more foreign economists and tech investors to express their fears of economic destabilization, which in turn creates an even more negative economic climate, which hits ordinary Israelis in the wallet for voting the wrong way.

Naturally enough, where high tech resisters saw their threats as saving democracy, critics saw them as rich people who were holding the government hostage by threatening to bankrupt the country unless the anti-reformist demands were met. Both sides traded heated accusations. Now, because Israel’s greatest natural resource is irony, comes a new twist on the tale, one that begins, again naturally enough, with a question: Where did the money go?

Many of the Hitechistim who heeded the call to boycott Israel took their shekels offshore. According to reports, at least 50 Israeli startups moved at least $4 billion out of the country since the protests began. Some of that money went into Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed last week.

Polls can offer valuable insights on public sentiment. But when pollsters ask leading questions, there are no insights. The public sees only what they were directed to see: poll results that exactly mirror the bias of the poll’s designer. Take for example, a recent poll on judicial reform conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), the subject of a Jerusalem Post report: “Two-thirds of Israelis oppose Netanyahu government's judicial reform – poll.”

When the piece came out on February 21, I thought, “Oh, sure,” snorted and went on to read something else. Because I knew it was a bunch of crap. There’s no way that many Israelis oppose judicial reform. Israelis voted for the current government because they want judicial reform. We don’t want the court to have the ability to strike down legislation that reflects the will of the people. It’s undemocratic. It’s overreach.

Despite my skepticism, not two weeks later, I was prompted to revisit that Jerusalem Post report. My token left-leaning friend had posted a photo of himself on social media getting ready to leave for a judicial reform protest. He was smiling and holding an Israeli flag. I glanced through the comments to get a feel for the pulse of this small group of virtual friends. What points were they arguing? How many were for and how many against? That interested me far more than my left-leaning friend’s joy in joining the “revolution.”

I found that just as in the recent election, my friend’s friends were, by far, in favor of judicial reform. I did note one dissenting voice: that of a writing colleague from my early Times of Israel blogging days. She very politely asserted that most Israelis are opposed to judicial reform, and cited the Jerusalem Post report.

That’s when I went to take a closer look. Not because I was looking for a reason to discredit the JPost piece, but because I became curious about the poll itself: there had to be something wrong with that poll. Because Israelis had voted for judicial reform.

The problem, if the first two paragraphs of the report are anything to go on, appears to be leading language. This definition of leading questions is as good as any other:

Leading questions are survey questions that encourage or guide the respondent towards a desired answer. They are often framed in a particular way to elicit responses that confirm preconceived notions, and are favorable to the surveyor – even though this may ultimately sway or tamper with the survey data.

Here’s that first part of the JPost piece (emphasis added):

66% of Israelis agree that Israel’s High Court of Justice should be able to strike down laws that are contrary to the nation’s Basic Laws, a survey carried out by IDI’s Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research found. Furthermore, the survey found that 63% agree that the current system requiring concurrence between MKs and justices for judicial appointments is appropriate.

The language is quite clearly culled from the IDI report on the poll, which begins very much the same (emphasis added):

66% of Israelis: Supreme Court should have power to strike down laws that are incompatible with Israel’s Basic Laws | On Judicial Selection Committee: 63% Support Current Principle Requiring Agreement between Politicians and Justices.

In both cases, there’s an implied threat to the language—if we don’t stop judicial reform, the High Court will lose its ability to curb the rash, illegal actions of the rogue Netanyahu/Smotrich/Ben Gvir government. This, the respondent is given to understand, would be bad, even disastrous.

More leading language from the IDI poll, here and below.

Well, most people are nice, and they want to please the nice poll people. So they say what they think the pollsters want to hear—even if they voted for and still believe in judicial reform. People like to comply. And that is the purpose of leading language and leading questions. Someone (or even a great many someones) are led to say something, but that something may or may not be true.

In a letter to Politico in 2007, the late MK Dick Leonard related the following anecdote:

On a famous occasion in 1970s, when Britain was about to join the European Economic Community (EEC), a survey by a leading polling organisation used a split sample, one half of the respondents being asked the following question: “France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg approved their membership of the EEC by a vote of their national parliaments. Do you think Britain should do the same?”

The other half were asked: “Ireland, Denmark and Norway are voting in a referendum to decide whether to join the EEC. Do you think Britain should do the same?”

Each half of the sample produced an overwhelming yes vote. It is because of this example that reputable polls long ago ceased to use leading questions and that is why I doubt the validity of the poll conducted on behalf of O’Brien’s organisation.

It’s a dirty and cowardly trick: the pollster elicits the desired answer with the specific intent of generating false numbers to be sensationalized in the news and in the bowels of social media. It’s not even about swaying those who sit on the fence, undecided.

It’s disinformation. And it’s born of exploiting people’s niceness; their desire to be kind, to accommodate, whenever possible, their fellow human beings.

Some people, of course, are swayed into changing course or becoming apologetic when the issue snowballs out of control. Those people would include, for example, Noa Tishby, and Miriam Adelson.

In reality, however, it doesn’t change a thing. Judicial reform was a key issue during the election campaign, and the final tally reflects the current will and voice of the people, vox populi. Israel voted for a right-wing government, and they want right-wing policy. They don’t want to be overruled by the side that LOST.

The side that the people did not vote for.

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!

Haaretz has a truly bizarre op-ed from a prominent rabbi, Daniel Landes, who should know better.

Some sort of compromise might be offered at some point by the Israeli government coalition’s minions to stop the unprecedented upheaval we in Israel are living through: mass streets protests, the hemorrhaging of high-tech investment money and pilots and other military reservists refusing on moral grounds to show up for reserve duty.

While over half of the country yearns for an end to our ever-growing, overwhelming existential anxiety, compromise offers must be greeted with skepticism.

Such admonition can seem surprising since we are used to compromise – pesharah – as a Jewish response to legal conflict.

But pay attention, the Talmudic enterprise also contains a warning: compromise is often not the answer.

...But then the question remained as to whether the court itself should invite a judicially mediated pesharah.

Many rabbis not only rejected that idea, but they explicitly forbade it. Evidently, the court was reserved for attempting to achieve absolute truth and was not the place for getting people to “just agree,” which would imply a tampering with rectitude to solve the situation.

Pesharah, compromise, was labeled as bitzu'a, signaling a truncated judgment, or even connoting a kind of swindle or profit. And thus they applied the verse (Ps. 10:3): "One who praises the compromiser despises God."

Clearly, Landes knows the Jewish arguments for compromise, but he argues that in some cases it is absolutely wrong. And somehow he determines that a compromise on judicial reform is in that category, seemingly because there is "profit" to the Israeli Right by such a compromise and profit, he claims, invalidates the reasons to want compromise.

The profit he defines is not monetary, but social - Haredim will continue to avoid army service, as they have since Israel was led by Labor; religious Zionists can build more communities in Judea and Samaria (ditto), and so forth.

For some reason he doesn't mention the "profit" to the Left of keeping the High Court as powerful as it is. Nor does he admit that pretty much everyone agrees that the judicial system in Israel has too much power, the only disagreement is how much it should have.

The crazy part is that this is not an issue for halacha (Jewish law) to begin with. It is political. Both sides have good points, neither has the monopoly on truth. The biggest danger to Israel isn't judicial reform, but the insane political split that this fairly complex argument that perhaps only 5% of Israelis (and far fewer American Jews) understand had prompted.

Both sides have used this issue as an excuse for hardening their positions, for demonizing their opponents, and for splitting the nation.

And this rabbi - who surely knows more about Judaism than I do - is arguing that such a split is Judaically preferable to any victory, even a partial victory, by his political opponents!

No, that is not the Judaism that I know.

Moment Magazine asked a question of various rabbis recently: "Is Political Compromise a Jewish Value?" Nearly al the rabbis agreed, of course, political compromise is indeed a Jewish value!

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg (Modern Orthodox)

Political (also economic and social) compromise is prized in Jewish tradition. The Talmud states that a mediated settlement—that is, one in which both sides feel they have gotten some of their just due—is a better outcome than a strict judgment that hands a victory to one side (Sanhedrin 6b). Without compromise, the overruled side may feel alienated and left out. This undermines the will to live together that enables a stable, functioning, productive society (just as the breakdown of bipartisanship and mutual respect between liberals and conservatives in America today threatens the viability of our democracy)....Over the course of history, the covenantal halacha often prescribed not the ideal behavior but the best possible policy that kept people working together.

Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein (Orthodox):

There are times when compromise or appeasement is a desecration of God’s name, and other cases where a refusal to compromise brings disaster. There’s no formula, other than blunt honesty as to whether the decision to compromise reflects the honor of heaven rather than a personal agenda.

Rabbi Haim Ovadia (Sephardic):

I personally believe that compromise in any field, not just political, is a Jewish virtue, though any proof I provide could be contested. Many classic sources suggest that compromise is the ideal path when there is a dispute. ...When we insist on doing things our way against others’ will, we may win, but the others will be left with a sense of bitterness and animosity which could easily be later aroused. When we compromise, we may make more people happy, and that, I believe, is a Jewish virtue.

Rabbi Levi Shemtov (Chabad):

Political compromise, unlike religious compromise, is usually a wonderful thing.

While compromising halachic standards—even to address pressing needs—has almost always led to adoption of the more lax standard, and must therefore be avoided whenever possible, personal or political compromise, especially for the sake of peace, has always been lauded by the Torah and even by G-d.
...
Lately, conviviality is in short supply, particularly in the political arena. Whether in public policy, business, marriage or relationships generally, calming down and taking a respectful look at the other side is virtuous, even if you continue to disagree.

The country, the world and all of us would significantly benefit from seeing our leaders talk to instead of at each other, as was prevalent only a few decades ago. Don’t compromise who you are, but let who you are be one who is open to appropriate dialogue and compromise. It ultimately brings you greater strength.

Is Rabbi Daniel Landes motivated by what is best for the Jewish people and Israel, or by narrow political considerations?

The fact that he calls the people who are discussing compromise from the Right "minions" seems to indicate the latter. And that is very disappointing from a person who founded an institution, YASHRUT, that is meant to "build civil discourse through a theology of integrity, justice, and tolerance."

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!

03/15 Links Pt1: Palestinians see US aid as ‘opportunity to promote terrorism’; Terrorist from Lebanon carried out northern Israel highway bombing; German police investigating IRGC ties to synagogue shooting

From Ian:

PMW: Should the PA pay monthly salaries to teachers or terrorists?

The teachers in the Palestinian Authority are striking because the PA is not paying their full wages and has reneged on promises it made to them in 2022. As a result, according to different reports, over a million Palestinian children have not had school since the strike started on 5th of February, 2023.

Instead of paying the salaries of the teachers, the PA prioritizes to pay hundreds of millions of shekels to terrorists. As Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says, time after time: “Even if I’m left with one penny, I’ll pay it to the families of the Martyrs, to the prisoners, and to the wounded.”

Referring to the strike, Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily summarized the PA approach – Blame Israel!

According to Matar, the teachers’ strike is due to the implementation of the Israeli Anti Pay-for-Slay law, the law that penalizes the PA for paying huge monthly cash rewards to terrorists:
“The wheels of educational life are put on strike now and then, under the headline of ‘the right to strike’ or abstaining from providing services to the citizens for particular periods of time until the realization of material (monetary) demands [parentheses in source]. This is even though everyone knows that all the public sector ([PA] government) employees [parentheses in source] are suffering as a result of how the occupation authorities are stealing the Palestinian tax money, which is the backbone of the PA government employees’ salaries, and as a result of the deduction of hundreds of millions of [Israeli] shekels in order to dissuade the national Palestinian leadership from providing allowances to the prisoners and the Martyrs’ relatives.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 14, 2023]

Trying to present a positive spin, Matar then added that hardships were caused out of the Abbas’ “loyalty” to the terrorists:
“Out of loyalty to them, [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas has promised that their allowances will be at the top of the table of allowances and salaries, until the last [Jordanian] dinar in the treasury of the PA and the PLO.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 14, 2023]

Palestinians see US aid as ‘opportunity to promote terrorism’

An Israeli nonprofit that studies Palestinian society has found a troubling possible linkage between U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority and the scope of terrorist attacks against Israelis.

Palestinian Media Watch released a study this week that analyzed statistics taken from periodic reports published by the U.S. Congressional Research Service, from 2011 (the year the nonprofit exposed the P.A.’s terror-rewarding pay-for-slay policy) through 2022.

It found that when aid to the P.A. dropped, such as during the Trump administration, attacks against Israelis also decreased. However, when such aid was high, such as during the Obama and Biden administrations, more Israelis were killed.

There are three sources of U.S. aid to the P.A.: the Economic Support Fund, the Bureau of International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement Affairs, and U.S. aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Between 2009 and 2017, the Obama administration provided the P.A. with $6.4 billion in aid. In that time, 140 Israelis and foreigners residing in Israel were killed in terrorist attacks, an average of 17.5 a year.

Over the next four years, the Trump administration gradually decreased aid to the Palestinians to as little as $670 million. Within that time period, 42 Israelis and foreigners were killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks, an average of 10.5 people a year.

Since the Biden administration took office in January 2021, the P.A. has received a billion dollars in aid. In that time, 46 Israelis and foreigners have been killed, an average of 23 a year. In January and February this year, when U.S. aid to the P.A. continued unabated, 14 Israelis and foreigners were killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks.

Maurice Hirsch, head of Legal Strategies at Palestinian Media Watch, said, “The correlation is also annual. In a year when extensive economic aid to the Palestinians flows, the number of attacks increases, and vice versa. The Palestinians interpret American support, as far as it is expressed in financial aid, as approval for terrorism and the murder of Israelis.

“U.S. support is ostensibly dedicated to promoting peace, but in practice, the Palestinians see its support as an opportunity to promote terrorism. While U.S. aid to the Palestinians flows freely, Palestinian terrorists feel empowered and kill Israelis. Only when the U.S. demonstrates moral clarity and stops the aid, the Palestinians will understand that terrorism does not pay,” he said.

‘There Are Still Some People You Need to Burn’: UN Teachers in Gaza Praise Terrorists, Hitler on Social Media, New Report Says

Teachers and staff working at Palestinian schools funded by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) regularly incite antisemitism, terrorism, and hate on social media, according to a new report released Tuesday by Impact-se and UN Watch, two nonprofits that research educational content in the Palestinian Territories.

The report, titled “UNRWA Education: Reform or Regression,” cited over 200 examples of UNRWA teachers promoting hateful content on social media, including a Syrian math teacher’s praising a March 2022 terrorist attack in Israel that claimed four lives, a Lebanese teacher’s calling the architect of several attacks a “martyr” and “noblest of souls,” and a Syrian UNRWA employee’s sharing on social media a photograph of Hitler, which she captioned, “there are still some people you need to burn.”

The problem exists alongside incitement in UNRWA school curriculum, the report continued, showing photographs of a school in Gaza teaching students that Dalal Mughrabi, who coordinated in 1978 the Coastal Road Massacre, which killed 38 Israelis, including thirteen children, is a “hero” and “the fighting leader.”

It also cited an UNRWA textbook used in the Al-Maghazi Middle School for Boys in Gaza that contains fictional stories of Israelis murdering Palestinians. In what Impact-se and UN Watch described as a “graphic text,” a Palestinian boy watches a “fountain of blood bursting” from his father’s chest after he is shot by an IDF officer for “being late to shore.” Fifth graders at Al-Maghazi are also taught that martyrdom and jihad represent “the most important meanings of life.”

The Algemeiner asked UNRWA to comment on the report’s findings, but it did not immediately respond.

The agency, established by the United Nations in 1949, according to its website, has a “zero tolerance” policy on “hate speech and incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence” and has repeatedly denied claims to the contrary. It receives over a billion dollars from donor states across the world, with the United States and the European Union (EU) alone contributing $511.5 million in 2021, a sum that, lawmakers across the Atlantic have said, is essentially awarded without any guarantee that UNRWA will expunge antisemitism in its curricula and bring its schools in line with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s standards.

In the ??below, we expose some of the 133 UNRWA teachers and staff found to incite hate in this new report: https://t.co/7KfXaRSJ1b

Who funds UNRWA?

You:
???? $338 Million
???? $118M
???? $177M
???? $40M
???? $54M
???? $51M
???? $30M
???? $32M
???? $28M
???? $28M
???? $27M
???? $21M
???? $18M
???? $16M https://t.co/NFYbtgloKN
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 15, 2023

Meet UNRWA's Ayman Dlash. His brother Muhammad is a Hamas terrorist whom he wished “warmest congratulations and blessings.” See his other brother, Maher, in a Hamas scarf, praised by Ayman as “beloved of the people.” In another photo, Ayman brings him to an UNRWA school. /19 pic.twitter.com/S5itdVslgi
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 15, 2023

“Hitler, are you sleeping? Wake up, honey, there are
still some people you need to burn.”
— UNRWA officer Labibeh Iskandarani

The hate is systematic at UNRWA. See full report: https://t.co/gu7w3pi8DU /23 pic.twitter.com/6cwpc35WKL
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 15, 2023

Just another @UN sponsored event calling UN-member state Israel's creation as 'a catastrophe', while glorifying Palestinian terror. @UNISPAL https://t.co/MrXbvFlc41
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) March 15, 2023

IfNotNow tweeted on Sunday, "BREAKING: 13 Jewish IfNotNow activists were just attacked by security at the Israel Bonds Conference as they prayed Maariv to protest the visit by genocidal Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who called for a Palestinian town to be wiped out."

The video doesn't show them praying Ma'ariv. It shows them singing one of their favorite songs, "Lo Yisa Goy."

They love the song because the translated lyrics mean, "Nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall never again know war. "

The verse is from Isaiah 2:4, where the prophecy describes Messianic times.

But what does it say before this part?

In the days to come, The Mount of the LORD’s House shall stand firm above the mountains and tower above the hills; and all the nations shall gaze on it with joy..And the many peoples shall go and say, "Come, Let us go up to the Mount of the LORD, to the House of the God of Jacob; that He may instruct us in His ways, and that we may walk in His paths. For the Torah shall come forth from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem."

Before there can be the peace described in the song, the world must recognize that the Lord of Israel is the true God and the Temple will have to be rebuilt - on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Zion.

I don't think that IfNotNow's Palestinian friends want them to sing that message.

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!

Yesterday, Palestinian prime minister Mohamed Shtayyeh spoke to a crowd of supposed Harvard students in Ramallah. (I find it hard to believe that 300 Harvard students traveled to Ramallah with no other articles about them.)

In his speech, he claimed that "the occupation earns more than 50 billion dollars annually from our occupied lands."

I had never heard this number before, and I was curious as to where he got it from.

The closest I could find was a study released last December by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development that claims that "the contribution to the economy of Israel of settlements in Area C and occupied East Jerusalem is estimated at an average of $30 billion per year."

If that is Shtayyeh's source, then he's exaggerating by only 67%, which is pretty good for a Palestinian official.

But how did the UNCTAD study come up with its estimates? Pretty much by magic.

Since 2016, UNCTAD has prepared about one report a year on the cost of the "occupation" to the Palestinian economy, using different methods each time and trying to out-do previous reports using increasingly sketchy methods. This one is a doozy.

It relies on a method of estimating economic activity based on satellite images of areas at nighttime, Night Time Luminosity (NTL), a method that economists use to estimate GDP in poor countries where there is little hard economic data. It looks at how well lit up an area is at night to estimate its economic activity.

UNCTAD is using this NTL method to estimate the GDP of the Jewish localities in Area C.

For all the fancy graphs in the UNCTAD paper, it has nothing to do with reality.

First of all, NTL has been shown to be accurate only with respect to large urban areas, not to rural areas. This makes sense because large urban areas have industries that would directly correlate with economic activity.

Anyone who has driven through Area C in Judea and Samaria can see that there is very little industry there. The Jewish towns and villages are mostly commuter neighborhoods where most people have jobs within the Green Line and travel there every day.

NTL methodology works in urban areas because it assumes that people live near where they work. Most of the large Jewish "settlements" are suburbs of Jerusalem. They should be considered part of a municipal Jerusalem, but UNCTAD looks at them as a separate "West Bank" with a completely separate economy.

It is probable that UNCTAD knows this because it shows this image of the territories to indicate "settlement" economic activity, but it doesn't show how the main light sources are all surrounding the Jerusalem metropolitan area.

Here's a nighttime satellite map of Israel, with Jerusalem the large area on the right.

UNCTAD, by pretending that the economy of the "West Bank" is independent from Israel, is basing its statistics on a false premise.

But it's mandate is to come up with new ways to demonize Israel and make it look like it is destroying the Palestinian economy, so this is consistent with its anti-Israel mission.

Moreover, the Jewish towns across the Green Line must be highly illuminated - because of security! Palestinians regularly try to enter those areas to kill Jews. UNCTAD now uses the lights that are necessary for Jews to avoid being slaughtered as a tool to attack Israel.

Neat trick, huh?

A significant part of the Palestinian economy is dependent on jobs in Israel, which pay more than double the average salaries of Palestinians within Areas A and B. But UNCTAD has never done a study of how a Palestinian state, which would presumably be totally separated from Israel because it would almost certainly be considered an enemy state, would make it difficult for Palestinians to reach their jobs in Israel would affect their economy. Instead, it creates a pseudo-scientific metric that is a complete fantasy.

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 dropped Hebrew flyers to try to demoralize Jews in 1948 - quoting the Quran

In 1948, Egypt dropped flyers to Jews in the Negev in an attempt at psychological warfare.

At 4:00 PM on May 15, 1948, Egyptian planes dropped leaflets in Hebrew on the Jewish communities in the Negev.

An actual flyer has just been published in Arabic media. They note that this flyer was a major failure, as the propagandists had no idea of how Jews think - so they wrote as if they were Muslim, including two quotes from the Quran.

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful

God said: 'And if they incline to peace, incline to it, and put your trust in God. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.'

With these sacred words from the Qur'an, I address the inhabitants of the settlements (in the Negev), and pledge to treat them according to these sacred words. Our aim is to bring about quiet among you, provided that you act in peace, to save your lives, your property and your children.

Our goal is not to start a war. Only in the case of resistance, which will be useless, and will not last long, and will result in the demolition of the stores and food you have.

So we call on all residents to quietly lay down their arms, to raise a white flag. And that you hand over all the ammunition from mines and every combat means, and collect them in one place without destroying them.

Please execute these commands within one hour of the arrival of this post.

After an hour anyone who does not comply with these orders will be considered an enemy and will want to fight.

God said: 'When he attacks you, attack him. And know that God is on the side of the righteous. --Quran

God honors truthtellers.

I didn't know about this. But I did see that Israel also dropped flyers on the Syrian border in May 1948 as well, and they might have been more effective:

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!

03/14 Links Pt2: Pro-Israel Groups Call for Sanctions on Morningstar for Blacklisting Israeli Companies; MSNBC’s Ali Velshi Lamely Nods Along As Former PLO Adviser Diana Buttu Spouts Lies

From Ian:

Pro-Israel Groups Call for Sanctions on Morningstar for Blacklisting Companies That Aid the Jewish State

Advocacy groups are pressing state government officials to sanction financial ratings giant Morningstar for promoting divestment from companies that help the Israeli government combat Palestinian suicide bombers.

Morningstar subsidiary Sustainalytics "treats Israel differently from all other nations," according to two pro-Israel community organizations, Christians United for Israel and the Orthodox Union. The organizations are urging the State Financial Officers Foundation, which represents officials in charge of implementing state laws against the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, to cancel lucrative contracts and investments in Morningstar.

Morningstar has been battling accusations that it fuels the BDS movement by downgrading companies that work with Israel, particularly in its security sector, making them less attractive to potential investors. The pro-Israel groups say the financial ratings giant has not made good on its promises to address those concerns and implement reforms, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The Free Beacon reported in February, for example, that the company is still blacklisting several firms that help Israel combat Palestinian terrorism. Those actions, the groups say, "constitute a clear violation of state laws prohibiting contracts with and/or investment in firms that boycott Israel."

"It's time for Morningstar to choose boycotts of Israel or state investments and contracts," the groups write.

The groups also want to ease concerns that Morningstar could retaliate against the states by using its ratings systems to downgrade 529 accounts, an investment portfolio used to help pay for college education.

"Given that Morningstar already uses its ratings to advance a political agenda, we recognize and respect the concern the company might retaliate against states that faithfully implement their anti-BDS laws. For instance, by downgrading the ratings of state 529 accounts," the groups write. "Rest assured, we will urge attorneys general around the country to hold Morningstar accountable should such underhanded tactics be employed."

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi Lamely Nods Along As Former PLO Adviser Diana Buttu Spouts Lies

Despite being, or perhaps thanks to her background as an ex-adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Diana Buttu has managed to carve herself out a respectable career as an academic and a media rent-a-quote on all things Israel-related.

Unsurprisingly, Buttu rarely has anything nice (or accurate) to say about the Jewish state.

And her recent appearance on Ali Velshi’s MSNBC talk show was no different.

In the six-minute segment, Buttu was given a free pass to spout a litany of distortions, half-truths and outright lies — and was not once challenged for doing so by news anchor Velshi.

Introducing her as the former legal adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas (whose own canceling of Palestinian elections and seemingly perpetual leadership in the 19th year of his 4-year term is legally dubious at best), Velshi asks Buttu to comment on the political turmoil currently roiling Israel.

Taking aim at several far-right politicians in the Israeli government, Buttu claimed that it is not just them but the entire government whose “only platform is to just try to build and expand settlements and to attack Palestinians.”

Buttu’s claim is blatant hyperbole, particularly when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own stated government’s priorities are taken into account: stymying Iran’s nuclear program, developing infrastructure including a high-speed railway, and ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. Not to mention the controversial judicial reforms and the resultant political crisis that has consumed the government’s first months.

Continuing her inaccurate summary of the Israeli legislative agenda, Buttu goes on to accuse politicians of being preoccupied with continuing the “ethnic cleansing process” — a libel so egregious and verifiably wrong that there should have been some pushback from Velshi.

MSNBC Platforms Notorious Liar Who Unsurprisingly Uses MSNBC to Lie

Repeated Israeli peace offers have involved very limited amounts of West Bank territory going to Israel in exchange for Israel swapping some land on its side of the 1949 armistice line. For example, in the 2007 Annapolis talks, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s proposal involved the Jewish state taking every major Israeli settlement bloc, which amounted to just 5.9% of the West Bank territory, in exchange for a similar amount of Israeli territory being given to the proposed Palestinian state.

Buttu’s claims are even undermined by the admission of another former PLO actor, Saeb Erakat. Reflecting on a later peace offer by Olmert in 2008, Erakat told Al Jazeera TV:
Olmert, who talked today about his proposal to [Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas], offered the 1967 borders, but said: ‘We will take 6.5% of the West Bank, and give in return 5.8% from the 1948 lands, and the 0.7% will constitute the safe passage [between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip], and East Jerusalem will be the capital, but there is a problem with the Haram and with what they called the Holy Basin.’ [Abbas] too answered with defiance, saying: ‘I am not in a marketplace or a bazaar. I came to demarcate the borders of Palestine – the June 4, 1967 borders – without detracting a single inch, and without detracting a single stone from Jerusalem, or from the holy Christian and Muslim places.’ This is why the Palestinian negotiators did not sign.

In other words, the problem was not that Israelis are “living on approximately 60% of the West Bank land” as Buttu claims, or even just the 4-6% making up the settlement blocs; it’s Jews living on any land in the West Bank.

A map depicting a peace proposal by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

In this regard, it’s worth noting that while earlier in the interview Buttu accused Israel of engaging in an “ethnic cleansing process,” it’s the Palestinian Authority that has actually made ethnic cleansing its goal. Not only did its leader reject any land swaps in pursuit of peace and a two-state solution, but Abbas made clear several years later, “In a final resolution, we would not see the presence of a single Israeli, civilian or soldier, on our lands.”

Indeed, Buttu herself echoed this position during the interview, stating “the two-state solution is only possible if there is a political decision to take the settlers out of the West Bank,” territory which has already been ethnically cleansed of Jews once in modern history during the Jordanian capture and occupation of the land.

By bringing on someone with such a record of outlandish lies, and by refusing to either push back with the facts or bring on an opposing perspective that could have countered Buttu’s falsehoods and calls to ethnically cleanse the land of Jews a second time, MSNBC once again shows contempt for credibility and accuracy.

UN Watch: PLO's Diana Buttu goes SPEECHLESS in Al Jazeera debate with Hillel Neuer

Al Jazeera tries to silence UN Watch's Hillel Neuer, but even a bit of truth managed to throw ex-PLO lawyer Diana Buttu & Human Rights Watch's Bill van Esveld on the defensive. July 24, 2014