Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, April 05, 2015

04/05 Links: Arabs Blast "Obama's Deal" With Iran; Bosnian soccer fans chant "Kill the Jews"

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Arabs Blast "Obama's Deal" With Iran

Many Arabs have expressed deep concern over the nuclear deal that was reached this week between Iran and the world powers, including the US.
Arab leaders and heads of state were polite enough not to voice public criticism of the agreement when President Barack Obama phoned them to inform them about it. But this has not stopped Arab politicians, political analysts and columnists reflecting government thinking in the Arab world from lashing out at what they describe as "Obama's bad and dangerous deal with Iran."
The Arabs, especially those living in the Gulf, see the framework agreement as a sign of US "weakness" and a green light for Iran to pursue its "expansionist" scheme in the Arab world.
"Some Arab countries are opposed to the nuclear deal because it poses a threat to their interests," said the Egyptian daily Al-Wafd in an article entitled, "Politicians: Obama's deal with Iran threatens Arab world."
The newspaper quoted Hani al-Jamal, an Egyptian political and regional researcher, as saying that the deal means that the international community has accepted Iran as a nuclear power. He predicted that the framework agreement would put Iran and some Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt on a collision course.

FoxNews: Report shoots down Hamas' claims of 'journalist' deaths in war with Israel

A new report claims Hamas owes the world a retraction for its claim that Israeli forces killed 17 journalists during last year's war in Gaza.
The terrorist organization, which clashed violently with Israel last summer when the Jewish State moved to destroy tunnels it said Hamas used to mount attacks from the Palestinian territory, claimed the journalists were killed as they tried to cover the fighting. But a closer look by the Tel Aviv-based Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre found that eight of the 17 dead were full-fledged terrorists and the rest were lower level, non-combatant Hamas operatives who worked for Hamas media organizations.
“Not only are the Palestinians trying to claim immunity for their military terrorist operatives, they are also trying to defame Israel by claiming it deliberately killed those "journalists" and prevented them from doing their jobs,” the report stated.

Anti-Israel protesters call ‘Kill the Jews’ in Vienna

Bosnian soccer fans joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Vienna on Friday and shouted anti-Semitic epithets in one of the city’s central plazas, Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported.
A video posted to YouTube shows several dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators waving Palestinian flags in Stephansplatz and calling “free, free Palestine!”
The Bosnian fans dressed in blue, yellow and white are seen standing among the protesters and joining them in their cries, before setting out on a chant of their own: “Ubij, ubij Židove!” or “Kill, kill the Jews!”
Bosnians were in the city to watch a match between Austria and Bosnia-Herzegovina later in the day.
Austrian police said they were investigating the incident.

Bosnian Football Fans - Antisemitic Incident in Vienna, Austria

31.3.2015: Bosnian fans meet a group of pro-Palestine demonstrators and starts chanting "Ubij, ubij Židove" ("Kill, kill the Jews!") in Vienna's central square (Stephansplatz) a few hour before the international friendly Austria - Bosnia&Herzegovina.

Chag sameach! (and don't forget my Haggadah!)

(edited from the original papercut here)

A few years ago I put together a Haggadah with commentaries culled from the Web on relevant topics on Zionism and redemption. You can still download it as thousands of people have:

Elder of Ziyon Haggadah 5769 by Eldad Tzioni

Previous EoZ Passover graphics:

I will not be blogging until Sunday night or Monday morning.

Chag sameach!

04/03 Links Pt2: David Draiman: Why We Must All Stand Against Antisemitism, Now More Than Ever

From Ian:

David Draiman: Why We Must All Stand Against Antisemitism, Now More Than Ever

As frontman for Disturbed, David Draiman has captivated millions of fans worldwide. Draiman’s versatile voice fuels a salvo of anthems for the Grammy Award-nominated multi-platinum selling Chicago quartet. As a proud Jew, David is using his voice to fight against the Jew-haters and Israel haters of the world.
I would however like you to try an experiment. Type the word anti-Semitism into your search engine, and see what comes up.
The results will shock you.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents and attacks that have been perpetuated over the past year worldwide is staggering. They are at levels I have not seen in my lifetime, and they are not only directed at “The State of Israel”, or “The Israeli Government”, or even “Israeli’s” in general. They are directed at Jews, all Jews, all over the globe, whether they are of Israeli descent or whether they support the State of Israel or not.
The horrific events of the last Gaza war have enabled sleeping anti-Semites all over the world, who have been relatively subdued for some time, to reveal themselves. Thanks to freedom of speech, we now know who many of them are (all they needed was an open door and an excuse to continue spewing their baseless hatred). I would never take away their right to expose themselves. I like it when people take their masks off. At least I know who is a threat and who isn’t.
So why then did I take such strong issue with the prospective new “Daily Show” host, Trevor Noah’s history of “Jew jokes”?
Things like, “Almost bumped a Jewish kid crossing the road. He didn’t look before crossing, but I would have felt so bad in my German car!” or, “Muslims don’t hate Jews, Jews hate Muslims”, or “Behind every successful Rap Billionaire is a double as rich Jewish man” or, “South Africans know how to recycle just like Israel knows how to be peaceful”.
Surely these aren’t the worst anti-Semitic slurs/jokes that I have ever heard, why take such offense?
Because I am tired of seeing the “tastemakers” of the world continue to perpetuate the anti-Semitic stereotypes and notions expressed in the “jokes” above. I’m tired of today’s youth thinking that it is “en vogue” to hate on the Jewish people. I’m tired of seeing people frightened, hiding their heritage for fear of anti-Semitic persecution.

Who Are the Principal Violators of International Law?

In failing to adhere to international law, the United Nations has, as its principle violator, primarily itself.
The real dispute is not about a "Palestinian State." It is about who has the right to the entire area. This is also the reason the Palestinians will never sign an "end of conflict" agreement.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to depict a world without Israel. This is to be done in stages, a "salami" tactic, by which any land acquired is to be used as a forward base from which to take the rest. The Phased Plan was never rescinded.
Hamas, with whom the PA is now aligned in a "Unity Government," takes the Phased Plan a bit farther. Hamas, in its Charter, advocates not only displacing Israel, but killing all the Jews worldwide as well, or genocide. This too has never been rescinded.
And now the PA and Hamas are to be rewarded for aggression? Such a move flies in the face of the UN's own international agreements -- signed by all parties under international law. They state that the Israel-Palestine dispute is to be resolved only by face-to-face negotiations.

MEMRI: 'Al-Sharq Al-Awsat' Article: Palestinian Authority's Accession To International Criminal Court Will Harm It, As Well As Hamas, Turkey And Qatar

On April 1, 2015, four months after it joined the Rome Statute, the Palestinian Authority (PA) officially became a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. The practical consequence of this move is that the PA can now bring charges against Israelis for alleged war crimes. PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the court has already launched a preliminary investigation regarding the settlements and regarding war crimes perpetrated during the 2014 Gaza conflict.
The PLO called the PA's accession to the ICC "historic," and PA Foreign Minister Riyadh Al-Maliki said that "Palestine seeks justice, not revenge."
In an article published in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat in November 2014, before the PA submitted a formal request to join the ICC, Lebanese journalist Huda Al-Husseini warned about the potential consequences of this move for the Palestinians themselves, as well as for Qatar and Turkey, due to their ties with the Hamas movement and its leadership. Al-Husseini wrote that accession to the ICC could result in a series of charges against Palestinian figures, and also expose Qatar and Turkey to grave accusations of funding terror and even of committing crimes against humanity.

Sarah Jessica Parker in "Jerusalem Jones and the Lost Afikoman"

I finally found a poor quality, but watchable, version of the 1991 Shalom Sesame video on Passover.

It stars Sarah Jessica Parker and includes guests like Anne Meara, Mary Tyler Moore and Alan King.

The scene-by-scene summary can be seen at the Muppets Wiki.

All in all, it is far wittier than the newer versions of Shalom Sesame:

Jenin school uses "Palestine pound" as currency (update)

A school in Jenin has been using counterfeit "Palestine pound" notes as rewards for kids who do well, and they can then use them to buy snacks in the canteen and other items.

For some reason this is a big story in Arabic media, saying "for the first time in 67 years, the Palestine Pound is being used as currency."

Not quite. Actually, Palestinian Arabs abandoned the currency pretty soon, with those in illegally annexed Jordan accepting the Jordanian dinar and those in Gaza switching over the Egyptian currency in 1951.

The last people to use the Palestine pound as currency were Israelis. Israel continued to use the Palestine pound for four years before switching fully over to the Israeli pound in 1952. Those currency notes were issued by a bank that later became Bank Leumi.

The first local banks in Palestine's history were Jewish banks that started around 1900. (This comes from a UN site.)

The real question is whether the schoolkids are seeing accurate facsimiles of the original Briitsh Mandate pound notes, or if they erased the Hebrew parts of it, especially the "E.Y" in Hebrew standing for Eretz Yisrael?

UPDATE: Bob Knot found the scrip being used, and they do not erase the Hebrew.

04/03 Links Pt1: Glick: The diplomatic track to war; Horovitz: Defeatist Obama’s deal with the devil

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The diplomatic track to war

Everyone recognizes that the situation is only going to get worse. With each passing week, Iran’s power and brazenness will only increase.
Everyone understands this. And this week they learned that with Washington heading the committee welcoming Iran’s regional hegemony and nuclear capabilities, no outside power will stand up to Iran’s rise. The future of every state in the region hangs in the balance. And so, it can be expected that everyone is now working out a means to preempt and prevent a greater disaster.
These preemptive actions will no doubt include three categories of operations: striking Hezbollah’s missile arsenal; striking the Iranian Navy to limit its ability to project its force in the Bab al-Mandab; and conducting limited military operations to destroy a significant portion of Iran’s nuclear installations.
Friday is the eve of Passover. Thirteen years ago, Palestinian terrorists brought home the message of the Exodus when they blew up the Seder at Netanya’s Park Hotel, killing 30, wounding 140, and forcing Israel into war. The message of the Passover Haggada is that there are no shortcuts to freedom. To gain and keep it, you have to be willing to fight for it.
That war was caused by Israel’s embrace of the notion that you can bring peace through concessions that empower an enemy sworn to your destruction. The price of that delusion was thousands of lives lost and families destroyed.
Iran is far more powerful than the PLO. But the Americans apparently believe they are immune from the consequences of their leaders’ policies. This is not the case for Israel or for our neighbors. We lack the luxury of ignoring the fact that Obama’s disastrous diplomacy has brought war upon us. Deal or no deal, we are again about to be forced to pay a price to maintain our freedom.

Melanie Phillips: Slippery face-saver, but Iran wins

In 2003, similar hopes of a “Grand Bargain” with Iran which would disarm Hezbollah likewise turned to ashes. The west made two bad mistakes which it is still making today.
First, it pinned its hopes on Iran’s reformist-seeming presidents – but the only person who matters is the implacable Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
Second, it failed to grasp the central role of deception in Iranian diplomacy through the Islamic principle of taqiyya, or mandated lying in the defense of Islam. Any agreement with Iran over its nuclear program is therefore worth nothing at all.
The west thinks that it can swallow Iran.
In fact – with Obama’s free pass empowering it to extend its influence over Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Yemen – Iran is instead swallowing the West.
Of course, it may already be too late to stop the Iranian bomb. Credible reports suggest Iran has outsourced its development to Syria and North Korea. But then, the deal being negotiated was never about stopping Iran getting the bomb. It was all about stopping America and Israel from stopping Iran from getting the bomb.
Obama and Iran have now got more breathing space to achieve precisely that.

David Horovitz: Defeatist Obama’s deal with the devil

Extolling the virtues of his deal with Iran on Thursday, President Barack Obama made a false and extremely nasty assertion: “It’s no secret,” he claimed, incorrectly, “that the Israeli prime minister and I don’t agree about whether the United States should move forward with a peaceful resolution to the Iranian issue.”
It is indeed no secret that Obama and Netanyahu don’t agree on how to thwart Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. It is emphatically not the case, however, that Israel’s prime minister opposes “a peaceful resolution to the Iranian issue.” It is emphatically not the case, despite Obama’s insinuation, that Israel’s leader regards military intervention as the only means to thwart Iran.
Netanyahu has not been saying no to diplomacy. His endlessly stated contention is not that war is the only alternative to the deal so delightedly hailed by Obama as “the most effective way to ensure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon.” Rather, in Netanyahu’s insistent opinion, what is needed is simply a different, far more potent deal.
As Netanyahu made plain in anguished, infuriated tones on Wednesday, in the final hours before the Lausanne agreement was struck, what was required was not no deal at all, but rather “a better deal,” one “which would significantly roll back Iran’s nuclear infrastructure” and “link the eventual lifting of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to a change in Iran’s behavior.” A deal to ensure that Iran “stop its aggression in the region, stop its terrorism throughout the world, and stop its threats to annihilate Israel.” That, said Netanyahu, is “the deal that the world powers must insist upon.”

Interesting historic Haggadot in Google Books

Some tweets I did this morning as I was browsing historic Haggadot on Google Books. These are all downloadable as PDF files.

This early 20th century #Haggadah has many, many Hebrew commentaries https://t.co/wU82HJ1qyH
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) April 3, 2015

This #Haggadah from 1920 also includes lots of commentaries but also interesting illustrations https://t.co/E62kh3TS7T
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) April 3, 2015

It didn't start with Maxwell House: Here's the Manischewitz #Haggadah of 1912 https://t.co/SRQQdfXCUC
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) April 3, 2015

This 1889 #Haggadah includes an in-line translation to Judeo-Arabic https://t.co/XoXCEANX9l
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) April 3, 2015

And this #Haggadah has a Judeo-Arabic commentary https://t.co/bUjn96sDwM
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) April 3, 2015

This 1746 Haggadah has some nice woodcut illustrations https://t.co/NzcBpMPNrv pic.twitter.com/f0oZPSsDOO
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) April 3, 2015

Earlier this week Egyptian officials announced they discovered the longest Gaza tunnel yet:

Egyptian border guards have discovered a tunnel, 2.8 kilometres long and three meters deep, Military Spokesman Mohamed Samir said.

The tunnel was used by "terrorists" and "criminals" in the smuggling of individuals, goods, and "arms and ammunition", Samir said in a statement on his official Facebook page.

Egypt is building a "buffer zone" at the shared border area between North Sinai and the Gaza strip. The cabinet issued a decision last October to clear 500 metres of the border area of civilians.

The area was, however, doubled to 1,000 meters in November, after discovering some tunnels in the Peninsula over 800 metres long.

And Egyptian authorities are considering tightening up the penalties for building these tunnels - with life imprisonment:

Egypt's cabinet approved on Wednesday a draft legislation proposed by the president punishing those who dig or use border tunnels for communication with foreign countries by life in prison.

The draft law amends article 82 in the penal code, adding that the life-in-prison penalty would punish whoever "digs, prepares or uses a road, a passage or an underground tunnel at border areas to communicate with a foreign body, a state or one of its subjects" or to help persons, goods, equipment or machines in and out of the country, according to a statement by the cabinet.

The same penalty applies to those who are aware of the use (or planned use) of underground tunnels for the aforementioned purposes without informing the concerned authorities, the legislation adds.

The legislation also allows the government to seize any buildings beneath which tunnels are dug or tools used to dig them.

Oops! Palestinian boycott enforcer accidentally poses in front of Israeli products

The Fatah Facebook page proudly shows photos of their roaming gangs who threaten and intimidate store-owners not to sell Israeli products.

But hold on...what's that I see in that second picture, right by the boycotter's head?

That is an Israeli product, Malty (non-alcoholic) beer, made in Ashkelon!

Sorry, store-owner. Now you will have to be firebombed for embarrassing the patriotic Arabs. .

In a recent poll, some 44% of Palestinians said they would choose an Israeli product over a local Palestinian product either all the time or if the quality was better.

04/02 Links Pt2: Anti-Israel academics: the world’s least convincing free-speech warriors;

From Ian:

Brendan O'Neill: Anti-Israel academics: the world’s least convincing free-speech warriors

However - and this is a very big however - the conference organisers and their sympathisers in the media, the academy and on Twitter must be the least convincing defenders of academic freedom in living memory. These anti-Israel thinkers and campaigners are currently crying ‘Censorship!’ as loudly as they can, depicting themselves as a persecuted minority silenced by powerful political actors (You Know Who). A professor of law at Southampton, and a co-organiser of the conference, said ‘the controversial nature of the conference is precisely where [the principle of] freedom of speech leads – that’s where the commitment to freedom of speech is tested’. He’s right about that; but he’s wrong if he thinks we’re going to buy the idea that today’s shrill and many opponents of Israel are glorious defenders of free speech or controversial discussion. On the contrary, the anti-Israel lobby is possibly the most censorious mob on British campuses today, practising, week in, week out, the very same censoriousness it now cries about being victimised by.
Whether they are No Platforming Zionist speakers and representatives of the Israeli government, or demanding an academic boycott against any professor or thinker or book that comes from Israel, or agitating for the removal from Britain of Israeli dance troupes or theatre groups or filmmakers - as if they were all diseased with contagious Zionism - anti-Israel campaigners have become dab hands at shutting down debate, at silencing those they (irrationally) hate. Their everyday currency is censorship. In recent months, Israel societies on campus have had to cancel events following loud and censorious disruptions and have even faced demands that they be shut down on the basis that they make their campuses into Unsafe Spaces - which means they hold views that small numbers of student-union bureaucrats consider foul. Indeed, in the Guardian article that sympathises with the silenced Southampton discussants it is casually mentioned that the organisers of the conference have ‘voiced support for an academic boycott [of Israel]’. So these self-styled warriors for academic freedom back the highly illiberal and discriminatory tactic of never exchanging thoughts or ideas with Israeli thinkers and instead banning them from British campuses. You couldn’t make it up.

Edgar Davidson: Southampton University's disgraceful statement on cancelling anti-Israel hatefest

"We are sorry but we have had to cancel this excellent unbiased event due to threats from the Zionists"
Southampton University has cancelled the planned anti-Israel hatefest. That ought to be a cause for a small celebration. However, the statement the University has issued is a disgrace, and probably far more damaging than the planned conference itself would have been. It does not mention any of the multiple arguments explaining why the University should never have supported the event in the first place, but instead justifies the cancellation on the grounds of public safety, implying that the planned protest by those opposed to the event (i.e. 'Zionists') posed too great a risk to University personnel and visitors.
The University is effectively promoting the idea (already prominent in the main stream media and not just among Israel haters) that threats from 'Zionists/Jews' have put a stop to free speech. But it is even worse. Instead of criticising the blatant bias and antisemitism of the organisers of the conference (almost every single one of the scheduled speakers was an advocate of boycotting Israel) , the statement goes out of its way to actually praise them and invert reality:
"The University ... has been impressed by the commitment of the organisers to include a broad spectrum of views, and indicated to the organisers that it will work with them to find a venue suitable for a conference of this nature at a later date."

Joke Street

Other speakers included Maha Mehanna, who called Israel’s actions against Hamas this past summer a “crime against humanity”, while remaining silent about Hamas’ actions that provoked the Israeli response. There was Matt Duss who compared Israel’s blockade against Hamas to segregation. There was (of course) Peter Beinart, who called for Obama to take punitive actions against Israel, such as freezing assets.
To top it all off, there was Marcia Freedman, who basically called for the end of Israel as a Jewish state, saying that Israeli Jews should instead live as a “protected minority” in an Arab-controlled Palestinian state instead. She believes this despite the way non-Arab minorities across the Middle East are treated by Arabs. She believes this despite a study conducted by the ADL finding that 93% of Palestinians harbor anti-semitic views and that all 10 of the most anti-semitic countries are all Arab countries. After she gave her speech, Freedman was applauded, by people who are supposed to support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. It is amazing that an organization that claims to be for two states gives a platform for someone who calls for one state. Yet, J Street has declined to allow many other supporters of the two state solution, such as Alan Dershowitz, to speak at their conference.
The mask has finally slipped off. Happy April Fools Day J Street, you aren’t fooling anybody but yourselves!

A few days ago Hamas police broke into a gathering of Fatah activists in the Jabalya camp in the northern Gaza Strip meant to memorialize the six Fatah members killed in the first intifada. The Hamas gunmen beat the participants and arrested a number of them while firing their weapons in the air.

Yesterday, Hamas prevented another Fatah gathering in Rafah to commemorate the death of ten more of its own terrorists. Fatah had planned to hold a concert and show a documentary on the lives of their "martyrs" and informed the Hamas leadership ahead of time.

Meanwhile in Fatahland, the PA security forces have arrested five Hamas students at the Palestine Polytechnic University in Hebron over the past two days. They have also arrested two former prisoner in Israeli jails associated with Hamas, one in Jenin and one in Ramallah, in recent days.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri emphasized yesterday that Mahmoud Abbas' presidency is constitutionally over according to Palestinian law.

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column:

Get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight
Get up, stand up. Life is your right
So we can’t give up the fight
Stand up for your right, Lord, Lord
Get up, stand up. Keep on struggling on
Don’t give up the fight — Bob Marley, “Get up, stand up”

I am sure the planners in Israel’s Defense Ministry have given priority 1 to the nuclear threat from Iran. As the ridiculous ‘negotiations’ with Iran pass yet another meaningless ‘deadline’ and Western negotiators, led by the foolish John Kerry, make concession after concession, it must be 100% clear to the folks in the kiriya that if Iran is to be stopped, Israel will have to stop her.

The Iranian question is no longer a political and diplomatic one; it is now a military one. The generals will decide how to do what must be done, and the politicians will decide when is the best time to do it. We can only hope they do their jobs competently. Ordinary Israelis will start cleaning the junk out of our bomb shelters again.

So now I want to turn to the other, somewhat lesser, threat that Israel faces today — also brought to us by courtesy of our ‘friend’ in the White House — which is the diplomatic offensive for the UN Security Council to impose a ‘solution’ in the form of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. Obama, feckless in his second term and armed with the convenient lie that it is Israel’s fault (the multiple Arab rejections of partition proposals notwithstanding) that there isn’t ‘peace’, will likely withhold the US veto of such a resolution.

What happens if a resolution calling for Israeli withdrawal from the territories passes? Most resolutions are only advisory, unless one is passed under Chap. VII of the UN charter, which can be invoked if the UNSC determines that there is a “threat to peace” or “act of aggression.” In that case economic or even military sanctions can be applied if the target doesn’t comply. A precedent could be the sanctions adopted against the Ian Smith regime in Rhodesia in 1966. Of course even an advisory resolution can be used as a reason for a nation or group of nations to independently sanction another nation.

Israel finds itself in this position for several reasons, but it can’t help that over the years we haven’t made our own case for the legitimacy of our control of the territories. Much of the time we have accepted the narrative of our enemies that we are ‘occupiers’ of ‘Arab land’. If this were true, then it only would make sense that we ought to return the land to its ‘owners’ in return for adequate security guarantees.
But in fact it is not true. The Palestine Mandate as finally ratified by the League of Nations in 1922, granted the Jewish people the right of ‘close settlement’ on the land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. In 1948, Jews were ethnically cleansed from the eastern part of the former Mandate, in a war crime committed by the Jordanian army.

For the 19 years until 1967, a racist occupation was maintained by Jordan. Jews were forbidden to set foot in the so-called ‘West Bank’, including Jewish holy places in eastern Jerusalem, synagogues were made into stables and cemeteries into latrines. It is absurd to say that this illegal act somehow transformed Judea and Samaria into ‘Arab land’ that we now ‘occupy’. As Naftali Bennett has said, you can’t be an occupier in your own land.

But didn’t Israel ethnically cleanse the western part of the former Mandate? Actually, no. With a few exceptions, generally in response to hostile actions by Arab populations, the Arabs who left fled because they feared the coming war or because they expected that the Jews would massacre them in revenge for what they had been doing to Jews since 1920. The Arabs that stayed put and did not engage in hostilities are still here.

Arabs in Palestine began the hostilities of our War of Independence, the Arab nations intervened in support of them, and the Jews prevailed. There certainly were injustices, but there is no comparison to what would have happened to Jews if the Arabs had won. Starting wars and losing them has consequences.

A whole industry of Israeli ‘revisionist’ historians and journalists has arisen to tell the story from the Arab point of view. Some are simply anti-state propagandists like Ilan Pappé, while others, like Ari Shavit, are Zionists obsessed by pathological feelings of guilt for being on the winning side. Their faults range from deliberate and wholesale invention of Jewish crimes to an exaggerated propensity to believe hostile sources uncritically.

The facts are known and documented by historians like Ephraim Karsh. There is no reason for Israel to adopt the Arab narrative. For example, the concept of ‘pre-67 lines and land swaps’ assumes that all of Judea/Samaria belongs to the Arabs. Therefore, the argument goes, if Israel is allowed to keep settlements over the Green Line then it must transfer an equal amount of land from this side of it to the Arabs. But the only claim that the Arabs have on this land is the illegal Jordanian occupation! And the Green Line, the boundary that is given so much significance, is just the 1949 armistice line — which the agreements made at the time specifically state is not a border and does not have any political significance.

Israel does not owe the ‘Palestinians’, led by the violent Jew-haters of Hamas and the PLO, anything. They have no a priori right to the land over the Green Line, nor do the descendents of Arab refugees have a ‘right of return’ to the Israel that their grandparents left.

It could be that nevertheless it is desirable for Israel to facilitate some kind of demilitarized Palestinian state in some part of the territories. But the starting point for negotiations must be the legitimate right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, and not the nonexistent ‘occupation’.

The deck may be stacked against us in the international arena. But we certainly won’t get our rights if we don’t stand up for them.