Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, January 17, 2022

The difference between the PA and Hamas

Photo from Abu Ali Express

Times of Israel reports:

A Palestinian man was shot dead as he attempted to stab soldiers at a bus stop in the central West Bank on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said.

No Israeli injuries were reported.

“The assailant got out of a car, armed with a knife, and tried to stab an IDF soldier,” the military said.

The soldier opened fire at the man, killing him, according to the IDF. The knife was recovered at the scene.

Troops launched a search to find the car that transported the assailant to the scene, setting up roadblocks in the area. A short while later, the driver of the vehicle turned himself in to Israeli security forces, the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration said.

The Palestinian Authority always takes the tack of "Israel killed him unjustly."

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates today condemned in two separate statements the Israeli army killing of a Palestinian man near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Faleh Jaradat, from the Hebron area town of Sair, was shot and killed this afternoon after he allegedly attempted to stab a soldier at an intersection near Bethlehem. The soldier was not hurt.

Shtayyeh called on international human rights organizations to pressure Israel to stop the killings and ongoing attacks on the Palestinian people.

He said the soldiers left Jaradat bleeding on the ground until he died, stressing that the extrajudicial execution of Palestinians reflects “the doctrine of state terrorism espoused by its soldiers.”

The Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, considered the killing of Jaradat another episode in the series of extrajudicial killings committed by the Israeli occupiers and their settlers against unarmed Palestinian civilians under flimsy pretexts and enforcement of the new shooting instructions approved by the political and military circles in the occupying state.

While it held the Israeli government fully responsible for “this crime,” it called on the international community, particularly the United Nations and its Secretary-General, to shoulder their responsibilities and initiate a system to protect the Palestinian people under occupation.

And Hamas is always proud of the wannabe murderer:

The Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" mourned the martyrdom of Faleh Musa Shaker Jaradat, the perpetrator of the stabbing attack at the "Gush Etzion" junction, south of Bethlehem. "We mourn with pride the heroic martyr Faleh Musa Shaker Jaradat, who carried out the heroic stabbing operation at the Gush Etzion junction," the movement said in a statement. She added, "We congratulate this operation, and affirm that it comes in the context of the natural response to the crimes of the occupation and its settlers throughout the West Bank, occupied Jerusalem, and the steadfast Negev."

01/17 Links Pt1: Bari Weiss: Being Jewish in an Unraveling America; Texas rabbi says he is 'alive today' thanks to police training; Boris calls Texas attack an ‘antisemitic act of terrorism’

From Ian:

Bari Weiss: Being Jewish in an Unraveling America

American Jews have always told ourselves that we were different because this country was different—that it was exceptional. That the equivocation about Jew-hate that we are now witnessing was normal in other places but never would be so here. (I think of Sarah Halimi, a Jewish woman who was beaten and thrown out of her Paris window by a man screaming “dirty Jew” and “Allahu Akbar.” But French courts and much of the press decided that no motive could be ascertained. Ultimately, charges were dropped against the perpetrator because he had smoked weed before the murder.)

But America will only remain exceptional if Americans fight for it. And very few people in positions of cultural and political power seem to have any will to wage that battle. They believe that we are not the land of freedom, the country that abolished slavery, but one where slavery persists in more subtle form. That our army is not a force for liberation, but oppression. That our courts are not fair and blind, but prejudiced. And that this country and our ally, Israel, are not democracies but bastions of racial supremacy.

Today is Martin Luther King Day and I’m thinking of his understanding that the demand for equal treatment comes at no one’s expense because justice is not a zero-sum game. “We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity in this Nation,” he said. “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men—black men as well as white men—would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Jews thrived in an America that had confidence in its goodness. Jews are not safe—no one is—in one which does not.

Five years ago, the rabbi’s invitation to the gun range would have shocked me. Now I think: I’m glad I saved her number.

JPost Editorial: Amid antisemitic violence, Jewish solidarity is needed

The American Jewish Committee’s 2021 State of Antisemitism in America report released in October revealed that approximately one in four US Jews was the target of antisemitism over the previous 12 months, and some 39% of US Jews changed their behavior out of fear of antisemitism.

The Colleyville attack ended without the loss of innocent lives, but it must be considered a wake-up call. The immediate crisis in Colleyville is over but the threat has not disappeared. Every Jewish community in the world needs to take the threat seriously and increase security measures.

Israel, with its experience in handling terrorism, can help by providing training and emotional trauma support. It should be stressed that vigilance does not mean vigilantism. Jews need to protect themselves, but this is not a call for violence, only for self-defense.

As well, the attack should serve as a reminder to Jews everywhere that we are one. The feeling of solidarity and support that was in evidence around the Jewish world on Saturday was real and heartfelt. It is a pity that such solidarity is mainly felt in times of crisis and is not ongoing.

The attacks are not restricted to one denomination or another, or a particular political affiliation or another. Orthodox Jews in Israel should not only stand with Reform Jews in the US when they are held hostage; they need to stand together at all times, despite political or ideological differences.

It must be made clear that Jew-hatred and antisemitism in all its forms is appalling and unacceptable anywhere and on any pretext. Indeed, it must be noted that violence against Jews is violence against all. What starts with lawless attacks on Jews never ends there. When Jews are afraid for their safety on the streets, on campuses and in synagogues, no one is safe.

This what the last 10 years has looked like for Jews in the west.#ColleyvilleSynagogue pic.twitter.com/5m8ygEJzh6
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) January 16, 2022

‘Lady Al Qaeda’ Blamed Jews for Her Conviction. Her Allies Can’t Figure Why A Gunman Attacked Synagogue In Her Name.

The Council on American Islamic Relations denied any connection between the terror attack at a Texas synagogue and its campaign to free imprisoned terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, one day after a fanatical gunman took Jewish congregants hostage to demand Siddiqui’s release.

CAIR has been a longtime advocate for clemency for Siddiqui, a terror operative who was dubbed "Lady al Qaeda" and sentenced to 86 years in prison in 2010 for trying to gun down U.S. FBI and military officials. During a joint press conference with Siddiqui’s attorney on Sunday, CAIR’s Dallas director Faizan Syed said it had no prior relationship to the the assailant, British national Malik Faisal Akram, and that his actions should not detract from efforts to seek clemency for Siddiqui.

Syed and Siddiqui's attorney, Marwa Elbially, were pressed by reporters on anti-Semitic remarks by Siddiqui that could lead her supporters to attack a synagogue. During her 2010 trial, for example, she demanded that jurors undergo DNA tests to ensure there were no Jews on her jury. In a letter to President Barack Obama from prison after the trial, Siddiqui wrote that Jewish people have "always back-stabbed everyone who has taken pity on them and made the ‘fatal' error of giving them shelter." The letter said "this why ‘holocausts' keep happening to them."

Elbially acknowledged the anti-Semitism, but suggested Siddiqui was suffering from mental illness during her trial due to alleged abuse Siddiqui was subjected to in CIA custody. When asked by the Washington Free Beacon if Siddiqui had ever renounced or apologized for her anti-Semitic views since 2010, CAIR and Elbially declined to answer affirmatively.

Elbially told the Free Beacon that "nothing excuses anti-Semitic statements," but said Siddiqui "was in a diminished state both physically and mentally when she stood trial."

Antisemites against antisemitism?

CAIR, Linda Sarsour, and her organization MPower do not stand with the Jewish people, they stand with the antisemitic terrorists who attack them, literally.#Colleyville #Texas #Antisemitism
w/ @yosephhaddad pic.twitter.com/m04RTvk8Lb
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) January 16, 2022

MEMRI: CAIR-TX Panel on Aafia Siddiqui – Siddiqui’s Attorney: U.S. Government Lies on "Large Scale"

In a November 11, 2021 panel that was streamed live on YouTube by CAIR-TX and that was titled “Injustice: Dr. Aafia [Siddiqui] and the 20-Year Legacy of America’s Wars,” Aafia Siddiqui’s attorney Marwa Elbially said that the U.S. government lies on a large scale. She gave the example of the "fabricated" rescue of American soldier, who was taken hostage by Iraqi forces in 2003. She also said that the fact that Aafia Siddiqui has not become a “household name” for every American and that he has not been portrayed in “stupid TV shows” or “poorly-made movies” is proof that the government never really believed that she was an Al-Qaeda operative.

Prominent Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, the Executive Director of Mpower Change, said that Aafia Siddiqui is a “political prisoner” like H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence for the 2000 murder of two law enforcement officers, and like Leonard Peltier, who is serving a life sentence for involvement in the murder of two FBI agents. It is interesting to note that in September 2005, Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh also claimed that Jessica Lynch’s rescue had been staged (see MEMRI TV Clip No. 881.)

In 2017, a census was taken that showed that the number of Palestinians in Lebanon was 174,422.

UNRWA says that over 479,000 Palestinian "refugees" are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon.

Which means that most of those "refugees" left Lebanon - but UNRWA still counts them.

Now, The National notes that the numbers are diminishing further:

In the past two years, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been migrating at significantly higher rates in search of better work opportunities and a better standard of living.

Lebanon’s economic situation tightens its grasp on citizens and foreigners alike, said Abdelnaser Elayi, project manager at the inter-ministerial Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee.

“Before 2020, we would usually see about 6,000 to 8,000 Palestinians leave the country without returning, per year," Mr Elayi told The National

“Now, those figures are closer to 10,000 to 12,000. That is an increase by at least 30 per cent.”

If his numbers are right, that means that about 40,000 Palestinians have left since the census!

While between 30-50,000 Palestinians fled from Syria to Lebanon with the Syrian civil war, most of those would have been counted in the 2017 census and many cannot stay long because they have to renew their visas every three months.

This means that there may be as few as 135,000 Palestinians in Lebanon. As many as 70% of those counted by UNRWA aren't there.

No one can blame Lebanese Palestinians for wanting to leave. They are treated horribly, they cannot become citizens even after 73 years of residence, their camps are hellholes and they are not allowed to build or expand housing, and they suffer real apartheid with Lebanese laws drafted specifically aimed at them. Now with Lebanon's economy in dire straits, they are the low rung of a very rickety ladder.

One reason the world doesn't care about them is because there is a conscious decision by the Arab world to ensure that only Israel is blamed for Palestinian misery, and any other problems should not be aired.

No matter how the haters try to twist it, Tu B'Shvat is a Zionist holiday

Today is Tu B'Shvat, the traditional New Year for Trees.

Israel haters like to pretend that this is their holiday, and associate it with environmentalism, or climate change, or whatever else they can pretend to associate with it. One "Jewish Voice for Peace" event says "The event will include a group reading from Jews, Palestinians, and other activists as we acknowledge and mourn the ongoing suffering endured by Palestinians from the founding and expansion of Israel." and pay special attention to the million olive trees allegedly destroyed by Israel when building the separation barrier.

(Little reported is that when Israel uprooted those trees they replant them on the Palestinian side.)

As usual, the haters are trying to hijack something that is not only Jewish, but distinctly Zionist.

The original mention of Tu B'Shvat is in the Mishnah. The date that was designated as the "new year for trees" is meant to calculate the age of trees in the Land of Israel for various halachic reasons as to when the fruit of a tree is allowed to be eaten and for various tithes.

It only applies to the Land of Israel.

Later, the kabbalists instituted a "Tu B'Shvat seder" where they would ascribe symbolic meaning to fruits and trees...

...but only those fruits and trees that grow in the Land of Israel.

It was showing the attachment that Jews have for Eretz Yisrael.

With modern Zionism, Tu B'Shvat became a day to plant trees in Israel. The first such event was done by Rabbi Ze'ev Yavetz, an early religious Zionist, who took his students to plant trees in Zichron Yaakov.

In 1933, a tree was planted in Israel in honor of president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, among thousands of others for a project to honor the bicentennial of George Washington's birth. He wrote back that "some day I want to see that tree in person - I have never yet been to Palestine and hope to go."

For 2,000 years, Tu B'Shvat has been linked to love that Jews have for the land of Israel. And nothing can take that away.

Last week, the Saudi English-language news site Arab News brought Rabbi Marc Schneier as an op-ed columnist.

Given that Schneier is not an Israeli citizen, this makes this a good test to see which Arabs are antisemitic. anyone who opposes this appointment has to explain their reasons why they are against a Jew.

Iran's Press TV called this a "surprising decision," and tied this to rumors that Israel and Saudi Arabia will establish relations.

The Palestinian Media Forum in Gaza condemned the move, calling it a "dangerous penetration of the awareness of Arab generations."

They called it "a promotion of intellectual poison in the Arab community, in addition to the obliteration of the crimes of the occupation against Islamic sanctities, foremost of which is the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and denying the torments of about 20 Palestinian journalists languishing in the prisons of the occupation."

They added that "opening the door for Rabbi Marc Schneier to address the Arab public constitutes a dangerous breach of the awareness of Arab generations, and provides a free service to the occupation without the slightest Arab benefit from such normalization."

In other words, Arabs might read opinions that they shouldn't be exposed to.

Palestinian news site Amad has a short commentary on the header of each page. Last week it said,

Weird and provocative to the Arab essence… An Arab newspaper that is published in English employs a Jewish rabbi as its chief editor… We would have respected the decision if (the rabbi) would be one that rejects the occupation, the ethnic cleansing and the racism… The debasement has become like a (runaway) train)… (Even) spitting on these (people) is not enough!

The thought of Jew writing for an Arab paper is really riling up some people.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

I love the Israeli series Checkout

I am watching the TV series Checkout on Chaiflicks. It is brilliantly funny.

It uses the techniques of a mock documentary like The Office or Parks and Recreation, but this is Israel - the characters don't pretend that they aren't on camera and they talk with the unseen camera operators, who sometimes add their own jokes.

You can watch the first three episodes for free.

The third episode itself is the best retort to anyone who says Israel is racist.

The episode makes fun of the subconscious racism and bigotry of the characters, as it begins with the news of a stabbing attack not far from the supermarket. A racist customer insists that the sweet, guileless Arab employee be gotten rid of. Meanwhile, a cashier is upset that her son is flirting with an Ethiopian cashier - with hilarious results.

A racist society could not produce such a show. It is beyond imagination to see a plotline like this in the Arab world. Anyone who calls Israel racist is an antisemite, period. Real racists can't make fun of their own racism.

01/16 Links: Yes, the Colleyville synagogue attack was 'specifically' targeting Jews; ‘Calm, collected’ synagogue rabbi wowed FBI through 10-hour Texas hostage crisis

From Ian:

Yes, the Colleyville synagogue attack was 'specifically' targeting Jews

Soon after the FBI freed four hostages held by a gunman for 11 hours at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas on Saturday, Special Agent in Charge of the Dallas Field Office Matthew Desarno made a truly baffling statement.

“We do believe from our engagement with this subject that he was singularly focused on one issue and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community, but we are continuing to work to find motive,” Desarno said.

The idea that any attack on a synagogue is “not specifically related to the Jewish community” is absurd enough.

Even with the broadest definition of who is considered Jewish, Jews make up only 2.4% of all American adults, and only 0.6% of the population of Texas. It beggars belief, in most cases and in this one in particular, that someone outside the densest Jewish populations in America would have randomly stumbled upon a synagogue while looking for people to hold hostage.

Add to that the fact that the gunman entered Congregation Beth Israel on a Saturday morning, when Shabbat services are held. The timing was clearly intentional.Law enforcement vehicles are seen in the area where a man has reportedly taken people hostage at a synagogue during services that were being streamed live, in Colleyville, Texas, US, January 15, 2022.

But the specifics of this crime also show a deep current of antisemitism running through the “one issue” on which the hostage-taker was “singularly focused.”

Perhaps at first glance, that issue, the release of Aafia Siddiqui, currently serving an 86-year prison sentence for attempting to murder American troops and FBI agents, does not seem to be “specifically related to the Jewish community.” But Siddiqui was a raving antisemite, and that information is readily available.

The gunman said Siddiqui was his “sister” – though apparently in ideology and not in the literal sense – and that they would meet in “Jannah,” meaning paradise, after he dies.

‘Calm, collected’ synagogue rabbi wowed FBI through 10-hour Texas hostage crisis

Local and federal law enforcement credited Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker’s “calm and collected” demeanor for helping bring about a miraculous end to the ten-hour hostage crisis at his northern Texas synagogue on Saturday night.

Cytron-Walker and the three other worshipers who made it to Sabbath morning services in the quiet town of Colleyville surely felt the main risk they were taking by attending involved being present at at an indoor, mid-Omicron gathering.

But that became the least of their worries when a suspect burst into Congregation Beth Israel (CBI) and proceeded to hold the four Jewish worshipers captive, apparently at gunpoint, for the remainder of the day.

While the first three hours of the ordeal were eerily streamed on Facebook Live — as Sabbath services are every week at CBI — details of what unfolded, and why, remained somewhat limited in the first hours after the safe release of the hostages.

What was clear to law enforcement, though, was the critical role that Cytron-Walker played in the way the harrowing day played out.

Local and federal law enforcement at the scene “were really so impressed and genuinely appreciative of how calm and collected Rabbi Charlie was, keeping order and everybody’s wits about them,” Dallas police chaplain Andrew Marc Paley told The Times of Israel in an interview shortly after the hostage release.

'I am grateful to be alive,' says Colleyville rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker

On Saturday, four people were held hostage inside a Reform synagogue in Texas by a man demanding that a known terrorist be released from prison.

After 11 hours, they were freed. One of them was the rabbi of said Beth Israel synagogue, Charlie Cytron-Walker, a man known for his long history of giving and charitable work.

"I am thankful and filled with appreciation for all of the vigils and prayers and love and support, all of the law enforcement and first responders who cared for us, all of the security training that helped save us," Cytron-Walker wrote on Facebook. "I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for the CBI Community, the Jewish Community, the Human Community. I am grateful that we made it out. I am grateful to be alive."

The rabbi is a married father of two who began to work as the rabbi of the synagogue in 2006. Congregation Beth Israel was founded in 1998 as an informal community in a rapidly growing suburb of Fort Worth, located just miles from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. Cytron-Walker was its first full-time rabbi.

Originally from Michigan, Cytron-Walker and his family belonged to Congregation Shaarey Zedek in East Lansing. He was president of both Lansing’s temple youth group and the National Federation of Temple Youth’s Michigan region while in high school Cytron-Walker graduated from the University of Michigan in 1998 where he met his wife, Adena, when they were both students. Adena is a vice president of a diversity-focused Fort Worth organization.

A beautiful statement of gratitude from Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, the heroic Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel, following his release. #Colleyville #Texas pic.twitter.com/MM1fqD30fK
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) January 16, 2022

An FBI spokesperson said that the terrorist in Congregation Beth Israel “was singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community,”

Yes, he was focused on the release of Aafia Siddiqui, the Al Qaeda terrorist that is also a favorite cause of CAIR, Linda Sarsour and other Islamist sympathizers. But then the question is obvious: why attack a synagogue and take Jews hostage?

The answer is just as obvious if you know anything about Muslim antisemitism: Because they, like the Nazis and countless antisemites before them, believe that Jews run the world - and especially America.

Aafia Siddiqui's arrest and sentencing had nothing to do with Jews. but she was convinced that Jews and Israel were responsible for her capture and imprisonment.

Where did she get that idea? From their leaders!

Osama Bin Laden said in a well-circulated video only months before 9/11, “Jews are free in al-Quds to rape Muslim women and to imprison the young cubs who stand up to them. The blood of Muslims is the cheapest of all blood!...We speak of an American government, but it is in reality an Israeli government, because if we look at the most sensitive departments of the government, whether it is the Pentagon or the State Department or the CIA, you find that it is the Jews who have first word in the American government.”

America is a target because it is controlled by Jews. As Deborah Scroggins writes in her book about Siddiqui and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the US government are "literally talk show staples" in Pakistan.

They are staples in Arab and all other Muslim media as well.

For such a mentality, it makes perfect sense that Jews should be the target - they are responsible for the actions of the US government! If you don't hate Jews enough because of Israel, you should hate them because of what the US does.

The terrorist even demanded that the Texas rabbi call another rabbi in New York to relay his demands to release Siddiqui. After all, who can be more powerful and influential toi release a federal inmate than a New York rabbi?

Antisemitism and anti-Americanism are tightly bound. From the Right that claims to be patriotic, but that their America has been corrupted by Jews, to Arabs and Muslims who believe that America is controlled by Jews, to the far Left whose hate for Israel and for America are entwined, to Iran where America and Israel share the "satan" appellation, if someone is anti-American, chances are extraordinarily high that they have a problem with Jews (or "Zionists" who have the identical demonlike stranglehold on American policy.)

Attacks on synagogues are attacks on America, and attacks on America are often attacks on Jews. There is essentially no difference.

I don't have a solution but one must at least understand the problem.

Historian Rafael Medoff uncovers an amazing episode in American history:

Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year will be commemorated just before the 75th anniversary of a remarkable but little-known campaign by American Zionists and African-Americans that helped defeat racial segregation in Baltimore, Maryland.

This story began in the autumn of 1946, when the Zionist activists known as the Bergson Group sponsored a Broadway play called A Flag is Born, authored by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter and playwright Ben Hecht. Starring young Marlon Brando and Yiddish theater luminaries Paul Muni and Celia Adler, A Flag is Born depicted the plight of Holocaust survivors in postwar Europe and the fight for Jewish independence in British Mandatory Palestine.

After a successful 10-week run on Broadway, A Flag is Born was scheduled to be performed in various cities around the country, including the National Theater in Washington, DC. However, the National Theater barred African-Americans. Hecht and 32 other prominent playwrights had recently announced they would not permit their works to be staged in such theaters. Hence, the Washington performance was rescheduled to the Maryland Theater in Baltimore.

But the controversy was not over. It turned out that while the Maryland Theater did not bar African-Americans, it did restrict them to the balcony, which bigots nicknamed with a derogatory phrase. Alerted by local NAACP activists, the Bergson Group devised a good cop-bad cop strategy to confront the segregationists.

Just hours before the first curtain, Bergson Group representatives informed the theater management that if the seating discrimination was not rescinded, the NAACP would picket the show with signs declaring, “There is No Difference Between Jim Crow in Maryland and Persecution [of Jews] in Palestine.” The group members also threatened to personally escort several African-Americans to the show as their guests, to be seated in the white sections.

The pressure succeeded. The Maryland Theater management agreed to temporarily lease the theater to the Bergson Group. That made the theater’s ticket agents employees of the group and subject to whatever seating policy the activists chose to adopt. As a result, a dozen African-Americans attended the opening night performance on February 12, 1947, and “were seated indiscriminately, without untoward results,” the Baltimore Afro-American reported. Fittingly, February 12 is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

Exuberant NAACP leaders hailed the tradition-shattering victory over racism that was achieved by the alliance of black and Zionist activists. The NAACP used that victory as potent ammunition in its battles to desegregate other Baltimore theaters in the years that followed.

Note the name of the Zionist group behind the play that ensured that there would be no discrimination:American League for a Free Palestine.

Black-owned newspapers covered the episode with joy.

The Baltimore Afro-American notes that before the negotiations with the theatre were completed, one of the Zionist leaders planned to bring two Black people as his guests to the theatre to force a showdown.

The Pittsburgh Courier:

The New York Age reported the incident:

(Top two photos courtesy of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.)

It's been raining heavily in the Levant, causing some localized flooding throughout the region.

And, like every year, Gaza officials are blaming their own flooding on Israel opening up non-existent dams.

The Nusseirat Municipality in the central Gaza Strip "confirmed" that the "Israeli occupation" opened the dams around of Wadi Beit Hanoun, threatening an environmental catastrophe, as the opening of dams leads to the flooding of the stream and the flooding of neighboring areas and houses.

The head of Hamas's Winter Emergency Committee, Zuhdi Al-Ghariz, also said that "the Israeli occupation opened dams in the east and north of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, which threatens to cause a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe for the people of the Strip."

Back in 2015, after AFP parroted the absurd claims to widespread derision, the French press agency belatedly went to the Negev to see if any dams existed and found that it was a Palestinian conspiracy theory with no basis in reality.

In fact, some of the responsibility for the flooding from Wadi Gaza comes from Gazans themselves.

"Wadi Gaza is liable to flood in an area which is about 70-100 metres wide but in some of these places, there has been illegal construction and cultivation, which has reduced this area to 15 or 20 metres," Munther Shoblak, a senior official in Gaza's water utility, told AFP at the time.

Notice that this year the libelers are emphasizing blaming Israel for the "environmental catastrophe" aspect. Only last week, the anti-Israel graphic designers at Visualizing Palestine (favored by Human Rights Watch) accused Israel of - get this - "climate apartheid." Because, you know, the Jews control the weather.

They also threw in "green colonialism," "greenwashing" and "environmental racism."

Throw them in a blender and pour them out and the letters all spell out "Antisemitism."

Is the US Holding Israel’s Iron Dome Hostage to an Iran Nuke Deal?

While President Biden, Senate, and Congress slow-walk and bicker over replenishing Jerusalem's dwindling defensive missile shield supplies, PM Bennett says his country won't be bound to any rickety renewed nuke deal - nor stand idly by to Iran's increasingly genocidal threats

By Dave Bender, northern Israel

Administration and Capitol political horse-traders and ideologues are holding hostage the lives of some two million Israelis -- specifically the Gaza Envelope and northern border areas. Their domestic foot-dragging endangers Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Bedouin citizens, alike.

This, while P5+1 group (US, UK, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the EU) reps wrangle with Iran in Vienna through - so far - no less than eight contentious sessions over terms of restarting the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

But Jerusalem doesn’t trust the Viennese diplomatic waltz nor Iranian double-crossing promises; they’re preoccupied with Tehran’s ruling and military leaders’ incessant, bellicose threats to “turn Tel Aviv and Haifa into dust,” “wipe Israel off the map,” and taking note of videos of simulated strikes against Israel’s cities, military targets, and reputed nuclear facilities.

“...the Zionist regime has forgotten that Iran is more than capable of hitting them from anywhere,” the Tehran Times histrionically boasted in a December 2021 front-page article, entitled, “Just One Wrong Move.” https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/tehran-times-publishes-targets-iran-will-attack-in-israel-688785

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, told the Knesset parliament’s crucial Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee that, “Israel is not a party to the agreements,” and warned that the Jewish State “is not bound to what will be written in the agreements if they are signed,” according to a JNS report. https://www.jns.org/bennett-sends-message-to-iran-vienna-talks-wont-tie-israels-hands/

And so, Israel is “investing in security rearmament,” to the tune of an immense NIS 60 billion ($19.2 billion) due to what Bennett called an “[Iranian] octopus that constantly threatens Israel.”

Military analyst Seth Frantzman at The Jerusalem Post breaks down the tentacled threat matrix:

“Both Hamas and Hezbollah maintain large stockpiles of ballistic rockets, in addition to mortars, anti-tank missiles, and other munitions. While Hamas does have Iranian-made weaponry, a significant amount of its arsenal has historically been indigenously made, as a result of the ongoing blockade against the Gaza Strip. Hamas has produced several types of rockets, notably the Qassam series. Hezbollah’s stockpile has in the past consisted of former Soviet models, including Grads and Katyushas, but, like Hamas, now has Iranian-made heavy and long-distance rockets like the Fajr series.

“Estimates of Hezbollah rocket stockpiles vary from 150,000-200,000, while Hamas’ is estimated to be around 10,000.” https://www.jpost.com/tags/rocket-attack-on-israel

Additionally, the Alma Research and Education Center, reports that Iran has deployed a wide array of “medium-range and long-range surface-to-surface missiles inside fortified shafts,” at a site near Palmyra, in eastern Syria. https://israel-alma.org/research/

“The missiles we mentioned above can threaten almost the entire territory of the State of Israel: Northern Israel (distance of about 186 miles, about 300 kilometers, from Mount Muhammad Ben Ali by air), Haifa area (distance of about 223 miles, about 360 kilometers), Tel Aviv area (distance of about 261 miles, about 420 kilometers) and even threaten the area of the city of Beer Sheva and south of it.”

But while last summer's unfulfilled promises to resupply crucial defensive measures remains a vital concern to Israelis, the regional conflagration the delay could yet ignite apparently remains - seriously and serially - misjudged and maybe even selectively ignored by the US Administration and its cohorts.

The May conflict with Gaza saw over four thousand rockets fired at metropolitan areas, and some 16 Hamas-Hezbollah rockets fired south out of southern Lebanon into civilian areas later in the year, with the Iron Dome successfully downing some 90 percent of them.

However, 12 Israeli civilians and an IDF soldier were killed, and over 300 wounded, and millions of dollars in economic damage was sustained in the 11-day operation, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Palestinian/Pages/Operation-Guardian-of-the-Walls-10-May-2021.aspx

In Gaza, the IDF said some 460 misfired rockets fell short within the coastal enclave, killing and maiming an unclear number of reported non-combatants. Hamas-affiliated medical officials reported some 260 deaths to the UN and Human Rights Watch, although Israeli researchers say almost 50 percent of them were affiliated with terror groups.

So without freeing up funding (which is invested in American jobs to design and construct the strictly defensive interceptors), recalcitrant US lawmakers need to plainly know: your foot-dragging is likely to get many more people killed.

We in Israel see you and we hear you, and the results, if not intent, of your deeds - and misdeeds - are clear to us:

If the State of Israel is hit in any future conflict by volleys of even more thousands of incoming rockets or payload-carrying UAVs and cannot respond sufficiently due to a lack of Tamir interceptors, the government and IDF will have no other choice but to respond with far more kinetic firepower than anything seen so far - and at targets very near and very far - in order to suppress and stop the deadly salvos aimed at heavily-populated civilian areas and strategic facilities.

And even at that, despite the “standalone measure that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support,“ but still withheld in the Senate, rebuilding the supply of interceptors takes time, due to the relatively slow manufacturing process, with cost (and likely Covid) being an inhibitor.

On the other hand, Hamas and PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] use less sophisticated - but no less deadly - rockets that are manufactured quickly, at a much lower cost.

In order to stop them before they are even launched, the sanctimonious caterwauling over previous IDF pinpoint strikes on terror targets on and cross-border will be deafened into silence by the unleashed fury out of Zion.

Speaking as a nearly-two-decade IDF artillery NCO and infantry grunt (St.Sgt.- ret.) who served in and around Gaza, and as a two-decade reporter in Israel please understand: the howling existential threats uttered by Iranian-financed, trained, and led regional proxies and their determination to eradicate us will not deter us, but the countdown to the next steel rainstorm is ticking very loudly in our ears these days.

So forgive us for being distracted by the growing chorus calling for our demise; beyond the virtuous, virtual moral Disneyland of “knowing what's best for us" hectoring, "America first!" jingoism, and unrequited "tough love" missives penned from six thousand miles away - we’ll bleed real blood and treasure due to those withheld projectiles.

And so, in order to defend our families and the sole Jewish homeland against sworn foes bent on our collective destruction - despite an unspoken defensive arms embargo - don’t be too surprised by the justified ferocity and extent of Israel’s response.

And our lack of apology for stopping our would-be killers and their murderous plans.

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Dave Bender is a US-born, four-decade Israeli immigrant and self-described, two-decade “ever-recovering reporter,” in Israel, and was an award-winning reporter at two NPR affiliates in the States. Since then, he’s developed a photography/videography career and would, mostly, just as soon be beekeeping with his wife, and enjoying his kids and grandkids.

01/15 Links: New US envoy says ‘absolutely won’t’ visit settlements, to avoid inflaming tensions; Palestinians remove Muslim from al-Aqsa after confusing him for a Jew

From Ian:

Gunman holds hostages at synagogue in Texas

A rabbi and three others were taken hostage mid-Bar Mitzvah at the reform Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville, Texas on Saturday by a gunman who said he was the brother of Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year prison sentence for killing an FBI agent.

The gunman demanded to meet with his sister in negotiations with the FBI as well as have her released.

Colleyville Police first warned the public of the situation at 11:30 a.m. local time. Another tweet two hours later updated that the hostage situation was still in progress.

Apparently Aafia, a known terrorist, has friends in CAIR and Linda Sarsour who have actively campaigned for her release. #colleyville pic.twitter.com/NxoNAAW1R8
— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר (@emilykschrader) January 15, 2022

And then there is of course #CAIR @CAIRNational, which openly incited violence against Jews and Jewish places of worship! #Colleyville https://t.co/IlsoDNr8se pic.twitter.com/VMQ5haDPIC
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) January 15, 2022

Morton Klein: The dangers of an Arab state are still true - opinion

On March 3, 1999, the great then-US senator from Florida, Connie Mack, gave an important speech on the floor of the Senate, describing the Palestinian Authority leadership’s incitement, in schools and media, of hatred, terrorism and annihilation against Jews and Israel.

It’s worthwhile revisiting senator Mack’s speech – because it spelled out the root of the problem that has grown even worse today.

Mack asked the key question: “How is it possible to engage in peace negotiations with people who maintain the right to obliterate you, who are filled with hatred toward you, and who harbor the dream of one day destroying your homeland? Peace is a matter of the heart. But what I saw, which was the outcome of the Palestinian Authority rule, convinced me that their hearts and minds are set on other goals. The Palestinian leadership does not want peace. They want to use their state to eliminate the State of Israel.”

The senator wisely concluded: “[I]f the Palestinian leadership fails to abandon incitement of hatred, persecution, and terrorism, then we are all dreaming, only dreaming [of peace], and our President’s behavior must be labeled foolish appeasement. There will not be peace until hearts and minds are changed, and we must focus our attention on these issues.”

Mack demonstrated how the PA teaches children to hate Jews. For instance, a Mickey-Mouse style program on PA-controlled television showed a young girl of six or seven years old emotionally singing “When I wander into the entrance of Jerusalem, I’ll turn into a suicide warrior in battledress, in battledress, in battledress.” Mack reminded the Senate “this is a program that was produced by the people [the Palestinian Authority] who are... supposedly negotiating peace... How would you feel if your government was teaching your children to hate? Could you conclude that they were serious about long-term peace with their neighbors?”

Mack also described PA textbooks’ incitement of hatred toward Jews. A third-grade grammar textbook teaches that the “Zionist enemy” attacks “civilians” with aircraft. A seventh-grade textbook says that Jews hate Muslims and cause division among Muslims, and asks students to give examples of the “evil attempts of the Jews” today. Note that these school textbooks specifically talk about Jews – belying the fiction that the PA “only” opposes “Israelis.”

Mack also noted that a just-published 12th-grade history book taught: “The clearest examples of racist belief and racial discrimination in the world are Nazism and Zionism.” The senator reflected: “One would expect, rather than focus on hatred, if they [the Palestinian Authority] were serious about peace, they would focus on how the two peoples are working to live side by side.”

Gantz-Abbas Meeting Strengthens PA Ahead of ‘Changing of Guard’

Palestinian sources also said that Abbas called on Gantz to reverse the decision to ban the Palestinian NGOs, reduce tensions in both eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank, and return the bodies of Palestinian terrorists killed carrying out attacks.

And indeed, the meeting saw Israeli steps taken subsequently to reduce tensions, including the decision to allow 6,000 West Bank residents and 3,500 Gazan residents into the Palestinian population census, thereby assisting people who had no defined resident status until now.

Israel also agreed to facilitate early payment of taxes it collects for the PA, to the tune of NIS 100 million, and to provide 600 entry permits to Palestinian businesspeople. Senior PA officials have been promised VIP permits granting them free travel.

The PA is also set to benefit from a new Israeli pilot program that allows shipping containers to enter from Jordan via the Allenby Crossing, and the creation of an online platform for Israeli employers to pay Palestinian employees. The online system will lead to a rise in bank transfers, and the PA is expected to make some NIS 40 million per month in taxes from this.

Palestinian opposition elements, meanwhile, fiercely criticized Abbas, since they perceived the meeting as a tool for tightening security coordination with Israel.

Hamas operatives published a cartoon that showed Abbas as a pathetic, mocked, surrendering figure, shining Gantz’s shoes. A Hamas spokesperson described the meeting as a knife in the back of the Palestinians, while a Palestinian Islamic Jihad figure said the meeting demonstrates that Abbas is a “contractor” for Israel.

In the broader historical perspective, Abbas’ meeting with Gantz is not unusual — past Israeli prime ministers such as Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Ehud Barak met with the late PLO chief leader Yasser Arafat in their own homes too. Yet unlike past meetings, the current meeting was held under conditions of Israeli government paralysis on the Palestinian issue.

From the Israeli perspective, the meeting was useful in further boosting security coordination, mutual confidence-building, and strengthening the PA’s position while weakening Hamas and its goal of increasing its influence in the West Bank, before going on to take over the entire Palestinian government system.

It is reasonable to assume that Israel will continue to pursue its interests in the Palestinian arena overtly and covertly in the post-Abbas era, and that means not allowing Hamas to take over, while working with both Abbas and whoever replaces him.

New US envoy says ‘absolutely won’t’ visit settlements, to avoid inflaming tensions

New US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said Friday that he’d never visited an Israeli settlement in the West Bank and had no plans to do so, as part of his effort as envoy not to take steps that could inflame the situation on the ground.

When pressed, during his first interview with Israeli media since arriving in Israel, as to whether he might make such a visit, Nides told the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, “I absolutely will not.”

The interview, while conducted in English, was published in Hebrew. A spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Jerusalem confirmed that the ambassador was accurately quoted. The quotes presented in this story were translated from the Hebrew report.

Nides’ comments represented a return to the pre-Trump era status quo when US ambassadors did not make visits to the settlements. Former president Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, changed that norm, making several visits to Israeli towns across the Green Line during his tenure as envoy.

A long-time backer of the settlement enterprise, Friedman used his close ties with Trump to lobby the White House to back Israeli annexation of the West Bank, though the president ultimately did not allow the move to go through. However, the ambassador did play a role in former secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s decision to rescind a State Department legal memo deeming Israeli settlements to be illegal.

Asked to explain his decision not to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps, Nides responded, “Because just like I ask both the Palestinians and Israelis not to take steps that inflame the situation, I don’t want to do things intentionally that would create disrespect or anger among people.

Abbas calls off PLO parley to avoid ‘confrontation’ with Israel, US

A crucial meeting of the Palestinian Central Council that was supposed to take place later this week has been delayed due to ongoing tensions and differences among Palestinian officials and factions, Palestinian sources said on Saturday.

The meeting was postponed because Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas wants to maintain channels of communication with the Israeli government, especially in light of his recent “positive” meeting with Defense Minister Benny Gantz, the sources said.

In its last meeting in 2018, the PCC recommended ending the security coordination between PA security forces and the IDF and suspending the PLO’s recognition of Israel until it recognizes a Palestinian state.

“President Abbas is keen on preserving the dialogue with some members of the Israeli government,” according to the sources. “He is also opposed to calls by various Palestinian factions to terminate security coordination with Israel.”

A PLO official in Ramallah said the decision to delay the PCC meeting aims “to avoid a confrontation” with both the Israeli government and the US administration. The official said many of the Palestinian factions that were supposed to attend the meeting were planning to renew their call for cutting all ties with Israel.