Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

02/27 Links Pt1: PLO declares economic war on the United States; PLO Gives Apartment To Family Of Terrorist Who Murdered An Israeli; The embassy will move . . . and the world won’t end

From Ian:

PLO declares economic war on the United States

Saleh Rafat, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee, on Sunday said that the committee would convene in the coming days to discuss the latest developments on the Palestinian issue and to follow the implementation of the decisions of the PLO Central Council, which called for the severing of ties with Israel.

In an interview with Voice of Palestine Radio, Rafat backed an appeal by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to the International Criminal Court in The Hague which would demand that a legal investigation be launched against Israel for its "crimes" against the Palestinian people. He also backed the idea of "Palestine" joining 22 more international organizations.

He called on Arab countries not to agree to the American administration's peace plan which will be presented soon, to withdraw their investments from the U.S., to boycott American products, and to adhere to previous summit resolutions that cut off ties with any country that recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Rafat called for the continuation of the "mass demonstrations of anger" in “Palestine” and the Diaspora in order to deal with the American position that is biased in favor of Israel.

The PA officially joined the ICC on April 1, 2015, and immediately filed a series of legal complaints with the court. In addition to claiming that Israel committed war crimes during the 2014 Gaza war, it also claimed that Israeli “settlements” are “an ongoing war crime”

PMW: PA Mufti warns of “disasters of wars,” if US embassy is moved

After the announcement by the US State Department last week that the US embassy will be moved to Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, the Palestinian Authority's Grand Mufti warned that such a move will lead to "disasters of wars" in the entire world, as it is perceived as an "attack" on all Muslims:

"He [the Mufti] explained that the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem, if it is carried out, will not be an attack on the Palestinians alone, but rather a blatant attack on the Arabs and Muslims throughout the world, ...and that it will not serve peace and security in the region, but rather bring upon it disasters of wars, anarchy, and instability." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 26, 2018]

He further implicitly encouraged Palestinians and Muslims to use violence and seek Martyrdom, stating that they will "sacrifice all that is dear to them":
"[The Mufti] added that the residents of Jerusalem and all of the Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims will not submit to this blatant attack, and will sacrifice all that is dear to them in order to confront the American stubbornness."

The PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the embassy move "a direct aggression towards our people," regarding it as "a provocative declaration and a blow to the sensibilities of the Arabs and Muslims." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 26, 2018]

MEMRI: PLO Fatah Faction Gives Apartment To Family Of Terrorist Who Murdered An Israeli

Palestinian media are reporting that the PLO faction Fatah in the Jenin area had given an apartment to the family of Ahmad Nassar Jarrar, 22, commander of the Hamas squad that murdered Rabbi Raziel Shevach on January 9, 2018 near the Havat Gilad junction in the West Bank. Jarrar was killed by Israeli troops a month later, in a February 6, 2018 raid.

Fatah representatives noted that the donation of the apartment constituted fulfilment of the national obligation to the family of a martyr who had sacrificed his life for Palestine and whose home the occupation had razed. Jarrar's mother and brother thanked Fatah for its support.

The following are translated excerpts from reports on the matter in the Palestinian media, and expressions of esteem for the martyrs by Palestinian Authority (PA) officials.

Fatah Jenin: This Is The Fulfillment Of A National Obligation Towards Families Of The Martyrs

On February 24, the Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported: "The Fatah movement in the Jenin region has given a fully furnished apartment to the family of the martyr Ahmad Nassar Jarrar...

"Fatah Jenin secretary Nour Al-Din Abu Al-Rab told Wafa that the donation of the apartment to the Jarrar family was aimed at underlining that the Fatah movement was fulfilling the national duty towards the families of the martyrs whose homes were razed by the Israeli occupation. He noted that the apartment was fully furnished and praised the part played by all those who had contributed to this national task that, he said, proved that our people is united and consolidated and does not forget its martyrs who gave their lives for Palestine.

"The martyr's mother, on her part, praised Fatah for providing her family with an apartment after the occupation destroyed their home."

On its official Facebook page, Fatah posted a video showing Jarrar's mother thanking Fatah for its support of the family.

It doesn't get more ironic than this:

The Cairo-based Arab League on Monday condemned the decision by the Israeli municipality in Jerusalem on collecting property taxes on UN buildings and churches.
In a statement, the League's Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the Palestinian and Arab Occupied Territories Sector Saeed Abu Al considered the Israeli move as an "unprecedented aggression" on Jerusalem's churches and an escalation against the holy city and its residents.
The Israeli authorities, through this decision, seek to cancel the conventions signed with Vatican decades ago and to change deliberately and systematically the legal and historic status of the city, he said.
This "dangerous unprecedented move" deprives Jerusalem's churches from carrying out their duties, he noted.
He urged the international community to assume its responsibilities and press Israel to stop its illegal actions against both Christians and Muslims in the holy city and to rescind the taxes decision.

The Arab League statement also included this: "These steps clearly aim at the historic Christian presence in the city of Jerusalem, which is an essential part of the history of the Holy City and its historical, human, religious and civilizational heritage, which reflects the values of interfaith coexistence in its fullest form."

Yes, Arab nations, virtually all of which say that Islam is their official religion, are complaining about a lack of coexistence in Israel.

There is not a single church in Saudi Arabia. The percentage of Christians in the Middle East has plummeted from 20% to 5% over the past century. Christians are routinely persecuted in Egypt, the Palestinian territories, Iraq and elsewhere, and they are fleeing from virtually every Arab country including Lebanon.

The Arab League preaching to Israel on coexistence is pretty bizarre.

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EU High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini released a joint press statement with Ayman Al Safadi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan.

Some of her statements are problematic, to say the least.

Today we will focus on how to bring the Middle East Peace Process forward. We will have the opportunity to listen to your views that coincides largely with our views. The European Union has been very clear in its position and very much united.

It sounds like she is saying that the EU and Arabs all largely agree on what is needed for peace. It is only those pesky Israelis who are against peace.

Let me say, today in particular, one word on the closure yesterday of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in protest to certain Israeli steps planned or announced. We hope that a solution can be found quickly. Jerusalem is a holy city to the three monotheistic religions. This special status and character of the city must be preserved and respected by all. And I am saying this, in particular, standing next to you, as His Majesty [Abdullah II] King of Jordan has a very special role - a very appreciated role - when it comes to the Holy Places in Jerusalem. He knows that he can always count on our full support. And I think that the developments yesterday showed that there is a special attention we need to pay to this aspect.

This is truly outrageous.

Remind me again of what Jordan's history with preserving access to the holy places in Jerusalem is? Oh, yeah - Jordan didn't allow any Jews - not Israelis, but Jews - to visit the Jewish holy places in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and elsewhere for 19 years. Jordan destroyed 50 synagogues. Jordan desecrated the oldest and largest Jewish cemetery in the world.

Even today, Jordan denies all Jewish rights in Jerusalem.

Jordan's record in Jerusalem and the West Bank in preserving religious rights is not just flawed, but abysmal. Yet Mogherini is praising Jordan's monarch for - what, exactly? Denying that Jews have any rights to the Old City of Jerusalem?

And under Israeli rule, there are more Muslims living in Jerusalem than ever before. There are far more Muslims visiting the Al Aqsa Mosque than ever visited under Jordanian or Ottoman rule.There are far more Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem than ever before. Israel has uncovered and preserved Muslim archaeological treasures while the Jordanian Waqf has continuously destroyed priceless Jewish artifacts.

It is beyond disgusting that an EU official implies that Jordan would be better at preserving Jerusalem's religious heritage than Israel is, against all facts, history and logic.

The words might have been couched diplomatically, but there is a sickening rot not far under the surface of Federica Mogherini and the EU.

(h/t Irene)

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Iran today announced the Israel Hourglass Festival, a planned annual gathering and contest to countdown to Israel's destruction within 25 years, as Ayatollah Khamenei has predicted.

The festival’s press conference was held on Tuesday in Tehran, during which the main agenda and objectives of the festival were explained by the organizers.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Secretary-General of the International Conference on Supporting Palestinian Intifada and an international advisor to Iran’s Parliament Speaker, told the press conference that the “Hourglass Festival” is a symbol of the imminent collapse of the Zionist regime of Israel, as predicted by the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

He emphasized that fighting Israel is part of Iran’s national security because if the country fails to overcome the Zionists near their borders, it will have to fight against them in Tehran where they are assassination Iranian scientists and citizens.

Asked about the Islamic Republic’s plan to realize the victory of Palestinians over the Israeli regime, he said Iran is not the only one responsible for supporting the Palestinian cause, and all Muslim states must play their role in this regard.

He said he cannot publicize the Islamic Republic’s plan to realize the Leader’s prediction that the Israeli regime will collapse within 25 years, but it will definitely happen.

It is essentially a contest for people to submit anti-Israel videos, posters, cartoons, mobile apps, mobile and web-based games, social media and websites, where they will be publicly displayed in Tehran in April.

The subjects of the submissions to the festival are:

Why down with Israel?
The Quds-occupier regime (Israel) and human rights;
The Quds-occupier regime (Israel) and oppression;
How did the Quds-occupier regime (Israel) form?
The Quds-occupier regime (Israel) and Islamophobia;
The Quds-occupier regime (Israel) and terrorism promotion;
Zionist child- killing regime;
The Quds-occupier regime (Israel) would not survive the next 25 years;
Israel, a cancerous tumor;
Israel, a fake, racist and colonialist regime

Note that Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says that Israel's destruction is not merely a prediction but an active plan by Iran.

There is a large countdown clock in Tehran showing the supposed number of days Israel has left before it is destroyed in 2040, since Khamenei made his prediction in 2015.

It is unclear why the festival shows 25 years instead of 22 years to adjust for the original timeframe. Maybe it isn't as catchy, and this festival is all about creating memes.

One other part about the announcement that is interesting

The organizers will work with 2,400 anti-Israel NGOs in Europe, North America, Latin America, and Eastern Asia to promote the festival across the world, Qomi said.

2400 anti-Israel NGOs? That's more than one NGO for every 3000 Israeli Jews.

I'm curious if Iran is counting Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem and Oxfam in their count of anti-Israel NGOs.

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02/26 Links Pt2: Israel is the Ultimate Anti-Imperialist State; It’s not easy to be a South African Jew

From Ian:

Israel is the Ultimate Anti-Imperialist State

In his recent anti-Semitic rant, PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas repeated the lie that Israel is a “colonial project”. This is part and parcel of a long Muslim Arab tradition to wipe out the Middle East’s indigenous pre-Islamic civilizations.

Imagine if mainstream voices in the 21st century demanded that all non-German Europeans ”integrate into proper Europe” by embracing German culture, language, identity and the Lutheran religion. In a post-Second World War Europe, it would be rightly considered unacceptable supremacist racism. By contrast, many “liberal” Jew-haters demand that Israel “integrates into the proper Middle East” in the name of “peace” by letting itself be swallowed up by the surrounding Muslim Arab world.

In an era of Western post-colonial guilt, the Middle East is often presented as a hapless victim of former European imperialism. This myth was successfully promoted by the late Arabist Edward Said and his influential propaganda book “Orientalism”, which was enthusiastically embraced by numerous Middle East departments at Western university campuses.

It is a frequently ignored fact that former European imperialism in the Middle East was preceded by Islamist imperialism. In his book Islamic Imperialism: A history, professor Efraim Karsh, documents the long and violent history of Islamic imperialism. At its height, Islamist imperialism carved out a giant Muslim empire stretching from Spain in the West to India in the East. This once mighty empire eventually fragmented and the last Muslim empire collapsed with the end of Ottoman rule in 1917.

However, Islamist imperialism largely succeeded in wiping out pre-Islamic indigenous civilizations by imposing Islam and Arabic as the new norm across the Middle East and North Africa. The Jews were one of the few indigenous nations that managed to survive Islamic imperialism and maintain a separate identity and culture.

For centuries, Jews were the ultimate “other” in a predominantly Christian Europe. Today, the reborn Jewish state is the ultimate “other” in a predominantly Muslim Arab Middle East. Persians, Turks, Kurds and Berbers have largely embraced Islam but maintain separate cultural and linguistic identities from the surrounding Arab majority.

Ancient Christian and Zoroastrian communities are oppressed and threatened under Islamic rule. Israel stands out as the only remaining independent non-Arab and non-Muslim state in the wider Middle East region.

Anti-Jewish history revisionists often claim that Israel is a “foreign body” in a “Muslim Arab” region. In reality, the reborn Jewish state is the only remaining viable and indigenous fragment that survived the onslaught of Islamic imperialism.

The New Israel Fund Harms Israel, Yet Still Gets Support

A fundamental component of all strands of Judaism is supporting Israel as the Jewish state. Whether one believes in Orthodox or Reform Judaism, follows Shabbat, etc., believing that Israel should be the Jewish homeland is something that all Jews must believe in.

That’s why I don’t understand how American Jews can support the New Israel Fund (NIF) — an organization that harms Israel on many fronts. The latest development is a joint press release from Adalah (which received more than $2 million from the NIF from 2008-2016) and Hamoked (which received more than $700K during the same period). The press release claimed that, “it is illegal upon international law to impose upon East Jerusalem residents an obligation of loyalty to the occupying power.”

As the press release notes, these organizations sent a comprehensive letter to the Interior Ministry “detailing their grave concerns regarding a newly-proposed bill to amend the Entry into Israel Law. This new bill will allow the revocation of residency status of East Jerusalem Palestinians on three possible grounds: for ‘breach of loyalty’; in cases where the status was granted on the basis of false information; and in cases where ‘an individual committed a criminal act’ in the view of the Interior Ministry.”

The new bill was drafted following the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision in September 2017 denying the revocation of permanent residency of four Palestinian parliamentarians from East Jerusalem — on the grounds of “breach of loyalty.”

These organizations argued that East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory under international humanitarian law (IHL), and that its Palestinian residents are a protected civilian population. The groups claim, therefore, that it is illegal under IHL to impose upon them an obligation of loyalty to the “occupying” power — let alone to deny them permanent residency status on this basis.

The lowdown on Israel’s foes

HOLDING aloft Alex Ryvchin’s new book, The Anti-Israel Agenda: Inside the Political War on the Jewish State, Colonel Richard Kemp, one of its contributors, referenced Benjamin Netanyahu’s Munich speech in commending the collected essays to attendees at its Victorian launch.

Kemp described Netanyahu’s February 18 appearance at the Munich Security Conference, where the Israeli PM held up a piece of an Iranian drone fired on Israel from Syria, warning the Jewish State’s enemies not to “test Israel’s resolve”.

Waving the book, the visiting Briton exclaimed, “That is also a weapon — that is a weapon you need to arm yourself in your fight to defend the State of Israel.”

The former chief of command for British forces in Afghanistan, whose testimony before the UN Human Rights Council probing the 2014 Israel-Gaza war is detailed in Ryvchin’s new work, paid tribute to the Ukrainian-born Australian writer and lawyer, who is the public affairs director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

Liberal and Labor MPs, including Michael Sukkar (Deakin), Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports), Tim Wilson (Goldstein), and Victorian senators Kimberley Kitching and James Patterson, were on hand for the launch, co-hosted by ECAJ, the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, the Zionist Federation of Australia and Zionism Victoria.

Sukkar described Israel as “the frontline of freedom in the world … yet there’s no nation probably on the earth that’s under a greater existential threat … works such as what we’re launching tonight … are so important in pointing that out”.

The 16-day old strike by hospital janitorial staff that has closed at least one hospital in Gaza has been suspended as the workers are negotiating with the Palestinian Authority to pay them. But if the negotiations don't work out over the next two weeks, they will strike again.

Meanwhile, all government employees, including at schools, went on strike today to protest their own non-payment of salaries and benefits. All government institutions in Gaza are shut down today.

And so are public schools.

The protesters are noting that it has been months since the supposed reconciliation agreement between Hamas and the PA, where Mahmoud Abbas' government promised to take over the Hamas-run institutions, but things are worse now than they were before.

Also, UNRWA contract workers. mostly engineers, are protesting a decision not to renew their contracts. So they are shutting down UNRWA facilities in Gaza as well.

But the only Gaza news that wire services will report is the news that includes the word "Israel."

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As the world looks on in horror at the Syrian regime's merciless attacks on people in eastern Ghouta, which has claimed the lives of hundreds and accusations of Syrian use of poison gas, the regime is claiming that they are simply attacking bloodthirsty Zionist terrorists.

A Syrian apologist named Afraa Dagher wrote in conspiracy site Global Research last week:

Over 30,000 terrorists are located in this area which is one of the most dangerous terrorist strongholds in Syria, along with Idlib. Eastern Ghouta’s terrorist enclave presents an even graver danger than those in Idlib due to its proximity to the capital. This has been made all the more worrying as Damascus has always been the penultimate target of the original enemies of Syria, the western alliance and Israel.

Al-Ghouta is now home to factions of radical Islamists whose slogan is: ‘we are coming to slaughter you’. ...

The pain theses terrorists cause to our people everyday, could simply not be the product of a Syrian mind, it could only be a Zionist mind that could conceive of such a systematic plot to kill Syrians and destroy their lives. Syrians realise that a covert “Israeli” hand is behind the attacks on Damascus, a city that is not only Syria’s capital, but whose location is perilously close to the border of the occupier entity. Indeed, some of “Israel’s” covert actions are unmasked as blatant when Israeli missiles are fired at Damascus in tandem with Islamist missiles from al-Ghoutha.

Finally our Syrian Arab Army has to stop these terrorists – these armed terrorists who have every kind of advanced weapon, medicines and equipment that most regular Syrians no longer have. Sometimes these weapons were smuggled to them via the soft Turkish border and at other times via “Israel”.

All the while, the Godfather of the terrorists, Israel has used its media machine to defend the terrorists saying President Assad decided to end the “rebellion” in al-Ghouta. Israeli media has claimed that these terrorists are “rebels” who are ‘innocently’ bombing our children because those children are in so-called “pro-regime” schools. It’s no wonder, as “Israel” continues to pursue its age old dream of creating a buffer zone in southern Syria controlled by the al-Nusra front terrorist group.

At the same time, western mainstream media rely on the White Helmets, a group aligned with the al-Nusra jihadists of al-Ghoutha telling lies that it is their hospitals which are flowing with blood. These are the same people who staged and propagated the discredited “chemical attack” in al-Ghouta in 2013. Indeed, Israeli media always simultaneously publishes the same fake stories coming from the pro-jihad White Helmets.

As a Syrian, we in Syria recognize that every missile against our children, every attack against our homeland is an “Israeli one”, whether by “Israeli” planes and missiles or by terrorist groups covertly working with “Israel” in order to pursue “Israel’s” longtime goal of destroying Syria, irrespective of whether such groups call themselves al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, ISIS etc – all the while US coalition airstrikes kill our soldiers and civilians in Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa just as they killed Iraqis in Mosul. This is the reality for a people besieged on all sides.

Syria still thinks that blaming Israel is the way to unify Arabs against their enemies. (Iran still clings to that idea as well.)

But more and more Arabs are publicly acknowledging that this thinking has only contributed to their own problems. Jordan Times has an op-ed that says:

Today, extremists in the Middle East put on explosive vests and blow themselves up in houses of worship of other sects. To end this tragedy, perhaps we should start thinking of our conflicts not as a scourge inflicted upon us by the omnipotent Imperialist-Zionist conspiracies, but as problems of our making, which should be solved through reason.

The author is Western-educated, of course. This kind of actual thinking needs to be put into Arab schools and universities if any real progress is to be made in the Middle East.

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02/26 Links Pt1: Hamas: Full steam ahead to nowhere; Phillips: The UK Needs Another Churchill to Confront Iran; The Palestinians' failed gamble

From Ian:

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: Hamas: Full steam ahead to nowhere

The Arab nationalist movements have sunk into the deep morass of despotism. Not one of them has managed to establish and maintain a democratic nation-state on the lines of Israel. The Zionist movement succeeded exactly where the Arab nationalist movements failed, and the Hamas movement was supposed to offer an alternative religious ethos that could unfurl its flag over all the tribal and religious groups living in "Falestin": Muslims, Christians, Cherkassim, Achmadim. The religious movement failed dismally, one of the reasons being its inability to abandon the principle of Jihad long enough to join up with the PLO and establish a Palestinian Arab state alongside Israel until the time is ripe to destroy the Jewish State. Hamas does not see a way to accept the Jewish states' existence, even on a temporary basis, and is obligated to maintain a constant state of war with Israel. Let me emphasize: not an active war but a state of war. Waging a war would lead to the destruction of Gaza and topple the heads of the Hamas leaders, while a state of war gives them justification for the sad state the movement and the Gaza Strip have reached. The residents of Gaza are the albatross hanging on the neck of Hamas, weighing it down as it tries in vain to navigate a stormy sea.

The situation in Gaza provides another proof, for anyone who is still in need of one, of the inability of an Islamic movement to establish and maintain a modern state that can live in peace with its neighbors and tolerate ideologies that differ from its own.

The schism dividing the PLO and Hamas is a cultural divide expressed by means of political conflict. There is no way to create unity or a true, long-lasting reconciliation between the two groups, so that anyone counting on one unified Palestinian Arab state had better align his expectations with bitter Middle East reality, widely different from what we have become accustomed to in Europe, America and Australia.

The PLO failed because the secular nationalist ideology that does so well in Europe, cannot make a go of it in the Middle East. It has failed in every country that tried to base its existence on that kind of ideology – Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan are the exemplars. The Hamas movement is a failure because fundamentalist Islam cannot maintain a modern state with European democratic standards based on human laws. Turkey, while returning to Islam since the nineties, is also distancing itself more and more from the accepted Western model of a constitutional democracy.

The conclusion all this leads to is completely clear: There is neither a religious or secular basis for establishing a Palestinian Arab state. The only solution is the natural base of Middle Eastern society: The tribe. Only emirates in Judea and Samaria based on local families, - like those in the Gulf emirates – can operate legitimately in this region.

Melanie Phillips: The UK Needs Another Churchill to Confront Iran

Recently, there have been extraordinary scenes in cinemas throughout the United Kingdom. People have leapt to their feet in standing ovations, and grown men have been weeping. The source of the emotion? The wartime speeches of Winston Churchill in the movie, The Darkest Hour.

It’s not just because of Gary Oldman’s tremendous performance as the former prime minister. No — the movie has touched something very deep in the British psyche: the call to summon all one’s courage and resolution to defend their nation.

Showing how the UK’s previous prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, vainly tried to appease Adolf Hitler, the movie illustrates the catastrophic error of trying to compromise with a regime whose agenda brooks no compromise.

During the 1930s, the United Kingdom didn’t acknowledge this until it was almost too late. Churchill — the lone voice warning that the county needed to re-arm to deal with the Nazi threat — was scorned as a warmonger. People didn’t seem to realize that the choice before them was not between war and peace, but between war from a position of strength and war from a position of weakness.

When Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in March of 1939, Chamberlain’s response was to return from meeting the German dictator in Munich and announce “peace in our time.” Only when Hitler invaded Poland in September of that year did Britain finally go to war.

Victory over fascism was accordingly a close-run thing. But the point is that Britain launched a pre-emptive strike. It realized that the attack on Poland showed Hitler posed a direct threat to its own nation, and that it needed to destroy that threat before the Nazis got any closer.

Palestinians: Israel is One Big Settlement

Let us be clear about this: When Palestinians -- and some of their supporters in the international community, including Europe -- say that they want an end to the "occupation," they mean they want to see an end to Israel's existence, full stop. They do not want to throw the Jews out of their homes in the settlements; rather, they want Jews to be expelled from the whole country.

The conflict, as far as the Palestinians are concerned, did not begin in 1967, when east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip came under Israeli control. In the eyes of the Palestinians, all Jews are "settlers" and "colonialists." All the land, they argue, stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, is Muslim-owned land, and no Muslim is entitled to give up any part of it to a non-Muslim. For the Palestinians, accepting Israel's "right to exist" with Jews is seen as an act of treason.

What is really bothering the Palestinians is that Israel, with Jews, exists, period. The Palestinians want all of Jerusalem. They want all of "Palestine." They want Israel removed from the planet. It is time to listen carefully to what the Palestinians are saying -- in Arabic -- to understand that the conflict is not about Jerusalem and not about settlements.

Every year or so, I’ll notice a fight breaking out in the Jewish press regarding whether or not we are winning or losing the fight against BDS.

Most recently, the UK’s columnist Liron Velleman and US Commentary contributor Jonathan Tobin talked about the decrease in Israel Apartheid Week activities in the US and abroad, as well as the lack of success BDS has had in slowing Israel’s rapidly expanding economy and growing diplomatic ties across the world (including the Arab world). This was met with harsh rebuke by Jack Saltzberg, founder of The Israel Group, who pointed out that BDS is unconcerned with causing Israel actual economic harm, but is instead embarked on a project to turn the next generation against the Jewish state through propaganda facilitated by boycott and divestment campaigns.

Both sides in this debate rely mostly on anecdotal information, although the accumulation of anecdotes (such as number of Apartheid Week activities or student government divestment votes – or votes won or lost) can indicate trends.

Given how much of my earlier work was based on embedding the BDSFail meme into discussion of this topic, I have seen these same arguments again and again (with this piece contrasting various measures of Israel’s success with the failures of BDS tending to draw the most criticism from Israel supporters fearful that a “BDS is a failure” storyline might cause us to miss what the boycotters are actually up to).

While I have tremendous respect for all of these writers and the arguments they are making, they are similar to previous sides taken in similar debates in that they focus too narrowly on a tactic (BDS) without analyzing the wider framework into which that tactic fits.

Before BDS (a brand that came into vogue in the mid-2000s), there was simply “divestment” (the name of campaigns that started with the 2001 “anti-racism” conference in Durban). And before divestment there were campaigns to get the US to end its financial support for the Jewish state. Before those, there were calls to get schools, churches and governments to pass motions condemning Israel for this or that alleged crime. Woven into all these projects was the strategic goal of branding Israel as the successor to Apartheid South Africa.

This strategic goal was and is part of a wider project. For if Israel = Apartheid in the minds of enough people, then its demise would be considered not sad and evil, but wonderful and good. And if the ultimate goal of those pushing this propaganda campaign is to see the Jewish state destroyed (which it is), then BDS can be seen as the propaganda arm of a wider military strategy, with militaries and terror groups allied with Israel’s national enemies assigned the role of carrying out the actual violence for which anti-Israel propaganda provides cover.

What this means is that we cannot judge the success or failure of anti-Israel movements by looking at just this student council vote or that state anti-BDS legislation (or even the number of them increasing or decreasing over time). For anti-Israel agitation has been with us since before the BDS acronym was invented, and will continue – organized around different tactics – if the Israel haters drop boycott and divestment tactics altogether.

While part of the reason behind a slow-down in BDS activity can be chalked up to our side’s successful efforts to organize resistance to it, there are also geopolitical reasons for why we find ourselves where we are today. Most notably, the chaos in the Arab world and growing understanding by Sunni nations of the threat of Iran means traditional supporters of every aspect of the global anti-Israel crusade (such as Saudi Arabia) are losing interest in both the Palestinians and those that support them.

Also, whatever you think about chaotic US politics, there is clearly a difference in how the current administration treats Israel and the Middle East vs. the last occupant of the White House.

As outlined here, one has to understand the field of battle before understanding whether one is winning or losing on the ground. And, despite where conflicts are taking place, the actual battlefield is not the chambers of student or municipal government. Rather, those skirmishes are part of a wider plan to damage or destroy the walls (physical, military, economic, diplomatic and emotional) that protect the Jewish state from harm

This means we need to determine if the siege warfare Israel’s strategy for survival is based on is working or not. If it is, then we should continue to support anything that makes Israel’s position stronger while weakening her enemies. If it’s not, then we should find out where the cracks are in the Jewish nation’s defensive barriers and put our effort into patching them and shoring up protective barriers in hope that those who began this war (Israel’s enemies – the only ones that can end it) eventually come to their senses.

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US consulate annex, Jerusalem

JTA has an article interviewing various Zionists about the idea of billionaire Sheldon Adelson funding, or partially funding, the building of a new US Embassy building in Jerusalem.

The people interviewed, who all strongly support the embassy move, are unanimously against private funding for the building. One example:

Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, who is close to Adelson, referred to AP’s reporting that Adelson might seek other funders, including among pro-Israel Christians.
“This is a United States government project and policy, I don’t think it should be ‘the evangelicals, the Jews made this happen.’ It should be crystal clear the U.S. government made this happen,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for any private citizen to pay for the U.S. Embassy to be moved.”

I agree. Already Arab media is using the Adelson story to make it look like it is rich US Jews who are influencing the administration's policies.

The positive impact of the US decision to move the embassy is precisely because it was made by the US government, not because there were special interests involved. If other countries will follow the same path and open their own embassies in Jerusalem, it will be because the US led the way as the moral and correct move - and if that fact is tainted by the idea that it was only supported by an influential interest group, it will dilute the effect of the embassy move. It will no longer look like the US is doing it because it is the right thing to do, but because rich Jews influenced the US to do so.

The people interviewed did point out that the US accepts private funding for specific embassy events, as well as for artwork that is displayed there. Adelson can happily bankroll bringing in American artists to spread American culture, something embassies and consulates do all the time.

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Reuters reported on yesterday's closing of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre:

Church leaders in Jerusalem shut the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Sunday in protest at a new Israeli tax policy and a proposed land expropriation law which they called an unprecedented attack on Christians in the Holy Land.

Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian church leaders said the holy site, a popular stop for pilgrims and where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried, would remain closed until further notice.

...The churches’ protest was also aimed at the recent cancellation by Israel’s Jerusalem municipality of a tax exemption it has granted to church-owned commercial properties in the city.

“This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe,” the church leaders said.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said on Twitter it was illogical to expect that church-owned commercial property, including hotels and retail businesses, would continue to enjoy tax-exempt status.

“Let me make it clear: we are not talking about houses of worship, who will still be exempt from property tax, according to law,” he wrote.

Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, pilgrims voiced their disappointment at finding its doors shut.

“I am very upset. It’s my first time here and I made a big effort to get here and now I find it closed,” said Marine Domenech from Lille, France.

EoZ contributor Irene points out to me:

As a Catholic, I am outraged that Christian leaders closed a church to protest a government policy. These people live in a democracy and in a society that affords them many ways to protest or challenge government actions. Closing one of the holiest churches in Christiandom should not be one of them.

Pilgrims from all over the world travel (at great expense) to Jerusalem just to visit Christian sites. Presumably quite a few of them will be traveling home without having been able to attend mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

I think that Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat should announce that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher just lost its tax exempt status because it is being used for political purposes rather than worship, as evidenced by its closure, which apparently included locking its doors. He should assess taxes at least for the day(s) it is closed.

And then she pointed me to an overview article of American tax law and religious institutions. It makes several points:

Tax Exemptions Are Not a Right

The most fundamental thing to understand is that no group and no church is “owed” a tax exemption. These exemptions on various taxes are in no way protected by the Constitution — they are created by the legislatures, regulated by the legislatures, and can be taken away by the legislatures. At the same time, tax exemptions — including those for religious groups — are not prohibited by the Constitution.

No Tax Exemptions for Commercial Activity

Tax exemptions are almost entirely restricted to those affairs which are religious rather than commercial in nature. Thus, there are numerous tax exemptions on property owned by churches and used for religious worship, but exemptions are normally denied on property used for commerce and business. The site of an actual church will be exempt, but the site of a church-owned shoe store will rarely if ever, be exempt.

Court Cases:
Diffenderfer v. Central Baptist ChurchGibbons v. District of Columbia

The same is true for income from sales. Money a church receives from donations of members and from financial investments are normally treated as tax-exempt. On the other hand, money which a church receives from the sale of goods and services — even including goods like religious books and magazines — will normally have sales tax applied, though not income tax at the other end.

Court Cases:
Jimmy Swaggart Ministries v. CaliforniaHaller v. Pennsylvania

For church leaders in Jerusalem to compare taxing commercial church property to persecution of Jews in the Dark Ages - by their Christian ancestors! - is a special kind of perversion.

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J-Street's Jeremy Ben Ami lies again, claims Abbas accepts "two states for two peoples"

In a new mailing from J-Street, Jeremy Ben Ami waxes poetic over Mahmoud Abbas' "peace plan" of giving up nothing and demanding everything be handed to him on a silver platter:

Last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made an important speech to the UN Security Council.

Abbas laid out explicit support for the two-state solution and put forward a serious proposal for how to get there.

Of course, if Ben Ami had been paying attention, Abbas was not showing the slightest willingness to make any hard decisions for peace - as he and his predecessor have adamantly refused to do so for over twenty years.

But then Ben-Ami goes into complete fantasyland:

So it’s stunning when you realize that, today, of the three, the Palestinians are the only party willing to publicly endorse the goal of two states for two peoples.

This is a breathtaking lie.

Never has Abbas recognized Israel as a Jewish state, and he never will. He certainly didn't do so in his speech. Without that, there are no "two states for two peoples."

This has been what Israel has insisted upon since Camp David. The very expression "two states for two peoples" is Israeli. Israel has never stopped endorsing it. The phrase is mentioned numerous times on Israel's Foreign Ministry website, today.

Sometimes, Palestinians and apologists for their double talk like Jeremy Ben Ami will claim that Palestinians do accept two states for two people - but when they say that they mean the "Israeli" people, not the Jewish. people. That is almost certainly what Ben Ami meant - and he is knowingly deceiving his readers who do not realize the depth of his hate for Israel as a Jewish state.

But actual people who care about actual peace know that he is throwing dust in their eyes with this lie.

After all, J-Street itself is against Israel being recognized as the Jewish state. They knowingly obscure their "two states" demand by saying things like this:

J-Street does not say that Jews have the right to self determination, but "Israelis." Which makes no sense, since there was no "Israeli" people before 1948 - so whose self-determination was realized with the rebirth of the state of Israel?

There is no daylight between the official Palestinian position stated to the world and J-Street. It is not pro-Israel in any sense.

And people who believe that all peoples have the right to self determination but not Jews, which seems to be J-Street's position, are antisemitic.

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