Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, January 12, 2018

01/12 Links Pt1: Paradigm-changing murder; The faded Palestinian issue; The Fiction that Destabilizes the Middle East

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Paradigm-changing murder

The argument against the Trump administration’s approach, which has been used by Palestinians for years, is that if the PA is not kept afloat the alternative will be much worse. The occasional drive-by shooting, like the one that ended the life of Shevach, is the price to pay for this arrangement.

This is too high a price. The time has come to challenge this paradigm. It might seem as though the PA is the only thing preventing complete anarchy in the West Bank and that UNRWA is the only safety net preventing a full-flung humanitarian disaster in Gaza. But it is impossible to know whether Palestinian society is capable of positive change unless it is given a fair chance. Precipitating a budget crisis designed to end the PA’s support for terrorism is risk worth taking. And the same goes for phasing out UNRWA.

There are only so many bypass roads, security fences and security cameras that Israel can install to defend the lives of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria. And while the IDF and the Shin Bet will undoubtedly redouble efforts to confiscate the massive amounts of illegal arms in places like Nablus so that no terrorist has the ability to shoot 22 bullets at a man like Shevach, Israel’s ability is limited as long as the PA offers incentives to prospective terrorists and Hamas actively provides material and training.

Ultimately, the only way to end terrorism is by replacing or radically changing the Palestinian political leadership. For this to happen, the PA and Hamas must know they risk losing power if they continue with their charade.

The loss of men like Shevach is a too dear price to pay for maintaining the status quo.

British-Israeli victim triggers UK probe into funds for Palestinian terrorism

Kay Wilson, who barely survived a Palestinian terrorist attack, prompted MP Stephen Twigg, chairman of International Development Committee in the UK Parliament, to conduct talks with fellow lawmakers about the misuse of British funds to support Palestinian terrorism.

The Jerusalem Post obtained a copy of Wilson’s letter on Thursday and conducted an interview with the British Israeli on the parliamentary action and the chances of the UK replicating the American Taylor Force Act, which would bars US funds for the Palestinian Authority that are used for terrorism.

“I have not heard back from Mr. Twigg, and was therefore surprised to read in the Daily Express that he had received my letter, yet had not acknowledged this personally to me,” said Wilson.

The Daily Express wrote on Wednesday that “a powerful commons committee is to consider launching an inquiry into the way the Palestinian Authority is giving British taxpayers’ money to terrorists in prison.”

Wilson told Twigg in her letter that “My co-signatories and I are writing to you about the glorification of violence, the incitement of violence and misuse of British Aid funds by the Palestinian Authority. We also draw to your attention evidence that strongly suggests that DFID [Department for International Development] civil servants and minsters have misled Parliament. In 2010 I was hiking in the Judean Hills with my friend Kristine Luken, when two Palestinian terrorists attacked us. We were held for 30 minutes at knife-point, then gagged and bound before being butchered with machetes. Kristine was murdered. I watched my friend being killed before my eyes.”

She added, “I only survived because I played dead. I was stabbed 13 times and had over 30 bones broken by the sheer force of the blows. Each time my attackers plunged their machetes into me I could hear my bones crunch, and my flesh ripping from the serrated blade. They left, only to return moments later and roll me over. I watched my attacker plunge the knife into my chest, just missing my heart. I attach pictures of my injuries. The two men who attacked us were jailed. They were part of a terrorist cell aligned to the Fatah group, the group that runs the Palestinian Authority.”

Caroline Glick: Curing Trump’s quarterly Iran headache

Israeli experts who were close to the Obama administration are calling for Trump to keep the deal alive. A paper published on Thursday by the left-leaning Institute for National Security Studies called for Trump to keep the deal alive, but enforce it fully.
Co-authored by Obama’s ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and former security brass who oppose the Netanyahu government, the paper claimed that the US should insist that Iran open its military nuclear sites to UN inspectors.

The problem with the recommendation is that there is no chance it will be implemented. Iran refuses to open its military sites to inspectors, and the Europeans side with them against the US.

Trump is right that he’s damned if he maintains Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and damned if he kills the deal. But his supporters are right on this issue and the Washington establishment, Europe and the media are wrong.

If Trump walks away, he will empower the Iranians calling for a new regime. He will weaken the regime’s ability to maintain its global war against the US and its allies. He will force the Europeans to abandon their love affair with the corruption kings in Tehran by making them choose between the US market and the Iranian market.

And he will accomplish all of these things while freeing himself from the quarterly requirement to either lie and pretend Iran is behaving itself and be pilloried by his supporters, or tell the truth about its behavior and be pilloried by the people who always attack him.

Most important, by walking away from a deal built on lies, distortion and corruption, Trump can quickly pivot to a policy based on truth. Unlike the nuclear deal, such a policy would have a chance of ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions, its sponsorship of terrorism, and its oppression of its long-suffering people once and for all.

"The American Creed" - 1946 star-studded film on tolerance by American Brotherhood of Christians and Jews

After World War II, the National Conference of Christians and Jews started a campaign to fight bigotry in the United States.

President Harry Truman wrote a letter supporting this initiative in 1947:

THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 25, 1947

Dear Dr. Clinchy:

As never before the world needs brotherhood. The family of nations must practice brotherhood now if it is to have peace in the future. Pacts and treaties must be firmly grounded in the willingness of nations to grant to other nations every right and dignity they claim for themselves—which is the essence of brotherhood. The attainment of peace is thus an achievement of the human spirit.
Similarly, national unity and strength depend upon the willingness of men of all creeds, races, and national origins in America to respect one another's rights and to cooperate as citizens in all areas of common conviction, concern, and responsibility. Mutual understanding and impartial justice among Protestants, Catholics, and Jews are essential to the perpetuation of our nation's influence and well-being. Intolerance is a cancer in the body politic. We must maintain respect for the rights of every individual, inherent in his relation to God.
Convinced of these truths, I gladly accept the honorary chairmanship of national Brotherhood Week, February 22-29, 1948, and join the American Brotherhood of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in inviting our people to use this occasion to think deeply about these principles and to promote their application to all human relationships everywhere throughout the year. I commend the cooperation of all agencies of religion, education, and community life, and of all media of communication, in making brotherhood a living reality in every corner of our country.
Very sincerely yours,
Harry Truman

This letter was written by the chairman of the 1948 Brotherhood Week initiative:

The General Chairman of Brotherhood Week, 1948, is the Hon. Robert P. Patterson. Judge Patterson served as Under-Secretary of War during the war. He wrote:

I saw the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau a few days after the liberation. No one who saw those places and the helpless survivors of them will ever forget the experience. Buchenwald and Dachau could not be understood, except as they bore witness to the depths that men can sink to when they accept and put into practice a doctrine of hate against those who diifer with them in opinion, religion, or race. The world will see more Buchenwalds, more Dachaus, if the time should come again when the rule of hate prevails over the spirit of brotherhood.
We Americans are committed to the cause of world peace. Words will not win world peace. We will not reach it unless we have a strong, united nation here at home. And a strong united nation is an unattainable ideal unless we keep brotherhood as the guiding rule of our daily lives. Intolerance is bound to produce a divided people, a weak nation. We may be sure that we will never achieve a lasting peace on such terms.
The unity we had in the war years, when we saw the losses and sorrows of war being borne by Americans without distinction as to race or religion, when it was plain to all of us that our spiritual aims and purposes were far more powerful than our differences, is still available as the vital force for peace. The understanding and goodwill found in the bond of brotherhood will bring us to realize that unity. I know of nothing else that can.

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From RT and Middle East Monitor:

Alistair Burt, minister of state for the Middle East at the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office, spoke out in defense of the teenage girl [Ahed Tamimi], whose family he said he knows personally.

“The truth is the soldiers shouldn’t have been there and the young woman shouldn’t have needed to do what she did,” said Burt.

He continued: “We should be working hard to get a settlement for this issue so that these young people don’t have to continue to do what they’re doing.”

Burt confirmed that the British government has made representations to the Israeli authorities about Tamimi’s case.

According to Burt, Ahed needed to sap an Israeli soldier. If only he wasn't there, he wouldn't have been assaulted. It's obviously his fault.

And, of course, until there is peace, all rioting and violent Palestinian Arab youths have to continue what they've been doing.

Like throwing stones at moving cars from above, throwing Molotiv cocktails and stabbing Jews.

He apparently agrees with Ahed, who he seems to consider a family friend, when she says that suicide bombings are just part of what Palestinians have to do.

Beyond that, it is also outrageous that Western countries publicly and diplomatically register complaints about how Israel treats violent youths.

The UK has more children under 18 in prison than Israel has in custody - 912, as of November, compared to about 300 in Israeli detention.

The UK's youth prisons are hotbeds of gang violence and makeshift weapons, and children are deprived of basic social services. One child dies in a UK prison every month!

The government is doing little to fix the problems.

Imagine the outcry if, say, France or Germany would publicly reproach the UK over its treatment of child prisoners. Imagine if Netanyahu issued a statement of concern over whether Great Britain is really doing everything it can to reduce the 11% of incarcerated youths who have attempted suicide.

No one blinks when Western nations chide Israel for its actions, but they would never say a word about any other Western nation's actions.

As much as the West pretends to be pro-Israel, the fact is that they treat Israel as a banana republic, and Israel's actions which as not nearly as bad as what these nations do themselves are considered to be fair game for criticism.

They claim that they should hold Israel to a higher standard than its Arab neighbors. A case can be made for that. But here, we see that they hold Israel to a higher standard then their own fellow Western nations.

That is not just a double standard. That is blatant bias masquerading as caring for Palestinian Arab rights.

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In the wake of the predictable faux outrage over Israel banning members of various anti-Israel groups from entering, it is fun to look at a list of people banned from entering the UK on Wikipedia.

Celebrities like Martha Stewart, Mike Tyson, Busta Rhymes, Shyne, Chris Brown and Dwayne "Dog" Chapman.

While they are banned because of criminal convictions, others are banned simply because of their opinions.

Like Moshe Feiglin, who is not anti-Muslim in the least.

Or writers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, who are indeed critics of Islam - but they are no threat to incite violence in the UK or anywhere else.

Or Edward Snowden, who similarly does not seem to be a threat no matter if you agree with his actions or not.

It is an interesting list, because it shows how much latitude the UK's Home Office uses in its (often secret) decisions to ban people from entering the country, often only because they are controversial.

But no one is accusing the UK of not being "democratic" because of the list of people they ban, and the probably much longer list that we don't know about.

Every country has the right to decide who can visit or not. And every country does.

But only Israel is reviled as "anti-democratic"(as J-Street says) for denying entry to those who are actively working to destroy it.

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The Israel X-Factor audience shows again why Israel is so great

In November, a 17 year old Israeli wowed the judges and audience at the Israeli version of X-Factor.

The video of Eden Elena's singlng has been going around, but what is interesting is what gets the biggest audience reaction when she talks about herself.

First, when Eden says that she is Ethiopian, the audience roars.

Then, when she shows off her bracelet collection, and mentions that her favorite one has symbols of all religions on it, from when she sang at a joint Jewish-Arab singing tour in America. One judge asks her if the bracelet shows coexistence, she says yes, and the audience goes wild.

So many people try to paint Israeli Jews as bigots against both Ethiopians and Arabs. It is a recurring theme for the writers at Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada. But the instinctive positive reaction to an Ethiopian girl who sings with people of all religions and who preaches coexistence shows that Israel is as liberal a country as there is.

And one cannot even imagine the same thing happening at a similar Arab talent show.

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01/11 Links Pt2: UN Watch Leader Faces a World of Challenges While Defending Israel; The Future Does Not Belong to Those Who Slander Israel

From Ian:

UN Watch Leader Faces a World of Challenges While Defending Israel

Hillel Neuer considers it a badge of honor that he is a “feared and dreaded” figure at the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), as the European newspaper Tribune de Genève once described him.

“There are people who cross the street in Geneva to avoid me,” Neuer said. As executive director of UN Watch, a nonprofit that monitors United Nations activities, Neuer is both watchdog and whistleblower, holding world powers to account when it comes to their human rights records. A lawyer, activist and humanitarian, Neuer spoke with the Journal from Geneva, where he lives and works.

Jewish Journal: As head of UN Watch, you define yourself as “the voice of conscience at the United Nations.” What’s it like to be the guy defending democratic ideals in a room full of non-democratic countries?

Hillel Neuer: It often feels surreal. You ask yourself how bizarre is it that you need to state basic truths in an arena that is often Orwellian, where the worst criminals are often the prosecutors and the judges.

JJ: The U.N. Human Rights Council notoriously singles out Israel for violations even as far worse offenders go unchallenged. Where is this discrimination most evident?

HN: During a given meeting, you’ll have resolutions — maybe one on Iran, one on Myanmar, one on North Korea and then five on Israel. And it’s not just the numbers: When there is a resolution criticizing a country, the practice at the U.N. is to recognize and acknowledge various positive things [a country has done], whether they are justified or not. But when it comes to Israel, even though Israel has done many positive things, none of this ever appears in the resolutions. This is part of an attempt to portray Israel as so evil, nothing good can be said of it.

The Future Does Not Belong to Those Who Slander Israel

Somebody needs to give Wafsi Kailani a copy of the 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel. Kailani, who has served as manager of Jerusalem Affairs for the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan since 2008, violated a major component of this treaty by falsely declaring that a Jew set fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on August 21, 1969.

Kailani leveled the false accusation — clearly intended to defame the Jewish state — at a conference about the Temple Mount that took place at Harvard Law School late last year. The conference, organized by professor Noah Feldman, was titled “Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif: Conflict, Culture, Law,” and was held from November 28-29, 2017.

During his November 29 keynote address, Kailani described Denis Rohan, the man who set fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a “Jewish extremist.” In fact, Rohan was an Australian Christian, who — after his arrest — told doctors that he set the fire under instructions from God. Rohan was declared mentally insane, and was eventually sent home to Australia, where he spent the rest of his life in a psychiatric hospital. He died there in 1995.

A subsequent inquiry declared that one of the factors that led to the fire was the poor security measures imposed by the Islamic Waqf, which was in charge of the site. “It was additionally made apparent that a mosque worker saw the Australian in the mosque, however did not approach him, even though tourists are banned from entering the mosque in the early morning hours,” Ynet News reported in 2015.

Daniel Gordis: Israel-bashing by analogy

Peter Beinart, who wrote a compelling mea culpa in The Atlantic a few weeks ago, in which he acknowledged that he had “made a series of moral compromises in order to stay at The New Republic,” now wishes to apply the lessons learned to Israeli oppression. “As I watch the extraordinary reckoning between women and men,” he wrote in The Forward more recently, “I sometimes wonder: Will there ever be such a reckoning between Palestinians and Jews?”

Beinart’s argument is not new. Just as many men (including himself, he honorably admits) looked the other way when confronted with sexual harassment in the workplace, so, too, American Jewish support for Israel fosters “a relationship of oppression and deliberate ignorance. American Jews help sustain America’s near-automatic support for the Israeli government. And that support makes possible Israel’s denial of basic rights... to millions of Palestinians.”

Beinart and I have been disagreeing – and debating – about Israel’s foreign policy, American Jewish attitudes to Israel and more for years. We are not likely to agree anytime in the near future. But something about this new analogy strikes me as particularly pernicious, deeply unfair to both Israel and women.

Beinart’s assertion that the #MeToo paradigm ought to be applied to Israel and the Palestinians is deeply unfair to Israel; it suggests that the relationship of Israel and the Palestinians is as cut and dry as the Weinstein or Lauer cases. But that, of course, is absurd. Whatever one wants to say about Israel’s conduct of the occupation, the Palestinians do not yet have a state largely because of decisions that they have made. It was Palestinian terrorism that killed the Oslo Accords. Yasser Arafat’s response to Ehud Barak’s offer at Camp David was the Second Intifada. The Palestinians’ response to Ehud Olmert’s offer was to ignore it. But mentioning that, Beinart says, is an “absurd rationalization.”

But what is truly absurd is analogizing Israel to the moral reprehensibility of men abusing their power, when there are often no “two sides” to the story. In the most egregious cases, such as rape (we’ll ignore the controversy about explicit consent now sweeping across American campuses), blame must never be shared. Rape is a vicious violation of the very worst order. It is black and white; there are no grays, and we must never pretend there are. Does Beinart really think that the Israeli-Palestinian issue is equally clear, and that the Israelis are the rapists? Why must every moral conversation in society end up dumped at the door of Israel’s “sins”?

From Ammon News:

Fifty members of the Jordanian Parliament signed a petition yesterday urging the government to summon the Jordanian Ambassador to Israel, Walid Obeidat, in protest against the “unilateral and racist practices” of the occupation authorities.

In the petition, which was introduced by MP Mustafa Yaghi, the members of the Jordanian parliament demanded the action be taken as a response to the Israeli Knesset’s ratification of a law that would subject Jerusalem to Israeli sovereignty, which would pave the way for expelling Palestinian people from Jerusalem.

I guess in theory it paves the way for expelling Jews from Jerusalem as well, but that is equally unlikely.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

Every time there is a horrific terrorist murder of a Jew because he or she is a Jew, I am compelled to write one of what I am calling my “outrage posts.”

I’m outraged that this can continue, over and over. Every time, I write that we need a death penalty, or that we should fire a cruise missile at the center of the town that the murderers came from and then build a Jewish town on the ruins. Every time, I write that the perpetrators will almost certainly be caught, but the chances are good that they will survive their arrest and get more-than-humane treatment in an Israeli prison, and their families will receive a monthly stipend from the Palestinian Authority paid for by the US, the EU and even Israel. And every time, I am reminded of the Shalit deal, where a kidnapped soldier was traded for more than a thousand terrorists, including mass murderers.

Yesterday it was Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a 35-year old father of six children, mohel and volunteer medic, murdered in a drive-by shooting on Route 60 near Shechem, in Samaria. Because he was a Jew.

Rabbi Raziel Shevach, Hy”d, with his family

You can’t look at this picture without wanting to cry. Unless, of course, you are a member of Hamas, which announced that they “bless the heroic Nablus operation,” the murder of Rabbi Shevach; or if you belong to Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction, which praised the “skilled and experienced” terrorist who carried out the “operation” and escaped.

This will undoubtedly contribute to the death penalty debate which is currently taking place in the Knesset. I have always favored a death penalty for terrorist murderers, but now I’m not so sure. After all, if such a law passes it will surely include all kinds of safeguards and chances to appeal to the Supreme Court, and who knows what else. It will certainly take time before all the options are exhausted. This is Israel, after all, which aspires to be Berkeley, California, and you know how long it takes (forever) to get a murderer executed in California.

A death sentence that could be executed within a few weeks after the crime would be great. For that matter, so would a real life sentence without possibility of early release. But neither of these are likely.

Most of the time the security forces succeed in finding the terrorists responsible for crimes like this. And despite the fact that there are some terrorists who do want martyrdom, most of them don’t. So they give themselves up to the PA, which hands them over to Israel. Or they manage to surrender to our forces peacefully. And then they get the country-club prison, the conjugal visits, the Open University correspondence courses, the salary from the PA and perhaps an early release. I urge these terrorists to show that they are real men. Don’t go quietly! When the army or YAMAM comes to get you, point your guns at them. They’ll give you a sporting chance, which is more than you gave Rabbi Shevach.

I’ll support the death penalty law. While it probably won’t make much difference, it will make a statement. More important would be a decision by the IDF and police brass that security forces should shoot to kill, not to “neutralize,” and definitely not take terrorists alive. I’ve explained my reasons before, but the most important reason is that in the Middle East upholding your honor is an important part of deterrence; and a people that lets its members be killed without responding in kind loses its honor.

The lesson that these incidents teach me, over and over, is that there is no possibility of sharing our country with the Palestinian Arabs. They have never accepted the idea of Jewish sovereignty and never will. They will always believe that we stole the land and their honor and will always want to get them back, and violence will always be the preferred means. Incitement to murder in their official media, social media and mosques only increases from day to day.

It is the most elemental kind of conflict between human tribes, from long before the dawn of civilization. Two tribes want the same piece of land. Only one side can win. But today modern techniques of incitement and propaganda have made it possible for the tribes to be much larger and the conflict more permanent. It can’t be snuffed out or redirected. And geography doesn’t permit a compromise. One side or the other will have to win.

I wanted to believe, and indeed I did believe for many years, that compromise was possible. A deal could be worked out. Two states for two peoples. But one by one or ten or twenty at a time, Jews were murdered: rabbis, beautiful young girls, old men, soldiers, a bride having lunch with her father on the eve of her wedding, Jews shopping in stores, Jews walking on the sidewalk, riding in cars and buses, praying in synagogues, eating pizza, celebrating holidays, having Shabbat dinner with their families, waiting in line to go into a club, waiting for a bus or a ride, doing anything at all in eretz yisrael.

Rabbi Shevach is the latest, but he won’t be the last.

There have been too many. For me, the debate is over. It doesn’t matter whose narrative is closer to the truth (ours is, but it doesn’t matter). It doesn’t matter how much we Jews really, really want peace. It isn’t up to us.

What matters is that we are engaged in a war that has been waged against us since long before the founding of our state, whose objective has always been to prevent Jewish sovereignty anywhere in our homeland. Our enemies are not confused: they want total victory, and they understand what that means in a practical sense. We need similar clarity, because for the Jewish people, this is an existential war.

We can win it or we can disappear.

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

01/11 Links Pt1: An Overlooked Legacy of Arab Rejectionism; PLO moves to withdraw recognition of, cut ties to Israel; The U.S. Must Show Iranians That They Can’t Have It All

From Ian:

CAMERA Op-Ed: An Overlooked Legacy of Arab Rejectionism

It is deceptively easy to reduce the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict to a series of dates. The 50thanniversary of the June 1967 Six-Day War and the recent centennialof the Balfour Declaration occasioned considerable—if often flawed—media coverage and discussion by policymakers. Yet another—often-underreported—anniversary is perhaps more telling and highlights a long-running theme that was on full display after President Trump's Dec. 6, 2017 speech recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital: Arab rejection of any Jewish state in the Jewish people's ancestral homeland.

Nov. 29, 2017 marked the 70thanniversary of Arab states rejecting U.N. Resolution 181. The non-binding recommendation advised the partition of Mandate Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish. The Zionist leadership in Mandate Palestine accepted the resolution. Arab nations, including Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, denounced it and promised bloodshed if it were passed.

Threatening to shed Jewish blood a mere two years after the end of World War II and the Holocaust was hardly a winning strategy and Resolution 181passed, with support from the United States, the Soviet Union, and others.

Yet, by promising to defy the implementation of the partition plan by force, the Arab leaders voided its very terms, which noted that any “attempt to alter by force the settlement envisaged by this resolution” a “threat to the peace.” This hardly dissuaded the Arab states from unsuccessfully seeking to destroy the fledgling Jewish state in Israel's 1948 War of Independence. In this conflict—and those that preceded it—a man named Amin al-Husseini assisted them.

Although Western press outlets seldom mention him today, al-Husseini should be considered one of the seminal figures of the 20thcentury.Revered as a founding “pioneer” by current-Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, al-Husseini loomed over Middle Eastern politics for decades, reshaping much of it in his image.

Brit woman attacked by Palestinian terrorists demands probe as UK aid ‘used on prisoners'

International development committee chairman Stephen Twigg has confirmed that he intends to raise the proposal with MPs after he receiving a letter from a British woman who was butchered and left for dead by Palestinian terrorists.

Kay Wilson sent the letter, supported by 130 campaigners, after she discovered that the Palestinian Authority is using British taxpayers’ money to pay her attackers in prison who also killed her American friend Kristine Luken.

The two murderers have received £9,000 each according to reports.

The row highlights how British aid money is being wasted on corrupt regimes supporting the Daily Express campaign to end the £13 billion international development budget and spend it on British priorities including the NHS.

More than 70,000 people have signed an Express petition

Mr Twigg told the Express: “I received Kay Wilson's letter and I take its contents very seriously.”

He said not give a response on behalf of the committee until it had been discussed.

However, he went on: “As a committee we generally undertake two major inquiries at a time.

“However we do have other opportunities to raise issues with Department for International Development (Dfid) ministers and I will discuss with other committee members how best to do so in this case.”

In her letter, supported by 130 campaigners, Ms Wilson accuses the Dfid committee of ignoring the issue and ministers of misleading parliament about payments.

She described how she and her friend were held for 30 minutes at knifepoint then gagged and bound before being butchered with machetes.

IsraellyCool: WATCH: Netanyahu (Politely) Roasts Foreign Press

Israel’s Government Press Office held its regular reception for foreign correspondents in Israel. As we know, there are way more foreign correspondents in Israel than almost anywhere else in the world (especially considering how small this country is).

The quiet fireworks are in the first 6 minutes of Bibi Netanyahu speaking:

Off the top he highlights US Ambassador Friedman for his exceptionally strong tweet following Saturday’s heinous murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a 35-year-old father of six, rabbi & Magen David Adom medic. Here’s Friedman’s tweet:

Statements from the official representative of the US Government and State Department don’t come more unequivocal than this. No calls for restraint, no “both sides”, just condemnation of evil terrorists and the people who support and send them. I didn’t notice particularly abundant coverage of just how different that tweet is from ambassadors of previous Administrations.

Immediately after this (at 2 mins) he lists three stories he directly challenges the foreign media for under covering or even ignoring. He asks for a show of hands for who covered each point. He gets a few on point 1, precisely none on point 2 and I suspect they were all nervously looking at their shoes on point 3.

1. Payments by Abbas’s Palestinian Authority direct to terrorists and their famlies.
2. Massive extra investment in Arab citizens of Israel for education, health and opportunities.
3. Did the journalists’ outlets call the Iranian Rouhani government “moderate” even as it is shooting peaceful protestors in the streets and dumping them in torture prisons?

Evelyn Gordon: The U.S. Must Show Iranians That They Can’t Have It All

Iran’s decision to spend most of its sanctions relief on guns rather than butter meant ordinary Iranians saw little improvement in their own situation. Until recently, however, the regime could mollify public anxieties by stalling for time. The money is going to keep pouring in, they’d note, and soon there will be enough for everyone.

But President Trump’s decertification of the nuclear deal in October upended this calculus. European companies became more reluctant to do business with Iran, fearing loss of access to the much more important American market. And new American sanctions on Iran became a real possibility.

Consequently, the continued influx of money was no longer guaranteed. The billions Suleimani spent on his military adventures weren’t necessarily going to be replaced by a flood of European investment, and surging economic growth might once again be crimped by new sanctions. Ordinary Iranians were suddenly back in the pre-nuclear deal world, where the regime’s bad behavior had real economic costs.

In this sense, the media debate over whether the protests were “economic” or “political” was ludicrous. They were both because the protesters understood that their economic woes stemmed from their government’s political choices. That’s why they chanted slogans like “Forget about Palestine, forget about Gaza, think about us” and “Leave Syria alone, think about us instead.”

They also understood that those political choices were a product of the regime’s very nature, which is why they chanted slogans like “Death to the Dictator” and “Death to the Islamic Republic.” The nuclear deal was the Islamic Republic’s best shot at reconciling its desire to export Shi’ite revolution with its need to satisfy its people’s desire for a decent quality of life. If that doesn’t work, the regime clearly doesn’t have any solution to this dilemma and never will.

But if protests are ever to grow to the point that they actually threaten the regime, many more Iranians–especially the middle-class Tehranis who sat this round out–must come to understand this. And easing economic pressure on Iran would send the exact opposite message: that the world actually will let the Islamic Republic have its cake and eat it, too.

A Palestinian Christian tries to convince American Christian evangelists to oppose Israel

The Christian Post published two articles by Rev. Dr. Jack Y. Sara, a Jerusalem-born Christian leader, on why Americans should not support Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The arguments reveal more than perhaps Rev. Sara wanted.

Because reports indicate that it was primarily American evangelicals who encouraged President Trump to make this declaration, the term "evangelical" has become increasingly despised in our region. When our people hear American evangelicals speak, they assume that all evangelicals (or maybe even all Christians) believe the same things. This makes it easy for them to dismiss Christianity and its message.

...For many years, we Arab evangelicals have been "guilty by association." We've been criticized or stigmatized with the label of Zionist. Sadly, it is because of our evangelical brethren overseas that we have had to work twice as hard to maintain our witness here—and there are many who have no interest in hearing us at all.

Rev. Sara is saying that if his fellow evangelists we want to convert Muslims to Christianity - which is their main concern - then they cannot be seen as being pro-Israel, or else their job is twice as hard!

This is not a new concern for right wing Christians. Many were opposed to any part of Jerusalem being under Jewish control in 1948 for similar reasons - that Jewish control of the city would make it more difficult for them to convert Muslims.

But the underlying theme, whether Sara admits it or not, is that without antisemitism, the Arabs won't listen to the message of Christ.

My next point is that Mr. Trump's declaration is not in line with the Biblical teaching of justice and thus, it undermines the peace process. "Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favor to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly" (Leviticus 19:15). Leaders should issue words of reconciliation and make every effort to be true and impartial mediators. They should not be instruments for division and the escalation of violence.

There is nothing wrong with justice, but there is something very wrong with the assumption that "justice" means a Jerusalem that is divided, a Jerusalem where Jews cannot freely worship, and a Jerusalem where Christians will be persecuted by the Muslim population as they are in the rest of the Middle East.

Sara reluctantly admits:

I would be remiss if I did not mention that many Christians throughout the Middle East and North Africa suffer because of their faith. It is also true that when some of the regimes in the Middle East are compared to the state of Israel, Christians here are flourishing in comparison. But why should those religiously oppressive regimes be the standard of comparison for Israel? Should we praise what is bad just because it could be worse somewhere else?

Of course, Sara will not say specifically how Palestinian Muslims have driven out tens of thousands of Christians. And even worse, he says:

When atrocities are committed against Christians or anyone else—in any context—we should be prophetic voices within the nations that we live.

He is saying that Israel commits "atrocities" against Christians. This is slander. And in the context of ignoring Palestinian crimes against Christians, he reveals that he is not interested in "justice" at all.

I pray that my evangelical brethren will engage in more reconciliation efforts in the Middle East instead of indirectly inciting violence through their statements. I pray that instead of pouring millions of dollars into activities that are secondary, they would join us by investing in true kingdom work throughout this region. I believe if these millions were spent in efforts to bring the people to Jesus, we would have already seen revival here.

Does Sara really think that in the State of Palestine, his efforts to convert Muslims would be tolerated any more than they are in any Muslim country?

In his follow up article, Rev. Sara rehashes old lies:

In neighborhoods like Shu'afat, the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem—many of them people who lost their homes in 1948 and 1967—are not allowed Israeli citizenship and live in walled-off, slummy neighborhoods that receive very little municipal support for things like pavement, schools, electricity and other amenities— though they pay the same municipal taxes as everyone else in Jerusalem.

They are allowed to apply for Israeli citizenship as Jerusalem residents. Most don't. And the reason they don't get their share of municipal services is because they refuse to allow any Israeli officials to go there to help them - ambulances and garbage trucks get stoned on arrival.

Of the negative responses that I received on my article, sadly, most of them were old-school arguments, based on misinterpretation of Scripture. None of them were brave enough to answer my primary question: What is their good news for the Palestinian people and what is their Gospel for the Arab nations in the Middle East?
Since God's "restoration plan" has not worked so far according to their plans, I hope that more of them will begin to depart from Dispensational theology.

Sara is saying here that Christians must depart from the idea that Israel is the fulfillment of prophecy. Instead, he urges them to believe in replacement theology, where the Church has replaced Israel, Israel as a nation is rejecting God and the Jews who stubbornly remain Jewish are problematic.

Replacement theology/supercessionism is antisemitic. And, ironically, Israel's existence today is the biggest threat to age-old Christian supercessionist antisemitism.

Which is the real problem Rev. Sara has with today's Christian Zionists. A proud Jewish nation completely contradicts his antisemitic vision of how the world should work, how the Church is the entity to replace the Jews in Biblical prophecy. The existence of the Jewish state is a direct threat to his entire worldview.

Everything else is a smokescreen.

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Times of Israel reported Wednesday:

Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Tuesday said the Palestinians would reject all United States-sponsored peace talks until Washington rescinded its December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

“The continued American talk about deals to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or calling for negotiations or talks is unacceptable to the Palestinian leadership, as long as Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is not revoked,” Erekat told the official Voice of Palestine radio station, according to the official PA news site Wafa.

It looks like the EU is anxious to try to fill the US' role as a mediator. From the EU External Action website:

Norway’s Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide and EU’s High Representative Federica Mogherini have decided to convene an extraordinary session of the international donor group for Palestine, the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC).

There is an urgent need to bring all parties together to discuss measures to speed up efforts that can underpin a negotiated two-state solution.

Furthermore it is necessary to enable the Palestinian Authority to execute full control over Gaza, based on the Cairo agreement from 12 October 2017.

The meeting will be held in Brussels on 31 January 2018 at Ministerial level, hosted by the European Union and chaired by Norway.

The impression I get from this is not that the EU particularly expects to gain any more traction towards peace than it has in the past 69 years. It sure feels like the EU sees an apparent vacuum created by the US and it wants to fill that vacuum by giving Palestinians more money and by tacitly agreeing with them that Jerusalem belongs to them as a basis for negotiations.

In this case, peace isn't the goal - it is using the conflict to make the EU look more relevant.

Because if they wanted peace, taking Jerusalem off the table and admitting that it is Jewish is the single most effective move that the EU could make towards pushing Palestinians to compromise rather than insist on acting like a victor which can impose its terms on the region.

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Israeli scout uniforms sold in Saudi Arabia, hilarity ensues

A Saudi citizen was shocked - shocked! - to see what appeared to him to be an Israeli army uniform being sold in Jizan:

Being the good citizen he is, he filed a complaint to the Ministry of Trade and Investment.

The official spokesman of the Saudi Ministry of Commerce, Abdul Rahman Al Hussein, stressed that "the regulatory authorities punish any illegal activity, and will be investigating to complete the procedures and the imposition of systematic penalties."

An Arabic Twitter account called "An Urgent Event", followed by more than 2 million people, said the Ministry of Commerce had arrested shop owners selling clothing bearing Israeli flags in Riyadh as well and threatening them with deterrent penalties.

As can be seen, the clothing was meant for Israeli Scouts.

Apparently, the sweep of clothing stores also resulted in finding these offensive pajamas that included an Israeli flag among many others:

Yes, evil smiley face Israeli flags!

Saudis immediately assumed that these clothes were being imported by Prince Salman in order to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

This seems logical to them - because as Arabs well know, you have to start by brainwashing the kids, right?

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