Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, December 13, 2018

12/13 Links Pt1: Born too soon, dead too soon; Friedman: PA must choose, is it a political entity or terror sponsor?

From Ian:

Born too soon. Dead too soon. Laid to rest without having had a minute of peace during his short life. A pure soul, unmarred by sin. And if he had sinned? The profound bewilderment caused by savage murder has no age - murder is murder. But when it happens in this way – before the victim even saw the light of day - the pain is so much greater. He was targeted with murderous intent, ripped from his mother's womb into bloody chaos and was left with no choice but to fight to survive.

A baby delivered in an emergency cesarean section in the 30th week of pregnancy was ultimately taken from this world. This days old infant will not be forgotten. His first and last bed was an incubator full of tubes and beeping machines. Then he died. In his mother's blood. One of the reasons the doctors decided to deliver him was to save his mother, Shira, who had been shot in a terrorist attack. That is how medicine works – a mother's life takes precedence over the life of a fetus. The little guy held on to life with his tiny fingers for three days.

In a horrifying turn of events, he loosened his grip on life shortly after being reunited with his mother, who had been in intensive care as well. One can only imagine how excited Shira must have been to see him for the first time. But a short while after they first laid eyes on each other, both wounded and exhausted, he passed away. The baby, who had no name (we called him Shira's son in our prayers), was named Amiad Yisrael upon his death. The murderers remain nameless. And that is how it should be. Nameless and faceless. May they be forgotten forever. May their named be erased.

Let us refrain from using the passive form of the verb. The baby was not "murdered." Lowly Arabs murdered him. They aimed an automatic rifle at his young mother's abdomen and fired. A cell of Islamist terrorists spilled the blood of a young woman and the blood of a fetus.

Khaled Abu Toameh: The Hamas Plan to Take the West Bank

The latest terrorist attack took place on December 9 outside the West Bank settlement of Ofra, east of Ramallah. An Israeli-Canadian citizen, Amichai Ish-Ran, and this pregnant wife, Shira, were among seven people wounded in a drive-by shooting attack. The baby born prematurely as a result of the terrorist attack died on December 12, after doctors fought to save his life for close to 72 hours.

Hamas, which later claimed responsibility for the attack, was the first Palestinian faction to commend the terrorists. So far, not a single Palestinian faction has come out against the attack, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction.

Describing the shooting attack as a "heroic and qualitative operation," representatives of Hamas and several Palestinian factions said that it demonstrated that the Palestinian "resistance was still alive in the West Bank." They also called on Palestinians to "step up the intifada (uprising) against Israel, specifically settlers and Israel Defense Forces soldiers.

"The West Bank has taken the initiative of resisting the occupation," Hamas said in a statement published in the Gaza Strip shortly after the terrorist attack. The attack, Hamas added, "came to affirm our people's legitimate right to resist the occupation at a time when the occupation, together with Israel, had tried to criminalize our resistance."

This stance by Hamas points at two important factors; first, that Hamas and its allies are openly working and encouraging the eruption of a new anti-Israel uprising in the West Bank; and, second, that Hamas and its friends have been emboldened by the recent failure of the UN General Assembly to adopt a US-sponsored resolution condemning Hamas and other Palestinian groups for firing rockets at Israel and inciting violence.

Hamas's dream of spreading its ideology to all Palestinians is as old as its foundation 31 years ago. Hamas is not interested in ruling only the Gaza Strip. It wants the West Bank, Jerusalem, and all the land, "from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea." Hamas does not believe in negotiations or peaceful settlements. Rather, it believes that the only way to "liberate" Muslim land is through jihad. This goal is why, it says, it remains committed to the option of "armed struggle" against Israel.

Ben Dror Yemini: Jihad forces cannot be tamed or appeased

If Israel only eliminated the blockade of the Gaza Strip, there will be neither rockets nor tunnels. The Strip will flourish. There will be no confrontations. This argument, which is prevalent in certain circles, in the world and in Israel, should be examined against the backdrop of Operation Northern Shield.

Well, Israel is not imposing any blockade on Lebanon, which is controlled by Hezbollah. There is no historical conflict with the Lebanese people. Lebanon has even been the focal point of tourism in the Arab world for many years; great beaches, restaurants, and a dazzling nightlife — a paradise.

But Lebanon has an Iranian element: Hezbollah. And they are building a network of missiles and tunnels, just like in the south, in the context of their profound hatred for the West, including Israel and the Jews.

Turning to Hamas for a moment, we must ask: Will the Gaza Strip begin to flourish once the blockade is lifted? Will Hamas change its skin?

Hezbollah provides us with the answer. It is not about the blockade or a particular conflict, nor is it a border dispute. It is the abhorrent hatred that permeates the Jihad organizations, Sunni and Shiite alike.

After all, this happens wherever Jihad advocates gain power or take over, even in countries, and in fact, especially in countries where there is no significant presence of Americans, Jews, or Europeans. After all, Hezbollah can allow Lebanon to thrive and prosper. But it prefers to invest all its resources in the death industry.

A reminder, this is the evil savagery of #Hamas: "We desire Death as you [Israelis] desire Life."

Last night, a 3-DAY old Jewish infant baby died after being murdered in hail of bullets by a Hamas terrorist in #Ofra three days ago. pic.twitter.com/pVbWNg3BOH
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) December 13, 2018

You know how "everyone knew" recognizing Jerusalem would destroy relations with the Muslim world?

The US officially opened up its embassy in Jerusalem on May 13.

Indonesia condemned the move, but even while protesters called to boycott the US,....

At a rally of about 80,000 people on Sunday, the Indonesian Ulema Council, a body of Muslim clerics, called for a boycott of US and Israeli products if Trump did not revoke his action.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters that Indonesia was trying to put pressure on Washington through the United Nations and it was not even practical to stop using American products.
"Do not be emotional... do we dare to boycott iPhones, stop using Google? Can (you) live without them?" he asked.
"(You) cannot live without them now. If you go out of the house now, you put (an iPhone) in your pocket," he said.
Kalla said that even if people stopped watching US movies, other American goods such as specialized petroleum equipment were vital in oil-producing Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

Indeed, the day after the actual embassy move, Indonesia held talks with the US to promote trade between the two countries!

In recent months, Indonesia was threatening to halt trade with Australia if it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Doom and gloom articles appeared in Australia's press about how the loss of a proposed $11b trade deal would hurt Australia.

On Tuesday, Australia called Indonesia's bluff:

The Morrison government is cautiously optimistic its decision regarding Australia's Israeli embassy will not jeopardise the signing of the free trade agreement with Indonesia.
It is understood that cabinet on Tuesday agreed Australia would recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but there will be no immediate move to shift the embassy from its current location in Tel Aviv.
Sources said that in reaching the final decision, the likelihood of Indonesia walking away from the FTA had been taken into account and, on balance, it was believed the deal would not be jeopardised by the decision.

Muslim countries are great at threats, but in the end, everyone looks out for their self-interests. Indonesia does not want to lose trade with Australia and it will make angry noises but keep on with business as usual.

Just like with the US.

(h/t Ahron Shapiro)

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Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah gleeful about killing Jews - and mourning over terrorists that kill them

The official Fatah Facebook page is following the activities in the West Bank with glee.

It reports that today's shooting attack killed 3 "armed soldiers" even though the information about the victims has not been released - Arabic media always refers to every Jewish victim of terror in Israel as a "soldier" in order to ensure that their own readers don't question the righteousness of the attacks. The civilian woman severely injured was also referred to as an "armed soldier."

The attack this morning was praised as a "highly professional operation."

Meanwhile, the three terrorists killed by the IDF last night for previous terror attacks are being mourned as heroes, and Fatah is putting its logo on their pictures to associate itself with them.

Fatah's Information Office released a statement threatening to continue terror attacks as long as Israel "exercises its policy of field executions against our people and destroys in one night three young Palestinians."

Because finding murderers and killing them in shootouts when trying to arrest them is the crime, and shooting Jews waiting at a bus stop is heroic.

This is the "moderate" group that Mahmoud Abbas heads, and that the world still considers to be peaceful.

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UK-based Arab newspaper says Jews eat matzoh baked with gentile blood

Al Araby Al Jadeed (Arabic), or The New Arab (English) is a UK-based newspaper meant to be more liberal than Al Jazeera. It claims to be professional and nonpartisan, although it is financed by Qatar:

Wikipedia notes that it has been quoted in Time magazine and International Business Times.

On Tuesday, this "fast growing" and "objective" news outlet reported that Jews slaughtered a priest in Damascus in 1840 and captured all his blood for use in Jewish ritual dishes.

Yes, the classic antisemitic blood libel was reported as fact. The article goes on to say that rabbis determined that gentile lives were worthless and this was all in accordance with Talmudic rituals.

The United Kingdom has hate speech laws.

I think this qualifies.

(h/t WC)

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12/12 Links Pt2: Finding the Good in Anti-Semites; Don’t overlook anti-Semitism cloaked in progressive values; Nick Cave: Boycotting Israel is 'cowardly and shameful'

From Ian:

Finding the Good in Anti-Semites

Critics of Israel like to claim that Zionists can’t tolerate criticism of Israel. Supporters of the Jewish state, the argument goes, dismiss any condemnation of Israeli policy as anti-Semitic. In truth, a dark inversion of this charge is becoming the norm: Critics of Israel can’t denounce anti-Semites.

The most recent example comes from the New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg, who wrote a column on Friday headlined “Anti-Zionism Isn’t the Same as Anti-Semitism.” She defends the pro-Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) positions of incoming Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. The BDS movement, of course, singles out Israel for total economic isolation in the hopes of bringing the Jewish State to its knees. “Conservatives in the United States—though not only conservatives—have denounced Tlaib and Omar’s stance as anti-Semitic,” Goldberg writes. “It is not.”

Tlaib, a Palestinian American and the first Muslim woman elected to Congress, has tweeted and retweeted her enthusiasm for terrorists such as Rasmea Odeh, who murdered two American students in a Jerusalem supermarket in 1969. If Tlaib’s anti-Zionism is of the Jew-loving kind, she has a funny way of showing it.

Ilhan Omar, for her part, once tweeted, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” And wouldn’t you know it, just because she believes that Zionist hypnotists have cast global spells masking Israeli evil, some people think she’s anti-Semitic. Go figure.

You’ll find none of this in Goldberg’s column. To her, “the conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism is a bit of rhetorical sleight-of-hand that depends on treating Israel as the embodiment of the Jewish people everywhere.” Goldberg spends the bulk of her column trying very hard to uncouple American Jewishness from Israel.

To do that, she enumerates Israel’s sins, as she sees them. These are chiefly the country’s relationships with far-right European movements (that support Israel), the impasse on the two-state solution (which Palestinian leaders have rejected again and again), and Israel’s warming relationship with Saudi Arabia. This last bit is telling. The left used to blame Israel for the hostility it garnered among Arabs in the region; now it blames Israel for the concord and mutual respect it enjoys with the most important Arab country in the world.

The Confused Legal Reasoning behind the UN’s Effort to Publish a Checklist for Boycotters of Israel

In 2016, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) formally instructed the high commissioner for human rights, who oversees the council’s attendant bureaucracy, to compile a database of businesses that have “directly and indirectly enabled, facilitated, and profited from the construction and growth of the settlements”—by which are meant Jewish communities in the West Bank. The list, which has not yet been made public, includes some 206 businesses, most of which are based in Israel. In a detailed report, the Kohelet Policy Forum explains why this project is nothing but an attempt to aid those who wish to boycott Israel:

The clear goal of the UNHRC . . . is to create negative reputational consequences for the listed companies, and ultimately to trigger sanctions against targeted companies through subsequent action by the Security Council or national governments. [Moreover], the current “research” program is focused only on companies with links to Israel, and particularly areas of the West Bank under the Oslo Accords under full Israeli civil administration.

But . . . business activity in what the UN regards as occupied territories is a worldwide phenomenon. Every situation of prolonged belligerent occupation in the world involves widespread “settlement” activity—a non-technical term to refer generally to the migration of civilians from the occupying power into the territory. In all of these occupations, business enterprises, including third-country firms, play a major economic role. Many of these settlement enterprises have resulted in the large-scale ethnic cleansing or displacement of the occupied population or subjected it to widespread and massive human-rights violations that have been amply documented, [but these cases are not subjects of UNHRC’s concern]. . . .

The UNHRC’s database will focus on “business activities and related issues that raise particular human-rights violations concerns,” [a scope so broad as to include] any kind of activity under Israeli auspices—from providing “construction equipment,” to “banking and financial operations,” to the “use of natural resources,” all in the vague context of “maintain[ing]” settlements. To be clear, no physical link to Jewish civilian communities is required for inclusion in the list, . . . a standard vague enough to sweep in much of Israeli industry. This definition is legally baseless. . . .

The goal: No Jews in Europe and no Jewish State in the Middle East

Europe has become the epicenter of the new war against Israel and the Jews. Europe fights the Jewish State in the political arenas, in the corridors of power in Brussels, in various Western European capitals and the United Nations, inside Israel with the NGOs it funds, the media and the diplomacy. So that those responsible for the massacre of Jews in the pizzeria Sbarro di Gerusalemme, of the massacre of Jewish kids at the Dolphinarium discotheque in Tel Aviv, of the carnage of entire Jewish families during the Passover dinner at the Park Hotel of Netanya, are not termed “terrorists” in Europe, but “militants”.

Europe is a bystander no more. It has become deliberately responsible for the abominable crime of cultural genocide: wiping out the past existence of a people – the Jews – to eliminate their current political legitimacy and its human, religious, cultural and historical rights. That is why Europe voted along with the Islamic regimes at the recent UN resolutions denying the Jewish history of Jerusalem.

Europe's lights are fading under the pressure of different phenomena. First of all, Islamism that it is submerging Europe under the darkness in many of its territories and which it degrades severely. The mass arrival of migrants coming from the Middle East, from the Maghreb and from Africa that Europe can not integrate, nor help return to their countries of origin and are left shamefully to stagnate in precariousness, are the source of great evils. Erosion, decadence, and powerlessness.

But they are also the source of the development of this violent anti-Semitism with the permanent denigration of Israel.

We are at the point that many Jews prefer to leave Europe to live in Israel. What a step back, the Jews flee again from Europe to seek peace and security in a country that has only enemies around it, those who as a single entity cultivate the will to find the way to destroy Israel and throw its corpse into the sea.

“Israel is a vital component of this emerging order as the paradigm nation-state totally committed to its defense and survival” Melanie Phillips just wrote. The order of operations is that made of Trump's America, Brexit, Eastern Europe and the Jewish State.

That new order is the Western last chance for cultural survival. That is why anti-Semitism has become a major engine of the Western chaos.

The Arab gunman raised his gun to the car window as the vehicle neared the bus stop and taking aim, shot that pregnant Jewess in the stomach first. “Good,” he thought, spraying the woman’s young husband, a couple of teenage girls, and then anyone else in range.

Targeting the Jewish woman was smart, aiming at her abdomen, even smarter. He’d killed two birds with one stone, or so he hoped. There was a good chance he’d hit a major organ, and hopefully, the baby in his Jew-Mama’s womb. Why let that baby Jew live when you can squash it like the cockroach it is, before it gets born to spurn the word of Allah and get in the way of building the Khalifa, the worldwide Muslim caliphate?

Robert Bowers raised his gun to spray the elderly Jewish woman first, then anyone else in shooting distance. A Jew is a Jew is a kike, and it doesn’t matter if that Jew is old or infirm. That’s all a mirage to make you have mercy on them, when what they are is no less than a “kike infestation.” No mercy, no how. These Jews can’t be allowed to continue flooding our country with immigrants who steal our jobs, steal our resources.

Killing that old woman was smart, a test of his bravery. He was no wuss. He was leading the way for others, no matter what would happen now when he got caught.

Killing that old woman was genius.

***

Two terror attacks. Two men. One Arab. One not.

Do we know the thoughts in their minds?

Can we state unequivocally that both attacks were antisemitic by nature?

Do we know that the Arab terrorist who shot Shira Ish Ran in her pregnant stomach (and killed her child) thought “Jew” and not “Zionist,” “Jew” and not “Occupier,” “Jew” and not “settler?”

Media pundits would claim there is a distinction. That you can be against Zionism without being against Jews. That you can be against occupation and not Jews. That you can hate the settlers, without hating all Jews.

But we know the truth, because of statements made by Arab leaders (government, military, and religious) on official PA TV. These endless antisemitic statements set a precedent which no measure of etymological chicanery can obscure. Listen, for instance, to Palestinian National Council member Najib Al-Qaddumi, who had this to say on the official PA TV program Palestine This Morning, regarding the Balfour Declaration:

“There is no choice but to return to the background behind the publication of this promise by then British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour. We will return to the situation of the Jews in Europe and Russia, when they lived in a closed society and knew only to make money, trade, weave plots, corruption, and such. Even the European nations and Russia were sick of them and longed for when they would leave their country."

Or listen to the words of Masoud Rayyaan, lecturer on Islamic Shari'a at Al-Quds Open University, in this Friday sermon broadcast on official PA TV:

(Quran) “’Proceed throughout the earth and observe how was the end of those who denied’ ... The occupation government hasn't learned from history, from the corruption of the Children of Israel the first and second time.

“It hasn't learned. They [The Jews] didn’t learn from what Nebuchadnezzar did to them.

“They didn’t learn from what Titus, the great Roman leader, did to them.

“They didn't learn from what Hitler did to them, and the kings of Europe, and Spain – they didn't learn. They have continued to behave the same way: The mentality of arrogance toward other people. The mentality of superiority over other people. The mentality of seclusion, the mentality of settlement. This mentality, an ideology of planning and systematically working to incite wars and strife in the entire world. Those [Jews] have not learned from the events of history."

Hear the words of Hamas Commander Read Sa'ad:

"We won't abandon the way of Jihad and Shahada [Martyrdom] as long as one inch of our holy land is in the hands of the Jews. A day will come when our flag will fly above all of the regions of our land. Our flag will fly on the minarets of Jerusalem, and the walls of Acre, and the quarters of Haifa."

Or listen to PA Shari’ah Judge Muhannad Abu Rumi:

"[Khan Al-Ahmar is] holy land. We know its value, and not them [Jews], the foreigners, the fabricators of history, who dance and live on the body parts of others, and on the blood of others. Read their history: There is no global corruption that they are not behind. There is no global corruption that their rabbis did not allow... People could be deluded or think... that we have no way out with the Jews... The liberation of this land is a matter of faith, which will happen despite everyone. The Jews leaving this land is a divine decree... The war is not only over this strip of land, as you all know the Jews want everything and not just a part [of it]. They want to subjugate us, and that we be slaves to their command... There have always been two camps in history: the camp of truth and the camp of falsehood. The people of falsehood see themselves as those who rule over everything... Among the Jews we find nothing but corruption and depravity."

Lest you think these men represent the unwashed or uneducated, here are the words of an academic, one Imad Hamato, Professor of Quranic Studies at the University of Palestine in Gaza who hosts a weekly official PA TV program on Islam:‎

“Humanity will never live in comfort ‎as long as the Jews are causing devastating corruption throughout the land. Humanity ‎will never live in peace or fortune or tranquility as long as they are corrupting the land. ‎An old man told me: If a fish in the sea fights with another fish, I am sure the Jews are ‎behind it. As Allah says: ‘Every time they kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah ‎extinguished it. They strive throughout the land [causing] corruption, and Allah does ‎not like corrupters.’” (Sura 5:64)

Then there's the recent Hamas radio chatter picked up by Israel only last month, describing the operation that took the life of Officer “M”:

“Four fighter jets are above me. There was a strike near us. The jets are coming from the north. They attacked one of the (Hamas) cars. Hide. Close in on the Jews. Don’t let them leave Gaza," yelled one Hamas commando into his radio during the firefight.

He said "Close in on the Jews." Not "settlers," "Zionists," or "Occupiers." Not even "Israelis," but "Jews."

What are Arab children taught? On November 29, a young girl recited a poem at the Gaza Conference for the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People that referred to the Jews as wild apes, miserable pigs, and evil creatures destined for humiliation. She said that Jews are like herds of stupid cattle, and that Jerusalem "spits out [their] filth" because it is a pure virgin.

I did not have to scour the internet to find these examples. They are numerous. Antisemitism is not just the domain of a few oddballs or iconoclasts. Jew-hatred pervades the culture of the Arab terrorist who shot Shira Ish Ran in the abdomen, an act that led to the death of an infant she never got to hold.

To the terrorist who shot her, Shira was not a hands-off target, someone vulnerable, carrying life in her womb. She was less than human. A pest to be sprayed dead, along with the baby in her womb.

To think of her as a pregnant woman, like any other pregnant woman, or her baby like any other baby would have betrayed weakness, a fault in his basic foundational beliefs, a softness that must never be given quarter if the ultimate goal were to be achieved.

If he'd dared think of Shira Ish Ran as a pregnant woman, he would have had to try all the harder to prove his mettle by shooting to kill her and her unborn infant. Once he did so, of course, the terrorist was free to tell the world anything he liked, that he did not, for instance, think of Shira Ish Ran or the baby she carried as Jews, but as Zionists, settlers, occupiers, and oppressors.

They would want to believe these things, the world, for the West is short on understanding how things really work and they prefer not to see the bigger picture.

Those who live in Europe or America, prefer you to couch such actions, the elimination of Jews, in the language of colonialism and oppression. That speaks to them, while antisemitism seems so, well, gauche. If you use language that is politically correct, they can excuse the targeted murder of a pregnant woman, the successful attempt at infanticide, or if you like, the long, drawn-out third-trimester abortion of a Jew-Pig.

After all, that baby would have grown up to be a soldier. Had he lived. That made him fair game. Right? Just another occupier, a thief, an oppressor in waiting.

As long as the world has an excuse to think of it in another, politically correct way, an Arab is safe to shoot whatever Jews he likes, whether it be a pregnant woman and the baby in her womb, or a couple of teenage girls. Europe looks the other way. The UN looks the other way. The New York Times looks the other way.

It’s all good.

The question is why Jews look the other way. Even the Arab terrorist, now dead thank God, couldn’t puzzle that one out. To him, in his short evil lifetime, Jews were Jews. No matter who shed their blood. No matter that their condition marked them among the most vulnerable sectors of society.

An old woman in Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, in this respect, is exactly the same as a young pregnant woman standing at a bus stop in Ofra holding life inside her womb--a life soon extinguished.

The dead Arab terrorist knew there was no essential difference between him and Robert Bowers. He actually felt a lot of sympathy for Bowers, when he thought about him. After all, he hated Jews and Bowers hated Jews. Hates them still. The Arab terrorist saw Jews as less than human. So did and does Bowers.

When he thought about it, the Arab terrorist who shot Shira Ish Ran and killed her baby, knew that the only difference between him and Robert Bowers was that there was no possibility that Bowers would ever be set free in a prisoner exchange or receive a large government pension for killing Jews. Had the Arab terrorist not struggled during his capture, he would have ended up on easy street in a comfortable Israeli jail.

Of course, the 72 dark-eyed virgins are a nice compensation.

If only Bowers had been Muslim.

A pity.

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J Street Joins Ocasio-Cortez: 'Our Ancestors Might Have Been Jewish Too' (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

: Credit: El Borde via Wikimedia Commons

New York, December 12 - A lobbying organization billing itself as "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lauded a Congresswoman-elect from New York City today for disclosing possible Hebraic roots among her forebears, noting that they, as well, had some Semites among their progenitors.

J Street, which gained ascendancy under President Barack Obama as the latter sought a progressive counterweight to AIPAC to secure support for the nuclear deal with Iran, announced Wednesday morning that like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the organization's leadership could identify among its ancestors a large number of Jews. A subtext of the announcement included the observation that just as Ms. Ocasio-Cortez does not herself claim to be Jewish, neither does J Street does feel bound to uphold Jewish obligations or values. J Street endorsed Ms. Ocasio-Cortez in last month's midterm elections, and has remained silent on her entertaining the promotion of boycotts or sanctions targeting Israel.

"We commend the Congresswoman-elect for coming forward with this information," the organization proclaimed in a statement to the media. "It dovetails with the values J Street cherishes, chief among them the leveraging of Jewish identity to weaken the bond between Jewishness and Zionism, or at least to redefine either Jewishness or Zionism such that they appear unrelated."

J Street director Jeremy Ben-Ami boasted that some of his distant ancestors spoke Yiddish and likely participated in such Jewish rituals as Passover seders, circumcision, eating kosher food, and talking during the Rabbi's sermon and other portions of the synagogue service. "Those roots are a source of pride," declared Ben-Ami in a telephone interview. "Well, some of them. We don't like to talk about the 'Next year in a rebuilt Jerusalem' part of the Passover seder, or about the prayers for the reestablishment of the Temple service in its proper place, or about the Jewish attachment to the Land of Israel in existential terms. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez didn't go so far as to claim she actually is Jewish, and I'm not going to go too far out on that limb, either."

Other organizations echoed J Street's response. A Jewish Voice for Peace spokeswoman told a journalist of the high likelihood some members of the group had at least one Jewish ancestor a few generations back. "That makes our voice as important and legitimate as anyone else's," she asserted. "Other people can't define for us who is and isn't Jewish. We, however, do get to define for everyone what being Jewish means in terms of Palestine, and if you disagree you're a fascist warmonger."

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12/12 Links Pt1: Baby delivered prematurely after mother wounded in Ofra terror attack dies; Palestinian Who Worked With Israel to Prevent Terror Attacks Describes PA Torture

From Ian:

Baby delivered prematurely after mother wounded in Ofra terror attack dies

The baby of Shira Ish-ran, delivered after his mother had been shot and critically wounded in Sunday's terror attack near Ofra, was pronounced dead on Wednesday, Shaare Zedek Medical Center announced in a statement.

The parents had met their baby son earlier Wednesday morning, the hospital said.

The baby was delivered by cesarean at 30 weeks due to the wounds Ish-ran sustained in the shooting attack at a bus stop outside Ofra. Ish-ran remains in serious condition but is said to be improving.

Amichai Ish-ran, her husband, remains in moderate condition after he was shot in the leg during the attack.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Ish-ran's mother recalled the emotional moment when she woke up asking for her.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett called the death a tragedy, writing on Facebook, "our heart is with Shira and Amichai, the heart cries out."

"It's a vile murder of terrorists that stopped being afraid of us. We have to bring back deterrence that was lost. Otherwise, a wave of murders are on the way. Not with statements. In actions."

PMW: Fatah recommits to "the armed struggle": "We won't drop the rifle"

As the anniversary of Abbas' Fatah approaches - celebrated on the day of their first attempted terror attack against Israel in 1965 - the movement is emphasizing its values to the Palestinian public.

One of those values is Fatah's devotion to "the armed struggle" against Israel and Fatah's adoration for the rifle.

In an informative post on the terrorist attack three days ago in which 7 Israelis were wounded when terrorists shot at them, Fatah chose to adorn the post with the photo above showing masked Fatah members in military uniforms with assault rifles and yellow Fatah headbands.

Fatah overtly stressed its adherence to "the armed struggle" in another post showing a photo of a procession of masked men wearing military uniforms and carrying torches and yellow Fatah flags:
"Fatah is the torch of the armed struggle."

[Official Fatah Facebook page, Dec. 8, 2018]

In another post, Fatah directly stated that it won't abandon "the rifle":
"The 54th anniversary of the Intilaqa ("the Launch" of Fatah)
The revolution continues, and we will not drop the rifle."

[Official Fatah Facebook page, Dec. 7, 2018]

This announcement echoes a recent statement by Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki that was exposed by Palestinian Media Watch, in which Zaki declared that "the rifle will never fall."

The Iranian Modus Operandi

On Oct. 27, 2018, while intensive contacts were being led by Egypt and the UN to reach an arrangement between Israel and Hamas, IDF Spokesperson Lt.-Col. Jonathan Conricus said that Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) had delivered heavy barrages of dozens of rockets on Israel from Gaza while working "under guidance, instructions, and incentives from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, based in Damascus."

In other words, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards directly ordered Islamic Jihad and orchestrated the rocket fire. IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis pointed out that "Islamic Jihad did not wait to get a green light from Hamas" to fire the rockets. Its activator was Iran, which precluded the necessity for Hamas approval.

Last year, Hizbullah, together with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), formed the Golan Liberation Brigade in Syria, an umbrella organization of Shiite militias who can be activated on the Israeli-Syrian border.

In addition, in 2012, Tehran created the Shiite terrorist faction Sabireen in Gaza. Sabireen and Hizbullah have very similar logos, and the founding document of Sabireen starts with the same words Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah uses at the beginning of his speeches.

Iran has significantly strengthened its position in Gaza to the point that it is now a critical factor. Tehran's chief goal is to obstruct the broad efforts of Egypt and the UN to stabilize the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza. Without Iranian interference, the situation in Gaza - indeed, in much of the Middle East - would be a great deal more promising.

Jamal Khashoggi became hot topic in the media when he disappeared on October 2 after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. After days of incessant media coverage, the story suddenly dropped out of the news cycle. Recently it has made a tentative reappearance but the question is – why?

Most of us had never heard of Jamal Khashoggi until the media began discussing his disappearance. We learned that he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul but did not leave it. Later it seemed that he was removed, in pieces, in the luggage of the Saudi hit team who came to get rid of him.

Western media seems to view this story as a Hollywood thriller - and that’s where the focus on facts ended and narrative began.

The most popular narrative reads like a movie synopsis:
“The revolutionary, brave journalist went to the embassy to get documentation that would enable him to live happily ever after with the woman of his dreams, only to disappear, setting off an investigation that reveals international involvement with the evil regime that led to his brutal murder. The corruption goes to the highest levels of government, including the US government.”

The players:

· Jamal Khashoggi - ex-pat Saudi, sometime journalist

· Mohammad Bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and his hit team

· Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey, the location of the murder

· The media

There are also “silent players” those who are not “on stage.” They are the audience this story is designed to influence. Can you guess who they are?

The good guy:

Every Hollywood thriller has a good guy. The narrative presented by the media says that Jamal Khashoggi was the good guy - but is that true?

Even without knowing all the details, asking the most basic questions cause the narrative to begin to unravel.

Western values uphold freedom of the press so we assume the abused journalist must be the “good guy” but did the media make the same fuss for Daniel Pearl (kidnapped and murdered for being Jewish) or James Foley (kidnapped and murdered by ISIS for being American)?
Has the media focused similar amount of time on the Yazidi genocide (by ISIS)? The oppression in Iran? The slave trade in Libya?
No? Why?

Much has already been written about Khashoggi and who he really was. Anyone interested can easily find online the information about his connections to Osama Bin Laden, his membership and vocal advocacy of the Muslim Brotherhood (a terrorist organization that gave birth to Hamas and eventually Al Qaeda).

Personally, as someone who enjoys her western freedoms and also happens to be Jewish, I cannot categorize a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, openly and loudly advocating for Sharia and the Caliphate as the “good guy”. This is a man who belonged to a terrorist organization, an avid Islamist and a spokesperson for the destruction of our way of life. Nope. Not good.

So, does that mean Mohammad Bin Salman is the “good guy”? Before this murder occurred, the media portrayed him as a great reformer, democratizing Saudi Arabia. This is “good” right?

The problem is that “democratizing” was also a media narrative. Salman passed reforms that loosened some restrictions on the population of Saudi Arabia however these have nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with creating a strategic balance to retain power, so that the young people in his country will not rebel. There is no actual freedom involved, just a little less oppression.

So why has the media expressed such shock over the murder of Khashoggi?
Is it some big surprise that Saudi Arabia is an oppressive regime with little (if any) regard for human rights? Mohammad Bin Salman, has disappeared members of his own (extended) family. They usually don’t die but go on extended “vacations” they can’t return from… What’s Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident, in comparison to family loyalties, particularly in a tribal society like Saudi Arabia?

The reality is that in the Middle East (and in all dictatorial countries), disappearing political enemies is standard practice. Murder, torture and abuse is common. In the history of humankind freedom and democracy are an aberration, not the norm.

This is also true for Turkey and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The sudden demand for justice for Khashoggi is laughable in the face of Erdoğan’s own abuse of human rights, jailing of journalists and disappearance of political adversaries.

The victim was an avid Islamist and terrorist sympathizer. The perpetrator is a dictatorial abusive regime. The country crying out in shock and outrage for what occurred on their soil has no better a track record.

None of these players are “good guys”.

The conflict between the facts and the narrative presented in the media raise disturbing questions:

· Why did the media so enthusiastically embrace Jamal Khashoggi, a known avid terrorist sympathizer, a member of a terrorist organization himself, as an innocent journalist?

· Why did the media first uphold Mohammad Bin Salman as some great reformer democratizing Saudi Arabia and now try to push for his removal?

· Why is there a huge push for America to impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia when the same people violently resisted sanctions on Iran?

· Why the demand to dissolve the $110 billion dollar arms deal Trump made with the Saudis? What lies in the balance? Prosperity and jobs for more Americans and arms for the Saudis to protect themselves from Iran vs some sudden awakening that the Saudi government is not democratic and doesn’t care about human rights?

Even without knowing all the details behind these obviously contradictory positions, they raise more questions than answers. That is the point when it is time to begin asking: who benefits from this narrative? What agenda is being furthered by this type of reporting?

Israel

Recently the Khashoggi story has reentered the news-cycle, this time with a new angle. Supposedly the technology the Saudis used to track Khashoggi was created by an Israeli company. This seems to be a tacit way to imply that Israel can be blamed as an accessory to this murder. Because Israel is always to blame. Or something.

Not my circus, not my monkeys

As much as the media might imply and insinuate, this story, thank God, is not our circus, not our monkeys. This story isn’t about Israel. It’s not about Jews. It’s not about America or Europe either. This is a story about Islamism and the internal war within Islam. This is about dictators and the way things are done in places that are not free.

The problem is that what is being presented as a Hollywood screenplay, is not. Real lives are at stake as is the balance of power among nations. When Middle Eastern countries are destabilized the “circus” does not stay “over there,” the “monkeys” stop being amusing and become very dangerous to people all over the world.

WE are the silent players in this show, the audience it is designed to influence. But why? Who benefits from this narrative? What agenda is being furthered?

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Forget About The Two-State Solution: Thinking Outside The Box About Israeli-Palestinian Peace (Daled Amos)

by Daled Amos

The conventional wisdom is that the best chance for peace in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs is the Two-State Solution. Failing that, there is the One-State Solution.

The problem, of course, is that decades of pursuing the Two-State Solution has produced nothing except period increases in violence.

On the other hand, it has the advantage of allowing people half a world away of being able to spout off about what is best for Israel and the Arabs without having to live in the region, having a grasp of the situation nor having to live with the consequences of their unsolicited advice.

Actually, there are ideas out there for peace that are being discussed between the people who are affected, between Israelis and Palestinians, and those solutions are not about a One-State Solution or Two-State Solution.

An Unlikely Arab Peace Activist

When he was younger, Ziad Sabateen was filled with anger and hate at Israel for what he saw as the theft of Arab land. When the First Intifada broke out in 1982, he joined in the violence.

Sabateen was arrested and ended up in an Israeli prison for 5 years.
Looking back -- that turned out to be fortuitous.

While in prison, Sabateen spoke with his fellow prisoners: doctors, engineers and other Arabs to discuss how to deal with Israel. They came to the conclusion that rather than rely on violence, it made more sense to turn to non-violence and start a dialogue with the Israelis.

They created a group called “Combatants for Peace,” made up of former soldiers on both sides. They supported the Two-State Solution and started working for equal rights.

Settlers For Peace

It was around this time that Ziad Sabateen met Rabbi Menachem Froman.

Rabbi Froman, who passed away in 2013, was a "settler" and a founding member of Gush Emunim -- a right-wing Orthodox Jewish group dedicated to the settlements and served as the chief rabbi of Tekoa in the West Bank.

He was also a peacemaker and negotiator with close ties to Palestinian Arabs leaders.

For Sabateen, meeting with Rabbi Froman and being invited to his home, helped dispel the stereotype that Religious Jews are extremists and troublemakers. He eventually became uncomfortable even with calling them "settlers" -- a pejorative term, preferring to refer to them as either neighbors or residents. With Rabbi Froman, Sabateen became among the first to promote interaction and cooperation in Judea and Samaria.

The Home

In 2014, a year after the death of Rabbi Froman, a new group was formed by Inon Dan Kehati, of which Sabateen is a member: The Home.

Logo of The Home

The Home, registered as an NGO since 2015, defines itself as:

a Jewish-Israeli-Arab-Palestinian platform which is open to every community all over the Holy Land in its entirety, in order to develop and promote an inclusive discussion, inter-communal action and political progression intended to provide the residents of the land with the security, dignity and freedom which each individual deserves in their own home.

The Home is all about trust-building.

Ziad Sabateen in the middle, flanked by Inon Dan Kehati on the left
and David HaIvri, a settler and Zionist leader, on the right. Credit: Bennett Ruda

The group is a grassroots organization, working on the inside, with the people who are directly and personally affected. They see many of the problems being caused by outside interference and by the money coming from the United States and the European Union, with those living in the land paying the consequences. They point to the money going to the Palestinian Authority and disappearing and the money Iran sends to Hamas. Palestinian Arabs see the corruption.

While The Home does not want outside interference from those who are not Jewish or Palestinian and living in the land, others are welcome to support their efforts but have no say in the decisions they make.

Working Together

The Home works on joint programs that generate goodwill between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs -- programs such as Cleaning The Hate, where everyone joins together to pick up garbage in Jewish and Arab communities. It seems like a small thing, but the key is the goodwill generated by working together for a common good that focuses on the common perception of the holiness of the land. They become more accepting because of their commitment to the land.

Kehati says that of the Palestinian Arabs he has spoken to, 1,000 to 2,000, about 80% are supportive. Of the Israelis in Judea and Samaria he has spoken to, 30-40% support the work of The Home.

That is not to say that the rest are against the group per se, but they do not currently support it.

Kehati explains this as a problem of perception, that because he works with the Arabs, some see him as some kind of lefty -- which makes him suspicious in their eyes.

At this point, The Home is not even considered to be a small player among those who present other options to the One-State and Two-State Solution. They are not considered by the others as being either on the left or the right, though The Home would like to be considered both. They do not see themselves as part of the "Peace Industry," nor are they interested in sitting together singing kumbaya and eating hummus - they want real discussion among the actual people who represent their identity.

Here is a sample from 2016

Values and Goals

In concrete terms, the mission is to restore Israeli sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria and Gaza, creating a federal structure providing the Palestinian Arabs and all residents with both equal human rights and political rights. Human rights include freedom of movement, to study where you want, work where you want and live where you want, such as in the big cities. Palestinian Arabs in Bethlehem could live in Jaffa, Haifa, Acco and Jerusalem -- just as a Jew in Tel Aviv would have the choice to live in Hebron, Bethlehem and Ramallah. Political rights include the right to vote for the Knesset.

Because there are between 1.5 and 2.5 million Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria who have no familiarity with a Democratic system of government, there would be 3 options:

o Those who fulfill their duty to the State, such as serving either in the military or doing civil service, and paying taxes -- they would get both full equal rights and full political rights.
o Those who are not willing to contribute to the State of Israel in terms of army or civil service and refuse to pay taxes do not get political rights, but do get equal rights. Similarly, the same would apply to Mea Shearim. If you don’t do your civil/political duty to the system, you don’t get political rights from the system.
o Those who join Jihad and fight against Jewish aspirations in the Land of Israel have no place in the State and will be deported.

The idea is to create the potential to start to integrate Palestinians into Israel not as enemies but as contributing members and tie their destiny to Israel.

It is a long-term idea that has the benefit of involving the people who will be directly affected by the plan, bypassing the politicians -- both in Israel, the territories and in the West -- who do not have to deal with the consequences of their actions.

Maybe now is not the time for such a plan, but at the very least it is the start of an idea that can grow to something bigger.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Abbas' terror group praises the PFLP terror group. (But he's a "man of peace.")

It is useful to be reminded that even when there were elections for the leadership of the Palestinian Authority in the distant past, it did not at all make the PA into a democracy. The PA is not an independent government, but it reports to the PLO, a decidedly non-democratic organization that is ruled essentially by one person, Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas' role as Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization is what makes him essentially a dictator.

Recently, Abbas vowed to dissolve the Palestine Legislative Council. The PLC hasn't met in years, but it is dominated by Hamas based on the results of the last election. There is nothing in Palestinian law that allows Abbas to do this, but he plans to anyway.

The prime minister of the PA, Rami Hamdallah, has no power - most people have never even heard of him. The PA rubber-stamps what the PLO - Abbas- wants it to do.

The PLO has always been a terror group. Even though it supposedly has abandoned all the parts of its charter that supported terror, it never issued a new Charter without those paragraphs. Its main component is Fatah which still explicitly supports "armed struggle" in its platform. The head of Fatah? Mahmoud Abbas, of course.

Today, Abbas has proven again that he supports terror by his Fatah group issuing congratulations to another terror group, the PFLP, on its anniversary, and stressing how both groups have been an important part of the PLO. This was reported in PA-run media.

For its part, the PFLP issued a nine-point position paper for the occasion, one of which states:

The resistance option proved its effectiveness, as demonstrated by its forces, which supported it and defended it and exercised it in all its forms, especially the armed struggle, its ability to use it successfully in more than one arena despite all the attempts of the hostile forces to strike its foundations and dispersing its forces and popular support.

The PFLP also issued a statement of praise for the terror attack in Ofra this week, calling it a "bold heroic operation."

Both Fatah and the PFLP feature guns in the current logos on their media.

Anyone who pretends that terrorism is not official Palestinian policy is consciously deluding themselves.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

The PLO's Negotiation Affairs Department blocks me on Twitter

I had no idea I was that much of a threat to the PLO, but apparently I am.

Saeb Erekat, who may be the only person remaining at the PLOs' Negotiation Affairs Department since they have not been interested in negotiations for many years, is apparently upset at me for pointing out, repeatedly, what a liar he is.

Anyone else out there been banned by the PLO?

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.