Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, July 30, 2018

07/30 Links Pt1: The ‘Games’ Palestinian Children Play; Netanyahu asks the world to help Iran; Israeli advocacy group goes after $1B in Iran's EU assets

From Ian:

We’re always being told that there is a significant difference between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Supposedly, the PA is “moderate” while Hamas is “extremist.” But the PA’s public endorsement this week of the Gaza kite terrorists makes it clear that there is no meaningful difference between it and Hamas at all.

Here is the text of the statement by PA Government Spokesman Yusuf Al-Mahmoud, as published in the official PA daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on July 22 and made available by the invaluable Palestinian Media Watch:

The occupation’s escalation, to which the Gaza Strip — which is under siege — has been witness in recent hours, constitutes part of the occupation government’s policy towards our residents and the heroic members of our people. … The occupation is striving to create equivalence in which there is a parallel between the newest and most lethal fighter jets and a children’s game such as kites used by peaceful protesters as one of the means of protest against the siege and the occupation.

Let’s take a careful look at the PA spokesman’s words, starting with the way he refers to Israel. Notice that he doesn’t say the word “Israel” at all. The Jewish state is “the occupation” or “the occupation government.” Al-Mahmoud is so consumed with hatred of Israel that he can’t even bring himself to utter its name.

Some 25 years after the Oslo accords, 25 years after the Palestinians pledged to live in peace and coexistence with Israel, 25 years after the media and peace activists insisted that the Palestinians had really changed, they still can’t even say the word “Israel.”

Now let’s consider the spokesman’s description of the recent Gaza terrorism. In recent weeks, Palestinian teenagers have launched more than 1,000 flaming kites and balloons into Israel, two weeks ago hitting a kindergarten play area. They have started more than 500 fires, which have burned more than four square miles of nature reserves and more than three square miles of natural forests, and killed thousands of animals.

If it were any other country in the world that was suffering this kind of environmental damage, “Green” activists all over the world would be up in arms. But Palestinians who damage Israel’s environment get a pass.

PMW: Quiz Israel out of existence - and win $50-$100!

On a quiz show on Palestinian Authority TV, Palestinians could win $50 - $100 if they denied Israel's existence. A reporter asked Palestinians in the streets to guess cities in "Palestine," locate places in "Palestine," or describe "Palestine's" borders. For each correct answer participants won $50. The purpose of these questions was to reinforce the PA message that it does not recognize Israel in any borders.
Following are some examples, see more below:

Official PA TV host: "Where is the Negev Desert?"
Child: "I don't know."
Father: "Southern Palestine." (i.e., the Negev is in southern Israel)
Host: "Let's get the answer from Muhammad."
Child: "Southern Palestine" (i.e., in southern Israel)
Host: "Congratulations, you've won $50 in cash."

Host: "The highest peak in Palestine is the peak of Mount Meron, Galilee, or Ebal?"
Father: "Meron." (i.e., Mt. Meron is in northern Israel)
Host: "Congratulations, you've won $100. The correct answer is [Mount] Meron."

Official PA TV host: "The question: A Palestinian village named after a Roman emperor... I'll give options: Caesarea -"
Child: "Caesarea."
Host: "Tamra, or Qusra?"
Child: "Caesarea." (i.e., Caesarea is in northern Israel)
Host: "Congratulations, Adnan won $50."

Official PA TV host: "Where is Safed located in Palestine?"
Man: "It's located in northern Palestine." (i.e., in northern Israel)
Host: "Congratulations. It's located in the north."
[Official PA TV, Winner, June 2, 2018]

The "correct" answers given by Palestinians of all ages, confirm that the PA's indoctrination of Palestinians from a young age to see all of the State of Israel as "occupied Palestine" has been successful. For two decades, Palestinian Media Watch has documented numerous examples of this PA policy to replace all of Israel with "Palestine" and deny Israel's right to exist.

In latest English-language video, Netanyahu asks the world to help Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday night released an English-language video on social media calling on the world to help Iranians improve their lives by standing up to “a regime that oppresses them and denies them a life of dignity, prosperity and respect.”

In the video, Netanyahu addresses the camera and tells the story of an imaginary 15-year-old girl called Fatemeh.

Fatemeh, Netanyahu says, has no water, electricity shortages, can’t remove her head-covering outside the home, and her school is cancelled due to air pollution.

“She stops at her favorite bakery in the Aladdin mall to eat cake yazdi but there’s a nation-wide strike,” Netanyahu continues. Firefighters cannot afford the proper equipment to extinguish fires.

“Fatemeh is completely exasperated,” the prime minister related. “‘Why is everything in my country falling apart?’ she asks.

She cannot find the answers on social media because Facebook and Twitter are banned. But she reads the newspaper and discovers what the regime has done with all the money.

“Billions wasted moving Iran’s army to Syria. Billions wasted to get nuclear weapons. Billions wasted on war in Yemen,” Netanyahu explains.

This is a tough story. But you need to hear it.

Non-Jewish Israelis supporting Nation-State Law

Here are two interesting viewpoints on the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, from non-Jewish Israelis.

One is from a Maronite Christian who lives in Israel, in an article translated from Israel Hayom:

The modern State of Lebanon was established by Maronite Christians, as a shelter for them and other persecuted Christian communities in the Middle East. The goal of the founders of the State of Lebanon, experienced with persecution and genocide, was to protect and cultivate, in their own state, their language, Aramaic, and their unique Phoenician-Aramaic culture. The Muslim population of Lebanon was not a partner to this national vision, and due to differences of opinion, the Maronites were compelled to abandon their national ambitions. With no other choice, they agreed to the establishment of a state of all its citizens that, to their chagrin, joined the Arab League.

Unfortunately, not only did this solution not bring peace and calm, but it created tensions among the major national and ethnic groups within Lebanon until the situation finally deteriorated into bloody war. The Muslims did not at all see themselves as part of an independent Lebanese country and instead they nurtured their dream of uniting with their brothers while cooperating with the Arabs in the surrounding region.

These processes brought about increased extremism in the Muslim Arab population in Lebanon, weakening state institutions and causing many Christians to emigrate from the land of their forefathers in which they had thrived for generations. Furthermore, the religious-national tensions in Lebanon created discord among the Christian communities, themselves, that until the 1950s had comprised the majority of the population and today — after innumerous wars and tragedies – they have become a persecuted minority in their own country: from 80% in the 1930s Christians now make up only 35% of the contemporary Lebanese population.

What is the lesson to be learned from Lebanese history with respect to the National Law in Israel? As an Israeli Maronite Aramaic Christian, belonging to the minority and enjoying freedom in Israel, I actually understand the importance of this Law. Yes, our forefathers supported, for ideological reasons, the realization of the Jewish nation in the Land of Israel. But my support of the National Law arises as well from the bitter Lebanese experience: I believe that Jewish Nationalism declared by Israeli law in fact guarantees that she will continue to be a democracy, and it also promises me that I will remain secure as a member of a religious minority.

Experience teaches us that the Jewish majority in Israel appreciates democracy and is faithful to its principles. A state of all its citizens (meaning: a state of all its national groups), on the other hand, is liable to duplicate the Lebanese tragedy here in Israel. Recent history proves that there is good reason to suspect that without the fortification in law of Jewish nationality, national and religious tensions would grow and intensify. Supported by elements outside the country, the Arab Muslims of Israel would seek to join with their Palestinian brothers, and after that to unite with the larger Arab world around us.

It must be emphasized that the Jewish state is based upon the Jews as a People and not on religious law. Therefore, Israel is very different from religious states such as the Islamic Republics that are governed according to Sharia Law. For Jews there is the right of national self-determination, just like the United Kingdom, Poland or Ireland. The National Law is new, but its essence is ancient: it is the culmination of both historical ambition and contemporary reality; this Basic Law, together with earlier Basic Laws promise to maintain the democratic nature of Israel.

In contrast with those opposing the law, I also believe that emphasizing Jewish nationality will promote the Two State Solution, because this law focuses on the value of nationality – and not only religion – in the identity of a state. This is an important basis upon which to build civic stability, standing firm against all the elements negating the Jewishness of the state – both within Israel and without.

In addition, I am hopeful that in the state of the Jewish People, that our forefathers supported, there will be a way for self-expression for loyal minorities like us, who mostly prefer to live and integrate within her. And at the same time, I anticipate that a way will be found to maintain, within Israel, our own identity, culture, and Aramaic language. In contrast with many Palestinians, we seek to accomplish this peacefully and in brotherhood alongside the Jewish majority and not instead of it. Your brothers, the Maronite-Arameans in Kfar Baram await the fulfillment of the just promise of the State of Israel, and I am convinced that now that the nationality of the Jewish People is codified in a Basic Law, the conditions will ripen for the establishment of a settlement for my own community.

Captain (reserves) Shadi Khalloul, of the Aramean-Christian Movement of Israel, founder of the Christian-Jewish Pre-Army Preparatory Program, Kinneret.

And a Druze Zionist has his own reasons to support the law, even though many Druze have expressed misgivings about it:

I turn from here to my Druze brothers and to all of Israel. In recent days, we have witnessed the evil attempt of the leftist organizations and the New Israel Fund, which are trying to drive a wedge in the important alliance between the Druze citizens of Israel and our Jewish brethren. A covenant that dates back to the days of Jethro, our prophet and Moses. There is no Druze in the world who can claim a better and freer life than the Druze citizens of Israel. I ask all my Druze brothers not to fall into this trap of fools and to support the law of the nation as it is. The law does not deprive us in the least, and preserves Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. It is in our clear interest. Because the left is hungry for power, which aspires to destroy the Jewish state and turn it into a state of all its citizens and residents, we are not counted today, nor will we count in the future. They will use us and throw us away.
I am Aata Farhat, head of the Druze Zionist Council, an Israeli Druze and a proud supporter of the law.

Both of these non-Jews intuit the truth: the law is the way to preserve democracy, not to destroy it. Because without Israel being a Jewish state then it is on the slippery slope to eventually become yet another failed Arab state, something that is the unstated goal of many of the law's opponents.

(h/t Yoel)

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Omri Boehm, a philosopher who we have written about before, once again uses the New York Times to advance an anti-Israel argument which would receive a failing grade from any real philosophy class.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims that the new legislation simply “determined in law the founding principle of our existence.” In fact, its primary function is to build a formal foundation for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank — and for a Jewish state eventually to stretch over the whole of Palestine.

This is an assertion for which sham philosopher Boehm brings no proof. The words of the Basic Law may make such an annexation easier - but one can argue the opposite as well, since such an annexation would cause severe problems to Israel's existence as a Jewish state. In other words, Boehm is resorting to proof by assertion, a logical fallacy that a real philosopher would never do. After all, even the most right wing portion of the Likud coalition is not contemplating annexing the entire West Bank. Boehm simply made this up.

Beyond that, Boehm contradicts himself. He also writes:

In May 1948, there were about 600,000 Jews and some 1.2 million Arabs living within Palestine’s borders. With Jews in the minority, the Jewishness of a democratic Israel could only be ensured if Palestinians had a chance at self-determination. In other words, Israel’s foundational twin pledge (to be both Jewish and democratic) was hypocritical: Arabs would be equal (in rights) so long as Jews were superior (in numbers).

He is saying that the only reason that Israel allowed for the possibility of an Arab state in 1948 was demography - because if not, then the Jews would be in the minority and therefore could not rule democratically. He does not say that the Basic Law contradicts the Declaration of Independence, but now he says that Israel is getting ready to annex the territories - which would put Israel's Jewish majority at risk, just as in 1948. But for some reason, the democracy that he implicitly agrees existed in 1948 and treats cynically for being democratic is now being considered a non-democracy and an excuse for a minority to rule a majority (or a huge minority) by denying the rights of the Arabs. The position is inconsistent - Israel cared to be a Jewish state in 1948 it is because it wanted to exclude the large numbers of Arabs, but now somehow Israel is willing to do the opposite? Boehm doesn't claim that the new law has anything really new ("The new law only exposes an old dirty truth, an unspoken quid pro quo dating back to the creation of modern Israel.") Israel was a democracy then, it is a democracy now, and the same issues arise, yet Boehm claims that Israel now wants to act in the opposite way to solve the same problem.

Without proof.

But the biggest issue with Boehm's essay, and many other that have been written since the Basic Law passed, is this:

It implies that Israel’s Jewish identity trumps its democratic character.

There is, and always has been, a tension between the concepts of a democratic state and a Jewish state. However, tension does not mean contradiction nor does it mean negation. There is tension between free speech and laws against incitement and hate speech, there is tension between capitalism and tariffs, there is tension between freedom and security. There are lots of competing concepts that will not fit perfectly well together.

Yet for some reason Boehm and others seem to feel that the tension between the idea of a Jewish state and a democratic state are fatal - only one can exist at once. This is nonsense.

No one even bothers to define a "Jewish state" for the purpose of this argument. The state is not being run according to Jewish law, and Judaism is not the official religion of Israel. For a philosopher to claim that a state's Jewish identity trumps its democratic character, he would have to define exactly what he means - but Boehm doesn't. So we cannot really know why he thinks that it is one or the other, why the two concepts of democracy and a "Jewish state" cannot coexist, even with tension.

And the examples he gives of Israel favoring its Jewish character over its democratic character are anecdotal. If they are meant to prove his point from a logical perspective they fail miserably - another reason for an F on this essay. Because that the current Israeli government has done more for the Arab sector than any other more "liberal" Israeli governments have, which directly contradicts the entire thesis of the government passing the law in order to oppress Arabs. Cherry picking anecdotes is not a rigorous proof - it is not proof at all.

In the end, the people who pretend that the Basic Law is anti-democratic are the ones who, like Boehm, are against the very idea of a Jewish state or Zionism altogether to begin with. The law is a convenient hook to hang their hate hat, but by implying that Israel can only be democratic or Jewish, and not both, is just another way to say that a Jewish state should not exist, and that Jews have no right to self-determination in any borders.

Which is in fact an antisemitic position to take.

For all these reasons, a real philosophy professor would fail Boehm's polemic against Israel as being counterfactual, illogical and inconsistent.

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Palestinian Arabs are experts at hurting themselves, both literally and figuratively, and then blaming Israel for their pain.

A literal example comes from yesterday, when two PFLP terrorists blew themselves up, but Arabic media claimed that Israel killed them. This has happened too many times to count - errant Hamas rockets killing Gaza children have been blamed on Israel by major news media and human rights organizations without any attempt to uncover the facts.

A figurative example of Palestinians knowingly hurting themselves in a way that they can blame Israel comes from this story today.

The "Supreme Fatwa Council in Palestine" issued a fatwa today prohibiting the participation of any Arab candidate in the upcoming Jerusalem municipal elections.

For Jerusalem Arabs, this means that they would have less influence and power within the Jerusalem political scene to push their (valid) agendas of improving infrastructure, educational resources and services to the Arab sections of the city.

They would be relying on Jewish politicians to push to provide services to their fellow Arabs.

And then, when politicians do what they normally do and work on behalf of their constituents (since there are not unlimited funds), the Arabs can point to the Jerusalem municipality for not doing enough for the Arab sector.

Newspapers will write articles and NGOs will write white papers about how Israel is treating the Arabs of Jerusalem unfairly - without mentioning this fatwa and similar calls by the Palestinian leadership that helps push this narrative.

Once again, the Palestinian leadership is willing to throw its people to the dogs, because one day it might result in some pressure on Israel.

Taking care of their own people has never been a priority for Mahmoud Abbas or his predecessor Yasir Arafat. It has always been about attacking Israel, and the real victims are the Arabs who cannot even speak up for themselves out of fear of retribution from the self-proclaimed leaders that have controlled their lives since 1920.

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Even a Lebanese underwater coral reef park is anti-Israel

On Friday, residents of Sidon, Lebanon, saw old tanks being placed underwater near the shore.

The goal is the create an underwater ark for divers, where the tanks can anchor a coral reef.

"This will be a paradise for divers and a place where we can develop underwater life," Kamel Kozbar, of Friends of the Coast of Sidon, told AFP.

He hopes seaweed will soon cover the tanks, a gift from the army, creating the group's vision of an "underwater park" - a world away from the beaches which have not escaped Lebanon's overflowing rubbish crisis.

But even this attempt for tourism and environmentalism is not free from the Middle east's favorite pastime of hating the Jewish state.

The turrets of the tanks face Israel "out of solidarity for the Palestinian people," Kozbar said.

But...if the Palestinians support a two state solution, as the media never tires of telling us, then why is it a sign of solidarity with them to have the underwater tanks symbolically attack parts of Israel that would never be part of a Palestinian state?

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07/29 Links: Gaza flotilla backers have history of Hamas support; The UN's William Schabas protests Israel with a 'Friends of Al-Aqsa' sign; Amb. Haley: 'No more free passes for those who bully Israel'

From Ian:

Boat trying to break Gaza blockade seized by Israeli navy

The Israeli Navy on Sunday stopped a boat that was trying to break the maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip and started to tow the vessel to the port in Ashdod.

The “Freedom Flotilla” group said that the boat had been “seized” and that the ship had received a warning from the navy prior to the interception.

According to the group, the navy said it would “take all necessary measures” if the vessel did not adjust its course.

The IDF confirmed that it had intercepted the boat and was towing it to the nearby Ashdod port.

“The forces made it clear to the boat that it was violating the blockade and that any humanitarian supplies [it is carrying] can be delivered to Gaza through the port of Ashdod,” the military said in a statement. “The activity ended without any unusual incidents. The boat is being towed to the port of Ashdod at this time.”

The “Return” (al-Awda) is one of two vessels making up the flotilla, alongside “Freedom.”

The flotilla was organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an umbrella of organizations aiming to end the closure of Gaza, and set sail from the Danish port of Copenhagen.

Activist flotilla aims to breach Gaza siege with 'nonviolent resistance'

A flotilla seeking to challenge Israel's maritime ‎blockade on the Gaza Strip is currently some 150 ‎miles from its destination and may arrive off the ‎enclave's shores late Sunday afternoon.‎

According to French news agency AFP, a three-vessel ‎flotilla left Palermo, Sicily, on July 21. One of ‎the smaller ships participating in the sail had to ‎turn back due to mechanical failure, but the lead vessel, the Awda ("Return" in Arabic), ‎was set to arrive off Gaza's shores by Sunday or Monday, ‎Pierre Stambul, the co-president of the French Jewish ‎Union for Peace said.

Israel imposed a maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip ‎after the Islamist terrorist group Hamas seized ‎control of the enclave in a military coup in 2007. ‎Israel maintains the measure is necessary to prevent ‎Hamas from smuggling in weapons and terrorists into ‎Gaza. ‎

According to media reports, there are 22 passengers ‎aboard the Awda‎, including journalists, ‎activists ‎and a Jordanian lawmaker.‎

Organizers said the flotilla was a "gesture of ‎solidarity with the Palestinians."‎

An Iranian reporter on the Awda posted a video on ‎his social media accounts Saturday, noting that ‎‎"there is some medical aid on board, although the ‎amount of medical aid is merely a gesture. We're ‎talking about just a few boxes."‎

Flotillas, Politics & Italian Views Of The ‘Conflict’

While supporting pro-Palestinian activists on the flotilla, Palermo’s mayor says his city respects the rights of both sides

It is hard to avoid the impression that Palermo, the capital of sun-drenched Sicily, is aiming to become the capital of something else: Palestinian solidarity. This is thanks to Palermo Mayor Leoluca Orlando who has done a lot to promote the Palestinian cause.

Just last week, the mayor welcomed another “flotilla” to Palermo’s shores. The word—now a key term in the political lexicon of the Middle East—means a small core of sea-going vessels (usually three or four) staffed with pro-Palestinian activists. The activists, who hail mainly from Europe and beyond, especially Anglophone countries, sail the boats towards the Gaza Strip where they attempt to break Israel’s decade-long naval blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

Flotillas have become a common form of protest within the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. From 2008 to 2016, international activists have sailed at least 31 boats to challenge the Israeli blockade. The latest one is expected to reach the waters around Gaza in the next few days, after setting off from Palermo last weekend.

Comprising four boats, the flotilla, dubbed the “Freedom Flotilla,” is carrying more than 40 pro-Palestinian activists from Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, Malaysia, Canada, the United States, France, Germany and Italy. After setting off from Copenhagen on March 22, it stopped in 15 European ports before arriving in Palermo, a journey of 4,000 nautical miles (4,600 miles). The final leg of the voyage from Sicily to Gaza is expected to take up to 10 days.

Gaza flotilla backers have history of Hamas support

Several of the activists and organizations behind the flotilla to Gaza stopped by the IDF just off Israel's coast Sunday, aiming to break the Israeli naval blockade, have openly supported Hamas.

The three-vessel flotilla is backed by the “Freedom Flotilla Coalition” of 13 organizations.

One of the coalition’s founders, Zaher Birawi, was designated as a member of a terrorist organization – Hamas Headquarters in Europe – by Israel’s Justice Ministry in 2013.

Birawi is based in London and is head of the “International Coordination Committee for the Great Return March,” meaning the rioting on the Gaza-Israel border in recent months, as well as the “International Committee for Breaking the Siege on the Gaza Strip.”

In May, Birawi posted photographs on Facebook of himself taking part in the “final preparations for the Freedom Flotilla” in Copenhagen, and at the flotilla departure point in Palermo. He has continued posting regular updates on the flotilla as recently as last week, although he did not embark on the journey to Gaza himself.

One of the flotilla’s funders is MyCARE, based in Malaysia, which calls itself a “humanitarian care” organization. MyCARE posted dispatches on Facebook from its associates on the flotilla, including Dr. Mohd Afandi Salleh, who they wrote had 116 boxes of medicine, and Aiman Khairul Azzam who was part of the flotilla’s central command.

MyCARE has direct connections with Hamas. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh publicly thanked MyCARE “for the continued support of the Palestinian defense,” at an event in Gaza in 2015, and the organization’s activists have posed with Haniyeh, together with their logo on at least one other occasion.

StandWithUs (SWU) is among the best pro-Israel organizations and resources available to the diaspora Jewish community.

I hope that I will be excused for my bias - given that SWU stood with me during the Reem's Cafe litigation in Oakland - but these guys tread a razor's edge with steady feet and sometimes a little acknowledgment of the obvious is necessary.

If Mort Klein's Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has gained a reputation as right-wing and the Anti-Defamation League under Jonathan Greenblatt has earned a reputation for lappiness with the Democratic Party, SWU seems to represent the steady center. It apparently has the resources and grassroots organic vision to push itself forward in the dialogue and for that I am grateful.

Michael Dickinson, SWU Executive Director of the Jerusalem office, has a blog post at the Times of Israel entitled, The 17-year-old terrorist. It is a response to the recent murderous knife-attack in Adam, Israel, killing one and sending two other men into the hospital. He writes:

Mohammad Tareq Yousef plunged his knife into multiple victims, leaving behind a bloody trail before one of those injured managed to stop and kill him. His brutal attack left a beautiful young family fatherless. But in Palestinian society, a teenage terrorist is not something that is especially shocking. On the contrary, extremism is deliberately saturated into Palestinian Authority education, popular culture and media.

His article hits the key points concerning the relentless nature of official Palestinian-Arab indoctrination of hatred toward Jews. The PA, as we all know, spreads violently-inclined antisemitic anti-Zionist venom throughout their systems of education, television, arts, sports, even to the extent of naming at least one hospital after a Jew Killer. This venom spreads throughout the world.

Dickinson writes:

A Palestinian can be born into this world at the “Alshaheed (Martyr) Thabet Thabet” hospital in Tulkarm named for the leader of the violent Palestinian Tanzim group. Conversely, Israeli hospitals are quick to treat Palestinian patients, including at times of conflict. Yet rather than celebrate this, official PA newspapers often cover wild accusations of Israelis who allegedly harvest organs or conduct medical experiments on Palestinians — claims aimed to dehumanize Israel and Israelis.

It just goes on and on and on and on.

And even as the PA and Hamas and Hezbollah and ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood and, you know, Turkey, defame the Jewish people through defaming the Jewish state - and thereby incite violence toward us internationally - the West screams from the bloody rafters about how the Jews in the Middle East are failing in their humanity toward the hostile Arab majority.

Dickinson reminds us that throughout the Hamas-controlled Strip, and PA-controlled areas, schools are named after Palestinian-Arab Jew Killers. The PA broadcasts television shows for toddlers that feature Mickey Mouse-like characters that yearn for Jewish blood.

Indeed, music is a key tool for spreading the PA’s anti-Israel message. In the past, the PA Ministry of Culture sponsored an art conference focusing on “Palestinian Folklore and Arts, Palestine in Musical Memory,” which glorified violence against Israelis through music.

International sports, of course, is a tremendous venue wherein Palestinian-Arabs seek to use their influence as Uber-Victims over other Arab states and guilt-ridden Europeans to marginalize and defame our brothers and sisters in Israel.

And, ultimately, that is the point.

When Tunisia refuses to allow Liel Levitan, a 7-year old Israeli girl, to participate in the World Chess Championship or when some pussitudinous Iranian judoka refuses to face a Jewish opponent - who probably would have kicked his ass, anyway - they are reinforcing antisemitic anti-Zionism. They are inclining well-meaning Westerners to think that maybe they have a point and, therefore, that violence against Jews from New York City to Paris to Jerusalem might be justified.

Why should well-meaning non-Jewish Westerners stand with us when we so often refuse to stand with ourselves? Western-progressives - in their soft, middle-class, safe spaces - always want to believe that there are two sides to every story. They honestly believe - within living memory of the Holocaust and despite being outnumbered by a perpetually hostile Arab-Muslim majority throughout the Middle East - that the Jewish minority in that part of the world are the aggressors.

They are dangerously mistaken.

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Jewish Voice for Peace call firebomb kites "popular protests for freedom"

Jewish Voice for Peace is placing this ad in The Nation, shown here in context (h/t Yisrael Medad):

Yes, JVP is calling the kites with firebombs, which have destroyed hundreds of acres of forest and farmland, "popular protests for freedom."

When Israel haters use the words "peace," "justice," "dignity" and "equality" they really mean terror, hate, incitement and war - against Israel.

"Jewish Voice for Peace" is not Jewish and doesn't want peace.

1984 is today, and most people are too clueless to realize it.

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Two PFLP terrorists apparently blew themselves up this morning as they were attempting to attack Israel, according to the terror group.

"The two martyrs are Ayman Nafez al-Najjar, 24, and Muhannad Majid Hamouda, 24, who arrived at the Indonesian hospital in scattered pieces," said Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Gaza.

I do not recall the words "scattered pieces" being used before by the Gaza Health Ministry. It is almost poetic.

The PFLP said they were on a "combat mission" when they were "martyred."

It is a shame that the PFLP cannot afford to stage the "martyr photos" where their members pose in uniform with submachine guns in the case of their eventual deaths.

Unlike Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the PFLP is not an Islamist group but a secular, socialist group. Desire for "martyrdom" is universal among all Gaza terror groups, though, in the pursuit of killing Jews.

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07/28 Links: Israel Helps the West with Its Security Needs; When will the West Allow Israel to Defend Itself?; The ‘New Anti-Semitism’ in France: ‘They Spit When I Walked in the Street’

From Ian:

Israel Helps the West with Its Security Needs; When will the West Allow Israel to Defend Itself?

At the beginning of the month it was reported that an Iranian-backed terror plot in Paris had been broken up and several people, including an Iranian diplomat, had been arrested. Last week, the Israeli media reported that indeed, the Mossad, Israel’s external security agency, had provided security officials in Germany, France, and Belgium the crucial intelligence those countries needed to thwart the attack and arrest its suspected perpetrators.

The reports in the Israeli media are consistent with a claim that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made in January of this year in a meeting with NATO ambassadors, that Israeli intelligence helped foil dozens of major terror attacks across Europe.

Perhaps it’s no surprise then that last week, Europol, Europe’s police agency, signed a cooperation agreement with Israel, its first with a non-European state, to fight crime and terrorism.

In these three examples, all occurring within the past month or two, Israel has demonstrated its indispensability to the security of the West.

Israel’s military and intelligence capabilities are especially valuable as it is a Western outpost in the Middle East. And those capabilities have been honed by being targeted by terrorism on its borders, as well as by Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror. Being a small country in a hostile region has made improving its military and intelligence capabilities a necessity for survival.

That Israel can use these capabilities to help its Western allies fight threats to their citizens makes Israel an essential ally. It was nice to see so many of those allies acknowledge this much after the rescue of the White Helmets.

One can only hope that this appreciation of Israel’s capabilities into greater sympathy towards Israel when it identifies and defends itself against threats that don’t threaten others.

NYTs [$]: ‘They Spit When I Walked in the Street’: The ‘New Anti-Semitism’ in France

The solemn boulevards and quiet side streets of the 17th Arrondissement in Paris suggest Jewish life in France is vibrant: There is a new profusion of kosher groceries and restaurants, and about 15 synagogues, up from only a handful two decades ago.

But for residents like Joanna Galilli, this area in northwestern Paris represents a tactical retreat. It has become a haven for many Jews who say they have faced harassment in areas with growing Muslim populations. Ms. Galilli, 28, moved to the neighborhood this year from a Parisian suburb where “anti-Semitism is pretty high,” she said, “and you feel it enormously.”

“They spit when I walked in the street,” she said, describing reactions when she wore a Star of David.

France has a painful history of anti-Semitism, with its worst hours coming in the 1930s and during the German occupation in World War II. But in recent months, an impassioned debate has erupted over how to address what commentators are calling the “new anti-Semitism,” as Jewish groups and academic researchers trace a wave of anti-Semitic acts to France’s growing Muslim population.

Nearly 40 percent of violent acts classified as racially or religiously motivated were committed against Jews in 2017, though Jews make up less than 1 percent of France’s population. Anti-Semitic acts increased by 20 percent from 2016, a rise the Interior Ministry called “preoccupying.”

In 2011, the French government stopped categorizing those deemed responsible for anti-Semitic acts, making it more difficult to trace the origins. But before then, Muslims had been the largest group identified as perpetrators, according to research by a leading academic. Often the spikes in violence coincided with flare-ups in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, according to researchers. (h/t Zvi)

Busting Italy's myths about the Holocaust

Two coins in the fountain of the historical analysis of Italy's role in the Holocaust jostle for which one will be blessed. It remains controversial.

The familiar and prevalent view is a positive one of the "good", benevolent and generous Italians, who sheltered Jews in their country from the "bad" German Nazis.

This view is challenged in a brilliant and important, authoritative new book, The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy, (Princeton University Press) written by Simon Levis Sullam, professor at the University of Venice. He regards the positive view as a myth and a misrepresentation of the reality.

He contrasts the increasing attention paid to the Italian Righteous, of whom Yad Vashem in Israel names 671, with the neglect of the story of Italian executioners of Jews which should be placed in the forefront of the narrative. His main aim is to direct attention to the role of Italians in the genocide of Jews in Italy.

Jews have had a long uneven history in Italy, with extended periods of persecution and discrimination. Simon Maccebeus sent an embasy to Rome in 139 B.C. to help the Romans in the fight against the Hellenistic kingdom. A Jewish contingent is said to have attended the funeral of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. However, with the rise of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, the position of Jews declined rapidly, especially during the papacies of Paul IV in 1554, Gregory XIII in 1577, and Urban VIII in 1625.

Jews were segregated and obliged to bear a yellow badge of identification. The Ghetto set up in 1556 was finally abolished only in 1870 after Napoleon's troops had opened it sixty years earlier.

Italy was the last Western European country to grant full civil rights to Jews. They became full citizens in 1861. Assimilated, they entered the professions and the military. In 1910 the Venetian Jew Luigi Luzzatti became prime minister. There were 50 Jewish generals in World War I, and a number of Jews were officials of the Fascist party.

French judge refuses to call "Allah akbar" murder of Jewish widow antisemitic

From TheJC:

On April 4, a 65-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman called Lucette Attal-Halimi and known by her Hebrew name, Sarah Halimi — a retired doctor and the head of a kindergarten — was attacked in the middle of the night at her home on Vaucouleurs Street, in Paris’ 11th arrondissement, apparently tortured to death and finally thrown out of a third-floor window.

At 4am, Kobili Traore, a 27-year-old of Malian Muslim descent living one floor below Sarah Halimi, went to the flat of an older relative, Diara Traore, on the third floor of the adjoining building on 30 Vaucouleurs Street.

Kobili’s behaviour was clearly problematic, since Diara Traore locked himself, his wife and children in one of the apartment’s rooms and called the police at 4.25am.

Three minutes later, a unit of the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) — who happened to be patrolling the area — took up position in front of Diara’s door.

They heard Kobili Traore chanting Muslim prayers and Koranic verses. Unsure about the situation and the potential threats to the family, they asked for reinforcements. Additional policemen arrived quickly. However, for some unclear reason, the BAC unit still refrained from breaking in.

In the meantime, Kobili Traore put on new clothes and climbed out of the window to reach Sarah Halimi’s apartment, which was at the same level as Diara Traore’s.

He allegedly assaulted the Jewish woman and hit her mercilessly. From time to time he resumed Koranic recitation. Many neighbours, woken by the old woman’s screams or the assaulter’s religious chanting, called the police.

Some gave details about the exact location of the assault, the attacker’s identity, the fact he vilified his victim as a Jewish person and as “a Satan” while hitting her, or even — as far as the Muslim neighbours were concerned — the Koranic portions he chanted.

Yet the police still failed to storm Sarah Halimi’s apartment and rescue her. Eventually, Kobili Traore is claimed to have shouted that the woman was “mad and about to commit suicide”, and threw her out of the window.

He had time enough to climb back to Diara Traore’s apartment where he finally was arrested. His hands were covered in blood. There was blood everywhere in his victim’s apartment.

And now:

27-year-old Malian Muslim, Kobili Traore, has been charged with intentional homicide.

But this week a judge rejected a prosecution request to reclassify the case as a murder motivated by antisemitism, a crime that carries a heavier penalty.

The judge, Anne Ihuellou, also ruled Mr Traore's mental state meant he should be protected from the French Jewish community's "hostile" attitude towards him.

Yes, the murderer must be protected from the people he wants to murder. we need to 'understand" him, because he obviously was in a sort of mental state that means that he is the victim, not the woman he tortured, murdered and threw out the window.

Un-f-ing-believable.

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07/27 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: Israel gets the nation-state right while the west fumbles with identity; The ADL Chooses Anti-Trump over Anti-Semitism

From Ian:

PM said to tell ministers of new ‘unprecedented’ diplomatic initiative in Gaza

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told senior cabinet ministers that a new initiative will soon be launched for a diplomatic solution in the Gaza Strip, Channel 10 news reported Friday.

Netanyahu reportedly said during private conversations that the efforts, led by Egypt and the United Nations and with Israel’s cooperation, have made significant progress.

A senior diplomatic official told the TV station: “Egypt and the UN are putting immense pressure on all sides. This is an unprecedented initiative, but it is still too early to say whether it will succeed. A lot is at stake.”

The plan was said to include rebuilding the enclave’s moribund civilian infrastructure, a return of the Palestinian Authority to the Strip and a long-term ceasefire.

A minister who is a member of the high-level security cabinet said Israel was willing to push a civil initiative in Gaza. “There is such an intention and hopefully Netanyahu will bring it before the cabinet for approval.”

Another senior minister told Channel 10 the ball was in the Palestinians’ court, and much depended on the Palestinian Authority’s willingness to reassert its responsibilities in Gaza and Hamas’s willingness to halt the violence.

“As long as that doesn’t happen there’s nothing to discuss. We want a solution in Gaza, but we won’t be pushovers.”

Melanie Phillips: Israel gets the nation-state right while the west fumbles with identity

Two utterly fundamental and seismic issues are threatening to tear apart Britain, Europe and America. They are mass immigration and national identity.

The majority of Jews in Britain and America are warmly disposed towards the former and terrified of the latter. They have got it precisely the wrong way round.

Diaspora Jews have a Pavlovian response to immigration. This is entirely understandable: the vast majority, myself included, are the descendants of immigrants and refugees.

Jews are also commanded in the Torah not to wrong or oppress a stranger “for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” But what if the strangers in question want to turn your own country into Egypt?

For what’s happening today is not so much immigration as the mass movement of peoples from global south to north.

If unchecked, this will transform the developed world, overwhelm its public infrastructure, and forever alter the culture and identity of its constituent nations.

And there, of course, lies the neuralgic rub. For European and Western national identity, being historically white, is considered by the dominant liberal orthodoxy (which judges people by the color of their skin) to be intrinsically racist and thus illegitimate.

The dogma to be enforced instead is multiculturalism, or the equality in value of all cultures. If enacted, however, that would by definition destroy the Western nation. Which is the point of the exercise.

That’s why “open borders” is the core principle of the European Union. A nation without borders cannot survive as a nation. The driving idea of the E.U., though, is that the nation creates nationalism, and nationalism led to Nazism and the Holocaust. So the E.U. project is to create a trans-national superstate that would prevent nations ever going to war again because, in effect, there would be no independent nations in the first place.

I *can't believe* @AlJazeera — a network that threw a birthday party for a terrorist who smashed in the head of a 4-year-old Jewish girl — would be so rash as to publish this unhinged piece. Shocked. Shocked. pic.twitter.com/6Ap9ldnpz0
— Gilead Ini (@GileadIni) July 27, 2018

Barry Shaw: Native Americans are being brainwashed by PA lies

Very recently, I was honored with a phone call from a native American tribal leader who was, perhaps surprisingly to many as it was to me, on a visit to Israel.

He told me of his passionate support for Israel. He rightly saw the Jews as the indigenous people of the land, something that appealed to his own tribal history. He also saw our modern history, including the return of the Jewish people to their land, as a confirmation of his biblical teachings.

He shocked me by what he told me next. The Palestinians have been conducting a well-orchestrated propaganda campaign to reach the hearts and minds of this ignored American community. My new contact informed me that much of the funding and organization of this anti-Israel jihad is based in Turkey. Sections of Hamas operates from there after becoming severely restricted in Gaza.

The campaign is based on strategic disinformation. Native Americans are reminded of a history of being indigenous natives of America who have had their land occupied by white colonial supremacists and about suffering centuries of oppression, which parallels the so-called history of the Palestinian people who have also been robbed of their land and suppressed by colonial white oppressors.

This simple message is having an effect, particularly as native Americans (and to a large extent, native Canadians) have been ignored by the Israeli government as if they do not exist. The battleground of thoughts, ideas, history, and facts have been left deserted, vacant for the false narratives of our adversaries ot take effect. This has to stop.

Most popular EoZ posts of the week

1. Tunisian Muslims barbeque in Jewish cemetery (photos)

2. Balloon terrorists mistranslate message to Jews: "Get out of our land before we do"

3. Newest libel: "Israelis chasing poor old Palestinian woman"

4. Should We Carpet Bomb Gaza?

5. The 1934 Turkish pogrom against Jews

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07/27 Links Pt1: Palestinian Authority TV Lauds President Abbas' Holocaust Denial PhD Thesis; UNRWA Complains About Funding While Training Children to Wage War

From Ian:

MEMRI: Palestinian Authority TV Lauds President Abbas' Holocaust Denial PhD Thesis, Terror Attacks Launched From Lebanon

The official Palestinian Authority TV channel broadcast a bio-documentary on President Mahmoud Abbas. The show presented his Ph.D. dissertation from the Russian Institute of Oriental Studies, claiming that he had "exposed the relations between the global Zionist organization and the Nazi regime." In a book, published on the basis of the dissertation, Abbas claimed that the number of victims in the Holocaust was less than one million. The PA TV program included an interview with Dr. Khadr Al-Zufairi, a personal friend of Abbas, who praised his oratory skills and said that Abbas had presented 93 documents to prove his claims. Later in the show, the channel lauded Dalal Al-Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road terrorist attack in Israel, and other terrorists who launched "heroic operations" from Lebanon, saying that they "embodied the epitome of martyrdom in occupied Palestine." The program aired on July 20, 2018.

"When [Mahmoud Abbas] Headed The Palestinian-Soviet Friendship Foundation, He Was Working On A Ph.D. Dissertation, Which He Later Published As An Important Book, Titled: The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism And Zionism"

Narrator: "When [Mahmoud Abbas] headed the Palestinian-Soviet Friendship Foundation, he was working on a Ph.D. dissertation, which he later published as an important book, titled: The Other Side: The Secret Relationship between Nazism and Zionism. In the book, Abbas presented documents exposing the relations between the global Zionist organization and the Nazi regime, and the agreements between the Zionists and the Nazis, especially the Haavara Agreement. The Hebrew word ['Haavara'] means 'transfer.'"

Khadr Al-Zufairi: "The dissertation committee consisted of 27 professors. There was an unexpectedly large attendance. People were asking one another: How come so many people have come? That dissertation was unusual – even its title was unusual for the Russians. Anyway, the custom is that when a student defends his dissertation, he is allowed to write three or four pages of notes to read from. Abbas had only one page, with the main points, and he started speaking. The translator was from the Institute of Oriental Studies. He was fluent in both Arabic and Russian. He lectured, defending his dissertation, improvising as he spoke... Abbas is a very eloquent and capable speaker. He defended his dissertation.

"Then the head of the committee of the Institute of Oriental Studies asked him: 'Do you have any documents that prove what you are saying?' [Abbas] picked up the documents next to him and said: 'I have 93 documents to prove what I'm saying.' He read out an abstract of the first document, then the next, and so on. He even had documents that he had managed to get from Israel. Anyway, he finished with distinction, and the Institute of Oriental Studies asked to print the dissertation as a book in Russian."

UNRWA Complains About Funding While Training Children to Wage War

Over the past month, reports have circulated that members of the US House of Representatives’ Middle East Subcommittee have raised concerns that humanitarian aid is not reaching the Palestinian population, especially in Gaza.

In response, the Center for Near East Policy Research (CFNEPR) contacted 44 donor nations that contribute humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population in Gaza through UNRWA in order to determine if any had cut back on their donations. With the exception of the US, which has cut back on 20% of its donations, every single donor nation responded emphatically that they are not cutting one penny in aid to UNRWA.

Therefore, UNRWA currently has $1.2 billion to spend on the people supposed to benefit from its health, education, and welfare programs in Gaza, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

Despite this, UNRWA proclaims to the media that it is bereft of resources to provide basic services. The organization’s media adviser Adnan Abu Hasna declared that UNRWA lacks basic food products and the people of Gaza “have nothing to lose,” adding “we don’t know yet whether school will open in the coming year. … We’re talking about 300,000 students who need to go to school.”

So why does UNRWA claim that it does not have funds for humanitarian needs?

The answer may lie with Hamas, the terror group that has controlled the UNRWA workers and teachers associations in Gaza since 1999.

It was our turn in Adam

When the gunshots rang out we didn't panic, but for the wrong reasons. Every evening the sounds of gunfire bursts and firecracker explosions from the nearby Arab villages pierce the air. These villages are trapped between Jerusalem's municipal territory and the separation fence, and no one enforces the law in them. Thus, on Thursday evening when a few friends and I were mingling in the plaza outside the local synagogue, we didn't imagine that a tragedy had befallen the community of Adam.

The person I was talking to in that moment had lost his daughter just three weeks ago due to a rare amniotic fluid embolism. The daughter died, the baby granddaughter was saved, and the entire community, thousands of people, came to mourn and grieve with him. No one was thinking of terror or anything related. Around five minutes later, when a security vehicle sped past us, we understood something had happened. Even then, and perhaps it will sound strange, I assumed it was a criminal incident.

I ran home to the kids. One wasn't home but we soon learned he was with neighbors. We locked the doors and waited for things to unfold. My phone soon began vibrating with rapidly incoming reports and updates. A long hour later, we still couldn't get any information about who had been hurt.

The minutes passed and slowly the mind shifted to the realization that we too, in Adam, had come under a terrorist infiltration attack. For years we had been very worried about it. The community guard group had run hundreds of drills to defend against such an attack; they were rushed to the fence dozens of times due to infiltrations, which later emerged as criminal incidents or just a stray animal. This time it was real.

Jordan's Minister for Information Affairs spokesperson Jumana Ghneimat condemned "the continued tampering and illegal Israeli excavations in the Al-Buraq Wall area west of Al-Aqsa Mosque," meaning the Western Wall.

In a press statement published by the Jordanian news agency Petra on Thursday, Ghoneim expressed the kingdom's absolute rejection of the Israeli authorities' removal of the stone that fell this week from the wall.

"These grave and irresponsible Israeli actions constitute a flagrant violation of international law, in particular the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Hague Regulations of 1907 on Land War, the Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 and the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing Illegal Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property of 1970, Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972, UNESCO Recommendations and Decisions on the Protection of Cultural Heritage and those relating to Jerusalem. These actions also violate the feelings of Muslims and their sanctities," she said.

She stressed the need for the international community to act and to shoulder its responsibilities in pressuring Israel to stop its violations against the holy sites in Jerusalem.

If examining an ancient stone violates all those conventions, then then indiscriminate digging that occurs on the Temple Mount all the time, including the destruction of literally tons of priceless artifacts and historical objects, certainly violates those conventions and more.

Has Israel ever formally complained to the UN or UNESCO about the illegal digs on the Temple Mount by the Waqf?

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From The Jordan Times:

Activists on Tuesday organised a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Tourism to denounce “promoting normalisation of tourism with the Israelis”, demanding to sever ties with Israel at all levels.

“This sit-in is to condemn the Ministry of Tourism’s latest decisions to promote Israeli tourism to Jordan… we demand cutting the ties with the occupation forces completely at all levels,” said Mohammad Absi, head of the Etharrak anti-normalisation campaign.

“All the agreements for Zionists to enter Aqaba, Wadi Rum and Petra are to provoke the Jordanian people and to pressure them into gradually accepting the enemy,” Absi stated at the protest.

Despite several attempts by The Jordan Times, officials at the Ministry of Tourism were not available for comment.

Member of the Arab National Youth bloc Ahmad Ramahi said the protest is part of a series of events to denounce the normalisation of ties with Israel. “There is also the Israeli vegetable produce entering Jordan, which is not only unethical, but also negatively impacts the Jordanian farmers’ income,” he said.

“All these agreements attempt to change the people’s perspective on the Palestinian cause, whether by entering Palestine through an Israeli visa or an Israeli passport. Jordanians have sacrificed their lives for Palestine. Jordanian and Palestinian blood [is]united over one humanitarian cause over the years; these decisions will turn blood into water,” claimed Rakan Hiasat, member of Etharrak and the anti-Zionism and racism movement.

Remember, when they talk about "Israelis," they mean only Jews. Because Israeli Arabs are welcome in Jordan as "Palestinians."

So the apparent error referring to the "anti-Zionism and racism movement" is pretty accurate - anti-Zionism is racism (well, bigotry, but if they define Israel as racist, then antisemitism is racism too under their own definition.)

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Palestinian teen murderer praised as hero

The 17 year old who stabbed Yotam Ovadia to death yesterday and injured two others, is being hailed as a hero and a martyr in Palestinian media and social media.

Palestine Today and other outlets are praising his last post on Facebook, written an hour before the murder, where he complained that Palestinians were being silent in the face of Israeli crimes in Gaza and against Al Aqsa. "Remember that the children in Gaza suffer the most suffering ...Praise the heroes, and for those who betrayed their homeland and sold their land, let them fall, cowards, with the blood of your martyrs...The time has come for your consciousness. The time has come for the Great Revolution. By your blood, honorable ones, to bring back the Muslims of Gaza, a rush to keep away the oppression of the Jews from your people, did not the time of this revolution come? Oh God, forgive our negligence towards the Aqsa and the oppressed."

People are making martyr videos juxtaposing pictures of him with the scene in Adam.

Facebook pages with the story of his "martyrdom" are filled with praise for him.

As always with Palestinian terror attacks, the story isn't the universal praise that the murderers get from Palestinian society.

The story is that it is virtually impossible to find a single Palestinian voice - not one - who can publicly says that murdering a civilian father of two is wrong. Whether it is because of fear of retribution or because there are truly no moderate Palestinian voices, it doesn't matter. The lack of a single pushback to a horrible murder and to the canonization of the murderer says all you need to know about the disgusting pro-terror and antisemitic mindset of Palestinian society.

The reason that peace is impossible is not because of Israeli actions but because Palestinians simply love their murderers - they encourage them, they pay them, they honor them, and no one speaks out against them.

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07/26 Links Pt2: 3 wounded, 1 critically, in stabbing attack; Michael Oren: Israel’s ultimate battle: Right to exist; CUFI Summit Honors Haley, Slams Hamas and Palestinian Terror

From Ian:

3 wounded, 1 critically, in stabbing attack in settlement; terrorist killed

A Palestinian terrorist stabbed three Israeli men after entering the West Bank settlement of Adam, northeast of Jerusalem, on Thursday night, the IDF said.

Magen David Adom medics treated one man who was critically injured, another who was in serious condition, and a third male victim who was lightly injured.

The terrorist was shot dead at the scene, the IDF said. According to reports, he was shot by a resident of Adam.

The critically and seriously wounded men were evacuated to the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in Jerusalem. The lightly wounded victim was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, also in the capital.

A spokesman for the Binyamin Regional Council said the terrorist jumped over the settlement’s security fence near the entrance to the community.

Residents were ordered by local authorities to stay in their homes, lock their doors and shut their windows following the attack.

Guardian op-ed by Daniel Barenboim distorts nation-state law and Israel’s founding principles

In short, the declaration enshrines equality under the law for all its inhabitants, whilst stressing, as does the new Jewish nation-state law, that national self-determination is reserved for Jews.

Barenboim then argues that this part of the law represents “apartheid” as it “confirms the Arab population as second-class citizens”, a claim completely at odds with the truth, as the law doesn’t supersede the Basic Law on “Human Dignity and Liberty” which establishes “the fundamental rights granted to all Israeli citizens, Jewish or not.”

Interestingly, as Shany Mor pointed out in his letter in the Guardian, in response to Barenboim’s op-ed, the Palestinian constitution declares that Palestine is Arab, that Islam is its official religion, that Arabic is the official language and “recognises no other people as having a linguistic or cultural or political claim” to the state.

Would Barenboim, who also has Palestinian citizenship, characterise Palestine as a racist “apartheid” state?

Moreover, as International Law expert Eugene Kontorovich explained, the law’s declaration of Israel as a uniquely Jewish state, and declaring Hebrew the official language whilst protecting Arabic’s “special” status, is not inconsistent with liberal democratic constitutions of Europe.

The Latvian Constitution, Kontorovich explains, opens by declaring the “unwavering will of the Latvian nation to have its own State and its inalienable right of self-determination in order to guarantee the existence and development of the Latvian nation, its language and culture throughout the centuries.” Latvia’s population, Kontorovich adds, is about 25% ethnically and linguistically Russian. And, the Slovak Constitution, he notes, opens with the words, “We the Slovak nation,” possess “the natural right of nations to self-determination.”

The Spanish constitution states clearly that “national sovereignty belongs to the Spanish people”, not Catalans, Galicians or Basques.

Would Barenboim, or the Guardian, ever publish an op-ed suggesting that Spain, Slovakia or Latvia have “racist” constitutions?

Of course, employing such double standards against the Jewish state, by holding it to standards not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation, can arguably be characterised as antisemitic based on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism – a pattern of inconsistency in the expression of moral opprobrium which represents the most egregious element of the Guardian’s institutionally biased coverage of Israel.

Michael Oren: Israel’s ultimate battle: Right to exist

Asked why his forces killed thousands of innocent Arab civilians, the military spokesman replied, “When you have an enemy that uses noncombatants as collateral damage, it is difficult to completely avoid any casualties.”

Sound familiar? This could easily be the IDF Spokesman justifying our actions against Hamas in Gaza. But, in fact, the statement was recently issued by a US Army colonel fighting Islamic State in Syria. The explanations are identical, but while America’s is accepted by the world, Israel’s is almost universally rejected. Worse, it is condemned as a cover-up for war crimes.

The difference underscores one of the greatest dangers – and, to date, the most glaring failure – of our Gaza policy. The IDF is certainly prepared for any contingency, including reconquering the Strip. But Israel is not poised to win the ultimate battle – for our right to self-defense and even our right to exist.

That is Hamas’s goal. Beyond killing Israelis, its rockets are designed to get Israel condemned for killing Palestinians. For the same reason, Hamas sends children to break through the border fence and even pays them for every gunshot wound. Indeed, the demonstrator is the new rocket — cheaper, unlikely to trigger an Israeli military response, and immensely damaging to our legitimacy.

That damage is cumulative. Today, after three wars in Gaza, the vast majority of nations vote in favor of UN resolutions accusing Israeli soldiers of indiscriminately shooting peaceful Palestinian protesters. Hamas is not even mentioned. By contrast, Israel’s fundamental right to defend itself against jihadist terrorists who are hiding behind human shields is dismissed out of hand.

The erosion of Israel’s narrative certainly reflects an anti-Israel bias and even antisemitism, but it also results from our unwillingness to mount a comprehensive diplomatic campaign to convey the facts of Gaza. The result is painfully apparent, and not only in the UN.

Photos of four dead Hamas terrorists killed yesterday

No reason the Zionist side can't be just as proud of these photos as Hamas is!

The fourth that died was not killed by Israel. He drowned. But Hamas says he's a martyr too, and that's good enough for me!

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