Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, August 15, 2019

08/15 Links Pt2: No, the United Nations Didn’t Create Israel; Who’s funding illegal Palestinian settlements in Area C?; Academic Prize For Scholarly Form Of Blood Libel

From Ian:

No, the United Nations Didn’t Create Israel

Hanan Ashwari, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, recently restated one of her favorite falsehoods about the creation of Israel. This falsehood — ironically often advanced by both Israel’s supporters and its enemies — holds that Israel was created by the United Nations in its Palestine Partition Resolution 181, passed on November 29, 1947, and implemented by Great Britain’s withdrawal on May 14, 1948.

This is a pernicious lie that portrays Israel as existing simply as a result of “the kindness of strangers” and as a foreign body imposed on the region by outside forces.

In fact, Jews have yearned and struggled to return to their ancestral homeland for three millennia. Zionism began as a movement in 1897, when Jews began to resettle in what was then called Palestine, culminating in Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948 on the same day that Great Britain left.

Those dates in 1947 and 1948 were momentous events in the Zionist effort to create a Jewish nation in its indigenous land, and are celebrated annually in Israel and among most Diaspora Jews. But November 29 — the date of the UN General Assembly vote to recommend the partition of Palestine — is, appropriately, not an Israeli holiday. But May 14 — or its equivalent date on the Jewish calendar — is feted as Israel’s Independence Day.

In any event, the UN Palestine partition is of merely symbolic value in explaining Israel’s creation.

The Waters Were Already Muddy: A Rebuttal to Victor Kattan

On 3 July 2019, we submitted a communication to the Office of the Prosecutor (“OTP”) of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) (summarised here) which argued that Palestine’s objective legal status as a non-State entity, as well as Palestine’s indeterminate sovereign territorial claim, operate as barriers to the exercise of ICC jurisdiction in potential cases. On 9 August, Victor Kattan responded on these pages (here and here) by suggesting that our communication constitutes an attempt to “muddy the waters” and that Palestine’s objective legal status as a State is clear, as is its sovereign territory. Mr Kattan’s suggestion of bad faith is regrettable. Rather than demonstrate the clarity of Palestine’s status or territory, his posts further demonstrate their uncertainty.

Mr Kattan asserts that “only Palestine has sovereign legal title to the territories occupied by Israel in June 1967” and argues that to assert an Israeli claim in this territory makes “a complete mockery of the law of occupation”. Yet Mr Kattan’s argument relies on inconsistent and unsustainable legal and historical claims. Mr Kattan firstly claims that General Assembly Resolution 181(II) of 29 November 1947 is of dispositive effect. Secondly, he asserts that Israel waived its territorial claim to West Bank territory between 1949 and 1967. Thirdly, he appears to claim that following Jordan’s occupation of the West Bank between 1949 and 1967, a Palestinian State seceded from Jordan in the West Bank. This rebuttal considers these three dubious claims in more detail.

The effect of General Assembly Resolution 181(II)

Mr Kattan argues that the 1947 UN Partition Plan contained in Resolution 181(II)“represented a special agreement between the United Nations and the Mandatory Power” which was of dispositive effect. Yet it is trite that General Assembly resolutions are generally not binding and, in its own terms, Resolution 181(II) “recommended”its adoption and implementation to the UK (as Mandatory Power) and to UN Member States. It was not an agreement between them. Resolution 181(II) was, of course, vigorously rejected by Arab States who stated an objective to create a “United State of Palestine” throughout the former Mandate territory.

Mr Kattan nevertheless relies on Lausanne Protocol of 1949 to support his argument with respect to Resolution 181(II)’s supposedly dispositive effect, as well as to Israel’s supposed waiver of claims to West Bank territory in 1949. Yet the Lausanne Protocol, in its own terms, was a “working document… to be taken as a basis for discussions.” It was a “proposal” which would “bear upon the territorial adjustments necessary” for its “objectives” to be satisfied. At the Lausanne negotiations, Israel contemplated a land for peace formula and expressly excluded Jerusalem from the negotiations (see UN doc. A/927, 21 June 1949, paras. 28, 30). It is plainly wrong for Mr Kattan to suggest that the Protocol conferred a binding effect through agreement on the 1947 UN plan.

Myths and Facts: Palestine is a geographical area, not a nationality

Historically, before the Arabs fabricated the concept of Palestinian peoplehood as an exclusively Arab phenomenon, no such group existed. This is substantiated in countless official British Mandate-vintage documents that speak of the Jews and the Arabs of Palestine – not Jews and Palestinians.

In fact, before local Jews began calling themselves Israelis in 1948 (when the name “Israel” was chosen for the newly-established Jewish State), the term “Palestine” applied almost exclusively to Jews and the institutions founded by new Jewish immigrants in the first half of the 20th century, before the state’s independence.

Some examples include:
- The Jerusalem Post, founded in 1932, was called The Palestine Post until 1948.
- Bank Leumi L’Israel, incorporated in 1902, was called the Anglo-Palestine Company until 1948.
- The Jewish Agency, an arm of the Zionist movement engaged in Jewish settlement since 1929, was initially called the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
- Today’s Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1936 by German Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany, was originally called the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, composed of some 70 Palestinian Jews.
- The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was established in 1939 as a merger of the United Palestine Appeal and the fund-raising arm of the Joint Distribution Committee.

Arabs are not satisfied with one Palestinian political entity (Jordan) where they are the uncontested majority and have the political machinery and the territory for self-determination. Instead, they want an additional state because twenty-one Arab states are not enough (and one Jewish state is one too many).

Arabs mark the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the 1929 pogroms

A pan-Arab news site has an article on what they say was the beginning of the events that led to the massacres of Jews throughout the Land of Israel in 1929.

The article says, "In the following days, clashes intensified and spread to other cities, where Arabs in the city of Hebron killed 67 Jews from the city. A number of Jews enjoyed the protection of some Arab residents who opposed violence but were forced to abandon Hebron for fear of continuing clashes. In Gaza, there was a small Jewish community who had abandoned the city with the help of British troops. Safed's Jews were also subjected to violence by the Arab population."

There doesn't seem to be any regret. The article says that the riots were a major stage in the Palestinian national movement.

It mentions previous deadly riots against Jews, including one in 1924 I had never heard of where they claim that Jews dressed up in "the clothing of Islamic clerics, and made a mockery of them." They said it was around Easter time but perhaps it was Purim, which was a month before.

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Suffering Michiganders Hope Tlaib Takes Time Out Of Palestine Trip To Visit Them (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Suffering Michiganders Hope Tlaib Takes Time Out Of Palestine Trip To Visit Them
Rashida Tlaib

Flint, August 15 - Residents of this beleaguered neighbor of Detroit voiced expectation today that as part of her announced trip to witness the plight of faraway Palestinians firsthand, a congresswoman from their state might make a stop in their troubled city to get a better picture of what fellow Michigan inhabitants need.

As the people of Flint continue to recover from a drinking water and public health crisis stemming from mismanagement, aging infrastructure, lack of transparency, and, many charge, environmental racism, Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan plans a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories later this year to gain an on-the-ground picture of the complex situation people there face, despite the Palestinian situation having little or no bearing on the lives of the people who populate her home state. Nevertheless, Flint residents hope that Ms. Tlaib might deign to set aside some of her time to meet with them and see their trouble in person, since she harbors such concern for people of color and their struggle against systemic prejudice.

Congresswoman Tlaib plans a visit to the Holy Land with fellow progressive "Squad" member Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a public relations move aimed at keeping the Palestinian issue at the forefront of progressive politics and positioning the two legislators as prominent fighters for the oppressed. Flint inhabitants told reporters that they find that mission noble, but also think that perhaps the two American lawmakers representing the constituencies that elected them should consider placing the emphasis of their public activities on serving those constituencies and the states in which they reside, if that is not too much trouble.

"As American taxpayers we pay the salaries of Ms. Tlaib and Ms. Omar," stated Flint resident Stacy Mbeke. "Now, I might be a little presumptuous here, but I think the people whose interests Rashida Tlaib is paid to represent should take precedence over those who live elsewhere and who have no democratic say in her decision-making. The senators and Congressional representatives from Michigan are busy people, and we understand that, but maybe Ms. Tlaib can make a minor change to her itinerary and swing my Flint on her way to Palestine. If it's not too much trouble."

"I get it, she has important things to do that aren't making sure the problems of her state are solved and don't recur," agreed fellow resident Shawnda Pike. "My kids and their elevated lead levels can wait, because Rashida knows it's more urgent to draw he world's attention to Palestinian minors jailed for using rocks and firebombs to try to kill Israeli motorists."

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08/15 Links Pt1: Interior minister confirms Israel will bar Omar, Tlaib; Mahmoud Abbas’s time-machine politics dooms peace (again); Terror attack in Old City of Jerusalem

From Ian:

Jonathan S. Tobin: Mahmoud Abbas’s time-machine politics dooms peace (again)

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas' latest speech revealed that the new starting point for the Palestinian quest for "justice" is sometime in the 13th century BCE. That's when the tribes of Israel began the conquest of the land of Canaan they had been promised when they left Egypt a generation beforehand.

Abbas declared that the Jewish interlopers in the country would eventually be expelled. "They will be in the dustbins of history, and they will remember that this land is for its people, its residents and the Canaanites who were here 5,000 years ago. We are the Canaanites."

The notion that the current population that calls itself Palestinian can link themselves to the vanished Canaanites is pure fiction. Some Arabs arrived in the early 20th century from surrounding Arab lands as the country began to experience rapid economic development as a result of the return of the Jews and Zionist settlement.

It really doesn't matter when Palestinian Arabs arrived. What matters is that their leader is still doubling down on an effort to deny history and the right of the Jews to a Jewish state, no matter where its borders might be drawn. In his conversations this week with a delegation of visiting Democratic members of Congress, Abbas wasn't willing to say he recognized Israel or to admit that the Jews were also entitled to a state.

Israelis and Palestinians don't live in a theoretical world in which dividing adjacent land into states coexisting peacefully is the obvious answer to their problems. They live in the real world, where the only Palestinian leaders are the Islamists of Hamas, who still seek the death of Jews, and the "moderates" of Fatah led by Abbas, who is selling his people a fairy tale about Canaanites who will somehow use a historical time machine to expel the descendants of Joshua.

Only an Israeli Victory Can Bring Peace. America Can Help by Telling the Truth

The Israel-Palestinian conflict, writes Max Singer, cannot be resolved through compromise, but only through a decisive victory by one side or the other. But Singer does not envision the Jewish state winning on the battlefield of war; rather, the necessary triumph must be moral and psychological:

Israel’s essential goal is to continue to exist in its homeland, and the Palestinians’ essential goal is the elimination of Israel. Thus, if one side wins, the other side loses. There is no way Israel can continue in peace and at the same time be eliminated. The two essential goals clash, making compromise impossible. “Victory” is not a matter of declarations and celebrations. It means achieving your essential goal. Nor is “defeat” groveling and humiliation: it is giving up your central goal because you realize it cannot be achieved.

The Palestinians will have been defeated when they become convinced that Israel cannot ever be destroyed. That defeat would be tantamount to an Israeli victory, and it is required for peace to be possible. [Currently], a Palestinian who wants to argue for the advantages of peace can’t get anywhere so long as his audience believes that continued Palestinian resistance just might eventually defeat Israel.

To help bring about such a change in mindset, the U.S. can do much without expending blood or treasure:

A key component of U.S. strategy . . . should be a campaign of assertive truth-telling. . . . A major part of Israel’s problem is that most of the diplomatic world accepts key falsehoods about Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world. [For instance], there has never been any “Palestinian territory” anywhere. That being the case, there cannot now be “occupied Palestinian territory.” [Moreover], the Palestinian belief that the Jewish people are European colonialists invading the area with no historical claim or right is entirely false. . .

Amb. Alan Baker: A Ha’aretz Columnist Mangles History, Facts, and International Law

On August 9, 2019, the Ha’aretz newspaper featured an op-ed article entitled “The Ignorance of Trump Envoy Greenblatt Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg.”1

The author of the article, Shaul Arieli, described by Ha’aretz as a colonel in the IDF reserves, harshly criticized and attacked President Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, who, in a speech to the UN Security Council on July 23, 2019, had expressed the Administration’s view on to how to achieve an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Greenblatt asserted in his speech that the accepted bases of the world order – international consensus, international law, and UN Security Council resolutions – have been proven to be unsuccessful in seeking an end to the conflict.

In his article, Arieli presents this U.S. Administration viewpoint as a “threat to the post World War II international order” by dictating “an order based on force rather than decisions by the international community.”

He compared this viewpoint to a “giant iceberg threatening an ice-age on the existing international order” but ultimately melting away, leaving “international order to the forces of aggression.”

Arieli’s anxiety and fears for the integrity and future of the old international order would appear to be misplaced. Not being an international lawyer, he seems to be unaware of some basic principles underlying the very international order that he seeks to safeguard.

UNRWA reports:

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) started construction on a new health centre in Zohour area within the Jordanian capital Amman. ...

The actual construction activities started late in July 2019 and the health centre is expected to be functional by August 2020 and will improve access to health care for over 68,000 Palestine refugees in the area. The new health center will replace the existing, congested rented premises and will introduce the Family Health Team (FHT) - the Agency’s new approach to health care delivery.

According to UNRWA itself:

In Jordan, the 2.2 million Palestine refugees who are registered with UNRWA enjoy broad inclusion in social and economic life. The vast majority have Jordanian nationality, with the exception of some 158,000 ‘ex-Gazan’ refugees.

Meaning, some 93% of "Palestine refugees" in Jordan are citizens.

And UNRWA admits elsewhere:

[M]ost of the over 2 million Palestine refugees in Jordan have been granted citizenship, and have the same access to health care as other Jordanian citizens.

Jordan has a very good health care system, both private and public. It is a destination for medical tourism.

However, nearly a million Palestinians who can use Jordan's own health care system use the UNRWA system instead:

In Jordan, our clinics serve more than 1.1 million people, nearly 56 per cent of the registered Palestine refugees in the country

UNRWA is very proud of their facilities and their "new approach to health care delivery" - but, except for the 158,000 Palestinians that Jordan refuses to naturalize, why are they providing services for a million people who are already covered by the state that they are citizens of?

UNRWA could convert all of its clinics to be public clinics for all Jordanian citizens, reducing the impression in Jordan that Palestinians aren't "true Jordanians." Its budget could be given to Jordan for five years or so. But to keep a completely parallel health system in Jordan for only a portion of the citizens is inefficient, promotes bigotry and tells Palestinians that they are not quite full citizens.

The world shouldn't be paying for a separate health system. There is no justification for it. But no one at the UN is seriously questioning why Palestinians who are full citizens should get special treatment - with money that could go to people who are truly in need.

UNRWA is soon going to apply for another extension of its mandate. It is way past time that UN member nations start asking why Palestinians who are not refugees should get extra medical and educational and housing services paid for by the rest of the world.

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From the Jerusalem Post:

Following a verdict given at the Jerusalem district court, a total sum of 12.7 million NIS was transferred to the offices of foreclosure in Jerusalem after several files were opened against the Palestinian Authority for incarcerating citizens accused of collaborating with Israel.

The ones who will benefit the most from these files are the Arab-Israeli citizens living in the West Bank, who were falsely imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority under the suspicion of helping Israel.

According to the verdict given by judge Moshe Drori, the arrest and imprisonment were done without authority, as the PA was never given such power beyond the West Bank. The Imprisonment itself provided enough grounds to sue for damages.

Judge Drori described in his decision the various atrocities done at the basements of the PA's security facilities, which included torture, rape, amputations and even murder.

The Law Enforcement and Collection System Authority will work in the following days to distribute the money to the people involved in accordance with the court's decision.

This story shows much of what is wrong in both Israeli and Arab media.

When were Israeli citizens arrested and imprisoned by the PA? Where was the coverage?

Was this downplayed because they were Arabs and not Jews? If so, this is unacceptable.

I found some details in this story from two years ago, in what appears to be the same case:

52 Palestinian collaborators, or those suspected of collaborating with Israel, have received recognition for the first time from an Israeli court that the Palestinian Authority had in fact arrested and tortured them for years. In the over 1,800-page judicial ruling, Jerusalem District Court Vice President Justice Moshe Drori wrote that beyond a reasonable doubt, systematic arrests took place between 1990-2003, during which dozens of Palestinians suffered severe abuse, that left them with physical and mental disabilities.

“Throughout the day you’re tied to the wall, at night, they take you to interrogations,” one of the collaborators claimed. “From the moment you enter the room, you don’t see the interrogator since they place a sac over your head that was probably in the sewer for ten years. You don’t see who is hitting you…They say, ‘You worked with the Israeli Shin Bet, you have to admit it, period.'”

Attorney Barak Kedem, who represents the plaintiffs stated, “It’s as if someone read Dante’s Inferno and asked to imitate it.” The three plaintiffs said that at no point were they presented with any evidence or witness testimony, rather, only with the demand for a confession.

Some of the torture also included sadistic harm to the detainees’ genitals. Many reported similar methods of horrific sexual abuse that left them infertile and unable to have sex. “There’s some contraption there called ‘the bottle fixer,'” said one of the plaintiffs. “It’s a 1.5-liter bottle of Coca-Cola with a broken top placed inside a block of concrete, and you sit on top. They take care that your life is over. They finish you, ensure you won’t have kids.”

After the court’s ruling this week, which also recognized cases of extrajudicial executions carried out by the Palestinian Authority, the plaintiffs and their next of kin intend to move on to the next stage in their lawsuit: compensation claims worth millions of NIS, each, in the hope that Israel will confiscate the funds from the Palestinian Authority.

This story doesn't mention that they were Arab Israelis.

Where did they live? Did they move into areas under Palestinian Authority control to be with relatives? Or were they "settlers" who were arrested when visiting PA-controlled areas? (Israeli Arabs are allowed to visit PA-controlled areas, Israeli Jews aren't.)

It is great that they are getting compensated, but the paucity of information about Israelis in Palestinian prison shows a deep bias in the media not to report on what should have been a major story.

UPDATE: In 2002, CNN reported that the Palestinians had killed some 1500 "collaborators" between 1987 and 2002. Did you know that?

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The Arrogance and Ignorance of Tikkunist Jews (Vic Rosenthal)

Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal:

You want to know what’s wrong with progressive American Jews? Here it is:

NEW YORK — Jews across the United States took to the streets on Sunday, marking Tisha B’Av (the Jewish day of mourning) with protests against the Trump administration‘s treatment of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers. In New York City, during the fast day commemorating the destruction of the two Jewish temples in Jerusalem, over 500 Jews joined the "Close the Camps" demonstrations, holding signs reading “Never Again." Participants first gathered at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in Manhattan for learning, prayer and activities. Some made signs, others participated in a songwriting workshop or text studies of letters from refugees. …

“This is personal for the Jewish community,” Rabbi [Yael] Rapport told Haaretz, holding back tears. “Public outcry, especially in our modern age, can really change attitudes, and change policy. This is a deeply Jewish thing to do.”

Before you jump all over me for being an evil, fascist, deplorable Trump-lover, I wish to announce that I, as an Israeli citizen who has not set foot in the USA for five years, do not have an opinion about Trump’s treatment of immigrants. It isn’t my issue. It is up to the Americans who live there to decide how to protect their borders (or not, if they choose) – just like Americans do not have the right to tell us how to defend our border with Gaza.

Although I might argue with the participants in these demonstrations about whether their religious practice is actually Judaism (I call it “Tikkunism”), I believe that they have a right to their religious beliefs. Although I think that Tisha b’Av has nothing to do with immigration policy, I believe that they have a right to believe whatever they want to.

What they do not have a right to do, what I find infuriating, what exemplifies their arrogance and lack of respect for personal boundaries, is to insist (“this is personal for the Jewish community … this is a deeply Jewish thing to do”) that they speak in the name of all Jews and Judaism.

Of course they do not speak for “the Jewish community!” Who gave them that right? There is no reason they should not demonstrate – as progressives, as Democrats, as concerned Americans. But not as Jews.

There is also their misuse of the Holocaust metaphor. Seriously, is temporarily detaining illegal border crossers and asylum seekers anything like shooting and gassing millions of people because they are Jews? Are they ignorant enough to think so? As the saying goes, “if everything is the Holocaust, then nothing is the Holocaust.”

It’s not like they don’t understand what it is to transgress personal boundaries. “Not in my Name” is a popular slogan for left-wing Jews calling for Israel to withdraw from Judea/Samaria or to remove the partial blockade of Gaza. It bothers them when the government of Israel acts as if in the name of the Jewish people. But they seem to have no problem themselves speaking in the names of others. Why?

This isn’t an accident. It is in part a strategy to draw attention to their campaign with the outrageousness of their claims, but also it is a Tikkunist religious ritual intended to produce a psychological feeling of satisfaction, similar to the satisfaction traditionally religious people obtain from prayer or other rituals. And by imputing religious motives to their political activity, and implying that all Jews must share the obligation to act similarly, they validate their Tikkunism as a legitimate form of Judaism.

But Tikkunism is a radical departure from traditional Judaism. Reform Judaism deemphasized the “ritual” commandments like observance of kashrut and Shabbat, while emphasizing the “social” commandments like concern for strangers, widows, and orphans, and the political vision of the Prophets. Tikkunism goes even farther and redefines the social commandments and in terms of progressive politics. For example, the “stranger” (ger) in the Torah, who in traditional Judaism is a convert to Judaism or a non-Jew living in the Land of Israel and obeying the Noachide commandments (ger toshav), becomes any outsider – even a Palestinian terrorist or an illegal immigrant. The injunctions of the Prophets are also interpreted in the most extreme left-wing way possible.

In the past decade or so, the leadership of the Reform Movement, its membership eroding, has consciously chosen to adopt Tikkunism as a way of generating excitement and commitment from its members. In today’s politically charged America, it may be a good strategy; but it takes the movement even farther from traditional Judaism.

And the Tikkunist ritual of self-justification is insensitive, insulting, and offensive to those who do practice Judaism.

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Archbishop Atallah Hanna of the Greek Orthodox Church in Palestine issued an interesting statement, where he polishes off his dhimmi credentials in fine form.

"Our resistance to the evil which targets our ancient Christian presence in this holy spot of the world must be through our clinging to our spiritual and faith development and also our adherence to our national identity, we belong to this country and Palestine is our homeland and it is our cause.

No, when he says "the evil which targets our ancient Christian presence" he is not talking about the Muslims who have been methodically ethnically cleansing the areas under Palestinian control of Christians. He isn't talking about Hamas under whom the number of Gaza Christians has gone down dramatically.

No, he means the Jews.

But don't worry. He is full of love: "I love this homeland, because the Church always preaches love. Indeed, the Bible says that God is love and true Christian is the one who must be dedicated and sacrificed for those who love."

See? When he calls Jews evil, he is saying it lovingly.

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08/14 Links Pt2: California Board of Education rejects proposed curriculum that angered Jews; Matti Friedman: What Really Happened at Masada?; Deals with Terrorists The Summer of ’82

From Ian:

California Board of Education rejects proposed curriculum that angered Jews

The California State Board of Education has rejected a proposed ethnic studies curriculum for the state’s schools, saying it “falls short and needs to be substantially redesigned.”

The Jewish community is among several minority groups that have protested the draft. Earlier this month, the California Legislative Jewish Caucus said that the curriculum “effectively erases the American Jewish experience,” “omits anti-Semitism,” “denigrates Jews” and “singles Israel out for condemnation.”

“Following the Instructional Quality Commission’s review and response to all public comments, a new draft will be developed for State Board of Education review and potential approval,” school board leaders said in a statement Monday. “The Board will ultimately adopt an ethnic studies model curriculum that aligns to California’s values.”

A 2016 law ordered the Board of Education to create a curriculum that would highlight the contributions of minorities in the development of California and the United States. The board has put the model curriculum up for public comment and will vote on it next year.

CA State Board of Education Says Proposed Ethnic Studies Curriculum Will ‘Be Substantially Redesigned’

The California State Board of Education (SBE) announced on Aug. 12 that the proposed anti-Israel Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) will be replaced with an entirely new draft.

SBE President Linda Darling-Hammond, Vice President Ilene Straus and Board Member Feliza Ortiz-Licon said in the statement, “The current draft model curriculum falls short and needs to be substantially redesigned. Following the Instructional Quality Commission’s review and response to all public comments, a new draft will be developed for State Board of Education review and potential approval. The Board will ultimately adopt an ethnic studies model curriculum that aligns to California’s values.”

Myriad Jewish groups have criticized the drafted ESMC for supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and failing to mention anti-Semitism as an example of bigotry; other ethnic groups have also called for the ESMC to be re-drafted. More than 13,000 people have signed an Israeli-American Council petition against the ESMC. The Los Angeles Times also came out against the ESMC in an Aug. 2 editorial.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement to the Journal that the SBE’s decision is a “victory for all Californians and a defeat for anti-Semites and extremists” and they are “Grateful to elected officials who intervened.” The Wiesenthal Center said they are “ready to help revise [the] curriculum.”

Armenian, Hellenic, Hindu, Jewish, and Korean Civic Groups Issue Joint Statement condemning California ethnic studies Curriculum

Its not just the Jewish community that feels left out of the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. The Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America -- Western Region (ANCA-WR), American Hellenic Council (AHC), American Jewish Committee (AJC), Hindu American Foundation (HAF), and the Korean American organization FACE (Faith and Community Empowerment) have showed the state Department of Education just what solidarity looks like:

From the AJC:
Diverse Coalition Urges Department of Education to Rewrite Ethnic Studies Curriculum

Los Angeles – August 13, 2019 – Six major organizations, representing a very large and diverse constituency across California, today called on the state’s Department of Education to set aside the draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum and rewrite the document.

The Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America -- Western Region (ANCA-WR), American Hellenic Council (AHC), American Jewish Committee (AJC), Hindu American Foundation (HAF), and the Korean American organization FACE (Faith and Community Empowerment), issued the following joint statement:

“California high school students deserve an opportunity to learn the role of ethnicity, race and religion in the life of all its citizens, including those previously ignored. But the proposed Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, in its current form, does not come close to achieving this admirable goal."

“The draft lacks cultural competency, does not reflect California’s diverse population, and advances a political agenda that should not be taught as unchallenged truth in our state’s public schools."

“Judeo-Christian” is a term that should be banned from all thy mouths. There simply is no such thing. Thus sayeth The Vard.

When I thought about whether I wanted to write about this nonsense term, “Judeo-Christian,” I decided to do a Google search: *no such thing as judeo-christian*. I wanted to see what was out there, if the topic had been covered. Sure enough, BOOM. Up comes an article with that title by Yori Yanover, of The Jewish Press, “There’s No Such Thing as Judeo-Christian . . .”

“Darn. Somebody’s already done it,” I thought, ready to move on. But then I took a second, closer look. I realized the title actually said, “There’s No Such Thing as Judeo-Christian Values.”

Well! I thought. I'll show him. I’ll go him one better: There's no such thing as “Judeo-Christian.”

Period.

My interest in the topic was sparked by something else. A response to columnist David Brooks, who wrote, “Protestants, Catholics, and Jews did not get along, so a new category was created, Judeo-Christian, which brought formerly feuding people into a new ‘us.’”

Ira Stoll, writing for The Algemeiner, responded, “The term ‘Judeo-Christian,’ though perhaps useful as a political, rhetorical formulation to label the Jewish and Christian alliance against Nazism and later Communism, never really became a practically meaningful ‘us.’”

That’s true. I thought. But I was irked at the thought of Brooks getting away with floating this false idea into the ether: that the term “Judeo-Christian” had been invented because Christians and Jews didn’t get along.

That needs to be addressed. That’s not how the term “Judeo-Christian” came into being. It’s a false etymology and a false story.

The term “Judeo-Christian” was created to make Christianity palatable to the Jews. It does this by comparing the basic elements of Judaism and Christianity side by side, in order to make them look similar.

A missionary might say in response to a Jewish concept, for instance, “We have that, too,” and then cite a verse or practice in Christianity. The purpose of this is to reassure his prospect. It is like saying, “We are really just regular people, like you. We believe in the same things—we just do it in just a slightly different fashion.”

But this is a tautology:

If Christianity borrows from Judaism, then Christianity is like Judaism.

How do we know this is false logic? Because the underlying premise of one religion negates the other.

Judaism does not resemble anything else or share anything with other religions. That is because it is discrete from other things, and certainly other ideologies, or religions. It is distinct. Unique. It is also whole.

To suggest otherwise is an insult. Which makes the term “Judeo-Christian,” an insult.

When you borrow ideas from Judaism and add it to whatever you have, it is no longer Judaism. It also isn’t “like” Judaism. Judaism can’t be attached to things, cannot be a prefix. A thing cannot be “Judeo.” Therefore it cannot be “Judeo-Christian.”

There is no such thing.

I think that people in general, have a sickness. They need to find things in common, things that they “share.” This is not about making connections. It’s about needing everyone to be like you, because it’s really, really scary when they’re not.

“Finding things we share” is a symptom of xenophobia. We can’t stand it when anyone is different, so we have to find the ways that we are the same. Even if we have to invent those things, building towers of words that express false logic, phrases like “Judeo-Christian.”

This is wrong and also very sad. It is okay to be different. Though it does take courage to be an original. Which is exactly what faithful Jews have done for thousands of years: taken courage to remain original and one-of-a-kind. It’s how we made it through being hated and hunted, how we made it through the bloodshed.

It's how we survived.

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Palestine would be a beacon of light of liberalism to the world, if it wasn't for evil racist Israel

The current UNHRC meeting looking at the policies of the Palestinian Authority on fighting racism and bigotry in its society is so instructive.

The Palestinian submission is a 58 page report that says how there is no problem whatsoever with bigotry in the areas under its control. It lists lots of laws and policies against discrimination as if they are enforced, or not overridden by other laws that allow any critic of the government to be arrested and fined. (Meaning, who is going to complain about being discriminated against when their very complaint can put them in prison?)

Of course, the PLO report tried to shift all issues to Israel, and make this into a referendum on Israeli rights issues, not Palestinian.

UN Watch and NGO-Monitor issued their own reports showing endemic bigotry in the PA against Jews, Christians and Samaritans. When the PLO representative was pushed on these issues by members of the UNHRC, he blamed everything on Israel; when they didn't like that answer he asked for some "slack" in being racist.

JPost reported that the PLO ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, called Israel racist and implied that terrorism was a legal right. “We are victims. We are the victims of the European victims,” he said. Also, “What we are facing is occupation, which is illegal. It is our right to use all tools to resist occupation, this is accordance with international law."

The most bizarre response from the PLO when Khraishi said that once the “occupation" is over, his country “will be a beacon of light for the region and for the world."

Keep in mind that the UN has blamed Israel for Palestinian men beating their wives, so this argument will not be seen as bizarre at all by that corrupt agency.

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08/14 Links Pt1: The Palestinian Problem Is Dying of Natural Causes; UNRWA Is Even Worse Than You Think It Is; Team Obama in exile

From Ian:

The Palestinian Problem Is Dying of Natural Causes

By 2040, the stone-throwing kids of the First Intifada will be close to retirement age, and the gun-toting young men who dominate today's Palestinian employment picture (or those who still are alive) will have families. If they missed out on high-tech jobs, the spillover from the West Bank's economic growth—driven in turn by Israel's economic miracle—will keep them employed in service industries. Absent additional violence, the West Bank will flourish while Egypt and Syria descend into penury and chaos.

There is no urgency to make peace, except in the minds of the Palestinians' present leaders. The world has allowed them to rule a little fiefdom as warlords of private armies, with little accounting for billions in foreign aid, and the opportunity to indulge in a grand ideological tantrum on the tab of Western donors.

The window is closing for radical Islam. That makes the present an exceptionally dangerous period, because the radicals know that it is closing. Contrary to what Obama said on May 22, the radicals understand better than anyone else that time and demographics are against them. The Palestinians of the West Bank are better off than any other Arabs in the region by any tangible measure—health, literacy, higher education, per capital income. They have the good luck to reside next to one of the world's most dynamic economies. In a generation the world may have moved beyond the likes of Mahmoud Abbas. That gives Abbas an incentive to gamble while he still has chips on the table. If the radicals can be contained through the present generation, though, they can be extirpated in the next.

The UN Agency for Palestinians Is Even Worse Than You Think It Is

Last month, news broke that the Swiss head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA)—the organization that caters to Palestinian refugees and their descendants—promoted his mistress so that she could join him on his frequent and expensive travels, which his subordinates complain have kept him away from his duties. His deputy, meanwhile, used her influence to have her husband promoted. While these revelations have been greeted with outrage by some of the European governments that fund UNRWA, Alex Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky argue that these abuses are the natural consequence of what has long been known about the organization:

In the past, UNRWA has . . . employ[ed] Hamas members and us[ed] anti-Semitic textbooks [in its schools]. Rockets have also been found hidden at UNRWA schools on several occasions. Perhaps it’s unsurprising that an organization so corrupt at the bottom is even more corrupt at the top. . . .

One lesson to be learned from this scandal is that funders must demand internal controls, external audits, and public access to information. . . . Scrutiny is also needed on the Palestinian Authority, which uses foreign aid to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in pensions to terrorists and their families.

A second lesson concerns the danger of devoting an international organization to a single population. UNRWA was effectively taken over by Palestinians decades ago. Politicization began at the bottom with school curricula, but crept upward. . . .

This latest scandal is an opportunity for the U.S., together with other angry donors, to demand a phase-out plan for the entire organization. UNRWA’s 30,000 employees could join the Palestinian Authority, which would take over its health, education, and welfare responsibilities like the state it claims to be. UNRWA’s expensive international cadre, including lobbyists in Washington and Geneva, should be disbanded. And Palestinian residents of Arab states . . . should become citizens of those states, as they are in Jordan, or of the Palestinian Authority. If Palestinians truly desire a state, they should join the call for UNRWA’s abolition.

PMW: The PA initiated clashes on the Temple Mount

A guide to the Temple Mount published in 1925 by the Supreme Moslem Council of Mandate Palestine declares that its "identity with Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute." This senior Muslim authority repeated this confirmation of Jewish and Christian traditions in 1950 in a new guide, when Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were then under Jordanian rule. Despite these repeated affirmations by the top Muslim authority of the land, the Palestinian Authority is constantly attempting to rewrite even Muslim tradition, by denying the Jewish nature of the Temple Mount. Accordingly, it refers to visits by Jews to this holy site as "invasions" and calls on Palestinians and the International community to defend the site and prevent its "Judaization." The PA deceptively refers to the entire Temple Mount as the "Al Aqsa Mosque", even though the actual mosque sits on a relatively small area in the south-western corner of the mount.

On Sunday, Israel marked the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av. According to Jewish tradition, on that day both the first and second Temples were destroyed. The same day marked the start of the Moslem Eid Al-Adha [Feast of the Sacrifice]

While some sources have blamed the Sunday clashes on the Jordanians, Palestinian Media Watch can show that it was the PA who was most instrumental in instigating the clashes and ensuing violence.

In an attempt to disrupt Jews' right to access the Mount on Sunday, the PA took a number of steps, including changing the times of the Moslem prayers on the Mount and calling for mosques around Jerusalem to remain closed in order to "recruit" as many people as possible to defend the site against the "invasions."

While the published time schedule for the 5 daily Moslem prayers, set the first prayer time for 04.29, the second (last morning prayer) for 05.56, and the third (first afternoon prayer) for 12.44 on Aug. 9, 2019 the PA appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories decided to delay the second morning prayer to 07.30. The goal was to ensure that as many people would be present on the Temple Mount when the Jews were scheduled to start arriving.

Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh met with members of Congress yesterday, and told them, "Israel is waging the war of the narrative, and are pushing the Jewish narrative to control Jerusalem and Palestine, denying the Islamic and Christian narrative, but we are proud of our narrative. The conflict is not a religious conflict, but a political conflict."

There are narratives - and there are lies. The last sentence proves that the Palestinian narrative is the lie, because the only reason he brought up the idea of it not being a religious conflict is because he wants to deny the Jewish religious and historical connection to Israel.

Palestinians make this into a religious conflict every day, by invoking the Al Aqsa Mosque as being under attack, for example. But they know that to a largely Christian audience, the Bible supports the Jewish view, so they want to downplay their own hijacking of Islam to inflate the importance of Al Aqsa and Jerusalem, which were roundly ignored by the Muslim world before Zionism.

There was an interesting article in Gulf newspaper Al Khaleej by Hafez Barghouti where he attacks the ideas that Palestine is not written in the Quran or Bible and that Mohammed's night journey to the "farthest mosque" - "Al-Aqsa" - was not a miraculous flight on a winged steed to Jerusalem but an ordinary journey to a mosque in Arabia, to Taif or the Al-Ja'aranah Mosque near Mecca.

After a long paragraph trying to distract from the issue, Barghouti doesn't end up saying a word that supports Mohammed's supposed night journey to Jerusalem. As far as Palestine is concerned, he lamely says that the Bible mentions the "Land of the Philistines" hundreds of times, pretending that this means "Palestine."

The writer seems to realize that he really didn't debunk anything, and ends off saying, "What needs to be remedied is the hateful debate over the Internet between people here and there about trivial things or based on individual rumors or events..." Meaning, don't look too closely at the arguments of those who say that Palestine and Jerusalem are not mentioned in the Quran because it is a "trivial thing" and distracts from the real issue of trying to destroy the Jewish state, which is the single minded goal of Palestinianism.

To those on the Palestinian side, the narrative has nothing to do with truth. The narrative itself is meant to delegitimize the undeniable Jewish connection to the land. This is why their "narrative" includes the Khazar theory, the idea that the Jewish kingdoms only existed for a short time, that the Temples were not in Jerusalem if they ever existed at all, that archaelogy has not supported the existence of a Jewish people on the land, that history really begins in 1917 and Zionists are European colonialists.

No, it is not competing narratives. It is the truth versus antisemitic lies.

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A street in Hebron to be re-opened to Palestinians. No one is reporting it.

Arabic media are reporting that a street in Hebron that had been closed for 20 years to Arabs is being re-opened on Thursday.

Hebron Mayor Tayseer Abu Sneineh announced an agreement to open Tel Rumeida Street in the Hebron towards the Wadi Al Haria area and Al Karantina roundabout after a 20-year closure by Israeli authorities.

It appears to be the street in red in the center of this detail from a B'Tselem map of area H2 in Hebron:

What gets lost in the headlines is that Israel eases restrictions on Palestinians as often as it imposes them. When the security situation improves, Israel can and does try to make things easier for Palestinians - who wants to man a checkpoint if it is not necessary for security? It is a delicate game - no one wants to be responsible for any terror attack that might occur as a result of such loosening of policy, and things have to be evaluate and re-evaluated constantly.

When Israel does try to make things easier for Palestinians, those acts do not make the headlines that new checkpoints do. People who read the news only see an Israel that is imposing more and more restrictions, and therefore see a skewed vision of the situation. But Israel releases prisoners as often as it arrests new ones, it allows more goods to be exported from Gaza without fanfare, and it has removed many checkpoints over the years as the security situation in Judea and Samaria have improved.

Remember, before the intifadas Palestinians had few or no restrictions on movement. Israel's first responsibility is to provide security for its citizens and that invariably involved separation between the areas that terrorists originate and where Israeli citizens live.

Hebron is the biggest flashpoint due to the extreme violence that has happened there. But if Arabs would accept that Jews have lived there longer than the Arabs themselves, and terror attacks would end, there wouldn't be any closed streets in Hebron. The IDF doesn't arbitrarily choose to make the lives of Arabs miserable and no one on either side wants that.

There is always another side to the story. Too bad the media always ignores it.

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A peace proposal rejected by the PLO in 1965

In May 1965, Israeli premier Levi Eshkol spoke about peace with the Arabs:

Here was the PLO reaction in a letter to the editor several days later:

Notice how in 1965 the Arabs still considered the areas between the partition lines and armistice lines as being stolen land; no one considered the 1949 armistice lines to be borders.

The idea that the Jews are like the Crusaders and will eventually be forced out is mainstream Palestinian thought, taught for generations.

And even then the Palestinians used the word "justice" to mean the destruction of Israel. Nothing has changed there.

Eshkol's offer would generate a little interest today, since it is based on what are now called the 1967 lines, but even then the "right of return" was considered sacred and a deal breaker. Nothing has changed there either.

The rejectionism is the same as today.

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08/13 Links Pt2: Major US Academic Association Votes Down Resolution to Boycott Israel; How Ilhan Omar’s Politics Set Her against Liberal Muslims

From Ian:

Major US Academic Association Votes Down Resolution to Boycott Israel

A controversial resolution promoting an academic boycott of Israel was narrowly voted down at a prestigious social science academic association over the weekend, The Algemeiner learned on Monday.

The resolution, which was co-authored by Melissa Weiner, an associate professor of sociology at the College of Holy Cross, and Johnny E. Williams, a professor of sociology at Trinity College, called on the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) to “promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by academic institutions, and place pressure on your own institution to suspend all ties with Israeli universities, including collaborative projects, study abroad, funding and exchanges.”

However, the resolution failed by a vote of 34 to 37 on Saturday.

“The conversation on the proposed resolution was civil by and large, even though the issue was quite contentious,” William Cabin, vice president of SSSP during the vote, told The Algemeiner. “We are pleased by our membership’s conduct throughout the conversation and vote.”

Ezra Temko, a sociologist at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville who opposed the BDS resolution at the SSSP meeting, wrote that “The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel is an ugly campaign that stands in opposition to social justice.”

McCarthy to Post: Omar and Tlaib pulling Democratic Party away from Israel

The difference between the Democratic and Republican parties on Israel is that while mainstream Democrats support the Jewish state, among Republicans, the whole party does, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

And the problem with the Democrats, he asserted, is that members such as congresswomen Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) are – with their statements and actions – pulling the party away from Israel.

“I think they are the wave of the Democratic Party,” said McCarthy, currently in the country leading a group of 31 Republicans on a week-long study tour organized by an AIPAC affiliated charity. He cited a current poll saying that the most sought after endorsement for Democratic candidates in the upcoming election is – first of all – any former Democratic president, and “the next in line is AOC.

“This is concerning to me,” he said. “They are not a few freshman anymore. They are the movement within the party.”

McCarthy noted that the Republican-controlled Senate passed an anti-BDS bill known as S.1 – Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019 – in February by a vote of 77 to 23, with Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer co-sponsoring the bill, and 21 Democrats voting for it.

But it did not move in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. Instead of bringing the bill to the floor, the Democratic leadership was only able to bring to a vote an anti-BDS resolution, which passed by a landslide margin of 398-17. But, McCarthy stressed, there is a world of difference between a bill and a resolution.

A bill, if it passes both the Senate and the House, then goes to the president to be signed into law. A resolution is just a resolution. “A resolution is a statement, a law is binding,” he said.

Richard Epstein: Israeli Lessons for Mass Shootings

The only strategy that has a fair chance of success to reduce, but never stop, all mass killings, starts from the opposite end. It is beyond dispute that gunmen utilize the element of surprise. It has long been known that most of the death and destruction of a mass shooting takes place before any police or security team has time to arrive. Killers open the door and they start shooting: no warning, no mercy, no pause. Speed is the essence of any police response. Better that a single officer enter the fray immediately than wait even ten seconds before reinforcements can pitch in.

Yet the police cannot be everywhere, so they need reinforcements before they arrive, not afterward. One way for this to work is to make sure that in every mass gathering there are already present trained, armed individuals who can confront any assailant the instant an attack begins. To achieve that goal, there must be an immediate reversal of current policy and the implementation of something similar to current Israeli practice, which states simply enough: “All off-Duty Combat Soldiers Must Carry Their Weapons.” The United States should adopt a similar policy, which applies to the military, police officers, and others who carry and use weapons as a routine part of their job. It is clear that the risk of a terror attack is lower in the United States than in Israel. Indeed, of the 39,000 gun deaths in 2016, only 451 were from mass killings. But the grisly list of mass killings is bad enough. The trend, moreover, has been upward over the last half-dozen years. The public’s frustration and outrage are palpable.

The immediate response from armed individuals already on the premises could do much to deter crazed individuals from making these attempts. They could engage in return fire that could kill or wound the attacker or induce him to flee. And the benefit of this boots-on-the-ground policy is not limited to mass shootings. To be sure, it will be of little use in cases of suicide or domestic disputes. But it could help deter various forms of stranger assaults that take place on public streets or places, like airports, schools, parks, and shopping malls. There is always the risk that the return fire will be misdirected, but the same is true of the actions of SWAT teams that burst belatedly on the scene.

After all, just what is the alternative? The common proposals today all call for more top-down restrictions intended to keep people from acquiring dangerous weapons in the first place. These proposals tend to ignore the impressive array of federal restrictions already in place. Here is a partial list: the National Firearms Act of 1934, which taxes various gun transfers; the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, which initiated a five-day waiting period before any individual could acquire a gun; the Child Safety Lock Act of 2005; and the National Instant Criminal Background Check Act of 2007.

Arabs complain that Jewish women playing laser tag are heavily armed settlers

These photos are causing a stir in Arabic media.

News site are saying "Settlers are storming Nablus with machine guns."

Have you ever seen soldiers carry guns like this? Smiling while pointing at each other?

This is the Sebastia National Park in Samaria. Even though it is in Area C, it is surrounded by Arab villages. Because of the danger from those villages, Jews can only go to with prior notice, and under army protection, but it is an important archaeological site/park.

The women are playing paintball or perhaps laser tag around the old Ottoman train station there, which is also in Area C. They have every right to be there.

Notably, the Palestinian Authority has been encroaching on the area of the train station in recent years, essentially doing a land grab by paving roads and doing other heavy equipment tasks around there. Regavim has details.

A typical reaction to this "heavily armed settler incursion" comes from this Facebook guy who thinks that it is normal for religious Jewish women in long skirts to carry machine guns.

Oooh. such cutting sarcasm!

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

UPDATE: Gidon Shaviv is pretty sure it is Laser Tag.

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Tunisians upset at IDF version of an Arab hit song

A few days ago, IDF Arabic spokesman Avichai Adraee posted what appears to the the acoustic introduction of a popular Arabic song, popularized by a Tunisian artist, done by IDF soldiers.

The song is “Ya Lili” by Tunisian artist Mohamed Saleh Balti together with a child. Adraee wrote that this is “The Tunisian song that stole the hearts of the world. Now a performance by IDF soldiers."

There are dozens of articles in Arabic media denouncing the IDF performing a popular Arab song, especially from Tunisia.

This seems to be a series. Yesterday Adraee posted another IDF version of a popular Arab song:

He also asks what other popular Arabic songs IDF's Arab Facebook fans might want to see covered by the IDF.

Some of the comments on Adraee's Facebook page are quite positive.

While this might not seem to be a major story, it shows again the difference between the positions of Israeli Jews and most (but not all) Arabs.

The IDF versions of the songs are not meant to be theft or parody; they are tributes to Arab music. If an Arab army or artist would create a cover of a popular Israeli song as a tribute, Israelis wouldn't be upset - they'd be thrilled.

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